260: 8 Habits & Why They Don’t Stick

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “I know what I should be doing… so why am I not doing it?”—this episode is for you. Because the problem isn’t that you don’t know the basics. The problem is what happens in the ten seconds between intention and follow-through.

In today’s episode, I’m talking about the 8 healthy habits that are the foundation of my work with clients—and the real reasons midlife women keep skipping them, even when they’re motivated, smart, and genuinely want to feel better.

We’ll unpack why “simple” doesn’t mean “easy,” how years of diet culture and wellness rules have warped your definition of success, and why the life you’re living now (stress, hormones, time pressure, decision fatigue) makes old health strategies fall apart.

If you’re tired of starting over, blaming yourself, and wondering why your midlife body feels harder to manage than it used to, you’ll want to listen to this one all the way through.

The Biggest Problem Midlife Women Face Regarding Midlife Health Habits

The biggest problem midlife women face with health habits isn’t a lack of information—it’s the midlife knowing-doing gap. You already know that drinking water, eating protein, eating vegetables, sleeping, moving your body, and managing stress would help with fatigue, cravings, brain fog, mood swings, bloating, and weight gain. But knowing doesn’t automatically translate into doing—especially when your day is packed, your stress is high, and your body is changing.

In midlife, the “just try harder” approach starts to fail because your stress response is more sensitive, your sleep is more easily disrupted, and your recovery is slower than it used to be. Add a demanding job, caregiving responsibilities, and constant mental load, and the basic habits get pushed to “later.” The result is a predictable pattern: you skip one small thing because you’re busy (“It’s fine, it’s just this once”) and over time, that becomes your default.

On top of that, most women are operating with a rigid, outdated definition of what “counts” as healthy—8 glasses of water, an hour workout, perfect meals, daily meditation, 8 hours of sleep. When your life can’t meet that standard, your brain doesn’t scale down—it quits. Then you blame yourself, feel guilty, and go looking for a more intense “fix” (fasting, gut health protocols, macro tracking, Ozempic curiosity) instead of building the foundation that actually supports a changing midlife body.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• Why “It’s fine if I skip this one time” quietly becomes your health pattern
• The all-or-nothing rules that make water, sleep, exercise, and food feel impossible
• How diet culture + “optimal health” advice creates burnout, shame, and constant restarting

If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.

After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.

To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.

Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.