0:00

Hello and welcome to the Wellness

0:02

Mama podcast. I'm Katie from wellnessmama.com

0:04

and I'm back for Round 2

0:06

with Masami Kavi who is a

0:09

health intuitive and functional nutritional therapist who

0:12

leads women in rediscovering the wisdom of

0:14

the lunar cycles which we talk about

0:16

in this episode and especially beyond menopause

0:19

through a blend of Japanese medicine, science,

0:21

and clinical modalities. She works

0:23

in both private sessions and group classes to

0:26

reveal the root causes of imbalance by

0:28

using her intuitive insights, clinical experience, and

0:30

scientific analysis. She

0:32

also was born and raised in Japan in

0:35

a bicultural family and has a really unique

0:37

East meets West perspective in the work that

0:39

she does and you'll see

0:41

that in this fascinating episode that really

0:43

talks about lunar rhythms and women's health

0:46

and especially menopause and postmenopause but

0:48

also how this relates to children,

0:50

men, and menstruating women as well.

0:53

So let's jump in and learn.

0:56

Welcome back. Thanks for being here again. I'm so

0:58

excited to learn more from you. Thank

1:00

you. I'm excited to keep going

1:02

with this wonderful topic. Well,

1:05

and for anybody who hasn't listened, I highly recommend

1:07

our first episode as well where we establish a

1:09

lot of the background for some of the topics

1:11

we're talking about today. And in this episode, I'm

1:13

excited to dive a little deeper into sort of

1:16

practical ways we can really learn to get more

1:18

in tune with the lunar cycles because as you

1:20

said in the first episode, a lot

1:22

of us are maybe more aware of the solar

1:24

impact of light. And thankfully, a lot of people

1:27

are now aware of how important morning sunlight is

1:29

for instance, or how much we need the sun

1:31

in general. But I love that you bring so

1:33

much information and awareness to the lunar cycles as

1:36

well, which I feel like are just not as

1:38

well understood, at least in the US, like

1:40

you mentioned in the first episode. So to build

1:42

on what we talked about in our first episode

1:44

together, I would love to just

1:46

touch on a little bit more of the hormone

1:49

aspect, and especially for the women listening, if there's

1:51

any differences or similarities to be aware of, or

1:54

maybe children who haven't gone through puberty

1:56

yet versus women who are menstruating versus

1:58

women in the perimenopause. menopause

2:00

and post-menopause, it gets. Yeah,

2:03

so I think

2:05

the rule of thumb is that we

2:07

do have these cycles and as we

2:09

are adding more light to the moon,

2:11

so the waxing moon, there is this

2:14

like a build-up of more energy,

2:16

more of like wanting to be

2:19

exploring the outside world and things like that.

2:21

And there's a connection to

2:23

estrogen build-up in that because

2:25

estrogen is like, let's

2:27

get creative and let's be

2:29

outwardly expressive. Estrogen

2:32

is what builds up the confidence

2:34

and estrogen is built, is really

2:36

connected to building up who you

2:39

are as an expression outwardly. So

2:42

there is that connection no matter

2:44

what age you are, whether you

2:46

are not menstruating or whether you

2:49

are in post-menopause or you're

2:51

in the menstrual cycles, be

2:53

aware that as we

2:55

are adding more light to the moon,

2:57

you're going to have this tendency to

2:59

want to explore the outside world. And

3:02

this is when the oxytocin is

3:04

fluctuating too, but the oxytocin will

3:06

like build-up leading up to the

3:09

full moon. So we do produce

3:11

more oxytocin from the first quarter

3:13

moon to the full moon. So

3:16

that's really interesting, right? But

3:19

when that happens, you might become

3:21

with the oxytocin building up and

3:23

estrogen and the moon starting to

3:26

light up. We might

3:28

want to become a little more social and

3:30

you want to engage more with one another

3:32

in the group. And it's

3:34

a good time to maybe engage with

3:36

your kids, especially teenagers that say, mom,

3:39

don't talk to me, you know, or they have other

3:41

things that they want to do, much further. Maybe

3:44

this is a good time, especially from the

3:47

first quarter moon to the full moon. This

3:49

could be the time that maybe your daughter

3:51

is interested in talking to you or maybe

3:53

your teenage son is going to

3:55

come to the kitchen and say, hey, what

3:58

are you making? And then you might find out. yourself

4:00

a little bit perplexed because like last

4:02

week this kid was not interested in

4:04

speaking to you whatsoever but you know

4:06

as the oxytocin goes up the estrogen

4:09

is going up and boys

4:11

and girls I mean we are producing

4:13

estrogen all throughout our lives anyway

4:15

so there's that maybe encourage

4:18

ourselves and kids in the

4:20

community to be kind to

4:22

others maybe outwardly

4:25

doing things sharing compliments

4:28

with one another maybe this is the time that

4:30

the you can cook together and you

4:33

know obviously having little more connections

4:35

physical connections because you're going to want to

4:37

hug people this is when you want to

4:39

be with your pets and things like that

4:42

but the opposite is true also

4:44

the significant decrease from the um

4:47

on the production of oxytocin

4:49

happens from little after

4:51

full moon and leading up to

4:53

the new moon maybe a

4:56

little before new moon that last period

4:58

of the new moon is also called the dark

5:00

moon period so it's a little bit different at

5:02

that time but let's say right after the full

5:04

moon into third

5:06

quarter moon area that

5:09

time when the progesterone tends

5:11

to be up you

5:13

want to remember and then progesterone production

5:15

does decrease as we get older but

5:18

I also encourage the postmenopausal women

5:20

to know that you're still producing

5:22

these hormones so don't abandon them

5:24

and still continue to support that

5:26

as if you are having these

5:28

productions it might be a little

5:30

less for certain agents a little

5:32

bit more for others but progesterone

5:34

is in general I call them

5:36

the zen garden hormone so it

5:39

makes you kind of calm you

5:41

know I'm from Japan so I always think

5:43

of a zen garden and that's sipping on a

5:45

little bit of tea that's kind of thing and

5:47

that's not the time that I want to be

5:50

doing a bunch of out worthy things but

5:52

you know school systems the government the

5:54

businesses we don't really live with this

5:56

ebb and flow so you might struggle

5:58

a little bit during this time

6:01

that you're asked to do presentations, you're

6:03

asked to be on the committee

6:05

where you are with other people, but make

6:08

sure that this is the time that you

6:10

create some self-acknowledgement and

6:13

then during the waning phase of the moon,

6:15

do a little bit more of a self-love

6:18

practice. That might be different from person

6:20

to person, but this is a great

6:22

time to incorporate a little bit more

6:24

of like taking baths, you

6:26

know, in really clean water and

6:28

adding a little bit of magnesium

6:30

flakes or epsom salts or even

6:32

maybe some essential oils to kind

6:34

of create that self-love and during

6:36

this time, I see it pretty

6:38

much all across the board, maybe

6:40

not with a very, very young

6:42

kids because they are still, they

6:45

do produce a lot of progesterone, so that's why they

6:47

sleep a lot, right? But this

6:49

is the time in when you're waning the

6:51

moon, this is when our bodies get a

6:53

little bit drier. So in my experience, like

6:55

dry your eyes, dry your hair, dry

6:57

your skin, so this is when you might

7:00

want to add a little bit of oils

7:02

as part of your routine

7:04

and putting oils like sesame

7:06

oil, it's a neutral oil

7:08

in Ayurvedic studies. So

7:11

in some of you may not know

7:13

Ayurveda very well, but we have these

7:15

things called dosas which are body constitution.

7:17

So we have different expressions of our

7:19

bodies, but sesame oil can be a

7:21

very neutral oil for everybody to use.

7:23

So you can massage the bottom of

7:25

your feet with it, maybe your belly

7:27

area with it. And you

7:29

know, I encourage all of us when the

7:31

moon is waning and the progesterone

7:33

production is actually going up to

7:36

do some Zen-like things,

7:38

maybe a little more sitting down meditations,

7:40

maybe this is not the time to

7:42

be doing walking meditations and you know,

7:45

maybe group meditations, but it's something that

7:47

gives you relaxation. It could be listening

7:49

to music that suits you, maybe spend

7:52

some time cooking, nourishing foods for

7:54

yourself. And this is the time that all

7:56

of us kind of want comfort foods just

7:58

so you can eat. you're aware. So

8:01

be okay with that. You know, if

8:03

you or your kids or your family

8:05

members like mom, please make me some

8:08

gluten free, you know, macaroni and cheese,

8:10

you know what, maybe that's okay during

8:12

this time. And because

8:14

you're going to need that fuel to

8:16

sleep through the night a little bit

8:18

longer because you're going to be sleeping

8:21

a little bit longer during this waning

8:23

moon period. So and know

8:25

that oxytocin has a very short life.

8:28

And oxytocin really is important for

8:30

balancing your cortisol and your insulin

8:32

level as well. And I said

8:34

it earlier, but that's going to

8:36

also help with your hormone balances.

8:38

I mean, sex hormones that we're

8:40

talking about. So make sure that

8:42

you know how to replenish

8:45

your short life oxytocin at

8:47

a different moon phases. And

8:50

to you know, summarize, go out

8:52

and explore and be more social

8:54

as the light is increasing on

8:56

the moon. And maybe as

8:58

the light is decreasing, you still need

9:00

oxytocin for balancing of your hormones,

9:02

then maybe encourage yourself to do

9:04

things that are more inwardly

9:08

reflective. And that goes

9:10

into, you know, heading into the dark moon,

9:12

we really need to change our

9:14

behaviors. I do think that if you're

9:17

homeschooling moms during

9:19

the dark moon phase, which is about

9:21

the last week before you head to

9:23

the new moon, really

9:26

emphasize like reviewing what the kids

9:28

learned, and maybe remembering

9:31

certain things, talk about

9:33

memories, and have some reflective time.

9:35

So I can say more there, but I

9:37

will pause for a moment. So

9:39

many cool tips that you brought up in that and I love

9:42

the recommendation of sesame oil for the skin. I'll

9:44

say that I keep it actually in my shower

9:46

as well to use for oil pulling when I'm

9:48

in the shower because it's a neutral oil. And

9:50

I believe there's benefits to that in other traditions

9:52

as well. I also love that

9:54

the way you tied this in and the hormones changing that,

9:57

you know, there's a lot of talk of women's monthly

9:59

cycles. and them being on a more

10:01

monthly cyclical basis in the

10:03

hormones that go up and down throughout the course of

10:06

a month. And I feel like guys are often kind

10:08

of overlooked in this, or they're talking about just the

10:10

24 hour hormone cycle for men with cortisol. But

10:13

when you're explaining this about the moon, I

10:15

realized maybe the guys are done a disservice

10:17

here because they're living in the world with

10:19

the moon as well. So they're also having

10:22

these monthly rhythms, even if it's not tied

10:24

into a menstrual cycle, they're still experiencing shifts

10:26

related to the moon. And so

10:28

I feel like that's a great thing and probably often

10:31

overlooked, especially for men. And

10:33

you mentioned cortisol and insulin. And I know that

10:35

these are two that get talked about quite a

10:37

bit in the modern world because they can often

10:39

be out of balance for a lot of people.

10:42

So I'm curious if you have any other

10:44

suggestions for helping to have the right rhythm

10:46

and balance of cortisol, keeping insulin in good

10:48

ranges and things that we can all do

10:50

that are supportive. Yes, and

10:52

if you don't mind, I'll back up a

10:54

little bit about the male hormones as well

10:56

with the moon cycles. And

10:59

yes, we do talk about male

11:01

hormones being 24 hour cycles, but

11:03

actually if you step back and

11:05

look at the circuit lunar cycles,

11:08

you can actually see the changes

11:10

in oxytocin levels in men in

11:13

the same way that I described

11:15

and also testosterone. Production

11:17

actually goes up quite a bit leading

11:20

up to the full moon. And

11:22

this can actually lead to mood

11:24

swings for men as well as a

11:26

little bit more kind of aggression can

11:28

kick in and as well as sexual

11:30

activities can go up for men. So

11:33

these studies are out there. It's just, you have

11:35

to kind of dig deeper to find out if

11:37

the men work in these cycles as well. And

11:40

then, you know, the answer is yes. And

11:43

so it's like a more to be explored.

11:45

I'm excited to kind of see where the

11:47

studies are going now that there are

11:50

a lot more interest, I'm sure you

11:52

noticed in the global level, people

11:55

are interested in moon more, but different countries

11:57

are interested in the moon. There are so

11:59

many. sending out these spaceships

12:02

and rockets to the moon to explore

12:05

moon far more than they've been doing

12:07

for a long time. So

12:09

just as a side note, I'm excited about that.

12:12

And then coming back to cortisol and

12:14

insulin, which I mentioned a little bit

12:16

earlier in the first episode, but the

12:20

sleep cycles really impact these

12:23

two hormones greatly. So

12:26

coming back to addressing

12:28

some of the issues like sleep

12:30

cycles that changes around the full moon

12:32

and be aware of that. Don't ignore

12:35

that. Know that that put it on

12:37

your calendar that that is going to

12:39

impact all of us across the globe.

12:42

Then this is when we're going

12:44

to all be experiencing sugar cravings

12:46

after the full moon period and

12:48

we're not sleeping as long. When

12:51

our sleep is disturbed by maybe more

12:53

vivid dreams and parasites activities, this is

12:55

when you do need to pay attention

12:57

and say, okay, I need to

13:00

be careful about how much carbohydrates

13:02

I'm taking in. And

13:04

it is important in the Japanese lunar medicine,

13:06

we say that you want to build up

13:08

your muscles and build up

13:11

your protein intake leading up to the

13:13

full moon. And so this

13:15

is when uses of hydrochloric acid

13:17

can be very important because that's first

13:20

thing that you need to be addressing in order

13:22

for you to digest your protein. But

13:24

because you're not sleeping as well,

13:27

then that's going to lower your

13:29

abilities to actually digest. So

13:31

this is when adding that digestive support

13:33

can be very important and

13:36

leading up to the full moon. Since

13:39

the melatonin goes down, the insulin

13:41

resistance can kick in and then

13:43

that's going to lead to

13:45

your stress hormones going up. This

13:48

is when they found that your

13:51

neutrophil counts, basically your white blood cells

13:53

can actually go down as well. So

13:55

you are a little bit more susceptible

13:58

to disease. and

14:01

maybe infections and things like that

14:03

too. So just be aware of all

14:05

that that's influencing all of us. And

14:07

what you can do, like I said,

14:09

is maybe support your digestion a little

14:11

bit more with supplement intake

14:13

and digestive support during the leading

14:16

up to the full moon. And

14:18

after the full moon, maybe three

14:20

to five days after, that's when

14:23

you may want to support your

14:25

digestion but also diet with

14:28

maybe complex carbohydrates like good

14:30

vegetables, having bone broth

14:32

with the vegetable soups, maybe adding a

14:34

little bit of fat because that actually

14:36

helps with the insulin resistance

14:38

issues, the roller coaster of the

14:41

sugar roller coasters as well. And

14:43

you actually do digest fats a little

14:45

bit better and the fat intake can

14:47

go up. When the fat intakes go

14:49

up, progesterone production can go up also.

14:51

Those have been tied together too. So

14:54

you can kind of cycle through your

14:56

diet and when I work with people,

14:58

I say to them, don't

15:00

stress so much. I work with

15:02

moms and grandmas and even just

15:05

people that are going through a perimenopause and say, I

15:07

have to get variety of foods. And I say to

15:09

them, get a variety of

15:11

foods within that one month cycle

15:14

and don't stress so much. You might

15:16

be doing a little more protein heavy

15:19

at the beginning and then you might

15:21

do more, a little bit more complex

15:23

carbohydrates, heavy foods towards the

15:25

last two weeks or maybe last

15:27

10 days of the cycle. I

15:30

wonder if kids are naturally more in line with

15:32

that because I haven't paid attention to it in

15:34

relation to the moon cycles but I do notice

15:36

with my kids, they almost go through phases of

15:38

like craving a lot more protein at certain times

15:40

and then other times they'll ask for salads or

15:43

things like that. And so I wonder

15:46

if kids are just naturally more in line with that. Like

15:48

you said, they have more progesterone. They have a lot of

15:51

more, probably optimally functioning things in their body

15:53

in general. But I'm going to

15:55

start paying attention to that for my kids now. And

15:57

I'd love to hear a little bit more about You

16:00

mentioned how the moon corresponds with different organ systems

16:02

in the body and in researching for this how

16:04

this is sort of like Japanese energy medicine and

16:07

I feel like there's a whole new world here

16:09

that I haven't ever gotten to learn about. So

16:11

can you explain which organs correlate with which moon

16:13

phases? I know you mentioned things like milk thistle

16:16

for supporting the liver in certain phases but are

16:18

there other things we can do to support the

16:20

body understanding that that the organs kind of maybe

16:22

work differently at different moon phases? Yeah.

16:25

So I'll give you a couple and I'm

16:27

working on the book. So I want to

16:30

hold off on giving too much because

16:33

this is something that I'm still really

16:35

deeply diving into. So

16:37

the first phase of the moon really

16:40

is helpful to support your liver and

16:42

the reasons why are not

16:44

just a Japanese lunar medicine and a

16:46

Chinese medicine but because of that we

16:48

are preparing ourselves to produce a little

16:50

bit more estrogen, right? So you want

16:52

to clear out that venous estrogen. And

16:55

also during the new moon phase

16:57

not just the liver but the

16:59

brain actually shrinks in size. So

17:02

the volume of the brain shrinks. That

17:05

means you are actually clearing out some

17:08

of the debris in the brain through

17:10

the glymphatic system better. So supporting the

17:12

brain as an organ for the new

17:14

moon phase and I mean

17:16

new moon phases starts around two days before

17:19

the new moon and maybe about two

17:21

to three days. So within about

17:23

four to five days of the new

17:26

moon phase can be a really good

17:28

time to do brain tapping or you

17:30

know like the Mohawk Line Massage that

17:32

I showed you or working

17:34

on lymphatic systems to really support

17:36

that drainage of the body. So

17:39

those are the systems that really kick

17:41

in around the new moon phase. And

17:44

then it's actually this corresponds

17:46

with the science of the maybe

17:48

western science too but the second

17:50

phase it's really important that you

17:52

begin to address your heart a

17:54

little bit. And cardiovascular

17:57

issues have been tied to the Wow.

18:00

vaccine moon issues. So I've been

18:02

studying a lot about post-menopausal women

18:04

and their cardiovascular issues and cardiovascular

18:07

diseases that increase as we get

18:09

older as women, much

18:11

more than men actually, once

18:13

we go into the post-menopause. One

18:16

reason is that because we produce a lot less

18:18

estrogen. That can cause us

18:20

to have issues in the heart. But

18:23

so perfectly aligned with this

18:25

Japanese medicine of the lunar medicine

18:27

is that we're addressing the heart

18:30

around that time to make sure that you get

18:32

supplements. I like using

18:35

things like phosphatidylcholine for not just

18:37

all your cells and brain cells

18:39

and your liver cells and bio

18:41

flow and all that too. But

18:43

really phosphatidylcholine is great for your

18:45

brain. Phosphatidylserine can be really good

18:48

too for lowering the inflammation in

18:50

the brain and making sure that you're

18:52

not eating inflammatory foods during that time

18:54

that can impact your brain either. And

18:57

then the third phase of

18:59

that generally goes into more

19:01

addressing things like movements that

19:03

are not muscularly oriented. So

19:06

like maybe HIIT exercises, high

19:08

intensity exercises working on heavier

19:10

weights. That can be done

19:13

up to the full moon. And then

19:16

doing a little less of that

19:18

emphasis and maybe doing cardiovascular, but

19:20

more of a movement that's steady

19:23

like going for a walk, going

19:25

for a little jog, maybe doing

19:27

longer walks and moving your system

19:29

during the heading to the new

19:31

moon. That can be really good.

19:34

And working on breathing techniques. So

19:36

doing things that are like emphasizing

19:38

your exhales a little bit more

19:40

because darkening of the moon is

19:43

all about the exhale. And

19:45

adding the light is all about the inhale.

19:47

So think of it like that, the inhale,

19:49

exhale. We're taking these like a deep, single,

19:53

beautiful breath throughout the 29.5 days, right?

19:56

We're taking this deep inhale. We're

19:58

accumulating light. more hormones,

20:01

we're accumulating more oxytocin,

20:03

we're accumulating more ways

20:05

to absorb nutrients. Then

20:08

as you go into the waning

20:10

moon, you're releasing, releasing. So think

20:12

about exhaling a little bit more.

20:14

And then as we go into the

20:17

last phase of the moon, this is

20:19

when it's really good to emphasize the

20:22

issues around calcifications of the

20:24

body. So organs that do

20:26

tend to struggle with the

20:28

calcified issues from maybe even

20:31

like eating things that are too high

20:33

in oxalates, oxalic acids and things. So

20:35

this is when I request

20:37

that the, you know, and then

20:39

maybe recommend people to lower the

20:42

intakes of highly oxalic foods like

20:44

dark chocolates or maybe almonds or

20:46

even if you do eat a

20:48

lot of raw spinach, you know,

20:50

I do not recommend that in

20:52

Japanese medicine. We do not recommend

20:54

you ever eat actually spinach raw

20:56

because it's really, really high in

20:58

oxalates. So I never ate spinach

21:01

raw until I came to this country to

21:03

the United States. So things like that, you

21:05

know, lowering that to support organs

21:08

that are highly susceptible to

21:10

oxalates or like kidneys and

21:12

bladder as well. So, you know, those are

21:15

the things that you can begin to address. And

21:17

so I'm, you know, obviously I will go a

21:19

lot more in detail in my book, but these

21:21

are some of the ideas that you can use

21:23

in your day to day throughout the month. Yeah.

21:26

And I'm glad you brought up that women's

21:29

rate of cardiovascular disease drastically increases after menopause

21:31

actually to similar rates as men. And there's

21:33

been a lot of talk about that, but

21:35

I don't feel like anybody's really spoken to

21:38

the lunar potential impact of that, which I

21:40

think is also really fascinating because the

21:42

idea of cycle thinking or workouts has gotten

21:44

really popular online lately and how maybe at

21:46

different phases of your cycle you might be

21:48

better at lifting heavy or you might want

21:51

to do more gentle movements or Pilates or

21:53

something. And I think this is kind

21:55

of maybe the missing link that it's like yes

21:57

and it's menstrual cycle and moon

21:59

cycle. that the moon cycle is going to

22:01

be there even after menopause. So even

22:03

if you've lost your menstrual cycle, you still can

22:05

tune into these rhythms and get the same benefits

22:08

for your body when you start to pay attention.

22:10

And I feel like this is a whole world

22:12

of wisdom that has been like not talked about

22:14

nearly enough in our world. So I love that

22:17

you're bringing a voice to this. You

22:19

mentioned your book, and I would love for you to

22:21

talk a little bit about your book and when it's

22:23

gonna be released. And also a question I sometimes ask

22:26

on here, which is if there's a book or a

22:28

number of books that have profoundly impacted you personally, what

22:30

they would be and why? Right. So

22:33

the book, it's going to take me

22:35

at least another year to really go

22:37

through it, because I like to dive

22:39

into the science and the

22:42

spirituality of things. I like to balance,

22:44

I'm an East Meets person. I grew

22:46

up in Japan. I only

22:48

spoke Japanese growing up, so I

22:50

didn't speak English, so I came here. But that

22:52

has helped me a lot to look at the

22:54

right side and the left side of the brain,

22:57

because that's the balance

22:59

that I think is helping me to look at

23:01

the solar and the lunar together.

23:03

It's the west and the east, and

23:05

it's the front, and it's the back,

23:07

it's the right side, left side, feminine,

23:09

masculine, all that. So stay tuned. But

23:11

in the meantime, I'll be posting a

23:14

lot of information on my website and

23:16

the YouTube, so check that out. And

23:19

the book that really

23:21

influenced me was when I was really,

23:23

really young. So this is a story

23:26

that all Japanese kids, still to this

23:28

day, they all have to read this

23:31

at school. And the story

23:33

book is called, it's called Swimi,

23:35

and it's a French author that wrote

23:37

this book, Swimi. And

23:40

it's a children's book,

23:42

actually, because I thought about books that

23:44

profoundly impacted me. There's so many, right?

23:46

But this set the stage for who

23:48

I am. So to give you just

23:51

a quick idea is that there's

23:53

a school fish. They're all colored red,

23:55

these little, almost like a goldfish

23:58

looking. They were... living

24:00

in this community underwater. And there's this

24:02

one fish that was the same size

24:04

as them, but kind of

24:07

was a loner that appeared and this

24:09

one little fish was colored in black.

24:12

So there's this one little black fish

24:14

and then the school of red fish.

24:17

Okay. And I grew up exactly like

24:19

that. So my father was the only

24:21

white man in the city of 1

24:24

million people. And my sister,

24:26

my younger sister, my older brother and

24:28

I were the only kids that had

24:30

two different ethnicity. And we

24:32

were used to called like mixed kids

24:34

and things like that. But

24:36

so I never could find

24:38

anybody else that looked like

24:40

me. And I always

24:43

felt like I didn't belong anywhere. And

24:46

so when I read that book

24:48

in the textbook, Japanese textbook, and

24:50

the how story goes is that

24:52

basically this one black fish gets

24:54

incorporated into this community and actually

24:56

helps them to save the community

24:58

by from getting eaten by

25:01

other sharks and things like that. Because

25:03

that black fish became an eye for

25:05

the school of the red fish and

25:08

then starts to kind of swim in

25:10

in sync to protect themselves.

25:12

So when I read that, I thought,

25:14

I know what my calling is, you

25:16

know, that I'm not going to blend

25:19

in, I am not going to look

25:21

like them. But I could be that

25:23

I that will take the school fish

25:25

together and protecting and learning and exploring

25:27

the world. So that's what that story

25:30

was. So that's that's what impacted me

25:32

the most. And I think that's still

25:34

helping me to know that

25:36

I do belong. And now

25:38

that with my love for the lunar

25:40

cycles, it's helping me that I

25:43

do belong to this greater

25:45

cosmic level cycles of things,

25:48

even I'm in post menopause. And

25:50

that's been such a beautiful lesson

25:52

for me that I am that

25:55

little swimmy fish, that

25:57

I'm swimming with the cycle of

25:59

things. with closely connected

26:01

to the lunar cycles. And I

26:03

think that's a very important message

26:06

to give and hope

26:08

to give to menopausal and

26:11

post-menopausal women who get

26:13

kind of lost because

26:15

there are a lot of studies that are

26:18

coming out about osteoporosis going up or cardiovascular

26:20

disease is increasing for post-menopausal women.

26:23

And there are a lot of

26:25

really hard scientists coming

26:27

out that's making them really, really

26:29

fearful. But if we can

26:31

reconnect back to the lunar cycles, maybe that

26:33

can bring a lot of hope back

26:36

to all of us. Oh,

26:38

I just got tills hearing you talk about that

26:40

story and that's so beautiful that it became part

26:42

of your life's purpose. And hopefully we can do

26:44

another interview when your book is released so that

26:46

we can learn more about what you discover in

26:48

the book writing process. And you mentioned

26:51

growing up in Japan. And I said before we

26:53

started recording, I wish we lived nearby so that

26:55

I could learn how to cook some Japanese and

26:57

Korean foods from you. But just briefly before we

26:59

wrap up, are there any foods that especially come

27:01

to mind that are more traditional foods that you

27:03

think we could benefit from learning more about or

27:05

incorporating in our diets in the U.S.? Yes,

27:08

definitely. So number one, like I

27:10

said, cooking some of these oxalic

27:12

foods like vegetables and blanching them,

27:14

that's actually one of the wisdoms

27:16

that I learned from living in

27:18

Japan and from my mother, who

27:20

was a chef actually. So

27:22

I learned a lot from her. So blanching

27:24

some of these green vegetables, that

27:27

can be a really good way to support

27:29

your digestion. That's number one. Number two is

27:31

that when you think of

27:33

Japanese foods, you might already thinking about

27:35

sushi, right? But sushi

27:37

is like somebody saying to the

27:40

maybe people in the United States and say, do

27:43

you eat phleminyong every

27:46

day? Like nobody's gonna eat phleminyong every day,

27:48

right? So nobody's gonna eat sushi every day.

27:50

But one of the main dishes that

27:52

I loved, absolutely

27:55

loved growing up eating, that I think

27:57

have really, really helped my brain heal

27:59

I had a tremendous brain injury,

28:02

so TBIs, when I was five

28:04

years old. And I fell

28:06

out of a moving van and landed on the

28:09

concrete, basically rolled over railroad

28:11

tracks. So that really threw

28:13

off my gut brain access,

28:15

but also my colon went

28:18

to spasms. And I

28:20

couldn't go to the bathroom anymore. So

28:22

I was a very constipated child. But

28:24

what really healed was making the fish

28:27

head soups. And it

28:29

might sound crazy, but go to your

28:31

local fish shops or places that sell

28:33

really wild caught salmon or something and

28:35

ask them, could you please save the

28:38

head part? Because usually we can only

28:40

buy the fillets, right? But it's the

28:42

head part that will shield your maybe

28:45

traumatic brain injuries, can give you a

28:47

lot of collagen. It can actually help

28:49

with your eyesight. It can help you

28:51

with the skin tones and your hair

28:54

qualities. And what I do with

28:56

the fish head soup is that you

28:58

can roast it or just put it raw straight

29:00

into the broth, like into a water. But

29:03

what I do is I break off about an

29:05

inch and a half of the kombu. Kombu,

29:08

I'm sure you know about kombu, but

29:10

it's a seaweed sheet. So

29:13

you could buy kombu

29:15

and K-O-M-B-U, kombu. You

29:17

can buy just about anywhere. You buy

29:20

them, you break that sheet into a

29:22

little piece, stick it into the water,

29:24

and let it sit. Because that's what's

29:26

going to bring back that umami taste.

29:28

That's what's going to thicken the broth.

29:30

That's going to create a little bit

29:32

of a sliminess, like a

29:34

thickening agent of the soup. But

29:37

that thickening agent gives you

29:39

the L-glutamine basically. And

29:41

it shields the gut lining if you are

29:43

dealing, and all of us are dealing with

29:45

the gut inflammation, no matter what we do.

29:48

Just a little bit of stress of cortisol

29:50

and lack of sleep with the foam, and

29:52

that's going to increase your cortisol. And then

29:54

that's going to increase the inflammatory issues in

29:56

your gut too. So making kombu with a

29:58

fish head soup. and you let

30:00

it sit there for about half an hour before you

30:03

turn on the water and then

30:05

let it come to boil and skim

30:07

off on some of the bubbles that come

30:09

up and discard that and then

30:11

continue to cook that on low heat for

30:13

about an hour and you have this gorgeous

30:15

fish broth and if you don't want to

30:17

eat the fish head give it to maybe

30:19

other animals or critters okay but I eat

30:21

the whole fish head basically not the bone

30:23

part but you can use that broth and

30:26

make yourself some other dishes you could cook

30:28

rice with it you could cook your veggies

30:30

with it you could cook your meats with

30:32

it so. Well I have someone

30:34

who owns a seafood market in my neighborhood so

30:36

I'm excited to give that a try I've made

30:38

bone broth certainly but I'm excited to make actually

30:40

fish head soup and like I said I'm excited

30:42

to learn more from you in the future hopefully

30:45

we can do another episode when your book comes

30:47

out but for today thank you so much for

30:49

your time like I said I love that you

30:51

are bringing light to an area that is not

30:53

very much talked about and that seemingly has a

30:55

very profound impact on our biology so I'm very

30:57

grateful for everything you've shared today thank you. Thank

31:00

you so much. And thanks

31:02

as always to you for sharing your

31:04

most valuable resources your time your energy

31:07

and your attention with us today we're

31:09

both so grateful that you did and I hope

31:11

that you will join me again on the next

31:14

episode of the Wellness Mama podcast. If

31:17

you're enjoying these interviews would you please take two

31:19

minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes

31:21

for me. Doing this helps more

31:23

people to find the podcast which means even

31:25

more moms and families could benefit from the

31:27

information. I really appreciate your time and

31:29

thanks as always for listening.