Episode 25: How To Manage Your Energy & Hormones
When is it more than working too hard?
As highly motivated women, there are definitely times when we push ourselves and burn the candle at both ends.
You know the feelings:
👉Fatigue
👉Exhaustion
👉Low Energy
👉Brain Fog
👉Declining work performance
But how do we know when it’s something more?
On this episode of the podcast, my special guest Dr. Susan Lovell walks us through ways that we can tell if it’s more and shares ways to help.
Follow Dr. Lovell and Premier Wellness on LinkedIn, Instagram, and her website.
Full Transcript:
E25
[00:00:00]
[00:01:05] I am so excited to introduce to you. Today's guest. She is one of. My friends, someone that I admire so much and that I look up to. It's Dr. Susan Lavelle, Dr. Susan Lavelle, the thrive architect. Teaches busy women professionals and entrepreneurs, how to flourish all day by mastering their energy. Wait.
[00:01:30] And hormones. She is the founder of premier wellness, a comprehensive lifestyle health company based in Raleigh, North Carolina and serving clients nationally. She has been a professional ballet dancer for 17 years, and then an award-winning plastic surgeon for over two decades. Dr. Susan know what it's like to beat up your body and your mind.
[00:01:54] Into submission to achieve a certain look. In fact, the physical melt, mental and emotional abuse. She heaped on her own body. During those years led to the life-threatening health issue. She later developed, and it was only through a personalized, holistic approach that she healed herself. Now Dr. Susan uses her additional expertise in lifestyle medicine to help others heal from the inside out.
[00:02:20] Leading to lasting powerful change bottom line, they improve their health and strengthen their business without sacrificing themselves or their loved ones in the process. Dr. Susan and her team worked virtually and in-person through speaking workshops, courses and retreats, and her current programs per corporate programs, impact innovative companies, such as Activision and black line.
[00:02:42] Dr. Susan has been featured on the doctors, the docu series, exhausted lifetime TV, the Huffington post Forbes training magazine, no women. Good morning, Washington and good day, Charlotte. Her Burke, her book thrive the five week guide to mastering your energy at any age is available on Amazon. And i am so excited to have her here on the podcast today talking to all of us about how to manage our energy and our her hormones so without further ado let's listen to that interview
[00:03:14] Nicole Case: Welcome back to the Upgraded Career Podcast. I'm your host Nicole Case, and today I am joined by someone who is so dear to me, Dr. Susan Lavell. I am so excited that you are finally coming on the show. I shared with Dr. Susan the other week that when I had this idea for my podcast, I had made a list of all these amazing, fabulous women in my life that I wanted to interview, and she was on that shortlist, and today she's gonna be talking to us about something.
[00:03:43] I know I struggle with personally, a lot of my clients struggle with this, and it is our health and our energy, and I don't know about you all, but I'm, I am driving headfirst into my forties right now, and things are changing. Things are happening, and. It's getting tough out there. It's tough out there for us.
[00:04:02] And, um, Dr. Susan is gonna talk to us all about, again, navigating this, this period of our lives and energy and hormones and weight and all of these things. So I am so excited, Dr. Susan, that you are here today. I am so excited to be here, Nicole. Thank you so much. Yes, yes. Oh my goodness. So, um, so first you have to tell us more about your own personal just career journey.
[00:04:27] I just think your story is just so fascinating and I'm just so excited for everyone to hear it. Well, I, I look at it as if I'm on my third career, essentially. So it really started, believe it or not, when I was six years old, I'm not gonna make this too long, six years old. I knew I wanted to be a doctor because I loved my pediatrician, and I told him at six that I was gonna be a doctor.
[00:04:48] And 20 something years later, he actually wrote a letter for me to say that. Yeah, way back when she was six. This is what she wanted. I had know, it had a lot to do with me getting into medical school. Wow. So, got into medical school and fell into plastic surgery because, and it makes a lot of sense now because I could make change.
[00:05:09] Mm. In somebody, they came in one way. Boom, you did something and they went out the other, and it was so different from what I saw internal medicine or family medicine to be where people came in week after week after month with the same thing going on. Mm-hmm. You gave 'em a pill, they went out, they came back the next month, nothing changed.
[00:05:27] And so the, the dichotomy between those two professions made me choose plastics. Got it. And that's what I did for the next 22 years. And actually, you know, I forgot my big career in between, I got all my. Yeah, let's back up a minute. Let's back up a little bit. Just back up just a quick minute. Cause there's something else she did before that That's super cool that I worked out right.
[00:05:50] Um, yeah. So on Saturday mornings my mom did not like the fact that I was sitting watching cartoons, so she took me to dance class. That led to me eventually becoming a professional ballet dancer, which I did touring the world for about 14 years. How could I forget that? Right.
[00:06:09] Then I went to medical school, went into plastics and loved it. And if I could still just do the surgery without all of the other nonsense, I might still do a little bit of it. Oh. But essentially what ended up happening was when I was the so plastic surgeon, I had moved to Northeast North Carolina and I was the only plastic surgeon within 50.
[00:06:30] So you can imagine I was immensely busy. Yeah. Um, but it meant that I was in the office all day or surgery all day. Then because I was the only plastic surgery surgeon, if something happened in the middle of the night, guess who was getting called? Two 3:00 AM in the morning. Right. And I was raising my kids.
[00:06:47] And I did not want them to suffer from my decision to be a plastic surgeon. Mm-hmm. So I was still the soccer mom and the one going to all the debate meetings and, and all of the games and everything. So literally I was 24 7. And this is something that I see a lot in women. Mm-hmm. You know, especially when they, they have young children and as they're getting older, we just burn ourselves out on both ends.
[00:07:09] Mm-hmm. Till there is no more candle, it's not, you know, that sort of thing. Um, and. Just briefly, what ended up happening was that I would not stop, and the only way that I did was by being in the intensive care unit once, twice, and then a third time in the space of a year. And that third time was when I said, something's gotta change.
[00:07:32] And the way that I healed was through what I do now, which is lifestyle medicine, looking for the root cause of what's going on, rather than saying like the I saw in medical school years ago, have an Ill take a pill. It's totally different. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. First of all, your career story I think is just so interesting and amazing, and I think it's just a, a great example of we are multifaceted, multi-talented, multi-passionate human beings, and we are allowed to have different chapters and different seasons of our lives.
[00:08:04] So that can, uh, we could do a whole podcast episode just on that. Um, but. I really appreciate you sharing that, that, that you personally as an md, like burnt yourself out. You know, we a lot sometimes, like we put, um, you know, medical professionals kind of on this pedestal that if, like of course they know all of course they're gonna be the pinnacle of help, right.
[00:08:26] Or, or pinnacle of health that they're gonna, you know, they're gonna have this really great lifestyle. And you know, what I'm hearing from you is, We fall into, they fall into the, the, the trap just like everyone else. Right. And, um, and I, and I love how you shared that, you know, you had it, it took. Three stints in i c u in order for you to wake up and say something.
[00:08:48] Something needs to change. Something change. Yeah. I remember, uh, exactly after the second time when I was so exhausted, cuz I'm, by this time you can imagine, and I literally got a couch that I had put into my exam room next to my main exam room because I didn't have the energy to walk down the halt in my regular office.
[00:09:07] Hmm. And that's all I did for months. I went from, you know, one exam to the other and sat in the couch in between. And that's what I did. It's like, what was I thinking? Right? Yeah. You know, I, I have, so, you know, I have so many clients, and again, myself included in this, that are just like, I'm tired, I'm exhausted, I'm trying to do so many things, but I, it's been giving me pause over at least probably the past year or so for myself around.
[00:09:33] You know, what is this low energy? What is happening here? Is it just I'm working too hard, you know that I, you know, I'm working too many hours. I'm burning the candle at post sticks, or is this low energy brain fog, declining work performance, all of these things? When is this more than just you're working too hard or there's something more happening?
[00:09:54] Right. That's a great question. And what I go by is if there's something, if you are exhausted and you've got a good two, three days where you're really resting and you're still exhausted mm-hmm. Then something needs to, you need to be investigating something. Mm-hmm. Um, what the things that could be are just so vast.
[00:10:10] But the first things we do is we make sure that you're sleeping. And even though you're in the bed for seven to nine hours, are you sleeping that night? That time? Mm-hmm. And are you sleeping well? So that's the very first thing. Just check that and make sure. Some of the other things that we don't think about so much are some things like gut health.
[00:10:27] Mm-hmm. Do you have food sensitivities? Because those can actually trigger fatigue. And then of course, hormones, which are such a big thing. Um, especially with. Yeah. Oh my gosh, yes. Totally. And I was, I think I shared with this, shared this with you previously that. Again, I'm going, I'm way into my late thirties at this point, and just over the last few years I'm just like, boy, things are, this body is different.
[00:10:53] You know, I'm gaining weight that I hadn't previously gained, and I'm having a hard time getting it off. I have so many of my clients who come to me, which. You know, we don't wanna be, um, you know, playing into diet culture in any way, shape or form here. But I do have clients who come to me who are like, you know, they don't wanna take the next step in their career.
[00:11:11] They don't wanna upgrade in any way cuz they're not feeling comfortable in their bodies and, you know, and I feel like it, it might be again, this. This idea of, you know, we're getting older, things are changing and our hormones are certainly changing. And I'm seeing, you know, just again, even in myself, just things with myself that are just like, wow, I am tired more often.
[00:11:30] Wow. I can't, um, I can't have a glass of champagne in the evenings like I used to. Right. So, so I would love to hear more about, about the hormone side of things, because I think as women you. That is something that's often top of mind for us. It's that, you know, our hormones are jacking up things all over the place throughout our lives, but particularly whenever we start getting older and into this midlife, you know, something else is happening here.
[00:11:56] So I'd love to hear more. Just can you share just a little bit more about, you know, what's happening as we age with our hormones and how does that impact um, our. Absolutely. And the way I put it is, you know, you look at what you could do and how you felt and what you could eat and how you little, you could sleep when you were in your twenties, right?
[00:12:14] And then you hit that 35 to 40 and stuff, boom. It's almost like it's on a dime. It starts changing. Yes. And the reason for that really is hormones. It really is. And the thing is that, especially with women, We have two main hormone ones that that kind of changed progesterone and estrogen we're, we're usually pretty familiar with those.
[00:12:34] The problem is, is that our progesterone actually starts decreasing before our estrogen does. So now, even though they're both lower, You've got more of that estrogen going on versus the progesterone and, and the estrogen is the one that gives you like the, a little bit of the brain fog, a little more of the fatigue.
[00:12:53] It leads more towards problems with blood sugar. So a lot of different things are related to that imbalance, not so much the fact that they're both low. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So is there, is there anything we can do to prevent this stuff from happening or is it just like, um, those, those of us who have these hormones and we're aging, it's just like this, we are just doomed to feel this way?
[00:13:18] Or is there anything that we can do to, to kind of prevent some of this or make it easier, I guess? Yes, yes. Well, believe it or not, the very first thing that you can do to make it easier is mindset Okay with it. Which is all about understanding that yes, this is a different part of our life. We are changing and it's okay.
[00:13:35] You know, just really just embrace it. And when you do that, automatically it gets a little bit easier. But once we've got the mindset outta the way, what can we do? Um, you know, physically and things like that. So, um, the biggest, the second biggest thing is stress levels. Mm. Because if you think about it, stresses cortisol.
[00:13:55] Cortisol is one of those hormones that just as you said, jacks everything up. It makes us gain weight. It makes our blood sugar go up. It makes our estrogen levels wonky. It makes testosterone in a woman, makes testosterone go up. Lots of different things happen with with corti. It makes us so that we can't sleep well.
[00:14:14] Mm. So if anything else, once we get that mindset, the next thing would be to reduce stress levels, you know, and not be stressed about. Getting older. Cause that's gonna, that's gonna change things as well. So that would be number two. And then if you're doing all of these things and eating well, you know, and, and that varies for everyone.
[00:14:34] You know, what's well for one person is not necessarily the same for another. But if you're doing all of that, getting the sleep, and you're doing all of the things that you possibly can and still struggling, then maybe it's time to start thinking about a little bit of hormonal support. Mm. And that's something you would need guidance.
[00:14:50] Yeah. Yeah, I, I will say that anytime somebody says about like hormone replacement therapy or hormone support, that sounds really, Mm-hmm. To me, um, what can you say about, you know, hormone, you know, support with the hormones? What does that really look like? Right, right. So essentially, like I said, it should be the last step, not the first.
[00:15:13] Because most people, if you're doing all of the lifestyle changes Yeah. And doing them well, a lot of times you won't need to come to that point. And I'm not making it as if this is such a drastic change because it's not. And these are things that your body naturally has. But we wanna essentially ease our body through this transition till it gets to the point where it has gotten to that new set point.
[00:15:35] Yeah. Okay. And that's where we, that's really what you're trying to do. Just kind of balance things out until your body can do it on its own. Got it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So, you know what, I think the biggest thing that stood out for me here was just you sharing that we need to calm down. It sounds like we need to, we need to.
[00:15:56] Um, the amount of stress in our lives and for those who are listening to this podcast, we probably have a whole lot of stress in our lives just because, you know, we are driven, you know, we want to, we want to succeed, we want to advance, but we also have want to have, you know, full lives outside of work.
[00:16:16] Mm-hmm. As well. But those full lives outside of work also contribute to stress. So how, you know, any advice for us out there? Really reducing the amount of stress, um, in our lives. Any practical. Fair? Oh yeah. Yes. The very first, very first thing that I tell everyone is to have a ritual. First thing in the morning, first thing in the evening.
[00:16:37] So when you get up, how many of you, I know I used to, and sometimes I even kind of slip into it. The first thing you do is you pick up your phone and you start scrolling. Mm-hmm. You know, whether you're checking email or the weather or whatever it is, you're checking something on that phone. And so Al already the first thing you're doing is taking.
[00:16:55] Life away from you and your internal balance. So instead of that first thing, five minutes, it doesn't take much long, much longer than that. Just maybe meditate or just plan your day with a relaxed way. Mm. Um, read whatever you'd like to do. Stretch. Do a little bit of yoga first thing for you in the morning.
[00:17:16] So start your way that, start your day that way as opposed to the, the scrolling and going into high. Side cortisol mode first thing, right? Yeah. Um, and then the same thing in the evening, you know, so a lot of us, and I know again, I used to do it myself, I'd be working, working, working on the computer, cuz you gotta work till that last minute, right?
[00:17:36] Mm-hmm. Because something's gonna happen or watching television or something crazy. And you just run into bed and you think that you're just gonna go to sleep, and whether or not you do that doesn't mean that you're sleeping well mm-hmm. During the night. So giving yourself at least, at least 30 minutes, and usually an hour is even better to just wind down.
[00:17:57] Mm-hmm. And having, again, having your own ritual, whether it's. Reading again, or, or, you know, reflecting, journaling is a great thing. Taking a bath in, you know, in lavender or camile, essential oils, things like that. Things that are really gonna start relaxing you and staying away from the blue screens. Ugh, that's a huge one.
[00:18:16] Yeah. Yeah. That's tough. You know, I, I, I like, I kinda like that it's, it's almost like bookending your day, you know, bookending your days, right? Like you're, you're start. Kind of slow easing into it, but what I'm hearing is that it, you know, it doesn't have to be a big, long, drawn out morning routine, I think.
[00:18:33] Mm-hmm. I know. I think that's so popular, you know? Right now I'm hearing a lot about, you know, these really extended, complicated morning routines and to me that sounds what? Stressful. Stressful, right? Um, exactly. So, so I, I really appreciate that, that it's like, you know, we do need to ease into our mornings.
[00:18:52] But it doesn't have to take an hour. And I can, I don't know anyone out there who has an hour to, um, cause if that's the case, then we're all getting up at four o'clock in the morning. And I, and I know I personally, there's some, you know, morning, morning people out there and that's great. I am, that is not, I am not one of those people.
[00:19:10] So, so I love that, that, you know, just even five to 10. Just to kind of ease into your morning without your phone, without checking other people's agendas, just kind of exactly. Really easing into it. You know, I, um, I don't think I have a really great morning routine right now, uh, but I like the idea of starting it off with reading a little bit.
[00:19:30] Mm-hmm. Um, I like that idea. Uh, and I know it's here whenever we're recording this, this episode, it's getting clo It's, we're springtime here in North Carolina, so the pool will be open soon and I do often like to go to the pool in read in the morning, but I don't see why I couldn't do that from bed. Um, I like that.
[00:19:46] I will say I do have a really great evening routine that I've shared with clients and shared with. Before, you know, I, it does, it takes me at least an hour, hour and a half to, to get fully wound down. And one thing I started doing this year is, um, instead of, uh, reading. Um, a business book in the evening.
[00:20:06] I've decided I'm going to read a fiction book in the evening. I know. Let's, you know, how dare, how dare I. Uh, but no, I, I've been looking for other places, um, to use my brain just in a different way. And I've just been finding that, um, reading, reading, um, a, a, a fiction book in the evening in bed is a really great way to wind down.
[00:20:29] And then again, like you said, I'm not. You know, looking at blue screen, looking at a phone or anything like that. I've just been finding that's been, that's been a really, a really nice way to, to, to wind. Exactly. And it's relaxing your soul. Yeah. You, it's the, the whole body is just letting go. Yeah. Which is what you need.
[00:20:44] Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay, so Dr. Z tell us like, how are you working with people today to, like, you know, in your day-to-day practice, what does that look like? To, to work with, um, someone like you to help support. You know, whether it's to increase our energy to lose some of this weight, to balance our hormones, what does that look like to work with someone like you?
[00:21:04] Yeah, absolutely. The whole thing that I like is to do things that are personalized. So remember, like I said, we don't want to have an, I'll take a pill. Same thing with this. I don't want someone to come and say, you know, I wanna lose some weight, or I don't have any energy. And I say, okay, here's my package.
[00:21:20] Boom. Yeah. You know, just go do this. It's all about, we start with testing and an As. So I get their whole medical history and then we do specific testing, which is, you know, which varies depending on what kind of issues they're having. Mm-hmm. Um, we may look at blood sugar, we may look at thyroid function.
[00:21:37] We may look at, you know, adrenal function. It all depends on what's going on with them. Once we have all that data, then we decide, okay. This is the route that you would need to go. Mm-hmm. If you wanna get to this place. And another thing we look at is how fast someone wants to get there. So I know most of us are like, yeah, I want it done yesterday.
[00:21:58] But you know, if that's, that's not always, as we know, that's always reasonable or even possible, but if someone wants to get something done in three months versus, you know, no. I'd rather take it really slow and ease into this and eat, okay, if it takes me six months or even a year mm-hmm. To get to my point, then that's a whole different conversation.
[00:22:16] Yeah. That sort of thing. So it's really what we do is, is customize everyone's. Which is important. Yeah. Cause we're all different. Yeah. No, I, I love that it's the same, you know, that's the same thing I think, you know, just with the coaching that I do with my clients too, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I've. Um, kind of a workflow and a process, but it's gonna be so customized and so specific to each indivi, individual's, person's goals and kind of where they're coming from and where they wanna go.
[00:22:42] So, so I think that's a really great point, that if you're out there looking for some support, uh, from someone like Dr. Susan to make sure you're seeing that people wanna support you on an individual basis and not, um, and not just, you know, a cookie cutter. Approach. So, okay, so I love this. So like, what's, what do you have coming up next?
[00:23:02] What's kind of happening with, with you, you know, how can we, how can we get on the Dr. Susan Lavelle train? Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, we just finished a Lean hormone challenge, which was all about how do we actually activate our hormones for weight loss. Mm. And the way I came about that was that I've, you know, I've had programs in the past and still do, which are really based on having someone be able to lose weight to release weight.
[00:23:30] Cuz we don't wanna get it back. You lose some, you find it again, right. To release it. That's. Right. Um, and they worked well, but there were some, still some things people struggle maybe with Hung being hungry. Mm-hmm. Or, you know, with maybe some of the signs of detoxification. And so I listened to that and put together a program that looked at all four of them.
[00:23:52] So your appetite, how you were releasing fat from your cells, how you release it from your body. And then the thing that everybody thinks all weight loss is about is how do you actually start burning up the fat in your body? So it's really those four sets of hormones that worked and that's what that hormone activated weight loss was.
[00:24:09] So we did that over this last four days, and there was such a great response that it led us that we're going to be doing a summit coming up in June. Okay. And I'm thrilled that you're gonna be part of it. Yes. So it's not just gonna be, yes, it's, yes. It's not just about, you know, hormone weight loss, but really how do we, how do we look at our lives so that we can be.
[00:24:33] The top, the peak at peak performance without sacrificing ourselves, our families, our lives, we wanna be able to do them. Them both. Yeah. And there's a way. You know, without burning the candle on both ends, like some of us on this interview have done. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I love that. I'm so excited to be, to be joining you in this.
[00:24:53] Again, like I said, so many of my clients are coming to me, and I'm sure those of you who are listening right now, you know, again, you want to. Continue to perform well and do really great things in your work life. And you also want to wanna be fully present and healthy and well in, you know, outside of work too.
[00:25:10] So, so that's, so, that's so exciting. So if you are listening, um, when this episode is airing, we've, this summit is happening, um, very, very soon. And, um, just tell us where can we find more information about the summit? More information about you and working with you and your. Right. It'll be in our site, which is www.premierwellness.com, and Premier is spelled P R E M I E R e Premier wellness.com.
[00:25:40] The information will be there, um, and if you wanna call us directly, our number is 9 1 9 9 2 5. 5, 9, 10. We'll put all that in the show notes. It'll all be in the show notes. So if, um, if you wanna want to go out and again, find out more information about the summit, about, again, working with Dr. Susan and her team directly, all of that information will be out on our website, um, in the show notes, so you can't miss it.
[00:26:06] All right. Hopefully that's, hopefully it's the right number, right? If not, we'll edit. We'll edit it out. If not, if not, it's all good. It's all good. Awesome. Well, Dr. Susan Lavell, thank you so much. It's always a joy, um, chatting with you and just, um, I always learn something, always learn something new whenever, whenever we connect.
[00:26:26] So thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you so much too. Thanks, Nicole. Thanks.
[00:26:32]
