Episode 39: Everything You Need to Know About GLP-1s (Even "Natural GLP-1 Boosters!)

Are you wondering if Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro might be your only option now that midlife weight gain feels impossible to shift... or maybe you’re already taking one and quietly wondering what happens next?

Maybe you're hearing more about "natural" options that boost GLP-1 activity such as pink gelatin and are curious about those too. 

If so, then this episode is for you.

In this honest and eye-opening Part 2 conversation (Part 1 can be found in Episode 9), we go far beyond the headlines and social media hype around GLP-1 weight loss medications and other booster alternatives claiming to be the next best thing sinced sliced bread.

You’ll learn:

• The real difference between Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro
 • Why these medications can help some women — and where they often fall short
 • Why so many women regain weight after coming off them
 • What women are NOT being told to do alongside GLP-1s that is vital to protect your metabolism, muscle and long-term results
 • The truth about “natural GLP-1 boosters” and trending alternatives
 • How to know what your body truly needs before, during or after using one

If you’ve been feeling confused, pressured, stuck, or scared this is now your only option... this episode will give you clarity, confidence, and a much smarter way to think about your next step.

Ready to get clarity on what's going on inside you? Book your Complimentary Health Audit with Joanne Here. We'll look at your unique situation, identify where your key metabolic imbalances might be and create a roadmap for reclaiming your energy and health — naturally and sustainably. No obligation. Just real answers.

Want to learn more about The Metabolic Balance Program - the program I use in my practice to get my client real results that last? 

Discover what everyone is talking about! The world's leading personalized nutrition and hormone-balancing system with the highest global success rate for sustainable weight loss and health transformation without pills, shakes or expensive proprietary foods.

One nutrition plan based on YOUR bloodwork. No deprivation. No one-size-fits-all diet. Just real food matched to your own biochemistry for real, lasting results.

Watch the information video here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey there! If you're exhausted, foggy, or stuck in a body that just does not feel or look like yours anymore, you are in the right place, my friend. My name is Joanne Willis. I am a registered holistic nutritionist, cancer survivor, and fellow parametopause warrior. And I am here to help you understand what's really going on inside that body of yours so you can finally figure it all out, put the pieces together, and feel better again naturally. Every week on the Midlife Vitality Project, we'll dig into the real reasons behind midlife weight gain, fatigue, mood swings, and all those other weird and wacky symptoms of perimetopause, and all the things your doctor might have told you are just aging. We'll explore how to rebalance your metabolism, support those hormones, and bring your blood chemistry back into alignment so you can feel vibrant, clear, and confident in your body once again. Because midlife isn't the end, my friend. It's the beginning of your strongest, healthiest, most powerful chapter yet. Are you ready? Let's go. Hello, hello, ladies, and welcome back. Now, in today's episode, I know that this is a topic that so many women are talking about right now, and so many women need right now. If you are here as a woman in midlife currently wondering whether you should seriously consider taking a GLP1 medication, Ozempic, Wagovi, Munjaro, maybe even a natural GLP1, because they're getting a lot of airtime right now as well, because you are just desperate to lose weight, nothing else seems to be working, and you're starting to think this is your only option, then this is definitely an episode that you are going to want to listen to. Because today we are having the deeper conversation, not the social media version, not a black and white version, not the just take it or never take it version. This is not a judgment episode, this is not a good is it good or bad conversation. We are having a real conversation that all women deserve to hear and be a part of. A few months ago, I recorded episode 9 here in the Midlife Vitality Project called Considering or Taking Ozempic, Wagovi, or Moonjaro from Midlife Weight Loss, what every woman over 40 needs to know before deciding to try or wanting to come off of GLP 1s. Now that episode, it was one of my foundation episodes, and I wanted to talk about it then pretty early on in the launch of the podcast because I was relentlessly getting questions. We talked about in that episode what GLP ones are, why women in midlife typically are considering them, the pros, the cons, and what to think about before starting or stopping one. So if you haven't listened to episode 9 yet, and this is an area of interest for you, I strongly recommend that you go back and listen or save it and listen to it later, because this episode is essentially part two. We are going to be going much deeper because this conversation just keeps growing. And because the conversation is growing and more and more questions are coming out, more deeper questions, that's why I wanted to release this part two episode now. I want to meet everybody, I want to meet you where you likely are because the more people talk about this, the more people talk about the results they're getting, but then also we're starting to hear about some of the negative side effects, and then the questions come what happens if I want to come off of this medication? So we're gonna go deeper today. Now, another reason that this is such a perfect time to record this episode is because last night I had the pleasure of speaking at a beautiful in-person event called the Best Life Self-Care Health Show in Chatham, Ontario. And I just want to quickly say if you are local to Southwestern Ontario and you enjoy wellness events where there's just a woman, you know, full of like a woman's space that where you just walk out feeling empowered. If you're looking for to get involved in real conversations around natural health, and you just want to walk away feeling inspired and uplifted, please keep an eye out for future events by this organizer for Diamond Events. This this show is one of theirs, they do others throughout the year, but wow, what an amazing venue! It was at the armory in Chatham, a beautiful venue, and the hosts really know how to put on an amazing event for women. Anyway, quick little plug there. I I couldn't not because I'm still sitting in here, sitting here right now as I record this, just thinking back and looking back at some of the photographs and what a beautiful event. And today I get to carry it on. I will be there for the trade show. So but it was very good timing that I was at this event. It was an amazing experience. There were so many incredible women there, women who just genuinely want to feel better, and they made it their Friday night girls' night out. They're all looking for answers, they're all looking for hope, and they all want to understand their bodies again. And after all the individual talks that we had, I was one of the speakers that night. We had a panel discussion. There were naturopathic doctors, we had a mindset expert, a somatic healing practitioner, and we were talking about where healthcare needs to go next, how we need to move beyond simply managing symptoms and start helping people understand what it is that the body is trying to say. We talked about how symptoms are often signals that we shouldn't ignore, and instead we should explore them, get curious, and help to connect the dots ourselves because that's when we play more of an active role in our health instead of a more passive role where we feel like we are being talked to, prescribed to, and that we have no control. And of course, GLP1s came up. Now I was asked what my thoughts were, which I get that question so so many times. And afterwards, several women came up to me to speak with me privately, and one woman asked me, What actually is a GLP one? And it reminded me that even with all the noise out there, and obviously for myself working in the natural health industry, working with women in midlife that are a lot of them are seriously considering taking a GLP1 or already taking it and want to know how they can get off of it. They just want to learn more about it. I just assume everybody knows about these things. So to have somebody come up and ask me, so what exactly is a GLP one? made me realize that there's still some basic information that we need to just remind people of, but we also need to go deeper for those of you that have been hearing about it and are starting to now get confused with all of all of the noise that's out there. There was another woman who shared that she was taking Munjaro for type 2 diabetes, and she really wanted to know how she could eventually come off of it safely. And it reminded me of something important. Even though GLP1s are everywhere right now, most women still have not been given the full conversation. So, as I said, that's what this episode is all about. Now, quick caveat again, just to reiterate, this is not me talking about anti-GLP ones. I want to be very clear on that. There are women that these medications can absolutely help. There are women whose blood sugar is in a dangerous territory, and there are women who need significant weight loss to reduce serious health risks imminently. There are also women with type 2 diabetes where these tools can be very valuable. So this is not a shame episode. Please know that before we dive any further into this. So if you are taking a GLP1 medication, whether that's Ozempic, Wagovi, Moonjaro, or one of the natural alternatives, if you are taking one, just know first and foremost that I am not sitting here thinking, oh, you failed, you made the wrong decision. Not at all. You are just trying to figure out what is going to work. You are following the advice that you have been given, and that is great. But I want to add some context around this. This episode is simply about helping you to ask better questions because the better the question, the better the outcome. Okay, so let's just quickly reiterate. As I said, if you haven't already listened to episode 9, please go back and listen to that in your own time. That will go a little more deeper into the basics. But just to clarify here, what a GLP1 is, in simple terms, it stands for glucagon-like peptide 1. Now that sounds very science-y, so let's just humanize it a little here. GLP1 is a hormone that your body naturally makes, and its job is to help regulate your appetite, help your body know when you're full and when you genuinely need to eat. Its job is to help with feelings of fullness. So obviously, the slower we release things through the stomach, the more we can balance out our blood sugar. So it plays a big role in blood sugar control and helps insulin work more effectively. Remember, insulin is the hormone that our pancreas secretes when there is glucose in our bloodstream, because its job is to then collect that insulin and go and try to deliver it to our cells for energy, which is where it should go and it should be accepted if our body doesn't become insulin resistant. And how does our body become insulin resistant? When there is too much insulin because there's too much glucose over time, and eventually the cells of the body just say, uh-uh, I don't need this amount of insulin and glucose, and you're not active enough, you're a sedentary body, I don't need this much, and so essentially the cells shut the door and say no more. And so what happens is our body becomes resistant to insulin, and that's when problems start to happen. So, in simple terms, GLP ones help your body to feel calmer around food, and it'll help you feel satisfied, it'll help smooth out some of that roller coaster of the ups and downs of blood sugar wackiness if that's something that you're struggling with. Now, for many women in midlife, those signals though can become less effective, and it's not because the body's broken, but it's because it's under what we call metabolic strain, and this happens over years. Years of stress. Typically, by the time we get to midlife, we have experienced significant episodes or lengthy bouts of chronic stress. We have spent years dealing with blood sugar spikes and crashes based on our food choices, but also how we eat. We often eat in a very rushed environment, we don't sleep very well, we struggle with inflammation. Then we have the hormonal shifts that happen in midlife. If we're experiencing muscle loss due to lack of weight training, resistance training to keep those muscles dense, that also plays a factor. If we're dealing with gut dysfunction and gut imbalances as we're approaching our midlife, this also comes into play. And if you are a chronic under-eater, which is then followed by overeating. So again, if you don't eat in regular healthy patterns, or maybe you've been on this yo-yo dieting regimen for years where you restrict calories and then you start to eat a lot more. Maybe you're an emotional eater. All of this adds up over years. So when women say I'm hungry all the time, I can't stop thinking about food, I never feel satisfied, I feel like I crave sugar constantly. This has got nothing to do with having a weak character or no willpower. It is almost always about physiology and what is actually happening in the underneath layers of your metabolic system. And we typically get to this level of imbalance over years of all of these habits accumulating. So GLP1 medications they work by mimicking or enhancing that hormone pathway. So for some women, it can actually feel some like true relief and relief that has been long overdue. Now, what is the difference between the different types of GLP 1 medications that are getting all the airtime right now? Specifically Ozempic, Wagovi, and Munjaro. They're the big three. This is a big point of confusion right now. And again, it came up last night in our conversation at the event. Women hear the names constantly, and understandably they assume that they are all the same thing. They are related though, but they're not identical. So let's just break down the differences first and foremost. So Ozempic, Ozempic is what's called a semaglutide medication, and it was originally approved for type 2 diabetes, management of diagnosed type 2 diabetes. It is often discussed for weight loss because many people lose weight while taking it. Now, Wagovi, Wagovie is also a semaglutide, but this one was approved specifically for chronic weight management. So same family, but a different official use. Now, Munjaro, it's actually not a semaglutide, it's what's called a terzipatide. This one works on GLP1 pathways and another pathway called the GIP. Again, we won't get all sciencey here, no need to memorize acronyms. What matters is this it works differently, and many people are seeing strong results. Your doctor will typically be the one to decide which type of GLP1 is best for your scenario. But why does this matter? Because if your friend is on one and your neighbor is on another, and someone online is talking about a third, it doesn't automatically mean that the same situation is going to apply to you. Everybody has a different health history, we have different diagnoses, or we are at risk of a different diagnosis, we need to take different doses, we have different bodies, and we have different goals. And this is why comparison becomes so dangerous. So again, just because Ozempic might be working for somebody or Munjaro might be working better for somebody else, there is very likely a reason that they're working for them, and a reason that those specific GLP ones were prescribed for them. But the situation may be very different from yours. So it's not just a overarching any of these medications. They fall into the GLP1 family, so they could work for me. It's not that simple. Okay, so why do we think that these GLP ones are getting so much attention, especially for women in midlife? Well, let's think about it. It makes perfect sense. Women in our 40s, in our 50s, what are we experiencing? What are our biggest frustrations? Likely stubborn belly fat, rising fasting glucose levels. We might be getting warnings of being pre-diabetic, maybe even type 2 diagnoses, type 2 diabetes diagnoses has happened already. We might be noticing changes with our cholesterol levels, higher cholesterol, typically the higher triglycerides, higher LDL, and lower HDL. We might be struggling more with sleep and poor sleep quality, lower confidence in ourselves, less energy to get through the day. And essentially, we're dealing with a body that is changing and no longer responds like it used to. So if you feel like you're eating healthier than ever because you're genuinely trying to make healthier choices and yet nothing seems to be working, or maybe you're still getting even more symptoms or you're still putting on more weight, of course, naturally you're going to look for help outside of anything that you've ever tried. And right now, GLP ones are everywhere. So when you're seeing these dramatic transformations online or friends are talking about them, especially when somebody says, I lost 30 pounds in four months, especially when you're tired of fighting, it doesn't make you foolish. It just makes you human. So take a load off yourself if if you've, you know, if if you have been thinking about it, it's understandable why you have. Okay, so here is where I want to lovingly challenge the mainstream conversation though, because this cannot only be about our weight, because the weight is often the visible symptom. But underneath that weight gain, there may be so much else going on, and I am willing to bet that there is in 90%, if not more, of cases. Underneath that weight gain, there are things that are contributing to it that we may not even be considering. Things like insulin resistance, which I mentioned earlier, unstable blood sugar levels on a day-to-day basis, high stress hormones, specifically cortisol, constantly dysregulated, waking us up in the night, and cortisol dysregulation comes from unmanaged stress over time, and it's also impacted by fluctuations in insulin when our blood sugar is struggling. And it's also impacted, by the way, by the erratic behavior of estrogen as it slowly starts its decline. So cortisol is impacted, as are all hormones. All hormones are impacted by other hormones. They all interchange interchangeably work together and have an impact on each other. Underneath that weight gain, there is likely chronic inflammation. There are poor sleep patterns, the gut dysfunction that I mentioned before. There is likely muscle loss. There will be nutrient depletion, and there is very often cases of emotional burnout. These are very typical situations that are likely ongoing, whether they are known or not known, in the women that I work with who ultimately their primary goal appears to be that they just want to lose weight. Now, if we only chase that visible symptom, the weight loss, we are likely missing the deeper picture. And this is where women get frustrated because yes, they may lose weight, but if the terrain underneath is unchanged, if we don't do the work to really address our metabolic health and bring it back into a level of balance that our body feels safe again and can then do its job of managing our appetite hormones, managing our blood sugar, reducing inflammation. If it can't do that naturally, then of course our struggles are going to remain. And sometimes they will just come back later. And we're just holding off the inevitable when we take a GLP1 without doing any of the supportive work that's needed. So one of the biggest questions that I get is should I consider a GLP1 in my situation? And in a lot of these cases, it's they're asking as it being the first port of call. And my honest opinion is usually not. And not because, as I said, not because GLP 1 medications are bad, but because too often women are never shown what else is possible and should be the first port of call first. So if a woman has never been helped before to know how to stabilize blood sugar naturally through how she eats and what she eats and other daily habits, if a woman has never been helped to eat enough protein and make sure all of her meals are balanced, if she's never been helped to rebuild muscle and know how to do that safely without stressing out the body, if she's never been helped to regulate her meal timing, reduce her inflammatory load, support her stress physiology and how her body and her nervous system reacts to stress. If she's never been helped to improve her sleep, understand emotional hunger. By the way, if you did if you missed last week's episode, that is all about understanding the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger. Maybe another useful episode for you to go back to because it is definitely an area where a lot of women truly believe that they're overeating all because of lack of willpower, and trust me, it isn't. So definitely go back to that one. So if a woman has never been helped to essentially personalize nutrition to help her individual body based on all of these very unique individual needs that we may or may not even know are necessary, then how do we know what her body is truly capable of first? So that ultimately should be the question. Medication may still be appropriate, but big butt, it should be an informed next step. It shouldn't be a panic first step. Now I want to share something else important here, and it's a follow-up study. Again, statistics can be helpful. We sometimes have to take them with a grain of salt depending on the source, but this one's interesting for me. There was a follow-up study done on semaglutide users, and it found that when participants stopped the medication, they would regain a substantial portion of the weight that they lost over the course of the next year. Roughly two-thirds of prior weight loss on average. Now I'm not sharing this to be a Debbie Downer or to scare anybody that is on a GLP one or is thinking of it. I'm sharing it because it's teaching us something. It's telling us that appetite suppression alone often isn't enough for lasting change. So if the habits, if the metabolism itself, if our relationship with food, if our muscle density, if our blood sugar patterns, if our stress load, if all of those things are left unchecked and not addressed, then of course the body will drift back. And that doesn't mean that the medication failed, the medication was working when you were taking it. It just means that the medication alone is incomplete, and that distinction truly matters. Now, this may be the most important section of this episode for some of you. If you are already taking Ozempik or Wagovi or Munjaro, please do not listen to this episode through a lens of guilt. I want you to listen through it with a lens of opportunity instead. Because now I want the questions to change. The question should become how do we make this work for you properly? If you are taking a GLP one now, how do we make it better work for you and mitigate side effects? How do we protect your muscle mass? Because a lot of times the weight that we see coming off on the scale in people taking GLP1s may not necessarily be fat loss. In fact, a lot of times there's muscle loss as well, and that is something that a woman in midlife cannot afford to lose. We want to ask how do we support your energy? How do we use this season wisely? And how do we make sure that you are healthier, not just lighter, so that the weight loss is not only sustainable, but it's coming from a place of true balance. Now that is the smarter conversation, and that is exactly the conversation that I am having with women privately more often than not. So one of the most common things I hear from women who are already taking a GLP one is I've lost weight, but I actually don't feel great. I hear I get nauseous, I'm constipated, I have no appetite, I feel weak, I'm exhausted, I'm losing weight, but I just don't feel healthier. Now, of course, medications they can come with side effects. We know that. It's true of many medications, but I want to offer another layer to this conversation. Sometimes it is not just the medication, sometimes it is what is happening around the medication. For example, if your appetite drops dramatically, but protein intake drops as well, you are going to lose muscle mass. And if calories plummet, because you're eating less, but nourishment plummets too, so you're not getting this wide variety of nutritional density that we need from food for our body to be able to do all of its jobs effectively, then you may feel weak, foggy, and depleted. If you notice that your digestion is slowing and you're having some digestive upsets, but hydration is and a hydration is poor, constipation could become worse. And if you're barely eating all day and then you get to a point where you overeat later, that is going to cause blood sugar chaos. What about stress? If your stress levels are high, but your sleep is poor and your nervous system is already frazzled, then the body is going to struggle even further because cortisol, remember, your stress hormone is just going to be even more out of whack. So, yes, the medication matters, but the foundation of your health, of your metabolic health specifically, matters too. And this is why women need to understand the bigger picture and need additional support when taking a GLP1. So if you are already one of these women, please hear this. You don't need to punish yourself, you just need a strategy. So the first part of any strategy, if you are taking a GLP 1 or seriously considering doing so, is that protein in your meals, in every meal, must become a non-negotiable. This is huge. If appetite is low, what happens is many women accidentally eat very little protein. So they start to nibble and pick and just snack, or just have a piece of toast, or just have some crackers, or might even skip meals, and then they wonder why they feel weak. So you have to remember: protein helps us to protect our muscle density, steady our blood sugar. Remember that is a key, key function. We need to keep blood sugar regulated so that we don't become insulin resistant, which is the precursor for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Protein helps us to feel full, helps us to feel satiated between meals, it helps preserve metabolism, it helps support our recovery, and it helps us support hormone balance. So every meal should be built around a meaningful protein source first, whether that's eggs, whether that's Greek yogurt, and again, don't be fooled into the zero fat, low-fat, no-fat yogurts. We want at least three and a half percent of fat, the natural fats in Greek yogurt. Chicken, if if you are not vegan or vegetarian, great sources. Animal dense proteins, animal sorry, animal protein sources are the most protein dense. So if you aren't strict vegan or vegetarian, then chicken, turkey, lean beef, fish, these are all great protein sources. If uh cottage cheese as well, if you're okay with dairy, if you are vegan or vegetarian, tofu, tempeh, edamami, these are all other great protein sources. Beans, as long as they are paired properly, that's another conversation. Um, definitely a conversation I'm happy to have with anybody that is vegan or vegetarian or just genuinely likes vegetarian options. We want to make sure that to get plentiful amounts of protein, it in other words, all the essential amino acids, that we are combining certain vegetarian protein sources together. Typically, you only want to focus on eating one protein at a meal on its own so that you can fully absorb all of the amino acids from that protein source. We don't necessarily want to be crossing proteins in the same meal, however, where that's different is in a vegan vegetarian situation because they are not as dense a protein, they won't have as many of the amino acids that our body needs, so we do need to consider combining. Just a side caveat there. So essentially, protein is it has to become intentional. That's number one. Number two, strength training matters more than ever. If your weight is dropping, but muscle is dropping too. This is not the win that many women think it is. Remember, your muscle supports your metabolism, so it keeps it moving for years to come. It supports insulin sensitivity, again, where the cells recognize insulin, are happy to take that glucose into the cells where the body can use it for energy, and we don't end up with too much glucose left in the bloodstream, causing high blood sugar spikes, pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, etc. Muscle supports strength, it supports our confidence, it supports our bone health, which is another huge thing we need to consider in midlife. As we lose the protective element of estrogen, our bone density decreases. So not only do our bones need more support, but the muscles around them will help to keep our bones strong. Muscle supports our longevity ultimately, especially starting in midlife. So even two short sessions of weight resistance training, and that can even just be body weight, doing um you can do it in your home. It doesn't need to mean beast mode in the gym, it just means having some light dumbbells that you can use in your living room to do some arm curls, to do some overhead presses. It can mean body weight strength at home, doing squats without any weights at all, doing some lunges, doing some push-ups, doing some sit-ups. It can mean resistance bands, it can be a beginner YouTube workout, or even Pilates with some resistance. The key is to have some resistance where you are making the muscles have to work, but consistency will matter more than perfection, even if you can consistently do three times a week for 20-30 minutes, that is a great place to start. Number three, hydration and fiber matter because slowed digestion without enough water and fiber will make you miserable. And if you've already struggled with constipation before, then you need to be proactive about this. So lots and lots of water, make sure you are hydrating, vegetables, lots of fruit, and the crunchier the vegetable, the crunchier the fruit. That's a good indication. There is fiber. Typically, the fiber is in the skin. Seeds, beans, if you can tolerate them. Some people can't, they can make you gassy, and that's a good indicator, right there, of a specific imbalance that's going on in our bodies that needs addressing. Movement, daily walks, these are simple things that matter more than people realize, and often they're not taken into consideration when you start taking a GOP1. Number four, build habits while appetite is quieter. So this is actually a golden opportunity. If food noise is already reduced because you're on a GOP1, use this time wisely. Start to practice what regular meal timing looks like and feels like, where you space your meals out, ideally going between four and five hours between meals, and doing that on a regular basis so that you get your body into a programming. You practice slower eating, mindful eating, where you check in and allow your body to know when it's full long before we overeat. Practice choosing balanced meals, making sure you're getting plentiful protein and healthy fiber in vegetables and carbohydrates from healthy sources and some fats too, some essential healthy fats too. Practice emotional coping tools to make sure you are managing stress proactively, not just reactively. And practice healthy sleep routines. Sometimes, yes, hormones can wake us up and we don't want it to wake up in the middle of the night. It's not our intention. But that will also settle out as we are able to rebalance our metabolism and rebalance our hormones. But in the meantime, at least go to bed and create a healthy sleep routine with intention. Make sure you're giving yourself plenty of time to sleep. If you know that you're likely to wake up for an hour in the night, then go to bed an hour earlier. Make sure you're winding down before you go to bed. Have a lavender oil-infused bath, turn off the blue light devices at least an hour before bedtime. Because if these habits are not built now when you have the opportunity to do so, what happens later? Well, that's the real question. Now let's talk about something that is really trending right now, and that is natural GLP1 boosters. These are other questions that I'm getting. People are hearing phrases like natural osempic, natural GLP 1 boosters, foods that mimic semaglutides, supplements that can switch off cravings. And recently I came across another one. I was at an event I mentioned earlier. One lovely woman shared that she had started trying something she had heard about online called pink gelatin. Now I want to be clear and fair here. I am not dismissing anyone who's trying to improve their health naturally. I love all areas where we are looking to support our health naturally. And I'm open and curious to talking about them all. That is my world. That's what I do, it's how I live too. But we do need some discernment. There is a difference between supporting your body's natural satiety pathways and expecting a food or supplement to behave like a prescription medication. You need to know that they are not the same thing. Now, could some foods or supplements help some women feel fuller or steadier or eat less reactively? Absolutely. But protein because protein can help and fiber can help. We've already talked about that. Balanced meals absolutely help. Blood sugar stability, when we work on that, also helps. Better sleep, less stress, even improving our gut health. These all can help, absolutely. But if someone is hoping that a single trendy powder or a gummy or a tea or a gelatin is going to override years of metabolic strain on its own, that is where disappointment is going to arise. And this is where women get stuck again chasing that next shiny thing. I believe pink gelatin is uh was recently talked about on the Dr. Oz show. If you're not familiar with Dr. Oz, he's a famous TV doctor who and I love him, don't get me wrong, he um he is a doctor who practices holistically and he truly looks at how the body needs to be addressed as a whole, and he promotes natural alternatives to medications. I love him for that. Interestingly though, women hang off of his every word, and often they believe that it's the next magic pill without necessarily then seeking or getting the support about what else they need to be doing alongside it. So that's where the pink gelatin came from. But yeah, it it can be one of those next shiny objects for a lot of women. So instead of doing the deep, boring, life-changing basics that truthfully are needed and we need to become consistent with, and I say the word boring lovingly, people are looking for a way to try and try and skirt around it. Um, but honestly, you cannot ignore the foundations. Now let me come back to the lovely woman that I met who was taking moonjaro, who is taking moonjaro for type 2 diabetes. Now she had seen progress, but she knew something important. She was smart enough to know that it wasn't just smaller numbers that she wanted to see on the scale. She wanted to truly understand and she wanted to truly feel confident in the fact in her health. And while she was taking moon jarro for type 2 diabetes, she wanted to know what do I eat? How do I support my blood sugar naturally? How do I reduce the chances of needing this moonjaro forever? I want to come off of it eventually. How do I come off safely one day if it is deemed appropriate to do so? That awareness, that's wisdom, and that is what I spend my time talking to women and educating them about and trying to empower them to want to learn more. Because medications may help manage a condition, but lifestyle often determines whether that improvement lasts. And this is exactly where personalized support becomes so powerful. So if you want to come off of a GLP one, if you're already taking one, first please do not stop abruptly without medical guidance. Always work with your prescribing physician, but alongside that medical guidance, this is where you ideally are seeking the expert knowledge in nutrition and metabolic support because these matter enormously. Because if the medication has been helping regulate appetite and blood sugar, and then it's just very quickly removed, the body will need another source of support in order to maintain those results. And that support is what comes from the daily consistent habits that help to rebalance and keep our physiology balanced long term. So we need to look at how to stabilize your blood sugar, how to structure your meals, how to ensure adequate protein, how to make sure you're eating enough food and that you're not undereating. This this calorie-cutting world that we have been living in for so long, it needs to change. It's doing more harm than good in a lot of in a lot of scenarios, not for everybody. Some people genuinely do need to cut back on their calories, but it's the type of food that they're eating that matters the most. Stress regulation, we need to focus on that. We can't ignore it. Sleep repair, how we move our bodies, and identifying emotional eating patterns and addressing those, and essentially just rebuilding trust in our body to know when we are full and to understand true hunger cues. All of this work is important, and this is why women who simply stop a GLP 1 and then hope for the best often struggle if they haven't been working on these areas. And it's got nothing to do with the fact that they're weak, it's because they didn't build a bridge. You need a bridge from the GLP 1 itself to a life beyond the GLP without essentially everything that you have achieved going backwards or your health suffering in the process. Now, if your doctor is recommending a GLP 1, then we need nuance, not panic, not shame, not rebellion. We need questions. The questions that I want you to ask is number one, what is the specific reason that it is being recommended? You want to know is this for diabetes management? Is it because of a pre-diabetes risk? Is it due to your cardiovascular and your metabolic health specifically? If they see markers in your blood that they want to address, or is it for weight loss only? You want to ask what lifestyle work should happen alongside it? How will your muscle density be protected? What is the long-term plan for you and the exit strategy? What markers in your blood work are they monitoring? And what happens if you want to come off of it later? Now, these are questions that are going to make you feel empowered, and empowered women get better outcomes. Now, I'm hoping that this episode has really opened your eyes and answered some questions and connected some dots. The question should now not be, should I take a GLP1 or not? That is just too simplistic. The better question is what does my body need right now? Now, for some women, that may include a GLP1 medication, but for others, for the majority of others, it may mean a more personalized metabolic reset needs to happen first. And for others, it may mean using medication temporarily, the GLP1s temporarily, while doing the deeper work underneath. So there is no gold star for suffering, and there's no gold star for outsourcing everything either. Just know that the goal is wisdom, knowledge, the goal is health, the goal is sustainability, and that comes from taking a holistic approach and not ignoring the foundations. Now, when I talk about metabolic work, I'm not talking about punishment. I'm not talking about 1200 calories a day and white knuckling your way through hunger. I'm not talking about cutting carbs forever. Instead, what I am talking about is helping your body feel safe enough to function properly again. And that often means stabilizing your blood sugars, reducing your inflammatory load, supporting your diet. Digestion, helping you to improve your sleep, restore true nourishment, making sure you're getting the right variety, a vast array of nutrients that our body needs, building muscle, balancing meal rhythm, learning how to understand your blood work, and actually being able to decipher what it means and matching food to your body's needs. Everybody is different. Everybody's imbalances, physiology, lifestyle, blood markers are all different. So we need to match the foods that you are going to be focusing on and emphasizing, certainly in the reset stage, as we call it, at the beginning, until things get easier and more balanced, and then we can bring more foods back in. But we want to match it to you. These one size fits all diets, that's why they don't work long term because they're not personalized enough for you. So this is when women often say, Oh my gosh, now I can't believe how much better I feel. And yes, weight loss does often follow when we do this metabolic work. But the feeling better is typically what comes first, and it's the eye-opener that most women didn't expect. So if you are feeling confused right now, if you feel pressured to take a GLP one or feeling pressured to get off of a GLP one or just don't know which way to turn, and you feel like everyone else has found the answer except for you, know this. You do not need to blindly copy anybody else's path. You just need the right path for your body, and that is very different. So if you are currently taking a GLP one or seriously considering it and want to come off without losing your results either now or down the road, or if your doctor is recommending one, but you just want to understand first how to do it safely and intelligently, or you want to know whether there is another route that you should explore first, I would love to talk to you. This is exactly the kind of work that I help women with every single week. We look at your symptoms, we look at your blood work, your specific history, we take your genetics into consideration, your current struggles, your goals, we look at all of that. And we create a realistic path forward that is going to support your body long term. You can book a complimentary discovery call with me using the link below in the show notes anytime. This is a no-pressure call. It is an opportunity for me to give you a little bit of knowledge, give you a little bit of empowerment to see just what your body is capable of. You can ask any questions that you have. I will happily answer them. If we decide to move forward and work together, fantastic. But if we don't, I promise you, you will walk away at least with more clarity than you have before. So we're just gonna have a real conversation about your unique situation and what see what makes the most sense for you next. I would absolutely love to help you. Thanks so much for joining me on this episode. Next week, if you are enjoying this topic, we are going to be continuing this theme. As we move into May, we're gonna be talking about something that so many women quietly say to me, and that is, Joanne, I already eat healthy. So why is the weight still not shifting? Why are the symptoms still there? Why does that work for someone else and not for me? We are gonna unpack why healthy eating is not always enough. We're going deeper into the layers of healthy eating and why personalization changes everything. You are not gonna want to miss this one. So thanks again for being here today. Thank you as always for trusting me with your conversations and thank you for being a woman who is willing to ask the deeper questions. Because trust me, that alone changes everything. So until next time, take care of yourself, be kind to your body, and remember your body is always communicating with you. And sometimes we just need help learning how to listen. Bye for now. Thanks so much for listening to the Midlife Vitality Project podcast. If today's episode spoke to you and you're ready to take the next step in transforming your midlife experience, I would love to connect with you. Click the link in the notes below this episode to book a free discovery call and learn more about how I help women just like you to redefine midlife with clarity, balance, and confidence. And let's see if we're a good fit to work together. Or if you'd like to learn more about the Metabolic Balance, the personalized nutrition program I use in my practice to create nutrition plans based on your unique blood work. You'll find a second link below with all the details. Now remember, your body is not betraying you. It's simply asking for balance in a new way for this stage of life. You have so much more control over your health than you think. And this next chapter truly can be your most vibrant one yet. Until next time, take care of yourself, be kind to your body, and trust that change will begin from within. Bye for now.