33. Health and Hormones After 40 with Nutritional Therapist Thalia Pellegrini

Battling chronic fatigue syndrome isn't for the faint of heart, a reality Thalia Pellegrini knows all too well. Her transformational journey through the healing power of nutritional therapy is not just inspiring; it provides a beacon of hope for women over 40 grappling with similar health challenges. This week, we're joined by Thalia, a registered nutritional therapist who shares her profound personal health transformation with us. Her story is one of resilience—how she dusted off her dreams and reforged her path from a BBC television presenter to a nutritional therapist after an unexpected career shift. She sheds light on the specific health concerns that women in their 40s face, such as fatigue and hormonal fluctuations, and discusses the impact of nutrition on vitality and well-being.

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IG @thaliapellegrini_nutrition
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Transcript

Heidi: 0:33

As you listen to my conversation with Thalia Pellegrini, consider the following questions. Is it time for you to put your health and wellness first, and has it been on the back burner for a while? Are you at a place in your health journey, or in your hormone journey, where you just don't feel like yourself anymore? Consider these questions as you're listening to my interview with Thalia. She shares some amazing information on health and wellness as it pertains to women over 40. Hope you enjoy Thalia. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I'm excited to have you here. Before we dive in, I want you to do a quick about you.

Thalia: 1:12

My name is Thalia Pellegrini and I'm a registered nutritional therapist based in London in the UK, and I've been practicing since qualified since 2009. I'm a mom of two boys. I live in North London. I see clients locally, but I also see clients online the joy of Zoom. I see clients all over the world. So I have clients in North America and I have clients all over Europe and the UK.

Heidi: 1:38

So you know, this show is all about reinvention. What I would love to hear is what was that moment in your life? Can you kind of take us back to the moment where you decided something needed to change?

Thalia: 1:49

I think there's been a few reinventions for me over the years. So I would say, and all of them have brought me to this point, isn't it Always the way? So I guess my journey really started in my 20s. I was pretty sick in my late teens. I got glandular fever, which I think you guys call mono, and you know, like a million teenagers, I got sick but I didn't get better and I was ill for about five or six years and I managed to get through university, but it was. I was ill all the time. And then I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and I would go to the doctor and they would go with nothing we can do. It's viral, you'll grow out of it.

Thalia: 2:29

And I just I felt like I was losing my life in terms of the years were slipping away from me, you know, and I couldn't do anything. And one day I walked into a bookshop and I saw this book that said how to beat fatigue and I bought it and devoured it and it was written by a nutritionist and this was we're talking the 90s here, so there weren't a lot of nutritionists around at that time and at the end of the book there were three or four nutritionists around the country and one of them was half an hour away from where I lived at the time in North London. I still live in North London and I went to see her and she changed my life. Now that was a reinvention because I went from barely being able to do anything being overcome by anxiety, because I was always scared that I was so sick I wouldn't be able to manage a journey somewhere, or if I did something with friends I wouldn't be able to cope. You know, the impact was huge to pursuing my dream career, and my dream career then was to be a television presenter, and so that was a reinvention because it just it's like someone reignited me and I pursued my dream and I achieved it.

Thalia: 3:34

And I was a television presenter for the BBC for nearly 10 years. And then one day a new boss started in my department and she started at 9 am and around 9 15,. She asked for every show reel of every presenter in the department and she's sacked around 90% of us by lunchtime. And that was a real turning point for me, that point, that moment of having no agency over your career. I was full of rage, I was impotent in the face of this decision.

Thalia: 4:05

I moved to part and I stayed on TV. But I moved to part and within two weeks I'd made this big decision. I remembered that lady that had changed my life in my 20s and I thought, gosh, that would be amazing to do that for other women. And I decided to retrain as a nutritional therapist. I'd never lost my passion for nutrition since seeing her and me being me. I found a course at a very established college near to where I lived just by absolute fluke, and six weeks later I started a three-year course. I kept working alongside my course, but I was studying for three years and I qualified in 2009.

Heidi: 4:40

That must have been really devastating to have worked so hard for your career and then to have someone come in and to realize I'm in a position where someone can take it all away from me.

Thalia: 4:51

Yeah, yeah. That felt awful and not just for me, obviously but I just thought, no, I need, I want to be in one control of my destiny. This can't be how it works, and so that was an impetus to pursue something more, and I'm very happy that it worked out that way, but it didn't feel great at the time.

Heidi: 5:10

You mentioned kind of your health transformation in your 20s and being really, really sick and really fatigued. I'm sure that that plays into who you're helping today. I know, as I was looking at some information that you had, you said hopefully I'm saying the word right knackered, knackered, yes, and I had to send you a message and I said what is this word? Because I've never heard it before.

Thalia: 5:36

I forget how British it is. Yeah, knackered means super tired, exhausted. It's a very British word and it fits the women I see very well.

Heidi: 5:48

Mm-hmm, now you're you're working primarily with women over 40. Is that right? Yes, that's right.

Thalia: 5:54

I am.

Heidi: 5:54

Yeah. So what's unique to you, know? As I'm in my 40s now and and heading down that road, tell me what you feel is the most unique to women in that age group, because that's who's listening here too. What are some of the challenges that they're facing?

Thalia: 6:12

I think our 40s is a fabulous opportunity to recalibrate and To review how we look after ourselves as women. So a lot of the women I work with our mothers I'd say probably 95% of them and we have so I have women who are raising newborns, toddlers, teens and what. What they all have in common Is they don't put themselves first, and I think that's common in a lot of the women I see, whether their mothers or not, is that we are often Nurture, as we often put ourselves at the bottom of our to-do list. But actually our 40s is a really important decade for our hormone health because we're talking perimenopause.

Thalia: 6:50

Now, if you think about the fact that you can be in perimenopause from your late 30s all the way through your 40s, you I think I only have this a statistic for the UK and Ireland, but the average age of menopause is 51, 52 so and perimenopause can last up to 13 years. So you do the math. You know we are in this transition for a long time and we have enormous power Over how we experience that transition. But we have to pay attention. So what I do for women is empower them to Connect with their bodies, understand what signals the body is sending and Teach them how to really deeply nourish themselves and their bodies mentally, physically, emotionally so that they can feel the best they can. And that may be in early perimenopause or late perimenopause, it doesn't really matter. So I think the 40s is a really exciting decade for our health.

Heidi: 7:43

I have to say 40 has been my favorite year so far. It's been a big transformation year and and I'm noticing a lot of changes with my body as well. So tell me, what are some of the changes that people can kind of be on the lookout for? What are the most common signs? For me, I've noticed it's a little harder to to keep my weight under control, even when I'm doing the same exercise and, you know, realizing eating the same ways that I always have or the ways that work for me in my 20s and 30s. That doesn't work as well anymore. So what are some of the signs that people are going to start seeing?

Thalia: 8:21

Well, exactly as you've just said, I'd say one of the biggest complaints women have is their gaining weight. Nothing has really changed. They're not eating very differently, but they're gaining weight or they can't lose weight the way they used to. So one of the things we want to explore in this decade Is our relationship with food, because what you did in your 20s isn't going to work anymore. So there's all sorts of reasons for that. So we have to Understand our hormone, the hormonal shifts that are driving that change, and respond, and that's that can be different for everyone.

Thalia: 8:50

A lot of women will enter their 40s and say to me I just don't quite feel myself, and it will be as simple as that. I just don't quite feel like myself anymore, and so that that change will be Really subtle. It might be confidence, it might be. You might be a woman who could walk into a room a couple of years ago and now you don't have the confidence to do that. So it can be anxiety, it can be fatigue, it can be. It can be symptoms like your skin is changing. You know, I have women who will get eczema or psoriasis for the first time in their 40s. It might be dry eyes, it might be. Your libido is changing, your weight is changing, as we've discussed, and it can be that your cycle is changing.

Thalia: 9:33

But for a lot of women, you know that comes later. You can be having regular periods and your perimenopausal. So don't be misled. Women often think, well, my periods will change, I'll have hot flushes and night sweats. That's way down the line for a lot of women. It's this, it's these really almost changes that you might not even notice. So I really invite women to connect to their bodies, to really pay attention, and that can be a big shift on its own for some women who have just medicated through their menstrual cycle. Through their life they've taken the pill or they take painkillers for period pain or whatever it is. So I invite them to just notice what is your body telling you, because every one of those symptoms period pain, you know, heavy periods, pmt, pms, anxiety, low mood they're all the body sending us signals that something isn't quite right and often we don't listen, we accept it as an all and we move on. We keep going, you know. But actually we can do so much for our health if we just take notice.

Heidi: 10:38

Yeah, I've noticed that for myself, just based on just to kind of give a testimony for how important nutrition is. You know different cycles that I've had different months depending on how I was eating that month. Vastly different experience.

Thalia: 10:57

But also how you feel through your cycle and how we need to feed ourselves and nourish ourselves. Shifts and changes. You're going to be hungrier in certain points of your cycle. You're going to want more carbs, you're going to crave sugar in a different way. That's all natural. So, actually, when we talk about responding and being responding instinctively to our bodies and connecting, it's about going oh, you know what? I think I'm ovulating. I get why I feel like this. Today, that's okay. I'm going to show myself some self-compassion. I'm going to eat that bar of chocolate, whatever it is. I'm not going to give myself a hard time and tomorrow I'll do something more nourishing, but that's okay today. So you know, it's that the ebbs and flows to our cycle, whether we're in perimenopause or not. And, like you say, you know if you have a month where you're super busy, you're eating out all the time, you're not making the choices you'd normally make, you might notice you're more fatigued, you feel your PMS is more pronounced. Our bodies are incredible, but they respond to what we feed it Absolutely.

Heidi: 12:01

I was just telling a friend this morning. I said, hey, I had two glasses of wine last night to remind myself why I don't do that. I can't drink anymore. Yeah, it's, the better you feel, the harder it is to partake in certain things because the swings seem to be much more, like you said, pronounced. It's like okay, I can tell there's a dip in my performance and how I'm exercising everything, and that ebbs and flows, I think, throughout the month as well. I think there's certain times of the month where you hit the ground running and you're like, yeah, I can conquer the world and you're ready to really push. And then there's other times where it's, you know, maybe today's just a day to go on a walk.

Thalia: 12:42

You know, when we start paying attention we'll notice there's a pattern and that confidence and that conquering the world feeling is probably because our estrogen is peaked and when we feel pretty chilled out and we're really calm, our progesterone is maybe more dominant. So you know, I think hormonal health women can have a really combative relationship with their hormones because they feel like they're to blame for a lot. But actually our hormones as women are our superpower. I really believe that. So that's part of the difficulty in perimenopause is making peace with those changes and how our body is changing and how our estrogen is ultimately going to dip very low.

Thalia: 13:23

It doesn't happen in early pain menopause. In early pain menopause it's fluctuating a great deal up and down, our progesterone is tending to drop and it's the discrepancies between our hormones that we, when we feel those differences, those, feel those emotions shifting when we feel more anxious, that loss of confidence I described. But actually our hormones, if we honour them and honour our bodies, can be just our superpowers. Women, you know it gives us up our curves and our plump skin and our confidence to rule the world if we were given half a chance.

Heidi: 13:58

Yeah, that's a whole nother conversation. Yeah, so tell me, when somebody comes to you and they're struggling and they they're saying you know I'm having trouble losing weight, the things I'm doing haven't worked before. My body's changing. My energy levels are low all of these common. Where do you start? Where do you start with them?

Thalia: 14:20

So this is where my previous career as a journalist kind of comes into its own, because a first session with someone is really for me, it's information gathering. I want to take a really in depth health history. So I'm being a health detective at that point and I go right back to childhood. I'll go back to any information you have about when your mother was pregnant, if you have that information. How you were born, how you were delivered, how you were fed, your childhood illnesses, your childhood traumas all of these things feed into your health now, whatever age you are.

Thalia: 14:51

So in the first instance I'm looking for what patterns I can see, what might be triggers or root causes of your symptoms, and if we wind back, I can usually see those things triggers and root causes. And then I need to understand how someone is living right now. Their relationship with food is huge. So if you're a yoyo dieter, that's a disaster for your weight in your 40s. So I'm going to talk to you about nourishment and how we nourish our bodies, because a lot of women do not do that and they have a lot of guilt and shame around food and they use language like that's good for me. I'm not going to read that that's bad, that's naughty. I don't know if that's a very British word, naughty.

Heidi: 15:34

Kind of categorizing foods or almost demonizing certain foods, exactly.

Thalia: 15:40

Yeah. So we want to come from a place of nourishment, and then I'm going to want to know, and then, from a scientific point of view, I'm going to want to look at some blood chemistry. I want going to want to make sure your thyroid is okay. I want to know what your gut health is doing. I might decide to do a stool test, see what your microbiome is looking like.

Thalia: 15:59

Is there any autoimmunity that is present that you know of or is undiagnosed? You know all of these things. That's why nutritional therapy is so bespoke, because all of that information comes into play for me to decide what is right for you. How should we be encouraging you to eat when you know should you be fasting or not? So fasting is a big thing for women in their forties with weight loss. It's fasting right for you. Is there anywhere I can support you from a cellular level? You look at mitochondrial health. You know all of these things. So it's that's what I love about my job, because everyone is completely unique and every story is different. So it's that's part of the joy of my work.

Heidi: 16:38

Yeah, I think it would be important to understand those histories, not just from that medical perspective, right from that baseline what types of illnesses have you had, what surgeries have you had, what traumas to the body have you had, those types of things but also from the mental and emotional space. Have you had a problem with the eating disorder before? Have you struggled with, like you said, often on dieting or unhealthy behavior around food and your body? I think that would be really important to understand because a lot of people do need help and they go to a professional for help and if those questions aren't asked, then that person could be doing more harm than good by telling someone to do something restrictive which then sets them, triggers them, to go into a really dangerous pattern for themselves.

Thalia: 17:28

There'll be things that you, you know someone sitting in front of me won't make a connection to their present health. So, at first, childhood events, ACEs we call them ACEs. We're looking at ACEs in the under 18s. It can be an obvious trauma, it can be abuse, it can be bereavement, it can be your parents divorcing, but anything that a child experiences as traumatic can be an ACE, and we know that, statistically, someone who has two or more ACEs and the under the age of 18 is statistically more likely to have an autoimmune disease. And so what we mustn't underestimate is the impact of our sort of when we talk about our central nervous system. That's part of my job as nutritional therapist to understand the stress response in the body, because it's so profound when it comes to our physical health. As you've noted, our emotional health and our physical health are deeply intertwined and Western medicine doesn't really give you, I think, tension. Yeah absolutely.

Heidi: 18:30

The body is looked at more as a machine than a living thing.

Thalia: 18:35

If you go to a doctor and say I've got really bad headaches, they're going to rule out anything serious and they're going to give you painkillers. If you've got super bad period pain, they're going to rule out PCOS and endometriosis. Then they're going to give you some painkillers. So for me, I'm making connections with body systems. Your head is not separate from your gut, is not separate from your liver, is not separate from your. You know it's. How is the whole body working? You know we don't. Our body systems don't exist in a vacuum. The Western medicine, obviously we have specialists for every area of the body and that's incredibly important. But that's the value of a holistic approach alongside a medical approach as well, because it allows us to maybe make connections or explore your health in a way that hasn't been done previously.

Heidi: 19:19

Absolutely yeah, looking at everything holistically as one system working together. Tell me, you mentioned this idea of being undernourished, people being undernourished. What are some other common pitfalls that you see people falling into that someone listening could listen for and go? Yeah, you know what I really am not eating protein or I'm not nourishing my body, and no wonder I feel hungry all the time.

Thalia: 19:46

Yeah, for sure, or what are some other?

Heidi: 19:48

things that people are doing.

Thalia: 19:49

So I see a lot of women who rely on caffeine a lot to get through the day.

Heidi: 19:55

As I take a sip of my coffee.

Thalia: 19:58

There's nothing wrong with coffee I love coffee, I love coffee so it can be really healthy. But if you have blood sugar dysregulation, if you suffer from anxiety there are some people it doesn't suit. If you are genetically a slow metaboliser of caffeine, it may not be the best thing for you. So I'm going to be looking at how much caffeine you're drinking. I'm going to be looking at how much protein you're eating. Are you eating carbohydrate? So you know, I mean you're too young, but Atkins left its mark still.

Thalia: 20:29

Women who are really phobic about carbs and we need carbohydrate, so we need our macronutrients. Women who are phobic about fat we have like a dieting app here in the UK I don't know if you have it in the States and one client came to me and said the app told me to eat some crisps chips you guys call them instead of having an avocado, because it had less calories. So if that's a really good example of nourishment versus the goal of weight loss and I think you can do both, but we need to come at weight loss from that perspective of what's good for my body. Food is information for our body, for our hormones, for ourselves, for its information. It's not just fuel. So a lot of women don't have that approach to how they eat.

Thalia: 21:18

A lot of women take way too many supplements. They all come to me with a bag of supplements and I'm taking this one because my best friend is taking it. She said it's great. I'm taking this one because my mom's taking it. You know, I saw a newspaper article about this and influencers taking this one and most of them are unnecessary, won't be doing anything on the right clinical dose or they're not assimilating the nutrients in them because they've got gut problems. So that's a big one is you can't out supplement a bad diet. So I think yeah, I think I'm trying to think of other things that I see really commonly. I think skipping breakfast is a big one. Women often skip breakfast because they're trying to lose weight and then they just get really hungry towards the end of the day and then they're eating foods out of control and that spirals into this cycle of shame and misery around food and that's not nourishing either.

Heidi: 22:06

I can see where supplements could be a big culprit as well, because people they are just listening to you know someone online recommends this and that person hasn't done their due diligence to understand the history you know, like what you're saying, that you do with your clients and understanding the history of that person and what's going into their system with that supplement. How are they eating and maybe they're already getting a lot of whatever's in there with their diet.

Thalia: 22:35

I would say it's even. It can be dangerous One of my biggest bug bears. If I go into a health food store and I hear someone working recommending a supplement to a member of the public and I never hear them say are you on any medication? If you're on prescribed medication either the, the, the sort of best case scenario is the supplements might reduce the efficacy of your medication. Worst case scenario is it's dangerous. You know, if you are on a blood thinner, you should not be taking vitamin E. If you are immunosuppressed, you should not be taking probiotics. If you're on thyroid medication, you should not be taking minerals within two hours of your medication. So all of these things as well, you know. That's why I don't. I don't, I don't, I don't know. A lot of nutritionists recommend supplements on their social media channels. I'm really wary. I only do that if I'm super confident that it's a very general, well tolerated supplement. I don't go in for that because it for the reasons I've just given. So always start with food, food first, always.

Heidi: 23:33

I love that you're so responsible with the information that you're giving, that you feel that sense of responsibility to do things in an ethical way. And it's interesting what you were saying about the person eating the crisps or chips, crackers, crackers, what you call those. A biscuit, a cracker, a biscuit.

Thalia: 23:51

That's a cookie. Right A cracker is the same as yours. Right A cracker is a cookie crisps your chips.

Heidi: 23:57

Okay, I think I've got it all down Idea that fat is so bad for us. Really, one of the things that I heard is that initially, when that whole message went out, that whole public health message went out it was supposed to be talking about saturated fat, is what I heard. But then they just didn't think that the public could understand the difference between fat, saturated fat, mono, all the different types, and so they just sort of said fat, just reduce your fat and then you'll reduce your saturated fats. But then people just completely stopped eating any fat, and then what they replaced it with was processed foods that had a lot of added sugar and carbohydrates.

Thalia: 24:42

So I mean we could. It would probably be better if we called fats lipids, because obviously if you call a food group fats, then in your tonal use weight, instinctively you're going to avoid that food group. But actually my advice is anything found in nature an avocado, nuts seeds are healthy fats. If it comes in a packet, it's processed, put it down. That's a really broad guideline. So I do eat coconut oil. I don't eat a lot of it. It's a saturated fat, but that's not to say it doesn't have nutritional benefits. So balance is always a good approach.

Thalia: 25:16

But you're right, I think people can be fat phobic. Like you say, you go for a low fat yogurt but it's filled with sugar or sweetness and that fat that's in that yogurt. If we eat a full fat Greek yogurt, for example, we're getting the protein from the yogurt which fills us up, and then the healthy fat we get from the nutrients present, the vitamins A and vitamin D and vitamin E. Those fat soluble vitamins slow down the metabolism of the protein, so we're fuller for longer. So it's counterintuitive to if you're trying to fill yourself up and eat less, to eat low fat. We just think we want full fat, Just in. You know, we just think about portion maybe more, but actually it's going to feed your body and fill you up far better than that low fat option.

Heidi: 26:02

Yeah, I found for myself with trying to cut out a lot of processed foods, especially ultra-processed foods, it has to be a family decision. In our household there's not separate food for our kids. They're eating. If we're eating natural peanut butter that doesn't have all the other oils and things in it, then that's what they're eating too. And my son the other day was at school and I guess another kid said does your parents make you eat that? Because it's like sprouted bread and you know natural peanut looks a lot different than some of the other lunches. And he said well, if I want to eat, I eat this. And so it does kind of come down to making it a family decision as well, especially, you know, wanting to teach our kids as moms, wanting to teach our kids to eat healthier and why there's certain foods that we do need to avoid because they have things that are added in them that can be harmful to our health. So how do you feel about moms educating their kids?

Thalia: 27:07

Well, this has been a journey for me. So my sons are just about to have birthdays. One will turn 12, one will turn 14. So when they were tiny, you have complete control, right. You get to feed them whenever you want, and I love that. I loved weaning them, I love feeding them and nourishing them. And then a stage comes when they are out in the world and they have more independence and both my sons get to choose their lunch and play with their thumbs, you know.

Thalia: 27:32

So what I learn is it's really important to teach them about nutrition so they understand the impact of food on their bodies. But I'm not super strict, so I think it's also really important to recognize that, particularly for teenagers. You know belonging is huge. You know they're in a tribe. They don't want to stand out.

Thalia: 27:51

So I've taught my sons that we want to eat predominantly good quality food. That is, I cook everything from scratch. But there is ice cream in my house, for sure, there are chips in my house, but I teach them that if we eat too much of this stuff, well, they've learned over time the impact of sugar on their bodies. So if they go to a party and there's tons of sugar and they come home and they're just really emotional and they just don't feel good. I'll say you know so please, you had a good time at the party, but you had a lot of sugar today, and that's how it can make us feel. That's okay, but that's how it can make us feel.

Thalia: 28:22

So now they are very good at self regulating. So I'll say, do you want pudding? And they'll say, no, I had something in school, I'm fine. So I wanted to make sure that they felt comfortable around food, they had a healthy relationship with food. And then, as for what's in the house, that's the tricky one, right? Because if there's ice cream in the house, do I eat it, I'm pretty good. If there's chocolate in the house, that's another thing.

Heidi: 28:43

So that's why I'm talking in chocolate, or my love language.

Thalia: 28:47

So I try and keep dark chocolate in the house. I've taught my kids to eat dark chocolate. But yeah, it's just.

Heidi: 28:52

You know, I'm compassionate with myself and my diet is balanced, and if I have ice cream on day or chocolate, that's fine, it's all about balance, since we have made an effort to keep the food that we have in our home cleaner, you know, as far as not as much processed stuff and we're looking at inflammatory oils and excess sugar and things like that. The world will still give your kids lots of treats. They go to school and they get a donut. And then one day my son had basketball and he goes yeah, this is like the third donut I've had today from other people. So it's like, hey, you're getting, you're getting, definitely getting, and I'm not going to let them have that. If something is offered and they choose to have it, great, but it's just not a lot of that around here.

Thalia: 29:39

So it's about how we can incorporate nourishment into their day without it feeling arduous for them. And then it's just I talked about eating the rainbow when they were little. I'd say what colours did you eat today? We used to have an eat the rainbow chart on the fridge and you'd get your coloured stickers and it said mum, I haven't had anything blue today, so, or purple, so we'd get out the blueberries from the freezer and make a smoothie or something. So it's really engaging them and helping them to understand that what they put in their body gives them fuel that makes them run faster or study harder or make their skin good. So my teenager is more aware of how he looks now. So what makes your skin good? How do I avoid his bonds? Well, we look after your guts, we look after what's going into your body. So it's all of these things make them aware which is good.

Heidi: 30:30

Yeah, allowing them to find their own motivation for it, and we've done that too, noticing how they feel when they're eating different things, instead of so much of the focus on what it tastes like. But how did you feel after that, and did you feel energized, or did that make you feel tired? And just noticing. And I think that that's the work that we can do with ourselves, as well as just to notice, become more aware of what's going on inside as we do consume different things throughout the day, noticing an energy spike or drop or what's going on there, and taking note, just paying attention.

Thalia: 31:05

It's hard to make change. If you're talking about a lifetime of habits, if you have any kind of illness that is chronic I've seen women with PCOS or endometriosis if you have auto immunity, if you have gut problems you've had for as long as you can remember, it's difficult to find your way because there's a lot of information out there. You may try something. It doesn't help. What is it that you are trying that isn't helping? Is that helping? And then you, you kind of give up and it's really hard.

Thalia: 31:34

So the always, of course, any expert. The benefit is someone who can guide you and seize the patterns or allows you to move forward. Support it, because you know we're busy and we have busy lives and our attention is pulled in a million directions. It's hard enough to think about ourselves, to think about ourselves and solve problems for ourselves, for our own health. It's just one more thing. The most mums in my experience can handle. So they don't. And then one year, two years, three years pass and they feel exactly the same. They feel exhausted, they feel that they have nothing to give. They feel guilty if they lose their temper with their children. They feel like they're not progressing in their careers as much because they don't have the energy you know, yeah, it's expensive to feel.

Heidi: 32:23

to not feel your best is expensive. It costs you a lot, yeah. So I have a question that I love to ask my guests, a couple questions, and the first one is what's one piece of advice that you would give to your past self?

Thalia: 32:37

I think if I could meet my 16 year old self, I would say you're stronger than you know. Trust your gut, listen to your gut. You always know best. And you're stronger than you know. I think that's what I would say to her Beautiful.

Heidi: 32:52

And what are you reinventing in your life right now?

Thalia: 32:55

I'm 15 next year, so that feels pretty huge and I'm in paramount applause. So my body is changing, everything is changing. So I feel like I am in this kind of reinvention time in my life where I get to think how do I want to feel and look for the next 10, 15, 20 years of my life, what is coming next? So I think I'm in a process of personal reinvention as I go through this transition, and where can people find you?

Heidi: 33:22

if women are listening and they're thinking, yeah, I have some of those symptoms, I have some of those things that you're talking about, where can they connect with you?

Thalia: 33:30

You can reach out through my website, thaliapellegrinicom, and I have an account at Instagram. Who doesn't thaliapellegrini underscore nutrition, and I offer a free call to anyone who would like to explore nutritional therapy. You might be thinking is this right for me? What will it involve? I always meet with someone by Zoom. Most of the time. I always meet with someone first to explore their health goals and work out if I'm the best person to work with them. I refer on if I think someone else is better equipped to deal with you, and then we take it from there. I run a group program called the energize mum method, which is my paramanipause program, and then I work with women, also one to one, in my revitalize signature program.

Heidi: 34:12

Wonderful. Well, I hope that those listening will connect with you. And you know we never know how good we can feel until we feel better, and so sometimes, even if we're not having, you know, any massive symptoms going on or fatigue necessarily, may just not notice, because that's kind of become the new baseline for you, and it's not until you start changing some of these things and you start feeling better that you realize, oh, this is actually how good I can feel. So I hope that that encourages some people to reach out, and I just want to thank you for being here. I enjoyed the conversation. It was a lovely time. Thank you so much, heidi.