Stop Being Perfect with Dani Sheriff

Abby was an EARLY client of mine from The HA Society... but here's what's coolest about that...

She is a dietician and fitness enthusiast (CrossFit) who has gone through the entire journey start to finish:

1. Lose period
2. Get it back
3. Reintroduce some training
4. Get pregnant
5. Recover postpartum
6. Reintroduce training (and go a little harder)

Oh, and she is a business owner...

So in this episode we bond over our shared experiences from recovery to being mothers who own businesses and also who purse athletic things.

Let's do it!

Learn more about Abby:

https://instagram.com/abbygrimm_

Jool Wellness – food based supplements for your life!

https://joolwellness.com

Visit me on YouTube

https://youtube.com/c/danisheriff

Follow us on IG

http://instagram.com/danisheriff

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician.

In this episode I'm re-joined by my OG business partner Ashley Smith but ALSO, by Mishi Garcia – the third part owner of our second business, Jool Wellness.

In this episode we talk about working with friends, growing as business owners, doing things we never thought we would do and MORE.

If you've ever wanted a business partnership, you'll learn something for sure.

Visit on YouTube

https://youtube.com/c/danisheriff

Follow us on IG

http://instagram.com/thehasociety

http://instagram.com/danisheriff

http://instagram.com/joolwellness

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician.

Dani is joined by Lindsey Cortes, the host of Female Athlete Nutrition. Lindsey is a lifetime athletes who has also had her own journey with hormone health and overtraining, and uses her platform to help other women dealing with RED-S and similar issues. However, as time goes on so does her life situation. As a mother of two boys, one with high nutritional needs which we discuss in the episode, sport AND entrepreneurship have both had to take a side step.

Life is wild like that and in this episode, we talk about how wonderful it can all be when you go with it VS having such a tight hold on how everything was supposed to turn out.

Enjoy!

Follow Lindsey

https://www.instagram.com/female.athlete.nutrition

Follow Dani

https://www.instagram.com/danisheriff

In this episode Dani shares openly about her perspective on screen time as a parent and how she navigates this ever-evolving internet based world with her daughter.

The long and short of it is that it's not all that bad and if you're dealing with guilt about screen time as a parent, she hopes that you'll enjoy this reframe. If anything else, know that you're not alone!

Follow Dani:

https://thehasociety.com/danisheriff

In this episode Dani and Ashley speak candidly of how their business partnership as co-owners of The HA Society started and evolved in to what it is today. We talk about strengths, weaknesses, triumphs and pivoting FAST. How blame is not a part of our culture and how pivoting and executing FAST is our main goal always.

We hope you enjoy!

Learn more about Ashley: https://instagram.com/ashley_marie_smith_

Follow Dani

https://instagram.com/danisheriff

We get how frustrating it is to feel like you’re doing the most and still not making progress.

The changes you’ve already made have been really helpful, but now you need to make it to the finish line.

We’re going to help you push past the plateau:

• truly understand YOUR hypothalamic amenorrhea and YOUR fertility
• so that you can identify the blindspots in your recovery that are holding you back
• and develop the tools you need to recover and keep it that way
• which makes it easy to prepare for conception
• so that you and your body are ready for go-time

We cut out the fluff and help you get right to the juicy stuff: Why you have HA, how to identify and remove unhelpful food and exercise rules that are still secretly thriving, balance your blood sugar and establish new habits and routines that will actually serve you – all with the goal to help you get your period back, plan for conception and of course, get pregnant asap.

Dani is joined by Mishi for an honest conversation about exercise anxiety, stepping away from movement during recovery, and what it really looks like to return to exercise without guilt, control, or obsession.

This episode is especially relevant for women recovering from hypothalamic amenorrhea who feel unsure whether exercise can ever be healthy again — or who fear that rest and eating freely means losing a part of their identity.

Mishi shares her background as a competitive gymnast for 18 years and how that identity shaped her relationship with exercise long after she retired. For nearly a decade, she maintained a high level of athleticism, but over time, exercise and nutrition became increasingly rigid and controlling.

Through her HA recovery, Mishi realized that exercise was no longer serving her health. She made the difficult decision to take a 6–8 month break from structured exercise and gave herself unconditional permission to eat. She describes this realization as a massive emotional release — similar to the unexpected relief she felt when being laid off during COVID — as if a constant weight had finally been lifted.

The conversation explores how exercise can become transactional: something you do to earn food, manage anxiety, or control your body. Mishi opens up about moving to Florida in 2023 and experiencing a period of emotional numbness, regret, and disconnection from movement altogether.

Instead of forcing motivation, she learned to reframe her past relationship with exercise with gratitude — recognizing that it served her at one point, but no longer needed to define her present.

Mishi shares how she slowly embraced a more active lifestyle in Florida, starting with something simple and accessible: walking a familiar 3-mile bridge-to-bridge loop. She talks about overcoming the mental barriers of inconvenience, lack of purpose, and the absence of weight-loss motivation.

Together, Dani and Mishi discuss the challenge many women face after HA:

How do you stay consistent with movement when guilt, fear, and aesthetic goals are no longer driving the behavior?

Their answer isn’t perfection — it’s balance, flexibility, and rejecting extremes on both ends.

This episode dives deep into the freedom that comes from no longer using exercise or food as a form of external validation. Mishi shares how grateful she feels to move through busy seasons of life without constantly thinking about nutrition or workouts, allowing her to focus on her business and personal priorities.

Dani adds her perspective on how exercise often becomes meaningful again when it supports health or function, rather than control or appearance.

Dani reflects on her own transition from competitive Olympic weightlifting to a more health-focused fitness approach — one that improved her posture, reduced back pain, and supported better body composition without obsession.

They discuss normalizing food choices, including enjoying fast food without guilt, and why reducing stress around food is especially important for women dealing with hormone imbalances. Instead of hyper-fixating on ingredients or rigid rules, Dani emphasizes intentionality, flexibility, and context.

Toward the end of the episode, Mishi shares how she’s recently returned to strength training at a CrossFit gym — intentionally avoiding high-intensity elements while rebuilding trust with her body. She also shares a long-term goal that feels exciting rather than punishing: regaining her gymnastics skills, including back handsprings, by 2026.

The episode wraps with a lighthearted discussion about competitive sports, confidence, and identity, reminding listeners that movement can be playful, empowering, and self-directed again.

This conversation is for you if:

• You feel anxious about exercising during or after HA recovery
• You’ve taken a break from movement and don’t know how to return
• Exercise used to feel joyful but now feels controlling or draining
• You want a healthier, calmer relationship with food and fitness

This episode offers reassurance that you don’t have to choose between health and movement — and that joy, strength, and confidence can come back on your own terms.

Follow Mishi:

https://instagram.com/itsmishigarcia

https://instagram.com/danisheriff

Olivia shares her personal story of discovering she had hypothalamic amenorrhea after years of a competitive fitness mindset. Despite working with a coach focused on muscle gain, her hormones and cycle never normalized. That turning point led her to work with a dietitian who specialized in HA, join the HA Society, and ultimately recover her cycle.

After recovery, Olivia faced a new challenge: how to return to exercise without slipping back into old patterns. She opens up about working in a commercial gym environment, the mental strain of aesthetic-focused fitness culture, and how those experiences shaped her approach to training today.

Now a personal trainer based in Toronto, Olivia works with women both online and in person, helping them rebuild strength, confidence, and consistency after HA — without fear that exercise will “break” their cycle again.

One of the biggest fears women have after HA recovery is whether they can safely exercise again. Dani and Olivia discuss:

• Why exercise itself isn’t the enemy, but under-fueling and stress are
• How regular, well-fueled training can actually support a regular menstrual cycle
• What a healthy transition back to movement looks like after HA
• Why performance-based goals (strength, energy, resilience) matter more than weight loss

Olivia explains how she helps clients coming out of HA focus on strength, function, and confidence, rather than aesthetics, and how cycle awareness plays a role in long-term training success.

Olivia also shares the behind-the-scenes reality of building her business, Lifted with Liv, which prioritizes holistic health rather than weight loss. She talks openly about:

• The challenges of marketing a health-first message in a weight-loss-obsessed industry
• Why word-of-mouth has been essential to her growth
• The importance of long-term client relationships, especially for women with eating disorder histories
• The mental load of running a values-aligned business while navigating life stressors like planning a wedding

Dani reflects on similar challenges in the HA recovery space and why performance-focused training is becoming more appealing than traditional fat-loss narratives.

This conversation is for women who are asking:

• Can I exercise again after HA?
• How do I train without obsessing over my body?
• What does “health” actually look like long-term?
• Is there life — and fitness — after recovery?

If you’re navigating HA recovery, returning to exercise, or trying to build a healthier relationship with movement and work, this episode will leave you feeling grounded, hopeful, and empowered.

Listen now and get ready for a new era of conversations about life after HA.

Learn more from Olivia:

https://www.instagram.com/liftedwithliv_

Follow Dani:

https://instagram.com/danisheriff

This episode is also being featured on The Hypothalamic Amenorrhea Podcast.

Abby Lowe and Mishi Garcia — The HA Society coaches – share their why and reasons behind not only choosing to become HA recovery coaches, but what a day in that life looks like. They share their experience using the Holistic HA Practitioner Certification as a path to getting their dream careers in motion.

Take The HHAP Coach Training

https://holistichapractitioner.com/coachtraining

Learn about the Holistic HA Practitioner Certification

https://holistichapractitioner.com

Visit me on YouTube

https://youtube.com/c/danisheriff

Follow us on IG

http://instagram.com/thehasociety

http://instagram.com/danisheriff

https://instagram.com/itsmishigarcia

https://instagram.com/abbylowekey

Holistic HA Practitioner Info Session:

https://holistichapractitioner.com

Get your free sample of Jool Wellness Beef Liver

https://joolwellness.com

Work 1:1 with me to get your period back

http://thehasociety.com/coaching

Visit me on YouTube

https://youtube.com/c/danisheriff

Follow us on IG

http://instagram.com/thehasociety

http://instagram.com/danisheriff

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician.