Your Body Is Communicating

Your body isn’t betraying you, it’s trying to get your attention. If you’re a midlife woman dealing with stubborn weight, low energy, mood swings, poor sleep, and that nagging sense that “nothing works anymore,” we’re Amy (Whole Body Harmony) and Heather (Embodied Rejuvenation), and we built Body Drama Shift for you: less guessing, more clarity, and a way forward that respects both biology and the nervous system.

We start with our story, because it explains our approach. We talk about the winding path through health coaching, yoga teaching, yoga therapy, and the real life events that shaped our work: grief that changes your identity, burnout that demands a pause, toxic stress at work, mold exposure, layoffs that become launch pads, and the faith that keeps us moving when the next step feels scary. You’ll hear why “push harder” often backfires, and how nervous system regulation can make hormone support and lifestyle changes finally stick.

We also get practical about the midlife realities behind symptoms: perimenopause and the transition into menopause, PCOS and insulin resistance, and why stress, sleep, movement, and nutrition have to be tailored to your season of life. Our goal is to help you make shifts that are sustainable, not extreme, and to remind you that it’s possible to pursue your passion without burning your life down to start over.

If this resonates, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more women can find the show. What symptom are you ready to decode first?

Connect with Amy Wilford on social media at @amywilfordhealth, or on her website at wholebodyharmonycoach.com

Connect with Heather Fontenot on social media at @embodiedrejuvenation, or on her website at embodiedrejuvenation.com

Transcript

The Body Is Communicating

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Body Drama Shift, where we move from confusion to clarity without guessing. Because your body isn't broken, it's communicating. If you're a woman in midlife dealing with stubborn weight, low energy, mood swings, or poor sleep, you're not imagining it, and you're not alone. I'm Amy, creator of Whole Body Harmony.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

And I'm Heather, creator of Embodied Rejuvenation. Together we help you decode your symptoms by addressing both biology and the nervous system. Because real change happens when both are in alignment. Let's shift.

How We Met And Stayed Close

SPEAKER_02 0:41

So now we'll talk a little bit about how we met and maybe a little bit more about what we do. So we met, um, Amy and I think it was in 2018 through IIN, which is integrative uh Amy, can you help me?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Institute of Integrative Nutrition. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

I get her on all the time too. So we both became health coach, certified health coaches through there and we met. Um we met through there and we stayed friends. We stayed connected. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

We happened to be in the same small group when they broke us out into small groups. We were in the same small group and it was just history from there. So it's been, we graduated from there in January of 2020, right before COVID hit. So of course, we get this brand new awesome certification, and then COVID turned the world upside down. So it was a little bit of a challenge for us to integrate that. We were both working other jobs at the time. Um, but we just felt super connected to each other and have watched each other grow a ton over the past six years. It's really been amazing to watch all of our shifts over the course of the past couple years.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

All of our certifications and things we've we've kind of gone in different directions to um to grow ourselves and then like now here bringing it together.

unknown 2:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

And we've been wanting to work together and have a project together and do something together for a long, long time because we both want to serve the same kinds of women who are going through things that we've been through. Like I've been through all the hormonal changes. I'm still going through that. Um, you know, our households, our families, our jobs, all of the things, but we both in our hearts have this passion for serving women at a deeper level in a higher capacity. And so we finally, I feel like through this podcast, we are going to be able to come together and serve women in a really powerful way together.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Yeah. And maybe um, this is a fun fact. So we've known each other for that long and we have not met in person.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Yes, correct. I am in Ohio. And I'm in Louisiana. So, yes, we have never met in person, but we have talked over Zoom and text and all the things like a lot. Yeah, probably every day. Every day, yeah. On average, every day. Feel like when things get busy, sometimes we, you know, don't talk quite as much, but we always come right back and it's like we never went away. Yeah, we pick up where we left off. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

And now that you say the certificate, we we graduated in 2020, maybe we started in 2019.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Maybe. Was it like it made fun a year-long program? Yeah. Yeah, that's how we met, but we've all we both kind of branched away from that a little bit. Like, I don't know how much of our IIN training either one of us really use currently. It was kind of a stepping stone.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah, I think it was an introduction for me for me into the work that I do now. Um, yeah. I mean, I can always use it, but yeah, I don't use much of

Training Paths That Shaped Our Work

SPEAKER_02 4:10

it.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah, I started as a beachbody coach in 2018. And that's really where like my kickoff was. And I'm also a school psychologist and I'm getting ready to retire. So I won't be able to say that in three weeks. Um, but 2018, when I uh signed up with Beachbody, that was like supposed to be my ticket out, and it's taken what 2018 to 2026, eight years for um me to evolve to finally be able to get out of school psychology and be a full-time health coach. And all those certifications and experiences along the way have just led me to serve in a different way.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Yeah, and I started um what led me to IIN was I became a yoga teacher. So I did my 200-hour certification um first, and then I was like, I want to learn more, but I went to I IIN instead of like going to a 300-hour or 500-hour, and then I eventually um after graduating from I IIN, for some reason I cannot get that word out right, um, I then decided I wanted to be a yoga therapist because I was teaching yoga classes and I noticed that um people were having these like emotional responses in class, and uh I wasn't sure what to do with that. So I wanted to be able to really support them. Um so then I went on to become a yoga therapist, which was like three and a half years, and I worked as a yoga therapist in a co-occurring substance abuse and mental health facility.

Yoga Therapy Layoff And Recovery Time

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Um so in June I was laid off and decided that it was my time to do this on my own. So almost a year I've been in yeah. It's crazy that it's been that long. I know.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

But yeah, I remember when that first happened and how you felt and what you were going through at that time, and how excited you were to have the time to be do what you love more and let go of that heavy stress that you felt in that position and what a relief that was to you. And I know that it was scary, but I also remember thinking like they did you a favor. Yeah. And not only did they do you a favor, they also did a favor to all of the women that you are able to serve. Yeah. Without them letting you go, you wouldn't be able to serve the women that you serve in the capacity that you do.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

I think that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

I always say it's like a it was a it was a launch pad. Like it launched me into this. I probably would have never left on my own.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

So um, yeah, it was like a it was a forced thing because it's scary.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

It's scary to let go of a consistent income. Yes, it is, and I applaud you for not jumping into oh, I gotta find another job right away, but embracing the opportunity. Like that's awesome. And I'm also thinking, too, as we're talking, like you and I are also very aligned in that we are both lifelong learners. We're always wanting to learn and grow. And neither one of us are ever like, oh, I've learned enough. It's all good. And then also just want to mention to our audience that we're both very faith-based as well. And we also both believe that God is leading us on a path and a journey for a reason.

unknown 7:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

And we are both pursuing that. So that is another angle that Heather and I both come from.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Yeah. And I think too, like when you um when you brought up the, you know, me leaving the position or being let go from the position. I think we'll talk about this later in another topic, but you know, there was some burnout and just like how um, you know, moving from yes, I wanted to move into my own business, but what I realized was I needed some time before I could do that. Uh you know, and and I was fortunate enough to have a couple of months cushioned to where I could give myself a little bit of time um to just have fun again. And you know, yeah, reconnect with myself and what I really wanted to do. So I don't know, I thought that was worth mentioning because um uh yeah, when we leave something, it's like we we sometimes we need we need a little bit of time to reconnect with ourselves.

unknown 9:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

And I think even when you're leaving something that's that draining and mentally exhausting and all of that, like there's also a grieving process that comes with it. Like, even though it's someplace you didn't really want to be anymore, there's still like that that transition, like there's a grief process that you go through of losing something that you know and something that even if you didn't like it, you still were comfortable and that routine and all of those things. And I know that when I leave my job in three weeks, like I've been a school psychologist for 28 years. Like that's a big piece of me that's always gonna be there. And so I'm definitely gonna go through some of that. I'm gonna miss the people, I'm gonna miss that routine and structure, even though I'm also craving the freedom of not having the routine and structure. Like that's a it's a big emotional shift.

Grief And Trauma That Rewired Life

unknown 10:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

And since we're kind of talking about that, when you brought up grief, it made me think of like how we talked a little bit about our certifications and how we we got to where we are now. But um I think too, we want to talk in this episode about a little bit about our story and like what really brought us to this work. Um, and when you brought up grief, I that is a big thing that brought me to this work. So um, and when I graduated high school, I wanted to be a cosmetologist. And I went to cosmetology school and I was doing hair for about six months and I became allergic to olive products. So I think that this would that was like my step in or my my introduction, my invitation into this work. Um my body was speaking and saying, This is not for you. And at that time I didn't know that, I didn't have that language. Um of course there was so much grief because here I am, 19, 20 years old. Um, what am I gonna do with my life? Like I thought I had this plan, right? Um, and so there was a lot of grief with that. And I didn't want know what I wanted to do next. So I went to college. My parents were paying this money for me to go to college, and I was wasting their money because I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I did accounting for 15 years. Um and that was not fulfilling to me because I want to be with people, I want to work with people. Um, I love I love people. So sitting behind a desk and behind a computer was not for me. Um and I lost my dad in 2013, and that was just an opening that um I can talk about it lightly now, but there was some huge pain and grief, and yeah, I mean the words grief, um it it was a life-changing event for me. So I would say that that was really what led me here. Um it you know, a lot of times people talk about grief and they, you know, we think of the things, the sadness, the pain, all of these things, but um, for me it was yes, it was all of those things and the absence of him and all of those things, but it was an identity change in me. Like I was no longer the same person that I was when he was still here. So um yeah, I had to find that or reconnect with that new person, right? So I think that is why um I know that is why I do this work right now. And not to mention the things that came after that. Uh I feel like it was like a decade of of hard. Um, I lost my father, I went through a flood and um lost everything in my home and was living uh with friends for a year and a half. Um something else happened in there too that was pretty trauma driven. But um yeah, so that is what brought me here to where I am.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

And you've dealt with a lot of like the hurricanes down there. Like you know what to do, you know the drill. It's still scary and traumatic every time it happens.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

But since you brought that up, that was the other thing. So 2013, I lost my dad. 2016, we had a flood, 2000. We moved back in our house in 2018, 2021. Our house, we were um, we had a hurricane come through. And probably the the worst one I had experienced in my life. Um, I remember one when I was younger, Andrew, that was pretty rough, but this one was I I I won't stay for another one. Um, after this one, but it took the roof off of my house. So we had redone our whole house, and then um it took the roof off. So we had water coming in, so we had to go back to the studs and redo again. So um, and at that time I was in my yoga therapy training. So yeah, there was a lot in that decade that happened. Um, but I'm stronger for it. I've done a lot of work around it, and um yeah, it brought me to where I am so and I think it helps me serve in a better capacity, a bigger capacity. Um so that's a little bit about what brought me to where I am.

Toxic Work Mold And A Big Shift

SPEAKER_01 15:07

And for me, like I mentioned, I've been a school psychologist for 28 years, so that's been a lot of my journey. But um I was in a job for 20 years, and the last five years of it were extremely rough, uh, very toxic environment, uh, not just from an environmental standpoint. Um, so I the office that I was in for the last five years was a converted locker room. So um there was literally a room off of my office that used to have showers, and you could go into that room and see the mold on the walls. So I had some mold toxicity come into my body that I had no idea. I had no that hadn't been trained yet. So I had no idea how damaging that could be. But it was also a very toxic environment in terms of extremely stressful. Everyone was stretched to the max. The expectations were beyond what anybody should be expected to do. We were all working all day at school and then going home and doing hours of work at home at night on the weekends. It really um took a lot of time for me away from my family. I lost a lot of time when my boys were little because I was so stressed and overwhelmed in that job. And then in um 2022, we had my husband got really sick and was in the hospital for two weeks. And it was scary and very also, but also very enlightening, and it catapulted me into deciding to leave that position, even though I had been there for 20 years. So I took a leap of faith and I left that job and went to another school psych position that I took a $30,000 pay cut, like literally $30,000. And part of that was because I was bumped down on the pay scale, even though I had 24 years experience in the school psych world in education, you get punished for your years' experience. So when I went to my new job, I was put down to step 14 instead of 25, where I should have been. So there was a pay cut there. But then also I went from four days to five days. I'm sorry, from five days to four days, because I realized that my mental health had to come before a paycheck. So I like to say that when my husband went into the hospital, it was God hitting me over the head with a two by four. Like, you got to pay more attention to your family. Like that has to come first, and you've got to let go of this job that is sucking your soul. So I left that job in 2022 and went to another job four days a week, and it's been amazing. It's been like one of the best decisions I could have ever made because it is a much more supportive environment. I'm not working a ton of hours from home. It gave me more time to work my business and to support and serve women in my passion. And so now I'm taking four years later, another leap of faith to retire as a school psychologist. And I'm taking early retirement. I'm only 52, so I'm really not old enough to retire. Um, but I am blessed that that former job helped me in terms of what my income can be in retirement. So I'm taking another leap of faith and diving full on to be a full-time integrative health practitioner.

Perimenopause PCOS And Metabolic Clues

SPEAKER_01 18:41

And another part of the reason that I went into integrative health is because I went through and I'm still going through those hormonal changes of perimenopause, transitioning into menopause. And that's another thing that kind of hit right during COVID. So I was about 45, COVID hit, but also I think perimenopause hit at the time, even though I didn't realize it. So it added an extra layer to the challenges of COVID, was that my body was going through a lot of changes. I took that opportunity of being working from home to dive in deeper with my workouts, but it didn't work because my body didn't need that at the time. So uh I've learned a lot about my body and what my body needs. And that's what I help other women do is figure out what's going on in their bodies. So that's kind of been my that's been my journey. So I became trained as an integrative health practitioner because I wasn't getting answers from anybody else. So I did that so that I could heal myself and then help others heal as well.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

I want to say too, um, Amy, when you you brought that up, it made me also um think about after my dad passed away, um, I was diagnosed with I I was ma we I got married in 2011. And so um probably around the time that my dad passed away, we were talking about having kids. And so after that, um, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome and insulin resistance, and found out that um there were some infertility issues. So um I would say that that was an another thing that led me to uh to practicing yoga, taking care better care of my body, um, really learning about how food affects um us and trying to heal uh the insulin resistance with uh food. Um so yeah, that was another leading factor to um getting my health coaching certification and later doing yoga therapy as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Yeah, and I think too for me, my father-in-law passed away unexpectedly in January of 2025. And that was another piece that, like, again, got hitting me over the head with the two by four. Like, life is too short. He passed away at 76. He was the youngest of the grandparents, he was the youngest of his friend group, and it was very, very sudden and unexpected. And it was like he was here. We saw him on January 1st, left his house January 1st, not knowing that it would be the last time that I saw him. Seven days later, he was gone. So that was another thing that led me in this direction was like, okay, life's too short to not do what you're passionate about. And he would have wanted that for me. And then, and that was my First experience of losing a parent figure like that. I'm very blessed to still have both of my parents. My husband's mom is still alive, and so very blessed. But going through that experience was extremely challenging. And I learned a lot from it. And it taught me that life's too short. And also another thing with that is that obviously my parents were getting older. And when that happened, it hit me that we're going to go through this three more times. And that sits heavy on my heart. And I'm blessed that my parents live really close. And so retiring now is and having the flexibility of being an integrative health practitioner and running my own schedule is going to allow me to be there to help my parents. And that's really important to me. I've been going to a lot of doctor's appointments with my mom lately. She's had some health emergencies the past five, six months. And I'm looking forward to being able to go to those appointments without worrying about the responsibility of my day job.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Yeah, I love that you said that because um, you know, we talk about what the this work, the things that we have done, me yoga therapy and health coaching, those things have helped us heal. But um I think the life events that we experienced, and even though I was let go from the position that I was in, um, you know, I have a vision for my life. I have a dream, I have I have passion. Um, and and me experiencing the loss of my father when he was 52 years old. Yeah, I was 28 years old. And so to me, it's like, okay, now I'm 40 years old of 12 years until I get to 52. Like, what do I want to do in this life? And I, you know, none of us are promised tomorrow, so why not do it now?

unknown 24:07

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Yep.

Leaps Of Faith Without Extremes

SPEAKER_01 24:10

I mean, I'm proud of us for taking these leaps of faith and pursuing our passion. And I want our audience to know that it's possible for them too.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

I know that sometimes we get in this, our brains tell us, like, you can't do that, you're stuck where you are, you can't make a shift. That's what this podcast is going to be about is making shifts. And none of neither one of us are gonna tell you to go out and quit your job. No, but we're gonna tell you to find ways to pursue your passion because it's really important to have that in your life.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Something that you feel passionate about and that you're not like on this hamster wheel, like just constantly going through the motions. I wake up, do this, this, this, and this, go to bed, wake up, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. That's really hard on us.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Yeah, emotionally, um, I mean, physically too. Energetically. Yeah, it creates burnout. Um, yeah, it doesn't have to be as extremist as leaving your job. Um it seems like I've done that a couple times. Uh, but yeah, there's there's things that you can do, um smaller things that you can integrate into your life that will help spark that passion and um aliveness. Yeah, for sure.

Family Seasons Boundaries And Support

SPEAKER_02 25:33

So you want to talk a little bit about your family? Because I know that's important to both of us. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Yeah, so I am a boy mom. I have two boys. One uh just actually came home last night from college, which was super exciting. So he is home for the summer, just finished his freshman year at Ohio State University. So I am super excited to have him home. It's gonna be a transition, though, back to being surrounded by three boys in my house instead of just two. So um I'm really though excited to spend some time with him. And retiring is gonna take a mental load off of me as well to be able to enjoy that time and space with him a little bit more. And then I have a 17-year-old who is finishing up his junior year of high school. So that is exciting and terrifying at the same time that he's going to be a senior and he will be leaving the nest this time a little bit more than a year from now. And my husband is a um health commissioner at Preble County Health District. So he's busy with that, lots of responsibility there. And like I said, my parents live nearby, and we've been married for almost 22 years. So yeah. And I'm my it's interesting for me that good things usually happen to me in even numbered years. So I was married in 2004, my oldest was born in 2006, my youngest was born in 2008, I left my job that was rough in 2022, and I'm retiring in 2026.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Yeah, I um so I have been married since 2011. We just made our 15-year anniversary last week, and my husband owns his own business, and he has a son who is autistic. Um so I uh adopted him in 2020? Um yeah, I think it was around that time. So that's another big shift that kind of happened in my life. Uh, he came to live with us um for two years. So now he lives in a group home um and he is thriving. He is with others that are like him and um in a community of uh of people with like abilities. Um, so he loves it there. They love him and he is thriving. Okay, awesome. Yeah. So um and we'll talk about at the end where you can find us, but uh I sometimes refer to him on social media, but I do not show pictures of him because he is minimally verbal and he is not able to um give consent to those pictures. So um yeah, I we do things with him, but um, I don't share that publicly. His his picture. Um so if you ever hear me talking about him uh as our guy, that's who I'm referring to. Yeah, and you have your two pups at home? Oh, how did I forget them? Those are my babies. Um I have a golden doodle who was eight months old when we got him. He was a rehome. And uh Labberdoodle. She is um a rescue, and yes, uh, they are my babies. They sleep in the bed with us. Um yeah, you'll find me talking to them sometimes. They I just love

Retreats And Creative Healing Spaces

SPEAKER_02 29:24

them so much.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

So one of the things that you've started doing the past couple of years that I absolutely love is hosting retreats.

unknown 29:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

I need to come to one so that we can finally meet up in person. Yes. So we're gonna make that happen here soon.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

But yeah. I've hosted um in North Carolina in the mountains, and um here in Louisiana, and I love putting together retreats. I get to bring when I when I create and design retreats, I get to bring a lot of my passions to the table. So um yeah, that's fun for me too. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, I think we've shared quite a bit, and hopefully everyone's still hanging on and listening.

Where To Find Us Online

SPEAKER_01 30:13

So let's just share where people can find us if they want to check out and learn more about us. So you can find me at Amy Wilford Health on Facebook or Instagram, all one word, Amy Wilford Health, or you could go to my website, which is whole bodyharmonycoach.com. And on my website is also a place where you can book a call if you want to have a clarity one-on-one call with me and just share your story and we can connect that way.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

And you can find me um on Facebook or Instagram at Embodied Rejuvenation. My website is embodiedrejuvenation.com and same you can book a call with me through my website. Uh, I'd love to have a conversation with you and connect. Also on my website, you can sign up for my newsletter where I send uh on Wednesdays the weekly pause, which is um free little nervous system snacks.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Yeah, I have a newsletter as well that you could also subscribe to through my website. And I also think, I don't know, Heather and I haven't talked about this, but if anybody would like to talk to both of us at the same time, I am more than happy to do that, have a three way call with the two of us and you. And that would be, I think, super powerful and fun as well.