Episode 064: How To Rebuild Your Health In Menopause

Most women hit midlife doing the “right” things and still feel worse: the same meals, the same workouts, the same hustle, and suddenly the results disappear. That’s not failure, it’s math. Your health equation changes in perimenopause and menopause, and trying to force your old inputs to produce old outputs is where frustration and burnout take over. 

We sit down with Jill Foos, founder of Jill Foos Wellness and host of the Health Trip Podcast, to talk about what’s really happening beneath the surface and what actually helps in real life. We get into why so many women arrive after seeing multiple doctors, exhausted but still curious, and how Jill helps them start again without the overwhelm. We talk protein and strength training, the intimidation factor that keeps women from lifting, and how to lower the barrier to entry so progress feels doable instead of impossible. 

Then we go deeper into the biology and the mindset shift. Jill breaks down how changing estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone can influence sleep, mood, motivation, and libido, plus why muscle loss is often about aging, not just hormones. We also talk about grieving your old body and identity, using a clear vision for your 70s and 80s as motivation, and becoming the CEO of your healthcare by building a real team you can trust and, when needed, replacing providers who dismiss you. 

If you want a smarter, more sustainable menopause plan built around your life, not a one-size-fits-all protocol, press play. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s struggling, and leave a review so more women can find this conversation.

Jill Foos is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach based in Chicago who is skilled in evidence-based strategies for behavior change and is a member of MINT (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers). She holds certifications from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy and has specialized training in
menopause, mindfulness, supplements, and gut health. She uses science-backed strategies for behavior change, including Motivational Interviewing, Positive Psychology, and the Stages of Change Model to support and inspire her clients to find their motivation for change. Her specialty is helping midlife women find their longevity and disease prevention equation, considering lifestyle interventions to support sleep optimization, nutrition, stress management, exercise, and community. She founded Jill Foos Wellness, a virtual health coaching business, and hosts the Health Trip Podcast.

Website: https://www.jillfooswellness.com/

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MiDOViA is dedicated to changing the narrative about menopause by educating, raising awareness & supporting women in this stage of life, both at home and in the workplace. Visit midovia.com to learn more.

The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images & other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. 

Transcript

Welcome And What We Care About

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Medovia Menopause Podcast, your trusted source for information about menopause and midlife. Join us each episode as we have great conversations with great people. Tune in and enjoy the show. Hi everyone. Today's conversation is one we've been really looking forward to because it sits right at the intersection of something we care deeply about. How women actually navigate midlife in a way that works in real life. Not the perfect plan, not the 10-step protocol, but what actually happens when you're managing a career, a family, a body that feels different, and a healthcare system that doesn't always meet you where you are. Today we're joined by Jill Foos, founder of Jill Foos Wellness and host of the Health Trip Podcast, where she brings together functional medicine, behavior change, and real conversations about what's actually happening in women's bodies in midlife. And what I love about Jill's work is that she doesn't just talk about what to do. She helps women understand why things aren't working and how to actually shift them. So today we're going to talk about the health equation in midlife, what's really happening beneath the surface, and how women can start to take back control in a way that's sustainable. Hey, Jill, welcome to the show. It's nice to have you here today.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Hi, thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited about the conversation today. Us too.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Yeah, we we've had quite the conversation behind the scenes, behind the curtains, but nice to draw that back and finally have a conversation with you. I'm wondering as we start this morning, um, what when women come to you, what's usually going on beneath the surface?

Why Women Arrive Frustrated

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Oh my gosh, so many things.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

I would say the first thing is most women that come to me have already seen four to seven physicians or um specialists in trying to help them during midlife. And they're just so frustrated. So by the time they get to me, they're just exhausted, they're frustrated, they're feeling discouraged, yet they're still curious. They're not giving up. And so that's the person that I'm usually meeting. Um, which is a really wonderful place to meet someone, by the way, to know that they've been through the ups and downs of navigating menopause on their own. And there's still like, what else is out there for me?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah. Yeah. I imagine that it's really rewarding, right? The work that you do. Um, I and I imagine that there are a lot of women that are struggling because there's missing pieces when by the time they get to you, there are a lot of missing pieces and you have the opportunity to connect the dots, right? See that progress on the other side. You you often talk about um having women having their own health equation. And I'm wondering what that means.

The Unique Midlife Health Equation

SPEAKER_00 3:05

If you can unpack that a little bit for our audience.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Yeah. So the health equation in midlife means that the inputs that maybe worked in your 30s are no longer producing the same outputs, right? I hear it all the time. I'm doing the same thing, I'm doing the same diet, I'm exercising the same, I have the same sleep habits, and it just isn't calculating the same way for her anymore. And so the women, as I said, they're so frustrated. They're doing all these things just to try to move the dial for themselves. And the unique health equation basically means none of us have the same equation. There's no one size fits all approach to navigating menopause. Well, it's working for me isn't necessarily going to be what works for April or what works for you, Kim, right? We're all different. We come from different families, we have different genetics, we have a different vision, uh, we have different things that we like and we don't like. And so it's about figuring out what is unique about you and how can you move the dial for the next 20, 30, 40 years? So we have to reconfigure out this equation, right? Maybe it's looking at nutrition. Does that have to be upgraded and tweaked a little bit? Does it have to um are we looking at sleep habits? Is something missing there? Do we have to look at stress management, you know, or has stress increased for you, which for a lot of women in midlife, it does? You know, we're taking care of the older generation. We're also taking care of kids that come back from college who can't find jobs. We're trying to still work in our career, which is an area you guys work in. And it is very overwhelming. And so we have to shift what used to work for us into a new equation. And it takes into account a lot of things, right? We've got a medical bucket, we have a lifestyle bucket, we have our vision bucket, what we want our life to be like when we're in our 70s and 80s, and we have to just reconfigure the whole equation.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

And it takes time.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Yes, yes, right. We're used to having an eye fix.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah, we're used to going to the doctor and getting a prescription and being like, okay, this is gonna fix my, you know, strep throat or whatever it is. And this takes time and experimentation.

Stop Doubling Down Stay Curious

SPEAKER_01 5:21

When you think about that, where do most women get it wrong when they're trying to figure out their health equation?

SPEAKER_02 5:28

I think they, first of all, I don't ever think women are getting anything wrong. To me, it's all about trying things out and realizing, okay, this didn't work, but part of it did. So to me, it's just a learning, um learning in progress, right? So, but I do think sometimes women double down on things that used to work that aren't gonna work anymore. Like they'll double down on restricting more food from their diet, or they'll double down on their cardio and other forms of exercise that aren't doing anything for them anymore, versus staying curious and open to trying new things because trying new things takes work. We have to think about it intentionally, we have to plan for the change, and then we have to do the change. And, you know, when we're trying to manage everything else, that seems like really a heavy load at this stage of life. Um so I do think that just staying curious and open-minded is really where the special sauce is in navigating midlife and beyond.

Sleep Struggles And Cooling Comfort

SPEAKER_00 6:35

I don't know about you, but sleep has just changed. Some nights I fall asleep fine and then I'm up at 2 a.m. overheated, kicking off the covers, trying to get comfortable again. And if you're in periamenopause or menopause, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not just bad sleep, it's disrupted, inconsistent, and honestly, it's exhausting. That's why I started paying attention to what I'm sleeping in and on. I recently tried Cozy Earth's sheets and pajamas, and what stood out to me right away is how breathable they feel. They're made from fiskas from bamboo, and they really do help regulate temperature. So when your body's doing its thing in the middle of the night, you're not waking up drenched or uncomfortable. And for me, it's those small shifts that make a big difference. Because when sleep is already harder to come by in this stage of life, comfort actually matters more than ever. This is about supporting yourself through menopause. And sometimes that starts with something as simple as what you're sleeping in. If sleep's been a struggle for you too, you might want to try them out. They offer a hundred-night sleep trial so you can really see if it works for you. You can head over to cozyearth.com and use code Modovia, M-I-D-O-V-I-A, for 30% off this Memorial Day. This is an exclusive offer and runs through June 1st. And if you see a post-purchase survey, mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Now, back to the show.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

You

Protein And Strength Training Reframe

SPEAKER_01 8:08

talk about um exercise and diet. I gotta say, those were the two biggest surprises for me. Eat, I mean, eat more protein, not limit your calories and lit do more heavy weight lifting and less intense cardio. Like that doesn't that didn't make sense to me in the beginning, right? It just didn't because I was trained my whole life to, you know, restrict my calories and go harder as I could in the in the gym or on the street or wherever. And I think that's a big shift that that women have to make during this time.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Yeah, these are barriers to entry. This is why a lot of women just freeze in overwhelm and don't start trying anything. Um but there's been some amazing studies out there, one on exercise. Now that you talked about uh weightlifting, there's been uh some amazing studies done by um a gentleman named Dr. Um Stuart Phillips, who I had on my podcast. And he talked about how the barrier to entry for women to go and lift heavy and think that that's the only way they're gonna move the dial in terms of changing their body composition is just not true that women can start lifting lighter and doing more reps, or you can lift heavier and do less reps, and you're going to get the same, the same stimulus and the same effect. So the barrier to entry can now come down so that we can meet women where they're at. And so it's not this one size fits all approach.

Overwhelm To Action With Low Fruit

SPEAKER_00 9:42

How do you, you know, you've mentioned overwhelm a couple of times, and and I think that is true. The women that we talk to, even our own friends, feel very, very overwhelmed with this idea and concept of lifestyle change. And what we're really talking about is looking at um all aspects of our lifestyle, our life, right? It's not even lifestyle, it's life from relationships to exercise to nutrition, even our support system. And it can seem overwhelming when we have work responsibilities and we have perimetopause menopausal symptoms and we're caring for adults, we're still caring for children. You fill in the blank. I'm wondering as you work with women, how do you take them from that sense of I'm completely overwhelmed, I don't know where to start to success. What does that look like? You know, that's a great process.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Yeah, great question because I like to start with the low-hanging fruit. I want to know what you are already doing well and what are you already finding joy in? And that's where the place that I want to start because that's already easy for her. So if she's already eating a healthy breakfast or a healthy lunch, but maybe dinner is a little bit off, right? She already knows and has success in a couple meals a day, every single day, right? She enjoys it, she knows how to put it put it together. How can we then transfer that energy into a third one, right? She's already in the kitchen, she knows what to do, she enjoys whatever it is. So just building on top of what's already going well for her. Because once she can find success in the low-hanging fruit, then there's this period of like buy-in, right? She's like, ah, okay, all right, that I can do. And now I'm ready for the next layer. But if you automatically start with the hardest, you know, that that's that's just not the place where I would want to start with the women that I work with. That's that's a really hard place to start. If you have never gone to the gym to lift weights, whether they're light or they're heavy, you know, that might not be the place to start. But maybe doing something in your home with what you already have and just changing things up a little bit might be easier for her. And then when she gets to the next level, that that next step might be joining a gym or doing something with a trainer, something.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yeah. I was I was talking to a friend the other day and she was asking me about hormones. And she's like, and then I have weight gain and I'm not sleeping, and what else should I do? I'm like, okay, slow it down. Breathe. And then let's talk about one thing at a time. Right? This this goes back to this immediate results thing that you want. If I'll just do it all right now, and then I'll figure it out and I'll be fine. Um, you know, from a coaching perspective, how do you help how do you help encourage women that want that change, but you know that this just takes what's going well and then the gym and all those things? Like what does that conversation look like for somebody that is so anxious to feel good again or feel good for you know, feel good finally?

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Yeah.

Agenda Mapping And Joy Based Habits

SPEAKER_02 13:03

I like to do this exercise called agenda mapping where I give them a sheet of paper, it has a bunch of circles on it, and I have them fill in the circles of all the things they want to tackle, right? Whether it's, you know, increasing their libido and their intimacy with their partner, whether it's walking more, whether whatever it is, they have to fill in the circles, right? And then I want I ask them, well, which one is the most important to you right now? Right? Let's get um some clarity on the priority of where you want to start. What's on your mind? Now what's on my agenda, right? I I know how I would do it for me, but like we just said, everyone has a unique health equation. So I want to get curious about her. I I I like the low-hanging fruit. And then I also want to know where is she interested in starting? Because that's where she's gonna put her energy, just one thing at a time.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah. And it comes back to the joy um conversation that you were having before, too. If it's important to her and it brings her joy, she's more likely to stick with it. Right. Um, we all want to start where we're happiest and where we're most joyful, not if we're miserable.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

So uh at the end of the day, if your health equation is not bringing you any joy and you can't take it on a vacation, you can't take it to a convention, you can't take it to your in-law's house, you can't manage it, you know, in other areas of your life, then it's not your health equation. Some you you gotta go back to the drawing board.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Yeah. And don't you find too, if you find something that is miserable, whether it's exercise, or we could talk about exercise here for the sake of the conversation, but if it's miserable, I'm most likely not gonna stick with it. So it's a short-term solution. If I can't motivate myself uh long term, uh it's not sustainable. We have to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yes. And I will say that there's a lot of women, again, there's that barrier to entry with let's just keep it with weight training, right? And if you've never weight trained before, it's really um intimidating to just show up at a gym and do it, right? Yeah. Um, but at the same time, this person might never really love to weight train. However, she might love the results. So by loving the results of seeing her body composition change, her strength increase, her maybe she is losing fat mass. Um, and on the other side of that, her libido has increased. Um, she's managed to navigate her nutrition better because she feels better. Maybe her clothes are fitting her better. So overall, she's just having a more positive experience. She somewhat not love going to the gym, but she's gonna love what's happening as a result of going to the gym. And that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

That's great.

Hormones Dopamine Sleep Libido

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yeah. I'm wondering, um, because you mentioned libido and a couple other things, I'm wondering if we can switch gears a little bit and talk about what's happening biologically to people that they may not even realize. Where are the gaps there in education and awareness?

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Yeah, you know, the two of you and myself, we're like in a bubble because we do know so much about menopause and the transition, right? And we're and we're going through it and we're really tuned into it. There are so many women that I talk to who have no idea what is happening to their body. And it's um it's just incredible because we think there's so much education everywhere, but there really isn't. We there's so much more work to be done. But biologically speaking, our hormones start fluctuating and declining in that perimenopausal phase, which of we know can start in our mid-30s and can last for you know seven to 15 years. So the hormonal signals are weaker in our body. And also our muscles start to decline with age and not menopause, which is really interesting because a lot of people think your age, um, it's your muscles start to decline with loss of hormones, but it's actually not. It's really more about age. And I think that's a really important part to remember because not everything that's going on with us is a result of our hormones fluctuating and declining. But in essence, estrogen starts to decline and that affects our dopamine signaling. So that's our brain's reward and motivation system. So the drive that used to propel us to stay motivated towards a goal, that starts to quiet and it's harder to access for a lot of women. Another one is sleep, right? Our progesterone starts to drop off, which affects our sleep. It's part of that GABA pathway. And that can make women feel more anxious or depressed, um, have those more mood swings, especially in the evening. And a lot of women tell me that their minds race at night, and that's that loss of that progesterone. And then testosterone is something that I love to talk about. I've been taking testosterone for over 28 years at this point. And this one slowly declined, starting in our 20s. So a very different trajectory than the perimenopause and menopause transition. So this one can start a lot earlier. And um, this I like to call is your get your shit done hormone, right? Testosterone is sort of like when you feel like life is in sort of black and white and meh, that to me, it tells me your testosterone could be um in a decline that's really affecting you. And that's how it was for me. Um, but it also supports a healthy libido, which is something that a lot of women struggle with. So we've got the progesterone affecting our sleep and our mood, which is gonna affect our libido as well. We've got the estrogen declining, which is affecting that dopamine signaling, a lot of other things as well, like our bones, our brain, our heart, our vascular system, like so many things. So they're all really connected. And all of these drops start making women just feel tired and wired and bloated and emotional and less focused and productive. And then with our muscle declining just due to aging, it's harder to get motivated to get to the gym or in our basement to stay consistent with the weight training, which we need so that we can be strong and live an independent life for the next, you know, 30, 40 years. So it's a kind of a vicious cycle.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

So I had this aha moment, Jill,

Grief Identity Shifts And Future You

SPEAKER_01 19:27

while you were talking about the fact that as you get to this point in in midlife, you know, your brain makes you not be concerned or worry or care as much as you used to. And this taking care of yourself during this time is something that's really important to care about. So, from a mindset perspective, how do you help and you know coach women through this time where they're where they're they're really having this brain issue that they're trying to adjust to and this need to take care of themselves at the same time?

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Yeah. A few things come to mind. One is there are women who are just naturally motivated, right? Where barriers just don't really exist as much for them as they do for a lot of other women, and they just continue to keep going and keep going. But for the women who really struggle with that type of mindset, um, one of the places I like to start is one, just sitting with the grieving process of saying goodbye to that former person and that body and the skin and the hair, and taking some time to just say, okay, I'm on my second act that no longer serves me. And I'm gonna look to this other time in my life as an opportunity for growth in other areas to take care of myself differently. And I also like to start with look around your table at Thanksgiving. Who's on a walker? Who's thriving in life? Like look at your family and then ask yourself what you want your life to be like when you're in your 70s, you know. So for me, it's totally non-negotiable. In my 70s and 80s, I need to be biking. I want to hike with my grandkids, I want to go on vacations with my grandkids, I want to live an independent life. I do I have two grandmothers who both died in nursing homes. And I don't want that for myself. So when I when I look at it as I know exactly what I want my life to look like when I am an um a senior woman, I know that that's gonna take different types of skills and different work now than when I was in my 20s and my 30s. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

You know, it it reminds me, Jill, um, not too long ago. Actually, well, it was last year now, my daughter went for an interview at UW Hospital, and I drove her down just to show her the area, sat there and Waiting room, right? When she went in for her interview, and I watched so many people come through that waiting room in walkers, and just their health clearly had declined. And they looked like they were my age. And it was that aha moment then and there that I told myself, it's the mindset, right? Like I will not be here in this situation. So it it's choice too. It's making conscious choice, I think is what you're saying. Decide what you want, um, and then make that choice. But I'm wondering too, you mentioned grieving your old body, you know, your physical body, the changes that are happening. I also think that we move and we shift at this life stage from what our identity might have been prior to menopause, right? We many of us had different careers, or we were raising kids, or you know, fill in the blank. And we grieve that as well. We we move into a new identity. It's like putting on a new jacket or a new pair of shoes that doesn't quite feel right, as those old worn ones that we have in our closet. Do you work with women who have that? Um, I don't like to call it identity crisis, but just an identity shift, and they have a hard time seeing beyond the here and the now or the old. And what do you do with that? How do you help them work through that?

SPEAKER_02 23:26

I would say most of the women that I work with are really looking to change their life in either a career or bringing on new hobbies or resetting and starting something new. So um I guess I've been fortunate to not work with women who have more uh are feeling more stuck in that phase of raising kids. And um, but I would start the same way with her, right? What's what's going well for you? What are you curious about? What's your vision? You know, we I we use positive psychology, right? What's already positive in her life that she wants to expand on and try to help her start shifting that mindset from this negative space to this more curious positive space? Uh, not that I ignore what she's leaving behind and how hard that is. I mean, I was I was a stay-home mom raising my five kids, and I didn't even start my career till 48, and it was really scary. So I totally get, you know, the shift in um having to move from one space to another and how hard that can be. You know, it's it's the unknown territory out there. But to help her find her own curiosity, her own motivation, um, you know, that's just part of the work that we do.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah, it's great. I love that. I would imagine that by the time they find you, they're like, please help me. I'm ready to figure out how to how to live my best life. I

Build A Healthcare Team Like A CEO

SPEAKER_01 24:57

want to shift gears for a second because you talk about building your healthcare team. We do too, but I would love to hear, you know, what does that mean? Why is it important? How do I do that? Um, for me personally, I just shifted um insurance plans, and all my doctors that were covered under one are not covered under the new one. I got to start all over again. But tell us about when you're talking with women and and this audience, how do you build that team and what does that look like?

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Yeah. Oh my gosh, I could talk about this for like a week. This is such a great topic. But I would say that women, um, I really want to inspire women to start thinking about being the CEO of your healthcare, right? And imagining there being a conference table, and around the conference table, all the chairs are filled with your team, right? The team of the people who have your best interests at heart, who are listening to you, who are doing the things that they are specialists in to help you move the dial in your health. A lot of women go through the menopause transition and they think, okay, I'm on the other side of it. I no longer have to think about and worry about any of these things. And that could not be further from the truth. And there's a lot of people out there speaking up to the peri-menopausal woman, but I like to speak to the woman who's on the other side and help her understand that this is when you really have to dial it in, right? Our bones are changing, our brain, our heart, our cholesterol is changing, um, uh our skin, our hair, like lots of things are changing. And there's no one physician who can be the star of the team. Like nobody's at the helm and doing the most. So we have to look at, well, who should be on our team? And this could be your OBGYN because you still need that person in your life for your annuals and your PAPs and other health things. You you need a, in my book, you need a preventive cardiologist or someone who is very well versed in lipid management. Um, the 2026 guidelines for managing cholesterol just dropped a month or two ago. And this is so important because it gives providers a map to help us, not just, you know, men, but also the menopausal woman. And our cholesterol, again, looks different, and heart disease is still the number one killer for women. I can't tell you how many times, like every year I hear about a woman I knew in the hockey community, because my kids were big hockey players, who died suddenly from a heart attack. It's like, no, that wasn't sudden. It's just she didn't know to assess her risk for heart disease. So to me, someone who understands lipids has to be on your team. Um, it could also be a sex therapist, it could be a couples counselor, it could be a fitness person, a pelvic floor therapist, uh, it could be someone who a dermatologist, someone who is a hair loss expert. Um, so there's so many people that could be, and this goes back to your unique health equation. What are your specific needs? What's your specific family genetics? And then who do you want sitting in those chairs around your um your uh table, your uh who's on your team?

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Who's helping you? I love the visual of the table, like who's all around there?

SPEAKER_00 28:23

And you know what it makes me think of. Um, if we're CEO, we we are have hired all of these people, we have to interview them. We have to make sure that they're the right people for our team, right? Right. Just like any other employee that you would hire into your organization. And I think that can be challenging as well, but we need to interview, and it's okay to um fire someone and move on and hire someone that is better for the team. We talk a lot about um not having guilt and firing your doctor if you're not getting the results that you need or the help that you need.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

I am so happy to hear you say that because that's something I talk about a lot too. It's and this is what really gets me fired up is when women make the choice to step away from the healthcare system and go into cash pay, a cash pay model because they're not getting the care that they need. And so they're gonna go to this other person who is in private practice, who has either a membership model or concierge model, whatever it is, it's cash pay. Her insurance isn't gonna cover it. And she deserves we all deserve the best care, but you would think that cash pay means you're gonna get sort of the four seasons of care. Not necessarily. I mean, not even close. And so I've actually developed a list of questions to ask the front desk before you even make the appointment to see that. Right? Yeah. Because you're you're not just seeing the provider, you're seeing the you're seeing the practice. What's the portal like? What are the how soon does it take for the provider to get back to you? I I've heard anywhere from one month to six months.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Oh my gosh, I thought that a couple of weeks was really bad.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Yeah, it's it's bad. So yeah, you're right. You've got to ask the right questions and don't be afraid to say goodbye and start a new relationship. I I know it's annoying, and it's also another barrier to entry for women to stay on top of their health and their appointments. But once you get the team in place, um, and there's ways to do that in a in a more efficient way, yeah, um, they're your team.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Yeah, I agree. And I'm gonna give a really quick plug here for my story. Don't know if you're familiar with them, Jill, but um, you don't have to start all over again with your medical records either. Their app is free um at a certain level, and you can carry your records with you wherever you go. Um they're not paying us. They're not paying us. They're not paying us, exactly, listeners. They're not paying us, but I I really, really love that concept. So what I'm saying here is that it's getting easier to move from provider to provider because you don't have to start at ground zero and fill out 12 pieces of paperwork again. Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Yeah, that's that's

Finding Menopause Experts Near You

SPEAKER_02 31:24

truly helpful. This is the reason why I co-founded the Chicago Metapause Collective, which is a nonprofit, is to help bridge that gap between the woman who is they're they're navigating menopause and the trusted local resources and practitioners and clinicians who are menopause care experts. Because a lot of women don't have access to knowing who to go to. And so I think it's looking at your community, it could be word of mouth. Um, for I also like to suggest that all chronic disease states have their associations, right? There's the Lipid Association, the American Heart Association, diabetes, all these things. And you can call them and you can ask them to help you find someone who's in your area.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

I love that. Do you want to do you want to just take a moment and talk about the collective and what that is?

SPEAKER_02 32:15

Oh, yeah, thank you. Um, yeah, so my friend, who's also my doctor, um, we, she's a physician, I'm a health coach, and we both work with midlife women and beyond. And we've noticed in the Chicagoland area specifically, because this is where we live, that there's this huge gap and that all the women that were finding us were saying, Oh my God, like it's so impossible to find anyone to help us. Like I've been to, you know, seven doctors, it's just nuts. And, you know, I'm starting, you know, I don't want to give up, but who do I see? Do I really need to get on a plane and go see someone in, you know, Utah who that's gonna cost me $5,000 and I got to stay for two nights, right? And and so, you know, we grew up knowing our clinicians and having a relationship with them. Like my OBGYN was the OBGYN who delivered all five of my kids. He's not a menopause care expert. So I had to bring on another team member. And I'm in it, so I knew who to go to. But there are thousands of women in Chicago who don't know where to go. And so that's why we started the Chicago, Chicago Menopause Collective to have in-person events to feature the menopause care experts in all areas of our health, and so that they could listen to them, hear them, uh, learn more about resources, education, um, and start building a community around it.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Yeah, I love the community too, the in-person community, because I think we need that too. We hear time and time again from midlife women that they're lonely and they have a hard time finding community. So you're filling that piece and that gap as well. Yeah. It's fantastic.

What Health Coaching Actually Is

SPEAKER_00 33:58

You know, we should have asked this question at the very beginning of the podcast, Jill, because it I think we assume that people know what health coaches do. But can you just give us a brief description of what a health coach does? What do you do?

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Yeah. Um I like to start with saying what we don't do. We don't tell you what to do, because a lot of women show up and they say, I'm a really good listener and I follow directions. Just tell me exactly what to do. And I have to say, that's not what a health coach does. A health coach is think of us as your sherpa, your partner. You're you're climbing this mountain and you want someone alongside you because you want to make sure that you're making the best choices for yourself, but you might not know exactly the direction to go into. And so that's how I describe what I do. I'm I'm a Metopause Sherpa. I'm gonna collaborate with you and bring all the information I know to the table that you are interested in learning. But at the end of the day, you're driving your own train. Like it's it's up to you to decide what direction to go into. So I'm I'm a collaborative partner. I'm walking alongside you on your journey. I'm someone that can you can be held accountable to to showing up week after week for yourself. Um, but also I'm someone who can help you with resources that you aren't aware of. Um, so I'm gonna help direct you to places that you're interested in because you've asked to learn more about a topic. But I do not come to the table with, I listen, Mary, I want you to eat X amount of uh celery sticks uh at lunchtime with half a cup of hot. Like that's not that's a dietitian is going to give you more of a prescription on nutrition. Health coaches, we look at all the pillars of health. We're gonna talk about your nutrition, we're gonna talk about your sleep, your um your exercise, your stress management. How do you feel about your community membership in your own neck of the woods? And I also like to add on um things like sexual health and pleasure because I think that is a huge pillar of health for women navigating menopause that is not talked about enough. And then I also like to talk about financial health, right? I'm not a financial advisor, but I want to talk about how do you it cost money to move through menopause, right? And so that's just uh more, uh I add on a little bit more pillars than are talked about.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yeah, it's great. Um the client is in the driver's seat, right? You you're in the passenger seat, they're in the driver's seat, you provide guardrails, but ultimately they have the compass.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Including the fact that it takes a minute to find the team, right? Takes takes and you're not gonna find it for them, but you're gonna give them suggestions for how to find their healthcare team. So if you're giving the general feedback to women at this stage, what what should they prioritize daily? What should people look at daily to feel good?

Sleep First And Start In Morning

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Number one is sleep. Yeah, right. If you cannot get consistent, sound, restorative sleep, it's gonna be really hard to achieve all your other goals. So that's that to me is where I start for myself. Um, and it's something that I dive into with all of my clients because I know that if she can't sleep, she's not gonna, you know, change her body composition. She's not gonna show up at the gym, whether it's in her basement or at the local, you know, YMCA or whatever. She's not going to make good uh nutrition choices. She's definitely not gonna connect with her partner if she's you know in a married or relationship. Um, so to me, it's it's all about the sleep.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Yeah, I agree. And it's still a problem that I haven't figured out. Um, and I keep remembering. Yeah. I keep remembering remembering that this is gonna take time and experimentation to try and find the right thing. But you're right. I didn't sleep well last night. Today I'm like, yeah, no, I don't want to do that thing. And yesterday I slept well and I was ready to take it all on. So it's a good reminder.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

When we here's here's the cool thing about sleep, though, because a lot of women think about sleep and they think about their bedtime routine. And that's sometimes really hard for women, especially if you know they're not taking any menopause hormone therapy like a progesterone. Um, maybe they're not a candidate. Maybe, you know, they still have kids at home that they have to take care of. So a lot of women have struggled with their bedtime routine. But I always say, let's flip the script and start with your morning routine because every morning you get a new opportunity to create something called sleep drive, which is part of CBTI, which is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. And a lot of women experience insomnia in this second act. Either they can't fall asleep or they can't stay asleep and they wake up in the middle of the night. So you get this blank slate every single morning to wake up and go get some early morning sun, start your day off in a different way, and create that sleep drive. So every night you're creating the sleep drive over time that you are going to get more tired. So I like to shift from take the stress out of your bedtime routine and let's put it in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Yeah. Kim, you talked a lot about that. Start that's a great way to end this.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Start your day.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Start your day.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Start your day. Exactly. Um,

Where To Find Jill And Trust Gut

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Jill, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 39:49

I am at um, well, on all my social media handles are Jill Foos Wellness. So I have JillfoosWellness.com, which is my website. And what people don't know about me is I used to be a recipe developer. So down in the footer, I have a whole tab on recipes and you can go to the list. Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know I didn't find it when I was pin stalking. Yeah, I don't talk about it that much. It was a prior life, but it's still such a a love that I have. I love being in my kitchen. That's my zen. Yeah. Um, I have a podcast like the two of you. It's called the Health Trip Podcast. And I bring on different medical professionals and we talk about all things related to our second act. And I'll be featuring you both in a couple of weeks when we drop our episode we did together, which I'm really excited about. Um and then the Chicago Metopause uh collective. So if you are listening and you are in the Chicagoland area, you can go to Chicago Metapause Collective.org and we have a new uh event coming up in June. And it's going to be all on sexual health, function, and pleasure. So that's gonna be a really fun event. Um, and where else? I I think I've covered all of that.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Oh, that's great. It sounds like a fun event. Yeah. Before we let you go, though, uh, we ask every one of our guests what the best piece of advice they've ever received is. And we're gonna ask you that same question. Trust your gut.

SPEAKER_02 41:19

And I know that that sounds really cliche, but so many times women show up and they tell me that they've had these conversations with their clinicians and that their clinicians are telling them they are wrong. And at the end of the day, they're right. It's their body. You you are the expert in your own health journey. You might not know a lot of the medical things, but you certainly know your body, and you know when something is off and you know when you need support.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

It's almost every time I haven't trusted my gut, I've done the wrong way.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

We say that all the time. We should have to be a reminder. Yeah, trusted the gut. So great, great, great reminder. Well, Jill, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today, and we look forward to connecting again. Guests, until next time, go find Joy in the journey. Take care, everyone. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Medovia Menopause Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe for future episodes, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend. Medovia is out to change the narrative. Learn more at Medovia.com. That's M I D O V I A.com.