Episode 141 | Jul 31, 2025

Reclaiming Your Health and Confidence After 40, With Natalie Jill

What if your best years weren’t behind you but ahead? In this episode of Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi is joined by midlife fat loss expert and bestselling author Natalie Jill to challenge cultural narratives around aging, strength, and what is truly possible for women over 40. With an empowering message rooted in resilience, mindset, and science-backed strategies, Natalie shares how women can feel stronger and more in control of their health, even in the face of pain, diagnoses, or discouragement.

“We have these beliefs that we’ve been believing, and we don’t even really know why… They might be factual on paper, but what it has to mean for you is up to you…
You know your body, you know yourself way better than any doctor will ever know you.”

Natalie Jill

Natalie’s own story is one of transformation. After facing health setbacks and multiple injuries, including a ruptured disc and a torn bicep, she refused to let pain define her. Instead, she became her own health detective, asking questions, researching answers, and challenging assumptions about what her body was capable of. Today, she helps women over 40 reclaim their strength, navigate midlife changes, and optimize their health, not by following a one-size-fits-all approach but by tuning in and taking the lead in their own care.

For health coaches, this episode is a reminder of the mindset shift clients need in order to break free from outdated beliefs about aging and weight loss. Natalie’s story underscores how health coaching plays a critical role in fostering self-efficacy, especially for women navigating complex physical and emotional challenges in midlife. Her approach aligns with the core principles of coaching: meeting clients where they are, helping them become the expert in their own lives, and guiding them toward long-lasting change.

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Transcript

Dr. Sandi: How do we keep going despite tremendous pain, setbacks? How do we get stronger, particularly in midlife? How do we deal with challenges that most people would give up on? Well, my guest today is an incredible woman who has such a powerful story to tell. In fact, she has changed the lives of so many women who are struggling in midlife. I think you are going to love the conversation that I have with Natalie Jill.

Let me tell you a little bit about Natalie. She is a renowned midlife fat loss expert who has literally revolutionized how women approach health optimization and aging. With her gift for simplifying complicated health topics, she empowers women to transform their bodies and reclaim their vitality during midlife and beyond. As the creator and host of the top-rated podcast, “Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill,” she is changing cultural narratives around age, potential, and possibility.

Now over 50 herself, Natalie serves as a living example of what’s possible when you embrace midlife with the right mindset and strategies. Natalie’s impact is extraordinary. Her proven methodologies have transformed over 250,000 women’s bodies and health. Her expertise has earned her two best-selling fat loss books that sold out of stores nationwide and numerous television appearances, including “The Doctors. With a global community of more than three million followers, Natalie has received recognition from Forbes and Greatest for multiple consecutive years as one of the world’s top health and wellness influencers.

I was blown away by our conversation. When I first met her, I thought this is someone that I want to bring to you on “Health Coach Talk.” So, without further ado, our conversation with Natalie Jill. Welcome, Natalie.

Natalie: Thanks for having me.

Dr. Sandi: Thank you. Well, I know we have a lot of people on the call who will really relate to your story, your journey, and you have inspired really millions of women to take charge of their health. And this is a topic that I’m just passionate about, I’ve been speaking about the idea that you can take charge of your health. And when I was much younger, I had no idea that was possible. It was like, “Whatever you say, Doc.” As opposed to now, we have the ability to truly be our own health detective. Can you talk about how you became your own health detective and took matters into your own hands?

Natalie: I started to see this disconnect between women thriving through setbacks, driving through diagnoses, thriving through aging in general, and women that were really stopped because of it. It fell into two camps. And I don’t mean to be so black and white, but it was becoming black and white to me that why are some people embracing aging, getting stronger, having more fun, having more freedom, really enjoying it. And some people are, it’s stopping them. They don’t want to go out anymore. They don’t want to even work out anymore.

And then I saw the same thing happen with different diagnoses, whether it was a serious cancer diagnosis, or even just some lab changes that were stressing people out. I would start to see this difference and this divide between succumbing to it and powering through and figuring out a new way.

And what I started to realize quickly is that most people, unless you’re a genetic freak of nature, things are going to come up as we age. Labs are going to change. Things are going to decline. We’re going to start having different changes. And what I started really seeing about the people that were thriving through it is that they not only made a decision that they were going to thrive through it, but they also got very detective-like in learning. They didn’t just rely on what a doctor said or what a guru said or something they heard. They started really thinking, “I’ve got to learn this. I’ve got to understand it. I’ve got to ask more questions.” So, this idea of becoming a health detective became very evident to me because people that are doing really well through all of that, despite all that, had to learn things themselves.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s just such a good point. And you can learn things yourselves. And as a result, you have a sense that it’s not one size fits all, that you’re not buying into what somebody says out there as if it’s for you, but being your own house detective, you have your wearables. I wear a CVM. There’s so many ways now that you can get lab testing direct to consumer, where you can really feel empowered then to go back to your doctor to demand something or to switch doctors or to work with health coaches or, increasingly, to just do your own, “Oh, I’m going to see how I feel if I stop eating this or start eating this,” for example.

Natalie: Yeah, I think that we tend to think that it’s not our job to do that. Like, somebody else has got that. And what’s really interesting, Sandi, is I started to also notice this big disconnect between traditional allopathic medicine, traditional Western medicine, and the natural or more functional or alternative medicines. And some people will call the natural and alternative kind of wacky. They’re like, “They’re wacky, they’re extreme, they’re out there.” But I don’t know anybody in that space that didn’t get into that space because they weren’t navigating their own stuff.

So, all these people that people say, “Oh, they’re wacky,” or whatever, like people talking about parasites or talking about gut health, who are these random… What do you mean these excessive thyroid…? It’s because we all navigated our own health crisis and became and realized that we had to learn and be a detective. And when we did that and dug deep, we felt passionate about sharing. That’s the commonality. I see this all the time. So, when you go to sometimes your allopathic doctor… And we need those, believe me. I’m not against that. But if women wonder why you went to your traditional GYN and asked, “Oh, hey, I feel like crap through menopause,” and she said, “Just toughen up and get through it,” well, she’s teaching you what she knows, and she didn’t maybe on her own become a detective and figure that out. So, we have to learn this so we know the right questions to ask.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah, absolutely. And I think we have a mutual friend, Dr. Tyna Moore, who says, “Nobody’s coming to save you.” And you can take control, and it feels empowering. We have study after study of health coaching. And one of the main things that health coaching results in is this boost in self-efficacy. It’s this idea that, “Yes, what I do matters, I can make these changes, and I can be successful at it.”

Natalie: That’s right.

Dr. Sandi: But, yeah, I mean, I was of that generation where you just listen to the doctor and I was having horrible panic attacks. And I was in my 20s. This was many, many years ago. We’re talking in the ’70s. And so I was put on medication. I was put on, notice that word, passively.

Natalie: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Dr. Sandi: But I happened to… We had no internet in those days. I looked at the physicians desk rep. I went to a bookstore and looked at this huge volume, but it was only for doctors. I looked at, “Wait, this medication, it’s for heart patients. That’s the thing that’s scaring me. I’m having a heart attack because of my family using. That’s why I was getting panicked. Why am I taking this med?” I remember throwing it away. And I started learning. I enrolled in some workshops. I was getting my doctorate in mind-body medicine, breathing techniques, and never had a panic attack. And I absolutely taught then hundreds of people how to stop anxiety, panic, and that idea that you can take charge. And every time you do that, new neural pathways are formed where you get stronger and stronger. So, speaking of strong, you are amazing. And I know you focus on fat loss, which we’ll get into but, I mean, you’ve got an Instagram post where you are doing a one arm handstand. I was so jealous. I do handstand, but I cannot get away from the wall.

Natalie: Well, Sandi, you got to go look at that one again, because you didn’t watch the end of the video. So, what’s funny is… No. Okay, first of all, yes, I can do a handstand and I can do a handstand push up. I cannot do a one arm handstand. If you watch the end of the video, it shows that I was filming it on its side. So, I’m actually laying on the ground. You fell into the trick. So, that I cannot do, but yes, I am pretty strong. I can do pull ups. I can do chin ups. I can do handstands despite multiple injuries.

But I’ll tell you what had to change was I had to believe. So, to give you an example, I ruptured a disc years ago in my lower back L5-S1. I’m actually having a disc replacement this July. So, I’m dealing with that. I’ve had tremendous pain in my lower back for years. Now it comes and goes. I’ve had years with a break. I’ve learned how to train around it, but I still trained. I tore a bicep, my right bicep in a freak accident. I was told I would not be able to do pull ups, chin ups again. Well, I can. I can’t do a chin up because I lost my supination, but I trained myself to do a pull up.

So, the first thing is we have to believe that what we’re being told is not true. You have to create your own reality. And if someone says you can’t, are you going to take on that belief or do you want to decide something different? So, leading up to my back surgery, even right now, I’ve been sharing because people are asking like, “Well, you have this zero disc in your back. The pictures are crazy.” And people can see it’s literally bone on bone. It’s not an exaggeration. There was no disc. They’re like, “How in the world did you work out with all that pain?” Well, I never let the pain get to me. What I learned because as a health detective is, how do I take L5-S1 out of the equation? Well, if we need L5-S1, why are we needing it? And well, if I can have really strong glutes and a really strong core, I can force myself to not use L5-S1. Is that a permanent answer of fixing the disc? No, but it was a way for me to get out of pain and train through. So, now when I wake up in pain, my instant thought is, “Oh, woe is me, I’m in pain. I can’t go to the gym.” My thought is, “I’ve got to go to the gym today because I need to activate my glutes and my core. And that’s what’s going to keep me out of pain.” So, that’s the difference. So, when someone says you’re so strong, it was a decision.

Dr. Sandi:I love it. And that is my philosophy, 1000%, because when I was in my 40s, I got a scan, “Oh, you have… Oh, it’s going to get worse. You have to be really careful.” I started to get into weight lifting, and I take ballet class but just came back from a ballet class and there are a lot of women my age in their 70s in the class.

Natalie: Amazing.

Dr. Sandi: And they freak out about jumping. Nobody will jump and the instructor never adds up. I always add it in on my own because it’s incredibly powerful. Dr. Stacy Sims says 10 minutes of jumping. Well, I do my ballet jumps and feel how strong I am. Whereas, so many in the class fear it, “Oh, I have arthritis. I have bad knees. I’ll hurt myself.” And so they don’t do it, they back away and then they get weaker and weaker.

Natalie: That’s right.

Dr. Sandi: And then they wonder why they’re in pain or why they have these issues popping up. Whereas if you push through… So many myths, and I know you talk about this, that we buy into, that we’re going to lose… You can’t gain muscle, you can’t get stronger. And I’d love for you to talk about that and how you have seen personally that you have gotten stronger.

Natalie: So, it’s something I call F.A.T. And F.A.T. stands for False Assumed Truths. And we have these beliefs that we’ve been believing, and we don’t even really know why. Did you believe it because someone told you? Did you believe it because a doctor told you? Did you believe it just because your whole family genetics told you this? Why are you holding onto the belief? And I call them F.A.T. because they’re false assumed truths. They might be factual on paper, like maybe, yes, your lab said that. Maybe your DEXA scan said that. Maybe your doctor told you. That part’s true. But what it has to mean for you is up to you. That is not true. It is completely up to you.

And I’m human, Sandi. So, Sandi, I don’t want to have like… I could be told something and I’m going to have the setback and feel it, right? I tore my bicep, that was real. I have these setbacks, but what I know to be true is I don’t stay stuck there. So, I might feel it and hear it and be sad about it. And then I go, “What am I going to do about it? But what am I going to do about it?”

I’ll tell you a perfect example that just came up for me. Literally this morning, I did a GI mapping test, which is a gut test. It’s a functional gut test. And on that GI mapping, it shows that my pancreatic enzymes are low. And based on what I saw in there, I need a lot more HCL and a lot more enzymes. And I do take enzymes but more. So, I right away, when I first got this back, I started upping my HCL, like all the… HCL is hydrochloric acid. At every meal, I started upping it.

And then last night, I literally could not sleep. I had so much heartburn. I’m like, “What is going on? Why is there so much heartburn? I’m showing I’m low on HCL.” I dug. I didn’t call my doctor. I need to understand this. So, I, on my own, researched. I’m like, “Okay. Yes, maybe I’m low on hydrochloric acid, but if you have other things like a low level of H. pylori or whatever it is, that could also create heartburn.” So, I, on my own, went and researched and became a detective on this. And we need to do that more as women. We’ve got to do this in midlife.

So, there’s no excuse not to. If you don’t like Google, go to ChatGPT. There’s plenty of places to ask questions and dig deep. Go dig deep first, then go ask your doctor, of course, but have the questions in your head. You know your body, you know yourself way better than any doctor will ever know you.

Dr. Sandi: That is so true and it is getting easier and easier with AI. And somebody told me, she was on the faculty of IFM and she said, “People are putting in their lab results and they’re getting interpretations. But what she’s been doing is she’s been recommending people…” And she’s a doctor. She said, “I put in what would a conventional doctor interpret this as. And now, again, what would a functional or integrative medicine doctor say about these lab results?”

Natalie: That’s right.

Dr. Sandi: So, a whole other series of recommendations and interpretations.

Natalie: That’s right.

Dr. Sandi: And it’s not infallible, so it’s important to recognize that, yes, there are certain patterns that might be off and you always want to check a trusted health professional. More and more, those are harder to find. We have doctors retiring in droves from primary care. You get seven minutes with a doctor, so it’s harder and harder, which is why our mission is to create health coaches to be that support to help people to advocate for them.

But I want to return to something you said about not taking an injury or pain or a setback as awful, terrible, “I can’t.” About a year and a half ago, I broke a bone in my foot, a fifth metatarsal, doing something really stupid in Pilates. And so I was told, “Oh, a boot, you have to wear this boot for six weeks,” and then it turned it to eight weeks. And my first thought, “Oh, no, I’m going to lose all my muscle now. I’m going to be sarcopenic because I won’t be able to work out.” And then I started looking up exercises to do while in a boot, how to maintain strength training. So, I mean, I was doing everything on a bench, core exercises but also all this upper body stuff. One-legged things that I could still do balancing and found that, yeah, I didn’t lose muscle mass and was able to get back to my routine once the bone had healed. But it’s as opposed to, “Oh, I’m incapacitated and I’ll have to just be on the couch for eight weeks.”

Natalie: That’s right. Yeah, and I… This is something I deal with daily with my back stuff. If you look at my MRI or CAT scan, I challenge that most listeners, they don’t have a CAT scan or MRI like mine. I love showing it because people will always say to me, “But you don’t understand.” I’m like, “No, but you don’t understand,” because they can say they don’t understand. I’m like, “No, you literally do not understand.” I’ll show them the picture, like I definitely know pain. I feel like some things have happened to me literally so I can walk through them and teach others. That’s what… I have two autoimmunes. This has been my 13th surgery, by the way, with injuries. So, I’ve had all the setbacks, I’ve had all the things, and it’s still a choice. It’s still a choice to walk through it, and it’s still a choice to figure it out.

So, I am very adamant that we’ve got to be health detectives because the other alternative is just to accept it and say, “You’re right. That sucks.” And then what? And when it comes to lower back pain, for example, people complain about their hips. They’re like, “My hips are…” Your hips are hurting because your lower back is doing that. So, what are you doing to get through the pain cycle? Are you eating anti-inflammatory? Are you making sure you’re moving and staying mobile? You have to walk through the pain. Are you making sure to fire up your glutes because your glutes and your core are what’s going to take you out of pain? It is not your hip hurting, therefore you shouldn’t work out. Why is your hip hurting? Your hip’s hurting because of something going on in your lower back. Why is that going on in your lower back? We don’t know. Fine, develop your glutes and your core to take you out of that pain. But are we doing all those things? If you tell me you’re doing all those things but you’re laying on the couch eating a pizza, you’re not doing all the things.

Dr. Sandi: Love that attitude. And it really brings me back to the years that I spent… I was a health psychologist for 40 years, and so a lot of people with chronic pain. They’d been in motor vehicle accidents or chronic migraine headaches where they were incapacitated. And they would go to their doctors, and then doctors would say, “Okay, I want you to rate your…” “Oh, how’s your pain today? On a scale of 1 to 10, how’s your pain?” And it was always, “How’s your pain?” And I would say, “We’re going to reframe this. Not how’s your pain, but tell me about the moments where you were so absorbed and you were in a flow state…”

Natalie: That’s great.

Dr. Sandi: “You were so absorbed in something that you forgot about your pain or you felt pleasure or it didn’t. Put all your attention in your right thumb and start to feel that good feeling spreading,” or using imagery, using where they would imagine, or even as they lengthened and got more lightheaded or, “Oh, my head is killing me.” “But, oh, well, what would feel wonderful right now?” “Oh, I could imagine a shower or cold going in.” And then, “Oh, I feel a little better.” And so rating, okay, I had an hour today where I was laughing with a friend and I had no idea. I wasn’t thinking of my pain. The mind is so, so powerful and can heal.

Natalie: That pain test, by the way, that paper that you get every time you go to an allopathic doctor and it says, “Rate your pain from 0 to 10,” that they have in hospitals, that came from a marketing ploy in the pharmaceutical industry years ago with oxycontin. I don’t know if everyone’s aware of that, but with the pain pills and pain management, that was how they sold more pain pills. They gave that tool to show every patient, because if you were a certain number higher, oxycontin was the answer. So, I want people to realize that because that came from something that caused a massive drug problem epidemic with opioids.

Dr. Sandi: So unfortunate. And we still have that mindset today. And you are just such a beautiful example of really being able to live with pain but live well. And there’s been studies how people use their strengths and use resilience to overcome any physical pain, emotional pain, and often I want to turn to focusing on looking good, because I certainly grew up in the era where it was all about looking good. And so for years, I worked out because, “Oh, I’m going to do a lot of strength training for the next three months because my daughter’s wedding’s coming up and I have a strapless dress and I have to be toned.” And that was my motivation, which always was not a good motivation.

Natalie: Totally.

Dr. Sandi: And now I do it because it’s like brushing your teeth. It’s like Gabrielle Lyon says, it’s the organ of longevity. So, it’s non-negotiable, but it’s for that as opposed to looking good.

Natalie: I think there’s a happy medium there. And I grew up in the ’70s and I mean, gosh, there was commercials on TV about, if you can pinch an inch, and I remember Tab soda was like… Everything was about calories and being skinny and being… And that was every advertisement and there was a lot… But you also didn’t see an obesity epidemic like we have now. I will say that it was very different, and people were shamed for gaining weight in the ’70s and ’80s, even the ’90s. My gosh, it was a thing. And advertisements did not talk into body positivity or any of that. So, your weight was an indicator.

But I want to just challenge something here. So, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good or feel good if that’s what you want for you. That’s first of all. So, I don’t think there should be any shame in saying, “I want to be a certain weight or a certain body.” If that’s what makes you happy and you want, that’s amazing. But I also want to be really real on the other side that the body positivity movement in a lot of ways have gone way too far. And in no way, shape or form is it healthy to be clinically obese. I just want to be really clear there. In no way, shape or form is it healthy to have clogged arteries or super high numbers in blood sugar. In no way shape or form is it okay to have an A1c that’s in the high 5s going up to the 6s. It’s gotten a little out of control. So, if you want to release weight and look better and trim down, that’s not just a vanity thing. I mean, this is important. Now, is there the exception, the person that is overweight and all lab markers and healthy? I’m sure there’s also the exception of the person that looks super fit that’s not healthy. There’s always that. But I think we’ve gone a little too far the other way, saying that any and all is healthy. That is just not true.

Dr. Sandi: Oh, such a good point. Absolutely. And without question, it feels good when you look good. And I’ve always loved fashion and I’ve always had… One of my top strengths is appreciation of beauty and excellence. And so be looking good so that you feel good and as you point out, the obesity epidemic is out of control. Women are… At least 7% of adult Americans are metabolically healthy. This is a big problem. But there is in our culture in a sense that many women just think about it as all the externals and will go to any lengths to get facial surgery, to get… You talked about breast implants and your journey with that, that it was… And my daughter got and so many of her friends had. She was in music theater. She was told the opposite. She was told, “Your boobs are too big.” You need to go the opposite way. So, not focusing on the long-term implications of that.

Natalie: And I’ve since ex-planted and I’m glad I did. But that’s another great example of chasing a beauty standard and then it making you sick or being unhealthy for you too. So, it’s important to understand why you’re wanting to get strong or why you’re wanting to release weight or why you’re wanting to get healthy. I think that’s… And I call it your driving core motivator. It’s your real reason that you want something and then being really clear with that. I also want to say if you are clinically unhealthy or metabolically unhealthy, it’s not about a shame conversation and putting yourself into more self beat up. That’s just more reason to be that health detective and say, “What do I need to learn? What support do I need? What do I need to understand?”

There are so many advances in so many ways in medicine that there is a lot of support there. I mean, we’re just talking about Tyna Moore a minute ago. I mean, I’m a huge fan of GLPs for people. I mean, a lot of people don’t like that in the wellness space that I say that, but why? If a small amount could help somebody get metabolically healthy, why wouldn’t you look at that? You know, people talk about these risks associated with it. There’s a lot of more risk associated with not being metabolically healthy. So, I’m a fan of anything that’s going to help people get metabolically healthy.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. I support you. And there’s a lot of research coming out showing that when you’re on a GLP-1, and if you work with a health coach who you are focusing on learning about lifestyle, making those changes, building muscle, losing muscle at the same time, then that’s a win-win. And it’s very important. So, what I see often and growing up in baby boomer generation is that it was all about going on a diet. I’ve been on every time imaginable. But it was only until I started seriously strengths training, that it makes a world of difference. Years of yoga and Pilates, which I still do and love, but really the importance of strengths training. But you have focused and helped women fat loss over 40. That’s one of the things that you are known for. And what are some of the things that you have found have been most impactful for women struggling or thinking they can’t lose fat?

Natalie: I’m going to answer that. But I also want to say something as you’re talking, I’m realizing that we used to, my gosh, all the way probably the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, we don’t say it anymore, but it was a common thing to say, “I’m going on a diet.” People would say, “I can’t go to dinner, I’m on a diet this week.” So, it was like a thing, and it was… Nobody really says that anymore. People don’t go, “I’m going on a diet.” They say, “I need to change things.”

So, the first thing is, yes, I do help women with fat loss. That is what I’m really good at. But the number one thing we have to recognize first is it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. So, it’s, “I’m ready to change my life,” not, “I’m ready to go on a diet.” And that’s the languaging that’s important, and it’s a big distinction. So, it’s changing your life.

So, when I take people through my fat loss method, which is my Total Body Thrive for Midlife Fat Loss Method, it’s a very specific method. And what we start with is the power of being really clear on our decision and those false assumed truths, because we have to understand what beliefs we’ve been holding, and we have to undo those first. Because if we don’t undo those, nothing’s going to work. If you believe that you’re genetically doomed, then that’s literally going to be your reality. So, you have to recognize that that’s a false assumed truth.

The next thing we do is we really get into nutrition. And people are looking for some magic nutrition combination. And what I teach is eating primarily unprocessed, natural, real foods and being really aware of what creates inflammation. And there are certain foods that create inflammation that people don’t want to look at, but it’s true. So, if you’re in pain, and you’re weight-loss resistant, and you’re eating those foods, that’s a problem. So, we’ve got to look at that.

After we look at that and only after we look at that and those things are all lined up, we start talking about movement, which is definitely important at all levels, even in pain. We’ve got to figure that out. But then the most important part that I walk women through is this health detective idea. So, we have to look at all the different areas, and I’ve identified these specific areas. And I know you’ll agree with these likely, because I’m sure this is what you do and these are important. But we can’t skip these. We’ve got to look at what’s going on with our gut health. What is happening with your gut? Because your gut’s processing everything from your foods to your hormones. Everything’s going through there. What’s happening there? What’s happening with our thyroid? Most women start getting low thyroid, and we’re not getting the right tests to understand what we need to be checking for. So, you’re being told, “Your thyroid, your TSH levels are great,” and you’ve got something going on with your thyroid, and your doctors aren’t testing correctly. So, what’s happening there? Just simply correcting low thyroid makes a huge shift with things. So, I would say gut and thyroid are critical.

Then we look at hormones. Hormones should not be first. You don’t put hormones before changing your mindset, or your diet, or looking at your thyroid or your gut health. Hormones are important but we’ve got to understand those other pieces first. Now we’re looking at, do we want to optimize hormones? And is there bioidentical? Or do we not want to be on hormones? Is there a way to balance them? All of that is an important conversation.

And then I call it the icing on the cake. There’s all the other additional things. We need to be looking at our blood sugar and our cortisol. We need to be looking at our sleep. We need to be looking at maybe even our DNA. There’s all these different areas. And when we think we can just go to a doctor and in five minutes they’re going to do all that, that’s not possible. So, what I take women through with fat loss is, strategically, those different areas so you start to feel a lot more empowered and in control.

Dr. Sandi: I love it. And you’re really hitting all the target areas that are really critical. And we keep returning to the main point, which is you are your own health detective. Take control of your health. And once you do, then the things that you have struggled with, well, you won’t be anymore. And you’re so right about going on a diet. In my generation of women…

Natalie: We did it all the time.

Dr. Sandi:…are still talking about it. They’re 75, and they’re still talking about going on a diet, using their old Weight Watchers Points system and focusing on going on a diet, going off their diet. And it is really… We’ve evolved so much.

Natalie: Yeah. I mean, the reason I developed… I mean, I used to have a program called Total Body Thrive years ago, and I completely scrapped the old one and redid it, because I used to literally just teach… I called it State, Plate, Weight. Mindset, nutrition, movement. I don’t believe that that’s the whole thing anymore. I think that’s all important, but that’s not the whole story. If you’re just focusing on those three things, we’re not going to really get very far anymore. Not after menopause. We’ve got to look at some things differently, and we’ve got to look at all those things. Some people check all the boxes easily on those things, and that’s great. But I would say more often than not, we’re missing something in one of those areas.

Dr. Sandi: It’s often sleep, stress, relationships, meeting your purpose in life, being connected to a community and having things that bring you joy is so critical as well. This has been a fascinating conversation. We are so aligned. I feel like we could talk forever. Can you tell us where people can find you? Because I know they’re going to be very interested.

Natalie: Yeah, that’s great. So, my website’s nataliejill.com. On Instagram and on social media, I’m @nataliejillfit. The program I’m mentioning is Total Body Thrive. So, if you go to totalbodythrive.com, you’ll find that. And then my podcast is Midlife Conversations.

Dr. Sandi: We’ll check those all out. Check out for Instagram and you have an incredible… And I love that you are so honest. You really share just so openly and honestly, and I think people really appreciate that.

Natalie: Thank you so much, Sandi.

Dr. Sandi: Thank you for being with us today.