WELLTHY Generation Podcast!

35. Yes the Scale: 7 Ways to Track Progress on Your Hormone & Health Journey

• Naihomy Jerez • Episode 35

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Can you imagine tracking your health progress without obsessing over the number on the scale? Discover the transformative power of a holistic approach to tracking progress in your health journey. I share seven diverse methods to monitor your health, moving beyond just weight. With seven years of experience in health and wellness, I'll guide you through tools like body composition analysis, progress photos, and even how your clothes fit to provide a fuller picture of your health journey. 

Hormonal shifts, especially for women, play a crucial role in overall health. By understanding these changes, particularly through menstrual cycle tracking, you can make sense of those sometimes confusing weight fluctuations. We’ll dive into how muscle mass and body composition are far more telling than the number on the scale. Real-life stories from my clients will illustrate just how impactful these metrics can be, especially as you navigate significant life changes like perimenopause. 

Self-awareness is your most powerful ally in this journey. Learn to listen to your body's signals, your well-being is not just about numbers but about how you feel day-to-day. Ready to take control of your health journey? Book a consultation call with me and follow along on Instagram @naihomyjerez for more insights and updates. Empower yourself with the knowledge to track your progress effectively and maintain long-term health.

Thank you so much for listening!


Speaker 1:

Hello friends and welcome back to Wealthy Generation Podcast that is W-E-L-L-T-H-Y. I have a great episode for you today. They're all amazing, but I think you're really going to like this one because I'm going to talk all about how I've tracked my progress in the past seven years or so that I've been in my own health journey. I know that every single time I meet with a client, or a client fills out a questionnaire or I talk to people, the first thing they tell me about is the scale, the scale, the scale, the scale. And although it can be part of how you track progress, it's not the only way that you should be. Tracking progress is the least important way of how you should be tracking progress. And I started to think to myself. I was like what are all these ways that I myself in tracking progress and what have I added along the way in my health and wellness journey and as I try and balance out my hormones? Because I didn't start with all these forms of tracking progress. But I think that they all serve a purpose and they all can keep you from probably spinning out. I think that so many of you do not realize how much more there is to your body and to yourself. That is just not the scale, and I know that is one of the main things that it's focused on. Usually the the first of all. Let's go here Like usually, the goal for anyone who's trying to get quote unquote healthy is to lose weight.

Speaker 1:

They've probably told you. You were probably told that at the doctor's office. You were probably told something about your BMI being like obese when you're technically not. You were probably called gordita as a child and you always feel like you need to lose weight. The way you see yourself, like you might not like certain parts of yourself. So every single time that I see somebody have a goal, usually it involves oh, I want to lose weight. But there's so much more to that and I'm going to get into that in another episode about weight loss, but for this purpose of this episode, I just want to really focus on what is used for progress, but is always keeping in mind like well, what is your goal? To then track progress.

Speaker 1:

However, I find that I'm gonna share with you seven ways I track progress, or how I'm feeling or harm, or how my hormones are doing. Maybe there's more, but off the top of my head, I came up with seven. I'm like these are seven different things I do to put together a more accurate representation and picture of how my health is doing. And yeah, you heard that right, you need to build a picture that is more realistic. You are kind of like a puzzle there's many different pieces to you. This is why I focus and practice on holistic health, and when we are so one-sided into how we are addressing progress or how you're determining if you're getting results or not, it can be extremely disappointing if you don't even know what to look for. All right, so I want to teach you these seven ways that I track progress. I have actually also another two that I have considered that are like on my shelf of things that I can reach out for when if I need them, but I don't feel like I need them exactly at this moment. So the way I organize this list is kind of from least important to most important for me, and the middle gets a little murky of this list because I find that one is not more important than the other, but in general, I organized it in a way where these are things that you should be paying attention to Now.

Speaker 1:

Another thing I'll say about this list Is you should be using it together, not in isolation. That's something that tends to happen In, especially like American culture, because that's the way that the medical system is set up. You know, you have a doctor for your brain and you have a doctor for your heart, and you have a doctor for your eyes and another one for your gut. You have a doctor for your heart and you have a doctor for your eyes and another one for your gut and one other one. The point is that the more specialties in isolation, they are like another one for your heart, another one for your lungs. You know, you can. You can literally break your body apart into pedazos, like freaking car parts, and there's a doctor for that parts and there's a doctor for that, and they don't really communicate with each other about what's happening with you. So I want you to think of this list, of.

Speaker 1:

This list needs to communicate with each other and, based on what you're seeing in each of these sections, it can put things into perspective for you. It can also give you information as to how you can adjust what you're doing or if what you're doing is serving you for this season. Something else I want to bring up because, as especially for women. As we age, we need to adjust, adjust, adjust, adjust, which is something I'm also experiencing right now and I'll probably talk about in a different episode. But whether you want to level up in your health journey, which is something you want to, you can do, or you need to switch up things that are not serving you anymore.

Speaker 1:

These seven progress markers, I guess, can help you determine that. All right, so let me start with number seven. Like I said, it's from like least of importance to the most important, with a grain of salt, right, because this, this can vary for people, but there are different ones that that you always want to monitor. So the first one is the scale. Okay, plain number. Number seven is the scale, the plain, bare number that you see. Maybe it has a decimal point or two, but I'm not talking about any other forms of measurement on the scale. But exactly how much you weigh no other markers. Exactly how much you weigh no other markers.

Speaker 1:

We give this number so much importance, and it was the very first way that I too um, that's how I monitor my progress. That was the first, that was the only thing I actually knew. Anyway, I learned about the rest of the seven later on. But, to be fair, the scale was the only thing I knew when I started my health and wellness journey seven years ago after having my second kid. I just knew that I weighed 219 pounds when I gave birth, right, and I needed to get this number down. And I didn't know how low I needed it to go. I just knew that if the number was going down it was good and if it wasn't going down it was bad and things were not working. And that's not necessarily the case.

Speaker 1:

And we get so hung up on this number. We want it to be a specific number. We don't even know why. We don't even know if it's healthy for us. Oftentimes it's because of the BMI, your body mass index, that is not created for us. It's basically a math equation created by this European dude to get it was an easier form of measuring or getting you know some sort of measurement for young male soldiers and you're not a young white male, okay. So the number on the scale yes, it can be indicative of maybe it's too much, maybe it's too low, but this infatuation of it must be this number. I at least need to lose this much. It may be true, but you just don't want it to be. Just that. That's driving you and that's driving your decision and making, forcing your body to do anything possible to get to that number, because you might actually be really negatively impacting your health. Okay, it's not just about that number on the scale. You might be impacting your health even more by trying to lose, like lower the number on the scale. Okay, and sometimes I hear people say like I want it to be this number, but you don't even know if that number serves you, like.

Speaker 1:

I often ask people like why do you want it to be that number? And what they tell me is very real. They say they always answer this. No matter who I ask, they say, oh, because when I was this number, I felt really good. When I was this number, I felt really good. So that's when I know I don't necessarily tell them that what they're looking for is that feeling again of feeling good.

Speaker 1:

And it is assumed that if you reach this particular number on the scale, you will automatically feel that feeling again, which is not always the truth. Okay, especially if you have forced yourself to lose weight in a way that is not protective of your health, you might not actually feel as amazing as you did at that weight back in the day, especially if and usually I ask like, how long ago did you feel this way? And they're like oh, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. You're a very, very different person now. Your body probably has different needs now and it does not equal that if you reach this certain number on a scale, you're going to feel a certain way in your body. All right, and that's why scale I still step on the scale, I still monitor, but it is a compilation of these other things I'm going to keep mentioning to you. Okay, so that's seven. The scale Number six is close.

Speaker 1:

Close is a really good way to see progress or to feel progress, because before you even start to probably see number shifts on a scale, the way you want them to, your clothes might start to feel different. You might start to feel different in your body. All of a sudden, those jeans are not so tight anymore. All of a sudden you can actually breathe in your clothes. All of a sudden, the buttons on your shirt are not being stretched out, so your panties might not fit you as tight. Your bra might have more wiggle room, like there's just so many different feelings that you can get in your clothes, Like you can eat without unbuttoning your pants, and it can really help you start to see progress or feel progress that is not necessarily reflective on a scale, all right, and, and a lot of times I ask my clients to also, if their goal is weight loss sorry, I'm moving around my chair, um, if their goal is weight loss, I often ask them to choose one article of clothing that doesn't fit them the way they want it to fit and to not only track, obviously, the scale but also how they're feeling in that particular item of clothes.

Speaker 1:

And I have a client who chose multiple clothing pieces. She chose a dress, she chose a pair of shorts and I think it was one more thing and she would actually measure how far the zipper would close, like with a measuring tape. This is like next level, but she would, um, when she would first put it on and when we first started working together, it would not close at all, like the zipper was just open and by like six, seven months in all of a sudden the zippers were able to close. It was still tight, but she can see the progress. While the scale wasn't really moving that much, she could feel the progress in her clothes Cool. So I would pick one clothing piece to keep trying it on, to keep trying on. That way, you know, you get accurate I don't want to say accurate measurement, but it's the same item of clothes all the time, because different clothes, different cuts, different materials will just naturally fit different. So you want to keep these things in mind, all right.

Speaker 1:

Number five of tracking progress is taking photos, and if my trainer's listening to this, he'd probably be like I told you to do this, but I have some photos. Anyway, the reason and this is something I don't even yeah, I do want to keep it at five because I do think it's more important than clothes right, we're going on a backwards list when I first started, as well, my health and wellness journey not only and I don't even know how I thought about doing all these things, but anyway, not only did I do the scale, but I also did Uh photos. I put on my favorite pre-baby bikini and I had my husband take photos of me front side back, and if you go on my instagram page, I have posted them before. They're on there either on a highlight reel or in my feed, and I was so embarrassed, I was so sad.

Speaker 1:

I remember taking those photos. I felt so vulnerable and it must've been God himself that had have pushed me to take these photos, because I was feeling all of that and I still went through with it and I knew that they were going to be important and I didn't know why. But they were so useful because, again, again, the scale would barely move. When I tell you I would lose like maybe two pounds a month, I wasn't even kidding you two pounds a month. And the photos, though my gosh, the photos were so telling of the changes that were happening and it wasn't like you can't just look at yourself in the mirror and see this. I think it's close to impossible. You need to see yourself how other people see you and I feel like that's what a photo does you get, to see yourself from this third person perspective, from somebody else's perspective? And it's not just taking the photo, it's doing a side-by-side to show your progress. That is really where you start to see the progress.

Speaker 1:

And I've had clients who actually go ahead and take the photos and they would send it to me and they're like Naomi, I haven't, I don't see a difference, I don't see a change. So me myself and I, I go ahead and do a stitch and do a comparison and immediately I see how they're starting to slim down, how their neck is smaller. These are things you don't notice. You don't notice your neck. You don't notice your cheeks. You don't notice how you start to see your jawline more and you start to see more definition in your collarbone and you start to see less bloating in your belly and like your legs, more defined, like. You don't notice these things until you do a before, not a before and after I like to call them progress photos when you have them one next to the other and you really sometimes have to take a close eye to them.

Speaker 1:

I also really recommend wearing the same exact outfit every single time, because what you also start to notice is how that same outfit starts to fit you different, like maybe your sports bra is not digging into your skin as much, maybe you have a little bit more wiggle room in those pants. Me, I went all out and I did bikini. I also have some in, like um workout shorts and a sports bra, things like that, because I wanted to see a lot. So don't shy away from taking photos. I would do mine. I used to do mine, like on a monthly basis or every two months, and I loved to see the progress. It was so satisfying to see your hard work paying off when the scale had probably moved all of two pounds and you're like, well, how did this move two pounds? And I looked so different and that's. That's because of one of the uh progress progress tools that I'm going to share in a little while. But I just want you to consider adding all three of these things to your journey, especially if one of your goals is weight loss. But it can also be that you want to put on more muscle or that you know it can be different things. It just doesn't have to be weight loss. If you're also trying to put on muscle, you can start to see that definition.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's move on to number four. So so far we've done seven scale. Six is clothes. Five is photos.

Speaker 1:

Number four is tracking your, your period. Okay, and it doesn't necessarily have to do with progress per se, but if your period is not regular, whatever regular is for you because everybody's period is different and regular can be defined in many different ways is very individualistic, so I'm not going to give parameters for that, but knowing where you are in your cycle, one can give yourself a lot of grace, because the scale will go up when you're close to your period. Your scale, the scale will go up when you're close to your period. The scale will go up when you're on your period. Your body is holding a lot more inflammation, your body's holding water. Your body is going through a lot. You will also feel different, and so will your clothes. They will feel different, they will probably feel tighter, they will probably feel uncomfortable. And knowing when you are close to your period and tracking that will save you so much mind, drama and headache.

Speaker 1:

Because what would happen to me in particular and what happens with my clients, is that they'll come really upset on the call and it would happen to me too and they're like oh my gosh, I'm up two pounds. Oh my gosh, I'm up three pounds. Oh my gosh, my clothes is fitting tight again. And I would ask them I'm like are you around your period? And then they're like oh my gosh, let me see. Oh my gosh, yes, like I'm getting my period in three days or I'm on my period and I'm like exactly, exactly, it's really kind of impossible to gain three pounds of fat in a week. Like it's not it. Your body has other things inside that it has to do. It's not just body fat that you're gaining. Your body's going through a lot. So I think that when we track the progress, or track our period, it helps us put into perspective the rest of these progress tools that I'm sharing with you, because all of a sudden, you know why the scale is going up.

Speaker 1:

And something that I do to tell my clients is if you can't handle seeing three extra pounds on this scale, that has nothing to do with your body fat, but everything to do with your period, then just don't weigh yourself on your period. It can be for informational purposes only. I would measure myself, not measure. I would weigh myself pretty much every single day on my weight loss journey, but what I did not do was beat myself up Like maybe I was frustrated until I learned my pattern and what was happening. Because what would happen is that if I was sore, the number would be up on the scale. If I was around my period, the number would be up on a scale. If I was sick, the number would be up on the scale. If I was around my period, the number would be up on a scale. If I was sick, the number would be up on the scale. And or if I had not used the bathroom, the number would be up on the scale and I would feel my body release. I would feel my body release the inflammation, I would use the bathroom, my period would be over, like my muscles were not sore anymore, and then the scale would drop like three pounds, right.

Speaker 1:

So I just started to notice those patterns and that's why I liked to hop on the scale every single day just to gather information as to how weight naturally float in the body, right. So if you're around your period and you go work out and your energy is low, then we can really bring into perspective the fact that, oh, I'm around my period. It doesn't mean that all of a sudden I'm weak, that I've lost all the progress that I've been doing, that I've gained weight. So knowing where you are is just so important for the rest of the journey. All right, number three we're getting down to the final three of the most important ways to track your progress on your hormone health journey, on your health journey, on your weight loss journey, right, and all of this has a lot to do with hormones, obviously, period and the way your body moves around. So having a good hormone balance pretty much um falls into all these categories.

Speaker 1:

So number three is body composition, and this is what I was talking about. That I would mention later on about the scale, because part of body composition is the scale, but why body or not the scale, like how much you weigh? But what body composition tells you is, what is that number comprised of? You're not just a big glob of fat. There's other things in your body. There are bones, there is water, there is muscle, there is visceral fat, which is not the great kind of fat. There is subcutaneous fat hopefully I said that right which is the good kind of fat that you want to have, that keeps your organs protected and that keeps you warm. And you have your brain. There's inflammation that happens right. There's blood like other forms of liquids in your body. You have poo, you have pee, like there's so much in you. There's all your organs and when you're doing your body composition, it pretty much tells you how much lean mass you have, how much body fat you have. Some body composition machines tell you how much visceral fat you have versus subcutaneous fat, the good fat versus the bad fat, right. It also tells you how much water you have inside.

Speaker 1:

So this, to me, is really important, especially as I am heading more and more into perimenopause, because I want to make sure that, even if I want to lose a few pounds, I want to make sure that it is fat that I'm losing and not my lean muscle mass. So if you're a crash dieter and if you have lost weight fast and if you do a lot of things to lose a lot of weight quickly, you, my friend, are most likely really just losing muscle mass, and that is detrimental to your health. It really is, because women start to lose muscle mass as we age is something we do not have control over, but we do have more control over protecting it and keep on building it back up so that our muscles do not waste away. Another thing that our muscle is really good at is helping us with our blood sugar health, and that is all hormonal. Like that is giving insulin a hand. You don't want to leave the job just for insulin, the hormone that helps control blood sugar in our bloodstream. Your muscles really take the sugar out of the blood. Glucose is what they use to produce and create energy and help you in your workouts, right. But if you're never using your muscles, then your muscles are never going to need more energy and they start to wither away All right, and therefore your, your insulin has less support and therefore your bones become more brittle because your muscles are not tugging on your bones anymore. And this is why women are more susceptible to osteoporosis and bone fractures, because we're losing our muscle mass. So everything is kind of a domino effect.

Speaker 1:

So one of my main ways to track progress now is to get body composition printouts at my gym with this special skill called the InBody Machine. Now when I first first first started my health journey, I only did seven through four. That's all I knew how to do. I knew the scale, I knew my clothes, I knew photos and I would always track my period. Those are the four I would do. These last three have really come into play in the last few years for me, and now body composition is really at the top of the list, especially because I do personal training, and it's very like it's a different kind of skill and a different kind of um strategy not skill, skill and strategy that you need to have to make sure that you are continuously building muscle and trying to lower your body fat. Okay, um, because it's not only hitting the gym is how you eat. You actually need to eat more way more than you think to help your muscles build.

Speaker 1:

And then guess what that does? The actual weight number you see on the scale might not budge. It might not necessarily move as fast as you want it to, but what you need to know is how your body's actually shifting. Is it because you are gaining and increasing your muscle mass and you're decreasing your body fat and therefore the scale won't move as much? So when I look at my body composition, sure, I'll look at the weight, but I know immediately if that number has shifted or not, based on if my muscle mass has increased or not and if my body fat has decreased or not. Okay, and there's also, like the body weight and the, the water weight and the inflammation and all that. So if I'm doing an in body weigh in at the gym, I try and keep those things in mind, Like where am I around my period? Is that impacting me? Um, how am I feeling? Have I used the bathroom? So these are things you always want to keep in mind. And because I really want to protect my muscle mass, then I get them done regularly and also take them with a grain of salt, just because the body takes a while to make these shifts and to make these adjustments. So you also have to be patient with that. It can't just be like oh, I'm going to the gym for a month, two months, three months, and this is barely moving, and I'm eating well, and I've been eating well for three months and there's nothing happening. I can promise you there's stuff happening, but it might just not be what you expect it to look like and as fast as you expect it to go. All right.

Speaker 1:

Number two of most important ways to track your progress, especially for your hormone health, is your blood work Blood work. You must get your blood work done. It is another amazing tool to know where your health actually stands From the outside. There are signs that your body gives you if something's up with your health. Things like skin tags, discoloration around your neck, hyperpigmentation are really clear signs that you're struggling with your sugar health. But you know what it takes so long for the body to get to that point is literally crying out for help. You don't want it to get to that. Your body size doesn't really paint a clear picture of your actual health. Right, you might Be a very thin person and your blood work might not be okay. All right.

Speaker 1:

So you want to know where your blood sugar is. You want to know your glucose levels. You want to know your a1c. You want to know your fasting insulinC. You want to know your fasting insulin. You want to know your cholesterol, your triglycerides right, you want to understand. You want to know if you have any vitamin deficiencies, if you are dehydrated or not. How is your blood doing? What does your liver look like? Your liver enzymes? How's your thyroid doing? There's just so many things that you can get through blood work to really, really, really confirm if you are doing well or not, and I think that one of the main ones is your blood sugar, because as soon as insulin starts to do its crazy thing, it really, really impacts the rest of your body.

Speaker 1:

So I love to now get my blood work done every six months. I am currently tracking my A1C, which is the average. It's an approximately three month average of how much sugar is circulating in my bloodstream and guess what? That number for me has started to creep up. It has started to creep up and it's basically due to perimenopause, and the way that my body is processing carbohydrates is probably a little less intolerant. I've been doing the same exact thing for pretty much the last seven years and in the last year and a half things have shifted and I would have never known that if I wouldn't have had my blood work done, because five years ago my A1C was amazing and I've been doing the same thing for the past seven years and now all of a sudden it's switched on me, or like the past six years, right, and I'm like what's happening. So that means I need to change my strategy Remember, I spoke about that in the beginning like I need to change and shift things in this season to continue to help my body out, and I would have never known that and have that awareness if I had not been continuously monitoring my blood work.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that's shifting a little bit is still fine, but I wanted to not keep moving in the wrong direction is my cholesterol. That's another thing that naturally just shifts with perimenopause. But those are things I want to know because now I can switch and adjust how I'm eating. Now I can adjust how I'm exercising and next time I go get my blood work done. Hopefully I see that reflected on the test, on my blood test, and I can also continue to see that in my body composition a little bit as well. If I'm gaining more muscle and hopefully I continue to lose this hormonal fat that has creeped in, then it means that things are working and things are moving along.

Speaker 1:

So I cannot stress enough that you get blood work done, you at least get the basics done, and then, if you are not feeling well and if you need to talk about it, you can feel free to send me a message. Um, you might want to get your thyroid tested. You might want to get your vitamin levels tested. You want to. You might want to get your testosterone tested, like there's just so many things where you can get tested and really confirm for yourself if things are off or not and then have it influence your strategy and how you the things you do to protect your health. Like I've had to do in the past. In the past few months I've had to just switch things up to make sure that the number two thing in this list, like your blood work, like it's really reversing itself or staying stable. All right, number one on this list. You probably are never going to suspect that is this. I'm going to take a drink of water because my throat is getting dry. All right, I'm going to take a drink of water for this one.

Speaker 1:

So number one way I love to track progress and the number one thing I teach my clients because it's so invaluable is how you feel. Invaluable is how you feel, and I can promise you that you probably do not know how to really identify how you feel, for a few reasons. Number one it has probably kept you safe all this time to disassociate from your own body. You probably don't realize that you're in pain or that you're bloated or that certain foods does not feel good. You probably don't even realize or have built that connection, so you have not probably realized that when you take certain actions or you eat certain things, or if you're in certain situations, your body changes and you feel different. All right.

Speaker 1:

So one of the main main tools I have always used is how do I feel? How do I feel? Does my head hurt after I do certain things? Do I get a breakout after I do certain things? Do I feel bloated? Am I extra tired? Am I extra sleepy? Do I not have enough as much energy? Do I have energy? Did I sleep well? Did I not sleep well? Have I used the bathroom? Am I constipated? Do I have diarrhea? Is my period on time? Do I have extra cramps or do I not? Is my period extra heavy or is it fine? Right, these are all things that really tell you about yourself. Where are you breaking out on your face, right? What's ha like? Are you getting rashes, um? Are you feeling bloated even when you wake up in the morning and you haven't had anything to eat? Are you crashing by two or 3 PM? Like? All these little things I mentioned is actually tied to a hormone and a symptom that you might have. That is letting you know that something's not right. So the most beautiful way that my clients are able to create change and I myself was able to create change as well or not change. What I mean is to solidify and to choose this lifestyle of rooted in wellness is when your body talks to you.

Speaker 1:

Okay, because I would go and eat certain things or do certain things that I thought I enjoyed because I did before, and then when I would do them again once I was in my health journey, it felt like utter crap. I felt like crap and I don't like feeling like crap. So I started to build that evidence and that connection in my mind of oh, when I have a sugary drink, I feel like absolute shit. When I eat too much cake, I get such bad migraines and nausea that I thought I was pregnant. That's a true story. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm pregnant. Oh my gosh, I'm pregnant. Why am I so nauseous? Why am I so nauseous? Why does my head feel so funny? Oh my God. And then I got better. And then I had more cake. And then I was like oh my God, is this cake making me feel like I'm fucking pregnant, like I feel so sick? And when you start to feed that evidence to your brain, then it becomes easier and easier and easier. Notice how I'm saying it becomes easier, because it's not easy in the beginning.

Speaker 1:

There's like kind of a mourning process that happens and a realization of making decisions from this version of yourself that's healing and the past version of yourself who would really enjoy these things. But they're not really aligned anymore, because when you do have it, you feel like crap, and then you have learned how to feel so good that you don't want to go back to feeling like crap. So it's just like finding new things that will allow you to feel better. You know, like there's times where I've eaten too much fried food and I throw up because my body doesn't even want to attempt to digest it. There's things that make me constipated, there's things that make me bloated. There's things that make me constipated, there's things that make me bloated and I have a decision Either I know what's going to happen and I have it anyway, now that I have the awareness, or I choose not to. Y'all hearing all sorts of noises if my mic is picking it up because my window's open, so y'all hearing all the noise. So, yeah, it's like I have this decision to make either I have it and I know what the consequences are, or I choose not to and continue feeling good.

Speaker 1:

But this whole process of understanding what your body's telling you and how to and what to do about it is so important and I love how it catches my clients kind of off guard a little bit. I always know it's coming. I always know it's coming as part of the process and I always hold space for their disappointment, because it usually happens with foods that they really loved before and they just't. They just don't taste the same or feel the same in their body anymore, and because they didn't even realize how sick it was making them feel. So they come with a lot of frustration of having things or trying things and it making them feel not great or them not there, them not getting the same pleasurable experience that they had gotten in the past. And also you'll realize certain things. Maybe you realize that your period is near, maybe you really start to understand how to give your body what it needs to feel good again, and I think that that is the best thing.

Speaker 1:

One time someone asked me I forgot what the question was like what do I want every client to take away from coaching with me, or something like that? And he said if they take anything away, just one thing I want them to take away how to be self-aware in their own body, how to know when something's off, how to know when something doesn't feel good or the opposite, how to know what feels good, how to know what works for them. You know why? Because when you know and you have the awareness that something's off, you might not necessarily need to know what it is or how to fix it, but what it does grant you space for is to go do something about it, to ask somebody else to get support, to get help, and that can literally save your life. All right, that can really propel you to do something.

Speaker 1:

And even myself, when I found myself like super lost in this past year, I reached out to everybody and their mama that can help me. My other health coach friends, my doctor I've had conversations about it Other women who are in perimenopause books, podcast, courses Like I really am out here trying to help myself, like I don't know exactly how that is at this moment. Well, when everything was happening, but you betcha that I was trying to find answers and solutions to help myself. So that's the thing I told them. And solutions to help myself. So that's the thing I told them. If they take one thing away is their self-awareness, because then you have the opportunity to take some sort of action, if you want to, on how to solve for it. Okay.

Speaker 1:

And another thing is when you understand how you feel, when you understand how you feel, then you're more or less likely and what's normal for you, what's regular for you and what's not then you're less likely to be gaslit at the doctor's office when they tell you things like oh, that's normal, yes, it's happening, that happens. Oh, it's with age. Do you want this pill? Like it's not a big deal. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, like. If I know that this is not regular for me, then we're going to figure out why, and the answer might be as simple as oh, it's perimenopause and your hormones are shifting, or it might be something completely different that you might want to address.

Speaker 1:

So, really being confident and aware as to what it feels like to be in your own body is of value, and I think it's the number one way on how to track things, because, like I said in the beginning, you want to use all of these seven tools in conjunction together to help you paint a picture, because maybe you are feeling well, maybe you think you are feeling good, but your blood work says something different, right, and you might want to make adjustments so that you don't end up down the road not feeling well, because it takes your body a little bit of time to go ahead and, like, give you intense symptoms, and that's something that you don't necessarily want to get to. So I don't want to have, you know, get into prediabetes again and then, um, have it go that far just because I feel fine, just because I'm exercising, just because I think I'm eating well and I need to make adjustments, then I need to have all of those things together. So again and I just want to mention two other things I have in my back pocket in case I want more information which is a CGM? A continuous glucose monitor is one of those devices that you place on your arm and you get real time information on your blood sugar. And another one is called the DEXA scan. Is this machine that you go into and it gives you an even more accurate body composition results, right? So those are other options that are there if I need it, but I feel like with these seven things that I continuously track, then it holds a lot of value.

Speaker 1:

So, to recap, the seven ways I like to track progress in my hormone health journey is number seven, the scale. Number six, clothes. Number five, photos. Number four, your period. Number three, body composition. Number two, blood work. And number one, how you feel. Now I just want to offer you again, I did not start with all seven of these, I just started with the first four and that's all I knew how, and then I've worked myself up to the rest, even number one, how I feel, although I did kind of start that earlier too.

Speaker 1:

However, I want to offer you that if you don't even understand how you feel in your own body, you have no clue about your blood work and body composition, and all when you hear, when, if I ask you, like, what is your health goal, what, what it is that you want to achieve, and the only thing you can come up with is, oh, I want to lose weight, and you don't even know how to answer that. Like why do you want that? Answer that, like why do you want that? And you do not know any other way of approaching this. That is not some sort of mean way of crash dieting and restriction and just like being super cranky because you can't do the things that you love and being miserable, then this is a clear indicator that you might want to consider. No, that you should consider Hormone health coaching with me.

Speaker 1:

It's not fair to you to continue to live basically a miserable life just because you still have not, like you have not figured all of this information out yet, right? Like you don't have this base of knowledge and this is all it is. It's just knowledge, learning how to use it, learning the skills, learning the tools, learning how to put it into practice, and it can be a little bit intimidating, but trust me, because I'm here supporting you, because I am here literally teaching you and putting everything into a cultural perspective, making it culturally relevant for you. All right, then it just becomes a little bit more manageable and easier and you don't feel like you're absolutely on your own, just like shooting darts in the in the dark, up in the air and the wind taking it away. Right, there needs to be some sort of strategy and plan and education that comes along with all these things, because it's probably overwhelming to hear about all, all of these seven different types of of tracking your progress, about all of these seven different types of tracking your progress, especially if you don't know what they mean or how to use them, how to put them together, and there is no time to be wasting, right, especially if you are over 35. But if you're like 30 around there, you have the opportunity to start setting yourself up for success earlier on, which is beautiful.

Speaker 1:

And if you're 35 plus, let's get on it, my love. Let's get on it, because the last thing I want for you is for you your quality of life to keep or start declining because you don't have these tools and these skills right. So hormone and health coaching can be literally a priceless experience when you get so much out of it, where your quality of life increases so that you can keep reaching for whatever goals it is that you have. Remember, you always need your health first to then go after whatever goal, because if you don't have your health, then that's all that is going to be consuming you.

Speaker 1:

All right, my love, if you really want to work together, if you know that this is what you need to go ahead and get your life back on track, I invite you to book a consultation call. To go ahead and get your life back on track. I invite you to book a consultation call. My link for my calendar is in the show notes below. If you don't follow me on Instagram, go ahead and do that. It's at Naomi Jerez and I will see you next week. Bye.