WELLTHY Generation Podcast!

78. Navigating Perimenopause & Radical Honesty in Her Health Journey with Mageline [Client]

• Naihomy Jerez • Episode 78

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Mageline Concepcion shares her journey from endurance athlete to perimenopause wellness pioneer, revealing how her body's changing needs forced her to completely reimagine her approach to nutrition and fitness after 40.

• Started fitness journey in her 20s focused solely on "getting skinny" through running and endurance sports
• Transitioned to viewing movement as essential for mental balance and stress management in her 30s
• Pregnancy at 37 required first major lifestyle adjustment and more mindful eating
• Discovered at 39 that previous workout and nutrition strategies no longer worked
• Experienced frustration when consistent weight training led to weight gain instead of loss
• Learned that perimenopause requires completely different nutrition timing and workout approaches
• Embraced "radical honesty" about food choices and movement patterns
• Uses technology (fitness tracker, food logging app) to maintain accountability
• Accepted that wellness changes are "for life" rather than temporary fixes
• Found peace in approaching health with grace and self-awareness
• Recognizes that ancestral patterns and colonialism impact our relationship with food measurement
• Encourages listening to your body's signals rather than following external rules

Connect with on LinkedIn with Mageline Concepcion.

Thank you so much for listening!


Speaker 1:

Hello friends, welcome back to Wealthy Generation Podcast. This is one of my favorite recordings to do, because today we have on a guest, and not only is she a friend, she was also a client two times around with me, and a lot of my clients turn into friendships, which is something that's very beautiful, and we actually met online back at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. And it was just a crazy way of coming together, because I was part of this program called Think Big or Start Small. Think Big, which is like a small business, a nonprofit that helps small businesses, and they would hold a lot of free workshops and I joined the workshop and in the chat box we were introducing ourselves and there was another Dominican woman in there and we're like, oh, let's connect. And it was my client's sister, madge, welcome, please introduce yourself to everybody. Thank you, hi, everybody.

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you for having me, naomi. My name is Mageline Concepcion. You'll often hear Naomi, or you'll hear Naomi. Call me Madge, it's my nickname. I mean, as you heard, I'm of Dominican descent. I was born in Santo Domingo and have been a New Yorker, slash US person for the last, however, many years. I am over 40, so it's been a minute that I've been living here and you know I have many titles. I carry many hyphens after my name. You know mom, wife, daughter, friend, and you know part of my personal persona is I'm a brand manager and a brand lead for advertising agencies here in Madison Avenue, advertising agencies here in New York. So I have some of my clients are clients that you consume their goods and services for, and they wouldn't be surprised if you've seen some of my work on a multiple of channels and mediums and media around. So yeah, that's me in a nutshell.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for introducing yourself. You guys have 100% seen her work out there, but we're gonna keep that confidential um, so tell us a little bit about my day pre. Let's say, we started to get working together in 2020, but you come from a very active athletic paying attention to your health background, so can you please share with us a little bit of who you were pre-pandemic, I guess we can say, and why was this important to you during that time?

Speaker 2:

yeah, that's um. It's funny because I definitely have had multiple chapters in my life, um, and and the one that you're referencing to is that I am a lover of endurance sports, um, and by that I mean, you know, I had a phase in my life where my husband and I were very much into training for endurance and like push the limits of capacity kind of sports. I've done duathlons, he's participated in Ironman, like half Ironman If anybody knows what that sport is like, it's a ultra triathlon. I've ran marathons, I've ran multiple half marathons, I've ran all distances, and so I've come from a place that, after I graduated undergrad back in 2004, I was really in that place of like, if I'm honest, like just want to get skinny. Like undergrad did a number for me, right, like the constant ice cream machine, the 24-7 coffee, the um, the constant cookies on, you know the halls because I I lived on campus and, um, you know, in that senior year I was doing this my thesis was focused on, was focused on an economic subject that I was about to be a Mellon Fulbright scholar for, right, and so I spent a lot of time just reading, writing, sitting sedentary, and when I wasn't sedentary, was eating. I literally like, was just eating, you know, to do an undergrad or drinking. Let's be honest, like I did a lot of drinking, um, but my 21, 22 year old metabolism was like, yeah, cool, you can handle that right. And so I really got into running in my early 20s as a way to lose weight. I wanted to be skinny and I did. I don't think I, you know, this is this, is like, so, not the philosophy that I follow in my life today anymore. But I got down to a size one or zero. Like I'm Dominican, you know we are full bodied women. So, you know, and and honestly, it was just a matter of metabolism and a matter of like, oh, I went drinking, you know, a couple of days in a row.

Speaker 2:

I work in advertising. There was a lot of entertaining of clients, there was a lot of industry events. I would like to say that towards the tail like, the beginning of my advertising career was the tail end of the madman era, you know where, happy hours in the day, you go out with a vendor, you're on a production set with a client, you take a client out, um, and budgets were very generous for those things, right and um. So with all of that in mind, I still wanted to keep my cute, I still wanted to keep my sexy. I was like, all right, so I'm gonna run and that's what I would do.

Speaker 2:

Um, I got into running, I got into Pilates, I got into yoga, I I got into anything that would have me moved.

Speaker 2:

And when I tell you that it was, it was a very, it was a positive relationship with movement, but it also like it was a tad bit of an addictive relationship, like I would leave the office, sometimes at nine o'clock at night, and go across the street to the gym, work until 11 um, get home at 11 30, have my arroz con habichuela because I would like still was living at home or living close enough to my mom that she would like feed me um, go to sleep, repeat, do it again.

Speaker 2:

So you know that that was the. That was my initial into being physically active and I loved it. I loved it for the results as I got, as I went into my thirties, my early thirties. You know it was just a lifestyle for me, my husband and I, my, my, my husband, boyfriend, slash husband, fiance. The transitions all happened um, he, we found community around it, so we had friends that were runners um and were ultra endurance, ultra endurance athletes um, and so it just became like a community thing for me. So being active for me is the easiest part of wellness I actually really like it.

Speaker 2:

And so that's you know a little bit of my history until I became pregnant, and that kind of changed things a little bit for me, right? Like I became pregnant with my first pregnancy, which I ended up losing. My doctors ended up they were like, yeah, you can continue, you've been running and exercising for years, right, so just keep going. But I did lose that first pregnancy while I was still active and running, and so it was a moment for me, you know, when I lost that pregnancy. And, mind you, miscarriages, early miscarriages, happen to anyone. It's a natural process. But I couldn't help but think to myself was is it because I'm constantly running? I'm still keeping my athlete schedule? So the second time I got pregnant with my twins, I ended up being in a high risk pregnancy just because I was older. I was 37 when I got pregnant with them and, having lost a pregnancy, my doctors were really advising for me to just kind of calm everything down, you know, like settle it down, reduce activity. They didn't tell me to eliminate activity, they just said reduce activity. But I translated that into a fear translation of just stop, right. And so I get pregnant.

Speaker 2:

I have to adjust my eating. I went from borderline vegan. I mean, like I had years I didn't have a piece of red meat. I honestly didn't even like it. So borderline vegan pescatarians. To then getting pregnant with my second pregnancy, with my twins, and then having to readjust, like I was very attuned with my body, this notion of just knowing what your body needs for me movement and then, as I was growing to little humans in my body, was this notion of like what do I need right now? It was something that I was always very aware of. I'm very aware of what my body's needing you know like. So that's a really a synopsis, but also kind of a long way of telling you like my history with with just food and movement overall.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, thank you so much for sharing. I think I found out new things about you that I never even knew before, or maybe I forgot that.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, thank you for being so vulnerable, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I love that you mentioned this notion of you just wanted to be skinny and yeah Right, and you were running to lose weight. I think that that is the initial goal for just I'm generalizing right All of us, because it was my goal to I after I had my second kid. I just wanted to lose weight, to be slimmer and feel better in my clothes, and there's nothing wrong with that, I have to say. It's a great motivator, and I think that sometimes where things I guess don't go so well is that we fall into these restrictive patterns where we're actually hurting ourselves more than losing weight in a way that it's promoting our health, and I just wanted to point that out because it is.

Speaker 1:

This notion of skinny is the only goal, and now that I know more and that we know more, it's like, okay, that's, that's cute and that's possible, but how can we also take care of ourselves? And how is that now not the only goal? Also taking care of ourselves right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I have to say, like, while I got into endurance sports because I wanted to be skinny like you you know, I ate pasta within, if I gained three pounds in a week and I would lose it in a week, you know, because I would run two or three times, four times a week, and it was just like, again, my metabolism was that it's optimal and so I could like. That's how I would like find balance between like food and and activities. Um, but in my 30s it then became as like careers started to become more front and center for me. Um, again, I didn't have babies until my late 30s. I was 37. So in my 30s, as I, the promotion started to come and the pressure starts to mount up.

Speaker 2:

Then the physical activity again, physical activity and this skewed notion of what healthy eating was right, low fat, no cheese, like, like they were always like the 90s. Like like 90s to 2000s. Like you don't eat fat, you don't eat cheese, you don't eat sugar, like there were all these no's, it's just lettuce and and like like protein wasn't even like a notion for me. Right, like it's just like eat the salad, you know, and and get the least caloric dressing possible.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, um, but in my 30s physical activity really was about. In my early 30s and mid-30s it was about maintaining balance in my body, like emotional, mental, um. At the time the term like spiritual balance wasn't something that I was um necessarily including into my daily lexicon, but but in some ways like that, physical movement has always been a way that I've been able to like center and ground. You know I work in in an idea business, so that's how ideas sometimes come to me and but again, the food part of it was in someone that I really started to what it meant to nurture my body fully until I'm suddenly growing to humans, you know, and I want to keep them as safe as I possibly can.

Speaker 1:

So so yeah, something that you mentioned, too, is that we need to check in or that you would check in and see what your body needs, and something that I really hone in on is that wellness will evolve with different seasons in our lives, right, and this attachment to what you used to do before and by you I mean like in general- what we used to do before and what worked in our twenties, and we don't realize that, just being a woman, we naturally fall into different seasons without us asking for it or not, and as our life transitioned because not only now were you a mom, but now you're growing in your career stress levels are different, the time is different, so keeping up with wellness also needs to shift.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, start to fit into these different seasons of your life.

Speaker 2:

I? You know, that was a moment for me, right, that was a moment of clarity, of lucid, lucid understanding for me, because you know you have your babies and everybody talks about the bounce back. Granted, I was super clear, um, just based on the genetic makeup of my family, that there was no bounce back. Right, like, um, wellness and lifestyle aside, like I know, you kind of know how the genetics of the women in your family work once they have babies, right so? But it's also very different, like intellectually knowing it and like experiencing it yourself, right, so I have the girls.

Speaker 2:

I run New York City Marathon, November of 2017. Like I was not my skinniest, but I was at my most optimal performance level, right, I ran those 26.2 miles like New York city marathon. New York city marathons course is not an easy course. Um, elevations fluctuate, like so I'm on a high right. I'm like I know how to do this. I want to keep this optimal form.

Speaker 2:

I get pregnant, I get pregnant again, um, and then you come. I get pregnant, I get pregnant again, and then you come, and then I come to the realization that the babies come. They're gorgeous, they're on top, both of them are on top of me Two little humans like, who need everything and have the most amazing smell, and then you realize that you're just a hot mess. Yeah, while you are on this euphoric high, you realize that, as every day passes, you know less and less about them, about you, about what you need, even people, well-meaning, family and friends what do you need? I don't know. What do you need? I don't know what I need. Food, you know, and so like.

Speaker 2:

As I was just that first year of pregnant, of motherhood, I get the deliveries of arroz con habichuela, the lasagnas or everything right, when my body probably needed something different and I couldn't decipher it. I couldn't decipher it, naomi. And so that ambiguity of that first year starts to tell me that, okay, something is different and I just couldn't tell what was different. Right, like, I couldn't figure it out. Um, so fast forward to um, I take a year sabbatical when the girls are 18 months, I take a year and a half sabbatical from work. Um, so I literally that's how we met I was started to consult for small businesses and just kind of share my both trained skills and gifts with entrepreneurs of all sizes. And I come to realize that the pandemic hits right. I'm consulting, making friends virtually, and I come to realize that all right, I'm ready to start moving again. Right, cool, not cool. That, all right, I'm ready to start moving again right, cool, not cool.

Speaker 2:

I was like I had forgotten how to run. I had forgotten how to move my body. This body needed something different from a movement standpoint. I was 39 now. You know, like I didn't. Even the term perimenopause wasn't even something that had crossed my stream of consciousness. It was. I didn't even know that was a term. There was no post on it anywhere yeah, no one talked about it.

Speaker 2:

and so I'm 39 and my goal is just to like feel better in my body, like fit into a smaller size. Here's the old mindset coming back, right. I was like, ok, I just want to fit into like a size X. I think a size eight was my goal at the time. Mind you, having come from, like you know, the fours and fives, I'm like I give up on that. I'm never going to go back to that, but at least an eight can I get to an eight? And so here I am, like let me get back into running, let me get back into eating the way I used to eat.

Speaker 2:

And it was that epiphany moment that I had when my sister, my, my youngest sister, met you and she realized you were a nutrition coach. I was complaining to my younger sister like I can't figure this out. How is it that I've been able to do this before? I've ran marathons, I've done events. How can I not lose this weight? Um, and my sister said you know, maybe you should, should talk to this Dominicana Naomi that I met, and she you know, you guys can just create community, right? Or like become friends, and so in that process, again that notion of we're talking 2020,. We're talking the early days of the COVID pandemic.

Speaker 2:

It was right around this time right around this time in 2020, where we were just clamoring for, however, we can find community, and for me, it was a sense of needing, like someone that could help support the goals that I had at the time. Historically, that had been my community with friends like athletic friends, right, but as a good New Yorker knows, you have those friends, the New Yorker friends, that are your friends when you're in your early 20s and 30s, and they don't. They all move back to wherever they came from.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're not New.

Speaker 2:

Yorkers Back to Colorado, back to wherever California, back to Florida, and suddenly those of us that are, you know, this is home. For us, it's tri state area is home. I kind of left having to recreate community right. So I found myself in motherhood, not understanding my body, needing to recreate community, and in a deep state of solitude, because we're all forced to be in solitude. Um and so at that point you know, I don't even remember, naomi, what it was, that, um, what that epiphany moment was. But when you and I started talking and you mentioned that you were a health coach, I get a term that was so not in the lexicon.

Speaker 1:

No, it wasn't for me either. I was embarrassed.

Speaker 2:

Oh.

Speaker 1:

I was like what is?

Speaker 2:

this. I was like you know what? I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's in front of me for a reason, so I'm just going to do it. You know, and I'm a firm believer that there are no coincidences, right? So it's like okay, this is in front of me, this woman who I've become to become friendly with on those inter worlds is saying she's gonna help me, let's do it.

Speaker 2:

You know, like I can use all the help I can use all the help I can get, and so at that moment, you and I working together, or at least um that refocus on my body and just feeling better, you know, like um became about reaching 40, because I was about to turn 40, um reaching 40, feeling my best. You know, like I just wanted to feel good, um. So that was a little bit of of that historical point of inflections and how your body meets one thing at one moment and then another thing at another, and yet no one tells you this, um, it's not part of the tia stories, not part of the grandmother stories, um, but it just is, you know, and especially in the life of those of us that are, you know, women, um humans that identify as women.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, first of all, if, if y'all don't know, maddie has like an incredible intuition. She just knows how to really tap in and listen to herself, and I think it's really beautiful. So along our journey together, you have taught me so much as well and have empowered me to really own my intuition as well.

Speaker 1:

And we're both Pisces. Our birthdays are February, right, so it's just like this. It was always a flowy connection. And I just want to thank you also for trusting me in this process, because I had just started my business back in 2020 as full time, because I had been helping women anyone that would allow me to help them since 2018. Anyone that would allow me to help them since 2018. And with the whole transition of COVID, I also came from an advertising background in my career.

Speaker 1:

So when you mentioned the drinking and the outings and the eating, I'm very familiar with that as well and eating bowls of ice cream in college. So very similar trajectory in our lives. And then this whole point of the whole world is shifting and we need to meet our needs in certain ways. And, yeah, like it was a moment of, I think I can support you. I know I can support you with what I know and what you're telling me and also being in this solitude space. So when all of what you know, when you're like your access, gets taken away from you all of a sudden, we can't be outside, we can't do so many things.

Speaker 1:

How do we do that in the space that we're in? So, thank you. And also mentioning that perimenopause wasn't on your mind, it wasn't part of the stories it is. It has been such a taboo topic for so many years is not until now where it's become the trendy thing to talk about or there's more research happening. Women that are like in the public eye are talking about it and hiding from it. So I feel for a lot of, even like mom, grandma, who has been going through all of this, and they don't understand because there's nothing out here. And usually what happens when we would go to the doctor is oh, you must be so stressed, oh, you know, you, here's an antidepressant. Or, like the doctors themselves didn't know, is, again, not until now where they were getting more formal education on this. So, yes, a lot happening during that time. And then we worked together again last year, right, I think it was yeah, these years are flying by the beginning of this year, I can look it up.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, I think it was mid last year, about this time last year. Yeah, so it was interesting, right, because I got to that first, uh, six month period that you had, you and I had together, I think, created a solid foundation. Like again, the physical activity was not the hard part for me. The hard part was I now have to eat differently. You know, um, and one of the things that you know, you hear in the ethers, once you become a mother, is put your mask on first. It's like the quintessential in-flight video, right, put your mask on first before helping others, um, but that's so much easier in theory than done, right, like um, and for me it was like I have these two humans, um, I'm not gonna have another kid again. This is it, like I'm never going to become a mother again.

Speaker 2:

So this is a one and done for me, and one of the notions that you really helped cement for me, on top of the idea of, obviously, the eating and how to, how to nourish my body, for what I needed, for what I needed, was this notion of taking care of myself as a mother. You know, like you're a few years ahead of me in motherhood and so you've already. You had already done the roller coaster of like put your mask on first, and I think for me just having someone quite honestly just give me permission, like we don't need permission. But sometimes you literally need someone quite honestly just give me permission, like we don't need permission, but sometimes you literally need someone to say it's okay, it's okay to like.

Speaker 2:

I just think they remember that one of the bad habits I had back then the first time around was I wouldn't eat dinner. I would just eat whatever leftovers were on the plates for the girls, because I would let myself fix meals for them. Get so hungry that I was just like eating their leftovers and then, on top of their leftovers which you know, I'm feeding them healthy, organic things, but it's caloric, it's calories that I don't need I would then fix my own meal, like an hour later, two hours later, and then I'm eating at like eight, nine o'clock at night, 10 o'clock at night, right, not realizing the effects that was having on my metabolism, or like how I unintentionally was taking in a huge amount of calories. Or you know, just in general, like it's okay for you to fix yourself a plate of a balanced plate of food and sit down and eat.

Speaker 2:

It sounds ridiculous to say it out loud, and yet it is like such a basic and a fundamental thing of put your mask on first right um, so for me, that was like a lot of the first phase of you and I working was this understanding of how do you fix your plate which I just generally even with a bit of an athletic background like I didn't even put into the consideration set like veggies, proteins, carbs, like how do you mix it? How do you drink it? Like, how do you keep your energy up throughout the day? Right, the second time around was a year ago and, um, so that was 2024. Right, sometime around 20, the beginning of 2020? No, the end of 2023, I started to realize that I had lost the habit of working out.

Speaker 2:

Um, and I hired a personal trainer who was recommended to me by a friend who's local here. I'm a diehard supporter of local and small businesses, so I do my best to make sure that my abundance is flowing to the people who are keeping our communities up and running. That is who I like to serve, and I found a local trainer happens to be on another mini Ghana and we're working. You know, working. I had never in my life lifted weights like I have been a runner, I mean like cardio queen Pilates. I used to do a ton of Pilates before the Pilates girlies came into being Gen Z Pilates girlies, like many of us geriatric millennials, have been doing that for a minute.

Speaker 1:

I refuse to accept that word. Okay, keep going.

Speaker 2:

And so I, for the first time ever, I'm like I am on a second floor. Kids, my daughters, are really heavy 50, 50, 60 pounds. I couldn't lift them up. I caught myself getting winded walking up a flight of steps. Um, I couldn't keep up like walking like New York City speed. I just felt my body like slowly falling apart and so intuitively, I'm like right, get back into working out. Oh, the weight started to pile on out of nowhere, like this belly situation was like like I was seven months pregnant again and I was like what is happening? You know, I have not changed the way I'm eating. I'm still doing the Naomi training from 2020. I don't feel like I've changed much. Right, like that was my thinking. And I come to realize, like I start to train with the trainer, I include she's like hey, you need more protein. I include a protein shake in there in the morning. I'm doing all the things.

Speaker 2:

Six months into training with the trainer, we do like a weigh-in and, uh, you know, they measure you for body fat and I had gotten bigger weight-wise and my inches had increased and I was. I was defeated. I was defeated, naomi. I was like I literally I did not burst into tears at the training studio because there were other people around, but I was like this is impossible. I've been working out like I've never worked out before. I'm lifting weights, um, something again that I had never done before, even in my trainings. Again like. This notion of the importance of muscle is relatively new, especially for women, right, like even in the endurance space, where I would see women flying doing, doing a marathon in two hours, three hours, like they were running. They weren't cross training too much, you know.

Speaker 2:

And so I have this moment where I had reached out to you when I first started working with a personal trainer because I was like, all right, I need to change my workout, I need to go back into working out and change something. And then, six months later, I had that moment where the weight happens, the scale, the body kind of mass measurement happens, and I come to the realization that I'm making no progress. I'm making no progress and that was like it effed up any convention I had about how did I needed to take care of my body. There was no way around it. I distinctly remember leaving that training session, getting into my car that day to drive home, and I think I called you on the spot and I was like you did call me from the car.

Speaker 2:

I called you from the car and I was like I don't know what is happening. It's like I have no idea. I honestly like at the time, um should not have taken on an additional financial like expenditure for myself, right, but I was like it's either that or I'm not gonna be okay, like it was another moment of just, like it is this moment in order for the rest of the moments to be what you want them to be um and like without thing, like without, like everything said, to do it again, like intuition was like just do it. Um, I just did it. I was like I need help. I have no idea what I'm doing, naomi, like I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Speaker 2:

And so that was the second time. And for me it was a non-brainer right like at this point, like yes, I have other people in my circle that could support me with nutrition and this and that, but I didn't want to think like I already knew what your processes and your way of working was, and I was like I just need to support in a way that is not jarring emotionally and physically to where I was right, which was I was already feeling the mood up and down of what I now know is perimenopause. I did not realize that, um, those weight gains, those fluctuations were wild, wild, um, and it was just a moment again of saying it's now or I need the help now because I don't have the bandwidth to take on life, take on motherhood, take on spousehood and take on the responsibilities that I have with my professional life and then try to figure this out at the same time.

Speaker 2:

You know, and so I did it. I think on the spot I was just like sign me up, yeah, to figure this out.

Speaker 1:

I remember, because I distinctly remember, that my phone rang out to 22 pm. Oh, look at that, yeah, and I was like, why is because usually, when we communicate, as is the custom, now is texting right yeah, of course like now calling somebody has become a foreign subject, even though that's what we were used to doing.

Speaker 1:

So a phone call is coming in and it's 2 22 and it's Maddie. And I know that, maddie, and intuition, and I know you did not do that on purpose, I did not but it just again. All the stars align and I'm like what is happening. And then the first thing you tell me is do you have a spot for me?

Speaker 2:

and I'm like what's going on? I'm like all right, um, where do I sign the dotted line?

Speaker 1:

you. You're like I need a spot. It was wild. It was wild.

Speaker 1:

I know I'm laughing about it now, but you were really in a space of, how you said, of defeat, and I just yeah, perimenopause again, as I mentioned earlier, is just being studied now and especially a lot of the times when it has been studied before, it has been on sedentary women, on women who are already unwell. So what I started doing in my career as a health coach is I know I wanted to get deeper into something, but I didn't know what it was quite yet in the beginning. And then by the time you came around the second time, I had already took a nosedive into hormone health generally and then into perimenopause slash menopause as it is with active women. So I started following that science and you just had to tell me like what you were putting into your smoothie and I was like I already know, like that was our first call fixing the smoothie.

Speaker 2:

Adjusting the smoothie.

Speaker 1:

Because what I like to say is that and you, you've set up this perfectly. When we're in our 20s and our early 30s, our body like, think of it as like an orchestra, like everybody's playing, like it doesn't matter a hurricane could come, a tornado, and everybody just knows their notes. They're playing, they're playing, they're playing is fine. And then this orchestra falls apart and it's like F, this metal figure's up. I'm out.

Speaker 2:

No, you have a trumpet back here. You have someone off here over here.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Then you have someone choreographing here. Yes, they all think they're singing to the same song. Yes, and singing to the same music, and they're all toned up Exactly. There's song yes, into the same music and they're all toned up exactly. There's a meme that I think went around where it's like perimenopause and it's like they're all trying to get in sync on the dancing and they just they can't they just can't yes.

Speaker 1:

so what happens when perimenopause comes around is that we have to become the conductor, we have to become the conductor, we have to become the conductor. But imagine being a conductor and you don't even know how to freaking, read music or how to play an instrument, and now you have to become the boss of this right Like the head of conducing this orchestra of hormones that are doing whatever the hell they want to do in the first place.

Speaker 1:

It's tough, so, but there is a lot of new strategy, scientific evidence of how we just need to do certain tweaks to how we're eating, when we're eating, how we're training, because now that beloved endurance sport and these exercises are seen as major stressors in the body and they start to hold on for dear life, especially so it's like you know you're telling we're in danger.

Speaker 1:

She is pushing heavy shit and she is running away Like what is she running away from? Exactly what's happening, exactly. So this whole process I'm like this is wonderful and it's moving in the opposite direction because, the body just does not feel safe and it's not getting the cues it needs from the outside.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

And then we started implementing all these things. So how did your journey shift when you started to implement more of a perimenopausal food and exercise focus, because I would send you with notes for your trainer, even though she's wonderful.

Speaker 2:

Yes, no, my trainer, and my trainer was so receptive of them, so, um it. To me it started with like, this notion of like. I did not realize how much sugar, um, I inadvertently was consuming first thing in the morning. Um, so I was using one of my kids like I buy them protein, like um to go protein containers, organic protein containers, because if they go to after school I put it in their snack box and I thought it was a brilliant idea. It's like one of us in the morning put a whole banana in it, put a little thing of peanut butter powder. I used to call it my chunky monkey smoothie. I still have the chunky monkey smoothie, but chunky monkey has gotten healthier. She's slim monkey now. Uh, and I was just like I thought I was on fire. I told the trainer she's like, because she told me she's like you're not consuming enough protein, right, and I said I got this protein smoothie and I was on that joint for two months. You know the New Yorker in me comes out like when I say joint. Yeah, I was on that joint for two months. It's like I'm doing my smoothie.

Speaker 2:

Um, first things first. I literally was just um. I literally was just like starting my morning with coffee, which I know back from when you and I started, was not a good thing. But that habit, you know, I usually started my morning with, like warm water with lemon. It just faded into the distance, like the sun set on that habit and it just faded away from my life and suddenly I caught myself like running out of bed, making coffee, getting the kids off to school Right, and then adding my disjointed monkey smoothie to the mix Right, and then going to the trainer. So that was interesting, right, because then the moment you and I started to dissect what that was, you were like oh, maj, what are you doing? And that was a moment I think it took two sessions for me and you and I to like dissect, like why that was so wrong.

Speaker 2:

Um, so when I started to shift that, that was the first thing. It's like okay, go back to your water. I can't do the lemon thing anymore because, again, perimenopause, getting older, now I have acid reflux very easily, right, like the body changes. So, yeah, just warm water with a lemon, without lemon and and we change to a much cleaner, much fuller protein. Right, we play with many versions of the protein.

Speaker 2:

Uh, first thing in the morning. I'm not a. I cannot consume food first thing in the morning, and you wanted me to eat something within an hour of waking up, and I was like Naomi, that's not gonna happen. I'm just not hungry, like I can drink something, but I cannot like start to chew something within the first hour. Um, so we had to just revisit what the first hour of the day looked like for me. Um, everything from cortisol levels like give yourself a little bit more time, like because I was exhausted, so I was like staying in bed until the very last second that I needed to wake up to make sure the kids went to school right on time, which anybody knows. It's like the most stressful thing to do.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Ever. But I'm exhausted so I'm just like letting it all be. And we adjusted the smoothie. Then it became okay, what kind of workouts are you doing? So it became a lot of like functional heavy lifting it. Then, you know, we then like kind of work through the need to add, like hit to get the heart rate up within a certain period of time.

Speaker 2:

I thought that workout against something, a mathematical equation. When it came to exercising, that I didn't have to consider. And then you're like OK, much, but right after you eat I said, yeah, I eat something within an hour. And you broke that convention down and it's like no, it has to be within 30 minutes. So all of this orchest we're eating, when you know, I love a piece of bread, I love a rice, like anyone, but what I thought was a cup of rice was not what it was a cup of rice, right. Then you told me to stop measuring things and I almost had a connips with you. I was like, girl, I'm not measuring anything. Um, talk about the ancestral scarcity mindset that has been a part of my like ancestry forever.

Speaker 2:

Right, where when you're measuring things, it's usually not because you're trying to be healthy but because but there isn't enough, right, and so that was a whole convention that I had to like, break down, like this is not about scarcity, this is about actually an abundance and how you heal and treat your body Like I had to. We had to rework all of that mathematics Right. Then we looked at, like the day, and what does a day look like? How long am I lasting between meals? Why am I snacking when I'm snacking? You know, why am I snacking an hour and a half after having lunch?

Speaker 2:

Um, so it's like going through all of these notions of um down to even like just you being open to implementing a technology, like a tool, an app that literally would help ease the way that I was tracking my foods, because the way I was tracking it with you the first time around wasn't working the second time around. Yeah, life gets more complicated, right? Um? So you got we kind of um. We worked to utilize something that was more easy within my lifestyle to be able to track and I still, to this day, use it. I don't know if you know, you probably do.

Speaker 1:

I know, I see it Till this day.

Speaker 2:

It is still pretty accurate. I needed that accountability tool, right? Because then when I would say, oh, I'm just going to grab these pita chips or these grapes, and then you're like, yeah, you can grab the grapes, but then grab a piece of parmesan cheese, snacking parmesan to balance out the blood sugar, then I'm like, oh, okay, I need to do this differently, right? Um, or, it's not a bowl of grapes, it's a cup of grapes, a couple grapes, y'all. It's like seven grapes. If anybody's ever done a couple grapes, it's seven grapes. Um, and so it was a lot of deconstructing this and and and. Then, at some point, you and I had a session where you, um, you said to me well, you know, this is for life and I just had to sit there for a second. There were many times that you, I was angry. There were many times that.

Speaker 1:

You know, I was angry there were many times that was angry. I was just angry, we would just sit we would just sit and stare at each other like what did you just say? I would just wait, because I know like her brain just takes a while, so she would sit there and like process and sit on it and I would just wait yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then you said it was for life. And I kid you not, I think you remember it took me about two or three weeks to like accept the fact that this was for life. And, mind you all, like after six months working, while I felt the difference in energy, I felt the difference in how I was feeling. I think at some point I was even on antidepressants and I stopped taking them when we were, when we started working together, because, again, I was losing my mind. I'm like, why am I times towards the end of our contractual relationship, coaching relationship, and I had to figure out, okay, how do I travel, how do I manage traveling with these new needs that I have to take care of myself, both for work and for pleasure? And at some point it's just like, yeah, I do have to do this for life.

Speaker 2:

And despite all of this changes and despite feeling good, I still was not necessarily seeing a huge amount of change, was not necessarily seeing a huge amount of change. Like the first time you and I worked together, within a month, a month and a half, I was seeing the weight go down, I was seeing the pants fit better and this time around, I mean, you and I stopped working together. What December? It's now April of 2025 and I'm still in. I'm still keeping all the discipline going and I just now, in like in the last month and a half, can myself recognize a physical difference. In like, I've lost inches from my belly, but again, that also was a readjustment for me.

Speaker 2:

Yes, right, because just four years earlier, within a month and a half, I was was like oh, I see, you know, clothes is getting looser. No, this is still a work in progress for me to do this. So that idea of like I really need to do this for life has been seared into my mind. You know, like, this is it? There is. No, you're doing it for summer and then you go back to regular life. No, this is regular life now. Um, and I think embracing that mindset is from a place of just like, abundance and from a place of grounding versus a place of drudgery has been key for me, you know what's?

Speaker 1:

what would you say, is the difference? Because I think in in shifting that mindset. How did you come to accept it? Because, like I said, we both said you were very unhappy at a lot of the tweaks that we had to do just to, like, put them in place and evolve. That's one to the mindset of, oh, it's so cute, we'll do this for three months and then that's it, I'll go back.

Speaker 1:

It's very diet culturey is very trendy, and I have this, like I've been mulling on this idea that wellness is not trendy and exciting, it's actually boring and repetitive repetitive and we're always looking for that excitement and it's like, oh yes, this new diet and this new thing and this, and we stay in this honeymoon period and not realizing that you're in it for life and it might look different, as you very clearly has shared as how has it evolved? But as a person who has had a long trajectory of things that have worked for you, you've been through many seasons of life. You've come from I just want to be skinny mindset the dieting culture, the what's cute and trendy, to now embracing the fact that this is how you are choosing to take care of yourself from an abundance mindset, and are patient with yourself and trusting to get results and to see progress. How have you kind of accomplished that shift?

Speaker 2:

Oh, um, you know for me, um, you know, for me it's been a radical. It's taking what I now know about what I need for this chapter I'm in and applying a radical not a radical sense of honesty with myself. It's. It's been like I'm reading a book called the Altar Within, a beautiful book about self-care and radical self-care, and she introduces Julia Diaz introduces the term radical honesty and sometimes, you know, as a culture, we understand radical honesty to be mea culpa, mea culpa, like I did this wrong, right, but part of it and the tools that you've given in terms of the apps and the things that, like, the app has been key for me because I can literally see it and I could track it and I know what, like when I'm not doing it. But even down to this is where, like, honest and gentle and self-loving, radical honesty comes into play for me, like like, uh, I had a handful of.

Speaker 2:

I was, I just came from DR, we were in Dominican Republic for a spring break with the girls and we went to a resort. I never go to resorts, but I was there and it's like, oh, I looked at the lays I never eat lays potato chips but I look at the ingredients to give you an example and I'm like, oh, the lays in the Dominican Republic has three ingredients. The lays in the US has 26 ingredients. I'll let the kids eat it. We're on vacation, right, but they're eating lays and here I am, those lays with. That was really damn good. Yeah, right, so down radical honesty for me looks like to utilize that example of me being away with the kids and and being on vacation. It looks like we'll track that as well. Right, because if the moment comes and then it will come where whatever I'm doing now may not work and I need to shift something again, having that radical honesty with myself where I'm not going to come and I'm going now may not work and I need to shift something again, having that radical honesty with myself where I'm not going to come and say I don't know what happened. No, I knew what happened. Maybe there were a lot of weeks and a lot of months where that lays. I'm using the lazy example was like I'm just going to grab these chips, I'm just going to grab this, so I'm just going to grab that. You know, know amounts to this consistent pattern of empty calories that are, you know, spiking my blood sugar versus maintaining my blood. You know my, maintaining my, regulating my blood sugar. So I use that as an example of like how I've had to be honest with myself on that radical honesty. It's an example of like you know what a half a cup of rice or a cup of rice, if I haven't had a lot of carbs today and I'm feeling a need for carbs, I'll have a whole cup of rice. If I have a lot of carbs today or I've been indulged in like the lays, then I do just half a cup. This is not a detriment. Like this is not a detriment to me. Half a cup, this is not a detriment. Like this is not a detriment to me.

Speaker 2:

I'm not doing it for what feels deep in my soul used to feel like how dare I measure food? I don't need to do that anymore. You know, it's like a deep rebellion. That was a very DNA for me. I'm like I do not measure food, I don't have a need to measure food. I know my ancestors did for survival, but I don't have a need to measure food. I know my ancestors did for survival, but I don't, and so I've had to reshift that.

Speaker 2:

To like radical honesty means that that's all your body needs right now. It's half a cup of rice and then, if I'm gentle and if I'm honest with myself, I don't need to beat myself down for it, you know. So I think that's been a big one. It's been radical honesty, and it's been radical honesty and accountability with me, no one else but me. Yeah, you know, um, and I think that that when people say bet on yourself, like I'm betting on myself that even though I just came from vacation and I, by the way, I've tested it, naomi I had the desserts, I had the drink, I didn't hydrate, I didn't keep up with my protein, I took everything I needed and I suddenly am like why am I feeling so sleepy?

Speaker 2:

Why am I getting a headache? Why does my body feel off? And I'm like I know why it feels off, I know exactly why it feels off. I don't like it's radical honesty. You've been indulging, which is okay, by the way. I had my drinks, I had my pina colada, you know, and at the same time, I also knew that when I got back or the next morning, I needed to hydrate, I needed to have my egg omelet, I needed to just kind of bring everything back, I needed to go for a workout.

Speaker 2:

I literally just need to move my body and like things just kind of started to fall back into place. So that's a long-winded way of saying like that's what I feel has worked for me at the moment. I also didn't realize I mean, jose gave me this which I now wear religiously how little I move when I'm not working out.

Speaker 1:

She's looking at her watch. It's a.

Speaker 2:

Garmin watch.

Speaker 1:

We worked on that, on how do you move on the days you work from home. How are you exactly?

Speaker 2:

because I and I did not realize, naomi, how little I moved until I became accountable myself and I would look at this at the end of the watch at the end of the day yeah and I'm like, oh, I've only moved a thousand steps. Yep, in like a whole day. That's wild, you know. Um. So, just like self-accountability, um, it's trusting that, even when the ship sails a little bit in the opposite direction of what you want it to, you have the skills to shift it back.

Speaker 1:

Um, so yeah yeah, it's beautiful and I like how you call it radical honesty, I think that it's also from my perspective is really being self-aware a thousand percent it's and and it's really the first thing that I teach my clients and even in my new like group program, sugar mama. Week one is on how do we become more self-aware because of exactly? You gave such beautiful examples. You're like oh, I'm feeling like crap. Oh, I know why I haven't done XYZ for myself. Oh, I'm not moving as much.

Speaker 1:

So and it's two other things you mentioned was with grace and love which is 100% part of my values, like we're not going to shame ourselves and be mean and all that. Like the world does enough of that and we grew up with enough of that to continue that. So this self-awareness is not to use to punish ourselves or to beat ourselves up, is more of data collection, of cause and effect and knowing how your body works and what it needs and what has shifted, instead of completely ignoring it and then doing like, oh, the I don't know it's like maybe you do know.

Speaker 1:

There was a point where I was like gaining so much weight so fast, and I'm like what is different? And I'm like, oh, maybe it's all the dates with peanut butter I'm eating at 10 PM at night, before bed, Like. And then you can start to pinpoint things and make a shift again, not from hate and shame and all that more of like.

Speaker 2:

This is not the direction I want to be moving in yeah, a hundred percent um, and it's hard, it's, it's really difficult to um we are. If we really were to take stock of how we speak to ourselves, um, I don't think we would speak to our worst enemies the way we speak to ourselves. And I mean for me. I guess a combination of you know, training and age and I invest a lot in my, in my just personal development has really kind of taught me that this is all also part of a larger system of colonialism you know that beats us down in a way that does not let us shine.

Speaker 2:

You know, like putting ourselves last is a system of colonialism that our ancestors were forced into, you know, so that other systems could be replaced in their minds and in their bodies. And we still carry that inside of us. You know, whether it's food, the scarcity, you know why did I fight you so much on a cup of rice, Naomi? You and I had a battle. When you said a cup of rice, I was I'm not doing it and I pulled this full-on tantrum. I was like I'm not doing it, I'm not measuring food you know what?

Speaker 1:

I feel you so wholeheartedly because the first trainer I ever had after I had my first kid back in 2015. He told me I had to get a food scale and I almost beat this guy down. I was like are you fucking nuts?

Speaker 2:

I'm not measuring food.

Speaker 1:

And to me it was like restriction. I'm like no, I just eat what I want. And for years and years and years and years and years, that worked well until I needed more accurate data as I got older. And now I find that it's so easy and so helpful and I, like almost, was embarrassed to buy this tool because I swore that I would never use this and I threw such a fit. But I also have grace for myself. I was just not ready.

Speaker 2:

And I didn't know you.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes you're just not ready. You, and something that we spoke a lot on is the why, like compared to our ancestors, your ancestors were moving over a thousand steps a day their entire lives more than that a physical labor right. So it's just the way our lives have shifted, in different environments and different conveniences.

Speaker 1:

The type of energy your body needs now versus other times. So it's not this good or bad, is well, what does your body need right now and how is it making you feel more of the question, right? Yeah, yep, yeah, yep, my day. If there is somebody out here who is like fighting themselves, like we were fighting with each other on measuring food, arms crossed and they're like, you know, I'm not feeling well. Everything I've done before is not working, but I am. Health coaching is a new thing. I don't know if I could trust people on the internet.

Speaker 2:

I don't know.

Speaker 1:

By the way it's 100%, 100%, because we've all had these thoughts in our head, but I am so tired of being tired and I need to do something different. What would you tell them as a few words of encouragement when it comes to food and holistic health coaching?

Speaker 2:

I think deep down inside, when we are all feeling not our best, we know what we need. I think deep down inside, like if, if you're the person receiving this message right now and you are, there's like a discomfort in your body. I don't mean physically, like you may physically not feel great, but there's a as a physical discomfort or a spiritual discomfort, metaphorical discomfort. There's an unease and an a lack of like, just an unease, um, with how you're feeling. I would urge everyone to just literally, uh, sit with your thoughts, like sit in silence, tune out the world, um, literally like I, I I'm a, I use like noise canceling headphones, like tune out the world and literally breathe and listen, because what you need will come to you. You know, maybe it's a cup of water, maybe you literally need more water. You know, maybe that snack, maybe that 3 pm coffee is just not it for you, and maybe you need some sunshine every day, maybe you need support from someone that can help guide you along the way.

Speaker 2:

You know, I think that if we are all radically honest with ourselves and we all sit in some sort of silence whether it's meditative or whether you're a prayer some sort of silence, whether it's meditative or whether you're a prayer, or whether you speak with the ancestors and practice the veneration of them, like you will know exactly what you need. Your body is not going to lie to you, we just talk ourselves out of it. You know, and I think that the rational mind is really good at telling us no, no, no, that's not what you need. No, just go ahead, do something else. The rational mind will rationalize us into any direction positive, negative, neutral or whatever.

Speaker 2:

But what is certain to me right now, at this phase in my life and in the chapter of my life that I'm currently living, is that you always know you to just approach our health, our well-being, even just like our goals in our life, with a more grounded sense of what you truly want. I think there's a just like the little, there's a little like liberation that happens once you take on the process to get to where you need to get to, in this case, wellness, um, it could be a business challenge that you have, it could be anything, um. So I just I would say just, you know what you need, just listen yeah, thank you for that.

Speaker 1:

thank Thank you for being here. If anybody wants to reach out and connect with you, how would that be possible?

Speaker 2:

You can find me on LinkedIn. That is the most neutral way to find me. It's Mageline Concepcion, a full name at LinkedIn, whatever backslash, so you'll see a beautiful picture of myself on there go check her out and ask all the questions the link will also be in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Yes, thank you for having me. Naomi thank you so much for being here, for your vulnerability, sharing your story so in depth, and your wisdom and your journey. Thank you so much thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you everybody. Have a great day.