Tag Archives | midlife

EP 787

787: Are You Abandoning Yourself to Keep Everyone Else Happy? With Hilary Silver

November 3, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

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Episode Summary

You’re dependable. Capable. Successful. The one everyone calls because they know you’ll handle it.

But somewhere along the way, did you learn to leave yourself behind?

In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with former couples therapist and women’s identity coach Hilary Silver to explore self-abandonment: the subtle ways women silence their needs, overfunction, people-please, carry everyone else’s load, and become whoever they believe they need to be to keep the peace.

They unpack why these patterns often begin long before adulthood, how they become intertwined with identity and self-worth, and why simply taking a vacation, delegating, or setting a few boundaries may not create lasting change if the underlying beliefs remain intact.

Hilary shares how women can begin questioning the “I have to” and “I should” stories running their lives, consciously choose a different identity, reclaim their time, and stop measuring their worth by how much they can carry.

Because midlife may be the moment you finally ask:

What do I actually want?

HILARY SILVER

Hilary Silver is a former couples therapist, coach, and founder of Ready for Love and Ready for More.

Her work focuses on helping high-achieving women transform their relationship with themselves, identify the beliefs and patterns driving overfunctioning and self-abandonment, and consciously create a life that reflects who they actually want to become.

In this conversation, Hilary brings more than two decades of experience working with women and relationships to a deeper discussion about identity, boundaries, self-worth, and putting yourself back at the center of your own life.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. What self-abandonment actually looks like in everyday life
  2. Why people-pleasing and shape-shifting often begin in childhood
  3. How high-achieving women can tie their worth to being indispensable
  4. Why boundaries and delegation alone may not change deeply rooted patterns
  5. How identity drives overfunctioning, rushing, and constantly carrying the load
  6. Why midlife can become a powerful moment for questioning what you’re no longer willing to carry
  7. How to challenge beliefs that feel like facts but may simply be old conditioning
  8. Why Hilary reframes repetition as devotion rather than discipline
  9. The question that can help you start putting yourself back at the center of your life

QUOTES

“Our beliefs are not fact.”

“It’s not vigilance and discipline, it’s devotion.”

“Doing nothing is doing something.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now

Use code ENERGIZED and get 10% off on your MitoQ Order

Hilary Silver Website

Hilary Silver Podcast

Hilary Silver Instagram

Hilary Silver Facebook

Hilary Silver Youtube

RELATED EPISODES 

777: What We Know Now: The Midlife Lessons No One Taught Us with Jenn Pike

760: The Mindset Shift That Helps You Stop Feeling Stuck with Dr. Rachel Goldman

699: Managing Anxiety and Identity in Midlife + Why You Need Community More Than Supplements with Rosie Acosta

170: Saying NO to People Pleasing and Establishing Effective Boundaries with Amy Smith

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

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EP 780

780: The New Rules of Resilience: Energy, Recovery & Thriving in a Full Life with Angela Foster

October 8, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Stitcher | Spotify | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

What if you’re not burned out?

You’re still working. Still exercising. Still taking care of your family. Still getting everything done.

From the outside, you look like you’re handling it all.

But underneath that competence, your body may be keeping a very different score through your sleep, recovery, energy, mood, stress tolerance, and heart rate variability.

In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with nutritionist, health and performance coach, and High Performance Health podcast host Angela Foster to unpack the difference between true resilience and simply becoming incredibly good at pushing through.

Angela explains why changing hormones in midlife can expose the cost of years of chronic under-recovery, how HRV can offer clues about whether your training and lifestyle actually match your capacity, and why the workout that once energized you may now leave you depleted for days.

They also share practical ways to build more recovery into a full life without abandoning your ambition, including walking, strength training, strategic HIIT, box breathing, the physiological sigh, morning light, intentional pauses, boundaries, and what Dr. Mariza calls “mindfulness snacks.”

Because the goal isn’t to build a smaller life.

It’s to build the energy, resilience, and capacity to keep living the big life you’ve worked so hard to create.

ANGELA FOSTER

Angela Foster is a nutritionist, health and performance coach, and host of the High Performance Health podcast. Her work focuses on helping ambitious women optimize their energy, hormones, resilience, and longevity without sacrificing the full lives they love.

Drawing from her own journey through major depressive disorder and perimenopause, Angela combines lifestyle medicine, exercise, recovery, nervous system regulation, and performance data such as HRV to help women understand their individual capacity and build greater resilience.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. How to distinguish true resilience from simply getting really good at pushing through
  2. Why hormonal changes in midlife can expose years of chronic under-recovery
  3. How HRV can reveal whether your training load actually matches your recovery capacity
  4. Why HIIT may energize some women while leaving others depleted for days
  5. How walking, strength training, box breathing, and intentional recovery can support resilience
  6. Why small “mindfulness snacks” throughout the day can help regulate your nervous system
  7. What to investigate when you’re doing everything right but your HRV still isn’t improving
  8. How boundaries, asking for help, and taking things off your plate can actually expand your future capacity
  9. Why sustainable ambition doesn’t require giving up the career or life you’ve worked hard to build

QUOTES

“The biggest stress for us is when we don’t feel that sense of self-agency.”

“When you put intentional pauses into your day, you can slow that down and be present.”

“Where in your life can you put an anchor in your day that just grounds you back to what’s important?”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Find inspiration, connection, and meaningful reads. Join the Book Club now!

Join my brand-new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife

High Performance Health Podcast

Angela Foster Website

Angela Foster Instagram

RELATED EPISODES 

772: The Cost of Holding It All Together: How Overfunctioning Changes Your Hormones, Brain & Metabolism with Dr. Mariza

776: What Changes When Your Body Can’t Keep Pushing Like It Used To? with Dr. Taz Bhatia

737: Why You Still Feel Off in Midlife (Even When You’re Doing Everything Right) with Dr. Melissa Sonners

758: Why Your Body Can’t Heal Until It Feels Safe: The Nervous System Shift That Changes Everything with Dr. Dave Rabin

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!

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EP 777

777: What We Know Now: The Midlife Lessons No One Taught Us with Jenn Pike

September 29, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Stitcher | Spotify | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

What happens when the woman who has always been able to handle everything suddenly realizes her body won’t let her operate that way anymore?

In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with functional diagnostic nutritionist, medical exercise specialist, bestselling author, and women’s health educator Jenn Pike for a deeply personal conversation about the capacity shift that can happen in perimenopause.

Jenn shares the subtle signs she noticed in her late 30s: alcohol suddenly disrupting her sleep, slower workout recovery, increased soreness, less patience, and a shorter emotional fuse. Eventually, she realized she wasn’t simply stressed. Her body needed her to operate differently.

They unpack what happened when Jenn stopped forcing intense workouts, began respecting her changing energy, reduced her workload, asked for help, and started saying no, even when disappointing people felt uncomfortable.

But this conversation goes even deeper into the identity so many high-functioning women carry: “I’ve got this. I don’t need help.”

Listen now to discover why perimenopause may be an invitation to protect your energy, trust your body, and stop treating exhaustion as the price of a full life.

JENN PIKE

Jenn Pike is a functional diagnostic nutritionist, medical exercise specialist, bestselling author, and women’s health educator who has spent years helping women in perimenopause and menopause better understand their hormones and bodies.

She is also the host of The Simplicity Sessions podcast. In this conversation, Jenn shares her own experience of entering perimenopause in her late 30s and how it forced her to rethink exercise, work, motherhood, boundaries, identity, and the belief that she always had to be the one who could handle everything.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. The subtle perimenopause signs Jenn started noticing before age 40
  2. Why intense workouts stopped feeling good and how she changed her training
  3. What overstimulation and a shorter emotional fuse revealed about her capacity
  4. How overcommitment and constantly being needed contributed to burnout
  5. Why Jenn had to dramatically rethink how much she could put on her calendar
  6. Learning to ask for help, delegate, and disappoint people without falling apart
  7. Why perimenopause can bring your deepest patterns around productivity and self-worth back up for review
  8. How Jenn moved from being “smart” to feeling wiser, calmer, and more trusting of herself

QUOTES

“The nutrient is actually doing less, and figuring out how to do less better.”

“I taught people to expect that of me.”

“I don’t have to be that person to be loved.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Order my newest book: The Perimenopause Revolution

Join my brand new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife >>

The Simplicity Sessions Podcast

Jenn Pike Website

Jenn Pike Instagram

RELATED EPISODES 

776: What Changes When Your Body Can’t Keep Pushing Like It Used To? With Dr. Taz Bhatia

775: Wide Awake at 3 A.M.? What’s Really Disrupting Your Sleep in Midlife with Morgan Adams

774: Training for Your Grandma Self: How to Build a Body That Lasts

769: Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? How to Finally Connect the Dots with Dr. Mariza

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!

Read More
EP 772

772: The Cost of Holding It All Together: How Overfunctioning Changes Your Hormones, Brain & Metabolism with Dr. Mariza

September 10, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Stitcher | Spotify | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

Have you ever looked at the same life you were managing a year ago and wondered, “Why does everything suddenly feel so hard?”

You’re still ambitious. You’re still capable. You’re still the woman everyone depends on. But the stress you once brushed off gets under your skin. Your brain doesn’t feel as sharp. Sleep is changing. Your patience is shorter. And keeping all those plates spinning suddenly requires far more energy.

In this solo episode, Dr. Mariza explores what happens when the profound hormonal and neurological changes of perimenopause collide with decades of over-functioning.

She introduces what she calls the midlife capacity gap: the disconnect between the enormous load many women are carrying and the biological capacity they currently have to sustain it.

You’ll learn why simply pushing harder may widen that gap, how Dr. Mariza is redefining resilience, and why supporting your hormones, brain, metabolism, muscle, and sleep is only part of the conversation.

Because the goal isn’t to make your life smaller. It’s to build a body capable of sustaining the life you actually want while becoming far more discerning about what deserves your energy.

Listen now to rethink what resilience looks like in midlife and start protecting your capacity for what truly matters.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. Why high-functioning women can feel blindsided by perimenopause
  2. What happens when the woman who always handles everything suddenly has less capacity
  3. How estrogen and progesterone shifts can affect your brain, sleep, mood, and stress response
  4. What over-functioning looks like and why it often gets rewarded
  5. The midlife capacity gap between the load you carry and your biological capacity
  6. Why pushing harder and becoming more disciplined may not be the answer
  7. How to redefine resilience around adapting, recovering, restoring, and thriving
  8. The question Dr. Mariza wants you asking: “Is this actually mine to carry?”

QUOTES

“Perimenopause doesn’t arrive in a vacuum.”

“Endurance is not resilience.”

“Doing less isn’t the same as caring less.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Order my newest book: The Perimenopause Revolution

Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now

The High Functioning Woman on Substack

RELATED EPISODES 

771: Beyond Hot Flashes: The 103 Symptoms of Perimenopause No One Talks About with Andrea Donsky

769: Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? How to Finally Connect the Dots with Dr. Mariza

764: Why Your Nervous System Feels Dysregulated (Even When You’re Doing Everything Right) with Roseann Capanna-Hodge

750: The Underlying Cellular Cause of Midlife Fatigue, Brain Fog & Low Motivation with Andrew Salzman

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!

Read More
EP 756

762: Why Women Need to Stop Being “Good Patients” and Start Advocating for Better Healthcare with Dr. Mariza

July 21, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Stitcher | Spotify | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

How many times have you been told, “Your labs are normal,” even though you know something doesn’t feel right?

In this empowering solo episode, Dr. Mariza challenges one of the biggest beliefs women have been conditioned to accept: that being a “good patient” means staying quiet, pushing through symptoms, and trusting a healthcare system that has historically overlooked women’s biology.

She explores how decades of research gaps, delayed recognition of perimenopause, and outdated medical training have left millions of women feeling dismissed, unheard, and convinced that exhaustion, brain fog, anxiety, poor sleep, weight gain, and hormone changes are simply part of getting older.

Dr. Mariza explains why perimenopause is far more than a reproductive transition. It’s a neurological, metabolic, cardiovascular, and whole-body transition that deserves proactive care—not years of unnecessary suffering.

Most importantly, she shares practical strategies for becoming an active partner in your healthcare, including how to prepare for appointments, ask better questions, understand your symptoms, and advocate for the care you deserve.

If you’ve ever left a doctor’s appointment feeling unheard or wondering if it’s “all in your head,” this episode will remind you that your symptoms matter, your intuition matters, and you deserve answers.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. Why women have been conditioned to become “good patients”
  2. The hidden impact of research gaps in women’s healthcare
  3. Why “your labs are normal” isn’t always the full story
  4. How perimenopause affects the brain, metabolism, heart, and hormones
  5. The questions every woman should ask at her medical appointments
  6. How to prepare for appointments so you become an active partner in your care
  7. The difference between normal lab ranges and optimal health
  8. Why you deserve evidence-based care that prioritizes your long-term health

QUOTES

“You are the CEO of your health.”

“Symptoms are not inconveniences to silence. They are signals to understand.”

“Normal isn’t always the same as optimal.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now

Order my newest book: The Perimenopause Revolution

Thriving in Perimenopause Survival Guide

Joy & Blokes Lab Testing

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761: Finding Your Way Back to Pleasure and Feeling Fully Alive with Gabriella Espinosa

759: Tired, Wired & Inflamed? The Sleep Fix Most Women Are Missing with Dr. Michael Breus

756: What Low-Grade Inflammation Is Really Doing to Your Hormones, Brain & Metabolism with Dr. Mariza

650: Unlock Your Health: The Ultimate Biomarker & Lab Blueprint to Thrive in Midlife and Beyond

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!

Read More

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