SPEAKER_00 0:02

You know, and as you as you get older, you realize that, you know, even as a parent, your parents had issues from their childhood, which then come out and affect the way they treat you and behave you. Yes, they all do everything from their best intentions, um, but sometimes those best intentions don't work for us as children.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

That is a snippet of our podcast today. Hey there, Maureen Cherna here, founder of the Mindsight Academy, neurocoach to executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and a neuroleadership trainer using insights from neuroscience to help you deliver results by learning to work smarter, be in control of your brain, manage yours and others' emotions, change behaviors, flourish, and exceed expectations. Welcome back to another episode of Lead to Excel Podcast. I am so thrilled to be with you today because we have a special guest. But before we get into that, remember to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to it. Because it will help other people find it and give them the opportunity to understand how they can rewire their own brain to enable them to achieve their goals. So without wasting any more time, grab your cup of coffee or your drink or whatever that might be. Put your feet up and listen in. So it's such a delight to have this lady with us today. Sue Richie, welcome to Lead2XL podcast. Thank you very much, Maureen. I'm really delighted to be here and uh thank you for inviting me. No, it's really a pleasure. I've known you for quite some time on LinkedIn mainly. We've had a chat previously. I think that was during the pandemic, I think. I think it was, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

It's interesting, isn't it? How you sort of get to know people during the pandemic online, and uh and then it's like I had experience recently of that, and um uh meeting somebody then in in real person, and yet we sort of thought we've never actually physically met before, but we felt like we knew each other incredibly well.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Exactly. No, it's really a pleasure. So I'm looking forward to meeting you in person someday as well. That would be great. That would be wonderful. I'd love to just going to um talk about what you do briefly, and then we will get into more details because I'm really looking forward to our conversation today. So Richie is passionate about helping stressed-out business women who are struggling to conceive. Her approach is a totally natural and holistic one that is based on creating the right physical, mental, and spiritual environment to support and increase fertility for both the woman and the man. She takes an approach that focuses on addressing the root causes that are preventing conception from taking place. One of the interesting things that I discovered reading about you, Sue, was the fact that I think it's actually on your on your website that it says that you've had a huge love for children from a young age and a strong desire to have children of your own. Life circumstances, however, resulted in you not realize not realizing that dream until you were um about 36, I think it was. Um so can you tell us a bit about you in terms of having read your profile? It's really interesting that you got into this um aspect, which is really to do with fertility. So, can you just give us a bit of background about your early life, what you were doing before this, and also um in terms of then coming to realize your dream of having children as well?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

I I started off, I suppose, um, life um uh having a successful career in in corporate marketing. And um that life, if you like, was very much one of um, you know, being a bit of, I would describe myself really as a workaholic. So working all the hours, stressed all the time, looking after everybody else, and you know, as so many of us don't do, is not actually really taking that good care of myself. We somehow think that, you know, we can keep pushing ourselves and our body will keep on keep on working well. Um and I also um started my own business um indirect marketing, probably gosh, 20 odd years ago now. And and that that all went well. And it was a situation really of how I got to do what I'm doing now was that um about 14 years ago I had a big health wake-up call. Um I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease, I had things like brain fog, I had memory problems that were horrendous. Um, some days I thought I was literally, you know, going mad. Um, joint pain, recurrence cystitis, all of these things. And um, so when I sort of um said to my doctor, oh well, I can get myself well again, um it was a bit of a shock when I was pretty much, well, almost shouted at to say that it was impossible to recover and I'd be on medication for the rest of my life. And for me, that was a situation of, you know, I'm not willing to accept that prognosis. I've got lots of things I want to do, I want to be active. And um, anyway, if you think that I'm gonna spend the rest of my days, however long that might be, feeling the way I did at that time was like, I'm sorry, no. So um, really, that sort of led me on a journey, my own sort of journey of personal growth, discovery, emotional healing, um, and doing a lot of research. And I basically found out that uh the root cause of um Hashimoto's but also autoimmune diseases lies in the gut. So by actually taking myself through a process of rebalancing my gut, looking at my diet, making changes in my diet, and particularly taking out gluten, but also really, you know, not really having a lot of sugar and things like that either. And by actually rebalancing my gut, just using natural supplements and making the dietary changes, within within three months, I, you know, all the health issues I had had gone and my energy was back. And, you know, the bonus was I lost two and a half stone in weight, which I've never been able to shift before. But after 18 months, um, literally over the 18 months, I was able to cut back on medication, and within 18 months I was recovered and you know back to my normal self again.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

That is amazing. That is an amazing story. So, can you just tell us what Hashimoto disease is?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yes, Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disease that affects your thyroid gland. Um, but one of, you know, one of the interesting things was in my recovery is it wasn't just about the physical. I had to look at emotional stuff from my childhood and do healing around my, you know, issues, if you like, that that had come from trauma and stuff like that in my childhood. So, and you know, having sort of got myself to a place where I've got myself well and knowing that, you know, an awful lot of other women were struggling with with similar um you know diseases, autoimmune diseases, I then um decided that I would, you know, start doing a health, you know, start my health coaching um business to help other women. Okay, okay. But what but what I thought was, I thought I was going to be working with women in their 40s and 50s. Increasingly, what I found was I was working with women um in their early 20s, even late teens, who'd never been well. And they were being given um all sorts of drugs, chemo drugs, brain tumour drugs, um, by doctors on the off chance that it might help and get them well again. And to me, that was incredibly scary because you know, medications like that have side effects, and you're talking about young women who haven't even really started life, if you like. And that was one of the things that sort of led to, and as you said, I I always wanted children. Um, I love children, and I found myself at 30 single, and it was a case of thinking, you know, there were days when I felt really down and depressed, thinking, oh my God, you know, you know, am I going to have children? Perhaps I won't, you know, what will happen? Um, and that was, you know, sometimes quite difficult to really, you know, cope with and and bear at times. So, but you know, as you said at the beginning, luckily, um, things did change, and I found somebody, if you like, and a partner, and um, I had my first child at 36 and my second at 39. Wow. Um, both naturally as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Yeah, I'm gonna come into that, I'm gonna come to that in a second, actually. Um, in terms of the uh um Hashimoto disease, because this came on, this is quite recent. Is that that's correct, isn't it? Yeah, it was 14 years ago. Okay, so 14 years ago, okay. But this was after you've had children? After I'd had children, yes. Yes, okay. So let I want to go back a bit in terms of you you mentioned something about when you discovered you had the autoimmune disease, and one of the things you wanted to focus on was more emotional things that happened in you know when you were young. Why why that? Why did you have to go back that far to look into childhood, emotions, mindset, and all that? Why was that important?

SPEAKER_00 10:23

It was important because there were there were things, if you like, that my body was carrying um in terms of emotional, uh, emotional issues, hurt, pain, um, which really, in order to sort of help me recover, I really needed to release, release those. And I think it was a bit of a bit of also what what I realized, if you like, uh, through this particular situation was A, I had to get a good work-life balance for a start. Um, I really needed to start putting myself first and taking care of myself. But it was also a realization that the sort of need to be working and doing all the time was very much about um my self-worth, if you like. So by working, and you know, it went in my working life, it was always about um people pleasing, if you like, by always taking on more things that you know, people say, Well, would you do this? Oh, yes, I'll do it, and getting to a point where so often I was I was overwhelmed, if you like, and then stressed and not sleeping. And the sort of I think, you know, we get these health wake-up calls. I think the universe sends them to them. And and, you know, I'll be perfectly open and honest and say there were probably a couple of wake-up calls that I ignored earlier on in my life. Um, but you know, it's uh I think you have to be ready, I suppose, for uh when you need to really make changes, and and the universe will literally make you stop, which is pretty much what happened to me. And and you know, I had to give myself time and uh really sort of take care of myself, if you like, probably for the for probably the first time. And it's a situation too of you know um the self-worth and the self-value is such a big issue for so many people and particularly women. And it's sort of coming to that pay getting to that place of you know self-love. I'm not saying it's always perfect, but when you actually, you know, value yourself and take want to take care of yourself, then you really treat yourself well by eating the right foods, doing the right things that actually support and and nurture you rather than being caught up in a situation where so often we just beat ourselves up.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Yeah, I love the way you've really brought that together, the self-love, linking it to how what you eat, how you know what you do, you know. So it's not just a case of um, you know, it's not just a case of looking at it in one-dimensional way, but actually it's more the holistic way of looking at what everything about yourself um and bringing it to that work-life balance. I think it's it's I love that. So for you, in terms of being able to get, you know, um actually get over, or I would say almost self-treat yourself from this autoimmune disease, it's it's you looked at the emotional aspect of yourself. I know you talked a lot about your gut health in terms of what you were eating as well. How did you come to this realization? What made you get, you know, how did you come to the awareness that there's more to this, that it's not just um one aspect of just nutrition or diet, but you know, more the whole package. How did you get there?

SPEAKER_00 14:39

I think interestingly enough, I think we get guided intuitively. And I think what I started seeing was starting, you know, um with like invitations by people to go to certain events. And and I remember one particular thing where somebody invited me actually to to um go to a particular event, and it was it was a huge eye-opener for me because um the couple who ran this event, it was actually um uh the guy's partner, actually, Liz, and she was telling her life story. I was like sitting in the front row and she was telling her life story, and I remember sitting there with tears literally rolling down my face, and the sudden awareness of do you know what? I'm not the only one who thinks like that about themselves, who tells them all those things that are not true and rubbish. And and yet, you know, for I don't know how I'll be there, but you know, I've gone through a lot of years of my life thinking that I was the only one who told themself that they're not good enough, and why are you, you know, what you know, what nobody wants to hear what you've got to say, you don't speak properly, you don't speak well, all you know, you're not good enough, you're not worth it, all of those sorts of things. And when somebody else suddenly shared that, it was like, oh, somebody else feels the same way about themselves as me. Um, and that was a huge you know, step actually of you know, learning all about the negative voice in my head and you know, learning how to how to manage that. And it was a case really of once I'd sort of started on this journey, it's sort of how do I say, I suppose you sort of wake up in a way, and the universe will send you like you'll get an email from somebody about a particular event or a book or you know, workshop or something, and you'll either go, no, it's not for me, or you go, oh, actually, I'm gonna have a look at that, I'm gonna investigate it, and then realize, oh yes, actually, I think I need to follow this path and um and and go on it, or you know, take on board um what's what's being shared.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

That is powerful though. So that is really powerful because you know they there's something that I when I give talks, I kind of give the example of how once I went to buy a car, and um when I got there, I was actually looking for a BMW, but when I got there, I saw a Honda. I think it was a Honda Civic at the time. And I said to myself, I don't really see that many Honda Civics in the UK. This would be a good one. Anyway, I left their garage, and on my way home, which was about half an hour's drive, I'm sure I saw up to 20 Honda Civics on that journey. So it just shows how powerful our brain is in terms of once we focus, once we identify something or bring the awareness to our brain, it opens our eyes to things and attracts those things to us. And you know, what you said is is really powerful and it's something that I think everyone that is listening really needs to pay attention to. Because you see, the moment you started being aware of your situation, the fact that you wanted change, when that you know, invitation came, it you were able to notice it. You you you and it was something you you had, I suppose you needed. So you paid attention to it because it could, you might have been getting emails like that in the past, but not really acknowledged it because you you were not aware at that time. You hadn't drawn your brain's attention to it. And also, you know, not even going too much into love attraction, but the truth is that we attract what you know, what comes to us is what we are thinking about, what we pay attention to. So we attract what we focus on or pay attention to. So I think that is really powerful. Thanks so much for sharing that. And I want us to kind of move up a bit in terms of, okay, you know, the whole issue of rebalancing. I know we don't have time to go into the diet, but just briefly tell us what you actually changed in terms of your diet, your, you know, to really help your gut health. What did you actually do?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Okay, well, I mean, it was a bit more than just changing diet, um, because I had to you have to actually go through and if you like, uh, go through a process, um, really a sort of three-presses of like detoxing the body, but also healing a leaky gut as well. Because it's what does that mean? Leaking up basically means that you uh your gut is leaking, if you like, um, into the rest of your system, which in practical terms means that you know, what you're eating, or even what you even if you're eating a healthy diet, your body won't be able to absorb all the vitamins and minerals that um and nutrition that that your body really needs. And what it also means is that um if you like bits of food and other things, if you like, get into your bloodstream system, uh, which shouldn't be there, and basically creates an inflammatory response in the body. So your immune system goes goes on red alert, if you like. Um so it is eating the right foods in terms of really um having a whole an all-natural diet, um, and also you know, good protein, but lots of veg, eating fruit. But during the whole rebalancing process was really to get rid of as all of the sugar, so no sugar, which is which is a I know that's an interesting one, isn't it? But I'll talk to you about that in a minute. But yeah, so um, but one of the key things that um I learned was that um particularly for people with um thyroid problems, gluten particularly, but also dairy, um, because the molecular structure of glucan, gluten is very similar to your thyroid gland. So when you eat gluten, your body sees it as being your thyroid gland, so it attacks your thyroid gland. And for me, that was uh the initial, if you lit, bit of information that I was able to research and discover that that made a made a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

So I don't don't eat dairy, don't eat um, don't eat gluten, but also um don't really eat anything with you know natural sugar, yes, but um predominantly just some fruit, if you like. So um, but it's also about making sure that you eat enough fibre. The good stuff in your gut, the good bacteria, and all of those things, they need uh good fibre in order to be able to grow and multiply. Whereas the bad bacteria loves sugar and carbs, particularly refined carbs, because you know, they're a living organism, its favorite food, and what it does is that, you know, so often people think, oh, I've got no willpower, I can't stop eating it. But actually, I'd like to say to people, don't worry, it's not your fault, because it's the bad bacteria in your gut that are making you want to eat more and more of those types of foods.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

So, how do you then get to the stage that you can actually overcome that desire of the of the bad bacteria in our gut? How do you get past that to be because you're right, many people struggle to give up the refined sugars because it's it it's it's addictive. So, how do you get through that?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Well, it's but the interesting thing is when you when you actually rebalance your gut. And get your gut health into a really good state, those sort of bad bacteria are not really, you know, hugely present anymore. And therefore, you don't have those compelling desires anymore. They, they, you know, they disappear. And it's, you know, and it I think it's an interesting thing as well, is that when you stop eating something for a period of time, I'm sure a lot of people have the experience, a lot of people with like taking sugar out of drinking, you know, when you're drinking tea, you know, you do that for a couple of weeks or three weeks or so, and you get used to it. And then you go to a friend's house and they they give you a cup of tea and didn't know that you weren't taking sugar, put the sugar in it, and you go and eat your own to drink it, and you go, ooh.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Yeah, I I can relate to that totally. No, I don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

I don't like it. So our, you know, I think that if we if we manage it for a while, our taste buds in every sense do adjust and and and we find it. The same with eating eating salt and stuff like that. When you stop eating a lot of salt in things, you really then you eat something that has got salt, lots of salt in it, and you go, ooh, that's way too salty for me.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

That's so that's true. And I always say that it's interesting because what happens is that it's repetition that you need, it's just doing it over and over. And once you do, your brain changes, your brain rewires. So those connections that really enjoy those things that you want to give up, that connection will start disintegrating because you're forming new neural pathways. So it is repetition that actually enables you to create a new habit. So, yeah, I love that. I'm gonna move us forward now to um, and before we do, actually, I want to just state for those that are listening that um Sue has a book called Love Your Guts, and she also co-authors another book. And I'm gonna put the link in the chat so that if you want to know more about the whole issue of rebalancing your gut health, read the book. It's fine, it's a good fantastic read. Now, Sue, one of the things you do that really caught my attention was the fact that you really you help women or help people that want to have kids that are either struggling, very you know, busy people or you know, that really want to settle down and have kids. How do you do that and how did you get to doing this? Um, just out of curiosity.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

I think I think it was a combination of things of really um what I experienced, what I learned, um when I when I sort of had my health wake-up call, you know, because the whole area of gut health is now it's an area that I'm really passionate about and intrigued. And, you know, it's interesting that Hippocrates said over a thousand years ago that all disease starts in the gut. Well, he's absolutely right, and all the research is just showing, you know, more and more illnesses, everything starts with what's happening in the gut. And it's uh it's also a key element in fertility as well, because that's where estrogen is managed and balanced, and obviously that's a key hormone. But it was really a case of you know, my love for children. Um, I see a lot of children today, and as I said, you know, I started working with young women, late teens, early 20s, who'd never been well in their life, which is really sad.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

And when we say not being well, we're referring to is it the autoimmune disease?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

They've got chronic fatigue, ME, all of these sort of illnesses, if you like, that you know, for a long time people just couldn't understand them, if you like, and and explain them. It was it was sort of thinking that, and also for me, it's like I really wanted, you know, I'd love to see some of the things that happened in my childhood that I was on the receiving end from my parents, had really um caused issues in my life, if you like, and had stopped.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Can you give us an example of what you mean? You know, what's what happened in your childhood? You don't have to go into many, but just give us an example.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

I think well, the I think the key one was that, you know, bless him, my dad, love him to bits. But, you know, and as you as you get older, you realize that, you know, even as a parent, your parents had issues from their childhood, which then come out and affect the way they treat you and behave you. Yes, they all do everything from their best intentions. Um, sometimes those best intentions don't work for us as children. And and my dad, you know, bless his soul, was always very um critical of everything that I said, that I did. And um, because of that, it really sort of, I suppose, maybe sort of stopped, you know, created that sort of belief of not being good enough. But it also made me decide that I wouldn't open my mouth and say things unless I knew it was 100% right. So fear of getting things wrong, creating perfectionism, but also it it sort of affected me in that um, you know, the thing of like being visible, if you like, in the world and speaking out and sharing, you know, my knowledge and things like that, that it's really got in the way of that in a big way. And you know, and I feel at some point at you know, looking back is that perhaps I could have achieved more earlier on in my life if I hadn't have had those those things going on and my confidence was was greater. So, you know, I think also because it's you know children learn so much from our behavior. That's true. And you know, and I just really think that you know, for me, bringing a new life into this world is the most important job that that we do. So if as parents, if we can get ourselves into that place where we and I'm coming back to the self-love thing, that we really love ourselves, we take care of ourselves, we put ourselves first, we take the time to actually eat the right food that really supports our body to perform well for us. Um, and that you know affects us physically and mentally, you know, and that means that we've got a gut that's really working really well for us, but also we've got that positive mindset where we're aware of the negative voice, what it tells us, that we can actually, you know, counter that as best we can. It's not always perfect, unfortunately, but you know, and really have a more positive outlook on life so that we can we're much more better equipped to, you know, life has ups and downs, unfortunately, but if we can actually deal with those in a positive way and see them as challenges, then you know, we're going to create a situation for when then a child comes into this world, if their parents are already in that space, then that children will model that behavior. They will grow up with knowing how to feed themselves properly, they will know that actually how to treat themselves well and love themselves. And for me, when you sort of have self-love, you're you know, you're likely to have be able to know that you can achieve whatever you want in life. And for me, that's a big part of my mission, really, is to create more children that are healthy because we have you know, children today are, you know, we've got one in five children who are who have weight problems and and obesity. And you know, we have children at ages nine and ten um who have type 2 diabetes, and you know, the impact that that's going to have on their health when they get to adulthood, they you know they will have organ damage and things like that, even before they've got to really living their lives, and I and I think it's very sad. Um so you know, for me, I just really want to help parents really get themselves into a great place, so couples get themselves into a great place so that they can provide this, you know, the best environment for their child. And I know we're none of us are perfect, so it's not about being perfection, but I think that you know, if we go into being a parent with awareness, I think we took we've mentioned that before, when we say the wrong thing or we find ourselves saying the wrong thing to a child, we've got the ability to go, oh, I shouldn't have said that. Let me backtrack, let me explain why I said that. So that children, you know, grow up receiving the right, the right words, if you like, from parents.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Yeah, I love that. And also realizing that you know, parents are not perfect. You know, it kind of brings us back in that loop that even we as parents make mistakes. And I I thank you so much for sharing your own upbringing in terms of your dad, because I think that's a very powerful one, um, which a lot of times people don't realize. A lot of the wiring that we've acquired from you know our childhood is what our parents have really given to us. And most of the time it's with good intention, you know, like the example you gave, it would have been your dad possibly wanting you to be to achieve well, to be good. So his way of doing it was to be critical of what you do to help you to be better, but not realizing that actually being critical was then making you to become very self-conscious, to be afraid of failing, um, bringing, you know, bringing about all those self-worth issues. So I think even as adults, it's our responsibility to now start paying attention to what is wired in our brain, because that way we can then make the decision to go, actually, no, this isn't serving me. This negative um thought is not really serving me well. I've got to change it. Or this belief that my parents have, I don't believe it. And I really love what you're doing with young couples now, because what you're doing is really empowering them to be better parents for their own children, and hopefully a lot of the things that have come through the years will then stop because we'll have children who are more emotionally intelligent, parents who are more emotionally intelligent. So, no, I love that. So, just talk to us really quickly and briefly as well, because I know we're almost at the end, how you work with people specifically in terms of increasing fertility. Because I know one of the things that you've talked about is, you know, the whole package. So, emotions, mindset, um nutrition, and all that. So just give us an example of how you've helped someone, possibly, are there a case study of how you've helped people that were, you know, work-life balance was out of sync and really brought them to the place where they could then conceive and have a child.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

I suppose a recent um case study of a client really is um a couple who've been trying for seven years with without success. Um, they'd actually gone to um look at having IVF treatment, but were actually turned down because um she was overweight and she also had PCOS. Um and then she started, she came to me and started working. What's PCOS for the sake of those that don't know? Okay, it's um polycystic ovarian syndrome. So it's uh it's it's a problem, problem with the ovaries, and it's actually an increasing problem for a lot of women today and very much connected with with weight and um issues like that. And um, so basically, um I we start off by actually, I do a health analysis, so we look at how all the systems in the body's working, and so that we've then got a plan of action of what we need to address. Um, I have a sort of a questionnaire, if you like, that's been um created by some medical professions, professionals, if you like, who um where we can actually see how each of the nine systems in the body um are functioning. And so from that we basically create a plan of of action of what we need to do. And you know, with with um with this lady particularly, we had to um a the first thing really was to um get her gut properly rebalanced. Um she had a lot of cravings for sugar and and carbs. Um, she wasn't really exercising, she didn't do any exercise. She was very much in the sense of um, you know, a bit of a workaholic, I would say, of work came first. So we did a lot of work on the mindset around, you know, taking care of herself, putting herself first, looking at what was getting behind there, clearing the blocks from that, but also getting her to really eat the right foods that are really supportive for not only just her health, but also for increasing fertility as well. And you know, all of those things, if you like, as well as obviously looking at mindset and you know, work on you know, the whole thing of visualizing, if you like, what you want is a key key part as well, what I do, and understanding how you know, if you're telling yourself I'm never going to get pregnant, I'm never going to get pregnant, your body is listening. And it takes that on board. So it's you know, learning, teaching people how to really manage their mindset so that they can um they can stay positive. And and you know, just working on on those sorts of key areas really, um, but also looking at chemicals as well, because there are a lot of chemicals that are in our home we put on in the body products that we use every day that have chemicals that are endocrine disruptors, so they're getting in the way of fertility, um, plastics as well, things like that. So I key tend to work on it's like the physical health, um, mindset, um, your self-care relationship, not only with yourself but with your partner, because relationships with partners can go downhill and that can cause stress as well, which gets in the way. But then, as I said, the environment, so the chemicals, and what you can actually do to reduce exposure to things that that might be getting in the way.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

So, with this couple, how did how long did it then take for her to go through all this and then conceive?

SPEAKER_00 37:41

So, so she she worked with me for three months, and then they were she got pregnant two months after completing my program. And she's now five months pregnant now, so she's yeah, and everything's going well. It's lovely to see.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Congratulations, congratulations to her, congratulations to you for doing that. That's amazing. So she worked with you for three months. Your program is for three months, and then I have a three-month program and I have a six-month program. Ah, right, okay. That is fantastic. So, what changed for her, you know, in terms of work-life balance and weight and all that? What actually she did?

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Well, she lost nearly two stones in weight. Wow. She um she had a she started going out daily doing walks longer and longer every week. Um, her husband came on board with her as well in in doing that, so they did it together, which was lovely to see.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Um, and so he was being very supportive in helping her as well. And um, you know, create giving her a you know, eating plan and menus that that she followed. And I think that you know, what I found find so joyful is when when couples really commit to really stepping up to take care of themselves, not just because they want to get pregnant, but because you know, they want to they want to improve everything.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Yes. Do you find that now there are a lot of women um couples in particular, Shelley, really hard-working professionals or people that are really focused a lot on work? Do you find a lot of them struggle with fertility?

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Yes, I think it is. I think one of the one of the things is that you know that I'm actually passionate about is that we need to slow down.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

We need to stop trying to cram a million and one things into into our lives uh simply because it causes stress, and stress, unfortunately, um, gets in the way of fertility of conceiving. Um, it gets in the way of sleeping properly, and good sleep is important to fertility as well. And you know, I think it's a case of you have to put yourself first and take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Totally, totally, totally. Thank you so much, Sue. Thank you very much. So, um one final piece of advice that you want to give our listeners, what can you what you you know, I call them words of wisdom that we can take away.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

There's two things really. One thing is one question I have is when we face challenges, I think it's important for us to stop and take a look at our lives and really tap in to are we truly living our life in alignment with how we should be living it. Oh, I love that. Because I think that that gets in the way because most of the time, and and you know, I've been there as well myself, is that we we live our life based on what other people think and what other people might say. And my own personal experience was that uh when I had the health big wake-up call, was that I realized that what I thought in my head that other people might think about me, you know, slowing down and giving myself time out, that I thought they would be like, Oh, you shouldn't be doing that, whatever. And I think I'll just say to you now, is like my husband actually said to me, and I was scared because he's thinking that, oh, you know, if I'm taking time out, I'm not earning so much money, that he wouldn't like it. He actually said to me, Why haven't you done this sooner?

SPEAKER_02 41:22

Yeah, it's amazing how we get into our own heads and create it our own narratives about things. Meanwhile, the people we think are thinking that way are not. That is that is a good one. That is a good one. Thank you so much, Sue. Thank you for all, you know, you've you've really given us so much to think about, so much to act on. And I'm going to leave your details in the description for those that um want to reach out because I think you've got a lot to offer and so much um to help people with. Thank you so much for coming on to Lead2XL podcast.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

No, thank you very much. It's been lovely. I've really enjoyed it. Thanks very much, Maureen, for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

Okay, three things before we finish today. Have you subscribed to this podcast? If you haven't, make sure you click that subscribe button wherever you listen to this podcast. Because once you subscribe, you will not miss an episode. And as usual, if you have a topic you would love me to speak about or bring a guest on, do let me know by leaving a review. Finally, do have a fantastic week and remember that you are limitless. So I look forward to seeing you in our next episode. Bye for now.