Travel, Adventure & the Midlife Woman, with Alice Morrison, Adventurer, Author & Broadcaster. S5. Ep. 14

Welcome to my latest Best Bit, part of my series to celebrate half a million downloads for The Happy Menopause podcast, and the chance for you to catch up on some of the brilliant episodes you may have missed. This edition focuses on vaginal dryness, which is rather the Cinderella of the menopause. In recent years, we’ve become more confident about discussing our menopause – some women will mention their hot flushes without turning a hair, and the common mental health symptoms  such as anxiety and mood swings have also started to come out of the closet, which is a great thing, but we’re still not quite ready to be open about the vaginal symptoms. So for this extract, I zoom back to Season 2 Episode 15 where we shine a light on this tricky issue, because it can be a huge problem for many women through the menopause and beyond. To help us, I’ve turned to one of the most clinically experienced menopause specialists in the UK. Kathy Abernethy, who’s been a leading light in the field of women’s health and the menopause for over 30 years. From her early years as a sister on a gynae ward, through her time as Chair of the British Menopause Society and now as the leader of a multidisciplinary NHS menopause clinic and director of menopause services at Peppy health, a digital health company, Kathy has consistently championed women’s health and transformed the lives of hundreds of women with her clinical advice and support. There really is no better person to give us the lowdown on how to manage vaginal dryness, so tune in to hear her expert advice on moisturisers, lubricants, vaginal oestrogen and how to manage UTIs. To hear the full episode, check out Season 2 Episode 15, where there’s even more practical advice for you. If you’re a fan of The Happy Menopause, please tell your friends and family, and do give it a 5-star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on. It makes a huge difference to the algorithms which influence the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. Because every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

Are you ready for an adventure? Midlife is a time when we can get itchy feet and want to explore new horizons, but sometimes niggling doubts and a lack of confidence can get in the way of that. So in this episode, I’m chatting to adventurer Alice Morrison, who’s just the woman we need to give us the encouragement to take that first big step. Alice is an adventurer, TV presenter and author, who’s currently living in a little village in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. I met her at The Travel Show earlier this year, where she was talking about her latest book Walking With Nomads and I knew straight away that I wanted to chat to her in more detail. After a successful career in journalism, Alice decided it was time for a change and she embarked on a series of adventures in midlife which have transformed her life – she’s cycled across Africa; run across deserts, and trekked across Morocco, for starters. Alice knows exactly what it’s like to travel solo as a woman, so she’s just the person to help us get started on our own midlife adventures!My conversation with Alice has definitely reawakened my travel bug, and I love how encouraging and matter of fact she is about it. She’s quite right – we just need to do it, and I hope you will!If you’re a fan of The Happy Menopause, please tell your friends and family about it, and do give it a 5-star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on. It makes a huge difference to the algorithms which influence the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. Because, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

Welcome to my latest Best Bit, part of my series to celebrate half a million downloads for The Happy Menopause podcast and the chance for you to catch up on some of the brilliant episodes you may have missed. This edition focuses on anxiety, which is one of the most underestimated and unexpected symptoms of the menopause, and yet it’s so common. So many of the women in my nutrition clinic struggle with anxiety during the menopause and it often takes them by surprise.  This is why I called upon Rachel Weiss, accredited counsellor and founder of the Rowan Consultancy to help us out. Rachel explains what’s going on in our brain when we experience anxiety and has some incredibly helpful tips on how to support our mental health and wellbeing. She talks us through some physical and mental strategies to calm the nervous system and to dial down the anxiety. This is a brilliant episode, with some fantastic expert advice to help you feel more on top of things. If you’d like to listen to the full episode, you can find it in Season 2, Episode 7, where you’ll get the full benefit of Rachel’s expertise. If you’re a fan of The Happy Menopause, please tell your friends and family, and do give it a 5-star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on. It makes a huge difference to the algorithms which influence the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. Because every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

Our relationship with food can be complex and it’s very often determined by a whole host of different experiences. Some of us might describe ourselves as emotional eaters and find that this can get in the way of a healthy lifestyle, affecting our weight and our body image. The whole arena can be a bit of a minefield. In fact, it’s a specialist field in clinical work, so I’ve reached out to an expert in this area, Dr Romi Ran.   Romi is a Clinical Psychologist; Coach and Author who specialises in food, eating, and body image and who works with people to transform their lives. She’s been involved in a range of research at Harvard University and received her doctorate from the University of Oxford. Her new book, Bite Sized Peace, draws on her clinical experience and is a transformative guide to changing eating habits and fostering body acceptance. This is fascinating and important stuff at any age of life, but never more so than during the hormonal upheavals of the perimenopause. There’s a lot of food for thought in this interview with Romi, as we discuss the challenges women can experience with their relationship with food. We talk about midlife weight loss; the impact of emotional eating; body image, and how to manage all these challenges. Romi shares her 5 principles to navigate these tricky areas and to achieve a more positive and accepting approach to manage our health and wellbeing through midlife and beyond. I really enjoyed chatting to Romi – there was a lot of food for thought there and I was very interested in what she had to say about the importance of self- acceptance. If you’re thinking of making some changes, tuning into this fascinating episode could be a great way to get started.Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

Welcome to my latest Best Bit, part of my series to celebrate half a million downloads for The Happy Menopause podcast and to give you the chance to catch up on some of the brilliant episodes you may have missed. We’re looking back at the launch episode for Season 2 for this edition and we’re talking hair! My guest is consultant dermatologist and hair specialist Dr Sharon Wong, who is incredibly generous with her advice. Dr Sharon Wong specialises in treating hair and scalp disorders and she’s an absolute mine of information, as we find out what influences the growth and condition of our hair and how the menopause affects our hair. We discuss the different diet, lifestyle and biochemical factors that can affect our hair and Sharon. She explains the best approach to haircare; how often to wash our hair; what to look for in hair products; and how we can optimise the health and strength of our hair. There really is nothing like listening to an expert talk about their subject. I learned a lot from Sharon in our chat and I’m sure you will too. If you’d like to listen to the full episode, you can find it in Season 2, Episode 1, where there’s even more practical advice to help you take the right approach to your hair care!If you’re a fan of The Happy Menopause, please tell your friends and family, and do give it a 5-star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on. It makes a huge difference to the algorithms which influence the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. Because every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

Are you a sloucher? Do you spend too much time pinned to your desk? Have you started to get a few niggles in your lower back, neck or shoulders? If it’s yes to all of the above, this episode is the one for you, because it’s all about posture, movement and alignment and it’s packed with practical advice to help with all those lurking issues you may have been ignoring or simply putting up with. My guest is Kerrie-Anne Bradley, former economist turned expert pilates teacher. It was her own experience of too much time at a desk and the subsequent problems with sciatica and other aches and pains that led her to take up pilates. She was so inspired by the results that she retrained with the renowned Fletcher Pilates School and became a teacher herself. She’s the founder of the brilliant Pilates at Your Desk and Move More at Your Desk programmes, including an excellent book of the same name. There’s not much Kerrie-Anne doesn’t know about movement and alignment – in fact she’s puts me through my paces in this interview, so please join in the fun!Kerrie-Anne takes us through her journey to resolve her own aches and pains and explains how pilates made a material difference to her. She also shares a range of simple exercises that you can do at your desk to help deal with neck or shoulder pain; lower back issues, and tight hamstrings and hip flexors. Most of them are subtle movements that you can do in the office without anyone really noticing, which is an added bonus, if you want to be discreet. It really was a pleasure to chat to Kerrie-Anne and I just know that I’m taller and straighter as a result! If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode and please give it 5 star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on, I’d be so grateful. And do tell your friends and family about it too. It really does make a huge difference to the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now. Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

Welcome to another of my Best Bits to celebrate the amazing milestone of 500,000 downloads for The Happy Menopause podcast. This time, I’m diving right back into the archive to Season 1 for this one, because my chat about sleep with Professor Russell Foster was absolutely fascinating, and even in this pared-down version, there is a wealth of excellent advice. Russell is the Founder and Director of The Sleep and Circadian Research Institute and Head of Oxford University’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology. He’s carried out decades of research into the science of circadian rhythms and sleep cycles and won multiple awards for his work. There’s no doubt that he’s the man to speak to about anything to do with sleep!In this series of extracts, we discuss Russell’s 4-pillar approach to getting a good night’s sleep; learn why sleep apps are mostly a waste of time; understand the science behind our circadian rhythms and how exposure to morning light is the key to a good night’s sleep. Russell is full of fascinating insights and practical tips to make a material difference to the quality of your sleep!If you’re inspired by these Best Bits, you can find the full episode in Season 1, Episode 16 where you can hear everything that Russell has to say about this vital subject.  Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

This is the first of a series of Best Bits to celebrate the amazing milestone of 500,000 downloads. Huge thanks to all of you for making this possible by listening!Looking back over the past 5 seasons, there are so many great moments of advice, insight and inspiration from my brilliant guests that it’s hard to choose, but I’ve decided to start with some fascinating extracts from my interview with Dr Catherine Walter. Catherine is an Emeritus Fellow in Applied Linguistics at Oxford University, but she’s also a world-record-holding powerlifter, who took up the sport at the age of 65 and hasn’t looked back since. As you’ll see from these extracts, her story is incredibly inspiring and it’s a real example to any woman who wants to take control of her own health and wellbeing.Tune in to find out about the ins and outs of powerlifting:- what it actually is; how to get started; how it can help your bones; and why it can make such a difference to your health in ways that reach far beyond strength and stamina, helping you become a whole new woman. If you’re inspired by these Best Bits, you can find the full episode in Season 3, Episode 6 where you can hear Catherine’s fascinating story and her excellent advice on strength training. Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

In this episode, we talk about vaginas, vulvas, sex and sex toys, because we can! As young people we all tend to assume that older people don’t have sex, but we midlife women know better, don’t we? It may be more complicated for us, for a variety of reasons, but women in mid and later life are still sexual beings and we have every right to enjoy our intimate life just as much as we did when we were younger. But we all know that there can be obstacles to this, such as dryness, pain, recurrent infections and loss of libido, so my guest today is here to help with all that, because there’s nothing she doesn’t know about how to manage all these pesky issues that get in the way of a happy and fulfilling sex life. My guest in this episode is the brilliant Samantha Evans.  She has a background in nursing, so she knows all the nitty gritty about our intimate areas and she’s the founder of Jo Divine, an online sex toy company designed to support people to enjoy sexual intimacy and pleasure by using skin-safe products and irritant-free lubricants and moisturisers. We discuss everything from how to manage UTIs and thrush to why and how to use a sex toy to maximise your pleasure. What I love about Sam is that she completely normalises what is a sensitive subject for many of us, and she’s so practical and supportive with her advice. Nothing is off the table with her and it’s a wild ride of a conversation, so get your notebooks ready, buckle in and tune in to hear what she’s got to say!If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, remember to subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode and please give it 5 star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on, I’d be so grateful. And do tell your friends and family about it too. It really does make a huge difference to the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.

It’s that time of year when a fresh start seems very appealing so you’ve probably already started thinking about changes you might want to make to your life. I’m not a big fan of the radical detox, because it’s not sustainable and your body won’t really enjoy it or benefit from it in the longterm. On the other hand, simple and consistent changes can make a world of difference to your health and wellbeing and my guest for this episode is just the woman we need to help us create a beautiful midlife for ourselves. I’m delighted that Tania Dalton is joining me today, as she’s the most brilliantly positive person. She found herself ill-equipped to manage her own menopause transition and took action to educate herself in the different ways she could begin to thrive through midlife and beyond. She went on to found Beautiful Midlife, an expert health coaching business which empowers women to make small changes to transform their health, increase their confidence and thrive through this stage of life. She’s full of practical advice and wisdom, so let’s hear what she’s got to say. We discuss Tania’s MELT method – Move Beautiful, Eat Beautiful. Live Beautiful and Think Beautiful and she shares some fantastic advice on how to build these four pillars of her Beautiful Midlife approach. Chatting to Tania was a delight, as she’s just the breath of fresh air that we need to start the year feeling positive and inspired. Tune in for a real treat this January!If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode and please give it 5 star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on, I’d be so grateful. And do tell your friends and family about it too. It really does make a huge difference to the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for my guest. Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my latest book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish.