Introduction

So I’m just going to quickly run through what we’re going to cover today. I’ll start with a short introduction for anyone who doesn’t know me, and then talk a bit about the modern woman — what I see in my practice, what I see generally, and what I experience myself as a woman in my 50s. I’ll explain why blood sugar balance is absolutely key for hormonal balance. Then I want to introduce you to the picture of the nourished woman versus the modern woman, and highlight where the differences lie. After that, we’ll go into the part many of you are here for: what to eat in perimenopause. But before we talk about what to eat, we also need to discuss how we’re eating — and some key tips and considerations there. We’ll then move into what a balanced plate looks like. These are the same principles I recommend to clients in practice and that I use myself day to day. I’ll give you meal ideas to show you how this translates into real food and real plates. And at the end, we’ll have time for questions and answers. In the meantime, if you have questions as we move through the webinar, feel free to put them in the chat. I’m happy to go through them at the end, and if you have questions afterwards, we’ll hopefully have a little time then too. I love talking about this topic, so I’ll try to stay concise! So let’s move on and talk about who I am. My name is Linda Vitzoli. I’m a nutritional therapist and a health coach. I’m also a senior lecturer at the College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM) in London. My fertility journey is really what changed the trajectory of my life. I used to work in the media industry — films and video games — throughout my 20s and most of my 30s. But during that time, I went through multiple miscarriages and a failed IVF cycle. Every test came back normal. Doctors kept telling me nothing was wrong, but clearly something wasn’t right. They couldn’t help me, so I decided to take my health into my own hands. I started looking carefully at my test results, researching everything, trying to understand what was going on. Eventually, I discovered that I actually had an undiagnosed autoimmune thyroid condition. When I began researching, I was overwhelmed by the conflicting information — what to eat, what not to eat, which diets to follow, which supplements to take. I would buy various supplements only to realise later that they weren’t right for me. There was just so much noise and confusion. At some point I said to myself, “I need to figure out how to actually help myself.” The only way I felt I could do that was to go back to school and study how the body works. If I understood physiology — how the body actually functions — then I could filter through all the information and discern what made sense and what didn’t. So I applied to CNM to study nutrition. I spent three years there, implementing what I learned as I went along. Halfway through my first year, I became pregnant again — and this time I was able to carry my baby to term. I gave birth halfway through my second year, and I qualified when my daughter was about 18 months old. She’s now almost 11. Since then, my mission has been to work with women to help them optimise their health and hormones. Hormonal health is one of my biggest passions. I’m deeply passionate about women’s wellbeing, and I see so much information circulating that actually goes against our female physiology. As a woman in her 50s working with many women, I see just how much contradictory and unhelpful advice is out there. My approach is rooted in nourishment rather than deprivation. I’m very passionate about bringing forward what I believe is the most supportive, physiologically aligned approach to women’s health. So that’s me in a nutshell. Let’s get started with what the modern woman looks like today.