Your body often tells the truth before your mind is ready to admit it. In this episode of Maximizing Hormones, Physique, and Running Through Perimenopause, Louise Valentine, a leading expert for perimenopausal active women and runners, shares a deeply personal look at what happens when major life stress collides with fitness, hormones, running, and midlife health. Through her own experience with devastating family news, interrupted sleep, inflammation, gut changes, low energy, and emotional overload, Louise explains why pushing harder is not always the answer, especially during perimenopause.

Listeners will learn how to recognize when the body is reaching its stress tipping point, why exercise can become counterproductive when cortisol is already high, and how to adjust workouts, fueling, recovery, and lifestyle habits with more care. Louise also shares practical tools like eating more when sleep is disrupted, scaling back intensity, foam rolling with calming music, red light therapy, family connection, therapy, and brain spotting. This episode is a powerful reminder that resilience is not always about doing more. Sometimes, it starts with slowing down before your body forces you to.

RESOURCES + LINKS

Learn & level up with my free nutrition guide & award-winning 1:1 Badass Breakthrough Academy to thrive through perimenopause with less stress: https://www.breakingthroughwellness.com/

Learn & level up faster with a Breaking Through Wellness masterclass here, including my How to Support & Restore Your Gut Health Mini Course.

Find a brain spotting therapist near you: https://brainspotting.com/directory/

Explore client success stories & educational resources on my blog here.

Read my best-selling book, The Art of Breaking Through, found on Amazon here.

Explore Joovv Red Light Therapy devices here.

Take advantage of our podcast listener discount & save 20% off Kion’s science-backed clean products. Code "LOUISE" saves on all future orders: https://www.getkion.com/pages/maximizing

Check out my FullScript here where you can see my curated favorite supplement picks, by topic, to address your concerns & save 25% off! A small portion of EACH sale goes back to support BTW. Thank you!

Save $25 off Function Health comprehensive functional labs here. With every sale, $25 goes back to support BTW. Discount code is “LVALENTINE11” Thank you!

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(3:07) Adjusting fitness when life gets hard
(7:52) Living openly through hard seasons
(9:44) When training becomes stress control
(15:00) Understanding the body’s stress tipping point
(17:09) Changing goals for health and longevity
(25:27) How stress disrupts sleep and safety
(27:17) Fueling more when the body needs support
(30:15) Knowing when to stop pushing
(31:42) Cortisol, gut health, and perimenopause
(36:49) Choosing calm instead of more tasks
(40:23) Family connection as recovery support
(44:09) Brain spotting and therapy for stress patterns
(49:24) Practical ways to adjust under high stress
(52:38) Choosing presence, light movement, and support
(54:05) Outro

Tune in weekly to "Maximizing Hormones, Physique, and Running Through Perimenopause" for our simple female-specific science-based revolution. Let's unlock our best with less stress!

I'd love to connect!

Email 💬 support@breakingthroughwellness.com

Instagram 📷
https://www.instagram.com/breakingthroughwellness

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BreakingThroughWellness

In this episode, Louise Valentine, one of the world’s leading perimenopause experts, continues part three of her Ultimate Perimenopause Masterclass for ambitious active women and female runners. She explains why exercise recovery, strategic adjustments in strength training, running, nutrition, and environmental exposure matter even more as hormones shift.

Louise shares why women over 35 need smarter fueling, more intentional lifting, better recovery, and less “run yourself into the ground” thinking to protect muscle, bone density, hormones, and long-term health.

She also talks about the importance of strength training for longevity, injury prevention, body composition, and staying active for life. Later, Louise covers detox myths, air quality, product ingredients, alcohol, processed foods, and simple ways to reduce toxic load without living in fear or extremes.

This episode is a clear reminder that hormone changes do not have to mean decline, frustrating symptoms or setbacks. With the right plan and education, women can feel strong, run well, and age with power.

RESOURCES + LINKS

Learn & level up with my free nutrition guide & award-winning 1:1 Badass Breakthrough Academy to thrive through perimenopause with less stress: https://www.breakingthroughwellness.com/

Learn & level up faster with a Breaking Through Wellness masterclass here, including the Gut Health, Ferritin & Injury Prevention mini courses + Free Summer Planning Workshop mentioned throughout this podcast masterclass series.

Learn more on my blog here with client success stories & articles, including simple female age 35+ specific hydration & long running fueling strategies.

Take advantage of our podcast listener discount & save 20% off Kion’s science-backed clean products. Code "LOUISE" saves on all future orders: https://www.getkion.com/pages/maximizing

Check out my FullScript here where you can see my curated favorite supplement picks, by topic, to address your concerns & save 25% off! A small portion of EACH sale goes back to support BTW. Thank you!

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(3:34) Why recovery changes with hormones
(4:58) Building lean muscle without bulk
(5:27) Nutrition choices that support results
(8:02) Listening when your body speaks
(10:42) Strength training for lifelong independence
(13:36) Real client results and injury rates
(19:10) Why detox slows with age
(20:40) Toxins, alcohol, products, and air quality
(25:08) Using the halftime rule
(29:15) Hormone decline is not inevitable
(31:25) Tracking symptoms, sleep, food, and training
(32:45) Outro

Tune in weekly to "Maximizing Hormones, Physique, and Running Through Perimenopause" for our simple female-specific science-based revolution. Let's unlock our best with less stress!

I'd love to connect!

Email 💬 support@breakingthroughwellness.com

Instagram 📷
https://www.instagram.com/breakingthroughwellness

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BreakingThroughWellness

You were never meant to lose strength, energy, muscle, and confidence just because your hormones started changing! In this episode of Maximizing Hormones, Physique, and Running Through Perimenopause, Louise Valentine, a leading expert for perimenopausal active women and runners, breaks down how perimenopause can affect fat storage, protein absorption, blood sugar, recovery, running performance, and injury risk. She challenges the outdated belief that women are destined to lose muscle, see our body composition, health, fitness, and bones decline with age. She explains why the right tools, fueling strategy, strength work, and hormone-supportive nutrition can change the outcome - and how it is for hundreds of women throughout the world.

Louise also explains why active women need more high-quality protein compared to the general population, why low-carb dieting and fasted training backfire, and how blood sugar crashes most often show up as fatigue, cravings, night sweats, poor sleep, or stubborn belly fat. This episode is especially useful for female runners and active women over 35 who want to understand their changing bodies without fear, confusion, misleading fads, or extreme rules.

Most importantly, this episode is a reminder that your body is not broken. It just needs a smarter strategy for this new phase of life.

This is the conversation every active woman over 35 should hear - because understanding that's happening changes everything.

Get ready to learn and level up with a heck of a lot less stress and confusion! Then, share this episode with your fierce female friends so you can thrive together.

RESOURCES + LINKS

Learn & level up with my free nutrition guide & award-winning 1:1 Badass Breakthrough Academy to thrive through perimenopause with less stress: https://www.breakingthroughwellness.com/

Learn & level up faster with a Breaking Through Wellness masterclass here, including the Gut Health, Ferritin & Injury Prevention mini courses + Free Summer Planning Workshop mentioned throughout this podcast series.

Learn more on my blog here with client success stories & articles, including simple female age 35+ specific hydration & long running fueling strategies.

Take advantage of our podcast listener discount & save 20% off Kion’s science-backed clean products. Code "LOUISE" saves on all future orders: https://www.getkion.com/pages/maximizing

Check out my FullScript here where you can see my curated favorite supplement picks, by topic, to address your concerns & save 25% off! A small portion of EACH sale goes back to support BTW. Thank you!

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(3:31) Understanding perimenopause and hormone changes
(4:06) How hormones affect fat storage
(5:30) Protein, muscle, and bone health
(7:59) Why protein quality matters more now
(13:48) Carbs, blood sugar, and insulin resistance
(18:25) Fatigue, cravings, sleep, and blood sugar crashes
(25:36) Why low-carb diets can backfire
(26:08) Why fasted training hurts female hormones
(28:13) What’s coming in the next episode
(29:48) Outro

Tune in weekly to "Maximizing Hormones, Physique, and Running Through Perimenopause" for our simple female-specific science-based revolution. Let's unlock our best with less stress!

I'd love to connect!

Email 💬 support@breakingthroughwellness.com

Instagram 📷
https://www.instagram.com/breakingthroughwellness

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BreakingThroughWellness