E132 - Eat Carbs & Relax! Ab Fat, Stress & More with Health & Perimenopause Coach Anna Araujo

00;00;02;29 - 00;00;13;23
Announcer
Podfix. This is Casey Kasem. You're listening to my favorite podcast, Mouse and Weens, on America's Top 40.

00;00;15;24 - 00;00;24;26
Song/Ad
Mouse and Weens and a Mouse and Weens and a Mouse and Weens and a Mouse and Weens and a Mouse and Weens and a Mouse and Weens and a Mouse and Weens.

00;00;26;29 - 00;00;41;05
Joelle
Well welcome everybody to Mouse and Weens. We're back! It is Joelle, the mom one - Mouse - down here in San Diego reporting from my bedroom. Summertime! And Weens?

00;00;41;08 - 00;00;55;11
Julianne
I'm Weens and I'm.... I'm on the road and I'm currently in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in in some... in my mom's downstairs room with some mukluks and things behind me. (Voice: in the snow.)

00;00;55;25 - 00;01;03;19
Joelle
I know. I love it! Now Weens, what inspired you to go? You're on the move because..?

00;01;04;02 - 00;01;07;12
Julianne
Because you had COVID and I had to stay out of your house for a few days.

00;01;07;24 - 00;01;18;10
Joelle
This is true. Oh, yes, this is true. I was I was convalescing in her back bedroom while she was up in L.A. doing your job. What's your latest job? You got to tell them.

00;01;18;11 - 00;01;30;19
Julianne
I'm working on The Barbie Movie. So that's coming out with hot Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie and Will Ferrell and yeah. Have you guys heard about it?

00;01;31;05 - 00;01;40;08
Joelle
You saw the pictures? I saw the pictures, but I haven't seen anything because you were doing all the pre production, right? So they didn't actually start shooting it.

00;01;40;23 - 00;02;03;25
Julianne
Yeah, they.. I was on the pre and second unit for stunts and yeah, they're starting to film, though. But it's directed by Greta Gerwig, who did Lady Bird. And it's got a very feminist perspective. And so it's not Barbie as we think about stereotypically. I think it's Barbie breaking out of that old role that we think of.

00;02;04;22 - 00;02;16;04
Joelle
Good. I can't wait yeah. That's good. That's good. I wish you'd gotten to meet Will Ferrell. I still think he would be a great husband for you, but that's for another topic. 

00;02;16;15 - 00;02;18;24
Julianne
I'm excited for our guest.

00;02;18;25 - 00;02;31;21
Joelle
I know, I know. So you heard a third voice. If you're watching YouTube, you can see her lovely face. Who do we have with us down here but Anna! Anna, introduce yourself because I always mess up your last name, too.

00;02;32;06 - 00;02;50;18
Anna
Yeah, my last name is Portuguese, but people here in San Diego say at our whole, like, Spanish. I'm okay with it. But it's Araujo (Ara-oo-show) Araujo or ar Rojo. It's fine. That's the American American translation. Oh, I love it.

00;02;50;29 - 00;03;04;20
Joelle
And I love this woman. I have always had my eyes on you to get on to our our podcast because you've just got a wealth of information. And I've always loved your spirit and your demeanor, and you're just.. You're a cool chick.

00;03;05;12 - 00;03;07;03
Joelle
Oh thanks Joelle, same.

00;03;07;03 - 00;03;23;03
Joelle
Same thing. Likewise. Yes. Yes. My very feminist Barbie "chick" usage. Did you like that? But tell our wonderful listeners who you are, how we met, and kind of, I don't know, your background.

00;03;24;00 - 00;03;51;06
Anna
Yes. So we met here in San Diego at the school that our kids went to right? The elementary school. And Joelle came in with the hands-on like hard work for the garden that we were just starting at. Yes. So it was great. I loved that time. You know, we were just so into it and our kids were there.

00;03;51;06 - 00;04;10;19
Anna
Everybody was so excited. Yeah. And at that time, I was kind of like, you know, not working so much. So I had the I guess, the privilege to spend some time with my kids and do some volunteer work. So that was awesome to meet you there. Yeah.

00;04;10;20 - 00;04;17;19
Joelle
And we had so much fun. That was seven years ago. Right? I think, you know, time flies.

00;04;17;23 - 00;04;22;21
Anna
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So our kids are over it, right? Charlotte is done with elementary?

00;04;22;29 - 00;04;23;09
Joelle
Yeah.

00;04;24;00 - 00;04;27;10
Anna
Yeah so is Emma. So no, no elementary school anymore.

00;04;27;11 - 00;04;31;26
Joelle
I know. It's weird, right? All these changes. So many changes.

00;04;31;29 - 00;04;59;29
Anna
Yeah. They're growing so now I have more time to dedicate to work. So at that time, I was just doing some part time job at the San Diego Community College District teaching nutrition, and then by, like, I don't know, 2016 I opened my practice, maybe 2017. And I was, you know, I've, I'm a nutritionist. My formal education is in nutrition.

00;04;59;29 - 00;05;31;22
Anna
I have a Bachelors of Science in Nutritional Sciences, and I have a master's degree in Human Nutrition and all from Michigan State University. Go Spartans! And then yeah. So I left after graduating, I was working in Brazil with Sports Nutrition. Right. So that was fun. I had like some Olympic athletes and beach volleyball players, very exciting. But then I got married.

00;05;32;06 - 00;05;35;04
Joelle
That's where you were born too? Right? That's the accent we're hearing?

00;05;35;04 - 00;05;46;11
Anna
Yeah. I'm from Brazil. Yeah, from the coast side. Very beautiful. And, and then I got married and came back to the U.S.. And that's when I met you, right?

00;05;46;16 - 00;06;07;08
Joelle
Yeah. Yeah. And she would run these little the clinics at the school garden teaching kids about how to eat healthfully. Yeah. Just so wonderful, because that was kind of the goal of our garden, really... was to teach kids how to eat where their food comes from. And so she had it dialed in, and she was great, but..

00;06;07;11 - 00;06;33;19
Anna
I loved to teach kids about nutrition and help them. And they were interested, right? So totally like, wow, this is awesome. The hands-on kind of thing, right? Where in the university - in the college - I was teaching for some people that were not really interested, but that was fun. It was a good experience. And then I opened my own practice and I'm pretty much seeing all kinds of people, right?

00;06;33;29 - 00;07;02;19
Anna
From like different health conditions to maybe just weight loss. But on the background, my, own.. I don't want to say struggle, but my own I guess challenges were happening with my health, my own health. And little did I know I was going through perimenopause at the time. So I started doing my own research, kind of like on the side, you know, it still involves health.

00;07;03;08 - 00;07;43;21
Anna
But since I was doing more nutrition work, which involved more like meal planning, maybe some exercise recommendations here in there, right? Lifestyle. But honestly, what I was going through had to do a lot with other another side of, I guess, quality of life, which was lack of sleep, stress, anxiety, all these mood swings, all these things that I was trying to manage with, you know, good nutrition, exercise and all that that I knew what to how to do it, right? But still struggling.

00;07;43;21 - 00;08;16;13
Anna
So I was doing my own research and finding out by myself because the doctor did not.. did not say that I was in perimenopause. I was like 42 at the time, maybe 43. And I'm like, Wow, this really is strange. And it sounds like it's something. I need to find out what it is. And sure enough, I kind of checked the list of symptoms and one that was really like.. struck me, right?

00;08;16;13 - 00;08;53;07
Anna
There's like, oh, irregular periods. I always was very regular; like 28 days, right on the dot. I'm like, Okay, this has to do with hormones, right? So yeah, so I even got a kind of like a specialty with IMS, which is the International Menopause Society from the United Kingdom. I think they're based in England. And I learned a bunch. And COVID hits and I'm like, you know, at home, kind of like we all have more time to be, I don't know, at least I did to ask these questions.

00;08;53;07 - 00;09;11;05
Anna
I'm like, you know, I like being a nutritionist, but I think it's time to move into more of a holistic health kind of thing, not just meal planning. And, you know, some people call it diets, which I don't call it diet, but it's for me, it's meal planning. Right?

00;09;11;15 - 00;09;18;26
Joelle
Right. So and you were actually you were helping your clients cook, too? Were you creating the meals? (yeah) Yeah. So you have all of...

00;09;19;15 - 00;09;53;19
Anna
Well yeah, it's it's still was very personalized because, you know, some people have like, you know, different schedules and need more of a flexible thing. So I would customize for different needs. But honestly, I still thought that that wasn't enough, especially if I was thinking about helping women going through perimenopause. I'm like, okay, I need to add a component that's really important and that's mental health and self-care, right?

00;09;54;03 - 00;10;51;15
Anna
I mean, you can call it self-care. Or mental health. Mental health can be more of a clinical term, but things like stress management, sleep hygiene, self-compassion and mindfulness, things like that, that, you know, I was not doing that as my, you know, protocol. My other clients but for women going through perimenopause, it's essential to have those. So yeah, I started kind of like developing a method that would kind of check all those items that I thought were important to, you know, to look at, to treat to, you know, all through natural, you know, lifestyle changes and maybe some supplementation, some, some, some of that, but mostly through good nutrition, you know, movement, which I call movement

00;10;51;15 - 00;10;59;19
Anna
Now, not only exercise, but movement and self-care. So kind of like the basis, you know, the foundation.

00;10;59;26 - 00;11;06;07
Joelle
Did you find that when you got into this right away, things were changing? Like your symptoms were going away or..?

00;11;07;06 - 00;11;38;12
Anna
I was managing them better because I guess I started to pay attention to more of my, you know, emotional health and what was going on. And not only listening to my body. I was always really good at that because I've been doing yoga for a long time. And so I listen to my body pretty well. But my emotional health was always kind of like put it aside in, you know? And I really-

00;11;38;19 - 00;11;52;16
Joelle
I relate to that. I've been needing to find my inner peace. Julianne has been poking me to try to learn how to meditate and take some time and go breathe. And I get so mad at her because I have too many things to do!

00;11;53;03 - 00;12;22;21
Anna
Yeah. That's the excuse, right? Time. (Yeah.) And and then we as women, we have a tendency to put ourselves aside, right? Everybody else gets priority like our kids. We do everything for them, our house, and family. And that's okay. I don't think that's there's anything wrong with that. It's just that we can't forget ourselves in the process. Mental health, right?

00;12;22;27 - 00;12;32;24
Joelle
Absolutely. Yeah. It's hard. So tell us too-- Weens? Did you want to interject anything here? Sorry. I'm just going to keep going with it.

00;12;33;12 - 00;12;37;13
Julianne
Go with what you have. I mean, I have a million questions, but I'll let you go first.

00;12;37;16 - 00;12;54;13
Joelle
Okay? Yeah. Tell us, too: so what... So when we're talking about perimenopause, you mentioned you were about 42 when this happened. Symptoms being sleep, weight, weight gain perhaps? Or just changing body..? Yeah. Because Oh yeah. I'm there girl!

00;12;54;29 - 00;13;20;08
Anna
Sure. Let me define some terms because there is a little confusion. Okay. I think sometimes people just say menopause for the whole thing and there's actually some different terms. So menopause is actually a, it's technically a point of time it's a specific point of time when we don't have our periods for 12 months. It's an anniversary.

00;13;20;22 - 00;13;22;08
Joelle
Oh, yeah. How sweet!

00;13;22;22 - 00;13;27;08
Anna
The anniversary of not having our periods so we can celebrate not having to deal with that.

00;13;27;08 - 00;13;27;28
Joelle
Oh my God. For real!

00;13;27;28 - 00;13;57;24
Anna
Awesome. Yeah. But so anyway, menopause, is that right? You're like officially like "I'm in menopause right now," then after that for the rest of your life you are post menopausal. So post menopause can be, you know, many years, right? It can take like a third of, of a woman's life, being in post menopause. Now perimenopause is the, the time around menopause.

00;13;58;04 - 00;14;26;02
Anna
Some people call it menopause transition and I like that term because it's it's really a transition. Right. And the difficult thing is that we each woman experiences it differently so there is no like "oh here is the list of things that you will feel, right, that you WILL experience." Some women don't have any symptoms; like zero. You know, that's the minority.

00;14;27;00 - 00;14;41;25
Anna
Most women will have some symptoms right. And they're like the most kind of like the common ones. Right. Are like hot flashes like me right now. You see there's a little bit of redness here.

00;14;41;25 - 00;14;43;18
Joelle
Looks like a beautiful blush!

00;14;44;26 - 00;14;54;00
Anna
It can be because I'm a little hot, but I had that and that was, you know, for me, it was more of the night sweats during the night time.

00;14;54;00 - 00;15;23;28
Anna
It's the same thing. Hot flashes, but night sweats, you know, when you're sleeping. And of course, that just disrupts your sleep. Right. And so but apart from that, some women, even without those night sweats, they experience problems sleeping just because of the hormonal changes, all these changes that happen. And in perimenopause, what happens is that our, you know, pretty much our ovaries are just shutting down.

00;15;23;28 - 00;15;55;16
Anna
All our reproductive years are over and our hormones are changing. Estrogen and progesterone. They're going to, you know, this time of change and they're decreasing. But in perimenopause, sometimes estrogen is high. Sometimes sometimes it's low. Oh, well, one day. Yeah, one day can be different than the next day. Right. And just totally unpredictable hormones are going crazy, like I said, for some women more than others.

00;15;55;16 - 00;16;18;26
Anna
So so this kind of like fluctuation of hormones, you know, that's the what makes it so challenging. And some people have the symptoms based on those fluctuations. Right. Like you said, weight gain. Some people start having weight gain, which has to do with aging as well because we start changing our body composition.

00;16;18;26 - 00;16;36;03
Joelle
Right but also explain that a little more to because I mean, I'm sure that's going to be why people are so interested in this. I used to be able to eat whatever I want. I could run a little bit and it would go right away. No big deal. And now not so much. So what is that? Why?

00;16;36;13 - 00;17;08;21
Anna
So, yeah, so it's a combination of those two things, aging and and the fluctuation of hormones. So with time right after let's talk about women here, right? 30 years of age, we start to lose muscle mass. So that's why it's so important, you know, to to do weight training if you never did that. Because, you know, most women who exercise, they like to do more like endurance, you know, walking or running or things like that.

00;17;09;11 - 00;17;42;25
Anna
We need to focus on developing muscles because we lose muscles. And after 40, you know, even more and doing perimenopause even more so that losing muscle means we don't need so much energy anymore. Right. Because our basal metabolic rate, the kind of like our metabolism is not burning as much without that much muscle. So so yeah, so that, you know, there's a little bit of that.

00;17;42;25 - 00;18;11;24
Anna
The metabolism changes. So even if you keep your same amount of calories per day, your need might be less. Right? And then you have some hormones that are you know, responsible for like metabolism and all that going fluctuating. So your body starts to I don't want to sound dramatic, but it's almost like it's under stress all the time, right?

00;18;11;24 - 00;18;40;12
Anna
So it's right when the body's under stress, it kind of kind of wants to conserve energy. So there's more more of a shift towards conservation of energy. So that's why we develop the belly fat. Sometimes it's mostly abdominal fat because that's traditionally in in body composition. That's our reserve of fat, right? So we are more prone to do that.

00;18;40;24 - 00;18;45;11
Anna
So that's what happens, you know, when people call menopause. I hate that term.

00;18;46;15 - 00;18;47;29
Joelle
Menopause, belly or whatever.

00;18;48;02 - 00;19;12;15
Anna
Menopause belly, menopot, you know. Yes, I get it. It does happen. But there is an explanation why. Right. When and I think when, you know, the 'why' when you know that you're not alone and you know that these things happen, it's not your fault. It's not like, oh, I, I let myself go or, you know, you you need to look at it.

00;19;12;15 - 00;19;39;10
Anna
It's like, okay, this is happening. Yes. It's you know, it might not be great, but it's it's something that will happen no matter what and just find other ways. It's an opportunity to maybe if you ate everything that you wanted, just go and check. Okay? Maybe I don't need that ice cream every night, right? Or take care of your nutrition.

00;19;39;18 - 00;19;44;00
Anna
Like I said, incorporate some weight training exercise, even if you hate it.

00;19;44;25 - 00;19;53;12
Joelle
Yeah. I was going to say, for those of us who don't have access to a gym or just really don't like going, what would you suggest for weights?

00;19;53;23 - 00;20;25;08
Anna
Yeah, so those are just excuses. Think about. So I think about when I tell people that hate exercising you know, in general, right? So you need to find a kind of like an ultimate life goal like, okay, I'm not, I hate exercise, but I know exercise is good for me and I want to live to be with my grandkids and be able to play with them, you know, and be healthy.

00;20;25;16 - 00;21;03;28
Anna
So you need to think about exercise as something that is important for your health, not so much weight until you feel, Oh, I love it now. Now I'm going to exercise. That's, you know, that's not reality for many people. So if you hate exercise, you just have to you of course, like there are strategies, right? If you if you like to we start with a movement that you enjoy some people like to do, I don't know, Zumba classes and you can do that to begin with and start developing the lifestyle and the habit of exercise.

00;21;03;28 - 00;21;25;05
Anna
And and then from there you can be more specific and start to incorporate weight training, for example. And if you're like you said, oh, I don't have a gym, you can do it at home. There are a lot of videos out there on YouTube. You don't even need a dumbbell. You just use your own body weight, right, to do.

00;21;25;25 - 00;21;31;25
Joelle
So. I was going to ask for Julianne too. She's been doing.. What is your workout, The Beast?

00;21;31;25 - 00;21;38;22
Julianne
Basement Beast. And it's with bands. And I found it was less stress on the knees and things that are starting to hurt more. So...

00;21;39;15 - 00;21;41;21
Anna
Yeah, I love the bands.

00;21;41;21 - 00;21;52;26
Julianne
And you know I wanted to ask, you know, if you're 70 years old and you say, oh my arms, they just look like those grandma arms. Is there hope for you to build muscle at any age?

00;21;53;03 - 00;22;34;09
Anna
It's harder, right? 60. It declines. There is a graph that shows the decline of muscle mass and it's like after to the age of 60 is like a really steep decline. And it's hard, but it's not impossible, right? And you have to think about it. It's not only muscles, it's joints and movement and functionality. We want to be able to pick up stuff from the floor if it falls without, you know, so it's, it's and, and the oh my gosh, the so many dozens of benefits from exercise and, you know, like bone health.

00;22;34;14 - 00;22;44;09
Anna
Right. Which is a big thing for women. You know, one in three women will develop osteoporosis here in the U.S..

00;22;44;09 - 00;22;46;08
Joelle
Wow. One in three.

00;22;46;10 - 00;22;47;11
Anna
One in three.

00;22;47;17 - 00;22;58;22
Joelle
And so that.. I heard too that like so impact exercise does help that. I'm sure having your vitamin D or calcium, all of that helps. Being in the sun a little bit and vitamin D, too.

00;22;58;29 - 00;23;06;17
Anna
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So exercise is and for mental health too right for us to sleep better.

00;23;06;22 - 00;23;07;08
Joelle
Mm.

00;23;07;11 - 00;23;39;03
Anna
So those.. So back to the the symptoms. You know, you have the vasomotor symptoms which is the hot flashes, right? You have weight gain then you have sleep problems because your progesterone helps us to induce sleep and we don't have that. So and then we have like memory fog, like memory changes like brain fog, mood swings. Then those are more of the, you know, kind of like mood and emotional health. Depression.

00;23;39;21 - 00;23;50;00
Joelle
You said the brain fog. I'm feeling so much better. I really start to think sometimes I have pre Alzheimer's. So knowing that it's perimenopause makes me feel happy. Yeah. Okay, good.

00;23;50;01 - 00;23;59;20
Anna
Yeah people will do... Yeah. Some women are like, it's so bad that they think it's oh my God, it's Alzheimer's or something. But it's, it's it's, it's the hormones, you know?

00;23;59;20 - 00;24;00;10
Joelle
Okay.

00;24;00;18 - 00;24;31;16
Anna
Yeah, there's so many. There are, actually. So, yeah, I have a workbook. I'm going to tell at the end of our talk on my website. It's a 20 page workbook that goes through all of that. Like there is even like a scale with symptoms like 21 symptoms that are clinically already determined to be associated with perimenopause, but actually there are up to 34 symptoms, but these 21 are the most common ones.

00;24;32;01 - 00;24;53;22
Anna
So you can check and see what your score is. Right. But I mean, if you have more than three of those, it's probably perimenopause and if you're around that age. So perimenopause is different ages but the average 45 years of age so but it can start early and there you go. Yeah, that's.

00;24;53;24 - 00;24;57;15
Joelle
Yeah, you and I are both 50 right? Yes. Yeah, yeah.

00;24;58;02 - 00;25;03;27
Anna
Yeah, yeah. So but I started like I was 42 okay when it started. Yeah.

00;25;03;29 - 00;25;08;05
Joelle
I wonder if I could even track it. I don't, I don't even know. And it may have started.

00;25;08;05 - 00;25;38;02
Anna
So track your periods. Yeah. That's the first thing. Track your periods and see, I mean, and then the symptoms, you can also start like a little journal. And if you go through these, these symptoms that it's, you know, in my workbook you see them and then you start checking them like, oh yeah, I have know difficulty sleeping. I have, I'm feeling anxious more than the normal, you know, and kind of like that self-awareness is key.

00;25;38;02 - 00;26;03;08
Anna
I say like it's a great time for women. It's people, you know, sometimes associate menopause, perimenopause with this negative experience. But I say it's a great opportunity for you to become self-aware of your body, of your health right. And yeah, and like start if you haven't before, start taking care of yourself.

00;26;05;12 - 00;26;29;00
Song/Ad
We are sponsored by Dream Dinners. Go to DreamDinners.com or MouseAndWeens.com. Click the link and do enter MOUSEANDWEENS99 at checkout if you're in the local area of Poway or San Marcos down here in San Diego and you will get $99 off your first full order and free delivery if you choose it. You guys, Dream Dinners is a meal preparation service that makes dinnertime so easy.

00;26;29;07 - 00;26;52;22
Song/Ad
I love doing them with my family. My husband can cook them up really quick. It's just a wonderful thing with good, healthy food that recreates mealtime for us. It's given us lots of family time back. Dream Dinners uses high quality foods. They cut, they prep, they bag it up for you. All you have to do is thaw out your meal, look at the recipe card, and pop it in the oven or stove top and it's ready usually in 20, 30 minutes.

00;26;52;29 - 00;27;02;07
Song/Ad
So do go to DreamDinners.com, look for your location, enter MOUSEANDWEENS99 and let them know we sent you. enjoy this wonderful life hack! Dream Dinners!

00;27;05;27 - 00;27;08;02
Anna
Taking care of yourself. Right.

00;27;08;13 - 00;27;30;05
Julianne
But what are some ways to combat? So if the... So things I heard you mention, you know, exercise to combat maybe the depression part of it or.. And then what would you do to combat some of.. What are like the top five things? Or is that oversimplifying? There could be many many things and how do you combat?

00;27;30;26 - 00;28;01;26
Anna
You can simplify it, which it's more like a general recommendation. Right? Because of course, like I said, each woman is different. So but honestly, if nutrition if you if you put it like if you start first, I always start with questions like like I was saying, just write down the symptoms. Write it. Start with the analysis first. Right.

00;28;01;28 - 00;28;29;28
Anna
Kind of like get a sense of what's happening, right? And then you can start making maybe your nutrition better. And then if you don't move enough, start prioritizing exercise, you know, spending. Okay, I'm super busy. Well, you have to go to your calendar, start like maybe I have, you know, a little time in the morning to do 20 minutes of walking.

00;28;30;16 - 00;28;45;23
Anna
So, so exercise, nutrition and then those three things, right? And then the self-care and then the self-care is kind of like this big term that for people can mean, oh, I'm going to get a pedicure that's self-care. Yeah.

00;28;46;13 - 00;29;23;15
Anna
That could be self-care, but also like stress management self-care, right? Maybe mindfulness. And people are a little intimidated by meditation here in the West because, you know, some people associate it with a religious practice or, you know, yoga people that do meditation and really meditation. If you, if your research even, you know, go on Google, there is.. Harvard is using you know, University of Colorado has a big research center for meditation, and it's nothing but a technique.

00;29;23;15 - 00;30;02;29
Anna
It's just a way to train your mind not to get caught on thoughts, you know, to decrease anxiety, to be more present, to breathe, to, you know, calm yourself down. So that's science. It's not.. There's nothing mystical about it. So we need to bring out mindfulness and meditation as kind of like a strategy, you know, so that if you cannot afford to get a therapist, you can still try to, you know, try to manage on your own. There are ways.

00;30;03;13 - 00;30;06;16
Julianne
And how do you define mindfulness? What does that mean?

00;30;07;13 - 00;30;58;28
Anna
So I think, well, mindfulness meditation, I guess there are different definitions, right? But mindfulness for me at least, is just the.. Kind of like you can use mindfulness to eat, right? Being mindful is just being present. That's for me, that's what it means. So mindfulness, I like to say, to use the term mindfulness meditation, instead of just mindfulness. Because mindfulness could be just being present overall, which is actually great if you can be more mindful throughout your whole day, mindful of how you talk to people, how you talk to your kids, how you interact. But also mindful about like how you eat, you know, mindful about your posture, mindful if you're stressed out.

00;30;58;28 - 00;31;31;17
Anna
And and then mindfulness meditation is the actual practice like the, the meditation practice, which uses some, you know, usually some sort of kind of like something for you to grab on, like the breathing. So you focus your attention on the breathing. So that makes it easier for you to you know, be more like focused because it's, you know, what people say about meditation is that, oh, I can't do it because my mind is this crazy.

00;31;31;17 - 00;31;36;25
Anna
I'm thinking of these things. Yes. It's not the purpose is not to stop thinking, you know.

00;31;37;10 - 00;31;50;12
Joelle
Yes, this is me. You just did an imitation of me. But I did learn one little technique that I'm trying, I'm starting and tell me if this resonates, but I breathe in a square. Have you heard of the square breathing?

00;31;50;12 - 00;31;52;01
Anna
Oh yeah. Oh, that's great.

00;31;52;10 - 00;31;58;00
Joelle
Okay, so that to me makes sense. What is it, like two breaths in. Hold it. Two breaths out. Hold it.

00;31;58;10 - 00;31;59;02
Anna
Exactly. It's just...

00;31;59;02 - 00;32;02;24
Joelle
It occupies my mind a little better than all the other worries.

00;32;03;00 - 00;32;42;05
Anna
Exactly. And I also tell people they're very intimidated by it to start with something like that. Like tangible, right? Or yoga. Yoga is great because then you're like stretching. But I'm I have to say here, because I was I practiced a type of yoga that was really kind of like intense. And it was great, but I wouldn't even recommend that, you know, I would recommend more of a yoga that is gentle yoga, restorative yoga, Hatha yoga, the ones that are, you know, are not more focused on power or intensity.

00;32;42;05 - 00;33;35;15
Anna
It's more of a.. that you get your breathing. So you get that awareness of your body going through those postures and you start breathing. So that's that can be considered, in my view, as a type of meditation because you are present right you are breathing. But it's also for those people who can't sit down and just, you know, close their eyes for 10 minutes. They can start with that physical part that is yoga or do something like you said, Joelle, you know, the the square breathing or even like deep breaths, right, for counting to four and then deep inside inhale and exhale a little more, maybe six counting the breathing rate and all all of those those

00;33;35;15 - 00;34;08;11
Anna
things. What they do, you know, back into kind of like the symptom and stress. For example, when when we are in perimenopause, we also have the tendency to increase our cortisol levels and that's I forgot to say about the weight gain that's a big one that some women, especially if you're very stressed and there's a lot of anxiety, some of that abdominal fat can be a result of cortisol.

00;34;09;11 - 00;34;42;22
Anna
And cortisol is a hormone is a stress hormone. Right. It's a stress response. So whenever we are stressed or we could be, you know, some bad news or some stressful situation at work or with family, we release cortisol and cortisol, you know, like that. When I said in the beginning, our bodies, you know, are under stress, it will try to hold on to body fat and and all that. So so that's the connection there.

00;34;42;29 - 00;35;01;01
Joelle
So stress too. And I... I've read this a long time ago and you kind of forget these things. But so we're trained in our youth and twenties, even into the thirties. If you want to burn fat, you do aerobics, right? You're running you go on all the machines and you're going for it, going for it, and that's how you burn your calories.

00;35;01;21 - 00;35;22;23
Joelle
Well, is it true then that if you're running, you're always in that fight or flight response? So your body is kind of hanging onto that fat a little harder? So to do things like yoga. And I even read somewhere that people who do tai chi lose fat quicker than those who are running and things like that, I don't know. Is there truth to that?

00;35;22;27 - 00;35;53;17
Anna
Well, it's like that you cannot ever claim that's like something will make you lose that because there's so much more than that right? And the physiological level. But I... I totally agree with you bringing that because I actually was.. I had this course that I was into. It was menopause athletes. So it was about nutrition and exercise for, you know, perimenopausal and menopausal women.

00;35;54;14 - 00;36;31;11
Anna
Um, so this she, she's a professor in Stanford, and she was saying that it's first... Again, back to the topic weight training, right? That we need to make up for the muscle loss. And second, rest. So what you're saying what you mentioned about the aerobic activity being actually it increases cortisol. So endurance exercises, which is crazy because you think about it, you know, if you're on a Peloton for one hour, you spend like 700 calories.

00;36;31;28 - 00;37;01;00
Anna
Yeah. So that's, you know, that's intense and you're like, okay, that's great. I'm going to lose weight. But if you do that every day, you are all like you're super stressed in your like physiological right. Even though and exercise is a great stress relief for me. It's a stress relief, right? So I, I, I do it mostly because of that, but if you do it too much, it's, it creates stress.

00;37;01;11 - 00;37;14;17
Anna
So yes, it can be not that you, you might not gain weight, but you might not lose that, you know, kind of bothersome little layer of subcutaneous belly fat.

00;37;14;17 - 00;37;39;27
Joelle
Interesting okay. That's my problem right there. I have to stop all this running. Just kidding. I'm not doing anything right now. I have to get back into it. Okay, so you. So we have weight training. We have the healthy rest and exercise. Now eating. What are some things..? When we, when we go online ah, we see our target ads and you know the pill that'll make you lose fat.

00;37;39;27 - 00;37;46;18
Joelle
The pill that'll make you feel better. Eat this, eat that. What do we do as far as nutrition and diet?

00;37;47;26 - 00;37;49;16
Anna
Yeah, if it sounds too good to be...

00;37;49;16 - 00;37;50;06
Joelle
In like 5 minutes!

00;37;50;06 - 00;38;15;12
Anna
Yeah, yeah, I know my m.. Kind of like what I say, you know, if it sounds too good to be true, probably it's it is. It's not, you know, not true. So yeah. And that's the the thing about social media and all these, you know, fast, you know, shortcuts to losing weight to feeling better too.

00;38;15;29 - 00;38;50;18
Anna
And what I worry most actually because, uh, it's, it's, it's more like people that offer kind of like hormones, you know, like bioidentical hormones. And then you're going to feel great, you know, anti-aging because these are doctors and, you know, we should trust doctors. So and the worst thing - I was talking to my husband yesterday - is that sometimes these people have.. They start to improve their health because they're starting to pay attention to things.

00;38;50;29 - 00;39;16;19
Anna
And it's not really the expensive saliva test that cost $500 that they're doing with this doctor. It's because they're starting to eat better. They're starting to take care of their health and then they're like, oh, this is working, right? And they're taking all these hormones or whatever. So, yeah. So back to your kind of like, yeah, there's all these flashy you know, diets and, you know, unfortunately.

00;39;16;19 - 00;39;34;25
Joelle
Fat burning pills. I just bought a bottle at Costco thinking, well, what can it hurt? I'll just throw it in with my vitamins. And it was this concentrated like citric acid with turmeric Is that the one or cayenne pepper or something? Yeah. Where it's supposed to kick up your metabolism, but...

00;39;35;05 - 00;39;36;13
Anna
Just a waste of your money. Sorry!

00;39;37;08 - 00;39;41;12
Joelle
Yeah? Damn. Maybe they have fiber in them, too. They'll help with that.

00;39;43;00 - 00;39;51;25
Anna
Turmeric is not bad. I don't think it's bad. But, you know, I don't think you will benefit too much from. Yeah, you know. Right.

00;39;52;04 - 00;39;54;25
Joelle
Weans your your mouth is moving over there, so.

00;39;55;16 - 00;40;24;01
Julianne
I might have weird internet here. I was just on a hike with two girlfriends. One is 51 is older than that too. But the talk was I think we're going through perimenopause. The period has gone from seven days to two days. It's probably happening. And it was about doing top coat progesterone, like, you know, where you rub it in and her sister's doing that and it's apparently working amazing.

00;40;24;01 - 00;40;32;13
Julianne
But is that really something? And then she said also birth control. That's a great way to level out your hormones. And what do you say to that?

00;40;33;12 - 00;41;16;28
Anna
So yeah, the hormones, right. So the thing is that okay, unfortunately the number one complaint is that women feel either dismissed, either health care providers, right. Or they feel kind of lost. So I actually recommend to my clients to go to a website. It's the national the North American Menopause Society, NAMS. And you can put your your zip code and you find a provider who is certified by them and at least they have a menopause specialty.

00;41;17;16 - 00;41;50;07
Anna
Right? Because I saw the other day this survey, it was I don't remember the university that these students, they they were in their residency. So they they are these are future doctors, right? These medical students who were already on their residency for both primary what do you call clinical health like. Mm. And a family right. Family health like and also ob gyn.

00;41;50;26 - 00;42;09;04
Anna
And on the survey they have 7% of them felt that they were confident that they could manage or treat a woman with menopause. So so even in medical school there is disregard. Only 7%. Yeah.

00;42;09;13 - 00;42;11;15
Joelle
Yeah. They're not getting the training.

00;42;12;04 - 00;42;33;29
Anna
Yeah. Family medicine. That's the doctors that we go to for our annual checkups. Right. So so like, you know, Julianne was saying what, you know, women are. Oh, let me try this cream. Oh, let me do this. Oh, it's it comes from from yams. So it's natural. I can, you know, just rub on my skin. And I wouldn't recommend any of that.

00;42;33;29 - 00;43;00;20
Anna
I would recommend seeing your doctor, you know, and, and not that that will be kind of like set in stone, but at least you can be you know, listen to what they have to say. And if you're symptoms, especially like hot flashes, symptoms that actually can have an impact on your quality of life, sometimes a hormone therapy can be a treatment.

00;43;00;20 - 00;43;22;24
Anna
It can be very useful, but sometimes it's not. So it's there is no.. There is nothing that we can say, oh, yeah, that will be the solution to your problems. That will treat your your perimenopausal symptoms because, you know.. And those doctors, they need to see you at least every three months to see, okay, is it working right.

00;43;23;08 - 00;43;58;17
Anna
So so for me, I remember taking, you know, uh, the pill for my night sweats and it did help. And then they, they start to subside by themselves into the night sweats, so I don't even take that anymore. But I was, you know, I had a doctor with me because there's also the some doctors out there that use bioidentical hormones, which are not FDA approved, but they use that as a treatment.

00;43;58;17 - 00;44;00;26
Anna
So you have to be careful, you know.

00;44;01;29 - 00;44;09;04
Joelle
So go to your website and perhaps they'd send you to an endocrinologist too? Someone who specializes in hormones?

00;44;10;01 - 00;44;11;08
Anna
Usually,

00;44;11;08 - 00;44;13;17
Julianne
No!

00;44;13;17 - 00;44;13;19
Joelle
Yes?

00;44;13;19 - 00;44;16;26
Julianne
I shouldn't answer that, but I was going to say what my experience was when you're done.

00;44;17;13 - 00;44;46;07
Anna
Yeah, I think I mean, my opinion, I would see an OB-GYN right. But they can be they actually can be like family doctors that have that. What I'm talking about is the specialty from the NAMS. From the North American Menopause Society. So they have like a menopause specialization, I guess. (Yeah, I like that.) But it could be that could be an endocrinologist as well. But.

00;44;46;27 - 00;44;49;14
Joelle
Okay. Yeah. Yes Weens? Yeah, let's hear it.

00;44;49;27 - 00;45;13;18
Julianne
Well, I was just going to say it reminded me of my experience, which was I started to feel like my hormones were out of control. And I was, you know, this happened probably three years ago. So it was probably at the start, I'm guessing, of perimenopause. And it was mostly really really sad mood swings. Right before my period, it would be like it was turning into seven days of really low depression feeling.

00;45;14;04 - 00;45;30;04
Julianne
And then I finally you know, I was talking to my therapist and then I finally went to my doctor. My doctor said, go to the ob gyn. I went there. They sent me somewhere like Questlab to draw blood. And they found that nothing was wrong. So I said, okay, well, it must be me. I need to change something else.

00;45;30;21 - 00;45;36;03
Julianne
And then I heard from someone else that you might have just happened to draw blood at a time when your hormones were different. What do you think?

00;45;36;14 - 00;46;22;18
Anna
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Hormones. So you see, that was a misstep right there. Your doctor did something that was really if he knew anything about menopause, he would know that perimenopause there is no hormone test to determine if you're perimenopausal. Because, like I said, one day you can have normal levels of estrogen and progesterone. And the other day you might have different so and even like FSH and, you know, LH, all these other hormones, it's more towards menopause that, oh, yeah, you can have a test once you have your, you know, you haven't had your period for months, then they can.

00;46;22;26 - 00;46;50;24
Anna
Okay, let's see so they test for FSH. Usually they're high and then they're like, oh, this is higher than what it should be. So probably you're getting very close to menopause that's the only time. And if you see like these, you follow these doctors, they are real, you know, real doctors usually from the NAMS, they will tell you the same thing I'm saying, you know that there is no bloodwork that will tell you you are perimenopausal.

00;46;51;05 - 00;47;06;26
Anna
Well, so that's what happened to you. So they're like, oh, no, it's it's fine. But you are it's a clinical what you determine if you're in perimenopause clinically through your symptoms, not through blood work. So those symptoms.

00;47;06;26 - 00;47;08;01
Joelle
Good to know.

00;47;08;16 - 00;47;29;27
Julianne
And you know what? They ended up telling me I should go on antidepressants, which I did and I still am a little bit on them for a year all because it was so unbearable for those really those big dips. And I, I was exercising I was eating well. I didn't know how to bring my stuff up. So I don't know what do you do in that situation.

00;47;30;10 - 00;48;05;16
Anna
Yeah, so what I've heard from doctors is that sometimes hormone therapy could manage those symptoms. Sometimes they actually recommend antidepressants. Right. So it's again, you would have to be seen by a doctor who knows like, okay, let's maybe we we should try hormone therapy. First, and then if it doesn't work, we can try antidepressants, you know, because for both of these treatments, you know, prescription medications, there's side effects for them.

00;48;05;16 - 00;48;30;03
Anna
Right? So it so that's important too, right? So if you if you have you know, side effects when what you you're taking, you know, is there another alternative for this? And like you say, you know, like sometimes we just go with it because that's what the doctor is telling us. And and that's why knowledge is so important. Right?

00;48;30;03 - 00;49;09;14
Anna
Knowledge we it's empowering because if you knew that maybe at that time you would think like, okay, let let me ask you, what about hormone therapy? Because I heard even though you saying that it's not perimenopause, I'm I'm in the age around that could be and I read somewhere that you know I could have all these symptoms. Can we try that instead first or you know, so they're the thing is that they're the thing the message that I would like to give is that are alternatives and that there are different options for women.

00;49;09;22 - 00;49;40;00
Anna
And we need to become more, um, I don't know, more kind of like, you know, put our feet down and kind of demand for our right to have the right treatment right for us, not be just taking whatever we get. Okay. Right. And then right. And you're still dealing with other symptoms, right? Because antidepressants might, might not work for other things that you can be experiencing.

00;49;40;00 - 00;50;00;25
Joelle
So yeah, it's, it's tricky. I even have that where I went in for sleep problems and they wanted to quickly prescribe me antidepressants and I'm going, they didn't even ask about menopause, you know, so to not get that medical gaslighting kind of treatment and really advocate for yourself, I like that yeah.

00;50;01;06 - 00;50;11;27
Julianne
So if so, in lieu of taking all of that, if we were to say, I want to come to you, I want to do it more natural what kind of plan would we set up?

00;50;12;27 - 00;50;45;23
Anna
Yeah, so I, I coach, right? So I have like a coaching kind of and that's funny because I'm, I kind of changed my title. I, I've always been a nutritionist, but for me, nutrition is just part of it. And I was pretty judgmental with anything else, like health coach or life coach, all these terms that I have, for me, it's like, okay, this person got their certification online but honestly, what I like now I'm okay with it is saying that I'm a health coach, right?

00;50;46;02 - 00;51;15;11
Anna
And my background is in nutrition, but so like when I see women one on one coaching, then we go through all of, you know, all of those things and so I have a little method that I call FEMME, you know, in French. So the F stands for face your challenges. So that's kind of like going through your symptoms and your challenges and, you know, getting that assessment.

00;51;15;14 - 00;51;30;16
Anna
And then the other components are just pretty much lifestyle. So E is eat enough, you know. Eat enough nourishing foods. So instead of taking out any foods and you know, diet, diet is the.

00;51;31;07 - 00;51;34;25
Joelle
Yeah. No more cabbage soup? No more cabbage soup diets?

00;51;35;16 - 00;51;56;02
Anna
No, no. That is still the you know, like in fasting, intermittent fasting and all that stuff. Not good for us. So any diet, any restriction, it's actually super detrimental for, you know, for our health, not only physical but mental because you know, who wants to be dieting, right?

00;51;56;23 - 00;52;02;23
Joelle
I get so mad any time I've ever cut anything out of my diet, it just makes me angry. That's not good.

00;52;03;04 - 00;52;57;18
Anna
No, it's not good. So the E - the nutrition part - is pretty much like learning nutrition and learning what, you know, what you should start to have on your eating habits. And maybe exclude a few things, but not exclude completely. Just, you know, just don't have them every day. If you, you know... So nutrition. And then you have movement, which is, you know, I do some recommendations and exercise which includes also rest, you know, depending on the person can be someone that's really active so they actually need more rest and some that are sedentary that need at least like the basic movements first, right? So we we start where the person is

00;52;58;14 - 00;53;27;16
Anna
then manage your symptoms. That's where you know if you have problems sleeping so we will focus on that. If you have more like, you know, stress and usually they're all tied in, right? If you have.. If you start incorporating a healthy lifestyle, one thing will lead to another and you start sleeping better. Maybe your stress will be reduced and you feel better, you're less fatigued, which is another symptoms of menopause, perimenopause.

00;53;29;01 - 00;54;10;01
Anna
And then at the end, empower your mind, right? The E at the end of FEMME is to bring that self-care, you know, to start a meditation practice. And I even have like, you know, I guide people to start like I said, start slowly and or start with an app that you can do for 5 minutes, you know. And so it's kind of like it builds on itself and and the person will have to first prioritize their health and give some time because it's not... It's easier said than done because you have to actually, you know, get your schedule.

00;54;10;01 - 00;54;35;25
Joelle
Oh, I'm super busy. I have kids, you know, teenagers. I have parents that are starting to get old. We are the sandwich generation, right? We call it. Yeah it's called Sandwich and I think it's a great term because we are kind of like in the middle of this, you know, our kids either leaving our houses or growing older and then our parents getting older.

00;54;35;25 - 00;55;12;24
Anna
And we are there, right. Kind of trying to manage everyone and everything. So very stressful times, right? And then I also started a group. So I have lessons that I created and women can, you know, it's self-paced, so they can go through the lessons and then meet with me. So it's kind of nice because then, you know, I have, you know, I can see people if they need more of a coaching, you know, one on one or just a group.

00;55;13;18 - 00;55;42;14
Anna
So yeah, so that's basically it. But like you said, it's more a natural approach. Like I don't, you know, if I recommend some supplements, that's about it. But of course, it's beyond my scope of practice to recommend any prescription or medication. But sometimes I do recommend someone to see a doctor, right, to follow up if the symptoms are very kind of like debilitating, you you need to see a doctor.

00;55;43;03 - 00;56;06;11
Joelle
That's smart. Yeah. We should've opened the show with a "These are not medical... Go see your doctor if you really have some some problems here. This is lifestyle, nutrition, diet, exercise advice, not medical." But I love that. And I love that you do the classes in groups. For those of us who this sounds kind of overwhelming, like where do I start?

00;56;06;11 - 00;56;14;03
Joelle
How do I start? What do I do? What is good nutrition? All of that. So I like I like that you have it packaged up. That's great.

00;56;14;17 - 00;56;14;29
Anna
Yes.

00;56;16;27 - 00;56;18;16
Julianne
I know! So where can we find you?

00;56;19;04 - 00;56;31;18
Anna
So my website is Anna (A-N-N-A) Araujo (that's a hard one!) A-R-A-U-J-O dot com.

00;56;31;27 - 00;56;34;02
Joelle
Yep. And we'll link it in our show notes too.

00;56;34;16 - 00;56;47;03
Anna
And on Instagram, I'm pretty active on Instagram. Not Facebook so much, but more Instagram. And I'm perimenopause underscore coach on Instagram.

00;56;47;03 - 00;57;10;17
Joelle
And she's great on Instagram. I copied a bunch of of your things here just just good quotes and advice and cute videos that you speak right to me. I mean it's like kind of what I'm thinking about that day. It's like you can pick up on that. But here's one: "low carb diets may cause more harm than good for women over 40 especially active women."

00;57;10;28 - 00;57;11;24
Anna
Mm hmm. Yeah.

00;57;11;24 - 00;57;21;01
Joelle
So there you go. We all think we need to cut out carbs, but... And then we can take the conversation further, I'm sure, and find these nuggets online and reach out to you. I love that.

00;57;21;02 - 00;57;56;01
Anna
Yeah, definitely. That's one that one got me. I guess I got even. The one... You know when it's good, when somebody says something bad, when they criticize the post, and I'm like, "ooh, I hit the spot right there." Because the extremists, you know, it's always about extreme. Like, Oh, yeah, low carb take out the carbs. And carbohydrates are super, super important, especially if we exercise.

00;57;56;01 - 00;58;15;26
Joelle
That's the main source of energy. Yeah. Our body needs. And if you cut them, it's like, you know, now it's the villain is carbs. And I'm like, okay, I'm just waiting until this carbs is not going to be the villain and something else will be the villain, right? Like fat in the nineties right?

00;58;16;04 - 00;58;23;04
Joelle
Right. And then the keto diet and all of this, you go into ketosis and that doesn't sound right to me.

00;58;23;17 - 00;58;44;21
Anna
Exactly. Do you want your urine to be that acidic? That can't be healthy. I mean, even if you're, if you don't know physiology, that is not normal. It's a starvation mode. Do you want to be on starvation mode, stress your body to that point? And I don't think so.

00;58;44;28 - 00;58;48;12
Julianne
And all that happens is you gain it back as soon as you start eating normally again, right?

00;58;48;13 - 00;59;28;16
Anna
Yeah. And then you hear, Oh yeah, so many people have so much success, but usually if you look, they are people that are really fit, exercising men, usually males, not women. We need we need carbs. And carbs... another thing that carbs do... I have a whole like I think I have like a blog post on that. But you know, when if we cut carbs from our lives the first thing we will see is that we get really depressed because of serotonin. Carbs stimulate the production of serotonin and then we we don't have carbs literally we are depressed.

00;59;28;16 - 00;59;30;27
Joelle
Oh, Jules maybe this is it!

00;59;30;27 - 00;59;31;20
Julianne
Aha!

00;59;31;20 - 00;59;35;08
Joelle
She only eats the cheese off the top of the pizza. Eat the whole pizza!

00;59;35;08 - 01;00;12;08
Anna
No, don't worry about it. Now, you know, you don't.. you kind of don't want to overdo it either, right? But the carbs... Carbs are, you know, especially... Like, you know, fruits and grains, whole grains, bacteria in our gut love that. So we need to feed them well as well. If you don't have any good source of carbs to feed our good bacteria, it all it also, you know, there's a lot of research in the microbiome and in relationship to our brain health and mood and all that as well. Skin.

01;00;13;03 - 01;00;13;23
Joelle
There you go.

01;00;14;03 - 01;00;14;14
Anna
Yeah.

01;00;15;07 - 01;00;18;26
Joelle
I love it. The wealth of information. I have a million questions.

01;00;18;26 - 01;00;21;00
Anna
Oh my god, I could talk for hours.

01;00;21;00 - 01;00;33;02
Joelle
I know. Well, I love the debunking the myths, too, because you do. You get caught up in what the ads are telling you or what the diet is or what your friend is doing. And the shakes and the drinks and the this and the that.

01;00;33;02 - 01;00;38;22
Joelle
And yeah. Yeah. It's got to be a better balance and a little more natural. It just doesn't seem right. So...

01;00;39;04 - 01;01;06;08
Anna
Yeah. And you know, when you talk about oh, lifestyle. Yeah, yeah. But it's not sexy, right? It's not sexy. Eat, eat this, follow this protocol and follow this diet and you will lose 20 pounds in, you know, a month or you burn fat. That sounds so sexy. But when you talk about no, you actually have to do the work and you have to, you know, it takes time.

01;01;06;10 - 01;01;14;16
Anna
It's not going to be something quick. And it... People get, you know, people want fast solutions to things, right?

01;01;14;28 - 01;01;15;23
Joelle
Absolutely.

01;01;15;25 - 01;01;19;04
Anna
We want fast solutions. The human mind works like that. We want...

01;01;19;04 - 01;01;28;07
Joelle
Especially here! We want the immediate gratification! Ugh. (Oh yeah) Well, I really do like watching you online. You said you have a blog too.

01;01;28;24 - 01;01;29;26
Anna
Yeah. On my website.

01;01;29;26 - 01;01;38;25
Joelle
You'll do big blog posts, which are great. I've read a few of those. And yeah. And do you do this all over Zoom or is it local to San Diego?

01;01;39;08 - 01;02;05;15
Anna
So now that finally we're seeing people I'm actually opening the doors to in-person. I, you know, I never thought, to be honest with you before COVID, that I would go online seeing people online. But I had to change my whole approach. Right? I had to change my whole business to like online coaching, I guess. So I guess most people will still prefer to see me online.

01;02;05;15 - 01;02;11;23
Anna
But if if you're in San Diego, why not? Right. Right. You're not seeing person.

01;02;12;11 - 01;02;22;26
Joelle
Do you kind of do any other testing like body mass index? Like fat testing? Or exercising? Or any of that? Or is it more just the program?

01;02;22;26 - 01;02;32;14
Anna
Yeah. I do. I do. I there was a time I was kind of struggling with the, "Oh should I do body composition testing?" Because I've always done it with my athletes right? Because

01;02;32;14 - 01;02;34;08
Julianne
Is that called fat test? As Joelle...

01;02;34;19 - 01;02;35;00
Anna
Yeah

01;02;35;00 - 01;02;37;08
Joelle
Sorry. They do like calipers. They test your what...

01;02;37;09 - 01;02;38;12
Anna
Yeah I used to do that

01;02;38;13 - 01;02;39;13
Joelle
tricep and all that

01;02;39;29 - 01;03;09;22
Anna
Now I have like an ultrasound that does that. Okay. So it's it's pretty great. But I was struggling because I'm like, well, I don't want women to be focused only on that aspect, you know? And then we kind of like tie it, tie in with another problem with which is kind of like the emotional. And you know, the struggle of women and their self-esteem and, you know, kind of like that kind of diet culture and all that stuff.

01;03;10;12 - 01;03;38;29
Anna
So I was going through this process of like, should I do it or shouldn't I do it? Should I offer body composition testing or not? So what I'm thinking is that I actually have a couple of clients that I do test them, but they have to be at a certain kind of like mindset to be able to look at it and say, Okay, I do have some abdominal fat, but that's fine.

01;03;39;12 - 01;04;10;03
Anna
And not get that in their heads, that that's the only thing that matters. Right, right. So I do offer in some let's say I offer that, but I will be the judge of like who would take that as like information, which is great to know "Okay. I have some body fat and I know where it's distributed." And or, you know, like use that as information to maybe use that for a goal like a short term goal.

01;04;10;03 - 01;04;36;17
Anna
But again, you know, even if you want to lose weight weight loss as your goal, that should be a kind of like a one bonus that you will get because your health is more even more important than losing weight, right? Feeling great, feeling energetic, not feeling fatigued, sleeping better and all of those things. Right? Feeling more stronger. Feeling like you

01;04;37;04 - 01;04;54;16
Anna
can you know, squat better or whatever it is - your body, your mood. Those things, in my view, are much more important than what your body fat is. But if you lose some body found in the process, that's great, right? And usually that's the case.

01;04;55;03 - 01;05;15;07
Joelle
Yeah, but it's almost like fighting an uphill battle when we're getting older and our bodies are changing and we can only do so much without going insane. So I like that whole approach. That's great. Yeah. You know, Anna! Look at this smiling, radiant person. I can just feel your warm spirit through the computer!

01;05;15;07 - 01;05;16;09
Anna
And my red cheeks?

01;05;16;09 - 01;05;24;12
Joelle
Yeah, and your red cheeks. No you're beautiful. Thank you so much for being on with us. Anything else you wanted to tell people? Any summaries or...

01;05;25;08 - 01;05;34;16
Anna
No. (No?) I guess I'm glad that you're doing this. It's an outlet for women to hear

01;05;34;20 - 01;05;35;06
Joelle
Yes right. It's kind of

01;05;35;06 - 01;05;35;27
Anna
this information.

01;05;36;07 - 01;05;58;26
Joelle
Invisible, embarrassing thing nobody wants to talk about. You know, I have such thin hair. That's a thing. Of course, the wrinkles, all that good stuff. But we in America, especially Southern California, don't ever age, right? We can't show it on Instagram or anything. So it's so nice to see your post where you're being honest and open and you're kind of right there in the camera. Often it doesn't look like you're wearing a lot of makeup (nope)

01;05;58;26 - 01;06;04;24
Joelle
And it's so empowering just to see how natural and happy and vibrant you are. So..

01;06;05;04 - 01;06;07;23
Anna
Oh thank you Joelle. Thank you.

01;06;08;10 - 01;06;18;07
Joelle
Thank you! Well, we will be we'll be in touch. I'm sure one of us is going to sign up for your services soon. I'm I'm retired now. I have a lot more time to focus on me!

01;06;18;14 - 01;06;19;11
Anna
Oh, great! There you go!

01;06;21;20 - 01;06;46;00
Joelle
All right, so, everybody, please go to AnnaAraujo (Yeah, I like rolling that R. I don't know if it's even right) dot com. We'll post everything in our notes, our show notes, so be sure to follow her on Instagram perimenopause_coach and yeah, we love it. Hopefully you'll find some new clients and and keep this good thing rollin.

01;06;46;11 - 01;06;47;14
Anna
Thank you so much.

01;06;47;18 - 01;06;48;13
Joelle
Absolutely.

01;06;48;13 - 01;06;49;08
Anna
Joelle and Weens.

01;06;50;01 - 01;06;52;22
Julianne
Thank you so much!

01;06;53;07 - 01;06;53;19
Joelle
Thank you. Bye bye.

01;06;54;17 - 01;07;15;18
Joelle
All right. So you can find everything at Mouse And Weens dot com. That's where we're going to post everything. And we just want to give a special thank you to our patrons. (Thank you.) Over on Patreon.com/mouseandweens (Mouse and Weens) We hope that you guys have liked the extra episode. You guys got a whole bonus episode. Nobody has heard it. Only you! (Bonus!)

01;07;16;02 - 01;07;27;26
Song/Ad
And we have posted little videos and outtakes and fun stuff like that. (Yahoo!) So if anyone else wants to join, that's where we are. (Else) Julianne! (what?) You have nothing to contribute here. (Well you just asked me to come in)

01;07;27;26 - 01;07;37;14
Song/Ad
You're just saying words (and I don't know what you're saying) What are you, a fluffy cheerleader? Just a poof here and there? (Yes. What do you want from me?) She did just (what's happening?) poof in the bed too! (Would you stop?!)

01;07;38;22 - 01;07;48;20
Song/Ad
All right. Anyway, we want to say thank you to Sara, to Joyce, to Carla, and to Jodie. Thank you so, so much. (Thanks, friends!) And we will see you next time. Bye! (You're mean)

01;07;48;28 - 01;08;39;23
Song/Ad
She was a beautiful girl with a beautiful smile. She had it all figured out for a little while. Then it all crashed down on her head. She didn't know who to call. Didn't have any friends. Except the hair salon. But nobody was in. She crashed right down. On her bed. (whistling)

01;08;42;11 - 01;09;01;13
Song/Ad
When we came back into Rome, I got a message from one of my sales girls here in the office. Saying, Or shall we need to talk to you? Yeah. At that point in time, I had no idea what was in store. Oh, shit. I think there's an issue the entire amount has been pulled out of our accounts. This is Fool Me Twice.

01;09;01;29 - 01;09;22;01
Song/Ad
This is a podcast about diamonds. My mum and I were approached by a woman in Hong Kong who owned a diamond business and had a pretty compelling story to tell. This podcast follows that story and attempts to unravel some of the shadier aspects of the diamond industry. As a whole. The feedback from him was that she is a very smart woman.

01;09;22;04 - 01;09;26;23
Song/Ad
She is conniving and very good at getting away with these sort of things.

01;09;27;07 - 01;09;30;09
Song/Ad
Diamonds are the ultimate status symbol.

01;09;30;20 - 01;09;40;28
Song/Ad
Trust is such a centerpiece of human society. You can find Fool Me Twice All About Diamonds on Auscast Network and all podcast platforms.

01;09;45;28 - 01;09;52;21
Announcer
This was a podcast of the PodFix Network. You can check out more shows like it at PodFix Network.com