But here’s the irony…

In becoming a doctor of chiropractic with a special interest in brain metabolism I became the unhealthiest I’d ever been (helloooooo late nights hunched over textbooks eating ramen noodles). I completely divorced myself from my body and saw it simply as a vessel for my brain – who cares what’s going on below my neck!

‘When training to take part in fitness competitions in an effort to be in ‘the best shape of my life’, I sent my hormones into a tizzy’….etc. lost my period, and was more fatigued than ever. I over restricted my food intake, went overboard on the cardio, and was not giving myself the appropriate rest and recovery I needed.

I share this because the road to ‘health’ can be a confusing path. Which is why after hitting a serious health low at 38, I finally decided to focus on defining…

What health really means to me as a woman.

A lot of my learning came via the hundreds of patients I saw at my busy clinic. Eventually I shut it down because I just wasn’t able to help enough people – I wanted to go bigger and help people across the globe.

I focused on building out online tools like The Estima Diet which has since helped over 10,000 women balance their hormones and feel better in their body. That led to my best-selling book The Betty Body, and eventually my podcast Better! which has grown to more than 6 million downloads and features conversations with some of the top health experts in the world. Pinch me.

The more I learned about women’s health the more I saw how crazy it is for us to ignore our hormones, ignore our differences in physiology, and try to shove ourselves into a box that works for men.

And now in my mid 40’s, when the world is screaming at me about the horrors of perimenopause and menopause, I am in the best shape – mentally, physically and spiritually – that I ever have been.