Women Around a Table Eating Food (WTF): Unfiltered talk about this curious midlife. And food.

WTF #18: It's Not Mind Control, It's Mind Retrain: Lisa Maximus + Nic on Hypnosis

What if the thing standing between you and the performance of your life isn't more effort, it's the noise in your own head? In this episode of Women Around a Table Eating Food, Lisa MacDonald—the world-record powerlifter Instagram knows as Lisa Maximus and our dear friend—has never had a work ethic problem. She's coached since she was 19, out-trains pain most of us will never fathom, and squats numbers that could stop a train. But meet after meet, she'd get to the platform and freeze, with a ready body and a mind that hijacked her moment. She'd tried the breathing drills, the sports-psych talk, the mindset hacks. None of it moved the needle. And then, there was Nic. Our very own resident therapist (and Lisa's friend AND coaching client) handed Lisa a recording and said listen to this at night. Barely able to stay awake for it, a handful of sleeps later, she walked up to the bar at her next record-breaking conquest calm, clear, laser-focused…and had the best powerlifting meet of her life. She thought something was wrong with her. But it was Nic’s hypnosis, and it worked. In this episode, Lisa and Nic trade places as the strength coach becomes the student inside Nic's own practice, Tranceform Performance, where they let us watch the reversal up close. Nic explains what hypnosis actually is (a focused, relaxed state where the mind gets open to change) and what it isn't (mind control, swinging pocket watches, clucking like a chicken). They get into why insight isn't a prerequisite for change, the belt cue Lisa didn't know she'd been given, and why Nic told a powerlifter to “channel her feminine.” And because this is WTF, there's a green-drink debate, a steak-marbling metaphor for an MRI, and an impromptu pelvic-tilt clinic for Jen's cranky back. If Nic can move a wall for Lisa Maximus, it's probably worth the rest of us leaning in. Calling all moms, managers, and anyone who's ever gone blank when it counted, you don’t have to be an athlete to add a new coping and healing tool to your toolbox. Come ready to be inspired. Content note: this conversation touches on OCD, anxiety, and exposure therapy, and describes personal experiences with hypnosis. It's one athlete's story, not medical or psychological advice. Zero-Hype Takeaways: • Hypnosis, done well, is closer to being absorbed in a good book than losing control — a focused, relaxed state where the mind is open to change. • You don't need to understand why a pattern started in order to interrupt it. Insight is not a prerequisite for change. • The most disciplined people often hit walls that effort can't fix, because the block is in performance, not preparation. • A tool that feels "too simple" can still be the one that finally works (and skepticism doesn't disqualify you from benefiting). • This isn't just for elite athletes: the same nerve that freezes a lifter freezes a presenter, a parent, a beginner. Follow these phenoms! 💪🏻 FIND Lisa MacDonald ("Lisa Maximus") and her Maximus Strong Training Program at www.lisamaximus.com 💪🏻 FOLLOW her at @lisamaximus 💪🏻 FIND Nic at https://www.tranceform-performance.com

WTF #17: Engineer-Turned OBGYN Dr. Diana Kumar Explains WTF Is Happening

What happens when a surgeon/former engineer/board-certified OBGYN spends years learning to tell women to "run more and eat less"…and then realizes, Wait: That’s absolutely NOT the answer? She builds an entirely new model of care from scratch. In this episode of Women Around a Table Eating Food, Jen and Nic welcome Dr. Diana Kumar: co-founder of Gliss Wellness, menopause specialist, former industrial engineer, and the kind of doctor who has officially added "please don't put your estrogen patch on your necklines" to her patient intake form. (True story.) Dr. Kumar dreamed up Gliss Wellness with co-founding partner-in-shine Dr. Teresa Walsh on a flight to Paris, and then spent a year burning 100 hours a week to build it. Their mission? Offer evidence-based, personalized menopause care (even for women who live far from their providers) with no waiting rooms, no paper tables, and no seven-minute appointments. (She's also Nic’s and Jen’s actual doctor, which means this convo goes where some pods don't.) We get into… ❗️Why Dr. Kumar’s menopause training in medical school was "near zero” (her words) ❗️How a flawed 2000s study canceled HRT for nearly an entire generation ❗️ The symptoms nobody talks about (burning tongue, neck sensitivity, eczema flares, and ears like the Red Hot on Jen’s gingerbread cookies) ❗️ Why race and ethnicity change everything about how menopause shows up; and ❗️ The "Walmart of menopause" problem quietly taking over telehealth. This one's for errywoman who’s ever walked out of a seven-minute appointment feeling more lost than when she walked in, and every person who loved her and had to deal with her rage. Dr. Kumar is warm, articulate, funny AF, and has wicked strong opinions about burn books, educating men about perimenopause, and the fact that oral sex ONLY gets better in your 40s and 50s. (We confirm!) Food at Dr. K’s table? Matcha…ceremonially prepared, hoarded from a tiny Tokyo subway shop. (Because, tastemaker.) 🌿 Book a free 15-minute consult with Gliss Wellness: www.findgliss.com 🎙️ Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. 📲 Follow us on Instagram: @womenaroundatable (Also...reviews will SO help us grow! If you remotely liked what you heard or think this pod could lift someone up, like us, share us, and let folks know what you thought.) We appreciate you!

WTF #16: Rage, Rewrites, and Midlife Reinvention with Author Kennerly Clay

So what happens when a lifelong word wrangler decides she's done pretending that menopause is a graceful transformation? She writes a trilogy about it—sharp, snarky, and wickedfuckting honest—and then she shows up at our virtual table to talk about all of it. 🫶🏻 In this episode of Women Around a Table Eating Food, Jen introduces to Nic her dear friend and author Kennerly Clay: a 25-year veteran of writing and digital strategy, a memoirist, and the kind of woman who, at the height of her midlife unraveling, kicked her son's door off its hinges, told her kids she needed some space, and checked herself into a self-described trashy Pennsylvania hotel room. And they all survived and loved hard through it. Kennerly is the author of Letters from East of Nowhere: Daddy's Words to Live, Drink and Die By, a deeply personal memoir about growing up in the orbit of an absent, addicted father and the letters he left behind. She's also the self-published author of the Menopausal Woman's Guide trilogy: three snackable, profanity-forward books about losing your shit, dealing with your shit, and figuring out who you are on the other side of alla dat shit. Together, Jen, Nic, and Kennerly get into… ✨ writing as catharsis versus craft ✨ what it actually feels like to stop recognizing yourself ✨ the big diff between wanting a solution and needing to complain for a minute, and... ✨ the quiet devastation (and hard-won triumph) of nearly walking away from a marriage and choosing, in the end, to stay. (We also talk codependency, ketamine therapy, the family meeting nobody asked for, and what it means to raise boys who know how to hold mirrors up to themselves…and to you.) This is SO not a wellness ep! It's a convo about what happens when the life you built cracks and you decide—sometimes quite literally kicking and screaming—to rebuild. Pull up a chair. The food of choice this time is a clean bowl of white rice and miso soup. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what this conversation feels like: simple lessons at the core, warming, and deeply nourishing. Links: 📚 Buy Kennerly's books here: https://kennerlyclay.com/

WTF #15: Divorce Isn't Just Legal...It's Emotional AF with Carrie Rosenbloom

Divorce may happen on paper, but as our dearest of the dear friends Carrie Rosenbloom knows, the real work happens in the family system. The court can divide assets, approve parenting plans and make things official, but it most certainly can’t regulate your nervous system, heal heartbreak, or transform two furious humans into emotionally evolved co-parents by next week. In this episode of Women Around a Table Eating Food, Jen and Nic sit down with Carrie, an attorney, licensed marriage and family therapist, divorce coach and founder of her practice Divorce Beyond Court, to talk about what divorce really asks of people: legal clarity, emotional stamina, co-parenting maturity, deep self-honesty, and the ability to make major decisions while your inner world does jazz hands in a burning building. Carrie started her career as an Assistant State’s Attorney in Cook County, Illinois (the narcotics bureau!) before moving into nonprofit work, family mediation, therapy, and divorce coaching. (For the Julianna Margulies fans keeping score at home, that means our real-life Carrie worked inside the actual Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, made famous—fictionally and scandalously!—by The Good Wife’s Peter Florrick.) Today, Carrie brings lawyer brain, therapist heart, and a whip-smart, ready-fire-aim approach to problem-solving when that’s the tactic the moment calls for. Together, we talk co-parenting, kids, anger, grief, identity, boundaries, and why divorce isn't simply the end of a marriage. It's the start of a whole new family OS...which makes it deeply at home in the Messy Midlife, where reinvention rarely arrives with clean edges or a court-approved timeline. (And because this is WTF, we deliver up laughs, lasting friendship when the chips are down, chai-related digestive truth, and Carrie’s proud epiz-ending carbivore confession: bread, butter, salt, Pringles, pasta and, ideally, a lychee martini. ⚖️ Find Carrie: https://www.divorcebeyondcourt.com/

WTF #14: Tracy Hoth on Clutter, Mindset, and the Stuff We Carry

So, Friends: What do we do with all.our.stuff—and all of our PARENTS’ stuff—and all the weird feelings we have about the stuff we have? On this week's Women Around a Table Eating Food podcast, we invited professional organizer Tracy Hoth (rhymes with “both”) to help us better understand the psychology around clutter, and within minutes it was clear this convo was about way more than junk drawers.  For a lot of Messy Midlifers, ”housekeeping” has turned into the management of what we keep, what we’ve inherited, and how hard it can be (especially as adult kids) to help aging parents sort through a lifetime of belongings without sounding like Daughter Dictators. Through her company Simply Squared Away, Tracy teaches that organization ain’t about pretty bins and perfection; it's about creating a space that actually works for you in all your youness. And with humor, compassion, and real-world tools for becoming someone who can find the damn thing when they need it, this episode’s super useful, and just the thing if you’ve ever wandered around your house wondering what the actual org is going on here? (Also on the table? Tuna talk, protein-shake prowess, benevolent eggs, sacred sourdough, and Jen’s truly committed relationship with apple cider vinegar.) Fun Stuff: 👉🏻Find Tracy at her website Simply Squared Away [https://simplysquaredaway.com/] 👉🏻Listen to Tracy's podcast The Organized Coach [https://open.spotify.com/show/5ftAh6fRlkLvB3R78jSNfH?si=f4fc8e6a96444ff3] here. 🎧 Subscribe for more episodes of Women Around a Table Eating Food (WTF) 🍴 Follow us @womenaroundatable on Instagram