Hello beautiful people! You may have noticed something new in the Midlife with Courage™ podcast and I am sharing some more details with you here. Introducing Midlife with Courage: Unfiltered. (Cue trumpet fanfare here 🎺) What is it? This will be bonus episodes where I get real about all things midlife-from perimenopause, relationships, aging parents, and my personal experiences, frustrations and joys. I do not plan to edit these episodes much, after all, they are meant to be real. So if you hear a naughty word now and then, I apologize in advance. I may include conversations with my guests at some point. To start though, it's going to be me and the microphone, talking to you and responding to your feedback, questions and comments. Yes, that's right, this should be more than just me talking, it should be a dialogue between you and I. You can send me a message through the podcast where it says "SEND A TEXT" on each episode. I cannot respond to these messages directly but I do read them and will respond to them in the next episode. (Make sure you put your name in the message if you want to, it's ok if you don't.) Your comment may be the topic of a future episode so please share! You can also send me a message here or email me. Midlife with Courage™: Unfiltered is a subscription which means you get something extra: more community and connection with other midlife women. Sharing our experiences in community tells us we are not alone and we matter. This is another way to accomplish my goal of creating safe spaces for us to gather and share in a way that is more "real." And I'll be honest, it's also a way to support my work financially. I love this podcast and my Midlife with Courage community and I will keep doing it as long as it's needed. I also need to be practical and find ways to cover my costs and this is one way. That $5 a month will help me continue to grow and reach more women and create the community we all need. Watch for my first episode coming later this week!

Did any of you watch the Ladies Figure Skating at the Olympics last night? If you did, you saw Alysa Liu win the gold medal. This was an amazing accomplishment of course but I want to point out something I saw earlier in the coverage. They showed Alysa's story, how she retired at 16 and then came back last year to do it again. This time was different though. She retired from skating so young because of all the pressure she endured and how skating took over her life. She knew she needed to step away, so she did. She decided to come back during a trip where she took out the skates again and she traveled that path with a totally different mindset. She said that now, skating is not her whole life, it's something she does. She enjoys it and if she does well, that's great, if not, that's ok too. She doesn't skate for the medals, she does it for herself. I could see the joy she finds in skating as she jumped and twirled last night and it was fun to watch. Even if I didn't know the backstory, I would have seen that she was skating for the love of it and nothing else. isn't it interesting that when she took the pressure off and let herself feel the joy in the doing, she created a beautiful program? She was rewarded for it yes, but her true reward was how she felt about it and how she freed herself from how she was "supposed to" do things. If we all started focusing on what fills us with joy and dropped what we are told is the "right way" to reach our goals, what a world this could be.

What's the craziest thing you've ever done?

Some of you may know that I struggle with being active. I know I need to move and it has been difficult to get motivated. Well, that changed a bit a few weeks ago when I was really out of breath walking up a hill in a dog-walk outing. When I say “out of breath” I mean REALLY out of breath. I had to stop and wait before going on. I was mad at myself and decided it’s time to move. So I went to chat gpt and told it what equipment I have and asked it to create a program that was quick and repeatable. Today is day 9 of my 15-30 minute workouts and I’m feeling encouraged. I figure if I can stay motivated I may take the next step and get help from someone more qualified than AI🤣 I’m giving myself 90 days-hold me accountable people 😉

This week on the Midlife with Courage™ podcast, I shared my conversation with Michele Folan. We had a great conversation about staying healthy and strong for the long-term, not just focusing on weight loss. She believes we need to value "strong over skinny." Here's a link to the full episode when you are ready: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2402555/episodes/18381845 I have attached a short clip to this post to hold you over until you can listen to the whole conversation. Let me know what you think in the comments. Do you have a plan for staying strong?