Live Healthy Now

Has dieting ever made you get the happy life you want? What about sustaining the results long term?

The average woman is said to spend between 17 to 31 years of her life dieting. Diet culture is designed to keep us dieting because it’s creating a $1billion global business.

Kimberley Stacey joins the podcast today to talk about a topic that is so important in the world we live in. It's something that’s very aligned to my personal and business values following 30+ years stuck believing my self-worth and value were linked to the way I looked and how much I weighed on the scales.

Kim is the founder and head coach of Body Image Fitness in Newcastle and advocates non-diet fitness driving much needed change around diet culture and exercise, helping people to realise that anybody can workout and be fit, regardless of how their body looks.

In our conversation we talk about:

• What diet culture is and the impact it has on women to feel they need to look a certain way.
• Striving for happiness and self-worth with diets and exercise.
• The relationship you have with food and diets on your overall health and happiness.
• Re-focusing what we eat to be about the nourishment and overall health benefits it provides.
• How important exercise is beyond the perception of it being just a tool to lose weight.
• How the fitness industry likes diversity and representation.
• The value of functional fitness to live strong with full mobility.
• 3 tips to help you begin your journey to ditching the diet and exercising to feel strong.

About Kim:

Kim has a Level 3 Personal Trainer qualification which includes core training, Advanced Resistance Training, group exercise and exercise referral. This means she is able to help with health conditions such (but not limited to) Arthritis, Lower Back Pain, Hypertension, Join replacement and Osteoporosis. Kim is also a lower back pain exercise specialist, a Yoga instructor (specialising in yoga for bigger bodies and diverse communities) as well as a Burlesque Cardio, and Twerk After Work group exercise instructor!

Kim works hard building Body Image Fitness after a lifetime of feeling like her body was not good enough to teach fitness as a career – how wrong was she?!

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Ask a woman what disease she’s most afraid of and the answer will most likely be breast cancer. Tell her that heart disease kills twice as many women as breast cancer does and she’s shocked. Why? Because women aren’t being informed about the risks they’re facing globally with cardiovascular disease.

It’s more important than ever to have the right knowledge about our health so that we can make decisions and choices to protect and improve it. For both a better life now but more importantly, a full and long life with strong health so we can live the way we want as we age.

Today our guest is Stevie Snow, a holistic pharmacist in the US with over 30 years of practice experience and now on a mission to help you understand how to protect your health. Stevie is breaking down what cardiovascular disease is and helping you to know what you can do to improve your total health to minimise your risk of not just this disease but other illnesses and diseases.

In our conversation we explore:

• The rising rates of cardiovascular disease and how it is currently the leading cause of death globally for men and women.
• What cardiovascular disease is and how it can show-up in women.
• Tips to get the right medical intervention if you think you might be having a heart attack, especially for women where symptoms are often different to those men experience.
• The role of lifestyle factors in heart disease.
• How blood sugar is the number one contributory factor to many diseases such as cardiovascular, and why for women in particular cutting sugar from your diet is key to building strong health.
• Tips to avoid ultra processed foods.
• Creating new habits through small gradual changes to shift your diet to one that protects your heart and brain health.
• Why snacking might be causing more problems than you realise!
• The impact of stress on your health.

About Stevie:

Stevie is a holistic pharmacist and practiced pharmacy in the US for over 30 years. She did Nuclear Pharmacy for almost 20 years - making radioactive drugs for cancer and cardiac imaging.

She had been healthy all her life so falling apart with a range of health issues at age 42 was a big shock. Stevie knew it had to do with stress but had no idea how to deal with it. After navigating her own and then her partner’s health struggles, Stevie knew her calling was in functional, holistic medicine and is now a Certified Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner and is currently enrolled at the School of Applied Functional Medicine. 

Stevie helps women get well and stay well using every tool in the box. She has helped many of her client reverse a range of chronic illnesses and autoimmune diseases including IBS, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, blood clots, fatigue, low blood sugar, and gut infections.

Connect with Stevie:

Anxiety is on the rise, especially amongst women. In the last three years we’ve seen a huge rise in the number of people struggling with anxiety, including in children, teenagers, and young adults.

When you’re trying to cope with anxiety it can feel like surviving is the only thing you’re able to focus on, not making changes to improve the way you feel.

In today’s episode I’m here to help you be inspired to know that it is possible to build new habits to improve your health and reduce your anxiety, even if your anxiety is telling you otherwise. I’m sharing some of the personal strategies I used to not only cope better with anxiety and panic attacks, but improve my overall health so that my anxiety is no longer something I feel is controlling me.

This episode talks about:

• The difference between ‘good’ and chronic anxiety.
• Why building strong health is so powerful at managing and reducing anxiety.
• Being aware of the lifestyle and choices you make on impacting how well you feel.
• The ripple effects of building strong health through your habits.
• How I used exercise as the catalyst to reduce and manage my anxiety.
• Six strategies to help you begin to make changes and build new healthier habits.
• The journey you are on when you’re navigating anxiety, depression, low mood or other mental health struggles.
• My ‘SCS’ approach to get started right now with shifting your habits and feeling better.
• Knowing you have the power to take control of your health and manage your anxiety.

About Life Now Coaching:

We believe everyone would love to live a better life and we know that by putting the right healthy habits into your daily routines and lifestyle, you can truly create the type of life you'll love living every day. We want you to stop waiting for one day and make today the day you begin taking better care of yourself so you can feel healthy, happy and strong. Life Now Coaching supports you to build sustainable healthy habits using our successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep and stress. 

Resources:

Chronic illness is rising fast, especially amongst women, and as more people struggle with their health because of these long-term illnesses and disabilities, many of which take years to be correctly diagnosed, continuing to work can become a huge problem.

Sarah Berthon is here to share her story of navigating ill-health for many years and the toll it took on her physical and mental health as she tried to continue working as an employee. Sarah was finally diagnosed with ME, PoTS, and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and now runs her own business supporting people with chronic illnesses in the workplace through mentoring, workshops and online communities.

In our conversation today we talk about:

• Navigating a chronic illness and ill health whilst working as an employee.
• The pressure felt to continue working despite ill health and how this can further affect your wellbeing.
• Being body aware and creating a habit of knowing what your body is telling you it needs.
• Sarah’s personal journey to being correctly diagnosed with several chronic illnesses.
• Why the workplace needs to have better awareness and understanding of chronic illness and disability.
• The definition of disability and removing the fear of talking about disabilities.
• The importance of creating a culture of openness, acceptance and support in workplaces.
• The Lilac Review project being ran by the UK government and how Sarah is part of the steering board to support entrepreneurs with disability to start-up their own business and successfully run a business.
• Putting your health first to be able to live a full and strong life, and achieve the success you want.

About Sarah:

Sarah Berthon is the founder of Excel against the Odds and is passionate about supporting people with chronic illness in the workplace using her own experience of living  with several chronic illnesses including PoTS, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, ME/CFS and Chronic Migraine.

Sarah supports business owners with chronic illnesses and organisations that want to better support employees with these conditions, as well as hosting the ‘Excel against the Odds’ podcast talking about the successes and challenges of working with a chronic illness.

She is also on the Steering Board of the Lilac Review, a government backed project looking at tackling the inequalities faced by disabled entrepreneurs.

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With cases of Dementia rising and more awareness becoming known about the lifestyle and hormonal factors that can increase your risk, we want to help you to understand the importance of good brain health.

We’re joined by Dementia Prevention Consultant, Donna De Villiers, to explore the link between hormonal health and brain health, and why women are at a much greater risk from Dementia than men.

In our conversation we explore:

• The link between hormones and brain health.
• The importance of protecting your brain alongside your heart and bone health.
• Why women need to have more awareness of brain health and know the changes that menopause can have on your brain.
• The beliefs we have about Dementia being an inevitable part of ageing.
• The main lifestyle factors that can increase your Dementia risk.
• Three key habits to build to support better brain health.
• The mind body connection and the importance of checking in daily with what your body is telling you.
• Whether HRT can help prevent Dementia and what to do if you can’t or don’t want to take HRT.

About Donna:

Donna is a Dementia Prevention Consultant, helping women reduce their risk factors of Dementia, and build beautiful brain health habits for a lifetime.

Along her journey she worked in Health and Social Care in many roles, including for the NHS and saw dementia for the first time. Without any previous experience of Dementia, Donna initially feared the disease, but as her experience grew, she learned that Dementia is a lifestyle disease. This was when her passion for raising awareness and helping people have quality of life over a mere existence was born.

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Note: In our conversation we do briefly talk about Emma attempting to take her own life, so please decide if this episode might trigger you.

Is the desire for success actually trapping you and holding you back from happiness? Success is what so many people believe to be the route to happiness. So, they throw themselves and everything they can into carving a career that will bring them the financial rewards that equal success. But then happiness doesn’t come as part of the package.

Our guest today is passionately sharing her story of how her beliefs around success and happiness led her to a very unwell and dark place. Emma Hine thought that if she could build a successful business and reap the financial success of it, she’d be living a full and happy life. Except what she got was the exact opposite.

Join us as Emma shares the toll pushing to keep achieving success took on her health and happiness, and how she’s managed to begin turning her life around, putting health very much at the top of her list and new business strategy.

Today we chat about:

• The reasons why our understanding of success and happiness create beliefs that wealth is the key.
• Emma’s long journey striving for more and more success to find the happiness she was seeking.
• The downward spiral that took hold and pushed Emma deeper into poor mental health.
• How focusing only on the success you think will bring happiness leads to losing sight of what will really create this for you.
• The cost of not prioritising your health and realising that without health you have nothing.
• Knowing that there is no magic wand to making changes and instantly fixing how you feel.
• Taking one step at a time to move towards what you really want and know will help you to feel true happiness.
• Accepting that you are a work-in-progress and that  this opens so many exciting opportunities for your future self.
• Why wealth is the most important thing you can do to take control of your life and live a happy life.

About Emma:

Emma Hine is a certified business strategist helping ambitious people to grow a business they love. She ran a successful million-pound e-commerce business, which ended up taking over her life which is why she is so passionate about helping others grow their business on their terms.

Now a celebrated Amazon bestselling author, she is helping others see that success comes from doing things your own way with passion at the heart of what you do. And the biggest lesson of all is you don’t need to sacrifice yourself to find what works best.

Beyond work Emma is a happily married mum of 3, nanny of 3. She loves spending time with her friends & family, combine that with a glass of wine and some glorious sunshine and she is in your happy place.

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Are you sleeping well? If not, you’re not alone. Sleep is one of the biggest problems many individuals give for not performing to their best. 

In a recent study by Champion Health, boosting energy levels was the number one health area that employees said they wanted to improve.

Lack of sleep not only increases your risk of illness and disease but causes early death. So, in support of Sleep Awareness Day and Week, we’re sharing our top 10 tips to help you sleep better, have more energy, and invest in stronger health for a longer life.

In this episode we share:

• Our top 10 tips for improving the quality of your sleep.
• How our body’s love routine and the role of our body clock in sleeping well.
• The surprising routine you need to create to sleep better.
• The impact of modern society on our sleep.
• Taking a leaf out of the book on how we help babies and children go to sleep.
• Why alcohol is having the opposite effect on your sleep to what you think it does.
• The connection between sleep and your overall health and wellbeing.
• The power of gratitude for a peaceful nights sleep.

About Life Now Coaching:

We believe everyone would love to live a better life and we know that by putting the right healthy habits into your daily routines and lifestyle, you can truly create the type of life you'll love living every day. We want you to stop waiting for one day and make today the day you begin taking better care of yourself so you can feel healthy, happy and strong. Life Now Coaching supports you to build sustainable healthy habits using our successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep and stress. 

Resources:

Your health is impacted by literally everything about how you live and this includes more than your lifestyle habits! The relationships you have, the job you do, the pressure you apply to yourself to achieve success. It all contributes to how well you feel, and your level of happiness.

Our guest today is Debbie Caudle, a therapist and coach who works with Christian women helping them to transform their relationships from the inside out. Debbie knows firsthand the real impact of being in a relationship and job that isn’t right for you, and guides other women to find the path that’s right for them.

This is a fantastic conversation where we go deep into how so many of us live by default rather than design, and realise the path we’re on isn’t right for us, often way down that path in later life.

In the episode we chat about:

• Why many of us find ourselves on paths that don't align with our true desires
• How it’s often in midlife that women realise they feel stuck with where they are.
• The risks of living a life by default and how this can impact your physical health.
• Breaking free from relationships and careers that aren't right for you and actionable advice on how to identify and navigate similar situations in your own life.
• How to take intentional steps towards creating a life of fulfilment and purpose.
• The impact of living with intention on your physical and emotional well-being.
• The power of taking small steps daily to create the change you want.
• Empowering yourself through living with intention and the huge ripples this creates across your life.

About Debbie:

Debbie Caudle has been a therapist and coach for over 30 years. She specialises in helping Christian women transform their relationships from the inside out, through both her expertise and her own personal journey of divorce and re-marriage. She's the author of The Path Less Traveled, the creator of two life-changing courses and the host of the podcast, High Ticket Woman.

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No International Women’s Day isn’t just another pointless awareness day; it is a pivotal moment to celebrate the achievements of women, promote gender equality, and drive meaningful change.

As we approach International Women’s Day 2024 this special solo episode with host Nicola is here to inspire you to know why you are a woman with power and impact. 

Listen in as we inspire you to know your worth and power in impacting other women and girls to live healthy, happy and strong lives.

In this episode we open up about:

• What International Women’s Day is about and why you need to celebrate and recognise this important awareness day.
• The impact women in your life have had on you and taking a pause to think about who these women are for you.
• Nicola’s story of the impact her Mother has had on her and the difference we need to be more aware of today in the role models we are as women.
• The impact women have on their children and a personal story of Nicola’s daughter.
• How being a role model is the biggest legacy you’ll give your kids.
• Being part of a collective of women who are owning their power and the influence they have on others.
• The importance of inspiring other women and girls on not just International Women’s Day but every day.
• Knowing the power of even the smallest of your actions on others.

About Life Now Coaching:

We believe everyone would love to live a better life and we know that by putting the right healthy habits into your daily routines and lifestyle, you can truly create the type of life you'll love living every day. We want you to stop waiting for one day and make today the day you begin taking better care of yourself so you can feel healthy, happy and strong. Life Now Coaching supports you to build sustainable healthy habits using our successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep and stress. 

Resources:

Our society and culture has instilled in us a mentality of being always on the go and that working hard, playing hard, living fast is the route to success and happiness! But what if our physiology wasn’t designed to live this way?

Today we’re exploring cyclical living and the importance of menstrual health in women and people with vulvas with guest Nour Kayali who is a holistic yoga teacher and menstrual cycle coach in training. Nour is passionate about helping everyone to understand that for anyone with a vulva, regardless of whether they have a menstrual bleed or not, there are hormonal changes happening in a cycle that will affect how you feel and therefore how you live your life.

This is such an interesting conversation and topic and one I’m excited to share on the podcast to support more understanding and openness around hormonal health and menstrual cycles.

In our conversation we talk about:

• What a menstrual cycle is and the four phases that occur each cycle.
• The link to the moon and the ancient wisdom that’s been guiding hormonal cycles for thousands of years.
• Why it’s important to have awareness of the changes that happen in each monthly cycle.
• How cyclical living can support strong health, and optimise energy and performance.
• The impact of understanding why you might feel differently throughout your menstrual cycle - and the risk of not understanding this.
• The connection between having better knowledge and understanding of menstrual cycles and menopause.
• Opening up the conversation in workplaces and with men to encourage more understanding and support.
• Tips to build habits into your wellness toolkit to better support yourself with your menstrual cycle.

About Nour:

Nour is a holistic yoga teacher, workshop facilitator and menstrual cycle coach in training, passionate about sharing tools for connecting to our sense of home. Through 8+ years of working in the field of Psychology and Mental Health, Nour saw first-hand the life-enhancing impact that regular wellbeing practices, and community, have on the quality of our lives.

Creating, dancing, journalling, to name a few, all support the human ability to experience long-term joy and contentment.

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Do you only think about food if you need to lose a bit of weight? Does not having a weight problem mean that you’re okay to eat whatever food you like?

The beliefs we have about the role of food in our health are behind so many of us spending a huge proportion of our lifetime obsessing about which new diet to try and battling to lose weight. We’ve been conditioned to believe that a diet is the answer to losing weight. But is this true?

Today’s guest is a nutritional therapist who works with women over 40 to support them with losing weight the right way. Louise Digby is passionate about helping women to know the truth behind diets and food, and why the answer to your weight loss goals doesn’t just lie in the amount of food that you eat.

Join us in today’s episode as we talk about:

• What a diet really is and why it’s time to change how we use the word diet.
• The different factors that contribute to our weight and the results we have around weight loss.
• Why calories are not the route to losing weight, or building strong health.
• The role of the gut in weight management and your overall health.
• How to start taking steps to focus on having good gut health.
• The impact menopause has on women’s weight.
• Whether women can lose weight in the menopause stage of life.
• Why it’s time to change what we know and create different beliefs about the role of food in our lives and health.

About Louise:

Louise Digby is a registered nutritional therapist, women’s weight loss expert and founder of The Nourish Method to Lasting Fat Loss. Her clients come to her after struggling to lose weight despite eating well and working hard to burn the fat. Louise transforms her client’s health and wellbeing by identifying and addressing each individual’s unique needs and imbalances, so that they can lose weight, optimise their health and rediscover their sparkle, without restrictive dieting or the need for superhuman willpower.

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Have you ever felt like it’s too late to change? Is there a point in life where it’s simply not possible to change your health and habits?

Today’s guest firmly believes that it’s never too late to make any change that you might want to feel healthier and live a life without limits. Gayla Beyer is a health and wellness coach who in her early sixties decided it was time to pivot from her long career in healthcare as a nurse practitioner so that she could feel more fulfilled and look forward to an exciting new chapter in her life.

Gayla shares so much about her journey through life getting to know who she is on the inside, and why this is something that she’s now helping other women to do so that they too can embrace all that the retirement season of life offers and know it’s never too late to build better health.

In this episode we explore:

• The power of being self-aware.
• Why taking time to understand what you need is so important to your wellbeing.
• How normal it is to doubt your ability to change and how to not let this limiting belief hold you back.
• The mini-retreats that Gayla has used throughout her life to nurture herself.
• The different ways that you can begin to get clear on what it is you really need to feel your life is fulfilling you.
• What’s driving the shift away from the typical approach and perception of retirement.
• How valuable strong health is to open up limitless possibilities for living a full life.
• Tips for creating a life that you love, at any stage of your life.

About Gayla:

Gayla is a seasoned nurse practitioner who pivoted from her medical career in 2021 to embark on a new journey as a health and wellness coach. Specialising in guiding women through the stages of retirement, Gayla's passion is helping them embrace this life change.

At the heart of her coaching program, "Retire Your Limits," are three foundational and interconnected pillars and alongside this, she helps women plan and embark on personalised mini-retreats. These mini-retreats serve as a vital component of Gayla's holistic approach, providing a space for reflection, rejuvenation, and self-discovery.

Beyond coaching, Gayla shares her transformative message through her podcast - Retire Your Limits. With expert guests and stories of women moving into the next chapter on their terms, it’s a perfect source of empowerment and transformation.

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Is self-care really selfish? What even is self-care?

Are you ready to revolutionise your wellbeing? In our latest episode, we dismantle the stereotypes around self-care and reveal its true essence as a powerful tool for personal health, fulfilment, and happiness. From challenging misconceptions to sharing impactful habits, this episode is your gateway to clarity and permission to put self-care top of your list!

Join us as we explore the five key elements of self-care, share personal practices, and inspire you to make self-care a non-negotiable part of your daily life. Unravel the myths surrounding self-care and discover why it's not just a luxury, or something kept for Sundays, but a vital investment in your happiness - now and for your future self.

In this episode we’re sharing:

• What self-care is and what self-care is not!
• How commercialisation has created an unobtainable perception of self-care.
• The importance of self-care as the cornerstone for a healthy, happy life.
• Introducing the five key elements (Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, Social) and their interconnectedness.
• Why prioritising self-care enables you to be the best version of yourself for others.
• The awareness of adapting self-care practices based on individual needs and life changes.
• Our hosts most impactful self-care habits and practices that transformed her mental and physical wellbeing.

About Life Now Coaching:

We believe everyone would love to live a better life and we know that by putting the right healthy habits into your daily routines and lifestyle, you can truly create the type of life you'll love living every day. We want you to stop waiting for one day and make today the day you begin taking better care of yourself so you can feel healthy, happy and strong. Life Now Coaching supports you to build sustainable healthy habits using our successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep and stress. 

Resources:

Today we’re joined by Laura Pearman who wants to share a tale of caution, and joy. Laura is an entrepreneur who found herself caught up in the hustle mentality of being self-employed: trying to prove yourself and building a sustainable business. She was passionate and enthusiastic, living life fast to make the most of everything she had and wanted to achieve.

Until Laura hit a health crisis. Not just once but several times. Only when she was diagnosed with Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), a disorder related to high pressure in the brain, did Laura start to realise the way she was living wasn’t optimising her happiness. But it took more ill-health before the big shifts really started to happen.

In our conversation we share:

• How the beliefs you hold dictate the way you push yourself and strive for success.
• The risks of not tuning in with how you are feeling.
• How burnout showed up and why Laura kept moving on despite hitting it several times.
• The shift that talk therapy had and the key penny-drop moment it gave.
• Why you need solid foundations with the right building blocks for you.
• The power of understanding your own values and building blocks for good health.
• Making changes and building new habits that become a part of who you are.
• The role play and fun have on your wellbeing and happiness.
• Taking a holistic approach to strong health and wellbeing.

About Laura:

Laura works with experts who want to build their authority so that they can create impact, legacy and leave an indelible mark in their industry.

Connect with Laura:

What would you say if we told you that resting is one of the hardest things to do to improve your health and wellbeing?

In a world where life is busy and the most common reason given for not being able to build new healthy habits is a lack of time, it’s a bit of a surprise to know that rest isn’t something that’s being excitedly embraced and used to improve your health and happiness.

Today we’re joined by the fabulous Nikki St Paul who is a rest advocate. Nikki helps busy professionals to understand the importance and power of rest. She passionately wants you to switch your beliefs away from rest only being about the sleep you get in bed, to understanding what true rest is and why it’s essential to your overall wellbeing.

This is a fantastic conversation and one where we share so much valuable information and tips to get started with new habits to build stronger health.

In today’s episode we share:

• What rest is and the importance of building habits for rest.
• The reasons for and risks of the rest deficit we’re seeing.
• How doing less may be the answer to getting more from life.
• Overcoming mindset barriers around taking time to rest.
• Understanding what works for you and knowing that everyone can create habits for impactful rest.
• Getting started with micro-mindful moments.
• The benefits of being present more often across your total life.
• Using mindfulness and why it’s about ‘non-doing’.
• What meditation really is and why most people struggle because they’re doing it wrong.
• The importance of being self-aware to know what it is you need to feel well.

About Nikki:

Nikki is a Mind, Body, and Breath Coach and the Founder of Breathing Mindful Coaching. She combines her expertise in breathwork, coaching, and mindfulness meditation to provide holistic support to her clients.

Do you ever wonder if there is a deeper reason for your energy being depleted or feeling stuck? As a homeopath with over 25 years’ experience and a Business Abundance Coach©, our guest today, Wendy Molyneux, is an expert at seeing the “Issues in Your Tissues” and helping you to clear these root-cause energetic blocks, so you can enjoy a life of abundance.

Wendy believes that energy is your most valuable asset and the key to unlocking abundance. She believes that building strong health requires a whole person approach where your habits include ones that connect with your heart and feel into what you already know inside of you.

During our chat together we share:

• What energy is and how it is the source and key to feeling the way you want to feel.
• How making intentional changes to your habits can impact your overall energy in so many different ways.
• What homeopathy is and how Eastern medicine is used and applied.
• The way homeopathy works to help you deeply heal.
• How conventional medicine takes a suppressive approach and is often solving symptoms rather than fixing the root cause.
• The approach Wendy has to turning lemons into (healthy!) lemon ENERGY drink.
• Leaning into more feminine  and ‘Heartful’ energy.
• Tips to start connecting more with your own energy and using it to support your health and happiness.

About Wendy:

Business Abundance Coach and Homeopath, Wendy has an unusual skillset: a creative marketing communications professional turned homeopath and natural health advocate. She has done the London Agency thing and the backpacking the world thing and is now happily settled near the New Forest with two grown-up kids and Monty the dog. She says “My energy and positivity are high when I am listening to my heart and doing what I love. Helped by daily yoga, forest walk-and-talks with friends, and weekly Aqua Chat, and not helped by my sweet tooth and too much weight – my next mission!”

Wendy is also a Heartfulness Coach©; Mindfulness & Law of Attraction Teacher; Author

Ex-Marketing Agency Owner and Ex Natural Health Clinic Marketing Manager.

Connect with Wendy:

Today we’re exploring the connection between women, sport, and the pursuit of a healthier, more confident future.

Our guest is the inspiring Becky MacDermid, a dedicated netball player and CrossFit enthusiast. We delve into the transformative power of sport for women, focusing on resilience, confidence, and the crucial role women play in driving equality and diversity in the sports arena.

As we see reduced activity in kids and a rapid decline in adult activity levels, this is a very relevant conversation that we hope inspires you to think about how impactful sport might be for your own health and that of your children.

In our conversation we chat about:

• What sport actually is, and why it’s probably not what you think it is!
• How sport has shaped Becky’s confidence and resilience.
• The connection between women growing up playing sport and those in senior leadership roles.
• The ripple effects that are experienced when you are active
• The importance of being active and participating in sports as a form of positive role modelling
• The need for female role models in sports to inspire and encourage the younger generation.
• Concerning statistics from the 2022 Sport England report, particularly the gender gap in activity levels among children and young people.
• Beliefs women have with sport and strength training that holds them back from taking part in these activities.
• Why we need to shift away from focusing on body shape, size, and aesthetics to knowing the value of feeling strong.

About Becky:

Becky works as an investment manager at Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s leading alternative asset managers, providing a range of funding options to dynamic quoted and unquoted SMEs. She is a keen supporter of female founders in the North East.

Becky loves playing netball and is a keen CrossFit particpant, loving the community spirit and supportive group she trains with. gym early last year.

She is passionate about the fantastic developmental opportunities that sport can provide, especially for women which has been proven to translate into important skills including leadership, resilience and ambition.

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The beginning of a new year often brings with it thoughts of change and of course, resolution. There’s the common theme of it being a “New Year New You”. But, how many times have you set out at the beginning of a brand new year resolving to make this year the one you get healthier, fitter, or perhaps lose that weight you’ve been struggling with for so long, only to reach December and realise it didn’t happen?

It’s reported that only 8% of people who set resolutions achieve them and that even by the end of January, as few as 25% of people are still sticking to their resolutions.

I want you to have a different result in 2024. I want you to make the changes you want for yourself so that you live with stronger health and feel happier, more fulfilled. I don’t want you to end up a statistic in the people who start a new year determined to make the changes they want and land up on the scrap heap by February because they just couldn’t create those new habits.

So in today’s episode we’re bringing something very different and very special. Today we’re giving you an insight into what a coaching session is like, to inspire you to create an action plan to build your own healthy habits in 2024.

Join me as I coach Wilma Edwards, a passionate and very real person who kindly volunteered to be coached. I’m taking you behind the scenes of what coaching looks like and helping Wilma get clear about how she wants to feel in 2024, and most importantly, how to make it happen for her.

In Wilma’s coaching session we explore:

• How Wilma would like to feel at the end of 2024.
• Getting super clear about how she would feel if she achieves what she wants for her health and happiness this year.
• Exploring Wilma’s ‘WHY?’ for wanting to feel this way, and explaining why this is so important to dig into and have clarity on.
• What is standing in her way of feeling this way right now.
• Some of the limiting beliefs that are impacting how Wilma feels and that might stand in the way of her creating the change she wants.
• The power of small steps and getting taking fast action.
• Why you need to create a plan that has smaller goals to help create motivation and momentum.
• What steps she will start out with to begin moving towards her 2024 goal.

About Wilma:

Wilma is a mum of two kids under five, embarking on a new career as a Financial Planning Consultant, with some really exciting opportunities ahead but worries that her body image will get in the way of her success.

Connect with Wilma:

It’s pitched to be the most wonderful time of the year, so why then do so many of us battle through it and end up feeling totally frazzled, wishing we could take a holiday?!

Christmas in the movies is all about family, special memories, enjoying all of the festive frivolities that come only once a year making you feel warm and cosy, and of course with snow falling gently outside your window! But Christmas in the real world is often anything but this picture perfect postcard!

If you struggle with overwhelm and stress at this time of the year, or always start January wishing it was summer, then this episode is for you. We’re sharing our top 12 tips to protect your health over the holiday season and helping you to perhaps think a little differently about what Christmas really means to you.

In this episode we’re sharing:

• Our 12 tips to have a healthy holiday season and start the new year with energy and focus.
• Why Christmas puts so much pressure onto you and how to approach it differently this year.
• The reasons so many people end up feeling stress and overwhelm at Christmas.
• How to navigate the challenges Christmas can bring by being more present.
• Giving yourself what you need to make Christmas 2023 better, happier, and healthier!

About Life Now Coaching:

We believe everyone would love to live a better life and we know that by putting the right healthy habits into your daily routines and lifestyle, you can truly create the type of life you'll love living every day. We want you to stop waiting for one day and make today the day you begin taking better care of yourself so you can feel healthy, happy and strong. Life Now Coaching supports you to build sustainable healthy habits using our successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep and stress. 

Resources:

Head down, staying quiet, feeling embarrassed because it’s that time of the month when you have to sneak into the bathroom and check whether you’ve leaked and change your pad? 

This is real life - still - for so many girls and women. With the average age that girls starting their periods now being only 12, but can be as young as 8, we’re still lacking so much around education and support of women’s menstrual health.

Today’s guest is here to talk to us about how this lack of understanding means she thought her periods were completely normal, only to realise after years of suffering, that she actually had PCOS - Polycystic ovary syndrome. Emily Cook wants to help normalise talking about your periods and problems that so many females encounter with their menstrual cycle and reproductive system throughout the different seasons of their life.

In our conversation today we share:

• The lack of understanding that girls and women have because of the way women’s health is talked about in education and beyond.
• How we can create shifts in this to normalise conversation and support all women to get the help they need.
• Why there is so much stigma and shame attached to "women’s troubles”.
• How Emily put up with her heavy and irregular bleeding thinking this was just how periods were meant to be.
• The challenges faced when seeking medical support and having the right knowledge about what you’re feeling to help take the right course of action.
• Understanding your body and mind and listening to what it is you need.
• The power of focusing on the foundations of good, strong health.
• Taking one step at a time to build the right healthy habits for you.
• Recognising your progress and knowing you don’t have to ‘do it all’ to be healthy.

About Emily:

Emily is your friendly neighbourhood marketeer with a serious passion for female entrepreneurship. She has spent the last 3 years spearheading multiple marketing projects with a shared value of women empowerment. From launching a global digital magazine to running a content club for founders called Girl Brand. She lives and breathes community and collaboration, and believes in the power of storytelling.

Connect with Emily:

In this special solo episode, we tackle the common thought of "I might as well wait until January" that often creeps in as we enter December and start the festive season. As the holiday hustle ensues, it's easy to put off health goals, but this episode aims to change that narrative.

You don’t have to let the final few weeks of the year feel like they’re controlling you - it’s possible to take steps to get in control and make the festive season and the end of 2023 a one you make your own.

Enjoy the festivities, take small steps towards your goals, and make this holiday season one that aligns with your wellbeing journey!

In this episode we’re sharing:

• The societal pressures placed on us to make the festive season perfect and how this leads to overwhelm and exhaustion.
• Our three tips for why now is the time to start a new habit you’ve been meaning to kick-off in 2023 but never quite got around to.
• How you can enjoy the season without it meaning you have to trade off your health.
• Making deliberate choices for a more aligned and fulfilling holiday experience.
• Why it all comes down to balance.
• Practical ways to take steps to better care for yourself and show yourself you matter.
• Making the festive season and Christmas a more joyful one by feeling in control of how you spend it.

As a special offer you are invited to join our 2023 holiday health workshop for more tips on self-care during the busy season so you can enjoy all the holiday season has to offer and kick-start the new year with energy and focus.

Do you regularly take a pause and just check-in with yourself, to breathe and notice how you’re feeling? You’re not alone.

As we see rising cases of burnout and stress related illnesses, we can see the impact that living busy, non-stop lives is having on us. It’s easy to be caught up in everything that you have to do and only just keep yourself from sinking below the surface.

Today we’re joined by hypnotherapy and breath work expert Helen Kelynack to explore the power of taking a pause. Helen is a breathwork advocate and coach who knows firsthand the power of using your breath as a tool to build strong health and wellbeing. Working in the NHS for sixteen years Helen treat hundreds of patients struggling with varying health problems and illnesses and realised that so much of what was difficult to diagnose was in fact stress related.

In our chat we dive into:

• The power of taking a pause to check-in with yourself and breathe.
• Why we’ve forgotten the right way to breathe and how this is impacting our health.
• The simple ways you can introduce a breathwork practice into your morning routine.
• Why creating a short, simple morning routine is so impactful to your health and happiness.
• The role of the nervous system and how important it is to support good regulation of it.
• Starting out with self-awareness and noticing how you’re feeling.
• Listening to what your body is telling you to notice when the alarm system is going off.

About Helen:

With over 16 years of experience working in the NHS in a variety of roles from working within a Health Visiting team to Practice Nurse, Helen has always championed and encouraged wellbeing for women. Having experienced mental health struggles herself, Helen used hypnotherapy and breathwork to regain her confidence and rediscover her true self and now shares this with women everywhere.

Helen founded Senara’s Sister to empower creative successful women who are lost or stuck in business or life. Specialising in working with stress and anxiety, using Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, coaching skills and breathwork, Helen is able to help women foster strength and self-compassion, approaching the next chapter of their lives with courage and embarking on new beginnings. 

Helen lives in the beautiful countryside in the depths of Cornwall and spends her time with her family by the sea, soaking up the simplicity of life.

Connect with Helen:

Have you ever wondered if running is really for you? Can anyone truly embrace the joy of running? Today, we're here to tell you that the answer is a resounding 'Yes!' Our guest Linda Meek is a passionate advocate for running, and she firmly believes that running is for everyone, regardless of their ability or experience level.

Join us as we explore the incredible world of running and how it can be a transformative journey for anyone, even if you've never laced up your running shoes before. Linda is here to share her enthusiasm for running and her mission to help individuals, many of whom have never run a step in their lives, discover the runner within.

Running isn't just about fitness; it's a powerful habit that can support strong health and overall wellbeing. Unfortunately, misconceptions often hold people back from trying it. Some fear injury, while others worry about judgment and embarrassment. Linda's insights will shatter these barriers and inspire you to take that first step on a path to health, happiness, and self-discovery.

In the episode we chat about:

• The power of running and why the gain is so much more than just physical fitness.
• Why anyone and everyone can start to run and make running a healthy habit.
• What holds so many people back from starting to run.
• Tips to start running even if you’re a complete beginner.
• The power of a running community and how to find your own running tribe.
• Breaking apart the myths and beliefs that you can’t run when you hit midlife and age.
• Whether women should run in menopause.
• The importance of starting with small steps to prevent injury and form a lasting habit.
• What running offers for your mental health and resilience.

About Linda:

Linda Meek formed Start Running Stay Running during the Covid lockdown after seeing so many people taking up running. Linda had herself found that running offers so many benefits for both physical and mental health. Knowing that running isn't as simple as putting on a pair of trainers and taking to the streets, Linda wanted to help others not just start running but stay running by helping to prevent injuries.

Linda is a Run Coach, Social Media Community Manager and Mental Health First Aider.  Together with Graham McKenna , an Ultra Coach and Mental Health Champion, they have now established Start Running Stay Running as a Community Interest Company to make running accessible to all and to promote improved mental health through movement and getting outside.

Connect with Linda:

In this special International Men's Day episode, we're diving into an essential topic that transcends gender boundaries – wellness. We're joined by a remarkable male guest, Andy Caine, to explore why men need equal space for wellness.

In a world where the conversation around wellbeing often leans towards one direction, we're shining a spotlight on the importance of ensuring that men have an equal opportunity to thrive and prioritise their health.

Andy is a huge advocate for men’s mental health and wellness and shares his story of finding himself lost and burned out, and how he sunk into depression, unsure of who he was and who he wanted to be. Andy's made huge shifts in his own personal development and is now driven to help other men find their true selves, supporting men to build resilience and high performance through coaching, experiences and retreats.

In our conversation we explore:

• The power of cold water exposure and building it into your morning routine.
• The challenges men are facing with their masculinity.
• Knowing it’s okay not to have it all together.
• Why men need to know it is safe for them to be open and share how they feel.
• Building mental resilience and different ways you can do this.
• The importance of stepping out of yourself and your normal life to find what you truly want and get clear on who you are.
• The limiting beliefs that form our habits and knowing we can change them when we choose to be curious and build new responses.
• How important it is for kids to be modelled self-awareness and to understand their emotions.
• The feminine and masculine energy poles we each have and how these impact how you communicate in personal and professional relationships.

About Andy:

Andy Caine is founder of In The Now How - Creating Experiences and Legacy For Human Optimisation and Connection.  Andy has made huge shifts in his own personal development, awareness, presence and learning, and now has a mission to be of service to others.

Andy supports men on their own journeys with a holistic approach towards wellbeing and ultimately high performance. From mental resilience to boosting creativity and innovation, discovering purpose to maximising physical performance and everything in between. His workshops, seminars and programmes can be used to unlock personal or businesses highest potential. 

Andy offers a range of corporate programmes, men’s retreats, and 1:1 coaching.

Connect with Andy:

For so many working women life is full and they think it’s just the way it has to be. The way you feel you put down to normal tiredness and busyness; things that everyone has to put up with - right?

For our guest today she wasn’t someone who felt stress but she knew her life was super busy and demanding. As a deputy-headteacher in a primary school she carried a lot of responsibility, but she was doing a job she loved and had ambition to move up into a head role. So she kept going.

Lindsey Fekete missed the signs that the way she felt wasn’t simply because she worked in a demanding environment and carried responsibility in and out of the workplace. Lindsey joins us today to share her story of hitting burnout and what she’s learned about managing her health after overhauling her entire career and lifestyle to now feel she has a more balanced life.

During our chat today we share:

• The importance of self-awareness to help you know what you need to feel healthy and well.
• How burnout can show up and why the signals are often missed.
• The pressure women are putting on themselves to keep going.
• How Lindsey has made changes to have better balance across her life.
• What to do if you feel stuck in your life and are worried about hitting burnout.
• Understanding your health and menopause are key to have better awareness about what is changing and then give yourself the right support.
• Getting started with making changes if you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
• The power that comes when you have clarity in what matters to you and take steps to live intentionally.
• Why having self-compassion is absolutely key to happiness.

About Lindsey:

Having spent the last 23 years teaching in primary schools - and half of that in senior leadership roles - Lindsey now runs a successful online maths tuition business. Parents love to see the transformation in their children when they’re given support from a caring, confidence-boosting tutor like Lindsey.

The children Lindsey works with not only become relaxed and engaged learners, but they are left feeling ready and prepared for their next stage in maths. With Lindsey’s years of insight and teaching in preparation for Year 6 SATs, she knows exactly how to prepare children to tackle their tests. Lindsey is so passionate about stress-free exams, she was recently included as a guest expert in a book on the topic.

Lindsey lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and 11 year old twins, crazy cockapoo and grumpy cat.

Connect with Lindsey:

Do you ever wonder what's guiding you through your life journey? Is it ambition, the pursuit of professional success, or simply navigating each day to the best of your ability?

In this episode, we dive deep into the transformative power of living with purpose and how it provides direction and purpose to your life. Join us as guest Oriel Camp sheds light on how purpose can bring calm, clarity, and confidence, especially for busy working mothers.

Oriel shares her story of struggling with overwhelm and the challenges she faced living without purpose, leading to low confidence, a lack of motivation, and a sense of imbalance.

We’re helping you to think about your own values and purpose so you can get clear on your North Star and let this guide you through a fulfilled and happy life.

In our conversation we explore:

• What values are and why they matter to living a happy life.
• How missing values impact your life choices and the shifts that happen when you know them.
• Why so many women don’t know about values.
• The challenges of living without purpose, which often lead to a lack of confidence, motivation, and a sense of imbalance.
• How living without clarity on your values affects your overall happiness and wellbeing.
• The ripple effects that happen once you get intentional about living in alignment with your values.
• Why you don’t have to suddenly change everything in your life to feel better.
• Small steps to take to find your purpose and be guided by your North Star.

About Oriel:

Oriel helps busy manager mums to take calm and confident control of their life choices so they can live intentionally and get more out of life!

Oriel uses her warmth and positive energy to help parents enjoy a sense of balance rather than burnout and achieve life-changing goals, such as career change, relocation, new relationships, healthy boundaries, confidence, improved wellbeing and so much more. She brings lashings of light humour to her coaching and wellbeing workshops. 

Behind the scenes, she’s a chocolate, cheese and wine lover. Oriel is blessed to be a mum of two, have a hubby Mike and can be found walking her gorgeous but mischievous mini-goldendoodle, Nala, by the river at home in Cheshire.

Connect with Oriel:

This month is breast cancer awareness month and sadly, we all know someone touched by breast cancer. Breast cancer occurs in every country in the world and the rate of breast cancer in women has doubled over the past 50 years. A woman born after 1960 and living in the UK has an estimated 1 in 7 lifetime risk of developing breast cancer and 1 woman every 10 minutes here in the UK is diagnosed with breast cancer, making it the most common type of cancer.

Thankfully we’ve seen many advancements in the treatment of breast cancer which has led to much improved survival rates. However, it is still a disease that nobody wants to have to face, so it is crucial that all women understand how to check their breasts and commit to regularly checking them, as well as understanding that seeking fast medical support is essential. 

We’re joined by Amy Dave, a Physician Assistant who spent 10 years working in oncology roles and who is herself a two-time cancer survivor. Amy is here to share her story of being diagnosed with two very different cancers and how she supports herself to live a strong, healthy life. We hear from Amy exactly how to check your breasts and she gives so much valuable advice to help you know what to check for, when to check, and how to get the right medical support.

In our conversation we share:

• The impact that a cancer diagnosis has on you and your family.
• The learnings Amy had as a cancer patient and survivor that changed her approach as a health care provider.
• The changes to how Amy has approached her health post-cancer.
• The exact way to check your breasts and when you should do this.
• The signs to feel and look for to indicate whether you have a change that needs investigating.
• Why it is imperative that any changes are referred to your doctor or clinician without hesitation.
• What can impact your cancer risk and the importance of building healthy habits.
• Getting the right support as you navigate cancer treatment and when you rebuild your strength post-cancer.

We’re marking World Menopause Day 2023 by bringing you a very exciting and special coffee-style chat to help raise awareness and provide support. 

This week we’re doing something completely new in bringing you not just one guest but three, and you get them all at the same time! Sam, Shakira and Helen join host Nicola to chat all things menopause. 

It is more important than ever that menopause becomes a normal and safe conversation to have - whether with your loved ones, your friends, or your work colleagues and manager. There is still a lot of stigma and fear attached to menopause and it's time we transform the beliefs and conversations we have about it, starting right here today!

During our chat we share:

• What we learned about menopause growing up and how that’s affected our own beliefs about it.
• Changes we’re making in how we talk about and share our own menopause journeys and challenges.
• What we’ve experienced and learned navigating perimenopause and menopause.
• What to look out for and why it’s not a one size fits all list of symptoms.
• The importance of building mind body awareness.
• How your confidence can be affected and different ways to support yourself and not let menopause take over who you are.
• The huge impact making small habit changes has on how you feel.
• Embracing the second half of your life rather than fearing it.
• The importance of self-acceptance, compassion, and living intentionally.

Connect with our guests:

Today we’re celebrating one whole year of the Live Healthy Now podcast!

In this special episode with host Nicola Mercer we’re taking a little trip down memory lane. We're summarising what we’ve heard and learned over the past year, or 53 episodes.

There’s a common thread throughout just about every single episode, whether it’s been with one of our fantastic guest experts or with a friend sharing their real life story. And we’re going to share this with you and inspire you to get started on the next chapter of your own life story to live healthy, happy, and strong.

In today’s episode we share:

• The common takeaway we’ve had across the past twelve months of conversations.
• Why so many people stay where they are, even though life isn’t feeling the way they’d like it to.
• The thing that often gets you started on a journey to changing your habits and health.
• Some reminders of the real life guests who turned their lives around.
• The ripple effects that happen when you take better care of yourself.
• How life isn’t easy just because you’ve built strong health, but it becomes easier to manage the difficult or challenging times you face.
• That every birthday you get is an opportunity to celebrate the possibility and magic that is your life.
• Becoming the author of your own life story.

About Life Now Coaching:

We believe everyone would love to live a better life and we know that by putting the right healthy habits into your daily routines and lifestyle, you can truly create the type of life you'll love living every day. We want you to stop waiting for one day and make today the day you begin taking better care of yourself so you can feel healthy, happy and strong. Life Now Coaching supports you to build sustainable healthy habits using our successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep and stress. 

Resources:

Disclaimer: We briefly talk about intimate partner violence in this episode around 12 minutes into the discussion, so please avoid this short part of the podcast if this may trigger you in any way.

Brain health isn’t just another fad thing you have to worry about to feel good. It’s absolutely critical for building strong health and wellbeing today, and more importantly, for your future self.

Did you know that the health of our brain is almost always the cause for dementia, currently the leading cause of death globally, and here in the UK, the biggest killer of women since 2011? Almost twice as many women will die of dementia than men. And the projections for people being diagnosed with dementia and dying from this chronic disease are rapidly increasing.

This is why we’ve asked expert Dr Laura Booi to join us today and share the reasons why our brain health matters so much and share the research work she’s leading on identifying causes of dementia. Laura is super passionate about protecting our brain and living a long, healthy life. 

I truly believe that this episode is going to change the value you place on yours and your family’s health. 

In our conversation we talk about:

• Why your brain health is so important.
• The difference between your brain and your mind, and why taking care of your brain impacts so much of your health and happiness.
• The risks of poor brain health.
• The alarming rise in dementia and forecasted growth in this incurable disease.
• Risks women are facing from dementia and why more women than men are being diagnosed and dying from it.
• The work Laura is leading to research societal influences on our brain health and dementia.
• Steps you can take to improve your brain health and lower your risk of dementia and Alzheimers disease.
• Why we must build awareness of brain health to protect our kids and future generations.

About Laura:

Dr Laura Booi is a social gerontologist, researcher, educator and consultant. Well-known for her work in dementia and brain health, she is highly respected for her knowledge and expertise in gerontology, which she uses to help individuals navigate life as they age.

Her interests in research and advocacy for brain health are born out of the desire to find solutions to both increase the quality of life of people living with dementia now and reduce the population’s risk of dementia in the future.

She is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Dementia Research at Leeds Beckett University in the UK and a Global Atlantic Fellow with the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.

Connect with Laura:

There’s a common thread that runs through so many of the guest stories we bring to the podcast and today’s guest is sharing her story that completely pulls together what that thread is. 

Sarah Jayne Adams felt lost, stuck, like she was on the wrong path. But as you may associate with, when you’re in a place like this, sometimes you think staying on that path is the only option. Changing it is not only scary but it can feel out of reach, so you stay where you are - comfortable, unhappy, putting up with it.

This is a real story of how when you know something isn’t right in life, you can and must build the strength and belief that you have it in you to make it different.

In this inspiring conversation we talk about:

• How easy it is to keep moving through life every day ignoring the signs that something isn’t right.
• The way unhappiness shows up and impacts your health and wellbeing.
• The pressure we put on ourselves to be in a certain place in life and why this can hold you back from what you really want.
• Managing resistance to making big changes.
• Finding a way to pause and check-in with yourself to ensure you’re on the right path in life.
• The power of being present and ways to build more mindfulness into your habits.
• The health benefits that come from you getting intentional about your life.
• Manifestation and the role of your mindset in having true self-belief and clarity.

About Sarah Jayne:

I'm a 30-something, Northern girl who's a content creator and social media marketer.

Connect with Sarah Jayne:

You’ve seen hypnosis as an act on a stage, done for entertainment. It’s hilarious seeing someone being put into a hypnotic state, barking like the dog they truly believe themselves to be. But how would you feel if you knew you were in a state of hypnosis every single day of your life?

This is the fascinating topic we’re exploring with our guest expert Jana Osta today. Jana is a hypnotist, kundalini yoga teacher, and TedX speaker. Jana is sharing how the beliefs we have instilled into us as children create behaviour patterns that mean we live so much of our life on auto-pilot - something that we hear so many people refer to when they feel as though they have no control over their life and how they feel.

The great news is that you have the power within you to change these programmes and create new pathways and behaviours so that you are living the life you wish for yourself.

In our conversation we talk about:

• The subconscious mind and the role it plays in how you live every day.
• What hypnosis is and why it’s so important to be aware of for your own life - and why isn’t what you think it is!
• How to begin noticing the behaviour patterns you have and identify what isn’t serving you.
• Why these automatic behaviours and thoughts can be so damaging to your overall health and wellbeing.
• How to get clear about what you want to change.
• The tools you can use to support making changes to your belief system and wellbeing.
• Empowering yourself with the knowledge that you are capable of change at any stage of your life.
• Self-awareness and creating clarity to create your desired self and life.
• Taking small steps and being consistent for lasting and powerful change.

About Jana:

Jana is a dynamic and multifaceted professional, serving as a hypnotherapist, holistic health & wellness coach, and Kundalini yoga & meditation teacher. With over a decade of experience in the corporate world, she embarked on a personal quest for deeper meaning and set out on a transformative journey of self-development and healing. Her comprehensive approach combines energy work, mindset transformation, and strategic action to empower individuals to embrace their true potential and fulfil their life's purpose.

Jana recently had the opportunity to share her insights as a TEDx speaker delivering a talk on the power of hypnosis, aiming to provide valuable perspectives.

Jana constantly seeks new experiences to push her boundaries. Whether she's launching her own business, conquering thrilling adventures like bungee jumping off the highest bridge in the world, or scaling the highest peak in Africa, she fearlessly embraces life's challenges and continuously reaches new heights.

Connect with Jana:

In the words of Whitney Houston “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”

But can you really love yourself and why does it even matter?

We’re exploring self-love and self-worth with guest Melisa Dervisevic in today’s episode to uncover why loving yourself really is the greatest love of all. Melisa is a health and wellness coach who is passionate about helping women to be able to love themselves and know their worth because as she shares in her own story, it is only when you value yourself and believe in yourself with love and compassion that you can create a life you love.

In today’s conversation we discuss:

• What self-love is and why it matters.
• The struggle that so many people have loving and even liking themselves.
• Steps to take to begin building self-love.
• The ripple effects of working on knowing your worth and value on all areas of your health and wellbeing.
• The power in realising that happiness isn’t found in external things but when you are clear on your purpose.
• How social media affects our opinion and worth of ourselves and breaking free from comparison and perfectionism.
• The importance of practicing self-compassion and acceptance of yourself.
• Harnessing the power of positive self-talk to reinforce self-love and self-worth.

About Melisa:

Melisa worked as a Family Nurse Practitioner for 8 years but always felt like something was missing or that she needed to do more. After facing some challenges in her life, she went on a journey to find herself and to figure out her ‘purpose’ in the world. Working through therapy and life coaching she learned so much about herself. Melissa dug deep and was able to get clear on what she wanted from her life and know why this mattered to her.

With focus and consistency, Melisa built her self-worth so that she no longer chased it in the outside world. She’s now certified as a health and wellness coach helping women discover their self-worth so that they too can take control of their life and live the radiant life they dream of.

Melisa is a single Mom to her four year-old daughter and loves showing her the importance of putting yourself and your happiness first.

Connect with Melisa:

What we eat has such a huge part to play in not only our physical health but our mental health too. But knowing what to eat can be so complicated, and for many people they’re confused about how to eat better and improve their diet.

In today’s episode we explore food for health and the benefits of adding more plants into your diet. Our guest Sarah Mills shares her knowledge and experience about getting started with eating more plants and provides lots of great tips on how you can make changes to your diet to include more plant alternatives and thrive in life.

In this episode we discuss:

• The mind body connection and Sarah’s most impactful habit for this.
• The role food plays in so much more than how much we weigh.
• What plant foods are and why it’s something that many people turn their nose up to when they hear about it.
• The difference between veganism and plant-based eating.
• The benefits of eating more plants in your diet.
• Making small changes to gradually shift your eating habits.
• Three reasons why people make a choice to go full plant-based.
• Getting clear about why you want to change something to guarantee your success.

About Sarah:

Sarah Mills is an ex-marketing consultant turned vegan sales and leadership coach, who runs a sustainable, wellness and mindset business - The Art of Winning. Sarah has been a Global Brand Ambassador with one of the worlds' leading vegan B Corporations, reaching the top 2%, for 15 years, helping hundreds of people become conscious consumers with products and programmes to enhance mind, body and skin. She is a passionate advocate for helping people live their best lives and flourish through adversity to continue to grow with purpose.    

Sarah was a 2020 Successful Women in Business Finalist in the Sustainability Category and the Winner of the 2023 NE Skill Up Business Awards. She is also the founder of WOW Women - empowering women everywhere in a fun and feisty way.

Connect with Sarah:

The juggle of life is tough for many of us - work, family, home, friends, yourself! For Issy Howell who recently became a first time Mum, navigating this huge change and adjustment to her life was like most first-time parents, a challenging one! Add to this that she’s a business owner and very aware of how valuable her personal health and wellbeing are, she’s been finding it all just a little overwhelming!

We know that many people feel they don’t have enough time in their busy lives to add healthy habits into the mix - it’s the biggest reason we hear from our community and clients about what’s in their way to living healthier! So this is a great conversation with someone who found herself in this position and has been treading some choppy water with the challenges of adjusting to motherhood. But, Issy has such great awareness of how feeling strong with the right habits results in you being able to live the lifestyle you want, all whilst maintaining a successful business! This is such a great conversation emphasising the importance of health and work-life balance.

In our conversation we discuss:

• The importance of sleep in Issy’s wellbeing toolkit.
• How establishing routines has supported Issy’s transition to motherhood.
• The benefits of walking outside.
• The physical and mental adjustments that can be challenging post-pregnancy.
• Seeing your worth as more than your appearance and the value of knowing your inner strength.
• Shifting as a business owner to balance parental responsibilities and life changes.
• Why it’s important to be kind to yourself.
• Blending work and family life to model healthy habits and behaviours to your children.

About Issy:

Issy Roughan co-owns family business Howell Media, offering way more than just film. They produce top of the line content for business, be it on TV, on your website, across social media or live at your event. Issy uses her years of experience in the video marketing industry to consult, train, provide a focused strategy, create incredible content and make you stand out, regardless of your size or industry! 

As a recent first-time Mum to baby daughter Esme, Issy is focusing on creating balance across running her business, caring for her daughter, and maintaining strong health for herself. She knows as an entrepreneur the importance of investing in your wellbeing and is passionate to help others live well so they can build thriving businesses, and enjoy their success out of work too!

Connect with Issy:

It’s estimated that the average person will spend around 3,507 days, or 90,000 hours of their lifetime working. That’s a huge proportion of your one life, so if you aren’t happy in your job or career, it’s going to take it’s toll.

Your health and wellbeing are impacted by everything in your life, so if work is the biggest thing you spend your time doing, it’s obvious that it’s going to contribute to your overall wellness and how happy you feel. So why do many of us spend years unhappy in our jobs and take the impact this has on our stress levels, our mood, our relationships, our mental and physical health? 

Today we’re talking about the role your career plays on your overall health and wellbeing with Kerry Jones, an executive coach who helps people to work out  their career path and navigate professional challenges so that their career isn’t what’s holding them back from living a happy life.

In our conversation we explore:

• Why the job you do has such an impact on your overall wellbeing and happiness.
• How easy it is to wrap your identity up in your job and career.
• The reasons so many people are unhappy in their jobs but don’t have the confidence to make a change.
• The hold fear has on you and how to tackle fear head-on.
• The changes Covid has brought to work and the job you do, and why we can’t let a return to the old normal take hold of you.
• Stepping back to look at the one life you have and creating a bigger plan for what you want to help you move forward with making a change in your career.
• The choice we all have but get caught up not seeing.
• Getting started with a simple tip from Kerry to look only at your next 6 months.

About Kerry:

Kerry is an Executive and Career Development Coach who supports senior professionals to gain clarity and confidence so they can thrive. 

Having worked for 16 years in high-level positions with global FTSE companies, Kerry has extensive experience managing teams to deliver organisational, leadership and cultural change. 

As a trusted coach, she leverages her experience and established coaching frameworks and techniques to support, challenge and empower her clients. 

Kerry holds accreditations as a Coach from the International Coaching Federation (ICF), The Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), and ABNLP.

In addition to offering 1:1 private coaching, she collaborates with organisations to provide coaching services for their employees. Kerry's services also include group coaching, speaking engagements, and webinars.

Kerry loves living near the beach in Brighton with her husband and two amazing kids!

Connect with Kerry:

How many diets have you tried, only to find yourself back where you started? Are you stuck in the constant cycle of Monday dieting and weekend indulgence?

In this episode, we're diving into the world of diets, their effectiveness, and the impact they have on our health and happiness. If you've ever felt trapped in the cycle of dieting, or if you've wondered why diets don't seem to deliver the promised results, you're not alone.

Listen in as we explore the reasons behind our obsession with diets and uncover a more sustainable approach to health and wellbeing. It’s time to stop going on a diet!

In the episode we’re sharing:

• Why you should stop going on a diet.
• The reasons why you’re obsessed with dieting and weight loss.
• The pursuit of thinness as an answer to finding happiness.
• The role of diet culture in linking health to body size.
• The link between food, mood and overall health.
• Detaching health from body size: recognising that size doesn't define health.
• Rejecting the diet mentality and pursuing lasting lifestyle changes.
• Taking a holistic approach to health for overall strong health and wellbeing.

About Life Now Coaching:

We believe everyone would love to live a better life and we know that by putting the right healthy habits into your daily routines and lifestyle, you can truly create the type of life you'll love living every day. We want you to stop waiting for one day and make today the day you begin taking better care of yourself so you can feel healthy, happy and strong. Life Now Coaching supports you to build sustainable healthy habits using our successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep and stress. 

Resources:

Life is for living, isn’t it? We all want to enjoy our life, get the most from it, spending our time doing nice, fun things. For lots of people this outlook on life creates a belief that thinking about your health and taking care of yourself will hold you back from living your life to the full.

For our guest today she loved her life and wanted to make the most of it, so had the opinion that life was too short to worry about her health. Carol Deveney was a self-confessed workaholic who took so much from the work she did and the success she’d accomplished in her career. Striving to build two businesses she was looking for the unlock to the next level of success and was shocked to get the advice that she needed to prioritise her health if she wanted to achieve further business growth.

Carol shares her story of recently facing a very scary and high risk health issue that made her realise her beliefs and approach to how she lived weren’t ones that were actually designing the type of life she wanted to be able to live and enjoy.

During our conversation we explore:

• The risks you put yourself under when you ignore your health.
• How Carol was unaware of the silent issues she was facing in her health.
• Why you need to listen more to your body and regularly check-in with how you’re feeling.
• The dangers that come from neglecting yourself and why taking a long-term view of your life helps you to make changes to your self care.
• The importance of setting clear boundaries to prioritise your health and wellbeing.
• What Carol is doing to improve her health and the ripple effect her lifestyle changes have had on other areas of her life.
• Approaching your health as the biggest investment you can make for your future self and life.

About Carol:

I’m a business-to-business strategist and CEO of my consulting firm, See Change International Consulting Ltd. With over 20 years of experience in the corporate world and a vast network, I’m ready to help you build the financial security, lifestyle and freedom you started your business for, and break the cycle of feast and famine.

As a B2B strategist, I help small business owners learn how to navigate the corporate world, get in front of large organisations, win contracts and build long-term, sustainable work pipelines. And as CEO of See Change International Consulting Ltd, I also help my corporate clients access the skillsets they need from talented entrepreneurs like you.

Connect with Carol:

We all know how important our mental health is and the impact it can have when it’s not strong. Today we’re talking about depression and finding out how our guest Matthew Williams faced three different episodes of depression and what he’s taken from his own experiences to now help others.

Matthew is an advocate for mental health, working mainly with men, and he’s passionate about normalising conversations on our mental health so that we don’t have to wait until we’re at crisis point before reaching out for help.

In the episode we chat about:

• What depression is and why it’s often a term that’s misused and misunderstood.
• How Matthew supports his mental health now and why he hasn’t labelled himself as someone with depression.
• The challenges we still experience as a society opening up about our mental health.
• Evolving our understanding and approach to depression and mental illness so it becomes comfortable and easy to talk about it.
• Culture being key to normalise sharing our emotions and health challenges.
• The struggles men have sharing and the stigma that can be associated with mental illness.
• The power of boxing to help understand depression and build your health to feel better all round.
• The importance of community and sport together and how powerful they are when combined.
• Why it’s vital we model healthy habits and normalise talking about your emotions to our kids.

About Matthew:

Matthew always felt he had a charmed life, until he didn’t anymore. In 2006 severe depression knocked him off his feet. He almost didn’t get up.

Despite a beautiful family and a career in boxing, the sport he loved, depression wasn't finished with him, and in 2013 and again in 2019 it beat up on him some more.

But like his childhood hero Rocky Balboa, Matthew ‘didn’t hear no bell.’

He hit back, and has used his experiences to help others, by writing his book, ‘Something Changed: Stumbling Through Divorce, Dating and Depression’, published in 2017, by featuring in a number of major mental health campaigns, and by creating Knock Out Depression in 2021. 

Matthew is a qualified life coach and boxing coach, and holds a degree in sports science. He spent 11 years working for the national governing body for boxing, England Boxing, where he created Box In Mind, a boxing-specific mental health awareness workshop, in partnership with Mind.

He has worked for a mental health charity, supporting individuals to improve their mental health, as well as featuring in a number of mental health awareness campaigns.

Connect with Matthew:

What if it’s you standing in the way of what you want? The promotion, the fitness goal, losing weight, a healthy relationship, having more time for yourself. Maybe you’re the one sabotaging this happening for you. Interesting thought isn’t it?

We’re exploring the topic of self-sabotage today with special guest Erin Wooodruff, a coach who helps you to stop holding yourself back and to stop the self-sabotage from standing in the way of being your true self.

It’s so common to not realise that your beliefs and thoughts are holding you back from happiness, possibly making you feel lost and stuck. This is why it’s such a great subject to bring to you this week! Take a listen and get some impactful tips from Erin about how to recognise whether the sense of doubt and loss about who you are is coming from the limiting beliefs you have about your potential and worth.

In our conversation we explore:

• What exactly self-sabotage is and why it’s not something that is your fault.
• The different ways you might be sabotaging what you really want in your life.
• How this plays out for your health and wellbeing.
• Why this is predominately something women struggle most with.
• How to start shifting your belief systems to better support yourself using Erins ‘3 As’ technique.
• The power of radical accountability.
• The role your marriage may be playing on your wellbeing and happiness.
• How to take control of your own happiness and not depend on your partner to make you happy.
• Getting started with small steps to build new habits to reduce self-sabotage.

About Erin:

Erin is a mom, wife, and CEO. She is a certified life coach who helps high-achieving women stay happily married to introverts. As a life coach, Erin helps you reconnect with yourself so you can create the abundant life you’re excited about. She teaches you how to communicate with confidence, clarity, and curiosity, love unconditionally, and create time for yourself.

Erin helps you to uncover limiting beliefs, pitfalls, and other distractions you may not have noticed in your life. Her goal is to help you stop holding yourself back and to stop self-sabotage. Erin believes that you are the only one who can change you, that you are the only one in your own way, and that it’s time to be yourself again.

Connect with Erin:

While we’re on holiday and taking a very well deserved and much needed break, I’d love to share a few of our listeners, and watchers, favourite episodes. If you’ve not listened to these ones yet then please check them out!

We’ve had so many fantastic responses to all of our episodes and we love the diverse range of topics and conversations we’ve had with the most incredible guests. We know we have so much more to bring to you after our little holiday!

Our most favourite five episodes to check out are:

• Number 22 with my special partner Kev where he shared his story of as part a month long focus on real people and real lives. Kev spoke about his struggles with imposter syndrome and the self-doubt that led him to suffer with very low self-esteem, self-worth and depression. He shares how his overall lifestyle was contributing to all of this without him knowing it. Talking about men’s mental health is so important and being able to start this conversation with my own partner was a very important and special thing to be able to do.
• Number 21 with my lovely friend Victoria Himsworth. This is our second most played episode and I think I know why! This was also part of the February mini-series sharing real stories and Victoria’s story is one so many people could relate to. Victoria’s whole life was turned upside down overnight when her one year old daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Vic knew she was close to breaking but also knew how important taking care of herself was, so she chose to focus on only one aspect of her health to support her as she navigated months living in a hospital.
• Number 6 with Megan Price from Happy By Me helping you to get clear on what happiness means to you and how valuable a tool journalling is to build into your habit toolkit. We all want to be happy but so many of you struggle to feel happy and Meg is the expert at helping you find what happiness looks like for you.
• Number 2 where I actually talk about health and chocolates in the same sentence - yes really! I share why your wellness toolkit is like your very own curated box of chocolates, with all of the best types of chocolate in there for you. It helps you to see that there isn’t a one size fits all approach to health and that what you do do support your health and how you feel will change as you life changes
• Number 4 with Ashley Carlotta where we dive into the role your emotions plays in what you eat and your diet. We talked about how to ditch the diet culture and no longer deprive yourself of the things you enjoy in your life and how’s all about taking a balanced approach to support not just your health but the health of your children too.

If you have a personal favourite please let us know in the reviews here on your podcast platform! Enjoy checking out some of our favourites and we’ll be back next week with a new episode for you.

About Life Now Coaching:

We believe everyone would love to live a better life and we know that by putting the right healthy habits into your daily routines and lifestyle, you can truly create the type of life you'll love living every day. We want you to stop waiting for one day and make today the day you begin taking better care of yourself so you can feel healthy, happy and strong. Life Now Coaching supports you to build sustainable healthy habits using our successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep and stress. 

Resources:

Are stress and burnout just the same thing? Is stress inevitable because of our busy fast paced way of living?

This is the topic of today’s episode with guest expert Keir Wotherspoon. We’re diving deep into why burnout is on the rise and whether men and women experience it the same way for the same reasons, and how to build the right habits to protect yourself from burnout.

Keir is a performance coach helping stressed and exhausted men in business defeat burnout and develop unbreakable confidence. He has a long background working in health and fitness, and uses his own experience of navigating burnout to help you understand why working hard and constantly pushing yourself isn’t the only way to hit it.

In our conversation we talk about:

• What burnout is and why it’s on the rise.
• The difference between stress and burnout, and why stress should be a good thing.
• How to build a morning routine to better support your sleep and overall health.
• Why sleep is the king of healthy habits in building resilience and avoiding burnout.
• The importance of habits and having them become a part of your identity.
• Challenging the biggest obstacle we hear from people wanting to make changes - having no time to do it!
• Keir’s three rules for living a strong, happy life.

About Keir:

Keir Wootherspoon is a performance coach helping stressed and exhausted men in business defeat burnout, develop unbreakable confidence and win back 10-15 hours each week without sacrificing a single penny in revenue or profit.

Keir focuses on health as a lever to improve your performance and accelerate your energy. He’s passionate about the importance of sleep and why it’s key to better managing stress and avoiding burnout.

Connect with Keir:

The way we think and feel determines our actions, which becomes our reality. For many of us, we’re caught-up in the spin cycle of life, unaware of this, struggling with who we are and our lot in life.  Christina Lord is here sharing her story of how she’d moved through life, doing what she’d been made to believe were the right next steps for her - job, relationship, home, marriage - only to have her world come crashing down at age thirty-five. 

What Christina shares is a familiar story - one of significant life changes pushing you to the brink of the edge, only to realise that what’s happening to you is in fact meant as a wake-up call to work out who you are and finally get in control of your life. She now supports other people doing this through energy leadership and mindset coaching, and we dive into the role of energy in finding your authentic self in this fantastic episode.

During our chat today we share:

• How easy it is to fall into roles in your life and not be clear on your identity and true self.
• The importance of emotional, mental, and physical health, and why there is no end when it comes to building strength in any of these areas.
• The powerful habits Christina has which are continuing to support her own journey of growth and self-compassion.
• Christina’s experience of big life changes being a calling to take stock of where you are in your life, and embrace the opportunities these bring to get clear about who you are.
• How the elements of your wellbeing overlap and identifying which areas you need more support on - and how this changes throughout your life.
• Knowing your personal values and letting these guide the way you live.

About Christina:

As a COR.E Energy Specialist, ICF Certified Coach, Breathwork Facilitator & Master Practitioner in Energy Leadership, Christina helps people learn how to master their mindset & regulate their emotions through identifying what drives & drains them of their energy. Empowering them to harness their natural power to create their own unique success formula - reducing unnecessary stress, to create a sense of clarity, grounded confidence & inner peace.

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In our fourth and final episode as part of our June focus on menopause we’re chatting with nurse and business owner Anna Slater about what menopause actually is and the truth behind HRT.

Anna has been studying and training over the past eighteen months so that her business is now a registered clinic able to diagnose and treat things like menopause. Her experience and expertise working as a palliative care nurse for ten years, and seeing hundreds of women in her own practice suffer because of their symptoms, has propelled her to want to shift women’s understanding about menopause to know that they don’t need to battle on thinking there’s no other way.

We discuss the challenges many women face from a physical and psychological perspective, and how many women fear they’ll never feel good about themselves again. We dive into why women need to be informed about changes and advancements in HRT and know what options they have to build strong health.

I hope you enjoy this special episode an takeaway inspiration and knowledge to better support yourself or someone you love as they navigate this huge season in their life.

In this episode we discuss:

• What exactly perimenopause and menopause is.
• The myths around what happens to women during this season of their life.
• What HRT is and the challenge so many women continue to have accessing it.
• How HRT can support and reduce your menopausal symptoms but why it’s also critical for strong future health.
• The risks to women’s health due to lifestyle and changes in hormones during and after menopause.
• Why HRT isn’t the magic cure all.
• The importance of being informed about menopause to take the right approach for you.
• Next steps to take if you feel you might be perimenopausal or menopausal. 

About Anna:

Anna has worked as a palliative care nurse in an emergency hospital for ten years and alongside this runs her own aesthetics business, Anna Aesthetics. Over her eight years building this business she’s worked with a wide range of women and learned firsthand the challenges many of them experience with their confidence and happiness because of their health. This propelled her to create a 360 approach to helping women feel and look good, and she recently became registered with the care quality commission so that she is now a regulated facility - aligning her ability to carry out medical treatments with cosmetic  treatments. 

Anna has been training to help women through perimenopause and menopause so that they can make informed decisions about the type of medical and lifestyle treatments that are right for them as they navigate this challenging season of their lives.

Anna is an advocate for menopause awareness and HRT, and empowers women to have choice over their health and take a holistic approach to live a great life.

Connect with Anna:

What do you know about menopause? Is it something you think you’ll face when you absolutely have to, or maybe that it’s something you’re staying well and truly away from because you know it’s going to be a nightmare?

In June our podcast will focus on menopause, exploring the myths, fears, beliefs, experiences, and impact to real women. I know how crucial it is to help women of all ages understand what menopause is and how it will affect them, regardless of whether they experience symptoms like hot flushes or not.

Being informed so that you can have agency over the way you feel and any support you need is essential. Because menopause is going to happen to you if you’re a woman, and it’s going to - with or without any physical or mental symptoms - bring change that impacts the way you live. Having the right understanding and knowledge will give you the power to navigate this big season and change in your life in the best way possible so you can live the great life you want to live.

Our episode today is sharing such an insightful and real experience of perimenopause with Sarah Price. Sarah is a mental health nurse, and has been a nurse in the NHS for twenty four years. This didn’t mean she was equipped with all the knowledge about menopause, or that she got the right support when she herself sought help from the medical profession who she went to for help managing her unexpected mental symptoms she started to experience at age forty-two.

During our chat we talk about:

• The symptoms Sarah experienced that were very different to the physical ones she’d been expecting to indicate she was starting perimenopause.
• What some of the mental health symptoms and problems can be that are related to our changing hormones.
• Her struggle getting help from her GP and why so many GPs are still focusing on depression as a root cause of many hormone related symptoms.
• Why being informed with good knowledge on menopause is key to supporting yourself both with the medical help you want, and for your own control.
• How HRT can be a huge help and reduce risks to other illness and diseases, but is not the magic cure for menopause.
• Tracking your symptoms and the different tools to do this.

About Sarah:

Now 51, I took an interest in the symptoms of perimenopause 4 years ago when I started to notice changes in my physical and mental health. I had not considered hormonal changes and was experiencing this without any understanding of what was happening. I was not experiencing the classic symptoms associated with perimenopause so I didn’t initially make the link. I was able to learn from the growing online movement for women and their families in relation to this ‘change of ‘season’ so I was eventually able to gain the right treatment for me as well as being able to identify symptoms and to support women I come into contact with experiencing similar symptoms and now hope I can use my own experience to make others more empowered to seek support. All opinions are personal and not professional. 

Connect with Sarah:

Were you taught about menopause in school? How about by your Mother or other family member? What about as a grown woman?

Our society has deemed menopause a taboo topic, until very recently. This has led to the majority of women having very limited understanding about what the menopause is and what to expect - except for hot flushes, the beginning of the end of your life, and loss of fertility.

During June our podcast will focus on menopause, exploring the myths, fears, beliefs, experiences, and impact to real women. I know how crucial it is to help women of all ages understand what menopause is and how it will affect them, regardless of whether they experience symptoms like hot flushes or not.

Today’s guest is an incredibly brave, passionate, and determined woman. Rebecca Catterall is sharing her experience and story of navigating perimenopause. Her vulnerability is both humbling and inspiring. We know you’re going to resonate with so much in Rebecca’s story, and truly hope it helps you to better support yourself as you journey through this huge and life-changing season of your life.

In our conversation we explore:

• What education has been like for women about menopause and perimenopause.
• The definition of menopause and the importance of women being 100% clear on this.
• Rebecca’s initial symptoms and triggers that prompted her to realise she was peri-menopausal.
• The challenges she faced visiting her medical practice for advice and support.
• How so many women are misdiagnosed and put onto a treatment path for other ailments, and the potential damage this can do physically and mentally.
• The wide range of symptoms possible and how so many of these can be missed or attributed to other life stresses.
• The mentality women have to “shut-up and put-up” leading to them suffering in silence with all aspects of their fertility and menstrual cycles.
• The importance of being in control and equipped with good knowledge about menopause.
• The impact to your mental health and why self-compassion and acceptance are key.
• Learning to be aware of your body, mind, and tracking how you feel.

About Rebecca:

Rebecca Catterall is the Business Wife - and she wants to help you sort your shit out. An experienced Operations Manager who works with some of the most complex and idiosyncratic service-based businesses in the industry, she combines a passion for problem-solving, a knack for facts and figures, and 20+ years of experience working in orgs of all sizes to help business owners streamline their systems, solve their stickiest problems, and create bullet-proof businesses that don't fall apart the second someone takes a day off.

Connect with Rebecca:

One of the key challenges we’re facing with menopause is the lack of knowledge about the topic amongst women. We haven’t been brought up with education and clarity about menopause so that we truly understand what it is and how it’s going to affect us. So, this month we're bringing you four very special episodes focusing on menopause.

There’s a lot of unknown, fear, stigma, and even shame still associated with menopause and the changes it brings to a woman. We’re seeing this play out in so many parts of our culture and society with 1 in 10 women citing they’ve had to leave their job because of the struggles they faced with their physical or mental health due to menopause.

Equipping ourselves as women with the right insights and knowledge so that we can take control and put the power into our hands to help us live strong an healthy is key. My guest this week is a local business advisor here to share her personal menopause story as part of our June menopause focus and awareness month. Nickie Kilkenny is a vibrant, professional woman helping other women in business to build successful, sustainable businesses. But, when Nickie was in the depths of perimenopause with no support or personal knowledge about what she was experiencing and why, she felt lost and incredibly scared. She describes herself as being a total mess and even fearing that she had dementia.

Nickie shares her story on:

• Having no knowledge about perimenopause or menopause and how it was something her own mother had experienced in her thirties but never spoke about.
• Feeling isolated and lost because of her symptoms and their impact on her wellbeing.
• Struggling to get professional help and her symptoms being explained as depression.
• Fearing she was losing her mind when her memory completely failed her in the most unusual way.
• How arming yourself with information by taking control of your health and your life is key to supporting yourself through the menopause transition.

• Why all women need to understand this huge season of their life and what will happen to them regardless of what symptoms they encounter.
• Making lifestyle changes to support your health and most importantly to help you live a well and happy life.
• How at fifty-five she is totally back in her game smashing not only deadlifts but her career too!

About Nickie:

As the Local Enterprise Manager for the Northeast, it’s Nickie Kilkenny’s responsibility to support businesses in the community, regardless of who you bank with. Nickie is accredited in business growth by the Institute of Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship (IOEE) and also Women in Business accredited by Every Woman, designed to support the growth in female led businesses. Nickie looks to add value and growth to SMEs to stay ahead of the curve, whether it be through one-to-one mentoring or by attending a local event - she is here to boost your business.

Nickie proactively spends time supporting local businesses by sharing advice, creating networks, leveraging the local ecosystem, and hosting events to help boost business.

Connect with Nickie:

Are you in the camp of waiting until something goes wrong before having to give your health a thought? It often takes something drastic or even life-threatening for either yourself or someone you love to face before you appreciate how valuable your health is. Because without your health, you have no life, no you even. It’s the number one thing that stands in our way of being able to do and feel the things we want in our lives.

For Casey Kang Head she faced this when she was diagnosed with cancer; not just once but three times. Casey lived a pretty healthy life prior to her first cancer diagnosis at the age of thirty one, but quickly realised how many of her habits were not ones that were helping her to live the full and vibrant life she wanted to live.

Casey and our host Nicola are totally aligned in not waiting until you face something catastrophic to realise your health matters. They want to help you have your penny-drop moment on why taking care of yourself is an investment that must be made not just for right now, but more importantly for the future you.

In our conversation we explore:

• How Casey focused on just one thing to support her health through her first cancer diagnosis.
• The mind body connection and the power of yoga to help you build this understanding.
• Reducing anxiety through mind and body techniques. 
• Building resilience through the way you take care of yourself.
• The power of moving your body and making this a part of who you are.
• Applying a solution focused approach and why this comes natural to Casey.
• Getting started with exercise and overcoming the mentality of not having enough time to build this into your life.
• Finding ways to exercise that tick lots of wellbeing boxes.

About Casey:

My name is Casey Kang Head. I am a 3x survivor of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 

I am an Author of “Finding Your Way Back to Heart Center; Cancer Treatment Ended Now What?”

I am also a personal trainer, Yoga instructor, Yoga for oncology certified, Cancer Exercise Specialist, PN Level 1 Nutritionist, Restorative Yoga, Trauma Trained, Level 1 Reiki Healer and lifelong learner. I am dog mom to Lily.

Connect with Casey:

Knowing what success looks like for you is something so few of us get clear on, yet we’re constantly striving for success because we believe it will make us feel the way we want to feel. Yet the irony is that we often don’t even know how it is we truly want to feel!

It’s easy to get caught up in your life, pushing to achieve your goals and achieve this success, doing and saying yes to more and more. The result is that you’re maxed out, juggling so many balls, stressing over having no time and not feeling the way you’re trying so hard to feel.

Our guest today is Amanda McKinney, a coach helping entrepreneurs to navigate self-doubt, which we all know is a big obstacle in building strong health and wellbeing. Amanda focuses on your personal definition of success and boundaries, so we couldn’t wait to have her share her expertise and give you some valuable tips on how to say no - and yes - to the things that matter most in achieving your own success.

In our conversation we explore:

• Tips to building new habits by focusing on your intention.
• The importance of accountability and how it’s possible to do this yourself.
• Why it’s essential to get clear on what your version of success looks like.
• The challenge many of us face with what we think success is, and why this often leads to feelings of failure, poor wellbeing, and unhappiness.
• How important boundaries are to achieving your success and feeling the way you want in your life.
• The way our conditioning of doing and having ‘things’ to feel successful is leading to overwhelm, stress and burnout.
• Getting started with putting boundaries in place to support your overall wellbeing.

About Amanda:

Amanda McKinney is a recognized thought leader and coach on Accidental Entrepreneurship, author of Why Not You? An Accidental Entrepreneur’s Guide To Success and host of The Unapologetic Entrepreneur Podcast. As a coach she can help any Accidental Entrepreneur navigate self-doubt so that they can take action and uncover their confidence through utilizing her Y.O.U. Promise framework.

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Is it really possible for women to have it all? What even is ‘it all’?

These are just some of the questions we’re exploring in today’s episode with our guest May James. May runs two businesses and has had huge success in the accolades she has been awarded and in supporting other female entrepreneurs to build and scale thriving global businesses. All of which she has accomplished whilst managing her chronic illness and living her life on purpose.

May is passionate about helping women to create a business that works for them by being honest about how she balances her business with living a great life. Her openness and vulnerability are strengths that will help others to reflect on their own life to consider what might support them to feel better and get clear on their own values.

In our conversation we talk about:

• The blueprint May used to design her life and business.
• The different habits May has gradually built to enable her to manage her chronic illness.
• Whether women really can have it all.
• How a culture of comparing yourself to what you deem normal and success is crippling so many women.
• Why women need to be more open about the way they feel and the things they do to support them in their life.
• The different seasons we go through in our lives and the importance of being aware of these to know what you need.
• Why self-care is being given a bad name and what caring for yourself actually looks like.
• How people view coaching and therapy and making changes to help them feel better.

About May:

May James is a global business consultant, trusted strategic advisor and speaker that helps ambitious entrepreneurs to scale their businesses sustainably. She won North East Young Business Woman of the year award in 2022, and was listed on the Northern Power Awards Future List in 2023 which recognises the leaders and trailblazers who are raising the bar for gender equality at work. She is a business mentor for Virgin Start-up and is a recent delegate for UNWOMEN UK. 

Her refreshing and honest approach to empowering ambitious women to feel more confident on their entrepreneurial journey is unrivalled. May has built a community of thriving women around the world who are armed with the tools to excel in business and live a fulfilling life. Her outstanding and consistent results are down to her distinctive, no-bs, proven approach of driving success and transformation.

May also runs a preloved fashion recycling business, is the host of the Honest Business Podcast which is listened to across 25 countries, battles daily with a chronic illness and champions living fully in the everyday.

May has over 8 years of sales experience, went to business school, consulted around the world and headed up the D&I function within a not-for-profit; responsible for over 8,000 individuals. She now spends the majority of her time at May James Ltd, helping small businesses to design rewarding business models, sustainably scale revenue and develop high performing teams.

Connect with May: