Speaker 1 (00:20):
PMDD shaped my life for 17 years before I could name it, I spent those years searching for answers, questioning my sanity, and desperately seeking treatments that actually worked. My painful journey had an unexpected twist. Helping others heal from PMDD became my life's purpose. Hi, I'm Jess, a board certified nutritional therapist coach, the founder of her mood mentor and your host. This is PMDD PEP Talk, A weekly reminder that your suffering is real, your experience is valid, and your future is brighter than your symptoms suggest. Each week we're going to explore the truths about PMDD that nobody talks about, the kind of truths that shift something deep inside you and make you think maybe there's more possible than I imagined. Whether you're in the depths of luteal darkness or riding the clarity of your follicular phase, you're exactly where you need to be because here's what I know for sure. Healing PMDD isn't just about managing symptoms, it's about transforming your life. This challenge, as brutal as it can be, is an invitation to know yourself more deeply and live a more joyful purpose-filled life. PMDD might feel like your whole story, but it's just a chapter and you get to write what comes next. Welcome to PMDD, pep Talk, quick pep talk, pause. Remember that everything we talk about here is meant to educate and inspire. Always team up with your healthcare provider for personal medical advice. All right, now let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Hello friends, and welcome back to the pmdd Pep Talk podcast. I have a fun topic to cover with you today. I'm very excited about this conversation we're about to have. It's one of the angles that I never hear anyone talking about when it comes to healing in general, but of course, you know, I'm really talking about healing PMDD, and when I say heal, I don't mean cure. There's not a cure for PMDD. We're talking about healing through becoming more whole with your experience, which is what healing means. The ETI ideology of healing means to become more whole. The root of that word comes from wholeness, and that's what we're talking about when you learn to reduce and better manage your symptoms. When you learn more about PMDD, you change your perspective on the experience. You work on mindset, you heal in a variety of ways of when we're talking about healing, I think what people always want is symptom reduction in management, and we are on board with that.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's what we help you do here at her mood mentor. But ultimately, there's so many facets to healing. And today I want to talk about an angle, like I said, that I don't hear other people talking about. I never hear this discussed, and it's so important, and that is the idea I'm really holding out on you. I can feel you chomping up the bit. What is she talking about? Just get on with it lady. But this alternative lens that I want you to look through is called healing through subtraction. There I said it. That's what we're talking about today. We're talking about healing through subtraction. When it comes to PMDD symptoms, which is very different probably than how you've thought about healing in the past. We're always thinking about what do I need to do? What do I need to add? What needs to change?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Do I need to take a supplement? Do I need to take a medication? Do I need to go to therapy? Do I need to see more practitioners? It's always in the lens more I see of adding more, doing more things, and sometimes that's needed. It's definitely on the table, but healing through subtraction is not discussed enough. And sometimes it's more powerful in some ways to heal through subtraction rather than continually add things to your plate and think about it if you're continually adding things to your plate, but really there are things that just simply need to be removed that could improve your experience. You're kind of at a dead end, and I think this is one of the many reasons which we'll do a separate episode on. Why are there so many women who feel like I've tried everything and I'm not getting the results that I want.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
My symptoms aren't reduced, they're not managed. Now we have a separate podcast episode on that. If you go back to episode 11, it's called the, I've tried everything for PMDD mindset and we discussed there how damaging and challenging it can be to continue to navigate PMDD with that perspective and that mindset, and we help you reframe it, which is really important. And at the same time, a lot of you feel like you've tried a lot of things and you're not getting the results that you want, and one of the reasons is probably because no one has talked to you about healing their subtraction. So that is what we're going to talk about today, and we're going to talk about a few areas of subtractions, things that you can subtract in your life that are going to hands down, improve your symptoms, and we'll get into why above.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I want to ask you if you've been listening to these episodes, if you're finding anything valuable, please rate and review the podcast. This is how we reach more people. This is how we help more women with PMDD feel less alone, feel like there's hope for them in feeling better in learning to reduce and manage their symptoms and ultimately heal by becoming more whole through the PMDD experience. So take a moment, pause the episode, write a short review rate the podcast. It means so much to us and it ultimately helps us grow our mission, which is what we're here to do, help women heal instead of deal with PMDD symptoms. But let's get into it healing through subtraction. What does it look like? Let's talk about removing things. This is a very simple concept. What can you remove to improve your healing capacity?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
The first things we're going to talk about are going to be dietary. I'm a nutritional therapist. I'm biased. We're always talking about diet. Okay, so let's start with diet. These are just clear things that are not going to be supportive to your symptoms, and we'll talk about why. The first one, something that you can remove and start to heal through subtraction is going to be alcohol. Alcohol disrupts the liver's ability to metabolize estrogen and keep your hormones balanced. That phase one, phase two detoxification in the liver needs to happen. You need to get estrogen out of your system in order to have stable moods, have good energy. All of the things alcohol is going to compete in the liver against estrogen metabolism. So that's one tick against alcohol. The second tick against alcohol is going to be it depletes B vitamins, especially B six, which is crucial for neurotransmitter production.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
It's not great for you. We know alcohol isn't. That doesn't mean you can't have alcohol sometimes. That's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about black and white thinking. We're talking about subtracting. Subtracting doesn't mean eliminating. It can. It mostly has for me personally, but you get to choose. Alcohol obviously impacts your blood sugar regulation. It's going to worsen moods, swings, it's going to worsen irritability, food cravings, and also disrupts your sleep. It's going to impact your REM cycles. It's going to impact you getting restorative rest needed for hormone balance, detoxification, subtracting some alcohol from your diet is only going to be helpful to you as you navigate PMDD symptoms. Another one, not a fan favorite is caffeine. Reducing and potentially eliminating caffeine is something you can subtract from your diet to improve your symptoms. Caffeine increases cortisol, your stress hormone, which disrupts your HPA access, which has already disrupted plenty of studies on PMDD and HPA axis dysfunction HPA axis.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
If you're like, what is she talking about? That's your hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, your stress response system. Caffeine also impacts absorption of magnesium and B vitamins, which are both critical for managing PMDD symptoms. It's going to worsen anxiety, panic, irritability. It's going to disrupt your blood sugar and lead to more cravings, afternoon crashes, temperature regulation problems. It can disrupt your sleep. The half-life of caffeine for some people is eight, nine hours depending on your genetic makeup. So if you're drinking caffeine later in the day, it's likely still impacting your sleep more than you would expect. So if caffeine is coming into your life in the form of coffee, I highly recommend slowly titrating down. We don't want to induce any withdrawal symptoms off of caffeine. And swapping over to a water process, specifically water processed decaf, you're probably just shaking in your boots right now when I say decaf because gross, most of us have had terrible experiences with decaf, but we live in a special time where you can access really fantastic decafs that are water processed so you're not getting exposed to the endocrine disrupting chemical process of the decaffeination process that they do with the bean.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
So find a water process decaf, slowly transition to that map your symptoms with our symptom mapping kit. You can grab the link full of this episode and watch as your symptoms improve. Another thing to consider subtracting from the diet that is going to improve your symptoms is going to be refined carbohydrates and added sugars. This is going to put you on a blood sugar roller coaster. It is going to feed inflammatory processes in the body. It depletes important nutrients in the body. Chromium, magnesium, B vitamins, sugar, and refined carbohydrates are also going to contribute to insulin resistance, which is going to worsen any hormonal imbalances that you already have, and it's going to disrupt the gut microbiome, which plays again, an essential role in estrogen metabolism. Another thing to consider reducing and removing potentially is going to be highly processed foods, or at least the frequency in which you're consuming highly processed foods.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So there's a spectrum of processing, but highly processed foods are going to contain the most additives, the most preservatives. These are pro-inflammatory inflammation is going to worsen symptoms. They lack fiber, which is needed again for estrogen metabolism and elimination through the bowel. They're often high in sodium, which can worsen bloating and fluid retention. It's not the good type of sodium minerals that we want in your system anyways, and also they're not nutrient dense. These highly processed foods are leaving your body without the building blocks that they need to create the things that you need to feel best. Highly processed foods also disrupt your gut health and the estrobolome, which is a fancy word for the gut bacteria that metabolize estrogen. A lot of this is going back to estrogen metabolism if you haven't already noticed, but let's keep going. Artificial sweeteners are something else that's really easy to swap and start subtracting and start watching your body heal.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
As you subtract that, again, they disrupt the gut microbiome. They're going to trigger potentially cravings and blood sugar dysregulation depending on what artificial sweeteners you're using. Some studies suggest that they impact insulin resistance. They also can increase anxiety and mood symptoms, and those of us who are sensitive, just the artificial sweeteners themselves. So swapping over and looking at what you can add and then take away the artificial sweeteners. So maple syrup, even organic cane sugar, agave syrup, lots of just natural sweeteners, honey that you can use in place of an artificial sweetener. Another thing to subtract in the diet realm is going to be inflammatory oils that are high in omega six fatty acids. These promote inflammation. They create an imbalance between omega threes, which are anti-inflammatory and omegas sixes. This inflammation is going to worsen pain, mood symptoms and hormone signaling. It also oxidizes when it's heated.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So a lot of the different vegetable oils, seed oils that we're consuming are just already harmful because of how they've been processed. There are better alternatives. So swapping your inflammatory oils, things like canola oil, any kind of seed oils, soybean oils, vegetable oils. Let's take those out of the diet and let's swap in olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, things like that that are less processed. They aren't as high in omega six fatty acids and they're going to help reduce inflammation in the body. Okay, and that's that for the dietary subtractions that we're going to consider removing in order to heal our symptoms. Let's recap. We talked about alcohol, caffeine, added sugars and refined carbohydrates. We want to look for natural sugars. We want to look for complex carbohydrates. Instead, we want to remove and heal through subtraction around highly processed foods, artificial sweeteners and inflammatory oils, specifically seed oils, vegetable oils, canola oil, things like that, and swap in more anti-inflammatory alternatives.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Moving on to another area that we can heal through subtraction. I think this is going to be a popular one. This is in relational and social subtractions is how we'll put it. Toxic relationship, and people can start to be subtracted from your life. These people can worsen your symptoms. They can be triggers. Obviously, we can't always remove people from our lives, but you can minimize your interactions with them in certain cases. So doing an evaluation of toxic relationship and people in your life, people that you feel worse after hanging out with people that trigger you, people that require constant emotional management, people who really are going to drive your stress response systems, drama driven dynamics, ways that people are treating you that you are not on board with that do not feel safe and respectful and acceptable. We want to start to subtract our interactions with these people and these relationships, which can be harder done than said, but chronic stress elevates cortisol and this is going to be impacting your PMDD symptoms.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
No question. You already know that. So sometimes we do just have to make the list and start creating the distance and do what we have to do to reduce or completely subtract toxic relationships and people from our lives. And this would even blend over into work scenarios. I would say if you have certain work demands that are really taxing your system, like many of our clients who do shift work overnight eventually recognize that this is not going to work for them. They can't maintain a level of symptom reduction in management with the demands of certain schedules or certain types of jobs or certain levels of stress in their work environment. So that's going to be individual to each of you to evaluate. But I would say when we're looking at toxic relationships, we have to look at the full range. We have to look at friends, family, any other relationships that you have with people in your life, but also your relationship to your work and how you are required to show up and what demands are on you. We need to evaluate that and potentially considering making changes or subtractions to that area of our life in order to improve our symptoms and manage them long-term.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
The next area that I want to dive into when we're looking at healing through subtraction is going to be your mental and environmental load. So physical clutter in your environment. If there's visual chaos, it's going to contribute to mental overwhelm. Unfinished projects create guilt and anxiety, excessive possessions, they demand maintenance, cleaning organization, everything does your doom piles. They follow you from room to room. So really working to reduce clutter in your environment is going to reduce some of the mental overwhelm, moving towards more maybe of a minimalist lifestyle or seeing what can you remove, seeing how can you get some help with organization strategies to keep your visual environment more calming, less triggering, less demanding, less responsibilities. This is an area that we can start to heal through. Subtraction is our physical environment and how our physical environment is taxing our mental and emotional headspace.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
If you work online or you spend a lot of time on your devices, there's going to be digital clutter as well. So I want to throw that in there. That's something I've been working on lately is cleaning up my digital clutter. And that is a process, and many of us did not learn how to keep our digital lives organized. But if you're spending a lot of time trying to find your passwords and trying to find where's this file, all of that is a stressor that's weighing you down, costing you time and energy. So where can you clean some of that up and subtract some of that chaos from your life to have things move more smoothly? Another type of clutter here, I think this falls both into the relationship. This might fall more into the relationship category, but ultimately it's going to be your obligation clutter.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So all of these responsibilities and obligations on your plate, really evaluating, Hey, is there anything that I can subtract in order to create more capacity for myself? However that looks. Whether it be social obligations that you dread or maybe you're volunteering or in committees or part of organizations that it's just not where you need to be spending your energy right now or maybe just what you've committed to is too demanding with the capacity that you currently have. Something else I would say is subscriptions, memberships, things like that that you're really a part of, but you're not utilizing. Just clearing things out, subtracting things that are not serving you. Even in the obligation category would be just shoulds, constantly shoulding yourself, starting to catch yourself when you're saying should, and starting to remove some of those shoulds from yourself, especially the shoulds that aren't aligned with your values.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
We do a lot of values work in our one-to-one programs. So if you're like, what is she talking about? Talk to us about our one-to-one program, because that is where we start. After we do the symptom mattering process, we start working with our values in our One-to-one program because PMDD challenges your values, which drives guilt and shame, which drives a lot of pain and suffering, and we have to align with our values in order to reduce and manage our symptoms long term. And a lot of guilt is going to come from those things that are on your plate that you're not using, and then you're just guilting yourself, oh, I should be doing that and I should be doing that. So removing those shoulds is really important to that obligation, clutter conversation. Something else in your environment that I would consider evaluating and potentially removing.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
This has been life-changing for me personally. It's a little controversial I would say, but if you are being constantly exposed to a news cycle, the news cycle is designed to trigger and stress and create fear and keep your attention. So I do not consume any news media unless I seek out specific things. I've perfectly curated my Instagram and social media feeds. I do not see news headlines. I don't see any political discourse. That's the choice I made for myself. But I would just evaluate how much you're getting exposed to the news cycle and seeing what does it feel like if I start to just subtract some of that that is designed to trigger stress and fear within me. Obviously, another main thing to consider reducing and subtracting is scrolling. Just doom scrolling. We all do it. We all do it too much. It's dysregulating your nervous system.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
It is not helping you. No matter how much you think it is. There's one scenario where it can help you, and that's if you really need a distraction in the moment. But that's not rest. We have another episode on rest verse distraction. Let me take a look at what number that episode was. Number six. If you go back to episode six of pm DD pep talk, we discuss rest verse distraction and this doom scrolling, this constant social media similar to the news cycle, although you can curate your social media feeds to be less triggering for you, specifically the doom. Scrolling is not going to help your nervous system and screening time before bed. This is going to disrupt your sleep, your melatonin production. So just subtracting the amount of screen time that we're experiencing each day, the type of news media that we're being exposed to, and really curating your environment to be more conducive to healing, to be more conducive, to peace, to rest to the values that you're trying to cultivate as you learn to reduce and manage your symptoms.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Also, just in this general category of environment, I'm going to say overstimulation. Now, digital and physical clutter fall into that overstimulation category, but so do things like constant background noise, having tv, podcast music constantly on having too many browser tabs open, raise your hand. That is me. It's splitting your attention, trying to multitask fragments your focus, overscheduling your calendar. So kind of just zooming out and looking, where is overstimulation contributing to the severity of my symptoms and where can I subtract some of that overstimulation? Lots of examples there. So to recap, the mental and environmental load of subtractions that we're considering. We're thinking about physical things in your physical environment. We're thinking about things in your digital environment. We're thinking about your obligations. We're thinking about what you're exposed to as far as it goes, as far as news and media consumption goes, and then just general overstimulation category.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
The next area of lifestyle subtractions I would like to get into are going to be this category we're going to call lifestyle subtractions, and some of the things falling into this category are going to be over exercise. So really forcing yourself to push through during certain menstrual cycle phases, whether it be your luteal phase or your menstrual phase where you just really don't have it in. You can actually worsen the severity of your symptoms. Also not exercising at all. So no movement or over exercise can kind of fall into what needs to be subtracted here.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Another thing would be sleep disruptors in the lifestyle category. There's some overlap here. We talked a little bit about that blue light exposure at night, but anything that's going to disrupt your sleep, whether it be caffeine, alcohol, your inconsistent sleep schedule, your late night screen exposure, your bedroom environment that's not conducive to sleeping well, those are things we may want to start to subtract some of those factors in order to feel better. Eating late in the night is something we would want to subtract looking at, okay, am I eating two to three hours before bed? This is likely going to impact your blood sugar stability overnight. It's going to impact your digestion, it's going to impact your sleep quality. And now there are some caveats to that. For some women, I do like a small bedtime snack depending on what we're working with when it comes to their blood sugar regulation.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
But generally we would say for most people, we're going to try to eat, stop eating two to three hours before bed. So subtracting that late eating snacking window. Something else in the lifestyle category. I think this falls in a little bit to relationships that we talked about above, but it's really about your relationship with yourself and it's saying yes, when you mean no overcommitting during your high symptom weeks, let's subtract that. Not protecting your luteal phase by having more open calendar, by having more rest time built in. Let's subtract that all of the people pleasing at the expense of your own health. Let's start to subtract some of that. Let's stop saying yes when we mean no. That's a process. It takes nervous system support to get there, but subtracting some of that would be absolutely in your favor.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So we covered a lot here. We covered healing through subtraction when it comes to diet, we talked about healing through subtraction when it comes to your environment. We talked about healing through subtraction when it comes to relational and social factors in your life. We talked about healing through subtraction in your mental and an environmental load. We also looked at healing through subtraction, just some basic lifestyle factors so you don't have to remove everything at once. Okay? Just take some snippets of what we covered here and see is there anything that's feeling especially toxic or especially achievable that I can subtract in order to move in the direction of more symptom reduction in management. I also highly encourage you to map your symptoms so you know what is actually working for you, because you'll forever tell yourself the story. I've tried everything and nothing has worked unless you have the data.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
So use our symptom mapping kit. Collect the data as you're subtracting some of these things and looking to heal to see is it actually working? What is actually happening? And also evaluate what can be reduced versus what can be eliminated. And then give each change two to three cycles with your mapping data and assess what's working for you. You really have to be present with this as you're doing it to know what's helping and what's not. So to kind of prioritize, we have a little bit of framework here for you. What of the things that we covered in these different categories of healing through subtraction, what is actively harming you? Let's remove that first. The second question to ask yourself is what's draining your energy? Let's remove that second and the next make two different categories. Get out a pen and paper as we're listening to this. Start from the beginning and listen to the different categories that we covered and think, okay, what can be reduced versus what specifically needs to be fully subtracted?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And then you can start working forward and evaluating what's actively harming you, what's draining your energy? And you can start to decide, okay, what step am I going to take next? Healing through subtraction is not about perfection or deprivation. That is not what we're talking about. It's about we reclaiming your energy, reclaiming your moods, reclaiming your hormone balance, reclaiming your sense of self, and some things will come back and others won't. Your body will tell you what it needs, and you'll learn something about yourself through healing, through subtraction. I cannot hype enough how much healing through subtraction has been a huge part of my journey and changing my experience with p mt d. I've subtracted so much. I continue to think in this framework of what can I subtract? I'm still coming up with ideas. I'm still working on finding the balance of things. It's a fun way to play with the healing journey that's not just about adding more, adding more. What can you do more of? It's a new lens to look at healing through. What can you actually subtract? And then make sure to track your progress. Use our symptom mapping kit, monitor your symptoms, the pattern, the severity of your symptoms, the duration of your symptoms, and notice which subtractions are making the biggest difference for you.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
So to wrap up, pm MDD isn't just about what you add. Sometimes the most powerful medicine is removing what doesn't serve you. Your body has incredible capacity to rebalance. When given the chance and subtraction creates space for true healing. Start small. Be patient and trust the process. I'm right there with you. Send me a dm. Let me know what you're subtracting from your life in order to better reduce and manage your symptoms. I'm so excited to hear how this reframe and this new perspective will work for you.
