kozēkozē founder and podcast host, Garrett Kusmierz, chatted with Corinne Angelica, who wears a TON of hats!

• Mom of a seven-month-old daughter
• Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist
• Podcaster
• Speaker specializing in period health and fertility
• Founder of the Mind Your Hormones Method, which is all about addressing the root cause of symptoms and healing it naturally using a holistic approach that incorporates mental, physical, and emotional well-being

She spends her time teaching menstruators how to naturally activate fertility and have regular, pain-free flows using proven strategies for long-term sustainable success.

You can learn more about all of the above at her website.

Now, let’s get into this juicy Q&A between her and Garrett.

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Q: What got you into this?

A: I have always been obsessed with babies. At one point, I wanted to be a neonatal nurse, but I didn’t like the idea of the hours or the heartbreak. So, I became a teacher. Over nine years, I taught almost every grade, but ended up mainly teaching Spanish and ENL to high schoolers. I even got my Master’s Degree.

I knew I wasn’t going to teach forever. In fact, I didn’t even like it for probably like eight of the nine years. But, I didn’t know what else to do. I have no entrepreneurs in my family, so I never saw another path.

Then, I started to experience my own health issues. I got my period around the age of 15, but I would only have like three periods a year. I never knew this was a problem because my gynecologist always said it was fine—just that if or when I wanted to get pregnant, we might have to do something about it. I was okay with it at the time, thinking “Who wants one every month anyway?!”

In college, I was drinking a ton and barely sleeping, and everything came to head after I graduated. I was puffy, carrying excess weight, experiencing gut issues, bloating, and constipation, having monthly migraines, and covered in body rashes. My period was irregular, and actually went completely missing for two years. I saw a dermatologist, a neurologist and, of course, a gynecologist, and all of my blood work came back as “normal.”

I started looking into my nutrition and, after making some changes, saw an immediate change in everything. That is when I officially entered the nutrition world. I went back to school for nutrition, and even started taking on clients. I was still teaching, but knew I didn’t want to do it anymore. Then, the pandemic happened, everything shut down, and I was barely teaching—so I decided it was time to build up my business.

I left teaching in August of 2020, and my business morphed specifically into helping people get pregnant because so many people were coming to me for it.

Now, I have a seven-month-old baby girl, who we got pregnant with on the first try and had an amazing, beautiful pregnancy and unmedicated birth.

I believe in supporting fertility naturally, especially with PCOS. Clomid and IVF are the first defense for doctors. But, even if that is the route, there is still so much you need to do in your body to increase chances of that even working.

Q: How and why do cycle lengths change? Do cycle lengths change after having a baby?

A: When you have a “late period,” it’s not actually late—you just ovulated late. It’s possible to have a luteal phase longer than 16 days—luteal phase being the 10-14 days before you actually get your period. A lot of times, people will think their period is late if it’s coming later than usual. So, I’m huge on tracking ovulation and confirming basal body temperature (BBT). Then, you could see you ovulated later and could expect the period to come later. Ovulation determines when your period comes or not.

Stress plays a huge role in ovulation. Late ovulation is common around the holidays when we’re around family, super busy, eating differently, and drinking more. There is just more stress on the body and, since the reproductive system is not vital to our survival, it will immediately be turned off or delayed if our body doesn’t feel safe or if it feels it’s not the best time to get pregnant. Stress can also come from under-eating, over-eating, under-exercising, over-exercising, toxins, or stored traumas. Ovulation just takes a pause and it delays the period.

Q: Is there good and bad stress? For example, cold plunging?

A: Cold plunges and cold temperatures are good for your nervous system and do help regulate it. Plus, they are anti-inflammatory. But, when it comes to fertility, it’s important to warm the body and warm up the reproductive organs. Even when you’re walking outside when it’s cold, make sure your ankles, mid-section, and neck are covered, because there are channels in your body in those areas that go to reproductive organs. If they’re cold due to weather, sitting on a cold bleacher, doing a cold plunge, or eating cold food, it can restrict the blood flow to your reproductive organs. So, cold plunge isn’t so much from a stress perspective, but constricting of blood flow. So, I like the heat side of things.

Listen to your body. Everyone has different thresholds for stress. Pull back in areas. Have discernment around what that looks like for you. It might be too much today, or this time in your cycle. We are cyclical beings. Hormones are shifting all of the time, so things are going to change—which means you need to change what you’re doing.

Q: How do you talk to people about getting off of the pill? How do you get to know your true cycle when you do come off of the pill? What is the return-to-fertility rate?

A: You’re actually not ovulating when you’re on birth control. Ovulation is completely turned off. The communication from your brain to your ovaries is not working. So, when you get off of it, your body has to re-learn how to do that with your actual hormones. You are also negatively impacting your gut, liver, blood sugar, and thyroid—and you’re depleted of key nutrients when you’re on birth control. Your body is functioning under synthetic hormones, and it’s being negatively impacted every day.

Going on birth control to “regulate a period” is false information. You’re not even getting a period when you’re on birth control. It’s a withdrawal bleed from the medication. When they first made birth control, they didn’t even have that bleed in there. But then people didn’t know if they were pregnant, so they put them in. So, if you went on birth control because you had an irregular period, what was causing that did not go away and was not healed—a band-aid was just put on it. Once you stop taking it, all of it will come back times ten because now you have to do damage control of replenishing the nutrients that were decreased, and rebalance the gut, liver, and blood sugar.

Birth control doesn’t technically reduce fertility, but it lengthens the amount of time that it will take you to get pregnant. Ideally, I like people to be off of birth control for two years before trying to conceive. And, you shouldn’t just stop. You have to first replenish the nutrients with a supplement protocol to avoid post-birth control syndrome, which can include having no period, getting acne, or facing fertility struggles.

The goal isn’t just to get pregnant; it’s to get pregnant, stay pregnant, have a healthy pregnancy, and rebalance postpartum with more ease. All of that is dependent upon preconception health. You have to have space to rebalance and support your body before you get pregnant.

Q: How long should you wait to get pregnant again?

A: It takes two years for your body to really “get back,” to fully heal. Pregnancy is incredibly energy-intensive. Birthing a baby is like a marathon in and of itself. Breastfeeding is like running a marathon a day in terms of the energy it takes for your body to actually produce milk. You are not only healing physically from birth and pregnancy, but also now taking care of another human on the least amount of sleep you’ve ever had in your life. You’re eating differently, not as consciously—especially in the beginning, when you’re just doing whatever you can. So, your body is taking a hit in so many different ways. It takes a while.

For me, it’s just getting back to my body. Maybe I could get pregnant and have two under two, but is that what’s best for me? Because, if I’m so depleted, how am I going to show up to these two babies that I now have if I’m killing myself just to get in this timeline?

Q: What are your top preconception priorities for women?

A: Number one is nutrient density and being on high-quality supplementation. The first trimester, your baby is actually getting the majority of the nutrients off of your nutrient stores, not off the nutrients you are currently intaking. Your ovaries need specific nutrients to ovulate, so it will support your ovulation too. I recommend omega, Vitamin D, and magnesium, specifically. Since your reproductive system isn’t vital to your survival, your body is going to allocate whatever nutrients you do have to your most life-surviving thing you need in your body. Any left over, then it will go to your ovaries and your reproductive system.

The second thing is your blood sugar and really regulating. It’s extremely important for your fertility, and a lot of people will dis-regulate it without even knowing by drinking coffee first thing in the morning without having food first, by skipping meals, by going too long in between meals, or by doing intermittent fasting. All of these things are things that are thrown into our face as if they are good things to do. The best thing you can do is eat a protein-, fiber-, and healthy fat-rich breakfast within an hour of waking up. You should try to have thirty grams of protein in the morning. Fasting will really impact your fertility because it will mess up your blood sugar and cortisol levels. You need to have blood-sugar-balanced meals. I would prefer you not have coffee because it will reduce your fertility. Really take a look at your alcohol and caffeine intake. Alcohol increases your estrogen levels by ten percent per drink you have. If you’re really working on your fertility, it has to go. It impacts your blood sugar and liver. If your estrogen levels are in excess, the ratio between your estrogen and progesterone levels are off—and progesterone is the hormone that helps you get pregnant and hold on to the pregnancy. When your estrogen is too high, it will just be too big of a gap between the two hormonal levels.

My rule of thumb: The things you aren’t supposed to do when you are pregnant, don’t do if you’re trying to get pregnant.

Q: What are the top priorities for the first trimester of pregnancy?

A: Don’t worry! The baby is getting most of the nutrients off of your nutrient storage, which is why it is so important to build those up first. Always prioritize the protein, fiber, and healthy fat at every single meal so you can reduce your chance of gestational diabetes. Carry that principle with you throughout pregnancy. Calcium is really important. Hummus or sesame seed butter is great for little snacks. To avoid nausea, have a high amount of B6 in your prenatal, create blood sugar balanced meals, and eat smaller meals more frequently—which goes for the entire pregnancy.

Eat what you can eat. We’ll worry about greens in your second trimester.

You should be upping your protein and healthy fat intake in your second trimester—at least 80-100 grams of protein a day. Avocados, hemp seeds, flax seeds are great sources.

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This blog post was written based on kozēkozē Podcast Episode 352: Mind Your Hormones with Corrine Angelica.