Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Wendy Hill. Wendy is the owner of HillStart Nutrition Health and Wellness. As a Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist and an expert in female hormone health, Wendy supports women through perimenopause, menopause and beyond through her Fabulous & Female membership, group programs and 1:1 work. We talk all about how as a business owner you need to look after yourself and your body, with simple and easy ways to do this.
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- You are your business – if you go down, your business goes down. So you need to make sure you look after yourself!
- Our default is to just work because we love what we do – but we have to find a balance.
- It’s about doing the best you can for yourself.
- You don’t have to cut out alcohol and sweet treats to be healthy – we have to live too.
- There is so much information out there – it can be confusing!
- We try to power through all the time and rely on caffeine and sugar to get us through – we don’t have time to stop.
- We still have to enjoy our food – it’s not about cutting everything out.
- Your lifestyle and food are the two things you should really be focusing on, then supplements if needed.
- Multi-vitamins are OK but may not do you much good if they are low level.
- Don’t buy your food from where you fill up your car with fuel and don’t buy your supplements from where you buy your food.
- Vitamin D is good to take in the Winter.
- 3 easy and actionable changes you can make to look after yourself and body:
- Drink more water
- Eating three meals a day
- Move more
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
You need to look after yourself and make sure you are fuelling your body so you can do the best work you can.
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS
- Wendy’s journey so far and she has got to where she is today
- The balance between working hard on our businesses but also looking after ourselves
- Vitamins and supplements
- Simple and easy tips to look after yourself and your body
CHECK WENDY OUT:
5 Day Female Health MOT – FREE to join
TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to this episode of the podcast. How are things?
Things with me are somewhat busy at the moment. I was trying to explain to my husband the other day that some of the things we've got going on at the moment, some of the projects, are like the equivalent of getting married, getting divorced, starting a job, leaving a job, moving house. For some unknown reason, I chose the same time to re record or record a section of the pathway that isn't done, moved from one email system to another, launch my book, rebrands, create a new website, do a brand new quiz, which is coming out very soon, hopefully. What else is on my list? Do a launch strategy, review some processes. Seriously. I don't know what I was thinking. I do not know what I was thinking. So what's happening with the podcast at the moment is I'm pretty much doing it on the fly, which I hate doing.
And I hate doing it for a few reasons. One like. I don't like the fact that we're not more ahead and more organized, and two for the team, because obviously they've got their stuff to do. And I, and I'm doing it kind of fairly last minute. But the reason I'm doing it very last minute is because, because I've got so many new things coming up and it's literally like, it could happen tomorrow.
It could happen next week. I'm not entirely sure that I don't want to record episodes of the podcast. They'll do my content so far ahead that I missed telling you these things. So. If they're a bit rough and ready for the next couple of weeks, please bear with me. Also. I want to ask a favor, a couple of favors actually, while I'm sat here.
First one, if you haven't yet, given me a review on iTunes or Spotify, I would absolutely love it. If you could. I'd be very, very grateful. If you know someone that might be interested, please go ahead and share it. And also I'm asking a lot this morning. Also, what do you want to hear me talk about? Like, is there anything particular? If there is come and DM me, come and drop me an email at [email protected].
However you want, just come and give me a shout and go, ‘Do you know it'd be really helpful if you could do an episode on this.' Because while I'm kind of I'm doing it by the seat of my pants. I can then plan of going forward what we'll talk about. Okay. Today is a bit of a different one, actually, but I'm really excited about it.
It's an interview with the very lovely Wendy Hill. Now, Wendy is a nutritionist. She is my nutritionist. I've been working with Wendy for some time. I'm just going to find her actual bio. And basically we. We have a really honest conversation about how you've got to look after yourself, how very important it is that as a business owner and a small business owner, you are your business.
If you go down, your business goes down and I didn't realize this for a very, very long time, or maybe I did. And I just chose to ignore it. So I've been working with Wendy for quite some time, and she is just amazing at this stuff, very practical, but also very realistic. Like Wendy knows I love a gin or a fizz or a wine or all of the above.
And therefore. Isn't going to say to me, you can't drink Teresa. Like she's really realistic. So Wendy is the owner of HillStart Nutrition Health and Wellness. As a naturopathic nutritional therapist. And as a female hormone health, sorry, an expert in female hormone health, Wendy supports women through pre-menopause, menopause and beyond in her fabulous and female membership and works in group programs and 1:1.
So like I said, I do 1:1 work with her, but I'm also in her membership as well and it's awesome. So if you are a male listening to this and you heard the words, female hormone health or menopause, and you thought, oh, check out. No, thanks. Please don't because some of the stuff that Wendy talks about is generally about health and some of the things that we can do in order to perform better and not have all that brain fog and not wake up feeling like we had not slept.
So. Like I said, it's a really good, it's a fairly honest one. I obviously talk about me and my journey with her. Uh, but I really hope it helps. So I will go straight to the interview. I hope you enjoy it. And let me know what you think.
So I am very excited today to welcome to the podcast. The very lovely and very dear friend, Wendy Hill. Wendy, how are you doing?
I'm doing really well Teresa. I'm really excited about today. To be honest.
I'm excited about today. We've been threatening. That sounds like it's a bad thing, it's not. We've been threatening to have you on for some time.
Um, and for whatever reason, the universe, us terrible planning. It just hasn't come to fruition until now. But I am really excited that we've got you on and you can talk to my audience because boy, if you got a lot of good stuff to say. So this is a little bit different and obviously I've done the intro to this.
I might have, well, I should have already given you a bit of a heads up this side of the episode. So let's start, Wendy as always, start by telling my audience who you are and how you got to do what you're doing today?
Thank you. So I'm Wendy and my company is HillStart Nutrition Health and Wellness and I am a female hormone expert.
So naturopathic nutritionist and particularly, um, perimenopause is where I kind of sit in that kind of whole kind of hormone female hormone health. Um, uh, this is a fairly new career to me. So I started retraining. I'm just 50 now. And I started to retrain at 45. I bet I spent 27 years in the building trade. Just a little bit different to this.
Very similar. Very similar.
Yeah totally. And, um, when I, I was lucky enough, I suppose, lucky enough to, to have the opportunity to, to retrain, to, to leave that kind of industry. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Um, but new food had to be something to do with that. And I always knew that food did more than, you know, I love food. I'm a huge foodie, but I always knew that there was something deeper.
Um, I did a nutrition and weight management course, which was quite interesting, but wasn't anywhere near what I wanted. And then I discovered the college of naturopathic medicine and enrolled on a three year diploma, which was so hard. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I had to do a biomed foundation and I haven't even done, you know, I didn't even do biomed at school.
It was like, it was a whole new language and learning to learn again, I left school with a couple of a levels just about, so actually going back into that learning was really difficult, but I've loved it. Um, and then decided to really specialize, I suppose, niche is what we would call it in the marketing world, but, um, decided to really specialize.
Um, I could have just stayed at generalist, but female health called me and I'm at that age. So it's obviously very sort of personal to me, but I just love, um, I went to work with women. I've worked with quite a lot of women. And I just love it when you can really see tangible results from sometimes very small changes, but just, it's a real scary time perimenopause is and I think just having someone who listens to you and understands it can be half the battle.
So I hope that is, you know, where I sort of sit in that place has been really real, really honest and approachable.
Yes, absolutely. And like, so the reason I wanted Wendy on today was a couple of things. One I've worked with Wendy, so I am her client and, uh, we have many stories, you know, I'm an over-sharer. Two we often forget to look after ourselves and we are business owners and if we don't work, our businesses don't. So if something is not right with us, then you know something, then that's, it. Businesses is compromised. And then three Wendy has been in my world and being in the membership for some time and is, and is just ACE at what she does.
And I, I am super passionate about, you know, all my members as, as we talk about. But, you know, when you look at some and think geez, more people need to know about you, more people need to know you exist. I did joke with Wendy that everyone's getting vouchers for Wendy instead of birthdays and Christmas presents, uh, because they all need a Wendy in their life.
So. Let's talk just briefly then about the fact of how we even get to one thing I want to say as well quickly, if you are a male listening to this, or you will not peri-menopausal or don't think you are, then you are absolutely still going to get stuff from this. Obviously we are going to talk about things that, you know, we'll lean towards all of that, that you may or may not, you know, want to hear, but, uh, but I'm positive.
You're going to get good stuff from it. So let's talk about typically how you deal with people who run their own businesses. What you find about them. You can use me as an example in terms of like.
I would never do that.
How that is impacting on? I don't want to get really real, like how that physically impacts on their business and the success of their business.
Totally. I love this because this is that this is why I wanted to come on the podcast as well. And you know what? I love it when I can get into groups and do talks and things because when people come to see me and typically I think because I've been a business owner my whole life, so I get it, you know, I'm, I'm not going to ask you to do things that don't fit in with you, the life that you're going to lead.
It's just not practical. So typically when people come to see me that, you know, they are, they're really struggling, you know, they're finding life really difficult. and some are business owners. We love what we do, don't we, we don't, we don't, we don't do it because we have to, we do it because we want to. We've chosen this. And yes, it's hard, but we love it.
And so it's a very difficult balance because we want the business to succeed. You know, many people who have their own businesses have also have a full-time job as well, because they're either, you know, societals and all they hope it's a one day be their main business. So they're working in. Generally, when I see people who are business owners or successful business people, they're working harder than anybody else that you would see.
And I mean that with the greatest respect, but the are, and it, they want to do that. And the struggle that I have is when, when by the time they generally come to see me, they've got to that point of exhaustion, or they've got that point where they don't know where else to go. So to be able to be on a podcast like this insights say ‘Is these, the signs of these, what you seeing and to be able to do something beforehand.' because you love your job, you love what you do.
So if I can help you do that better and for longer, that's what we're looking for. Isn't it, rather than you coming to me and being just totally washed out and me going ‘Okay, right. Well, you know, we need to do wellness in.' And you're like, ‘Well, I don't want to.' and this is the hard part, cause you'd love it.
So your default is going to be to work, the default, isn't going to be, to spend half an hour having lunch and then going for a nice walk afterwards and spending some extra time for breakfast and stuff. It's get up, get to work. Cause I love it and work for as long as I possibly can before I eat, because I, because that's what I want to do.
And I love my job. So I see that, you know, my husband comes home and goes, ‘You're always working.' and he walks through the door and I'm like, ‘oh, I've just got 10 more minutes.' Which he know it means an hour.
Yeah. And we don't realize the false economy we're doing, we think, and I did for sure that sitting at my desk and eating lunch, skipping breakfast.
Wendy knows I, and I've said it I'd go days and not even step out of the house. So not just not like, you know, go outside as in, go for a walk as in, I wouldn't even physically leave the front door or go into the garden, especially if it's winter. Um, because I'd think, well, that's a waste of my time. And I, you know, instead of doing that 30 minute walk or instead of sitting down and having my dinner downstairs, I could just be doing this.
That's far more efficient and far quicker. Seriously, the biggest false economy ever, isn't it?
Totally. And then the problem is, is, you know, you're not refreshed. So even the simple act of stopping for lunch and having a short walk, just re you know, reset your energy levels massively. But if you take that to the extreme and you take it after several years, then your body will tell you, your body will just say, forget it.
I'm not, I'm not doing it. And then you fix it. And I deal with clients who have chronic fatigue and they literally can not get out of bed in the morning. For me it's that balance, isn't it? You know, let's do some little things, something that's, you know, achievable. I'm not gonna ask you to make your own hummus every day, but something that's achievable that you can do rather than say the risk is that you aren't going to be able to do that thing that you love.
Yeah, absolutely. And so you just said something there that I want to pick up on, which is, again, another reason why I love Wendy so much, but why I personally chose to work with her is that Wendy is very realistic in the sense of. Your life. Okay. So I have a very petulant child inside of me that when someone says, don't do this, like, you must do this and you must not do this.
I choose to do the complete opposite. Because I'm sure there some deep seated something that my therapist can bull out. But like, I just do, I'm just not very good at someone telling me what to do. And I guess in the past, like, I dunno, boyfriends or whatever, it'd be like, oh, and I friends' moms like, ‘Are you gonna eat that?'
So then I eat three. Cause it's like, ‘How dare you.' where's, Wendy never did that. And also Wendy doesn't expect. For you not to live your life. Like Wendy knows. She looked through, I love a gin and a fizz and a wine all of the same night. Um, but like, Wendy's not saying to me, in order to improve your health, you must cut everything out.
And I think that's really important isn't it?
Yeah, because we have to live, don't we? You know, and it's just not, it's just not realistic. It's not doable. And I think, I think going back to what you said about kind of rebelling, I have some of that in me as well, and maybe that's why I have a different attitude.
So I'm always about what can we add? What extra can we do? Because naturally we'll crowd out, maybe the bad stuff and if the good stuff crowds out the bad, so that's always my, you know, what's the alternative, what can we, what can we do? And is it better? So, you know, is it a case of, I like to drink as well?
You know, I do, pizza is my favorite food. Just putting it out there. So for me, it's like, okay, well I'm not going to not have pizza, but can I have half a pizza with some salad? And I'm still having what I want and that's better than a pizza. And that's how I view it is this is what was the alternative.
And if what we're doing is better than that. Great. Well, it's a step in the right direction. And if that's the only step we can make, that's something, but it's still a step in the right direction. And it was, I think, has business owner, as well, as, you know, as grown up adults, you don't want someone telling you what to do that, that does get my back against the wall.
And I would be, I'm just like you, you know, can't have it. You know. Also it makes me think about it. If someone says I can't have it, I'm thinking about it all the time. So it's, I think it's more a case of like, yes, you can have it, you know, what are the potential consequences, you're a celiac. So, you know, we've talked about this before.
You can't have, you just can't have gluten. That's the way it is. But actually, you know, we all know alcohol's not great for us, but if you're going out with your friends, you know, it is, it's a difficult one because it's, it's quite socially acceptable. Isn't it. And I also think there is an enormous, almost an element of the.
It's almost not socially unacceptable, but your friends will go ‘Well go one just have one.'
Yeah. It's almost a, uh, a done thing. Like I said, if you don't, that seems to be more of a problem, which is quite that's whole thing in itself. Isn't it?
It is. It is. But I like the taste, you know, I love, I'd love a really nice red wine that, you know, and on a cold winter's day out three on a hot winter, hot summer's day, get myself right.
I'd like a cold beer. That's where I was going with that. So, you know, it is, and it's about living. So for me, what I want to do is give you some tips that will help you, but ultimately it should be about doing the best you can for yourself. So going out and enjoying yourself with friends and having a wine in my book is never going to be a bad thing, but not eating properly in the day, relying on takeouts and food that just isn't serving you and that you're not really enjoying and makes you feel really shitty.
That's that, that isn't a good thing is it? You know, wine laughing friends. That makes sense. Yeah. Horrible takeaway. That makes me feel awful. Makes no sense to me.
No. And so I would just want to touch on the fact of like, so you said that often people come to you when, uh, when it comes, when it comes to the point where it's so flipping obvious.
Right. And I just want to say, because I didn't necessarily come to you that way. I came to you. And like I said, I'm very honest. I'm very open. I came to you because of my weight and because I wanted to lose weight. But at the point I came to Wendy was also the point I had a load of blood tests done and basically they've all on their backside.
Like they were bad, like I was deficient and everything, and it was only then coming to Wendy with those things, then we realized, how unwell I was. Because I think sometimes, and especially with me, and I think you'll know this from working with me. I didn't realize that that isn't normal. That like maybe toilet habits aren't the same as everyone else, or that's not normal or the sleep is not normal or.
Actually feeling exhausted all the time wasn't normal. Is that something you find that's happens a lot?
Yeah, totally. So one of the things I remember you saying to me was you did talk about energy and you were like, I just want to know, is this it? Is it meant to be like this? And you and you know, actually, no, it shouldn't be, but yeah, I think one of the questions that I always say, I talk about bowel movements a lot.
So when I, you know, ‘Well, how is your bowel movement?' And people go ‘Normal.' And I'm like, well, tell me what normal is for you and invariably normal for them is not what I would necessarily classes normally you have to be really careful. I can't then say, well, actually that's abnormal, but you do have to work to it.
And when I'm seeing a client on a one-to-one. Part of my job is to kind of gather all the information to find out what's going on. And then ultimately when I'm writing the protocol is to make sure that it deals with bearings, what they've come to me about. But actually I'm probably working on lots of other things that you don't even know.
Like you said, you know, that you think your energy is like that. And you think that having that, you know, sleeping by that, I've never slept well. I hear so often. I've never slept very well. Oh, well you always wake up in the middle of the night. Well, actually, I mean, I'm terrible sleepers I'm inconsistent, but for years before I did my training, I didn't, I just didn't sleep for years for about 10 years.
I didn't sleep and now I know that's not normal and I know what it's like to have a good night's sleep. But it is about trying to get those, those basics. Right. And those little simple things. And when someone comes to me, it's not my job to say that's not normal, but when I come on a podcast like this, I can say, actually, this is what we would, this is the optimum that we would like to have.
So that then it may be a trigger, something in your, on your brain to go, oh, actually I'm not having that. How, what can I do to, to make that better so that I don't, but yeah, ultimately people come to me, go in. Like they kind of the end of the tether. They don't know what else to do. And it is a case of is, is this it? But I feel like they should be more, I feel like I should have more energy.
I feel like, you know, that I'm losing kind of that grip on it and it can, it can be as simple as that, that they're just like, Yeah, it doesn't feel right, but I don't know what it is. And there's so much information out there. You know, it's Intel. I deal with intelligent people. Who've had time to go and research and confused themselves even more because there's so much stuff out there. And you can find it.
There's a McDonald's out there. McDonald's diet out there, isn't, you know, there's a Greg's diet out there. It's just so confusing.
I mean, can we just be honest people if you're sat there thinking, oh, that sounds good. I'm going to try it. No. I'd probably do my research about that energy. But you're right. The other thing is that the, so the reason I got diagnosed with celiac in the very first place, and I have some other health things, you know, just added to my list.
The reason I find them in the first place was because I got together with my now husband and we moved in together and suddenly he starts going, ‘You know, you complain your tummy hurts all the time.' and I'm like, ‘do I?' And it never occurred to me. I feel like. Just almost question everything. Like almost go. Okay. And, and also it's the awareness because I wasn't even aware I was saying that.
I wasn't aware of half the things I've had and we've discovered like huge things. And also the other thing I wanna say, I'm going off and tangent now, but the other thing I wanted to say, that's so important is obviously, I feel that I am very privileged that I get to pay for Wednesday service.
I am in a very privileged position that I can afford to pay for Wendy's service. Um, and you know, Wendy is not millions and millions of pounds, so at least go and have a look. But if it hadn't been for the fact that I was with Wendy and working with her, I wouldn't have discovered half the stuff I've got wrong with me because.
And Wendy and I always very careful when we have this conversation, cause we've had it before in my group. And in other places, my sister works for the NHS. The NHS are amazing and brilliant, and we are not by any means saying they are terrible and awful, but you said yourself, Wendy. So you know, a normal consultation with you is how long?
So, at initial is an hour and a half and follow up is up to 45 minutes minimum.
Yeah. And what does the doctor have?
Eight minutes.
I mean, you know, when you think someone's amazing or not, that just isn't enough time.
What could I do if I think what could I do in eight minutes? It's not fair and it's not fair. And they just don't have the tools. And I think there's, you know, that is part of the problem, but I, you know, I think you bring bringing you back to what you were saying about kind of like, you don't hear it, you don't realize it.
And I think this is the problem is we power through it. We try to power through all the time, you know, and relying on those kinds of things like caffeine and sugar to get us through. So it's kind of like, you know, we'll always have an afternoon stumped. So I always have a cup of coffee and I always have a biscuit because it's what gets me through the rest of the day. And that, you know, typical of what I hear, because we don't have time to stop.
You know, as a business owner, you go, well, you know, I haven't got time. I haven't got time for proper lunch, so I'll work till three and have a cup of coffee in a biscuit, because that gives me the energy to work, you know, work through, but then not putting two and two together to go in actually, is that why I can't sleep at night?
And is that why I've got digestive issues? Is it because that's what I'm doing because that's the only thing that I know that will get me through the day.
Yeah. And I love that you mentioned that in terms of like, this is what's so cool about, so cool. And so frustrating about our bodies is that so much is connected to so much.
So like you will not put two and two together. I sit and as Wendy said, I'd like to think I'm on the list of intelligent clients. You know, Like, or, like I said, I Google stuff and then suddenly I think it's something else, but you wouldn't put together. But that thing that you're experiencing with that thing actually has to do with this thing over here.
Like that's crazy, isn't it?
Yeah. It's amazing. And then it all becomes kind of, it gets even worse, isn't it? Because then we all start talking about stuff like cortisol and melatonin, which you know, is a wake hormone and a sleep hormone. And yes. Okay. We're getting a bit high-brow here. But then that's really important.
Cause if you're working really late and you're, you know, on deadlines and things like that, then that's, that's cortisol related action. And as business owners, we will be high cortisol most of the time because we're high achievers. We want to deliver that service for our client. You know, we want to get that project done. And we, you know, we need to earn the money.
So we might need to work extra hours or with working in the evening, which then affects all the other things because we were not calming down. So then we're not getting the good sleep that we want, which means we're not getting the right path. It also means that we've got cortisol at the wrong time of the day.
So then we knock it in the morning. We can't get out of bed because we haven't heard that costs are high in the morning. We actually it's a bit like, um, your body clock and it starts to get skewed. And if you're working late into the night, you know, consistently, then you won't have the levels in the morning, which get you out of bed.
That's the thing that gets you up in the morning and you get all this dysregulation. And so then again, you're relying on caffeine to keep you awake because you need to work into the night, but then you can't get up in the morning. And this is, and it's hormone-related, and it's just, it's such a vicious cycle and little tiny things can help it, but also.
You know, you have to work within the realms of what you can do. But you work late at night then you got to deal, haven't you? It's so hard.
But it's not to say that you can't make the improvement though. You'd like you said, the difference between you and a diet out there is that it's off the shelf advice and it's you do this, whereas you look at someone how they live and work and interact and Wendy's, and this is the other reason.
There's so many reasons I love Wendy. But the other reason is like Wendy loves her food, Wendy lives to eat as do I. And I remember going to Weight Watchers once many, many, many years ago. And them saying to me, have you not to me, sorry to the room. If you want to snack, instead of having like some crystal chocolate, why not have an apple?
And I swear to God, I just, you know, like that fat fighters or whatever it is that little Britain used to do, it was like, that is humiliating. And it's like, well, do you know if I want some crisps, I want some crisps. I don't want an apple. And you know, and it's things like that. So it's like, it's the realism of yes. You know, that you want to put better food inside of us.
And it all comes back to that. Doesn't it. And I'm starting to realize that everything comes back to what we're putting inside our bodies and what we have on our bodies and that sort of thing. But like, If you want us to put food in our bodies, that we love eating, that we still really enjoy eating and drinking.
And, and that's the key thing because I've done diets for, and when my motivation is that I can stick to it like no one's business, but I'm miserable. And I won't stick to it.
They takes the joy out. Who wants to take the joy out of life. You know, if that's what you want and. So, you know, the crisp analogy is a perfect one. So I would be saying where's a really good quality crisp.
So rather than having those ones that are full of additives and stuff, what's the best quality one that we can get and doing that, you know. How, I used to, well, I haven't been obviously cause of the pandemic and sort of, haven't been to many business meetings, but I used to go to visit and people would literally, no one wants to sit with me.
No, one's sat the same table with me 'cause it was like, ‘Oh no. Wendy's there and I can't eat anything?' And then everyone then would scrutinize my food and they'd be like, ‘Oh you got bread.' And I, ‘Yeah, why not?' You know, and like, ‘Are you putting butter on that bread?' I'm like ‘Yes.' like them. I haven't. And a bit like you and I might have another piece as well, extra butter, but it is not.
And I asked him, I love my food and I don't want to take the joy out of it. But for me, it's about eating real food, proper food that tastes really good. You know, that you're going to really enjoy. And I like, well, I used to actually only go on networking meetings. If it was a good lunch. If it was a bad lunch, I wouldn't go.
Yeah, no. Like bad breakfast, bad lunch.
Oh, God.
Get me out. Food is. And food is like the be-all and end-all for me, it's like the thing, like. Our weekends so became, Wendy knows all this. She doesn't very well. Like our weekends are spent, where are we eating and drinking? Like that's our weekends. And Wendy knows I'm not going to forego that. I'm not going to you know, because that's part of my life and how we relax.
And, and again, you know, it's working within the realms, but also making good decisions. So I want to say a couple of things and then I've gotten the question. The first thing I want to say is obviously Wendy's work with me with a lot of things and without having to go into all the details. So I'm sure everyone does not want to hear all the ins and outs of my health.
I had a lot of things that you physically can't see. So I was deficient in a lot of things. I had a lot of symptoms of like how exhausted I was and how I couldn't function in particular ways because my body wasn't quite working as it should have been. And I want the reason I'm saying this is because I feel like I'm the worst advert for you Wendy. Because I went to Wendy's to lose weight and I haven't lost weight.
And I want to address that because I don't want anybody looking at me going ‘Well, Wendy doesn't work, does she? Because she's lost no weight.' Basically we have been through a journey and a half haven't we, Wendy?
We have. Yeah.
We have done everything. We have done. Uh, we, my diet has improved no end. I eat really well now. I reduced how much I drink.
I do supplements, which I'll come to that question. And the supplements in it. Basically health-wise I feel like, you know, from a, from a look at my health, I feel like I could show off about it. Like, let's compare what you had for lunch today, and I'll show you what I have. It's that good. I'm a bit smug. But for whatever reason and believe me, this is still a huge frustration for both Wendy and I, that we are still working on and we are not going down other routes and more tests and things like that because there is something not quite right here because I'm not losing weight.
And there is no reason why I shouldn't be. And also, I just want to say with love, I appreciate if you're sat there thinking, oh, this one thing would work, Teresa. I promise Wendy and I got it all set it up. I am with the right person. I am doing all the right things. There is something more inside my body that is not adding up.
I have an underactive thyroid. I will explain that, uh, that's obviously led to my weight and we're working on that and various things. So I'm not saying it because I think there's a cure out there that someone can now DM me and tell me, I really didn't mean to.
10, right quick with lemon juice thing that everyone will tell you to take in the morning to.
You know I'm alright. I'm alright. I'm not saying this. So to invite, uh, you know suggestions of how I could lose weight. That's not the case. But I just wanted to say it because I don't want people looking at Wendy going, ‘Oh, shit, didn't worked for it, did it?'
But I think I, and again, I think this is part of th this is the problem with society as a whole, is we put measure on everything. We put numbers on everything. So actually for me, you know, you look so healthy, you got great energy. Like we said, we know there's been other things going on that we know, we know.
We know we fixed. Yeah.
Work on and the problem is, is as a society, we just see that one thing. Don't we? And that's all we say, you know? And there could be a really unhealthy skinny person stunting next to you and you'd go, who's the healthiest.
And they would automatically pick that skinny person. And that is just so not right. And it goes, you know, and it goes back to that whole, you know, calories in calories out. It's not as simple as that. There is so much more involved in, in that process. You know, as we spoke about a minute ago, cortisol could have a big factor in it, you know, so you've got a thyroid issue.
There is so much else going on and it's frustrating and I get it. And I'm a bit frustrated as well.
Yeah, we both are because we both know how good we're doing and how much we've improved and how, and it's just like, there's this one thing left that we need to fix, but of course it's the one thing that everyone sees.
Concern yeah. And for me I'm going like ‘You look, you're eating really well. You're doing really well.' Remember how far we've come. And that's the hard part is I think as a society, we just put such a thing on numbers and that's why the diet industry works as it does. People don't, people do come to me and say, I want to feel healthier.
That's what they do. But generally people don't sit there and say that people listening to this will be saying, but I just want to lose some weight. And if I go to SIM world or Weight Watchers, they always guarantee that I'll lose weight and yeah, you will. But you get to that 12 weeks, 18 weeks, 24 weeks, however long it takes you to lose that stone to stone.
What you've got to lose, what have you learned? You know, how are you going to deal with that?
And that's the thing. And in all honesty, Wendy does not encourage, encourage, um, uh, calorie counting, but because I'm arguing with the doctor at the moment about something else, I counted my calories after I'd eaten them, FYI. So this was not a case of can I afford to eat this?
Have I got the calories? So, cause I know that's not where Wendy comes from, cause it's not about that as you've said. But even though I came to them and I am well within any realm of what it should be, I still, I still didn't lose weight. So, so it's really not that simple. And like I said, I'm not. Please don't DM me.
Uh, give me all your advice. I appreciate that you've been kind and thoughtful, but honestly, we've got it wrapped up. So I talked about that, that one of the things we've done is we've added some supplements in to my diet. And I know that lots of people I talk to go, ‘Oh yeah, I take a multivitamin.' Like, let's just touch on that a second in terms of why you would add supplements, you know, in addition to food and how that works and whether just adding a multivitamin is like the thing.
More to be questioned.
And could you give me a three word answer thanks.
We can have another the podcast episode for this. So always for me, I always lifestyle is first. So even as a nutritionist lifestyle is the first thing that I look at. Food is the second thing I look at and then supplementation and prescription medication kind of sits under that.
Now for me, when I'm working with a client, 1:1 I might supplement to give them a boost to where they need to be. So if they've got low levels or if I think this is going to help them, give them more energy, for example, help them sleep better. So we might put something in the protocol to help them with that. But ultimately I want lifestyle and food to be as near as damn all you need.
So I'm not a huge fan of supplementation forever. Multivitamins. Some are really good. Some are really bad. This is part of the problem. So it's about kind of getting the right level. So multivitamin is never going to do you any harm, but sometimes it might not really do you any good either if the levels are pretty low, what are you, what are you taking it for?
What do you want to achieve? You know, it's, it's, uh, you know, It's almost like getting a feather, you know, and, and giving it a little bit of a tickle and it's not really getting what you want. So, you know, if you're not sleeping, then you want a really good sleep supplement. If you've got no energy, then we want to get something in that that's going to give you loads of energy.
It's, it's about being much more targeted and that the supplement industry is worth so much money.
I guess it's like pharmacy industry.
Yeah. And my rules are, I've got a couple of rules, so my rules are, don't buy your food from where you fill up your car with fuel and don't buy your supplements from where you buy your food. It's my two rule.
I know it's so funny, so funny. And last night I went to some way you buy your petrol, however it was amongst suspenses for you to go, so I feel that was okay.
Oh, that feels like that's okay. Yeah. It feels a little bit better.
Very brilliant.
Yeah. But the supplements you get from the supermarket, you know, you're like, oh yeah. When I got my multi there and it was like, I might give this one a multi there it's like it's 30 quid for like 6 to 10 capsules.
Oh yeah. But the one I buy is only 8 pounds and need some time to buy two, get one for a penny offer. And you're like, yeah, because it's got like, yeah, it's got like one milligram of sinkin and the one that I'm giving you has got 7.5 milligrams of seen kinos. So it's about what levels it's got in there. And you know, it really is.
It's really hard and yeah, I'm just not a fan of the, like that carte blanche, everyone needs a multi. I have nutritional therapist kind of do that. It's kind of like, oh, first thing, put a multi on there. And I'm like, well, no, actually, if I'm going to do it, you know, I didn't spend three years. Look at my good stuff to give everyone a multivitamin. Quite frankly.
I'm a bit more to it than just that I'm sure. Every lesson, if in doubt just give him a multivitamin. And again, this is why. And it's funny, cause it is like a bit of a, an open book. And once you start digging, Wendy's like, you know, it's like a flippin novel that she has to work away around because it depends on you who you are, what you've got.
I'm celiac so Wendy's just suggested I take something from my gut at the moment, because we think there's probably it, you know, there's been a lot of damage over all these years of me eating gluten without realizing. You know, things like in the UK. Uh, lots of should take vitamin D shouldn't they, and ideally in the winter.
Perfect. Yeah. And that's probably the only vitamin that I would say everyone should have is vitamin particularly where we are is, you know, winter months we can't get enough vitamin D is it that's the end of it? You know, there is no if buts or maybes. So yes, vitamin D it's essential for everyone to take it in winter months if they live in the UK.
And there are some that, you know, Magnesium. If you're really stressed, we burned through it. And that's kind of one that you know it's never going to hurt you to do it. And I said a multi doesn't hurt, but it's just sort of like, is it, is there any. I just don't feel like there's any point in taking it if it's not really doing something productive, if you're not going to get a result from it, if you start taking it, you don't notice then wasn't any point in taking it in first place.
And honestly, I think that's the whole point we think we're doing really well because we're taking it and yet we're not actually going back to that, paying attention and questioning everything it's seeing whether it works.
So there's a couple things I wanna ask before we finished. Cause I said to Wendy, we'll see how we get on with time because I don't wanna be too long, but I knew we'd just talk, uh, which, you know, we're going to talk now Wendy. Um, so the first thing I was going to ask you before we talk about what, how people work with you is.
Like, this is the most sweeping question in the world, but I know you'll be able to answer it. If someone's listening and they think like, what, 1, 2, 3 things can I do today for myself? What would you say?
It's so easy. This is the best question you could have asked me. So thank you. So anyone that's listening to this now, the first thing I would say is drink more water.
It is just the most basic, the most basic thing. And as you know, anyone, but particularly as business owners, first lines of, um, sort of dehydration, our brains are like 80 to 90% water. So, you know, kind of lack of concentration, that brain fog, that, you know, kind of not being able to concentrate water. Simplest thing, great for your skin as well.
You know, you'll really see the differences and your skin will plump up, you know, women of a certain age. If you're getting a bit Haggard, how much water are you having that will plump up your skin? No, end the amount of times I used to go on holiday and think, oh, the sun is so good for my skin. Maybe, because when I went on holiday, I drank lots of water.
Cause I knew I'd get dehydrated. And I come back looking all glowing. For years I was thinking it was the sun. And actually it wasn't, it's the fact that I drank two liters of water every day when I was on holiday, because that's what you did when you lay on a beach in Greece, for like two weeks.
Exactly. And it's hot. So you want that water?
You want the water? So water is the first thing. And then thinking about eating three meals a day, rather than this kind of grazing and snacking. Is eating, just eat three times a day, pack yourself a luncher. You probably do it for the kids? You probably do it for your husband. Pack a lunch, put it in the fridge and have a lunch, make sure you have a proper sort of lunch break every day and move a bit more.
Just move around a bit. So it's easy to sit still at your desk all day, gets the end of the day and you've done 2000 steps. So if you can go for a walk at lunch time, get some fresh air is a brilliant, you know, it really is. It doesn't have to be millions and millions of steps and ages. It's a 20 minute roll around the block.
Lots of the European countries have proper lunch breaks, longer lunch breaks. And there's been studies to show that their, their productivity levels are just at the same as ours, but we are the ones that sit there, you know, eat and eat at your desk and trying to multitask. And you know, you talk about multitasking all the time. It's not possible is it?
Can't do it. Not a thing.
If you take that time away, you, you need to be to process your feeds. You need to be in your parasympathetic nervous system, which is your rest and digest. And the clue is in the name digest. So if you are eating food while you are stressed, working, trying to answer a call deal with all these stuff that's going on. You won't digest that food.
So taking just 10 minutes away from your desk to eat your food, time to walk around the block. You'll come back refreshed and able to, you know, to carry on for the rest of the day without needing the caffeine and sugar to get you through.
Yeah. Yeah. So there are a million gazillion things I've learned from Wendy, like craziness and, and, you know, the best thing actually for me in all the time I've worked with you is I love the diet I have. The good diet I have. I love the food I eat. I love the fact that I feel good. So, whereas in the past it always felt like the motivation was needed. I think what you've been able to do, which so many people can't do. Over time be tweaking and tweaking and tweaking and tweaking till it gets to a point where I look at my diet today and I look at my diet from two years ago and it's completely different.
And yet it doesn't feel like it's any different because it's happened and we've introduced that. And actually, that's really nice. So I'm going to continue having that. Oh, we've changed this. And then my tastes have changed and all this amazing, good stuff. So, like I said, I've had the privilege to work one-to-one with Wendy and she offers one-to-one packages.
But also I am in Wendy's membership, which is too good. Like I tell Wendy FYI to put the price up all the flipping time. And you be glad to hear for you lot less thing that the price isn't going to, where I want it to put up to. So tell us how people can work with you Wendy?
So obviously there's the one-to-one work as well, but yeah I love my membership, so that's kind of my entry.
I love it. And you know, I've got lots of lovely ladies in there. It's called the Fabulous and Female membership. So you can find me at, um, fabfemale.co.uk and they love it. And it's great. And it is local, It's my opportunity to go in that and talk like this all the time and just pass on the information.
And we have a different topic every month. So, um, in March, we're going to be talking to all month about sleep. So all different things that we can do to help us sleep. So some lifestyle stuff, some diet stuff, and supplements stuff. But I'd love it. It's just an opportunity to kind of have a chat and it's really supportive, but actually what I also do.
So I do a couple of, um, through the year. I do some transformation programs, which again, I love so these are ready.
And member the amazing Caroline's we're doing it with you and wow. She gave me call the other day. And I was like, you look flipping phenomenal. She, the difference in her face was unbelievable.
It's a elevate and it really is a true transformation.
And I'm not just saying that because I'm running it. It's amazing. It's five weeks and it's commitment. Yeah. There's a big supplement protocol. We do a lot of food exclusions. We do a real good heal protocol. So it's, you know, it's a good commitment and it's a good chunk of money as well, but it's a real, it's a true transformation.
So I'm in the middle of that. That's not going to be running again until June. But I suppose for me, for people who kind of don't know me, and maybe this is the first time they've kind of heard of me as one of my free ones. Semi-colons, it's a female health a MOT, and I'm running another one at the beginning of March.
So that I think would be a great if people just want it to come on and kind of, kind of really understand a bit more about me and what that kind of I'm trying to do. So it's a female health MOT. It does what it says on the 10 it's five days with me, super simple, actionable tips that you can just do that. By the end of the week.
You kind of, hopefully you'll be going. That was so easy. I, I, you know, I'd forgotten. I knew, but I'd forgotten and I feel better after just five days. And that was for me getting, getting, just getting people into my world. The more people I can talk to, the better. That you know what I want to do. I don't want people to have to come to the one-to-one.
No.
It's great. But actually I'd love to be able to reach them before then.
Yeah. And I think for me, the reason I'm still going on with the one-to-one is because we know there's something else wrong that we've not got to the bottom to. From a health point of view. And this was, what's so annoying, like literally we got that tick, that tick, that tick.
And there's this one flipping line at the bottom of our very long list that we fixed the things that have I lost weight. No. So that's the reason I'm carrying on 1:1. But if you come into the group stuff, you get, like, how much is the price today? And as this podcast stands today, what's the price Wendy?
80 pounds a month.
Like what the, and I, you know, I like to like.
Put it against something I would buy. Now there's not even a bottle of gin I would buy for 80 pounds like a good one. You're talking at least 30, but Wendy does these amazing cook alongs, she does these amazing demonstrations of things that she cooked. So it's not even just like, you know, eat this thing or have more of this.
She will literally put her, you know, she goes live, she's got a camera in a kitchen, which is lovely and she's cooking the food and now she's cooking the food she's going. And the reason we're adding the other day. You adding sprouts I think it was when you were doing the chicken. You're adding sprouts, and you're like, ‘The reason we have sprouts is, cause this is really good for this. If you're struggling with this, this is good.' Honestly, everyone needs Wendy. Everyone needs Wendy.
So if you sat there thinking, you know, well, I think I'm all right, but I'd like to improve things a little or maybe it's worth having a look, then absolutely. We're going to link up to everything, go and have a look at Wendy's free five day thing thing.
That's?
Female health MOT.
Thank you very much. Uh, and also Wendy's memberships is so good. And if you, if you do think, you know, actually there are some more things and definitely do contact her about the one-to-one stuff. Because for me, it has been transformational. I said to someone the other day, if I didn't have Wendy, I didn't have Beth my therapist and I didn't have the woman who does reflexology and massage.
I would be a hot, well, not even a hot mess. I would just be a straight up mess. I probably wouldn't have a business go on cause I'd be flipping heap on the floor. Um, so yeah, she's amazing, absolutely amazing.
Oh thank you. I love working with you too.
I'm I'm hard work, FYI people I am from,
No you're not.
I am like, why do we need to fix this already?
I am hard work, but she's in amazing. So yeah, I, uh, I highly recommend you go and check out Wendy's stuff and see which goes cause there's so much more she can teach you that we have literally scratched the surface. So Wendy, thank you so, so much. Uh, where do you hang out Wendy? What's your favorite?
Um, so I'm on Instagram at hillstartnutrition or you could listen to my podcasts cause I also have podcast as well. And it's called, Are you REALLY going to eat that?
Love it. I love it. Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much, Wendy. I really appreciate you being on.
There we go. That was the lovely Wendy. I love to bits and I knew we'd talked too much because we're both pretty good at talking. Uh, but I really hope you got some stuff from that. And I really hope you can try some things she said. She is amazing. Do go and check out her membership. I will link to it in my show notes and yeah, honestly she should put the price up and I keep telling her, so one day she might take my advice.
So if you do want to join, I'd get in now. I highly recommend it. Like I said, I'm in there. It really is brilliant.
And she's so good at what she does. And she's so very passionate. I love that about people. I love people who have a passion for what they do. So do go check Wendy out, check out her podcast. She is wonderful. Okay. I'm going to be back next week with a solo episode until then have a lovely week.
