Grace & Grit Podcast

The final quarter of the year can be one of the toughest for women. Between juggling holiday responsibilities, striving to make the season magical for everyone else, and managing an already full plate, it's all too easy for self-care to fall by the wayside. The result? Rolling into the new year feeling utterly depleted. In this episode of the Grace & Grit podcast, I invite you to rethink what it t...

Early in my career, I believed that the key to improving my clients' health—primarily midlife women—was to hyper-focus on diet and exercise. But as time passed, I realized this approach wasn't delivering the lasting, meaningful results they truly deserved. Over a decade later, I've come to understand how this narrow focus was underserving them, holding them back from achieving the deeper health (c...

I don't know about you but I have a lot of questions about my brain at midlife. Questions like… Why does behavior change feel so hard? Why do so many midlife women rumble with anxiety and depression? How can I better manage my mental stress? What can I do now to help make my brain more resilient as I age? So I reached out to Dr. Sarah McKay to help answer some of these questions, and she graciousl...

Spending time alone at midlife can feel like an impossible task amid so many responsibilities AND it is incredibly important if you want to cultivate a strong relationship with yourself. Why? Because… It is hard to know yourself if you don't take time to be with yourself. I think solo adventures can be a great way to reconnect with yourself, relieve stress, get clarity around decisions, fortify co...

Midlife is a period marked by numerous opportunities to grieve. During this stage, we may face the deaths of loved ones, missed opportunities, and the realization of time passing. We also find ourselves letting go of what no longer serves us, experiencing shifts in expectations, and navigating changes in our relationships with parents and children. This episode delves into the multifaceted nature...

In a world that seems to be spinning faster by the day and giving us more opportunities to consume information and overcomplicate our lives, it is all too easy to underestimate or forget the profound impact that simple measures can make on our health and happiness. For example, learning how to pay attention to your life and be fully present can improve nearly every aspect of your well-being, from...

Health and happiness should not be at odds in any season. That being said, I see many of my clients struggling to honor both health and happiness in the summer months because they feel that they either have to sacrifice self-care to enjoy the summer or sacrifice enjoying their summer to administer self-care. If that's you, this episode was made for you. In this short but sweet episode, I offer thr...

Menopause, a major hormonal transition for women, has not gotten the attention it deserves… until now. Enter Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a board-certified ob-gyn, a certified Culinary Medicine Specialist in medicine nutrition, a Menopause Society Certified Practicioner and the founder of Mary Claire Wellness, a private medical practice that focuses on women in midlife. Dr. Haver has taken the internet...

The things in the hearts of my clients never cease to amaze and inspire me. They want to travel, They want to shift careers, They want to deepen relationships (and maybe start some new ones), They want to create, They want to advocate for the causes they care about, … and so many other things. In other words, they have so much life to live and express. AND… Their biggest barrier to actually doing...

Sleep is where so much of the magic that keeps us healthy takes place and there are so many reasons we struggle to get enough good quality sleep at midlife. Enter Dr. Leigha Saunders who specializes in helping women sleep better so they can spend more time on what matters to them MOST. With over a decade of experience in women's health, Leigha's innovative approach to solving sleep struggles inter...

One of the most common things I coach midlife women on in my coaching practice is integrity pain, the very real discomfort that shows up mentally, emotionally and even physically, when we are not living as truly authentic and fully expressed humans. There is no shortage of things that cause integrity pain, of course, but in this episode of the Grace & Grit podcast I challenge you to consider how s...

Losing hormones at midlife can make life challenging in so many ways AND… There are a lot of things we can do to minimize suffering as we transition through pre and post-menopause, which is precisely what we are exploring on this episode of the Grace & Grit podcast. My dear friend and functional diagnostic practitioner, Laini Gray, joins me to discuss: What biochemistry is and why it matters to th...

Attention, ladies! It's time to rethink our approach to health and wellness if we want to age power-fully. Our bodies undergo profound changes as we cross the midlife threshold, with the departure of crucial hormones like estrogen and progesterone making us less resilient to stress. Ignoring this reality makes the pursuit of powerful aging an uphill battle. Join me in this episode of the Grace & G...

Let's face it—getting older isn't a negotiable part of life. You've got some serious control over how that aging journey unfolds. You could make it a bit of a downer, trudging through the years… OR you could make it a power-filled experience. (let's do that!) Today's episode marks the start of a 4-part series on Power-FULL Aging, and we're digging into why change, especially during midlife, is an...

To say that most women I have coached over the years have "a complicated relationship with their bodies" would be a massive understatement. In fact, it is a rarity that I work with a woman who has a healthy relationship with her body. What is a healthy relationship with the body? Well, that is precisely the topic of this week's podcast episode. In this episode, specifically, I cover: Body beliefs...

I have been traveling in the health and wellness space for nearly 30 years (yep! I got my first job as a fitness trainer when I was 18, and I just celebrated my 47th birthday). The wellness industry is the ONLY field I have ever worked in, AND I am fairly certain this industry would not even exist if more professionals were teaching the REAL work of behavior change. You can buy an endless supply o...

She's Baaaacck… Nervous system expert Irene Lyon that is. If you have been a long-time listener of the Grace & Grit podcast, you are probably familiar with Irene Lyon. She does the MASSIVELY important work of helping people to better understand how their nervous system works AND develop skills that allow them to more easily regulate their nervous systems. I repeatedly invite Irene back to the show...

The years between 40-65 can be wildly disorienting.  Not only are midlife women dealing with a changing hormonal landscape but the landscape of life is changing dramatically, as well. In essence, there are a lot of "microstressors" at play in this phase of life that can add up to some serious breakdown mentally, physically and emotionally if one does not learn skills that can help unpack some of t...

If there were only 1 lifestyle change a client could make to improve her health and well-being, I would focus on sleep. Why? Because sleep is where the magic of health takes place. While we sleep, our brains cache out, our systems detox, our hormones recalibrate, our tissues repair, and our immune system is fortified. AND… sleep can be really freaking difficult when you are in the perimenopausal o...

Are you living your life by default or by design? Relatively or proactively? Your answer carries significant consequences for your overall well-being and happiness. Reactions have a place, certainly. What an awesome thing it is that the human brain can react in ways that help us improve our lives, sometimes even save our lives. That being said, the human brain can just as easily react in ways that...

Pausing to look back at the road you have traveled… this day, this week, this year… is such a power-filled practice. Why? Because it shows you how you have been showing up in your life and how you might want to navigate the journey forward a little differently. In this episode of the Grace & Grit Podcast, I share with you 5 of my biggest takeaways from the past year and how I am using that to prop...

Self-imposed limitations aren't always a bad thing. Establishing limits for yourself can actually be a kindness; a form of self-respect and even self-care. This episode of the Grace & Grit podcast explores: The dark and bright side to self-imposed limitations. Why you owe it to yourself to set limits on how you spend resources like time, energy and mental bandwidth. Constraint as a form of self-re...

"Shoulding" all over yourself is never good for your mental and emotional health and the holiday season is ripe with expectations around how you "should" be spending them. So, this episode of the Grace & Grit podcast invites you to consider how you want to spend the holiday season this year even though what you discover may go against the grain of tradition and family expectations. Topics explored...

Years ago I watched a documentary called Biggest Little Farm, which tracked the rumbles and rises of a couple who purchased a desolate farm in California and restored it to a thriving ecosystem. The film was such a powerful reminder that nature does not heal by focusing on one thing, but rather by tending to the wellness of MANY things. Midlife wellness is an ecosystem of sorts too, composed of a...

Truth be told, I was super resistant to hosting a retreat for my clients despite the many requests I had received to organize one over the years. I am SO glad I relented and, in this week's episode of the Grace & Grit Podcast, I share some of the biggest revelations that came from bringing 16 clients together for 4 days on a 3000-acre ranch here in Montana. More specifically, in this episode, I sh...