By AshleyEpisode Description
Midlife weight gain rarely happens overnight.
For me, the turning point came at 37 — after years of building businesses, raising kids, juggling responsibilities, and slowly gaining 80 pounds while trying every diet I could get my hands on. Keto, fasting, “clean eating,” juice cleanses… you name it, I tried it. And yet my body kept changing in ways I didn’t understand.
The real wake-up call came after a series of ER visits that I assumed were medical emergencies — but were actually panic attacks. That moment forced me to see that the issue wasn’t just food or exercise. It was a complex mix of nervous system dysregulation, emotional coping, sleep loss, chronic stress, and years of absorbing dieting misinformation that did more harm than good.
In this new episode of Eat the F*cking Food, I sat down with host Kristin Collins to talk honestly about what was really happening under the surface — and the five foundational shifts that allowed me to rebuild my health from the inside out.
You may know me online as Your Midlife Bestie, but this conversation goes deeper than anything I’ve shared publicly before.
Together, we explore why diets fail women in midlife, how addiction-like patterns around sugar and alcohol develop, why our nervous system drives cravings, and how resistance training became one of the most powerful tools in my journey through perimenopause and midlife transformation.
If you’ve ever felt like your body suddenly changed in your late 30s or 40s — seemingly overnight — I want you to know there’s a reason, and more importantly, there’s a path forward.
Links:
Host: Kristin Collins from Eat the F*cking Food
