Ep 167: Optimize Your Thyroid for Hormone Health, Metabolism, and Fat Loss with Haley Fountain
Are you struggling with weight due to thyroid issues? Confused about the role of minerals in thyroid function? Do you need a roadmap for exercise and nutrition with a thyroid condition?
Today, Philip (@witsandweights) welcomes Haley Fountain, a women's health coach who balances modern nutrition with ancient wisdom and behavioral science. Haley is certified as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and specializes in Hormonal Health. She's also a yoga instructor, model, and actress.
In this episode, you will learn about the world of thyroid health. This complex issue impacts your weight, metabolism, sleep, and mental health. Haley will guide us through managing weight with a thyroid condition, the role of minerals in thyroid function, and the importance of exercise and nutrition. They'll also explore how the mind-body connection and sleep contribute to thyroid health.
Haley is dedicated to empowering women to thrive. She offers personalized coaching, organizes events, and hosts retreats to create a supportive environment for women to connect with their health and well-being. Her approach is to provide accessible and practical information, regardless of where individuals are on their health journey. Whether someone is dealing with thyroid issues or simply seeking to expand their knowledge, Haley's expertise promises to be valuable.
Today, you’ll learn all about:
2:11 The importance of the thyroid and its function
4:26 The conditions associated with the thyroid
6:05 Hormones vs. lifestyle
8:22 The role of the thyroid in metabolism and weight management
12:27 How do you approach meal spacing and diet
18:36 The link between minerals, supplementation, diet, and thyroid health
27:33 How to test for mineral deficiency
33:04 Exercise for thyroid health
35:45 The impact of the third leg of movement
37:29 Specific foods that are helpful for the thyroid
41:22 The value of sleep, naps, and yoga
45:22 What Hely wished Philip had asked
48:19 Where to learn more about Haley
48:47 Outro
Episode resources:
Haley’s website: holisticinhouston.com/
YouTube: @holisticinhouston1
Episode summary:
Thyroid health is a topic that is often shrouded in mystery, yet it is a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to our overall well-being and hormonal balance. In this episode, women's health coach Haley Fountain provided a comprehensive look at how to master thyroid health for optimal hormonal harmony. The thyroid gland, a small butterfly-shaped organ located in the neck, plays a pivotal role in regulating numerous bodily functions, including energy levels, metabolism, heart rate, and muscle building. However, the signs of thyroid dysfunction can be subtle and are often mistaken for other conditions, such as Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) or even stress.
One of the first points Haley Fountain touched on was the importance of recognizing symptoms like fatigue, hair loss, and gut problems as potential indicators of thyroid imbalance. She emphasized that these symptoms should not be considered normal and that addressing them is crucial for maintaining health. Haley also discussed how over-exercising could have detrimental effects on hormone levels, particularly thyroid hormones, and consequently on weight loss efforts. This insight is particularly relevant for individuals who are frustrated with their lack of progress despite rigorous exercise routines.
In addition to exercise, the discussion turned towards the significance of diet and lifestyle in managing thyroid-related health challenges. Conditions like hypothyroidism, often underdiagnosed, can have a profound impact on one's life. Haley Fountain highlighted the nuanced interplay between genetics and lifestyle in our hormonal ecosystem, indicating that while genetics do play a role, diet and lifestyle are equally, if not more, significant contributors to thyroid health.
The episode delved into the importance of blood sugar stability, which is intrinsically linked to weight management and thyroid function. Strategies for achieving blood sugar balance were discussed, such as ensuring adequate protein intake, meal spacing, and even the use of glucose monitors for tracking. The conversation tackled intermittent fasting and its effects on women with hormonal imbalances, recommending a tailored approach to eating windows and meal frequency. Additionally, the benefits of movement, such as walking post-meal, were highlighted to aid blood sugar regulation.
Another focal point was the importance of minerals in thyroid health. Haley shared her insights on how superfoods like spirulina and sea vegetables can contribute to our nutritional intake and support thyroid function. She underscored the need for minerals like selenium and zinc, which are vital in converting thyroid hormones from inactive to active forms, and suggested natural sources like Brazil nuts and organ meats to supplement these minerals. The balance between minerals like zinc and copper was also discussed, emphasizing the need for maintaining appropriate levels when supplementing with nutrients.
Throughout the episode, the value of low-impact movement for weight management and hormonal balance was reiterated. Over-exercising can lead to excess production of stress hormones, negatively affecting thyroid health. Instead, activities such as yoga, walking, and resistance training were advocated. Nutritionally, the importance of incorporating specific foods into one's diet, such as sea vegetables and berries, was examined, noting their rich iodine content and other beneficial minerals. The episode concluded by underscoring the critical importance of sleep for overall health and thyroid function, suggesting consistent sleep schedules and addressing the potential impacts of napping.
🎓 Join Wits & Weights Physique University
👩💻 Schedule a FREE nutrition/training audit with Philip
👥 Join our Facebook community for support, live Q&As, & challenges
✉️ Join the FREE email list with insider strategies and bonus content!
📱 Try MacroFactor for free with code WITSANDWEIGHTS. The only food logging app that adjusts to your metabolism!
🩷 Enjoyed this episode? Share it on social and follow/tag @witsandweights
🤩 Love the podcast? Leave a 5-star review
📞 Send a Q&A voicemail
Have you followed the podcast?
Get notified of new episodes. Use your favorite podcast platform or one of the buttons below. Then hit “Subscribe” or “Follow” and you’re good to go!
Transcript
Haley Fountain 00:00
As I mentioned before, if you are over exercising, that you are pumping out way too much adrenaline and cortisol in your body which is going to negatively impact all of your hormones, specifically your thyroid hormones, and cause all sorts of imbalances so it actually can stunt your weight loss goals.
Philip Pape 00:18
Welcome to the wit's end weights podcast. I'm your host, Philip pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger. Optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition will uncover science backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in Whitson weights community Welcome to another episode of the weights and weights Podcast. Today I'm excited to welcome Haley fountain to the show. Haley is a women's health coach who balances modern nutrition with timeless ancient wisdom and behavioral science. She's a certified Integrative Nutrition health coach specializes in Hormonal Health, and she's a yoga instructor, model and actress. Today we're exploring thyroid health, which I know is a topic that hits close to home for many of you listening. It's a complex issue. It affects everything from your weight, your metabolism to your sleep, and even your mental health. Haley is here to simplify it for us how to manage your weight when you have a thyroid condition, the link between minerals and thyroid function. Why exercise and nutrition are so important, and what you should be doing, as well as how the mind body connection and sleep all play into thyroid health. Haley lives in Houston, Texas, and is on a mission to help women thrive through her one on one coaching events and retreats. She's creating a space for women to really connect with themselves and their health on a deeper level. Hailey's approach is to make information accessible and actionable, no matter where you are on your health journey. So whether you're dealing with thyroid issues yourself, or just looking to broaden your health knowledge, stick around because this is going to be a good one. Haley, I'm very happy to have you on the show.
Haley Fountain 02:06
Thank you, Philip.
Philip Pape 02:07
I'm really excited to be here. And today we're talking about thyroid health. So the listeners love to just jump into the topic. But I definitely want to have some context, you know, from your experience in your background as we get into it. So the first question is really what's so important about this endocrine gland and the hormones it's it secretes for health in general women's health, specifically, and what is your background in that area?
Haley Fountain 02:29
Yeah, so for the thyroid, for anyone who doesn't know it's an endocrine gland, as you said, it's a butterfly shaped gland that's actually right here. So we're like, underneath where like, the middle of your throat and your like collarbones are. And it's a very important part of our endocrine system that regulates, you can honestly call it the master regulator, like it regulates everything from your energy to your weight, even like your heart rate, and so many other things in the body. So it's a very, very important part of our entire ecosystem in our bodies. And quite often, a lot of health issues are actually undercover thyroid issues. So you know, just to give you a quick glimpse of issues that could be related to your thyroid, if you have PMS symptoms, if you have low energy or fatigue, especially fatigue in the morning, brittle nails, brittle hair, hair loss, even memory and focus issues, these are actually things that people consider to be quite normal or just it just something they have to deal with. But these could be related to your thyroid gut issues can also be related to thyroid. So those are just a few of the things low libido, low sperm count in men. Really, almost everything can be linked to that diary. But those are just a few of like, the common symptoms that we in sort of modern society have deemed as normal, but are actually things that are linked to our thyroid.
Philip Pape 03:56
Yeah, that's amazing that it has it's tied to so much. And I understand, you know, hormones are complicated. And there's multiple glands that secrete different things that actually impact other hormones like the, I guess the pituitary gland probably, you know, releases the stimulating hormones that we're all familiar with, like T three and T four. And we often talk about thyroid, just to simplify it with our metabolic rate, right as a metabolic regulator to and even protein synthesis. So a lot of my listeners were in the building muscle and your thyroid can affect that, I believe, so. Pretty cool. It's good to know that so what are the conditions associated with the thyroid that we can just list out so people are aware or people that not just like hypothyroidism, but are there other conditions like Hashimotos and such that are linked to it?
Haley Fountain 04:38
Yeah. So again, I think the research is still emerging on these but definitely hypothyroidism which is like low thyroid essentially or hyper hyperthyroid which is high thyroid, which is a lot less common. Hypothyroidism is becoming much more prevalent today. And actually, I think there's the statistics I saw were about there's 50% of the people that have it are walking You're on and don't even know it, which is pretty crazy. Hashimotos Of course, autoimmune disorder, there's actually a lot of like fertility and reproductive issues that are being tied to thyroid issues as well. Those are probably the ones that come to the top of my head. And, you know, I work specifically with women. So a lot of women were linking PCOS, is quite often being misdiagnosed. And we're finding that it's actually hypothyroidism, excuse me, instead of PCOS, which is I find very fascinating, and the research is still emerging there as well. But there's a lot of misdiagnosis and particularly in because women are more affected by thyroid issues than men, statistically speaking. So a lot of female reproductive issues such as PCOS, even women who are having it's not necessarily a diagnosis, but women that are having menopausal issues and like are having a really tough time with menopause they're finding is actually related to thyroid health. So
Philip Pape 06:00
if we want to get into the lifestyle side of managing of thyroid condition in the symptoms, before we do that, one of the big questions a lot of women seem to always have and I do as well, chicken and egg like, which comes first? Is it hormone conditions that we have that are causing all the problems? Or is it a lifestyle that causes the hormone issues that causes the problems? Generally, you know, obviously, just generalizing it? That's
Haley Fountain 06:23
so hard to answer. It's a really good question. It really it is specific on the individual, it really depends. I would say if I if I had to say for the majority of people, I would say it is lifestyle, nutrition or causing the imbalances for the majority, but that's not for everyone. Unfortunately, like if a mother is pregnant and has hypo or hyperthyroidism, any any issues with a thyroid, those things can not necessarily the the thyroid condition can be passed on in itself, but it causes imbalance in the fetus, which then if those aren't addressed, when the child is young, the child will also grow up to have thyroid issues, but it's not like it's something like specifically that is being passed on. It's more like it causes an imbalance which then because of lifestyle, nutrition, the modern American diet and lifestyle, at least that's what the research is showing. So, again, it is specific on the individual there are some people who just genetics or whatever it is, unfortunately have a lower thyroid or higher but generally speaking for most people, it is the even if you are a predisposition to have a you know, low thyroid or high thyroid, you it will be exacerbated through diet and lifestyle. So I guess Yeah, as I'm saying this out loud. I'm like diet, lifestyle and nutrition really, for nearly everyone.
Philip Pape 07:40
Which, which is empowering, right, it's empowering, because it's something we can have control over. And at the same time you leave open the door for not discounting, real issues. And we just we did an episode about gaslighting against women in healthcare recently. And we talked about someone who had hypothyroidism at like the age of eight, and doctors were, you know, basically ignoring it, despite gaining massive weight compared to the average, despite her lifestyle being the same as her sibling. So it's like, you know, I want people to know that the support can be there. And we're going to talk today a little bit about that on the medical side. But for the most part, I want to focus on the lifestyle side, because at least if you could dial that in, you can rule things out and get a clearer picture of what might be going on. Yeah, so speaking of that, the first thing that comes to mind for I'm guessing for most women is like the weight issues or the weight resistance, or it's hard to lose, or et cetera, with a thyroid condition. Let's talk about the role of thyroid metabolism and weight management, and then what we can do about it. Yeah,
Haley Fountain 08:40
for sure. So this is something I have a lot of clients that deal with this. And I really, really empathize with them. And I know it's such a struggle, because not only having like a health condition, but the mental toll of getting some sort of diagnosis or being told you have, you know, low thyroid height, you even you know, if it's weight gain, it's going to be low thyroid, if that coupled with like trying to lose weight and dealing with the body image issues of that is really hard, and it's becoming more and more prevalent. So I really feel for the women that are dealing with this. So yeah, our thyroid is where do I begin? So our thyroid is going to impact like we talked about earlier, every element of our metabolism of our gut health, the way that our body actually absorbs food and converted into energy, right? So a big thing that I find for women, one when they have gained weight, and we have identified it as a thyroid issue, the number one thing you have to focus on his blood sugar balance. And that's, I would say that's number one key because that is how we avoid other issues because a lot of the women I work with a lot of women that have PCOS. And as I mentioned, for a lot of them, there's some sort of lingering thyroid issue that has maybe been identified but not addressed directly and the you know, when we don't get it in We don't keep our blood sugar balanced, we will that can lead to insulin resistance. It causes crazy mood swings and energy issues with our energy, it impacts our ability to fall asleep, and to wake up at normal time. So that's the first thing. So a couple of like to get really granular with a blood sugar balance couple of things that you can do, obviously, making sure you're getting enough protein. Most women are not getting enough protein in their diet. And it depends on how active you are in a lot of things I generally tell most women try to get at least 30 grams per meal 30 Plus, that's a good start, if you don't know a whole lot about nutrition, or I've never really tracked what you eat. And then the second thing is making sure you're eating enough. So a lot of women are under eating. And that's whenever you have when you've gained weight naturally for most people, unless you're like very educated a nutrition and fitness, your natural inclination is to eat less right to cut back on food, that calorie caloric restriction. But the problem with that is that can actually exacerbate it as well and make the issues worse and your body goes into starvation mode. And so we don't want to do that. You want to make sure you're getting enough, you know, macronutrients getting enough protein enough carbohydrates enough, you know, fats and fiber is also really important for balancing the blood sugar. So those are, you know, a couple of things. And another thing I work with my clients on is actually playing with how you space out your meals. So, a couple of things there, a lot of people will like for example, eat dinner and then have a snack like an hour later. I always tell my clients, you know, just eat more at mealtime. If you feel like you're hungry an hour or two after mealtime, you need to eat more when at mealtime. And the reason for that is a couple of things, it helps with a blood sugar spike, because if you're eating too often, then your your body needs to go in a little bit of a dip in the blood sugar a little lower to actually help regulate. So if you're constantly just climbing the blood sugar ladder, that's gonna cause issues as well. So that's one of the biggest thing. So generally speaking, it's different for everyone spacing your meals out three to five hours is what I found is a sweet spot, I usually get my clients to wear glucose monitors to help them kind of see that if that's something they struggle with. So I'm getting really granular there. But that's number one is the the blood sugar balance with the weight management and a thyroid condition.
Philip Pape 12:11
Yeah, let's just I love granular and I think my listeners do too weak. You hit on so many points we love to address and I know protein and calories are like the first thing that working with women, it's like, oh, I can't eat that much, or I can't get that much protein. And it's okay, let's let's work on it. We know that there's an opportunity there. And the fiber everything. I like the meal spacing piece of it, which How do you address when you're asking to eat a lot more calories, and they feel full? And that's part of the reason they want to eat more frequently. You just space it out throughout the day. Like let's let's avoid these long fasting windows. But let's also speak have a long feeding window. Is that the approach you take?
Haley Fountain 12:45
Yeah, I like that you brought that up too. Because that's another thing is, you know, intermittent fasting is very popular. And for good reason. It has been found to help with you know, burning fat. And even a lot of people use it for like workflows and stuff. The problem with it for women that have any and I speak about women because that's who I work with directly, but this can impact everyone. I find that intermittent fasting works really well for men and not so well for women, especially women that have like hormonal issues. A lot of women that have thyroid issues are skipping breakfast, and then that spike in their blood sugar, which is spiking their cortisol and you know, cortisol kills your thyroid and every other hormone in your body, which is cortisol is a stress hormone for anyone listening, but I'm sure people already know that. And so making you eat it actually eating breakfast in the morning and just making that fasting window a little, a little smaller, I still think it's good to space out, you know about try to have at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast the next day, I think that's you know, at a minimum 12 to 14 hours, you can still get you know, I tell my clients a really good schedule if you work like a normal kind of or a common corporate job schedule is have breakfast at like eight or nine have lunch at 12 have like a second snack but like heavier than a snack more like meal at three ish and then have dinner at seven. And you still have more than 12 hours of a fasting window. So four meals a day essentially, if you're getting you know if you just really can't eat any more at mealtime, and that typically works well. So if three meals a day if you're getting too full, then just space it out to four with at least three hours in between. You gotta be
Philip Pape 14:13
practical about it for sure. Some of us work on it out early in the morning. So then it just you just want to shift it it's all okay so there's also movement that comes to mind with blood sugar. I know I've talked about like walking after you eat and things like that. I'd like you to address that and then the hot button carbs. I don't know fully what your background or stance is on that but I won't reveal mine if you're not aware of it. So go ahead. Yeah,
Haley Fountain 14:32
sure. So movement Yeah, movement and you know, we can dive into exercise a little bit but yeah, either going for a walk after you exercise or actually going for a walk after you eat, that postprandial walk is so important to help lower your blood sugar and also I think we one thing about walking that we forget is not only is it a form of exercise, but it is a mental break. It is a form of stress reduction that we have to we have to do if you think about our ancestors, they walked everywhere. Some of us never actually touched the ground, we never touched the earth like walking is so grounding. It's great for us mentally physically, like every, every element of our body needs walking. So walking is really good with thyroid conditions. I often see again, because many men and women who have low thyroid will want to exercise a lot to over exercise that can actually make your symptoms worse as well. So you want to go for low impact exercise and things like yoga, and I'm a big yoga Pilates, you know, bar person, I really promote that and like a lot of walking and maybe, you know, a couple sessions of aerobic exercise per week, but a lot of the people who have thyroid issues are doing really intense, high intensity workouts like they're going to Orangetheory fitness No, no, like nothing wrong with Orangetheory. It's great, but like, five days a week, that's too much when you have a hormone, any sort of hormonal imbalance, like that's way too much your body needs rest, and you need to keep your nervous system relaxed. So that's another thing. But yeah, definitely the movement after mealtime is really important to help digestion and help balance your blood sugar. And then carbohydrates. Yes, I'm pro carb, I eat a lot of carbs like I am. I am only I'm super lean. And you can't see me right now. But like, I'm super lean, and I eat a lot of carbs. Like whenever people see what I eat, they're like what and you know, it kind of goes with the exercise and the movement. One really good way you can keep your weight and your body composition healthy is to build muscle while your body needs fuel in order to do that. Obviously, you know, protein is like the king when it comes to muscle building. But we need carbohydrates to for energy. So yeah, making sure you're getting an adequate amount of carbs. I do not I highly discourage my clients from doing a low carbohydrate diet. I have a lot of clients that come to me that have done I want to say keto, but it's not even it's like their version of keto. This is really like a super low carb diet. It's not even true keto we're like they're like checking. Right? Yeah, exactly like are they're like checking to see if their body like doing the testing to make sure their body is in ketosis. Like it's not true keto, it's just low carb, like, let's just call it what it is. It's like the Atkins diet or whatever, one of those from the 90s. And number one is not sustainable. So I don't recommend anything that's not sustainable. Because you that puts you on that yo yo train, that's going to impact your blood sugar as well. If you go from no carbs, and eating a ton of carbs, your body's gonna be like what the heck is going on in your blood sugar is gonna shoot the roof, which is going to put you on an energy roller coaster, it's going to actually make your weight fluctuate a lot more. So yeah, definitely pro carbs, going for complex carbs. And again, having them as part of a, a package in a meal. So never eating carbs alone, you always have them with protein fats, and really increasing your fiber content to help with that, to offset those carbohydrates really important, which goes back to the basics of all the things that you know, you were like you and I talk about all the time is
Philip Pape 17:46
beautiful. Yeah, with the carbs. I mean, it's not like we're just eating pizza and doughnuts, right? Like, it's like, people, people think of carbs as processed carbs. And what you're talking about is diversity and what works for you and having it spaced out and combine it with your other macros, keeping things balanced. I mean, it's all super practical. You're like, the female version of me was so much of the stuff. That's cool. We're
Haley Fountain 18:09
gonna keep it practical and approachable. And yeah, like and even I do think there is value in and now we can get into nutrition and a little bit, but there's value in, you know, elimination diets or, you know, cutting things out for a short amount of time to see how your body responds. But you never want to introduce something that's not sustainable, because it's like one step forward and two steps back,
Philip Pape 18:27
for sure. So part of diet is micronutrients, right? Because I know we want to talk about the minerals as well. I was curious about this topic. What's the link between minerals in thyroid health? What are we deficient in? Like, what are the most important ones, you know, selenium, etc. And then, I guess we want to talk about, you know, the role of diet and supplementation and all of that. Yeah, for
Haley Fountain 18:47
sure. I'm glad you asked that. So yeah, for specifically when it comes to the thyroid, so most people these days are mineral deficient and don't even know it, because it's not something that we test for. There's not a lot of great tests out there for it either. Unfortunately, or the ones that are out there are very expensive as well. So a couple of the things that come to mind. So iodine is one that's really important, typically found in like seafood and seaweed and things like that. So like kelp, Nori, anyone that has a thyroid condition, you know, introducing sea vegetables into your diet can be really helpful. You can supplement iodine. But the problem is, a lot of times the supplements have a lot like a really high potency dose, which can be useful in some cases, but I would never recommend, actually, actually, I shouldn't say I'm not a doctor. So anyone listening to this, anything I offer is just, it's just a suggestion. This is not medical advice. So please, you know what I tell my clients that too. I'm like, I'm a general contractor. I'm going to give you guidance, but you should always talk to your doctor before so you want to make that distinction. But yeah, so iodine, a lot of the supplements out there have a very large amount of iodine in them which for some people can be too much. So if you're going to supplement iodine, you want to think about working with a functional medicine practitioner or whomever your healthcare practitioner is, but for most people introducing see vegetable was like nori kelp, you can buy like a shaker type of deal that has, like nori or California sea vegetables in it that you can just sprinkle on top of your food kind of tastes like salt.
Philip Pape 20:09
Oh, nice. Nice. Well, actually, speaking of salt, I mean, there is iodized salt. Does that count? No, let's,
Haley Fountain 20:16
I mean, I guess yeah, technically, but no, I mean, that's for a whole other host of reasons. But that type of the iodized salt is like, stripped of everything, and it's literally just sodium and iodine. Like we don't we don't wanna go down that road. Yeah. So you want to try to get in like the most natural form. And I'm, you know, I'm a holistic health coach. So I always recommend, not against supplements at all, but I always recommend if you can get it from your food first, that's always the best option, right? Like I nothing wrong with supplementing if your levels aren't normal, but if you're just eating a crap diet, and then you're just taking all these supplements, that's not you know, which I know you. I'm sure you're the same way.
Philip Pape 20:49
Mike, before we continue, what about what about Blue? Like blue green algae? What how does that sold as you know what, I'm just spirulina? What about that?
Haley Fountain 20:58
Yeah, I don't think spirulina has iodine in it. But what I do like about spirulina is that it's like 40%, protein by weight or something like that. That's right. Yeah. So it's, it is a superfood, and something you could certainly include in your diet, especially like you add it to smoothies, or I'm big smoothie girl or like protein smoothies. So because it's an easy way to just keep your calories up and get extra protein. So yeah, you can add into your smoothies, but I don't believe spirulina has iodine. I could be wrong, though. I don't believe it has iodine in it.
Philip Pape 21:27
Yeah, it was wondering because I take it too. But the reason I take it as a very weird reason that most people aren't aware of it seems to be a natural anti histamine. So it prevents, like I used to have seasonal allergies every single year. And I started consuming spirulina and I haven't been on any, like Benadryl or anything like that or Claritin at all, because I used to have to take some of that stuff. Anyway, just fun fact. Yeah,
Haley Fountain 21:50
well, actually, because I haven't I used to have horrible allergies, that I haven't had allergies in years. And I take Spirulina everyday too. I wonder. I never I think I mean, yeah. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. So see vegetables. That's what you know, I tell everyone, do you have thyroid issues or even I mean, even if you don't have thyroid issues, the vegetables are really good. They're abundant, they're plentiful. They're really low impact on our environment, if that's something that's important to you, which is should be for everybody. You know, it's really just so abundant. They're cheap. So vitamin D, and iodine really rich on those things. So iodine is number one. Number two, selenium and zinc. These are two things that many people are deficient in and aren't aware of no selenium and zinc are important because they help your body create the enzyme that converts T four, which is the inactive form of your thyroid hormone to T three, which is the active the active form of thyroid hormone. So that is really important. And so if you don't have zinc and selenium, that function will not work properly, which can cause low thyroid so you can supplement zinc and selenium. You can also get them from foods Brazil nuts are really great. Anyone that has thyroid issues I tell them have like a handful of Brazil nuts a day like just you know, they're really they're large they're like three or four. Brazil nuts will do the trick and organ meats so like liver I'm a big I don't know if your liver person Philip, but I'm big about liver. I buy the chicken liver. Yeah, any kind of liver. Yeah, I think beef liver is if you if you were to do like, if you just were to look at the nutrient density of every food available, liver would be at the top of that list. Beef lovers slightly more nutritious, but chicken is not far from there. I like to buy so at my local farmers market, they sell what's called a primal blend. And it is a ground beef that is 75% You know, ground regular, like other parts of the cow and then 25% organ meats. So for people who because I find that organ meats definitely are an acquired taste, like I like I like a good pate. But that's got a lot of like other stuff in it too. So some people will supplement like liver, you can even buy it in capsules now or like put it in capsules yourself. But the primal blend is a really good way to cook with it where you don't really taste it. So Oh, hold on. Let
Philip Pape 24:05
me ask you about. Actually, that's another thing. I do use beef liver pills, mainly for the B 12. You've seen it has a similar. I mean, there's got to be stuff that it's missing or maybe not because it's desiccated form of the original compound, right? Yeah.
Haley Fountain 24:17
So it just depends on how they process it. But yeah, so anyways, zinc and selenium really important. You can supplement those things again, you know, there's so much that goes into supplementation that you really need to work with a like someone who's qualified like a functional medicine doctor, or just really really do your research because there you can with certain things, you can overdo it or you can take it and it doesn't get absorbed because it needs to be taken with something else. So that that can be challenging, but generally speaking you selenium, zinc organ meats, or Brazil Nuts also oysters are really good. I always tell women oysters are known as like an aphrodisiac food. It's because of the Think of selenium actually because they promote oats with not only tyroid health, but like women's fertility as well. So fun fact about that. So yeah, that's that zinc and selenium, magnesium, of course,
Philip Pape 25:09
before we move on to things I'm thinking of here, where does copper fit into all of this? Because I thought there was like zinc and copper play together in a way, where if you have too much of one or the other supplementation, you get comes with both at some ratio. Are you familiar with that?
Haley Fountain 25:25
Yeah. So if you take too much zinc, it can lower your copper, the lower the amount of copper in your body. Now, a lot of people were like copper or like pennies what you know, but you need you do need a small amount of copper in your body. So if you are supplementing zinc, zinc for a long time, you will want to add copper into your diet as well. So that's an example of like, if you take a supplement, you have to be really careful whenever you're taking it an isolated form versus when you take it into what I consider like a more natural package the way that nature intended for it to be. Yeah, exactly. It's more bioavailable, and you're less likely to cause those imbalances alone. So yeah, good, good question. And yeah, you want to be careful, if you do decide to take some people are just very low in zinc. And especially if you know fertility is something important to you, that's something you might be considering supplementing, it's also really helpful for sinus issues. So I will sometimes, you know, if I get a cold, take some zinc, which if you're taking it for two weeks, you're fine. But I'm talking about people that are taking it over the course of like four or six months, that's where it could impact your copper levels and you want to get maybe get something that has both of those things in it or work with a qualified practitioner to address that.
Philip Pape 26:38
Hey, this is Philip. And I hope you're enjoying this guest interview on Whitson weights. If you're finding it valuable, you can get a bonus conversation we recorded if you're on our email list, just go to Whitson weights.com/bonus or click the link in the show notes. Insiders on our email list will get a link to the bonus conversation where my guest will give you the exact steps to take related to one of the topics in today's episode. Again, these conversations are only available, if you're on our free email list. To get the bonus exclusive content with today's guest. Just go to Whitson weights.com/bonus or click the link in the show notes. Now back to the show. And that's a good point that we don't want to be popping pills. And definitely really for anything like we should be testing and looking at the data. And something like zinc and copper. Yeah, remember distinctly it's a very limited time period type thing for a lot of people. Yeah, getting off track just a little bit. How do we test for mineral deficiencies specifically? Is it it's got to be more than bloodwork, right? There's like hair and other tests? Or how do you do it? Yeah, so
Haley Fountain 27:42
there are hair tests. There's a company I really like hold echolife, that does a lot of really good at home testing, if that's what you want to do at home. Otherwise, yeah, you've to work with your doctor. Most like Western, you know, medical doctors, either don't have the capabilities or won't really, in my experience aren't super helpful with those types of testing if they don't necessarily see something. So you will need to see a functional medicine doctor. I know one here in my area that does mineral testing. I personally have never done it because I haven't had any concerns with it. I believe there's a blood test and a hair test that she does. So I called
Philip Pape 28:19
Live the one that mind pump always talks about I don't know, there's
Haley Fountain 28:23
I don't know, that's what I tell my clients who want the Add home test because they're more affordable. And for you knows, and sometimes you have to think about that. Because it's like, if you're like, Okay, well, I'm hearing this, and I do have fatigue, and maybe kind of brittle nails and whatever. But I don't know if I want to go because functional medicine doctors are expensive. And they have oftentimes, like the one I know has like a six month waitlist. So sometimes it's fun to just say fine. It's interesting to just do that on your own at home and see just out of curiosity, but you obviously can't use that too. You can't use that alone to make decisions. Do you want to make sure you work with someone who's qualified to do that? Cool.
Philip Pape 28:58
All right. So forgive all the interruptions, you were going on to magnesium? Yes,
Haley Fountain 29:02
magnesium. So magnesium is so important for so many things in our body. The number one thing that I recommend my clients, it's helpful for thyroid for a number of condition or number of reasons. We want to think about like tissue development, and we want to think about also, when it comes to cortisol and stress. Magnesium is the antidote to that. So when you are stressed your body eats up your magnesium. So most people are chronically deficient in magnesium and aren't aware of it. And so I typically, you know, that's one thing, especially you will know if you're struggling with magnesium if you're struggling to sleep, or if you feel really anxious all the time and like maybe unless you obviously have been diagnosed with anxiety, but even still that could, you know, sometimes be really helped mitigated with a magnesium supplementation. So that's another one that's really important in it What I like about magnesium is, you can't really for most people, unless you take like copious amounts, you can't really overdo it. So for most people, that's something that can typically take daily. A full spectrum magnesium is really helpful if you really get into the magnesium world, there's all different kinds of magnesium different strands of it, if you will, a lot of the ones out there have magnesium oxide, which is not very bioavailable magnesium citrate can be helpful for like bone density and things like that in muscle repair, but it can cause a laxative effect as well. So that's not always fun. If you take a large amount of that glycinate is the one that I typically, you know, I will take that in a full spectrum supplement and also take it by itself, especially if you have PMS symptoms for women, especially whether or not they're related to thyroid issues. magnesium glycinate, if you take like three to 400 milligrams, the days leading up to your period can be really helpful with PMS symptoms. So a lot of times women that have thyroid issues have really painful periods, the magnesium glycinate can be really helpful. What else do I want to say about magnesium?
Philip Pape 31:02
Yeah, yeah, and I understand it's very hard to get from die. Exactly. Yeah, cry, right?
Haley Fountain 31:07
Well, and you can get it from cacao was really high in magnesium. So a, you know, chocolate, but try to get like a high quality, you know, not just like Hershey's,
Philip Pape 31:17
you want to get like Cadbury cream eggs, and
Haley Fountain 31:21
they're not going to be very high and in magnesium, leafy greens, nuts and seeds. But yeah, it is it's very difficult. And especially because the food that we have today is just not as nutrient dense, because it's also your water. That's another thing I want to talk about. So you know, water is. So like, and obviously we want to drink filtered water, we don't want it to have a lot of, you know, gunk in it. But sometimes the water that we're drinking is so filtered that you know, when you think about our ancestors would have drank water from a stream that was running through rocks, rocks, and yeah, and gathering up all this yummy, all these, all these minerals that we just discussed, right? And now we don't have access to that. So yeah, I can go off on a tangent there. But getting if you can get access to like spring water or like read mineralized water from like a local water source, that can be really helpful too. It's
Philip Pape 32:14
a good idea. All right, so you covered a lot of really helpful minerals. So people listening know what to look for. The magnesium. Just one other thing I noticed for some people, my wife included, and helped her with migraines as well, you know, because again, deficiencies can cause all sorts of things you just don't know until you start plugging them, plugging them up. So that's interesting on the anxiety and how cortisol, you know, reduces it even further. So more of a reason to have that. Okay, so let's, let's transition more back into the movement side of things. You probably had enough of the minerals in nutrition that let's talk, why we haven't gotten to nutrition as much but exercise and training. You definitely talked about a lot of different modes of movement for blood sugar, but for thyroid health, specifically, you also said like overdoing it, overtraining could be a negative. Is there anything else that that you didn't already mention that super important for thyroid health? Yeah,
Haley Fountain 33:04
so I would say, kind of go diving a little deeper to what I mentioned earlier, the low impact movement is going to be really helpful. And that can be really hard, especially not even from a weight management perspective. But I've had some clients who like for them if they don't really just like toughed it out and like get a really good sweat, I think it's important to sweat daily. But if they don't like really overexert themselves, they don't feel like they did anything, right. So that can be challenging to like, retrain your body and your mind to understand like what a good workout is, you know, yoga is not only helpful as a good form of movement for building strength and flexibility, but the breath work and the mind body connection, that element of it is such an underrated tool for hormone regulation. And as I mentioned before, if you are over exercising, you are pumping out way too much adrenaline and cortisol in your body, which is going to negatively impact all of your hormones, specifically your thyroid hormones, and cause all sorts of imbalances so it actually can stunt your weight loss goals as well. So I think you know, incorporating more yoga, more walking, I mean, walking is good, good calorie burner. And what I like about walking too, is it something you can do with a friend, you can invite somebody, you can call your grandma like I'll call my grandma and talk to her for like an hour. And whenever I go for a walk or now instead of saying your friend, let's go grab a drink, I say let's go for a walk and you can catch up with somebody. So what I like about that is you're moving you're outside you're getting fresh air, you're getting your vitamin D from the sun, which vitamin D is also very important for thyroid health. And you're also you know, getting that connection with another human or something like that. As I mentioned before, building muscle is really important so you can't build muscle from well you can't build muscle from yoga but like you want to do resistance training as well. So like either Pilates is I'm a huge pilates reformer Pilates this Typically, like luxury style, builds so much strength in the body through like isometric holds. And but also just getting into the gym and lifting weights is also extremely valuable as well. I
Philip Pape 35:12
love it all. And I mean, people who know me know, although I don't do yoga, I do like to recommend people find a form of mindfulness mind body connection, whatever it is. And it could be the breath work, even walking itself, you can do a walking meditation or even lifting weights can be a mindful thing. If you're not like constantly distracted while doing it, you just focus. So all of this is great. What are your thoughts on the third leg of movement, I call it which is not not moving? And what I mean by that is not being sedentary for long stretches and sitting, does that also, does that have an impact that you understand on thyroid health?
Haley Fountain 35:43
Yeah, for sure. Well, it just it impacts the way that your body interacts with, like how you absorb calories, and how you your body processes, and how your body processes and stores fat as well. So yeah, 100% if you can stay active, whether that's like a standing desk, I'm a big fan of standing desks, mine goes up and down like that, when I you know, I spend a lot of time on on Zoom calls during the day. So I am like stretching and doing like yoga poses and like sitting in different stretches while I'm doing those calls and staying really active. So yeah, making sure like I you know, what I tell my clients is like, let's not make exercise a chore, let's make it part of our lifestyle, like make movement, a part of your lifestyle. So yeah, that and that way also to it doesn't, you know, as they say, a body at rest stays at rest and a body in motion stays in motion, it's a lot easier to create these habits whenever you just keep moving all the time, and you stay really active. So yeah, 100% and that's going to impact your metabolism the way that like I said, your body stores fat or doesn't store fat, it's going to impact your your energy levels as well and help you with your blood sugar management. So all those things are really important for your thyroid. Perfect.
Philip Pape 36:54
Yeah, no argument there. People People get out there and move but make it work for you and fit into your life with with what you enjoy, including the walking because, you know, a lot of people will say like, I'm trying to have my step count, my step count. And I used to say, well, the goal isn't up up your step count, the goal is do something enjoy that just happens to you know, increase your step count was kind of a different reframing on it. So I love that. So what about now let's get into nutrition, a little more anything that we hadn't covered to support the thyroid? We did cover a lot already on that. So are there specific foods beyond the ones with those minerals? We talked about? Anything for gut health, things like that we didn't cover? Yeah,
Haley Fountain 37:29
so a couple of things that come to mind. There's certain foods that are helpful for the thyroid. So a few that I've already mentioned sea vegetables, you can incorporate those into your diet, that's really helpful. Brazil nuts are important and strawberries are actually have been found to help the thyroid as well.
Philip Pape 37:46
Why? Why is that? Is there a compound in there? Or is it the mother? It's,
Haley Fountain 37:49
it's iodine and minerals. And there's, there's one enzyme and I can't remember the name of it. But that has been found to positively benefit the thyroid. We'll have to I'll have to double check, and I can send it to you. But that was one. Those are the three things that stuck out to me in my training.
Philip Pape 38:04
Okay, that's awesome. Yes, strawberries are great, because they also have like the most fiber to calories to volume ratio. Like if you kind of take all that together. They're like the perfect food and they super sweet. So it's kind of a cheat food. I don't like that word cheat. But in the sense that, you know, you're almost feel like you're breaking some rule by having this delicious, sweet thing that Nietzsche gave you. That also makes you feel that doesn't have so many calories and has these great minerals and enzymes.
Haley Fountain 38:31
Yeah, no, all berries are great. I mean, yeah. And I think in general with when you have thyroid conditions, you want to think about you know, I mentioned the organ meats, like the liver, meat liver is really helpful as well. You just want to think about a really balanced diet, lots of fruits and vegetables. Like if it wasn't, you know, if your grandma and grandpa didn't eat it, if it wasn't around back then then you probably want to limit or even avoid it for a while. There's it's not really rocket science. I mean, it is if it's not if it doesn't come second nature to you, but it's all the same things that you know, I imagine you talk about here on your podcast a lot. So getting you know enough fiber, cruciferous vegetables can be really helpful for the diet. And I want to address that because if you do cruciferous vegetables, some people say that for people that have direct issues, Oh, you shouldn't have cruciferous vegetables, you would have to have like copious amounts of cruciferous vegetables for it to actually negatively impact your thyroid. And the benefits definitely outweigh the cons. So I would say, you know, one serving one to two servings of cruciferous vegetables a day lightly, slightly steamed and for anyone that doesn't know what that is, those are two family of vegetables. It includes broccoli, arugula, cauliflower, cabbage. Brussel sprouts. I'm probably missing a few. But it's that if you Google cruciferous, that family I know they're all my favorites and they're yummy. They're crunchy. I love cabbage, like red cabbage and all the polyphenols from the color like there's just so many things in there. So yeah, and they're really high in fiber. They will keep your gut health you know, in check and keep things moving because that's a big thing about Hormonal Health is you know your body He filters out all these excess hormones and releases them through your bowels. So if you're not having, you know, kind of pivoting into gut health, if you're not having a really good bowel movement, ideally twice, at least twice a day, but minimum once a day, you're just all those things are being recirculated into your bloodstream. So there's cruciferous vegetables, and that high fiber diet is really important. Some of the highest fiber foods you can eat artichokes, pears, avocados, lentils, and beans, things like that.
Philip Pape 40:27
Awesome. So for everybody listening, this is what we mean by eating for you and your goals and your values and your health. Right? It's not just the macros and it's not just body composition here, but all of this stuff. And you know, talking about this food always makes me hungry at this time. But like my wife makes, she'll just take white cat green cabbage, slice it into really thin discs, and then saute that or like roast it. Yeah, chard like edge to it so good. Because, you know, a lot of people think of cabbages as like, like, I don't know, like a cabbage. Or soggy. Yeah, you can make it dry. Just like Brussels sprouts, you can get nice shaved and roasted Brussels. Okay, this is this is getting hungry. Yeah, no, me too. Why don't we bring this home by time to sleep? Because sleep Oh, boy. Sleep is like, so important in everything. And it's one of the most neglected up across the population. And before we do for the listener, I think we're going to record an extra little bonus episode to answer some q&a, because I know a lot of people have questions. A lot of women have questions about specific scenarios, based on their thyroid levels, and hypothyroidism and all that, we're going to get to that, and that'll be dropped to my email list insiders on that list. So if you want that, go to Whitson weights.com/bonus. And you'll get that with Haley soon. But Haley, let's take it down to sleep, and the value of sleep for everything, especially thyroid health. Yeah, I
Haley Fountain 41:45
mean, I always tell my clients and everyone like in my communities sleep is like if your house if your body if your house was, or I'm sorry, if your your health and your body were a house, then sleep would be the foundation, that foundation, if that foundation is cracked, that foundation is wobbly, if it's not put in well, then nothing else is going to work above that, right. So you're when you sleep, that's when your body's restoring and repairing. So naturally, if you're not getting good quality sleep every night, that's going to impact every element of your health. Now, more specifically, where it can be challenging is if you're not sleeping well, then that means your cortisol levels are going to be spiking at weird times of the day, which as we discussed earlier, is really going to negatively impact your thyroid. So it's so important to get good quality sleep, especially for people that have a known thyroid condition, going to bed and waking up at the same time or roughly the same time every day is going to have a really big impact on your energy levels, your thyroid, all the things that we discussed. So yeah, just it's really important. And then if you you're struggling to sleep, obviously, there's so many things you can do the magnesium supplementation at dinnertime will be really helpful for you. Good
Philip Pape 42:54
point. Yeah, let's so consistent sleep schedule. I love that. And I would extrapolate that to everything we do. It's it's very interesting how the body responds to consistency where it's like another form of stress, right? It knows what's coming in, therefore, it relaxes, if you will, including our even our metabolic rate. I've seen people who eat at different times day to day will burn fewer calories because of the unpredictability to your body. So I love that hack for sleep. What do you think of naps?
Haley Fountain 43:19
So I personally am not a huge fan of naps. I think the research that I've read, oh, let me tell you this, I'm not a fan because it doesn't work for me, doesn't mean doesn't work for other people. I have tried to be a Napper and it doesn't work and makes me more anxious and more tired. So it just doesn't work. For me. What I do love is something called Yoga Nidra which is a form of yoga that is a guided body scan meditation 15 to 20 minutes, so I will do an afternoon yoga nidra like guided with my headphones in and I will lay down on the ground with like something under my knees and a like weighted blanket on me and you don't actually fall asleep but your body goes into like that your brain goes into a theta state that helps me to kind of recharge now the research shows that naps before approximately 2pm can be effective after 2pm It's going to impact your circadian rhythms, which is your body's natural kind of wake and sleep cycles. So it really just depends on the person. I have seen some people who love really standby what they call like the caffeine nap where you because caffeine takes 20 minutes to get to your bloodstream so they'll drink some caffeine like drink a cup of coffee or tea and then take a 20 minute nap and then they'll wake up and be like really rested. I'm so sensitive to caffeine now I don't drink coffee at all I just drink tea and I can only have one cup in the morning so a night because otherwise I don't sleep at night so again i i say that I'm not a fan but it's because it just doesn't work for my body doesn't mean doesn't work for other people. But I have you know I usually cautioned against it unless you can be very disciplined and actually only take a 20 minute nap because they say after 30 minutes it actually can negatively impact you as well. Yeah
Philip Pape 44:52
it's like this fine skill is like okay get to sleep mask and get set the alarm and be just in the right conditions and all those stresses you out just to try to get that nap. I I love the yoga nidra idea, though. So that that's really cool. Maybe Maybe we can share a resource with the listener on that. Because I know you obviously are yoga instructor out. There you are. Yeah. Alright, so I like to ask this question of all guests, Haley. And that is, is there anything you wish I had asked? And what is your answer? Oh,
Haley Fountain 45:15
you know what, actually, I don't necessarily wish you asked this. But something I want to add in about the thyroid, that two things actually that come to mind. One is more of a lifestyle thing. And that is EMF, electromagnetic fields. So AKA, this thing, cellphone, our phones and all anything that has like Wi Fi gives off electromagnetic fields, aka radiation, and they research it's still emerging, but they find that the thyroid is very sensitive, sensitive to EMFs. So I find that interesting, because with the, you know, thyroid conditions have, you know, like quadrupled in the last, you know, 1015 years. Part of that is probably inability to diagnose, you know, are not the right tools to diagnose, but we're seeing thyroid issues becoming more and more prevalent. What are we using more and more of right now. So, you know, I think they're, I do think they're, you know, this is anecdotal, not completely anecdotal, because they have found a link between the two, but they have found that thyroid is very sensitive to it. So if you have a thyroid condition, it may be worth considering, you know, getting time away from tech, getting more time in nature. And maybe if you like, if you're in an apartment, you can't turn if you turn your Wi Fi off your neighbors, you're going to be their Wi Fi is going to be dinging you. So it doesn't really work. But if you're in a house, or if you live somewhere where you can get time away from technology, they even have like blankets and like tools that you can use to like protect your bed for like the areas that you're in from Wi Fi, that might be a good idea. The second thing is to the energetic you know, I'm I take a holistic approach to I look at all approaches where people are thyroid is very much if you think about the endocrine system, you're in the in the chakras, if you're really into yoga, the chakras are really just the endocrine system, right? So your thyroid, that's your throat chakra. And if you think about if there's, you know, I always tell women who have thyroid issues, I'm like, is there something you're not saying to somebody is there something you're not, you're not speaking your truth, there's an there's an energy there. And so, again, this is not scientific, this is maybe a little more, you know, esoteric, or like woowoo. But I do think it's worth, you know, our emotional state impacts our physical body. So it's important to look at all things and if modern science isn't working for you maybe consider, you know, the emotional and energetic elements of that part of your body, as well as the physical and scientific. So just something worth noting if that resonates with anybody. I
Philip Pape 47:32
love that I'm super open minded about all this stuff. And I mean, honestly, science when we say science, and modern science probably represents a sliver of what we could possibly know in the universe right now. And we just haven't, quote unquote, proven this stuff. And I love the idea that even the chakras and Eastern medicine, a lot of that's a representation for things that we're actually discovering, through science eventually. And whether we do or not, I love the idea of just addressing some of the self talk, self sabotage, whatever the things are the emotional things holding you back and with your, your communication. So that's awesome. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And with EMS and all that, where can listeners learn more about you and your work? Ely? Yeah, so
Haley Fountain 48:09
my website is my business is called holistic in Houston. So it was kind of like a play on words like Sleepless in Seattle, but holistic. And so my website is holistic and houston.com. And I'm on Instagram at holistic underscore in underscore Houston, so holistic in Houston, but with underscores, that's where I'm most active. I do have a YouTube channel where I upload yoga flows and meditations as well. So it's just holistic and Houston on YouTube. Alright,
Philip Pape 48:32
and you've made to like 80s or 90s references. So you look a lot younger than maybe you are, I don't know, we'll have to talk about that off. Because I'm a child of the 80s. He made these. Sleepless in Seattle is well known to me. Okay, so your website, holistic and houston.com. And we'll put your IG in there as well. It's been a pleasure, Hayley. I loved everything we talked about today. We got a lot into on the thyroid, and lots more. So thanks for coming on.
Haley Fountain 48:54
Thank you.
Philip Pape 48:55
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of wit's end weights. If you found value in today's episode, and know someone else who's looking to level up their weights or weights. Please take a moment to share this episode with them. And make sure to hit the Follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong.
