Life, Health & The Universe
Welcome to **Life, Health & The Universe**, the podcast dedicated to empowering women in their 40s and 50s to embrace a vibrant and meaningful life. Join us as we explore the intersection of health, wellness, and personal growth, offering insights and inspiration to help you navigate this transformative stage of life.
Each week, we dive into topics that matter most to you— from holistic health and nutrition to mindfulness and self-discovery. With expert interviews, relatable stories, and practical tips, we aim to inspire you to live your best life, cultivate deeper connections, and find purpose in every moment.
Whether you’re seeking to enhance your well-being, explore new passions, or simply find a supportive community, **Life, Health & The Universe** is here to guide you on your journey. Tune in and discover how to thrive in this exciting chapter of life!
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Life, Health & The Universe
Challenging Menopause Myths & Embracing Positive Change - Menopause Coach, Angela Counsel
Let us know what you thought of this episode!
Discover how to navigate the journey of menopause with confidence as we welcome back Angela Counsel, a passionate Naturopath and Founder of Embrace Menopause.
Angela shares her mission to support women through this transformative phase without relying solely on hormone replacement therapy. Listeners will gain insights into the deep connection between hormones and gut health, empowering them to make informed decisions. Angela offers a fresh perspective, challenging the narrative that menopause is negative and highlighting the positive possibilities of this natural life stage.
We'll untangle the complexities of menopause symptoms, focusing on holistic management over quick fixes. Angela guides us through the interplay of the brain, ovaries, and adrenal glands, and how changes in estrogen and progesterone affect more than just reproduction. By addressing underlying issues like insulin resistance, inflammation, and nutrient deficiencies, we explore strategies for thriving during menopause. Historical and cultural insights remind us that women have thrived beyond menopause for centuries, emphasising the potential to embrace this stage with a positive mindset.
Angela's wisdom extends to embracing the physical changes that accompany aging, challenging societal pressures to conform to unrealistic beauty ideals. Learn a bit about the history and evolution of hormone replacement therapy, including the rise of bio-identical hormones. We explore hormone therapy's role and the importance of preparation during peri-menopause.
Angela also shares powerful stories of transformation, highlighting the role of community and lifestyle changes in boosting confidence and vitality. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and take control of your menopause journey.
You can find Angela's profile in our Guest Directoryhttps://lifehealththeuniverse.podcastpage.io/person/angela-counsel
Welcome to Life, health and the Universe, bringing you stories that connect us, preventative and holistic health practices to empower us and esoteric wisdom to enlighten us. We invite you to visit our website, where you can access the podcast, watch on YouTube and find all of our guests in the guest directory. Visit lifehealththeuniversepodcastpageio. Now let's get stuck into this week's episode. Today, I'm joined by Angela Council. Angela is a dedicated and experienced naturopath and the founder of Embrace Menopause, a business committed to supporting women through the menopause transition. Her mission is to show women that it is possible to thrive during menopause, embracing it as a time of wisdom and self-love.
Speaker 1:Angela first joined me on the podcast. I had a look back on June the 3rd. We released our first episode in 2022. And then we did another podcast on June the 23rd 2023. So almost a year apart, and that was part of the intermittent fasting panel. Thank you so much for joining me again, angela. Just as I said before, we hit record, I feel like things have changed, even in this last little while, since we last spoke. Things are changing and I wanted to get to the bottom of some of this menopause.
Speaker 2:A lot is changing and thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1:it's all it's my favorite topic, so I'm always up for having a chat around menopause yeah, great, and I'm, and I guess, even so, the first interview we did was in 2022, so almost three years ago. I'm now three, nearly four years old, am I? So, yeah, I'm nearly 51, so I'm in it, I'm in that process, so, like, I'm having the experience and it hasn't been bad um. So yeah, I'd love to sort of discuss that with you, but do you want to kind of give us a little bit of a background about where you started? Uh, because you've, your business is evolving as well, isn't it? It's changed a little bit, I think, since the name's changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I am. I mean, I've been a naturopath now for nearly 20 years and I've always, I've always worked in the women's health space and gut they're kind of in the places and because they're very, very closely related even. But people think hormones and gut they are so interrelated it's not funny. And I've kind of always worked with women or probably a few steps behind me. So when I first started in practice, I wasn't long after having my second child, and so then I started working with women who had really young children and then, as it was kind of children are older, children were getting to school, then it was more about mum getting back on, you know, getting back her health. And then I work with women who are running their own businesses to balance their stress. I've always kind of been in that and it's always women who just a little bit behind me. And because now I'm post-menopausal I'm 63 this year and I know and I've been in this menopause space solely probably now for the last oh, we're probably talking about eight years. So I, to be honest, I can't remember when I had my last period, because at that time we had a lot of things going on, with my husband going through cancer treatment and that went on for a couple of years. So that's a bit of a blur, but at some stage in there I got my final period, my daughter got her first period and then we moved on from there.
Speaker 2:So, yes, I've been working in this space for a few years and initially it was just like, oh, let's just work with anybody. But now I'm very specific in that there is so much noise going on at the moment, there's a lot of talk going on and what I found and I follow a lot of the big doctors and all that in the US and the UK who are very much about, well, everyone should be taking hormones and they're very much hormones and what I was seeing is I was seeing this group of women going but what if I can't take hormones? And there wasn't an answer for them. And I knew I had an answer for them. And as I was speaking to more and more women because before people joined my program, I have a bit of a chat with them and a lot of them were just saying I just don't want to take hormones.
Speaker 2:And so I'm thinking, okay, well, I want to get really specific and let women know and my marketing I targeted without using hormones. So without using HRT doesn't mean I don't work with women who are taking HRT I certainly do, and many of them are basically have made the decision that they want to come off HRT, which is why they work with me. So I very specifically work with women who either can't take HRT or choose not to take HRT, and share with them how we can get through this stage of life without having to use those additional hormones. Now there are some people that do need hormones. I'm going to say that across there are some people who definitely need them, but there are many who don't. And there's so many options and I think we need to educate women more about how their bodies work, how their hormones work, so then they can start to make educated decisions very good.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that's why we're here today, and one of the things that I really like you probably kind of semi-answered questions, but we can get go into much more depth I'm sure was around this you know all of the noise on the internet, in the socials and those kind of like bigger names that people might come across when it comes to hormonal, or should we say health or menopause, um, and that that the answer of um, hrt and bioidentical hormones. I'd love to to hear a bit more about that. But I, like I observed in myself there was something that kept coming up in my feed about a cream and it was like to I don't know for it was for perimenopausal women to help with the symptoms, and one thing I observed in myself was I started questioning am I okay, do I need this?
Speaker 2:oh, I am in perimenopause, yeah, now and that's this is an important topic that you just raised right now, because and there's been research done by the gene hails um associate association here in australia and there's there's a lot of women out there who have no symptoms or they have minimal symptoms. And because of the noise of how bad menopause is, how bad all the symptoms are, all that type of stuff, there's women thinking there's something wrong with them because they don't have symptoms. Oh right, well, they do. They think there's something wrong. Oh now, do I need hormones or what's going on. And there's also and I know that it's a couple of times I've said it when you go oh well, no, I've been able to get through this time of life. I had some symptoms, I worked out what to do and now I'm feeling really great and I'm thriving in menopause.
Speaker 2:And all of a sudden, you get bombarded with you're just gaslighting women and it's like Really, oh yeah, it happens. And you and it's like really, oh yeah, it happens so much, it's like you're scared to say I don't have symptoms, been able to manage this, and I'm feeling really, really great. And you say that and all of a sudden all this stuff comes at you and it even happened to me the other day and um, and it was a post by Emery McQueen who does Hot Flash, and basically she was just an Instagrammer, a bit of a stroll. And I think one of the comments that she said was not every woman requires HRT, it's possible to thrive as you age, or something like that along those lines. And I basically went clap, clap, clap heart, and that was it.
Speaker 2:And then all of a sudden I had all these people going, but that wasn't my experience. How can you, how dare you, say that? And I kind of came back because I'd been actually listening to an interview with the CEO, from Jean Hales, and this was part of the topic, and I went, hang on a minute, I'm going to say, and I just went. I expressed my experience please don't just diminish my experience because I'm saying that I didn't need HRT and that I'm able to thrive in this stage of life. Your experience might be different, but that's my experience and that's.
Speaker 2:And because then all of a sudden there was, you know, the person who started kind of did a bit of a backflip on that, because I'm getting sick and tired of women who are being brave enough to say, well, hey, wasn't quite that bad for me and all of a sudden, they're being bombarded with. Well, what do you know? This is the worst. Like everyone wants their story to be the worst. Yes, don't we, as women, do this. No, it's like we see this when women are pregnant. We see this when women have babies. It's like let's make my story worse than your story. I've suffered more than you and you know, someone says, someone says, oh well, this was my birthing story, oh well, when I went through and I did this, and it's like we want to. I don't know what it is. Why do women want to suffer more than other women?
Speaker 1:I feel like the birthing story is like a kind of you have to let, you have to talk about it because it's so traumatic. It's part of the processing. But yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 2:A competition, no and we've got women who want to take hrt, those who don't want to take hrt, women who need to, those that don't need to, but it's like let's just pit each other against each other and rip each other's pieces and that's what I want to get to the bottom of with you today.
Speaker 1:really, is that like what are the symptoms, or what you know that we hear about? What and kind of what is the potentially the what's the norm, what should we, what should or shouldn't we be experiencing? And I know you've talked about this in the previous episode that we did, but yeah, you do, because there's so much.
Speaker 2:Nothing's normal, no nothing's normal.
Speaker 1:But like yeah and I guess it's also so dependent on someone's experience as well, isn't it? Because I might, because I've, you know, had waves of heat, let's say, I don't want to call them hot flushes, because I don't want to buy into the story that I'm having hot flushes and, oh you know, I'm just like, okay, I'm just going to kind of work and it hasn't been that bad. I haven't broken out in like sweats or anything like that, but I've definitely felt this kind of rise in my body temperature, like need to take my t-shirt off, kind of thing. But, like someone else might have the experience, the same physical experience, but emotionally it can.
Speaker 2:It can play out quite differently as well yes, so you know, and hot flashes is the one that we all kind of know about and and I've I started before talking about the survey that gene hales, um had and what they found and these numbers are not 100%, but basically we found and this also backs up previous research that about 18% to 19% of women will have symptoms that severely impact their quality of life and their ability to be able to do things. About 18% 19% of women will basically have just about no symptoms and they will just cruise through this time of life. And the rest, which is roughly 60% 62% of women have some symptoms but they're manageable, they don't impact with their life. So we're looking at there's only a very small number of women which have really severe symptoms. So the rest of us, let's just talk about the rest of us and talk about what's common. Yeah, because none of it's normal. We're all, because you know, normal is probably these people over here who are having very few symptoms. That's probably normal, but that's seen as abnormal. So what's common? So we know hot flushes is common.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, body aches and pain. Now that was one of my symptoms and I didn't actually it didn't, didn't? I didn't know at the time I was getting unbelievable, just body aches and pain in my joints in my body. I couldn't sleep. I get out of bed in the morning and I felt like I was about 90 years old. I could hardly move. I did. I knew I had issue, I had osteoarthritis in my hips, but it was more than that and it was just like I was. So I didn't know what was going on and I was seeing chiropractors and, you know, everybody else. I was taking anti-inflammatory herbs, I was doing, but this wasn't going away and it wasn't until I read an article quite a few years ago and all of a sudden it all clicked that this is actually and it's a very common symptom.
Speaker 2:Wow, women are being diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Ah, it's not actually fibromyalgia, because fibromyalgia is different, but it's kind of like it's an easy diagnosis to give. But what it is is estrogen, is the natural anti-inflammatory, and if we've got a body that's inflamed, then we're going to have pain, because this is what inflammation is it's redness, it's soreness, it pain. And if we've got a body that's inflamed and our estrogen levels come down, we start to get this pain. Now the majority of inflammation tends to come from the food that we eat that's the majority and also stress and also insulin resistance is also another very common symptom and this kind of goes along with the pain as well, and this is also related to our food and, once again, because when our estrogen levels are higher, estrogen manages our insulin better. It helps to kind of keep insulin resistance away, unless, of course, you've got a real, you've got a real issue with your diet. But it kind of covers up a lot of those insulin resistance signs and then, once we get to perimenopause, as estrogen is kind of coming down, it's going up and down. Now we've got insulin resistance and now that's when we start to put on this weight around, and so that's very, very common.
Speaker 2:I had that as well, I know. Out of nowhere I put on something like 20 kilos and I had what would be considered a healthy diet. I was a naturopath I knew, and nutrition I knew about. I was following a keto, paleo style of, well, paleo living and when I wanted to lose weight I would just do keto. It wasn't working for me anymore and it's because all of this underlying stuff was going on and I had some insulin resistance. Um, I had inflammation going on and, as I said, I thought I had a pretty healthy diet and other things. That brain fault also impacted by this change in the um, in the estrogen and progesterone levels, because the brain and the ovaries are very connected and we we kind of we've been taught that menopause is actually a reproductive issue or change. It's actually a brain. It's a change in the brain more than anything else.
Speaker 2:Yes, our we run out of eggs, yes, our ovaries start to stop producing estrogen, but it's all driven by the brain and now we're starting to realize more and more there's a bit more research going on under the role of the brain in how we manage our um, you know how we get through menopause and stress sits in the middle of that as well, because our adrenal glands sit kind of in between our brain, our ovaries and our adrenal glands, and so that's where stress plays a role as well. So a lot of the symptoms that we are experiencing I don't know. I think we got up to 100 different symptoms and I question that they're all menopause symptoms. I think we have to be very careful about putting a symptom going. Oh, it's just menopause. It could be something going on with your thyroid, low thyroid function. It could be nutrient deficiency, iron deficiency, when we've got low energy levels, magnesium can also be a deficiency. So it could be many other things. But when we're just going, oh, that's a menopause symptom, nothing you can do about it, just get on with it. We're dismissing women, or well, it's a menopause symptom here.
Speaker 2:Take some hormones and whilst that might help to make you feel better, particularly if it kind of lifts the estrogen levels back up again, it hasn't fixed the problem. All it's done is is once again estrogen has come up. It's like the mask has come back up and it's covered what's really going on behind the scenes? And so, unless you're going to stay on hormones for the rest of your life, when you come off the hormones you're more than likely going to have bigger issues if you haven't dealt with what's going on underneath, which is the nutrition resistance, the gut health and stress mainly the main things. Unless you address that, when you come off your hormones, you're going to find that you go back and probably have worse symptoms. So you know, a lot of the symptoms that arise, I see, basically come from either stress so too much cortisol, yep. Insulin resistance uh, thyroid might be playing a bit of a role and then, um, nutrient deficiencies.
Speaker 2:So we look at all of that and that's just sitting on the physical beside me, before we get into the mindset around. You know, is menopause really the worst time of our life or is it a time when we actually, you know, we can thrive? And that mindset plays a big role too, because if everybody's telling you that menopause is going to be the crappiest time of your life and you're going to hate it and it's the worst part of being a woman, and that's the messages that are kind of coming out, of course women are going to go oh, give me whatever. I need to get through it because I don't want that pain. And you know, when you're seeing that message and everyone's going telling you how bad it is and anyone who says anything different is basically told they're gaslighting. Uh, you know, and they're basically shut down and.
Speaker 2:I get I mean obviously because I run a business and this is the stuff I do and I run Facebook ads the amount of trolling and that that I get. When I say it is possible to thrive in this time of life without hormones, it's like, oh my God. And to start with it used to worry me, but it doesn't overly worry me too much anymore and it's like I've got a thicker skin. Comes with menopause. It is. Comes with menopause, it is. It's like there are many different symptoms, but it comes down to what we have to look at, what's going on. Hormones are meant to drop when we don't have an egg supply anymore.
Speaker 2:When we're not preparing our body for pregnancy every month, it is nature's way that our hormones will drop. That has been happening for generation upon generation upon generation. And you know there's a kind of a line of conversation that says, well, we didn't live that long in the past. That's not true. We did live that long. Obviously some women did, but you know a lot of women did live to go through menopause. But what they're talking about when they say oh, we didn't live that long, is they're looking at the average lifespan. So the average lifespan was shorter, but that's because more people were dying when they were children. Uh, so that brings down the average lifespan, because you know to get actually through to puberty was pretty tough in those days and you know to get through childbirth and get through childhood, that brings down the average lifespan, because the average lifespan is the entire population. So the average lifespan wasn't 45 or whatever they say it's, it was higher.
Speaker 2:And we've got documented proof that women lived older and we, even if we look at some of the more traditional cultures, the blue zones, we've got women who are living well over 100, not taking hormones and they're active and you know they're fully functional in their societies and they're doing that today. So we know that it's possible. You know it's like well, what are they doing differently to what we're doing here in the Western world? And you'll find it's our stress, it's our food, it's the environmental toxins, it's all of that. It's our lifestyle, because they have a different lifestyle. And yes, genetics plays a role as well, and obviously I work in that field of genetics as well.
Speaker 2:So genetics do play a role and when, and because it's one of the things that when you got a bit of an idea of how your grandmother went through menopause, or your mother, you might get a bit of an idea of how you're going to go through, but it doesn't mean just because they had a tough time doesn't mean you have a tough time, because genetics is not the rules, it's basically it's the blueprint and, using what we call epigenetics, you have the ability to change the way your genes actually express.
Speaker 2:So, even if your grandmother had the worst time of it, so genetically you might be predisposed and some people are, I'm predisposed, and some people are I'm predisposed that the genetic type that I am doesn't process estrogen as efficiently as it should do so, and that's why I tend to put weight on more around the hips, the lower body, because that's more of an estrogen weight and so and I understand all this I didn't didn't in the past, when I used to kind of go why are my hips and thighs always so big?
Speaker 2:I just understand that's the way I am, and it also means that I don't process estrogen as efficiently as, say, others will do. Does that mean I have to go? Well, okay, estrogen is just going to be crap for me for the rest of my life, or what can I do to manage that? And I can do that through stress, managing stress, the food movement, all of that. So it's like by doing that I can actually manage my life and be what I want. So yeah, I don't know if I answered your question, but that's a very long answer.
Speaker 1:Well, that was, yeah, that question was what are some of the symptoms and what's normal? So okay, so everyone's normal is going to be different. And yeah, the epigenetics thing is quite interesting, isn't it? Because my mum had quite a bad experience with periods in general. She had a hysterectomy when she was in her late 30s, I think, but she kept her ovaries, but I think she went on HRT, but I haven't had a bad experience at all Early 30s?
Speaker 2:well, she probably did.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think we've got a bit of a delay going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure If she's in her early 30s. This is, this is common, yeah, but what or what they do now, women who go into an early menopause? Um, what they'll do is they will put them on hrt and that's to preserve the bones. Okay, because we know that women who lose their estrogen too early are at a very high risk of osteoporosis. So what will happen is they will put them on hrt until they get to their natural around their early 50s, and generally they will bring them off. But, um, that's the, that's what they kind of do now.
Speaker 2:Um, but if someone still keeps their ovaries, they tend not to give them hormones because once the ovaries there, their communication to the brain is still going on and what they may get some symptoms, but some women, it doesn't overly impact them at all. Um, I keep going on until they get to their um. You know their time when they naturally would go through menopause. So having that, you know, just removing the uterus doesn't necessarily put you into menopause if you have two functioning ovaries yeah, I think my mom had the.
Speaker 1:I think she had the ovaries and then later on, like she had hrt, like when she started to go into menopause. But um, yeah, completely different lifestyle and I haven't had like really any bad experiences. I've had a few like oh, moments, um, can you talk a bit about that osteoporosis thing, because, because that's a real fear factor thing as well. I think um, like, and that's kind of what can can be a bit of a selling point.
Speaker 1:So, like, what about lifestyle factors when it comes to someone like me, let's say, or you, who exercises regularly and you know is maintain, and I know there's that decrease in muscle as well that you know we get scared about, um, you know it's all downhill, um, what's your take on those things like the decrease in muscle, the?
Speaker 2:the higher risk of osteoporosis and when it comes to hormones and what the menopause.
Speaker 2:So today, um, basically, it's primarily used for management of hot flushes and the prevention of osteoporosis in women who go through an early at menopause.
Speaker 2:Because, yes, hrt definitely will help to prevent osteoporosis, but so will eating well, so will weight-bearing exercise, so will trying to maintain your muscle strength and we'll talk about muscle in a minute, because that's not always easy to maintain your muscle strength, and we'll talk about muscle in a minute, because that's not always easy to maintain. So making sure that you're getting a good night's sleep. So, so, there's many things that you can do which are just as effective as taking hormones, but, as I said, unless you're going through an earlier menopause so going through menopause late 30s, early 40s then yes, taking hormones to protect the bones is a really good thing, but our bones, our bone density there's a difference between bone density and bone strength too, and I've done a podcast on this. We have to be really careful about bone density because, unless you're, the machines that they're using to measure bone density are not always accurate and one machine can read different to another machine.
Speaker 1:Is that like the DEXA scans?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so unless you're kind of not accuracy of your machine or you're always using the same machine, then you can get some differences in the readings machine, then you can get some differences in the readings. And we also have to remember that when they kind of create the, the y's and the, all you know, the graphs and then everything, the basis that they're comparing it to is a 32 year old male, and so that's the base For what ideal bone density?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's where we start, that's where they start, and then after that they will correlate the age into it. But we start with a 32-year-old male and then we correlate, then they kind of add your age into it as well, but once again, you know we're male, female, um, so we just I think we have to be really careful about we totally need to be aware of osteoporosis, but be really careful about what scans are telling us and look at it in the whole picture. And the other part of it is that might be talking about bone density. We also have to look at bone strength. So if you, you can have very dense bones but they're not strong, and vice versa.
Speaker 2:So we want strong bones, and what gives us strong bones is weight bearing exercises is making sure that we're supporting all of the muscles and joints and everything around the bone to actually so we've got those, you know, supporting bones that are supporting joints.
Speaker 2:So we need to be doing that type of exercise.
Speaker 2:That's all about supporting the bone, so the bone doesn't have to do it on its own is there as well, and that now that and that's one of the things, because as we get older, our bone density naturally decreases and it's for men as well.
Speaker 2:Bone density naturally decreases, basically from about our 30s it naturally comes down and I'm not I'm sure you're aware that we have um, osteoclasts and osteoblasts, which are different type of bone cells, and one builds bone up and one builds bone down, and really what happens is that we we don't build up as much and things are breaking down more. So that's kind of where we start getting into a bone density issue, and diet plays a big role in that. And one thing when calcium's a buffer and many people, when we're to a sit, a calcium starts to pull bone out, and so we need the right amount of um, the right amount of calcium, and many people are actually calcium deficient, not because it's not because they're not having enough dairy, it's because they're not actually digesting it properly, because we can't digest calcium very well, particularly dairy.
Speaker 2:But we need to be getting calcium because we need to make sure we're of what's going on in the body so that becomes it. Well, don't have foods that keep you really acidic. And if you are acidic so you're eating a lot of sugars and processed foods and things like that, you will then be drawing out that calcium from the bone, because that's the only that's the easiest place to get the calcium from is from your bone. So basically, you get that. So I just kind of put that in there. So, muscles we do have to be aware of what's going on with our muscles and some women will lose muscle faster than others and some women can build muscle faster than others and once again, this is genetic and so it's really important that, as we get older, that we're doing some type of muscle building exercise.
Speaker 2:And also, you know a lot of and I know you probably we may disagree on this, but a lot of people jump in and say well, all you need to do is eat more protein. That's good in a, in a to a sense. But what does more protein mean how much is enough protein? Because if you've got someone who is overweight, who has insulin resistance, and so they're, and they've got a particular genetic type, giving them more, them, more animal-based protein is actually going to make their insulin resistance worse, so they will struggle to lose weight and we want them. We want them to actually pull the weight off, particularly around their belly, because that's not healthy weight.
Speaker 2:So eating more protein is not necessarily the best thing for them, whereas someone else who isn't struggling with insulin resistance he's a different genetic type yet they need a lot more protein. So it's like, how much is more protein and how much is enough? It does depend on, number one, your genes and also what your health status is right now, because we don't want to push you more into insulin resistance, because you're going, that's going to push you closer and closer to a diabetic state, so we don't want to push you into type 2 diabetes. So, yes, we need more, we need protein, but we need the right amount based on what our body requires, and it doesn't mean, you know, and I see people who are kind of, who come to me, who are overweight, they're struggling with their weight, they have insulin resistance, they've got thyroid issues. And they go, oh, I'm going to try the carnivore diet. And you go, oh, no, because it's not right for them. For them, they need to be more plant-based and getting their protein okay plant still a little.
Speaker 2:They can still have a little bit of animal protein. But that's better to have in the middle of the day, not at night, because if they're not, if they digestion and what not and also an insulin, because if they eat protein at night it's going to trigger an insulin response.
Speaker 2:And if they're not going to be exercising because I'm just having dinner and I'm going to, you know, watching tv and going to bed but now I've triggered an insulin response and the body actually wants to. You know, instead of storing fat, it wants to use up all of this glucose that's there. We don't want those people having protein in the middle of the at night time, but having it in the middle of the day, and then for them exercise is best for them to do after lunch. So they have a big, big meal, a big lunchtime meal, and generally it's a little bit later. These people can go without having breakfast if they don't want to have breakfast, and then they can have a really big, substantial meal that's got lots of veggies, salads, all of that and some protein, and then they do their heavy exercise after that. Because we have triggered an insulin response, we've now got available glucose from the food and now our bodies and our muscles and everything are ready to burn that up and they've got so much more energy. If they exercise then, and if they, then if they do that in the morning and that's me.
Speaker 2:I used to do all I used to do early morning boot camp and I used to struggle and wonder why the hell I couldn't keep up, why I had no energy after lunch, why I wasn't sleeping properly, why weight was going on, why I was in pain because I was more likely to get injured. All of that and as soon as I swapped my exercise to the afternoon, it all kind of went away. Wow. And I mean, I still do some stuff early in the morning because I hike and I hike with others. But I know that that is a stress on my body to get up early and go hiking first thing in the morning.
Speaker 2:So I've got a lot of other things that I do to make sure that my body is recovering quickly, and food is part of that. Rest is part of that. But this is where we need to understand that we are all different. You know we were talking about muscles and that. So, yes, we do need to be eating protein, at least for the right type at the right time. But the biggest thing that we need to build muscles and this is never spoken about is a good night's sleep. We need to sleep.
Speaker 2:That's when our muscles and our body recover. Yeah, you know, it sleeps at night time, so we need to be addressing sleep. If we want to have strong muscles, we need to sleep well. Yeah, lucky thing is, if you exercise well at the right time, you will sleep well, but it's like we sleep is probably the most important thing of anything that we could do is get a good night's sleep, and unfortunately, women at this time of life aren't getting good night's sleep. Once again, hormones are playing a role, but it's also food timing, exercise timing there's a whole bunch of things yeah night time.
Speaker 2:We're on screens we're doing yeah yeah, things.
Speaker 2:We're not getting sunlight first thing in the morning. You know we're staying inside. It's like there's so many things we could do to get a better night's sleep and when we get a better night's sleep our bodies are going to recover, our muscles are going to go stronger and you know we're going to. You know you will probably still lose some muscle, depending on your um genetic type. I, I've lost muscle. I know I've lost muscle, but that's my genetic type. I know you don't, but you've got a different genetic type to me and I mean, and I, but I still exercise. So I might have some flabby arms here, but I know, underneath that flabbiness there, you know, there's strength. Yeah, that's right, I can do push-ups and you know I hike, I rock scramble, I do all of that so I can do that. I've got the strength, but it's more the looseness of the skin tone yeah.
Speaker 2:yeah, is there, and can I get it back? Maybe not, but that's okay. My body does exactly what it wants to do when I want it to do it, and it shows up when I want things done, so I'm more concerned about that than whether or not my arms look flabby in a sleeveless T-shirt.
Speaker 1:Yes, which comes with the wisdom of menopause.
Speaker 2:Right the thing is I'm not putting my arms up too high, which comes with the wisdom of menopause right.
Speaker 1:Well, I always argue when people held their arm up and, like you know, flap around their uh bingo wings, I'm like well, you know what everyone, if you, if you relax a muscle and you, that's right poke it, it will wobble.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter how old you are and when you sit and you slouch, you're going to get around belly. And supermodels do the same thing. They have a belly. It's like yeah, yeah. And also look at what else. What have we done? What?
Speaker 2:You know our bodies have been through a lot. By the time we get to like this 50 year of age, you know the majority of us have given birth One way or the other. We've carried a baby and it's come out somewhere and you know our arms have held those children as they've grown. You know the majority, many of us, have breastfed and even if you didn't breastfeed, your boobs still got bigger until the milk dried up. So when you think of how marvelous and fat, you know amazing our bodies are, it's we need to be grateful for it and, yes, it's changing and it's it's not gonna your body.
Speaker 2:You know I'm sorry for anyone who's listening or watching this you are not going to get your 30 year old body back. You just want not without some work and a lot of dogs, plastic surgery work. It's just not because your hormones are different and as your hormones change, hormones are signalers. They're messengers that send messages all around the body and as your hormones change, your body will naturally change and we, as women, tend to get softer. Our bodies get softer and a little bit rounder, and so long as we are healthy, I think there's got to be an embracing of that. It's like we we just can't get back. You know, I mean, I know we see some women who have, you know, and I'm on instagram, you know these women who are 90 are doing all these amazing things. I watched some woman yesterday who was who broke the world record for planking.
Speaker 2:Again, she broke the first time the second time and she did four hours and 30 minutes or something and she's 58 or something and it's like I mean that's absolutely amazing that she could do that, fantastic what she could do, but it took a lot of work for her to do that. And, yes, she's got the muscles, she's got all this stuff, but the majority of us don't either have the time, the inclination, you know, or the genetics to actually do that. If she hadn't done this different genetic type she wouldn't have been able to do that.
Speaker 1:And the mindset, which is another thing. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:So it's okay that our bodies get softer and they get rounder, but so long as we are healthy. I think we've kind of grown up. One of my other big soapbox things is the diet culture we've grown up in that. We've, you know, we've grown up with this perfect body image and we've all tried to achieve that. And now as we get to, you know, menopause and beyond, we don't. We're further and further away from that perfect image and the diets aren't working, and so we feel there's something wrong with us. And it's not. It's just our body is changing.
Speaker 2:That is just a part of the same as when we were, you know, in our teens, our bodies changed, our body shape changed. When we were pregnant, our body shape changed, you know. Of course, obviously it went, changed out the front. But I know for me that after I had my children even, you know, I dropped all the weight and everything again. My hips were not the same shape as what they were before I was pregnant, because my hips changed. So the pants I used to be able to wear, you know, around my hips no longer fit because there was a shift in my body shape. There was actually a change in my body shape.
Speaker 2:So this happens at different times of our lives and this is just another time of life. So it's like I'm certainly not saying you know, don't lose the weight, but do it from a place of health and being able to do what it is you want to do in your life, rather than. Oh, when I look on instagram that that woman you know is, you know, same age as me and she's got a body that looks like that. Well, you don't know what it took for her to get that body. Um, you know many of these, or how many?
Speaker 2:filters she used that's right, you know you look at some of these. You know celebrities it's like and how many doctors they, yeah, have friends with. I was funny. I was looking for some images for a presentation I was doing just to show different genetic types, and I thought, well, if I went to celebrities I might be able to, because people kind of understand that. And do you know how hard it is to find a celebrity that hasn't had work done? Particularly the big ones, it's like it's, I mean ones who are naturally slim, that's fine, I can find them. But those that I can tell from their body shape and their, you know, face shape and everything that they're a certain, a bigger body type that you've all had work done, it's really, really hard to find them. To find, god, celebrities that haven't had work done.
Speaker 1:It is, and that's what we're, that's what we're trying to compare ourselves to right and and striving for when it's just not realistic. I definitely think that there's a process when it comes to seeing your body change. This is my experience, because obviously I've I've worked in the fitness industry, I've competed in crossfit, and so I have been quite used, although I started quite late I was like 35 when I started getting into all of that but I've been used to my body being a certain way. Like you said, your, your body starts to change and you were like, all of a sudden, things that you were doing didn't work anymore and I I I have a different mindset when it comes to the reasons I exercise and that sort of thing anyway. But there's definitely been a bit of changing and a softening and the skin's not quite as uh tight as it used to be. And you know the kids will poke it they're 10 and 8, so they're like, oh, look at this bit. I'm like, thanks, but but it's a process of self-acceptance, isn't there?
Speaker 2:it is recognising that this is a change that's happening and you can't stop it. You've got to take hormones. You're not going to stop it, it's still going to happen. And hormones don't really stop the softening of your body and quite often don't stop the weight gain.
Speaker 2:Okay, I've had many clients who've said that when they I had one client a few years ago and she, when she went on, she went hormones because she wasn't thinking. You know, she couldn't think straight and she was running a business the doctor said, okay, so let's put you on hormones. And then she put, she put on weight. And she went back to the doctor and says, yeah, but I don't want the weight. And the doctor said, well, you either think clearly or you're overweight, choose. And so then she came to my program and learned how she could drop the weight and get healthy again and come off the hormones and still think clearly.
Speaker 2:So it's like because quite often, going on the hormones, estrogen is a growth hormone. That's what it's designed to do. It's designed particularly in pregnancy pregnancy to grow a baby. Ah right, and it's one of the reasons why we will put on weight in pregnancy, because estrogen helps us grow. That's what it's designed to do. It's a growth hormone right. That's why we also have to be very careful with having animal products that come from pregnant animals.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, let's talk about the thing that's really concerning me at the moment. And you've talked about it and you've said like it's not a one-size-fits-all, and I sort of mentioned at the beginning that I get these things coming up in my feed about creams, you know, and I'm like, do I need it? Don't I need it. And I've had a handful of women that I know because we're, you know, at that age where they've been experiencing something like brain fog and they want to get on with their busy life and they go to the doctor and the doctor puts them on hormones without necessarily giving them any bloods, doing any bloods, right, Just go, oh, we'll try this. And then they go oh, you know, that's not quite working or you're getting these side effects, so let's try this. So not getting to the root cause. So there's some influencers out there who and sometimes well, you know, often men who go, you know, women have been suffering all of these years with menopause symptoms and they don't need to because we have bioidentical hormones which aren't HRT.
Speaker 1:No, they are. They are, but you know that and they're not bad for you. There's no side effects. Okay, so they're the kind of things I'm hearing. So it's like a big concern for me, because I know that there are people like you that are actually able to help women and I know that, like I have personally managed my experience through lifestyle stuff. Yeah, it really concerns me that women think that that's the only solution. Can you give us a bit of a rundown? You said that some women absolutely do need to have some HRT. Like when is it good, when is it not good? You always start with what is it first?
Speaker 1:And what?
Speaker 2:are bioidentical as opposed to.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, a lot of confusion around that.
Speaker 2:So in the past, hormone replacement therapy yeah, it was first created, I think like 1940s, early 1950s, and it was kind of sold. It was the synthetic hormones at that stage. Um, it was sold as to make you younger and the book that was released by robert young and I think it's probably robert young or robert someone, I can't remember, but it was called forever young and it was very much backed by the pharmaceutical companies who wanted to sell these hormones to women, and women weren't too keen on taking this stuff. So what they did was they targeted men and said, hey, if you want your wife to be always young and to do whatever you want, get them onto hormones. So that was kind of the gist and it was like really pushing men to tell their wives they were cranky and they needed to go on hormones.
Speaker 2:And this is and this is also the term hysterical, because before women were considered to be hysterical because they would they have these different symptoms. Um, they were either put into mental institutions that they were, they had their, um, your uterus removed, which is where hysterectomy comes from, and it was really because women were experiencing these symptoms and one of the key I know I'm not going to say it's a symptom, one of the key changes that happens for women as their hormones come down. If we become less bitable, we can become a little bit more outspoken.
Speaker 1:Not as easy to control.
Speaker 2:That's right, and this is actually related to our drop in estrogen. Estrogen is our mothering hormone, so as estrogen comes down, we're not quite so. You know. I'm not saying some people are still abitable, but it's like we kind of question things and if you think about it, if we go back a few generations, women were not allowed to question anything.
Speaker 2:So, if they started to say, oh, I don't want to do this and I don't want to do that. Now we're seen as hysterical, chucked into a mental institution, ripped out your uterus and your ovaries, which made things even worse, and then everyone went crazy. So that was kind of where it was and then. So then we got to the 50s and 60s where, okay, now let's just put everybody on hormones. It makes them easier to live with, they'll look good, they'll stay looking young, they're not going to. They're basically going to do what you told, because we're going to give all these hormones to keep them the same as they were when they were younger. And there's a whole book about this and with a whole movement about this. And so then everyone was being prescribed because and majority of um doctors were male doctors as well so every woman was virtually being prescribed hormones. And then comes along, and hormones at that stage was the highest selling drug in the world, wow. And it comes along in the early 2000s, this big trial, research trial that says hormones create cancer, and that particular study. It was flawed. It did actually come out with some good results, but that's not what hit the headlines. What hit the headlines is hormone therapy creates cancer all of a sudden. No doctor prescribed it at all and there was this big fear around the hormones and with it since being looked at in the studies has since been looked at. We know that they were using synthetic hormones. We know, and some were on estrogen only, some were on estrogen and progesterone. So they know that there was a difference in the project the and progesterone. So they know that there was a difference in the. Synthetic progesterone was actually causing more of an issue than the estrogen. And also the women that they put in the study were actually women who are older, because another side effect was it gives you heart attacks. But they were women who were older, so I think the majority were in their 70s, so we're talking postmenopausal women who probably already had a heart condition anyway. And so then, and when they went on the hormones, the hormones made it worse, and that we know that that's a known side effect, that if you already have a heart condition, that hormone therapy therapy is not recommended for you after a certain age. So there were a lot of flaws in that study. So everyone now gets really scared. No, we're not going to touch any hormones at all.
Speaker 2:Pharmaceutical companies made lots of money. So then what happened was in the kind of background um, naturopathic doctors over this, there are in the states and canada, they have naturopathic doctors. They had been using what was known as a bioidentical hormone and it was being compounded by compounded pharmacists. And this was plant-based and what they found and it started with from wild yam that the molecule within wild yam basically mimicked the hormone that we created in our body. So this is what it means by bioidentical or body identical. It means it's being created in a lab, but it's identical to what your body creates. Okay, so we do know that this is a lot safer, particularly on the progesterone side of things.
Speaker 2:So having a bioidentical progesterone is a lot safer than having a synthetic progestin, and that's actually called different things, but quite often they use the same name. So now we've got women who are being prescribed bioidenticals and what happened was the pharmaceutical companies are obviously losing a lot of money and they went oh, these people over there are doing something and they're making money out of that. So why don't we take what the compounding chemists are doing? And what we will do is we will do something and we'll patent it, we'll create a drug and we will put that out there. So that's what bioidentical hormones are, and they're out pretty much across the marketplace I mean, I'm not sure if any. There's probably still some doctors who might still be prescribing synthetics, but the majority bioidentical, which are deemed to be safer, and at this stage, yes, they are, but we have only been using them for a relatively short amount of time.
Speaker 1:Which often happens with a whole bunch of things right Ten years down the track we go oh, maybe we shouldn't have done that.
Speaker 2:So it's a safer form of hormone.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But we don't know and this is my concern we really don't know what the impact of having higher levels of that hormone in your body is as you age, when you're not meant to have that level of hormone. So we've got higher levels of estrogen and we have higher levels of progesterone, so generally they're prescribed together unless you don't have a uterus. If you don't have a uterus, you can have estrogen only. You don't need progesterone. You need progesterone to protect the uterus because we know high levels of estrogen can cause uterine cancer. So they always give you progesterone. If you have a uterus, you don't have a uterus, you can go estrogen only. So that to me is a bit of a red flag. Uh well, they actually know that that's a problem.
Speaker 2:So I I don't know that we're really going to know, probably for about 20 or so years, what the real impact of using these hormones long term, because the the medical societies around the world actually don't recommend lifetime use of hormones. They only recommend it for a certain amount of time and then weaning off and they've got age limits of. You know, depending on different societies have different age limits, but generally the recommendation is not to be having them once you're over 60. That's a general statement, but many doctors are not following those guidelines and they continue to prescribe them and we have women who go.
Speaker 2:I am never coming off my hormones and and if I've tried to come off my hormones, things are so bad I go back on it's because they haven't addressed the underlying stuff that's going on. So I think we don't know enough yet about hormones to say it's completely safe. We do know it's definitely safer than the synthetics. We do know that it does help with some symptoms, but we also know some women really struggle with hormones and when they take hormones they really, really struggle. So it doesn't work for everyone and we don't call it hr I mean that we still colloquially talk call it hrt. It's now, but it's not hormone replacement we need to replace our hormones.
Speaker 2:Hormones are fine as they are, but it is hormone therapy, so it's called hormone therapy. So that's really just to change around. The there was a. There's a lot of and this came from um the young book as well is that menopause is a state of hormone deficiency, and I still see this where there are still some doctors who are basically going oh well, you're estrogen defic're, estrogen deficient, so we need to give you back more estrogen. You're not deficient in estrogen. You've got the right amount of estrogen that your body requires for the stage of life that you're in. Basically, it's the same stage of life when you're in puberty, when you weren't producing eggs every month. So we just revert back to where we were when we were non-reproductive. That is the right level for where you should be. At that stage of life.
Speaker 2:We don't need to replace hormones, but sometimes people will need some therapy so we can use hormones as a therapy to help them manage symptoms, and I think you know symptoms are worse now because of the lifestyle that we live. It all comes down to the lifestyle, but women want to continue to be at their peak performance and the same. As you know, they're competing with 30-year-olds, and all of that, you've got high-level women who need to be able to compete. So the only way they can get there is to either take hormones or do the work and many of them don't have the time to do the work or they choose not to do the work, and so we'll just take hormones to get you through so that you can continue to function in that high competitive world.
Speaker 2:I get that. I get that, but sometimes there will come a time where you I don't know I think there comes a time of reckoning.
Speaker 1:That's got to right.
Speaker 2:There's got to be, at some stage, the more you're going to change, the better you're going to be.
Speaker 1:Interestingly, one thing I've experienced because you know, when you're in a normal or normal I'm using that word again when you're in a regular cycle, you have those kind of peaks and troughs with mood and energy levels, and I've actually found that I'm much more steady, consistent, um, like there's definitely moments like I don't think I'm completely in menopause yet, but I'm definitely on my way, and so I do have those sometimes, but very rarely, where, like a lower energy, my sleep's not as good, but just in just, I feel like more consistent in who I am you do the work, yes, yes, so you do the work.
Speaker 2:and you know that perimenopause stage can be, you know, 13, 10, 13, 10, 13 years. Yeah, wow, oh, my God, I've got to put up this for so long. You don't have to put up with it. There's many people who do. But also I think the gift is in knowing that once your hormones settle down post-menopause, that things will just calm down if you've done the work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's like that time beforehand is your preparation time for the next stage of your life it's an initiation you know it's, you know it's, it's, it's a time of change.
Speaker 2:It's like we don't, because we don't celebrate those transitions in our society, but in other societies they do. Women, once they come through menopause, they are the wise women and they are respected and revered, whereas in our society it's like as soon as you get your first grade hair, it's like, oh, you're old and you don't get menopause because then you're really old. So it's like we don't. Our society doesn't respect women as they age. We do men, but we don't restrict, respect women as they age and so any wonder women don't really want to get to this time of life. And they in their 40s and they stick their head in the sand, say I want to talk about menopause and we actually have to, because you're probably gut, impair perimenopause right now and unless you do something about it, it's not going to get any better. But it's like a, it is it's your training ground for the next stage of life. How do you want to? You know, if we think of our life in thirds, we're kind of to the last third of our life. So how do we want to live that I know for me, I don't want to be medicated and not being able to move and just sitting in a room doing nothing. I mean, I look at my mother and that's how I see when she's not medicated. I'll say that she's never been on medications, she's as healthy as a horse, but she doesn't go anywhere and she doesn't do anything and it's like I don't want to be like that.
Speaker 2:Why I do everything I can to keep mobile. Hiking is my thing. I hide everywhere and it's like I don't want to be like that. Why I do everything I can to keep mobile. Hiking is my thing. I hike everywhere and it's like that's my time happy place and it's because it gives me the strength. I put a backpack on my back and I feel so strong my boots on and I just feel strong within myself and it's like there's my strength. I'm just so grounded, I'm very, very grounded and I just type and it just gives me what I need and that's what I want as I age. That's what I want to continue to do. I'm going out with hiking boots on, but if I go out falling off the side of the mountain, that'd be great.
Speaker 1:I said to my kids the other day they were I don't know why, they were talking about death, but I was like I just want to die of old age, like I don't want to die because I've on medication or because of an illness, like just when I'm done, when I'm done, I'm done and that's the way we used to die? Yes, that's right.
Speaker 2:This would used to happen. You know and we see this in the blue zones that we have people who are, you know, 100 plus and they're doing everything. You know some of them are working and they're walking, they're part of the community, they've got this life purpose and then one day, basically their energy just drops and within a week or so they're gone and they die of old age. And dying of old age is generally a very short process, doesn't take long, because it's basically your energy levels start to drop, you've run out of your body's, just run out of everything, and it's now on a couple of weeks time and then it's gone. You know, and you go to sleep one day and you don't wake up.
Speaker 2:Wake up the end that's my preferred way of going is that way, but if I happen to go, uh, off a cliff, it's fine as well, because I'm going out doing, doing what you love, yeah going out suffering because if I fall off the it has to be a it has to go completely. I don't want to. I want to break a few things that have to no, you don't want to be hospitalized.
Speaker 1:The broken hip.
Speaker 1:We were because you've got strong bones. Hopefully we're getting lots of women excited about this new potential. So this is a thing that I really love to share on this podcast is like we are capable of so much, is like we are capable of so much, um, and there are so many potential like possibilities out there for us to take care of our health, to embrace these different stages of our lives, and you're one of the people that helps with that and that's why I love talking to you and you're so knowledgeable and um, yeah, we're just very aligned with how how we see things. You've got a program, a free program, coming up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so free workshop it's coming workshop and it's called the secret to thriving in menopause, and in that it goes over four days. Um well, it's not four full days, it's on four different days and they're about 45 minute each, each classes, and they're all on at night time. And this is where I talk a little bit more about the role of our genetics, the role of stress, insulin resistance, of what we can do and how we can basically put ourselves in control. But when we understand how our, our individual body works and what it requires, we now have the knowledge and we basically we're in the driver's seat. We can then decide what we want to do, because we know the right foods that will nourish our body, we know the right exercise, the timing, and then for me, I see, I my, I see my job is to share knowledge. So I share knowledge. Your job to choose what you want to do with it. And that's the same in the program, because I'd have a paid program that women come and join me with. It's like well, I'm going to share information with you, I'm going to guide you, I'm going to help you and I've got coaches that work with you and we're going to coach you.
Speaker 2:But in the end it's up to you, because it is up to the individual and it starts with the mindset, by deciding that this is going to be a transition time for you and it's an opportunity for you to set yourself up for the rest of your life, to be healthy, to be vital and to embrace the changes that are happening. That starts with the way you think it has got nothing whatsoever about what you put on your plate. It's got to start here. It's got to start with the mindset, over and above everything else. If you see this as a time of opportunity, a time of transformation, you will be fine in the next stage of your life. If you see this as the worst time of your life, why the hell am I, a woman? Women get it bad. This is as I you can.
Speaker 2:You will suffer you will suffer, but you don't have to with angela there are choices out there and regardless of what the choices are, whether or not you choose that, hormones, hormones are way of being, that's fine. But make a choice, but see it as an informed choice, exactly.
Speaker 1:Educate yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and power, yeah. I'm doing this because it's my choice. I'm not doing it from fear, I'm doing it from power. And, as I said, for some women they definitely need hormones. Does it mean I have to be there forever on it forever? No, it doesn't. They might need hormones to get them through this time, but they still have to do the work.
Speaker 2:you still have to do the rest of the work yeah sitting there, sorry, even drinking wine every single night and eating chocolates and all that or chocolates aren't that bad, it's right causing a problem, but we can't continue to do that. The wine and cheese every night after you know, before dinner. That's not helping. That's actually making things worse so, and hormones do not fix the problem. If you're sitting there drinking wine and cheese every night, the weight will still go on how many women have you helped so far ang? Oh, you're asking.
Speaker 1:Have you done your numbers?
Speaker 2:Well, through the free program I have probably helped over 10,000 women in the free program. Wow, I've paid programs in the last five years, probably close to a thousand.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, amazing. Can you give us just a couple of examples of the feedback that you get from them?
Speaker 2:I probably think you know, yes, they lose weight. The majority of people who come to join my program, they come initially to lose weight, okay, and I think, um, I think the biggest thing is is women get their confidence back yeah I've had women.
Speaker 2:I had one woman who was um, she was a preschool teacher or a kindergarten teacher and she was really stressed at work and she knew that, you know, she wanted to ask for changes in, you know, in the environment and things like that, but she didn't have the confidence to do that. Once she learned her genetic type and realised how she thrives, her genetic type, and realized how she thrives, she then had the confidence to go to her boss and say, look, I work really, really well in this type of environment at this time. Can we make some changes? Because at the moment, the way I'm doing things it's just stressing me out and really I'm about to resign because I can't cope with this anymore. So, so now she says I got the confidence to go and ask for what I want and I got it. Amazing. Then she was able to enjoy her work and then, yes, she dropped her weight, she was healthier and all of that.
Speaker 2:So to me, what I see is I see, because we do it all online and I see them on Zoom calls what I see is the light goes on in their eyes. It's like they light up when they start the program. Quite often it's dull. Oh, my God, my eyes are like really low. And then, because we do a bit of a detox in the middle of the program, and all of a sudden I just see the light, the energy, the vitality. I see it in their face.
Speaker 2:Their eyes are bright and it's just like there's this smile that's there all of the time and that, for me, over and above anything else, is why I do what I do, because I just want women to have the confidence, to have the energy, the vitality to do whatever it is that they want to do, whether or not that is playing with their grandchildren or climbing to the top of you know, is that they want to do, whether or not that is playing with their grandchildren or climbing to the top of you know, whatever mountain they want to climb, or sailing the seas, whatever it is, they feel confident enough to do that. And you know, and I had one woman I was talking to the other day and she said I'm going, I've booked myself an overseas trip on my own and I'm going to go hiking she got that confidence because she now understands herself better.
Speaker 1:Amazing, that's so good yeah, and obviously being in a group of like-minded women. When you're doing, going through the program, you're, you're egging each other on, and there's all of that group support as well that's why I do that group program.
Speaker 2:I used to do one-on-one, but we get so much, so much more results when people are all together cheering each other on supporting each other, and they all want to. They all want to succeed for each other yeah, when you're just doing one-on-one. I just find that you know you'll get there. But it's going to be a really slow journey unless you're really, really motivated. Many women aren't at this time of life. They're a bit stuck. Women are just stuck and they don't know what to do and they're tired and they're exhausted.
Speaker 1:If this sounds like you listeners, then I highly recommend that you check out Angela's program. It starts on the 3rd of March 3rd of March, 3rd of March, so we're going to be sharing all of those links with you so that you can sign up and completely free. So like, definitely if you want to take control. The Embrace Menopause Embrace Menopause website. Yeah, it's that side, embracemenopausecomau.
Speaker 2:You'll find out all about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant thank you so much. It's always really great to have you on. I really appreciate your time thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:I love talking about this stuff till next time, bye, bye.
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