Our guest today is the founder of Sexy Food Therapy. Melissa Ramos is a nutritionist with a background in Chinese medicine.

Melissa shares her knowledge and expertise in helping women balance their hormones.

[1:35] Being Conscious

Melissa didn’t always use to be health conscious and aware of balancing her hormones. She was quite the opposite.

Melissa began her career in advertising which she wasn’t a fan of. She began to have a drinking lifestyle and suffered from depression. She still worked out and kept up her fitness but she didn’t have any connection to her food.

She began to realize that her hormone and digestive journey was still going to continue. She tells us that everyone falls at some point. You need to pick yourself back up and continue your journey.

“Hormones are always fluctuating constantly. They fluctuate on a daily basis. To balance them perfectly is a misnomer; it doesn’t actually happen.”

— Melissa Ramos

[3:02] Don’t Waste Time Trying to Balance Your Hormones

Hormones fluctuate on a daily basis. Balancing them perfectly doesn’t exactly happen. You need to try to get to a place where you have more of a connection with your body.

The average person at work is not connected with themselves. They go into fight or flight mode and not taking time to be themselves and connect with their body. If you allow this to happen you begin to become chronically stressed over a long period of time.

When you have this much stress on your body, the stress hormones begin to compete with your sex hormones. This can cause a woman to have ovarian cysts or a thyroid problem. Woman need to realize that being soft is not a weakness. You need to take enough time for self-care and set boundaries.

[6:03] Get Past Your Stress

We all want to become better leaders or better versions of ourselves. Most people don’t realize exactly how much stress affects our body.

Melissa tells us our hormones are like a symphony playing together. When you’re writing on stress and living on coffee that’s borrowed energy. It’s not sustainable to live our lives like this. When you’re fueling yourself with carbs, sugar, and alcohol you’re feeding into your stress gland. Eventually, it’s going to stop and that beautiful symphony that once was will be out of tune.

Having a “Ritual” or “Routine” at times can also feed into your stress. When we’re doing something from a stress perspective we go into a fight or flight auto-pilot mode. It stops becoming more of a “Ritual” or “Routine” and more of an autopilot towards completing the activity. This can be towards specific foods, alcohol, or even negativity. Be mindful of your actions.

[10:57] Melissa’s Challenges for Stress

Melissa provides short-term challenges to people who have high stress. The challenges are built to help ease their stress.

If you’re interested in being a part of Melissa’s challenges visit www.sexyfoodtherapy.com. You can fill out an assessment online to help Melissa determine where you’re suffering. You’ll also get to be a part of her e-mail list to receive notifications about her new videos and support.

[12:51] Tips for Online Business

Melissa shares with us her early years as an entrepreneur. She started Sexy Food Therapy as a blog. She was writing about her life. Crazy dating stories, eating right, and Chinese medicine. She didn’t think anything of it at the time but people started reading her posts frequently. From this, she began to grow a bit of a following but she started with no direction.

Her early years were frustrating in the beginning. What is required to get through and be successful is a lot of hustle and wearing a lot of hats. You must figure out how to do everything yourself.

You need to do as much as you can to get yourself out there as much as possible. The amount of money you make won’t be a lot but you need to be willing to do anything to be successful. Melissa references a conference in New York called Selling Your Soul. They shared stories of sleeping on couches and maxing out your credit card for your business.

[16:43] Building Your Message

Melissa shares with us how she began to build her message. She had a ruptured cyst and almost died. It was through her own personal struggle that she found her message. We learn from our own struggles and it’s important to not take those moments for granted. We need to look at our struggles as the biggest opportunity for growth.

Melissa didn’t have the “AHA” moment. For her, it was a situation of saying “OK This is my message and I’m growing my tribe writing for everyone”. Melissa got herself everywhere she could. Whether that be podcasts or interviewing people.

Your business is built on the connection that you have with others. This is how you begin to build your message.

[20:32] Listening to the Market vs. Doing the Right Thing

Melissa had a Facebook group of 14-15 thousand people. To the shock of many, Melissa decided to close the Facebook group. The shock came from Melissa closing a page with that much reach. However, Melissa describes that you need to have quality over quantity.

The subscribers in her group turned out to not have much ROI. Melissa was being hounded constantly for free advice and tips on how to be healthy. Not only that, but people began self-diagnosing in her group, causing a liability issue. Melissa now has short-term Facebook groups to have a home for the challenges she has for people.

You must do what’s right for your business. What’s good for one may not be for the other. You need to listen to your heart because it won’t lead you astray. When we rationalize a bad decision that’s our head playing tricks on us.

[27:30] Poop Whisperer

Melissa created a brand that’s sure to get some chuckles. She added humor to her brand to try and create a way to break through social taboo. Even if you have a nervous giggle it still helps. It gives people education about their digestive system and reproductive organs.

[31:00] Letting Go

Learning to let go will allow you to relax. Melissa shares her experience of letting go. She was previously engaged in her late twenty’s and ended up having to let go of her house. At the time she was getting into healthy eating and exercising but didn’t end up going to the bathroom for days.

She ended up moving back to the city and moved in with three other women. She used the money from the sale of her house to study Chinese medicine. When she left her old life for this one, even though she might’ve had to work 2-3 jobs, she was so happy.

[34:08] Body Awareness: Feel Yourself

You need to have the desire to want to be aware of your body. It’s important to take out some of the biggest allergens such as gluten and dairy.

Outside of what you digest, you need to look at your mindset. If you go in feeling like a victim and not taking accountability for your life, it’s very difficult to move forward. We often eat and drink unhealthy to mask pain and discomfort because we don’t want to face it.

Nobody wants to face our pain and discomfort. However, we need to be aware and ask ourselves how does this make me feel in my current mood? Find something that you love to do and that will help your life. Your self-care shouldn’t feel like self-punishment.

Give yourself time to be off before you go to bed. Don’t be working or having a TV marathon then go to bed. Your body is still buzzing from being awake. People have approached Melissa with supplements asking why they’re not getting better? It’s because they’re not taking the time to be off before they go to bed. Turn off your notifications and focus on you.