Gut-Brain Connection: The Key To A Calmer, Happier You

Introduction to Leah Charney and the Gut-Brain Topic 0:00

I am here today with Leah Charney, who I absolutely adore and brings a wealth of knowledge and breaks things down in such an informative and educational way. She is a Certified Menopause Specialist, Nutrition Coach and the founder of Leah the Charney Nutrition and Wellness. With over two decades of experience in health and wellness. Leah has guided thousands of women to reclaim their health and vitality through personalized nutrition and lifestyles strategies. Her passion for empowering women over 40 stems from her own midlife journey, where she discovered that thriving through perimenopause and menopause isn't just possible.

It's transformative. She's on a mission to help women conquer hormonal chaos, boost their energy, and feel amazing in every stage of life. Today, Leah combines cutting edge science with practical, real life solutions to help women redefine what midlife can feel like. Get ready to be inspired and empowered by her insights and strategies for thriving through menopause and beyond. And today, we are diving deep into the interrelations of hormones and gut health. A conversation I'm really excited to have and share with you.

Let's dig in. Leah, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited about the conversation we're having. I think it's an enormous piece that's missing in the everyday conversations about hormones and mood, but also just it's so impactful and it's a way that people can take into their own hands a huge aspect of their health and mood and all the things. So thank you so much for being here. It's truly my honor. I'm happy to share anything and everything that can help women realize that there is a really important connection.

And to be honest, I'm a little shocked that not more people are talking about it. So we're starting to and this is exciting. So let's get into it. Let's get into it. Tell me a little bit. Explain. For people who you know, this might be the first time they're hearing this information, explain to them the gut brain axis and how they kind of communicate with one another and interrelate. Yeah, of course, we don't often think about that connection, but it's actually really important and fascinating to me.

I'm a little bit of a science geek, but I loved what I learned, this piece of knowledge where when we're developing as an embryo, the gut and the brain actually come from the same bundle of tissue. So when people say your, you know, your gut is your second brain, it's literally your second brain and the gut and the brain have this amazing highway of communication. It's called the vagus nerve. And it goes from our brain all the way down. And it just has these beautiful kind of tendrils that go all through our digestive system.

And so that is how they communicate back and forth all day long.

How the Gut-Brain Axis Works 3:03

And actually, what was shocking to me also, when I went and learned about this connection, is that about 70% of your signals come from your gut to your brain. So there is a lot of conversation happening all day long. And so when people say, you know, for example, like I got, butterflies in my stomach, you know, I was anticipating a presentation or maybe you have a talk with your boss coming up and you feel you have those feelings in your gut. It's because everything is connected. And, another example I like to share is when people, maybe they get a call and your friend was in a car accident.

What happens right away? Suddenly you might feel like that pit in your stomach, or maybe you even feel nausea or have some diarrhea. Like that is a perfect example of how closely connected our gut and our brain are. So hopefully that kind of answers that, that connection and how how intimate and close it is. Right? Right. And how give me some examples to of like physiologically speaking, how does your gut influence your mental health. And you know, I definitely I get the whole butterflies in your stomach thing for sure when we're anxious etc., but give me some some idea of that connection and how they can influence one another.

Yeah. So we have neurotransmitters in our body and we often think that they're coming from our brain. But most of our transmitters for example serotonin, we have serotonin regulates mood and sleep and digestion. And over 90% of it is produced in our gut. Same with Gaba and dopamine. I think there's roughly 50% of dopamine is produced in our gut. So all of these neurotransmitters that are basically in charge of, you know, our mood and our anxiety levels, our pleasure levels, whether we're feeling motivated, these are all neurotransmitters that are actually produced in our gut.

So it's really important that we have a well-functioning gut, because if we don't, that's going to be directly impacting our mood. Absolutely. And then how would food or diet come into play here? What role would that be in the gut brain connection. Yeah. So maybe you've heard this and maybe it's new, but this concept was mind blowing to me when I first heard it that we have a microbiome, which is the bacteria that live in our gut, and they also all live all of our bodies. But I'm talking specifically about the gut microbiome.

There are more bacteria in our gut than there are cells in our body. So there are more of them than there are of us. It is a big deal. It's like a whole ecosystem. And these microbiome, they actually produce, they can produce toxins which can negatively affect us and they can produce, short chain fatty acids, which also help reduce inflammation and help with, our mood and feelings. So they produce a lot of good. They can produce positive things and they can produce negative things. And when it comes to how how they're living inside of us, a lot of our choices on a daily basis affect how this ecosystem is interacting with us as a human.

So what you eat, you know how your sleeping, whether you're taking medications or antibiotics, whether you're even maybe drinking water that is full of chlorine and slowly kind of killing that ecosystem. So there's a lot of choices that we make in our life. And I can dive deeper if you want into the food or, you know, certain choices like that. But as a whole, it's really important that our choices, every choice you make either helps or hurts our microbiome, which then, of course helps or hurts our mood, energy and metabolism.

I've even read like studies that show small amounts of exercise. Literally feed not not, you know, overtly quote, feed. But they, they improved, the replication and the spreading of good bacteria. Yeah, yeah, exercise is really good. And also another side note about exercise.

Microbiome, Food, and Prebiotics vs Probiotics 7:30

It helps with stress. And stress in itself can actually kill off our microbiome and negatively affect it. So you're working out you're helping your microbiome. And it's got a lot of benefits right. It's crazy that like exercise makes good bacteria increase. It's just it's a strange, strange thought. Tell me about like nutrients types of foods. Like maybe a few that you use or you recommend with your clients to help feed or proliferate good bacteria. Yeah. So there's what I call there's, there's when we're talking about food, there's two main ways you can help your gut microbiome.

There's what we called prebiotics. And prebiotics are basically like the fertilizer for your microbiome. It's what they eat. And so when you feed them the right foods, these prebiotics foods, you're making your gut microbiome super happy. And then you're super happy. And you're probably eating these foods already. Things like, you know, a lot of vegetables and fruits. So like asparagus, artichoke, chicory root, garlic, leeks, peas, potatoes especially that resistant starch. Those are some example, fruits, you know, bananas, apples, berries.

All of these things feed our gut microbiome. And you don't really have to think, oh, God, what did Leah say again? What was the fruit or vegetable? If you're eating a rainbow of foods on your plate, you're probably getting prebiotics. And then that's the food for the bacteria. But you also want to eat food that has the bacteria in it. So this this topic is a little more discussed. People. A little more aware of the probiotics. So probiotics are foods that contain the good bacteria, things like, kimchi and yogurt and sauerkraut and miso.

There's a lot more. But if you're eating these foods on a daily basis, you are feeding your gut microbiome and you're making them happier. And you're probably also pushing out the bad guys. So those are some really good. So let's just eat the rainbow, eat lots of fruits and vegetables. I love the simplicity of that. Right. Because I think in in a world where health information is so readily accessible. Yeah, on social media, etc., it can be absolutely overwhelming. And I just so advocate for the simplicity of it all.

And then another cool kind of facet that I love about the prebiotics is like this idea that we could take things like potatoes or rice and cook them, put them in the refrigerator, pull them out, reheat them, and they're now resistant starch. So there's a process that happens cooking. Refrigerate. And then even if you reheat where we've created resistant starch from something that otherwise wouldn't be. And so learning and maybe you've got some more hacks or more types of foods that that works with.

But learning those little nuances I feel like too is so cool because you're not taking foods away from people, you're just changing the method of eating them to feed your microbiome in a positive way. I love that you said that because, when I tell my clients that, they're like, wait a minute, so the potato is different after I cool it down? Yeah, yeah, the potato and the rice eat more of it when it's cooled down. I love to eat that up. Yeah. It's such a good example of the resistant starch, you know.

And I don't know if you want to go into this, McCall, but eating the right foods is one thing. What I really actually think is equally, if not more important, and this is what I tell my clients all the time, is how you eat is exceptionally important, especially if you're struggling with, you know, anxiety, depression or any other mental health issues or struggles because we always hear about this fight or flight state and how we need to manage our stress and get out of fight or flight. And that's where we're shifting our body.

We're in a stress mode, a parasympathetic mode. Well, when we're in, sorry, when we're in the sympathetic mode of a stressed out mode, our body turns off our digestion. So whether you got a stressful email, you got a fight with your partner, maybe your, you know, a mom that's juggling 10,000 things in constantly running around your body is in a stressed out state. It's not going to turn on digestion. And so, yes, eat the prebiotics, eat the probiotics. But before you do that, we need to shift our body into the rest and digest state.

And that will turn on all of these great digestive juices and enzymes and get things working exactly how they're supposed to be. So, it's easier said than done, but there is one tip I'll leave people with that can really shift them, even if they're the busiest people. When you sit down, take five deep breaths before you eat. That is almost always going to shift your body into this rest and digest. You know it. Turn on the digestion, increase your nutrient absorption, and your gut could even be in repair mode then.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is it's so important what you eat, but also how you eat. I will actually absolutely use that tip myself because even like, you know, in my own world of being in clinic and then having a really short lunch break and I'm just rushing to get it done, and I never really call my body before I eat. And I think you hear, you know, so many of so many people, my patients are like, say, you know, I was so bloated after I ate all the time. I really struggled with, indigestion and all these gut symptoms.

But when I reduced my stress, so much of that went away. And it was irrespective of changes in diet, it was almost like they did all these, these dietary changes. They jump through all these hoops without resolve. And then when they were able to influence their stress, finally they got the gut improvement that they needed. Yeah. So many people have had that experience. I've even had clients where, you know, they're carrying 15 to 20 pounds of extra weight and they've done everything. They're eating the right way.

You know, they're exercising, they're moving their body, they're taking the right supplements, they're doing all the right things. And they couldn't lose that extra weight. They couldn't release it. And when they started really diving deep into shifting that body into the rest and digest, managing their stress, they almost immediately their body responded in the most natural way of just releasing this extra weight. So it's a big deal. Absolutely. And, you know, I think over the last few years, science has really been diving in more and more to this idea of the gut brain connection and the interplay of, hey, our ability to reduce stress improves our gut function, and then improving our gut function, you know, reduces our feelings of stress and anxiety.

There was a study that came out

Stress, Digestion, and the Rest-and-Digest State 14:45

several years ago, I think it was like during Covid. But it was a meta analysis that looked at, hey, the two main strains that we as people need in terms of bacteria, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria, which are the most commonly found strains of a beneficial bacteria that we have that are well documented and studied. Just supplementing with those improved mood, it improved or reduced really feelings of stress and anxiety and thinking about that. It is such a powerful thing and it doesn't have to be, oh well, hey, you shouldn't go on these medications and you should only work on your gut.

But what if people that need medications were able to do that to help improve their mood while simultaneously right working on their gut? And how much more improvement they might be able to get if they work on both of those things. I love that you brought that up, and it also they did. I don't know if you read there was another study where they did a similar one with mice and they had sterile guts for, one group. And another group, was suffering from depression and they, you know, gross, probably TMI, but mice eat poop in the cage.

So when they put these sterile gut mice in the cage with the mice with the depression, the mice with, no microbiome started to, you know, acquire the microbiome of the gut, the, sorry, the the microbiome of the mice with the depression. And they now showed signs of depression. So there are a lot of things we can do with the microbiome. And enhancing. And so like you said, if people have if they're struggling with issues like that, I'm not a doctor. I'm not saying to get off your medication, but this is a really interesting world to dive into and maybe it can help.

I've known people that have really turned their lives around just by focusing on gut microbiome and macall. Maybe I would be. I should probably talk about leaky gut a little bit, but yeah, let's do it. That can affect a lot of people's mood and we don't. Again, back to the whole piece. If we don't really connect how we feel with our gut. And this topic of leaky gut has been talked about a lot, and I'm so grateful for that. But I still think we have a ways to go. And for anyone that doesn't know what leaky gut is, you know, we actually have from our mouth to our anus.

It's like this long tube and it's actually outside of us. It's not part of us. So anything you eat, anything you put in your mouth, the only way it becomes part of us is if it's absorbed through the gut wall will. That gut wall is meant to be very tight, and it's not meant to allow large particles or things that aren't supposed to come through. They're not supposed to come through. So we're supposed to break down our food into these tiny nutrients and then the gut lining allows these tiny molecules to come through.

Well, for many reasons, which I won't get into. But, you know, I've listed some medications to stress, gosh, we could go on foods that are irritating to us, toxins in the environment. This gut lining becomes inflamed and irritated and it becomes leaky. So it's not so tight and large molecules, large proteins, large toxins can come through. And when it gets inside of us, then our body's like, whoa, that is not supposed to be here. And we can have so many different types of reactions, some of which can be, you know, autoimmune issues, anxiety, depression, like we can affect the way that we feel based on our gut health and what is coming through that maybe shouldn't come through.

So and that's also affecting of course, our microbiome. So that's a that's a big topic. Absolutely. And kind of to to continue on that same line of thinking, you know, our blood is meant to be a sterile environment and our gut is part of, you know, just like you said, it's the outside world. It's not sterile. And so when those gap junctions, those connections break down and anything really enters into our bloodstream, it triggers a response from our body to say, okay, this is a foreign invader. It triggers a massive immune response, an inflammatory response.

Well, in our blood that's circulating throughout our body, just propagating that inflammatory response all the way up to our brain. Right. And then we get the neuro inflammatory component, which then too propagates depression propagates anxiety mood disruption. And so again, it's just this other whole mechanism of this other inflammatory syndrome that impacts how we feel on, you know, a day to day basis for sure. I love that you brought that up. I it would have been a it would have been a bummer had we not not been able to discuss that and bring that up today.

Well, I'm sure we'll talk just on that like a whole summit, just on leaky gut and how. Absolutely. Yeah. And how it affects every aspect of our physiology. Right. Because there's all these different organs too, that are impacted greatly. Tell me, you know, some supplement recommendations, some general, even nutrients that are that you found work well with your clients in supporting or in the literature, the gut brain connection. And is there any kind of key ingredients that help mitigate stress or improve gut function, then therefore mitigate stress?

Yeah, that's a good question. And, there's a lot we could say on this topic. There's actually been some pretty good research too though, so I'll talk about the main ones. I think beef, either in conjunction or maybe even before people go into healing the gut, just make sure that we're taking out the things that are irritating, because it's kind of like if you have, a huge fire and you're just kind of trickling water on it, it's like, well, you're not going to put the fire out. You might need like a huge, you know, bucket of water, to put that fire out.

And that's what the supplements would do if you're constantly having a fire in the gut. So maybe address what is causing the inflammation and, the, the leaky

Leaky Gut, Inflammation, and Mood 21:00

gut first, then go into you know, how can I heal this gut? How can I repair this, this leaky gut? So, I love food first. And if you can go to food first. I love supplements, too, but I like to start with food. Bone broth is a really great way to add in a lot of glutamine and, collagen. That's going to help strengthen the gut lining. And and excuse me, the nice thing about bone broth is you can literally just drink it by itself, which some people really enjoy. Me, not so much. I'm not a big fan, but I use it in all my soups and stews.

And so especially in the winter months, we make a lot of soups and stews and use bone broth. It's incredibly healing. You can also, if you're on the fan of the more supplement side, you could go into collagen supplement, add it to your coffee or your smoothie, something like that. It's pretty easy to do daily. And then, back to the food. Omega threes, Omega three fatty acids are anti-inflammatory and you can get them from absolutely from food. So things like salmon, walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds.

And many people still also take an omega three supplement. So there's a lot of choices there to add that into your diet. And I would say also really important would be, zinc, vitamin D and magnesium for gut repair and immune health. And sadly, I would say many people are deficient in vitamin D. You can get it easily tested at your doctor. It's a very easy test. Right now we're recording in the towards we're getting towards the end of winter. And this is actually the time that most people in the northern hemisphere are very deficient in vitamin D, because at most latitudes, you just simply can't make it from going outside and exposing your skin to the sun.

So this is actually the time of year I like love people to get tested because it shows your lowest levels and it's based on supplementation. For those of us again, in the northern Hemisphere at, at, you know, probably most of the country. And I've been Texas and I think I've seen five people ever have adequate vitamin D levels and testing like optimal. Right. But I mean, even most people are suboptimal by standard ranges, which we know are yeah, necessarily optimal. So yeah, I mean vitamin D deficiency at this point is almost ubiquitous.

So I too I agree, I can't recommend it enough. And it's such an easy test and an easy supplement. So if you're looking for an easy thing to check off your list, I would definitely go there and then, zinc is kind of an interesting one because I actually find that a lot of people are deficient, and there's a really easy test that you can do at home. It's a zinc taste test, or with the practitioner just to know, because, you know, once you start supplementing with one mineral, you could offset the balance of other meat or other minerals.

Excuse me. So I would suggest go with food first, you know, zinc rich foods. But if you do need to, figure out if you have low levels, that could be that. That I find is one of the minerals I love to add and, and see the most benefit for people that are struggling with gut health issues. And what's really interesting to random about zinc, you probably don't even know this about me, Leah, but I practiced integrative and functional psychiatry, and that's strangely how I ended up in the world of thyroid and hormone disorders.

As I was treating treatment resistant depression, people that actually just had a thyroid problem so long enough that those people, like, took my information and spread it over all these thyroid forums, and they actually built modern thyroid Clinic for me without me ever trying. And it took a long time for me to realize, oh my God, I'm doing the wrong thing. Like I'm totally supposed to do the right thing. So I love this topic of, you know, mood and how to influence it in lifestyle. And an interesting thing about zinc is it balances your copper.

So there's an interplay between zinc and copper and zinc deficiency again, just like you said is so incredibly common. And when when you are in a zinc deficient state, you're usually in an excess copper state, which makes your neurotransmitters inherently more sensitive. So you are prone to anxiety, social anxiety, sensitivity to loud noises. And there's this delicate balance. Now, you don't want to do that. Just like you mentioned. You don't want to over supplement zinc or unnecessarily supplement because then you will deplete copper, which is really important for so many other things.

But you want that balance. And so I love the idea of the taste test that you can do at home, because zinc can improve your gut function, but it can also directly improve your nutrient balance to reduce anxiety. Tell me a little more about the at home test. And like, is there a way where people could order that and know I've taken it before, but on Amazon, that kind of thing. What is the is it available directly to consumers? You know, I don't know what Amazon just because I don't really send my people there to buy. Yeah.

But I'm pretty sure it's it's available for most practitioners. And a lot of practitioners have an online, you know, supplement store. I'm sure you do. You know, I do. And so it's available on most of those. So if you find any practitioner you can probably just get access or like my script or something I was yeah full script.

Supplements for Gut Repair and Mental Wellbeing 26:30

That's what I was thinking. I haven't seen health food stores, but it could be you. Oh, okay. I don't know if you might recommend it enough. I know, yeah, like giving people more empowerment over their health journey is I'm all about it. So yeah, it would be both. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. Is there any other nutrients or anything that you wanted to cover before we move on? I mean, I think I would just probably add magnesium, I think I mentioned it, but so many people, especially if you are struggling with, anxiety and, you know, maybe you're having trouble falling asleep at night.

Magnesium is a really, really common deficiency as well. Part of it, you know, and we don't need to go in depth, but just to let people know why, I think many of us are leaning towards supplements and in many, in many cases is that food first is really great. But as our soils are becoming more depleted, the plants you eat, the whole grains, you either are just not getting as many minerals from the soil, so therefore you're not eating as many minerals. So unfortunately, I do think supplementation is going to be part of our lives going forward, even if we are eating a healthy diet and magnesium is it's a common deficiency, it's hard to get enough of it from food.

It's a very easy supplement to, and the chances of you overdosing are pretty low because your body will tell you like I've had enough, your bowels will start to loosen, and that's the way, you know. So I, I'm very comfortable with this supplement being one that people kind of dabble with at home and say, well, let's try it. Let's see if you take it at night. It helps. Also asleep, which we know is really important for everything for brain repair, gut repair, and especially for women in perimenopause and menopause.

You know, we're cycling through magnesium at a higher level. We're stressed out. It's good for helping, to support all the things I said. So, yeah, magnesium is probably my, to be honest, my favorite magnesium is life changing. Like, I mean, it helps with exactly what you mentioned. It also promotes the release of Gaba, like your relaxation neurotransmitter. So you know, you can people can take it almost like they would take like a volume in an acutely anxious state. And it kicks in in 30 minutes and it lasts for 3 to 5 hours.

And it just triggers this very natural, relaxed state. And then one last thing. I will add the triad, like the three things you want to look for to be like, am I magnesium deficient? Is anxiety, muscle tension, constipation. So if you have listening, if you have three of those, of course talk with your doctor. This isn't medical advice, but you very well might have magnesium deficiency. And it's not going to be easy to go and test on a blood level. It's usually more of a clinical picture that's painted to determine if you need to supplement.

So yeah, I love that you brought up magnesium. It's a powerful, powerful, very easy to use natural nutrient that can bring really, actually big results to people's lives. Yeah, can be life changing. Tell me, I love to let people leave with, like, a 10,000ft view and like, some actionable things that they can incorporate into their life. So if you could give some simple, actionable steps that people can do to improve their gut health and therefore improve their mood or reduce stress, etc., what are some non-negotiables or first steps that you would recommend for people?

So I love that you access, and it's probably going to put people a little bit on the edge of their seats like, well, you know, I thought we were talking about gut health, but this is not really directly related, but I find that it's a game changer for everyone. So my biggest things that I work on first with clients are stress and sleep. And when we work on those things, everything else somehow falls into place a lot easier. Things work function better in the body, as we just discussed for 30 minutes.

So game changers. For me, non-negotiables is I encourage people to go out no matter where you live. Even if it's raining and it's cold, go out first thing in the morning, get sunlight first sunlight on your body as much as you can. Expose. Because we are beings of light, we don't just have, light receptors in our eyes, we have it all over our skin. And when you do this, and you teach your body to start responding to the sun, your microbiome also responds. And you are setting your circadian rhythm and setting up everything for the day.

So that is a non-negotiable for me. Is getting that early morning sunlight 5 to 10 minutes. Another thing that I'm a really big proponent on is sleep at night sleep hygiene. This is a non-negotiable for me. I have, all my clients start to shift into a sleep 13 at night and turn off all the extra lights, start dimming lights, turn off your screens. That blue light is terrible. It's terrible for your circadian rhythm. It's exciting the brain. It's turning everything on that should be winding down for the night.

And, I can't tell you macall how what a profound difference. Even just doing those two things is the night routine. Adding in the magnesium, I forgot to mention that. But, you know, adjusting the light, wearing red light. Sorry, blue light blocking glasses if you have them. Basically. What? I'm. What? I'm, I'm telling people to do is shut off all the blue light as much as you can reduce your your exposure to it and the the change is profound. And even those two things have wildly changed people's emotional state, their gut state, their physical state.

And allowed them also then to address stress throughout the day. I would say if I had to add one more, if I could squeeze one more in, it would be the rest and digest before you eat so that those five deep breaths before each meal. Because if you're eating and you're stressed out,

Daily Habits for Better Gut Health and Mood 33:00

you might as well just not eat, to be honest, because you're not going to be absorbing those nutrients. You're not going to be taking in that nourishment, and you're actually going to be adding another stress onto your body with food sitting in your digestive system and your digestive system is not turned on. So I know most of us didn't have to do with gut health, but it's, it's all intertwined. We are connected and doing those three things. I have found it's just it's transformative. I love that, too, because, you know, I'm in the business of tired people.

That modern theory clinic, you know, and they're so fearful when they first come to us that we're going to ask them to do all of these impossible things to change their lives. And I love when the first steps to improving your health, your health span, your life span are like, so easy and don't require so much physical energy and effort for people because they can take those steps, they can easily incorporate them. Like, I'm actually going to incorporate those because I have terrible, terrible sleep habits.

And just I have trouble sleeping. And obviously I spoke about the stress response of food and eating, but I love that that they can do those things. They're very easy and attainable, but then they can pour back into someone's energy and their quality of life, and then whatever energy they gain from doing those really simple, low input energy things, they can take that energy and create more with it, right? And really create this lasting impact in their quality of life. So I love that they're so attainable.

And anyone can do that. They're free. Free. Right? Right. Accessible and free. Right? Yeah. That's where the change can happen. I heard someone say once, you can't, what do they say? Oh, I'm going to butcher the club or something. Like, you can't out stress. You can't eat yourself out of a stressful life. You can't out diet, okay? You can't do out lifestyle your way out of a stress, stressful life, right? Yeah. Basically the message was, you can eat the perfect diet, you can eat, you get all the supplement and the nutrients, and you have this really cool meal plan, and you've got the kale and all the good things and you're eating it.

But if you're stressed out and you're not addressing that circadian rhythm, like being in tune with the sun and your body's rhythm with light, and then, of course, you know, I said the stress like you cannot your body cannot heal. Yeah, it will be stuck at a certain point, you'll go so far and then you'll be stuck and you'll be like, why can't, why can't I dress as white? I just want to feel better. So if you start, like you said, if you start with those easy, accessible, free things and shift that energy, it actually sets you up for success.

And it makes it easier to go on and do the diet changes. The supplement changes, all the rest of the things I couldn't agree more. I love it, so thanks for intertwining that message into our talk today, because I think it's powerful, especially in the time that we are now, where the overabundance of information and to do's is overwhelming. I, I follow your work and I'm very familiar with it, but I did want you to share a little bit about where people can find you. Maybe a little bit about your challenge that you offer.

Tell everyone where we can stay connected to you moving forward. Yeah. You can find me at, It's my name, which I think you can see on the screen. And that's my Instagram handle. So live a chance. Find me on Instagram. My website is also live on ecom. And as Nicole mentioned, we have a four week challenge, which is basically it's the best way to start. It's a total body reset. So we hold your hand, we give you the motivation, the group calls, all the things you need to really step into a new version of yourself and kickstart that journey, especially if you're someone that you know doesn't really know where to start.

This is a great way to start, and I, I've partnered with a fitness professional, so we cover it all, we've got all the bases covered, and we do a lot of mindset work too, because we recognize how just how critical and important that is. And then, you know, I also have a podcast which I need to get you on

Where to Find Leah Charney and Final Takeaways 37:30

same it's called Women Aging Powerfully. And you can find it wherever you can find podcasts. That's that's where you can find me. Well, thank you so much for all of this insightful information. I know I'm leaving here with actionable things that I want to integrate into my lifestyle. So I so appreciate your your time and your knowledge and. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I'll check in with you in a week and see how that rest and digest is going. Please do. Thanks a lot, McCall. It was a pleasure. Thanks.