The Midlife Feast

If your cravings feel more intense than ever, you're not alone. 
In this second helping (my creative take on replay 🤣) of episode 117, I'm tackling one of the most-asked questions in my inbox: why do cravings feel so out of control in perimenopause and menopause, and what can you do about it? Spoiler alert: it's not about cutting out sugar or having more willpower.
I break down the three types of hunger (physical, taste, and emotional), explain why perimenopause symptoms like sleep disruption and hot flashes amplify emotional hunger, and share a framework for decoding your cravings instead of fighting them. Whether it's the 7pm snacking spiral, the weekend binge, or those intense drive-thru cravings when you're alone in the car, I walk you through how to press pause without judgment and respond in a way that addresses what you need.
This episode is for anyone who has ever felt hijacked by a craving, blamed themselves for lack of control, or wondered if menopause is making everything harder. Because yes, your hormones matter, but the solution isn't another restrictive food rule.
In this episode, we talk about:
Why cravings are normal and everyone is an emotional eater to some degree
The difference between physical hunger, taste hunger, and emotional hunger
How estrogen and progesterone influence appetite (and why perimenopause amplifies cravings)
Why restricting foods you enjoy intensifies cravings for those exact foods
The critical skill of pressing pause without saying no
Real examples of decoding evening cravings, weekend patterns, and alone-time eating
Related Episodes You Might Enjoy:
#147 - How to Stop the Cycle of “Starting Over” Every Monday
#70 - From Dieting Rock Bottom to Intuitive Eating - 3 Common Mistakes
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
The wait list for The Midlife Body Image Lab program opens soon! Join my newsletter community to be the first to hear. 
🔗 https://bit.ly/onthemenunewsletter
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.
Looking for more about midlife,  menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Food freedom is permission to say yes to cake, but it's also permission to say no to dessert because you're full, satisfied, and know you can have it anytime you want. That's the level of trust and attunement I'm talking about in this conversation with Sam Previte, registered dietitian and founder of Find Food Freedom.
Sam is one of those dietitians whose passion for intuitive eating comes through in everything she does. From her popular social media accounts to her private practice, Sam has built her career on helping people make peace with food and their bodies. But she wasn't always an intuitive eating dietitian. Like so many of us, she came out of school steeped in weight-centric nutrition and personally struggling with disordered eating. 
In this episode, Sam shares her journey from diet culture dietitian to becoming one of the loudest advocates for food freedom. We talk about what it really takes to unlearn decades of diet rules, how to build interoceptive awareness when your signals feel unreliable (hello, perimenopause), and the question on everyone's mind right now: where do GLP-1 medications fit into intuitive eating work?
In this episode, you'll learn:
What food freedom actually means (and why it's not just eating whatever you want)
How Sam went from teaching intentional weight loss to becoming a passionate intuitive eating advocate
Where GLP-1 medications and intuitive eating can coexist (and where they can't)
How to build attunement when your body's signals feel disrupted by perimenopause or menopause
Why hobbies might be the missing ingredient in your midlife journey
About Sam: Sam Previte is a registered dietitian, certified intuitive eating counselor, certified personal trainer, and the founder of Find Food Freedom, a virtual private practice with 11 registered dietitians serving clients across 29 states. Find Food Freedom accepts over 100 insurance plans, making intuitive eating and Health at Every Size care more accessible.  Sam is also the host of the Find Food Freedom Podcast.
Connect with Sam:
Instagram: @find.food.freedom
Podcast: Find Food Freedom Podcast
Website: findfoodfreedom.com
Related Episodes You'll Love:
#180: Breaking Free from Diet Culture Lies: How to Trust Your Body Again with Colleen Christensen
#138: 5 Things I Wish I Had Known About Intuitive Eating 10 Years Ago
#136: Health vs. Weight: Debunking the Biggest Wellness Myth with Val Schonberg, RD
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
The wait list for The Midlife Body Image Lab program opens soon! Join my newsletter community to be the first to hear. 
🔗 https://bit.ly/onthemenunewsletter
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.
Looking for more about midlife,  menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Almost every day, someone tells me they're exhausted, tired, or completely burnt out. But burnout isn't just another word for tired - it's a medical diagnosis with real science behind it. It relates to your capacity, your ability to recover, and importantly, it's deeply impacted by your environment and your hormones.
In this conversation with Dr. Ashley Margeson, a naturopathic doctor and burnout expert, we dive into what burnout really is, how it's different from everyday stress, and why women in midlife are especially vulnerable. If you've ever felt like you're carrying a backpack that gets heavier and heavier but you can't put it down, this episode is for you.
Dr. Margeson breaks down the four stages of burnout using a brilliant bank account analogy, explains why our declining progesterone levels in perimenopause shrink our stress buffer, and shares her practical ripples, waves, and currents framework for building capacity when you're already depleted. We also tackle the hard question: how do you recover from burnout if you can't quit your job?
In this episode, you'll learn:
The symptoms that define clinical burnout (and how it's different from stress)
The roles of estrogen and progesterone when it comes to burnout recovery and how unpredictable hormones in perimenopause amplify stress and make recovery harder
The four stages of burnout: savings and investing, paycheck to paycheck, overdraft, and SOS mode
Ripples, waves, and currents: actionable capacity builders you can use today
Why organizational policies matter as much as individual actions in preventing workplace burnout
Related Episodes:
Decision Fatigue and Menopause: Why "What's For Dinner" Maks Your Want to Scream
Why You're So Tired in Perimenopause and Menopause with Dr. Sarah Vadeboncoeur
How to Be More and Do Less with Wendy McCallum
How to Stop the Burnout Train in Midlife with Dr Leigha Saunders
Ready to reduce decision fatigue and increase your capacity with food? If you're feeling overwhelmed by food decisions and decision fatigue is contributing to your burnout, grab my free Menopause Nutrition Capsule Wardrobe guide. It includes 10 recipes and a framework to make deciding what to eat so much easier.
About Dr. Ashley Margeson: Dr. Ashley Margeson is a naturopathic doctor in Nova Scotia whose mission is supporting individuals and organizations in preventing and recovering from burnout. She hosts her own podcast, The Superwoman Code, and is known for her practical, science-backed approach to capacity
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
The wait list for The Midlife Body Image Lab program opens soon! Join my newsletter community to be the first to hear. 
🔗 https://bit.ly/onthemenunewsletter
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.
Looking for more about midlife,  menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Laughing, coughing, sneezing... if these everyday moments have started feeling a little less carefree and a little more leak-prone, you're not alone. And despite what you've been told, the answer isn't just "do more Kegels."
In this conversation, movement teacher and pelvic floor expert Lauren Ohayon shares why the pelvic floor doesn't just "squeeze." It dances, responds to gravity, and works as part of a whole-body system involving your breath, core, and nervous system. We talk about why menopause brings new pelvic floor challenges (spoiler: it's not just estrogen), how belly-gripping and chronic tension patterns create downstream problems, and why feeling safe in your body is foundational to pelvic floor health.
If you've been living with light leakage, pain with intimacy, or that uncomfortable feeling of prolapse, this episode offers a refreshing, shame-free perspective on what's happening and practical ways to support your pelvic floor that go way beyond squeezing.
About Lauren: Lauren Ohayon is a longtime movement teacher who has spent decades helping people reconnect with their bodies. After a back injury in her early 20s led her deep into biomechanics and anatomy, she created Restore Your Core, an online functional strength program focused on core and pelvic floor health. Lauren's approach blends somatic movement, storytelling, and nervous system work to help people feel at home in their bodies again.
Connect with Lauren:
Program: Restore Your Core
Instagram: @laurenohayan 
Related Episodes You'll Love:
What Everyone Needs to Know About Pelvic Health in Midlife with Erika Burger
Does Your Vagina Need a Coach with Kim Vopni?
Why Yoga is So Much More than Movement in Midlife with Niamh Daly
How to Appreciate Your Changing Menopause Body with Dr. Charlotte Ord
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
The wait list for The Midlife Body Image Lab program opens soon! Join my newsletter community to be the first to hear. 
🔗 https://bit.ly/onthemenunewsletter
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.
Looking for more about midlife,  menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Decision fatigue isn't about willpower - it's about how many decisions you're being asked to make when your capacity is already maxed out. And if you've been caught in the diet cycle for years (or decades), you know exactly what I'm talking about. After 25 different diet plans competing for space in your head, every meal becomes another minefield of "am I doing this right?" questions that leave you exhausted before you even start cooking.
In this solo episode, I'm sharing Sarah's story (with her permission), who spent the last year working with me to finally break free from diet mentality and decision fatigue.  She's having regular, balanced meals without stress, her cholesterol and blood pressure are down, and for the first time ever, she didn't spiral in the bathing suit change room.
I walk you through exactly how we got there, including the biological layer that makes decision fatigue even more challenging in midlife when brain fog, and hormone fluctuations that are all competing for your mental bandwidth. But here's the good news: there are gentle framework strategies that can actually reduce the number of decisions you have to make, help you enjoy the process (not just chase the outcome), and keep you moving forward at your own pace.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why decision fatigue is structural, not a character flaw, and why women in midlife are especially vulnerable
The biological layer: how brain fog and cognitive changes in menopause make familiar diet patterns even more tempting
Three framework strategies to reduce decision fatigue around food (and why frameworks are NOT the same as rules)
How the FEAST framework works in my community to support long-term behavior change without the all-or-nothing trap
Why enjoying the process matters more than rushing to the outcome
Related Episodes:
Rewiring, Not Retiring: How Your Brain Transforms in Menopause with Dr. Sarah McKay 
Beating the Brain Fog of Menopause
From Panic to Peace: Melissa's Food Freedom Journey
Ready to reduce your decision fatigue? If you're tired of overthinking every meal and want a framework (not more rules) to guide you, I'd love to welcome you to The Feaster Community. This month we're focusing on gentle framework strategies that make it easier to decide what's for dinner. Try it free for 7 days: https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/7daytrial
Or if you're looking for more focused 1:1 support, I have a few spots open this spring. Book a no-strings-attached 20-minute call to see if I'm the right Sherpa for you: https://p.bttr.to/3DQX9SF
What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!
📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.
Looking for more about midlife,  menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist