In this special summer edition of the Hormone Series we look at how our hormones have a powerful effect and can impact us physically, mentally and emotionally. In this 5 part Hormone Series, we look at how we can go from Hormone Havoc to Hormone Harmony.

Part 2, todays episode we look at...

How Stress can Mess With Your Hormones!

Stress can impact EVERYTHING from your thyroid, your metabolism, your energy, your digestion, immune system and nervous system.

What does stress look like for you?

Stress can be big life "death/divorce/taxes" stress or little "can't find my keys" stress. The problem is, our body can't actually tell the difference.

The signs of chronic stress can show up as fatigue, weight gain, cravings, mood swings, digestive issues, insomnia all without you even realising.

Stress isn’t going away but unless we start supporting our hormones and change the way we respond to stress, we are always going to have an uphill battle and a block to our weight loss efforts. 

ALL the fasting and HIIT gym workouts in the world can be putting your body under more stress and perpetuating the cycle!

If you're feeling like rubbish and you've been told that everything is "normal" then push for more answers.

To be well and feel well, we want you in the optimal range... which is very different to sitting on the outsides of "normal"!

If you'd like some support with this - then this is exactly what we do in the Well Balanced Woman program. 

I hope you enjoy Part 2 of the Hormone Series.

Links and resources:

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewellbalancedwoman

For more about me and what I do, check out my website https://kyliepinwill.com

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon  or wherever you’re listening right now

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

Our hormones have a powerful effect and can impact us physically, mentally and emotionally and in this 5 part Hormone Series, we look at how we can go from Hormone Havoc to Hormone Harmony.

The Hormone Series is a must listen for any woman who wants to: 

🍓 Feel empowered and in control of your body, mind, health, and yes, those pesky hormones!

🍓 Wake up refreshed from a good night’s sleep, throw back the covers refreshed and ready to take on the day

🍓 Take back control of those mood swings, anxiety and overwhelm and kiss those hot flashes and night sweats goodbye

🍓 No more restrictive diets, crazy gym routines and trying to work out the ‘right’ foods to eat

🍓 Stop hiding behind layers and feel fabulous in everything you pull out of your wardrobe

🍓 Enjoy a glass of wine, rather than feeling like you NEED it to survive

🍓 Feel good about who you see in the mirror.

In today’s episode we cover… 

🍏 What a hormone imbalance actually means 

🍏 The roles of progesterone and oestrogen during perimenopause and menopause

🍏 The signs and symptoms of a hormone imbalance

Links and resources:

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewellbalancedwoman

For more about me and what I do, check out my website https://kyliepinwill.com

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon  or wherever you’re listening right now

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

Hot flushes are synonymous with menopause but they aren’t a given, nor should we need to suffer and just put up with it.   In todays episode I’m going to cover four key areas to focus on when it comes to reducing ALL of your hormonal symptoms, including hot flushes, night sweats and other joys and surprises of peri and menopause - whether you choose to take HRT or not. 

I’m also going to give you a little nudge in the right direction… Before you change your body, you need to change your mind!  You don’t want to miss:

• How doing the perfect poop can help our hormones
• Why we need to detox our cosmetics
• The #1 reason you need to prioritise relaxation

Links and resources: Download my free ebook - Hormone Healthy Foods https://kyliepinwill.com/freebie-hormone-healthy-foods/

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community  https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewellbalancedwoman

For more about me and what I do, check out my website  https://kyliepinwill.com

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss a thing! 

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

In today’s episode I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Ashleigh Moreland, a neuroscientist and therapist who supports people in overcoming past challenges and traumas, and to transcend the struggles impacting their daily lives – individually, in relationships, within families and within team environments – so they can start living and thriving, rather than surviving.

Ash’s work involves the research of the impact of stress on the brain and how neuroplasticity can essentially change our response so we can overcome life long subconscious thoughts and behaviours that show up as self sabotage, people pleasing overwhelm, anxiety, depression and more.

Trauma can mean a lot of different things, including abuse or sexual trauma, but it can also mean emotionally unavailable parents, breached trust, inconsistent or unpredictable moods from caregivers, general lack of safety or consistent nurturing, rejection, abandonment, or so many other things.

This can also mean intergenerational trauma – so programming from well before we were born.

If we experience developmental trauma or grow up in an environment that does not support safe co-regulation or connection, we learn from a very young age to adapt and almost “expect” unsafety or trauma so that it cannot impact us or threaten our survival so much.

As a result, we might block out memories, we might emotionally numb ourselves, we might become people pleasers to avoid the pain associated with having unmet needs.. So later experiences of traumatic events don’t appear to impact us quite so much because we are already primed for numbing and blocking as a way to stay alive. We may even develop very high pain thresholds and feel safest when we have no one (even though we have a primal desire for connection). The root childhood trauma will have a much more significant impact than the one off acute traumas because that’s what wired you for survival in the first place, rather than to just live a life of safety and connection. As an adult, this might make it hard to really trust others, to deeply connect with others, to be present, and we might have a tendency to overwork or burnout. We are so conditioned to having to BE busy DOING “all the things”. When we are focusing on living life in a state of DOING, the experience of life is us BEING frustrated, stressed, tired, cranky, strung out.

The energy that goes into DOING more things to BE less stressed is heavy, chaotic, “busy”, which ironically actually results in more stress.

Ashleigh’s approach is that we may just have it backwards. The road to wellbeing is BEING well. Meaning that being well is being present. Peaceful. Patient. Calm. Joyful. Not busy. So rather than focusing on all the things you need to DO to achieve wellbeing, how about focusing on eliminating the barriers to you BEING well, and then watch yourself thrive.

I hope you enjoy this episode.

Links and resources:

You can find out more about Ash’s work over on her website (http://drashleighmoreland.com/), connect with her on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/dr.ashleighmoreland) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/dr.ashleighmoreland/), and make sure to check out Ash’s book Navigating Motherhood (https://www.amazon.com.au/Navigating-Motherhood-ebook/dp/B0BL5SS3KW).

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewellbalancedwoman  

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon or wherever you’re listening right now.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

There is no question that perimenopause and menopause can be a rollercoaster ride. Physical symptoms are commonly associate with menopause, things like hot flushes, night sweats, weight gain, vaginal dryness, and sleep issues.  ​ What’s less recognised though, are the very real psychological changes that come from fluctuating and decreased levels of hormones.  ​ As we lose the protective cover of (psycho-protective) estrogen we become more sensitive to stress, leading to a chronically elevated level of cortisol, which in turn suppresses our happy “feel good” hormones - namely serotonin and oxytocin and our warm and fuzzy endorphins.  ​ This shift in hormones can lead to an increase in anxiety, low mood and depression, which many women may experience for the first time, ​ or an increased susceptibility for those who have previously experienced this. ​  ​ So if you’ve found yourself being bothered or upset by things that wouldn’t normally affect you.... ​ Or  ​ You're feeling irritable and want to rip someone’s head off… then there’s a few things I’d like you to try.  ​ ​ First up - be kind to yourself and cut yourself some slack. There is a LOT going on in your life right now. ​ It’s OK to feel what you feel.  ​ If worrying is ruling your life or causing you anxiety, try this powerful technique that I was introduced to by the wonderful mindset coach and hypnotherapist Elaine Benson.  ​ This allows you to dodge the dilemmas before they happen and realise that most of the fears you do have, are not the big scary monsters they were in your head.  ​ ​ OK, here we go!  ​ Grab a large piece of paper and draw 4 columns. ​ Column 1:  Brain dump - Empty your head of all your worries and number them. ​ ​ Column 2:  For each of the worries - what the worst thing that can happen if it was to materialise? Sometimes even just doing this step helps you realise that even if the worst were to happen, you would be ok, and that alone can take the pressure off. ​ ​ Column 3:  For each worst-case scenario, write out what you can do to prevent it from happening. This then becomes a bit of a to-do list with action steps to prevent the problem. Now instead of just worrying about what could go wrong, you have action steps. ​ ​ Column 4:  Now beside each worry, ​ write about what you can do if the problem were to happen? This takes away your stress, as you have a now have a backup plan! ​ ​ While this seems super simple, it's an incredibly powerful technique that drastically reduces your anxiety as you have covered off the 'not knowing' and ' worst-case scenarios'.  ​ This allows you to build your confidence to know that you can handle anything and that you are stronger than you give yourself credit for! ​

Links and resources:

You can find out more about Elaine’s work here: https://www.instagram.com/iamelainebenson/ https://www.facebook.com/iamelainebenson/

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community  https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewellbalancedwoman

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon or wherever you’re listening right now.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

Women in their forties and fifties are at the pinnacle of their careers. In today’s episode, our guest – speaker and best selling author Mel Kettle, talks about the biggest challenges and one of the biggest reasons she believes we need to be talking more about menopause at work.

A loss of confidence, or onset of anxiety can lead us to believe that we are suddenly incapable of doing our jobs. Or of getting that promotion or of applying for another job that may come with more responsibilities because of symptoms of menopause, such as brain fog, overwhelm and forgetfulness – not to mention the physical symptoms.

This in turn means that organizations are losing huge opportunities to have vibrant, intelligent people doing the top jobs, and women are losing opportunities to set themselves up for the rest of their futures and their retirement by stepping away from the workplace  prematurely.

Research that shows there’s huge portions of women who either don’t go for a promotion or who request for a demotion. Or who goes from full time to part-time or some other way of reducing their hours because they don’t understand what’s happening or they don’t believe they can cope with having a big job and menopause at the same.

Mel’s latest book (which I can HIGHLY recommend to every single one of you!) Fully Connected, talks about the importance of learning  that our first responsibility is to care for ourselves. To make choices that are right for us, instead of what is right for others.

With blurred boundaries between work and life, it can be difficult to find time for this. We’ve glorified being busy to become over-scheduled and over-committed and feel guilty about taking time for ourselves.

Fully Connected is for women and leaders who want to take back ownership of their lives and reclaim their health and energy. On their terms.

And it has BIG font, so it’s easy to read!

Links and resources:

You can learn more about Mel and get your copy of Fully Connected on her website melkettle.com or download your copy from Amazon.

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community - facebook.com/groups/thewellbalancedwoman

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon or wherever you’re listening right now.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

If you have ever questioned your alcohol consumption… then you might want to tune into today's episode. 

Whether you’ve considered cutting down or quitting altogether  - this is a nod that you might actually want more for yourself, and for your life in general. 

If you’re curious, I  encourage you to think about what you’d like your ultimate relationship with alcohol to look like. (And substitute alcohol for any habit that you’d like to make or break!)

Is it no alcohol at all?  Is it being able to have a drink on the weekend but not midweek?  Is it being able to choose when you do or don’t drink? 

Rather than comparing your alcohol intake to people that drink less than you or comparing yourself to people that drink more than you, compare yourself to the person you want to be.  The only comparison you should be making, is comparing your current alcohol intake levels with the alcohol intake you wish you had

I hope you enjoy this episode and remember that support is here if you need it.

Links and resources:

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewellbalancedwoman

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon or wherever you’re listening right now.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

Hands up if there is something simmering…. You know that you are meant for more but have no idea how to unlock your potential to do exactly what it is you yearn to be doing.

If your hand is still up, then you’re going to love today’s conversation with Edwina Murphy-Droomer. If you want more out of life, you are in the right place!

Edwina is a Transformation Coach who helps Women (50+) Get Unstuck and Uplevel. (She has a Facebook group for women with the same name!) 

She helps women who are at a crossroads, feeling a bit lost and need help figuring out the next step. In other words, to start living proactively instead of in survival mode! 

We talk about what it means to design an audacious life and how empowering it is to take the next step and accept 100% responsibility for your experience of life. 

It's very easy for us to come up with all the things that we don't want, and why we feel unhappy and knowing that we want to feel differently and we want to have a different experience of life.

After years of being everything to everyone else, it’s now your turn to discover who you are and who you want to be moving forward.

The only person who can change your life is YOU! 

I hope you enjoy today's episode as much as I did! 

Links and resources:

You can learn more about Edwina over in her Facebook Group Women (50+)  Get Unstuck and Uplevel - An Inspiring and Empowering Community  https://www.facebook.com/groups/getunstuckanduplevel/

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community  https://www.facebook.com/groups/thewellbalancedwoman

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon or wherever you’re listening right now.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

As women we are pretty amazing creatures. On the whole we are capable and push through, no matter how we feel, to get done what needs to be done. Our wheels can fall off and we keep going, even when our wheels have well and truly fallen off! When one of our clients Cathy, joined the Well Balanced Woman program 12 months ago, it’s fair to say she was in a pretty fragile state. Like most of us very capable women, she was the master of striving for the next thing, taking on more and doing “all the things”.

Until she became gripped with anxiety and she described herself as a nervous wreck. She had become so used to surviving in a chronically stressed state – and she knew that something had to change before it blew into a more serious health complication.

She realised that for the sake of her relationships, and her own health she needed to prioritise her own well being – no one else was going to do that for her.

Twelve months on, I feel like I’m speaking to a completely different person. Her confidence and her positive outlook is palpable!

The Well Balanced Woman was able to give her the tools to simplify her life, tweak her mostly already healthy eating and give herself permission to put herself first for the very first time in a long time. The result is more energy, no more anxiety and her perimenopause symptoms that were raging had completely disappeared. And she’s taken that to a whole new level by simplifying her life!

Links and resources:

Join our free Hormone Hub Facebook Community 

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon or wherever you’re listening right now.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

Today’s episode is a change of pace and perfect inspiration for anyone who is currently feeling “stuck in the muck”! 

Joy Overstreet is a still-lively 82-year-old who has turned a lot of lemons into lemonade along the way, dealing with life's inevitable changes with grace and humour.

Joy shares her inspiring journey of the mindset shift, tools and daily practices that ended her weight struggles four decades ago, long before "intuitive eating" and the "anti-diet" were a thing. 

A part of Joy’s amazing story is finding a new life after being widowed at 32 and raising two toddlers alone. 

She thought losing her first husband had put her into early menopause, until she fell in love with a guy at 42 and her period returned just long enough to get pregnant! This resulted in her 3rd child and starting all over as a parent at 43. 

After her youngest left for college, Joy then took a 9-week sabbatical driving alone (first time, age 61) around the US after 33 years straight of looking after kids at home and ending a marriage.

She talks about the joys of downsizing (4,800 sq ft to 3,300 to 2,000 to 736) as a single woman.

The importance of journaling as a discovery tool and writing a book after 40 years of procrastinating AND the release of this new book, The Cherry Pie Paradox. At 82 years of age, Joy truly is an inspiration and this was such a fun episode to record and living proof that the best may indeed be yet to come! 

Links and resources:

You can learn more about Joy and how to find her book The Cherry Pie Paradox over on her website HERE.

You can follow The Hormone Hub podcast over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon or wherever you’re listening right now.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks!