What Your Bloodwork Isn't Telling You with Dafna Chazin

WHAT IF YOUR FOOD COULD ACTUALLY HEAL YOU? We talk a lot on this show about taking care of yourself from the inside out, and this episode? It hit different. Because our guest has been through it, and she turned that rock bottom into a career helping other women find their way back to their bodies. We sat down with Dafna Chazin, a registered dietitian with over 15 years of experience who now specializes in women's hormones, fertility, and PCOS. Her path wasn't some perfectly planned journey. She was dealing with painful periods, anxiety, acne, and digestive issues in her 20s and said she was, quote, "kind of a hot mess." It took her close to ten years to figure it out herself, and that's exactly why she does what she does now. So nobody else has to take that long. KEY THEMES + TAKEAWAYS Women are being gaslit by a healthcare system that wasn't built for them, and standard bloodwork doesn't tell the whole story The "normal" lab ranges were largely determined using data from men, and even then, sitting at the edges of "normal" can still mean something is off PCOS (now being called PMOS) affects both reproductive and metabolic health, including weight, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular risk Healing doesn't have to mean perfection. Dafna literally tells her clients when they're being too strict The GPS analogy: you don't have to start over every time you go off plan. You just recalculate Practical first steps don't require a total overhaul, just smarter, consistent habits Homemade food is almost always better for you than restaurant food, even without trying DAFNA'S TOP TIPS FOR HORMONAL HEALTH Don't skip meals. A consistent breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one or two snacks keeps blood sugar stable all day Start breakfast with 20 to 30 grams of protein. Eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or a protein shake all count Choose high fiber carbs. Think beans, lentils, sweet potatoes, quinoa, chickpea pasta. These are what Dafna calls "steady carbs." Take a 10 to 15 minute walk after meals. Research shows short movement after eating lowers insulin better than one long gym session Get off screens two hours before bed. Blue light disrupts melatonin and wrecks sleep, especially for women in perimenopause OUR FAVORITE QUOTES "Once you learn how to eat, you're done. You can do this for the rest of your life." "I knew things about my body that I knew were not true, and I didn't want to rely on some dude in a white coat to tell me otherwise." "You're going to eat every single day anyway. Let's start there." "If you follow perfectly and then go on vacation and everything gets thrown off, you ain't coming back." CHAPTER MARKERS 2:46 Dafna's story and why she got into women's nutrition 8:28 When "normal" bloodwork actually isn't normal 12:54 How Dafna's program works and what customized really means 19:39 Meal structure, blood sugar, and what to actually eat 35:32 The GPS mindset and letting go of the restart cycle YOUR TURN This week's reflection: Where are you still waiting for someone else to validate what you already know about your own body? ----- All Heart & Soul's Details: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.heartandsoulmastermind.co... Join the mastermind program:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://www.heartandsoulmastermind.co... Say hi to Mariah on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@mariahmckechnie Say hi to Monique on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@moniqueforcier Leave a review on the Apple Podcast app and the Spotify app: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ MB01Q2UET7NDZEX