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the self-love archives
reclaiming your cycle: birth control, body literacy & self-love with @your.period.coach
in this empowering episode of the self-love archives podcast, we're joined by vicky chehade (@your.period.coach), a fertility awareness educator helping women reconnect with their cycles to reclaim their power, energy, and confidence.
we talk about what it really means to live with your body instead of pushing through it- from syncing your workouts and nutrition to your cycle, to navigating your fertility journey, pms, burnout, and the myths we've been told about our bodies as women.
whether you're curious about cycle syncing or want to deepen your self-love by honoring your body’s natural rhythm, this episode will leave you feeling more connected, more empowered, and way less alone in your monthly journey.
follow vicky here on instagram and here on tik tok
book coaching with vicky here + listen to her podcast, Let's Get Cyclical, here
connect with julia on instagram @beautybyjulia + tik tok @juliasalvia
unlock more archive content on instagram @theselflovearchive + tik tok @theselflovearchives
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What inspired you to become a period coach? And what about your own journey actually brought you to becoming one?
Vicky Chehade:Oh, yes. So I was a teacher in my like beginnings of my professional career. And at the same time I was also super into. Fitness. So I became a CrossFit coach. This is like a really random trajectory, but like following. So was a teacher, became a CrossFit coach, and from there I got really into nutrition. And in that I was working with a ton of women at my CrossFit gym and all of them were like, I wanna lose weight, I wanna get toned, this or that. And they were trying to eat as little food as possible. And then in our conversations, they were just dealing with like tons of hormonal issues at the same time, like exhausted all the time headaches. I would then say, well, what's going on with your period? And those conversations just kept coming up and coming up and coming up. And then at the same exact time, I was also going through my own personal hormone journey. I had been on hormonal birth control since I was 16 years old, which I think is a pretty common story for a lot of women. And that all began because I was dealing with debilitating period cramps as a teenager. My mom had a ton of like reproductive issues. She ended up needing a hysterectomy when she was in her fifties. And so with that, my doctor was just like, yeah, go on birth control. Like just deal with it. That's gonna fix everything. And so I was on birth control for. 12 years of my life and as I started getting into more of like the holistic side of things, the nutrition, the lifestyle, I said, I don't need to be on birth control anymore. And when I came off of birth control, I. That was when like shit kind of hit the fan for me. I didn't get a period right away. My PMS was out of control and I felt like I just had no guidance on any of it. And so while I was working with a ton of women to improve their nutrition, improve their lifestyle. I was also going through this journey at the same time. And so that was kind of what inspired me to be like, there's gotta be more to this. And so I started digging deeper. I found certification programs. I found continuing education programs, and that's really like what led me to this path of now being able to help women come off birth control, help women minimize their, you know, symptoms of like, let's say PCOS. Mm-hmm. Help women get pregnant, all of that.
Julia Salvia:Yeah, I definitely relate personally like to your story, but I know that if you know it can't just be me and you that have experienced this, I'm sure so many women have experienced even just the simply like a doctor being like, just go on birth control, you'll be fine. And it's, yeah, it's lacking in education of how our bodies actually work. It's lacking in education, what birth control actually does. Yes. To our bodies too. And that's not to say that, you know, it's not going to work for some people, but I know just from experience that I got no education about what, how birth control actually affects my body other than the fact that it's what I need to take to, you know, stop having really horrible period cramps and it's what I need to take so that I don't get pregnant.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah. And, and that's it. Yep. Because they don't, and it's just What's another frustrating thing too, is like doctors aren't explaining the mechanism. Yes. They're not telling you what it's doing, but then they're also not even telling you about the side effects of birth control. And I have worked with so many women, and this is part of my own personal story too. Mm-hmm. I dealt with debilitating migraines for years. Yeah. It was so bad. All throughout college, I was going to different neurologists. I was getting MRIs. Guess what stopped as soon as I got off of birth control, all of my migraines. Wow. And it's just like, these are just not conversations that are happening, unfortunately. And a huge motivator for me is just like women being able to understand their bodies and then make decisions like, I'm not anti birth control. I think it's, it's, I think it helps some people. Right. And it's a choice for some people. Mm. But what I'm not into is that we're not being told the whole story enough to make our own decisions about it.
Julia Salvia:It's like we're not even getting a choice. It's like, here is your only choice. I know my stories, like I struggled with acne and it was always like, go on birth control, go on birth control. Or the other options weren't even that much better than birth control. It was like Spironolactone or Accutane. And both of those are also hormonal medications. So you're giving me only hormonal medication options. You're not. Giving me any other holistic option, like you're saying, take medication or suck it up.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah, exactly. And it's just such a shame because there are so many things that can be done for all of these issues. Yeah.
Julia Salvia:Hi guys. Welcome back to the Self-Love Archives podcast. My name is Julia Salvia, your self-love Festie. And I am really excited for today's conversation because I'm talking with Vicki today. She is your period coach, and we are going to be chatting all about your period menstruation, fertility, and all of the things that I think we both agreed that a lot of women lack in their education and learning to. You know, learning about themselves. And that's such an important thing when it comes to loving ourselves is knowing ourselves. So, hi Vicki. Hi. Thank you for having me. Of course. Thank you so much for being here. I, as I said to you before we even started recording, I'm excited you're here, um, for my own gain, but I love this information so much because I think we are all really lacking in, in this education about. You know, our cycle, our bodies. I mean, where was this information when we were growing up? Why? Why were we only taught that we are here to reproduce when it's so much more than that? And the thing is, is that it's funny that we're taught that in some ways that our bodies are just here to reproduce, but we're not even taught how to, you know, take care of our bodies so that they can reproduce. A thousand percent. You know what I mean? Like, if that's your goal, amazing. I have all the babies in the world, but how do we take care of that so that our babies come into this world healthy? And you know, that goes far beyond just taking care of our own bodies. Um, but this conversation today is about the power of women and women being able to take their power back and, and, you know, learning more about how to take care of our bodies.
Vicky Chehade:Yes. Oh my gosh. I love that phrase because it's so true of just like when I always say to women, like, when you can unlock what is going on with your menstrual cycle, you are, you're unstoppable. Yeah. Because you know exactly what to do and how to feel and how to adjust your life based on it and. It is unfortunate, like every single woman I've ever worked with has said to me, why am I in my thirties? Why am I sometimes even, why am I in my forties and I'm just learning this about my body? And it really is such a shame. Yeah. We're here to talk about it today, so Yeah,
Julia Salvia:and I'm super excited. Like what are. When it comes to the four cycles, what are those four cycles? Just to give everybody a little bit of kind of a, a starting place.'cause I know we've been talking about them a lot more. You're seeing a lot more Yeah. About them on social media and there's kind of that trend going around like, oh, are you in your luteal phase right now? So tell us what are those four phases and give us, I guess, a little, um, example of what's going on during those four phases for us.
Vicky Chehade:Sure. So the first phase of your menstrual cycle is when you're bleeding. So that's the menstruation phase. And even I think that is interesting because I know when I was growing up and I was like tracking my stuff on a calendar, I always thought about my period as like the end. Mm-hmm. But your period is actually the beginning. So your period starts a new cycle, and so obviously what's happening at that point, you are bleeding. It's a very inflammatory process on the body, so we're losing a lot of fluids. We're losing a lot of nutrients. If you're dealing with period cramps, like that might make you feel pretty low. So that's a time when like hormones are also low. Mm-hmm. So for women, it can be like a, let's chill out. Like let's kind of slow things down a little bit. At that time, the next phase of the cycle is called the follicular phase, and. What's happening there is that a follicle, which will eventually be the egg that gets ovulated, is starting to develop. So I like to describe that as like your body is preparing, it's preparing to be fertile in that phase. So energy can start to increase. A lot of women like feel really good at this time, at this point in the cycle. Then we move into the ovulatory phase, which that is the only time in the whole cycle that you can get pregnant. And that's another big myth. I feel like in health class growing up it was like that mean girls moment of like don't have sex because you'll get pregnant and die. Like I feel like they just, they tried to like teach us like, you can get pregnant any day and it's bad and all of that, but you can't, you literally can only get pregnant once in your cycle and most women are only fertile for like. Six to like nine days. Mm-hmm. Out of the entire cycle. So that's happening around ovulation. From a like mood standpoint, that's when we can have like a good boost in energy. Um, our libido. So like our sex drive is going to increase at this time.'cause again, we're fertile, right? And like our bodies want us to make a baby even if we don't want to. Um, confidence boosts like all of that. That's kind of what's going on in ovulation. And then after we ovulate, we move into our luteal phase. And that is the phase that's connected to like PMS. So yes. So like all the memes or like funny posts about like, yeah. All of a sudden I started like screaming at my partner'cause he was chewing too loud and then I got my period. It's like, that's your luteal phase, right? Like, but it doesn't have to be that way. Right? Like we don't have to always have PMS. Like there are things we can do to work on that. But in that second half of the cycle. We have progesterone, which is our keep calm hormone. So naturally we're gonna feel a little bit more fatigued, a little bit more like internal, wanting to slow things down, and that's just how it's meant to be based on our hormones.
Julia Salvia:You said something really interesting about like the myth, right? That we are learning, we think we can get pregnant like all throughout, or just people in general think that we could get pregnant like 365 days of the year, and that's obviously not true. There's that window of six to nine days. Where it's actually possible for us to, um, actually get pregnant Now. What are other myths that you have found that, you know, anyone that comes and works with you, uh, come to you about, or things that you have seen that you wanna squash Right here, right now?
Vicky Chehade:Yeah. Oh man. I was honestly, the worst stuff is on TikTok. Like, I've seen the craziest stuff in my comments over there. Mm-hmm. Um, I mean, I think there's a big myth of like, you can ovulate twice in a cycle. No, you cannot, you only ovulate one time. You release one egg. I mean, sometimes if, if you were gonna have twins right, two eggs can be released. Mm-hmm. But it's all happening at the same time. Mm-hmm. So. Only ovulate once. Oh. I mean, this is like a myth maybe, but like a lot of women come to me just thinking debilitating period. Cramps or bleeding through super tampons is normal. Because their doctors have basically said like, yeah, don't worry about it. Like it's okay. No, that's not normal. That is a big red flag. And there are things that can be done to minimize that.
Julia Salvia:Yeah. There's something that I have learned for myself, and I wanna run this by you and see if this is true, because I think this is something that could relate to a lot of people. Is it true if you lessen your caffeine intake during the luteal phase, most especially, that that can help lessen your period cramps?
Vicky Chehade:Yes. So. I kind of go a little back and forth on this one because I don't want, I'm not about restriction. Yeah. So I don't wanna ever tell women like, don't drink any coffee, don't have any caffeine. The lal face, because everyone's different. Yeah. Some people who might be more sensitive to caffeine can definitely benefit from lowering it, and the reason for that is caffeine can actually increase estrogen a little bit. Mm-hmm. And we don't want estrogen to be high in the luteal phase. So a lot of period issues, PMS period pain comes from not having enough progesterone and then having too much estrogen at a time when we don't want that much estrogen.
Julia Salvia:Got it. And is, would the same thing be with alcohol as well?
Vicky Chehade:Yeah, alcohol for a different reason. Um. More so in the second half of the cycle, we really want our liver and our gut health to be like doing the most. Yeah. To detox out hormones that we don't need anymore. Yeah. And so the alcohol piece just kind of leads to a lot of inflammation and inflammation can worsen period cramps, and then it's just another thing that our liver has to work to detox out. Yeah.
Julia Salvia:I know that sometimes I'm not a big alcohol drinker, but I'm also not, I would say like. I'm not the biggest caffeine drinker either, but I do tend to catch myself, you know, having at least one cup of something that has caffeine in it per day. Okay, that's awesome. But I notice that during that, you know, second half of my cycle before my period, if I just. Um, cut back. I wouldn't even say restrict'cause I definitely am right there with you. I don't wanna restrict myself in what my body is like wanting, craving, or in, you know, inhabit of, unless it's getting to a point where, you know, I need to roll it back'cause it's getting unhealthy. Um, for, for my body. But I noticed that when, you know, instead of having 200 milligrams of caffeine a day, I, you know, bring it back to a hundred milligrams a day. And that's like, you know, maybe one of those mini energy drinks, or I just have, you know, one shot of espresso instead of two. You know, I found that that actually helps immensely when it comes to my period cramps, which really aren't that bad to begin with because I am super aware of. You know, really trying to pay attention to actually like cycle, sinking my body with what my body needs at each part of my cycle's. Such an incredible thing to know. Yeah, it's about yourself too. I'm glad we squashed those, those myths for sure. Yeah. What do you think is like a simple shift that someone can make? Um, 'cause sometimes this information can be a lot, right? This can be so much all at the same time and a lot to focus on, especially with. Everything else going on in the world, everything else going on in our lives. What do you think is at least one simple shift that someone can make today? Yeah. To help them, you know, learn to love their bodies in this way of learning their bodies.
Vicky Chehade:Absolutely. I think the most important foundation is just starting by tracking your own body because. I love the idea of living in alignment with your cycle. Yeah. But I have a big beef with like traditional cycle sinking. Yeah. Because it makes it seem like it's a cookie cutter thing that works for everyone and that's just not the case. Yeah. Like, you know, I said most women feel great during ovulation, but there's a whole group of women that I know that don't feel good during ovulation and actually feel more anxious, so. By you just tracking your own symptoms throughout your cycle, that's going to help you figure out what you need. I'm not even talking like going crazy and like doing the whole full blown cycle tracking with like cervical mucus. Like I teach women how to do that, but that's a whole other thing. Yeah. I would honestly just start on the first day of your period. How do you feel? How's your energy? How's your hunger? Do you get headaches, do you get cramps? All of that, and then just kind of track that throughout your entire cycle to notice. When is your energy lower? When do you get headaches? When do you maybe feel bloated? And then that's going to help you kind of start to paint the picture for yourself.
Julia Salvia:And sometimes I think that can be overwhelming too from just a standpoint of like tracking it. I think everybody has their own modem, right? To track things like their journal, um, a notebook. Are there any apps though, that you might recommend
Vicky Chehade:from a, if you're like learning, and I haven't even talked about this yet, but. Another part of my coaching is I teach women the fertility awareness method, which is a natural form of birth control. It's basically like you using your own body and you're understanding your fertility signs, which is really cool. Yeah. So for the women who do that, there's a really great app called Read Your Body. So that allows you kind of track it all and you can do custom things, like you can add your own if you want it to log like. When you get bloated, if you wanted to log, when you go out to eat, like you can put it all in there, which is pretty cool. Mm-hmm. If you want something that's a little bit more like algorithm based, where you're kind of just like putting in your period and you're putting symptoms in, I really like the app Stardust. Mm-hmm. That's fun. One, that's one that I
Julia Salvia:use. I like it a lot.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah. So I would say like that, I would say stardust for the people who are just kind of like delving into this stuff. Yeah,
Julia Salvia:I like it'cause it's very, um, I love that it's aesthetic. I can't help but the libra moon in me really loving the aesthetic ness of the Stardust app. Um, love it. But also, um, I'm really loving the kind of comparison with the moon. So I, I think it's really cool that I always, um, get my period on a full moon. That's the best. It feels very witchy and I love
Vicky Chehade:it. Yeah, I love it. No, same in the, the, the Read Your Body app that I use, you can add the moon phases. So for me, I'm always looking like where are things happening? And so I love that. So cool
Julia Salvia:because it's, it's hard to not take into consideration that a woman's cycle is 28 days and the moon cycle is 28 days, and then a man, a man's hormone, hormone cycle is 24 hours and then the sun is 24 hours. I find it. So intriguing and, and going even further and even deeper into the conversation of, um, you know, paying attention to everyone, paying attention to their hormone cycles and our connection that's even deep, that goes even deeper with like the earth that we live on. It's, it's so intriguing.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah. No, it's so cool. And I'll like take that one step further. Like, I am so fascinated by the fact that if you, so some women ovulate. Around the full moon. Oh, okay. And so the reason for that, if we think back to like the beginnings of time was the sky would be lighter. So it was a more optimal time for baby making. That's just so, it's pretty cool that like our bodies do sink up with that, where it's like if you bleed during the new moon when it's like dark and you don't really need to be out and about. The women were pretty like. You know, keep to themselves and then you ovulate with the full moon when there's more light around and you're, you know, doing your thing. It's just cool to like, think about it. There's
Julia Salvia:so many traditions that come back to, you know, the sun and the earth and the moon too. I know that like the big thing in a lot of like Latin cultures to not go out and look at a, um, eclipse when there's an eclipse outside because of that darkness and. There's, um, a myth convinced that if you do while pregnant, most especially your baby will have a specific, like marking on it, like a birthmark or something like that. Um, and just the, the connections are just so interesting. Um, it's our, it's hard to ignore honestly.
Vicky Chehade:It is. It is.
Julia Salvia:Yeah. So you said something about your fertility. Fertility awareness. Yes. Tell me more about your fertility awareness coaching.
Vicky Chehade:Yes. So that, and again, this is a conversation that most OBGYNs are not having with you, but it is a form of birth control that is just as effective as hormonal birth control. So when you are taught the rules and when you're working with a certified. Fertility awareness educator, it's up to 98% effective at preventing pregnancy, which is the same as your birth control pills and your IUDs and all of that. And so essentially what it is, is it's learning different signs that your body gives to tell you when you're fertile or when you're not. So the biggest one to pay attention to is cervical mucus. Mm-hmm. And. Most women are just like, oh, so you mean like the stuff that I find sometimes in my underwear? It's like, I mean, yeah, but it's way more than that. Yeah. And what's really cool about learning the method is you're not doing a science experiment. I basically am teaching women, like when you go to the bathroom and when you wipe with toilet paper. How does it feel? If it feels dry, that's most likely that you're infertile. If it feels slippery. And then if you notice anything that's clear, that's stretchy, that's telling you, you're fertile. So once you kind of know what your body is showing you, you get to see when you're fertile. When you're not fertile. And then there's other methods too, like basal body temperature tracking that lets you know if you've ovulated. Mm-hmm. So it's really effective. I've taught a lot of women this method, and what's great about it is it either helps you prevent pregnancy or it helps you get pregnant. Yeah. Because you basically know I'm fertile right now, and you're either having sex because you wanna get pregnant, or you're having protected sex, or you're avoiding intercourse at that time.
Julia Salvia:Yeah. I think that's so important too, because it's like a, it's, it's such a great way.'cause I think we come, we come off of birth control, right. It is our first step into really learning more about our bodies after we've, you know, taken this big step for a lot of us because we've been on it for so long. You said you, you were on birth control for 12 years. Um, I was on it for about nine, 10 years. And I think that that's a story very similar to a lot of women, um, that are deciding to finally come off of their birth control. And they're like, well, where do I begin? Like, I still want to, you know, they still want the benefits of being on birth control, but there's so many different directions to, to go in. So I think that that's such an amazing thing to learn about our bodies so that we can make sure that we are not getting pregnant or that because we don't want to be. Or we can make sure that we are trying to get pregnant and, and learning more about our bodies when the optimal time is to actually get pregnant.
Vicky Chehade:Absolutely.
Julia Salvia:In regards to, uh, the fertility awareness coaching that you do, how do you help your clients go from feeling like their cycle might be a burden to feeling like it's more of a, you know, a powerful thing that they can have more of awareness
Vicky Chehade:in? Yeah. No, absolutely. I think what makes it feel like such a burden is when we are in the dark. Yeah. And we just like don't know. Right. And so again, I think back to when I was a teenager and first getting my period and really knew like nothing about my body other than Okay, cool. Every 28 days or so it would come and I would get, have horrible cramps and feel like crap. But when we actually can learn and plan around it, like that leads to such empowerment and I see this time and time again, even women I've worked with who maybe have like endometriosis or a condition where like horrible period pain and a lot of symptoms, I've taught them how to actually track their cycle. And then they can really start to adjust their life. So they can be like, alright, I might not, you know, be able to do as many social things when I have this happen. Or I really need to make sure I am minimizing, like we said before, my caffeine, my alcohol, or any kind of like foods that might make things worse. And so getting that awareness and just actually knowing what's coming for you, knowing when your period is coming, knowing how long your luteal phase is, knowing when your symptoms might show up. That gives us the answers. And then from there we can advocate for ourselves at the doctor if we need to. We can make better choices around our nutrition, our workouts, our lifestyle. And I think that's like the biggest piece is just, it's not a mystery anymore. You know exactly what you're going to be dealing with.
Julia Salvia:Yeah. So it's basically like knowledge is power in this case. It's, you know. Yeah. When you're, and, and the thing is, is that the knowledge is, is one thing. But we all have completely different bodies. Yes. So it's really tailoring that knowledge to our bodies and what's going on for us, um, when it comes to cycle sinking and, and the, um, fertility awareness and everything that you help your clients with. Uh. There's obviously a different method or something different to consider when it comes to someone who might have endometriosis or any of those other things that really have a large effect on our uterus and our bodies as women beyond, um, just, you know, period cramps and beyond what birth control might mask. Sure, yeah. What do you say to them? What is kind of the most important thing to, um. Important place to come to.'cause I know that the first thing, again, going back to, I think birth control is pushed on any woman, but I think even more so, especially someone who might be dealing with, um, endometriosis.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah. I've seen that with, you know, endo, with PCOS, with women who are, you know, maybe women who have fibroids or really heavy bleeding. It's just like birth control. Birth control, birth control. And the thought process behind that is let's just shut off all the hormonal activity so then, you know, we can control it. Air quotes, control it a little bit more. But most women, and I've seen this with like all those different issues, most women tend to do better when they come off birth control and when they know how to actually support their bodies. So that's the biggest difference is. After women learn how to track their cycle and they learn their symptoms, then I'm helping them dive into, well, what are some, you know, nutrition things that can make you feel better? Maybe we are limiting inflammatory foods, or if they have any foods that are trigger foods, we're thinking about that. Maybe they're pushing themselves way too hard and they're stressing way too much. Cool. We need to like be aware of that and really work to manage those things so there's just so much that can be done individually. The way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you live your life, the way you move your body, that all impacts your symptoms.
Julia Salvia:And how do you think that the coaching that you do can support everyone in their mental wellness, confidence and kind of boundary setting when it comes to you cycle sinking and cycle sinking, coaching and fertility awareness, coaching, so many modems of just, you know, taking care of, uh, a
Vicky Chehade:woman's body. Yeah. No, totally. And I mean, the nervous system support piece is always a conversation that I'm having with my clients, since that's not like my specialty. I often am saying like, if you're not in therapy, like, who's your therapist? Yeah. Or like, you know, I'm, I'm kind of talking to them about like these different ways, right? Mm-hmm. And then obviously too, as something I can help them with for the coaching is like, are you taking time to rest in your luteal face if you're feeling tired? Or are you trying to like white knuckle through all of the huge to-do lists that you have to do? It's like that's a big piece of awareness of just breaking the guilt around, needing to be doing things at all time and just learning that as women, we have hormones that fluctuate. And with that, our needs have to fluctuate. Our energy's gonna fluctuate, and we can't operate at the same pace every single day throughout our cycle.
Julia Salvia:We can have the. Awareness. We can have the knowledge and if we have the knowledge, we can work with our bodies in the best way that we know how. Yeah, absolutely. And feel like we're actually like moving the needle forward on a project that we really wanna work on feeling better each thing, each and every day, because we actually know how to take care of our bodies in the ways that we need to.
Vicky Chehade:Absolutely. I always say like. Once you learn all of this stuff and once you figure out too, then on top of it, the nutrition piece, all of that, like you get to crack the code on your own body. And it's so empowering to be able to just know what your body needs at any given point.
Julia Salvia:Yeah, for sure. And you wouldn't say that there's like one, like a day in the life. If I were to ask you like what a day in the life of working with your body in this way would look like? What would you say that that looks like? Obviously it's, it's going to change. I already know by like asking this question, it's gonna change depending on who you are as a person. So anyone listening like know this, but what would be more of like, the most optimal way to work with your body in one of the phases, let's say?
Vicky Chehade:Yeah. I, I'm, I'm honestly even gonna pull it back even further and just generally, these are things that you should do every day, no matter where you're at in your cycle. Yeah. And so the first thing is. Eating a breakfast within an hour of waking up, I will die on this hill because there's so much conflicting info out there about like, oh, fasting this, fasting that, no. For women, one of the most supportive things you can do is you wake up and then within an hour eat a breakfast that has protein, fat, and like a little bit of fiber. So classic example is just like some scrambled eggs with some cheese and maybe some berries or like a piece of. Sourdough toast. Like do that. And that just like sets you up for better energy throughout the day. Fewer cravings later in the day. And you're essentially telling your body like, Hey, we feel good now. Like we have fuel, we feel safe. And then that's going to get the hormone signaling going. So starting your day with like, solid breakfast, don't wait on that. Um, coffee after breakfast. Also, another really important one there. And then honestly just like nourishing yourself throughout the day. And so when I say that, I mean from a nutrition side of things, but also from a mental health side of things too, is make sure that you are doing something every single day that fills your cup, because that goes such a long way from a hormone standpoint of just telling your brain, Hey, we feel good. We feel safe now. And then that's what leads to. Optimal hormone function, which is going to lead to less symptoms in your cycle.
Julia Salvia:Yeah, I love that. I think that's so smart. Um, I definitely have to take some of that advice myself, especially eating breakfast and things like that sooner in the day. Um, yes. I'm gonna be thinking about you tomorrow. Try it.
Vicky Chehade:It, I swear it is the one thing that when women start to like, slowly implement it, they're like, wow, I like feel so much better. And yeah, it's, it's simple. It takes work, obviously, but
Julia Salvia:yeah.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah, for sure.
Julia Salvia:Now for anyone that struggles in any sort of aspect with, um, PCOS endometriosis, their cycle learning, um, and trying to advocate for themselves. What's like one thing you would tell them to give them a little bit more hope in this case?
Vicky Chehade:Hmm. If you are going to a doctor who isn't listening to you, find a new doctor, that's always my number one. Number one rule. Find, reach out. Find someone like me who can help with the day in and day out. And I always say this like, I'm not a doctor, obviously I can't do doctor things. Mm-hmm. But. When it comes to the female body, it really does take a team. And so having someone like me in your back corner, I'm with you for all the hundreds of decisions you make in a day that are going to impact your cycle. And I feel like a big, a big thing that I, not even intentionally, but a big thing that I end up helping women with is just being able to better advocate for themselves. So bringing data to your doctor's office, and that starts with like the tracking of just. Writing down, Hey, for the last three cycles I've had migraines every day in my luteal phase or for the last three cycles, my period cramps have made me call out of work, right? So the more that you can bring the data and just say to them like, this is what's going on, hopefully they'll listen and do some testing for you. And if not, like I said, try to find a a doctor who will,
Julia Salvia:we don't think of like our doctors and the people that help us. In our lives as a, you know, weaved support community, essentially. Mm-hmm. Um, like working together. And I, I'm not sure where that got lost in translation over the past couple of years, but I truly, truly believe myself. And I, I think you also agree with me that all of them should be working together to help you. Whether that is, you know, you as their, as their period coach, um, or their, you know, giving them fertility awareness.'cause they're wanting to. Be, get, become pregnant. Yeah. Um, working with you, with their doctor, with, um, their doula, like working all together is so important to have that, you know, community of support surrounding you. Absolutely. To actually get you to where you need to go.'cause we were never meant to do all of this by ourselves. I don't know where we think that was supposed to be a thing, but we're supposed to all, you know, help each other. Basically go about each day of our
Vicky Chehade:lives. Absolutely. Yeah. A hundred percent. It's women again, if going back to like the beginnings of time, like women have always been communal. Yeah. And unfortunately, yeah. That kind of has gotten lost over, you know, the years.
Julia Salvia:Yeah, for sure. What advice though, would you give to someone who, um, maybe like a teenager that's just starting their, uh, journey with their period and, um. You know, wanting to maybe learn a little bit more about their bodies.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah, no, absolutely. So the thing that we're never taught as teenagers is, and this is gonna sound a little weird, but like your first couple years of having a period are gonna be kind of crappy. And the reason for that is like your body is just not fully developed. Mm-hmm. So. It's trying to ovulate. It's trying to have a regular cycle, but we actually don't fully like mature from an ovulatory standpoint until we're in our early twenties. So I got my period at 12, that is eight years. Right? Like if I just think about it like that until things should have been fully matured. Sure. But I went on birth control at 16 because my periods are so bad. Yeah. So I just wish someone had explained to me like this isn't a forever thing. This is a season of life. You know, all the information I have now of just how much food could have impacted things and you know, the way I was exercising, like I was a big athlete growing up, right? Like that absolutely played into things. So for the teenagers, I would just say like, obviously seek out help if something is like really not going well for you from your doctor, but be open to. Learning about your body really early on. Be open to the fact that things might not be super regular in the beginning. And just telling yourself like, this is a season of life and I can nourish myself. I can do things to make it a little bit better too.
Julia Salvia:And would that be kind of similar advice that you would give their parent or caretaker to help you know, someone that's actually going through that?
Vicky Chehade:Yeah, and, and that's the cool thing too, is like I've worked. I've like done workshops. I've, you know, spoken to older women as well, and a lot of them were like, wow, I can't wait to then pass this information on to my daughter. Yeah. And so that's important too, of like, hopefully our generation that is finally learning this info with the future generations will be able to have a better, you know, better handle on it.
Julia Salvia:Yeah. I love that so much. I think it's so important too, to have that. Close knit support system too, like especially as a teenager with going through something that seems so big, so new and so confusing. Yes. Especially when it's really, sometimes the only way that we're being taught about any of it is through school. Yeah. And that's not enough or really what we should be learning.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah. You know?
Julia Salvia:No,
Vicky Chehade:because again, they're not gonna be super candid in a. You know, school, classroom. Yeah. Or I even just like crack up because I remember my mom gave me, there was like this American Girl Doll book. Yeah. Called The Care and Keeping of You. I know this book and like, I just remember that was how I learned about what my period was supposed to be like was from this book. And it's like so crazy to think about that, that there was no open dialogue beyond that. So. That's certainly not how I will be teaching my daughter when it's her time.
Julia Salvia:Yes. I, I totally feel you on that because I think I learned how to take care of my period and all of the way, like by myself. Like I don't really remember there being any education other than the school education that I received on like, you know, simple things like how to use a tampon, like what is the best mode of birth control. I mean, that's a huge one. Trying. Especially now that I'm, I didn't actually know that we're, you know, as teenagers we're still getting into, uh, you know, our bodies are kind of still getting into like what ovulations like what are periods like up until 20, but we're being pushed to go on birth control at like 16. Yeah. That's crazy to me.'cause that's around the same, that's around the time I feel like 16 to 18 when, um, you know, we start going to see our gynecologist for the first time. Yeah, and to be pushed on birth control that easily is crazy to me, where it almost feels like you're not allowing your body to develop in the way that it should before throwing something at it.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah, and I just too, I think again, like there's just this lack of trust, I would say, in how women can. Treat their own bodies, learn about their own bodies too. Because I think another motive for OB-GYNs is like, well, let's just put you on birth control in case you're sexually active as a teenager. And you know, we're not gonna worry about that. But again, like I just think back, if I started learning the fertility awareness method at like 14 years old, you would be a pro at it. Yeah. You know, in your teen years, in your early twenties, like when you're, you know, sexually active, so. Yeah, the system is a little bit unfortunate.
Julia Salvia:I'm just grateful that we're here today talking about this and that it seems like a lot more women and a lot more people are starting to talk about women's bodies a lot more in, in the good ways, let's say, um, and, and talk about, you know, what it means to actually have a period and what it means to, um, you know, cycle sync in a way that actually works. For our bodies and for us, it, it feels good that we are moving in what seems like the right direction and not just taking the information that we're learning in school with us. Yeah. AB
Vicky Chehade:absolutely, and I think with all of this, it just comes down to, as a woman, you have to advocate for yourself. Mm-hmm. And you have to be confident. Like I've had tons of clients who, you know, they'll go to their annual appointment and their doctor will be like. Oh, well. Like why are you off of birth control if you're not trying to get pregnant? And they'll be like, well, I just don't wanna be on it. Or like, I'm learning the fertility awareness method. And like doctors will laugh at them. Yeah. And to some, to some women, like that sucks and they aren't prepared for that because we're supposed to trust our doctors. Right. But so I just say like. Stick to your guns, get the right kind of support, find the people who are going to listen to you. Mm-hmm. And then continue to just advocate for yourself.
Julia Salvia:Yeah.'cause there are gonna be people that are going to listen to you. There are gonna be people that trust you and it is out there. I, I think that as the more that we talk about it and the more that we use these. Modems of taking care of our body and this having this education and knowledge and awareness of taking care of our bodies. I think that we're gonna start to see that more doctors, specifically gynecologists and doctors that are specifically for, you know, for women and women's bodies, are going to show up and actually start to advocate for us as well in the ways that we need.
Vicky Chehade:I agree. Something I will say that's like a pretty big myth for any women who maybe are thinking about that next chapter in their life. They, you know, want to become pregnant within the next year or so. Most OBGYNs will say, come off of birth control as soon as you're ready to start trying to conceive. And something that they're not telling you is it takes your body time to come off of birth control and start regulating your cycle. Mm-hmm. And so. I always like to say to women, if you are planning to try to conceive, come off of birth control a year before that, like give your body the time it needs to like truly regulate. Because what's happening is when you are on birth control, you are basically flatlining your hormones. The connection between your brain and your ovaries is not happening. Mm-hmm. So when you come off of it, you have to rework that connection again, and that can just take a little bit of time. So. That's not even just for women trying to get pregnant, that's for anyone coming off of birth control. Like give your body grace, be patient, and just kind of plan that. It can take like six months to a year for your cycle to fully regulate.
Julia Salvia:It's so interesting you say that too, because one of the biggest reasons why I came off of birth control was because of the, partially because of the idea of potentially wanting to have kids. And my thought process is, well, I'm never, if I stay on birth control all the way up until I, you know, that moment, that time that I decide that I wanna conceive, like, I'm not even gonna know what my body's like. I'm not even gonna know who I am. So let me learn about myself and my body now in this moment so that when the time comes, if I should decide to conceive. I'm gonna know what's normal and what's not.
Vicky Chehade:Love that. That is like the best approach. I say that to everyone like. The, and the women who I work with, they're the most successful. Meaning they can get pregnant quicker. Yeah. When they've taken the time ahead of time to learn their body, learn their cycle, and just prepare themselves, nourish their bodies and get ready for it.
Julia Salvia:Yeah. I know that birth control affects all of our bodies differently, and I'm, I'm sure that there are some people where it really doesn't make too much of a difference, but there is kind of like that fact that you said it's like it's flatlining. Our, our hormones and, and who we are. And, you know, there's that lack of connection between our brain and our uterus. And I think that's so important, especially when it comes to, you know, conceiving and, and really understanding our bodies throughout that process. And that's something that even, you know, minus the medical aside, minus the actual like, um, pregnancy aside, but. Something that I would want to experience if I choose that for myself, like I wanna experience what all of these things feel so that I can better advocate for myself, that if something is, you know, God forbid going wrong, I have the means to say this isn't normal because I know myself and I know my body. And this isn't right, and I can go seek, you know, the help, whether that's, you know, mental help, physical help, whatever that might be. I can go seek that for myself and advocate for myself e
Vicky Chehade:exactly. And like I should have also mentioned that too, of like when I teach women fam the fertility awareness method. A lot of women think about it as like, oh, I'm gonna learn this as birth control, or I'm gonna learn this to get pregnant quicker. Mm-hmm. But honestly, one of the most important benefits is just it teaches you about your health. Like our, our menstrual cycle is truly, truly our, our monthly report card. And if things are off, if you are having irregular cycles, if you're having debilitating period cramps, mood swings, acne, you name it. Right? If you're dealing with all of that. Something is going on with your body and this is your, we are so lucky as women. That's always how I like to say it, right? Yeah. Like men don't have anything like this. Yeah. We, every single month get to learn is our body happy? And that would be, do you have a regular cycle? Do you feel good throughout your cycle or is something off? And that's gonna show up as all of those symptoms.
Julia Salvia:I love that. I love that We are so lucky to be women because our bodies work in the way that they do and in such an intricate way. And I, I love that. For us,
Vicky Chehade:seriously, it's just, and this is the problem of like, we've been taught to silence it our whole lives or we've been told like, ignore these symptoms. It's normal. You're just a woman. But it's like, no, that's your body communicating with you. Yeah. So it is really, and that's such
Julia Salvia:a powerful thing to have. Yeah. That is such a powerful mode of, of communication to be able to understand and, and know ourselves through the communication of like what our body is physically feeling. We can know, totally know so much more about how we're taking care of ourselves.
Vicky Chehade:Yeah, absolutely.
Julia Salvia:Thank you Vicki, so much for being here. This was such a great conversation and I hope everyone got so much out of this. I know, I definitely did. Please let everyone know where they can find you, where they can book coaching with you, um, and all of that good stuff.
Vicky Chehade:Awesome. Well, thank you for having me. First of all, this was so fun. I just like love getting to talk about this stuff, but if you wanna connect with me in any way, Instagram and TikTok, it's the same handle. It's at your period coach, so periods in between. And then my website is just your period, coach.com.
Julia Salvia:Perfect. Thank you Vicki so much again. I appreciate it.
Vicky Chehade:No, this was great. Thank you so much.
Julia Salvia:Of course. Thank you.
