Using Our Menstrual Cycle Phases To Succeed In Work + Life with Masha Borisova

Today Masha Borisova shares game-changing insight into why so many women are struggling with energy, mood, and menstrual-related issues, and how to start making changes today!

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Masha Borisova is the host of The Masha Show podcast and also is the founder of the Shed & Shift Method which is the foundation of her Integrative Health Coaching practice that helps women in their 30's who are ready to ditch the endless hamster wheel of diet culture so they can love their body and feel sexy at any size and age. It’s her mission to help women feel good in their skin by tuning into and nurturing their bodies, discovering what works for them and their lifestyle, and truly falling in love with themselves again.

CONNECT WITH THE GUEST:

• Masha's Happy Body Guide here: https://happybody.yourguidemasha.com/
• Book a Discovery call with Masha here: https://bit.ly/3EPRw6Q
• Instagram: @yourguidemasha

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:
Alisa Vitti - https://www.floliving.com/

Chapters

• 0:06 Empowering Women Through Holistic Health
• 10:18 Optimizing Menstrual Cycle With Lifestyle
• 20:26 Balancing Women's Hormones and Roles
• 26:38 Embracing Emotions and Menstrual Health
• 33:34 Nurturing Health and Wellness Through Awareness
• 38:58 Connecting Online

Transcript

Nika Lawrie: 0:06

Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie podcast. Masha, welcome to the show. I'm so happy to have you here today. I'm really excited about everything we're going to talk about.

Masha Borisova: 0:21

Yes, me too.

Nika Lawrie: 0:22

Thank you so much for having me here, yeah absolutely so before we kind of get into it, can you tell us a little bit about how you became a holistic health coach, kind of your backstory, and just what sparked your interest?

Masha Borisova: 0:36

Sure. So I most of my life battled, had a battle with weight and weight gain, weight loss, body image, and a lot of it came from, you know, my father, actually, you know, who only put value on the way I looked, you know, and even as a child I felt I was not accepted or belittled, even because I was heavier than other kids. That turned into an unhealthy relationship with food, you know, not eating enough, maybe over-exercising, excessive alcohol, even in my 20s. So I think most people right, have that. Yeah, both right, have that, yeah, and then, yeah, eventually I hit a wall, I would say in my early 30s, you know, I decided that, you know this, this vicious cycle of diets and exercise and dating the wrong people, toxic relationships, escaping from from from my emotions and from real life through traveling and buying things right, shopping. I knew I had to stop, so I decided to spend some time actually alone.

Masha Borisova: 1:53

For about five years I was single, dating myself. I took time to educate myself about hormones and menstrual cycle and, um, you know how to nurture my body and look at food as fuel, not you know, um punishment or anything like that healthier options, and um, I became, um, I went to Institute of integrative nutrition. I'm sure I've heard of that school graduate. So, yes, oh, I didn't know that. Awesome yeah.

Masha Borisova: 2:26

So I finished their their program and then I continued on to study emotional eating Cause that's something I battled with most of my life as well to help other people and got certified and worked for many other positions. I worked as a weight loss coach. Did not really enjoy that because I did not support just putting value on our image and the number on the scale you know, as our only measure of success in life. So I just that's not going to be the route for me. And now I work with women who are ready to improve their healthy body image and build a good relationship with themselves and just nurture, spend their lives the rest of their life thriving, nurturing and loving their body, no matter what size they are.

Nika Lawrie: 3:19

Man. I love that. I think you know a lot of us relate to kind of similar stories in that sense no-transcript. Others do the same.

Masha Borisova: 3:51

Yes, thank you. That actually reminded me of a quote I saw the other day. I shared in my Instagram is, you know? People say when I'm happy, when I lose weight, when I get that you know relationship, get that house, then I'll be happy. And what if we decide to flip that thought right? I'm already happy and that's how I'm going to get all those other things right. If we're chasing that emotion, most likely it's never going to be enough or it's going to be very temporary, right? So I think it's important to flip that thought be happy with what you have today, absolutely.

Nika Lawrie: 4:26

I think you know, um, gratitude is such a powerful tool in the sense of being grateful for what you have now and that motivates you to achieve bigger, better things. But the focus should be on the greatness and the good things that you have right now, especially because, like you said, you know, happiness, that feeling, it's fleeting, it comes for a moment and then it kind of fades out and and so constantly chasing. That is an endless cycle. That's truly, really unhealthy.

Masha Borisova: 4:54

Yeah, and you know what? I think the first step if I could share like with today with my client is we had our first session is building awareness around it, cause a lot of those don't know sometimes or even question what, what we do and why we do it. You know, going on a shopping spree you know right now it's probably online, but I've been there too where I bought, you know, stuff from from different websites, got the package and mail, opened it and then that high lasted for five minutes at the most most. Yeah, right, yeah. Then you're on to the next, Absolutely, yeah.

Nika Lawrie: 5:29

I mean, that's a big thing that I really work with people to think about is living consciously. So you know, my big thing is conscious living, and the idea is to really give thought to each decision we're making, whether that's a health decision, whether that's a decision that may have some type of impact on the planet, or just our day-to-day. You know we go through these, these. You know we just live on autopilot and we aren't thinking about what we're doing a lot of the time and we aren't thinking about the long-term impact that it's having on our health, on the wellbeing of our family and our children, or, you know, the planet as a whole too.

Masha Borisova: 6:09

Yeah, and a lot of the times, and I'm sure you would agree, a lot of the thoughts we have are not even ours, but we accept them as ours. Yes, right, and that turns into beliefs and then that, like you said, directs our actions and habits and everything else in life. So I think it's really important to live consciously, is to build, start examining your thoughts. It's almost like you're watching a movie, right? It's like is that character really me or is this just somebody else? Where is this coming from? Right? And then realizing what is really authentically you and sticking to that.

Nika Lawrie: 6:47

So I mean, I think that's so important I I'm I'm working on kind of a little micro class for my Facebook group around. There's a book called nudge and it was kind of a world renowned book a few years ago. They just came out with a new edition to it. But the topic that I'm kind of teaching around is that idea, the nudge theory, and what that is is that marketers, manufacturers, stores are purposely placing items and different things in specific areas to quote unquote, nudge us to purchase them. They're kind of messing with our subconscious decision-making process and enticing us to buy products that we don't necessarily need or want or even good for us. And so there's this whole theory about how you do that and how you place those items, and so, like you were saying so we're not even aware of how people are manipulating our, our thought processes, our decisions. You know our thoughts aren't necessarily ours.

Masha Borisova: 7:53

Yes, and I see that a lot on TV. I don't watch too much TV, I don't have much time to do that, but sometimes I catch a few shows. My guilty pleasure is the Bachelor. Sometimes I watch whatever, however many minutes I can make through shows. My guilty pleasure is the Bachelor. Sometimes I watch it, however many minutes I can make through it, because it can be a little bit too much. But the commercials that I see, especially late at night, it's just eating us. All these thoughts Like you want to have that burger, you want to have that, you know, I don't know candy bar or whatever else, super late at night, and I feel like it's time for people who control that is to almost make it illegal. I feel like in some other countries you can't show those things after 6 PM or so because that's not when you're supposed to. You know, put energy in your body.

Nika Lawrie: 8:37

Or you think about all the marketing towards children. There's a lot of countries that have banned, you know, marketing candy and cereal and sugary treats towards children, and there aren't those same kind of rules and laws here. So, yeah, so it's definitely, you know, being really conscious of all those things too.

Masha Borisova: 8:56

Yeah, and they will exist probably forever because that's what's profitable right For companies, for the beauty industry, right To show you all those commercials about makeup and same thing you know for alcohol and you know that is met. He's probably a lot of antidepressant commercials now with COVID and that's what, what feeds them. But you have the power to always choose your thoughts and decide what's really yours, absolutely.

Nika Lawrie: 9:24

So we digressed quite a bit from today's topic, but I love it and I think it's important. I think it's something that we, you know, really should talk about and address more often. So I appreciate having this, this kind of micro conversation with you about it. I wanted to get into, kind of what we were going to talk about today and that's really the menstruation cycle and its role in how we feel as women, especially kind of every day, and this isn't really just like your regular old PMS.

Nika Lawrie: 9:51

You know the term PMS is kind of thrown around a lot where there's, I think, a lack of understanding on what it actually is. But I wanted to talk to you a little bit today about how that plays a role in our everyday lives and how that can really affect us, especially as women, when we're trying to fit into the patriarchal society, the man's world, if you will. So, if you can, can you kind of start to explain maybe at a 10,000 foot view, excuse me of the effects that you know eating and exercise and kind of lifestyle habits might have in correlation to the menstruation, menstrual cycle?

Masha Borisova: 10:34

Yes, for sure. So a lot of people, like you said, they focus on the PMS symptoms because it's not really pleasant and as humans we automatically are drawn to what's what's not negative, right Versus the positive. There's actually good parts of our menstrual cycle. There's four stages. It's not just the bleeding stage, that's actually our stage one, which is called the menstrual phase. I like to explain it as bird's eye view, almost like the seasons, because our body is connected to nature and rhythms, right. So our menstrual phase is the winter season, right, and I don't know if you want me to get into what each each phase is or just to go over. Yeah, go ahead. So the the winter season is definitely a space for us, a time for us to reflect and restore our bodies. So think of it almost like hibernation. So your body is literally shedding and releasing. You know the lining of the uterus, so the hormones level are at their lowest right, and so is your energy. And I think a lot of women, because of the society we're in, where you are brought up with the exercise and fitness industry, saying you have to push through. Go jump on that soul cycle class, right, go do a HIIT class, go to a CrossFit class. Well, that is the last thing you want to do during this restorative time of your body's menstrual cycle, because your body will rebel and it will do the opposite. It will start actually storing fat. If you are not in rhythm with this stage, your body's hormones are going to completely disalign and you will start stressing your body out, therefore start gaining weight and, you know, feeling even worse. So it's super important to honor your body's menstrual phase.

Masha Borisova: 12:29

As far as food, what I would recommend is nurturing your body with a lot of warm foods. I think you had a guest before spoke about Ayurveda. So this is a perfect time for you the winter season to nurture your body with, with warm meals. So think of stews, of soups, high protein, things like kidney beans, wild rice just things that actually are nurturing for your body. And also decaf coffee, if you drink coffee, because that's also, if you have too much caffeine during the stage, it will stress your body out even more.

Masha Borisova: 13:09

And as far as activities, you know walking. I do a lot of walking, I do restorative yoga. Breath work is great, you know, even taking a nap. That's considered exercise during menstrual cycle. And also, this is not the time to socialize. This is the time to go inward. So don't yeah, I would not plan a date, a hot date or going out with the girlfriends when you are menstruating, because this is the time for you to go within yourself and reflect on on how you know the last month, for example, has been for you what you might want to let go of in the next one. So I think there's just kind of like a check-in with yourself. This is the opportunity to do it. I hope that makes sense.

Masha Borisova: 13:57

So that's the menstrual phase and as far as the second one after that. So this happens about three to seven days. This is the average time of the menstrual, the bleeding phase. After that is the follicular phase and that's when your body starts to wake up like spring. The flowers are starting to bloom. That happens for about a week to 10 days.

Masha Borisova: 14:21

So your levels of energy also go up. So this is a perfect time to spruce up your walks into maybe a little jog, right? So start slowly moving your body up. You might feel more optimistic, you might have glowing skin, your sex drive may start rising. So it's like your body is like awakening, and also it's an opportunity for you to explore and try something different. If you've been doing the same thing. As far as activity, maybe try a new class, you know, maybe try I don't know moving your body in a different way to with the energy you have. You know, explore other ways of movement. As far as as far as work, it's a great time to research. You know what you want to do with. Maybe, if you have a business, you know research what you want to do in your program with your clients, or you know who you want to work with or partner with in the future. Plan and prepare for the upcoming weeks, set your intentions and also fill your planner with activities you'd like to accomplish.

Masha Borisova: 15:33

So this is the planning stage and, as far as ovulatory phase, this is the summer season. I think of it as the hot summer dress kind of like season where you, you feel you feel really. You feel really good. You feel like you look really good, you feel good, um, you know you want to put on, you know, sexy lingerie and just just uh, this lasts about three to four days, but that's when you feel the sexiest, pretty much because you are producing a and also, this is the time for you to, if you decide this is the right thing for you is to do high energy workouts and a lot of people women sprints, kickboxing class. You have tons of energy, you know, let's, let's do something fun with it. And group exercises are also great.

Masha Borisova: 16:39

This is a great time to get yourself out there, pitch new ideas. Um, go on dates, you know, with your partner, brunch with the girlfriends Um, it's time to be seen and heard. So all eyes on you, okay. And then the last one. Last one is the luteal phase. This is the fall season, so that's when you are wrapping stuff up and you're getting the stuff done, whatever else you want to accomplish, like tying all the loose ends in your business, in your job. Also, it's a good time to organize your kitchen, your closet, your planner, your mindset, you know, just to make sure everything is how you want it to be.

Masha Borisova: 17:20

As far as, let's see, as far as your body, it's right now it's in a preparation. Naturally, what's happening in the luteal phase? Your body is preparing for pregnancy, right. So progesterone hormone does increase. So that's when you might start experiencing those pms symptoms like bloating water retention, right breast tenderness. So the best way to cope with it is obviously having the right nutrients in your body. So things like think of you know very high starch foods like sweet potatoes are great, squash things like apples and you know. If you guys are interested, I do have a guide as well. It's a free guide that I put together. It kind of breaks it down of what you should be doing or not Should I don't like that word should but ideas for you to follow throughout the month of how to move, what to eat, you know, how to go on dates, when not go on dates. All of that is in the free guide and I'll share that?

Nika Lawrie: 18:30

Yeah, I'll add that in the show notes too, just to make it as easy as possible.

Masha Borisova: 18:34

Yeah, cause I, you know, to be honest, it's like I was never taught this and when I was little, nobody really spoke to me about what I should be eating, like I didn't know. I have so much power in my body to to actually feel better instead of suffering with the PMS every single month. To actually feel better instead of suffering with the PMS every single month. And also allowing myself to rest, allowing myself to not socialize when I don't feel like it and, you know, just basically follow the natural rhythm. I forgot to finish with the luteal phase for exercise. There's actually two parts to it.

Masha Borisova: 19:09

It's the longest period of your menstrual cycle, it's about 10 to 14 days. So the first part I would say the first week is a great time to actually build muscle. So strength training, resistance, using your body weight as resistance training Think of reformer Pilates, which I love. Intense yoga, you know stuff like that. You don't necessarily have to go and lift weights, you know, with the boys in the gym it could be something else that works for you. And the second part of the month, or of the luteal phase, is to slow it down because you're getting closer to the menstrual right. So things like bar classes are great, matt Pilates, gentle yoga, stuff like that. So just you're winding it down a little bit, I hope that made sense?

Nika Lawrie: 20:01

No, absolutely.

Nika Lawrie: 20:02

And so many great little tips and tools I will absolutely link to your little guide just so that people I think it's a lot of information really fast, so it's like hard to digest, but it's powerful to just see the full picture, the full cycle, and know how that really affects how we felt literally day to day, let alone like week to week and throughout the month, you know.

Nika Lawrie: 20:26

And then when you think about that and how we as women are dealing with this all the time, you know our hormones are continuously changing with this all the time. Our hormones are continuously changing on us all the time and we're trying to fit all of these changes into a society that it's built around the kind of the man structure and men, while they still have kind of their own hormonal cycle, in a sense it's not quite as dominant as it is for women. And so really deciding to take a step back and actually allow our bodies to be the driving force in our decisions, opposed to just fitting into societal expectations, I think is really really important, and I love that you've brought kind of light to how and why that's working that way.

Masha Borisova: 21:10

Yes, for sure it is. I think it's time for for women, you know, to wake up and, you know, start deciding on what works for them. You know, I think for the last 20, 30 years, we've been kind of stuck in this cycle of where we do have to push through, whether it's at the gym or in the office, right With the 80 movement, with women coming to to the, to the corporate world, and you know, I I am for equality of all human beings, but at the same time, I think we also, um, you know, must respect our gender roles, because what's happening, um, in you know, I don't know if you would agree with me or not, but what's happening, I feel like a lot of women are becoming more masculine, they're becoming more. One thing is feeling empowered and one thing is it's, you know, thinking that I am, I can do anything men can do, but better even.

Masha Borisova: 22:05

Well, you know, what about the role of a woman? What about the role of a nurturer, somebody that holds space, somebody that shares her beautiful feminine self with the men? The men needs that. If the men does not get that from us, then they are lost also. So we are not functioning as yin and yang. There's no balance in life. So I think menstrual cycles are there for a reason to us for us, to remind us that we are feminine. We have a womb, we are women and it's super important to honor that.

Nika Lawrie: 22:38

Yeah, I think.

Nika Lawrie: 22:39

I mean I think also when you think about it in the sense of I mean, I too, I 100% believe in equality for everyone, no matter, you know, gender, gender, non-gender, and looking but let me step back, you know, having that equality for everyone.

Nika Lawrie: 22:56

But that equality also means that some of the other tasks and responsibilities outside of the corporate world need to be shared or balanced evenly as well. So, you know, we've had this big push of women going into the corporate world over the last you, the last 50, 60, 70 years, which I think is phenomenal, because women need that opportunity to have businesses and grow and develop and do all the magical things they want to do. But they also shouldn't be responsible for all of the laundry and all of the cleaning and all of the cooking and all of the child rearing and everything else that comes with it, and all of the child rearing and everything else that comes with it. There needs to be a um, a shift in in how those responsibilities are divided, because what is happening is that women are burning out because the expectations on us are much too high for anybody to be able to manage um health healthily.

Masha Borisova: 23:49

Yeah, I, I a hundred% agree with you. Us, as women, we feel like we have to give first right. Put the mask on everybody else before we put the oxygen mask on us. And if you ask most women from what I hear from my friends, from just things that I listened to on podcast and YouTube we are getting burned out. We don't have, you know, desire to to have sex anymore. We don't have desire to do fun things anymore. We're just pretty much surviving.

Masha Borisova: 24:17

So I think we need to take a step back and also communicate with our partner. If we have one, if you don't have, you know, connections, that there's always a you know, I'm sure community around you ask for help. I think we need to ask for help and also set boundaries with our partners. Especially if you are in the menstrual phase, the last thing you want to do is be doing everything around the house. Yeah, it's important to honor your rest and for your partner to honor that as well. Share responsibilities, maybe hire out help if you can, but working together instead of saying you're responsible for this and you're responsible for that. I feel like that has not gotten us anywhere and that's why a lot of divorce happens. I heard there's a decline in birth rates, apparently because we just want to be so right that we don't even want to communicate with the other human being, whether it's same-sex or opposite-sex of what we need help with and create boundaries with them, if that makes sense Absolutely.

Nika Lawrie: 25:24

So I want to take a step back and talk about kind of that PMS phase in a sense. Pms phase in a sense I'm using the general term there because I think it's much more complicated than what we think of it societally but can you give some tips or ideas of how we might be able to support our bodies if we're maybe dealing with cramps or we have my my mom used to call it the brink of disaster. She would have, you know, two or three days leading up to when her menstrual cycle would start, where she just felt really emotional, she was exhausted, maybe irritable, you know, and I I know a lot of women kind of deal with that. Do you have tips specifically around? How do we kind of manage that and maybe even mitigate it in the sense of starting to really manage our hormones and what's going on inside our body?

Masha Borisova: 26:20

Yeah, good question. So I would definitely start with what you're putting in your body, the quality of foods you are eating, and I do have the suggestions of what and why you should be eating. I think that's where we need to start using food as medicine Super important. The second thing you mentioned is emotions, and a lot of time, I think, in a society where we're taught that it's bad for us to feel the bad emotions, right, we shouldn't feel them. It just doesn't feel pleasant.

Masha Borisova: 26:54

Well, what I teach my students and I invite your audience to do is actually dive deeper into that emotion and allow it to come to surface so you can feel it all the way and, in a way, kind of dissolve it. There's a practice that is used it's called, I believe, the Sedona method. There's a book written about it where basically you bring your, your emotions and feelings up to surface to the point where you can't feel any worse I know it sounds very mesotistic, but it does help and then what you do is basically you dissolve your body. You dissolve that emotion with your body. So what I do is I do it through dance, so you know it doesn't have to be super active movement, but basically gently flowing your body through each of the emotions. So, whether it's feeling depressed, right, or feeling down, bring that all the way to surface, maybe turning some music and just feeling that emotion all the way through, because numbing ourselves out. I don't know if you know how it worked for other people, but it hasn't worked for me.

Masha Borisova: 28:02

Whether it's with alcohol or eating chocolate or whatever else, your cravings are during the PMS. Your body wants to feel safe, right, so it automatically goes for things that it learned is safe since you were very little, probably right. Whether it's a piece of cookie or ice cream, I don't know what your cravings are, but for me it's definitely chocolate during PMS, and you know it's a normal thing. And the last thing we should do is feel guilty about that emotion and that craving and allow our bodies to, instead of grabbing for that cookie, feel that emotion all the way and bring it to surface and use movement to process it through. I think that would be my suggestion.

Masha Borisova: 28:51

As far as cramps, I mean very simple things for me, like the heating pad, um, putting something warm, um on your stomach, or even taking a hot bath, you know is great. Taking a hard, hard shower, um, that definitely relieves it. Um, I don't really go for um, like if, if it feels really really bad, I mean, yes, there's you know, things like um pain medicine, right that. But I really I try to avoid it because there's a reason. Our body's trying to tell us something and it's important to tune in and listen to your body. What it's trying to tell you with that pain. Um, it's, it's an information for you, absolutely pain.

Nika Lawrie: 29:36

It's an information for you, absolutely, yeah. I would add to that too that some cramps may be normal, but really debilitating cramps. Usually that's your body telling you that there's something bigger going on there, and it may be worthwhile talking to a functional medicine doctor or some type of holistic physician, because they'll really start to look at root cause. Opposed to you know, uh, not bashing on the uh general medical system, but a lot of times they'll just give you a birth control pills that are a hormonal based pill or something like that, to kind of put a bandaid um over the pain, or they'll tell you to take some aspirin or ibuprofen and, um, you know that really debilitating cramps are really painful ones. That again, that really isn't normally a natural thing, and so it's worth investigating, just so that you're not in that kind of pain and and to know that your body is okay too.

Masha Borisova: 30:26

Yes, I agree with you. I I'm not a functional doctor, I'm more of like an emotional embodiment guide, and for me that works, like as far as bringing emotions to surface. But if you I'm not if you are in a lot of pain, please don't stay home and suffer through it Definitely the doctor, because that is definitely a sign that something's not okay. We're not supposed to suffer every single month, right?

Masha Borisova: 30:50

If you are truly in sync and in balance with your, with your body and all the phases of your cycle. Um, your hormones are in balance. Your PMS symptoms, um, you know, not supposed to be very drastic.

Nika Lawrie: 31:05

Yeah, I, I and I can, I can personally speak to that. I know when I was in my twenties I had bad cramps and a lot of emotions and had a hard time around. Um, you know my menstrual cycle and it wasn't until I really started to learn more about my body and started really focusing on nutrition and lifestyle changes. And now I really have almost no issues. I mean I could say probably no issues at all. It's you know that kind of comes and goes and you know that's it. I mean I could say probably no issues at all. It's you know that kind of comes and goes and you know that's it. I don't really notice that otherwise, and so, but it really came down to changing how I ate and how I treated my body throughout the month.

Masha Borisova: 31:49

Yes, and another thing I'd like to add with the menstrual cycle, your body is essentially cleaning or shedding right the lining of the uterus out of your body. So it's an opportunity, like I mentioned, to also decide what is too much in your life, what is causing stress in your life, what is causing disease in your life, right, not flowing in your life, and it's an opportunity to let go of that during the menstrual cycle, especially because why are we so emotional? Is again, something is either too much in our lives or maybe not enough. So it's important to examine that, you know, versus, like I said, numbing it out.

Nika Lawrie: 32:26

I love that, yeah, so this has been a fascinating topic and I'm super grateful for all the information you shared. I think it's really powerful and I really hope it helps so many women kind of start to listen to their body. But also I hope for the men listening that it helps them maybe approach their partners or their, their sisters or whomever um a female in their life a little bit different and maybe a little bit more compassionately to understand the process that we're going through every month too. Before I get in, I have some quick fire questions, but before I get into that, I just wanted to share, Masha, is there anything else around this topic that you'd like to share that we maybe haven't hit on already?

Masha Borisova: 33:07

Yes, I think the first thing I'd like to share is for menstrual cycle, and it's also on the guide that I provided that I think you'll share with your audiences. First, start tracking your period. There's a bunch of free apps out there you can use, or just by taking your basal body temperature, and day one of your cycle is when you start bleeding. So just to get more aware of what's going on with your body, let's start tracking it. And another thing is you know planning your months.

Masha Borisova: 33:38

If you have a business, it's good to have kind of have a window of what you know is best for you when to be social, when to pitch. So I have my Google Calendar actually designed in such a way so I know exactly the flow of my exercise routines and diet and all of that just to designed in such a way. So I know exactly the flow of my exercise routines and diet and all of that, just to kind of have a guideline and also implement changes one at a time. I know I provided tons of information. You're not supposed to do it the first month. Change some one thing every single month and it'll get easier and easier and, trust me, the PMS symptoms will go down as you nurture and benefit your body.

Nika Lawrie: 34:15

Absolutely. I love that you mentioned tracking, because that is a big thing for me as a functional nutrition counselor is tracking everything you know food, moop, um and mood Uh, I said moop because the next one I was going to say is poop. So, food, mood, poop, sleep, menstruation, you know, track as much as you can and do it for, you know, six months and you will really start to see these little red flags that are sticking out that you know I ate this and it made me feel this way, and then I had PMS, or you know you can start to really link everything together and so if you can spend a little time tracking that, um makes a huge difference in the long run. Yes, it's information, right. So, yeah, absolutely. So, masha, are you ready for the quick fire questions? Yeah, let's do it. Okay, perfect. So the first one is what is your favorite or most impactful book podcast? What?

Masha Borisova: 35:14

is your favorite or most impactful book, podcast or documentary and why I have to pick one right.

Masha Borisova: 35:17

Yeah, you can share more than one if you want, but if you have one specific one, Well, a lot of what I learned is actually from a book called In the Flow by Elisa Vitti. I don't know if you're familiar with her I'm not, but I'll have to check it out. Amazing, I found her on a podcast a few years ago. That's how I started to educate myself about menstrual cycle. So the book is called In the Flow and she also has an app where I think it'll help you track for free. But also it sends an email to your partner. It syncs with your partner's email so they have notifications of what they should be doing more of or less of that week.

Nika Lawrie: 35:59

That's a phenomenal thing. What's her name? Again, I wrote down the book name, but Elisa Vitti V-I-T-T-I. V-i-t-t-i, and I will link to all of her stuff in the show notes too, because that's really helpful. I love notifying the partner. That's huge, yeah, all right. So next question for you what is your best toxin-free or eco-friendly living tip?

Masha Borisova: 36:32

I would say definitely pay attention on things you put on your skin, on your body. I'm trying a series of products that are paraben sulfate-free, and I can already tell the difference how my skin is looking and also just how I'm feeling. Overall, I actually have more energy, and it makes a lot of sense because skin is our body's largest organ, hence why we absorb. All the stuff is usually coming from from the environment, from the skin.

Nika Lawrie: 36:59

So, yes, I suggest looking at what you're putting on your skin first, I love that that's your suggestion Cause I was actually thinking about that earlier. You'd mentioned something somewhere through the episode about you hormones changing and I was thinking about the lotions that a lot of us use the high fragrance, the synthetic fragrance lotions that we use and they can be endocrine disruptors so they can mess with our hormones throughout the month and so we may be using these lotions not thinking anything and they could be adding to our emotional struggles. They could be adding to our maybe depression and anxiety. There's debate on what it could be doing, but the fact that they are endocrine disruptors and that's been proven as a big deal, so considering your skin is a big deal.

Masha Borisova: 37:49

Yeah, I agree. And also dry brushing is huge, Like my personal routine is dry brushing. And then body oil. Natural body oils could be jojoba oil, coconut oil, anything like that. It's great for your system, the lymphatic system, right Draining a lymphatic system and also just keep giving yourself more love, your body more love.

Nika Lawrie: 38:12

Yeah, yeah, love that. Okay, second to last question for you. The second last is what does living consciously mean to you?

Masha Borisova: 38:22

Living consciously is I think we already spoke about a little bit being aware of, of what you're doing and why you're doing it, and also figuring out what's really true for you, right? Instead of, like you said, being an eye to pilot and just following the pack. Figuring out what really works for you and that's what I teach my ladies as well no diets, no exercise routines. Do what you enjoy the most. And living consciously meaning being aware of it and figuring it out.

Nika Lawrie: 38:54

So absolutely love that. Thank you, masha. All right, last question when can listeners connect with you? How can they find you online?

Masha Borisova: 39:02

Sure, they can find me on Instagram. That's where I post a lot of tips and fun reels and that's at your guide, masha. That's M-A-S-H-A. And also I have a little podcast channel called the Masha Show. Mostly it's me myself and I just saying myth busting about diet and exercise and body image as a woman in today's world. So, yeah, it's a lot of fun little recordings there for you. Yeah, I checked out a lot of fun little recordings there for you.

Nika Lawrie: 39:33

Yeah, I checked out a few of them. I love what you're doing. I think it's it's awesome, just the little tidbits of information to be shared so that people can kind of digest them quickly and and implement them into their lives. Yeah, yeah, awesome. Well, I will be sure to link to all of that, including Alyssa's links and then your guide as well in the show notes. So if you're listening, be sure to check all of that out. To connect with Masha. Masha, I want to thank you so much for being here. I commend you for the work you're doing because I just think it's so powerful and I'm excited every time I meet another IIN grad and just the good work we're doing to help heal people all over the world. So thank you, yes.

Masha Borisova: 40:13

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure, absolutely.