The Mind Mastered: Secrets of Excellence with Dawn Grant Podcast
Season 1 Episode 22
In this conversation, Dr. Ashley Dwyer addresses common misconceptions women have about muscle gain and body composition. She explains that many women fear becoming bulky from weight training, but in reality, muscle gain is often accompanied by water retention and glycogen storage. Dr. Dwyer emphasizes the importance of building muscle for achieving a toned appearance and reassures listeners that lifting lighter weights will not lead to a bodybuilding physique.
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Podcast Transcript:
Dawn Grant (01:13)
Alright folks welcome to Mind Mastered Secrets of Excellence. This is Dawn Grant. I'm so excited to have you here and to tell you some more secrets of excellence but these are gonna come from Dr. Ashley Dwyer and I'm personally looking forward to picking her brain because I've recognized on my own journey
the importance of exercise and nutrition and preventative care and I was going to say treatment but preventative care, right? It's like taking care of yourself. So Dr. Ashley Dwyer, thank you for being here.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (01:49)
Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm super excited. Can't wait to dive in.
Dawn Grant (01:53)
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, me neither. just really short, brief, who are you and what do you bring to the table?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (02:03)
I love that. What do you bring to the table? ⁓ Pardon my little voice, by the way. I'm still a little nasally, like getting over whatever cold we had here in Texas, allergies, something like that. So I am a licensed pharmacist. So I graduated in 2014 as a pharmacist. ⁓ Go Gators. I graduated from the University of Florida. And then I only practiced
Dawn Grant (02:04)
Ha ha ha.
Nice.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (02:26)
for probably just close to seven years before leaving the profession completely. So even though I am still a licensed pharmacist, I no longer practice. And in 2018, I opened up my own company. I did both for a little while. I really found a passion in, like you were saying, preventative care, preventative medicine, kind of healing things from the inside out and working through diet, lifestyle, nutrition, all of that.
And I couldn't really do that in pharmacy. I couldn't help patients the way I wanted to, especially in a retail setting like Walgreens. I worked at Publix for three years as well. And so I started my own company and it's been seven years now and it's kind of just morphed into what we do now, which is more of a functional health coaching route. So more lab work recommendations, like more tailored approaches to kind of trying to prevent.
prevent certain illnesses or just help women. We work predominantly with women, but helping women just feel their best instead of getting told at the doctor that everything looks normal and it's not, right? Like we all have that story, I'm sure. So that is what we, that is what I do now. And I have a team under me and it's just been so much fun, but also quite a journey.
Dawn Grant (03:33)
It sure sounds like a journey. look forward to diving into that with you. You're slightly reminding me. I went to college for psychology and prior to that, I always knew I wanted to help people. And children and families was the initial thought. I want to help children, I to help families. I worked at some residential facilities and got my degree in psychology, worked in a local mental health facility. And it just wasn't what I thought I'd be doing. It just wasn't fulfilling enough and it wasn't
And so in psychology, working with children, those kids were, they were going to psychiatrists, getting medicated. They were in therapy, they had behavior, said caseworkers, they had big brothers, big sisters, like a sign. We were doing so much for that child. And I wasn't a huge fan of medicating them to try to make them better.
Of course, I think there's a time and place for it, but this was because the parents just couldn't deal with them. And that's what started becoming frustrating for me was watching ⁓ parents not get the help. Like all this was going into the kids. So anyways.
That, so what I thought I was going to do shifted and that's what reminded me of you when you just told me that. So I'm curious, let's go back into your childhood and all and what were you interested in and what did you think you were going to do when you grew up and where were you on the planet?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (04:55)
I mean, as a kid, I was a tomboy. loved playing sports. Like I was, I had a younger brother. ⁓ I was always like an athlete growing up and my mom worked in IT. So I thought I would do something with computers like my mom, but I was a really big math and science nerd while also in athletics, which you don't really find like the, the jock who's also in like the math honor society, but that was me.
Dawn Grant (05:13)
Right? Yeah, I agree.
Ha
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (05:21)
And so I knew I really wanted to do something in healthcare when I got to high school and I wanted to be in healthcare. But at the time when I was 18, pharmacist was like, it was a booming profession. You were getting signing bonuses. Like it wasn't oversaturated like it is now. And I was like, this is a great career for a woman. I can still have a family. I could make good money. I can still be in health and not be on call, not have to deal with like bodily fluids. Not my thing. Yeah.
Dawn Grant (05:44)
Right. Yes.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (05:49)
or be in college
or be like in training until 30. I was like, no, thank you. So I chose pharmacy, went to Florida, did the whole pre-pharmacy track, which was seven years, and then graduated and was like, nope, this isn't it. This is not it.
Dawn Grant (06:05)
Dang. Did you have a vibe at all
while you were in school that it might not be what you wanted or? Yeah. ⁓ shoot.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (06:12)
Yeah.
Yeah. And I mean, I did internships and I was like, okay, like maybe I won't do retail because there's a lot of other avenues for pharmacists besides just like a Walgreens, right? And then part of my journey also consists of doing like NPC bodybuilding competitions. Are you familiar with those?
Dawn Grant (06:30)
⁓
well, I'm familiar with the last part of that phrase, bodybuilding competitions.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (06:36)
Yeah.
So, is just one of the committees that they're not drug tested. It's not a natural. I never did any substances and this was way, you know, back in 2011 through 2014, 2015 when it was a little different of a sport back then. But I really, yeah, I started competing in those and I became obsessed with how you could manipulate food and water and training to get your body to look a certain way.
Dawn Grant (06:53)
I got you.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (07:04)
And that is when I really fell in love with like dietetics. And I was like, well, I can't quit pharmacy school. I've already paid for a year. I've already invested a year. I will just take what I learn and use it with my patients. And then I never got to do that. That wasn't reality.
Dawn Grant (07:04)
Nice.
Okay, alright. So, what...
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (07:19)
Hmm
Dawn Grant (07:21)
Wouldn't you say that didn't end up being your reality? Why is that? Because of where you're working? Okay.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (07:27)
Yeah, so
in a retail setting I did choose retail after all because I was like I love working with people like again Something you don't really find in the profession is kind of an extroverted pharmacist. They're very like introverted and quiet
Dawn Grant (07:39)
Right? I agree. Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (07:43)
I was like, no, I like people. Let me go out. I want to interact with people. with the, you know, what I hope people come to realize and give pharmacists a break behind the counter is they're always understaffed. No matter how many people you see back there, always understaffed. A lot of people think that we just go to pharmacy school to put pills in a bottle. And I promise you, that's not why we have to do a doctorate. It's just so we can fill a pill bottle. We're doing a lot more.
Dawn Grant (08:08)
All right.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (08:09)
Yeah, so it was just kind of a thankless profession. People really thought it was McDonald's and it was just like in and out. It could just be like a drive by and there wasn't a lot of time for counseling. And then, you know, as you know, right now, insurance and health care in the in the nation is not super great. So drug reimbursement is really down. And so pharmacy companies, corporations try and include more services to get reimbursement like vaccines, like, you know, ⁓ MLMs.
Dawn Grant (08:37)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (08:38)
different type of clinical type of things. And of course, who has to do that? The parents have do that on top of what we already have to do while also being understaffed. So it just became a constant hamster wheel of you're already behind when you start the day and that just wears on you. It's just a moral burnout. Yeah. And then you just get used that for things that aren't your fault. And it's like, okay, I'm done here.
Dawn Grant (08:41)
Right.
For sure, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, wow, I had never really thought of all that. ⁓ That makes a lot of sense. So, but you were doing the bodybuilding and realizing that you liked being able to manipulate or understand your body to get it do what you wanted. And so where did that take you after you left pharmaceutical or that job anyways? I guess what was next?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (09:08)
Yeah, a lot.
What was next after pharmacy?
Dawn Grant (09:28)
Yeah. Yes.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (09:29)
So
part of, yeah, I competed from 22 to 25, and I was in pharmacy school from 21 to 25. So I stopped competing. Like, I did one more show after pharmacy, and I was like, we got to give that up. But the problem was, and what I think I help teach a lot of women now, is that a lot of women like to starve themselves, overtrain, you know, just take a lot of supplements, do a lot of these things.
not realizing the implications that they have on your hormones. And so I was eating very little, probably like 1,300, 1,400 calories, training five or six days a week, doing fasted cardio, working a stressful profession. And even though I was in my 20s where your body should be more resilient, it completely shut down by the age of 27. Like I had perimenopausal hormone levels, my thyroid was in the gutter. I would drink a venti coffee and be able to fall asleep immediately. Like something was wrong, right?
Dawn Grant (10:23)
I got you.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (10:24)
So I
went in and did a bunch of lab work and got a bunch of tests back and realized like this was not okay. I had a thyroid condition. I had hormone issues. So my doctor and all I knew back then was Western medicine was to put me on a thyroid medication like levothyroxine. And this was gonna be my new life. This is what was happening. And then I kind of fought with endocrinologists and doctors because I wasn't feeling better. We tried all different combinations of...
medications with T3 and then switching to like a desiccated different medication, some progesterone therapy in there too, just all of these supplements, all of these things. And it wasn't until I finally shifted my lifestyle and ate more food and backed off of training that my body started to respond better. And so then I was like, I love this. Like cool bodybuilding and manipulation is cool, but like...
Dawn Grant (11:11)
Hmm.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (11:18)
healing with food and lifestyle changes is so much cooler and more rewarding and working on my gut health and fixing all of that. And so that was during pharmacy school. And then when I was 30, I opened my company. So that was around 27, 30, I started my company. So that three year transition in there was like the big moment of I don't want to do pharmacy anymore. How do I do this? And then
Dawn Grant (11:44)
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (11:45)
blindly figured it out. Very much stumbled. ⁓
Dawn Grant (11:51)
You said that at the beginning of before we were recording that you were in South Florida. Is that where you grew up as well or? Yeah. So and now you're in Texas. So what brought you to Texas?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (11:52)
Thank much.
Mm-hmm.
Yep. Yep.
Yeah, I was working for myself. Now I quit pharmacy. So I kind of had the option to work wherever I wanted and move wherever I wanted. And I had some friends here. This is a big like wellness community in Austin. There's a lot of other coaches here. There's a lot of other remote workers here. And it's funny the way it happened. One of my girlfriends was newly single and she's like, I'm moving to Austin. You're also newly single. You should come move with me too. And I was like, no.
Dawn Grant (12:20)
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (12:34)
Like I'm not gonna leave my family and friends and just move to Austin. And then I came to visit her like in May of 2023 and June, like July 4th weekend of 2023. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna do it for a year. And then now I'm just stuck.
Dawn Grant (12:48)
⁓ You started your business there, right? Yeah. you did? Okay, gotcha. Okay, gotcha.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (12:52)
Well, I just continued my business here. Yeah, was a very... We work
remote. Yeah, I work with women all over the US and the world. I have clients in different countries, so...
Dawn Grant (13:04)
Nice. My daughter's in her late 20s and she was like, where should I live? Like she was fearless, like thinking she could just live wherever. And so Austin, Texas was one of the ones that made her shortlist because she wanted health, nutrition, activities, dog parks, ⁓ kids, people her age. Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (13:05)
cool.
Mm-hmm.
She'll
love it. She'll love it. Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (13:30)
She did try it out for a little while. She's in St. Pete now. She's like in that, yeah, yep. She missed the, yeah, the beaches, the beaches thing. ⁓ So you started healing yourself with the hormone issues and such with food. Now was that?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (13:37)
Yeah, really nice beaches there.
Dawn Grant (13:51)
Was that by accident or were you specifically looking up foods like what foods are going to help my thyroid or what foods are to help my estrogen and what foods are going to Did you do it very deliberately or you stumbled on this?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (14:04)
So it was more, it wasn't even like specific foods. It was just the amount of food. So I had come into like doing my own research, working with functional doctors, which I still preferred back then versus like an endocrinologist. But the difference was I would go to them and they would just hand me like a bunch of unregulated supplements. And I was like, okay, we're still not changing my diet and lifestyle. And then I found a functional coach.
Dawn Grant (14:11)
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (14:31)
And that is when I started diving into the lifestyle changes and them wanting me to eat more, increase my carbs. And as like a woman, I didn't want to gain weight. you know, back then I was still like touch and go with carbs. And I mean, a lot of women fear carbs, right? Not realizing how important-
Dawn Grant (14:31)
Mmm.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (14:48)
they are for thyroid function or all of our body processes. So it was through this coach that I had met and through diving in deeper into like my own research and then experimenting with myself. And then to be truthful, like I had to hire a coach to get me to eat more because I was so afraid of doing it for the first time. And so that's why I'm a big proponent of like hiring a coach to do that yourself. Like that is what I want you to hire us for is to help you eat more and you know, change. I needed help too back then.
Dawn Grant (15:07)
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (15:17)
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (15:18)
There's, I've, I started putting on weight.
like a lot of women, which I hate to say, because I'm a hypnotist and to me that's like a suggestion implanted in my programming. when I, right around 40 and I look back at it all now and I think it's because I had screwed up my metabolism from years of skipping meals and running around and picking up kids from school and just not really taking care of myself food wise. And this is just my opinion on looking back.
was that I screwed up my metabolism because a lot of people say, your metabolism changes as you get older. I'm like, no, I think I really actually screwed it up. And so I became my own little science project because I was putting on the weight and it wasn't coming off as easy as it always had prior to 40. And so I tried vegetarian, I tried juicing, I tried...
I'll just, I tried everything. I was a science project. But the person that I really liked was Haley Pomeroy and she wrote ⁓ the Fast Metabolism Diet. And she uses the word diet as an acronym, Did I Eat Today? So she's all about eating versus not eating, but eating the right things. And that was for me when I felt my best.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (16:32)
Hmm.
Dawn Grant (16:41)
It's clean eating. It's clean eating and it's eating. For her, she does some phase eating in there also, but I really, just never forgot that acronym for DIOS, Did I Eat Today? Because she's approaching it very differently and that sounds a lot like how you approach it as well. Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (17:01)
Yeah, I love that.
I'm sad I didn't think about it first, honestly. That's a great acronym.
Dawn Grant (17:04)
Right?
I know. I always explain the acronym because a lot of people see diet and there's so many misconceptions around it. There's so many struggles around it. There's so much pain and suffering around it. ⁓
The word diet itself though is just how you eat, right? What's your diet? Not like I'm on a diet. It's like, what's your diet? So it's got a bad rep over the years, hasn't it?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (17:35)
100%. Yeah, what is it? Like you can't spell diet without die, you know?
Dawn Grant (17:40)
Right,
yeah, yeah. So tell me what you, what's it, what are you gonna eat in a typical day? What did you have for breakfast this morning?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (17:42)
Many of conversation, yeah.
my goodness, a typical day what I eat. ⁓ So for breakfast, my breakfast is usually two pieces of turkey bacon. ⁓ It's more of a pre-workout meal. I'll explain that in a minute, but it's two pieces of turkey bacon, a hard boiled egg, two pieces of gluten-free toast. I'm gluten-free. ⁓ Almond butter, grape jelly.
a bunch of raspberries and blueberries, usually always like berries of some sort, probably like four ounces. And then I have coffee after I eat with collagen and creatine. And that's what I have every morning.
Dawn Grant (18:23)
That is a good amount
of food. ⁓ You're right about that. That's a good amount of food. I would have probably thought too, because a lot of what you said is what I would eat too, but I would have stopped halfway not knowing any better. So I think that's awesome. That's a great point that you're making about eating more, right? Because I would have done hard boiled egg, two turkey bacons, and I would have had my coffee with collagen. I put MCT oil in it also, creamer, MCT.
tea creamer. ⁓ Yeah that's it. I would have known I should probably have some berries but it would have been like an ounce if I even did it. Yeah so check you out.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (19:03)
Interesting. I
think what most people forget is like when we think about, mean, especially now you see it all the time online is protein, protein, protein, protein, make sure you're getting in your protein. So it's awesome that you're like hard boiled egg, two pieces of turkey bacon, collagen, awesome. But what is really also important for women is bowel movements. We need to be having one every single day. And a lot of us forget how fiber is. And so if we're not getting it enough,
Dawn Grant (19:26)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (19:31)
then we're not gonna have great digestive health. Most women are constipated, honestly, if we can say this openly on here. And so the berries, like I never want anyone to fear fruit. Nobody's ever getting like fat or getting these from fruit, right? And raspberries have the highest amount of fiber per grams of carbs, like from a math perspective. They're like the greatest of all time fiber food is raspberries.
Dawn Grant (19:43)
Yeah.
⁓ okay. Yeah.
Wow, I didn't know that. Cool.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (20:02)
Yeah.
Dawn Grant (20:06)
My husband is,
⁓ go ahead.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (20:09)
No, no, no, that's fine. Continue.
Dawn Grant (20:11)
No, my husband has been, he's like borderline pre-diabetic, sometimes hovers into diabetic, his exposure to health and nutrition is via me, right? And now TikTok's figured him out. So fortunately now it's teaching him things and I don't have to be the nag. So there is mixed information out there.
Of course we know berries, right? Berries are fine. The sugar content's not bad. The fiber's good. But there's mixed information on apples and pears. And he'll get one thing that says, yeah, you can have that. The sugar's not too bad for your diabetes or pre-diabetes. And then something else will say, ⁓ don't do that. So do you deal with diabetes much or pre-diabetes? And you still feel the same way about fruit? It's good.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (21:03)
Yeah, we actually get a lot of women with PCOS and PCOS women generally are insulin resistant. So it's almost like that pre-diabetic situation as well. ⁓ Here's the thing with fruit and we have a rule in our company and you can steal this. It's called no naked carbs. So even if it is a fruit, we're not having any carbs on their own. We're always pairing it with a protein source or a fat source. So apples just have him add some almond butter or peanut butter to it, right?
Dawn Grant (21:31)
Yeah,
yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (21:32)
Obviously
not where we're eating out of the jar and it's in calorie excess, like served out What that does is it blunts the blood sugar response? So you're not really worried about those spikes and dips and it keeps you more satisfied longer Which is the problem if we're just having little bits of like snacking here and there or we're just eating an apple You're hungry 45 minutes later. So get something that's a little more satisfying and this will stop the constant
Dawn Grant (21:52)
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (22:00)
just like fluctuations throughout the day.
Dawn Grant (22:02)
sure, for sure. Yeah,
that's one of the things I nag him on. If I see him grabbing an apple, I'm like, you need the walnuts or the pecans. Like, sometimes he does it, sometimes he doesn't, but ⁓ you know, there's only so much. So that was breakfast. What's lunch?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (22:15)
Yeah.
That was
breakfast. Well, after the gym, I will eat when I get off of this episode, but after the gym, I came home and made a protein shake with a scoop and a half of protein. So that for me is like 45 grams of protein, a cup and a half of, or no, a cup of oatmeal and like 150 grams of blueberries. So that was a second meal. That was my post-workout shake.
And then after this, I will likely have like five to six ounces of ground turkey, jasmine rice, and some veggies I have already pre-made in the fridge. I'll just throw it all in a bowl and that's what I will eat for lunch.
Dawn Grant (23:01)
Nice. I like it. You're not afraid of the carbs like you said. You got the jasmine rice in there too. Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (23:03)
Yeah, I
I eat about 275 grams of carbs a day.
Dawn Grant (23:12)
my gosh, I am shocked. Yes. That's awesome though. Yeah. I mean like we try to keep it under 45 is what I've been told over the years or what. Yeah. Look at you. I know right.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (23:16)
Yeah.
I would shrivel up. couldn't I even like ⁓ my goodness from back in the day of what I used to eat for carbs and being so afraid of carbs like you couldn't even have an apple with bodybuilding because it was too much sugar you know and so this is a totally different programming a hundred percent but yeah a lot ⁓
Dawn Grant (23:39)
Yeah, I love it. Good. And what do you like to do for working
out?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (23:46)
I strength train mostly, so weightlifting. ⁓
Dawn Grant (23:48)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
nice, nice.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (23:51)
I am not a runner. I will never be a runner.
Dawn Grant (23:55)
I can relate to that. I feel like I'm gonna die. I was just telling my husband that the other day and like, never ever have I felt like I could run. Like my heart, that's the feeling in my chest that I don't like. I don't like that feeling and so I've jogged in the past, but it's always been like run.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (24:09)
Mmm
Dawn Grant (24:14)
20 steps, walk 100. You know, then I build up, which I guess is something that people do, but you you build up. The most I ever got to was a mile, but wow, not a fan.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (24:25)
Man,
I will sprint. I like sprints, because it's just like a short burst of energy. You know, it's good for that. I'm not a long distance girly. I have flat feet. just, it's not, I don't like it.
Dawn Grant (24:31)
Yes.
Do you subscribe to the different body types, especially like aerobatic and all, because I feel like what we're saying right now has to do with our body type, like what we would enjoy, what we're comfortable doing, whether it's sprinting versus long endurance running.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (24:58)
When you say body types, you mean like ectomorph, endomorph type of body types or what was the... Okay.
Dawn Grant (25:02)
Yeah, yeah.
And Ayurvedic medicine, they break them up as well. Ayurvedic was probably the original source. ⁓ it's just, yeah, yeah. It's just probably the original ⁓ natural medicine. Ayurvedic medicine, it's just been around forever.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (25:13)
I don't know, it's diabetic. I need to do more deep dive on that.
Yeah.
I do think that obviously based on your body type, like how long your legs are, like different things, you're going to be better at something than someone else. Like that's just your genetics, right? ⁓ I have, you know, if you see me on Instagram or you see a picture of me, I have no torso. Like I'm 5'5", but I am very short torso. I'm all long legs. anything that requires like,
Dawn Grant (25:51)
Okay.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (25:55)
Like even deadlifting and squatting is harder for my body because of long femurs and long like pan, but I Think people should do the activity they like but I do want to urge all women to do some type of strength training like It doesn't matter what your body type is for that Like that is gonna be the key to longevity for women and like the ultimate hormone hack I think so
Dawn Grant (26:00)
Yeah.
Yeah.
⁓ let's dive into that a little bit. Ultimate hormone hack. Tell me about that.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (26:25)
⁓
So as we age, I know you were talking about metabolism before, right? Like maybe you messed it up a little bit, right? Like I think we all did that with chronic diets and ⁓ just kind of like skipping meals, like you were saying, eating too little, metabolic adaptation. So.
For a faster metabolism and for a more high functioning metabolism, if you're someone who likes to eat food and you want to eat carbs, the best thing you could do is probably lift weights and put on more muscle mass because it is for every...
of muscle mass you have, burns three times more calories than fat. It's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but depending on how much weight you have in muscle mass, it can really add up to be somewhat sufficient throughout the day. ⁓ You're burning more calories at rest, which is what we really want when we want our faster metabolism is more ⁓ calories burned at rest. And then as we age, we go through perimenopause, and menopause, like none of us are coming out of...
life unscathed. If we're lucky enough to make it there, we're going through perimenopause and menopause. And so two of the hormones that really affect women during this time are going to be cortisol and are going to be insulin. So if we want to have a better insulin response, then we need to have more muscle mass as well. Muscle mass really, really, really loves glucose. So when we have more muscle tissue to stick blood glucose into, we have a better insulin response, better insulin sensitivity.
Dawn Grant (27:35)
Right.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (27:59)
and then we can eat more carbs, we're not doing as much fat storage. All of our PCOS ladies, pre-diabetic, diabetic, we have them get into strength training almost immediately as well as walking. Cardio, that stuff is great. But muscle tissue is the ultimate hack for insulin resistance and glucose. And then cortisol, if you're strength training consistently, you're doing things that are hard, right? You're pushing against resistance, you are building up a mental resilience.
you are building up a stress resilience. Your body's literally tearing down muscle fibers and building it back up. So it helps your body build up a better resistance to stress, helps you become more mentally strong. And then we are not so sensitive to things that might stress us out and get cortisol spikes, right? Like we don't want consistent fight or flight. So by strength training, we can develop a little bit more resilience and a little bit more mental strength, ⁓ physical strength.
And so it really helps those two areas. And for women, we tend to lose muscle mass after the age of 30. So if we're not actively working on it, it might not be the point that we slowed our metabolism down when we get to 40 or 50. It may not even be like perimenopause or hormones. It could just be that we're under-muscled. Like we really don't have enough muscle tissue to support glucose, our activity, what we're eating. Elderly patients don't.
Dawn Grant (29:14)
Mmm.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (29:18)
I mean, they go to nursing homes obviously for dementia and things like that sometimes, but also it's because they need assistance just getting off of the toilet. They don't have the strength to get themselves out of bed, off the toilet. So if you consistently work on strength, you will have independence. You will be able to maintain your life into your old age. It is literally the ultimate hormone hack and life hack.
Dawn Grant (29:26)
Yeah.
I
yeah now those are excellent points excellent points I like that ⁓
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (29:43)
Thanks.
Yeah.
Dawn Grant (29:46)
Yeah, being a mental trainer who helps people with their mindset, I teach a lot on fight or flight and the stress response and how to avoid that by changing the quality of our thoughts and our perceptions and how we think about things. But definitely was literally just having a phone call with a client the other day about the importance of exercise for ⁓
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (29:55)
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (30:15)
He had asked me a question, he had read somewhere that stress was you're having a certain thought but then you're not actually taking action on that thought, meaning the fight or the flight, right? And I had never thought of it that way. So his question was like, do you believe in that, Dawn? know,
Because I teach about the thought and the cause and effect relationship is I'm having this thought that's creating the effect in my body that is the fight or fight fear response. And so was like, you know, I think there is actually something to that. And no wonder exercise is so helpful for...
decreasing stress, it helps that flow through. And I hadn't really thought of it that way before, because you have these cruddy thoughts and you're gonna fight or flee, but if you're not doing either one of those, you're stagnant and it's festering in your body. And so yeah, go fight it out in the gym, right?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (31:06)
Mm-hmm.
Go move it out. Exactly. Go move it out. Listen to some music. You know, zone in.
Dawn Grant (31:24)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, when you were young, did you exercise a lot? Well, you said you were athletic, so you were into sports. You started lifting weights when you wanted to start competing basically then, or did you lift weights for sport training?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (31:44)
Yeah, I was going to say, I think we lifted weights in high school for our sport, but it wasn't anything structured. And then I got into college and I was mostly like what I call a cardio bunny. Like I would just do a lot of cardio, stair master, lift some weights, but I had no idea what I was doing. And then it wasn't until I started competing where I got structured workout programs and I was like, oh, this is how you're supposed to lift. Like this is how this is supposed to go. Got it. Yeah.
Dawn Grant (31:51)
Yeah.
Nice. Yes. Yeah.
You're reminding me of something else. So I graduated college in 94.
So this would have been 91, 92 or something like that. I took a college credit called weightlifting and I was the only female in there. Cause you know, rewind the clock a little bit. That was 1993, 1992, which doesn't sound long ago to me until you sit and look at a calendar and it was a long time ago. But yeah, so I, I learned weight training in college for a credit and I was the only female in there, but I've always enjoyed it.
as well. Yeah. ⁓
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (32:49)
That sounds like something I would
do. Do it with all the boys. Yeah, yeah. I love that.
Dawn Grant (32:52)
Yeah, I don't know. There's
most women and I don't know if you're still seeing this, but they do tend to go towards cardio, right? Like that's their go-to. Is it still like that? Yeah, okay.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (33:05)
Yeah,
it's getting better. Like I can go to the gym now and I'll see the squat racks are taken by women or we'll see more women in the dumbbell area and they don't feel as scared to like go in there and pick up heavyweights. We will see more of that, but on client consultations, I will still hear a lot of women say, but I don't want to get bulky. And I'm like, listen, I'm trying to get bulky. I'm trying and I can't.
Dawn Grant (33:26)
Exactly, that's what they say.
Right? That has been the biggest misconception forever, right? Is women afraid they're gonna, I don't know, look more like a man or bulk up? And that's just not the case, is it?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (33:34)
Like, it takes a lot.
there are some women who are genetically predispositioned to put on muscle mass quicker. And for those women, I say, I'm jealous. But I think where women get confused is we think that we're bulky because we feel a little bigger. But all it is is your muscles are swelling with water and having glycogen stores now that you are working out. And then we have a fat layer over the muscle that makes us feel bulkier.
Dawn Grant (33:53)
Ha ha ha ha.
Mm.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (34:10)
We need that muscle tissue, but we also may need to lose some body fat and that's okay. most women want to be toned, but not understanding that toned means we got to build muscle mass. So we got to have the muscle.
Dawn Grant (34:14)
Right.
You gotta take that outer layer
off a little bit too. Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (34:25)
Nobody's
gonna fall into a bodybuilding body by lifting 10 pound dumbbell weights. It's not gonna happen.
Dawn Grant (34:29)
I started
doing a reformer table Pilates classes twice a week and ⁓ it's been probably, I don't know, let's just say six or seven months. And my instructors always like, pull your belly.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (34:36)
you
Dawn Grant (34:46)
She's blueberry. She calls your belly button your blueberry. Pull your blueberry in. So, you know, when you're doing all these different exercises, it's important to tighten your stomach, your abs, and to pull them flat in if you're laying down. So it's just constant reminder. I feel like I do a pretty good job at it. About three weeks ago, I said to her, my stomach is like pooching out more.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (34:59)
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (35:11)
And I brought this up to her because I was concerned I might not be sucking it in enough or right or whatever, because I didn't want my muscles to like bulge out, you And she's like, well, sometimes you got to get rid of the outer layer.
It's the outer layer, Dawn. She's like, I don't really see a problem with your muscles. It's the outer layer. And so you're tightening those muscles and it's making your belly look like you got a little bit more of a pooch going on. And now that's the fat layer.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (35:43)
interesting.
⁓
But yeah, that's generally what happens is more of just it's more pronounced now, so you feel bulky and then we have to get rid of that top layer, you know? Or at least pull it out a little, we wouldn't completely get rid of it. That's not healthy. Pilates is hard though. Good for you.
Dawn Grant (35:46)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, no, I remember learning.
thank you. I have a great teacher too. She changes it up literally every class, which I hear that not all, you know, places do that. They kind of keep the same routine for a month or something. And it's a new, it's a new routine every time. And she loves kicking our butt. It's a great workout.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (36:16)
Yeah.
Amazing.
Dawn Grant (36:26)
full body, I like that too.
Like I want more bang for my buck. If I'm gonna go in for an hour, I want everything. Yeah, yeah, I've enjoyed it. It's that and then going to the gym and doing free weights. I like free weights versus the machines also. ⁓ So as far as like any challenges along the way and... ⁓
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (36:34)
Yeah, exactly.
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (36:51)
secrets to your own success, especially starting your own business and such, what would you say? What are some challenges that you've faced and how did you overcome them?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (37:01)
Oh my goodness. So it's really funny. Business ownership is obviously hard. I didn't go to school for a business degree, right? And then I came out to be a pharmacist and drugs sell themselves rather well, right? So when you are now having to market, sell yourself, like show proof, do all of these things, I had no idea what I was doing. I just assumed I would announce I was a coach.
Dawn Grant (37:09)
Right.
Right.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (37:29)
and people will come like flocking in. No systems, no funnel, no nothing, no tracker. I was, it was very naive back then. So I will say the secret to my success with my shows, with ⁓ starting my business and growing it to where it is now with my own health is going to be outsourcing accountability and outsourcing
Dawn Grant (37:39)
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (37:57)
So my secret to success is hiring people to teach me to do it quicker. Could I have figured this out on my own? Sure. Do I have the time to do that? No, nor do I want to. So I invested in mentors to help me figure out how to set my business up, how to run it, what I needed to do. I invested in coaches to keep me accountable, to fix my health. Even right now, I have a business mentor. I have a health coach.
⁓ She's more of a programming coach. I can do my own nutrition. I do my own hormones, but I don't like having to get up and think about my workout plan. So I hire someone else to do it for me. So I just get up and it's already made, you know? ⁓ So I just, think my secret to success is not trying to do it the hard way and actually asking for help and investing in help. And that is the biggest reason why I where I am.
Dawn Grant (38:33)
Nice, yeah, nice.
Yes.
in a very odd way, this might seem like an odd analogy that I can relate with you. I have multiple businesses and blah, blah, blah, blah, but I, and I wanna eat healthy and I've got that knowledge, so therefore if I don't eat healthy, then it's haunting me, right? So I find that it's time consuming to plan out.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (38:52)
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (39:14)
Find the recipes and the plans and the meals. So picking those, planning the healthy eating. ⁓ Then going grocery shopping. We'll come up with a grocery list.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (39:22)
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (39:25)
Then going grocery shopping and finding those specific items, because I'm going to check all the labels, right? And I got my go-tos, because I've already stood there for 10 minutes and figured out which bone broth has real ingredients. And so now that's my go-to. But it's a learning, no, not a learning time, it's a time-consuming curve of learning what are your go-tos and making that take less time.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (39:37)
Right.
Mmm.
Dawn Grant (39:50)
I like to do some of the meal deliveries, like Sun Basket, because it's mostly organic, clean, it's whole foods, because I cut out the planning, the prepping, the shopping, all of that. So it's like a hack. I feel like I'm outsourcing that part of my food intake life, because I enjoy cooking and
I'll make time for that, I just haven't found that I want to make time for all the front end, which is a lot longer than the amount of time it takes to cook something. Right?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (40:23)
Yeah,
no, love that. I love that if clients or anyone can afford like meal delivery services, absolutely recommend those to save time and be more convenient. 100%.
Dawn Grant (40:33)
Yeah, yeah. And there are just, there's
certain ones, you know, that are higher standards on what they provide and blah, blah. But yeah. And then the other thing that came to my mind when you said that is just the Napoleon Hill talks about having ⁓ like mastermind groups where
You sit down chat, but you recognize that everybody has different expertises and you don't have to try to wear all the hats. Know who you are and what you offer this planet and outsource the other things because the accountant is the expert at accounting and you don't have to try to be an accountant yourself. You need to have an understanding, but...
Yeah, how are you gonna be the best you with what you wanna do and what you're passionate about if you're too busy trying to do these other things? That's a lot of what you meant too, right? Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (41:25)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think something that most people don't think about though, or the perspective they don't think about is how many times have we said like, well, if I just tried harder, I could do it. I could lose the weight, right? Or if I just spent more time doing this, I could do it. And I think what most people forget and where that's almost kind of like a stubborn, arrogant take thinking that you can do it all, right? But most people forget you don't know what you don't know.
And if you did know, you probably would have done it already, right? So what most women miss, especially the ones we help with with hormone situations, is stress load, eating enough, working out or monthly. They're seeing so much misinformation online now that it's really hard to even understand who's right, who's wrong, what we need to be paying attention to. And so I really empathize with women on the internet, men too. I know there's a lot in the male space too, but.
Dawn Grant (41:55)
Right.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (42:21)
with us predominantly working with women, it's really hard to know what's truthful. And so you expect yourself to be able to do it, but you don't even know what you're supposed to do. You're just kind of parroting what you see someone else or what worked for like your friend Susie was like a 72 hour fast. I would never recommend anyone fast for 72 hours. So it's just a bunch of mixed information that we're trying all these things. Like you said, we're becoming a science project and
Dawn Grant (42:30)
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (42:48)
We're kind of wasting time, which I think is also ironic because we're trying to do the fastest way to get to our result, but we're unintentionally spinning our wheels doing the wrong things for too long when if we just hired out help or accountability, we'd get the right answer way faster and then be able to, we now know this thing, right? So we can continue doing it. So I had no intention, even in pharmacy, this might've been like a.
Dawn Grant (43:05)
Yes.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (43:14)
a thing for me because in pharmacy if you're not efficient, if you're not able to do 20 things at one time, you will crash and burn as a pharmacist. So I am very, very honed in on what is the most efficient way to do something and that is usually hiring someone smarter than me to teach me.
Dawn Grant (43:20)
Yeah.
At least smarter in that area.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (43:33)
Yeah,
in the area I want to learn about, yeah.
Dawn Grant (43:35)
So I'm curious since you are a pharmacist and you are into natural preventative care, do you find that, what would you, how would I say this? In my opinion, it seems that most people would choose the pharmaceutical route for relieving stress, losing weight.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (43:44)
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (43:59)
It's almost like the pill is the quick fix versus taking the time to make some positive changes in their lives. ⁓
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (44:03)
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (44:11)
And maybe it goes back to what you're saying. Like you've had to figure out for your own self to even outsource so that you could juggle all these different things. maybe the large percentage of people just don't want the hassle with trying to figure it out and sort through it and hire somebody or whatever else. And they feel like they go to the pill instead. What do you think?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (44:34)
So I guess it would depend on the situation. If it is for type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, things like that, yeah, we might need a medication. If it is for weight loss, I will say you are not going to ever escape the work unless you are choosing to stay on the weight loss medication for life. For example, these GLP-1 medications that are amazing, ⁓ they're meant to be taken long term. They're meant to be taken for life.
Dawn Grant (44:56)
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (45:02)
But if you are wanting to just try them for a couple months to lose like that 15 pounds and then come off, you're going to gain the weight back because you didn't change your lifestyle to begin with. So it's just going to be an expensive run around and you may even lose some bone density and muscle mass in the process because you're not eating enough protein, you're still not working out. So when it comes to weight loss, you're never going to get rid of the work unless you stay on it forever, which...
Dawn Grant (45:12)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (45:29)
I also don't know how beneficial that will be for some people. But what I'm finding, and you can tell me if this is, you've heard this experience too, I'm finding that people are becoming less, like they're more apprehensive to pharmaceuticals and like big pharma and all of this is keeping us sick. And now they want to go the supplementation route of like, well, I could just take the supplement and be healthy and Ashwagandha will cure all.
Dawn Grant (45:32)
Mm-hmm.
Right? Yeah. Ashwagandha, ashwagandha, ashwagandha.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (46:00)
And I think that's even scarier because supplements are unregulated and there's not really a lot of clinical data on a lot of them. We don't even know if what you're taking is actually what's on the label. So, you know, we're in like a weird predicament in health right now. I'm saying it all. ⁓
Dawn Grant (46:19)
Yeah, yeah.
Do you take supplements at all?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (46:24)
I do. Mm-hmm. I do. ⁓
Dawn Grant (46:25)
okay. You just source from the right
place or whatever.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (46:28)
Well, also take supplements. I'm not against supplements. I just want them to be from a clean company and a company that, you know, third party tests to make sure what they say is accurate. And then I take what I am deficient in or what I need for my issues. I don't just take a supplement to take it. like I take vitamin D, I take vitamin C, I take zinc, like I have a thyroid issue. So zinc and all of these are really good for me. ⁓ I take magnesium glycinate also super great for
Dawn Grant (46:34)
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (46:58)
relaxation and sleep and thyroid health. take creatine, ⁓ which has been heavily studied and really great for cognitive benefits and all of that. I take protein powder. get back from a better company that third party tests. I just don't take ... You'll never catch me taking a hormone balancing supplement. None of these things are actually accurate, but I will take certain ones that I either have deficiencies in or I want a step up there.
Dawn Grant (47:08)
Mm-hmm.
that makes total sense. had ⁓ a holistic physician for a while and he did very thorough blood work and would a lot of times recommend supplements. so, six months blood work.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (47:29)
Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (47:42)
you should do the bread yeast, know, do this, do ashwagandha, whatever. And so, ⁓ burbine, like all these different things. And so six weeks, six months later, do blood work again and ⁓ you should do this one, you know, she should do this one, ⁓ cinnamon, you know, just, and so I ended up with this long list because he never told us what not to take. And so then I would try to follow up with him. I'm like, listen, we're taking a ton of supplements at this point. and he,
He was just one of those doctors that was just like busy basically. He didn't really take the time to follow up. And so I have a different doctor now. It's actually a monthly subscription, literally. Like that's how we pay her. And she's available all the time. I think it's cool. I mean, I don't mean I can call her right now, but ⁓ virtual in office, ⁓ no charge because we're paying the monthly amount.
But that's been like a godsend. And I imagine it's like having a coach because she's actively involved, you know, like she might make a recommendation, but with it, whether it's two days later or a week later or whatever, we're going to be on the phone with her again. And there's going to be follow up. And I hadn't.
just probably naive of me. hadn't thought of having a coach for that, ⁓ for that aspect. It was the doctor that I thought needed to be helping us better. But I see now that a coach would have been another way to do that.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (49:11)
Yeah, I mean, what you have right now, think is like Concierge Medicine, which I think is awesome. The memberships where they're not taking insurance, but they're more available when you pay the monthly fee. I think that's going to be like more and more in the future. But where the coach comes in, and it's not all coaches, because some are just like diet and fat loss, right? But the more functional coaches who know health care, ⁓ we're not just doing supplements. Like we're speaking to you daily and weekly about your diet.
Dawn Grant (49:15)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (49:40)
Like we are changing your diet. We are changing your lifestyle and your stress and all of that. And I think that's where doctors aren't able to dive into all of that yet. And that's where the coaches can. It's like the lifestyle and behavior change. Doctors can do supplements and meds and you know, they're what you have keeps you more accountable for sure. You can see her more than like every six months, right? So I think that's fantastic. ⁓ But the behavior and mindset change is where most people need.
the assistance, right? Like to change your habits. It's not easy. Not easy. ⁓
Dawn Grant (50:11)
You're talking to a hypnotist. I've definitely seen all sorts of people trying to change habits.
I love it. That's why I love hypnosis, because you can get into that subconscious and help them make changes much more quickly. It's awesome. Yes.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (50:27)
love that. Fascinating.
Dawn Grant (50:31)
madly in love with it because I've seen the results. know, the people struggling to try to change a habit as you know, you know, it could be something like not drinking enough water and being able to implement that new habit, do hypnosis and it's just there. It's just there. It's like it's always been there instead of trying to go a month with
Should I, gotta do it, I gotta do it, I gotta do it, and then I forget to do it and then I get hard on myself or whatever. Yeah, that's how it hypnosis is for any either ending habits or starting habits. It's amazing. Love it. I use it myself all the time. What would you say is like a piece of advice, wisdom that you would pass over like one?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (50:55)
Yeah.
I love that.
Dawn Grant (51:16)
this is the thing. Of all my experience, this is the thing I would say to pass on.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (51:22)
man. ⁓ It probably will go back to being my secret to success. I would say if you just spent three to six months working with someone on your habits and your behaviors and your health,
the proper person, not someone who's gonna drop you into like a crazy calorie deficit, but just someone to help you understand how to eat, because we're never taught this stuff in schools. How to work out, how to work out with your hormones. You will be so set for life. You will never do another fat diet. You will never do, like just take the three to six months to understand your body, and that is my thing for everyone. Like I think if everyone just did that, you'd be set.
Dawn Grant (52:01)
I love that. I love that. And you do work mostly with women, but you do work with some men? Or do you like to stay with this one?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (52:03)
Mm-hmm.
We predominantly work with women, but we do have some men on the team. Either they followed me for a while, they're spouses of the women that come in. ⁓ So yeah, we can work with men. We're just not, like, I'm never gonna say we are like male hormone experts. We're more on the female side with the hormones. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dawn Grant (52:30)
Gotcha, gotcha, that makes total sense. All right, well that's good to know,
that's good to know. ⁓ Well, I wanna tell the listeners, I do have online course for stress-free mindful living, also have lots of hypnosis audios that are instant downloads for habit changing, and there's free goodies at dawngrant.com forward slash free. And Miss Dr. Ashley, ⁓ what's your contact information? How can people best get your help?
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (52:57)
Yeah, you can see what we're all about if you go to our website at teambdncoaching.com So B as in boy D as in dog and as in Nancy teambdncoaching.com And then I am extremely active on Instagram. If you message me it will be me who answers you ⁓ My handle is at dr.dwyer. So dr.dwyer. I'd love to chat with you guys. Let me know you came from the show
Dawn Grant (53:20)
Cool,
perfect, perfect. Well, thank you, Ashley. This is awesome, very love your journey and how you got to where you are now and the insights you've gained from that and all the health that you're experiencing also, which is great. Good job on that.
Dr. Ashley Dwyer (53:22)
Thank you.
