Episode 15: Movement, Cortisol Belly & the Visceral Fat Trap Nobody Warns Women About

I have a marketing degree, and it means I am an incredibly easy sell.

Show me a reel of a woman lifting heavy weights, or doing Pilates, or running for "the shape you want," and my head goes: yes, that's what I should be doing. Not my gut. Not my body. My ego, reacting exactly the way marketing is designed to make it react.

That's where this week's episode starts, and it's why I wanted to talk about movement differently than most fitness content does.

First, the myth: 10,000 steps is not a health standard. It's a number a Japanese company invented in the 1970s to sell a product, and somehow the internet decided it was gospel. If 10,000 works for you, great. If it's 5,000 on a busy day or 6,000 most mornings, that's also a real, legitimate number. The goal is movement you can sustain, not a target someone else picked for you.

Second, what actually changes in your 40s. Once you're in perimenopause, your cortisol receptors open up, you get stressed more easily, and that stress is more likely to settle as visceral fat around your organs instead of spreading out the way it might have in your 20s. Which means the workouts that used to work can start backfiring, especially if they're adding stress instead of relieving it.

Third, and this is the one I keep coming back to, the difference between moving and performing. I spent years doing CrossFit, lifting heavy, getting hurt more times than I can count, even with a trainer correcting my form. I was also a yoga teacher who, when I went to class as a student, caught myself performing instead of actually being in the pose. These days I work out at home with a Tonal on the wall and do barre strength through The Barre Method, a nod to being a dancer as a kid, and I'm seeing more change in my body than I ever did chasing a heavier bar, because nobody's watching and I'm not trying to keep up with anyone.

My current framework, if you want it: move every day, hit a step number that's actually yours, lift heavy where your body can handle it (six to eight reps, three rounds, real effort without pain), and adjust around your cycle. I do a lot less during my period, and that's not me being lazy, that's me listening.

This episode is for the woman who keeps switching workouts because none of them feel good, and who's ready to ask what her body actually wants instead of what worked for someone else, or what's trending this month.