E188: Holistic Solutions for Tackling Belly Bloat and Fatigue Through Perimenopause with Michelle McCoy

Are you constantly exhausted, experiencing brain fog, or struggling with stubborn belly bloat, no matter what you do?

If you're over 40 and dealing with these issues, it’s not just a part of getting older. You don’t have to accept these changes as your new normal. Perimenopause can bring about unexpected challenges, but there are ways to manage them.

In this episode, holistic health coach Michelle from The Treasured Wellness Podcast reveals what’s really behind these frustrating symptoms and how to start reversing them today.  

You’ll learn about: 

• The main reason these symptoms happen together.  
• Why conventional medicine often misses the root cause.  
• Easy, actionable steps to help you regain your energy and clarity.

Don’t let your symptoms get worse—hit play now for practical, faith-based solutions to help you reclaim your vitality without the stress.

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Treasured Wellness Podcast

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Transcript

[00:00:00] Leisha: Hello. Welcome back to happily hormonal. I have a really fun guest here today. I have Michelle from the treasured wellness podcast, and she is a board certified holistic and functional health coach. And she specializes in helping female professional leaders in midlife. Who have a lot of issues with low energy, belly fat, brain fog, to be able to reclaim their health with an anti inflammatory lifestyle style and natural solution.

So diet and nutrition. Lifestyle, , all of the things that we love here, and she also brings in a godly approach so that she can help with biblical mindset shifts and. The physical side of health too. I'm super excited to have Michelle here today because we're going to talk about some things that we don't always talk about here where we're going to kind of focus more on that perimenopause timeframe.

I know I've been getting a lot of questions about it and we haven't had too many episodes, but we're going to focus on more of like the mental and gut related questions. Michelle is an expert in this. I'm really excited to have you here, Michelle, would you just start before we get into , , all the health things and tell us a little bit about why you're here, why you love doing what you do.

And then we'll go into the more physical side.

[00:02:06] Michelle: Yeah, Leisha. Thanks so much for having me. It's such an honor. Okay why did I get into holistic wellness? It's really, we have to go back 21 years. Our daughter was really sick and it took 3 years for us to get to the bottom and get to the root cause really of what was wrong with her. Conventional medicine ended up failing us and her because they never did find out what was wrong with her, even through all the testing.

And I love conventional medicine. If I have a heart attack or break my leg, you know that I'm going right there. But there's also other ways, more holistic ways that we can help the body to heal and recover from what. Ails us. And we finally, I had to leave the state. I had to leave conventional medicine, go into holistic medicine to find out what was wrong with her.

And then we were able to start helping her. That's what started off my interest in holistic health. And then it quickly went right into nutrition because that was a big part of what was wrong with her. She had a gluten intolerance, a gluten allergy actually, and it was affecting her in her skin and her head.

And usually people think gluten, it affects the gut, but for her, it wasn't. It was affecting migraines and headaches and skin conditions. And she just wasn't growing. She had failure to thrive. This is when she was five to eight years old. So that's what started it. But then I got to a point where I was in my thirties and I was realizing how bad I felt.

And I felt really bad during that time where we were trying to get her straightened out and what's going on with her. And I started realizing that my own health was really had been pushed on the back burner all this time, right? Like moms do, we put our everything into our families, our careers, our service, and.

Our own health slides. And that was exactly what happened to me. I had a, a health crisis. And it just brought me to the fact that what had happened with her. Okay. So with her, it was nutrition. With me, it was nutrition. I actually had passed on a gluten Allergy to her. So I, too, have a gluten allergy, and it just was a lot of trial and error in learning because this was before, her illness was before the Internet.

Believe it or not. It was like just getting started. I was really doing a lot of education and research on my own. And then fast forward, I went from teaching. I knew I had to go into a new career and the Lord was just very clear. And he was just like nutrition. , and he spoke very clearly to teach his daughters.

 I started out helping moms with sick children. Because that was my initial story and then I quickly started helping the moms themselves for the same reason as I had because they just do and do and they well, I'll get to that later, meaning their own health. I'll take care of myself later.

I'll keep pushing myself off. I don't have time to worry about how I feel. It just has evolved over these years where now I'm helping women more over 40 it's just evolved that way. , I like to keep things simple and doable because there's so much overwhelm and confusion around nutrition, around just health in general for women.

 I want them to be able to keep these simple steps just so they can just build on it. So that before you know it, it's part of your lifestyle, right? True change for. A healthy life and a good life just take the next best step to help your body to heal and to recover Because at the end of the day we don't have a health care system anymore Leisha and I know you know that we have a disease management system especially in the u.

s We have a disease management system and it's up to us to be our own best advocates for our whole health that's why I love to work with Women specifically because women are the heartbeats of their home. Everything that they learn and do can have that amazing trickle down effect into the whole family unit throughout generations.

It's really an awesome responsibility, but it's also an awesome privilege that God has given us in this role and really to impact their families in their health. And just create that generational help.

[00:06:23] Leisha: Well, our stories are so similar and I think you're just a few years ahead of me because I had the same kind of awakening moment when my daughter was two and she had asthma and I was like, no, we're not doing this. She doesn't need to have asthma. She's two years old.

 She's perfect. She needs to be perfect. And you know, perfect is something that I'm learning is maybe a little out of reach, but we were able to improve her health so much. She does not have asthma anymore. She hasn't had it for years. And it is like for moms, a lot of times it does take. Our children needing us to improve and change for us to do it.

We won't always do it for ourselves, which is so interesting because you're absolutely right. , that's why I love working with moms too, is because , when we change our health as moms, we change our families, but even like generations to come, especially if we're still having babies. But even if we're not, because , you're influencing your children and your husband and .

, your community. I love that so much. could have said the same story. You're just like I said, a few years ahead of me. And I think it's interesting that you're like, and now I work with women over 40, because I've thought about that, you know, when I get a lot of menopause and perimenopause questions, , to be honest, I'm not there yet.

But , will I be there eventually? I totally will. And I'll be so ready to help you at that point. But. , it's different people at that point. So it's really, really good. I love that. Since we're going to focus on over 40 perimenopause specifically, what are some of the biggest changes you see in that age group of like how hormones are changing, how health is changing, what are symptoms that come up that , you see, and that people come to you with, and then , what are some of your first questions you're asking them as far as what the contributing factors might be?

[00:08:05] Michelle: The top three really are fatigue, brain fog and belly bloat. Pain is a close fourth chronic pain. But those are the top three fatigue, brain fog. And belly bloat. And, my clients over 40, they're working women. They are smart. They are in leadership roles. They are working in, business or, leadership roles in their church.

They are running their household. And they've got that daily tiredness that doesn't let up when they choose to sleep in over the weekend, right? They choose to sleep in. I'm going to get some really good sleep tonight. I'm going to go to bed at, 9 o'clock tonight on a Friday night, and I'm going to sleep till 9.

And, it does let up. Sometimes they feel even worse when they get up in the morning. You can't sleep. Catch up on your sleep like we once used to in our 20s. It doesn't work that way. Or even if you take a mini vacation and you feel like you can just decompress, they have a lot of worrisome brain fog, foggy thinking moments, trouble with recall.

In the afternoons, and it's really concerning to them because it's starting to affect their abilities at work. Again, they're smart. like, what is going on? Why can't I think? And what do they do? They reach for things that are going to put a bandaid on it and just get them through.

But again, women are notorious for putting themselves last and their health is Paramount of them putting it last. They're always putting it last. I don't know why we do that. I don't know why, but the Lord has shown me through my own health crises that I can't keep doing that and I need to stop doing that.

And I need to teach others to and encourage others to stop doing that too, because that's not what he wants for us. , so a lot of women are struggling with those things. And this is something that. I want everybody to understand just because something is common doesn't mean it's normal.

[00:10:00] Leisha: Amen.

My listeners have heard that before.

[00:10:04] Michelle: You can go to the doctor's office, you can have your labs done and they all come back normal, right? But you still feel like crap. And the doctor says, we'll see you again in 6 months, but you feel bad now and you know that something's not right. You know that you don't feel well.

 It's just so frustrating for. women to be going through these hoops, right? I call it kicking the lab test can down the road. You're just waiting for a diagnosis. Do you know that you have to be two thirds of the way sick before a diagnosis is officially made? Why? That's insanity. 

There's so much more that we can do now while we are feeling bad. There's always hope. , we need to find out the why behind why we're feeling so bad. 

So I do encourage women to be their own best advocate and take their own help into their hands.

[00:10:59] Leisha: I think it's interesting that you said you started your health journey before the internet and , as a 30, almost 34 year old, I'm like, what, what would that like? , I do remember before the internet I do, 

[00:11:11] Michelle: That dial up tone. 

[00:11:13] Leisha: I do. Yep. As a teenager kid, we had dial up, , I don't know because my journey of health has been with the internet .

I'm sure that was just like a whole different thing, but , I think that , there's obviously good and bad sides of that, where it's with the internet, there's way too much information, but without it, it might've been hard to find information. Anyway, I just think that that's interesting, but what I'd love for you to talk about is , you said fatigue brain fog and belly bloat.

Why are those the three things? And why are they related?

[00:11:41] Michelle: Fatigue, there's so many, I could go A lot of different directions here. And because of time, I'll just try to condense it. There are different types of fatigue. We can have physical fatigue, mental, and I lump emotional in there and we can have spiritual fatigue. Again, we have to get to the why are we struggling?

But I believe that not, fatigue is not just physical, it is at its core, it is spiritual. We need to dive deeper into that. And a quick second that comes right behind fatigue is that brain fog. That foggy thinking that trouble recalling names, the trouble recalling important dates or facts and data at work and everything.

 All of that it just quickly follows because when we're tired, when we have that head to toe fatigue our organs are not functioning optimally. Our brain is not functioning optimally. And then the bloating, we've got the belly blow and we're like, what in the world? I'm not eating enough to be bloated.

Why am I so bloated? I'm not eating enough. That could be a really big reason why you're bloated is because you're not taking in nutrition. You're not taking in enough nutrition to help your brain function the way it needs to. You're not taking in enough nutrition to help your body to wake up and to regain energy in a natural way.

Instead, Women tend to reach for those quick fixes and it doesn't work after a while. It stops working. Those energy drinks, that third and fourth cup of coffee, the sugary snack hitting the break room, those things are not working. And we might've been able to get away with it in our twenties, but we just cannot do that anymore.

 We need to take responsibility again, it is our responsibility to take good care of our bodies and not just blindly trust the experts, right? We need to be mindful of what our body needs. 1 of the things that I encourage women to do if they're not getting the answers that they want is to order their own lab tests online.

Because if you are having chronic fatigue, you're having brain fog, you're bloated. Maybe your digestive system is a mess. Maybe you're not eliminating and you have tried many things. You might want to finally just get some answers and certain tests, will help you get those answers and you can do that on your own.

If you don't get permission from your doctor or your insurance company says, we're not going to cover it. As long as you are willing to pay out of pocket, you can order any lab tests you want. And I help my clients do this all the time because maybe for the first time, they're actually getting some answers.

And I know you do that too, Leisha, there's other testing for hormones you've got Your urine and your saliva and all of that. But even if we're just talking about blood work, blood serum testing, there are specific tests that you can ask for that your doctor's not checking because it's just not on their radar.

They don't know what they don't know. And as you dig, like you said, into the Internet I don't want you cruising Dr. Google, because that can send you on a massive bunny trail and really start that overwhelming confusion cycle, and that's not what neither one of us want for you. Just keep asking, keep searching, get a second opinion if you're not getting the answers that you want and fire your doctor if you need to, because I've had to do that and I've talked about it on my podcast, Treasured Wellness, because sometimes if you're not feeling hard, if you're not getting the answers, if you're kicking that lab test can down the road, you're going to be just as sick a year from now or worse.

[00:15:24] Leisha: Well, that's something that I saw as a nurse is the way we're taught to look at labs is do they need medication or do they need to go to the hospital? , that's how we're looking at labs until either one of those is true. There's not anything that conventional medicine can or will do to help essentially.

 That's the training, right? Okay. Well, your thyroid level finally got high enough that you need thyroid hormone, but was it trending that direction for 16 years? Yes, it was. , could we support the thyroid with nutrients? Could we support the thyroid with other minerals and vitamins and things like that?

Because you don't have hypothyroid yet because you don't need medication yet. That's where our scope falls with Michelle and I is like, we can help you see some of those trends a little sooner. Then where conventional medicine can help and a lot of times you are feeling bad before, , conventional medicine can help or you do have the labs that they would consider bad enough for medication, but that's not the answer you want.

 That's where fully agree with, , being your own advocate and seeking out other answers can be really, really helpful. I would love for you to just talk about a little bit, . When someone, , is coming to you with, with the brain fog, the fatigue, the bloating, , they're kind of in that perimenopause stage.

 What are some of the things that you would do first to start helping them feel better? , those simple steps that you talked about to kind of take the next best step. 

[00:16:52] Michelle: It's all very individual. There's no one size fits all for sure. There can't be the first thing we do is we take a very detailed intake. We take a very good look at a lifestyle, a nutrition, sleep elimination. Do you sleep next to your cell phone? , do you have support in your family so much?

There's so much in there because it's all very relevant. It's very important. We work on that. And then we are addressing nutrition from an anti inflammatory perspective, which. As we know, anti inflammatory is going to reduce the inflammation in our brain and our body and that right there, that is going make marked changes in brain fog and fatigue levels.

Those energy levels are going to come back up. The brain fog is going to start to lift and depending on their labs that they have showed me, or if we need to order more labs, we'll go even deeper. But I like to try lifestyle and nutrition first, and I want to see, , where can we go first? We might need to add in some supplementation, but I try never to do more than three, because then you're not knowing what is actually helping.

I remember when I went through my adrenal fatigue crisis I was literally given from the one practitioner. It was like, I don't know. I took a picture of it. That was years ago. And I feel like there was 12 different supplements. So I was taking pills all day long and I didn't know what was working because I was taking so many things and I was burning out of taking so many things.

I don't do that. I don't do that with my clients. Because again, wanting to keep things simple and just you don't get rid of everything in your pantry as you are learning to read the nutrition labels and everything. I did that. I don't recommend it. It is very stressful because then you're left there sitting there going.

I have nothing left in my pantry. What are we going to eat for dinner tonight? There's a process. And so we do that. We go slow. I will say that nutrition and movement and lifestyle changes aside, the mindset is so key. And that's why I teach a biblical mindset in my program, because we have to really seek the Lord for our health.

And a lot of women, for whatever reason, and I know I was there too, and I still don't know why I felt this way. It could have been, I don't know, childhood or whatever. But I felt like God didn't care. Like it was not big enough for him to care that much The fact that I was exhausted and I was almost falling asleep at the wheel and all of this stuff, I was burnt out, he was too busy to worry about that.

 I just felt like I had to take it all on my own. I had to fix this. Because we are used to fixing things. When it comes to our own health and we can't fix it, it can be really overwhelming and we can start reaching for all the noise that's out there on the internet, on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube, everywhere, even Pinterest, we're searching out.

And God says, no, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. One of my favorite verses is Matthew 6, 33, where he's just saying, seek first the kingdom and then all these other things. So if you read Matthew six, he's talking about, the birds don't worry. Why are we worrying about all of these things?

God will show you if you seek him first, he will show you the direction that you need to take in your health. He will show you, he will literally lead you to the practitioner that you need to see. I've had a handful of women that have just reached out of the blue. And, we asked that question, Leisha, how did you hear about us, right?

And it's I don't know. I never listened to a podcast and all of a sudden I decided to listen to a podcast on health and yours came up and it was like, the Lord led me. He will direct your steps and you just have to. Trust in that, that he really does care about you and he cares about your health.

He does not want his daughters sad, sick, and stuck. He wants his daughters to be living this life with optimal health for that generational health, for that trickle down effect into your family,

[00:21:21] Leisha: I love that so much. That's all so good. So thank you for, for sharing all of that because you're so right. , everyone's symptoms are going to be different. Everyone's answers are going to be different, but finding, , who God leads you to, or the answers that God leads you to is going to be right for you.

 I've had a similar experience where it's sometimes it's like someone will say where they found me. And I'm like, I didn't even know I was there audible one time. I was like, I didn't even know it's an audible. Cool. , good job. , whoever clicked the right buttons on my podcast, , it really is cool.

Thank you so much for sharing all of that, Michelle, I know you have a freebie that you wanted to share with us and I'll have that in the show notes and then tell us where we can find you.

[00:22:00] Michelle: The easiest way is either the podcast treasured wellness or the website by the same name treasured wellness. And yes, there is a freebie there that I would love for you to have. You can go on there and it's foggy and fatigue freedom over 40 and you can get some clear actions. To note to do daily these little steps that are small but doable that you can do daily to really help yourself regain some much needed energy and to feel better and just take that next right step.

[00:22:30] Leisha: I love that. Thanks so much, Michelle. 

[00:22:32] Michelle: Thank you.