Episode Details

Are your hormones running your life, and not in a good way? If you are struggling with fatigue, mood swings, weight gain, or sleepless nights, this episode is the missing piece you have been looking for. Understanding hormone balance is not just about estrogen and progesterone. It starts much earlier in the hormonal chain, and getting to the root cause changes everything.

In this episode of Salad with a Side of Fries, host Jenn Trepeck sits down with Dr. Andrea Colon, a naturopathic doctor and founder of Reclaim Integrative in Newport Beach, California, who specializes in women's hormone health and metabolic medicine. Together, they walk through the steps for lifestyle, nutrition, supplementation, and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to restore balance, energy, and vitality. From understanding why cortisol imbalance is the upstream driver of so many symptoms women dismiss as inevitable aging, to exploring how to balance hormones naturally for women before ever adding HRT, this conversation is both practical and empowering.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why cortisol imbalance is the overlooked driver behind perimenopause symptoms, disrupted sleep, and stubborn menopause weight gain, and how chronic stress depletes your hormone production over time

✅ How to use foundational nutrition strategies, including adequate protein intake, quality carbohydrates, and consistent meals, to begin restoring hormone balance before reaching for supplements or medications

✅ Which key micronutrients, including vitamin D, iron, and B vitamins, are commonly depleted in women and how those deficiencies directly suppress healthy hormone function

✅ How practitioners assess when lifestyle and herbs are enough versus when bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is the appropriate next step, including the role of pregnenolone, DHEA, and testosterone in women

The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast, hosted by Jenn Trepeck, explores real-life wellness and weight-loss topics, debunking myths, misinformation, and flawed science surrounding nutrition and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Dr. Andrea Colon shares why restrictive diets backfire and how skipping meals worsens cortisol imbalance and hormone balance in women

03:54 Dr. Colon shares her personal journey to naturopathic medicine after battling cystic acne

06:48 How stress and hormones connect and why women in their early 40s are entering perimenopause earlier due to cortisol

09:16 Nutrition foundations for hormone balance, including protein, complex carbs, and avoiding coffee on an empty stomach

12:04 The truth about exercise and cortisol, why over-training causes menopause, weight gain and disrupts hormone function

14:39 Why sleep is the most underrated tool for hormone health and why catching up on sleep is a myth

18:53 Supplement strategies including vitamin D, iron, B vitamins, ashwagandha, and rhodiola for adrenal support

23:29 When to consider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, including pellets, patches, creams, and pregnenolone

29:05 Using a GLP-1 properly and when it is needed

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

💎 Hormone balance begins with lifestyle, not a prescription. Correcting sleep, nutrition, and stress before adding supplements or hormones gives your body the foundation it needs actually to respond to treatment.

💎 Cortisol imbalance is not always high cortisol. Chronic stress can deplete cortisol over time, leaving women running on empty, and symptoms of high and low cortisol often overlap, making proper testing essential.

💎 Pregnenolone is the master hormone that most practitioners never test. Known as the grandmother of all hormones, it affects mood, libido, sleep, joint