Far 2 Fabulous

Finding Your Path in the Overwhelming World of Wellness Advice

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 79

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Ever felt paralysed by contradicting wellness advice? One expert swears by intermittent fasting while another warns against it. A fitness guru promotes one approach while doctors recommend something entirely different. Welcome to what Catherine aptly calls "wellness noise"—that overwhelming cacophony of health information that leaves many midlife women feeling more confused than empowered.

This candid conversation cuts through the clutter to reveal why so much wellness advice feels contradictory yet simultaneously correct. The missing piece? Context. Those experts aren't necessarily wrong—they're simply speaking to different audiences without making that distinction clear. Dr. Mindy Peltz's fasting protocols might work wonders for someone with obesity or pre-diabetes, while Dr. Stacey Sims' contrary advice better serves active midlife women. Understanding these nuances transforms overwhelming information into applicable wisdom.

Catherine compassionately acknowledges the unique challenges midlife women face: bodies that respond differently than they did decades ago, marketing that preys on insecurities, and the exhaustion of constantly second-guessing ourselves. Rather than adding to the noise, she offers a refreshing perspective—your body already knows much of what it needs. The fundamentals remain straightforward: nourishing food, regular movement, quality sleep, adequate hydration, and stress management form the foundation. Everything else should complement these basics, not replace them.

The path forward involves getting specific about your unique circumstances and goals, finding experts who truly speak to your demographic, and connecting with communities of women navigating similar journeys. Most importantly, wellness should never become another source of stress. It should fit realistically into your life, empowering rather than overwhelming you. If you're tired of wellness whiplash and ready for clarity, this episode offers the guidance and permission you've been seeking to trust yourself again.

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Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.

For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Far Too Fabulous, hosted by Julie and Catherine. Join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candid chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered wellbeing. Let's dive in. Hello, hello and welcome to the Far Too Fabulous podcast. As you can hear, it's just me laughing at the intro on my own today, so hopefully you are at home laughing along with me, and if you're new to the podcast, you're going to have to go back and listen to some episodes of why I am laughing at the intro. As Julie explained last week, we are very busy, ladies, and we have not managed to get ourselves together to record a podcast. However, stick with us. We are dedicated to this and we are in it for the long run, and we have got some really great guests lined up for you when we get back together. So, yeah, just stick with us.

Speaker 1:

So for this episode, I wanted to talk to you about wellness, noise and it's. It's something I've just coined myself and basically there is so much advice out there within the well-being industry, and I mean just the word well-being or wellness encompasses so many things that it's really really easy to get completely overwhelmed with what you should and I've got the bunny ears going on there, not that you can see it obviously in the podcast, but imagine me doing it what you should be doing, because I am not a fan of the word should and I've been looking at this within my own business, trying to make the message and the advice that I am giving out really simple and really obvious to who I am talking to. I have spoken a few times now about having a new business coach, and one of her questions to me was what do you do easily that other people find really, really difficult, and me lucky that it's my job as well. It is the whole wellbeing aspect of my life I'm really, really good at, and so to just let you know that I understand how you feel about wellbeing-being For me, being organised within my business I find really, really tricky, and I know some of you, many of you are very, very and organising your jobs or your life or your house comes really easily to you. That is how I feel about looking after myself and my well-being, and thankfully that I feel that way, because there is no possible way that I would be able to do all of the things that I do and remain mentally well, physically well, emotionally well, and I still struggle with that. Sometimes there is a definite case for me to overload myself we've been talking about that recently as well but in general, my well-being enables me to be able to keep up with all of this stuff.

Speaker 1:

I know that that's what you guys want as well, and so when you are feeling like run down or you don't feel very fit, you don't feel very energized and you go on the search for help and you're feeling a bit desperate because I don't know about you, but, being a human, we we need to get to these, oh, these painful points in our lives before we actually go and do anything about it. I would love here I go off on a tangent already I would love to be able to set up my business making sure that mid-age women did not get to the point where they felt burnt out, strung out, wrung out all of that stuff and confused and don't know what to do about it. I would love to be able to be there, you know, many years before that, to be able to help them put stuff into place so that they never, ever felt like that in the first place. However, I'm well aware that I work with human beings and that is just not how we work. We have to get to the point that it is uncomfortable before we are moved to make that change.

Speaker 1:

So you go and you're searching for what it is that is going to help you feel better, for what it is that is going to help you feel better, and then you are faced with this absolute wall of noise and there is no way that you are able to pick bits out of it that are specifically for you. We have got there are so many people within the wellbeing industry that are well-meaning and are knowledgeable and that are absolutely fantastic. The problem is, what they don't do is make it really clear who they are talking to. This is when I discovered the work of Dr Mindy Pelt, who talks about fasting for girls, and I really loved the whole concept of fasting. I found it really, really easy to fit into my life. It was a really easy change to make. Her argument for, like why you should do it was was well researched, it was well presented, and the and the the concept of of fasting and the benefits of fasting are so enticing that you just want to do it. I mean, if somebody says you don't have to change the way that you eat. You just have to do it in the window of eight hours, for instance, and you get so many health benefits, including longevity, including weight loss, and you're going to be like, yeah, let's do that.

Speaker 1:

And then the Stacey Sims comes along and again mega fan of Dr Stacey Sims and she says no to women doing intermittent fasting. I'm like what, what this works, I like doing it. Actually, do you know what I've just said? It works. I did it for a very long time and actually it made very, very little difference. It fitted in really nicely with how I work. However, any weight loss or any energy or any increase in fitness, it truly made no difference at all. It was just a really easy way to sort of run my eating.

Speaker 1:

So Dr Stacey Simms says now, if you are a active woman, mid-aged woman, that actually fasting is no good for you. And and so now you're there going, oh, I've just created all these amazing habits that I think are doing me a world of good. And then another expert who's really well known and well respected in their field has come along and said actually, no, this isn't right, this isn't for you. And so and they're both right, but they're talking to different people. So Dr Mindy Peltz is talking to people that are obese. She is talking to people that are not active. She is talking to people that are maybe pre-diabetic or just flipped it over into type 2 diabetes. She's talking to people that need to do something dramatic and now to help their health. She is not talking to women who are already active and who already have a basic knowledge and understanding and adherence to a good, healthy diet.

Speaker 1:

And so when I started to adopt Stacey Sims ideas into my life so fueling before a workout again not doing what Mindy Peltz had said and doing a workout fasted, but fueling before a workout so that I could get the very best out of my workout that made the hugest amount of difference. And I know that lots of you will be saying well, if I don't eat breakfast, then actually I don't feel very hungry until sort of the middle of the day, as as opposed to if I eat breakfast, and it makes you hungry and I really identify with that. However, once you get into a routine, it sort of spreads itself out and it's just your body adjusting to the fact that you've been starving it, fasting it for the morning, and now you're giving it food and it's like let's go, let's go, let's go. And once it's kind of realized that this is not like a one-hit wonder, that you're going to continue to to fuel it correctly, then it kind of it calms down. Just know that I have that story as well and it is a story and you will get over it basically. And then, knowing about the protein that I needed to fuel my body for an active mid-age lady, and then knowing that I wanted to, or that it was imperative for my fitness, for my well-being, for my longevity, for my fitness, for my well-being, for my longevity, for my vitality, to be able to build lean muscle, that protein needs to be a much bigger part of my nutrition story. So that was an absolute game changer and a real example that both women know exactly what they are talking about and they just need to be really, really clear on who they are talking to. And again, another conflict of information I've had, regarding Stacey Sims as well, is that she talks about cold water therapy and like sauna therapy and I'm a huge fan of Susanna Soberg, who is an expert in her field, talking about cold water therapy and so Dr Stacey Sims has used this like hook on her social media about cold water therapy being bad for mid-age women as a draw in. If you go then and listen to it a little bit further, it's not always necessarily what it initially sounds like, and so then when you go and listen to Susanna Soberg and all of her information about cold water therapy and she talks a lot about swallowing as well it's it's clearer. But if you just take the headlines, for instance, from these people's social media, it makes it even more confusing.

Speaker 1:

You've also got amazing people like joe whip, who I just adore him. He's absolutely fantastic as an ambassador for movement and for well-being. He is fantastic. But again, you've got to think about who he is talking to. He is talking to the people around his age now, so he started to develop things to do with muscle building and female fitness at the moment with his wife, but predominantly he's talking to younger people, maybe people with a younger family, and and that's great. But again, he needs to make that clear, because if he's not talking to you guys my audience, for instance you need to train very differently to how he is explaining it.

Speaker 1:

And then you've got people like Davina Again, she's doing amazing things for the world of menopause, like really raising the profile of these things. However, sometimes she makes what she's doing. She's very realistic, but just again, surface level. When you're just looking at the first bit of her social media, she makes it look like it's easy what she's doing, and we have to remember that she has a whole team of people behind her that are supporting her. And so when you're at home hrt shall I take? What exercise shall I do? What should I take? Collagen should I take? I just ordered creatine.

Speaker 1:

It's just, there's just a lot of information. Then you look at davina and you think, my god, she looks amazing and she's got this energy, and maybe you're doing all these things. And you think, my god, she looks amazing and she's got this energy, and maybe you're doing all these things and you still feel like you're falling short. You have to remember the the difference in it. She's you know she's got a busy life, but she's also got a team of people behind her helping her, and and then you've got other professionals that go the other way.

Speaker 1:

So all these people that I have spoken about have been really amazing. They are forward-facing, they empower you, they give you all of this information, even if it's a bit confusing, and then you have some unmentionable people that will go the other way and they will just talk about things that you are not supposed to do scaremongering, or speaking about things very generically, or this is the only way, and that absolutely flattens your confidence. So it's you and I. It's one way or the other. You've got so much information you don't know what to do with, or you've got people telling you what you shouldn't do, so then you're scared and your confidence dropped through the floor. And this I will just speak to very quickly, because we in general and again I'm speaking to my main audience that are mid-age women who either do generally look after themselves or know that it's a valuable thing to do and are just not sure how to do it.

Speaker 1:

We have got many years of experience and this is helping us and hindering us all at the same time. It helps because we in general know what to do. We have also had 40 plus years of deconditioning, of not trusting our bodies, of not trusting our minds, of not trusting our subconscious. It's almost been, you know, put in a box with unicorns and we ignore our gut instinct and what we know will help us and serve us, and not only that, but obviously we have got all of the advertising and all of the lovely stuff that goes into these foods that makes us want it more and more and more, and we are battling against that and it's really, really tough and unfortunately it's not a case of one size fits all that you can just give this blanket advice and and that works for everybody, because know that what women 20 or 30 can get away with with their body does not wash with a 40 or 50 year old body, unfortunately, and I know that if you have kind of gone over the age of 40 towards 45, you know that your body just does not behave the same as it used to. And then that starts to feed into that whole story about being old. Or this is how you're supposed to feel at this age or you're not fit enough. It just it's so overwhelming it's not surprising that people will give up before they've almost even started.

Speaker 1:

And so just to link back into when I said that well-being is something that I find really easy and the organizational stuff I find really tough. That is, the overwhelm for me is that I have got so much to do and I don't see a clear path to like getting to my end result, whereas with well-being, thankfully, I do, which is why I'm like sitting in this well-being world very comfortably, with all the chaos of life all around. And so, instead of that feeling of overwhelmed, afraid to get it wrong, feeling like you are, I don't know, too old, not fit enough to be able to do something, or that you are not doing it properly, not doing it well, so you don't do it at all, uh, we want you to feel empowered. We want you to actually be able to do it with a certain degree of flow and almost not have to think about it all the time, because, again, that's, it's so draining, thinking about it all of the time. Should I be doing this? Should I be doing that? Should I not be doing this? Should I not be doing that?

Speaker 1:

What does what was? What do I do when I'm 45 as opposed to what do I do when I'm 25? It's exhausting and, again, this is why we've got our wonderful subconscious to be able to look after us and to run us like like 90 I think it's like almost like 95 percent of what we do is the subconscious running us, so we don't have to think about you know, I've got a blink here, I've got a breathe here, I've got a swallow here, I've got digest here. Our subconscious runs this all for us, and so what we want to be able to do is have all these healthy practices as a habit, as a routine, so that we don't have to keep forcing ourselves to be able to do it, and that is the magic of knowing exactly what you need to program in for time life.

Speaker 1:

But let's be clear well-being has to be in your life. It has to be movement in your life. There has to be nutrition in your life. There has to be a decent amount of sleep in your life. There has to be hydration in your life, if I mean, I'm gonna say if you want to live a long, vital life and the end of your life you want to still be independent and have your wits about you, or should I say you want to give yourself the most chance to have all of this. And also, another thing that there is lots of noise about is the, the pills and the lotions and the potions. I love a good vitamin museum you will never take away from me.

Speaker 1:

However, there is lots of stuff out there that claim to be an easy fix or will tell you that you can't be well without this. That isn't true. You don't want the marketers to scare us into buying things just to make their money, when actually you need to make it a little bit more simple. Then maybe supplements on top of that to help and reinforce things potentially. So really, what I want you to take from today's podcast is that, inherently, you know what is good for you. You know the food, roughly, that you should be eating. I'll put this the other way you know the food that you should be eating only sort of 10 to 20 percent of the time, and then the rest of it needs to be. You know your fruits and your vegetables. Your body knows that it needs and wants to move. It knows that it wants to be strong. It knows that it wants to operate with that energy and joy. So when you are looking for advice about what to do, just make sure that you are looking specifically for you and for your goals.

Speaker 1:

So, for instance, for my clients, it would be either if they were looking to just start. They are carrying too much body fat for a human being and and I want to just be really like, really clear about that, like you would be. I don't know if I want to say this out loud, but say like you would be for a dog. You know, when you go to the vet, if they get on the scales and the vet is like, for your dog's health and for your dog's frame, they have got too much body fat, it's not good for them, that. I would love the conversation for humans to be exactly the same, and I know that underneath not literally, but underneath, or maybe literally underneath too much body fat, there are so many other layers, so many subconscious programmings, so many traumas, so many habits that have got you to that point, and acknowledging that is really, really important.

Speaker 1:

However, on a very basic level, knowing that your goal is to lose body fat, you would be looking for information for that, whereas if somebody came to me that was paying attention to their fitness and to their nutrition, but they might be doing the same thing, perhaps as they were doing when they were 25 or 35 and they're now 45 or 55, being able to say that's, this is why it's not working. This is what you need to do and be very specific the time of life and then watch the relief because, as humans, again we just we blame ourselves, that we're doing it wrong, that this influencer on facebook and this influencer on instagram is clearly doing it right and I'm doing the same as them, I think, but it's not working. Just let yourself off the hook. Well-being, fitness, nutrition all of this stuff shouldn't be another stress, another thing that you just have to do. It should be there's the word again should be. You want it to be something that is easy for you to do.

Speaker 1:

And again, when you're looking, okay, have a go again. When you are looking at yourself, for instance, and you are thinking like, how can I fit this into an already jam-packed schedule? Be realistic. So you need to have your, your goals. You need to know what it is that you are initially achieving and know that this is going to change through each stage of it. And then to have a look at the time that you've got, because if you're super busy and I am your trainer and I go right, you need to train for an hour a day and you barely have time to go to the toilet, you not going to do that, and so then it just compounds the problem, because then you're going to feel even more rubbish and feel like you're failing because you're you're not able to do that. So it needs to be realistic. You don't need to spend hour in the gym every single day. If you're planning to bodybuild, if you're training for a marathon, then we're talking about different things. Again, that's your goal. You need to be very specific. Are you a mid-aged woman who is training for a marathon? Are you a mid-aged woman who is training for life? What you know, what is it that is your goal?

Speaker 1:

Struggle with this and again, this has been part of the work that I've been doing with my new business coach is that I really struggle to talk about losing weight, losing fat, because I know that that is just a really great byproduct from doing all of the other things. However, I also know that most of my clients, most of you listening, that is your main quote-unquote problem. That's what you want to fix, and it's not my job to tell you that that feeling is wrong. It is my job to empower you to create these changes, these lasting changes within your habits. That will get you that goal and it will help you feel vital and it will help you feel strong and it will help you feel connected to your body and mind, confident in your body and mind, that you know what you are doing, that you don't have to continually look outside of yourself for these answers, that they are within you.

Speaker 1:

And, when you do go and search for answers to questions, that you are very, very specific. And again, I know that it's really easy to disappear down an Instagram rabbit hole when you are looking for things and then you want it all and then you're overwhelmed again, be very, very specific. So, that said, if you do have specific questions, please do come into the far too fabulous facebook group and ask them, because, guess what? There is a room full of women who are wondering the exact same thing, and maybe they just didn't know how to put it, maybe they felt silly asking these questions because they feel like they should know these things. So please do come and check this out. So we've mentioned our facebook group. I think that's a really great place for me to round up here and say goodbye.

Speaker 1:

So I hope that I have not just added to the noise. I hope that I have helped you understand that there is a lot of information out there and, when you're looking for answers, that you need to be very specific, that you do not have to do it alone. In fact, just don't do it alone. Go and find a community of women that are going through the same thing as you and do it together. There's so much research to show that doing it as a tribe is far, far better than doing it on your own. It's much more fun, right, let's be honest, and there are so many groups out there that you could go and join. Make sure that the group and the people that you are getting advice from are empowering.

Speaker 1:

This is in. Our strapline of this podcast. Here is that we want to give you all of the information so that you feel knowledgeable and strong and empowered within yourself. Toised, you know. Are we talking to somebody with a family? Are we talking to somebody that has a sedentary job? Are we talking to somebody that's got an active job? What are your goals? Being toned and flexible when you come to train with somebody in your 40s or 50s, need to be much more specific about what we are getting from our, the information that we're getting from our clients and then the information that we are giving back.

Speaker 1:

So just be really clear about what your wellness looks like for you. You don't have to do it alone. It does not have to be perfect. Just make a start clear about what you need, and you don't have to do it alone. And, obviously, if Julie and I can help in any way, that is exactly what we are here for. Have a fabulous rest of your week and weekend and we will see you back together next week. Lots of love. Thank you for keeping us company today. If you enjoyed the podcast, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Your support helps us on our mission to reach a thousand women in our first year, so share with your friends and family. You might just change your life. Connect with us on social media and make your life easier by joining our podcast mailing list. You'll find the links in the show notes. Your weekly episode will be delivered straight to your inbox every thursday morning. Make it a fabulous week and we'll catch you in the next episode.