#188 - Turning Down the Critical Voice: Body Acceptance in Your Midlife Body with Kristina Bruce

You know that moment when you catch your reflection unexpectedly and think, "Who is that?" Not in a curious way, but in a way that feels like you don't recognize yourself? If you've had that moment, this episode is for you.

In this episode, we're talking about the evolution of body positivity and acceptance, the challenges of embracing body diversity in a culture that's currently shrinking, and how we can find peace with ourselves right now, in the bodies we're in today.

Kristina brings such clarity to the difference between body positivity and body acceptance, and why acceptance isn't resignation. She shares her own story of body grief, what it felt like to lose the identity that came with being thin, and how she found freedom on the other side of that grief. We also talk about the contraction and expansion happening in our current cultural moment (hello, GLP-1 era) and why this might be the final push before more of us say "enough."

If you've been stuck in body grief, if you feel betrayed by your changing body, or if you're exhausted from fighting yourself, this conversation will meet you right where you are.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The difference between body positivity (a social justice movement) and body acceptance (a personal practice)
• Why body acceptance isn't resignation, it's actually the path to real change
• How to move through body grief instead of staying stuck in it
• Why your body isn't betraying you, even when it feels that way
• What's underneath our resistance to body changes in midlife (spoiler: it's not about the weight)
• How to stop sourcing your worth externally and start finding safety within yourself

Connect with Kristina:

• Instagram: @kristinabruce_coach
• Website: kristinabruce.com
• Podcast: Unlearning Beautiful

Related Episodes You'll Love:

• Episode 47: Why Changing Your Body Isn't the Body Image Fix You're Looking For with Kristina Bruce
• Episode 109: The Body Acceptance Mistake That Keeping You Stuck
• Episode 134: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Body Image in Midlife with Summer Innanen
• Episode 141: Navigating Body Grief in Midlife with Nina Manolson

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Transcript

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The Mirror Moment In Midlife

Jenn Salib Huber 0:00

You know that moment when you catch your reflection unexpectedly in a store window or the mirror at the gym or a photo and you think, who is that? And not in a curious way, but in a way that kind of feels like you don't recognize who you see. If you've had that moment, this episode is for you. Today I'm welcoming back body acceptance coach Christina Bruce. When Christina joined me a couple of years ago on the podcast, that episode became one of our top 10 fan favorites. It sparked a conversation about body acceptance that clearly hit home with lots of you. Because body acceptance in midlife isn't just hard, it's complicated by decades of dye culture, changing hormones, and a world that keeps telling us, maybe today more than ever, that our worth is tied to how we look. So in this episode, we're kind of picking up where we left off. We're talking about the evolution of body positivity and acceptance, the challenges of embracing body diversity when the world is shrinking, and how we can actually find peace with ourselves, not someday, but right now in the bodies that we're in today. So cozy up, grab something to drink, get comfortable, and let's dive in. Welcome to the Midlife Feast, the podcast that helps you make sense of your body, your health, and menopause in the messy middle of midlife. I'm Dr. Jen Salie Pieber, intuitive eating dietitian and naturopathic doctor, and author of Eat to Thrive During Menopause. Around here, we don't see midlife and menopause as problems to solve, but as invitations to live with more freedom, trust, and joy. Each week you'll hear real conversations and practical strategies to help you feel like yourself again. Eat without guilt and turn midlife from a season of survival into a season of thriving. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dig in. Welcome

Why Body Positivity Feels Under Attack

Jenn Salib Huber 2:01

back to the Midlife Feast, Christina.

Kristina Bruce 2:05

So happy to be here, Jen.

Jenn Salib Huber 2:06

I love talking with you. I love talking with you as well. And you were on the podcast a couple of years ago, and that podcast, I think, is still in the top 10 of all time. People loved that conversation, and it really, I think, planted the seed of body acceptance for a lot of people that maybe didn't even know what it was. And that's why I wanted to bring you back today because we're still in 2026, maybe more in 2026, talking about bodies and what bodies look like. Are we? And what well, some people certainly are.

Kristina Bruce 2:50

Sorry, that's that's that's sarcastic.

Jenn Salib Huber 2:53

Okay, yeah, I figured, but yeah, you know, it it felt, and uh this is a whole other side conversation, but I really feel like we're mourning what was a nurtured, well-developing body positivity, body acceptance movement. Like if I think back like five years ago, there was so much energy behind helping people to feel better in their bodies, reduce weight stigma, reduce all the things. And now, because we're in a certain era of a drug that won't be named, because I don't want to, I don't want to overshadow this conversation, it feels like we've taken a little bit of a or a big step backwards in that sense. So I wanted to bring you on to talk about kind of like part two of the body acceptance piece, in maybe kind of diving a little bit more into the difference between body acceptance and body positivity, because those are still two terms that get thrown out a lot, sometimes interchangeably. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kristina Bruce 3:59

Okay, the first piece I want to say is I would like Jen to bring a little positivity and hope to the climate that we see around being more open to body diversity and doing that healing that we saw with the body positivity movement. In that, here's my take on it. When we are birthing something new, when we are evolving, there is a contractive and expansive process. So think about labor. It's contractions, it's not just straight push the baby out when we love that, just flips out. But no, there is the contractive, tightening part that comes after the expansion. So we saw an expansion, a big expansion. I mean, for the first time in our lives, we were seeing models who were bigger. We were seeing advertisements with people who looked like us, literally for the first time in our lives. That is huge. That was the expansion. Now, what are we seeing? The contraction. We're seeing it all come back, right? With the drugs. I mean, let's we're naming it. It's the drugs right now. My feeling is that because those drugs are no different than just going on a diet, it's really ultimately the same thing. It is a temporary quote unquote fixer solution. And is it even that? Because we know they have terrible effects as well. People aren't gonna be, most people aren't staying on them for that reason because they feel terrible. So I think this is just that's my personal thought that this is like the final contraction to where for where some people are gonna open up and say, enough. I need that this isn't working. I've been doing this my whole life. I'm ready for the expansion again. I'm ready to see something totally different from how I've been seeing my body my entire life, how generations of women have been taught to see their bodies their entire life. This has been going on well before we were born. We've inherited this from our grandmothers and from our mothers and our aunts. We know it. I'm sure like you've had experiences of it too. I have. They never had what we had with the body positivity movement in our lives. This is new. So I think it's another contraction before there'll be expansion again. Okay, that being said, body positivity started out as a

Body Positivity Versus Body Acceptance

Kristina Bruce 6:35

movement. It was an advocacy activist movement that stemmed from the fat uh liberation acceptance movement in the 60s, but then gained a real foothold. So, so it's a it's part of that of a greater social movement, body positivity. And within that, it is saying, can we just start to embrace for the love of God that there are different bodies out here? I mean, hello, look at the norm. Look at most women are not a size two or a size four. Can we stop pretending like that's how we're all supposed to look? The problem is that we have the medical system that is so steeped in weight bias and sees fat as bad that people will come back to that and use that as an excuse to say, well, we can't just accept larger bodies because they're unhealthy. Hello, it's a problem. I understand that there are extremes where, and I'm not saying that every single body size is necessarily a healthy body size for a person, but focusing on trying to reduce your body size hasn't ultimately been working. There's a reason why there are a thousand diets out there. There is a reason why we keep trying to look for the thing, like what's the thing that's finally going to control and manage our weight and make everybody skinny? Because it's not, that's not how it works. What we need is a return to harmony and balance within ourselves. So here comes the acceptance piece. So, what makes it different? There is some body acceptance within body positivity. So that can be a part of it. Uh, body positivity also can be misunderstood and people thinking, well, it means I'm forcing myself to love my body. It means I am saying I have to accept how my body is. It can never change, it can never get better. And that's repelling because I get it. Like if you're not feeling good in your body, you want it to change. Um, and so this idea of, well, just accept my body sounds like resignation. So I give a different to me, body acceptance is different than resignation. It's actually saying, I'm going to stop resisting and fighting against my body. So when we resist something, we actually give it energy. So if you can imagine that, you know, I'm sure we've done this exercise, maybe you have, where you're pushing against somebody, you know, your hands are pressed together and you're pushing. And what happens when you push, the other person automatically resists against you and it's energized. But if all you did was just let go of your hands, then that person would kind of fall forward and there wouldn't be that resistance. So the interesting thing is that when we're constantly saying, I need my body to change, I need it to look different, you're resisting it. You're actually keeping the cycle of dissatisfaction going within your body. What you're really seeking is relief. You're seeking peace. But the mind says the only way that I can feel relief or feel peace is if my body looks this way. If it looks a certain way, except we have all had experiences, I am sure, where our body did look the way that we thought it was supposed to look that would give us the peace, and we still didn't feel peace. We still were picking at it. We still didn't feel that security and that ease that we were looking for. So body acceptance is saying, I'm gonna stop fighting against my body. I'm gonna stop making it the enemy. What if I can turn around and start to make it my friend? And guess what? Are you more likely to respond positively to somebody who is fighting you or somebody who's your friend? It's somebody who's your friend. So we absolutely can have our body change or feel better in it if we stop fighting and resisting it. But we need to look at what are the beliefs that we're holding in our mind that are saying, well, I can only feel peace or feel okay if that's actually what's holding you back. That's actually what's holding people back from feeling okay in their body, are the beliefs that we have inherited that say, our body's ugly, our body's not good enough, uh, it needs to look different, it's unattractive, etc. Like this is a rabbit hole we can go down. But that's actually what's going on. So body acceptance is saying, I'm going to put down the battle stick, I'm gonna stop beating myself over the head, I'm gonna accept where my body is right now and start to befriend it. I'm going to start to listen to it. I'm gonna develop a relationship with it. I'm gonna say, hey, body, what do you need? Hey, body, what do you respond best to? Do you feel better when I do this or when I do that? When I eat this or when I eat that? And that is more of the peaceful relationship, but we have to be able to bring to the surface the beliefs that we have about what we have come to make our body mean about ourselves on a deeper level on worth and value, because that's what it comes down to. And there's also a safety component to this idea of feeling like, are people gonna judge me? Am I gonna be, am I not gonna belong? If I look different from how I'm quote unquote supposed to look. So this is a deeper exploration, but body acceptance is just actually coming into harmony with our body without needing to fight against it.

Jenn Salib Huber 12:22

Here, here to all of that, definitely. And, you know, one thing that I was thinking of when we were talking about body positivity and how it's changing, I've seen it weaponized in this, you know, GLP1 context of, oh, body positivity never really existed. Because look, all of these people who have, you know, now who are now in smaller bodies because of this medication now don't believe in body positivity because we've seen kind of that other side that, oh, some people might feel that certain people weren't being, I guess, I don't want the word truthful. I don't want to say truthful because I don't want to like, you know, try and and make someone's experience sound wrong. I don't want to sound like I'm judging someone's experience, but it has been uncomfortable to watch some of the body positivity discussions that are happening, I guess is the better way to put it. And I'm really glad that you mentioned that it really is this social justice movement. I often talk about how

The Hidden Driver Behind Weight Loss

Jenn Salib Huber 13:23

we have a body, you know, we can have a body positive individual experience that we're on a journey, but it is has to be happening in parallel to what is happening in the bigger world, right?

Kristina Bruce 13:35

And so the way that we make the collective change is through the individual, because the collective is made up of individuals. Yeah. It's where it starts. It's it doesn't there isn't like a collective body separate from us. We are it. So the more of us that do it individually feeds into the collective, and that's how it starts to change because we're stopping, we're stopping feeding into the way the belief system and the the way that it's always been. I know what you're saying. Um, I mean, I like again, of course, I can't speak either for somebody's experience, but I can probably say this that there is definitely some people who body positivity really gave a relief for a lot of people because let's be honest, this is a hostile environment to live in when it comes to body size and weight. This is why I believe is the primary driver for people wanting to lose weight. A lot of people say, but it's health. No, I'm doing it for my health. And I'm not saying that that's not a factor in it, but I would always ask this question if your health could be perfect, but you never lost weight, would you still want to lose weight? Because that's gonna draw out is this truly 100% about weight, or is there also something else at play here? And all we have to do, oh my God, is don't ever go to the comment section of a celebrity or you know, it is just an awful place to be. But when you see the vitriolic comments about people because a celebrity who has like a tiny pudge on their stomach, or heaven forbid, a slight back roll, and they are just uh making these terrible comments about that person because of fat, you don't think we're not ingesting that and seeing, oh my gosh, this is how you get treated if you're bigger. We don't want to feel that way. It's so it's a protection, it's an act of self-defense to do this. It's not that people I think are really wanting to lose the weight, but body positivity came in and said, Oh my goodness, I finally can feel some relief. I can, I have some camaraderie. But the truth is, is that there are some deeper emotional stuff going on underneath the surface, and it is not easy to be in a larger body in this culture and everybody's human. And so if all of a sudden now you can find a way to reduce your body size and feel safer in your body, people are gonna do it because it takes it is just not easy to be in this culture in a larger body. Now, again, as I'm saying, it is a temporary solution. It is a self-defense. And what I like to offer is that there is a different way of understanding our emotions and our beliefs so that we can actually tap into the sense of safety that exists within us that doesn't require that other people accept us, that doesn't require that we meet a certain criteria in order to feel okay about ourselves. And I think that's what we're all deeply yearning for, but it takes some deeper work to get there.

Jenn Salib Huber 17:03

And I think you've hit the nail on the head with it. And I think that's why when people are going through what we sometimes call body grief, so they're grieving the body that they used to have, wanted to have, had, but quote unquote lost, this body grief is like quicksand. And this idea of getting to an island of acceptance just feels like a journey that is too hard, it's too much work, it's gonna be, you know, exhausting physically, mentally, emotionally. So, but how do we process that grief? So if somebody's working on acceptance, and I'm sure you've seen this, I've seen this over the last couple of years, where even people who have who have lost weight with these medications still don't accept their bodies. There are still things that have popped up as a result of the weight loss, or you know, feeling still they're still not happy in their body. And so I think this pot process of learning to acknowledge and work through grief

Body Grief And The Tunnel To Change

Jenn Salib Huber 18:04

about change and accept, like you described, by not fighting that change anymore, by not putting up the barriers, that is size inclusive. It doesn't matter what size of body you're in. A lot of people are going through that process or trying to go through that process. So I'd love to hear how you take someone from the grieving process where they might feel really stuck in grief into the acceptance where they can maybe stop resisting so much.

Kristina Bruce 18:36

Yeah. Um, I mean, I know personally what that is like because I went through that grieving process. So I know it very well, what it feels like and what you go through. And there was something to an earlier point that you were saying about people who lose the weight and they still don't accept their body because it's never, it's not actually about the weight. It's not really, not at a deeply fundamental level. So if you don't get to that deeper layer of what actually is the source of the pain, then it's still there. Though again, the weight doesn't really fix it. It is, it will temporarily distract you from it, possibly, but it doesn't actually make it go away what the source of the pain is. So what we need to look at when we're grieving is we're grieving an idea of a self that gave us a feeling of worthiness, of value, of acceptance, and of safety. It's actually a created idea of a self. So when I was thin, I mean, I just remember receiving so much praise all the time for how I looked. It was not only was I gorgeous, but I was also the pitcher of health. Like these are things people said to me. This is not just me telling saying this. Um, you know, but it was an identity. It was a, it gave me a status and a sense of like, okay, I'm somebody, I'm worthy, I'm valuable in this culture. And when it became too much for me to keep that up, because my body never wanted to be as small as it was, and I couldn't keep it going anymore. And I gained all the weight and all the compliments disappeared overnight, like gone. Nobody said anything to me anymore. I felt like somebody had died. Like I remember having a moment of being on my couch sobbing, and I had the thought, I wonder if this is what it's like when a parent dies. Like that's how deep it was because I had never felt that level of grief before. You know, my parents haven't died yet, still not enjoying the leaving forward to that day, but you know, that was my thought. It was like it must be like this because it was so deep. Now I like to look, I like to liken this to imagining like there is a tunnel and you are standing on one side of the tunnel, and it's light there and it's familiar, and you know it, and it's comfortable, but not it's actually, well, it's comfortable, but it's not. Sorry, it's familiar. It's not necessarily it's getting uncomfortable. It's getting uncomfortable. Like, why even bother going on this journey, right? And you want to start going into it. And so grief is going to be part of that experience going into this dark tunnel. And you can't see the other side of it yet. You can't see the light yet on the other side of the tunnel. And usually what happens is we can get scared. And if we don't necessarily know how to handle that, we can run back to what we know because that feels safer. It's familiar. And I did that when I first started dieting. I ran back. I didn't last there very long. But yeah, because it's like, okay, no, no, no, this isn't. So you go through it. And so feeling that grief, but I also thankfully had been, you know, I've spent 15 years diving deep into personal development and spiritual exploration. And so over my time, I've had enough awarenesses and insights and developed tools and resources to understand what was actually going on. And I knew that what was going on was not that I had lost actually anything for myself that was real. I had ideas that said, I'm no longer good enough as a person. I don't know where I'm going to source my sense of validation anymore. I feel like I'm losing something. And on one level, you are losing something. But it's an in that is actually a doorway that if we know how to walk, if that if we we know that it's there, we can start to walk through it and say, I'm gonna start to source my sense of safety, worthiness, and validation from within, that's not dependent on it coming externally to me. Because ultimately what we're looking for is we have an idea that I'm only good enough if I only have value if I can only be happy if, and that's what we're losing. So when you gain that weight and you you feel like you're losing all of that, but that was never the truth. Those were actually lies that we all bought into because when we are born as children, we are inherently worthy and valuable. I do not see a three-year-old who lacks self-confidence. I do not see, I do not see a three-year-old who's like, oh, I'm not good enough. Like, you know, they might be frustrated, my daughter would get frustrated when she couldn't do something she wanted to do, but that's different. It wasn't inherent to her. But we lose it because we end up taking on these ideas that, oh, we we either learn I'm not good enough if I'm this way, or I'm only good enough if I'm that way. And so it's we we end up saying, okay, so we change ourselves and we learn, well, I must not be okay just as I am. And that's where it starts. And it actually starts in childhood. So we've carried this usually unexamined beliefs through our entire lives, and they are what's running the show. They're in fact running the show for most adults for their entire life. In fact, most adults will go through their life and never examine those. It just drives the need to be a certain way to achieve, to get more, to have this thing, to have that thing. If we were to really dig down deep, it's like, oh, because I actually don't think I'm good enough just as I am. I need to collect more, I need to be more, I need to do more. It's all wrapped up in the body. You didn't lose anything of yourself. And if you really look at it, what you're losing is an idea about yourself that was never true. So when you're able to let go of that, that can be a portal to a freedom that you've never experienced before in your life, or you did when you were a child and you lost it.

Jenn Salib Huber 25:42

So And those beliefs are, I think, exactly what, or you know, kind of the undercurrent when women get to midlife and everything stops working and they feel like they've been betrayed by their bodies because those beliefs about what a good body should do and what a bad body does, and that, and also just the fallacy of how much control we have over that, like it feels like a betrayal. Because I that I mean, that language comes up all the time. I feel like my body is betraying me. I'm doing all the right things, I'm doing the things that used to work. Why is nothing working anymore? And the solution seeking is urgent at this point because it really feels like something is broken. How do you help people work through language like that?

Kristina Bruce 26:30

Well, because it's been wrapped up in this idea that your body should be a certain way for your entire life, that's a false belief. None of us, I don't see

Menopause Is Normal And Wise

Kristina Bruce 26:43

anything in our culture that's positive about menopause in terms of how it's discussed. You know, I see changing that. Yeah, thankfully. But like, I mean, I'm just saying, growing up, when I really look, aside from people like you, like if we just look in the collective mainstream culture, it's all negative. And it's all like, oh no, um, we got to keep your body the same way. Well, what if it's not supposed to be the same way? And what if that's not a bad thing? What if it's that we've all deeply misunderstood how our bodies are changing throughout our life? Because especially for women, when worth and value has been tied to youth and appearance, there's that sense of I'm losing that when I get older happens for women who are aging. That's why you don't want to age, right? Because for centuries, women have been valued for their, well, for their fertility and their beauty. And so when that is what you think that your value is in, it is going to feel really scary to start to lose that because you think you're losing that as well. But that is the false belief. But also with bodies, like if this is happening to all women, maybe it's not a mistake. Maybe we're misunderstanding it. Maybe we've not had a positive association or understanding about what's actually going on with our bodies. So I see it as your body's not portraying you. Your body is doing what it's supposed to be doing. See, I don't think we give an I don't think we give enough credit at all to how smart our bodies are. They are extremely intelligent and wise, and they are always doing the best that they can. But we have these ideas of how bodies are supposed to be, and then the body's failing or betraying. What if our idea about the body is wrong? Not that the body itself is wrong. And so there are a host of beliefs that we have about our body, and that's what's causing the emotional suffering. It's not that your body is betraying you, it's that it's going through a change of life that unfortunately most of us have grown up with having a negative association with.

Jenn Salib Huber 29:01

Absolutely. And I really appreciate the talking about what's normal and that it's normal for bodies to change. I always say a human body is a changing body. And the belief that we can control or stop the passage of time is, or that we're supposed to, or that life would be better if we could. And I will continue to shout from the rooftops. I'm four years post-menopausal, and I love this stage of life more than any other stage of my life. It is the bomb. Do my knees creak? Yes. Do I sometimes wish I could sleep like my 20-year-old self? Sure. Would I trade who this body is in and all that stuff for my 20-year-old self? Not in a million years or for a million dollars. There is so much confidence waiting for you to claim.

Kristina Bruce 29:58

And that's something that, again, has not been talked about in the collective. And it's because we've also not, I think, this is a greater conversation, I think, that gets into women and aging. So as I was saying, for centuries, women have been valued for youth and beauty. That's it. And I mean, for a long time, pretty much that was it. Like that's all you got. That's still running through our DNA. It's still showing up strongly in our culture. That's not who we are. That's not our value. So this is actually a return. And I think what's happening in our world right now is a reclamation of what might be called the divine feminine. So it might be how are we starting now to treat women and the true value and essence of being a woman in your life? Like you bring value well beyond your potential to have a child and look good. So we have to change that. So if we now value, well, what's the wisdom? What what act what actually can I bring forward as a woman now who's past

Aging, Worth, And The New Narrative

Kristina Bruce 31:05

my childbearing years? We got to start exploring what's in that and what's the value in that. Yes. Because there's not going to be a problem. We're not going to resist aging so much when when what when you think you're just going into a black hole or out to pasture to die. Like nobody wants to do that.

Jenn Salib Huber 31:24

I have a whole session on that in my book about how we need to start changing this narrative. And women need to know that life is better on the other side. And that's what you want to eat and fuel. Yeah. Don't fuel the fear that you're leaving behind, hopefully. Fuel what you're moving towards and the life that you want to live in the body that you have, not the one that you think you need to have.

Kristina Bruce 31:50

And that's being created now. So we need to create that. Nobody, it's not here for us right now. It's not already laid out. We have lived in a patriarchal society that has been male dominated. And so all of the values related to men is what we've been living in. So we don't have that template right now. Like that we are at the forefront of needing to create that. So we need to explore it now within ourselves. We need to go within and find it within ourselves and bring it forward because men are allowed to age. Men are allowed to still be strong and powerful and sexy and whatever until they're in their 70s, maybe even 80s. I'm sure somebody would still call Clint Eastwood. Is he alive, Clint Eastwood? I can't remember if he died. But like I think he's alive. Maybe he's not. But, anyways, the point is that people would still look up to him as a, you know, in some level, attractive and not like attractiveness is a bar that uh value. But what I'm just saying is that men don't lose value as as they age, but women have been conditioned to. And so we now have to create this. So, what do you want to see? You know, like we, but we got to go with then and we have to drop the beliefs that we've been holding on to about our value and our worth being attached to our body and appearance. And now I understand it's also the factor of everybody gets upset about their body, you know, creaking and not being able to move in the way that it used to. But to your point, you know, you're doing your work to help fuel and nourish your body so that it can be working to its the best that it can as it gets older. It's also the resistance to our body changing is what's creating the suffering. So when coming back to body acceptance now, well, if I can just accept that my knees are a little bit more creaky and I don't have to make it mean something bad, then it doesn't become a problem. So we are just not, we are just resisting so much of what's happening, and that's actually creating the suffering. And we're afraid to not resist because we think nothing will change. But that doesn't mean that you might not start exploring, you know, strength training or ways that you can help your joints out, whatever it may be. It doesn't mean that. So we don't need to resist. We've been resisting. That's that we are a culture that is constantly resisting. What we need now is to accept and start exploring what becomes available to me when I stop resisting, because it's essentially fighting. It's a war. And I think we have enough of that going on right now. We need to stop the war within ourselves, the war against our bodies. But it comes down to identifying where we've held on to these beliefs of what we think is how things are supposed to be, what's good, what's bad, what's right or wrong, all of that. It's all happening on a mental emotional level. But it's we got to stop resisting. And I'm gonna drop a little book name that we probably heard of, but I'm rereading it again for the second time after probably 10 years. So I am re-invitalized and revigorated about it. But it's The Power of Now by Eckert Tole. It is a phenomenal book. And it is, I'm like, please just read it again because he lays it out crystal clearly of where we struggle mentally and emotionally. And it's and it's and resistance is a part of that.

Jenn Salib Huber 35:36

I think that's an amazing place to end this conversation. Thank you so much. Um so now for the big question, which is what do you think is the missing ingredient in midlife?

Kristina Bruce 35:52

Knowing our inherent worth and value and what we can offer in that stage, because I don't think we've explored it within ourselves. So this is gonna be an individual journey so that we can start to actually create now what midlife can look for women in a way that it's never looked before.

Jenn Salib Huber 36:09

I love it. Thank you so much for sharing all of this. Um, I'm sure this is gonna be another very popular episode. If people want to learn from you, so you have a new podcast. Tell us about the podcast.

Kristina Bruce 36:22

I do have a new podcast, and I will say that Jen was the one who encouraged me to have this podcast probably three years ago or maybe two. And I must have told you 10 times, Christina, you need a podcast. You did need a podcast. Okay, and so this is where I'm just gonna say, you know, things happen when they're ready. We can't, we don't need to force it. Life has an agenda and it's finally come out. Uh, so it's called Unlearning Beautiful. That is the podcast. And um, I'll be, yeah, actually dropping a new episode today. So I'm very excited. Awesome. Awesome.

Jenn Salib Huber 36:57

And if people want to learn

Missing Ingredient In Midlife

Jenn Salib Huber 36:59

more about you, where is the best place for them to look?

Kristina Bruce 37:02

So I'm very active on Instagram. If that is a place that you are at, you can follow me at Christina Bruce Coach. And then you can also just find out about me at Christina Bruce.com.

Jenn Salib Huber 37:13

Amazing. Thank you so much for joining us again today.

Kristina Bruce 37:16

Thank you so much for having me, Jen.

Jenn Salib Huber 37:21

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Midlife Feast. If you're ready to take the next step towards thriving in midlife, head to menopausenutritionist.ca to learn more about my one-to-one and group coaching programs, free resources, and where to get your copy of Eat to Thrive during menopause. And if you've loved today's conversation and found it helpful, please share it with a friend who needs to hear this and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps so many more people just like you

Where To Find Christina And Next Steps

Jenn Salib Huber 37:49

find their way to food freedom and midlife confidence. Until next time, remember midlife is not the end of the story, it's the feast. Let's savor it together.