Guest: Wendy Hill, Nutritional Therapist, founder of Hillstart Nutrition, author of Nourish to Flourish, and host of the Fab Female Nutrition podcast.

Episode Summary: Michelle and Nicola are joined by Wendy Hill, who spent 27 years in the building trade running a family business before reinventing herself as a nutritional therapist at 45. Wendy shares her journey of leaving a male-dominated industry, losing her work identity, and slowly discovering a new path rooted in her lifelong passion for food. The conversation covers body image, midlife nutrition, the frustration with wellness marketing, and practical steps women can take to feel better.

Key Topics:

• Reinvention from the building trade to nutrition: Wendy ran six builders' merchants with her brother before the working relationship broke down. She left at 40, took time to reset, and eventually retrained — completing a biomedicine foundation followed by a three-year nutritional therapy diploma.
• Identity and the masks we wear: Wendy describes how she adopted a hard, sharp persona in a "man's world" and didn't realise until years later that she was still defining herself by her former business. Her husband pointed it out on a train to London — 18 months after she'd left.
• Weight, health, and the "skinny" trend: Wendy pushes back on the return of skinny culture and BMI obsession, explaining that a little extra weight is biologically protective. Nicola shares her own experience of reaching a "healthy" BMI and being constantly cold.
• What brings women to her practice: The most common complaints are weight and a "loss of spark" — not feeling like themselves. Women often say, "What I used to do isn't working anymore."
• Frustration with wellness marketing: Wendy calls out the magic-pill mentality — expensive supplements and trendy shots — and says to start with the basics: a balanced plate of protein, colourful vegetables, fibre, and healthy fats.
• Midlife as a positive transformation: Wendy reframes menopause as a time when women become more regulated, compassionate, and confident — and how a "cloud lifts" on the other side of perimenopause.
• Practical tips from Wendy:
  1. Start with a balanced plate — protein, colour, fibre, healthy fats.
  2. Don't eat between meals — if your meals are balanced, you shouldn't need snacks.
  3. Manage stress — high-intensity exercise on top of a stressful life can backfire. Add yoga, Pilates, or strength work.
  4. Start the day well — don't snooze your alarm, eat a good breakfast within an hour of waking, ideally before 10am.

Wendy's Random Act of Kindness: A woman she'd been cooking for at the Lichfield Food Festival came back the next day with a homemade brownie to say thank you.

Wendy's Favourite Colour: Pink (shocking pink) — formerly red, which she wore for 27 years as her work uniform in the building trade.

Find Wendy:

• Instagram: @hillstartnutrition
• Podcast: Fab Female Nutrition
• Book: Nourish to Flourish — available on Amazon

Connect With Us:

• Email: studio@thereinventiondiaries.co.uk
• Instagram: The Reinvention Diaries podcast
• Website: reinventiondiaries.co.uk, www.mrsstylewright.com, www.nicolaaucklandphotography.co.uk