What if the real answer is not more supplements, but a better understanding of what your female body actually needs?

In this episode, Louise Valentine, one of the world’s leading women's integrative health, fitness, and performance experts, challenges the idea that women in perimenopause need a growing list of pills, powders, and quick fixes just to feel normal again.

She explains why so many active women are stuck in a reactive cycle with supplements, medications, and restrictive strategies, when the deeper issue is often a lack of female-specific education around hormones, stress, fueling, training, and recovery.

One of the biggest takeaways is that supporting the body through whole foods, smart nutrient timing, balanced training, blood sugar stability, and lower daily stress can often do more than chasing the latest wellness trend. Louise also breaks down how underfueling, fasted training, too much caffeine, and overexercising can quietly make symptoms worse, especially for runners and high-performing women in this season of life.

This episode is helpful for women who want a simpler, more sustainable way to improve energy, body composition, hormones, fitness, and athletic performance without feeling dependent on endless supplements. It is a strong reminder that proactive habits usually beat reactive fixes.

RESOURCES + LINKS

Learn & level up with my free nutrition guide & award-winning 1:1 Badass Breakthrough Academy to thrive through perimenopause with less stress: https://www.breakingthroughwellness.com/

Take my free masterclass about Lifewave’s holistic patches & order yours here

Check out my FullScript here where you can see curated best supplement picks. Save 20% off under “Catalog” → “Favorites” A small portion of EACH sale goes back to support BTW. Thank you!

Take advantage of our podcast listener discount & save 20% off all of Kion’s science-backed clean products, including our favorite Creatine, Aminos, Clean Whey Protein & Omega. Code "LOUISE" saves on all future orders: : https://www.getkion.com/pages/maximizing

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(02:57) Why more supplements are not the answer
(04:17) Whole foods and hormone support first
(06:31) A client example of supplement overload
(10:20) When glutathione helps and when it does not
(18:10) Reactive supplements versus proactive health habits
(22:00) Natural ways to support hormone production
(28:01) How to support GLP 1 naturally
(31:45) Why fasted training can backfire
(42:46) Proactive health always wins in perimenopause
(44:29) Outro

Tune in weekly to "Maximizing Hormones, Physique, and Running Through Perimenopause" for our simple female-specific science-based revolution. Let's unlock our best with less stress!

I'd love to connect!

Email 💬 support@breakingthroughwellness.com

Instagram 📷
https://www.instagram.com/breakingthroughwellness

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BreakingThroughWellness

If you're like the ladies of Breaking Through Wellness - wow, do we love our high-quality sleep so we can keep feeling, looking, and running our best!

Most serious wellness and fitness-minded women already know the importance of high quality sleep and we do our best to protect it. But - then the time changes.

Are you too shocked at the impacts it can have on your training and energy? One night's poor sleep can catch up with us in our training not the next day, but even days later! And in Louise's sleep specific research, she saw that cognitive decline was significant with just ONE night's poor sleep.

Let's take action and do something about it so we can keep leveling up through perimenopause and beyond!

Often, the reason our workouts and nutrition suddenly stop working the way they used to has nothing to do with discipline - and everything to do with sleep and our changing hormones!

In this episode, leading exercise physiologist and women’s integrative health practitioner Louise Valentine explains how sleep disruptions during perimenopause can derail fitness results, energy, and recovery. Even small changes can affect hormones like estrogen and progesterone, leading to fatigue, poor performance, cravings, or stubborn weight fluctuations.

Louise shares why sleep is the foundation for hormone balance, fat loss, and performance, especially for active women and runners navigating hormonal shifts. She also highlights how factors like dehydration, blood sugar, stress, and sleep environment can amplify these challenges.

Listeners will learn practical strategies to protect sleep, hormones, and recovery. From maintaining consistent sleep routines and improving sleep hygiene to hydration and fueling strategies, Louise emphasizes simple science-backed lifestyle habits that can help women stay energized, strong, and resilient.

RESOURCES

Learn with my free nutrition guide & award-winning 1:1 Academy to thrive through perimenopause with less stress: https://www.breakingthroughwellness.com/

Take my free masterclass about Lifewave patches & order here

Check out my FullScript here where you can see curated best supplement picks, including Thorne’s Magnesium Bysglycinate & the Concentrace Minerals mentioned in this podcast. Save 20% off under “Catalog” → “Favorites” A portion of EACH sale goes back to support BTW. Thank you!

Take advantage of our podcast discount on Kion’s science-backed products. Code "LOUISE" saves on all future orders: : https://www.getkion.com/pages/maximizing

Episode Highlights:
(3:00) How daylight saving time affects hormones and sleep
(5:30) Why sleep is the foundation for performance and fat loss
(7:22) Hormone changes that disrupt sleep
(9:09) Sleep hygiene and creating the ideal sleep environment
(12:06) Poor sleep disrupts progesterone and recovery
(14:06) Sunlight and circadian rhythm
(16:07) Hydration strategies to recover from poor sleep

Tune in weekly to "Maximizing Hormones, Physique, and Running Through Perimenopause" for our simple female-specific science-based revolution. Let's unlock our best with less stress!

I'd love to connect!

Email 💬 support@breakingthroughwellness.com

Instagram 📷
https://www.instagram.com/breakingthroughwellness

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BreakingThroughWellness

What if the most powerful thing you could do for your health today is simply pause and slow down to notice how strong, capable, and resilient you are?

In this short guided daily practice, listeners are invited to step out of the constant momentum of daily life and reconnect with their bodies through a simple pause practice. Many of us move through stressful days on autopilot, pushing forward without noticing how tension and mental noise build up. This episode offers a practical way to interrupt that cycle.

Through mindful breathing, slowing down movement, and tuning into physical sensations, the pause practice helps calm the nervous system and restore inner balance. Host Louise Valentine encourages listeners to lengthen their exhales, notice areas of tension in the body, and gently relax the shoulders, jaw, and face. These small shifts can help quiet racing thoughts and bring attention back to the present moment.

By practicing this daily reset, listeners can support healthier stress responses, improve emotional balance, hormone balance, blood sugar responses, and cultivate a deeper sense of calm. Over time, these brief pauses can help shift life from constant pressure and “powering through” toward a more peaceful and energized way of living.

Learn how to maximize use of this simple yet highly effective daily pause practice in podcast episode 124A. Louise discusses why it can help hack your cortisol response, balance blood sugar and your hormones with greater calm and ease.

LINKS + RESOURCES

Learn & level up with my free nutrition guide & award-winning Badass Breakthrough Academy to thrive through perimenopause with less stress: https://www.breakingthroughwellness.com/

Check out my FullScript here where you can see curated best supplement picks & save 20% off. A small portion of the sale goes back to support BTW. Thank you!

Take advantage of our podcast listener discount & save 20% off all of Kion’s science-backed clean products. Code "LOUISE" saves on all future orders: : https://www.getkion.com/pages/maximizing

Tune in weekly to "Maximizing Hormones, Physique, and Running Through Perimenopause" for our simple female-specific science-based revolution. Let's unlock our best with less stress!

I'd love to connect!

Email 💬 support@breakingthroughwellness.com

Instagram 📷
https://www.instagram.com/breakingthroughwellness

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BreakingThroughWellness