294: Why Midlife Conversations in the New Year and Lessons Learned with Natalie Jill

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill and I help women in their 40s, 50s and beyond redefine, rebrand and laugh with aging. Welcome to Midlife Conversations. On this podcast, I do what I do best, taking complicated information that is relevant in this point of our lives now and break it down simply with actionable steps you can implement to level up your life. I also regularly interview some of the most inspiring people living their best midlife years. Now on this show, I cover topics about our shifting hormones, weight struggles, our mood and focus changes, raising teenagers, our relationships, career changes, beauty and more. If you are new here, I encourage you go back and listen from episode one, when this podcast was previously called Listen up for the Full transformative Experience.

Got a solo episode for you today because I have a lot to share.

A lot just to talk about with you. I want to, I feel like, like I have a lot of explaining to do. I have a lot of explaining to do on why I shifted my podcast into midlife conversations, why we've taken that angle, why I'm not doing a live fat loss program moving forward right now in the new year, it's the first time in over a decade I'm not doing a live fat loss program and where I've put my focus. And I also wanted to spend some.

Time with it being the end of.

The year, sort of summing up some lessons I've learned when it comes to our health, our fitness in midlife, all the things so you can take it into the next year. So let's get started. So first of all, last September I turned 51 and I am truly now smack dab in the middle of midlife. I mean, I'm planning to live about to 100. I don't know about you, but I consider midlife anywhere from, you know, 40 to 65 sort of is the midlife age range. And to be truthful, I don't believe I was really navigating aging very well. I was feeling super disconnected and I was actually feeling inauthentic. But being a fitness and fat loss expert, yep, I said it. I said it because I was feeling my thoughts and my sadness around midlife was not normal. And here I was being a cheerleader for so many others saying it's not too, you know, we're not too old and it's not too late. And I did believe that. For others, I did believe that. But I, truth be told, I was feeling a little struggle myself, especially with having three major injuries, having some major setbacks, navigating hot flashes, just navigating A lot. And I found it hard to find others that were really discussing these things that change in midlife. So, you know, I sort of started opening up to friends and on social media. And I did realize, you know, I'm not alone in these topics and just digging in, doing some research. You know, there's 52 million women, 52 million women in the US alone between the ages of 40 and 64. So over 52 million women in midlife. And it can be such a rocky time for women. And it's such a special phase, you know, and we've got a lot of things we're changing hormones, biological vanity changes. We're also dealing with more aches and pains, work, business problems, family issues. You've got. We're becoming empty nesters or you're raising teens. And then some of us are caring for aging parents and dealing with new diagnoses. And there is always, it just seems in media, a younger, better version not far away. So here I was being a cheerleader for so many other people, and I was navigating a lot of this myself. And I would really sort of psych myself out every day and say, nope, you've got this, Natalie. But I really felt that my focus needed to shift at this point in my life into opening up these discussions about midlife. So what does that mean for fat loss and fitness? Well, I have many programs I've done over the years. Those are not going away. Those are still very much there. I just decided that at this point in my life, I don't feel I want to be the best person to be leading groups directly through it. I would rather work with other empowered leaders in this space and help elevate them up and teach them what I've learned to help really communicate to the masses. And I can focus on really evolving and expanding into more specifically the midlife topic, more general, not just fat loss. So that being said, let's talk more about that. What am I doing with those of you that have followed me for fitness and fat loss? Well, like I said, those programs are not going away. You'll always have access to those from me, very much so. They are still present. In marketing, we call it evergreen, which is a word for they're not live anymore, meaning we don't do. I don't do live zooms with them or live coaching with them. But the programs are still very much available and discounted and out there for all of you to use, and I hope you still will. And if you were past members of my programs, you would Be you'll still have access to logging in and using them. Those are still a lot of principles that I follow myself that I still up level and I still live by. But that being said, I did go on a search for sort of who is a company out there, who is a place where is a place that I trust that they are really honing in on the best practices when it comes to exercise and nutrition that really has integrity, that would really care about women, that would really be on the forefront of what's new and also really work well with my age demographics. And I did find that company, I did find them. And if you heard the last episode I featured the head trainer from there. If you followed me on social, you can see that I'm promoting them. And what I want to know want you to know about that is I am not leaving you alone. So your own devices in there. In fact I will still be very much in there, participating, going through it and even contributing some. In fact I did go and record a few bonuses especially for those of you coming in for through me to work in this system. So you will very much still see me there. I'm not leaving you. So. So that's what's happening there. Okay, so that being said, just to sort of tie this into a bow, I'm gonna put that link by the way in the show notes here. If you want to join me in the time of this messaging, I'm recording this episode pre January. So if you wanna record want to join me in the January round, I would love to have you in there. But let's talk about the other thing I wanted to talk about today. And that's sort of just a summary of what I've learned doing these midlife conversation interviews. Some have not been released yet. So I have a little bit more knowledge on this right now on interviews you haven't heard yet, but I wanted to sort of tie in a bow a few of the main lessons that kept coming up to give you something to walk into the new year with. Are you ready for this? Okay, so number one, number one, the commonality that is working in midlife for women is a strong mindset belief. Now you might be rolling your eyes at that and going, I don't need mindset, I don't want mindset. But I will tell you, mindset is so critical for myself included. We can go down these spirals of having these what I call false assumed truths of believing we're too old, we're too late, getting caught up in our younger days and all these things. But if we stay focused on what is possible, on what we want, what we want to create, we can make massive changes in our lives just by focusing on what it is that we want for ourselves. The commonality with the many people I have interviewed around midlife topics is those that are thriving are truly spending time focusing on what they want, not what is. They are focusing on what they want to gain, not the circumstance. They're focusing on possibility, not problems. This is across the board, the second thing that I'm super committed to sticking with and understanding. And I find also those thriving in midlife that look good, feel good, are healthy. They are spending time outside in nature. They're outside in nature, literally outside in nature, going for a walk every day, being in the sun, even in the cold weather, depending on where you live. But they are spending some time outside every day. There is something super grounding and healthy about being outside in nature. And if you are inside all day, especially in the winter months, we are missing out on those tremendous benefits of that. So getting outside is a big theme, and I'm gonna make sure I continue to do that as well. The next thing. And this goes back to mindset a little bit, but dream big, dream big. Those succeeding in midlife and thriving, they are dreaming big. I'm doing this too right now. I am spending so much time on my vision. What is it that I want over the next few years in vivid detail, what is it that I want? And I've really worked through this in my. This in my relationships with my family, with where I'll be living, how I want to feel, my health. I get really super laser clear with what is it that I want to create in my life? What is the possibility? And I focus on that. Those of you that have been through my programs know I always talked about vision, and I'm still going to be talking about it. And it was truly fascinating going through the interviews I did, hearing so many others focusing on vision. 2. It's such a key component in being successful. Okay, next, the next common theme. Control what you take in. Who are you hanging around? What are you watching and listening to? In this world of media and news and social media and electronics, right at our fingertips, we are taking in so much information that creates the wrong focus and who are we listening to and hanging around? If we are spending time with people that are negative and in the downward spiral of what's not working in their life and feeling, you know, just. Just not uplifted and feeling focusing and diving into vision that Affects us. Those people succeeding in midlife, they are truly watching what it is that they're taking in. They're selective about what they're watching and taking in and who they're hanging around and who they're spending time with. It might be time for you even in your relationships to say, I'm gonna move this person from friend to friendly. And that's okay. I think that's a theme that works in midlife. Okay, now I'm gonna talk a little bit more about health and wellness and as we age, how things change. The number one theme on interviews I've done is to get testing, get lab testing, know where you are with your hormones and don't be afraid of that. You know, one theme I had from so many doctors I've interviewed and different con is that there was a flawed study in 2002 about hormones and women got scared. They said I should not supplement with bioidentical hormones because they were scared of what that would create. Those studies were flawed. They've been disproven. Hormones are super beneficial. As we age and lose estrogen and progesterone and testosterone, that affects us big time. Our moods change, our weight changes, we get hot flashes just by knowing where you are hormone level wise and testing, you could shift all of that. Whether that's through supplements or bioidentical hormones. So big theme, I think theme I've heard now if you have a doctor or a practitioner that is not wanting to test you, find a new doctor. Seriously, find one that will. Functional medicine doctors, naturopathic MDs, they all will help test you. There are, I've shared many times before about Merrick labs and I'll put it in the show notes as well that you could order your own testing and do that. But know where you are hormone wise. And the next thing is the basics for nutrition and workouts. They still apply. But in midlife we've got to uplevel. We really do. And let me just explain, you know, as we age, our metabolism does slow down. That is real. We do lose muscle mass about 10% per decade. That matters because the more muscle you lose, the worse your metabolism is going to work. The more calories, the less calories you burn at rest, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. So so many of us are under muscled. So working on how do I add in more protein, how do I up the intensity of my workout some despite injury because remember that would be circumstance. Finding workarounds what you can do but focus on building muscle eating for muscle and then really up leveling things. So taking it from, you know, I'm going to watch and eat unprocessed natural real foods to you know what, maybe it is time to add in a little bit of intermittent fasting. Maybe it is time to add in some macro counting just to be really clear what we're doing and level it up. Because just because metabolism slows down and muscle loss happens, that does not mean doomsday. We can really change things by leveling it up. So that goes back to starting with that mindset piece I mentioned at the beginning that we have to make a decision that it's possible first. Anyways, that's my little riff for today. I will be back to regular interviews on next week's episode but wanted to just give you I felt I owed a little explanation as to why I'm not launching a fat loss program this January like I have for the last decade, and why I'm encouraging people to join Faster Way right now. And by the way, if you do join Faster Way, make sure you do the fasterway.com Natalie Jill the reason is is there are several bonuses coming from me if you go through that link, so I want to make sure we know that you came for me and that you're doing this with me. I have a link in the show notes here, but I hope to see you in the January round. And as always, thanks for subscribing and being a part of the community here at Midlife Conversations.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen in on Midlife Conversations as my guest. If you found this episode valuable, please share it with friends and on social media. Be sure to tag me and our guests so that we can find your share. I'm personally Natalie Jill fit on all social media platforms. Instagram is the main place I hang out. The biggest thank you that you can.

Give me though is leaving a review.

And a nice one.

I hope.

By the way, this is how others find these episodes. If you do leave me a message or review, please screenshot it and send it to support at nataliejillfitness. Com and we have a FREE digital.

Download gift for you.

Our DSR Journal.

Thank you.