Ladies, it's time to take control of your hormones and ride the waves. In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Shelly Burns, a doctor of chiropractic, a gym owner, a fitness expert for 20 years, a life coach, and creator of The FIT Menopause Blueprint™ who shares her insights on how to manage menopause and keep your cool during the hormone tsunami. So whether you're in the thick of menopause or just starting to feel the effects, this episode is for you.
You'll learn:
Four pillars of hormone health
Lifestyle changes to make to manage your menopause symptoms
The best foods to eat during menopause
Working out during menopause
Top mindset strategies to remove menopause roadblocks
And so much more!
If you're struggling with menopause or know someone who is, this episode is a must-listen. Share it with a friend and let's get through this transition together!
(00:00): All energy is only borrowed. And one day you have to give it all back. That's a quote from the avatar movie. What does this have to do with perimenopause and menopause and riding the hormone waves like a badass? stay tuned. And you'll find out with my guest, Dr. Shelly Burns.
(00:20): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us, keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones and our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.
(01:13): Hey everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so grateful that you decided to join us today. You're gonna love my guest. She and I have been in the mastermind together for quite a bit of time. And we share a passion for women's health hormones, all things menopause and perimenopause, and she has helped so many women. She had an amazing summit around menopause recently that you might have attended. And she's got a lot of other great resources, and she's very inspirational. So you're gonna love her. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. And we'll even dive into that quote that I shared with you from the avatar movie. I mean, I saw the movie, but I didn't remember this quote till Shelly brought it to my attention and I love it.
(02:02): And I'll tell you why in the episode. So Shelly Burns is a doctor of chiropractic. She's also a gym owner, CrossFit and a fitness expert, and she's been doing that for over 20 years. She's also a life coach and creator of the Fit, Menopause Blueprint. She has always been passionate about health, fitness, and wellness. And she's gonna tell you why she's particularly passionate about women's health and the perimenopause and menopause in the episode. And she strives to be a guide for women battling hormonal obstacles, which is like just about every one of us over 40. She feels no woman should be staring at themselves in the mirror wondering who is looking back at them. Has that happened to you or feeling alone in their struggles? I know that's happened to me. Women need to be helping women. So welcome Dr. Shelly Burns.
(02:56): Thank you, Dr. Kyrin for having me today.
(02:59): Really excited to have you and talk about hormones and menopause. Two of my favorite topics. And I know everybody is gonna be curious as to why are you so passionate about menopause and about hormones? How did that happen?
(03:18): Well, right now I'm 45 currently. And when I was 43, I've always been really in shape, taking care of my body. I race these international races. I travel. And then within, I'm gonna say three months, I gained 20 pounds. I started out with mild anxiety that grew to major anxiety and panic attacks within eight months and slowly over this period of time, I went from feeling like a badass to not even being able to look at myself in the mirror. I wasn't sleeping. I was exhausted day and night. I, even if I tried to take a nap during the day, I couldn't take a nap. So I would go to my, went to my primary doctor and, and he prescribed me an anti-anxiety med. And then two months later I was even more anxious and I was confused. Because I'm like, well, now I'm taking this stuff because cause I'm not a big, uh, prescription.
(04:11): I don't really like to take things if I can help it. So the fact that I couldn't control my anxiety really bothered me. So then I went back, he increased the dose. I started having major panic attacks. He increased the dose again and added something else. And finally, my relationship was not doing very well cause I could not even communicate what I was feeling or what I was going through. And I'm a big communicator. So the fact that I couldn't even pinpoint what was going on or why I was feeling so terrible, I decided to go to another doctor because I felt like I was maybe just going crazy. So she did a blood test and did all that stuff. Not, I didn't know what she was testing for. I was just like, yeah, sure. When she came back, she started asking me things like, well, do you sweat at night?
(04:53): And like wake up. I'm like, yeah, but you know, I sleep in bed with five dogs and a person. And she, I said, so it was either that or I kept thinking I had COVID, and she's like, no, no. How many times a week? And I said, well, at least two or three. And so she started asking those questions that I didn't really know what she was trying to ask. And she's like, well you're in perimenopause and this could be why the anxiety you're, you're increasing cortisol. You're you're not sleeping. You're having night sweats. And the weight gain was another big one. And then I started breaking out, which I still kind of have a problem with that, but that's kind of how it all started. My, because when she told me you're in peri menopause, I think my reaction was like, what? Like I'm not 50 I'm 43. And she goes, oh no, no. So I learned a lot just in that one sentence, like you're in per menopause, cuz I almost was appalled that she said I was in menopause, but that was just my, that was my education and ignorance at that point, I didn't, I've never had never heard of it. I knew what menopause was, but that was about it. That's kind of what started it.
(05:51): Yeah. You know, it's, you're not unique in that. I mean here I was OB GYN. My health was a show in my forties and it never occurred to me. This is the menopause transition. It never once occurred to me. So we have this kind of dialogue going on, that, oh no. Menopause is, you know, for women in their fifties when the period stops completely and everything else before it has nothing to do with it. I think we should change the whole transition to make it call it the menopause transition. And it starts really at 40 so that we can include our sisters in the forties. Cuz then they won't think, like you said, you thought you were crazy. I thought I was crazy too. And here I had the credentials to know I should've known better, but you know, we're not taught that. So we don't know what we're not taught. So you're very passionate about it. And you come from a fitness background, right?
(06:47): Yeah. I I've owned a gym for 20 years. Well one was in LA and then I moved to North Carolina and had another gym. But in that time, I became a personal trainer while I was in chiropractic school. So for about 20 years, I've done both. So really into doing the things we can to con you know, to help ourselves live longer. Um, I, I wanna be 80 and be able to be out doing what I wanna do. I don't wanna be, you know, stuck in a wheelchair on a cane. So I'm very passionate about just longevity through taking care of our bodies.
(07:19): Yes, absolutely. I love this quote that you shared with me before we started from the avatar movie. All energy is only borrowed and one day you have to give it back. What does that mean?
(07:32): From my perspective, cuz when I first read that or saw that it was, I loved it because I do feel like we are, we are in this temporary space, our bodies are in this temporary space and we, if, if your spiritual in any way, you know, our energy is coming from a higher power. And to me, it's just, that we're using it while we're here. It's not ours, but we're given this opportunity to live this life in our own, in our best way. And so to give it back means like, you appreciate what you have at the momentin the moment. Like I have another quote. I like to say at the end of my podcast, I am trying to enjoy every moment of every movement because in my head we're like, we're not guaranteed another movement. I've met people that are in wheelchairs and all sorts of situations that they didn't see coming. So I'm always like we have these bodies, like let's use 'em and enjoy 'em and, and have that freedom that we like to do, like go hiking or ride a bike or go swimming. It's just a powerful thing that we have that we should use this energy that we're given.
(08:30): Yeah. I love this concept because it, it really speaks to something that I talk with people about the fact that we kind of are this soul, this energy being, and we come to earth, but that every particle that physically makes up our body is given to us by the plants and animals and resources first that when we're in the womb that our mother consumes and transmutes that literally organize around the energy that we are and create our bodies. And then when we're born, we continue to take the external environment, you know, fruits, vegetables, animal proteins, into our body and change it. So we're taking that energy from their bodies, plant bodies, animal bodies, and we're changing it into our flesh and blood. And then when we're done with it, we discard the body, and we're still the energy. And so I love, I know I saw avatar, but I don't remember this quote, but I love that you pulled this out.
(09:31): All energy is only borrowed. And one day you have to give it back. And I love the concept. Like, are we being good stewards of it? Because it's not just for us. It's given to us on loan and I don't know about you, but if a friend loans me a pair of shoes, I take better care of it than I do my own shoes. And so I love this concept of it's just ours to borrow, and we have to give it back. Okay. So let's dive into how we can be good stewards of this energy that is ours to use in this lifetime. I wanna talk a little bit, I know you have the new book coming out, menopause, tsunami, how to ride the hormone waves, like a bad. Who wants that? Y'all I know each one of you <laugh> so what are some principles behind that? I think it gets to your four-step system, is that right?
(10:25): Yeah. So basically when I found out I was in para menopause, being a chiropractor and fitness and in the whole, the body, I really dove into research, which I know you and I have talked about this before. Like I really dove into the research and, and how to approach being in this period differently. Like why wasn't my workout six days a week, sometimes two days, why weren't they working anymore? Why wasn't my nutrition working anymore? I was doing the same thing I did in my thirties, but I could barely lose a pound. So I really like diving into life over 40. And like, what are the best workouts were the best nutrition, things like that. And I put together this thing called the fit menopause blueprint, which is where I developed the four pillars, which are fitness, nutrition, mindset, and self-care. So in the book I break down kind of my journey and how I found these four pillars.
(11:12): And then what I do within the four pillars. So like fitness, for example, uh, that pillar, I do own a CrossFit gym. Now I love the competitiveness of CrossFit, but I've also learned over time that I can't put that much stress on my body anymore and expect to get the results. So it was almost when I decreased the strain I was putting on my body and still got in really good workouts, like hit type workouts. I was getting, I started getting results. So I almost stopped doing what I was doing and looked at it differently. Even though I wasn't torturing my body. Like you do in CrossFit, I still was getting in workouts, but I wasn't taking my body to that high cortisol level where I wasn't gonna recover or get the effects and the benefits of the exercise. So that's like, that is, is the fitness when I go more in depth than there and talk about like exactly what the benefits of HIIT and things like that, and then nutrition and then self-care and mindset.
(12:05): Can we talk about a little more in depth about the fitness, cuz I think what you're mentioning, women listening are experiencing and they're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, Shelly, tell me more about that. Because you know, there are different groups of women who really are in my community and one of the groups is those are those women who do CrossFit and they're real fitness fanatics and they get into their forties. And then all of a sudden exactly what you said, I'm working out like crazy and I can't even lose a pound. So can you speak a little bit more in detail about what's happening, why that's happening and do we need to work out differently? So...
(12:50): What in my own journey and then my clients, cuz now I, now I help other people with this. I have found that I still do CrossFit, but I do two to three days a week of CrossFit. And what I stop doing is the really heavy lifting. So I like to lift, but I don't need to take my body to that extreme of really straining underneath really heavy weights. Some women can do that, but as I got older, I realized I can't do that. So with that two to three times a week of CrossFit, and then I do the other two to three times a week of HIIT. Now HIIT is the high intensity interval training, but a lot of women do hit wrong. You'll see boutique gyms where they're like HIIT workouts, and they're 45 minutes to an hour long, but hit workouts. If you do them correctly, you're not gonna last 45 minutes to an hour.
(13:33): HIIT workouts tend to be, I've seen all different stats, but seven minutes to like 20 minutes. But the idea is when you are doing that work period, let's say 45 seconds on and 15 seconds off that 45 seconds, you are supposed to be hitting 90% of your max capacity of what you have to give. So that 90%, you're not gonna be able to keep a 90% capacity over45-minuteute period. That's not gonna happen. So those people that are doing those hit long, long workouts are not quite doing hit. And that's why sometimes hit is not getting people the results that they want. You wanna do shorter workouts, shorter bursts, where you get that rest period. So you're getting the heart rate up down your body's getting recovery. You're not taking it to that threshold of extreme stress like you do in, in some workouts.
(14:19): So we do have to work out differently and from what, what I've changed and from, from what the lady, my clients changed, it's made a huge difference because I also had people in my gym that when they found out I was doing this over 40 fitness, they signed up even, they were already members at the gym. And one of their biggest things they said to me is I've been doing CrossFit with you now for a year, two years. And my body hasn't changed at all. Like I still have this, you know, a little bit of weight in my waist. And a lot of the women had maybe 10, 15 pounds of lose, not anything major like 50 pounds or a hundred pounds. So, they were frustrated cuz they've been doing it for so long. They were working out four or five days a week.
(14:54): They weren't getting any results. And I said, listen, how about we change it up a little bit. Let's do two to three days of CrossFit. I will write up two to three days of hit workouts, and we'll try to decrease the strain on your body. And all of a sudden, within four weeks they could tell they, their energy was higher. They were, were covering, up, they were sleeping better. So then I was like, okay, fitness, you know is on it, but it's not the whole thing. Cuz obviously nutrition is 90% of somebody's journey and health. So I do feel like with the hit workouts, people just are doing them wrong. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, it's been taken too far where in order to get the most benefits from hit workout, it's 90%. I mean, you're at a sprint for 30, 45 seconds. Mm-hmm <affirmative> you get that rest period to bring it down. So that is the fitness part. And it's just, we as women think we have to do six, seven days a week, cuz that's what we did before. But our, we are not in our thirties anymore and that's not going to get us the results. There might be a small handful of women that get results doing that. But I mean, ideally we're fighting against our own bodies when we do that.
(15:54): Got it. All right. So number one, we've gotta change our output with our fitness, but you just said nutrition is 90% of the results we're getting. So explain that to us, Shelly.