Podcast
Done with Dieting: Total Health for Women 40+ with Elizabeth Sherman
Hosted by Elizabeth Sherman · EN
You’ve tried the diets. You’ve done the research. You know what you’re supposed to do. And you’re still stuck.
Done with Dieting: Total Health for Women 40+ is for women who are exhausted by the start-over cycle and ready to understand why nothing has stuck, and what to actually do about it.
Host Elizabeth Sherman is a Master Certified Life and Health Coach with 20 years of experience working with women in their 40s, 50s, and beyond. Each episode gets into the real reasons health habits break down in this stage of life, including hormonal shifts, depleted capacity, years of diet history, and a nervous system that never fully gets to rest.
This isn’t another wellness show telling you to eat less and move more. It’s a show that helps you understand what’s actually going on in your body and your life, so you can start making changes that hold.
New episodes weekly. Start with the 8 Basic Habits guide at elizabethsherman.com/habits.
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Done with Dieting Bonus Episode: Why I Changed the Podcast Name (And Then Changed It Back)
1w ago00:13:19Tap to summarizeIf you've opened your podcast app recently and noticed something different, you're not imagining it. The show has a new name. Well, an old name. Sort of.In this short bonus episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on what happened when I changed "Done with Dieting" to "Total Health in Midlife" in 2023, why downloads dropped, and why I stayed with a name that wasn't working far longer than I should have. Spoiler: it had nothing to do with the content and everything to do with fear of looking like I couldn't follow through.Here's what I didn't expect. The story of this name change ended up being a pretty honest mirror of the exact thing I help women work through every day. Staying stuck in something that isn't working because changing it feels like admitting something about yourself. Sound familiar?This one is short, honest, and worth the ten minutes.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy a podcast name change in 2023 caused downloads to drop significantly, and what that revealed about how women actually search for helpHow deferring to someone else's framework over your own gut instinct plays out in business AND in your healthWhy the word "midlife" was quietly turning away the exact women this show was built forThe Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersThis episode is really about one thing: what happens when you outsource your own judgment because you're afraid of what it says about you if you change course. I did it with a podcast name. You may be doing it with your health, following a plan someone else designed, staying in a program that stopped working, not because it's right for you but because quitting feels like failure.The show is back to "Done with Dieting: Total Health for Women 40+." The content hasn't changed. The approach hasn't changed. But the door is wider now, and if you know a woman who is exhausted by the start-over cycle and ready for something different, she can find it a lot more easily.RESOURCESTake the Free QuizFollow the show: Done with Dieting: Total Health for Women 40+ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTubeRELATED EPISODES YOU MIGHT LOVEEpisode 179: Midlife Weight Gain: Myths & Facts — If the name "Done with Dieting" caught your attention because you're tired of the same old weight loss advice, this episode breaks down exactly why what worked in your 30s isn't working now, and what actually does.Episode 172: The Paradox of Body Acceptance — This episode goes deeper into the tension between wanting to lose weight and learning to work with your body instead of against it, which is exactly the philosophy behind why this show exists.Episode 218: How to Get Back on Track — If you've been in the start-over cycle and you're ready to understand why it keeps happening, this one is the logical next listen after this bonus episode.Hey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →277: Your Retirement Plan Has a Gap and It's Not Money
1w ago00:27:31Tap to summarizeWhen a room full of financial advisors was asked when they planned to prioritize their health, the most common answer was the same one their clients give about saving for retirement: when things slow down. Elizabeth was in that room. And that answer is exactly why she was there.In this episode of Total Health in Midlife, Elizabeth shares the framework she brought to that room, called the Health-Wealth-Time framework, and why the gap most women never see coming is not in their savings account. It is in the body they are going to show up with when they finally have the time and money to live the life they spent decades building.This is not a scare tactic. It is a mirror. Because the retirement you are picturing, the trips, the grandkids, the energy to actually say yes to things, does not happen automatically. It is built now, in the small decisions you are making today about whether your health is a priority or a someday.Elizabeth also shares two women from her own life whose retirements looked nothing alike, and what the difference between them actually came down to.The Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersMost women in midlife are not ignoring their health because they don't care. They are deferring it because everything else feels more urgent, and health doesn't send an invoice until much later. By the time the bill arrives, the window to build the body you wanted to retire into has gotten a lot smaller.This episode gives you a concrete framework for understanding the real cost of that pattern, and a clear next step for figuring out what is actually getting in your way. Not the surface answer. The real one. Because the retirement you are picturing is worth protecting, and the time to protect it is now.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy "I'll get to it when things slow down" is the most expensive sentence in the room, and what it is actually costing you in ways that don't show up until it's much harder to fixHow the Health-Wealth-Time framework shifts across every stage of life, and which lever most midlife women are quietly running on empty without realizing itWhat the compounding cost of small health deferrals actually looks like over time, and why it is never one big decision that gets you, it is a thousand small ones that became the defaultRESOURCESElizabeth Sherman's Speaking pageTake A Free Quiz & learn what is keeping you from applying the health habits that you know you could be doing.Hey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Free Quiz: Still saying "I know what to do, I just don't do it"? You don't need more information. You need to know why you're not applying the information you already have. This free quiz identifies the exact reason your healthy habits keep breaking down, and it's not willpower. 15 questions. 3 minutes or less. 4 possible patterns. 1 honest answer. Go to https://elizabethsherman.com/quiz If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →276: Vacation Eating: The Middle Lane Between All-In and On a Diet
2w ago00:28:42Tap to summarizeMost women leave for vacation in a good rhythm. They're eating well, feeling good, and fully intending to keep it going on the road. Then the airport happens. Then the hotel breakfast buffet. Then dinner out every night with no familiar guardrails in sight. By the time they land back home, they need days, sometimes weeks, just to feel like themselves again.In this episode, Elizabeth breaks down why travel specifically derails healthy eating, and why it keeps happening even to women who have their health pretty well handled at home. The problem has nothing to do with caring or not caring. It has everything to do with the conditions that make your habits work at home not traveling with you.Elizabeth shares stories from her own travel, including an Alaskan cruise early in her health journey where swollen feet and blisters from loose shoes were the physical receipt from a week of eating past what her body needed, and a trip to Italy where she and her husband were taking daily naps without realizing the low energy was connected to what she was eating. Each trip taught her something. And what she's learned adds up to a simple, practical approach that lets you actually enjoy the trip and come home feeling like yourself.This episode is not about packing protein bars in your suitcase or skipping dessert in Rome. It's about finding the lane between eating everything in sight and being on a diet the whole trip. That lane exists. And once you know how to find it, travel stops being something you have to recover from.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy the women who feel most confident before a trip are often the ones who struggle most when they get homeThe one question to ask yourself before you leave that changes how every food decision on the trip feelsWhy the choice between "vacation mode" and white-knuckling it is a false one, and what's actually available in betweenThe Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersYou don't have to choose between having a good trip and feeling good when you get home. Those two things are not in conflict. But most women have only ever experienced one or the other, so it genuinely feels like a choice. This episode shows you why that pattern keeps repeating, what's structurally causing it, and what a different approach actually looks like in practice.The goal isn't a perfect trip. It's coming home feeling like yourself. Not bloated, not behind, not already dreading Monday. Just back, rested enough, and ready to pick up where you left off. That's available to you on every trip you take from here forward.RESOURCESTravel Success PlaybookFree QuizHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Free Quiz: Still saying "I know what to do, I just don't do it"? You don't need more information. You need to know why you're not applying the information you already have. This free quiz identifies the exact reason your healthy habits keep breaking down, and it's not willpower. 15 questions. 3 minutes or less. 4 possible patterns. 1 honest answer. Go to https://elizabethsherman.com/quiz If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →275: The Real Reason Summer Wrecks Your Eating Every Year
3w ago00:20:36Tap to summarizeIn twenty years of working with women on their health, I've noticed something that doesn't get talked about enough. Some women come out of summer feeling really good. Lighter, more relaxed, like the season actually did something for them. And some women arrive at Labor Day feeling puffy, sluggish, and like they need a full reset before they can even think about their health again. The difference between those two women is not what you think it is.Summer still carries that old nostalgia, even if you haven't been in school for decades. The looser schedule, the slower pace, the feeling that the rules are a little more relaxed. That pull is real. But summer has the ability to either support your health or quietly derail it, and most women never see it coming because the spiral doesn't start in July. It starts in May.In this episode of Total Health in Midlife, Elizabeth breaks down why the summer health spiral is so predictable, why it has nothing to do with motivation or willpower, and what is actually driving the pattern for women who keep arriving at September swearing next year will be different.If you are listening to this in June, you still have time to do this differently. But only if you understand what you're actually dealing with.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy the summer eating spiral starts in May, not July, and what is already happening in your body and schedule before summer officially beginsHow the weekday/weekend eating pattern and the school year/summer pattern are the same all-or-nothing cycle running at two different scales, and why seeing that changes everythingWhy the fix for summer eating has nothing to do with a better summer plan, and what actually needs to change if you want to stop arriving at Labor Day feeling like you need a resetThe Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersMost women treat the summer health spiral as a summer problem. They look for better strategies for navigating BBQs, vacations, and unstructured weekends. Those strategies have their place, but they don't get to the root of why the spiral keeps happening year after year.The real issue is not what you're eating in July. It's how you've been living since September. When you understand that the summer blowout is a predictable response to nine months of running at full capacity without real rest or pleasure built in, you stop blaming yourself for lacking motivation and start seeing the actual structural problem. That shift alone changes how you approach not just this summer, but every season that follows. You do not have to earn your summer. You do not have to survive it. There is a version of this season where you are actually in it and still feel like yourself when September arrives.RESOURCESThe Weekend Eating PlaybookThe Nighttime Eating PlaybookThe Feel Good Holiday PlaybookFree QuizHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →274: Stubborn or Stuck? Why Women Won't Ask for Help
4w ago00:27:55Tap to summarizeYou already know what you're supposed to do. You've read the articles, tried the plans, and given yourself more fresh starts than you can count. So why isn't it working? And more importantly, why does the idea of asking someone for help feel like admitting you've failed at something you should be able to handle yourself?That's exactly what this episode is about.Elizabeth opens with a story she's told before, but with a new lens: standing in her dining room in her workout clothes, staring at empty chocolate wrappers, while being a certified nutritionist and personal trainer. All the information in the world, and still stuck. What finally moved the needle wasn't more information. It was getting help.This episode walks through why women in midlife keep trying to solve their health problems alone, where that conditioning comes from, what it actually costs over time, and what tends to happen the moment they finally stop.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy knowing exactly what to do with your health still isn't enough, and what actually bridges that gapWhere the belief "I should be able to do this on my own" comes from, and why it keeps so many capable women stuck for years longer than necessaryWhat Elizabeth's clients almost universally say the moment they finally ask for help, and why that response tells you everything you need to knowThe Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersIf you have been circling the same health problems for years, eating better for a week and then sliding back, starting over every Monday, telling yourself you just need more consistency, this episode is going to reframe what's actually happening. The problem is not that you lack information or capability. The problem is that some things are genuinely harder to see and solve from inside them. And the belief that you should be able to figure it out alone is often the exact thing keeping you stuck inside it.Being witnessed, having someone in your corner who can see your situation clearly and help you make sense of it, is not a luxury. It is often the thing that collapses years of spinning into months of actual progress. This episode gives you permission to stop making it harder than it has to be.Hey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Free Quiz: Still saying "I know what to do, I just don't do it"? You don't need more information. You need to know why you're not applying the information you already have. This free quiz identifies the exact reason your healthy habits keep breaking down, and it's not willpower. 15 questions. 3 minutes or less. 4 possible patterns. 1 honest answer. Go to https://elizabethsherman.com/quiz If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →273: Why You Keep Breaking Your Own Rules
Jun 200:24:58Tap to summarizeYou know what you're supposed to do. Eat better, move more, get to bed at a decent hour. You have the information. You've had it for years. And yet, at some point between making the plan and the moment it actually matters, something shifts. You end up exactly where you didn't want to be, again, and you can't quite explain why.There's a quote that gets attributed to Maya Angelou: we do the best we can with what we know, and when we know better, we do better. Most women in midlife reject that idea immediately, because they do know better. That's the whole problem. But there are four words missing from that quote that explain everything. And once you hear them, the gap between knowing and doing is never going to look the same way again.In this episode, Elizabeth breaks down exactly what's happening in the moment your plan falls apart. Not in a vague, mindset-work kind of way. In a specific, here's-the-actual-mechanism kind of way. Your brain is offering you thoughts that feel completely true, completely reasonable, and have just enough logic in them to hold up for about thirty seconds. And you've been acting on them without knowing that's what you were doing.This episode is for you if you've ever finished a day wondering how you ended up so far from where you planned to be.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy knowing what to do has never been your actual problem, and what is actually driving your decisions in the moments that matterThe two types of thoughts your brain offers when your plan and real life collide, and why both feel completely justified in the momentWhat a belief actually is, how it forms without you noticing, and why it's been quietly overriding your plans for yearsThe Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersIf you've been blaming your follow-through, your resolve, or your ability to stay consistent, this episode is going to give you something more useful than another strategy. It's going to show you the actual mechanism behind the gap between knowing and doing. The relief isn't in finding a better plan. It's in understanding that you've been following through on your beliefs all along, and that those beliefs can be examined and changed.Women in midlife are not failing at their health goals because they lack information or motivation. They're acting on thoughts that feel like facts, thoughts about what they deserve, what's realistic, what counts, and what the consequences of their choices actually are. Once you can see the thought for what it is, you get to decide whether you want to keep believing it. That's not a small thing. That's where everything changes.RESOURCESTake the free quiz to find out why your healthy habits keep falling apartEpisode 268: What You Know vs. What You BelieveHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Free Quiz: Still saying "I know what to do, I just don't do it"? You don't need more information. You need to know why you're not applying the information you already have. This free quiz identifies the exact reason your healthy habits keep breaking down, and it's not willpower. 15 questions. 3 minutes or less. 4 possible patterns. 1 honest answer. Go to https://elizabethsherman.com/quiz If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →272: Why Every Diet You've Tried Has Failed You
May 2600:31:10Tap to summarizeIf you have done the diets, followed the programs, worked with trainers, and still find yourself starting over every few months, this episode is going to reframe something important. The problem was probably never you. It was the model. And once you understand why the standard approach to health fails most women in midlife, the start-over cycle starts to make a lot more sense.In this episode, Elizabeth breaks down exactly why prescriptive plans and diets don't work for women over 40, and it has everything to do with what those plans don't know about your body, your hormones, your stress load, and your life. She also gets into something that doesn't get talked about enough: how decades of following other people's rules has quietly disconnected most women from the one tool that would actually help them. Their own body's signals.This is also an episode about what actually works instead. Not another plan. Not more rules. A completely different way of approaching your health that is built around your real life, your real body, and what's actually possible for you right now.And if weight loss is part of what you're after, Elizabeth addresses that directly too, including why the methods most women have been handed to get there are the very thing making it harder.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy the diet and program model was not designed for a midlife woman's body, and what it was actually built onHow years of following external rules quietly erodes your ability to hear and trust your own body's signalsWhat it looks like to make health decisions from the inside out, using a real-life example that connects food, alcohol, sleep, hormones, and next-day cravings in a way that finally makes senseWhy optimal health is not an absolute standard and what it actually means for your specific life right nowHow one coach can replace what most women are trying to piece together across a nutritionist, a personal trainer, and a therapist, without the cost or the gapsThe Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersIf you have spent years wondering why you can't make healthy habits stick despite knowing exactly what you're supposed to do, this episode answers that question directly. Not with more advice. With an accurate explanation of what's actually been happening, and why it has never been a you problem.By the time you finish listening, you will have a clearer picture of what your body has been trying to tell you, why the standard model keeps failing women in midlife specifically, and what a different approach actually looks like in practice. That shift in understanding is where real change starts.RESOURCES8 Habits That Healthy People Do and Why They Don't StickTake this free quiz to see where your life is derailing your health habitsHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Free Quiz: Still saying "I know what to do, I just don't do it"? You don't need more information. You need to know why you're not applying the information you already have. This free quiz identifies the exact reason your healthy habits keep breaking down, and it's not willpower. 15 questions. 3 minutes or less. 4 possible patterns. 1 honest answer. Go to https://elizabethsherman.com/quiz If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →271: Why You Quit Before You Actually Hit a Wall
May 1900:26:46Tap to summarizeYou started the plan. You were doing well. And then one hard day, one moment of friction, one week where everything felt like too much, and it was over. Not because you failed. Because your brain did a calculation and handed you a verdict before you ever actually hit a wall.This episode started with a run. A slow, hard run on bad sleep, where Elizabeth's brain told her to stop long before her body had any reason to. What she noticed in that moment, and what she's been thinking about ever since, is the same pattern that takes down a good eating plan, derails a packed calendar day before it even starts, and keeps high-achieving women stuck in the start-over cycle.The problem isn't follow-through. It's that we've been asking the wrong question at the wrong time. We project forward into all the discomfort we might feel and respond to that future feeling as if it's happening right now. We call it knowing our limits. It isn't.And when we look back and criticize ourselves for quitting, we do it from a comfortable distance, without accounting for the actual conditions we were in. This episode is about what to do differently, in the moment, before the verdict comes in.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy your brain keeps telling you to quit before you've actually reached your limit, and how to tell the difference between real exhaustion and projected exhaustionThe one question to ask yourself in the moments you want to give up, and why it changes what happens nextWhy all-or-nothing thinking is the most expensive pattern a high-achieving woman can have around her health, and what the third option actually looks likeThe Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersIf you have ever woken up exhausted before a hard day started, abandoned a plan that was working because one moment of restriction felt like too much, or looked back at a goal you quit and thought "I could have kept going", this episode is going to feel like relief. Not because it tells you to try harder. Because it explains exactly what was happening in those moments and gives you a practical way to respond differently the next time.The conversation you have with yourself when you want to quit is the thing that determines whether you build momentum or start over. This episode gives you the words.RESOURCESTotal Health Systems Audit QuizHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Free Quiz: Still saying "I know what to do, I just don't do it"? You don't need more information. You need to know why you're not applying the information you already have. This free quiz identifies the exact reason your healthy habits keep breaking down, and it's not willpower. 15 questions. 3 minutes or less. 4 possible patterns. 1 honest answer. Go to https://elizabethsherman.com/quiz If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →270: Cortisol, Insulin, and Why the Scale Won't Move in Midlife
May 1200:29:11Tap to summarizeYou've been eating reasonably well. You're moving your body. You're trying to get enough sleep. And the scale still won't move. If that sounds familiar, this episode is going to give you something most health advice never does: an actual biological explanation for why your body is responding the way it is right now, in this phase of your life.Elizabeth came across an article recently about cortisol and menopausal weight gain, and it stopped her mid-scroll. Not because it was telling her anything she didn't already know, but because it put into plain language something she sees in her clients constantly and realized she hasn't explained clearly enough on this podcast. This episode is her response to that article, and it's one of the most direct conversations she's had about the science behind her work.This is not another episode about eating less and moving more. It's an honest explanation of what is happening inside your body during perimenopause and menopause, why chronic stress and poor sleep have a direct biological impact on your weight, and why the advice you've been following was never designed for the body you have now.If you've ever felt like you're doing everything right and still going nowhere, this episode is going to make a lot of things make sense.The Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersWhat this episode offers is something the diet and wellness industry rarely provides: a straightforward, non-shame-based explanation for why your body is doing what it's doing. The weight that won't move, the exhaustion, the feeling that you're trying and nothing is working, these are not signs that something is wrong with you. They are signs that your body has changed significantly, and the tools and advice you've been given were never updated to match it. Understanding that distinction is genuinely useful, and it changes everything about how you approach your health from here.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy cortisol behaves differently in menopause and perimenopause, and what that means for your weight, your energy, and your ability to manage stress the way you used toThe real reason sleep deprivation and chronic stress aren't just lifestyle inconveniences: they are direct biological inputs that change how your body stores and burns fatRESOURCESTake the free quiz8 Habits That Healthy People Do and Why They Don't StickHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Free Quiz: Still saying "I know what to do, I just don't do it"? You don't need more information. You need to know why you're not applying the information you already have. This free quiz identifies the exact reason your healthy habits keep breaking down, and it's not willpower. 15 questions. 3 minutes or less. 4 possible patterns. 1 honest answer. Go to https://elizabethsherman.com/quiz If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
Transcribe →269: The 5 Things Quietly Wrecking Your Health Habits in Midlife
May 500:29:37Tap to summarizeYou know what to do. You've known for a while. Eat better, move more, sleep enough, stress less. And yet here you are, starting over again on Monday, wondering why you can't just make it stick. If that sounds familiar, this episode is going to feel like a relief.In episode 269, I'm pulling back the curtain on something I see in almost every woman I work with in midlife: the start-over cycle isn't a willpower problem. It isn't a motivation problem. It's a conditions problem. And today I'm going to show you exactly what that means, and what you can actually do about it.I'll also share the stories of two real women, Tammi and Patty, who both came to me convinced they were the problem. Spoiler: they weren't. And chances are, neither are you.And I'm introducing something I've built that I am genuinely proud of: the Total Health Systems Audit. A diagnostic tool that shows you exactly where the friction in your specific life is living, and what to address first. If you've ever thought I know what to do, I just can't seem to make myself do it, this episode was made for you.The Biggest Problem Midlife Women Face Regarding Healthy HabitsMost midlife women who struggle with their health are not struggling because they lack information. They're struggling because the conditions they're operating in, changing hormones, depleted bandwidth, an unsupportive environment, and decades of diet culture messaging, were never designed to support them. In perimenopause and menopause, estrogen shifts disrupt sleep, amplify the stress response, slow recovery, and change how the body manages energy. The strategies that worked at 38 simply don't work the same way at 52. But most women don't know that, so they keep applying the same approaches and blaming themselves when those approaches fail.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy the start-over cycle keeps repeating even when you know exactly what you're doing wrong, and why it has nothing to do with your characterThe five specific areas of your life that are most likely driving your health friction right now, and why most women have never had all five looked at togetherWhat a real diagnosis of your habits actually looks like, and how two women discovered that what they thought were personal failures were completely predictable responses to conditions working against themRESOURCESTotal Health Systems AuditFree Quiz, Why Do Your Healthy Habits Keep Falling ApartHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Free Quiz: Still saying "I know what to do, I just don't do it"? You don't need more information. You need to know why you're not applying the information you already have. This free quiz identifies the exact reason your healthy habits keep breaking down, and it's not willpower. 15 questions. 3 minutes or less. 4 possible patterns. 1 honest answer. Go to https://elizabethsherman.com/quiz If you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast.After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too.To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving.Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.
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