LU 067: Lindsay Meisel – When "healthy" becomes unhealthy... How a runner got her period back.

In today's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, you'll hear my conversation with Lindsay Meisel from San Francisco. I've known Lindsay from the Facebook groups we're both in that are specifically for women who are dealing with Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea (or – in layman's terms – women who are missing their periods). Lindsay is one of the strong voices in those groups, and I always wanted to talk to her, since she has recovered from "HA", as we call Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea (to not have it be such a mouthful), and she is clearly very knowledgeable about this. Lindsay works as the head of content for Ava, a women's health technology company that makes a sensor bracelet that monitors the menstrual cycle. She was a long distance runner for over a decade, but gave it up to get her period back. You'll hear Lindsay talk about: – What set off her disordered eating and exercise behaviors – Why the lure of "reaching energy deficit" can be so addictive and dangerous – How she was only able to break that compulsion by actively changing her behaviors towards "reaching energy surplus" – Why she is angry at people in the medical field who give women terrible advice when it comes to issues like missing periods – Why her own doctor encouraged her to dismiss her HA, which kept her in her disorder for a number of years to come – How the stages of her disordered eating/exercise morphed over the years – What her breaking point was – How she started to wake up to the fact that she wasn't healthy – Why, when she decided to start recovering, she unknowingly went about it in the completely wrong way – Why it was only when she read Nicola Rinaldi's book "No Period. Now What?" that she finally got an idea of what real recovery looks like and what she had to do to "go all in" – How long it took her to break free (and feel free) from her exercise addiction – Why we often compensate not "formally exercising" by compulsively ramping up low-level movement – How she reframed her thought-patterns and taught herself to think about her recovery as her goal and mission to get healthy – How she started filling up her time and using her energy for different things than exercising – Why recovery without the mental work doesn't work, and why a person with HA is never at "a healthy point" with exercise and eating – Why for women with HA (coming from a history of overexercising, undernourishing) it takes a phase of letting the pendulum swing in the other direction (full rest and complete replenishment of the body's depleted energy stores) – Why it's important to stay "all in" for 4-6 months more after getting the menstrual cycle running again – How there really is no "cheating" in HA recovery since the "feel good hormones" of exercising are exactly what cause the hypothalamus to stay shut down – Why it's completely normal to experience exhaustion and pretty extreme hunger in recovery – Why it is important to work on body image while recovering – How HA is impacting a person's health in worse ways than one might suspect at first glance (bone loss, depression, anxiety, thin hair/nails, mood swings, irritability, low libido, lowered body temperature, sleep issues, etc.) – Why (even though many physicians might recommend it!) going on the birth control pill is NOT solving the problem of HA, but, in fact, only masking the problem by producing a so-called "withdrawal bleed" – Why she says that life "after recovery" is a million times better than before... ... And so much more! Check out Lindsay's blog at: Here's the link to the company Lindsay works at, the company that produces a bracelet that tracks a woman's cycle: The book on HA (Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea) that Lindsay and I highly recommend is called "No Period, Now What?" by Nicola Rinaldi: If you enjoy and love my podcast, please consider supporting it by becoming a "Patreon"! It would greatly help me to keep those episodes coming to you. Thank you! ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at:

You can listen to LU 067: Lindsay Meisel – When "healthy" becomes unhealthy... How a runner got her period back. online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

LU 067: Lindsay Meisel – When "healthy" becomes unhealthy... How a runner got her period back. is an episode from Life. Unrestricted. Podcast: Boost your body image and recover from food & exercise madness. by Meret Boxler.

This episode is 01:09:07 long.

This episode was published on Nov 25, 2017.

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