I’m JJ Virgin, PhD dropout, sorry mom, turned four time New York Times best selling author. Yes, I’m a certified nutrition specialist, fitness hall of famer, and I speak at health conferences and trainings around the globe. But I’m driven by my insatiable curiosity and love of science to keep asking questions, digging for answers, and sharing the information I uncover with as many people as I can.

And that’s why I created the Well Beyond 40 podcast to synthesize and simplify the science of health into actionable strategies to help you thrive. In each episode, we’ll talk about what’s working in the world of wellness, From personalized nutrition and healing your metabolism to healthy aging and prescriptive fitness.

Join me on the journey to better health so you can love how you look and feel right now and have the energy to play full out at 100. Perimenopause is a subject that’s been shrouded in mystery and misconception for most of our lives. But today’s conversation is going to change the way you think about this phase of your life.

It’s not just another talk about hot flashes and mood swings. Here’s the deal. As you approach your 50s and beyond, your body starts orchestrating some complex hormonal changes. Basically, your internal chemistry decides to throw a wild party without your permission, and the resulting symptoms can make you want to crawl out of your skin.

Trust me, I’ve been there. But what if I told you that these changes These aren’t just inevitable changes you have to accept and endure. What if they’re actually your body’s way of telling you that it’s time for a major upgrade? In this episode, we’re talking about revolutionizing your approach to metabolic health, rekindling your energy, sharpening your mental clarity, and yes, even turning back the clock on some of those not so welcome signs of aging.

And to guide us through this paradigm shifting conversation, we have my incredible friend, Dr. Marisa Snyder. Marisa isn’t just another voice in the crowd, she’s a trailblazer in the world of women’s hormonal health. As a functional practitioner and the author of eight books, including the game changing The Essential Oils Menopause Solution, she’s been at the forefront of this health revolution for over a decade.

Over 15 years, Marisa will share the hidden connections between your hormones and every aspect of your well being. We’re going to challenge the status quo of women’s health care and explore why the typical band aid approaches just aren’t cutting it anymore. And more importantly, we’re going to arm you with practical, actionable strategies you can start implementing today.

Whether it’s optimizing your diet, or fine tuning your exercise routine, or putting in really clear lifestyle habits, you’re going to walk away with a toolbox full of life changing techniques. So whether you’re wanting to get ahead of the game, starting to feel the first whispers of change, Or you’re right in the thick of perimenopause wondering what the heck hit you.

This episode is your roadmap to not just surviving, but thriving during whichever stage you’re in. Let’s dive into this game changing conversation with the amazing Dr. Marisa Snyder.

Dr. Marisa, so good to see you. Good to have you here in person.

Oh my goodness. I love you. And I love seeing you in person.

I know. I’m so excited. You’re going to move to Florida.

Are you going to come back to San Diego?

Someone’s got to do something. We were just chatting about this. Cause this is really funny.

Uh, I think I’ve known you now 10 years. And so, you know, I met you in your thirties. Gosh, we just didn’t didn’t have a clue in our 30s when you really think back. So now you’re in your 40s, and you’ve really started to focus on perimenopause. You’re doing a lot of content on perimenopause. You’ve got a summit on perimenopause, and you are deep in perimenopause.

I’m in it, and I’ll tell you what, what Once you’re in it, like, you know. Oh my gosh, I, I think back when I very first started, and my clients were all in their mid 40s, and I was in my 20s. And I just have to say to any client listening today, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. It is why I look at it and I go, you know, if you’re in perimenopause or menopause, you want to hear from someone who has, has, you know, has been, is a road warrior, right?

So what’s going on with you and your perimenopause journey before we dig into all this great info?

Yeah, I mean, my unique journey, as you know, um, I had a baby at 41, so I had a baby in perimenopause and he is dreamy, um, but I, I had, I was in like a little postpartum bubble and as you know, postpartum is kind of default menopause.

So there’s that. Um, but I, in, into 43, I was doing great. I actually felt really good. And I was like, Oh, this If this is perimenopause, I got this. Like my metabolic health is dialed. My hormones look pretty good. And then it was like two months later, I got dropkicked into peri. And I was like, Oh, Oh, this is very different.

And it was, well, what happened?

You said you got dropkicked. I think you just got too cocky.

So true. Well, that was the year I remember being 23 and I was meeting with Gabrielle Lyon. I was like, girl, I really want to, I’m going to start lifting really heavy weights. I’m going to really build that muscle. I was like, I’ve got bandwidth.

I felt like I had bandwidth and I hired a personal trainer to really train me up. And I don’t know if it was the combo of this trainer that just obliterated me or, um, I was coming off of my breastfeeding journey, but it just all kind of landed all at once. And the thing that rocked me to my core was the lack of mental energy.

The mental energy, the mood swings, it was all brain related, and it just felt like my brain got hit with a Mack truck.

But I thought you did, didn’t you get a brain injury too on top of this? I did, um,

so three months later, um, I got a brain injury. Okay, I’m remembering

correctly. I was like, it did get hit.

I don’t recommend it. Oh, trust me, I know brain injuries way too well.

And I surely don’t recommend it in perimenopause, where you’re already in a state of inflammation to some degree, depending on where you’re at. So, me getting hit in the head, back to back, definitely didn’t do me any favors. And I feel like Um, it took a good solid six months of a lot of diligence to get my brain back.

It was actually this time last year, I was deep in my concussion protocols. I was probably reaching out to you, trying to find resources. And I would never at that time, I would not have been able to sit here with you.

Yep, well, I mean, since I’ve lived, lived with someone with extreme traumatic brain injury, I know what they are and I think most people, I, I, I am very sorry it happened to you and I’ve really appreciated that you’ve been very public about it because I think people don’t realize, and remember Dr.

Daniel Lehman saying, you know, if you hit your head you hurt your brain. And I think people think that if you didn’t pass out, you weren’t in a coma, oh it’s fine. And they don’t realize. What can happen because of that? So you had the double whammy of hormone shifting perimenopause and a traumatic brain injury, which is just crazy.

Where are you now with that?

Um, I would, I would love to say that my brain is back. But it’s not, not a hundred percent. Um, but I would say I’m doing significantly better and I’m just very consistent with the supplementation, dialing my metabolism, self care, sleep. I think that was the biggest thing that that was an absolute non negotiable when I was healing is if I didn’t get the good deep sleep during that, like the first critical three months, um, that, I, I felt horrible the next day, and so that was one of the things, I always tell people I protect my sleep like it’s a million dollar meeting.

But no, I’m not 100%, but I’m definitely a lot better than I was, and I’ll, I’ll take what I can get.

Are you taking creatine? I

am. Oh, every day. Five milligrams. Yeah, five grams. Just making sure. Five

grams. That is one that I’ve got my, my son on, and I’m like, along with some other things that are helping a ton, but.

I love creatine. I do too. Goes in my

coffee.

We want every woman on creatine ion emission.

Specifically for my brain. I mean, not that I’m not using it for good metabolic health and great muscle health as well, but it’s, I am most focused on how my brain is functioning more than anything.

Well, 5 percent of the creatine is in your brain and the challenge is for most women, it’s not because we have less tissue stores.

And if you don’t have enough In your muscles, you’re definitely not going to have any in your brain. So this is one that you want to do obviously for energy and performance, but I think we don’t realize the brain piece of it. And that study that they did with post menopausal women, depressed post menopausal women, that had a better effect when they took creatine.

Rather than just doing, they were doing SSRIs and it was the SSRI plus creatine, way better effect.

Mm.

So, and I would love to have seen the, just the creatine, but,

you

know. Yeah.

Or creatine and some hormones next time. I know.

I know, I know, I know. Well, let’s talk hormones. Like let’s, so you’re in perimenopause.

What’s going on during perimenopause with hormones? What’s happening?

What is not going on? I’m just

so glad that time is

over. I bet. They’re declining, but they’re not just declining. They are transient and up and down and it’s not just progesterone and estradiol and testosterone. We know that insulin is up there deregulating cortisol, growth hormone.

I mean all of these are just, they’re declining, they’re shifting. Um, but most importantly, I think what women are feeling the most is that initial decline in progesterone. I definitely massively felt it. Um, and then the rollercoaster ride of estradiol and then ultimately the decline of estradiol and the symptoms that ensue, um, and I’m, I’m definitely, like I said, the brain injury didn’t help, but it’s been the brain symptoms that have been the most predominant for me in perimenopause.

And how common are brain symptoms in perimenopause overall?

I would say the most common symptom, I know we all think it’s weight, weight resistance, and definitely that’s the most disruptive I think for a lot of women, like seeing their body change without permission, is that okay? Yeah, it’s like, wait a minute, I’m not even eating anything different.

Even pregnant women are like, wait, is my body changing? You know you’re pregnant, right? But perimenopause, you’re doing the same things you were doing, you’re working out, and yet all of a sudden This weight, even maybe the scale didn’t move, and yet you’re seeing it hop on right in the midsection. So that’s disruptive, but no, the most common symptom is irritability.

Yeah, I likened it, what I would say is, I felt like unzipping myself and leaving. Like, just leave that body, I’ll come back later. Just that irritation. Yeah. It’s a simmer.

It is. I know because I was feeling it yesterday. I was telling

you. Uh huh. Yeah, you, you use it. Just the way someone can look at you, you’re like goodness, look at me,

you know, my, my partner, my husband Alex bought my son shoes and I was like, what were you thinking?

Like, I just, on a normal, regular day, I would have been like, oh, these aren’t going to work, let’s return them. But I had to have a story. You know, I had to like, I was like, oh, this is, oh, this is PMS. This, this is no, there’s, there’s no hormones in my system right now.

Do we have a, as I’m listening to this, I’m thinking, someone really needs to write the.

Guide for men. They really do. These poor guys, because they’re really just trying to be helpful. I

mean, how great of it. He bought the shoes. He was

just trying to be helpful. He probably got his butt kicked.

Totally just, yeah, I was like, what were you thinking? Obviously weren’t me and making these decisions.

So, so yeah, mental challenges. So irritability, mood swings, a deep sense of dread. Um, all of a sudden, things that you handled every day with ease feel hard. And then, the lack of word recall. The brain fog. So, I’ve asked a lot of colleagues of ours, like, what was that defining moment that you knew you were in it?

And they were like, well, my brain started to change. When I knew I couldn’t focus the way that I did. And ’cause in the literature it says the first symptom of Perry is irregular periods. And I was like, who? For who? Like, who’s who? Yeah. Who gets that life? Like I and I, you know, if, if it was you, if you’re listening and you’re like, I didn’t know until my period started changing, well then I love that for you.

Yeah. But that’s usually not what happens. It it’s

not. I, uh, one of our girlfriends, I just saw her in a. Looking at her and she’s, she just doesn’t look, she, she, again, put some weight around her midsection, she’s always all styled up and I’m like looking at her and she’s stressed out and anxious and I didn’t sleep and I’m just so stressed and, and, you know, just moved houses, stress, stress, stress, and I’m like, Um, how old are you?

She didn’t

even dawn on her again. And I think it’s important you brought that up because her period was still regular. And I hear that all the time. Oh, but my period is still regular.

Like

the one that showed me, and again, periods hadn’t changed. I couldn’t recover at the gym. And it’s what Dr. VonderWijk calls that musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause.

I’m like, how, how come I just feel so sore? I cannot recover. And then I started, my gums were bleeding when I was flossing. And fortunately, I went to the dentist. I’m like, my gums are bleeding, thinking I’m having some horrible disease. He’s like, Oh, your estrogen’s lower. I went,

How dare you? Is that what you said?

I was like, what? I

talked to you like that.

Wow!

But I think it’s so

important. No, but I appreciate that. You know, it’s not so, so there’s all these different things and we’ll tend to go, just like my girlfriend who’s in the field, is like going, it’s stress, I go, honey.

It’s a yes and,

right? It’s,

you know, you’ve got no resilience and then, let’s be honest, midlife is the busiest time of your life.

of our lives. Yeah, who planned

that?

Yeah, right?

Well, I think we were supposed to have kids in our 20s. Oops. Yeah, I forgot to do that. I couldn’t take care of 20s.

my little, my little three year old, but man, I had no idea.

Yeah, it really is a younger gal’s game. I know, that’s what, when I was doing this, I had two back to back, and I did it in my mid 30s, but I was like, oh, I see why people do this when they’re younger.

Yeah, they’ve got energy, They can just handle it. The moods, again, I, I reach out, I talk to moms every single day about perimenopause and they feel so guilty about accidentally snapping at their kids or yelling and having a moment and they’re just like, Oh my God, my kids are going to be traumatized because I, I’m not able to control what’s going on.

Like it’s just coming out of my mouth before I can stop myself. And. And that really breaks my heart. There’s a lot of things we can do. Um, and there’s a lot of things I’m doing to mitigate it. Obviously, um, I’m not ever trying to yell at my son.

Yes. Well, let’s talk about what you’re doing to mitigate it.

Yeah. I take a lot of solo walks. So I call them emotional laps. Um, I just get outside. No, I am, what I’m really doing is HRT. I’m just going to put it out there. I’m on hormones.

I love that. I think that You know, everyone’s a snowflake and everyone needs to decide for themselves. Ideally, we would really test our hormones in our 20s, early 30s when we’re where we should be.

But the minute things start to go, I was on hormones the minute I knew things started to go sideways.

Yeah. And here’s the thing, it’s a moving target in perimenopause. And so have I ran Hormone labs multiple times over the last couple of years, and have they overall looked okay? Yes, and my symptoms have not indicated that.

Right, so you dose per your symptoms, right? I’ve been

dosing for my symptoms. Still looking at labs, but I haven’t found them, at least for me, to be that helpful. Now, I’m, and I’m also looking at, All the labs. So not just the hormone labs. I think for women, we’re looking at a timeline of everything, you know, or at least in our thirties so we can timeline into our forties to see what’s going on.

Because it’s not just our, um, hormones that are shifting. It’s our metabolic labs that are shifting. It’s our. It’s fasting insulin that’s shifting and so I like to look, I’m looking at all of that across the board, not only for myself and my patients, but then again, I’m treating the woman. I want to know, like, are you feeling okay?

So when I was telling you I was taking 200 milligrams of progesterone and I still wasn’t feeling great, I was like, well, let’s see what happens if I go up to 400. And it was migraines that have been my major issue and, and lo and behold, 400 milligrams are knocking out the migraines. This

is why it’s so important to No, you know, know where, where you feel good and test, because I was sharing with you before that I, they put me because of something going on with my, uh, uterine lining on 200 milligrams steady state of progesterone and I got cystic acne, like cystic acne, like it was horrific.

goes away the minute I stop. You know, I’ll go on progesterone, I sit, want to cry, like you know me, you’ve seen me never cry. Like

none of these happen, none of these things are your reality. Yeah,

they’re just not. I remember the first time I ever went on it, I gained 12 pounds in a week, and all I wanted to do was sit and watch sad tv, I’d just watch a tv commercial and cry.

You know, and I

was like,

what is going on? I go, I don’t know. It’s like awful. So the interesting thing when you’re going through it, and I love what you just brought up, because as you were talking, I wrote it down. I thought, you know, your hormones are all over the place. You really, have to work with someone who’s going to help you identify symptoms and play around with, you know, how do I feel with this much estrogen?

How do I feel with this much testosterone? But you can also see things like your fasting insulin, because what starts to happen is estrogen dumps. Well, you get inflamed, so you’ll have elevated HSCRP, you’ll get insulin resistant, you’ll get elevated fasting insulin.

Yeah. Loss of muscle like these, some

cortisol issues going on there.

Yeah. If you ran a dexa, you’d, you’d see some stuff going on with muscle and visceral adipose tissue, so you may have to dose more to the symptoms.

Yeah, I agree. I think it’s a yes and I, I think labs are helpful. Um, but ultimately dosing to the symptoms, and that’s been my own personal. That’s been my personal experience.

Um, where I’m looking at all the labs, I’m looking at the full metabolic panel. I’m looking at APOB, I’m looking at triglycerides, fasting. And so I’m looking at homocysteine and fibrinogen. I just want to see my like highly sensitive C reactive protein. I want to look at my inflammatory markers. As you know, I, I have hajimoto’s thyroiditis, so I’m always keeping an eye on that.

Um, and again,  when we look at hormones, I think a normal, like maybe not an integrative doctor would say, Hey, they’re fine. You’re good to go. And I’m like, I don’t feel good to go. And my other labs look amazing. If I’m dialing everything in, then it’s gotta be the hormones. And so I think it’s important that we need to be listening to women and women having agency over their bodies.

They know their bodies. Two things I tell women in perimenopause, one, track your cycle and then track your symptoms against your cycle and see what’s going on. One of the things I’ve noticed, especially with my migraines and ovulation is that, you know, we’re supposed to have this really sexy estradiol dip.

I always say everyone wants day 13 us, you know, even we want day 13 us, not day 26, but day 13. But then all of a sudden like day 13, I wasn’t even feeling so hot. I wasn’t feeling gregarious and, and, you know, very caretaking. And I just didn’t have that estradiol energy that I, you would get right before ovulation.

And I would, then I would get this horrible migraine. And I was like, something isn’t right here. You know, and I was, as I was matching symptoms up to the cycle, I was like, maybe I’m not always getting that dip anymore, that, that rise anymore. And maybe that dip is more pronounced than I thought. So I think it’s important to be looking at these two things together so that you have some evidence to bring to your doctor and say, Hey, this doesn’t feel like it’s matching up for me.

 Right. And if your doctor discounts this, that is not your doctor. No.

Get another doctor.

Yeah. I love all of the recent focus out there on Perimenopause, menopause, it’s like, you know, I think what used to happen in the old days, literally, I remember sitting at the pool because I’d heard about this and then it was played out right in front of me where these women were standing in the pool and one woman said, yeah, I went to my doctor, told him how I was feeling, he put me on the birth control pill, and this other woman goes, yeah, my doctor put me on Prozac, and I go, oh my gosh, this really does happen.

Oh, it still happens. It’s not like it was happening, it’s still happening. I meet women every day who at 45 or 44, their irregular cycles, they’re kind of moving from early to late perimenopause, and it’s well let’s regulate your cycle with an endocrine disruptor, with hormonal birth control, or let’s give you an IUD, which again, there is a time and place.

If you’re having a horrible, perfuse, heavy bleeding, and that can’t get under control with, you know, oral micronized progesterone in that luteal phase, um, You know, there are instances where I can understand for a short period of time, controlling that bleeding may be appropriate, but to regulate a menstrual cycle, or I see an IUD, and then women come back and they’re just like, I’m still struggling, so then they’ll be given an oral progesterone on top of the progestin.

IUD. And I’m just like, we, it’s just a lot of,

we’re not getting it right. More is better. Um, you talked about two stages of perimenopause. Let’s walk through it. Yeah,

absolutely. So a natural menopause, um, for, for anyone who doesn’t know, it’s actually 45 to 55 and the average age is 51. 6. It’s give or take, but you can go into natural menopause as early as 45 and then perimenopause is the descension, right, the transition leading up and that can be 4 to 10 years leading.

So women, I know they’re even saying millennials are in perimenopause. So women in their late, even maybe mid 30s can go in it. And that first kind of step, early perimenopause is when we have regular cycles. So, and this could be 5 years, give or take, um, but progesterone is precipitously declining. So what you’ll notice is in that luteal phase in particular, so after ovulation, all of a sudden PMS symptoms are really, you know, becoming more pronounced.

Um, mood swings, um, a lack of stress resilience, uh, sleep issues. Anxiousness overwhelm. Again, a lot of those brain changes will start to notice because progesterone isn’t there helping to support GABA production. Um, and then as, and I think there’s really three phases. Then you’ve got this middle where you’re kind of moving from early to late making and,

and in the early, yeah, you could likely just.

Help with a little progesterone.

Yes, absolutely. A little progesterone and you may notice your cycle is shortening and that has a lot to do with those anovulatory cycles. So we’re not ovulating every cycle. And so that luteal phase, she’s, she’s shorting. Maybe instead of 14 days now it’s 12 days or, or 11 days.

So again, I think it’s important to track so you know What’s happening with your cycle? So mostly it’ll start to shorten over the course of a couple of, you know, maybe four or five years. And then late is determined by you are now skipping cycles or periods for more than 60 days. And then once you’re in that late perimenopausal phase, Well then, I mean, honestly, it’s all up in the air.

But no, um, you’re four years out from menopause at that point. And menopause is just the defining moment, that day, where you haven’t had a period for 12 months. I feel like

we need to fix, I feel like that is the dumbest thing. I’m just defining it. Who made

that up? One, Your hormones have been tanking before you ever get to the 12 month point.

Yeah, I mean

that’s, so you’ve got this year that you wait through, but then every once in a while you’ll have something, some breakthrough weird bleed. And you start all over again. You’re like, what, you know? Or if you’re doing HRT, you might be still like having a withdrawal bleed and It’s a little messy.

It’s really, I mean, that’s really the definition of it is that it’s going to be a little bit messy and you’re going to have to really titrate this particular time in our lives. I find everything’s up for review, but particularly how our hormones are responding and You’re like, what my hormone dosage is right now at 45 is going to be different at 49 is definitely going to be different at 55.

And so I think women, as long as we’re okay with knowing that there’s going to be pivots, not just pivots in lifestyle, but pivots in how we’re dosing hormones. Um, then as long as you understand that you accept that you’re good to go. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, it makes sense. I mean that they’re going to shift. Kind of one of my philosophies has always been do everything you possibly can so you can use the least amount of hormones all throughout.

And so what would you say are some of the other things beyond now? Having said that, if your hormones are low, Your hormones are low.

Yeah,

and you can do all the other stuff and your hormones are gonna be low

Okay, I’m doing all the things I’m hitting my protein numbers, I’m eating my fiber I’m managing my stress to the best of my ability taking my supplements sleeping I mean knocking out the pillars and yet I still don’t feel well And I’m like there’s no more lifestyle you can give me at this point Like but you have to understand that hormones are optimizers as you both as you and I both know like I’m not I have seen women, you know, they are thinking it’s the magic bullet, but their sleep isn’t dialed.

Their stress is crap. They’re eating a lot of highly processed foods. They’re almost pre diabetic. It’s not going to fix that.

Yeah, so that’s what I really want to emphasize is they work together. However, you see people are, so I was doing a talk. A couple months ago in Austin and this woman came up after the talk.

She goes, I’m doing all the things you talked about. I’m eating my protein. I’m lifting heavy. I’m getting sleep. She goes, I just cannot lose this weight around my waist. I am just struggling. I just don’t feel good. I’m tired. She goes, you know, but I want to do it all naturally. I’m not going to take hormones.

Hmm.

What would you say to that?

It just breaks my heart. Right? And I, and I want to just take a moment and own that I was probably a part of that conversation. Until

your hormones went down?

Until my hormones went down

and I was like, give them to me. Like, give me the hormones. It’s sort of like having a baby and going, I’m going to do it naturally.

Um, ,

this is where I land. Our menstrual cycle is a vital sign. These hormones are vital signs, and what I, what, from what I understand, if we go into premature menopause, let’s say before the age of 40, it is standard of care because we know that there’s an increased mortality rate, an increase in the four horsemen, cancer disease of frailty, cardiovascular disease, and dementia.

And it upticks massively of women before the age of 40 or even early forties go into menopause and they lose those hormones, but. I don’t care what age you are at, whether you’re 40 or 45 or 52, the second those hormones are gone, these things are playing out, even with pivots. And so I, it’s, it’s hormones and lifestyle recommendations and, and dial your habits.

Um, it, that is the biggest defining moment, that ovarian failure and hormone. I call it, I call it hormone deficiency. I don’t mind. There are, there are consequences to that and they don’t look great. So don’t do it natural.

It was so interesting years ago. This was, I was in my mid forties when I was doing this.

Uh, I was working out of a cosmetic surgery Institute in Palm desert and they were sending me all the patients just to review their labs before they went in and did their other stuff. And I could tell if they were on hormones or not. Cause I wasn’t getting, I’d get their labs, they’d sit down, I’d look, I’d know their age and you could see all the markers.

Insulin resistance, CRP, elevated LDL, triglycerides. So, you know, when you look at the big things that we’ll start to show as markers, again, you know, the hormones are all over the place, but you’ve got that weight gain and you’ve got all the cardiovascular risk factors that start to happen. So how, what, what are your recommendations for someone going into perimenopause again, that really can help offset some of that?

Yeah. Hormones. No, I’m just kidding. Again, I didn’t touch them until I did all the other things. Um, I think it’s all about cellular energy. It’s about metabolic health. And I think that first step is going to be movement and making sure that you keep your blood sugar and your insulin sensitive. The number one risk factor for cardiovascular disease for women is insulin resistance.

And I believe it’s like 93 percent of us by the time we’re 50 years old, women. Um, are going to have it if we’re not mitigating.

And how would someone know if they have insulin resistance? They

need a test. They need a test for it. So a fasting insulin. And for me, um, I want it at a five or under.

Yeah. And this is such, it’s, this is not a standard test.

No, it’s not.

And if you’re looking at your blood sugar and it’s elevated, this has been going on for a while. Like it just drives me nuts. It’s like, why are we focused on blood sugar when we should be focused on insulin? Because we’re

trying to treat diabetes. But we’re waiting for women to have diabetes.

I don’t even understand why we call it pre diabetes. As far as I’m concerned, pre diabetes is diabetes. And, and that’s not, I can’t tell you how many times women come into, like, send me their labs, they’re pre diabetic. Nothing is being done to mitigate this. They don’t even know it. They have no, and I was like, Oh my gosh, you’ve had insulin resistance for a decade before this even became diabetes.

So someone has a, an elevated fasting insulin. What would you tell them?

So I would tell them that we have got to basically lower that insulin score. Um, and that’s going to be again, And I want movement all the time. I know we talk about exercise snacks and that’s not snacking.

People get so excited when you say exercise snacks and it’s like, nope, that’s not what I mean.

Protecting your muscle. You know, as Gabrielle Lyon says, it’s muscle centric medicine. If insulin resistance. Zone 2 training is a great way to build muscle. It’s walking throughout the day. I saw your video. 8, 000 step commitment. Um, that’s my,

that’s my like minimum.

And I, that is my bare minimum for any woman as well.

Like I think you’re not in an active lifestyle if you are walking under 7, 500 steps a day. Yeah. Do

you know the average is three to 4, 000 steps a day? Like that is just, oh my gosh. Wild.

60 plus percent of us are not meeting our requirements.

Which means we just need to get more of that all throughout the day.

And I’m a big fan of the ruckin

vest. I love the vest. So cool. Just get out and walk. Like I, I have a CGM on right now. I track all the time. By the way, my, my fasting insulin is two.

Yay. Mine’s 1. 5. It actually got a little too low. A little too

low. Um, and I, but I’m tracking blood glucose throughout the day and I will tell you consistently now in my mid forties that the more I move throughout the day, even if it’s.

5 minute moment. I grab my shoes and I run out the door for five minutes to get back on the mic or whatever I’m doing. Those add up over time. They do. And so I probably move out the door, you know, five, ten, I mean, usually they’re 20 to 15 minute, um, You know, walks. I’m

gonna look at my aura ring right now.

Yeah, let’s see what you

got. And

here’s the other thing. So you can do, because we’re, you know, where I have my podcast studio at home, my gym, I built the gym right outside it. You should see what we do. I can’t

wait. I want, I want, I want to get on your, um, um, your sprint.

So the cool thing you can do is even if you couldn’t go outside, like I have a, a, a walking pad.

I do too. But I also have the exercise or I have a TRX. So there’s what I’ve just. You know what? I can just go do some up downs. I hate them. Or I can just go do some squat jumps. I think women need to be jumping. Very important.

Quick, a quick little set of pushups.

Yep.

Um, I love or even jump squats, like I’ll do,

oh, look what I’m at.

I’m at 15,500 already.

Look at you. Look at you for the win. I love it. So exercise snacks, I usually do five, four to five days a week. 30 minutes. I’m lifting heavy. And I’m focusing specifically on muscles and muscle movements that replicate life.

Nice. I’m

trying to shop, put my five foot two self. I want to shop, put my luggage into the overhead compartment.

 Not just now, but in 10 years and 20 years, I want freedom. I want power. I want resilience. And I know that those little mini hit. Snacks throughout the day, the walking throughout the day, the lifting like I am living is how we’re going, is how I’m going to do it. And so that’s one of the first things I tell women is like, let’s, let’s find out where you’re at and let’s move from there.

And then I start to implement, I put a CGM on almost everybody because there is nothing more kind of, you know, not even called alarming, but like the numbers don’t lie. Like, you begin to realize that that 8 o’clock snack, or that morning latte with whatever you put in it, that sugar, it’s not doing you any favors.

You learn it real quick. And so, women begin to learn, like, is that late night snack affecting your sleep? Is that poor sleep affecting your fasting glucose in the morning? You just get to really learn and biohack yourself, and I think women are the ultimate biohackers. They really know their bodies, and so having a CGM on, having a Fitbit on or an Apple Watch, it really gives us that kind of data that we can begin to make literally real time changes.

And then I have a lot of blood sugar hacks that I love to stack on, I call them like sugar stacks. Um, but I would say the most profound is getting outside and walking as much as possible.

 Yeah, definitely agree. Yes.

And it just gives you a moment of reprieve. I got a three year old in the house. I got a partner in the house.

Everybody wants something from me all the time. I was just trying to get out the door to see you. I was getting voice memos from my husband. I’m like, please, I am gone. Leave me alone. Well, I don’t know what you want from me, but I don’t want it. You know, and so I love to get outside just for a moment of reprieve, whether I’m listening to a book or I’m listening to your podcast, or I’m just taking a moment to reset.

It’s, it’s by far my favorite way to just. Get moments to myself that feel like re regulation. So yeah, those are, that would be the first thing. And then blood sugar hacks. Um, I always tell people, you know, metabolically healthy meals, kick, kickstart your morning with 30 plus grams of protein. Personally, I aim for 40 plus.

I want that leucine threshold. I want to kickstart that muscle protein synthesis. And I always have a protein snack and a little bit of fiber before my workout.

Okay. Question for you on morning.

Yeah.

Is, what do you say to the people who are intermittent fasting?

I say stop.

I say stop. Now did you try, were you ever try, testing out the intermittent fasting thing?

I

was testing it out when you were testing it out. Remember how much of a nightmare that was? It was horrible. It was horrible.

I’ve always been a breakfast person. I know you are, and you really

struggled. And I was like, I’m going to give this a

go. And I’m like, nope, this is, no way no.

Never, never. We are, we’re more thermogenic in the morning.

I need energy. to do the things I need to do. So I’m a big early time restricted eating. We shut off dinner by six and I don’t need to get until the morning. Um, I know that the same dinner at six o’clock looks really great on my blood glucose, like my CGM. If I eat that same exact dinner, salmon and salad at eight.

Isn’t that wild? And your sleep is a disaster.

Sleep’s a disaster and my blood glucose is 20 points up.

So we were just in Spain,

and they warned

us, oh my gosh, I’m obsessed. They do not,

there’s no 6pm restaurant. They warned us, they go,

you can’t even make a dinner reservation. And I’m like, cause I, I was like, really?

8. 30 is when they open. And we went to one dinner with some friends there, and they’re like, we’re going at 10. Huh? Aren’t you asleep? Aren’t you in bed? I’m asleep. It’s like 10 30. I finally, like, the dinner ends at one. I go, I’m going for a walk because this is my only hope.

Yeah, I always say end movement.

If, if indeed, even that six o’clock or seven o’clock, I mean, try to roll back dinner. I mean, it’s one of the biggest things I tell people, at least have a three hour gap. I personally like a four hour gap between dinner and bedtime. Um, also, my son’s younger, he goes to bed a little bit earlier. I want him to have a three hour gap too.

So, I take a lot of that into consideration. If, if, if 30 percent of our children between the ages of 12 and 19 have prediabetes, I’m pretty sure it started way earlier than that. Yeah. And so we are very mindful about metabolically healthy meals that are fiber, protein focused with fiber, a little bit of fermented veggies, a little bit of healthy fats.

That’s what we eat. That’s what we’re doing.

So what are you eating for fermented veggies?

I’m talking, I’m so

proud of you. I

know. I,

this is, I’m, it’s not, it’s a no. I just count wine. You know, I’m like, so yeah, I mean, even

Kingston eats, eats sauerkraut. Like he does his little keeper drink. Very little. So good.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See, I,

someone needed to do this with me when I was young. I didn’t get that. I got pop tarts. This is what happened.

I got, I got, um, cornflakes and we had a sugar bowl. And we, and I didn’t, I didn’t even eat it until it was slushy.

Oh gosh. It was so

gross. And we

survived this somehow. I mean, how

did we even, how did we make it?

But you look at it back then and granted morning was always ultra processed. It was cocoa puffs or pop tarts or, uh, on like a special day, it was Svenhardt’s cinnamon rolls, but the rest of it was not processed.

And you were moving. You know, so many kids are not even moving. Yeah, my son will never have a Pop Tart.

I’m so sorry. Um, never, we’ll never know what cereal is. You know, he has eggs. I want choline in his little system. Um, I’m making protein smoothies for him with cauliflower and chia seeds and blueberries. Like, that’s what he’s doing. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, or salmon. We’re doing salmon for breakfast.

I know, we used to do burgers, chicken, I was like, you’re just gonna get

It’s so important, and a lot of women don’t realize that what you put in your drinks, I know that your, your women know, but please do not put sugar or honey.

I don’t, don’t do it. Don’t, and don’t let that be the first thing. I mean, here, this is what I’ve learned looking at so many CGMs over the years, looking at the stats and the data. You, you kick start your breakfast with a toast and jam or a little bit of orange juice or a green smoothie with too much fruit.

And you, you hit that 140, 150 milligrams per deciliter, you know, spike. You’re not coming off that roller coaster for over 24 hours.

So walk us through someone wearing a CGM, uh, what do they want to be seeing there?

Yes. So, um, I always want someone, um, scanning it right in the morning. Fasting blood glucose.

Let’s go find out. And ideally, uh, you know, this is optimal. So I want it between 70 milligrams per deciliter and um, fasting and 85 milligrams per deciliter. But even within the range of two hours after a meal, I don’t want it above 120. So that’s what I’m aiming for. For me, two hours post meal, any meal, I don’t want it above 105 milligrams per deciliter.

So I want a tight, tight line, um, across the board. Occasionally, if I know I’m making a decision, like I’m choosing to do something, I still don’t want it above 120. And so, I think the more that we can look at that, so I say test right in the morning, see where you’re at, um, and then try to think about, you know, if it’s, if it’s 90 milligrams per deciliter, you know, was it bad sleep?

Did you eat a little bit too late? What could have that, what, what was that? What could that have been? And then you have breakfast, test it an hour to two hours out. Lunch, the same thing. Um, no snacks, um, and then you’re looking at an early dinner and play with dinner. You know, how, how early of dinner can you get away with, um, where you’re starting to see a much more, you know, kind of an evened out blood glucose curve.

And, and you’ll notice that walking or moving or exercise snacks throughout the day is going to keep that very steady.

Yeah, I mean, it is one of the most interesting things. Like when I was wearing a CGM, first of all, I would see how high I could get my blood sugar to go at the gym.

Oh, at the gym.

Yes, yes, yes.

I was like, I go, anyone reading the CGM must be going, what is going on with this girl?

Like,

we got to call her. She’s in trouble.

It’s 150 milligrams per deciliter. That’s the time where it’s okay. Right? Because your body is having, your muscles require so much glucose to do those power movements. I know you are big on doing power movements or really leveraging all that glycogen and all that glucose in the muscles.

And so you’re going to have to borrow it. And so you’re going to see that rise. It’s the only time I feel like it’s appropriate. Yeah. Is when, um, is when you are sprinting or you are lifting or you are leaving the gym. Yeah. And then it should go right back down pretty quickly.

So, but throughout the day, it’s really interesting to see 20 air squats after you eat.

What happens? It’s wild.

I move a lot after dinner. Because that’s going to be the time that whether you are, you’re, you’re, you’ve got good metabolic flexibility or you’ve got good metabolic health at night, we are just more insulin resistant. And for good reason, we’re not, we’re not running around. I mean, some of us are, unfortunately, still at that point, but our bodies are trying to get ready.

It’s our circadian clock. We’re meant to be slowing down. Our metabolic rate is slowing down. And so You’ll notice, um, that’ll be your highest, that’ll be your highest dip, or your highest raise and then that dip and so what I do to control it is air squats, or I’m doing stairs, or I’m doing a couple jump squats at the dinner, I mean if we’re all in the living room hanging out, you know, after we clean the kitchen, I’ll knock out a five minute set.

It’s five minutes. My son, you know, my son’s doing Legos. You can

do it in a minute or two. These things are fast. So since you brought it up, then what happens? Like what, what are some ideas for people? Cause sleep is such a big challenge at this point. It’s such an area to struggle. Like any tips there?

Yeah, absolutely. I, I do, I mean, I do love progesterone. I do love that. Um, but I would say one, protect, like I said earlier, protect it like it’s a million dollar meeting. So I’d set a time. Like, let’s say it’s 10 o’clock. Um, we have to seduce ourselves into sleep these days. It’s, it’s not, it doesn’t come easy like it did in our twenties and our thirties.

Like you have to seduce yourself. So give yourself time. You know, we, all of the lights in our house are dim. So dim all the lights. This is a one thing you need to do. Once all the lights have been set to be dimmers or you buy special lights for this, make sure that by eight o’clock, they’re all dimming down.

Okay. Do you know about the Philips Hue lights? That’s what

we have. We have Philips Hue lights in every single, yes, except for Kingston. He

only has a

little nightlight and it’s. It’s only on until bedtime and it’s off, but we have, you know, I’m not letting them break one of those lights. So we have those.

We have, um, Hue lights all over the house. So these

can be changed on your phone and you can make them mimic. So you can mimic normal morning sunlight. You can mimic. make them turn red at night. They’re amazing! They’re amazing.

We use, they’re in every room in the house except for his. So we, all the lights go dim and so when I ever, anytime I go to a hotel room or somebody else’s house, I’m like a vampire.

No,

we travel, so there’s a travel one.

Oh, I should, I should, that’s what I need to do. Like,

because Tim brought it, I go, what the heck is that? What is that? Good going Tim! I go, oh my god, well, so we travel with a coffee pot, um, blender. I mean, it’s. It’s ridiculous the amount of stuff. No, the amount of stuff.

It’s a whole separate suitcase. Yeah, it’s a whole thing. Like, it’s, we have one suitcase that’s just the stuff and red lights and, I mean, just too much stuff. But we also have to have the light.

Yeah.

So.

It supplements to kick, so I already, I have, everyone, we should all have that kickoff. So for me, it’s supplementation.

So I, I’ll do a tiny bit of melatonin. Um, I take about 600 milligrams of magnesium glycinate. Um, I’ll, if it’s my luteal phase, I’m taking progesterone as well. Um, I take systemic enzymes. I’m just kind of help managing my, my inflammation there. Um, and then, well, I will, Um, you know, I’ll take, I’ll maybe take some sleep candy, I’m not gonna lie, you know, so, um, and that’ll be about an hour prior to bed.

And the second I take those supplements, it’s game on. I do not play. Like, do not, do not try to talk to me about anything. I’m not in my phone, I’m not touching anything, um, I’ve got sheets that regulate temperature, I got the room cool, the lights are dim, I’m letting Have you tried the

Omnia pillow?

Yes, I’ve got one.

I’m obsessed with this. Someone, it was funny because I did some posts for them on social media and someone’s like, you’re just saying that. I go, no, I’m actually obsessed and now traveling both. And Tim then tried to steal mine. So now we have to be both have Omnia sleeping close to travel with. I’m like, oh my gosh, I have become that person.

I am that person. Um, I just, and then I have my book, you know, and I make sure I’m in bed an hour before bed so that when I want to be asleep by 10, that’s, Wow, that’s

great. I get, I’m a 30 minutes before.

Okay. And then in the morning, um, five minutes. At least outside in the sun, within the hour. So I take my matcha or my coffee, I get outside, I get in sunlight, sometimes Kingston comes out with me, we’ll go ground together, we’ll both stick our feet in the grass, and I’ll be out there getting my sunshine because I really do feel like sleep starts.

It’s the second you are outside in the sun. So I try to, like, charge up my cortisol awakening response, I try to reset those circadian rhythms, and I feel like it’s, it’s, I’ve been very diligent and very consistent, so I’m, I just don’t mess around. Like, you can’t touch me. You

know, in a way, I know it sucked to get this brain injury,

but

the reality is it forced you.

It did. to do all of the things that we know we need to do, but some of these are like, yeah, I’m okay. You know, so it really forced you to get these things dialed and now they’re habits. Yes,

they’re habits.

And that’s the big thing that I heard from all of this is just, this is, these are the things. And that’s what I would encourage everyone listening is, and you don’t have to go, you know, Tomorrow I’m going to put all these things in place, but if you just pick, pick the first thing,

walk,

yeah.

Start tracking that.

Yeah, it’s, it’s an, and then I also love self care stacks. You know, I meditate my little Joe Dispenza meditations in the sauna. I, you know, and, um, I have all these little, little kind of pleasure stacks or self care stacks that I do that, um, help to support and regulate me throughout the day.

Like, I want to show up to be my best self for you, for my son, for whomever I’m with, and so I build a lot of these things into the day and I will say no matter whatever health challenge I’ve ever, I’ve had, which have been many, um, they’ve always had a silver lining because they’ve, they’ve, they’ve, they’ve, I tend to myself.

I tend to myself every day, honestly, like it’s a job.

It is.

It is, yeah. And I still get everything done, by the way. For those who think, I don’t have time for this, you do.

Yeah. You

do.

You’ll have more time. I know they always say that, but it really is true. So. You

make it work.

Alright, well you have a Women’s Metabolic Assessment Guide.

I do. What is it?

So it is, it is looking at all of the biomarkers. Not just the five that we think about for determining metabolic health, but all the biomarkers including ApoB, Lipoprotein little a, and it gives you functional lab ranges. So it’s a, it’s a full on lab assessment. I think a lot of women leave their doctor’s office telling them that everything’s normal.

Their glucose is normal, their A1C is normal, but they don’t feel good. They don’t feel normal. Something isn’t right. And so, this really will give you a better sense of what is happening with you, um, with ranges that really are attuned to your body.

Excellent. So everyone can get that at jjvirgin. com forward slash Mariza.

M A R I Z A. I was like, that’s not spelled right. Mariza. And that will be an easy thing for you to grab. And I’ll throw some of the other resources because we’ve been dropping all sorts of stuff in here. So

I’ll throw

those other resources in there too, because they have made a major difference. So thank you.

Thank you for all of this stuff. And I’m glad you’re feeling better. Getting through a lot of it. So, yeah,

I appreciate that. Yeah. And, and I love being, you know, I, I’m always honest about it, you know, I’m feeling a lot better and I could, I can keep improving and I’m open to that.

Me too.

Yeah.

Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great and are built to last. Check me out on Instagram, Facebook, and my website jjvirgin. com and make sure to follow my podcast at subscribetojj. com so you don’t miss a single And hey, if you’re loving what you hear, don’t forget to leave a review.

Your reviews make a big difference in helping me reach more incredible women just like you to spread the word about aging powerfully after 40. Thanks for tuning in and I’ll catch you on the next episode.

Hey, JJ here. Take care.

Fitness and nutritional information that’s designed for educational and entertainment purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional.

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