Is Caregiver Syndrome At The Root Of Your Hormone Woes?

Do you have a case of the "caregiver syndrome?" You know, where you're so busy taking care of everyone else that you forget to take care of yourself?

 

If you answered yes, then you might be surprised to learn that this could be the root cause of your hormone woes.

 

That's right, according to world-renowned hormone expert, Dr. Venus Ramos, caregiver syndrome is one of the most common causes of hormone imbalances in women.

 

On this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Ramos shares her insights on how caregiver syndrome can lead to hormone imbalances and what you can do to fix it.

 

You'll also learn:

 

-The three most common symptoms of caregiver syndrome

 

-How caregiver syndrome can lead to hormone imbalances

 

-The top three hormones that are most affected by caregiver syndrome

 

-The steps you can take to be free of caregiver syndrome and restore balance to your hormones

 

-Exercise regimen, and other stress-relieving techniques that can help alleviate caregiver syndrome

 

-Weight loss tips

 

-And much more!

 

So if you think you might be struggling with your hormones and caregiver syndrome , then tune in to this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. You'll walk away with the knowledge and tools you need to start feeling like yourself again.

 

(00:00): Dr. Ramos says, stay fit, be happy and lead with love.

 

(00:06): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.

 

(00:59): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest, Dr. Venus, many of you saw on the Stop The Menopause Madness Summit, and you loved her. So I brought her on the podcast. She is an amazing woman who is a woman of many talents. Let me just say this she's very accomplished. You would never believe that she is the age that she is. She really looks like she's in her thirties and that's cuz she practices what she preaches. She has been a victim, if you will, or subject to caregiver syndrome all while being an elite fitness athlete. And she has thrived through that. Not only survived but thrived. And she's gonna talk to you about how you can start doing that yourself. Maybe you're in that sandwich generation, you've got older parents with health problems.

 

(01:55): You've got kids also, and that really can take a toll on your hormones and your health. If you're living it, you know what I'm talking about, or maybe you have family members who have lived it, it is a real thing. So I'll tell you about a Dr. Venus and then we'll get started. She's got some solutions for you. Dr. Venus is the biohacking and she's a board-certified physician of physical medicine and rehab. She has a thriving medical practice in California, and she's competed for 20 years as a national level fitness athlete. She's also a fitness trainer, and she's had clients ranging from single moms to professional athletes and an action film star. How exciting she's been a repeat guest on the TV series, the doctors, you might have seen her there , and she's been featured on several other shows, including NBC's today and American gladiators. And she contributes frequently to multiple health outlets, including I, her.com and oxygen magazine. She has a firsthand story of living through and thriving through caregiver syndrome. And we're gonna dive into it now. Welcome Dr. Venus, Hey,

 

(03:05): How are you doing?

 

(03:06): I'm doing great. I'm really excited to have you on today. You have such vast experience in so many areas. We had to talk about what to talk about, and I know that you'll weave all of your experience, knowledge and brilliance into the conversation, but I thought it's super important to focus on caregiver syndrome because this isn't something that I haven't ever covered in the podcast. It's part of your personal experience, and you have some great tips to help people. And so I thought we would dive into that first. And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what caregiver syndrome is and a bit about your story.

 

(03:51): Caregiver syndrome in general is just all of the symptoms that you experience when you have a physical, emotional and mental exhaustion from caring for somebody. Now of course, this can be caring for a loved one, or it can be caring for someone on the job for people who actually act as caregivers. A lot of times people think about caregiver syndrome being a lot of the fatigue and the overall fatigue and lethargy that you feel when you are caring for an elder. But certainly caregiver syndrome could be for new mothers who are caring for their children. So caregiver syndrome can affect pretty much anyone when they are directly involved in caring for someone else.

 

(04:38): Okay. And so who's mostly affected by caregiver syndrome. What happens? Why does it occur and how might someone know that they're having this?

 

(04:48): Well, oftentimes, especially when you're talking about caregiving for a loved one, this is something that happens because you are so intent. You are oftentimes so emotionally

 

involved in making sure that your loved one is being taken good care of. Oftentimes you start to neglect those very important things that you must do in order to care for yourself, you will perhaps not eat as well. You don't dedicate enough time to relaxing and getting enough sleep on your own. These are things that often may happen because you're very concerned, which it's important to do so about making sure that your loved one gets the care that you want them to have. You may be feeling very exhausted. You may be feeling very frustrated. You may start feeling that you're noticing that your clothes are fitting more tightly because you simply are putting on more weight. These are all the things that can happen. You may be more irritable. You might notice that you are starting to become more irritable with taking care of your loved one. And that's actually something that I started noticing in my own life when I started taking care of my father. And that's when I knew immediately at that particular moment in time that I needed to make a change.

 

(06:09): Yeah, I remember a client. I had, we were working on her health. She had all kinds of cortisol problems. Her weight was going up. She was really struggling with that. Her doctor was treating her for anxiety and depression and then she was having trouble sleeping and with her sex drive and it was just all these things. And she really was the only one taking care of her mom, even though she had siblings. And when we talked about it, she was getting so much resentment that her siblings weren't helping her at all. She was just saying that she felt so put upon and she almost had become like a martyr and used it kind of that anger and resentment. And then her mom wasn't nice to her too. So put that on top. So there was a lot of conflict there. She was struggling sticking to the things that she knew she should eat to benefit her that were nurturing versus junk food.

 

(07:05): And so that was one thing that we talked about and she hadn't really seen this as a syndrome of any type, but she was the only one. So when we had the conversation about, wow, this is really common. It affects a lot of women in the 40 to 60 year old range. And it affects on men as well. And one of the ways that it often shows up is that people start having health problems themselves. And they don't realize how much of a stress, particularly on their cortisol, the actual physical caregiving, the emotional caregiving, the mental, the spiritual what a toll it's taking on them until they really talk about it and unpack it. And I find that it's not necessarily a common topic of conversation. Did you feel like that when you were going through it and as if you weren't supported by the public in general, it's not a topic of conversation. People didn't know what you were going through.

 

(08:07): Well, I thought for myself, I felt myself slipping into this hole or falling into it and staying there of apathy where I really didn't care about myself or my help. And I just kind of stayed in this pit. And for me it was almost like there was an element of shame to it as well, because this happened to me and my family because my father had a stroke as a rehab physician. This happens to be one of my specialties caring for, for stroke patients and making sure that their families are educated in what's involved in caring for a loved one who has stroke. So this is something that I specialize in and when it happens in my own family and I find myself very protective of my father, knowing that I know how things are supposed to go. So this is how it's going to go.

 

(09:03): And I need to watch to make sure that everything is going the right way. I became very involved in making sure he had the best perfect caregiving after his stroke. And of course, I'm the only one who can give that, right? Because I'm the doctor , I should be able to do this and no one else can do this. Only you Venus only you only me and being a fitness competitor as well. I had done this actually almost 20 years. I knew about nutrition. I knew about training. I knew how to stick to any nutrition and exercise program, despite whatever kind of crazy schedule I had, cuz I'd been doing this for 20 years. So me thinking I was the authority in taking care of a stroke patient and the authority in staying fit and healthy, I should be able to handle this no problem, but very quickly I began to just forget about myself because the work of maintaining my medical practice and making sure that my father was getting the perfect care from me was just too much for me to also squeeze in all of that nutrition and exercise stuff that I knew about as well.

 

(10:15): So that's where it started to become the caregiver syndrome, where I started neglecting some of my nutrition. I started neglecting the exercise that had become such a habit in my life. It was no longer a habit because my whole life kind of got flipped upside down into adding this whole other person that I was taking care of as perfectly as possible because I'm supposed to be the expert. So there was a, a bit of shame on my part in accepting the fact that this is where I had slipped to and fall into because I had held myself to a, a certain standard. So for me there was shame involved. But the thing that turned it around was that I was so tired. I was so exhausted. I had started gaining weight. I was sitting on the couch for just a little bit of a breather.

 

(11:07): When I heard my father ring the bell that calls for help whenever he needed something. And that bell triggered such a feeling of anger and frustration in me. And as I walked up towards his door, his bedroom door to take care of whatever he might need. I realized that there was this tension in my face that there was anger in my heart. And I realized I did not wanna enter that room, looking that way, feeling that way. Cuz I knew that was something he would certainly be able to sense and I never wanted him to feel like he was a burden to me. And that's when I realized I needed to do something to take better care of myself. So I didn't have those feelings. I didn't wanna feel frustrated, irritated, angry, or looked that way either.

 

(11:56): You know, I love that. And I think that sometimes what might be part of the difficulty with caregiver syndrome is that children and their parents can be, haven't worked through any conflict that they've had throughout their lives, that this situation could escalate it. And so I always encourage people in that situation to unpack any unresolved issues to iron them out so that they can be there for their loved one from a place of love and from a place of being grateful to have the opportunity to provide care in that way. This was part of my client's story. When we talked about it, she had a whole lot of unresolved resentment towards her mom. And so that was getting heaped on top of the fact that she really did come from a good place. She wanted to be there for her mom and she had all these unresolved issues. So when you take that and then the burden of having to spend so much time and energy every day, it really did get to a place where she was resentful of her mom every day. So was that the breaking point for you where you decided I have to do something different?

 

(13:09): It absolutely was. I knew that I did not what my father himself to fall into any kind of a depression again, I was kind of, for me, the motivating factor was love for my father. I did not. I wanted him to get the very best care and I felt like by ignoring my own care, I was not able to do that for him. That was really what I felt as my motivation, but it absolutely made me want to do something to get back on track for me. I had to start with just the simplest of things and all I did the very next morning was just get on my recumbent bike and I started just pedaling away for 10 minutes in the morning. The first thing I did, that's basically all I could

 

(13:54): Do. Okay. And so you had had a pretty rigorous health routine prior to all this and you had gone away from it. So you said, okay, what's one thing I can do today. You got on your RECU bike and how did that start changing things and what did you do next?

 

(14:12): Well, I really felt like it was important for me to do something, something that was more mobile than what I had been doing. And really that was how I started. I started with just 10 minutes a day. I slowly started to increase it by five minutes, 15 minutes. And then I went to 20 minutes. I just started becoming a little bit more mobile as I became more mobile and started increasing some physical activity. I felt myself feeling better and I felt myself even more motivated to do even more, which is of course the natural thing that happens in a human body when it becomes more physically active. So that's when I decided, okay, I've got this, I'm doing full half hour in the morning. Oh my goodness. I'm starting to get back there now. So let me start focusing on nutrition. So I decided I was just gonna start with, let me just focus on having the best breakfast that I can every morning and just make a healthier choice in the morning, rather than just stopping by to grab a coffee and donut on the way into the office. So that was my next step to just make a healthier choice for my first meal of the day.

 

(15:27): Okay. So little steps. And then what started to happen? What changed first?

 

(15:33): Again, more and more. I started feeling better. I felt like I was starting my morning off better. I had more physical activity now I was adding another element of eating healthier and that just again, one step at a time I started changing what I was doing. Then I started making better changes, healthier choices at lunchtime. And again, it was very, very simple to do. And then I was able to add some of the strength training that I was used to doing. Again, I was squeezing this in, but I was making a conscious effort to start adding strength training by doing just simple body weight exercises. And this was as simple as going to the kitchen and adding squat routine in right before I decided to do the dishes cuz I was squatting to load the dishwasher anyway. So again, there was just basic things that I was doing, but it would stimulate my brain to remember, okay, this is what I'm going to do now.

 

(16:35): Cause the other thing that's important to remember is I couldn't just jump into the gym and well I could have, but I couldn't just jump into the gym and return to that really rigorous and vigorous exercise routine that I had been used to when I was competing for fitness competitions, that type of routine likely would've led me to be extremely sore immediately after. And when that happens, it's super easy just to say, oh, forget this. I'm not going to exercise anymore. And that could delay you for another couple of weeks and it's easy to, to fall back off the wagon when you overdo it in the beginning.

 

(17:12): Mm-Hmm right. That's a great point. I'm just wondering on average, how many hours a day were you spending, helping your parents? I think that the amount of time that you spend really can put a crunch on your free time. So how much time were you personally spending and then how can someone proactively navigate this journey? If they know, oh, I'm gonna have to spend two hours with my parent every day and a half hour getting there and a half hour back. So that's three hours as it's gonna cut into their time. What information can you give people to help them consciously navigate this? So they don't end up having caregiver syndrome, but maybe they could avoid it.

 

(17:52): Absolutely. I think that it's really important to calculate how much care is really involved. If I had to add it all up, I would say at least six hours in the day I actually moved in with my parents. I had a home for both my mom and dad when they moved out to join me here in California and I moved into that home so that I could help my mom take better care of my father. I did have a caregiver to assist my father at something of course that we recommend for patients once they leave the rehab hospital after a stroke. So I did have a caregiver, but again, me being very overprotective, I felt like I wanted to oversee so much of it when the caregiver first came over. So there was an element of trusting the caregiver that was involved. And again, this was a lot to do with me, just recognizing that I didn't have to be the only caregiver who was there physically to make sure things were run perfectly. And again, this is all about having the right team around you, involving my mother, involving the caregiver, making sure that I'm comfortable with their knowledge, by giving them the appropriate training on how to provide that care. So understand how much time you do have in the day, how much time you can allocate and then work with a team of some sort, whether it's a hired caregiver, whether it's your family and work together so that you really trust each other to take care of the person that you want to make sure gets that care.

 

(19:41): Yeah, because if you don't take care of it, then it can end up in burnout. I guess it goes past just caregiver syndrome to caregiver burnout. And nobody wants that. My client was really on the verge of that. So now along with your career, as a physician and helping with your father and helping families who have, because you're in the rehabs medicine sector, you help families to rehabilitate and help their loved ones to recover. You're a fitness model for many years and you help people with weight loss and you have a lot of tips. And I think that people would love to hear, how did you maintain your weight and your health? I mean, we heard about you had slacked off a little and you started back on the bike and doing squats with the dishwasher. I could visualize that , I'm thinking, could I squat and load the dishwasher? I don't know. I'm gonna have to try it. and so what are some other things that people can do? Maybe they don't have a loved one that they're caring for, but they want to lose weight. And I know that's something you help people with, or maybe they have a lot of pressures. Maybe it's not a loved one. Maybe they just have a very demanding job or a lot of social activities or obligations. What are some of the main tenants that you give people to follow to help them maintain or lose weight?

 

(21:08): Well, I think that especially coming outta the whole caregiver syndrome life that I had and trying to resume some semblance of self care, I realized how important it was to have a lot of that knowledge that I had prior to that in really optimizing my fitness level for competition and being able to squeeze that into a busy work schedule. So being able to have that knowledge was certainly really important for me in resuming any kind of training of any kind. And I think that it's important to really understand how to negotiate, that, how to fit a fit lifestyle into a busy schedule. And that's what I like to do for all of my clients and even my patients when I'm trying to encourage them to incorporate exercise and nutrition into their life, because of course doing that can help my rehab patients and my pain management patients that I see in the office as it decreases inflammation in the body.

 

(22:16): So probably the number one tip I start off with for everyone. And we've touched on this a little bit already, is to make sure that you are managing your cortisol levels, that you are managing the stress in your life because it's so very important because cortisol and all of its pathways that it acts on in your body can do so much to basically counteract anything that you're trying to do in terms of staying fit and being healthy and losing weight. If that is your goal. So start off with a very specific plan on being able to manage that. And a lot of that, I tell people as they're about approaching any kind of a health and fitness plan, they get concerned about, oh, I need to do an hour of cardio a day. I need to be prepping all my meals. I need to know exactly how many calories of this I'm doing.

 

(23:15): I need to make sure I'm, there's so much that they get worried about that. They become overwhelmed with their diet and their nutrition and you get these spikes of cortisol and then your cortisol levels remain high and there's no balance there. And then they're struggling trying to figure out why is this not working? Well, you're all stressed out. it's not gonna work out if you're not, if you're all stressed out. So definitely having a, a plan to manage that is gonna be very important right off the bat. Even if you're starting with a very simple, deep breathing exercises sometime during the day on a daily basis, that at least is a starting point. The other thing I like to talk a lot about is making exercise manageable, cuz I think these are the things that are often hard for people to do because they say, I need to spend that hour on the treadmill, but it's not necessary to do that.

 

(24:12): You can start with just breaking it up into 10 minute chunks in a day, cuz you can get health benefits from that that's been shown. But what I like to do when you're really ready to take on more and get a little bit more intense with your exercise regimen, I like to tell people about doing high intensity interval training. This is something that people have heard a lot about. They've heard about interval training hit is often what it goes by high intensity interval training. But what I do notice is a lot of people don't really know what that is or they're doing it because they heard that it's what they're supposed to be doing. And then when I see what they think is a hit routine, it's not . So I think that education about that is, is really important. And the reason why hit has become so popular is because it can be done in shorter amounts of time. You can achieve really good benefit towards weight loss by doing a hit routine. But if you're not doing it correctly, then you're not getting the benefits that you think you're getting really intense exercise in short periods of time. And that short period of time is often the appeal that you're able to get. Mm-Hmm a good workout in such a short period of time. And

 

(25:30): So when you say they're not doing it right, can you tell people, cause some people are listening and going, am I doing it right? Tell, so tell us Dr. , how do they know?

 

(25:39): Well, high intensity interval training when you're speaking of any kind of interval training you're you're talking about exercising at a very high intensity and then breaking it up, alternating it with exercising at a lower intensity so that you're exercising a lot of people. If you're talking about even doing sprints, running on a treadmill, basically running at a high level on a treadmill and then slowing it down and going to more of a moderate level on that treadmill, just breaking that up and going back and forth. That's interval training. Now, if you are doing high intensity interval training correctly, that means that you are performing as high and as maximum of your performance level as possible. When you hit that high interval and then going to your low interval, you have to do that low interval for a long enough period of time that your body is able to recover, recover enough that you can truly reach that maximum potential.

 

(26:42): Again, when you are exercising, I often see people doing intervals with a ratio of maybe let's say 30 seconds, that you're exercising at a high intensity for 30 seconds. And then you're going back down to a lower intensity for another 30 seconds. Then you go up to a higher intensity again for another 30 seconds and you're alternating back and forth. Now in general, most people are not gonna be able to get full recovery, to be able to achieve that high intensity, that maximum intensity in just 30 seconds. That's just a one-to-one ratio in order to do high intensity interval training that you would generally need to spend more on the line of a one to two or as even as long as a one to six ratio. So if you're going to be doing a high intensity for 30 seconds, most people are gonna need a full 60 seconds of a lower intensity to get enough recovery time to hit that maximum potential again on their next high intensity interval. So it's the ratio. That's gonna be very important.

 

(27:48): So if people are going to some type of gym where it's a workout, that's being given to them, how can they know if it's true hit or not just by the length of the intervals and the capacity that you're using?

(28:03): Exactly. It's for the most part, you're going to really, it's really a sense of feeling for themselves if you're going to a class and they're basically telling you what your inner world should be. This is often what most people find themselves in will go to a class. Perhaps it's even a cycling class and they wanna do some high intensity interval training. It's harder to do that in the class setting because everyone's recovery time is gonna be a little bit different. So what you are actually doing, if you're not getting full recovery, if you're not feeling that you're recovered enough and we can talk a little bit about this more, but that's gonna actually have to do with what your heart rate is at that time. And starting to know what those heart rate ranges are for you. Mm-Hmm , if you aren't fully recovered during that lower intensity interval, then if your group instructor takes you to a higher intensity again, right away, what you are actually doing is more of an aerobic workout.

 

(29:02): There's nothing wrong with doing an aerobic workout. Just know that the benefits that you're gonna get are gonna be different than a high intensity interval training. Most people wanna do that high intensity interval training because it's going to kind of keep their metabolism burning more fat for a longer period of time throughout the day when they're not exercising. That's one of the benefits that people love about high intensity interval training that the, the fat burning continues when they're not working out. You're not necessarily gonna get that if you don't get that recovery time. So if you're being led into another high intensity interval before you're fully recovered, just know that you are getting an aerobic exercise class and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Aerobic exercise is good for you too.

 

(29:49): Yeah, right. Yes. So get, I mean hit training and intermittent fasting. You can't go wrong doing both of those actually. And then what about weights? Cause I'm sure that's a part of your routine as well. And I think so many women are extremely confused about weights. I think a lot of women avoid them altogether. They go to resistance training. No, I don't do it. I see other women who use two and five pound weights, which in my humble opinion is probably not enough stress on the muscles than what's needed. And I think people are just confused. So help enlighten us

 

(30:29): Well again, this is something that's gonna be very, very individual for the person numbers are going to change depending how strong you become. As you continue to work out, you hopefully will continue to get stronger and be able to lift heavier weights. Oftentimes what I will tell people is to just start counting their reps because that's the repetitions because that's really the easiest way to start tracking how much weight you should be using when you are working two strength training and that resistance training. That's going to work on really toning your muscles. I'm not talking about bulking up your muscles because bulking is gonna require a lot of fine tuning of your nutrition. Again, that's another discussion. We can save, save that for a little bit, but just to get that really toned physique and stronger muscle structure, which is also very important for the human body.

 

(31:27): Your repetitions really should not be going any longer than about eight repetitions. When you do eight repetitions of any exercise, we'll just go with the most basic exercise I can think of right now, which is the bicep curl. You grab a weight, you start doing it up and down, up and down. You count to eight. If that last script is really difficult to do, and you might not be able to do another one without some sort of an assistance, then that amount of weight, the weight of that dumbbell is appropriate for you to do true strength training. You've done eight repetitions and you are about maxed out. You wouldn't be able to do another one unless you really had some assistance. That is the right wait for you to use in strength training. At that time, of course, as you get stronger, you might start being able to go higher.

 

(32:19): You might be able to reach 10 without, before someone would have to assist you. If you were at 10, then that means you need to grab a heavier weight and go even higher. So that's the point where you would start increasing the amount of weight you're getting. If you are going more than 10, 11, 12, again, that is rate you are still gonna gonna be getting some sort of a workout, but you're going to be achieving different things. When you're getting up to 10 to 15 repetitions while holding a weight that is going to be conditioning for your muscles, but you're not really gonna be doing the strength training that is going to help in terms of really shaping your body.

 

(33:00): Okay? And I know some people are wondering, I think one of the reasons why many women use lower weights is they're afraid they're going to bulk up, which has not been my observation. That that's a problem and loss of muscle and bone mass is those are two of the hugest contributors to deterioration of our health. As we age contributing to cognitive decline, osteoporosis, hip fracture, all kinds of things. But I know there are some women listening who are like, okay, he you're, you've done fitness modeling. You know how to get that, but really nice muscular definition. Tell us your secrets. So please share your secrets with them.

 

(33:40): Well, again, it's going to depend upon how much muscle you really wanna show. Some people really like that define the little Deloid cap on their shoulders. Some people don't, again, it's a matter of your personal preference in terms of what you want your body to feel like. And of course it also happens to matter on what your body is naturally going to develop. There's a lot of genetics involved as well. However, when you're working out, if you see that when you're doing eight pound repetitions, that your muscles are really starting to take shape, then you're doing great in terms of what your exercise is going to be able to do. If you're doing the eight repetitions and you're not really starting to see the shape that you're liking, that may be an indication that your nutrition is often your muscles. Aren't getting all of the nutrition it needs in order to appropriately shape your body.

 

(34:35): Oftentimes that involves the protein that you're taking in. So this again differs from person to person, but you can think about numbers along the lines of three quarters of a gram to one full gram of protein. When you're talking about how much protein that you want on a daily basis on your compared to your body weight. So when you're getting that much protein in, then you're talking about the body builders, I'm super heavy type of diet. That's going to get you that bulk, most women are not taking that much. So you would only need to take more along the lines of a quarter to half of a gram, if you wanted to just get more shape.

 

(35:26): So just to translate and clarify what you're saying for people, women who want to bulk up like a body builder, they would take a gram protein for pound of body weight. So if you're 150 pounds, you eat 150 grams of protein, but if you just want, have average muscle mass, it would be about half, half that or five grams. Yeah. Correct. All right. Just wanted to, so

 

(35:49): There's a lot of, again, there's a lot of fine tuning of your nutrition when it comes to bulking up. And if you're not getting that huge amount of protein, as well as carbohydrates, there's a lot of hydrates into doing that as well because your body needs fuel to build that much muscle up as well. Most women are simply not going to eat that mini grams of carbohydrates and protein in order to bulk up to that body Boulder level. So I wouldn't necessarily worry about doing that, but you may be just needing to increase your protein level more. If you see that your muscles aren't taking the shape that you would like.

 

(36:27): I had a medical assistant who worked for me a few years ago and she did bikini competitions. And I had no idea how much work went into preparing for that. It was a real lesson for me. I mean, her diet was so regimented so far out from the competition, but week by week as to the macronutrient proportions and grand, she had to eat and her work out schedule, it was really an extra part-time job. And she was a wife and a mom. I mean, she looked amazing, but I think a lot of us, when we see women in these competitions, at least I used to think, oh, she's born that way. It's her genetics. And you know, it's really not a big deal until I saw that this is an entire part-time job for her. It was very strict, very regimented. And it was emotionally challenging. Also I saw the pressure on her, but she loved it. So ,

 

(37:28): It's definitely for someone. And if you can handle that type of pressure and that type of stress, then certainly go for it. But that's, again, that's very much of an athlete's mentality yes. To, to compete at that level. And again, you don't need to do that in order to look great and be healthy. So you don't need to compare yourself to those athletes.

 

(37:52): Yes. Athletes, and that's the right word. And then they're in a different category. Cause I don't look at football players and think, wow, that's so regimented, how good do that? You know, I, but I give myself a break. I don't have to be like the bikini or fitness competition women. So as we wrap up, we've covered two very important topics. And there's one thing we topic we haven't covered on that applies to both that. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't touch on and that is sleep. Can you talk about the importance of sleep for not only weight loss and maybe you preparing for your competitions, but for preventing and treating caregiver syndrome and burnout?

 

(38:31): Oh my gosh. Sleep is so important in absolutely every single thing that you mentioned, it's important in terms of preventing caregiver syndrome, preventing that burnout simply because your body needs that recovery time. So very important. The recovery that you get during the night to actually fuel yourself during the day is so important to making sure that you are physically and mentally still able to thrive during the day. So absolutely must be able to do that. It's also important because if you are trying to do something like lose weight, there are various hormonal changes that occur specifically during your sleep that can affect your ability to do that. Of course, we talk about recovery and your body being able to refuel itself during the evening times, but there's also specific changes that happen in terms of your appetite, hormones lectin and Graylin. And oftentimes those hormones change such that you start to want to eat more, that appetite hormone that makes you want to eat more.

 

(39:48): That starts to go up when you're not getting enough sleep. So you need to get enough sleep so that you don't have these cravings of wanting to eat when you are awake. So that is another important thing. I really think that sleep in it in and of itself is important in terms of duration. But it's also important in terms of when you're getting that sleep, there are different cycles that your body goes through different cycles of sleep that your gut body goes through when you get your rest. And when you're able to sleep earlier in the day, then you're going to get more of that restorative sleep. That's really going to help you during the, the morning and the rest of the day. So if you're able to fall asleep a little bit earlier in the evening, I say, get maybe even two to three hours before midnight, you're able to do that. You're gonna end up getting more restorative sleep. As far as duration goes, there are a lot of different opinions, a lot of different research based on all of the different research that I've looked at. The minimum number that I'm looking at is around seven and a half hours of sleep. So that's my recommendation in terms of how much sleep you should be getting so that you get the benefits of the recovery time, the restorative effects for your body B and the changes in your appetite that they don't happen as well.

 

(41:15): Yeah, seven and a half hours at least earlier better. And I know some women say that they wake up early and then I say, well, what time are you going to bed? And they say 11 or 12 o'clock well, if you get bed earlier, you might stay asleep longer. But I think that's super important. What you mentioned about the leptin and grillin changing with sleep, and when you're sleep deprived, then you get cravings, food cravings, and nobody wants that. And for caregivers, you know, it is so cortisol, restorative, you detox during your sleep and with their, especially your brain detoxifies, you also consolidate memories. So sleep, I call it the nectar of life. And if you're not getting enough nectar in your life, you need to get more sleep nectar.

 

(42:02): I love that it will help

 

(42:04): it will help your way. It will help if you are in a crunch for care syndrome or burnout, but even just for all of us who have such full lives right now, I D know about U Venus, but between my phone and my iPad and my computer and the mail and all the things that are going on in the it's like, it feels a little overwhelming how you feel that way right now.

 

(42:29): Definitely. Which is why I definitely my time away from my electronics

 

(42:35):\ Yeah, just shut it all down. And I had to do that earlier today. Just go for a walk in nature, look at the dragon flies and the trees and the birds. And so anyway, this has been a great conversation. I think it we've covered a lot of important topics. You're such a role model for women everywhere. You accomplish so much, and you do it with such style and equanimity, everybody listening. I've been around Dr. Venus, and she's just the most calm, humble, loving person. You would never know that she's accomplished all the things that she's accomplished and that she helps so many people. And I think you just walking in the world, being who you are, inspires women and people everywhere to do their best and live their best lives. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing your wisdom and your story, a very personal story and everything that you have to offer. Thank you so much.

 

(43:37): I do appreciate that. And thank you. You've lifted my spirits today.

 

(43:42): and we do have a free download that Dr. Venus has for you. We will have the link in the show notes and it is her. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about it? 15 minute, better body blueprint. What are they gonna find there?

 

(43:59): You're going to find some very simple steps. There are actually five hacks that you can add to your daily life that you can accomplish with just 15 minutes of your day. That will help you be healthier, hopefully happier because you are healthier and feeling really, really good. So I think that it's gonna be super helpful for you if you're really wanting to achieve that, that better body and you're crunched for time. So just gimme 15 minutes. I'm not asking for that whole, all the treadmill,

 

(44:30): Just gimme 15 minutes. okay. Now, before we go, I have to share something. I just saw on the prep sheet that I did not see before, and I cannot believe this. So one of the things Dr. Venus put on the prep sheet is that we could talk about her returning to competition at age 50. There is no way you are 51st off. Oh my gosh. So y'all you must load download her better body blueprint. Cause literally we've been at masterminds together and I thought she was 30 years old. So now I just saw this. I didn't see at age 50. So you for sure. Wanna check out her tips. Thanks so much for joining me, Dr. Venus. Thank you. And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so glad you chose to spend some time with us today. Hopefully you learned something that you can put into action in your life to start moving your health towards the optimum health that you deserve. It is your birthright. So hopefully it was entertaining, but mostly educational and inspirational. Pick one thing, take action today, and then share your results with me on social media. And until

 

(45:51): Next week

 

(45:52): I will see you. Peace, love and hormones. Y'all

 

(45:55): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Get FREE access to The 15-Minute Better Body Blueprint by Dr. Venus Ramos.

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