Birth Ready and Beyond: from Mom Through Menopause

Talking about the effects of breast cancer treatment on pelvic health with Amanda Olson, DPT. Did you know that breast cancer treatments can affect your pelvic floor health? We talk about issues women may experience and then what proactive steps women can take to support their pelvic health from who to see and what you can use at home. Breast cancer survivors need to know this information so that they know they are not alone and that there is help for pelvic health symptoms such as vaginal dryness, pain with sex, bladder issues and more.

There has NEVER been a better time to be a woman heading into or going through the transition called menopause! With all of the information now available to us, we no longer have to look towards perimenopause and menopause with dread. Andrea Donsky, a functional nutritionist chats about the nutrition and lifestyle tips that will help us THRIVE through our 40’s and 50’s. Ready to feel armed with info and inspiration that is practical and can be applied to your life today? Come take a listen.

We get to know James Goodlatte, the founder of Fit For Birth. A holistic prenatal and postpartum wellness and fitness education platform for both fitness and health professionals as well as for pregnant and postpartum individuals. He gives us his 5 foundations for a healthy pregnancy and recovery and wonderful tips to live by at any stage of life. If you are holistic minded in your approach to health, then this is an interview you do not want to miss!

Getting to know more about our local wellness and healthcare providers is so very important. Vancouver, WA has a literal goldmine of passionate individuals striving to do better for those in their community. Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Kendall Hagensen, the owner of Vancouver Wellness Studio. She has curated a holistic multidisciplinary team including mental health, naturopathy, nutrition coaching, fitness, massage, and more. In addition to learning more about VWS, I got to ask Kendall about one of the modalities that she and her other mental health provider are well trained in EMDR. A wonderful tool in helping those who suffer from PTSD, anxiety, and more.

Want to crush some personal goals this year? We all have something in our lives that we’d like to improve, whether that’s managing stress more effectively, developing healthier relationships, or building more confidence. The mere thought of change can be overwhelming or scary, but Linda’s mission is to address the root cause of that fear so that you can tackle anything that life throws at you by making simple, easy changes to your everyday routines. Let's move from surviving to thriving!

There are endless options when it comes to fitness plans and healthy lifestyles. But what makes these healthy choices actually stick? Join us as we talk about the mental steps and mindset that will make the BIGGEST impact as we continue to make those health and fitness goals… especially as we start to make those New Year's resolutions!

Dr Angela aka Dr Hot Flash joins us to share her personal and professional journey with hormone health. She has specialized in female hormone health for 25 years and has become an expert in supporting women in their highly individual hormone journeys. She is also on a mission to save women from suffering due to poorly educated medical providers with her book titled “How to Prevent Your Doctor From Slowly Killing You: A Woman’s Hormonal Health Survival Guide”. This episode could seriously be a game changer for any woman from age 20 to 70!

Your menstrual cycle is a window into your overall health. What is your cycle telling you? In this podcast, we get to learn about a natural way to improve our hormones throughout our ever changing cycle to reduce those crazy hormone symptoms, improve fertility (if that's a goal), and steady the ship as we sail towards menopause. Seed cycling has been around for hundreds of years and has been tremendously helpful to so many people including Kate, Buffy, and many of our friends and patients. Listen as we chat about what seed cycling is and how Kate has made it crazy easy for anyone to do!

As we come to the realization that ALL of us living in 2021 are going through an ongoing trauma, there couldn’t be a better timed interview to listen to than this. Ashley is a survivor of childhood trauma and overcame simultaneous postpartum depression and Lyme Disease. She has wonderful insight and priceless advice that we can use TODAY. And after all of the healing she has done over the past several years, she put all of this into a new book that has JUST been released! Links to her book and more info about Ashley on the show notes!

We get to talk all about the keys to prenatal and postpartum fitness as well as the best approach to preparing for birth. Erica Ziel has been in the fitness industry for many years and has dedicated herself to the online coaching of prenatal and postpartum women… she GETS IT! We chat about what REALLY matters in this life phase and dispel some myths when it comes to some VERY common prenatal advice. Is it possible to truly prepare our pelvic floor for a great delivery and recovery? YES! Listen to find out just what secrets we are divulging that are a game changer for our clients!

When it comes to being prepared for the days and weeks AFTER we deliver, there are MANY bits of wisdom mothers gain from other moms. Combine that with all that the internet has for advice and it can seem overwhelming. I created a guide and now this podcast episode so that moms can get some succinct advice and some action steps oif what to have on hand at home and what to pay attention to in the haze that is the newborn phase. Take a listen and be sure to check out the free download guide on the show notes!

It really is never too late to work on FULL recovery from an abdominal or pelvic surgery. Clients that we see at Pinnacle have often gone YEARS without any guidance on fully recovering from these types of surgeries and this podcast is here to help those who would like more advice than the usual “rest for 6 weeks”. As experts in the core and pelvic floor, us pelvic PTs have a few tips and tricks on how to fully recover from abdominal and pelvic surgeries. Listen here as I share my favorites with the goal of helping those who have had a surgery THRIVE again.

For runners, getting back to running postpartum can be quite the uncertain journey. When is too soon? Why can’t we just start running ASAP? How should we train to get back to running form? What are the risks to our body? Amanda and I talk ALL about these things in this podcast episode! She is currently on a committee with the American Physical Therapy Association to create the first of its kind postpartum running guide backed by the best available evidence/research and she's sharing her expertise with us!

If 2020 was a dumpster fire for health, then shouldn’t 2021 be all about optimizing it?! Let’s talk about one way we can all improve our overall health, and that is with detoxing! We are surrounded by toxins in all aspects of our lives and our bodies can use ALL the help they can get in reducing toxins so that we can THRIVE. In this episode, Buffy recaps part 1 and shares FOUR more things we can do to help our bodies detox. Even if you are not ready to jump on the detox train today, this information is perfect for you to ponder and digest before making a move towards detoxing. Note: detoxing is not recommended while pregnant.

If 2020 was a dumpster fire for health, then shouldn’t 2021 be all about optimizing it?! Let’s talk about one way we can all improve our overall health, and that is with detoxing! We are are surrounded by toxins in all aspects of our lives and our bodies can use ALL the help they can get in reducing toxins so that we can THRIVE. In this episode, Buffy shares a bit about her detoxing journey over the last year and shares THREE simple things we can do to detox. Even if you are not ready to jump on the detox train today, this information is perfect for you to ponder and digest before making a move towards detoxing.

Dr Renee Wellensteinis a wealth of knowledge in all things functional medicine and women’s health. She shares with us how she left traditional western medicine as an OBGYN and began to help herself and others find complete healing… including helping women get their libido back! If you didn’t know, a low libido can be an indicator that something is off with a person’s health and Dr Wellenstein shares some of the keys to reclaiming our health AND our libido!

We get to meet Dr Jocelyn, a seasoned athlete, Cross Fitter, and pelvic and core specialist physical therapist and talk about all things Cross Fit and pelvic health! Want to hear some truth bombs about pelvic and core health and high level fitness, this episode is for you! Jocelyn tells it like it is when it comes to training smart and sparing our pelvic health. You don’t want to miss this episode!

March is Endometriosis Awareness month. A condition that us pelvic PTs work with a LOT and see the physical and mental toll it takes on our friends, family and patients.. and sometimes us! My dear friend Dr J and I chat about endo and getting the help that is needed to be able to move forward. In this short discussion, we will cover a LOT of info about what it is and who can help. To those who have been diagnosed and those who have not yet been diagnosed, we SEE you and HEAR you.

What's for dinner?? For those of us moms in the rat race of meal planning for our families, this episode is for us!! I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather Englund, a mother and expert in healthy family meal planning and boy am I excited to learn even more from her after our chat! We spoke specifically about ways to add fiber rich foods into our kiddos’ diets which is crucial for for all of our health. Check out the show notes for links to get your hands on her free 1 week meal plan!

When it comes to making healthy choices for ourselves and our families, many of us have a blind spot when it comes to toxins in our self care and home products that can be harming our health. So I just HAD to chat with Krissie about her vast knowledge and learn just what is in our favorite self care and home products and what steps can we take NOW to move towards a more toxin-free life! She gives GREAT advice and encouragement for any of us who are feeling overwhelmed by it all.