EP 16 | Menopause as a Gift & Reclaiming Your Health in Midlife with Bria Gadd

What if the symptoms you’re feeling aren’t a life sentence, but a highlighter pointing to what needs care? That’s the heart of my conversation with Bria Gadd, the Period Whisperer, as we unpack perimenopause, menopause, and the real reason so many high achievers hit a wall in midlife. Bria introduces “health debt,” the gap between the energy your body can supply and the energy your life demands, and shows how to rebuild capacity without more hustle.

We start where change actually sticks: sleep that restores, three real meals with enough protein, daily steps, hydration, and fewer metabolic drains like sugar, alcohol, and ultra-processed foods. Then we raise your “salary” by improving food quality and using short-term tracking as a curiosity tool, not a diet. If symptoms linger, Bria explains how functional testing—GI mapping, minerals, adrenals, thyroid—can reveal hidden stressors that keep you stuck even when standard labs look “normal.” You’ll get a simple breakdown of gut health and why absorption, enzymes, and inflammation matter as much as what’s on your plate.

From there, we widen the lens: joy, creativity, relationships, and purpose aren’t extras; they’re soul food that compounds energy. We talk toxin-light living, practical swaps for products, air, and water, and why strength training is the best long-term investment in hormone health, bone density, and longevity. Cardio can be for joy, but muscle is your armor. Curious about peptides? Bria shares how these gentle messengers can help once your foundations and hormones are optimized, acting like a signal boost rather than a shortcut.

If you’ve been pushing harder and feeling worse, this conversation offers a clear map back to yourself. Listen, take one minimal viable action this week, and let momentum build. If the episode helps, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a quick review so more women can find their way to strength, ease, and joy.

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Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Focus

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You are listening to the Rockstar Mom, a podcast for high achievers who are ready to get off of autopilot and live a life with more intention, peace of mind, and happiness. This is a space to expand, dig deep, get clear, and take action towards living your most authentic, aligned life. I'm Megan Caldwell. As a mom of three, two-time burnout survivor, and empowerment coach and speaker, I've cracked the code on what it actually takes to thrive at work and home, ditch perfectionism and people pleasing, get your schedule under control, and live with more ease. So you've got more time and energy to do the things you love without the mom guilt. It's time to get out of your head and into action. Now is the time to live your most rockstar life. Let's go. Welcome back, my friend, to the Rockstar Mom. I am so glad that you are taking the time today to pour into yourself by listening to this episode. I have such a treat

Meet Bria Gadd And Her Mission

SPEAKER_01 1:01

for you. This conversation I'm sharing with you is with Bria Gadd, also known as the period whisperer. And we are diving into where many of us find ourselves, or maybe we'll be finding ourselves in the future, in perimenopause or menopause. And I absolutely love Bria's take on this season of our life, where I think there's so much hype right now about the challenges and what should we do and why we feel so crummy during this season. And she really flips it on its head to let us see why this can actually be a gift to us. And so in today's conversation, we dive into what she calls really understanding and recognizing health debt, which is really about energy supply versus energy demand. We talk about some of the hidden stressors that might be plaguing you. And I just love her real practical and down-to-earth approach to talking about one of these subjects that so many of us are curious about. So grab a pen and paper if you'd like. And I hope that you are able to take away some golden nuggets today to help you feel like your best, most rock star self. Enjoy. I am super excited to welcome today the Rockstar mom, Miss Bria Gadd. Bria is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, holistic health coach, and certified personal trainer who specializes in female hormones, helping women with weight release and energy gain in pre and postmenopause and finding clarity in hormonal chaos. After helping thousands of women lose weight in their 20s and 30s, Bria recognized a difficult shift in women's ability to get results in their body during their perimenopause years. With more than 12 years of experience in the fitness and nutrition industry, she's created a proven strategy to dramatically improve the challenges women are experiencing in weight release and energy. Her podcast, The Period Whisperer, is a top 1% wellness podcast in the world with an Instagram following of over 17,000. Bria has been featured in Fox News, Women's Health, and top women's podcasts, such as the Midlife Makeover Show, to name just a few. Welcome, my friend. I'm so excited that you're here.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Thank you, Megan. I'm so excited to be here too. We were talking about how nice it is to meet other people with such great energy, and you just have that energy.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

So oh, thank you. Right back at you. And I'm so excited for our conversation today, as I know menopause, perimenopause is just such a hot topic with my listeners. And it's one that often gets a bad rap. So I know we're gonna dive into. I can't wait to hear why you think that this is actually a gift that we didn't ask for, but could actually be a gift. But before we get there, I'm curious if you would just share with our audience a little bit like how did you get into this work and why are you so passionate about this space right now?

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Yeah, thank you for asking. You know, I

The Wake-Up Call: From “Normal Labs” To Answers

SPEAKER_02 3:45

built an original career in fitness and nutrition basically because I needed something that worked around having babies, you know. So I think it was 27 when I had my first baby, and my husband at the time traveled a ton. So I just needed something that could function and work around. And that's where I started to fall in love with fitness. And I think a lot of women, you know, get into fitness when they're, you know, post-baby. Yep. So that was, you know, really what started things for me. But then around the age of 35, we made a huge move from Canada to the US. And I think that was sort of this beginning of a bit of like a stress spiral that just kind of culminated a few years later, where between the move and the moving of the business and you know, and still pushing through these hard workouts and doing all the things and handling the stuff our kids go through and having the animals and you know, like you wake up, you walk the dog, you work out, you unload the dishwasher, you make the breakfast, you get it.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Like, we're all right. Sound it sounds like my morning this morning, actually.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Right. So not an odd end. And especially when you have young kids, you're up in the night. And so around the age of 35 to 37, I really started to notice a shift. Actually, first in my clients who were all were around my age in fitness, where they just weren't getting the same results, they didn't have the same energy, you know, they just couldn't come to the table the same way they were before. And really around 37, it just started to happen to me. I just kind of felt like this fog descended on me where I just didn't have the energy I used to. I, you know, stopped sleeping well through the night. And I, you know, I gained what I call undeserved weight, where you don't change anything. My period got a bit wonky. And of course, my answer, like many women's, is like, well, I must not be working hard enough. Right, right. And I like tightened up my nutrition. And that just landed me, you know, either on the couch or in sugar cravings in the afternoon, or, you know, basically asleep in my kids' beds at like 7:30, 8 o'clock, trying to read them a book to go to bed. And yeah, it was when my sleep started to go wonky, where I was awake every night from 2 to 4 a.m. I mean, you'd think it would have been the rising anxiety, the changes in the period, like things that I should have probably gone to my practitioner about, but it was like kind of kicked me in the face, as most women I think it does when you when something's so and so I went to my healthcare practitioner, had all the lab work done, had all the questions asked, and she was really amazing. But she was like, you know, Bria, you're the picture of hell. And like I left there and I was like, Oh, hell no. Like I'm seven. Like, if this is the best I'm gonna be at the picture of health, like I it was it was one of those dark moments where I couldn't, like, I wanted to cry.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

I probably especially when a quote unquote medical professional shares that with you, where it's like, I'm coming to you to feel better, and you're telling me this is just how it needs to be.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Well, and I mean, I will look, there are a lot of dismissive practitioners. I will say mine was quite wonderful about it, but I her point was your labs are normal and you have great habits. So it was like not much I can do for you, you know. And it was very disheartening, but I was like, oh no, I'm not doing this. And that was a real pivoter for me to just more deeply understand what's happening as women start this transition. I mean, at the time I'd never even heard of perimenopause. You know, now you can't open Instagram without it being like shoved in your face. But that was a really big turning point. So I went back to school, I became a functional diagnostic practitioner so I could actually read labs and better understand the female body and specialize in all those things. And it was kind of the unwinding in my own journey that allowed me to really work and help with other women. But I think the real passion comes from if I didn't know those things and I was in the health and wellness world as a woman, right? Are women who have amazing important careers and jobs like outside of the wellness, how are they ever gonna know? So that was that and just a sheer determination to feel amazing was really the turning point for me.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Yeah, thank you so much for sharing such a piece of your story. And I'm sure that so many women can relate. Again, I've been getting into the

Perimenopause As A Gift, Not A Curse

SPEAKER_01 7:48

fitness and wellness space was my second career, but I've been in that space for quite some time and still stay in this wellness space because I'm so passionate about. But I think you bring up a really good point is like even those of us that are quote unquote knowledgeable, there's still so much unknown. So I love that you took it to the next level. And this now becomes your passion and your purpose to help other women so they can feel more energized and feel more confident in their bodies. And one thing I love about you when we connected for our first time is just, you know, I like women who like have a slightly different approach or kind of a little bit of a disruptor, or say something a little bit unique. And one thing you said is that perimenopause is actually a gift that so many of us, we didn't ask for it, but it's one that we actually need to change our health. Can you tell me a little bit about what you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Yeah, I will for sure. So, you know, what I learned in my journey, and now I see time and time again with clients after client after client is that most of the time, the reason that we aren't are feeling the way we were, and the reason I was feeling the way I was at 37 was not in fact because of my hormones. It was because of something I like to call health debt, where really the energy supply of your body doesn't meet the energy demand of your body. So you've been going too hard for too long and ignoring the messages of your body. And part of the reason we ignore as women is because no one has taught us like speaking women's like speaking Latin. No one teaches it, no one understands it, no one speaks it. So it's a very confusing thing to learn. So I think part of the reason we don't listen to our bodies is because of that. And the other part is that we have just as women learned to hustle, to me. And so we put on these blinders and we really ignore the messaging of our body. And when our hormones be when our ovaries begin to retire and the shift, the transition begins to happen, which I think is a really beautiful thing, and I'll explain why in a minute. But like all transitions, it adds more workload to our life. So now this redlining of energy capability in our body tips over and suddenly get really uncomfortable really fast. And I get that that doesn't sound like a gift, but I will tell you, Megan, I would way rather learn that at 35, 40, 45, 50 than learn that at 60. It's a lot easier to start to make those changes. And at 40 something, I mean, I don't know about you, but I plan to live to 100. I have 60 something. I'm not quite 60 years left. I'm 44 almost, but you know, that's decades of golden girls' life, you know, and I want that for women too. So I think it is uncomfortable, but it is, I think the the transition of it, if it's uncomfortable for you, is a big message, a big pink highlighter, kind of telling you, hey, now let's fix this because we've got like lives to live and dreams to fulfill.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Right. And that's why I love having conversations like this is so we don't have to wait, or other women don't have to wait until some of those harder things come. Is like, let's have a conversation now about what we can actually do with what we have right now. And as you know, we are speaking to high-achieving women who hold all those roles and wear so many hats and have big expectations in the roles that they play.

Health Debt: Energy Supply Versus Demand

SPEAKER_01 10:52

And I want to give everyone in our audience right now, give yourself permission to say, wait a second, let me get curious about this. What can I do right now, small little steps to help improve? I love this concept that you've brought up about energy supply versus energy demand. And if can you actually explain that a little bit further? Just go a little bit more in depth in terms of I have my own thoughts, but I want to hear the experts on it.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think we're all born with this beautiful trust fund of energy, I think, right? We've got a metabolism and cells that all work really well if we're fortunate enough to be born healthy. And of course, through life, you know, things happen that draw down on those. And we're working consistently. Like, how do we get energy into the body? We get it through sleep, we get it through nutrition, we get it through purpose and pleasure and joy. But so even if you nail those things, we still go through life where we're exposed to sickness, where we have hard things happen, or maybe we have injury, where stressors occur in the body, where we pick up parasites, we're exposed to mold, like all the there's a lot of things that kind of draw down on the energy of the body. Most women in midlife are not necessarily sleeping super well, right in their nutrition. More often than not, I actually see women drastically under-eating than you know, not eating enough that they need to be eating, right? Not eating enough. And it is harder in this day and age, you know. And certainly I see a lot of women suffering from like a lack of soul food, right? The last time you had fun, when was the last time you rested, right? We all want to be a rock star mom, but yeah, which means playing hard. But rock stars rest, they have massage purpose, you know, they have shit and they have personal assistance, right? So it's like asking Olympic levels about put up your body without treating yourself like an Olympian. So what I really see, this idea of help debt is that we kind of, as I say, we we really redline it and we can handle it and we can handle it and we can handle it, but at some point that starts to slip into a deficit of this energy supply and demand debt when especially it's irritated when perimetopause comes aboard. Because again, it's that cognition. So it's an added workload. Now we have an increase of energy demand and we still have the same supply. And the problem that happens in here, Megan, is that when we're in this case, that I like to call it health debt, it's a very scary place for the body. It's almost like the body brain feels like, oh, well, we're on a deserted island here. And so people like I did start to think, well, what am I gonna do with all these symptoms? I should starve my body more and move it harder. Right. Like, is that the smartest thing to do when you're on a deserted island?

SPEAKER_01 13:34

No, we should So we've been taught that for decades and we've practiced it for decades. And so sometimes, like, even though logically, as we talk about it, it's like that sounds stupid. It's like we still get stuck in the same patterns because that's what our body knows, and then that's what quote unquote feels safe.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

And really, and we all we pick on our body, but really like our body's a goddamn cheetah. Like, she is trying to survive here, and she's doing it in a very brilliant way. She's shutting down all non-essential personnel that aren't required. And there goes our libido, because there goes our sex hormones. So those get shut down pretty quickly. Right. There goes our wonky periods, and you know, and then mood stuff and all of that starts to happen. And then she conserves, like, must have energy for later. So here comes the weight gain for most women, right? Like that. And then if it's still not rectified, she starts to pilfer energy

Foundational Habits That Stop Energy Leaks

SPEAKER_02 14:25

from different parts of the body, which now impacts the other metabolic functions. Maybe our gut isn't digesting as well as it should or detoxifying. Maybe our liver gets a little more congested. Maybe our adrenals get wonky, our thyroid conversion goes off. And then we kind of end up in this very frustrating place where we go to our doctor and our labs are fine, but we feel horrible horrid.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah. Bria, I love so much about this. I love that you've really touched on and reminded women of the importance of what I call the foundational Fab Five. These are some of your most healthful habits, right? They're sleep and they are rest and their food is fuel and they are exercise and they are hydration. Super, super important. Our body needs those things. And it's not the only thing our body needs. I love that you brought up what you call soul, soul food. You know, the way that I coach women and lead with is like energy. Yes, energy is what we're going for, but fun and joy and passions and hobbies, they can't be on the back burner anymore. We have to actually pull them to the forefront because that can actually help drive us to feeling more energized. So thank you for bringing that up. Alongside, I love all of those body functions you also just mentioned, which I'm like, oh, we could nerd out on so much of this, but it really does take a holistic approach. And so I know that you've got, I think, five steps or so about how do we get out of this health debt and really learn to not just get through or survive, but really thrive through this season of our life of perimetopause. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

So I like to think of this is why I like to think of it as debt, because I think everything about our body starts to feel really emotional. And not that money is not emotional, but we can like put it to numbers and make it a little bit more like what is the pathway out of this, more systematic, I guess. So if we recognize that our body is in debt and the currency is energy, the first step, like with any debt, is like, let's take a look at all the areas that we're spending energy that are unnecessary. So that is taking a look, like almost like going in and like canceling your third Netflix membership that you have, or you know what I mean? Right, right, right. So what that translates to for us is taking a look at are we eating at least consistently? Let's forget about like what the macro balancing and the perfection in there, but like are we eating three meals per day? Because that is what your body needs, especially when it's trying to heal. Maybe it doesn't always need that, but during a healing period, it needs consistent fuel. So not skipping meal, snacking all day. Let's just have these three solid meals and eating enough in that meal to last four to five hours. Because if you're snacking all day, that means you're interrupting your body's healing process every single time you stick something in your mouth. So really just coming back to the fundamentals with nutrition. It's taking a look at sometimes at our workouts and movement. Like if we are in debt, certain exercise, certain types of exercise are really like spending money we don't have. So bringing it back to what I call functional movement, right? Making sure that we're at least just getting those seven to 10,000 steps in each day, which some are, but I sit in front of a computer a lot of the time. I'm so sure you do too. So consciously move. And also really eliminating known stressors, I think, in terms of our nutrition, especially. Like I'm a big fan of a good glass of wine, but things like sugar and processed foods and gluten and conventionally raised dairy and alcohol are not provide, not only not providing any value, they're actually costing the body more energy. So that's kind of like the low-hanging fruit where I'm like, let's just pull that stop leaking money, leaking energy out.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

I love this analogy here. It just makes it so relatable in terms of like money in, money out. If you don't have the money, you're gonna go into debt. And so it really is health debt. And I think I love how you're just simplifying this because sometimes it is as basic as am I getting in three meals a day? I mean, the number of times that I've worked with clients who are like, oh my goodness, I can't believe I like didn't have lunch, or I'm really good at packing the things for my kiddos, but then I'm going through fast food drive-thru. And it's like, no, my friends, sometimes we just are super high achieving, smart, smart brains that do so many complex tasks well. Sometimes we really just have to take it back to the basics.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Yeah, I totally agree. And even just like, I almost think about in that first phase is like treating your body like you do your children and your pets and your baby. Put it on a schedule. It goes to bed, it winds down and reads a book before it goes to bed. It goes to bed at a certain time, it wakes up at a certain time, it has to move, it has to eat, it has to breathe and play, right? The things that we make our children do all the time. But are we doing these things for ourselves?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Right. Absolutely. And I think I always like to say that the first step to any type of change is just awareness. So are we actually taking the time? And maybe it's right now for our audience, as you're listening to this, to actually just pause and like self-assess where are you at? Can you recall what you had for

Fueling Better: Protein, Meals, And Micronutrients

SPEAKER_01 19:20

breakfast today? Right. Did you get some type of intentional movement in? Is sometimes we just have to almost take like that audit to say, huh? And not with any shame or guilt or beating ourselves up, but really we just use that as a learning opportunity to say, huh, where can I make some of these small little improvements over time versus a complete overhaul.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

And it's tuning into the body again. It's instead of we're not a machine, it's starting to like connect back in and be like, okay, what have I done for me? Like our body is our baby too, and we need to treat her as such. You know, she has needs.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

She does have needs. And for so many of us, we've neglected them for so long. But this is the opportunity right now. My friends, to take back your power and say, I deserve this. I want to feel good again. And through this event, we are giving tons of ideas as to how you actually do that. So, okay, so it sounds like step one is to really, again, you called it the low-hanging fruit, kind of go back to some of those basics, what I call your foundational fab five healthy habits. What else ties into this in terms of getting out of debt?

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Yeah. So once we have those kind of foundational roots, foundations rooted in and we've moved through the things that are getting in the way of our basic foundations, then I think we move to how do we increase our salary? And the quickest way to increase our salary is to look to our nutrition. It is one of our biggest ways of providing energy to the body. We got to do it every single day. So that's when I think we want to dive more deeply and start to pay attention. And even if I do not like food tracking, Megan, but it is for a couple of weeks, a month would be amazing because we all have cycles and we feel different in those cycles and our energy needs are different. But so many women come to me and they're like, What should I eat and how much should I eat? I'm like, I don't know how much you should eat. Your body knows how much you should eat. Right. Or person of person. And you will know if you're doing the foundations, then you put together a meal. Should here we go, balance needs to be meal. We should have a protein and a fat and a carbohydrate. But if we make sure there's, you know, at least 20 to 30 grams of protein in there and a fat and a carbohydrate, and we eat that meal and you're hungry, less than four to five hours later, you didn't eat enough. There we go. Pretty simple. Listen to your body. So I think when we pay attention for a couple of weeks, that can give us a lot of insight into am I fueling properly? Of course, what's the quality of that food? It's the, you know, are we getting some good maximizing our micronutrients with vegetables and fruits and colors and things like that? But let's just do that work because you're going to get out of debt a heck of a lot faster if you are getting a higher paid salary.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

That makes so much sense. And I love that I think oftentimes we've been on this pendulum with like diet fads and yo-yo dieting and all these things, is like it has for many women that grew up in our kind of era, it has been tracking and tracking meticulously. And I love your approach to tracking, very similar to what I've done with clients in the past, is like we're tracking just to get curious. We're tracking like a science experiment to see. I love that you call out, and I want to repeat it for those in the back that may not have heard it, is even you as an expert cannot tell someone exactly what they need or how much they need. Because it comes down, my friends, to really tuning into ourselves and getting to know ourselves best, to know, you know, I had a coach years ago who was like, you know, just because yogurt and granola are great breakfast food, because you got the Greek yogurt and you got some other things in there with some berries on top. If your body doesn't handle lactose well, like it's not going to be a good choice no matter who says it, right? And so it's like, it's like, yes, I love this. Just getting back into really tuning into yourself and getting curious and becoming aware of

Hidden Stressors And Functional Labs

SPEAKER_01 22:50

it. So yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Thanks. So step three, I always look at it like healing the hidden internal stressors of the body. So we've like it's kind of we already eliminated the hidden external stressors by getting these foundations in, or the known stressors, we'll call them. And then we bring in the salary, and then it's almost like hiring a financial person to kind of come in and take a look and make sure that we're not leaking money places that we didn't know. And that's where I do believe pretty strongly in functional lab work to know your body, to know what's going on in there. Like if the first two steps didn't fix it for you, then we know usually there's a functional issue in the body. And that was what I also recognized in my journey is that doctors have an amazing important job to help us uncover physical problems and disease. But if you don't feel well and you don't have a physical problem, it's a functional problem. And so that's when for me, it's looking at blood work, it's looking at minerals and it's looking at your gut, it's looking at your adrenals, it's looking at your thyroid, you know, it's looking at the body and the metabolic systems as a whole to see where possibly kind of the links or the kink in the energy pipeline comes into play.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

We want to get the money we deserve, you know, you can eat as well as you want, but if we're not breaking down and absorbing those nutrients in the gut, then that becomes really problematic for people.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Yeah, I know there's been such buzz around this whole concept of like having a healthy gut and gut issues and the gut being tied to our mental health and all of these things. I'm curious if, as someone who is not an expert in this space and I want to know more, in terms of running these labs and getting to know some of these internal functions, such as your gut and minerals and adrenals, can you just break down like what that actually means? Like, what is your gut? What are you looking for in these labs that could be off?

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Yeah. So as a functional practitioner, when I look at something like a GI map, which is a stool sample. So comes to your home, you take a sample of your stool, you send it in, we look at the thing. We're kind of stepping back and looking at as like a bigger picture, a map. That's why I like it called that way. So we are able to take a look at are there parasites, are there pathogens, are there bacteria, yeast, fungus, worms? Like we can look at those things and rule them out if they're there or address them if they are. I think the real value in the GI map is in the fact that we get a really good look at the commensal or good bacteria or the opportunistic or bad bacteria in the gut. Look at what they're telling us. So each one of them has a very specific purpose, whether it's to work with the integrity of our mucosal barrier, which keeps the outside world from getting in the inside world, whether it's extending new nutrients from our food. So when they're off, we get a really clear picture of one, how to address it, but why you might be feeling that way and why the other mark markers in the body might be saying those things. Okay. And then finally, I'll just say on that that I think is so helpful is that you get some, you know, on that particular lab, we get some really good intestinal health markers. So we get a look at how the pancreas is doing with producing stomach acids and enzymes to break down our food. We get to look at overall inflammation in the gut. You know, we get a look at are we breaking down our fats? Are we breaking down our carbohydrates? Like there's a lot of really key indicators in there that help us know where things maybe have gone awry.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Okay, awesome. Thank you for breaking that down a little bit. Cause I'm like, when people talk about gut, what are we actually talking about? But I think there we go. Yeah, I think I think that makes a lot of sense, though, is taking a look at how it's all functioning and knowing, I mean, as you stated earlier,

Gut Health Demystified

SPEAKER_01 27:08

like our bodies are such temples. We only get one of them in this lifetime. And so these are just different ways that we can learn to better serve them and take care of them and thank them. Because I'm on board with you. I want to live till at least 100 as well. So that brings us into I think your fourth step. What comes after that? After you hire the financial advisor or hire somebody to help you kind of take a deeper look into your body. So then I feel like it's time to hire the tax accountant and save us money that we're gonna get to save.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Um that's where I think we start to really introduce looking at our soul food. At that stage, usually people are starting to feel good and maybe even building up a little bit of energy. And we often want to go out and spend that energy on fitness right away. But I'm like, let's hold our role, let's make sure everything, you know, it's like going to physiotherapy, let's make sure everything's solid, let's have a little. And I really like to take some good time to do two things in that phase of this healing. One to really well, to take a look at our like our products and our lifestyle things. Like, can we eliminate things that are costing us energy that we don't know in terms of toxins in our products and toxins in our air and our water? Can we have a little impact there and start to show change those over? But the other, I think the even bigger thing is really taking a look at what I call like our primary food, our soul food, you know? How do you feel about creativity in your life? How do you feel about your finances? How do you feel about these other areas that can really like your relationships? Now that we have a little more bandwidth, can we invest some of that bandwidth in something that's gonna 10x our energy to us a little bit? So that's where I think the soul food piece really comes in. And that's it's like, yeah, like when you hire a good accountant and you're like, wonderful, I didn't know I was gonna save this money. Yeah, it's that kind of bonus feeling. Totally. Yeah. And then after that stage, I I like to look at we invest right now. At that point, we should have a surplus of energy. We're like out of debt, and now we've increased our actual available energy and we want to invest it and we want to invest it in the right things. We want to invest it, I think, first and foremost into fitness when we're thinking about our health. I still think building lean muscle is like the gold standard for protecting our hormones and our bodies as we age. So if you love cardio, I think you know, wonderful, do it because it brings you joy and it's that soul food. But if you do not, stick with your resistance training and the things that expand and stretch and move your body because that's what is going to create more hormones for you. It's gonna put armor on your body. So it's a better investment, like buying a home versus buying a car, is how I think of resistance training to cardio.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Totally. I know, having come from the fitness space, just the power and resistance training and strength training is that I always say, people are like, Megan, why do you lift heavy weights? Because I want to be able to squat when I'm 80. I want to be able to pick up my grandkids. Like it's not necessarily for achieving the best body or whatever, but it really is about longevity. And I think when a lot of women come into this kind of midseason of life and perimetopause kind of age and

Soul Food, Toxins, And Lifestyle Upgrades

SPEAKER_01 30:09

stage, is that's where we start to recognize like, where do we actually want to be going? How do we actually make these next many decades even better than the first? So I love this. And I love your analogy here with kind of the debt piece of it. Definitely resonates with me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

I think muscle builds resiliency. It's like multiple streams of income, you know, you just get extra opportunity. If you get injured while you're in better shape to handle that injury, like you said, if totally any of those things. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

I love it. I love it. Well, there's one other piece I want to uh touch on, which is this whole concept of peptides. What are peptides? Tell me a little bit more about the purpose behind this and what this means.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Yeah, so peptides in a very like rudimentary term are really just small chains of amino acids. So we think about amino acids and we think about proteins, and proteins are like a hundred or more chains of amino acids, whereas peptides are like two to fifty, we might call them. Okay. And the way I like to look at them, I mean, they're known as kind of like messenger signals in the body. So our body makes a lot of peptides. A lot of people are familiar with with insulin, with glutathione, with B12, like these are peptides that some we make, some we know very familiar with. But ultimately, peptides are something that the body is very familiar with and can sync with. And it kind of, when we go through life, and in midlife is a perfect example, we've been through a lot of stressors and the function has broken down. The body's still capable of doing the things, but it's almost like this broken telephone that starts to happen. So peptide therapy can be a really powerful way to re-establish that signaling, to tell the body, like, oh, tell the cells, here's what we should do again. And I think it's a really fun opportunity, a really amazing thing. And I think we're gonna see a lot of it grow in the next five to 10 years. I just think what's most important that women know is that one, yes, it's amazing. Two, yes, it should be available for you. But three, we have to optimize our hormones and get out of debt first.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

I was gonna ask, where do peptides come in in terms of your five-step process? So it sounds like after you've kind of gone through this process and got some of the baselines and gone a little bit deeper, is then this can allow us to even function a little bit better.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think 90% of the time we really want to, yeah, make sure at least that our foundations are in check, that again, the hormones are optimized. There are a few peptides that can be really powerful and helpful for healing, which is amazing. So those can be used with a practitioner earlier. But

Invest Your Surplus: Strength Over Cardio

SPEAKER_02 32:39

I think for the most part, if you want to get the most out of them and the like the very powerful, I'd say gentle but powerful benefits, like most people notice a difference within a couple of weeks using peptides, we really want to optimize first.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Yeah. Yeah. So our body can then take in this little extra goodness. Which is like going from an eight to a 10. Right. I love that, which kind of leads me full circle. One more question for you, Bria. Is so if we go back to step one, which again are kind of those just foundational things that we know our body needs. Do you have any tips or best practices to actually help women get in motion? Because again, a lot of our listeners have been just kind of, we're on this never-ending camp, this never-ending hamster wheel that just keeps going and going and going. It's like, how do we even start to take the next steps? What are your recommendations there?

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Yeah, I think one of the best things that helped me a lot when I was in like in my own massive health debt was to pick one thing and do just that thing as the new thing you do for a week or two until it no longer becomes a new thing, right? All new things require more energy. So, in the landscape of these foundations, if look, if your sleep is terrible and it's, you know, especially if kids are waking you up or, you know, whatever is happening. Some people have young kids in midlife for sure. So we don't know, then maybe start with walking, you know, just commit to like a 10-minute walk after each of your meals or commit to hitting those seven to 10,000 steps each day and do that for most days. It doesn't have to be perfect, but most days, and then do it for a week, do it for two weeks, and then let's add the second thing on. So let's just make sure we're eating those three meals a day. And then maybe we try to just maybe turn the screens off right before bed and get into bed at an earlier hour, right? Right. Layer these week after week. And then maybe we sit in some stillness because in order to have pleasure and joy, which is what we really want, we have to empty out the sludge of stress that's there. Because everyone's like when you're stressed, can't take a joke, can't orgasm. So we need to clear that out a little bit. And that's where I think doing something calm or rupting and like singing aloud to a song, whatever your thing is, can bring that in. So it's just these really simple habits. And if you can just set this goal, like, okay, I'm gonna do this five times this week, and let's just see how it goes. Just it's the

Peptides 101 And When To Use Them

SPEAKER_02 34:59

only thing that you need to do and feel proud of yourself and hold yourself accountable to. And that is honestly how I climbed out of debt in the beginning for me. It's how I made that first step was I'm gonna do just this thing for a week. I'm just gonna drink my electrolytes every day for the week. That's all I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

I love it. Keep it simple, stupid, right? It's choose one thing. I often use the phrase MVA, minimal viable action, is like, what is the smallest thing that you can do to move the dial forward in that area? So if you're choosing something as walking, it's not going out for a two-mile walk every day to start to get back into movement. It's can you go out for five minutes? Right? Can you start just by drinking water and let those small steps build momentum and celebrate the progress? Celebrate the progress every little win and over time. I think that that's a big key takeaway to just reiterate is change takes time. It's again, we live in a culture of where we want the quick fixes, but it's if you follow these steps, you're going to start to feel better. So this has been amazing, Bria.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I agree. Our bodies aren't vending machines. We don't get into debt overnight. So we're not going to get out of debt overnight. So just have the same grace and patience for your body as you do for your children. So good, so good.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

And before we sign off, any closing words, final thoughts, anything you want to leave our listeners with today?

SPEAKER_02 36:14

I mean, I think one of the biggest things that stuck with me, I can't even remember where I heard it the first time, but now I end the podcast with it every time is be more in your life and not just less on a scale. I think a lot of our lives as women trying to be smaller, like physically smaller. And in the end, I think we just make ourselves smaller. And whereas if we literally try to take up more space, nourish the body more, build the muscle more, the body responds by going into the place I think we always wanted it to be anyway. So be more in your life and not just less on a scale.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

I love that. Bria, thank you so much for being part of the Rockstar Mom. Thank you so much for tuning into the Rockstar Mom podcast. If today's episode resonated with you, here's how we can keep this momentum going. First, be sure to subscribe to the show

Subscribe, Review, And Share

SPEAKER_01 37:02

so you never miss an episode. Next, I'd be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Your feedback helps us reach even more women who are ready to live more intentional, fun-filled lives. Lastly, please share your insights on social media and be sure to tag me at Megan Callville PDX so we can connect and inspire other rock stars to live their best lives too. Again, I am so glad that you are here, and I'll see you next time.