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Casey's blog

Missing in Action: RED-S, Low Energy Availability, and Amenorrhoea in Female Athletes

29/4/2020

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** TRIGGER WARNING: Contains discussion on eating disorders, exercise disorders and calorie intake.**

My Story

I'm 22 years old and a long time high-achieving perfectionist. On top of being in my final year of a full time veterinary medicine degree (at a load of 40 hours a week), I am training for a half-ironman triathlon for up to two hours per day. I'm also working part time as a promotional model for a scrupulous boss who pays the more attractive, thin and white girls up to double the wage.

When I first started training for triathlon seriously my fitness skyrocketed: I had the coveted six-pack and could beat the boys up mountains in off-road adventure races. But over the last few months I've been gaining weight, and no matter how much fasted cardio and carefully periodised training I do, the weight keeps creeping back on.

This morning I've woken at 4 a.m. Again. I don't have an alarm clock; my body just springs up at this hour. I wake up feeling adrenalised and awfully hungry from the ongoing restrictive eating I'm putting my body through. I've been vegetarian for years and recently went vegan. I don't suspect that this intrinsically restrictive diet has acted as a spring board into disordered eating.

Oh, and I'm beginning to experiment with water fasting. Because it detoxifies you and extends your life, right?

On this cold dark morning, instead of getting more sleep or I dunno, eating something, I go for a 50 minute run to "push through" the hunger pangs, finding some comfort in an idea I picked up from a fellow athlete that "fasted cardio burns more fat". My recent race times have worsened and I've stopped placing, so I figure my training needs to ramp up.

I haven't had a period for nearly a year. Initially I was thrilled to not have to deal with the bother of periods but my loss of sex drive is beginning to worry me (and my boyfriend). In that time, I've also sprained my ankles 11 times and spend inordinate amounts of money on physiotherapy, chiropractic, and orthotics from my podiatrist. 

I know that something is off, but I've seen a GP who just wanted to put me on the contraceptive pill, and I'm too "natural" for that. I put it all down to dwindling will power. I conclude that I just need to diet and train harder.



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Ep 10. Gym Culture without Weight Loss Challenges: Bringing HAES®, Intuitive Eating and Body Positivity into Fitness

28/4/2020

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Gym culture can be incredibly toxic for people struggling with body image and eating concerns. Monique Jephcote, APD, PT and Intuitive Eating Counsellor, is infusing weight-neutral principles into the fitness world with compassion, respect and gusto.
​

In this episode:
  • How and why Monique opened her non-diet private practice soon after graduating
  • HAES just makes sense: “Every single body deserves dignity and respect” (and weight loss dietetics is SO boring!)
  • Monique’s lived experience of disordered eating recovery from her days as a competitive bodybuilder (including the fun, sassy “Beyonce” side of things)
  • “We get obsessed with food when we’re under-eating”
  • How Monique never disliked her body as much as she did when she was closest to society’s ideal body shape
  • The contrast in body diversity and body acceptance between the bodybuilding VS powerlifting scenes
  • The myriad ways diet culture manifests in the gym setting
  • On being a non-diet dietitian in a gym, and dealing respectfully with weight-centric fitness professionals: “We don’t know what we don’t know”
  • The way Monique is challenging perspectives on weight and health in the gym world
  • The importance of informed consent, body autonomy and compassion regardless of whether clients take a weight-centric or weight-neutral approach
  • Low energy availability or RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea in female athletes, and the problem with dismissing menstrual disturbances as “just what happens to active women”
  • Monique’s experiences with Vipassana meditation, and where this fits in with her work as a dietitian and fitness professional
Links:
  • Monique's Instagram
  • The Intuitive Dietitian on Facebook
  • Monique's website
  • Support the show by becoming a Patreon!
​
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Rock Your Menopause

27/4/2020

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Women in midlife are at a crossroads: either we can continue living with jobs, relationships, and poor health situations that we have outgrown, or we can do the inner work that our bodies and hormones are calling out for.

A full 85% of women suffer hot flushes, vaginal dryness, and emotional turbulence during menopause, and to top it off we are told that our risk of heart disease and of osteoporosis is rising! But does it have to be this way? Most of us know some women who seem to sail through menopause, and come out the other side stronger, wiser, and full of vitality.

In the last decade more women than ever have woken up to the power that menopause can bring, and have used it to their full advantage. Some of the most beautiful, intelligent, and luscious women I know are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. In a seniors’ yoga class I ran at a medical centre, one sparkly-eyed 90-something-year-old lady unhesitatingly shared with me the secrets of a good marriage – and a good sex life: “Eat lots of good food, drink good wine. And tell him what you want, because he wants very much to please you.”
​
A few years ago I learnt something very interesting about the way women’s hormones behave once we’ve passed through menopause. We have two hormones LH (luteinising hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) – anterior pituitary hormones that direct the behaviour of an egg developing in either of our ovaries. In pre-menopausal women, these two hormones normally peak around ovulation and stay low for the rest of the cycle. So at every ovulation, the point at which we are most electric, irresistible, and open to inspiration from all sources, our levels of LH and FSH peak drastically – but they don’t stay there.

However, once we have stopped menstruating and are officially menopausal, these two hormones remain at high levels for the rest of our lives. It’s akin to AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current) when thinking of the flow of electric charge: before menopause, we are alternately open and closed to the changing current of universal wisdom. After menopause, we are wide open to a direct, constant current of intuition and wisdom.

They aren't called the wisdom years for nothing.
​

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Yoga as Community Cohesive during THE DAWN OF COronavirus

17/4/2020

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A recent trip to Bali where I completed a training amidst an amazing community who embraced my little ones without hesitation.
One of the reasons people attended yoga classes (pre-Corona) was the feeling of togetherness one experiences when practising in a group, with familiar faces, in a familiar environment.

The capacity for physical togetherness has clearly been capped by the dawn of COVID-19, a day of which we do not know the length.

But these are interesting times. Since offering my first online class last week, I’ve received an unprecedented number of emails and messages from students expressing their gratitude, excitement, and hope. Despite my less than perfect video production skills, folks are just happy that I’m offering an opportunity for us to come together in this new and oddly comforting way.

In some ways, I feel closer to my yoga community than ever before. Last Saturday I saw students and friends I haven’t seen for years, as well as people who would like to attend my classes but live too far away to do so.

COVID has acted as a dam in the river of normality, and the resulting alternate route the relentless flow of life has taken has collected a larger, wider, more global involvement. In my weekly class, I’m witnessing a kind of togetherness I could not have imagined teaching my small but wonderful community classes in my little permaculture village in rural Australia.

Although I miss the capacity for physical connection an in-person yoga class offers, I feel as if I’m now riding the currents of this new branch of the river, along with everyone else. Strangely, yet reassuringly, we are in this together. We are being called to trust the flow. And in stepping into this new river, we find ourselves practising a yoga of acceptance, a yoga of letting go of the need “to know”, a yoga of embracing the unknown with open arms.

Apart, yet very, very much together.

Next LIVE online yoga class is Saturday 8:30am AEST. Classes are offered by donation and are intentionally inclusive and accessible to all. To join a class, click here.
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Ep 9. COVID-19 and Diet Culture: Discerning Wisdom from Wellness Wankery in Uncertain Times

13/4/2020

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With great uncertainty comes fear and uprooted trauma. COVID-19 has seen an amplification of weight stigma, wellness wankery, and conspiracy theories that have the potential to magnify our stress and trauma. Here's what to look out for, as well as ways to ground, protect and nurture yourself and your loved ones at this uncertain time. 
​
In this episode:
  • The 3 categories of BS “health advice” circulating in the age of COVID-19: The Seemingly Innocuous, The Social Media Misinformation Storm, and The Blatantly Fat Phobic
  • Privileged health advice 
  • Is cutting out sugar the most important thing to consider right now? (Clue: No, it's not.)
  • Essential oils, colloidal silver, celery juice: should we be using these to "boost" immunity?
  • What I really think about MLM (Multi-Level Marketing), and the ethics of downline recruitment and questionable advertising during a pandemic
  • Weight control during COVID VS. just surviving COVID
  • Higher BMI is NOT a risk factor for contracting COVID-19, and may even be a protective factor
  • Conspiracy theories, and the appeal of these to healers and lightworkers
  • What we really need to be focussing on right now
  • The ways we deal with stress and trauma, and how this manifests in our relationships with food, eating, our bodies and movement
  • How coronavirus is impacting me personally
  • Gentle ways we can support ourselves and others
  • Supplements and herbs can help support your immune health, but not having access to these is not the end of the world
  • Accessible nutrition counselling and yoga services I am currently offering during COVID-19

Links:
All Fired Up Podcast with Louise Adams
Bringing The Body Into the Room: Somatics, Food and Eating Experiences with Tracy Brown and Fiona Sutherland
Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani – author of the book Sick Enough
Dr. Kristin Neff on Self-Compassion
Stephen Harrod Buhner on herbal support for COVID-19 infection

Casey's Accessible COVID-19 Services:
LIVE yoga classes by-donation
Casey's accessible COVID-19 Nutrition Counselling Services
Mugwort Herbal Body Oil GIVEAWAY!
Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/nondietyogi)
​
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COVID-19 ONLINE SERVICES: Nutrition & Yoga

12/4/2020

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Given the enormous changes happening right now I’ve felt a strong desire to offer my services in a way that is of value, flexible and most of all accessible. Here are the temporary COVID services I am currently offering (this page is updated regularly):
​​

NUTRITION CONSULTATIONS

The new Medicate rebates seem to be changing all the time, but at the time of writing here are the Telehealth (phone or online via Zoom, Skype etc) options I am offering:
​
  • 𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗸-𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 30 minute consults for people with EPC or EDMP, AND who are under 16 yo, have a Health Care Card, or are classified COVID vulnerable. Note that given the short time allotment a regular 60 minute consult will need to be spread out over two sessions, ideally on two consecutive days
  • 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 available for everyone else with EPC or EDMP. A gap is payable as per usual
  • 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 offered for ALL clients experiencing financial strain, regardless of whether you have an EPC/EDMP or not. This means the gap you are required to pay can be reduced
  • Usual private health fund rebates for those who use this.

A mutually agreed upon fee for folks using the sliding scale option can be discussed with me privately.
​

YOGA ​

I am offering 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

However my unique offering is an online PRIVATE session, which offers what a pre-recorded class (and to a lesser extent, a live class) cannot: one-on-one, personalised care and attunement. Here’s how it works:
  • 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 are 30 minutes and include a check-in, instruction, and homework
  • 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲. No having to turn up to class at the usual time when circumstances at home have changed so drastically (eg. kids no longer in school, partners working from home)
  • 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱. The student decides how much a 30-minute meeting is worth vs. what they can afford. It might be $5, it might be $50.

These offerings will likely shift as the situation morphs but right now this feels right for me. My wish is to be of service to folks doing it tough and at the same time continue to support those who have the financial capacity to pay the full price. If you have the capacity to pay full fee please do so, knowing you will be supporting my family AND enabling me to support those who cannot afford the full fee.
​
If you wish to discuss or book any of these services with me, please contact me personally at casey@funkyforest.com.au

Stay safe,
​Casey❤️,❤️
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All content copyright Casey Conroy - Funky Forest Health & Wellbeing. For more information please click here to see my disclaimer.
Natural health for EVERY body. Copyright © 2019  
0432 618 279 | info@funkyforest.com.au