The Second Half Strong Show

Supplement timing, nutrient pairing, and food combinations for women in perimenopause and menopause. Taking a handful of supplements every day and not sure they're doing anything? In this episode, Heather shares the old-school food pairings our grandmothers got right long before anyone could explain why, the nutrient pairs that help each other, and the ones that quietly compete. In this episo...

Midlife fatigue, stress, and a mineral test most women have never heard of. That's where this conversation with Dori Martin starts. Dori is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and certified hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) practitioner who works with women in midlife. After years of caregiving, she was doing everything "right" and still felt depleted. What changed thin...

Zone 2 training might be the most underrated workout for women in perimenopause, and it's supposed to feel almost too easy. If you think a workout doesn't count unless you're wiped out for the rest of the day, this episode is for you. Heather breaks down zone 2: the steady, conversational effort where you're working but not straining. She also gets honest about where the zone 2...

Calcium gets all the credit for strong bones, but it was never meant to work alone. In this solo episode, Heather breaks down why bone health shifts so quickly in the years around menopause, and why what you do right now matters most. You'll meet the nutrient team that helps calcium get where it belongs, and learn why your daily walk isn't enough on its own. In this episode: Calcium, vit...

Friendship bracelets. Boom boxes. Riding bikes until the streetlights came on. Friendship used to be effortless — built into the ordinary shape of every day. Then came mortgages, kids, calendars, and perimenopause. And the friendships got quiet. In this solo episode, Heather looks at why midlife makes us pull away, what researchers have proposed about how women respond to stress, and what a 2024 U...

Some conversations feel different because they are. This one is with my friend Dana Frost, who has been through the perimenopausal transition herself. Dana has been in the wellness industry since 2007. She's a Master Certified Life Coach, a Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Practitioner, and a HeartMath® facilitator, and she hosts the Vitally You® podcast. She tells the story of what her own...

Flip over almost any bottle in your bathroom and you'll find a list of ingredients most of us can't pronounce. Some of them are endocrine disruptors — chemicals your body can mistake for hormones. In this episode, Heather walks through what endocrine disruptors are, the ingredient names worth learning, and a room-by-room approach to swapping them out without overhauling your whole house...

The supplement aisle was not built with you in mind. Prettier packaging, higher price, and not much more to show for it. This week we are skipping the glitter and talking about three things that actually earn their place in your cabinet. Creatine, collagen, and omegas all get talked about like they belong to somebody else. Bodybuilders. Skincare ads. People who really love fish. But all three do s...

What if the anxiety, irritability, and emotional whiplash of perimenopause aren't only a hormonal problem, but also a psychological transition nobody prepared you for? In this episode of Second Half Strong , Heather Hausman sits down with Dr. Rand Wilson, PsyD, a clinical psychologist specializing in trauma, anxiety, mindfulness-based therapy, and forest bathing. Dr. Wilson spent the first st...

Most midlife women have been told to fix their sleep, fix their stress, and fix their diet. Far fewer have been told that the system sitting underneath all three runs almost entirely on light. In this episode of Second Half Strong , Heather Hausman walks through circadian rhythm — the body's internal 24-hour clock — and why getting light right can make everything else in a wellness routine wo...

Heather sits down with Dr. Mark Hechler, DO, and Nurse Coach Tandi Hechler, RN, of Revelation Health and Well-Being in the Kansas City area for a conversation about hormones, hormone replacement therapy, and what happens when women are told their labs look fine but they still don't feel like themselves. They cover the difference between synthetic and bioidentical hormone replacement, why deli...

You've listened. You've researched. You've read the books and saved the posts. Protein at every meal, lift weights, fix your sleep, get your labs — the list has been sitting in your phone since January, waiting for the "right Monday." Here's the truth: the right Monday isn't coming. Today is. In this episode, Heather unpacks why so many of us get stuck when we al...

You've been sending in questions — and this episode is all of them, answered. Heather opens the mailbag for a full listener Q&A, starting with the one that confuses almost everyone: what's the actual difference between prebiotics and probiotics? (Think of your gut as a garden. Probiotics are the seeds. Prebiotics are the soil.) From there she walks through the different forms of magn...

In this episode of Second Half Strong , Heather Hausman sits down with private chef, cooking teacher, and meal-prep founder Chef Anna Fox of Garden Alchemy Kitchen for a warm, kindred-spirit conversation about what it really means to cook with intention. Anna shares her journey from cooking as a kid on the countertop to building a whole-food meal service — and why sourcing locally, eating with the...

In Part Two of the thyroid conversation on the Second Half Strong podcast, host Heather Hausman moves from the why to the what now . After last week's foundation on why thyroid dysfunction gets missed in midlife and how it weaves into the full hormonal picture, this episode gets practical — covering the labs women actually need, the lifestyle tools that move the needle, and the treatment opti...

On this episode of the Second Half Strong podcast, host Heather Hausman opens one of the most misunderstood topics in midlife women's health: the thyroid. Often overlooked and frequently under-tested, the thyroid is a small but powerful gland whose hormones touch nearly every cell in the body — influencing metabolism, energy, mood, sleep, body temperature, hair, skin, and the rest of the horm...

After two episodes on lifting and fueling the body, this episode of Second Half Strong tackles the third piece of the puzzle — the one that makes the other two actually work. Host Heather Hausman makes a clear case that sleep isn't passive rest; it's active medicine. And in perimenopause, when sleep comes under attack from multiple hormonal directions at once, understanding and protectin...

In this episode of Second Half Strong, host Heather Hausman delivers the full breakdown on the one nutrient she calls a foundation, not a trend: protein. After teasing it for several episodes, she finally unpacks why protein needs actually rise in perimenopause and menopause — a shift rooted in anabolic resistance, where declining estrogen makes muscles less responsive to the same protein that wor...

If you've been telling yourself you'll start strength training "someday," this episode is your roadmap to finally getting started. In this practical and empowering episode of The Second Half Strong Show , Heather Hausmeth breaks down exactly what women in perimenopause and midlife need to know before stepping into the weight room. From overcoming gym intimidation to understandi...

In this episode of Second Half Strong , host Heather Hausman sits down with registered dietitian Abby O'Malley — the practitioner Heather credits with changing the trajectory of her own health — for a deeply personal conversation about the gut-hormone connection in perimenopause and menopause. Trained through KU Med with an integrative and functional medicine fellowship, Abby brings both clin...

In this highly-requested episode of Second Half Strong , host and certified wellness coach Heather Hausman tackles the nutrient women in perimenopause and menopause keep asking about: fiber. Heather breaks down why fiber isn't just about regularity — it's the quiet workhorse behind balanced hormones, stable blood sugar, a thriving gut microbiome, lower inflammation, and even your body&ap...

Heather Hausman gets personal in this deeply meaningful episode of The Second Half Strong Show , sharing the health journey that shaped her mission to help women navigate perimenopause, hormones, inflammation, and midlife health with clarity and confidence. What began as a life-threatening mold exposure and severe asthma attack at age six unfolded into decades of chronic inflammation, endometriosi...

In this episode of The Second Half Strong Show , Heather Hausman moves beyond explaining blood sugar issues and focuses on what actually works. She breaks down how hormonal shifts in perimenopause affect glucose, energy, and cravings—and why your metabolism can feel inconsistent even when your habits stay the same. Listeners will learn practical strategies to stabilize blood sugar, including meal...

In this episode of The Second Half Strong Show , Heather Hausman explores the real conversation many women aren’t having about GLP-1 medications and perimenopause. Instead of debating whether they’re right or wrong, she breaks down what women need to understand about metabolism, hormone shifts, and weight loss after 40—including why fatigue, digestive issues, and weight regain can happen before, d...

In this episode of The Second Half Strong Show , Heather Hausman dives deep into one of the most frustrating—and misunderstood—parts of midlife health: blood sugar instability and metabolic dysfunction in perimenopause. If you’ve been experiencing energy crashes, intense cravings, brain fog, or stubborn belly fat despite eating well and exercising consistently, this episode explains why. Heather b...