JobsWorth - Alexandra Allan

On JobsWorth this week I’m speaking with Essex based Nutritional Therapist, Alexandra Allan. 

Alex describes herself as having been lucky enough to have had two careers. 

The first was a 20 year run in publishing…a world she’d wanted to work in from a young age and one where she achieved a great level of success.  The second began when Alex turned 40, inspired in part by a book she picked up in an airport that changed her life on a flight home from New York. 

During our conversation we explore the events that led Alex to change her relationship with work, why she turned her back on a job and an industry where she was at the top of her game,  what it actually takes to move from one career to another and how she overcame imposter syndrome along the way. 

We discuss Alex’s experience of supporting her clients with perimenopause and menopause, the impact it can have on women beyond hot flushes and highlight the work that still needs to be done to ensure organisations are providing the support to their employees that is so desperately needed. 

I also ask Alex some listeners questions on nutrition, health and wellbeing and was blown away by just how knowledgeable she is. There is some seriously useful stuff in here. 

This is a super special episode. 

Please enjoy…Alexandra Allan. 

#jobsworth #podcast #career #worklife #storiesthatinspirechange

Keywords

Nutritional Therapy, Career Change, Women's Health, Perimenopause, Publishing, Life Transitions, Personal Growth, Health and Wellness, PCOS, Gut Health, menopause, workplace support, nutrition, supplements, fasting, career change, health, wellness, women's health, NHS

Website - https://www.alexallannutrition.co.uk/contact

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/alexallannutrition/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-allan-nutrition/

The JobsWorth website is here www.jobs-worth.com

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Contact the show on hello@jobs-worth.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 3:10 Alex's Journey in Publishing
• 9:15 Transitioning to Nutritional Therapy
• 15:45 Turning 40 and Career Reflections
• 22:57 Building a New Business
• 29:23 Understanding Nutritional Therapy
• 32:26 Navigating Perimenopause and Career Changes
• 34:54 Understanding Menopause in the Workplace
• 38:09 Nutrition and Supplements for Aging
• 48:38 Career Transitions and Pursuing Passion
• 56:33 The Importance of Nutrition in Healthcare

Transcript

0:06

you Hello and welcome back to another episode of Jobsworth. This week, my guest is Alexandra Allen, who is an Essex-based nutritional therapist and someone I've known since October last year when I became a client of hers. The experience I've had since working with Alex has been nothing short of life-changing and as easy as it would have been to make this a whole episode dedicated to me saying how great she is, and there is a fair amount of that. Alex, I think, encapsulates everything that Jobsworth is about. She describes herself as having been lucky enough to have had two careers in her life. And yeah, that's what we're trying to, I guess, inspire people to look at doing. If you are part way through your journey with work and are inspired in any way, shape or form to change things up, then we want to make that as accessible as possible. And Alex is a shining example of that can work out in the best possible way. We talk about her previous career in publishing and everything that she achieved in a career that spanned two decades. And then we talk about the events that led her to turn her back on all of that and start something completely fresh. And it's a really inspiring story. We do talk about how turning 40 had a big impact on Alex. We talk about both Alex's personal journey with perimenopause and how that impacted her career. We also talk about the work that she does with clients that are going through perimenopause and menopause. She's an amazing advocate for women that going through this. It's such a topic that's not discussed openly enough, especially with men holding the microphone and facilitating these conversations. It was a real privilege to shine a light on this. We also, you might have seen this on the Instagram account a couple of weeks ago, I put a shout out asking for some questions from our listeners to ask to Alex about diet and nutrition. And we got a massive response. We tried to get through as many of those as we possibly could. Me and the team were sat there for most of it, just blown away by how amazing a communicator Alex is and how knowledgeable she was. She was not stumped by anything we asked her. So I really hope you enjoy this episode. Alex. has fast become one of my favourite people. just think she's so wonderful and so warm and I'm sure that that will come across during the course of our conversation. if you like the episode, please let us know in the comments. Stay tuned for next week and please enjoy Alexandra Allen. What we're going to do, we are going to start with the opening question to the podcast and if you've listened to any of them, you'll know that this is coming anyway. But when you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? a children's author. Okay, now I am spoiling this slightly because I know what you then went on to do in the world you operated in, but from what age, when did that start? I think I wanted to be a teacher first, if I'm brutally honest, but that quickly passed and I think it was just that I was an avid avid reader. I grew up on a housing estate in Pitsy. There wasn't much to do. My nan used to take me to the library all the time. So I would go get my four books, swap my four books. So it was just, yeah, from that age, absolutely. Eva Ibbotson in particular was a favourite author. Okay. what genre? So that was where the kind of seed was sown for you and fantasy hasn't stopped for you. It's not a guilty pleasure, but obviously you're mixing that up with all the reading you do around your chosen field now. Yeah, yeah, so I always read for pleasure at bedtime or on holidays and then I read for work the rest of the time Okay, because you have to kind of keep up with everything which is quite tricky this is it, isn't it? You need to make sure you've got your head in the field and you're keeping up with what is a very quickly evolving space that you're operating into. What did you do around that? So you wanted to be a children's author. Yeah. So I guess let's go on to that then, because you have described throughout conversations that we've had, and I will go on to explain in a minute that we've worked together, which is, well, it was absolutely life changing. I've got a bit I want to say to you on that as well. When we started speaking, you described yourself as being lucky enough to have had two careers in your life, which I think is so inspiring for anyone that listens to this podcast. So how did you get into your first career? Okay, yeah. I went to university and I did a German and Spanish degree. Okay. Which, because I just had an aptitude for languages and I also wanted to travel and I realised I could get a year abroad if I did a languages degree. But I did mostly literature modules at the time. So even though was in another language, it was still very much about books and reading and that kind of stuff. So I knew, I kind of realised through the degree process that working in publishing was really what I wanted to do. specifically children's books. And so when I came to the end of my degree, I was very much trying to get into publishing and it's quite difficult to do, particularly back in the nineties. There was a lot of nepotism, a lot of people kind of, and obviously I was not from the kind of usual background of someone going into publishing. And I was very lucky that someone on my stepdad's cricket team worked in the finance department for Fieden, the art publishers. Yeah, random. They wanted someone over the summer. They were paying 10 grand like pro rata over the year. So was a really tiny salary. And I just took it. So I went to work at Fieden, the art publishers, working on the photography book. I don't know if you've ever seen it. Another beautiful, big bound. Yeah. brother's work and my mum as well. So I've seen various bits and pieces. beautiful books, so that was really lovely. Picture research wasn't really my thing, but it was kind of a way in. was your gateway. Absolutely. So then because I had that, I could apply for other jobs. I was thinking I wanted to be an editor, but working at FIDA, I realised there was another department that I hadn't come across before, which was foreign rights. So that's where you take a book and you sell it in many other languages and then it gets to be published abroad and stuff. And the people in the Foreign Rights team get to do a lot of travel, they get to go to the Frankfurt Book Fair, they get to go on trips around the world and I thought, actually with my languages that makes sense to me. So I was lucky enough to get a job at Scholastic Children's Books, who are brilliant, brilliant children's publishers. At the time they were publishing Philip Pullman's Northern Lights trilogy. Which I have to, Quick Sidebar is my favourite trilogy of books ever. It's fabulous. And The Spyglass is my favourite book ever. I've got comments on that, but anyway, yeah, maybe that's for another podcast. Absolutely. So yeah, and Horrible Histories, you know, the lovelies, which is series that's still going now. So I went to work there as a rights assistant in the rights department with a really fabulous team. And I had made friends then that I still have now, which is great. So yeah, so then I went into Foreign Rights, which I loved. I moved from there to Orion Children's Books, where we did again, things like Horrid Henry, know, lots of other really big series. And I worked there for another sort of five years, basically up until I fell pregnant with my first child. oh By that time I was the rights director there, so running the department, which is great, doing lots of fabulous trips around the world, going to the Bologna Book Fair every year. And then I asked if I could go part-time. this was 2003. So it wasn't a time where flexible working was really very well received. My request sort of fell on deaf ears. They said I could still do my job in four days rather than five. Condensed hours, I guess we'd call that. but I already worked really long hours and the idea of having a baby and having to go back to that, just, it wasn't, I didn't want to do it. So I very scarily just handed my notice in. Okay. And worked out basically we would try to work this out all through the pregnancy and then as had my baby and I was basically, they couldn't offer me a job. So I had three months gardening leave and then I was kind of set free from there really. Okay. Thank you for that because you've managed to bridge a lot of... No, that's brilliant. No, thank you. Because it is an art form being able to do that in a concise way, but touch upon all the points that you've done there. How big a decision was it at that point after just having your child to hand your notice in without the promise of anything else to go on to? And from a career and an industry that you dreamed of getting into and you loved? worked with such wonderful people. It was very frightening. I had to talk with my husband about it because at the time I was like, salary is more than his at that point, never to be happened again, but it was then. And so I had to talk to him really about whether we could do it. He was hugely supportive. I wanted to do it. It wasn't that I was forced to do it at all. It was something that I really wanted to do. I wanted to be around for my kids. You know, I only had one at that point, but in the future. Yes, it was tough. And I spent a couple of months at that gardening leave thinking, what have I done? Where am I going to go? Should I retrain? Should I do something else? I thought, no, I love this. want to carry on doing it. And then I was incredibly fortunate that someone I'd worked with before, who worked in a new company now, approached me to see if I would come and help their rights manager set up a new children's rights agency. Okay, so this what that wasn't your swan song in world in the book well I went to, so I started that new job. We started the list of six books. And she was also called Alex. And yeah, and then we, built this great literary agency that went on to be the world's number one children's rights agency. God Alex, I never knew that. Which is obviously, I mean don't need to know it all because it's why we're doing the podcast in the first place, but it's incredible. It's great. We had a fabulous team that we all worked together and we represented lots of different publishers and agents, some American publishers and agents. So we did things like Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, all of that kind of stuff. That's incredible. Yeah, and it was amazing. And yeah, I loved it. And we built something between us, our lovely team, and we built something that was really special. It's still going now. That's amazing. Did that give you the balance that you were looking for? Because you've stepped away from one job because the part-time angle for you just wasn't going to work and you wanted to be present for your kid and then what went to be kids, children. So did it give you the balance that you needed? did. So Chris Snowden, who was the MD of the company that was looking after some called Working Partners, they were very forward thinking in terms of flexible working. They were way ahead of the curve. So when he approached me about the job, they offered me a three day a week contract with only one day in London. Yeah, because this was in 2000. So I started there, so I started there in January 2006. Yeah, that didn't really those kind of working patterns and working arrangements didn't become common until post COVID. I'm not supposed to say COVID anymore. yeah, post pandemic. and he did it for the whole team, men and women. So there were some writers who worked as editors and they were able to work just three days and then write other days. And I think it was very, very forward thinking. And so it enabled me to do something really exciting that I kept my teeth into, but still spend the majority of the week at home with the kids. When you left the previous job, because they wouldn't let you go part time, you said that you had the thought to retrain. Was there any part of you that thought about what you may go on to do? Was that in the landscape at all at that stage? really, well, there was a bit at the back of my mind because, so what brought me to my career that I am now is I have polycystic oophry syndrome, PCOS. And it meant that when I was pregnant with my daughter, I got gestational diabetes. And the support that I had around that was very, very slim. Like there was very little information. All I knew that I was supposed to keep my blood sugars down and I was supposed to keep my weight down, but I was not really given any support as to how to do that. So I think that was my first foray into looking into nutrition and trying to work out what it is that I needed to do. because your own experience with the guidance you were given was non-existent. really is. And unfortunately it doesn't appear to have changed much 20 years later. So yes, so at that point was really when I started looking into it. And then I had my son three years later and my gestational diabetes was worse. So had to actually administer insulin with the second pregnancy, which is why we didn't go on to have any more kids because it's just, they can be quite high risk pregnancies. You have to be careful. m So yes, I started to really get into into nutrition and working out. I was really careful around supplementation and all of that kind of stuff. So I really sort of went down a bit of a rabbit hole at that point. It makes so much sense because you're doing the best you can to look after yourself because no one else from the sounds of it was going to do it for you and that advice, that guidance, that information just wasn't there. And as you say, until I met you and my goals and the reason for coming to you was obviously very different from yours. But it just opens a world that isn't accessible, I don't think, to your standard person that wouldn't know where to look. I think it's even worse now because the amount of information out there is just mind blowing. So most of the time when I speak to clients, they're just clueless, not because the information isn't there, but they don't know how to find the information that's correct. And there's lots of people with lots of agendas. And the thing is we have to remember that everybody is individual. So what works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for you. Yeah. I don't think, think, yeah, lots of people find it really impossible to get to the bottom of what's going on. I think talking from personal experience is very easy to get to go down social media rabbit holes with certain influencers or certain people that have an agenda, as you say. But then you see the counter argument and then you don't know who to trust. And then you really don't know which way to go. So you do nothing and you carry on with some of the habits and the things that you've been doing for years because oh it's so confusing with the advice that's out there. So I completely understand why you went down that route. Take me back then if it's okay to the point, you've set up this global number one children's literary agency. for a while. uh So you're back in, you're back in, you've been told, no, you can't go part time. You're back in the world that you love, the thing that you wanted to do. And then you make the decision to stop again. How did that come about? So I turned 40. Okay, that's it. was actually, so half of our team was in New York and I was actually, we'd gone to New York for a visit to see some of our clients and see them. And on the way home, I was just perusing the bookshelves in the JFK or whatever. And I found a book about the microbiome and I was like, that looks interesting. I knew a about gut health. Anyway, I didn't sleep on that flight on the way home. I just read it cover to cover. And then I was like, Oh my God, it was almost like something just switched on and I was suddenly thinking, oh my God, this is so fascinating. So I started, I became a complete bore. I was talking to everyone at work about it. And I kept reading more about it it was just amazing. It was so interesting. And we've kind of got to a point where the business was where it was. And I was thinking, okay, what would the next steps be? it would be either to go back into another traditional publishing house, maybe to go out and set up on my own. But what we'd set up was so great. I wouldn't necessarily want to do that. And I just thought I can either stay here doing this forever or as I said to you, I could be lucky enough to go and have a second career doing something that I love as much but in a different way. Does that make sense? complete sense. And when I heard you say that the first time in one of our sessions, I was just thinking what a lovely way to frame it. Because you just, said I was lucky enough to have a second career, which I think for a lot of people, the prospect of that scares the shit out of them. Sorry to swear, but it does scare the life out of them. But yeah, framing it like I'm lucky enough, I'm fortunate enough to have done that, I think is brilliant. Not that you knew at the time you would then go on to be as successful and renowned as you are in the space that you're working now. But you knew that you had the passion there. You had this love of it and you wanted to invest your time and energy into it. So yeah, it complete sense. think because we'd, and obviously we did this as a team, this wasn't just me, we built this agency from nothing. I sort of realised that it's possible. Yeah. That there was part of me that thought, okay, you can build something from nothing. So I think that, and obviously selling foreign rights is all about negotiation, negotiating contracts, doing deals, that kind of stuff. So it gives you a bit more of a... I'm not so worried. I'm happy to take a few risks. Does that make sense in that instance? But I was lucky because I had a supportive partner who was happy for me to leave a very well-paid job to retrain. Thank you for acknowledging that because I think that's important. uh There are some people that might be listening to think and they'll be interested to know what was going on in and around that and not everyone has that support. But it's great that you had it and it still doesn't diminish how scary it is to leave that because you've got all of your identity wrapped up in the space that you're operating in and working in. Can I ask a very quick question? Your dream was to become a children's author. You didn't. No. quite do that. Was there a part of you that thought I could you could stick still do? I could still, no I couldn't because once you've worked with authors and you see how amazingly talented they are, I realized that my role was to help to get their workouts into the world rather than do my own. And I think it's, yes I'm sure I could write you know a board book or something like that, but if I was going to do it I would want to be doing it like Eva Ibbotson or Philip Pullman and there is no way in a million years I would ever be able to do that. So think it makes you a bit more humble about being a writer when you work with so many amazing authors. there's such a big part of me that wants to scream and I think it's the parent of me now. You could do it Alex and how I was raised, could, you could a hundred percent do it but I do understand what you mean when you've seen the bar and then you've seen the inner workings of how the creative process, what a lovely thing to be able to identify yourself as a person that can help that out into the Yeah, that's the best thing about children's books because children will read a book again and again and again and again. So you and I might read a book and then it goes on the shelf or we lend it to a friend or whatever. But if you think that's when you're a kid or your children, and that book becomes like a part of their being. Like it's amazing the power of literature, like kids literature. And I think it's more difficult to write a children's book than it is often to write. you know, sort of an adult page turner. Just because you have to get that tone right. You can't be condescending, you can't be patronising, you have to really get into their world, which is what the best writers do. Yeah, and since having my boys who are seven and four, I think you develop a much greater appreciation for that now. Books that they will look, they're just enamoured with and they ask you to read night and my four year old is like borderline, I don't know, it's too much, you know, he's obsessed. But it's incredible to see the impact that that can have on people's lives. But what a lovely job to, a role to take to facilitate bringing that. Oh, amazing. And just getting to meet people from all over the world. That was one of things I loved most about doing translation rights was that twice a year at the book fairs, Bologna Book Fair and Frankfurt Book Fair, I'd get to meet people from as far away as Mongolia and the Faroe Islands and all different places for translation. So talking to about it, you can see you light up when you're talking about what you used to do. And that's a really lovely thing that you left that career behind you with knowing that you've, there were goals that you wanted to reach. There were bars that you wanted to set and it sounds like you did it. Yeah, I think so. feel happy with what I did. Lovely to see as well because you're not leaving it with a kind of black mark against it and stepping away and being like, okay, I'm now I have to I have to go and try something No, I have friends who work in other industries that feel really quite toxic with really terrible working hours and terrible practices, but I have to say on the whole, children's publishing really wasn't like that. People are really nice and whole. fortunate, it just sounds so lovely. It's a really tiny world. So generally you end up working with the same people wherever you move. Oh, I used to work with you there, now I'm working with you again here. So that's lovely. It makes me have a bit more faith in humanity to think that children's publishing isn't a toxic environment as well. don't want to know that, do you? You don't want to imagine that these books are being created for the simplest, purest forms on earth, uh have the same crap that everyone else needs to wade through in different industries. So that's nice to hear. think because so many people are doing it, because they're passionate about it, they're not big salaries. If you wanted to go and work for Deutsche Bank or something, that's what I think with my German degree, if you wanted to make loads of money. say yeah you some doors that could have opened that way. Yeah, yeah, you don't go into children's publishing for the money. Okay, so you then go into starting your business in the space that you're working now or did you work for someone else? What was the transition there? So first of all, I did a bit of research about where I wanted to train and I found the place I wanted to go and I wanted to do a degree rather than a diploma. Just because I felt it would help fight any kind of imposter syndrome if I was as fully qualified as possible. am not saying, because the diploma is fantastic, so I'm not saying, but just for me, in my mind. In order to do that, I had to do a science access year because my A levels were arts A levels. So I had to do a science access year, which basically gave you sort of A level chemistry and biology to enable you to do a BSc. So I thought if I do that while I work, then I'll see if I still have my brain still works and I still have the ability to study. So I did that one year course whilst I was still working at the agency and I did it and it worked out fine. So then I decided to go and do the full degree. uh I can't remember how long into it. I think it was into the first year of the degree. after the Science Ex this year, I realised that I couldn't study and have a full-time job because I was at that point, because my children were both at school, I'd gone up to four days a week. So two days at home, two days in London. And then I was having to go every other weekend into London to do the degree course. And then with the kids as well and still having to do travel, it became untenable. I couldn't do it anymore. So I... I handed in my notice and I became a publishing consultant because I'd worked in foreign rights for so long, like 20 years at that point. I went and did training for other publishing houses and other agencies and I just did some like basic consultancy work, which was good and helped keep the wolf from the door. So it allowed you to transition from one career to another. So there was a phasing out and then a phasing in moment. Yeah, so I did a day a week, one publisher, did some other stuff and bits and pieces. So that was really helpful. And then my final clinical practice year, I stopped about nine months before the end of the degree. So I stopped doing the consultancy work completely. So I could spend that nine months getting my website up and running, getting everything ready. So as soon as I qualified, literally the day I got my insurance letter, I could open the doors to hopefully start bringing some money in. Talk to me about imposter syndrome because I can imagine having had the success you had in one career and then going into this one. Did doing the degree keep that at bay or did you still feel it? I still massively love it. Do you feel it now? No, not now. still don't think like, I mean, there is far more qualified and amazing nutritionists than I am, but I feel like I know what I'm doing and I feel confident in it. back then? But back then when I first started, because you've gone from being quite senior in an industry to being a complete new Knowing it inside out, there's no avenue that you don't know about. You're the go-to person, the SME for most questions that were probably being fired at you. that was really weird. That was really strange. And I must have really annoyed my husband because I was just so driven by numbers as well because of my old job. He was like, I was thinking, I've got to get, you know, how many discovery calls, how many this, you know, all this stuff. And I was thinking, I'm not in sales anymore. not I'm not in anymore. Take a chill pill. networking do I need to do to try and get this? So it had to of like rein it in, but I think that helped to get the business up and running in that first year. That mindset would have helped massively. wish I would have had more of that and I am in a salesy environment in recruitment, but I definitely needed an ounce of that. So yes, as counterintuitive as that might feel now that you're established at the start, I can imagine it really helped you. Yes, it did. I think there's always part, as I say, my husband is massively supportive and has been fully supportive through this whole thing. He was really keen for me to do it, just delighted that I wanted to do it. However, there was always part of me that I very much liked bringing my share of what's going on, because he's a really hands on dad too. So I always feel we're very even, it's very much a partnership. So we should be working the same amount and looking after the kids the same amount. And that's what we both wanted. So for a time when he was really shouldering the lion's share of responsibility financially, he didn't complain at all. But past me was like, I've got to get uh back up to where I was before so that I can pull my weight. Which he would just tell me off for saying, but you know. But again, it's important to acknowledge, I think it's a very, it's the reality for a lot of people that might be in a similar situation and it can't, I don't think you can help it being in the back of your mind. And if that's a driver, if you harness it in the right way, it's not a terrible thing. But yeah, it's lovely that you've got that support and that kind of relationship there. Yeah, yeah, I feel really lucky. Barry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's lovely. You'd really like him. I'm sure I'll Barry. Barry, I need to meet you. Okay, that's really good. Was there a moment after starting that you still craved, have you ever looked back and thought, not that you made a mistake, but you miss it? I really miss the people massively because they're just so lovely and it was so much fun. And it's quite recently been the Bologna Book Fair again. So they were all over in Italy, in the piazzas, having cocktails and stuff and they're sending pictures. I was like, I miss that. I miss seeing them all and having that lovely time. But I was definitely ready for the intellectual challenge that comes with the job that I do now. because I'd got to that, you know, when you've been doing a job for a long time, I got to the job where I could have done that with my hands tied behind, like eyes closed, hands tied behind back. yeah, so that I... So the lifestyle, the friendships, the ways of working, some of office stuff that I missed that. But not the job itself. No, I think I was definitely ready to move on. Yeah, yeah, for sure. lovely stepping off point though, you can get that and have that line drawn to things. I'm conscious and I will say this in the introduction, but for anyone that is listening to this and doesn't yet know exactly what it is you do, that's fine because I could have raised it and usually in the introduction we'll bring this up anyway, but how do you best describe what it is you do? Alex. Okay, so I am a registered nutritional therapist and that means that I use functional medicine, so diet and lifestyle changes, to help people feel better. So you can use it for any different condition. I largely work with guts and hormone health, specifically PCOS, but I do work with people in perimenopause, people with IBS, or people who just want to feel better and stronger and healthier. Yeah. Yeah. And it's so powerful. yeah, nutrition and lifestyle medicine is what what it's now called. Yeah. And I'll probably interject at this point, just to say the impact you made on my life. Cause again, I've referenced this earlier. I've worked with you and still work with you now and you have changed my life in all the most amazing ways. And I will say that maybe in a different post that we put up when we promote the episode, exactly what we did together and how you've, how you've kind of just opened my mind into the way that I could live a more optimal lifestyle, which is I remember coming back to you in October. last year with exactly that brief. I want to live a more optimal lifestyle. I want to be fit and healthy to run around with my kids. And yeah, you have just changed my life in all the best possible ways. This isn't a big advert for you, Alex, but if I can give you that testimonial in a podcast now, you completely changed my life. You look very well, John. You look great. You're looking super healthy. Thank you so much. But yeah, that is in so much a huge part to the advice that you gave me and the support along the way. So for anyone that is listening to Alex's amazing description of what she does for a living, I'm talking to the listener now. Yeah, if I can be the end product of that, or at least a real life walking testimonial of the difference you make, I can't thank you enough for what you did for me. So yeah, I will embellish on that or elaborate on that at some point as well. We are proud to be supported by friends of the show and previous guests, the local merchants. They stock some of the finest ready to wear brands in the world and now offer a made to measure service that, speaking from personal experience, will leave you feeling like a proper celebrity. Sam and Ed are known for phenomenal customer service and are now crafting tailor pieces so good, you'll start inventing reasons to wear them. 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And I think it gets like 30, 40 in a decade start to tick over. You mentioned in the form that I asked people to fill out before they come on that building something in your 40s and that kind of work that it takes, something changes that is different from your 20s and 30s. So going into your 40s took more to do that. What was your experience of building a business from scratch? Yes. So as a woman, the 40s are probably a different decade than for men, because obviously you have a lot of hormonal changes start in your 40s. so when I started the... So when I qualified, would have... So I think I would have been about 45 when I started the business. Okay. First couple of years fine, but then went slapping to perimenopause. And that comes with lots of different complications. And I think I see this a lot in my clients I work with, a lot with women in paramenopause. And it really affects you in many ways that you don't anticipate. So obviously the character of kind of paramenopause is hot flushes and, you know, a of weight gain and that sort of stuff. But actually how it affects you cognitively is something that I don't think is talked, well, may probably is now, but wasn't talked about quite so much just in terms of... you're maybe not quite as sharp as you were before, or it's really around, you know, you maybe have a bit more anxiety around stuff that maybe before you were really confident and now that anxiety creeps in. And also you can't push yourself to do the crazy hours that you maybe did in your twenties, you know? So yeah, things really change. And I know sort of anecdotally and from reading things and from dealing with women of this age group, lots of women, when they get to their late 40s, early 50s, actually stop doing their job. because they find it too difficult to carry on working when so much for them has changed. Luckily, there's some really, really high profile, amazing women out there who've brought the menopause into the conversation, which they've done a fantastic job of it. And that's allowed people, you there's much more going on within the workspace. But I do kind of corporate talks and things as well. And it's been interesting going into businesses to talk about. menopause and how that affects workers and staff. Yeah, it's the support that organisations need to be offering their people, isn't it? Because I, again, so it's so light touch in comparison to the depth that you work in this space and the support that you give to women going through a similar journey too. But I think there is a glaring gap and a very obvious gap for organisations that do not understand this yet. So the more voices that we can have shining a light on it, it's only going to benefit things moving forward. and yeah, it's a story that I speak to so many people that are looking to change jobs that they feel they are unsupported and misunderstood. I think that's a really sad position to be in. It is because you're losing this wealth of experience, wisdom, know, amazing. mean, there's that old adage that apparently there's only three animals that go through menopause. They're humans, elephants and whales. Yeah. Honestly, I'm not a zoologist. Probably someone's going to write it and say, I've got this wrong. But this is what I've read. And the reason they go through menopause is that they then help. Basically, they're the kind of wise people of the tribe. They help with different bits and pieces because otherwise evolutionarily doesn't make sense for people to be able to continue past procreate. Yeah. So it makes sense that there's something there. So I do think that if you're losing 50 % of your workforce, when they hit 50 or whatever, then it makes no sense to me because they're the people going to bring younger talent up. It's really important. And it's funny if you ever go into London during kind of rush hour, you don't see that, well, I don't see that many women who look like me. No, I think you are, as an observation, think that's probably a very fair comment. ah So much more needs to be done then. Because again, it's such a, it's a subject that is gaining a lot more traction, but nowhere near the level that it needs to affect change. think that's where we need to get to wholesale. really do think that because it's not just about those hormonal changes that are happening. Women in their late 40s and early 50s, they tend to be the squash middle. So they'll either have kids or teenagers. They're probably helping craft to elderly parents as well. And I'm really not suggesting that men aren't in the same position because I think that they absolutely are. But then it depends on the balance of that relationship. So often it does tend to fall more to the women. So if they're then trying to hold down a job as well, whilst going through these things, things that making them feel really peculiar. can be so tough. So I think it would be great, know, particularly for larger employers to be doing stuff to really support their staff or just to understand what that is, you know, to give people, you know, the ability to have leave if they need it or menopause coaches or private GPs or whatever that can come in and support them. starts with awareness and then for lot of organisations to be curious and then to go and invest some money usually in learning, upskilling and putting that support in place. that's a really good message I think to be putting out there. I've got some questions that I wanted to ask you specifically that people have messaged in. And if it's okay, put you on the spot. We put something out on Instagram to ask the world what they would like to ask of you. So now you've given a description of what it is you do. I'm going to ask you these questions and see if we can give some advice. This is free consultation really. I'll caveat with everything with saying that without knowing your full health history. Thank you doing that. we will make a note of that as well, because I do think that's important. But if it's okay, and I know Tom's particularly interested in some of these answers as well. So the first question is, as we get older, should we be introducing supplements or can we rely on diet alone? That's an excellent question. And I would say that there are some supplements that are more worthwhile than others. However, I would always go with a diet first, food first approach. There is plenty of ways that you can get everything that you need from the food that we eat, but it has to take careful preparation and you need to be focusing on what the ingredients are in your breakfast, lunch and dinner. In a world where lots of people are really time poor, supplements do have their place. Particularly things like fish oil supplements, because many people don't get enough omega-3 foods, for example. But I would always say to people, get your house in order first before you start adding that on top. It was the advice she gave me Alex as well. I probably could have answered that one, but I'm going to let the specialist get involved. Okay. The next question. Are you better off having a sugar or having sugar versus a zero calorie sweetener? having sugar rather than a sweetener. Yeah, so research coming out now is starting to show us that some of those artificial sweeteners are having quite a detrimental effect on their gut microbiome. We still don't have enough research that have been going for long enough to know what effects they have. People have been eating sugar for generations, for a really long time. So we know that, it's not that great in many situations, but your body knows how to process it better than the sweeteners. Yeah. So we're talking with sweeteners, we're talking things like sucralose. Those sorts of things, I would just ditch them. But to be perfectly honest, this largely meat sweetener versus sugar is really just about drinks. And I would say, don't drink them. Have some water, have a herbal tea, have a kombucha, something like that. Save your sugar for the cake your nan makes. There you go. Okay, which again is advice you gave me Alex, which I've tried to stick to. And what daily supplements would you recommend that are actually beneficial and not a fad? Now this again is going to be with the caveat. It's going to completely based on your medical history and. It is. one thing I will say around supplements, it's really important that you check with your GP or with your pharmacist if you're taking medication before you start taking supplements. There are a lot of drug-nutrient interactions. And I sometimes get clients coming to me who've self-prescribed supplements that do not go with the meds that they're on. That's a really good point because again, we're talking about social media influencers with their agenda and people could just go and start taking supplements without necessarily factoring in all of the other stuff they've got going on. Absolutely. So one example is blood thinners and fish oils. lots of older people are on blood thinners. If you've had a mid-stroke or something, they might give you that. And you cannot compare that with fish oil supplements because fish oil supplements also have a blood thinning effect and it can cause a bleed. yeah, so you have to be really careful. That's what I wanted to say. Okay. But if you've checked that, you're not on any kind of high dose eggs, then a good quality multivitamin. and mineral is absolutely fine. I'd always say go for a really good brand though, the best one that you can afford. Go to a good health food store like Our Lovely Greens or somewhere like that and get the advice of the people there because not all supplements are created equal. The cheaper ones do tend to have lots of fillers and additives and rubbish in them. That's a really good point too and something you open my eyes up to. Yeah, they're not all created equal. There are ingredients that maybe aren't sourced in the same way. yeah, try and go the upper end, more premium end if you possibly can. Okay. What are your views on the rise of weight loss medication? Well, that's really interesting because, again, it's not a black and white answer. And we will caveat the answer to all of these with that fact. So what I'd say firstly is if you have a very, very high BMI and you're really struggling to lose weight, then using one of those like a Zempik or Vagavik can really help to kickstart that. But I'd say you would need support if you're taking it around diet and lifestyle change that you should be making so that when you stop it, you don't get that weight rebound. But that's when I'm talking for people who are morbidly obese, who have very high BMIs. I find it quite worrying that there are people who are of maybe just slightly overweight or of normal weight who are using the medication to get slimmer because there it can have a detrimental effect on the weight loss that you're having because a lot of that weight loss will be lean muscle mass as well. It also really curbs your appetite so that people are eating tiny portions. Again, if you've got a lot of weight to lose, that's the point of it. Whereas if you haven't, then again, it's going to eat away at that lean muscle mass and you're not going to be able to get the nutrition that you need at every meal. Okay. Also anecdotally, we nutritionists have heard about people kind of gaming the system and getting the drugs online, you know, when they're not supposed to or getting them, you know, from a friend in a hairdresser's or, you know, that sort of thing. And I think that's really dangerous because then you don't know at all what it is that you're getting. It's unregulated at that stage, it, as well? is. As you say, it's really dangerous. So I think in medical setting, for someone who's morbidly obese, who really desperately needs to lose that weight, it can be a good Kickstarter under medical guidance. But equally, working with someone like me or some sort of support, then hopefully you could do it without that. Okay, well thank you. I that's a difficult one to answer, but I you've given a really balanced answer to that too. So thank you for going into that. Is fasting actually good for you? Again, I must be so annoying because there's not really a straight answer here. There's a lot of excellent research around fasting, majority of which has been done on young men. So for men it works beautifully. Often, if they do a nice sort of 16, 8 fast, then men can drop weight quite rapidly and healthily. It doesn't work always so well for women because it can put a stress a bit of stress on your body, can mess with your thyroid. And so when I was looking around it, because there was a bit of a fad for people in paramenopause trying fasting. And when I was looking around for research for women of that age, I could find about maybe one research paper, which had like 12 participants. So it really hasn't been proven. Because fasting again, I think is seen, it's not touted as a male dominant bit of advice, it? I guess that's an awful way of describing it, but hopefully you understand what I mean. And I think so many of the experiments and studies that are done are done on men and not women, as I've come to learn so much more from listening to a whole host of podcasts. But yeah, I think there are so many women that would take on that fasting advice without, again, not necessarily looking into the studies that have been done. Absolutely. So I work a lot with women with polycystic ovary syndrome. And this is where the whole idea of individualized nutrition is really key because every person with a different condition will have something different. So women with PCOS, there are money drivers that causing their weight gain and the symptoms that they're having, one of which is stress. So if you put your body under additional stress, that's actually going to make your condition worse. fasting, you know, I had some clients come in who like eating in a four hour window and then fasting for 20 hours. Your body thinks you're in a famine and so it tells your thyroid to slow everything down. Let's batten down the hatches, conserve all our energy until this is gone because women's physiology is so different from men's. So, yeah, so fasting can work for young men, maybe even older men, and there's research to prove that, but there isn't so much around women, so I'd be really careful. So I think if you're a woman who's very carefree, living a lovely life with no stress, cycle, menstrual cycles are perfect, then maybe a bit of fasting might work for you. But I'd be really careful around it. sorry, I'm going to, and there's another thing. Fitting your food within to 12 hours is really important. And I wouldn't consider that to be fasting. We now have a very, very long eating window, or many people do, and that's not actually very good for our gut. So trying to keep your food in a 12 hour window, I would consider just normal eating, not fasting. So that means if you have your breakfast at seven, you should be finishing your evening meal by seven to allow your body to have that lovely 12 hours overnight where your gut clears and everything does what it needs to be done at that also trying to factor in one of the most important things that we need, which is sleep too. So if you're sleeping for hours, there's four hours where you're not eating in a day. So that should be pretty achievable when you're breaking it down. It should be, but people snack a lot in the evening. Yes. Yeah. And that's something, a habit that we need to break. But if you're sleeping, you're not digesting. If you're digesting, you're not sleeping. So those two things cross over. So I always recommend people to stop eating at least three hours before they go to bed. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for fielding those because that is some free consultations for people that took the time to message in. So I really appreciate that. You seem like the best person, I think, one of the best people to ask this question to. I'm going to ask for a bit of advice now for anyone else that's maybe looking to change career. I termed it in a slightly different way because I didn't know the backstory about why you left your first career completely. I know you touched upon that before, but I've asked what advice would you give to someone stuck in a career you no longer love. But I don't think that was ever you because you weren't stuck in a career you didn't love. maybe I can rephrase and say what advice would you give to someone looking to change career or looking to transition into something new? Don't be scared, is first thing I'd say. Do your research, find out what you need to do to be doing that new job. See how much money people are earning doing it. Save up so you can have that time off to do it, but don't be afraid. Honestly, I've yet to meet anyone who's done this who hasn't thought it was the best thing. Very few people regret changing their careers. It's wonderful, it's just wonderful. You can see that when you're saying it as well. It's so inspiring to see. Okay, right. We are going to play a game. So what we're going to do is a game of higher or lower based on how much fibre is in certain food products. It's very important, can I quickly add, I've yet to have a client who eats enough fibre. I don't think it's me, because this affects everyone on the planet and they should all be eating fibre. Thank you for giving me some hope that this isn't that niche. I appreciate that. Can you explain then the benefit of fibre before we start? then it will seem even more impactful than I was hoping it So we as humans don't digest the fibre. The fibre goes into our gut and our lovely microbiome, which is in our large intestine, our colon, we've got about two kilos worth of bacteria, viruses, funguses. Amazing. We've got more bacterial cells in our body than our own cells. So it starts to make me think who's in charge. they do all sorts of amazing jobs for us. They help with immune tolerance. They generate vitamins. do, gosh, loads and loads of things. And we feed them fiber. So they basically eat and ferment that fiber to do all the fab jobs that they do. So we need about 30 grams of fiber a day. I'd say most people are only getting a third of that. So trying to increase your fiber is a really easy way to just improve your diet. Thank you, Alex, because now you've really made my point as to why we're doing the fiber round. Okay, so we're going to start with setting the bar. a banana, you might say to me, no, it hasn't, John. You may know the amounts. But a banana has two average sized banana, 2.6 grams of fiber. An apple, is it higher or lower in fiber? It is, it's 4.4 grams. So you're right. So I'll explain. So bananas are quite interesting because they have more fibre the less ripe they are. You've said this to me before and I didn't like the unripe banana thing. So the unripe banana is, yes, because it's full of resistant starch, is great, but the riper it becomes, the more that kind of turns to sugar. But apples are great because they're full of pectin and other things that your gut bugs love. So in fact, if you've had a tummy upset, having apple, pureed apple is quite helpful. Brilliant. Right. We're going to see if this one tricks you at all. Slice of white bread, is it higher or lower in fibre? Well, I would say lower, but it would depend on the white bread you were buying. Well, the answer is lower. So whatever the white bread that was based on was that white bread. But it's 0.9 grams is what it was I read it off the list. Yeah. Very processed. So the reason that it is white and highly palatable is because they've basically taken out all of the fibre. And so it's really just a starch that's going to be rapidly turned into glucose when you eat it. Okay, understood. So this kind of leads nicely onto the next one, which is a slice of wholemeal bread. Is that higher or lower in fibre than the white bread? Oh, higher for sure. Of course. Yeah. Yeah, still not a great deal really when you think about it. You'd be much better off with some chickpeas. Okay, brilliant. Next one, broccoli. it higher or lower than wholemeal bread? Yes. So I've got 2.6 grams of fiber in broccoli. much does it? I don't know is the honest answer. I haven't really worked that out yet. But again, what's your average portion of broccoli? Um, you probably say like, yeah, two hands for veggies. That's good. Carrots. Again, you're going to say it depends on the portion size, average portion size. think that they're lower than broccoli. I could be wrong. Hello. You're really good at this. I was expecting you to be. And that's because carrots are a starchy vegetable. basically anything that grows underground tends to be higher in starch than the vegetables that grow overground. So if you're looking to reduce, you know, your of your starch or carbohydrate, then going for those kind of leafy green overgrown vegetables is a better option. Avocado, is it higher or lower than a carrot? It is higher. Do you want to have a stab in the dark for average avocado? How many grams of fiber you expect to see? Like four? It's five. Five, It's really good. Okay. really good. Yeah. And it's of lovely healthy fats as well. So some advice out there is if you eat too many avocados because of the fats, that they can be a bad thing. guess not. healthy fats. They're more known as saturated fats. anyone that loves an avocado, Yeah, don't hold back. That's why I have a problem with some of the, I won't name them, but some of the very famous nationwide diet plans where they tell you that it's okay to eat a bag of Quavers, but you mustn't have an avocado. because they're just focused on the fat or the calories in their diet. It's very frustrating. Okay. Porridge oats higher or lower than avocado. Again, it would depend on the portion size. But I would say probably higher because oats are pretty high in beta-glucans. uh 3.4 so it's not a million miles off. I don't think you did. think I'm confusing things by not telling you the serving size. But we'll carry on. Baked beans. Higher or lower than porridge. that's legumes. I'd say higher. Yeah, legumes are little powerhouses of fibre. I prefer them not to be covered in like a sugary tomato sauce. they're great. So beans, chickpeas, lentils, legumes, all of those sorts of things. And from working with you, you can make your own baked beans as well, can't you? Which would be a lot less sugar included in the production of that. and they're so cheap, cheap and easy. We've got two more. We're almost there almonds are they higher or lower in fiber than baked beans? Ooh, that's a good one. I'm going to say lower. You'd be right. It's 3.5, quite a lot lower depending on the portions. But also, yeah, almonds are high in healthy fats as well, they're good. Last one, chia seeds, higher or lower than almonds, just an average point. Definitely higher. they're also a really good source of vegetarian omega-3s as well. oh They're really good and you can make those into a lovely little cheer pudding for breakfast or whatever then. Did you? well done. thanks for indulging me with that because I might have made myself look like an absolute tit playing that game, but it's worth it, I think. And you've got a chance to teach us some stuff along the way too. You're very welcome. Right, we are going in to the last part of the podcast now, which is the tradition on the podcast, the question from my mum. I'm so excited about this. Your mum sounds so nice. I don't want to disappoint you. She's lovely. I know about that. Sorry, mum. She's going to listen to that. What do mean you don't know if I'm nice? So as always, we're to play the voice note down the phone if I can find it. So I'm going to play this now. Hi Alex, are you surprised that doctors spend so long studying to become a doctor but they actually spend such little time studying nutrition? Thank you. Yes, I agree. Mum's followed that up with, that is a fact. So she really strongly believed it. To defend doctors, they have to know pretty much everything, you know, they're doing all sorts of stuff. But I do wish that there was more of a focus on diet and lifestyle changes rather than just medication. And there are lots of really brilliant doctors out there now who are starting to have a functional medicine approach. So I'm part of the British network of functional medicine practitioners. which is a really lovely free organization that there many nutritionists are in, but also there are lots of GPs, dentists, consultants, osteopaths, lots of people coming together, realizing the power of diet and lifestyle. So your mum is absolutely right, but I'm hoping that the tide is changing. And I know that locally, anecdotally, people have been getting some great advice from some of their GPs around things that they can do. Bear in mind, when I see you or see other clients, you know, I'm seeing you for 45 minutes. Our initial consultation is an hour and a quarter, an hour and a half. The amount of time I have to delve in is much more than the 10 minutes that an NHS doctor gets. So, yeah, again, I'm doing a very balanced answer, aren't I? are, but I think you're just accepting the constraints that are there in one side of the fence and what you're able to do. I think time plays such a big factor to really understand someone. need the time to dive in and really. Absolutely. My hope is that people like me, my profession, will be more accepted within the NHS because I think there's so much we could do, particularly for those chronic lifestyle conditions. So things like diabetes, heart disease and all those sorts of things. Yes, then medication plays a part in it, but the amount of difference you can make with diet and lifestyle is huge. And so if they could then be referred out to, you know, a nutrition practitioner, it could be life changing. And that's where I think we're falling short. And it would save the NHS money in the long run. It's crazy even to hear you say if your profession is accepted by the NHS, this is not some witchcraft or voodoo that you're putting out. It is grounded in evidence and science and as factually grounded as it can be. So yeah, think a lot of people would be shocked to hear you say that, that this is not generally accepted or it's not widely accepted yet. Hopefully as you said, the tide is turning. It is, and there are little pockets around the country where there are different like kind of GP groups and stuff who are starting to bring nutritional therapists in. There's a brilliant em oncologist called Dr. Nina Frilishavil who's building an integrative cancer clinic in London, which is amazing. So it's oncologists, but it's also nutritionists and yoga teachers and everything. Like just fabulous. But again, these things are still private. So there is a real barrier to entry. in terms of whether people can afford to do it or not. So that's how I'd like to see the future of the NHS. If it can continue, would be to have that more integrative approach. So it's not what I do instead of, it's putting the two things together in what's the best form for that individual. Because they might not need medication, but then they might. So you need that other stuff on top of it. But I think your mum's right. They definitely need more training on that. Okay, uh mum will love that. She'll love hearing that and she'll love your answer as well. Alex, it's been an absolute honour. I'm a little starstruck today sitting opposite you because as I said earlier, you have literally changed my life in so many different ways. And yeah, it was an honour when you said yes at short notice to come in on a Monday evening to record. It's genuinely a really uh lovely experience and I enjoyed our session so much and I hope that anyone listening to this goes away and does a bit of research or is inspired to start something new, both career-wise, but also maybe start a new part of their health and wellness journey too. So thank you so much for taking Thank you Cool. Alex, that was so lovely. You amazing. Thank you.