Energized with Dr. Mariza

What if you’re not burned out? You’re still working. Still exercising. Still taking care of your family. Still getting everything done. From the outside, you look like you’re handling it all. But underneath that competence, your body may be keeping a very different score through your sleep, recovery, energy, mood, stress tolerance, and heart rate variability. In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with nutritionist, health and performance coach, and High Performance Health podcast host Angela Foster to unpack the difference between true resilience and simply becoming incredibly good at pushing through. Angela explains why changing hormones in midlife can expose the cost of years of chronic under-recovery, how HRV can offer clues about whether your training and lifestyle actually match your capacity, and why the workout that once energized you may now leave you depleted for days. They also share practical ways to build more recovery into a full life without abandoning your ambition, including walking, strength training, strategic HIIT, box breathing, the physiological sigh, morning light, intentional pauses, boundaries, and what Dr. Mariza calls “mindfulness snacks.” Because the goal isn’t to build a smaller life. It’s to build the energy, resilience, and capacity to keep living the big life you’ve worked so hard to create. ANGELA FOSTER Angela Foster is a nutritionist, health and performance coach, and host of the High Performance Health podcast. Her work focuses on helping ambitious women optimize their energy, hormones, resilience, and longevity without sacrificing the full lives they love. Drawing from her own journey through major depressive disorder and perimenopause, Angela combines lifestyle medicine, exercise, recovery, nervous system regulation, and performance data such as HRV to help women understand their individual capacity and build greater resilience. IN THIS EPISODE How to distinguish true resilience from simply getting really good at pushing through Why hormonal changes in midlife can expose years of chronic under-recovery How HRV can reveal whether your training load actually matches your recovery capacity Why HIIT may energize some women while leaving others depleted for days How walking, strength training, box breathing, and intentional recovery can support resilience Why small “mindfulness snacks” throughout the day can help regulate your nervous system What to investigate when you’re doing everything right but your HRV still isn’t improving How boundaries, asking for help, and taking things off your plate can actually expand your future capacity Why sustainable ambition doesn’t require giving up the career or life you’ve worked hard to build QUOTES“The biggest stress for us is when we don’t feel that sense of self-agency.” “When you put intentional pauses into your day, you can slow that down and be present.” “Where in your life can you put an anchor in your day that just grounds you back to what’s important?” RESOURCES MENTIONED Find inspiration, connection, and meaningful reads. Join the Book Club now! https://drmariza.com/bookclub Join my brand-new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife: https://drmariza.substack.com/ High Performance Health Podcast https://angelafosterperformance.com/podcasts/ Angela Foster Website https://angelafosterperformance.com/ Angela Foster Instagram RELATED EPISODES  772: The Cost of Holding It All Together: How Overfunctioning Changes Your Hormones, Brain & Metabolism with Dr. Mariza 776: What Changes When Your Body Can’t Keep Pushing Like It Used To? with Dr. Taz Bhatia 737: Why You Still Feel Off in Midlife (Even When You’re Doing Everything Right) with Dr. Melissa Sonners 758: Why Your Body Can’t Heal Until It Feels Safe: The Nervous System Shift That Changes Everything with Dr. Dave Rabin

How did hormones become something women were taught to fear? For decades, hormone therapy has been surrounded by confusion, conflicting recommendations, and sweeping assumptions that lump very different hormones and formulations together. Meanwhile, women continue walking into doctors’ offices saying, “I don’t feel like myself anymore,” and too often leave without answers or options. In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down in London with physician, women’s hormone specialist, educator, bestselling author, and advocate Dr. Louise Newson for a powerful conversation about how women’s hormone care got here and what needs to change. They unpack why menopause has been reduced to hot flashes and night sweats, why estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone need far more nuance, and why Dr. Newson believes hormones deserve a place in the conversation about long-term health, not simply symptom relief. They also go deep into one of the most controversial areas of women’s hormone care: testosterone, why the conversation so often begins and ends with libido, and what Dr. Newson has observed in women taking it for broader symptoms. Most importantly, this episode is about informed choice: giving women accurate information, acknowledging where evidence is strong or still evolving, and creating healthcare relationships where women can participate fully in decisions about their own bodies. DR. LOUISE NEWSON Dr. Louise Newson is a physician, women’s hormone specialist, educator, bestselling author, and advocate working to transform the way women understand and access hormone care. Her newest book, The Power of Hormones, explores the history of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, hormone therapy, inflammation, and the medical decisions that have shaped women’s healthcare. Dr. Newson also focuses heavily on helping women understand their options and participate more actively in decisions about their health. IN THIS EPISODE Why menopause and hormone loss need to be viewed as more than hot flashes and night sweats How decades of medical history shaped today’s fear and confusion around hormone therapy Why lifestyle and hormone therapy should not be treated as an either-or decision The controversy around testosterone for women and why the conversation extends beyond libido Why the specific hormone and formulation matter when discussing benefits and risks How hormone changes may influence metabolic health, inflammation, and healthy aging The differences Dr. Newson draws between bioidentical hormones and synthetic hormone formulations Why younger women with hormonal conditions such as PMDD deserve a deeper hormone conversation How women can use knowledge, evidence, and informed choice to advocate for better healthcare QUOTES “You can only decide when you’ve got knowledge.” “It’s all about choice based on evidence and fact.” “We really need to grow up and think we need to prevent disease.” RESOURCES MENTIONED Order my newest book: The Perimenopause Revolution http://drmariza.com/book Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now https://drmariza.com/trial Join my brand-new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife: https://drmariza.substack.com/ Stop guessing, start testing. Explore Joi & Blokes personalized labs with code DRMARIZA. https://joiandblokes.com/labs-with-dr-mariza-snyder/ Use code ENERGIZED and get 10% off on your MitoQ Order https://www.mitoq.com/energized The Power of Hormones by Dr. Louise Newson https://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Hormones-misinformation-hormones-healthier Dr. Louise Newson Website https://www.drlouisenewson.co.uk/ Dr. Louise Newson Instagram RELATED EPISODES  656: The Dangers Of NOT Prescribing Bioidentical HRT + Migraines, Testosterone and Mitigating Inflammation with Dr. Louise Newson 680: You Are Not Broken: Why Women Need Testosterone to Feel Strong, Sexy & Energized with Dr. Kelly Casperson 605: Breaking the HRT Confusion: The Truth Behind Hormone Replacement Therapy for Perimenopausal Women with Karen Martel 592: Menopause, HRT, and Breast Cancer + How to Advocate for Yourself with Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz

You’re exhausted by 2 or 3 PM. Your workouts suddenly wipe you out. Your hair is shedding, your brain feels foggy, and even climbing a flight of stairs leaves you more winded than it used to. Then you finally ask for help and hear: “Your labs are normal.” In this solo episode, Dr. Mariza breaks down one of the most commonly missed contributors to persistent fatigue in women: iron deficiency, even before anemia develops. She explains newly released American Society of Hematology ferritin thresholds and why women who were previously told their iron was “normal” may deserve a closer look. But iron is only one part of the conversation. Dr. Mariza walks through the bigger clinical picture she considers when a woman says, “I don’t feel like myself anymore,” including thyroid function, mitochondrial energy production, blood sugar, sleep, nutrition, stress physiology, and HPA-axis regulation. Most importantly, she explains why fatigue is a symptom, not a diagnosis and why neither stress, aging, nor perimenopause should automatically become the explanation for everything you’re experiencing. Listen now to learn what may be hiding behind your exhaustion and how to have a more productive conversation with your healthcare provider. IN THIS EPISODE Why iron deficiency can exist before you become anemic The new ferritin thresholds women should know about Why a lab’s reference range and a diagnostic threshold are not always the same thing Why heavy perimenopausal periods can increase your risk of depleted iron stores The fatigue, brain fog, headaches, hair shedding, and exercise intolerance that can overlap with perimenopause How iron, thyroid hormones, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, and recovery influence mitochondrial energy production Why “adrenal fatigue” oversimplifies what may actually be happening with the HPA axis How under-fueling, over-training, poor sleep, circadian disruption, illness, and caffeine can add to the body’s total stress load The questions to ask when you know something has changed but your labs keep coming back “normal” QUOTES “You can be iron deficient before you ever become anemic.” “Two things can be true at once.” “I don’t want mitochondrial dysfunction to become another vague label we give an exhausted woman.” RESOURCES MENTIONED Find inspiration, connection, and meaningful reads. Join the Book Club now! https://drmariza.com/bookclub Order my newest book: The Perimenopause Revolution http://drmariza.com/book Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now https://drmariza.com/trial RELATED EPISODES  769: Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? How to Finally Connect the Dots with Dr. Mariza 664: The Hidden Reason You’re Exhausted: How to Fix Cortisol and Boost Stress Resilience in Perimenopause 661: When “Normal” Isn’t Normal: How to Be Heard (and Taken Seriously) at the Doctor’s Office 755: What If Your Body Isn’t Broken, Just Undernourished? The Missing Link Between Nutrients, Hormones & Energy with Ryan Woodbury

What happens when the woman who has always been able to handle everything suddenly realizes her body won’t let her operate that way anymore? In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with functional diagnostic nutritionist, medical exercise specialist, bestselling author, and women’s health educator Jenn Pike for a deeply personal conversation about the capacity shift that can happen in perimenopause. Jenn shares the subtle signs she noticed in her late 30s: alcohol suddenly disrupting her sleep, slower workout recovery, increased soreness, less patience, and a shorter emotional fuse. Eventually, she realized she wasn’t simply stressed. Her body needed her to operate differently. They unpack what happened when Jenn stopped forcing intense workouts, began respecting her changing energy, reduced her workload, asked for help, and started saying no, even when disappointing people felt uncomfortable. But this conversation goes even deeper into the identity so many high-functioning women carry: “I’ve got this. I don’t need help.” Listen now to discover why perimenopause may be an invitation to protect your energy, trust your body, and stop treating exhaustion as the price of a full life. JENN PIKE Jenn Pike is a functional diagnostic nutritionist, medical exercise specialist, bestselling author, and women’s health educator who has spent years helping women in perimenopause and menopause better understand their hormones and bodies. She is also the host of The Simplicity Sessions podcast. In this conversation, Jenn shares her own experience of entering perimenopause in her late 30s and how it forced her to rethink exercise, work, motherhood, boundaries, identity, and the belief that she always had to be the one who could handle everything. IN THIS EPISODE The subtle perimenopause signs Jenn started noticing before age 40 Why intense workouts stopped feeling good and how she changed her training What overstimulation and a shorter emotional fuse revealed about her capacity How overcommitment and constantly being needed contributed to burnout Why Jenn had to dramatically rethink how much she could put on her calendar Learning to ask for help, delegate, and disappoint people without falling apart Why perimenopause can bring your deepest patterns around productivity and self-worth back up for review How Jenn moved from being “smart” to feeling wiser, calmer, and more trusting of herself QUOTES “The nutrient is actually doing less, and figuring out how to do less better.” “I taught people to expect that of me.” “I don't have to be that person to be loved.” RESOURCES MENTIONED Order my newest book: The Perimenopause Revolution: https://drmariza.com/book Join my brand new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife >> https://drmariza.substack.com/ The Simplicity Sessions Podcast: https://jennpike.com/podcast/ Jenn Pike Website https://jennpike.com/ Jenn Pike Instagram RELATED EPISODES  776: What Changes When Your Body Can’t Keep Pushing Like It Used To? With Dr. Taz Bhatia 775: Wide Awake at 3 A.M.? What’s Really Disrupting Your Sleep in Midlife with Morgan Adams 774: Training for Your Grandma Self: How to Build a Body That Lasts 769: Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? How to Finally Connect the Dots with Dr. Mariza

What if perimenopause isn’t simply changing your hormones, but revealing everything your body has been compensating for for years? In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with integrative medicine physician and women’s health expert Dr. Taz Bhatia for an incredibly personal conversation about what happens when the strategies that helped high-functioning women push through for decades suddenly stop working. Dr. Taz shares how her own perimenopause began with incredibly heavy periods, fatigue, anemia, hair loss, mood changes, and unexpected weight gain. But one of her biggest surprises came later: as progesterone and estrogen declined, her blood sugar, insulin, cholesterol, A1C, and liver enzymes began creeping upward, revealing just how interconnected hormones and metabolic health really are. They also explore the emotional transformation of midlife: letting go of people-pleasing, protecting your energy, releasing the need to be the “good girl,” and becoming clearer about who you are and what deserves your attention. Listen now to rethink perimenopause as an opportunity to understand your body, protect your health, and step powerfully into what comes next. DR. TAZ BHATIA Dr. Taz Bhatia is a board-certified integrative medicine physician, women’s health expert, and bestselling author of several books, including The Hormone Shift. Her work explores the connections between hormones, metabolism, stress, nutrition, and whole-body health. Through her Whole Plus clinics and podcast, Dr. Taz advocates for a more collaborative approach to women’s health that looks beyond symptoms to cognitive, metabolic, cardiovascular, bone, mental, and hormonal health. IN THIS EPISODE How extremely heavy periods became Dr. Taz’s first undeniable sign of perimenopause Why weight gain in midlife isn’t necessarily something women simply have to accept How estrogen and progesterone shifts can intersect with blood sugar, insulin, cholesterol, and visceral fat Why the “silent” cardiometabolic changes of menopause deserve more attention Why your body may stop tolerating the stress, sleep debt, and depletion you once pushed through How perimenopause helped Dr. Taz stop people-pleasing and build stronger boundaries Why knowing your own patterns and tracking changes can help you advocate for yourself How midlife can become an opportunity to redefine your identity, purpose, and power QUOTES Perimenopause is really where women come into their own.” “These are not my battles. This is not my fight.” “We gotta redefine what fine is.” RESOURCES MENTIONED Find inspiration, connection, and meaningful reads: Join my Soulful Shelf Book Club (no cost) here: https://drmariza.com/bookclub Join my brand-new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife: https://drmariza.substack.com/ The Hormone Shift by Dr. Taz Bhatia: https://amzn.to/4xJ5VfK The Superwoman Rx by Dr. Taz Bhatia: https://amzn.to/4hHkZpn Dr. Taz Website: https://doctortaz.com/ Dr. Taz Instagram Hol+ Wellness Podcast RELATED EPISODES  775: Wide Awake at 3 A.M.? What’s Really Disrupting Your Sleep in Midlife with Morgan Adams 774: Training for Your Grandma Self: How to Build a Body That Lasts 771: Beyond Hot Flashes: The 103 Symptoms of Perimenopause No One Talks About with Andrea Donsky 769: Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? How to Finally Connect the Dots with Dr. Mariza