Midlife Belly Fat: Part 3-Gut Health with Lindsey Foreman

We are SO excited to welcome Lindsey Foreman, Family Nurse Practitioner, specializing in Functional Medicine  to the podcast today.  She is a gut and hormone health enthusiast/expert. Lindsey is a WEALTH of information and she shares a bunch of it today with us.
This is the final segment in a 3-part series on belly fat, so we focus on how the gut microbiome affects belly fat and overall health. You may have heard before, that the gut is the center of health and Lindsey helps unpack why, today.
Please join us for a great talk with Lindsey on gut health in midlife!

00:00 Podcast focuses on midlife wellness for women.
04:53 Menopause causes microbiome diversity decrease, impacting health.
06:37 Prebiotic and probiotic foods enhance gut health.
11:28 Learning to cook seasonally was really helpful.
14:15 Different types of bloating due to dysbiosis.
19:01 Under eating can lead to health problems.
20:26 Low-calorie diets and over-exercising cause inflammation, weight retention.
24:30 Lack of education about mental health effects.
28:08 Focus on whole foods diet, cooking at home.
31:42 Lindsay, golden nugget on testing and aging.
33:12 Share show description, discuss during our next meeting.


Website: www.lindseyforeman.com
Instagram and Facebook: @lindseyforemanwellness
Free Gut and Hormone Book: https://www.lindseyforeman.com/eBook
Free Nutrition and Fitness Guide for Women Over 40: https://www.lindseyforeman.com/opt-in-social-media-freebie-fertility-1

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Amelia

• Website: https://www.thehelpfulplate.com/
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Cam

• Website: https://www.camoyler.com/
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Transcript

0:00

Cam, I just ate lunch, and my belly is so bloated. What is going on? I don't know, but we have this amazing person that's gonna help us figure it out today. Hi. I'm Cam, Holistic health coach, mom to 2 humans and 4 pets. Hi. I'm Amelia, Laboratory scientist by day and food scientist by night. Welcome to our show. Join us as we share our holistic approach to life after 50. You can expect real life stories with a dash of humor and a ton of truth. If it happens in midlife, we're going to talk about it. So hit that subscribe button and follow along. We're the Midlife Mommas. Yay. I am so excited to talk about gut health and bloating. My name is Lindsay Foreman, and I am a functional nurse practitioner. And I help women overcome a lot of gut dysfunction and hormone dysfunction. So I'm so happy to be here today. We're so excited. Just a little bit about Lindsay, she's already said she's a functional medicine nurse practitioner. And for those of us in Central North Carolina, like myself, if you are a faithful follower, Lindsay is right here in the sand hills. So at the end of the podcast, we're gonna get Lindsay to tell our listeners where to find her. But, Lindsay, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Cool. So, you know, we're we're a podcast for, generally midlife women. I think that our intro actually says something about life after 50, but as you well know, and I talked to a really good friend of mine on Friday, midlife isn't really just the point of menopause. There's a ton of stuff that happens before that. So our listenership I've even honestly, got a couple of men. Some of my guy friends listen as well, which is kind of interesting. So but, you know, we concentrate on that, and as you will know, Lindsey, from your clientele, that belly fat, that spare tire, that space in the middle, midsection tends to creep up up on us around this time of life. So we're eager to know how that connects with your practice and what sort of wisdom bombs you can drop on us there. Sure. Yeah. So, actually, I feel like a lot of women don't realize it, but the changes in hormones start typically as early as 35 years old. So perimenopause can start from about 35 to 45. And then on average, women go through menopause around 51. So we see these changes much earlier than a lot of women anticipate. And a lot of it is linked to gut health and the gut microbiome. There's specific bacteria that can increase, you know, make it harder to lose weight, harder to maintain a healthy weight. When you have this decrease in hormones, you get a lot of the visceral fat, which is the deep fat around your organs, and it can actually be very dangerous. It's linked to insulin resistance. So, yeah, that's where we see a lot of the belly fat. So it's not just that, you know, subcutaneous fat. It can be the deep fat as well. And all of this is linked to gut health, which hopefully we'll be getting into more of that. Yeah. Absolutely. So, we have talked on occasion about the gut microbiome, but how about if you explain a little bit about what that actually means? Sure. So our bodies have trillions of organisms. Our gut have, you know, trillions of, bacteria. We have beneficial bacteria. There are pathogenic bacteria, which we can get an infection with, like, you know, salmonella and giardia, things like that, that can cause, you know, significant problems for a couple weeks until our immune system clears it. But we have all of these normal bacteria that are there all of the time. And what can happen is these beneficial bacteria, we want nice, you know, robust numbers. We want diversity. We want them to be healthy and balanced. There are lots of lifestyle and nutrition factors that can create recapic, basically, on our gut health. And when we have, you know, I don't want to call them bad bacteria because they're there too. But certain bacteria can overgrow and create a lot of problems. These specific bacteria can release lipopolysaccharides, which are very inflammatory and leak out into our bloodstream and create a lot of downstream problems. So we really want to find a nice balance with these bacteria of the beneficial and then the ones you know, other ones. We don't want that dysbiosis or, this imbalance to occur. Very cool. So, Lindsay, tell us a little bit, you mentioned in the beginning about decreasing hormones. So what is the relationship, I'm guessing there's a relationship, between this time of life and decreasing hormones and our gut microbiome? Yes. So in menopause, obviously, there's a pretty drastic drop in estrogen and progesterone. This can actually lead to a decrease in diversity of the microbiome. There are specific gut bugs that actually feed on estrogen and progesterone. So when they lose that hormone, they lose, you know, their food, basically. And so there's a drastic drop in the diversity as well. And like I mentioned, the diversity is important because we want our commensal bacteria to to be nice and diverse, lots of different strains and kinds of bacteria. We want nice robust numbers and a nice healthy balance because these commensal or beneficial bacteria are going to help produce b vitamins. They're gonna help, you know, produce our vitamin k. Some of them produce short chain fatty acids, which are food sources to they feed healthy colonocytes or healthy colon cells. So all of these are very important. So one of the main things that we see happen during menopause with this decrease in hormones is a decrease in diversity as well. So we wanna make sure that we're kind of offsetting that as we, you know, get to this point in life. And what is the easiest way to diversify? Yeah. So a lot of, the diversity is going to come from nutrition and lifestyle. So when it comes to nutrition, the commensal or those beneficial bugs really like to feed on fiber, so we want to make sure that we have a nice high fiber diet. We also wanna make sure that our diet is high in polyphenols. So polyphenols, are specific foods that have phytonutrients. They are the phytonutrients give them their color. Those commensal or beneficial bacteria also feed on those polyphenols. So that's gonna help the diversity and the health of the gut as well. And then the prebiotic and probiotic foods are also very important. So the prebiotics, help feed those gut bugs, and then the probiotics you're going to find in like fermented foods like peaher and yogurt, pickles, all of those kind of things. So those will all help the mucosal layer, which we can talk more about that, but that's even more detail. But that's really what we're trying to beef up is the mucosal layer, the thin single cell single cell layer, of the intestine. And so all of those beneficial bugs are going to help to produce mucus and make those mucus layers nice and thick and make a nice barrier. So, that is kind of how, I know it it gets pretty detailed and in the weeds here, but that's that's how we create a healthy, diverse microbiome. So basically, it's food diversity as well as fiber. Yes. Okay. Great. Yes. Yes. And then a bunch of, you know, nutrition, I mean, lifestyle factors as well. Stress, plays a huge role too, which I can go, you know, into that as well, if that's helpful too. But all of those things play a big role. Let's talk about stress for a second. So if you're living a stressful life, what does that do to your gut binome? So when we are under stress, it decreases our digestive output. So our digestive output is our stomach acid, It is our pancreatic enzymes, our digestive juices. So whenever we have chronic stress, that that's gonna decrease. So when you're eating your meal, the it kinda just sits there. It doesn't digest appropriately and move through. If you have ever heard of the vagus nerve, we have a nerve from the base of the brain that goes all the way down to bowel and bladder control. And the vagus nerve innervates our entire digestive tract. So that is what's going to help signal to the body that food is coming and to secrete those digestive juices and secrete your stomach acid and your pancreatic enzymes, in order to digest food. And for that vagus nerve to fire, you have to be in a parasympathetic state, so that's rest and digest. So if you're in a sympathetic state, under chronic stress, rushing around, you are not going to your vagus nerve isn't gonna be firing. So you're gonna be eating this food and just kinda sits there. And it leads to bloating and constipation and gas and all of that, so you get a lot of side effects from that. That is fascinating. I wanna go back to something you said a few minutes ago about the colon cells. Do you happen to know if, menopausal women have a higher rate of colon cancer. I mean, I guess older people do, but it just when you were talking about the nourishment, the mucosal layer, I'm like, I wonder if there's a higher rate of colon cancer in women postmenopause. Yeah. So we do see higher rates of colon cancer in people with low fiber diets. So Okay. The, regulations for or the recommendations, I should say, for fiber in the United States, I believe, they recommend about 28 grams per day. Most people get about 5 to 15 grams of fiber per day. And if we look back to the paleolithic era, most people were eating closer to like a 100 grams of fiber per day. And that 28 grams, that is just to prevent or reduce the risk of colon cancer. So that is a guideline to reduce the risk of colon cancer. But optimally, we should be getting closer to, like, you know, 40 to 50 grams of fiber to a day. So the low fiber diet is one of the biggest predictors of colon cancer or one of the biggest risk factors. So that's why that fiber, again, is so important. Gosh. That's so amazing. So Cam and I talk about color on and off your plate, you know, have a fun, colorful life, but, you know, plant diversity. So we harp on that. And one of the things in 2024, not that I didn't before, but I do try to eat 4 to 8 different plants a day. Mhmm. Do you think that's good, or should it actually be more than that? I think that's a great place to start. I would say most people aren't getting even that, so I think that's great. And, of course, the food diversity is super important as well because we wanna make sure that we're getting all of those different phytonutrients. Those phytonutrients and polyphenols, have antioxidant properties, anti inflammatory properties. So when we are eating lots of different fruits and veggies, you get all different kinds of, you know, fiber, phytonutrients. So that is great to try to make your plate, you know, as colorful as possible and to really rotate it, you know, seasonally and to make sure you're eating from the farmer's market in season. Mhmm. When you go to the grocery store just looking for something, you know, new that you haven't eaten or tried and try cooking with it is really helpful too. It's also hard because I'm like, what do I do with this obscure ingredient? But it's very great for the the gut microbiome. That's really awesome. For many years, I'm almost embarrassed to say this publicly, but because I don't subscribe anymore, but in the Sandhills, we have Sandhills Farm to Table. And my work schedule just doesn't it prevents me from picking up the box. But, Lindsay, one of the things that was cool about that is I made a pact with myself to cook what was in the box. If I didn't know what it was, I'd figure it out, and it really helped. I mean, it helped me eat seasonally, and so I did that for 10 years, and then once I, kind of my schedule prevented me from subscribing, I knew what was seasonal here. And so it was really a learning experience. In fact, a little little known fact, for about 3 years, I provided the recipe inserts for Sandhills Farm to Table. And it was fun. I loved it. They weren't all originals. Probably 35% of them were original recipes that I had come up with. But, you know, it it's great. It it is a wonderful and I I go to the farmer's market, so I love that you mentioned that as well. It's it's really it's really helpful. And I know that some people may listen in locales where that might not be possible, but there are ways, I think, to to find those good, healthy, diverse plant foods no matter where you live. Yeah. Definitely. And I love, the subscription boxes. I use those a lot too. Like, if you have trouble, you know, going to several different grocery stores, because sometimes it can be hard to find quality ingredients all at one place. So those subscription boxes I feel are so helpful, especially for like good quality protein if you can't find it locally, just to get it sent, and then you don't really have an excuse and it's right there for you to cook and make it home. So We're fans of ButcherBox on the podcast. Oh, okay. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. I have a a bunch of good favorite ones that I like to use. But, yeah, ButcherBox is great. So let's kinda leapfrog. Now that we understand a little bit about the gut microbiome and the relationship, I really, I may have more questions later about the mucosal lining, but talk to us about the relationship between all of that and, belly fat and bloating. Like, how is all that connected? So with bloating specifically, I see that all the time. Feel like it's probably one of my biggest complaints. Like I mentioned, there can be several different things. So it can be that you're, you know, eating your meals in a chronic stress state, fight or flight. You are not secreting your enzymes. Your enzymes, therefore, can't break down your food, and then you have undigested protein that moves into the intestines. When that happens, it becomes a feeding frenzy. So where the bacteria just eat all of that undigested protein and the human cells cannot produce gas, but the bacteria in your gut can produce gas. So there are different types of bloating. There can be bloating right away. So if you eat a meal and you are bloated within 20 minutes, that's usually like a stomach acid issue. If you eat a meal and then within 3 to 4 hours, you notice bloating, or I'll have a lot of women say, by the end of the day, I feel like I'm 6 months pregnant. And in the morning, when I wake up, it's my belly's flat. That is usually the undigested protein moving into the intestine and that feeding frenzy occurs, and then you have this increase in gas and bloating throughout the day. So there are different kinds. And again, that all kind of goes back to dysbiosis, so you can have an overgrowth of, I don't want to call them bad bacteria because they're always there, but certain bacteria can overgrow, and then they become a problem, and that's where you get a lot of the gas and bloating. I know I have I know a lot of women that have experimented with be being a vegan or a vegetarian, and then they naturally begin to make less stomach acid. I've seen that a lot. And then they decide, okay, it's time to eat meat. So do you have any suggestions for those kind of situations so they are making more stomach acid? Yeah. So it definitely, just takes some time. You can take a supplement, to increase acid or it is just an acid supplement, But that is a huge problem because I'm a huge fan of animal protein, and it's I also have, you know, patients that don't eat any animal protein, which is fine too. But you're exactly right, where if you don't use it, you lose it. So the longer, you know, people are on vegetarian and vegan diets, we see that decrease in stomach acid. And stomach acid is really a very good thing. Like we need stomach acid. And if you talk to somebody who has reflux, they'll say no. It's not a good thing. But that's a whole another topic, but it's very confusing. It's actually low stomach acid that causes reflux symptoms for the acid being in the wrong place. So, with the low stomach acid, you know, really practicing good food hygiene is one of the best things you can do, that is going to fix that long term. So, you know, supplements are Band Aids, and they're just going to cover up the problem just like prescription medications. But when you really turn to the lifestyle factors, that's where you get to the root cause of the problem. So for example, if you are having a lot of bloating, you know, turning to good food hygiene is probably one of the easiest, most important things you can do. It does take time. But that is, you know, making sure you're sitting down and having a meal and setting aside 15 to 20 minutes, turning off, you know, putting your phone aside, the TV off, smell your food, think about your food, practice some deep breathing for a few seconds before you start eating, and that's going to put you into a parasympathetic state so that you are secreting the stomach acid and secreting your digestive juices and able to digest and absorb much, much better. So just doing that 3 times a day can significantly improve stomach acid levels. That's so helpful. Thank you so much for that. That's so helpful. Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking when you were saying that, that I need to practice that. I work in an office 3 days a week, and most of the time, our company culture is that you actually go to the cafeteria and eat. And being the type a that I'm in, I'm I'm like, screw it. I don't have time for that, so I eat at my desk, which is not always bad, but I can at least put things aside. And that's probably part of the bloating I feel at 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon is I've flown through lunch. Mhmm. I haven't appreciated the food, and I've really just, you know, probably am in that fight or flight state, and I don't even realize it because I'm, you know, just working. Right. Right. And if your body, you know, you just eat and you're not really in the parasympathetic state, the food arrives, and it was like, woah, I'm not ready for this. Right. Right. And then it just kinda passes it through. But when you kind of prepare and really take your time and slow down, that's one of the biggest, easiest things that can significantly improve bloating. So helpful. That's very helpful. Yeah. Right? Yes. And I'm like, this is, this is how everybody should be eating, but it's just our lifestyle these days is so different and fast paced than it ever used to be. So that's where a lot of people struggle and get these symptoms. I can imagine when my kids were younger, I mean, they're an empty nester here and then driving from soccer to wrestling in the car, eating on the go. Like, what were we doing to our gut in my thirties? Oh. Yeah. Well, that's yeah. That's where I am now. And a lot of my patients are young moms with young kids. And I the first thing I say is, a, please stop just eating your kids' scraps off of their plates. Yes. Like, you have to prepare, like, sit down and just eat a meal. I know it's hard and there's never time, but you have to do that. And most are not eating enough food. I see that's a huge, huge problem. Mhmm. Even in perimenopause and many menopause as well, women typically under eat. And so that creates a lot of problems. And when your body is kind of in survival mode and almost starving because you are not eating enough, it hangs on to all those fat stores. So that kinda circles back to the belly fat. So, you know, around perimenopause, menopause, our nutrition, needs change, the exercise types of exercise we're doing, it needs to change, and the amount of food, you know, most women need to usually what I see in my experience need to be eating more. So 100% agree with that. That's what I see too. Yeah. Yeah. And we've talked about that, Lindsay, because our age group is unique is that we were the prime victims of diet culture. And so, if our sisters are not recognizing that that mindset is insidious, they're still living that. And so when they're putting on weight, they're cutting calories and it just gets worse, or they're over exercising or both. Yep. And so I I would like for you to comment on specifically perimenopausal, menopausal women, and caloric intake, and just kinda run with that as far as, like, how that affects health and belly fat and all the things. Sure. Yeah. Like I mentioned, it's probably one of the top things I see, and you're exactly right, where a lot of times the low calorie diet is paired with over exercising, high intensity workouts, cardio, And then women are really struggling because they're so inflamed, and then they have this extra weight, and they're like, I cannot get rid of this. But like I mentioned, you know, your body is in fight or flight and in survival mode when you're not getting enough calories, so it's gonna hang on to everything, and you just get super inflamed. So I usually you know, there's a lot of different ways you can do this, and it really depends on your activity levels, your age, your goals, all of that on, you know, how much you should be eating. So that's very individualized. But in, like, a general sense, I think the best thing that women can do is really look at their plate structure. So just make sure that, you know, half of your plate is full of, you know, non starchy vegetables. A quarter of your plate has good quality protein. A quarter has some healthy carbohydrates, and really focus on the whole foods diet and make sure you're, you know, you're fully nourished and your body, you know, has enough food. And that can be in itself, you know, a game changer for a lot of women. And then when you also, you know, pair that with weight training instead of the high intensity and the cardio, usually the weight and the belly fat starts to just, you know, dissipate and drop off and, a lot of women will struggle with that for years and it just takes a different, you know, a change in the nutrition and lifestyle. I agree with that. And I also feel like it's a clue when our body is holding on to weight, in particular, our midsection. It's kind of like an alarm. Figure out where the imbalance is and put yourself back in balance. But I agree with you. It takes a lot of effort to change your mindset. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And it you're exactly right too where I feel like looking at my mom and my friends, you know, moms, all of them struggled with weight. And a lot of times it gets blamed, you know, on being menopausal or perimenopausal, but, you know, it's just things just change, and we have to kind of, you know, alter what we're doing to support that. And and usually, it it can fix fix itself. Yeah. And I think one of the interesting things about, what we hear from traditional practitioners is, we talked about this. We did a whole episode on pelvic floor, and you hear, oh, to leak a little urine is normal. And in this case, maybe this weight gain is quote normal. And I think we confuse normal and usual. It's not unusual because we've created an environment where we believe that's true and we accept it as opposed to, as both of you ladies have said, you know, changing what we do in order for this not to be the case. And, again, I think it it speaks to the mindset of so much of what's happening in America. That's why we wanted to have you on, Lindsay, is because we Cam and I are not medical professionals, and we're very upfront about that with our listenership. But a lot of what people are told, and Cam has her own story, by traditional health health practitioners is not really where science is today. You know? Like, I was Cam, you know what I'm talking about. It's the whole, like, take some birth control pills, and it'll be fine. It's like, no. It's really not gonna be fine. You know? You're you're trying to fight the effects of, of perimenopause with with this. So, yeah, we we've heard all of those things that it's just so wonderful to have someone like yourself, a spouse, the same things that we we've been telling people. So Yeah. Yeah. Especially with, in the, you know, medical world, it takes, I think on average, like 17 years for research to make it into practice and even longer for the research. It's gonna take years years. So by the time the research is done and it makes it into practice, it's outdated. So, you know, we struggle with that too, and it's just hard because we have to, you know, stay on top of on top of things a little bit better so we can help more people. Yeah. And sadly, you know, all of the money is in treating people with pharmaceuticals, and so it feels like, you know, unless people like us are having a forum where we educate people, it's so easy. I was talking to another friend today and her son is like 31, and she's like, I was shocked to know that all of his friends, and this was about like, antianxiety and antidepressants, They all take them. And she was like, I don't understand. And I was like, well, you know, who's talking to these kids about all of the dangers of the, like, bombardment of social media and regular media and constantly being connected? Like, they're, it's not just physical health that affected your mental health. And so, you know, I told her. I was like, I've talked to my kids about what is your diet? How much are you drinking? Are you sleeping? Like, there's so much we can control that we don't even realize is a factor in some of these. And belly fat's the same way. Like, are you doing what you can do? And this is like a total side note, but I've got a couple of friends. One of them is a man, and he is significantly overweight, and people are going to these, injectables. And I'm like, are you doing the things you can first? Like, this is feels really out of whack to me. So Yeah. Yeah. Like the GLP ones. Is that what you mean? Yeah. Yeah. We do see that a lot. And I think for some people, you know, it can help. Like, there are some people they just need the help losing weight for the motivation for just to get get them on the right track. But there are a lot of side effects where that slows down your digestion, and we're gonna see problems, I think, with that, with a lot of overgrowth bacteria and maybe creating a lot of side effects that are worse than than what it started with. But, yeah, that's very true too. And and it's just really important to look for the root cause and really address that before we're just throwing, you know, tons of prescriptions and supplements because that's really it's not gonna fix anything. They're just Band Aids and really need to help people, you know, find the root of the problem. And and a lot of times, it'll go away. And it's sometimes it's really not that hard. It's just, you know, you just need some help finding what's going on. So Beyond the diverse diet and being in a calm state when we eat, do you have any other golden nuggets that would, like, get us into action and feeling better about our belly health? Let's see. I mean, I think there's a lot, particularly in midlife. I think one of the most important things to know is, like I mentioned, changing exercise. So, so important because the decrease in hormones, we, you know, lose bone density. So as women, it is, you know, one of the worst things that could happen is in your sixties seventies if you fall and break something because, honestly, you end up hospitalized, and a lot of women will get pneumonia and pass away. And it's so sad. Mhmm. So keeping your muscle strength and your bone density up is one of the most important things. So exercising and doing resistant training, resistance training, and, weights, you know, walking, yoga, all of those things to stay strong, I think is one of the most important things in midlife to do along with the nutrition and and, and stress reduction. I love that, and it's it's so in line with everything we always tell our listeners. So I think we probably mostly answered this, but if there's someone that's like, this is so great and I love all of it, and they're maybe eating a standard American diet. Maybe they do have that extra £10 in the you know, once they turn 50. Where should they start, Lindsay? What's the first thing they should look at? I think the most important thing that is going to be the most helpful is looking at nutrition and just focusing on a whole foods diet and trying to cook at home as much as you can. And it doesn't have to be perfect. I tell all of my patients to really just focus on progress over perfection. It does not have to be perfect. We're never, never going to be perfect. And if you focus on, you know, the perfection and you have an all or nothing mindset, when you mess up, you're gonna be like, oh, this is for nothing and go back to your ways. But, I think, you know, cooking at home is one of the most important things and really looking at your ingredients on your food labels and focusing on that whole foods diet with that plate structuring. So making sure you're getting lots of your fiber, your good quality proteins, your healthy carbohydrates, and then, of course, like, the healthy fats, because I think that is gonna be the most significant thing, you know, for health and for most people. You know, it's really hard these days. Like, the grocery store is full of junk. Everything is labeled with all these crazy labels, and it doesn't really mean anything. And half of it's worse than, you know, just eating normal like, normal butter is a lot better than margarine. And, you know, eating these low fat yogurts with artificial sweeteners, like, those are worse for you than just eating the the regular, you know, full fat yogurt. And those things are, you know, much better. So I think understanding the nutrition and just focusing on whole foods, trying to cook at home, and avoid eating out is one of, like, the biggest things that can, you know, be good for gut health and hormone health, and especially during menopause, if you're having any weight gain and things like that. Oh, we love that. So, you've given us tons of good information. And as we suspected, it was all very in line with what Cam and I talk about every week. So we're super grateful to have you. So tell us, how people can find you. Like, we I I said at the top of the the podcast that you're local to the Sandhills, but there might be listeners that wanna find you outside of our actual geography. Yeah. So I, see patients virtually, which is great because I can see anyone in the United States. I have a website, www.lindsayformann.com, and everything is on there, my services. I offer free consultations. So if anybody wants to talk to me about anything first, we can always chat, see if we're a good fit, and see if the services are appropriate. And then I'm also on Instagram under lindsayformin wellness. So those are usually the easiest ways to contact me. And, you know, I'm very flexible and available, and I love talking to anyone who, you know, has questions. Very helpful. And we'll have all of that in the show notes. And then also you have a free gut and hormone ebook. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. So I made, that free little ebook and there's a bunch of information with helpful, tips that you can implement starting today that are going to improve your gut and hormone health. So make sure to download that, and it's really helpful. And then there's, you know, information about testing, which I know we didn't even talk about, but doing a GI map is really I there's so much you could talk about. But doing a GI map is one of the my favorite tests to look at gut health, and it'll show you, you know, your good bacteria, your if you have any pathogenic bacteria, h pylori, parasites, your intestinal health, shows you all of that kind of stuff. So that's always a great place to start if you're just kind of curious and you wanna dive, you know, deeper into your gut health. Doing one of those tests is one of the best thing you can do, because you'll know that's all included in the ebook. There's information about testing and things. Perfect. Wow, Lindsay. That's a that's a golden nugget. I know our, because we've talked about testing. Cam and I both have done various forms of that and, you know, it's really it's really an excellent bench it's kind of like a benchmark maybe. It gives you, you know, gives you where you are because if you are experiencing bloating or discomfort or, changes in bathroom habits is what would be nice about that. You know, you need to know these things. This is, this is something that, you know, may be different than it was for you when you were in your thirties. So we're super gracious great, pleased to have you and excited to share this information. Cam, do you have any other questions for Lindsay? This has been amazing. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Find her on Instagram. Reach out to her. And yes. Thank you so much. Gut health is like, I'm a health coach as you know. I'm a health coach, but gut health is not my thing. Like, talk about hormones, but I think it's fascinating. I did not know that some of our bacteria actually eat or estrogen. I did not know that. That was something I learned today, which makes so much sense because I have a lot of women I work with that are bloated or constipated and why is this changing and why is my belly fat why do I feel bloated, and all this. So I really appreciate your help. Yeah. No problem. And thank you so much for having me. I love chatting with you guys and talking all about gut health, my favorite topic. Thanks for listening today. You can find us on Instagram@midlife.mommas. For all of our other contact info, check out the show description below, and we will talk to you next week.