Episode 2: Women's Health, Hormones, and PCOS
SHOW NOTES
Women’s Health, Hormones, & PCOS
Featuring Jane HOson Lockhart
What happens when you are “doing all the things,”but your body still doesn’t feel right?
In this episode of Anything Could Happen: Conversations on Courage, Faith, and Trasnformation, Diana Shinde sits down with PCOS, endometriosis, and menopause coach Jane Hodson Lockhart for an honest conversation about women’s health, chronic hormonal conditions, nourishment, movement, self-advocacy, and learning to work with your body rather than constantly fighting against it.
Jane shares her own journey from unexplained exhaustion, irregular periods, joint pain, inflammation, and infertility to finally receiving a PCOS diagnosis in 2014—and, years later, discovering that endometriosis was also part of the picture.
In This Episode
Diana and Jane explore:
🌺 The symptoms that eventually led Jane to a PCOS diagnosis
🌺 Why PCOS can look very different from one person to another
🌺 The relationship between PCOS, insulin resistance, hormones, and metabolic health
🌺 What endometriosis is and why diagnosis can take years
🌺 Why simply telling women to “lose weight and exercise more” may not address what is actually happening
🌺 Jane’s experience with chronic under-fueling and learning to nourish her body adequately
🌺 Why high-intensity exercise made Jane feel worse—and how yoga helped her reconnect with her body
🌺 The difference between dieting for a number on the scale and eating to nourish yourself
🌺 Why sleep, stress, food, movement, and recovery all matter
🌺 How experimentation can help us adapt healthy habits to changing bodies and changing lives
🌺 Why a flare day can still be a healthy day
🌺 The role of mindset, journaling, yoga, coaching, and self-compassion in Jane’s journey
🌺 How to maintain a habit by making it smaller rather than abandoning it altogether
🌺 The importance of supportive relationships when living with an illness other people may not be able to see
🌺 Learning to say, “These are the conditions my body has,” rather than allowing a diagnosis to become your entire identity
🌺 Why advocating for yourself in healthcare matters
🌺 How Jane transformed her own health experience into a completely new career
🌺 Her Healthy by Design coaching community and upcoming PCOS Unlocked course
🌺 One simple phrase that changed a client’s relationship with herself: “Let’s try it and see what happens.”
When “Doing All the Things” Doesn’t Work
Jane’s health journey began during an extraordinarily demanding season of life.
She was working a corporate job, attending graduate school, training for 5Ks, and spending roughly 70 hours a week working. When exhaustion, swollen joints, and other symptoms appeared, it was easy to attribute them to stress.
But after Jane and her husband began thinking about having children, another clue emerged: when she stopped taking birth control, her period did not return.
Jane had experienced highly irregular periods since adolescence, but doctors had repeatedly attributed them to stress, activity, and a busy schedule.
Eventually, a chance conversation with a woman who worked at a fertility clinic changed everything. She recognized that Jane’s symptoms might point to PCOS and encouraged her to be evaluated.
After months of hormonal tracking and further testing, Jane finally had an explanation.
She had PCOS.
But the diagnosis didn’t immediately come with comprehensive support. Jane was essentially advised to lose weight, consider going gluten-free, take supplements, and return if she wanted to become pregnant.
That left her with a diagnosis—but also with a tremendous number of unanswered questions.
Understanding PCOS
One of the difficulties surrounding polycystic ovary syndrome is that it does not look exactly the same in every person.
Jane explains that PCOS exists across a wide spectrum of signs and symptoms. Despite its name, not everyone with PCOS has visible ovarian cysts or follicles, and focusing too heavily on that single feature historically contributed to confusion around diagnosis.
PCOS can also involve much more than reproduction.
For some women, metabolic and hormonal factors—including insulin resistance—can be part of the picture. Symptoms that initially seem unrelated may eventually reveal that something more systemic is occurring.
Jane’s experience illustrates why women benefit from healthcare providers who look beyond a single symptom and consider the body more holistically.
What Is Endometriosis?
Years after her PCOS diagnosis, Jane discovered that another condition had also been contributing to her symptoms: endometriosis.
Jane explains that endometriosis involves endometrial-like tissue growing outside the uterus. These lesions can respond to hormonal changes and contribute to inflammation, pain, scar tissue, adhesions, bloating, and other symptoms.
For Jane, the discovery helped make sense of another layer of what she had been experiencing.
She also emphasizes something important: a hysterectomy is not automatically a cure for endometriosis, and our scientific understanding of the disease continues to evolve.
Her experience underscores just how complicated women’s hormonal health can be—and why listening carefully to persistent symptoms matters.
From Dieting to Nourishment
After Jane’s PCOS diagnosis, she began experimenting.
Going gluten-free made a noticeable difference for her personally. Her energy improved, her joint pain decreased, and she became curious about what else might help.
That curiosity led her toward anti-inflammatory foods, Mediterranean-style eating, and eventually one of the most important discoveries of her journey:
She wasn’t eating enough.
Rather than needing ever-increasing restriction, Jane realized she had been chronically under-fueling her body.
The conversation turns from dieting toward nourishment.
Instead of simply asking:
How do I make my body smaller?
Jane began asking:
What does my body actually need to function well?
For Diana, who previously worked as a weight-loss coach, this distinction is especially important. Nutrition can be about nourishment, health, energy, strength, and supporting the body—not merely pursuing an arbitrary number on the scale.
When Exercise Makes You Feel Worse
Jane initially responded to her diagnosis the way many people would.
She exercised harder.
She joined a high-intensity training program, worked out virtually every day, followed what was considered a conventional healthy diet, worked long hours, and slept too little.
Instead of feeling better, she felt worse.
High-intensity workouts could trigger migraines, and her body struggled to recover.
Eventually, Jane found yoga.
For perhaps the first time, she could finish a workout and feel better afterward.
That experience fundamentally changed the way she thought about movement.
Rather than forcing the body through a predetermined program, Jane began listening to it.
Why Yoga Changed Everything
Yoga eventually became such an important part of Jane’s life that she became an instructor herself.
The physical practice mattered, but so did its philosophy.
Your flexibility may be different today than it was yesterday.
Your balance may change.
One day you can hold a pose; another day you fall out of it repeatedly.
Neither day has to mean failure.
Jane began applying that idea outside the yoga studio.
Instead of asking whether she perfectly completed a prescribed program, she began asking:
What does my body need today?
That question became particularly important during health flares.
“This Is Another Healthy Day. It Just Looks Different.”
On a day when Jane feels well, health might include strength training and thousands of steps.
During a flare involving pain, inflammation, exhaustion, or bloating, health might look completely different.
It might mean slow yoga.
A short walk.
Supportive foods.
More sleep.
A nap.
Rest.
Ten years ago, Jane says she would have viewed that kind of day as failure:
I ruined the program.
I fell off the wagon.
I didn’t do what I was supposed to do.
Today, she reframes it:
“This is another healthy day. It just looks different.”
That distinction is one of the central ideas of the episode.
Health does not always mean doing more.
Sometimes health means responding intelligently and compassionately to the body you have today.
Experimentation, Flexibility & Real Life
Life changes.
Jobs change.
Stress changes.
Bodies change.
People move, grieve, age, enter new hormonal stages, lose routines, develop new responsibilities, and experience circumstances they could never have planned for.
So why should we expect one health routine to work perfectly forever?
Diana and Jane discuss experimentation not as evidence that something has gone wrong, but as a skill.
Rather than demanding one permanent solution, we can become curious:
What is working?
What isn’t?
What can I adjust?
What would make this easier today?
Sometimes the sustainable version of a habit is simply the smallest version we can still do.
For Jane, that may even mean somatic yoga performed in bed.
The habit remains.
The form changes.
Rewiring the Mindset
Jane describes herself as logical, science-oriented, skeptical, and even a little sarcastic.
Mindset work did not immediately appeal to her.
But through coaching, journaling, yoga philosophy, and her own experimentation, she began noticing something important:
How she interpreted what was happening influenced what she did next.
If she thought:
I ruined my plan.
She was more likely to punish herself.
If she thought:
I’m taking care of my body today.
She behaved differently.
Mindset didn’t make her diagnoses disappear.
It changed how she responded to them.
“These Are the Conditions My Body Has”
One of the most powerful moments in the conversation comes when Diana asks Jane about identity.
How do you acknowledge the reality of chronic illness without allowing a diagnosis to become the entirety of who you are?
For Jane, diagnosis initially brought relief.
There was finally an explanation for symptoms she had previously interpreted as personal failures.
She wasn’t simply lazy.
She wasn’t failing at taking care of herself.
Something real was happening in her body.
Over time, however, Jane found language that gave her both acceptance and agency:
“These are the conditions my body has.”
That allows her to acknowledge reality without reducing herself to the condition.
Maybe she has less energy than someone else on a particular day.
Then the question becomes:
What can I do with the energy I have?
And perhaps:
Can I make it two percent better?
Support, Community & Invisible Illness
Chronic illness can also be profoundly isolating because someone may look completely well while experiencing pain, exhaustion, inflammation, or other symptoms nobody else can see.
Jane shares how important her husband’s support has been throughout her journey—as well as the value of surrounding herself with people who believe her when she says she isn’t well.
Sometimes support doesn’t require completely understanding another person’s experience.
It begins with believing them.
With saying:
I trust you.
I believe what you’re experiencing.
How can I support you?
Reinventing a Career Through Illness
Jane’s health journey eventually changed not only the way she lived but also the work she felt called to do.
She had previously worked as a journalist and technical writer and built a career around writing, art, and design.
But as she learned more about PCOS and endometriosis, people increasingly began coming to her for information and support.
She saw a need for something many people struggling with chronic hormonal conditions lacked:
A cohesive place to begin.
Today, Jane helps women understand what may be happening in their bodies, explore strategies that may support them, and develop sustainable approaches to food, movement, mindset, and everyday life.
It was the biggest career pivot she had ever made.
And when Diana asks Jane to describe herself in one word, her answer explains a great deal about how she got there:
Stubborn.
Or, perhaps, tenacious.
She simply wasn’t willing to accept that the rest of her life had to consist of going to work, coming home, and collapsing onto the couch.
She kept asking:
How can I make this different?
Healthy by Design
Jane’s online group coaching program, Healthy by Design, brings together many of the tools she wishes she had when she began her own journey.
The private online community includes support around:
🌿 Movement and strength training
🌿 Yoga
🌿 Nutrition and meal planning
🌿 Recipes
🌿 Mindset
🌿 Supportive cardio
🌿 Lifestyle strategies
🌿 Navigating health routines alongside real life
🌿 Advocating for yourself and communicating with healthcare providers
Members also receive two live sessions each month, including a planning session and a Q&A.
While the program was created with PCOS and endometriosis in mind, Jane designed Healthy by Design more broadly for women seeking support with movement, nourishment, mindset, hormonal health, and sustainable well-being.
PCOS Unlocked
For women who want to understand the science behind PCOS more deeply, Jane is also launching PCOS Unlocked, an educational course exploring what PCOS is and what may be happening inside the body.
She plans to develop additional educational programs focused on endometriosis and menopause.
“Let’s Try It and See What Happens”
One of Jane’s favorite coaching stories involves a recently retired woman going through menopause.
After decades as a driven professional, retirement removed the structure that had organized her days.
Suddenly, she had to learn how to cook, move, care for herself, and create routines not because an employer or family member required something from her—but simply because caring for herself mattered.
One day, the client sent Jane a message.
Every time she didn’t feel like doing something, she realized she could hear Jane’s voice in her head saying:
“Let’s try it and see what happens.”
No punishment.
No all-or-nothing thinking.
No guarantee that everything will work.
Just curiosity.
Experimentation.
And permission to try.
For Diana, the phrase captures something much larger:
a growth mindset grounded in grace.
Maybe one of the healthiest things we can learn is that we don’t always have to power through.
We can listen.
We can adjust.
We can nourish ourselves.
We can give ourselves grace.
And then:
Let’s try it and see what happens.
About Jane Hodson Lockhart
Jane Hoson Lockhart is a PCOS, endometriosis, and menopause coach who helps women develop sustainable approaches to movement, nourishment, mindset, and hormonal health.
Her work grew out of her own experience navigating PCOS and endometriosis and the years of research, experimentation, advocacy, and lifestyle changes that followed.
Through coaching, yoga, education, and her Healthy by Design community, Jane helps women better understand their bodies, identify supportive strategies, and learn to work with themselves rather than constantly fighting against themselves.
Connect With Jane
Website: https://jluxdesigns.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jluxdesignsllc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jluxdesigns
About Anything Could Happen
Anything Could Happen: Conversations on Courage, Faith, and Transformation explores the experiences, ideas, decisions, and turning points that shape our lives.
Through conversations with coaches, athletes, leaders, thinkers, and everyday people doing extraordinary things, Diana Shinde explores what happens when we become curious enough, brave enough, and open enough to change.
Question for You
Have you ever had to change the way you cared for yourself because the thing you thought was “healthy” wasn’t actually helping you?
What happened when you stopped forcing yourself to follow the plan and started listening more closely to your body?
Tell us in the comments—and if this conversation reminds you of a woman who needs more grace, curiosity, or encouragement in her health journey, send this episode to her.
This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have concerns about symptoms or a medical condition, please consult an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
EPISODE 2: tRANSCRIPT
Women’s Health, Hormones, & PCOS with Jane Hodson Lockhart
Introduction
Diana Shinde:
Welcome to the Anything Could Happen podcast. I am your host, Diana Shinde, and with me today is Jane Hodson Lockhart. She is a PCOS, endometriosis, and menopause coach, and a fantastic yoga instructor.
Jane, it’s a pleasure to have you.
Jane Hodson Lockhart:
Oh, thank you, Diana. It’s a pleasure to be here.
⸻
Jane’s Journey with PCOS
Diana:
Would you start us off by telling us about your own journey with PCOS?
Jane:
Sure. Oh my goodness. Okay, so it involves a lot of things.
I’m going to begin in 2013. I was working a corporate job, I was in grad school, and I was spending something like 70 hours a week working. I was having all sorts of health concerns. I was also training for 5Ks, which was something I had picked up in my twenties. It wasn’t something I had done when I was younger.
I thought my exhaustion, my swollen joints, and these arthritis-like feelings were related to stress because I had so much going on. I was a high-achieving person, so it took me a while to realize there was actually something physical happening.
I had recently gotten married, and three or four years into our marriage, my husband and I decided we were going to try to have children. That wasn’t happening for us.
We realized there might be something deeper going on. One of the things that made us realize that was that I went off the birth control I had started taking in my twenties, and my period never came back.
Diana:
Oh, wow.
Jane:
It didn’t come back, which wasn’t a red flag for me in the way it might be for most people because I had never been regular before going on birth control. The only time I had ever been regular was while I was on birth control.
We should probably let people know that I’m going to be talking about all sorts of reproductive stuff today.
Diana:
Absolutely.
Jane:
In high school and college, I could go several months without having a period. My doctors always acted like that was kind of normal. They would say, “You’ve got a lot of activities going on. Your schedule changes. You’re doing all these things.”
They continuously attributed everything to stress.
At some point I realized there were other people around me who had equally stressful lives, and they were having children, so something physical must be going on with me.
I talked to a woman at a party whom I had just met. She was the wife of one of my husband’s coworkers, and she worked in a fertility clinic. When she heard what was going on with me, she said, “I think you might have PCOS. Make an appointment at my clinic, and we’ll see what we can find out.”
I got involved with the fertility clinic. I wasn’t even 100 percent sure we wanted to have kids, but I knew something was weird with my body.
We ended up doing a three-month study tracking my hormones. That’s when we realized I did have PCOS. Then I had an intrauterine ultrasound, and they found cysts in my ovaries.
What we commonly call an ovarian “cyst” in PCOS is essentially a follicle containing an egg that didn’t reach full development and release.
Diana:
Okay.
Jane:
That was in 2014.
When the doctor diagnosed me, he basically said, “All right, so you need to lose some weight. Some people are finding that a gluten-free diet helps them manage the inflammation issues associated with PCOS, so I would recommend that. Here are some supplements. Come back when you want to get pregnant.”
And that was the end of my care.
Diana:
Wow.
Jane:
My husband and I had some talks at that point. I was so sick that I really couldn’t do much besides go to work, come home, and rest.
⸻
What Does PCOS Look Like?
Diana:
Would you be willing to share a little bit about how PCOS impacts you and other women? What are the symptoms and signs?
You mentioned that you initially thought it was stress. You were tired, but you were also doing so much. Your body was sending you signals.
What might women look for?
Jane:
To explain that, we first need to talk about what PCOS is.
PCOS has traditionally been understood as a syndrome rather than one specific disease. When you have something like the flu, there are several typical symptoms, and most people have a recognizable combination.
With PCOS, there is a much longer list of possible symptoms. You may have some of them, but nobody has all of them. You fall somewhere along a spectrum.
For years, one of the major diagnostic markers was finding follicles or “cysts” on the ovaries through ultrasound. A lot of people who actually had PCOS were told they didn’t because ovarian cysts are only one possible feature.
That was especially confusing because the name itself—polycystic ovary syndrome—made it sound as if you had to have multiple ovarian cysts.
A gynecologist, OB-GYN, or endocrinologist may all have some knowledge of PCOS, but it can still be difficult to find someone who specializes deeply in the condition.
There is still a lot that we are learning.
Diana:
Your story illustrates that. When you were younger, doctors told you, “This is stress. It’s normal. Don’t worry.”
Then when you were finally diagnosed, the recommendation you received doesn’t sound very adequate.
Would you agree?
Jane:
Exactly.
The other thing complicating my situation—and this happens with a lot of people—was that, unbeknownst to me, I also had endometriosis.
It would be another ten years before I had a doctor sit down with me during an intake and say, “It sounds like you might also have endometriosis.”
So I had a double dose of lovely conditions that affect hormones and are affected by hormones.
That complicated the picture.
People with PCOS and/or endometriosis can also have other conditions going on. Some later discover ADHD, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, metabolic issues, and other chronic conditions.
These conditions can affect multiple systems in your body.
Type 2 diabetes is also often discussed in connection with PCOS because insulin resistance is common.
One of the reasons going gluten-free can seem to help some people is that they may simultaneously eliminate a lot of highly processed foods.
Many processed foods contain substantial amounts of refined carbohydrates and added sugar.
One possible sign that leads doctors toward a PCOS diagnosis is insulin resistance. Your body isn’t processing insulin properly, and your fasting insulin or blood sugar numbers may look unusual.
I have never been prediabetic or had Type 2 diabetes, but some of my numbers have been elevated. When a doctor sees that, they may realize something more systemic is happening.
There can also be migraines related to hormonal fluctuations and all sorts of seemingly unrelated things that eventually cause a doctor to say, “Maybe something bigger is going on here.”
Current estimates suggest PCOS affects a substantial portion of women of reproductive age, and many remain undiagnosed.
Endometriosis is also extremely common.
It affects a huge number of people.
⸻
What Is Endometriosis?
Diana:
Would you define endometriosis for me? What does that mean?
Jane:
Sure.
The definition of endometriosis has evolved.
It used to be described as endometrial tissue—the tissue lining your uterus—growing outside the uterus in places where it shouldn’t.
We now understand that it is more accurate to call it endometrial-like tissue. It resembles the uterine lining, but it isn’t exactly the same tissue.
In the United States, the traditional gold standard for definitive diagnosis has been laparoscopic surgery, where doctors go inside the body and visually identify and often remove or biopsy lesions.
Those are called endometriotic lesions.
The tissue can develop its own blood supply and is responsive to hormones such as estrogen.
Because those lesions react to hormonal changes, they can become inflamed and bleed internally.
Unlike menstrual blood from the uterine lining, that blood has no direct exit from the body.
Diana:
So it’s inside you. It doesn’t go out the normal way?
Jane:
Exactly. It is inside the body.
That internal inflammation and bleeding can contribute to scar tissue and adhesions.
Scar tissue can cause organs to adhere to one another or contribute to blockages and pain.
For example, lesions or adhesions near the urinary tract can interfere with normal function.
So it can become a very significant health issue.
Diana:
Right.
Jane:
It is not cancer, and we also know that it is not simply misplaced uterine lining. Endometriosis has even been documented in extremely rare cases in males.
Researchers are still studying exactly what causes it.
One of the reasons it is so difficult is that it affects far more people than currently have easy access to specialists, accurate diagnosis, or the time and resources required to advocate for themselves.
It often shows up as extreme menstrual pain or pain that is cyclical—it arrives around your period and then subsides.
That can make it difficult to identify what is happening.
It is also inflammatory, so people can experience unexplained rashes, swelling, and severe bloating.
“Endo belly” is real. Your stomach can swell to the point that you look several months pregnant when you aren’t.
You can often tell when I’m having a flare because my face becomes round and puffy and I suddenly lose my cheekbones.
That’s endometriosis.
Diana:
That’s intense.
Is it possible that as someone approaches menopause—or if someone has a hysterectomy and estrogen levels decrease—the symptoms lessen? Can that help?
Jane:
I can’t speak from personal experience because I’m not there yet, and I haven’t seen enough research to feel comfortable making a definitive statement.
What we do know is that a hysterectomy does not automatically cure endometriosis.
In the 1980s and ’90s, hysterectomy—and sometimes removal of the ovaries—was frequently presented as a solution.
That has turned out not to be a guaranteed cure because endometriosis is not simply tissue from the uterine lining.
It is a separate disease process.
Diana:
Right. And as you said, it has even been found in men. That is fascinating.
⸻
Discovering What Helped
Diana:
When your doctor told you to lose weight, go gluten-free, take supplements, and essentially left you there—what happened next?
I’m guessing you tried those things. What happened?
Jane:
The gluten-free part worked for me right away.
I used my husband as a control subject.
Diana:
I love that.
Jane:
My nerdy science brain was like, “All right. This sounds like a fad. How could this possibly affect what’s going on with my ovaries? This makes no sense.”
At the time, PCOS was framed mostly as an ovarian or reproductive condition. If I had understood from the beginning how closely it was connected to the endocrine and metabolic systems, some of this would have made more sense.
My husband and I went gluten-free for a couple of weeks, and I immediately started feeling more energetic.
My swelling started going down. My joints stopped aching to the point where I could actually work out again without feeling sick afterward.
That made me curious.
What else could I do to help myself?
It seemed like there were lifestyle changes that could make me feel better.
My doctor had told me to lose weight. At the time, I was about 32 years old. I’m five-foot-five, and I weighed around 165 pounds.
I wasn’t extremely heavy.
Diana:
Right.
Jane:
I was technically in an overweight category, but not dramatically so. I also didn’t have a lot of muscle at that time.
A hundred and sixty-five pounds on someone with a lot of muscle looks very different from 165 pounds on somebody without much muscle.
If you looked at me, you probably wouldn’t have immediately thought, “She has a metabolic problem.”
But it turned out I did.
Losing weight can be extremely difficult for people with these conditions.
So simply telling somebody, “Lose weight,” is often not very useful advice.
What we really need to discuss is food, movement, sleep, stress, and lifestyle practices that support the person’s individual physiology and hormonal health.
After I went gluten-free, I started looking for other ways to improve what was happening in my body.
Why was I gaining weight?
Why was I exhausted all the time?
What was inflammation?
When I first heard that word, I didn’t even really know what it meant in this context.
What worked for me was trying things and seeing whether they made a difference. If something didn’t help, I tried something else.
There weren’t a lot of resources in 2014.
One of the few people I found online with really in-depth information was a PCOS coach in the UK.
For quite a while, I used her recipes and other resources to change my diet, but I had to convert everything from the British measurement system.
Normal people are not going to want to do that.
Diana:
No!
Jane:
At first, I was desperate.
Then it became interesting.
My research brain kicked in because once I start finding out about something, I want to know more and more.
Eventually, it became almost a hobby to see what I could do.
Over time, I learned so much that other people started asking me about it.
I realized I had a lot of information that could help people.
What worked for me in the long run was continuing with gluten-free eating, focusing on anti-inflammatory foods and Mediterranean-style eating, and focusing less on dieting—
Diana:
Right.
Jane:
—and more on nutrition.
I also discovered that I wasn’t eating enough food.
My body was holding onto energy because I was chronically under-fueling.
That is a very common problem, especially for busy people who are fitting meals in wherever they can or eating a few bites off their kids’ plates instead of consistently nourishing themselves.
⸻
From Dieting to Nourishment
Diana:
I’ve been studying this too, especially after working as a weight-loss coach.
When we are constantly dieting, we can create additional physical and psychological stress.
Sometimes we need to learn how to fuel ourselves adequately again.
We have to give the body enough nourishment.
Switching the focus from weight loss to nutrition is so much healthier because nutrition is about nourishment and health.
Weight loss can become about reaching some arbitrary number.
Jane:
Yes.
I can give you a really clear example from my own experience.
At the beginning, I thought, “I need to lose weight,” so I did what people normally tell you to do.
I joined a high-intensity interval training program. I was exercising every day. They really didn’t want you to take a day off.
I was also following what, at the time, was considered a typical healthy diet, with a heavy emphasis on whole grains, followed by fruits and vegetables and then protein.
For me, those choices turned out to be the opposite of what my body needed in order to calm the stress signals that were going haywire.
The reason I was getting sick after working out was that I was pushing my body beyond what it could recover from.
Diana:
And you were probably doing it before or after work too. You were just going nonstop.
Jane:
Exactly.
Getting up at five in the morning, doing all the things, going to bed around 11:30, and not getting enough sleep.
Rest is really important.
All of that started shifting as I got deeper into this journey.
The reason I eventually became a yoga teacher is that I started practicing yoga and noticed that it actually helped me feel better.
Diana:
Fantastic.
Jane:
It was such a strange sensation to finish a yoga class and feel better in my body.
At that point, my body was so stressed that if I did a high-intensity interval training session, I could immediately trigger a migraine.
My body simply couldn’t handle it.
And I couldn’t understand what was going on because I thought, “I’m doing all the things.”
In 2016, I took my food and exercise journals to my primary care physician. I had gained about 20 pounds since my diagnosis even though I was trying desperately to fix what was going on.
I showed her my food journal and my exercise journal, which I had been keeping meticulously.
She looked at me and looked at my chart and said, essentially, “You obviously aren’t doing these things, because if you were, you wouldn’t have gained this weight.”
She told me I had made it up.
At that point, I didn’t know how to advocate for myself.
I just sat there stunned.
Then I walked out of the office, sat in my car, and cried for a while.
But then I got angry.
I thought, “I have to figure out what to do on my own because I don’t have the support I need.”
⸻
When the System Fails Women
Diana:
I want you to know that in the work I’ve done, I’ve seen so many women experience something similar.
They’re told, “Diet and work out.”
Then they do exactly that and don’t lose weight.
I always felt something was broken there.
The woman isn’t broken. She is sincere. She’s trying.
The method or system is what needs to be questioned.
Jane:
Yes, exactly.
And I also want to say that I don’t necessarily blame that individual doctor.
Over the last several decades, we’ve increasingly realized that a lot of foundational health and exercise research historically focused heavily on men.
Female hormonal cycles were frequently treated as a complicating variable rather than something worth studying in their own right.
So there are huge gaps in what we know about the female body, including how exercise, food, and other lifestyle factors affect women across the hormonal lifespan.
We need more women in STEM and much more research.
Diana:
Absolutely.
⸻
Why Yoga Changed Everything
Diana:
I want to come back to yoga because I’ve done yoga with Jane, and she is brilliant.
You are so soothing.
What I love about yoga, especially compared with something like HIIT, is that the principle seems to be that you don’t force the body.
You allow your body to find its natural position.
You don’t keep pushing until it hurts.
You ease into it, and as your body becomes more flexible and mobile over time, you can naturally go deeper.
There’s something graceful about it.
Jane:
Yeah.
My philosophy now is that we need to listen to our bodies rather than constantly forcing ourselves into predetermined programs.
We have programs like 75 Hard. We’ve had Tae Bo, WeightWatchers, cleanses, detoxes, and all these other systems over the years.
Most of those programs are essentially saying, “Follow these guidelines, and you will succeed,” regardless of what your individual body may be telling you.
I was never really a chronic dieter until I started having these health problems.
But we’ve all done things like, “Oh, we’re going to try this cleanse,” or, “We’re going to do this detox.”
Especially when you’re younger and living with friends, those things come up.
Usually, you don’t lose very much weight, and if you do, a lot of it comes back afterward because the body is always working toward stability.
We learned about homeostasis in school.
Your body is constantly trying to return to a comfortable neutral.
You can influence that over time, but it usually isn’t going to happen through a quick 30-day reset or a one-week detox.
You have to be very clear about your intention.
For me, the intention became simply: I want to feel healthier.
I wanted to feel like I wasn’t dying.
Experimentation became huge.
People often want an answer they can immediately implement that will produce predictable results.
They don’t want a phase where they have to experiment, adjust, and tweak.
But experimentation matters.
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Experimentation, Flexibility & Real Life
Diana:
And may I jump in on experimentation?
One important reason it matters is that our lives aren’t static.
Even if someone dislikes experimentation, life itself keeps changing.
Maybe you go through a period of high stress. Maybe somebody dies, God forbid. You lose a job, get a new job, move, have a major transition.
The methods you were using before may get disrupted because your circumstances changed.
So learning how to experiment becomes helpful.
And if we can view experimentation as fun rather than as evidence that something is faulty, it changes everything.
We often think one thing should work forever.
But life doesn’t work that way.
Jane:
Exactly.
On days when my body is functioning well, my capacity looks very different from a day when I wake up and realize I’m in a flare.
By “flare,” I mean that I’m dealing with inflammation, bloating, pain, and reduced capacity.
On those days, I can’t get up and say, “I’m going to do my normal weight training and hit 10,000 steps.”
That day may look more like 1,000 steps, some slow-flow yoga, and nurturing myself.
What foods are going to make me feel better rather than worse?
What exercises can I do that won’t aggravate things?
How much rest can I get around the activities I absolutely have to do?
Can I take a nap at lunch?
Those days look completely different from my normal days.
Ten years ago, I would have considered that failure.
I would have thought, “I ruined my whole program. I didn’t do everything I was supposed to do. I fell off the wagon.”
Now I see it as: This is another healthy day. It just looks different.
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Rewiring the Mindset
Diana:
How did you rewire your brain to see it that way?
Was it gradual, and what helped you get there?
Jane:
It was gradual.
I work with health coaches myself. Your coach should have a coach.
There was a lot of journaling.
Yoga philosophy played a huge role too because yoga teaches you to pay attention to where you are—and where you are today is okay.
On the yoga mat, your flexibility is different from one day to the next.
Your balance is different.
One day you can do tree pose, and the next day you fall over six times.
That is simply part of the flow.
I also experimented with what happened when I approached flares differently.
If I took a flare day and completely ignored caring for my body—if I just stayed in bed, watched television, and ate whatever I felt like—I might remain in the flare much longer.
If I did the opposite and tried to force myself through my normal routine, the same thing could happen. The flare could last longer.
But if I stepped back and did nourishing, caring things for my body, I tended to bounce back more quickly.
Then I could return to normal life sooner.
Diana:
BJ Fogg would almost call that a starter step.
You’re still maintaining the habit, but you’re doing it in the easiest possible way.
You haven’t broken the ritual. You’ve adjusted it to meet the need.
Jane:
Exactly.
There are days when I do somatic yoga.
I found videos online where you can actually do it in bed.
Diana:
Oh, nice.
Jane:
The movements can be extremely tiny—just moving and feeling your body.
You would be amazed at how much better you can feel afterward just from quietly listening to what is going on inside yourself.
And it also gave me the psychological satisfaction of checking off that box for the day.
Diana:
Which is wonderful.
Jane:
Exactly. If you’re a high-achieving person, you can still say, “I did my yoga. I may have been in bed, but I did it.”
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The Importance of Support & Community
Jane:
Community is huge too.
I had a husband who was extremely supportive of what I was going through.
Diana:
He was your guinea pig too, from the sound of it.
Jane:
He is still my guinea pig.
Even now, when I’m developing recipes for my programs, I’ll say, “Try this and tell me what you think.”
I want to create foods people can realistically include in family life—something that nourishes you but doesn’t make everyone else in the house miserable.
Of course, that will be different for everybody.
But if I give something to my husband and say, “Would you eat this?” and he says no, sometimes I think, “Okay, maybe we throw that one out.”
There is another side of support too.
When you’re dealing with chronic illness, you can often feel very alone because you may not look sick.
Your body simply isn’t cooperating.
I’ve had times when friends or family didn’t understand why I had to cancel plans at the last minute because I didn’t have the energy or was in too much pain to get into my car and drive somewhere.
People may look at you and think, “You don’t look sick. You’re lazy. You just didn’t want to come out with us.”
Over time, I realized that I do have a circle of people who are consistently understanding.
Those are the people I rely on now.
It makes you more selective about what you do with your time because everything you do affects how you feel.
Diana:
Absolutely.
Jane:
You need positive people in your world who understand—or at least try to understand.
Diana:
Exactly.
Even though I’m not going through what you are, I can empathize. I can say, “I believe you. I trust you. I know your heart.”
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“These Are the Conditions My Body Has”
Diana:
I want to ask you something because I find you very empowering.
You have these conditions, but I don’t hear you constantly self-identifying with them.
I know people I love who live with autoimmune or chronic illnesses and refer to them as “my disease.”
I’ve sometimes gently wondered whether there can be a danger in owning the diagnosis so completely that it becomes part of one’s identity.
I’m not denying the reality of illness at all.
But I wonder whether that language can sometimes make healing or improvement feel less possible.
I may be mistaken, so I would genuinely love your perspective.
Jane:
It’s an interesting tightrope to walk because, as of today, there is no cure for either condition.
So there isn’t currently a point where I can simply say, “I am healed from these,” unless research changes dramatically.
I also think it is different for everybody.
People find different ways to cope.
For me, receiving the diagnosis was actually a relief because I finally had an explanation for why I felt the way I did.
I had been going through all these symptoms and berating myself for not having enough energy.
I thought I was lazy.
I was saying to myself, “You’re a lazy bum.”
But in reality, I was accomplishing an extraordinary amount.
Diana:
Right.
Jane:
I couldn’t see that because I knew how terrible my body felt on the inside.
I kept thinking that if I were really thriving, taking care of myself, and doing all the things I was supposedly meant to do, I shouldn’t feel this bad.
And then I had a doctor telling me, “You gained 20 pounds while claiming to exercise five days a week and follow this restrictive diet. What is wrong with you?”
For me, the way I eventually came to view these conditions involved a few things.
At the beginning of this journey, I was working in an extremely toxic work environment.
I felt stuck.
When I received the diagnosis on top of that, I went through a couple of months where I thought, “There is nothing I can do. This is going to be my life.”
I’m not exactly sure what I encountered that changed my thinking because I was reading so much and searching constantly for ways to manage my health.
But eventually, I came into the world of mindset work.
I tend to be very logical and science-oriented.
I want you to give me reasons and prove your theory.
I’m skeptical and a little sarcastic.
So when I started hearing ideas like, “This works, but you also need to believe it works,” or, “You can feel better, but you need to believe you can feel better,” my reaction was, “That sounds like nonsense. Either it works or it doesn’t.”
But as yoga began helping me and I went through yoga teacher training, I discovered that part of my certification involved mindset coaching.
That made me realize that your mindset really does matter.
How you interpret your situation affects what you do next.
If I wake up and think, “I am taking care of my body today,” instead of, “I ruined my whole plan,” I behave differently.
I nurture myself rather than punish myself.
And the next morning, I don’t wake up yelling at myself.
It’s similar with these diagnoses.
I can say, “This is who I am.”
Or I can play with the idea of, “These are the conditions my body has. What does that look like for me?”
Diana:
Oh, I like that.
Jane:
It’s the experimentation idea again.
Maybe I have 60 percent of the energy of my friend.
What can I do with that 60 percent?
Can I make it 62?
Diana:
I love that.
That is such a powerful reframe.
And I love that it took time.
You have this skeptical, sarcastic, science-oriented quality, which means you didn’t simply accept every “woo-woo” idea that came along.
But when you combine mindset with actions that actually support what you need, it becomes practical.
You’re saying, “This is where I am. This is what I need. How do I make this work?”
“These are the conditions my body has.”
The reality is that right now we don’t have a cure.
Given that set of facts, how do I make the best of this?
How do I improve my life—even if it’s two percent?
I think that is phenomenal.
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Reinventing a Career Through Illness
Jane:
Over the years, I’ve also had to redefine who I am.
Before I started going down the coaching path, I was first a journalist and then a technical writer for a corporation.
I had a corporate career for about a decade.
My previous work—even when I started my own business so I could set my own hours and have more flexibility in taking care of myself—was largely related to writing, art, and design.
As more people began coming to me to talk about PCOS and endometriosis, I realized there was a real need for information that was curated, cohesive, and gave people an actual place to start.
The more that happened, the more I felt called to do this in a much more meaningful way.
I’ve had several careers, but this is the biggest 180-degree change I’ve ever made.
My work now is helping people strategize, understand what may be happening in their bodies, and support them through their own PCOS and endometriosis journeys.
Writing is still involved, but it isn’t the center of the work anymore.
Design isn’t the center either.
Although I do try to make everything look pretty.
Diana:
And it does.
Jane:
Thank you.
If you’re going to have to change your diet, you should at least get a pretty recipe book.
Diana:
Exactly. You want to look at it.
Jane:
Yes.
Sometimes I’d find something online from a male fitness instructor saying, “Here’s a great high-protein bowl.”
And I’m thinking, “That may be nutritionally fantastic, but it looks like dog food, and I don’t want to eat it.”
Diana:
Exactly.
Jane:
But I don’t want to make it sound as if this whole journey has been sunshine and rainbows.
It hasn’t.
It has been hard work.
Anyone who goes through a major health journey often comes out on the other side with a completely different definition of who they are.
It isn’t easy.
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One Word: Stubborn
Diana:
If you had to define yourself in one sentence—or even one word—what would you choose?
Jane:
Stubborn.
Diana:
I love it. Tenacious.
Jane:
A lot of this really does come from being stubborn.
I wasn’t willing to accept that my whole life would consist of sitting on my couch and going to work.
That wasn’t the life I wanted.
So the question became, “How can I make this different?”
I think there are a lot of people who want to be stubborn in that way.
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Healthy by Design
Diana:
Would you share your programs and offerings—how you help women unpack this, feel better, and find what works for them?
Jane:
Absolutely.
This is all pretty new, so it’s exciting for me to talk about.
I have a group coaching program called Healthy by Design.
It’s online, so anyone can join, and the platform is private rather than Facebook-based because people are discussing personal health information.
The program includes workout programs, yoga, meal-planning support, recipes, and two live sessions every month.
One session focuses on planning your schedule and figuring things out.
The other is a Q&A where people can ask questions about their own journeys and situations.
People can enroll at any time.
It is subscription-based, so you can participate for as long as you want and pay either monthly or annually.
The goal is to bring together the different pieces people may need to manage chronic hormonal conditions.
There is mindset coaching, yoga, strength training, help planning supportive cardio, general health coaching, and nutrition coaching.
We also talk about how to advocate for yourself with doctors.
For example, if you have several healthcare providers who aren’t communicating with one another, how do you help get everyone onto the same page?
Healthy by Design is really meant to provide lifestyle support.
Then, if you are nerdy like me and want to understand the science and the condition in greater depth, I have PCOS Unlocked coming out at the end of September.
That is a multiweek educational course where you learn more about what PCOS is and what may be happening in the body.
I also plan to create courses on endometriosis and menopause.
PCOS is the first one.
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A Client Story: “Let’s Try It and See What Happens”
Diana:
Would you share one of your favorite client stories—the kind that really lights you up?
Jane:
The group programs are new, but one of my favorite one-on-one coaching stories is a woman who had recently retired and was going through menopause.
Like me, she had been extremely high-functioning and a huge go-getter throughout her career.
When she retired, two things happened.
First, some of her health issues became more noticeable because she was finally paying attention to her body instead of pushing everything aside to get through work.
Second, she realized that without her job, she didn’t really know how to structure her days.
She wasn’t taking care of herself.
She wasn’t finding time to cook, exercise, or do the things she wanted to do because she didn’t have an external schedule creating structure for her.
We worked not only on nutrition and exercise but also on questions like: How do you motivate yourself to cook or exercise when you live alone and nobody else is depending on you?
We had to break down why she was doing things.
We talked about the fact that it is okay to do things simply because they are good for you.
You don’t have to be driven entirely by caring for other people, your job, or your family.
One of my favorite messages she ever sent me said something like:
“I was going through my week and realized that every time I didn’t want to do something, I heard your voice in my head saying, ‘Let’s try it and see what happens.’”
Diana:
That is beautiful.
Jane:
I was like, “Yes! I’m in her head.”
Diana:
And what a powerful and kind thing to put in someone’s head:
“Let’s try it and see what happens.”
It is so open.
It’s a growth mindset.
You gave her a growth mindset.
I’m going to cry.
It’s beautiful.
Jane:
It’s funny because you and I are at the tail end of Gen X, and she was right in the middle of Gen X.
We didn’t grow up with a lot of growth-mindset language.
It was more, “No pain, no gain.” “Power through.” “I’ll give you something to cry about.”
It is so nice to have different language to feed ourselves now—to actually give ourselves grace.
I think one of the things that can make our bodies go haywire is that we don’t give ourselves grace.
We don’t give ourselves enough time to listen to the communication systems built into our bodies.
Diana:
Exactly.
That is such an important point.
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Who Can Join Healthy by Design?
Diana:
I want to join Healthy by Design.
Jane:
Yes!
And I do want to clarify something.
People who have PCOS will obviously be especially interested in PCOS Unlocked.
People with endometriosis will be interested in the endometriosis course, and people going through menopause will be interested in that specific course.
But Healthy by Design is broader.
It was built with PCOS and endometriosis in mind, but if you have Hashimoto’s, another hormone-related chronic illness, or you are simply a woman who wants support with movement, nutrition, mindset, and yoga, you can still benefit from the program.
There will be PCOS- and endometriosis-specific material inside the community, but you don’t have to have one of those conditions to benefit from the exercises, nutrition, mindset work, or yoga.
Diana:
I love how holistic that is.
I also think learning about other people’s health experiences makes us more empathetic and can help us better understand and support the people around us.
Jane:
Exactly.
Because so many people have these conditions and many remain undiagnosed, I think it is useful to know something about them even if you don’t personally have them.
You may recognize something in someone you love and be able to point them toward help.
I am incredibly thankful for the woman who was my husband’s coworker’s wife.
She was a fertility specialist, not a PCOS or endometriosis specialist, but she knew enough to recognize the signs and tell me, “Maybe you should get checked out.”
If she hadn’t done that, I have no idea where I would be today.
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How to Connect with Jane
Diana:
If people want to connect with Jane—and I hope you do because she is a wonderful woman to work with—how can they reach you?
Jane:
The best way to reach me is through email, Facebook, or Instagram because I use those every day.
Diana:
Perfect. I’ll include all of your links in the show notes and description.
Jane:
Great.
Definitely find me on Facebook or Instagram, or send me an email. I can help point you toward the right resources.
Or you can simply continue following me.
I also have a newsletter if you want to start there.
Diana:
I’m subscribed to the newsletter. I love it.
And honestly, you want Jane in your head saying:
“Let’s try it and see what happens.”
Jane:
Yes.
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Closing
Diana:
Thank you so much, Jane, for being here.
It has been a real pleasure.
Jane:
Thank you. I really appreciate it.
It has been a good conversation.
Diana:
It’s been excellent.
I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve loved it.
Thank you.
Jane:
Thank you.
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