Opt to Thrive…for Midlife Women
Opt to Thrive is a health and wellness podcast designed to support, educate, inspire, empower and motivate midlife women to live their healthiest, happiest most fulfilled lives. Motivated by her own life experiences and challenging midlife transition, Dr Corina Sims created Opt to Thrive.
Dr Sims is a rural GP Obstetrician and Menopause Specialist who has a passion for connecting with and empowering other women to be the best version of themselves. Disappointed with the vast amount of contradictory information targeted at menopausal women, Dr Sims also recognised the gap in medicine that has been identified around the globe in managing women going through it. Dr Dims strives to bring evidence based information to those who are searching for answers.
Listen in every week where on one week you’ll find either a short and sweet episode designed to uplift, inspire and give helpful tips to manage your mind and a longer episode the next created to educate and inform.
Episodes
97 episodes
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: Are We Making It Harder Than It Needs to Be?
Ever catch yourself doing something and having the thought "I'm making this a lot harder than it really needs to be"?In this short mindful moment, I share a simple story from an ordinary household chore that sparked a much bigger insight...
When You're Told You're "Fat and Lazy" But It's Actually Lipoedema: This Is Chantel's Story
This is an eye-opening episode that brings awareness to a condition that is not very well known and often confused with being overweight. Chantel, a Registered Nurse married to a doctor, suffered with Lipoedema from her teenage years but wasn't...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: A Powerful Strategy for Managing Cravings
In this week’s Mindful Moment, we’re exploring something that quietly works against so many midlife women trying to improve their health, body composition, and energy… cravings.Those moments — often at night — when you’re not trul...
Because Walking Is Great but It's Not Enough in Midlife: Keeping Muscle & Bone Strong With Damien Crettenden
In this episode, I sit down with local Exercise Physiologist, Damien Crettenden, for a conversation every midlife woman needs to hear.From somewhere around 40 we start to naturally lose muscle and this process will continue unless we do ...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: What Are You Making It Mean?
Have you ever had a moment where something small completely derailed your mood… and you weren’t even sure why?In this week’s episode I'm getting uncomfortably vulnerable to give a real-life example of how to use one of my favourite mind ...
From Menopause Mess to Thriving: The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything – This is Trish’s Story
Trish describes herself as being in a “menopause mess”—gaining weight without changing her diet, waking daily with headaches, dealing with pain, and feeling like she’d been “hit by a truck” with no light in sight.In this episode, she sha...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: The Power of Purpose in Midlife
When was the last time you started something new?Something that challenged you… stretched you… and at the same time lit you up from the inside out?In this episode, I’m sharing what I’ve learned over the past two years of building ...
Swollen Legs: The Difference Between Lipoedema, Lymphoedema and Excess Weight
Not all leg swelling is the same.In this episode, I unpack a topic that isn’t talked about nearly enough—lipoedema—and how it differs from lymphoedema and more common causes of swollen legs.If you’ve ever experienced...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: Active Acceptance When Your Daughter Lives Next to a War Zone
What do you do when something you can’t control suddenly feels very close to home?In this episode, I share a personal experience of supporting my daughter while she lives in Dubai during this period of rising tension in the region. It ha...
Declutter Your Space, Declutter Your Mind: The 5-Step Process with Tracy Hoth
Have you ever opened a cupboard, looked around your home, or stared at a pile of papers and felt instantly overwhelmed?Clutter doesn’t just take up physical space. It can quietly drain our mental energy, increase decision fatigue, and ad...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: Leaning In Instead of Quitting (My Personal Story)
Over the past week I’ve had some disappointments, heavy stressors, and moments where my brain told me it would be easier to just quit.“You’re failing.”“This is too much.”“Why are you even trying?”Instead of hiding that — o...
Hair Loss & Menopause: Why It Happens and What You Can Do About It
Hair loss affects nearly half of women at some point in their lives — and for many of us, it can feel deeply distressing.In this episode of Opt to Thrive, I’m unpacking hair loss in women — especially during midlife and the meno...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: How to Improve Your Wellbeing When Life Feels Flat
Life has a way of spinning one day into the next, and from time to time many of us find ourselves in a bit of a rut — not unwell, but not quite thriving either.In this episode, I explore what wellbeing really means beyond the curated ima...
Aging Gracefully: The Identity Shifts No One Prepares You For
Aging gracefully… it sounded simple to me once. Until I arrived here.Midlife brings a series of identity shifts that few women are ever prepared for — changes in how we look, how we are seen, the roles we play in our families, our...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: When Adult Children Come Home And Emotions Run High - Choosing How You Want to Show Up
After a rare visit with both of my adult children at once, an unexpected family conflict reminded me how quickly emotions can take over and how powerful it is to pause and choose our response. In this Mindful Moment, I share the sim...
What Your Wearable Can And CANNOT Tell You About Your Health
Wearables are everywhere — watches, rings, bands — tracking your sleep, recovery, stress, heart rhythm… and making a lot of women wonder: Should I trust this?In this episode, I break down what your tracker can tell you… w...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment - Why You Should Do It Anyway
That racing heart, dry mouth, and “why am I doing this?” moment?That’s growth.In this Mindful Moment episode, I reflect on stepping into discomfort, from radio interviews to new challenges, and why doing hard, unfamiliar things suppo...
Hot Flushes in Menopause: Why They Happen and What Really Helps
Hot flushes are one of the most common — and most disruptive — symptoms of menopause. For some women they’re mild and fleeting. For others, they interfere with sleep, mood, confidence, and quality of life.In this episode of Opt to Th...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: Feeling Better vs Letting Yourself Feel
In this short Mindful Moment episode, I’m sharing a story from a recent family dinner — where a simple conversation question led to a much deeper reflection on emotions, thoughts, grief, and what it really means to “feel our feelings.”On...
Preventative Health for Midlife Women: Screening Tests That Actually Make a Difference
Happy New Year — and welcome to the first episode of the year! 🎉As we step into a fresh new year, it’s the perfect time to think about preventative health, staying well, and making sure you’re up to date with the screening tests t...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: You Could Miss the Pain - But You'd Miss the Dance
In this reflective episode, I share a personal story sparked by an unexpected night out — watching Love Actually in concert with close friends. What began as a joyful shared experience unfolded into a powerful meditation on love, loss,...
Stop Starting Over: The Missing Component to Finally Break the Yo-Yo Cycle in Midlife
If you’ve ever found yourself losing weight… only to gain it back again, this episode is for you.So many midlife women feel frustrated, disheartened, and convinced that something is “wrong” with them — especially when the strategies that...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: Other People's Opinions
In this week’s Mindful Moment, I share a surprising little experience that made me pause, reflect… and laugh. It’s all about what happened after my last episode went out — and what it reminded me of (again) about other people’s opinions, why we...
The Silent Bone Crisis Affecting Midlife Women - A Bone Health Conversation All Women Need to Hear
This week’s episode took a turn I didn’t expect.After seeing a string of unexpected bone density results in women in their 50s and 60s, I knew I had to hit pause on my planned topic and talk about something far more urgent: the silent...
Manage Your Mind Mindful Moment: The Midlife Happiness Formula
This week’s episode started with a simple quote I first heard as an intern on my psychiatry rotation:“The secret to happiness is having something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.”It’s a line that has q...