Dr. Amy Shah: Fix Your Hormone Health and Stay Energized While Building a Business | Health and Wellness | E389

Our circadian rhythms are disrupted. Our food is ultra-processed and then the products we're using are adding to the toxic load in our bodies.

“Dr. Amy Shaw, a double board certified MD trained at Harvard Columbia and Cornell. She's here to break down the real reasons behind burnout, brain fog, cravings and hormonal imbalance.”

And the simple science back top that will help you reset your system and redeem your clarity. I was living this very extremely hustle culture life where I wasn't sleeping well. I wasn't eating well. I was trying to do it all. I hated the work that I was doing. I know something inside of me is telling me to go a different route. A lot of people think energy just isn't the brain, but your gut is the center of your energy.

“It's really important that you eat well. How would you recommend that we figure out what we should actually eat because there's so many recommendations out there?”

Paula, I'm going to give you a framework that's going to change nutrition. Okay, it's circadian rhythms run 80% of our bodies processes. And we completely in today's world ignore circadian rhythms. If you can figure out how to sleep and get light in the right times, it's going to make the biggest difference in her energy. What's one or two things people can do to immediately improve their energy? One of the biggest things that has helped me in my life and I recommend to people is...

Yeah, fam, are you always so effing tired or so effing hungry even after you've just eaten?

If your energy cravings or mood feel totally out of control, you're going to love today's episode. We're joined by Dr. Amy Shaw, a double board certified MD trained at Harvard Columbia and Cornell, who went from a burnt out physician to a powerhouse wellness expert and influencer with nearly 2 million followers on Instagram. She's also the author of the brand new book "Harmon havoc" where she uncovers how modern stress, force sleep and disrupted circadian rhythms are throwing our bodies into total chaos and what actually works to fix it.

Dr. Amy's here to break down the real reasons behind burnout, brain fog, cravings and hormonal imbalance and the simple science back habits that will help you reset your system and redeem your clarity. Dr. Amy, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. I'm so excited to be here, thanks for having me.

I'm so excited too, we've met in person, we've got to chat, I feel like your friends with all my friends and I'm just so happy that finally we made this interview happen.

And you have like blown up on social media, like you are all over my timeline, you are becoming one of the biggest wellness gurus on Instagram and TikTok and you're just absolutely crushing it.

“And a lot of times entrepreneurs, they do best when really they are helping their past selves, right?”

And so you actually were the person that you're trying to help now, you know, you have brain fog and you were exhausted and had cravings and you turned that all around. So talk to us about what really started your journey on becoming this, you know, outspoken person on wellness, like what triggered it all? Well, I'm glad you're asking that because I think for your audience and a lot of people who are like entrepreneurs, for example, I think this will really resonate because I think I spent, you know, I went to medical school and I did my residency in fellowship.

And I knew I wanted to do nutrition, women's health and gut health, but like I couldn't figure out how to incorporate it. And a lot of people like, you know, start their careers in a place where they don't feel like they're doing the absolute work that they want to do eventually. And I just lived in a brain fog like I was consistently on this adrenaline rush and I thought that I had to, you know, do certain things to make money and to be successful and follow this traditional path. It wasn't until my 40s that I was like screw this, I really need to take a different approach. After the pandemic, I started to really get into sharing on social media and speaking and writing and what I realized through that is that was my true calling.

And the way I got there, how it's like what I talk about, like when you cleared your mind, when you're not always in kind of that adrenaline rushed mode, where you're eating crappy, you're not sleeping, you're trying to hustle quote unquote. And you're trying to multitask, but you're not really getting anything done, you can't really know what is good for you. Once you start to eat right, sleep, get sunlight, you know, take care of your body. All the things that I talk about when I started to do it for myself, that's when I was like, okay, it's very clear now. I have to leave my safe job.

And that's why this year actually is the first year that I left my safe medical practice job and really dove into this.

And so that's why like when I wrote hormone havoc, which is my new book, I honestly said that the reason I'm writing this is not to make you look thinner or like, you know, even whatever, it's really so you can find your gifts and live out your best life in your 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond. I love that. And you are like such a testament of somebody who's like a professional expert who went out and became this like extraordinary creator entrepreneur. And so second half of this interview, I really just want to deep dive on like how you did that.

Why you transition from, you know, clinical to then being, you know, an online influencer essentially, right? So so we'll talk all about that. But first I really want to pick your brain on hormones, eating habits, energy exercise, all that kind of stuff that you talk about.

Before we get into that, let's talk about what traditional medicine tried to tell you was wrong with you.

“And then how you actually cured yourself. What were the things that you did to cure yourself?”

Okay, Hala, it wasn't until 1993 that women were mandated to be included in research. So when I started to have my own issues, my hormones and my gut and mental health, I started to think maybe it was just me. Maybe I didn't learn that part medical school or like I wasn't in a woman. I wasn't doing OB/JYN as my specialty. And so I started to like ask my super smart colleagues, you know, you know, what are we supposed to know about hormones that we don't know. What is it that we are supposed to know about gut health. And they knew nothing.

They knew less than I did. And that was just like curatory stuff that I had learned and I had done nutrition school before medical school. So I really did have an upper hand when it came to kind of nutrition and health. And I feel like, oh my gut, how can we have a huge population of people 51% of people and we don't serve them at all. We don't have answers. Like if you go to your doctor, even today in 2025, 26, 27 and you asked your doctor, you know, tell me everything you've learned about hormones, women's hormones, gut health, nutrition, they probably could tell you in like five minutes.

What all that we've learned. So that's a real problem. I got no answers. And so I was like, well, there's a whole. And that's honestly why I started to share it because I was like, as I'm figuring it out for my patients, myself, I want to be sharing it with people who probably want to know as well. Yeah, okay, cool. So I can't lead to deep dive into all your tips and tricks when it comes to wellness. So let's first talk about cravings. Okay, so I know there's a difference or you say there's a difference between hunger, appetite and cravings. Talk to us about that.

“Okay, most people don't know this. But cravings is very different than hunger. Hunger is something that our body just creates sickly throughout the day to remind us to eat. So I think the perfect example of this would be like every day at 12 o'clock.”

If you're just eating lunch, you will get like hunger pangs. But if you forget and you're so busy and you're in meetings, like at some point that hunger kind of goes away doesn't just keep increasing as the day goes on, it'll come back later in the day, maybe with the vengeance, but it definitely doesn't stay the whole time. Whereas cravings are completely different. Cravings are dopamine driven. So just like we get a dopamine hit from looking at social media or gambling or drinking alcohol, we get a dopamine hit from eating certain foods.

And you know what those foods are because it's the foods that you would get up, get in your car, drive across town and go buy or that are in your home and you can't stop thinking about it. Those are dopamine driven foods and that cravings. So you hunger and cravings are completely different. Hungers biological cravings is physiological.

“So interesting. And you have this bowl of vegetables test that can that can show us whether we're just hungry or craving something. Is that right?”

Yeah. So if you think about it, if you're truly hungry, you think about your favorite vegetables and you know, I talk a lot about vegetables because we don't really include them a lot in our diets, especially young people these days.

They're full of fiber and fiber nutrients, but they're not necessarily big dopamine boosters. And so if you are truly hungry, you will want to eat a bowl of vegetables.

My South Asian family like we would have breakfast, but then there would be a snack at like 10 a.m. And then there would be like a snack after lunch. And so it was like this constant craving cycle. But it was very different than hunger. And that's an easy test that you can do to figure out if you're hungry or not.

“Yeah, I love that. And then you also talk about something called the Miami effect to show us like what dopamine really does to us. And can you give us that analogy? I just love that analogy.”

Yeah, when you go to Vegas or you go to Miami, you basically have this big boost of dopamine everywhere. You're there's parties and there's bright lights and there's slot machines and there's food and that is a very good example of, you know, when your dopamine is on fire.

That is something that happens when we eat processed foods, when we eat junk foods, when we drink alcohol. And so that's kind of what happens when you go there.

Yeah, so talk just about the difference between men and women when it comes to diet cravings. What's the difference between us to because a lot of people think they can just replicate what there has been or boyfriend does. But I think women are just inherently different. By the way, most of my listeners, I would say like it's a 50 50 60 40 split male female. There's actually more men listening to this right now. So talk to us about what they have to pay attention to with our girlfriends or wives and how they're how people are just different.

Okay, I love that. So women and men are very different. The biggest difference I think that women have is that we have this hormonal cycle. That's a 28 day cycle. So we have different phases and how are you and I know and probably anyone who has a partner knows that women can show up very differently in the world, depending on where in their cycle they are. Yeah, and that definitely affects your mood, your energy and also your cravings and your appetite. And so a lot of women will notice in their late ludial phase, which is that PMS week right before their period that their lower energy that they have more cravings that they're hungrier that they have more stress, even with the same exact things that they used to not. And so like for example, if you're working in a high stress environment.

“That week before your period that late ludial phase is probably the most difficult week for you to be doing your most stressful activities, whether it's working out or something at work.”

And so, and that will affect your energy, the lifts that you can do at the gym and your appetite and your cravings. And that's really different than men have like a day to day change like we all do, you know, we just sometimes wake up tired, etc. But they don't have this very profound monthly cycle.

And then also a life cycle like we have a hormonal continuum, so my new book is actually talking about how in your 30s, 40s and 50s as a woman, you're going through this immense change in your body.

That men have a very gradual change like their testosterone gradually goes down. And yes, you will see effects of that. But women's hormones, I mean, they go through this entire crazy tornado roller coaster type effect from your 30s to 50s.

“So that's what I think it can be really difficult for women in that age group to lose weight or be at their best energy levels because there's so much going on with their bodies.”

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I'm question for you. When somebody Googles you right now, are you proud of what they see or would you say ignore that? It's under construction. For two years, I've been there.

At one point, our site didn't reflect the level we were operating at at all. It felt so outdated and every small update required way too much back and forth.

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Because I just don't feel like myself. I feel tired. I feel uglier. I feel like I just you can just I can just tell because I have all these videos that live online and I can tell exactly which ones were in my Ludial phase because it's like I always don't perform as good. I always don't look as pretty and it's like, you know what? I control my own schedule now. Why am I doing this to myself? I'm not a man and I should show up and record on the days that like I have high energy and I feel good and I don't have brain fog. And I just feel like that might become a trend. I hope it becomes a trend in the future because I think it's unfair that women have to work exactly like men when we're not going through the same situation that a man does when it comes to just work.

I just love that. Because I completely agree with you and the other thing that I think is different for women and men and like you know we're talking in general. So obviously there's women out there who are going to be like, I feel great in my Ludial phase like even in that. And that's okay. But I think there's a big number of women that feel like you and I feel like you also during that time, I also need more sleep and more recovery time. And so if you're in control of your schedule, this is a good time to spend more time outdoors.

Maybe walking, maybe you're not scheduling the early morning calls or interviews. Maybe you're not making those big life decisions during that time if possible and business decisions. And I completely agree with you. I have now that I'm kind of on a more flexible schedule. I also do what you're saying, it's not that I don't do anything during those that week, but I do give myself a lot more cushion when it comes to sleep when it comes to stress when it comes to recovery because I know that I never allowed myself this my entire life.

But now I have the opportunity to allow myself and then I can go a little harder when I'm ready.

I love that. Okay. So let's move on to energy. You talk about the energy trifecta. Tell us about that.

“Okay. So a lot of people think energy just isn't the brain, right?”

But what I want to share with everyone is that your gut is the center of your energy. So your gut talks to your hormones. It talks to your immune system all the time and they're making decisions and they're basically telling the brain what to do. So it's not like your energy. If you think about it that way, then it's really important that you eat well because your gut bacteria is going to be talking to the rest of your body about what just what you just inputted. So your thoughts, your food, your drinks, your alcohol, everything gets inputted and then the gut kind of makes decisions about your hormones about your immune system and that is why you feel either good or you feel exhausted and depleted.

So how do you like what is something like what's one or two things people can do to immediately improve their energy?

“Okay. Number one thing that you can do to immediately improve your energy is get morning sun.”

So circadian rhythms run 80% of our bodies processes and we completely in today's world ignore circadian rhythms. So some people might be like, oh, I get up at 5 a.m. because I need whatever you can get a light box 10,000 looks of light. There's good research that in countries and in places where you cannot get morning sunlight. You can put a light box on your desk and it stresses good and to improve your mood. And if you're someone who lives in Austin or Miami or New York or Scottsville, not necessarily New York, but you can just hop outside and get that sunlight just for a couple of minutes in the morning.

What it does is that from our eyes are right now, there's a direct connection to our super chasmatic nucleus in our brain. That is the centers where all the decisions are being made for the day. So when they get input, you feel more focused, you feel more awake and your hormones work better. And they also give that input to the gut and so the gut knows, all right, it's morning. We need to kind of retrain everybody to start doing the morning activities.

It gets input for the rest of the day. This reminds me of something that Ben Greenfield was talking to me about recently.

He always talks about how a lot of these modern like wearables, tech like PEMF mats are basically just like things that our ancestors used to just do.

So for example, like people like are like trying to mimic sunlight with like red light, what is it? You could just go outside or people are trying to mimic grounding with PEMF mats, but you could just sit on the ground outside and kind of get the same effect. So I just thought it was really interesting that a lot of these like biohacking things are actually just in nature things that we can do without necessarily having to bind you tech.

“I completely agree. Oh, the other second thing I would say nutrition base that could change your life is eating 30 grams of protein in the morning like in your breakfast.”

It can be split up so you don't have to have all 30 grams first thing. You can like a lot of times I don't eat breakfast like 10 30 and that's okay, you can kind of like split it up, but that honestly based on so many thousands of studies.

It actually improves your mood.

It has the precursors of dopamine, so you can feel more focused and motivated in reduces your cravings throughout the day and your chances of you getting to your protein goals are so much higher when you have protein in the morning. So that's another really easy thing that you can be doing for everyone can be doing to improve their health. So men and women 30 grams of protein for that one. Yes. What do you feel about like, you know, eating your body weight in grams of protein like I need to eat a hundred and, you know, 13 pounds of protein a day.

I grams of protein a day and half pounds. So I think one to one is a little bit high and you know, and I know that it's really difficult to get there and if you're, you know, actively trying to bodybuild that would be on the highest and I think of what I would recommend for even women who are trying to like maximize their muscle.

“I think it's closer to point eight. So like closer to a hundred for you or 90 probably a hundred because I think that is a really great way.”

If you are actively trying to build muscle and you're working out every day, that would be good for you, but I agree. I like to say high protein, but not necessarily that high. Okay, so let's let's continue on and talk about energy and one of the things that I feel like people don't realize impacts energy is your cortisol levels. Is that right. That's right. Cortisol is something that people just throw around a lot.

I don't think people really understand what it is or what it does. Can you break that down for us? Yeah, hello. When we wake up in the morning, it's our cortisol that wakes us up. So it's great. You know, like we want that surge. It's kind of like adrenaline and cortisol both go up in the morning and that is the normal way that we wake up. And we want the cortisol to be low before bed because that will help us relax and get into deep sleep.

So it's kind of like you want it high in the morning. You want it low at night. That's kind of the way that you want it. It's not all bad. You know, and you want your cortisol. You're going to speak on stage. How about or do you're going on a big podcast? You want that cortisol to be like getting you in focus. And it is our fight or fight response. It's the one we want to have working when we need it. But of course, we live in a world where we get an email at 10 o'clock at night and now our cortisol super high and can't fall asleep.

And so learning to lower your cortisol at the end of the day or when it's appropriate and then keeping it high and normal in times where it's appropriate for it to be high is the goal. Yeah, that is goal because I know from personal experience whenever I have a really big event.

“I think my cortisol shoots through the roof the day before and then I don't sleep. Yes, which is terrible for a big day.”

So what can we do actually reduce our cortisol when we need to relax and get some rest? So one thing I've experienced over the last two years as I've gotten more into the entrepreneurial world is really that cortisol effect because any time something really big is happening good or bad. I wake up in the middle of the night and then I can't fall asleep because you have a little bump of cortisol in the middle of the night, that is natural. And we, if we're controlling our cortisol levels, you just sleep right through it or you wake up and you go to the bathroom and you go back to bed.

But when your baseline cortisol levels are high, your nervous system is really riled up.

That's going to wake you up and get your mind thinking and then you can't fall back asleep. So for me, that's always a sign that had to do a better job taking care of myself.

So better nutrition, better sleep, better stress control. So like if you're not taking care of it during the day, it's going to show up at night. Of course, there are times where it's really, really difficult to control it like for a one day event, no big deal, you go to sleep that night.

“But if it's happening every night for many, many nights, that is a sign that you need to kind of change what you're doing during the day.”

Add in a lot more cortisol reducing activities like meditation yoga, sunlight, sleep, like, you know, whatever it takes to get yourself in a place where you feel relaxed is something that you need to do. And I have like a little cortisol reset that I have to do with people, especially high performers because you're like an athlete and you need to be at a peak level when you're performing. And then you have to really be like an athlete and learn how to bring that cortisol down after it's done so that you can recover.

Yeah, one of my favorite things to use right now is a vibration plate. Have you seen like all the rage of everybody being obsessed with vibration blades? Yeah, I'm obsessed with mine. I just got my like a month ago and I use it every morning for 10 minutes. And I'm going to get like a red light to use in front of it and I often have trouble sticking to new habits like that, but this was like an immediate one for me. And I just feel so much more energized after I wake up. I feel like the blood is flowing. I feel like it takes away my brain fog.

It's just amazing. And I've also heard that you can use it before bed to lower your cortisol.

“What's your take on vibration plates are you using them?”

I like vibration plates. I feel like it kind of goes off of that research just like you're moving the lymph, you're moving that circulation. So there was like a good study that shows like 50-100 jumps like 50 jumps in the morning, right? Which is like the poor man. If you don't have a vibration plate, you can do 50 jumps. And it basically is the same thing. It gets your circulation going. It moves the lymph around. It makes you feel more energized. It's kind of very like you mentioned Ben.

It's very natural way to wake up with movement and blood flow. And so it makes you feel energized for the day. So I'm a fan of anything that gets you up and ready for the day. Now let's talk about food, gut, and how that really impacts our energy. You talk about silent information. How can silent information actually impact our energy or day-to-day? What does that look like? So hello, when we eat most of the foods that are the ultra-process foods. So say, ultra-process just means that it's made with ingredients that don't exist in nature.

So all the preservatives or emulsifiers, et cetera. So say you get, and I'm picking out Starbucks, but I could pick out anything else. Pick out Starbucks, I don't mind. So you get a frappuccino and you're getting all these calories in. But you're also getting very little fiber. There's almost no fiber in those frappuccinos, right? So your body is seeing all these artificial ingredients, maybe flavors, stabilizers, and all the stuff that are foreign to it.

And so the gut bacteria basically says, hey, red light, there's a little bit of stuff that we need to get rid of, some toxins, some things that we need to neutralize.

So they call in the immune system for health. Like I said, it's like the energy trifecta, the gut is talking to your hormones and immune system.

And so they're actually creating inflammation every time you eat these things that are foreign to the body and very similar to alcohol.

“Very similar when you're eating candy or like artificial colors and flavors. And so what's happening to us is that we're consuming all these foods, not knowing this.”

67% of an American diet is ultra processed foods, over 70% of teenagers and young adults diet is ultra processed foods. And we're creating this inflammation in our body. And we don't even know it. And now I'm not even talking about how much inflammation we're getting from sitting all day and how much inflammation we're getting from vaping and smoking and alcohol and all those things. So if you add that all up, like the load that we have on our bodies, we have a lot of inflammation going on when we could literally change the way we eat and live and really lower that silent information.

Yeah. And aside from just putting things in our body, we're also like spraying a lot of like disruptors on our body. And I feel like nobody talks about it enough. Like in my opinion, I had a boyfriend that we broke up like many years ago, but he was allergic to fragrances and we did it for like 10 years. And so I didn't wear fragrance during that time. And even after we broke up if somebody sprays perfume around me or if there's a highly scented candle like I immediately feel sick, I it gives me brain fog. It gives me a headache.

And I just can't believe that people are putting air fresheners in their car and using scented detergent. It's literally like spraying poison on your body in my opinion. And I just feel like nobody talks about that enough.

“What is your opinion on artificial fragrances and things like that?”

So for most of my career, I was working in the fields of allergy and immunology. So immune system and allergy in America. It's like combined. And so I couldn't wear fragrances either because most of my patients that were coming in had allergies to something and often it would be fragrances. So I saw that day in and day out how the people getting reactions to detergents make up skincare candles. You know, people who work at Costco who are thing they work at Costco and they actually are very sensitized to the smells and there's nothing you can do about it because that's your job.

So we live in this world that has ignored our health for so long and it's showing the effects because our circadian rhythms are disrupted because we're not supposed to be looking at these screens all day and all night. And that's why we can't sleep.

And then our food is ultra processed so it's creating the silent inflammation and then the products we're using are basically adding to the toxic load in our bodies.

So even like receipts that we get from a lot of these retailers, they have toxic chemicals in them that can leach into our body. And so there's so much out there that we could be doing to improve our health that, you know, smart people out there should be listening and being like, yeah, I should create a better version of this because there's a whole market for that. So I know that you say that like, and when it comes to our diet, there's no one-size-fits-all, like everybody's different.

“And I talked to you Dave Asprey earlier this year and he talks about how everybody has like reactive foods, right?”

There's certain foods that you react differently too and so you've got to pay attention to like what you react badly to what you react. Good lead to how would you recommend that we figure out what we should actually eat because there's so many recommendations out there. I'm going to give you my very, very new, but my, it's a framework that's going to change nutrition, okay? It's part of my new book hormone havoc. So it is called the 30-30-3. So 33.

30 grams of protein in your first meal. So in the morning, 30 grams of fiber throughout the day and three probiotic foods every single day.

And this is based on thousands of medical research articles. This is not like, hey, a diet or a trend. This is the bulk of the data that we have says this. And so what I like about this is that it's not a diet, it's not trying to get you skinny, it's not trying to, you know, you can be gluten free, you can be paleo, you can be vegetarian, you can be vegan. But if you just follow the framework, that is literally how we should have been told to be eating instead of like the food pyramid or whatever the hell we have right now.

This is actually the new way that we should be structuring our food and that's for everyone.

30 grams of protein in your first meal is in the morning. So the reason why that one is just for the first meal is because everybody's protein needs are different.

“But we know based on all of the research that 30 grams in your breakfast or first meal is ideal when it comes to gut health, brain health, hormone health.”

So 30 grams of protein in your first meal, 30 grams of fiber throughout the day. And three servings of probiotic foods which is kind of the hardest one. So the oldest living person in the world is like she's like 112 or something or 17 in Spain.

She would have yogurt three times a day. That's a probiotic food and they looked at her got and they were like she had an incredible gut microbiome.

Now of course there's genetics that play into it. She also had a healthy lifestyle. She's walking a lot, but it's really interesting because there's a lot of good research now looking at probiotic foods and how they can actually improve our health. Yeah, what are your some of your favorite probiotic foods? Yogurt's the easiest one in America. If you're in Europe and like, you know, there's lots of other dairy options like probiotic cottage cheese, for example, certain cheeses, but kimchi, staracrow and raw apple cider vinegar are some easy ones that people can use.

If you like Japanese food, miso and nato are great ones. Almost every single culture in the world has some sort of probiotic food that they once had or is part of the culture, but it's lost it was lost because now we have refrigerators and microwaves and fermentation is a way to preserve foods.

“And so that's how they used to do preserve foods in thousands of years ago, but we don't need it anymore, but we got to bring it back because it's really great for our gut.”

Another example of bringing back what our ancestors actually did.

So sourdough is kind of like a fermented food and it's like everybody's kind of obsessed with sourdough these days. Do you like sourdough or anything sourdough? Okay, here's the thing certain fermented foods like there's certain Indian foods to that use a starter that's fermented and then you cook it and so people are like, oh well the probiotics are dead, but now there's new research that shows that there are some real big benefits to dead bacteria in our body. So like eating foods like sourdough, eating foods like idly and dosa and Indian food, they're fermented batter actually serves a purpose in our gut as well.

All right, Amy, we're going to play a fun game. We're going to stack rank some energy trends. You tell me which one that you like the best and we'll see which one overall wins at the end. And this is for energy. This is for energy. So so the best energy boosting trends. Okay, and for men and women. All right, let's go. Ginger shots or cold plunging. Oh, cold plunging. Okay, cold plunging or vibration plates. So cold plunging. Cold plunging or electrolyte packets. Cold plunging. Cold plunging or morning sunlight morning sunlight or red light therapy morning sunlight morning sunlight or 30 grams of protein breakfast.

Ah, that's a hard one. Okay, I'm still going to pick morning sunlight, but they're close. Okay, morning sunlight or sauna still morning sunlight for energy morning sunlight or zone two walking.

“Oh my god, sunny walk in the morning is the ideal. So I think both of them for that one.”

Okay, let's go with morning sunlight and reducing ultra processed foods still morning sunlight. I'm telling you. Oh, morning sunlight is the winter. So morning sunlight is just so important in your opinion, then that is not the number one energy boosting hack is morning sunlight to you. It's the number one energy boosting hack. Now a lot of the things you said are all yes, yes, and yes, it's not like worse, you know, but if you were like, what is the one thing that I could be doing in my life. It's that circadian rhythms like they run our body and if you can figure out how to sleep and get light in the right times, it's going to make the biggest difference in her energy.

Okay, so let's move on to some scenarios. Okay, I'm going to give you some scenarios of people's lifestyles and you give me what you would recommend like if they were one of your like personal clients what what regimens would you put them on. So meet Sarah. She's 35. She wakes up tired. She grabs coffee immediately. She skips breakfast because she's not hungry. She powers through her morning every single day around 3 pm. She crashes. She has cravings irritability, brain fog, nonstop grazing, and at the end of the day, she feels bloated and exhausted. How would you fix her day?

I would make sure she's getting adequate sleep. So maybe it's 7 to 8 hours, maybe it's 8 to 9 hours, she's getting adequate sleep. Then she's getting some sunlight or like I said a light box or opening her window on her way to work or walking to to work.

“If you can fit in a quick walk there in the morning, even if it's 10 minutes great, because like I said those two energy boosters being in a sun and walking is the perfect way to start her day.”

Then she's going to get to work and maybe it's like a couple an hour or two after she's walking up and she's going to have a 30 gram breakfast, a 30 grams of protein breakfast I meant to say.

So it's an excramble maybe with extra egg whites and maybe it's cottage cheese, the probiotic cottage cheese and a few berries that are high in fiber with it. So she can have coffee coffee is a life lengthening food and everybody loves coffee but we don't love I don't love the mixers that you put into coffee like the process, creamers, etc. So skip that but you can have your coffee, you can have a little milk and then you're going to find ways to move throughout the day. So she instead of sitting in her office for eight hours, she's going to go for a quick walk at lunch or she's going to do 10 body weight squats every 45 minutes because that's actually been shown to be better.

“Then waiting till the end of the day and going for a walk. So she's going to find many movements, many exercise snacks throughout the day and then she's going to eat another 30 grams of protein in her late lunch.”

And then she goes home and maybe before she goes home, she goes to wait train because I want her to incorporate two to three times a week of wait training, especially if she's in Sarah's in her 30, 30s, 40s or 50s. And then she's going to go home, she's going to eat dinner and then she's going to go for a walk after her meal because she knows that walking after her meal is twice as effective as walking in at another time of day.

Even if it's just a 10 minute walk, your dog or walk around the neighborhood, that's all you need.

She is going to unplug for at least one hour before bed and I say one hour because like people say two to three hours and that's just not possible for Sarah and for most busy people. So one hour before bed, you're maybe taking a hot back because hot therapy is really good for you.

“Maybe you're doing a combination of cold plunge and hot back because that contrast therapy is really amazing and maybe you do other things like red light therapy, vibration plate, you do all the things you need to do to get that cortisol down.”

So you can have a good sleep and one of the biggest things that has helped me in my life and I recommend to people is pick the perfect bed time for you and stick to it. So don't put it bed at like the old me one day it's 10 o'clock one day it's midnight one day it's nine o'clock one day you want to pick around the same time and stay within a half an hour of it every single day and stay with the week time that is the perfect day for you. Hmm, I feel like that just tied in like so many of the things that you taught us today so that we'll just stick to that one scenario because it was so good. But one question that I have is this this topic of intermittent fasting and so many of us were kind of trained to not eat until like 11 12.

This is like my habit is that like I have trained myself to not even want to eat until lunch time is that good or bad or or what are your thoughts around that. Okay, I challenge you hotla to move up your dinner a little bit.

So what ends up happening is if you eat a late lunch or like you eat their first meal at lunch then you're eating a later dinner and you're eating really close to bedtime.

So for optimal energy and focus and gut health you actually want to go with circadian rhythm so if you think about it again ancestors thousands of years ago after sundown. It wasn't like they could call Uber eats at midnight for like a huge meal. They ate their biggest meal and then they maybe they had a snack or a little something something, but it wasn't like a human gaze calorie load late in the day. So I challenge you to not eat two to three hours before bed and maybe you're doing that already, but that is the best best way to optimize your gut and your circadian rhythms and that energy trifecta.

And then then you'll notice when you wake up you're a little hungrier because you had that big break and so even if it's not you know six a.m. if you're having at nine 10 a.m. That's still a win really I don't want you to skip breakfast altogether if possible. I mean, it's confession time. I thought I had my money handled. I thought I had a good handle on everything going on, but I recently checked my bank statements and there was subscriptions everywhere streaming apps random charges.

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You know what that means new goals new ideas and maybe that little voice in your head saying this is the year that I finally start my business.

“But let's be real the what is show up fast what if I fail what if this is a wrong move.”

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Yeah, damn don't kick yourself a year from now because you didn't take action today start your business with Shopify. It's time to turn those what ifs into. With Shopify today sign up for your one dollar per month trial at shop by dot com slash holla. That's Shopify dot com slash holla go to shop by dot com slash holla. Okay, so I want to circle back to your amazing career transition from doctor to now online influencer walk us through you know how you made that transition and maybe some of the big pivotal moments we're like okay like I'm going all in on this I know this is the right path for me.

Hello, I started to do this because I was so frustrated. I think a lot of people can relate like they're working their job that everybody from the outside was like oh my god you're partner in your practice you're so successful you're like doing this in that and I hated it. I hated myself. I was living this like very extremely um hustle culture life where I wasn't sleeping well. I wasn't eating well. I was trying to do it all and I didn't feel like I was good at anything I was doing. I hated the work that I was doing and so I started to just like write three blogs literally got paid zero money and I would just write about like god health nutrition women's health and I submit them to these like sites back then like 10 years ago that was like.

Something that people could do and I got a lot of satisfaction from that even then I started to get pushed back from my colleagues because I was really traditional. I went to Columbia and Harvard and Cornell and all these places where there those people did not go on the internet especially at that time which was like about 10 years ago and it was a lot of like. What are you trying to do like what is all this like only like whack like.

So I was kind of like okay well I'm going to stay in my lane and I'm going to try to concentrate on doing what I need to do to make money and be successful in this career.

“I had this thing in the back of my mind kept telling me like there's something else that you're supposed to be doing and I didn't know what it was and so a few years ago.”

I went to a conference for a writer's conference because these free blogs that was doing like you know there was a conference to think the writers and I went and I was like you know when you finally see like people doing work that is so something that you want to be doing and I was just like there's something that happened to me that weekend and I went back home and I was like I have to do something so during the pandemic. We didn't work full time in our clinic to allow for emergencies and you know all the things that we're going on.

And I got my first shot at really trying things on the internet and I started to post here and there and something happened.

The day that we decided that we were coming back in full time for after the pandemic I said to my practice that I'm not going to come back full time. I'm going to kind of explore this other side and they were really weirded out by it people were disappointed they definitely thought that I was doing something weird. And I just started to share I challenge myself to share every single day something something about my research something I learned from my clinical practice like I've been in clinical practice for 15 years like there was so many things that I was learning from patients that would say oh I tried this and like this is what happened.

So I challenged myself to share every day was cringe total cringe because there were sometimes where I look at the video I look back at those videos and I'm like oh my god. I just did it because I forced myself to do it.

“And every day I forced myself to write something so that's how hormone havoc came about is like every day I would write a little bit something that I thought would be helpful to people.”

And over time that cringe became a social media kind of very active social media page and people really started to relate to some of the things I was saying. And then this past year I went to my practice and I said I it's like when you're a partner it's really hard to leave a practice. I said really want to jump into this full time and they thought I was crazy because like how do you even make money on the internet they were like this is crazy like who are you. Probably you make it more money on the internet. Yeah exactly and everybody kind of equated it is like oh are you trying to become like a youtuber something and I was like yeah this is a whole different thing. So in any case I made the plunge and you're right like I thought that you know staying the safe medical practice was the right way to go for my career but as soon as I left in May of this past year I have really seen a growth not even just like on my social media but also personally.

For the opportunities to consulting the longevity centers the the the console said I get it is been transformative and I wish I had done it sooner and I'm sharing this because so many of us have that thing in the back of our head but we're so scared. We get a lot of push back we get a lot of criticism and so it stops us from making that move. Yeah you're such a great example of creator entrepreneurship and I'm actually going to be writing a book this year on creator entrepreneurship and you are just like such a great case study of somebody who is like a traditional doctor if we then transition their career online.

And I have almost 2 million on Instagram that's my biggest. Oh my gosh 2 million followers so you've obviously been able to really resonate connect with people you've obviously gone viral many many times. I interviewed Mel Robbins and she told me that her key to connecting with her audience is to be really simple never say big words never say jargins speak like you're just talking to one person at all times. You're a formula for connecting with your audience and making sure this really complicated medical stuff actually resonates with the everyday person.

“I think about how I can give them a gift okay so if I was like.”

What did I learn in the past month that could be a gift to my audience like I always think.

How can I add value in a way that it feels like I'm giving them a present like coming from a physician's point of view and that is really how do I think about it every time. Very close so you're like what gift can I give this person making sure that every post actually has like meaning that you can take away from it and and that way it's like shareable right.

This is what I'm doing most of the posts are like how can like 99.99 is a gift to you like this is what you should do because of the research this is what you should do because this help me or my patients or in the medical literature or.

“What's working for someone or not working for someone so I feel like then they can feel like they've gained something from watching that post.”

How do you decide what content you're posting are you thinking of like hooks to start off your video is are you're like very formulaic or you kind of just like I'm just going to cop on the camera and talk about X was he like how do you how do you plan your content.

Well I as I told you I challenge myself to create every single day it's like a writer like you are forcing myself to write.

And to create every single day and so what happens is sometimes I write things that I think are awesome I spend hours doing and influx completely and then there's other times where I take a risk and it took me two seconds and it just does so well and so I think I've just learned so much I continue to challenge myself to try new things because I think it can be very easy to be like this works let me just go with this and I often will find myself pushing myself to be like I know this works.

“But I know this works but let's try something different because I think there's so much value to be had.”

There's unlimited content that I could be giving but it's also a game because social media's infotainment so how do you present it in a way that's interesting to people. Yeah I was talking about Johnson recently and he was telling me that he likes to record in batches and like if he's not in a good mood he just won't record and that inspired me too because I was thinking like that's when I decided like hey I'm not going to record during my luteal phase because I'm not feeling my best and I'd rather like do two interviews on a regular day that I'm not feeling bad.

And then do it on a day where I'm not feeling my best but you say you just every day no matter what you're doing content so you never are batching is that is that right.

“So I believe that we should be keeping 20% of our day free and I learned this from David Guillem who's a cabal teacher and he said basically big things don't come to overwhelmed people and so when you keep 20% of your day free.”

You know you're processing what just happened you might be able to have a longer conversation and you might have a moment to just create something and so I challenge myself every single day to create something. But I am always telling myself to do something creative every day and you're right there are days holidays where I'll be doing my walk or taking that 20% of my day to be creative and I will have 10 ideas and then there will be other days where I'm like I cannot believe I have to like post anything today.

But I just do it because it's like it's like working out like I feel like the most I'm learning how to present my knowledge in a way that's usable for people.

So I do batch record when it strikes but I don't I don't have that like you know Tuesdays are my batch recording day I just can't do it like that because sometimes on Tuesdays I just don't have all the good ideas and it's Wednesday that I have all the good ideas. I love that and I feel like as long as you're posting consistent content and I feel like your framework is especially good for somebody who's just starting and like they need the motivation and it's sort of like this is your challenge you're just going to do it every day for 60 days no matter what no matter how you feel no matter if it's cringe.

You're putting something up there and then you get in the habit and that's how you win is it's really through consistency at the end of the day and I also find like just to Gary Vaynerchuk's point like I think when you create a lot of content you learn a lot about your audience about yourself and like things that you're like I said sometimes I'll perfect things and I think it's like the most valuable science back. I'll post it on all the platforms and totally flop and there's other times where I was not going to post it and I'm like I'll just delete this and it ends up being something that overperform so really that creative that social creative is such an important part of the story that we're telling and so it's important to test it.

Okay, why don't we respect full of your time and then we're like running up on time here so my last question to you is for somebody out there who's in a profession that they spend a lot of money on a degree but they're unhappy what are your words of wisdom to them. Take care of your insights focus on your insights and everything will become clear so when you take care of your body when you sleep well when you eat well when you search focus on your gut health.

Oh my gosh, I love that advice I didn't think you were going to take it there but it's so true when you have mental clarity and you feel your best.

“You know you can be able to vision more clearly and understand what you need to do for yourself so I love that advice Amy where can everybody learn more about you and everything that you do and grab your new book.”

Oh thanks so much. Hello this was so fun and my new book is called hormone havoc it is available everywhere books are sold and my website is Amy mdwellness.com and my social media is at doctor Amy Shaw.

Amazing this was such an awesome interview I feel like we learned so much thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you so much for having me. While you have gang what an incredible conversation with doctor Amy Shaw I just love how she turned her own burnout story into a mission to help millions of people reclaim their energy and health.

“And the fact that she left a safe prestigious medical practice to pursue this risky vision full time will that take serious courage and as we all know with high risk comes high reward and she certainly is getting her rewards right now.”

And one of the biggest revelations for me in terms of the content of this podcast was learning that morning sunlight beats out every single trendy bio hack that we threw at her cold punches vibration plates electrolytes. You name it it was morning sunlight that one every time and that's because our circadian rhythms control 80% of our bodies processes just stepping outside for a few minutes in the morning directly connects to your retina. Your brain's control center giving you better focus better hormone function and sustain energy throughout the day.

If you add a morning walk to that sunlight exposure you've got the ultimate energy combo morning sunlight and a walk in the morning will totally change your life. And then there's doctor Amy's revolutionary 3033 framework from her new book harmon havoc 30 grams of protein in your first meal 30 grams of fiber throughout the day and then three probiotic foods daily. This isn't just some bad diet. It's backed by thousands of medical studies and works where they're vegan, paleo or anything in between. It's literally how we should have been taught eating all along again getting back to our ancestral roots and ladies this one is for us.

You've got to align your schedule with your menstrual cycle. It can be a total game changer that late ludial phase the week before your period is when you need more sleep.

General or workouts and less stressful activities. If you control your schedule like I do now, make sure you protect your time.

“Save your big presentations, your recordings, your important meetings for when your hormones are actually supporting you.”

Now, of course, if you work corporate career, you're not going to be able to do this so easily you can't just dictate your schedule. However, do what you can to optimize your own cycle and rhythm. Dr. Amy's journey also proves that you don't have to stay stuck in a career that drains you even if you've invested years in a lot of money getting there. Sometimes your true calling is waiting on the other side of fear or cringe as Dr. Amy said. Thanks for listening to this episode of Young Improveding. If you learned something valuable about optimizing your energy and health, then please share this episode with somebody who needs to hear it.

And if you enjoy this conversation with Dr. Amy Shaw, drop us a five star review on Apple Podcast. Your reviews help us reach more people. If you prefer to watch your videos on YouTube, we're growing a big community over there. Make sure you follow us on YouTube, just search Young Improveding, subscribe, comment, join the conversation. You can also find me on Instagram @yapathala or LinkedIn, just search for my name. It's Hala Taha.

And of course, before we go, I've always got to shout out my app team.

There's about 20 people who work on Young Improveding podcasts alone about 60 people at YAP Media. Everybody plays their part. Everybody works so hard. We've got rock stars on the team today. I want to specifically shout out Ravi for doing an amazing job with all of our videos and Jaden for absolutely crushing our social media and being such a gem and a team player all around. Take you both for all that you do. This is your host, Hala Taha aka the podcast princess signing off.