# The Scale is LYING to You (& Destroying Your Self-Worth) with Dr. Rachel Goldman

An episode of [Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1503897906), 6 Jul 2026, 1 h 19 min.

Audio: https://media.transistor.fm/7825a144/349cc1ff.mp3

What if the biggest obstacle to better health isn't your diet and instead it's the relationship you've built with your body? In this conversation, I sit down with psychologist Dr. Rachel Goldman to unpack why so many women struggle with body image, emotional eating, food noise, and self-worth, especially during midlife. We explore why lasting health isn't built through shame or punishment. It's built through curiosity, compassion, and learning to work with your body instead of constantly fighting against it. We also discuss the psychology behind food noise, body neutrality, GLP-1 medications, menopause, emotional eating, and why your relationship with yourself influences every health decision you make. If you've ever felt like your body has betrayed you, this episode offers a different perspective. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why body image goes far beyond what you see in the mirror • The difference between body positivity and body neutrality • Why food noise develops and how to begin quieting it naturally • How emotional eating becomes a learned coping strategy • Why your self-worth should never depend on the number on the scale • How menopause changes the emotional relationship women have with their bodies • Why slowing down at meals changes more than digestion Resources Mentioned • When Life Happens • The Body Keeps the Score • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) • The Reset Academy • Nervous System Reset Guide More on Dr. Rachel Goldman Dr. Rachel Goldman is a licensed psychologist, clinical assistant professor, media health expert, and nationally recognized speaker specializing in health behavior change, obesity, eating behaviors, stress management, and cognitive behavioral therapy. She is the author of When Life Happens, a practical guide for navigating life's challenges with evidence-based psychological tools. • Website: https://drrachelnyc.com • Instagram: @drrachelnyc • When Life Happens by Dr. Rachel Goldman • For more resources related to today’s episode, visit the podcast episode page: https://www.drmindypelz.com/ep349/ Connect with Dr. Mindy: • Join Reset Academy • Watch the episodes on YouTube • Follow Dr. Mindy on Instagram • Subscribe to Dr. Mindy’s newsletter for tools and research on fasting, hormones, and metabolic health Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your diet, fasting routine, or lifestyle.

## Transcript

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(Gentle Music)
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Hey, Dr. Mindy here, and welcome to the Live Like a Girl podcast, where I bring you icons, disruptors, educators, scientists, and doctors that show you what can be possible when you love and celebrate the female body you are blessed to live in. Let's dive in.
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Learning to love your body is no simple task. Most of us have spent our whole lives measuring ourselves against the images we see in movies, on social media, and in magazines. But here's a startling truth. Only about 5% of women are naturally built like the bodies we see on those mediums. So we continue to effort, we manipulate, we medicate, sometimes we punish, hoping our bodies will finally cooperate. And then there's the food noise. Can we talk about the food noise for a hot second? It's the term that's taken the metabolic world by storm, the relentless intrusive chatter telling you to eat, not because you're hungry, because the voice won't go quiet. For some women, it takes over their entire day. Over the last two years, food noise went everywhere, TikTok, the news, Oprah's stage, and it surged for one reason. A new class of weight loss drugs swept the culture and women started reporting something they had never felt before, silence. The voice went quiet. And for so many of them, that quiet mattered more than the number on the scale.
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And the scale of this is staggering. One in eight American adults is currently taking a GLP-1 drug. One in eight. Among people living with obesity, more than half, around 50% say that they've been living with this food noise, not hunger, but actual noise. 58% of women in this country say they wanna lose weight. Not, wouldn't mind if they lose weight, but they want to lose weight. This is at a far higher rate than men. A gap that's barely budged in 50 years. On average, women sit about 20 pounds from the weight we tell ourselves we should be.
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Like, think about that for a moment. We are always hoping we are gonna lose that weight someday.
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And here's where it starts to turn really dangerous because food noise rarely is about food. There's something deeper here that's gonna allow us to understand. There's noise in our head. It festers, it becomes guilt, it becomes shame. It becomes a voice whispering that you're not disciplined enough. You're not good enough. You're not small enough. And unfortunately, it doesn't stay in the kitchen. It walks into your meetings, sits down with you at a family dinner, and it decides how you feel in the mirror before you've even leave your house. So when a woman tells me she wants to care for her health, her energy, her labs, her long life, I am all in. But when a woman tells me that she can't lose weight, she says it with her head down, like there's something wrong with her, like she's failed some test that everyone else has passed. When she tells me she wants to shrink herself and take up less space because the world made her believe smaller is better, that's when I pull the emergency brake. And that's when we go deeper. Because you can love how you look and you can fight for your health at the same time. Both can live in the same body, your body. And I refuse to let one woman believe she has to silence herself or become smaller in order to be worthy. This is why I am bringing you Dr. Rachel Goldman. Dr. Rachel Goldman is a clinical psychologist and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU, Grossman School of Medicine. This woman knows her stuff. She specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy, disordered eating, and the mind-body connection. And her new book, "When Life Happens," hands women real tools to quiet the stress, quiet the noise, rebuild the confidence, and reframe the way we see our bodies. She's been featured in Time Magazine, The New York Times, CNN, and On the Today Show, and she shared the stage with Oprah herself. And today, she sits down with me for all of it. The body image, and yes, that voice, that noise, that maybe has been talking to
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Dr. Rachel Goldman, let me start off by welcoming you to my new upgraded podcast, Live Like a Girl podcast. I am so excited for this conversation and thank you for joining me. Of course, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with you today. One of the reasons I want to bring you to my audience is because you are talking about something that I see my audience both on podcast and on YouTube really struggle with and it's body image. So let's start here.
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I've heard you say that food and body struggles are not willpower, that there is a psychological, a biological explanation for why we gain weight, hate our bodies, especially hate our belly fat and so can you start by expanding upon that? Yeah, so there's, I mean, first of all, it goes so deep, right? I think we could just think about the messages that we are given beginning at a young age actually and from all around us, right? I don't like to blame our parents but it's messages from everywhere and everyone. It's media, it's all of these things that's been throwing these messages at us and then we internalize them. So when we hear things, we eventually internalize it and I like to remind people that our thoughts, emotions and behaviors are all linked. So if we hear something that we internalize, we start thinking it, that self talk, the thoughts, that then impacts how we feel, that that impacts our behaviors. So if we're thinking something that can lead to all of these things and it's not just about willpower, if it was as easy as just eat less and move more, we wouldn't have an obesity problem. We wouldn't have all of these things, all of these other health conditions as well. It's not that easy. Yeah, I heard a statistic the other day that is quite frightening and it's that only 5% of women naturally possess the body type that is most often portrayed in American media. Only 5% of us naturally look like that and that's what we're measuring ourselves against when we look at movies and commercials and social media, but only 5% of us have this naturally. Where do we begin to unwind this obsession with looking like the woman down the street or the woman on Instagram or the celebrity who now has gotten thinner and thinner? How do we stop that? And I think that statistic is where we can start. For people to become aware that only 5% naturally look like this and have that body type because I think again, we're given all of these messages and the idea is that we should, I
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And that's the first place to look and to understand is that this isn't realistic, right? Yes. And to understand our bodies and our needs and that's so hard to do with all the noise. I like to call it noise, right? Yeah, that's a good way to explain it. The noise of the Instagram and the comparison and the media and all of these things. That's noise that's getting in the way of us really being able to turn inward and understand our bodies and what our bodies need, which often our bodies are giving us signals, but we live in this world that's go, go, go, go, go all the time, that nobody has time to listen to their bodies and they're ignoring those messages. Yeah, so what's the difference between body image and self image? Are they intertwined? They are intertwined. And I think it's, the way I like to describe it is that our self, our bodies, we all have a body and how we feel about our body is going to impact how we feel about ourself as a whole. It's really hard to separate that. But also body image is more than just what we see in the mirror. It's really how we feel and think and view our bodies. It doesn't matter what we see in the mirror. It's really more about how we feel and how we feel and think about our bodies as a whole. And it can shift. So every day we could wake up feeling differently about our bodies and about ourselves. So our body image is, I like to think of it as kind of on a continuum. We don't always have, say positive body image. We don't always have low body image. It can shift, it can change based off of so many different things. And that impacts how we feel about ourselves as a whole because we live in our bodies, we're moving around in our bodies all day, every day. So it's really hard to separate that. But self image is also how you feel about yourself. Exactly. And so this is something that I've really tried to talk to my following about and have a really open discussion because if I feel bad about myself, I may be more inclined to go eat.
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And to have like a 70 year old, I was 50 at the time, turn around and give me reflection that she is looking at a younger part of her. And that we, you know, and then I see through her lens that, oh wait, the goal is to love living in your body. Here's the 70, right now, yeah, the 75 year old is enjoying watching me live in my body. Am I enjoying watching me live in my body? Right, I love that she did that. Isn't that sweet? Yeah, I feel like I'd be like, oh my God, thank you so much. I did, I did and it really made me look at, I really started to make my guiding light, this idea that what the goal of health in general was to love living in my body. And it changed the way I approached my health. It was one woman's comment. So I want, and because that freed me, I'm like, how do we get more women understanding that the target that they have been efforting and trying to achieve is a very difficult target to achieve. And when they don't achieve it, they think their bodies betrayed them. So how do we help that mindset where I tried every diet, I did all these things, it must be my genetics, I must not be able to lose weight, my body is betraying me, I have so many followers that think their body is betraying them. What is the mindset shift on that? Yeah, I think the first thing is to acknowledge that it's not your fault, right? And just because it's not working right now, doesn't mean that something's wrong with you or that you're broken in any way. I mean, there is a genetic part, right? It could be like the biology, maybe it's time to seek a doctor and to see what's going on. But I think to drop some of the expectation that it should be a certain way or that we should look like everybody else or we should fit into the clothes that we wore years ago, right, and kind of to accept like what you were saying with this lady, accept where we are right now and, I love the power of and, and then what can I do about it, right? Like two things can be true at the same time. Like
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research that continues to come out. It's like if your body has an ability to talk to you, it has ability to be in relationship with you, it loves you. And yet we spend so much time hating on it. Right. We ignore it and we hate it. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. It's so unfortunate. Where do you think that this is that body positivity, body image, where do you think that's gonna go with the new obsession of the weight loss drugs?
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I can't predict the future.
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But I, you know, it's so interesting because I think in one sense, we have come a long way in terms of the treatment of obesity, having some of these medications available, people seeking treatment, people talking about it openly, normalizing some of it. And on the flip side, I think there is an obsession that has continued with, I hate the term, but I'm gonna use it because it's like a headline with like shrinking bodies, right? And it's scary because when individuals are on these medications that they're not necessarily indicated for, there is then the comparison of, well, if they're on it and they're losing weight, should I be on it? Should I be losing weight? What's wrong with me? I didn't think they were overweight, but if they're, you know, like kind of this comparison happens and then we internalize those messages and that leads to more shame and guilt as well. Right. So, you know, I don't really know. I know in the field, you know, there's more medications coming out. There's, you know, there's gonna be more research coming out, we're gonna learn more. We've come a long way in that with the science,
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but I hope, you know, it stops in a way, you know, that individual, you know, because it's too easy to get it, unfortunately, to get some of the medications that they're, you know, not necessarily indicated for some individuals. And I like to think of it as those individuals who are on them are using them like a crash diet, really. Yeah. Right, it's like the quick fix, which is not gonna be sustainable. You're not working on the mindset, you're not working on the relationship with your food or body. Maybe you're losing X amount of weight for a short time. So, you know, hopefully it'll be kind of like diet culture in a way and like, oh, it's the in thing and then it dies off, hopefully. And it dies out, yeah. Right, other than for the people who really need it. That's right. Yeah, do you think, one thing I've been, again, educating my following on is that when you have a physical challenge, whether it's I need to drop 50 pounds or I need to overcome an autoimmune condition, and you go and seek answers for that, and then you put in the effort to be able to overturn that. There's a lot of self pride. We're back at the self image. Like your confidence, your self image goes up because you had to face something hard and you had to create new neurons in your brain to overcome that hard. And one of the aspects that I'm concerned about is the way that the drugs get handed out. There's no lifestyle like suggestions. And now I lose weight, but I didn't have to overcome anything to be able to do that. From a psychologist standpoint, is that a dangerous approach if all of a sudden that becomes our number one way to lose weight? Yeah, and I mean, it's dangerous to begin with if people that these medications are not indicated for are using them, right? Like studies haven't been done on individuals with say a normal BMI using these medications, right? They're indicated for diabetes and obesity. So I think there's danger in that alone. And then there's danger even on with the
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So the way that I like to think of it similarly, I think is, it's a signal, right? It's our brain giving us a signal. And this is why I mentioned before the eating disorder experts and the obesity experts. Right, yeah, it's an interesting mixture. Because we see food noise in individuals that restrict also, right? People can have food noise in any body shape and size. And I think that's really important to acknowledge because if somebody is restricting, they're gonna have louder food noise because the body wants food. Our brain is wired for survival. Interesting. So our brain is gonna keep giving us this noise that's like eat, eat, because you're hungry, you are physiologically hungry. So I think, I absolutely agree with you, we weren't born with food noise. And it has evolved, I think for many reasons. One, it could be biological because our bodies need food. And I think because of all of the noise around us, right? Like our brains also weren't wired for constant messages. Like all of the commercials and all the food and all the food availability and accessibility. We live in a different world than our brains were really wired for. Yeah. Is there a way to overcome food noise without the medication?
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I would like to say yes.
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And the first thing I do with my clients is actually make sure that they're eating regularly throughout the day. Because again, restricting can lead to that. And when I say restricting, though it may not just be restricting calories, it may be restricting food groups. It may be eating enough in terms of what you think should be enough for you. But oftentimes people aren't eating enough substance that's going to satisfy them, not just physiologically, but emotionally and psychologically. So I like to really look at what my clients are eating throughout the day and make sure they're eating regularly throughout the day. How are they eating? Are they eating quickly and mindlessly? I would first have them slow down and participate in more mindful eating. Maybe see a dietician and add some more protein and fiber and things like that. And then I usually, the food noise quiets a little bit, because again, I think it's a signal and it's a sign. And I think individuals in larger bodies that struggle with obesity, it's kind of the same. I think their brains and bodies are telling them to eat more, even though they're eating X amount of food. I'm not saying that they all overeat because they don't. But I think if we go back to the basics, like very basics, like let's eat regularly throughout the day. Let's make sure we're eating enough nutrients. Let's eat mindfully and slow down. I think we can quiet the food noise.
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Ironically, what you just proposed is the opposite of what people do once they get on the drug because they don't get enough nutrients and they don't eat enough. So it quiets it, but then they perpetuates the behavior that got them there in the first place. So oftentimes with my clients, I know that the medication is making them eat less. I know it's decreasing their cravings. I know it's decreasing their appetite, but it's still very important to be eating those nutrients and making sure they're feeling their bodies. I mean, it's feeling our brain and our bodies, right? Oftentimes I hear clients, I can't concentrate. Irritable, I can't focus, I can't get through the day. I'm so tired. And many times that's because they're not eating enough. Yeah, yeah. What does true hunger signal feel like to the brain? Do we have any idea?
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You know, I could kind of just think about like what do, you know, the mind-body connection is real. So kind of like what that hunger is signaling to the brain. But again, I think we're gonna hear that chatter and then it's gonna impact because everything's related, it's gonna impact our emotions, our mood, our productivity. So again, when we start hearing like, I'm so tired, I feel lethargic, I don't have energy, my sleep isn't good, my focus isn't good, I can't concentrate. They're probably not properly fueling themselves. And that's gonna show up in all of these areas of their life and their brain is gonna signal that something's wrong and their body might start kind of shutting down in a way. Like this is when we start maybe seeing illness as well. Or that stress mind-body connection, it's stress on our bodies. So that can exacerbate illness and all these other things. So I think it's important that we don't separate mind and body, they're constantly sending signals and messages to each other. But in a normal day, if I eat breakfast, then and I eat a good nutritious breakfast, that's key, because I just heard that. That's the key. And what you just said. Like coffee is not breakfast. Right, so I should feel like, oh, I'm full, that was good. And for a couple of hours, I should not be thinking about food. And then maybe the next meal is, oh, it's lunch now. Okay, I'm hungry again. Oh, I haven't eaten a few hours. That would be the normal pattern. But what I'm understanding from people who have extreme food noises, it just never stops you. Eating it just never stops. Exactly, right. And again, before we had this term, I think people thought something was wrong with them. Yeah, right. Right? Like why am I thinking about food all the time? What's wrong with me? I can't concentrate. But yes, I think for the person without food noise or without loud food noise, it would be, it's time to eat. I eat, I feel satisfied. We don't necessarily have to be super full, but I'm
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In your clinical experience, how many people use food as an emotional support system? Most.
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Literally, I mean, what I typically say is I don't know somebody who has ever not turned to food at least once, right? For a coping mechanism or a coping tool. And I like to normalize that because there's, you know. That's a good point. Yeah, everybody does it at some point or another. The problem becomes when it's your only coping tool, right? So turning to food sometimes when you're emotional is totally fine, we all do it. So, but if it's your only coping tool, like it's the only tool in your toolbox that can become problematic just like alcohol, right? People turn to alcohol sometimes to cope, fine. But is it your go-to? Are you doing it on most days that could be problematic? And or it becomes problematic if it causes distress, right? If it is causing you to have distress, you're beating yourself up over it, that shame, that guilt, it becomes a cycle, then it's also problematic. Yeah. I know a big part of CBT is giving people exercises and homework to go do. At least that's my novice opinion of what I have several friends that are CBT therapists. So if you were to give somebody who says, I think about food all the time, I don't wanna go on the drugs, I use it for my emotional support system. Is there any kind of action items or homework they can do to start to go into a self inquiry to unwind that? Yeah, and the first thing would be, I would acknowledge that awareness that they already have. Right? Like, wow, like I'm turning to food, when I'm feeling emotional, what can I do? Right? So kind of give that positive reinforcement that that's a great first step that a lot of people don't really realize. So that's great. And then what I would say is, the next time you catch yourself turning to food, I want you to pause and check in with yourself. And you can ask yourself a few questions. It can be like, when is the last time that I ate? Right? Because if you ate an hour ago, that's gonna give you a different message than if you ate three hours ago. Maybe you're
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And that was also a key moment in my brain. She was a hot moment, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you do when somebody, it goes all the way back and food has been used as punishment and food has been used as love and food has been used to push down our emotions. Like it's so complex. Yeah. And how do we unwind that? Yeah, and I like to remind people that we know more now than we knew then. Yeah, good, well said. Because again, I have so many clients that will blame their parents. And I'm like, we can't blame your parents. We can blame society, right? But we can't blame your parents. That's what they were taught, right? Like people joke about like the clean plate club, right? Like we were brought up as like, you finish what's on your plate. My kids know, you eat until your fall, they're satisfied. It's all right that there's leftovers, you'll have them tomorrow, you know? It's fine. But I think that's important to first acknowledge that we can't necessarily put blame on our parents or our childhood. But I think it's a big aha moment for a lot of people because a lot of people that do have poor relationships with food or their body, it probably did stem from those messages either from their parents in their household and or the outside world. But again, because that was the message and that's what we knew at the time. We also thought calories in calories out, move more, eat less. We know more now, we know differently. So I think that first thing is that aha moment, that awareness and then like, okay, what works for me? Yeah. Right? What do I need right now, right? And then to separate and maybe again, those reframes, right? Like for you, I would say like, you know, maybe identify other ways that people show you love, right? Right. These sides through food. Like let's identify, you know, well, the hug, the this, the phone call, the text messages, the check-ins, all these other things also can equal love to kind of try to take food out of that equation and kind of
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Then you change the mechanism in which you use food, then you can change the behaviors that follow that. Exactly, yeah. And I think it's also okay to, I want people to eat food that tastes good at the same time. Well, good food, I mean, healthy food can taste amazing. I love vegetables. I think they're so tasty to me. But I agree, but it's important to think of how it's gonna make you feel also. So I actually, I feel like every night, I say this to my son, for instance, I'm like, well, let's check in with your belly. Whenever he's jumping to the second, he's like, can I have seconds? I'm like, you didn't even finish firsts yet. I'm like, let's just finish what you're eating or eat when you're ready, and then we'll check in with your belly and see how you feel. If your belly thinks it wants more, we'll eat a little more. If your belly thinks it needs a break, we'll take a break. So let's not jump ahead. So again, there's so much to food, but it's gonna make us feel a certain way. I know when I overeat or eat food that doesn't have proper nutrients, I feel like crap. And that doesn't feel good. And sometimes though, the tricky part is, people sometimes know that, and it's still hard to change the behavior. That's where it gets a little tricky. How many people do you see that are just eating unconsciously? I think a lot of people. Most of them, right? I think that, if they're listening to this conversation, I think that would be the biggest takeaway is be intentional. Absolutely, and the best way to start doing that is by plating your food, sitting down at a table or a countertop, but sitting, not standing over the counter, not eating out of the bag, plating your food, sitting down and taking slow bites. I tend to tell people it's really hard and it sounds so silly, but by slowing down, what I mean is, if this was your utensil, I would say take a bite, put it down, chew, chew, chew, until there's nothing left in your mouth, and then you pick it up again, if that's a
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So it's a complicated question.
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If I had to give an easy answer, I would say harmful. But what I'm gonna add to that is it's data if you use it properly, right? I think it can be, it can be a data point. It can be. It doesn't tell the whole story though. And for most people, that's the part that way I said, if I had to give an easy answer, I would say it's harmful because it doesn't tell the whole story. I think if somebody can step on the scale and acknowledge, yup, I'm up a few pounds because I ate out last night and I ate salty food and I did XYZ and move on with our day, fine. It's a data point. It kind of gives them that, oh yeah, I ate out last night. All right, no big deal, data point. But unfortunately, most people can't do that. And the scale gives us a number that for most people is now tied to their self worth. And it tells them what to do, right? Like most people will look at it and be like, oh, I gained weight, now I need to restruct or I need to watch what I'm eating. I always joke, I wish you could step on the scale and it would stay strong or it would say happy. Oh my God, wouldn't that be great? I know, like yes, I am strong today.
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You need to invent that scale. Somebody needs to invent that scale. I know, it would really be life changing
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because I mean, really, cover up the number, just put strong on it, put happy on it, whatever. But I think if people are going to use it as a data point and talk to your doctor about it and understand what it means and maybe tie it with other things in your life, right? Like look at your behaviors, look at your lab work. It is a data point in the big picture. But overall, it doesn't really tell us anything else. So it can be pretty icky. I think for people and I try to tell people, let's first work on the relationship that they have with themselves and food. And if there's other measures, you're gonna, most people know if they gained weight too. Yeah, that's what I, my scale broke like 10 years ago and I decided to use how I feel and how I fit in my clothes. I was just gonna say the clothes are a better indicator. And does it really matter if you gained five pounds or 10 pounds? No, you know that your clothes don't fit. Okay, that's an indicator. That's also a data point, right? So I think it gets, because everyone thinks that they have this ideal body weight or they have this goal in their mind. They're going, yeah. And again, that goal keeps moving. And then what I often say is, whatever that ideal weight is in your head, what if you step on this scale and you lost weight if you need to lose weight or you're intending to lose weight? And it's not quite there yet. Your brain is gonna tell you, I failed. I didn't meet my goal. But really, maybe the goal was to get healthier, to start eating more fruits and vegetables. Maybe you're doing all of that, but the scale isn't there yet, right? So again, I think we really need to go back to what's my goal? What am I trying to really accomplish here? Right. The scale is probably not the answer. No, that's why I love what this woman said to me, this 70-some year old woman was like, I realized, oh, the goal is to love living in my body. And it changed the way I looked at all my health habits. And I asked myself every day when
\[00:58:31:23 - 00:59:00:15\]
Our bodies change also, unfortunately. I mean, hormones change. All these things happen. That is natural. That's being human and having a human body. Those things are going to happen. But that idea or that expectation that we should be able to fit into those clothes or be that size or shape or number on the scale is really setting people up for failure and making people so disappointed when it's really just unrealistic. Right.
\[00:59:02:01 - 00:59:18:04\]
I mean, again, after I heard it enough times, I was like, what exactly is this situation that we've got going here? What do you think about menopausal women? Because this is a real-- a lot of my audience is over 40.
\[00:59:19:07 - 00:59:22:08\]
You just start gaining weight for no particular reason.
\[00:59:23:12 - 01:00:48:13\]
And it's really frustrating. And what would you say to that woman? Like, how do we emotionally help her? Yeah. So I like to first acknowledge that it's hard. I mean, hormones only so much is happening to your system, to your body. And what worked for you before is not necessarily going to work now. And that's a big kind of aha moment for people because everyone thinks the first thought becomes, well, why isn't it working now? It used to work. I used to just do XYZ. But it's not necessarily going to be that easy. And it's not going to work because your body is changing. You're going through a different phase of life. And that I actually would say to that person, too, to go to your doctor. You know, talk to them about what you're going through and your symptoms. And explain this to them. And maybe get tested and see if your hormones are kind of out of whack, so to say. And if there's something hormonally that you can do. And not to throw the health behaviors out the window, either, right? It's still important to be making healthy-ish choices, to be moving your body, to be hydrating in all of those things. But you're probably not going to get the same results that you did before. And again, it's not your fault. Our bodies are supposed to go through this. Right.
\[01:00:49:21 - 01:02:11:16\]
I know there's a piece of-- you bring up a really good point, because we have this looks-maxing concept that's in the culture right now. And what I'm concerned about between the prevalence of HRT, which I'm not opposed to-- I just don't think it's one size fits all-- and the desire for every doctor to write a prescription to a menopausal woman for a weight loss drug, and testosterone becoming a very popular HRT drug for women, that there's now this message that somehow you can keep your youth if you lean into these drugs. Right. What do you think of that? So-- and you're right. We hear it all the time. I feel like everybody I know is either on a GLP-1 or HRT. Right. Almost everybody. But yes, it's-- A lot, yeah. Yeah. And again, the good part of this is-- I love that people are talking about it. I 1,000% agree. That's the good part. My friends are all talking about the hormonal changes and the weight gain and how frustrating it is. And if they're on HRT or if they're not, great. Let's keep normalizing all of that. And I think we have to think-- again, we're all unique individuals with different bodies, with different medical histories, with different psychological histories as well.
\[01:02:12:18 - 01:02:59:05\]
And different medications are not made for everybody. And if we are going to go on a certain medication, I always like to say you want to have the proper support also. That could be having different health care professionals, different-- maybe an interdisciplinary team with dieticians and all these things, and or just a person who really knows how to prescribe and what they're doing. Because again, everybody seems to be prescribing all these medications if they're true experts and or educated and knowledgeable in that area or not. So again, it can be scary. I think we have to be our own health advocates. We need to go to the doctors with the questions. We need to get second opinions. Again, also turn inward. Did your behaviors change? I mean--
\[01:03:00:09 - 01:05:15:02\]
Stress goes up. You're less stress resilient. Exactly. It's not just like, oh, wait, let me get a medication. Let's look at what's changing. Are you more stressed? Have you been turning to food for emotional eating? Are you depressed? All of these things. Let's look at the whole picture because we're whole people, not just bodies. Look at the whole person, and then we can figure out what works best. Again, I had a client this morning, and I was like, OK, I want you to see your medical provider and work with me because we might be missing something. Get your labs done. Let's work together as a team. And so many people are just so quick to get the medication, get the prescription. And they might be missing the fact that they're having a really stressful time in their life. Yeah, there's something new that's emerging in the culture called a menopause doula. And have you heard of it? Briefly. I think maybe a few people mentioned it. And it's just because there's no one answer. So the menopause doula helps you navigate the health care system, helps you figure out lifestyle, helps you put all of it together. Yeah, and I think it's a really interesting concept. And it's sort of telling of two things. One, we have a health care system that is built off of specialists that don't talk to each other. So I love your idea of go talk-- can the therapist and the medical doctor talk together? That would be amazing. But I don't know. I haven't seen that happen too often. Everybody's so busy. Yeah, so I used to work in a bariatric surgery department for years. Oh, perfect. Yeah, so that was the model in bariatric surgery. I was the in-house psychologist. We had in-house dieticians. We had nurse practitioners. We had the surgeon. We had medical providers. And we were a team, and we discussed. And I remember clients would come to me, and I would be like, hold on. And I literally would pick up the phone with my client in my office and call the dietician down the hall and be like, hey,
\[01:05:16:04 - 01:06:06:16\]
In a perfect world, I think everybody should have that, say, patient advocate that's kind of tying all the pieces together, and everybody's talking. But you said it. Nobody has the time for it. Nobody has time. Yeah, which is unfortunate. Which then the patient loses. Exactly. And I think that's where then I'm going to say the patient can speak up. And just be like, hey, can I get you in touch with my doctor? Or can you give me something in writing to take to my other doctor? I see people all the time, take your labs now to this doctor and tell them in your list of prescriptions. Because that's another thing. People are prescribing without knowing what everybody else-- what other doctors are prescribing. But you really have to look at everybody as a whole person, look at all of the medical diagnoses in history, look at all the medications, and then decide what their best plan of action is.
\[01:06:07:18 - 01:06:31:19\]
And I believe that you can create that team. Absolutely. I really do. I do too. You just have to fight for yourself. I think work. Yeah, you've said it a couple of times where we're not living in the years that we used to be living in, where doctors had more time to spend with you. They don't have that based off because of insurance and all other reasons.
\[01:06:32:22 - 01:18:16:08\]
But you can fight for that. You can interview your doctor. They should be somebody who is on your team, not somebody who is controlling you. Exactly. Yeah. And right, I like to think of it as you can create that team for yourself. Yeah. Right? Like even if they're not talking, you get the information, you bring it. And absolutely, they have to be on your team. Meaning if you can't trust your doctor and you can't come in and tell them exactly what's going on, they really can't do their job and help you. So find the doctors that you can trust, that you can be comfortable with, that you can share information with and to. And go in with your questions. Ask the questions. Get the answers. Bring them to the other doctor. Yeah. Yeah. I really love that approach. And I want to encourage everybody listening. Stand in your power and do that. What do you think about social media as a way to receive health information? It's where most people are going these days. I love you're asking me all the greatest questions that I love talking about. Yeah, great. Because this one burns my brain, too. Yes. So I mean, social media is social media. It's not the health care system. Yes, right. Thank you. Yes. I do like to encourage more health care professionals to get on social media. Because if people are sharing health information that don't have the degrees and the expertise, at least then the people that do can share that information. But that's also challenging within itself. But I think social media is great to maybe get an idea and then be like, how does that relate to me? How can I look into this? How can I bring that to my doctor and ask if this is going to work for me as good for me? I love it when my clients say to me, I heard about this on TikTok. I'm like, first of all, I'm so glad you brought it to me. First-- Thank you for telling me your source. Yes. But I'm like, I'm glad you didn't just do it. They come to me and ask, what do you think about this? Do that. Get the
\[01:18:18:00 - 01:18:34:22\]
Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it. So please leave us a review. Share it with your friends. Let me know what your biggest takeaway is.

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