Menopause Brain Fog and Low Energy? The Menopause Counterattack | RoxAnne Eli

Welcome and Menopause Reality Check 0:00

All right. Well, here we go. Welcome, ladies. Menopause counterattack. Yes, this is a real picture of me. Yes, I do bow and arrow, but I don't shoot animals. I just shoot a zombie looking like target. So, but I love it. Um, so if you typically, obviously, if you're here, you're probably over the age of 40. You're probably when you wake up in the morning, my guess is you don't have as much energy as you would like to. You're probably still feeling a little foggy. You're probably dreading getting dressed because your clothes aren't fitting the way they used to anymore.

And you're starting to think that this might be your new normal and you're hoping it's not. So, if those things apply to you, then you're definitely in the right place. Um, so in this live training, as you know, the reason why you signed up, is because we're going to show you I'm going to show you exactly what I do every single morning, most mornings, especially this morning, just to turn my brain on, to shut off my appetite, shut down the carb cravings, get things working, get things flowing in the morning so that I can set myself up for a great day. The day might go off the rails, but at least I'm set up for a good day in the morning. At least I have take back control basically of my mornings, which is what I want to empower you guys to do. And so you'll walk away with a basically simple strategy, simple routine. You don't have to do everything. Just pick one or two, see what's going to work for you. Um, and as we go through, I know I know who's who's on our call here today. Um, I may point out a few things or or ask you to chime in because I think there might be some stories you could share that other ladies might benefit from.

All right. So, I'm going to play a little video clip for you here because this is what most of us feel like. I mean, I'm 59. I went through menopause about 12, 10 years ago, something like that. And it did not come with instructions. Nobody told me what was happening. Nobody told me what to expect. And so, I kind of get a feeling that maybe this is what it looks like when you don't have an instruction manual. >> [laughter] >> All right. Am I right? It's kind of like you don't have directions and so nobody's telling you what to do because your body is now at this age all the things that you used to do that worked to keep the weight off to bounce back the next day after a late night you know the all the brain fog you know the memory issues all the things that used to work in our 30s 40s 20s they don't work anymore our body has totally changed the playing field on us and so I get that and I want to share share with you today that things just so you know this is typically the pattern in the morning most of the clients that I work with so I work with women uh high-erforming women meaning they're usually in the corporate world usually in a business setting um and they are going going going they never stop and so the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning their alarm goes off and then hits the fan pretty much so typically they'll look at their phone

Why Mornings Feel So Hard 3:25

first to see inbox box messages. What alerts do I have? What I mean, we've got WhatsApp, we've got Slack, we've got Ring Central, we've got Microsoft Team, like all these things coming at us. And instantly when you wake up, your nervous system is already triggered. When your nervous system is triggered right off the bat, that just sets you up for stress the rest of your day. So, we're trying to get away from that first thing in the morning. Then the first thing you do is if you had an IV drip with caffeine in it, you'd probably hit that.

Most of us have a coffee pot. Coffee is already made. So what you're doing is you consume the coffee or I say caffeine because some people are like Red Bull people, right? They want they just need that caffeine to get going. And this is like putting your foot on a gas pedal, but literally there's no fuel in the tank. Okay? Your body hasn't even woken up yet and your spark plugs are worn out. So, you're putting fuel in the tank and it's not working. You're putting this caffeine. That's why most people think that their second cup of coffee is when they really start to feel it. Or they'll say, "My coffee hasn't kicked in yet." About an hour later, and then it kicks in. Because you know what? In that first 45 to 60 minutes, the caffeine isn't doing anything. And I won't go into the biochemistry, but it's not helping your body and it's not energizing you. So, we're going to slow down a little bit and show you a little bit of how to how to back off on that and what to do instead. And then you're already behind your schedule. Your nervous system is already, you know, on high alert. And so, more coffee.

Usually, you grab a quick breakfast or something carb heavy or nothing at all. And then by 10:00, you're crashing and you're waiting for your next caffeine hit or something like that. And so it sets us up for this pattern where you're just of course you're tired. You didn't sleep well the night before because in menopause we don't unless we really figure out, you know, kind of some of the root causes and fix those. You're stressed out. You're irritable. You're hungry. And this is how you start your day. Just like this lady over here, you know. So why am I sharing this with you?

Because I've been there, done that. So I will start down at the bottom here. The 30 plus years in the corporate world. I still live in the corporate world as Miss Fischer knows. Um and it was about 12 years ago when I was actually I was presenting. Um I just had a new job. It was a VP of regional sales for health management company and I was in their corporate headquarters and again about 12 years ago. So, I was 47 and I remember I was presenting my go to market strategy and all of a sudden it just felt like the room turned up to 100°.

You know, all of us now are thinking, "Oh, that was probably a hot flash." You're absolutely right. It was, but I didn't know that at the time. And so, I excused myself, went to the bathroom, you know, the haird dryer machine, I'm drying off my armpits, the haird dryer machine, splash face, splash water on my face. I thought I was just getting sick because it was very high stress, high profile. Um, I'd only been there about a month at the company. I was traveling like a fiend and I just thought this is just stress. This is just the way things are. And as it turns out, it wasn't. It I was entering pmenopause. Hormones do a roller coaster. And this webinar today isn't to talk about the signs and symptoms of menopause, pmenopause, hormones, none of that. We're just going to get straight to the meat of things about what you can do about it. So, it was at that time where I got the idea in my head, if I am going through this right now, how many tens of thousands of other women out there in my situation in the corporate world or business world, any high performing female, how many are going through this right now and they have no idea. And the thing is, I had spent 30 years working in the corporate wellness industry, helping companies design, manage, and sell well-being programs to their employees. I lived this life. I had a master's degree in nutrition and I didn't even know what was happening. So, at that time, founded I didn't found the company at that time.

I got the idea, but then I wanted to go back and finish the practitioner certification so I could really understand the biochemistry and the science behind the lifestyle recommendations that I was giving to my clients. And so founded Apex Executive Wellness about four years ago, finished the practitioner certification. So practitioner functional diagnostic nutrition, holistic health, and then also went a deeper dive into hormones and hormone replacement systems. So again, about four years ago, two years ago, developed the red dress method, which we'll talk about in a little bit because this method absolutely will look at all the things in your lifestyle and take you from feeling like crap to feeling like yourself again. So again, we'll talk about that in a minute, but I just wanted to share with you that I get it. I know what you're feeling. I I say been there, done that. I'm still there.

Like last night, I slept about six and a half hours getting ready for this today. I woke up. I did all the same things. I promise you that I'm recommending here today. So, all right, let's get into it. So, the next thing I wanted to share with you is the red dress. So, this red dress method, I just love the image of a red dress, but it's really a proven method, meaning I've used this method over and over with my clients to really um take them from what the hell is happening to my body? I've tried everything, nothing's working, to oh, I get it. Oh, I need to try these things. Okay, I understand now. And so, it's not like one month per letter, one week, anything

Founder Story and the Red Dress Method 9:08

like that. It's just a methodology we use. We do need to figure out the root cause. Um, but we don't wait for that, you know, labs and all of that. Yes, we order labs and run labs, but we need to get to some early wins. And that's what this webinar today is about. Like some get me some early wins. Now, we're also in the red dress method, we talk about dietary alignment. And I say alignment because I am not here to overhaul your diet. I want to align it with the data that shows will support your body and your system for the outcome, whether it's weight loss, you know, better skin, better hair, nails, you know, all the things. Then we look at that deploy targeted plan. And this is where it gets I think it gets fun because I have access to um practitioner grade supplements. So what that means is I only use natural therapies. I'm not a licensed doctor. So we only look at supplements and biohacking strategies to look at the root causes and solve them for good. That's where that comes in.

Rest and de-stress we're going to talk about today for sure and a little bit of the environment as well. strength and movement. We'll touch on movement and then sustainable strategy. We'll talk a little bit about at the end. So, this is the red dress method. We're just pulling out a few things here today that um that we can start with. All right, ready to go? Okay, lever number one. So, this is a picture of my dogs. That's BB, the little gray pit over there, and Miles. And no, it's not AI. We really did put sunglasses on him. He's about 14. Well, he is 14 and a half. And so when we take them for a walk, he goes on a cart and then we let him out, you know, put him back in the cart. So anyway, the point here is sunshine in the morning. And you'll see number two, you know, sleep sets the stage obviously, but I can't talk to you about how to help with your specific sleep issues because I mean, girl, it's related to hormones. It's related to the envir your sleeping environment. Who are you sleeping with?

For me, it's a dog at this point. Um, your blood sugar dysregulation can affect your sleep. Your mental and emotional stress alone can affect your sleep. You can be doing everything right, but if your mind won't shut off at night, you're going to sleep like crap. Um, and so, yes, we'll talk about that. And that's something that I do a really deep dive with my clients on is we just look at the sleep and what's going on and what things we can tweak specifically for them. But the number one takeaway today that you can start tomorrow morning is sun before screen.

So think sunscreen. Sun before screen. Think miles with a sunglasses on there. So this is really nature's version of your power switch. Um you know we've heard about red light saunas. How red light saunas are so good for us. That's the sun. That's that early morning light. Red light coming in and it just energizes your body. It wakes it up. It actually gets your blood flowing, helps the mitochondria work better. You might not feel like it, but it's working. So, first thing in the morning that I recommend is just get outside within the first 10 to 15 minutes of waking up.

Now, here's a personal story. So, this morning I woke up at 5:30. I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to do my strategies." I get up, I get outside, and it's dark. The sun hasn't come up yet. [laughter] So, I thought, "Oh, well, okay, now what do I do?" Um, so what I did is the next one, the mind before media. So I am outside. It is still dark out. Lights just barely starting to come up. And the first thing is I did not grab my phone when I got out of bed in the morning. That I did not grab the phone. In fact, your phone shouldn't even be in your bedroom. That's part of the environment when it comes.

Don't grab your phone. Get up. Get your butt outside. Even if it's dark, get

Sunlight, Screen Time, and Morning Movement 13:10

some fresh air. If it's freezing cold, open a window and stick your head out. Just get some sun on your skin. It only takes 5 to 10 minutes. If it's cloudy outside, may take a little bit longer, but just breathe that fresh air. So then then the next thing and it also the early morning sun really what it this is sciencebacked research. It helps set your circadian rhythm. And what that means is then your body has to do with melatonin and other hormones. When your body is set up in the early morning like that with morning sun, by nighttime it'll be like, "Oh, okay. Now it's night time. I get it. I can wind down and go to sleep." So, it really helps set the circadian rhythm. Number one. Number two, it sends signals to part of your brain that um are just involved in the alertness, you know, the clear the brain fog. Just that alone would help with the brain fog. It also supports blood sugar regulation. And so this is important too because when we wake up in the morning, usually that cortisol is really high.

That's your stress hormone that goes up. You see the morning sun and it comes down just a little bit. So I've seen patterns with my clients where in the morning their cortisol is way up here on the on a graph and then it tanks. So what I want it to do is when they first wake up, it might be here, but instead of tanking, it kind of levels out a little bit. And so that's what some early morning sun can do. also helps with insulin, blood sugar control, all kinds of things. So, it's not just this woo woo, get outside and feel good.

Scientific uh reasons, biochemical reasons why early morning sun is helpful. Okay, next one. Mind before media. So, don't let others hijack your brain. As you know, you get up, the first thing Rob and I were talking about this a little bit earlier is when you look at your phone, you can't not see the alerts. You can't not see the little dot by the WhatsApp or the Slack or the Ring Central or something. You just you want to check it. And why you're doing that, the reason why you're doing that, it's a little bit of a dopamine hit, believe it or not. And so, you want to see, you know, what people want and what they're saying and respond. Don't do that because now you're letting everybody on your phone and on your email dictate how your brain's going to work and what you're going to think and your emotions for the next hour, two hours, maybe even longer. So, just don't go to the phone. I've got some actual recommendations on a few slides down on a really great book that I just got.

It's on Kindle. Um, little things to do each morning. I don't care if you get up and just go outside first thing. Mind over media means you you pray. You just sit there and look at the sky. You're thankful. You put your feet on the grass. These two things absolutely go hand in hand. So they're not separate. Get up, go outside, go before media. And then the next thing is movement. So movement, when you feel exhausted in the morning, exercise is the last thing you want to do. However, I do know people and I do have friends, that's what they do in the morning. They get up and they go out. Fantastic. At least they're not on their phone. At least they're getting up, they're getting outside, and they're getting movement done. Um, and so if that's you, fantastic. Keep doing it.

Otherwise, when you get up, go outside. Just do some stretches. Just walk around the block. Just pace back and forth. Whatever it takes. Get your body moving because that movement alone will increase something called um brain derived neutropic factor BDN BDNF. Anyway, what that does is it actually elevates your mood and it clears the brain fog. So, just some movement alone will help with all that. So, so far we haven't had any caffeine. We haven't had any supplements, nothing to eat or drink at this point. Just get up and let your body, it takes your body about 30 minutes for it to wake up naturally. So, if you're hitting it with caffeine first thing or media first thing, it's not allowing it to do what it's supposed to do. Even if you didn't sleep very well the night before, it's still going to have that natural rise in energy and wake up. Um, it also so it increases the endorphins. I talked about that. Um, it can help with weight loss. Absolutely.

Just movement in the morning because every time you move, so you've been sleeping all night, right? Probably don't have any glucose, you know, the the carbohydrates. Haven't had any of that for 12 hours. And so when you start to move, your body needs energy. And so it'll pull it from the fat. That's what that when they say intermittent fasting. And it's not one for one. It's not the perfect scenario for everybody, but if you can do some movement in the morning, you're going to start to burn some of that body fat in the morning because your body doesn't have any glucose to rely upon. So all kinds of good ways.

All right. Uh next slide here is lever number two. Okay. This is my supplement stack. I just took a picture of this. This is exactly what I do and take. Um, again, you don't have to use these brands, but it's really important when you're looking at a supplement, if you will, that you research the brands or just ask me because I've researched them, Mom. But basically, in the morning, what I do is electrolytes and adrenal cocktail. And what I'm talking about here is your electrolytes are literally the spark plugs. If you don't have the like magnesium, we all have heard about magnesium, how you everybody's low in magnesium. That's just one of them. So the electrolytes are the spark plugs. If you're asking your body to work, you're putting your foot on the gas pedal and you don't have the electrolytes for your cells to actually produce energy, you're not doing yourself any good. So just having the electrolytes alone adrenal cocktail specifically for women over age 40 because our adrenals by this time we have we have taxed them and taxed them and tax them and it's hard for them to even put out energy at this point. So little bit of combination of one scoop one one scoop of the other. Um the electrolytes is basically sodium uh magnesium potassium and zinc. Okay.

Adrenal cocktail is your vitamin C. It's a whole food vitamin C. Uh potassium and sodium. And so people will ask me, "Well, I sodium. I shouldn't have sodium. Sodium is bad." That's a myth. That's a myth we're going to bust right now. You have got to get those minerals in your body if you expect your body to produce energy throughout the day. So those are the first two things. Then ketones. This is my all-time favorite. I will grab You can see right down in the bottom it says keto start in the bottom of that picture. That's the one I use from Audacious Nutrition. Um, ketones are what your brain uses for fuel very efficiently. So, when people say they're hangry, you know, they haven't eaten, they're hungry, and they're angry, it's usually because their body and their brain is relying on glucose, you know, the carbs constantly. So, we really want to give the brain fuel that it can use right away. So, ketones not only turn your brain on, but they also suppress appetite. And so you've heard the ketogenic diet and going into ketosis and all of that. This is a type of exogenous ketone. It's a ketone that you take into your body. Over on the right where you see that bulletproof enhanced creamer, that's a combination of MCT oil and butter. That will help your body to

Morning Supplements for Energy and Appetite Control 20:38

produce its own ketones naturally. So just quick overview what I do is the stack on the left glass of water all those things down it first thing in the morning sunlight mind over matter get some movement then I'm at about 45 minutes into my day then I'll do the coffee then I'll help my body to continue to produce its own ketones also on the top of that picture you'll see perfect amino mocha these are amino acids that you can add to your coffee Okay, so there's amino acids you can add to your water in the morning and or your coffee. And again, don't get overwhelmed. You don't have to do all of this. Just pick one, pick another, or you can talk to me about it and we'll figure out a strategy for you. So, the thing about the ketones um or I'm sorry, the yeah, the ketones. So, you can do it exogenously or have your body make it. I do both. And in the middle of the afternoon, about noon time even, I will do the keto start ketones again, just to get my brain working. If you try any one thing, I swear, try the keto start ketones. Thank me for it. Um, okay.

Creatine. Now, creatine down here, most people think of creatine as something for uh bodybuilders, right? They hear people in the gym have creatine all the time. It is way more than just that. Creatine, you can think of it as a backup battery for your brain because when we are stressed, we're burning through minerals like crazy. That's why we have the electrolyte minerals. We're also burning through our ATP. So, back to high school biology, ATP. That's what that's the energy, right? That that your cells are making. When we're under stress, even just mental stress, our bodies are burning through this.

Creatine helps replenish that. replenish the ATP. And so if you're like me, I feel like I'm always stressed, always going, I do this creatine. Just again, one scoop in the morning, maybe one in the afternoon. Um, it's really one of the best backups, backup energy sources for the brain is what I call it. Um, the next one is RX Sugar. Now, this one, and not a lot of people have heard about, RX Sugar, it's this Oops. It's this little picture down here at the bottom right here. RX sugar. It also comes in a big tub. I have it in the big tub because I use it every day. But these little packets you can take with you. RX sugar is a type of natural sugar. Um it's usually found in like um figs I think and raisins. But it's called alulose. A l u l o s e. Alulose is the sugar. The name of the sugar. RX sugar is basically alulose and it's flavored. RX sugar has been shown to increase GLP1 in the gut through studies and decrease appetite.

And again, when I talk about decreasing appetite here, I'm not saying I don't want you to eat. That's not it. When you can get a hold of those cravings, when your stomach is gurgling and you're starving, that's the part that I want to help tame down a little bit so that you have agency over what you choose to eat next. what you choose to, you know, have in the morning or lunch. So, this sugar, I'll do that in my water two, three times a day, something like that. Um, it Oh, yeah. It also lowers. So, I can have this too when I do eat something like a carb heavy rich something. If I take RX sugar, it'll lower that insulin spike.

And again, I don't want to get do too deep into the science here. This is the stack that I use. This is what I know works. And so I would encourage you to try try one. You can get them on Amazon, okay? Any of these you can get on Amazon. Um the amino acids are really important because you know we're always hearing to eat more protein. Especially as women, you know, us women over the age of 40, 50, our bodies do not have the ability to keep muscle like it used to or make muscle like it used to. So again, I'm sure you've heard there's a lot of buzz around there about eating protein. Have a 100 grams of protein a day or your body weight in protein.

That's hard to do. I mean, it's really hard to do even for me, even when I track it. And so these um perfect aminos down here, the body health perfect aminos, and then body health up here. It's just two brands that I trust because I know they're clean and they're sciencebacked. The amino acids in these are the same amino acids you would get in an egg, chicken, steak, sausage, whatever. It's a complete protein, if you will. All the amino acids are in that powder. And there was a study that was done, I just read about this, what is it a month ago, something like that, where they had 25 people, don't quote me on the number, it's about 25, 30 people on bed rest, bed rest, health, you know, healthy. Um, I don't I don't think they were all female. I think there were men, women, age 40 and above. They had them on bed rest for 30 days.

One group they said to take the perfect aminos three times a day. The other group they said just eat normally like you would. Both groups ate their normal diet, what they usually would eat. The group that took the perfect aminos did not lose any muscle mass at all. Even after being bed rest for 30 days, the group that didn't take the aminos, they did lose significant muscle mass. So if you are in a state where you're running and gunning and you don't have time to eat and you just don't have time to get the protein in, at least take the perfect aminos two, three times a day.

Do not replace a whole food with these. They're just a supplement. They're a supplement to a diet when you need them. But it is something that I'll take morning, noon, and night. I take it three times a day because like why not? My body needs the aminos. It also helps with the immune system. So if you're getting starting to feel sick or run down or drained, this amino acid will will help with that too. And one thing that's not on this slide that I want to address is collagen. So collagen protein, we see that all the time that is not a complete protein. So that will not do the same thing as these perfect aminos amino acids. These are essential amino acids. The collagen is just two or three or four I going to look this up.

Certain amino acids. It's not all nine of them. So while collagen can have its benefits, it's not the same as the um complete total amino acids. All right. So these are some ideas for the um mind before or I'm sorry um mind before media and movement matters. Again just two suggestions that's it. Limitless daily. This was just published like this just came out this month by Jim Quick. He is the guru on everything brain related. And I mean he's he's coached Hollywood movie stars and presidents and I mean all kinds of people. Oprah. Anyway, he just came out with this. And what this is, I got it on Kindle. Each day you start with January 1st, whatever day it is. So 3 days ago, I started, it said January 1st, but that's the first day.

And it's just a little read, maybe a one and a half page with something to consider and then something to kind of embed into your brain for that day. It's it maybe takes two minutes total. But that's one suggestion. Again, other people pray. Other people have a gratitude journal. Other people do um you know, set their they have their morning routine where they're um you know, look at calendars or whatever. Just make sure that you spend a little bit of time before your screen. And then miracle morning, if you haven't heard about that, this is an app and literally I just put that on there and I don't get I'm not associated with these people. I don't get residuals or money for it or anything. It's just ones that I use.

Miracle Morning app has all of these things in it. It has something to read and think about. It has a movement. It's

Tools, Resources, and Next Steps 28:58

got um they call it savers. So s a v. And you can read about that in there. But basically it's just get up, exercise or move a little bit, be mindful, um um do some uh reflection, some gratitude, and it's just an app and you can just click through and watch it. So when I say, you know, mind or, you know, before the screen, if you will, mind before media, not something like this. This is a little bit different. And so anyway, give it a try. I I think it's I think you might get like first year for $30 or something like that, but otherwise it's about $100 a year. But it's one of the best apps that I found.

and for even more tools and tips and tricks. So, I have a Facebook page, the Apex Executive Wellness Facebook page, and I am always posting on there everything that I am doing. So, well, not everything, [laughter] but anytime I have an idea, whether it's, oh, I'm traveling, I'm in the airport, what am I supposed to eat? I'm at this restaurant, what do I choose? I have no time to eat, what should I do? you know, I'm just posting little ideas and it's all mostly all products and supplements that you can look at and try. But that's on my Facebook page. And then I also have um on my website that you can download this for free if you haven't already. It's called the immediate relief guide, and it's exactly what we just covered today only on steroids. It's even more. So, it's about 26 pages, something like that. but it has products, links to products, recommendations, why they work, how they work, all the things. So, scan those two. Otherwise, if just go to Facebook and look up Apex Executive Wellness, the immediate relief guide, apexecutivewwellness.com/reief.

That'll get you the guide. All right, the last thing I want to leave you with is we've covered so much today, as you know, it can be exhausting. And so what I've set up specifically for you ladies here on this webinar is just a um a 30 minute what I call symptom relief strategy session. So if you want to talk just get on a a Zoom call talk with me about okay what do you think here's what's going on. Well, you know we can strategize a little bit about it. Basically, we can look at what your morning routine looks like now because there may be some some pieces that we didn't discuss today that I can, you know, uh, highlight or maybe make you aware of. And what are your toughest symptoms? What are you dealing with? And then what do you want to achieve?

Because with certain strategies like this, we're not going to solve the root cause. The root cause is I didn't sleep last night, you know, or the root cause is my hormones are tanked or the root cause is gut health or something. We're not we're not even touching that. But we can look at things. Well, what do you want to achieve? You know, I've got this meeting tomorrow. I want to turn my brain on, you know, whatever. Give you some strategies for that. And then we we can talk about a plan. Like you can walk away with a clear plan of okay, if I did want to achieve XYZ, what would my plan look like? [laughter] So, thank you guys for joining me today. I'm so appreciate you. And um let me know how I can help you and try some of these things. just try some of them tomorrow morning and let me know how they work for you. I would love to get your feedback on it.

So, all right, you guys have a wonderful day and hopefully I'll see you all soon.