weightgain Archives – Wild Lyons Wellness

5 observations I’ve made during my 5 years in practice as a women’s health practitioner

5 years in practice working with hundreds of women.

Working in this space has been the most healing, not only for my clients but for myself and the biggest learning experience of my life. What a gift it has been to help all the women I have.

I will always remember one of my very first client calls.

A woman came to me because she had lost her period and had a host of symptoms due to over-exercising and under-eating because of her desires to have that perfect body and because of “health,” she thought she was doing what she needed to do to be worthy and healthy.
She wanted her period back. She wanted her life back and most importantly to feel alive again and nourished in all areas of her life.

During our call she started crying and said “You know, it’s just really hard being a woman”

She felt that she was going to lose her identity as the healthy fit woman if she pursued REAL health to get her period and life back.

I still get choked up to this day thinking about that call.

That was the call that I never knew would change my entire trajectory of how I talk to women, how I take clients and how I show up in the world to help people.

From that day forward I absolutely refused to be a part of a holistic health culture that promotes restriction, diets, detoxes, eliminations for symptom management or dieting for weight loss. I’ve seen first hand what it does to women.

Working with women has been challenging but so rewarding. Everyone has a story and I hope I have helped you in some way change that story.

Ready to join a community of like-minded women ending the war on their bodies and breaking free from diet culture? Ready to finally balance your hormones, understand your body, and become your own health advocate? Ready for unfiltered and uncensored wellness talks? Then you’re in the right place! Click here to learn more + enroll.

A self-paced program designed to help you overcome your uncomfortable digestive symptoms without restrictive diets and stressful protocols so you can enjoy food again and live a happier, healthier life. Click here to learn more + enroll.

Menopause is a reflection of how you have lived your life

Ladies in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, listen up!

I know you’re thinking “But Laura, I don’t care about menopause i’m so young”

Girlfriend, it’s time to start nourishing and understanding your body now or you will pay later.

One of the biggest questions I get is does the information I teach apply to menopausal women.

ABSOLUTLY.

The fact that we have been bombarded with messaging telling us that during peri and post menopause we just need to eat less, we need to switch to some super restrictive diet because we will will gain 100 pounds, we need to use all these creams and beauty treatments and take hormone replacement therapy for all those dreadful symptoms.

We have somehow become these weak, fat, ugly, dried up wrinkled raisins with zero sex appeal. Our vaginas are like the Sahara desert, our bones are just going to break merely getting out of bed, our breasts hang down to our knees, and we are riddled with hot flashes, arthritis and mood swings to top it off.

LIFE IS OVER. THROW IN THE TOWEL NOW. I’M OFFICIALLY DECEASED.

This is complete and total BS. And it does not need to be that way!

How have we turned a truly natural process in a woman’s life into a money making industry?

A natural process that is still a mystery to most scientists and researchers because women and women’s cycles are “complicated.”

Billions of dollars are spent on adverting estrogen as a cure all. But luckily we are now becoming aware of estrogen being the culprit to many cancers and disease in the body.

Oh wait silly me…

These are the same people that have created the stressful, estrogenic lives we lead causing us to have these dreadful menopausal symptoms in the first place.

Due to this we need to have more awareness than ever before. We need to understand what true nourishment is, we need to make adjustments in our lives to combat all the lies we have been told about how to lives our lives.

Just know. Nature did not make a mistake.

Menopause is a normal, natural physiological adjustment. Stop letting influencers, ads or doctors make you think otherwise.

A healthy transition requires two things: Nourishing your body with proper nutrition + limiting stress.

95% of women that go on a diet gain back all the weight they lost & then some

I remember that feeling, that high I got when I started seeing changes in my body and the scale. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. I wanted everyone to know about the diet I was on and how good I felt. Until I didn’t. I remember throwing away all the bigger clothes I had telling myself there is no way i’l ever be that size again!

This is my story, but after years of working with women we all have the same story. The conclusion is- diets don’t work.

You see. Dieting feels really good for awhile, years even. Dieting triggers the chronic release of cortisol. Running on stress hormones gives you a great high. But you eventually come crashing down. You simply can’t fathom your “healthy” diet could be the cause!

This includes all diets from carnivore to vegan to the MLM “mom coaches” and everything in between.

Every diet has the same method; restricting calories, food groups or macros. In response to this our bodies slow our metabolisms to hang on to nutrients to keep us alive.

When you restrict your metabolism slows. Sure you may lose weight but at the expense of muscle then when you eat normal again (because you will) you will gain most of your weight back in fat.

What happens overtime as our metabolisms get slower we start noticing the impact it has on our digestion, hormones, skin, hair, moods, etc. In order to feel well we need to have a robust metabolism. Your metabolism has nothing to do with weight.

You have a set point and that weight will change throughout your life. Your body is always adapting and changing. Your set point at 25 is different from your set point at 35 because girl, you have grown and lived a full decade! Shocking I know.

Whenever your weight changes too much, your brain will intervene to push it back to the correct weight for you. You might not prefer the same weight your brain prefers.

The healthiest women inside and out are the ones that have zero dieting history.

If diets worked there wouldn’t be so many. Think twice!

Instead focus on the foundations. Eat real, nourishing food, move, balance your blood sugar, be consistent, enjoy life and if needed work with someone to help you figure out imbalances in your body.