July 11, 2025

Hot Flashes Don't Have to Be Your New Normal, with Dee Davidson (Ep. 36)

Hot Flashes Don't Have to Be Your New Normal, with Dee Davidson (Ep. 36)

Ever feel “off” in midlife but can’t quite explain why? You’re not alone—and you’re not stuck. In this episode, functional health practitioner Dee Davidson joins me to explore why so many midlife women feel out of sync, struggle with hot flashes, and don’t feel like themselves.

But here’s the game-changer: Hot flashes and hormone symptoms aren’t something you have to just live with. Dee breaks down how seemingly small choices, especially around blood sugar and protein intake, can make a huge difference—and how learning to trust what your body is telling you can be the start of real transformation.

💛 This conversation is about reclaiming how you feel and deciding that midlife gets to feel amazing.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN:

✔ Why symptoms like bloating, poor sleep, and hot flashes are messages from your body, not just “part of aging”
 ✔ How blood sugar regulation affects hot flashes, sleep, and overall hormone balance
 ✔ How to think about protein in a smarter way (hint: it’s more than just eggs)
 ✔ The importance of the being part of your day, not just the doing

🎯 OMG Moment: Your hot flashes, headaches, or sleepless nights are not just a nuisance—they’re a signal from your body asking you to listen and respond with care.

Take Action
Start with one meal. Aim for 25–30 grams of protein in your breakfast and see how your energy, focus, and hormone symptoms shift. Not sure where to start? Use AI to help build personalized ideas based on the foods you already enjoy.

Go to confidentlyloveyourself.com to connect with Dee and find out more - and check out her podcast at Confidently Balance Your Hormones.

Why This Episode Matters
Midlife isn’t a slow decline—it’s a time for recalibration and power. When you begin to understand how your body works now, you can take simple steps that help you feel better than you have in years. This episode will help you listen to your body, stop settling for symptoms, and make aligned decisions for your well-being.

🎧 Hit follow and don’t miss next week’s episode where we’re diving into the midlife vision board reimagined—with practical, creative ways to see and shape your next chapter.

Find all podcast and coaching resources at cherylpfischer.com.

Ask a question - I'll answer on the podcast!

Join the community at patreon.com/mindyourmidlife and have a say in podcast episodes!

00:00 - Feeling "Bleh" in Midlife

04:16 - Dee's Journey with Hormone Health

09:26 - The Blood Sugar-Hot Flash Connection

16:47 - Protein Tips for Midlife Women

22:12 - Balancing Being and Doing

27:39 - Symptoms Are Not Normal in Midlife

29:49 - Final Thoughts and Next Episode Preview

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There is so much information out there isn't there.

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It can be just a lot to take in, and I might be part of that problem for you occasionally, because every week you're hearing some new advice and a different angle and a different take.

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Now, the reason that we're Mind your Midlife here is that I want to go into the mental aspects, the deep, deep layers, and not just do this, do this, do this, but what are we telling ourselves about it and how is it meaningful and how can we make it meaningful?

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But the fact remains sometimes we get overwhelmed about how to actually live healthy and feel good in midlife.

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What the heck?

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Let's talk about it.

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Welcome to Mind your Midlife, your go-to resource for confidence and success.

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One thought at a time, unlike most advice out there.

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We believe that simply telling you to believe in yourself or change your habits isn't enough to wake up excited about life or feel truly confident in your body.

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Each week you'll gain actionable strategies and oh my goodness, powerful insights to stop feeling stuck and start loving your midlife.

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This is the Mind your Midlife Podcast.

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I once sat down with two of my friends and just said I feel bleh, I feel off I don't know what is the word for that.

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Just, you know I'm, I'm bleh, I have no other term for it and we all in this conversation were in our 50s, as I am now, and we didn't necessarily know the answer to that.

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Do I know what it's related to?

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Well, I imagine it's related to hormones.

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It's related maybe to being overextended and not resting enough.

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It's related to, maybe, some unhealthy habits of eating and drinking that I had been doing in that recent period.

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And deep under that it's related to am I valuing myself enough to, as you've heard me say before, take just a little bit more care of myself in this phase of life, myself in this phase of life?

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Are you Because all of this the decision we make about how we're treating our bodies and how we're fixing any of these issues that we might want to fix stems from?

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Do you value yourself and believe deep down that you deserve to have a really great and vibrant midlife?

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Because if you really believe that and that's what you're telling yourself in your head, then I'm here to help you underscore that and find solutions that fit for you Intrigued.

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So we're going to have a bit of a holistic discussion today with my guest, dee Davidson.

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Dee is a board-certified functional health practitioner and if you've never heard of functional health, that's more of a whole body holistic health perspective.

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She specializes in hormone balance, gut health and root cause healing, and she has over two decades of experience, mostly, interestingly, working with women in midlife.

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She can do lab testing as well as help us through lifestyle shifts that make a huge difference.

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So I am super excited to introduce you to Dee Okay welcome, Dee.

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Thank you so much for having me.

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So let's let's kind of start with this.

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I know that hormone balance is a big topic for you.

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It's something that you help people with, speak about a lot, so tell us how hormones have become an issue in your life or affected you.

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We could track a whole episode just on that, cheryl, but I'll give you the snippet, and I know that your audience is a little bit older.

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I'm in my 50s, but it did start back in my early 30s when I went to conceive and I was placed in this category called unexplained infertility, which I think there's always an explanation for everything.

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So I started to dig into who else was in this category of unexplained infertility and what might have affected me being in this category, and I started to really become fascinated at how little information is out there, whether it be for young girls who are having painful periods or PCOS or infertility, or at midlife with perimenopause and menopause.

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There just isn't really a lot of education for women in regard to their hormones, and I was fascinated with how many different things can have an impact.

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It's not just, you know, seed cycling or reducing stress and relaxing to get pregnant, and it's not you're getting hot flashes so you put some yam cream on.

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There's just so much information and so many things that things that go into it that it brought me to where I am today.

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So, to give you the snippet, is that I went through an unexplained infertility.

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I was able to conceive my two boys, who are now 13 and 15.

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One through the blessing of IVF.

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I've learned a lot about infertility.

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I still do help a lot of women with infertility, but my main clientele are women ages 40 plus who are now seeing their body change.

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And how hormones affected me later in life is that I had a really hard time embracing the shift from my 30s to 40s and now 50s.

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As to questioning why, why am I bloated now?

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Why, you know, why don't I have the six pack?

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Why do I not feel the way that I did?

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So I had to really understand that hormone health it doesn't only impact reproduction or your periods, that it impacts everything.

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Right, I control, I call it a control panel.

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It controls your brain, your pituitary, your thyroid, your adrenals, your metabolism, your insulin.

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It is your control panel.

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And so you know, later on in life things just don't run as smoothly for most of us as they once did, and one little stressor here or one little stressor there will really affect the hormones, which are signals, and so I had to learn how to recalibrate my body and find its way back to ease and balance.

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And now I really enjoy helping women, all ages really, but my clientele is women midlife, if you will who are confused.

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They don't really know what's going on with their body.

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They're not loving themselves when they look in the mirror and it's overwhelming.

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So that's why I'm so passionate about it, because it's overwhelming.

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And to have someone have a roadmap or a checklist and say, all right, well, let's look at the call.

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Right before this was a woman who she wanted to have functional lab testing.

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As you know, that's something that I do and she's like oh, my sister worked with you and she had all this testing done and she thinks I need to talk to you.

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I said well, before we talk about lab testing, let's talk about the things we can take personal responsibility for that affect our hormones.

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And right away we started talking about nutrition and blood sugar management.

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And right there she was telling me she drinks coffee on an empty stomach, she goes five hours, seven hours, without eating until her lunch.

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So there's just so much that impacts the hormones and a lot of it doesn't really need to be overwhelming.

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You just need someone who understands hormone health, like myself, to say well, let's look, let's go through this checklist and see what things are you doing that are supporting your hormones or maybe harming your hormones, and that's what I love about it is that you really can find yourself back to feeling good again, and you just need to know what things affect your hormones.

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Yeah, and there's two reasons I'm really excited to have you on the podcast.

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One is that, yes, the people listening are absolutely 40 and above.

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I'm in my 50s as well, so, yes, we're absolutely in the same place.

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And the second reason is exactly what you said the word overwhelm or overwhelming and as a podcast host, I'm on here every week talking about things you can do in midlife, and I might be the source of someone's overwhelm occasionally which is not my goal, of course but when we get all this information about what we could do to feel better and be more productive and sleep better and this, and that it can be a lot and I do I do see your point that hormones are really kind of the control center in a lot of ways.

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So let's start here.

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One thing you said to me when we first met is that a lot of women are kind of just feeling off.

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They just describe it as I just I don't feel myself, I feel off, and so I know that you've heard that many, many times.

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So what would you say to someone who's kind of feeling that way?

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Yes, I, would say that you need to listen, listen to your intuition, those voices that we hear, those little nudges that we feel they're real and so don't ignore them.

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Those are real signals of the you know.

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Those are signs that something is indeed off.

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So some of those signs, you know whether it be bloating, right, bloating poor sleep, hot flashes.

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You don't.

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You don't just get hot flashes because you're in midlife.

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I, you know, I've had them in the past, but then I also know what can contribute to them.

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And then I go, yeah, I can take a little more personal accountability around that, and then I haven't had them in a long time, right?

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So anything that you're experiencing that doesn't feel familiar to who you are or what you've experienced, is a little tap on the shoulder to say, okay, well, let me investigate what might contribute to that symptom, that feeling off, and see again, take inventory personal responsibility for not managing stress, I'm not breathing, I'm not eating enough protein, whatever those things that come back in relationship to that symptom.

00:11:06.653 --> 00:11:15.610
But if you feel off, you're probably off, and then getting the help or the, the information to see like, why, where's that stemming from?

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Yeah, yeah, figuring it out.

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So let's go down this tangent because I hope it's a good example of you know a symptom that women might be feeling.

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But when you said that we don't really have to have hot flashes, it caught my attention.

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Really have to have hot flashes?

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It caught my attention because I don't have terrible hot flashes, but sometimes I have them significantly.

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So tell us a little bit more about what you mean, about being able to minimize that or control that.

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Yes.

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So I'm very proud because I have a lot of women that come to me with hot flashes of the fact that I've helped a lot of women, you know, eliminate, diminish them, but a lot of them just don't even have it anymore.

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I have found there's a huge correlation between hot flashes and blood sugar management.

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Now, the blood sugar management piece isn't as simple as people think either.

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People think like blood sugar management is I don't eat a lot of candy or fruit high in sugar and I'm eating protein and stabilizing my blood sugar.

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But the thing is that blood sugar is so much more complicated and if anyone's wondering, am I balancing my blood sugar?

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A great place to start is I follow this woman, the glucose goddess.

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Have you heard of her?

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I have not.

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She's awesome and one of my clients.

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She had really high A1C and she's fit and she does all the things and looks good, but her A1C was really high.

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She was having hot flashes, by the way, and I recommended this and she's gotten her A1C, you know, back to normal within the last six months.

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But she said, oh my gosh, that woman is awesome, she got her book or whatever, but there's a lot of pieces that would take us way more than 30 minutes to get into.

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But I would say, look into blood sugar regulation, because typically, once you get your blood sugar under control, it doesn't mean that you're at A1C or your fasting glucose is high, but that throughout the day you have a good pattern of staying stable.

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The hot flashes go away.

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There's just a correlation between those two things.

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Funny enough, and is it because cortisol spikes when our blood sugar is dysregulated?

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I haven't gone that that far, but stabilize your blood sugar and your hot flashes will typically go away.

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The other piece of blood sugar regulation is stress.

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So there is a piece that people need to understand.

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It's not just food and exercise.

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Stress will elevate your blood sugar, by the way.

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So if you're not doing a good job of managing stress, or you have leaky boundaries or you're not saying no and you need to be saying no and resting that too will dysregulate your blood sugar.

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But blood sugar and hot flashes huge correlation.

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This is the very first time I've ever heard anyone say that 100%.

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And I'm telling you, it's like the first thing I work with people on is blood sugar regulation, because it's the root cause.

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Dysregulation is the root cause of your immune system getting taxed inflammation, you know again, good sleep if your cortisol spiking at night because your blood sugar was dysregulated during the day and when you go to sleep at night it's trying to recalculate, if you can imagine that, and cortisol spikes and you wake up.

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So that's another reason why in midlife women go oh, I can't sleep or I can't stay asleep, and then we talk about their nutrition and their blood sugar regulation and it's like, well, if you didn't do a great job of regulating your blood sugar during the day, when you go to sleep your body is doing a reboot, right.

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It's like when we do the updates on our phone or our computer, it's trying to help you.

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So when you're not eating, walking, talking, having a bowel movement, your body feels like, all right, she's sleeping right now.

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So we're going to try to.

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You know correct things.

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And so if you didn't do a good job with the blood sugar during the day, it's also a reason that I see people having night sweats and waking up a lot.

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Oh, so the body is trying to sort of fix.

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I'm going to loosely say what we did wrong during the day.

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And the harder it has to work, maybe the harder it is for us to sleep.

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Yeah.

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So think about cortisol, your stress hormone that we hear so much about.

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Cortisol is the hormone that opens your eyes in the morning.

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If you don't spike cortisol and when we do a circadian rhythm mapping or things like that cortisol should be highest in the morning it's the hormone that wakes you up.

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So think about when you go to sleep.

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You're trying to sleep and start asking yourself and get curious why is cortisol awake?

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Why is that spiking at night?

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Is it because my blood sugar is dysregulated?

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Is it because I haven't processed emotional stress when I go to bed?

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Is Is it because maybe I have some bad bacteria or things that's trying to clean up?

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That's the whole process of elimination of what things could it be?

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But one thing we can get under control is definitely our blood sugar through, you know, eating enough protein, eating often enough and things like that.

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Managing stress.

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I love it and I love that you're saying it's not actually that hard to do.

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Because I do think that, back to that overwhelm, that we feel like, wow, that's a huge change, I'm never going to be able to do it, it's going to be too hard, and then we kind of stop ourselves.

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It's being in tune, right.

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And that's why I have every single client do a food journal.

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It is one of the first things we do and I know people go, oh, but it's like.

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But if you really want to understand where the vital voids are I call them vital voids then you have to.

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There's something about writing it down and looking at it that makes it real right, because I have a lot of clients, especially women, who say, oh, I eat protein.

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And then they're like having two eggs, that's 12 grams of protein.

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You need to eat 25 to 30 grams of protein with each meal to stabilize your blood sugar, right.

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So it is eye-opening when you do a food journal and we don't do it for the rest of our life, but we do it to learn about ourselves and learn about patterns and where those gaps are, where the vital voids are, so that we can help ourselves and go okay, I didn't realize I'm only having 20 grams, or I'm going six hours without eating.

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What happens to my blood sugar, which is a whole cascading effect on the rest of our health and our hormones.

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Yeah, that's a good point, Because we do feel like, oh, I'm eating some eggs, that's plenty, that'll be fine.

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And actually blood not blood sugar but protein is such a big topic on social media right now.

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For midlife women in particular, I feel like all I hear on Instagram is eat more protein, eat more protein, eat more protein.

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And it's a little daunting, especially because of what you just said.

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Two eggs is not nearly enough, so do you have any tips to kind of make it easier to add in more protein?

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I think you know again it's controversial.

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Some people say, oh, no animal protein no dairy right.

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So everyone's got a different philosophy.

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I love chat GPT in general.

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I don't know if you use it, cheryl, but for a lot of my clients, because we are so different and I hate that social media makes us so in the box, right, everyone can eat a cup of yogurt and then have this, and it's like I don't eat dairy, right.

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So I think it's nutrition is so bio individualized and what works for one person might not work for someone else.

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For me, I don't mind eating meat chicken for breakfast.

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Someone might go, that's too much for me.

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So I like to have my clients use ChatGPT as a tool where you can put in what types of protein you like, right.

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And if you're not really sure, because people don't realize like hemp seeds might add protein, they're just thinking of meat and eggs, right.

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Or dairy, but you also get protein from some vegetables and things like that.

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So you know, putting in chat GPT build me, you know, and I recommend starting with one meal at a time instead of saying the whole day, because we have to get one meal down, then move to the next.

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I just think it's way too overwhelming to say, like, give me 200 grams of protein a day, oh my God, I gotta change all this stuff.

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So start with, maybe, breakfast, because I do know breakfast is the most important meal of the day when it comes to blood sugar regulation, where, if you're eating a high sugar breakfast which a lot of Americans do or high carb breakfast all day long, your body is fighting back that blood sugar it's trying to correct, correct, correct, going into the sleep cycle, right.

00:19:29.270 --> 00:19:39.665
So making sure that you have that high protein breakfast so that's a good place to start is to say, all right, build me a high protein breakfast, 25 to 30 grams.

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Here are the foods that I like.

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Don't focus on what you don't like.

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I think it's way more fun, cheryl, to focus on like what do I like to eat, right?

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Instead of like I got to eliminate all these foods and I can't eat this and I can't eat that, and then see what chat GPT comes back with.

00:19:54.314 --> 00:20:23.809
I just think it's amazing that I know people there's conflicting opinions on chat GPT but as a tool for nutrition and meal planning, and even I have clients who use it for their their dinners and they they it'll even break out the recipe and the grocery list just seeding chat GPT to say like here's the parameter and start with one meal and then go to the next, because I think it is very variable for people Like I don't eat dairy, but some other people they like to eat cottage cheese and yogurt and things like that.

00:20:24.359 --> 00:20:27.019
Layering that's the thing I want you to walk away.

00:20:27.019 --> 00:20:36.180
Listening to this is that you don't just have to eat five eggs right To thing.

00:20:36.180 --> 00:20:38.890
I want you to walk away listening to this is that you don't just have to eat five eggs right To get to your 30 grams of protein.

00:20:38.890 --> 00:20:41.578
It can be, you know, you're getting some protein from spinach and you're getting some protein from whatever you're layering on there.

00:20:41.578 --> 00:20:47.333
It doesn't have to be one source and it gets easier because you get used to, you know what things add up.

00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:48.922
You know what I?

00:20:48.922 --> 00:21:01.547
You said exactly not what I expected you to say, and I love that, because I don't like to be the average you know on the podcast right, exactly right.

00:21:02.087 --> 00:21:23.592
And as we're talking about this chat, gpt, I feel like, can become maybe the next super browser in this way, because, instead of Googling, we're able to ask it and we're able to be very specific and it's it's all it's doing, is it's going and looking out at all the knowledge that it can find and it's coming back with an answer.

00:21:23.592 --> 00:21:39.044
But even better than than Googling and I love that you said that and personally I don't eat dairy either, so I do know like some alternate ways to get protein, but I know I'm not getting enough, given what you've said, so I will try it as well.

00:21:39.424 --> 00:21:46.383
Yeah, and you know, you can be so specific to say you know these foods and so personalized.

00:21:46.383 --> 00:21:47.405
That's what I love, is that?

00:21:47.405 --> 00:21:55.987
Why do we all have to be the same, like we're not the same people, cheryl, I have different likes and dislikes and you know different food sensitivities and things like that, and you can.

00:21:55.987 --> 00:22:01.307
You can say you know, make them single ingredient foods if you don't want to eat.

00:22:01.307 --> 00:22:03.451
You know processed food and things like that.

00:22:03.451 --> 00:22:14.871
It meets you where you're at Because you know, for some of my clients, they come to me and they are still eating like a healthier waffle or protein pancake and I have to meet them where they're at and say this is really where we want you.

00:22:14.871 --> 00:22:16.703
But let's not look at the gap.

00:22:16.703 --> 00:22:20.882
Let's see, like, how can we get you there, right, right?

00:22:21.321 --> 00:22:31.410
I want to circle back to something you said and that was doing and being, and I think for me, my kids are in their 20s, so they're living on their own.

00:22:31.410 --> 00:23:06.695
You're in a different phase in terms of having kids at home and taking care of them, and when we're in that phase where we're hands on all day, all the time, there's not a lot of being I think it's and then we get to a point where we have a moment to go oh, oh, okay, now I can take care of myself, maybe, but we're not used to it and we almost don't know how to do it, and so the fact that you're saying balance, doing and being to me says that really well.

00:23:07.096 --> 00:23:08.587
It's true, and you know a good place to.

00:23:08.587 --> 00:23:12.990
I have a lot of clients that are in your phase of life or beyond a lot.

00:23:12.990 --> 00:23:23.118
I have a lot of clients who've already retired and they don't really have a new routine or a new set schedule and definitely have never been used to being.

00:23:23.118 --> 00:23:23.923
And I say, start with the bookends, right.

00:23:23.923 --> 00:23:25.467
What do you do in the first hour of the day?

00:23:25.467 --> 00:23:30.778
That's a good place to just be and set your intention for the day.

00:23:30.778 --> 00:23:35.007
Do some breathing, get some sunlight, you know, get outside that type of stuff.

00:23:35.007 --> 00:23:40.329
And then the stuff's going to happen in between, right, when you can some days you can be more than other days.

00:23:40.329 --> 00:23:41.593
We have to be doing right.

00:23:41.593 --> 00:23:44.749
And then at the end of the day, what's that last hour will look like again?

00:23:44.749 --> 00:23:51.209
Are you doing your meditation or journaling, or reflecting on the day, or gratitude and things like that?

00:23:51.209 --> 00:23:57.538
So start with yourself, because you're going to give to everybody else in between, and then end with yourself.

00:23:57.538 --> 00:23:57.837
Right.

00:23:57.837 --> 00:24:00.185
Always come back to self at the end of the day too.

00:24:00.727 --> 00:24:01.308
I love that.

00:24:01.308 --> 00:24:08.553
It's very simple, it's easy to remember, absolutely, and I love to just read and relax at night.

00:24:08.553 --> 00:24:12.388
So I think I have the night down, but I'm not sure I have the morning down, so I need to think about that.

00:24:12.409 --> 00:24:20.790
Well, most women wake up their eyes open and go I got to do this and I got to do that, and you know, that's the piece where you know we have to be a little bit more aware.

00:24:20.790 --> 00:24:32.453
And sometimes it just starts with 10 minutes with yourself of just how do I want to again.

00:24:32.453 --> 00:24:40.682
When we talk about being and doing, I laugh when I have to take my mother to the doctor's appointment, like no, not, that's again doing, but how do you want to feel today?

00:24:40.682 --> 00:24:43.307
Take yourself through the day.

00:24:43.307 --> 00:24:47.010
Of course, we can't control how the day is going to go, but how do you want to feel today?

00:24:47.010 --> 00:24:51.174
On the other side, you know what's your intention for your day.

00:24:51.174 --> 00:24:55.468
It could just be starting with that.

00:24:55.468 --> 00:25:00.186
That's starting with yourself and telling yourself this is how I want to feel today, and then you can again habit stack as you go along.

00:25:00.186 --> 00:25:08.214
Some people like journaling, some people like doing meditation, some people, you know, like doing some kind of exercise before they go on their phone.

00:25:08.214 --> 00:25:09.297
But start with yourself.

00:25:09.297 --> 00:25:11.308
You know big or small.

00:25:11.950 --> 00:25:22.905
I love that, and one thing that I've really had to force myself to learn is to set an intention before, before the day before doing something, before talking to someone.

00:25:22.905 --> 00:25:29.107
It was not something that I ever understood at all and it's huge, so it makes a difference, doesn't it?

00:25:29.489 --> 00:25:32.035
It really, really does, it absolutely does.

00:25:32.035 --> 00:25:36.747
Okay, so I have one more sort of big overarching question for you.

00:25:36.747 --> 00:25:56.107
But before I do that, so that I don't forget, I like the way that you work with clients in that you look at sort of this whole life perspective and help them figure out some things that they could change without it being medication or without it being supplements necessarily.

00:25:56.107 --> 00:25:59.965
But then that's involved and you can do the testing and you can kind of do it all.

00:25:59.965 --> 00:26:05.986
So where can people find you if they're curious about what you do or they want to learn more?

00:26:06.507 --> 00:26:07.528
Yes, great question.

00:26:07.528 --> 00:26:20.019
Just on my website, confidentlyloveyourselfcom, or on Instagram confidently underscore love, underscore yourself A lot of freebies and things on my website and on my Instagram as well.

00:26:20.019 --> 00:26:29.455
And if they're just curious and want to poke around, there's a blog my own, my confidently balance your pod, my confidently balance your hormones podcast, is on there as well.

00:26:29.944 --> 00:26:33.535
Yes, and I'll make sure the links are in the show notes for everything as well.

00:26:33.535 --> 00:26:35.006
Thank you so.

00:26:35.006 --> 00:26:45.157
So the sort of overarching question I'm referring to is we've talked about a lot of things and I know I'm taking away a couple of things that I am absolutely going to use.

00:26:45.157 --> 00:26:50.196
And, that being said, after listening to a podcast episode, nobody can remember everything.

00:26:50.196 --> 00:27:00.938
So for the person who's listening, who's driving or walking or whatever, and they, they should hold on to, in your opinion, one particular OMG thing, what would you say?

00:27:00.938 --> 00:27:01.365
That is?

00:27:01.946 --> 00:27:13.215
I would say that you need to stop ignoring the signs, the symptoms, if you're waking up and having a headache, if you're waking up in the middle of the night or you're not getting good sleep.

00:27:13.215 --> 00:27:14.198
I'm here at 51.

00:27:14.198 --> 00:27:21.682
Again, I go to bed at 10 and I wake up usually at 5, 530, and I don't wake up and I don't even not even to go to the bathroom.

00:27:21.682 --> 00:27:29.359
Right, so you don't have to be stuck with those symptoms and what I want to tell you is that the symptoms are taps on the shoulder.

00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:41.295
To go a little deeper, while you can, I always tell my clients it's a blessing, a symptom's a blessing because it's your body saying hey, pay attention, and then from there, look for help and be an advocate.

00:27:41.295 --> 00:27:46.711
Even if your doctor's saying your labs look okay and everything's fine, it's a part of midlife.

00:27:46.711 --> 00:27:48.054
That's not true.

00:27:48.054 --> 00:27:50.686
You can still have vitality and feel your best.

00:27:50.686 --> 00:27:51.890
It is an opportunity.

00:27:51.890 --> 00:27:52.612
Opportunity.

00:27:52.632 --> 00:27:56.651
A symptom is an opportunity to ask more questions and get curious about your body.

00:27:56.651 --> 00:28:02.167
I'm here, cheryl's got you know her knowledge and a huge network, like I do.

00:28:02.167 --> 00:28:13.948
There's always someone out there and whoever your greater force or being is, god's spirit, the universe, ask, just sit and say you know what do I need and listen to that message that comes back.

00:28:13.948 --> 00:28:14.570
What do I need?

00:28:14.570 --> 00:28:15.635
What does my to that message that comes back.

00:28:15.635 --> 00:28:15.998
What do I need?

00:28:15.998 --> 00:28:16.539
What does my body need?

00:28:16.539 --> 00:28:17.042
What does this mean?

00:28:17.042 --> 00:28:17.545
What is this telling me?

00:28:17.545 --> 00:28:25.811
Get curious and then be an advocate for your health and put it out there and seek the answers, because symptoms are not normal.

00:28:26.144 --> 00:28:27.411
That's a bit of a mic drop.

00:28:27.411 --> 00:28:29.044
We don't have to live this way.

00:28:29.044 --> 00:28:31.670
We can feel great.

00:28:31.670 --> 00:28:34.635
It doesn't matter that we're in our 50s or 40s or 60s.

00:28:34.635 --> 00:28:36.057
Yes, right, thank you.

00:28:41.384 --> 00:28:44.865
Well, dee, I know that this is going to be a very popular episode because you have said some things a little differently than others have said it, and that is amazing.

00:28:44.865 --> 00:28:46.810
So thank you for joining me.

00:28:46.810 --> 00:28:48.309
Thanks so much for having me.

00:28:48.309 --> 00:28:51.453
What a fascinating discussion.

00:28:51.453 --> 00:28:57.157
First of all, her OMG moment I find to be tremendously empowering.

00:28:57.157 --> 00:29:04.175
Trust your instincts, you can feel amazing, find the help.

00:29:04.175 --> 00:29:15.259
And that, again, is back to what I said at the beginning when we believe deep in our gut, in the thoughts in our head, in our subconscious mind, that we deserve it.

00:29:15.259 --> 00:29:16.727
We're going to figure it out.

00:29:16.727 --> 00:29:24.912
And the next thing I want to say is I'm not sure anyone has ever made such a connection for me.

00:29:24.912 --> 00:29:34.277
Maybe you agree with this too, about blood sugar management and hot flashes what you can bet I'm digging into that.

00:29:34.277 --> 00:29:40.231
So huge things learned today.

00:29:40.231 --> 00:29:41.595
I hope you agree.

00:29:41.595 --> 00:29:43.558
I hope you enjoyed the episode.

00:29:44.826 --> 00:29:57.125
Make sure that you have joined us in Patreon for Midlife Pivot, and that's patreoncom slash mindyourmidlife Easy to find absolutely free all summer.

00:29:57.125 --> 00:30:14.854
And Dee joins me for an extra little discussion of her DRESS acronym and what all the pieces of that are, to help you kind of take stock of where you are and where you might want to tweak something to feel even better in your life.

00:30:14.854 --> 00:30:27.441
So I'll see you over there and make sure you've hit the follow button, because next week we're going to talk about something you might have heard of before and that is vision boards.

00:30:27.441 --> 00:30:41.914
But we're going to tweak it so that when you're in midlife and you are wanting stuff to look forward to in your life over the next 20, 30, 40 years, you can make a vision board.

00:30:41.914 --> 00:30:48.695
And I'm going to make it easy for you because, just like you heard today, we might just be talking about AI again.

00:30:48.695 --> 00:30:59.173
I'll see you then and in the meantime, slow down, notice what's going on in your head and what's going on around you and let's create something amazing.

Dee Davidson, FDN-P Profile Photo

Dee Davidson, FDN-P

Dee Davidson, FDN-P is a Board Certified Functional Health Practitioner and holistic health expert specializing in hormone balance, gut health, and root-cause healing. With over two decades of experience, Dee empowers women in midlife to take charge of their wellness through functional lab testing, personalized protocols, and sustainable lifestyle shifts. Her own journey through fertility struggles, hormonal weight gain, and now thriving in her 50s fuels her passion to help others feel vibrant, confident, and in control of their health—naturally.