> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.thebeyondpodcast.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Royal Nutritionist: The Secret to Hormones, Energy, and Metabolism - URL: https://www.thebeyondpodcast.com/royal-nutritionist-hormones-energy/ - Published: 2026-02-11T17:15:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-24T10:06:24.000Z - Description: Holistic nutritionist Jennifer Hanway on why your metabolism and hormones are stalling, and the simple habits that transform energy and skin. - Author: Elliott King - Tags: Jennifer Hanway, episode, Season 3, #ep-3 **Why are so many of us so tired?** Board-certified holistic nutritionist and women's wellness expert [Jennifer Hanway](https://www.thebeyondpodcast.com/guests/jennifer-hanway/), whose clients have included the royal family, Hollywood A-listers, CEOs and Olympic athletes, joins host and producer [Aleksandra King](https://www.thebeyondpodcast.com/aleksandra-king/) on The BEYOND Podcast to answer exactly that. ![Jennifer Hanway in a burgundy dress and host Aleksandra King in conversation on the BEYOND set, seated on yellow sofas either side of a round wooden table](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/74/5e74ba0c-c249-4586-8ce5-03deb56fdf93/content/images/2026/08/Jennifer-Hanway-Alexandra-King.jpg) ## Episode summary Jennifer draws the line between common and normal: everybody being tired does not make exhaustion normal, and settling for it means missing what your biology is trying to say. She reveals why metabolism and hormones stall, and how to fix them without the burnout, arguing that cravings are 95% physiology and only 5% willpower. She gets specific about the body after 35: sarcopenia and metabolic efficiency, the three-to-four-session strength-training sweet spot, why you never have to run if you hate running, and an advanced hydration protocol built on mineral balance rather than just more water. The conversation closes with her executive traveller food strategy, the role of protein and polyphenols in skin at a cellular level, the truth about menopause and the second spring, and the principle she starts every client on: think about what you are going to add in before you take away. > “It's common, but it's not normal.”– *Jennifer Hanway on exhaustion* ![Jennifer Hanway gesturing as she speaks at the microphone during her BEYOND interview](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/74/5e74ba0c-c249-4586-8ce5-03deb56fdf93/content/images/2026/08/Jennifer-Hanway-Beyond-The-Boardroom.jpg) ## Key takeaways - Everybody being tired does not make it normal: exhaustion is common, and worth investigating rather than accepting. - Cravings are 95% physiology and 5% willpower; you have wired your biology to want what it wants, and you can rewire it. - After 35, sarcopenia and metabolic efficiency make strength training three to four times a week the sweet spot, and you never have to run if you hate running. - Hydration is about mineral balance, not just more water. - Add in before you take away: improving one pillar has a knock-on effect on everything, and it only takes a couple of days to start feeling better. ## Key chapters | Chapter | Timestamp | | --------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | | Engineering elite health: the royal connection | [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4) | | The distinction between common and normal fatigue | [05:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4&t=315s) | | The bio-logic of cravings: 95% physiology, 5% willpower | [10:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4&t=640s) | | Sarcopenia and metabolic efficiency after 35 | [16:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4&t=982s) | | Strength training: the three-to-four-session sweet spot | [22:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4&t=1330s) | | Mineral balance: the advanced hydration protocol | [33:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4&t=2030s) | | The executive traveller food strategy | [45:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4&t=2715s) | | Cellular aesthetics: the role of protein and polyphenols | [58:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4&t=3510s) | | The second spring: evolutionary perspectives on longevity | [1:04:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4&t=3845s) | ## The guest Jennifer Hanway is a board-certified holistic nutritionist and women's wellness expert. Her clients have included the royal family, Hollywood A-listers, CEOs and Olympic athletes, and her work centres on metabolism, hormones, energy and skin. Her full background is on her guest profile. - [Jennifer Hanway on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/jenniferhanway/) [Jennifer Hanway's guest profile](https://www.thebeyondpodcast.com/guests/jennifer-hanway/) ## Where to listen - [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFrVg4eUb4) - [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-with-aleksandra-king/id1786173140) - [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/0haFQYUTnEn0fpr0LQYlhH) - [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=MPSPPL3iQHE-qteJING9jXVVuVUdDa-9qqer7J) - [RSS feed](https://anchor.fm/s/10464b2ac/podcast/rss) ## Transcript #### Read the full episode transcript ### Cold open *The first \~1m 25s is a trailer montage: short clips lifted from later in the episode, plus the guest's own self-introduction. The lines below recur in context further down.* 00:00:00 **Aleksandra King:** You're definitely someone people want to hear from. You're an expert in all things– is it holistic skin, body care? 00:00:08 **Jennifer Hanway:** I've worked with royal family, I've worked with some Hollywood A-listers, some musical stars, CEOs, Olympic athletes. The things I really work on are metabolism and hormones and energy and skin. My name is Jennifer Hanway, I'm a board-certified holistic nutritionist and women's wellness expert. 00:00:24 **Aleksandra King:** Why are so many of us so tired? 00:00:28 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's a multitude of reasons. I think if everybody's tired, then it must be normal. No, it's common, but it's not normal. 00:00:37 **Aleksandra King:** What are the biggest habits that we're doing that are draining our energy every day? 00:00:41 **Jennifer Hanway:** But I think if we can just knock one of those pillars out, if we can improve one thing, it has this wonderful knock-on effect of everything. We live in a world where we have so much information, we also have so much misinformation. 5% of it is willpower, 95% is what's happening in your biology. You've wired your biology to want those things. 00:01:04 **Aleksandra King:** How should we be training then? 00:01:05 **Jennifer Hanway:** I always say to people, if you don't like running, you don't have to run. Dehydration is everything. Nutritionists and health coaches working with eating disorders– and that's an absolute no. So I always say to people, think about what you're going to add in before you take away. It only takes a couple of days to start to feel better. The negative part, I think, is– ### Episode 00:01:28 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, Jennifer, welcome to Beyond the Boardroom. Very excited to have you here. You're an expert in all things– is it holistic skin, body care? Would you say that's accurate? 00:01:42 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, I'd say really the things I really work on are metabolism and hormones and energy and skin. 00:01:49 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, so– so okay, we'll– we'll go through qualifications now so that people understand just why they should be listening to you, because you're definitely someone that's– definitely people want to hear from. Not least because the royal family clearly like your– whatever it is that you're doing, they– they listen to you. You don't have to tell us secrets, I know that you can't say any details, or NDAs, you can't say specifics, but you have– it's correct to say that you have worked with the royal family and advised on– on the matters that we're going to be discussing today. 00:02:21 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yes. Yes, I've worked with royal family, I've worked with some Hollywood A-listers, some musical stars, CEOs, Olympic athletes, and also women like you and I. 00:02:31 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, perfect, perfect, perfect. Okay, so in terms of qualifications in– in– in beauty and this holistic– can we call it holistic wellness? 00:02:40 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, holistic nutrition. 00:02:41 **Aleksandra King:** Holistic nutrition. Okay, so what– what qualifications do you have? 00:02:44 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, so I've been doing this since I was– well, I've been in health and fitness for the last 19 years. 00:02:49 **Aleksandra King:** 19 years. 00:02:49 **Jennifer Hanway:** 19 years, so yes, pre-Instagram. So my long story very short, I'm an ex-professional dancer turned fitness instructor. 00:03:00 **Aleksandra King:** You were a ballet dancer. 00:03:01 **Jennifer Hanway:** I was ballet and contemporary dancer, I was also a Latin and ballroom dancer as well. 00:03:04 **Aleksandra King:** What, so Dancing with the Stars and Strictly, you can really do it all. 00:03:09 **Jennifer Hanway:** That was my– that was my thing, yeah. 00:03:11 **Aleksandra King:** Oh wow, it's quite difficult, you know, ballroom dancing. I tried it, but yeah. 00:03:14 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, I mean, and ballet is hard. So that was actually my first degree, but I got an injury and I couldn't dance anymore, and then you're kind of like, well, what– what do I do with myself? So that's when I started teaching fitness, because it was a very simple kind of transition for me. And then as part of that, I was part of the team that opened the first barre studio in London, so that was fun, that was back in 2012\. And then I was struggling with my own health, so I was having gut health issues myself. 00:03:43 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:03:44 **Jennifer Hanway:** And then I worked with a practitioner who really helped me with my gut health issues, and I was like, oh, I didn't realise I could feel this good. And then I was– you know, I was living in London, I was doing all of the things, I was healthy on the outside but definitely not healthy on the inside. 00:03:59 **Aleksandra King:** So what sort of problem– what– what was going on with you? 00:04:01 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, so I– so I had a– just my digestive system was just not working very well, and I did all of the testing and all of the things, and then I ended up with the– the diagnosis of IBS, which is not a diagnosis. And at that point I was like, okay, I'm not– you know, I was in my late 20s, early 30s, I was like, this is not what I want for my life, let me dive a little bit deeper myself. And because there's no such thing as coincidence, I started working for a barre studio and the woman who owned the barre studio was also a holistic nutritionist. 00:04:36 **Aleksandra King:** Mhm. 00:04:36 **Jennifer Hanway:** So she and I worked together and we just changed a couple of simple things. I think we cut out gluten, might have been gluten or dairy, and I took a probiotic, and I felt so much better straight away. And I was like, two things kind of went through my head. Number one, well, I want more of this. If I can feel this better with some simple swaps, what can I do? And then number two is, well, if this is helping me, I must be able to help other people as well. So long story short, I got some qualifications and then realised that wasn't enough, so then I went back to school to study nutritional science. And that's kind of how I got into doing this. And then at the same time I met my husband, who's an American, so I went off to live in the States where I live now. And then fast forward 19 years, you and I are sat here chatting. 00:05:21 **Aleksandra King:** Well, you– you, I mean, you've achieved a lot and you're clearly someone people want to hear from and listen to. You've got the credentials and you're trusted by a lot of people, a lot of important people. Yeah, it must be doing something right. Give it– give it all to us today. I– it'll be difficult to learn it all in– in an hour, but you know, in whatever way you can help us, because lots of people watching are going to be having stomach issues. 00:05:44 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah. 00:05:44 **Aleksandra King:** That's– I'm going to call them stomach issues. 00:05:46 **Jennifer Hanway:** We can call them what– I mean, I talk about \[it\] for a living, so we can– we can talk about gassy, bloated, not regular, whatever it is, out of the ordinary. Yeah, and the effects it has on– on everything, on your metabolism, on your energy, on your brain function, on your skin. And I mean, it really– you know, I say gut health is the foundation of all health, because that's where everything starts. 00:06:07 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, let's start at the most common symptom– stomach issues, whatever it might be, aside for now, yeah– but a symptom, tiredness. Why are so many of us so tired all the time? 00:06:22 **Jennifer Hanway:** I wish I could give you one– one reason, but it's a multitude of reasons. I think we are just not prioritising our health, and I think that's hard to hear for people who are– bit, you know, we're all busy. It's hard to hear, oh, you're not prioritising your health. It feels like another thing to do, another thing on the to-do list, or oh my goodness, this is another thing to do about it. But what people don't understand is, it is the multi– it is the one thing that you can do to make your life easier. It is the one thing that you can do to give you more energy. It is the one thing to do to give you more brain function, to help you sleep better at night. So it's– does it require a little time and effort? Yes. But the benefits that you get from it are– are so important, from the everyday to living a long and healthy life. 00:07:16 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, so you need to make the decision to– I– you're feeling tired all the time, that's not a normal feeling, you shouldn't, right? 00:07:23 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, it's normal to feel tired after you've gone running for 5k, 10k, long day at work, but not– there's a difference between common and normal, and I think this is where we find the challenge sometimes, is that if everybody's tired, then it must be normal. No, it's common but it's not normal. And it's because of all of the external stresses we have in our lives these days, it's the fact that we're not prioritising our health and wellness. So it's common to feel tired all the time, but it's not normal. 00:07:51 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah. I'm going to say something now. When I– when I was in– in university, I had– I was very tired, very, very tired, and I didn't know why. And then I went to the doctor, he was a really, really good doctor, and I said to him, I'm so tired all the time, I don't know what's wrong with me. And he was like, well, you're 20-something, you shouldn't– that's not– that's not normal. 00:08:15 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah. 00:08:15 **Aleksandra King:** And then we did some tests, and at that time it turned out I had something called bilharzia, which is like a tropical disease that I got when I was water– went water skiing or whatever you call it, and I jumped into some mud by the edge of the river, and they got these little parasite– parasitic snail things that go into your skin pores and then give you this disease. 00:08:32 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yes. 00:08:32 **Aleksandra King:** So I had to take these tablets and then I was fine. But– but what an incredible doctor, that didn't just say, oh, you're a student, you're studying, you're tired. Or the other one that we hear all the time is, oh, you must be depressed, as an antidepressant, as the worst, mess with your brain. 00:08:50 **Jennifer Hanway:** Which, you know, there is an absolute time and place for them, but it shouldn't be the go-to for tiredness. 00:08:56 **Aleksandra King:** No. Yeah. So– so in terms of habits then, what are the bigger– biggest habits that we're doing that are draining our energy every day? 00:09:05 **Jennifer Hanway:** Goodness. Naughty habits. 00:09:07 **Aleksandra King:** Naughty, naughty habits. 00:09:10 **Jennifer Hanway:** I think– I think it's important to remember that everything is connected. So what you eat is going to affect your energy, it's going to affect whether you want to work out, it's going to affect your stress levels, it's going to affect your sleep. So understanding that it's all connected, which can sound daunting, but I think if we can just knock one of those pillars out, if we can improve one thing, it has this wonderful knock-on effect of everything. One of the– I never say easy, because if they were easy we would all be doing it, but one of the simplest things we can do, something we have control over, is what we're putting into our mouths. So what we're– 00:09:45 **Aleksandra King:** Some of us have control. 00:09:47 **Jennifer Hanway:** So what we're– yeah, so what we're eating. But you know, needing that sugar fix, that caffeine fix at 11:00 or 3:00, it's probably because we haven't had a good breakfast, it's probably because we haven't slept well the night before, it's because we haven't prioritised moving our bodies. So everything is intertwined, and I think if we can just– and it doesn't have to be complicated, it can be simple. It's not easy– the reason it's not easy is the way that our modern day lives are set up– but it can be simple. And I think these days we live in a world where we have so much information, we also have so much misinformation, that it can get super overwhelming and everyone's just like, oh, I don't know what to do, I'm obviously doing it wrong, pass me a kebab. 00:10:33 **Aleksandra King:** I love the way that you look at it, because you're– you're literally saying, because people don't think about that, you eat that– the cookies, you keep going to the cookie jar, but it's affecting everything, the whole– that's why you're a holistic– 00:10:46 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, and I mean, I think people– people hear that word holistic and they think crystals and candles, and I love all of that stuff, but really holistic just means that I'm looking at the body as one system. So what is happening in my gut is affecting my brain, what is happening in my muscles is affecting my energy, in my skeletal– you know, my skeleton, like everything is interconnected. And I think that is something that we can grab hold of for a positive thing, because then when we make one change in one thing, it's going to affect everything else. So let's just say we get you eating well and you're having protein and veggies and healthy fats at every meal, that's going to balance out your blood sugar. But balancing out your blood sugar also helps your stress levels, when we help our stress levels it helps us sleep, when we sleep it balances our blood sugar. So they all are interconnected. So it can sound daunting, but I think if we can get one habit in place, it has such a great– 00:11:41 **Aleksandra King:** Let's talk about it the other way around. You're not doing that and you're going for the cookie jar, so what happens? What happens when you– cookie, we're going for the cookie jar, we're doing it all, so we're doing it often, every day, so it's a bad habit, and most of us go into– we're doing something we know we shouldn't be doing it, but let's go. 00:11:59 **Jennifer Hanway:** So I'm going to take a step back and say, why are you doing it first? So it's nice. So, and I'm also going to say it's not your willpower. 00:12:06 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:12:07 **Jennifer Hanway:** So my clients come to me and they say, I've got no willpower. Okay, I'm like, 5% of it is willpower, 95% is what's happening in your biology. 00:12:17 **Aleksandra King:** Wow. Okay, so you don't have to keep blaming– 00:12:20 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, well, I think it's empowering, because then you don't have to keep blaming yourself that, oh, I've got a sweet tooth so I love cookies, I love cakes. No, it's that your biology is now– you've wired your biology to want those things. 00:12:33 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:12:33 **Jennifer Hanway:** So as human beings we naturally crave sugar and sweet things and refined carbs because they give us a burst of energy. But if we're looking after our energy levels, if we're looking after our blood sugar, we don't necessarily need it. So I say to my clients, if you can eat your protein and your veggies and your healthy fats at every meal, you're putting your suit of armour on. So I can– if I've had a great day of eating, I don't know, let's say I've had my breakfast, I've had my lunch, had a couple of squares of dark chocolate after lunch because that's my thing, and then– 00:13:00 **Aleksandra King:** And it's so good for you. 00:13:01 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's really good for your skin, dark chocolate. And then someone puts a plate of cookies in front of me. Well, I've put my suit of armour on with my veggies and my protein, all of my hunger hormones are nice and balanced, my blood sugar is nice and balanced, and I can say, no thank you, I'm not hungry. 00:13:14 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh, I love that, I love that, suit of armour. It's just like putting it, so you've– 00:13:18 **Jennifer Hanway:** But if you've had a day where, let's say you've left the house and you haven't had breakfast, you grab a coffee and a croissant on the way to work, you know, or you get a pain au chocolat, or you jump into Pret, whatever it is, and then at lunch maybe you're grabbing a sandwich or you're grabbing a salad with no protein, your body is going to say, I need some fuel. And of course it's going to go for those cookies. 00:13:37 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, it's going to say, I demand the fuel. 00:13:38 **Jennifer Hanway:** I demand the fuel, give it to me. And it's not your willpower. 00:13:42 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, okay. 00:13:43 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's your body needing fuel. But if we can fuel ourselves properly to start with, we won't need it. And it's amazing, the change that happens in– that's something we can see in a couple of days time. 00:13:54 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, but if you're not doing that and you're getting the sugar, then you're just getting the sugar and then it makes you want more sugar. 00:14:00 **Jennifer Hanway:** You are on that sugar roller coaster. Just– so you get this lovely hit of sugar for about five minutes and then you get this drop, dumps, and then your body goes, oh my goodness, my blood sugar is in the floor, I'm in a panic state, I need to eat some more. What's my quickest, easiest, simplest thing I can do? I'm going to eat some more sugar. And this is why we bounce between sugar and caffeine and refined carbohydrates and alcohol. 00:14:23 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. Okay, so what– what happens to our bodies after 35? Like, why can't we maintain that nice slim frame? What's going on? What's going on after 35? 00:14:32 **Jennifer Hanway:** Well, okay, so good and bad news is that our metabolism doesn't actually lower. So that metabolic rate, the amount of calories that we burn at rest, it doesn't actually go down until our 60s. 00:14:42 **Aleksandra King:** Oh, so good news, bad news. Okay. 00:14:45 **Jennifer Hanway:** What's actually happening after 35 for women is it's our hormones changing. So really between the ages of about 37 and our early 40s, that's when we start to move into perimenopause. And we can go through all of the perimenopause, menopause, post-menopause times– we'll just call it menopause or the menopause transition. So post– it's really post 35, most women find it in their late 30s to early 40s, is our hormones change. So our main hormone changes is oestrogen, so we start making less oestrogen, we're also making less progesterone and less testosterone. Now this has a huge impact on our metabolism. What it really has the impact on though is our muscle mass and our blood sugar balance. So for blood sugar, oestrogen has this wonderful balancing effect on our blood sugar. When the more oestrogen we have, or when we have healthy amounts of oestrogen pre-menopause, it helps to regulate our blood sugar. When we move into perimenopause, then our blood sugar balance starts to become dysregulated because we don't have oestrogen. The other part is something called sarcopenia, which is the loss of our lean muscle mass. Now this has partly to do with the effects of our lowering hormones, but it also has to do with the way that we live our lives post 35 into our 40s. I'm 45 today. 00:16:02 **Aleksandra King:** Oh yes, happy birthday to you. You're 45 today. Don't look good at all. 00:16:07 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah. 00:16:07 **Aleksandra King:** Congratulations. 00:16:08 **Jennifer Hanway:** So really what we're having is these hormones and our lifestyle is meaning that we're losing our lean muscle mass, so we're not able to balance our blood sugar so much, and we're not having as much lean muscle mass. Now lean muscle is the engine of our metabolism, it's the only thing that will speed up our metabolism. There's no tea, there's no supplement, there's no nothing that will boost our metabolism as much as lean muscle mass. So when we lose that lean muscle and we lose that blood sugar regulation, what happens is that we start to become– 00:16:38 **Aleksandra King:** Softer. 00:16:40 **Jennifer Hanway:** Exactly, that's exactly the word. 00:16:42 **Aleksandra King:** Oh, why are our bodies so mean to us? 00:16:45 **Jennifer Hanway:** Well, in a way they're not, if you– if you keep the muscle. 00:16:47 **Aleksandra King:** But it's like you will naturally deteriorate if you don't do something about it, is– is what you're saying. 00:16:54 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yes. 00:16:54 **Aleksandra King:** It's horrible, this is a horrible– 00:16:57 **Jennifer Hanway:** It really is, yes. But I would also counter that you can– I think what happens a lot is a lot of women in their early 40s finally start to take their health seriously. 00:17:10 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:17:11 **Jennifer Hanway:** Because you can't get away with what you used to get away with. 00:17:13 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. But what about men? Surely this affects men, surely it's slightly different. 00:17:19 **Jennifer Hanway:** So they do have– so in the nicest way, men are more simple than women, so really the only hormone we're thinking about with them is testosterone. Now testosterone is also important for women, that's really important to know as well, but for men they experience a gradual decline in testosterone. Now if they're not keeping their blood sugar balance healthy, if they're not having– if they're not managing their stress, that's going to affect their testosterone as well. 00:17:42 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, so that goes down. 00:17:43 **Jennifer Hanway:** So that goes down. It goes down for women as well. 00:17:46 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:17:46 **Jennifer Hanway:** But for men we're not talking about such a complicated hormonal system. For women it's the complicated hormonal system. 00:17:54 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, yeah, it's all the intertwining, it's all the interwinitude of– why are women so complicated? 00:18:00 **Jennifer Hanway:** But I do– you know, my goal is for women. You know, I typically work with women over 35, high achievers, busy families, all of the things, travelling a ton, and my clients are healthier in their early 40s or mid-40s than they've ever been in their lives. 00:18:18 **Aleksandra King:** Really. 00:18:18 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's doable. It's not easy, but it's definitely doable. 00:18:22 **Aleksandra King:** So hormones are doing their thing anyway, but you're counteracting that with food and the muscle, so you're fighting it, you're fight– you're– 00:18:31 **Jennifer Hanway:** You're optimising it, let's say. 00:18:35 **Aleksandra King:** Optimising. 00:18:35 **Jennifer Hanway:** Optimising it. Because what we think about is, we think about all of those hormones that I mentioned, oestrogen, testosterone, progesterone, but the most important, the two hormones that we have to look after, are insulin, which is our hormone of blood sugar balance, and cortisol, which is our hormone of stress. 00:18:49 **Aleksandra King:** Exactly. 00:18:50 **Jennifer Hanway:** If we can get those under control, or at least manage them, be aware of them, it can really help everything that's happening post 35. 00:18:59 **Aleksandra King:** Cortisol is a horrible one. 00:19:01 **Jennifer Hanway:** We need cortisol to live. Cortisol is what woke you up this morning. So again, this is– and again, this is where we get this so much misinformation from. No hormone is good or bad, we need all of them. It's when they become– not even imbalance, it's when they become dysregulated. So every hormone has a role to play, and every hormone has a role to play in your circadian rhythm, in your 24-hour period, and then for women in our menstrual cycle, so our 28 to 35-day period. So cortisol– we need cortisol, cortisol is what wakes us up in the morning, cortisol gives us the energy to go to the gym, to have this conversation, to do all of those wonderful things. 00:19:38 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:19:38 **Jennifer Hanway:** But when cortisol is too high at the wrong times, that's when it causes issues. So it affects us mentally, physically, and it's also– if we're stressed out, this is why we can't sleep, because our cortisol is high. So it's about regulating our hormones. 00:19:51 **Aleksandra King:** So if you're waking up at 2:00, at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, is that cortisol? 00:19:54 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's high cortisol, yes. 00:19:56 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh. 00:19:57 **Jennifer Hanway:** So what that means is that you– now, it's really important to understand– 00:20:01 **Aleksandra King:** And I feel like we could talk for days on this. 00:20:03 **Jennifer Hanway:** We could talk for a very long time. 00:20:04 **Aleksandra King:** We're tapping into– I've actually– I'm not following my– my– 00:20:07 **Jennifer Hanway:** You're fine. 00:20:08 **Aleksandra King:** We'll go off script. 00:20:11 **Jennifer Hanway:** So with cortisol, if you're not managing it and mitigating it during the day, it's going to be high at night. So we want it to be higher in the morning, go down a little bit in the afternoon, be low in the evening so we can get to sleep. But most of us only ever think about chilling out, relaxing, you know, when we get home from work, we've done dinner, we've sorted the kids out, we've got ourselves ready for the next day, and then maybe we've got an hour before we go to bed, and then we decide to watch The Walking Dead or any of those– any of those shows. And so we're going to bed with really high cortisol, and then that's what's waking us up around that 3:00 am point. 00:20:45 **Aleksandra King:** Right. So it's what you're doing in the daytime that's affecting– 00:20:48 **Jennifer Hanway:** What you're doing in the daytime, yeah. 00:20:51 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh. So we need to try and be more chilled out then in the day, which is very difficult. 00:20:54 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's very difficult. It's just about finding– it's about finding those micro moments. So let's say you and I finish this podcast, instead of rushing off to the next one, instead of me running to check my phone, just taking a deep breath. 00:21:08 **Aleksandra King:** Or exactly, just a deep breath. 00:21:10 **Jennifer Hanway:** Couple of deep breaths in, couple of deep breaths out. Or not being on devices all the time, not having screens in the bedroom. 00:21:17 **Aleksandra King:** Oh, that's a good one actually. 00:21:20 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, it's that blue light is going to make you– is going to stop you producing melatonin, which is your sleep hormone, and keep you producing cortisol. 00:21:28 **Aleksandra King:** Right, right, so no screens. It's such a nice thing though, to get into bed and– 00:21:35 **Jennifer Hanway:** No, it's not, it's stressing you out. 00:21:37 **Aleksandra King:** Is it? 00:21:38 **Jennifer Hanway:** When have you ever seen anything on your phone at 10:30 at night that has relaxed you? 00:21:44 **Aleksandra King:** Well, it's only when I look at pet– pet things, animals. 00:21:47 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, but that screen, that light from that screen is just– is stopping you from producing melatonin, which is your hormone that makes you go to sleep, and is keeping you increasing adrenaline and cortisol, which is your stress hormones. 00:21:59 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah. I did have an anxiety person in the other day, anxiety Josh actually is his name, but he said– actually with the phones, he– he obviously, it's, you know, the blue light and everything, but he was saying that if you can find something relaxing and it actually does relax you, then probably– I think the payoff with very anxious people is, if it is going to relax you then you can do it, is what he said. But then it's like you're saying, make sure you're looking at relaxing things, but then you are still going to have the blue light. 00:22:26 **Jennifer Hanway:** You're still going to have the blue light. And it is a very disciplined person who is not then checking their emails. I just check my email, I'll just check my email once more before I go to bed. 00:22:37 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah. So we spoke about lean muscles, so how should we be training then? What's changed? 00:22:47 **Jennifer Hanway:** Nothing's changed. 00:22:48 **Aleksandra King:** So nothing's changed in what we should be doing. 00:22:53 **Jennifer Hanway:** So I typically work with women over 35, but I love it when someone comes to me in their 20s, because I'm like, brilliant, let's get you into really good habits now, let's build you some really great foundations so when you get into your late 30s and your 40s it makes it easier for you. 00:23:07 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah. 00:23:07 **Jennifer Hanway:** So everybody, but especially women because we're slightly less muscular, we should be thinking about preserving that lean muscle mass, so we need to be strength training. 00:23:16 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh, we need to be in the gym. How many times a week do you need? 00:23:19 **Jennifer Hanway:** Three to four. 00:23:20 **Aleksandra King:** Three to four, not two. 00:23:22 **Jennifer Hanway:** Not two. Two is a great start, let's never– you know, everybody's got to start somewhere, two is a great start, two is always going to be better than nothing. Three is your minimum, four is your sweet spot to see real changes. 00:23:36 **Aleksandra King:** Interesting. 00:23:37 **Jennifer Hanway:** But I don't want anyone– if anyone's listening to this and they're like, there's no way I can do three or four times, do one. 00:23:43 **Aleksandra King:** No, no, that's interesting. I mean, well, I– I run, so I– I love running, I do strength training as well, but I'll sort of do maybe, you know, if I– if time allows it I'll do two, but I will run the rest of the time, and then I'll take a Sunday off, so I'll do six days. 00:23:59 **Jennifer Hanway:** So I would say swap out. I would swap out– yeah, I would swap out. So running is one of those things that can be very stressful to the body, and I always say to people, if you don't like running, you don't have to run. Now for other people, running is the way they de-stress. 00:24:15 **Aleksandra King:** Absolutely. 00:24:16 **Jennifer Hanway:** So I'm never going to take that away from them, never going to take that away. If you're running and you hate every moment of it– you know, when you see people run past you or they jump past you and they look, they're questioning their life choices. 00:24:25 **Aleksandra King:** No, I adore it. I've got my border collie cross to the Lab, and she– she goes with me and we just go in the countryside, and it is a genuine de-stresser, and I just feel like I'm away from everything, I run far away. 00:24:36 **Jennifer Hanway:** And then if we can add three strength training, big full body squats, lunges. 00:24:42 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, gosh, you're going to see, you're going to– 00:24:44 **Jennifer Hanway:** But you will notice such a difference in your body, and also your– it's not just, you know, we talk about these things for lean muscle mass which is so important, but also for women it's about bone density, and also it's about longevity as well. We know that the more muscle mass we have– you know, one of my goals is to help people live long, healthy lives. We can keep people alive on medications and machines into their 90s, into their hundreds. 00:25:08 **Aleksandra King:** I had this conversation with my dad this morning. 00:25:10 **Jennifer Hanway:** But is that health span in your lifespan? And for me, I'm planning to live to 90, 100, I'm doing everything that I can, but I want to be healthy. 00:25:19 **Aleksandra King:** Put on a party and have a tea and chat, remember those days. I wonder what podcast will be like. 00:25:25 **Jennifer Hanway:** We'll be– we'll be like– we'll be holograms in people's living rooms. 00:25:31 **Aleksandra King:** Oh my god. 00:25:32 **Jennifer Hanway:** But you know, I think it's important not to just want to live to a– a long age, but want to live to– want to carry your shopping. 00:25:39 **Aleksandra King:** Carry your shopping. 00:25:41 **Jennifer Hanway:** There's a doctor that calls it the octogenarian Olympics. Like, can you pick up your grandkids, can you put your case in the overhead locker on an aeroplane? 00:25:48 **Aleksandra King:** Listen, I was watching this thing, you know, the Masters athletics, because I'm– I'm like inspired, I'm like, I– I want to compete, you know. But I saw these literal 90 year-olds running, and they– they've quite fast, you know, and they're on the track, like 96, 99. 00:26:04 **Jennifer Hanway:** And we have studies that show that you can build lean muscle. 00:26:06 **Aleksandra King:** Yep. 00:26:07 **Jennifer Hanway:** You can build lean muscle. You can be completely drained and you can build lean muscle. They had a study that was women in like 95, 96, and they put them on a higher protein diet and did strength training, and they put on lean muscle mass. 00:26:20 **Aleksandra King:** They did. So if these are– these women in their– how quickly can you do it? Put on– not so nice this, we're starting from not so good. 00:26:26 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, I think that study was like 12 weeks. The thing is, if you're starting from not so good it's actually easier. 00:26:31 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:26:32 **Jennifer Hanway:** So for someone who has trained all of their life, it's kind of– it's a little bit harder to– to do that. But if you are de-trained and you never strength train, you're going to see differences in a couple of weeks time. But for you it's different, and you know, you've– you've done all this ballet and– and all this ballroom dancing stuff, so your muscle memory is there for sports. 00:26:54 **Aleksandra King:** Muscle memory. 00:26:54 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yes. But I will say, I personally had a real wake-up call. I was 42, and I'd kind of, you know, 42, perimenopause, and I'd kind of slid out of my good habits. 00:27:06 **Aleksandra King:** Oh. 00:27:06 **Jennifer Hanway:** So for me, my diet is always on, like that's something I find very easy. 00:27:11 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:27:11 **Jennifer Hanway:** But I will honestly say, I don't love strength training, it's pretty boring. 00:27:16 **Aleksandra King:** It's pretty boring. 00:27:17 **Jennifer Hanway:** You know, who doesn't want to be in a class where it's like fun music and you're learning dance moves and all of those things. But I was at a– I was at a medical conference and got my body composition done, so that's my lean muscle mass to body fat ratio. Now the funny thing is, I have weighed within half a pound of the same weight for the last 12, 13 years. I was exactly the same weight, but my lean muscle mass had gone right down and my body fat had gone right up. 00:27:44 **Aleksandra King:** Wow. 00:27:45 **Jennifer Hanway:** So for me, that was a real weight. And I was feeling a lot softer in my body. 00:27:50 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, oh, I don't like softer. 00:27:52 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, exactly, horrible. You know, softer, more inflamed. So for– yeah, so even for me that was a real wake-up call of, okay, let's– I started working with a fantastic doctor and we got all my hormones sorted out and my thyroid sorted out and all of those things. But none of those– you know, I think these days, you know, everyone's talking about hormone therapy and peptide therapy and all of those things, and they're wonderful and I do a ton of them myself, but none of it works unless you're eating right, sleeping right, doing the exercise, managing your stress, taking your vitamin D, getting sun, all those. 00:28:28 **Aleksandra King:** No one's getting– no one's getting sun. 00:28:30 **Jennifer Hanway:** Basic things. 00:28:31 **Aleksandra King:** Sometimes, isn't it. 00:28:33 **Jennifer Hanway:** But if you– if you don't know to know, then you know, if you don't know you don't know, so how are you going to help yourself? It's, you know, we– especially in– I work with clients in the UK and the US, and in the US we typically get our blood work done, you know, every six months to a year at least. In the UK no one is testing. 00:28:50 **Aleksandra King:** No one's doing it. 00:28:51 **Jennifer Hanway:** No one's doing it. And it's– it's wild, because you know, we started off this conversation talking about energy– that could as simple as you've got low iron and low vitamin D, and those are really simple fixes and they're really easy to afford. 00:29:03 **Aleksandra King:** Blood test, do your blood tests. 00:29:05 **Jennifer Hanway:** Do your blood test, do your blood tests. Because I always say, test, don't guess. 00:29:09 **Aleksandra King:** Test, don't guess. Yeah, I love that. More of a proactive approach, I think, is what you have. 00:29:14 **Jennifer Hanway:** You have to be proactive. And I, you know, I have lived in a country with an NHS and a country without an NHS, and I will never have a bad word said against the NHS, the NHS are amazing, they save lives, but they don't have the ability and the resources to be preventative. So that's where we have to be proactive. 00:29:35 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, that's the thing, people don't normally think about their health until there's a problem, then we triggered into sort of waking up really and taking it more seriously because we have to. 00:29:44 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's so much harder to do something about it when there is a problem, rather than when the first symptoms start to show. 00:29:49 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, so how– how do we protect our energy? You know, we're all busy, we're running around, stress, family, work and everything. What's– what's the thing, how can we protect– protect ourselves? 00:29:57 **Jennifer Hanway:** Control the controllables. So again, control the controllables. What can you do? What can you– I flew to– I flew from Boston to Heathrow on– when did I fly? Tuesday, Monday. 00:30:07 **Aleksandra King:** How are you feeling? Tuesday. Are you okay? 00:30:09 **Jennifer Hanway:** I– I always feel absolutely fine, so I always try and fly– 00:30:12 **Aleksandra King:** So badly, the jet lag. 00:30:13 **Jennifer Hanway:** I always try and fly during the day, so I try not to do a red eye, because I cannot– doesn't matter how much melatonin I take, I cannot sleep on a plane, I just can't do it. 00:30:20 **Aleksandra King:** It's hard. 00:30:21 **Jennifer Hanway:** But I don't eat the plane food, I hydrate the whole time. I probably peed about 10 times on a six and a half hour flight, so I always sit in the aisle. I take my own food on the plane, I take electrolytes, I take my vitamins. You know, you can– you can bring all kinds of foods on a plane. I even froze a Greek yoghurt and that went through security, so it was a new travel hack unlocked. 00:30:43 **Aleksandra King:** You know, you know, you just said electrolytes– is this– is this must be an American thing? Because I was there recently, and in Vegas, and I was having my nails done, and the lady there– and I, I've been feeling a bit faint or whatever– she's like, oh no, you– you need to be taking your electrolytes, especially in Vegas because it's so hot. Honestly, yeah, and they– they take a shot of electrolytes every day. 00:31:04 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, I take electrolytes once or twice a day. 00:31:06 **Aleksandra King:** Stop. 00:31:07 **Jennifer Hanway:** No, because we don't really think about our mineral balance. Now this is a whole other kind of– I mean, if we could go off on so many tangents. But we– if we're eating a generally okay diet and most of us take a multivitamin, we're pretty okay for vitamins. Sometimes vitamin D, but that's hard to get in the diet, so that's a supplement. Vegans and vegetarians need to look after B12 and iron. But most of the time we have enough vitamins in our diet, you know, if we're eating a good amount of great quality protein and fruits and veggies. But we don't really think about our mineral intake. So minerals, we don't need a ton of them, but we do need them. Now especially something like magnesium, we use magnesium for over 300 processes in the body, and the more stressed we get the more magnesium we get. So if you can find a great electrolyte with some magnesium, with some sodium, with any of the other kind of trace minerals, potassium, it can make a huge difference. And what it's doing, it's actually keeping the water in our cells rather than drinking it and peeing it out. 00:32:02 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, because that– that's the thing she was saying, oh, you can't just have normal water because that doesn't have all these minerals, so you need to have these electrolytes or some sort of advanced mineral water, properly hydrating. 00:32:12 **Jennifer Hanway:** I mean, we're probably all these days, thank goodness, filtering our water or drinking bottled water. Now you do filter out some of the minerals in that, so putting them back in with a– 00:32:22 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, so put them back in with an electrolyte. 00:32:24 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah. 00:32:24 **Aleksandra King:** We don't think about that. There should be more information actually about this whole electrolyte thing. Now in Vegas it was a particular situation because it was excessively hot and the travelling and everything, and I just was like– 00:32:34 **Jennifer Hanway:** One of the most stressful places in the world. 00:32:36 **Aleksandra King:** So stressful. And I just– I just felt overwhelmed and I felt like I was going to faint, and I probably was going to faint. 00:32:41 **Jennifer Hanway:** I found one healthy restaurant last time I was in Vegas. 00:32:44 **Aleksandra King:** Did you. 00:32:45 **Jennifer Hanway:** One– one healthy restaurant. A lot of– Vegas is not the place for me. 00:32:48 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, no, no, you kind of need to– the nice hotels are a thing that you need to escape into a nice hotel if you go there, but then you never see daylight because it's so hot out there. 00:32:58 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, it's hot. 00:32:58 **Aleksandra King:** That's the thing, and people find– people sit around those pools and then they dehydrate, they're drinking water but that's not enough. 00:33:04 **Jennifer Hanway:** Are they drinking water, are they drinking a cocktail? 00:33:06 **Aleksandra King:** Oh, a cocktail, okay. It wasn't me, I swear, I just– drinking water. But yeah, yeah. Okay, so in terms of energising– so we spoke about electrolytes, but in terms of energising, coffee, yay or nay? 00:33:19 **Jennifer Hanway:** I love coffee. I will never take– I will never take someone's coffee, I love coffee. I love coffee, the taste of coffee. Now I never love– I was– I'm British, so I was a tea drinker until I met my American husband. 00:33:30 **Aleksandra King:** Tea too. I'm more– these days more of a coffee person, but I do love my coffee. 00:33:36 **Jennifer Hanway:** Now that's usually the first– the two things I get asked about is, do I have to give up coffee? 99% of the time it's no, but let's make your coffee healthy. The other one I always get asked about is cheese. Usually that's a yes, but we'll do something healthy with the cheese as well. For coffee, so the only people that shouldn't be having coffee is if you're having extreme thyroid issues or if you're having adrenal fatigue. Because what coffee does– coffee has caffeine, it's a stimulant, it can tax our energy systems in the body. But for most people we just have to be careful with coffee, and we can actually make it a health food. So probably the same in the UK, but in the US coffee is most people's main form of antioxidants. So antioxidants, type of vitamin and mineral, we need them for everything, for energy production, for fighting free radical damage, the whole thing. 00:34:29 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, before you continue, can I ask– so when you're having like your Nescafé and you're putting that in, is that okay? You're going mm. 00:34:37 **Jennifer Hanway:** So we're not going to do Nescafé. 00:34:39 **Aleksandra King:** Come on. 00:34:40 **Jennifer Hanway:** You're better than Nescafé, I always say to people. 00:34:43 **Aleksandra King:** No, no. 00:34:44 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's– it's– it's funny, my dad drinks instant coffee and I come home and I bring– I travel with my coffee. 00:34:49 **Aleksandra King:** It's instant, it's– 00:34:50 **Jennifer Hanway:** But it's not good for you. If we're going to do coffee, let's make it good for you, let's make it a real source of antioxidants. And those antioxidants are wonderful for your immune system, for your skin, for your hair, for your energy. So if we're doing coffee, we want to do organic coffee. 00:35:04 **Aleksandra King:** Organic. 00:35:05 **Jennifer Hanway:** Okay, organic coffee, and then really looking at something that– if we can get it organic, ideally low acid, that's a hard one to get. I can't think of the brands off the top of my head here, but organic, low acid. Obviously we don't want to be adding sweetener. 00:35:20 **Aleksandra King:** And then in terms of the milk part, filtered, like does it have to be one of those freshly grounded things? 00:35:27 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, a French press, or– I mean, we have a– we have a Mr Coffee machine where I am that makes the coffee for you in the mornings, but yeah, ideally a French press or a pour-over, something like that. You know, it's just again thinking about– it comes under processed foods. So yeah, you know, if you're thinking about your jar of Nescafé and you're just pouring your hot water, that's a real processed food. But if you're doing a great organic coffee, you– you know, I'm not so worried about whatever milk you're adding to it, but sweeteners, we obviously don't want to be doing sugar, or any of those kind of mushroom stuff that people add in, and– and– and collagens and all of those things. 00:36:01 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, I mean, okay, that– so mushrooms, talking adaptogens. 00:36:05 **Jennifer Hanway:** So adaptogens help with stress or focus or any of those things, fantastic. But are you having your mushroom coffee with a pain au chocolat, or are you having it with some grilled chicken and a fruit salad? So I think people really like to major in– what I call majoring in the minors. So I'm going to feel really virtuous that I'm doing something good for my health because I'm having my mushroom coffee, but I'm not going to give up my sugar and my pastry. So these things work, but they're really the last kind of– I would say two to 5%. 00:36:41 **Aleksandra King:** So mushroom coffee. 00:36:42 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, fantastic, as long as– as long as you're doing everything else. Collagen, I'm a huge fan of collagen. Most collagens I wouldn't heat, so if you're having collagen, put that into your smoothie or something like that, don't put it into your coffee. 00:36:55 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, we're getting very advanced, we're getting into the nitty-gritty, I love it, advanced here. But we– we've decided on– on the basic things, for most people watching probably having a– a Nescafé, yeah, me included. I mean, we do occasionally have the filter but I can't be bothered, I've got no time, and it's like done. 00:37:13 **Jennifer Hanway:** I know, I know. Don't– no Nescafé. We have to think about short-term versus long-term gains. Okay, you know, and let's– here's the thing, if you are doing everything else 80 to 90% right and you're like, I'm not going to give up my Nescafé, fine. I always ask my clients, I'm like, what are your non-negotiables? Because for everybody that's maybe 10% of what they're doing. If we're doing the other 80 to 90% right, have your Nescafé, have your one glass of wine a week, have your pizza night with your family. It's not about that 10%, it's about the other 90% that you're doing all the time. 00:37:49 **Aleksandra King:** Actually would be able to adapt, because probably the non-negotiable is not having a coffee, because that– if– I mean, the concept of not having– the concept, life's not worth living, it's not right, is it? There's nothing more disappointing than if you come downstairs, you're trying to make a coffee and there's no milk or something, god forbid. 00:38:04 **Jennifer Hanway:** So here's the thing, so I travel with coffee and a hot water heater and a filter. 00:38:10 **Aleksandra King:** That's how. 00:38:10 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, because I love my coffee first, like it's my grounding ritual in the morning. So I get up, I make my coffee, beautiful coffee, I'm not dealing with hotel coffee room makers. I make my coffee, I read my book, I start my day. 00:38:25 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh, makes me want to step into your life, live your life. 00:38:30 **Jennifer Hanway:** Come on in. 00:38:33 **Aleksandra King:** Organised, organised beautiful life. Okay, so what about energy drinks? 00:38:37 **Jennifer Hanway:** No, no. 00:38:37 **Aleksandra King:** Right, they're horrible things. 00:38:39 **Jennifer Hanway:** We don't even have to give them air time. 00:38:40 **Aleksandra King:** You're not getting any time. Right. How does dehydration affect your focus and your cravings and your metabolism? 00:38:49 **Jennifer Hanway:** Dehydration is everything. So our cells need so much water to be able to function properly. So you know, if you're tired, drink some water. If you're hungry, drink some water. If you've got stomach ache, drink some water. There's nothing really that– you know, it's very hard to be over-hydrated, so I think for most people we're not drinking water enough. And then people say to me, well then don't you need to pee all the time? I'm like, well, that's kind of the point. 00:39:16 **Aleksandra King:** All right. You know, we– we think about cleanse. 00:39:18 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, we think about detox teas and juice cleanses and all of these things. Well, our bodies naturally detoxify anyway– they didn't, we would be dead. What's one of the best ways that we get those toxins out? It's pee, poop, sweat and breathing. Well, to pee, to poop and to sweat, we need to be hydrated. 00:39:34 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah. Okay, and then to poop, so we talk about– what is it, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. What do we eat? What's– what's the one food, if you had to say, eat it every day, what would it be, for pooping? 00:39:47 **Jennifer Hanway:** Ah well, for– for all of that, for everything. Well, here's the thing, is it's probably hard, one food, for– 00:39:54 **Aleksandra King:** But let's say for pooping. 00:39:55 **Jennifer Hanway:** Actually for pooping, fruits and vegetables. People always say, you know, do you take a fibre supplement? Well no, I just eat fruits and vegetables at every meal, six to eight servings a day. 00:40:05 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh. 00:40:06 **Jennifer Hanway:** Don't overthink it. If you don't like– you know, everyone will always say, you know, do I have to eat kale, do I have to eat Brussels sprouts? No, there's no one fruit or vegetable that you have to eat, just eat more and eat a mixture of them. And then if you want to, you can add a fibre supplement on top, but most people, you should be getting the fibre from the fruits and vegetables, because then you get the vitamins and the minerals and the antioxidants. 00:40:26 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, so you spoke about travel earlier, so what's the healthiest way to– to eat, I suppose, where you're travelling? It's just so difficult, isn't it, you don't know the restaurants, you don't know what the hotel's going to have, it creates mess, disorder. 00:40:40 **Jennifer Hanway:** I– I'm a little controversial in this, that I actually think it's actually really easy to eat healthily when travelling, or it's simple to eat when travelling. Okay, but it has to be a decision. So here's the thing, a lot of people are, oh, I'm travelling, I can't eat healthy, and it's a really great excuse just to kind of let everything go. But here's the thing, you can travel with your own food on a plane. 00:41:08 **Aleksandra King:** I didn't know they allow this. 00:41:09 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, yeah, as long as it's not liquid you can take it. I took– what did I take last time? I took– I made like a gluten-free healthy muffin, like blueberry muffin thing, and then I took some wraps with chicken and salad, and then I took my Greek yoghurt, I took my electrolytes, I took my supplements. Really easy. Or if you're– you know, grab something from– I always, when I come back here, I always grab a salad from Pret and I take that on the plane with me. So on the plane, take your own food. Most restaurants will have– you can find a protein, veggies, sweet potato, something like that on a menu, you don't have to– 00:41:46 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, they will have it. 00:41:47 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's just, I think we– it takes a little bit more of an effort, but I think a lot of the time we just want an easy out, so by saying, oh, it's hard to stay healthy when you travel. Now is it going to be perfect? Absolutely not. Can it be 80% of the way? Absolutely. But you just have to be willing to forgo the cocktails, the wine, the bread basket, the ice cream on the flight, which is a new thing, the KitKat. You know, or you make a conscious decision to choose that, but I think it just– it comes down to that decision. 00:42:21 **Aleksandra King:** The pot of chocolate mason. 00:42:24 **Jennifer Hanway:** I mean, so here's the thing, I also say there's also a difference between travel for business and travel for pleasure, and those are two different things. And if I'm travelling for business, I want to be as sharp and as switched on and as energised, and so I'm going to keep to my routine 90% of the time. 00:42:44 **Aleksandra King:** So what is the routine? So when you're choosing the food, you're looking at fruit and veg. 00:42:49 **Jennifer Hanway:** So I'm always going to start with my protein. 00:42:51 **Aleksandra King:** Proteins, you start with that. 00:42:53 **Jennifer Hanway:** 30 grams of protein every meal. 00:42:55 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh, 30 grams is what, a handful? 00:42:57 **Jennifer Hanway:** 30 grams is like a good, like a decent sized chicken breast. 00:43:01 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, so it's not huge amounts. 00:43:03 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, so with every single meal. 00:43:05 **Aleksandra King:** With every single meal. 00:43:06 **Jennifer Hanway:** So we should be aiming for a gram of protein per pound of body weight. Don't make me do this in kilograms because I live in the US now, don't even get me started on math. But for example, if you weigh 125 pounds, you should be aiming for 125 grams of protein. 00:43:20 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, break that down easy. 00:43:23 **Jennifer Hanway:** Think about 30 grams at each meal, just think about a good size serving of protein every– 00:43:29 **Aleksandra King:** Visually, like, is it this much, is the size of your– 00:43:33 **Jennifer Hanway:** Now it used to be, people used to think the size of your palm. That's not enough. Your palm and your fingers is going to be a good 30 grams amount. 00:43:41 **Aleksandra King:** Wow. But we're not then having all of the carbs with it as well. 00:43:46 **Jennifer Hanway:** So number one, I'm going to anchor around protein. So for breakfast I typically do– I could do a protein smoothie, I could do some Greek yoghurt with some protein powder, some eggs, some egg whites, turkey bacon, something like that. 00:43:57 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:43:57 **Jennifer Hanway:** Lunch I usually do a big ugly salad. 00:44:00 **Aleksandra King:** Mhm. 00:44:01 **Jennifer Hanway:** So, and here's the thing, 99% of my meals I would never post on Instagram because they don't look cute, they're just really healthy. So you know, a couple of handfuls of leafy greens, your baby spinach, your rocket, whatever that is for you, some protein, tomatoes, avocado, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, super healthy. 00:44:21 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, yeah. 00:44:22 **Jennifer Hanway:** That's it. And then dinner usually some– like last night was grilled salmon and steamed vegetables. 00:44:30 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh, now I'm eating for now. 00:44:32 **Jennifer Hanway:** I love how all of that tastes, but I also love how it makes me feel as well. And I think that's the thing, that's the– the part that we have, that little bit of a disconnect of, okay, that doesn't sound as delicious as my curry, my fish and chips, my whatever it is. But the way– the way that, number one, when you start changing the way you eat, your taste buds will change anyway. Number two, the way that that makes you feel is worth so much more than any moment of pleasure. And that's not to say that you can't have those, like, you know, have a treat meal once a week, go out to dinner with the family, have pizza night, like there is absolutely room for those, but it's what we're doing that 80 to 90% of the time that is most important. 00:45:18 **Aleksandra King:** I've never gone to a McDonald's and felt great afterwards. 00:45:23 **Jennifer Hanway:** There's a reason for that. 00:45:25 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah. Now I'm going out for a meal this evening with my friends and I will have my– death row meal is a really great burger and fries. No, I wouldn't go to McDonald's for that, because I'm not going to get really great ones. Like, I want to get a– like, really good meat, gluten free– gluten– gluten free fries, ketchup, the whole thing. 00:45:46 **Jennifer Hanway:** No, but that's– I say, you know, I do treat meals on birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, you maybe once a month, certainly not doing every week. 00:45:53 **Aleksandra King:** Okay. 00:45:54 **Jennifer Hanway:** But there is a time and a place for it, but it just shouldn't be the majority of the time. 00:45:58 **Aleksandra King:** It's not a mainstream thing. Okay, do you take supplements, like you spoke about collagen? 00:46:02 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yes, yep, I do, I take supplements. I definitely think there's a time and a place for supplements. Supplements should be just that, a supplement to a healthy diet. We absolutely can't out-supplement a healthy diet, a healthy lifestyle. I work with quite a lot of affluent clients and they would always love to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on supplements but not do the hard work. 00:46:26 **Aleksandra King:** Yes, I think we all love supplements because it's like, oh, I can just pop a pill and everything's going to be great. 00:46:30 **Jennifer Hanway:** No, they're supplements to a healthy diet. And again, going back to that conversation we had about testing, let's– you know, the number of times, probably at least once a day, someone will reach out to me on Instagram and say, should I take this supplement? I'm like, it depends. I don't know, I don't know, like, I haven't seen your blood work, I don't know what you need, I don't know what you're eating every day, I don't know your health history. So before we– now there are some basics, a multivitamin, probiotic, probably vitamin D, magnesium, fish oil. Now I'll caveat that with saying always check that with your health care provider first, because supplements can be powerful. So there's some foundational things that we can all be doing. Collagen is wonderful for skin, creatine is wonderful for our lean muscle mass. But really get your diet right, get your exercise right, get your sleep and stress right, see your doctor, supplement if needed. 00:47:21 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, supplement if needed, okay. What are the warning signs of a burnout? 00:47:27 **Jennifer Hanway:** Oh, I really think it probably starts way– I– I never want to get to someone at burnout, because what I'm thinking about when I think burnout is, I'm thinking adrenal fatigue or adrenal dysfunction. So I've actually seen it in a couple of clients and I've seen lab work, and really when I'm thinking burnout is, someone has been in a state of high or dysregulated cortisol for a long time. Then what happens is that their body stops making cortisol, or their cells stop being so sensitive to it, because they've just been in this state of high cortisol for such a long time. 00:48:06 **Aleksandra King:** What do we start to see beforehand? 00:48:08 **Jennifer Hanway:** So always feeling tired, or a big one is tired and wired. So you wake up in the morning and you're tired, but also your mind's racing, like you're anxious when you wake up in the morning. Not having the energy to work out, not having the drive and the get up and go, so losing the passion for the things that you once loved to do. All of that's not normal. 00:48:31 **Aleksandra King:** Then it's not normal, you're losing all that passion. 00:48:33 **Jennifer Hanway:** Again, it's not normal. Now we are human, you know, there's a real world thing, and you know, probably you and I, we love our jobs, but it's still a job, you know, we still have to get up early, we still have to deal with emails, the whole thing. But if you lose that, if– if there's nothing in there that you feel excited about, that can be a sign of burnout. Things like always having sore muscles or sore joints, not recovering from your workouts. You know, let's say for you, maybe with your running, you find that your running is making you more tired than it energises you. Or frequent colds, frequent infections. You know, it can be across the board. 00:49:11 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah. 00:49:12 **Jennifer Hanway:** So we really want to– but it's so much harder to come back from that than to prevent it in the first place. 00:49:18 **Aleksandra King:** You mentioned earlier that you looked at the scales, then you knew that, you know, you had put on the fat but you were the same weight. So how– how into these wearable devices and the tech are you? Do– do you do that, do you wear one of those smart watches? 00:49:31 **Jennifer Hanway:** So it's funny, I– so this was looking at my body composition. So I think that's a really great metric for people to look at, is not how much do I weigh, but how much lean muscle mass to body fat ratio do I have. 00:49:45 **Aleksandra King:** So you need an advanced scale for that, one of those good– 00:49:48 **Jennifer Hanway:** You can get those from– you know, you can get them from Boots or Superdrug or– or anything. Now they're never going to be clinically accurate, this is really important, but they're going to put you in the right direction. So let's say you jump on the scale and it says you're at 24.9% body fat. Probably going to say something different if you were doing that in a clinic. But let's say you do that, and then you work really hard for 12 weeks and you're 22% body fat, fantastic, it's gone in the right direction. So that's something that can be useful. In terms of the Apple Watches and the Oura Rings and the Fitbits and the– 00:50:23 **Aleksandra King:** I say GoPro, that's not one of them, but no. 00:50:25 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, yeah, I'm with you. You know, I wear them occasionally, so I wear an Oura Ring occasionally. I think it's useful, I think it's important not to get too bogged down into it, to remember that it's not clinically accurate, it's just a guide. And I only think any kind of– and also CGM, so the blood glucose monitors. 00:50:46 **Aleksandra King:** Oh yeah, those things, yeah, yeah. 00:50:47 **Jennifer Hanway:** I– I wear one of those occasionally. They're only useful if they create behaviour change. 00:50:52 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, I've never used one of those but I think I might, I might do that. 00:50:56 **Jennifer Hanway:** If they create behaviour– yeah, if they trigger you into something fant– or they– they create a positive change, fantastic. If all you're doing is looking at the data but not making any changes, it's not worth it. But if it's something that– if you need that reminder every time you reach for a coffee or a cake or a sandwich or a pizza, and you get that little reminder and that creates a healthier behaviour change, fantastic. 00:51:18 **Aleksandra King:** I love statistics, I love facts, you know, and– and yes, the– the scale might not be completely accurate, it tempts me to go into one of those little scientific studios and get a raw measure. But I love– I do believe in statistics, and I, you know, information is power in my world, I just feel like it can help. 00:51:35 **Jennifer Hanway:** You know, I– I do that with my clients, you know, I look at statistics and it helps form pathways. And something like a CGM or any of those things, they're real time data as well. So you'll literally– I– I'll never forget, it was a few years ago and I was wearing a CGM. And what a CGM, for– for listeners, is, it's a device that goes into– it's got a tiny little filament and it goes into your skin, so it's constantly– 00:51:57 **Aleksandra King:** A little, yeah. 00:51:58 **Jennifer Hanway:** So it's a little thing that kind of, you go– it's almost like a stapler, like a staple gun, and so it go– it doesn't hurt. So there's a tiny filament that goes into your blood and measures your blood sugar at any moment, and it's constantly sending data back to your phone. So what can happen– I will never forget, we went out for– it was my friend's bachelorette party, and we were in North London, we went for pizza and wine. 00:52:18 **Aleksandra King:** Oh. 00:52:18 **Jennifer Hanway:** And yeah, and I eat gluten-free, so gluten-free pizzas are naturally more high in carbohydrates, refined carbs, than normal pizzas. And so I knew it was going to happen, but I mean, we literally were all waiting for this thing to go off. So I have my piece of pizza, I have my glass of wine– now I was having a salad with it as well, but it was treat night, it was my friends, you know. 00:52:38 **Aleksandra King:** Fair enough. You know, hen do is what we're calling here. 00:52:41 **Jennifer Hanway:** And my blood sugar probably went from like the 80s to like the 300s or something, and it was like, you know, it was– it was– I mean, we knew what was happening. But I think if that– if– if you are a data person and you need real time feedback, it can be really useful. 00:52:58 **Aleksandra King:** You saw that happening in real time. 00:53:00 **Jennifer Hanway:** And we knew it was going to happen. 00:53:01 **Aleksandra King:** Imagine if you were doing that every day. 00:53:03 **Jennifer Hanway:** Every day, right. 00:53:04 **Aleksandra King:** So if you're diabetes basically. 00:53:06 **Jennifer Hanway:** Exact– well, yeah, that's– it's, you know, that blood sugar dysregulation, then we move to metabolic dysfunction, then we move to type 2 diabetes, which can be reversed, but let's prevent it first of all. 00:53:17 **Aleksandra King:** Gosh, that's powerful. I– I definitely want to try one of those things. So some people have a bit of a strange relationship with– with food, don't they, with dieting, and they do the fasting and everything. How can they rebuild a healthier approach to just all of this stuff? 00:53:34 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, I think, you know, I think if it's a real– you know, there's a mental health piece of the puzzle, which is, you absolutely, you know, work with a mental health professional. I think that's also something I see in my industry that can be a little bit scary, is nutritionists and health coaches working with eating disorders, and that's an absolute no. So if it is disordered eating, that is, you work with a licensed mental health professional, full stop. But there is another side of it which is something different, which is again this misinformation. So I think it's number one, it's misinformation, and it's number two, it's wanting a quick fix. So fasting is something people love to grab hold of because it's like, oh, I can eat whatever I want as long as I'm only eating, you know, twice a day or once a day, within the window. 00:54:17 **Aleksandra King:** Within the window. 00:54:18 **Jennifer Hanway:** I can eat whatever I want. No, that is not how it works. Number one, everything that we do should be about the quality of our food. So food is information for the body, food tells our hormones what to do. So number one is about food quality, number two is about food timing. Now for men, intermittent fasting can be a better tool in a toolbox for them, because they don't have the compl– the complicated hormonal interplay. For women, our bodies go through enough stress with our hormones anyway, especially perimenopause, lowering of oestrogen. Oestrogen, progesterone also help our stress levels. For women, intermittent fasting in perimenopause is the worst thing that you can do. Eat three to four times a day, 3 to four hours in between meals, 12 hours overnight, it's all you need to do. 00:55:07 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, I love that, I love simplifying that, because it does get– it does get a lot, doesn't it. 00:55:12 **Jennifer Hanway:** It gets a lot. And here's the thing, we're– we're always all looking for a quick fix with everything, and that's just our society. You know, I get– I get cross now when I can't Amazon Prime something in the same day. So we all want a quick fix, we all want something easy. 00:55:26 **Aleksandra King:** But let's quick fix this. So if you're eating badly, you're eating badly, you– you know, you're eating too much, you're eating the wrong kind of food. What can you do, just– what– what do you do? 00:55:35 **Jennifer Hanway:** So I always say to people, think about what you're going to add in before you take away. So don't think about the things you can't have, because number one, what that's going to do is that's going to set you up for a deprivation mindset. We all know– I mean, you know, I'm 45, I've been through the dieting years of the 80s, the 90s, the noughties. You know, the second that you're told you can't have something, what do you want? So the second you're told not to do something– second, you know, if there was someone standing behind you and I'd be like, don't look behind you, what are you going to do? You're going to look. Okay, so what we want to think about is, where can we add abundance to our diets? And this is going to do two things. Number one, it's going to give you that abundant mindset, look at all of the foods that I can eat. Number two, it's going to balance out that blood sugar. So again, that comes back to that point of, it's not about willpower, it's about blood sugar. So if I say to someone, okay, all I want you to do for this first week of us working together is add protein to the meal that you're eating, don't change anything else, just add protein. 00:56:26 **Aleksandra King:** That's a good one actually. 00:56:27 **Jennifer Hanway:** What they're going to do is, that's going to help them feel so full, it's going to balance out their hunger hormones, it's going to balance out their blood sugar, that they're then going to not want the dessert afterwards because they're already full from the meal. 00:56:38 **Aleksandra King:** Full. 00:56:39 **Jennifer Hanway:** So that's the way. You know, and then maybe, okay great, we've added protein to a meal, we've done that for a week, where can we now add a serving of vegetables? Can we add– if you're having scrambled eggs for breakfast, let's put in some sautéed spinach, let's put in a side salad at dinner, let's put in some fruit after lunch. And then you're slowly, slowly improving, making little changes, and you don't think, oh my goodness, I can't have all of these things, it's more that your body starts naturally not to need these things. 00:57:06 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, what about– this is a big one with– with you, I know you know about this– but if you're trying to eat, because these products and things that we use, beauty products, they work on the surface of the skin, but we all know that it comes from within. So what are the things you can eat to look better? 00:57:21 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, so this is one of my favourite– this is one of my favourite topics. I started working with a dermatologist in 2017, and at the time talking about beauty nutrition and skin supplements, and it just wasn't a thing. Now fast forward to 2025, everybody's talking about it, and this is what I work– 00:57:37 **Aleksandra King:** Everyone's talking about it. 00:57:39 **Jennifer Hanway:** I work with L'Oréal for this, like it is a– it's a big thing. But we all love our creams and our serums, and I'll always be honest, and botox and all of those things, wonderful, but the biggest lowest hanging fruit is what we're eating. So people say to me, you know, does what we eat really affect our skin? Absolutely, because what we eat becomes our cells, every single cell in the body becomes our skin, it literally becomes our skin. What I'm seeing now in your– and you have beautiful skin and it's glowing, it's very clear– 00:58:08 **Aleksandra King:** Thank you. 00:58:09 **Jennifer Hanway:** –is a result of what you've been eating. So number one, again comes back to protein. So our skin is made of protein, we have elastin, we have, you know, all of those different proteins in the skin. If we're not eating enough protein, we're not going to be able to repair our skin cells. So number one is protein. Number two, yes, we can do a collagen supplement, fantastic, but don't do a collagen supplement if you're not eating enough protein. Number one, get that protein in, because it's so important. People are like, oh, protein for skin, I thought protein was for muscles. Protein's for everything in the body, so protein is for our hormones, for our neurotransmitters, but also for our skin as well. So if you're seeing those signs of– you know, if you're seeing signs of ageing in the mirror, you're seeing that slight sagging, you're seeing those fine lines and wrinkles, up the protein in your diet. 00:58:55 **Aleksandra King:** Now with protein is– I like that, yeah. 00:58:57 **Jennifer Hanway:** Collagen is a type of protein, so yeah, adding a collagen supplement can be really beneficial, make sure you're doing it every day. Healthy fats– so if people are having a low-fat diet you can really see that in the skin, they lose that glow, they lose that plumpness. So avocado oil, extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds, whole milk and butter– sorry, that's just me. Butter has something called– butter has conjugated linoleic acid in it, which is fantastic for our skin. And then I think we hear a lot about vitamins and minerals, but you heard it here first, polyphenols are going to be the new buzzword. 00:59:35 **Aleksandra King:** Okay, tell us about them. 00:59:36 **Jennifer Hanway:** So polyphenols are specific types of plant compounds, and you find them in– if you think about our brightly coloured fruits and veg, so things like berries, things like red cabbage, but they're also in extra virgin olive oil, they give that– that kind of green taste, green colour and that spicy taste. Dark chocolate, coffee, all packed full of polyphenols. Now polyphenols are wonderful because they help feed our gut bacteria, but they also really help free radical damage in the skin. So antioxidants and polyphenols, they're that next extra level. So you've got your protein in, you're doing your healthy fats, you're not having your sugars or your alcohols or things because you've got that all nice and balanced, then think about where can I add polyphenols to my day. And my two favourite sources of polyphenols are great quality coffee and organic dark chocolate. 01:00:24 **Aleksandra King:** Oh yeah, good things, right, good. 01:00:27 **Jennifer Hanway:** And berries. 01:00:28 **Aleksandra King:** As of all the berries, they sound really good as well. Gosh, it doesn't sound that difficult, does it? It's really quite– 01:00:35 **Jennifer Hanway:** It's quite, yeah, it can be quite– it– 01:00:37 **Aleksandra King:** Exactly. 01:00:38 **Jennifer Hanway:** And you think about, you know, you can think about a day, you know, maybe you're having like a really nice, you know, berry smoothie in the morning, and then lunch maybe you're having chicken salad with avocado and a bunch of veggies. I always have two square– I have a herbal tea and a dark chocolate, two squares of dark chocolate after lunch, and then dinner maybe, you know, salmon and veggies on that big baking sheet. You know, it doesn't have to be complicated. 01:01:00 **Aleksandra King:** Dark chocolate contains magnesium, doesn't it, as well? 01:01:03 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yes. 01:01:03 **Aleksandra King:** So great for stress levels. 01:01:05 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, dark chocolate is a– for your nervous system, for your stress, for your bones, for your nerves. Yeah, in my opinion dark chocolate is definitely a super– 01:01:15 **Aleksandra King:** It does sound like you sort of feel sorry for your body in a way, if it's really not getting these things and it's got no way to manage its nervous system and no way to– to– to build its muscle and give you the hair you want, and then– and– and– and give you that energy. You kind of– you feel sorry for the body, you think, in a way we're abusing ourselves by being mean and eating this rubbish that we– 01:01:34 **Jennifer Hanway:** We absolutely are. But it doesn't have to be– you know, as we sit here and describe these foods, it doesn't have to be about deprivation. You know, one of my favourite things is, you know– 01:01:42 **Aleksandra King:** Sounds the opposite, it's literally the nourish, the beautiful nourishment. 01:01:46 **Jennifer Hanway:** Exactly, it's all about thinking about, how do I nourish my cells, how do I give my cells the best? You know, it's just the same as the type of petrol that we put in our car. You know, if we give ourselves that. You know, and I think the other part is it only takes a couple of days to start to feel better, and when you do feel better, and you– when you feel better on a consistent basis, it's pretty amazing. And I do wish people could feel that straight away, because people say to me, how are you so disciplined? I'm like, well, I'm not really disciplined, I just know how I feel when I don't eat this way or I don't live this way. 01:02:21 **Aleksandra King:** You've chosen to, it– it serves you. Okay, so to finish off, we're going to do two– two things really, two questions. On the one hand the question is going to be a negative one, and on the other one is positive. So what would you say, you know, for the negative one is that the biggest misconception and– and fake news, whatever you want to call it, out there about all this health stuff there? And then also, to counteract that, on the positive side, what is, you know, what can we take away from this conversation, if you could give someone one thing to take away, just one, and do it, what would that be? 01:02:53 **Jennifer Hanway:** Okay, so the negative part I think is how– I think it's wonderful in society that we're talking more about perimenopause and menopause, but I think all we hear right now is doom and gloom. So when we open up our apps, when we hear Davina McCall, god bless her, all of the things, all we hear about is how awful menopause is, how you're going to gain weight, you're going to get hot flushes, all of the things. Now that's not taking away from anyone's experience whatsoever, but when we talk about something negatively it gets more clicks, more engagement. And yes, menopause is going to be, or the menopause transition can be challenging, but there's so much that we can do to mitigate those challenges, and it doesn't have to be a heavy lift or complicated. So I'd say that's probably my negative. 01:03:41 **Aleksandra King:** And on the positive side. I mean, if you're not bleeding anymore and lose all that iron, then you've got some more iron for your– there must be. 01:03:49 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, it's– so I work with– I work with Johnson and Johnson, and I work on their menopause health platform, and we did a two-day conference and I spent it with 60 or 70 women, all of who had been through menopause, and the overarching thing was, it's really not as bad as anyone makes out. Now again, not to take anywhere– take away from anyone who's having a bad experience with menopause, but just for women to understand that there is a spectrum of experience and there are things that we can do to help manage the symptoms. And it's also natural and it's part of life and it's part of our evolution, so we shouldn't be– in a lot of cultures, negative– I think it's– I think it's Japan, they call it the second spring. So in a lot of cultures it's celebrated, it's that next– the second spring, it's that next evolution. You know, and I'm 45 and I feel like I'm only just getting started. 01:04:41 **Aleksandra King:** Yeah, so I'm with you, I'm with you. And that was positive, that was positive as well, yeah. 01:04:48 **Jennifer Hanway:** But yeah, but one takeaway for– for our viewers, it only takes a couple of days to start to feel better, and it just starts with that decision of looking after yourself. And you don't have to, you know, it's not going to be something that you are going to punish yourself through, or feel like you're making huge sacrifices and it's going to feel awful for weeks. Couple of days of prioritising your protein, eating your veggies, drinking your water, getting some sleep, you start to feel better after a couple of days. 01:05:20 **Aleksandra King:** It's been fabulous having you on, thank you so much for filling us with your wisdom. And like I said, I want to go into your organic, healthy, well, organised life and just– and just live like that, because I can just imagine you with your lovely coffee and everything's, you know, clean and tidy and awesome in your world. 01:05:38 **Jennifer Hanway:** Yeah, it's been amazing. 01:05:39 **Aleksandra King:** And no wonder the royals and everyone else is listening to you, because yeah, very wise. 01:05:43 **Jennifer Hanway:** Thank you so much for having me. 01:05:44 **Aleksandra King:** Thank you. Thanks for coming on. 01:05:46 **Jennifer Hanway:** Thank you. ## Follow Aleksandra - [Instagram](https://instagram.com/king.aleksandra) - [X](https://x.com/aleksandrabking) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandraking) - [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@AleksandraKing) - [Aleksandra's Inner Circle](https://laylo.com/aleksandraking) Business and collaborations: [aleksandraking.com](https://aleksandraking.com) | [aleksandra@aleksandraking.com](mailto:aleksandra@aleksandraking.com) *The views expressed by guests are their own and do not reflect those of Aleksandra, the podcast, or its producers. This podcast is for entertainment only.*