Accountability Beats Willpower When Hormones Shift

Changing habits, including when you want to lose weight, gets harder after 40 not because you’ve lost your edge, but because your biology, stress load and sleep have changed the rules. In this week's episode, I unpack why going it alone makes weight loss and habit change feel impossible during perimenopause and menopause, and how compassionate accountability transforms the process from exhausting to doable. Drawing on years of clinical experience and research, I break down the real barriers: hormone volatility, decision fatigue, diet history and the emotional weight of trying to care for everyone else which means your needs come last.

I share why willpower is unreliable when hormones and sleep are in flux, and how a supportive container creates clarity, momentum and nervous system safety. Explore the practical wins of coaching: clear priorities each week, quick course corrections, fewer all-or-nothing swings and a steady cadence that actually fits a busy life. You’ll hear how personalised planning goes beyond generic meal templates by using bloods, medication review and symptom mapping to design a path tailored to your biochemistry and your schedule.

If you’re tired of starting over every Monday, this conversation offers a different path: consistency over perfection, support over shame, and a hormone-aware approach that respects the season you’re in. I also open the door to the Glow Protocol, a supported pathway for sustainable weight loss, calmer symptoms and renewed confidence, built for women in peri and post menopause. Subscribe for more honest, practical guidance each week, share this with a friend who needs it, and if the message lands, leave a quick review so more women can find us. Ready to explore support? Book your Peri Weight Loss Assessment via the link in the show notes.

Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause or menopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

I’m here to help with my proven method.

Here's how I can support you -

1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@the.perimenopause.path

3. Join the waitlist for my innovative NEW 8 week group program, In Your Skin™️, for women in perimenopause and post-menopause who want effective solutions to manage skin changes at this time of life.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Purpose
• 0:50 Why Going Solo Gets Harder After 40
• 2:25 Beyond Weight Loss: Habits And Health
• 3:02 Hormones, Stress And Sleep Complexity
• 6:06 Coaching Normalised And Why It Works
• 8:48 Accountability Versus Willpower
• 11:15 What Compassionate Support Provides

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Autumn Podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and ageing so that you can be ageless and awesome in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome Podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset, and outrageous confidence. Hit subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's episode of the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. I'm Susie Garden, your host. I'm a perimenopause naturopath, weight loss nutritionist, and proud perimenopause survivor. And this week I wanted to talk about support when it comes to making lifestyle, dietary, health, weight loss changes in your life. Because support changes everything after after you hit 40 and even in your 50s. And you know, this is something that I've I think is deeply important and often quite uncomfortable. Trying to do this alone may actually be the thing holding you back from your health and weight loss goals. If you've ever thought I should be able to do this myself, I'm fine on my own, then this episode is especially for you. And I wanted to talk about firstly why solo weight loss gets harder after you hit 40. And I did talk a little about this last week in last week's episode. So if you haven't watched, oh sorry, listened to that yet, maybe I mean it probably doesn't matter. You could go back and listen to that now and then come back or listen to this and then go back to that one. But I definitely think both episodes are gonna help explain this a little more fully. And I did actually write this as a series for January because I was inspired actually by one of my friends. But um, yeah, let's talk about why solo weight loss gets harder after 40. And when I say weight loss, I'm I'm using that more as an example at the moment because it is January, and that is where most people are thinking about making changes in their lives, and weight is often one of the big ones, particularly for women in peri- and post-menopause. So that's why I've chosen weight loss. But you could apply this to any sort of health journey, or if you're wanting to get into other sort of habits and routines, um, whether it's wanting to meditate every day, whether it's wanting to read a book every month, you know, anything that you're really wanting to change, this applies to. Um, but I think weight loss is particularly um, because weight loss at this time of life is more complex because you've got the hormones, you've got stress, you've got sleep issues generally, particularly in perimenopause, but often post as well. You've got emotional patterns, you've got years of diet history, you've got potentially complex relationships with food. And trying to manage all of this alone requires enormous, enormous cognitive and emotional energy. Enormous. And when you're already exhausted, that is often the tipping point. And needing support is not weakness, it's adaptation. And as I mentioned in last week's episode, I have my own coach. I have my own coach for business and for my clinic, and it's a game changer, having a coach that understands the journey that needs to happen and is there to support you when you're feeling challenged, and is also there to celebrate with you when you have a win, and also can just keep you on track and accountable. It's honestly a game changer, and I don't know that I could ever go without having a good coach, shall I say? I've had many coaches. Um, this one is particularly good. So, you know, needing support is not weakness. This should be normalized, actually. I feel like almost all of us need some sort of coach to help us reach our goals because otherwise it's really easy, particularly for women, to put everyone else's needs first and their own last. And you know, time is ticking on. If it's if not now, when? When are you going to address whether it's your health, whether it's, you know, something like if you wanted to read every day or or um meditate every day, whatever it is, the things that you want to do, just slipping away. And perhaps you've been reflecting on this coming into the new year. Maybe there were things that you wanted to get done in 2025, but you didn't actually do. And so now is a great time at the beginning of 2026 to actually make a plan and do it. So we're just we're gonna talk a little bit about this. So let's talk about specifically for weight loss or other changes, accountability versus willpower. Willpower, as I'm sure you may have found, is pretty unreliable, especially in perimenopause. Accountability, when you have someone, whether it's a friend that's going to be your accountability buddy, whether it's going to be coach, a coach who's someone that you pay to be your accountability buddy, I guess. But accountability removes decision fatigue because you know what you have to do and you know when you have to do it. It provides course correction, it reduces an all-or-nothing thinking or black and white thinking. It creates consistency. Remember what I mentioned last week about sticking to the schedule. And this is why research consistently shows better outcomes with coaching and support. And if you want to go and have a look for research on this, there is so much research on people doing health coaching versus the same kind of um medical advice but without health coaching. And every time people that have the health coaching have better outcomes, they reach their goals, they are more well, they are happier. It's all in the research. So we know that you will get better outcomes. And I know certainly on my program, you will get a faster outcome with coaching and support than with following uh like a generic dietary plan that's not for you, that's not written specifically for you and your unique biochemistry, and that doesn't have the coaching provided with it. Inside my container, the Globe Protocol, accountability is and coaching is compassionate. I'm here to support women, I'm not here to punish women. There's no punishment if you don't reach your goals. It is just like, okay, what can we do to make sure that that you know what other support is necessarily put in place so those goals can get met. So, what does support actually give you? Support provides clarity, it provides reassurance, perspective, momentum, and nervous system safety, and that's a big one, particularly at this time of life. You can stop second guessing yourself because you know exactly what to do and when. You stop spiraling after setbacks because you've got your coach there to get you back on track, and it stops you from having to start over again because the coach will know what to do, the coach will know whether or not it's a good thing to restart something or whether you just continue on, just get back on track. Um, and women that are receiving coaching and support learn how to keep going so that for the long term you are better equipped to do this on your own or with a lesser level of support. So it's a short podcast today. I kind of got to the end of my notes about this. I was gonna dive deep into the research, but I I feel like you know, it's not rocket science, really. Um, it's not rocket science. We know that support, coaching, being held, being given direct, clear guidance will give you get you to your goals faster, more easily, and feeling uh just so good about yourself that you've actually invested in yourself and you get faster, faster results. So if listening to not only this podcast, but this series of podcasts, and if you if you're a new listener and you haven't listened to the series, that's why this one is a little short, is because I've talked about these concepts in the previous few podcasts. So if you go back to the beginning of January and listen, you'll have more context. But if listening to the series has made something click for you, if you're tired of doing this alone, if you're ready for structure, support, a hormone-aware approach and a personalized plan based on your biochemistry by taking bloods, by looking at your metabolism, looking at your health history, looking at what medications you're on. If this is something that you're thinking, wow, this sounds amazing, I really want this for myself because I really need to get started. So, you know, get started on looking after my health, looking after my body, my mind, then I'd love to invite you to check out working with me in the Globe Protocol. This is not just a diet. It is a supported pathway for women who want sustainable weight loss, who want peace with their bodies, who want reduction of symptoms, whether that is hormone symptoms, whether that is gut symptoms, whether that is sleep issues, whether that is energy. This program addresses all of those things and more. And so I invite you just to come and have a chat with me. There's a link in the show notes to book in a peri weight loss assessment. It is no obligation. I do not ask you to commit to anything on the call, quite the opposite. Uh, but I really encourage you if it's something just niggling away at you, trust the niggle. Book your call, let's have a chat. If we're not the right fit, we're not the right fit. That's okay. I won't get upset. I have discussions with women virtually every day, and not everyone is the right fit for this program. You know, there's there is a level of commitment involved. And so, you know, that's why I don't just get people to book in uh and purchase their package on my website. I want to make sure everyone is a good fit for this so that you do get the best results for yourself. So thank you for listening to this episode and the series if you've listened to them all already. If this mini-series helped you, please share it with a friend. No woman should feel alone in this season of life. So until next time, take beautiful care of yourself, and I will see you next week with some more fresh new content. Thanks so much for joining me on the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. If you had liked this episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple Podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify, so that you get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you feel like writing me a five star review, you would absolutely make my day. If you found this episode resonated with you, head over to my Instagram and DM me at the Perimenopause Park. I would love to connect with you.