Your Guide To Anti-Inflammatory Living With Sophie Richards (+ Egg Freezing & Endometriosis Chats)

0:00Hi, I'm Darina, co-founder of Quo. You might know us as Open Phone. My dad is a business owner and growing up, he always kept his ringtone super loud so he'd never miss a customer call. That stuck with me. When we started Quo, our mission was to help businesses not just stay in touch, but make every customer feel valued no matter when they might call. Quo gives your team business phone numbers to call and text on your phone or computer. Your calls, messages, and contacts live in one workspace so your team can stay fully aligned and reply faster. And with our AI agent answering 24-7, you'll really never miss a customer.

0:39Over 90 ,000 businesses use Quo. Get 20 % off at quo.com slash tech. That's Q-U-O dot com slash tech. And we can port your existing numbers over for free. Quo. No missed calls, no missed customers. When you think of skyrocketing brands like Aloe, Allbirds, or Skims, it's easy to credit their success to great products, sleek branding, and brilliant marketing. But here's the overlooked secret. The real magic lies in the engine behind the scenes, the business powering their business. For millions of brands, that engine is Shopify, making selling seamless for them and shopping effortless for us. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Aloe Yoga uses.

1:25Sign up for your$1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash retail, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash retail to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash retail. Hi friends, Grace from the Working Hard podcast here. When you're stretching every dollar, Alilla goes a long way and Walmart Business is here to help. They make it easy to order what you need from tech and cleaning supplies to everyday essentials, all at low prices and with helpful tools like spend tracking and tax exempt purchasing for eligible organizations. Because when your operations are smooth, your impact can be bigger.

1:57Visit business.warmart.com to get started.

2:12What is up? I'm Grace Beverley and welcome back to Working Hard, the podcast shape guidebook on how to improve your own life and achieve what you actually dreamed of doing. Because life's too short for boring podcasts and bad advice.

2:25What is up and welcome back to Working Hard. Today's guest is someone I have been so excited to talk to because in a way I feel like I know her already based on the amount of her content I have consumed. Sophie Richards is a woman's health practitioner, endometriosis campaigner and anti-inflammatory researcher. If you listen to our mini-series in August you will know that I have been on a real journey with my PCOS diet and lifestyle this year and actually for the past 15 years and I mentioned in the bonus episode on what's changed the game for me how interesting I found Sophie's research on inflammation in women's health and it turned out that so many of you love her content too so I thought why don't we get on the podcast before the year ends and have a full deep dive episode on anti-inflammatory living and endometriosis and all of these things we covered a lot in this chat so if you've ever wondered why you're always bloated whether egg freezing is really worth considering or what diets like the AIP actually do for your body, this is the episode for you.

3:18Before we get into the episode, a little trigger warning that we do discuss infertility in this episode. So if that's something that you don't want to hear about, you might want to skip the chapter in this episode on egg freezing. The timestamp is in the show notes so that you can still get the most out of the rest of the episode. And before we get into my chat with Sophie, just a quick reminder and request to follow the podcast wherever you are listening. Every Monday I release a new episode to help you improve your life in some way, whether that's mindset related, health related or work related.

3:43And if you're not already, if you follow us on Instagram at workinghardpod, I share extra clips, but so much more than that. So it's basically a community space for this podcast. There are giveaways, there are deeper dives into each episode topic, there are interesting articles that I learned a lot from and think everyone should read, etc, etc, etc. So if you're listening and you are not there, you are missing out. I hope you really enjoy this episode. I absolutely loved recording it, and despite the amount of Sophie's content I've already consumed, I learned a lot, and this type thing is so important to talk about.

4:13So enjoy the episode and as always have a wonderful day.

4:19Sophie Richards, are you currently more working hard or hardly working? I am definitely working hard but I am so happy I wouldn't change a thing and I think there's definitely been points where I've worked hard and hated it and that is definitely not the case now. So definitely working hard but it feels like I'm hardly working. And I know you were kind of talking about work you quit your job about two years ago and that was quite a big moment in your life could you talk me through what led to that decision and I guess what it's been like a little bit since then okay so two years ago very very different me and I think today's a really special day for me because I'm on my period I'm on day two I'm not inflamed I'm not in pain I'm excited to have this conversation with you your listeners two years ago I was in a job I was stressed all the time hated what I was doing and it wasn't necessarily the job itself I couldn't be my best self because I was in so much pain with my endometriosis my symptoms were all over the place my bloating my fatigue my weight fluctuations were so up and down and my confidence was just zero so physically I was in so much pain emotionally I was like dealing with my endo getting worse and I'd always worked so so hard and this is what I mean by like I've worked hard before and it's not been fun because it wasn't what I was passionate about I was in pain so like try showing up to a meeting you've been preparing for for months and you're having an end of it it's like the worst thing ever isn't it and I was just really struggling with it and especially things like with the stupid work policy where you had to be in the office every day for someone who has painful periods whether that's endometriosis PCOS ovarian cysts or maybe you haven't had your diagnosis you're just struggling you're bleeding through pads and you're going oh my god I want to get up and go to the toilet and change my pad but I'm scared that I've bled through onto my seat like that was a daily thought every single day in the job that I was at and I kind of just got to this position in my life where I was like I have no control I have no control over my job I have no control of my health and something needs to change and I was in like a traditional corporate office job I was an account manager at two really big companies and my experience was if I had a good manager that understood it they'd be like oh don't worry you can just work from home because I didn't need time off I just needed to adapt to my work situation and things were great but then your manager changes which happens to everyone and if they weren't understanding with the situation that I was in with my endometriosis with the things that I needed it caused so much friction and I was like I can't I can't do this anymore so I quit my job like blew up my whole life quit my job which I was so proud to have.

6:56It was like my thing. I was the corporate girl. And I was like, I need to control my health. I need to understand women's health. And I was like, I'm going to train to become a women's health practitioner. And that is what I did. So I completely flipped my life upside down. And it was the best thing I ever did because it's what's brought me to you today. And I know obviously endometriosis has been a huge part of your journey. And obviously the symptoms that come with it and so much of the lack of research around what really does come with it what doesn't come with it what's causing these problems all of that could you talk us through a little bit what at that time like what your symptoms were and how long it took you to get a diagnosis and just like painting a little bit of a picture about your experience with endometriosis yeah so my experience with endometriosis I think we need to go back to the start of like my first period because for me it was like my life changed when I got that period so I used to be so jealous of my friends okay they'd come into school from like the age of like 11 12 with their pads and their tampons and their deodorant and their bras and I was there 17 flat chested like completely flat chested no period didn't even need deodorant so I wasn't sweating like I hadn't hit puberty yet and I was so jealous of them being like can I borrow a tampon I was like when will my time come yes when will I get this show a bra strap yeah I was like I want to be a woman and then I got my period and I was like what the fuck is going on I was like how are my friends going to school?

8:20How are they like living? And I just thought, okay, maybe it's the first one. Like I'm getting used to it. Second period comes and I'm like, okay, like I don't go to school that day. I'm like bleeding through all of my clothes. And I'm like, this doesn't seem normal because my friends haven't done this, but this was kind of, this was 11 years ago. So I'm 28 now. This is 11 years ago. People didn't really talk about periods that much. So I was like, maybe my friends are bleeding through their clothes. They're just not telling me about Like, wow, warriors. Yeah. I'm like, how were you doing this?

8:48Like, how are you showing up? Third period comes and I'm like, I feel like I'm going to die. Like, it feels like my organs were being screwed, ripped, and were trying to come out of me. I felt like I'd swallowed a cheese grater. It was literally as if my stomach was like, oh my God. And people with endometriosis, like, if you know, you know. It's like a corkscrew is twisting. And then your period comes a couple of days later and it kind of goes away. And you're like, this is so weird. So I actually was super confident going to the doctors where a lot of people go, I couldn't talk about it for years.

9:16No. Third period in, I'm straight to the doctor because I'm like, something is wrong. This is not okay. Because it's not just the physical pain. I was exhausted. And like 17, you're spring chicken. You're going out with your friends. You're having a great time. Not me. I'm like pale, drained, tired, missing school. And I go to the doctor and it's the classic situation. And we'll get onto the fact that I do love doctors, I promise you. But this particular doctor was at the laptop just like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. You've seen the TikTok, right? Yeah. And you're like, I feel like I'm dying. I'm this. and like okay just the pill and it's just painful periods you're fine and what was really difficult is that because I felt so insignificant compared to this doctor's you know experience and work I was like okay yes what you've said is right I am being dramatic it is just painful periods and I just need to take the pill so that's what I did but my symptoms just got worse really the bloating got so bad that I had two wardrobes one was a size a one was a size 14 because at different points in the month I was genuinely changing that size so when we talk about being confident in your body that age and boys and everything like that it just felt so difficult and it should have been a red flag okay and I always think if someone is there with two wardrobes this is your sign so I was having this issue the pain was getting worse and I was really confident going back to the doctor because I was like something isn't wrong like you haven't fixed me and then a different doctor would say oh that's the wrong pill that's why it's getting worse that story for two years and it was points where every single month I would go to the doctor and I'd be like please help me different pill please help me it's painful periods please help me maybe it's IBS please help me okay maybe it's celiac disease and we never got an answer and it got to the point where it was so severe that I just stopped trusting anyone I stopped telling anyone when things were wrong and I was on the way to one of my a-level exams and for two days I had been bleeding out like I was ghostly white soaked through with blood and I was like but my a-levels are the most important thing right like you need to get to uni walking to my exam blacked out woke up in the hospital my mum was there and I was an hour away from home so I was like why the hell is my mum here and oh my god I've missed my exam like why am I in this hospital and they're like you need to go in for emergency surgery so I had this surgery and they found a cyst the size of an orange that had twisted around my fallopian tube and they said this is probably why you've been in so much pain it was probably the cyst we've taken it out and a little piece of your ovary and you're going to be fine like you're you're healed you're cured off you go so i was kind of like okay like i'm fixed this is this is me done it's the summer before i go to university i go to university and my symptoms get worse and worse and worse and now knowing what i do about inflammation and bloating and endometriosis it's so obvious and i know that we will probably come on to those strategies but going to university you're drinking more you're under a lot of stress because of exams you're socializing more your food is probably more ultra processed and my symptoms got worse And this is where the conversation totally changed with the doctors, where instead of talking about IBS and painful periods, it was, oh, you're young, you're at university, how many sexual partners have you had this month?

12:16They would ask that. And I was like, my sex is so painful that I'm not getting any action right now. I was like, sex is the last thing I'm thinking of. I was like, I wish, I wish. And it was just getting worse. And again, three years later is when one doctor said the words endometriosis to me. so this from start to finish five years of battling surgery as well and it took five years to get my answer of endometriosis and the only reason i had that answer is because that doctor he was amazing he was interested in women's health he'd recently been to a conference about women's health and so he had endometriosis on his brain so when he was reading my history and my symptoms it clicked into place that it could be that so i had a diagnostic laparoscopy which is basically like an investigation into your tummy and that's when they found endometriosis but five years sounds crazy right like those symptoms sound crazy I am lucky like I am lucky in the world of endometriosis the average time to diagnosis from symptoms starting is eight to ten years and that that has to change yeah I mean it's fucking ridiculous and what's I mean that story and everything you went through is horrifying and I don't know.

13:23I don't doubt that if that was a common male symptom that we would have different realities. What horrifies me the most is that when I hear horrifying stories, I'm not surprised. Any woman could probably tell anyone about like 10 of their close friends who've had like something similar or like just, you know, one of my friends, for example, had like an extreme issue with their um coil and it was like put in completely wrong and it had been like absorbed by their uterus and was completely embedded and all of that and no one was even looking at anything because they were just like oh it's a uterus so it's meant to actually be really painful and ruin your life but like hope that's okay yeah um and i don't know myself for example like i remember once having such bad pain that i went to a and e in the middle of the night because i literally thought I was maybe like having a concealed pregnancy and like giving birth yeah and I I had like this giant cyst that had ruptured but I only found out two months later because in the hospital they said oh well you've probably got a UTI and I said am I testing for you like as in like have you seen other tests yeah exactly and they were like no but you know you've got some pain and all of this like wouldn't even do a scan we're like you know come back for a scan through the normal pathways all of this and then two months later they were like oh yeah you've got really bad internal bleeding and I'm like bro like come on what are we meant to do yeah um but I guess for anyone listening to this who's thinking oh do you know what I might have endometriosis what would you recommend to them in terms of being armed and going to the doctor and I guess your best advice for a conversation with a doctor about it so it kind of touches on your experience there first of all I'm sorry that that happened to you that shouldn't be happening and I think it touches on something that is happening all the time and in the book that I'm writing right now I talk about just because something is common i.e.

15:13happening to lots of people does not mean it is normal we need to stop saying things are normal because that is the main problem that we're having right now when it comes specifically to your question about endometriosis and this is actually true for anyone who's struggling with any symptoms so if you're just not sure if it's endometriosis if it's something else you're just like I'm struggling and I need help, track your symptoms. This is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself because we know what it's like, okay? When you've been dealing with pain and you just need help from the doctor, you go to the appointment and they're like, okay, so what's the problem today?

15:44And you're like, and then you leave that appointment and you go, oh my God, I forgot to say this, this, this. And you don't leave with the help that you came there for. So track your symptoms, write down your main symptoms. How often are they happening? How severe are they? Bonus points if you can start tracking your cycle, even if it's irregular, all of that information is so powerful for your doctor to be able to make a really nice picture for you of what's going on and either handle it there and then in the situation or to be able to pass that on to a specialist if you have something like endometriosis and you are going down that diagnosis route please if you can go and see an endometriosis specialist or ask for a referral and you have the power to ask for a referral for an endometriosis specialist i didn't know that they existed so when i went for my endosurgery i had the wrong surgery i had what is called ablation which if you think of endometriosis like a weed ablation is like going i'm just going to chop the weed like it looks nice for a little bit and then pops back up that is what ablation surgery does excision surgery is ripping that weed out of the root yes unfortunately you will still have the odd weed grow back endometriosis chronic i will always live with endometriosis but i do not live with the symptoms anymore and that is because a i have had excision surgery the right surgery with an endo specialist and all of the lifestyle stuff that i practice outside of it so please go and see an endometriosis specialist please make sure you know what surgery you're having that's such good advice and i think that the tracking your symptoms part is so so so important because i also think so much around this is rightfully so emotional that a lot of the time we spend a lot it's so upsetting like I remember with all of my PCOS appointments I would never come out of it like not then going to the bathroom to cry just because it was so so emotional yeah just there's a lot of obviously emotions tied to it but I also think what's so impressive about that is you now saying that you don't live with the symptoms is like I know for some people listening who have endometriosis they will be like how the fuck did you do that and I want to come on to everything you've done around the lifestyle changes and everything because I yeah I mean it's obviously such a debilitating thing to have and I know that a lot of people who have it like you went through just suffer so much with it all the time and so much of it is uncontrollable um and so I'm really excited to come on to that I want to first talk quickly about the fact that you've openly spoken about egg freezing as well and I would love to hear kind of after you were encouraged to to freeze your eggs what really made you think now's the time and you know what this is a this is a good thing for me to do I should be doing this so um this is something I find very hard to talk about not because I don't think egg freezing should be spoken about but the way that I personally got into it wasn't a nice scenario and that's why I talk so openly about it because I don't want other people to have the same experience as me.

18:44So when I was 24, so to recap, 17 symptoms started. Five years later, I was diagnosed. I was told that having a baby or a hysterectomy would cure my endometriosis. And thankfully, before having a hysterectomy, I found the endo specialist who said, no, no, no, no, you just need the right surgery. So I'd had three surgeries by this point in my life. It was very full-on and every single surgery they would take a little bit of my ovaries and every surgery I would say like I didn't have any of my like practitioner training I knew nothing about women's health at this point but I had the common sense to know that you have ovaries and if you take some of them like surely that's going to affect my fertility and the conversation was always no no no you've got plenty of eggs you're young don't be silly like you don't need to think about this you're fine so at the age of 24 in my life I was I had moved to Yorkshire for like my dream corporate job it was still sort of covid time i didn't have any friends or family around me and my flatmate was away this weekend and i woke up and i was like i'm having an endo flare which wasn't uncommon because the food that i was eating was super processed i was literally having like two dominoes a week to just get me through it's like the only thing that gave me joy because i hated my job i hated my life i was in so much pain the only thing that gave me joy was crap food and so I was exhausted I was having this endo flare and at the time my coping mechanism which I do not recommend to anyone it's a terrible idea was sleeping tablets and eating rubbish food that was it I was like I'm just gonna sleep through this flare and the flare was getting worse and worse and worse and I knew it was a bad one but you yourself have talked about you going to sleep like going to the hospital and needing emergency help and kind of being told oh it's nothing it's just a UTI that was my life constantly and I was too tired to go to the hospital I was like I'm not doing it they're just going to tell me nothing's wrong with me so I stopped trusting my symptoms so my flare was getting worse I was throwing up I started losing consciousness and I woke up on the floor of my bathroom with this bruise along my face he was throbbing and I was like I'm on my own this is really scary I have no one that I can call my family's like five hours away and I was like I'm gonna have to call 111 which is the non-emergency help and I was like hey I've been passing out my symptoms are getting really bad like I think I need help and thankfully they asked me for my number how to get into my flat and they told me to jam my door open and that decision saved my life so I wake up on the bathroom floor I'm like oh my gosh I've I've passed out I call 111 and they tell me like the most important information which is to keep my door open so they can come in really similar situation to what happened in my a levels where honestly and it still feels like I'm in it like I still get this shake and it happens to people every day so that's why I share it even though I find it hard oh so I was on my own in the hospital oh my god you know like if I can just tone it down I was on my own in the hospital and they were like you need surgery something's clearly wrong with your abdomen because it was so swollen and I was fighting them.

21:47I was like, no, this happens all the time. I'm always this bloated. Like, I don't have surgery. And they were like, something is wrong. You need to sign this form that says it's okay. We can take your ovaries. And like, I've always wanted to be a mum. So at 24, I was single, which I was really conscious of because I knew my fertility wasn't going to be the best. So to have them tell me that they were going to take my ovaries away, I remember in that moment, one, I was just so in so much pain because of my stomach. But I was kicking myself because I was like, I asked the doctors, should I freeze my eggs?

22:22And they said I was stupid. I was too young. I was young, fit, healthy. And I wasn't. So I ended up having the surgery. And I woke up and I remember being in agony. And the first thing I said, I was like, do I have my ovaries? I grabbed the nurse. I was like, do I have my ovaries? And she was like, I'm not authorized to talk to you about this appointment. and I was just like so I was screaming I was hysterical and it took half an hour for the doctor to come around and go oh you had an endometriosis flare-up which looks like it triggered appendicitis we removed your appendix and I was like I don't care I was like do I have my ovaries and they were like yeah we didn't touch your ovaries we just took some cysts away but you have your ovaries and it was the biggest relief ever and it was like something a switch turned on in my brain where I was like my life is changing this is it I'm done I'm not doing this anymore sorry let me have no you're doing this is you're doing great sweetie you're so much funer than me once I start crying I'm like this is this is the only story that I get emotion about when this is no it's always like certain ones and then you're like you can't touch it with a fucking my partner is always no my partner's like and this is what therapy's for I'm like next chapter dylan one thing at a time so i wake up and i'm like okay i'm done i put my resignation into my job that because i was in yorkshire i was ages away the only place that i really had help was london and guys inst thomas's hospital they're amazing the specialists they have they have there are amazing i was like i'm gonna quit my job i'm gonna move to london and i'm gonna get my eggs frozen um and so that is why i ended up moving to london i took a job because my friend worked there and she was like so if you go through my referral you get a really good signing fee and I was like great because I can't afford egg freezing egg free isn't freezing isn't free so I took a job for the signing bonus landed in London and then that's when I went to get my eggs frozen wow that is I mean first of all an incredibly traumatic way to get there and I think that I mean I'm so angry for you that that was a the way that you kind of ended up there but be that like you've clearly been having these problems for so long and the fact that that wasn't a kind of decision like that decision could have been taken away from you I think is you know completely horrendous and I also just think that at that point I don't know like we obviously get so much on the NHS and the NHS is amazing I also think when it comes to those types of things like you having had emergency surgery a number of times there and the risk having been removing your ovaries a number of times like surely it should have been also suggested that you could get that covered like that you could okay you're ending up in the hospital over and over again they're taking different pieces of your ovaries then you know doing all of this and there was an emergency situation where it nearly did xyz like surely also be like you know we can cover egg freezing for you and so you can do that because to be able to it's thousands of thousands to be able to do it and i think as well um you know i mean my experience has definitely been nowhere near as bad as yours but I remember again like I went from an egg freezing consultation when I was like 23 24 like super young just because as well as you said like I knew that I'd always had these issues so I was like do you know what I'm in a fortunate financial position I was like I just want to go and for peace of mind and all of this and they was I mean they were very discouraging and I'm I don't somewhat I don't know it just felt like I wasn't yeah there wasn't a full picture at any point and it felt like at the one at one point you're dealing with like a business on one side and the kind of egg freezing business and like all of these different things and they were happy to recommend all of these different things and at the same time like you're not having your health as a whole looked at from like a doctor's point of view i don't know yeah um what's up adam grant from work life a ted podcast here and i want to tell you about something exciting you're watching every dollar and walmart business helps you stretch each one From office supplies to snacks and cleaning gear, you'll get everyday low prices, plus easy bulk ordering and fast delivery.

26:29And with tools like spend tracking and multi-user accounts, staying organized is simple. Save time, money, and hassle at business.walmart.com. It's free to sign up. No one knows your business better than you. So who better to create your website than, well, you? Wix's website builder puts it all in your hands. Create a beautiful website just by talking with AI or choosing from thousands of templates. Customize every detail with simple drag and drop tools and get everything you need to start running business your way. Build more, think bigger and do it all yourself on Wix. Go to Wix.com.

27:11But if you're comfortable talking about it, I would love to know more about the process itself. and for anyone who's kind of listening to this and thinking oh god you know what I'm in a similar situation or I've been thinking about it and actually this is giving me the push I need to actually go and look into it further yeah I would love to hear kind of more about your experience because I've heard lots of different things as well yeah yeah okay so I'll try and give a rounded experience because I went through two rounds of egg freezing and they were both completely different okay so there are three things that I tell everyone they need to consider when you're going down the egg freezing route i'll tell you whether it was worth it for me and then something kind of unbelievable that happened in egg freezing which is so fucking ironic so first of all financial okay so like we've alluded to it's not free it's not on the nhs if you were to have something like cancer and we're going through chemotherapy radiotherapy it would be offered to you because they know that doing that treatment can cause infertility for some people it's not the case if you are born with something like endometriosis or pcos or anything that can impact your fertility And that is why when I say I have a fire in my belly, like you asked me at the start of this podcast, am I working hard or hardly working?

28:21This is why I'm working hard. This is why we're building not only like my page and sharing all of the awareness on my page, but we're building found because I'm determined to get egg freezing free on the NHS, not just for people with endometriosis, but anyone struggling with fertility when it's not their choice. So financially, you have to pay for it. they always tell you like depending on if you're going to a private clinic or a hospital i actually would say go to a hospital guys inst thompson's was amazing because my experience with private clinics is they try and milk you for all the money you can get okay also with a hospital if something goes wrong because there are risks like hyper ovarian syndrome which i was very close to hospitals are bigger they have more access to resources so don't get sort of glamified by the gorgeous waiting rooms of these private clinics and that experience the hospital i went to was amazing financially it cost me 20 grand 20 fucking hell 20 000 pounds and i only need to needed two rounds and that's because there's hidden costs oh my god i did not know it was that expensive 20 000 so they it sounds like it's not going to be that much because they say oh one round is 4 000 pounds so you go okay i have two rounds eight okay i'm so sorry you're gonna need a full body mri just to check this we're gonna need another round of bloods oh because you've got endometriosis you need bloods every single day it racks up it racks up then there's the travel to these appointments it's the supplements that you take around it so when you look at egg freezing as a whole everyone is different but my experience it was 20 000 oh my god that is really that's really i was 24 25 at this time i've got penny to my name okay i'm like every 25 year old i'm unreasonable with money i'm shopping in zara i've got anything okay nothing so my friend who calls me and it's like if you use my referral thing you'll get a signing bonus with this company i was like sick that's 50 of my egg freezing i'm like girl mathing my way through egg freezing and I'm like where am I finding 10 ,000 and I did what every self-respecting child does and I call and I call my mom and dad I'm like mom I need you I'm like I don't normally ask for money unless it was like the odd emergency 50 quid at uni which we've all been at it's like mom and dad I'm so sorry to ask this like please do you have this money and they said yes with that I want to take this moment to recognize that as much as I want to tell everyone if you can explore egg freezing do it there is so much privilege financial privilege that comes into that so much i was able to live in london i had a job that was giving me a salary a signing bonus i had parents that could support me i want to recognize that because i don't want people to be like oh she can do it i understand that and that's why i'm trying to change things i want it to be free but 20 grand so financial that's the first thing second thing is emotional going to those appointments was one of the most harrowing things ever because you're going I was single at the time so while you're going to this fertility treatment clinic couple couple couple me 24 year old on my own going fuck I don't know if I can have kids like help me out you then go through all of these forms going by the way with egg freezing it's a 10 success rate 10 that means you get 10 eggs one chance you have one chance out of all of that my ovaries were pretty botched because of all the surgeries anyway so they were like your chances are really slim then i was borrowing all this money from my parents which i felt so guilty about and then they kept saying you know is there are you sure there's no one you can freeze your eggs with because embryos are so much more successful when you freeze the egg and the sperm together it's a 20 to 30 chance and i was like you tell me who i'm picking off the street like i could not be like any of you guys yeah i was i was like hinge is doing me a disservice i'm i'm not getting anywhere right now and like imagine first day oh this is going so well can you put your sperm in a cup like first but like don't like don't ask questions but can i just borrow it you know this cup on the table right here yeah just if you could just go to the bathroom yeah just do just do me a favor like just do me a favor so it's like i can't do this but i found like i'm joking about it now everyone i was like and then physical so with egg freezing if you don't know what the process is in the morning you have to inject yourself at home which to a lot of people is really scary for me i'm a farmer i was raised born and raised on a farm i'm used to this stuff so i was like no problem however you have to stimulate your ovaries so every month you have one follicle that gets ready when you're going through egg freezing they want 20 to 30 follicles so imagine your period period on steroids and so you're stimulating it and then at night you have to do this injection to like keep your keep your ovaries to hold on to them because you don't know let them loose so throughout egg freezing i felt like i was carrying around hockey balls in my stomach which then was flaring my endometriosis so you've got the financial cost you've got the emotional cost and you've got the physical cost i don't know whether it was the universe god whether it was all of the anti-inflammatory living stuff i'd started to implement i had 50 eggs from two rounds which is like almost unheard of like you want to get 10 to 15 eggs per round i got 50 from two rounds and they were like no more like you have enough in the freezer so i was very lucky i also look back and i'm like even if my egg freezing was unsuccessful or even if now with all these eggs if we try and use them later on because I can't have children and it doesn't work I am so grateful for every penny spent and every second that went into that because it's the first time I felt like I had control of my body because I'll always live with endo I may occasionally have pain here or there like anti-inflammatory living is doing doing bits but you never know things can happen but I had control for the first time over my fertility i was doing what i could and so when people tell me do you think egg freezing is worth it i'm like a thousand percent if you can do it the thing that happened in egg freezing which i never expected and again remember i'm getting asked every single day are you sure you don't have anyone i'm like no i go and hinge because my friend is like come on let's just let's have fun and this guy comes up on my hinge and i'm like he's he's really funny he's bald not my usual type okay I'm just gonna put it out there Dylan if you're listening I love you with all my heart you are bald you you were not on the vision board okay I like floppy long glossy hair all of my ex-partners were there it's not the life that I thought but it's the life that chose me so my bald queen Dylan pops up on my hinge and I'm like he's a bit of me we're messaging and I'm like this is insane and at this point I was posting on my page um and do awareness it's all i had i didn't have like the tools yet but i was just talking about it and i'd started doing videos for the first time and i was documenting every day of my egg freezing so if anybody wants to watch that there's a whole documented like documentation on my page we're dating he we're just messaging sorry he follows me on instagram on my personal instagram which has nothing to do with women's health it's just like me trying to be an insta girl I posted about organic pads and tampons on the wrong instagram He sees this this video and goes what's this and I was like, oh my god, no, this is it like it's over He's found he's found out we hadn't been on our first date yet He finds my endo page starts taking the piss out of all of my posts, okay And he's like look at your belly in this video because it was blown out.

35:16I was injecting myself This is what he saw he sent me all these funny messages and then he sent me this paragraph and he said on a serious note I think this is unreal like what you're doing is amazing and I want to take you on a date and I was just like he's either a creep yeah or he's he's a real one yeah on our third date he asked to come and see me in London and I was like uh-huh you you can I am in the middle of egg freezing so I'm gonna have to inject in the morning you're then gonna need to come with me to my appointment and then I'm gonna have to inject before we go on our date tonight he's like no problem doesn't phase him i bring him to my doctor's appointment and my fertility specialist is like you found one he's he's there like him i'm like third date don't give him a cup don't give him a cup i thought about it but i didn't and that was it and i was like oh my god out of the most painful time in my life of egg freezing and worrying about finding a partner and whether these eggs are ever going to be able to be used and then i meet my now fiance oh i love that with gorgeous ring thank you very much so is yours on that if you were to sit down with like every woman in their 20s 30s 40s young women who want to know about their fertility what do you wish that they knew about their fertility options okay so there's three main things one is stop thinking about fertility as something that will be for later it impacts our health right now it comes from our health today fertility isn't something you think about later everything you do right now will be a part of your fertility journey number two you are not silly you are not stupid and you are not too young to be thinking about your fertility those were the words that i kept being told oh you're silly don't be stupid you're too young and we all know i almost lost my ovaries so feel empowered to have that conversation with your doctor and if they're not listening get a second opinion but you are never too young and jennifer anison has come out in the press i think a couple of years ago now and said the one thing I wish I'd have done was frozen my eggs sooner because when she was on her fertility journey it was too late for her so you're never you're never too silly you're never too stupid you're never too young then the final thing would be just because you were seeking answers or information and you're curious doesn't mean you need to act now it just means that you have the information that you need to make the informed decision when that time comes it's like with you when you went to get your fertility treatment at 23 or your fill it at appointment sorry it's just nice having that information locked in and you go okay I know where I'm at I don't need to act but I know where I'm at those would be the three key things I love that and I think that it you're so right on like our control is removed so much when we're dealing with a lot of these various different issues and like the lack of research and the lack of support from you know various different areas and I think anything that can gain back that control for yourself is very important both mentally but also in terms of actually dealing with the issues and I think feeling like you have that control and the ability to I don't know have some say in your future I think is it goes a very very long way I'm really interested as well in how having your eggs frozen I was like I was about to say having freezed your eggs which doesn't feel quite right having had your eggs frozen I don't know how has it changed the way that you think about your fertility and the way that you think about um your future and kind of there's so much rush on us as women especially when it comes to I don't know being in your late 20s early 30s like finding a partner settling down all of that there's so much anxiety around that and I know you know we've spoken on this podcast before about people ending up settling because they just want to be with someone so that they can actually get to that next state of their life because there's so much pressure around you know having kids and everything how did that change your mentality if at all just I'm interested on a personal level yeah it changed everything really because I felt suffocated by my own thoughts because I was like I want to be a mom what if I don't find anyone okay I've got my eggs frozen but like if I could get my eggs frozen maybe that would give me hope but I don't know I was in this state of like not knowing worrying panicking and what we'll come on to about inflammation is that stress and the link between the gut brain axes half of my endosymptoms were coming from the fact that I was so stressed about fertility so going through the process after recovering from all of those hormones because it was a wild ride I'm not gonna lie it was a wild ride but all of a sudden I was seeing life it was like I took off negative glasses and I put on positive rose-tinted ones because I was like okay that's done I've done everything I can with fertility.

39:57If it happens or not, I've done everything that I can. And I started going, okay, how do I bring my dreams to life? So I'm going to change the way that we look at women's health. I want to build a women's health brand. We've already started it called Found and it will be the home of women's health. It's where you come for resources. It's where you come for help. It's where you come from advice. And I had this like energy and fire and passion to do that because my thoughts weren't so consumed and swallowed by my fear of fertility. with my relationship I don't have this clock of we need to have kids we need to have kids I'm like no we're enjoying our life I'm enjoying our relationship as it is and I don't want to change what we we are as a couple and we are as individuals and what I'm growing in my business because I feel like I need to shoehorn a baby in before I'm 30 it's not happening the time will come and the time is right and that is why I went through egg freezing so that I had that security deposit and i want to be clear this is not guaranteed i have 50 eggs i have five chances from that to 10 but i'm willing to take that and life is about living you do not have to have children to make your life be special for you to find your purpose i truly believe that my my purpose is women's health and helping other women on their journey that is my baby one day i hope to have my own baby but i'm not forcing a life into this world because of this silly timeline that we're told about so it changed everything for me yeah I really love that and I do think mental load is one of the biggest parts of this and being able to remove that in any way is so important it's funny because obviously you were you'd then met the person that you are now with and um is that your fiance and all of that but I I'd be so interested as well to hear from people who have gone back into the like dating worlds in a more I don't know dating more people capacity because I'd be so interested as well to hear like how their mindset changes in terms of like Like, do you settle for less?

41:47Like, or do you not settle for less? All of these different things when it comes to like, because we feel like we're in such a rush. Yeah. Well, this is the thing. Before egg freezing, I was dating to meet my baby daddy. Right. After that, I was just like, this guy's great. Like, we're having a fun time. So I would also be curious, but I would suspect that they would feel a lot more confident about it. Or people can be looking up at the mic. Yes. Be like, feed him. Give us answers. Give us your experience. and I want to get on to bloating because obviously we talked about inflammation a lot of different senses and I personally not just with bloating but I'm I can bloat for fucking England let me tell you that free so many of my problems with hormones were also linked to inflammation and a huge amount of inflammation in my body and all of that but I feel like a lot of women have issues with bloating and spend a lot of time feeling upset about it, but also don't necessarily know how to deal with it or why they have bloating.

42:46Why is bloating so common, especially for women? And why do so many of us just kind of put up with it and just assume it's normal? Yeah, great question. And this is why bloating and inflammation is such a hot topic right now, because people are starting to go, oh wait, it's not just me, like you're struggling with it too. so love the differentiation between common and normal first of all let's start with what is actually normal because i do feel like there's this social media trend now where it's like i have a super flat stomach and if i have any bloating it's really bad or like if my stomach is full at all like this is bloating it's like you babe you ate a meal you ate a meal that's gotta go somewhere it's fine it's exactly it's exactly it's exactly that and there's also things like tight pants syndrome like if your jeans are literally too tight that can make you bloated it's a thing so it's insane isn't it right it's crazy so me are now overthinking my like jeans me being like jeans exactly go for it it's your podcast you can do what you want so normal bloating things like when we eat fiber so think that big salad we don't digest fiber our bodies can't but our lovely bacteria can so when our bacteria is digesting this fiber or fermenting it part of the process with fermentation is gas being let off and so if you've had like a fat salad and it might be like your first salad of summer for example it happens all the time you're like oh i feel i feel a little bit bloated and what i mean by that is like your stomach is slightly pushing out it's not painful it's not persisting it's not it's not stopping you from doing anything you're just you're just noticing it that is your gut working and that's why we have something called the fart walk which is you go for a walk after after food we've all seen it on take and And it works.

44:28Okay, after lunch, go out for your fart walk and you'll be like, shit, that was amazing. Good for your blood sugar too. Good for your blood sugar too, exactly. And good for keeping friends in the office. When you're not just sat there for a while after your meal. Not friends in public when you're farting next to them, but it's fine. You'll never see them again. Never see them again. It's the best part of London. London smelly anyway. Yeah. So that is normal. Also, as women, we have this gorgeous menstrual cycle with these fluctuating hormones that we tend to demonize. They're amazing. They do so much for us.

44:53Every part of our cycle can be wonderful in its own way. even your period even just before your period but with fluctuating hormones you have digestion that slows down you have water retention that can fluctuate and that's why if you step on the scales every day in your cycle you will see it says something different some of that is normal so there's this hormone called progesterone it's like your cool calm chill out hormone i say she she comes in before your period and she's like chill out chill out to the point where digestion is like no problem i'm not gonna do anything and that's why sometimes we can struggle with bowel movements however yes some of that is normal but throw in the life that we live right now ultra processed foods if you don't know what ultra processed foods are because it sounds like a stupidly complicated term think like meat fish fruit veg nuts seeds grains legumes one ingredient you pick up a sweet potato it doesn't have a label on it's a sweet potato when you transform food especially adding loads of chemicals stabilizers sweeteners sugars and then all of a sudden you spit out pasta biscuits sweets donuts they are ultra processed foods as soon as that food becomes very very complicated that in itself can be a stress on your body because your body's like what is this what is this chemical i've never seen this before and your body's trying to find out how to digest it so throw into the equation ultra processed foods stress your manager calls you and it's like you need to get into the office today your guest is two hours early and you're like ah stress then you've got environmental toxins all of these things are going on in our life right now where we are operating at levels that we were never made to operate at we are trying to keep up and that is when we are now dealing with this epidemic of inflammation bloating is through the roof and i don't just mean bloating in your stomach i mean the classic you see all the time cortisol face where you have this moon face your face blows out for me see it in my arms for me it's the back of my arms I'm like best of luck seeing a tribe like a no I see it in my arms and I see it in my legs like I physically can see the difference and I'm like I know it's not insane because I see the different air like I know it is there and I'm like why yes why not

47:06okay so one we have something for this I'm going to take you through my lymphatic drainage I'm going to teach you how to I've actually already done your lymphatic drainage you don't even dream please take dream right it'll take five minutes yeah but we have all of that going on and then all of a sudden we are dealing with our body is just literally under fire it's like hitting the panic button at work hitting the panic button with food hitting the panic button with our relationships sleep thing of the past screens all the time and then we're struggling with all this inflammation we're going why is this happening and then everyone is normalizing it because a women typically struggle with it more because of that gorgeous fluctuating cycle those stresses can really mess with our hormones and mess with our cycle.

47:42And also because we have such limited information and resources when it comes to women's health, it's normal. Because everyone has it, but it's not. It's common. It's not normal. And we need to stop putting up and shutting up when it comes to our symptoms. So if someone feels permanently bloated, what would you recommend they do? What steps should they take? Anti-inflammatory living. All the way. You're like, I thought you'd never ask. the way this is oh my god this is like my bread and butter this is like sex to me i'm like god anti-inflammatory living there's six pillars okay and i think when you think about anti-inflammatory living it feels like this huge thing food gut detoxification sleep stress and movement because we think of inflammation as only coming from food and that is one of the problems food is a huge part of it you eat all day every day if you're eating inflammatory foods yeah same i'm an eater but if you also have other things that are stressful in your life and causing inflammation you can't fix the piece of the puzzle.

48:40You need to think of your body as a whole. And so anti-inflammatory living absolutely is the way forward.

49:08Save time, money and hassle at business.walmart.com. It's free to sign up.

49:16So let's talk about that. And I want to particularly talk about both the AIP diet and also 30 day reset. Yeah. Because personally, if anyone's listened to my PCOS episode, no listens. The PCOS girls are listening. The girls that need it are listening. Thank you. But for anyone who did listen to that, I obviously mentioned in that that when I originally started my journey of kind of realizing that inflammation was causing a lot of the issues, whereas I thought they were like root cause hormone issues. And actually it was inflammation making all my hormones go crazy. I was doing a lot of research and that's when I came across your page.

49:54And that's when I like you were the person who taught me about the AIP diet. And I never properly did the AIP diet. But what I did was I got it helped really educate me on what was potentially inflammatory. And then to be I was able to kind of eliminate and stop it and kind of notice certain things. Like for me, paprika, for example, I never would have thought that that would have wreaked havoc. And then I would have paprika once and I'd be like, oh, whoa, OK. okay yeah um and so yeah i'd love for you to give us a little bit of an intro on what the AIP diet is but also yeah how can someone listening to this go about you know if they wanted to do the 30-day reset and they wanted to just start this anti-inflammatory living how would they go about it sorry 10 questions in one no i love it throw them at me so first of all let's talk about the difference between the reset and the AIP.

50:45So the AIP is short for autoimmune protocol. And in like when you go to speak to your doctor or a women's health practitioner, there are kind of three key anti-inflammatory diets. So we're only talking about food here, where you can try depending on your needs. So you have the AIP, you have low FODMAP and you have low histamine. Low FODMAP is the one that has the biggest noise about it because it's the most researched. I did the low FODMAP and it didn't do anything for me for some people they love it histamine i don't really struggle with histamine issues and so i knew that that diet wasn't for me what would histamine issues be so it can be things like one symptom i do experience is itchy skin for example but if you think um even as basic as like summer when you're like sneezing you've got fluy or coffee or coldy that kind of thing that often comes down to histamine intolerances and it can come from but it can come from food however there are limitations to the histamine diet genetically you can be wired differently and histamines can be an issue so it's not just the foods that you eat and that is why again there isn't much research on the histamine the AIP however is something that for anyone struggling with autoimmune conditions or conditions similar I urge to look at it definitely speak to a doctor dietitian or a women's health practitioner before taking it on but the AIP is an extreme anti-inflammatory diet and it's split into three phases first of all you've got elimination second you've got reintroduction third is maintenance so the first part of it the elimination you eliminate anything that could be causing inflammation i have an entire guide on the aip because it can feel so complicated but essentially you are eating meat fish fruit and veg but even within that there's intricacies you you said paprika is yours chili is mine they are things that are eliminated nightshades are eliminated and why you reduce all of these out of your diet is so that your inflammation if it is food triggered goes from 100 to zero so your symptoms theoretically should go away if it is triggered by food then you move into reintroduction phase so for me it took me 30 days for that to happen which was insane because remember it took 10 years of like painful symptoms endometriosis flares painful periods heavy periods for surgeries nothing was taking my symptoms away and i do a 30 day aip diet and i'm like this yeah that's doesn't make sense and i'm so glad i documented it on my socials every single day because people saw me transform like with me my face dropped i lost over a stone in weight that i thought was fat and it was it was water weight it was inflammation and i was like no wonder my dress size was changing all the time so then you go into reintroduction phase which is phase two and you reintroduce it's painfully slow but it's worth it you reintroduce one ingredient see how your body feels so i was like okay black pepper reintroduce that no issues rice no issues this no issues coffee no issues thankfully and then I reintroduced chili chili flakes the tiniest amount on cucumber okay and I was like that's gonna be fine I did my documentation it's day 44 the most extreme anti-inflammatory diet I'm reintroducing chili flakes eat it two hours later migraine really brain fog bloating and then I come on an early period and it is heavy like awful and I was like I can't think straight I can't see straight I can't work I can't do this I'm uncomfortable and I was like oh my god no no no all my symptoms are coming back and I was like it was chilly it was just the chili flakes the chili yeah so you go through this process of reintroductions to find what your triggers are and then this is what is really important and this is a misconception about the AIP and I still to this day a year and a half later get this question being like but wait eggs aren't AIP and I'm like no no you eliminate things and then you reintroduce so the aim is not to keep all of them out of your diet no of course not because that'd be completely unrealistic that would be insane so then you've got the maintenance which is where you eat all of those foods and you either eliminate the ones that are sure triggers for you like chili for me i can i can live without chili and then anything that can cause some issues so for me i realized ultra processed foods and certain grains don't agree with with my body and these are all healthy things like people think gluten is the devil gluten is not the devil for me and my body it doesn't agree with me so i limit those as much as possible.

54:57Now, the AIP is extreme. It should be done with some sort of resources. We've made the guide, but I always recommend people do it with a practitioner or a doctor to have that extra guidance. And it's also a short-term protocol where you take your learnings and then you live your life. People often get mixed up with AIP being the extreme. No, that's phase one. There's phase two, phase three, maintenance. Something, when I finished the AIP, I was like, there is something missing. And during this entire process, I was training to become a women's health practitioner with a certification in menstrual health, because I have endometriosis and a lot of women's health conditions are dictated by their cycles.

55:35And what I was learning was about all of these causes of inflammation. So those six pillars, food, gut, detoxification, sleep, stress, and movement. The AIP only talks about food. And I was like, what about all these other pillars but also what about the 99.9 % of the population who who maybe don't need to do the AIP what is there for them what about the busy person what about the mum what about the older person what about the person who just needs help right now and can't commit to something like the AIP and that is where we brought the 30-day reset anti-inflammatory living very much inspired by the learnings of the AIP in terms of reducing ultra processed foods but with my knowledge of okay let's look at protein fats protein fats and carbs fiber how important that is looking at our hormones and then again looking at all those other pillars because what is the point of changing just your food for example if you are stressed at work if you are not sleeping right and that kind of brings us to the the anti-inflammatory reset which is the accessible way of living which is for everyone's lifestyle we can all there are tips throughout this is the book that i'm writing right now it comes out on the 1st of january i'm so excited i can't wait um but it's available to pre-order now so i'll give you the link if you can put it in the show notes that'd be amazing um but in the book we not only because i think this there's this running thing where we see these challenges in these themes and they tell you to do it but they don't teach you the why and i'm like people aren't stupid they want the information they want to understand their health so in the book we go through the six pillars why they're important understanding inflammation balancing blood sugar finally understanding your hormones how the six pillars come into it and then there's a guided 30-day reset to take you through it and what you will find on the last day is that you're like oh these are things i can do every day this isn't just for 30 days and i think a lot of people tell me if this is you too where you are like okay but what do i eat and that's why i was hellbent on having over 80 anti-inflammatory recipes in the book so that you have everything you need in this one little guide yeah of course because i mean i remember first going gluten-free after already being dairy-free and just being like what the fuck do i eat yeah like genuinely yeah what am i allowed to eat what can i eat like everything in restaurants like it was just very confusing and for anyone listening to this who want who knows that they maybe are dealing with some inflammation and they want to make smaller changes yeah is that what would you suggest just like little switches little changes that they can make in their everyday to be able to actually decrease that inflammation yeah so i the reset gives you a really good kind of balance of what you should do throughout the day but for the listener that is like i want answers right now do my mini reset in the morning it's just a morning routine but it sets you up for success first of all you start with your lymphatic drainage it takes five minutes and you'll be so surprised at what you see in the mirror there's a reason those videos always go viral because people try and they're like oh my god i can't believe this works number two is a morning walk even if it is 10 minutes outside the the walk can help stimulate digestion and having a morning bowel movement a morning poo can be one of the best things you can have for you for your hormones for your health but also that time outside with natural sunlight coming into your eyes it's so good because it helps wake you up it gets your melatonin down so you actually start to feel awake and then a high protein breakfast ultra processed free if possible or as close to that as possible because people say high protein breakfast perfect let's get a protein bar let's do a protein shake let's do the refined sugar-free blah blah blah no i'm talking about real food eggs smoked salmon sweet potato if you can tolerate dairy greek yogurt with some nice gut-loving granola not the sugary one the nice one with some berries amazing everyone tells me i'm a weirdo for doing this but once you start you won't be able to stop i just cook too much for dinner and i have it for breakfast i do dinner for breakfast too i don't do breakfast foods especially when you go gluten and dairy free it's like there's very little and you're wanting to get over 30 grams protein i eat breakfast like any other meal how much better do you feel eating that way so much better and when i was on um my honeymoon i was not doing that because breakfast buffets deserve to be eaten yes and i took it too far and every single day i felt like like actual shit to the point where i was like okay so usually if i'll eat something that will make me feel bad i'm like do you know what it was worth it yeah it got to the point where i was just like do you know what there's there is such thing as taking it too far and i was doing exactly that but okay one you're human you're normal you're on your honeymoon absolutely zero regrets also i fucking love an almond croissant and there's there is nothing in this world there's nothing in this world is taking that away from me am i having one every morning no yeah do i have one every couple of weeks yes but what is important and you've kind of said it and what you've just said there is that when you go through a period of getting rid of your inflammation and managing that you have control of your health of what you then experience so if you want the breakfast buffet with the croissants with this with that and you're not thinking about protein no problem eat it if it's worth it go for it and then you start to get those symptoms back and you go okay it's time it's time to get back to it it's time to have that have that reset which is exactly why we've called it the anti-inflammatory reset but you have control the other thing is when you live an anti-inflammatory life your body is it's for the first time ever your immune system isn't firing at you all the time the sirens aren't on your immune system is like we're cool and then you have an almond croissant and your body's like okay this is fine yeah we're gonna process calm down but we're gonna process so now i have an almond croissant and i have no food anxiety because i'm like there's no information i have one processes it done yeah different story and everyone responds to ultra processed foods to different degrees i would say please find me someone who can tolerate ultra processed foods every single day and doesn't feel shit about it but i can now tolerate the tidbit here and there because it's not ruining my life and we need to also recognize that we live in a world where it's impossible to go ultra processed free all the time i would love to say no one have it ever again leave the house and try and buy something that isn't ultra processed food i challenge you today to go into any supermarket and pick up a pre-cooked chicken turn over the packet it will have dextrose emulsifiers sugars everything the only the only thing you have that doesn't have like sweetness and stuff like that might be something like prosciutto and it'll be pork and salt it's it's everywhere but it's like what can we control and make the best of that yeah and outside of that make the best decision you can and for me it's the almond croissant for you it's on your honeymoon best believe i'll be doing the same on my honeymoon yeah but mine will not be restricted just to my honeymoon just to for legal reasons i must clarify it will be continuing at points I think it did it, yeah.

1:02:18But I do think once you've made, like, the changes I made, because I pretty much changed everything about my lifestyle for, like, well, from, like, December, January until now, and very much plan to continue. But it's, once you start doing that, and I never would have believed myself saying this, because I just wouldn't have. But, like, when you do get to feeling so much better, it is quite hard to go back. because when you start like ruining your day by eating something that your body doesn't agree with and it doesn't process well and it makes you crash and it makes you need a nap and like all of that you just it's hard to feel yeah it's hard to want to do it which is crazy because anything with food i generally do want to do but this is the thing it becomes part of your lifestyle the food that you're eating ends up being the food that you're craving so people are like no i could never live without that do the anti-inflammatory reset for 30 days and then come back to me because you find food that you love so you realize you're not missing out on anything it becomes part of your lifestyle so you realize that all the things are important to you stay you do these anti-inflammatory things around them and tell me because my experience is i'm healthier i am happier i am more successful my business is growing and my team is growing because i don't have brain fog i don't have endosymptoms i'm not permanently in hospital and i'm not saying that everyone is guaranteed to have these results it's been my experience but you tell me from yours you've been through an anti-inflammatory way of living how much better do you feel yeah just like everything it's just like you stop the baseline of what you think about can change whereas like so much of my baseline was like am i going to feel good today like having really really heavy and really painful periods like knowing that something's going to be on the first day of your period and you you know like i and I get migraines or whatever it might be or like extreme pain and it's just you have so much to think about before you even get to your day yeah and it's just nice not having that and that I think is something really important for people listening there are a few flags that I talk about where if you're experiencing these it's really important to listen to them so number one if something is persisting it's painful and it's disruptive to your life you shouldn't be living with that you deserve better and that can happen as a result of lifestyle factors it can be the fact that we live in the world that we do but we can find calm in the chaos and anti-inflammatory living can really help that the reason i say it's important to listen to these symptoms and not ignore them is that there is a percentage of people you and i you've been open about your pcos i've been open about my endometriosis there is a percentage of people that can have underlying conditions that can also drive this inflammation endometriosis pcos ovarian cysts ibs there are so many things that can be at play and it's really really important to listen to your symptoms and if this inflammation is going on to seek help go to your doctor go to a women's health practitioner and work through it because you shouldn't be living in pain you deserve better and that's why it's so important to listen to your body yeah i love that and i feel like that's the perfect way to wrap this up before i do i would like to ask you what the best piece of advice is that you've been given it would be so cliche but nothing changes if nothing changes and that is true for your health if you're getting the same answer from your doctor and you're being dismissed change your doctor if you are not happy with your workplace change your workplace if you are not happy with the way of eating change the way that you were eating but people keep expecting results when they are not changing anything.

1:05:50And that was me. I was in the pits. I thought nothing would happen by some miracle my life was going to change. Nothing changed until I changed my job, changed my way of living, changed my partner and changed my way of like eating, the anti-inflammatory life. So yeah, nothing will change if nothing changes. I love that. That's very good advice. Well, thank you so much. You've been absolutely incredible. And I have no doubt that everyone will learn a lot from this episode. So thank you so much. Thank you.

1:06:46We'll see you next time. is there with you from day one. Try it out now at Wix.com.