In this episode Elysia speaks to Catherine O'Keeffe, Ireland's first peri-menopause coach, mother of three boys and marathon runner. Catherine shares her experience with peri-menopause, trying to understand her symptoms with her GP and some of the great work she is dong to advocate menopause conversations, get it onto school and medical curriculums and create much needed awareness. So whether you are approaching menopause or want to and should learn more about this important phase of a woman's life you will love this episode.

Following a degree in management Catherine retrained in complementary medicine and is a self-confessed health geek, a regular contributor to menopause websites and a speaker at health events throughout Ireland and the UK.  She is a regular guest at events throughout Ireland and holds Perimenopause Unplugged events all over the country to discuss all things menopause. As a menopause activist, she has participated in the Women's Health Taskforce, launched by the Department of Health and the National Women's Council of Ireland in 2019. Catherine is also co-founder of the highly successful M Word event – Ireland's first menopause summit, held in October 2019.

She has been featured in the Irish Examiner, Image and RTÉ Lifestyle, has appeared on Newstalk and various radio stations across Ireland, and is author of The Best Friend's Guide to Anxiety: A Practical Toolkit for Moving Beyond Anxiety at Menopause.  

She is also leading Menopause Week with Wellness Warrior this very week and you can join the conversation here here.

Follow Catherine at WellnessWarrior.ie and on facebook and instagram

In this episode Elysia speaks to Leisha McGrath who shares her remarkable experience dealing with a chronic fatigue that severely impacted her day to day life, that found her wheelchair bound and how she took control of her health and well-being to seek answers in faraway places.

Leisha McGrath is a Chartered Work & Organisational Psychologist and experienced Coach. She works mostly at organisational, team and individual level to  support each client to define what their version of success looks like, in life and in work. Her personal passions include working with women and supporting them through maternity. Following her own (international) 4.5 year journey with chronic fatigue she also supports clients in the wellness and resilience space also.

Follow Leisha at https://www.lma.ie/ and on Instagram @startwith3minutes

In this episode Elysia speaks with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack Fertility Awareness Educator and author of The Fifth Vital Sign about how tracking her fertility highlighted some major health concerns, the menstrual cycle as a fifth vital sign, how to track your cycle, the impact of contraception and the big question… what's the story about real and fake periods?!

Whether you are thinking of getting pregnant or simply want to use cycle tracking for birth control or to understand whats healthy or not you will get lots of great info from this interview. 

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack is a certified Fertility Awareness Educator and Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner who teaches women to chart their menstrual cycles for natural birth control, conception, and monitoring overall health. In her new book The Fifth Vital Sign, Lisa debunks the myth that regular ovulation is only important when you want children by recognizing the menstrual cycle as a vital sign. Drawing heavily from the current scientific literature, Lisa presents an evidence-based approach to fertility awareness and menstrual cycle optimization. She hosts the Fertility Friday Podcast, a weekly radio show devoted to helping women connect to their fifth vital sign by uncovering the connection between menstrual cycle health, fertility, and overall health.

Follow Lisa here https://fertilityfriday.com/ and on her podcast , Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and grab a copy of her book here

In this episode Elysia speaks to Kundalini Yoga Teacher Celine Doyle about her journey moving from a fast paced corporate job to setting up her business Minding Me Wellness, the importance of listening to your inner voice and much more.

Celine Doyle is a kundalini yoga & meditation teacher, bio energy therapist, life coach, ceremonial cacao facilitator. Kundalini yoga has been such an integral part of Celine's journey to the path she is now on and learning to cultivate her relationship with her own intuition. She also hosts and collaborates on beautiful heart led workshops and retreats.  She is a mother to 3 young boys and spent almost 15 years working in Corporate HR before taking the plunge to follow her souls calling. 

Follow Celine at https://mindingmewellness.com/ and on her social media  Instagram / Facebook

In this episode Elysia speaks to Nutritional Therapist Niamh Burke about how she manages her PCOS symptoms naturally.

Niamh Burke is a Nutritional Therapist  and member of the Nutritional Therapists of Ireland.

She specifically works with female clients suffering from digestive issues, blood sugar problems, hormonal imbalance, low mood and difficulty losing weight. Her clinic is in Galway but she also works online via Skype and through her online programs such as the 10 Day Keto Kickstart.  You can find her on niamhburkenutrition.com 

Elysia Doody is a Functional Nutritionist & Exercise Coach specialising in female health and wellness. She's embraced Functional Medicine to address her health concerns, and is now helping as many women as possible in a similar position. She is also a former competitive dancer and U21 Latin & Ballroom Dance Champion, Amateur Pole Dancer Runner-Up and has ranked in the top 3 IDFPA & IPF Powerlifting Championships.  Taking everything she's learned through education, her own health, and working with clients, she's keen to share it all through the female wellness hub.

In this session we chat about:

• How she got into weight training after a car accident
• The apprehensions that she felt and her fear of getting man muscles
• Why you need to lift weights for fat loss not weight loss
• Weight training versus cardio
• Ways to introduce weight training into your workouts
• Why women specifically need to lift weights

In this weeks episode I chat to the amazingly inspirational Danny-J Johnson. Danny is a former fitness model and personal trainer who gained over 30lbs following her extreme diet and exercise regime. She talks really openly about the impact of the extreme fitness and dieting industry and how she recovered. Whether you are a fitness instructor, a competitor who feels that your performance or weight is being impacted negatively or even if you have been on a diet for a long while now and feel the only way to continue to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more then you have to listen to this episode.

Danny-J is an award-winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker, podcast host and storyteller. As the former founder of The Sweaty Betties, an online fitness community, Danny-J discovered the most effective method for capturing attention and increasing revenue—sharing personal and brand stories. 

Danny-J's work can be heard in her weekly show, The Best Life Podcast and can be followed in real time on all the social media platforms

As a true example of "Truth is Stranger than Fiction" she uses her real "Jerry Springer Life" stories to engage with her audience, teach life lessons and inspire others to rewrite their stories. Danny-J now teaches innovative brands and influencers to close more sales, become better leaders and blow up their brands with the irresistible power of sharing.

She also helps tens of thousands of families become debt-free by sharing her real life getting out of debt story and challenge #FindTheMoneyProject

In this episode we talk about:

• Her fitness modelling career
• The impact of extreme fitness and dieting 
• how this extreme approach contributed to her 30lb  weight gain in such a short space of time 
• The pressures on fitness instructors to "look a certain way"
• The impact of recovering from competitions (figure or powerlifting)
• How she overcame adrenal fatigue and metabolic syndrome to lose the weight and regain her health 
• Her online programme The Happiness Diet

FOLLOW Danny-J on Instagram, Facebook, You Tube and The Best Life Podcast 

Ciara is an Irish freelance makeup artist, public speaker and author now living in Vancouver BC, Canada. Having worked for the past 10 years between Ireland and London, Ciara has established herself as one of the most hardworking and top artists in the industry.   

Specialising in all areas of fashion, beauty and commercial/lifestyle makeup, her eye for detail and style of perfectly executed makeup has made her a top choice among photographers. Her work has also been published on the covers of top magazines across the world like The Hollywood Reporter and her celebrity clients have included Alexa Chung, Def Leppard/ AC/DC, Universal Music, BBC, L'Oreal, Wella, H&M X Erdem, Chanel, London Fashion Week, Ryders Eyewear and The Vancouver Club.

Ciara has given talks at prestigious schools like Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, University College Cork, Ireland, as well as at John Casablancas Institute Vancouver, Canada, sharing her wealth of industry knowledge and experience as a self-published author. She is currently working on her second book.

 She has also hat a phenomenal weight loss transformation & in this interview we talk to Ciara about:

• Her weight loss transformation and her journey back to health
• What changes she made to lose over 50lbs
• Beyond the body transformation and changing mindset  
• Accepting her body and her journey to loving her body
• The challenges she faced launching her first book and book 2 in the making

Sarah Tobin lost her first baby Alice just 5 days after she was born. She suffered cord compression and lack of oxygen and by the time staff realised it was too late.

Sarah was lucky to get pregnant again 4 months after their loss, and realised she needed to do something to process her grief, release her trauma and help relieve her severe PTSD. After trying many things it was Tapping & Matrix Reimprinting that had life changing results. She has since gone on to have two beautiful sons (one by C section and the other naturally) and decided to train in the therapy that worked for her, leading to the creation of Tapping for Mums. 

Her goal is to help women by teaching them how to Tap and manage the daily emotional roller-coaster as well as working on a 121 basis to release birth and childhood trauma to alleviate symptoms of PND, depression, PTSD and so much more. Ultimately working to focus on manifesting a happy present and future. 

In this weeks episode we talk about:

• Sarah's birth story

• Overcoming birth trauma and the loss of her child 

• The fears and anxiety after getting pregnant for the second time

• How tapping helped her through her trauma, grief and fears

• What is tapping and how can you apply it to many daily challenges

• A short tapping demo 

• Tapping for those who are skeptical and tips to

Follow Sarah on Instagram, Facebook

Elsa Jones is a qualified Nutritional Therapist and author of bestselling book 'Goodbye Sugar'. She works a nutrition consultant in a Dublin practice and also internationally via her online nutrition programs. She specialise in motivational weight management combining effective nutrition & mind-set strategies.

Elsa is a popular spokesperson on nutrition in the Irish media. She featured as a nutrition expert on RTE's health documentaries 'Sugar Crash', 'Nine Stone Lighter' & 'What Women Want'. She also presented the popular health series 'How Healthy Are You?' on TV3 and is a regular contributor on 2FM and Newstalk Radio. 

Elsa's health features often appear in the Independent and Herald newspapers as well as various magazines including Tatler and Marie Claire magazine. 

Elsa has worked with a variety of companies and brands throughout the years including Lloyds Pharmacy, The Health Store Group, Google, Microsoft, Ford, Kerry Foods, Danone, Unilever, Pharmaton, KBC, Aviva, Uncle Ben's, Celtic Irish Spring Water 

In this episode we discuss:

• The challenges we face with trying to maintain a healthy diet long term
• Why you may be over eating and making poor choices
• How to consume sugar healthily 
• How to overcome emotional eating and the all or nothing mentality 

Follow Elsa:

• www.elsajonesnutrition.ie 
• Instagram: @elsajonesnutrition
• Twitter: @elsanutrition
• facebook.com/elsajonesnutrition