Sheryl Carroll

81 – Sheryl Carroll

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[00:00:00] Tony Winyard: Habits Health episode 81.

[00:00:14] Tony Winyard: Welcome to another edition of Habits & health. My guest today is Sheryl Carroll, who is an ex banking professional turned integrative health practitioner and health coach. And she’s passionate about supporting women in perimenopause and menopause to live with radiant energy, feeling strong and sexy and both body and mind. And she runs 1 to 1 groups and does group coaching programs to help women achieve this goal. So we’re going to find out a lot more about how she goes about that. What got her into this in the first place. That’s all coming up in this episode hope you enjoy it please do share it with anyone who would get some real benefit from it

Habits & Health. , my guest today, Sheryl Carroll, how are you Sheryl?

[00:00:59] Sheryl Carroll: I’m good. Thank you. And how are you doing?

[00:01:01] Tony Winyard: I’m doing well, it’s actually beautiful blue skies here at the moment

[00:01:05] Sheryl Carroll: black here.

[00:01:07] Tony Winyard: it’s 11 o’clock in the morning for me. So what time is it for you?

[00:01:10] Sheryl Carroll: so it’s 8:00 PM here.

[00:01:12] Tony Winyard: And for those people listening have obviously no idea where here is as far as you’re concerned so where is here?

[00:01:18] Sheryl Carroll: So I’m in Australia. We’ve actually recently moved from the Northern beaches in Sydney to the Southern Highlands. I used to live in London and, my husband also used to live in the UK and we really love English countryside. So we decided we’d have a bit of a tree change and we’ve moved to the Highlands.

Cause it’s actually very much like the English countryside. Yeah. So we are getting used to the cold weather, and a quieter way of life.

[00:01:45] Tony Winyard: and because you’re not originally Australian, so have you adopted a Aussie accent?

[00:01:51] Sheryl Carroll: No, I still very much say, yeah, I can’t. I think my accent from living in London and, I last lived in South Africa when I was. in 2004, so I’ve been gone for a very long time. So I think my accent has probably changed a little bit to all the places I’ve been to.

[00:02:08] Tony Winyard: Yeah. I lived abroad for 12 years and I, in that period, I lost my London accent a lot during that time. But now, since I’ve been back in the UK 20 years, it’s come back a year.

[00:02:17] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. Yeah.

Pick up everything.

[00:02:20] Tony Winyard: If I asked you a question, who are you, how would you answer.

[00:02:25] Being a healer

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[00:02:25] Sheryl Carroll: Who am I? That’s a deep one. I think we so often define ourselves by what we do. and I would say if I was to do that, I would say that I am a healer. I, it brings me great joy to support people, to, to get them to, to a place that they didn’t think they could get to. And I think that’s why I’ve ended up. in the career that, that I am now in.

And how how did that all come about? So what was the catalyst for what it is that you.

[00:03:06] Sheryl Carroll: So I, I went outta school. I was good at accounting. I went on the path of becoming a chartered accountant and that never really floated my boat. And I was always interested in. connecting with people, I’ve always been a great listener. just really helped supporting people get through difficult times.

and I also had a very keen interest in health and wellbeing. So with that, fast forward many years, and I had my first child. Still in banking. I decided to do my personal training qualification. but through doing that and qualifying, I realized I didn’t want that as a career like to me, although it’s amazing.

[00:03:44] Sheryl Carroll: And it’s a really great skill to have. I just felt like it didn’t give me the depth of, experience with a person. and. Then I had a very good friend of mine who, we always thought she was very healthy. She was diagnosed. Bowel cancer and passed away three months later at the age of 35. And that this prompted like a real look at my definition of health.

[00:04:09] Defining health

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[00:04:09] Sheryl Carroll: And, cuz she always exercised. She ate well, I’m like, what does it mean to be healthy? And if this can happen to her, there must be more to it. And that kind of sent me. Like a real investigative journey into understanding what it truly means to be healthy and what can be at the root cause of so many of these diseases that we are experiencing right now.

And through that, Investigative time. I did various qualifications, to become a holistic health coach and integrative health practitioner. And I decided to leave my banking job, after doing it for doing it part-time for a while. I just realized that. It was so much more my calling than, working in banking as an auditor.

So I took the plunge and now that’s what I do. And it’s been incredibly fulfilling and rewarding.

[00:05:06] Tony Winyard: So you asked yourself what is health? What are your thoughts now on what is.

[00:05:12] Sheryl Carroll: So health. so the way I would define health is having the energy and the motivation to show up for the things. That are important for you in life and showing up in the way that you want to. So I think there’s a very big difference between, just use the example of somebody, showing up for their kids.

For example, like just like doing the duty because you have to, as opposed to showing up and like really playing and, really engaging and being present. there are two very different things you can be physically there. , but you’re not emotionally, spiritually, everything there. So you know that’s my definition of health now.

because it’s not like what somebody looks like aesthetically at all. there can be so much going on when somebody looks healthy from the outside, like the traditional look of health.

[00:06:06] Tony Winyard: There’s so often when like a sports person, supposedly in a prime of their. Dies or, like a famous football or a runner or whatever it’d be. And in so many people say, oh,he was really fit. So therefore it doesn’t make any difference if I eat badly or because even if you’re really fit, you can still, yeah.

People will have that kind of reaction to that kind of thing.

[00:06:28] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. And it’s almost people sometimes have the take like, you doomed, if you do, and you doomed, if you don’t rather than, okay. that’s interesting. let me take that as a data point that you know, that to challenge and question, Yeah, and I think it’s very much people’s.

what I find very much with the people that I work with is that you normalize your own experience. So you lose touch with what you know, true health can look like because you’re so used to living with. waking up in the morning and just feeling very foggy or,always having a bloated belly or, just feeling tired all the time, because that’s just what you always are.

so it’s quite, It’s a real process to stand back and get, an objective view on your current situation. And I don’t think people don’t have the time and space to do that proactively, like it generally has to be getting to the point of, I feel really crap to, to actually take action.

[00:07:30] Sheryl Carroll: Unless you’re somebody like me, who’s got,one of my highest values is health and, I just find it very interesting to continually improve. Like I want to continuously understand my body and improve and make things better, but, I’m one, a little outlier, with, a few of the population, other people don’t have the same drive.

[00:07:52] Tony Winyard: So that’s interesting. So in the clients that you’re working with, how many of them, what percentage of them would you say their main value is health?

[00:08:03] Sheryl Carroll: I would say they value health, but it’s not. cuz I think if what they say about, how you see how people value certain things in their life is looking, look at their spending pattern. And I know that none of the people that I work with have the same PA spending pattern as me when it comes to, health and wellbeing.

they do value it because I think the experience of COVID has everybody’s, it’s leveled everybody with, without health, you have nothing, which I think has been probably one of the positives that has made people look at their health. but. Yeah. it’s that wouldn’t be the highest spending category for them.

and typi, is there, do you have a typical client, a typical condition, or is it pretty varied?

[00:08:50] A typical client of Cheryl

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[00:08:50] Sheryl Carroll: So when I started off, it was, I was, generalist, it’s really just anybody who’s suffering with any sort of, symptoms. I’ve niche more now into supporting women in perimenopause. So that’s women from the age of 35 plus, perimenopause and menopause. but I do have men and. Women outside of that age category as well.

, obviously my, so my passion is supporting women to understand this phase of life because I think it’s, there’s a lot of, Misunderstanding around the phase and what it needs to look like. And,people fall into this, oh,this happens because I’m this age and I’m trying to change the narrative on that and get women excited for the opportunity that this transition is.

so that’s my. Chunk of group programs and messaging and all of that, but from a general client perspective, my, my training is really looking at root cause and I’m an auditor. So I very much like I really wanna go down and understand, I love complex cases. whether it’s GAT or autoimmune conditions or.

[00:10:00] Sheryl Carroll: Whatever, if somebody it’s like a, a connection thing, if somebody is really interested in their health and is ready and they’re ready to do the work and go deep, I just, I would love, like I work with them cuz you know, it’s that partnership of supporting them to get to that better place.

[00:10:19] Menopause

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[00:10:19] Tony Winyard: And you talked about menopause and it’s not an area that I specialize in at all, but it seems to me that, women going through that, it will be so helpful to them to work with someone like a health coach because there’s so many changes during that period. From my understanding, it’s the minority. You do of seek help, but most of them, most women just accept that, oh, life’s going to shit or whatever, during that period?

[00:10:45] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think it’s probably people probably fall into one of two categories either. It’s like a lack of awareness that there is an alternative route that there are these other options. it doesn’t even have to be working with a health coach. There are so many brilliant. Female and male practitioners, holistic practitioners that are writing books, giving all of these amazing tips on how to, approach this transition and how to thrive, from a, like a mental health standpoint from a physical standpoint. So it’s there are so many resources out there. either there’s, lack of awareness of that, or there’s just.

I just need to sack this up and soldier on because that’s, that’s what my mother did. And I’ve got all of these other responsibilities. yeah, there’s I think there’s a lot more information that’s coming, to the forefront. I know in the UK, there’s a huge focus on it.

I’m partnering with a company that does, like an employee wellbeing platform, and it’s traditionally focused on parental transition and they’re launching the. The menopause offering now, I’m also working with a company in Hong Kong who also doing a, we are doing a premenopause education program for corporates.

[00:12:03] Sheryl Carroll: So I think there is the things are slowly changing. And I think if it comes in. and it become spoken about, and women start to talk more as opposed to holding things in and not being ashamed of these things that are going on. Then I think it’ll, all of these different opportunities and options will start to bubble up.

[00:12:24] Importance of educating partners/spouses on the menopause and changes involved

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[00:12:24] Tony Winyard: Obviously it’s essential that women get more educated or more awareness about all the different changes that may happen in the menopause, but also their partners. It’s just as important for them to learn more about it, so therefore they’d be more understanding and so on.

[00:12:40] Sheryl Carroll: Absolutely. And II can talk about that. First hand,so I’m 42 now. And my background is so I’m like, I’m quite a small body type and I was a massive marathon runner. So I used to run marathons back to back when I was living in London and obviously for, particularly for a small person.

But I think for any woman, that’s a massive strain on their body. So that. Like almost so the way you go into, your late thirties is really that can really inform how you go into perimenopause and menopause. So for me at the age of,41, I started to experience some of these symptoms of, not being as resilient to stress.

And I think that was also built, brought on by horrendous sleep with my child and very stressful work environment. The bank that I was working at, which was just like a perfect storm. And, I was just. I started to experience these things. I’m like, what is going on? And, through this kind of investigation into my own health, I realized that I was in perimenopause.

and I was experiencing these symptoms earlier and, and it actually, it can happen. Women can start to experience these things from the age of 35. and it’s. I think women start to feel that they may be going a little bit crazy, cuz they’re like, but I used to be this way. And now I’m this way, like what is going on is totally unsettling.

[00:14:11] Sheryl Carroll: And to your point, like from a partner’s perspective, it’s what is wrong with my wife? what is going on with it? and I think it’s really important for both parties and for employers to even. Understand, so that people can seek, the help that they need, and it really is a massive change in lifestyle that’s needed. when you move into this phase, because if you think about it, the childbearing ears are all about giving outward, giving your energy outward. And then as you move into per menopause, it’s about turning inward. And when we don’t turn inward enough, which means actually slowing down resting, which is very hard when you’ve got kids jobs, elderly parents, all of that sort of thing.

That’s when. These symptoms will, present and become more intense.

[00:15:04] How to make partners more aware of the changes

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[00:15:04] Tony Winyard: would you give any suggestions of how are they able to make their partners more aware of why they maybe are acting differently because of, order sort of the various things that are going on with, within them? How can they make their partners more aware about that?

[00:15:22] Sheryl Carroll: So I think it’s just a conversation. that the starting point would be understanding it themselves and understanding, the lifestyle shifts that they need to make to. Feel better because I don’t think, it, it can be a bit of a cop. You can act like a terrible woman, and just blame it on the hormones.

like it’s not, it’s actually not an excuse. when you have these, like either your moods. Horrendous or, you’re tired all the time, whatever, it’s your body telling you that something is out of balance? it’s the same for whether you impair menopause or,or not. When you have these signs from your body, you need to respond.

so I think it’s for women a to educate themselves on the transition and educate them on themselves. what they should be doing to shift how they’re feeling like what do they need to invest in? Because ultimately it may mean that there’s a shift for the family unit in terms of. maybe a woman who has never prioritized herself has always, put herself down on the bottom, rung in the family.

[00:16:30] Sheryl Carroll: So she’s actually now needs to take some time out or needs to start saying no to certain things. so I think it’s the communication of what she needs, but that needs to come from an informed place. and then, it’s the conversation around, this is why. My symptoms are presenting.

and this is what I need to do. And, asking for their support or whatever it may be.

[00:16:53] Tony Winyard: As you were saying that it made me remember. I attended a talk. Are you familiar with Gabor Mate ?

[00:16:59] Sheryl Carroll: Yes.

[00:17:00] Tony Winyard: So I attended a talk with Gabor Mate a couple of years ago or before, before COVID. And I remember one of the things he was talking about was how women take on stress so much more generally than men do. And he was talking about some chronic conditions.

I forget which particular chronic conditions they were, but there was a couple in particular of chronic conditions. Women were something like six or seven times more likely to get these conditions than men. And it was mostly because of the way that they take on stress so much more than men generally.

[00:17:31] Why stress is much more prevalent in women

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[00:17:31] Sheryl Carroll: It is, you are so true and it’s very interesting. So one of the things that is shown is that unresolved trauma, Can actually bring out these other underlying conditions to your point for women in perimenopause. So it’s things like fibromyalgia, lupus, like all of these kind of autoimmune conditions is so often an emotional or, an unresolved trauma components of it.

And, I’ve for quite a few women that I’ve worked with have had some quite traumatic things going on. in their past and, that’s often,the missing puzzle piece. Like they can do all the lifestyle things, but it’s addressing that component that, will let everything, Click into place.

it’s got something to do with the, the change in our sex hormones. We don’t have as much resilience to stress and these unresolved traumas. It’s like a stone in the shoe that just it’s just there. It’s just niggling. And we don’t really have the resilience to be able to just push it down and not look at it.

[00:18:36] Sheryl Carroll: So it’s, and that, that’s why there’s a beautiful book by Han blank on her name, but it’s the w it’s called the wisdom of menopause. and it’s all about this kind of like the real opportunity for. app leveling and dealing with your shit and, working through that, to come out the other side and, have this really long period of your life living in alignment with your values.

so yeah, there’s, there is some work to be done, where you do have unresolved stuff, because it’ll keep showing its head in, in various ways.

[00:19:11] Tony Winyard: Why did you choose to focus on per and many menopause clients?

[00:19:16] Why did Cheryl focus on menopause?

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[00:19:16] Sheryl Carroll: Because of. the fact that I was so I didn’t, first of all, so I didn’t actually know that I was in per menopause. another health coach, friend of mine was using, have you heard of the Healy device? It does like a bioresonance scan using a picture of your face and she just got the device and she said, do you want me to run one for you?

So she did it. And. On this report, I popped the word menopause and I was 41 at the time. And I was like, what on earth? that’s not happening to me for a very long time. so I asked her to Rere it for me. I said, this is not right. And she reran it and I popped the word again. And I was, and this really got me rattled.

and I realized that I had a real negative association with menopause and what it meant and. So I really needed to, just look at that and really work through that because if you are, were a born female, you’ve got female parts, female anatomy, you are going to go through menopause. and so then I’d actually in, through my training, even though it was a very in depth training, there was, there were parts on, on the hormonal side of things, there was obviously a section of menopause, but there was nothing on perimenopause.

[00:20:33] Sheryl Carroll: And that’s when I started to do my research and, trained under more doctors and read so many more books. To really get to grips with this phase, because it really is the phase leading up to the end of your, of you cycling. That is the tricky time. And that was the time that I was in.

And through that I’d realized that I’d actually been attracting a lot of women who were in this phase. And that’s why they were feeling the way they were feeling. Like I knew that there was hormonal imbalance, but I didn’t, I wasn’t aware at that point that they were in. Perimenopause. by default I’d been attracting these women and, obviously through me now going through this because, I had, through my, those years in banking, I’d actually end up burnt out my nervous system, a turtle wreck, which had obviously exacerbated like the onset of my symptoms as well. I’ve been on a journey to balance my nervous system and just to really educate me on,how I can best support my body. And then obviously with that, I’m very well equipped now to support other women, I want my learning.

To be, to make other people’s lives easier. And I’m very open and, transparent on my social media and everything as well, with what I’m going through and just so that other people can take that and, know, not think that they’re going crazy or are on their own.

[00:22:00] Tony Winyard: Obviously it’s different for everyone, but what is a typical duration of this whole phase?

[00:22:07] Typical duration of the menopause

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[00:22:07] Sheryl Carroll: So I can start from the age of 35. and some women go into menopause at 55.

[00:22:14] Tony Winyard: Right.

[00:22:15] Sheryl Carroll: Like the average age is 51. an average amount of time is 10 years, but it can be longer. if I, if, so my mom went into menopause, I think like in her fifties. And so if I continue, I would’ve gone through this phase for 10 years.

So there’re three parts of premenopause. So there’s like the early premenopause. , which is when progesterone starts to decline., that’s the calming hormone. And then you have, you go through a phase where your estrogen goes up and down, and that’s when the ovaries are deciding that they no longer want to do the job anymore.

So there’s this kind of brain ovary connection of do the job. No, I don’t want to like this kind of thing going on. And then the final phase is when your estrogen is really kind. petering art and that’s when have long, phases between your cycles. So there is a, quite a lengthy transition.

[00:23:09] What induces it; genetics, environment…?

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and for people who it does come on much earlier for say in their late thirties or early forties, is that because of genetics or environment or is there any.

[00:23:22] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. So it can very much be, genetic. if people, if,people’s moms would ever have had like incredibly early menopause, but, before 40 is very early, like that’s quite,on the rarer side of things, but, So for me, it was really lifestyle. So it was, the fact that I’d run marathons, which totally messed up my cycle for 10 years and then had children later and then was completely burnt out through lack of sleep and a highly stressful job.

So that. So for me, mine was just brought on by, how I’d been treating my body, which is why it’s so important actually for women when they don’t even think they’re anywhere near menopause. Like I would love to get in front of women, like from the age of 35 and say, this is what, like really start to turn your life around in kind of these ways.

What I noticed in myself is that I, it only really started to like, completely affect me from the age of 41. But I could have really set myself up better by adjusting my lifestyle before that.

[00:24:34] What is an integrative medicine practitioner?

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[00:24:34] Tony Winyard: You are now an integrative health practitioner. So for anyone listening, who maybe is not, is a bit unsure what that means. Could you explain.

[00:24:43] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah, of course. So it’s so certification through a doctor in the us called Steven cabal, he’s pulled together a whole lot of, different types of, like healing modalities. So like Eastern and Western. Medicine Iveta traditional Chinese medicine, functional medicine, and pull that together to create this, certification.

So the foundation is based on what’s called the de-stress protocol and that’s all the lifestyle factors that you need to look at and kind of master to achieve your health goals. So it’s diet. Exercise, stress management, toxin removal rest. So getting into the parasympathetic nervous system, emotional balance, supplementation and success mindset.

So it really is, full body, mind, spirit. kind of optimization. but then I also, I did the level two certification, which is functional medicine lab test, so that I can, if you’ve got gut issues, I can run testing for you, look at your toxicity levels, like really get into what’s going on in your body.

Cause I feel like that’s a very powerful way to show people and also to motivate people to take action when. There may be a bit of resistance to change and be like,look at your results as something that needs to shift here.

[00:26:09] Differences between a GP and Integrative medicine practitioner

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[00:26:09] Tony Winyard: Yeah. Yeah. And for someone listening who may be. Doesn’t really understand why that might be so important to them. I think one of the biggest differences for functional medicine practitioners, integrated medicine practitioners; you’ll spend so much longer with, a client than if they go and see their GP for example.

[00:26:29] Sheryl Carroll: Exactly. And I think that’s the whole, it’s like the whole model of care is very different. You know, traditional medicine is really about sick care. putting band aids onto the symptoms. Whereas working with somebody like me, it’s all around, really understanding everything about your lifestyle, understanding your history, understanding the trauma, all of that, so that I can get a baseline picture of you.

And then. understanding how you move, how you eat, how you manage your stress, all of those sorts of things. And then. We work together. Like I, I only work with people over periods of, three months. if somebody wants to do a health, check-in, I may do. I don’t like to do that, Cause I don’t think you can bring about much change when you only spend an hour with a person. but I really like to work with people over three months and we incrementally. Adjust, your lifestyle so that you can start to, feel better and implement these habit changes, which I know is, your thing, right?

It’s all about those making these changes and making them a habit, making a change and making it habit. so that’s really what we do. And then if somebody does have, hormonal imbalance or, they’re always bloated or whatever, then, if they do have the funding available, I can run specific lab tests so we can see what’s going on in, in their body and work on protocols for that.

[00:27:56] The reason why finding out about past trauma is so important in treatment

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[00:27:56] Tony Winyard: So you mentioned there about how you are really go into their background and their history of trauma and things that happen many years ago. And a lot of people think, why is that important? That has no bearing on how I’m feeling now.

[00:28:10] Sheryl Carroll: I know, and it all does, I had this very interesting conversation. I’m running a program with a. A brilliant exercise physiologist. And we were talking about scars and I don’t think that people realize the impact that scars have on the functioning of their body, and it’s until somebody asks and connects the dots that. It’ll be like, oh, so that’s why I’ve got this, I can’t, I’ve got this issue with my, range of motion and that’s why then I’m always tight and stiff and have neck issues or, or have gut issues, scar tissue around the gut is one of the, is one of the reasons why people can have recurring gut issues.

so all of that stuff that people often discount. Can be so can actually be like the gold to, to actually understand what’s going on with them.

[00:29:04] Tony Winyard: And I’m not even sure if it’s just that they discount it. I think it’s just total lack of awareness for

[00:29:08] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It’s just not knowing that all of these things could have an impact. And I think it’s, and to your point you made earlier is that, with the GP, I think many GPS would love to spend more time with their patients, there’s an allotted 10 minutes, go and go out and that’s all you can really do.

Whereas, the luxury of time when you have longer with somebody is that you can. Just keep, keep digging, keep digging, keep digging, keep digging, because there are a lot of people that are very complex,very complex health issues going on. and the thing that makes me very sad is that obviously the, it’s not the health coaches or integrative health practitioners, whatever aren’t covered by medical aid.

So people can’t. often can’t afford to spend on, this healthcare side of things, they have to go their doctors, but they’re constantly getting let down and they can’t afford another way. So they end up giving up. so it’s, the beautiful thing is that there’s, I think social media is amazing.

but it’s just. trying to get people onto the right people to follow who they can trust and, take action off the back of their recommendations.

[00:30:21] How to implement habits successfully

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and you touched upon Habits before and you talked about how you, your minimum period is three months. And I think one of the things for it’s important for people to realize. Is that almost every chronic condition you can think of took years for it to occur within a body. It’s not gonna disappear in a, on a couple of sessions.

[00:30:39] Tony Winyard: And that’s why you do need to give yourself a few months for, to slowly start working or reversing some of those chronic conditions. Isn’t it.

[00:30:48] Sheryl Carroll: Absolutely. And I think with,with the people I work with is generally. there’ll be a sign on for another three months and another three months because we just not there or the, or they just haven’t been able to, let go of the old Habits and fully, embody the new habit. there’s,the beauty is in the accountability and always being held in a container to be able to get to the point of being ready to fly off on their own. because ideally, it’s three months to let go of the old Habits, three months to really embed the new Habits.

So ideally you’d want, six months with somebody.

[00:31:30] Tony Winyard: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:31:31] Sheryl Carroll: because there’s a cuz there’s a lot. And you know, as, as you know, it’s, you can’t overwhelm people with the changes to their Habits. and I’ve learned through experience that I’ve wanted to give so much value to people, but then it’s just too overwhelming.

So it’s really focusing on, okay, let’s master this one thing let’s master it. It’s master it. And then when I see that they are embodying the new habit, then we move on.

[00:31:59] Tony Winyard: And I know that cannot be overemphasized. It’s so important just to work on one thing at a time, because if you try and take on, try and change three or four areas of a life at the same time, you’re just setting yourself up for failure most of the time.

[00:32:11] Negative self-talk

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[00:32:11] Sheryl Carroll: Definitely. And I think it also goes into the, the negative self talk as well. oh, I can’t do this I’m I always fail when actually there we’re set up for failure because they try to do too much. and then it’s just, it. this behavior change is all around mindset.

so it’s about trying to get people to be set up for success in how they approach it.

[00:32:32] Tony Winyard: Are there any Habits that you would recommend to most women going through menopause that would help.

[00:32:39] 3 pillars recommended by Cheryl

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[00:32:39] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. so I break it down into three pillars, so it’s nutrition movement and stress management, and a fourth one, which is just an assumption and, everything that I push is around. Um, so on the nutrition side of things, it’s. Really moving to a whole food diet. We can’t do processed food.

We can’t do lots of sugar. We actually can’t do lots of carbs. We need to focus on, sufficient protein because we lose muscle as we lose our hormones. and we need that to be able to maintain our muscle and to maintain our bone strength as well. and just lots of diversity of plant food because our gut health also suffers with the change in hormones.

Like really just eating a very kind of, just a very good clean diet, can go a very long way to supporting,reduction in hot flashes. sorry. And alcohol is also something that people don’t like hearing, but is necessary to like really tone down if you wanna get good sleep. And you don’t wanna suffer from hot flashes and you don’t wanna have brain fog and all of that.

[00:33:52] Sheryl Carroll: So that’s on the nutrition side of things and then movement. We just need to move more. We can’t be sat at desk for 12 hours, and there needs to be a real focus on strength training so that we can continue to maintain our muscle mass and, our bone strength. And then, and that also increases our metabolic rate because we are prone to a bit of belly fat as our hormones change.

And so that’s why that diet side of things that we don’t have any kind of insulin issues going on is so important. And as with, actually keeping muscle on and then stress is probably the biggest one. because there’s so many hidden stresses that I don’t think people are aware of. So obviously there’s the, the emotional and mental side of things, of stress, so perceived stress, but then there’s also, things like, circadian disruption per sleep, sleep apnea, Like GI issues, like any sort of virus or anything like that also causes like all of these, like all cause stress on the body. And with that excess stress, it just causes an absolute, mayhem with our hormones, particularly those within the transition. so those are my, the three kind of main pillars, obviously with the overarching umbrella being just to have your tribe of. People around you, who are your supporters that you can trust that you can rely on.

so that may be a health coach, maybe a GP. It may be, your husband, like some really good girlfriends that you can share and all of that. So I would say if any woman wants to start to shift things for herself, like those would be the things to focus on.

[00:35:44] Tony Winyard: But going back to what we were saying a few minutes ago, that you don’t wanna make all those changes at once. what would be a typical timeframe? What would you start with maybe of those areas? You just talked.

[00:35:55] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. So I would say nutrition would, I would cuz that’s quite,that’s quite tangible. You can look at what you’re eating. You can look at your behaviors around food. You can look at where you are using food as. a buffer, and really start to shift that because I think when you’re fueling yourself, you will then likely have more energy to then be able to turn your mind to movement. and you also be slightly more resilient if you’re not dealing with, glucose spikes and dips. So I will always say as a, as a starting point, in my programs, I will always start with nutrition cuz we have to be fueling our body enough to be able to. Actually make it through the day, have the energy, have the, support the mood, all our neurotransmitters are made in the gut.

There’s so much that goes on with how we eat, what we eat and when we eat.

[00:36:54] Tony Winyard: Yeah. Yeah. So after they’ve started with the nutrition, what would they do next?

[00:37:02] Sheryl Carroll: So I would. Depending on their baseline. are they already moving? what is their, what is their starting point? if somebody’s not moving at all, I would get them to start to implement,just the principle of moving more in their day. let’s just get them moving more in their day and then I’d say the next thing would be to add onto that would be to really take control of their stress. With that. I encourage people to do a bit of a stress inventory. So to really think about what stresses them out in their life, is it, family members? Is it, always saying yes to making things for a particular club or, these things that are on their to-do list that are actually just causing them stress.

Or, stuff, unresolved stuff in their house or whatever it is, just what is stressing you out? Why is it stressing you out? And what can you do about it? so that you can start to take control of the stress side of things, and really just work on getting them to implement, like good daily routines, like that is so important, morning routine anchor points in the day to return to the breath and then prioritizing rest and reflection and gratitude in the evening.

[00:38:19] Tony Winyard: So we are coming towards the end, but before we go into sort of like the closing part of the recording, is there any question that I haven’t asked you about menopause that you think is really useful for people to know about, or maybe not necessarily menopause, but other areas that you are helping people.

[00:38:33] Don’t just tolerate it

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[00:38:33] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. So it isn’t really a question, but I think, I guess a message that I would like to lead with people is that. We shouldn’t be living life tolerating things, So whether it’s a woman who is going through para menopause or in menopause, you shouldn’t have to tolerate, debilitating, hot flashes.

Or if you are a man, who lives with, chronic neck pain, or somebody who is just always bloated 24, 7 is always uncomfortable when they eat. And they’ve just learned to accept it because that’s the way their body is. And my biggest message is that is not a way to live and that you should really just keep working to find somebody who can support you to turn that around for you, because there’s always.

A better way. so don’t just accept the way you are now as the way you have to be. Like, there is always a better way. and that’s obviously my messaging with menopause. like it doesn’t have to be the end of your life is actually a wonderful opportunity for change and to make this. The best, phase of your life.

and I, but I think it’s with anybody who’s suffering at the moment or just, just living in a way that’s just oh, it’s fine. I just have to live with it because you don’t, there’s always something you can do. And you can find there’s so many different modalities. It’s just about having a beginner’s mind and opening your mind and maybe doing something out of your comfort zone.

if you’re not a Reiki person, go to Reiki, give it a go. just try something else. Try acupuncture.

[00:40:10] Tony Winyard: As we, we get towards the end, is there Cheryl a book that has really moved you for any reason that comes to mind?

[00:40:18] The book that really moved Cheryl

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[00:40:18] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. So it was a book that I read years and years ago and Viktor Frankl, mans search for meaning and. I didn’t actually want to read it, but my boyfriend at the time was like, you’ve gotta read it. and I read it and it was, it’s just stuck with me. It has stuck with me and, any time anything goes on, I’m always looking for the meaning.

And I think having that kind of mindset when even if things are really challenging or really difficult, It’s sitting back and trying to understand, what is this, what is the meaning behind this? what is this? What, what is this here to, how is this here to serve me? and it really just gives a different perspective on approaching anything in life.

And it just was it’s just a, it’s really has changed the way. I think about things

[00:41:10] Tony Winyard: It’s a phenomenal book. Isn’t it? I mean, it’s hard to read, but it.

[00:41:14] Sheryl Carroll: hard to read.

so worth reading. if people wanna find out more about you and if they wanna get in touch with you, they wanna maybe your social media and so on, where they.

[00:41:24] Cheryl’s contact details

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[00:41:24] Sheryl Carroll: Yeah. So my business is called your tiny voice. and it’s the reason behind the voice is that my nickname is tiny, cause I’m quite small, but it’s really about tapping into your intuition because when you come from a place of balance, you can listen to your. Your intuition and you can make the right choices.

But when you’re totally out of balance, you either don’t hear that intuition or it’s telling you the wrong thing. so my website is https://www.ytvhealthcoaching.com/ Instagram is your tiny voice. And Facebook is, your_tiny_voice/ as.

[00:42:00] Tony Winyard: And finally, do you have a quotation that particularly resonates with you for any reason?

[00:42:04] Cheryl’s favourite quote

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[00:42:04] Sheryl Carroll: Yes. I love the Nelson Mandela quote, which is everything seems impossible until it is done

[00:42:12] Tony Winyard: And why does that resonate with you?

[00:42:15] Sheryl Carroll: because when you’re sitting there, if I think about when I was plotting, my, exit from banking. and I just couldn’t, I could not see how I could make it work. I had these financial commitments, like how will I do this? And it did seem impossible until I just did it.

And then I made it work and it was done. And I think that’s, it’s about really, not listening to those voices in your head, which are trying to keep you safe.

But, trusting that you’ve got what you’ve got, what you need to make this leap or this decision that, that you gut is telling you to take.

[00:42:57] Tony Winyard: Yeah, Cheryl, thank you very much for your time and for sharing such great information. So yeah.

[00:43:02] Sheryl Carroll: Thanks so much. We chat to you.

[00:43:04] Tony Winyard: Next week is episode 82 with Dr. Lloyd Glauberman. Who is a renowned clinical psychologist and inventor. Who after years of working with audio technology to help people. Accomplish. Meaningful changes in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. He’s recently coined the term lifestyle intelligence or LQ.

And created a widely available app that guides users along a clear pathway towards balanced, healthy living. In daily three minute segments and this cutting system involves a unique psychoeducational approach to building and maintaining a positive ecosystem. For a healthy lifestyle. So we Dig into this. There’s a lot around.

Auditory. Around hearing and many areas around that. So that’s Episode 82 with Dr. Lloyd Glauberman If you know anyone who would get some value from some of the information that Cheryl uh, shared of us today especially anyone who’s going through menopause or perimenopause then please do share this episode with them and i hope you have a fabulous week