To connect with Kasia
To connect with Kasia
Hello and welcome to the Other Way, a lifestyle podcast exploring uncommon, unconventional or otherwise alternative approaches to life, business and health. I'm your host, kasia. I'm the founder of InFlow, a women's wellness brand that designs intentional products to help women reconnect to their unique cyclical rhythm and find a balance between being and doing. This podcast is an extension of my mission within Flow. Here we provide intentional interviews with inspiring humans, trailblazers, researchers, spiritual teachers and more on the journey of doing things the other way. On the journey of doing things the other way. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Other Way.
Kasia:I am so excited to introduce an incredible duo of guests. Today I am speaking with Yasmin Nouri and Kaya Purohit, the co-founders of B eeya Wellness, a whole food supplement designed to help women balance their hormones. This product is pretty remarkable as it uses a all-natural, whole foods approach to hormonal regulation, and the results are pretty amazing. It is backed by an incredible medical advisory team. I personally use it and I just love to know that there's a solution out there that leverages food to balance your hormones. So this podcast is a long time coming and also just such a full circle moment for me, because Yasmin, who has become over time a dear friend of mine is one of the inspirations behind my own company and the launch of this podcast that you're listening to. Yasmin hosts an incredible podcast herself called Behind Her Empire, which I absolutely have to plug. She features female founders and their journeys, and both Yasmin and Kea co-host within that an incredible series called Hormone Happy Hour, where they interview leaders in the female hormonal space, female wellness space, and cover all topics around hormonal health, fertility, postpartum menopause and the details in between. Now, kea herself is actually a nutritionist, so this episode is chock full of so much wisdom but also a lot of personal juicy details. I think it's so special to get to interview two women who are not just building this incredible product and company, but also women themselves and founders and early stage founders, and Kea is actually a mother of two and Yasmin talks pretty openly about her fertility journey and how they think about business and motherhood together, and so it's just such a beautiful conversation.
Kasia:We're going to be talking about hormone balancing, of course, and how nutrition is important. We're going to be covering seed cycling, really defining it and talking about how it works and what's happening in the body. We're going to talk about some lifestyle tips for balanced hormones sleep and evening routines and why they're so important, and we also get personal and sharing some of ours. We're going to be talking about some of the tests that you can do to evaluate whether your hormones are in or out of balance. We're going to be talking about hormonal balance across different life stages. We're going to be talking about hormonal balance across different life stages preconception, postpartum. We're going to be, of course, diving into foundership, building companies and birthing babies, navigating some fears behind motherhood and so much more. This is such a special conversation. I hope you enjoy it and, without further ado, let's welcome these badass babes to the podcast.
Yasmin:Thanks for having us. We've been wanting to come on for a very long time, so we're excited. The day is here, so such an honor. Thanks for inviting us.
Kasia:Oh my gosh. Well, the honor is all mine, and this is truly like multiple years in the making. So I kind of love it coming together and also to be able to finally meet you, kaya, because I've heard so many great things about you. I feel like I already know you, but now I can put a face to the name.
Kaya:Oh my gosh. Likewise, I'm so excited to be here.
Kasia:So, before we dive into all the questions that I have prepared and we have a bunch of things we're going to be talking about everything from hormonal health, seed cycling, motherhood, running a business, which the two of you are doing, and pretty remarkable job I want to start with a question that I ask every guest, which is what are three words that you would use to describe yourselves?
Yasmin:Yasmin, you want to go first? I can go first. I was so curious to hear what you're going to say, Kaya. There's so many words that come up for me, for you.
Kaya:Oh, that would be cool if we did each other.
Kasia:Ooh yes, actually, that would be pretty cool. You could do it. You could reverse it if you want to do that. I think that'll be kind of cool. Yeah, let's try it, okay.
Kaya:Well, I can definitely speak about Yasmin. I have no issue with that. That comes easy. Oh my gosh. Yasmin is definitely so charming. She's just like a charming individual. Everybody just enamored with her right away. So sweet. You said non-work Ambitious, but she's just ambitious. I know that's work related too, but just as a human being she's very ambitious. And gosh, I'm trying to think of a good reason.
Yasmin:A lot. Yeah, even for me I'm like I don't know what the third one is.
Kaya:Well, what were some of the ones that you thought of yourself? I'm curious.
Yasmin:I mean, this is one that Drew always says about me Tenacious. He's like you just don't stop, and I'm like that's probably the case. All my horoscopes say that too.
Kaya:But it's like full on Capricorn energy there like Capricorn, scorpio, leo, all the things in there, uh-huh. Oh, I think tenacious is a good one, but I would say you're very curious. You're a very curious person. You're always asking people a ton of questions about themselves or trying to understand how things work. So that would be my third one, I think, for you.
Kasia:Oh my gosh, I love that, I love that and it definitely. I will say this, like I'm not surprised by any of those, just even based on some of the conversations we had and your podcast, which is pretty cool, right To have like reflected that you are definitely translating, like all those words are translating online. So, yasmin, how would you describe Kea?
Yasmin:are translating online. So, yasmin, how would you describe Kaya? Yeah, oh, my gosh, I would definitely say. The first word that comes to mind is Kaya is very grounded. She's a very calming energy, grounded Whenever I feel like things are all over the place. I just feel very safe with her and I think that energy is very unique. Not a lot of people have that.
Yasmin:I think also Kay, and I tell this to her all the time. She just is so. She speaks so well and is so eloquent. I literally could listen to her speak about anything all the time, and I always love when we do podcasts or our own content. I think she's very special, especially when it comes to health, because things can feel so complicated or overwhelming, and she does a really good job making it digestible. So, even as her co-founder, I love learning from her, but I think she speaks super well. And then, last one I actually think this is a and again, this is me being on the app the Pattern and seeing our similarities, which maybe we can talk about. I love that app, but also Kea loves to do things differently and I love that too. We don't just follow the grain, whether it's in life or with Beeya. We love to just mix things up and try different things, which I think is just really fun. So I feel grateful to have a sister-in-law who gets down with things like that, so it keeps it exciting.
Kaya:That's fun. I love that last one. That's so true Like we both didn't have traditional weddings, we didn't do like the normal thing, so that's a good one.
Yasmin:Not traditional people. We kind of steer away from tradition.
Kasia:I love that and I mean, I guess that kind of also shows through with, like, your bigger life choices in the form of actually launching a business and launching one together as sister in laws, because you guys are both the founders of Beeya which way I'm pronouncing it correctly, right? I just want to double check that. Okay, I like practice that beforehand, because I used to always call it Beeya, but it it's Beeya and it's a pretty incredible product. It helps women regulate their hormones using a natural whole foods approach. And before we dive into all of that, I would love for both of you to kind of share a bit of your backstories, because I know, yasmin, you have a background that is kind of completely different than what you're doing now. And, kea, I would love to hear about yours as well. I know you're a nutritionist. At some point I saw something there with Mark Hyman on your Instagram. So if both of you could kind of share, like, how you decided to co found Beeya together, I think that would be really amazing.
Kaya:Yeah, well, I feel like such a big part of our story actually comes back to the person that we have in common, which is my brother and Yasmin's husband, and he's really the person who set off my health journey. I went to school to be a filmmaker and a writer and that was my passion when I was an undergrad, and afterwards I got into the business of health and wellness because of my brother and started doing health coaching and just really fell in love with functional medicine, which, for anybody who doesn't understand or know what functional medicine is, it's essentially using the best of Eastern and Western medicine, so it uses essentially any modality that works is what functional medicine says. Sometimes that means we use medication and then sometimes that means we use a more natural route. So I started to work with functional medicine doctors, got my master's in nutrition, learned about so many amazing cool things like seed cycling, and then, simultaneously, drew and Yasmin started dating and she got into her health journey and she learned about seed cycling, and I'll let Yasmin talk about that story.
Yasmin:Yeah, so I'm definitely not in the health world and similar. That's so funny, kay, that you brought up Drew. It is our mutual reason. We both fell into wellness and I was like, oh, I'm healthy.
Yasmin:But it wasn't until I met him, where I also learned about functional medicine. I used to have debilitating periods. I was on birth control for most of my life because as a teenager it was so bad and when I got off of it it just came back with a vengeance. But at that time in my life I thought it was normal. I was like, okay, it's that time of the month, three, four days out of the month I'm struggling with these horrible cramps, barely able to work. And it wasn't until Drew opened my eyes to the possibility that this isn't normal and I saw a functional medicine doctor and she was talking a bit about seed cycling and to be honest, at that time I literally looked at her like she was crazy. I was like what You're telling me to have all these different seeds and to take it out this time of the month and then to switch? I genuinely checked out and I didn't even listen to her for maybe two years. So I still struggled for two years with PMS.
Yasmin:And then, as Kaya mentioned, when she was studying her master's in nutrition, a professor had brought up seed cycling and said anyone who can do it, they will see a significant change. And I was like, all right, it's COVID, I'm stuck at home, I have nothing better to do, let me just give this a shot. And it was completely life-changing to the point where clearly we started Beeya around it. But I was just so shocked to see what food in general can do to your hormones and if I took this seriously, I would have saved myself 20 years of suffering from just hormonal imbalances and periods. So long-winded way of kind of going through my story and the aha moment about our first product.
Kasia:So powerful. And I think it's really amazing, kea, to hear about your background from like the nutrition side, because I actually remember being introduced. I too have very bad periods, as I've kind of brought up many times to you, yasmin. I was so excited when I saw this product because I was introduced to seed cycling like I don't know, maybe 10, 15 years ago, but it's a really different thing to implement, yeah, and I remember also just really struggling to understand how it works. Like it felt a little bit like for lack of a better word like a little woo. It's like wait, I eat these things and it completely changes my cycle. And so to hear you, kea, kind of speaking to like learning about this in school, I think it's just so fascinating to also understand like the connection between what's actually happening in our bodies and how food can have such a powerful impact and having seeds be like one of many ways that we can start to rebalance our hormones.
Kaya:Yeah, yeah, it's kind of amazing. We had a lot of naturopathic doctors and chiropractors and practitioners from all different types of background come and guest lecture or lecture for our program. And the cool thing about food, as you mentioned, is that food provides these actual building blocks for our hormones. So our hormones need specific vitamins, nutrients, minerals, things to actually be produced and to be in balance. So when you really think about it it makes sense, but definitely at first glance it feels a little bit like crunchy or hippie or something.
Kasia:Which I love, that stuff too. I mean I love it. You know I'm into it off the bat. I already asked for horoscopes and all those things and maybe we'll get into the pattern later. I want to know all about that. But before we segue, just for people who are not familiar, like, what exactly is seed cycling? We're obviously talking about seeds, but like, can we just kind of zoom out and provide like the high level protocol of what you should be consuming and when?
Kaya:Totally so. A woman's menstrual cycle is, on average, about 28 days. I think people typically think of a menstrual cycle. They think, oh, it's just the average six days that I'm bleeding every month. But no, we're kind of going through a cycle throughout the entire month and I know you know so much about this. But for anybody who's not familiar, we have these different phases of our cycle and what happens in each phase impacts our hormones on so many different levels and our hormones are fluctuating through all those phases. So seed cycling rotates four specific types of seeds throughout a menstrual cycle to support the balance of estrogen and progesterone, which are the two main sex hormones that can get out of whack when women are struggling with hormonal imbalances, and usually when we have somebody who's struggling with something like PMS, there's an imbalance in estrogen and progesterone. So all the vitamins and the nutrients, the fiber, the protein, everything in these seeds supports the balance and the production of those specific hormones.
Kasia:That is so powerful. I'm curious what exactly? And I know that there are some studies out there that have started to look at seed cycling and maybe you could tease some of what I'm sure you're also looking into, because you have so much anecdotal data with your customers that use this product, myself included. But what exactly is happening with these seeds? Is there any sort of research that talks about? Is it the vitamins or the minerals, or the fiber itself, or like what are the hypotheses around? Like what's actually happening when you consume the different seeds?
Kaya:Yeah, absolutely so. There's no clinical trials on seed cycling yet, but our exciting news is that that's what we're hoping to get into very soon, so hopefully we have something published in the next year that we can refer to. But essentially it's all those things that you mentioned. There's so much research on flaxseed specifically, so flax is one of the seeds that's used in seed cycling. The lignans in there have an estrogen modulating effect, so you'll see tons and tons of studies on flaxseeds and their role in estrogen. But yeah, it's the lignans, the phytochemicals, the vitamins, the minerals, the fiber all of it kind of comes together. The antioxidants, all those things kind of come together to support a woman's body and a woman's cycle.
Yasmin:And what I love that Kaya says a lot about seed cycling. She's like it's a multivitamin for your hormones. I feel like we don't eat, we don't get all these nutrients with our modern day food. The soil is more depleted, so it's like a high dose vitamin for your hormones, which I always love when she kind of says that.
Kasia:A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And one of the things and I don't remember which episode of your podcast this was on, by the way, like I will just throw in a plug you have an amazing podcast, both of your co-hosts on the hormonal health episodes, and then you have, behind her empire, episodes purely focused on female founder stories, which is truly the inspiration that has helped me have the courage to kind of pursue my own business. But that aside, I do also remember you talking about the power of fiber, which I think is like largely unaccounted for and I think like whole food fiber, and like the effect that that can have on regulating our hormones. Right, because for a lot of women from you know I have endometriosis. I've had a lot of hormonal imbalances myself. I suffered from a lot of cramps, but a lot of you know a lot of some of the hormonal issues that we're dealing with can be related to a lack of elimination of excess hormones and like the imbalance that can happen there as well.
Kaya:Yeah, absolutely, you're so right, especially these conditions that are driven by estrogen dominance, which is so often what we see these days. Our body has good estrogen and it has not so great estrogen, and so we want to eliminate and detoxify that not so great estrogen. If we don't, it gets recirculated. That can lead to things like fibroids, cysts and then certain types of cancers like breast cancer. So we want to make sure we're effectively eliminating estrogen and the way we do that is.
Kaya:Our liver is definitely a big part of it, but our guts are a huge part of it, and what does our gut need to eliminate? It needs fiber, and so these days, people are really, unfortunately, lacking in the fiber. I know there's so much emphasis put on protein, specifically now, and fats too, which are really all critical, but fiber is so, so critical, especially for women, and we recommend, I think about getting about 25 to 30 grams of fiber every single day. We recommend I think about getting about 25 to 30 grams of fiber every single day, and a lot of people don't even come close to that amount or the amount that our ancestors were having. So fiber is 100% essential.
Kasia:So important. I think calling that out is really, really powerful. So kind of switching gears for a minute, because I feel like online there's a lot of content that talks about hormone imbalance and that could be a very loaded word For people out there who are listening, for women especially, who perhaps might have a hunch that something is off. What are some of the signs that they should be looking for? What does a balanced hormonal cycle look like? Maybe we start there and then back into some of the symptoms that women might be experiencing, for which they might, you know, kind of think like maybe something's off.
Kaya:Yeah, Well, one of the first indications is just our menstrual cycle. They say, now that your period is could be your fifth vital sign. Women are so cool. We get a report card every single month. For most of our years our reproductive years, I should say. We get a report card every month that basically says, hey, were you so stressed that maybe your cycle is a little bit off this time, or did your cycle, did your period, go missing completely? Do you have amenorrhea? Are you having really bad cramps? Are you having breast tenderness? Are you having mood swings before your period?
Kaya:So all of that is information that we get every single month. So all of that is information that we get every single month. If you're at a point where your symptoms, especially before your period, are debilitating, that is a huge sign that there's something going on in the body and that there's some sort of a hormonal imbalance that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, hormones affect everything. So if you're having challenges with your weight breakouts, insomnia, low libido, hair loss, skin rashes, energy, fatigue it can impact every single part of our bodies. So there's not one specific thing, but there's so many different things that can kind of say, hey, maybe something's off here.
Kasia:And it's hard to test for too right, because I don't know if anyone out there who's listening has ever seen a female hormonal chart. But like to actually test if something is in balance or out of balance is pretty challenging because women's hormones fluctuate throughout the month, so it's not like, oh you know you can test. You know there may be certain times of months that you can test to see if something is in balance versus not. I'm curious have you researched or looked into any tests that women can start to look at to see if their hormones are in balance or out of whack? I'd be curious to know if there's anything new coming out to start to actually dive into that.
Kaya:Yeah, the best test out there is the Dutch test that does cycle mapping. It gives a very specific picture of your hormones. Actually, you know, dive into that. Yeah, the best test out there is the Dutch test. That is, that does cycle mapping. It gives a very specific picture of your hormones. It tells you the types of estrogen that are more dominant in your body. It's so comprehensive.
Kaya:But you always want to work with someone because reading that test is nearly impossible. It's very confusing, so you need somebody who's qualified to kind of interpret what it's saying. Because we have a friend who's a naturopathic doctor and she says I love working with men. Their bodies are so easy. Women's bodies are so complicated.
Kaya:Yeah, we have very complicated, complex things going on every single day, so it's nice to work with a practitioner who can really take a deep dive. The good news is that all of the hormone balancing tips that we suggest and other people suggest are pretty much free, easy things that people can do every single day if they suspect that something's off, and they might not even need to get to that point where they need to test their hormones. That's more of just like if you really are confused about what's happening. You've been struggling for maybe months. You don't understand. You feel like you're doing everything right. That would be a good option, but I would say, first try all the lifestyle things, because those are free and they're not going to harm you, they're going to help you.
Kasia:So let's talk about some of those, because your Instagram is like chock full of recipes. By the way, these are beautiful. Serious question before we dive into the tips. Do beautiful? Serious question before we dive into the tips Do you actually create recipes like that every day? I just truly need to know.
Yasmin:Kaya does amazing recipes, not me.
Kaya:Well, our recipe creator shout out to Cassandra. She's amazing. But I will say the one thing about our recipes is they're so doable. They actually are not complicated. I make pretty much everything that she puts out there for us. I test it all and they're very doable. So I highly recommend them and thank you for that. We take a lot of pride in our recipes.
Kasia:And I will say that they taste great, even if they don't end up looking as good as they do on your. Instagram profile. I swear I'm like. I don't know how they made it look like that, but like, still very tasty, oh yeah, and that's that's what matters the most.
Kaya:She's culinary trained chef, so everything looks beautiful, but the taste is the most important thing.
Kasia:So so let's actually talk about you know, we talked about the power of seeds, about the power of nutrition for really balancing our bodies, and I think that obviously there's something so huge there because you are what you eat, Like your body is regenerating every single day. Like, depending on the cells in your body, that cycle might look longer or shorter. I'm curious, like what are some of the other lifestyle tips that women should think about incorporating today and also why are they important? If you could speak to that.
Kaya:Yeah, totally. I think one of the biggest ones and I would love Yasmin to speak this because I feel like it's made such a huge impact Sorry if that's calling you out is sleep dialing in on sleep and yeah, yeah, can you share a little bit about your sleep journey?
Yasmin:Yeah, you know it's funny because we'll share these lifestyle tips, but if you're trying to do everything at once it could feel very overwhelming. So on my, you know, I've been on my journey now for maybe like five years and the first bucket that I really doubled down on was sleep. I never thought I needed sleep. I didn't know about the importance of sleep, I didn't know the importance of consistent sleep times, right? So I'm like when I sleep at 12 and I wake up at seven, it's still seven hours. Why do I not feel good? But you know, we interviewed so many experts and have talked about the importance of having that routine every night. But yeah, sleep for me has been completely game changing and such an easy thing to really. You know, dial in if you can.
Kaya:Yeah, and sleep is so powerful, especially for women. We need more sleep than men. So if you have a male partner in your life or a male living in your home, you might notice that they can thrive off of less sleep than you, and that doesn't mean that they're any better or you're any better or anything, it's just women need more sleep. Wait, wait, wait wait, hold on.
Kasia:I want to pause. Women need more sleep than men.
Kaya:More sleep than men. Yes, Women need more sleep than men.
Kasia:Wait, how much more sleep are we talking here?
Kaya:Wait how much more sleep are we talking here? Well, it depends. There's still chronobiology, there's still bio individuality, so people are different. But I would say women probably need between like seven to nine hours, closer to probably. You know, maybe I know some people thrive more on not like closer to nine hours or eight hours. My husband, for example, can do six to seven hours and he's totally fine. He doesn't have any changes in heart rate variability the next day. He can still work out.
Kaya:If I don't get great sleep, I'll go to my Pilates or yoga class and I'm totally off balance. I just feel it in my body, right. So there's real evidence there. Your doctors, your body's the best doctor in the room. It can kind of tell you. But with sleep it's also so interesting that people who have the most consistent bedtime and wake time have lower rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. So that means that if you go to bed pretty consistently between 9 and 10 every day, you wake up between 5 and 6 every day. That's way better than what Yasmin was saying. Oh, if you still go to bed at 12 am but then you wake up eight hours the next day, that's actually worse for your body. The other thing is that there's actually some evidence that shows that there's a link between sleep apnea and PCOS. So there's a lot of undiagnosed sleep apnea cases amongst women who have PCOS. So sleep is so, so critical for our hormones.
Kasia:And I'm curious, just to kind of get a teaser into your days, especially as two founders what does your kind of sleep routine look like now and like what did you change to start to create more of that regular sleep schedule? Because I feel like we're always taught my theory and I'm curious if my theory aligns with your actual actions. But I feel like there's so much talk about the ideal morning routine, but it's almost like we need at least for me, I need the ideal evening routine in order to have a functional morning full stop.
Kasia:So I'm curious what have you done in your lives to start to have that kind of ideal, whatever amount of hours of sleep that is for you?
Kaya:That's such a good point. I forget which expert we were talking to, but they essentially said the same thing, especially for moms. There's really no way to have a morning routine as a mom. You don't know what you're going to get, you don't know what your toddler, your kids, going to be up to. You might have to run around, you have to drop people to school, so I'm all about that.
Kaya:I think evening routines are so much more important and I've always valued my sleep pretty intently For me. I start to wind down pretty much right after my daughter goes to bed, which she this people are gonna laugh at me, but I'm just being real. She goes to bed between 730 and eight. I start to wind down right after. So that means dimming the lights. For me that's really important because we know that bright light stimulates your cortisol production. So that's really good. If you want to get your body going during the day, turn on all the lights or go outside, but at nighttime you really want to get that melatonin up. So dimming the light is really nice.
Kaya:I took a page from Drew and Yasmin's book. They turn on a red light every night before they go to bed. That's bright light every night before they go to bed. That's bright Like I don't I forget which brand you guys use, but yeah, there's so many different great red light companies out there. And then the biggest one for me is I don't watch anything upsetting at night. That is something that I'm pretty adamant about. I won't watch scary movies or a lot of violence or anything like that has to be funny romance. If I am watching something, or a romance book, which is just like lovely and that will really help with my dreams, because I am prone to having nightmares, I'm very like empathetic, I guess you could say so that's really important for me.
Kasia:Oh my gosh. Well, I can relate but not follow at all. I'm watching um the three body problem right now. Has anybody heard of that? That's what my husband is watching.
Kaya:So I'm not watching.
Kasia:I literally, the other night I was falling asleep and I woke up after like 15 minutes of sleep because I was dreaming to try to like solve whatever problem is going on there I won't like kind of disclose in case anyone isn't that far along and I woke back up to tell Zach, my husband, that I figured it out. And then I fell back asleep. So yeah, not exactly. It's not like a bedtime story, I'll tell you that. So okay, not watching that before bed. What about you, yasmin? Like other than the red light stuff, how do you change your routine? And especially especially since I know you and I struggle from some type A syndrome? Perhaps you know like for me it can be hard to turn off at night. So what have you done to kind of like wind that down? Do you have a similar routine as Kea does, or something different?
Yasmin:Yeah, very similar. I mean a lot of similarities. I would say one thing and it's funny because I always thought I was a night owl I think my old job, kind of like, taught me I always work throughout the night, I function throughout the night, I actually enjoy working at night and I think the way people turn off and nighttime rituals are different to everyone. So one thing that I try to be conscious about in the evenings I will still do emails and light level stuff on the computer. I don't completely cut it off, but I try not to do anything that can be more intense, like a proper project or something that I know can be complicated, because I have noticed to your point, kasia, I will be problem solving all through the night and I'll wake up and be like dang, I did not get a break from work. Forget this stuff, what is going on? So that is a big learning. I've had Nothing serious at night, just light level emails, things I actually want to get back to and do. But I will stop around, I would say 8. And then I will try my best to wind down after that, and that would be like turning on a light if I feel super overstimulated, because I get a lot of energy at night, so I'm always thinking about how can I calm myself down.
Yasmin:I had this woman on my podcast she was another entrepreneur Say she takes baths, and I know that sounds so basic, but I'm like, why did I not take baths before? Just like Epsom salt baths. It really really truly calms me down on those days where I feel like I still have so much energy. And also what I've noticed that helps my sleep too is not eating late. Anytime I eat past seven I will have more dreams, I'll move around more. So thanks to the aura ring I'm able to dial in also the time I eat. And I also have stopped drinking alcohol. Maybe I'll have some here and there, but that also just kind of cutting that out has helped my sleep as well.
Kasia:Oh, I can so relate. And, yeah, I think any kind of thing to get you back into your body, at least for me, has been super helpful. So the bath is a great idea, I love that. Or stretching as well, I think that's so powerful. Yeah, and, like you mentioned, kind of recognizing your site not no pun intended here, but like your cycles, and for me, you know I love that hard stop that you mentioned, because if I go, I just know that anytime that I stop working, it's going to be three hours after that that I'll be able to fall asleep. So, like, make your choice if you want to keep going.
Kasia:Hi everyone, I wanted to pause this episode to tell you a bit about today's sponsor, my company Enflow. Ladies, if you suffer from PMS and feel like your monthly cycle is brutal, I feel you. As someone who suffers from endometriosis, I understand what debilitating pain and fatigue around your cycle feel like, and after years of fighting against my body and my symptoms, burnout inspired me to see things. You guessed it the other way. I found myself wanting to align my schedule with my body instead of against it, and this is why I designed Inflow, the first of its kind planner and journal in one where you can merge goal setting with over a hundred daily diet, movement and mindfulness tips for living in harmony with your cycle. Our planner is personalized and it is designed in collaboration with an OBGYN to merge science with wellness. If this interests you, you can head over to inflowplannercom to check it out, and if you want to make a purchase, please use code podcast10 for 10% off.
Kasia:All right now back to the episode. Okay, so we talked about sleep being super important. What are some of the other like must have tips that you would put out there for women who are trying to balance their hormones, maybe reduce some of their PMS symptoms? What else comes to mind?
Kaya:Yeah, a huge one that we talk about, which can feel really scary, is toxins. So minimizing our toxic burden, which can feel pretty overwhelming because, frankly, we're surrounded by toxins but there's so many small things that we can do that don't require a ton of change but are manageable, so probably number one.
Kasia:Before we dive into the tips, could you just briefly explain, like, when we talk toxins, are we talking about like endocrine disrupting toxins, and like what exactly are those for people who are, like you know, are toxins everywhere? Like, am I breathing toxins right now? Like probably sorry, but yeah.
Kaya:Oh, I know it's so scary, I feel so bad talking about it, but they are. They're in our air, they're in our water. These are things like forever chemicals. So PFAs, they're BPA, phthalates, all these things that we can find, especially in plastics or unfiltered water or really polluted air, in really kind of toxic clothing or like fast fashion, which we recommend avoiding. So, and especially if those things are around your reproductive organs, that's a little bit scary. So they are endocrine disruptors and they can mimic your own hormones and cause disruption in your body and they can lead to all types of really scary things. The unfortunate thing about some of these chemicals is that they can cross the blood brain barrier and they can impact our brain health. Or they can cross the placenta and they can impact our fetus, which is just like terrifying to me.
Kaya:So probably the number one thing that we learned from Yvonne Burkhart, who's a toxicologist who we love, is that we should not be eating out of, or drinking out of, heated plastic. So if you get takeout and it's hot and it's in plastic, trying to avoid that as much as possible, but I know it's not always possible so can you take the food out of the container as well as soon as you get it and move it into glass container or move it into your plate, because the longer it sits in that plastic the worse. Or drinking out of plastic coffee cups right, that's super toxic. So can you bring your own coffee cup with you instead, or can you make coffee at home? So those are probably two big ones, especially because essentially this year they came out with a study that said that the recommendation at the end of the study was that pregnant women should not eat out of plastic takeout containers.
Kaya:Oh really, wow, yeah, which is kind of scary. That's insane, right, that's a flat out recommendation, but I would say the heated one is even worse, because then those plastics are leaching into the food a lot quicker. And worse because then those plastics are leaching into the food a lot quicker. Another great tip that she said is be really mindful about the type of product you're putting on your lips, because you're ingesting that. So if you want to pick clean makeup, especially for your lips, that's really important, and there's so many great clean makeup and beauty brands and skincare brands out there that people can make the swap to. So it doesn't have to be. You change everything in your life, but some of those things can be really impactful.
Yasmin:And also one that I learned. I mean, I thought I know all this stuff, but I think, kia, you brought it up in one of our podcasts and Yvonne also mentioned, like the importance of making sure your reproductive health, that you're just a little bit more protective. So underwear like you're not even thinking to have organic cotton underwear. So I was a little late to the game. I just replenished everything in my closet, but that is again like an easier swap. We know we can't take everything out of our lives, but if you can just focus on these basics, it's still better than you know nothing.
Kasia:I mean, I think that is so huge. I had Jenna Hua from Million Marker on the podcast not too long ago and I swear she was like a drop of an endocrine disruptor in like 25 Olympic size swimming pools can like have an impact on your body. I was like whoa, okay, like that is just so freaky. But, yeah, I think to your point, just thinking about how it's just so present in all of the foods that we're eating and even the clothes that we have on our bodies. I'm curious and this is just like real talk for both of you Are you actively trying to replace and swap these products?
Kasia:Because there are some amazing substitutes for some of these things, but it's almost like it's in everything, right. It's like in cookware, it's in your coffee cup when you take, it's in takeout, it's in like your Lululemon leggings, right? So you know, are you? How are you prioritizing things? The things that you consume, like first and foremost, or the things that are like close to your, you know, reproductive organs, like what would be like a stack rank list of like the top three kind of areas to focus on here? Yeah, that's such a great question.
Kaya:Disclaimer I've been on this journey for almost 15 years, so I feel like I'm at the point where I pretty much replaced everything in my life, but again, that's over a 15.
Kaya:Yeah, but like clap for that Okay, that's definitely not something that happens like overnight or even over one year. I would say probably the number one thing oh, that's a good one, okay. So according to Yvonne again, who we love, the number one thing is probably getting rid of fragrance. They say fragrance especially from non, from things that are not like essential oils and stuff even though there's some debate about essential oils as well. It's like secondhand smoke, so essentially that is the new secondhand smoke. So air fresheners, candles, candles, all of that.
Kaya:Perfumes yeah, I would say, just get those out of your life. Probably number one and there's some really good brands out there, especially if women love wearing perfume, that are EWG certified, that are a little bit on the safer side. But fragrance would probably be the first one. And then swapping out things like plastic water bottles that's so easy. So stop drinking that plastic, because that has so many micro plastics and nanoplastics that can get into your bloodstream. So I would say, like switching to stainless steel or glass is that's a super easy swap too. And then our skin is our largest organ, so anything that you put on your skin is going to get into your bloodstream as well. So making that slow transition into like safer skincare and makeup products. I think would be number three.
Yasmin:Yeah, I love that and it's interesting because you know, obviously we're all mindful I'm still trying to switch everything, but it's a fine balance because you don't want to be so terrified and stressed about everything right, cause that also has different repercussions on your hormones and that can even apply to other health, life and lifestyle tips we're seeing. So for me, I always think about like moderation right, like do the best you can. If you're freaking out about every little thing, that's just a different stressor that's going to come in your life where I just don't think it's worth it. And listen, I've definitely have been there before and I was like this is just not even healthy in and of itself. So, finding that balance for you and knowing that everything in moderation, right, like I will, I was out this week and I felt like a hot coffee and I know there's plastic in the coffee.
Yasmin:I didn't bring my cup, but I'm like it's fine. Once a week it's okay. I mean not once a week, like you know, once in a while it's fine. If I'm out, I don't stop myself from enjoying life. So everything you know is in moderation. You just, and you slowly shift things in your skincare and your makeup.
Kaya:We're all a work in progress there Totally, and that's the point. I feel like the way that I've set it up is in my home I can control things outside of my home. I can't. So if I'm at a hotel or a friend's house and the only thing they have is Pantene Pro-V okay, well, that's what it's gonna be, you know, not a. And the only thing they have is Pantene Pro-V Okay, well, that's what it's gonna be, not a big deal. I'm not gonna lose sleep over those things. So it's again. Where can you make swaps easily and seamlessly fit into your life? And then where do you just give yourself some grace and say I'm doing my best?
Yasmin:Oh my gosh, kaya. I was at my dad's place in Miami and he had bath and body work soap and I was like, oh my God, I know this isn't good for me, but I got to just use it and I could have bought you know, we got sick, so I was like all right, I'm using this, it was just funny.
Kaya:Gotta do what you gotta do Smelt really good for like 48 hours or whatever Right for like 48 hours or whatever right, Totally, totally. I love that.
Kasia:So you talked for a moment, kea, about some of this crazy research that just came out and the recommendation for kind of pregnant women around not really consuming foods that came out of, I guess, like hot plastics or any kind of plastic, which is just so wild.
Kasia:I wasn't aware of that. I'm curious when we think about hormonal health in different life stages and of course I know that right now currently, beeya is focused on, you know, kind of helping women regulate their hormones, when you know I think a lot of the symptoms we're talking about currently are some of the kind of fertile women's symptoms around, like PMS and painful cramps or irregular periods. Are there any kind of hormonal or lifestyle tips that we should be thinking about as we think about some of the other transitions that women go through? So maybe those that women that are planning to be on a fertility journey soon or that are going through postpartum or that are starting to enter menopause, like would seed cycling apply to those scenarios as well? And or like what are some of the other things like, if we can kind of think about each of those stages that we should think about, if we can just have like one thing to start to become aware of Totally?
Kaya:it's such a good question and getting ready for baby is my favorite time of life. I could talk about it for a hundred years and never get bored, so I'm always down to talk about it. We have had women use seed cycling as part of their preconception journey to help regulate their hormones, especially if they have irregular cycles. They don't know when they're ovulating. Maybe they have an anovulatory cycle so they're not ovulating and some women have seen a lot of success using seed cycling as a part of that journey, which is always so exciting for us. Anytime we can help women get pregnant, it's just like woohoo. But there's so many other things that we need to consider when somebody is considering getting pregnant. It's just different from. Yasmin said something so beautiful the other day. She said getting ready for a baby is different from like optimization time right, like personal health optimization time Ready for a baby. Yes, you want your health to be optimal, but you also want to make sure you're eating enough. You're prioritizing joy.
Kaya:One of my favorite books on fertility is called Awakening Fertility I believe. The author's name is Han, I think, and so much of it comes from ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. Of what type of body does a baby want to be born into. A baby wants to be born into a joyful body. Like joy is the biggest thing that we want to prioritize. Are we doing things that make us happy? Does this baby like think of a baby's energy right? It's like bubbly and joyful and smiley, like why would a baby want to come into a stressed out, just not happy, not excited body? So anytime a woman is trying to think about getting pregnant, I always say are you doing joyful things every day? That's like number one.
Kaya:And then there's so many other things like getting all your nutrients up. So taking a really good prenatal at least six months before you start trying is my recommendation. Some people even say a year, some people say three months. I think a typical OBGYN will say maybe like three to six months, making sure all of your nutrient status is really high. Getting rid of like heavy metals in the body is also super important too, but I would say like eating enough of the right types of foods, which is very hard for a lot of women. I've noticed women skip a lot of meals. Often they just don't prioritize like hey, am I getting enough fats, am I getting enough protein and am I getting enough carbohydrates. So all of that really matters for that stage.
Kasia:But I know that's a lot. I'll pause on. So so, so powerful. My acupuncturist actually was speaking to the fact that you know, if you are on a fertility journey just to kind of think about like creating space for baby, and I think what better way to do that than to like kind of prioritize a joyful environment to kind of bring baby into. I think that's so beautiful.
Kaya:I love that it's fun. It's a fun way to think about because it can feel really stressful. I think that's so beautiful. I love that it's so fun. It's a fun way to think about, because it can feel really stressful, I think, for a lot of women to think about getting pregnant, and we should bring some joy back into it, for sure.
Kasia:So powerful. Okay, so we're talking about kind of preconception. What about postpartum, as we kind of think about balancing hormones again, and also I think maybe we can kind of name like how long does that period also look like? Because I think that we're starting to debunk the notion that, like you just bounce right back right after having a baby, and now we talked about the fourth trimester and things like that. But I'm just curious, like what are some of the things that women should keep in their minds if they're going through that at this moment?
Kaya:Yeah, I think what they say now is that the real postpartum period is about two years. So it takes two years fully for a woman to hopefully get back to well we're never really getting back to who we were before but for her body to start to regulate, to maybe go through that depletion. That happens postpartum, especially when somebody's breastfeeding. You have sleepless nights. You just have so much going on at that time. So I think now what they're saying is really it's two years that you want to focus on rebuilding and restoring everything. So I actually dealt with pretty bad estrogen dominance after my first pregnancy. My periods became pretty heavy.
Kasia:What are some of the signs of that?
Kaya:actually, yeah, I had for me in particular, I had really heavy periods Postpartum. I got my period back pretty quickly, even though I was breastfeeding, and they were pretty painful too and I had dealt with estrogen dominance when I was a teenager, so I kind of remembered all of that. I hadn't had cramps or period painful periods since then and then they all of a sudden came back postpartum. So I actually used seed cycling to help regulate that and so probably about three months of me consistently seed cycling I had no more cramps. My period would come without one cramp. It was amazing and the biggest thing that I would get to is I would get really sad about two days before my period, just really, really sad, not quite depressed, but just very emotional. And that went away as well when I started to seed cycle. So I love seed cycling postpartum. I think it's really great, as long as your doctor says it's okay, it's not affecting your breastfeeding journey or anything like that. It really worked for me to get everything back on track and get my cycles back on track.
Kasia:I think that's such a powerful kind of story to hear, because I have so many friends that are going through that postpartum journey and genuinely, genuinely struggling, and I think that there is some freedom A in just recognizing that it's not like a two, three-month process it could be two years, which is wild to think about and then just to also recognize that your body isn't going to come back to what it was, but to find a new balance. I think there's some freedom in viewing it like that. So I'm actually going to pause it. I don't think we're going to go to the menopause question because I want to stick on this kind of like preconception, postpartum piece of your journey, and also both of your journeys.
Kasia:As you are female founders, I'm curious what has it been like, you know, kind of switching gears now for a minute, but being two female founders, like in this space where fertility is either on the table something you're actively going through and you're navigating that together as co-founders but also you're navigating, like these massive life transitions and I'm really talking about less. So you know, yes, the physical part, but also the identity shift, kind of balancing both a business and like the stress of that with like kind of you know, allowing yourself to change and shift and supporting each other. I'm curious, like what has your experience been for both of you?
Kaya:Yeah, I mean such a big question and I definitely want to hear too from Yasmin, because I think that both of us have gone through this idea that you have to give up your ambitions a bit or you become less ambitious when you step into motherhood and I love that. I started Beeya with Yasmin when I during my first pregnancy, because it was quite the opposite.
Kasia:I think we really during your first pregnancy, like you were already pregnant Wow.
Kaya:I was 30. I was pretty much 36 weeks when we launched, the day we launched.
Yasmin:And she texted me. Can't when you text. I remember she texted me because I didn't know Kaya wanted to do this, like we talked about it, but I didn't, you know, I wasn't gonna push it, I think. I think you were pregnant with Lila, maybe it was very early and I remember you texted me and you're like so when are we going to start this? I was like, oh, so she's like game, let's go.
Kasia:She's like pushing out the baby. She's like do we go now?
Kaya:no-transcript, but women of color who looked like me and who were talking about these specific issues. I used to think like, oh my gosh, I had weird periods and I'm alone and I'm a weirdo and maybe it's just my cycle. That's like this, and Yasmin and I really just aim to create a business that feels like a safe space for women to talk about anything that they're going through, health wise, and that's what I really wanted for my daughter, lila. So I feel like we're really fortunate to be in women's health and also be going through this, you know, becoming moms and then potentially like starting on the preconception journey. It feels like it's all in sync. It kind of goes together for me.
Kasia:And how about you, yasmin, as you kind of are watching Kaya's journey unfold and then also kind of I know you've talked about this on your podcast but as you kind of think, like you know would, will kids be in your future and like what that will look like? Like do you have any fears that are coming up or kind of questions that are coming up that you maybe have even changed your perspective on now, seeing Kaya go through this whole experience now the second time? So thanks, kaya, like just keep on, like trudging forward so we could see.
Yasmin:Totally. Oh my god, learn so much from kaya. I mean it's it's really amazing just how you know what I love so much and I want this for drew and I like Both her and her husband are very involved hands-on and I think like if you want to both live big lives, having that support and it could look like you know whether Family or you hire someone or your husband's more involved, it could look in whatever way for you. But I love kind of seeing that from afar and seeing them not be so stressed. Right, you're around people who are like, oh my kid, and people joke and I know it's tough, but they can negatively talk about their children where it's like don't have kids yet, yasmin, you don't know what's coming More from a fear base, but they don't really approach it like that. It's more of a joyful thing and it's very inspiring and it seems very approachable the way they do it, which I like and not super overwhelming. And I love the question that you asked about what fears have changed for you and I think I definitely had a lot of feelings of and I know I talk about this on the podcast and probably the episode you're referring to.
Yasmin:Maybe it was last year or 2 years ago Gosh, time flies. 2 years ago maybe, but yeah, in the thick of Beeya in the early days I couldn't even think about bringing a child into the world. My own mental state wasn't, it was just all-encompassing of Beeya and we were small back then. We were shipping out of the apartment, we were doing customer service, kay and I were doing the socials ourselves like daily posts. We didn't have that much help at the time so I was very focused on birthing Beeya and I remember thinking and telling my husband if we had a kid right now, you would be a single dad Like I truly don't have much to give. And that was a choice I wanted that. That was a decision I made, but it really wasn't until maybe last year, where you know Beeya's growing, or a year and a half ago where we started having team and help and support. And all of that has really helped me feel a little bit more balanced and supported, that I could take a break, and it's okay because I have somebody that can jump in.
Yasmin:Obviously, kaya has always been around, but the business will grow more than 2 people can handle. So I just feel very blessed that Kaya and I we have decided to reinvest every dollar into the business. We barely take a paycheck. We are purposefully putting money in to build team because A there's so much that we want to do with Beeya and team obviously helps us amplify and it's fun working with people on a mission we all love, but also giving us somewhat peace of mind because starting a business I mean we're talking all the time on the weekends, we're texting, even with team you don't shut off, but it allows you to have some kind of more of a schedule and support.
Yasmin:So a long way of saying I definitely feel like middle of last year. This year I can actually see a child in my lifestyle, whereas before my lifestyle was not set up and I had a lot of learning to go. I'm a similar Kasia we talk a lot about this for years Type A, work ethic. There's a lot of stuff that I'm unwinding as a person. So I feel so lucky that there's so many beautiful things I can shift in my life getting ready for pregnancy, but, kid or not, it's an amazing way to live and to even think about yourself.
Kasia:So, yeah, it's just a fun journey to be on and setting up your business in a way that's conducive to having a family, I think, is just so important and so much growth can come from that so powerful and I think sharing, like hearing other women's stories and, kaya, like hearing what you described your experience to be like and then the shift, yasmin, that you're having, I think it's like at least for me, I'll share. I think it's so perspective shifting and empowering and it makes you feel less alone, like it feels more manageable when you can hear other women going through it and like what it looks like across all different life stages, which is just so incredible. I could keep chatting with both of you for hours, but we are at time, so I would love to have you leave our audience with where can people find you? And if you want to share anything exciting you have going on, that would be great. We didn't even get into magnesium, I know, but that was like a sold out hot topic for a while. So anything you want to share, please do.
Yasmin:Yeah, you can find us I mean our website beey a wellness. com. We do a bunch of content and free newsletters so you can sign up there. We also are pretty active on social media, where we are always giving our favorite hormone healthy recipes tips. We have a podcast as well and, yeah, some fun things that we're working on. I know you briefly touched on magnesium. We're working through some newer magnesium products. Behind the scenes, we're exploring clinical studies and just having fun doing it and always thinking about team and finding amazing people to just be part of our mission. That's always a fun thing for us. So a lot of just exciting things that we're doing.
Kasia:I love it. Well, thank you both for coming on today. It was such a joy speaking with you, meeting you in person, well, virtually Kea, and yeah, thanks everyone for tuning in, thanks for having us.
Yasmin:It was so fun. That was amazing. Thank you, kasia. Such a pleasure to be here, woo.
Kasia:Thank you so much for tuning into the Other Way. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a five-star review. It really helps the podcast grow and I'm ever so grateful. If you want to stay connected, you can find information on how in our show notes. And finally, if you're curious about inflow and want free resources around cyclical living or moon cycles, check out inflowplannercom. And, of course, for all my listeners, you can use the code podcast 10 and that's all lowercase podcast10, for 10% off any purchase. All right, that's all for today. See you next time.