Get Your Period Back: HA Recovery

Libby Rothschild : [00:05:18] Hello and welcome, I’m here today with the podcast panel discussing hypothalamic amenorrhea, getting your period back through HA recovery. Today, I have Dietitian Bosses, Cynthia and Elena. Cynthia Donovan has been a dietitian for 10 years. Half of that she spent as a clinical RD and community RD for the past five years, she’s practicing non diet health at every size approach as a dietitian, as a mom of two little boys, one and a half years old and three and a half years old and is married her high school sweetheart, she came to find her true passion for her profession through her own battle with disordered eating and disordered exercise, plus losing her cycle and then encountering fertility issues. Now she helps women worldwide find balance with food and exercise so they can get their period back and live the life they were meant to live. Elena is a virtual dietitian for weight lifting women who want to improve their relationship with food and fitness. Her specialty is helping women break the restrictive binge cycle and get their periods back naturally so they can feel balanced around food and fitness for life. Welcome back to the show, both of you. Happy to have you here.

 

Cynthia: [00:06:28] Excited to be here, yeah.

 

Elena : [00:06:30] Thank you, Libby, excited to be back.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:06:32] Absolutely. And if you could just first Cynthia and then Elena just remind people what your handle is so they can go and find your social. That would be a great way to kick off the conversation.

 

Cynthia: [00:06:42] So you guys can find me @period.nutritionist on Instagram.

 

Elena : [00:06:50] And I’m @weight.lifting.nutritionist.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:06:55] Ok, excellent. So we’ll dive right in. For those of you listening, if you haven’t already, make sure to follow these amazing, incredible ladies. I’m really excited to dive into this important conversation and lend some perspective, either for those of you who are aware of what hypothalamic amenorrhea is or for those of you who aren’t aware and you want to learn more about this important topic and how these women are positioning themselves effectively on social and helping women around the world find the success that they want to achieve to live their best lives. So my first question is women’s health specifically hypothalamic amenorrhea? It’s a sensitive topic. Does this issue affect your markets daily lives? And first, let’s describe what hypothalamic amenorrhea also called HA is before we dive into this, just for those who aren’t really familiar.

 

Cynthia: [00:07:43] Awesome, Elena, do you want to go ahead or you want me to explain it?

 

Elena : [00:07:48] You go ahead, you go.

 

Cynthia: [00:07:52] So hypothalamic amenorrhea, often known as HA, is pretty much a term for missing periods and that term is really related to your reproductive system not working. And really in context, women with HA, they get this condition because, most likely because, they are under fueling and overexercising or are in energy imbalance. And really the hypothalamus where that hypothalamic comes from is that receives inputs all over from the body, the hormones, chemicals, and it responds by making hormones, the hypothalamus that affects other organs, such as involved in reproduction. So your period and the constant feedback and adjustment to keep the body stable and healthy state, sometimes things go wrong because you have the under fueling component and possibly overexercising. So the thalamus really can’t keep in balance anymore. And this is just the result, a missing period. So I don’t really want to add anything else to that. I tried to keep it as not to science.

 

Elena : [00:09:11] No, I think you did a great job.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:09:12] Yeah, I think you did a great job as well. Thank you. Anything else you want to add to that Elena? Or you feel that that definition is pretty comprehensive?

 

Elena : [00:09:19] No, I think that’s great. I do have a lot to add, though, on how it affects my markets daily lives, because it affects a lot of areas.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:09:27] Yeah, so. So let’s go ahead and dive right into that. Thank you, Cynthia, for defining what type of hypothalamic amenorrhea is, also called HA is, now Elena wants to kick off the second leg of that question, which means this is a sensitive topic. What does that mean and how does that affect your market’s daily lives? If you want to go into some examples and one perspective, that would be really helpful.

 

Elena : [00:09:48] Yeah, so I thought about this and would say that it affects eight main areas of my client’s life. So a lot of it impacts a lot more than you’d think. And it might, I mean, I think there’s different populations even within the HA target market. I know Cynthia will probably talk about this, but she’s more kind of focused on women who are trying to get their period back for pregnancy, whereas you might have a market like mine who have HA, but they’re trying to get their period back for different reasons. And I think for my clients, there’s a huge component of how it’s like HA is sort of just a byproduct of other issues that are already going on in their lives. So the first area is the relationship with food. My target market is dealing with bingeing, constant thoughts about food, anxiety around food, feeling constantly just consumed, they cannot stop thinking about food and their fitness goals. They have, my client, as you know, for my intro weightlifting nutritionist, is my handle. And I’m very focused on clients who are in the fitness space, specifically the bodybuilding weightlifting space. So they see a drastic decrease or plateau in their strength and kind of muscle gain progress in the gym, which is another stressor for them, because that’s what they spend all their time working on. But what they don’t realize is they’re low estrogen levels from having HA and not being able to get a period because of underrating and overexercise is also impacting this major goal that they have. Also impacts the relationships. So decreased libido, low mood, depression, anxiety, kind of a lot of them say, and they don’t even really notice this before they recover from HA and get their period back. But when they do recover, they’re like, oh my gosh, I have emotions now. I forgot that I was even a person. And when I was dealing with HA, I was an empty shell, basically. So that, as you can imagine, really impacts especially intimate relationships. Social life. So they have a lot of fear around food, fear of eating off their plan. Again, my market is very heavy in the fitness bodybuilding meal prep, meal planning space. They’re very rigid about their eating. So this causes them to stay in instead of going out with friends when they really want to go out. If they have an early morning workout, they’ll avoid social situations, avoiding social situations that involve food, which many of them do, which, as you can imagine, especially for a market like mine who’s younger women and late teens, early twenties, that’s going to really have a big impact on their life because social interaction is so important. But also their life goals, not being able to focus on work, school or other things that don’t involve their bodies in food. There’s just literally sometimes not enough energy going to their brains that can cause this brain fog, which is kind of like a buzz word nowadays. But that’s another thing that can really be impacted. Body image is usually intertwined with all of this. So they often have body dysmorphic thoughts where they’re perceiving their body to be completely different than it really is, feeling like they’re never enough. Feeling like they can never reach the perfect physique, and that’s all intertwined with the restrictive mindset around food that’s contributing to undereating or overexercise, that’s causing their missing period. So it affects a lot of things and then other health issues, again, related to that undereating and overexercise. So reproduction is not the only system that’s impacted by this. Cynthia was explaining with the hypothalamus, you know, the whole point of losing a period and shutting down reproduction is to conserve energy. And also because being fertile and able to produce a child in what your body perceives is a very stressful environment is obviously against what it really wants to do in that moment because it doesn’t seem safe. So digestion can be impacted, adrenal health could be impacted, thyroid health could be impacted. So there’s a lot of ways that their day to day lives, but that’s what I’ll say about it.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:13:36] Thank you for that high-level overview. Anything you want to add to that, Cynthia, with your comments or any particular stories and situations about your market?

 

Cynthia: [00:13:45] I would have to say I agree with Elena one hundred and ten percent because although my ideal client isn’t so much into weight lifting and esthetics with that, they are looking to be their healthiest self and bring back those relationships that may have been hindered because of their under fueling and there are overexercising and really being able to get through day-to-day life, going to work, going to college, whatever it is, without constant thoughts around food. And I was actually just on the call with a client of mine who worked with me for about a year. And usually, most women work with me for about three to six months. She worked with me for a year, and I said, what insight could you offer to other women struggling with this? She said that really when it came down to it, you know, immersing herself in the culture of HA, learning about disordered eating, learning about, you know, why I’m feeling the way I do. Like Elena mentioned the brain five, oh, I just thought, I’m just foggy, I don’t know, and now they’re realizing that there is a direct correlation to under fueling and that now they’re more productive with work. They’re able to not get so mad about if their husband or boyfriend or whoever is says something silly to them, they don’t fly off the handle and then they’re able to really relax a little bit more because they’re no longer in this unsafe environment where the body feels under fueled. Because I tell my clients I’m like you, the only emotion that you have is flatline or you’re just constantly mean, can I swear at Libby or should I refrain from swearing? I think we could all think of other words, but mean and now my husband is like, oh my gosh, you’re so much more joyful to be around in there. They’re like, I can’t believe just by eating a little bit more and not restricting, I’m able to feel like a whole new other person. So, you know, it does impact day to day life things, everything Elena just mentioned my clients deal with, except for my ideal client isn’t so much a binger. And really, I think Elena could speak to this, that binge isn’t so much a binge per say then really that body needing the extra fuel and food sort of to say. So, yeah, I think in a nutshell, Elena really explained most of it, but I have many stories to tell and I think that one client of mine that I just got off the phone with is just she has transformed her life by really trying to heal her relationship with food. And that’s what I really help women do, too, is, yeah, we want the period back. We want the end goal. Right. And that’s what I’m kind of marketing. All right, let’s get your period back. But once I get them with me, we really work on that underlying reason why their periods went missing in the first place. So in hopes when they’re done with me, they can live a life with a period until they hit menopause.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:17:08] Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. I do like the stories and the examples. It’s great for the high-level overview. I think it’s also really helpful for the listeners to understand the experiences and stories not only of the market you serve, which obviously has nuances and dimensions. So it’s nice to have that high-level overview and then to go specifically deep into learning about the stories of the women that you serve. Specifically, I’m interested in understanding and sharing with the audience. At what point do they decide they need help, how are they diagnosed? Are they aware of this issue? If you want to share any perspective of those at the beginning of the journey. Anything else you think would be helpful for perspective on this topic?

 

Elena : [00:17:55] Yeah, so I wanted to say something that relates to your second question, Libby, but also relates to what Cynthia was just saying. So she mentioned kind of a lot of this confusion around in women with HA within terms of they don’t realize the connection. I mean, at least this is the case for my clients. And I think Cynthia was kind of saying this, too. They don’t really realize the connection between their loss of period and their troubled relationship with food and fitness, which is almost I mean, every person I’ve met with HA has, it’s just a sign of a deeper issue, the missing period is just a sign of other things that are already going on, body image issues, relationship with food issues that are causing that. So what I was thinking when she mentioned that is, I was just on a call with a client, actually, she just graduated from my program. And she is on her fifth recovery period now after working with me for or she just finished her fourth after working with me for three months. And she said she was reflecting on how she found me. She’s like, well, I was just on my Explore page and I saw missing period, I was like, oh, I should click on this. What is this? And then she went through my feed and she saw that I talked about binge eating and food thoughts and staying in instead of going out in social eating situations because you feel a lot of anxiety around food all of these things or not being able to reach physique goals without feeling consumed by macro’s and bingeing or whatever. She was like I literally did not know. I didn’t realize that these things were connected and that I even really had a problem until I looked at your page. And that’s something that relates to the type of client that I market to and work with and what finally makes them ready for change and want to seek help. I’m trying to capture more and more people in the stage that she’s on to help them make that connection. Because I find for my market that’s a huge issue, is they literally whether because they don’t have enough energy fueling their brain or because of social issues where this is not talked about enough, it’s like what seems like a very obvious connection in hindsight of this bingeing, anxiety around food, constant thoughts, whatever, and their loss of periods. So I would say what motivates my clients and the people who work with me to get help is one finally realizing that making that connection, oh, this is a problem, my missing period’s an issue. And it’s also related to this other huge issue that I’ve been trying to work on for years, and I can’t for some reason figure out which for my clients is bingeing. So one is that it’s making that connection and actually taking themselves seriously because oftentimes this is a whole separate issue maybe we can get into if we had the time. But oftentimes my clientele is not underweight based on BMI. So when they go to their doctor and say, I have a missing period, they’re basically just told, go on the birth control pill, you’re just a fit woman. Just take the pill to regulate your period and you’ll be totally good, which is a really big issue with my clients, which is why I say I help you get your period back naturally or without the pill. So when you’ve been invalidated by even your own health care practitioner, who tells you that this is not a big deal, basically, of course, you’re going to think it’s not a big deal, too. So that’s something when they make that connection, that really motivates them. And then also when they make that connection, I mean, they’ve been trying to stop bingeing for years. They really struggle with the feeling. So out of control around food, not realizing, as Cynthia said, that’s just a normal byproduct of undereating and restriction, but that they don’t realize that they’re doing. And when they make that connection, it all kind of clicks and they’re like, OK, yes, I can solve all of these issues at once. I really want to stop bingeing. I really don’t want to feel fear around food. And I want to be truly healthy and fit, not just saying I’m a health and fitness guru or interested in it, but really just sacrificing everything for my esthetic goals and in the meantime, sacrificing my physical health with not having a period, mental health with struggling with food. So that’s, I would say, the main thing that helps them seek support and wanting to work with me.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:21:51] Amazing, follow-up question to that. When they discover you on your Explore page and then you’ve validated them and shown them opportunities and options, what specifically is it that they resonate with? Is that the language that you’re using? The topics tell me a couple of examples of some key points that are getting folks, women to feel that way.

 

Elena : [00:22:15] Yeah, I would say what’s getting it is the language, but I would say more than the specific language, it’s the storytelling that I use. So I’ve gotten a lot better, as you know, Libby, since the very beginning of my marketing days of really giving specific scenarios to paint a picture of what they’re dealing with. So my ideal client really resonates with just being seen and heard with my content. So what I do and obviously it helps now that I’ve worked with many women who deal with these things so I can literally capture and I was going to touch on this for other questions, but I literally capture exact scenarios and wordings that they use on discovery calls on when they’re not clients yet, on group calls, when they are clients, on exit calls. And I use the exact wording and exact stories. And then I put it in a post and then in my caption. So the thing I hear time and time again and same with that client that I was just talking about, who said, oh, I found you on my Explore Page, etc., they always say it’s like I’m reading my life story in your post. I literally have dealt with all of these things. And also when these ladies are in my groups and they meet each other, they’re like, oh my God, everything all the girls say I resonate with. So I think it’s really the storytelling and being very specific that helps them to just feel seen and heard and validated up, this is exactly what I’m going through. And then that makes them want to work with me because they know I completely relate to what they’re dealing with.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:23:38] Really helpful tips that are really, really wonderful. I am so proud of the progress we’ve made and I love that you captured that, Elena said in intro calls, discovery calls, in her actual service and on exit calls, which is where you wrap up with your clients or offer the next step, your gathering information from them and their words and then capturing relevant information using that in your marketing. And it’s getting more of that same type of person to help you grow your business and align your mission and vision with the work you’re doing. I think that’s a really helpful, actionable tip for the listeners to really dive into. So thank you for sharing your journey with us. I’m so happy and proud of your storytelling progression, which is paid off in growing your business.

 

Elena : [00:24:21] Oh, yes, it has. It was not always like this, so it took me some practice to get here.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:24:28] And speaking of practice, share one or two tips for those who are listening, who are thinking Elena is so amazing and so great. I don’t believe she ever struggled. So will you tell a couple of stories or one or two reflections of how you got to where you are with the storytelling specifically? What things, if you were to look back that you may be over-thought or didn’t do enough of that would be helpful for the listeners.

 

Elena : [00:24:53] Yeah, well, one thing I definitely overthought was repeating things that we’re working on, so this is and this maybe sounds like it doesn’t relate to what we’re talking about, but when I would find a specific story that really resonated with a lot of people. So, for instance, I’ll do posts where I say, what your doctor says, what you say what your doctor says, what I say, kind of like to capture that story of, oh, just go on the pill, you just eat the pill, deregulate, recycle, and then feeling confused and not wanting to use medication and not sure why they’re not getting their period. That’s something that I consistently, you know, gets reach, gets people through the door, resonates with people, makes them feel seen and heard. And in the past, I would try to just constantly reinvent the wheel every week when I would create content instead of just noticing, oh, this is doing really well. So let me just repeat this in some way. And once I started doing that, I saw a lot of benefit in terms of sales and all that. Then I would also say fear, just overthinking the wording that I would use and thinking and had to sound perfect or I had to have every single word in there to make it a perfectly flowing sentence when I could literally, what I do now, is I will take notes during discovery calls, client calls, whatever. If someone says something that I know I could use for marketing and then I just copy and paste and I just make it as simple as possible instead of overthinking like, oh, this sounds weird. Or this is I don’t know, it just, you don’t overthink it, and especially when it comes to what people are directly saying, I would be as close to their wording as you possibly can. So I think doing that more has helped me a lot too.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:26:33] Helpful and Cynthia, do you want to add any perspective either to back off of Elena or to dive deep into examples of or to go back into HA? What can you add to that?

 

Cynthia: [00:26:45] So I want to agree with Elena as far as, how do I attract the clients, and really the ideal client that I’m looking for is ready to make that change and know that having no period is a problem and also making those connections. Oh, that sounds like me. Oh, I thought I was the only one kind of thing. So that’s been really helpful. And I think it’s even been more helpful to have clients that weren’t in that state of readiness versus those that are, how much they progress forward and able to get their period back much more quickly. So that’s definitely my idea, having that connection piece. As far as there is a big struggle and Elena already said that it’s almost like we’re fighting against other health care professionals, such as doctors that maybe don’t have the knowledge or expertise in HA. So they’re like, oh, just go on the pill. You’re fine. I know I just recently started on my discovery call questionnaire when they apply for coaching to ask, have you been diagnosed, have you not? Because there’s a big overlap that I had personally with women coming to me and saying, oh, well, my doctor said that I have either PCOS or it’s not a big deal. So I’m like, well, I’m not going to spend my whole call trying to convince you that you have a problem. So I kind of switch that around, which has helped me collect more of my ideal clientele, but also made sure my marketing is reflecting that such they can relate to these problems that they’re having on top of having this missing period. I want to piggyback again off of what Elena said about where she was when she started. And I know Elena has been in the game a little bit longer than myself, but I was actually looking through my feed yesterday, the day before, and I had recreated a similar old post that did really well. I also wanted to take my caption so I don’t have to recreate that. But I looked at an old caption of mine. I’m like, oh, my gosh, I can’t even believe I said that. But again, you only know when you know it. But to be able for me to take and copy and paste that and then turn it into a transformational story like Elena was saying, that women can directly relate to whether it was personally from me or a client of mine. It just comes so much easier now that I have been practicing it. I think it’s going on six-plus months because I started with you at the end of April this year, Libby. So, yeah, I think that’s huge. That story component.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:30:58] Thank you for sharing the piece of the caption, if you can submit an old caption and a new caption to me, I’d love to share it in the stories and my stories and tell you and just inspire our community, because sometimes I like to show a picture of me when I first started and just share some of my, as you’ve seen in my marketing, I’ll show my clients when they first started. And now I think we often forget that when we first started, we were in a different place. And that’s OK. I think it’s good to value and reflect on that, and also good for us to celebrate how far we’ve all come and how far will be in six months from now and then 12 months from now. So it’s just a way for us to celebrate our success and then inspire our colleagues who are maybe afraid and scared for various reasons that they’re going to improve as they take this to the next level. So thank you for that example, Cynthia. All right, as intuitive practitioners or weight control or both, how do you express the power of your approach? Because you’re both full of intuitive eating and help your client with getting their periods back via increased calories and decreased exercise? Because that’s both parts of your solution is the increased calories decrease exercise. And maybe you can first talk a little bit about how you identify with intuitive eating, or a neutral approach, and then we can dive into the rest of the question.

 

Elena : [00:32:21] Yeah, so I can get started there. So you meant you said at the end, maybe talk a little bit about that approach, right? Intuitive eating, weight neutral. Yeah. So what it means to me and how it I would say the way it weaves into the specific type of person I work with, it kind of ties into that piece I mentioned before. Right. How they’re not underweight based on BMI and maybe even for them. Most of my clients are actually trying to lose even more weight and get even leaner because they’re really obsessed with being super lean and jacked, and that’s part of their relationship with fitness. They really need to understand that they don’t grasp this really important fact that weight gain is not always a bad thing. In fact, for them, it is exactly what they need and they live in constant fear of weight gain. That’s a huge thing that we work on in my program. And for me, what it means, the way I approach, you know because my approach is kind of within that space of intuitive eating weight neutrality. But I don’t necessarily call it that because for other reasons I won’t get into right now, but the way that I really educate about it in my program and with my approach is just to remind them that health is a destination. It’s not like you’re underweight, overweight. I’m not really a fan of the BMI and I understand its use in some areas, but I think that the way it’s used with my clients by their doctors is really not accurate or helpful. So I just try to remind them and emphasize that health is a destination that doesn’t necessarily involve weight. And for them, it’s a lot of redefining what health means to them. So they’re very focused on health is a certain weight and body fat percentage eating X amount of vegetables per day, exercising X amount of times per week, just checking all these boxes. And they’re completely ignoring the mental health component and thinking that esthetic goals and physique goals are achieving health goals, when in fact their physique goals are actually in the opposite direction of their goals for health. So to stop binge eating, have a good relationship with food, decrease stress, which as we all know is a very important aspect of physical health, mental health, overall health, and then continuing to try to just pursue this getting as lean as possible because they have deeper body image issues and self-worth issues that they haven’t explored yet, is only getting them actually further away from their definition of health. When in fact gaining weight and maybe for some of my clients, they reach maybe even an overweight BMI in the process. But every other marker of health is one thousand times better and there are a twenty-six out of twenty-five BMI. But they finally have a period. They’re not bingeing anymore. They exercise and eat well in a balanced, healthy way, mentally healthy. And so that’s kind of the way that I view it with them, is just really educating on the fact that weight gain is sometimes can be the best thing for you and you don’t have to be within this rigid BMI scale to be healthy. And also underweight is relative. You can be underweight based on your body weight and your set point weight and not be underweight based on BMI.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:35:25] To go a little deeper with that, do you have a specific example of how you help the clients own going a little bit overweight on the BMI standard, as you said, BMI as a tool of achievement, how is she able to break through some of her limiting beliefs or preconceived notions of what health means? Do you have a story or an example of how you help someone specifically do that and how that’s changed her life?

 

Elena : [00:35:54] Yeah, so I’m thinking of one client, in particular, I mean, all of my clients need to work on this because they all have this bias. But one client, it’s something that we’ve had to continually work on because she has a lot of obsessive health related thoughts that are related to a previous definition of health that isn’t really in alignment with what she feels now. But I mean, she’s come a long way. But I’m kind of talking about a few months ago and we had to really work on, like I said, redefining her definition of health. So for her, she was very much in this mindset of she was never underweight. She lost a period. She was very into lifting, very into bodybuilding, trying to get as lean as possible. And as we started this process and started talking about giving unconditional permission to eat, which is big, which is the kind of identifying your food rules and then starting to permit yourself to actually eat instead of ignoring your hunger and fullness is the first step of my program. The inevitable worry that came up for her was that she’s just never going to stop gaining weight. I would say the way it shows up for my clients and it was definitely the case, especially the case for her, is the general nutrition guidelines for Americans that we all learn as dietitians in school. She took that those guidelines and basically just took every one of them to the extreme. So if we should be eating five vegetables a day, she’s going to eat 10. If we should be drinking X amount of water per pound of body weight, she’s going to double that. And she was just very extreme with thinking that, again, health is hitting these certain markers and checkboxes. For her, that was leading to actually underrating, eating too many vegetables, drinking too much water, ignoring hunger cues. Her fear was if she let go of those things, she would just spiral into this standard American who is, quote-unquote, obese and unhealthy. Just a big a massive distrust of her body and her body’s ability to regulate things. So for us, working on with journal problems, with coaching, on redefining her relationship with food or her relationship to health and what health means helped her to understand that, all right. For me, healthy right now is focusing on healing my relationship with food. That’s the number one thing that’s impacting my health because it’s causing loss of period, bingeing, concept without stress that’s impacting my physical health. So for me to get healthier right now, the number one thing I need to do is heal my relationship with food. If that means eating fewer vegetables right now, if that means gaining weight, if that means eating more processed foods, drinking less water, that’s OK, because that’s the number one thing that’s messing with my health right now. And by doing that, she’s now in a place where she hasn’t binged in three months. She’s feeling confident and freer on food. Her body is naturally gravitating towards vegetables, sometimes while also enjoying treat foods like chocolate and naturally in moderation, not with her just having to control it. She was talking to me about how she was stressed with the election. But that no longer causes a binge, she can just have chocolate or whatever and not binge when she’s stressed and her period is healthy and coming naturally, without the pill. So for her, it was really redefining that relationship to health and what that means to her.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:39:12] And how does that feel to you as a dietitian aligned with practicing what you want, making money, how you wish, and helping women transform their lives and break the barriers? What does that mean to you as a provider?

 

Elena : [00:39:26] Yeah, so I could get caught up, I think in the day to day, I can get caught up with all the pressure of me trying, I put a lot of pressure on myself of trying to help these women who I resonate so much with, what they’re dealing with. I went through myself. So it means a lot to me that they’re putting this important thing in my hands. So I take it very seriously. I think sometimes I can forget how amazing it is that I’m doing this. But when I tell stories like this and get on especially exit calls with clients where they reflect on things like this in their progress, it truly makes my day and makes my week to have these conversations. And it’s good for my ego because I, as many women, deal with imposter syndrome. And I need that boost, because when I hear that, I’m like, yes, this is why I do what I do. I can’t believe this is my full-time job. It’s very gratifying to know that I’m helping women who struggled as I did. So, yeah, it’s great. It’s a great feeling.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:40:17] I love that. I would say it’s a celebration and taking a moment. I love that you’re doing that and celebrate that you’re helping them on this journey. I love that you’re saying exit calls, meaning when you have a call with them towards the end of the program, allows both you and the client to discuss and reflect on the amazing progress made. And I love that you’re able to share that with the listeners, because what good is it to be able to work and be aligned with what we do if don’t take a moment and share that with ourselves, our clients and then our community of other. And let them know that we have to embrace that as well, because, yes, we do have imposter syndrome and as women, we’re definitely hard on ourselves. So I hope the listeners can get some positive affirmation, reflection from this conversation. Cynthia, what can you add to this again, how you define yourself as an intuitive practitioner and how you express the power of your approach to help your clients get their period back via the same methodology about increased calories and exercise, although for a different market like we’ve discussed, your market doesn’t binge as much.

 

Cynthia: [00:41:28] So I love how Elena said it’s like we are up against battling, not with our clients, per se, but because they come in to see us with this painted picture of what health should look like, eating vegetables, drinking water, exercising daily. And when, you know, that same thing that they’re trying to get healthy for has made them, quote-unquote, unhealthy and missing a period. So I would say starting there and really defining right now, this is not your healthy, if that was your healthy, you wouldn’t be here right now talking to me and worried about your missing period and telling me how you can’t stop thinking about food and how your relationship with others is hindered and all the fun things that come along with the missing period. So it’s a constant battle of helping them switch their mindset to what health really is and helping them find this balance between food and exercise or fitness so they can live a life full of joy, full of having the mental space to be who they want to be. I’ve had so many clients of mine say, oh my gosh, because now I have this mental space. I was able to get through my finals week without restricting food because when I get stressed, I really restrict food and the same thing with the election. I have to say, I was just on the phone with a client, you know what, instead of restricting when I was really stressed out and mind you, this client of mine is in Europe and she was worried about our election. She said I ate because I knew I had to eat. But that definition of intuitive eating, health at every size approach is really helping them first switch their mindset with health, work on food fears, work on all these things that have led them to their missing period. And then as time goes on in phase one of my program, we really work on let’s get your period back then let’s maintain your period because a lot of women will say, oh, we have my period back. OK, awesome. You know, I’m going to start exercising a little bit more now or I don’t need that extra snack. So really helping them get through that maintenance period along with working and really starting to trust and listen to their body, listen to their hunger or listen to their fullness cues, which for a lot of women, it takes some time to really have those hunger and fullness cues become reliable again. Then once they have a few recovery cycles, in hopes to if they continue to work with me after those three months that we’re really working on the intuitive piece and finding joy in food again and really finding the balance of being able, oh, I can go out for a run, but if I’m tired, I’m not going to go for a run. Now, I know during ovulation I get way more hungry, but I know when I come to my period I’m not as hungry, so it all equals out. They finally find that balance that they’ve been looking for and really become in tune to be able to trust their body versus trust the outside world of this picture painting of what health really is supposed to be, when it’s the thing that’s driving them unhealthy in the first place.

 

Elena : [00:44:56] Anything to add to that Elena?

 

Elena : [00:44:59] No, I don’t think so.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:45:01] All right, so as we wrap up here, do you want to end any final notes? Thank you both for sharing your reflections, it’s really powerful to share a high-level overview of hypothalamic amenorrhea, how it works with both of your clientele, and then a little bit about the marketing piece. So anything you want to share about social media and how social media, I know we’ve talked about that before, and Elena gave a great example as well about pulling off marketing data and using that to get more clients and help serve more women and help women bridge the gap between how they can find help for their problems that they didn’t understand or realize or connect, which is really powerful. Anything else that you want to highlight that either you wish you would have known earlier or that you want to share about how social media has helped strengthen the opportunity to serve more women and align with your mission and vision as we wrap up today’s podcast?

 

Cynthia: [00:45:56] I wanted to say from a place where I was before I started working with you, I was doing some virtual stuff, a little bit of social media, but I really never knew the power of social media and how I could not only make money from it but also influence and impact so many women across the world. I know this was a question you asked Elena a few minutes ago about the joy of finding your full-time job and stuff that and kind of ties into that piece that I always looked at a lot of other women out there before I started doing a lot of marketing on social media, oh, my gosh, I want to do that. I want to be them. I want to be able to help all these people in different places, whether or not they can afford to work with me in hopes that they can, because I would love making this my job. In reality, it doesn’t feel like a job because I love what I do so much. But being able to make that impact across the world, coming from a place where I was doing kind of a brick and mortar and I always had a little side hustle going, but not until I knew how effective social media was in reaching my ideal client. It’s just, it’s amazing. It really is. I can attribute all of the success that I have had in the past six-plus months to where I had a side hustle probably for seven-plus years. Then as soon as I put that focus on social media and really speaking to my ideal clients, I mean, the rest is history and I’m able to attract the people that I want to work with in and no one else, which is so awesome. I hope that sort of answers your question about social media and how it’s helped. But, yeah, it’s been transformational for me coming from a place that I wasn’t doing it before.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:47:54] Yeah. I thank you for sharing that for listeners who maybe don’t think it’s possible or they are feeling discouraged or they’ve tried and it hasn’t worked. Something hasn’t connected. So I think hearing your story and your passion and the success you’ve had is really inspiring. I appreciate that reflection, Cynthia. Elena, I know you already talked about specific things that you’ve done and reflected on. I don’t know if you have anything else that you want to add about social or just in general as we wrap up here.

 

Elena : [00:48:22] Yeah, just one thing I wanted to add about social, because, I mean, unlike Cynthia, I started totally with social. I never had any sort of private practice or anything. I just started with Instagram. Still, that’s my main marketing platform. But one thing in terms of, I wish I would have known in the beginning, I mean anybody out there listening, don’t be a perfectionist, just start. Because as Libby said, I mean, you can go back to my old posts and my new posts are a thousand times better than they were back then. But I wouldn’t have gotten to this place if I didn’t start back then. So don’t take this as a reason not to start. But for me, one thing I wish that I would have focused on earlier is remembering the stage of change that somebody is when they’re coming to me and what stage they’re in and then aligning that with what you market so that you are focusing on the outcome that they want in your marketing and not necessarily just weaving in what they need, but focusing on what they want. And then your program is what they need. This is something that I’ve definitely needed to focus on earlier because especially for my client, we talked about a weight-neutral approach and how my clients actually gained weight in this process. All of them at least gain some gain significant amount, some only a little bit. There in a place where they want to be losing fat. So, where does that happen that somebody wants to lose fat that comes to my program and actually gains weight. So that comes from focusing on the fact that I know that my client wants to be able to reach their goals without bingeing, without losing a period at some point. I believe that is possible. I don’t think that they can never focus on physique again. But in my program, I teach them, you have to take a break from this, focus on other things, heal your relationship with food first. But I don’t say that as much in my marketing. I talk about the fact that they can stop and get a period back, and hit physique goals. But it’s sort of a longer process than maybe I let on. But it works. And I just had a client who just got another client who graduated and was dealing with these issues for 16 years. She told me that she’s like, I like how you focus. You talk about the physique piece on Instagram because I would have never worked with you if you said, you’re going to join my program and gain a bunch of weight, but you’re going to get your period and stop bingeing. She’s like and I know you’re not lying because you talk about it. It’s not that you’re deceiving us, but, I would have never worked with you if you hadn’t marketed that. I’m so happy that I worked with you because she’s five months in and has achieved everything she wanted to achieve. It gave me a lot of validation because I’m like, yes, exactly. You want to capture this person because they need what you’re giving them. But you need to at least definitely, in my case, kind of focus on maybe an outcome that’s a little bit in the future. Does that make sense? And that’s really important for my client.

 

Cynthia: [00:51:01] Elena, I have to say, I would one hundred percent agree with you. That would be exactly what I would want to know back then. I have a little sticky note right here in its market what she wants, give her what she needs in the program. So I have that right on my desk because I totally find myself, I don’t want to be completely transparent and there has to be a touch of transparency in the marketing.

 

Elena : [00:51:28] It’s not like you’re lying to them and deceiving them in a bad way. You need to help them. If they’re going to be turned off by your marketing, you’re not going to be able to give them the help that they need and then you have the discovery call to really make sure they’re ready and all of that.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:51:43] Yes, this is a struggle I see with dietitians just starting. Maybe you both, a year ago or six months or in a year ago, is that my clients in my group program, they really struggle with marketing to what people want and they market to what they think people want without understanding what people want. And that’s what I teach. I feel that those who resist me, they always look back and say, I wish I would have really dove into that sooner. That process for some of us can take a week, others of us can take 30 days. But what Elena had shared and Cynthia had validated is that discovering sooner than later the language that they use and getting into the psychology of how they think is going to help you align with your philosophy and then really help more people. So when you can connect those dots, the sooner you can implement that, the sooner you can actually align with your mission and vision, grow your business, serve more people, feel more valuable in the market. But that is what’s holding so many of you back. Any final thoughts on that? Either one of you Elena and Cynthia, before you wrap up?

 

Cynthia: [00:52:52] I don’t think so, no. All right.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:52:55] Thank you both for your time. This has been a great conversation. If you could just remind everybody one last time, any final thoughts or just where to find you on social?

 

Cynthia: [00:53:04] You guys can find me @period.nutritionist on Instagram.

 

Elena : [00:53:12] And yeah, and I’m @weight.lifting.nutritionist on Instagram and just follow and shoot me a DM, I’m here for whatever you need.

 

Libby Rothschild : [00:53:20] Thank you so much for joining us today.