Send us your questions & comments In Part 6 of this mini-series, I’m taking you into the very beginning of my journey — Phase 1, Day 1 — and sharing what the first day on the The Metabolic Balance® Program actually felt like. This episode follows on from the preparation phase, where I talked about how I set myself up to start calmly and intentionally. Here, I share how that preparation translated into real life once I finally began. In this episode, I talk about: what Phase 1 is designed ...

Send us your questions & comments In Part 5 of this mini-series, I’m sharing what it actually looked like to prepare for Phase 1 and the start of Phase 2 of The Metabolic Balance® Program — and why this preparation is the first key to success. In this episode, I walk you through: The purpose and guidelines of Phase 1 and Phase 2, and why they are the most important steps in the metabolic reset process.How I planned my new daily routine in advance — scheduling meals, hydration, and s...

Send us your questions & comments In Part 4 of this mini-series where I walk you through my own midlife health and weight loss journey following The Metabolic Balance® Program, I’m sharing the importance of mindset and how my own mindset almost derailed me before I even started! I talk openly in this episode about my own struggle with all-or-nothing thinking, fear of failure and the pressure I tend to put on myself to do things perfectly. That mindset has held me back more tim...

Send us your questions & comments In Part 3 of this mini-series, I’m walking you through exactly how my personalized nutrition plan was created — step by step — using my own bloodwork as a blueprint. This is the episode where everything moves from information to action. Up until this point, I knew my bloodwork was telling a story. But what I really wanted to understand was how those lab results would translate into something practical… something I could actually follow in real life. In th...

Send us your questions & comments In Part 2 of this mini-series, I’m taking you deeper into my own health and weight loss journey — to the point where I was finally able to stop guessing and started getting real answers. This episode is all about my bloodwork… and what it revealed about what was actually happening inside my body during perimenopause. At this stage of my life, I was doing many of the “right” things — eating well, staying active, trying to manage stress — yet my symptom...

Send us your questions & comments In Part 1 of this mini-series where I take you on my own health and weight loss journey, I’m taking you back to the moment where I decided to follow The Metabolic Balance® Program - the moment when everything finally started to make sense. I take you back to the stage of my life where perimenopausal symptoms were beginning to take over — 30lbs of stubborn weight gain, increasing fatigue, insatiable cravings, achy joints and bloodwork that was ...

Send us your questions & comments If you’ve been feeling torn about HRT — whether to start it, stay on it, or stop it — this episode is going to feel like someone finally turned the lights on. So many women in their 40s and 50s quietly wrestle with the same questions: “Do I really need HRT?” “Why isn't it helping the way I hoped?” “Is it safe for me?” “Why do I still feel exhausted, inflamed, irritable, or stuck in my weight… even though I’m on hormones?” “What a...

Send us your questions & comments If you’re a woman in your 40s or 50s who’s feeling torn about Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro or other GLP-1 medications — this episode is for you. Maybe your doctor has flagged rising A1C, fasting glucose or cholesterol… Maybe your weight keeps creeping up no matter how “good” you’ve been… Maybe everyone around you seems to be losing weight on these meds and you're starting to wonder if this is the only way that will work now… Or maybe you’re already tak...

Send us your questions & comments Already feeling the pressure of wanting to enjoy the festive season without restricting all of your party foods and treats while figuring out how to not put on 10 more lbs? You are so not alone — and the good news is, you don’t have to choose. In this episode, we’re diving into how to move through December with more freedom, more confidence, and more understanding of what your midlife body actually needs… without giving up the chocolate, the wine, t...

Send us your questions & comments Struggling with exhaustion more often than not these days? What about 2–3 AM wake-ups by a brain that won't shut off? Stubborn belly weight no matter how healthy you eat or how much you exercise? Mood swings you can’t predict that have your family live on edge? Relentless bloating that makes you look 7 months pregnant? Guess what? There's a real reason all of this is happening all at once and it's NOT what you think. In this episode, I’m break...

Send us your questions & comments Midlife weight gain, exhaustion, anxiety, bloating, cravings, and that deep sense of “Who even am I anymore?” — this episode is for every woman who feels her body shifting in ways she can’t control. If you’ve been wondering why nothing you’re trying is working anymore, and whether natural midlife weight loss is even possible… you’re going to want to settle in for this one. In Part 2 of this mini-series where I am sharing my own personal journey, I’m openi...

Send us your questions & comments This episode marks the beginning of a special 3-part mini-series inside The Midlife Vitality Project Podcast called “Becoming Me Again.” In this series, I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing the most personal parts of my health story — not just the highlight reel, or the success stories, but the raw, honest moments that shaped the journey of how I coach and live today. Because if you’ve been feeling lost in your own body lately — tired, disconnected, o...

Send us your questions & comments If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s really possible to feel like yourself again in midlife — this is the episode you need. In Part 3 of this intimate mini-series, I’m taking you inside the exact steps I used to rebuild my health, restore my metabolism, balance my hormones naturally, and shift out of that foggy, overwhelmed “surviving” mode into a grounded, energized, Thriving Thelma way of living. This episode goes deeper than the “what” — we get into th...

Send us your questions & comments Struggling with midlife weight gain, fatigue, or hormonal imbalance and wonder why some women seem to have it altogether when you're slowly falling apart at the seams? In this episode, Joanne breaks down why your metabolism, hormones, and mindset are likely out of sync — and how understanding this can completely change your results. You’ll meet two women who represent two very different ways of approaching health in midlife: Surviving Susan — ...

If your doctor keeps telling you your bloodwork looks “normal,” but you still feel exhausted, puffy, moody, wired-but-tired, and struggling with stubborn belly fat… this episode is for you. In this deep dive, I walk you through the key blood markers every woman over 40 should understand — and what they really reveal about your hormones, your metabolism, and your long-term health. We’ll talk about: Why only testing hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone can be misleading — and ...

If you're in your 40s or 50s and suddenly dealing with weight gain around the middle, exhaustion that sleep doesn't fix (if you are lucky enough to actually sleep through the night!), brain fog, mood swings and bloating - and you've been told "it's just aging" or "just perimenopause" - this episode is your turning point. In this episode, we dive into: Why diet and exercise don't work the same after 40How metabolic imbalance is the underlying root cause driving midlife weight gain and st...