Season Opener: What We Both Learned this Summer (with Sarah Baillie, N.D.)
Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.
Welcome to Season 3 of Bite-Sized Balance! In today's episode, Sarah and I catch up, sharing what we did this summer and some of the life lessons we both learned this past year.
Sarah opens up about a recent loss and her insight into her instinct to try to control everything, and how it serves her better to hold life’s outcomes more loosely. I share an update regarding my emptying nest and the emotions that have accompanied selling my kids’ childhood home and readying them both to leave for their first year of university.
We discuss the importance of learning to trust your gut in midlife. I also share how I'm feeling about another birthday and how the best word to describe how I'm feeling about my 50s is that I have “agency” again. As always, this conversation will resonate and uplift you, and provide a few nuggets to take away and consider in your own journey...
The Meaning of Midlife (with Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D.)
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In the Season 2 closer, Sarah and I revisit our favourite guests and episodes from the last year, and what we’ve learned from hosting Bite-Sized Balance and from each other. I provide my favourite definition of the “meaning of life”, and we consider how it jives with our own approach to midlife. Sarah shares two recent moments of self-discovery and her decision to explore coach training, and I provide an update on my impending empty nest situation. We consider the patriarchal social norms around self-care for women and how those aren’t serving us, along with the problem with women’s overuse of the words “I’m fine" (us included.)
Join Sarah and me for a spirited, fun conversation with an important undercurrent: it’s totally OK to start focussing on you again as you move into your midlife.
Taking Care of Me: What I Really Needed at 50
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In this short podcast episode, I provide listeners with an update on my commitment to “creating a life I don’t feel the need to escape from” before my transition to empty nester this fall, including my re-discovery of my love of writing. I share a piece called “Taking Care of Me” that will resonate with busy, worn-out women everywhere, where I explore what it really means to take care of yourself and the magic that’s available to you when you finally accept that you’re in the driver’s seat of your own life.
Don’t skip this one – it’s short and sweet but it also might be just thing you need to hear to take back some control over your one wild and precious life!
Does your life look great on paper, but it still feels like something’s missing? Grab your free Blueprint for Change Workbook here: www.wendymccallum.com/blueprint
What Women Need NOW with Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D.
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Sarah shares the story of a friend’s recent frustrating experience with her care provider when she asked for support with her post-pandemic exhaustion.
Sarah and I discuss what was so disappointing about her friend's doctor’s response, and what women really need right now, as we emerge from a period of intense stress and caregiving, more burnt out and exhausted than ever.
We need a safe place to land, a chance to rest and connect in a meaningful way after years of distancing and self-isolation.
As always, this is a fun and relaxed conversation between two friends sure to confirm that you’re not alone in it all and get you thinking. Join us!
FREE 5-Day Rewind Alcohol Challenge: www.wendymccallum.com/challenge
Menopause - How It Started (and How It’s Going) with Wendy and Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D.
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Sarah and I provide an update as to what’s changed for us in the last six months or so in our transition post-menopause. The discussion includes how the hormonal and other treatments have worked out for us, how our menopausal symptoms have shifted and improved, and what we’ve learned about ourselves and what we need (and want!) more of as we begin the second half of our lives. As always, this is a candid, relaxed conversation between friends with a few belly laughs inserted for good measure.
Join us!
Grab our free perimenopause/menopause checklist, here: www.wendymccallum.com/perichecklist
FREE 5 Day Alcohol Challenge: www.wendymccallum.com/challenge
Caregiver Burnout During Covid with Neonatal ICU Nurse Angela Fitzgerald
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In this episode, guest Angela Fitzgerald, Neonatal ICU Nurse, and I discuss how the pandemic has impacted the nurses in Angela’s unit and more generally, the challenges that come with shift work and being in a caregiving profession during COVID-19.
Angela approached me a couple of months ago because she saw a need for this conversation around wellness and burnout prevention (and recovery) in her profession. She went through her own burnout a year ago and learned a lot about how to create a better balance as a busy nurse with a family at home. Together, Angela and I provide some strategies for reducing overwhelm and stress and improving sleep, nutrition, and self-care while working shifts and dealing with all of the additional pressures of nursing during the pandemic. Whether you are in a caregiving profession or not, you’ll learn a lot from this conversation about meaningful self-care and balance.
For information on...
The Unexpected Joys of Midlife Friendship with Dr. Sarah Baillie, N.D.
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Feeling a little lonely lately? It’s been a tough couple of years when it comes to connection. Sarah and I reflect on the role female friendships have played in our lives and how the nature of some of our friendships has changed over the years. We discuss the isolation and loneliness that can come with motherhood and midlife, and how a meaningful connection with a like-minded person can change that.
We also examine our own friendship and share the story of how we met and became such fast friends, how Wendy nabbed a spot in Sarah's "coven", and the surprising joys unexpected friendships in midlife have brought us.
Grab a cup of tea or lace up your walking shoes and join Sarah and me for a light, engaging, and uplifting conversation!
Grab Wendy and Sarah’s free perimenopause/menopause checklist, here: www.wendymccallum.com/perichecklist
This is 50 Midyear Update
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Following up on Episode 49: “This Is 50”, I provide listeners with an update on my commitment to “trying all the things” and to “filling up my joy bucket” to help smooth the transition to empty nester that is coming soon.
I share the story of how I re-discovered my love of writing (which I discussed in last week's podcast with author Ann Dowsett Johnston, who is also my writing coach), and I read a piece (*gulp, this was the scariest thing I've done in a while!) that I hope will resonate with many of the busy women who listen to this podcast, about what we miss out on when we rush through life with the goal of always achieving, and don’t slow down enough to get present for the ordinary, in-between days (where all the joy lives.)
Does your life look great on paper, but it still feels like something’s missing? Grab your free Blueprint for Change Workbook here: ...
The Midlife Therapy Every Woman Should Know About with Erika Burger
Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.
Sarah and I (finally - we've been patiently waiting for this chance!) interview Erika Burger, a pelvic floor physiotherapist with over 25 years of experience.
We discuss the role of pelvic floor health for women (men, and children), why we’re not talking about it enough, and the surprisingly long list of common midlife women’s wellness conditions that this specialized yet rarely discussed branch of physiotherapy can support, including vaginal pain, sciatica and back pain, bladder issues, and frequent urination.
Sarah and I share our personal stories of pelvic floor physio treatment and the incredible results we had.
This was an eye-opening conversation for both of us, so we know you will find it invaluable!
Erika Burger: https://www.thepelvichealthclinic.ca/
Grab Wendy and Sarah’s free peri/menopause checklist, here: https://www.wendymccallum.com/perichecklist
Midlife Desire Debrief: The Burnout Connection
Watch the podcast, above, or listen below.
Sarah and I reflect on our recent mind-blowing interview with Dr. Lori Brotto, psychologist, professor, and renowned sexual health researcher about women’s desire in midlife.
We dig into:
the difference between spontaneous and responsive desire
the connection between desire and stress
the challenge that burnt-out, overwhelmed women have when it comes to responsive desire and
our thoughts on how women can lay the groundwork for increased desire with self-care and boundary-setting.
It's a good one!
Free Burnout Checklist: www.wendymccallum.com/checklist
Author & Host
Wendy McCallum
Certified Burnout & Balance Coach
Wendy McCallum is Certified Coach and Wellness Expert with over 10 years of experience. She’s also a This Naked Mind Certified Coach who has been living (blissfully) alcohol-free since January 2018. Wendy is a high-achiever who lost her way, but came back better than ever. After much soul-searching and a few false starts, she left her 12-year career in law committed to designing a more balanced life she didn’t need to escape from. Wendy now teaches busy people how to reclaim time for themselves, reduce stress, and prevent burnout. She also helps them replace unhealthy coping mechanisms (like food, alcohol and social media) with healthier habits. IMPORTANT: Blog content including Wendy's podcasts are for information purposes only and not intended in any way to be health advice. Please see full Terms of Use, by clicking on the link in the footer of this page, for details.
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