Energized with Dr. Mariza

Creating sustainable self-care practices involves The realization that slowing down is still moving forward Replacing the habits you remove with something positive and fulfilling Asking for and receiving what you want and need Using natural solutions from plants to support your wellness practices Spending quality time in nature  Do you find it hard to carve out time for yourself every single day? Like me, I bet there are days when you feel pulled in a million different directions, tending to everyone’s needs but your own. It takes dedication to stick to self-care practices while living a full, and sometimes hectic life. I get how self-care doesn’t always go according to plans. That’s why I brought on today’s guest to share her key wellness practices to embrace despite being overscheduled and busy. About Jovanka CiaresJovanka Ciares is the author of Reclaiming Wellness and several other titles. A certified wellness expert, integrative herbalist, nutrition educator, and coach, she offers lectures and workshops in Spanish and English. Jovanka studied nutrition with bestselling author T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., at his Center for Nutrition Studies (in partnership with Cornell University) and herbalism/plant medicine with Tieraona Low Dog, MD. A native of Puerto Rico, she lives in Los Angeles. Slowing Down and Getting Support So You Can Do More For YourselfAdapting wellness practices to your life, especially when you’re overwhelmed, is no simple task. Yet, as Jovanka explains, transformational habits and rituals can be integrated with ease and grace. This involves realizing that just because you might be slowing down, you are still moving forward. It also involves replacing the habits you remove with something more fulfilling. You’ll likely need to ask others to support you with this. Don’t be afraid to do so because receiving in itself is an act of generosity as Jovanka explains. FInding Natural Support from Plants and HerbsAn essential part of Jovanka’s process involves the medicinal nature of plants. Whether you need focus, energy, or relaxation, tapping into the power of plants can go a long way in supporting your wellness practices. Herbs and supplements can restore your endocrine system, support your body, and give your mind what it needs. Jovanka describes how a number of specific adaptogenic herbs can help support and sustain your self-care rituals.What can support you on your path to self-care and wellness? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section of the episode page. Quotes:“People need to start understanding that they are the experts in their body. The person you look at in the mirror every morning is the expert of you.” [11:19]“So you find some alternative solutions and, in combination with what your doctor recommends, there is no need for us to struggle through a lot of these hormonal changes.” [29:30]“We are part of mother nature and we need to reconnect with it. It’s critical to our health and wellbeing.” [33:50] In This Episode Understanding that you are the expert of your own body and advocating for what you need for it [6:30] Reclaiming what fulfills you after removing what doesn’t [15:30] How adaptogenic plants can help us adapt and reclaim our wellness [22:30] Why a connection with nature is an integral part of wellness [31:15]  Resources Mentioned:Use Promo Code ‘podcast’ for 10% off your order at the Essentially Whole Store HereJovanka Ciares’ WebsiteFollow Jovanka on Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | Linkedin | TwitterThe Reclaiming Wellness Book Other Resources:Check out the full show notes pageKeep up with everything Dr. MarizaFollow Dr. Mariza on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YoutubePodcast production & marketing support by the team at Counterweight Creative

Imagine what you could do with 20-30% more energy…How would it feel to have all of your tasks completed every day? And to not feel that mid-afternoon slump?.…Start adding easy self-care rituals to your daily routine, and your energy levels will rise… Nourishing your body is simple when you use my ten quick and easy ways to care for yourself! Tune in today to hear… How I rate my current energy level and how I plan to increase it Other benefits of proper self-care The self-care ritual that can help to balance your blood sugar What app do I recommend for quick and easy meditation How to make mundane tasks entertaining and care for yourself at the same time And more!  Mentioned in this episode: Daily Self-Care Journal Adrenal Love Related Resources: Essentially You episode #: 271 Change Your Life by Cultivating More Self-Love and Self-Compassion with Kerry Tepedino Essentially You episode #: 326 Powerful Techniques to Feel and Process Your "Mess," Including Breathwork, Meditation, and Movement with Ashley Bernardi Simple Daily Habits Are The Foundation To Overall Health Get More Energy With These Top 3 Habits Why Self-Care is the Key to Your Success

If You Want To Optimize Your Health, You Should: Use simple strategies like the SHIFT Protocol to uplevel your health in an incredible way Remember that patience and self-kindness are key to achieving the high-performance health you desire Find unity in the optimization of your mind, body, and spirit to find true healing  If you are feeling sluggish in the morning, foggy at the end of the day, easily triggered, or wired and tired, there is a good chance your hormones are crying for help. More often than not, the reason for our hormones being out of whack is due to inflammation. Luckily, there are a few key foundational lifestyle habits that you can start right now that will help you balance your hormones and allow you to start operating from a place of optimal performance. Achieving High-Performance Health with Angela FosterAngela Foster is a Nutritionist, Health & Performance Coach, and host of the top-rated podcast, High-Performance Health. Angela made the switch from a partner in a huge law firm after a serious illness in 2014. She has harnessed the integrative health practices and biohacking she used to heal herself into a program to help other women rebuild their physical and mental health while living a vibrant, healthy, and limitless life. Optimal Health = High PerformanceIf you want to function from a place of sustained high performance, the first way to do so is by building a solid foundation of optimal health. Angela believes it truly takes a journey to recovery of the mind, body, and spirit, but with a few simple lifestyle changes, these small steps can lead to big changes with time and patience. These changes can include fueling your body with gut and liver-loving foods, supplementing with high-quality nutrients, getting out into nature and the sunlight, moving and training your body and mindset, and getting deep restorative sleep. The SHIFT ProtocolAngela has created the SHIFT protocol to help you narrow in on what you need to focus on in order to live your life at your highest performance. Sleep, hormones, insights, fuel, and training your body and mind all play a key role in developing a core set of practices you can fall back on no matter what.The more that you learn about your body, the better you can understand what it is telling you and curate a plan that is going to work best for you. At the end of the day, we are our hormones, and what is driving our symptoms is coming from the way we operate in the world. So it is up to us to create a lifestyle in which we can function at our highest and most optimum performance and health levels.Are you ready to take your foundation of health more seriously in order to live a sustained high-performance life? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section of the episode page. In This Episode Why do we need to have conversations about hormones with young girls earlier in order to avoid issues down the line (19:34) The biggest needle movers when it comes to managing and deregulating your stress response system (22:05) How the SHIFT protocol can help you optimize for higher performance with ease and grace and without perfection (29:50) Tips for training your body and mind for optimization (38:20) A message of hope for those struggling with depression, anxiety, and more (42:29)  Resources Mentioned:Use Promo Code ‘podcast’ for 10% off your order at the Essentially Whole Store HereGet Dr. Mariza’s Liver Loving Superfoods Guide HereFemale Biohacker Collective MembershipAngela Foster WebsiteFollow Angela on Instagram | Facebook Other Resources:Check out the full show notes pageKeep up with everything Dr. MarizaFollow Dr. Mariza on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YoutubePodcast production & marketing support by the team at Counterweight Creative Related EpisodesEssentially You Episode #352: My Top Five Biohacking Devices to Uplevel Your Health

Food is the foundation of every healthy lifestyle. It nourishes your cells and becomes fuel for your body…Food is so deeply enmeshed with our culture, and we usually end up with a few favorite foods. But when it comes to staying healthy, some foods are better than others.…There are several hormone, gut, and liverloving superfoods that I keep stocked in my kitchen… Adding these ten superfoods to your diet will help your body thrive! Tune in today to hear… The three things I’ve committed to for myself this Spring Lab test information What to focus on after improving your food habits The foods that are rich in magnesium The housekeepers of your immune system And more!  Mentioned in this episode: Mother's Day Sale: live May 4-9 Hormone Lab Testing Related Resources: Essentially You episode #: 215 How Your Diet Can Make or Break Your Hormone Health Essentially You episode #: 322 How Nutrient-Depleted is Our Food Today and What We Can do About it with Jenn Trepeck 5 Superhero Superfoods You Need Now! Junk Food Disguised as Health Food Stop Inflaming Your Thyroid with These 4 Foods

If You Want to Heal From Burnout, You Should: Take Dr. Doni’s test to identify your unique stress patterns and responses Set boundaries around your self-care by taking small incremental steps toward change Shift the experience of your nervous system by creating habits that enforce the rewriting of your stress patterns  Even before the pandemic, feeling burned out had become the norm. Feeling physically and emotionally exhausted can have severe health consequences, which is why it is so frustrating when we feel like we are making progress, only to be hit with those same fatigue and burnout symptoms. The first step to addressing these symptoms is to understand your unique stress response pattern and learn specific strategies that can make a huge impact on your stress type. Know Your Stress TypeStress is a silent killer that leads to inflammation and disease down the road. However, how our stress shows up is unique to each one of us. In her new book, Dr. Doni has defined the five major stress types or stress patterns that she commonly sees and lays out a guideline for how you can master whatever kind of stress you have.When healing from chronic stress or burnout, it is the first step that matter the most. We all deserve to know our unique stress response patterns, and in turn, we can create daily habits and tools that address these patterns and heal our body. Living Life Burnout FreeWhen we can understand how our cells work and how they are impacted by stress, we can give our mitochondria the right nutrients and day-to-day changes to heal them. While it can be challenging to walk the line between staying out of chronic stress mode while still living your life and all of the responsibilities that come with it, figuring out your stress type is the best first step for your treatment.Ultimately, our health is determined by many factors, but one of the biggest ones is our environment. We need to learn how to rewrite our stress patterns and tailor our healing strategies to our unique stress responses to have the best chance of successful healing. By taking small steps to learn about how your body operates in the world, you can shake your burnout and get back to living life on your terms.Are you ready to heal from your burnout and stop letting stress run your life? Share your thoughts about Dr. Doni’s approach with me in the comments section of the episode page. Resources Mentioned:Use promo code ‘podcast’ for 10% off your order at the Essentially Whole Store herePre-Order Master Your Stress by Dr. Doni Wilson HereDr. Doni's SelfC.A.R.E. Stress ResetDr. Doni WebsiteFollow Dr. Doni on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter Other Resources:Check out the full show notes pageKeep up with everything Dr. MarizaFollow Dr. Mariza on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YoutubePodcast production & marketing support by the team at Counterweight Creative Related EpisodesEssentially You Episode #228: Overcome Burnout and Improve Your Mental and Emotional Resilience with Juliet Obodo

Without question, women in their late 30s to early 50s are busy! Many of us are caretakers, parents, and businesswomen at this age and have important roles in our community…At the same time, a roller coaster of symptoms hits us. Many doctors don’t have answers to your questions, and they aren’t addressing the root cause of the problem…Understanding what’s going on is so important because the key to thriving in menopause is how you deal with the prior transition period, also known as perimenopause… There is a lot we can do to make this transition easier! Tune in today to hear… What is happening to your hormones in each phase of perimenopause The average age at menopause, according to the North American Menopause Society Perimenopause symptoms that can show up in your mid-30s The hormone that is almost always lower than expected The cause and symptoms of estrogen dominance And more!  Mentioned in this episode: The EO Menopause Solution Hormone Quiz Progest-Restore Magnesium Restore Calm and Restore Activated B Complete Hormone Balance Related Resources: Essentially You episode #: 185 How Perimenopause Affects Your Period and What You Can Do to Eliminate Severe PMS Symptoms Essentially You episode #: 279 The Secret to Gliding Not Slamming into Perimenopause and Beyond with Dr. Lakeischa, MD 5 Practical Ways to Take Care of Yourself During Perimenopause 8 Common Perimenopause Symptoms and How to Get Relief Naturally Are You Getting Enough Protein During Perimenopause and Menopause?

If You Want to Change Your Beliefs Around Menopause, You Should: Remember that your body is always working towards health Try to understand the reasons and influences on your symptoms Set boundaries, create menopause rituals, and figure out the goals of your most authentic self  Menopause is a time of endless possibilities once we are clear about what we want in our journey and our vision. Nature never intended for us to unravel and diminish over time. Instead, we should celebrate and thrive in this prime phase of our lives. By doing the work to inquire about who you truly are, you can be open to the transformation that is menopause. Changing the Menopause Narrative with Susan WillsonSusan Willson is a Certified Nurse Midwife with 45 years of experience guiding all phases of women’s health. She has spent the last 20 years working exclusively with women in the menopausal transition, and her new book, Making Sense of Menopause: Harnessing the Power and Potency of your Wisdom Years, helps positively reframe this powerful time in a woman's life. She is passionate about exploring the falsehoods we have absorbed as women and offers a look into the deep sea change happening at this time in our lives. The Many Sides of MenopauseWomen have absorbed many false myths from society and the medical community about who we are and how our bodies work, impacting how we experience changes in our lives and our bodies. Often we get caught up in the physical changes of menopause but do not stop to think about the emotional, mental, and spiritual effects that this change is having on us as well. While menopause is a transition, it is also a time to review how you live your life and decide what you want to bring to this new phase of life. You Are Worth the WorkSusan believes that the best tool to help you uplevel yourself during this next phase is by getting clear on what is serving you, what is meaningful to you, and what isn’t. Menopause is a great time to become yourself fully with no restrictions, but you need to ask yourself what you are really passionate about. Menopause is a vital gateway to a rich and fulfilling life when you can shift your mindset to embrace your full capacity. While it will take some work to get clear on who you are and what you want, you are worth it.Are you ready to change the narrative surrounding menopause and create your new phase of life by design? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section of the episode page.In This Episode Discover the history and reasons behind the way that we view menopause as a culture (8:39) How to transform your mindset around transitioning from your life before menopause to during and beyond (17:52) Why menopause is an evolutionary movement that is opening the door for the next generation of women (21:53) The role menopause plays when shifting expectations around relationships and responsibilities (29:30) How engaging with your sisterhood can help you reflect and honor your journey (41:32)  Resources Mentioned:Use Promo Code ‘podcast’ for 10% Off Your Order at the Essentially Whole Store HereMaking Sense of MenopauseFollow Susan on Facebook | Instagram Other Resources:Check out the full show notes pageKeep up with everything Dr. MarizaFollow Dr. Mariza on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YoutubePodcast production & marketing support by the team at Counterweight Creative Related EpisodesEssentially You Episode #117: What It Means to Practice Your Own Self-Care and Authenticity with Elena BrowerEssentially You Episode #269: Owning the Wisdom of Menopause with Christiane Northup M.D.

You know you need to limit your sugar intake, so you start your day with the best of intentions. But before you know it, stress shows up, you're getting hungry, and it gets hard to make wise decisions. You cave, telling yourself it's only temporary. But soon, you're feeling hungry and tired and craving more sugar. The cycle seems to repeat perpetually. You want to do better, but…First, you need to deal with the blood sugar crash…I’m sharing five things you can do after overeating to stabilize your blood sugar! Tune in today to hear… What happens in your body after you eat sugary food When to expect a blood sugar crash How my blood sugar reacted after drinking some lemonade What to do instead of napping after eating too much What to eat to slow down a blood sugar spike And more!  Mentioned in this episode: Essentially You episode #340: Why Going on a Walk After Dinner is One of the Best Things You Can Do for Your Health Magnesium Restore Related Resources: Essentially You episode #: 286 What You Need to Know About the Relationship Between Blood Sugar Levels and Your Menstrual Cycle Essentially You episode #: 320 Top 10 Worst Foods for Blood Sugar + How Blood Sugar Impacts Women's Hormone and Metabolism with Casey Means How Stress Contributes to Insulin Resistance, Diabetes and Stubborn Weight Gain 6 Easy Ways to Block Blood Sugar Spikes 5 Steps to Breaking Up With Sugar

Get in Touch With Your Values by: Take 30 minutes to 1 hour Go out in nature, get away from your house Jot down your top 5 values for yourself and your family When you get so clear on what your values are, you begin to look at your life through a different lens and reevaluate what really matters. We all want to live our purpose. My guest, Dr. Varnado (Dr. V), joins me today to talk about the one little secret to help you get there: defining your values and living them. Figure out what your values are and compare them to your life - do they align? If not, Dr. V shares her best tips for creating a healthier work/life balance that focuses on harmony. You can hear more from Dr. V on her podcast, Office Visits with Dr. V.Creating Harmony to Prevent BurnoutExperiencing burnout is, unfortunately, more common than not. But reaching that point doesn’t have to be the end of the world. As my guest today, Dr. Varnado says, that ah-ha moment of realization was the start of change.There is good news! It is actually possible to find that work/life balance. Dr. V says the key is harmony. This is what happens when you create a life that matches up to your values. There is so much importance in determining what your values are and living your life in alignment with them.Dr. V also talks about the importance of asking for help when you need it. We don’t need to do it all ourselves. Create those opportunities to help you prevent burnout. Treating Burnout at a Systemic LevelDr. V talks about how much burnout, and in fact, much of chronic disease, as well, relates to our lifestyle. But these circumstances are not always something that is easily solved ourselves - a lot of change has to come from a systemic level. She emphasizes some of the changes the American medical system needs to make, especially when it comes to ob/GYN services and maternity leave.Finally, we talk about the importance of figuring out the root cause of your burnout and suffering. By finding out what’s actually causing it, you can make changes where you actually need to - not just putting a bandaid on the latest fire.I want you to look at your values. Take some time away from your house to reflect and write down your top five values for yourself, your home life work-life, and wherever you’re spending the most time. Now compare them to how you’re actually living - do they align? Let me know in the comments on the episode page how you’re going to make some positive changes in your life to realign to your values.In This Episode What happens when you have an ‘ah-ha’ moment that you’re burned out [11:30] How to find a work/life balance when you have a young family [16:00] The importance of reviewing and honoring your values [18:30] How to create opportunities to prevent burnout [20:00] What changes the American medical system can make to improve the birth and maternity experience [23:00] Why you need to address the root cause of your suffering and burnout [34:00]  Resources Mentioned:Use promo code ‘podcast’’ for 10% off your order of Magnesium hereFind Dr. Varnado OnlineFollow Dr. Varnado on Instagram | Facebook Other Resources:Check out the full show notes pageKeep up with everything Dr. MarizaFollow Dr. Mariza on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YoutubePodcast production & marketing support by the team at Counterweight Creative

Women today wear so many hats. We have packed schedules, raise children, take care of our families, run a business or fulfill work obligations, and more. We’re so busy taking care of everyone else that sometimes we forget to take time to care for ourselves. This lifestyle leads to feeling rushed, triggered, and stressed. Our stress response systems are over-activated, and our cortisol levels are surging… These high cortisol levels and overactivated stress responses are not without consequence… I have five ways to help you reset your system and avoid those negative consequences! Tune in today to hear… Why my stress response has been over-activated lately Signs to help you identify stress and burnout How high cortisol levels can affect your brain What safety signals you can use to communicate with your brain The benefits of tracking your Heart Rate Variability (HRV) And more!  Mentioned in this episode: The EO Menopause Solution Essentially You episode #353: The No. 1 Most Important Thing We Can Do to Tame Feeling Overwhelmed, Stressed and Triggered with Emily Fletcher Heart Math Device Whoop Strap Rhodiola Ashwagandha Chamomile Tea Holy Basil Tea Calm and Restore Essential Oils Adrenal Love Blend Neuro+ Support Blend Magnesium Zen Sleep Blend Related Resources: Essentially You episode #: 183 Tips to Instantly Circuit-Break Stress and Overwhelm with Dr. Heidi Hanna Essentially You episode #: 240 How to Conquer Stress and Hormonal Imbalance Through Optimizing Mitochondria and Cortisol with Dr. Carrie Jones How Stress Contributes to Insulin Resistance, Diabetes and Stubborn Weight Gain 5-Minute Stress-Stopping Hacks Best Supplements to Overcome Stress & Get More Energy