EP #4 — The Body Shift: Transforming Your Health & Wellness After 40

EP #4 — The Body Shift: Transforming Your Health & Wellness After 40

What happens when you stop fighting your body… and finally start listening to her?

In this deeply personal episode of Level 40: The Rebirth Edition, Shavon opens up about the emotional, physical, and spiritual shifts that come with health and wellness after 40. From body image struggles and emotional eating to fibroids, healing naturally, fitness, motherhood, aging, and self-forgiveness — this episode is an honest conversation about learning to love the body that carried you through life.

This isn’t just about losing weight.
 It’s about rebuilding your relationship with yourself.

In this episode, we discuss:

•  Body image and learning to stop shrinking yourself 
•  Emotional eating and healing your relationship with food 
•  Fibroids, womanhood, and trusting God through uncertainty 
•  Why wellness after 40 looks different 
•  Fitness, walking, weight training, and preparing for a 5K 
•  Learning to nourish your body instead of punishing it 
•  Letting go of society’s expectations of aging 
•  Stepping into your vibrant era unapologetically 

Plus, Shavon shares a powerful “Dear Body” reflection that challenges listeners to rethink the way they speak to themselves.

Featured Scripture:
 Psalm 139:14
 “I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Because turning 40 doesn’t mean life is over…
 It means you’re just getting started.

Level 40: The Rebirth Edition
Healing • Reinvention • Becoming Unapologetically

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey girl hey, welcome back to level 40 the rebirth edition. In today's episode, we are discussing the body shift, transforming your health and your wellness after 40. Because listen, at 40, I am no longer chasing skinny. I'm chasing wholeness. Welcome to level 40, the rebirth edition.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Healing me top. That's the mission family and a team spy. And I'm holding this for the window with grace. We got the blue, for the glow, for the toofy cab, for the teeth, for the wind, for the toofy baby.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Alright, so welcome back to the rebirth edition, the space where we heal, we grow, we evolve, and we learn to stop shrinking ourselves. I'm your host, Siobhan, as always, and today we are talking about our bodies. Body tea, body tea, right? And we're talking about our bodies. We're not talking about weight, we're not talking about fitness, but we are talking about healing, womanhood, aging, motherhood, and also grief. And we're also talking about how um learning how to love our bodies because our bodies are the ones who have been carrying us through all the ups and downs. So today's episode is called The Body Shift: Transforming Your Health and Wellness After 40. And honey, this episode stretched me emotionally because if I'm being honest, I haven't always been kind to my body. I've criticized her, I've compared her, I want her to be smaller, I want her different, I want her to look like all the other girls looked when I was growing up. And somewhere in all of that, I forgot she was carrying me. My body has been fighting for me longer than I've been fighting for myself. And that's the part that touched me emotionally. My relationship with my body has changed tremendously in my 20s and 30s. You know, I didn't work out much, but I've always wanted to be smaller. And looking back now, I think I had a bit of body dysmorphia. I spent years looking at myself through the lens of comparison, trying to be smaller, trying to be less, trying to fit what the world told me beauty looked like. So they didn't call me short Siobhan. There was either tall Siobhan or Siobhan with a big butt. Either or. And honestly, I hid behind that. I thought boys only noticed me because of my body. Not because I was fun, not because I had personality, not because I had light. But now I appreciate those things. I appreciate my hips, I appreciate my personality, my joy, my presence, and I think women spend way too much time shrinking themselves, their voice, their dreams, their bodies, and even their confidence. I spent way too many years trying to become smaller while God was trying to show me how powerful I was already. How many versions of yourself have you been hiding because you thought you were too much, too loud, too curvy, too emotional, too ambitious, too different? Baby, you were never too much. You were simply surrounded by people who weren't comfortable being in your light. So no, keep shining. You know? And when it comes to, you know, body dysmorphia, you know, back in 20, what year was that? Back in 20, I don't even remember what year it is. I think it was 2015. I found out I had fibroids, right? I cried. I was actually trying to have another child when I found out, and I remember feeling like my body, you know, it it betrayed me. I remember thinking, oh my god, living with tumors in my body, you got to be kidding me. And I was embarrassed. I didn't tell anyone. The only person that I told was my fiance, but I knew that he wanted more children, I knew that I wanted more children, and honestly, I still want more children, and I still ask God daily, like, why me? And I felt at one point I felt God say, Why not my child? And then that's when I knew that it shifted what I thought about how I was being punished, because I don't think it was punishment, I think it's progress or process, you know, and maybe healing isn't always about fixing something, you know, healing is about learning how to listen. I'm still healing naturally. Um, I still have different remedies. Um, trying to see, you know, because I don't want to get surgery. So I'm still praying, I'm still learning, and I'm still trying to nourish my body in different ways. Um, and yes, I still feel moments where I'm afraid about surgery. I'm afraid of what it looks like, you know, afraid of the unknown. But one thing this journey has taught me is legacy does not always come through childbirth. You know, because for a long time I thought legacy looked one way, but now I see legacy in my daughter, I see legacy in the books I've published, I see legacy in this podcast, in my family, and to the women I may inspire any day I speak words of wisdom. And maybe somebody listen, Nee, somebody listening today needs to hear this, you know. Your purpose does not disappear because life unfolded differently than you planned it. You know, you still have purpose. Yes, you're gonna have to dig deep. Yes, you're gonna go have to fight for it, you're gonna have to search for it, but you still have purpose. No matter if the stage you're in doesn't look like what you imagined or what you dreamed of. One of the things that helped me transition um to a healthier lifestyle is food. Um, food used to be comfort for me. Sad, yeah. I ate. When I was happy, I ate. When I was celebrating, I ate. I felt overwhelmed, I ate. Food became like emotional support dog, literally. But one day I had to be honest with myself. I wasn't feeling hungry, I was hurting inside. And once I learned the difference, my entire relationship with food changed. Because awareness changes things, you know. Now, before I eat it, I kind of take a pause and think like, Siobhan, are you hungry or are you lonely? Are you bored? Are you anxious? Are you sad? Are you celebrating? Like, why are you trying to eat something? You know, and now, you know, comfort food looks different. Comfort looks like walking, it looks like journaling, it looks like prayer. And one of my favorite things is making my home with making my homemade coffee. That's comfort for me. But comfort is movement, comfort is stillness, it's creating, it's healing, and baby, food stopped being my emotional support and started being fuel because we don't eat to live. No, we don't live to eat, right? We eat to live. In my mind, that hits very different from me, and that changed everything, you know. That kind of changed my approach to fitness wholeheartedly, you know, because fitness after 40 looks a lot different from when you're in your 20s and 30s. My my fitness approach has kind of transitioned a little bit because, you know, walking, working out, I had a phobia of a sweating. I don't know why, but your girl is trying to hit 10,000 steps a day now.

unknown 9:12

Huh?

SPEAKER_01 9:13

You know, I realize how inactive I have become working in an office job. Um, there are days I barely even hit 2,000 steps. Now, walking gives me energy, not exhaustion. And honestly, that shocked me. And weights, lifting weights, baby, makes me feel like a warrior. I am superwoman. Every squat reminds me I'm still building myself. Every time I'm taking squats, squat, still building, squat, still building. And I learned something that in this season, we are not working out for revenge. We are not in revenge for our bodies anymore. We are working out for energy, longevity, mobility, peace, confidence, and quality of life. Because, baby, this body needs different things now. Sleep matters after 40, recovery matters after 40, hormones, protein, minerals, electrolytes, the list goes on and on. And that's okay because our bodies evolve and we have to evolve with our bodies. We don't have to be shameful. It's okay to take vitamins, right? We are our bodies, it's not the same as our 20s. And if we keep doing the same thing that we did when we were in our 20s, we're gonna look at 50, we're gonna look at 60, and we're gonna be a little wrinkled prune, okay, a little raisin. Take your vitamins, take your collagen, especially. And let me say this clearly: I am genuinely excited about my 40s. I know society tells women to fear aging, but honestly, I feel like I'm finally waking up, you know. This is my my vibrant era, my healing era. What you want to call it? Discipline era, you know, wellness era. How about soft life with boundaries era, becoming era, you know? And for the first time in my life, I am not rushing through life anymore. I want to feel, I want to feel the experience, right? I want to taste it, I want to live it fully because growing older is a blessing, and I need more women celebrating age instead of mourning it. Psalms 139-14 says, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And younger Shaban needed that verse. The girls hiding in sweatshirts needed that, the woman healing from fibroids need that, and maybe somebody listening needs to hear that. Because if I'm honest, I still haven't forgiven my body. Not for the fibroids, not for the emotional eating, not even for weight gain, not even for only giving me one child. But I forgive myself, you know, because eventually I'm gonna treat my body like it's supposed to be treated. And maybe healing starts here, you know, dear body. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for criticizing you, starving you, comparing you, expecting perfection from you without putting in the work. And dear body, thank you for staying strong even when I didn't have the nutrients you needed. Thank you for hanging around, knowing that I would eventually come around. Because my body carried me through pregnancy, heartbreak, motherhood, career disappointments, emotional eating, survival, failed diets, every restart. And even when I didn't love my body, my body loved me. And it never gave up on me. My body is not the enemy because at 40, my body is teaching three specific things. It's teaching me consistency, it's teaching me growth, and it's teaching me self-love, and it's teaching me that I still have the ability to create the life and the body that I desire. Whatever that means. If it means healing my fibroids, running my 5k, losing my weight, having another child, or simply just loving myself better, my body still deserves love. And I know I mentioned the 5k. Yes, 5k in October, baby. That is bigger than running. That is gonna be the proof that I still have dreams waiting for me on the other side. I'm scared, I have never been a runner. No, no, no, have I never ever been a runner, but every time I use the couch to five app, I think it's called Couch to Five app, I am providing something to myself, right? I can still become the woman I believe I can become, the woman that I desire, the woman that I see in my future. I still have time to become her, and I will become her. That's why I'm putting in the different tools and the different resources that I can continuously, if I fall, I can bounce back. That's why I started this podcast because I wanted to let other women know that are in their 40s that we are just getting started, right? The kids no longer need us, right? Or they don't need us as much as they did. So it's time to give back to ourselves, find some things that we want in life and start accomplishing that. That's why this week I want you to write two letters. I want you to start with dear body, I'm sorry for. And then the second letter, I want you to write, dear body, I'm thankful for. And I don't want you to rush it. Cry if you need to, pray if you need to, heal if you need to. And I also want you guys to move your body this week. Take a walk, stretch, go to a dance class, lift some weights, my girl. Go outside, be outside. It's summertime. We outside. Because movement is not punishment, it's gratitude. So, turning 40 scared me, yes. That's why I started this podcast. But now I know something different. Turning 40 does not mean I'm weak, I'm washed, I'm invisible, or life is over. 40 means wisdom, growth, maturity, evolution, and becoming. And baby, I'm just getting started. This next version of me, she's vibrant, she's healing, she's disciplined, she's evolving, and she is no longer apologized for taking up space. The goal is no longer to be the smallest woman in the room, the goal is to become the fullest version of myself. Thank you for sitting with me today. This is level 40, the rebirth edition, and remember, your body is not the enemy. She's been carrying you all along. Ciao.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Welcome to level 40, the rebirth edition. Healing me top, that's the mission. Feminine's fire. Watch me move. Reinvention in my brains. I've got proof on your tool. And I'm holding this way, and great, on the finding, all that on the