Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz - Why Everything Feels Harder After 40: Nervous System, Burnout & Letting Go

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

What if the changes you’re experiencing after 40 are asking you to look at more than your hormones?In this solo episode of Live Like a Girl, Dr. Mindy walks through how she believes women can use the menopausal transition to better understand their nervous systems, reconnect with parts of themselves they may have lost, and begin building the next chapter of life more intentionally.She explores why so many women arrive in midlife already overwhelmed, why learning to regulate your nervous system may need to come before another health protocol, and how years of putting everyone else first can shape the way women experience this transition.Later in the episode, LeAnn Rimes joins Dr. Mindy for a candid conversation about overwhelm, perfectionism, boundaries, HRT, nutrition, self-care, and what it looks like to listen to your body while living a very full life.And for a limited time, you can get Age Like a Girl for $7 with free shipping in the U.S. and Canada only, while supplies last.In This Episode, You’ll LearnWhy nervous system regulation matters so much after 40How years of over-functioning can catch up with women in midlifeWhy play, curiosity, creativity, and speaking your truth matterHow to build your own lifestyle toolbox for menopauseWhy women need community as they ageWhy saying no can become an important form of self-careWhat it means to create the next chapter of your life on your termsResources MentionedFREE Nervous System QuestionnaireAge Like a Girl (Get your copy for $7 & FREE shipping, limited-time offer)Reset AcademyQualia Senolytic, use code MINDY for 15% offFor more resources related to today’s episode, visit the podcast episode page: drmindypelz.com/ep364Connect with Dr. Mindy:Join Reset AcademyWatch the episodes on YouTubeFollow Dr. Mindy on InstagramSubscribe to Dr. Mindy’s newsletterDisclaimer: 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.

I want to tell you about something that genuinely moves me. And that's watching what happens when women come together around real health science. There's something powerful that shifts when a woman realizes she's not broken. She's just been given the wrong information. And when she is surrounded by other women who are waking up to that same truth, wow, it's magic. The healing accelerates. The consistency becomes easier.

The loneliness of the health journey just literally dissolves. And that's what I have been watching over and over again happen inside my Reset Academy, month after month. Women who come in frustrated and depleted, they start to find their rhythm, they start to reclaim their energy, and the most beautiful part is they start rebuilding trust with their bodies. Inside my academy, you get monthly trainings, live, coaching calls and an incredible community of women who are all doing this work right alongside

you. And I show up every single month with new content, new tools, new ways to explain things, because your body is always changing and your health education should grow with it. So come join me over there. All you've got to do is find us on resetacademy. Dot, Dr. MindyPels.com. That's resetacademy. Dot, Dr. Mindypels.com.

I can't wait to see you there. 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. I'm just excited that you all are here and I will share right off the top that one of the One of my worst fears as an author is that the book will collect dust or that you will go into the book and not know how to apply the different principles that I laid out there inside

this book. And if you've been into the book yet, it's deep. There's a lot and I want to make it as simple for you to apply as possible. Okay, here is how the next 90 minutes are going to go. So I'm going to talk for a half hour and I'm going to take you through an inquiry, a way of like looking at the principles from your lens. So if you followed me, hopefully you know that I'm a big fan of a concept in science called N of 1.

And N of 1 says you take principles, science, and then you apply it to yourself and you see what works. So we have over 450 peer reviewed citations in this book. I'm incredibly proud of that. I had a team of researchers that helped me put together a lot of the information in here. It is very science-backed, but honestly, just because it worked in a study doesn't mean it's going to work for you. So I want to make this very applicable to your life, and that's what this webinar is about. So over the next half hour, I'm going to go through a process of inquiry so that I can see, so that you can start to ask yourself deeper questions that will hopefully make not just your menopause experience amazing, but help you understand what it means to age like

a girl. And how do we move into a place of leadership? How do we move into a place of power? How do we move into a life that we get to build on our terms now? Because that's really what the principles of this book are, is it's your time. How do we make sure you maximize that? So I'm going to do that for a half hour. Then I'm going to bring Leanne on. And I want to take you through an inquiry with her because one of the blessings that I've had in my career has been working with this incredible woman for over three years now.

And she is such a beautiful example of somebody who used her lifestyle to balance her hormones. And I want you to hear some of the things she's applied to her own life. And I've got some fun questions for her as well. So again, my hope is that when we get to the end of this hour and a half, you know what to do with this information to improve your life. So here we go. We're gonna start off with something that I brought forward in the very beginning of the book.

And the introduction, believe it or not, was originally supposed to be at the back half of the book. And when we finally looked at it, when the manuscript was all done, we realized it, my fire story really needed to go up in the front because my fire story and that intro is really a lot of women's story. And here's the summary of it.

We come into menopause totally burnt out. So it doesn't mean that, you know, you don't have to have had a situation like mine. But all of us have compounding stress. We have compounding traumas. And we come roaring into our 40s, and all of a sudden our brain rewires itself. And our neurochemical armor comes down. And we are, what I always say, we feel raw, we feel vulnerable.

It's like the wheels come off the bus, and we feel like we're no longer in control of our health and our mind. And there is a reason behind that. So one of the things I wanted to bring out in this book was an old teaching of Carol Gilligan's. So this is chapter four or five. I have to go back and look, but it's in the part one where I bring you Carol Gilligan's work. And why Carol Gilligan's work was so important to me was because I was a product of the 1980s

when she was studying teenage girls. And what she discovered was that when a girl goes into her teenage years, she has taught a major lesson that boys don't get. And the lesson and the message is, You are worthy if you are selfless. And so so many of us have been doing everything for everybody else hoping to find our own worth,

hoping to solve a running statement in our brain of am I enough? And there's so much that we do, whether it's diet so we can be a certain weight, or it's I'm gotta be a super mom, plus I have to be a career woman. Whatever it is, we are constantly outsourcing our worth to the world so that the world will reflect back at us that we are good enough.

And one of the things I really wanted to bring forward in this book is that the purpose of aging for a woman, the purpose of going through menopause as a woman, is so that you get to put down that thinking. You get to start to do everything for you and stop doing everything for everybody else. So one of the first things that I want you to start to realize is that we, our nervous system is one that needs to go into relaxation. It's called your parasympathetic nervous system. It needs to go into relaxation.

And when a stressor hits, then it goes into fight or flight. And we handle the stressor, and then we go back into relaxation. Just like I taught you with Fast Like a Girl and Eat Like Like. a girl, we're supposed to be a sugar burner and a fat burner and we're meant to move in and out of those two energy systems. It's the same thing with our nervous system. We're meant to go into a relaxed state and into a more of a crisis mode. But what happens to us after 40 is so many of us go into those years and we're stuck in

fight or flight. I'm a big fan of bringing forward something called the polyvagal theory. And the polyvagal theory states that if you've been in fight or flight for too long, you move to a third nervous system and it's called the freeze nervous system. I can tell you for me, prior to the fires, I was already in a freeze nervous system.

I was already in numbing myself out, whether it was through work or through scrolling socials, Numbing is a very common thing that happens when we get into the freeze nervous system. I couldn't handle stress, before the fires, I couldn't handle stress, even a little bit of stress started to put me over the top. That's a classic freeze nervous system. Everything in this book is obviously going to have some meaning for you, but the most important thing I want you to do is start to learn how to bring your rhythm back to your nerves.

how to regulate yourself so that you don't say stuck in this freeze nervous system. So when you read part one of age like a girl or even the intro, that's what I was writing from, is we all enter into menopause, most women, many women, because of the half-toes that have been put on us by the culture, we enter into those years totally stuck with a dis-react-toes,

regulated freeze nervous system. Put in the comments if that resonates. And then we have this massive neurochemical shift that happens which all of a sudden makes it so we cannot handle stress anymore. So when we look at the irritability, when we look at the rage, when we look at the depression, I think a large part of that

is because you are moving into a day time of your life where there is a massive neurochemical upgrade and you are already frozen. You are already done. So that's what that intro was, is so many of us are running in with this stuck nervous system. And I get asked all the time, what do you think about HRT? And I always say, it's a great tool, but you're dealing with a collective trauma of women in a culture that has taught us we are worthy,

if we are skinny, if we are beautiful, if we don't have any wrinkles, if we can kill it in our career and be an amazing mom. There are so many expectations of us that rubbing cream and putting patches on us isn't going to save us in that moment. It's a tool amongst many. But the most important thing you can do

as you navigate the pages of this book is identify where your nervous system is. that. So that was why we moved that chapter up so that you all could find yourself in that story. I'm not a woeys me person just so you know. And when my collaborative writer and editors wanted me to move that up, I was like, I don't know if I want to put my story out there. But I'm hearing from a lot of people that my story is their story. And if there's one thing I want this book to do, it's what I want you to feel seen and heard. Because what we're What we do is women is we put a mask on and we try to pretend like everything is okay.

Put in the comments if you're not okay. And this was a big thing that I had to admit before I could start to regulate my nervous system is that I wasn't okay. After the fires, I made a decision to rehab my nervous system. And it was a full-time job along with writing this book. what I'm starting to notice after spending so much time prioritizing sleep, being careful how overloaded my schedule got, being sure that I got out into nature on a regular basis, is what I started to notice was that my brain operated different.

And I think it's really important for you to know that when you feel like you can't handle one more thing, when everybody around you is driving you. crazy, that instead of blaming the outside world, how about we go inside and ask, is my nervous system regulated? And you're going to hear when we bring Leanne on how she's been working with her nervous system, because it's really easy in this world for us to keep doing and doing and performing and performing until we can't handle it anymore. I want you to think about creating a life of regulation. So the first thing, when you read part one of this book, I want you to see through the lens of an author who's asking inviting you in to your own nervous system

healing, inviting you in to start before you do anything else, before you decide I'm going to lift weights, before you decide you're going to count protein, before you decide you have the wrong OB because they're not giving you HRT, before you decide to leave you. your marriage, before you decide to blow your life up, regulate your nervous system. That is step number one and that's what that first part is all about. Okay, second thing in the first part that I really wanted to bring forward was something I call reclaiming your little girl. So I don't know about you all, but I definitely hit a point in my adult life where I

I became a little too serious. I put the responsibility of my family, I put the responsibility of my practice, I put the responsibility of life ahead of my own joy and fun. And when I started to look at the qualities that I had before that time when Carol Gilligan said, we all got trained to become selfless,

I started to ask myself, who was I before the culture trained me to be selfless? selfless. And I started to see qualities of my little girl that I wanted to bring back. So for me, I took on Wonder Woman as an identity. I took on Rosie the Riveter as we can do it all. And I had great pride in that. But when I go back and I look at my little girl, one of the things that I know is she just was playful and she was funny and she liked to move her body all the time. So it's interesting because with age like a girl, of course we had to do like a girl because that's the series.

But in going out and doing all of these podcasts, one thing that I really noticed was that many of the discussions were with women who have gone through this process are in their 50s or in their 60s. And they're talking about how they want to go back and grab qualities of who they were when they were younger at a younger age. So put in the comments if you already know, like curiosity. Curiosity was a huge quality of my little girl and yet she was told to be quiet in class.

She was told to only learn this, don't think outside the box. So I'm bringing curiosity back into my life. I'm bringing play back into my life. One One of the other things that I learned in full transparency this year is I learned that I kept my voice quiet within my household because my household was chaos. My sister was always causing problems with my parents. There was a lot of yelling. There was a lot of love. But I learned, don't speak up for yourself because if you speak up for yourself, you're going

to create more chaos. A lot of us have been quiet our voice because we didn't want to rock the boat for fear there would be more chaos. So I now speak my truth. That's a part of my little girl that I bring back. And sometimes I say, I'm sorry, I'm just gonna tell you like it is right now because I spent 56 years keeping my voice quiet

and I'm not doing that to myself anymore. I have a phrase I use often that says, I won't betray myself anymore. I already did that for 56 years. I know what that feels like. And so part of taking my little girl back is speaking my truth and speaking my voice. So creativity, curiosity, and play are parts of me

that I turned away from. And now I get to bring those parts back. I call it, and you're gonna hear me when I talk to Leanne, I call it your authentic self. Because I think that when we were little girls, we had an essence of energy of who we were. And now when we go through this menopausal process, we have an opportunity to bring that,

essence back. I was always loud. I just got shamed for it. So now I'm just loud all the time. I was always curious. I just was told it was useless and now I'm curious all the time. So you get to decide what you bring back. Before we get back into the episode, I want to tell you something rare that literally just happened in the supplement world. Hopefully many of you have learned through my videos and podcasts that past 30 your body starts collecting what scientists call synescent cells. Or you may have heard them as zombie cells. These are old fatigued cells that slow down recovery and they give you that general feeling of aging and they do it really quickly and maybe you've noticed overnight you just feel like you don't have that

zip that you used to have. So one of my favorite supplement companies, Qualia, has created a solution to this. It's called Qualia Cynolytic. And it's It's vegan, it's non-GMO, and they've blended nine plant-derived ingredients together to actually kill these zombie cells. And this amazing clinically tested formula just had a human study on it that was published in a peer-reviewed major science journal. Now, keep in mind that there are marketing claims with supplements, and then there are, studies in peer-reviewed science journals. That is an amazing accomplishment for the Qualia brand, and I'm so impressed at what they did. Now, here's my favorite part about Qualia Cynolitic. You only take it two days out of the month. This is not like a supplement you have to take every

single day. It's just two days out of the month. And there are nine Cynolytic ingredients. And there are nine synolytic ingredients helping to remove your old worn out cells. So you feel young, you have healthy cells, and you have room to flourish, thrive, and retain that youthfulness that we all so deeply want. So head on over to qualiaLife.com forward slash Mindy. They're offering 15% off. Yay, qualia. Thank you. We love how well they support our community. You just need to to use the code Mindy for the 15% and they back their results up by a hundred day guarantee. Qualia Cynolitic is truly aging on your terms. That's Qualia Cynolidic code Mindy at qualiaLife.com forward slash Mindy.

Next thing I want you to think about is what I call the girl gang. So part two of this book is really, about lifestyle. And one of the things that has been irritating me and looking at everything going on out on social media around menopause and aging is that we are being given a story that we are a victim to this experience. And we are never victims. And I want to bring forward that if you are depressed, if you are losing memory, if you don't know how to connect to other people. If you aren't sleeping, that isn't your doctor's fault. That isn't a low estrogen per se issue that you're a victim to. That is a signal that you have an opportunity to change your lifestyle.

On page 54, I have a chart of the girl gang. And what I wanted to make sure that we did is if you had a symptom, you could go to this chart and you can say, oh, I'm going to say, oh, Okay, I'm losing memory and I'm having difficulty learning. It's under the neurotransmitter acetycholine. So okay, I need to try some new skills. I need to maybe go into some meditation. I need to practice my storytelling. And you could just go in and get like what we used to call

a Cliff Notes version of what to do. So for many of you, this section two of the book, the part two, What you're gonna read one chapter and you might say, well, that's not me. I don't resonate with that. But then you might go to another chapter and be like, oh, wow, this is me.

And I have lists upon lists, upon lists, of what you can do to fix your symptom, you fix it with your lifestyle. You are the hero of your own story. This, you are not at, you are not along as a bystander of this experience of aging. you get to control it. So the girl gang was my attempt to show you

that there was this massive neurochemical switch that was happening to you and when you get depressed, when you can't sleep, when you can't remember, when your muscles are wasting away, when you're getting injured all the time, there is a lifestyle cure. We have been taught in this culture to put medicine ahead of lifestyle.

I think that's completely wrong. We should always go to lifestyle first and try to work on changing our environment to see if we get a different reaction with our body and then if that doesn't work, then we go and look at medicine. But one of the big things I wanted to do with this book is I wanted to make sure that women didn't fall asleep to the rage. The rage isn't there because you have the wrong OB who wouldn't put you on the right of HRT, maybe the rage is there because you've outsourced your worthiness for so many years

and you're exhausted. So I wanted to bring back this inquiry of how do we use our lifestyle to be able to help ourselves. You're going to create your own age like a girl lifestyle. So when you look at the girl gang on page 54 and you go through those chapters, look at what you need to do. I'm going to call myself out and I know when we bring Leanne on, we're going to be on, we're we're gonna talk about this,

but estrogen actually stimulated a timekeeper in your brain. And that timekeeper told your body when to make melatonin so that it could start to fall asleep and wake up. But when estrogen left, all of a sudden, the timekeeper in your brain is like, I don't know what's day, I don't know what's night, I don't know when to make melatonin. So you actually need to make your own

and melatonin and you can do that through light. You're so brilliantly designed that you have receptors in your eyes, receptor sites, that is always tracking the night sky and the day sky. And it's making an assessment about when you get to put melatonin, when your body should make melatonin and when it shouldn't. So when you read the sleep chapter, understand that because estrogen left

doesn't mean you're doomed with a bad night sleep from here on out. It means you are responsible through lifestyle to start to bring melatonin back. When you are looking at the identities that you wanna shed in your life and you're looking at what you wanna bring back, I'm offering you a perspective

that I have spent the whole year doing. I am not joking. I have spent the whole year in self-inquiry and really asking myself, what does Mindy want now? But what I really wanna see if we can do, do is can you bring everything you want to create in your life? Can we bring it down to one word?

So I want you to see when you look at the old version of you, when you look at the new version of you, when you look at the nervous system and how you need to regulate it, when you look at the girl gang, can you summarize what you want to bring into your life into one word? I'll tell you my word. Last year, ironically, my word was play. I feel like the universe is like, ah, we're gonna see if you can find, if you can play amongst a whole bunch of crises.

But as the year went on, that's what I made sure that I did, is play, play, play, play, it's like keep playing, keep bringing my little girl back. I'm thinking that my word, I haven't completely settled in on it, but I feel like the world sort of taught me this this year, is I think my word for this year is surrender. Because if there's one thing I learned this year is that we have very little control,

and the only thing we have control over is our own attitudes. And so I started to see that everything in my life, if it hit me or stung me or made me feel bad, I was like, it's okay, Mindy, you're in control of this and you get to choose your attitude. This word, I write my word all over the place. It's by my mirror when I'm brushing my teeth. I put it on the front of my home screen, on my phone.

I have it everywhere. It never falls out of my vision. And last year it was play. I started learning, I learned how to surf. That was a big moment of play. And this year it will be surrender. And so I will get the opportunity to keep reminding myself over and over again that I have no control. I should let go and just enjoy having a great attitude.

So I'm working on that one. So then the last thing I want to say, and then I'm going to bring Leanne on, is that the last section of the book is the transformation section. So we have the philosophy in part one, so you can kind of see what the journey of being a woman is like and why menopause can really kind of grab us in weird ways, and why aging is a really powerful moment for us. That's part one. Part two of the book, thank you, keep them coming.

Part two of the book is really about how do you use your lifestyle to help yourself. And part three of the book is how do you transform into a different person? And in that part, I brought forth something that I really love, and it came from a song, which is really fitting, and I don't know if Leanne even knows this, it's not one of her songs, but she should like this song, is. is it's the lime tree written by Trevor Hall. And I was listening to the lime tree song one day, and the words were something like,

there you are, I finally found you. You were hiding in the lime tree. You've been in the lime tree all along. And I was so curious by these lines that I had to go look up the mythological reason of a lime tree. And what I found was way back in medieval, times centuries ago that in Europe that there was lots of lime trees that were gathering places.

And those gathering places were where women came together to heal, to cry, to grieve, and to unite and so that they could be a stronger foundation for the community. A classic example of a lime tree community right now is what they do in Okinawa, which We always put them on a pedestal and say, well, gosh, in Okinawa, they live, the women live the longest. Well, one of their secrets is they create moyes. And moyes are groups of women that share resources. So if a woman's husband dies, all of a sudden she goes and opens up, you know, or another woman will open up her house to her.

If a woman is sick, another woman will bring her food. And so women gather together and support each other. other in that back half of their life. Now, we are a global community. And so I think what I wanted to bring forth was how do we create lime trees in our life? And one of the things I know we've done in our community is we created the Reset Academy. And our Reset Academy is a virtual lime tree. So with that, are you there, my friend? I'm here. You made me cry with the lime tree thing. I was Literally, just when it got tissue. Oh, my gosh.

Have you heard that song? No, I love him so much, but I haven't heard the Lime Tree songs, and I'm going to have to listen to the Lime Tree song. Can you remake that song for me? Sure. I will do that. I'll give it to you a little Christmas gift. That'll be your Christmas gift.

Thank you. I will tell you that my favorite thing, I'm just got to let the give the behind scenes is I get a, I get my happy birthday sung to me by Leanne every year. And like my birthday's never been the same. So now I just need the Lime Tree song. Yes, okay. got it. Okay, thank you. I love it. Okay, we're going to start with your favorite question first.

Okay, what is that? Are you ready? Yes. How do you know when you are hit max capacity with your nervous system? Which might be today. I'm on it. I'm beat right now. Yeah, you know how I really know is when I voice, I rarely say I'm about to have a breakdown. I've said that twice in the last week. And that's what I know. I mean, obviously, we don't have to let it get to that place. But I become very overwhelmed. It's funny when you were talking about,

I've been on here for a while listening to you. I was, when you were talking about freeze, which I've been an actual freeze many times before, and kind of lived at that a very big part of my life in actual freeze, where, like, I couldn't mobilize off the couch. But, and I don't feel like I'm in freeze, but I actually went to look up as you were talking. I was like, what are the actual signs of freeze?

And I found something that said functional freeze, which was really interesting. And one of the signs is being overwhelmed on the inside, but still functioning on the outside. And I was like, oh, that's exactly where I'm at. I'm functional freeze right now. I just had a lot going on. My godmother passed away

in the midst of touring and filming a TV show in Nashville. Like I've been, I've had to do with grief. And, you know, that kind of like sent me over the edge. So it's also the end of the year. I'm tired. I'm just tired. I'm done. I'm over it.

Yeah. Ready to sit my ass on the couch. Yeah. And binge watch the TV show. Yeah, that's, I think it's, for me, I've noticed my body is like super tight. I start to get really achy. I start to get really just no energy,

even though I know I've slept. Yeah. I mean, I've recently been sleeping really well, which is amazing, but at the same time when I know I've slept really well and I'm still exhausted, you know, I know that's also hormonal. There's so many components to that,

so it's not just necessarily all nervous system. But right now, I definitely know my nervous system. My nervous system has been, I've been in fighter flight for at least, you know, several weeks now. So I think something you said is really interesting because I found that voice a lot. And I, even last year at this time, like before the fires hit, I was like, God, like, what is, what is a breakdown feel like? Or I would find myself being like, I think I've hit my max, but I don't know what that is. Like, we don't have a good explanation for the max. but I walked around already like, I'm done, I'm over it, I can't keep doing it.

But I think as women, so many times, we're like, I can't keep going, I can't keep doing this. And then the next day we pick ourselves up and we go and do it. And there's never a moment where we're able to switch back into that parasympathetic. So talk a little bit. Yeah, like what do you do? Because you, I mean, you've accomplished more in your lifetime than most people will be doing multiple lifetimes. So how do you get back into parasympathetic? Well, I have a gazillion tools at my disposal.

I'm very fortunate. You know, I think it takes a moment. I'm in such an interesting position because I travel all the time. And as soon as I, like, for instance, I just got home last night at midnight. And I'm here for literally 48 hours and then I leave again. So I don't really ever have a chance to completely land a lot of the time. only when I have like, you know, at least a couple weeks to just sit still, can I actually start to unwind that?

So, you know, it's a challenge. I, but I definitely feel like one of the, and you said something about this earlier, one of the biggest things that I've noticed is verbalizing. Yeah. Even when I, you know, I sat, one of the times I said I was going to have a breakdown was right before, like a couple hours before a show the other day. And I knew, like, I literally thought to myself, I'm like, I had to say I want to not walk out on stage.

I'm about to have a breakdown. I think I might not walk out on stage tonight. I think I might cancel the show. And I actually had to tell everybody around me and I had to give myself the option. Yep. I think that was like my I'm not okay. Yeah.

You know, like after like running from fire and trying to figure out what was going on, it's like everybody was like, tell me you're okay, tell me you're okay. I'm like, I can't tell you I'm okay. And it was so relieving me like, I'm not okay. I walked into my chiropractor this morning and the lady looks at me, she goes,

are you okay? I said, no, I'm not. But thank you for asking. I'm not okay. But I mean, like, all is well, but I'm not okay right now. Yeah. I think we need to do that because society is taught us like. I'm so sick of bullshitting.

I'm just over it. It's like the world doesn't want to know we're not okay. So we need to start verbalizing it. Yeah. And then you give what I usually find is the person in front of me goes, I'm not okay either. Right. Cool, great. Let's not be okay together. Yes, I love that. I love that. Yeah, but I do think one of the biggest things is verbalizing.

And then, you know, I mean, for me, there's all the tools of, you know, you talk about, you know, talk about light, like using, I have these AYO light glasses that I use all the time, like to regulate my, you know, regulate my sleep. And then I get into hyperbaric. I use oxygen a lot. Like, I use IVs a lot. I use peptides. Like, there are so many things externally that I use. So don't get it, don't get twisted. There's like a gazillion other things in my toolbox that I, you know, meditation and massage. And, you know, like I found, I found the things that work for me. And I definitely heavily leaned into them when I need to. Yeah. And I think the toolbox needs to be vast.

Yes, it does. Because sometimes the things that worked yesterday aren't going to work today. That's right. And so, and I also find, it's a fine line because I can, I'm one of those people that I'm like, I have all these tools and I need to get them all done today because I need to take care of myself because I have 48 hours to actually like recover. So sometimes I can also add more stress. But I found that, you know, I try to lean into the joy of that and the gratitude of like, oh, I have all these things at my disposal. What's going to make me feel good?

What's going to support me? And if I look at it that way, instead of like, oh, God, I have all these things that I need to do right now because I've got to recover. It's like, oh, what is what is my body need? What's going to make me, what's going to bring me some joy? And I really do, I do enjoy taking care of myself because it ultimately, my future self, it makes me feel better. So I actually find a lot of joy in the process of health. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you bring up a really good point because I didn't.

this actually before I came here. I had two weeks where I was going to be in San Diego, L.A., and then New York. And the week before I came, I looked at my schedule and I was like, well, this schedule sucks. It's like back to back to back. So I literally like could feel the anxiety coming up because my schedule is too tight. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to cancel this. I'm going to cancel this. And in 30 minutes, I canceled like five things off my schedule. And I was like, oh, my God, I feel so much. better. Yes. Like in that little bit of time, just acknowledging that I can't do it all, those things. And some of them, one of them was a massage, but I was like, I'm going to rush from this thing to this thing. I don't want to do that. So the litmus test is joy. The litmus test

needs to be, oh, that makes me feel better. And ease. I mean, I, you know, sometimes I'll go, like, just use the show, for instance. Sometimes I've done three shows in a row and I'm like, I'm going to cut two songs off my show tonight because I'm going to still walk on stage, but I I don't have every, and I'm not running at 100% tonight. So I'm going to still show up, but then also how can I show up authentically? So like when I walk out, you know,

I've said sometimes I'm, I'm not, I'm exhausted. I've literally said that on stage. So I need you guys to like give me some, I need your energy tonight. Like just being, just having that conversation, I know we'll get into this, but you talk about like what I was as a kid.

So much of me as a kid was perfection. And so, you know, to unwind that and to show up like, oh, for instance, my hair is four days old today. So I stuck a hat on. I was going to show up in sweats. But I actually, like, just bought this hat. I'm like, I'm going to wear this hat today. So I, yeah, I think, like, really letting things, like, not be perfect. And especially, I think it's so refreshing when someone in my person,

position is constantly like, you know, everybody in my position most of the time. It is rare to find someone who will show up imperfectly because we all want, you know, people to think that we are all so polished and pretty and happy and everything's great. And I'm like, no, no, I did that as a kid. And I'm so over it. Like, it's just, it's so freeing. And like you're saying you give other women, other people permission to show up differently. Yeah. Yeah, you got to share the story because I've shared it for you of your teeth. Oh my God. Yes.

That was a great moment. It was a classic moment of like I'm not playing the game anymore. No. And I, well, luckily, so I was on stage and I have a bridge in the front. I went through this long story, but I've been through 40 dental surgeries in the last like 12 years. It's that nightmare. But I have a bridge in the front and it's right in the front.

and it decided to pop out in mid-show, about four songs in, actually. And so I literally, like, put my hand in her mouth and said, hold on and ran to the side of stage and pushed it back in. And I was like, oh, it's going to stay in. So I was literally singing and pushing in, like, after every line. And I knew I was either going to have to walk off stage and just stop the show, or I could continue. thank God I was able to push it back in enough to continue and I just told everybody I was like this is what's going on this is never happened to me this is probably the most vulnerable moment I've ever had on

stage and of course we were in Washington State and the sweet people up there were like yelling at me nobody has teeth up here it's all good so people when you admit it yeah I mean everybody I just had this whole different rapport with a crowd all of a sudden and and people would have understood if I had to walk off stage because I was just honest about it, but I was able to continue and have fun with it. And it was hysterical. I laughed the whole time.

And I was like, I mean, this thinking to myself, I've been on stage for 30 years professionally, and I've never had this happen. And I think that was great. Yeah, it was just, it gave me a new appreciation for myself. Yeah. Because I was like, whoa, I just went through something really vulnerable and made fun of it. I had a great time with it, actually. Yeah. What do you think your 15-year-old would

have done if that had happened? She probably would have done the same thing, honestly. Okay. Yeah, I think I think I was, I think when it comes, I'm kind of being on stage is like a superpower for me. And so I think, I think I still knew vulnerability then on stage.

I mean, there was times, there were times when I was younger where I was really sick and, I mean, I was really ill on stage. And I had to just stop and be like, I can't continue. And that was at 14. So I definitely have always had that in me. But I think what the difference was back then is I had so much guilt about having to walk off stage. And now if I would have had to walk off, I'd have been like, there's no guilt there. It's just just what happened. Yeah. Oh my God. That's so beautiful. Yeah. Take us back to like

seven-year-old Leanne. I've been the beneficiary of some great stories. stories of your life because your life is definitely like nobody else's. And one of the things I always think about is how it too, they recognized your voice. And I know like you had a very unique, playful childhood and then you became a professional singer pretty quickly. Who were you before you became the professional singer? Well, I mean, I was even if you think about seven, I was singing at a show every Saturday night in Fort Worth, Texas. So I was learning a new song every week.

So, you know, there was rehearsal all the way up into that Saturday where I performed. So I was as professional as I could have gotten at seven, you know, I was professional then. Did you like performing on stage at seven? I loved it. Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, yeah, it was so fun. And I loved, and that's it, I was very curious. I loved learning.

I loved learning a new song every week. I loved being creative. I was really playful. And that was kind of the rub back then was, um, I wanted to go play more where I had to work more. I had to work a lot of the time. So I think I was more playful than what I was able to, you know, what I was given the time to be back then.

I was, I've always been very curious. And we've talked about this, you know, me going and looking up stuff. Like, I'll go, I'll go research. I'm like, that's so you. I'm such a researcher on things. I'm like, ooh, what's that about? I hated science back in the day, but now, like, I love to concoct candles and perfume and

I'll make, like, you know, I'm like, oh, so-and-so made a drink that makes you, you know, relax. I'm like, that's not strong enough for me. Let me go get all the ingredients and make it myself. So, like, I, and I didn't know that about myself until I got older is that that was actually a part of me that was really present and wanted to be, I wanted to come out. So I think, you know, these last couple of years from me have been trying new things. Like, I really like to try new things. And I think because of having, because of being in the public eye so early and people having

expectations of like you, or maybe this is just in my mind, but I think, I think it is actually an expectation of like, you are, you're so amazing at this one thing. No, if you go over to acting or you go somewhere else or do trying something else, if you write a book, like that it has to be that amazing. which I realized like this gift is like something that's otherworldly and I finally had to be like I need to, I'm never going to, I'm never, I'm never, I'm not saying never. This gift is a one of a kind thing and it's a it's not, it doesn't necessarily bleed over into into being that amazing in every aspect of my life. And that's okay. I've had to come to terms of that's okay.

And people can, allowing people to see me fail. I've, I've, I've, I've, I've gotten. I can't stand. I used to not be able to stand when people would see my process. I only wanted them to see that end, you know, product. And so now I, and especially with acting, you know, this is, I'm doing a TV show for the first time, never done that in my life. And, you know, to have to collaborate with other people, I'm an only child, to have to collaborate with all these other people and to have them see my process

where I'm not comfortable necessarily in that process, I'm getting more comfortable. that was like one of my biggest fears walking into this show. It's like, oh, people are going to see. I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. And it's actually been really liberating. Because nobody else knows. I mean, people have more experience than me that are on the show.

But when we're talking about the scene, like none of us have done it. Nobody knows what they're doing until we do it. You know, so it's really kind of giving me perspective on like, you know, really opening myself up to try. all the new things that my little kid in me really wants to do. She wants to try new things. Right. Yeah, and she got pigeonholed into one profession for a really long time.

Yeah. I haven't shared this with you, but I have a new feeling about what confidence is. And I think we get confidence when we are congruent with ourselves. So in that situation, you didn't go in and try to be Leanne Rimes, the Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter. you were like, I'm an actress, you know, starting this part of my career, and you called yourself out and in the process. And now you get confidence in that because you're not trying to put on a facade of, like, if you walked in and you're like, I'm a badass actress, like that,

you might be a little, right? Right, that's true. And I also talk about my fears. Like, I mean, I'll tell a director, I'm uncomfortable in the scene. I'm really worried about this part. or I need a little more help in this situation or I talk to the writers. I'm very, I'm just not afraid to speak my truth about how I'm feeling

in order to break down that wall of needing to be something more. And that's that congruency that you're speaking of. When we can just be, when we can allow out the emotion that's inside of us and not have to project it on anyone else, but just like say this is what's happening inside of me. Pull it out. It just, it literally shifts everything. Yeah, right, right.

Everything. Like all of a sudden, I'm like, I'm scared. And then I speak and I'm like, oh, well, maybe I'm not really scared anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. It's really true. It's really true. Okay, talk to me about your toolbox.

So, you know, Leanne, we've been working together for like three, I don't know, whole life feels like falling. But one of the things I loved when you and I first met is you were just really curious about how your body worked and you just wanted to learn. And so one by one, we started creating different tools for different symptoms and different times. And I feel like that toolbox has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. So you're 43 now, right? And you're in perimenopause. And so what are some of your favorite tools?

And you can say any of them, but just so people can understand that. How has your toolbox evolved even in the last three years? It has, oh, yeah. I mean, it just continues to grow. Yeah. You know, one of, look, I use HRT. I'm a fan of it. I'm a huge fan of it.

When my estrogen's low, I'm not, it's not fun. It just, and especially when I have to go out and do things, I don't want my body to hurt and all the things. So, you know, I actually, one of the greatest things that I found, I use a hormone test every morning that I'm, that I pee on a stick and I see where I'm at. And instead of, I know when we first started working together before I had this test, it was like we would, it was like throwing things at my symptoms. Yeah. And now with this test, I'm like, oh, I can see that my estrogen is low. So I need a little more estrogen a day. And I'm like, I can, I can help dose myself properly. So that's been super helpful. Talk about what the test is called. Yeah. It's called OVA. O-O-V-A. And I, I, and I, I'm like, I.

absolutely love it and it's easy every morning. And it's like I said, if you're if you're on HRT, it's great to be able to to dose properly on the day. So that's been helpful. Like, you know, we talked about there's one of the, one of the massive things that changed for me because you and I had very high mercury when we met and I had a lot of anxiety and I thought obviously some of it was my life, but also a lot of it was the mercury. and we started slowly detoxing me. And every time we would use the suppositories and the whole thing to detox, the slow way,

I got horrible anxiety when that mercury would come out of my system. So we found Ibu, which has been like a massive change for me to be able to go and kind of detox a little bit faster in a more efficient way. It's definitely better for my lifestyle. So Ibu's been a big deal. Like, you know, keeping up with supplemen and things that I know work for me.

Peptides, peptides has been a huge, huge shift for me with sleep. Yeah, what else? What else do I do? Let me just address what those are so we don't lose everybody. We put a link in there for OVA, those of you that want to try it. It doesn't matter where you are in your journey. What it does is it gives you a baseline of where your hormones are at. So then if you're like, progesterone is low,

according, and it gives you a chart according to where you should be, then you know, okay, here are the qualities that I need to work on if your estrogen's low. So you can use your lifestyle on a daily basis. It's incredible. Absolutely. Ibu, my, Bre on my team just put in there, Ibu is the best form of detox that I know right now. And it's like extra cellular blood oxygenization ozone therapy. It's like a really long thing. But I'll tell you where you can go. You can go to Next Health, for those of you that are in the United States, they have franchises everywhere, and they, you can start to get your, get Eboo there if you want to learn about, and they're doing peptides too.

So you can even walk into Next Health and be like, hey, and mention Leanne and I's name, they know us well. And just say, I want peptides in Ibu, and they will, they'll make that happen. People, I just saw someone asking about what peptides. I've been, I use a lot of different ones, and I cycle them all, um, every like eight to 12 weeks. I found DSIP for sleep is very helpful. In fact, I just got my oaring score, like the end of the year score.

And I can tell when I started using certain peptides because my sleep got better. I was like, oh, wow, it really worked. That's where I'm going to DSIP when I get home. I got it waiting in my refrigerator. Yeah. That's helpful. You know, I've done, I've done some Tessamorellin. However you say that.

Tessimorland, Tessimorellon. Epimorlin. I've done stuff for skin with GHKCU. There's a bunch of, I love one of the biggest things, actually, let's talk about this. One of the biggest things that I have gone in on is my mitochondria, because that is our energy, right? Like, mitochondria is our energy. I don't want any more. I trust me, I've gotten off of, I got off of any energy drinks this year. I was having some really bad acid reflux. So I'm like, it's stripped. everything back. I went to low acid coffee. I still drink coffee in the morning, but I'm not like four or five cups. I'm only like one or two. And I've found when I started to go in on my mitochondria, which I found that a peptide called SS3-1, it was really helpful in MOTC, that actually has been such a huge change in my energy where I could have consistent, you know, consistent energy where I'm not crashing. And trust me, my life is if I can feel, if I can feel like I have energy, everybody can feel like they have

energy. It's your number one desire. Yes, it really is. My energy. It really is by, yeah, energy. It used to be my brain. It used to be depression and anxiety. And now we've kind of moved from that into, okay, I need some energy.

And I'm going after my mitochondria and really learning about mitochondria has been super helpful. And that's been just in the last couple of months where I've really seen. seen a change. So yeah, I'm a huge advocate for peptides. I know they've definitely worked for me. I've never seen anything work as good as peptides. So I, and there somebody said something about the acronyms. These are their names. I don't, we don't know how to, we can't call them anything else. You know, like it took, it took Leanne and I, we actually sat down and we're like learning together to try to figure out and stack them. And the learning curve was steep, which is why I'm

really happy to say go to next health. Yeah. And they'll figure it out. So. Last question before we open it up for questions from everybody else. And I love this question. I hope you've had time to think on it. What does linear rhymes look like at 70? You know, so my godmother just passed away. She was 96. And one of the most beautiful things as we were all reflecting on her life

is how much of a teacher she was and a mentor and to so many women. Yeah. And I think that that's where I'll be at 70. I mean, I know I'll still be performing. And, you know, music and create, creation will always be a huge part of my life. But I really feel this pull somehow. I don't know how that's going to look. I see myself being this very, like, I mean, you know, I created a couple chant records now.

I love creating my frequency candles. I just see that side of me coming out more where I'm just, you know, my woo-woo self, allowing her to, like, be fully present. Let her out. Yeah. Do you know the word that came up to me a lot? I wrote a song called Satisfied years ago about myself because I just felt like I was never satisfied no matter what.

And I still feel like that a lot of the time. I hope to be satisfied at 70. Yeah. I want to look around and just feel, I don't know, just really grounded and proud of and being able to look back at all the things I've accomplished. but and maybe just feel like I don't need to accomplish so much as I do now need to pass on what I've learned to other women so yeah I love that I you know what I want to go back to the

one of the conversations we had when we first met which is your vision for the retreat the frequency retreat yes we would gather women and we would bring them have this multi-sensory experience yes we're going to do that still it's happening it's just it just needs to to birth itself so that's exactly what when I when you asked me that this morning I was like that's what I that's where I see myself is like this you know gathering women and and just maybe I just gather them all and sing to them and it just you know and maybe that maybe that's all it is and it's just more of a a more of a one on like not one-on-one but more of it's like a smaller container of connection yeah you know it's even yeah yeah go ahead we're designed by the way

way. In all the research I did for this book, I actually think of our whole time of our life as women, we are the most biologically designed to come together in our postmenopausal years. It's just instinctual. And it's part of what we do. So I can totally see that. Well, that's why the lime tree, I think, made me cry because I was like, oh, that's just, obviously it's calling my heart. My heart is calling to that, you know. So yeah, I love that. I can't wait. Can you put some scarves around your microphone?

Yes. I'm going to so be Stevie Nix. I told you without the heels because I'm done with heels. I'm done with heels. I saw Stevie Nix at the gorge a couple of years ago and I came back to Leanne and I was like, can you please do that? She had like cool scarves and beads, but she had these high heels and she kind of like came on stage. So it's possible.

She's shown us it's possible. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to go to questions. Sure. And let's see. I actually have some of them written right here. Okay, and these are live. Okay, so Deborah, she's, I'm 20 years post-menopausal. How would you suggest I go through the book? It gives the voice to my past experience, but what would be the most valuable for me at this point?

So, yeah, okay, so it's, you know, I think for, here's what I'm going to say, when I told my mom, my 86-year-old mom, what the book was, about, she's like, oh, that's actually a book of yours I'd read. Some opinions about your music, Leanne. Oh, 1,000 percent. Like, my favorite is that she's, my mom is very religious and I don't think she

completely understands my Chan album. And so, because she, I mean, I'm like, mom, it's all, it's all from spirit, it's all good. And she my mom has everything, all of my albums in her phone, except my Chan album. So there you go. She's like, that's maybe not an album I'll listen to.

Wasn't there was something she wanted to play the other day when you were with her? And she said, just play anything of hers except the chant. Yes, that was it. Yes. And so there you go. That's great. So, Debra, to answer your question, read part one. Part one is where you will understand where to go next because you'll see the philosophy

behind aging from a new lens. So I think that's the first starting point. Okay. Eden wants to know what was my favorite. What is your favorite part of the book and what did you learn the most about yourself when writing it? So I'm going to answer this and then I have a question for you on self-reflection, Lance. So I would say I wrote this book trying to understand what happens to us emotionally and behavior-wise as we go through this experience. And what I discovered was what a good steward of the culture I've been and how I've really, like, at the sake of my life.

own self, I have done all checked all the boxes and done everything for everybody else. And I actually in the middle of writing this, had a friend say to me, you know, Mindy, it's so interesting because I watch you and you get so stressed and worried about disappointing other people, but you don't worry about disappointing yourself. And that was a good friend. It was like, pooh, pooh. So I think I discovered how to take better care of myself. I think, you know, Leanne, I'll just say this to you, like, one of the things I've admired

about you is that despite you've had so many people around you needing you to perform a certain way, you do seem like you take amazing good care of yourself in that. Yeah, talk a little bit about that. I have to. I have to. I, yeah, I think that I have, I have, I, I've been the center of a lot of people's world in my own world for a very long time. And I don't, I've had to do that. I've had to be the center of my world in order to go out and perform

and to give other people what they want from me. And so we, but I don't think I was always that way. I don't think I realized, I think you helped me understand recovery and the need to fill myself, not just recovery of my body, but also my spirit and my joy, like the need to also give myself space to enjoy life.

And also creation, I know you know this too. Like as a creator, you have to go live life in order to have something to draw from. So, yeah, I think that that's what... I've learned that my art and my spirit needs... I have to put myself first. in order to be able to perform.

Yeah. One thing you said to me, like a couple of years ago, you said, you need to make know your best friend. Yeah. Could you talk? And at first I was like, okay, got that. I got that. And then I tried to go do it.

And I was like, eh, that was really hard. You didn't tell me what to do after that. No, yeah, no, I, I know my worth. I know my worth. I know also what, like, when somebody comes to me with a project, I know what it takes out of me and how much time and effort and that I have

to give to that thing. And so I've, I'll only say yes when I know I have the capacity in order to do so. And I've turned down things that people would go, why are you turning that down?

I'm like, because I don't have the capacity for it. I just don't. And I know that I've been around long enough to know that like another cool thing will come. Yeah. You know?

But that's everything. Like I can easily move. move in, like in the younger version of me had FOMO. It's like, what are you doing? Don't go to the party. You don't have to go to the party. There'll be another party. That's right.

There you go. That's it. So then somebody came up with Jomo, the joy of missing out. And I was like, oh, so whenever I get FOMO, I'm like, but wait, maybe I actually could have Jomo right now. So it's helpful. And I love the way you're, there always be something else. There will be.

Yeah, I think it's great. Okay. Somebody asked about protein. We got to bring this up. Do you count protein? So do you eat more protein? Do you, what's your relationship with protein? I used to count it.

You've stopped me from counting anything. Yay. Yeah, and I really did because I didn't want her to get, I want every woman to get into an intuitive relationship with her body. And if we're counting, we're in our head, we're not in our body. I use them. I mean, I eat a lot of protein. I also eat more carbs now than I've ever eaten before.

You also taught me that. But I also, there'll be time days when I'm really busy and I know I haven't eaten enough protein. And I go, I lean into perfect aminos, little amino protein powder or I'll have an extra like protein shake. But I do, I do get protein. But I don't like stress about it. Yeah. Right. You know, like, you've seen those memes where they're like, I'm sorry, I couldn't go to work today.

Yes. I was too busy counting my protein. I'm like, yep, that's how far this protein thing has gone. Yeah, it's gone a little too far for sure. What do you do when you sit at a restaurant and when you sit down to eat? Like, do you have a strategy? Because I have a strategy when I look at a menu. I'm just curious if you have that.

Oh, you do? What's your strategy? My strategy is I don't ask myself what I want to eat. I literally first off look at the menu and say, what on here have I not eaten recently? Oh, that's right. You do do that, yes. Yeah. So, yeah, see, I'm not that, I'm not that way with food. Yeah, I know.

I know. Okay, so tell us. I kind of gravitate toward what I, what I normally like. And I'm normally comfortable. Yeah, you like to go out and, like, venture out into, like, the crazy different meats and things. And I'm like, not so much. But I, I will start with protein first.

And then a lot of the, you know, if I'm on, depending on what part of my cycle I'm on, I mean, I'll lean into some pasta when I need to. Like, I mean, yeah, I don't, I do, these days, I'm kind of, I find that I will eat for what my body feels like it needs or what my mind feels like it needs. Sometimes I might not be at the end of my cycle. I need carbs, but I just need carbs. Right. So, you know. Do you feel, this is a really important one.

I want people to hear it from you because do you feel guilty when that happens when you're like, I need carbs today? Not anymore. I used to. I don't anymore, no. Because I know I'm giving my mind. The old thinking was, oh, no carbs. Like I was very. Yes.

Yeah. I'm going to get bloated and I'm going to get fat. And it's, but now I'm, yeah, now I definitely, I need carbs. I enjoy them. They're great. Everyone should have a carb. Yay. I know.

I mean, we've gotten way too much, too many absolutes in the health world. But also healthy carbs. Yeah. I mean, I'm not eating crap. That's the thing. That's a difference between, like, just eating healthier carbs and not eating crap. And I think that's, I thought that all carbs were bad, you know. Right, right.

Yeah. And I think that was the message a lot of people got. So, okay, this was an interesting one. Somebody asked, and I'm going to ask, she asked it for me on my book tour, but then I'm going to ask it for you because I think this is another skill that I'm learning. So the question was, what are you looking forward to most? once the grind of your book, Brook Promotion Tour ends. And I'll tell you something that somebody, a mentor taught me years ago, and that was to put

your head down and do a job really intensely for a short period of time, and then have a vacation or some downtime already pre-scheduled after that. So, like, when I'm taking a plane here in a couple of hours, and I'm going home for two weeks, and I'm just chilling with my family. And that was already pre-designed. And I don't know about you, Leanne, but for me, if I don't know that's there, then I'm just burn out.

So I do that. I get in the middle of it, and I'm like, oh, I got to do that, and I got to do that. But if I know, like, I've known all along that I have the next from here until the end of the year off with my family, like I actually can relax in the moment.

Is that how, and you're really good at vacations, by the way. Yeah, I do. I plan things ahead of time and have something to look forward to. Always the things, even if it's just dinner. Right. Like when I'm in New York, like you are, and I'm, you know, doing crazy days of work from 4 a.m. to, you know, God knows whenever, I will plan, like, I plan ahead of like, this is where we're going for dinner. And I just, once again, things that bring you joy.

So I love having things to look forward to. My life would be, like you're saying, it would be so hard and, like, heavy without those things. Yeah. Yeah. And I've noticed that about you. You're really good at like, okay, I'm going to go here and then from there I'm going on a vacation

or from there I'm going to go here. I have a new restaurant for you here in New York. Oh, yeah. I'll send it to you ever done. I was like, when we ate there the other night, I was like, oh, my God, Lee would love this. I'll send it to you. Yeah.

to add your list. Somebody asked about HRT, and I want to bring this up because one of the things is that when we first started working with Leanne's body trying to figure out where it was, and maybe you could talk a little bit about how long you took a break from birth control before you went on HRT. We cleaned her lifestyle up. Like we detoxed her, we did stuff, and then we were like, okay, we need to bring an OB in to start to work with HRT, and we dialed that in and it's been amazing. But I feel like the steps we took were really appropriate. Can you talk a little bit about that journey?

Yeah. And I also found it really interesting with your book because we've touched upon this too. It's like, okay, well, you want your brain, you know, to switch over into this whole other realm of life. And am I, am I blunting it with, you know, am I stopping that process with HRT? I'm okay doing that right now. where my life is, I'm okay using HRT, you know, fully at this moment. And so, yeah, I was on birth control for 15, 17 years, something along those lines,

where I would have really heavy periods of my vocal cords would swell, and I would end up the hospital like before a show. And so my gynecologist put me on continuous birth control. And so I didn't have a period for like 17 years, something along those lines. and around 37, 38, one night at a show, I started to bleed and I was like, you know, I've been to just see what happens. And so I got off of birth control, just took myself off of it. And I was right before COVID, which is insane. I had never stopped touring until that time.

So I stopped touring and went off of birth control. My hormones were insane. Thank God my husband is a saint. And then I found your book and we started working together and that's when we started to clean up my life and you started to teach me about my cycle. All the things I did not know, almost 40-year-old woman had no idea. So, you know, detox is a huge piece of it and teaching me to eat for my cycle, which was helpful. But at some point, I think because of how not having a period for that long, it was just, okay, we need to introduce some. form of hormone here and and it has been very, very helpful. I am a, yeah, I've become,

it's not like, I felt like I was like this for a while. And now this is like, I have days, but it's, they're much, they're much less like peaks in valleys. It's a little smoother. So I think we chatted about this, but just for everybody to understand that if you're on birth control at a young age, there is no natural rhythm that your body knows because it's already been manipulated by a synthetic rhythm. So you take the birth control pill and that determines the hormonal rhythm. So when Leanne got off of that, she didn't have a natural rhythm, even though we worked with it and we brought some of that back.

So when she went on to HRT, it was a really good adjunct to her healthy lifestyle that would create that rhythm. So I think, but HRT isn't the bad, isn't, not everybody just can slap a patch on and be fine. You have to pair it with lifestyle. So I think that's a really important one to take note of. So another really interesting question here, and you and I've never talked about this, a lot of women, when they go through manopause, have really bad ADHD symptoms. Have you noticed that? I was talking to this with my co-star

about this with my co-star the other day. I, so I don't know. I do not feel like I have ADHD symptoms, although I have a gazillion things running in my brain at once. But I also think that's my lifestyle. Like I don't, I try not to confuse it. I've actually, I tried to talk to Dr. Ayman about it one time because I'm like, maybe I do have ADHD.

And he's like, no, I don't think so. I think it's just, you've got a lot going on. Give me a go. But I do, yeah, I think that we can, I think that it can feel like that. And we can, you know, there's so many tabs open because that's how we've learned to live our lives because we're taking care of everybody else and, you know, their lives. And it can definitely feel like that. And now some people definitely may have that and are dealing with that. But I definitely think it can feel that way for a lot of women.

Yeah. Yeah. I think you bring up a really good point because. I've wondered like, do I have ADHD? Have I always had ADHD? Maybe how do I know? No, you just got a lot of shit to take care of. Exactly.

You know what? Here's how I describe my brain. My brain is like a 20 movie Cineplex theater. And sometimes I go into one theater and I walk. I go deep into that movie. And then I'm like, I don't like this. I come out and I go to another theater like I'm bouncing around from theater to theater. That's how my brain feels.

I never know quite where it's going to land. But if it's, but if I'm curious enough and it's, interesting enough, I'm going to stay there and drill all the way down and to understand. Yeah, yeah. Talk a little bit. Somebody asked about exercise. So a really big thing right now in the menopause conversation is strength training. And I know you've had, you've been working out obviously consistently for a while. How have your workouts changed as you've gone into perimenopause? I work out, it's kind of like my HRT. I work out, I give myself the workout that. I need that day.

Because I'm, some days, I'm so tired that I've literally gone into a session with my trainer and gone, we're just stretching. We're stretching. We're doing some like functional movement and that's it. So I really work, I tried, I plan on working out with weights three times a week. And sometimes those, sometimes those are heavier weights and less reps and sometimes. And it's funny, actually, when I'm tired, I will do, some people would think that for me, it works to do heavier weight and less reps.

So I'll do like, you know, a chest press of, you know, 30 pounds. Sometimes I only do four to six. Because I find that when I do moderate weight and do a lot of reps, I actually get more sore. And so if I'm traveling a lot and my body's already sore, like I'll, I will still lift weights. I'll just adjust to what my body's feeling that day. You feel guilty if you're like, I'm going to do an amazing tough workout and then you wake up and you're like, I don't feel like doing this amazingly tough. No, I don't. Excellent.

I'm so over it. I don't because I just can't do it because I also know what doing it will make me feel horrible. And I already feel horrible. So like, no, I don't because I don't have the capacity for it. And I think that's what, I mean, I guess as we get older, that's the first thing that we have to accept. I don't have the capacity for this. And in the past, like, you know what I mean? Like in the past I've always been like, I can do it, I can do it, I can, you know.

And yeah, I was able to. But now I just, I can't. And that's okay. It's just a part of aging. It is. It's a part of aging. And that's, and we can throw all the. things at ourselves, which trust me I do, to try to prolong, you know, how great I feel.

But part of prolonging how great I feel is also understanding that I don't need to do it all. Yeah. Are you scared of your body looking old? Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it's like, yeah. Yeah. I mean, especially in the world that I live in. Yeah, the world you live in, you know, mark for you. Yeah. I mean, I've, I don't, I've, I've, I've, I have, I don't, I've, I've, I, I, they do and it's so messed up. We don't like our celebrities to age. No, and we were just talking about this the other day, some friends of mine because I'm like, I wish people, I can't stand in with celebrities are like, oh, I haven't had anything

in my face. I haven't had a facelift. And I'm like, yes, you have. Like, just come out and say, I look great because I had the money to go in and get a facelift. Because I think other women that are your age, if that's what you're doing, all of a sudden, think that they're less than and that there's something wrong with them and they don't look like that.

That's it. Just, I mean, trust me, if I have things done, eventually, I might. And I'm not opposed to it. I have not. I haven't put anything in my face. I don't do Botox. I don't do filler. But I do take care of myself.

And eventually, maybe one day down the road, if I do have something done, trust me, I'll be the first one to tell you that I had done. Because I just don't want people feeling bad about themselves. I love that. It's ridiculous. And that's exactly what they do. And this is my big thing in social media land is that we put this like, oh, you do. you do X, Y, and Z, and you can look like me, but you don't actually know behind the scenes that they've done about 10 other things that you haven't done.

And so then you start to measure yourself to their highlight reel. So, yeah, thank you for that. I think that's such super helpful. Even down to, you know, talking about the things that I do, I know, I went into Next Health and did TPE and I do Ebo. These things cost money. They're not cheap. And so when I talk about these things, I'm very aware that, like, yes, these things

has helping, but not everybody has the access to this. So that's right. You know, even with, even with health, health, I'm very aware of that. And I also, but I also, I want to be honest about what I'm doing and what's helping. So yeah, it's a fine line. But yeah, it's, but again, I'm, go ahead. Congruency. If you, if you decide to do something and you say it, now you're congruent with yourself and the confidence will come out. So, totally. Okay, we have to finish on this because this one's really fun too. A lot of people are asking about sleep. Talk to us about how you, because Leanne's like in all these different time zones, but I just want to say that she was on the voice in Australia. And so, and then at the same time,

she was on the voice in England. And so we were looking at what she was going to do to be able to adapt to that time change. And she found these retimer glasses. And I was like, and they look, I'm not going to lie, they look hysterical. And I was like, you're going to wear those on the plane? Yeah, they now have a new version of them, but they were like these massive glasses that covered my whole face. And everybody on the plane was like,

what the hell is she doing? Yeah, I mean, it's circadian rhythm. Look, I'd be really honest, there were times I had to just drug myself to sleep because I knew that if I could get the sleep that I needed, then I could allow my body to adjust. So it's not like, I love when people are like, oh, it's just so easy to like adjust with these glasses.

And I'm like, no, that was one. part of the deal, but, you know, I had to, I had, I had medicine with me when I needed to take it to be able to sleep. So there's, it's not just like, it's, it's not just all the, like, biohacking stuff. So they're like, they're like, they're like, blue light. They shine blue light in. You go look up retimer glasses and then picture Leanne and them. I know. The old ones were massive. I also, there's some new ones that I've, there's some new ones that I've, called AYO that I've found that are supposed to be, because I was looking at ways to raise my dopamine in the morning.

And these glasses, the wavelength of light is supposed to be better at raising dopamine. And the retimer glasses were better for adjusting to different time zones. So, yeah, it was very interesting to find. So I use my AYO glasses every morning when I'm. I get up, it's like the first thing I do for 20 minutes and it's super helpful. Yeah, I got to check that out. I love that. Yeah, I like up a lot. Awesome. Well, you're amazing and thank you. This is what you guys actually just witnessed is pretty much a weekly conversation. This is how we talk. You asked me something earlier. You asked me something earlier about what I was thinking,

what do I do and I get depressed? And I was like, I haven't been depressed in a while, but the first thing that I do is box to you and say, Mindy, I'm depressed. What do I do today? We had a thing about, I mean, this is why I really wanted her to show you the toolbox, because it's big and it's vast. And so when she would hit a wall, she would say, I'm doing all the things. And so I'm like, oh, well, here's a few more things. And I think that's the real amazing part, because what I've witnessed in Leanne using all these little micro tools is that she's going deeper and deeper into menopause, but her symptoms are becoming more and more stable. and she knows how to pull herself out. So, like, I just saw somebody put on here what, you know, to Veronica,

asked what the content in the book has done, how does it shape the changes that you have made? And I think what you all will see, especially in that part two, is that if, like Leanne just said, if I'm depressed, I got these glasses, I'll put them on in the morning. If I know I need more carbs because I'm depressed, that's another depression one, I'm going to eat more carbs. So having some kind of toolbox is pivotal. Sometimes comfort is what you need. Yes, exactly. And, you know, sometimes I don't know why,

but the last year and a half was the first time I've ever started binge watching shows. I never watched TV. And so I'll sit and binge watch a show. And my husband will be like, you need to get off the couch. I'm like, no, I don't. I'm not getting off the couch today.

I'm sitting right here and I'm watching 10 episodes of criminal lines. Like, whatever it is. So sometimes, yeah, it's just, Sometimes you need comfort. Yeah. So people can go binge watch 911 Nashville. Do it.

That's her new show. Yes. Well, thank you. And thank you to everybody. You know, I just, I think, you know, my heart aligns with Leanne in the sense that we're just want to show up authentically. We want to gather women together and we want us all to be cheering each other on. And I've said this to you before, Leanne.

Like, you know, in the position you're in, there are so many people who, who would make them feel themselves better then. And you're down in the walk a day with us all doing it with us. So I just, I really appreciate that. Yeah, anytime. Thank you. And thank you, Leanne. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, everyone. Bye, guys.