June 13, 2025 • 21 mins
Ready to transform your midlife entrepreneurial journey from surviving to absolutely thriving? In this game-changing episode, certified health and wellness coach Vika Teicher (aka "Your Peri Godmother") breaks down everything you need to know about navigating perimenopause while building your empire. From her powerful ABALA framework for embracing change with grace to practical anti-inflammatory lifestyle tips that will boost your energy and focus, Vika shares the secrets to feeling at home in your evolving body. Whether you're dealing with brain fog during important meetings, energy crashes that derail your productivity, or simply wondering why you don't feel like the powerhouse you once were, this conversation is packed with actionable insights and hope. Plus, discover why women over 50 are starting businesses at higher rates than any other group – your second act is just beginning, and it's going to be spectacular!
Be sure to check out Vika's services at
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Be sure to check out Vika's services at
---
🎙️ Are You a Faith-Based Podcaster?
If you’re hosting a podcast—or dreaming of launching one—and your message is rooted in faith, I’d love to personally invite you to join the Christian Women Podcasters Network. Right now, you can grab a free listing and promo page to help more listeners discover your show!
✨ ChristianWomenPodcasters.com
And if you simply enjoy faith-filled content, hop over and check out the inspiring women already podcasting their hearts out. I promise you’ll walk away uplifted.
💌 Stay Connected With Me:
-Website: HerBusinessElevated.com
-Agency: SoulPodcasting.com
-Instagram: @demetriazinga and @soulpodcasting
🙏 If You Loved This Episode...
I’d be so grateful if you left a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Your feedback helps other purpose-driven women find this podcast—and I love hearing what’s resonating with you!
You Can Also Support My Podcast This Way- Buy Me a Coffee
Thanks! See ya next time :-)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hi, everyone, Welcome to her business elevated podcast. I have
an awesome guest with me today. She's going to be
talking about some things that I'm currently going through and
that many of us are. And her name is Vika Tisher.
She is a certified health and wellness coach and nutrition consultant.
She helps women navigate midlife with a focus on hormonal balance,
(00:37):
brain health, weight management, and this overall pery menopausal wellness.
So I am excited to hear what you have to
say and how you're going to help us today. Vica,
So welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Thank you, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
You're welcome, Thank you for being here. And I loved
for you to just kind of tell us who you are,
share about what you do for a living.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I know that you.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Started Perry Godmother, so tell us how that got started
and then what led you to kind of focus on
supporting women in mid life.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah. So I am a wife and mom of two
teen boys living up here in Berkeley, California, just a
little bit north of you. I had my baby's late
in life. I'm thirty nine years old and forty one,
so I kind of like went straight from the hormonal
soup of pregnancy and breastfeeding right into perimenopause. So although
(01:31):
I didn't know it was perimenopause, I didn't even know
I was dealing with postpartum depression. And then later something
called PMDD pre menstrual disport disorder, which is like PMS
on steroids. I later got diagnosed with that a few
years after my second child was born. Because really, my
hormones just never settled down again. And I didn't have
(01:53):
this at all through any of my earlier years, going
through puberty and my thirties and early forties. This all
seemed to come about right around my early forties, after
my second child was born. Yeah, so I was launched
in early to this paramenopause.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah yeah, So I love that you said you went
ahead and you got your diagnosis, and you so you
knew from that point forward what to focus on and
how to get better. And so many of us are
we have question marks, we don't know and so when
we find out what's wrong, what's happening with our hormones,
and like just be being educated about what's going on
with our bodies. The more information we have, the better
(02:35):
we can live our lives and be happier, and I
know so many women they kind of hit that emotional
wall during midlife and don't always recognize what's going on.
Why do we feel the way we do, and that
it's really connected to the shifting in our bodies. So
help us understand what happens during this life stage from
this mind and body perspective.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, So, I mean, I, like many others in this
stage of life, was having like a myriad of symptoms
that I didn't quite know was all hormonally based. But
it was extreme moodiness and irritability, fatigue, headaches, just feeling
overwhelmed and sort of like a lower stress tolerance, so
lots of little things, Especially a mom with two little kids.
(03:19):
My cognitive load was pretty heavy, so I had trouble
concentrating just all these new things. I went to the doctor,
the guynecologist, and she first, you know, she did describe
PMDD to me, but the offering for that at the
time was oral birth control pills or a standard antidepressant,
(03:40):
neither which was appealing to me. At the time. I
was concerned about side effects of oral birth control. We
have a lot of cancer in our family, and I
also had concerns about the antidepressants, and so I decided
from there to make all the maximum diet and lifestyle
changes I can make to just optimize my health. So
I went back to school. I studied nutrition. A few
(04:02):
years later, I studied health coaching to get more of
the lifestyle aspects, and I really did everything I could
to give myself an anti inflammatory diet and lifestyle and
that really took the edge off, which worked for a
while until more recently in my later paramenopausal years, when
(04:23):
I decided to go back to my doctor and talk
about safer versions of hormone support. So all of this
navigation of my different diagnoses over the years and interacting
with the medical system made me realize that there was
a big gap. I just wasn't given enough information. I
wasn't given enough options. And I have been in it
(04:45):
for a long time. It's been like fifteen years accounting
in paramenopause, and so I've you know, acquired a thing
or two from my own experience. But I decided to
focus on paramenopause because really it was my biggest pain point.
Wh I became your Pary Godmother, which is the project
that I started, is I felt like I really needed
to step into a role, almost like a character, to
(05:08):
shout from the rooftops that this is a really important
topic and we need to become aware of it. And
so she your pary godmother, with her bunny dress and
her wand and crown. She was brave and not shy,
you know, and she was willing to go out there
and talk about let you know, this is a really
important conversation that we need to have and we need
(05:30):
to build community around. So that was how the that's
how your Pary Godmother was bird. I love that I.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Love and I love that you took action and you said,
you know, this needs to be talked about more. This
this needs to be a discussion point because it's a
pain point and many women are. We've suffered in silence
for many years, going from doctor to doctor. We become
sort of our own gurus in Google and now chattybt,
(05:57):
trying to figure out like what's happening with our own bodies,
and we need support. And so I talk about the
show to businesswomen and entrepreneurs. And as we're working so
hard at our projects and our passion projects and businesses,
we're also going through changes and figuring out like how
how can I sustain what I'm doing as I'm going
(06:20):
through these hormonal shifts. I don't feel the way I
did five years ago, right, So things are just so
different now. And you talk about your second act and
how you embrace it with and I love how you've
worded that. So what are some things that you do?
You talk about some rituals, things you do that help
women feel or that help you feel nourished. And maybe
(06:42):
we can take some ideas from you.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, and just going back to your midlife question, and
I know your audience. You know, these are powerful women
and as entrepreneurs and wanting to do big things in
the world. And it's so important to just acknowledge that
things are changing. Our sleep is changing, having these new
symptoms where we just keep trying to plow forward. But
it's really important to not suffer in silence and not
(07:06):
suffer alone. So because you know, just to name, you know,
all kinds of changes. They may it maybe sudden joint issues.
Inflammation can play a part in any part of our body,
but we could have real significant cognitive changes that interrupt
our concentration and it can be you know, quite debilitating
(07:27):
and make starting a business or you know, having a
how high power position super challenging, and there are some
women who leave the workforce because of their paramenopausal symptoms.
So it's so important to become aware of this and
to do, you know, everything you can. So what I
wanted to share is I teach workshops to women in
the area, six week workshops sometimes or four weeks. And
(07:50):
what we're doing in these workshops is we're building community,
we're sharing information, but we're also within that context, sharing
our disclosing our own you know, pain points and what
we're going through and what we've you know, what we've
found helps us. Because there's so many ideas and there's
so many expressions of paramenopause. So I created this acronym
(08:13):
called Abala Aballa culture, and this embraces the mindset shift,
the paramenopausal mindset shift that we're invited to go through
so that we compare, prepare for the second act of life,
our menopausal years so we can thrive. So what is
abala so a is acceptance. This is step one, except
(08:35):
that this change is inevitable. We are not going back.
Some things are going to get harder and some things
will get easier, some things will get bigger, some things
will get smaller. And I'm referring to you know, all
kinds of things, right, physiological things exactly thoughts. Some relationships
might deepen, some might end, you know, so turning the
(08:57):
tables on acceptance instead of working so hard to get
you know, others to accept us, or working so hard
to try to go back in time. So number one
thing b babllah b is for belonging. Can we belong
to each other as a community belonging And I'm not
talking about fitting in because we're not fitting in. We're
(09:20):
not going to try to fit into our old genes.
We're not going to try to fit into this old
concept of what it is to be a woman. You know,
it's we are not going back. And so belonging is
bringing our whole self, our honest, authentic self, even as
with our bodies changing, even if we have brain fog
and we can't remember why we step into the room,
(09:42):
you know, we find ways to laugh at that, but
we're honest with each other. And this is where real
relationships start, right, And I think we have to lean
into some of our friendships that we may have kept
in the periphery perhaps and really lean in and realize
that we can It's not just our pmary relationships, but
belonging can go a long way. And then the L
(10:05):
in a volat is for liberation. It's freedom. So it's
this is kind of abstract, maybe, but like it's freedom
from the years of being under the influence of these
reproductive hormones, which you know, make us kind of accept
a lot of things sometimes that maybe aren't so great
to accept it, and when those start to wane, as
they do in paramedopause, that's what happens in paramenopause, our
(10:28):
reproductive hormones start to decline and eventually flatten out. They
actually aren't just evenly declining, they're going up and down,
which is part of why it's so challenging. But eventually
they start to flatten out and we almost come back
to our essential cells and we're not under the influence
of these hormonal The influence of hormones can really keep
(10:50):
us saying yes when we should be saying no, let's
just leave it. There's yeah, that's true. And then the
last a I added at the end, and it's like allowing,
so can we you know, it's different from accepting, Can
we allow an expansiveness. Can we allow a range of emotions.
Can we allow self care focus, especially as caretakers, Sometimes
(11:14):
that could be really tough. To allow ourselves to really
care for ourselves, to think about our sleep and prioritize it,
to take the time maybe to cook sometimes nutritious food,
to take a break, to take a pause in the day,
just to give ourselves rest. Can we allow that our
bodies need more rest right now, need more pause, you know,
(11:36):
And then allowing new interests to evolve. We're changing, our
brain is changing. We might have a really good idea
that we couldn't have access to before. You know, most entrepreneurs,
women over fifty start businesses at a higher rate than
on any other group. And I just find that fascinating.
And so there are new ideas that will emerge. Can
(11:56):
we reclaim can we ebrase the new ideas and plain
parts of ourselves that we may have let go in
you know, in our reproductive years. So that's the that's
the way I go about it, the creating an Abala
culture that we can belong to each other and really
rise as a group.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
You know, Yeah, I love that Bala. I just I'm
going to be thinking about that. I took some notes
as you were talking because the first A and the
last A really stand out to me. Everything in between
is good and it's needful. Those two stood out because
it's accepting that this is where we are, right. That
acceptance is a big piece of it, because a lot
(12:34):
of times we're pushing back and we don't want to like, no,
this is I was here for all these years, and
how is the shift happening? And how do I how
do I transition easily into this next space so that
that part and then the last part at just allowing
the the new, the new things to arise to the surface,
the new interests, And I think that's so freeing and liberating, right,
(12:57):
So I love this. Thank you for giving us this
visual and this acronym to remember that we can enter
this with grace. And also you mentioned diet, so let
me just ask you a little bit about that as
the anti inflammatory You said that you use this diet
for a or it's part of your lifestyle, I guess,
(13:20):
and so kind of share some of the benefits of
anti inflammatory lifestyle and eating for women.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, I mean anti inflammatory eating and lifestyle is probably
beneficial for everyone at any stage. Of life. But it's
especially important when we start to lose our reproductive hormones
like estrogen that has a protective effect on all parts
of every organ, every cell in our body. It has
a protective and so does progesterone. Those are the two
main reproductive hormones that are in decline, and so it's
(13:51):
just more important than ever too if we keep creating
inflammation in our body through food like highly processed foods, sugars,
you know, lots of extra chemicals and additives and things
like that. I mean, people have varying degrees of sensitivity
to that. But the more that we can lean on
(14:12):
our whole foods, real food, you know, plant you know,
mostly plant based, but also it's okay to have animal
protein that can that be that could be consumed in
a very healthy way, and the healthier the animal the better.
That can all be part of an anti inflammatory diet.
It's mostly a giving our body the nutrients it really
(14:32):
needs and refraining from all of the extra stuff, especially
the sugars, alcohol and things that could that our body
might see as toxic and may feel like it needs
to get inflamed and fight against. Our body is already
dealing with a fluctuation of hormones that's already stressful on
(14:54):
our bodies and on our minds and so the so
if we can just give it a break and give
it as neutral, dense food as we can possibly manage,
we're giving it, we're giving it a chance to kind
of cool down. And I want to mention a big
thing on sugar. As much as tempting as it can
be of those hard times, sugar can be inflammatory. And
(15:18):
if we can level out our sugar and just have
you know, not be eating a bunch of sweets all
the time and having full, nutritious meals, that can go
a long way towards the mood stability and sweep as well.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
So that's really an investment into our holistic well being
by just eating the foods that our body actually needs,
not so much what it desires, because when we're stressed,
the first thing we want is that sugar, right, But
that produces that sort of domino effect, right, and then
we're craving more, and we're craving more, and like you said,
it creates in an inflammation where a body's fighting and
(15:55):
we have enough going on. So thank you for explaining that,
making it kind of like this is it's clear to me,
right that that our bodies are already in too much.
There's too much going on, and yes, eating eating help.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, there's already chaos in the system, and so we
just want to cool it all down. Yeah, and make
sure that we have the absolute essentials. Enough protein, enough fiber,
lots of vegetables, lots of like colorful, low glycemic fruit
is ideal, you know, sufficient water, and that's that's a
(16:30):
great foundation to start from the food. And you get
a chance every time you eat something, you have another
chance to do it over again. Yeah, don't look back.
You've got a lot of If you had the wrong
thing in the last meal, don't let that affect the
next one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I love that you say.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
There's right.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
It's the we're giving our bodies grace, but we're also
giving ourselves grace when we're not doing the right thing
right and we can start over the next day. And
so that said, we've talked about diet, We've talked about mindset,
Like what final piece of being encouragement would you give
to a midlife entrepreneur wants to feel at home in
her body?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Again, I love that idea of how to feel at
home in the body, right, And so I think about, like,
what is home really? Is it an actual like house
that has to stay fixed? You know what if we
think of it as we're going off into, like it's
like a houseboat or something, we're going into these fluctuations,
these tides. Sometimes it's the load tide of low hormones.
(17:28):
Sometimes it's a high tide of you know. But to
feel at home, we get to know what it is
that we have right now in front of us, and
how can we meet whatever it is that we wake
up with. So it's inevitable that that perimenopause will affect
your sleep. So if you wake up and you've only
had six hours of sleep because you were waking up
hot or anxious or whatever, what's left there, Well, what's
(17:53):
left is acceptance. Right, I'm home, even though I didn't
have a good night's sleep, Like, this is my body,
this is my home. My body needs nutrition right now.
It needs hydration, it needs protein, it needs fiber, it
needs sunshine, movement, it needs positive thoughts. It doesn't need
me to be worried about not having the perfect night sleep.
(18:14):
And so it's constantly accepting whatever it is. If you're
having a hot flash home is accepting that hot flash
home is laughing about it and moving on. Yeah, you
know not. I mean, sure, treat it if you want
to get you know, hormones and whatever you want to
do to treat it. That's fine. You shouldn't have to
suffer in silence, you know. But when these things happen,
(18:36):
home is just feeling like, Yes, this too belongs. This too,
this mood, this feeling, this sensation, this craving, this also belongs.
Because I'm going through change and this is my body.
I'm home with my body. So that's why I would
answer that question, I'm home with my body. I love
that because, yeah, that acceptance, the acceptance of just this
(18:59):
is where I am, this is what's going on.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You said to just be kind of lighthearted about it
because it is a phase. It is a phase of
life that we're going to go through and just accept
it and enjoy the season the best we can. And
I love that we can feel at home in this
body that we're given. So actually, I want you to
(19:22):
tell us anything that's going on with your programs or
how our audience can learn more about your pary godmother
and how to connect with you because I'm sure any
of us want to get this kind of help. So
how do we get in touch with you?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah? So, And I just want just one last thing.
I just want to really stress the importance of relationships
and connection, and so reach out to your community. Start
talking about this with your friends, laugh about it, share
about it, Share what's helping, Share what where you're struggling.
Please don't go through this alone, right, There's no need
(19:55):
for us to suffer alone. And even just connecting with others.
What I find in my workshop when people start talking
and connecting, they are expressing literally that their symptoms are
starting to receive and they haven't even changed anything necessarily.
So just keep that in mind. Let's not go through
this alone. Let's do this together. So if you want
(20:17):
to find out more about me, it's really everything is
your pary godmother, and it's your and it's peer I
as in perimenopause, your pary godmother on Instagram, on YouTube,
and that's my website. If you want to sign up
for a free consultation with me, you can make it
that appointment on my website. And just make sure you're
(20:41):
in communication and in relationship with your practitioners as well,
whether that's your provider, your doctor, your health coach, your nutritionists,
make sure you're in that partnership, you're in that equal
relationship because that connection and that relationship will make all
the different friends to you healing and feeling better through
(21:03):
this through this time.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
That's encouraging because that means we need to find those
health practitioners that are in alignment with what we're doing
and how we see ourselves and what we need. So
I love that you said stay in community and that
our moods will even be enhanced just from having that community.
So all of this is so good, so good and
(21:26):
going to help us as we are building our businesses.
We need this kind of support and just sometimes step
back and just remember that it's okay to celebrate where
we are mentally, emotionally, physically, and if we are struggling,
if we are having all our time, then find the
help we need and get the support we need so
that we can continue building what we're building. So thank
(21:47):
you so much, and I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Be yes, thank you, I appreciate you too. This is
delightful
Hi, everyone, Welcome to her business elevated podcast. I have
an awesome guest with me today. She's going to be
talking about some things that I'm currently going through and
that many of us are. And her name is Vika Tisher.
She is a certified health and wellness coach and nutrition consultant.
She helps women navigate midlife with a focus on hormonal balance,
(00:37):
brain health, weight management, and this overall pery menopausal wellness.
So I am excited to hear what you have to
say and how you're going to help us today. Vica,
So welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Thank you, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
You're welcome, Thank you for being here. And I loved
for you to just kind of tell us who you are,
share about what you do for a living.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I know that you.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Started Perry Godmother, so tell us how that got started
and then what led you to kind of focus on
supporting women in mid life.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah. So I am a wife and mom of two
teen boys living up here in Berkeley, California, just a
little bit north of you. I had my baby's late
in life. I'm thirty nine years old and forty one,
so I kind of like went straight from the hormonal
soup of pregnancy and breastfeeding right into perimenopause. So although
(01:31):
I didn't know it was perimenopause, I didn't even know
I was dealing with postpartum depression. And then later something
called PMDD pre menstrual disport disorder, which is like PMS
on steroids. I later got diagnosed with that a few
years after my second child was born. Because really, my
hormones just never settled down again. And I didn't have
(01:53):
this at all through any of my earlier years, going
through puberty and my thirties and early forties. This all
seemed to come about right around my early forties, after
my second child was born. Yeah, so I was launched
in early to this paramenopause.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah yeah, So I love that you said you went
ahead and you got your diagnosis, and you so you
knew from that point forward what to focus on and
how to get better. And so many of us are
we have question marks, we don't know and so when
we find out what's wrong, what's happening with our hormones,
and like just be being educated about what's going on
with our bodies. The more information we have, the better
(02:35):
we can live our lives and be happier, and I
know so many women they kind of hit that emotional
wall during midlife and don't always recognize what's going on.
Why do we feel the way we do, and that
it's really connected to the shifting in our bodies. So
help us understand what happens during this life stage from
this mind and body perspective.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, So, I mean, I, like many others in this
stage of life, was having like a myriad of symptoms
that I didn't quite know was all hormonally based. But
it was extreme moodiness and irritability, fatigue, headaches, just feeling
overwhelmed and sort of like a lower stress tolerance, so
lots of little things, Especially a mom with two little kids.
(03:19):
My cognitive load was pretty heavy, so I had trouble
concentrating just all these new things. I went to the doctor,
the guynecologist, and she first, you know, she did describe
PMDD to me, but the offering for that at the
time was oral birth control pills or a standard antidepressant,
(03:40):
neither which was appealing to me. At the time. I
was concerned about side effects of oral birth control. We
have a lot of cancer in our family, and I
also had concerns about the antidepressants, and so I decided
from there to make all the maximum diet and lifestyle
changes I can make to just optimize my health. So
I went back to school. I studied nutrition. A few
(04:02):
years later, I studied health coaching to get more of
the lifestyle aspects, and I really did everything I could
to give myself an anti inflammatory diet and lifestyle and
that really took the edge off, which worked for a
while until more recently in my later paramenopausal years, when
(04:23):
I decided to go back to my doctor and talk
about safer versions of hormone support. So all of this
navigation of my different diagnoses over the years and interacting
with the medical system made me realize that there was
a big gap. I just wasn't given enough information. I
wasn't given enough options. And I have been in it
(04:45):
for a long time. It's been like fifteen years accounting
in paramenopause, and so I've you know, acquired a thing
or two from my own experience. But I decided to
focus on paramenopause because really it was my biggest pain point.
Wh I became your Pary Godmother, which is the project
that I started, is I felt like I really needed
to step into a role, almost like a character, to
(05:08):
shout from the rooftops that this is a really important
topic and we need to become aware of it. And
so she your pary godmother, with her bunny dress and
her wand and crown. She was brave and not shy,
you know, and she was willing to go out there
and talk about let you know, this is a really
important conversation that we need to have and we need
(05:30):
to build community around. So that was how the that's
how your Pary Godmother was bird. I love that I.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Love and I love that you took action and you said,
you know, this needs to be talked about more. This
this needs to be a discussion point because it's a
pain point and many women are. We've suffered in silence
for many years, going from doctor to doctor. We become
sort of our own gurus in Google and now chattybt,
(05:57):
trying to figure out like what's happening with our own bodies,
and we need support. And so I talk about the
show to businesswomen and entrepreneurs. And as we're working so
hard at our projects and our passion projects and businesses,
we're also going through changes and figuring out like how
how can I sustain what I'm doing as I'm going
(06:20):
through these hormonal shifts. I don't feel the way I
did five years ago, right, So things are just so
different now. And you talk about your second act and
how you embrace it with and I love how you've
worded that. So what are some things that you do?
You talk about some rituals, things you do that help
women feel or that help you feel nourished. And maybe
(06:42):
we can take some ideas from you.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, and just going back to your midlife question, and
I know your audience. You know, these are powerful women
and as entrepreneurs and wanting to do big things in
the world. And it's so important to just acknowledge that
things are changing. Our sleep is changing, having these new
symptoms where we just keep trying to plow forward. But
it's really important to not suffer in silence and not
(07:06):
suffer alone. So because you know, just to name, you know,
all kinds of changes. They may it maybe sudden joint issues.
Inflammation can play a part in any part of our body,
but we could have real significant cognitive changes that interrupt
our concentration and it can be you know, quite debilitating
(07:27):
and make starting a business or you know, having a
how high power position super challenging, and there are some
women who leave the workforce because of their paramenopausal symptoms.
So it's so important to become aware of this and
to do, you know, everything you can. So what I
wanted to share is I teach workshops to women in
the area, six week workshops sometimes or four weeks. And
(07:50):
what we're doing in these workshops is we're building community,
we're sharing information, but we're also within that context, sharing
our disclosing our own you know, pain points and what
we're going through and what we've you know, what we've
found helps us. Because there's so many ideas and there's
so many expressions of paramenopause. So I created this acronym
(08:13):
called Abala Aballa culture, and this embraces the mindset shift,
the paramenopausal mindset shift that we're invited to go through
so that we compare, prepare for the second act of life,
our menopausal years so we can thrive. So what is
abala so a is acceptance. This is step one, except
(08:35):
that this change is inevitable. We are not going back.
Some things are going to get harder and some things
will get easier, some things will get bigger, some things
will get smaller. And I'm referring to you know, all
kinds of things, right, physiological things exactly thoughts. Some relationships
might deepen, some might end, you know, so turning the
(08:57):
tables on acceptance instead of working so hard to get
you know, others to accept us, or working so hard
to try to go back in time. So number one
thing b babllah b is for belonging. Can we belong
to each other as a community belonging And I'm not
talking about fitting in because we're not fitting in. We're
(09:20):
not going to try to fit into our old genes.
We're not going to try to fit into this old
concept of what it is to be a woman. You know,
it's we are not going back. And so belonging is
bringing our whole self, our honest, authentic self, even as
with our bodies changing, even if we have brain fog
and we can't remember why we step into the room,
(09:42):
you know, we find ways to laugh at that, but
we're honest with each other. And this is where real
relationships start, right, And I think we have to lean
into some of our friendships that we may have kept
in the periphery perhaps and really lean in and realize
that we can It's not just our pmary relationships, but
belonging can go a long way. And then the L
(10:05):
in a volat is for liberation. It's freedom. So it's
this is kind of abstract, maybe, but like it's freedom
from the years of being under the influence of these
reproductive hormones, which you know, make us kind of accept
a lot of things sometimes that maybe aren't so great
to accept it, and when those start to wane, as
they do in paramedopause, that's what happens in paramenopause, our
(10:28):
reproductive hormones start to decline and eventually flatten out. They
actually aren't just evenly declining, they're going up and down,
which is part of why it's so challenging. But eventually
they start to flatten out and we almost come back
to our essential cells and we're not under the influence
of these hormonal The influence of hormones can really keep
(10:50):
us saying yes when we should be saying no, let's
just leave it. There's yeah, that's true. And then the
last a I added at the end, and it's like allowing,
so can we you know, it's different from accepting, Can
we allow an expansiveness. Can we allow a range of emotions.
Can we allow self care focus, especially as caretakers, Sometimes
(11:14):
that could be really tough. To allow ourselves to really
care for ourselves, to think about our sleep and prioritize it,
to take the time maybe to cook sometimes nutritious food,
to take a break, to take a pause in the day,
just to give ourselves rest. Can we allow that our
bodies need more rest right now, need more pause, you know,
(11:36):
And then allowing new interests to evolve. We're changing, our
brain is changing. We might have a really good idea
that we couldn't have access to before. You know, most entrepreneurs,
women over fifty start businesses at a higher rate than
on any other group. And I just find that fascinating.
And so there are new ideas that will emerge. Can
(11:56):
we reclaim can we ebrase the new ideas and plain
parts of ourselves that we may have let go in
you know, in our reproductive years. So that's the that's
the way I go about it, the creating an Abala
culture that we can belong to each other and really
rise as a group.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
You know, Yeah, I love that Bala. I just I'm
going to be thinking about that. I took some notes
as you were talking because the first A and the
last A really stand out to me. Everything in between
is good and it's needful. Those two stood out because
it's accepting that this is where we are, right. That
acceptance is a big piece of it, because a lot
(12:34):
of times we're pushing back and we don't want to like, no,
this is I was here for all these years, and
how is the shift happening? And how do I how
do I transition easily into this next space so that
that part and then the last part at just allowing
the the new, the new things to arise to the surface,
the new interests, And I think that's so freeing and liberating, right,
(12:57):
So I love this. Thank you for giving us this
visual and this acronym to remember that we can enter
this with grace. And also you mentioned diet, so let
me just ask you a little bit about that as
the anti inflammatory You said that you use this diet
for a or it's part of your lifestyle, I guess,
(13:20):
and so kind of share some of the benefits of
anti inflammatory lifestyle and eating for women.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, I mean anti inflammatory eating and lifestyle is probably
beneficial for everyone at any stage. Of life. But it's
especially important when we start to lose our reproductive hormones
like estrogen that has a protective effect on all parts
of every organ, every cell in our body. It has
a protective and so does progesterone. Those are the two
main reproductive hormones that are in decline, and so it's
(13:51):
just more important than ever too if we keep creating
inflammation in our body through food like highly processed foods, sugars,
you know, lots of extra chemicals and additives and things
like that. I mean, people have varying degrees of sensitivity
to that. But the more that we can lean on
(14:12):
our whole foods, real food, you know, plant you know,
mostly plant based, but also it's okay to have animal
protein that can that be that could be consumed in
a very healthy way, and the healthier the animal the better.
That can all be part of an anti inflammatory diet.
It's mostly a giving our body the nutrients it really
(14:32):
needs and refraining from all of the extra stuff, especially
the sugars, alcohol and things that could that our body
might see as toxic and may feel like it needs
to get inflamed and fight against. Our body is already
dealing with a fluctuation of hormones that's already stressful on
(14:54):
our bodies and on our minds and so the so
if we can just give it a break and give
it as neutral, dense food as we can possibly manage,
we're giving it, we're giving it a chance to kind
of cool down. And I want to mention a big
thing on sugar. As much as tempting as it can
be of those hard times, sugar can be inflammatory. And
(15:18):
if we can level out our sugar and just have
you know, not be eating a bunch of sweets all
the time and having full, nutritious meals, that can go
a long way towards the mood stability and sweep as well.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
So that's really an investment into our holistic well being
by just eating the foods that our body actually needs,
not so much what it desires, because when we're stressed,
the first thing we want is that sugar, right, But
that produces that sort of domino effect, right, and then
we're craving more, and we're craving more, and like you said,
it creates in an inflammation where a body's fighting and
(15:55):
we have enough going on. So thank you for explaining that,
making it kind of like this is it's clear to me,
right that that our bodies are already in too much.
There's too much going on, and yes, eating eating help.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, there's already chaos in the system, and so we
just want to cool it all down. Yeah, and make
sure that we have the absolute essentials. Enough protein, enough fiber,
lots of vegetables, lots of like colorful, low glycemic fruit
is ideal, you know, sufficient water, and that's that's a
(16:30):
great foundation to start from the food. And you get
a chance every time you eat something, you have another
chance to do it over again. Yeah, don't look back.
You've got a lot of If you had the wrong
thing in the last meal, don't let that affect the
next one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I love that you say.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
There's right.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
It's the we're giving our bodies grace, but we're also
giving ourselves grace when we're not doing the right thing
right and we can start over the next day. And
so that said, we've talked about diet, We've talked about mindset,
Like what final piece of being encouragement would you give
to a midlife entrepreneur wants to feel at home in
her body?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Again, I love that idea of how to feel at
home in the body, right, And so I think about, like,
what is home really? Is it an actual like house
that has to stay fixed? You know what if we
think of it as we're going off into, like it's
like a houseboat or something, we're going into these fluctuations,
these tides. Sometimes it's the load tide of low hormones.
(17:28):
Sometimes it's a high tide of you know. But to
feel at home, we get to know what it is
that we have right now in front of us, and
how can we meet whatever it is that we wake
up with. So it's inevitable that that perimenopause will affect
your sleep. So if you wake up and you've only
had six hours of sleep because you were waking up
hot or anxious or whatever, what's left there, Well, what's
(17:53):
left is acceptance. Right, I'm home, even though I didn't
have a good night's sleep, Like, this is my body,
this is my home. My body needs nutrition right now.
It needs hydration, it needs protein, it needs fiber, it
needs sunshine, movement, it needs positive thoughts. It doesn't need
me to be worried about not having the perfect night sleep.
(18:14):
And so it's constantly accepting whatever it is. If you're
having a hot flash home is accepting that hot flash
home is laughing about it and moving on. Yeah, you
know not. I mean, sure, treat it if you want
to get you know, hormones and whatever you want to
do to treat it. That's fine. You shouldn't have to
suffer in silence, you know. But when these things happen,
(18:36):
home is just feeling like, Yes, this too belongs. This too,
this mood, this feeling, this sensation, this craving, this also belongs.
Because I'm going through change and this is my body.
I'm home with my body. So that's why I would
answer that question, I'm home with my body. I love
that because, yeah, that acceptance, the acceptance of just this
(18:59):
is where I am, this is what's going on.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
You said to just be kind of lighthearted about it
because it is a phase. It is a phase of
life that we're going to go through and just accept
it and enjoy the season the best we can. And
I love that we can feel at home in this
body that we're given. So actually, I want you to
(19:22):
tell us anything that's going on with your programs or
how our audience can learn more about your pary godmother
and how to connect with you because I'm sure any
of us want to get this kind of help. So
how do we get in touch with you?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah? So, And I just want just one last thing.
I just want to really stress the importance of relationships
and connection, and so reach out to your community. Start
talking about this with your friends, laugh about it, share
about it, Share what's helping, Share what where you're struggling.
Please don't go through this alone, right, There's no need
(19:55):
for us to suffer alone. And even just connecting with others.
What I find in my workshop when people start talking
and connecting, they are expressing literally that their symptoms are
starting to receive and they haven't even changed anything necessarily.
So just keep that in mind. Let's not go through
this alone. Let's do this together. So if you want
(20:17):
to find out more about me, it's really everything is
your pary godmother, and it's your and it's peer I
as in perimenopause, your pary godmother on Instagram, on YouTube,
and that's my website. If you want to sign up
for a free consultation with me, you can make it
that appointment on my website. And just make sure you're
(20:41):
in communication and in relationship with your practitioners as well,
whether that's your provider, your doctor, your health coach, your nutritionists,
make sure you're in that partnership, you're in that equal
relationship because that connection and that relationship will make all
the different friends to you healing and feeling better through
(21:03):
this through this time.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
That's encouraging because that means we need to find those
health practitioners that are in alignment with what we're doing
and how we see ourselves and what we need. So
I love that you said stay in community and that
our moods will even be enhanced just from having that community.
So all of this is so good, so good and
(21:26):
going to help us as we are building our businesses.
We need this kind of support and just sometimes step
back and just remember that it's okay to celebrate where
we are mentally, emotionally, physically, and if we are struggling,
if we are having all our time, then find the
help we need and get the support we need so
that we can continue building what we're building. So thank
(21:47):
you so much, and I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Be yes, thank you, I appreciate you too. This is
delightful
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