Menopause & Business – Building Your Best Life and Business After 40 with Sheryl Carroll

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Janine: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Unleashing Brilliance. I'm your host, Janine Garner. Today, we are diving deep into a topic that is often misunderstood, but can actually be a powerful catalyst for change. This is perimenopause and menopause. Today's [00:01:00] conversation, uh, I want to focus on thinking about this period of change as not just about navigating the symptoms, but actually embracing it as an opportunity for transformation, both in health and in your businesses and in your careers.

My guest today is the incredible Sheryl Carrol. She is an ex banking professional turned integrative health practitioner and coach. And as you'll hear. Her journey into health and wellness began with a personal tragedy, the loss of a close friend to bowel cancer in 2015, which actually ignited her passion for understanding what healthy truly means.

Now, Sheryl uses her skills to help women connect the health dots and achieve elevated wellness, empowering them to prioritize their health and reach their fullest potential. Now, in this episode, We discuss how menopause can actually be a time of empowerment. Imagine that a time and a chance to realign your goals and actually a pivotal [00:02:00] moment to build a legacy in your forties, fifties, and beyond.

So whether you're a business professional or a business owner navigating this phase, Sheryl's practical advice will show you how to turn this life stage Into your greatest assets. So settle in and let's explore how you too can thrive through menopause and beyond.

Hey, Sheryl. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. Welcome.

Sheryl: Aw, thank you very much. And I see we're twinning here as well.

Janine: We are, aren't we.

Sheryl: The denim girls.

Janine: That's right. I love, I love to wear me a little bit of denim. so excited to actually have this conversation on my podcast. you very beautifully gifted, my inner circle and elevate community, a masterclass. a couple of months ago where you were talking about nutrition to thrive.

and this audience are all, [00:03:00] amazing female business owners, former corporates, and everything that you talked about, the amount of aha moments and the gifts that you share resonated so much. I went, Oh my gosh, there's got to be more women out there that need to hear this message. So thank you for Trusting my crazy and saying yes to being on the podcast.

I'm so excited to share this. So, when so passionate about elevated wellness, and the importance of taking a much more integrative approach to health practices, but you've not always. space and this is what I find so fascinating about your story. You're an ex banker that has moved and transitioned into this space of wellness.

Can you share with the audience, the people listening here, what, what made you make that shift? What was the turning point for you in terms of changing your career from being a backer to [00:04:00] working in this wellness space?

Sheryl: guess to kind of cut a long story short, I've always been very interested in health and wellbeing, but on reflection, it wasn't very healthy. The way I approached my life, the way I approached health was not very healthy. And I would never have questioned my approach to that had I not.

Had a very tragic experience. when I was pregnant with my daughter, one of my best friends who was living here in Australia with me was diagnosed with bowel cancer when I was six months pregnant and her and I were, we shared this passion for health, you know, always the ones getting up early, exercising, choosing the salads, you know, not, indulging all of that kind of stuff.

And, you know, that really shook me. I was bringing a new life into the world and watching someone, you know, Very, very close to me pass and she unfortunately did pass when my daughter was six weeks old and That really just had this narrative going on in my head around. Do I actually even understand what it means to be [00:05:00] healthy?

How do I know that what I'm choosing to eat is? Is nourishing me, you know, I just, it just didn't feel right that these sorts of things were just left to fate. So, um, had this constant thought going on in my head. And then when I was, on maternity leave with my son, uh, I did started doing some studying around integrative nutrition and that really just lit a fire in me.

I was like, wow, this is whole world. And it's not just the food you put on your plate. It's not just the exercise. There's the emotional side of things. There's stress. There's all of this stuff that. Kind of helped me start to connect the dots around my friend and also just started to allow me to feel empowered versus fearful around driving the outcomes for myself and my family.

So I was obviously bitten by the bug and I started to do some more training and I did the integrative health practitioner certification and then started doing this. Part time whilst working at Westpac and slowly but surely realizing that [00:06:00] my true passion and purpose was linked to helping people understand what was driving them and helping them to step into what you know you've described as elevated wellness.

Janine: what does, in your mind, elevated wellness mean? If you had to define it, what is elevated wellness? Is it just exercise? Is it just eating healthily? What is it?

Sheryl: So it's more the feeling. So the way I describe wellness is having the energy, the motivation, the zest for life to engage in the things that really drive you. I think so many people are tolerating, or kind of showing up, but just feeling a little bit dull, you know, elevated wellness is really Being fully engaged in life and the things that really fill your cup. Yes, it's more than exercise. It's it's so much of it is mindset. It's your emotional health. The way you manage your [00:07:00] stress your sleep. So it really is that whole holistic picture

Janine: what I loved about the session that you ran for my Elevate in the Inner Circle community, We were talking specifically about perimenopause and menopause and, the audience in there, very accomplished women. Many of them, you know, 40 plus, they've had incredible corporate careers. Many of them now are building their own practices or they're shifting into what that next season of their professional life means.

And I remember you asking the question, I think we had to rank ourselves based on, on whatever's going on. And what's fascinating for me is there's so many changes that go on for us as women. That nobody ever educates us on, and we think we have the solution because it's what we did in our 20s, but it just doesn't seem to work, and whether it's brain fog, whether it's [00:08:00] that, you know, extra weight that you can't shift, whether it's a lack of energy, whether it's not being able to sleep, but fundamentally, If we can't get over this, it's actually really hard to operate in our businesses.

so I'm curious, what, what are you noticing out there at the moment when it comes to, women at that stage of life that are executives or are running their businesses, what are you hearing as their biggest challenges?

Sheryl: So from the ability to show up at work, I think the issue around Not feeling as cognitively switched on, you know, the concept of brain fog, which is just kind of collection of, of symptoms around, cognitive function, being able to retrieve words, you know, really just holding your own as you would as a senior person in an organization.

So there is that side of things. And alongside that is anxiety that comes up with starting to lack confidence, starting to question your place. You know, around the table because you, you don't feel like you're as able to show [00:09:00] up, in your role. So there's that side of things. And physically, I think what really like the catch for most women, I wouldn't say it's everyone, but for most, most women is exactly as you've just shared.

It's, it's this shift in, body composition. So there's more belly fat. It's like, wow, where did this come from? I never used to. This never used to be here. What is this? and you know, so that's like a physical standpoint and then the sleep. So those would kind of be the three that are like the biggest pain points that women come to me with.

And those are the things that we work on and they're all related. They're all very related.

Janine: And thinking about the conversation, cause you do some incredible work. You know, what, what do you see as some of the biggest myths that need to be debunked when we enter that stage of life? What are you working on in terms of changing that mindset around

Sheryl: So I think the biggest mindset shift is that we've got to flog our bodies. [00:10:00] Into compliance, the more we flog our bodies into compliance by restricting more or over exercising, the more it's going to do the exact opposite. It's like dealing with a rebel, you know, like you just, you have to work with it.

You have to work with your body. And the starting point is understanding how your rebellious new body is, is functioning. understanding what is driving the symptoms, because it's only when that, when you have that real understanding. Can you then start to make changes that are actually going to work for you versus against you?

Because just as you articulate it so beautifully, when we start to feel like our bodies aren't showing up the way they used to, we start doing the things we did in our twenties and our thirties, but they just won't work for us anymore. And it's only going to add to add fuel to the fire. So to say.

Janine: Can you give me some examples? anyone that knows me knows I used to love running. [00:11:00] Running was my thing. Sign me up to Tough Mudder. Sign me up to Spartan, if you've been following me on the socials, you'll see my crazy daughter signed me up to High Rocks recently which nearly killed me.

But essentially my exercise routine has always been one of go hard, the cardio, and if I'm not sweating and I'm not out of breath it's not working. And so, as an example, if I think about when I didn't even realize I was going through perimenopause to be honest, but as my body was changing, it was like, Oh, exactly that.

Like go to the gym more often, make sure I work out harder. Maybe, Cheryl, you'll kill me on this one. Two cardio classes, one after the other, instead of one. can you sort of Explain like the opposite to that, the, busting of that myth. What we should be doing in, in its place.

Sheryl: yeah, exactly. So I think, so I guess the starting point is the reframe that, that, perimenopause and the early years of menopause [00:12:00] are an opportunity for health. So the symptoms that we have now, or we get now. Are really signs from our body that things are out of balance. And if we don't tend to them now, then, you know, when you over the age of 60, that's when the disease in the body starts to fester.

So really it's an opportunity for positive transformation to setting yourself, up well for a long health span. So with that lens in mind, we need to be thinking about. almost like backcasting from our final decade and what do we want to be doing when we're 90 or 100 however long you want to live to, because we want to be functional, mobile, independent, not, not be one of those women in a nursing home.

So we have to be due. All the things now to set ourselves up for that. And the good news is by doing that, that also mitigates the risk of the common symptoms and, you know, niggles that women experience now.

Janine: I just pause you there for a second? Cause I just want to pick up on what you said. You [00:13:00] said something there that I want to make sure our audience are hearing. You said, this perimenopause menopause is an opportunity For health and positive transformation. That's just an awesome reframe in itself because everything we're reading is like, Oh, woe is me.

Worst time ever. This is going to be rubbish. What you're actually saying is no, this is a signal that your body is sending you that you can either choose to listen to, to prepare yourself for a happy, healthy future, or ignore it. I love that.

Sheryl: Yeah. Cause I think we get so, we get We are so cross with our bodies for not complying.

Janine: Mmm.

Sheryl: can our bodies comply when we're not giving it the inputs that are actually going to help it?

To thrive. So that's really the reframe. It's like, okay, so what does my body need?

And the starting point is [00:14:00] understanding what the hormonal changes are actually causing from a, you know, from a body function perspective. And then, you know, that's kind of where to, to move forward from. So just kind of looping back to your question around exercise. So what you're talking about there is, is doing exercise that puts you into this.

What I call the gray zone. It's like this moderate intensity exercise that just ramps up cortisol and then can actually exacerbate belly fat. So when we training in perimenopause, menopause, you know, postmenopause, it's all about this polarity of training. So you want to do some. Sprints, but not like an F45 session, which I know you love, but not, but like really hitting it hard, but doing shorter sessions.

So you do know a few rounds of like 30 seconds sprints, 30 second rest, that kind of thing. But it's not a 45 minute class or a 10 K run all the time. And like, I like to use the [00:15:00] word I've stolen from Dr. Stacey Simms, a soul food. So if you love the F45 classes, you love your 10K runs, do them, but that's like the sprinkling on top.

Cause we need to be thinking about, well, what is the, what are the types of exercise that we need to do to allow us to remain functionally mobile as we age? And we lose power and speed and we lose strength and our bones weaken. And so that's kind of how we need to structure up our training. Now I ran a 90 minute masterclass for an organization all on this movement.

So it can feel a little bit overwhelming, but I think if we, if you just start to understand, you know, we need to make sure we strong, so it's some strength training, we need to do some sprints with recovery and you know, the low, slow walking, is beautiful for us. As well.

Janine: And just to loop back on that, so you're saying strength training, slow, slow walking. Can you just [00:16:00] reiterate why those things are more important than ever at this moment in time? Mm hmm. to ensure positive transformation. Why is that shift such an important piece to make? It's like that hard. If you've been training, you know, running marathons, doing Tough Mudders, doing F45s all the time, that shift is the hard.

So why is it so important to make that

Sheryl: So from an ex marathon runner, it was very, very hard, you know? So I think the most, what I would recommend all women do is get a bone density scan done, just to get a baseline of your bone density. It's called a DEXA scan. So really what we're thinking about from, you know, from a positive transformation standpoint is that as our hormones change, we lose muscle mass and we lose bone strength.

and we become less sensitive to insulin. So the more muscle we have that helps us with the regeneration of bone and we just making sure that we're [00:17:00] not going to suffer from sarcopenia, which is this muscle loss that both men and women start to suffer from if they're not from the age of 30.

So we, we all start to lose our muscle mass, but women more so because we're losing the estrogen and testosterone. So that's kind of the strength side of things. And it's, it's a metabolic organ on muscle. So the more muscle we have, the more it's going to eat up the glucose, the more we're going to be able to, you know, eat more of those carbohydrates because our muscles actually need carbohydrates and protein to grow.

So like when you're refueling after, you know, your beautiful strength training session, you need some carbs. So that's the strength side of things. And then we lose our fast twitch muscle fibers as we age. So, you know, if you think about an elderly person, generally people imagine, you know, somebody shuffling, walking very slowly, walking very slowly up the stairs.

So if you, we're not actively working [00:18:00] on our cardiorespiratory fitness and stimulating our fast twitch muscle fibers through speed and power work, We're just going to become very slow and then it makes it more difficult for us to not end up frail and unable to do things independently.

Janine: The other thing that you were sharing on the back of this was from a nutrition perspective, because I think there's many, there's many people listening to the podcast that are building businesses, that are building legacies, that have very responsible jobs at work. and you know, there's more work to do.

It is that piece that you talk about, about living along and happy and. healthy life. And I remember you talking specifically about nutrition on this masterclass. And you said something like, and I've heard it twice, but when you said it, it was like, Oh my gosh, that's the second time I've heard it. I'm 53 [00:19:00] and it was, as a 53 year old, you should be eating as much protein as your 18 year old son.

Now my 18 year old son clears the fridge and just all of that blew me away. Now, as a 53 year old too, I grew up in the, cocaine, a chic supermodel era, the Cape Moss, the skinny wave. So again, it's this mindset shift because For me, it was always about skinny, no carbs, lettuce. Actually, the longer that you can you know, live on air essentially, the better.

So this was a real head mess for me of actually eat more, Janine, more carbohydrates, more proteins, because that's actually what your body needs. And again, it links to that positive transformation piece. Can you, can you just explain more from your smarts than my, Oh my God moment, exactly why it's important that we, we start rethinking our nutrition.

Sheryl: So exactly as you say, so our hormones, as our hormones, start to go on this roller coaster [00:20:00] down, we losing the benefits of our sex hormones that do so much for us. So from a cognitive standpoint, from a muscle health standpoint, from a metabolism standpoint, so. So, you know, I like to think of a scale.

So as our hormones go down, we've got to lift, lift up our game from the nutrition movement, all the, all the lifestyle pillars perspective. So when we're talking about kind of constructing our plates, yes, protein is essential because it's the building blocks of our hair, of our nails, of our muscles, of our hormones.

Like we need to have enough protein for all our functions or for all of our body functions to work properly. And what I find so often is that women are under eating protein. So in order to hit what's called muscle protein synthesis, which is the rebuilding or regeneration of your muscle, you have to have 30 grams of protein in a single sitting.

So I'll speak to my clients and I'll ask, okay, so in our intake session, so what are you having for breakfast? I'm having [00:21:00] protein for breakfast. Awesome. What are you having? One egg. And you know, some tomato. I'm like, okay. So one egg is like five grams of protein, maybe six, if it's a huge egg. So you need five of those to hit that.

Muscle protein synthesis threshold. So I think it's just a real, as you say, it's a real mindset shift of, wow, like this is really important. So I need to intentionally make sure that I'm set up to be able to have that amount of protein in my breakfast. So the protein at breakfast also helps from a circadian rhythm standpoint.

And we know if our sleep goes pear shaped, we want to do everything in our power to support our circadian rhythm. So it also helps with cravings through the day. So that first meal of the day, which I think so often women skip or they have coffee in the morning and that's all they have. And then, you know, maybe eating later that can very often just ramp up [00:22:00] cortisol.

Ramp up the opportunity for that belly fat just to deposit down because we're not fueling, fueling ourselves enough because when I explain to women, very often they're exercising in the morning, they're getting the kids ready for school, they're rushing in traffic, all the things. It's a very, energy intensive time of their day, but they're not giving their body any substrate to do anything with.

So that's why then there's like, Oh, well, I'm exhausted at two o'clock or, you know, I just can't do this anymore. I'm fatigued all the time. And that's because you're not fueling for your energy demands. Um, so that's really that, concept around hitting that 30 grams of protein at each meal, but you know, where, and that's at a minimum, you know, generally it's around 1.

6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. you know, so each person can calculate it for themselves, but if you're a time per just get that 30 grams at each meal and you know that you're at least hitting that threshold.

Janine: you're [00:23:00] talking about essentially is love to some extent, because, you know, so many women, I was, I was running a workshop yesterday, for a professional services firm, um, it was all women in that workshop. And we were talking about this concept of, we give so much, so much to, our clients So much to our families, if we're fortunate to have children, as you said, we're running around after our kids.

If we haven't got children, some of us all have fur families, some of us have aging parents we're looking after. Essentially, we are constantly giving and as you know, I just going to keep circling back to this, this moment of life is this opportunity for health, but it requires you to stop. And actually invest the time to give yourself some self love, to change those habits, to do whatever needs to be [00:24:00] done to ensure that you can continue to make the impact that you want to make professionally, personally, and live that long and happy life.

And it's almost as you're talking, um, saying to myself, this is an imperative. This is a non

Sheryl: It's a non negotiable.

Janine: an absolute non negotiable, because I'm sure people listening to this right now are in this fortunate position to go, to make a choice, to do I want to be 70, 80, 90 and still walking without a stick, hopefully kicking a ball around with my grandchildren, still being able to cognitively add to conversation, or do I want to be bedroom ridden?

it's that choice right for this next step. Phase of life that people have. Why do you think? 'cause I'm not sure that's the conversation that's happening on mass. I feel like at the moment there's a huge focus on perimenopause and menopause, but it's almost coming at it from a. problem [00:25:00] place versus an opportunity space.

And what I hear you very clear on is the opportunity space. why do you think we're thinking about it all wrong right now?

Sheryl: I think there are like in the, definitely in the people that I follow, and you know, my mentors, this is our language because this is, the only thing that we have, but I think you have, you know, like anything in life, you have people who complain and you have people who just, get on with things and, you know, make lemonade out of lemons.

So I think it's, it's really that mindset shift. And it's probably depends on the people who are talking about it as to whether they want to go down the woe is me path, you know, like poor women, whatever. I love the fact that there is, you know, menopause leave, being, you know, spoken about, you know, it's at the table, but I'm like, but why, why do we want women to end up having to take that leave? We need to be on the front foot and actually supporting women to thrive as opposed to, okay, awesome. I'm joining an [00:26:00] organization that's got menopause leave. So I can feel like crap. Sorry.

Janine: That's all right. You're allowed to swear on this podcast.

Yeah.

Sheryl: you know, organizations are bringing to the forefront that this hasn't been spoken about that women have been suffering in silence. So it's trying to bring about that even lens.

And it's probably that more dramatic lens on, you know, how women do suffer. That's Catching the limelight and a lot of these, arenas, but you know, when I'm working with women and always in my conversation is all about to understand these are the common symptoms, but don't hate your body. These are messages, listen and make changes.

But I think, you know, some people just until there's a health crisis. I find that it's very seldom that I catch people on the side of, you know, there's just a few things that I could tweak. Um, most people are like, Oh, I really feel like crap, [00:27:00] like help me.

And I wish I would catch them before cause then it's so much easier.

Janine: I think if I, you know, I think about, I never had a conversation with my mom or even amongst my colleagues about it. So the conversation has changed. It was more like, Oh my God, this strange thing is starting to happen. Are you feeling the same? So, so the conversation is definitely. And I think it has to, because the reality is there's more women in the workforce, there's more, more women, achieving leadership positions.

We've got women in government, we've got women changing the world, we've got women running businesses. for a long time, we didn't have that visibility. So the fact that we now are doing the stuff. that we love or making the impact we want to make or leaving the legacy we want to leave. There comes that point where, as you said, your body's telling you and [00:28:00] giving you some clues as to how you can keep doing that.

And that's what I love about your work. It's not about fixing. It's not about solution. It's actually about excellent. Um, let's make sure that you can continue to be as bloody brilliant and awesome as you already are. You've just got to change some of the inputs to help you, help you get there. what's your wish when you think about the work that you do and you open this podcast, sharing the story of your, your friends that essentially was the, the wake up call, not even the wake up call, but the reset around what is wellbeing?

Because I'm thinking I'm doing it all, but. My very good friend passed and yet she was doing it all. Why are you doing what you're doing Sheryl? What what is your wish? for the clients that you work with For the women around the world that are listening to this. What's your wish for them?

Sheryl: So it sounds kind of cliched, but that they actually do [00:29:00] putting their own oxygen mask on first, we all hear this and we're like, Oh yes, that makes so much sense. You know, you can't pour from an empty cup, but I feel like so often that's empty words and I see women really suffering in the And they're like, Oh no, no, I can't, I can't do that for myself.

You know, my, child needs me here or needs me there. I'm like, but you're not, if you aren't around you're not going to be around So my wish really is for women to embody. their priority, even if that's even a way to describe it, but for them to really, just step into the fact that they have to be number one because they cannot be anything or they cannot be who they want to be to all the people in their, environment if they are not well in themselves. that is really my wish because it is the biggest struggle for women. There's so much guilt that's wrapped, wrapped up and taking an hour for themselves or putting, you know, spending on them versus the [00:30:00] family or whatever that looks like. There's a lot of guilt, shame avoidance, that I see with my clients.

So that is my wish because when women are well, they step into their fullest potential and. Everybody wins. Like they just bring, you know, women thriving, just bring everybody else up as you know.

Janine: Totally agree. So as we wrap up this podcast, I will put in the show notes for those of you listening, how to get in touch with Sheryl, how to find out more about what Sheryl does, but your final, I'd love you to give three key tips for anyone listening. They might be in their car, they might be walking, they might be listening to this while they're doing something else.

What are the top three things that you would love our audience to actually intentionally think about that you know will change things for them?

Sheryl: Okay. So number one is really just acknowledging the beauty of your body, that it is not broken, that things are just a little bit different and that it's asking for [00:31:00] something different of you. So that's kind of number one and then don't get stuck in, Oh my gosh, and now I've got to do the protein and I've got to do like the head training and you know, the strength.

get out of your head and think about what are the two things That I can do differently starting today and focus on those for 30, 60 days until it becomes your new habits, because we get stuck in this kind of analysis paralysis, and then don't do anything. The change is going to come from consistently doing things, even if they are small things, you know, when in the class I spoke about, you know, just small, simple changes, and that's how you will bring about change.

Big changes, you know, just focus on 1 percent better every day. And that is where you will see this compound effect of changes. So, you know, put yourself first to your habits, first, choose the two things that you want to focus on, whether it's the protein and then finding yourself a gym, let those be your [00:32:00] two things

Janine: I love that. Much like business, Sheryl, right? Is that simplify one thing at a time. Consistency.

Sheryl: So the final thing is patience as well. Just be patient. you know, sorry. Can I just end on one little thing?

Um, I'd really also love the mindset shift to be around, thinking about long term strategies over short term fixes because, you know, summer's rolling around, there's going to be, you know, You challenges like shred the belly in six weeks or, you know, which involves a lot of restriction, perhaps over exercising.

When we do things that are counterintuitive to our bodies at this phase, it's only going to backfire. So really think about and put it through the lens of does this serve my 90 year old self? Otherwise, just take it slower because otherwise, you know, you can mess up your metabolism more, you can cause more inflammation in your system.

So just be intentional with, you know, any challenges and things that you're going to be, be taking on in the lead up into summer. Rather do [00:33:00] it slower and make it last.

Janine: I love that. And I invite everyone to take that last little bit of wisdom. Does this thing support my 90 year old self? Awesome conversation, Sheryl. Thank you so much for your time. Um, I look forward to catching up later. Take care.

Bye.