Where Women Win with Sarah Fechter

Irritability and brain fog today.

Tomorrow could be a different story.

Thinning hair and waking up in the middle of the night for now but symptoms change.

How about all twelve of them?

Those are a few of the answers that came pouring in last week after I asked the women in my Where Women Win private community group.

One question if you could wave a magic wand and make two symptoms disappear tomorrow, which two would you pick? I gave them a list of twelve to choose from.

Started with brain fog and thinning hair to night sweats and bloating, and around sixty women answered within a few hours. Some named one symptom, some named three and one picked all twelve with a laugh.

Because when you are living with symptoms on a daily basis, choosing only two feels impossible. I read every single comment and I'll tell you what I told them. I don't have a magic wand. What I do have is nearly twenty six years in this industry.

A team of coaches and client labs on my desk every week, which means I get a front row seat to see what happens when a woman does decide she is done waiting to feel better.

I'm keeping the promise I made in that group. I'm going to walk you through what these symptoms are and why they show up, grouped into four total systems in your body that drive them.

And then I'm going to ask you to do one thing today, and it's probably not what you'd expect.

Time Stamps:

(1:25) My Where Women Win Private Community

(4:25) Cortisol Is The Smoke Detector

(7:35) Strength Training As An Excellent Strategy

(9:35) Western Lab Draws vs Our Lab Draws

(11:36) The "Itch"

(13:45) What Not To Do

(21:30) Working With Me In Person

(22:55) How To Take Advantage Of This Offer

(24:14) Learning Into A Lifestyle

----------

Apply for the SF Coaching Method and work with any coach on our team, including our first-year coach while her investment is at its lowest: https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Join the Where Women Win, free, private community group: LINK TO JOIN

Local to Saginaw, Michigan ? Email info@sarahfechter.com with 151 I'm Ready in the subject line for a gym membership offer created only for listeners of this episode. Closes Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2026.

Referenced: Prevalence of Optimal Metabolic Health in American Adults, Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, 2019

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

Her husband comes up behind her in the kitchen and goes to wrap his arms around her the way he has a thousand times before. Yet she flinches.

She loves this man, and right now she cannot stand to be touched. Her breasts have been so tender for the better part of two weeks that even a hug hurts.

Hell, she can't wrap a towel around herself after a shower because it hurts.

The week right before her period as a stretch, she dreads the bloating, the weight gain, the mood swings so much she doesn't even recognize her own self snapping at everyone.

She feels like somebody swapped her out for a version of herself she has never agreed to become. Maybe she's on HRT and she did the responsible thing and took this to her provider, who then adjusted her estradiol.

And a few weeks later she was right back where she started. Tender breasts and all. Or maybe she is not on anything at all.

Maybe she's twenty five, thirty five, and she has come to believe that tender breasts are normal because they show up with her period often enough that she has stopped questioning them a very long time ago.

Now, what if I told you that tender breasts are never normal and what they are is a message?

And what if I told you the dose of your HRT, meaning your estradiol, very likely has nothing to do with the problem or the fix?

We are going to dive into this topic together today and please let me know your thoughts and experiences with this issue.

Time Stamps:

(2:20) Talking Elevated Estrogen

(3:31) Estrogen Is a Family Of Hormones

(6:18) How The Drain Works

(9:25) The Process of Methylation

(13:27) The Result

(16:15) What We Run At SFHQ

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

It is Sunday night and she is standing on the cold bathroom tile. She has done everything right for three weeks.

She trained hard, increased her water. She hit her protein. She got up and showed up on the morning. She wanted nothing to do with it.

She slides the scale out from under the sink and before her foot even lands, her whole body and brain is already bracing. She steps on the scale.

The number is the exact fucking same as three weeks ago.

Maybe even up a pound.

And her heart sinks. Here comes the wave. She knows all so well. The one that says, what's wrong with me?

Why does this keep happening? Why does it work for everyone but me?

Maybe I need a GLP one and she's already doing the math on tomorrow. What? She's going to cut the calories.

She will take away the carbohydrates that she will take away from herself. How much smaller do I have to make myself to finally earn a different number on the scale? And running through all of this is the same thought she has heard her whole entire life.

This isn't working for me. That thought standing right there on the tile is where most women quit.

And what gets me is they almost always quit while it's working right before it pays off.

Because they don't understand. Her body may have been winning on the very day she decided to walk away from it.

Time Stamps:

(1:05) The Emotions From The Number

(2:32) Body Recomposition

(6:32) When The Scale Goes Up

(9:30) The Weekly Dopamine Hits

(12:20) Earning The Deficit

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

Picture a woman sitting at a long conference table.

She's 32 years old.

She's there by herself and she's the only woman in the room. In front of her is a contract, and when she signs her name at the bottom of it, she is signing herself into a million dollars of debt.

She signs it anyway.

Then she drives home, sits down on her couch, and the man she loves looks at her and asks her how she feels, and she doesn't answer with words.

She starts to cry. Not a pretty cry either.

The ugly kind.

The kind that comes up from somewhere deep within her soul. Where all she can get out between the tears. Is that she's scared to death.

That woman was me back in 2012, and I want to tell you how I ended up at that table, because this week my gym turns fourteen years old, and the whole thing started with a terrified 32 year old betting everything she had on a building and a belief, because that is what it came down to in the end, a belief.

And I have learned in all the years since that your belief is the entire game, that whether you believe you can or you can't, you are exactly right.

Time Stamps:

(1:20) SFHQ Turns 14

(2:03) Back In 2003

(4:45) Running On Stress Hormones

(6:45) Starting To See Growth and Success

(9:00) Justin's Reaction

(14:40) My Focus Now Is Service

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

There is a moment I have had hundreds of times over the years.

A woman sits across from me or she's on the other end of a call, and she lowers her voice a little and says, this might be TMI.

And I always smile because after sitting in the front row of women's health for twenty six years, there is truly nothing she can tell me I have not already heard many times over.

I have talked with women about their libido, their discharge, their hemorrhoids, their divorces, their autoimmune diagnosis, and all the things they were sure they could never bring to anyone, let alone bring to their doctor's office.

So when a woman drops her voice and tells me this might be TMI, the only thing I'm thinking on the inside is try me. We're going to have that conversation together in this episode and discuss the different stages of women's health, what this looks like to do it on your own, and what it would be like working with us the SF Coaching Method team.

Time Stamps:

(0:53) … This Might Be TMI

(2:10) Different Stages of Women Health

(3:35) Birth Control

(8:00) PMOS

(11:40) Doing This On Your Own

(14:30) When You Work With Us

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

For a lot of women, midlife arrives hard. The symptoms, the unveiling, the way everything you buried starts rising to the surface.

I'm not going to sit here today and tell you that part is not real, because it is. And I cover it on many of my podcasts. But here's what I have learned in my own life and in the lives of the women we coach.

That hard season can become one of the biggest seasons of growth, awareness, and freedom you'll ever have.

Sometimes it is the rock bottom that finally forces you to pivot.

And most of us think this is the beginning of an end. And I want to come to you from the other side of this today, from what is waiting for you.

Once you take back control of your health, your nutrition, your relationships, your muscle, your values, your alignment.

What do you get to do with the first 38 to 42 years of your life and all of the wisdom they handed to you?

How do you carry that through? What is waiting on the other side?

Time Stamps:

(1:15) What's Waiting For You When You Take Control Of Your Health

(8:42) Live More Hurt Less By Sean Pastuch

(13:00) For The Younger Women Out There

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

September is Perimenopause Awareness Month, and I want to lead a conversation today that is not being talked about nearly enough.

One I think deserves a lot of attention and light, and one you won't find in your social media platform or feed.

This is the work I live and teach every single day. I've coached hundreds of women through this transition and I'm walking it myself right now.

Now, if you were with me last week for episode one hundred forty four, we talked about the emotional side of midlife and how the people who love you can meet you in it.

Today is a different conversation. You're going to hear me repeat a couple of through lines because I say them often. And the biggest one is this perimenopause is not a moment.

It's not a single event. It's a transition over time.

But the angle I am bringing today is one you will not again find scrolling your newsfeed on social media, and you will not hear it being talked about.

It's the piece that keeps getting left out and it's important.

Time Stamps:

(0:48) Menopause Awareness Month

(4:40) Perimenopause Can Start Sooner Than You Think

(10:38) What This Feels Like

(11:55) Where This Lives In Me

(13:50) Client Example

(18:45) Women in Previous Generations

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

There is a fear a lot of women carry in their forties, and they will not say it out loud to a single soul.

The fear is that they're becoming difficult, cold too much, that the warmth is draining out of them and they can't get it back.

That maybe something is wrong with them. I

f that fear sounds familiar and lives somewhere in you, hear me out.

There's nothing wrong with you.

You are becoming someone new, and almost no one around you has the language for what that feels like on the inside.

This is a different kind of episode today. No labs, no markers.

Today I'm talking about what a woman goes through in midlife.

Again, the part that happens in her mind, her mood and her relationships and why the people who love her keep reading it wrong.

And I'm going to talk straight to you.

The women in midlife who are in the thick of it. And I will acknowledge that's not every woman.

And near the end of this, I'm going to give you something to share with your people in your life your sister, your daughter, your closest friends.

Time Stamps:

(3:12) When A Small Question Sends You Over The Edge

(8:05) My Personal Experience

(13:48) Not Taking Things Personally

(18:10) Asking For Help

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

There is a word that gets said in doctor's offices every single day.

For a lot of women, it is the most frustrating word they will ever hear.

The word is normal.

Earlier this year, a woman came to me with a stack of lab results and one sentence her doctor had handed her. You're fine. Everything looks normal and she did not feel normal. She was exhausted, not tired, wiped out.

Her hair was coming out in the shower, in clumps. The workout she used to love suddenly felt twice as hard. Her body was changing and not in the direction she wanted.

And on top of all of it, she had been bleeding every two weeks for six months straight, and she was told she was fine and she knew she was not fine.

So instead of accepting normal, she brought those same labs to me. And when I read them, the story was sitting right there in the numbers and had been there the whole time.

Today I'm going to walk you through what her labs really showed and why the word normal almost cost this woman her energy, her hair, and her sanity.

Time Stamps:

(0:48) The Word Normal In Your Doctor's Office

(3:55) The Role of Iron

(9:23) B12 MMA

(13:55) The SF Team

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

There is a bottle right now in your pantry that says Pure Avocado Oil.

There's a bag of chips in the pantry that says it's made with avocado oil, and there is a real chance both of them are lying to you.

This summer, researchers at UC Davis tested a batch of processed foods that listed avocado oil as the only oil on the label.

Nearly nine out of every ten were cut with cheaper oils, and when I read that, my stomach dropped because I had a lab result sitting in a folder from a year earlier, that suddenly made sense.

Today I'm going to walk you through three things what the testing found, what showed up in my own blood work, and how long it took me to figure it out.

And the lesson sitting underneath all of it. The lesson I want you to carry out of this episode and into your kitchen tonight.

The label is not the truth.

Time Stamps:

(1:25) The Label Is Not The Truth

(2:15) The Explosion of Avocado Oil

(4:10) Contrasting Olive Oil

(10:15) My Husband's Chef Skills

(12:50) When It Stops Being About Labels

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

My coffee had already gone cold on the counter the way it often does when the morning gets away from me.

An SF Coaching Method inquiry came through my email. I opened it up and read her answers.

The part of the forum where a woman gets to expand in her own words and one line stood out from every other inquiry I had ever read this year.

Six words. I'm sick of my own shit.

I read it and I smiled and what I felt was respect and a lot of curiosity.

I wanted to know more right away because after twenty six years of coaching women's health, I know exactly what that sentence is.

If you've felt this way too, listen in and let's take this journey together.

Time Stamps:

(0:50) Most Respect I've Had In A Coaching Application

(2:18) Does She Sound Like You?

(8:25) From Stuck To Relief

(10:50) Sexual Desire

(14:40) Asking For Help

(21:05) Our Health In This Country

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

By the time the fire alarm goes off, the house has been quietly filling with smoke for ten years.

You don't smell it at first. A little tiredness you blame on a busy week, a period that comes early or maybe late a night.

You wake up at three a m soaked and wide awake for no reason, a word that won't come to you in the middle of a sentence, one at a time.

They're easy to wave off, easy to promise yourself you'll deal with it later.

That's the cruel thing about smoke. It never arrives all at once. It comes so slowly that you learn to adjust to it. You get used to being tired.

You get used to a bad night's sleep. You start calling your symptoms normal. Hell, we brush it off with humor.

We're just getting old now. That's how we are.

This is what forty looks like. And the slower it comes, the easier it is to convince yourself there's nothing there at all.

And then one day, the alarm is screaming, and you're standing in a doctor's office in your forties, maybe in your fifties, with a lab sheet full of numbers that are suddenly not okay with you, wondering how it all happened so fast.

It didn't happen fast. It happened over the two decades. We're going to unpack those last two decades together on this episode.

Time Stamps:

(2:05) What Perimenopause Really Is

(3:45) Who I Talk To Every Single Week

(17:40) What You Don't Have To Tell Me

(21:18) Why The SF Coaching Method Exists

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

In this episode, I walk through exactly what I would do if I wanted to lose 15 pounds in 90 days, including the parts most people don't want to hear. We talk about why the word "try" can keep you stuck, and the difference between intending to change and actually choosing the behaviors that create change.

I also break down what a real fat loss phase can feel like, from hunger and cravings to lower energy, stalled scale weight, and the temptation to quit right before things start working.

But fat loss isn't just about eating less, and for many women, the first step may actually be eating more to rebuild metabolic capacity before creating a deficit. I'll explain metabolic flexibility, why chronic under-eating can make fat loss harder, and why slashing calories isn't always the answer.

From there, we get into the fundamentals that actually matter, including protein, whole foods, strength training, cardio, daily movement, sleep, hydration, and honest food tracking. More importantly, we'll talk about the identity shift underneath all of it: becoming the woman who follows through on what she says she wants.

Knowledge isn't the problem; most of us have heard the basics a hundred times, but knowing what to do and actually doing it are two completely different things. I also talk about the sacrifices that come with meaningful transformation and why the goal isn't to rent a result for 90 days, but to become the person who can actually sustain it.

If you're wondering whether you need a more personalized approach, I explain why a podcast can give you the map but can't tell you exactly what your body needs at its starting point.

If you're ready to stop looking for the comfortable version of fat loss and start becoming the woman who gets the results, this episode is for you.

Time Stamps:

(0:48) The One Thing Question

(2:20 The Word "Try"

(4:25) What A Fat Loss Phase Actually Looks Like

(8:37) How I Talk To My Sister

(12:30) Who Is She Becoming?

(17:50) Your Plate

(22:20) Food Relationship Exceptions

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

Today I'm going to pull my chair up close to yours. The way you would connect with a friend who came over to you, knowing that she's going to stay there for a while.

Because I want to tell you something true about myself and I have a feeling that by the end, you're going to find it true about you, too.

Let me tell you what that math was.

My mom was 46 years old when she died, I was 19. In a few days, I will turn 46 myself.

And then I keep going.

I have another birthday and another one after that. I become older than my mother ever got to be. I walk right past her and she stays exactly where she was.

Forty six.

Forever.

There is something strange about outliving the person who gave you your life. In my memory, she never ages. She is permanently the age I am about to be.

And I'm the one who keeps moving. Carrying her forward into the years she never got to see for herself.

It's the strangest, most tender math there is.

You just feel your way through it one day at a time.

I've been carrying this loss for a long time now, and I've carried it from a lot of different chairs and years.

Time Stamps:

(1:50) Walking Past My Mother

(4:18) Let Me Describe To You My Mom

(10:27) Questions I'd Ask My Mom Today

(15:15) Why I Share This With You

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

It's late. The house is finally quiet and a woman I'm coaching is typing me a message for her check in.

I can tell she's been sitting with it for a while because of how honest it is.

She tells me she knows diet is the foundation. She knows I need to see what she's eating to be able to coach her well.

And then she tells me the truth.

Tracking feels like a daunting task.

She doesn't plan her meals. She doesn't know what she's going to eat until it's time to eat.

And then it depends on what's in the house. Her mornings have been busy and full, like most of us, so she's been grabbing a Chobani yogurt for breakfast because it's the fastest way to get her thirty grams of protein in.

And then she writes the line that made me create this entire episode.

She wrote, "I'm not really sure what I'm looking for you to say. I just wanted to be transparent."

Well, I want to answer her out loud right here on this episode because there are thousands of women listening who would have typed that exact same message tonight, checking in with me if they trusted themselves enough to be that honest.

Time Stamps:

(0:50) Recent Client Check-In

(4:08) Most Common Sentence I Hear

(6:40) Average Time on Social Media

(10:03) The Real Exception To Tracking

(11:50) The Result of Eyeballing Food

(14:12) Building Earned Balance

(16:18) Setting Goals Now

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

The phone rings on a Tuesday afternoon.

It's the nurse from your doctor's office and she's using her gentle voice and she says, "we've got your labs back and your cholesterol is high" and something happens in your chest.

Heat rises up the back of your neck. You're already picturing your arteries. You're already picturing your mother or your father, or the uncle who had a heart attack at sixty one.

And by the time you hang up the phone, you have already decided you are going to fix this.

You're going to stop eating butter. Matter of fact, you're going to buy the margarine with the little heart on the label.

You're going to give up red meat and you're going to cut out egg yolks.

You are going to be afraid of food.

Starting tonight, I want to stop you right there, right at the kitchen counter before you throw anything away.

Because here is what I want to say to that phone call.

High cholesterol.

Good.

Now, can we please ask why it's elevated? We'll explore this question together in this episode.

Time Stamps:

(0:45) We Have Your Labs Back On Your Cholesterol

(3:25) What Is Cholesterol?

(6:14) The SWAN Study

(7:48) HDL Cholesterol

(9:45) Thought Experiment With You

(11:25) Simplifying The Science

(14:00) What I Won't Give You Today

(19:45) Why I Tell You This Story

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

We're going to get intimate today and who I typically speak to will be a little different today.

I have coached women from the floor of my own life. I have presented on stages, sat across from hundreds of clients in person and online, and have shown up as the strong one, the leader, the one with all the answers.

Even on the very mornings I felt like a shell of the driven, ambitious, sure of herself woman I knew I was. I've lifted other people up while I was the one on the ground.

And if you are a mom listening today, you already know exactly what that is. You can relate because you do a version of it every single day. You show up. You are present for your kids, your partner, your work.

While underneath it all you feel like there is almost nothing left of you.

Let me tell you about why I can sit in this right beside you.

Twenty six years working with women's health and their bodies.

Ten years competing as an IFBB pro.

And right now, at almost forty six years old, I am walking through perimenopause myself with nearly four years of hormone support behind me.

So nothing I say today comes from a textbook or from some far off shore I have never stood on.

I want this episode to be a resource for the partner who loves their significant other unconditionally but is navigating the ups and downs of perimenopause with them and isn't sure what to do. I will tell you what me and my husband have gone through when it comes to this and remind you that it isn't selfish for her to take care of herself and what that looks like.

Time Stamps:

(1:50) Who This Episode Is For

(7:08) The Perimenopause Phase

(8:07) Anti-Depressant Use

(15:35) The Exhaustion

(18:50) Hormone Replacement Is The Starting Line

(22:04) Never Comment On Her Weight

(24:03) What This Support Has Looked Like For Me

(25:30) Working With The SF Coaching Team

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

Right now, someone in your life is on a GLP one.

Maybe it's you. Maybe it's half of your group text and everyone keeps asking the same question should I take it.

I want you to hear me because there is a more important question underneath that one and it's one that actually decides what happens to your body. You can take the GLP one.

The real question is whether you can hold the result.

I've spent twenty six years in the health and nutrition industry, and I sit at the head seat of the SF coaching method. I'm on every inquiry call we take. I read every single application that comes through the doors.

We have coached hundreds of women since these medications arrived, and I need to be honest with you about what that gives me because it shapes everything I'm about to say.

The research on these drugs is real, and we're going to get into that today. The studies are good, but there is something we do not have yet and no one does.

We do not have a long term picture. Nobody can tell you what the woman who started one of these medications at thirty eight is going to look like at seventy eight years old.

What will her bones look like? What will her muscle look like? What will her metabolism look like after decades of the medication?

Those studies have not been written because the time has not passed. In this episode we're diving into the full picture when it comes to GLP-1 use so you can be properly informed.

Time Stamps:

(0:48) Should You Take The GLP-1?

(1:42) Lack of Longitudinal Studies

(5:12) The Fat Loss Era's I've Experienced

(8:28) Why The Food Noise Is Loud

(10:00) Starting With Muscle

(11:47) Hair Loss

(16:40) What Applying Means For You

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

What if we stopped asking how much do I weigh and started asking how well am I aging?

Sit with that question for a moment.

Before we go any further, I want to tell you why I do this work.

My mom died at the age of forty six forty six, and several years later I sat with my dad through his own cancer diagnosis. Those two experiences rewrote how I think about health, what matters, what doesn't matter, and what we still have the power to influence while there is time.

Twenty six years into this industry, I am not interested in giving a woman another diet, another challenge, another meal plan. I am interested in helping you build a body and a life that will continue to show up for you for as many years as you are given.

That is what longevity actually means, not Silicon Valley's billionaires trying to live to be one hundred and twenty years old, not a cabinet full of peptides and supplements.

Whether you can get off the floor at the age of seventy five, whether you can travel and explore the world at age eighty, whether the body you are building right now is going to support the woman you become. This episode is for you if have been chasing the scale for fifteen years and you are exhausted by it, if you have tried three, four, five programs that promised you everything and delivered almost nothing.

If you are bloated, tired, your energy is gone, your sleep is broken, and you cannot figure out why your body stopped responding the way it used to. If you are sick of being your own coach in a sea of contradictory information from people who have not earned the right to give it.

This episode is for you.

Time Stamps:

(0:54) Why I Do This Work

(1:58) Who This Episode Is For

(5:50) The Role of Muscle

(10:20) What's Left Out Of The Longevity Conversation

(18:20) Improvements I See In Women

(20:25) Working With The SF Coaching Method

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

Today's conversation is going to feel a little different than some of our recent episodes.

We've spent a lot of time talking about hormones, perimenopause, menopause, metabolism, inflammation, histamine, nervous system regulation.

And we'll go right back to all of that.

But today I want to talk about something sitting heavy on my heart. And this might be one of the more personal episodes I've recently recorded.

It might even feel a little unhinged at moments. And I'm okay with that, because after a series of conversations I've had recently, I can't not talk about this.

And over the last few months, I've noticed an uptick in a pattern I've watched throughout my entire career. And after more than two decades coaching women through fat loss, metabolic health hormones, and disease prevention, there's one theme that keeps surfacing.

Lately it's showing up more. I've talked with women in their thirties who don't feel at home in their own bodies after having kids. Women entering perimenopause, watching their sleep, mood, and energy change in ways they don't understand.

Women in menopause who have spent years caretaking for everyone else and are now wondering what happened to the version of themselves they used to know and many have already seen doctors.

Many have ordered every lab panel the internet has to offer. Many have spent years researching and trying to figure it out alone.

What grabs my attention isn't that they're struggling, it's that so many of them are apologizing for wanting help. They're apologizing for wanting guidance, for wanting to feel better.

That's the problem. Somewhere along the way, asking for help started requiring justification.

We'll dive into my honest thoughts about this and why I believe you need to stop apologizing for wanting help.

Time Stamps:

(2:00) Apologizing For Wanting Help

(3:34) What I've Been Seeing

(7:02) Lack of Awareness and Misunderstanding of Support

(9:10) Money and The Investment

(12:40) "You Should Already Know How To Do This"

(18:20) Support vs Defensiveness

(19:45) The Future Versions of Ourselves

----------

Apply for SF Coaching Method

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/sfhq-cc

Complimentary Health Content

https://sarahfechter.ac-page.com/Health_Wellness_Community

----------

Follow Me On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarahfechter.ifbbpro/

Check Out My Website - https://www.sarahfechter.com

----------

This Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, other professional health care services, or any professional practice of any kind. Any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk and Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual use of, reference to, reliance on, or inability to use, this Podcast or the information presented in this Podcast. All contents and design for this Podcast are owned by Sarah Fechter Fitness LLC. Always consult your professional team before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.