How to Stop Yo-Yo Dieting After 40 and Keep Weight Off

Maggie: My life just started to change. I just became healthy. My body started changing. Everyone started asking me, what is going on with you? Your family starts to notice. Work started going better. My marriage started going better. Everyone wanted to know what was going on. And I wanted to tell everyone.

Nikkiey: What's up, everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show. Today, my friends, we're going to have some fun. I have an amazing guest on here with us. She's been in the industry for over 30 years. She's taught every type of class. She's done all of the bad diets. She's coached hundreds of women, but had her own struggles too with weight gain, with failing health and depression, which pushed her to dig even deeper. That journey led her to functional medicine, to metabolic health, where she found lasting solutions and has paved the way for herself and her health.

Today, Maggie is here with us. She is a certified integrative health coach. She's a published author. She's a passionate advocate for women reclaiming their health in the second act of life, and I love that. My friends, you've probably seen her in WarriorBabe advertising as a brand face with me and as a leader in the community. She's using her voice to show what's possible at any age. Maggie, my friend, welcome to the show.

Maggie: Hi, Nikkiey. Thanks for the nice welcome. You made me sound so important. You raised the bar a little too high already.

Nikkiey: You are, Maggie. You're a very important person. You're the MVP, okay? Most valuable player. So you've built a pretty awesome platform that really empowers women, especially in midlife, to reclaim their health. Can you take us back to what sparked your journey to not only transform your own life, but also dedicate yourself to helping others do the same?

Maggie: I can already feel emotions coming. Why does this happen to me?

Nikkiey: Oh, because you care. And I love that about you.

Maggie: I do. I care a lot. There are just so many women who feel like I feel, and that's what sparked it all. Like you've said, I've been in the health and fitness industry for a long time and tried everything. I've been through every stage, as a 20-year-old, as a 30-year-old, as a 40-year-old, and now I'm in my fifties, and it's a whole different ball game. I'm sure there are women going, yes, yes, it is. I used to be able to say, I think I'm going to up my miles and lose five pounds this week, and I could do it. It worked. And then it just quits working, literally stops working, which we all know.

The depression started to get really bad. This was about five or six years ago. I felt the spiral, one thing led to another led to another. The funny thing is, one of the first things I noticed was, why do I have this horrible heartburn? What is going on? So that was one of the first things. I thought, I've got to get rid of this. Then the heartburn leads to not sleeping, and it just cascades. Weird stuff starts to happen, but it started with heartburn, which is so crazy. I thought, I've got to get rid of this so I can start feeling better. If I get rid of my heartburn, maybe I can sleep. Maybe my stomach has something to do with my gut health. So I started to put things together, but it started weirdly with heartburn.

We'll get into this more, I'm sure, but I started with one little thing. I thought, I've got to get this figured out. And of course, doctors are just putting you on antacids and then more antidepressants, and that all just cascades into a spiral of dark.

Nikkiey: For sure. You can totally touch on that, because I've talked about this on episodes before, the medical system. That's what they have to do. They don't get to the root problem, though, and it's sad. And for the most part, it's not really their fault. It's just the way the system is.

Maggie: And I'm not going to sit back and take that. So I started studying my brains out, learning and listening to everything I could get my hands on, went to school. I'm going to figure this out. I went to my doctor and said, hey, here's some stuff. And he was actually awesome. He said, hey, good to know. So anyway, my life just started to change. Of course, I skipped a lot of really important parts, but I just became healthy. My body started changing. Everyone started asking me, what is going on with you? Your family starts to notice. Work started going better. My marriage started going better. Everyone wanted to know what was going on, and I wanted to tell everyone, because when you have good news, you want to share it with the people you care about.

And I started seeing, I'm not going to cry, I started seeing the happiness that came to women's lives when this started happening, when they started taking care of themselves, started realizing they were worth it, started realizing it didn't take away from their families. It gave more to their families. It gave more to their life. And right there, with the first person I helped, I thought, oh, this is it. This fuels my fire. So that's how it all got started.

Nikkiey: I love the full-circle-ness of that. You had your own struggles, you sought answers, you found the solutions, and then you spread the good news to those who also needed to hear it and helped them. I want to come back to this. I know you've gained the same, how many pounds, over and over and over?

Maggie: 50 to 60. This was the fifth time losing that amount of weight, not counting pregnancy. So that's over 200 pounds. This body has lost over 200 pounds.

Nikkiey: That's crazy.

Maggie: It's weird to think about it that way.

Nikkiey: And gained the same 50 to 60 pounds five different times.

Maggie: Yep.

Nikkiey: So can you bring us along on that journey? What were you doing? Was it the fads? Was it the under-eating? What did that look like for you during those times?

Maggie: Oh, always under-eating. That's what we were taught. Cut out all the fat, eat 800 calories. First I'd start tracking. I'd get down to like 1,500. That didn't work anymore. Okay, we've got to go to 1,300. Okay, we've got to go to 1,100. All right, now we're down to 800 and we're not losing anymore. We're just getting really tired and really depressed and really soft, no muscle. You could feel my bones through my skin. How long can we sustain that? That is not sustainable. Every time it was that way, every single time. And of course, when you do it that way, every time it comes back, and it comes back with a vengeance, because you have wrecked your metabolism. Wrecked it. No muscle. So the day you decide to eat one extra lollipop, boom, every time. It takes about six months or so to lose weight like that, and then it comes back in six weeks, almost every time.

I remember the last time I did this, I was at my brother's birthday and his birthday cake was there. Oh, I love that white, thick, nasty frosting. I love it.

Nikkiey: Oh, so you're more of a frosting lover than a cake lover?

Maggie: I love the frosting.

Nikkiey: Wait, same. Give me all the frosting.

Maggie: I scrape it off my husband's and put it on mine.

Nikkiey: And you like the corner pieces?

Maggie: Oh, yes. The one that has the big round balloon made out of frosting. I'm like, I got it.

Nikkiey: I got you.

Maggie: And my tongue turns red. Really great.

Nikkiey: Oh, I knew I loved you.

Maggie: We were at this birthday party and I thought, I'm just going to have a little. And I remember eating the frosting off the whole side of the cake, and I was like, oh no, what have I done? I lost total control, and that's how it all started. It all came back. And the last time, I said, okay, it's not coming back this time. It is not coming back. When you do it that way, it is going to come back. Your brain can't sustain that. Your body can't sustain that. Your body wants you to survive, so it is going to force you to eat food. It is going to force you. It's way stronger than our willpower, way stronger. So that's why I knew this time had to be different. I knew I'd been doing it wrong. If I'm going to do it the right way, we're going to figure this out.

Nikkiey: I can't wait until we get into the right way, and we're going to talk about that. But you touched on earlier that your health struggles pushed you toward functional medicine and metabolic healing, and you mentioned some of those early warning signs. Were there others besides the heartburn? What were some of the early signs that told you something needed to change?

Maggie: Well, I couldn't eat without my stomach hurting. So I knew my gut health was off, and the worse my gut was, the worse my mental health was. That was one of the first things I learned, how closely tied gut health and mental health are. I was like, what?

Nikkiey: They say the vagus nerve, or our gut, is our second brain, right?

Maggie: Yes, absolutely. And then I started learning about blood sugar, because of course my A1C was off the charts. I was pre-diabetic. And of course the cravings, and your blood sugar is all over. No one should feel this way. And then your moods are all over. My poor family, I'm so glad they put up with me. It was a lot of that. And me thinking, oh, it's depression. No, it's metabolic health. Everything is tied to metabolic health. Your food is information for your body, for your body processes to run the way they're supposed to. So if you don't give it the right information, it cannot run the way it's supposed to. It's so sad that people aren't aware of that.

Thank goodness for medicine. Thank goodness for antidepressants. They save lives. Nothing against antidepressants. For me, being on them 27 years, there were other options. They're needed many times, but for me, there were other answers.

Nikkiey: I was actually just having a conversation with a woman on Instagram after the recent podcast I put out on Monday, talking about how those things are tools given to us, but they shouldn't be the be-all and end-all. There should be ways to navigate. Do you feel the same way about that?

Maggie: Yes, absolutely. There are emergent things where we need help right away. It does take longer to look upstream, get some labs, see what's going on. And I think that's why functional health matters. You go to your doctor, you get a pill, you walk out, and you're going to feel better for a couple of days until the side effects, and then you need something else. When I first started, I thought, what is functional health? I didn't even know what it was. When I started studying and understanding the way the body works as a whole, I thought, this is the answer, and everyone needs this answer. Everyone I know needs this answer.

Nikkiey: So your gut was screaming at you. Do you remember having reactions to certain foods, or was it almost everything you were eating?

Maggie: When I think back, I want to say it was everything, but really I'm sure it was highly processed foods. I'd been raising teenagers, and what's easy to grab? Let's eat the Goldfish out of the cupboard. We'll throw it on a salad and say it's healthy. There were a lot of things like that. I didn't even know what the word inflammation meant. I thought it meant when you had a broken arm and you were swollen. I didn't know any of this. So I started to study and realize how food is information for our body. And our country struggles a bit when it comes to making money off cheap products. So we have to do our part, and we can't leave it up to anyone else. It's up to us to learn and to feed our families well, because no one else is going to do it for us.

Nikkiey: Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

Exactly. Well, I love that little bit you just added there. I think that's really important for people to take away. A lot of women struggle with putting their health first, because as a mom or a grandmom, they feel like they have to put others first. When you started to shift gears and focus on your health, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced, especially while balancing your family responsibilities?

Maggie: I've always been into health and nutrition, even though there were better ways to do it. So my family was used to me taking off on a jog, trying to cook healthy. Oh, Mom's on a health kick. My family's always super supportive. They're all into health and nutrition too. It's the way I've tried to raise my kids, whether I had the right information or not; the effort was there. A lot of it comes from others, from people at work. Oh, you're not going to eat that, are you? The break rooms are full of birthday treats. The little jabs here or there. Some people really struggle with that. It does make things a little awkward. Sometimes people don't like to see it; it makes them feel bad about themselves because they know someone else is doing what they wish they could do. And that's the last thing I wish on anyone. I'm never going to say, oh, I'm not going to eat sugar, and shove that in someone else's face. No one else will even know how I eat unless they ask specifically. I just do my thing. But other people out in the world take notice. You get the jabs, but you realize it's because they wish they were doing what you finally had the courage to do.

Nikkiey: Yeah. The ones who speak up and do the jabs have the most insecurities around the situation. What you said really resonates with me, because when I worked in the ER, the break room was always full of donuts, pizza, soda. And there was me off to the side eating my own meal. I was just moving and eating healthy, and, like you said, doing my own thing, keeping to the way I chose to be, and not pressuring or making anyone else feel bad. That's just what I wanted to do. Then I noticed that everybody in the ER started bringing in healthier snacks over time. Six months later, everyone was eating healthier and working out, which is really cool.

Maggie: It's not crazy. That exact same thing happened on my birthday. They brought all these healthy things. Most of what they thought was healthy I still couldn't eat, but the effort was there. They start to realize, oh, that's just the way she is, and they start leaving you alone.

Nikkiey: Exactly.

Maggie: I know some people really struggle with this. They go to Thanksgiving with their extended family and they're panicking. I don't want to offend Aunt Betsy. And it is hard. It's a real problem that people have. But if people love you, they'll support you.

Nikkiey: Exactly. That right there. Amen to that. So you've said that you don't lose weight to get healthy; you get metabolically healthy and your body becomes the size it's intended to be. Can you unpack that and what it means for the listeners?

Maggie: When I first started this, it was the first time my goal wasn't weight. I knew I might lose a little weight and I was hopeful for that. I thought, if I could get back into those size 14 skinny jeans, I'll be pretty stoked. But I just started really focusing on blood sugar and gut health. I know sometimes fasting's a bad word. There's a time and a place for fasting, and a time and a place for no fasting. This was one of the times, when I was working on gut health. I needed some time to rest and digest. I needed my gut to heal. So I thought, if I can go just 12 hours without food and really work on my gut lining, with bone broth and some different things like that, really trying to heal my gut, that was my first goal.

And I quit eating highly processed foods, so naturally you turn to more whole foods. Things just started to fall into place. I didn't restrict anything. I just replaced things. I started replacing my highly processed foods with whole foods, not even consciously thinking that much about it. You need to eat, so let's eat some stuff that's going to help me out. And I just started shrinking. My body became healthy within three to four months. My hemoglobin A1C was down to 4.8. My body was insulin sensitive. Then I could actually eat and not feel horrible. My gut started healing, and I'm like, oh, so normal people don't feel bloated all the time.

And then of course muscle started showing. So I thought, well, that's cool, maybe I should work on that a little more. I knew it was crucial for my metabolic health to have more muscle. We've all heard Dr. Gabrielle Lyon say it a million times: it's the organ of longevity, and there's so much more to it than that. I knew I wanted to keep my A1C down. I knew I had lost a lot of muscle in my past diets. So I started putting on muscle, and my body said yes, and thank you, because it responded really well. Granted, I also knew I needed to about triple the protein I was eating. That made a huge difference. So things just started falling into place.

Had someone shown me a picture of my body today five years ago, I would have thrown in the towel and said, there's no way that's happening to me. It would have seemed way too big of a goal. But my first goal was just, I've got to get rid of this heartburn. Got rid of that. Oh, I need to get rid of this bloat. Just one thing after another. I just kept improving, and then this happened.

Nikkiey: I love that breakdown, because your body was giving you signs and you didn't just accept, oh, this is just me getting older, this is just what happens. A lot of women start to experience these things at your age, and doctors just say this is normal. Then you continue to feel like a stranger in your body and you just accept it. But you didn't accept it. You knew that heartburn isn't right. You shouldn't feel it as often as you were feeling it, so there had to be a reason and a solution. Then the gut became your next pillar to accomplish, and you didn't just accept that this is how it is. There was more to finding the solution to making you healthy.

And I love that you changed the way you were eating. Processed foods out the door, whole foods in the door, which is the very first step I hope anyone and everyone is inspired to make when they listen to this episode. If you can, throw out, okay, maybe not everything in your house, but the processed foods, and start to choose more wisely. I know people are going to say, oh, but it's so expensive. But it really isn't.

Maggie: It's not.

Nikkiey: And think about it: would you rather pay more for your health in the future or for your health right now? I'm actually curious, while we're on this tangent, what's your grocery bill in a week? If you divide that across seven days and then five meals a day, it's really not horrible.

Maggie: Granted, now it's just my husband and I. The kids come over a couple of times a week, so I always have a ton of food in the house. I'm finally at a place in my life where I'm so blessed that I don't need to be super careful with groceries. So yes, if I have two choices, I'm going to get the more expensive organic. I haven't always been there. Raising kids and living paycheck to paycheck, that's a little more difficult. I validate that for sure. But we all know that if we're eating highly processed foods, we're going to be hungrier. We're going to need a lot more of it. It's not going to satisfy you. So when you're spending your money on quality foods that are dense with nutrition, it's going to go a lot further. That's something to consider as well. As far as the grocery bill goes, we go out to eat a lot too. When there's just two of us, we say, let's just go. But I have that freedom now. When I feed my whole family, we're eating good-quality grass-fed steak and some organic sweet potatoes, and no one complains. Healthy food tastes better.

Nikkiey: It does. It really does. And not only does it taste better, it's also the aftermath. Like you were saying earlier, it's the information we're giving our body. You're going to feel so much better giving it healthy whole food rather than processed food, because the aftermath is going to be different. You're going to feel full and energized, or you're going to feel sluggish and tired.

Maggie: Yes. After Sunday dinner here, no one's just lying around watching ball games. It's, let's go on a walk to the park. And you want your family to be healthy. That's what this is about.

Nikkiey: I'm making everybody do family walks. With my partner or with my family, we're always out doing walks.

Maggie: We're always in a big huddle walking down the middle of the street. Always.

Nikkiey: Oh, I love that.

Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

Going back to strength training, because that was the last bit of the way you broke that down. You describe muscle as armor. Can you share how strength training plays a proactive role, especially in midlife and beyond for women?

Maggie: When we think of armor, we think of something on the outside that's going to protect us from falls, make us stronger, make us more resilient. But if you think about it from the inside, metabolically, it's protecting you from future disease. The more muscle you have, the more mitochondria you have. I'm going to try not to get too sciencey right now.

Nikkiey: Get sciencey.

Maggie: The more mitochondria you have, the more ATP, the more energy you have, and the less of those senescent cells, those zombie cells that just die and wreak havoc in your body, turn into cancer, turn into things we don't need. All of us have cancer in our body every day, and our bodies are always working to fight that. So give your body the tools it needs to stay healthy. Granted, sometimes wacky things are going to happen and someone really healthy is going to get sick. That happens all the time. But give your body the best fighting chance you can.

So from the inside, think about this also: if your body is healthy enough to grow muscle, that means all the other systems are doing well. Your organs, your heart, your liver, your kidneys, your pancreas, your brain, your vascular system. Everything is doing well enough that it says, okay, we can build some muscle. When people's hair is falling out, that usually means there's a problem upstream, whether it's hormonal or metabolic. Let's look at it. Let's find it. So when your hair's doing well, your nails are doing well, your teeth aren't falling out, your body is metabolically well, and muscle is that armor. Muscle keeps you metabolically well. So yes, from the outside we're going to be strong and resilient, but from the inside, those cells are functioning the way they're supposed to metabolically.

Nikkiey: Mic drop. Everybody, rewind that last five minutes, listen to it back, and remember why it's so important. It's not just that you're going to look toned and great and have muscle. Literally, as Dr. Gabrielle Lyon says, and as you just explained, it's the organ of longevity for so many reasons. You just unpacked that a little more: it's literally fighting for us every single day internally.

Maggie: It does. It keeps everything running. There's a reason why, if you look at muscular people, most of the time they have a lower A1C. They don't have blood sugar problems like that. That's telling a little bit of the story, which is actually a big part of the story. Your body just has what it needs.

Nikkiey: Facts. I was actually really impressed by my A1C results when I got them back. I can't remember the exact number, but they said, you're stellar.

Maggie: Good girl. Hopefully you went to a functional doctor, right?

Nikkiey: Yes.

Maggie: So they know what stellar is. Because what's so sad, and you know exactly what I'm going to say, is that it's based off the general population, the average. So they keep bumping it up, and they tell everyone they're normal when they're actually pre-diabetic.

Nikkiey: I know. That gives me chills. It's just like the BMI, that whole thing.

Maggie: Yes. It is so frustrating. I had a girl send me her labs last night, and she said, my doctor said everything was normal. I was looking through, and I have to give her the bad news, because her doctor maybe didn't realize it was bad news.

Nikkiey: I know. It's so frustrating.

Maggie: That's why we're here, right, Nikkiey?

Nikkiey: Facts. That is why we're here. Amen, Maggie. Let's say it louder. Okay, let me backtrack a little, because I have a second question to the strength training question. But metabolic health goes so much further than what we're talking about. Even functional medicine goes so much further. It touches everything: hormones, mood, fertility, A1C, cardiac health, all of the things. Why do you think this message is so often missed in mainstream health advice? And please, no filter. You can say what you want to say. Everyone loves the real, raw, authentic things on this podcast.

Maggie: Well, good. I'm going to try to be respectful at the same time. There's so much information and there's so much money to be made. People love to throw stuff out there and make money off of it. We all know that. Also, all of us just scroll. So we're just seeing surface, surface, surface. When you really see a study, who actually stops and says, oh, I want to see that study? Hardly anyone. I do, because I'm a weirdo and I love science. But most people just listen to how the influencer or whoever depicts it, and they run with it.

Nikkiey: Oh man. You just nailed that. I'm kind of shook at how accurate that was.

Maggie: That's why we've got a little burden on our shoulders, because we've got a big job to do. We care about the truth. That's why we're here. So we'll carry it.

Nikkiey: Let me let that process for a second. It's crazy to me how quickly, when influencers put out what they interpret a study to be, the story can change. They're only perceiving it from their perspective. Then the next influencer reads it and perceives it differently, and the story twists. That's how you get the whole chain of misinformation, because by the time it gets to the 10th person, it's totally misconstrued.

Maggie: Yes. And by then they've got 70,000 women who take health very seriously, and it becomes almost a religious belief. If keto is working for them and their favorite 10 influencers are talking about keto, that is their religion, and don't you say anything against it. They check out. I've changed my mind on many things as different studies come out, stuff I never thought I would change my mind on. And also, test it out on yourself. Try it out. If it doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work for you. Is keto going to be great for someone who's really insulin resistant? For three months they do it, and they're probably going to become insulin sensitive, bring down their blood sugar, and do great. Should they stay on it forever? They probably think they need to, but what they need to realize is that therapeutically it's great; forever, maybe not so great. There's probably a little truth in everything. It's not black or white.

Nikkiey: Exactly. I love that. Okay, let's go back to the question I had following the strength training question. For women who feel stuck in cardio and diet culture, what is the first mindset shift you would help them make?

Maggie: I think it's hard to make a mindset shift. It is so hard. I'll have women say, okay, I'll do this for three months. And if they don't see the changes they want, they go right back to their spin class. I don't know why, because they're not seeing success there, but they think they're going to. I think the biggest mindset shift comes with gaining the knowledge of how your body actually functions. For me, it was when I understood, oh, I'm actually going catabolic. My body is eating my muscle. This is doing the opposite of what I need it to do, and why that was actually happening. So I think it comes with educating these women. Once they're educated, they're able to shift their mindset and understand why. I know that's how my brain works. I'm not just going to listen to someone. I've got to understand what's going on, and then it makes sense to me. Then I can do it, and I'm sold. I'm bought in. I'm going in all the way. So I think education is what comes with a mindset shift. They have to know why we're asking them to do it completely differently than what worked for them in the past.

Nikkiey: Absolutely. I love that. There's a ton of misinformation out there, which we know. And at the beginning of my journey, I was ignorant to this stuff, which I think the majority of women are. It comes down to being open-minded: hey, this isn't working for me anymore. I feel low energy. I'm not getting the results I want. I feel like it's deteriorating my health. There has to be a different way. And being open to learning a different way is really hard. Even the women in WarriorBabe, people coming in at 50, 55, 60, it's like teaching an old dog new tricks.

Maggie: Totally. Because it's worked before. Well, look, it worked for me five times. I lost weight five times. It didn't actually work, but they don't see that.

Nikkiey: It's crazy. It's being open-minded and accepting that there's a different way. Like you said, it's hard. We definitely need to validate the hardness. But if it's not working up to a point, then someone has to take on a whole new way, which is a hard concept to even grasp.

Maggie: Well, isn't insanity doing the same thing and expecting different results?

Nikkiey: Amen.

Maggie: So we are insane, because we keep doing it. And I know it is so scary when we ask these women to eat more. Their whole life has been based on the opposite. So that scares the freaking crap out of them. That's huge. If you can break through with one little win, and they're like, hey, I think they were right, then I think it opens the doors a little bit. You've got to get your foot in that door. Let them see there are some other ways.

Nikkiey: We were just talking to the WarriorBabe community the other day about this, about how they get so scared when they hear that they need to eat more food. And rightfully so. I understand, because they come from that world you just explained, where it was, I need to be skinny, I need to be small, I need to be X, Y and Z. But then everything starts to downregulate and get worse if you're not eating more food, and especially through menopause it gets worse. So it's about finding the silver lining and showing them that more food is going to help them.

Earlier in this conversation, we talked about how you found the solution, what works for you. What's your methodology now? What do you preach in terms of what works for you nowadays?

Maggie: For one, don't restrict. Make better choices. For me, it's the first time in my life that I haven't gone to bed and rated myself. Okay, was I good today or was I bad? Good or bad. I used to go to bed rating myself good or bad, and most days I felt pretty bad about myself. And then it made the next day even worse.

You've got to get the big rocks in place. There are basic things we all need to do, especially in menopause. If you understand why you need to eat your protein, good-quality protein, get it in. I don't care what it takes. Get it in, and you will naturally start to crowd out some other stuff. I don't care if you overeat your protein by 400 or 500 calories. You're going to be just fine.

Nikkiey: People worry. I remember this. People were like, too much protein is bad for my kidneys.

Maggie: I'm like, no. You're going to exercise and work out, and that's going to be utilized the right way. It actually supports your organs. It actually helps your kidneys, unless you have kidney disease. So get some good-quality protein and lift weights. If you love running, if you love yoga, if you love Pilates, do it, but prioritize weightlifting. Just prioritize that, put your other stuff in, and keep it separate from your weightlifting. Don't go run on the treadmill for 45 minutes and then go try to lift weights. And people don't understand why.

Nikkiey: Wait, wait, wait, unpack that. You can't just throw that out there. You can't just say don't do cardio, then weights. Why?

Maggie: I just want to say, just believe me.

Nikkiey: Trust us now, believe us later. That's what we say.

Maggie: All right. There's stuff in your muscle called glycogen. When you burn it all and then go lift weights, it's going to feel horrible. You're not going to have the intensity you need to stimulate the muscle for muscle protein synthesis, and you're not going to grow muscle, which is why you're lifting weights. So keep it separate.

Nikkiey: That is going to be the most rewound part of this episode. I highly doubt, I highly, wow. I totally just said that.

Maggie: Menopause. I'm rubbing off on you. You can tell we're getting to the end of the episode.

Nikkiey: No, no, no. It's totally my brain too. That's going to be the most rewound part because of the way you just broke that down. So please, everybody listening, do your strength training, because that's the purpose of building muscle. You're not going to build muscle doing your cardio first and then your strength training.

Maggie: Just keep it separate. They're both needed. Granted, if you only have time for one, do your strength training, and then go for a family walk later in the day.

Nikkiey: Okay, a couple more questions before we wrap up this episode. You just recently became one of the brand faces of WarriorBabe.

Maggie: Yeah, I love it.

Nikkiey: You're inspiring so many women, and it's really cool to see how women are latching on to your experience and your story and trusting your words. How does it feel to be a part of this mission? How does it align with your core values and everything you've learned throughout your journey?

Maggie: I'm sitting here telling myself, do not cry. Do not cry.

Nikkiey: It's okay. You can cry. Big girls cry. You can do it.

Maggie: I've said this before: when you have good news, you just want to share it, especially with those you care about. I was at a place where, honestly, and I don't want to be the Debbie Downer, I didn't want to live anymore. I was in a dark, dark place, and I know there are other women struggling with that. There's a reason why suicide rates are highest from age 45 to 55. And it's not that their life is horrible. It isn't. Our hormones are declining. Our health is declining. We've given everything we have to everyone around us and we have saved nothing for ourselves. And we are doing our families and ourselves a disservice.

So I want to give other women permission to take care of themselves. Life is meant to feel happy. You are meant to feel happy. I don't know if you believe in God or the universe, but you are meant to feel happy. And it's not feeling happy all of the time. You're going to have some bad days here or there. That's okay. Bad things are going to happen. You're going to feel sad. But overall you should feel peaceful and happy in life. If your health is not in check, that's a hard place to get to. So if I can help other women understand how good this can feel, life can feel amazing. You can wake up in the morning and be excited for your day. You can love the people around you, have that fill your cup, and have enough energy to spill out for all of them.

For all of them, take an hour of your day. Go work out. Make your body strong and healthy. Go to the grocery store and spend a little extra money on some good-quality food. Take care of yourself. Your whole family's up, they need laundry done, and you say, I'm going to bed at 8:30. Take care of yourself. Your family will appreciate that. They want you around, and they want your best self. So the fact that I get to share this with more than the little circle of people around me, I will forever be grateful. Who knows what the future brings, but for right now, being here with you on this platform, being able to touch the lives of this many women and give them hope, it is a dream.

Nikkiey: Oh my gosh. You're going to make me cry.

Maggie: So there you go. What's it like? It's a dream come true. That's what it's like. I don't know how our paths crossed, but I will forever be grateful. God's got his hands all over it, that's for sure.

Nikkiey: We're going to do some big things, Maggie. That's for sure.

Maggie: I can't wait.

Nikkiey: I love that your heart posture is that way, that you just want to help and spread good news to everybody in this industry you've been in for 30 years. Now you get to spread the knowledge you've learned along the way and impact thousands, hundreds of thousands of women into the future.

Maggie: And honestly, I feel like it's my purpose. So the fact that I'm given the opportunity, I'm just so grateful. Here we go.

Nikkiey: Me too. I'm grateful for you. You're such an incredible human. For anybody listening, I've known Maggie for almost a year, a little shy of a year. I look at you almost like a mom. You're such a cool person, so kind-hearted, so compassionate, big energy, and a blast to hang out with.

Maggie: And I love that. I feel like you're like a daughter. I always feel really protective of you. Is she doing okay? Is this too stressful for her? I have these thoughts all the time. The fact that you're thriving and have accomplished what you've accomplished, I'm just so impressed by you. So thank you for everything you've done.

Nikkiey: Right back at you. I'm grateful for you and grateful to have you on this episode. This has been fun. It's cool to just be authentic and real rather than showing up on an Instagram story. We just get to jive and hang out here. Is there anything else before we hop off that you want the listeners to know?

Maggie: Probably just what I last reiterated. You're supposed to feel happy, and getting your health in check definitely helps you get to that place. Keeping promises to yourself does amazing things for your brain, your psyche and your wellbeing. You're meant to be happy, so the first step is taking care of yourself. And there are so many scientific reasons why exercise is the best antidepressant there is. That's not fake. That's real. So spend some time taking care of yourself so you can share your love and your energy with those around you.

Nikkiey: I love that. And to piggyback off that really quick: you deserve to be happy and you should be happy. If you feel like something's off, like Maggie with her heartburn and then her gut, those are signals your body is telling you that internally something is off and it needs attention. You shouldn't feel those things, and they shouldn't be weighing on your happiness. You deserve, as Maggie is saying, to be thriving. So get those things checked out. Those are important.

Maggie: Such a good point.

Nikkiey: Well, thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your story and your wisdom.

Maggie: Thank you so much for having me.

Nikkiey: I look forward to the future with you. It's going to be awesome.

Maggie: Oh, we're going to have some fun.

Nikkiey: And anybody listening, if you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, like your best years are behind you, or like a stranger in your body, Maggie has proved it's never too late to rewrite that script. Maggie, we're going to put your socials in the show notes, but what's your Instagram handle, or where can people find you right now?

Maggie: It's still under my old business name, which is F-U-N-C, so functional, func underscore health. That's my Instagram. Where else am I? TikTok, it's func.health. I share a little on there too. And Facebook, right now we're trying to get just Maggie Topham up and going so we can make a difference there.

Nikkiey: So check her out there, and check her out on the WarriorBabe socials as well. We love you guys and want nothing but the best for you. Make sure you put yourself first and get things checked out. Maggie, thank you for being here.

Maggie: Thanks.

Nikkiey: Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all of the difference, helping more women discover the tools they need to transform their fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much.