Perimenopause, Gut Health & Nervous System Healing | Why Women Are Burning Out in Midlife with Mays | Hot Flushes & Higher Self

0:03 Soraya: So hi Mays, welcome to the podcast.

0:06 Mays: Thank you.

0:07 Mays: Thank you for having me, Soraya

0:09 Soraya: Pleasure.

0:09 Soraya: Um, just could you share a little bit about your journey personally and professionally and what led you into this type of work?

0:16 Mays: Yes, well, I do have a very colourful story.

0:19 Mays: I um I'm actually well, I'll start right from the beginning.

0:23 Mays: I am an Iraqi immigrant.

0:26 Mays: We came to London when I was six, uh, many moons ago.

0:31 Mays: Um and my parents did it to give us a better life.

0:34 Mays: It was the end of the Iran-Iraq war, and pretty soon after we came, the Gulf War started.

0:40 Mays: So they did it to kind of give us a better life.

0:42 Mays: But actually, that was kind of the the my first trauma.

0:45 Mays: I was six and I was in the culture, Arabic culture.

0:49 Mays: You're raised by the extended family.

0:52 Mays: I had aunties, four cousins next door, grandparents.

0:56 Mays: My parents were away traveling a lot.

0:58 Mays: So literally, I was surrounded by love and raised by the extended family.

1:02 Mays: Um, and so that I was taken away from that.

1:05 Mays: And my memories of of London are just cold, dark, loneliness.

1:10 Mays: My mother didn't really want to be here.

1:12 Mays: My father was um a pretty angry, cold, slightly violent man.

1:18 Mays: And my mother would like oscillate between, you know, anger, rage, upset, and all of me either.

1:25 Mays: So it was quite not the best scenario to grow up in, which kind of led me to um numbing myself from a very young age.

1:34 Mays: First of all, it was food, then drugs and alcohol from by the age of 13.

1:40 Mays: Um, and I left home at 17, went to uni, and the party continued.

1:44 Mays: And it continued for about 18 years, like really numbing myself.

1:48 Mays: I I um built a successful career in advertising based on the party lifestyle because um, you know, I could work hard, play hard.

1:56 Mays: I was used to, you know, functioning high and high-level stress.

2:00 Mays: Um, but inside I was slowly dying and my health was suffering.

2:05 Mays: I had gut issues, I had skin issues, I had urticaria, histamine, I had fibroids, hormone issues, mood disorders.

Mays’ journey from trauma, addiction & burnout to holistic healing

2:13 Mays: I was on, you know, Prozac several times.

2:16 Mays: There was a lot going on, and I kind of reached my first burnout in my um early 30s, which which kind of led me to India uh to do more yoga.

2:29 Mays: Um, I kind of fell apart and um was always um interested in yoga, but couldn't really commit to anything because of the party lifestyle.

2:39 Mays: And I remember just having this breakdown where my boyfriend left me.

2:42 Mays: I was having a tribunal at work with someone, a creative director, abusing me.

2:47 Mays: Everything went wrong.

2:48 Mays: And I went to yoga, lay in Shavasna, the final relaxation, and this voice said to me, Go to India, go and do more yoga.

2:56 Mays: And I listened.

2:57 Mays: I went to India six months later, did a yoga training.

3:00 Mays: It transformed my life.

3:02 Mays: Um, up until that point, I didn't really know what a spiritual connection meant.

3:06 Mays: And in India, with the practices that we learned, um, I really felt it.

3:11 Mays: I really felt something bigger than me was out there looking after me.

3:15 Mays: And alongside that, the food was raw vegan.

3:19 Mays: I ate the food for the month, all my ailments healed, and that was my introduction to how food can really heal the body, and it blew my mind.

3:28 Mays: So that was my avid interest in nutrition started back in 2012, and my yoga career started then.

3:34 Mays: I was offered a job teaching yoga in Goa as soon as I finished my training.

3:39 Mays: So I spent six months there teaching.

3:41 Mays: I came back a teetotal raw vegan, and everyone was like, Where's maize gone?

3:46 Mays: I then, without the alcohol and drugs lifestyle, I had to really deal with the trauma of my childhood and feel it.

3:56 Mays: So then it kind of took me another six years to do that of spending winters in Asia.

4:02 Mays: I would go to India, learn more esoteric practices, meditation, breath work, Reiki, quantum energy.

4:09 Mays: And then I also started to do long deep fasting in Thailand because I had to clean my liver from 18 years of abuse.

4:16 Mays: So I did this for six winters in Asia, summers freelancing in production and advertising, and it became very, very hard to live this disjointed life.

4:26 Mays: Eventually I signed up for my three-year diploma in naturopathic nutrition, and that's where what really took my path to a different level of quitting the rat race, quitting the corporate um career in advertising and launching my nutrition clinic.

4:43 Mays: I then finished a master's in clinical nutrition after that, and have done a lot of deep dives and studies into nutrigenetics, the genetics of healing and nutrition, uh, nutrition for cancer care, nutrition for eating disorders, multiple, multiple diplomas in specialisms around the area.

5:02 Mays: And most recently, I'm finishing an 18-month study with Gabor Mate in somatic therapy called Compassion Inquiry.

5:11 Mays: And that really has taken my um my client work to the next level because I've seen so much trauma since the pandemic, so much PTSD, making people really sick, but really it was hard to really heal the root cause of their health without dealing with the nervous system and um the trauma that's stuck in the body, which is how the systematic work works.

5:36 Mays: So, yeah, there's the long answer to what led me uh to doing that.

5:41 Mays: I also host transformational healing retreats.

5:44 Mays: I have one coming up in Ibiza in September.

5:46 Mays: I've been doing those for eight years, they're very magical.

5:49 Mays: I've hosted detox retreats, I have fasting groups that do 10-day fasts once a month.

5:55 Mays: Again, deeply healing.

5:56 Mays: So, yeah, I do a lot of public speaking as well and uh corporate wellness um and and talks and and and uh workshops too.

6:06 Soraya: Thanks for sharing your journey, Maze.

6:08 Soraya: That's um there was a lot there, obviously.

6:09 Soraya: You've been on your own journey.

6:11 Soraya: Um, how did your own experience shape the way you support others?

6:14 Soraya: So how they support your clients, knowing what you've been through.

6:18 Mays: Well, I mean, Gabor, Gabor Mate in my studies with him, he calls us the wounded healers, and those are the best healers because you know we've healed ourselves.

6:29 Mays: I can't say I'm fully healed, I'm still a work in progress.

6:33 Soraya: Are we all there?

6:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, more layers to that onion.

6:36 Speaker 1: But um, the more we've been through ourselves gives us more tools to heal others.

6:42 Speaker 1: And actually, the pandemic was that was deeply traumatic for me.

6:47 Speaker 1: It caused me to be alienated from my community in London, led me to moving to Spain for five years, which then took me on a different journey of being sick with mold over there, my health deteriorated.

7:01 Speaker 1: So then I've had to like deal with a whole nother level of healing, my gut health that was perfect, detoxing mold, nervous system, alongside perimenopause.

7:12 Speaker 1: So everything tanked, and I'm still kind of coming out of the aftermath of that because last year I then moved back to London, bought and sold flats, sold my life for five years, rebuilt it all again here.

7:25 Speaker 1: So you know, we're always evolving, we're always learning.

7:30 Speaker 1: But the tools I have are tools to just help me get through things, and the more I help my clients, the more I heal myself.

7:39 Speaker 1: Um and the more I go through, the more I'm able to heal my clients through my own healing experiences.

7:46 Speaker 1: Yeah.

7:46 Soraya: Yeah, I find that also as a therapist.

7:48 Soraya: When you work with clients, they come to you and you kind of see yourself in them as well.

7:53 Soraya: And as you hop in them, you hop yourself as well.

7:55 Soraya: We're all kind of connected anyway, Maze.

7:57 Mays: Yes, we are.

8:00 Soraya: Um, so how would you describe your approach specifically to nutrition holistic health?

8:06 Mays: Um, well, it's definitely a root cause approach.

8:09 Mays: I would call myself um a detective, you know.

8:13 Mays: Um, but I'm also very unique because not only am I hugely qualified with the tools of functional medicine, which means using functional tests that the normal doctors don't have access to to really understand what's driving gut dysfunction, a Dutch test to understand what's, you know, how your hormones are being broken down.

8:32 Mays: So I have all the scientific tools and knowledge and the detective skills to get to the root cause of healing.

8:39 Mays: But it's not just that.

8:41 Mays: Because of my decades of experience with holistic healing, with yoga, you know, and meditation and breath work, holding space on retreats, and now with the somatic healing, very few practitioners have the level and depth of experience that I do that can really provide this 360 approach in my three-month programs when I'm working one-to-one, where I utilize all my skills, which also gives me a lot of intuition as well.

How trauma affects the body and nervous system

9:07 Mays: So I really get a feeling for what the particular client needs.

9:12 Mays: Um, you know, based on my own intuitive abilities and and my, you know, my decades of knowledge and experience.

9:18 Mays: Yeah.

9:20 Soraya: Okay, and so we I mean we hear a lot about the gut health now in the media.

9:24 Soraya: What does it actually mean in the practical everyday sense?

9:29 Mays: Well, uh in nutrition school the famous thing we learnt was if in doubt, fix the gut.

9:36 Mays: So 70% of our immune system is in our gut, and 95% of serotonin is produced in our gut, which is our happy neurotransmitter that helps to um keep us anxiety free and depression free.

9:51 Mays: So you can see that if the gut is not working, it's going to affect the immune system, it's also going to affect the mood.

9:59 Mays: And this is further um heightened by the vagus nerve link.

10:04 Mays: So the vagus nerve links the gut to the brain and the brain to the gut.

10:08 Mays: It's a bi-directional link, which means it works both ways.

10:12 Mays: So what we eat affects our mood, and our mood affects our digestive system.

10:17 Mays: So to heal the gut, you have to heal the nervous system.

10:20 Mays: You know, you can't feel stressed and maxed out, you know, it's gonna be very hard to heal the gut.

10:26 Mays: But the standard Western diet and the three poisons, as I call them, gluten, dairy, sugar, are a disaster for the gut as well.

10:35 Mays: So it's a two-pronged approach that I use.

10:38 Mays: You know, work on the diet, work on the lifestyle, work on supplements, but work on the nervous system at the same time.

10:46 Mays: You you can't do one without the other to heal the gut.

10:50 Soraya: Yeah, that's true.

10:50 Soraya: And what about some common misconceptions women have when it comes to being healthy?

10:55 Soraya: Because everyone's trying to be healthy, and you know, people take all these supplements.

10:58 Soraya: What what what according to you, what do you think people are thinking, doing the wrong thing?

11:03 Mays: Well, I mean, there's a lot of greenwashing out there, so you know, it's very hard for the average person to know what healthy means because you can Google and get a different answer, you can chat GPT, and Chat GPT will give you the wrong answer 50% of the time.

Gut health, hormones & the gut-brain connection

11:21 Mays: So be very wary.

11:22 Mays: People who are using Chat GPT for nutrition, it's very biased towards what you say, and it just there's no nuances, there's no understanding, it's just like, you know, whatever it finds, you know, on Google.

11:36 Mays: So, you know, there's a lot of misinformation out there, and there's a lot of, you know, you see these influencers with millions of followings with zero nutrition education, spouting out stuff that people are listening to, and you know, it it's very generic and it's dangerous.

11:55 Mays: It's actually one of my peevee, you know, one of my peeve.

11:58 Soraya: I've seen on your Instagram channel that you have, you know, your views when it comes to the celebrities out there, what they're doing.

12:05 Mays: Yeah, there's a lot of uh celebrity stuff.

12:08 Mays: Like my post today was actually about David Beckham eating the same for 25 years, which uh steamed fish and uh yeah, yeah, grilled fish and steamed veg.

12:19 Mays: And that causes a real imbalance in the microbiome.

12:22 Mays: You know, the microbiome, the gut needs diversity.

12:26 Mays: So eating the same thing every day continuously is not ideal.

12:31 Mays: Um, so there's just a lot of misinformation, and it's very hard for the average person to know what's what, and that's why it's so important to go to a trusted expert.

12:39 Mays: And you know what?

12:40 Mays: I would say pretty much every client, sick client that comes to see me says, Well, I think I eat really healthy, you know.

12:48 Soraya: Yeah, but again, it's it's what you seem as healthy being, yeah.

12:53 Mays: You know, they think it's healthy to have, you know, croissant and coffee for breakfast, and you know, and and a cheese sandwich and crisps for lunch, and they're like, Oh, yeah, but I but I have like fish and veg for dinner, so that's okay.

13:05 Mays: And actually, it's it's it's uh the definition of health is very warped, yeah.

13:11 Soraya: Yeah, and there's and also there's so many fads going on as well that women fall for, you know, there's a quick fixes, like the the I don't know, there's Atkins diet, we used to have the cabbage soup diet, there's so many different things out there, people just want to lose weight.

13:22 Mays: Well, yeah, and now there's the GLP1 injections as well, which can be quite uh look, they can be useful for morbidly obese, but they must, must, must be used with a multidisciplinary team approach of the lifestyle.

13:43 Mays: But if when that's not happening, they're being you can get them, you know, unregulated on a private prescription, you megadose them, and you stop eating, you lose muscle mass, and you know what happens to the body when you stop eating, it goes into starvation mode and it just shuts the metabolism down, shuts the thyroid down.

14:05 Mays: So then eventually, when you come off it, it's like the brakes are off.

14:09 Mays: The body's been starved for so long, and you just go to reverb, you know, binge eating, you put the weight back on.

14:16 Mays: I had a client, she came to me, she'd spent five grand on three months of GLP one via private doctor, lost the weight, came off it, gained the weight, and an extra 10 kilos on top.

14:28 Mays: She was maybe split, so it's there's no quick fixes.

14:32 Mays: You have to balance, you know, the the diet, you have to balance the behavioral addiction to food, the emotional addiction to food, and exercise.

14:44 Mays: Yeah, yeah.

14:45 Soraya: I mean, as a therapist, that's the hardest topic we have is the weight because it's such a strong connection with that food, the emotional side.

14:52 Mays: Yeah.

14:52 Soraya: So it's all about seeing where that's coming from, the root cause, why you have that relationship in the first place.

14:57 Soraya: Because you know, like addictions, you can take the cigarettes away and the alcohol, but the food is one thing, obviously, that's always going to be there.

15:03 Soraya: And then if you change your approach towards it, it's always there's no quick fixes, like you said, Maze.

15:09 Mays: It's the hardest one.

15:10 Mays: And you know, I've suffered from eating disorders since childhood, and you know, since my mold sickness, I've gained 10 kilos, and it's you know, it's really affected my my brain.

15:22 Mays: It's like, oh, you know, how can I be a chubby yoga teacher?

15:25 Mays: How can I not have the perfect body as a nutritionist?

15:28 Mays: So it's brought up all like my childhood issues around weight gain.

15:32 Mays: Um, but it's ultimately, you know, as you transition to menopause, everything that's not been fully fixed kind of raises its head to be fixed.

Common health misconceptions women believe

15:42 Mays: So, you know, that's what I'm even working on now.

15:45 Mays: Just like to have a better relationship with myself, with my inner child, with the traumas that are still inside me from childhood and the somatic work that I've been doing with my clients and I'm I'm doing on myself as well, is is so helpful for to really get to the root cause of what drives emotional eating, what drives um any addictive behavior.

16:08 Mays: Yeah.

16:09 Soraya: Yeah, which brings me to the question I have um about women in midlife when they go into it's apipital time for health, hormone, and the body.

16:17 Soraya: Why is that?

16:19 Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean, as I said, it's it's a transition to the next stage in life.

16:24 Speaker 1: Menopause should be celebrated, you know.

16:27 Speaker 1: Like I don't know, 10 years ago, perimenopause didn't even exist.

16:31 Speaker 1: It's been labeled because people are so out of balance.

16:36 Speaker 1: Menopause should be a natural transition, there shouldn't be any symptoms.

16:41 Speaker 1: And when there's symptoms, there's an imbalance in the hormones, it can be corrected naturally.

16:46 Speaker 1: I'm not a believer in HRT because you know you should be able to change the lifestyle to support the hormones.

16:55 Speaker 1: Having said that, some people just cannot, you know, they're in this high stress state, they're working full-time, they're looking after kids, you know, they can't get out of this kind of zone.

17:06 Speaker 1: And those types of women that really can't do anything about their current situation, then HRT can provide some relief.

17:14 Speaker 1: But for anyone who can, what needs to happen for a smooth transition to menopause is taking the foot off the gas, you know, and it's hard.

17:24 Soraya: Is that what you found, Maze?

17:25 Soraya: Because you you know, you you haven't you've chosen not to take hair shot.

17:28 Soraya: Because I've met many women that on these interviews, some are very much for it, some haven't taken that.

17:33 Speaker 1: I would never take it, you know.

17:36 Speaker 1: If God wanted us to have hormones in our body till the day we died as women, he would have created us that way.

17:42 Speaker 1: You know, it's not natural.

17:44 Speaker 1: I don't care what anyone says.

17:46 Speaker 1: I have two friends who took it, you know, got breast cancer within a year.

17:50 Speaker 1: You know, they're like younger than me, I'm 48.

17:53 Speaker 1: So the links are are there.

17:55 Speaker 1: I don't care what the latest press is saying, you know, we're not meant to take it.

18:01 Speaker 1: We're not meant to take it.

18:02 Speaker 1: But like I said, some people have no choice because of their stress levels.

18:06 Speaker 1: You know, I my hormones tanked last year with the stress I had relocating and buying and setting flats, being a solo entrepreneur, doing it all my own.

18:15 Speaker 1: It was a lot.

18:16 Speaker 2: Yeah.

18:17 Mays: So I felt myself burning out again, and my hormones were really imbalanced.

18:22 Mays: So I took myself to Thailand.

18:24 Mays: You know, I'm blessed.

18:25 Mays: I'm so grateful I was able to do that because I felt I really needed the rest.

18:29 Mays: And since then, I'm still feeling the aftermath of it, you know, like you we become so sensitive to stress in this transition phase into menopause.

18:40 Mays: So we really have to nourish ourselves and nourish the nervous system.

18:43 Mays: The other thing we become sensitive to is yeah, insulin, which is linked to cortisol.

18:48 Mays: So we become much more insulin sensitive.

18:50 Mays: So we're much more sensitive.

18:52 Mays: Our blood sugars are much more sensitive.

18:54 Mays: So focusing on protein, managing the amount of carbs or how you eat the carbs, strength training to build more muscle to safeguard the future health of our bones.

19:04 Mays: These are all techniques that will help to create a smooth transition alongside the key one, and that's the hardest one: nervous system stress management.

19:16 Mays: Yeah, because actually it's easy to change your diet, it's easy to take some supplements or herbs.

19:23 Soraya: But it's much deeper than that.

19:24 Soraya: I think that's you're right, you've hit the nail on the head.

19:26 Soraya: It's the problem is that as women, we have so much things we have to do, so much stress.

19:31 Soraya: So nutrition is one thing, but managing the the our nervous system is something different as well.

19:36 Mays: And just the hardest things that my clients struggle with.

19:40 Mays: With my support, we do a lot, you know.

19:42 Mays: I can advise them what to eat, I can advise them the supplements to take, I can give them all the tools to do the nervous system work, but I can't do it for them.

19:52 Mays: They have to be able to take the foot off the gas, they have to have two hours of downtime before bed and not sit on their phone, you know, until they go to sleep and not wake up and look at their phone.

Emotional eating, weight struggles & quick-fix culture

20:05 Mays: It's not anyone's fault.

20:06 Mays: I I battle with myself to not do it.

20:10 Mays: They're, you know, they're designed to be dopamine addictive.

20:13 Mays: It's like it's a horror what they've done to us.

20:17 Mays: So it's a battle.

20:19 Mays: It's a battle and a choice, you know, um, to add more down regulation, meditation, breathing, walking in nature.

20:27 Mays: In the summer, it's so much easier.

20:29 Mays: With we've got light, you know, get the 10,000 steps in, get it, get sunlight into your eyes in the first 30 minutes of waking.

20:37 Mays: There's so many tools you can do, but it it does require effort.

20:42 Mays: And I get it, it's hard.

20:43 Mays: I can barely look after myself without kids, let alone you know, having you know, having kids and working as well, it's it's not easy, but um just having that understanding of being more compassionate and gentle to your towards yourself as a woman in this transition phase is key.

21:02 Soraya: And what patterns do you see women who've spent years prioritizing others over their own well being?

21:07 Soraya: What do you see in your clients when they're doing that?

21:10 Mays: Well, ultimately it it's not a good thing, you know.

21:14 Mays: It leads to chronic health conditions, you know.

21:17 Mays: Um, in Gabo Mate's book, The Myth of Normal, which I highly recommend, he talks a lot about.

21:23 Mays: There's actually a personality type for people who get cancer, for women especially who get cancer and autoimmune conditions as well, but especially cancers.

21:34 Mays: And it's the type who does everything for everyone else, who doesn't speak up for themselves, who is so nice and giving, yeah, always smiling and and never expressing their needs, and it ends up just creating this not inside.

21:52 Soraya: Absolutely.

21:52 Soraya: My mum died of cancer, she always was smiling, and I really believe that's the reason for that because she was very helpful.

21:59 Soraya: Yeah.

22:00 Soraya: So I see that in my own clients as well.

22:03 Soraya: You know, people have autoimmune diseases, they hold on to a lot of things, and like you said, they get health conditions.

22:09 Soraya: There's a link, direct link between the mind and the body.

22:12 Mays: Yeah, yeah.

22:13 Mays: And that's why the somatic work is so important to really work on releasing what's stuck in the body.

22:22 Soraya: Yeah.

22:23 Soraya: Um for someone who listening who wants to begin to feel better in the body, what are a few simple realistic changes they can start with?

22:32 Speaker 1: Um I mean, look, there's so much.

22:37 Soraya: I mean just something simple to start with.

22:41 Speaker 1: Protein.

22:42 Speaker 1: Protein and fiber.

22:43 Speaker 1: Protein and fiber.

22:44 Speaker 1: Most people under-eat both, you know.

22:47 Speaker 1: So three meals, four to five hour gaps, no snacks, protein in every meal, 10 grams of fiber in every meal, 30 grams of fiber a day.

22:56 Speaker 1: Roughly speaking, a 60 kilo woman, you want to be having about 75 to 100 grams of protein, depending on your exercise level.

23:05 Speaker 1: Yeah.

23:06 Speaker 1: Um, you know, what would that look like, Maze?

23:09 Soraya: Because I don't really measure stuff out.

23:10 Soraya: So say, for instance, you took an example of 60 kilo woman, 75 grams, you said, of protein, what would that be like?

23:16 Speaker 1: That's 25 grams a meal.

23:18 Speaker 1: So an egg is six or seven grams of protein.

23:21 Speaker 1: So you need a minimum three eggs for 20 grams, and then if you know if you're combining them with something else, you'll probably get it up to 25 grams.

23:29 Speaker 1: I love nuzest, it's my favorite pea protein powder, it tastes super yummy, the vanilla flavor.

23:35 Speaker 1: Two scoops of protein powder, pea protein is 25 grams.

23:39 Speaker 1: A palm size of meat or fish is usually about 20 grams, 100 grams of tempeh or tofu is about 20 grams, and all the beans, pulses, seeds are a bit less than that.

23:52 Speaker 1: So you're not, you know, you can't just have um, you know, well, you'd need to eat a lot of quinoa or chickpeas and stuff to get 25 grams, and it's it'll be too much carbs in there.

24:03 Speaker 1: So you beans and pulses and plant-based protein are very important, but you need to combine them with things like tempeh, uh, which has more protein or tofu, and of course, egg, fish, egg, fish, meat.

24:16 Speaker 1: Yeah.

24:17 Soraya: Then because you know, sometimes it's really hard because you have so many things being thrown at you as being healthy and so many like protein products, so it gets confusing.

24:26 Soraya: Whereas I guess it's just about going back to basic.

24:30 Mays: Go to back to anything in a packet.

24:32 Mays: I always say you I teach my clients to be a detective in their own right, read the labels.

24:38 Mays: What is that?

24:38 Mays: If you can't pronounce that word, if you don't know what it is, it doesn't belong in your body.

24:43 Mays: You know, you go into Tesco's.

24:45 Mays: What proportion of real food is in Tesco's?

24:49 Mays: Very little.

24:49 Mays: Stick to the fresh veggie aisle.

24:52 Mays: Everything else is in a packet, it's got chemicals and e-numbers, and of course, none of it's organic, really.

24:58 Mays: So yeah, it's uh it's really difficult out there.

25:02 Mays: So yeah, eat whole foods, make your own foods.

25:06 Mays: I mean, that's why just a clean protein powder is quick, easy if time is poor.

25:11 Mays: Batch cooking, you know, cook things in a batch so you've always got stuff um to eat when you're busy on a work schedule, pre-prepare food that morning for the day or the night before for the next day.

25:24 Mays: These kinds of tips and tricks work really well.

25:27 Soraya: Yeah, they're great tips.

25:28 Soraya: I just think it's ironic, you know, like we seem to have so many like healthy foods out there at the moment in supermarkets, but people are so unhealthy.

Perimenopause, stress & nervous system overwhelm

25:34 Soraya: Like the cancer rate's gone up, and you know, and people seem to be falling ill a lot recently.

25:40 Mays: So well, there is, I mean, you know, I have my reasons for that.

25:44 Mays: Uh I believe it as well.

25:47 Soraya: It's just ironic when you look at all these products out there, and then people are getting sick and you know they're not doing the basic things, right?

25:53 Speaker 1: So yeah.

25:55 Speaker 1: Just a lack of a big misinformation from corrupt government policy, unfortunately, and you know, the food systems that uh the the you know the food corporations that run the world, but you know, small wins, you know, like sweets have been banned and fried foods have been reduced in schools that that came out last week.

26:16 Speaker 1: So that's a small, tiny win, but you know, because school dinners are so unhealthy for kids.

26:22 Speaker 1: But unfortunately, what happens when they come out of schools and go home?

26:26 Speaker 1: That also has to be addressed, and that boils down to the misinformation that comes down from corrupt food corporations and government policy.

26:34 Speaker 1: So ultra-processed foods need to be banned ultimately, it's the only way, you know.

26:39 Soraya: But I think as as women as we get older, it's even more important just to really take care of what we're putting into our bodies because, as you said, like you know, with our hormones and the way we're feeling, in order to have the energy, we need to be able to eat properly, right?

26:53 Mays: Yeah, everything, every chemical that we eat in the food system, uh, you know, in processed foods, in non-organic meat and fish, and non-organic veg, the liver has to metabolize it.

27:04 Mays: The liver is the most uh hardest working organ with over 500 metabolic functions just to keep us healthy.

27:10 Mays: It has to process our cholesterol, it has to, you know, um process our vitamin D, our thyroid hormones, our insulin, our glucose, everything.

27:21 Mays: So anything that you're adding into your body is taking away from the liver's natural functions and slowing it down.

27:31 Mays: So by the time we get to, you know, the late 40s, 50s you know, 50s, the livers can be very overburdened with the 50 years of chemical toxicity um in the body.

27:43 Mays: So people say, why do you need to detox?

27:46 Mays: Well, we live in toxic times, you know.

27:48 Mays: The real pandemic is the chemical production in the world that's been increasing.

27:52 Mays: The average woman puts on 150 different chemicals on her skin before she leaves the house in the morning.

27:58 Mays: So that's chemicals in uh beauty products, in uh body products, toothpaste, deodorant, um, washing powder.

28:06 Mays: Our skin is the biggest organ of absorption.

28:09 Mays: So, really, it's you've got to look at detoxifying every area of your life so that the liver can function well.

28:16 Mays: And guess what?

28:17 Mays: The liver has to metabolize our estrogen, you know, so has to detoxify it and break it down.

28:23 Mays: So, you know, if the liver's not functioning, this is what can result in estrogen-dominant conditions like endometriosis, fibroids, and and and and ultimately it leading to cancers.

28:34 Mays: So it's so important to really be aware of what you're putting into your body and take time out to do a cleanse.

28:40 Mays: And that's why I've been running my 10-day liver cleanse for the last six years monthly.

28:44 Mays: It's low cost groups can do it online from the comfort of their own home.

28:48 Mays: And it's just like a gift for you know, for your liver and for your energy and your skin.

28:54 Soraya: So, do you suggest you can do that every month then liver cleanse?

28:57 Mays: Uh, not every month because it's quite intense, but once or twice a year at least.

29:01 Soraya: Yeah.

29:02 Soraya: What's a balanced day look like from your perspective in terms of food, energy, and lifestyle?

29:09 Mays: Yeah, well, I mean, look, how you start your day is really key, as I said before.

29:13 Mays: Really try and have the first hour sacred, you know, like have some meditation, break breathing, journaling, and movement.

29:21 Mays: Get some sunlight in your eyes the first 30 minutes.

29:24 Mays: Um, try and eat within the first hour of waking.

29:28 Mays: Fasting all morning is a disaster for women and their hormones.

29:31 Mays: Um I'll stop you there, Maze.

29:34 Soraya: Just sorry to interrupt you, but you know, there's a thing, there's a whole trend about fasting.

29:39 Mays: I know.

29:40 Soraya: What's your perspective?

29:41 Soraya: Because you know, a lot of people, women, they swear by fasting.

29:45 Soraya: Whereas I heard that it's not so great either because men and women are built differently.

29:49 Soraya: What's your view on that?

29:50 Mays: Exactly.

29:51 Mays: Fasting, I swear by fasting, but it has to be done appropriately.

29:55 Mays: All the research on fasting, intermittent fasting, is done on men, it's not done on women, and especially when you're stressed as a woman, you know, fasting will increase stress and it ends up burning your adrenals.

30:08 Mays: Intermittent fasting is useful, but not when you when you're stressed as a woman and you're perimenopausal and you fast all morning.

30:17 Mays: No, it's a disaster.

30:18 Mays: You become you increase your stress hormones massively.

30:21 Mays: So you need to bring the fasting window forward.

30:24 Mays: Try to eat by 10 a.m.

30:25 Mays: latest, and you know, anyway, you shouldn't be eating for four hours before sleep anyway.

30:31 Mays: So, you know, if you stop eating at six, that's the best thing for your sleep.

30:35 Mays: If you're going to sleep at 10 o'clock, which is the best time to sleep, really.

30:38 Mays: So, yeah, so fasting has to be done appropriately and around your cycle.

30:43 Mays: The week before your cycle in lutil phase, it's not a good idea to do you know long, deep fasts because the body needs to kind of rest for progesterone to work and it needs carbohydrates for progesterone, which is rising in luteal phase.

30:57 Mays: So fasting is very healing, but it has to be done appropriately with the right knowledge for women.

31:04 Soraya: And what's the best type of breakfast for a woman, you know, midlife to be having to start her day?

31:09 Mays: I would say at least 30 grams of protein.

Why women in midlife burn out

31:12 Mays: You can even increase the protein and have more at breakfast and less less at dinner.

31:17 Mays: I'm focusing on 40 grams of protein because it just keeps me full for the morning and for the day.

31:22 Mays: It balances the blood sugar, um, protein, fiber.

31:26 Mays: Um, yeah, I mean, you know, you don't even have to have a sweet breakfast.

31:31 Mays: Uh, sometimes I have like steak and broccoli because I feel like it.

31:36 Mays: You know, you can eat it, you know, and and anyway, you shouldn't be having too much fruit anyway, without the balance of fat and and protein to balance it.

31:45 Mays: Smoothies are great, cheer puddings are great.

31:48 Mays: Um, these things are great too, but don't be afraid to have a savory breakfast.

31:54 Soraya: Okay.

31:54 Soraya: I mean, I can't imagine making a steak first thing in the morning.

31:59 Mays: But yeah, I mean, I I tend to eat at like 10.

32:03 Mays: Okay.

32:04 Mays: I I eat I eat, you know, like there is no one size fits all.

32:08 Mays: Everyone says you can't train faster.

32:10 Mays: Like for me, it doesn't stress my body to train faster because I do strength training or yoga, you know.

32:16 Mays: I think for a long run, you should eat something before.

32:19 Mays: But um, so I I wake up early, I train, and then I eat by about 10.

32:24 Mays: So I'm hungry, you know, after training.

32:27 Soraya: Yeah, it makes sense.

32:28 unknown: Yeah.

32:29 Soraya: And how can women start listening to their body rather than following strict rules or external plans?

32:34 Mays: Well, this is what I teach my clients one-to-one because people are disconnected, they're disconnected from their feelings and emotions, they're disconnected from their body because they're just eating without thinking, eating kind of more toxic foods.

32:48 Mays: They're eating so much gluten and dairy and sugar that they're permanently bloated, they don't even realize it until you take away these toxic foods, and then they realize, wow, actually, I feel so much more energized.

33:00 Mays: Oh, I'm not bloated every day.

33:02 Mays: And it's only when you take them away and start to clean up the diet and avoid the standard Western diet that people actually feel a connection to what foods cause them reactions.

33:13 Mays: And when you introduce the foods back in, they're like, oh my god, I'm so bloated when I have gluten.

33:18 Mays: I never realized that before because they're so disconnected from having it so much.

33:22 Mays: Yeah.

33:23 Soraya: So is gluten the main thing that your clients take out?

33:26 Soraya: Gluten, you said dairy and sugar.

33:28 Mays: Mm-hmm.

33:28 Mays: Yeah, the three poisons.

33:30 Mays: Yeah.

33:31 Soraya: But have you had clients with other things you take out other than those three poisons?

33:36 Mays: Yeah, I mean, some I work a lot with MCAS, which is um, you know, an extreme histamine reaction, often linked to mold and and other conditions.

33:46 Mays: And sometimes we have to reduce histamine foods, and these but these foods are really, really healthy foods.

33:52 Mays: So they're like fermented foods, avocados, um, fish, um, anything in the fridge for more than a day.

34:00 Mays: Um, so these foods are not to be ruled out permanently, but short term whilst you're working on a protocol.

34:07 Mays: Same with FODMAPs.

34:09 Mays: So many people react to FODMAP foods.

34:11 Mays: Um, they get bloated, and some people like the clients come to me, they've they're off FODMAPs for years.

34:16 Mays: That should never happen.

34:17 Mays: It should be like six weeks while you work on a protocol to heal the gut because FODMAP foods are really healthy foods.

34:23 Soraya: They're food sorry, what's a FODMAP, Mays?

34:25 Mays: Foods like broccoli, onion, garlic, cauliflower, beans, pulses, these are often like farty foods, you know, they're floating.

34:34 Mays: Um so people remove them for a long time, but they're they're really beneficial foods.

34:39 Mays: So there's some things you need to move short term, but never long term.

34:44 Soraya: Okay, so you're about the balance.

34:46 Mays: It's all about the balance, yeah.

34:49 Soraya: And so why do so many approaches to health feel unsustainable?

34:54 Mays: Approaches to health, to health feel unsustainable, yeah.

34:59 Mays: Um, because they can be very extreme, you know, because they can be very extreme and very hard to maintain the fad diets.

35:08 Mays: When I'm working one-to-one with clients, I make it very doable for them to eat the different foods and understand where to source them from.

35:17 Mays: So it becomes just like you know, a different habit rather than something very extreme, and then you're craving things, and then it leads you to kind of binge and things like that, and it's just not sustainable.

Self-compassion, people-pleasing & chronic illness

35:28 Mays: So, you know, something balanced, something that works for the individual is really key.

35:35 Soraya: Yeah, no, absolutely.

35:37 Soraya: I think it's like you said, it's not about because I think the problem is a lot of these fad diets is willpower.

35:41 Soraya: It shouldn't be willpower shouldn't really be part of it, it should just be like you said, part of you know what they do, and yeah.

35:47 Mays: Most of the time clients come to see me and they're under-eating, and I get them to eat more and they like lose weight and feel great, you know.

35:56 Mays: So it's eating the right things, then you're not gonna go hungry because most people are under-eating protein and fiber.

36:02 Mays: Protein and fiber are the most satiating, so they make that means they make you feel most full.

36:07 Mays: If you're most people eat spaghetti bolognese, that's a plate of carbs with a garnish of meat and veg, you know, and that's the wrong ratio.

36:16 Mays: You don't want to be eating a plate of carbs, you want to be eating half the plate veg, one quarter protein, one quarter complex carbs.

36:24 Mays: So it's kind of teaching people how to even make a healthy plate.

36:32 Soraya: Yeah, true.

36:32 Soraya: And what what what role does um self-trust play in how we nourish and care for ourselves?

36:38 Mays: Self-trust.

36:39 Mays: Um, I think the more you slow down, the more you can connect with your higher power and what works best for you.

36:49 Mays: And not just in terms of eating, but just in terms of life goals and life direction.

36:54 Mays: You know, so I'm a really big believer in angels and guides.

36:59 Mays: We're we're deeply guided, we're deeply protected.

37:02 Mays: Most people don't realize that our angels and guides can't help us unless we connect to them and we ask them for our help.

37:10 Mays: So when you do that in meditation, you ask for guidance, that's what prayer is, essentially.

37:17 Mays: You know, you will always get an answer, you will always be supported and helped.

37:21 Mays: So that's what kind of gives you trust that you're not alone, that everything will always work out, that you are guided and you are loved beyond belief by your higher power.

37:34 Soraya: Okay, so how has your understanding of health and well-being evolved over time?

37:37 Soraya: I mean, I know that you used to be in a really light, stressful um career with advertising and you've moved on to the holistic.

37:44 Soraya: So that's all evolving.

37:46 Soraya: Tell me about that.

37:50 Mays: Um, well, you know, it's always evolving.

37:54 Mays: So in in perimenopause, all the things that I used to do that used to keep me healthy doesn't seem to work for me so much anymore.

38:06 Mays: Um because of the stress and burnout I had last year relocating.

38:12 Mays: So this is the problem this is what I'm learning that health is so individual and it's always evolving based on your life cycle, based on your life situation.

38:26 Mays: And yeah, I'm like changing.

38:30 Mays: I mean, I was vegan for six years, yeah.

38:33 Mays: Then I went pescatarian, and it was only about you know, five, six years ago I started to eat a little bit of meat again, and now I'm quite a carnivore.

38:42 Mays: So that's a big evolution in itself, and I just was listening to my body.

38:48 Mays: Like my trainer five years ago said, You're in your 40s now, maybe you need some animal protein.

38:54 Mays: And I was like, Oh, maybe you're right.

38:56 Mays: Um, I'd already a staunch militant vegan, yogi vegan, and I'd already overcome that when I started to eat fish, so I was like, Okay, I'll try a grass-fed steak, and it tasted amazing.

39:09 Mays: And so, yeah, I've been eating steak ever since.

39:14 Mays: So I think you just have to evolve really and uh into what your body needs as you go through different life cycles.

39:24 Soraya: Yeah, I think that's really important.

39:25 Soraya: What you're saying again, listen to what your body needs as opposed to what the outside is telling you to do.

39:30 Soraya: I mean, you know, we all know really what's best for us deep down.

39:34 Soraya: It's just kind of getting back in touch with our own intuition and that our gut feeling.

39:39 Soraya: Getting back to the gut.

39:41 Mays: Exactly.

39:41 Mays: It's very true, very true.

39:44 Soraya: Yeah, I mean, that's what it was like.

39:46 Soraya: Our ancestors were like that, right?

39:48 Soraya: We didn't have any issue with choosing what to eat, they knew what to eat, and and they were fine, they had the energy, they were able to live their lives and happy.

39:58 Mays: That's why we're we're living longer, but we're living way sicker, way sicker.

40:02 Mays: If you think about the caveman days, eating three meals, three snacks, we just we overeat, you know.

40:10 Mays: Um, we would go for days without finding food.

40:13 Mays: So our bodies are designed to fast, to to be metabolically flexible from a fasted to a fed state.

Simple ways to support gut health naturally

40:21 Mays: But most people just get hangry if they go four hours without eating, and that's a sign of blood sugar dysregulation.

40:29 Mays: So, you know, we also as cavemen, we we didn't eat sugar every day.

40:33 Mays: We would find fruit, gorge on the tree, and then not have it for a while.

40:37 Mays: Same with we'd find a beehive, have some honey, not have it.

40:41 Mays: We didn't have sugar daily, we didn't have meat daily because we sometimes we wouldn't find an animal for weeks.

40:47 Mays: We were foragers, we were eating dark green leaves mostly, and sometimes insects.

40:52 Mays: That was it.

40:53 Mays: The American don't eat any dark leaves, you know.

40:56 Mays: The dark leaves give you B vitamins, magnesium.

40:59 Mays: So, you know, we've really evolved the wrong way, and that's what's making us sick, sadly.

41:05 Mays: Yeah, so it's really going back to basics whole foods, you know, not eating too much, not eating late at night, not eating when the sun sets.

41:12 Mays: I mean, it gets a bit hard in the summer, but uh yeah, just having like a six seven o'clock cup.

41:18 Soraya: Yeah, that's it though, isn't it?

41:20 Soraya: It's just living and following your body and giving it what it needs, not what you think you know you want.

41:25 Soraya: It's a lot of greediness.

41:26 Soraya: Just overeat.

41:27 Soraya: It's also again we go back to the emotional stuff where a lot of us we eat in front of the TV, it's like emotion, like you know, people with it stressy.

41:36 Mays: Yeah.

41:37 Soraya: Yeah.

41:38 Soraya: Okay, and what does living in alignment with your body look like for you days from day to day now?

41:44 Mays: Um yeah, I mean, look, I have a tendency to overwork and and so it's really just in this in this stage of perimenopause to really just nourish myself, you know, to not kind of try not to be so addicted to the phone and the laptop and have time out from them.

42:05 Mays: And like I've said, it's hard, it's a battle even for me, because they're so dopamine designed to be addictive.

42:13 Mays: So really being able to step away, getting off the computer in the evenings, going for a walk in the park.

42:20 Mays: Um, these are kind of myself, as well as I mean, I've always had movement first thing.

42:26 Mays: If I don't get up and exercise, I feel out of whack all day.

42:29 Mays: So that's just always part of my life.

42:32 Mays: Um, but it's also just getting some nature time in and and away from screen time, yeah.

42:38 Mays: And then meditating, it's again, that's always part of my daily life.

42:42 Mays: I kind of got out of the habit of evening meditations, but I've brought that back in um to just give me a nighttime ritual as well as a morning ritual.

42:51 Soraya: Yeah, so you do it twice a day now.

42:53 Mays: Yeah, yeah.

42:54 Soraya: That's very good, maze.

42:55 Soraya: I mean, for me, I do I think 10 minutes is what I I manage, but I say I think sometimes, you know, even like 10 minutes is better than nothing.

43:04 Mays: Yeah, 10 minutes is great, it's a great start, yeah.

43:06 Mays: You can just add in another 10 minutes.

43:09 Mays: For me, it's like off the phone for you know at least an hour before bed, ideally longer.

43:15 Mays: Um, depends what time I if I'm out and stuff, but it's to really just be on the phone, have a bath, um, meditate, read a book, physical book, and just have that kind of down regulation away from from the screen.

43:32 Soraya: Yeah, I think that's very important.

43:33 Soraya: We need that time just to kind of um unwind and get ready for sleep because otherwise, what happens?

43:38 Soraya: People, a lot of people they just stare at a screen and then they switch the light off and they try to fall asleep, and you know, that's a sleeping.

43:45 Mays: Well, the screens block the blue light blocks melatonin production as sleep hormones, so it's it's not great at all.

43:51 Soraya: No, it's not.

43:52 Soraya: However, people do.

43:53 Soraya: I mean, I sometimes do that, I have to admit, you know, everyone does it.

43:57 Mays: I do it, but I I have you can buy blue light blockers.

43:59 Mays: And it minimizes it, it's still not great.

44:02 Mays: But it if I don't wear the blue light blockers, then my sleep really is affected.

44:06 Mays: If I wear them, then I can get to sleep and it's a bit affected.

44:11 Soraya: Yeah, just doing the little things, I think.

44:13 Soraya: You know, no one can do it perfectly, but as long as we have these little habits that you you're suggesting, I think it does make a difference in our day-to-day and keeping the stress down.

44:20 Soraya: So what's one thing lighting you up most at the work at the moment?

44:26 Mays: Um, well, I'm doing a lot of speaking engagements, which I love, you know, corporate speaking, you know, a few engagements in advertising.

44:35 Mays: Um I've got like some speaking engagements on stage coming up.

44:40 Mays: I'm collaborating with people.

44:42 Mays: So yeah, that I really love.

44:44 Mays: I love speaking and and sharing the knowledge.

44:47 Mays: I've done quite a few talks at CNM, which is my nutrition school, which is the UK's largest nutrition school.

44:53 Mays: So yeah, that's something I definitely want to do more of.

44:56 Mays: I see myself up on the stage teaching people sharing your knowledge.

45:01 Mays: Yeah.

45:03 Soraya: Um, and what's one message you love every woman in middle life to hear about her body?

45:10 Mays: Yeah, I think it just self-love and self-compassion is key.

45:13 Mays: And this is especially relevant to me, you know, having gained weight, not having the perfect body that I used to have, and it's like really just accepting that, you know, and not berating myself for it for you know, for not being perfect.

45:29 Mays: And perfection is the killer of creativity, so it's really just trying to yeah, be compassionate to yourself and uh and uh love that inner child.

45:41 Soraya: I think that's so important.

45:42 Soraya: I think women in general, we are so critical of ourselves.

45:45 Soraya: We're not very kind, so I think that's a really important tip.

45:49 Soraya: I I think especially women at this age, we do obviously change physically, we're not like we were in our 20s, and it's hard, it's like a different identity we have.

Protein, blood sugar & balanced nutrition in midlife

46:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is hard.

46:03 Speaker 1: And you know, back to the David uh Victoria Beckham post I did today.

46:07 Speaker 1: I mean, she's been scrutinized all her life, you know, by the press.

46:12 Speaker 1: So no wonder disordered eating happens.

46:16 Speaker 1: Like it must be.

46:17 Speaker 1: I have so much compassion because it's you know, it's hard enough we scrutinize ourselves, let alone the pressure of celebrity.

46:25 Speaker 1: And then, of course, the pressure of celebrities that look perfect puts more pressure on us as teenage girls and growing up with it as well.

46:33 Soraya: So it's just not only teenage girls, but also women our age, because we see other women, you know, who look perfect, they seem perfect, and then we then look at ourselves, you know, why are we not looking that way?

46:42 Mays: So it's all over Instagram and TikTok, you know, you know how you know I'm 50 and I have the perfect body and da da da da.

46:52 Soraya: Now to look younger.

46:53 Soraya: It's I think this whole identity that you know, I have an issue with this whole anti-aging thing.

46:58 Soraya: I think we should just embrace us getting older, and it's a beautiful thing, and we are in a different chapter, right?

47:05 Mays: Of course.

47:06 Mays: I mean, it's actually shocks me the amount of um health professionals out there with Botox, with injected lips, with fake boobs.

47:18 Mays: And I'm like, how can you promote health and have all this toxic stuff in your body?

47:25 Mays: Botox is pig poison, you know, and it's just like a real obsession, isn't it?

47:31 Mays: With like body dysmorphia almost, and this kind of, you know, I can't age, I can't be natural.

47:38 Mays: And it it's uh I totally agree.

47:41 Mays: It's a natural thing, you know.

47:42 Mays: It's a natural thing.

47:43 Soraya: It's a beautiful thing.

47:44 Soraya: I mean, our bodies are so strong, and I feel you know, we should really be proud of ourselves and really be embracing that part because we are wiser now than we were in our 20s.

47:54 Soraya: I mean, I wouldn't want to be back as a 20-year-old because I was kind of dumb when I look back, see my decisions.

48:00 Mays: Exactly.

48:01 Mays: Exactly.

48:02 Mays: It's just really celebrating where we're at with our wisdom as we age rather than just being obsessed with looking younger.

48:11 Soraya: Yeah, yeah, it's not it's uh yeah, because it is like you said, it's not just the chemicals you put in your body, but also your mental health as well, how you're seeing yourself, yeah.

48:20 Soraya: That you feel you need to do that to yourself in order to look younger than you are.

48:25 Mays: Yeah, yeah, it's sad, really.

48:27 Mays: It's sad.

48:28 Mays: Ultimately, you don't look, you know, you have a facelift, you do something, and then a few years later it sags, and people look so awful.

48:37 Mays: Like the the celebrities who've done it, you can't even recognize them.

48:41 Mays: So it's like disfiguring, really.

48:44 Soraya: And it's it's you know, it's really, it's really but you know what also it kind of annoys me is like when you look at the celebrities, the men they can allow they can grow old gracefully, they have all the wrinkles and everything, and they're celebrated they're like good-looking, handsome, like rugged men.

49:01 Soraya: Whereas the women are the ones who are doing all of these like facelifts and getting their wrinkles taken out.

49:06 Soraya: Yeah, I mean it's so different between the men and the women.

49:10 Mays: The women do it more, but you'd be surprised how many men have the heads.

49:14 Soraya: Some men do it, but I mean, you know, you can see it's so obvious, but I'm saying, you know, some men do do it, I agree.

49:19 Soraya: However, there's a lot of men that don't in Hollywood, and and they look good for it, whereas women are always like they're always um commented on on how they're looking.

49:29 Soraya: I don't know, it's just a very different look for men and women.

49:33 Mays: Yeah, no, I definitely I agree.

49:35 Mays: I agree, yeah.

49:37 unknown: Yeah.

49:37 Soraya: So stand up to that amazing.

49:40 Soraya: I I just definitely yeah, I think it's it's good that I do see a lot more women on Instagram, especially, like who are older and they're standing and they're not doing any work on their faces and they're proud of it.

49:54 Soraya: So and that's a really nice thing to see as well.

49:56 Soraya: So yeah, yeah.

49:57 Soraya: So the tides are changing, I think, some places, hopefully.

50:01 Mays: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

50:03 Soraya: Um, last question I asked.

50:05 Soraya: So, what does living as your limitless self mean to you right now, Mays?

50:10 Mays: Yeah, I mean, I think limitless means balance, you know?

50:16 Mays: When everything's balanced, you can vibrate at a higher frequency and you can become limitless.

50:23 Mays: So it's balancing the nervous system, it's balancing the diet, it's balancing relationships, community, family.

50:31 Mays: It's just like every aspect, really.

50:34 Mays: So yeah, um, that is the goal really um to work on in all these areas, and then when all that's balanced, you vibrate at a higher frequency and everything starts to flow.

50:50 Mays: Um, I really notice when this last week, as I mentioned earlier, I've I've been quite out of balance.

50:57 Mays: And as soon as I get knocked off center by something that happens, a trigger, it kind of seems to permeate and affect other areas of my life.

51:07 Mays: And I get myself back to center.

51:10 Mays: So yeah, it's trying to maintain balance.

51:13 Mays: And look, life will always have the waves of up and down, it's never gonna be continuous smooth sailing, and it's not like we can't react or get knocked off balance, but it's how quickly we can get ourselves back into balance, and that is the key, really.

51:29 Mays: So if we're going to like this wave, we go up, we go down, and then how quickly we can get back to the middle line.

51:36 Mays: Um, that that that's the work, really.

51:39 Soraya: That is the work, yeah, very true.

51:42 Soraya: Thank you so much, Maze, for joining today.

51:45 Soraya: But before you go, can you just tell our listeners how they can work with you?

51:48 Soraya: What's the best way of contacting you and what you do?

51:50 Soraya: What's your offer is?

51:51 Soraya: And you mentioned the retreats.

51:52 Mays: Yes, I have quite a few offerers.

51:55 Mays: First of all, do follow me on Instagram, Healthy Maze, M-A-Y-S.

51:59 Mays: Um, my friends follow me, and their health improves just by following the tips I post.

52:04 Mays: So many people great, yeah.

52:06 Soraya: I agree.

52:06 Soraya: I watch yourself.

52:08 Mays: Many people, yeah.

52:08 Mays: So I post a lot of useful content.

52:11 Mays: Now, if you want to go deeper, I have my 90-day reset one-to-one program, and that is designed for busy ultra entrepreneurs, stressed out people to balance your gut, to balance your hormones, to get you back on your feet, and to give you a bespoke plan um for how to eat and live and supplement with functional testing and root cause healing.

Fasting, hormones & what women need to know

52:33 Mays: So, my my programs are um pretty much life-changing.

52:37 Mays: So, I recommend those.

52:38 Mays: If you're interested, just give me a shout and we can have a call and I can explain more about how it would work for you.

52:44 Mays: I also have my monthly detox groups.

52:46 Mays: These are very low cost.

52:47 Mays: The next ones, I don't know when this is going out, but it's I did 12th of May is the next one.

52:52 Mays: Uh, they're a 10-day cleanse with a group designed from the comfort of your own home.

52:56 Mays: And my next retreat is in Ibiza, 12th of September, a week long with yoga, transformational healing, breath work, somatics, nutrition, and a gorgeous villa with a private chef.

53:07 Mays: So these are magical weeks too.

53:09 Mays: So yeah, lots of ways of working with me.

53:12 Mays: So do reach out.

53:14 Soraya: Thank you, Mays, so much.

53:16 Soraya: And um, yeah, I'll speak to you soon.

53:18 Mays: Thank you.

53:19 Soraya: Bye, Mays.

53:19 Soraya: Thank you so much.