Welcome to Peptides for Women. I'm Jennifer Woodward and this
is your podcast for smart, honest conversations about
peptide therapy and midlife Wellness.
We cover everything from GLP ones to BPC 157, plus the
foundations that still matter, sunlight, steps, strength
training, protein and minerals. So if you're ready to feel
better with science, back tools, and natural habits that actually
work, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.
I have to address the question I get more than almost any other
question, More than what do I do about my belly fat, more than is
this perimenopause, and honestly, probably more than
questions from my own family. Where do I get my peptides?
So here's the answer. I've been working with LEMD now
for about a year and I genuinely love them.
The physician oversight, the quality of the peptides, and the
business opportunity they've built for practitioners like me
is the real deal. If you want to order your own
peptides, the link is in the show notes.
It's super easy. And if you're a practitioner and
you want to talk about how LEMD can work in your own practice,
reach out to me directly. The conversation is free and
it's a good one. But a couple of quick
disclosures, because I'm a legally responsible adults, if
you purchase through my show notes link, I do earn an
affiliate income. Thank you.
I also want to be clear that I'm not a doctor and I don't
diagnose, treat, or prescribe anything.
I'm just a woman who did a lot of research, has a lot of
feelings about her hormones, and now has a podcast about it.
OK, now let's get into it. Welcome back to the Peptides for
Women podcast. I'm Jennifer Woodward, and I
have a treat for you ladies. Today.
I am here with Kristen Richards. Kristen is a certified menopause
coach and lipedema advocate. She's been in the health and
Wellness space since 2018, and her heart's desire is hoping
that women age with confidence and learn to advocate for
themselves. I love that, Kristen.
It's such a great thing to teach women that, Oh my gosh, we can't
advocate for ourselves. We can use our.
Words 100%. And so we were talking about
this before we hopped on. I had somebody reach out to me
via the podcast and say please, please, please can you do an
episode on Lipedema? And I was like, yes, I can.
I think, let's try to find somebody who is a Lipedema
expert. And lo and behold, after some
searching, your name came up and you were so gracious to say,
heck yes, Jennifer, I'll totally be on the podcast.
But you know, obviously this is a very, like, specific subset of
people. So let's maybe start with
defining our terms. What is Lipedema?
Yes, absolutely. So thank you.
First of all, just thank you for having me.
And I'm always so excited when not only can two women connect,
but just the same energy and help empower other women.
I am all for it. I told you before we started
recording, I'm like, heck yeah, girl, sign me up.
Peptides, lipedema, girl power, like let's let's do this thing.
So thank you. Thank you for having me.
So lipedema is classified as a connective tissue disorder.
And So what that means, Jennifer, the easiest way to
understand is healthy fat stops communicating with the rest of
the body. And so it it portions itself off
and creates almost like a container.
So it creates scar tissue around the healthy fat.
And so it's no longer responding to our normal weight loss
efforts. So diet, exercise, there's so
many underlying conditions that can also coexist with lipedema.
So a lot of times it gets misclassified as obesity.
And so then your gas lit and the medical system is lacking in
knowledge and education and diagnosis tools.
So it's really this condition that's triggered by puberty,
menopause and pregnancy. So these big hormonal shifts
that women go through, but no one knows what's going on.
We just see our bodies changing and there's no classification,
there's no real, there's no blood test that we can do for it
yet. As far as what actually causes
it, there's some ideas outside of the hormonal triggers, but
really we're navigating and pioneering this pathway because
of awareness and learning. It's just now finally getting
some, some legs underneath it, you know, kind of a pun on it
impacts our legs. So we're just really trying to
do the best with, OK, what, what science do we have to support
this and what anecdotal information do we have to
support what women are actually dealing with with this
condition? And So what are some of your
thoughts because you mentioned, you know, some of the hormonal
changes that can happen, but you will also mention some of the
emerging science as to, you know, explaining what this
condition, what the genesis could be.
So what are what are some of the other, you know, scientific
theories on lipedema? There's absolutely a genetic
component to it, you know, and it's, and we're finding that it
isn't just one gene that's determining the outcome of
lipedema progressing, growing, being impacted or not.
So we, we believe that there are multiple genes, but again, the,
the, the best way truly that we can kind of get our brain
wrapped around it is a Dutch test.
You know, there's, there's a metabolite that we can tap into
and kind of figure out, OK, we have this metabolite and we have
this genetic component. I mean, but truly it's so
difficult to get a diagnosis because not everyone's doing,
you know, functional testing like this.
And, and if they do, to have the, the knowledge to actually
say, OK, it's this metabolite that we think is triggering this
condition. I mean, again, we're just,
there's just so few practitioners that actually know
what the heck they're talking about.
South, It's, it's a, it's a very emotional component to this, to
this condition for sure. Sure.
OK, So talk dirty to me, Kristen.
What is a marker? What's a metabolite we're
looking for on the Dutch test that can be a trigger for, you
know, looking for lipedema. So I'm gonna get it wrong, but
it's like MB0016 or something. You'd probably know way better
than I would are as like the I don't I can, I, I know that
there's other, I always refer out to Carla Wharton.
She is an, an MP and she dials in and she actually just had a
study published. But she talks a lot about our
hormones and, and how you know, the hormone replacement theory
or practices and how those coexist and how they can benefit
this condition. But she has done podcasts on as
guest speakers on other podcasts that I can absolutely refer you
to do in your audience to dive into that Dutch test a little
bit more. Cool.
Yes, how fun. Thank you.
And I mean, obviously this, this does have a personal component
for you, right? Is this something that you
suffered from? Absolutely, Jennifer.
So I was right around 36 to 37 years of living in silence, like
just thinking God created my body different.
I had no idea what was going on. My first memory of realizing
that my legs were different. It can impact different body
parts. Usually the trunk is spared.
It can impact the middle section, but usually it's legs.
So it can be thighs, it can be your buttocks.
Mine is the rarest to get diagnosed and I have it from the
knees to my ankles. So literally think kneecap to
ankles. And it can also impact the top
of your arms. But at an early age, I was 12, I
was a cheerleader and it was an away game.
I mean, these memories and you can talk to so many women in
this community and they have, I have goosebumps just thinking
about it. They have this memory dialed in
of gosh, that was the first time I remember my legs look a little
different. Why do they look different?
So we were coming home from an away game and the boys started
making fun of my stump legs. And it just it, it stuck with me
because I already knew my ankles were bigger than my girlfriends,
but I would have always been super petite from my waist up,
even my my bottom area up. I mean, I've been a pear shape.
I'm not, you know, not gonna lie, but but I always had that
lower a smaller upper body. So another name that they call
this is 2 body syndrome. I mean, literally, it looks like
two different people are sewn together.
And that was me. I was a size 2 to 4 from my
waist to my top to my hair and then from my bottom I would be
like an 8 to A10. My waist would still be super
small, but to accommodate my hips and my lower legs, I always
had to size up in my my jeans and my maxi dresses and you
know, pants and all that. And that and that's kind of like
the physical, you know, manifestation of this disease,
right? Is this like kind of
accumulation of it's not just water, I mean it's fluids, but
it's also mass, right, that's accumulating and they.
Extremities yes they refer to it as diseased fat so there it's
not water so it's different than lymphedema.
You know, there can your lymphatic system is obviously
compromised, your veins are compromised, they're all
impacted. But it isn't just simply take a
water pill. You know, that's something that
I was given multiple times. I would just take a water pill.
This the standard that we would hear the the standard outcome
from doctors is you just need to lose weight.
You just need to eat less and workout more.
And I'm like, OK, and there there were times where I was a
little bit heavier, a little bit smaller, But you know, we have
women that are even smaller than I am that are, you know, stage 1
or preclinical that their their body parts, you just don't match
their entire being and they're and especially don't match their
work ethic, if you will. When you think of how we take
care of ourselves, it just the two pieces don't go together.
So we're back in high school, kind of coming home from that
away game. You're noticing that something's
a little bit different in your body.
Is this it's a progressive disease?
Does it get worse with time or does it just kind of pop up?
It can be progressive. It is classified as a
progressive condition. That's an ideology that I do
challenge only because we find more often, if we manage our
weight, we can limit how much of that, you know, quarantined off
or portioned off fat actually does grow and become impacted.
Now, I say that with the caveat of when we had these big
hormonal fluctuations. We can't control where the fat
goes, right? Like, yeah, let's go through
puberty and we get the bigger breasts or, you know, we go
through pregnancy and we get, you know, our body changes,
etcetera. But menopause was really the
rock bottom for me, Jennifer. I had been in menopause, you
know, and and had seen, you know, my periods had stopped.
I'm like, OK, I was I was on the younger side, 4243 ish, you
know, was coming out of an incredibly difficult divorce and
I just chalked it up to my period had stopped because I was
started an antidepressant because that's what you do.
Like, you know, I, I didn't at that point in my life, I didn't
know to push back on the medical system to ask more questions.
I was just the, you know, the suburban wife that you go and
the doctor says you do this and I OK, and no questions.
And so it was a perfect storm of menopause, high stress and, you
know, situation, you can think inflammation, cytokines, like
all the things that are just storming in your body.
And I didn't recognize my legs. I mean, it was just a matter of
a year or two and they went from my normal, which wouldn't be
your normal. You know, I, I never, I always
had ankles. You're just such an ugly term.
But I always had these big ankles and these big fat knee
pads that like the fat pads that sat on the inside of my knees.
And so as my menopause progressed and my ovaries
retired, they threw their party without telling me.
I always do like the, the ovaries were having a retirement
party. I was not, it was, it was quite
a, just a, an emotional storm. And I was just in a pit of
apathy. I mean, it was such a dark,
tough season. And menopause alone is already
so difficult and perimenopause is so difficult.
But at least there's some sisterhood in that space.
And you can kind of like talk about it and, oh, you have rage
or your night sweats or, you know, you can kind of talk
through those symptoms. But I was just so isolated and
alone. And I remember distinctly, I've
always sat on the floor and like, held this little mirror to
put on my makeup. And I, you know, I'm sitting
Indian family. I remember looking down and
grabbing a towel to cover my legs up from my own eyeballs.
Like, that's how disproportionate they looked.
And it was just so, so difficult, so much emotion, like
looking at the changes that my and not understanding.
I had no idea why at that point. And then how did you come to
understand? Because obviously your brain
said this isn't normal, but your doctor said you're normal.
Because a lot of times there isn't pitting.
So that's the standard like they'll, you know, I would go, I
was having my hormones replaced. I'd started, you know, just with
some testosterone and, you know, on the, on the lower end of, of
optimizing my hormones And I'm like, and, and it took so much
courage, Jennifer, I can't even. And that's why I'm so loud and
I'm showing my before legs all the time because it took so much
courage for me to hike up because I wouldn't show my legs.
I always had, it could be 9000° outside.
I've got jeans or a maxi dress that's dragging the floor.
But I pulled up my pant leg and I said, I don't know if you
would have any ideas. Like my legs just, and, and I
didn't know it was painful because they were my normal
again. So I didn't have anything to
compare it to. But there is a painful component
that goes with this because this inflamed tissue has ticked off,
right? So it's hurt and she did a
pitting test like she Nope, it's not pitting.
You know, let me, let me ask the other doctor, let me ask the
other nurse. No, no, I, I think maybe if you
just, you know, maybe workout a little bit more.
I said, I'm a runner. I run half marathons like, well,
maybe maybe you should stop running.
And I've been running. I've been running since my son
was six months old. He graduates this month.
I'm like, OK, this is where. And my gut was like, find a new
Doctor, find a new Doctor, find a new Doctor.
And so I, but I still just checked it to the side.
This is how God made my legs didn't think anything and and
again, why I love connecting with women, especially that are
making waves on social media is social media.
It was a random. I say random, but we know
there's no nothing is random. A scroll on Instagram and I had
gotten a new fall where I only had like 2000 followers.
I mean, I didn't have nearly the the community that I have now
and I got it and it was a lipedema something for the love
of me, I would love to be able to go back and bind her.
I don't know exactly the account, but I opened up her
page and there were my legs staring back at me and I was
just like, what the heck? I mean, I and I have a wave of
emotion just even sharing this and I don't know that that will
ever go away. But it was seeing my legs
looking back at me. Lipedema.
And of course you go where do you go?
Right. You go straight to Google.
This was before chat and before Claude and anybody could like
help us figure out anything. So I go to Google and this would
have been probably February marches, March ish of 23.
And it was like, OK, wow. It felt like so surreal to have
a name. My best friend's a nurse.
I'm like, OK, you know, send it over.
What do you know about this? She's like, I've never heard of
this. Right.
OK. So I just sat on it for a while.
I had done 75 ARD like the previous November of 22.
I just turned 48. I was done.
I was in this this pit of apathy.
I didn't understand my body, but I just knew deep in my gut, if I
don't make one last ditch effort, I'm just gonna keep
gaining weight. Like I'd gained 40 some, I mean
like 10. I had been slowly creeping, but
a total of 40 some pounds. And I thought, OK, we're just
gonna, we're in try 75. That was what I do, right?
We, we try harder, we go bigger, we go batter.
And that's what I did and lost 14 lbs naturally.
And that was right around that season where I was like being
tested more for my hormones. So my, I found an awesome
integrative Dr. At this point, we still didn't really know
about lipedema. I had not been diagnosed with
that yet. But he also found I had PCOS,
which is incredibly common in this community.
You know, my ovaries, we're done, we're done.
So, so we really had to up that optimization and figure out what
was going going on there. And he started talking to me
about tirzepatide. He's like, I, I think that this
will really help for your PCOS, you know, and, and at that time,
I just want to take the listeners back that that maybe
are newer to this peptide conversation.
This was in the, I'm going to call it like a war of pro and
anti GOP ones. There were any way more anti
than it was pro. It was they're cheating.
You're stealing from the diabetics.
You know, I mean, it was just this huge misunderstanding.
And now my doctor's talking to me.
I don't have diabetes, you know, my I don't understand like this
isn't how this is supposed to go.
And it changed everything. You know, Fast forward April, I
was able, April of 23, I was able to find a doctor at a
lipedema specialist. There's a handful in the
country. There was one an hour away from
me and I was able to get an appointment.
And he took one look at me open down, I'm facing the wall, he's
looking at my backside and he says, oh, classic case of
lipedema or as I call it, 2 body syndrome.
And I'm just sobbing. Like sobbing.
It was. It was.
I mean, just, I, I can almost feel the emotion through your
story of the frustration and the hopelessness and the
resignation. I mean, on top of that being,
you know, perimenopausal, postmenopausal, dealing with
weight gain, dealing with PCOS. I mean, it does feel sometimes
like women's midlife conspires against them in so many ways.
But for you to be able to find some answers, you know, starting
with hormone replacement therapy, PCOS and then having a
diagnosis and then layering on in GLP, one that must have been
just like mind blowing and life changing.
So tell me what happened next. So mind blowing, so and so truly
like as I mentioned, my best friend is a nurse and and works
in the regenerative medicine space.
So this was not new to her. She was like, you know, I I was
doing tiny what we call micro dose.
Now they didn't call it then they only had the, you know, the
pre dose pens. But again, this incredible
integrative Dr. we had that I'm traveling an hour to see, paying
a crap ton of cash to see, you know, all the pieces.
And he's like, no, I just want you to use this tiny amount.
Tiny. I mean, it was like a milligram,
like just the the tiniest dose. But it was that missing piece,
Jennifer. And I truly was like, I don't
know what is going on and I don't know what's in this magic
syringe, but I wanted all the days of my life.
But this everything felt better, right?
My people became cuter, you know, happier.
I had more energy than it just it truly was.
And and I know just from listening to some of your other
podcasts, it isn't a monotherapy, right?
We, I, I all everything else was locked in.
And that's what's so is so common in my community.
What we're doers. We'll do the do, but it ain't do
it for us, you know? I do know.
I hear that story every day.
You know, that's my story. It's so many other of my, you
know, my colleagues stories. We were, you know, sold this
bill of goods that works really well when we're 253030 three
years old, but then all of a sudden right around, you know,
35, that stuff just doesn't work anymore.
Doesn't mean it's bad. We keep doing it, but we're not
getting the results that that, you know, we were getting as
younger women. And that is incredibly
frustrating when you're putting in the effort.
It's just layers and layers and layers of challenges, right?
And again, coming from a recovering, I can't say I'm
recovered recovering people pleaser who didn't know to push
back, who didn't know to ask questions.
You know, that is that's my heart's mission is to say no,
just just ask questions. Or if it doesn't feel right,
find a new Doctor because there, there are tools that can help us
even outside of peptides, there's tools that we can add to
our tool belt. They gotta speak up and advocate
for yourself. 100% that is definitely something I'm
passionate about as well. And it's kind of funny we my
husband threw an impromptu dinner party last night with
five of his closest friends just randomly showing up for dinner.
I was like, thank the Lord we have an extra loaf of sourdough
bread in the freezer, otherwise I'd die.
But one of his friends works in oncology and works with Applied
Clinical Research. And he, he was telling me, we
have this company that has approached us and is looking for
blood samples from perimenopausal and
postmenopausal women. They are paying oncological
prices like like these research companies, pharmaceutical
companies, they're they're paying, you know, $10,000 for a
slice of a, a, you know, a tumor to study it.
And they're paying similar prices, said my friend, for
woman's premenopausal menstrual blood and also postmenopausal
blood just in general, because our population is so incredibly
understudied. And so now with this
proliferation of people like you on social media talking about
things that are so important in the menopause space, people are
taking notice. You know, not just the women who
are living it, but other people around us are physicians.
And now even the pharmaceutical companies are getting involved.
And I think that is incredible what you're doing and what so
many women are doing. We're making changes and.
And it is, it's truly exciting, the thing, you know, not only
encouraging other women to advocate for themselves, but I
have a daughter, she'll be 20 this month, you know, and, and I
can't imagine her having to deal with the same medical system
that I did that I 36 to 37, almost 4 decades, not
understanding I had a medical condition, not a willpower issue
and had been found, Lipedema was found in 1940.
Jennifer, like, can we please just pause and think about the
thousands and thousands and thousands of women that just on
my page, I mean, in my community alone that are raising their
hand? Like, gosh, I never had any
idea. Never, you know, I never had a
clue. I had to step into and, and I've
seen from your page, you know, you're a believer, but it was
one of those where the minute I found out about it was like, oh,
I'm going to social, you know, and then a good friend paused me
and she's like, how about we just work on your story 1st?
And I was like, OK, OK. It was an instant relief because
I'm like, I've hid literally my lower half of my body for all my
life since 12:00. So it was this huge relief.
And then I went through my own healing recovery journey, you
know, did lose the weight, have maintained the weight loss.
That's my that's truly the flex, right, is getting off that yo-yo
roller coaster and it and it just, it kept growing And I was
like, OK, because there's a surgical option where you can
remove that diseased fat. And it was like, do you do this?
Do you not? Do you do this not?
And you know, of course it's rarely covered by insurance.
It's super expensive if you go out of pocket.
I'm talking Jennifer 20 to 40. Ki was quoted like out of
pocket, no coverage. The first quote came in, it was
between 35 and $40,000. I needed two different surgeries
and it was, I'm like, I'm no, I've lived with it this long,
this is OK. And I just was prayerful and
kept looking and kept again, I found a surgeon here in
Indianapolis. I had a consultation with him.
He is not a lipedema specialist and because of the virality of
my account, doesn't take patients anymore.
You know, at the beginning I was like, go see Doctor Dadada, go
see Doc. You know, I had no clue.
You just don't know what you don't know.
But he was very conservative in his consultation.
He said this will be like a good haircut.
I mean, at this point, Jennifer, to put it in perspective for
your listener, I weighed 139 pounds, 37, did 39 lbs and I was
I'm 5 foot 6. So I mean, I'm like my intake
record referred to me as athletic, athletic build and
healthy or something. And it was like the one time
that I was like, darn it, no, I want him to see my legs.
Like I love being called athletic and fit, but crud, no,
I need to see the pain in the, you know, the body dysmorphia
and the mental health and they're so I mean, it isn't
just, oh gosh, your legs look a little thicker than Jennifer's.
Like what's that kind of thing? But Long story short, we applied
to get it covered through insurance and December 26th of
23, so I post Christmas present that year, I got a letter I was
by myself at home from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, who's
our carrier, and I was approved like everything was going to be
covered for my inch for my. Surgery.
Praise the Lord, that is incredible.
It was insane. And I, and again, so there's so
many steps of emotion and I just sat in my kitchen.
I'm Facetiming my husband who's running errands or whatever, and
I'm sobbing. I mean sobbing because not only
am I approved, awesome, amazing. We don't have to come out of
pocket for this, but the edification that the best
insurance carrier in our country, literally they ensure
one in three humans is saying, yes, this is a medical condition
and yes, we're going to improve your surgery.
Wow. So.
What happened next? Did you schedule it?
What did that look like? Girl, I was like, OK, can you do
it tomorrow? My calendar just freed up.
I mean, let's see, we had a trip.
We had, we're going to Punta Cana in February.
And I'm not joking, they could get me in like right before the
day before we're going to Punta Cana.
And I'm like, I just don't think this is smart to do a surgery
and fly out of the country. So we're going to so we went to
Punta Cana, came back and I had surgery February 16th of 24.
So I'm just about, you know, a little over 2 years post op and
it's been life changing. It's absolutely life changing.
But it's also not an option that's available to everyone,
especially in my international community.
It's super, super hard to qualify.
A lot of times they are only looking at larger volume
removal. So it's very common to also
battle obesity in this community.
I mean, there's just, again, there's so many layers like we
were talking about, you know, earlier in this, in this
podcast. I I really am intrigued,
Kristen, because I did not know that there is a surgical option
for lipedema. So what does that look like
start to finish? So basically liposuction,
there's various liposuction techniques, tumescent there's,
you know, some some different options as far as the actual
technique that's used. I went the traditional route.
So I had traditional liposuction.
I had 4 little puncture wounds. You know what they removed the
fat pad on my knees. They removed some of the as much
as they could around my ankles. So like think top like me and
then inside of me and then ankle and outside of ankle were kind
of where the puncture wounds were and they removed what they
could down my calves. I mean, I share I've got lots of
this on my on my Instagram page, but it was very, very, very
painful. I am always very transparent
about that. If you think about your ankles
and you think about the type quarters of your ankles and you
think about all those nerve endings and, and the muscles and
everything. And one of the pieces that I
also really try to share when we talk about surgery is I didn't
think nada, not nil about recovery.
I was so in my head and preparing for what I bet I'm the
only one it won't work for, you know, it's just like the
enemies, you know, feeding his lies and you're scared and
you're this and you're that. And I was completely sedated.
A lot of these women are not. It's just a local, right?
And that was one of the quotes. One of the surgeons that I
consulted with, he's like, well, we don't do sedation, you know,
we keep everyone alike. And the nurse, actually his
nurse, so he leaves the room and his nurse says, I just want to
warn you that this is incredibly painful, even with the local
sedation, you know, the local numbing that we use.
And I'm like, how is this an option?
Like right, No, And and I have many in this community that it's
fine. That worked for them.
Fantastic. There's, you know, an incredibly
talented surgeon at a Tampa that doesn't do full sedation.
Perfect. I wanted to be knocked the flip
out like, Nope, I'm going in one way.
I'm coming out another like good, put me under suit.
So you know, like let me and it was fantastic.
It was an incredible experience. We came home that day.
I'm in the Midwest, I'm here in Indiana and it had snowed.
You know, it's February, so we were literally snowed in.
So we just had this nice snowy blanket over the house over
everything. No one could go anywhere.
There were no expectations. And that's how my healing
journey started was that that weekend and incredibly
emotional, incredibly painful. I way underestimated the actual
physical pain. Think nerves.
I mean, you know, anybody that knows anything about nerves and
nerve healing, it's going to take months and months and
months and months. So you'd have like these full
body, you know, goosebumps almost that would just feel like
they're trapped because those nerves were regenerating.
It's it's, it's intense. Mercy, you are a warrior
Princess. I mean, really, that is crazy.
Just the whole again, like the emotional lead up to that and
knowing that gosh, you know, something different might be
right on the other side, but then having to go through the
literal pain to get there is impressive.
Yeah, feeling. You know, and because of again,
where mine was located like they didn't get it all.
So I still will have lipedema flares, but the beautiful piece
of that, and it's almost like God allowed some of that
lipedema fat to say, because that's another piece I can
advocate for women is, as I had said previously, my legs.
If somebody asked me if they heard, I'd say no, no, this is
just how they've always felt. But now I can recognize, Oh my
gosh, I'm not carrying boulders. Like when I run, my legs are
like dress like. I mean, I wouldn't say dress
maybe like, I don't know you. Say it, girl.
Really speedy dog like they kind of float a little bit more than
than they did before, but it's they aren't heavy that it isn't
so, so cumbersome to actually move.
I can tell when I've eaten inflammatory foods because my
ankles like sis, I don't know why you do that.
You keep trying. You cannot eat, you know,
because I can I can feel it instantly in my ankle.
So it's like the, you know, the weird grandpa that can tell when
it's gonna rain. I can, I can tell my ankle when
something's up, so. 100. Percent, it helps me help.
It helps me help others understand what they're feeling
so. Well, and you through it, it
sounds like you become even more of a student of your body.
Obviously you've been in that the health space since 2018, but
this didn't happen until 2023, you said.
And so the things you probably picked up along the way,
specifically with like what foods are increasing
inflammation or lifestyle habits that increase inflammation.
What are some of the commonalities you saw between
yourself and maybe some of the other women in your community
of, you know, foods or lifestyle habits that are triggers that
that do increase inflammation? So one of the the hard pieces
about this community is, as I alluded to, a lot of times,
women are also dealing with obesity.
And so when I was navigating my discovery process before, you
know, weighing out surgical options and kind of pioneering
my own path, well, I had done Weight Watchers through 75
heart. You have to do it, you know, a
diet program. And the good thing about that
was it was all inflamed. You got rewarded for eating
protein, like it didn't cost points.
And you know, so we'd have this whole mindset, but it shifted my
mindset because I, I just ate so poorly.
I ate processed foods. I, I love, I mean, cheese and
carbs, like line them up, throw them down the Hatch.
Like, can we have more? You know, I'd already given up
alcohol because of menopause. So there was there's just so
many different pieces that we don't realize are inflammatory
until you really peel back the veil a little bit and start
diving in like, oh gosh, you know, I, you alluded to sour
sourdough and I was like, see, if heavy showed up, we would be
accidentally out of sourdough and his but that stuff is hard
to make. But I only make, I make all of
our bread now, you know, So there's things that just had to
change. And you, again, you, you can't
just flow through how you're feeding yourself and how you're
taking care of yourself. Absolutely, 100%.
The fundamentals, the foundation, just so important.
But I mean, you locked those in and then you were also layering
in this new tool. So you talked a little bit about
it, but tell me more about the GOP portion of your journey.
I I love it. Did I mention that that I went
all my days? So it again, it was that missing
piece. And early on it was one of those
like, oh, you're you only use it for a little amount of time and
then you need to titrate off. And there was just no one really
understood. And you know, it really was
listening to amazing podcasters like Doctor Tina and Doctor
Tina's podcast. And she's such an advocate for
small doses. And she was the first one that
made me feel like I'm actually smart for doing this.
Like, you know, I didn't feel shady or like I was stealing or,
you know, cheating or doing anything bad.
And so I was able to lose the weight that I wanted to lose to
help my body release that extra weight.
And it took 7-8 months. I'm a huge believer in slow and
low. Like, I wanted sustainable
change. I was done roller coastering and
and so that was slow low and then I did, I would titrate off,
you know, let's take a month off.
Let's see how we do. And my behaviors because they
were so solidified, my weight would maintain, but I started
to, you know, we'd travel and I'm thinking, Oh, I don't have
to wear my compressions on the plane or I don't have to.
And that wasn't the case. You know, that's when I really
when I was off the GOP one was when I was able to recognize
even more that flare in my ankle.
And I'm like, and it isn't Even so much that if you looked at it
in a flare, you'd say, I don't really see, but I can see it.
But that isn't even what matters to me.
It's how it feels. It's just like a think of like a
a water balloon that you're squeezing like and it's getting
ready to like that's what it feels like.
It's just tight and and uncomfortable.
And the GOP one just almost within hours will lessen that
that phlegm inflammatory effect. Incredible.
It really is incredible. I know the research just on
inflammatory markers and GLP ones like interleukin beta 6 and
TNF alpha, you know, these, these markers come down.
I've seen it in lab work, C reactive protein coming down.
So it makes sense that, you know, you would you would feel
it because we all, we know when we're inflamed, at least like
the majority of midlife women kind of have learned to realize,
OK, this particular food, this particular drink, this
particular activity, you know, makes me feel a little bit
puffier. But taking it to the extreme,
you know, like in the case of lipedema, it has to be so
encouraging just to feel like that, you know, the puffiness,
the inflammation, the pain is starting to abate.
And it's so much more and I and I know that you're an advocate
of, you know, it's so much more than what the scale says.
Yet the, the less, you know, lower inflammation, less pain,
but we're also starting to see it's addressing fibrosis, you
know, it's addressing, you know, the metabolism and the metabolic
components of this condition. So literally just did a post
today. I'm like, this is so much more
than the scale. I don't want women getting hung
up on. I don't have weight to lose or,
you know, I've lost weight or I, I'm only but like, yes, we feel
better when we're at a healthier weight, but there's, it's so
much bigger than that. I, I don't have weight to lose.
I've maintained my weight and I've maintained I've stayed on a
GLP 1 be because of all the added benefits because of the
inflammation alone. I would take it in super small
doses forever. I mean, it's, it's just not,
it's not something that I have any desire to, to not be in my,
in my tool belt. Amen, fully agree.
It's one of my favorite conversations to have with women
because a lot of women are looking at it as a medication.
I'm not a doctor, so this isn't like a medical discussion, but
we know that Physiology of a peptide is, is different than
that of a traditional firm acetical.
And so having people realize, gosh, it's this biosimilar
compound. I just, I, you know, was writing
this weekend and just thinking about like our body has run on
peptide since the day we were born.
They they have. Yeah.
Oxytocin, vasopressin, GLP ones, these are all like they've been
in our bodies from day one. And so I think when women
realize that that we're putting back the missing signals that
have been stolen away by plastics and pesticides and a
crappy food chain and too much stress and all the things, but
it becomes easier to use them as a tool.
I think for the long term. For me, do not take away my GLP
one do not take away my. BHRT, my hormone replacement
therapy and my peptides. It's gonna get ugly if you try
to come out of life. I'm not very scrappy, but I I
bet I could be. Right, right.
Because you're right, the benefits are so much deeper than
just weight loss. Weight loss is the tip of the
iceberg, which is fun. It is and it and it helps and I
feel better and, and not having that emotional weight of hiding
or figuring out what I'm going to wear to accommodate how
swollen or puffy I feel. You know, there's so many layers
that go into that. And I really think Jennifer and
I'm sure that you would agree that it boils down to to the
delivery method, you know, the delivery mechanism of peptides
and GLP ones. If you swallowed it like a pill,
would we be having this conversation?
Nope. You know, and that's what it
comes down to is like, I'm lining up peptides.
I literally did a Wolverine injection 20 minutes before the
call. I'm like, oh, I haven't done
that. Did I like, you know, let's
let's pop that in. But it's that delivery mechanism
that I think really is jarring at the beginning.
People are obviously coming around and you can't scroll, you
know, 2 seconds without seeing it.
But if that weren't how they were consumed or how they got
into our bodies, none of these conversations would be taking
place. Excellent point, my friend.
So, so true. And we wouldn't have the, I
think, restrictions that social media is putting on us if it
wasn't coming through a needle, that's for sure.
Yeah, that the social media, that's a whole other rabbit
trail. I'm really feeling that you know
it and it's incredibly frustrating and difficult,
right? Like it's I love having this
platform you to and being invited to speak so openly about
it here. I'm going to probably have to
create another community outside of our the big platforms so that
I can talk more freely with my community because it's you know,
censorship is alive and well. I'm 100% convinced I'm shadow
banned right now and it's and I'm not alone.
I know I'm not alone. You're not alone.
It's such a fine line, right, that we're walking on to, to try
to balance. OK, I they have to know about
this, but at what cost, right? Like, you know, this is, this is
what I do and this is how I, how I've decided to shoot, you know,
and earn my income is through social media platforms.
I've been in this space since 2018.
I don't want to afford to. I can't afford to lose it but
also come on, come on. Like it feels very 2020 ish all
of us. Yes, it absolutely does.
Hopefully we, you know, my colleagues and I, we talk about
this all the time now. It's affecting everyone.
And so just figuring out, can meta hand down some sort of
boundaries or guidelines? I mean, it is a little bit
ridiculous that everyone's being controlled by bots and there's
no human that you can talk to. There's no set of guidelines
that you can get. I don't think any of us, I mean,
we're all probably a little bit rebellious at our heart, but not
rebellious in the fact that. We are going to flaunt these
guidelines. If you could just give us
something to work with we're. Cool, Give me, give me the, the
OK, where's the playground? What's the same?
It's like where, where are my rules?
What can I and then what can I push?
What can I not push? You know, it's I'm, I'm right
there with you. I'm right there with you.
And that again, that's why I just encourage you to keep doing
what you're doing because we do need these platforms.
We do need women and encouraging and raising up other women and
spreading, spreading the good news.
I mean, you know, not the good, good news, but the second good
news of your peptides and taking care of ourselves.
And we don't have to age like our like our moms and
grandmothers, you know? Yeah, 100%.
That is the subtitle of this podcast, Jesus and Peptides.
I love it. I love it.
That's fantastic. Yeah, man, it is fun getting to
connect with so many, you know, like minded people in the health
space. It's been great.
And the feedback that we have gotten from this community of
women and men that are listening to the podcast and love it and
just like the story aspect of it, they're like the rest of us.
Like I, yes, go on Amazon to buy stuff, but I also go on Amazon
to read everyone's reviews of all their Amazon products.
I don't know why it calms me down, but it does.
Right there with you yes and it weeds out like OK, this is so
helpful now heroes wear capes, right?
Like view Amazon products. Yes, that's right.
So I, I do thank you for that and I do, I am very thankful,
very thankful to have this outlet to get to talk with, you
know, brilliant people in this space and get to, you know, keep
learning and keep pushing and talk about things a little bit
more freely. So it's it's definitely been a
blessing. So you mentioned The Wolverine
stock. Obviously, no.
I mean once you start you can't stop.
So you started with your GLP one.
What was the evolution for you there in the peptide space?
I started with GLP 1, so compounded tirzepatide and then
went to, I want to say some Moreland was my next one that I
tried. And the funny part is, is my
husband has been doing peptides and all kinds of, you know,
adventurous biohacking things for years.
And I was just like, oh, it's just something he does, you
know, good for him. Didn't really pay much attention
to it. And then the, you know, it just
started growing, right? It was just like this.
Wait a second. What, what else we got?
What else? What else can we do here?
And it's like you said, it's evolved quickly.
I love, love, love the cognitive benefits.
So I love the C Maxes and the Celanx and the NA DS and, you
know, the GHKCUSI mean, there's just there's so much goodness
there. And actually, that's why I
believe I'm in a shadow band state is doing a post on GHKCUI.
No, I had no idea that it was a no know and that I shouldn't be
talking about it. But GHKCU is addressing
cartilage. What were we talking about at
the top of this condition? This is, you know, a connective
tissue disorder. So it isn't one of those blanket
statements where I would ever say if you have lipedema, you
need a GLP 1 and GHKCU. But it's leaning into that.
There's so many other Co conditions and impasse and, you
know, histamine reactions. So it isn't a like like most
women, right? It isn't going to be a blanket
peptide stack for all of us. But even when I'm in between my
GOP one injections, I can't relieve from my GHKCU.
Like I'm like, I can see the, that's what I go by.
I can see the tendons in the top where I usually have my lipedema
flares. I'm like, oh, I can see my
tendons in my ankle. Like I haven't seen those dudes
in, you know, 40 years now. I finally get to see them and I
want to see them all the time. How does actually fascinating to
me. Yeah, OK, so GHKCU for for
tendon. So is it also reducing
inflammation, the GHKCU with? Yeah, yeah.
And I think, you know, ATP, so it's improving energy and
recovery. I mean, there's, you know, you
just keep going and then, you know, Wolverine for gut health.
And that's, you know, there's again, I'm not telling you
anything you don't know, but there's just there's so much
goodness. And it genuinely is something
that I encourage women to lean into and they have to do more
legwork than before. You know, then even in 20252025,
we could talk more liberally about.
But you know, now it's that's, that's the cumbersome piece of
this is women are having to do more of that legwork.
And a lot of us don't have time a lot, you know, that's why why
you and I do what we do is to share information to help women
shorten the distance that they have to travel.
It took me this many years. I want to make it this many
months for you. I want to make that distance
shorter for. You oh gosh 100% once you
realize that you can help other women not have to suffer the
same way it it is definitely a calling and a mission.
The driver. Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Yeah, I'm just picturing as you're, as you're talking about,
you know, like COVID esque policies and even 2025 we could
be a little bit more liberal in how we talked about it like
peptide speakeasies, you know? Yeah, where are they?
Let's go. I mean, it's easier to do it in
Indianapolis than it is in Bakersfield, CA, but we'll see.
We do what we got to do. I I don't know, sister.
Like, pot's not even legal here. So, you know, Yeah, well, we're
way behind the curve. So yeah, I guess so, yeah.
I do want to ask though, So what are like, what are the other top
three lifestyle supporting activities that you do
personally and you advise your community to do to, you know,
keep lipedema at Bay? So outside of peptides, outside
of the GOAT of GLP, one walk every day and it doesn't and
it's, it sounds so easy and so trivial that I think someone
were like me, you know, I walked to the car.
I did this, I did that, but just a couple laps around the block.
I, I am a weird streak girl. So I have this, this walking
streak ever since I started 75 hard back in 22.
So my streak is like 1200 some days that I've walked
consistently and 99.5% of those have been outside.
I just think that's, it's good for us get some fresh air, get
some sunlight. No, I'm not out there doing
10,000 steps and my goal is between 5000 steps and 7500
steps. Like I'm not saying kill
yourself, walk each day. I'm a huge proponent of
compression stockings. If you suspect you have
lipedema, that is the only conservative therapy
internationally agreed upon is compression stockings.
So you can imagine there's different classifications in
Europe you aren't even diagnosed with lipedema if you don't, if
pain doesn't also coexist with it, how do you quantify pain?
How do you how do you put a pain threshold?
Like, OK, I've got a little bit. So anyway, but compressions
across the board are embraced in this community.
They're not sexy, they're not fun.
Wear them, they help. I still, I'm two years post
surgical, I still wear my compressions every single night.
And now it's to the point where I feel naked without them.
I mean, I it's like I work so hard to get this disease fat off
my body. We are in the same pants size.
We're doing all the things, but it's just again, everything's
kind of the circulation's improved.
Everything's compressed. It's I compression for sure, and
then anti-inflammatory diet would probably be third, you
know, and these aren't necessarily an order.
It's just the ones that are popping into mind.
What we put in our in our mouth impacts everything, our mood or
yes, our lipedema, our menopause, our attitude, how we
deal with our families. I mean, it just it's, it changes
everything. Yeah, it does.
I mean, obviously you are super fit.
This is your job, it's your life's work, but you care about
being healthy and strong. So what?
What does a typical day in your life look like nutrition wise?
Oh gosh, the dreaded I'm as boring as they get.
I mean, genuinely. And I, I think that that is a
savings, a saving grace when it comes to the way that we feed
ourselves. You know, I, I go for my protein
first, but I also was blessed with a weird texture aversion.
I have like a weird aversion to like Tendini.
If my husband could hear me talk about this, like she is not
talking about that on that podcast.
Like seriously, that was almost a deal breaker when he and I got
together. He's like, you don't need steak
and like, I don't need steak and I don't eat chicken.
So so I love seafood, but it's just I, I try to just generally
go for protein first, you know, like let's let's go for protein.
I'm an intermittent faster. I have before I knew it was
intermittent fasting. I've done it, you know, probably
close to 20 years at this point. So I just eat dinner and then we
eat, you know, twelve 1:00 the next day.
But protein forward, Umm, sourdough, you know, just just
trying to write protein and sourdough.
I mean, what else do you need? Life is good.
Yeah, I'm not a huge vegetable person.
You know, some people will kind of push back and I've just,
they've always been bloaty and my stomach's never really
processed them well. So I'm hoping the longer and
more dialed in with the gut health healing from Wolverine
that that can kind of subside some.
But I mean, there's just we find what works and then repeat.
True. You know, true, true.
And I will say, I mean, I think we'd be really good friends in
real life. I don't love vegetables.
I'll eat carrots because of Doctor Ray feet and sometimes
green beans but they make me feel terrible so I eat a ton of
green terrible. I when I said that, I'm like,
oh, I can't believe you're saying this on a recording.
You're in the right spot, Kristen.
Thank you. Jesus, I I do love hearing that
because genuinely, it's like, I know I should, but that's what
we're taught, right? We're taught.
And then you get to an age where you're like, I'm a grown up and
I get to decide. So yeah.
Exactly. I mean, I, I do remember even
just a couple years ago, I had a slew of plants who would tell
me, gosh, I, you know, I feel so crappy.
Like when I eat this big salad, I'm like, don't eat the salad
like. Choose.
Something you don't have to eat a big salad.
If it tears up your stomach, you're not a rabbit.
Like go eat something that doesn't make you I feel awful.
And I love that you share that though, because that's that's
women, right? We're like, I'm doing this.
I continue to do this. I feel like trash.
I don't sleep. I did it.
Okay, so don't do it. Like let's let's look at this
different. Like, here's your promotion
slips, sis. Yes.
Yes, Oh my goodness. Okay, well, clearly I love you.
I love everything that you stand for.
Just looking at your page, seeing what you teach your
community the way that you look at this.
I think with a critical eye as well.
You don't have to be perfect. Here are some habits that we can
stack on top of what you're already doing so you can feel
better, you know, and then you also have these incredible
other, you know, options to really, really help people in
the Lipedema space. This wasn't available in 1940.
Oh my gosh, no, not at all. Not at all.
No. And just the information share
wasn't available, you know, and you and it's one of those things
now, Jennifer, you'll kind of notice like when you go to your
next Art Museum, say check out the statues like Lipedema is not
new. It has been round you.
You will see bigger ankled, bigger legged women.
But I mean, this is this is thousands of years.
I truly believe in my heart of hearts.
And what what caused it? What's again, we don't know, but
it's not new. How we talk about it, how we
communicate about it. That's the new part.
That's the exciting part for sure.
And actually, it might even end up that we are airing in
Lipedema Awareness Month, that's in June.
So that could be a really cool little, little tidbit there.
We will. Definitely make sure that we
will air in June if we have to push some episodes back.
This is that's great. Thank you for telling me.
Listen, I think you've opened up eyes, you know, everywhere.
And it also sounds like you have a ton of really good resources.
So let's start with where people can find you and your program.
But if there's any other, you know, lipedema resources you
want to share for women, I would love to hear.
Yeah, no, the best place to start really is on Instagram.
So it's just the Kristen Richards.
So KRISTI in Kristen Richards, but I would love to just have
you followed there and join along.
You know, I've got everything linked up in my bio as as per
content creator rules, right? So we can share all the
information. But I do try to really stay at
the forefront of women that look like me.
So, you know, newer, smaller, it goes in Lipidema is classified
as under stages and types. So I share that little piece
because most women that are drawn to me.
So if you think stage one, I was probably a stage 2 before I lost
weight. I'm I'm preclinical now with the
the surgery, but the lower stages are the ones that are
going to resonate the most with my page.
And then there's type. So you get a stage and a type as
to what stage, how progressed are you?
And type is going to identify where on the body it is.
So I share that as to your listeners that are like, gosh,
my legs just always haven't always matched my body, but I've
always been a size 6 or a size 8.
I'm your girl. Like, let's talk, let's you
know, come check out my page. You're gonna see you hopefully.
I love it. Kristen, thank you so much for
coming on. I learned so much in this
episode. I'm so grateful for your
expertise and just sharing it with our community of.
Course, of course. Truly an honor, Jennifer.
Anytime that I can help just nudge the needle a little bit
more as far as awareness is concerned, I am here for it.
So thank you. Thank you.
Really, my hat's off to you. Well, thank you, Griffin, and
thank you for everyone who tuned into this episode today.
I hope you found it as enjoyable and informative as I did and we
will see you next time on the Peptides for Women podcast.