The Ageless and Awesome Podcast

Your Hormones Called - They Want A Plan!

• Susie Garden • Episode 308

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The rules of metabolism change in midlife, and so should your strategy. In this episode I explore how a unique plan, real coaching, and supportive accountability beat willpower and hacks, especially when hormones shift and life gets noisy. Drawing on recent clinical research and years of practice, I unpack why even brief, structured coaching leads to better weight loss, stronger adherence, and a calmer mind.

I share a candid story from my own experience with the gym - how weekly check-ins with a coach delivered bigger strength gains in six weeks than I’d seen in years. That experience mirrors what I see with clients: information is abundant, but transformation comes from structure, feedback, and consistency. I dig into the science of supportive accountability, how it reduces decision fatigue, stabilises blood sugar, and helps rebuild metabolic flexibility with targeted protein and macro-aware meals.

I also tackle weight loss injections with a clear-eyed view. Yes, they can curb appetite and improve glucose control, but plateaus and weight regain are common without a nutrition plan, protein targets, and progressive strength training. Muscle is a metabolic organ, essential for bone health, insulin sensitivity, and long-term vitality. Protect it with a high-protein, anti-inflammatory approach and a muscle-preserving program. The winning formula is simple and powerful: a clear plan that respects your hormones, coaching that adapts to real life, and accountability that keeps you moving forward.

Ready to stop guessing and start progressing? Subscribe for weekly insights, share this with a friend who needs support, and leave a review so more women can find the help they deserve. If you want tailored guidance, book a free Peri Weight Loss Assessment—let’s map the exact plan your body needs now.

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1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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SPEAKER_00:

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Autumn Podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and ageing so that you can be ageless and awesome in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome Podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimetopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset, and outrageous confidence. Hit subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's episode of the Ageless and Awesome podcast. This week I'm really excited to talk about something that can be really transformational for women, particularly women going through perimenopause, women who are postmenopause, women who are looking to lose weight, wanting to get rid of their symptoms, feel amazing again. And that's this. This is what I'm talking about today is having a coach, a clear plan, and accountability is a proven winning formula. It's not just nice to have. It's not. That statement is research-based, it's strongly supported by behavioral science and especially powerful for women in peri- and post-menopause. Today I'm also going to touch a little on weight loss injections because they're everywhere right now. Um, and I want to talk about why they still require dietary support, coaching, and behavioral change to actually work long term. And this is now what a lot of GPs are saying. And you, if you've talked to your GP about potentially going on these injections, they may have said the same thing to you is that they're no longer thought of as just like the secret, and you just go on the injections and you'll be fine. What we now know after having some good clinical experience with these drugs is that if the diet's still not right, if the accountability is not there, they're just not a good option necessarily for everybody long term. So you're gonna walk away from today's episode feeling clearer, more empowered, and more hopeful about your next steps. If you're in this category where you've got the symptoms, you're getting that additional weight, you want to get rid of it, summer's literally around the corner, and you're just feeling like, ugh, I was talking to someone today and they just said they feel like a blob. So I don't want that for you. And so that's what this episode is about. So let's look at a truth that nobody tells women over 40, and that is that weight loss in midlife is no longer just an eat less and move more situation. You've probably heard me bang on about that before if you've listened to the podcast for a while. Because it is a biochemical situation, it's behavioral, it's hormonal, and it's emotional. You know, what's going on inside your body is changing. Your estrogen, your progesterone, your insulin, your cortisol is all shifting. Your metabolism is different, your stress tolerance is different, your recovery from exercise is different. And yet, so many women are trying to lose weight using the exact same strategies they used in their 20s. And then they feel like failures when it doesn't work. They feel like failures when they're doing everything they're getting told to at the gym and it's not working. And here's the thing studies consistently show that support equals success. And in fact, there was a 2024 clinical trial, so very recent, published in the journal of the American Medical Association that found that people who received just brief structured coaching, so I'm talking short phone calls, they lost more weight and stayed more engaged than people doing the exact same program without the coaching. Isn't that wild? Like the same program, the same tools, the same information in both groups, but add a coach to that one group, and suddenly people show up, they follow the plan, they stay accountable, and they get results. And why? I mean, it probably is obvious, but the information itself doesn't create transformation, accountability does. And for women over 40, with all the competing demands on their mental load, that accountability becomes even more important. And I've even experienced that myself this year. I joined uh a personal training gym because long story, but Cyclone Alfred kind of made my gym unusable due to mold for a period of time. And because I have osteopenia, I must lift heavyweights. So I thought, right, I'm gonna just join a PT studio for 10 weeks while my gym is getting fixed, and then I'll be sorted. But the results that I've had having a weekly check-in PT session with my coach has been absolutely transformational. The gains that I've seen in what I can lift in, I think it was in the first six weeks, were more than I'd gained in the previous three years because I had a structured program and I had to do it because my coach was making me accountable. And I that's kind of inspired this episode a little as well. Um, and I just love this line information. I have all the information, I know what to do in the gym. I have a gym at home, but without having that accountability and the check-in, it I just was not getting the results that I really wanted. And now I that's just totally sold me on having regular PT. So, and I think about it the same with my clients. I mean, that's where I know from research that that's one of the reasons why the Globe Protocol works is because having the coach there, not just having your exact foods and your exact portion sizes and all of those sort of things, but actually having someone to keep you accountable. So let's look at the science uh behind accountability, because I think it's really important to know that there actually is a whole field of research on something called supportive accountability. And basically, you know, to summarize it, what we've known from the research is when someone is checking in, offering personalized, personalized is the key word here, guidance, uh, and helping you set and track goals, then your behavior changes. You follow through more consistently, you build momentum, you get better results. And I've absolutely seen it both in myself this year, but also in my clients over the period of time that I've been doing this particular program, which is coming on six years. So several reviews published in the last couple of years show that programs with human contact, not Chat GPT contact, human contact, like coaching calls, check-ins, personalized adjustments, outperform self-guided programs in both weight loss and behavior change. So the takeaway from this is women don't need more willpower. I, you know, you don't need more willpower. You need a structure that supports your success. Because let's be honest, if willpower worked, most of us would be supermodels by now, right? So here's something that I say all the time to my clients, which is if you don't have a plan, your hormones will make one for you. And it's usually not the plan you want. A clear plan matters. Women in perimenopause and often postmenopause as well can experience crashing energy, increased cravings, poor sleep, stress snacking, mood shifts, blood sugar swings, and reduced motivation. The reduced motivation is a big one I see a lot. Um, so trying to wing it is basically setting yourself up for failure. You need more support. And a clear plan takes the guesswork out. That's why I love this. I love that I can give people the exact portion sizes, the macros, the exact foods that are gonna bring the body back into balance. It taking that guesswork out is just gold. It reduces my client's decision fatigue, it stabilizes blood sugar, so that reduces cravings and gives you more energy, it improves consistency, and a clear plan helps rebuild metabolic flexibility, and that's definitely what we're wanting. If you're not quite sure what metabolic flexibility is, I'm pretty sure I've done a podcast on it. So have a look through my back catalog. If you can't find it, just message me on Instagram at theperimenopausepath, or you can email me hello at susiegarden.com. And if there isn't one there, I'll create one. So when you combine that clear plan with coaching and accountability, that is the magic trifecta. Okay. So as I said at the beginning of the episode, I also wanted to have just a little chat about weight loss injections, which might seem like it's a massive tangent, but I think it's really important because we're seeing such a rise in these that we get some, I guess, a bit of a reality check about what they can achieve. So the thing is, these medications are groundbreaking. They do work, they are amazing for people that have struggled with their weight for a long period of time. They reduce appetite. That's one of the main things that they do in terms of the weight loss uh factor. They improve blood sugar, which is really helpful for cravings and energy, and they often result in significant weight loss. They can be really helpful and a fantastic tool, particularly for people that have a belief that they just can't lose weight, that they've tried everything and they can't lose it. So it can be great to get that kick start. They can create a window of opportunity, particularly taking away that food noise. But here's what research and clinical guidelines keep emphasizing and what we keep learning now that these are more widely used, and it's been a few years now that they've been around getting used for weight loss. So we know that the medication alone isn't enough. Often there will be a plateau with these drugs. I find with the clients that I have either on them or have already used them before they've come to see me. They say around 10 kilos seems to be a plateau for many people. I think that might depend on what your starting weight is, I'm not sure. Um, and the other thing is without dietary guidance and lifestyle support, people often regain the weight when they stop those injections. And one of the big things that I think people don't really either know about or don't talk about it is that muscle loss is a real risk if protein and strength training aren't prioritized. So it's not really, from a health point of view, it's not good enough to have the weight loss if it's muscle that's getting lost. Because having muscle, muscle is a metabolic organ. It's going to burn more fuel at rest. We have um uh that you know, we know that if we lose muscle, and it is harder as we get into peri and post-menopause, it's harder to retain that muscle mass. So, and we need it for our bones, we need it to keep us safe as we get older to reduce the risk of falls, reduce the risk of fractures. And there are like actually, I need to do an episode on muscle and its its importance because it's not just about movement and looking good, our muscle is super important from a metabolic point of view in a big way. Um, so several analyses from you know, again, recent study. That's what I love about this. A lot of this research is recent because these weight loss injections are recent. So, analyses from 2023 and 2024 show that when people stop the weight loss injections without having built the right habits, and I think we see this a lot also in the in the weight loss surgery. Um, a large proportion of people regain most of the weight because the behaviors didn't change and the muscle didn't get protected. You know, the injection doesn't teach you how to eat. It doesn't teach you how to nourish your hormones, and it doesn't teach you how to maintain your results. If you're using one of these weight loss drugs or considering one, you absolutely must have a nutritional strategy to go with it. You must have a protein target, a daily protein target. You must have meal structure that works well, a muscle-preserving exercise plan, behavioral coaching and accountability. Otherwise, you'll get short-term results, but not long-term transformation. And you know, these are very expensive drugs. If you're making this investment, you want that long-term transformation. And that's why so many prescribers are now recommending that patients pair their medication, the weight loss injections, with a structured nutrition program, because they're really seeing that it's just not the long-term uh miracle that I guess we were sold a couple of years ago. Um, and you need the particularly with the muscle loss, I think that's something that that wasn't really fully understood. Uh, that is something super important, particularly in women over 40. So let me bring this all together for you. So when you have a clear plan that respects your hormones, that is reducing inflammation in your body, because you know, it's not just about calories in, calories out. We want to be using food as medicine. We want to use food to heal our bodies, not to harm our bodies. If you're just working with calories, then there's a whole manner of inflammatory foods. You can still be eating and stay within your calorie goal. But if you're using food strategically and smartly and using it to reduce inflammation, you are gonna get so much more benefit out of that. So you want a clear nutrition plan that respects your hormones and reduces inflammation and that balances out your glucose and insulin. You also want coaching. You want coaching so you've got a cheerleader on your side that's gonna pick you up when you're not having a great week, who's going to know what to do when you feel stuck, and can adapt the plan to your real life. And the other big thing is, of course, accountability. Accountability so you follow through so that you feel like you know you've got you know that that motivation to do something. I know if I've got to be accountable, I have a coach, I have a business coach, and now I have a personal trainer that I have to be accountable to. It means I don't get away with pushing deadlines back, which is what I used to do a lot in business. So accountability is fantastic for making sure that you reach your goals. And accountability in a way that is supportive and not critical. You've, you know, you're working with your biology. You want to be working with your biology, not against it. And this is not something to really muck around with because what you're doing now in your 40s and your 50s is setting you up for the rest of your life. This is how you're going to spend your retirement. Are you wanting to be up and active and, you know, doing fun things with your grandkids or with your partner or just with yourself? Or are you going to have a frail existence? Are you going to have an existence where you're spending a lot of time at the doctor's surgery? I know I, you know, I feel for my mum, she's at her doctor's pretty much every week because she just didn't have the knowledge, the knowledge that I that I now have, and I wished I could have given to her. So, you know, if you think about your parents, if they have multiple chronic medical conditions like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, or they've had heart attacks, or they've got osteoporosis, every single one of those can be addressed with the right food and the right support. So you want to work with your biology, not against it. And, you know, having coaching structure and support, like I do in my programs in the GLO Protocol, the women in my programs, they get great results because they're protecting their muscle, they're stabilizing their hormones, they're avoiding under-eating, they're breaking old patterns, they're building new habits. And that's what helps keep results long term, not just doing yet another program and then falling off the wagon, and then you're kind of screwed. It's not luck, it's not motivation, it's not willpower, it's a system. So if you've been trying to do this alone, if you've been feeling like you're just spinning your wheels, I want you to hear this. This it's not your fault. It's really not your fault. The system has not been set up well. It is not your fault. You are not failing. You're simply trying to navigate midlife metabolism without support. And the research shows us that support is key. So if you're ready to stop guessing and start getting results that are long term, I would love to help you. Book a free peri weight loss assessment with me. We'll talk about your symptoms, your weight, your goals, exactly what type of plan your body needs right now. The link is in the show notes. Um, you can check out the Glow Protocol on my website, susegarden.com forward slash the dash glow dash protocol. Um, I am still taking on new clients. Obviously, I'm keeping in mind Christmas and the break is coming. So don't put it off. If you're thinking, oh, I want to start something in January, plan it now. Because if you want to start in January, you need to have your plan before we all go on holidays. So, you know, if you're getting, you know, we're in November, if you're thinking, oh that this year was gonna be my year of health, or this year was gonna be the year that I, you know, really started looking after myself. It's not too late. I've got people starting this week that and last week and the week before that are already seeing great results. So don't hesitate. There's no obligation on the call. I don't ask for your credit card details on the call. I purely want to understand what's going on for you, uh, see if perhaps we're a great fit, and then give you some time to think about whether or not it is the right thing for you. So thanks so much for listening, for being here with me today. If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, share it with a friend, take a little screenshot, pop it in your stories and tag me. I'd I get so thrilled when people do that. Leave a review, love it when people leave me a review, and it really does help more women find the support that they need. So, you know, let me know if you've got any questions. As I said, you can message me on Instagram, you can email me. I love hearing from you. Um, enjoy the rest of your week, and I'll be back next Tuesday with a new episode just for you. Thanks so much for joining me on the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. If you would like this episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple Podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify so that you get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you feel like writing me a five star review, you would absolutely make my day. If you found this episode resonated with you, head over to my Instagram and DM me at the Perimetapods Park. I would love to connect with you.

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Susie Garden

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