Total Health in Midlife with Elizabeth Sherman

252 - Nighttime Cravings in Midlife: It's Not a Willpower Problem

You’re doing “all the right things” with food… and yet the scale won’t budge, your cravings are loud, and you’re so tired at night that the pantry starts calling your name. In this episode of Total Health in Midlife, Elizabeth breaks down why overeating, night snacking, and constant grazing are almost never about willpower—and how they’re tied to real, physical changes in your midlife body.We’ll dig into how low protein, blood sugar swings, poor sleep, and a more sensitive nervous system in perimenopause and menopause quietly drive overeating long before you ever see the chocolate. You’ll hear how emotions like stress, loneliness, and “I just need a break” sneak into your eating habits, even if you don’t see yourself as an “emotional eater.”Instead of another list of rules to “just be good,” you’ll learn a simple way to understand why you’re really eating when you’re not hungry—and why that matters for your weight, energy, and long-term health. If you’ve ever wondered, “Why can’t I stop eating at night even though I know better?” this episode will help you see that your overeating actually makes sense—and can be changed without another diet.The Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersThis episode matters because it gives you something most women in midlife have never been offered: a shame-free explanation for why you overeat that doesn’t boil down to “try harder.” When you understand how hormones, blood sugar, sleep, stress, emotions, and habits all fit together, your overeating stops feeling random and becomes something you can actually work with. Instead of fighting your body, you start to see it as a partner that’s been trying to help you cope with exhaustion, overwhelm, and unmet needs.The real relief here is knowing that nothing about you is broken. You don’t have to give up your favorite foods, live on willpower, or keep starting over every Monday. With a few simple awareness tools and a better understanding of your midlife physiology, you can build trust with yourself around food again, feel more in control of your evenings and weekends, and finally support your weight, energy, and long-term health in a way that actually fits your life.WHAT YOU’LL LEARNWhy your midlife body drives cravings and night eating long before willpower even shows upHow emotions like stress, loneliness, and “I just need a break” secretly shape your eating (even if you don’t think you’re an emotional eater)A simple 2-question check-in you can use this week to understand why you’re really eating when you’re not hungryRESOURCESBHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Sign Up for the LIVE Workshop: How to Stop Overeating without Going on a Diet at https://elizabethsherman.com/stop-overeatingIf you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast. After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too. To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving. Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.

251 - Cravings, Stress, Belly Fat: Why Willpower Isn’t Your Problem

You start every January with a new plan: stricter rules, cleaner eating, earlier workouts. By March, the plan has quietly vanished, and you’re left blaming yourself… again. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on why your 2025 diet really failed—and why it has a lot less to do with willpower and a lot more to do with being a midlife woman with an actual life, actual hormones, and actual responsibilities.We unpack the hidden reasons your “perfect” plan fell apart: night snacking on the couch, saying yes to food you don’t want so you don’t offend anyone, mistaking exhaustion for hunger, and using “I deserve this” food as your only form of self-care. Instead of shaming you for not sticking to the plan, we treat those moments as data that show you what’s really going on with your body, brain, and environment.You’ll learn why traditional diets aren’t designed for midlife women dealing with perimenopause, stress, aging parents, and a heavy mental load—and why that matters for belly fat, cravings, brain fog, and burnout. Most importantly, you’ll walk away with a simple, kind, three-step “post-mortem” to review 2025 and design 2026 in a completely different way.WHAT YOU’LL LEARNWhy your 2025 diet failed even if you “did everything right” at the startHow midlife hormones, stress, and exhaustion quietly sabotage rigid diet plansThe difference between willpower problems and skill problems when it comes to overeatingThe Listener Takeaway: Why This Episode MattersThis episode matters because it finally separates you from the diet failures you’ve been carrying around for years. It shows you that your belly fat, cravings, fatigue, and “I know what to do, I’m just not doing it” struggle are not signs that you’re broken—they’re signals that the strategies you’ve been handed were never designed for midlife women like you. When you see overeating and “falling off the wagon” as skill gaps instead of character flaws, you can start to feel hopeful again instead of ashamed.You’ll walk away with permission to stop punishing yourself with harsher rules and start asking better questions: What actually got in the way? What is my brain or body trying to tell me? What one skill would make this easier on a real, messy Tuesday? That shift—from self-blame to problem-solving—is what makes long-term change possible. Instead of starting another year with an all-or-nothing reset, you can enter 2026 with a simpler, kinder, more effective approach that respects your midlife body, your responsibilities, and your capacity.RESOURCES Hey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Sign Up for the LIVE Workshop: How to Stop Overeating without Going on a Diet at https://elizabethsherman.com/stop-overeatingIf you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast. After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too. To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving. Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.

Goal Setting Series 4: Maintaining Motivation

If you’ve ever felt like your motivation evaporates the moment life gets stressful, this episode will feel like someone finally turned the lights on. In this final part of the Goal Setting Series, we dig into why midlife women struggle to stay consistent with their health habits — and why it has nothing to do with discipline, willpower, or “trying harder.”Instead, I’ll show you why your system is failing you, not the other way around. You’ll learn how midlife emotional load, hormonal shifts, caregiving, work pressure, and daily unpredictability make traditional goal-setting strategies completely unrealistic — and what to do instead.This episode also breaks down the three forces that actually create consistency: identity, commitment, and focus. You’ll hear real stories of women who transformed their habits using micro-wins and simple systems that fit into real life — not fantasy life.If you’re tired of restarting, tired of feeling behind, and ready to become the woman who follows through even when life is chaotic, you won’t want to miss this one.The Biggest Problem Midlife Women Face Regarding Maintaining MotivationThe core problem is that midlife motivation collapses under the weight of real-life demands. Most women assume they’re failing because they “can’t stay motivated,” when in reality they are trying to stack new health habits on top of an already overloaded schedule. This creates a fragile system that falls apart the second life gets busy — caregiving emergencies, work deadlines, hormonal shifts, sleep disruptions, or family responsibilities.Traditional goal-setting was never designed for women in midlife. It assumes predictable routines, low emotional labor, uninterrupted time, and external support — conditions most midlife women do not have. When motivation naturally declines, especially during stress or fatigue, women blame themselves instead of recognizing the structural mismatch. They believe they lack discipline, when the truth is that they lack a system that adapts to real life.WHAT YOU’LL LEARNWhy motivation disappears in midlife and what’s actually happening behind the scenesThe three forces that create real consistency — even on your busiest, most stressful daysHow tiny micro-wins can shift your identity and build unstoppable momentumWhat You Can Do Right NowStart by identifying one micro-win you can take today — something so small that it doesn’t trigger resistance: a ten-minute walk, adding protein to one meal, or going to bed a few minutes earlier. These micro-wins create the evidence your brain needs to shift your identity frHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Sign Up for the LIVE Workshop: How to Stop Overeating without Going on a Diet at https://elizabethsherman.com/stop-overeatingIf you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast. After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too. To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving. Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.

Goal Setting Series 3: Overcoming Obstacles

Most midlife women think they fail at their goals because they lose motivation, get too stressed, or can’t stay consistent. But what if the real reason has nothing to do with discipline at all? In this episode of Total Health in Midlife, we uncover the hidden forces that derail your habits long before you ever “fall off track.”This conversation is about the obstacles you don’t see coming—the emotional labor, invisible responsibilities, and overloaded schedule that make traditional goal-setting impossible. You’ll learn why your habits collapse the moment life gets chaotic, why this pattern is predictable, and how to finally build goals that can survive the real rhythm of your days.If you’ve ever wondered, “Why can’t I stay consistent?” or “Why do my goals fall apart the minute I’m busy?”, this episode will show you what’s actually happening beneath the surface. And more importantly, it will show you how to fix it.The Biggest Problem Midlife Women Face Regarding Navigating ObstaclesThe biggest challenge midlife women face isn’t a lack of motivation, willpower, or discipline—it’s the overloaded structure of their daily lives. Women in midlife carry a disproportionate amount of emotional labor, decision-making, caregiving responsibilities, and invisible tasks that don’t show up on a calendar but consume significant mental energy. When health goals are stacked on top of an already maxed-out life, even small disruptions—an unexpected email, a sick parent, a work deadline—can derail the entire plan. This isn’t personal failure; it’s predictable system overload.Another major issue is that traditional goal-setting methods were never designed for women with this level of responsibility. Most frameworks assume ideal conditions: consistent schedules, external support, uninterrupted routines, and minimal emotional load. Midlife women don’t live in those conditions. Their obstacles aren’t rare surprises—they’re built into the architecture of their days. Without naming these structural barriers, women blame themselves for something that has nothing to do with personal inadequacy.Finally, many women expect obstacles to disappear once they reach their goals. But reaching a goal doesn’t eliminate obstacles—it just means you’ve developed the skills to navigate them. The obstacles stay; you become more skilled at handling them. This episode explains how to build obstacle-resistant systems so your goals can survive real life instead of collapsing under it.WHAT YOU’LL LEARNWhy your habits fall apart when life gets chaotic—and why that’s not your faultHow to identify the invisible obstacles thatHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Sign Up for the LIVE Workshop: How to Stop Overeating without Going on a Diet at https://elizabethsherman.com/stop-overeatingIf you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast. After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too. To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving. Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.

Goal Setting Series 2: Myths of Achieving Goals

If you’ve ever set a goal with the best intentions, only to watch it fall apart a few weeks later, this episode will feel like someone finally turned the lights on. Today, we’re digging into the hidden myths that quietly sabotage midlife women — myths that make you think you’re the problem when, in reality, your model was flawed from the start.In Part 2 of the Goal Setting Series, Elizabeth breaks down why health and habit goals collapse even when you’re committed, smart, disciplined, and doing “all the right things.” These myths show up as believable reasons, familiar patterns, and well-worn stories about motivation, consistency, timing, and willpower — and they are the reason women in midlife struggle to make health changes stick.The episode doesn’t shame you for these patterns — it explains them. More importantly, it shows you why the strategies you’ve been told to use were never built for the real demands of midlife: invisible labor, caregiving, emotional load, hormonal shifts, unpredictable schedules, and the cultural pressure to be “the capable one.” If you’ve been blaming yourself for years of stalled or abandoned goals, this episode offers a different truth — one rooted in compassion, clarity, and evidence.By the end, you’ll understand why your past efforts didn’t work, why you’re not broken, and what actually needs to change in your approach so your health goals finally become doable inside your real, lived life.The Biggest Problem Midlife Women Face Regarding Goal Setting MythsThe biggest challenge midlife women face is that most traditional goal-setting frameworks were never designed for their lives. The popular advice around motivation, discipline, willpower, and “just being consistent” is built on the assumption that you have abundant time, predictable schedules, steady energy, and minimal emotional labor. For women in midlife, none of that is true. You’re managing aging parents, supporting adult children, handling the household mental load, navigating hormonal fluctuations, and serving as the default problem-solver for everyone around you. When goal-setting advice ignores these realities, your health goals become impossible to maintain.Another major problem is the deeply ingrained cultural myths that dictate how women think goals should work: motivation should last, consistency must look perfect, life will calm down soon, and willpower is a sign of character. These myths create a distorted view of why you struggle. They make you believe you don’t want it badly enough or that you’re somehow failing at goals other women seem to manage. But the truth is simpler: your life has more moving parts, aHey! I love hearing from you. Send me a text. Let me know what resonated with you. Sign Up for the LIVE Workshop: How to Stop Overeating without Going on a Diet at https://elizabethsherman.com/stop-overeatingIf you’re a woman in midlife who wants better health without obsessing over weight, you’re in the right place. I’m Elizabeth Sherman, a life and health coach and host of the Total Health in Midlife Podcast. After coaching hundreds of women, I know the real problem usually isn’t “not enough information” – it’s too much of it, and not knowing where to start. With close to 300 episodes, this show can feel that way too. To make it easy, I created a free Listener’s Roadmap that helps you figure out which episodes are right for you right now. Tell me what you’re struggling with – low energy, emotional eating, stress, sleep, exercise, or all of the above – and I’ll point you to a curated path of episodes and resources to get you moving. Download your free roadmap at https://elizabethsherman.com/roadmap.