Coffee with Carly: Health, Rebuilt for Women
Most women have no idea how good they're supposed to feel — and it's not for lack of trying.
We're waking up at 6am for workouts, optimizing our nutrition, crushing it at work, holding everyone else together. We're doing everything we're "supposed" to do. Following all the wellness advice. Checking every box.
And yet… so many of us feel off. Burned out. Bloated. Anxious. Exhausted but wired. Brain fog that won't lift. Hormonal symptoms we're told are "normal." Running on cortisol and guilt more than actual energy.
Something isn't adding up.
I'm Carly, a registered dietitian & holistic health coach who spent my early career watching women be fed the same cookie-cutter version of 'wellness' — advice built on male biology, packaged for female bodies. Then I hit my own rock bottom: burned out (even while working my dream job), and became completely disconnected from my body.
That's when I realized the problem wasn't effort or discipline. It was the system itself. The hustle culture mentality. The way we've been taught to live, work, and achieve simply doesn't support how women actually function.
So I went searching for what actually makes women feel good. What happens when you work with your menstrual cycle instead of against it? When you prioritize nervous system regulation over productivity? When you tune into your intuition instead of drowning it out? When you understand your hormones, your energy, and your body's wisdom — and use that as your compass?
Coffee with Carly was born from that question.
Like a strong cup of coffee, this podcast is a wake-up call. Through personal riffs, honest storytelling, and conversations with women who are living differently, we explore what it really looks like to build a life that feels good — not just one that looks good. I blend science-backed women's health research with real-life application, mindset work, intuition, and embodied wisdom.
We talk about cycle syncing and hormone balance. Burnout recovery and nervous system regulation. Metabolic health and gut healing. Anti-hustle achievement and female entrepreneurship. Intuition, energetics, and human design. Brain fog, cortisol, adrenal health. Life transitions, identity shifts, and coming home to yourself.
This podcast is for high-achieving women who are tired of being tired. Who are ready to challenge hustle culture, listen to their bodies, trust their intuition, work with their cycle, balance their hormones, and create lives that actually feel like theirs.
You can be anti-hustle without being anti-achievement. Let me show you how.
Stay bold. Stay balanced.
I'm Carly, and I'm so glad you're here.
Coffee with Carly: Health, Rebuilt for Women
The POWR Method Part 4: Your Most Magnetic Week (& How to Use It)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What if I told you there's a phase in your cycle where you're literally, scientifically magnetic?
If you've ever:
- Felt like some weeks you can sell anything and other weeks you can barely send an email
- Noticed certain days you feel confident, social, and "on" — and had no idea why
- Wanted proof that this cycle stuff is real and not just "woo-woo"
In this episode, I'm breaking down the O in POWR: Outward. This is your ovulation phase, or your internal summer. Peak estrogen, peak energy, peak magnetism.
Here's what I want you to know: You're not imagining it. During ovulation, you literally are more attractive. There's a scientific word for it: estrus.
And...I've got the study to prove it. In this episode:
- Why ovulation is your most powerful phase for visibility and communication
- My favorite tasks to schedule: website copy, filming reels, launching programs, asking for raises
- The lap dancer study that proves you're scientifically more magnetic
- How to work WITH your body, not against it
This episode is for you if:
- You're an entrepreneur, business owner, or busy woman who wants to leverage your natural energy
- You've been skeptical about cycle syncing and want actual science
- You're ready to stop forcing visibility when your body isn't primed for it
"This is what it means to work with your body, not against it. And how you go further, faster, while honoring being female."
Study Referenced:
Miller, G., Tybur, J. M., & Jordan, B. D. (2007). Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lap dancers: economic evidence for human estrus? Evolution and Human Behavior.
Full study: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.06.002
Interested in health coaching with Carly?
- Connect with Carly on Instagram
- Email Carly at hello@carlyschade.com
☕️ Stay bold, stay balanced, stay thriving
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0:00:00 - (Carly): Foreign. Welcome to Coffee with Carly, your weekly wake up call to a happier, healthier life. I'm your host, Carly Shade, and I'm here to uncover how good life can get. We are back with part four of the Power Method, a mini series inside my podcast all about unlocking your hormonal advantage as a woman, particularly a businesswoman. I'm sharing my exact process for how I use my cycle to align my business tasks, which leads to more creativity, more time, and more fun.
0:00:49 - (Carly): In short, this. This mini series is all about finding the power in your period. P, O, W, R. Four letters, four phases, four superpowers. So if you're tuning into my podcast for the first time, first of all, welcome. And also you're more than welcome to hit the back button three times and kick this thing off from the beginning or just start here, whatever you want. And if you have been here for a while and you're loving my series or my podcast in general, please make sure you show your support by leaving a review, a rating and subscribing.
0:01:29 - (Carly): Today we're going to talk about the O in power, which stands for outward. And this superpower aligns with your ovulation phase. This is the phase that is right after your follicular and right before your luteal. And it is the shortest of our phases. Now, there are no bad phases. Each has its own superpower, but this one is pretty bomb because it's your internal summer. Okay? You have peak estrogen and peak energy, and here you excel at communication, visibility, you might feel more social, and you are straight up magnetic.
0:02:09 - (Carly): Okay? This is the shortest phase, and it's the window where you can actively get pregnant because you're egg has fully matured and is waiting to meet her mate. Now, whether you want kids or not, your body doesn't know that, right? I want to remind you that all these superpowers, they're designed to help you attract a mate, get pregnant, protect a pregnancy shed so you can start over, right? Our body is wired for reproduction, and during ovulation you feel like an absolute queen because your body is trying to attract a mate.
0:02:50 - (Carly): So last week I talked about how I utilize my follicular phase to strategically plan out my tasks for the month, right? Instead of just working top down on my never ending to do list, I look at what I have to do and then I organize them by my different phases. So here are a few of my favorite tasks that I group in my ovulation phase, and that is how I'm maximizing my superpowers. First, Excellent communication skills here. Okay, so last ovulation phase.
0:03:23 - (Carly): I wrote and finalized all my website content during this phase. This could also be a great time where I might write a new blog post or other marketing copy. Second, you are primed to be seen and visible, right? Hence the outward. So here, film reels go live on Instagram. You know, if I'm doing any collaborations or guest appearances on a podcast, I will try to schedule them in this phase and finally launch a masterclass or a program, right? You're magnetic right now.
0:03:58 - (Carly): Use this time and this phase to build momentum, attract sales and new clients. Again, you literally can magnetize people with your energy. So if you are not a business owner, here's a few other ways that you can unlock this phase. First, you could ask for that raise or promotion that I know you're probably very overdue for. Especially as women, we often don't ask for the raise that we have well earned.
0:04:26 - (Carly): Second, you could schedule a job interview during this phase, right? Because you're really able to communicate. And again, you know, you are your most magnetic here. And then finally, maybe you go to happier with friends or colleagues, right? That is important for business too. Overall, this is the growth phase where we just allow ourselves to really shine. And if you still don't believe me about this phase being our most magnetic, let's quote the science because, you know, it's my favorite thing.
0:05:00 - (Carly): So this magnetic energy I keep talking about, it has a scientific word. It's called estrus. And estrus is a state of increased female sexual receptivity, perceptivity, selectivity, and attractiveness. And so a group of researchers from the University of New Mexico wanted to see if estrus still existed in women or was lost through evolution like certain researchers claim. Basically, they wanted to study real world attractiveness.
0:05:34 - (Carly): So they decided to study 18 lap dancers who worked in gentlemen's clubs. And these dancers, they recorded their cycles, their work shifts, and their tip earnings for 60 days. Here is what they found. Women made 81% more in tips to during their ovulation phase compared to their menstrual phase. And they made 40% more in tips compared to their luteal phase. Now, these women, right, that, that really experienced almost double in tips during their ovulation phase.
0:06:11 - (Carly): They were normally cycling, meaning that they reached true ovulation because they were not on any form of hormonal birth control. The study also followed women who were on hormonal birth control. And for that group, there was actually no changes in earnings, especially during ovulation, which makes sense, right? Because your body is actually not going through, biologically speaking, those phases when you are on hormonal birth control.
0:06:38 - (Carly): Does anyone else think that that study is absolutely wild? I love the human body. And it's this study is just an incredible reminder that energy is very much real and not everything can be seen. So there you have it. The scientific evidence that our outward ovulation phase is really the time to let yourself be seen, communicate, maybe do something a little daring because you are feeling your best, right? The world is at your fingertips during this phase and this is what it means to work with your body, not against it, right? We've covered three phases so far and you can see that each has a very different superpower.
0:07:26 - (Carly): Each is very important and when you learn to tap into your hormonal advantages, that's how you go further, faster while still honoring being female. So if you are an entrepreneur, a business owner, or a busy ass woman, I hope you found today's episode helpful. And of course, if you know a friend or another woman who needs to hear this, be sure to send this episode her way. Thank you guys again for tuning in.
0:08:00 - (Carly): I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Stay tuned for our final Part five of the Power Method next week. And like a good cup of coffee, stay bold, stay balanced and I will see you next week. Sam.