The UpLift Podcast 1

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Get Out. Get Out Now.

Sometimes the thing keeping you stuck isn't something bad. It's something comfortable.

The job that pays the bills. The routine that ticks along. The life that looks great on paper.

But if it isn't making you happy, and you're not growing or developing as a person, it's not safe. It's just familiar.

In this short episode:
- Why your comfort zone can look good on paper and still hold you back
- The difference between resting and stagnating
- How to tell if you've stopped growing
- Why "get out now" doesn't mean blowing your whole life up overnight

Thanks for listening and for the last 1000 downloads - I appreciate it all! 

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

Period Weight Gain: Why the Scale Goes Up Before Your Period

You step on the scales, you’ve done everything right all week, and it’s up. A kilo, maybe two. Your stomach feels tight and a little voice says “what’s the point?”

This episode is here to change that conversation.

I break down what’s really happening to your weight across your menstrual cycle, why bloating and water retention happen, and why the mindset around monthly weight fluctuations matters more than the number itself.

What we cover:

• Why your weight can swing by up to 2kg across your cycle, and why it’s water, not fat
• What oestrogen and progesterone do to fluid, appetite and cravings
• Why progesterone slows your gut and how to ease period bloating
• Why tracking changes everything, especially in perimenopause and stressful seasons of life
• What the feelings tell you to do, from restricting to “I’ll start again Monday”
• How all or nothing thinking and body image dips keep you stuck for longer
• The practical monthly plan I use with my coaching clients
• When bloating or cycle symptoms are worth taking to your GP

Who this episode is for:

• Women who weigh themselves and feel derailed by the number before their period
• Anyone who feels puffy, heavy or uncomfortable in the run up to their period
• Perimenopausal women whose cycles and symptoms no longer feel predictable
• Women going through stressful times who feel like their body isn’t responding
• Anyone stuck in the restrict, rebound, restart loop who wants a kinder way that actually works

This isn’t about controlling your body. It’s about understanding it.

Kindness isn’t letting yourself off. Kindness is the strategy.

Want help understanding your own pattern and building a plan that works with your body, not against it? DM UPLIFT on Instagram @captainscarlift_coaching

If this episode helped, send it to a friend who weighs herself every morning and needs to hear it.

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome back guys for a season return! I have been having a break from recording while we launched the final cohort of 2026 Uplift Project group and now that they are well into week 2 - I sat down and got the mic back out. 

Kicking off with one important question - Lean Enough for What?

I've been trying to put my finger on something for a while. I can feel really good in my body. Training's going well, energy's up, I'm sleeping, I'm strong. And still, some days, there's a voice saying I'm not lean enough.

This episode is me working out why.

We get into what we're actually comparing when that voice turns up. Usually it's how we feel against how we look, a real life against a highlight reel, and an "enough" that doesn't have a finish line.

In this episode:
- Why feeling good and liking what you see don't always line up
- What your brain is really comparing when you look in the mirror
- Where the "fit ideal" comes from, and why it's just the thin ideal with added muscle
- Why energy, strength and sleep never get the same applause as a leaner photo
- Four things the research says actually help

Your task this week:
Three nights this week, write two sentences about something your body let you do that day. Not how it looked. What it did.

And next time the "not lean enough" voice shows up, ask yourself:
1. What am I comparing myself to right now?
2. Am I comparing how I feel with how I look?
3. What would I be giving up to have that body?

Research mentioned:
- Fredrickson & Roberts (1997), objectification theory
- Tiggemann & Zaccardo (2015), fitspiration and body image
- Homan & Tylka (2014), appearance based exercise motivation
- Tylka & Wood‑Barcalow (2015), positive body image
- Albertson, Neff & Dill‑Shackleford (2015), self compassion and body dissatisfaction
- Stice, The Body Project
- Cohen et al. (2019), body positive content on Instagram
- IOC consensus statement on REDs (2023)

If this one landed, share it with a woman who trains and still hears that voice. And if you want to do this work with support, The Uplift Project is where we do it together.

@captain_scarliftcoaching

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

Starting Over in Your 30s

To close out this season, I wanted to bring on one of my oldest friends in this industry someone who's watched me build this from the very beginning, because we were building alongside each other.

Maeve and I met years ago as online coaches and figure competitors having worked with the same coach. We even had a podcast together back then the OGs will know The Figure Forecast. She built a proper business coaching clients, a social media presence, a YouTube channel, the lot. By every external measure, she'd made it.

And then she walked away from all of it.

In this episode, Maeve tells the real story of what it took to leave a successful business behind in her mid-30s, retrain, and go back to something she used to do years before — cabin crew — but this time as a completely different person living a completely different life. 

We talk about the fear of starting over when you've already "made it" once, what it's like going from self-employed to salaried, training and moving her body with zero pressure attached for the first time in years, and why posting on social media now feels like fun instead of a job.

This isn't a comeback story. It's a story about choosing yourself over the version of success everyone else can see.

If you've ever felt like it's "too late" to change direction — this one's for you.

In this episode:

• Life inside the online coaching and competing world, and when it stopped fitting
• The moment Meev knew she needed to leave, even without a plan
• Retraining and going back to cabin crew — familiar job, unrecognisable life
• The reality of the self-employed to salaried shift
• Training and movement without a business or a stage attached
• Why social media finally feels like hers again
• What she'd say to anyone too scared to make the leap

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

This week's episode is entirely from you. I put a question sticker up on Instagram and got flooded with real questions from real women following the podcast — so this is a solo Q&A covering perimenopause, training, nutrition, mindset, and what The Uplift Project actually involves.

In this episode:

• Why perimenopause can make you feel like you're losing your mind — and the hormonal reason behind the self-doubt, overthinking and exhaustion
• Why simple tasks can suddenly feel harder than a half marathon
• The truth about "metabolic rate dropping overnight" and why the scale isn't always telling you what you think it is
• Why perimenopause attacks muscle mass — and what to do about it
• How to tell the difference between normal hormone changes and something worth getting checked, even in your early 30s
• The lifestyle habits in your 30s that set you up for an easier perimenopause and menopause later
• Training mindset: why doubt creeps in out of nowhere, and the real difference between failure and a planned deload
• How much water you actually need, and whether coffee counts
• Rebuilding confidence after "falling off track" — and why one bad week isn't a collapse
• What The Uplift Project actually involves

If you've got a question for a future Q&A episode, or have something you'd like help on send it over on Instagram.

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

You know the sentence. "I'll be happy when I lose the weight." "I'll be happy when I hit that number." "I'll be happy when the shoot's done."

I've been on both sides of it — the teenager who thought happiness was attached to an image, and the bodybuilder who stood on stage having done the thing, and found the feeling wasn't waiting there either.

In this solo episode, I'm unpacking why that happens — and it's not just a mindset thing, there's real research behind it. We get into the arrival fallacy, why over 70% of people report feeling less happy after hitting a big goal than they expected to, and why your brain is actually wired to reward the chase, not the catch.

Then I bring it home to what I actually believe: chasing a body composition goal, getting stronger, losing fat — I think it absolutely will make you happier. Just not because of the result. Because of what becoming that person demands of you.

If you've ever felt like you're waiting for permission from a future version of yourself to start enjoying your life — this one's for you.

In this episode:

• The arrival fallacy and why reaching the goal rarely feels like you think it will
• The research: the 70% study, the tenure study, and what neuroscience says about dopamine and pursuit vs. arrival
• Why women in particular get stuck living in a "waiting room"
• The reframe: why the goal is the vehicle, not the destination
• Four practical shifts to start living in the process of becoming, starting today

If this episode struck a chord, DM STRONG to @scarlett_portues and let's talk about building that discipline with real structure behind it.

And if you're ready to stop waiting and commit to becoming — properly, alongside a group of women doing the same thing — The Uplift Project is where that starts. 

Find us @theupliftproject1.

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

Gemma has trained with Scarlett for over four years through a powerlifting competition, two physique photoshoots, and two rounds of the Uplift Project. Then, at 37, her body made a call she never asked for: a full knee replacement. 

Now she's facing another one — perimenopause — while working one of the most physically demanding jobs there is, training horses for a living. This episode isn't about choosing to get fit. It's about what happens when your body decides things for you, and why the strength Gemma built years before she needed it is the only reason she's still standing on the other side of both.

Guest Bio:
Gemma is a professional horse trainer and long-term client of Scarlett's, with many years of training history spanning a powerlifting competition, two physique photoshoots, and two rounds of the Uplift Project. She underwent a full knee replacement at 37 and is now navigating early perimenopausal symptoms at 40 — including inflammation and reduced mental resilience — while working physically every day.

In this episode:

• What it's actually like being in pain at an age you'd never call "getting older"
• What that pain taught Gemma that training never had
• How her mindset has shifted from chasing a look to building a body that works
• The early signs of perimenopause showing up in an already highly active woman
• Why the 35–40 window matters more than most women realise
• How Scarlett's coaching has adapted over four years to meet Gemma where she actually is

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

For as long as I can remember, I was trying to shrink. Compete, cut, lean out, take up less room my body was always a project to be fixed. This episode is about what changed when I turned 34 and finally started respecting my body instead of managing it.

I'm coming to you as both here: the coach, and a woman still doing this work in real time. We talk about the decade nobody warns you about, why the strategies that used to work stop working, and why I'd rather build the foundation now than claw it back in my forties.

This one's honest. Come as you are.

- I spent most of my life trying to make myself smaller and how I'm unpicking it
- The "skinny is better" story we were all sold, and why it was never true
- Both sides of the coin: this isn't anti-diet — it's anti-extremes
- What years of extreme dieting actually cost me (and why I can't diet the way I used to)
- Why my body is now so sensitive to stress, poor sleep and alcohol — the mechanism, in plain terms
- Perimenopause: what's really happening, and why your mid-thirties are the window that matters
- Why strength training is the single most valuable thing we can do for the decades ahead
- "But I don't feel excited about being strong" — the reframe for when there's no buzz in it
- The honest truth about quick fixes, supplements and weight-loss medication
- Three small shifts you can make today — permission, not a programme


1. Respect lives in the middle. Extreme restriction and not caring at all are both extremes — neither is respect.
2. Constant restriction isn't neutral. It's a stressor, and stacking it onto a body heading toward perimenopause asks an enormous amount of it.
3. Think in phases and cycles, not one long punishing effort. There's real value in the steady, "boring" maintaining phase — that's where you build.
4. Start strength training in your thirties, not your fifties. Bone changes slowly, so give the slow process a long runway.
5. The excitement was never in "strength." It's in the capability it hands back — the life you can live because of it.

─────────────────────
LINES THAT STUCK WITH ME
─────────────────────
"That story — that super skinny is more admirable, more disciplined, just better that's exactly what it is. A story. Somebody sold it to us."

"Respect lives in the middle. And the middle is the bit nobody makes content about, because the middle doesn't sell."

"You cannot build a body you respect while you're constantly tearing it down."

"The fun was never in the strength itself. It's in the life the strength quietly hands back to you."

This episode touches on my own history with extreme dieting and body image. If that's tender ground for you, listen when you've got the space for it, and be kind to yourself. If you're struggling with your relationship with food or your body, please reach out to someone qualified — you don't have to work through it alone.

📍 Instagram: @captain_scarliftcoaching — my DMs are always open
💬 Curious about coaching? DM me RECLAIM and I'll tell you how it works
🎧 Follow The Uplift project 1 so the next episode lands automatically
↗ Enjoyed this one? Share it with a woman in her thirties or forties who needs to hear she's not broken, and she's not too late

Keywords: perimenopause, strength training for women, midlife women's health, diet culture recovery, body respect, menopause prevention, women's strength coaching
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Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

There's a quiet story a lot of women start telling themselves somewhere in their forties that the most driven, most fired-up version of them is now behind them. The energy shifts, the spark flickers, the drive that used to be automatic suddenly needs manufacturing and they file it under "I've lost my edge."

In this episode I'm joined again by performance psychologist Kristin Gattins to take that story apart. We're not doing toxic positivity here. We name the hard, disorienting parts of perimenopause honestly and then we talk about what you actually do with them. Because this isn't a time to slow down. It's a recalibration, not a decline.

We get into the difference between being tired and losing your drive, why so many women turn this season into a referendum on their worth, how to get out of your own way when the rules really have changed, and the mindset and alignment shifts that help you feel uplifted again clearer, stronger, and more yourself than before.

In this episode:

• What women are really describing when they say "something feels different and I can't name it"
• Tired vs. genuinely losing your drive — and how to tell them apart
• Why this is biology talking, not a character flaw (and how to stop blaming yourself)
• The first story you need to stop telling yourself in this season
• Getting out of your own way when your body is genuinely operating differently
• Cutting the cord on comparison — to who you used to be, and to everyone else's highlight reel
• Spending finite energy on purpose: what gets it, and what you finally get to put down
• What building physical strength does for your mind in this exact stage of life
• Measuring your worth by what you can do, not how you look
• The one shift you can make today not a five-year plan, today

About my guest:

Kristen Gattins is a performance psychologist / coach who helps high-performing women get out of their own way. She returns to The Uplift Podcast with Host Scarlett for this women-focused conversation on the mind and behaviours, especially through perimenopause.

A note: This conversation comes at perimenopause from the mind side mindset, behaviour and identity. For anything medical or physiological, your GP or a menopause specialist is the right person.

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.

Send us Fan Mail

Katie Collins on losing everything she'd built her identity around and choosing to rise anyway.

Katie Collins used to live for the stage. Deep in the UK bodybuilding world, her whole life was built around it the training, the structure, the identity. Then life made a decision she didn't get a say in. She moved back to Ireland to care for her dad, leaving the gym, the equipment, and the community behind.

What came next wasn't a montage. It was mould in the house. It was getting sick. It was mood that dropped through the floor and stayed there. It was waking up some mornings with nothing left to give.

This episode is about the fork in the road we all hit eventually stay stuck, or rise. Katie walks me through what rising actually looked like: not one big moment, but the small, unglamorous, daily decisions that quietly turned everything around.

If you're in a hard season right now and you don't know how you're going to move — this one's for you. No body is coming to save you. But you can still get up.

Huge & special mention to Katie for taking the time to chat with me on the podcast, this lady helped me more than she will ever know & such a real talk! 

Your host Scarlett Portues - Thanks for listening,

You can find more information on the Uplift Project at - @theupliftproject1 on instagram to join the waiting list for our next group cohort in 2027.

My personal page - Scarlett_portues on instagram where you can enquire regarding 1:1 coaching. 

I'm more than proud to have worked with females for the last 6 years both in physique development, strength and real lifestyle change. Now moving into the womens health space.