661. Perimenopause Is the Gift We Didn’t Know We Needed

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42:12

Is perimenopause something to dread, or is it the ultimate diagnostic tool for your future self? In this eye-opening episode, Lesley Logan sits down with Bria Gadd, the “Period Whisperer,” to dismantle the myths around female hormonal transitions. They explore the idea of “health debt”—what happens when life keeps demanding more than your body can give—and how that starts to show up over time. Bria reframes perimenopause as a “reverse puberty,” revealing where your foundations may need support, so you can move out of the shame spiral and start investing in a vibrant second half of life.

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In this episode you will learn about:

  • Perimenopause can reveal what is really happening in your overall health.
  • Many women are unknowingly living in a cycle of “health debt.”
  • Functional issues can exist long before tests show physical problems.
  • High-intensity workouts can drain an already stressed hormonal system.
  • Joy and pleasure are essential sources of energy for the body.


Episode References/Links:


Guest Bio:

Bria Gadd is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner, holistic health coach, and certified personal trainer, who specializes in female hormones, helping women with weight release and energy gain in pre and post menopause, and finding clarity in hormonal chaos. Her podcast The Period Whisperer is a top 1% wellness podcast in the world with an instagram following of over 17,000. Bria has been featured in Fox News, Women's Health and top women's podcasts such as The MidLife Makeover Show to name a few.

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Episode Transcript:

Bria Gadd 0:00  

You have to slow down and be still. Take a minute every day or once a week, look at yourself in the mirror, eye to eye, and get really real with yourself about how you're feeling. Be honest, be vulnerable with yourself and take that stillness. Nobody wants to be still, but you need to be still. That's where your answers come from. It'll be uncomfortable, but you can do it. You can do hard things.


Lesley Logan 0:23  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. 


Lesley Logan 1:01  

All right, Be It babe. We are going to talk perimenopause, periods and our bodies, and specifically, like listening to our bodies. And I am obsessed with our guest today. It will not be the last time I have her on the pod, for sure. Bria Gadd is here. She is the period whisperer, and she is someone who really is diving in on a on a holistic level, but like with tons of research and information and and really taking in herself and with hundreds of clients that she's worked with. And so this is really fun, educational, informational, and lots of great tools, things you can do on your own once you listen to this based on what you need. So here is Bria Gadd. 


Lesley Logan 1:11  

All right, Be It babe, we are about to have an amazing conversation on a topic I have been wanting to have on this podcast for years. I'm very excited about it. I'm so excited our guest is here because she's amazing. She's the one and only period whisperer. Bria Gadd, can you tell everyone, I'm gonna kind of let them know, but can you tell everyone what you rock at?


Bria Gadd 2:00  

Thank you, Lesley, first of all, I love I'm super loving your podcast these days. I love what you bring, how you show up for people like I felt super inspired, and we actually had you on my podcast. And you should know that I have been actively searching for, like, a great Pilates studio with the certifications you told me about. So I'm really inspired by you, and I'm sure everyone listening already knows and loves your podcast, but I hope they go review it if they haven't. 


Lesley Logan 2:26  

Aw thank you. 


Bria Gadd 2:27  

Yeah, I'm excited to be here. Thank you. And yeah, I am a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner, you know, personal trainer, but really, I specialize in female hormones, so my whole goal and purpose is to help women better understand their bodies so that they can thrive and live out their dreams in midlife and beyond.


Lesley Logan 2:47  

I am obsessed with this topic lately because, you know, I'm really grateful I had friends who are well 10 plus years older than me, so they were like singing the perimenopause warning symbols well before I needed to hear them, which is great, because I could go in with research and information, like, first, like, sign, a potential symptom. I could, like, take some autonomy and some agency into like, what am I doing? What is this? What are my options, right? But I actually feel like, for generations, women's bodies, we have not been told information about them. I mean, the crappy little video that they teach you in the sixth grade, or maybe it was the fifth grade, right? That's like, the last time, that's the first and last time. Because I actually did AP science, biology, they don't talk about any of this stuff in schools ever, unless it's like you're, you're a specialty, and even then, I wonder, you know, so it's like you're kind of like, at the mercy of what your doctor knows, and you start to feel crazy because there's, there's symptoms of things that have, not that have, that might not appear to have anything to do with your female reproductive organs. So can you chat a bit about what we should know about our bodies? I mean, that's a big topic, but like, you know, with the women that you work with, like, what do we need to know? Because being it until you see it, it's completely tied to how we feel.


Bria Gadd 4:01  

Yeah, for sure, I love this, and I am going to disrupt some things, I think, a little bit here, because, I mean, look, seven years ago when I started entering into this magical age box, which, for everyone, begins around 35 right? It's like a reverse puberty. I mean, you could not define, I didn't, nobody even knew what the word perimenopause was, and now it is like shoved down your throat. You cannot scroll social media without seeing something about hormones or perimenopause or menopause, which I think is a wonderful thing on one hand. But what I like to kind of really explain, after now working with hundreds of women and kind of going through my own journey, is that perimenopause, as I said, like your reverse puberty, is really just the retiring of your ovaries. And do not get me wrong, they're a major player. They're a big support player in our body, and when they retire, that obviously causes a lot of stress. I really think about it like, you know, if you were working in a corporate, you know, land and one of your, like, best colleagues. Who does a boatload of work for you just is starts to retire. I mean, that puts a lot more pressure on the other people in the department. 


Lesley Logan 5:07  

Brilliant. Love that description. I can feel that I've lost an assistant before, and I'm like, Oh, we can handle this. It's like, hold on, how long does it take to book a flight? 


Bria Gadd 5:15  

Yeah. So like, all transitions, right? There's more workload happening in the body. You know, everyone understands this, if you're, you know, getting married, getting divorced, changing jobs, moving locations. We understand transition. Costs more energy and doesn't really provide more. So, you know, I think on on a macro level, that's really what's happening in our body. Now, if that was the only thing going on through a few months, you know, of hiring a new person or trying some hormone replacement therapy that would resolve the issue. And here's where I think a lot of women don't understand, and it took me a while to get there, is that this? I think what perimenopause really is, it feels like a burden, but it's like the gift we we didn't know we needed. It's like a measuring stick for where your body is at, I think so that you get uncomfortable enough to do the work to change and then, like, live the next four decades feeling fabulous. I mean, I don't know about you, but I plan to live to 100 and I'm almost 44 so I got decades left. I wanna feel great, right?


Lesley Logan 6:21  

Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think, like, I think there's right, I grew up in the in the age of, like, my period, like, this thing, of, like, we should, like, it's an annoyance. Don't talk about it. Make sure no one knows you're on it. I don't know why the tampons are in crinkly paper, anyways. Like, you know what I mean, anyways. But it could just be under like, paper and it would be biodegradable, but that's my like, all these different things, right? And so then you get to perimenopause, it's like another thing to hate. And that is all this stuff we don't like about our bodies when, because of all this information is out there. You know, I got to listen to this one woman who talked about how incredible the period is, and how it's, like, taking all these toxins out of your body and like, how you should, like, it's a sign of health all these different things, like, when it's consistent and on time, it's a sign of, like, what your health is and what's going on your body. And I was like, Oh, well, then we should just welcome every time it comes. I'm like, Well, this is a good thing, but to your point, like, we are going to transition, and it does put us in a different stage, and it is a rewiring of the brain, from what I've understood, like, with the way the our bodies have to work with different hormones and different types of it, but to get mad about it, oh, now I got a hot flash. Like, we're, we haven't ever been raised to like, love what is so uniquely different about our bodies.


Bria Gadd 7:32  

And that's a human thing, right? What do we all hate? Things we don't understand? I mean, it's just a normal thing for us to push back the things. And I really think about, I mean, listen, women weren't required to be a part of medical research until the mid 1990s so if you're in my age box of being born in like, the 70s or 80s, everything you have ever operated on has been adviced for men, yep. So we're working on strategies. So it's like learning the language of the female body is like learning Latin. No one speaks it. No one teaches it. I mean, we're getting more and more teachers now, which I think is super exciting, but you're trying to learn a language that no one is speaking that's very difficult for us.


Lesley Logan 8:09  

Yeah, and also, the people who are finally ringing the alarm bells, there's very limited scientific research, they have to go with a lot of anecdotal stuff, which is fine, like, I don't have a problem with that, because we need something, because it does take time to do research, but it is also hard. And I, and I, you know, you kind of alluded to this in the beginning. It's like, if you open up your Instagram account, there's a million things. Oh, you're perimenopausal, you need a weight vest. Oh, weight vest, don't do anything. Oh, you're perimenopausal, you need more protein. Oh, you don't cold plunge. Do cold plunge. Like, for the record, I love my cold plunge. Luckily, my husband does not like it too cold. And so as a woman, it says like, you shouldn't cold punch, but you can cold punch to like, 49 Guess what? That's what it's at. And I'll fucking breath it. And it works for my body right now. And I think it's but you just open it up and it's like, do this, don't do that. It's so difficult to know what to do. And then, on the top of that, you weren't ever raised to know your body.


Bria Gadd 9:03  

Yeah, in fact, we were raised to look outside of our body for approval, to decide what to do about our body. And that's, I think, the rub here, Lesley, for everyone, that's like, what has gotten us into what I think is the real problem for most women, which is not perimenopause, it's something I like to call health debt. And health debt is when the energy you supply your body, which is through sleep and nutrition and joy and purpose, right, no longer meets the energy demand of your body. And we've been probably in this deficit for a lot of our lives as women, but now, but one, youth is forgiving, and two, now we have this added energy demand, perimenopause, so it just kind of cranks that deficit into such discomfort that now all of a sudden we have so many of these symptoms. And we know it's not just perimenopause, because again, if all it was is that your hormones are decreasing, we could take hormones, and that would fix it, but it's not. I talk to women all the time who are taking bioidenticals or hormone replacement therapy, and it might work a little, but it's just not doing the they don't feel great, and I think that's because we're in this health debt, and we're in that debt because we've been operating on strategies for men, we're in that debt because we haven't paid attention to what our body says to us. You know, we're in that debt because maybe we, you know, aren't breaking down and absorbing things in our gut anymore. Maybe our adrenals are taxed from everything we've been through in the last two decades. You know. Maybe, you know, our liver is congested. Maybe our brain is putting on the brakes, on our thyroid hormone, like, until we dig deeper in to find the root cause, we can't really get out of that debt. And I think the problem for so many women and make what makes us like, really hate perimenopause, is the longer you stay in debt in health debt, it's like financial debt, it just compounds. Just compounds, compounds.


Lesley Logan 11:00  

Oh my God, you have the best analogies and metaphors. Not really sure which one it is. I'm so sorry, guys, I really did copy in English class. It just wasn't my thing. I like to read the books. I didn't want to learn all the words. But that makes so much sense, because it is interesting, right? Like, how some people can have a whole different experience than someone else, and you're like, What is going on? And I feel fortunate that, like, in my 30s, I had a digestive issue, problem that forced me to, like, take some actual stock of like, Oh, I am not sleeping enough. I am not absorbing the nutrition. We have to make massive changes so that, you know, two years ago, when I started having sleep issues again, I didn't like, go like go, I didn't go, oh well, it's just a bad night's sleep. No, oh hold on, yeah, two nights in a row, I didn't get good sleep. That's not normal for me, right? Like, and I don't think enough people, I think you're right. So many people have been operating on a on a health debt for so long that lack of sleep is normal for them, yeah, and just because it's common doesn't mean it's normal, right? And so that I love that idea. Like, you know, if you're in a health debt, it does compound how perimenopause is going to feel because you don't have enough to give it. And like, if bioidenticals aren't working for you, it might be a sign that you need other things, you know. 


Bria Gadd 12:18  

100% and I mean, as a functional practitioner, I feel very strongly that we shouldn't just go blindly try things. Yeah, there's, there's a lot of reasons that can actually make things worse for us. But I love what you said there about, you know, kind of noticing in your 30s, like right away, or now right away, noticing what was starting to happen and jumping on it. Because you're right, it's not our fault. I don't think as women that we don't pay attention to ourselves. Again, culture puts us that way. Most women have been so busy doing 100 other things that they're just trying to kind of survive in advance. But that's why I think this is like your call to hone perimenopause. It's like before it gets too late, wake up, lady, like we need to listen to what our body is saying, and that's really what, because we don't know where the source of debt is coming from until we go digging. Like, that's why, you know, you get this confusing information. Like, everyone's like, eat more protein. Lots of women are eating more protein but not feeling any different. Why? Probably because their gut is not breaking down and absorbing the protein properly. This is a very common thing that I see, and then it's so frustrating because we think it's our fault. We're like, oh, something's wrong with me. I'm broken. And then shame spiral, right? 


Lesley Logan 13:29  

Yeah, that shame. Oh, my God. Everyone listening knows the shame spiral. Okay, I think I have a question for the perfectionist and overachievers listening, listening to your body. Like, what are they should be listening for, you know, like, let's like, are they are like, what are the KPIs or biomarkers, or, like, what are some things like that they should because I again, like most of when listen this, are over 40. They're doing they're in that sandwich generation as well. They've got elderly parents who are still alive, causing drama. They got kiddos, and if they don't have kiddos, they're single women, working for themselves, so they're their own income source, right? Like, so they're exhausted, so, yes, they're tired. And so is that the only what are the other signs that they could be like, looking at their health, debt, or listen to their body?


Bria Gadd 14:13  

Listening to their body, yeah, I mean, I think like to try to make it super clear for the for the type errors, like, what's out there? Like, if whatever symptoms you are having is impacting your life more than 20% of the time you're in debt Period. End of the story. I think that's a really great measure.


Lesley Logan 14:28  

I love this bright line, yes, 20%. You guys that


Bria Gadd 14:34  

So like, that's four times a week, or, like, four, you know, in a way, I think about it right. If you think about it in nutrition, for example, we eat three meals a day. That's 21 meals in a week. You know, 20% of 21 is about 3.75 so, like, let's call it four times a week, where you're like, Oh, crap, I'm not sleeping well four times a week or, I mean, probably three times a week would be enough. You know, I can't get through the afternoon without like, brain fog or needing caffeine or needing sugar. You know, I can't get through my workout, or I'm not getting results from my workouts anymore, like big signs from your body. Like, let's not waste our time here. Let's step back and get out of debt so that we can get back to investing energy where we want it to go.


Lesley Logan 15:15  

I like that. I think that was a great, easy thing for people to think about, 20% of the time, and then it's disrupting your week. You are in health debt. And I think where people are going to struggle is like, well, if I'm having trouble sleeping, it's not like I just sleep more. Because some people it's not like they're going to bed too late, you know, like, you know, like I go to bed at the same time. And when I do have a bad night's sleep, it's so frustrating because I'm like, I set aside enough time to sleep, I woke up three times. You know it happens for me, it is typically, usually the night before my period. No matter what progesterone I take, no matter what supplements I take, it's just the night before my body is like, we're just having a rough time staying asleep. I've got at least a cycle to it, but it's not four times a week. But I guess, like, what I'm saying is, like, for the people who who are struggling, like they're committing to getting the sleep or eating well, who should they go to? Because you go on, you can get with your doctor sometimes first, like, what are they looking for?


Bria Gadd 16:13  

Yeah, no, it's a great question. I think, like, I was one of those people. I mean, I had been a personal trainer and nutrition coach for like, 10 years, and all of a sudden, I'm like, what is happening to my body? And, I mean, when I look back now, I'm like, Oh, I was like, all of a sudden having anxiety in my life. My periods got really heavy. You know, I was having this, like, weird, twitchy eye thing for a long time, I wasn't getting results from my workouts. In fact, I hadn't changed anything, but I was gaining weight. It took until my sleep, like, totally tanked, where I was waking up every night in a sweat for me to actually be like, Oh, maybe something's wrong. Hit yourself over the head with it. But I did go to my doctor, and she was wonderful. Asked all the questions, did all the lab work but she kind of looked at me, Lesley, and was like, Bria, you're the picture of health. I mean, then that's when you start to think, oh my gosh, I'm crazy. It's in my head, like, and then I also thought, like, that was 30 I was 37 so I'm like, if this is 37 and this is the picture of health, like, I'm not down for the next 37 years. Like, it does not sound fun for me. So to answer your question, that was a long way, sorry. 


Lesley Logan 17:14  

No, you're good. 


Bria Gadd 17:15  

I always think it's important that women understand doctors have an important role, but their job is to test and look for physical problems in your body. If you do not feel well, and you do not have a physical problem because your doctor says you're fine, it's a functional problem. It's way before, like, way before we have, you know, like, have to have a hysterectomy from really heavy periods and endometriosis. There is a hormone imbalance, there's a function imbalance, and it can be there for a long time before we get to that piece. Way before people are diagnosed with hypothyroidism, there is a conversion issue in the thyroid. So, and that's what our doctors aren't testing and looking at. So I really strongly believe that a big part of owning your health as a woman these days, in this landscape when we're uneducated, is working with a functional practitioner and getting to know the function of your body and your numbers now, where they're at, when you feel good, if you can, and if not, when you feel bad. So we can repair that function so that we don't get to that point.


Lesley Logan 18:17  

Okay, I love this. So now my next question is, because when I was on your show, we talked about like, how to find a good Pilates instructor, how to make sure you got a real Pilates instructor? And I think, like the way the algorithms work, whether it's YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, the moment you start looking up stuff about your body, you could end up down a rabbit hole of people who don't pay attention to science. So how do we make sure that we get, aside from just looking up you how do we make sure that people like, what are the signs that someone's a true functional practitioner, like, and not, you know, just go do some tallow. And I don't know, I'm not really sure. Like, there's a lot of weird stuff out there. You're like, is that where we should all be going?


Bria Gadd 19:01  

Yeah, for sure. I totally, I love that. I've never been asked this question before, so I really love it. 


Lesley Logan 19:06  

Because, like, because my mom, like, sends me something. She's like, you know, she like, sent me this one thing. I was like, oh, yeah, totally, I agree with that. My my MD, who also does Eastern medicine, agrees with that. And then to the next thing, I'm like, Okay, so I'm gonna push back on this one, Mom, I don't know what algorithm you're on, but like this, this thing is a little bit, you know, and then the next thing, she's sending me like, okay, you are, you need to change your algorithm. You are now on the wrong side of the internet. 


Bria Gadd 19:29  

I'm curious about what those things were. 


Lesley Logan 19:31  

Oh, yeah. Talk offline.


Bria Gadd 19:35  

Yeah, it's, there's, and I understand that it's challenging one. I feel very strongly like get on a free call with someone. I really think, you know that's the landscape, because, yes, a good, functional practitioner should, should always be working with you on like lifestyle and nutrition. First and foremost, they're the bedrock. And anything that comes up in a lab and any protocol, whether it's supplement or hormones or peptides, not really going to work if we don't have these foundations. So make sure that that's a part of the protocol, that they're trained, either holistically or with nutrition, so that we're dealing with that as the foundation of your health. But I think you know when you get on a call with someone, because I think that's important, and you know, you want to understand if they can actually order the labs and explain the labs for you. So sometimes, when I hop on a call with someone, I'll actually pull up my labs, because those are the only ones I can share and go over, like, what we're going to learn in there. Because I think I end up working with a lot of people who have ordered labs online themselves or through something, but they don't know how to read it or, like, they're just getting a written response when really, I think labs are so about customization to what you're feeling in your body. Like, why are you not sleeping well half of the month, Lesley, you know what I mean? Is it a blood sugar issue? Is it your thyroid? Like, where are the little kinks in the, you know, in the pipelines of energy, that's kind of making it harder for us to get there, especially if you are taking progesterone, for example, does that make sense?


Lesley Logan 21:10  

I love this because I like that, like, first of all, they should be, like, looking at lifestyle and nutrition first. Because before you just, like, add supplements, you could just be putting a band aid on a problem, and so you're not solving the source. 


Bria Gadd 21:20  

Or wasting your money. 


Lesley Logan 21:22  

Yeah, oh my gosh. And also wasting your money, because also, some of the supplements guys don't even have the things that they like. It's like, you got to be careful. You got to you got to be mindful. And and I love the supplements that I'm on, but I'm on specific ones after, like, doing some real research on, like, is my my room, the temperature, it needs to be like, okay, is it as quiet as I need to be? Is it? What do I need? How do I sleep the best so that I'm setting myself up for success? Then it's like, okay, now we can try some of this up. Otherwise we're just it's not working.


Bria Gadd 21:55  

Yeah, I love that. And what you do there is so important. Is that, again, it's this kind of self assessment. Like, okay, like, let's hold on a hot minute. Like, am I at least creating the space for my sleep? Like, going to bed at an appropriate hour, not staring at screens before I go? Am I just creating the space before I start, you know, testing out all these supplements to see if they're going to make that difference or not? Because we I think sleep is one of those things that's so hard to control, and the more you try to control it, it like, slips through your fingers like water. 


Lesley Logan 22:17  

I understand what you're saying. You know, it's so funny. You just brought up, you guys, I was totally on my screen last night. I didn't have to walk my dog, wasn't here, and I was like, 1,000% like, I want to look at these reels and just like, laugh. So I fucked my own self up. That was me. It's really funny. We forget that we did that. Like, Oh, I have a no screen rule, and I usually walk my dog so I'm not on my screen an hour before bed and it's dark outside and I didn't do those things.


Bria Gadd 22:51  

I'll get into habits like on my last Dutch which is like a good functional lab that helps you understand not just your sex hormones, but your adrenal hormones, your cortisol pattern, the clearance and detoxification of your hormones, which I think is so important, I could see this elevation of my cortisol at night, which is now called like a like dysfunction in your HPA axis. And I'm like, I know exactly what that is. I was watching like The Walking Dead for all 11 seasons over like two years. So I'm watching this show before I go to bed, I'm like binding up my cortisol. And I'm like, why am I not sleeping well?


Lesley Logan 23:25  

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really, you know, like we have a rule at this house. Like, my husband loves to cook, and obviously, like, I could take responsibility there, but he sometimes cooks late, and like, we're Spaniards or something. And, you know, and I am like, I just, I need you to cook earlier, or I need to eat by myself, like, so I can take responsibility if you don't want to cook until 7:30 because that's when you got home. And 7:30 means you go to the store, whatever, like, maybe I need to go, okay, what can I make myself right now and then? Just sit with him while he eats. Because if I eat too late and I go to bed, I have a really rough time falling asleep. And that's normal. It's not like, oh, I should call my doctor. No, I didn't set myself up for success for what I need. And I think that like to your point in taking time to understand what your health debt is and understand like, what your lifestyle so I love that you said that the person you're talking to should want to touch those things first, because, if you you know, like, and yes, there should be labs. And yes, you can look at them and go, that's because of these things. But like, what are you currently doing? What is your current habit?


Bria Gadd 24:32  

Yeah, and I think where it's so helpful to get help is to recognize that we all don't have cookie cutter lives. You know, some of you know when, when you work, how you work, how much you work. You know what your family dynamics are like, what your partner support is like, like, all of these things really play a role in how we're able to change and create foundational habits, and what those habits are for you. And at the same time, like the people always want to know, like, what should I eat? How much should I eat, I'm like, I don't know your body knows. So we need to take the time, and what I think you've already done so well is like, what is good for me? And it's not like a magical answer, it's trial and error to kind of figure this out for yourself and maybe for you and I, being in the wellness industry, maybe that's been a little bit easier, because it is a priority for us. But so if you're someone who that's not, you're not in the wellness industry, and you cannot seem to do this for yourself. I mean, get some help. Like, that's what a practitioner should do, is help you nail the customization for yourself.


Lesley Logan 25:34  

I think that like and having patience and not trying 17 things at once ladies, so, like, don't start with a new trainer and a new functional medicine person and a new this at the same time. You got to, like, be kind yourself. It's really not the easiest thing to start a bunch of new things at the same it doesn't work. It's overwhelming, and then you don't know what's working.


Bria Gadd 25:53  

The analytics are hard because there's no constant, right? When you think about like I was, science wasn't my favorite thing in school, although I love more of it so much now, but you know, you have to have, like, a constant with the variable. So, like, you need to know what the solid things are and what the thing you're testing is, to know if it works, and you're right. Like, we didn't get here into health debt overnight. So getting out of debt is going to take a little bit of time. Always worth it. It's always worth it. 


Lesley Logan 26:21  

Yeah, okay, I want to just in case, like, you know, I think that we all know that your Instagram account is full of everything about perimenopause, but just in case people are being because I do think people get a little misled or inundated with, what are some of the we talked about, 35 is this start point, probably for most people, what are some of there's the common symptoms that everyone knows about. What are some of the non common symptoms that could be that they're in perimenopause, and then maybe, if you have time, like, how can we address it a little bit differently than just, like, Oh, I gotta go. Now I'm perimenopausal. This is where I'm at. Like, how do we, like, welcome it in and, like, take care of ourselves for it?


Bria Gadd 27:02  

Yeah. So I would say uncommon symptoms are, like, frequent urination, things like that, or it might start any type of incontinence. So if you're waking up a lot in the night to pee, or, you know, that can be a really sign. Again, for me, I mentioned, like, I had this weird Twitch, like in my eye. And again, it wasn't perimenopause, but it's just that it just kind of, it was, like, likely how my life had always been going from my it was my adrenals actually off, but you add this all of a sudden challenge of your hormones shifting and like, oh boy. Like, this is a part of it. I mean, libido is always a quick one to go, but I think that's pretty common for people, Restless Leg Syndrome, you know, hair loss or changes in your hair and skin, that can all be a part of this time. But I think, like the real symptoms of hormones kind of decreasing, we really, if that's all again, that's going on for you, yeah, you might start to have a bit more trouble sleeping. Yeah, you might find a little bit more brain fog, and maybe not quite have the same energy and not quite have the same ability to repair after a workout. Yes, your libido might go down, because our sex hormones are really big part of our libido. But again, I think that if it's something that becomes consistent, like any of these things, that if they start impacting your life, so that you can't live the way you were living, that's when we know. One, it's time for help. And two, it's likely more than just perimenopause. It's not great. We can try some hormones, and then we should be feeling significantly better to navigate this transition.


Lesley Logan 28:34  

I love that reminder that, like it's quite possible that's not like the perimenopause is happening, but it's really shining a light on the other places in our bodies that we haven't been taken care of because we can't. I was just talking about with my client, actually, this is really funny, not funny, haha, but just, like, interesting. I was just talking about how, like, oftentimes, people are pushing themselves so much so that when something bad happens, they don't have enough in the tank to handle their life and the something bad happening, but if they had been taking care of things to the best that they could, so that when shit hits the fan, they could handle the shit and, like, the other plates don't fall down, right? But like, so that's the same thing, like perimenopause happens, and because they're already running on empty, all these other things are happening too. Yeah. 


Bria Gadd 29:20  

Yeah, it's, it's the biggest reminder to learn how to work smarter, not harder. And I think a lot of us, especially women, have gotten by and gotten the success we have in the first half of our life by hustling, hustling hard, and it has come at a cost. So we need to start to learn and adapt different ways that prioritize the foundations of our health, so that, like we so that, yeah, a big wind storm comes in, or a tsunami.


Lesley Logan 29:47  

Yeah, I know you guys just had a crazy windstorm. 


Bria Gadd 29:50  

Oh, yeah, we did. It wasn't, I mean, maybe it was crazier near the airport. It wasn't as crazy near what, where I was, but, yeah, anyway. But I think that's what happens. Like, we're going through life, and then life is going to have storms. It's just is, and we really don't want it to knock us over. We want to have the foundations of our health in place. So you kind of ask, like, you know, what are I think? What are those foundations? Or, you know, where do we go? Okay, now I know I'm in health debt, what is my first step? And I'll try to cut through some of the noise for people to give them, like, what I think of as like kindergarten, basics that we should be focused on and haven't been in our health to get us out of debt, right? Like, just same thing with like financial, you know, basics that we need to do. So one, we have kind of four pillars of our health that we all know pretty well we looked out to, like the Wild Kingdom of animals. And they all, they do all these things every single day. So we need to bring this back. We do it for our kids. We do this for our pets. One we gotta hold space for our sleep. We've already kind of talked about that. So, you know, making sure you are creating and really, the reality is, most women do need eight hours, like you can get away with seven here and there. But we do for the average need that eight hours. Again, everyone's a little different, but hold space and be consistent with it. Try to be as consistent as you can. Again, 80% is enough with when you go to bed, what you do before you go to bed, when you wake up, and what you do when you wake up. And obviously we know watching stressful shows at night or screen scrolling is not ideal for your adrenal hormones to help you sleep. Okay, so we want to hold that space and be consistent with it like we do for babies. Nutrition is the next one. So I think before we even worry about how much protein and how many carbohydrates, let's just have some consistency to our nutrition. Treat your body like a baby when you wake up, we need to eat within two hours of waking. We need to eat four and a half to five or four to four to five hours later. We need to eat four to five hours later. If you have to go longer, have a snack. Your food, the amount of food you eat should really keep you full and satisfied for four to five hours. So if you eat breakfast and you are hungry or anxious or exhausted before four and a half to five hours, you haven't eaten enough, or it's not the right fuel mixture. Right there. It's really, really simple to get to that. So you can play with that. You can then say, Okay, let's try more protein at this meal, specifically, because everyone's a little different. So at the very least, we want consistency in our nutrition. And I mean, this is not new news to everyone when we're trying to get out of debt, and food is one of our biggest suppliers of energy, like our currency, our salary, we could call it in that example. So make sure the food you're eating provides your body with more energy than it taketh away, right? And that's, so like, let's take be real about your food. You know, if you are eating processed foods, sugar, gluten, conventionally raised, dairy, you know, some of the heavy hitters, alcohol, right? If you're doing this more than 20% of your week, it's costing your body way more than it's providing, like, it's not even not, here's a double negative for you, English. It's not even that you're not going to get the energy you need right now, but it's creating inflammation in your body. So now, all of a sudden, the energy supply isn't getting where we need to go, and now we have a greater demand. So we got to get really real with our nutrition, that way, for kind of basic health debt. I really feel strongly that women need to be prioritizing movement, functional movement, over fitness. And we talked about this a bit when we interviewed you. So like walking, yoga, Pilates, like Pilates is a really great one, especially for those like type A women who really need to feel a workout, but we need to do something that literally is not calling on cortisol so significantly in your body, but is still moving the body in some ways. So before you start like lifting heavy weights and calling on cortisol on your body, or doing your CrossFit or any high intensity interval training, are you at least moving your body enough in a day so that it has what it needs for lymphatic drainage and for, you know, oxygen coming in and just overall functional movement. And I think that's a big one for women, is that we're out there, like, brushing it in our workout, and then we're tanked in the afternoon. It's like, three you just used a credit card to get something done when you don't have money.


Lesley Logan 34:16  

And that's like, you know, I realize, like, some of these things we talk about, some of the fitness, it's like, it can be inaccessible financially to have a personalized fitness program for you. That being said, be really mindful then if you are, oh, I have to go to a studio for my fitness classes. Then you got to pay attention to where you are in your cycle, if you can track it still, because that workout wasn't tailored to you, and you're going at the time that they're giving you. So I have a trainer I love to lift weights. This particular week is not the week for me to push as heavy as possible. So I had to go, Okay, what other things can I take off the plate? Because I still want to do the training that she provided, right? So I was supposed to film this week. I was like, we're not filming this week. I either can film or I can do these training sessions. I can't do both. So I was like, we're not filming also, I don't need a fucking camera right now. I don't want to be on a camera right now. So I'm going to honor that I don't want to be on camera right now, we're gonna film a different day. Then she goes, like, you can take two to three minute rest between these. Guess what? I took three plus. I was like, three plus was a long workout, but I didn't stress myself out. So I could sleep well, so when I woke up the next day, I wasn't sore. The other thing is, is, like, on the weeks that I know that it's not a pushy week, I am taking the max time, and I am doing my sauna blanket, or I'm doing my red light, like, whatever I can to just keep things. So if you're going to a class that is, oh, this is when the class starts, when the class ends, and I've do whatever the class is designed, you have to take care of yourself other places, because you're, you're just going to be in health debt. It's just not, it's gonna be fun. And when I learned that about my cycle, I was already like, like, you know, always hard on the same day, but the symptoms before my cycle completely changed, which was, like, amazing. I was like, Oh, I was in control the whole time.


Bria Gadd 36:10  

Yeah, I love that, you so, because what, exactly what you did there is, you're like, I can't afford both of these right now. So which one is my priority, and how do I make up some extra money, you know. And I think money energy is giving here, so. 


Lesley Logan 36:24  

Yeah, oh, thank you. Well, thanks for validating that.


Bria Gadd 36:27  

And I'll just think real finally, like, onto that kind of the foundations, those kindergarten foundations, you know, you've got sleep, movement, nutrition, stress management and, or really, I mean, I, what I'd like to call it is joy, right? Like, joy is the most underrated, but like, 10x opportunity for you to provide energy for your body. Everyone can think of a time when, whether they were falling in love and, like, weren't hungry, couldn't could stay up all night talking on the phone, or, you know, went to a concert and just like, felt so amazing because of the energy we know that joy provides, you know, energy, however, if you're so stressed, like, everyone knows if they're stressed, like, we can't orgasm and we can't take a joke, so it's like, we need to find ways to relieve that stress in some ways. So whether you're someone who can take a few deep breaths, or whether you're someone who needs to, like, go scream into a pillow, like, you gotta get that out daily, so that you have space for pleasure and joy, because it's one of the biggest energy currencies for your body.


Lesley Logan 37:28  

I love the sign you can't take a joke and you can't have an orgasm. Because I think we all like, yeah, can't take a joke. There's a sign, ladies, you are not.


Bria Gadd 37:38  

If you can't take a joke and you haven't orgasmed in a while, you're likely in health debt.


Lesley Logan 37:45  

I love you so much. Okay, we're gonna take a brief break. Yeah, find out how people can find you. Follow your work with you. 


Lesley Logan 37:52  

All right, Bria, where do you hang out? Are you on Instagram? Which website? Where's all the places people can go?


Bria Gadd 37:58  

Yeah, so I do hang out a lot on Instagram, which is @Bria_period_whisperer or come check out The Period Whisperer Podcast, anywhere you listen to your podcast. I think those are some of the best places to catch me. You'll find a website there anyway. 


Lesley Logan 38:12  

Yeah. Also, like, go nerd out. Is this a topic like, this could be your hobby for a little bit everybody like, there's a you know what? Like, it's easier to get information from one great source than like from a bunch of sources that you're like, I'm not really sure why this is my feed. So go, go check her out. Okay, you've given us a ton of great tips already, but bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps people can take to be it till they see it. What do you have for us?


Bria Gadd 38:35  

Okay, number, I'm going to tell you to do all the things that you're not doing as a woman, get ready. Three very clear things. One, you have to slow down and be still. And the action step is like, take a minute every day or once a week, look at yourself in the mirror, eye to eye, and get really real with yourself about how you're feeling. Be honest, be vulnerable with yourself, and take that stillness. Nobody wants to be still, but you need to be still. That's where your answers come from. It'll be uncomfortable, but you can do it. You can do hard things. Number two, start with the foundations. Everyone wants to like, skip on up to university before we've done these kindergarten basics, do the basics. If you can't do the basics, you know it's time for my third action step, which is ask for help. Again, women are terrible at asking for help. They're terrible at being still, they're terrible at starting from the ground, and they're terrible at asking for help. But it is exactly like the obstacle is the way. It's exact things that you need to do first to start digging yourself out of debt so that you can increase your energy and invest that in anything you want to be investing it in in midlife and beyond.


Lesley Logan 39:43  

I love these so much. Also, like asking for help, ladies, I'm just gonna tell you right now, feels really weird because you're like, oh my god, I should I know? Like you feel like I don't. I don't want people to know I don't have I know how to do the thing I'm asking for help for everybody knows you can do it. Somebody wants to do that. That's the job that they want to have, you know, like, my amazing assistant, like, does all these amazing things for me, because it allows her to do things that she loves it to do, you know, so, like, just remember that, like, when you're not asking for help, you might be taking away someone else's opportunity to have joy, because that's what their strengths lie in. So you're stealing joy from other people by not asking for help, I'm just gonna. 


Bria Gadd 40:22  

Stop stealing other people's joy.


Lesley Logan 40:24  

You know, some ladies are so good at feeling guilty, let's use a little guilt to motivate you and ask for some help. 


Bria Gadd 40:32  

Thank you. 


Lesley Logan 40:34  

Oh yeah, Bria, you're so great. This is so fun. We'll have to do this again sometime, because I'm sure there'll be next levels. We'll be on the other side of all of this, and we'll have more things to learn about our body, but I just adore you and what you're doing. Thank you so much. Everyone, how are you going to use these tips in your life? Make sure you let Bria know. Let the Be It Pod know. Share this with a female friend in your life who needs to hear it. We all have that friend who needs to slow down, take a minute and you know what, she won't know, that this is why you send it to her till right now, she'll just be getting great advice, and then right now she'll realize that you did it because she's not listening to you to slow down. So anyways, but it's all for love. Until next time, Be It Till You See It. 


Lesley Logan 41:13  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.


Brad Crowell 41:56  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.


Lesley Logan 42:00  


 It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.


Brad Crowell 42:05  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.


Lesley Logan 42:12  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.


Brad Crowell 42:15  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.



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