If you've ever hidden in the back of a family photo, skipped a headshot session, or cringed when you saw a candid picture of yourself, this episode is for you.

I sat down with Kristen Vallejo, a portrait and branding photographer based in upstate New York, who has made it her mission to help women feel comfortable and confident being seen.

In this conversation, we unpack why so many of us (especially women navigating midlife) have such a complicated relationship with being photographed. We talk about the role social media has played in making us feel like every picture has to be perfect, why menopause can make it even harder to recognize yourself in photos, and how we can start to shift that.

One of the most powerful reframes Kristen shares is this: visibility is generosity. When you hide from the camera, you're also withholding yourself ( your gifts, your presence, your relatability) from the people who need to see you. That hit me in a deep way, and I think it will for you too.

We also talk about body diversity and representation, why photographers aren't looking at you with the critical lens you're using on yourself, and some practical tips to make any photo session feel less like a pressure cooker.

Kristen's missing ingredient in midlife? Novelty. And I love that answer.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why so many women approach the camera with terror, and what's underneath it
• How social media has raised the bar for "acceptable" photos and what that costs us
• Why going through menopause can make seeing yourself in photos feel particularly confronting
• What body neutrality looks like in practice, even in a portrait session
• The power of representation and why your visible presence matters more than you think
• Practical tips for preparing for a photo session without the overwhelm

About Kristen Vallejo: Kristen Vallejo is a portrait and branding photographer based in upstate New York, specializing in entrepreneurs, small business owners, and those with animals in their work. She's passionate about capturing the real person behind the lens — not just a polished pose. You can find her at kristenvallejo.com and on Instagram at @kristenvallejophotography.

Related Episodes:

• Is Feeling Seen the Missing Part of Your Midlife Story? with Dr. Jody Carrington — a beautiful conversation about connection, storytelling, and why being seen matters so deeply in midlife.
• How to Turn Your Body Image Inside Out in Midlife with Deb Shatker & Whitney Otto — practical frameworks for getting unstuck from the patterns that keep us at war with how we look.
• Ageism and Body Image in Midl

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

The wait list for The Midlife Body Image Lab program opens soon! Join my newsletter community to be the first to hear.

🔗 https://bit.ly/onthemenunewsletter

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Feeling overwhelmed by conflicting advice about menopause and HRT? You're not alone, and you're not imagining it.

In this eye-opening conversation, journalist and author Fiona Clark (MenoWars: Why Menopause's Moment Has Gone Horribly Wrong) joins me to unpack why the menopause conversation has become so polarizing. What started as a grassroots movement of women advocating for better care has evolved into a confusing battlefield of conflicting claims, FOMO-inducing headlines, and monetized advice that leaves women more overwhelmed than empowered.

Fiona brings her unique background, which includes a degree in anatomy and physiology, decades as a journalist, and her own experience navigating menopause to help us understand how we got here. We explore the "menopause wars," from the rise of influential voices making claims that science doesn't always support, to the gatekeeping accusations that emerge when medical professionals push back, to the dangerous erosion of trust in evidence-based medicine.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How the menopause advocacy movement transformed from collegial to combative
• Why testosterone has become the latest battleground (and what happened when Fiona stopped taking it)
• The FOMO epidemic: dementia, heart disease, and what the research actually shows
• Why "gatekeeping" accusations undermine the scientific process
• The commercialization of menopause and how confusion gets monetized
• What HRT can (and can't) do, and why cutting out the noise matters more than anything
• Why women deserve to make informed decisions about their bodies without everyone else's opinions

Fiona's message is clear: it's not about being pro- or anti-HRT. It's about cutting through the noise, understanding what science actually supports, and reclaiming your right to make informed decisions about your own body without FOMO, fear, or unsolicited opinions.

If you've felt confused, frustrated, or exhausted by the menopause information overload, this conversation will help you find your footing.

About Fiona: Fiona is an award winning investigative journalist who spent the first 20 years of her career in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She covered the 1991 coup in Soviet Union, the Balkans War and went on to be supervising producer of its current affairs equivalent of the BBC Newsnight. Her degree is in Sports Medicine and some 20 years ago she went into medical publishing. She has written for The Lancet and various other medical publications. For the past 8 years she has been working in the menopause space and is the co-founder of the Menopause Research and Education Fund and the author of MenoWars - a look at the state of women’s health through the lens of the current debates in menopause.

Connect with Fiona:

• Book: MenoWars (available on Amazon and UK bookstores)
• Charity: Menopause Research and Education Fund

Related Episodes You'll Love:

• Brain Health & Menopause: What Science Really S

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Ever feel overwhelmed by conflicting nutrition advice? One influencer swears by seed oils while another demonizes them. Your feed is flooded with "80 grams of protein" meal challenges, and you're left wondering: what should I actually believe?

In this episode, I sit down with Colleen Christensen, registered dietitian, recovering perfectionist, and the compassionate voice behind the wildly popular @No.Food.Rules Instagram account. Colleen shares her personal journey from competitive dietetics student to her struggle with eating disorders, and ultimately to becoming one of the leading voices helping people unlearn decades of diet culture programming.

This conversation is a masterclass in cutting through nutrition misinformation. Colleen breaks down why seed oils have become the internet's latest villain, what's really happening with the protein obsession, and why authority bias keeps us trusting the wrong "experts." But more importantly, she shares the one thing that changed everything for her recovery: learning to experiment with food instead of following rigid rules.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why reading the headline isn't enough, and how to actually evaluate nutrition studies
• The two biggest nutrition myths getting in the way of normal eating right now
• How to become your own best experiment (and why that's more powerful than any meal plan)
• Why the education piece matters just as much as the inspiration
• What it really means to find joy in midlife eating, beyond just saying "all foods fit"

Connect with Colleen:

• Instagram: @NoFoodRules

Related Episodes You'll Love:

• EP #137: 5 Tips for Spotting Nutrition Misinformation with Dr. Emma Beckett
• EP #138: 5 Things I Wish I Had Known About Intuitive Eating 10 Years Ago
• EP #123: You Are More Than What You Eat with Dr. Emma Beckett

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

The wait list for The Midlife Body Image Lab program opens soon! Join my newsletter community to be the first to hear.

🔗 https://bit.ly/onthemenunewsletter

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

If you’ve been told you should get more fiber but feel confused by the fiber-maxing trend and don’t want it to become a full-time job, this episode is for you.

In this episode, I explain why fiber matters in midlife and menopause, how it truly supports digestion, energy, heart health, and satisfaction, and why you don’t need to count every gram or chase perfection.

This episode offers clear, practical ways to think about soluble and insoluble fiber, bust common myths, and add more fiber to your eating in ways that feel doable, not overwhelming. This episode gives you permission to focus on patterns, not pressure.

Get the Mediterranean Salmon Smash recipe here: https://www.jennsalibhuber.ca/blog/fiber-without-tracking-in-menopause

Episodes mentioned:

🎙Episode 39 — What Every Woman Needs to Know About Heart Health, Cholesterol, and Menopause with Dr. Alex Verge, ND.
🎙Episode 98 — High Blood Pressure in Menopause and Midlife (The Estrogen Connection) with Dr. Alex Verge, ND.

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Perimenopause can feel unpredictable, emotional, and deeply disorienting, especially when your body changes quickly and nothing seems to work the way it used to. In this story session, I'm joined by Britney, a 49-year-old therapist navigating late perimenopause, who shares her honest experience with weight changes, fatigue, mood swings, and the fear that often shows up alongside them.

Together, we talk about what it’s really like to move from panic and food rules into trust, attunement, and food freedom in midlife. This episode explores how stepping out of diet culture, wearing clothes that fit your today body, and finding supportive community can free up mental space and help you feel more like yourself again, even in the middle of uncertainty.

If you’re in perimenopause and struggling with body image, confusing symptoms, or your relationship with food, this conversation will help you feel less alone and more hopeful about what’s possible next.

Learn more about Britney's work here: www.lecofva.com

If you'd like to join the Feaster community, learn more at https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/themidlifefeastcommunity

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

If the word “selfish” still triggers guilt for you, this episode is the permission slip you didn’t know you needed. I’m joined by the ever-wise Suzy Reading to explore why so many of us in midlife struggle to receive support, set boundaries, and prioritize our own needs — even when we know better.

We unpack the deep roots of people-pleasing, the pressure to be endlessly self-reliant, and how we can start to reclaim selfish as something powerful, not shameful. If you’ve been doing all the “right” self-care things and still feel depleted, this conversation will help you connect the dots — and offer a new, more compassionate way forward.

Learn more about Suzy Reading and her new book How To Be Selfish here: https://www.suzyreading.co.uk/

Did you enjoy this episode?

#58 - Rest to Reset - Redefining Self-Care with Suzy Reading

#132 - Why You Need to Put Capacity, Self-Compassion, & Self-Care on the Menu

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Welcome to 2026, where it suddenly feels harder than ever to talk about menopause, health, and nutrition without the conversation getting hijacked by weight loss. In this longer-than-usual episode, I’m joined by family physician and writer Dr. Mara Gordon (who proudly describes herself as an “anti-diet doctor”) to talk about the question that's been on my mind lately: Is a weight-neutral menopause still possible?

Mara and I unpack what weight neutrality actually means in real-world healthcare, why the “weight loss fixes everything” narrative has gotten louder again, and whether GLP-1 medications can fit into an informed, values-based, body-autonomy-first approach to care.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What I mean by “weight neutral” (and why it’s not the same as “anti-weight loss”)
• Why menopause weight changes can create so much urgency, fear, and pressure
• How to support weight-neutral conversations even when cholesterol, blood sugar, or blood pressure change
• The “Mediterranean pattern,” and why nutrition strategies can help without turning into restriction
• GLP-1s: what they can do well (and what they cannot do)
• Why a lot of expectations about weight loss are shaped by culture, not medicine
• Why “I want to avoid meds” is often about something deeper than the medication

About my guest, Dr. Mara Gordon
Dr. Mara Gordon is a family physician in Camden, New Jersey. She’s also a writer, including NPR’s Real Talk with a Doc column, and she writes a Substack newsletter called Your Doctor Friend, about healthcare being a mess and how we can figure it out together. She’s also working on a book about diet culture and medicine, expected in 2027.

Links & resources

• Dr. Mara Gordon’s Substack: Your Doctor Friend
• NPR column: Real Talk with a Doc
• My website + free resources + coaching: menopausenutritionist.ca

If this episode hit home
Share it with a friend who’s feeling the pressure to “fix” her midlife body. And if you have a question you want me to tackle on a future episode, send it my way.

Enjoying the show?
Follow The Midlife Feast and leave a review. It helps more midlife women find evidence-based, weight-neutral support that doens't feel like a diet.

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

What if the loudest voice at your meals isn’t hunger, but an overactive alarm telling you you’re doing it “wrong”? In this episode, I dig into the link between food guilt and relentless food noise, and show how midlife shifts, hormones, sleep, mood, and capacity can crank that alarm even higher. Instead of doubling down on rules, I'll walk you through the 3-step process that replaces food morality with neutrality.

Grab The Food Guilt Decoder here: https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/FoodGuiltDecoder

Episodes mentiond:

Episode 172: https://themidlifefeast.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/18238090

Episode 151:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851576/episodes/17038620

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist