How Loraine Created an Anchor Strong Enough to Weather the Storm

What happens when life gets hard?

If you've ever worried that one difficult season could undo all your hard work, this episode is for you.

Today I'm joined by Midlife Health & Body Reset member Loraine. When she joined the program, she was determined to stop the cycle of yo-yo dieting, build strength and create healthy habits she could actually maintain.

One of the concepts I teach in the program is creating an anchor. Instead of relying on motivation or perfection, we build strong nutrition and movement foundations that keep us grounded when life's inevitable storms arrive.

Over the past few months, Loraine has experienced one of those storms with the heartbreaking loss of her beloved dog, Pinkie. Her routine changed. She spent less time walking and fewer afternoons at the gym as she cared for Pinkie, and like many of us would, she found herself reaching for a few more snacks and a little more wine.

But here's what was different this time…

She never abandoned the habits she'd worked so hard to build. She still made it to the gym twice a week, continued prioritising protein and fibre, and used the simple strategies she'd learned to keep moving forward. Now that life is beginning to settle, she's confidently refocusing—not because she's "starting over," but because she knows exactly what to do.

This conversation is a beautiful reminder that lasting success isn't about perfection. It's about building habits strong enough to weather life's storms and having the confidence to come back to them when you're ready.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why Loraine wanted to break free from yo-yo dieting.
• Building strength in midlife.
• The power of creating an "anchor" for your health.
• Navigating grief without giving up on yourself.
• Why flexibility beats perfection every time.
• The confidence that comes from having sustainable habits.

💚 The Midlife Health & Body Reset opens tomorrow.

If Loraine's story resonates with you, the doors to the next Midlife Health & Body Reset open tomorrow for just one week. Together we'll help you build the strength, nutrition habits and confidence to navigate real life—not just the easy weeks.

The doors will then close, and the next intake won't be for another 2–3 months.

I'd love to help you build your own anchor.

Connect with me:

• Watch the recent Midlife Masterclass Replay here: Here
• Get your free Midlife Health & Body Reset Guide: Here
• Find out more about the Midlife Reset Program: Here
• Join the Opt to Thrive mailing list: Here
• Follow Dr. Corina on Instagram: @drcorinasimsopttothrive
• Connect on Facebook: Opt to Thrive (Dr Corina Sims)
• Opt to Thrive official website

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hello and welcome to Opt to Thrive, episode 61. How Lorraine created an anchor strong enough to weather the storm.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Welcome to Opt to Thrive, your go-to podcast for women's wellness in midlife, designed to educate, support, and inspire you to live your very best life. And now your host, Dr. Karina Sims.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

Hello and welcome to Opt to Thrive. Today we have another very special guest coming to you from the very foggy this morning and a little bit cold sunroom. We have Lorraine, who is another one of our reset members. And again, like always, I have some very specific reasons that I wanted to bring Lorraine on the show this morning. My reasons always revolve around things that listeners might be able to take away and use in their own lives. So first, Lorraine came into the program laser-focused on a mission. She didn't mess around. So I wanted to explore that mindset a bit because I just love it. And I think it really set her up for success. And second, one of the ways that I think sets us up for failure when we're trying to make health changes, whether that's incorporating the strength training into a routine or optimizing our nutrition for health or weight loss, is that many people have a temporary or a short-term kind of mindset when they start a program. And I think that's where many programs might fall short in the long term. They don't teach us how to fit the nutrition and fitness into our lives. Rather, they only work by fitting our lives around the fitness and nutrition. There aren't long-term strategies. And this is one of the reasons I don't like to use a specific meal plan in the program because everyone's different and everyone has different tastes. And so we work together to make the structure that I teach fit into your life rather than the other way around. Because when life is lifing and the waves of life start to knock us around, our natural instinct is to fall back into what we know and what is comfortable. So I think by just tweaking that again to fit into our lives and support our fitness and nutrition goals, that is what makes it sustainable. I also think that a program to help you be successful must address the mindset piece. Things like the all-or nothing mindset, the overwhelm that we as midlife women often feel with the stress in this stress sandwich generation. And so I know that Lorraine got in and got out, having accomplished what she set out to do, but I also know that unfortunately the waves of life have come along and knocked her around recently. And I'm really curious to have the conversation to talk about what that looks like in terms of her fitness and her nutrition. Now having been through the program and incorporated the reset strategies into her life. So let's dive in. Welcome Lorraine to the show. Thank you so much for taking your time out this morning to share your story with our listeners.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yay, good morning and thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Yay. So let's just go back maybe to the beginning, because I think there's probably a bit that I don't know kind of, you know, before the program. Can can you kind of take us back to what was happening for you before the program?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah, so I'm I suppose like a lot of women, we try this, we try that, and I felt like I was on this roller coaster. And you you'd try something new and you'd go really good for a couple of weeks, and it just things weren't sustainable for me. And I think as I hit menopause, things that I used to be able to do didn't seem to work. And I was getting quite frustrated with myself. I knew what I should be doing, but it nothing seemed to work. So yeah, that my 20-year-old, you know, me things I did then weren't working in my 50-year-old me. And I think you get a little bit annoyed with yourself, and I was getting a little bit, I suppose, yeah, angry with myself that I'd let myself go a bit, everything was seen to be a bit of a struggle. So I think um your program popped in at the right time that what I needed as well.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

So I correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that when you came in, you had already started at the gym. Yes. Yeah, how long have you been doing that for?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

So I'd been going to a Monday night class um at a local gym in Bahrain and it was a ladies' group. And I was just pre-a knee replacement, and I was just getting myself a little bit more fitter for having my knee replacement. And then my knee got really bad, and I had to stop, and I sort of had to look after my knee, which was in terrible shape, and I stopped going to the gym, and after my knee replacement, I started back up again, and then the um the things at that gym had changed, and we had to look for a new gym, and we all went as a group to a local gym in Berry, and I was very nervous about going to a gym with other people there. I was so used to this smaller group of ladies, no more than about 10 of us. And I think I was a bit sort of worried about getting judged.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

And I went to the gym when there's all these young girls and guys doing their workout, and I sort of went in there and I went, oh, this is not as big as scary as I thought it would be. I mean, there's a lot of machines and everything. And I end up joining that gym. The programme with the girls had stopped because everyone went on their own journey and to different gyms, and I found I loved it. That's awesome. And I wasn't afraid to ask people. So at first I was a bit intimidated, oh no, but then I'd say that, you know, there's 25 kilos loaded onto a machine, and I'd pat somebody on the other shoulder and say, any chance you could just take that off for me. And now I can take it off for myself. Yay! It was that understanding, no one gives a who. You can go in your daggiest track suit, and I found it being quite more empowering. So my journey of the love of the gym again, um, I yeah. So now I try to go at least three times a week. Some weeks I can't get it that in, but I do, and I've noticed my strength. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Okay, so you had got a program from I think it was Chris at the gym, had given you a program. Yeah. So how long had you been doing that when I'll maybe just jump ahead a little bit? I've only done one challenge, and you did the challenge. So maybe can you bridge the gap between you know, you're doing your program that Chris, and then you joined the challenge. Why did you join the challenge?

SPEAKER_00 7:37

I'd come and seen you actually at the clinic, and and I was lucky, one of the lucky ones. I'd gone through menopause pretty unscathed, other than a bit of weight gain and body change. That was my main thing. But it was that whole do you have enough protein? Do you have enough fibre? And you know, you always think, yes, you do, until you asked the question and said, Can you track it? And I was like, Yeah, I'm not having enough. So I started listening to your podcasts, and then by chance, the challenge that that would have been about September last year came up, and it was a five-day challenge, and I thought, oh, I'll jump on board. I'd seen your previous initial one, and I had done that very initial one you'd done. I was lit watching that and tracking sort of that, and I went, Oh, I'm not quite ready yet. And then when this one popped up in September, I had so much fun for the week, and that's when I decided to, yeah, really do the program itself.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Okay, so as I said in the intro, you're pretty unique in that, like you came in, you had a binder, you'd printed everything off, you were like, let's do this thing. Um so you had some goals. What were the goals you set for yourself?

SPEAKER_00 8:58

My main goal was to get some extra strength. Um, my time with Damien on the program was really good. Because I've had a knee replacement and a hip replacement, I haven't got the flexibility in my hip. I was a little bit worried about pushing my knee as well. So I think what I was doing in the gym was was good, but it wasn't strength. And to the get to the ability, you can't hurt yourself, you know, my these parts. And yeah, having Damien look over the program I was doing, and we tweaked it a bit, and that was really helpful as well. And yes, I was really laser focused, um, but I was, yeah, I think it was more gaining knowledge about the protein I can have, and I became a really I never used to shop with my glasses, and I went to put my glasses on so I could read things. I wanted to lose weight, but the main thing is I want to build a strong body. I have got osteoporosis, which was a shock to me. Did not realize this until I had a bone density. So I want to protect that skeleton of mine because I want to live a long, strong life.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Love it. I just love that. Yeah, so I think one of the things that I'll just pull out of that, so important to have someone like Damien who is so knowledgeable, has a lot of experience. When you're, you know, our age and you've got things, right? Like you've got the knee, you've got the hips, some people have necks, some shoulders, lots of shoulders. You know, to have someone who has that expertise to be able to guide you. So I think uh what I gathered from that is it took some of the fear out of it for you.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Yes. So I'm doing things at the gym now that I was would never tackled. So even to the point now, I've got Charlie doing my program for me. And I did say to her in one of the things, I'm like, Oh, I can't do that. That's not that's that's too young for me, sort of thing. And she just looked at me and she said, Have a go. Yes, and now I'm and it was an ab crunch machine. I'm like, I can't do that. Now I don't have been doing it with no weights on. This week I actually stuck a only a 2.5, but I put weights on it, and I got I think six reps, three tops of six out of it. To me, it was a like it's a win. I'll take that.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Yes, that is so awesome. So did Damien do that kind of push you as well? Did did you find yourself at times, oh no, I don't know if I could do that?

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Yes, because we Damien and I would do it via Zoom. So I'd be at the gym and he would go, I'll go and do this. And I'm like, oh, I've never done those before. So he would make me do, and it was, you know, the sled machines pussing them. And I'd never done, you know, the farmer's carry with the dumbbell um dumbbells or kettlebells. Yeah, and he's making me do that. So at the end of my sessions on a Sunday, I'll go and grab those still now and walk upwards and forwards with my kettlebells, just getting a little bit more weight through that spine as I'm walking.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

Yeah, that's awesome. I just love it. So you came in with some body recomposition goals as well. You want to build muscle and you want to lose some body fat. Yes. Okay, so maybe we can move over to the nutrition side. So, how did you go from the beginning? Like, maybe take us through that progression with your nutrition. How did that change?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Yeah, I I've always been a big vegetable eater anyway. My problem is snacking. Okay. So, you know, on a weekend I could devour a bag of chips without knowing it. Yeah. And it to me, it was that you gotta start changing things. So instead of having that food in the house, I'd had something else. I'd cut up carrots and I'd cut up these. But knowing that in my budget on a Saturday, I could have a little packet of Chris. Yeah. So it and it all worked out to be that budget, which I'd never sort of worked around before. I always, you know, you I change that word calories to budget, and it it shifts your mindset. So without, you know, you talk about calories and it's like, oh, there's that many calories in it. But if you talk budget, it's like, oh, I can have that if I can fit it in my budget. Do you think that it takes some of that emotional tie out of it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's um, I think also it makes you look at the look at labels on things better as well. So I shop now with anything that's got protein, but I also look at the calories versus the protein. Because there's a lot of stuff that's got protein on it that you look at it and go, oh, that's a lot of calories for the little protein it's got in it.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

So I love that. I love the I I have an ice cream that I love. I think I've shared with you, and it's marketed as high protein. And you know, really bang for your buck, not great, but I love it. I do get some protein with it, so I'm happy to pay that in my budget. So for the listeners, I'll just kind of explain the budget thing because I'm not sure, you know, that I've talked about that a lot before. So the way that I like to look at, you know, our calories in, calories out, et cetera, is that we have a daily budget. It's something that I was never good at because I didn't realize I had fun, which was part of the problem why I yo-yo dieted for so long. I really thought that I should just be able to eat whatever I wanted and still just, you know, have the physique that I wanted at the same time. But of course, that didn't work because I would blow my budget for long periods of time, put on weight, then restrict my budget and then lose the weight and then do the same thing over and over and over again. At that time, I didn't look at it as a budget. But when I like you, when I started looking at it, we all have a budget. Some people get to spend. My husband gets to spend a lot more than I do in his 90 kilo, six foot four budget than my five foot four, a lot less weight budget, right? So, but there were times, well, there were years that I we would have the same dinner, like the same portions, right? When I when I then started looking at it as, oh, you know what? I actually I don't need to eat as much as my 90 kilo husband. And I didn't, like I would surpass full. And so when I started looking at it as a budget, it made it a lot easier to to then manage my budget. Yeah. So just so that we can fill the listeners in on that.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

And I think you've got to listen to your body as well. Like I was the same, I'd I'd put a huge bowl of pasta out and I'd get full, but the food was still in the bowl. So it's like, well, you don't waste it. So now I measure my pasta to what I know I can eat. Yeah. Instead of having you know, this huge pasta milk. And I was like, how the hell did I used to eat that amount?

SPEAKER_04 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Well, you used to make you used to eat it and you'd feel really bad after. You'd feel heavy, you'd feel bloated, and you'd feel unhappy in yourself because you've you've eaten all that. And when you look at it, that was probably your whole budget in one meal. So yeah, and I'd done a lot of like over the years, I'd done fasting, um, supplements, and and yes, you have good outcome for the first couple of weeks, but then when you go back to your normal living, whatever you lost went back on again really, really quickly, and it gave you some more excess baggage.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Where I found this is not a diet, it's a lifestyle for especially for women that are in you know our 40s and 50s, we have to sort of look at what we're our intake a bit more sensible. And don't get me wrong, I'll I'll go out for dinner and that sort of thing and have a cheeky wine.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

But when I and I had a cheeky wine on my program, I'll admit that. Um I fit it into my budget.

unknown 17:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Yes, and that's what we talk about. Yeah, you're not starving yourself or depriving yourself, and that's what I found made me quite determined.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Yeah. So you started looking at labels a bit better and probably understanding now, you know, you know, this protein. I've talked about the protein kind of rule of thumb. This add a zero to the protein, and then if your calories in that food are more than the protein in grams, then you're probably paying too much in your budget. So 10 grams of protein per 100 calories is a general rule of thumb of what you should be getting. So you started looking at the labels, and how did you find it increasing your protein? Was that hard to do?

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Um yes and no. So, yes, sort of. I always thought I I ate a lot of protein.

unknown 18:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

And then when it was like, oh no, I do not eat. And when you kept increasing my protein, I was like, oh, how do you get more protein? So I was never a cottage cheese eater. I used to think, look, cottage cheese, I have it for breakfast and lunch now. Oh wow. I love the stuff. I don't know where I've been without it. And just little tweaks. Like I for breakfast, I have my turkey patties, cottage cheese, and scrambled eggs. That packs a lot of protein. So simple changes. And someone said to me, Oh, I couldn't do all that work in the morning before getting ready for work. I'm like, I've just gone and made five patties this morning ready for the week. And then you crack two eggs into it and put it in a pan. It's no different to putting your toast in the toaster. So yeah, and I walk out and it keeps me full until my lunch or in case I need something, a little bit of apple or something for morning tea.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

So that I wanted to ask that question. So you talked about being a snacker. Has that changed?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

No, I have good snacks now.

unknown 19:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

So I've got into sort of um, I like making jelly with yogurt and having that in the evening as a little snack. It gives me my hit of sweet without having to revert to a chocolate bar or something like that. So, you know, don't get me wrong, I've you know, the last couple of months have not been the best for me, but I know where I have to go, yep, back on it.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

So between meals, are you finding that you're satisfied from one meal to the next? Is it just kind of your evening?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

You like a little bit of something after dinner, or for work I'll take um I I like Granny Smith apples, yep, but I like to stew them. So on the weekend I'll cut up six Granny Smith apples, pop a little bit of water, no sugar, put them in the microwave. And I'll spoon them into um little takeaway dishes and take them to work. So mid-morning or afternoon, if I feel like I need a little hit with something, I'll sit there with a spoon and just have that. Or um take some rock melon or something else. It just gives you that fruit sweetness that you I crave sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 21:00

Yeah. So let's go to the fibre. You talked about you've always been a big vegetable eater, etc. How did you find the fibre side of things getting that those numbers up?

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Well, I thought you'd get quite a lot of fibre from veggies, but I still wasn't hitting my fiber target. So things like looking at high fiber breads.

unknown 21:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

So I'll I'm on the weekend, I might do some eggs on a piece of high fibre bread. Um, I do like all bran. And then I've just got some fiber, better fibre that I add actually a spoonful in my coffee in the morning. Oh, okay. So that that just gets that fibre number up to what I try to track, I track my fibre around that 2530 for the day. So yeah, if I'm feeling like I'm not gonna hit it, I'll just put a teaspoon of that in my coffee and that helps me get my fibre up.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

Okay. And does that dissolve pretty easily in?

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Yeah, you wouldn't even know it's in there.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

Oh, okay. Well, that's a good trick. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah, no, I uh I suppose it's a bit like metamusle, I suppose, but it yeah, benefibre, it's just it's very fine powder. So I just put that in my coffee, don't even know it's in there. Because I'm not very big on s um cilie and husk. I've tried it, it's too bluggy for me. Yeah. Um so I find this helps as well. But I'm big on broccoli. I eat broccoli with every single meal. Okay, wow. They love the broccoli. I love broccoli too, especially salt. I'm pretty standard what I have throughout the week. So my dinners are I don't eat red meat, so my dinners are either of fish or chicken and veggies. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

So then it sounds like one of the other things, um, which I would love to explore a little bit uh that you did, was look at your portion sizes. So were there any surprises for you when you started looking at what a portion of X is? Yeah, it's bigger than I thought. Oh, the portion or your portion?

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Well no, when I look at my dinner, like I've got a smaller plate that I use, but even when I'm doing my dinner with my chicken and my vegetables, and then you look at what the calories is, it's like, oh, there's not much in there. I'll have a few more broccoli to it, I'll add a few more cauliflower to it. So then my plate looks like it's big because there's so much veggies on it.

SPEAKER_03 23:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

So it before, and I was a big non-potato eater. You know, potatoes make you fat. There's another one, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I get the little potatoes, and I'll have a little potato with my dinner now, and it's so yummy. And I just went mine in the air fryer.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Yes, yeah, and they're satisfying and they've got a bit of fiber, and you know, yeah. That's one of the things that we talk about in the program is our food rules and just trying to identify them and get rid of them. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

And there's smarter shopping, like, you know, there's protein pastas out there, there's pulse pastas, you know, they're not all uh you don't have to go with the norm. And yeah, I find it it's quite eye-opening when you go shopping and you take your time and see what's out there.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Yeah. I I love that you just went to when I asked about portion sizes. You went to how much food you get to eat. When what the what I was thinking when I asked the question was my thoughts when I saw what a serving of peanut butter or cereal or ice cream or pasta, how like I was wow, is that all? But I so I love your you know, already the mindset. Oh no, I get to eat all this food.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yeah, it even my lunches. I look at my lunch, you know. Normally you take, you know, before you take a sandwich or you take a a wrap, and and I would always find after having a wrap, I was hungry, I was looking for something to eat in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

But my lunches I take now, that that keeps me going. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

So what are you looking at for protein in your lunch?

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Are you getting around 30 grams or I'm looking at about 30 grams of protein in my lunch?

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Okay, there you go. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

So, Lorraine, it looks like you're still tracking, and uh so one of the things that we also talk about is it's not something you have to do. Some people really like to do it and some people don't. So it it looks like it's something that you still continue to do? I've just started tracking again.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

I've just I've had a tough couple of months and I haven't been, and I've just started tracking just to get myself ready for I'm gonna kick myself off again. And I just thought, get in that mind of tracking and having my lunches. I think I might have been putting a little bit more in my lunches, so I've paired them back again, and yeah, so I have again, I'm a pretty much creature of habit. I like to have set things, yeah. So I basically have the same lunch every day, yep, and then on the weekends I'll change it up. But if I'm going to work, it's easy for me to have the same thing, and it's tasty as well.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Yeah. So it's interesting you say that because one of the things that we know from the research is that you didn't have a significant amount of weight, but those people who have lost significant amounts of weight and the ones like even on these injections, the weight loss injections, and then they go off the injection or you know, they stop whatever diet they were. The the people who are able to keep the weight off long term, we know that they have some kind of way of monitoring so that if they're starting to go off track, that it pulls them kind of back in and they can, you know, again look at okay, where am I blowing out? And what I heard you just say is, Oh, I started to notice that my lunches are getting a bit bigger, you know. And so you've gone back to the tracking. Okay, where am I at? What's happening, and and then what do I need to do to kind of just re-kind of pull myself back a bit? Is that yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Okay. I'm responsible for what goes in my mouth. Nobody else is. So, you know, if I've put on over the years, you know, put on 10 kilos, put on 20 kilos, it's all my own doing. Nobody else has forced me to do that. So it's my doing to take control of what I'm putting in my mouth, yeah, exercise, and stand up and go, yeah, I can do this because I have the willpower to do it and I have the determination to do it.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

Yeah. Okay, so uh you were, I think, in the program for about what was about four months?

SPEAKER_00 27:39

I think so in the end, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Yeah, because I think you stayed a little bit longer because you wanted to make sure that you felt really confident, comfortable, and you made some changes. So were you happy with the your outcome when you finished up with the program?

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Oh aesthetic. The whole program worked for me because they were like-minded. Well, at the when I first started, I think I was by myself. You were, yeah. Um, in that little group. So it was you and me, which I found really good to start with because you're such a good sounding board. Don't judge, you've been through it yourself, so you understand. And then when we got a couple of other members on board, it was good to see other like-minded people, some of them Riverland ladies, some of them um not, and it was great. I need to have a chat, and half the time I don't think we're chatting about anything else, it was sort of just we're just having a chat. So you I walked away on a Thursday night going, I'm not doing this by myself. There's a group of people doing it, and we've all got our own journey, and we all started at different times, but you celebrated everybody's win, or you know, someone Rita would find something at the shops, and you so you'd be checking it out and seeing how much pro so I think that helps you in a way, yeah, and it sets you up for a bit more success than following a program that it's a pee prede program, and you're watching videos that have been pre-recorded, yeah, and it's the same video for everyone. Where this was more personal, yeah. So I think, yeah, I I think that's what helped me along as well. Seeing that other people and yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

It's interesting you say that because uh, you know, I've only been doing the program, it's just gone over a year now, and it's kind of evolved over that time, and I've learned lots and you know, continue to refine and learn. And one of the things that I realized was that um that group is so important. So I stopped taking any enrollments, like one-off enrollments, and and have just saved things up so that every you know two or three months I'll open it up and let a whole group together in because I recognized how powerful that group, that group was. So you you had a little bit of a you taught me, I think. And and it was fun because when they came in, you were like a pro. So you were able to start teaching others.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Yeah, no, it was uh, and I think that yeah, that that five-day one beforehand, because you did it on Facebook, again, it had all these other people, and I remember sitting at the field days photographing my lunch on my because I'd packed my lunch that day, and I was, you know, I had it balanced on my knee at the field days while I was working, and this is my lunch, and we had to take photos of stuff, and it was so funny. Everyone was popping comments in, and I think that sometimes for some people they need that, and probably myself, you need that group with you. Yeah, so even though I was determined by myself, having that group just made it so much easier. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Okay, so I want to talk then about you did the time, you came in, um, you you accomplished the goals that you wanted to accomplish. I I remember you showing your muscles, and you could see the definition, you can see, you know, you were pretty happy with that. And then sadly, the waves of life have hit over the last, like you say, last couple of months. And I and I'm just really curious to see, you know, I suppose how your fitness and your nutrition what's kind of happened through those waves of life.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Yeah, so um, yeah, I my poor little pinky dog, my beautiful grand, she had hurt herself, and so we'd stopped walking. So that changed. So my my get up in the morning walk changed, so because I couldn't take her out for a walk anymore. And then I was coming home to her rather than going to the gym, so that sort of suffered, and I'll put it this way, I would not change it in the world, and then I had to make the hard decision of putting Pinky down, and it's been quite uh an emotional time um since then. Um still haven't got back into walking because you can't see out there in the you can't, it's still foggy here now. But I started going back to the gym again, and and I was still going to the gym, but I wasn't really going three times a week, and then yeah, now I'm really hitting it back there again. Except for this week I had a cold, but um still did a bit of work at home, and yeah, now I'm back ready to go again.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

So if we look at your were you going two days a week, or did you have a two to three days a week?

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Yeah, I was trying to get in three if I could, but it was mainly two. Okay. Oh, that's awesome, Lorraine. That is awesome. Oh no, I'd like to do four at least.

SPEAKER_03 32:47

And again, this is these are the things we talk about in the program. We all like, you know, we don't give ourselves enough credit for how amazing the you know, the amazing things we've done are often. Um and so it it changed for you. So you had that wave of life, and it sounds like you still maintained some consistency, and you just had to be flexible and adapt to what was happening.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Yeah. I mean, I know my coming home, I was probably not hitting my protein targets and that, but I wasn't, you know, to have life happens, so you've gotta be able to juggle life. Yeah, and I know that I can go, okay, my mind's back to it. And I've got yeah, put this on. I've put a few kilos back on, but I know I can shift those kilos. I have the tools, yeah. I've got the community if I need to jump back on board. Yeah, and yeah, I know where the gym is, so yeah. Probably my thing I don't realize as well is yes, I am building muscle. I know I'm building muscle. So when I jump on those scales and I haven't lost weight or I've gained some weight, it's probably a bit of muscle in there. So I've stopped relying on the scales now to tell me hey, put on two kilos, I rely on my cloaks.

unknown 34:05

Great.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

I want to tease this out a bit because I suspect that there's some things happening here. So I wish I didn't have menopause brain and I can remember exactly what you just said, but it was to the effect of um, oh, I wasn't hitting my protein targets. Okay, but were you mindful of your protein and your fiber? Was it still on your mind? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Yeah, it's stuck. That protein stuck there. I've become an advocate for protein now.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

Yeah. Okay. And so if you had to look at, I mean, your targets, I would imagine, are, you know, they're they're high and they're, you know, this is the target. Yeah. If you had to guess, if you, you know, were to go back and track, would you have been higher protein and fiber than you would have been before the program? Oh yeah. See, this is where we don't give ourselves enough credit. Like, oh, you know, I I wasn't hitting my protein targets, and you know, but you but you made some significant changes that stuck.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Yeah.

unknown 35:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Oh yeah, no, I prior to this, I was, you know, breakfast was just like a normal breakfast, but even through all this, I've kept my breakfasts up, I've kept my lunches up, I've made sure I've had protein with every meal. Just my meals might have been, and there might have been a few extra snacks in there, might have been a few extra wines in there, that sort of thing. But keeping that, trying to keep that protein up, I might not have been hitting my 130 track that I tried to keep to. I might have been hitting a hundred. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Yep. Okay. Um, so you went through this really tough time. I I again I'm sorry, it I've been through it too. I know it sucks. Did you ever feel guilty about an extra wine or a little bit of chocolate? Probably.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Yeah, probably uh a little bit, but didn't really didn't register. I mean, I didn't feel angry, yeah, which is a different thing. Because sometimes, you know, years ago I'd get angry, you know. I'd sit there and you'd watch TV, and suddenly that block of chocolate that you're only having a row of, four rows are gone. And I'd feel angry at myself after.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Now I don't need to do that because I don't buy the whole block of chocolate, I'll buy a little block of chocolate. Yeah. And know that I can have that little block of chocolate. And I wouldn't be, yeah. So there's a different mindset now.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

Yeah. Okay. So if you had the block of chocolate, did you feel guilty? Oh, no, no, not guilty. No. Okay. So I know that we've talked about, I think you've mentioned in this conversation, um, a bit of yo-yo-ing in the past.

SPEAKER_04 37:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

Okay. And how do you feel now compared to how maybe this period of life might have gone, let's say a couple of years ago? Is it any different?

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Yeah, much different. I'm confident now. Yeah. I'm confident that I know what to do. I'm confident that I can get myself back on track. Where before I would give up. It'll be, let's start next Monday. You know, you you'd go in for two days, you'd fall off the wagon on a Wednesday. I'll I'll start on a Monday. I'm actually I'm actually a Sunday starter. I always think everyone starts on a Monday. So I start on a Sunday.

unknown 37:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

I think it's funny in my own mindset, sort of thing. I get myself ready for the week. So yeah, I was very much one of those ones that give up straight away. If I'd had it off day, instead of jumping back on the next day, oh that's the week done. I might as well just live the week.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

And then you start again. And then so you're you're constantly going like this the whole time. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

One of the things that um I'll just share with the listeners that we talk about in the program. I can't remember who I stole this analogy from, but I think it's a great analogy of, you know, you build this foundation or this anchor is like what we like to call it, the nutrition and the fitness, this anchor. And you're once you've you've attached yourself and you've built it, it's it's there. And sometimes you're floating out there and you're taking in the sun and it's just a beautiful day, and you know, the water's still, but then the waves of life, you know, they're gonna come around and they're gonna knock you. And what we talk about in the program is just, you know, doing your best and trying not to fight it because the more you resist it and paddle, and you know, the more you're just gonna wear yourself out and and you know, maybe do yourself in. But if you just do your best to ride the waves, knowing that anchor is there, and that's what I heard you say just now. I'm confident I have the tools. You have continued to do the you know, the principles along the way, and you've rolled the waves, and it sounds like maybe the waves are starting to settle a bit. Yeah, and now maybe you can enjoy maybe a little bit of the sunshine and yeah, and I think you've got to recognize the waves as well, so you've got to go with them.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

So you know life's never gonna be a straight, flat surface. You're gonna have to go up and you're gonna have to go down. But if you can, as I ride those waves and stay positive during them as well, yeah. No, you know, yes, you're gonna have junk, you know, you're gonna fall off the wagon, you're gonna, you're not gonna go to the gym. It's all gonna be there at the end. And I think, yeah, as I think sometimes as women, we we tend to beat ourselves up so much. And uh, you probably do it at the you know, the solitude of your own home, you do it. And it we've got to get it out of our own heads because we're strong enough to do it.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

And it sounds also I'll pull out one of the things that you said, you've set yourself up to succeed, and you've built in these strategies, like you know that if you have a massive block of chocolate sitting in front of you and you're going through what you've gone through, then that you know the chances are you're probably gonna eat a lot of that chocolate. Where now you've set yourself up for success. I'm gonna have chocolate, absolutely, but I'm gonna buy one little block, and so I can't. I've I can limit myself. It's a strategy. It sounds like you've built some of those strategies in.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Yeah, and I found a couple of protein bars that are chocolate-based protein bars, which are quite small. I can only have one of them.

unknown 40:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Where, you know, other chocolate you can just devour. But one of these bars, one is enough. Because A, it's got the protein in it, so it fills you up.

unknown 41:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

But they're not got the sugar that you crave a bit more of. So having one of them in uh, you know, every couple of nights, I find is much more satisfying for me.

SPEAKER_03 41:19

Okay. Do you think that there's anything that we haven't covered that might be helpful for, you know, let's think of the woman who's, you know, she's in midlife, she's in the stress sandwich, and she's, like you said, beating herself up. She's feeling, you know, her energy levels are low, she feels like rubbish, she she wants to make some changes, and all seems like way too big. Can you think of her and offer her maybe some of your beautiful mindset, some of your advice?

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Um, I think I would say believe in yourself first. So you've got to have that you can do it mindset. You're not doing it alone. There's the lady next to you in the supermarket line, she's probably going through the exactly the same thing as you, and especially going through menopause and everything as well. You're getting knocked around left, right, and centre anyway. So brief, make some small changes to start with. Don't worry about your calories, worry about your protein first. Yeah, because if we get older, we're gonna need our bodies. We don't want to be the old ones in the home. If we are, we want to be the party girls in the home.

SPEAKER_04 42:31

Yes!

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Um just yeah, add a bit of more protein to your diet, add a bit more fibre, go and get some dumbbells if you don't want to go to a gym, go and get a couple of dumbbells from the shop, stand in your lounge room, in your jammies if you want, and just lift some dumbbells. I've got a couple of two and a half kilos here that I, you know, they're a bit too they're too not weigh enough for me now, but I'll double them up together and put them in one hand. That sort of thing. So even if you don't want to go to a gym, or if you can't afford to go to a gym, there's a kitchen bench that you can actually do press-ups on. There's a you know, if you've got to step outside, you can step up and down. There's things you can do at home that if you're not ready to face the gym or that sort of thing, that you can do just for yourself.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

Beautiful advice, Lorraine. And I'll just add to that: start beating yourself up. We're all just doing the best we can. Oh, thank you so much for this conversation, Lorraine. I think it's gonna be really helpful for lots of women, like I said, who are struggling, you know, with the things that we've struggled with. Um, I think there's a lot of beautiful insights in there. Was there anything, any last things that you wanted to talk about before?

SPEAKER_00 43:51

No, and I think um be people to go through previous podcasts that you've had because there's some really great advice in there. And I will just put one on on in the gym, especially if I'm feeling a little bit oh, put a podcast on, have a listen, and you go through previous things in your podcast that are like resonate with you, you know, now and it's like, oh, okay, yep, no, I've got this.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

Oh, that's lovely. I love that. Oh, well, thank you. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your Saturday. I think before we talked, um, you said that you might head off to the gym and push some weights today. Yes. Yeah, because it's still foggy. I'm not going in the garden yet. It's too cold. All right. Well, thank you again, Lorraine, for being here. Thank you. So that's what I have for you today. That beautiful conversation with Lorraine. I hope that you were able to pick out a few golden nuggets out of there. In particular, being nice to yourself, looking at that self-talk, incorporating a little bit of flexibility, looking for some food rules that you may have and getting rid of them because they're not serving you. And going out there and getting strong, as strong as you possibly can. And at the time that this airs, the Midlife Health and Body Reset Program is opening its doors. As I said, I'm only now opening them every two or three months. They are open as of tomorrow. So if you are interested in being part of the next group that I take through with me, I will leave a link in the show notes for you to have a look and see if it's a good fit for you. The doors are only going to be open for one week. I'll take enrollment and then I'll close the doors and we're gonna get started. So if you want to be a part of this next group, make sure that you get to that link and sign up now. And with that, I hope you have an amazing week. And until then, I hope you opt to thrive.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

The Opt to Thrive Podcast is designed for information purposes only and is not engaged in the giving of medical advice. The information provided on the podcast should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease. In no way should the information provided by Opt to Thrive be considered medical advice, and at all times the advice of a medical professional should supersede recommendations from Opt to Thrive. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, you should consult your healthcare provider. The views expressed in this podcast are purely bad at Dr. Sims and do not in any way reflect those of the institution's contract and services to.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

Thank you for listening to Optime. If you've enjoyed listening, please write and share the podcast. You can visit our website at optobride.com and click the comment button to subject to more.