[0:00:00]
Lindsey: All right, guys! Thanks to our sponsors, Original Nutritionals. Our friends at Original are on a mission with us to walk the walk when it comes to human betterment. They’ve created a brand founded on pure basic essential supplements that have ingredient labels you can understand. I like small labels, I’m from Texas, I don’t like big words, so this works for me. Their third-party-tested omega-3 is free of heavy metals and toxins and to standards higher than that of drinking water. What? Ladies, that means no mercury issues, which is good news since most fish oils on the market are poor quality, oxidized and actually don’t taste too good. Functional O3 comes in two sizes and it tastes yummy.
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[0:04:59]
Hello, BIRTHFIT! This is Dr. Lindsey Mathews, your BIRTHFIT founder and CEO. Today I have a wonderful woman, wonderful guest, Katie Bressack. I’m going to spell her last name because I probably butchered saying it. I’m quite bad with names, but it’s Katie Bressack. You can type her name in, find her, katiebressack.com.
She is a health coach basically in Los Angeles and New York City and corporate events, things like that. Her training includes the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, also the Institute of the Psychology of Eating, which you know we love. If you’ve ever listened to any of our past podcasts with Marc David, the founder of the Institute of the Psychology of Eating, and anything that Melissa Hemphill has been on, she certainly talks about it. But yeah, it’s a wonderful certification program, just to go off on a tangent there.
Katie’s other education includes yoga training, Thai yoga massage also, really two cool things which she mentions in the episode. She’s trained with Dr. Sara Gottfried’s The Hormone Cure and she’s done an apprenticeship program with Nicole Jardim. You may know her as The Period Girl. In this episode we talk about women’s cycle, hormones and just some lifestyle stuff that you can do to make great impacts and changes in your life today and we finish it out with some good reads, which I’ve already bought two of the books. So I hope you enjoy this episode. If you want to reach out to Katie at all, you can do that on Instagram, go to her website. She has a little Contact button in the top right. But definitely, if you have any questions or just curious about the services that she offers, reach out to her. She’s a great resource. I know the girls in BIRTHFIT South Bay love her. So enjoy!
Well, welcome to The BIRTHFIT Podcast officially.
Katie: Thank you for having me.
Lindsey: Yeah. Give us a little background on who you are and what you do in this world.
Katie: Yes. So my name is Katie Bressack. I’m a holistic nutritionist and I focus on women’s hormonal health, a.k.a. hormones. As you know, Lindsey, hormones dictate everything on how we feel, our mood, energy, sleep, metabolism. But even on the grander scheme, I think just like how we feel in our body. I know when my hormones are off or I’m having an off day, I’m always like okay, did I eat enough to support my body? Like what’s actually going on? Because I feel like as women, and you might even feel this too, like the way that you heal determines everything else that happens that day. So I always say come back to yourself, come back, check in.
I focus a lot with women’s health, women’s hormones and a lot of it is lifestyle, too, focusing on are we overdoing it? Probably. Are we sleeping enough? Probably not. Kind of giving people the time and space to just have that check-in with themselves because we’re always on the go and it’s just important to be able to pause and reflect. It doesn’t have to be an hour, but just that pause is always helpful.
Lindsey: Yeah. So how did your journey start down this whole nutrition path and supporting women?
Katie: Well, crazy long story, but I’ll come back to it. Speaking of snow, I grew up in New Hampshire, so it literally is winter like nine months out of the year from my life, like hot, humid sun. So growing up was always just sick, like cold after cold. Anyone I knew was sick. I would get sick, taking tons of antibiotics. By the time I was a young adult and I had moved to New York City, it had just gotten worse. Being on the subway, there’s just more germs. I was just constantly sick, and every time I went to my doctor they just kept giving me antibiotics. I know now that one of the main reasons I kept getting sick was because I kept getting put on antibiotics. The irony. And then one year, I literally was at the doctor’s every three weeks with a sinus infection, and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I wasn’t dying or anything, but when you are sick that often you’re just not fun to be around. You don’t even want to be around yourself. I just feel like my relationships, my work, everything was suffering from it. I found a holistic doctor. This was ten years ago, so I feel like holistic wasn’t as mainstream as it is now.
[0:10:20]
Lindsey: Yeah, you probably couldn’t even Google that term.
Katie: No, the only reason I found her was because a friend of mine had found her through a friend. It was kind of one of those things, secret doctor sharing, like got to go here. It was so crazy because she sat down with me and she asked me how I liked my job. I was like what does this have to do with my health? So like oh, um, I mean it’s okay. She’s like no, really. Tell me what you think about it.
Lindsey: What were you doing at the time?
Katie: I was working in digital media. At that time I was doing account management, and I was slowly transitioning to digital ad sales, so long hours, kind of having to meet a quota. The irony of it is like taking people out to party and drink, even though I was feeling like crap, snoozing when I’m like wanting to go home and nap.
She asked me about my stress level, she asked me about my relationship, and I started crying because I realized with all these questions that I wasn’t really happy. I wasn’t miserable, I wasn’t depressed, but I don’t think I was happy and I don’t think I had asked myself these questions since I moved to New York. I feel like in college you do all those exploration, and how do I feel and what do I want, and then I just got put into this industry and this life that I thought that I wanted and I was working really hard, but I wasn’t feeling fulfilled and that was making me sad. She was basically showing me how my lifestyle wasn’t necessarily causing the sinus infections but was a catalyst behind why my body wasn’t healing from it.
Then we talked about diet. At the time I really thought I was eating healthy, but I was eating tons of dairy. She was explaining to me how my body produces a lot of mucus, and the dairy wasn’t helping and one of the main reasons why I couldn’t dry up my sinuses basically. It’s crazy. So she sat with me for an hour. Where every other doctor kind of took my temperature, checked out my glands and gave me antibiotics, she sat with me and we had this deep conversation. I was sharing things with her that I probably didn’t even know I needed to get off my chest. I left that day with a “prescription” for a neti pot, yoga, meditation and probiotics.
Lindsey: That’s pretty good. That’s a great prescription.
Katie: Right. But at the time I’m like this woman is crazy. Why does she think this is going to help me? So I called my mom, of course, and I was telling her what happened and she’s like, “Well, why don’t you try it” I was like if I walk by a natural health foods store, I’ll walk inside. Obviously, I lived in New York, there is stuff everywhere. So I go in and I grab all that and, knocking on wood, it’s been over ten years I haven’t had a sinus infection. I mean I get colds, I get sick, but not like…
Lindsey: Nothing like what it was.
Katie: Yeah. And then I was like okay, I’m on to something. I started going to yoga at lunch and I didn’t tell any of my co-workers or my boss. I would just disappear. I started doing better at my job. My numbers went up. I was more kind of happier in the workplace. Not that I was miserable, but like happier. I was like okay, there’s definitely something to this. I was taking the probiotics. I changed my diet. I ended up going to yoga teacher training. It was through this training and getting really comfortable with my own body strength and really feeling strong for the first time in my life that really led me down this path of me wanting to help support other women. Honestly, I got into the hormone thing because when I was planning my wedding I was a hot mess and my husband was like, “Do you want to marry me?”
Lindsey: It’s like what’s going on.
Katie: Yeah, I was like yes, I love you. I definitely want to do this. Well, I guess I was like the beginning stages of my business. I’ve done like two or three years. I was doing my business already but still beginning, trying to kind of figure it all out. I was doing corporate wellness at Mattel. I was teaching yoga. I was literally doing 50 things at once and my body couldn’t handle it. I always had regular periods. All of a sudden I skipped a month and then I was getting my period every three weeks and then all of a sudden every five-six weeks. That’s when I was like if I feel like this, so many other women must be feeling like this.
[0:15:36]
And then I went back and kind of like — because I had gone to school for nutrition and then I kind of went back and did different courses with Dr. Sara Gottfried. I did a year-long apprenticeship program with Nicole Jardim and just really focusing on the root causes of what’s actually causing the hormonal imbalance. I told you the long story.
Lindsey: This is great.
Katie: And then now really helping women where other doctors don’t know. I’m not calling myself a doctor or a healer or anything like that, but I feel like we’ve come so far in medication and prescriptions and we forget how important food is to your body and to your healing and to just helping you things just run with your hormones and moods. But God, so many women come to me telling me how they’ve been feeling and the doctor just wants to put them on birth control. One client, since she was 14 has not had a regular period. Fourteen! She is 33.
Lindsey: That’s 20 something years.
Katie: Yeah. She was put on metformin, she was put on thyroid medication. It’s so sad because every doctor is, “If you just lost weight, you’d get your period back.” I mean coming to me in tears and I’m like okay, no.
Lindsey: Yeah, totally.
Katie: No. I’m not a doctor and I always preface that, but I always say we can get your body into balance. Your body wants to be in balance. It always desires that. Let’s just get to the root cause. And within three, no, two months of working with me, she got her period. It hasn’t been regular in the sense of the cycle days, but she’s gotten period for three months in a row where she hasn’t had that since she was 13 years old.
Lindsey: That’s wild, yeah.
Katie: Not one doctor has ever said to her, “What are you eating? What’s on your plate?” nothing like that. So I don’t get it because this is what I do. I mean I do get it because I feel like we’ve just gotten so disconnected that we forget that it’s the basic that we need.
Lindsey: Yeah. I think you’re totally hitting on it where you’re saying we got disconnected. We’re missing basic stuff of life. In these doctors’ defense or the Western medicine, they’re not trained in this stuff and the tools that they have are to write a prescription, which is kind of sad because they put the power in another form other than ourselves.
Katie: Yeah. I always say too the more that you know that there are different alternatives, and I believe that medication is there for a reason. It just shouldn’t be the first step. If you aren’t getting a period, there’s something going on and nothing is going to fix that except supporting your body.
Lindsey: Yeah. Tell everybody how important your period is.
Katie: I know. It’s one of those things. I still remember when I got my period and being so embarrassed about it. The irony of it, I was at a friend’s house, we were playing with, I don’t even know, we were playing dress up or something. I go to the bathroom, I get my period. I’m like oh, my God! I jumped on my bike. I biked all the way home. It was the summer before sixth grade. I come home. I’m super embarrassed. I tell my mom and like, “Please don’t tell dad.” Mom is like, “Oh, I won’t. I won’t.” It was maybe a five-minute conversation. Here’s a pad. Put it on. You’ll be fine. My mom, God bless her, the first day I got my period when I was in school I would never want to go to school because I’m like people can hear me walking with my pad. I just felt so conscious.
[0:20:02]
Lindsey: I think we’ve all been there.
Katie: The irony of it is now I’m talking to everyone about periods and how awesome they are and how important they are and how the longer, the healthier your period is, the healthier your bones will be, the healthier your metabolism will be. Your period is so important, and even more important than your period is are you ovulating?
Lindsey: Yeah, how can we tell about all of this? Like what are some signs to look for a healthy period ovulation?
Katie: So a healthy period has a few things. Having it consistently, whatever that looks like. I think we’ve also been trained that it has to be 28 days and it can be anywhere from 25, 26, 35-ish, but all of us have a different cycle and that’s awesome. But as long as it’s pretty consistent, that’s a first good kind of step there. The second thing is you don’t want it to be too heavy and clotty or too light too. There’s got that middle ground. You don’t want to be going your tampon every hour. You don’t want to have your period for a day as well. What color your period is. Is it brown? Is it pink? Is it red? And it’s so TMI, but I always tell my clients look at what’s actually happening. It’s so important.
Lindsey: Yeah, what are the different shades? Can you elaborate on any of the different shades? And it’s never TMI.
Katie: Okay, awesome. Well, here we go.
Lindsey: I know people are wondering this.
Katie: When it’ really brown, usually it can mean low progesterone. That’s usually also when your cycle is shorter and it’s usually like at the beginning. Sometimes you’ll spot and they might be brown because there’s just excess that didn’t leave last time that kind of goes on your tampon or whatever when you first get your period. If it’s kind of clumpy, purplely, sometimes it can mean extra excess estrogen and things like that. A lot of times based on what color it is and consistency and flow, like heavy-light, it can kind of share a little bit about are you estrogen dominant, are you too low on progesterone, different things like that because you should get your hormones tested. But I always say the blood test and different tests, like the Dutch test is the best and cortisol testing with saliva, but most doctors just run like full blood panels. But if you are feeling these symptoms and you’re looking at your period, that’s good information for you to know. Hopefully, usually holistic doctors and naturopaths are a little more in tune with that and you can kind of just take that information. So if they’re like your blood results came back normal, you’re like but, no. This is what my period looks like. These are my cycles. So starting to kind of track all of that is a really good place to start as well because a lot of us don’t know what our cycle is.
Lindsey: That’s so true, yeah.
Katie: It just kind of hopefully happens every month and then we’re pleasantly surprised. But that’s one thing to kind of look at is just that whole thing.
And then in terms of ovulation, cervical mucus, like are you seeing cervical mucus. You can also do a basal body temperature and take your temperature first thing in the morning when you wake up and there would be kind of a dip in temperature and then a rise and if cervical mucus is around there. There’s also it’s called the Daysy fertility tracker, which is pretty awesome. It will turn green if you’re fertile, which means you’re probably ovulating, and then it will be red other times. So it’s a good kind of go or not if you’re trying or not trying to get pregnant.
Lindsey: Yeah, that seems pretty awesome.
Katie: It is really awesome. It’s little more in the higher price point than just getting a basal body thermometer, but both can work as long as you’re tracking. I always preface that because you don’t want to just rely on that. You also want to notice the cervical mucus. All of it, it’s going to look different for everybody, but kind of like that stretchy egg kind of consistency. You don’t have to have tons of it, but a little bit of it, and that’s usually when you’re the most fertile and ovulating.
[0:25:15]
Lindsey: Yeah, I mean that’s great. What days? Because I know one of my good friends, when she was tracking her cycle — this was like last year– she was trying to get pregnant and then she realized okay, I’m not the standard woman ovulating on day whatever. I ovulate on day 19. It’s like I just realized that and we could have been pregnant sooner.
Katie: Totally. That’s the whole thing in terms of your cycle. Same thing with ovulation, we all ovulate different days. I say kind of like 12 to 15, but I don’t. I ovulate a little bit earlier and I know tons of people that ovulate a little bit later. I think again is it consistent? You want to make sure your phases are kind of equal. So like the first phase of your cycle isn’t shorter or longer than the second phase, but it’s like that whole consistency thing. It’s just something to be aware of. I don’t even think doctors are asking their patients if they’re ovulating.
Lindsey: Well, yeah, not a lot of them. I know that for sure just based on my experience with being a chiropractor and then talking to women. When I first moved to Los Angeles, this was like 2006, I remember just looking up a random OB-Gyn because I knew I needed to go in for a well woman visit because it had been at least a year and a half. The only real thing I remember her touching on lifestyle was related to — she told me I needed to drink more milk for calcium. I was like oh, my God, I’m in the wrong place. We’re still living in times before. I was like oh, my God! Like what? But you’re absolutely right. There’s medical doctors in the Western medical world that they don’t correlate lifestyle and our physiology or symptoms or anything like that, which is wild because the evidence is out now.
Katie: Yeah, totally. There are some amazing women at the forefront, like Dr. Laura Brayton is always, always talking about ovulation. I think it’s amazing that she preaches it because I think more and more people need to hear it. And Alisa Vitti who created the FLO Living is also at the forefront and Nicole Jardim as well, just all these women that were sick of all the conventional crap that we’ve been given that honestly isn’t helping any of us and it’s only really kind of masking. I think, honestly, with everything that’s happening right now, the more that women, we can understand our own body and we know that information and we know that we can do better, they’re going to have to change women’s health or we’re going to not go to those doctors.
Lindsey: Yeah, that’s so true. We touched on this one time at one of our seminars. Somebody asked something about pain for birth or something like that and it was one of the dads, one of the males in the audience that said you’re the consumer right now. You have to basically speak with your money so that the people behind us, the next generation can experience this change that this movement is making happen. And I was like wow! Yeah, you’re right on, dad.
Katie: Yeah, that’s pretty beautiful.
Lindsey: Yeah, I was like okay. Wow!
Katie: Well, that’s just like the diet industry, Lindsey. It drives me crazy, but all those diets out there are literally written by men for men’s results, and then they have us women doing all these crazy diets and wondering why we feel like complete shit.
Lindsey: Yeah, totally.
Katie: But they’re not good for us.
Lindsey: No. So what does a person, a woman, probably, who is seeking out your guidance, what’s like the course that she goes down with you? Is it one-on-one? Group stuff? How does that work?
[0:29:54]
Katie: Yes, so I do both. I just launched a five-week boot camp earlier this year. I’m running my second group right now. So it’s like a five-week this is the baseline and then you can kind of continue doing this on your own. And then I also work one-on-one with women and really set up more personalized plans and kind of walk them through and guide them. So I think it depends on what — everyone works differently. Some people love being in a group setting, some people like that personal approach. Even in the group setting, I do two one-on-one calls and we have a Facebook group and I try to make it as personal as possible. But at the end of the day it’s really about what you’re putting in your body, how your digestion is, are you supporting your liver, are you sleeping, how are you chewing your food. All of these things make a big, big difference in the way that your body is metabolizing the food, which in turn becomes the medicine.
Lindsey: Yeah. Well, how do most women find you? Is it like referral or online? I’m guessing and I may know the answer, I just assume, like women that are like okay, I have nowhere else to go or my friend said this person will change my life or I have like thyroid stuff going on.
Katie: It’s a combination. I feel like some people randomly Google and find me. Google does help sometimes. I do a lot of corporate wellness in New York and LA, so a lot of people come listen to me and kind of find me that way. A lot of referrals and a lot of online, like social media. I try to kind of share information. I try to do it in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming but kind of attainable because there’s so much information out there. I’m just trying to kind of give women tools. Whether they work with me or not, like here is your next step. Find somebody that can listen to you. Even just with my clients I’m always just empowering them. They’re like my doctor won’t run these tests and I’m like it’s your body. You can fire this doctor. Because I think so many doctors are like, “Oh, you don’t need to check your vitamin D.” One client told me her doctor said, “Well, everyone is low on vitamin D. We don’t need to work your vitamin D.” And she was like, “But how low am I?”
Lindsey: Yeah, where am I at?
Katie: “How am I supposed to know how to supplement if we don’t know where I’m at?” So I think a lot of it is just being able to listen and give easy attainable action steps and then make it in a way where women can feel like I can ask for more and I can demand more and I can always fire my doctor if they’re not actually listening to me.
Lindsey: Got it, yeah.
Katie: Yeah, that went on a different ramble.
Lindsey: Yeah. No, that’s great.
Katie: It’s a thing that I feel passionate about it. I do the same thing with my doctor. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism a few years ago after a miscarriage. And then recently, all of a sudden now I have Hashimoto’s. And I was like well, how did this happen? What’s going on? I’m like not eating anything that causes inflammation in my body and then my numbers keep going up and up and up, and I kept feeling worse and worse. So I was like I’m not leaving this office until you give me an action step that is more than medication. She sent me to an infectious disease doctor, got tested and I have Epstein-Barr virus.
Lindsey: Oh, wow! And that contributes to hypothyroidism?
Katie: It’s all kind of autoimmune issues. It affects it. I think it’s EV6 virus. I could be wrong about that. And 100% the population has it by the time you’re age 3.
Lindsey: What?
Katie: Yeah. I’ve been doing all this research and I’m not an expert by any means. I was doing all this research where it can be dormant in your body forever or it can kind of like out in different ways. But I was like okay, well now I have information, now I have to figure out what to do next. But I think it’s just important to not — if your numbers come back normal and you don’t feel good, there’s something going on and you deserve to feel better.
Lindsey: Yeah, if your gut is telling you that, yeah, for sure. I think, as you said earlier, we’ve become disconnected. But if your body is telling you, hey, something is up and this doctor over here is not giving me an answer, definitely fire that doc and go to another one.
[0:35:03]
Katie: Yeah, because there will be someone that will listen to you. And I think, too, it’s like functional medicine doctors, doctors that are looking at the whole piece of the puzzle too. It’s great that we have doctors that specialize in certain areas, but it’s also helpful, I think, to have someone look at the bigger picture too and kind of point you in those different directions.
Lindsey: Yeah, outside eyes.
Katie: Yeah, and get second, third opinion. I mean obviously it depends on your insurance and you don’t want to be spending millions of dollars, but if someone doesn’t help you, get out.
Lindsey: Yeah, run.
Katie: That was like my story. I kept going to all these doctors. I felt crazy because they were looking at me like you shouldn’t have a sinus infection again, you shouldn’t be sick again. Well, obviously I am.
Lindsey: Yeah, I am here, back.
Katie: Yeah, you’re not fixing the thing that’s causing all this. Even one doctor sent me to an ear, nose and throat specialist and the doctor is like, “Oh, you should have sinus surgery.”
Lindsey: Whoa!
Katie: I’m like why? Like why?
Lindsey: Yeah, what’s that going to fix?
Katie: I know. I was like I’m not going under the knife. What are you talking about?
Lindsey: I also noticed in your training you did the Eating Psychology Institute or Institute of Psychology?
Katie: Oh, yeah, with Marc David?
Lindsey: Yes.
Katie: Oh, my God. That was fascinating. He is a genius. I love him. It’s so interesting to kind of understand why as women we tend to eat in a certain way and the emotional attachment we have to food and how our relationship with our mom and her relationship to food can kind of transcribe onto us.
Lindsey: Yeah, explain that a little more. That’s powerful stuff.
Katie: Yeah, I mean it’s so interesting because I grew up — I love you, mom — I grew up and we didn’t have a scale in my house, which I think was very, very helpful. But my mom, even to this day, I wouldn’t say she has the nicest vocabulary towards herself in the way that she looks and all of that. So even though we didn’t have a scale in the house, I grew up kind of hearing my mom not talk so nice about herself. And then my grandmother was the same way. I mean she was 97 when she passed away and she always thought she was overweight. And at that point I was like grandma, like who cares? It’s kind of is passed down generation to generation. I feel like there was a time in my life where I just hated my butt so much and it really felt like it was interfering with the way that I was presenting and showing up in the world. I didn’t really understand where or how that started happening. I’m kind of through the training and going with Marc David and kind of figuring this stuff out, so many of us struggle with different things that people have said to us. Like a woman told me the other day that she’s been dieting since she was 17 because this guy in her class called her fat.
Lindsey: Oh, poor thing.
Katie: Such a poor thing. And it was one of those things too where she’s like I don’t even remember his name.
Lindsey: Oh, but the words stuck and it was emotional, yeah.
Katie: They just stuck. It’s emotional. So I feel like so much of our health too is emotional. Like women, we eat emotionally. Men eat because they’re hungry. Not to overgeneralize. Men sometimes do that too.
Lindsey: But it’s much more connected to emotions.
Katie: But we’re so connected to emotions and how we feel and that will show up in how our body is actually responding as well. Whether we’re eating too much, too little, too much of a certain thing, too little of a certain thing, it all kind of is connected. I just love a lot of his vitamins are like vitamin L, vitamin love. Yes, it’s important to have magnesium, vitamin D, but it’s also important to have loving kindness to yourself and all of these other elements. I don’t know if you’ve ever met him, but he would definitely be someone to meet.
Lindsey: I would love to meet him. I stole like 30 minutes of his time for a podcast one time and then one of our girls who’s done the training like you have. I’m just always fascinated to hear what you all say that have been through the training because it’s juicy stuff. I’m into it.
[0:40:03]
Katie: Yeah, it’s pretty fascinating. It’s so crazy. So I found him this was like seven years ago because my aunt-best friend is his good friend.
Lindsey: Oh, wow, small world.
Katie: They all lived in Boulder together.
Lindsey: Wow! Boulder is a great city.
Katie: I was in a group with only five other women.
Lindsey: Oh, nice.
Katie: It was pretty special.
Lindsey: So what would you say are the biggest or some big lifestyle enhancers that women could try?
Katie: This is going to be a big one.
Lindsey: Yeah, yeah.
Katie: We all can say “No more,” myself included. It’s a practice that I’ve been trying to really implement more and more in my life the older that I get. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be like no to doing dishes. It can be like no. I feel like when we get asked or we get invited somewhere, the immediate answer is yes because we love life, we love doing things, and then the dread saying like oh, I don’t really want to do that. Why did I say yes? But pausing before responding, say thank you for the invite, let me check my calendar, let me get back to you. That’s kind of a big, big, big one I feel all of us could kind of practice.
Lindsey: Say no more.
Katie: Just say no more, yeah. It sounds so simple, but it’s honestly challenging to say no because you want to enjoy life, you want to do things, but not at the detriment of your joy and all of that. So that’s kind of a big one. I think we could all add five minutes into our day that is just dedicated to our self. I hear a lot of new moms I talk to. I get it. You’re busy. Like shut the door. Lock it if you have kids that can open the door, and just sit for five minutes and just breathe. Like I feel like self-care is amazing. I love this whole self-care adventure that everybody is on, but I think we’ve glamorized it. Yeah, go get massages, please. Go do things, but just five minutes a day that you’re like this is my time and just do some deep breathing and just sit instead of running around can actually make such a bigger difference than a monthly massage if it’s done every day.
I think kind of like pausing. Another thing is to — I feel like most women work two full-time jobs. Create an end time for your day.
Lindsey: An end time, okay.
Katie: An end time for your day. Just because you come home and now the house needs to be looked at, first delegate as much as you possibly can, but then you also need to pick an end time where you’re not going to rile yourself up. Because what I see so often with women is that they’re coming home after a long day, whether we’re working in an office or we’re working by being a stay at home mom because they’re both working, and then we’re kind of like doing more and more and more and then we try to go to sleep and then we can’t. We’re like can’t fall sleep. We wake up throughout the night. We toss and turn. We’ve never given our body time to actually unwind.
Lindsey: That makes so much sense, yeah.
Katie: And the crazy thing about that is men have 24-hour hormonal cycles and women we have longer, like 25 to 35 cycles. So men are hormonally programmed to go to bed as soon as their head hits the pillow and to wake up as soon as the alarm goes off. That’s how their body is made. Where us women, we’re not made like that. So a man could do the laundry and the dishes and run a marathon, come home, take a shower, and go to bed.
Lindsey: Yeah, their thoughts still wouldn’t be running in their head maybe.
Katie: Not at all. And we cannot do that. There is a study that came out and I can’t remember where it was published, but it was saying that women need two to three hours of unwinding time before they go to bed.
Lindsey: Yeah, it’s wild that you’re talking about that.
Katie: To get the cortisol down.
Lindsey: Yeah, this has actually been forefront of my mind the last two weeks because it’s ironic that you’re saying this. I guess the universe is like you need to practice your downtime, but yeah. Like last night I woke up in the middle of the night, like bing! And had to write down something that I forgot. I started keeping a notepad by my bed so that if things like this would happen. And I’m not kidding you, like three times in the past week I’ve woken up or I couldn’t fall asleep and I’ve had to write things down on this notepad. Like what the hell is going on, but it’s so true, an end time.
Katie: It’s so true.
Lindsey: End time, I like that.
Katie: Yeah, end time. The thing what I do at night and in the morning, sometimes I’ll write, sometimes I won’t, but I lay in bed, before I wake up I write in a grad two journal or I’ll just talk out loud what I’m grateful for and I do it in the evening, too. I’ve noticed that the writing of it is what helps change my thoughts in my brain from the to-do list and the analyzing of the day to more positive thoughts. A lot of my clients that say they have nightmares, they’re having bad dreams and then they start writing in their gratitude journal and they go away. Because our brain just…
Lindsey: I need to do that.
Katie: Yeah, try it out. It helped me a ton and every person that has said that they just cannot quiet their mind…
Lindsey: Getting it out of the mind and onto the—
Katie: Get it out of the mind so that your dreams — because your mind is going to try and work through it all night long to come to a solution.
Lindsey: For sure and that’s what it’s doing.
Katie: But you don’t want to be dreaming about that.
Lindsey: Yeah, I don’t want to be dreaming about websites right now.
Katie: Right because then you wake up tired. You’re like I slept eight hours, why am I tired? Oh, I was trying to figure out the solution all night long.
Lindsey: Charging in my dream. Ah, awesome. One of the last questions I’ll ask you, what are maybe one good book you’re reading right now or two good books that you would recommend for women?
Katie: Everybody should read Women Code by Alisa Vitti. Have you read that?
Lindsey: Yes and I want to reread it because it’s been ages.
Katie: It’s so good. What other book have I read that I really love?
Lindsey: Are you reading anything right now?
Katie: I’m reading four books right now, but I’m reading Aviva Romm’s The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution. She’s actually really helpful. What I like about her book because a lot of the other thyroid books are not talking about all of the toxins and chemicals and she talks a lot about that and how it’s affecting women’s health and hormones. So I really appreciate all of her research on that.—
Lindsey: It’s a book out now, correct?
Katie: Yeah, it’s out right now.
Lindsey: Good.
Katie: And also just started, do you know Aimee Raupp? She’s an acupuncturist in New York.
Lindsey: No. No.
Katie: She’s written a book Yes, You Can Get Pregnant, and her new book The Body Belief, is really good. It’s all about kind of like yes, your body can heal and it’s a lot about autoimmune illness and disorders and things like that. She is just such gentle soul. I really love her and her book is just very comforting. It’s a really good book. Like we’re talking about, your body wants to heal, your body wants to feel better, and it can. You just have to replenish it. We can’t keep stealing from it. We have to give back to our body and to our health.
Lindsey: Nice. Those sound like great reads. I just wrote them down. Two new books.
Katie: I read women’s books often. It’s right on my desk. I read it all the time.
Lindsey: Awesome! Well, I’ve enjoyed chatting with you. Definitely share with people where they can find you, how they can get a hold of you, all kinds of contact information.
Katie: Yes. You can find me at katiebressack.com. It’s Bressack in case you’re trying to figure out how to spell that. I’m on Instagram with that and that’s my website, and on Facebook as well.
Lindsey: Awesome! Well, thank you so much for giving us some of your time on this Wednesday afternoon and sharing a little about who you are and what you do and into your life. I greatly appreciate it.
Katie: Thank you so much. It was so fun spending time with you.
Lindsey: Yay! Thanks, Katie, and I’ll let you when this is up.
Katie: Awesome! I can’t wait. That was so fun.
Lindsey: Good.
Katie: You are an amazing interviewer.
Lindsey: I hope so. I sometimes get lost in the conversation and I just go.
[0:50:00]
Katie: But that’s what’s the fun of it, right?
Lindsey: So it’s basically me finding out more about you and I’m like yeah, let’s dive in this way, let’s go that way. But yeah, you were great. I think this should be up in about two or three weeks.
Katie: Perfect, yeah, and I’ll share it everywhere.
Lindsey: Perfect! Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
Katie: Well, how are things going in your life? Are you planning a wedding or did you get married?
Lindsey: No, girl. We are getting married in like two weeks.
Katie: Oh, my goodness!
Lindsey: I know.
Katie: Okay. [0:50:30] [Indiscernible] coming soon?
Lindsey: Right around the corner.
Katie: Oh, that’s so exciting. Where are you guys going to get married?
Lindsey: We’re running away to Mexico.
Katie: Oh, we did a similar thing.
Lindsey: Yeah, trying to not make it too big, but it might be like 60-70 people.
Katie: Oh, that’s perfect.
Lindsey: Yeah, it will be great.
Katie: Yeah. We did in that Barbados. There were 50 and it was any one more would have — it was just perfect. It was all people that we would have wanted to spend that day with. Well, take some time before the wedding.
Lindsey: Yes, five minutes a day.
Katie: I wish I had done this, like I wish I had taken off at least four to five days before my wedding and like taken the week off when I got back.
Lindsey: Yeah, that’s good.
Katie: So you can try to cushion it.
Lindsey: I’m going to look at my calendar today.
Katie: Yeah, because that I really feel like — because I remember coming back and just being so exhausted because you don’t realize how much you’re talking for a whole week.
Lindsey: That’s a good point.
Katie: And all the attention is on you. And I felt so tired when I came back, but I didn’t take that time. So everyone I know that’s getting married, I’m like cushion it.
Lindsey: Smart, yeah. Heck, yeah.
Katie: Yeah, it’s really helpful. Oh my God. I can’t wait to see pictures. I’m so excited for you.
Lindsey: Well, thank you. I keep telling Nicole and Embo who’s up in West LA to do a big event together maybe in the summer or the fall. But yeah, we got to get everybody together on the West Coast.
Katie: Oh, that will be awesome. I would love that.
Lindsey: Yeah.
Katie: Yeah. And Nicole is amazing. I think she’s doing such great things. I’m here in the South Bay.
Lindsey: Yeah, she’s a little fire ball.
Katie: My God, I know. I love her.
Lindsey: And great energy. She’s wonderful.
Katie: Such good energy. The other day I was like I go every time I look at you I’m like oh, God, why am I so tired. I’m like you have kids. She goes, “Oh, Katie, I’m tired all the time.” You don’t come across like you are.
Lindsey: Yeah, you don’t show it.
Katie: I was like I haven’t even had had a child yet. Like how are you doing this?
Lindsey: Yeah, she’s a hoot, too.
Katie: Yeah, she’s kind of funny.
Lindsey: Well, awesome! Enjoy the rest of your day. I really appreciate it.
Katie: Thank you.
Lindsey: All right, I’ll hopefully see you soon.
Katie: Yes, definitely.
Lindsey: All right. Bye, Katie.
All right, BIRTHFIT, I hope you enjoyed that episode. I certainly did. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to Katie I think two times now via the phone, but lots through email. Nicole Foster of BIRTHFIT South Bay works with her a ton and everybody that I’ve come in contact with that has worked with Katie loves her. So if this episode spoke to you, definitely reach out to her.
Practical advice. Buy those books like at the very end. Know why? If you have not read Women Code, do so. I think it’s kind of a must read for women approaching their 30s. If you can read it earlier, read it earlier. But anywhere between 25-30-year-old self, read that. I wish my 25 to30-year-old self would have read that. And purchase the other books. They sound like great reads. I just purchased the Body Belief.
But one piece of advice that Katie touched on was — I’ll say it to you actually –pause. Take five minutes a day to pause. That’s huge. This can apply to anybody, male, female, young, old, whatever you identify as. Take five minutes and pause and breathe. Shut everything off, stop looking at the cell phone, maybe even put your feet in grass. That would be crazy, but yes, do that.
The other thing Katie touched on which is we can all hear it, but it’s actually very hard to put in motion, and that is the advice of firing your doctor. You know you better than anyone. It sounds corny to say like tune into you, trust your body, that kind of stuff, but if your gut is telling you something, if your gut is saying I don’t know, there’s still something bothering me and maybe a doctor has given you a different diagnosis or prescribed you a medication that doesn’t really line up with what you’re feeling, then speak up.
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Go get a second consult. If you’re late in the game in pregnancy and something comes up, go get another consult. If you are having pelvic floor issues on the postpartum, immediate postpartum side, speak up. Get a second consult. Schedule a consult with somebody from BIRTHFIT. Like there are resources out and you don’t have to be stuck where you are. So yes, that would be some practical advice.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. Until next time, have a wonderful life and enjoy the ride.
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