How to Coach Women Over 40 with Steph Gaudreau

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 204. Today I'm sitting down with Steph Godreau, and we're discussing how to Coach women over 40.

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Let's get started. Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. What's up, coach? Thank you so much for pushing play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and if this is the first time you're hanging out with me today, welcome. I'm super pumped to bring to you this episode, which I got to sit down with Steph Godreau, who is a sports nutritionist and weightlifting coach. And we talked all about how she started her business from going from being a teacher and making the decision to leave that job, how and why she came to that decision, we do discuss inside of this episode and turn into a powerful instrumental woman in this industry and how she has helped hundreds upon hundreds of athletic and active women, specifically over 40, truly optimize their health and their performance in their chosen sport, in their in their athletic endeavors, as well as helping women stay active and really shifting away from the conversations of getting smaller and truly eating for performance. And we talk a lot about what that looks like inside of this episode. So without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview. What's up, Steph? Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

I'm great. Thanks for having me.

I'm super pumped to dive in today because you are a legend. And I don't think I have shared this with you, but I've been following your work for years. Like back in the day when I first started lifting, I've been following stuff. So it truly is a pleasure and a privilege to have you on the show today, and I'm really excited. So for those of you who have not been introduced to the pleasure of your work, can you share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there?

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Steph Gaudro. I am a performance nutrition coach and strength coach, and I specifically work with women over 40 who are interested in building muscle, adding strength, improving their energy and performance, both in and out of the gym. So I'd say that's kind of my mission. I got here in a very roundabout, convoluted way, and at the same time, I feel like I'm doing the things that I'm really meant to do, and that's a really good feeling. But I came from the world of secondary education, so my first career was as a high school science teacher, and I taught chemistry and biology for 12 years in a school system. And then I decided in 2013 to take my then blog and go full time and become a blogger and podcaster. Eventually wrote a couple books. And here we are today, nine years later, after I decided to leave the classroom and really work for myself full time. So it's been quite the journey. And I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about all those different things in this episode. But I've been an athlete my entire life, since I was about 7. So the threat of athletics and training and having athletic goals and performance goals has been a huge overarching part of my entire life. And. And that's really kind of motivated and inspired me to help other women with some of the things that I was really struggling with as an athlete 10 years ago.

Oh, I love it. Okay, can you dive in to a little share with us a little more about what that pivot and transition was like for you? Like, how did you come to the decision of no more high school teaching? I'm going all in on me.

You know, it takes a village. It really does. I think I first started to get the inkling that it was something that I wanted to do or explore full time because I was blogging part time in my spare time in addition to teaching. And I was doing that for a few years before I really decided, is this something that I could do, you know, for. For a career, for a living, and then eventually do coaching as well? And I have been blogging since about 2009, so it wasn't like a brand new thing for me. I had been blogging for almost four years by the time I made the leap. And blogging was different than it is now. I feel like it's a very different world in terms of media and social media and putting yourself out there where video, I would say, is. Is definitely the dominant kind of content these days, although blogs are still there. So I had that experience of writing and putting out content in practicing and making posts that flopped and making recipes that were great and just standing the test of time. I actually thought that part of my discomfort with the job that I was in or feeling like I wasn't really fulfilled was related to working at maybe being in the wrong school. And so I actually had switched schools in 2011, thinking that I just need a change of scenery. I. You know, maybe if I go to a different school, it will be better. And in a lot of ways, it was worse. And so I eventually decided to ask for that leave of absence. I took a leave of absence for a year. So I tried to build in as much safety as I could and have a plan B. I worked with a coach as well to help sort of steward me through this transition, because I was very scared. I had a lot of doubts, and I thought people would judge me. You know, having a. Having a master's degree in. In your field and then saying, you know, 12 years of experience and saying, hey, I'm just gonna leave this all behind. I really thought people would judge me, would think I was, you know, not thinking clearly. I think I was making a big mistake. Turns out most of the people that I know and are my core people in life were really supportive, but I needed a lot of support. And even just making that transition, I asked for absence so I would have a fallback, and they granted that for me. So I could go for a year and work on this business, and if it didn't work out, I could come back to my old job. And I did. I did for a year. I said, okay, it's sink or swim. It's your time to go and see what you can do with this. And that following year, when I had to actually decide was I going to really resign or go back. And then I had to make the choice. And that was scary, too. So I remember writing, I had written the letter of resignation, and I went to the mailbox, and my hand just hovered over the slot for a really long time, thinking, I'm about to drop this in this. In this mail, and. And that's it. But it was really funny because they asked, you know, why do you. Why are you leaving? What's the circumstances? And I said, you know, we're always telling our students to pursue their dreams. Who are we if we're not modeling that in some way? And for me, this was. This was a dream that I had. So it took a while. From the first inkling that this could be a thing to when I left was. It was over two years.

Wow.

It took time.

Yeah. And I'm gonna just go ahead and assume, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but the path to progress wasn't linear. It wasn't like, okay, I put in, I. I put in my. My leave of absence and then I had a million followers. And my coaching course was just so easy.

No, not at all. In fact, when I left, my website was not even a fully functioning website. I had, you know, a, a WordPress.com website, which at the time was sort of the free version of WordPress. And you couldn't really monetize a website with that free version of WordPress. I was making no money. I had no, you know, I was working on things, but I, it wasn't like I had built up this massive. I had savings and things like that. But when I separated and my leave of absence, it's an unpaid leave of absence at that, right. So I really had to become resourceful and start to just put stuff out there. Remember, the first money that I made was probably, I think it was an Amazon affiliate check for. I wish I could dig it up. I'll have to go look. But it was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to $20.

I said 10, 10, like, oh, it's gotta be $10.

Yeah, and, and yeah, it, it, you know, it took time. However, I will say, with having built a certain degree of, you know, a community and a following and website traffic and things of that nature. It wasn't like I was starting from zero and having that, you know, you kind of get to that moment where you say, like, am I gonna go all in on this thing if I really want it to grow to the next level? I felt like I had done all I could do with part time and doing things on the weekend and at night and after training, I'd get home late and I'd work on blog posts and, and things like that. So it really was, I think, giving myself the chance, the time, the energy, the space to say, can I take the singing? But it wasn't like it exploded overnight. I mean, time and consistency and effort to get to that point.

So good. So, you know, as you transitioned into coaching, what are some of the biggest lessons and, and things that you would go back transitioning from, you know, go back and fix and honing your craft in terms of, you know, taking the performance athlete and becoming a coach. What are some of the biggest lessons that you would go back and tell yourself?

Oh, my goodness. I mean, I feel like one of the overarching things in my life has always been imposter syndrome. And this idea that I didn't have the right certifications or I needed more education. I mean, it's it's kind of no surprise coming from a former teacher and educator that that's a value that I have. At the same time recognizing when the pursuit of further education, further certification, credentialing and things of that nature had become a bit of a crutch or a bit of a James Clear. Well, James Clear kind of calls it something along the lines of like you're staying busy but you're not actually really making much forward progress because you're, you're sort of staying stuck in the like. Well, I just need to gather all these things and information and certifications or credentials, which of course they're necessary to some degree. But I felt like I was never at the right point, that I had never accumulated enough, that there was always still things lacking. I could go back and say, you just have to start. You have to find those clients who you know you can help and you know you can get them the transformation and just start sooner rather than trying to wait until the right time, the perfect time where you, where I had, you know, the, the, the quote unquote right credentials or things of that nature. And I'm also really sensitive to the fact that in the world of nutrition, in the world of sports and performance and strength and conditioning, we do need hopefully some amount of experience and knowledge and, and of course like we're working with people and this is their life, this is their health and well being and their physical and mental and emotional well being. It's serious, right? It's not something to take lightly. And at the same time I feel like I would, I would go back and tell myself to just like put up, put the offer out there, just get clients sooner, start working with them sooner and not wait until I'd accumulated even more and more and more certifications and credentials to prove to like my peers that I was worthy of being there. I think because I had really switched careers and even though my undergrad was in biology and human physiology, I still felt like, well, I don't know enough, I don't know enough. So I would say that would be the biggest thing is just start sooner, just put it out there and also work with people in a more of a one on one capacity first. I think at the time I was just focused on building programs and building those one to many offers which are again, you know, there are pros and cons to those things, but you get to learn a lot more about your ideal clients, much more closely versus a one to many offer, especially if it's a really hands off offer. So So I think those would be the two biggest things.

That's so good. So I'm curious, you know, how have you managed? Because I'm just a firm believer that wherever you go, there you are. Right. So, you know, I always think about how, you know, my first journey to 2 grand a month and then my first journey 10k and then 20k and then 50k and it's like, it doesn't matter what that number or goal is. I had the same devil, different dress on. Right. So I'm curious for you how you, man, how you're able to manage those neural pathways in your brain that are like, I'm not enough. I don't. I'm not enough yet. And how it's like, does it ever sneakily show up for you and what are some of the ways that you manage it?

Yeah, 100%. I love the saying new level, new devil, because I feel like there are so, you know, like you said, you're going to push into higher and higher income months or serving more people or whatever it is. And. And though there are new challenges, some of the old challenges do remain. And those, you know, to your point, things that have been really in ingrained in your mind can really persist. And I will say all, with all full disclosure, that I'm currently working on studying for a sports nutrition certification because I mean, a, I love learning. And I think I've really stepped back this time and thought, am I doing this just because I feel like it will finally be the thing that proves that I'm worthy of being here and serving clients in this way, or am I doing it because I really do feel like it will help me become a better coach? And so really stopping and thinking and I think even just the pause and the wait time before I've signed up for things because I definitely have courses in my course graveyard that maybe I bought because I thought, oh, this is just the thing. And I think that's something I've really learned to kind of just pause and wait and just allow there to be space in between when I see this new. Whether it's a business course or, you know, even on something I want to learn or working with a particular coach. And even I would say this, I think, trying to remember exactly what course it was. But very recently, like as of this past week, there was something and I thought, ooh, I should learn more about this. And literally just stopped myself and thought, do I really need this or do I need to take action on other things first? Right. So even just applying that line of question like that self inquiry, I think is so important. So I ended up not buying it because I just thought this is just another, you know, it's kind of a distraction. It's a bit of a shiny object. And what are the things that are really going to help moving forward at this point? So, for example, following up with potential clients that I've had conversations with, following up with current clients or people I've worked with in the past who might want to come back and work with me, trying to work a little bit smarter instead of just feeling like I need to fill my brain with more information and do it from a place of lack, from a place of not being good enough. And that getting this certification will somehow prove it. And so I guess the other subsection of that I would ask is who am I doing this course or certification for? Is it for my clients or is it for my peers? And what I perceive my peers are going to think about me.

God, such a powerful.

And I think that that's a really helpful that. Yeah, that's been super helpful for me too to determine like what's worth my time and why am I doing things. And honestly also just having grace for myself as, you know, being someone in business who never knew anything about the business world and has really taken a bit of a school of hard knocks approach to learning how to be a business person. You know, I didn't, I didn't go to school for business. I didn't get an mba. I didn't even really have a lot of business or entrepreneurship modeled to me and my family. I have a lot of teachers in my family. I have a lot of more blue collar workers in my family. And so I didn't have a lot of entrepreneurship even modeled to me by the people I spent the most time with. So it's giving myself grace that I'm still learning and it's not going to be a perfect process.

Yeah, I love what you talked about. It's something I actually live by. And I heard this from one of my mentors, which is living on the razor's edge where it's everything and nothing at the same time. Essentially the same thing. Like one of your core values is learning. Mine too. And same with the clients and same with you who are probably listening to this podcast. Right. It's not that learning is bad. It's just being able to practice discernment in your decision making for, you know, is this going to actually move the dial? Is this fulfilling me mentally even? Right. Sometimes I want to learn something that has nothing to do with business. And I'm just like, let me practice the skill of learning so I can give my mind a break. Right. All that's valuable but truly it's about knowing yourself a little bit better, I think.

Absolutely. I've heard it, I've heard it said that entrepreneurship is one of the hardest self development processes that you'll ever do. And I couldn't agree more.

Mm, absolutely. I love it. I love it though. And you have to love it. Right?

Yeah.

So I'm curious too for you in terms of, you know, education and in terms of the certification and learning, how did you fall upon like what, what brought you to women over 40 specifically?

Well, I am a woman over 40 now.

I just, I just got my 40 stamp.

Yeah, you're welcome to the club. I think first of all, just kind of seeing who was already in my community, who I have a lot, who I was having conversations with and also looking for, I don't want to say a differentiator, but niching being more niche down and more specific and my, I will say and I'm, you know, I think it's important to be as transparent as possible if people are going to learn from this and take anything away from it other than just me talking about myself is. I have always struggled with wanting to help everyone. Just making things too broad, not wanting anyone to feel left out. Want, you know, I have that in me of like, I just, I want to, I want to help people, I want to coach people, I want to help guide them and be. Walk alongside them as they're going to improve these different aspects of life. And I really struggled for a very long time with, you know, I'm, I'm, I do strength training for women or I write lifting programs for women or. And that's always what I, you know, who I've been drawn to working with, I think because that's who I'm comfortable talking to. Of course men need this help too, but I just never felt super called to it to working with the general population. And not that there's, there's nothing wrong with that if that's what people want to do, but it just wasn't what really lit me up. Strong women have always been a part of my life. Not in the physical sense, but I was raised by, by my mom and my grandma. I didn't have a lot of strong like strong male figures in my life growing up. And so I've just always believed in the power of women and the strength of women. And so it's A really important kind of core formative thing for me. And then looking at over the last few years how I continue to narrow down who I'm talking to and really create specific opportunities in my coaching and in my programs to be more exclusive for the purpose of being able to better speak to my ideal client. And so for me, thinking about what are the challenges that people share with me all the time and we're getting to be in that 40 year old range, we're lifting, we're athletes, we're athletic. What are some of the things that people are starting to struggle with or anticipating that perimenopause is coming and what potential challenges are going to come with that in terms of fueling for performance and for lifting and training and those sorts of things. And also recognizing that there's a gap in serving this market, there's a gap in terms of this is not widely available. I mean it is, but it's not mainstream. And so thinking, you know, I can, I can really serve this population. I can take what I know about science, I can take what I know about training and nutrition and being really evidence based. And even though we're starting to gather more science on this and women have historically been left out of a lot of studies where we're starting to see more coming down and needing that intermediate translator, someone who can say, you know, can you read primary research and then help people who don't have that skill figure out what it's saying and then also how do we apply it to actual humans and, and, and make evidence based recommendations. So I felt like that was also a strong skill set that I had as somebody who's been studying science for a really long time and, and knows how to do those things. So taking my skill set, taking the need, trying to be more niche down and specific. And so that's how kind of how I fell on, you know, serving, serving my peers. Like if some, if I was me, who would I want, you know, who would I want helping me? What would I want help with? Yeah, so it's so good and powerful.

There's a couple things that you said. There's a couple of things I think that you said that I want to touch upon because I think, you know, people, coaches, if you're listening to this, we tend to get trapped, and this is human nature, but we tend to get trapped in our own context bubble which is like this big, you can't see me if you're listening. It's like 1%, maybe even.05%. So it's easy to be like, everyone's already talking about this. But I remember when I got pregnant at 20, in 2015, right. So it's not that long ago. I mean, it was a long time ago, but at the time it wasn't even in my awareness, helping the pre, you know, pregnancy, postpartum mom woman. Even though I had had those clients before and it wasn't even in my context. And there were things that I was thinking, saying, doing that everyone else was like, oh, everyone's talking about this already. And I, we miss this when we're in our own bubble. We think everyone's talking about it. But you said it. It's so true. This isn't in the mainstream media. Your everyday client is not focused on this in the same way that you are.

Yeah, and I will add to that as well. I try to be, I try to fight for what I want to see and not against all of the stuff that I see that is frankly incorrect, harmful, predatory, etc. But at the same time I feel like, okay, maybe there is more focus. Take our like, parents for example. Their generation had even less of this discussion about women in strength training in your 40s and beyond. I mean, like, it just wasn't a thing, certainly not to the degree that it is today. And I feel like in some ways we've gotten to the point where we collectively are sort of fed up with this. You know, we deserve better, we deserve more information, we're seeking more solutions. And at the same time that has opened the door for a lot of bs, a lot of, a lot of really like shamey old school marketing tactics. I mean, I get that we have to help people in some way usually identify some of their pain. You know, is it, is it painful enough that you want to solve it? I try not to harp on that too much. I actually try to lead with, you know, what we actually want instead of what we're only trying to move away from. But I will say that I'm trying to also serve a specific role even within this population, like in our 40s and slightly beyond, because a lot of what we see is not real long term solutions. It's not supported by the science. It's aimed at, you know, like this, the marketing is so shamey around like our bodies and being disgusting and like all of these things that we hate about ourselves. And, and I just find that I'm a little bit more middle of the road, a little bit more like, let's do the things that are actually going to work. What does the science actually Say, is this stuff really useful or not? And not just taking advantage of. Which I see a lot of. A lot of people who take advantage of women in their 40s who are like, hey, I'm really dissatisfied with what's happening with my body. Like, oh, you know, my. My body's changing a lot. I hate that. So I just need all these temporary fixes or all these solutions that don't actually work. I want to be a person who's filling a specific role within that, people who are looking for solutions. So a lot of the marketing that I use, a lot of the things that I talk about are probably going to be different from a company that's just trying to exploit the fact that women in their 40s, in their 50s, have more disposable income, in many cases, are looking for solutions, are really dissatisfied, and therefore are going to open their wallets.

Yeah, yeah, it's so true. And I think that I'd love for you to expand a little bit more on, you know, what are some of the training differences as a coach? Like, what are some of the things that we could be paying attention to to help serve our clients in this population that perhaps is different than their 20s and 30s? I also think, you know, just my opinion and, you know, full disclosure, this is. My opinion, is that this tends to be a younger profession, mostly because of a. The barrier of entry is pretty minimal right now in terms of getting in, you know, becoming a coach and like, doing this work. And also it's. It can be. Until you start systematizing and figuring out your business and actually run it like a business, it can be a grind and, and people get out of it much faster than actually staying for the long haul. So that's just been my observation as I look at the industry over the years have been in its, you know, gosh, when did I get old?

Just kidding.

But, you know, so just, you know, for clarification, what are some of the things that you notice that needs to change in programming for this population?

Yeah, so I think I would split it into two categories. Um, the first would be, you know, the training and programming aspect. So we just are shifting hormones, right? Hormones are changing. Even understanding on a very surface level, nobody needs to be a biochemist. You don't need to be an endocrinologist. And frankly, you should stay in your lane and not be making recommendations or prescribing things like if you don't have those credentials and qualifications. So I'll just say that. But understanding at a basic level, how, what, what's happening during the perimenopause transition? What's happening in the, in the years potentially leading up to that? How does that change physiologically? What is going on with things like muscle hypertrophy or muscle growth? How do we, you know, how are, how are shifting hormones and things like shifting estrogen affecting again, even things like muscle satellite cells? And what's going on with that? Why do we need to change potentially the loading of a particular protocol? Like why do we need increased mechanical tension or mechanical tension more than, you know, why is that a consideration more than it may have been before? We have more anabolic resistance as we get older. So how does that play in, you know, how does inflammation and the tendency to shift towards a little bit more sympathetic dominance and higher stress? How does that play into your athletes? What they need in terms of lifting? Do they need to lift six times a week and absolutely smash the crap out of themselves? Do they need extra recovery? Do they need things like working power and plyometrics and you know, keeping those 2 2B or 2A 2X fiber sharp? Because we're going to tend to lose that over time if we don't keep it up. Balance training, you know, how does that play in as we're, we're aging and getting older. So that would just be some of the stuff right off the top. You know, even if you have people who are experiencing things like osteopenia and osteoporosis, how do you work with that kind of a population potentially, if you're working with one on one clients, like, what are those considerations, pelvic floor stuff? You know, of course that you do not have to have gone through birth to experience pelvic floor issues, however, being more common in that population and the fact that there are some people who have given birth and it's still many years later and they're peeing on the platform or they don't like to do double unders or jump because they're self conscious about leaking and having urinary incontinence. Like all of that stuff can play in, I would say on the nutrition side of things, you know, I just see far too many women because we grew up in the eat less, move more generation. We have seen a lot. We've seen low fat, we've seen low carb, we've seen just low carb calorie eating with, I mean, everything from slim fast diet, special K diet. I mean, we've just been through a lot and there is such a lack of, you know, basic nutrition education and then specifically, as we're thinking about things like, again, the, the eventual decrease in this, in the signal of estrogen, how does that play into, you know, maintaining muscle mass? How do we need to support that dietarily? What are some of the other nutrient deficiencies that we might see, even with folks like endurance athletes? So we see a lot of endurance athletes, especially older women. We're just great at going long distances for a long period of time. Our cellular kind of energy usage is really skewed toward that long slow distance oxidative capacity, which is great, but also like recognizing how again, endurance athletes often do struggle with things like nutrient deficiencies, low iron and so on and so forth. So how does some of the dietary choices we make play into that? And so it's, you know, I see a lot of undereating, a lot, a lot, a lot of under eating. And, you know, the idea that people are really bought into the idea that once we're 40, our metabolism just tanks. The research doesn't quite support that. We see more of like in our 60s. It's a big, big paper that came out in Nature, either Nature or Science, so don't quote me on that, but it's one of the very, very large publications looking at, well, what does actually happen to metabolism as we age, we tend to see more of a real impact starting in our 60s, not our 40s. So what's going on? Why are our bodies changing in our 40s? What are the things that are impacting that? And, you know, knowing that we need basic nutrition education beyond that, like, we learned about food from dieting, most of us. And so taking a dieting mentality into things like our training is oftentimes where we get into, into trouble. So bringing it back to basic education on that and really helping athletic women see that they need, you need calories, you know, we need to fuel, we need energy in the system for recovery, recovery of our muscle tissue and getting our glycogen stores filled up again after we train really hard. And understanding work with those things, I think is so important. And I think that's. Those are some of the bigger gaps that I see.

I mean, what you just said really punched me in the gut. I had not even thought about it in that way before. But you're absolutely right. We all learned about food because of dieting and through dieting with a dieting lens and maybe all I'll say most, but I can't, you know, at least when I was growing up, it was always discussed in terms of the lens of Dieting?

Yeah. I mean, I can't tell you how many of my clients had some sort.

Of.

Experience when they were younger where it was either, you know, and, and this persists to this day. And I think it's worse in many ways. But we, you know, we learned about things through, through magazines and, and, or watching our family members or were put on diets at a very young age. I mean, I had, I have a client right now who was brought to Weight Watchers at like age 11. Oh my gosh, that's insane. Again, stuff like this still happens. I think there's more dialogue about, oh, should we be doing these things? Like, what are the harmful effects of this? But a lot of us didn't learn much besides the food pyramid or dieting. And certainly not like athletic people who are loving. Yeah, they love exercise or you have specific goals or you like, perform, you like to train, compete, like, whatever it is. I was an athlete from age, you know, seven till now, and never did I have a coach or anyone involved in my training who was like, hey, you also need to make sure you're eating enough ever. So, I mean, do I think I'm unique in that regard? No. If you, you know, maybe train too hard, you don't eat enough. It's called female athlete triad. I was in seventh grade when, when that was first, that first, that term first came to be in, in, in the literature. So, you know, this, this stuff wasn't super common. And therefore when people tell me, hey, I've never heard of some of these things, or I didn't about this, you can look at that with compassion and go, okay, well, come with me. There's definitely some stuff to learn. You don't need to be a biochemistry major or a sports nutritionist, but here are some of the basics. And I've heard so many times from my clients, from my students, just like, I'm so grateful. Somebody recently was like, every woman should learn this stuff. And I was like, I agree. It's so basic and it's really empowering when people have the information from a really, you know, from a different perspective. It's not just all down to dieting and being as tiny as possible. It's really, it's really a paradigm changing thing. But it's still not the norm.

Still not the norm. And the truth is that people are walking around in the I'm fine coma and don't realize is how good it can be, you know? Yeah, I, you know, you, you talked about signs of like, of estrogen, right? Can you and you know, some things that happen in terms of, you know, nutrition, nutrition deficies, like the low iron, like, what are some of the symptoms that clients start to show up with that as a coach you can be paying attention to and either direct or then, you know, start, start learning. What are some of the signs that people don't realize they're going through as they're entering, you know, the perimenopause phase? I'm asking for a friend.

Just kidding. Yeah. And I would say, like, there's, there's two things going on here. So we have, you know, what are the effects of, of under fueling. Right. Low energy availability overall. And then of course, as we're experiencing hormonal fluctuations in the perimenopause period, I feel like some of these things do get exacerbated or we're starting to see slightly different effects. And sometimes, you know, it is the crossover of the two that, that kind of breeds a bit more issues for people. I will say the biggest thing that I see is just you have no energy. You are, you, it's hard to wake up. You drag through the day. You feel absolutely wiped out. You know, maybe you do get to, to do your workout because you're like, I'm dedicated. I'm going to make this happen. And the rest of the day, you know, a workout just drains the absolute life out of you. And then you're like, I need to go to bed early. This is what, this is one of my, my clients that came to work with me recently, she's like, I've got two kids, when they are home from school, I hand them off to my husband at 5 o' clock and then I go to bed two hours earlier than him. So this is like, this is affecting quality of life, this is affecting relationships, affecting parenting. This is affecting just quality time with your loved ones. It's not just about you hitting all your snatches in the gym, right? So I would start to look at pervasive overall things like exhaustion and fatigue. And of course, during perimenopause, we start to have impacts to sleep. If you're having hot flashes during sleep, that can interrupt sleep and cause fragmented sleep and make you feel more tired. And there are again other things that are happening there with that where it's like layering on top what's happening with the hormonal shifting. I will also say too, and I'm also very careful to this, like, if you are struggling with some of this stuff, talk to your, your health care team, your doctor about whether Hormone replacement is right for you. I can't, as a coach that's outside my lane to say, you know, you should be getting on it or, or not. It's not my place. But I, I do encourage my clients, like we're here to support the, some of the lifestyle factors and the choices that you're making that can be exacerbating that. However, hormone therapy can be an absolute godsend to so many people who are going through and struggling with menopause perimenopause symptoms. So I just, I, I throw that out there because I don't want anybody to think, well, as, as long as I eat enough, then I won't have signs and, and symptoms of perimenopause. I'm not saying, I'm not saying that. Also, please go have that conversation with your doctor. But definitely that like pervasive fatigue and tiredness. And I think we just get used to that and thinking this is just adulting. You know, it's adulting and this is just what I have to, to deal with. So that, that is, is absolutely huge excessive soreness from your workouts. Another big one that I see with women. And again, these are typically not people who are new to lifting or new to a particular sport. So you've noticed change from your baseline. You know, maybe you, you haven't increased the volume of your training. Trading volume's about the same. You know, nothing is super new. And then it's like pervasive excessive soreness, lots of doms. That's a big sign especially for, you know, a, under eating in general, but B, low protein intake. So I see that a lot irritability and mood swings. I mean, like again, we live in a stressful world. The last couple years have been a next level of hell for a lot of people. We want to acknowledge that for sure. But when you're noticing more irritability, more mood swings, less stability in your mood. I see this a lot, again with people who are under eating. And this is a pretty established sign or signal of being in that state, of being in a low energy availability state, of having a low blood sugar state. We're not eating enough. Our having a really hard time maintaining like a more normal range of blood sugar, even decreased motivation for training and movement in general. Again, away from your whatever's kind of your normal established pattern. If things have been normal for a while and then you're noticing not just a bad day, but I'm like, this is, now this is starting to become a pattern or you've had that Sort of strength struggle to get in there and train. When in the past you're like, I really do enjoy working out, I do enjoy exercise and moving my body. But all of a sudden I have no motivation to do anything. I don't even want to get up and put away the clothes. I don't want to walk that extra, you know, down to the corner to pick something up. Like that's a huge sign, you know, in a lot of cases under eating and your body is just trying to slow down you down and get you to conserve energy. That's a big one. You know, impacts to things like bone density. Again, we see this a lot and as we get into, and we're in the post menopause period with lower estrogen, need to be incredibly careful about bone density. If you're a resistance training, you're probably going to be covered there. But we, we definitely need to make sure that nutritionally and through resistance training that you're keeping your bones strong. And if you're not training because you just don't have the energy, you're too tired. And this goes on for, you know, an extended period of time with the lower estrogen that we then have postmenopause. That's when we're even more at risk. Right. And the statistics are not great, like falls in, you know, that 60, 65 and over category that result in hip fracture. Especially the mortality rate within 6 to 12 months is like 1 and 2. So again, this isn't just, oh, I'm having a hard time doing my squats. Like now we're starting to think about how are we going to, you might not be 65 and listening to this, but like, how are you preparing for later life? You know, how are you preparing for these, the post menopause time? And if you are postmenopausal, what are some of the things you can do? Start adding in resistance training. So, you know, those are just some of the few that I see. Also, I would say too, if you're still menstruating, but you're experiencing significant menstrual disruptions and you've maybe even are in amenorrhea. I get this is hard for women in menstruating individuals in perimenopause, because part of perimenopause is this inconsistency with cycles. But I've had clients who lost their cycle for significant lengths of time, 612 months, thought they were in perimenopause or even in menopause, went in to check with their doctor. The doctor was like you're not in menopause, you're having, you haven't. So menopause, just to be clear, is like the, the 12 months of you have not, have not menstruated. It's like that one moment and then after that you're postmenopausal. I had a client who thought that was her before she came to work with me. She thought she was in post menopause. She went to the doctor and the doctor was like, you, my friend, are undereating. You've been, you've gone a, you have become amenorrheic because you have, you have not eaten enough to the point where you've stopped ovulating and you don't have a cycle. She began eating enough again and her cycle came back. So she wasn't in postmenopause yet. So. Right, it, yeah, it, and it can be confusing because this is a time when there is very much shifting and, and changing happening in the body. And at the same time, a lot of the things we assume are just going on are part of that normal process can be attributed to low energy availability. Parts of red s or reds, which is relative energy deficiency. In sport, this is the syndrome of different and wide reaching physiological potential changes that happen in the body due to chronic undereating. I mean, I, I just wonder like how many of the things that people are experiencing are actually due to, you know, nutrient deficiency under eating, being being undernourished beyond performance in the gym. Like again, this is. Yes, I get it. If you can't train, that can be really mentally difficult or you have goals you want to accomplish with your training. But this, we start to talk about things like your cardiovascular system and your health there. We talk about things like your digestive system, your reproductive system. Right. We talk about, you know, psychologically, right. The difficulty concentrating again, those irritability and mood swings, decreased motivation when we're training, you know, we have increased risk of injury. So.

I don't know, Steph. I think my husband's going through perimenopause.

Just kidding. He's going to, he's going through andropause. Probably. I'm just kidding, babe. I'm just kidding. Well, it's interesting because males are generally more tolerant of a lower energy availability, meaning males have a lower threshold for low energy availability. For, for females, it's pretty well accepted that the threshold for low energy availability is around 30 kilocalories per kg of fat free mass. For men, it's somewhere around in the 15 to 20 realm. Does that mean they should all be undereating? No, but that's just to say that our female system is much more sensitive to caloric deficits of a chronic nature, including carbohydrate intake. We have like twice the amount of carbohydrate sensitive neurons kiss peptin neurons in our brain than males. You know, so this is why we see a lot of reproductive dysfunction, specifically when we're underfed. We used to think that that correlated to a specific body fat percentage. And as long as you weren't ultra, ultra lean as a female, you were probably quote unquote fine. There's more variation in that than we used to think. So we can't just look at somebody's body fat percentage and tell based on their level of leanness if they're going to have reproductive disruption or dysfunction. And of course, the reproductive dysfunction in terms of reproductive hormones also affects males, which is why they're included in. Again, we had that female athlete triad. It's now been expanded to red S or reds. Um, and now we're looking at a more inclusive model for low energy availability in athletic populations and also I would suspect in the broader population at large too.

So, so good and powerful. So I, you know, last question, because I want to be respectful of your time. Sure is, you know, as someone at your, you know, who works with a lot of athletic population, have you served a lot of coaches? Like, I'm just a huge fan that coaches need coaches. Right. And a lot of people have me search and I also think that people just. And women specifically, and maybe I'm biased, but, but I think that it's in our nature, especially if we're a parent, to put others first before we put ourselves first. And we need to, you know, flip the script on that in terms of, you know, how effective are you going to be both to your clients and to your family and to people that count on you if you're not prioritizing your health. Right. So, you know, are these some of the things that you're seeing in the coaches that you work with?

Absolutely. I work with a lot of women as they're sort of their kids are a little bit older, you know, if they have kids of their own. And women by and large do oftentimes take up the slack in terms of unpaid labor in the household, like division of household, you know, chores and labor, that sort of thing, child rearing, etc. Again, I know that's not, that doesn't apply to every single situation, but I would say it's very much skewed toward women having those roles. And I do get a lot of women who come to me as their kids are a little bit older saying, it's my time. Like, it's a new. It's a new chapter for me, or I just have time available now, I have the space, or I've put less of a priority and emphasis on myself, and I'm starting to notice the difference. And I don't like the way things are going. I know also that things like my muscle mass as I'm getting older is important. It's. Muscle is an organ of longevity. Like, it's really important that we're. We're not just like losing all our muscle tissue, especially because that accelerates once we're in post menopause. You know, I, I'm realizing that I've, I've not been. I'm not even eating consistently throughout the day. Like, I skip a lot of meals. I get super busy. I'm serving clients of my own, and I, I'm going through that black hole of the middle of the day where I'm on zoom all day long, and I'm not even stopping to eat. So I do work with a fair amount of other nutrition professionals, other coaches who are like, yes, I know coaches need coaches. And I, I've talked to, and I just recently brought someone on in my group program who's like, you know, this is what I do. I help other people with their nutrition. And I coach. She teaches in person fitness classes. And she's like, I just have realized there are just gaps that I have in my own knowledge, or not even the knowledge base, but the ability to sit down with an objective lens and say, these are the things, the most important things. And sometimes we have a curse of knowledge. Yes, professionals, we know we know too much. We know all of the minutiae, we know all of the little tiny things, and we're missing some of the bigger, the bigger things that are going to really impact us the most. And we get our, we have our patterns and our habits and our schedules, and it's just, it's hard to make change. Our brains don't like it. We get, you know, our systems are. We have them for a reason. And then we realize, hey, that system isn't serving me anymore or the way I lay out my day, or I need to change when I'm training. And we just need, we need a little bit of objective help. We need a little bit of somebody that can help us zoom out and also help us through the sticking points. So, I mean, I'm a. I'm a huge. I'm a huge believer in coaches and coaches, not just from the business side of things, for other things in life. And there's no shame in saying, you know, I just. My brain is full and I need someone to help me think about this. Or, you know, I just have a gap here in my own knowledge and understanding. Maybe somebody works really deeply, for example, on gut health with their clients, but they're not as trained in understanding sports and performance, nutrition. That's okay. We don't have to know everything.

And I just think that two things, because it's a full circle moment, is that, number one is that it's okay to delegate things that you're good at and to give yourself more of the mental space to pour that into your clients, get that taken care of for you, number one. And then number two goes back all the way back to the first thing you said, which is that imposter syndrome. Because I can't tell you how many people, both men and women, have sat in my office and said, I feel like I'm an imposter because I'm not doing what I'm telling other people to do. And it's not about being shredded. Even though that does come up right. People are like, I have to look the part. Well, a, your body's not a business card, and B, it's about just practicing what it is you are asking your clients to do.

I think, yeah, absolutely. And it's hard to coach ourselves. Let's be real.

Yes.

It'S hard to coach yourself. And that's okay. It's okay to, To. To relax into that fact. I mean, I know plenty of strength coaches who pay for other people to program for them because they just don't want to have to think about it or their plate is already very full or they know too much and then over engineer things or whatever. It's okay. It's. Oh. It doesn't mean you're less capable of getting your own clients results, and it doesn't mean you're a hypocrite.

Yes. Oh, my gosh. So good. It's so good. So for those of you who want to go deeper with you, Steph, what are some of the best places that I can point them to direct them to?

Yeah, so I would say, you know, my social media, if you want to get to know me a little bit, is the best place is probably Instagram. So that's at Steph Underscore Godro. I have a podcast if you want to hear me talk more. That's fuel your strength cast. And I have different coaching options on my website, whether it's kind of DIY fitness programs, all the way through my group coaching where we teach you the whole system of how to really get your nutrition, your training and your recovery lined up in 340.

Amazing. Thank you so much. I'll make sure that we link all of that up inside of the show notes.

Perfect.

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