Episode #027 How to Balance Hormones with Food to Ease your Menopause with Guest Natasha Hodge

Midlife plunges us into an hormonal melting pot – fact. And we can’t change the fact that menopause is coming for us. 

But we can choose how we live through our menopause years – and beyond. How we treat our body and mind. How we value ourselves inside and out.

And making choices about how we fuel our bodies that result in balancing our hormones can have a huge impact on almost every aspect of our lives.

Find out more by joining your host Kate Porter The Midlife Metamorphosis Coach® and her guest award-winning Menopause Food Expert and Qualified Nutritionist of Natasha is Wide-Eyed Natasha Hodge for Episode 027 as they talk about How to Balance Hormones with Food to Ease your Menopause.

Natasha shares her story of how childhood picky eating lead to 40 years of yo-yo dieting before her eyes were opened to the misinformation about what we put into our bodies and the fact that we as a generation have been thrown under the bus when it comes to food.

This myth-busting episode is packed with practical advice and tips for how fuel your body to feel at your best in Midlife. From gut health to real versus ultra-processed food, via fasting and being hangry, you don’t want to miss Natasha’s insights and inspiration. And Natasha talks Kate through her five ways to ease your menopause symptoms.

Connect with Natasha

https://natashaiswideeyed.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-hodge-nutrition-consultant-natashaiswideeyed/

https://www.instagram.com/wide.eyed.menopause/

https://www.tiktok.com/@wide.eyed.menopause

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

welcome to midlife unlimited the podcast for women who want more i'm your host kate porter the midlife metamorphosis coach and i know what it's like to feel stuck navigating the midlife maze i've looked in the mirror and thought who is that woman so midlife unlimited is here to let you know you are not alone you do not have to put on a brave face and put up with it you don't have to play it safe midlife unlimited is all about about ripping off that mask and telling midlife how it really is. Nothing is off limits because together there's no limit to what we can achieve. So welcome to today's episode. Now midlife plunges us into a hormonal melting pot. Fact. And we can't change the fact that menopause is coming for us. But we can choose how we live through our menopause years and beyond, how we treat our body and mind, how we value ourselves inside and out, and making choices about how we fuel our bodies that result in balancing our hormones can have a huge impact on almost every aspect of our lives. So I'm delighted to be joined by my guest today, Natasha Hodge, award-winning menopause food expert and qualified nutritionist of natasha is wide-eyed to talk about how to balance hormones with food to ease your menopause so welcome natasha hi kate thanks so much for having me i'm very excited to be here oh i'm looking forward to this one because if proof were needed that this is a topic that needs talking about on midlife unlimited you are it aren't you because You didn't set out to work with us menopausal women, did you?

SPEAKER_01: 1:59

That is exactly right. I have been a nutritionist for 11 years and I didn't want to touch menopause with a barge pole. It just seemed like... Yeah, it seemed like a subject that because it's everywhere, which I'm very, very grateful for, I think it's brilliant that we now talk about it more, that we're discussing it between ourselves, but also with other generations and men. Everybody is much more aware of it. But I'd gone through it or, you know, I'm probably still going through it and I'd done it quite well. And I just thought that's not an area I want to a touch on, you know, I certainly don't want to niche into it, but the narrative was getting louder and louder that it was all about HRT. And HRT is a very useful tool, and it's helped a lot of women. But I was finding a lot of women were finding that HRT wasn't the be-all and end-all, and it cannot undo what food... you know, the damage that food can do to us and is doing to us. And we've been thrown under the bus as a generation of women. So the women that are coming through now have had really their whole lives with misinformation about food. And it's that that's the problem. And that's why we're having such bad symptoms. And so suddenly it was like the universe keep pushing me that way. And I thought, you know what? actually, this is exactly, I am exactly the right person to talk about this and to say, HRT, yeah, it's a tool, but it's not for everyone. And also, we can enhance the benefits of HRT. Everybody has enhanced benefits if they eat correctly.

SPEAKER_00: 3:55

Yeah, I think, I mean, that's one of the things that I love so many things about you and what you do, but you are passionate about spreading the message that food the right food can save us really and it's brilliant that later on you're going to be sharing your top tips lessons no top tips for how to balance our hormones using food to help ease have a better menopause but first i'd like to delve more into you as well because midlife unlimited is is about the woman behind the business the woman behind what you do so i'd How has your food story influenced where you are today? I

SPEAKER_01: 4:37

think food has been central to my whole life, I would say. I mean, obviously, everybody eats. Everybody has to eat. But I started out as the most, the fussiest child on the planet. And I actually had a very... difficult relationship with food so um I I probably lived in fear of food for quite some years because I was very uh reactive so if I smelt something I didn't like I'd throw up so you know that that impacted my school life that impacted my social life you know I literally my mum would have to tell people if she's coming around for tea with a friend you can only cook burnt sausages or Burnt fish fingers. I mean, it was, you know, it was bad.

SPEAKER_02: 5:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:31

And as I grew up, obviously, I grew up in the 70s. You know, I was born in 71. And we were at the beginning of the ultra processed food boom, weren't we? Oh, yeah.

UNKNOWN: 5:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:51

I would eat anything ultra-processed. I would eat anything sweet-like. I would eat any biscuit, any new chocolate bar or whatever it was. And I think my weight issues started when I was about seven, so I was larger than all my friends. And so that was the narrative that I lived with... Like so many people, and I think that's expounded these days because our food landscape is so problematic now. But I spent 40 years dieting. really, you know, or struggling with food. So I did actually expand my horizons greatly when I was in my late teens. I had very, very bad eczema. I had eczema probably from birth to 40 with a very short episode where I was free of it because I went to a homeopath. And I... Because I was so desperate to get rid of it, I did as I was told. And I ate foods that had nothing in them. They were literally, you know, you went to the health food shop and everything had to come from there. But like so many things, you know, I lost a lot of weight because I was eating foods that my body could use. But I forgot all about it. As soon as I went to university, I was like, oh, you know, my body's all sorted. I totally slipped back into it. So I then spent another sort of 17 years of... Going to the slimming clubs, losing it, putting it all back on, all those sorts of things.

SPEAKER_00: 7:44

Were you trying all the different diets? Because there were so many diets. I mean, every diet. Suddenly. I remember cottage cheese diet and a pineapple diet. The grapefruit diet, the cabbage

SPEAKER_01: 7:56

diet. My God, the cabbage soup diet. Did you ever try that one? No. That was literally the most horrific thing ever. So, yeah. So when I got to 40, I think... I was just about to go back to a slimming club for the third time and I just thought you know I am the kind of woman who I'll stick to anything if I'm told the the right information clearly something was not right if I hadn't been able to sustain the weight loss you know I literally was like you'd lose four stone or you'd lose three stone put on four you know it was I mean I goodness me if I if I thought about how much actual weight I have lost and gained over a lifetime it would literally be because

SPEAKER_00: 8:42

it's your skin as well and I know when I stopped drinking I naturally lost and also my taste buds changed and you kind of end up with like droopy bits here and there and it's probably because I'm you know I'm 56 in a few weeks time but the elasticity of your skin with constant stretching in and

SPEAKER_01: 9:01

out

SPEAKER_00: 9:02

absolutely

SPEAKER_01: 9:03

yeah yeah So at 40, I'd left a very stressful job and started work with a food supplement company. And it was then that it really made me think again, back to the homeopathic thing. Everything that we put in is manifested in one way or another in our bodies and in our health. So, you know, the fact that I had spent so many years with a lot of different health issues. The eczema was definitely the worst one because it was chronic eczema and it was really bad. You know, it was all over. And when I started to really look into what we are designed to eat and to eat for our biology, it was like... No wonder I like fat. No wonder I like meat. No wonder I, you know, enjoy full flavoured food because we're supposed to be rewarded. And it was, you know, all the things we'd been taught to avoid and to be low fat and to, you know, concentrate on quite refined foods was absolute nonsense.

UNKNOWN: 10:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 10:19

The reason I'm called wide-eyed is because I literally could not get my eyes any wider when I was telling people about these things. It was like, what? I cannot believe that we don't know that, you know, cholesterol is good for us, that foods that have the fat grown with them are the things we're supposed to eat, you know? And it was such a turning point for my health. You know, the eczema cleared. I've never been on the weighing scales since, you know, and to be freed from that.

SPEAKER_00: 10:53

Yeah, to be freed from that. That in itself must be a huge thing as well. It's

SPEAKER_01: 10:58

massive. I was literally a slave. I was on the scales definitely every day from age seven.

SPEAKER_00: 11:04

And it impacts you so much, doesn't it? That kind of 0.0 of a kilogram either way can either make or break your day to a certain extent.

SPEAKER_01: 11:12

Absolutely. And that's the thing, isn't it? People are beholden to... an ideology that somebody came up with in the 50s where they could sell us bathroom scales. Before that, nobody thinking well knew unless they stood on them at the public baths. So the fact that we then started to obsess with the 80s was a terrible time for obsessing about... weight in particular and I think you know as women of course it's an even bigger pressure so yeah the freedom of that was unbelievable you know and

SPEAKER_00: 11:55

always amazed me as well it's like you can be a certain height and they tell you what you should weigh but your build could be completely i mean i'm just under i never quite made it at five seven but i've got size seven feet i've got quite big hands i'm you know i'm broad shouldered but there could be another woman or man the same height as me who are much more petite in build and to say that we should be weighing the same it's just almost a nonsense really Well, to be honest, the whole thing is a

SPEAKER_01: 12:22

nonsense. And I think the more we learn about the human body, the more we understand that we have a blueprint from birth as to what our weight is supposed to be, what our height is, you know, everything about us. And if we let... Our bodies do what they want to do. You know, I might say to myself, I want to be eight and a half stone. But if my body thinks that I need to be, honestly, I literally don't know what I weigh. But if, you know, if it says this is the shape you're supposed to be, we're going to have a little bit more, you know, timber on your hips than the next woman. That's what it wants to be. And I think if we just let go of the outcome, but have our focus on health and balancing everything and just getting out of the way of what our miracle bodies want to do, then life gets a hell of a lot easier.

SPEAKER_00: 13:22

Because I know there's a phrase that you use, and I love that, that our bodies are tools and we need to work with that because our bodies are going to do what our bodies are going to do, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01: 13:35

Absolutely. If you're putting an obstacle in the way of any critical function, then it's going to have a knock-on effect. So, for example, if you eat a food... that strips out your gut now your gut can't function correctly it can't absorb the things that it wants to absorb so you've got a knock-on effect where you're kind of robbing peter to pay paul you know the body's saying okay i'm gonna have to do a bit of a work around here so now you might have you know less energy you might have muddled thinking because your brain hasn't had the nutrients you know all those sorts of things just from one that one food that has interfered with the cascading effect. Everything has a function and it has to have the right trigger. And if it doesn't have that trigger, then something is gonna happen within you that you don't want to happen. And unfortunately, what tends to happen, and I've certainly seen it a lot in the work that I do, our bodies cope for a certain amount of time. They are absolutely brilliant bits of kit and they cope for only so long. And it's usually around the 40-year mark that actually the body goes, you know what, I can't do this anymore. And that's when we start to see ill health symptoms come in, whether it be menopause linked or not. It's in every human if they haven't eaten properly. over a lifetime and again as i say we've been taught so many um so much misinformation about food that pretty much everybody globally up to the age of 40 isn't doing the right thing for themselves through no fault of their own it's accidental

SPEAKER_00: 15:39

and i think probably as well I mean, I was born in 69, but as we've grown up, the power of advertising and then obviously now social media and everything, we're constantly bombarded, aren't we? It's food, food, food. This is good. This is bad. This is good. This is bad. And it's having the information to be able to make informed choices. Exactly. You can't

SPEAKER_01: 16:02

be informed, can you, if the information is wrong? Yeah. but it's presented as right, you're going to make decisions on that basis, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00: 16:15

And the people selling you the food or the meals, etc., they're going to wrap it up with a big bow to make it look... I mean, one thing we were chatting before, because I always like to have a pre-brainstorm just to come up with ideas and get to know each other, because we've not met in the flesh, but I hope to meet you very soon. But ultra-processed food, it's cunning, isn't it? Because it gets you hooked.

SPEAKER_01: 16:40

I mean, it's designed. It is absolutely designed and engineered to be, well, to light up your brain, to make your brain think this is marvellous because it's giving us an instant reward. And, you know, make no mistake, it is literally chemicals masquerading as food. It is not food. It's not food. It's been made in a factory. Those individual ingredients even are pretending to be the real thing and put together in a brilliant way. I mean, it is brilliant, but it's man-made concoctions that... we're all thinking yeah okay especially if they've put you know this is whole grain well you tell me how it's whole grain if it doesn't actually look anything like the original food and it's been refined and it's been sort of chemically enhanced you know they're they're so good at manipulating the wording on the packaging and to make out that this is a um you know, a brilliant one of your five a day and, you know, all these different things. There's so much that we could unpack. You know, it would take absolutely ages, but, you know, each thing is a bit of misinformation, but it's been so well marketed to us all.

SPEAKER_00: 18:17

And they actually, I think I'm right in saying, they alter the bacteria in your gut as well. So it's self-perpetuating that you want more again.

SPEAKER_01: 18:27

You'll crave it. Absolutely. Your brain is signaling. Because again, with our amazing bodies, if your brain is not getting what it needs, it will signal that you're hungry. So if I've eaten a bag of Doritos, for example, you know, not only have I ingested Doritos, a whole load of vegetable oil which again is it damages our dna

SPEAKER_00: 18:56

it damages when you reach in and you pull out a club not not just doritos other tortilla chips are available but you know when you put your hat not that you eat them when i sometimes indulge in them with my hummus um you put your hand in and you bring out this kind of lump of goodness only knows what and you think That is actually what I'm eating. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:22

So, yeah, if you're eating that and there's no real discernible nutrition in that bag of crisps at all, your brain's going to go, you know what, I'm still hungry. So you're then thinking, right, what else can I have? I'll go and get the Ben and Jerry's. You know, it is literally your brain saying, I need crisps. nutrients I'm going to make you hungry to motivate you to go and get it but also what I'm going to do is I'm going to make you want to sit on the couch I want you to be a couch potato because I don't have the energy we didn't get the nutrients I don't have the energy and we need to conserve energy because you didn't get what we needed so although I'm making you hungry I'm Unless you give me something that I can really use. Unless you fuel me, yeah. I'm just going to keep making you hungry. And yeah, absolutely. The chemicals in the food itself are designed to enhance those cravings and to make you think, my God, they're so delicious. I'm going to go back to the supermarket and pick it up again.

SPEAKER_00: 20:37

And then again, we have the... Very real issue for us, Gen X, midlife women, juggling. And juggling and constantly being, I need to do this, I need to do that. Convenience is a big thing, isn't it, when it comes to processed food? It makes it easier.

SPEAKER_01: 20:58

It is. It is. But also, I think you've got, again, we've got into this mindset, especially because food technology has been so clever. that it's saying, you know, here, we're giving you what you need. And, of course, we've lost then the art of thinking to ourselves, I've got to cook from scratch. I mean, I must say it's one of the– biggest uh bug bears and questions i get before somebody starts with me they are literally like tasha you know will i have to cook all the time you know am i having to cook from scratch because i just don't have the time for that and you know time is a massive issue for somebody making that decision but by the time they've finished with me you know they might have had the quick fixes because i certainly give that to to people because I get it. You know, yes, you need to be able to go to the supermarket and pick up things that are an instant fix so that you don't then pick up on junk. But by the end of it, they are finding more time because they have recognised that actually that's the most important thing. If your body's being fuelled, everything else is easy. you know, your whole life gets easier. And so you don't mind finding the time to build yourself from the inside out. And actually it's a, an act of self care. So, you know, I get, you know, at the beginning you want the quick go to things. And in the end you're like, you know what, I'm going to take my time and, you know, really nourish my body. And that means cooking from scratch. So,

SPEAKER_00: 22:37

so I think it is, as I understand it, that, by introducing and getting to love real foods, you can break that cycle of nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, still hungry. Oh, I've only got five minutes. Nom, nom, nom.

SPEAKER_01: 22:53

Yeah. I think as soon as you, yeah, if you're, if you feed yourself the foods that your body recognises and can assimilate and use to literally, you know, repair and rebuild you because that's what all we are we we just

SPEAKER_00: 23:13

need this fuel because does does the gut i mean excuse my ignorance does it is it constantly renewing and repairing or

SPEAKER_01: 23:21

yes i mean the gut is is the most amazing part of us because that's got a five to seven day turnover so if you think out of all the cells in our bodies that has the highest turnover but if you're eating something say like gluten on a daily basis you're ripping through your gut and every day all your life and so you know we we take out anything that's going to cause inflammation that's going to impact the gut so that we can start repopulating the gut but the gut It's the most ingenious place in our body. It's our

SPEAKER_00: 23:56

second brain. I was going to say, because people talk about having gut reactions and gut instincts, and that is a real thing because you feel it there. Totally. And

SPEAKER_01: 24:04

also, I think we are starting to realise that actually our intuition and our gut, definitely if we're fueling ourselves correctly, that's actually our best guidance in life. you know in all respects if you have a feeling that it's not right it is probably not right you know it's almost beyond thought isn't it it's like it really is a physical sensation yeah because our bodies are so clever but also we tend to forget that of course the bacteria in our body out outnumber Our cells, you know, by 10 to 1, they are the most crucial part of our body because, and they're not even us, this bacteria, you know, the ones we want to nurture are guiding so many things within the body. And, you know, we've talked, it's getting more and more known that there's the microbiome, but the importance of it is, In weight loss, in clear thinking, you know, literally in everything about you is crucial. So, yeah. So then eating an ultra processed food that wipes it out or makes the growth of the ones you don't want in there. So your sort of sugar loving bacteria, which are the ones then that make you crave food, that make you more hungry. Yeah. and also drive mood swings or anxiety or depression. You know, these things are in there. You don't want them in there. So, you know, that's another thing to then think, you know, okay, Sat, I'm going to get rid of those. I'm going to, you know, feed the ones that are basically making my life better. It's like having a whole bunch of friends in there who want the best for you And all you're doing is going, hey, let's have a party. I'm going to feed you what you really fancy so you can boogie on down and, you know, make my life easier. So I'm interested to

SPEAKER_00: 26:14

know, does the brain then, when we start putting decent food, real food in, does the brain start thinking, this is quite good now. I'm going to have more than that. I mean, does it create new, I don't know if cravings is the right word, but does it go, does it say, yes, eat more of that?

SPEAKER_01: 26:34

Definitely. I mean, I think as well, the fact that the best foods are the full fat foods, so they're going to have good mouthfeel. They're going to, you know, and the thing is, as you go on through your sort of journey of almost discovery, when you realize what real food tastes like, you then, your brain is... just more receptive to trying yet another food that maybe you wouldn't have eaten in the past. And it also detects what's in the food you did used to eat. So you might think to yourself, oh, sod it, I'm going to eat, you know, I don't know, a bag of crisps, like the Doritos we just said. Yeah. Because you've been doing, you know, you've been eating really well and somebody offers you it and you eat it. And when you eat it, because in your mind, you remember how much you loved them before. And then when you actually put it in your mouth, you can detect the sweetness in it. You can detect the sort of almost plasticized emulsifiers. And everything is much more heightened. So it's very much self-fulfilling because you start to actually notice what you didn't before because your body had coped. You start to notice and you also notice the effect of what you feel like after eating them. And that's the bit that's self-fulfilling because you kind of think, oh, my God, I feel really bloated now. Or I feel sluggish. You know, so that's become self-fulfilling because you're just like, I do not want to go back there.

SPEAKER_00: 28:26

I love that. Well, that leads us beautifully. And I do like a nice segue into your podcast. five steps really and I know we're going to be talking about sluggishness if that's a word as part of this because you've come up with five steps to ease our menopause systems symptoms even using food and it's good to follow them in the order that you give so listeners bear that in mind you may want to get a pen or paper or come back and re-listen to this so The first one is eat foods that balance your hormones. So as you mentioned, full fat. So what kind of foods are good?

SPEAKER_01: 29:14

Yeah, so these are the ones really that your body is going to recognise and they grow with the fat. So you've got full fat meat, fish, dairy, eggs, meat. nuts, seeds and leafy green veg. And when you think about, you know, those as sort of banners, there are so many different ways of cooking those foods, you know, and I'm not saying that it's exclusive, you know, because we can use other fats to cook with and stuff like that. But those foods have nothing in them that get in the way of your body's you know, miracle functions. There's nothing in there. So there's no refined sugars. There's, you know, there's very few. In fact, there's very few sugars at all in there. But the fat and the protein contained in most of those things also stop you from, craving food because they stretch the stomach and they also create certain chemicals that make your brain say you know what I'm full we have no cut off for carbohydrate absolutely none and that's why you can still fit a dessert in even though you're like literally bursting at the seams

SPEAKER_00: 30:39

Am I right in thinking as well that protein as we hit 50 onwards is increasingly important for us.

SPEAKER_01: 30:49

I mean, I'd say it is important throughout your life. Protein, of course, yes, is very important because we want our muscles to work and that's the principal fuel and building blocks for it. But I am not of the mindset where I say to somebody, right, you need this

SPEAKER_00: 31:09

amount of, you know. Because there's so much in the shops at the moment, isn't it? All the protein drinks and the protein yogurts and the protein puddings. And it's like, is that good? Do I need this? Do I need this? No. And

SPEAKER_01: 31:21

what is very upsetting in that way, you know, yeah, you've got these protein drinks everywhere. you know, very prominent ones out there, they are made with protein that you do not want to touch with a barge pole. If it's pea protein, for example, that will rip through your gut. A lot of people are allergic to that and don't know that they are. It's not as easily assimilated as... real whole food so if you're going to get your protein you get it from real food so you're going to get it from i mean obviously if you're vegetarian then you're going to get it from eggs nuts seeds and dairy but if you are um an omnivore then the meat and fish

SPEAKER_00: 32:06

yeah i eat fish i don't i don't eat i just went off it perimenopause i just it wasn't i mean yes i'm with the ethical as well but i just went off the texture Right. OK. I can't stand the substitute stuff either. Well,

SPEAKER_01: 32:23

I mean, again, it's not real food. Do not eat things that aren't real food. You know, so vegetarians. Yeah, it's it's full of. Oh, it's full of utter rubbish that doesn't. cannot be assimilated into our bodies. So yeah, whey protein, pea protein, all those different things.

SPEAKER_00: 32:43

Chickpeas, I'm a huge fan of chickpeas.

SPEAKER_01: 32:47

Okay, but again, a vegetable source of protein is not as easily bioavailable to us. So, you know, I'm glad you eat fish, that's really good. So it's, you know, wild caught fish, shellfish, is very, very useful to menopausal women. So cholesterol-containing foods, I know you've gone off meat, but offal is a huge one, shellfish, and then you've got your butter and your traditional dairy. I love butter. So traditional dairy. Yeah, I mean, great.

SPEAKER_00: 33:26

I love butter. I'm not great with bread because it bloats me, but I could eat butter

SPEAKER_01: 33:31

on its own. Good, good. Excellent. And bread, bread, we don't really want to worry about because that's a refined food, whether it's sourdough or not. It's, you know, it's not. But in those foods, if you're going to eat those foods, you've got to avoid anything that's got a weird chemical sound and name contained within it or an emulsifier, which is basically just a plastic.

SPEAKER_00: 33:55

Because Gabby got... Your second step, and this is something I won't use the word guilty because I don't do guilt, but I have been known to be a bit of a grazer, especially if I'm at my desk all day. And I know that's not something you recommend. And you're a big advocate of introducing or experimenting perhaps with fasting as well. Definitely. I mean,

SPEAKER_01: 34:20

if you think about it, our bodies were designed to look for food and to go for food. long periods of time, actually, without food because food was scarce. We couldn't just pop to the supermarket. And that hasn't changed. And, of course, if there is absolutely nothing wrong with you, then maybe fasting isn't the thing that you need. And if you're bobbing along absolutely fine, you've got literally zero health symptoms of any kind, then absolutely fine. But as a tool for... helping somebody especially menopausal women who have you know life impacting symptoms then fasting is brilliant because it it allows your body quiet times it allows the processes to be doing what they need to

SPEAKER_00: 35:15

do the reset almost

SPEAKER_01: 35:16

yeah oh totally and i i mean we we vary fasting but if you're just try and fasting for the first time, then eat within an eight hour window. I know that means that there's 16 hours where you're not eating and you might think, oh, you know, how am I going to do that? A lot of that is while you're asleep. So you have to start sort of checking in with how your body feels, because what we've ended up is, you know, breakfast is the most important time of the day and, You know, it's utter rubbish. Your body resets overnight. It has enough glucose to wake you up. And that means you've got enough energy to start your day. You don't need to be eating straight away. And we fear hunger as well. Is that

SPEAKER_00: 36:08

a myth then, the whole breakfast thing?

SPEAKER_01: 36:10

I mean, it's basically Kellogg's formula. I was going to say, is that them darn marketers again? Absolutely. 1917, that's been around since. And that came from a woman writing an article for Kellogg. So, yeah. And the thing is, breakfast is just break fast. It is the first food of the day, whatever time that is. Yeah. And it's such a great tool because our brains want to run on its preferred fuel, which you end up producing within your body called ketones. And that happens sort of towards the end of your fast if you're doing a 16-hour fast. But it's so brilliant for resetting our hormones and balancing everything and just, yeah, just allowing the body to repair and rebuild as it needs to.

SPEAKER_00: 37:11

So it sounds as though then your energy levels will shift as a result of this. They go through the roof.

SPEAKER_01: 37:19

They go through the roof because everything is working as it should. So, yeah, and you're much more clear thinking. So for brain fog, it's such a brilliant tool because your brain wants to run efficiently on ketones. So it uses ketones. the fat in your body so you you know you're obviously losing weight because it's it's unlocking the fat stores as well so yeah the the energy thing we'll talk about uh towards the end of these five tips but um yeah it's you know but the food itself of course gives you more energy because it's actually again the preferred foods that

SPEAKER_00: 38:02

your body was designed to take in So I'm guessing as well that in terms of when it comes to exercising, that home and obviously time poor, time rich is a big debate we have with ourselves. But if you're feeling more energetic, you're more likely to want to actually, whether it's just go for a walk or go to the gym or go for whatever lights you up. And I'm all about finding something that lights you up rather than something you should be doing. But I'm guessing these all go hand in hand then. That's it. If you,

SPEAKER_01: 38:34

yeah, if you give, if you just get out of the way of your body, then the energy is what you use. You know, you don't do it first. So a lot of women would be like, you know, I've had so many clients that have literally been trying to outrun the menopause. So they've upped their exercise, but they're finding it such a struggle because of course the food is pulling them back and it's not providing the energy they need. So then they're having to find willpower. So if you allow your body to get the things it needs, it then gives you the energy. So, you know, you have to put those things in first to create the energy that then makes you want to exercise because actually you have excess energy to burn off. You're like, oh, you know, this is great, but I'm with you. I mean, I absolutely hate the gym. I'm just, I can't be in that environment. And so mine is much more, you know, walking or dancing in the kitchen or, you know, I wash my car, you know, I'm energetic in that way. So life is, you know, yeah. It's movement though, isn't it? Yeah. It's, Movement is great. But I mean, again, as women, we need strength training. So, you know, there is still that element of I quite like calisthenics. So then you don't need any equipment and you can just use your own body weight to strengthen your muscles. But on top of that, I mean, I'm sure you're going to say one of the other top tips is that you've got to find stress relief

SPEAKER_00: 40:11

of some kind. Self-care is just so, so important. But also,

SPEAKER_01: 40:16

you see... In menopause, we are now relying on our adrenal glands. So it's the adrenal glands, really, which is our internal HRT system. So what does

SPEAKER_00: 40:27

that actually do for

SPEAKER_01: 40:29

ignorant people like me? They just take the slack off the ovaries. So your ovaries are going to decline to the point where they don't really want to... Yeah. The transition should be pretty straightforward because the normal function of the adrenal glands, of course, is to produce cortisol, your stress hormone and adrenaline. And in the 21st century, we are stressed all the time. So we're now very stressed when we hit perimenopause. But we've also not fed ourselves correctly because we've been told that porridge is the way to start the day. We've been told to swap our meat out for plant-based items. We've been told to self-medicate with or self-soothe with alcohol. Yeah. we've now got adrenal glands which are depleted and fatigued and not able to cope with this transition. And so if it's pumping out all the stress hormones and not nourished or coated in those lovely cholesterol-containing foods that I was talking about earlier, they're depleted and this is when you have the bumpy ride getting through your menopause.

UNKNOWN: 42:07

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 42:08

I know the fifth stage is something that I think a lot of the listeners will be like, I like the sound of this because it's something that impacts us all for whatever reason and so many different times. It could be great sometimes. And I'm not talking about sexy time. I'm talking about sleep. Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 42:29

I mean, sleep, again, is so disrupted if you aren't putting the... the routine in place, I suppose. Again, we watch television late. We tend to have blue light going into us all day long and then when we're in bed or just before bed and those sorts of things. But again, if you have put all those other things in place, the body now has its circadian rhythm sorted because it's getting fed the right food and It's fasting when it needs to fast, you know, when you don't feel hungry all the time. That's another brilliant thing about eating the right foods or foods that your body recognizes and fasting. You're not hungry all the time. Whereas, you know, again, I have people that come to me and they're like, I get hungry. I get worried if I'm going to go on a walk and I haven't got a, you know, a snack bar or whatever it is. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 43:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 43:33

But the sleep happens because if the hormones are balanced, then that means your melatonin can kick in when it's supposed to. And if we stop eating by about seven o'clock in the evening, our pancreas can wind down because it really doesn't want to be digesting food or sending out insulin or whatever it does. after seven o'clock so if we can stop eating by seven that means that the hormones are in place to ramp up your sleep hormones and you will have a better night's sleep another top tip for sleep if you are suffering with sleep the not eating late is a major thing because what happens is especially if it's a carbohydrate laden food so if it's you know quite a sugary snack or a big bowl of pasta or whatever it is, you crash in the middle of the night and your body wakes you up because it's crashed. So it's gone, oh my God, you know, we've just had a really dropping sugar level. I need to wake you up to make you go and get some food. Now, I'm not saying that people wake up hungry. They wake up because the body's gone, whoa, we need to do something. We're in crisis. So

SPEAKER_00: 44:51

I'm a bit of a late-ish night cereal eater. So that's not good then.

SPEAKER_01: 44:58

Not good, Kate. No, you're just creating a spike and then a crash in the middle of the night, which you definitely don't want your body to do. You want it to go right through. But if another really useful way of just before you go to bed is sleeping, a tip is to have a pinch of sea salt with a glass of water because electrolytes are really useful overnight and they will again balance all the body systems. And so it's a really useful, to be honest, having one before you go to sleep, but also having one in the morning can boost energy. So we absorb water much better if we've got plenty of salt on board.

SPEAKER_00: 45:50

I love that. You are just a font of knowledge. I think there's going to be so many women, so many women listening now who might have known some things, had heard other things, have heard so many myths that you've just wonderfully busted. But you've brought it together and you've made it make sense in such a clear way. So thank you for that. And in a little while, we're going to be sharing details of how listeners can get into contact with you, because I think there are going to be lots of women that need some Natasha in their life. But firstly, you can't escape the three questions that I ask each of my fabulous female guests. So if you're ready, I'm going to start with asking you, what is your midlife issue? Okay, so I heard

SPEAKER_01: 46:43

this a few years ago. It's not terribly well known, I don't think. But my goodness, if this comes on, I dance my socks off. And it's called Soul Survivor by... Beverly Nights and it's just such a great track and actually I think Chaka Khan features slightly on it so it's great but let me just say these lines because these are the ones that really get me when I'm singing along so it's ain't nobody gonna make me stop turn the lock rip me off because I'm right where I should be because I believe 100% we are all right where we should be And there's literally nothing going to stop me, you know, living a life of just abundance and, you know, and joy and spreading that and holding other women up in the same way. There's nothing can stop us if we, you know, if we don't want it to stop

SPEAKER_00: 47:44

us. Yeah. No. Oh, that is, I'm going to have to go and listen to that. I love her voice. I love her voice. Ooh. I want to know now then. What is your midlife mantra?

SPEAKER_01: 47:58

I mean, I suppose it sort of follows on from that. So I think to get the most out of life, you have to feed your mind, your body and your soul the best ingredients. So I just hate to think that... negativity can impact me. I have almost a force field around me, one for negative people. I try to keep them at arm's length. I certainly just don't give them the power over me. I don't watch the news. I don't listen to the news. I just have this thing. I'm aware of what's going on, but to dwell on it, I have... you know, people in my life that do so dwell on it and then their lives are worse for it. And I just think, well, you know, I think there's enough of us enlightened people and the positive energy that we're generating in this time in history, we will overcome it and we will, you know, overpower the sort of negativity that we're, you know, I think it's speeding up that negative craziness because they are know we're on to them

SPEAKER_00: 49:20

and it's also it's something i talk about a lot that worry and anxiety that comes from thinking constantly about stuff that you've got no control over either and the fear and the what-ifs and i mean we just talked about how to get a good night's sleep that's one thing that gets going to guarantee you will be awake all night

SPEAKER_01: 49:42

yeah Absolutely. It's just, it is pointless. But it's good to have a goal of, you know, there is enough of us to come together and to stop these things, you know, eventually. You know, we might have a bumpy few years, but the outcome is going to be good. And also, if we stay positive, we can impact our own lives through any outcome. any sort of um you know

SPEAKER_00: 50:16

adversity no absolutely it's about coming together it's about being part of midlife unlimited as well because i think as we say together there's no limit to what we can achieve

SPEAKER_01: 50:27

wow

SPEAKER_00: 50:27

brilliant talking of achieving though you might be in the process of writing it i'm not sure but if not when you do come to write it what will be the title of your autobiography

SPEAKER_01: 50:39

Yeah, I had a bit of trouble with this one. I did do a chat GPT ride through, but I think it would just be simply a menopause food guide for wide-eyed women. Because, you know, obviously I'm Natasha's wide-eyed, but I want people to think I'm here to learn. You know, I'm never going to stop learning. It's, you know, you've got to be wide-eyed and look at... ways to improve your life. And you're only going to be able to do that if you really are open-minded, you know, and you'll be rewarded for that. So, yeah, that would be the title, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 51:26

I love that because curiosity is such a powerful thing, isn't it? Just that willingness to find out. And you know what I'm going to say now, I'm going to do another little segue. The listeners that would like to find out more about you because they're curious to know more about what to do. Obviously, all your details will be in the show notes for our episode and on the Midlife Unlimited podcast website where you've got your guest profile. But if you could talk us through briefly your contact details, anything you've got coming up, that would be wonderful.

SPEAKER_01: 52:02

Brilliant. I've got a masterclass coming up and that's in June, June the 26th. So watch out for any posts on... All the social media, I'm on all of them. So if you went to TikTok or Instagram, I'm wide-eyedmenopause. Pretty much I'm Natasha's wide-eyed everywhere else. You can DM me anywhere and I will definitely get back to you. Obviously, I've got a website as well, which gives you much more information. And I also do a free video series. So if anybody wants that, you just DM me and ask for it or go to the website. In the resources, I've got a freebie section which has recipes and the download for the video.

SPEAKER_00: 52:51

What's the website address?

SPEAKER_01: 52:54

Natashaiswideeyed.com

SPEAKER_00: 52:58

Fabulous. Well, I think it's going to go into overdrive now. You're going to have to go reboot or whatever the technical term is. And if you've enjoyed today's episode, I would love your feedback. So it'd be fabulous if you could leave a review. Or you can email or text me via the link in the show notes and come and join the Midlife Unlimited podcast Facebook group. Again, the links in the show notes. And there you'll find the website link to where there are details of my exclusive VIP midlife metamorphosis coaching offers. So thank you for joining me today, Natasha. It's been informative, insightful and fun, which is what I love. So absolute joy. Thank you for listening. I look forward to you tuning in next week because don't forget Midlife Unlimited has a new episode every Thursday available wherever you listen to your podcasts. So here's to being fabulous and flourishing together and living Midlife Unlimited. Thank you, Natasha. It's a pleasure having you on here.

SPEAKER_01: 54:05

Thanks, Kate. My pleasure too.

SPEAKER_00: 54:09

Bye.