In this episode, the conversation explores what women commonly experience after 40—hormonal shifts, identity changes, and new health concerns—and how these changes impact relationships. Rather than blaming anyone, the focus is on insight, understanding, and practical ways couples can support each other, regulate their nervous systems together, and build deeper, safer connection in this season of life.

Key Points:

• Women 40+ face hormone changes and lower libido
• Nervous system becomes more sensitive and reactive
• Identity shifts as kids need mom less
• Need more rest, quiet, and alone time
• This is recalibration, not rejection of partners
• Women need safety, support, and listening, not fixing
• Women are allowed to change and ask for what they need
• Shared nervous system regulation (walks, breathwork, rituals)
• Prioritize sleep and a calm, tech-free bedroom
• Being rested reduces conflict and reactivity
• Take ownership of health: food, movement, sleep
• Nurture nourishing relationships; drop draining ones
• Reduce phone use and comparison to others
• Google searches show concern about perimenopause and hormones
• Women worry about heart, bone, sleep, and chronic health
• Relationships in your 40s will (and should) look different
• With communication, this season can deepen connection
• Quality of relationships shapes quality of life

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

In this episode, the focus is on the "quiet crisis" many accomplished women experience in midlife: having everything they worked for yet feeling empty or misaligned. The conversation explores how success driven by external validation and constant achievement can leave a gap where meaning, alignment, and inner peace should be. Listeners are invited to slow down, regulate their nervous system, get quiet enough to hear their intuition, and begin honoring the desires that have been quietly calling to them.

Key Points

• Quiet crisis: success achieved, but inner emptiness remains
• Many goals were built on others' expectations, not true desires
• Midlife shifts focus from "What can I do?" to "Who am I?"
• External success vs. internal alignment and meaning
• Dopamine-driven achievement can't fill a deeper soul need
• Regulating the nervous system allows more calm and clarity
• Silence and stillness make room for intuition to be heard
• Notice what now feels heavy that once felt exciting
• Notice what feels alive and keeps "tapping on your shoulder"
• Example: prioritizing short, frequent trips to see a loved one
• Midlife as recalibration, not crisis

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

In this episode, Dr. Anna Marie explores the idea that women are not "too much" — they are often just carrying too much for too long. She shares a vulnerable story about burnout while planning a conference, how being labeled "too much" is often about dysregulated nervous systems (ours and others'), and why midlife can feel like a breaking point. She reframes exhaustion, grief, and the loss of hustle as biology and awakening rather than failure, and offers practical ways to regulate the nervous system, release people-pleasing, and honor rest as a form of leadership.

Key Points:

• Being "too much" is often just carrying too much.
• Dysregulated nervous systems shape how we see ourselves and others.
• Midlife burnout can feel like grief for a former self.
• The body says "no" when the mind won't listen.
• Women hold an invisible emotional and mental load.
• Most women want presence and acknowledgment, not fixes.
• Regulating cortisol: light exposure, protein, consistent sleep.
• Reduce triggers: inflammatory foods, media, draining conversations.
• Use simple breathing rituals morning and night.
• Rest is not laziness; it is leadership.
• Outgrowing survival mode can make life feel heavier at first.
• Let go of people-pleasing and energy-draining commitments.
• Choose what gives energy; if it drains you, it's a "no."
  
  

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

In this episode, Dr. Anna Marie explores why making friends after 40 can feel so hard—especially for women—and reframes it as a sign of growth, not failure. She explains how changing priorities, nervous system shifts, and evolving values make us crave deeper, safer connections instead of draining, surface-level relationships. The episode offers both emotional validation and practical strategies for regulating your body, rethinking friendship, and intentionally building a new social life focused on quality over quantity.

Key Points

• Friendships feel harder after 40 because we're more awake, not broken
• Early-life friendships often formed through proximity (school, kids, work)
• After 40, shared routines change and built-in social circles shrink
• Women want depth, safety, and energy-giving relationships, not small talk
• Old friendships can feel "off" even if no one did anything wrong
• Nervous system changes reduce tolerance for gossip, comparison, drama
• High-achieving women often feel lonely after stepping back from draining ties
• True belonging doesn't require changing who you are (inspired by Brené Brown)
• Connection needs energy; energy depends on nervous system regulation
• Poor sleep, blood sugar issues, and inflammation reduce social capacity
• Supportive habits: magnesium, protein before socializing, less coffee
• Prefer walks or tea to overstimulating coffee meetups
• Focus on quality over quantity in midlife friendships
• Build friendships slowly and intentionally; no forcing or rushing
• Join communities that combine movement and conversation (e.g., pickleball)
• Consistency in showing up is key to forming deeper bonds
• Be willing to change routines to meet new people
• It's never too late to build a meaningful social life
• Choose alignment and energy over chaos and people-pleasing

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

In this episode, Dr. Anna Marie introduces The Becoming Years, a series about rebuilding identity, connection, and success after 40. She speaks candidly about the emotional and practical shifts of midlife—especially for high-achieving women—covering the feelings of being "behind," the pull toward deeper, more authentic connections, and the exhaustion of living on adrenaline and approval. She explores the neurological, hormonal, and identity changes of midlife, and invites listeners to slow down, reflect with compassion, and intentionally redefine what success and meaningful connection look like in this next chapter.

Key Points:

• Rebuilding identity, connection, and success after 40
• Feeling "behind" at midlife and reframing that belief
• The "meantime space" between life's highs and lows
• Midlife as a wake-up call to ask what we truly want
• Three major shifts: neurological, hormonal, identity
• Perimenopause and changing energy/mood
• Burnout from running on adrenaline and approval
• Letting go of proving and people-pleasing
• Choosing relationships and activities that give energy
• Discomfort of slowing down and being less "busy"
• Using quiet, breath, and reflection instead of numbing
• Gratitude for how far you've already come
• Invitation to redefine success and deeper connections after 40

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

You can follow every diet and still feel stuck if the real issue lives beneath the surface. This conversation invites you to look at eating disorders and addictions through an emotional and nervous system lens, not willpower. You start to see how trauma, shame, and unprocessed experiences quietly shape your relationship with food, weight, and control.

You're introduced to holistic tools like Emotional Freedom Techniques that go beyond talk therapy and calorie counting. By addressing emotional blockages directly, real change becomes possible. The focus shifts from fixing your body to understanding it, setting boundaries, and reclaiming authenticity.

When you stop fighting yourself and start listening, health becomes more than a goal. It becomes a sense of wholeness. This is about coming back home to your body, trusting your worth, and choosing healing that actually lasts.

About Sandy Zeldes:

Sandy Zeldes is a spiritual cowgirl, celebrity chef-turned-healer, and subconscious transformation expert with over two decades of experience helping high-achieving women ditch the shame, cravings, and self-sabotage cycles that diets never touch. She's a certified nutrition consultant and advanced EFT practitioner who blends trauma- informed healing, functional medicine, and nervous system repair for real, lasting change.

Her clients? CEOs, creatives, and powerhouses who've tried everything— and are done pretending they have it all together. Sandy's the creator of the #1 bestselling DailyOM course Healing Subconscious Blocks to Weight Loss and has been featured on NBC, FOX, CBS, ABC, and The Wall Street Journal. She helps women stop outsourcing their worth, break free from hidden patterns, and finally feel at home in their bodies—with a little grace, a lot of truth, and zero diets required.

Connect with Sandy:

Website: SandyZeldes.com
Website: EatLikeAGoddess.com
X: @EatLikeAGoddess
LinkedIn: in/Sandy-Zeldes
Email: hello@sandyzeldes.com

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

In this episode, Anna challenges hustle culture and reframes rest as a powerful productivity tool and health necessity. She explains how chronic overwork and lack of sleep can dysregulate hormones, weaken the immune system, and increase emotional reactivity—especially for women whose biology requires cyclical rest. Drawing on Barbara O'Neill's "8 hours rest / 8 hours work / 8 hours play" framework, she offers practical tips for improving sleep quality and using visualization and breathing techniques to wind down. The episode closes with an invitation to rethink daily rhythms so that rest, work, and play are all honored.

Key Points

• Rest is productive, not lazy
• Hustle culture can harm health
• Women's biology needs cyclical rest
• Immune system depends on sleep
• Chronic sleep loss raises illness risk
• Emotional reactivity can signal fatigue
• Aim for 8 hrs rest / 8 work / 8 play
• Make bedroom dark, quiet, and cool
• No electronics 1 hour before bed
• Consider blue-light blocking tools
• Use cooling pads if you overheat
• Try deep breathing before sleep
• Visualize safe, familiar places
• Visualize future goals in detail
• Reassess how you spend your 24 hours

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou

In this episode, you explain how thoughts are not harmless but act as biochemical instructions that can either support healing or keep the body stuck in stress and illness. You connect mindset with physiology—stress hormones, sleep, inflammation, and even gene expression—and encourage listeners to consciously choose more supportive inner dialogue, explore epigenetics (e.g., Dr. Bruce Lipton's work), and consider coaching to rewire their neural networks.

Key Points

• Thoughts act as biochemical instructions in the body
• Chronic negative self-talk raises stress hormones (e.g., cortisol)
• High cortisol disrupts melatonin and healthy sleep
• Negative thinking keeps the body inflamed and blocks healing
• Inner dialogue is as important as nutrition and supplements
• Beliefs can shape physiological outcomes and health
• Thoughts and environment influence gene expression (epigenetics)
• The reticular activating system (RAS) filters reality to match beliefs
• Reframing with "What if that wasn't true?" opens new perspectives
• Choosing positive thoughts helps healing vs. staying sick and stuck
• Coaching can help rewire neural networks and shift mindset

Connect with Anna:

Email: annamarie@happywholeyou.com / info@HappyWholeYou.com

Website: www.happywholeyou.com / https://linktr.ee/happywholeyou

Personal Website: www.DrAnnaMarie.com

Instagram: @happywholeyou

Personal Instagram: @Dr.Anna.Marie

Facebook: Happy Whole You

LinkedIn: Anna Marie Frank

Venmo: @happywholeyou