Jama Pantel: Unfiltered

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I am 48, I have run 23 marathons, and I did everything right. My doctors kept telling me I was fine. So I stopped waiting and got comprehensive bloodwork that tested 125 biomarkers instead of the usual handful.

The results finally told the truth, ferritin at 10, bone density at the 11th percentile, an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of nearly 10 to 1, and a genetic cardiac risk factor called Lp(a) that nobody had ever told me about.

I also share what changed when I finally found a menopause specialist who actually listened. If you have ever been dismissed, told you were fine, or felt like you were fighting alone...you are not.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

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For four years, something kept going wrong. Knees in 2022. Shoulder in 2023. Both feet in 2024. A gut crisis in 2025. Every provider gave me an isolated answer. Every single one said the same thing: normal wear and tear, normal for your age.

I was 44.

This is the story of what my body was trying to tell me for four years, and why nobody, including me, was connecting the dots. Until Valentine's Day 2026.

Next week I tell you what we actually found. This week is the mystery.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

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You've built the business. You've done the work. But what happens when you realize the business you built isn't actually the one you wanted?

This episode is about the exhaustion of explaining your value to people who've already decided it isn't worth it, the moment a cancer diagnosis made everything reorder itself, and what it actually looks like to slowly build toward the right thing instead of sprinting toward the wrong one.

If you've ever felt like you were building something that looked right on paper but felt completely wrong in your body...this one's for you.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

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You can completely change your circumstances — and your brain will still act like you haven't.

That's what this episode is about. The low hum that keeps running in the background even after life gets more stable. The scarcity wiring that doesn't retire just because the actual scarcity is gone.

If you've ever felt guilty resting, checked numbers obsessively, or wondered why success still doesn't feel like enough, this one is for you.

This is the third episode in a series. If you haven't listened to the last two, go back. They build on each other.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

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Three weeks ago I bought a couch.

And what happened in my brain when I bought that couch tells you everything you need to know about what scarcity actually does to a person, even long after the circumstances have changed.

I had a budget in my head. The couch was over it. But the second I sat in it I knew. It was down. I had never sat in a down couch before and I did not know I needed one until that exact moment. And I still sat there running every scarcity thought my brain has ever had.

I can't afford this. What if something comes up. What if. What if. What if.

Even though I could afford it. Even though I had done the math.

That moment stopped me in my tracks. Because I realized the circumstances had changed. The brain hadn't.

In this episode I get honest about where that scarcity brain actually came from. Growing up watching money cause pain. Leaving for college with almost nothing. Walking and running everywhere crying, telling myself it couldn't be like this forever. Losing everything in an apartment fire. Making a vow with nothing but sheer determination to back it up.

That vow saved me. But it wired me in ways I'm only now starting to understand.

In this episode we talk about:

— The couch that made me realize my scarcity brain hadn't gotten the memo

 — What it felt like growing up with money causing constant pain 

— Running and crying to multiple jobs in college just to survive 

— Losing everything in an apartment fire and starting over with nothing 

— The vow I made to never depend on anyone for anything 

— What scarcity wires into your nervous system even after you're safe 

— Why pushing things way down is my superpower and what it costs you 

— Learning that money flows and taking care of that younger version of yourself

"You don't have to keep living like she's still in danger."

If this one hit home send it to someone who needs to hear it.

Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

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If you've been here a while you may have noticed things look different. New name. New cover art. New energy.

In this episode I'm telling you exactly why.

This isn't a rebrand for the sake of rebranding. It's what happens when you finally stop hiding behind a concept and just show up as yourself. After Living the Whole Picture and Midlife Reset, I asked myself one honest question: what if my name was the brand?

That question changed everything.

In this episode we talk about: 

— Why I changed the name from Midlife Reset to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered 

— What unfiltered actually means and why it matters 

— Why I spent years building things under other names instead of just showing up as Jama 

— What this show is really for and who it's really for 

— Why Season 3 is the season I stop performing and start telling the truth

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth." That's the show. That's the season. That's what's coming.

Welcome to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

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This is Jama Pantel: Unfiltered — real talk for women who are done surviving and ready to figure out what actually comes next.

I'm Jama. Portrait photographer, speaker, and 23-time marathon finisher who knows what it means to build something from nothing. I know what survival mode feels like from the inside. And I know what happens when life finally shifts and you don't know what to do with the breathing room.

This podcast exists because I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth.

No fluff. No performance. Just honest conversations for women who are done performing their lives.

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

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I Googled something last week that I'm mildly embarrassed to admit: "what do people actually do when they're not stressed?"

And here's the wild part. I garden, I read, I hit 10,000 steps a day, and I've run 23 marathons. By every external measure, I'm someone who takes care of herself. And I still felt like I had no idea how to actually rest.

In this episode of Midlife Reset, I'm getting honest about what happens when you've spent your entire adult life in survival mode, always working two jobs, always hustling, always carrying something, and then life shifts and suddenly you don't have to anymore.

If you're an overachiever who built her entire identity around productivity, you know the feeling: the moment things slow down, your nervous system panics. Rest feels risky. Quiet feels suspicious. And stopping, even for a week, feels like it could cost you everything.

This episode is for the women who grew up knowing what it meant to have nothing, who learned to hustle not because it was trendy but because the alternative was terrifying. And it's for anyone who has ever wondered: who am I when I'm not just surviving?

In this episode we talk about:
— Why overachiever burnout doesn't look like doing nothing (and why rest can actually feel unsafe)
— How survival mode rewires your nervous system around constant urgency
— What happens when you turn things you love into a brand, and lose the joy of them
— The difference between ambition and chaos with a calendar
— Learning to want things for yourself again, not for the algorithm

"Rest isn't the opposite of ambition. It's just ambition without an audience." — Jama Pantel

If this episode hit home, share it with someone who's carrying more than anyone around them realizes.

Follow Midlife Reset with Jama Pantel wherever you listen to podcasts.

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

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Last week I was exhausted… couldn’t recover, couldn’t sleep, everything felt off. This week? Energy is back, workouts feel strong… and then I hurt my back moving weights around at the gym.

So yeah… how do you make sense of that?

If you’ve ever felt completely off one week and totally fine the next, this episode is for you.

In this episode, I’m talking about something that doesn’t get explained enough… how inconsistent everything can feel in midlife. From low energy and poor recovery to suddenly feeling strong again, it’s not always a steady pattern you can “fix.”

I share what this has looked like for me in real time, including a week of exhaustion, a bounce back into feeling normal again, and then hurting my back doing something as simple as moving weights around at the gym.

We’re also talking about how tools like Garmin can reflect what’s happening in your body, even if they’re not perfect, and how metrics like sleep score, HRV, and recovery can line up with how you actually feel.

This episode is about learning to recognize the difference between something being broken and something fluctuating… and how that changes the way you approach your body, your workouts, and your expectations.

If you’ve ever thought, “why does my body feel different week to week?” this episode will help you make sense of it.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

– Feeling exhausted one week and completely normal the next
– The frustration of not knowing what changed
– Why inconsistency is harder than being “off” all the time
– Workouts feeling heavy vs suddenly strong again
– Real-time example: hurting my back moving weights (not lifting)
– Why setbacks don’t always mean something is wrong
– Running and workout inconsistency
 – The “oldest daughter control” mindset and wanting to fix it
– Garmin data: sleep score, HRV, and recovery patterns

– Feeling “unproductive” for the first time ever
 – Dexa scan vs day-to-day experience
 – The shift: broken vs fluctuating
 – Why your body doesn’t follow a predictable pattern anymore
 – Reframing inconsistency in midlife

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Feeling good one week and off the next is common in midlife
• Inconsistency can be more frustrating than constant fatigue
• Your body is not broken, it’s fluctuating
• Data tools like Garmin can reflect patterns, even if they aren’t perfect
• Setbacks don’t always mean you did something wrong
• Awareness matters more than control in this phase

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

Send us Fan Mail

I don’t feel like myself lately… and I didn’t know how to say that out loud.
Nothing is technically wrong, but my energy, my body, and even my emotions don’t feel like me anymore.

If you’ve been feeling off lately but can’t quite explain why… this episode is for you.

I’m sharing what this has actually been like navigating brain fog, constant hunger, weight gain, sleep issues, hot flashes, and emotional shifts… all at the same time.

As someone who has always been disciplined and consistent, this has been one of the most confusing phases I’ve experienced.

We’re talking about what it really feels like when your body starts changing in midlife, especially during perimenopause, and why doing everything “right” doesn’t always give you the same results anymore.

And this is just the beginning of what I’m unpacking in this next phase of the podcast.

If you’ve ever thought, “something is off, but I can’t explain it,” you’re not alone.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Feeling “off” in midlife is often a combination of physical and emotional changes, not a single issue
• Perimenopause can affect energy, hunger, mood, sleep, and focus all at once
• You are not losing discipline, your body is changing
• The routines that used to work may not work the same way anymore
• Awareness is the first step before trying to fix everything

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review — it helps more women find the show.

🎙️ Listen and subscribe: https://www.jamapantel.com/jama-pantel-unfiltered/

📸 Photography: https://www.jamapantel.com/

📩 Work with Jama or book her to speak: https://www.jamapantel.com/contact/

Follow along: https://www.instagram.com/jamapantel/

"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."