SHE2.0

Ladies, have we got a treat for you. We are going to introduce you to the 'bravest man alive'! Our special guest on this week's podcast is Rodger Donaldson who is going to give us a glimpse of what menopause looks like from the other side.

Rodger met his wife, Mary Jo about 15 years ago. Today they own and operate Elk Lake Wilderness Resort which offers fishing and family vacations. They have their hands pretty full and to add to that, Mary Jo started to go through menopause and that was a whole other ride!

Rodger is honest and really insightful and gives us a really valuable perspective from the partner of someone going through this major life transition. We tend to think of our own experience, but this is a good opportunity to hear from someone who is truly supporting their partner through thick and thin. No pressure to all the other partners out there!

We're pretty impressed by Rodger and hope you'll have a listen because he shares some really wonderful advice with the rest of us.

Tune in!

You may have heard that 'shrooms' (psilocybin) are making a comeback. The use of psychedelics is being touted as helpful for depression, anxiety, smoking cessation, PTSD and many other conditions. They're also a great support for some of our menopause symptoms. We've tried a daily dose and can attest to its calming properties and its ability to help us focus!

In this episode we talk to Irie Selkirk, Co-Founder of GoodCap Wellness and co-founder of the MAPS Canada Toronto Support Chapter who gives us the lowdown on microdosing, macrodosing and why taking a microdose daily can give us all a 'really good day'. Don't we deserve at least one? Tune in!

Monica Graves is a talented and wickedly creative jewelry designer. As owner and designer of glamjulz, Monica has to balance designing, purchasing, running a business and a marriage all at once. And she's doing it all while suffering through hot flashes! Tune in to hear how she is riding through the wave of menopause and the things she's tried to help alleviate the symptoms so she can continue to keep all the balls in the air!

Navigating menopause is tough with no one at the helm. There are so many gaps in our healthcare and the information we need to really thrive during this time. It can be so frustrating and lonely made worse by not feeling like we have someone who has our back. When we found out that there was such a thing as a 'Menopause Practitioner' we almost fell over! What? Someone to finally help guide us through this challenging phase full of questions, symptoms and sleepless nights?

Carolyn Whiskin, RPh, BScPhm, NCMP is a 'Certified Menopause Practitioner', and we feel like we've just met a real-life unicorn! Carolyn is with Brant Arts IDA Pharmacy and is one of a few practitioners across Canada. We are so excited to have her join us in this episode. We know you're going to be relieved and excited to know these practitioners actually do exist! So tune in!

Some of us are embracing aging while some of us are raging against it. Is it a no-win battle? Maybe not. In this episode we're talking to Melissa Fillion (M.Sc) - Personal Training Coach. Melissa knows better than most that we are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to aging. For example, did you know that muscle mass decreases later in life for men than women? She talks about how the decline in estrogen has a direct correlation to loss in muscle strength, function and mass. Is HRT safe and does it affect all women the same? Melissa shares some really helpful knowledge around this hot topic. What if you can't take or aren't open to HRT? There are other options to help mitigate some of the symptoms we get with muscle loss. But regardless of who you are, the one viable option for all women in helping with these symptoms is exercise!

Melissa also shares how we can turn that around and combat the effects of estrogen deficiencies in our bodies so we can remain strong and kick ass! This is definitely an episode that speaks to all women.

When it comes to menopause, it is not a man's world and Gerianne DiPiano, CEO and founder of FemmePharma is leading the charge when it comes to research and product development for women going through this critical time in their lives. Geri has some great stories to share about sitting around a boardroom table discussing menopause -with men. Don't miss it!

The one thing they don't tell us about menopause is how important it is to understand and treat our bodies before we hit menopause. Especially during the perimenopausal years. But that's no surprise given we've been left mostly in the dark up until recently. That's why it's so important to have such incredibly passionate and relentless trailblazers in women's health. Geri talks about the importance of locking things down before we hit menopause.

Geri is a pharmaceutical industry executive and women's healthcare expert. She founded FemmePharma in 1999 in response to the industry's narrow focus on women's health needs – such as contraception and hormone replacement therapy and lack of attention to other important women's diseases and disorders.

Guided by her vision to provide more effective treatment options for women, FemmePharma is focused on improving women's health by developing prescription pharmaceuticals and over the counter products that are specifically designed for women across a broad range of therapeutic categories.

Tune in because you don't want to miss what Geri has to share about boardrooms, bedrooms and gearing up for the big "M"!

Essential oils have been known to have many calming and healing properties but most of us picture using them with a hot bath or in a calm and restful environment. We don't, however, consider hot flashes, hormone rage or night sweats those calm and restful situations!

Today, Angela Everett is joining us to talk about the soothing, cooling and calming benefits of using essential oils to help treat some of the more common symptoms of peri/menopause. Angela is a doTERRA Wellness Advocate and passionate about her oils and their myriad of uses.

Follow our Facebook Group as we share some of the great ways that oils can help bring some peace and relief to those pesky symptoms. Tune in!

Whether we want children or not, could have them or not or weren't even sure about the topic all together, going into menopause takes all the decision making away from us. It's like Mother Nature pulls the rug out from under us and says 'There. No more babies for you!" It's a lot to process.

Imagine if the ability to start a family was taken away from you all together while you were in your prime. Our guest in this episode of "Real Women. Real Stories' is Mallory McGrath, Founder & CEO of Viive Planning, a collaborative aging & end-of-life planning company for families. Mallory is a 34-year-old entrepreneur and mother who went through Premature Ovarian Insufficiency at a very early age. We love that Mallory doesn't shy away from the tough conversations about aging, illness and death because these are important conversations to have. As we know, stigmas are formed when we don't have the courage to talk about these topics. Tune in!

Menopause can affect our digestive system and impact our gut health which can throw things right out of whack! So how can we listen to our gut to help reduce some of the symptoms we experience through peri/menopause? Monika Tupholme (BSc., Biology, Chemistry, BioChemistry, PT,PN,FNC) has over 25 years experience as a personal trainer and in functional and performance nutrition. As a 47 year old Mom of 2 works, Monika works with women in their 40s and 50s) to lose the energy zapping fluff. She is also the founder and creator of The 3M System to Rev Your Over 40 Metabolism, an is also a former professional volleyball player.

So she's got it going on and we love what she has to tell us about what scientists are calling our 'second brain'. Tune in!

While some of us are embracing aging gracefully, we admit that we might be raging against it – just a little! But like most consumers, we're wary of brands that tout key messages over key ingredients. If we're going to drop a lot of dough on a new skincare regime, we want to know that the brand we're buying really understands the changes our skin goes through as we hit perimenopause and how we need to treat those pain points – like fine lines, sagging skin and puffiness which make us look more tired than we really are.