When Perimenopause Gets Personal: Training Through the Chaos with Shawna Norton (Episode 265)

About this episode

Shawna Norton shares her personal experiences with perimenopause and discusses the challenges women face during this transition.

This week’s guest would like to apologize. Like many of us before perimenopause hit, Shawna Norton admits she used to quietly doubt—even judge—women who said their bodies changed overnight despite doing nothing differently. Then it happened to her. Now she gets it. And she’s genuinely sorry. In this wide-ranging, sometimes raucous, and brutally honest conversation, we dig into her own experience with rapid weight gain, joint pain, brain fog, and the unsettling feeling of living in a body that suddenly feels unfamiliar. We talk cortisol, stress resilience, inflammation, blood sugar management, the complexities of HRT, sleep strategies, and the emotional whiplash of navigating so many unknowns at once. Most of all, we talk about validation—because sometimes the most powerful thing you can hear in this chaotic time of life is: you’re not alone. Shawna Norton, M.S., is a kinesiology specialist, strength coach, and nutrition coach dedicated to helping women build resilient, high-performing bodies. She holds a Master of Science in Kinesiology and is a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer as well as a Level 1 Certified Nutrition Coach through Precision Nutrition. Shawna is the founder of…

People in this episode

Host: Hit Play Not Pause

Guest: Shawna Norton

Topics covered

• perimenopause
• women's health
• fitness
• nutrition
• mental health
• hormone therapy

Keywords

• perimenopause
• weight gain
• joint pain
• brain fog
• HRT
• stress resilience
• nutrition
• fitness

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Competitive Female Training, Deep End Fitness, Precision Nutrition

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