Maximizing Hormones, Physique & Running Through Perimenopause

#113 - 2025 Wrap Up & Unexpected Lessons Learned

Louise Valentine

What if “leveling up” has nothing to do with doing more, pushing harder, or chasing the next goal?

In this honest 2025 wrap-up episode, Louise, one of the world’s leading health, fitness and performance experts, reflects on a year that changed her in ways she never expected. While the outside markers of success were there, running strong, looking more fit, exponential business growth and endless client wins, the real transformation happened internally. She opens up about the unexpected ways burnout can show up, perimenopause, nervous system overload, and the pressure women feel to constantly prove themselves in a loud, opinion-driven wellness world.

Louise shares why she stepped back from social media, returned to science over trends, and recommitted to deeply personal, holistic work with her clients. She challenges black-and-white thinking around hormones, HRT, fitness, and health, making space for nuance, choice, and individual needs. Most importantly, she reframes success as energy, presence, health, and alignment, not hustle or scale.

This episode is especially meaningful for ambitious active women navigating perimenopause, burnout, or a quiet sense that the old way of pushing just isn’t working anymore. It’s a reminder that slowing down can be the most powerful step forward, and that working with your body, not against it, changes everything.

Check out my blog’s new bonus free resource “Is it perimenopause, running burnout or BOTH? Here are predictive biomarkers to track BEFORE burnout.”: https://www.breakingthroughwellness.com/blog 

Learn & level up with my free nutrition guide and award-winning Badass Breakthrough Academy to thrive through perimenopause with less stress: https://www.breakingthroughwellness.com/

Link to our FullScript where you can see our curated best supplement picks & save 20% off: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/breakingthroughwellness/store-start 

Take advantage of our podcast listener discount and save 20% off all of Kion’s science-backed clean products: https://www.getkion.com/pages/maximizing

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(4:08) Redefining what leveling up means
(5:37) Burnout behind high achievement
(7:21) What holistic care really means
(10:31) Making space for the gray
(12:54) Choosing science over noise
(16:00) Cynicism as a burnout signal
(20:21) Why calories in calories out fails
(22:31) Nervous system first, always
(25:30) Choosing life over hustle
(29:31) Healing requires space
(32:53) Learning to value your work
(43:26) Lessons that changed everything
(47:07) A healthier path forward
(48:07) Outro


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