Episode 357

Your Hormone Dealbreakers (feat. Robin Nielsen)

Published on: 3rd June, 2026

Are your daily habits negatively impacting your hormones and your overall health? And when it comes to hormones, are you focusing on only your sex hormones? It turns out other hormones are running the show! This episode breaks down common hormone dealbreakers and practical steps you can take to avoid them and reclaim your health.

On this episode of Salad with a Side of Fries, host Jenn Trepeck is joined by Robin Nielsen, board-certified integrative nutritionist and founder of Natural Hormone Solution, to unpack the hidden hormone dealbreakers quietly sabotaging your health. From the real role of cortisol rhythm to the truth about cholesterol and sex hormones, xenoestrogens in your face cream, and why your to-do list is wrecking your endocrine system, this conversation is a masterclass in natural hormone balance for women at every stage of life.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why cortisol and insulin are your two most important hormones and how their dysregulation drives symptoms that are often misread as perimenopause or aging.

✅ How environmental xenoestrogens found in face creams, shampoos, and household cleaners silently disrupt your estrogen balance and what to do about it.

✅ The critical connection between eating for hormone balance, meal timing, and why skipping breakfast and over-exercising are two of the most damaging habits for women's hormonal health.

✅ How cholesterol actually serves as the building block for all your steroid hormones, and why lowering it too aggressively may be making your symptoms worse.

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

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Jenn introduces Robin Nielsen, founder of Natural Hormone Solution and integrative nutritionist

04:57 Robin shares her personal story: decades of weight gain, cystic acne, and digestive health issues

09:18 Why common symptoms are not normal: hormone imbalance signs you may be ignoring

11:27 Your sex hormones aren’t the only ones linked to your overall health and wellness

15:41 Cortisol rhythm explained: how your brain responds to daily stress and excess cortisol

21:14 Hormone dealbreaker one: how negative thoughts and low serotonin levels disrupt cortisol

23:24 Hormone dealbreaker two: xenoestrogens, environmental toxins, and harmful body care products

27:47 The importance of eating breakfast and the benefits of walking

33:19 Discussion of cholesterol levels and balancing HDL and LDL numbers

38:12 The surprising hormone dealbreaker hiding in plain sight: your to-do list and nervous system health

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

💎 Estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, are not the only hormones tied to your health. Healing begins with balancing your cortisol rhythm and insulin resistance, not by only focusing on your sex hormones.

💎 Xenoestrogens in everyday body care and cleaning products are a major and overlooked source of estrogen dominance. Checking a product’s ingredients with resources like EWG.org is a simple, immediate step to avoid products with hormone disruptors.

💎 Cholesterol is the foundational building block for all your steroid hormones. Lowering it too aggressively can impair hormone production, deplete CoQ10, and deepen the very symptoms you are trying to resolve.

💎 Your daily habits speak directly to your hormones. Eating a high-protein breakfast, walking after meals, and replacing your to-do list with a calendar-based system all support hormone balance in measurable ways.

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Robin Nielsen is a Board-Certified Integrative Nutritionist specializing in women’s health and hormone balance, empowering women to become the CEO of their own health so they can feel vibrant, confident, and sexy at any age.

As Founder and CEO of Natural Hormone Solution, she has helped over 100,000 women worldwide through her programs, retreats, and events, including her signature Robin’s Hormone Reset Program, which has transformed the health of more than 16,500 women since 2020. Robin has interviewed over 200 leading healthcare experts, sharing science-backed strategies for natural healing, and has served as President of both the National Association of Women Business Owners (Silicon Valley) and the National Association of Nutrition Professionals. She has also been featured on CBS’s Eye on the Bay for her transformative women’s retreats.

A proud mother and grandmother, Robin is a competitive tennis player, surfer, gardener, musician, and passionate cook, married to her “hot sexy lover” for over 42 years. Living proof that age is just a number.

RESOURCES:

Today's Episode Sponsor: Better Help

Become a Happy Healthy Hub Member

Jenn’s Free Menu Plan

A Salad With a Side of Fries

A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch

A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

About Uncomplicating Wellness

Text ‘Book’ to 833-801-0500

Brain Health & Blood Sugar (feat. Megan Lyons)

A Family in Quarantine (feat. Anna Engelhardt)

Circa Your Circadian Rhythm

GUEST RESOURCES:

Robin Neilsen - Instagram

Natural Hormone Solution

Sign up for Robin's Hormone Reset Program

Robin Neilsen - Facebook

Natural Solutions for Hormone Balance Sisterhood - Facebook

EWG - Website

QUOTES:

00:13 “Running from one task to the next is a symptom of hormone imbalance.” Robin Nielsen

11:19 “Pay attention to the symptoms that we think don't matter, because they are also telling us something.” Jenn Trepeck

19:15 “The deal breakers are the things that are really creating that dysregulation in the cortisol.” Jenn Trepeck

22:42 “The body and the brain believe everything you tell them.” Jenn Trepeck

38:18 “Ladies, your to-do list is a hormone dealbreaker.” Robin Nielsen

SEO KEYWORDS:

Jenn Trepeck, Salad With A Side Of Fries, Nutrition Nugget, Health Coach, Weight Loss For Real Life, Hormone Imbalance, Hormone Balance, Cortisol Rhythm, Estrogen Dominance, Progesterone Deficiency, Insulin Resistance, Sex Hormones, Perimenopause Symptoms, Postmenopause Health, Adrenal Health, Thyroid Function, Pregnenolone, Melatonin Production, Blood Sugar Regulation, Metabolic Disease, Xenoestrogens, Endocrine Disruptors, Toxic Relationships, Hormone Testing, Functional Nutrition, Integrative Nutritionist, Natural Healing, Women's Health, Digestive Health, Serotonin Levels, Brain Fog, Weight Management, High Protein Breakfast, Circadian Rhythm, Sleep Disruption, Cortisol Dysregulation, Cholesterol And Hormones, CoQ10, Inflammation, Hormone Reset, Body Care Toxins, Environmental Toxins, Over-Exercising, Eat For Hormone Balance, Nervous System Health, To-Do List Stress, How To Balance Hormones Naturally For Women, Cortisol And Insulin Connection To Hormone Imbalance

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About the Podcast

Salad With a Side of Fries Nutrition, Wellness & Weight Loss
Nutrition tips that actually work. Real-life healthy eating, balanced diet tools, and weight loss tips you can use today with coach Jenn Trepeck.*

If you have searched for nutrition tips, tried to keep a healthy lifestyle, or felt stuck following popular weight loss tips, this podcast is for you. Get straightforward wellness advice that works in real life, plus strategies for a balanced diet, sustainable healthy eating, and a smarter approach to fitness and nutrition. Is your diet making you hungrier, crankier, or less healthy? Tune in and find out.*

Free gift: Schedule a 15-minute curiosity call with Jenn to explore what is possible for you. https://asaladwithasideoffries.com/contact/

Welcome to Salad with a Side of Fries, where wellness meets real life. Award-winning host Jenn Trepeck, health and lifestyle coach and author of Uncomplicating Wellness, cuts through the noise with clear answers you can trust. Ranked in the top 1.5% of podcasts worldwide, the show won Ear Worthy’s Best Health Podcast in 2024 and 2025 and was nominated for Best Independent Podcast both years. Jenn also won Women Who Podcast’s Stellar Interview award in 2025 after being named one of Podcast Magazine’s 40 under 40 in 2022.

Jenn’s motto is “wellness without the weirdness.” With more than 17 years coaching after solving her own food struggles, she knows how confusing the industry can be. Each week you get the foundations of a balanced diet, sustainable healthy eating, metabolism basics, and long-term holistic health, plus straight talk on fad diets and supplements.

What you will get by listening:
✅How to eat and how to cheat, guilt-free
✅Nutrition tips that work in the real world
✅Weight loss tips that are effective, never restrictive
✅How to build a balanced plate at home, on the road, and eating out
✅Smart strategies for sustainable habits that include your favorite foods
✅Evidence-based insights on fitness and nutrition
✅Conversations about holistic health that go beyond food
✅Wellness advice you can use right away


About Jenn Trepeck:
Jenn is a health coach, speaker, and consultant who blends humor with practical science. She has helped thousands improve energy, metabolism, and confidence in their choices through one-on-one coaching, group programs, her book, and this podcast.

Connect with Jenn and the show:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenntrepeck/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saladwithasideoffriespod
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jenntrepeck
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferTrepeck/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/425796548337541/
Website: https://asaladwithasideoffries.com/

If you are ready to trade guilt for freedom, confusion for clarity, and boring salads for fries on the side, press play. Health gets doable here.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This podcast and its guests are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

About your host

Profile picture for Jennifer Trepeck

Jennifer Trepeck

“My passion for nutrition and helping others stems from “kicking my food issues” with my own weight management saga.” ~ Jenn

I believe that the greatest accountability is paying it forward! That’s why I teach the nutrition education we are all supposed to know but no one ever taught us, along with the science behind food, fitness, and health.

After I graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, I founded Better Life Now LLC while working full-time in hedge funds. In 2019, I took my practice from side-hustle to full-time self-employment and launched my podcast, Salad With a Side of Fries. On the show, we offer science-based tips and tricks for how to achieve wellness and weight loss for real life – because who wants a life without fries or dessert?!

Topics we tackle on the podcast include debunking fad diets, food myths, misinformation in marketing, bad science, and general nutrition. I encourage guests whose expertise is different from my own focus on weight management to bring their unique, fact-based perspectives to talk about subjects they are educated in and passionate about.

Due to my decade-long experience of working with clients, I have gained insight into the health and food industry and the how-tos of building a business.

Some specific health and wellness topics I can speak to include debunking fad diets, exposing the BS we are fed by the food and diet industry, how the people around us can positively and negatively impact our health journey, and shifting mindsets in order to overcome inappropriate barometers of success to instead achieve happy, healthy, and meaningful change.

On the subject of business, I can help you by teaching my critical pieces every entrepreneur should know, how to make your side-hustle into your full-time job, ways to sustainably achieve success without burning out, contemporary networking, and how to prioritize wellness while pursuing your projects.

When I find some free time, I’m typically working out at Physique57, discovering hidden gem restaurants in NYC, or traveling to spend time with friends and family.

I’d love to have an in-depth conversation with you, whether it’s leveling up in business or debunking food myths!