What Really Works: Practical Health Habits for Midlife Women

Why Listening to Your Body Matters: Sustainable Health Habits for Women in Midlife

Midlife women are surrounded by advice—new trends, quick fixes, and endless “shoulds.” But which habits genuinely support well-being, and which just add to the overwhelm? If you’re feeling tired, foggy, or pressured to overhaul your health yet again, this episode is designed for you.

Natalie Tysdal brings honest, journalist-led perspective to the question so many women in midlife face: how can you build health that actually lasts? This episode helps women cut through confusion, clarify what matters, and reclaim personal agency—without the pressure of perfection or the exhaustion of chasing trends.

For women seeking clarity in a noisy wellness landscape, Natalie offers grounded strategies focusing on sleep, nourishment, stress relief, and realistic routines. Immediate relief and long-term confidence begin with listening to your own body.

 WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS

• The difference between health information overload and true well-being for midlife women

• Why “listening to your body” is more powerful than following trends or rigid routines

• How sleep affects energy, hormones, and mental health—plus what happens when it’s ignored

• Key shifts in eating patterns that support mood and energy, without restriction or guilt

• Stress management as essential health care—practical ways to lighten your load

• What habits to leave behind for a calmer, more functional life in midlife

• Thoughtful self-reflection questions to guide health decisions in the new year

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WHY THIS CONVERSATION MATTERS IN MIDLIFE

For women in midlife, the pressure to chase every new health trend or goal can lead to more stress and less vitality. This conversation prioritizes something crucial: clarity. Moving away from performance-based wellness, Natalie reminds listeners that real health is not what you see online—it’s about how you feel, function, and move through your day.

In midlife, physical shifts, changing energy, and increased responsibilities often make it difficult to honor your own needs. Validating these challenges, this episode offers practical ways to recognize what helps and what drains, so women no longer normalize exhaustion or push through discomfort. The result: sustainable routines and a permission to protect what matters most.

LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE

Tune in for a grounded, honest approach to health and wellness for women navigating midlife. New episodes of The Natalie Tysdal Podcast drop weekly, each designed to support your journey with practical insights and trustworthy conversation. Subscribe to stay updated and take the first step toward realistic, lasting change.

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Natalie’s website: https://www.natalietysdal.com

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ntysdal

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ntysdal

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NatalieTysdal

Natalie Tysdal is a health journalist, not a licensed medical professional. The information shared in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Transcript

Natalie Tysdal (00:00)

Hi everyone, it's Natalie. Welcome back to the podcast. You know, this time of year gets loud, especially when it comes to women's health. Everyone seems to have advice. Everyone has a different system and it can feel like we're just more tired, sometimes foggy, not quite yourself. Do you relate to that? Maybe you feel like you're missing something. Well, today I want to slow this way down because it's not about trends or even resolutions. It's not.

a recap of everything that's happened over the last year.

It's more a conversation I'd like to have with you about your health and what you really want to accomplish about what actually matters for your health and what doesn't because clarity feels a whole lot better than pressure. So today I want to break it down. But before I get started, I would love for you to take just 30 seconds and subscribe to the podcast. I have some

great interviews coming up, some information coming out this year that I really don't want you to miss. It's so valuable. Also, I haven't talked about some of the free resources that I have online that you can download again for free. Just head to natalie tisdall.com. That's natalie tisdall.com forward slash resources. And there you will find things like a list of mood boosting foods.

how to make a vision board for the new year if you've never done that, a hunger fullness scale, and much, much more that you can download for free. So you can find those again at natalietuzdil.com forward slash resources. So let's get started with your health in the new year. You know, I'm all about knowledge my whole career. That's what I've cared about the most is just understanding and having the knowledge of what makes us

But more information doesn't automatically make us healthier. For a lot of women, it did the opposite. It can make us second guess ourselves. It can make us question our bodies. It can feel like we are constantly behind all of the trends. And that matters because living in a constant state of I should be doing more

really stressful. And stress, that touches every piece of our bodies. Which

me to the first thing that really matters in the new year.

And that is listening to your body. It matters more than any trend out there. I heard this over and over from women last year. I'm more tired than I used to be. My sleep feels off. My mood is different. My cycle has changed. I just don't feel quite right. And instead of listening, so many of us try to override it and we push through. It's what we've been taught to do. We normalize pushing through things. I know I do. Do you do that?

Many people try to optimize their way out of their health and their current situation. But here's the thing I really want you to hear today. Your body hasn't failed you. Your body is actually talking to you. Those signals, they're not inconveniences. They're really important information. And the women who feel better every year aren't the ones doing the most. They're actually the people who got curious.

because we need to get more curious.

That means rest when you need to. Stop arguing with your body. Pay attention and honor it. That matters so much more than you realize. Another thing that matters more than most of us expect is sleep. I know it's not glamorous. It's not exciting, but absolutely foundational. For years, women have treated sleep like something optional. Believe me, I did it for decades working the morning news. I went to bed maybe 8 o'clock.

Got up at 2.30 in the morning. My body was so messed up. And what did I do? I pushed through. I learned the hard way. Sometimes I went to bed even later than eight because the kids had activities, they had homework, and I wasn't about to miss out on anything. And I don't know about you, but I wore that exhaustion like a badge of honor. I thought that I could do it all day, all night, every day, year after year. And I paid the price. And I don't want you to do the same.

I had low energy, I had a short temper, my hormones were all over the place, and focus, well, that was rarely there. What helped wasn't a fancy routine, it was protecting my sleep. I stopped the insanity. I left a TV news career of 28 years to reclaim my health and to help other people do the same thing. And I'll tell you what, it was the best decision I've ever made. People ask me, probably every week.

Don't you miss the glamorous news life? And I have to be honest. I'm always honest. But I'm going to tell you, not for a second. I don't miss it. I have completely reclaimed my life. And here's what I'm going for. Earlier nights when possible, calmer evenings, letting rest be part of health, not something that you earn after burning out. And sleep should never be a luxury. It should instead be the base layer.

Another big shift I want to talk about, and I'm working on this for the new year, and I'd like you to work on it with me, and that is eating to feel stable, not to feel in control. So many of us are stuck in restriction dressed up as wellness, skipping meals, eating too little, trying to be good with our food.

It shows up as we crash and have cravings and mood swings and constant mental noise around eating. What actually helps is simpler than you might think. Eating regularly, getting enough protein, adding fiber, adding those healthy fats, letting meals support our energy instead of draining it. And maybe most importantly, letting go of the guilt. Consistency matters more than perfection.

and nourishment works better than discipline. Another truth that became really clear over the last year that I'm taking into the new year, and I hope you will too, and that is managing stress. And it's not self-care to manage your stress, it's healthcare. You can't out supplement chronic stress. And so many of us are trying to manage stress by adding more, more routines, more rules, more things to stay on top of. What has helped me

is actually doing less. I think of it like a plate and an overloaded plate of food. And when I take a little bit off of that, it's not so heavy and it just feels lighter and better. So imagine that just take things off of your plate, fewer commitments, clearer boundaries, saying no earlier, even when it feels uncomfortable, but getting okay with that uncomfortable, more walking.

more quiet, more moments where my nervous system can actually settle.

You can't heal when everything feels urgent. And you know what I've realized as an ADHD prone, focus deprived woman, urgent gets things done, but there's a price for that. Women who protect their energy feel that difference in very, very real ways.

Now let's talk about what we can let go of things that simply don't matter because this is where a lot of relief lives. Wellness trends promising fast fixes don't matter. If it makes you stressed, confused or feel like you are behind, well then it's not really helping. Health doesn't need to be extreme to be effective. Comparing your body to someone else's simply doesn't matter either.

Social media, when we know the dangers in that, it makes health look like a performance. But health isn't how it looks. It truly is how you feel, how you function, how you move through your day. The moment comparison loosens its grip, things really do get lighter. I'm going to say that again. The moment comparison loosens its grip, I promise things will get lighter. One more thing that doesn't help, ignoring early signs.

pushing through that exhaustion I mentioned before. Waiting until burnout forces a change. Listening sooner will save energy later. And that's not judgment, that's perspective. So here's where focus is going in the new year for me. Simplicity, sustainable routines, support from friends that share my values. And before you move into the new year, I wanna leave you with three gentle questions. You don't need perfect answers.

just honest ones. Feel free to stop, write these things down. I think they're really important. Here we go. What actually helped me feel better in my body this past year? If you want to write that down or think about it. What actually helped me feel better in my physical body this year? What habits drained me more than they helped me? What habits drained me more than they actually helped me? Think about that.

And what do I want to protect in the new year? My sleep, my energy, my peace, all of those things for me. My sleep, my energy, my peace. So here's the real point here. You don't need a complete overhaul to feel better. That's where New Year's resolutions often go really wrong. People try to do too much. And then what do they do? They quit. Two weeks into the new year, quitter's day, it's when most people just give up because it's too hard.

You need to trust what has already worked and let go of what doesn't work. That's a really good place to start. I want to thank you for being here today. It's a short episode to get us started in the new year. I would love your feedback. You can email me, go to my website, find me on social media, and let's get this new year kicked off right. Talk to you next week.