On today’s Reverse Interview, where I invite listeners to come on the show and ask their questions, listener Roxanne and I talk about possible Paleo-friendly forms of birth control and how to get that classic Paleo glow.
We’re back with our 86th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!
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Episode 86 Links
- Check out Roxanne’s blog, Glass of Glam, HERE!
Episode 86 Transcription
On today’s episode, we’re jumping into another reverse interview where reader Roxanne asks me some of her questions. We’re going to talk about paleo-friendly forms of birth control, and then we’re also going to talk about how to get that classic paleo glow.
Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast! Today I am joined by Roxanne, who is in D.C.; Washington D.C. and today is another one of those special episodes where a listener/reader wrote in with a bunch of really good questions, and I wanted to invite her on the show to ask them while we recorded our conversation {laughs}. Because I figured the answers to her question, and probably the conversation that will evolve over the next 30 minutes could be of benefit to more than just Roxanne. We really feel like it could be of benefit to a bunch of you guys out there. So I hope you enjoy today’s call; I have no idea what questions she’s going to ask me, {laughs} so I haven’t prepared. But I’m going to roll with it and it’s going to be a lot of fun. Thanks for coming on the show Roxanne!
Roxanne: Hey, Cassy, thank you so much for having me.
Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh. The pleasure is mine!
Roxanne: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: I’m so excited about this! It’s just, I don’t like to leave emails unanswered, I don’t like to leave questions unanswered, and every once in a while; you know, I don’t know, somebody asks really good questions, and I think to myself; gosh, I either want to copy and paste this and make it into a blog post, which I never do because that’s work.
Roxanne: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: {laughs} Or, and then this idea came up. I haven’t decided what we’re calling these yet. By now I’ve probably decided and I said it in the intro; but I don’t know if I’m going to call them reverse interviews, you know, where you guys come on and interview me, or a live coaching call. I don’t know; we’ll play with it. We’ll figure it out.
Roxanne: I love it.
Cassy Joy: Anyways, I’m going to; I told Roxanne before I started recording, but what I’m going to do is I’m just going to pass the virtual baton all the way over to her, from Texas to D.C., and let her ask whatever questions she’s got for me. I know she has a fashion blog, so I’m sure some of her questions are going to be related to that. Her website, if you’re curious about Roxanne, is www.glassofglam.com, she told me before the show. I haven’t looked it up yet but I think it’s a really, really clever name, so congratulations on that.
Roxanne: {laughs} Thank you.
Cassy Joy: Of course. Well, ask away Roxanne, I’m here for you.
Roxanne: Thank you, Cassy. Well, ok. I started eating paleo in about May of this year, and it’s been awesome. It’s been life changing, like it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done for myself and my body.
Cassy Joy: Awesome.
Roxanne: But, I’ve been struggling lately with acne, and no matter how much I exercise, how much I eat right with paleo, drink water, I feel like I’m always bloated and I just can’t get that glow that so many paleo women have achieved; you know, you and Diane Sanfilippo have. And I really want that. And part of that is because I have my fashion blog, www.glassofglam.com, which is supposed to be about feeling good and feeling confident. But if I don’t feel that way, then I don’t know if my readers would actually feel confident feeling that way either. So I think it could be an IUD, intrauterine device, that I’ve been using. It’s a form of birth control. So I just wanted to ask you what the paleo stance is on birth control and the hormones associated with them.
Cassy Joy: Oh, gotcha. That’s right, now I remember your question from the email. {laughs}
Roxanne: I know that was kind of a roundabout way of asking, but there’s so much of being a female that goes into your life and different hormones and things that we experience. I just thought I would ask you that question.
Cassy Joy: Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s a really, really good question Roxanne, and it’s something that I come across a lot with my one-on-one clients; back when I had one-on-one clients {laughs} and then when that evolved into the Project; which the online one is opening up soon, and we’ll reopen some of those conversations. But it really is, it’s a question that comes up over and over again. So I’m going to tackle it in a couple of different ways.
First, I want to tackle the concept of whether it’s paleo or not. And you’ve probably already heard this, and this is probably going to be old news for you. But there really aren’t any rules. There really aren’t any hard and fast rules on what is and is not paleo. There are some generally accepted parameters; right; paleo means somewhat as our ancestors would, unadulterated food. We’re going to avoid a lot of those highly genetically modified, highly sprayed foods, things that are inflammatory. Those include typically those grains and conventional dairy and artificial sweeteners and all that stuff. So those are some of the widely accepted parameters of paleo. But how paleo applies to folks in a lifestyle; like what detergent do you use; I don’t know {laughs} what are some other ones? Whether you ride your bicycle or drive a car, or whether you decide to take prescription medications. That really is an answer that’s kind of, to each his own, suum cuique, {laughs} as this Latin nerd said.
Roxanne: {laughs} Aww.
Cassy Joy: {laughs} That’s so nerdy, my brain went there. And it’s been like, what, 15 years since I took Latin. It never leaves you. Ok, sorry, I digress. So that’s just to kind of set the basis for my answer for you; there really aren’t any hard and fast rules on prescription medications in the context of the paleo world, ok. I feel like that’s kind of a sigh of relief; and maybe this is obvious to you, but maybe some listeners, that’s good information. That’s brand new information. If they’re worrying about subscribing to this dietary direction that is paleo, they wonder how maybe that has an umbrella over the rest of their lives and whether they’re doing it right or wrong, and that can kind of feel like a lot of pressure. You know; like, am I doing this right in these other areas of my life?
Roxanne: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: I want folks to feel a little bit liberated, and know that that’s; paleo doesn’t care. Some paleo people care. We joke and we call them the paleo police, but we just kind of pretend they don’t exist, because it doesn’t really matter that much. What does matter; and this is getting to my answer. It’s honestly; it’s a question that you have to answer for yourself. There are a lot of folks, for example, who have autoimmune diseases, and there are certain medications that they are on right now, and they just have to. They’re working in conjunction with a medical doctor, and it’s really just a team effort. They’re tackling it through nutrition, but they’re also tackling it through modern medicine. So you kind of have to make that balance and that decision for yourself as far as what detergent are you going to use. That’s another one; you just have to make that decision for yourself.
So when it comes to medications like an IUD; I have to ask, is it a hormonal IUD or one like a copper?
Roxanne: Yeah, it’s a hormonal one.
Cassy Joy: A hormonal IUD. It doesn’t fall under the paleo question, but it falls into the, “Is it right for you” question. If you suspect that it’s having an impact on your skin, and your overall well being and how you’re feeling, then maybe it’s not right for you. Something that I try to encourage people to break out, again, of the paleo, the daunting paleo chains, or the clean living chains, or the “gosh am I doing this right, am I keeping up with the clean Jones’” or whatever {laughs}.
Roxanne: I know. It’s so hard because I’m always looking for answers, you know, and I want a quick fix but sometimes you just have to do some little experimenting with yourself.
Cassy Joy: Exactly. Exactly. And I know you know that; I knew you knew that. And it’s one of those answers that it’s probably the most annoying answer to give.
Roxanne: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: Where I’m like; I don’t have an answer for you. {laughs}
Roxanne: Yeah.
Cassy Joy: Because you have the answer, and at the end of the day, that’s the truth. A hormonal IUD might be right for somebody out there, and they may feel great on it, and it jives with their budget, it jives with their goals, it jives with their balance between living a conventional lifestyle in a modern day, and trying to live something that’s more holistic and free from toxins, you know. Wherever that balance swings for you, is where you’re going to fall. So it sounds to me like you’re leaning towards wanting to nix the hormonal IUD. And that’s not a wrong decision to sway, it’s not a wrong decision to not sway that way, either. So I encourage you to go chat with your doctor, and see if there are other methods. It’s possible that it’s having an impact on your skin, so it is possibly linked, and if that’s something that you’re wanting to look at, then maybe try to entertain the idea of hormone-free birth control. Those can be just physical blocks; whether that’s another copper IUD.
There are a lot of people out there; Liz Wolfe, for example, www.realfoodliz.com, and she’s working on this awesome program called Baby Making and Beyond, she and I were chatting about it, and she kind of leans towards the direction of; you don’t really want to put anything in there. You know; whether it’s a tampon or an IUD. We kind of just want to keep all of the synthetic materials out of our lady parts, {laughs} for lack of being a professional, you know whatever it is.
Roxanne: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: But try to keep things as natural as possible and maybe lean on more physical blocks, which would be like a condom. I’m sorry kiddos, if anyone is listening right now. But something like that is, I think a direction that she tends to lean. And maybe those are latex free, maybe they’re; what are the other ones, lambskin? All that good stuff.
Anyways, that’s kind of a roundabout answer of answering your question; I hope I didn’t get too personal with you.
Roxanne: Oh, no.
Cassy Joy: But really, at the end of the day, if you suspect that it has a link and you’re slightly uncomfortable then it’s definitely ok to think about removing it.
Roxanne: Great. You know, I’m kind of relieved with your answer, actually, because if there was a rule, “yes or no” then I might be more conflicted about it.
Cassy Joy: Totally. Good! I’m glad. I’m glad it was helpful.
Roxanne: Yeah. Thank you Cassy.
Cassy Joy: Yeah girl!
Roxanne: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: {laughs} Do you have any other questions for me?
Roxanne: Oh that was it, I just wanted to talk about birth control. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: That’s awesome. That’s a really great question. And then when it comes to skin stuff; I also kind of want to note. You know, starting paleo back in May of 2016; so May, June, July, August, September, October, so we’re 6 months in, does that sound right?
Roxanne: Yes.
Cassy Joy: You know what; the body can take a really long time to heal, especially from the gut. Leaky gut, things like that, if that’s something you suspected you were suffering from at the beginning where you would have bloating and maybe some food intolerances; maybe some headaches or various symptoms that might have come up from that. It can take a long time to heal a truly broken gut, so don’t be too hard on yourself. That could also be a link to maybe the acne, as well.
Sometimes if we have a really considered effort trying to heal; I think the fastest a gut can heal is 4 weeks 28 days, right? That’s how most nutrition programs are geared, to get folks jumpstarted into this direction. My Project is 28 days, and that’s really the fastest someone can go through it. It can take, on average 3 months, so 90 days, if not more. Way more. So you may feel good; but at the end of the day, I like to tell folks that my “paleo transformation” took about 9 months.
Roxanne: Oh, wow.
Cassy Joy: So, that was not overnight, and I had my ups and down, because I am a slow learner and had to figure things out for myself, which I try to relay now in the blog and share all of my secrets.
Roxanne: {laughs} Yes.
Cassy Joy: But don’t be hard on yourself. And it may be that your stomach isn’t entirely healed, and there may be some intestinal permeability, and there may still be some foods that are slightly aggravating that are showing up on your skin. So whenever I tend to breakout, my first association is, “what did I eat.” You know?
Roxanne: Ok.
Cassy Joy: And it definitely may be the hormonal IUD, but it could also be food. And it could be; and it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be sensitive to those foods forever, because if we have high intestinal permeability; for example, I’ve worked with some people who suspect that they couldn’t tolerate eggs. And they were trying to heal their gut at that time, and they knew that eggs aggravated their system, they felt bloated, they would have a lot of intestinal gas, some pain, and maybe even some acne; some skin problems. So they eliminated eggs for a considerable amount of time, healed their gut, really focused on healing their gut, meaning just a very anti-inflammatory protocol, tried to not eat aggravating foods as much as possible. Enjoyed lots of nourishing, healing foods like homemade mineral broth, bone broth, things that really help heal. And then they were able to reintroduce eggs, and eat them like a champ, because their body; that inflammation cascade that had been triggered, kind of like your body is already T’d up to defense, right? So we get inflamed more quickly than we would if we were just, you know, healthy as a horse.
Now, every once in a while, I can encounter wheat gluten and be able to bounce back much more quickly than I could when I first started. And it doesn’t have that much of an impact on me anymore because my gut is really, really strong and really healthy. So know that that could also be a link; there could be some foods that you’re just exceptionally sensitive to right now, just because you’re still at the beginning of your healing journey, and once we keep getting that gut healed, don’t feel like you have to do anything crazy to make it happen. Just go easy on yourself. And do those general steps and wellness things about paleo that you well know; avoiding those inflammatory foods, get lots of sleep, drink lots of water; all the things you were talking about. And then if you suspect that maybe some foods; whether it’s grass-fed dairy, or eggs, or nuts and seeds. If you think those are giving you a problem, you feel a little bit more bloated afterwards, maybe try removing those for a little while and see how your skin response. I have a feeling that you won’t have to live without them forever. Just kind of see how your skin response, and after you start to feel better you can throw them back in for a little bit, see how you react. If you react fine, then you know you’re over that healing hump, and you can go on living your happy healthy life all over again! {laughs}
Roxanne: Oh; you know I think you’re absolutely right. I think you’re right; it’s only been 6 months. Maybe I’m kind of jumping the gun and I’m still in the healing phase. I think that; like, a light bulb just went off in my head. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: Good! Good, yeah. And that’s so common, because we are the society; and I’m speaking of myself. I dieted for years. I was like; well what am I going to do this next 30 days. What am I going to do this next 45 days, you know?
Roxanne: Mm-hmm me too. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: And we expect the results to begin and end in 30 days, and the truth of the matter is; with true healing, when something is truly long-term, where you get that kind of sustainable glow, so to speak, it really comes from a long concerted effort, where you’re really; I don’t know, you’re not perfect, but you’re diligent about trying to make more progress and keeping it at the top of your mind. And then slowly things will start to change. Honestly, I really didn’t totally heal my skin; I healed it from the inside, but it didn’t heal from the outside until this past year when I finally found beauty products that worked for my skin.
Roxanne: Wow.
Cassy Joy: So not all is lost. And I was paleo for almost 8 years before that.
Roxanne: Wow. It’s a trial and error, it’s a process that’s for sure.
Cassy Joy: It is! It really is. It really is trial and error. So don’t be down on yourself; you can have that happy, healthy glow from the inside, and your readers will resonate with that. And that comes from, I think just having confidence in yourself and giving yourself some grace, you know, and knowing that everything is going to be ok. If you’re constantly doubting yourself and worried that you’re making the wrong decisions; which I know you’re not, but if you were, then that’s when it comes across as maybe the tone of voice that you’re trying to not relay. I think you’re going to be great, and you’re going to go through ups and downs. I go through ups and downs all the time, and I try to; just like you, always make sure I’m putting my best foot forward when it comes to what I’m producing for the blog. And it holds you accountable in a really cool way.
So, anyways. I’ve just been jabbering your sweet ears off, but that’s essentially my very, very long answer. I think it could be diet, it could be hormonal, but at the end of the day I would say just take a deep breath, everything is going to be ok, keep experimenting little by little, and know that lots of water and lots of sleep really go a long, long ways in this whole journey.
Roxanne: Thank you Cassy. I wrote it down; you said not perfect, but diligent. I really like that, that resonates with me.
Cassy Joy: Awesome, I’m so glad! Good, good. That’s really great.
Roxanne: Thank you.
Cassy Joy: Of course, girl. Well I’m here for you; I know that this probably helps someone; I hope it did. I hope this helps some listeners. And if it did, I would love to know. Roxanne and I would love to know {laughs}. Go to https://fedandfit.com to the show notes where we’ll have a full transcript of today’s mini show. But leave a comment down below, and holler. Maybe throw some love Roxanne’s way; but I really think this is an important issue and we talked all around it, but essentially at the end of the day, your body knows you best. Right? And what’s going to be right for your body isn’t going to be right for somebody else. So just keep that in mind; find your perfect plan. It doesn’t have to be squeaky clean paleo; it’s going to be Roxanne’s perfect plan.
I think that’s awesome. You’re on a great path, you’re asking really great questions, and I’m excited to see where you go from here with Glass of Glam!
Roxanne: Thank you, Cassy!
Cassy Joy: You’re so welcome. Thanks for coming on the show. And everybody, we’ll be back again next week.
This was an awesome podcast, yes, I do feel this is going to be very helpful for me.
Thank you
I’m so glad!