If you spend your time with people who prioritize movement, you’re more likely to lace up your shoes and get active. If your circle eats well, you’ll probably find yourself making healthier choices too. And on the flip side, if you’re around people who constantly complain, gossip, or drink more than you’d like, it’s easy to slip into those patterns, even if they’re not really you. This isn’t about judgment. It’s about reflection. What kind of life do you want to build? And who are the people helping shape it?

This week, I celebrated my 49th birthday! I know next year is the “big one,” but this last year of my 40s feels significant. Birthdays always make me reflective—kind of like the start of a new school year or the New Year.

When I look back, it’s amazing how much has shifted since I entered this decade. My life has changed a lot —and I’m so grateful for it.

Here are a few things I’m celebrating from my 40’s as I head into this next year…

This week, I’ve been reflecting on a big milestone - it has been five years since I sold my multi-disciplinary clinic in the height of COVID (that timing was coincidental), and transitioned to running a virtual Naturopathic practice and coaching women in nutrition and fitness to help them master the transition into menopause and beyond. It felt like such a big leap at the time, but looking back, I have zero regrets. I’ve felt this at other times in my life too…

What true fitness is about is building strength so that you can live your life fully as you navigate perimenopause into menopause and beyond. It’s about having the energy to do what you love, the resilience to handle life’s challenges, and the confidence to show up as the best version of yourself. It shows you that you can handle challenges. We need to shift the narrative from criticizing ourselves to feeling confident in our bodies.

It all started with a whirlwind 24 hours in Toronto for the Taylor Swift concert with our oldest son, daughter and her friend. We arrived at the W Hotel shortly after noon and were surprised with a free suite upgrade on the room that I had booked with points! The staff went above and beyond and had a birthday surprise for our daughter complete with balloons, cake, cake pops, chilled Grapefruit Italian Soda and bracelet making kits. All of this was thanks to our 15 year old son who has a real passion for helping other people maximize travel and credit card points (that’s a whole other discussion, but he would be happy to help if you have questions!), and had reached out to the hotel and asked if there was anything special they could do.

Something big is happening tomorrow that I’ve been thinking about for pretty much my whole adult life. You may have seen me share in my social media stories that I’m having a breast reduction. To say that I am nervous is an understatement. Having surgery involves trusting the people who will be taking care of me and that my body is going to know what to do to heal after. As a bit of a type A personality, that’s tough for me.

Have you seen any “A haunted house, but…” posts on social media? I didn’t get them at first, but I think I’ve figured them out now that I’ve seen them pretty much all over Instagram. They play on the idea of a haunted house and replace the usual creepy parts with everyday challenges or annoyances, bringing some humour to them. Here are some I found funny….

I spent last weekend in Kingston celebrating my 25th Queen's University Homecoming Reunion.  I had the best time with my former housemates remembering how fun my four years there were.   Something happened while I was there that sparked a little revelation for me and I wanted to share it with you…

These pictures were taken seconds apart in front of 2 different mirrors that are in my workout area. I know it’s not a huge difference, but I always like the way I look in the one on the right better than the one on the left (which is of course the bigger mirror that I use most often to check my form ).

Now don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t take up a lot of headspace in my brain, but it got me thinking about how many different ways our image can be reflected back to us - mirrors, friends and family, our own mindset, pictures…. I’m sure we can come up with others.

I love my 4 kids dearly and am so grateful to be their mom, but… my abs are definitely not the strongest or flattest since having them. I may not be able to do anything about the varicose veins or stretched out belly button they also gifted me with, but there’s no good reason not to see what I can do to strengthen my core (my youngest will be 7 in a few weeks, so I’ve had lots of time to recover!!). While strength training has been part of my life for several years, and has helped me in many ways, I’m ready to really focus on giving my core a little more love.

I often hear from my patients and FASTer Way clients that they feel overwhelmed and confused about what to do to improve their health and where to start. There is no shortage of information out there about what may be helpful for you and a lot of it is contradictory. Eat this. Don’t eat that. Skip breakfast. Don’t eat breakfast. Take this supplement. This supplement is harmful. How the heck do you make sense of it?

“We absolutely have within each of us the power to prevent or significantly decrease our risk for the majority of the top killers and contributors to disability in the world.” Oof, isn’t that a powerful statement? It’s from a podcast I listened to this week with Dr. Austin Perlmutter, MD that got so many wheels spinning in my brain. Read on to see two main points from it that stood out to me.

My goal is to help you build muscle so you can be stronger in your daily life and to rev up your metabolism so you can be leaner and healthier. That takes time. You don’t build muscle overnight or even in a week. As that shift starts happening, you may see little or no change in your weight, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a lot of change happening.

Many people spend the majority of their time in sugar burning, and that has many negative health consequences including poorer sleep quality, higher blood sugar levels, weight gain, and increased inflammation. But with a few changes, you can be on the path to better health, no matter your age.

I never played on a sports team in elementary or high school. I grew up thinking of myself as the smart kid (as seen here!), but not the athletic kid. I’ve been working to change that story in my adult years, even though it still replays at times.