How a Health Coach Can Help with Midlife Challenges

Hi and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson and today I'm excited to interview Jill Foose. She's a board certified health and wellness coach. A health coach. And we're going to be talking more about health coaching and how it can help you, especially how it can help you with midlife challenges. We all end up finding out what it's like to be in the middle of the life as a human, especially for women. And there's different challenges and changes that come along. So Jill and I want to talk about that and really help you to understand what's happening in your body and what you can do to support your health throughout this time of your life. Thank you so much for joining me today, Jill.

Oh, well, thanks for having me, Dr. Downey. It's great to be here.

Oh my gosh, it's so much fun to be able to talk about this with you. And I know there's so many people who are in need of help in any time of their life, but especially women in this midlife time. What do we mean by that? Like midlife. How do women know? Okay, this is for me.

Yeah. Well, when we're talking about midlife women, it can mean different things to different people. Right. You know, I specialize in helping midlife women transition through menopause. Right. What does that look like? So we know that you could have early menopause and start as early as 30, 35 surgically and move through it. And you could start at the average age of 51. And then what does it look like beyond those years when you're in your postmenopausal years? Because I want to remind everybody that we are in our postmenopausal years for three or four more decades. We're in that phase more than we're in the other phases.

It's really a good point.

Right.

You almost like have this moment of like, oh my gosh, here I was thinking that I was living my life and then you. And we get to about 50 and we're like, oh, wait a minute now there's a whole other half of my life that's. That's a diff, you know, postmenopausal for women, it's a different hormone situation. So we want to definitely go into that some more before we go into specific, specifically the menopausal symptoms. Just tell us if you don't mind, what does that mean in terms of health coaching? Because I know that there are more and more health coaches out there and available and it's a growing career. And yet I really want people to understand what does that mean and what is the training? And when might someone be thinking about working with a health coach?

Yeah, that's a great question. There's a lot of health coaches now and there's a lot of different programs out there to become a certified health and wellness coach. So you're a certified health and wellness coach. You're not a license. So this is not a license. You're not a licensed doctor, a practitioner or provider. We are certified. And then to go one level up, you can sit for your national board exam. And if you pass that, which is a four hour, very intense exam, you're now a national board certified health and wellness coach, which is what I am. And there's over, you know, 10, 11,000 of us now worldwide and that number is growing every year. So you know, it's, I always say when you're going to hire a health coach and we can talk about when is the right time. When do you know you need this person on your health care team is to look for that national board certified health and wellness coach. Because it just means that we went the extra mile to have a take a deeper dive into the strategies and techniques that are all science back to learn more about how to incorporate them into our practice if we're working for a clinic or into our own businesses, if we're working solo. So you can be assured that that person has sat for a national board exam and really understands the tools and strategies to use to help their clients and or patients move along. And I'd also like to say that health coaches are not just reg like me, where I was, I'm a non medical licensed person. But health coaches can also, doctors can also become health coaches. Fitness trainers can also become health coaches. People who specialize.

Dentists can become health coaches. Any, anybody, any licensed person can also become a health coach, which is an added bonus to working with someone like that.

And it's really about helping people through change, like creating lifestyle and health change because it can be very overwhelming. I know that, you know, also with the patients that I work with as a naturopathic doctor that when, you know, when someone realizes, hey, there's something going on with my health, menopause for example, and we're like, what am I going to do about this? And it's, it's not as a replacement for conventional medical care. It's meant to support you with those, you know, maybe diet, lifestyle changes that you can make to be preventing health issues. Tell us more, Jill. How you how you talk about that.

Yeah. I always say health coaches are bridging that gap between maybe a poor medical diagnosis in real life or maybe health goals that you might have in real life. Right. How are we connecting all these steps? Because every one of us has a unique health equation. Right. What's working for you in your life, Dr. Donnie, is not the equation that's going to work for me. So how can we break down everybody's lifestyle, also help them with that wellness vision? What is it that they want out of this journey anyway? When should they include a health coach? And, and we just to circle back on that question, when do you know you need a health coach? Well, oftentimes we go to the doctor and we go to the doctor. And even in the, in the space of menopause, which is what our main focus is today, you might go to your OB gyn, you might go to your primary care physician and you might have a talk about menopause. And you might feel very confused and conflicted about what is best for you on this journey. You might be hearing things in social media. You might, your doctor that you're seeing might not have advanced education on the current science around menopause and lifestyle behavior change. Health coaches can come in and bridge that gap and help you work on those goals that you have not been able to meet on your own. We're in a, we're a partner. We're a collaborative partner. We're an accountability partner. So if you're someone out there and you're going through midlife right now, you're going through the transition of menopause and you're saying to yourself, you know, I've gained these 10, 15 pounds, I'm not sleeping well, I am not feeling motivated to do my workouts. I actually don't know which workout to do for myself. But all these different nuanced things that all of us are in midlife are going through, you might want to consider hiring a national board certified health and wellness coach to be on your team. I always talk about, with women that we need to create a health care team. And that might include a fitness professional, it might include a therapist, it might include a pelvic floor therapist, it might include a health coach. There's a team that we need to build to help support us in our overall wellness vision and our goals.

It's such a good point because I think that a lot of times there's this illusion that the insurance and the internist or the general practitioner is going to have you covered. Right. That Everything's going to be, you know, your whole house is covered. And, and I think it's important to, to step back a second and say, okay, there are certain things they do, right? Like going to your general practitioner is important. They're going to do a physical exam, they're going to do screening exams, they're going to, they're going to do that part that's covered under insurance. And, and if there's an urgent issue, then, okay, if you need a pro, you know, a treatment for a condition, okay, that's what's happening there. But I think that you're making such a good point that we need to expand our perspective and say, hey, as my own best health advocate, I need more people on my team, my healthcare team, than only the general practitioner or only your. What's covered by your health insurance, right? We might need, like you said, very likely we're going to need a physical therapist because that's one of the things that happens with an aging body is different joint pains and injuries and, or we might need an acupuncturist, we might need a massage therapist. We might need a naturopathic doctor who's going to help with understanding different, you know, even if you're on certain medications, what herbs and nutrients can you use? And how do you, how do you bring together that preventive piece? Because the preventive medicine is, is not really covered in standard, in the standard doctor's office. And then like you're saying, then the health coach can be the be helping you implement. Like, how do I make these, you know, getting down to the details of how am I going to make these changes in my diet? What am I, what is that going to the grocery store going to look like? How is my shopping list going to change? How am I, what are these recipes? How am I going to write? How do we actually change our daily rout to the point where it can make great change in our health, but it's, you don't have to do it all on your own is the thing we often think, right? We often think, oh, I'm supposed to figure this out all on my own.

Yeah, absolutely. You make such a great point there because it is really confusing out there, you know, with social media and everybody being dialed into all these different platforms and we hear experts say one thing and other experts say another thing. And truly we, we have to be the own detective in our own life. And what health coaches bring to the table is that we trust that you are your own best self expert. You know, what's Best for you. We're not there to tell you what to do. We're there because we're curious about what's going well for you. What are your goals? How are we going to get to your goals? We help. We want to engage with our clients. We want to build that trust and rapport, and then we want to move through, building on these, this foundation of trust, all these different layers of making the ultimate changes. Right. Evoking. Why would I want to do something this way versus doing something this way? You know, a lot of women, by the time we're in midlife, we have our own set, our mindset around certain things. We've been raised to believe certain things. We've been raised to eat a certain way, to look a certain way, to feel a certain way, to serve a specific way. Right. We've been told, you know, what women should, should be like. And when we get to menopause, it's such this, it's an amazing transitional period. Yes, it comes with a lot of physiological changes that are really disruptive to everyday life. But it also brings the awareness and the exploration of what can be, what else is out there for me, how else can I approach this for myself?

I love that you, you really shifted from the, you know, like, oh, geez, what's happening to my body? To the, oh, let's look at this as an opportunity for how to take care of yourself going from here. And as you're pointing out, it, there may be things you want to change from what you've done from the past. You know, like even what, what worked in terms of diet and exercise before menopause could be very different from after menopause. Maybe we can talk about that a little bit. What, what is changing there? And what do you notice with, with your clients in terms of their diet and exercise shifts with menopause?

I mean, I can actually speak for myself as well. I'm almost 57, I'm postmenopausal. And I've also gone through my own physiological challenges. You know, so we know as our. And as you talk about all the time, as our hormones are fluctuating and then decline with the transition of menopause, we go through all, you know, some women have chronic hot flashes or night sweats. So the inability to sleep, insomnia or sleep apnea, perhaps some women have, like myself, I had massive hair loss issues for the last 20, 25 years, which got progressively worse in menopause. Skin changes, skin lactivity or elasticity, and our vibrancy, you know, on our, how our skin glows like we lose all of that youthfulness. How about joint pain? Some women, because estrogen receptors are all over our body, we experience that frozen shoulder, we experience hip pain, knee pain that prohibits us from doing the same workouts we used to do. I used to be able to jump all the time, jump on those jump boxes, and I cannot do that anymore. It's really challenging for me. I've had to change the way I view and approach my exercise to maintain my body composition. Right. Speaking of body composition, many women gain weight around their midsection without changing anything in their diet. And so while everybody has this own bio individual health equation in this plan for themselves, maybe there's some common denominators along the way that we can talk about.

Just looking at nutrition, one of the things that we've come to understand in the current science is how important increasing our protein is to an optimal level. And I can't tell you how many women I work with in my business where I have them track their protein for, you know, a week or so, and they might be eating, you know, 30 to 50 grams of protein a day. And we know in the science as just a common denominator, as we age, we need more protein to build that lean muscle mass, maintain that lean muscle mass, and also support our immune system. We talk, I think you and I talked about on my podcast how the immune system really is weakened in autoimmune disease, or the risk of autoimmune disease rises as women are going through menopause. So how does a woman now approach how to eat protein? What if they're a vegan? What if it's more challenging for them there? What if they are like myself, who I eat animal protein, but I'm still not eating enough? So a health coach can come in and we have the conversation with our clients and we talk about, I want to know what are your ideas, what are, what's. What do you know, and what are your thoughts around increasing protein? I want to first inquire to see what my client, as the expert in her own health journey, knows already. And then I want to assess where is she willing to make changes? Is she willing? She might not be willing. And she has that sense of autonomy. She doesn't have to do what a health coach might bring to the table. So when I talk about health coaching strategies and we don't tell our clients what to do, we do use different tools to bring forward information to help educate. So we have something called an ask, offer, ask. I will always Ask my clients for the permission to bring up an idea or educational resources that has something to do around the conversation that we're having. And that way I take my personal views out of it, which is really powerful.

Yeah, I really find that to be powerful, too. I'm so glad you're mentioning that, because I. I really hope that all of medicine will shift in that direction where it's. It's less of this, you know, feels like, you know, from the past. It's like, you know, where you go into the doctor's office or practitioner's office, and the practitioner just tells you what to do, and you don't ask any questions. You just do it. And I think that. I really hope. I see it shifting. And I'm so glad for you. Um, as a naturopathic doctor, I know I was trained that way, as well as what you're describing, to say, hey, let me. Let's have a conversation. You know, let me provide information and provide options and choices so then you can choose for yourself. And I think that actually, at first, people are not quite sure how to have that conversation. Right. At first, it can feel like, oh, why isn't she just telling me what to do? And yet, little by little, I find that people are like, oh, I actually like that because it feels you feel a shift in respect and the trust and that we're working as team members collaborating with the same goal, which. The goal is for our client or patient's health and wellness and health prevention. Right. It's like we have a common goal. We can work together, and then we can provide information for the person to choose from. And it's becomes less of this, you know, have to. Or I. You know, we get. We can get so caught up in. I think sometimes people are not making positive changes for their health because they are feeling rebellious against what was recommended. And so it's. I think we get less of that when we can say, hey, let me give you the information, and you can choose for yourself, and then I can support you. We're much more likely to see positive change.

Absolutely. Or perhaps by the time they get to you or to me, they've already seen seven other people who told them the same thing, and it doesn't work for them. And now we come in and we have a different approach to this. And I also think it's really important that people start where they're with where they're at on their journey. Right. If you're starting at point B and you come in as a provider or a health coach, and try to go to, like, let's say, step G. It's not going to work. There's a huge gap there.

Yeah.

So help coaches who come in and help identify where their clients are at and, and talk their.

Figure out what's going on there first.

Meet them where they are.

It's so huge. I mean, I've had the same experience going to certain providers, and they tell me what to do or what not to do. And, you know, they don't know I'm a health coach. And maybe it's a provider I haven't seen before. And it's, you know, if they're going to tell me what to do without even asking me about my family history or things I've tried in the past that have worked or not worked. Right. It's. It, it just sort of goes over your head, you know, it's. It just, it's. It's a, it's a broken.

It's a broken system. It doesn't work anymore. We've all, we have all had that experience.

But.

Yeah. And on the flip side, Dr. Donny, I have clients that come to me and want to be told exactly what to do. They don't want to take the time to figure out their journey or their health equation on their own or with a partner. They want to be told exactly what to do. And those are more challenging to people to work with because they don't trust that they know what's best for themselves, perhaps based on past experiences with other. Working with other providers.

And I think that it's a couple things too. One is that especially when we're speaking about women, I think women, we're not taught from a young age how to trust our own intuition, listen to our own bodies. And so there can. Part of the process, I think, with wellness practitioners like you and I, is that the process of learning to listen to your own body, listen to your own intuition, speak your voice, you know, say what you think, be willing to try things and have it not work out so you can learn from it, you know, so that actually is part of the healing process as I see it. Maybe you see that too. Like, it's just part of it.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I. Sometimes I'll start a session off with someone and they'll say to me, oh, my goodness, Jill, you're going to be so disappointed in me. I really made a big mistake over the weekend. And I said, there are no mistakes. These are all learning moments. The mistakes, you find the juice in the mistakes. Right? Like, that's where you find, oh, I don't ever want to have that feeling inside my gut ever again. Like that bloating or the chronic constipation, the diarrhea, the gas which a lot of women experience going through the menopause transition because our gut microbiome is changing all the way back in perimenopause. And so to me having a negative health outcome because you've made a different choice than you would normally make is, is, is a learning moment. It's, it's just, it's something to always keep in your back pocket to remember what that felt like and continue to move forward and not quit the journey. Yeah.

Learning to like be, to not go for perfection, but go for just this gentleness with ourselves and to know that each day is a new day. I do the same thing I day I'm like, okay, how can I do this differently? So what can I learn from what happened today so that I can shift it for the next time? And, and I think that that can be such a good skill as we're going through any part of life, but it's particularly with midlife as we're talking about and I was going to say also that, that I think that a lot of times women experience this like.

Well, like just knowing what the options are. Maybe we can, if you don't mind, I would love to talk a little bit more about like.

Even the, the hormone shifting that's happening, you know, so, because I know I'm hearing from a lot of patients who are saying to me, okay, what's going on here? And as you mentioned, menopause or perimenopause starts way back even to age 35. So women might start, start to notice changes and then as the hormone estrogen and progesterone are dropping then we, you might experience more and more, more symptoms. And then we. That's when I'm usually starting to have conversations with women about are, you know, hormone replacement, are they interested in hormone replacement to help with that hormone transition? You know, do we want to go into also supporting with natural bioidentical hormones to help so that it's not such a drop and such a spike with hormones and the effects of the hormones.

So from a health coaching perspective, what we focus on if we're working with midlife women is how to support our clients on finding science backed information and resources. Right. So we are working on those lifestyle components, stress management, nutrition, sleep and exercise. Right. And mindfulness. So we, as a health coach, we will not step out of our, our what's the word I'm looking for. Our. Yeah, our practice. Yeah, thank you. That's a menopause moment right there.

An example.

Right. So we don't step out of our scope of practice. Unless, of course, I'm an md, like an OB gyn and I'm also a health coach. Right. So then. Then you can. But as a health coach, we stay within our lane and we help to support our clients in finding that relevant education. Because again, they might be coming to me saying, here's what my current OB GYN who's delivered, you know, all three of my babies says about hormone replacement therapy. But then I heard this MD all over the Internet with her books and her podcast, talking about how important it is. And so there's sort of this clash. And so our client might feel like, I'm very confused. I don't know what to do. My mom had breast canc. Cancer. My aunt had breast cancer. I don't know if I'm a candidate or not. And so what we want to do with that client is we want to talk about. Well, well, what are your feelings around hormone replacement therapy right now? What are those based on? Here's. How do you feel about inquiring, about looking at resources to help you understand what might be right for you? Right. Where are those trusted resources to go to? And we know that the Internet is filled with so many influencers who shouldn't be talking about certain things because they're not experts in that field. But it's really important as a health coach to stay within our scope of practice and help to support our clients on those lifestyle changes. So when it comes to hormone replacement therapy, what I like to do is I like to direct them to either creating questions that they can ask their provider to see if their provider is even up on the current science of menopause. And if not, is she open to working with a new provider who's a menopause certified expert through like, maybe nams, which is the Menopause society, and then working to help her establish her own trust in her own curiosity and exploration around what's going to be best for her? Right. So my mom, for example, had breast cancer. She also had bladder cancer. But I don't have those genes. I. I don't have any contraindications to say that I shouldn't be on hormone replacement therapy. So I've been on it. And my mom in that age group, which is like in the 80s, you know, they were raised and they were. They were going through menopause during that Time of the WHI study. So there was a lot of confusion around for them while they were actively seeking to take menopause hormone therapy or.

Or watch candidates. And so she was on it and got pulled off of it. So her, her feeling and her association with it is, it's bad, it's negative, it's going to cause cancer. Where I'm in this, I'm going through this transition in a totally different time where there's more resources available, more current science available, more education available to me. So that's what I try to help support my clients on in terms of, you know, are you a candidate and are you not a candidate? And if you are a candidate, what are your feelings around it? What are you willing to try? Perhaps you're still not ready to try anything. And so therefore, you know, maybe those lifestyle interventions are going to play a larger role for you.

Having optimal cortisol and adrenaline levels is essential for health and longevity. And yet the stress in the present and in the past can affect our cortisol and adrenaline levels, causing them to be too high or too low. The thing is that we're not all affected by stress in the same way. So over the past two decades, I've been researching and discovering how to help my patients recover from stress. And I've identified the five stress types, which are the five common patterns of disruption in cortisol and adrenaline levels.

The reason why this is so important.

Is because the treatment is different when cortisol is too high. We use different herbs, nutrients and other modalities to bring levels back to optimal than if the levels are too low. So that's why I, through research developed the stress type quiz which allows you in under two minutes to discover what, what likely your cortisol and adrenaline levels are. So then you can make decisions about which herbs, nutrients and other healing activities to choose to help optimize your cortisol and adrenaline again and improve your health now and into the future. Just go to stresstypequiz.com where you can take the quiz and take it from there.

Yeah, such good points. I mean, a couple things I wanted to touch on from that is one is that I always say to. And now that the, really the research is catching, like we're right on the cusp of the research. Like each year, each month, new research comes out on hormone replacement therapy. And so the field is changing. Everything shifts all the time. As a practitioner who does help with hormone replacement therapy, I'm having to do trainings even every six months to keep up with what's the latest recommendations. And so just know that if you're in Perry and postmenopause right now, you're on, you're, we're, we're following the line is right in front of us. It's not like we can say, oh, they did this research 20 years ago, because the research they did 20, 30 years ago. Now we're finding out the outcomes are completely being rewritten. Like you mentioned that women's health study that came out, you know, at least 25 years ago. And now we're getting completely different information from that. So if you've been like, like what Jill said, if you've been hearing and going by what has been said for the past 25 years, please know that then this is all changing now. We're in a, there's everything about who can do hormones is shifting. And so it's definitely worth conversation as you're saying, it's worth lots of conversations with different practitioners. You know, find out from your gynecologist, talk to someone like me who's a nature biologic doctor, a functional practitioner who's been helping with hormone replacement therapy for decades and get all the information before you make a decision and even know that you can, you can change your mind. You know, I always say, like, it's one of these things where you can, you can start hormone replacement therapy and you can change your mind if you, if you decide not, you don't want to do it. And also to, to your point that the amazing changes I see in when women even, you know, because hormones are not going to solve everything, right? Like, even if you decide, hey, I'm going to do hormone replacement, that's not going to solve everything. It can help with some of the menopausal symptoms for, and it can even now we know, help prevent with certain, you know, like heart disease and, and osteoporosis and dementia. And, you know, there's a lot of things that can help prevent. But it's, we're not thinking that it's the one size, one magic pill either. It's, you know, the lifestyle and lifestyle is huge. And I think that maybe we can come back to that here in our conversation to say, you know.

And as you know, in my master Stress Reset your health book, this is a key piece I focus on from people, is how do we look at our stress? How can we be actively recovering from stress and how can we be actively paying attention to what we feed ourselves and how much sleep we get and so on. Because research is very clear that those Things all help with our current symptoms and our longevity, our prevention of future issues. So let's come back to that. Like you were saying, like, how much of a difference that can make in. In men with menopausal symptoms.

Yeah, it's huge. In fact, I want everyone listening to. Just close your eyes for a moment and think about yourself in your 70s, 80s, and 90s and what you want that to be like. Are you carrying grocery bags back from the farmer's market that you live four blocks away from? And you can walk there and walk back and walk up two flights of stairs with two bags of fresh produce? Right. Are you someone who's on the cusp of becoming a grandmother? And you want in the next 10, 15, 20 years to be able to go on vacations with your family, to enjoy those moments, keeping up with your grandchildren and just your children? Right. And. And not being left behind because you can't keep up? Do you want to live an independent life? And my mom is 84, and she still lives so independently. She does everything on her own. In fact, we just went away and we had our big suitcases, and she said, don't lift yours. I'll lift it for you. I said, what do you mean you're gonna lift it for me? Because I recently had surgery on my neck. And she said, you shouldn't be lifting. I said, you're 84. You should. You know, And I was just so impressed that she was all about taking care of herself. And so what do we want those years to look like? Do you want to still be sexually active with your partner? That's another huge one that. But I think a lot of women go through this transition and really struggle with their libido and. And their sexuality and feeling sexual because they've gained weight. Their body looks a little different to them. They don't have this. Their arousal and desire aren't connecting with each other at the right time at the right place. Right. It takes. It's taking all. Everything takes a lot more intentionality, a lot of. A lot more mindfulness. And that's something that health coaches are really well trained in. How to start again, building that foundation and then building blocks on top of that. But lifesty is huge. I was just reading a study today that came out in just maybe a month ago, and it was on the GLP1 medications. I don't know if you saw this. And it was that they paired health coaching with patients who are taking the GLP1, because we all know that when you take those GLP1 medications they can bring about some physiological changes such as fatigue, nausea, trouble eating right. You can't, you're not maintaining maybe the, your maintenance calories or focusing enough on protein. And so a lot of people are losing a lot more muscle than they desire to. And they were showing how health coaches came in and had formed this relationship with these patients outside of the clinic to help them stay accountable, to prioritizing their protein needs, to moving every day and to just maintaining their sleep and their mindfulness and stress reduction while they were on these medications that brought about these adverse side effects. And it was just saying how it was proven in this study that health coaches helped change the trajectory of these patients, that most patients were quitting taking these medications after three months, which I never knew that. But so we know there's studies on health coaching in various different clinical settings that have already been done. You can search them on PubMed and they are there and they are showing you, you how the efficacy of working with a health coach is in fact changing the course of health outcomes for many people.

Yeah, yeah, such a good point because it's again here is like you can get the prescription, you can get the medication but then if you don't have the, the follow up support to get the, the, the most benefit and the least harm from it then then it's working against you ultimately. And so we want to yeah like be able to have someone who has that information to be able to help you be successful. That's how I look at it. How can we be. And it helps you be more efficient, more effective, more successful and so it's worth it. Like I think sometimes people struggle with like how do I choose this investment? Right. I've already paid my health insurance. How, how am I supposed to pay for this? And so also just thinking through in a way where you realize like hey this, we really need to rethink our budget and how can we, how can we be investing in our health and that it's not just what's covered at the standard doctor's office under insurance.

I always say you're either spending money on healthcare or sick care. You choose. Right. And health coach is temporary. You don't, you don't need a health coach long term. Right. The whole point of working with a health coach is to help you rethink and have a different mindset about your longevity. Right. What's your, what's, how to start figuring out what that again unique health equation is for you, what does that mean to you and how to make it long term and sustainable and that's what health coaches do. Another example I wanted to give was a lot of women going through menopause start to experience hair loss. Right. And that also is a triggered by the fluctuation and the decline of hormones. And I personally went through the that. And so for someone like me, when I was, my hair was drastically shedding and thinning and I felt, you know, my self esteem went down. Of course my libido went down. I didn't feel like I looked sexy. I didn't feel that way about myself. I was worried about, you know, what should I be eating to support it, what kind of medications are out there, what supplements are out there. It was very, you know, even though I'm very dialed in because I've been doing this for many, many years, I could see how many women out there hair feel very confused about what to do and how to figure out what, what their equation is to growing healthy hair. And you know, as well as I do, as someone losing their hair, that's a symptom of something deeper going on. It could also be triggered by just massive stress. What else is happening in midlife for women besides menopause? Divorce. Right? There's a lot of divorces in midlife and that's, you know, that's a trigger for many things to go wrong. All of a sudden you don't feel motivated to take care of yourself. Your hair, your skin look like the stress that you're feeling. Your sleep is, is fragmented. Now perhaps you start drinking more alcohol as a way to, you know, take care of some of the feelings of loneliness or sadness. So health coaches are really trained to come in and work with that client is on a very personalized way to help them. Like for me, I don't have any one size fits all approach to working with any of my clients. I don't have any courses online to take. Everything I do is one on one one. But that's just my style. And I think it's just really important for women in midlife to really know that as far as the expense goes, it is an investment in yourself and it is not covered under insurance, health insurance. Right now there are CPT codes that have been developed, but it just isn't into play right now. However, a lot of health coaches like myself do accept HSA and FSA funds to help pay. So that's one way. And also group health coaching is something that can be even more affordable and accessible to, to people, which is another wonderful way of working through, through the transition of menopause is being in a group of like minded women, women who are experiencing similar things as you and sharing and encouraging and supporting. I mean, we're all this giant community of menopause anyway, right?

Yes, it is this. You start to realize like how there's more women in peri and postmenopause now than ever before.

Right?

Yeah, it's really something. So we, it's, we're more the, we're the majority. And to be able to say, hey, let's get together instead of feeling like you're on your own with this and dealing with these symptoms and I think thank goodness women are feeling more comfortable talking about it. Like I think in generations past women would keep to themselves and, and feel embarrassed about talking about menopause, but women might still feel some of that embarrassment. You know, hesitancy to say, hey, like you were, I'm having, you know, issues with, you know, let's say, you know, either libido or hair loss or urinary incontinence or you know, some of these things which are very common in post menopause. But women might not really be out there sharing it with everyone because they're like, this is not the common topic of conversation. But I think the more women can come into a community and say, hey, we're all here together dealing with some of these same health issues. Instead of judgment or embarrassment, let's just be human together and say, hey, what, what have you figured out that works? You know, is there, oh, there's this exercise that's been helping me or there's this thing that I did, you know, that we can do that's making a difference and that's I think where you know, you and I are like, right, we're like, think of us as like resources. We've heard, we've communicated with so many people and done so many much already reading the research and thinking about this that we're more likely to be able to say to you, hey, try these things because they've worked for other people.

Absolutely. And again, it's trying something and if it doesn't work for you, it's not that big of a deal. And you've learned something about yourself in the process and you move on and we come up with another idea. That's one of the strategies health coaches use is called brainstorming. And I love this one skill set to use because is it's not me telling my client what to do, it's not me generating all these ideas, but we're doing it together. We're Each taking a turn and making a list of well, how are you going to increase your protein? You've now acknowledged and done the work for the last two weeks collecting data on your protein intake and you've discovered you're, you're eating half as much as what the science is saying most women should be eating. And so now what? And so we brainstorm ideas of how we're going to, how she's going to incorporate more protein. Ultimately it comes down to what is she ready and willing to do, right? What is accessible to her, what. And some women really want to dive in and try very challenging things in terms of goals where other women want to start really small. And so everybody's different, you know, everyone has a unique starting point and a unique mindset around why sometimes just working on the mindset alone is really challenging, right? But I always say there's a buy in moment. There's a moment where in the journey something clicks and there's maybe it's body composition changes, right? Maybe she's lost some weight and gained some muscle mass. Maybe she's noticed that eating more protein in the morning establishes a better day for her, right? Her mood is better, her energy is better, she feels more satiated, right? There's all these different nuances and there's that moment of the buy in where, oh, okay, I did this change and I got this outcome and that's good. I'm going to keep going because it's hard to stick with something if you're not seeing these optimal health outcomes, even like little ones.

That's so true. And I completely agree about protein. It's, it's one of my, I think that's such an important place to start too. So anyone listening? If that, as Jill's been mentioning, how do you start looking at how much protein are you getting and, and can you start to increase your protein at each meal? I really find that that's a huge, very impactful place to start because it also helps balance blood sugar levels, let alone, as you've mentioned, helping with maintaining muscle mass and energy levels and so much more. We need those amino acids, right? And those nutrients for hair, for, for mood, for energy, for. So it's like, oh my gosh, there's all this good stuff in the protein sources. Let's see how we can get more of that on a regular basis through the day. So I love that as a starting place for anyone listening. And, and I love to how you've just been talking about the groups like we see in, in, in that I Have a community of women working on addressing abnormal pap smears and testing positive for hpv. And in that group community, it makes such a difference for women. And, and I also have a health coach on my team helping me in that community. And I really do see the differences that you've mentioned, like when having a health coach there as well as when patients work with a health coach one on one. I really, really see what an impact it can have in terms of patients really moving forward faster with their health changes and also understanding their bodies more. You know, I think that so much of the time there's still confusion about like because in the standard medical system you might be hearing, oh, there's nothing you can do about that, right? Oh, you're having hair loss, just get used to it. Or oh, you're just getting old, right? Or and this is this kind of like getting gas can even be. Can sometimes it's considered like gaslighting or very dismissive of women's health concerns. And so don't be surprised if you walked out of the doctor's office and you're like, why did they just tell me that? It's just because I'm getting older and I feel like there should be something I can do about it. And so if you're like, hey, I, I know there's some things I can do about this. I just, you just need to now find the, the people like Jill and I who can help you. Right, Jill? Like, do you hear that from women too?

Like, oh, absolutely. I mean I hear that women to seven, eight physicians before, they're just like putting their hands up in the air like, I don't know what to do anymore, I feel. And so they'll go on to Google and they'll just start searching like weight loss coach or nutrition. They'll search whatever it is that they're really struggling in and they'll hopefully that leads to a health coach. For a lot of people that leads to me. But yeah, it's really, really frustrating. I mean again, we've had our own experiences. I've seen it with my kids too. It's not just for menopausal women. It is across the. And I believe that that dismissiveness from the provider isn't ill intentioned. I think that it is just they aren't, you know, nobody is an expert in everything, right? Health coaches are experts in behavior change. We work on lifestyle interventions. That is our focus of work. Right. We aren't there to help decide and diagnose anything that you're. That's going on with you. We're not going to diagnose if you have celiac disease. We're not going to diagnose if you have irritable bowel syndrome syndrome. We're not going to diagnose if you have, you know, clinical depression. That's not. Well, we can refer you out. A lot of us have relationships with other providers, but we are very much experts in lifestyle behavior change and can stay in that lane so successfully. And so for women in menopause, whether you're someone who is a candidate and currently taking menopause hormone therapy or perhaps you're not a candidate, you know, having your lifestyle down and figuring out what is your equation is so incredibly important. We know that if you are not getting sound restorative sleep on pretty much a daily basis, a lot of magic happens at night. And you and I have talked about that offline, right? The magic happens at night. We have these things called mitophagy and autophagy where our cells are, are cleaning up after themselves. Our brain is, is getting clean. All of these things are happening. And when we're waking up two, three times a night to go to use the bathroom or we can't fall asleep, or maybe we have insomnia or sleep apnea. You know, that really impacts our ability to get up and be productive the next day and make good, healthy choices in terms of our nutrition. Right. We all have had this experience where we're exhausted. We make really bad decisions with food because our cravings increase. Right. We start eating because we're just exhausted. We'll, we'll eat a lot of carbohydrates, the refined carbohydrates. We were craving a lot of that sugar. We're not starting our morning off with our 25, 30 grams of protein and staying hydrated. Right. We're just, we're drinking coffee till 2 o' clock in the afternoon. So sleep is a huge one. And I think also mindfulness is also a huge one. A lot of women our age are very busy. We, we have careers. Some are starting their careers, some are changing their careers. We might have children at home, we might have elderly parents to care for. Maybe we're going through a divorce or a rough patch in our marriages, whatever it is, you know, we're, we're, we're trying to balance a lot of things and it's very stressful. And so mindfulness is one of these things that a lot of women make excuses for not to work on. I was one of those women until January of 2024. I really said to myself, my goal this year is to figure out what my mindfulness practice is. And I really dug deep into what it is. What does it mean for me at this stage in my life? You know, when a lot of people think of mindfulness, we think of meditation. A lot of people might not resonate with meditation because they think there's this. They have to be in a certain space in their house, in their room, or go somewhere and have this intentional meditation practice. And that might not resonate with, with them, but mindfulness isn't just meditation. Mindfulness can mean a whole lot of different things. You could just be a mindful eater right now. You could be someone who's mindfully and intentionally preparing your meals, sitting for 20 minutes to eat your meals without any electronics on. You could be some mindful and intentional about introducing new foods every week to increase your. The. The microbial diversity in your gut to help your gut health during menopause. You could be mindful over who you spend your time with. Right? Who you're talking to, who you're sharing your. Your life with. So mindfulness to me was something that I really discovered, I had to personalize for myself and that it has really helped me in my, in. In my postmenopausal years.

Yeah, it's so, it's so important. I'm so glad you're sharing about that. I've. I also have, you know, really, really seen the difference that it makes. And it's, you know, well, the clean eating, the sleep, the adequate sleeping, the mindfulness. And what I call recovery activities, as well as the exercise, which we've also touched on, is that acronym that I use in, in this book, the Master Stress Book. That's a care C A R E. And the mindfulness is part of R the recovery activities. Because there's so much research behind what you're describing. Like, there's so much research to show that. And really, it's like you're saying it just gives us a chance to step back because otherwise we're so caught up into this busy mind and busy the days race by before we know it. So being able to just step back, no matter what you're doing, you could be washing the dishes or doing the laundry and being able to go, let me just step back and observe what I'm thinking, observe what I'm feeling, observe a little bit. And that alone is already creating some mindfulness. And what that shows is that that helps our brains to not only process stress and reduce stress or recover our cortisol levels, but also it helps us to just feel more centered and more connected with ourselves through the day. Right. And it's. And I agree, I think these are huge. These are tools that we didn't learn. I'm in my 50s too. And we didn't learn this in elementary school, we didn't learn this, this in, in college. We didn't learn this along the way. So, you know, this is something that I think we can learn in our midlife and we can start applying it and we can start being curious about it. Like you said, it's not everyone has to do the same way. We can start being curious and say, hey, what? I love that you're like, hey, the 2024. I'm gonna figure out what works for me. And it's. It these, all of these things. It's about finding what works best for you and at least. And hopefully then at the same time getting the benefit from it. I can't tell you how many patients come back to me and say, oh my gosh. One of the things that made the biggest difference to me was learning how to use mindfulness. And so that's why it's also part of the programs in the work that I do as well. I completely agree with you. Oh my gosh, Jill, it's been so fun to talk to you, like to be able to see how you know and to know that we're working in parallel out there helping women. And I'm so glad to know that you're, you know, you're there doing what you do and, and I, and, and helping people in this way, helping women with some of these challenging things that act. You don't have to just accept that there is help with. And it can be worth it to invest in getting that help and to not just give up and give in and feel like, okay, I throw in the towel, I'm 70 or 80 and I just give up. There's so much we can do to help and so is there anything else you wanted to share before we wrap up?

I just want people to just remember that they have a long life to live and it's not just going to happen. And the path to get there might be challenging and it might be uncomfortable at times because we all know making any type of change can be uncomfortable. But to not give up because the rewards are there, the buy in is there. But I want, you know, I don't, I don't like to sugarcoat it. It is work. It is, it takes mindfulness, it takes intentionality it takes being uncomfortable. It takes being out of your, your, your comfort zone. Right. Whatever you want to call it. And but the rewards are so great. And that's where that wellness vision comes in and that's where a health coach can come in and really help put the pieces to the puzzle of your wellness vision together.

Thank you so much for that and for joining us today, Jill. I really appreciate it and I'll make sure that I put links to your this Jill. Jillfoosewellness.com Right. So they can come and check out more of your resources and services. And I'm again so grateful to you coming to share with us and have this discussion today.

Well, thank you so much. I hope that everyone has some golden nuggets to take away to start something new on their journey.

Definitely. Absolutely. I'll talk to you more soon.

Thank you.

Bye bye. Thanks everyone. Please make sure to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode of How Humans Heal. I'll see you then.

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