Today, we're busting some myths about menopause. Penny, Sharon, and Stephanie share what they’re doing to make menopause the best years of their lives!

These women used the 60-Day Reset to empower themselves with better nutrition and gut health, and figured out how to eat strategically for their individual needs.   

All three ditched the diet culture, embraced an abundance mentality, leaned into the joy of cooking and eating, and used an arsenal of delicious recipes to make healthy living easy and fun.  

We discuss the importance of investing in yourself, balancing self-care and care for others, and finding a community of women who support and celebrate you.  

Grab a cup of tea, and join us for this informal conversation about thriving through menopause. You can stay healthy and vibrant as you age. Your best years are ahead of you!  

Tess’s Takeaways:  

• You can feel healthy and vibrant over 40. 
• You have the power to optimize your hormones.  
• Dieting is not the way to lose weight during menopause. 
• Better gut health is the key to managing menopause.  
• Meeting your protein needs is essential as you age.  
• Embrace your superpowers and celebrate what you bring to the table.  
• Maintain a balance between self-care and care for others.  
• Find a community of supportive women who celebrate you.  

Penny Hauck 

Penny Hauck is a strategic marketing professional, mom of 3, athlete, and practicing artist. She majored in art history and studio art with a concentration in museum education. Growing up as a bi-lingual student, Penny used art to express what she was experiencing in her life. In the late 90’s, she began running, and developed a passion for healthy living, great food, and nutrition. Penny loves cooking, spending time with her children, and feeding her family delicious meals. With her love of nature, Penny engages in a variety of endurance sports (swimming, biking and running), and enjoys competing in triathlons. Her interest in sports, art, movement, and food are aligned for the same reason—they force her to be present in each moment, attentive to the needs of her body, prioritize her wellbeing, and be conscious of her expression. Penny's goal is to be a positive influence in the world, and to share happiness and joy with those around her.  

Sharon Stewart 

Sharon has a keen interest in health and nutrition, and in 2008, after reading Kathy Freston’s Quantum Wellness, she became a vegan, and is now thriving with the better nutrition practices she learned through Skinny60®. With a passion for live music and events, Sharon graduated from UCLA with an undergraduate degree in music and a master’s degree in historical musicology, and has devoted her career to working with the most prominent performing arts organizations in Los Angeles. Although energized by “show time,” Sharon’s favorite part of the day is a morning coffee with the birds in her garden. She loves animals, gardens, rainy days, and living near the ocean with her rock guitarist hubby and their goofball dog, George Bailey. Sharon is a proud Auntie to a niece and seven nephews, and dreams of traveling to see the Northern Lights. 

Stephanie Millar 

Stephanie has pursued various vocations with passion, joy and boundless enthusiasm. She is an actor, TV presenter, voice over artist, has a home science diploma (majoring in food), and currently works as a primary school teacher. Obsessed with the task of improving the social, health and academic outcomes of young children, Stephanie applies her accumulated experience to teaching numeracy, literacy, and drama. She believes ‘food literacy’ in particular, is an essential component in the primary school learning and well-being ‘puzzle’. Stephanie lives in Melbourne with her partner of 28 years, their two grown up children, and beloved dog Tui. She attends yoga, and enjoys movies, theater, and concerts whenever she can. As Stephanie gets older, she aspires to find beauty and grace in all aspects of life—food, music, gardens, health, love, and in her connections with family and friends.  

Meet Tess Masters:  

Tess Masters is an actor, presenter, health coach, cook, and author of The Blender Girl, The Blender Girl Smoothies, and The Perfect Blend, published by Penguin Random House. She is also the creator of The Decadent Detox® and Skinny60® health programs.     

Health tips and recipes by Tess have been featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Prevention, Shape, Glamour, Real Simple, Yoga Journal, Yahoo Health, Hallmark Channel, The Today Show, and many others.   

Tess’s magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and down-to-earth approach have made her a go-to personality for people of all dietary stripes who share her conviction that healthy living can be easy and fun. Get delicious recipes at TheBlenderGirl.com.  

Connect With Tess: 

Website: https://tessmasters.com/  

Podcast Website: https://ithastobeme.com/   

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theblendergirl/  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblendergirl/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theblendergirl  

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/theblendergirl  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessmasters/  

Get Healthy With Tess 

Join the 60-Day Menopause Reset: http://skinny60.com/menopause-60-day-reset

Join the 14-Day Cleanse: https://www.thedecadentdetox.com/14-day-guided-cleanses/ 

The Blender Girl: https://www.theblendergirl.com/  

Thanks for listening!  

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Oh, Steph, Sharon, and Penny, thank you so much for joining me, I have to tell you a little secret. I couldn't sleep last night because I was so excited because we were just gonna all have lunch together and just have this juicy, beautiful conversation about empowering ourselves. Right? So listeners, these are three of my favorite women, as I said, and part of the skinny 60 community and really hanging shiny lanterns for all these other women in our community for how you can really feel really incredible over 40 So Steph, I want to start with you because you're it has to be me moment with your health came from somebody else's has to be me moment. Yeah,

it did. It was like it was terrible, with a very dear friend of mine got diagnosed with cancer. And it was shocking, we were all devastated by the diagnosis. And they went into their own, you know, space to deal with it. And then we saw them a little while later, and they just changed their entire food regime, and their diet was completely different. And they looked amazing. And he was really healthy for a period of time, it was quite amazing how powerful that that diet change was. And I just got me thinking, why do we wait for the diagnosis before we look at our food? Or, and start thinking about what are we putting in our bodies? And how does that contribute? Or is how is that affecting our health? How does that contribute? And I was a catalyst for making the decision to join skinny 60 and really evaluate my food habits and and see how well could I feel? At my age I was 54 would have been about 54 And I was an early menopause person I'd started menopause at 45 Yeah. And you know, started to just put on weight. Like all of a sudden the foods that I used to be able to eat I couldn't eat anymore.

Oh, we can all relate to that. Right? Yeah, so sad. It's like why

I'm doing what I've always done. And just gaining weight steadily and not being able to sleep and feeling bloated all the time and becoming a Yeah, guess machine all those terrible things that you think isn't going to happen to you. But um, and so I started like 45 Looking for oh, well how am I going to stop this from happening to me? And you know, I did the two and five diet for Yeah, a while and that's really easy, isn't it? I mean, you starve yourself for two days. Whatever your Yeah, you can get your head around it though really easily can't. It's like, that's so easy to do. But actually doing it is really hard. That feeling of actually being starving. It just, ya know, it gets really really difficult. That's the one

thing the four of us have in common. We all love to eat

that's the amazing thing you are allowed to and you're allowed to eat oils.

Oil Free. I mean, I can't I love oil.

Yeah, oil too.

I mean, sure. virgin olive oil. If I found out I was allergic to that oh game over I would be

so sad. So sad. Well then that was the neck so I did that for a period of time. And then I went and then stopped that I just couldn't stand the starving anymore and so slowly the weight came back on because my body had gone oh hey, you've been starving. And then I saw my sister and she'd lost a lot of weight and it was like oh, what are you doing? And she'd done Weight Watchers and so I thought okay, yeah, I can count calories. This is important. And I did that no oils though. Oils and it's hard so it's really easy to do the app and and then you know, it's kind of get your head around it okay, I'm just not allowed that food that food I really like I'm not allowed and then and it works but it's just so hard to maintain. But it's easy mentally to get to do

it I love how you're bringing up this idea of easy and hard because everything is easy and everything is hard right so we take our yeah we take our easier now hard where we choose to take it right so going to McDonald's is is easy, but it's really hard to digest. And it's really hard when you get a disease from it. Right? Right. Whereas, whereas cooking your own food is harder, right or hard because it takes time, but it was really easy to digest, and it's really easy to live your life when you're healthy. Right? Gosh, I, you know, so easily. So Sharon, I want to go over to you. Things were talking about easy and hard. Things were hard right in your life. That was your it has to be mean, right? You wanted things to be easier? Definitely.

So I think I was always pretty focused on my health, because I lost my mother at a fairly young age to cancer and then my father, so I was always very focused on my health and eating right. I'd been an ethical vegan since 2008. But I still wasn't feeling great, and had a lot of stress, my body just did not handle stress very well. And I ended up I was in that menopause period where weight was starting to pile on a little bit. And what happened was I got COVID, and a version of long COVID. And everything that was happening to me just started to pile up, the anxiety that I had was just getting worse and worse all the time. My weight was going up, I had all sorts of issues that I never had. Aside from being unable to sleep well. I was waking up in the middle of the night just bolting awake, panicking, like I couldn't swallow. I had plantar fasciitis, I had sciatica, pain, all this stuff was going on. I'd already been working with a nature path, who was wonderful and a nutritionist. And I thought I was, you know, in a good place in terms of what I was eating, I done elimination diets, because I would have a lot of fatigue, a lot of achiness, joint pain, couldn't really get to the root of anything. And I also knew from my holistic practitioner that I had some autoimmune issues that they couldn't quite get to the root of. So all of that was happening. And then the COVID just really destroyed me and my doctor ran some bloodwork, it showed it had reactivated past infections. At the same time, I saw my primary care physician, and it was the first time ever that she hadn't made a comment about my weight going up. And what did

that feel like? Yeah,

I feel awful. Yeah. And my thing is that she was really discouraging, because she said, You know, when we're women at this age, we wait in the middle, and no amount of exercise, no amount of any. To the club, not sure. It was just so discouraging. At the same time, the law COVID I got diagnosed with a form of that. It also was really affecting my mood. And that's why I knew something was really wrong. That's what led to the bloodwork being done, because truthfully, I was having suicidal thoughts. And I have never had that before. And it really rattled me. So all of this was kind of happening at the same time with both of my doctors, and my nutritionist from that holistic doctor, she was aware of tests. And I had done other things before like elimination diet. So I was at a point where I needed more structure. And I needed, I just needed help. And I was willing to do anything because I was so miserable. And I was scared and I was at a certain point where I thought the stress in my life. Are these things even this bad or is it that my body is so out of control that I just don't know how to handle anything anymore. So I ended up coming into Tess's community and I started with the Deccan detox and then I went straight into the SK 60 community and this type of eating with the focus on my digestive health which was eye opening for me because I didn't realize the connection between the brain and the gut and I after the detox my plantar fasciitis was gone, my sciatica was gone. I was able to sleep better my mood improved, not the same kind of anxiety and that's what just kind of set me off on okay.

It made you made you a believer I remember you coming on the show. Sharon's talking about the 14 day cleanse and in two weeks, just in two weeks you were feeling so much better from the power of food and better digestion. And so then you was that it was that and it has to be me moment for you where you went. Because what you were talking about before about having suicidal thoughts feeling like your life was out of control feeling so emotional and hopeless and Oh, This is so common during perimenopause and menopause, and it's just put down to a well, at your age, you're just going and then

the sugar too was a big component. So coming off of like, sugar in a way, where we were focusing more on natural sugars through our fruit, you know, and through our vegetables was just a game changer for me. And it just made me feel so good. And, and my body so good and my joints so good, because you need to, you know, again, back to like the work that I do. My joints really hurt. But everyone wants to say, Well, it's because you work out so much. Well, no, that's not. That's not why it was because my joints were hurting from the foods I was eating. And so I was seeing that difference through, you know, my knowledge now of gut health and how important the gut is and what I what I eat.

And kelp, tell me about how your athletic performance and your recovery improved once you reduce the inflammation, and you were eating strategically. Yeah, that was pretty incredible.

It was so so performance wise, I was starting to use more natural, you know, sugars so so like dates, and that we've talked about this and nuts, so I do a nice combination of those. And that would allow that allowed me through, you know, especially longer, you know, races to not have, because I have done races on pure sugar, jelly beans, in fact, where I was, oh, wow, I just get like spurts of energy. And then I would cry. Wow, because of energy crash spurts. And I, you know, I'd literally need to have jelly beans every 10 minutes, I was grabbing jelly beans. And I thought, well, this doesn't seem right. And I forget, maybe you test it, who talked about it from the perspective, it's like, throwing newspaper in a fire just like goes poof, you're like, oh, I have a fire, I have no fire, it goes right out. And it's the same kind of thing. So and then the recovery was really important. Because in order to work with endurance, you have to do endurance, you have to be ready to go the next day. And so eating cleaner, eating better, has allowed me to not have that inflammation, and be able to not be sore. And also be able to sleep sleep is a big component of this. So to go to bed feeling like my body was ready to to rest, not to be up at night going, you know, to the bathroom a million times, you know, or what felt like a million times and be able to get a good night's rest, like you talked about the resting piece. So the holistic, the holistic view of a day in and how to fuel and to let your body digest like the digestion was a big component of what you talked about. And that for me, was what was missing is like I was constantly eating thinking, hey, I'm running, I'm working out on Berlin burning calories. I can therefore eat. That is what you know what you see out there. It's like, I'm going to do this and I'm going to have a beer. No, you do this, and I'm not going to have a beer. There's no like, I don't need to reward myself with the beer. That is not what I would go for. So anyway, there's nothing wrong with Yeah.

But listen, we can all have a beer, why not? Right? I mean, but I think what you're talking about is, is having choices. Yes. And actually making empowered decisions from a place of it has to be me. Like, I want to feel good. I have the power to control how I feel I want to feel better. And the sleep piece. I mean, when you sleep well, and this idea that you can't sleep through menopause, you can't sleep through the night or you can't sleep through the night when you're 65 You know, I mean, it's just not true. And you absolutely can. And this idea of getting up multiple times throughout the night. That's to do with hydration and absorption and all the things we talk about a lot, right? And that's inextricably connected to strategic eating and gut health and it's pretty incredible stuff. What was your experience with the gut health piece and and the journey that you went on with that?

I think what the biggest surprise for me was after detoxing, how loud your body got and saying don't eat that. It was extraordinary. And I feel like it was it's an education for your insights. All of a sudden, your body's telling you no don't eat that that's no good. I haven't had dairy since doing skinny 60 Yeah, I haven't had I really don't eat pasta or rice not because I'm not allowed I am I just choose not to eat it because of how it makes me feel. So it's, that's that's what I experienced. It was just incurred relatable. How in tune you became, was? Yeah,

it's such a great point, right? Because you, I think it's your body got louder? Did it get louder or you you're listening got better, because you get the intuition, right, because then we have clean pathways and we're clear and we remove the veils of the white flour, the refined carbohydrates, the sugar, the dairy, the gluten, whatever it is, right? Or the alcohol or the alcoholic we can eat. It's the skinny 60 Not the Dr. 60. The miserable 60. Right. But we do it when we choose to do it in celebration with joy for an to make an amazing life experience with our family and friends. Not because we're comfort implicating and hiding with it, right? But the downloads come so quickly. And clearly. When you are strong and healthy and you are nourishing your body effectively, right? You start to listen, yes. And you can't ignore it anymore. And you don't want to ignore it because you're not hiding anymore.

You don't want to feel like you felt before. No way. Right? I traveled around Italy last year, and everyone's just like, oh, pasta pizza. I had pasta once and I had pizza once in two weeks. Not because I deprived myself but because that's I that's what I didn't want it. Right. For ordinary.

It is extraordinary. But I mean, it is the choices,

right? Like we get to choose how you want to feel.

So tell me more about that. Sharon, like you, Steph was just talking about the downloads, right? And you because here's the thing, we are getting downloads, whether you're on skinny 60 or not, whether you're eating healthy or not, the inflammation, the not sleeping and not being constipated, the having anxiety and depression, the getting up multiple times throughout the night, the gas, the bloating, the weight gain all the things we've been talking about. If that's not your body's screaming out to you so loudly, please don't eat that. Like I don't know what is right. But we we just accept it as part of normal life. Everybody fights well, every woman over 40 doesn't sleep through the night and gets up multiple times every 75 year olds got to pee in the middle of the night. I mean, we just accept that as part of life. Right? So. So what what was the shift? In you, Sharon, where you stopped listening to the doctor going? And then? Uh, no, you're not going to be able to do that at your age, no matter what you do. What When was the moment where you went? Ah, I'm actually I'm turning this around. And pretty quickly.

Yeah, I think, Well, I think I already knew like, I'm not going to accept that I want something better for myself. But I could only get there with this community to be honest. And that kind of support and encouragement, and then focusing on my digestive health and all these other things just came with it. But for me, I'm someone who has perfectionist tendencies. And so me too, a lot of what we do is we just focus on the next better choice. And never, it's never about perfection. It's never about deprivation, it's never about you know, these limiting things like you'll never have cake or a glass of wine, it's not that it is very much about just making these better choices to take care of yourself. And so I think I already had it somewhere inside of me that I'm not gonna listen to you. I love that people. But I needed the help to get there. And truthfully, I listened to a lot of other testimonials of people who had gone through the SK 60 program. And that gave me a lot of encouragement and then just being in the community really supported me. And it's not like you figure I mean, we're here for the long haul. So it's, you know, every day is a new choice and your every meal and it's cumulative. It adds up. And yeah, like I want to have a piece of cake every now and then. But my body will tell me right away, how that works for my digestion. And you do start to make those those choices, it becomes easier to say, you know, I like a glass of wine with my friends, but I can still enjoy their presence and not have to have a glass of wine because I know it's gonna make me feel like crap tomorrow.

Or you choose to have it knowing that you're not going to feel so great. You have an extra glass of water, you have your sauerkraut you have a salad. You just find that balance. Right. And so what Steph was talking about when you went to Italy, right, I mean, you're not going to not have pizza or not have pastorates delicious. You're in Italy, right? You pick and choose your moments and you find that balance so stiff. Now that you've done skinny 16 multiple times and you you, we're not talking about a strict diet, being on a diet, it's not a diet, we're not talking about depriving ourselves. So, talk to me about how you found that balance of self care and fun, right? Like you really, you've really found this lovely while you all have but I'll ask you individually, you know, of not feeling like you're depriving yourself feeling like you can have that when you want it. And then you're gonna pick and choose your moments,

there was a bit of a revelation actually, you know, every session, every round that you do, you kind of are there to investigate something else put another piece of the puzzle in a jigsaw. I have discovered now that I can, you can partake in anything and it is good, better best. I love that saying to us, it's really easy.

So at least today, yeah, just so everyone's so you don't feel left out of our little lunch together. In the skinny 60 community, we've got a we've got a monitor in the community, which is good, better or best, not perfect. And so we all abbreviated to good, better best. And so you're just as Sharon as Penny, as staffs been saying, during this conversation, we just aim to make the next better choice because perfection does not exist, right? Even though we want to believe that it does right and maybe push ourselves there. That's my natural inclination is to think that I can get there but we're just aiming to make the next better choice and we're learning and growing from it. So sorry, keep going stuff I just wanted to make sure we weren't leaving out of out of the convo.

And so my last piece, so I will eat what I want when I'm out, but then I'll just make better choices later. I don't. And that was a bit of a revelation that I can eat the foods and it's not all gonna come crashing down. That's actually was a big piece. But I just have to be prepared. I'm a recipe person to Penny I love his his recipes. I'm always making one of those special meals or or you know, recipes for the family. But I now make a massive tub of coleslaw and have that in the fridge so that I've got great lunches but I've always got something in there that when I get home, I can nibble on or have a bowl of because if I'm hungry, I'll make their choices. I've learned that about me. And so if I have good choices in the cupboard or in the fridge, then then it's really easy because once you're full you don't want any of that other food. I'm a potato chip person. Same I thought we all just sitting here thinking I have actually made potato chips skinny 60 Okay, because they're just potato this actually may be

a great recipe and one of the nachos is like the second or third page and one of the one of the blender girls cookbook. Talking about it today. So good.

Not so good. The perfect blend. Yeah, gotcha is in the perfect blend.

That is the white die for this so good. So good. Yeah, listen. It is a let's say potato chips. Right but yeah, um, tears

I actually do have to say there's the food the recipe, your recipe is so good. That you do find yourself looking the spatula? Oh, yes. And and you're actually you just think well of course I can do this if the food tastes this good. I can do this. This is this is not hard. It is not hard. Well, you know, I

remember one of the articles test that you talked about that you had done with the New York Times and this is where I am again like a recipe person and yours are so good because there are so many cookbooks out there that I have followed to the tee and and they don't taste good. But I remember you saying like there's some bloggers and some folks that you know, create recipes, but they're there they don't taste good. The recipes are not good. I've thought about wow you know, if people don't know or really respect the opportunity that they have to be able to create good recipes that there are people like you who create recipes for you know to celebrate every single ingredient and make it up nutritious, you know, down to the macro level and in your books you break it down. And then to understand what those macros mean, that for me is like the level I'm at right now is is, is to understand the

doubt that a doctor tells you that they're, you know, yeah, that you that you have to resign yourself to this is this is it? And it's not true. We all know.

We're all laughing going we're on the other side of this. We know this is a true now, right. But if you're listening and your doctor has said that to you, what's our message to to somebody right now?

Doctor first don't know what they're talking about. Right? Yeah. We say the

power. Yeah. And I had said that to myself as these things hadn't worked. And before I did skinny 60, I had said to myself, Oh, this is what it is. I'm resigned right to buying a bigger wardrobe. And I didn't even get locked up. People are saying this to themselves. They've heard it. No, and you know, it's you. It's not true.

It's not true, sir. So, Penny, yes. You were already in the zone or so you thought right. You an amazing triathletes. So fit and healthy your fitness? I mean, my goodness, I'm embarrassed to post my little workout videos on Instagram. I know that you're connected to me on Instagram, like, Oh, good. I compared to Patti. I was able to do the thumbs up, keep going because I feel like you're across fit together on Instagram, as you know. But I mean, you're like a rock star to me in terms of work. Right? So you came into our community a completely different way again, right? Yours was just through. You're such an amazing cook. And you came in through wanting to have delicious recipes and stuff. Yes,

yes. And that's exactly right. And I, I was actually just talking to someone about it. I think I found skinny 60 through following you on Instagram, and it was early pandemic. And I thought you know what, taking a cooking class would be amazing, because I love all of your recipes. And they all taste so good everything. I have every page tagged. And once I joined the community, and then I started to follow the recipes. And then and then listen to all the stories of these these amazing people across the world. I just love the fact that people are from all over the world. So I guess you meet so many. And then the just the the community aspect around helping each other and listening to each other stories is so powerful that I don't know how many how many sessions I've done tests, I think I've done two, three or four. Because the framework was so important to me to have the recipes to be able to use the the the online portal, and then get the recipes. I felt so good. And I still do. But my story is that that yes, I also went through menopause very early, I started to see a lot of changes in my body. I do a lot of work. And I mean, and you know this from just observing the work that I've done, I'm an endurance athlete, I run marathons I do triathlons, I like to do hard things I just do. And and now you know it look easy.

Not and it's like

we need bone strength. I broke my wrist you remember that during one of the SK 60 sessions like so. So things were happening like that. And I thought what the heck how is this happening to me? I'm lifting heavy weights. I'm running a lot but But what was I really doing and why was I doing it? And I think taking time to really you know pause ask yourself questions. Think about why am I feeling a specific way and and for me food is community but it's also and you talk about this so much tests about food, being community and celebrating food and not depriving yourself so I'm not I don't like any deprivation or any thinking I don't think that way me the right. So the abundance of what we have at our fingertips, but you as as a person who knows food in the way that combinations of flavors and just the magic of what you put in your cookbooks and in all of your recipes make it even more fun on top of having the community but then how I felt after even going to bed just so light and so rested and I didn't like I didn't have to get up a million times to go to the bathroom. Because my magnesium which I still take and my kids take like just there's so much of the way that I've what I've learned and how to eat that has been now part of just my family's the way that we eat dinner. Our lunch breakfast. I feel like I've learned so much that it's part of just hope my the fabric of who I am. And and then and then I'm working with with all of you and your nutritionists and dietitians are to try and tweak, you know, if I was doing an event like what kinds of what kinds of carbohydrates, what kinds of proteins? How do I fuel myself, in order to support my, you know, what task I had at hand, was really the area that I just continued to play with and tweak, which I love. It's just I like an ever forever student.

But I mean, it's like the puzzle, right? The puzzle with many, the puzzle of Sharon, the puzzle of Stephanie, the puzzle of cats, right? We get to keep figuring it out every day. It

is, and it's a process. And it's not, it's not even, it's not a destination. It's a maintenance, but it's also a maintenance in how you feel and constantly assessing that. And it's okay to feel not feel good every single day. But but the why. And I know it's because of what we put in our mouths, and how we, how we approach it and our mindset, it's very holistic and and the community aspect of it, and the way that you think about it tests through all of your programming. And now your podcast, it has to be me is just as remarkable.

Oh, look, thank you. But you know, what's so great is the community, isn't it? Right? That we're all supporting each other. We're all learning from each other. We're all in this together, you're not alone in any of the feelings that you've got. Right. So, Sharon, one of the things that really came up for you a lot, wasn't it, when you would come to office hours, we'd all talk you know about our struggles and what we were, what was going on that week, was that you would share and then all these other people, you know, thinking that you were feeling like this, and everybody else was doing great. And then all these other people would put their hands up and go, Oh, I so can relate to you. Just like we're talking right now all of us going Yep. Yep, I felt like that, too. Right. So what were some of the things that you learnt about how your food choices intersected with your other choices? And as you were feeling better? How that empowered you, you know, to first of all realize you were not crazy. And despite what your doctor told you, there were some things you could do to lose weight.

Yeah, well, I think one of the first things that was very obvious when I first met you, Tess, I couldn't even be on camera. Because I was so emotional, and crying and bawling my eyes out, I felt so much guilt, just at the thought of taking care of myself. And I think it was only up until last week, I've cried, probably every session we've ever had, because there's just so much gunk, I'm getting out or processing. And so it is a very holistic approach. There's the food, but it's also about mindset, and limit these limiting beliefs and getting to the root of issues and why we do these things and why we keep repeating patterns. And so what I love about this community is that it's about making the next best choice or decision, you know, maybe today I'm going to do this. But the next thing I do just make it a better choice, always coming back to taking care of myself, and why do I have such feelings of guilt about that? I don't know. I'm working through it.

Yet. Tell me a little bit more about that. Because I think that as women, that's such a common thing. It comes up all the time, right? Like, why does everybody else get the best of me and I get the rest of me right? I mean that that old cliched saying but that, that feeling that, that we don't deserve to prioritize self care that self care is narcissism, or it's indulgent, or you should be looking after your kids you should be working you should be you should be you should be right. So tell me how that shifting for you, Sharon, this giving yourself permission to take care of yourself to spend time every day on you? Yeah, I

mean, it's a hard thing to do at first, and it felt uncomfortable. But as I started to do it, it just made me better in every possible area of my life, and started to bring me to a place of joy. Because, I mean, what's the point of being here?

I mean, what Penny was saying, right? Yeah.

And enjoy food and all of these things. And so spending some time actually taking care of myself, makes me better at my job makes me better in my life, or better able to pursue the things that I'm passionate about or be a better friend or all of those things. It's just, I think it's a hard message to come to terms with in some ways, just because of the things we've learned. We all have different backgrounds. and are demands on us. But as I started to practice it, it became easier. And I got in touch with this sense of joy that comes with that. And just, you know, it didn't mean that it was taking a lot of time away from these other areas of my life, it was actually somehow making me just better at those things. And because my body just reacted so well. And some of these other things like anxiety and all that just, it started to fade a bit, which just made it easier to keep going,

I think, yeah, I mean, we are what we practice, right? So you deciding it has to be me, too. And you kept coming to those calls and kept sharing your struggles and kept being vulnerable. And you were on camera? Yeah, you started off camera, and then you use when it has to be me, I'm showing up, I'm going to speak up, I'm going to share my story. And, you know, it's again, it's that Marianne Williamson thing of what is your greatest fear, you know, when you allow yourself to be vulnerable, you give others permission to do the same. When you shine your light, you give others permission to do the same. And that's what you were doing even though you were feeling weak and hopeless to use some of the words that you used about yourself, that you were empowering yourself and everybody else by sharing your truth and speaking up and allowing yourself to not have all the answers. I mean, gosh, we always feel like we always have to have all the answers. Steph? What What was it? Like? What what's the what's the relationship like for you with self care and care for others finding that balance? Because you are a mother? You're a teacher of young children. You know, you're looking after other people all day, every day and everything that you do.

Oh, is she there? She's I think she just came off camera. Her earbuds sue her ear buds.

Oh, hang on. So wait for Steph. So a penny, what what's what's your relationship with self care? Because you're a mother?

Yes. So I, I, right now prioritize my self care first thing in the morning as as as much as I can. So I try and take advantage I used to wait for, you know, a later time in the day, but I really try and take my time and put that invest in myself first thing as much as possible. Because I know that other things get in the way it is it is like what Sharon said, it is habit forming. I was trying, I'm trying to establish these habits, where I'm investing in myself first thing because if I do that, then I'm a better mom, I'm a better spouse, I'm a better friend. All those things I won't I don't want to have, it's not even a regret, but but I want to pay, like put money in the bank and my bank first and be able to take care of myself so that I am feeling 100% full. And as best I can, when I'm ready to, you know, to see other people and you know, take on the rest of the day. So that's been my approach, it's been more of an approach and a mindset. And what I also do is the night before, is I try and remove a lot of the thinking out of my head, I create lists, and try and use those,

at least I believe build up exactly. Try and

re like use the lists. And and so I don't go to bed with those lists in my head. I try and keep take them out. And I create like a personal list. I create a work list and then I create like a get shit done list. And I try to do that. And that's been helping me manage how I go into my next day because I can refer to that list. But the self care is a big deal with acupuncture massage, working out, eating well. I do a lot in a day.

Yeah. Oh, I love that stuff. We got you back. Oh, good. So so what what what, how do you balance self care and care for others? Because you got a lot of care for others in what you do. Yeah, I

do. But actually, I've never felt like I miss out. I think that I think it was modeled for me my I am from three girl family. I went to an all girls school. I think that self care and looking after myself as a woman has been part of what I've seen. And I was thinking about it. Sharon, when you were talking before when you said you found joy and turning up and it's part of the community and you're all of a sudden modeling it for everybody that's there like I do. I think it's about me, you know, not having had it model for us. You know, past women have had To sacrifice themselves for everybody. Yeah. If that's yeah, so that's been modeled for us there and we have to break it. That mold. Yeah.

And and re break it. You know, I feel like practicing practicing is a process of deciding and re deciding you don't you can't just decide once you've got to keep redesigning, you've got to keep, keep recommitting. It's like I mean, for Penny, you know, you working out right? You just do you don't just do it once you got to keep doing it. So I want to I want to ask about this digestive health piece, right that Sharon, you talked about a minute ago about, about it being such an eye opener for you that it wasn't about deprivation, starvation, because we know that that causes the downregulation of key hormones, if we're talking about women over 40 and perimenopause and menopause and starving ourselves is actually just a disaster, right dieting is actually not going to help us get what we want long term, right? So in terms of this holistic approach that we're taking, where we're really focusing on gut health and digestion, and that everything else stems from that, you were talking about it being eye opening, and I know you've all had these aha moments. But Sharon, for you, specifically, what was the big aha, in terms of this digestive health piece, like this gut health piece that you realized, whoa, this is really something this isn't just like clickbait on the internet, this is a real thing for me.

Well, it's interesting, because my spouse actually does have digestive issues. And so I always thought poor digestion meant, you know, like something like IBS or things like that. And I never had any issues like that. But things like anxiety, increasing and building and feeling out of control, or my body feeling this constant stress and my heart pounding. The eye opener for me was the brain gut connection. And just knowing that, you know, so much of these hormones, these good hormones, they do come from the gut, just focusing on the digestion, it was very freeing to me, I think, you know, I'm not someone who's had anxiety where I've taken medication necessarily for it. But I've certainly dealt with a lot of anxiety or depression and things like that. And you can start to think it's something you cannot control, it's in your head. And I don't want to suggest, you know, anything for those people who might be on medication, but for me to focus on my gut health, and not think about calories or things like that. It was just very freeing.

And we don't use that word in our community. Do we calories? like, Nope, we're not counting calories.

So it was just very freeing to me, because I felt like, Oh, if I focus on my gut health, I'm, I'm seeing and feeling all these improvements. My mood, just it got better. The stress I've been holding on to all those emotions that you do hold in your gut, you know, they were able to get released, I feel much calmer in my body. Yes. And I focus on my gut health. And yeah, I mean, it's that is eye opening to me, because I just felt like these are things that are out of control. It's my brain, this is just the way I am. There's nothing I can do about it. And so for me, it made me feel empowered. If I focus on that my digestive health, these other things will come. And it's just such a, you know, I mean, a life changer for me really, to focus. Yeah, I mean,

we think about serotonin, right? That a little little feel good hormone, every, you know, there's a misconception that the majority of it is produced in the brain, over 95% of it is produced in our gut, and then our gut sends it to our brain, right. And then if we think about GABA, and all these other things, you know, so controlled by our guy, which we know scientifically, right, but I think there's a you know, you're all very intelligent, high information gatherers. You know what I mean, you're really interested in figuring things out. But there's intellectually knowing and reading something and maybe you know, blind faith or trusting an expert and then feeling it in your body like that knowing I don't think you can replace that. Like for me, even as someone who's a high information gatherer and really interested in health and nutrition and the science behind it all, you got to feel it in your body before you're a real believer. So Penny, you are already you thought you had your nutrition dialed in you. That's what you've said so many times in our community, and then you realize there was a whole other frontier of having a dialed in, right? Digestive Health piece so so can you tell us a bit more about your journey with that because you're already eating well, but you were snacking on potato chips and all kinds of stuff. And tell us about your journey with moving into a really nuanced place with your nutrition. Yes,

so I I will never forget Yet when you started to talk about gut health and just food combinations, and I never ever thought that there was anything like it, and in fact I did, I did do my work and research and there's nothing out there. There's no There's no one's talking about it, there are no books, except for you tests, you're the only food combinations. And, and I know you have a chapter in one of your books as well, that talks about food combinations and taking specific time. So you know, between eating one, one specific type of food, and then introducing another one, because of the way that your body digests and that concept I had never heard about, until I had worked with you and the community, the SK 60 community, and you know, starting to eat sauerkraut with every meal was a game changer for me, being able to have some of the the types of yogurt that you talk about the coconut cup, which I still eat every single day, too, but I just it is my favorite. And I've, I've left notes that every, you know, store, I'm like, please get this because you will and it is off the shelf. But basically, the way that I've changed in my eating because of the gut, you know, my understanding of gut health now has lessened the bloating. It's what Sharon talks about going to bed and your body's just so quiet and relaxed, right. And there's so much empowerment in just that, and just the control of that. But I used to come home, I used to go right to the cabinet. I used to eat all the chips, you know, as I was making dinner. So I was like, Yeah, I know how to make dinner. I'm really good at all this and I'm healthy, and I ran and all these other things. But I'm still feeling pretty, you know, pretty terrible as macros. How are they serving me? And then how are they serving what I want to, you know, be how to perform with those macros. Not about calories, not even about burning calories or any of those things. But I know I'm going off on a little tangent, but I think that what's so important is is the knowledge base and being empowered with knowledge and giving yourself that freedom to keep growing in this space, all of us as individuals, but then as a community to talk about how they how, how it influences how we feel, and and how we keep growing. Because we obviously you know, we eat, we'd love to eat and we need to eat but we should be empowered with what we're eating.

Well, also, any needs to just be so fun. Like food is one of the great pleasures of life areas to be fun. We have with doing it like at least three times a day, right? Sometimes five times a day, right? Munching throughout the day. Like snacking is not a bad thing when you're snacking on delicious amazing stuff. Right? And I mean, I love food more than oxygen. I love food more than anything on earth, right? Like, I just love to eat so much and I don't want to tell myself I can't have that food. Like I just want to keep eating I just love eating and I know you guys do too, right? So healthy food has to be even more delicious than unhealthy food because otherwise it's not going to stick. We're going to be wanting the potato chips all the time and hey, listen, we're all eating potato chips sometimes just not every day. Right right so it's like yeah, I mean it and also that that thing about I mean the four of us we love to cook right but that you know you may be listening going I'm sorry I'm not joining you guys for lunch because I don't want to cook like that right? But there's there's something about empowering yourself with nourishing yourself and creating something delicious it can just be a five or 10 minute recipe doesn't have to be some involved three hour lasagna or something right? It can just be something really fresh and beautiful. Sharon How do I know you like to cook too and love beautiful flavors? How has regularly getting into the practice of making super ridiculous flavorful dimensional recipes changed your relationship with food?

Oh, if anything I like I said before I have more joy. I think these recipes opened me up to many new types of vegetables, herbs, things that I never even considered before seasonal produce. Just using herbs, fresh herbs, it's there's something that just makes me happy when I cook with those. Oh, me too. But you know me, and I love all your recipes, but I also don't like to be tied down to a recipe. I like to throw things together. And I feel like I've learned so many tools or things about combining flavors just from practicing your recipes. Oh, I love that. Freedom. Yeah, recently like where I can look at me, I'm like just throwing this together.

Oh, I love that. I loved that on office hours last week, you shared that with everybody about how I'm not even using recipes anymore. I've just learned all these tips and tricks from following the recipes that I'm throwing things together. And my husband said it was delicious. And everybody was like, like, it was so great. I mean, right? Because, again, you are what you practice, right? So it's like, I'm using the same tips and tricks over and over and over. Right? Like, it's, it's this is, I mean, I just love this so much. So Penny, you love to cook. Did you have a similar experience with Sharon, where you just learned some tips and tricks and now you're, you know, you're just integrating that into other things that you're cooking. Absolutely.

And honestly, one of the things that I did appreciate from all of the cooking that we did, not only in the cooking club, but then within the the program was just the the meditation around cutting and taking time like that, for me was an eye opener, it was very, it just, it just helped me be in the moment. So rather than rushing, rushing, rushing to help like you breaking it down, but being able to stop and just and chop some things or wait for something to finish, you know, that like the roasted tomato basil soup that you have my good absolute favorites, but that's one that I modify, you know, I'll like pull a couple of things, you know, a little little bit of a different flavor. Or addition. And, and for me, that's what helps me feel very empowered in taking your recipe, and then being able to do the recipe with you and the class. So I just really enjoy, you know, having that flexibility and what you've taught us

Yeah, Steph, what what's it been like for you because you you you follow recipes, but you're a lovely cook as well. How has how have those flavors and making things differently affected how you eat at home with your family.

Um, I definitely change it up a bit too, depending on what I have in the fridge. But I'm I'm one of the reasons I'm a recipe person is because recipes can introduce you to all sorts of different flavors that you've you you never knew. And so I love reading a recipe and go oh, yeah, that'd be good. So I so wish I had an interesting relationship with recipes. But what I found after eating the food for a while and cooking all the recipes was all of a sudden a simple carrot. Just was like Wow,

it's so sweet. Wait, a roasted carrot. Yeah, let me tell ya. Yes. Jelly Bean when you got a roasted carrot

chips, you know? So all of a sudden, just you're just fine tuned into the flavor of a vegetable is just yeah so so that kind of was revolution for me was that you didn't have to do so much work with the recipes because you were just enjoying the simplicity of flavor the individual vegetable flavor.

Yeah, got the flavor. I mean, flavor is love flavors light flavor is joy. I want to get back to something that Steph was talking about because we think going back to the very beginning of the conversation talking about the weight piece and how it was easy and hard and you know, I can't lose weight over 40 and through menopause and all the rest of it. I want to I want to come back to this idea because you can eat a lot of delicious food and not starve yourself and still lose weight you do not need to diet and starve yourself to lose weight. So what was your weight loss journey like on skinny 60 Steph? Oh,

so I had just started to accumulate weight and resigned myself to it. You know I was yet starting to purchase that fat wardrobe and you're not nearly nearly being resigned to that I had to take my summer clothes. Yes let go with those jeans and take them to the secondhand shop. But I do know we loved those jeans. I love those jeans and yeah, it was which was good because I could fit them afterwards. But I went from would have I would have been I will lost seven kilos in the time. And I had always been 65 So I went from 73 I think down or around there, you know, it's 262, which sounds like 10 Actually, doesn't it nine, but

not counting any more. And that's what I love about this.

Year I lose another. No, it's true. But I used to always be 75 I thought that that was my pre menopause. That was my actual weight, my comfortable weight. And after skinny 60, I actually discovered that it was 62. And maybe even Potentially, it could be I could even be 60 I'm just with when you lose weight, like I lost weight. You don't just lose it in the area, you want to lose it and you kind of lose it from everywhere and just become a kind of like a smaller frame. And it's been for your back. So depending on your body type. But yeah, so now I'm my my weight is 62 and, and that that's was my weight journey. And it's easy. It's easy getting around in the world.

And you've maintained it. That's the other week, because you just have the skills now and you know what to do.

And it feels good, and it's not a chore. And I don't deprive myself. It's a choice. I choose not to eat that food. Because yeah.

What about you, Sharon? Yeah,

um, yeah, I've lost about 15 pounds and kept it off in the last year. I'm, I'm five feet. So for me 15 pounds? Uh, yeah. Wow. I haven't Wow, wait, since I think my 20 Wow. Um, and again, did

you call your doctor

that I mean, I mean, I will say it was easy in that I didn't think once about how much I'm eating, or a calorie. And I'm still figuring out my exercise piece my wellness, so I'm not doing you know, like crazy exercise either. And it came off and I've kept it off. So that's just from my body, knowing what to do with the food that I'm eating. And yeah, me energy and having me feel

so in Korea and a fun way to do it. So Penny, what was yours like, because you didn't come into the program wanting to lose weight, you wanted to feel lighter and stuff, but you still did,

I did I did I lost about I was between 10 and 15 pounds I lost and that, that for me, just from the perspective of still maintaining muscle mass, and, and, and staying strong and all those things. And it was kind of the same thing that that you're both talking about Sharon and Stephanie, like feeling a little bit lighter. And just like the my whole body just shrinking. But noticing it around my my gut specifically was was where I carried I had carried a lot more of my weight as as I was going through, you know, menopause and just feeling like I was retaining water and all of those things. So so the water I think was a big component, especially as I was taking more of the magnesium and feeling a lot more balanced in that way. And you

were reaching true cellular hydration. Like that's what you want. That's why you weren't getting up to peel multiple times throughout the night because you were actually you were actually truly hydrate all being the water finally, because you had better gut

health. Exactly. And so because of my sweat rate, you know, I was sweating so much I was only getting a lot of water. So I was getting so much nutrition from our food, the food that we were that we're eating and and then also with the magnesium and the resting I just I just felt from a you know, a body composition perspective and the ability to just drop that additional weight that I was carrying, obviously better for my joints and better for just for anti inflammation. I wasn't feeling it in you know, all of the areas where I'm like, Oh, this has got to be because of my I might feeling sore because I'm working out or is it because of menopause like what is it? And and I felt like this was the way that I was just feeling so much better in my body.

Penny did you get better results in races and things did you do you race or do you just I

did I did I got faster because I could. I was quicker. You know, I just felt like I could move a lot. I was lighter. You know? Yes. Absolutely. Cool.

Yeah. One thing also we didn't talk about is the data changing from going to the doctor when you mentioned to Sharon about going to the doctor It's just so incredible when you go back and have your your checkup you Oh, tell me about that? Oh, well, you know, I didn't, it wasn't, I really wish that I had gone to the doctor before I did skinny 60 and get all of my data you recommend to do that. And I didn't do it, but I had been to the doctor. So he had, yeah, old data. But when I went back after having the deep, you know, done the 60 day reset. I was he said that I had lost about five years, five years, on my, from my age, because of all of the results that were coming in. And that is just like the most incredible news like better than the weight reel, or when you hear that, you it kind of really reinforces our oh my god, food is my medicine, medicine. Yeah, yes. And if I am, if I spend the money on the food, and I tend to spend the time I won't be spending it on appointments, going to see medical practitioners or you know, it's, it's, it's the

you pick, you're easy, and you're hard, right? Like, it's easy to just eat all those foods that everyone else is eating, but it's hard when you get the diagnosis, right. I mean, so we take our easy and now hard where we choose to take it right. What was what were the changes in your blood work, Sharon?

Well, my blood work was pretty good to begin with in terms of cholesterol, but yeah, the inflammation went in. Yeah. nificantly. So

yeah, I mean, yeah. Oh, gosh. I mean, it is exciting, isn't it when we're on office hours, and we hear people talking about the changes in their blood work with that a onesie going back to normal, and their cholesterol and all the things right? I mean, it's thrilling, and how quickly it can change is always, it's just astonishing to me, it's really amazing. So thank you staff for bringing that up. Because, you know, I knew that the three of you were in pretty good health, you know what I mean? It was it was all those niggly things like sleep and low energy and you know, belly fat and, you know, some of these things that we can live with, we're just not going to have the quality of life that we want. Right. Right. So thank you for for reminding me about that. Because yeah, people do get extraordinary results, you know, in terms of those other markers of better health. Penny did you have blood work and notice your inflammatory markers changing at all or anything else?

So I, I did not have the blood work done. But I do know that the inflammation just by the way that I was feeling was was was take it gone down just because I could I could tell from my joints. It's the joints that I was feeling terrible. Yeah. Before I started and then and then I felt just 100% better. And I know it's because, you know, I didn't have gluten. I wasn't having dairy. You know, and just eating a lot of fresh fresh food. And the sugar Yeah, sugar and I love you know, like the talk little chocolates. I just, there's so many.

Everybody loves the good easy speech. Every single good testimonials about the chocolate, oh

my gosh, you're like, just don't eat more than one. But I'm like

this sorry. Good. I know. Oh, my goodness. I mean, look,

I just gotta celebrate all of you, I just have to celebrate you, thank you, thank you for the way that you show up the way that you show up for yourself. And the way that you you show up for the other people in our community. It's just so inspiring to me, and I'm just so grateful to all of you. They're all all three of you. It's such great, it has to be made stories, it has to be made to take care of myself, right? It has to be made to show up. It has to be made and make better choices. You know, for somebody listening out there right now, you know, looking at us at our lunch, the four of us like licking ourselves like cats about how great we feel. And somebody listening going, I can't do that. Def what would you say to somebody out there listening right now going, I don't feel good, and I just don't know where to start. Um,

I would say you don't have to feel bad. You don't have to be resigned to putting on way and feeling not feeling second yourself or tired or low energy that there is something you can do that will change all of that. And I'm reminded of a quote that came from another podcast that you've done tests. I think it was Amber Literacy, said, take the leap and build your wings on the way.

Oh, that was beautiful way. That was episode one. If you haven't listened to Episode One, I

would say that to people just take the leap and build your wings on the way down you. It'll be a soft landing. Yeah. Oh,

I love that, Sharon, what would you say? Because you were feeling hopeless. And now you are not. And so my goodness, hang your shiny lantern, my friend,

I would say you deserve to feel well, please don't accept anything less than that. And if it's hard for you to say that to yourself, and believe it, there is this beautiful community here that's going to support you and hold you up. And just keep going, you know, small changes, they do add up. And it is amazing what eating, well nourishing your body can do, it does have the power to offer a lot of healing. So don't be afraid by any of this, take the leap, like Stephanie said, and small changes add up, you don't have to cook. You know, there. There's a lot of flexibility in this community. And it's just so supportive, and you can show up, however you show up, if you need more support. If you're comfortable being vulnerable, that's great. You can be listening, you can be off camera, you don't have to cook every single recipe, but there's nothing more important than doing this and taking care of yourself. So if you can't quite believe it, there's a group out here waiting for you to help support you and hold you.

Ah, ampere is actually Episode Five, by the way, sorry, I had that in my head. I just have to say that it was not episode one, it's Episode Five. Penny, what would you say?

I would? I would I mean, I want to echo both what Stephanie and Sharon said, and I would say to that, that in addition to that, I would say just invest in yourself, really take Oh, I love really, really invest in yourself and think about what we're only moving forward, constantly moving forward, not looking back. And every small step like Sharon said, it is one small step don't think of it. And I test I think about how you talk about it, but that it might seem in the beginning overwhelming because you're giving so much information you're getting everyone prepared, you know, you have you have your master in you know, the framework and and, and all the preparation that you put into the program. So there's so much done, but take take it and invest in yourself. And if there's there's any question, we're all here to answer a question or to be a true testimonial of how important this this step is to take. Because you're only giving it to yourself, it's an it's an investment in yourself. So I would be, you know, if anyone has any questions or wants to talk to, you know, me individually, about the program, I would hands down, be able to do that. Because it's been remarkable for just how I feel, and investing in my body, and then my health and to be a better person for my family. And I want to live a long and healthy life.

I love that, you know, I'm actually going to close this differently than I normally do now that we've shared that. I want to talk about what we talk about in the community all the time about owning what your superpower is. So when everybody comes into the community, we celebrate what our superpowers are, the special gifts that you have that you can share with the world. And I think when you're gonna embark on something new or going to apply for that new job or go into that new relationship, or whatever it is, we start to get really afraid that we don't have what it takes and anchoring yourself to the things that you do do really well and you have got figured out really help you to hold new things in balance and help you embrace change and feel like you really do have what it takes to make it happen. So I'm going to close with that. Today on our lunch. Steph, what's your superpower?

Oh, um, I think empathy and kindness. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I love it. Sharon, what's your superpower?

I think I'm still figuring out some of my superpowers. But I know one of them is taking in a lot of information and detail and then keeping it all together and the things I've learned in this community, it's like having a pot of gold and I go back to it and I take the things and the tools and put it together and make it work for me so that I have some flexibility and freedom. Yeah,

I love that. What's yours? Penny,

I would say my superpower is, is being a good friend and and sharing knowledge and trying to empower people with information. And just being able to to be open for the, you know, a mutual giving and taking. I think that that is my superpower.

I would I would say that you guys are bang on with your superpowers in terms of my experience of you for sure. I mean, gosh, how glorious and Isn't life wonderful when we throw our superpower into the ring? And we play with others? Right? And really magical

to happen about what the superpowers are? Because we do all have one. And sometimes we just don't acknowledge it. So thanks for asking. Yeah, I mean, we've all

got so many superpowers, but I don't know anyone who's a better listener than you. And the way you're able to just receive what you are expressing and zone in and get to the core of mindset and feeling. I mean, it's sometimes it's a little freakish honestly. Feeling, but it's amazing. And I think that's why I know, I felt so supported. Yes. Really, really nice to be part of this.

Thank you, I take that into my heart. Thank you so much. I mean, it's I just, I feel like you know, during our office hours, you know, yeah, I'll get that email a lot. It's kind of weird. Maybe I kind of feel like you're a white witch. That's what I was saying to like, my friend the other day, or how do you know what to say to each person? You know, I do really love helping people figure that out. But I think that at the end of the day, the core need is the same, to be known and loved, and to want to be better than the best version of ourselves. Right? And so, to me, that story is always there in what everybody shares. I'm always listening for that. What's the where, where do they need to find the light to know that they're seen and heard and loved and that they're wonderful the way that they are today? Right? Yes. And so when I'm listening to people in the program, that I'm always listening for that, like, it's that heartbeat, but if I'm thinking about it, and that's really what I zoned in on is that, that need, you know, just to go, Yeah, I matter? Like, what what do I What can I do today to actually feel that way and keep showing up? You know, but thank you, it's, you know, the other thing too, is that we're all holding space for each other. You know, and you know, I'm really just providing the container and we're all learning and growing together, right? I mean, I just learned today, I've learned so much, just from from talking to the three of you. And every, every office hours in every video call that we have I learned from every single person that shares you know, and it helps helps to put mirrors up and go, Whoa, thank you. I understand myself a little bit better today because of each and every one of you, you know, so I hope, dear listener, that you felt a little bit of that magic, listening to us have our little lunch today and talk about that. And that you know, if Penny and Sharon and Steph and I can do it. You can to show up for yourself and be a better version and feel strong and healthy and suck the marrow out of this life. Right? And community is really powerful. So we can't we're not supposed to do this thing called life on our own. Right. So thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I love I love all of you.

Yes, thank you for everything you great