[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the sync your life podcast today. I’m joined by my new friend, Michelle Newman. Michelle is an international executive leadership coach. She’s a speaker on midlife health, wealth, and relationships. And she’s the host of the new bid podcast and radio show that is ranked in the top two and a half percent globally.

[00:01:15] Jenny Swisher: She’s also the founder of the international community for midlife women, the new mid academy. So I love this idea of the new mid. That’s what we’re going to be talking about today. As we talk about women in midlife, I know all my listeners are, their ears are perking up like, wait, this is me. I need to listen in.

[00:01:29] Jenny Swisher: So without further ado, Michelle, welcome to the show. I would love for you to share with my listeners more about who you are and what you do.

[00:01:37] Michelle Perez Newman: Well, Jenny, first, I just want to say thank you so much for having me on your show and thank you for what you are doing because midlife health is so important now more than ever.

[00:01:47] Michelle Perez Newman: We need to become aware of our health, but it’s a very funny story how I got into this world. Um, I’m a former television executive. I helped launch the talk and let’s make a deal, which was really, really fun. And then my husband got a job in Maryland. So we moved across country. And, um, one of the times I was, maybe some of you moms can relate to me out there.

[00:02:12] Michelle Perez Newman: I’m an older mom. I had my first daughter at 40 and my second at 42. So my daughter was getting ready for her spring concert. She’s 10 and, um, you know, we’re running there. I don’t quite have her dressed in the right thing. All the other moms seem to be like really cool, calm and collected. I’m, I’m starting to get hot flashes.

[00:02:35] Michelle Perez Newman: So she goes up on stage. She starts playing with her two other friends. And one of the, the 30 something year old moms looks at me while I’m having a hot flash and says, wow, you’re getting really emotional. And I had to laugh to myself cause I was like, Oh, don’t worry, you’ll be getting emotional too. But it just had this click Jenny of, wait a minute, this 30 something year old mom is not.

[00:02:59] Michelle Perez Newman: Seeing me as a middle aged woman. She just seeing me as another mom of a 10 year old. And I was like, why am I having such a hard time now? As I mentioned, I was a network executive and we just, the golden age was 18 to 49. So when I turned 49, I was like, Oh no, I’m aging out of the demo. I’m the last year of the demo.

[00:03:20] Michelle Perez Newman: So that’s. That’s a little bit of where my, um, apprehension was coming. And then I just realized, you know what? We are this new midlife, you know, look at JLo, look at Jennifer Gardner. I mean, these women are crushing it and we are too. So we’re not our mom’s midlife word, this whole new mid. And what’s really important is that we take our lives, you know, and really focus on ourselves, focus on our health.

[00:03:51] Michelle Perez Newman: And the ripple effect to the rest of our family is just fantastic.

[00:03:57] Jenny Swisher: Yeah, that’s amazing. And I love, I love the new mid just as a side note, like from entrepreneur to entrepreneur. I love, I love this branding because I think it’s so perfect. And I know one thing that we talked about when we met before was just this.

[00:04:09] Jenny Swisher: And I think this is the perfect place to start is this idea that women just don’t talk about women’s health, right? Like we, we don’t talk about things like perimenopause, menopause. We really don’t have, we don’t talk about our periods. We don’t talk about sex really. And I always say, we don’t talk about it until we talk about it.

[00:04:26] Jenny Swisher: Like all of a sudden when the door is open, all of a sudden women are very eager to share their birth control story or their, you know, hot flash story or whatever, but it’s not something that we usually. Discuss, you know, as a frontline conversation. So I’d love to start here with just why don’t we talk more about menopause and about different phases of life as women?

[00:04:45] Jenny Swisher: Like, what are your thoughts

[00:04:46] on

[00:04:46] Michelle Perez Newman: that? Well, luckily it has been a taboo topic and it’s funny because when you get pregnant, everyone starts to talk about being pregnant, but I have to admit they don’t talk. necessarily, but about some of the, for lack of a better term, gore of being pregnant. I had no idea that after I gave birth that I would get the shakes and I shook from head to toe.

[00:05:12] Michelle Perez Newman: I had no idea what was going on. And then I later found out other women going, Oh yeah, I shook after too. And it’s the releasing of your hormones. So, uh, I, I love that we have this sisterhood and that we can, when you said, when we finally open the door to talk about it, we’ll talk about it. And that has a lot to do with, I don’t know, do you remember everyone’s like, Oh, you’re going through the change.

[00:05:38] Michelle Perez Newman: That was always like the big word was the change. Well, a lot is changing, not only with our bodies, but also with our lives, whether that be at work, that be at home. And these conversations need to be had not just about our health, but what is going on in our full lives. And that’s why I love that you are talking about it as well.

[00:06:03] Michelle Perez Newman: It’s not just one aspect of our lives. It’s the whole thing. And we do, we need each other. We need each other to be able to talk about life. Oh my gosh, last night I, I couldn’t sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and I had these night sweats, you know, what is going on? My mood swings are all over the place.

[00:06:21] Michelle Perez Newman: I walked into a room and I can’t remember why I walked into this room, what’s going on? And then all of a sudden my arm’s not long enough to be able to see the venue. And it, sometimes it feels like it just happens overnight.

[00:06:36] Jenny Swisher: Yeah, it’s that you say this because I lead a community of women who take my course, about women’s health and they, you know, the, the cool thing about that community that I never really anticipated when I created it was the dynamic of different ages and different experiences.

[00:06:50] Jenny Swisher: And one of the things that I love about it is we have women in there who are fresh out of college, who are like. You know, trying to figure out their PCOS and they eventually want to have children and they’re like, what, what’s going on with my hormones. And then we have women in there who are fresh through menopause, right?

[00:07:04] Jenny Swisher: Like , their cycles have stopped. And so it’s interesting, the dynamic and how many times a woman with experience will come in and say. Oh, my gosh, just wait, right? Or I wish I had known this information when I was younger and it kills me, right? Because I know for me, sex ed, for example, was, was something that, you know, we learned in 8th grade and it was about how to avoid teenage pregnancy, at least in my hometown.

[00:07:29] Jenny Swisher: That’s what we learned about as opposed to understanding the female body, understanding female anatomy, understanding our different phases of our cycle and the different energies that we have. And I was in my thirties before I learned that, right. And I’m seeing that happen in my course.

[00:07:42] Jenny Swisher: I see these women who are just like, Oh my gosh, I never realized that I ovulate around a full moon, or I never realized, you know, that, that magnesium would change my life or whatever it is, you know, and so it’s just, it’s so true. And it’s, and it’s unfortunate that sometimes it takes us. Getting to age 50 and getting through that before we realize what just happened.

[00:08:01] Jenny Swisher: Like what just happened these last several years, like what’s happened to my body. Right. But at the same time, I love that dynamic. Of sort of the, you know, 50 plus woman saying to the 20 something or the 30, something like this is what’s coming. And you don’t have to suffer through it. And that’s one thing that I want to talk about with you.

[00:08:18] Jenny Swisher: Um, especially because you speak directly to these midlife women. , is this idea of. We don’t have to struggle through it. It doesn’t have to be a struggle. I know you talk about, you know, healthcare routines and maybe even utilizing hormone replacement therapy and managing your stress. So there’s a lot of different directions we can go with this, but I’d love to just hear your thoughts on do women really have to struggle through these years or how can we really thrive instead?

[00:08:44] Michelle Perez Newman: Well, you know, it’s interesting because We have been living a life that got us to midlife, and that might not necessarily be the healthiest and best habits that we have for ourselves. So take, for instance, wine. I know a lot of women who drank a glass of wine. They had, it was like called the mommy juice.

[00:09:10] Michelle Perez Newman: And that sort of helped ease them, you know, through the kids and what, you know, work and whatever stresses, but they just loved having a glass or two of wine at night. Well, when you get into, into the menopause area, wine is your enemy. It is not your friend. And you think, Oh, no, but I just have to have this glass of wine.

[00:09:36] Michelle Perez Newman: If you’re waking up in the middle of the night with your night sweats, a lot of that is probably because of the wine that you drank before. Alcohol is not your friend, ladies. And you know, they’ll be like, Oh, but I’ve heard one glass of wine a day is really helpful, is really good. Good for me. I’m here to tell you right now, no glass of wine is good or healthy for you.

[00:09:57] Michelle Perez Newman: No alcohol is good or healthy for you. So just saying that right there, I have people that push back on that, but just that one change. And can I tell you, they have some really great mocktails out there. If you really feel like you’re out to dinner and you need to have a drink or something like that, not a huge proponent of it because then we can get into sugar and how sugar wreaks havoc on your hormones and, and wreaks havoc on your hot flashes and all of that stuff.

[00:10:28] Michelle Perez Newman: But I, I just want to. Let you know, Jenny, it’s, it’s a process. Whatever you’re going through right now, the great thing is, is that you’re getting information. It’s really important because we don’t talk about our hormones that we’re losing estrogen and you know, the sex hormones that we have, but what’s so great is you are open to learning.

[00:10:52] Michelle Perez Newman: You’re having this awareness. What is going on with your body? Are you starting to see some weight around your midsection? What is your stress level like? Because then we can talk about cortisol levels. You know, I went through this past year, I had to deal with my father’s health. And he was, you know, it went really bad from January, and then we lost him in May.

[00:11:19] Michelle Perez Newman: And can I tell you, it was a lot of hospitals. My stress level was through the roof and I started to see weight gain around the middle section. That is common. That is not unusual. You are not a bad person if all of a sudden you are used to being thin, and now it’s like weight is starting to pile on and you can’t get it off.

[00:11:41] Michelle Perez Newman: It’s okay. But what you have to realize is we are different now and the type of exercising and what you used to eat might not work now and that’s okay. It’s just having that awareness, being kind to yourself, and then moving forward with all right. How am I going to do this? What am I going to do now? I have one of my clients who is an avid, avid runner.

[00:12:08] Michelle Perez Newman: She loved to run, but now it’s not working for her and she has changed into, now she has a, a really big walking practice and that is working out so much better for her. And it’s okay, but there might be a part of you that is a little sad. Like it’s that awareness, like, Oh, wait, I can’t do the same things that I used to do, but it’s okay.

[00:12:32] Michelle Perez Newman: Because there’s so many new and other options that are out there. So I would say one of the biggest things, Jenny is just. Having that realization that it’s okay to be where you’re at right now. It’s okay. What is going on with your body and getting that awareness and finding out those things and maybe setting down that glass of wine.

[00:12:54] Michelle Perez Newman: Right.

[00:12:55] Jenny Swisher: Yeah, that’s so good. And I recently just did an interview with, um, Julie Gordon white, and she talks about the menopause middle in that, in that episode, she also talks about the fact that. What got us here will not get us there, right? And so be mindful and cognizant of our bodies. One, one testimonial that I hear often from my course takers is thank you for giving me permission to listen to my body.

[00:13:16] Jenny Swisher: I work with a lot of home fitness junkies, right? Women who like to press play on what used to be DVDs. Now it’s online, but. You know, women who are really conditioned to follow a calendar, to push, to do the hit training, to do the heavy lifting, to do all this crazy stuff. And it might’ve worked great in your twenties, but all of a sudden they hit their forties.

[00:13:34] Jenny Swisher: And they’re like, for some reason, my, I have the belly fat now, for some reason, my body isn’t responding what’s happening. And, and sometimes it’s as simple as saying what was working before is no longer working. It’s time for you to shift. Maybe we need to embrace more mobility. Maybe we need to lift differently.

[00:13:50] Jenny Swisher: Maybe we need to, you know, change what we’re doing, like you said. , and change our nutrition as well. It’s not just exercise. But what I find is that women are so resistant to that. Because they’re, in their mind, they’re like, this is what I’ve always done. Why is this not getting me to where I want to go?

[00:14:04] Jenny Swisher: So I love that you just said we might have to really shift our perspective in, in that. Um, I also did an interview with Stacy Miller, which I’ll link up in the show notes as well. It’s called Sober for the Health of It. And we talk more in depth in that episode too, for my listeners about the impacts of sugar and alcohol on, uh, your overnight, your overnight sleep, hot flashes, all those things, it really does affect your symptoms.

[00:14:27] Jenny Swisher: And so sometimes women will say, what’s your number one supplement for, for a hot flashes? And I’m like, ditch the wine. That’s the number one tip I have, because I know for me, I mean, I’m. So I’m 39 and I, I started experiencing perimenopausal symptoms a couple of years ago, quite early, earlier than most. But that’s sort of been my story with, I’ve struggled with low progesterone issues since my twenties.

[00:14:48] Jenny Swisher: And so it’s interesting because I used to be able to have my, my husband and I could share a bottle of wine on a special occasion or something. And all of a sudden now I have half a glass of wine and I fall asleep usually like it knocks me out. And then somewhere around one or two in the morning, I wake up sweating.

[00:15:05] Jenny Swisher: I wake up like. I can’t go back to sleep. My heart is racing. I’m like, what is wrong with me? You know, it’s, there’s nothing wrong with me. It’s just, this is, this is the impact it has on your hormones. And so I know there’s someone listening who’s thinking not me though. Like I have a glass every night or it’s, it doesn’t affect my sleep.

[00:15:21] Jenny Swisher: I’m assuring you, like if you had an aura ring or something to track, you’re going to notice that there are impacts with that. So I love that tip as well.

[00:15:28] Michelle Perez Newman: So Jenny, I love that you bring up that you talk about it with your husband, because I have to give my husband a lot of credit. We did it together. We, cause I told him, I said, look, I’m not going to be able to give up alcohol and watch you drink all the time.

[00:15:43] Michelle Perez Newman: Now I know this isn’t, you know, ideal for every situation. And I know not everyone will probably be able to do this. But I do highly recommend if you can have someone do it with you, an accountability partner. And especially if you have a partner you’re living with, if they can do it with you, or honor, like, Okay, I won’t drink in front of you.

[00:16:05] Michelle Perez Newman: But I’ll never forget when I packed up, I packed up all our alcohol, put it in a box, and I drove it down the street to my brother’s house. And I was like, Here you go. We are just getting rid of all of this stuff. And he’s like, Okay, thanks. And now I realize like I kind of want to take the alcohol out of his house and have him get started on that.

[00:16:24] Michelle Perez Newman: Yeah. Yeah. But you know, it’s also the other thing I was thinking of when you were talking about that. Um, it is also when you eat, if we’re talking a little bit about sleep and again, our night, our hot flashes and night sweats and waking up in the middle of the night. Another big component is when do you stop eating?

[00:16:46] Michelle Perez Newman: When you, you should stop eating two hours before you go to sleep, at least two hours, because you want to give your body enough time to digest and you want your liver to really clean itself out. So that’s when, you know, they talk about intermittent fasting for at least 12 hours, stop eating at seven and, and then don’t start eating again until 7am.

[00:17:11] Michelle Perez Newman: And if you think about it. When we were growing up, or at least when I was growing up, I’m a little bit older than you, we didn’t really eat after dinner. Like a lot of times after dinner, we’re like, Hey, can we go outside and play a little bit more? And then, you know, we would, we would just then go to sleep and wake up in the morning.

[00:17:32] Michelle Perez Newman: And we naturally did intermittent fasting. And I think if you just naturally. go back to that. It will help so much of your menopausal symptoms. The other, the other tip that I’d like to, um, let you know about too is I was just joking how we would go outside and play. Well, you know what? After dinner walk, even if it’s just for 10 minutes.

[00:17:57] Michelle Perez Newman: is really going to help your digestion. It’s really going to help, align your body. And again, it’s going to help with, with your menopausal symptoms and help you have a much better night’s sleep.

[00:18:12] Jenny Swisher: Yeah, absolutely. I talk a lot about just resetting your circadian rhythm with morning and evening walks, even if it’s just 10 minutes, right?

[00:18:18] Jenny Swisher: I said last night, I just went up and down the street. It was a full moon last night at the time of this recording. So the moon was bright in the sky, like it was literally starting to get dark. I could see the moon. And I just walked for 10 minutes, like just feels good to get outside, to breathe in some fresh air.

[00:18:34] Jenny Swisher: And to just reset that circadian rhythm. So, , if you’re listening to this and you’re not, you know, if this sounds foreign to you, I’ll, I’ll link up an episode I have on earthing and vitamin N for nature, but it’s so true that if we can help that, we can almost help our sleep, right? Like if we can reset our circadian rhythm, we can help our sleep.

[00:18:50] Jenny Swisher: This leads perfectly into to ask you about, which is your thoughts. Feelings about routines and how as we enter this midlife, change, or whatever you wanna call it, what are some ways that we can implement different lifestyle factors like these little walks after dinner and such? What else can we do to, um, establish routines for ourselves, whether that’s morning, evening, or both?

[00:19:15] Michelle Perez Newman: I’m so glad you asked me that question because I’m, I’m a huge proponent of having a powerful morning routine. I actually have a little ebook that I’ll give to you so that you can give to your, to your listeners because how you start your day is everything. I can remember I would just like start my day, grab my phone, look at my emails, you know, yell for the kids, get the lunches, you know, and out the door.

[00:19:42] Michelle Perez Newman: And that’s basically your life leading you and you want to take control of your life and you want to lead it. So something that’s really easy, you know, they talk a lot about a gratitude journal and of course having gratitude is extremely important. Especially if you might be feeling down or out, just having gratitude helps a lot.

[00:20:04] Michelle Perez Newman: But sometimes it gets redundant, like these gratitude journals. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, Jenny, but you can start writing you’re grateful for the same thing over and over and over again. One of the things I like to talk about is before you even open your eyes, Just saying thank you as many times as you can that that just starts your day.

[00:20:28] Michelle Perez Newman: Just thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Say it a hundred times or however many times you can and then open your eyes and then you can have and I don’t think a morning routine is one size fits all. I think you have to do it for what is really good for your life. There are certain, certain aspects of a morning routine that you definitely need to have incorporated in there.

[00:20:53] Michelle Perez Newman: The first thing you should drink is some type of a lemon water. There’s different kinds of recipes, different things you can have. But the first thing to help, again, lemon goes in your, into your body, acidic, but it hits your gut and , it’s like an alkaline layer. So having either the lemon or lime is really important.

[00:21:14] Michelle Perez Newman: And then I like my own little concoction where I have a little coconut oil and a little bit of, um, apple cider vinegar. So having that to wake up to and really flesh out your system is fantastic. I’m a huge believer in intentions, intention setting, and being intentional with your day. What is your main thought that you want to think today?

[00:21:38] Michelle Perez Newman: What is your main feeling that you want to have today? What is that intention that you are putting out into the world? And then if you have time to sit and meditate, if you have time to do a walk, all of those things are great to incorporate. But I really think it’s important saying thank you as many times as you can before you get out of bed, drinking your warm lemon water is really good setting your intention.

[00:22:04] Michelle Perez Newman: What is the main thought you want? What is the main feeling that you want? And then from there, everything to me is icing on the cake. You know, that’s the stretching, the, the journaling, the working out, all of that. But sometimes we just don’t have time. You have time to do those few things for yourself and then add on other things as you go.

[00:22:27] Jenny Swisher: Right. Well, yes, one of the things that I find myself saying often is that women in general just wear all the hats, right? So we’re taking care of our kids. Sometimes we’re taking care of our parents. Sometimes we are just doing all the things. I know for me, it’s working from home, making sure my kids get to school, right?

[00:22:42] Jenny Swisher: And it’s easy to miss those routines that are for myself. And I think that that’s where we really have to drill home the importance of, you know, this whole idea of you can’t pour from an empty cup and it doesn’t take a lot of time. I think a lot of people will say like, well, how could I ever have time to fit that in a morning routine can be as simple as five minutes, 10 minutes, right?

[00:23:02] Jenny Swisher: Just like we said, a 10 minute walk after dinner. It doesn’t have to be your whole day, but it can set you up for a more fulfilling, intentional day. Um, one thing I wanted to ask you about, and it’s, it’s going to digress a little away from health a little bit into more of relationships, but I know this is something that you talk about.

[00:23:17] Jenny Swisher: Is this idea of what you call the sandwich generation, which I love, which is women who are in midlife, who are oftentimes caring for younger children and also caring for their parents. How do you, you know, this is something that I’m up against right now, actually. I have a disabled father that lives in my neighborhood, so we help take care of him.

[00:23:35] Jenny Swisher: Um, I have a two year old and a seven year old as well. So, uh, I’m living this sandwich generation, so to speak, as we speak. And I would love to hear your thoughts on How can women navigate this? Because obviously we’re dealing with a lot right now where we just talked about the different symptoms that we’re dealing with on a health level, but then you throw in these relationships and it can make things a little wonky and stressful.

[00:23:55] Jenny Swisher: So what are your tips for navigating that?

[00:23:57] Michelle Perez Newman: First of all, keep a record of how you’re feeling. If you start to feel ragged, if you start to feel overwhelmed,

[00:24:11] Michelle Perez Newman: if you or your loved ones. And it comes out somehow, it’s going to come out getting, you know, the most important thing is you’re not alone and don’t feel like you have to take everything on and do it yourself. It’s wonderful that you have your father and your younger kids. It’s so great to have that intergenerational,, experience and I’ve really sort of helped my daughters.

[00:24:41] Michelle Perez Newman: With with the grandparents. I’ve always had them together. Always had them because there there’s a special bond between grandparents and your and grandkids. It’s different. They don’t have to, you know, they can play and then they don’t have to reprimand them or, you know, those kinds of things. They can just have fun with them.

[00:25:02] Michelle Perez Newman: But it’s also just as important for your kids. To have that relationship with your parents with the elderly, and I think that’s missing out there. So what a gift that you have that. And I think that’s part of it too, is realizing, wow, because it’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day. It’s so easy to get caught up in the grind, but actually take a moment and realize the gift that you have.

[00:25:28] Michelle Perez Newman: And then I like to say, take pictures in your mind. I have pictures in my mind of holding my father in law’s hand when he was older when we were over in England. I have pictures in my, my head of my youngest daughter crawling up onto my mother in law’s lap. So, having that gratitude and realizing what you’re doing, you get to do, it’s a gift.

[00:25:56] Michelle Perez Newman: So, the first thing is, if you are feeling overwhelmed, Get help. Maybe that’s, you know, maybe you have to hire help to help with your father. Maybe you have friends or they have friends, but don’t feel like you have to be a martyr and do it just on your own, yourself. You, you can’t. You know, be, be cognizant of that.

[00:26:19] Michelle Perez Newman: And then the second thing is, is like, you get to do it. Realizing the gift of it, realizing the gift of your parents and of your children is, is wonderful. It sort of alleviates some of that stress. And then the third thing I would say is, Get rid of perfectionism, but you don’t have to cut the star beautiful sandwiches, you know, that the cute other kids have like all the cookie cutter stars and this, that, and the other, get rid of that.

[00:26:50] Michelle Perez Newman: If your kids are getting fed and they’re, they’re healthy and they’re well, that’s great. Take, take that other stuff off of your plate. Yeah. You know, get rid of that, that having to be the perfect mom and that comparison that, that, that needs to go out the window.

[00:27:08] Jenny Swisher: I love that advice. And as you’re saying that, it makes me think.

[00:27:11] Jenny Swisher: We’re actually going to be, uh, my dad stays with us sometimes with my mom goes on these little mini trips and the girl, my girls love it when Papa’s here because, um, they can climb up in his he’s disabled, so he doesn’t move very far and, um, they climb up in his lap or they sit up on his Walker and they watch cartoons and, um, my, my oldest has a routine with him where they, she gets really into, uh, he got her into America’s funniest videos.

[00:27:33] Jenny Swisher: So they watch America’s funniest videos together, which. Is great because it gets her off of whatever else she’s watching, right? But the thing that I love the most is that they do have that bond, but it’s also, I love that you just gave that second piece of advice because I can be really hung up in because I’m so into nutrition and, you know, I’m like, okay, well, we’re going to make, you know, my dad doesn’t like peppers, so I got to stay away from peppers and I’ve got to, okay, but my girls like this.

[00:27:56] Jenny Swisher: So what can we have? And so I ended up making like these healthy dinners. That really don’t matter. I mean, yes, it matters nutritionally, but when my dad’s here, like, let’s just enjoy the moment. Like, if we’re going to order carry out, let’s just order some Mexican food and call it a day versus me stressing out about all the things, making sure that everybody’s taken care of making sure that everybody has this nutritious meal.

[00:28:15] Jenny Swisher: Maybe this is a time where we just need to order out. Right? So I love that advice because, it also helps you as that sort of sandwich generation mom, I’ll say it helps you to live more in that moment. It helps you to live more in that, you know, as opposed to hustling around the kitchen, getting everything done.

[00:28:33] Jenny Swisher: It’s like, Hey, let’s just all sit here and be together and make this more simple. I think we, we bring a lot of stress on ourselves. You know, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves and a lot of stress on ourselves. So I love that advice. One thing that you say is you say that midlife can be our power years.

[00:28:49] Jenny Swisher: And I want to make sure that we talk about this because, I know a lot of women who they hit this stride in life. They hit their forties. For example, I see this often, they start not feeling like themselves anymore, right? We’ve talked about that. They see these weird symptoms. All of a sudden they’re like, who am I?

[00:29:03] Jenny Swisher: Where, you know, where’s this body coming from? They start having all these different feelings like we’ve also alluded to. There can be different stressors relationship wise at this phase of life as well. So you tell us, how can we pivot this? How can we pivot this into being. Our power years. I have a sync certified coach on my team who recently did a reel on social media.

[00:29:22] Jenny Swisher: And I loved it because it was all about turning perimenopause into the new sexy years. So I’d love to hear your perspective on how we can make this part of our life. The most powerful years we have.

[00:29:34] Michelle Perez Newman: Well, it’s so funny because I don’t, I don’t even think it can be our power years. I think it is our power years, ladies.

[00:29:42] Michelle Perez Newman: I mean, midlife is the perfect time of our lives. We’ve experienced some stuff and we’ve made it through and we know we’re resilient. We know we can get through certain things and we know we can do certain things and we’re still young enough. We’re still healthy enough. What is it? A lot of times to this point, we’ve been living for other people.

[00:30:06] Michelle Perez Newman: You know, we’ve been living for our kids or living for, you know, to do this work or that. Now is the time I want you to ask yourself, what do you want? What do you want out of this life? Because you can absolutely have the time, have the resources to, to chart this new territory of doing things that you want to do, taking the skills that you have, taking your energy, taking all of that and turning it into something that’s powerful for yourself.

[00:30:38] Michelle Perez Newman: And not giving your power away. You know, everybody says, you know, when you get to midlife, you look at these people and they might say something or whatever. And you’re like, yeah, I don’t really care anymore. I don’t really care what they say or they think. And that’s what’s so powerful about it. So take it, take this time.

[00:30:57] Michelle Perez Newman: What is it that you want? And it’s so amazing to have this self awareness to have this self awareness. of your desires and your dreams and designing that second half of what you want it to look like and what you want it to be instead of just constantly living for others.

[00:31:19] Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Mindset, right? Perspective.

[00:31:22] Jenny Swisher: I love that. Yeah. And I think too, you know, that It really is. I was just talking to someone else about this yesterday. This idea of, you know, things can happen and you have to you have to embrace the fact that they’re not happening to you. They’re happening for you. And so I think you’re, you’re onto something when you say that, you know, we, they, we say, like, as you get older, you get wiser, right?

[00:31:43] Jenny Swisher: So, as we get.

[00:31:49] Jenny Swisher: Um, perspective on life. I know even for me, I have so much more compassion and, um, I don’t know what the right word is, but respect, I guess, for my mom being a mother now. And so. You know, a lot of, in a lot of ways, like the little frustrations of the day to day. I’m like, how did my mom, like my mom did this with me?

[00:32:08] Jenny Swisher: You know, like I have those thoughts all the time. And it’s just being able to experience that makes me wiser in ways. Right. And so I love that you said that too, about just ditching what other people think. I think I’ve, I’ve already, I think I hit that mark a few years ago. I think I hit it a little earlier because, you know, as someone who puts themselves out on social media, you have to be okay with just, I’m not going to be everybody’s cup of tea.

[00:32:29] Jenny Swisher: Um, but there’s something to that of just stepping into this power of, no, I am who I am and now I’ve learned who I am and I’m confident in that. And. I’m not going to really, I don’t have time for anything else, right? Like this life is short and I’m going to live it to the fullest as we close up our time.

[00:32:45] Jenny Swisher: Cause this has been awesome. I mean, I want to have you back on eventually to talk more about, we didn’t even touch on like hormone replacement therapy and managing stress. I think we both speak to the same type of woman, so we should definitely connect again in the future for another episode. But for now, I want to end with this question before we direct people to you.

[00:33:04] Jenny Swisher: And that is. Something that I see creep up often for the women that I coach, which is, you know, a combination of both anxiety during these perimenopausal years and, um, mental health, like really struggling with this, and I know we’ve just talked about like mindset, but what are your tips for women as they sort of, , need to be caring for themselves mentally through this time of their life during midlife?

[00:33:30] Jenny Swisher: What are your tips for managing that anxiety, um, and managing that

[00:33:34] Michelle Perez Newman: stress? Let Thank you for asking that question. I just want you to know, ladies, that it, it, it’s simple, believe it or not. The most important thing you can do when you’re, when you’re feeling out of sorts, the top three things that you need for your mental health, for your physical health, for everything is sleep, diet, exercise, dial in those three things.

[00:34:04] Michelle Perez Newman: And I am telling you, everything else will fall into place. Sleep is so key. There’s so many reasons that sleep is important. And I could get into an entire list of what you need to do to have a good night’s sleep. You know, I’ll just give you a couple, couple little ones. Because I know we’re almost timed out, but one is turn off your overhead lights.

[00:34:27] Michelle Perez Newman: Turn on lamps. If you have overhead lamp lights on your body, your circadian rhythm things that it’s still daylight. It’s still, I should still be awake. Good night. So as you’re getting two hours before you go to bed, which hopefully you either have blue light glasses on or you’ve turned off all your electrics, don’t have any overhead lights on warm showers at night.

[00:34:48] Michelle Perez Newman: Wonderful way to, to get that through ladies, ladies, two to four hours, stop drinking because I know we can have a bladder thing going on. And I also know that some of that is also mindset. So, um, and then I like to what I call pillow talk. The last thing you watch, say, read, think, needs to be positive. Have pillow talk for yourself.

[00:35:14] Michelle Perez Newman: So give a compliment if you, if you’re sleeping with, you know, someone, your spouse, your partner, give them a compliment. Like, Have the last thing that you say out loud be something positive and you think and you you know If you’re having some major stress going on I like to have what I call a junk journal and this is just to write down the junk This is not a gratitude journal ladies This is a junk journal Get all the junk out and just keep going until you don’t have any more junk to write about that’s really fun, too And then of course your diet.

[00:35:54] Michelle Perez Newman: My number one tip would be get rid of the wine, get rid of the alcohol, and then really watch your sugar intake. And ladies, there’s sugar hidden everywhere. It’s such a bummer, but it really is. And I don’t like those processed food companies because they make it fun to eat that stuff. Like we enjoy eating processed food.

[00:36:14] Michelle Perez Newman: So I get that. And then finally, movement. You get out and walk, you know, move your body and all. If you dial in all three of those things, the main three, you will be amazed at how many things will start changing as far as going with anxiety and stress.

[00:36:32] Jenny Swisher: Yeah. So we align perfectly on that. I have, I have what I call the four fundamentals of hormone balance and they are in order sleep, Nutrition exercise and supplementation.

[00:36:42] Jenny Swisher: And so, you know, we didn’t even get into the world of supplementation today because for some people, but it really does start with lifestyle and you just touched on the high points, right? Pillow talk. I love that phrase. Junk journal, getting rid of the wine and sugar and movement. Like what a great start and it’s doable, right?

[00:36:58] Jenny Swisher: Like I think overcomplicate, you know, every day I have a woman who’s like, what’s the best exercise program for me right now? Or what’s the best meal plan? What’s what macros should I be following or whatever? And I’m like, the best advice I can give you is go for walks. De stress, like regulate your nervous system, live in gratitude, do some, like calm down, right?

[00:37:20] Jenny Swisher: Like I say it all the time here on the podcast, like women need to calm the F down without a calm nervous system. Your body’s going to hold onto the weight. Your body has to feel safe. That’s number one. So if anybody asked me like in one sentence, what do women need to be doing? They need to be putting their bodies in a state of safety.

[00:37:40] Jenny Swisher: It needs to feel safe in order for them to thrive that goes for combating anxiety that goes for better sleep that goes for better relationships like calming down is going to be step one, but I love that you just touched on the same fundamentals that I teach as well. So hearing it sometimes from someone else, uh, is, is the kicker.

[00:37:56] Jenny Swisher: So thanks for reinforcing that. So Jenny.

[00:38:00] Michelle Perez Newman: Jenny, we didn’t even get into meditation. I know. We didn’t even touch on that. And I have a whole theory on that as well. Um, cause I’m, uh, I’m getting certified right now through Deepak Chopra. So I’m all into the meditation right now. But the thing, the thing is, is I’m just going to throw this out when you’re like, talk about, you know, not being stressed and all of that.

[00:38:22] Michelle Perez Newman: Give yourself silence. Don’t worry about the mind. The mind is going to race. Bring it back down. Give yourself, I would, I would say 10 minutes of silence a day. But if you, if that’s a lot, just start with five and work yourself up to 10, but just give yourself that time to be present with yourself.

[00:38:43] Jenny Swisher: So good.

[00:38:44] Jenny Swisher: So good. And so true. And honestly, that’s the hardest thing for me. I can do the movement. You know, it’s been killing me with vertigo these last few weeks to not be able to do the movement that I normally do. The movement, I got that down. The nutrition, I feel like I got that down. Like everything else.

[00:38:58] Jenny Swisher: But when you tell me the silence and the stillness. And the breathing. I feel like my body goes into panic, like what, like how can I possibly do somewhere? My yoga instructors listening to this laughing, I’m sure. so anyways, okay, well, thank you for this. This is incredible. And I made some notes because I want to make sure that I have you back on to, to touch on the things we didn’t have time for today.

[00:39:19] Jenny Swisher: But before we go, I’d love for you to just share with our listeners, where can they find you specifically? And I know you mentioned your ebook, I know you’ve got a podcast, so tell us all the things.

[00:39:29] Michelle Perez Newman: Um, yes, I am everything the new mid, uh, I have a podcast, like you said, the newmid, I have a Facebook group, the newmid, Instagram, the newmid.

[00:39:39] Michelle Perez Newman: So I would love to get to know you guys. And uh, I do have a powerful morning routine ebook. I also have an ebook find you again, which I think is really important that we find ourselves in midlife because we’ve had all of these layers put on top of us and now is our time. It’s our power years, ladies. It is time for us to tune in to what we want.

[00:40:04] Jenny Swisher: Awesome. Okay, friends, you guys know I’ll link it all up for you in the show notes everywhere you can find Michelle. Shout her out on your social media, right? Like shout her out for this. Reach out to her. Um, check out her ebook, all the things. So Michelle, thank you so much for being with us today. I hope you’ll come back for another episode in the future, but until then we’ll talk soon.

[00:40:22] Jenny Swisher: Thank you so much,

[00:40:23] Michelle Perez Newman: my friend. Thank you.