Ep 117: The Women’s Health Chat You Need

9 Mar

By Charlotte Cummings | Feel Better Podcast

Perimenopause, Periods, Protein and Putting Yourself Back on the List

What Amelia Stafford wants women to know about health, hormones and caring for themselves differently

There are some conversations that feel instantly important.

This was one of them.

In this episode, I sat down with nutritionist and women’s health practitioner Amelia Stafford to talk about the things more women are finally starting to say out loud: periods, pelvic pain, anxiety, perimenopause, burnout, food, movement, and what it really looks like to support your health without tipping into perfectionism.

What I loved most about this conversation is Amelia’s whole approach. There is no shame. No fearmongering. No impossible standard to live up to. Just a grounded, compassionate and deeply practical way of helping women reconnect with their bodies and respond to what they need.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from our chat.

Women’s health deserves better

For a long time, women’s health has been minimised, misunderstood, or treated as something secondary. Too many women have lived with symptoms, pain, exhaustion, anxiety, and hormonal changes while being told it is normal, to just get on with it, or to wait until things get worse.

Amelia’s work pushes back against that.

Her focus is on helping women understand their bodies better, feel more connected to what is happening, and make supportive changes that are realistic and personalised. That matters — especially in a culture where so many women have learned to disconnect from themselves in order to keep everything else going.

What does a women’s health practitioner actually do for her own health?

Naturally, I asked Amelia the question everyone wants to ask a nutritionist: what do you actually eat and do yourself?

Her answer was beautifully realistic. Not rigid. Not performative. Just responsive to what her body needs on a given day.

On the day we recorded, that looked like:

water and electrolytes first thing, because low blood pressure is something she manages
a high-protein, high-fibre breakfast
homemade buckwheat bread with seeds
scrambled eggs, goat’s cheese, parsley and sauerkraut
coffee with herbs added in
passionflower for nervous system support before a nerve-wracking podcast recording
a quiet matcha alone in a café, simply as a moment of calm

What stands out here is that health is not just about nutrients. It is also about nervous system care, routine, pleasure, and paying attention.

Some of Amelia’s everyday foundations include:

incorporating bitter foods to support digestion and reduce constant sweet cravings
scheduling movement into the week as a non-negotiable
meal planning enough to actually meet protein needs
regular blood work to check key markers like iron, B12, vitamin D and zinc
prioritising green space and time outdoors because that is what genuinely helps her feel calm

It was such a good reminder that wellbeing is rarely built through one dramatic change. It is built through small, repeated choices that support your actual life.

Add in, don’t just cut out

One of the most refreshing parts of the conversation was Amelia’s emphasis on what women can add in, rather than constantly focusing on restriction.

Instead of making health about rules, guilt, or eliminating more foods, she encourages curiosity:

How can you add more fibre?
More colour?
More plant diversity?
More protein?
More foods that support digestion?
More things that help your body feel steady and well-nourished?

That shift matters.

For many women, especially those with perfectionist tendencies or a complicated relationship with food, constantly hearing “don’t eat this” or “cut out that” can feel heavy, punishing and unsustainable.

An “add in” mindset feels different. It feels more spacious. More hopeful. More supportive of long-term change.

How Amelia found her way into this work

Amelia did not begin in women’s health.

She started in a corporate career after studying commerce and working in property. On paper, it looked impressive. In reality, her health was deteriorating. She was dealing with chronic pelvic pain, digestive issues and rising anxiety, and eventually reached a point where she knew something had to change.

She left that world behind, spent time overseas, and eventually returned to study nutrition and complementary medicine instead.

That path led her to women’s health — and especially to supporting women with hormonal issues, pelvic pain, endometriosis, adenomyosis and perimenopause.

It is often the women who have had to piece together their own health story who become the most thoughtful guides for others.

Your period is not just an inconvenience — it is information

We also talked about Dr Lara Briden’s Period Repair Manual and why it has been such a significant resource for so many women.

One of the key ideas Amelia shared is that your period can be understood as a kind of report card for your overall health.

That is such a different lens from the one many of us grew up with.

Instead of seeing periods as just a nuisance, something embarrassing, or something to suppress, we can start to understand them as a source of information. Pain, heaviness, irregularity, mood changes, and cycle shifts can all tell us something worth paying attention to.

Amelia also highlighted how little many girls and women are taught about natural ovulatory cycles and the phases of the menstrual cycle. When we do not understand what is normal, we often either pathologise everything or ignore symptoms that deserve attention.

Education changes that.

The connection between physical health and mental health is real

This part of the conversation felt especially important.

So often, women seek help for anxiety, mood changes or emotional overwhelm without anyone asking meaningful questions about sleep, hormones, blood sugar, nutrition, pelvic pain, trauma, or what is happening physically in the body.

Amelia sees those connections all the time in clinic.

Sometimes anxiety is intensified by poor blood sugar regulation. Sometimes chronic pain is tied up with trauma. Sometimes what looks like a purely emotional issue has a strong physiological component. And sometimes physical symptoms worsen because someone has been carrying so much stress for so long.

We are not separate systems.

The mental, physical and emotional all affect each other — and women deserve care that recognises that.

The problem with perfectionism in health

High-functioning women are often very good at turning wellbeing into another impossible standard.

New year, new plan. New supplements. New routine. New goals. All in. Full speed. Until it becomes too much and everything collapses.

Amelia shared one of the most useful frameworks I have heard for this: your floor and your ceiling.

Your ceiling is your best-case version of self-care — the day when you have the time, capacity and energy to do all the nourishing things.

Your floor is what you can still manage when life is busy, messy, stressful or disrupted.

That might be:

a protein-rich breakfast
ten deep breaths
stepping outside for two minutes
taking the key supplement you actually need
doing the smallest version of the habit instead of giving up entirely

This is such a powerful way to move away from all-or-nothing thinking.

You do not need to do everything for it to count.

Perimenopause is not a disease

We spent a good chunk of time talking about perimenopause, because while it is wonderful that the conversation is becoming more open, it can also start to sound terrifying.

Everything gets blamed on perimenopause. The memes are endless. The anxiety builds.

Amelia made a distinction I think more women need to hear:

Perimenopause and menopause are not the same thing.

Perimenopause is the transition phase in the years before your final period. Hormones can fluctuate significantly during this time. Menopause is the one-year anniversary of your final period, and postmenopause is the stage that follows.

And perhaps most importantly:

Perimenopause is not a disease.

It is a normal life transition.

That does not mean symptoms are not real or that women should just put up with them. It does mean that the framing matters. Understanding what is happening can reduce fear and help women respond with more confidence and less dread.

Amelia also shared a few genuinely encouraging perspectives:

perimenopause is temporary
some women move through it with minimal symptoms
it can be a season of clarity and recalibration
many women begin putting themselves first in new ways
postmenopause can bring a calmer, steadier phase of life

There was something deeply relieving about hearing that.

Midlife can be a turning point — in the best way

One of my favourite moments in the conversation was talking about what women actually have to look forward to in midlife.

Because yes, there are changes. Yes, there are challenges. But there can also be something else:

more confidence
less people-pleasing
more creativity
a stronger sense of self
less tolerance for nonsense
more freedom to ask what you want now

There is a powerful shift that can happen in this stage of life. For many women, it is less about decline and more about becoming.

Amelia’s general advice for women approaching perimenopause

Without making it prescriptive, Amelia shared some broad areas worth paying attention to in midlife:

1. Get a proper health “warrant of fitness”

Not everything is perimenopause. Basic blood work and a good review of your health can help identify issues like low iron, thyroid concerns, blood sugar problems or other factors that may be contributing to symptoms.

2. Build muscle and support bone health

Strength training matters, but it does not have to look one specific way. Finding a form of resistance or load-bearing exercise you can stick with is key.

3. Pay attention to protein and fibre

Protein has had a lot of airtime, but fibre matters hugely too — for blood sugar, gut health, cardiovascular health and hormone metabolism.

4. Support your gut

Digestive health becomes even more important through hormonal change. Diverse plant foods, adequate fibre, and foods that support the gut microbiome can make a real difference.

5. Do not ignore pelvic and vaginal health

This was such an important point. Women are often very attentive to the skin on their face and much less informed about vaginal health, pelvic floor health, pain with sex, dryness, prolapse or other concerns that deserve attention and support.

You are allowed to take your symptoms seriously

Another strong theme in this conversation was this:

You do not have to keep tolerating things just because other women do too.

Pain, discomfort, exhaustion, heavy bleeding, mood changes, pelvic symptoms, libido changes, anxiety, sleep disruption — none of these should simply be dismissed because they are common.

Common does not always mean normal.
And normal does not always mean something you have to live with unsupported.

Women often need permission to put themselves higher on the list. To stop sliding their own appointments down the priority order. To advocate for answers. To find practitioners they can have honest conversations with.

Your health matters.
You matter.

How do we model this for our kids?

I also asked Amelia how she thinks about modelling health and self-respect to her children.

Her answers were practical and honest.

She talks to her boys about her needs in the moment. She lets them see her exercise. She explains why movement matters to her. She notices when she is hungry too, rather than always giving everything away. She shares small, everyday conversations about energy, food, herbs, rest and what helps a body feel well.

I loved this because modelling health is not about performing perfection in front of your children.

It is about showing them that mum is a person too.

That she has needs.
That she listens to her body.
That caring for herself matters.

Amelia’s “ins” and “outs” for this season

To wrap up, I asked Amelia what is in and out for her this year.

Her ins included:

personalised nutrition and health advice
prioritising fibre alongside protein
individualised herbal medicine
strength training you actually enjoy
viewing midlife as a transition, not a disease
digital detoxes
relying on your village more
home-cooked meals
earlier bedtimes
more reading

Her outs included:

highly restrictive diets
fasted workouts
blindly following trending herbs or supplements
treating perimenopause like an illness
all-or-nothing thinking

Honestly, that feels like a pretty good list for many of us.

Final thought

What stayed with me most from this conversation is the reminder that women do not need more pressure when it comes to their health. We need more support, better information, more nuanced conversations, and a lot more self-trust.

Not panic.
Not perfection.
Not one more impossible standard.

Just a kinder, wiser, more connected way of paying attention.

Connect with Amelia Stafford

If you’d like to learn more about Amelia’s work, you can find her through:

Website: ameliastafford.co.nz
Instagram: @ameliastaffordnz

So you and I are meeting actually for the first time today, although I feel really familiar with you from the number of Instagram DMs we have had. Sorry about that. No, it's great.
But one of the things that I think is really important about your work is that for a really long time women's health has been a lesser cousin of a medical issue and women have gone with bodies that are broken and in need of help and healing and women's health issues have been just something that hasn't been given the time and the attention that is deserved. And women getting kind of disconnected from their bodies, not listening to their bodies, not valuing themselves is just, you know, they're really big issues. So I love that you're working in the area that you are and that you're doing some really cool creative stuff like your retreats and the way that you're talking about issues like perimenopause, I think is such a game changer for women to be following and listening to how you approach some of these issues.
Oh, thank you. I mean, I love my job and I love my work and I just feel so grateful to work in that space. And I think layering on other creative projects has been really fun last year of finding different ways to do things.
Yeah. Cool. Now the thing that anyone wants to know when they're talking with someone who's a nutritionist, who has got that kind of background, is what do you do? What do you eat? What do you feed your family? So tell us the answers to those questions.
Right. So I mean, it looks different on different days. And at the moment we're in school holidays, so that can look quite different to maybe what a normal week for me would look like.
But I think it really is based on my own needs and what's going on for me with my health at any given moment. So I have had some kind of chronic health issues, which I won't go into too much, which affects my digestive system. And then very common things like adenomyosis and endo is an ongoing kind of work project for me.
So doing things that help that are really important. But for example, today I started at knowing that I was coming here. We've kind of put my herbal medicine lens on.
I got up, I had some electrolytes because that's really helpful. I've got low blood pressure. So having some water first thing in the morning before I have anything else.
And then I had a high protein, high fiber breakfast, which sounds so stereotypical of perimenopause and the things we need to do. But I made my own buckwheat loaf, buckwheat bread with lots of seeds and things in it. And then I had some goat's cheese with scrambled eggs with parsley in it, a little bit of sauerkraut.
And then because I always like to find funny ways of adding herbs. I had protein coffee with I've got this little tincture that's got with whithania, cordyceps and lion's mane in it. And it's really delicious.
And so I added that to my coffee, a heroic dose of passionflower, which I don't know how much you know about passionflower, but it's really good for anxiety. And you can take like a heroic dose of that before like a flight, sometimes for surgery or a very scary podcast, right? So I took that. And then because I had a little bit of time on my sleeve, I had a matcha like by myself in a cafe, which just felt like a breath for my nervous system, right? So just having that little bit of alone time.
So they're like little things that I did today. But in terms of like day-to-day things that I do for my health, I love bitters. I love taking like bitter foods.
I try and incorporate more diverse bitter foods. I think it really sets the palate up to want less sweet. So if we get used to the sort of savoury taste and those bitter foods, which we don't intrinsically love, I think it's really great for when we do have something sweet, it feels vastly different, right? It feels like polarity to those bitter foods.
Yeah. So things like I know at our retreat, I gave me one endive. Do you know what endive is? Like it's sort of like a purple, small cross between a cabbage and lettuce.
And it is so very like deeply bitter and radicchio. So those two things. And everyone's like, what is this? And I'm like, just start with, you know, like a teaspoon or tablespoon of that and sprinkle it with the rest of the salad things that I had out.
And you can really feel it stimulate your whole digestive system because we've bitter receptors everywhere. Yeah. And that was designed so that I guess if we came across like poisonous plants in the woods, that it would upregulate all of those like bitter receptors in our body to help us to be able to deal with those toxins.
So really interesting. So bitters. And then I also quite like taking herbal bitters.
So before after meals, again, they're really good for your blood sugar levels. It can help to stimulate digestion if you're feeling like maybe there's stress and your digestion gets down regulated because of that. So that's a kind of everyday thing that I do.
Other things are, you know, boring things like movement. I do really schedule my movement in and I keep that like it's in any other appointment in my diary. For me, that's really, really important.
So I, you know, my husband and I, we talk about the week ahead and we go, you know, Mondays, I'm going to do Pilates. I'm going to do trail running on, you know, this day in the weekend. So that becomes like a date to myself and it's not something that I move.
Yeah. Same with, you know, when it is work weeks and not school holidays, meal planning a little bit, you know, just to think about how am I going to hit those protein targets that I know that I need to because it actually does take a bit of work. You can't just wing it.
So I think that that's really important. Yeah, there's some of the main things that I do. And then again, like looking at testing.
So I get my blood work done twice a year and I make sure that, you know, my iron levels, my B12, my vitamin D and I'm a really poor assimilator of zinc. So I kind of just churn through that. So I get that checked to see if there's a deficiency because it has been in the past as well as, you know, anything else that maybe hormonal changes at the moment and just getting a baseline for me.
So there are things I do and green and green space. Like I prioritize for me, you know, I've tried meditation, but green space is the most important thing for me. I found like that's where I feel calm and at peace.
So walking in the hills, walking in the forest, kind of key things that I do every day. I love being able to ask people just what are you doing? Tell us about the things that are kind of standing out for you at the moment that you're finding helpful. And we just need to be able to have those conversations so much more as women.
I feel like that chat has moved. Like I noticed with my girlfriends, if we were going away anywhere in our twenties, we'd be like, okay, show us your makeup bag. What are you using? What's great at the moment? And now it's like, show us your supplements.
Who's doing what? What was that you just had before your dinner? That's kind of how the chat evolves over time. Yeah. And I love that, you know, for the retreat, it is kind of like a bit of a sneak peek into my brain and the other facilitators as well to go like, what do you do every day? And oh, why are you taking that? And why are you using, you know, we get people to do digestive bitters before meals and see how that feels.
And, you know, I'm layering other things so that they can walk away with some actual habits and changes to make. So yeah. Yeah.
And jokingly before we pushed record, I was saying, oh, I could bring my lunch from today out and you can have a look and, you know, give me a critique. And you interestingly said, no, we could look at what more you could add. And how important is that for women to hear? Not the do less of this.
Don't do that. You can't do that. That is bad for you.
Instead of that message, it's so important for us to hear, here are the things you could add or do more of or what could kind of crowd out some of those not so great things? Yeah. I mean, I think adding in is so important. For me, it's, you know, like there's lots of things I like people to add in, but, you know, fiber, colors, like start counting those things, right? Rather than tracking calories.
And it feels lighter in the body, doesn't it? When we think about what, oh, what, like what being curious and looking at the supermarket and going, oh, cool. I haven't tried that functional food. That might be really great for my digestive system.
Or how could I get more colors and antioxidants? Where am I getting my greens? And where am I getting my reds? And, you know, how can I get five different fiber sources across the course of the day? Feels a lot lighter and more interesting and evokes curiosity more than going like, oh, I have to take out. Sometimes we do need to eat it. But that's for very specific health reasons.
And I'm always trying to give people recipe and ideas about how we do that rather than just having a big don't list. You know, it's about giving people the tools to make those changes. I think that's really important.
So good. How did you get into this work? Like what sparked all this interest in this? It was a very long winded road to where I am now, right? Like, like anyone, I guess. I actually started out with a corporate career, which I think we talked about a little bit behind the scenes.
So I actually studied a Bachelor of Commerce with a double major in property valuation, property management. And so, you know, sort of 20 year old me wanted to lead the big corporate life. And I got my first gig out of university working for an international property company, one of the big property companies.
And I moved from Christchurch, a little old Christchurch for me to Auckland. You know, there was a lot that was enticing. It was fast paced.
I had a flash office. It had a bar, had great party culture. It had varied work.
It was interesting. But I worked towards registration, which is like doing a bar exam as a lawyer. And you have to be working for four years before you can sit your registration exams.
And for me, it led to a lot of pressure with like my own expectations of myself and stupidly really thinking I was going to be the first one to fail, though no one had ever failed at that company. And I just put so much pressure on myself. But during that time, I realized that my health was really declining.
There were lots of things that were a bit of a mismatch for me. So lots of chronic pelvic pain was one of the things that I was experiencing, digestive symptom problems, a real uptick in anxiety. And so I started to realize, I guess it was probably the first point that I had connected the dots between what was happening within my mental health and my physical health.
And I was like, I can't go on like this. I really need to make a change. And I must have been like 25 or something at the time.
And I thought, you know what? There's something that this isn't working for me. And I don't think this is the life that I want for myself. So I had the privilege to go over to France and live over there and got a French visa and just decided, you know what? I'm just going to go do something completely different and have a bit of time to think about what my next stage might be.
And yeah, during that time I read a lot. Was it like emailing in Paris? You know what? I love that program. And often I do think about that.
I mean, she obviously went into a corporate career, but yeah, I mean, I did all the things like I used to be able to, I went and worked in the French Alps and I ran a massive resort over there. So, you know, probably like that workaholic nature of mine never really goes away. But then I went and worked in the South of France and I just painted an apartment building, you know, for months and just lived on the French Riviera and used to get in the train and go to Italy to do my shopping.
And it was just such a dream life for a long time. So yeah, I read a lot during that time and thought about what the next step was. And for me, when I came back, I was like, I'm going to study nutrition.
So I wanted to do dietetics at Auckland. And so that was the kind of the trajectory I thought I was going to go on. And last minute I completely changed my mind and decided to do a Bachelor of Health Science in Complementary Medicine, which is now a BNAT Med.
Just because at, I think we've talked about psychology and counselling for you as well. So sort of like having a different range of tools in my toolkit. And so for me, it was just having things that weren't just nutrition focused, that I had other things like lifestyle medicine, things that I could add in to help with my treatment plan.
And so I did that, finished that and had the good fortune of meeting Dr. Lara Brydon in the course of heading to a conference once. And she was the guest speaker, keynote speaker. And- Did you stalk her? You know, I stalked her for years before I met her.
So interesting. Yeah, I went to this conference and I thought they'd got her from Canada, but turns out she actually lived in Christchurch and I had no idea and I was living in Auckland. And it was just, I mean, she's just such an amazing, humble human being.
And yeah, so that's sort of her. And so that's where I obviously had a history, a personal history of adeno and endo and chronic pelvic pain. And so I'd been looking into work for a long time as well.
And so that became my special interest area. So here I am. Amazing.
And so let's talk about the Period Repair Manual because it is one of those books that you read and go, okay, wow, I can see a whole lot of things differently now. So that's Dr. Lara Brydon's book and you work a lot in this area of women's health and utilize a number of her ideas as well. Tell us some of the key things around period repair.
I think the thing that I love again is a bit of a reframing about periods because I think, you know, at school when we're taught about puberty or about a reproductive health, there's such a negative lens on it. It becomes a problem. That's something that we just landed with every month that, you know, we miss.
You know, when I was at school, it was like, you know, girls would miss PE or would start interfering with their life or they'd be like, I've got PMS. And it would be this thing that we didn't embrace. And the other thing I would say is that, you know, we're not taught a lot about natural ovulatory cycles and what happens at each different phase of the cycle of the menstrual cycle.
And so we start pathologizing things that don't need to be pathologized because we don't have an understanding that it is very natural and that our hormones will have this even flow. And that if we learn better tools to be able to embrace it, it could really change how we view our month and how we view our period and how we view our hormones across that. And so for me, her book was so foundational to understanding that she breaks down really complex systems into very bite-sized, easy-to-understand ways.
And so that's what I think. And also looking at your period as being a report card for your overall health. You know, like if we contrast that to when I was working in that corporate career, like my period health was not great, right? And so to now or during my reproductive years, there was periods without pain, it would just arrive, my mood would be more level.
And so I think that's a sign that I'm working in the right direction or that my clients are heading in the right direction of their health. So I think those are the main things are really around understanding what's happening with your body so that you can work with it instead of against it. And also understanding natural cycles and what actually happens every single month as well as some tools around, you know, some problem shooting, I think, yeah.
We're heading in the right direction though, hey. And fortunately, the next generations of girls growing up are going to have mums who hopefully do a much better job of explaining their bodies to them. Yeah, I think so.
And you know what's really interesting in clinic is when I first started, how many women were on the pill? You know, so many women would go on the pill at 14 because they'd have a bit of period pain and then they would come to me because they're wanting to get pregnant and they haven't been offered, you know? Now I'm saying, you know, probably 80%. And again, you know, my cohort is slightly edited. But, you know, I would say the majority are actually not on the pill.
And look, the pill gave us a lot. Like let's not throw it under the bus completely. Like it gave us a lot of opportunities.
So I think that that's really important that we acknowledge that. But equally, I am seeing this new generation of women being really interested by their menstrual cycle. And so many of them say that coming to see me, yeah, that's the part that they love is the education piece around what's actually happening in their body and how they can work with it.
Yeah, I've got a friend that I catch up with and we're friends as couples. So the husbands are often there too. And they're like, tick, period check.
Period check has happened of the evening. Like without fail. And one time they said to us at the end of the night, you haven't done period check yet.
We're waiting for it. Like what notes have you got to compare? And I love that there is just that openness now. So often I'm seeing women where they're coming to me and they're presenting issue that they're coming to see a counsellor around is to do with their mood or their mental health.
And it's really common for me in a first session to also be asking about their physical wellbeing, their sleep, their hormone health. And for a lot of women, it's really kind of taking some effort to get them to join the dots between their physical wellbeing and what is happening in their mental health. How do you see that in your clinic and your work? Yeah, so I think, you know, I guess it's going back to, you know, if I was to take, for example, myself, I used to get heart palpitations, you know, when I was working in corporate and I never realised for a long time that that was just anxiety.
Yeah. So I think it's taking that physical, you know, symptoms. So sometimes explaining that I think a lot to women is like the physical symptom that you're experiencing has an underlying root cause.
Often when I'm also looking at anxiety, for example, connecting those different dots with health is that, you know, blood sugar management can be a huge one, like your actual physiology of what's going on in your system. So I often talk about like, well, how can we set up with, you know, blood sugar balancing meals? And actually if we deal with that, is the anxiety still there? Which is really interesting, just going from a purely physiological needs. I think, again, with pelvic pain, you know, a lot of women, the contrast of that is that they're experiencing pain, but a lot of them haven't acknowledged, you know, is there trauma or is there something else, you know, whether it's medical trauma, whether it's physical, sexual trauma, and that's why they're holding that in that space.
And no one has actually said to them, you know, did you have a traumatic birth? Like what else has happened in your life? And then having those physical symptoms and the reverse and going like, this may be affecting your mental, you know, because of your mental and emotional state. So I think I always just get curious with clients and clinic. And I think it's just, yeah, starting to join some of those dots between physical and mental and emotional and kind of check both ways.
Yeah. You know, is one causing the other or is it that, you know, the chicken or the egg? Yeah. We sometimes forget to see ourselves as those connected beings, hey? Yeah.
People are really surprised if they come to me with anxiety and I'm like, tell me about your caffeine intake. Or I'm like, okay, first, we're going to work on your sleep. And they're like, but I'm here for my anxiety.
Yeah. Yeah. But the research says, like, I need to focus on your sleep.
Yeah, exactly. Before we work on the anxiety. The low hanging fruit, right? Totally.
So yeah, I mean, I'm really grateful to have people like you that I can refer people to and to be able to kind of have those other professionals who can have holistic conversations with people is amazing. Yeah. And I think that that's the thing, like, I'm really lucky that sort of the woman, the professional woman that I work with, you know, that I refer to, we are all on the same page.
And it's so lovely because often it just reinforces what you're saying to a client, right? It's like, oh yeah, Charlotte was right. Oh, well, I must really need to work on my sleep. Yeah.
It's just taking that real zoomed out approach. And I think having, you know, everyone is part of your health team. Yeah.
Is really important. Yeah. Yeah.
So I want to ask you about that thing that women do when it comes to their health, especially if they're a high functioning woman, they have this kind of perfectionism background. And we're already hearing that you might be able to relate to that just a little bit. And I certainly can.
Just a touch. Yeah, we approach health things as really black and white, all or nothing. Right, I'm focusing on my health.
Let's go, I'm going to do all the things. And then we burn ourselves out on like holding these high, perfect standards for trying to improve our health and wellbeing. Yeah.
What advice have you got around that? I think it's so pertinent, given that it's like New Year's, right? Totally. The time of recording. Do you know, and I have to credit Josh from O Studio Rangiora for this, because he taught me once about what is your floor and what is your ceiling? Okay.
And I use this all the time with clients. And I'd often used other analogies, but this one really sticks. So for my clients, I often say to them, okay, yes, I write a really comprehensive treatment plan.
And I do try and break that down with clients over a number of sessions with them. But it's going, okay, out of this care plan that I've given you, what is your floor? What does that look like when life gets busy? When it's school holidays and you don't have the time and you don't have the routine or something unexpected happens and you've suddenly got a work deadline that you didn't realize you had. What is your floor? And so that might look like, okay, my bare minimum of what I'm going to do is a high protein breakfast with fiber.
Okay, I've got some protein powder, some high protein yogurt. And you know what? I'm going to add in some fruit and some nuts and seeds. And that's going to be my breakfast.
And that's my bare minimum. I'm going to take 10 deep breaths. That's all I'm going to do because I get to choose how I am in this moment.
You know, I'm in control of that, of how I want to be right now, regardless of the external chaos that's going on potentially. That might be, and maybe first morning lunch, like you get outside, you water the garden for two minutes, you water your pot plants. You know, that is really your, that is your floor.
And so it's really knowing that, that we don't need to just throw everything out because you haven't been able to tick the big list of all, you know, everything that's on that care plan or everything that you've wanted to set yourself up for maybe your new year's resolution. You go, oh, well, whatever, you know, I'm going to throw this out. And then your ceiling might be your best day.
What are you going to do on those moments where you do have all the time in the world? You know, do you have a spa? Do you have a sauna? Do you layer on some journaling, some gratitude? Do you make sure that you're hitting all of your macros and fiber intake across three meals and having snacks? Do you get outside time? Are you doing a strength training? Have you done your meditation? You know, so that might be like your top, top, what I really aspire to. But your ceiling is, you know, I mean, your floor is, you'll be a minimum of what you're going to do. And for me, that is a constant.
I always reflect on, you know, what is my, what is my floor? And so I coach people a lot around that. And what in the treatment plan do we most need to work on? What's going to have the most impact for you, for your overall health and wellbeing? Yeah. Yeah.
And so many women who have that kind of perfectionist mindset actually really need to find someone who understands that in terms of helping them know where to start, whether that's picking the low hanging fruit things. Yeah. Picking those things that are just, these are the easiest things that you can switch out or change.
And also they're like, you know, here's our, here is where we're heading and here are the things that, that would be most impactful if you need to know where to start. But actually some accountability around that. We're not going gangbusters about this.
We're not actually trying to do everything all at once. And I'm not wanting that for you or expecting that of you is so important. Especially, I think when a lot of women now have health anxiety.
So much. Yeah. Worried well, right? Yeah.
So I think that's it. And just giving yourself a break, like we've already got a big enough things to do list. Yeah.
So, you know, trying to make it light and playful of how you can add things in and see it as an opportunity. Yeah. Yeah.
I was with some friends over the summer and one of my friends was talking to me about how she's been to the doctor for a particular issue throughout this year. It's quite, on the surface, quite unrelated to anything to do with perimenopause. And she was absolutely devastated when the GP said, well, that's actually part of perimenopause.
Like, oh, everything seems to be part of perimenopause these days. And I was telling that friend that we were about to have this chat. And I said, I am planning on asking Amelia what is good about perimenopause? What do we actually have to look forward to? Because as much as I love that we're having this conversation about perimenopause so much more in our society now.
And I think overall, that is great. It's also for people of a particular generation, raising our anxiety and sense of dread about this kind of impending doom of perimenopause. So tell us what we've got to look forward to.
I think that's so funny because that's like, yeah, you know, there are so many memes, right, that you have about, you know, how, like, how are you going to get your protein intake into the day? And like, you know, cottage cheese for everything because it's just like, how can you maximise your protein? It's like, maybe you should just have that small piece of cake, like occasionally and enjoy it and not try and make a cottage cheesecake. But anyway, that's a side note. So I think they're really important.
I'm going to pivot back to that, but I think a really important distinction is to know the difference between perimenopause and menopause because they're often used interchangeably and they are very different, distinct hormonal changes that happen, right? So perimenopause, we're looking at the two to 10 years before your final period. And that can be a time of high fluctuating, well, fluctuating hormones, but in the early two to three years can be high fluctuating levels of estrogen before the slow, low decline of estrogen, right? So it goes high before it goes low. Yeah.
Whereas menopause or postmenopause is the one year anniversary from your final period. And then postmenopause is where you spend the rest of your life, right? Is in that postmenopausal state. So I think that's really important to know that each of them have their own benefits.
I think that we need to start with knowing that huge point, huge point is that perimenopause is not a disease. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
So that's the good news. I think it feels like looming death for most people at the moment. Exactly.
So I think that's the most important point is to know that perimenopause, you know, is not a disease. Yeah. And the other thing that I would say that's good about perimenopause is that it is a temporary state.
Yeah. So these hormonal changes are temporary. Yeah.
And that it will, I mean, Gerilyn Pryor, who Lara Brydon works a lot with, who's a Canadian endocrinologist, talks about women need to know that they will, that menopause, you know, post perimenopause, will find yourself in a much calmer kind of phase of life, right? So I think that's also key to know that when we're in it, what's good about it is it's temporary and it's not a disease. And to know that actually our brain is going through a rewiring process, I think is really important, much like what happens postpartum. Yeah.
It's kind of, I sometimes think, well, we have sort of done this major change thing before for a lot of us. Yeah. So I think reframing it of going, I like to think of it that the brain's getting rewired and getting an upgrade.
So they would be the things that I think of as positive. I also do think that you don't, depending on what phase of perimenopause we're talking about, we may not have the buffer of some of those other hormones that can help. But in that, I do see that some women just start to edit things because they don't maybe have, you know, like progesterone might make you like calmer.
And so without that, what I also say is, well, you know what, like there's so much consideration for everybody else all of the time as a mother, as a woman, you know, huge needs that actually you might start to put yourself first. Yeah. So I do find the benefits of perimenopause can be that women are reframing things and going, you know what, actually, like, what do I want now? Yeah.
What does this look like for me? Yeah. So slight tangent, but yeah, they're probably some of them. And then when we think about menopause, so after our periods have ended, I do think like Lara talks to me about give the woman, which is complete reframe from what we're hearing, the gift of low estrogen, which is like I said, we just don't hear about that doing about.
And so where that would be relevant is for women who have really struggled with chronic pelvic pain, endo, adeno, heavy flooding periods, you know, that are related to, in part, some of that high estrogen. Yeah. And so for them actually going through that and not having to worry about that anymore can feel like a real gift.
So there's also like great research about quality of life that happens in those menopausal years as well. And so, I mean, for me, I'm actually really looking forward to being a wise woman and having the breadth of life experience that that goes with that stage of life. Like I kind of have this clear vision of what that looks like for me.
And I feel quite excited about it that, you know, that's the next stage that I'll be entering into. Yeah. At the end of last year, I turned 40.
Oh yeah. Congratulations, me too. Were our birthdays about the same time? I was just the 3rd of January.
Oh, just. Oh, how exciting. I know.
You know, I don't know if this happened for you, but I had this kind of sense of, oh, here comes this milestone for a while. And that's like then sudden shift to going, hang on a minute, the women that I know in their 40s are really amazing. They don't have time for anyone else's bullshit anymore.
They are in a stage of life where they're kind of through the trenches if they've had children. They've got clarity around their career or calling. They have the opportunity to pivot if they need to pivot because they've still got this hopefully big runway of life ahead of them.
Actually, hang on a minute. There's this social narrative, but it actually looks really fun. Yeah.
And I was really lucky that my sister's nine years older than me. And I distinctly remember her turning 40 and calling her to say happy birthday. She's like, I feel effing great about this.
You know, so glad to leave my 30s behind. Like, I just really, I just don't give a shit anymore, you know? And she, so I've always had that because of course she went before me at the back of my mind of, yeah, actually I'm really excited about this next stage of life. I mean, of course you do look and go, wow, I didn't realize that, you know, like in your 20s and early 30s, you get to do a lot of things unencumbered.
Yeah, totally. But, you know, the next stage looks different. And also just having the confidence and not caring as much.
I spent so much of my life caring about what other people thought that it feels really good to be in this place of being happy to just do what I do and do it my way. Yeah. So good.
And I think there's so much creativity that comes out in that stage of life as well, where people go, how am I going to do things differently? What is this going to look like for me? So it's amazing to see what women create in that stage too. Yeah. Well, you know, I think we give birth to children.
Some of us do. And now it's like, you can give birth to creative projects. Yeah.
So good. And nurture them along the way. Exactly.
Yeah. But we are still both of us in the stage of like, what is for dinner? Very much so. Yeah.
Can I, you know, I don't know with you, but snacks? Like how many? I'm like snack queen at the moment. Holiday snacks. Do you know what I did the other day was I took the fruit bowl, which is usually in the pantry and I put it in the middle of the dining table and I was like, snacks! Everybody help yourself as much as you want.
Don't ask me. They're just there. Because my kids as well are hitting that stage and they're really active.
And now we live rurally. They're like outside so much more. There's so much sport and activities and stuff that they're in that stage of like, it's constant keeping up with feeding them.
Oh, I know. I mean, my two boys are just, I don't think they've ever not been like that. It's crazy.
I'm like, what are my teenage years going to look like? Yeah. How do we model good health, wellbeing, prioritising yourself, valuing yourself holistically to our kids? Oh, that's just so, there's so many different plays at that, right? Like in terms of mental, emotional health, I learn a lot from you about how to do that better. Yeah.
Um, for my boys, I often talk about like what my needs are in that moment. So that might be that I say, you know, I've come home from work or maybe we've been out doing lots of things during the school holidays. And my mummy just needs a moment to decompress, to have a cup of tea and just to sit with her quietly.
Because it can be quite overstimulating when we go to say the aquatic centre in town and there's lots of noise. So I'm just going to take a moment to just sit by myself for a moment to gather my thoughts. So sometimes that's little things that I'll do on a day for them to see that I'm as like, I'm important too.
And I do do things like they, they do have a tendency to steal food from my plate, like a lot and which is fine. But I do say, you know, sometimes I'm like, you know, mummy would really like to have that because mummy's hungry too, you know, or my husband and I laughed recently about, you know, you buy all the exotic fruit for your kids. Like you buy all the, you know, bougie strawberries and berries and, you know, watermelon.
And you don't plate it up and give yourself some. And so those things are also what I do is like actually starting to go, you know what? Like I want some of those nice things. And my husband as well made comment like, yes, like this is so lovely to have some really like beautiful fruit and not give it all to the kids.
I do find it important that they see me exercising. So they know like regardless of what their feelings might be about me getting up early in the morning to go to Pilates or to do strength training. I still do it regardless of their hard feelings and explain why that's important to me.
But my kids like they go to Bush school on a Friday. And so they learn a lot about permaculture and they have a vast understanding of the natural world. And so for them, it's also seeing how that flows through to their health.
So we'll often talk about plants that we come across, herbs that we come across. I mean, they know so much about the gut microbiome and how to feed it and what's important. So just those like little conversations are scattered throughout the day for them about.
And also, you know, why they feel tired, what they might need to do to feel better because they feel tired. Have they eaten well throughout the day? You know, did they have enough of something? They're little things that we do. And also they've been pretty used to taking vitamin D like constantly or actually taking bitter herbs or taking immune supporting herbs.
And that's just what they know. Yeah. My little phrase is mummy's a person too.
Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Why are you doing that? Because mummy's a person too.
You know, I think it's really important. Yeah. And you've listened for a while to the Feel Better podcast.
I'm super chuffed about that. I think that's actually how I first connected with you was you tagged me in something. Oh, yeah.
That you were sharing from a tip that you'd learned on the podcast. I love that. What has stood out to you from this? Oh, there's so many things.
One was actually about anxiety in kids. I think that that was like one of the, I think that might've been why I first like started talking to you and I won't go into details around that, but that was a really important podcast for me around looking at like heart of your anxiety with kids. And I think one of them was it's external to you, which I think I talk about this a lot with other health conditions.
You know, that endometriosis is external. It's not part of your narrative. It doesn't have to be part of your narrative.
You're not your endometriosis. You're separate to it, create some distance. So I knew we were on the same kind of mindset with some of those things.
But I think that was really important knowing that they're separate to not wrapping it all up together. The other thing was acknowledging that the anxiety is the fear and finding out during some digging in terms of like, what was the fear was really important and playfulness around like in time to decompress because we do load our kids. The other one that I loved was more recently around relationships and connection.
So finally, for me, I know that a lot of that was written for males. I think the male, I found it really interesting from my own perspective from a female, because one of the things you gave was that tip around, you know, your husband only walk, like he arrives at the door, I think 20 minutes, like his mind arrives at the door 20 minutes after his physical body arrives, right? And I was like, that is so relevant for me. Yes, 100%.
And I did say that can be totally true for women. Yeah, exactly. You know, we're working parents, right? And so I said to my husband, because often what will happen is I'll get home from a full day of clinic, a lot of women can relate to this.
My mum's there looking after the kids, the extractor fan's going, you know, we're doing meal prep and my husband arrives home and the dog wants to see me and the kids want to tell me about my day, about their day. And everyone's just wanting something from me and wanting my attention. And it's such an overload for my system.
My husband and my mum are often wanting to have really big conversations, like about a certain, you know, is it something that we're working towards as a couple, as a goal or my mum's needing help with her phone or she's needing some financial help or she's wanting me to read like a document. And I'm like, whoa, guys, I can't do this right now. So your tip around scheduling what that time looks like was a really important conversation I had with both my mum and my husband.
Oh, cool. It's not 5.40 PM. No, it's definitely not.
You're not going to get the best out of me at that time. I will say my day was fine. Yes, OK, fine, we're at the supermarket.
Give me the groceries and I'm out of here. Exactly. So, you know, I think that's going to be our project.
Yeah, how good. I love that you're along for the journey with the podcast. OK, so thinking again about perimenopause, what are the kind of generic pieces of top advice that you could give to women who are in that stage or approaching that stage of life? I like to view perimenopause as sort of like a fork in the road, right? So one fork in the road could be that we're going towards the trajectory of things maybe not going well for you, that you haven't listened to your own body cues.
You've ignored a lot of those things along the way. And now that they're kind of starting to stack up. Yeah, right.
Or we can go down the path of looking forward to the next four plus decades of our life, hopefully we have that much runway and looking at things that we could do that will help towards that. Right. So I think that that's really important.
What's also important is to know and acknowledge that 20% of women will actually just sail through perimenopause. So that's also it could be added to our like, what is it? What's good about perimenopause is that some people will just arrive without symptoms. The other things I think, I often get my clients to do a warrant of fitness.
So just a bit of an audit. And that might be that you go to your GP because not every midlife problem that pops up is perimenopause. So often I think there's danger in that and that we lump everything as just perimenopause when actually there can be a lot of other things.
And like I said previously, low hanging fruit that we can work towards and that could actually increase energy. So one of those things would be, getting some just standard blood work done with your doctor, looking at full iron studies. So you can get a really good handle on what's happening with your iron metabolism and absorption.
Because that's really prevalent in this age bracket, especially with heavier periods. And that can look like feeling apathetic, having low mood, not having energy, having brain fog. A lot of that looks like perimenopause doesn't it, on paper.
So similarly like thyroid function, we know that perimenopause is an inflammatory time. And so again, when we're looking at genetics and the components that that can play that were not necessarily our genes, but we determine if those switches are turned on or off, I think looking at thyroid health. So that cardiovascular, doing an audit like your blood pressure, some of your cardiovascular markers, your HPA1C looking at, and fasting insulin.
So looking at what's your metabolic health looking like, because I think that is really important as we go into that next stage, because the changing in hormones will affect your metabolic health. And I think with that smart and targeted supplementation where there is deficiencies, so not just taking everything because your best friend that you went out for dinner with and you discussed over a glass of wine, was taking that, that actually might not be what you need. Perimenopause is one thing, but you're also looking at, I view it as full whole body health.
We're not just looking at perimenopause because it is a normal life transition. I think growing your muscle mass, I know it's boring and we hear about that, but it is really important when looking at prevention of falls later in life, osteoporosis. And again, we are looking at your metabolic health because it will improve your resting metabolic rate.
So I think doing what you love with exercise and sticking to it, I think is really important. Not everyone's going to lift weights at the gym, but finding some way that you could add progressive load over time. And there's lots of other great podcasts around that.
Your bone health is being really important. And so looking at your calcium intake, I mean, a lot of people are having plant-based milks these days. Maybe they're avoiding dairy.
And so I think there's, when I sat in clinic, a lot of women are not having that right amount of calcium. So I think giving some consideration around that, whether you get a fortified milk, whether you swap to A2 milk or dairy products, if you don't tolerate that well, goat's cheese, sheep's cheese, buffalo, like again, you don't have to necessarily go full dairy free for a lot of people and having the co-factors. So calcium is great for bone health, but we also need to look at your vitamin D, your magnesium and your vitamin K. So that's really important.
And I would say easy tips, like working on your gut health, and your digestive health, because those changing in hormones are going to change the structural integrity throughout the whole body. And that includes your digestive system as well. So we need to feed the gut microbiome with 30 plus different plant-based foods a week, hitting those fiber targets of 30 plus grams of fiber.
And different types of fiber are what I say to people. So we're looking at five different fiber types, and I get people to have three to four of them per meal to kind of visualize that with the protein. Protein's great, but let's also like have some emphasis around fiber as well, because that will feed the diversity in the gut.
And also help with some estrogen detoxification and metabolism in those earlier years, when we've got quite high circulating levels of estrogen. I also use this for my adenomyosis patients, what ways that we can incorporate lots of fiber. I talked about bitters.
I do love bitters. So adding more bitter foods, particularly if there's lots of sweet cravings, I think that changing that palette to be more accommodating with bitters and having digestive bitters can be a really easy thing that we could do. Like dandelion teas, like globe artichoke, adding in those things that I've talked about, like endive, adding in crucifix vegetables, to help with that estrogen detoxification are things that we can do.
And I would say, you know, pelvic and vaginal health are really important. We talk so much, I think I laughed about like talking about, you know, turning 40 and wrinkles on your face. And you know, a lot of women are paying so much attention to their skin health and the health on their face, but we're actually not giving a lot of thought to our vaginal health.
And we actually need to start a lot earlier with that. And having open conversations around, you know, what that looks like. For some people that might be estrogen cream, but others that's like hydraluronic acid, which helps to increase moisture, can be really important.
Using a non-toxic natural lubricant, again, can be things that we need to do. And then looking at pelvic health. I work a lot with pelvic floor physios, and they're just so amazing at helping to work towards people having less pelvic pain and other problems like prolapse that can come up at this time of life, right? Or sometimes vaginismus or pain with sex, you know, all of these things start to crop up.
So I really think being across your pelvic health is so important. And we don't talk about it enough, right? Like always talking about our face, but we're not talking about like our vulva vaginal health. And the things that we can do, because again, like pelvic floor health, that can lead to a lot of pain.
And, you know, that can affect your libido, your sex life, like your relationship and other areas of your life. I feel really lucky that a lot of people do tell me those things that they think, okay, well, now I'm seeing a counsellor, I can share this quite personal thing with you. And one of the things I realised is that a lot of women tolerate things, thinking this is normal.
Or I've heard about this from other people so I'm going to kind of go along with this because this isn't this just part of being a woman or part of having periods or part of perimenopause or whatever it is, whatever their kind of reason to normalise things away is. What would you say to women about valuing themselves, valuing their health and their bodies if something is not comfortable or doesn't feel right? I think that is so important because we are really the master controllers of our own health, right? We do have to advocate for our own health. I think knowing what your normal is is really important, right? Like I check your bits, I don't know if you interviewed her.
It's a great campaign. Yeah, her work is so amazing. So knowing what, knowing, yeah, like really prioritising because that's going to be important for everybody else around you to be around, right? And so I think that that's kind of key is just the other thing is, yeah, like we do need to put our health ourselves up higher on the peaking order.
It's like what we talked about by mummy's a person as well, you know? So I do think that, yeah, making sure that we are just a little bit higher up and not swiping symptoms like under the rug. So, you know, if you're not feeling optimal and things like your quality of life is starting to be impacted, I think that's a sign that things need to be addressed and you need to go and see a health practitioner and whatever, whoever that may be, you know, and having a GP that you can have open and honest conversations with and have a robust conversation with. Like my GP doesn't always agree with me.
Yeah. But I'm, you know, but we'll sit there and nut it out together. Yeah.
You know? Yeah. And so I think if you can't have those conversations with your GP, you need to go and find somebody else that you can have those with. Yeah.
I talk about how we need to think about the us to-do list as well as the everyone else to-do list. I love that. And picking something every day off the to-do list that is actually just for us.
Otherwise, we can feel like we've spent our whole day doing things for clients, kids, a husband, like it's about everybody else. So one of my commitments to myself is to always take something off my to-do list for the day. And it might be cleaning out my handbag.
It might be making a health appointment that I need, like whatever it is that is just something that I need to carve out a little bit of time to do. And one of the things that I've made a goal for this year is to make sure that if there is a health thing on my list, that it becomes like priority one. It actually gets bumped to the top.
Yeah. Because it's not OK to keep delaying your health stuff. I have once a quarter a health day blocked out in my diary that if I've got appointments that I need to fit in, it's just an unscheduled day where there's nothing for anyone else.
So I reserve that time. But I noticed for myself recently, I was booking a GP appointment, keeping an eye on a couple of things at the moment. And I mentally went, I'll do that after the kids are back at school.
And then I went, no, I freaking won't. I'll do it now. Like I will make another plan.
OK, I'll book it late on a Friday afternoon. I'll drop my kids at my husband's work and they can join Friday drinks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And I will go off and have my GP appointment. And just it's that sense of actually bumping yourself up on your own to do list is so important when it comes to our health. Yeah.
And I think, you know, the work I do is not being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, right? Like I do try and encourage women to take a proactive approach to health. And that doesn't mean that we have to be the worried well, right? It's just going, you know what? There are things with looking at the trajectory with perimenopause and menopause that, you know, what could I start to think about now to to make some changes and prioritize myself better? You know, because those who start early do land better. You know, if you're entering your 40s with a lot of burnout, you know, I do find that those are the people who often fall the greatest.
Right. And there's lots of reasons and I could go on all day about why that happens. And I'm sure you can understand why that happens.
And the domino effect from there. But yeah, starting to make some small changes that you can stick to. Valuing yourself so you can do it.
Yeah, exactly. Tell me about this year for you. What are the ins and outs for Amelia? Ins and outs.
I had to think about this because I'm not really one to follow trends. And I had to really think about it. So these might be some of my personal and also things that I would be looking at.
So one is really like personalized nutrition advice and health advice, because so often we're seeing trends where it might be, you know, you have to have a hundred grams of protein a day and there's no consideration as to can your digestive system function with that? Like, is it going to lead to increase in bloating? So yeah, personalized nutrition advice, but also following intrinsically what you believe works for you. There's lots of ways to slice and dice things, right? And so I do really look at my clients and say, well, how have you felt your best? When in the past have you felt your best? Blood sugar management is a kind of a key one with that. So, and that can look different for different people.
Not everyone's the same. We've talked about prioritizing fiber and protein because, you know, protein has had its moment in the sun and I do think it's key, but let's just also talk about fiber and the huge benefits that that has for blood sugars, like cardiovascular health, gut microbiome, diabetes, like, you know, it's broad reaching. So let's think about fiber.
I think I've got a fiber guide somewhere on my website or maybe it'll go up there. Individualized herbal medicine advice. And also so many trending adaptogens out there, like people will just pick one herb and that'll be like herb of the month.
So ashwagandha, which is with whithania. Yes. I just saw it all of the time, all of the time.
And, you know, there are so many other, like, don't get me wrong. Ashwagandha, whithania is a fantastic herb, but let's also give consideration to your constitution and like pharmaceutical drugs that you could be on and contraindications around that. Right.
I think is really important. So yeah, strength training we've talked about. Yeah.
Prioritizing that, but doing it in a way that you love. Viewing midlife not as a disease, as a normal life transition. Yeah.
That would be kind of my definite ins, the big ins for this year. Regular digital detoxes. That's really a work for me.
Something that I need to work on, like no doom scrolling, subscriber lists, email lists, you know, things that I, you know, accounts that I don't want to follow, that aren't serving me and having time away from phones. I think, you know, days where we can. Social media is really important.
I put relying on our village more. Like for me, you know, I think like learning to say yes when someone wants to offer you help can feel really awkward, right? But also relying on your village when they do want to help you. I live in Sumner, so it's quite a lovely village, but yeah, saying yes more to those things and cooking more from home.
Yeah. Prioritizing because then you can control what you're eating. So I think like if we just do more home-cooked meals, it has a full on effect to everything else.
Like you talked about making your lunch today. Yeah. And my other real big workaround is earlier bedtimes.
Oh, it's so hard. Especially to have the downtime right after the kids go to bed. And for me, that often looks like picking up work again.
So I really need to squash that habit and probably get up earlier and have that as the time to have earlier bedtimes and reading. So they're kind of my ins. And then I have obviously have outs.
So highly restrictive diets and fasted workouts. You know, I think that they're just at such a detriment to your hormonal health. Trending adaptogens, like I talked about.
So, you know, just focusing on one key adaptogen and not giving thought to others. Treating perimenopause as a disease instead of a life transition, I think is totally an out. That all or nothing mindset is really an out for me.
So they're my main outs. Yeah. So cool.
Well, I hope it is an amazing year ahead. What's really funny is I have seen a number of clients your way, but I don't know if you know that. No, I don't.
So we can't really talk about that. But I know when people come back from seeing you, they go, oh, that was so great. And I've got a plan and I know where to start.
And I feel like she really got me and understood me and kind of turned the lights on for some of the things that I wasn't seeing as well. So if people want to connect with you, how do they find you? You can find me. I actually work from Connect Chiropractor in town.
So I'm on their website. So that's just right by Riverside and Christchurch. So you can find me there.
My website is ameliastafford.co.nz. So that's probably an easy way to find me. And then my Instagram handle, I think it's ameliastaffordnz. We'll tag a way so people can find you.
Thank you so much for joining me. Oh, pleasure. How cool to go from being a listener to a guest.
Both ways. Yeah, it's amazing. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Charlotte.

Charlotte Cummings