Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

This is Part 2 of the “How to Do Less and Get More in Midlife” Episode with Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D., and coach. In Part 1, Sarah and I discussed why so many women reach overwhelm and burnout in the care sandwich that is midlife.  We also shared our favourite coaching strategies and tools to help busy women scale back on their to-do lists and clear some space to bring in more of the things that serve them.

In this installment, we provide some concrete strategies for standing in personal responsibility and figuring out what you need more of in your life to create the next fulfilling joyful chapter because no one is coming to do it for you.

What matters to you about how you live the next 20 years of your life?

What do you need more of?

If you don’t know, how do you find out?

To contact Sarah Baillie about coaching services, email her at: [email protected]

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

In this episode Sarah and I talk about why so many of us reach overwhelm and burnout in the care sandwich that is midlife. 

We share our favourite coaching strategies and tools to help busy women scale back on their to-do lists and clear some space to bring in more of the things that serve them (listen to Part 2 of this episode, coming soon, for those strategies!)

Topics include:

• being v. doing
• how to say no more often
• how to care less
• how to figure out what’s no longer serving you (energy drains v. gains)
• people pleasing and why it’s a dishonest way to show up
• how it’s not serving you or the people you are pleasing

We also discuss the answer to the most common question we hear from the women we support: "Is this IT?" (Spoiler: Nope. There’s SO MUCH MORE great stuff to come.)

 For more on coaching with Sarah Baillie, email her at: [email protected]

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

My colleague Sarah Baillie and I discuss a 2011 article from The Atlantic (by author Sandra Tsing Loh) that is still a very relevant and hilarious read for women in midlife, no matter where they are when it comes to the hormonal transition of perimenopause and menopause.

We discuss what it would mean if fertility was actually the “Big Change” and menopause was just a “return to normal” and why this theory actually makes far more sense in our modern world.

Sarah talks about the value of living an “entitled life” and why this isn’t selfish, but instead well-earned for her as a woman in her 50s.

Sarah and I discuss the power of midlife women as a demographic and why we can consider menopause a major cultural event.

Sarah shares her Costco story and what she’s learned about her “inside voice”. 

We discuss the role of declining estrogen in midlife women’s diminishing drive...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

My best friend Megan and I, who have five young adult children between us, reflect on our transition to an empty nest together this fall. We share the story of our unique lifelong friendship, and our shared experience entering motherhood, midlife, and now empty nesting together. We recount some of our favourite parts of living without kids again and some of the unforeseen challenges (or are they perks?) like chocolate-covered peanuts for lunch and key lime pie for dinner, playlist control (Piano Chill, anyone?), finding a “new normal” with your partner, and the lack of any requirement to follow a routine.

We discuss the toughest parts of not having your children close by and share what we did to find our own sense of purpose before our nests emptied and how that has helped to make this a surprisingly joyful time of life. We explore the idea of anticipatory grief and provide some very helpful insight into how to...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

In today’s episode, my regular co-host and bestie Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D., joins me to talk all things teenagers. We are by no means parenting experts, but we have loads of collective experience when it comes to mothering teens. We share our top insights and tips including strategies to diffuse tension, improve communication, and re-frame the teenage years to increase the joy and decrease the common frustrations and stressors that often arise for women in midlife who are parenting young adults.

Topics include how to take it all less personally, how to de-escalate a disagreement, how to manage a moody teen, and how to worry less and love them more.

It’s an honest, raw, and funny conversation (as always!) between two moms who get it.

Don’t miss this one!

There's still time to join my January REWIND small group mindful break from alcohol!

The program starts Jan 6, 2023: www.wendymccallum.com/rewind

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

It’s the 100th episode of Bite-Sized Balance!

In today’s episode of ‘the little podcast that could’, my regular co-host and bestie Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D., joins me to celebrate 100 episodes of Bite-Sized Balance, the “fake” podcast that I started over two years ago.

We each choose a handful of episodes that stand out for us from past seasons and discuss why you should give them a listen if you haven’t had the chance or are a new listener to the show.

We also talk about feeling “couchy”, the pitfalls of Daylight Savings Time, and Sarah’s newfound passion for coaching.

Here are our favourite episodes with the links to watch on my website (you can also listen to all of these on your preferred podcast platform):

Episode 1: The Meno Whisperer (Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D.)

...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below. 

Sara McElroy is a former hustle culture devotee, ex-chief marketing officer, the Wall Street Journal’s poster girl for pandemic career burnout, and a two-time member of the Great Resignation: class of 2021 and 2022.

Following a stress-induced shingles diagnosis in early 2021, Sara decided to hit the reset button on her life; she quit her hard-won CMO job and trekked to Peru's Sacred Valley to reset her frayed nervous system.

When she returned, she relocated from the buzzy metropolis of Atlanta to the beach in South Florida for a new job and a fresh start. But she once again encountered deeply ingrained cultural issues in her new role, and ultimately, she walked away again.

Finding herself in the company of millions of other women who also set unfulfilling jobs ablaze during the Great Resignation, she returned to her journalism roots and began to explore the stories, breaking points, and defining moments that led women to seek...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below. 

If you need a good laugh and a little levity, tune into this episode, where Sarah and I share the list of “Pet Peeves” that we’ve been accumulating together over the last year, including petty yet universal annoyances like the perpetual “goaty” smell of dishtowels and empty ice cube trays left in the freezer, but also inexplicable, less rational irritants like mimes (in general, in person or on-screen), books about the Great Depression or riding trains and just about anything “curated, artisanal or bespoke.”

There’s something in this episode for everyone (if nothing else, you’ll feel better about your own cortisol-jacking pet peeves, promise!) Join Sarah and me for a fun conversation about the small things that drive us crazy in midlife. 

I'm pretty sure you won't regret it.

For free tools and resources for making change around alcohol, burnout, or midlife, visit: ...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.  

In this short podcast episode, I provide listeners with an update on my abrupt transition to empty nester this fall, including the blindsiding grief I felt this spring and how I worked through it to find the joy on the other side. Since my children are only seven months apart, and in the same grade, they both left their childhood home for university residences the same week.

I share a piece I wrote called “Emptying the Nest” that will resonate with mothers everywhere, where I explore how it feels as your young adult children begin their slow leaving process and then disappear from your home.

If you’ve got children (or nieces, nephews or step-kids or godchildren), don’t skip this one – it’s short and bittersweet but also universal in the emotions involved in this natural transition period in midlife.

Please feel free to share this episode with any moms (or dads!) you know who are in...

Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.

Sarah and I discuss a couple of recent news articles about the death of ambition since the emergence of COVID. People are working less or are less invested in their work, with more opting for early retirement than ever. There’s apparently a rebellion happening against “pointless presenteeism”, and Sarah and I are 100% here for it.

We explore and deconstruct the social definitions of success for women and consider how doing less might actually contribute to being more, and lead to an easier, more abundant existence.

Is the conventional definition of success and ambition even achievable?

What happens when we let go of our false idea of control and shift our ambition into “being”?

Might this be the key to life satisfaction and happiness? We believe so.

Don’t worry, it’s not as esoteric as it sounds. As always, we keep our conversation grounded in real life and have a few good laughs.

...