Katy, a former physical therapist who loves running marathons, lost her period. Katy’s world turned upside down with a rare cancer diagnosis and the ensuing battle with amenorrhea, she never imagined that her fight for health would take her down a path of extreme behaviors with food + exercise. Katy’s story exposes the raw struggle many face with body image, the mental toll of living in a former larger body, and the bittersweet realization that sometimes, stepping back from exercise is what moves us forward.
Katy's experience as a marathon enthusiast provides valuable insights for all of us who juggle the love for intense fitness with our body's need for balance. This episode peels back the curtain on the complex relationship between vigorous training and menstrual health, offering hope and practical guidance for listeners who may be grappling with similar challenges.
Katy's transformation - regaining her menstrual cycle while still embracing her passion for running - serves as an inspiring testament to the power of rest, proper nutrition, and listening to one's body.
Finally, we celebrate the incredible impact of community support on Katy's path to healing. Through shared struggles and triumphs, Katy's narrative underscores that period recovery is not merely a physical process but a journey that can enhance every aspect of life. From improved relationships and career satisfaction to the joy of meals without anxiety, this conversation is a stirring reminder of the freedom that awaits on the other side of fear and restriction. So join us, and be uplifted by the collective strength that comes from a supportive network as we navigate the road to wellness together.
Apply for coaching w/Cynthia:
https://p.bttr.to/3ybjfOb
Need guidance in eating? Check out this FREE Meal Plan from Cynthia
Website: https://www.periodnutritionist.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/period.nutritionist
For the full show notes - please visit my website: periodnutritionist.com
Katy, a former physical therapist who loves running marathons, lost her period. Katy’s world turned upside down with a rare cancer diagnosis and the ensuing battle with amenorrhea, she never imagined that her fight for health would take her down a path of extreme behaviors with food + exercise. Katy’s story exposes the raw struggle many face with body image, the mental toll of living in a former larger body, and the bittersweet realization that sometimes, stepping back from exercise is what moves us forward.
Katy's experience as a marathon enthusiast provides valuable insights for all of us who juggle the love for intense fitness with our body's need for balance. This episode peels back the curtain on the complex relationship between vigorous training and menstrual health, offering hope and practical guidance for listeners who may be grappling with similar challenges.
Katy's transformation - regaining her menstrual cycle while still embracing her passion for running - serves as an inspiring testament to the power of rest, proper nutrition, and listening to one's body.
Finally, we celebrate the incredible impact of community support on Katy's path to healing. Through shared struggles and triumphs, Katy's narrative underscores that period recovery is not merely a physical process but a journey that can enhance every aspect of life. From improved relationships and career satisfaction to the joy of meals without anxiety, this conversation is a stirring reminder of the freedom that awaits on the other side of fear and restriction. So join us, and be uplifted by the collective strength that comes from a supportive network as we navigate the road to wellness together.
Apply for coaching w/Cynthia:
https://p.bttr.to/3ybjfOb
Need guidance in eating? Check out this FREE Meal Plan from Cynthia
Website: https://www.periodnutritionist.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/period.nutritionist
For the full show notes - please visit my website: periodnutritionist.com
Welcome to the Period Recovery Podcast. I'm your host, cynthia Donovan, registered dietitian and period recovery expert, who has been where you currently are. This is the podcast to listen to if you want your period back, month after month, or if you want to restore your fertility and feel more relaxed around food and exercise. Consider this your safe space that will take the guests and the stress out of period recovery and bring you the information, the inspiration, tools, stories and empowerment that are key in getting your period back month after month. Get ready to be inspired, get ready to get your period back and get ready to get your life back. Come on, let's dive in. Get ready to get your life back. Come on, let's dive in. Welcome back to the Period Recovery Podcast.
Speaker 1:So today I have my past client, katie, who worked with me all the way back in 2020. And she shares about what life looks like for her now, three years post-period recovery, how amazing life is, and also the struggles that she endured to get where she is From getting a regular period now, with continuing start now and not wait another second to regain your period. Today, and chatting with Katie, I hope you find lots of inspiration and motivation after hearing this and, as always. Share this podcast. Help us create awareness so that we can help others across the world figure out why their period is missing and get the support that they need. Let's dive in and chat with Katie. Hi, katie, welcome to the Period Recovery Podcast.
Speaker 2:Hi, cynthia, it's good to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's been Katie and I were just talking pre-show about three years since Katie and I have worked together, Yep.
Speaker 2:Been a very crazy three years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so tell me about it. So that was back in 2020, when we were in the depths of COVID. Yeah, right, yeah, like the super depths, yep. So I'm excited to chat with Katie today and for her to share her story of where she was and where she is now, because I think so many of us and you can also vouch for this, katie. Like when you're in the depths of period recovery and you don't know when it's coming back, what is it going to take, how much weight you're going to have to gain it literally feels like you're going to be stuck there forever, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. You just don't know if it's going to happen for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so let's kind of go into. You know, before we share how amazing your period life is now getting regular, consistent periods, why don't we share a little bit about your personal experience with how you lost your period?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess it goes all the way back to 2016. And I was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer. I had synovial sarcoma in my thigh. I went through chemo surgery radiation. I did lose my period from that, but it actually came back about almost six months to the day that I started there, finished the chemo, so all was well. But I was always living in a larger body and I felt that the best way to give myself a chance at staying in remission and being as healthy as possible was to lose weight. Being as healthy as possible was to lose weight and what I started doing I'd done calorie restriction in the past, hadn't had a lot of success or nothing that stuck. I shifted to the quote unquote clean eating. I took out basically every form of grain, every processed quote unquote sugar. Essentially, I was eating lean proteins, lots of vegetables. I mean a lot of vegetables.
Speaker 2:I was not really taking in what I probably should have been, but I was losing the weight and it got to a point that I wasn't seeing the loss anymore about a year or so later so maybe early. I probably started in 2017. And so by spring of 2018, the weight loss had slowed down, but I wasn't at that number I had in my head. I restricted even further. That was where I started the calorie counting again. I didn't change what I was eating, but I ate even less. I was working out at least two hours a day, sometimes closer to three. If I ate more than about 1200 calories, I felt immensely guilty and I'd go work out extra. I'd get an extra walk or tell myself that I had to do something to make up for it, and that's about the time that I lost my period. At that point I had started doing some regular running. I had gotten bitten by the half marathon bug. I enjoyed running. I enjoyed training that developed into marathon training because I was going to run the New York City Marathon in 2020 as part of a fundraiser for the cancer center that I went to there.
Speaker 2:So it was a nice kind of culmination of things, but I still didn't have my period back and I was starting to really feel poorly. I had no energy. I was exhausted and cold all the time. I just was grumpy at everything. I was short-tempered. I knew something wasn't right, and the more I was on social media, I was starting to see things pop up in my feed about amenorrhea and what that meant and that it actually wasn't a good thing. That was probably the first trigger warning flag in my head that I needed to do something. But I was training for this marathon. I really couldn't stop. I'd committed to it, and then COVID hit and the marathon got canceled. And so that was around the time that I had reached out to you, knowing that I was still going to be running the marathon in the next couple years. I wanted to set myself up for some kind of success, to make the changes, because that was that point of realization that what I was doing was obviously not healthy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I can see how that turned into what it did for you, katie. I know, for so many of us that were in a larger body, the pain and the shame that comes along with that right. And then, for the first time, or maybe the second time, we lose the weight. And then what happens? We get all the compliments, right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, everybody would say and I had patients that I was treating because I was a physical therapist at the time that I've been seeing some of these patients since I started practicing in 2014 and so in 2018 I'm seeing them again and they're some of them literally did not recognize me, and that was such a gratifying feeling because I had made this enormous change, to the point that I wasn't the same person anymore. I could be somebody different. Or people would tell me wow, I wish I could do that, I wish I could be you, and that was the first time I think anybody had said words like that to me, at least in a way that I recognized and felt like I could do something meaningful. But really what I had done was just something visible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because we know body images much more than what we appear on the outside. But how much of a factor did that play a part into you continuing the restriction? You feeling guilty if you did X and you didn't make up for it, right it?
Speaker 2:becomes your personality. It was what everybody knew me, as I was always the go-to. Oh, we knew you lost the weight, so we wanted to ask you how you did it. Or you look so good. It becomes this image you have to maintain because that's who you are now. That's what you want to stay. You don't want people to have those thoughts of well, she couldn't make it last. I knew she wasn't going to be able to keep it off. That starts to creep in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, other people's thoughts and perception of us as much as we say. Maybe we don't care. But how much did that pursuit of you know societal ideals? Because, for some reason well, many reasons society values and idolizes the person who can lose weight. Yeah, like and when weight has nothing to do with the person we are. But, hey, I mean you, I like to say this and you may have heard me say this before Katie is you only know?
Speaker 1:you know when you know it, and at that particular time, like that's what you know felt successful to you in the light of being healthy and thin and um, all the things. So we, we got into marathon training, um, and I remember when we first started working together, you were like I am going to continue to train for this marathon and I said, okay, I can't promise your period will come back during this. So what kind of gave you the. You know, I'm still going to continue the train, but I'm going to work alongside making my nutrition better and maybe, you know, capitalizing on the periods of rest. What made you take that leap to do that then, versus saying like, all right, I'm just going to run my face off. Once I'm done training for this marathon, then I will do period recovery.
Speaker 2:I wanted to make sure that I was setting that foundation so that when I was able to take a break from training, I had the knowledge that I needed to have. I already started eating more. I was already familiar with the kinds of things that I should be eating, so whenever that break time came around, I was already in the groove. I already had the ability to do what I needed to do and could just layer on that rest period on top of it to make it happen, instead of waiting to even get the help and get the advice and knowledge that I needed from you to then get started, because I was going to delay it even further.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I am a total fan of that, because I'm never going to make you, make anyone do something they don't want to do right, or they're not ready to do, for whatever reasons. I'm going to give you the all right. Here's the pros, here's the cons.
Speaker 1:I think I said up front, I can't promise your period is going to come back in the timeframe we're working together, but we can make you stronger, and taking the leap while you're still doing all the things versus waiting definitely is going to make you healthier in the process and get you closer for when you do take this break that you're going to be more ahead of the game, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about well, first of all, how long kind of give us a timeline of how long it took you to get your period back and if you could like note like okay, I was still running from this time period to this time period and kind of, yeah, timeline wise.
Speaker 2:I took a break. Actually so right around the time and it might have been right, as we were finishing working together I was going to run. I ran a marathon in November of 2020, sort of a virtual self-supported version of the Richmond Marathon in Virginia and then I did the Seashore Ultra Marathon in Virginia Beach that December. I was already injured at that point. I had had, I suspected, a stress fracture in my leg, but I kept training and I ran this race. I fell several times. I ended up dropping out, which was devastating to me, but then I had to rest.
Speaker 2:After that, I took several months off and I started getting some of those feelings of having a cycle again, but it never quite came back. I started training for running again in March or April of 2021. And I continued training until I ran the New York Marathon in November of 2023. But somehow, during those last several months of training, I actually got my period back for several months because I had increased my food intake significantly when I wasn't training. I was taking my rest so seriously Like I did nothing. If it was a rest day, it was a rest day, so it was. It was only a short period that I got it back, for it wasn't full recovery and I knew that. But it was the first signal to me that, oh, this can actually happen for me. I'm not going to be that person that it never happens, for, even as involved as my symptoms were and as long as it had been going on, it still could happen, and that was such a motivating thing. I ended up taking running off Once I finished the marathon November of last year.
Speaker 2:I did not run again until maybe April of this year, and when I came back to it I recovered my period. It was a little iffy over the summer until this past August, or no, it was July. I know it was July because I had it during a trip, and so from July of this year through even now, it has been as consistent as can be About every 28 days on the dot. I can almost always calculate it. I know my cycle, all of the symptoms, everything that comes in those weeks leading up to my period. I can just pinpoint exactly what's going on.
Speaker 1:And that's so amazing to be able to be like, and that's so amazing to be able to be like okay, I know I'm like past ovulation, I'm losing steam, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so that's pretty amazing, katie, that you did get your period back when training. And I want to say that's probably not common. No, it is not. It is not. Have I had clients? Absolutely. But let's kind of play another scenario. Let's just say you were able to regain your cycle it wasn't regular quite yet when you were still training, but you did see that there was hope for you. Now imagine if you said maybe the time we started working together, okay, I'm done, I'm not training, I'm going to eat and fuel my body. Chances are it would have come back much, much quicker. Um, and so I want to know for you. I don't really like to ask this question, but I just kind of want to. I regret not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I wish I had had the disposition to realize running will always be there, exercise will always be there. Those goals can be achieved whenever, but my health is not something that I should be putting off. Just like I shouldn't delay a doctor's appointment if something's not right and I'm not feeling well, I wouldn't put that off so that I could go do something else, and this is no different. These are long-term health impacts that I could have made a change on so much sooner, and I really do wish that I had taken that break a little bit more seriously, and you know not years later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you could tell your old self some advice, like about starting sooner, like what would you? Would you give her a kick in the butt and be like, like girl, like, come on, yes, it a lot of my hesitations also came down to I used the training.
Speaker 2:It was a reason. I don't want to call it an excuse. It was a valid reason. I had a lot of money and time sunk into running that race and being ready for it, but at the same time there were a lot of mental barriers for me with having that identity as the person who lost the weight, having the identity as the person who wore small or even an extra small in my clothes. I didn't like seeing the number on the scale go up. I didn't want my clothes to be tighter and have to buy new things and not have that small or extra small on the label. New things and not have that small or extra small on the label, and I wish going back. If I could give myself advice, it would be that those things do not matter. The label that's on my clothes doesn't change who I am as a person. It doesn't make me any better or any worse if I buy a medium, a large and extra large instead of the small.
Speaker 1:I am so excited to introduce to you guys the Eat to Regain your Period group coaching program. If you are struggling to regain your period and you're feeling lost despite countless attempts to get it back, I invite you to apply to the Eat to Regain your Period group coaching program. If you're really tired of doing all the things getting no results, if you're dreaming of starting a family one day, or just simply restoring your health, if you're seeking a holistic, natural way to get your period back, without pills or supplements, or if you just need personal guidance on what might be missing to regain your period, with a team of registered dietitians, you are going to get a proven program that has helped hundreds of women across the world regain their cycles back, restore their fertility and feel inspired and confident in a new found health. You, guys, don't let your missing period be the biggest issue in your life anymore. Join me and reclaim your health with the Eat to Regain your Period group coaching program. To learn more, visit wwwperiodnutritionistcom.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that would have helped me is if I had gotten rid of some of my clothes at the very beginning Anything that I knew was not going to be comfortable. If I gained a single pound, I should have tossed it. I should have invested in a couple really comfortable pieces sweats, leggings that I knew weren't going to make me feel poorly as the week came on because it did come on. And I think I should have also probably tossed the scale out of the window a little bit sooner, because there's that compulsion to get on it and see just kind of see what the number is, and that always set me back every single time and I really, really wish I had just sold it, gotten rid of it and not cared.
Speaker 1:And thank you for sharing that. Katie and you know again we only know what we know when we know it.
Speaker 1:But you know, one of the reasons why I have past clients of mine on is to show the audience out there like the time is now and there hasn't been one woman I've ever worked with, katie that said you know what I wish? I waited a lot longer to do this. Right Right Said no woman ever. But it's the fear, like you said, the fear of the identity loss, the fear of not fitting into certain clothing items or people knowing or seeing you different. And then, of course, we attach if we have been in a larger body before.
Speaker 1:Chances are we were not nearly as praised as we were when we lost the weight and so we could have been shamed, we could have been bullied, we could have been so many things where we don't want to go back to that place and to know that. You know it takes some time to realize you're more than your body, but you know you really are and I like to say let's not make fear based decisions. So if we could remove the fear like if you think back then, katie, if you can remove all that fear, you know your choice probably would have been different. And I think you know a lot of what I do in my coaching program is we move through that fear together to support you in getting through that, because it's really scary. There's so many confining factors that makes us believe that our body's changing and eating more and exercising less literally is the worst thing in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and at the end of the day, one of the questions that I ask myself now, even when those feelings and thoughts sneak back because they do would I have a regret about eating this thing or not working out if I were to die tomorrow? Because I've faced that Like I've lived, with the potential of my cancer coming back and I have to ask myself if that happened, I would be so annoyed that I missed out on experiences because I was restricting my food or because I knew I'd feel guilty if I went out to eat instead of, you know, just eating egg whites and vegetables at home. So whenever those thoughts come back around, I try to ask myself those questions of does this really matter? Does this make me a good or a bad person? No, but you have to put it in that logical context sometimes and look at it objectively and get yourself out of that habit of prescribing whether something is good or is bad and just think of it. What would make me happiest and what really matters? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And for those out there you know that haven't been in Katie's place or known anyone who's been in Katie's place like life is short, regardless of any you know pre-existing condition or anything like that, like you have no idea when it could be the last, and you know it's scary to think and I don't mean to bring fear, but it is reality and life is so much for we're going to talk more about where Katie is, but I could just say is life so much more free now? I mean, oh my gosh, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's so nice to be able to just go and enjoy and do things and not look at the menu ahead of time to make sure that I can eat there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so, katie, tell us what do you think? What were the steps I guess you took? I know we work together, but what are some of the steps you know outside of that, like as far as eating goes and resting goes that you took to get your period back?
Speaker 2:eating goes and resting goes that you took to get your period back. I definitely was conscious about eating more and eating more of the things that I had fear of the things that I was avoiding A lot of breads, grains, just enjoying the little things in life having a donut instead of skipping out on it. I tried to make sure that with every single meal I was having carbs, I was having healthy fats or any fats. I made sure that I was doing the snacking throughout the day. If I woke up at midnight and I felt hungry, I got out of my bed and went to go get a snack, or I kept snacks in my bedside drawer. It was such a strange feeling to have a little stash of granola bars or you know quick stuff in my bedside table. But it was so helpful because I did wake up multiple times out of nowhere, starving and I had food right there. I prioritized making sure that I was eating, especially when I felt like I shouldn't be. That's when I knew I should be, so I use that as kind of my reverse trigger to go and eat something.
Speaker 2:The other thing I did that you had kind of put me onto when we were working together was change my social media following.
Speaker 2:So any accounts that I had been following whether it was on probably Instagram really heavily at that point if they were fitness influencers, things that very much put a certain body type or certain goals at the forefront of their content I unfollowed them and I made a point of following people like you who were emphasizing the importance of regaining a period, who were emphasizing body either neutrality or body positivity, anyone else who is in a recovery situation where they were going through the same struggles because that was what would show up on my feed If I open my phone.
Speaker 2:I wanted to see that positive reinforcement and it made a huge difference. Even now, I still have those things. So sometimes I'll the thoughts will be floating around like the weight's getting up there a little bit. This thing got tight, maybe you could just diet a little bit, get a couple pounds off, it'd be fine. I'll open up my Instagram and my feed is usually like you or some of the other dietitians in a similar realm and I'm like, oh okay, that's the message that I needed. So I don't see the reinforcement for the other side of it anymore and that was a big game changer on my end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, my gosh, katie, thank you for sharing that Cause and thank you for being like, very real on the fact that these thoughts, even after the years you've been at this, they don't just magically go away, and that we have to fight it almost every day and making sure there's things in place to support us throughout. And I mean how it's still hard. I mean especially this time of the year, like the first few months of the year, like everybody's dieting and losing the weight and talking about weight, like yeah, with it being the first of the year, but then also it's.
Speaker 2:There's been such a change in the diet industry where you've got medications now that are getting marketed and targeted and there's always that little thought of oh well, what if I tried those? And I have to remind myself. None of that matters. I'm very healthy, I have my period back, my blood work is always good, my blood pressure is good. I'm fine exactly as I am right now. I'm happy. I don't need to change anything about myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and speaking of those positivities, what else improved for you when you started working towards getting your period?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I'm not freezing cold. All the time Before I was constantly cold. I had to layer up. When I was working in the clinic, I usually had a long sleeve shirt. Under my scrub top, I had a vest on and I usually had a sweater too. Nowadays I am not freezing cold, except I live in Minnesota, so I'm just normal cold. I'm not short tempered and grumpy the way that I used to be. Anything would set me off because I was always hungry and it had me on a short edge. I didn't realize until after I was starting through the recovery process that those two were so closely linked that I wasn't just a, not a people person, or I don't want to say it, but I wasn't just a bitch.
Speaker 2:I was just so hungry all the time that my body didn't have the energy to tolerate anything beyond the bare minimum. I'm a much friendlier person these days. I have a lot more patience for the people around me. I'm able to not focus on the fact that I can't have something, because before, if I couldn't have it, it became an obsession. Right, I think about the donut all the time, and now I just eat the donut and I move on with my life. It's been at the front of my thought process all day. I mean, my weight has gone up, but honestly, I feel like I have more strength. My workouts are better. My recovery is better from my workouts. I like my body. It's nice having a little bit of curve and fuller figure, because when I put on certain things, I'm like, ooh, I look good. I don't have bones showing all the time.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. It sounds like so much has improved for you, katie, mentally and physically. So I know all that stuff improved health, health wise. But what about like mental bandwidth, katie, like like the ability? I know before you shared pre-show but I know you talk about it on your social media page how you have changed your careers. So do you think fueling more appropriately, getting out of that kind of fight or flight mode, low energy mode, had helped you just in your life goals and where you kind of saw yourself as a person?
Speaker 2:100%, without a doubt. When I look back at when we were working together and first starting, I was so miserable my career was not for me. I was working in the height of COVID as a physical therapist. I was crying in closets in the hospital most every day because I hated my job so much but I did not have the energy mental or physical to try and figure a way out of it. I just existed.
Speaker 2:And as I kind of started to make those changes in my life and start giving my body the fuel it needed, it really opened up those doors Because I finally had energy and I wasn't so focused on being hungry and miserable all the time. I was able to channel some of myself into finding a career that was better suited and that would make me happier. And without making those changes I don't know where I'd be today. But I was able to pivot into something totally different that made me far happier. And since then I've pivoted once again into something slightly different that I absolutely love.
Speaker 2:And at the same time I think that initial change that I made in my career, because it moved me out of state and into a new environment, helped my recovery, because I got to be a different person no longer. I wasn't around the people I'd been when I was in the bigger and in the smaller body. I was just Katie. They didn't have the past version of me and they didn't know who I used to be. So I could just exist, and I think being in that new environment actually helps my recovery quite a bit too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it sounds like it was twofold. It was like all right, I started to finally eat more that allowed me more mental space to be able to leave the career that I really disliked. Let's face it like when you're not eating enough, like you do not have the mental capacity to do anything other than like, literally be a robot. Right, yeah, go to work. Well, be a miserable robot, to say the least. Wonderful. And then you got this new career change and that even more motivated you to eat enough and rest enough.
Speaker 1:And then here you are today and you're in a new career and you're absolutely loving it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love it so much. It is so much more suited to who I am as a person and what my natural skills are. And there's no doubt in my mind that if I hadn't recovered, I wouldn't have the mental capacity to do the work that I do, because it's a lot. I work a lot of hours in a given week, but I enjoy it. I also wouldn't have the patience to work with the people the way that I work with them now. There's no way I would be able to get through a day and do my job well if I hadn't chosen to recover my period.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so amazing because literally just when we focus on getting our periods back I know that's, like you know, the primary goal, but I mean knowing that. I mean, did you know that all this other amazingness was going to eventually come out of something? I don't want to say something so simple, because it's not easy just to eat more, rest more it's not simple at all. But I mean with that, if you knew what you knew now, aside from the health disparities that come along with it, like heart disease and infertility and bone health issues, but like, aside from that, like if you knew how your life could open up in such amazing ways as you personally and then you know career wise and probably other relationships in your life you would probably have done it even sooner than you even thought of it. Right?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I look back at some of the vacations that I took, probably pre-COVID. I know we did Seattle and Vancouver shortly like 2018. Maybe I missed out on so much during those trips because I was so terrified of eating and enjoying myself. I held back. I didn't participate in things. There's so many good foods I could have had and memories I could have made that I didn't. I wish it had never gotten to that point. But knowing that now and seeing the vacations and the trips the work trips that I've taken since then, I've been able to just go out with my coworkers and have dinner and enjoy myself, because I wasn't counting the calories or stressing about there being options on the menu. I was instead able to just focus on the relationships and the experiences that I was getting to be a part of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing. And there's a dietitian that wrote the book Anti-Diet, christy Harrison, and she calls it diet culture itself of eating less and moving more, the life thief, and it steals a lot of stuff from us. And in the moment, though, if you look back retrospectively, when you were in the thick of it, katie, did you even know that it was stealing so much from you?
Speaker 2:No, I thought I was doing everything that everyone had always told me was what I was supposed to be doing. All of the things that got drilled into my head by doctors because I lived in a larger body. From sixth grade onward, I was always the bigger girl in every class and every physical, every doctor's appointment was always well, you're overweight, you need to lose weight, you need to do this, you need to do that. And I did those things and it didn't make me better. I don't want to say it wasn't the right thing to do, because activity is good, but it wasn't the answer to the problems that I had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and thank you for sharing that. I think that's a really important point. So I know we talked about how you know drastically, holistically, all around your life has improved. So I want I got a couple of questions before we wrap up, one being what tips or words of encouragement would you give women who are attempting period recovery on their own and maybe aren't seeing the results?
Speaker 2:I would definitely say stick with it, because I didn't think I would be able to achieve it. I thought I was going to be the one person that these things just didn't work for, it wasn't going to apply to me. I wasn't going to be the one person that these things just didn't work for, it wasn't going to apply to me. I wasn't going to be the one who got theirs back, no matter what I did. Well, guess what I did?
Speaker 2:Stick with it. It does happen. It may just take a little bit longer. It may take more. You might need to eat more or stick with it a little bit longer than somebody else does, but that's what this kind of community is for. That is where you need to reach out to the other people you see posting on comments on Cynthia or interacting with other people in the period recovery space, to make sure that you are getting the support that you need, whether that's through actually working directly with you or just kind of building that community. Those influences on you are going to help. They're going to pay it forward to you and then you're going to be able to pay it forward to another woman at some point.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that you shared that, Katie, because literally all my clients, including you, are some way able to have influenced other people in some capacity. So, yeah, I think really what you said, katie, about all those things, the encouragement and for whatever reason. We think sometimes we're the unicorn that is just not going to get our period back and I'm not really sure why. I know I felt that way at one point.
Speaker 1:But this was gosh 10 years ago and there was like nothing, no research, no, nothing out there. But that just goes to show you knowledge. We might all know like, oh yeah, the science is out there, you eat more, you rest more, like you're going to get your period back. Knowledge doesn't always equal behavior change. So and that's where I think you said the importance of support and whether it's in a community like mine or just in an Instagram community, some type of community to really show you that this, this can be done, and I hope Katie's story really inspired you guys that you can absolutely do this. So my last question I'd like to ask all of my guests is how are you living now? Because period recovery, yes, that's the most important thing. We want to get our periods back, but I also want you guys to get your life back.
Speaker 2:So how are you living?
Speaker 1:now.
Speaker 2:I have resumed regular exercise. No issues with any of that. I was able to go back to all of the activities that I enjoyed. I've resumed running lifting. I didn't have to stop those things forever, which was always one of the fears in the back of my head. I'm able to just pick up and go out to dinner or breakfast with my parents or my friends and not worry about it. I'm able to bake at home and lick the spatula and not feel like a bad human being for it. It's so freeing to be able to do these things and just feel like I'm allowed to do them again. And even though I'm not somebody I've generally been in the camp of I don't want children, it was still important for me to get my period back. So if there are other women out there who are in the same boat, there's still a reason for you to get it back, even if having children isn't something that you're interested in. So I did want to plug that.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I'm so glad you did, Katie, because many things like, well, I don't want to have babies, or at least I don't want to have babies for the foreseeable future Like, why is this even important? And if you're not inspired by Katie's story and hearing all the amazing things that have come out of you know, her period, recovery journey, the health things that have resolved, and then also Katie's living her life now, which is amazing.
Speaker 1:So I appreciate you so much being here, katie, and sharing your story, and this is a pay it forward moment, because I know there's going to be many women out there that are like, oh my gosh, she sounds just like me, this is me, this is me, and so you're giving hope and spreading awareness and cause to those across the world. So thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2:Very happy to be here and thankful that we ever connected in the first place. So me too, Katie.
Speaker 1:Hi guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please take a moment to think and reflect on how this could be helpful in your period recovery journey. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to the Period Recovery Podcast. We know there are a lot of pods out there and I'm so excited and grateful you are here listening with me. If you need more support on your period recovery journey, schedule a time to chat with me on my website, periodnutritionistcom. If you found this podcast helpful, please help me spread awareness on missing periods by subscribing, leaving a review and sharing this podcast with others. Are you ready to get your period back and your life back? I'll see you in two weeks.