38. The Truth About Why Your Body Stopped Responding After 35

Welcome to the NERSHA Thrive Podcast, faith-forward, science-backed strategies for women who want more energy, less weight, and real answers.

I'm your host, Tonya Pennington Miller, a functional, nutritional therapy practitioner and functional blood chemistry specialist, with a master's degree in applied clinical nutrition.

If you're tired of feeling dismissed by your doctor, confused by your labs, and stuck in survival mode, you're in the right place.

Here, we simplify the science. We get to the root, and we anchor it all in truth, because God made your body to heal and thrive, not just survive. It just needs the right kind of support and less noise.

Hello, hello, my friend. Welcome in to the NERSHA Thrive Podcast. I am so glad you're back with me today.

Now, before we jump into today's episode, I want to share something a little different with you.

What you're about to hear as a recording of a live masterclass I recently taught, called the truth about why your body stopped responding after 35.

In this conversation, I walk through what actually shifts in a woman's physiology after 35. Why strategies that worked in our 20s and early 30s often stop working?

Why so many women are told their labs are, quote, unquote, normal, even when they don't feel well.

So if you have been doing a lot of the right things and you still feel like your body just isn't responding the way it used to, this will help to connect some of the important dots. So settle it, and let's listen to the podcast.

I am so glad that each and every one of you ladies is here with me today.

If you are over 35 and I did not see anybody say that they were under 35, but if you've caught yourself thinking like what is happening to my body, why is it not responding the way that it used to?

If you are eating pretty clean, maybe you've even dipped your toe into fasting or intermittent fasting and the scale is just not budging or at least it's not budging in the right direction.

If your midsection feels different, if you're waking up at 3 a.m. with your mind racing, like if any of these are resonating with you, will you just put a one in the chat?

Like if your labs keep coming back as like quote unquote normal, but you don't feel normal, I want you to know that you're in the right place today.

Today is about understanding what has actually changed. Okay, yes, yes, yes, one, one, one. Okay, okay. I mean, I'm not happy that you are, but I'm happy that you're in the right place.

Today is about understanding what has actually changed in your body because something has changed.

The rules changed after 35 and I am going to help you play by the new set of rules.

So before we get started, I would love to open our time and prayer together and then we're going to just dive into the physiology. Okay.

Lord, thank you for bringing each of these women here today, Lord, whether they are here with us live right now or if they're watching the recording later, Lord, you know their bodies, you know their stories, you know the frustrations that they've been carrying.

I just pray that today brings clarity where there has been confusion.

I pray that it brings peace where there's been discouragement and just wisdom for how to care for the bodies that you entrusted to us.

Lord, I just pray that you would guide this conversation today and that you would just help every woman.

Hear what it is that she needs to hear in this season in your glorious name, we pray. Amen.

Okay. All right, ladies, I've got my chat open. Oh, Shay's here. Hi, Shay. I've got my chat open. So if you have anything that's, you know, I'll try to keep an eye on it.

I'm saying anything that's resonating, we will all leave some time for questions at the end.

And so know that that that will be coming to. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I have some ladies who know each other in the chat too. Okay.

So now before I explain what's happening physiologically, I do want to tell you about a woman that I worked with. Her name is Kate.

She was 49 at the time that we worked together and she was Perry Menopausal. I would call her very Perry Menopausal.

Also known as very Perry. Okay. So she was kind of like on the brink of menopause.

And up until this season of her life, we had never really been something that she struggled with. Like she wasn't somebody who struggled in her 20s and in her 30s.

And that might have been the hardest part for her because like on her end, nothing major had changed.

Like she was eating the same way she always had. She was still moving her body the same, but her body wasn't responding the same way anymore.

Her genes were starting to feel tight by the end of the afternoon. She described her midsection as just being thicker.

Like that was just the only word that she could describe. Like my midsection is thicker than it used to be.

During the day, she would feel completely exhausted. Like she was just dragging herself from one thing to the next, but then by three o'clock in the morning, she was wide awake.

Like just alert. Like her body was like, hey, right now is the time that you need to think about everything. And I laugh because I've been there.

What confused her the most was that she had always known how to lose weight. Like if she wanted to drop a few pounds, she would just tighten things up.

She'd clean up her diet. She might add an extra workout or two and her body would respond.

But now when she tried that, not only did it not work, but it was backfiring. The scale started moving in the wrong direction.

What she was experiencing was not a lack of discipline, but I will tell you that is what she thought it was.

It was that her body was no longer responding to the strategies that worked back into her 20s and in her 30s because her body wasn't operating in that season anymore.

Midlife and midlife really like when does it begin 40 45? I'm going to speak a lot to midlife because that's really the season that we're talking about here.

But midlife quietly changes the rules like our hormones start to shift. This all starts to happen around 35 for most women.

Our stressed tolerance narrows. Our nervous system at this point becomes a much bigger player and how the body manages your energy, how it manages your weight, your sleep, your inflammation.

And when we don't understand that shift that is happening, the instinct is to do more of what worked before, right? Like we keep pushing harder.

But a midlife body doesn't interpret more restriction and more intensity as commitment anymore. It may have in the past, it doesn't anymore.

Now, for those of you who I haven't met before, my name is Tanya. I'm a functional nutrition practitioner and a metabolic health educator with a master's degree in applied clinical nutrition.

And my work focuses on helping women over 35 to lose stubborn weight to help them stabilize their energy and to finally understand what their body needs in this very season.

I do it all using functional lab testing, DNA testing, and I have a faith rooted science backed approach.

Okay, I have spent over two decades in the health and fitness space professionally and this work is so incredibly personal for me.

I've coached teams of figure bikini and physique athletes. I myself competed in figure competitions in CrossFit competitions in half marathons, Spartan races, running up to 30 miles.

And then midlife quietly stepped in.

I was like, wait, me, who put athletes on stage? My weight started creeping up. My hair began to thin. My energy was crashing midday. Like I was reaching do you, I've you heard of the bang energy drinks?

Like I would reach for a bang energy drink to try and get through my day that it didn't work, but I was trying anything.

Then much like Kate, I would be wide awake at night.

And I also had completely lost my sex drive.

And this was sad because I was fairly newly married at this point.

Eventually, I was diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion

and looking back, it made perfect sense.

Like, I was still treating my body like I was 25.

But my physiology had changed.

And that very experience reshaped how I understand

and how I approach women's health.

And it's why I care so deeply about helping women understand

what their body is actually asking for in this season.

And that's what today is really about.

Because what neither Kate nor I understood at the time was,

this is not a willpower issue.

It was not about trying harder.

It was that our bodies were responding to stress differently

in this season.

And once you can start to see that clearly,

you realize the rules changed

and you've been still playing by the old ones.

And that's why I want to say this next part very clearly.

Because this is where most women turn the frustration inward.

Most women assume that when something stops working,

it means that they need to do more.

Like, if you've done that, put a two in the chat for me.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

So I'm not alone here.

Okay.

We try to be more consistent.

We try to be more disciplined.

We push harder.

But after 35, your body reacts differently to stress.

It reacts differently to fasting longer,

differently to cutting carbs,

to adding more workouts.

All of those things are stressors on your body.

And when you tighten things up by eating less and doing more,

which is I think a lot of times what we hear from our doctors

that we should be doing,

your system no longer reads that as commitment.

It reads it as more stress.

And in this season,

more stress does not lead to fat loss.

Now it leads to holding on to fat,

like the literal opposite.

So if the rules changed

and if tightening things up isn't the answer anymore,

what actually is the answer?

By the end of our time together today,

you are going to understand why what used to work for your body

isn't working anymore.

You're going to understand what actually changed

and what it needs instead.

And I'm going to explain it in a way that makes sense.

My favorite thing is to simplify science.

When it makes sense, you get to stop guessing.

You get to stop jumping from plan to plan.

And you start making decisions

that actually support the season you are in.

So here is how today is going to work.

We're going to talk about why what used to work

for your body isn't working anymore.

Then we're going to look at why your labs can come back normal.

Please give me a three in the chat.

If you have been told that you have, quote, unquote,

normal labs,

but you're not feeling so normal.

I know the chat takes a minute after I ask a question.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay.

Lots of threes.

Okay.

So you're being told that your labs are normal.

While you still feel exhausted,

you still feel inflamed.

You're still gaining weight.

And you just don't feel like yourself because normal

and optimal are not the same thing.

And I know I'm sitting in a room with women who want optimal.

We're not looking for normal.

And finally, I'm going to show you what it actually looks like

to support your body in this season.

So that is stops pushing back.

And it starts responding again.

So and then at the end,

I will also share an opportunity to go deeper for those of you

who feel ready.

But everything I teach today is going to stand on its own.

So if all you do is implement what we cover today,

you are going to start seeing results.

So before we dive in,

let's just do one more check to make sure that this conversation

is for you.

This conversation today is for the woman who knows something has shifted

and is tired of being told that nothing is wrong.

Please give me a four if that is you.

For the woman who keeps hearing,

this is just part of getting older,

but knows that that explanation does not sit right.

And I would love a six.

Yes, those are fighting words, right?

This is just a part of getting older.

Okay. All right, ladies,

like you are where you're supposed to be.

So let's start with why the rules

change.

We're going to start with a six.

We're going to start with a six.

We're going to start with a six.

We're going to start with a six.

We're going to start with a six.

We're going to start with a six.

We're going to start with why the rules changed in the first place.

Again, this all starts to happen around 35.

You might not always feel the shift at 35,

but this is when your physiology does begin to transition.

So a woman at 35 doesn't necessarily think,

oh, I'm Perryman Apostle,

but the sets hormones have started to shift at this point.

Your stress tolerance starts to shift.

Your need for recovery is shifting.

And those shifts change how your body responds to food,

how it responds to fasting,

to your workouts, to sleep.

So I want to break this all down for you.

And this one's really important.

Throughout your life, different parts of our body

take the lead when it comes to hormone production.

So in adolescence,

this is before our childbearing years,

our adrenal glands play a huge role in hormone production.

And this works great because our adrenals are fresh, right?

Like, stress is lower, life hasn't piled on yet.

Then we move into our reproductive years.

This is once we hit puberty, okay?

Now, our ovaries take over most of that responsibility.

And your ovaries are so great at what they do.

They're really great at their job.

They are built for cycling.

They're built for hormone production.

They are built for resilience.

And that's why in your 20s and in your early 30s,

you could push harder.

You could sleep less.

You could diet harder.

You could add more workouts.

And you were still seeing results.

It didn't have a negative effect on your hormones,

like you were resilient at that time.

Your primary hormone system was strong.

Your adrenal glands, so through our entire childbearing years,

our adrenal glands get to focus primarily on stress hormone production.

And left most of the sex hormone production up to the ovaries.

Our adrenals can still produce some during that time,

but the weight is off.

The pressure is off.

Overs have taken over.

Like, it was a beautiful setup.

But eventually, things do begin to shift again.

As you move toward perimenopause,

and eventually menopause,

your ovaries gradually start to step back.

And the responsibility of sex hormone production shifts back on to your adrenal glands.

But here's a problem.

These adrenal glands are not fresh anymore.

Right?

They've been carrying decades of stress.

Not all bad stress,

work pressure, emotional load, family responsibilities,

blood sugar swings, sleep disruption, right?

Like, our adrenal glands have been on duty for years.

And now, the same glands that have been managing your stress for decades

are also being asked to step back in and help with hormone production again.

So I want you to think about that.

It's the same system that's been carrying your stress for years, okay?

And now it's being asked to help carry hormone production again after

not having it in over two decades.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So that increases your load without you adding anything on.

Okay.

And when the load increases, your body becomes much more sensitive.

This is when women start to notice that sleep feels lighter and more interrupted.

They're feeling a little bit more reactive to stress.

So take that feels different than it used to.

Weight loss isn't happening like it used to.

You have that wired but exhausted feeling.

So when I talk about your body carrying more stress in midlife and you might be thinking,

but I don't really have more stress than I did before.

You actually do.

You have more perceived stress simply because of this physiologic change.

And when your body feels maxed out,

sat loss moves to the bottom of the priority list.

Is this resonating with anyone?

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

So you've been going in the chat.

Okay.

So let me give you something practical that you can use right away.

Before you skip breakfast just because it worked for your husband.

Before you push your fast longer because you feel like you messed up yesterday.

Before you add another hard workout.

Before you pour more coffee on top of a bad night of sleep.

I want you to just pause and ask yourself.

Am I already running on fumes?

Because your body doesn't respond well to more pressure when it's already tired.

It responds when you take some pressure off first.

Okay.

And how can we take pressure off first?

That might look like drinking lemon salt water before your coffee.

Who does that here in the mornings?

What are we on?

Give me a number seven.

Yeah, me, me, okay.

Perfect.

Okay.

Love this.

You might also choose to take a walk instead of doing high intensity interval training that you had planned for yourself.

This might look like cutting dinner off earlier in the evening instead of pushing breakfast to later.

So I know sometimes we like to eat within a certain window.

That's fine.

But I want you eating breakfast.

So eat the breakfast.

And if you want to shorten that eating window, just cut dinner off earlier.

Okay.

This might look like shortening your fast instead of extending it some days.

Okay.

Even though you had planned to do longer fast.

And this is what I want you to hear.

You don't have to scale back forever.

You just need to stop stacking stress on top of stress so that your body has room to respond again.

In fact, I want to acknowledge something right now because I know for a lot of you this might feel uncomfortable.

Because you've seen results by tightening things up in the past.

You skipped a meal.

You added the workout.

You pushed through the tired.

And it worked for you.

So when I talk about taking pressure off first, it can sound like I'm asking you to back down.

Right.

And I promise you I'm not.

I'm asking you to stop pouring effort into a strategy that your body no longer responds to.

Okay.

This season right now is not about less discipline.

If anything, I would argue that it requires more discipline.

But it's about directing that discipline differently.

You will absolutely be able to train hard again.

If that's what you want to do, you'll be able to, you know, fast strategically.

You're going to be able to do more again.

But when your system already feels maxed out, adding more pressure is just going to keep you spinning.

So we support first.

And then we can get back to intensity later.

So I'm going to go a layer deeper here.

Most women in this room are not uninformed.

Right.

Actually, let me say this.

If you're in this room.

I know a lot more about you than you think I know.

Okay.

I know you've done the research.

I know you've listened to podcasts.

You have followed experts like you've tried and give me an eight in the chat.

If, if I'm, if I'm hitting it on the head there.

You've tried what would be considered advanced strategies.

Okay, I love all the eighths.

I know my ladies.

Look, I know you, even if I haven't met you, I know you because you're in this room right now.

Okay.

So what are advanced strategies that maybe you have tried?

Maybe you've experimented with fasting.

Whether it be intermittent fasting or extended fasting.

You've experimented with lowering your carbs.

You've cleaned up on the ingredients.

You've paid attention to quality.

Like you have put in the effort.

I know that you did not take the lazy route.

And yet the results haven't lined up with what you were told to expect.

And that disconnect is so frustrating that here's the problem.

Those strategies were not built with your current physiology in mind.

What worked in a different body or in your body maybe 10 years ago.

Doesn't automatically translate to midlife.

So to understand why these strategies can miss the mark now.

We have to zoom out and look at how most health advice is developed.

Okay.

I wanted to get into this.

A lot of the advice that so many women are following right now is not entry entry level advice.

Okay.

I don't consider keto, intermittent fasting, extended fasting, carnivore.

Like I don't consider any of that entry level.

Usually we work our way to this.

Okay.

And those approaches can absolutely work.

But here's what's important to understand.

Most of the research behind those particular strategies were built on male physiology.

Are you surprised to hear that?

I mean, probably not.

Nope.

I was tested under relatively stable hormone conditions.

It assumes a fairly high stress capacity.

Okay.

So somebody who can handle a lot of stress.

It often rewards restriction and intensity.

Men's hormone patterns are like steady day today.

Their metabolic signaling tends to stay consistent under stress.

Meanwhile, over here, let's call our physiology dynamic.

Okay.

Like our hormones shift.

Our stress load accumulates.

Our nervous system directly influences how fuel is stored, how it's burned, and how it's conserved.

So when you layer restriction or intensity on top of an already maxed out system,

the body shifts into protection mode.

And that's why these strategies tend to miss the mark when we are in midlife.

Or maybe they work for a little bit and then they stop.

Okay.

Because they weren't designed around our season of physiology.

The earlier in life, your 20s, your early 30s, your mid 30s, your body had a wide margin.

Like you could eat inconsistently.

You could train hard.

You could stack your schedule.

You could push through fatigue.

There was flexibility there.

But in midlife, that margin really narrows.

The body becomes so much more specific in how it responds.

So now recovery carries so much more weight.

And for some of you, your DNA actually amplifies that need.

And we're going to dive into that in a little bit.

But your DNA can change that for you.

Timing carries more weight now.

Stress tolerance tightens, especially if your genetics already lean toward higher stress reactivity.

So the small mismatches now show up faster, the sleep shifts, the energy dips.

Weight now reflects stress more quickly.

Does anybody notice that during times of higher stress, you're noticing it on the scale and inflammation.

Any of those things give me a nine in the chat.

Oh, yes.

Okay.

Okay.

I'd love to have your DNA.

Okay.

I mean, I'd love to see your DNA.

When this happens, this is your body giving you clear feedback.

So when these increasingly intense strategies get layered onto a system that's already running near capacity, the signal gets louder.

And that signal is such valuable information that we should respond to and not try to override.

Do you feel like you have been trying to override signals that maybe your body has been giving you?

Let's go back to a one so that I'm not making you push two numbers.

Okay.

Thank you for sharing, ladies.

It really helps me.

Okay.

Pushing through is the name of our game, right?

I know you, ladies.

So let me show you what this looks like in real life because I see this pattern constantly.

You can have two women who follow the same approach.

Let's say they have the same fasting window, the same style of eating.

And their bodies will respond very differently.

One woman feels clear.

She feels energized.

She feels steady.

Her weight is trending down.

Her sleep improves.

Meanwhile, the other woman is feeling depleted.

Her inflammation is increasing.

Her sleep has become lighter.

Her weight stalls or even creeps up.

What explains that difference is individual biology?

Each body brings its own internal wiring into the process.

We're talking about how your mom and dad made you.

Okay.

This wiring influences how stress hormones are produced and how well they're cleared.

It influences how blood sugar is regulated.

So yes, how we eat influences our blood sugar levels, but our DNA also plays a role.

It influences how inflammation is signaled.

How quickly the nervous system recovers or how quickly it doesn't recover.

How fuel is converted into usable energy.

This is where your genetics come to play.

DNA shapes how a woman responds to fasting.

How much stress her system can carry.

How her body prioritizes fat loss.

How it prioritizes repair or protection.

How quickly her system settles after stress.

When strategy and biology are aligned, it's a beautiful thing.

The body will respond how you'd like it to.

But when they're not aligned, the body is going to feel like it's fighting you.

And here's where it gets even more frustrating.

I'm going to go even one more layer deep.

These two women who I just told you got completely different results from the same program.

Could go and get their blood work done.

And both of them could come out being told everything looks normal.

Results are great.

Same strategy, different results both have normal labs.

So like how could that be going on?

When you're told that your labs are normal.

What that usually means is this.

You fall somewhere inside a very wide population reference range.

Okay.

And those ranges are designed to catch disease.

They're not designed to measure optimal function.

When we look at your results.

From a functional perspective, we look at a much narrower range.

We look at ranges that are associated with how the body performs best.

Not just whether disease is present or not.

Okay.

Conventional medicine is great at identifying disease and matching a pharmaceutical to it.

That's what they're trained to do.

But they're not trained to help you optimize your health.

This is why when they run your labs and they don't identify disease,

they tell you what you're experiencing is just a part of getting older.

Okay.

Another layer is that most standard panels only run a limited set of markers.

They don't include deeper thyroid markers.

They don't assess inflammation thoroughly.

They don't assess how well you're methylating.

They don't look at patterns across systems.

They review markers one by one instead of being interpreted in relationship to one another.

So you can be technically within conventional ranges and still have a system that's under strain.

That's how two women can both have normal labs and completely different outcomes.

And that's why you keep being told that your labs are normal while you still feel exhausted while you're still gaining weight while you're still waking up at 3 a.m.

While you're still wondering why nothing is working because normal doesn't mean optimal.

It just means that you haven't crossed the line into disease.

And most women in midlife are dealing with dysfunction long before a disease shows up.

And that's where we want to catch it because if we let it go long enough, that dysfunction can eventually become disease.

So here's what I want you to take away from this section.

It's not that advanced strategies like keto or carnivore or fasting don't work.

Okay. And it's not that that labs are useless.

It's that those advanced strategies when applied generically.

And when labs are interpreted conventionally, they completely miss the individual physiology sitting right in front of them.

Two women can follow the same cutting edge plan.

Two women can both be told that their labs are normal and both can walk away with completely different outcomes.

When the plan fits your stress capacity.

When it fits your hormone shifts and your genetic wiring.

You'll know your energy is going to improve.

Your sleep is going to deepen.

Your weight will finally start moving.

Your body stops pushing back.

That is personalization and that's what this season requires.

Next question becomes, okay, Tonya, how do I stop spinning my wheels then?

Because for a long time, you could experiment, right?

Like you could tighten things up for a few weeks.

Add more cardio.

Push your fast a little longer.

Like I remember the day of like, oh, the days where it was like, oh, two weeks, I have this coming up.

I'm going to throw in a couple extra cardio sessions and like a jump a few pounds, you know?

But in mid-life, that trial and error approach, it really starts to cost you.

Like it gets expensive, it gets expensive financially, physically, emotionally.

You spend money on new programs, supplements, you lose sleep, your energy dips, your weight stalls.

And eventually you start questioning yourself.

And this is where the right kind of testing matters.

At this stage, you don't need another plan.

You need to know what your body is actually asking for.

So let's walk through what this looks like.

Great comments in the chat, ladies.

Yeah, I've tried so many things.

I've had conversations with women and like, I know what they have spent on their health.

And it's, it would surprise you. Some of it would surprise you.

Okay, so let's talk symptoms here because I know symptoms that we experience can be really frustrating.

Like, weight gain is a symptom, okay?

But it's so valuable because any symptom that we are having is telling us that something is happening.

So I want you to think of your symptoms like they are the check engine light on the dashboard of your car.

When that light comes on, you don't put a piece of like black tape over it to cover it, right?

Like when that light comes on, you understand that something underneath the hood needs attention.

If you're like me, you tell your husband, okay, different topic.

And generally, the sooner we address it, the better, right?

We don't want to let that light, that light just stay on forever in a day.

So fatigue, stubborn weight, poor sleep, hair thinning, digestive changes.

Those are your body's dashboard lights.

Yeah, somebody said no turning up the radio.

Those are your indicators.

But the light itself doesn't tell you what's wrong, right?

Like our symptoms don't tell us what's wrong, but we know something is wrong.

And that's where labs come in.

Functional lab testing lets us see what is happening under the hood.

So now we get to look at how is your thyroid actually signaling?

How is your blood sugar behaving?

It shows us whether inflammation is present, how stress hormones might be influencing your metabolism, one way or the other.

And let me actually pause on blood sugar for a second because this is really important to me.

In fact, I had a question sent in about this particular topic.

One of the biggest markers that we assess, and one that I have yet to see routinely included in standard lab panels is fasting insulin.

I've had women go to their their GPs and ask for fasting insulin and it's just not something that they will run.

Most conventional labs will run your glucose.

They're probably also willing to run your A1C.

Okay, these are blood sugar markers.

Here's the problem though.

Those numbers can load completely within range.

While insulin could be elevated sky high the entire time.

And you would never know because it wasn't tested.

Insulin tells us something so critical.

It tells us how hard your body is working behind the scenes to keep blood sugar stable.

So let's say, okay, great.

Your glucose is stable.

Your A1C is stable.

But what we need to know is how hard is your body working to make that happen.

We have to look under the hood to find that answer.

And when we do, we often find that there's elevated insulin, which means insulin resistance.

And why do we care about insulin resistance?

Because insulin is a storage hormone.

And when it's elevated, your body is being signaled to store energy and not release it.

And let me let me simplify that sentence for you.

Your body is being told to store fat instead of releasing it in order to be burned off.

So even if you are, if you're insulin resistant and you're eating well, you're fasting, you're working out,

your body cannot easily tap into your stored body fat anymore, simply because of the insulin resistance.

That's why so many women say, I'm doing everything right, but nothing is moving.

If insulin is elevated, fat loss becomes physiologically harder.

This is one of the most common blind spots that I see in midlife.

In midlife weight loss resistance.

And if you want to know how I really feel about it, like it irks me.

Because statistically, roughly 40% of women between 18 and 24 are been 18 and 44.

This is before midlife, okay?

Roughly 40% of those women are insulin resistant.

Women who are over 40 are at an even higher risk.

Because as estrogen declines and perimenopause and menopause, this role fat increases in sodas insulin resistance.

And yet we're still not routinely including this marker and standard lab work.

It's actual insanity because women are being told that their labs are normal while the very hormone that determines whether they can access stored fat or not isn't even being measured.

So is it making sense now why your doctor is telling you your labs are normal and sending you on your way?

I would love to have you put, let's say number three in the chat.

Okay, save that question for the end.

Yes, yes, yes, okay.

So instead of covering up the dashboard light or guessing what might be wrong, we actually look under the hood.

That's how symptoms turn into useful information.

But it doesn't just end with functional labs.

So the functional labs show us what is your body doing right now?

And that's really important, but there's another layer underneath that because two women can both have the same thyroid patterns.

Two women can both have elevated blood sugar markers.

Two women can both have elevated inflammation markers.

And yet they're experiencing different symptoms.

That's where DNA comes in.

Okay, lots of threes.

Okay.

DNA helps us to understand how your system is wired, how quickly you clear stress hormones or not, how efficiently you methylate, how your body processes inflammation, how resilient your nervous system is under a load.

So let's show us the current state.

DNA helps us to explain why you are in this state.

And when you look at both of them together, the picture becomes so clear.

So while your DNA is not your destiny, nor is it ever a diagnosis, it does show us how your system tends to operate.

So we can see how sensitive you are to stress hormones, how well you handle carbohydrates, how efficiently you burn fat, how quickly you clear estrogen and inflammation, how your body recovers from intensity, like some women can carry a really heavy stress load for years before it shows up.

Other women feel the impact fairly quickly.

That difference is in your wiring.

So labs tell you what's happening right now, DNA tells you why it keeps happening.

And when you understand both of those, you stop cycling through plans.

You can finally know what to adjust and what to leave alone.

So this combination is often the moment that things finally click for women.

Yes, here I am carrying the stress load for years.

Midlife isn't the season for more experimenting.

It's the season for clarity.

Because every time you overhaul your plan, your body has to recalibrate, your stress hormones shift, your sleep adjusts, your metabolism adapts.

That constant pivoting creates more instability.

And when you have real data, you get to stop reacting.

And you start making adjustments with intention.

And that, my friend, shortens the path from where you are to where you want to be.

Now, I want to pause and pull this all together.

So first, you learned why your body stopped responding the way it used to.

Because midlife shifts where hormones are produced in the body.

And how stress is processed.

And again, you learned why personalization matters more now.

So keto, carnivore, fasting, like these strategies can work.

But they weren't designed around midlife physiology.

And being told your labs are normal doesn't automatically mean your system is thriving.

Two women can follow the exact same plan, have the same normal labs and still walk away with very different results.

And third, you learned why data changes everything.

Symptoms tell us something is happening.

Functional labs show us what's going on right now.

DNA helps to explain why your system responds the way it does.

And when you put these together, your path finally can become intentional.

Yeah, so a period of experimenting with my life.

Okay, now, before we move on, let me give you something tangible that you can do.

Okay, even without testing, there are shifts that consistently support women over 35 that I see great success with.

Okay, first thing is this, get morning light into your eyes within the first 30 to 60 minutes of waking up.

This anchors your circadian rhythm.

This improves cortisol timing.

It's going to support insulin sensitivity, which is what we want.

And it's going to improve your sleep at night quite literally getting light into your eyes in the first 30 to 60 minutes of waking is going to improve your sleep at night like the return is huge on this morning light.

The best is if you can just step outside and get the morning light, some of us wake up before the sun is out.

And so you might have to get, you know, some light therapy glasses or another type of 10,000 looks light that you can use in your home.

Especially during the winters here, sun doesn't come up forever, but this is a really, really important and it's very important is getting that light into your eyes.

Take in 60 minutes of waking, don't wait until after an hour.

You want your cortisol to be highest first thing in the morning.

Okay.

Second, take a deep breath and then chew your food.

Digestion is not just mechanical, it is neurological.

You're eating in a stressed state.

You might be rushing while you're eating, scrolling, multitasking, driving.

You have to be eating during a work meeting.

Do you ever eat during any of those times?

Give me a four in the chat.

Okay, we do. And hey, I'm guilty of it.

Like I need not eat when I'm on my laptop.

Okay.

When you're when you're driving, when you're scrolling, when you're watching TV, all of these things, when you're standing, your body is in a sympathetic state.

And a sympathetic state is not designed for digestion.

God never intended us to eat in our fight or flight state.

So when you pause, you breathe and you slow down, you shift into your parasympathetic rest and digest state.

This is what's going to allow stomach acid enzymes, bile, they all do their job.

A healthy gut is the foundation to all of the results that we're striving for.

Third is lighten the toxic load.

We're not looking for perfection here.

I like to call this lightning the load and we don't do it all at one time.

You can do this one product at a time as you run out of a product, replace it with something less toxic.

So many of the products that we use, whether it's skincare or cleaning products, you know, a lot of those contain endocrine disruptors.

And it is shown that reducing endocrine disruptors reduces stress on estrogen detox and metabolic signaling and let me translate that for you.

It helps us in our weightlustry.

Okay, doesn't have to be perfect, just lighten your load.

Fourth, regulate your stress.

Chronic stress shifts gut bacteria.

Yes, just stress alone can increase bad bacteria in your gut.

It's not fair, but it's the truth.

It also elevates cortisol.

It worsens insulin resistance.

Now, we cannot often remove all of the stress from our lives.

I mean, sometimes there's some things we can remove.

But what we need to focus on instead is improving our response to stress.

And there are a few ways that we can do that.

Take a walk.

I'm not talking about a brisk walk.

I know you ladies know how to briskly walk.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about like a nature.

Notice what's around you.

Look at the leaves on the ground.

Okay.

Breath work.

Simply breathing in for four seconds through your nose.

And releasing that breath for twice as long eight seconds through your mouth.

Repeat that five times.

You will put yourself into your parasympathetic state.

And gratitude.

Write down three to five things that you are grateful for every single day.

I do this every single day in my planner.

I write down what I'm grateful for.

Sometimes there are big things.

Sometimes there are small things.

But it keeps it at the forefront of my mind.

These are all foundational and effective guidelines.

And they directly influence your nervous system.

And therefore your metabolism.

For some women, these shifts alone will start to turn the ship around.

But this is where most women that I work with tend to get stuck.

There's a different breed of us out there who things just are not easy for.

And it's not about being uninformed, right?

Most of the women that I work with come to me already eating pretty well,

like not perfect, but well, they're exercising.

They're doing their best to be consistent.

The hardest part is knowing what actually matters for your body right now.

And what doesn't need to be pushed right now.

Sometimes the thyroid needs to be supported before fat loss is going to happen.

Sometimes nervous system regulation has to come before we can implement a longer fast.

Sometimes blood sugar stability has to come before intensity.

And if you pull the wrong lever first, the body may backfire.

That's why adding another fast, another supplement, another workout.

That's why it doesn't always solve the problem.

Your body is prioritizing survival over performance.

Most women do not need to try harder.

They need to know what actually needs attention first.

Because when you address the right issue first, things start to move.

And you can finally start to see steady progress.

So the question isn't whether your body can respond again.

The real question is, how do you figure out exactly what your body needs?

Without more trial and error.

And that's what I want to walk you through next.

Up to this point, you've learned why your body changed.

You've learned why midlife requires personalization.

You've learned why normal labs don't tell the whole story.

And you've seen how functional testing and DNA can bring clarity.

And you know what all sounds great, but how are you actually supposed to apply all of this?

How do you look at your labs and know which numbers actually matter?

How to interpret patterns instead of single markers?

How your DNA shifts your stress tolerance?

What do we adjust first?

Because interpretation is layered.

It is complex.

And that is the gap where I step in and I feel for you.

So I want to introduce to you the way that I support the women that I work with.

The DNA reset for fat loss academy is a 12 week faith rooted science back program.

And it's designed specifically for women over 35 whose bodies are not responding the way they used to.

Inside this academy, we do not hand you another template.

We run comprehensive functional labs.

We analyze your DNA.

We interpret the patterns by we I mean me.

So your nutrition, your fasting rhythm, your training, your supplementation, they are all built around your own physiology.

This is about finally understanding what your body has been asking for.

It's guided, it's structured, it is deeply personalized.

Most women come into this program frustrated, like it's just a fact.

They're doing a lot of the right things, but they're not seeing the return.

Inside this program, that confusion lifts.

You understand why your body is holding on to weight.

Like some of us are professional fat makers, according to our DNA, truly.

And some of you on this call, no, yeah, some of you on this call, who've had your DNA run with me, know this, okay?

You will finally understand why your sleep feels fragile.

You'll understand why fasting worked before and now it doesn't.

And most importantly, you will know what to do next.

You know what to prioritize.

You know what can wait.

And you know how to adjust.

And I promise you, and I don't say this lightly, this program is different than anything else that you've seen.

I don't just run labs.

I don't just look at your genetics.

I don't ignore stress while trying to chase fat loss, okay?

I look at what your labs are showing right now.

I look at how your genetics influence how you handle stress, carbs, detox, hormones.

And we factor in nervous system load because that changes everything in midlife.

Most programs are going to hand you information.

But inside this program, you get completely personal interpretation.

You understand what matters.

You understand what can wait.

You understand why your body has been responding the way it has.

There's also another layer to this that we acknowledge inside the academy.

Your body was intentionally designed by God.

It was not randomly assembled.

It's not failing you, but it is communicating with you.

When something shifts in midlife, weight loss, resistance, fatigue, sleep,

all of those symptoms are signals that something in the system needs support.

So while I absolutely use science, we use functional labs, genetics.

We approach this work with the understanding that the body was created with wisdom and with order.

Scripture very specifically talks about how our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

Like that perspective changes how we approach health.

So instead of fighting the body or forcing it into submission, we learn to understand it

and care for it in a way that honors how it was designed.

And that's part of why this environment feels different.

We're not just chasing results.

We're learning how to steward the body God entrusted to us.

So here's what's included. This is a 12 week academy.

You are going to receive a comprehensive functional blood chemistry panel with all the extra markers that we've talked about.

So that we can see what's actually happening beneath the surface.

You will also get a DNA test kit so that we can understand how your body is wired.

You will get personalized interpretation of both of those so that you have a clear direction on what to prioritize first.

We meet weekly for coaching and implementation support.

So you're not trying to figure anything out by yourself.

And this is actually this next part is something new to this cohort that I have included in the past.

You will also be supported by our Christian kingdom life coach, Shea Greenwood.

She leads from a faith foundation and brings an entirely different perspective to this process.

She helps you address mindset and just those internal patterns that are often running quietly in the background.

Shea has also been through the academy so she knows she knows exactly what you've been going through.

This academy is designed to help you finally understand your body so that the results that you build actually last.

Okay, so are you ready for the details?

I'm going to give you a little bit more specific information here.

We're running your comprehensive functional blood chemistry panel.

Okay, so again, this this means that we're not just checking if your labs fall inside of a normal range.

We are looking for patterns for optimal health.

I am going to assess key metabolic hormonal inflammatory markers so that we can see how your thyroid is signaling, how stable your blood sugar is, whether inflammation is quietly driving symptoms, how your stress response is showing up on your labs.

This is where everything starts to make sense.

So instead of guessing why you're tired or why the weight won't budge or why your sleep fills fragile, we can see the pattern behind it.

And once we see that pattern, we know exactly what to prioritize.

And then your DNA gives us something so foundational to work with.

So unlike our hormones which shift, unlike stress levels which fluctuate, your genetics never change.

Otherwise, how your body is wired to respond.

So we can see how you tend to handle carbohydrates and fats, how sensitive your nervous system is to stress, how efficiently you detoxify estrogen and inflammation, how well you cover from exercise.

This is why one woman will thrive a longer fasts and another woman will crash.

The intensity exercise works for some and drives cortisol up in others.

DNA doesn't replace labs but it does give context to them.

Okay.

You're also going to receive a personalized video walkthrough from me.

I sit down with your labs, your DNA, your questionnaire that you have filled out.

And I walk you through exactly what they all mean and I connect all the dots for you.

No templates, nothing's generic like you are going to have it a full interpretation from me.

You're going to understand why I designed the entire roadmap based on your labs and your DNA.

Okay, we're going to connect your DNA to real life decisions around food, fasting, training, supplementation, all of it.

Okay.

This is, I think I've made this clear, but this is not a self-paced course.

Okay, we meet weekly for live coaching.

This is where I teach.

I answer questions.

I make real-time adjustments based on what's happening in your body.

As your body starts responding, things are going to shift.

Sleep improves, energy changes, weight starts moving.

And when that happens, you don't guess what you're going to tweak next.

Like, we're going to walk through this together.

So, and you'll also be part of our faith-rooted community of women.

So, they are all in the same season that you're in having the same conversations navigating the same transitions.

So, this is a full container.

Okay.

You get your labs and your DNA testing included, your personalized interpretation, 12 weeks of coaching, community support.

Everything is designed to work together.

Okay, you're stepping into a structured process.

So, and I think that's worth mentioning, this level of interpretation, testing and personalization,

is normally only available in private one-on-one work.

Like, this kind of depth usually lives inside of a very high consulting package,

but I created this academy so that you can receive the same caliber of insight.

But instead of one-on-one, it's going to be delivered inside a structured group experience,

which allows you to access this level of guidance without the investment required in the one-on-one model.

Okay.

So, I priced this intentionally to reflect the depth of my work while keeping it accessible to you.

Procure two options here for you, so that you can choose what works best for you in this season.

Okay.

There is a paid-in-full option with there's a savings there for you, or a monthly plan spread out over four payments if that works better for you.

Okay.

Either way, the depth of support remains the same.

And they're the link in the chat.

So if anybody already knows they're wanting to do this, there are two links in the chat for you.

There's a paid-in-full, you do save some money.

It's like, yeah, it's over $300, and then there's a payment plan, okay.

I'm going to read for you some testimonials because I want you to hear from women who have already been through this academy, okay.

Anna said, my primary doctor would tell me I needed willpower to lose weight.

My endocrinologist would tell me my labs were normal and to just eat low carb.

I have felt awful for years, and I'm thrilled to have taken part in this program.

I have lost 12 pounds less far and feel so much better.

I have less brain fog, and I don't feel like taking a nap in the middle of the day anymore.

Music to my ears.

Karen said, I experienced inner physical healing, and in fact, Karen, if she's still here, is on this call.

I experienced inner physical healing, weight loss, improved sleep, and improved outlook toward life.

This program brought all the missing pieces together.

For years, I've searched for a program to heal my physical body completely from the inside out, and this program did it for me.

Physically, emotionally, spiritually, and medically.

And the Jesus talk added an important dimension usually lacking in most programs.

Denise said, this was a life-changing experience for me, committing myself to a program like this left me feeling proud of my accomplishments.

I not only lost weight, I slept better, and I have the mental focus and energy to get through every day of the week, no matter what it brings.

And Katie said, I would like to give a big thank you for doing what you do.

I'm sitting here in tears, thanking God for finding someone who was actually digging deeper into my health.

I've been to so many doctors with all kinds of issues, and now I have better digestion, a flatter stomach, and improved sleep.

And then I actually last minute through this last one in.

I didn't put a name on it because I didn't ask the person, but some of you know, some of you don't know.

I had allowed some people to sign up early for this academy who already knew they wanted to be in this.

We had an early enrollment.

So some ladies have already been going.

They've already gotten their protocols, they've already started.

And I received this message from one of them and it says, hi, real quick.

I want to tell you it has just been two weeks on this protocol and I have my energy back.

My belly is going down to.

I'm hopeful that the ship has turned and I will be healthy soon.

I'm so thankful I am doing this.

And so I thought that's just such a great one to share with you because it's so real time.

Okay, I do have a bonus for you if you are ready to sign up now.

This is going to be for the first five women who enroll.

Okay, I'm including a one on one zoom clarity call with me.

So this is a private space where we're going to talk through your goal, your goals, look at your starting point, walk through questions specific to your body and your season.

And make sure you feel grounded and competent as you enter the academy.

Okay, I keep this very limited intentionally because I need to protect the quality of these calls and the focus of these conversations to make sure that each woman receives my full attention.

Okay, so this is additional support for women who already feel clear like you know this is what you need.

And you can be one of the five women.

Okay, there's also a second bonus.

Oh yeah, we have Lisa. Welcome.

There is also a second bonus for a slightly longer window.

Okay, because I understand some of you, if you're not, you know, ready quite yet.

You've got 48 hours for this next bonus.

Okay, the second bonus is for all women who enroll in the first 48 hours.

If you join during that window, you're going to receive temporary access into my alumni membership during the waiting period before the academy officially begins.

And here's why once you enroll, there's this natural pause before we actually get started together.

Okay, because you're going to go in for your blood work, you're going to complete your intake form.

You need to submit your saliva right for your DNA test kit and then I need to receive those results and I need to interpret those results.

So that in between season can feel kind of uncertain if you're not supported.

So I decided to offer this bonus because it just gives you a place to land like a little bit of structure, a community guidance during that transition.

Okay, you'll be able to start immersing yourself into how I teach, how I think, and just the rhythm of all of this work.

Okay, so when we officially begin, you're already going to feel anchored.

So you'll be able to join in on the calls that we do in my alumni membership.

Okay, so this is the full page right here.

Your labs and your DNA testing are included.

You get your personalized interpretation 12 weeks of coaching, community support.

You can see the bone, the first bonus there, one-on-one call with me for the first five.

And then the second bonus, you have 48 hours, okay, to decide.

And you can receive that bonus and there's surprising for you again there.

Okay, before we go, I bet you're wondering what happened to Kate, right?

So I'm going to tell you, when we ran Kate's labs, there were a few things that really stood out.

Her body was leaning heavily on stress hormones, like just to get through the day.

Her blood sugar wasn't crashing, but it was not steady either.

Okay, it was not going to be picked up on a normal lab panel.

Her thyroid was being affected by a system that was under constant demand.

And that's a special nuance between the thyroid and your adrenals, okay?

When you did look at her standard labs, like nothing looked alarming, I understand why her doctor had sent her away.

But when you looked at the pattern in her deeper labs, her body was clearly conserving energy and protecting itself.

And then her DNA helped us to understand why.

Kate's body was wired to feel stress more quickly and recover more slowly.

It's how her mom and dad made her.

So those longer fasting windows, those hard workouts, the pushing through the fatigue to, you know,

just really took a bigger toll on her than it would for the woman next to her, okay?

Yay, welcome, Julie.

She also didn't handle that aggressive carb restriction, the way that she thought she should or would, okay?

Adjustment that her body needed a different kind of support.

So instead of tightening things further, we were just able to change the way that her body was being supported.

She actually felt like it was easier than what she was doing before, which makes sense,

because it was an alignment with what her body was wanting.

So we supported her mornings differently.

We focused on keeping her blood sugar steady.

We weren't able to keep her low, her carbs quite as low as she had been before.

We adjusted when and how she fasted.

We still incorporated some fasting, but it was very specific.

We changed her workouts so that they helped her recover instead of draining her, okay?

Support that matched her body's blueprint.

And I think it's important to mention that the first thing to change for her was not the scale, okay?

First, she started sleeping through the night.

Okay, that three, and wake up, gone.

Her energy started feeling steadier.

The puffiness and the inflammation calmed down. Her digestion improved.

And once her body felt supported, it became responsive again, and the scale started to move.

And I'd like to point that out because our weight is simply a symptom.

I don't put you on a cutting program.

We don't do that here.

As you heal, the weight will come off simply because you're healing, okay?

Kate just needed help understanding why her body was trying, what her body was trying to tell her in this season of life.

Her symptoms like yours were signals.

Once we understood those signals, the path forward for her became very, very clear, okay?

And if people like Kate and like myself are the reason that I created the DNA reset for fat loss academy.

This is a space where we look at your, your labs.

We understand how your body is wired.

We build support that fits your life and the season you're in.

And whether you choose to join me or not, like I hope today landed for you.

I hope that you walk away with an understanding that your body hasn't stopped responding.

It's just been asking for you to play by a new set of rules, okay?

And now I would love to leave some time.

I know I had some questions and if you're still on here and you would like to ask any questions, I can answer those for you.

And I can even see if we can find something here.

Yeah, I do remember Laura had a good question if she's still here and I can even go into the.

I'm looking in our chat.

You can ask questions about the academy, you can ask questions if you just had a question on something that I talked about.

Oh, my child, you can, you can still sign up.

And you can still get the bonus too.

Oh, is there an issue with low insulin?

Okay, so what, what low number are we talking more?

Okay, so for insulin, we generally do like to see somewhere between like a two and a, like a six, maybe like a 2.5 and six.

So 1.4 is a little bit low.

I will tell you who I generally tend to see low insulin on.

Women who are eating so well.

And have a lot of stress.

Something funky happens with your blood sugars.

It's like the best, the best way I can describe it.

What I will see a lot of times is this.

An optimized a one C.

Low insulin and an elevated glucose.

Not sure if that's part of part of what you have there, but I see that a lot of times and it's women who are eating.

And there I say perfectly, right?

Like maybe it's a lot of fasting, maybe it's, you know, very low carb.

But there is a lot of stress involved.

So for somebody who has that, we really have to address stress response.

Yeah, I know.

I don't always give like the best answers, right?

I know.

That elevated blood glucose with normal other numbers or even low other numbers tells me it's stress related.

Okay, yeah.

Marie, welcome.

I'm so excited to meet you and work with you.

You're so welcome.

That's it for today on the Nurse to Thrive podcast.

If you found value here, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review or send it to someone who's walking a similar path.

Keep showing up.

Keep asking questions and know that healing is possible, especially when you trust the one who designed your body to heal.

Until next time, stay rooted in truth and nourished in grace.