Podcast Introduction — Lisa Peterson
Today’s guest is Lisa Peterson, a fitness and life coach who specializes in working with women over 40, and Lisa didn’t just find her way into the midlife space professionally. She lived it. And she’s been through some stuff.
Fitness had always been a huge part of Lisa’s life. She even trained throughout her pregnancies. But after having children, her health began to unravel. She was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroid disease, and then, at just 39 years old, she went into premature ovarian failure, also known as premature menopause.
Suddenly, Lisa was dealing with an alarming list of symptoms at an age when menopause wasn’t even on her radar. She went from provider to provider looking for answers, only to have her concerns brushed aside. She was offered antidepressants. Birth control pills. And when she finally asked a functional medicine doctor to test her hormones, he wrote the order—but not before asking her with a smirk, “Why, is that what your friends are doing these days?”
That began what Lisa calls the answer-seeking period of her life.
Looking back, Lisa can see just how much her body had endured: graduate school, infertility, an intense corporate career, a new marriage, three babies in four years, three years of breastfeeding, surgery—and then over-exercising and under-eating in an effort to “get her body back.”
And then, two years ago, Lisa faced yet another life-changing health diagnosis: a benign brain tumor. While benign, the experience took an enormous emotional toll and, in Lisa’s words, left her feeling emotionally paralyzed.
In this episode, we talk about all of it—the hormones, the health scares, the fear, the pressure women put on themselves and their bodies, and what Lisa has learned about fitness, nutrition, stress, and taking care of ourselves as we move through our 40s and beyond.
Because Lisa’s approach to coaching women in midlife isn’t something she learned only from a textbook or certification. It comes from living through her own body changing, searching for answers when answers were hard to find, and ultimately finding her way forward.
Let’s get into my conversation with Lisa Peterson.
You can find Lisa on Instagram @lisavp305 and also on Substack https://lisavpeterson.substack.com/
