Reconstructed: A Blended Family Podcast

Two Best Friends Share How Wellness, Faith, And Honest Conversation Turned Hard Seasons Into Growth

• Love Therapy Ministries • Season 4 • Episode 4

Share episode

Send us a text

Ever felt your body change faster than your plan could keep up? We open up about the seasons that tested us—young motherhood, career pivots, and the surprise left hooks of perimenopause—and how friendship, faith, and practical wellness helped us find center again. This is a conversation about healing from the inside out, where data and devotion meet: getting labs you can act on, building small routines that stick, and choosing community over grind.

We start with the early years, when workouts fell off and exhaustion crept in. The comeback wasn’t flashy. It was ten-minute walks, dumbbells during commercial breaks, and simple meals that balanced protein, fiber, and color. Those basics restored energy and mental stamina and, over time, grew into a community practice. What began with two friends became group hikes up Stone Mountain, shared grocery lists, and real talk that made fitness feel welcoming. We also share how ADHD in our kids pushed us to learn about nutrition triggers and food swaps that support focus and calm.

Then we tackle menopause and perimenopause without euphemism. Hot flashes, mood swings, and brain fog are real, but so are solutions. We talk with candor about lifestyle levers—strength training for bone health, hydration for temperature regulation, consistent sleep for hormones—and why “know your numbers” matters at every age. Blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose aren’t judgments; they’re a compass. With doctors, nurses, and nutritionists in your corner, you can tailor choices and lighten the load. Most of all, we frame wellness as stewardship: what you feed your body, what you allow into your mind, and the friendships that keep you accountable when motivation dips.

If you’re ready to invest in yourself with kindness and consistency, hit play, take a walk with us, and grab one small habit you can keep. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review with the one change you’re committing to this week.

Support the show

Resources: DivorceCare.org Mental Health Hotline BetterHelp.com Suicide Prevention Helpline

Thank you for listening! If this ministry has blessed you thus far, please visit our website and become a sower into this good ground!
Also, be sure to leave us an audio message

SPEAKER_01:

And here we are back again, Bill and Sonia, and I'm Sonia Dynamic Podcast Marriage Team. And I am once again here with my bestie, Liangel Renee McNair. Extraordinaire. Hello everyone. And we wanted to bring her into the uh podcast room. And you can tell we sound a little different. I like that, you know, uh Bill has a versatile opportunity for us to share um our platforms in a very professional way, uh very um authentic way. We feel at home, or we're out on the road, or we're actually in the podcast studio. So, welcome, welcome, welcome. Um, we are just going to dive right in to just a few more things, again, talking about relationships, and we had so much to share. We try to keep it all compact in a small amount of time. It's just not enough time to share all that we have gone through and you know, um experienced over the years, but when we still come back to talking about relationships, I think it's important to know that um we were able to overcome um succeed both, I think personally, spiritually, and you know, in in a sense, some of the physical side of what we wanted to do better in our lives for. And I in every aspect of life, I think I mentioned it earlier that we have been in all of those areas for one another. You know, um, what are some of the things you've seen from when we first started, you know, our journey as young women that we've kind of grown and learned through the years? Up to like I said, I'm six years old now. We're still young. Right. It's like a long way to go. Younger, that's right. We're just younger. What's something we can share that we really have experienced from our 20s to now? Uh that we can share with other young women.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you already know for me. Well, when I was in college, I did used to work out, but becoming a a young mom and wife, I had gotten out of the routine of exercise and working out. And you already know, getting better as one. Oh my best tea over here has always been the exercise and health and wellness guru. You have encouraged me. And I I think just doing some type of activity exercise-wise, and paying attention to what you're eating, you have always encouraged me to do that. So whenever I get out of that routine, I try to go back to it because it has helped um help me be able to have the energy, to have the mental stamina, not just the physical energy to deal with life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I think that's key. I think you hit dead on it because I got into this area of health and wellness, and they know I I eat, sleep, dream, walk, um, health and wellness, because it was a key factor in my um ability to heal. Again, being there in a space with me when I was in the most traumatic area of my life, um, one of the things that got me through was like the Lord gave me an opportunity to look deep within and said, if you can get your life balanced in health and wellness, what you eat, how you take care of this temple, you'll be able to overcome a whole bunch of things that you feel are overbearing for you right now. Bring it to me. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Be obedient in the process of how I'm going to teach you to heal from the inside out. And I believe that became a great passion for me because as soon as I began to dig, and it started with our children. Yes, you know, with help, helping them to eat right, getting through having ADHD, what was the best things, what they needed to avoid and not, you know, what triggered them. That was helping us to learn about the nutrition side. Yes, it did. But like you just said, when you talk about your mind, this is more than just getting snatched. Right. You know what I'm saying? This was more than that. This was like getting my soul lined up. It was about me getting my uh my mind right, you know, to spiritually be stronger in finding who I was. Yes. Coming into this new way of life for me and being able to truly say I was healed through this. No band-aids. Right. Like I told you, I'm not putting no masks. God let me face this with the fullness. And when I come out the other side, I want I don't want to smell like smoke. I want to know that I have been delivered. I've been healed. Amen. And this health and wellness journey is a part that you were with me. Yes. Because when I birthed that business, get better as one, you were right there in pocket. I think it was you and Nicole that came and surprised me with everybody there. That was amazing. But that came from a a deep, passionate place of mine that I'm still like that to this day. And that in our 20s is serving us well in and out. Right now, you know, so I I agree with that because that was a pivotal moment for me to say this is something we can take, and we don't even have to keep this to ourselves. We be it it became with you and me.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Before it was you and me, yes, and then two, then four, then ten, then twenty. It was 40 people, all of us up on Stone Mountain. Yes. Just trying to make it to the top. Just press that way. I didn't know I could motivate that many people with something that looks so small, changed lives.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, it did.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, and I said, you know, we go through things and we think that, whoa, it's me and I can't do it. And I God forgot about it. And here it is, he uses that to make a difference in someone else's life. In the process of what some of the things we did for health and wellness, what is something that you remembered that helped you?

SPEAKER_02:

Then I remembered. Trouble was gonna last always. Trouble don't last always facts, yes. Um, and let me see.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I remember how um you're like, I'm not exercising anymore, I'm not going walking, I'm not doing no 5K's, I'm not.

SPEAKER_02:

You remember the first time we went on the walk when we ended up joining no woman left behind.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

After that walk. Remember, or during the walk, you were trying to talk to me. I told you. Wait, don't talk to me right now.

SPEAKER_01:

There's not enough air here for me to walk and talk at the state. I know that's what I was saying. Do you remember any moments? Oh, yeah. We had those.

SPEAKER_02:

But you you would always encourage me, Bessie, just get in a few minutes. You know, if you could just do 10, 15, it's better than nothing. Yeah. It's better than nothing. And sometimes I sit in the house and I'm watching TV and I want to just sit there and relax. And I say to myself, okay, doing a commercial break, I'm gonna get me these dumbbells. And I'm just gonna do some curls or some shoulder presses or arm raises. I do something. I do squats or I'm trying to do something every day. Yeah. Because I don't want to get to where I can't, you know? And I want to be on medicine.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the privilege. That's the privilege of being good stewards over anything in our areas, especially when it comes to our body. Because at 25, you know, we were in a different than we are now. I mean, just we can't do. I'm gonna tell you, I'm uh I'm a guru at doing this. And my body ain't listening. But we look, we're gonna try though, right? Absolutely. Because we know that's really where it's in the discipline, it's in the commitment, in the consistency. Um, and when someone's able to watch you go through controlling what you put in your mouth, you know, controlling what you're watching, controlling what you're not just feeding your body, but your spirit, you know, all those things come back. And so during that healing stage and how amazing that was able to get me in a new elevation in my life that I didn't think I could get to, I utilize that now. And because we started then, it's serving us. Yes, you know, it's serving us now. I went and got my numbers. You know your numbers out there? Do y'all know your numbers?

SPEAKER_02:

We got a note on top five. You got to numbers.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, you need to go be seen. You need to get your body taken care of. Um, don't be afraid of knowing. You, I believe, can set the stage because what we think the doctor's report is, though it is scientific, it's fact, we need that. God uses everybody. We then know what we need to align ourselves with.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

When you know, it's when you don't know, and then you're almost giving room for that to be the opposite of what you know God can do. So I say it's important to understand your blood pressure, your your um cholesterol, and us as women going through menopause. Oh, they say, baby.

SPEAKER_02:

Perry is not nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Perry is not nice, and neither is minnow, and so it changes. We go through these stages of when we got our puberty, hormones all over the place. Yes, then we gonna walk around here and get babies and get pregnant and hormones on 10 all over the place. Everybody goes through the changes. Then you think you get past all that, and I'm getting ready to go on my golden years and this parry to the minnow of the pauses.

SPEAKER_02:

I wish our parents would have told us. But that's why the conversation my mom didn't have that conversation with me. Yeah, and I knew I used to think that she didn't even get hot flashes, and her sister was like, Oh no, my sister had some hot flashes. She just never complained. You already know. And I said, Yeah, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_01:

My mom never complained about stuff, but that didn't mean it wasn't happening that's what my mom was trying to, you know. That's what my aunt was saying to me.

SPEAKER_02:

She said, It doesn't mean it wasn't happening, doesn't mean she didn't have them. She said, Oh, because honey, I'm telling you, these things are something evil over here.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's it it hit you in a state of mind where you're like, what is going on? And you're scrambling for answers and scrambling for someone to help give you some light at the end of this whatever tunnel this is we are in. It just seems like it hit me out of nowhere. And um, that's why I think it's important that we talk about it. And we are going to do a segment on menopause. We're gonna share about this. We have different people um on doctors and nurses and people who are in these fields that know it well, nutritionists, because there is a way to combat it. It's a way to you know continue to live life to your fullest. You don't have to succumb to what our grandmothers and mothers just dealt with it. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02:

It goes back to what we were just talking about. That diet and the exercise. Yes, your sleep, how much water you drink and don't drink. Yeah. All of that can either help it be lessened, or you can make it worse.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. It's it there's there is a method to this madness with learning and teaching and and sharing this with others. So I think health and wellness is something that will always be top. We are important, we deserve it. We don't have we can still have the golden years. We can still I got some sheets for y'all. I got some sheets for y'all that you guys need to try that's gonna help. Just different things that we can share with each other to get through this stage in life. And I heard some people are in it 10 years, but I believe that even those, there's something was missing in the conversation of what they could have done to help their bodies through their process. Right. You know, so I'm just thankful for you being here as always, touching in and um giving us some time. We are just talking about menopause, relationships, health, and wellness, how it all ties together and that you are worth the investment. Invest in you. Know your numbers, yes, go to the doctor. Any last things you want to say, Bestie, to the people?

SPEAKER_02:

Um well, it's been a pleasure. I thank you all for opening up your platform and letting me experience the Bill and Sonya show. Live in person. And thank you all for tuning in. Yeah. I enjoy listening to the the sessions that you all have all the time. So I'm sure your listeners do as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. We appreciate your support. Until next time, this is Bill and Sonya. Take care.