Landy Peek (00:34)
There's a season when the pace you've kept stops making sense. Today, we're meeting the tender middle, perimenopause, midlife, and the quiet power that comes from choosing your body's wisdom over everyone else's shoulds. Welcome back to the Landy Peak Podcast. I'm with registered nurse and wellness guide, Liz Keller. We're talking signals, not flaws, data, not trauma, grace instead of all or nothing.
This is your host and friend, Landy.
Today, we're exploring how to turn your symptoms into information, nourish in ways that stabilize energy, move with respect instead of punishment, and live in the gray when life refuses to be black and white.
if your body's asking for a different rhythm, or if you're ready to trade pressure for presence, take a breath. You're in the right place.
Speaker 1 (01:24)
am so excited for today's guest. want to welcome Liz Keller to the Landy Peak podcast. Liz, welcome and can you share a little bit about yourself so our listeners can get to know you?
Speaker 2 (01:36)
Absolutely. Thank you, Landy. I'm excited to be with everybody today. ⁓ Well, I am a newly minted 51 year old mother of three children. I'm also a registered nurse and a pretty passionate person about health, fitness, wellness. ⁓ And I've been on a bit of a journey as I've been going through this aging process and sort of
rediscovering myself. ⁓ And I'm all about, my favorite thing in the world is to connect with others. And you know, and I'm very deep in my faith. And so I just am excited to be with you and share a little bit about my journey.
Speaker 1 (02:17)
I'm so excited as well as we just started kind of talking before we got on how many similarities we have and just kind of career pivots and shifts and really stepping into this new space ⁓ as we ⁓ embrace what really feels good for us and how we want to step into careers in different ways. So can we start as you talked about what you did
for your nine to five. Having all the kids out of the house and wanting to do something a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (02:54)
Absolutely. Yeah. So just to give a really quick overview of my nine to five is, I'm a nurse care coordinator and I work with a community of religious women, which is a very unique job and I help support them in their wellness. And it is an absolute drive my life. actually, ⁓ believe God gave me this role. I prayed about it. And almost two years ago, ⁓ a job posting landed in my inbox.
And we all know those, you know, when you're, when you're searching and searching and it lands and I read about it and I thought, wow, this is intriguing. And I applied and happy to report it, the job. And the reason I'm sharing this is because I believe in divine intention and all these things and God placing us where we need to be. So about maybe a month after I started, I went back to look at the job posting and the job was posted on my birthday. And I hadn't realized that at the time.
So it was kind of God's birthday gift to me. So that is my nine to five. But as you just said, my three children have launched out of the nest. I don't like to say empty nest. I like to say we're launching. And I just felt like I finally had more bandwidth to give to others. And I had to kind of go internally to decide how I wanted that to, what that wanted to, what I wanted that, excuse me.
I had to go inward to decide what I wanted that to look like, right? And kind of get really intentional and reflective on my gifts and talents. So the way I'm helping others is trying to help through ⁓ health and wellness and sharing my journey on that.
Speaker 1 (04:33)
I love them. Would you tell us a little bit about kind of what that journey looks like as you are kind of creating something out of nothing.
Speaker 2 (04:34)
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ Well, you and I were talking earlier about lived experience, right? And being a registered nurse and I worked many, many years in women's health, I entered kind of this whole lovely journey that's very buzzword worthy right now of like perimenopause and life change probably about five years ago. ⁓ And it really kind of hit its peak maybe three years ago. And I just noticed all the changes in myself ⁓ that
most women, if you've been through it, or if you haven't even been through it, you've heard of, you know, like, the lack of energy, the sleep troubles, the extra weight, the brain fog, the hard time finding words sometimes, which comes with all that. And if you look up a list, you could find just about everything that's attributed to this change in life. And so, you know, I kind of battled through it and was looking all around trying to find things. ⁓ And then I don't know what
Honestly, I think what happened was I turned 50 last year at the beginning of August. And I just kind of was like, you know what? I'm going to take control of what I can control, right? My mindset, what I nourish my body with, what I nourish my mind with, what I nourish my spirit with. And I did all of those things and I'm happy to report that things improved for me. I started to feel better in my body. I experienced a weight loss and I just feel like
kind of a new woman. not going to lie. So it was been super exciting. And through that, I realized that I want to help others with this journey. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:24)
Because it's a huge journey. I'm writing this think of fairy menopause where as you describe symptoms like yes, yes, yes, and yes, right. There is that we talked about before I can edit if we stumble over words, because I have learned that I need to learn to edit because I stumble over my words. I am in my cycle and there is that brain fog. And I had talked before on the podcast around what my journey and how I have supported myself.
Speaker 2 (06:26)
It's a huge.
Speaker 1 (06:54)
And I love talking to other women because A, we have that, yes, we're not alone. You and I connected right away around that. And you found ways to really support yourself and are now turning those into ways to help others. Can you talk a little bit about what your take on this is and how you were supported yourself and are supporting other women?
Speaker 2 (07:19)
Yeah, 100%. ⁓ Well, there's, first of all, let's be clear about how there's so much noise out there, right? If you go looking for ways, you know, whether it be nutrition and perimenopause or symptom management and perimenopause or what's the best, and you're going to hear all these conflicting ways, right? Which is, which is normal. So ⁓ I spent probably a couple of years kind of weeding through that and jumping from this to that. And I'm a person where I admit,
I struggle a little bit with consistency, right? ⁓ I've been an athlete my whole life. was a cross country athlete in college. I've always been very active. actually did a triathlon three weeks ago. So I'm an active person and I always really focused on fitness and working out and eating and what I was feeding and feeling my body with was kind of like a second thought. Okay. And what I've learned through my journey and being a registered nurse and working in women's health is.
Eating is kind of everything, especially in this phase of our life. So what we feed our bodies, you know, and for me, I guess, ⁓ the biggest things were, you know, adding in a lot of protein, which I know protein is such a buzzword now, but I was adding in a lot, a lot of protein, more protein than it's difficult to eat that much protein, but I did it and kind of getting rid of the sugar and the alcohol and the things that contribute to inflammation in our body.
And finding that balance ⁓ was really key for me. And I saw the weight come off. My sleep improved significantly. ⁓ It just felt better in my body. And I will tell you, I am fully through menopause. So all those things that you're experiencing now, I've been through it. And I'm on the other side. And I'm here to tell you, you will make it. And you will experience it's a little.
I mean, this may sound crazy, but it's a little bit of a rebirth once you get to the other side of it. So yeah, so that's kind of, you know, what I did. And the other thing I realized because of my history of having a challenge with consistency. And I think the reason I struggled is it was always an all or nothing for me. So I was a hundred million percent in it. I just lit it all on fire and burned it down and was like, I'm not doing this anymore. Right.
Not literally let it on fire, but just was like, you know? And so as I've aged and gone through menopause and experienced all this, I've learned it doesn't have to be all or nothing. It has to be, you can be intentional. You can think about what feels good in your body. And, you know, it's okay to throw perfection out the window. I think as women, always feel like we have to be a hundred percent perfect, right?
And when it comes to your journey, there are other ways to do it. So I'm here to be a cheerleader for other women and be like, okay, well, yeah, you tried this and maybe you fell off, but let's look at what you experienced when you did this. Everything is data. How did you feel? Okay. So yes. Yes.
Speaker 1 (10:29)
You're speaking my language. Yes. I love because that is I there are so many similarities we have. have a thousand percent in and then I burn it down. And I feel that on a very deep level. But that flip in the script of when I started looking at this is all just information, right? This is all just it shifted everything. Can we talk more about that perspective of
It's just data. It's just information that we get to then use to make our next choice.
Speaker 2 (11:06)
Absolutely. Yeah, I think ⁓ where it happened for me is when I so starting in January of this year, I really got very intentional and I was being honestly, I was being pretty strict about what I was eating and I started to feel very restrictive and kind of triggering to me. And even though even though I had great success in the way that I was eating, ⁓ it just I had to stop and pause and be like, OK,
This is not going to be something I can do for the rest of my life. It's just too strict. And so then I thought, okay, well, I know, I know what makes me feel good, but life happens, right? You know, I turned 50, I've turned 51 on August 3rd and I had all the sweets and I did all the things and I, you know, I had a glass of champagne and toasted my birthday, but then I felt kind of crummy. I'm not going to lie. So I was like, okay, well that's data.
I know that I put this in my body and maybe I didn't sleep great. And so now I can be like, okay, well then I'm going to just back off of that. I'm going to get really intentional about what I eat, what I feed my body. And I started to feel better. So life happens. You can't expect to do, you know, one thing for the rest of your life. It's just, it's just not sustainable. So the everything is data part is noticing when something doesn't feel right, whether it's something you eat or.
Let's take it even to like relationships and interactions, right? We can't always control the people that we interact with on a daily basis, whether it be a family member or a coworker or someone you run into out and about. But you like you still have to live that life. You still have to be around those people. So, you know, it's just, I don't know, it's just going inward and being like, how does this feel? And what do I want to do next time? And how do I want to change things?
and giving yourself permission to do that.
Speaker 1 (13:06)
huge is even when you bring it back to how we're looking at relationships, all the different things. It's not just food that we're putting into our body and seeing how it makes us feel because midlife foods that were okay are not necessarily making us feel okay anymore. And that's a huge shift in, in its data. And I'm taking it in and then get to choose what I want to do with it. Backing off on some things, bringing in.
But I love how you do it around relationships. This is still data and we get to tune in. How does this interaction make me feel? What are my options for doing something differently? And that we have choice because I think that is one of the key things that looking at things is it's just information. It's just data gave me was a sense of choice over it. had power in, okay, here's the data. Now I get to choose instead of feeling
powerless in, trapped in this situation. I can't figure out how to get out, you know, like whether it's weight or hormones or relationships or work or whatever it is, we start looking at the data. We get to make choices and that gives us power.
Speaker 2 (14:22)
Absolutely. And you brought up such a good point about that feeling of power or empowerment around, you know, maybe the old me 20 years ago, I would have put so much more weight into what this person said to me or how even they looked at me or, you know, I see something on social media and I get triggered by it. Now, I think with age and with experience, you you can flip the script on it and you can be like, OK, this is a really uncomfortable interaction, but I have to get through it.
And then after that, I can choose how the next interaction goes, or I can draw a boundary. And I think that's something I've just realized as I've entered my fifth decade of life. You can make the choice. Choice is so powerful, right?
Speaker 1 (15:10)
yes. And you can make the choice. Yes. I'm so glad you highlighted this shift in that as we age, we are having a different ability to separate us from what others think and say and feel that just because they have a reaction to what we're doing or say something that, you know, feels hurtful or judgmental really doesn't mean anything about us.
One of my biggest power script flips is looking at it is anytime you hear anybody say anything, you're learning about them. You already know you. And it was like, wait. Okay. So that person that, know, was rude in the grocery store or, you know, cut you off in traffic and then was rude or, know, whatever, you know, rude person anywhere.
or the troll on Instagram that commented on your post. You really didn't learn anything about you, but you learned a lot about them and how they reacted to stress and how they reacted to whatever you brought up. And it was an interesting thing to be able to take that step back and say, oh, it's all about what's going on with them. And it really doesn't have anything to do with me. And I may have been a trigger for them.
not even realized it. Yeah. That was like huge and like unintentionally I looked like somebody said something sounded like somebody smelled like somebody or something or a situation that brought out something in them that was like, oh, that was triggering. They might not even have recognized it was a trigger, but their reaction showed that. And when I could remove myself from the situation, kind of get that
up view of like, okay, I'm not down in the trenches. I'm looking at it as a whole situation. It start to really see that I could be more of who I wanted to be, ⁓ without worrying about what other people were saying or doing or thinking.
Speaker 2 (17:21)
Right. I have to share this. I think I was in my thirties, but at the time it was like, I couldn't hear it. But someone said once, other people's opinions are none of your business. Okay. And first when I heard that, I was like, what? But the more I think about it, it's like, that's their opinion, right? That's their comment. That's their, and that is exactly what you just said. It reflects on their life experience.
Speaker 1 (17:35)
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:50)
It reflects on, know, none of us really know what someone else is going through. So that's the other thing. Like now I've, this is kind of like buzzword or trendy, know, like assume positive intent. And you hear this when you talk about email communication or text messages, but that can blanket over pretty much everything in life, you know, they're, you know, whatever's going on, however the interaction is going, if it feels icky to you,
It's definitely not you. It's something going on with them, right? And so you just have to be like, okay, I'm sure they weren't meaning to be this way or sounding this way. And when I read it, my perception is different and they're sitting there writing it and their perception is different. So as our society is changing, communication is going so electronic and to everything. I think we just have to be really mindful about almost every single communication we have with somebody. It's just...
Speaker 1 (18:49)
It's a lot of giving grace to that other person. I mean, knowing just in myself, as I'm in perimetopause and yesterday just happened to be one of those kind of snappier days where I wasn't intending, like in my head, I wasn't snappy. But as I was trying to get my kids ready for school and like out the door, both of my kids are like, mom, I'm doing it. Why are you just yelling at me? And I was like,
I'm not intending to yell. Like this isn't in my head, I'm not yelling. There are times where, you know, we're rushed, we're stressed, we have hormone fluctuations, we have shit going on in our lives that we're not sharing with anybody and we're still trying to show up as a professional, as a mom, as a, you know, whatever. And we don't know everybody's story and we don't know, you know, what came up and we don't know if there was a fight that morning, you know, between them and their...
Speaker 2 (19:22)
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:45)
to put on the shoes or if they heard about a death in the family. Right? And so when we experience someone that feels not a good experience to us, giving them grace, because we don't know what's going on in their life, being able to separate ourselves from like, okay, and owning ourselves too. I definitely apologize to my kids is like, whoa, that's not intentional. I will watch, know, kind of hear my tone. But sometimes we don't always hear tone in our
voice and knowing that sometimes other people don't always hear tone in their own voice.
Speaker 2 (20:20)
Exactly. Exactly. And the same thing goes with with, you know, email or text communication, right? You don't know. That's even more of a mystery because you can pick up on tone of voice or body language or any of that stuff. Yeah. So it's just goes back to how we started. know, everything is data, right? So everything is data. And then the other thing ⁓ that I kind of with with my ⁓ drive and want to help other women through this this mysterious
crazy part of our lives is, you know, like I mentioned earlier, getting away from all or nothing approaches and giving yourself permission to just do what you can do in that moment and then step back and reflect on it. You know, one of the things that came up, it's kind of funny and I'll share this, you know, maybe later, but I went through a gray hair transition. That was another part of aging for me. So in 2020, I stopped coloring my hair because I'm getting gray since I was 18 years old.
And so I thought, I'm done, right? And embracing that has really also been part of transition. And I'm not saying it's right for everybody. You you have to be there. But when I think about my gray hair and gray transition, I have an Instagram account called gray on purpose. And it's because I made an intentional decision to let my hair go gray. And it was a whole journey. And now I'm drawing a parallel to kind of this concept of living in the gray. Like it doesn't have to be black.
or white. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. There is an in-between and that's the hardest, most uncomfortable place to be. But it's also like the sweetest place to be because you can allow yourself grace there. yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:05)
about that, that in the middle space where it is uncomfortable, but you talked about it's the sweetest space to be talk about that because I think we all feel the discomfort and the that balancing act.
Speaker 2 (22:19)
Yeah, it's, you know, you hear it all the time, like the messy middle, right? So like midlife, right? We're in between for me right now. You know, I have, my kids have flown the nest. So my role is completely, completely transformed. And I have parents that are aging. So I'm kind of in the middle of all these things. ⁓ And it's hard to be in the middle. But at the same time, when you can see
keep yourself grounded in the middle and you kind of have all these feelings going on around you and you make it through and you're like, wow, I did that. Like it feels good and pushing through the discomfort is like growth, right? So the other thing is, know, being in a mindset of growth that yes, I don't like the way this feels.
My body doesn't feel right. I don't feel this or that. And then all of a sudden just kind of being with it for a minute, reflecting on what's going on, how it's making you feel, and then just kind of going from there. like there is beauty in it. ⁓ There's beauty. And I think a lot of the beauty comes from me, because I know you just share the story about your kids and being in that moment of you're just, you have all these people dependent on you, you know? And when that shifted for me,
I went through grief, right? Because I wasn't doing all those things anymore. ⁓ but at the same time, and it's like waves on the ocean, right? You know, it can be wavy. can be calm. At the same time, I was like, you know what? This is pretty amazing because I can do what I want to do. I can make choices for me and put myself up a little bit higher on the list, which I didn't do for many years, but it's not that I
neglected myself. It's just that there were so many other things I had to take care of. So kind of celebrating that it's all part of the transition. And like I said, I'm on the other side of it coming to you from this side of it. You're still on that side of it, but it is beautiful. That's what I mean. It is beautiful when you can get through all that middle stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:29)
Because
we hope I needed to hear that. It does end this chaos. We'll shift. And right now that whole like not taking care of anyone sounds glorious, but my kids are still young. So I am really in the thick of not diapers, which is good. Like we're passing. We can now, you know, go to the bathroom by ourselves, make snacks if we need to, you know, we're a higher level, but there's still a lot of to do's. ⁓
So I really appreciate that kind of thought. everything that's going on body wise, we'll get through this. Because sometimes when you're in the middle, it feels like there is no end. It's like, my gosh, how am I going to survive this?
Speaker 2 (25:02)
day.
Yeah, for sure. And middle means so many different things, you know, at every different phase of your life. Right. So, you know, the middle that you're in now, not going to lie, when I dropped my daughter off at college a week ago, I drove home and I wasn't crying because she's a second year student. So last year I cried a lot. So I wasn't crying. But I was just kind of reflecting on like, wow, how did that go so fast? And when you're in the stage, especially the stage you're in,
You're just like, my gosh, this can be excruciating. Some days are so excruciating and hard. But then, you know, I'm on the other side of it thinking, I kind of miss it. You know what I mean? It's like you just, you know, you don't, you don't realize it until it's passed you by. ⁓ but like any stage of life, there's, there's good parts. There's sad parts. There's just, just looks a little different for me than it does for you, you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:16)
I want to swing around because I know nutrition is a love of yours and it came from both lived experience and your professional knowledge. Do you mind sharing a little bit about your experience and then kind of weave in the knowledge that you've learned and are now sharing?
Speaker 2 (26:35)
Yes, absolutely. I shared a little bit earlier about how I've always been very motivated by fitness and, um, I was always an athlete and I put so much into that. And then when I hit that age and I started to really get intentional and look at, you know, you can't out exercise a bad diet. There's just no way around it. Okay. So I think like a lot of people during the pandemic, you know,
All my habits kind of went out the window because it was just kind of about survival at that time. I had kids at home. We were all homeschooling our kids. We were all just trying to get through the day. And so I completely neglected my nutrition. And so when I turned 50, I started looking for different options. And one thing that rang true for me because of my knowledge is the fact that as women, we're pretty much protein deficient. Okay. We don't focus enough on protein. Okay. Yeah. So.
Speaker 1 (27:28)
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:31)
I figured, you know, focusing in on protein and when you focus on protein and you kind of make that the center of your meal, you, it, fills you up more. So you feel more satiated. You don't feel hungry. And so I would do like a big, like if you had a plate, I have three fourths of the plate would be protein. And then a little bit would be like vegetables. Okay. And I started doing that consistently. And not only did I see like my energy levels improve.
my, you know, I was losing weight too because I was, cut out sugar, which no lie, that's extremely hard to do. I'm here to tell you it's hard, but I cut out sugar. ⁓ and I really cut back on my carbs. So I was eating very high protein and I was doing some intermittent fasting, ⁓ which is, again, very, it's kind of a means become a mainstream thing. And I just noticed that I started to feel better. My sleep was better.
my energy levels were better. wasn't crashing in the middle of my day. And because I'm a nurse, I knew the science behind it, right? I knew why it was happening because the way our blood sugar works and the way our metabolism and all that stuff works, it like a big light bulb went on for me. So I was like, wow, there's something to this. So that's when it was my lived experience and I experienced a weight loss. And I just started to see things like my hot flashes got better.
I would have less than, I used to have like 10 in a day and I would have two in a day. I would be able to sleep better at night. So for me, that's been the way that I kind of live, my live experience, met my knowledge about everything and ⁓ with nutrition and the way the body works.
Speaker 1 (29:18)
That's incredible. So I am so curious because, A, you're speaking a lot of how I eat and live, but I don't necessarily have the science behind it. And I have heard kind of mixed information, especially on intermittent fasting. I want to dive into when you're talking high protein, what are we talking about? What, as women, especially in kind of
40s, late 30s, 40s, 50s, do we need to be focusing on? Because I eat protein, but I'm definitely not watching and like how much protein should I be getting?
Speaker 2 (29:57)
Yeah, so it's a little complicated from the standpoint of there's not a hard and fast rule. If you go out and you look it up, some people will say, ⁓ for grams of protein, it's based on your lean body mass. And calculating your lean body mass is not, not everybody has a skill in their bathroom that can calculate your lean body mass. And what lean body mass means is,
It is just basically taking the fat mass off and calculating the lean body mass. So this is that that's when you read and you get really deep into physiology. That's what it's going to tell you. But I would say for rule of thumb for what has worked with myself and, ⁓ I'm coaching some women as well. They've had success is approximately 30 grams of protein per meal. That's 90 grams of protein in a day, which is a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:53)
Hi.
Speaker 2 (30:55)
Okay. And you're not, again, let's get back to the, the gray area of things and getting out of the all or nothing approach. Right. You know, it's great if you can get 30 grams of protein per meal. ⁓ but it's not always going to happen that way. And, it varies person to person and it varies on, know, if you have, if someone has a lot of weight to lose, they may eat a little differently than someone who doesn't. but that's just kind of the rule of thumb. And, and I think as women, you know, if you have a,
Hard-boiled eggs for breakfast and some oatmeal. A hard-boiled egg has six grams of protein in it. Yeah. Versus like, if you're gonna have ⁓ like three ounces of ground beef, that has about 20 ounces of protein in it. it's just, think the way that we think about protein, it's not something that's mainstream. you look...
Speaker 1 (31:33)
Bye.
Speaker 2 (31:55)
And the other thing that's been really big for me is that I've gotten away from eating anything that comes in a package. So I don't eat protein bars. I don't eat protein shakes. I eat real food.
Speaker 1 (32:09)
Okay.
Speaker 2 (32:10)
So it's just, it's what's worked for me. So.
Speaker 1 (32:14)
Yeah. it makes sense. And I'm glad you brought up that you're not getting your protein from the bars and protein shakes and things like that. It is real food. So can you share a little bit about what that could look like for real food that we're bringing in? Cause I think so much of what, especially mom's on the go, but business humans on the go are eating is a lot of packaged stuff because it's on the go. So as we shift and start thinking, okay,
we're getting in 90 grams of protein a day, what could that actually look like?
Speaker 2 (32:49)
Yeah, I mean, it can look a lot of different ways, but I think the number one thing that I would say is, ⁓ it, you have to be intentional. You know what I mean? You have to like plan your stuff. So for example, example on Sundays, I do, you know, prep food. So what I'll make is, ⁓ I made a bunch of chicken breasts and I grill them and you know, you can cut up chicken breasts, throw them in a salad. ⁓ so something like that would be.
What is it about? Seven grams of protein per ounce of chicken. So if you take three ounces of chicken, that's 21 grams of protein. And then you throw a scoop of cottage cheese in. Okay. So you can have cottage cheese. That's, that's protein for breakfast. ⁓ I do eggs. ⁓ you get sick of eggs after a while, but I do do eggs. ⁓ I'd eat a lot of hard boiled eggs. If you like tuna fish, you can have tuna fish.
lead, eat a lot of burgers, but it is, it is hard to, especially people who are, like you said, working professionals, moms, it is hard to not go for the box, the package, that sort of thing. So again, there's, you can't be perfect on a percent of the time, but if you can get yourself from where you are to just a little bit better each day,
My biggest recommendation would be to start, unlike when I was doing fasting, I still ate breakfast. So my fasting looked like flipping it around. I would have breakfast and I, if I was going to have a lunch and a dinner, I would try to stop eating earlier in the day. Okay. In like three, four, five o'clock last meal versus when people do intermittent fasting, they skip breakfast. Not
Speaker 1 (34:36)
So.
Speaker 2 (34:47)
everybody, but that's what the traditional way is. You you start, but if you start your morning with a breakfast that is high in protein, you will not experience that like mid morning afternoon slump because if you, I don't, it's hard to explain, but it has to do with your blood sugar. So, ⁓ let me go back there. So if you would start with a high protein breakfast, your blood sugar is going to level, be level for more of the day versus
You know, if you eat something for your, for your first meal of the day, say around 11 or 12, and you don't have enough protein in it and say it's more of a carb heavy meal, your blood sugar is going to crash and then you're going to feel pretty crummy. So it's the key is starting the day off with a lot of protein so that you feel full and you don't feel like you're ravished and you need to eat something by 10 30 because you're so hungry.
Speaker 1 (35:26)
Yeah.
Right. Yeah. Which makes sense. So can we geek out a little bit on like intermittent fasting? Because I have heard intermittent fasting amazing for those in perimenopause and intermittent fasting, it's going to tinker system and it's horrible at this time of life. Can you speak to that and then what we should be thinking and doing?
Speaker 2 (36:07)
Yeah, and mind you, you know, I am a registered nurse, so I do have some knowledge on this. I also have a certificate from the Integrative Institute of Nutrition, so I did do a certification. But, you know,
you, you just mentioned those two different schools of thought, right? And let's be real, every single thing that you see flashing across the screen or on social media, everybody's going to have an opinion, but I think you have to really think about what works best for the individual. Okay. So for me, when I would try to do intermittent fasting and I would not eat till say 11 or 12 o'clock, I was always a morning exerciser. I would do, I would exercise fairly hard.
Speaker 1 (36:48)
Thank
Speaker 2 (36:52)
And I went eat till 11 or 12 o'clock. Okay. I didn't see results. And what do I, what I attribute that to is that I was stressing my body out. I, you know, I ate dinner, I went to sleep, I slept all night. I got up, I worked out and I neglected to eat until like noon or 11 and my body's like, where's the food? Where the heck is the food? Are you going to feed me? And it caused my cortisol levels to be higher. It caused, you know, my body was like,
holding on to everything I had because I wasn't nourishing it in the proper way. Now, what I do now is I exercise a lot less. I don't exercise as intensely. ⁓ I do a lot of walking and I do some light weights, but I always start my day with a protein heavy meal. And then my body knows that it's nourished. And because I'm not doing a 45 minute hit class,
Speaker 1 (37:25)
So.
Speaker 2 (37:49)
or going to orange theory or doing a Peloton. I'm not throwing any of those. Those are all great methods of exercise, but I nourish my body so that I can do those things. Fasting, working out super hard, coming home, getting my kids out the door, being so stressed, stressed, stressed, stressed. And then all of sudden I'm like, I better eat. Well, my stress hormones are, if I do it that way are so high versus if you start off your day with some light movement and some nutritious food, high in protein.
Speaker 1 (37:59)
VUGAN
Speaker 2 (38:18)
you're just going to feel better. I don't know how else to say it. So I can't speak to the, is better for perimenopause versus this is better for perimenopause. All I can say is my lived experience has been when I did the traditional way of skipping breakfast and eating my first meal, like 11 or 12, I didn't really have success with it. But when I shifted it, kind of turned it on its head and I started eating high protein in the morning. ⁓
exercising less intensely, which seems so counterintuitive. That's when I saw success.
Speaker 1 (38:52)
Yes. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'm so glad that you spoke to that because I think there, it isn't the, is it glitter? Isn't it good? I think it is. What is how you are structuring it with your own system? Because I like, you have also found I don't do great when I am fasting in the morning as I'm, they also work out the morning and then I my kids to school and then I'm starving by the time I've been so intermittent fasting that way didn't work for me, but
If I eat early, cause I get up early, then I have energy to work out. Then I'm also like, I'm super hungry in the evening. I'm not looking and scavenging for late night snacks because, and making sense now I'm fueling my body. so not necessarily intentionally fasting, but I'm not craving anything. So I can eat and then be done. then that.
Speaker 2 (39:35)
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:51)
intermittent fasting space by the time I come around to practice. Right. And I love that reframe where it's again, tuning in the data and choice.
Speaker 2 (40:02)
Exactly. That's yeah, 100%. So again, you look hard enough anywhere online, you're going to find what you want to find. Right. And when I was scrolling and spending all those years kind of like fighting with my body internally and I'm scrolling and I was like, maybe I'll try this. Maybe I'll try that. And I just was all over the place. And then I found something that worked for me and I had great success with. And I understand the science behind it. But that being said.
can't, like we said before, you can't be perfect 100 % of the time, right? So it's living in the moment. It's enjoying those times. You know, I wake up every morning and, you know, I, you know, I reflect, I do my gratitude. I thank God for having another day on this planet. And then I, I kind of just take a minute and I think what would feel good for me today for like movement and exercise. And it looks different every day.
And I'm not married to one program or one method of exercise because that was exhausting. I beat myself up constantly because I'm like, you really should get up and get to your class at Orange Theory, or you really should go get on the peloton that you pay so much money for or whatever. And it just turned into this like shame. That's like I'm not doing what I said I was going to do. But when I flipped it and I kind of tuned into what felt good, it just changed everything for me.
Speaker 1 (41:25)
That's incredible. And my 20 year old self needed to hear that as she did the like guilt and shame because you didn't get up and do the workout and you can't, you know, you're out there doing it when you're sick because you can't miss it. And now being, I love the tune in because as we tune in and be able to be like, okay, so what does my body feel like to do today? What movement would feel good and giving that permission? Cause I sometimes still need to hear that.
permission of, well, today is a day that I feel like really gentle movement. And so even though I plan to go for, you know, the long run, today's the day I'm not going to do that. Today's a lot more gentle. And I, I needed to hear that permission and I'm sure there's people out there that's like, ⁓ we need that reminder that following that system, doing anything, it's really important as I've done research and you were sharing.
how we need to shift how we're working out right now, because it's not the hard core push, push, push that is actually helping us see the health benefits that we want. Right. needs to be softer way. Because I was doing the cortisol spike because I was stressing out my body by, you know, doing my CrossFit and really, and there's nothing wrong with that. But as I tuned into my system in midlife versus in my twenties, it needed a different way to exercise.
Speaker 2 (42:35)
Right.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's that's that that's a huge, ⁓ realization in itself, right, that you don't have to really beat yourself up, nor should you, because the fact is, is that your body's already out of whack with all this hormonal stuff. And you're just throwing more gasoline on the fire when you're doing all this intense exercise and your body is just trying to figure out what's going on. You know, so I think that ⁓
There's so many things that kind of come together with like giving yourself permission and not shaming yourself. I made it. I made a real not too long ago on Instagram and I said, stop shooting all over yourself, right? Because we're all like, and you said it earlier, I should do this. I should do that. I should do this. And it's exhausting. It's exhausting. So it's like, stop. Just do what feels good. Do what feels good. Do what you have the capacity for, you know, 10 minutes of, ⁓
you know, lifting weights or walking around the block or whatever the case may be is better than not doing it, right? ⁓
Speaker 1 (43:59)
And that's such a huge thing. Giving yourself permission to start to move. I have, and I wish I could remember which, it was a podcast guest. So which guest had said it, but one of the beautiful humans on had said, if it's a should, it's a story. And I was like,
Speaker 2 (44:19)
That's so good.
Speaker 1 (44:20)
I know. So now I have to go back and like, who said that? But as you were shitting all over it, I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, if it's a should, it's a story. ⁓ and now I just have to, I will, it'll drive me crazy until I go back and do that so I can give due credit. ⁓ but I think that's so powerful. Yeah. Giving ourselves the permission, looking at the data that's working for ourselves, you know, letting go of the shame game.
Speaker 2 (44:46)
Right.
Speaker 1 (44:50)
really tune into what we need, not what social media needs and what they're telling us to do because you're right, we can find the stories that back up what we want. But that doesn't mean just because intermittent fasting is the thing to do for perimenopause, that that is going to work for us in the way that it's structured and set. And so those tweaks and that data is key.
Speaker 2 (45:16)
Yeah, and that's kind of how when I'm working with clients, that's kind of where we start. You know what? Let's what are you doing now? What feels good? What feels not good? Where do you feel aligned? And then like let's make that our starting point. I mean, I do really focus on high protein nutrition, so that's kind of a non negotiable, but then it's kind of like meeting them where they're at to a point and teaching them those things about like everything is data. Give yourself permission.
you know, what feels good in your body, because it doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing. just, there has to be some, has to fit in with what's going on in your life too, because otherwise you're not going to do it.
Speaker 1 (45:57)
percent. Yeah, it's so accurate. If it doesn't fit in the life, it's not going to be sustainable.
Speaker 2 (46:04)
gonna
get done. Yeah. And one more thing when you were talking about that podcast, I guess it said, if it's a should, then there's a story. And some of the things we're talking about, I think about the amazing woman, Brene Brown, always says, you know, what is the story you're telling yourself about this? Right? So it's all those things. And she's changed our world with her research around shame and around worth and all that stuff. And it's like,
gosh, so grateful for her so that she's really helped us, you know, and it kind of ties into what your podcast guest said. So.
Speaker 1 (46:38)
Absolutely. my gosh, Liz, this is such an incredible conversation.
Speaker 2 (46:43)
Yes, it's been amazing. ⁓
Speaker 1 (46:45)
are coming to a close are there any parting words that you would like to share with the listener?
Speaker 2 (46:51)
Yeah, I think, you know, we've centered a lot on midlife and how things change and how as women we're just going through changes pretty much all along the line. And I just kind of want to circle back to what you said about, you know, giving yourself grace and realizing that we're all just doing the best we can. Right. And I am so motivated to help other women to, to really
Put themselves first. And I know that looks different for everybody based on what your household looks like, what your job looks like. I'm not naive enough to think everybody can put themselves first. Cause I understand that it's not reality, but putting yourself first can be something very tiny. Right? So I just want to be here to tell someone, you know, put yourself first, choose something for yourself. And that's going to look different.
It's going to look different for Liz. It's going to look different for your neighbor, your best friend, your sister. But you know, choose something that feels good in in in put yourself first. And that's how I support the women that I coach so.
Speaker 1 (48:03)
incredible. wise words. this has been such a fabulous conversation and so much wealth in the words that you have shared. I am so confident that there are people out there that are resonating with what you have said. Can you share how people can continue the conversation with you?
Speaker 2 (48:06)
Thank you. Yes.
Yeah, absolutely. So on social media, ⁓ I am at gray, G-R-A-Y, period on purpose, which I told you the story behind that. That's on Instagram. And from there, can, you know, drop me a message. You can comment and I can reach out. I'm also on Facebook. And Facebook is Liz Pfeiffer Keller, which is
my full name, I'm sure you'll put that in the show notes. So you can reach out to me there. yeah, so those are the main ways to find me. And I'm happy to continue the conversation, talk to you, hop on a call with you to find out if working with me would be a good fit. If you reach out to me on socials, I will definitely get back to you on that stuff.
Speaker 1 (49:21)
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (49:22)
Yeah, thank you, Landi, for having me. It's been such a joy talking with you.
Landy Peek (49:27)
What an incredible conversation. Liz, thank you for meeting us in the middle with honesty, science, and so much grace. I want to thank you for listening. Carry these words into your week. Everything is data. Use it to choose, not to judge.
Consistency can be kind using small steady beats instead of all or nothing thinking. Your nervous system believes what you practice. Offer it those moments of safety. If this conversation really resonated, I would love if you would share it with another woman who carries these thoughts and beliefs alongside you.
I would also love if you would leave a review as your words will change other women's lives. I want to thank you so much for being here. You are smart and kind and generous and so fantastic. And you are changing the world by just being you, being in it. And I'm so grateful to have you in my life. I love you and I like you. And I wish you all the happiness that today can bring. We'll talk to you on the next episode.
Landy Peek (50:43)
Hey, before you go, just a little bit of legal. This podcast is designed for educational purposes only. It is not to replace
any expert advice from your doctors, therapists, coaches, or any other professional that you would work with. It's just a chat with a friend, me, where we get curious about ideas, thoughts, and things that are going on in our lives. And as we're talking about friends, if you know someone who would benefit from the conversation today, please share because I think the more that we open up these conversations, the more benefit we all get. So until next time, give yourself a big hug from me and stay curious.
Because that's the fun in this world.
