Races are about more than winning. Competing is about more than podium spots or fastest times. Races are about personal bests and striving to be your best, whether that’s first place or 571st place. In fact, the person who comes in last may have overcome more, learned more, and grown more from the event than the one who came in first. This week’s guest Adina O’Neill, a self-described “back of the pack” athlete knows all about that. Adina didn’t finish her first triathlon until age 40. She went f...
Sep 22, 2021•55 min
Following menopausal athletes on Instagram can be inspiring. But if we’re honest, it can also be deflating. You see the podium smiles and the highlights of their lives, which can leave you feeling alone in your own struggles. That’s why it’s so wonderful when one of these athletes like this week’s guest, multisport athlete Nicole Sin Quee pulls back the curtain and shares the real, more nuanced picture of their life. Nicole is a math teacher and mother who lives in Bronx, NY. She is also an acco...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Juggling training by itself is hard. Juggling training along with real life obligations is even harder. Add the physical and psychological changes that come with menopause and midlife? Oh boy. Better call Cirque du Soleil for some tips. Or you can call a lifelong athlete, veteran coach, and exercise physiologist like this week’s guest, Lenita Anthony, who provides sound, science- and life-based advice on planning your exercise sessions, balancing intensity with recovery (especially when it comes...
Sep 08, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Medical menopause can be intense. If you’re a cancer survivor, you may have multiple rounds with menopause. You may go through premature menopause or have menopause symptoms related to chemotherapy and/or other drug treatments and then go through it again either naturally or should you need surgery or other treatments later on. It can all be complicated, confusing, challenging, and scary. Being an active woman helps with symptom management, but there’s more you can do to get through and manage y...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 13 min
As women we hear a lot about “breaking the ceiling,” whether it’s the glass one that has hovered over us for so long or the self imposed one that we sometimes put overhead, limiting our potential. Well if you want to crack that ceiling, it helps to raise the floor—elevate the platform from which you’re starting by taking the best care possible of your body where it is right now, something that is especially important during our menopausal years. That’s where this week’s guest Tracey Jacobs comes...
Aug 25, 2021•1 hr 9 min
We often talk about menopause as puberty in reverse. Remember puberty? You sprouted breasts and grew hips and maybe got curvier all the way around. Nobody ever said to you, “What have you done?” You were obviously going through this very natural process. When those hormones reverse course, your body also starts changing. Only now, we beat ourselves up and feel like we’ve somehow failed if we have a belly when we didn’t before…even though maybe our body is adding that padding to help protect us. ...
Aug 18, 2021•1 hr 14 min
Cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and other psychological practices come up a lot on this show as ways we can quell anxiety, manage menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats, and get some quality sleep during this time of life. But what exactly is it? How do you do it? How does it work? We tackle all these questions and more with this week’s guest, Dr. Alisha Brosse. Alisha Brosse, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and founding partner of the Boulder Center for Cognitive and...
Aug 11, 2021•57 min
Let food be thy medicine, they say. But don’t stop there. Let exercise and stress management and sleep and friendships and your whole lifestyle be thy medicine, too. That’s the basic tenet of the type of Lifestyle Medicine this week’s guest, Dr. Melissa Sundermann practices. It’s grounded in research showing how we live our lives has a profound impact on our health, performance, well-being, and for the purposes of this discussion, our menopausal transition. At a time when everything can feel out...
Aug 04, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Hormone therapy for menopause is rife with confusion, fear, misunderstanding, and outright misinformation. Even doctors, who are often relying on long debunked research, can be at a loss to help women make educated choices for their health, well-being, and performance during this time. This week’s guests, Drs. Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris, authors of Estrogen Matters go to great lengths to describe the real risks (or lack thereof) and myriad benefits of hormone therapy for women in their menop...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 38 min
This show is all about working with your changing physiology to optimize performance. This week’s guest, Masters 50-54 Cyclocross World Champion and Masters 50-54 XC and Masters 50-54 Marathon Mountain Bike National Champion, Libbey Sheldon embodies that ethos as well as anyone we know. After struggling with mountain bike stage racing in 2013, Libbey went back and worked on her limiters to maximize her performance and nearly won the women’s elite overall at the Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic ...
Jul 21, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Everyone needs a little summer break, even podcast hosts! So this week we are re-posting this excellent episode with physical therapist Chloe Murdock from fall 2020. Enjoy! It happens. You sneeze, cough, or laugh…and leak. Or you can barely get your key in the door without wetting yourself. It’s common, but not normal…or necessary. This week, pelvic floor specialist Chloë Murdock, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS offers solutions to the incontinence that can happen during menopause. And, spoiler alert, there’...
Jul 14, 2021•1 hr 1 min
60 percent of people with thyroid disease go undiagnosed. And if you’re a menopausal woman, you may be mistaking thyroid disease symptoms for menopause symptoms—and suffering from both. The North American Menopause Society calls the thyroid a “touchy gland,” as it becomes imbalanced in about 1 in 8 women. And when it does, it can trigger a cascade of symptoms and, if it goes unchecked, health issues such as fatigue, forgetfulness, mood swings, weight gain, irregular menstrual cycles, high choles...
Jul 07, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Recent research using brain imaging analysis shows our brains physically change during perimenopause. So our brains are clearly—sometimes substantially—impacted by our hormones. But those hormones are part of a larger chorus that includes nature, nurture, culture, society, lifestyle, and our thoughts and emotions, which can have a profound impact on how we experience the changes that come during the menopause transition. Experts are still uncovering all the hows and whys. Neuroscientist Dr. Sara...
Jun 30, 2021•1 hr 15 min
If you’re looking for just one piece of equipment that can help you get strong and fit AF, look no further than kettlebells. If you’re looking for one woman who can tell you everything you want to know about kettlebell training and why it’s the ideal training tool for menopausal women, look no further than this week’s guest Andrea Du Cane, of Andrea Du Cane Kettlebell Fitness. Andrea is Director of Certifications for Dragon Door Publications. She is a Master Kettlebell Instructor, an ACE-certifi...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 12 min
“Maybe it’s time to slow down.” That’s the message menopausal women often get from their friends, family, and yes, even physicians when they have joint pain and nagging injuries like Achilles tendonitis or “menopause arthritis” that are preventing them from running, riding, and hitting the weights without pain. This week’s guest, active aging expert Vonda Wright, MD, is simply not having it. Instead, she’s using her 20 years of medical acumen and wisdom to help others optimize aging, maximize mo...
Jun 16, 2021•1 hr 20 min
Why is there so much misinformation about menopause? What really helps? What doesn’t? What the heck are “bioidentical hormones”? And why do we go through menopause anyway? We dig into all this and much, much more this week with none other than renowned (and oh, so feisty) OB/GYN and pain medicine physician, Dr. Jen Gunter, author of The Menopause Manifesto, as well as the New York Times bestselling The Vagina Bible. Jen Gunter, M.D., is an internationally bestselling author and OB/GYN with more ...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Ever wonder how we got here? How is it that in 2021 billions of women are still largely in the dark about menopause? That many of us still feel kind of ashamed to talk about it? This week’s guest, historian Elinor Cleghorn, Ph.D., author of Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World tells us exactly how we’ve gotten here--our androcentric Western medical system that dates back to Ancient Greece is how. It’s why women have suffered misdiagnosis and mistreatment throughout history. It...
Jun 02, 2021•59 min
What can you do today to make yourself better tomorrow? The best answer to that question is based on you and you alone. Not what other women are doing. Not what you think you should be doing. Not what you used to do. But what you need to do—how to learn and improve—today based on where you are right now. This week’s guest, coach Julie Young lives, breathes, and, of course, teaches that philosophy to help her clients optimize personal performance, no matter their age or menopausal status. Julie’s...
May 26, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Ask your doctor about the benefits of high intensity exercise, lifting heavy sh*t, and adaptogens and you may just get a shrug (or worse a patronizing smile). Ask your coach or trainer about medicine and…well, don’t ask your coach or trainer about medicine because that’s not their job. What’s left is a giant chasm where most women in menopause reside, scratching their heads, wondering how to find a wellness prescription that really works. This week’s guest Carla DiGirolamo, M.D., is making it he...
May 19, 2021•1 hr
Your big goals don’t have to change with “The Change,” but your training, nutrition, and mindset sure do. This week, long time road and track cyclist Cheryl Osborne, 55, shares how she’s chasing a gold medal and championship jersey at the USA Cycling Masters Track National Championships this fall. Her strategy includes a healthy dose of sprint training and lifting heavy sh*t along with sound nutrition and lots of rest and easy rides. Cheryl, who works as a security specialist for the Department ...
May 12, 2021•54 min
It’s hard to chase big goals and live your best life when you’re getting sidelined by injuries, which is a struggle many women face during the menopause transition. Research is only beginning to uncover how our sex hormones keep our muscles and connective tissues healthy and resilient and how the menopausal transition can increase the risk for plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis and so many other painful “itises.” This week’s guest, physiotherapist Claire Callaghan, B.Pty MSc, specializes in ...
May 05, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Does your diet make you feel good? How’s your energy? Are you performing and recovering well? How do you really feel? If we’re honest, many of us don’t even really know. Spending so many years on the high carb, low carb, no carb, low fat, high fat, keto, paleo, intermittent fasting Merry-Go-Round, it can be easy to lose sight of how you’re actually feeling and performing. And that’s before you throw the quest for weight loss--and what we think we “need” to weigh--into the picture. Ultimately, ma...
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 7 min
How many times have you pushed back a big goal until you got “fitter” or “leaner”? How many times have you looked at an exciting challenge and thought, “That’s not for me.”? Tania Dalton spent most of her pre-menopausal life battling with body image issues, disordered eating, and crises of confidence, which kept her on the sidelines instead of engaging in the sports and activities she was otherwise eager to try. Now at 52, Tania is taking on those challenges full steam ahead, training for her fi...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr
Gut health means more than just good digestion—though that’s certainly an important part of it! Your gut microbiome also impacts your overall health, body composition, and athletic performance. It’s also changing all the time and the menopausal transition definitely alters it…and not necessarily for the better. That’s why it’s especially important to build a diverse, healthy gut microbiome through the menopausal transition and beyond. This week’s guest, sports dietitian and clinical exercise phy...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 8 min
The hormonal havoc of menopause can leave us with higher anxiety, less muscle, and a decline in power—all things that are unhelpful for sport in general, but especially if you’re scaling a vertical rock formation a dizzying distance from the ground. This week’s guests, Nancy Feagin and Maggie Odette, both badass rock climbers in their fifties, are not only overcoming the obstacles that menopause can bring to stay in the game, but are actually achieving some of their best climbs ever. They share ...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 16 min
Diets do not work. More than 30 years of diet culture has proven that point. Yet, we’re still bombarded day in and day out with books, websites, and fitspo pros promising rapid weight loss and making everyone feel bad about their bodies. Menopausal women are currently a popular target for many of these quick fixes and diet traps. Enough already. This week’s guest Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S has been pushing back against diet culture since 1995, instead offering a systematic approach to tune...
Mar 31, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Everyone knows chest pain is a symptom of heart trouble. What too many people still don’t know is that women are more likely than men to experience other symptoms like nausea or vomiting, unexplained shortness of breath, profound inexplicable fatigue, jaw or back pain, or no symptoms at all. American Heart Association data from two million people shows that not only are women’s symptoms recognized less readily, but also they are less likely to receive the same preventative care as men, and they ...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Tight hips, achy knees, weak glutes, grouchy back, stiff ankles...the list of aches, pains, and niggles that pop up seemingly out of nowhere can feel overwhelming, especially once we hit the menopausal transition and our hormones aren’t keeping our muscles and connective tissues as resilient and supple as they once were. This week’s guest, Dr. Kelly Starrett of The Ready State offers insights and advice for regaining (and retaining) the healthy, pain-free mobility your body was meant to have so ...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Yoga is more than something you do--that one or two classes a week where you attempt a full pigeon pose. It’s a way you live--a strengthening of the tether that connects your mind, body, and soul. Practiced daily, it can improve every aspect of your physical and mental well being, especially when you need that help most, like during menopausal and midlife years. This week’s guest, Carol Krucoff, C-IAYT, E-RYT, shares how yoga quite literally saved her life and how she applies what she’s learned ...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr
Dragging yourself through the motions more often than not these days? You’re not alone. The brain chemistry changes that occur during menopausal years can cause your mojo, motivation, and mental game to go MIA. But don’t despair. This week’s guest, psychologist Dr. Lisa Lewis is here to help you get your groove back. Spoiler alert: If you care that you’re not motivated, you’re actually motivated. You just need a little help accessing it from another angle. And she’s here to show you how. Dr. Lew...
Mar 03, 2021•54 min
