Total Health in Midlife BONUS Episode: Hormone Harmony Summit

What if I told you that the changes happening in your body right now might not be random at all? That there’s a hidden connection between your major life events and how you’re feeling physically? One that most doctors aren’t talking about. I’m excited to introduce you to Valerie Simms, who noticed something fascinating in her work with women. A pattern that completely changed how she approached women’s health. What she discovered led her to create something that you are not going to want to miss. If you’ve ever felt dismissed when discussing your hormonal symptoms or wondered why the solutions you’re being offered aren’t working, this conversation is for you.Stay tuned, what Valerie shares today might just be the missing piece that you’ve been looking for. Let’s get started. Welcome to Total Health and Midlife, the podcast for women embracing the pivotal transformation from the daily grind to the dawn of a new chapter. I’m Elizabeth, your host and fellow traveler on this journey. As a Life and Health Coach, I am intimately familiar with the changes and challenges we face during this stage. Shifting careers, changing relationships, our new bodies, and redefining goals and needs as we start to look to the future and ask, what do I want? In this podcast, we’ll explore physical, mental, and emotional wellness, offering insights and strategies to achieve optimal health through these transformative years.Yes, it’s totally possible. Join me in this amazing journey of body, mind, and spirit, where we’re not just improving our health, but transforming our entire lives.Elizabeth: All right, everyone. Welcome, Valerie Simms to the Total Health in Midlife podcast. Valerie, I am so excited that you’re here. I’m excited to learn about the Hormone Harmony Summit. And let’s start with who you are, what you do, and who you help. Valerie: Hey, there. Well, thanks for having me. It’s awesome to be here. I am a life coach. I’m a retired financial planner, and I’ve always been coaching even when you work as a financial planner, it’s really never about the money. When I retired from that work, I decided that I wasn’t really ready to give up the ghost kind of thing. So, I started my own coaching business, just carrying on with what I’ve been doing for years.And I went on to become a Reiki Practitioner and a certified Yoga Teacher. And then, I’ve also added the life coaching to it. You know, is what you do as well. And I brought all of my experience together. Now, my company’s called the ‘Mastery of Balance,’ and I’ve really niched into teaching about money mindset, which is so important for women, and I work exclusively with women. We love the men. I’ve chosen to work with women, and I also do divorce coaching for women as well. And as I started working with more and more women, I find that so many times a big change in their life such as divorce comes about when the hormones start changing. And it was sort of you know, which came first, the divorce or the hormone issues or did the hormone issue, you know, and it was a really complicated story for many women. And I was helpless. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to talk to them about it. You know, what to offer. So, that’s why I started thinking of how I can serve these women that were my clients and then my friends and what have you. And that was born the Hormone Harmony Summit. And I started out initially with a self-care summit. I’m in my, this will be my fourth season. But I’ve really narrowed it down to get really specific. Let’s get in there. Let’s get right in there. We’ll talk about this topic because a lot of people don’t talk about it. And women were finding they’d go to their physicians, and they weren’t really met with what they needed. And so, the search began. And then, you would talk to perhaps, family members and your friends, but it wasn’t you know, our friends love us, our family love us. They don’t always give us the advice we need. So, yeah, I decided to put something together and it’s been met, really embraced by all the experts, including yourself, that I’ve had the honor of spending some time with to all in the name of helping women with specifically around the hormone issues. Elizabeth: Yeah. So, tell me a little bit about what hormone issues have your clients been experiencing when going through divorce or dealing with their money? Like, how did you get to that awareness? Valerie: Yeah. So, there always seemed to be, you know, there’s a huge trigger with a marriage breakdown, the security. Whether it’s emotional security, financial security. So, it’s really quite meshed in with a bunch of all kinds of triggers and emotions.I started to see that, there was always this common complaint, you know, ‘Oh, I have brain fog. I can’t focus right now.’ Or ‘ I’m just not feeling well. I’m gaining weight.’ I’d be talking and they’d be experiencing a hot flash or that type of thing. Or they would come, you know, my clients would come to session saying, ‘you know, what? I haven’t slept in a couple weeks; I am experiencing all these issues.’ And it seemed to be more and more a huge emotional component to it. But then, that physical component as well.So, I started to see all that coming together. And as I started trying to separate things, trying to do my best, I started to see there was an area that I couldn’t address. And that was the hormone aspect. And that you know, I’ve gone through it myself. However, everybody is different. So, maybe what I experience might not be what the woman beside me experienced, might not be what you experienced. But they’re all experiences that impact the day to day life.And especially going through a marriage breakdown and separating assets, and children and family, and holidays. You put upon that, that really heaviness of these issues of hormone changes, which are natural, didn’t do anything wrong, they’re just going to happen. You put all that in together and it’s just like the perfect storm. It’s the perfect storm. So, that was really the impetus and what I was seeing is that not only coping with a real life situation, a life changing situation might grow down to a day to day situation on top of some physical symptoms. And I really started to see that and started to feel that wanted to help.Elizabeth: Yeah. Well, and you know, I’ve been in menopause for about five, almost six years now. And it is so fascinating to me how much more we’re seeing about menopause in mainstream media. And people are talking about it a lot more. And I remember growing up, we didn’t talk about it. Like menopause was like something that you didn’t really talk about. No one wanted to talk about the female body. Right?I think that there’s something like 84 different symptoms of menopause. So, where you were saying, like ‘what I went through, you might not go through.’ And so, no one has the same set of symptoms. And I would talk to my clients about finding out from their sisters, or their mothers, or their aunts, or grandmothers. Like what did their menopause look like? And then, after a while, I was like, ‘well, but we really haven’t done much research about menopause.’ And so, it’s possible that your mom didn’t even know what all of her symptoms were, right?Valerie: Hmm. Well, it’s interesting that you say that about research is that what I found through doing my research for the summit is there is in fact research. And I found was fascinating, one woman that will be on, and don’t want to give too much, but she shared with us that there’s a lot of modalities for dealing with menopause from physicians. And we’re in no way or shape or form putting down physicians. But there’s a study that was done in 2002 2004, that is still used as a primary research today, and it’s so outdated, and it’s flawed. And no one was being erroneous, or angry, or mean, but it’s things have changed. And I made the comment, ‘well, our cars don’t even operate like they did in 2002, you know. We had keys, and we don’t anymore.So, things really evolved, but things have evolved in the menopause. You know, arena as well as far as research. So, there is some research coming out. But it quite the dig to find it, isn’t it? So, that’s why I brought all the experts together. Elizabeth: Yeah, that’s so great. Because like, I know as you were talking, I was thinking about how one of the most frustrating things for many women entering perimenopause is that they start to have these symptoms and they go to their doctors. And their doctors say, ‘well, your labs are fine.’ Right? And it’s frustrating because it’s like, but I know that something’s off, something’s not right. And I think that your point about this old data is that they’re finding out that the numbers of those hormones are a little bit more sensitive. And so, the labs might be fine as per 2002, what they thought then, but maybe not today. Valerie: Well, yeah. And that’s a valid point. And one of the guests on the summit addresses that specific issue of lab results. And she goes into this really well defined description of what those mean and why they were developed. And so, it’s very interesting that we really have to learn to kind of advocate for ourselves. Let’s say, if your lab is between five, and seven, that’s standard. Well, who wants to just be standard? We want to up level here, we just don’t want to be okay. We want to have vitality. We want to be empowered to have that decision. So, no. That standard might be just a description to, ‘Oh, to make sure someone’s not depleted.’ But we want the upper end. Like we don’t want to be the four or the five and a half or whatever I was quoting there. We don’t want to be the lower end of that standard. We want to be the higher end. So, she talks about that. It’s so awesome that you brought it up. Because I mean, I’ve done it. I go, okay, that’s cool. And then, ‘you know, Oh, wait a minute. Perhaps let’s dig into this a bit.’ And if the physician is open to it, you can refer to a specialist or what have you. Or go about some different natural modalities to balance hormones. And that’s what I found very fascinating as well because there are natural ways as well. And there’s different clinics all over Canada, the United States, probably Mexico, and Europe. I have some people from Europe on. And they’re just more open to it, and we talk about hormone replacement therapy. We talk about synthetics. We talk about bioidenticals or naturals. And then, we also get in to which I found fascinating, all about how the spiritual component and a leadership component that you and I talked about it. And nutrition, all these other more holistic points that come into play. And I learned so much. When I started to think of myself, I’ve always done yoga and been fit. I’ve been a meditator since about 2004. So, certain things in menopause didn’t bother me, like I just didn’t experience. And I’m starting to wonder now maybe because I was able to get out of that sympathetic. We talked about this on the summit because you’re going through a divorce or even if you’re not, you’re going through menopause and you have that sandwich generation where you still have kids, either if they’re young adults, they need you. And then, you have parents and need you, your career. You know, it’s probably at the pinnacle of its success, usually by the time you get to this age, you’ve been nicely promoted, or you’re entrepreneur and things are booming, and then you have all these menopause like, oh, you, you know. So, there are some natural things that they’re finding are really important as well.Elizabeth: Yeah. I had a guest on my show once a while ago and she was a naturopath and worked with gut health. And it was so fascinating, like how much of what we eat impacts our hormones, not just like the food itself, but for example, she was talking about how fiber flushes estrogen out of the body. Valerie: Okay. Elizabeth: Otherwise, it’s like reabsorbed into the body. So yeah, like what you’re saying is so true. Valerie: Yeah. And I think too, I found it fascinating because I started to realize that, gosh, not everybody can afford to bio hack and buy purifiers, and all kinds of great stuff or maybe buy one or two things. But there’s just things we can do at the grocery store choices we can make that are going to help. So, I found that encouraging. Yeah. Elizabeth: Fantastic. Valerie: Yeah. Elizabeth: So, let me ask you, I know that you’re probably excited about everyone who you’re having in the summit. But are there any, give me the highlights, like who have you invited in to participate in this? Valerie: Well, yes. Everyone is super amazing, so giving, so generous, so wanting, I really love that I was able including yourself to surround myself with experts that wanted to share and help. I love that. I just felt really blessed. I found it very interesting. I have a woman who will be on, she’s a Reiki master, and I am also. And she is affiliated with Yale Medical School. And I found it so fascinating that in the medical community, they are embracing another modality of treating people. So, Reiki is a Japanese, non-hands massage energy healing. And they are embracing it in Yale Medical School, and she was fascinating. I found that fascinating. Even as a Reiki practitioner myself, there was things I didn’t even realize. So, just doing a different energy work can change how your body speaks to itself. It’s all electromagnetic. You know, the cells, one cell speaks to the other cell. You can think of giving each other emails like, Oh, this hormone is depleted. So, we’re going to counteract with this or that and we get into sympathetic nervous system where we’re running from all kinds of dangers that might be imagined. And it just helps to bring us back down to that parasympathetic and that’s where we start to heal. And that’s where we start to have get into our zone as well. And I mean how awesome to be in you know your 40s, 50s, or 60s, you have all this awesome wisdom. And why feel yucky and funky and out of the groove when with you can make some changes and it won’t happen overnight, but then you can start to really in enrich your life and feel good. Instead of giving up the ghost, like I said, at the start, it’s just like, well, I guess I’m just going to gain weight and feel fuggy, funky in the head. Maybe I’ll, you know, this, that, and the other thing. So, I found that interesting as well. And I found also, I have a couple of women coming on and they’re talking about beauty routines the makeup artists and beauty experts. And I found that interesting because our skin changes. So, what we did in our twenties and thirties is not going to work now. And you know, I’m not advocating that we try to look like some of the Hollywood ladies or what have you. But who doesn’t want to take care of their skin or address some issues? Not in a sense that goes obsessive or over the top, but we all want to look good. And so, we’re giving everyone permission to embrace that as well. I found that interesting as well, and the clean beauty that’s not full of hormone disrupting fragrances. Okay, it was fascinating. I learned so much. So much. Elizabeth: Fantastic. I love those ideas. You know, you said something that I just want to go back to for a second, which was you mentioned 40s, 50s, 60s, like who doesn’t want to look good. And I think that that’s actually really super important because what many women don’t realize is that this hormonal change can last decades. Valerie: Right? So, what are you finding with that? Elizabeth: Yeah, that’s a valid point. I find that it seems to you know, we menstruate all these years, so we’re dealing with the PMS. Everything has a name. And then, when that starts to alter, it’s the perimenopause, so that’s another issue. I think that’s when women start to notice, and I know for myself. And then, the menopause. So, I think that it is a several decade situation and I just think we need to talk about it and embrace it and support each other. You know, support each other. And I tell this story that I was in a meeting once with a man and a woman and I had a hot flash. And my face flushed, and I just kept talking. I thought, well, you know, it is what it is to myself. And the man looked at me in his eyes. Why? I think he thought I was going to die. And you know, I kind of thought, I just kept talking. I ignored it, and then it all subsided. But I kind of realized, yeah, men don’t really know either, do they? They didn’t. Elizabeth: No. Valerie: Yeah. Yeah. So, it is like you mentioned that the start kind of a taboo thing. So, maybe with this gentleman, I should have said something, but I didn’t. I just know. Elizabeth: Yep, it is what it is. Well, great. So, let’s see. What else do people need to know in order to know if this is right for them? Valerie: Well, here’s the thing. If you’re a woman, it’s right for you. Because you have hormones, they change, we talk about which ones change and which ones don’t. And a little more, we talk about the thyroid a little bit, and a lot of misinformation or misunderstanding or what have you about that.So, there’s a lot of information to unpack, and with you know, we talk about diet, we talk about mindset. So, I think, yeah, if you have some hormones and you’re a woman, I believe that it’s worth tuning in. And it’s a free online summit as well. So, you can listen to it in your pajamas while you’re having your coffee and get some information.What I was very surprised about is that the amount of research that has taken place. So, I found that very uplifting, to be honest with you. It gave me a lot of hope for my clients that I work with. So, they’ll all be tuning into this as well. And that there is a lot of research and a lot of gifts. Everybody, including yourself is giving a free gift to all the listeners. So, not only will you be able to tune in and listen to the interview, meet some new people that you haven’t come across. Maybe there’s someone is going to talk about an issue that really that’s the one that you need to find out more about. And then, everyone has given different gifts that are free for all the audience to download. So, you have some takeaways as well. So, I would say any woman with a with hormones. I bet that covers a lot. Elizabeth: Okay. And tell us a little bit about the format. So, is it interview style? Is it presentations? How long are the videos? They are videos, right? Valerie: Yeah. So, it’s all recorded. I didn’t do any of it live. It’s interview format. I’ll have two a day. This is starts November 21st, and the emails will go to everyone who, the audience go to their inbox of their email, and they can watch at their leisure over five days. So, there’ll be two a day for five days and it’s interview. I tend to be a little quite colloquial and just want to just chat and get some information out. I stutter, trip over my lips, say the wrong things, and it doesn’t matter. I’m just there to get some information out, and I just want to be relaxed. I think that we have a lot going on in this world, no matter what corner you live in, and I think that something they always say, ‘charity begins at home.’ Well, you know, let’s look after ourself and then we’re better able to handle a lot of these distractions. I can’t do anything about those in the world and we don’t need to talk about what they are.But let’s look after ourselves and then we’re better able to manifest the kind of world we want and start in our own homes and there and move out from there. So, yeah, I designed it to be relaxing and fun and informative. So, I think that really proud of it. I’ve achieved it.And again, thanks to all the experts, including yourself that we’re so generous with their time and their information. It’s really worth, it’s worthwhile. Elizabeth: I love that. I love it that you did this and you’re not even like a health coach. So, thank you for putting this together. Valerie: I’m a curious woman who wants to serve and help. And it was the impetus for this. I’m in my fourth season of these summits. I’ve met so many incredible people. So, I like to joke around that I say to my partner all the time. Well, I know someone in that city. You know, I know someone in that city. So, it’s just been kind of it’s really grown. And it’s now turned into a real passion project of mine. And I find that everyone I’ve talked to really enjoy different experts that I’ve had on over the years. So, there’s going to be no difference this time as well. And I have 10 experts. So, we have a lot of great information that’s coming to us and some really great treats that everyone has been so generous with. So, I’m proud of that. Very proud of that. Elizabeth: You should be, you have just accomplished so much. So, congratulations and thank you. Valerie: Oh, you’re very welcome. And thanks for having me today. And you are on the show as well. So, everyone will get to hear all about what you have to offer, and how gracious you are, and how you love to serve, and make everyone’s life better. We appreciate that too. Elizabeth: Yeah. And so, we’re going to have this in the show notes, but if you want to go to the Hormone Harmony Summit, you want to go to elizabethsherman.com/hormoneharmonysummit, and that will get you your ticket. All right. Thanks for showing up, Valerie. And I really appreciate you. Valerie: Oh, it’s an absolute pleasure. And I look forward to keeping in contact. Thank you so much. Elizabeth: What an incredible conversation with Valerie today. I love how she’s bringing together such a diverse group of experts, from Yale Medical School researchers to holistic practitioners, all focused on helping women understand and work with their changing hormones. Keep in mind that you don’t have to accept feeling foggy, exhausted, or off balance as your new normal.Whether you’re dealing with sleep issues, mood changes, or any of the other 84 symptoms of menopause, yes, there really are that many, and maybe even more. There are solutions available for you. If you’d like to join me at the Hormone Harmony Summit, you can get your free ticket at elizabethsherman.com/hormoneharmonysummit, and that’ll be in the show notes.The Summit runs for five days starting November 21st, with two expert sessions released every single day. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend who might need this information too. Until next time, take care of yourself, and I’ll see you then. Bye-bye.Thank you for tuning in today. Now, if you enjoy the podcast and are ready to take the next step in addressing your health concerns, I would love to invite you to schedule an I Know What To Do, I’m Just Not Doing It strategy call. In this 60 minute session, we will explore what’s holding you back and create a personalized action plan. You will gain clarity, support, and practical steps to move you forward. Visit elizabethsherman.com/call to book your call now. You can transform your health and I would love to be there to help.