The Missing Link to Feeling Better (w/Health Coach Elizabeth Sherman)

What if the problem isn't that you're doing too little...but that your body needs something different?

You're trying to make healthy choices. You're drinking more water, paying attention to what you eat, getting more movement, and doing your best to take care of yourself. Yet somehow you still feel tired, stressed, uncomfortable, or just not quite like yourself. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone—and you may not be doing anything wrong.

In this episode, health and life coach Elizabeth Sherman, Master Certified Life & Health Coach for Women in Midlife, joins us to talk about what many women discover in midlife: sometimes it's not that you're doing something wrong. It's that your body needs something different.

We explore the changing realities of women's health, including sleep, stress, hormones, movement, nutrition, menopause, and the habits that can make the biggest difference without adding more pressure or guilt. Elizabeth also shares her simple framework for understanding what your body may be trying to tell you and why working with your body is often more effective than fighting against it.

If you've ever felt frustrated because you're making healthy choices but still don't feel your best, this conversation offers practical wisdom, encouragement, and hope.

Connect with ELIZABETH SHERMAN

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 "Imagine Yourself" is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach—two dynamic voices with a passion for inspiring and uplifting others. Lanée, a TV writer, producer, motivational speaker, and podcaster, brings powerful storytelling and insight. Sandy, a radio personality, voiceover artist, and podcaster, delivers warmth and wisdom with every conversation. Broadcasting from the Detroit Metro area, they welcome guests from around the world to share valuable perspectives on health, career growth, faith, and personal transformation. Tune in and imagine the possibilities for your life!

Transcript

Lanée Blaise [00:00:00 - 00:00:45]

Hello, everybody. I'm Lanee here with Sandy and we have a lovely guest here today as well. Because we love talking about the different seasons of our lives, the way that we change, especially during midlife. Today we're really going to focus on having some hope because sometimes we see that our bodies are changing and we have to face it. We just face the reality that we are not the same body that we were, however many years ago, and that that's okay. And we are in love with the thought of aging gracefully, living in healthy, lovely, loving bodies. And so we have brought in our guest today, Elizabeth Sherman. She's our friend.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:45 - 00:01:12]

We've had her on the show before. We know her, we trust her. She's a master certified life and health coach who has spent 20 years helping women figure out what is actually going on in the way of their health and feeling good in their bodies. And for a lot of women, especially in midlife, it is not necessarily what you think it is. So we wanna welcome Elizabeth to the show. Elizabeth Sherman. Thank you, ma'.

Sandy Kovach [00:01:12 - 00:01:12]

Am.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:01:12 - 00:01:18]

Thank you for having me. I am so super excited about our topic today. And let's dive in.

Sandy Kovach [00:01:18 - 00:01:45]

Yeah. All things midlife and health. And we'll touch on menopause. I know there are some special considerations for that, but regardless of where somebody is, whether they're perimenopause or they're in menopause or they're post menopause, what is something as women in this season of life that we can do for our health to feel good on a day to day basis? I don't mean what, what's like one thing you can do and all your problems are solved, but just some general advice to get us kicked off.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:01:45 - 00:02:18]

So I think first it's worth understanding that the information that we grew up with, like I grew up with Seventeen magazine, Glamour magazine, Cosmopolitan. Right. Health. And the information that we grew up with was the best information that was available at that time. The 1200 calories per day. That information that we had about eat less, move more was all information based on college aged men.

Sandy Kovach [00:02:19 - 00:02:20]

College age men.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:02:21 - 00:02:21]

Men.

Sandy Kovach [00:02:22 - 00:02:22]

Really?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:02:23 - 00:03:20]

Yes. And so for our younger years, when we were in our 20s and our 30s, we didn't have hormonal issues like we have now. We're moving out of our reproductive years. And so therefore our hormones are fluctuating. Those things that worked when we were 20 and 30 no longer work anymore because as our hormones fluctuate, what happens is our bodies become more sensitive to insulin and they become more reactive to stress. And let's talk about this in, you know, a weight loss perspective. Although I understand that not everyone wants to lose weight. But when we, you know, cut out a food group, which is what most diets do, is they have us cut out carbohydrates or fat or whatever.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:03:20 - 00:04:13]

Your body might have different needs. When we cut out something that your body needs, you're going to be putting stress on your body. Our bodies in this stage of life don't deal with stressful situations like they used to. Right. And this is something that I see with women in midlife all the time, is that we have gotten so good at taking more on and then we're adding more stress through eating less or eating weird diets, not giving ourselves adequate recovery or sleep. And we're wondering why our hormones are all over the place and it's because of our lifestyle. Let me pause there and see what you all have to say about that or if you have follow up questions and then we can move on.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:13 - 00:04:33]

I have some things because again, on Imagine Yourself podcast, we love to imagine ourselves in a place where we have a smoothness to our life, where we feel more confident in our decisions. I don't know if you all remember when we were little kids, I think there used to be this little thing that come on TV say the more you. The more you know, the more you grow.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:04:34 - 00:04:35]

Yeah, the more you know.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:35 - 00:05:18]

And, and I just feel like this episode is dedicated to us, like you said, taking some of those things that we used to learn from some of the, the magazines back in the day and actually having some biological information and some hope and so that it doesn't feel like I'm not doing enough. I've tried this. I'm sick of trying that. I'm sick of feeling this way. And I want to feel better, be better and think better. Because, Elizabeth, I have actually been a client of yours and to really help me with what I eat and what I think about eating and what I think about sleep, because you mentioned that too. It's a whole body approach and I know you are about to lay it on us. The whole body.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:18 - 00:05:20]

Tell us. Tell us, Elizabeth. Help us.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:05:20 - 00:05:51]

Give us some hope. Well, and I think that what you kind of just alluded to there is a lot of what I preach in my own podcast and my own work. There is no one size fits all approach to our bodies. That's what diets do is they say this is how you should eat. It becomes readily apparent as we move into midlife. Our body starts talking to us. We just don't know how to listen. I'm sorry, what'd you say?

Sandy Kovach [00:05:51 - 00:05:53]

I said they talk to. It talks to us in many ways.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:05:54 - 00:06:48]

Exactly. Exactly. Like your cravings, are your body talking to you, Your fluctuating energy level is your body talking to you, Your mood, is your body talking to you, Hunger, all of that. There are five biomarkers that I use with my clients that determine whether you are eating right for your health, whether you're moving right for your health, whether you're sleeping right, and whether you're managing your stress. And those five biomarkers are whether your hunger is stable, your energy is stable, your cravings are low, your sleep is good, you have good quality sleep and you have a stable mood. That's what we want. When we don't have one of those things, that's our body talking to us, saying, hey, something is wrong here, we need to fix it.

Sandy Kovach [00:06:49 - 00:06:50]

Even your mood. Really?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:06:51 - 00:07:21]

Yeah. Because like, for example, when we don't sleep well, we're a little snappish, right? Or we might get a little weepy. And the same thing is true. Like with our diet, if we don't eat the right foods, we might feel a little irritable, hangry. So yeah, or just like I feel bloated and I don't feel comfortable or my joints ache. Those types of things will affect your mood and how you react with other people.

Sandy Kovach [00:07:22 - 00:07:35]

Very true. So of those five biomarkers, when you sit down with your clients, they're doing their questionnaires or chit chat, what do you say is the most important or is their one most important thing? Are they all kind of level?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:07:35 - 00:08:13]

Good question. I have a client, Chris. She came to me and she came to me because she wanted to lose weight. But when I did her intake, what I found was that her sleep was just all over the place. She was waking up like 11 times a night with night sweats. Once she was awake, she had severe anxiety even though she didn't come to me for sleep. Sleep was the very first thing that we worked on because sleep is like the lead domino. When we attack our sleep, when we get our sleep in line, what happens is everything else becomes easier.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:08:13 - 00:09:10]

We then can make better choices when it comes to eating. We then have energy to exercise and we also manage our stress better and we have better mood. For Chris, she was a nurse and she's also part of that sandwich generation where she's taking care of her parents and also taking care of her adult children. And so her capacity was at its max. Not only was she putting off sleep, but because for her, when she put her head down on the pillow, she had all of those things that she was supposed to be doing, her worries, things that she didn't get done, all of her commitments, all of that was still swirling in her head. So for her, what we did was a couple different things. We. One is we standardized her sleep and her wake times.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:09:11 - 00:09:33]

The other thing that we did was we put together a series of behaviors so that her brain would start to recognize, oh, it's time to go to sleep. We're not talking about, like, bubble baths and candles and stuff like that, but just a series of behaviors. And we also reduced her screen time.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:33 - 00:09:33]

Yes.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:09:33 - 00:10:23]

Now, the other thing that we did, and this is something that I do with a lot of my clients, is I do something called a thought download. What the thought download does is it gets all of our thoughts from our head down onto paper so that we're not keeping it in our head. Because how many of us wake up at like, 3 o' clock in the morning, we're like, oh, I forgot to do that thing, or, oh, I need to remember this, or all of those other things. So what it did was it allowed her to get everything out of her head and onto paper so that she didn't have to carry it anymore. And then once she was able to do that, everything else became easier. She ultimately lost £100 in our work together. Not through dieting, not through rules or anything like that. And then she threw her scale away.

Sandy Kovach [00:10:24 - 00:10:29]

You're jumping if you can't see Elizabeth jumping. Yeah. Yes.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:29 - 00:10:39]

Congress. Yes. And that. Which is another thing to take off of her brain and her anxiety level and performance level, you know, expectations. Yes.

Sandy Kovach [00:10:40 - 00:10:40]

Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:41 - 00:11:03]

So you have just given us a lot of inspiration. And God bless Chris Woo. And God bless you for helping her as you have helped me as well. I really want to circle back to that concept of, like, whole body, because you mentioned those five areas to concentrate on. Is there more to the whole body connection that we need to know about,

Elizabeth Sherman [00:11:03 - 00:12:01]

learn about from you with Chris and with all of my clients and Lynae, you know this. I work with my clients in eight habits that I think are the fundamentals of our health. And my bold promise is that if you do these eight habits, you will be healthier than most people. And two, you will never have to go on another diet again. Oh, now, these eight habits are not difficult. Well, I shouldn't say that they're simple. You already know what they are, but they're not easy. I think the question that we come up with Is why don't we do them? So as I go through the list, what I'm going to ask for the listeners is, is for you to start thinking about, do I do this? Not do I know this? Because knowing and doing are two completely different things.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:12:01 - 00:12:43]

Not do I know this? But am I doing it? And then if I'm not doing it, why not? And when we don't do things, it usually comes down to one of three different things. First is we haven't blocked off time on our calendar for it. Second is urgency. Something else has become more important. And third, related to that, we have those sneaky thoughts in our head that say, I don't have time for this, or it's okay if I just skip this one time. So the first one is drink water. Easy peasy, right? But many of us aren't doing it

Lanée Blaise [00:12:44 - 00:12:50]

or aren't tracking it. They really have no idea how much they drank when, if exactly.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:12:50 - 00:12:57]

We favor soda and coffee for water. Number two is eat something green once in a while.

Sandy Kovach [00:12:58 - 00:12:59]

Once in a while. What does that mean?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:13:01 - 00:13:05]

Daily more than you're doing right now. How about that?

Lanée Blaise [00:13:05 - 00:13:07]

That's a start. That's the start. Right?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:13:07 - 00:14:02]

But to your point, linnae is track it for a week first. Track all these things for a week first, and then ask yourself, is that how much I want? Because people want the answer. They're like, how much water should I be drinking? How many vegetables should I be eating for everything that I'm going to say? And I can't give you that answer because, yes, there are general rules, but if you're only drinking like one pint of water a day, right now, if I say you need to drink 94 ounces or your body weight in water, you're going to be like, I can't do that. Right. So let's lean into it. And when we talk about vegetables, I think that many of us like vegetables, but vegetables have to be intentional. I have never once said, oops, I accidentally ate a carrot,

Lanée Blaise [00:14:03 - 00:14:12]

or you can't go into the pantry and grab it. Yeah, it's hard. But your body is probably talking to you and asking for more.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:13 - 00:14:24]

But the advertising on TV is telling you about pizza and you want to go, and there's nobody marketing green vegetables to you. In general, I can't think of.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:14:24 - 00:14:32]

I recently saw a statistic that was 50% of commercials on television are for food, are for recipes.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:32 - 00:14:32]

50%?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:14:33 - 00:15:10]

Yeah. Habit number three is eat protein with each meal. Doesn't have to be complicated, doesn't have to be like your body Weight in grams. Just eat something with protein and what that'll do is it will level out your hunger levels. Number four is move daily. You don't have to go to the gym for an hour a day, just 10 minutes, three times a day is actually going to be just as good as a 30 minute block. So if you don't have 30 minutes in one fell swoop, you can break it up. Number five, manage your sleep.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:15:10 - 00:15:32]

That's what I just talked about with Chris. Try to standardize your wake and sleep times. Sleep becomes so important as you move into this stage of life. I'm ruthlessly protective over my sleep. You can ask any of my friends, like if I'm out at a party and it's nine o', clock, and Lynette, I know that you are exactly the same.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:32 - 00:15:33]

Yes.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:33 - 00:15:42]

I gotta go my husband out of there. We're like, we love y'. All. Bye. We gotta go to bed. They're like, what? Unless I took a nap before. But no, it's.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:42 - 00:15:43]

I gotta go.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:43 - 00:15:52]

And that's what you mean by stat. Like when you say standardize your sleep, what exactly does that mean? That means like, have some boundaries on the. The wake time and sleep time.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:52 - 00:15:53]

Yeah.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:15:53 - 00:16:12]

So try to make sure that you're going to bed at the same time and then you're waking up at the same time too, if you're all over the place. Like, shift workers really struggle with this because they have different sleep schedules. They struggle to have consistent bedtimes. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:12 - 00:16:30]

Let me ask you this. This isn't quite as bad as being a shift worker, but I host a morning show and I, you know, even though it's here in my house, I still have to get up early. So it's usually somewhere between 4:30 and 5, depending. I don't want to get up at 4:30 in the morning on Saturday and Sunday. Are you going to make me do that? Elizabeth?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:16:31 - 00:16:42]

I'm not going to make you do that. That said, you probably notice that you don't really sleep in that much. You might wake up like around 6. You probably don't sleep until 9 o'.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:42 - 00:16:42]

Clock.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:42 - 00:16:48]

No, no, that would be weird. So I'm okay? Yeah.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:16:48 - 00:16:49]

Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:49 - 00:16:49]

Okay.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:16:49 - 00:17:02]

As long as you're protecting your bedtime. I think that your bedtime is more important than your allowing yourself to sleep in because you might need it. You might have a little bit of sleep deficit.

Sandy Kovach [00:17:02 - 00:17:04]

Okay. Yeah, gotcha. Okay. All right.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:17:05 - 00:17:58]

Number six, manage your stress. Now, I know that that's a little fuzzy, but I think what this comes down to nervous system regulation is a really hot topic right now. And so that could be doing some breathing to make sure that like after you get off a phone call, if it's a stressful phone call, just doing some breathing, taking some stillness in your life. So when you come home and you turn off the car, just sit in your car for a minute and like, pay attention to your body. Okay. Now the last two habits are really going to move. The dial number seven is eat just enough, not too much. Okay.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:17:58 - 00:18:05]

Now what this means is not eating to fullness, but rather just eating to satisfaction.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:06 - 00:18:06]

Okay.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:18:07 - 00:18:22]

I don't teach my clients what to eat. Okay. And I remember a very specific story with Lynae when we were working together. She was like, elizabeth, should I have this yogurt or should I have this yogurt?

Lanée Blaise [00:18:22 - 00:18:22]

Yep.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:18:22 - 00:18:58]

And I was like, I can't tell you that because what we want to do is we want to see how food makes us feel other than just full. Right. So what are the long term effects of that food? Do certain foods make me feel queasy later on? Do other foods not fill me up and I need to eat again? So really starting to notice what foods help me to feel light and energized and which foods make me feel sluggish and bloated and run down and just try to avoid those.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:58 - 00:19:04]

So are you beverages? Keep a diary or something, A tracker? Do a. Do it.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:19:04 - 00:19:04]

Yeah, that's.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:04 - 00:19:05]

Whatever.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:19:05 - 00:19:28]

That's actually a really great way of doing it. Not through my fitness pal. I am a huge, I don't know, against, not proponent, whatever the opposite is. Non proponent, not proponent of my fitness pal. Only because it then also tracks your calories. And we can get a little obsessive about that. Paper is fine. Or just reflecting back, like noticing, oh, you know what, I feel a little gassy right now.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:19:28 - 00:20:16]

What have I been eating? Maybe write that down. The last habit is limit treats, not eliminate treats, but limit again. People always want to know, Elizabeth, what do you consider a treat? And what I've noticed in my whole journey is that what I consider a treat has changed over time. There was a time when I was eating or drinking soda, and after a while I was like, you know what, I don't need this anymore. So now soda has become kind of like a treat for me. For other people, it might be cheese or it might be alcohol. I'm not going to say that something is for sure a treat or not. It's just a matter of what do you consider a treat?

Sandy Kovach [00:20:17 - 00:20:20]

And be honest with yourself right not

Elizabeth Sherman [00:20:20 - 00:20:50]

about the diet rule. So thinking about like what a trainer told you or what you read in a magazine, or what your friend says or your mom, but rather what you consider what's making up 80% of your diet that would be your non treat foods, whatever the extra 20% that you're like, oh yeah, I'll have a drink tonight or I'll have some chips or whatever that is what you consider to be a treat. Fair enough.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:50 - 00:20:51]

Fair enough. I love it.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:52 - 00:20:55]

8 Doable Habits. Very much so.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:20:55 - 00:21:35]

Again, these habits are not difficult. They're simple. But doing them. There are the things in our life that get in the way of us doing these habits. And again, if you do these eight habits, you will be healthier than most people that you know. And I'm not going to say that your hormones will go away. There is probably a little bit of tweaking that we would need to do in terms of being able to minimize your night sweats or your joint pain or all of the other things that happen at this stage of life. But for the most part, you are going to be in good shape.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:21:36 - 00:22:44]

And what I love about these habits is that there's this idea of optimal health. And when I think about optimal health, I think that most people, when we think about optimal health, we think about, since I'm in midlife, optimal health isn't available to me. And what I want to suggest is that optimal health is available for everyone regardless of whether you have a cancer diagnosis or a broken leg or, or you're in menopause or perimenopause right now, regardless of your circumstances. What optimal health looks like in different stages of our life is going to change when we're 20 years old. Optimal health is going to look very different for us than optimal health when we are 40 or 50 or even 70 or 80. I'm gonna get goosebumps right now and choked up. I think, I think about the version of myself who is going to exist sometime in the future. Maybe she's 70, maybe she's 80.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:22:45 - 00:23:25]

And I want to create the best body for her so that she can experience optimal health in her retirement. I have this vision of my younger self, my current self, and that version of me. And we are all holding hands together, going through life together. And I am so grateful to this younger version of myself because she gave me where I am today. And the version that I'm going to be in 70 is grateful to me.

Sandy Kovach [00:23:26 - 00:23:27]

Yeah. Yeah.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:23:27 - 00:23:47]

Everyone who's listening, you have a picture that you look at of a younger version of yourself. Maybe it's from when you were 16, maybe it's from when you were in your 20s. Maybe it was from your wedding day. And you look at yourself and you're like, oh, I was so hard on myself at that time. I should have been nicer to myself.

Sandy Kovach [00:23:47 - 00:23:48]

Yeah.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:23:48 - 00:24:26]

The version of you who exists at 70 right now is saying the same thing about you. We want you to have more compassion for yourself. And so when I talk about your life circumstances, you have these other circumstances in your life, and let's be real about them and be real about what it is that you can do. And these eight habits that I just talked about, you can lean into them. They are a plan that holds up regardless of what else is happening in your life.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:26 - 00:24:47]

What you just said should give everyone chills. Planning for your future self, being kind to yourself right now, appreciating yourself, all the things. But you touched a little bit. And I don't want to leave the area before we just say a little bit about perimenopause and menopause and post menopause and what that looks like.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:24:47 - 00:25:37]

So let's talk about that. These are phrases that get tossed around a lot. Let's explain what menopause is. Menopause is technically one day in time, and that day is the day that you have not had a cycle for one year. Everyone's experience of perimenopause and menopause is going to be completely different. Perimenopause is the years that precede that. One day post menopause is the days after. What we tend to see is that those people who are experiencing perimenopause will experience the same amount of time in post menopause.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:25:37 - 00:25:47]

And what this is, your body's hormones are shifting, your estrogen is dropping, your progesterone.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:47 - 00:25:48]

Thank you.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:25:49 - 00:26:36]

Your progesterone is dropping. And relatively your testosterone will become higher. It doesn't necessarily get higher, but just in relation to those other hormones, it appears higher. What is happening is your body is trying to regulate these hormones. What happens is we get a lot of weird fluctuations in our body. There are something like 84 different symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, and no two women are exactly the same. And before we came on, we were talking about our own experiences. And what we know is that like 20% of people will have very faint perimenopause symptoms.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:26:36 - 00:27:27]

Perimenopause, menopause symptoms, about 60% will have more severe. So it's kind of like a bell curve. And then another 20% will have very severe menopause and perimenopause symptoms. What I have noticed, and this is not proven by science, but it's something that I have noticed, is that whatever your experience was with pms, that's probably going to be your experience going through perimenopause menopause. So if you had very light symptoms for pms, menopause is going to be a dream for you. And if you had very severe debilitating pms, you're probably going to have a lot of problems.

Sandy Kovach [00:27:28 - 00:27:38]

But all of these things that you, the eight points, the overall body health that is going to help you get through, it's going to ease what you're going through.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:27:38 - 00:28:20]

Yeah, good question. So there's a lot that you can do in terms of lifestyle to manage your menopause perimenopause symptoms. I am not going to say that if you do all eight things that you will eliminate your perimenopause menopause symptoms. Some people just have different chemical reactions in their body. If that is you, you might want to go talk to your doctor about HRT or other medical interventions. But that being said, I think that many of us are quick to go to our doctor and get medicine for something that we actually can solve through lifestyle.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:20 - 00:29:06]

And that like, even I know this is totally not what we're talking about. But even men could benefit from these eight very doable healthy habits and even teenagers. And, you know, all of us can. But to your point, if we are adding into that bank of health overall, it gives us a great starting point. And I like the fact too, that you do say, though, also there's some woman who's going to be listening and who's going to do the eight habits and still have these night sweats or still have these kind of debilitating symptoms, but she might notice they lessen or she might even have more capacity when it is time to go to the doctor or nutritionist or get supplements or something. Because there'd be a little bit better baseline to start with.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:29:07 - 00:30:00]

Absolutely, yeah. So, like, for myself and for many of my clients, what I notice is when we're talking about the relationship between night sweats or hot flashes and our diet, there's actually a very direct link there. You might not notice just because the dots aren't close enough. So, like, for example, alcohol, if you drink alcohol, you probably notice that your sleep is disrupted that night. Okay, those dots are pretty close. But what I also notice is that it's kind of like a buildup. And so the dots are further apart of flour and sugar. And so there's kind of like this sweet spot where I can have some, but not too much, otherwise I'll start having more night sweats.

Sandy Kovach [00:30:00 - 00:30:01]

Wow. Interesting.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:30:01 - 00:30:02]

Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:30:02 - 00:30:04]

Did not see that coming. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:30:05 - 00:30:15]

Yeah. So these things that can affect you can be things you eat now. What about the amount of stress? Is that going to affect your menopause symptoms?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:30:16 - 00:30:43]

Yeah. Because your stress is probably also going to affect your joint pain and your digestion because your body is just a little bit more sensitive. It's also going to affect your sleep. And your sleep, as I mentioned earlier, is kind of like your lead domino for everything else. If you're not getting adequate rest and recovery, everything else is gonna be just a little bit harder.

Sandy Kovach [00:30:44 - 00:30:44]

Okay.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:30:45 - 00:30:50]

Also, exercise is going to affect your symptoms as well.

Sandy Kovach [00:30:50 - 00:31:16]

Let's camp out a little bit on exercise, because that's a big one in anybody's book. And like you said, you can break it down into 10 minutes. There are many ways you can do it, but it can be intimidating. But the sooner that you start, even if you haven't started at any age, that's going to have a positive effect for not only now, but going forward. Right. Paying into that bank like you guys were talking about, of health in later life.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:31:16 - 00:31:50]

Yeah. So we know for sure. So there's this idea of health span versus lifespan. And I think that when we talk about our health, investing in our health, we think about increasing our life as we age. Right. We think about living longer. The data show paying attention to your health, exercising, eating the right foods, really does not extend your life a lot. What it does do is it improves your quality of life as you age.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:31:50 - 00:31:54]

So I talked about. Did I talk about my mom? No.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:54 - 00:31:54]

No.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:31:55 - 00:32:04]

Oh, okay. So my mom. The reason I do what I do is because my mom passed away from breast cancer at age 63.

Sandy Kovach [00:32:04 - 00:32:05]

Wow. That's young.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:32:06 - 00:32:32]

Yeah. She was an accountant. She had all of her finances in line. She was financially prepared for her retirement. When we think about retirement, we think about age 65. She did not get to experience retirement. She had 12 grandchildren, six children. She loved to travel.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:32:32 - 00:32:58]

She was an avid reader. She loved to garden. And she wanted to do more of those things, and she didn't get to because of her health. Now, on the other side, there's my aunt Therese. My aunt Therese is 83 years old. She is retirement goals. She lives independently in downtown Chicago. She drives, she travels.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:32:58 - 00:33:47]

She's got a amazing support circle of friends. And she is like living with no ideas of slowing Down. They're two women from the same family, same genetics, very different story. And so we have this idea of lifespan versus health span. Most of us do not want to retire and spend all of that money that we've been saving we've been working our entire lives putting into our retirement fund so. So that we can pay doctors or insurance companies or spend time in doctor's offices. What we want to do is we want to do all those things. Play pickleball, learn to paint.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:33:47 - 00:33:53]

I don't know, travel, like, do all those things. Go ziplining in the Costa Rican jungle.

Lanée Blaise [00:33:54 - 00:33:56]

Be able to walk up the stairs while breathing.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:33:57 - 00:34:07]

Exactly. You know, travel in Greece and Italy and walk on those cobblestone streets and experience it all and not have to be like, oh, my knees are giving out.

Sandy Kovach [00:34:08 - 00:34:08]

Right.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:34:08 - 00:34:22]

The things that we want to do when we are in 70, we know that what we're doing right now in our 40s and 50s will determine which retirement we get.

Sandy Kovach [00:34:22 - 00:34:34]

Wow, that's a lot to think about. And didn't you just do a speaking engagement with some financial advisors and use kind of the finance analogy with them? And that must have hit them over the head like a club.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:34:35 - 00:34:51]

Absolutely. Yeah. I just did a live speaking engagement in Cleveland, and it was great. The organization is really big into the health wealth connection, and so it's terrific to be able to combine those two things together.

Sandy Kovach [00:34:51 - 00:34:57]

Yeah, Yeah, I could definitely see the parallel there. Investing for your health is. It's going to be just as important.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:34:58 - 00:35:06]

Yeah, absolutely. You can have all the wealth in the world, and if you don't have your health, it's meaningless.

Sandy Kovach [00:35:06 - 00:35:24]

And it's never too late. Like, if somebody is listening and they're like, hey, I'm 67 or whatever, 83, like your aunt, you're still able to do things. You're still able to help your body, whether it's for the moment or, you know, for the years that you have left. Right, yeah.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:35:24 - 00:35:54]

Your cells are always regenerating, and so you can always become healthier than where you are today. You're still aging, your cells are still oxidizing, but. And so, like, there's a range there, but you can always improve. When we look at the body, when it comes to smoking, for example, quitting smoking, your lungs will start to heal themselves very quickly. And so that's just an example of how the body heals itself.

Lanée Blaise [00:35:54 - 00:36:10]

I follow a lady on Instagram. It's called aging Disgracefully. And she. She's just incredible as far as she can stand on her head and do cartwheels. And all kinds of things that I cannot do. And I don't need to do all of the things. She can. She can do all the things.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:36:10 - 00:36:11]

She can do all the things, and

Lanée Blaise [00:36:11 - 00:36:56]

I don't need to do any of those things. But what I do love is the times where she puts little tips on stretching. Because I've talked about this before myself. Stretching your body will make it possible for future Linnae and Sandy and Elizabeth to climb stairs or to reach up into a cabinet and grab out. I don't know, the carton of something will be able to allow us to walk smoother, have less back pain. It is just a phenomenal thing that I think is so underrated, especially in our particular society. And I know having communities of people. I know Elizabeth is a big advocate of communities, and you have special programs that you do with women.

Lanée Blaise [00:36:56 - 00:36:58]

Sandy, did you do, like, the sugar reset?

Sandy Kovach [00:36:58 - 00:37:12]

I did the sugar reset, yeah. I highly recommend that. I went back to my bad habits, but not for another year. I mean, I started with just doing less sugar in my coffee. Or I think we had to start with, like, no sugar, right? I can't remember.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:37:12 - 00:37:17]

I never said no sugar. I just said, just be mindful of your sugar.

Sandy Kovach [00:37:17 - 00:37:18]

Okay. Okay. Maybe it was personal.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:37:18 - 00:37:19]

I never said to no sugar.

Sandy Kovach [00:37:19 - 00:37:27]

You might have done no sugar. I might have done it. But anyway, it did work. But I did let myself slip back when I got stressed out. I need to do another sugar reset because.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:37:27 - 00:37:30]

Yeah, you have access to those materials. Just letting you know.

Sandy Kovach [00:37:30 - 00:37:37]

Okay. All right, so let's. Let's talk about some of your programs that our listeners might be interested in and your services.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:37:38 - 00:38:33]

The one thing that I have going on right now that I think is freaking amazing is I have recently developed an audit. It's a diagnostic. And what it is is, like, everything that we've been talking about today for all of the listeners and Sandy and Linnae, like, we know what to do, right? We just don't do it. And so I think that many of us believe that what we need to do is just try harder or we need the right diet or we need something. And so we keep searching for these other programs. And what I believe is that. Well, so let me back up for just a second. We have been sold this belief that health should be easy, that all you have to do is.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:38:33 - 00:39:14]

And I'm putting that in quotes, all you have to do is eat the right foods and move. Okay? And it's like this little silo that exists in itself. And when I started being a personal trainer and Nutritionist. I was always confused. I was like, well, we know what to do. Why can't we do it? And it wasn't until I started becoming a life coach that I was like, oh, I get it now. It's the rest of our life that impacts our ability to eat vegetables and eat something green once in a while and not, you know, eat a row of Oreos.

Sandy Kovach [00:39:14 - 00:39:15]

A row.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:39:15 - 00:39:15]

That's.

Lanée Blaise [00:39:16 - 00:39:17]

Yeah.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:39:18 - 00:40:10]

And so the audit, what it does is it you take a quiz, an assessment, and the audit will then be sent to me, and I generate a report. And that report, report then exposes what you're doing well, what your friction points are. And let me stop there for just a second. So friction points are five different areas. You have your diet history, for example. So the rules that we have going on in our heads of I should be doing this, I shouldn't be doing that, those things are actually keeping you from being healthier. Wow. Number two is we talked about hormones and your body listening to you or listening to your body, your body talking to you.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:40:11 - 00:41:20]

Are you listening? So if you're not listening, like, for example, when it's time to go to bed, you're tired, Are you going to bed or not? You know, if you have to go to the bathroom, do you stop yourself from going to the bathroom because you have work to do? Are you listening to yourself? We have rest and recovery. Are you giving yourself adequate rest and recovery and your capacity? So a lot of women, they are doing everything for everyone else. I talked about my client, Chris. We are running around doing all of these things for everyone else. And so when it comes time to take care of ourselves, we're like, I'm exhausted. I'm over it. The last one is our environment. So not just our physical environment, like, what foods are in our house and are we, you know, in a space where we can exercise? But also, how is our schedule set up? What's our social circle like? Like, those are all of the things that could be fighting against you, taking appropriate care of your health.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:41:21 - 00:42:05]

And so that's. Once I have that report, then I can point out what the lead domino is, that if we fix that one thing, then everything else becomes easier. Not easy, just easier. That audit is the thing that I am super excited about right now, because when women go through the assessment and they start connecting the dots and they're like, oh, I didn't realize that my husband coming home and bringing five guys was going to be impacting my ability to, you know, eat a healthy dinner.

Lanée Blaise [00:42:06 - 00:42:07]

That is my husband.

Sandy Kovach [00:42:10 - 00:42:15]

Yes, is healthier than McDonald's, but it's

Lanée Blaise [00:42:15 - 00:42:29]

not as healthy as what I had planned. That salmon and broccoli dinner that I had that I put back in the fridge and say, I'll take the five guys instead. That I wasn't even thinking about till he brought it out. Temptation. Temptation island.

Sandy Kovach [00:42:30 - 00:42:30]

Yes.

Lanée Blaise [00:42:32 - 00:42:32]

Environment.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:42:34 - 00:43:02]

Exactly. And having a support circle. You know, I think that it's really important to start looking at what does our, you know, I talked about circumstances. So what are the circumstances in our lives that are getting in the way of our health? And that doesn't mean that you're a victim to your circumstances. You can make changes, but what are they? And once we can call them out, then things become easier.

Sandy Kovach [00:43:02 - 00:43:32]

Yeah, like my weird hours might be a circumstance that it, it's hard to exercise in the morning. But I did ask ChatGPT to give me a really quick routine and it's like I had a seven minute routine because I don't want to get up at 4. Right. So I guess that would be an example. But I really do wish I could get out. And I want to, Elizabeth. I want to get out and walk for a little while in the morning. You know, I even bought like a white jacket because it'd be dark outside and everything, but.

Sandy Kovach [00:43:32 - 00:43:37]

But I haven't started walking. So where am I? I mean, I've bought the jacket. Now what do I do?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:43:39 - 00:44:06]

So here's what you do. You start small. And a lot of my clients will balk at that. I will tell them, walk to the end of your driveway and back. Walk to the end of the block and back. And they'll say, but Elizabeth, that's not going to get me the results that I want. We're not doing that because we're trying to get you results. We're doing the easy thing to create self trust.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:44:07 - 00:45:02]

When we can start building the skill of self trust, then we know that everything, every goal that we create we can accomplish. Self trust is a skill. There are three parts to building the skill of self trust. The first part, make it easy on yourself. Set yourself up for success. And so that's kind of like instead of overhauling your diet saying, how can I have one, maybe a half serving of vegetables today? How can I go from the 3,000 steps I'm taking to 3,500 or 4,000, how can I lean into it? So for you, I love that you bought the vest and maybe you need one of. I used to have one of those neon vests that had like flashers on it.

Sandy Kovach [00:45:02 - 00:45:03]

Oh, like A reflector or something.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:45:04 - 00:45:12]

Exactly, exactly. And so like how can you make something be better than nothing?

Sandy Kovach [00:45:12 - 00:45:14]

So getting out the door and just walking.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:45:15 - 00:45:46]

Exactly. For 10 minutes, just do it for 10 minutes. It doesn't have to be amazing. And then as 10 minutes becomes easier, then what happens is you start adding more time. So first part of building the skill of self trust is set yourself up for success. Do not make things difficult for you. If you do not want to do it today. The version of you who exists tomorrow, next week and next month will not want to do that thing either.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:45:47 - 00:45:48]

Okay?

Sandy Kovach [00:45:48 - 00:45:48]

Yeah.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:45:49 - 00:46:23]

Step two, follow the plan. Now, if you've done step one, step two should be easy. Another version of this is let's say that you're struggling with treats. Let's say that every day at 4 o' clock you eat five Oreos. Instead of eating five Oreos, we just want to eat four Oreos. So we're leaning into better health. Again, if step two, follow the plan. If you've done step one right, step two should be easy.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:46:24 - 00:47:07]

Now, follow the plan is not always going to be easy because life, let's say that you have a really night's sleep, you might not want to wake up and go for that walk. Let's say that you had planned on making the salmon and the vegetables, but your girlfriend calls, you haven't seen her in a year, and she's like, I'm in town for one night, do you want to go for dinner? Of course you want to go for dinner. So we want to make sure that we like our reasons for not following the plan. Because step three is don't be a jerk to yourself when the plan doesn't go according.

Lanée Blaise [00:47:08 - 00:47:10]

I like that. I like that one the most.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:47:13 - 00:47:54]

Because now if you're believing your excuses more than you like your reasons, then we can talk about coaching. But when you like your reasons for not following the plan, you do not get to be a jerk to yourself when you didn't follow the plan. So in step number two, when you're not following the plan, ask yourself, okay, so how can I make this up? That's going to help you to not be as much of a jerk to yourself. And that's just a rinse and repeat thing. So the more self trust you have, the better you're going to be able to lean into better health.

Sandy Kovach [00:47:55 - 00:47:55]

I love that.

Lanée Blaise [00:47:56 - 00:48:25]

Yeah, me too. I even like that part where you said for some folks even walking to the end of the driveway or to the end of the block and back because it sets up on a regular Basis. It sets up a timeline and a code in your body. Like, okay, I can definitely walk to the end of the driveway. So I put on my tennis shoes, I walk to the end, I walk back. I get to celebrate my accomplishment. And after I do that for a week or so, then I'm willing to walk to the end of the block and back. And after I do that for a week or so, then I'm willing to go further.

Lanée Blaise [00:48:25 - 00:48:36]

But it's a system of success and celebration instead of shame and frustration and just abandoning it all together. Yeah.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:48:36 - 00:48:36]

Wow.

Lanée Blaise [00:48:37 - 00:48:49]

So now what about if people want to reach out to you, if they want to do the audit, if they want to get coached by you, what's the best way or ways for them to find you reach out to you.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:48:49 - 00:49:21]

My website is ElizabethSherman.com if you're interested in doing the audit. What I might recommend is that you do the quiz. Because the quiz is kind of like a mini audit. You can go to the quiz by going to ElizabethSherman.com quiz. If the eight habits are something that you're interested in, I have a free guide. It's called the eight Habits that Healthy People do and why they Don't Stick. And so you can get that@elizabethsherman.com habits. Other than that, you can connect with me on Instagram or Facebook.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:49:22 - 00:49:26]

I love just interacting with everyone. I also have a podcast.

Sandy Kovach [00:49:26 - 00:49:26]

Yes.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:49:26 - 00:49:29]

And my podcast, Lynae has been on my podcast.

Lanée Blaise [00:49:29 - 00:49:29]

Yes.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:49:30 - 00:49:36]

Is Total Health in Midlife. I talk about this stuff. I have almost 300 episodes.

Sandy Kovach [00:49:36 - 00:49:39]

Wow. Yes. I love it.

Lanée Blaise [00:49:39 - 00:49:46]

Now, these are beautiful things. Are there any other. Sandy, do you have any questions for Elizabeth before we.

Sandy Kovach [00:49:46 - 00:49:48]

Oh, I have a million questions.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:49:50 - 00:49:51]

Let's schedule a time to talk.

Lanée Blaise [00:49:51 - 00:49:52]

I know, right?

Sandy Kovach [00:49:53 - 00:50:33]

I gotta dig in a little bit deeper. And I think a lot of our listeners are gonna wanna dig into a little bit deeper as well, because, Elizabeth, thank you. You are a wealth of information and you're trying to make this easy, but you're not, like, fibbing to us saying, oh, I'm gonna wave a golden magic wand and then all of your troubles will go away. Be healthy. You're being real as well as giving us a guide. And it's gonna be easy on yourself, too. I would say to our listeners or to anybody who's trying to do any of these steps, you know, if you are a person of faith like Linnae and I are, pray about it. Ask God to guide you in these steps.

Sandy Kovach [00:50:33 - 00:50:42]

It's not easy, but it's so important. It's so Important for when we get to that next level in life. And we'll be glad that we invested the time.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:50:43 - 00:51:06]

Yeah. It's really difficult to think about the long term versus the now. And so really thinking about what is it that I want my future to look like and what skills, habits do I need to set up now in order to live that life that I have. Vision.

Sandy Kovach [00:51:06 - 00:51:10]

Imagine yourself and imagine ourselves there. Oh, gosh, thanks for that.

Lanée Blaise [00:51:11 - 00:51:45]

And I love the part where we're not adding more stress, which we now know is one of the problems by beating ourselves up and forcing ourselves to try to conform to something that's not meant to be and customize it for ourselves for our future selves. There was another quote, though, that you yourself, Elizabeth said before we got on here, and it was about, like, midlife and that realization. But I think we need it to round out the whole show.

Sandy Kovach [00:51:46 - 00:51:47]

Okay.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:51:47 - 00:52:45]

What I have found is that midlife tends to shine a spotlight on those areas that we have not paid attention to. I think what happens a lot is we think when we're younger that we're going to get our sugar habit under control when we get older, or we're going to get our finances figured out when we get older, or our relationships. We think about our future self and we don't think about the issues that we're having now are actually going to follow us into the future if we don't address them. And midlife has this sneaky way of just shining a spotlight on those things that we have not figured out. And so it asks us to figure this out now. Otherwise, we will suffer the consequences, basically. We don't want to do that.

Sandy Kovach [00:52:46 - 00:52:47]

Nope. We want to get on it.

Lanée Blaise [00:52:48 - 00:53:28]

Yeah, go ahead. And that's the part, too, where, when I first started, you know, we want to have hope, but we also want to embrace the fact that that things are different. We are different. We're growing, we're different body shape, we're different body size, we're different stage in our life. We have different things going on, and that's okay. And that is to be expected. I heard some study that people are genuinely happier when they understand that there will be some good things and some trials and tribulations and frustrating things. And you go ahead and not that you're trying to be negative, but you don't.

Lanée Blaise [00:53:28 - 00:54:21]

You don't want to be unrealistic either, but that you understand that there's going to be like an ebb and flow of some of these things coming into your life and you can actually be prepared more for it, have the expectation that you will have to face and in challenges and some encounters. And I just love that you are preparing us for all of this and that you have the knowledge that you share. You have the ability to coach folks to have these community groups to have the audits to help us get through this, because we will. We will get through this. The more we talk to other women about what we're going through, I believe the better off we'll be. And sometimes it helps to talk to some people who have a more positive spin as opposed to just the ones who are like, yep, it's just all over. One, two. My grandma Susie used to say, she's like, well, after he have kids, it's all over.

Lanée Blaise [00:54:22 - 00:54:38]

Like, after you get a certain age, it's all over. And this chick lived to be 93 and was totally mobile and had her brain together and everything to like, I don't know, the day before she passed away, everything fell apart, you know, when she was 92 and 11, 12.

Sandy Kovach [00:54:39 - 00:54:41]

But what did she say about Father Time?

Lanée Blaise [00:54:42 - 00:55:00]

Father Time is trying to get me. He's coming after me. She was. She said that Since I was 7 years old, this chick was 57 years old, talking Father Time was coming to get her. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be around and I don't know. I got the, I got the sugar diabetes and it might get me in. Father Time trying to get. She's fine.

Lanée Blaise [00:55:00 - 00:55:19]

She was totally fine. Shout out Grandma Susie. But, you know, like, you just, we don't know what's going to happen in this world and we do the best we can and these are ways that we can do even better. Yeah, Grandma Susie, just relax. Take that stress off sugar. But yeah, thank you so much.

Elizabeth Sherman [00:55:20 - 00:55:21]

Thank you for having me.

Sandy Kovach [00:55:21 - 00:55:22]

Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:55:22 - 00:55:23]

Any last words?

Elizabeth Sherman [00:55:23 - 00:55:33]

No, I just hope that everyone learned something and that it resonated again. I love connecting with listeners, so reach out to me if you have any questions.

Lanée Blaise [00:55:33 - 00:56:12]

Elizabeth sherman.com or also on imagine yourself podcast.com so everyone, imagine yourself looking to your left and seeing your younger self and looking to your right and seeing your older self and imagining, like Elizabeth said, you're all linked arm in arm for one goal of having a beautiful, bold, blessed, healthy, delicious life all together. And you work together to make it happen. So midlife and beyond. But thank you so much for listening and thank you, Elizabeth, for coming on.

Sandy Kovach [00:56:12 - 00:56:37]

Thanks for hanging out with us on Imagine Yourself podcast. Hope you'll give us a rating or a review. If you want info on Elizabeth check out some of her resources and podcasts. We'll have that for you in the show notes, as well as more info on how to check in with us. And we'll talk to you again in a couple of weeks. On Imagine Yourself, Faith, Purpose and Possibilities in Midlife and Beyond.