Middling Along

Joining me this time is Karina Antram - registered nutritionist and executive coach, and author of Fix your Fatigue. Karina is hugely passionate about health and wellbeing after her own health struggles led her to seek out naturopathic practices. After being diagnosed with IBS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Lyme Disease, Karina tried out a multitude of tests, diets, health practices, different foods and herbs to try and combat her debilitating symptoms which, at times, led her to being hospitalised. Karina is now recovered, having made numerous changes to her diet and lifestyle, but is fully aware that consistency and continuity is key.

Fix Your Fatigue is designed to be easily accessible, helping the reader identify what is draining their energy and begin to take action.

In this episode we cover: 

• the difference between ‘normal’ levels of tiredness and fatigue
• energy leaks - what they are and how to address them - including some that might not be obvious
• the impact of stress and exposure to toxins on our mitochondria and how well they function to provide us with energy
• micronutrients in our food, why they are so critical for our energy production process, why we might not be absorbing them well, and when we might think about supplementation
• using nudge theory to help ourselves with healthier habits and making changes
• Karina’s tips for making water more palatable, making your own healthy ‘nutrient toppers’ and other health hacks
• What to do first if you’re really struggling with fatigue…

Fix Your Fatigue is published by Penguin https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/454007/fix-your-fatigue-by-antram-karina/9781405954693

 

You can find Karina at https://nocohealth.co.uk/ 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

In this episode I welcome Jill Ross and Sarah Garton, both of whom are Managing Directors at Accenture in the UK. Jill and Sarah are the driving force behind Accenture’s MenoWarriors affinity group, and take us through how the group was established, and what Accenture has done to become accredited as a Menopause Friendly Employer here in the UK.

 

Sarah shares her personal story of ‘outing’ herself as menopausal in a room full of colleagues in dramatic style - far from putting the kibosh on her career trajectory at Accenture, she feels the opposite has happened - despite, or perhaps because of, her willingness to be vulnerable and open about her struggles. Jill also candidly shares her experiences of anxiety and loss of confidence at work - and what has helped her. 

 

We also cover:

• the importance of male allies and how Accenture support male allies to confidently have those conversations in the workplace;
• how companies can support the emotional symptoms of menopause as well as the physical ones;
• the business case for making menopause an integral part of inclusion strategies;
• that businesses don’t necessarily need blockbuster budgets to make a big difference*;
• geographical differences in opening up conversations in the workplace and how the UK is leading from the front;
• the impressive results of their survey that clearly demonstrate the impact of their work around menopause support on employee retention

 

The BSI has some great free resources you can share with your HR team or senior management here: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/our-services/events/events/2023/menstrual-and-menopausal-health-in-the-workplace/ 

 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

My guest this time is Sara Gregory - a contemporary portrait painter based in London. She belongs to a collection of artists called ‘Studio Fridays’ who have a studio space in Whetstone, Barnet. Having originally studied Fine Art in Stourbridge College of Art she became a teacher of Art which she did for 25 years before leaving to pursue her own practice. She is also an art tutor for children which she does in schools around Hertfordshire.  In 2022 she was a contestant on the popular ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’ competition. Her series of self portraits documenting her seven year struggle with the menopause before starting HRT cover such subjects as hot flushes, insomnia, anxiety and rage.

 

We talk about:

• Why she decided to begin her series of menopause self-portraits
• How perimenopause symptoms impacted her and how little help she was offered to help with her insomnia
• How showing the paintings to friends and fellow artists, as well as on social media, has opened up conversations and created permission for others to talk about their symptoms 
• Her creative process - the role of ‘acting out’ a self-portrait and how as an artists you convey a feeling

 

You can find Sara on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/saragregoryart/ 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

My guest this time is Skylar Liberty Rose, a writer and coach who helps introvert women embrace their 40s and 50s with joy and confidence.  Born in London, Skylar moved to New York City when she was 40, and reaching her mid-40s, she found herself feeling despondent about aging and struggling with her appearance. It was this experience that prompted her to disentangle herself from the clutches of an anti-aging culture. She now helps other women do the same through her Visible course and You to Bloom membership.

 

We cover a raft of topics including:

• How it felt to change her birth name post-divorce and why it was the best decision she’s ever made for herself - though we don’t recommend doing it three weeks into a new job! 
• How midlife and menopause hits a little differently for introverts - we may feel the urge to spend a lot of time alone, but this is a time when we need to connect and find our community
• Trading NYC life for the countryside
• The societal pressures to keep our looks and age gracefully (whatever that means!) we are so used to it we rarely recognise or question it any more…
• Her brain tumour diagnosis, surgery, and recovery
• Comparing notes on starting HRT - and Skylar’s struggles with anxiety
• ADHD - masking, coping, and overwhelm…perimenopause can be a time when the cracks start to show

You can find Skylar at https://www.skylarlibertyrose.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/skylarlibertyrose/

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

Join us this time for something a little different: earlier this year I sat down with my husband Stephen, to get a partner's view of peri/menopause...we weren't even sure whether or not to release it, but hopefully it makes for helpful listening for other partners out there...we talk about how his fears of menopause have been (mostly) unfounded, how the male urge to fix things isn't always the most helpful approach to perimenopause, and some tips for how to actually support someone in your life if they are struggling in peri/menopause. 

Hope you enjoy it!

 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

 

My guest this time is registered nutritional therapist Thalia Pellegrini. After a decade as a broadcast journalist for the BBC, presenting programs including Newsround and The Travel Show and reporting for Holiday, she followed her passion and retrained at the Institute of Optimum Nutrition in London. Her specialist interest is women’s health with a focus on perimenopause.

In our discussion we cover:

• living with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME in her twenties and how working with a nutritional therapist allowed her to go back to living a normal life;
• the role of permission and self-compassion as an antidote to guilt and overwhelm;
• Midlife as a powerful opportunity to invest in our longer term wellbeing
• stress management - how stress trumps everything. It impacts digestion, hormonal balance, weight gain, sleep... the list goes on. 
• How losing two good friends in just three years brought her own midlife health into sharper focus
• Tips for dealing with bloating and constipation

 

One thing that will stick with me from this interview is Thalia’s invitation to ‘Hold your own wellbeing sacred’ - midlife is definitely a time where we need to recognise that prioritizing our health and happiness is not selfish - quite the opposite.

Thalia has a list of breakfast ideas available from her website https://discover.thaliapellegrini.com/5-minute-breakfasts-for-mums-in-a-hurry/

You can also find her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thaliapellegrini_nutrition/

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

I’m delighted to welcome today’s guest, journalist and author Rosamund Dean. Former Deputy Editor of Grazia magazine, she’s the author of Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down can Change Your Life, and her latest book, Reconstruction (How to rebuild your body. Mind, and life after a breast cancer diagnosis) which is a pragmatic but positive handbook for anyone navigating a diagnosis of primary breast cancer. 

 

Rosamund’s book is not only an exploration of her own personal experiences of breast cancer, but a warm, relatable, practical guide to what to expect at each stage, even down to what to pack in your hospital bag…

 

In this episode we’ll cover:

• How it feels to receive a breast cancer diagnosis (in the middle of a pandemic!
• The crushing fatigue of cancer treatment and being forced to stop and rest - and how this impacts on someone’s identity
• Dealing with early menopause symptoms when HRT isn’t an option - and the reality of how poor the provision of information is for cancer patients
• That treatment can induce a second menopause in post-menopausal women who undergo treatment for BC
• Menopausal symptoms and their similarity to the side effects of chemotherapy - disentangling which is which
• The treatment that Rosamund is now taking to strengthen her bones
• The strain of looking out for symptoms of recurrence of the cancer
• The important of exercise not just for multiple facets of physical and mental wellbeing but for reducing risk of recurrence by between 30-60%
• Life - and living well - after breast cancer treatment

 

You can find Rosamund on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/rosamunddean/ and Reconstruction (https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Reconstruction-by-Rosamund-Dean/9780008585204) is available wherever you like to buy your books! Rosamund also has a regular newsletter, Well Well Well, which you can subscribe to here: https://rosamunddean.substack.com/ 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

My guest this time is Helen Tomlinson - Head of Talent Development at The Adecco Group and the UK government’s first ever Menopause Employment Champion.  

In this voluntary role, Helen’s focus is on encouraging employers to create more supportive environments to help women experiencing menopause to stay and progress in work. 

We discuss some of the changes that Helen is hoping to enable over the next few years, to help organizations of all sizes support menopausal employees. There are exciting developments on the horizon, including a new hub for sharing and disseminating best practice, and a national allyship program, to provide support for those who are working in SMEs that simply don’t have the same resources available as larger companies.

We also talk about the free support already out there, including the new BSI free standard on menstrual health and menopause in the workplace (available at https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/standards/understanding-menopause-and-menstrual-health/) 

We cover the ‘less visible’ symptoms - loss of confidence, brain fog, not sleeping, anxiety - which can have more far-reaching impact than physical symptoms on those in more senior roles. Symptoms which are not only harder to articulate, but harder for employers to practically support with reasonable adjustments  - which makes it even more important for employers to find individualized solutions to allow them to remain in their role.

Helen gives us a great personal example of how a manager leaping into solution mode and making assumptions can actually be counter-productive.  

We also delve into the many ways companies can help create cultural change:

• senior people sharing their experiences
• top-down support
• vulnerable leadership modelling openness to others within the organization 
• allyship 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

My guest on the podcast this time is coach and speaker Madeline McQueen. In a career which spans 35 years, she’s inspired the workforces of brands ranging from Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy to Google, Sky and Nike. If the hormone rollercoaster of midlife and perimenopause is messing with your confidence levels, buckle up - Madeline has some great advice for you! 

 

So often when we start a new job or move on to a new challenge we feel like we’re starting over (when of course, we’re generally starting from experience!). Madeline is a big proponent of ‘evidence-based confidence’ - keeping track of what we have done, skills and learnings we have gathered along the way, as a way to damp down the anxiety we often encounter when we start over. Tune in to find out more about the ‘pink envelope’ and how it can help us. 

 

We also talk about the four stages of competency that we move through each time we do something new: unconscious incompetence > conscious incompetence > conscious competence > unconscious competence - again, helpful grounding to remember, we’ve done it once, we can do it again! 

 

We’re very much on the same page too when it comes to the need for us in midlife to put ourselves at the top of the To Do List - and learn to say no more often - something else we can lean in to more and more in midlife. 

 

One of my favourite quotes of our interview is her insistence that we not “Own the Problem in the Room” - too often, as women in the workplace, we are quick to jump in to fill an awkward silence and offer our services up for the ‘emotional labour’ of the workplace that does us no favours when it comes to progression. 

 

Last but by no means least, I ask Madeline about her advice for raising strong, capable daughters - her answers will resonate with you whether you have daughters, sons, nieces or nephews! 

 

You can find Madeline at https://www.madelinemcqueen.com/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/themadelinemcqueen/ 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/ 

Join me this time as I chat to ‘recovering people pleaser’ Natalie Lue - author of The Joy of Saying No, and founder of Baggage Reclaim, one of the longest-running self-help blogs in the world. 

 

Most of us (as with our own parents) will have been raised during The Age of Obedience - socialized (especially if we identify as women) to be good and compliant - little wonder then that so many of us exhibit people-pleasing behaviours. 

 

Perhaps it hasn’t been a huge issue for us before, but perimenopause impacts on our ability to ‘multitask’ in the way we might have managed before now and for many of us holding up our people-pleasing tendencies can become exhausting, even debilitating. 

 

Natalie talks us through the five different styles of people-pleasing: gooding, efforting, avoiding, saving, and suffering - how these tendencies might have arisen in the first place, and helps us to identify which style we most identify with. The chapters that focus on the five styles also highlight ‘things to watch out for’ and some ‘quick shifts’ to help the reader start changing their behaviours. 

 

The later parts of the book provide a framework for instituting healthier boundaries and troubleshooting when we might get pushback from others or indeed from ourselves! Natalie also suggests invoking ‘the power of the pause’, and explains the difference between a ‘hard no’ and a ‘soft no’ - and when we might want to use each of them. 

 

Last of all we discuss why saying ‘No’ to some things opens up space for us to say ‘Yes’ to the things we truly value and find joyful. 

 

I’ll leave you with this little nugget of wisdom from the book: 

“Every time you do something from a place of guilt, fear, or obligation, it always leads to resentment. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.”

 

The Joy of Saying No is published by Harper Horizon, and you can find Natalie at www.baggagereclaim.com and https://www.instagram.com/natlue 

 

If you enjoy the podcast please help us grow by sharing this episode, or writing a review.

You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org 

connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/ 

follow along on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/

or subscribe to my Substack at https://middlingalong.substack.com/