Episode 18: Your Body Isn’t Broken with Jennifer Rozon
Your Body Isn’t Broken: What If Your Symptoms Are Trying to Tell You Something?
Welcome to another episode of The Truth About Healing Podcast.
You're working out.
You're trying to eat "right."
You're pushing through work, family, stress, and everything else on your plate.
But suddenly, the things that used to work don't seem to work anymore.
Your energy changes. Your sleep changes. Your body changes. Maybe you're experiencing brain fog, bloating, hot flashes, or other symptoms you can't quite explain.
And eventually, you start wondering:
What is wrong with me?
In Episode 18 of The Truth About Healing, Dana sits down with Jennifer Rozon, founder of Revibe Coaching and a midlife metabolic health coach who supports women navigating perimenopause and menopause.
Jennifer knows the frustration personally. Her own experience with hormonal shifts led her to pay closer attention to nutrition, stress, recovery, and what her body was communicating instead of assuming it had suddenly stopped working.
The message at the center of their conversation?
Your body isn't broken.
Sometimes, what feels like your body working against you may be information worth getting curious about.
Listen on Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Episode Highlights
In this episode, Dana and Jennifer explore:
Jennifer's journey from working as a paralegal to becoming a midlife metabolic health coach
How her own experiences with body image, fitness, and nutrition shaped her work
What changed when Jennifer began experiencing symptoms associated with perimenopause
Why many women feel as though they're doing "everything right" but still don't feel like themselves
Why symptoms can be information rather than something to immediately fight
The importance of looking at nutrition, sleep, stress, movement, recovery, and everyday life together
Why under-fueling is something Jennifer frequently sees in the women she coaches
How years of dieting can make eating more feel frightening
Why sustainable changes often start with small, realistic steps
How nutrition and physical state can affect the way we experience stress and daily life
Why Jennifer encourages women to become "detectives" and notice patterns
How she tracked food, sleep, symptoms, digestion, energy, and other factors during her own perimenopause experience
Why more information doesn't always mean more clarity
The difference between using a tool and depending on one tool to do all the work
Dana's personal experience using GLP-1 medication alongside nutrition and exercise
Why strength, muscle, movement, and long-term health matter beyond a number on the scale
Why health isn't one-dimensional
The importance of advocating for yourself while also seeking qualified medical care when needed
Jennifer's belief that pushing harder isn't always the answer
Why rebuilding trust with your body starts with paying attention to it
Memorable Quote
"Your symptoms are not things to fight. They're actually your body's way of communicating with you." - Jennifer Rozon
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Further Learning & Resources
Discover journals, workbooks, consultation resources, and recommended tools designed to support both personal healing and professional growth.
EMDR Therapy Progress Journal
The EMDR Therapy Progress Journal helps clients track healing progress, identify
patterns, document insights, and stay connected to their therapeutic journey between sessions.
Perfect for:
EMDR clients
Trauma recovery work
Reflection between sessions
Tracking healing milestones
EMDR Coach Treatment Planning Workbook
Designed specifically for EMDR therapists, this workbook helps simplify case
conceptualization, target sequencing, and treatment planning.
Ideal for:
EMDR-trained clinicians
EMDR consultation groups
Organizing complex cases
Strengthening treatment planning skills
Meet Jennifer Rozon
Jennifer Rozon is a mom, paralegal, founder of Revibe Coaching, and a midlife metabolic health coach.
Her work supports women navigating perimenopause and menopause through nutrition, strength training, stress awareness, recovery, and sustainable daily habits.
Jennifer's interest in health and fitness began long before she became a coach. After experiencing her own hormonal changes and feeling frustrated by the lack of answers, she began closely tracking her nutrition, symptoms, sleep, energy, digestion, and other patterns.
That curiosity became part of the philosophy she now brings to her work: instead of immediately fighting your body, start paying attention to what it may be communicating.
Her goal isn't simply helping women pursue weight loss. It's helping them better understand their bodies, support their energy, and build habits they can realistically sustain.
Connect With Jennifer
Website: www.revibecoaching.com
Instagram: @Revibeforwomen.
Meet Our Host Dana Carretta-Stein, LMHC
Dana Carretta-Stein is an LMHC, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, founder of The EMDR Coach, and founder of Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling (PLMHC).
Her work focuses on trauma-informed therapy, nervous system healing, EMDR therapy, attachment patterns, and helping people understand the deeper roots behind emotional and behavioral patterns.
Dana blends neuroscience, trauma-informed education, and direct honesty in a way that helps listeners feel both validated and challenged to think differently about healing.
Her core belief: Symptoms make sense when you understand the nervous system underneath them.
Trauma-Informed Therapy Through PLMHC
Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling provides trauma-informed therapy for children, teens, and adults.
Services include support for:
Overthinking
Burnout
Trauma
Emotional overwhelm
Nervous system dysregulation
PLMHC offers in-person therapy in Scarsdale and virtual therapy throughout New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida.
If you’ve been searching for trauma-informed therapy in Westchester or EMDR therapy in Scarsdale, support is available.
Full Episode Transcript
Episode 18: Your Body Isn’t Broken with Jennifer Rozon
Dana:
Welcome to another episode of The Truth About Healing, the podcast that's here to challenge everything you think you knew about therapy.
I'm Dana Carretta-Stein, EMDR and neuro-informed therapist, and I'm on a mission to help 10 million people change their patterns, relationships, and future generations by teaching them how to gain control of their nervous system.
Let's go with it.
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of The Truth About Healing Podcast. I'm your host, Dana Carretta-Stein, here at Cayivisions Studio with Claudio Valenzuela, as always.
And I am here with our guest today, Jennifer Rozon. We've been having fun with saying your last name. I love it.
Jennifer is a mom, a paralegal, and the founder of Revibe Coaching. As a midlife metabolic health coach, Jennifer helps women stop fighting their bodies and start understanding them.
She supports women navigating perimenopause, which I'm so excited to talk to you about because I'm there, and menopause through evidence-based nutrition, strength training, stress awareness, recovery, and sustainable daily habits.
Her work is not simply about weight loss. It is about helping women rebuild trust with their bodies, restore their energy, and fully participate in the lives they have worked so hard to create.
Jennifer, welcome to The Truth About Healing.
Jennifer:
I love it. Thank you so much.
And by the way, you pronounced my name beautifully.
Dana:
Rozon. It was beautiful.
Years of Spanish class.
Jennifer:
Yes. You did awesome.
Thank you. I'm so honored to be here.
Dana:
I'm so glad to have you as well. I'm super excited.
Jennifer:
I love your podcast, so I'm excited to be here.
Dana:
Thank you so much.
Tell us a little bit about you and your background, and then we'll kind of dive right in.
I'm so excited to talk to you about all the hormone stuff.
Jennifer:
I know. Everybody was like, "Oh my God, I can't wait to talk to you about hormones."
Dana:
Oh yeah, please.
This is so stupid. My godfather's favorite joke:
How do you make a hormone?
Don't pay her.
Jennifer:
Oh my gosh. I love that.
Dana:
And that is compliments of Ronald Barberto, everybody.
Anytime people talk about hormones, that joke lives rent-free in my head.
Jennifer:
I'm going to have to borrow that one.
Dana:
It's a good one.
Back to you.
How Jennifer Found Her Way Into Metabolic Health Coaching
Jennifer:
You hit it on the nose with my introduction.
I work at a law firm. I'm also a mom of two teenagers, and I do coaching on the side as well, helping women navigate their hormones and all the things.
I really got into this, not by mistake, but kind of like I was thrown into it because I was starting to experience all these hormonal shifts.
That's where Revibe really came about, with me going through these hormonal shifts and not knowing what the hell was happening to my body.
Dana:
It's like you're saying, "What the hell is wrong with me?"
Jennifer:
Yeah. You just wake up.
Dana:
You're like, "Why am I drenched in sweat?"
Jennifer:
Yeah. What's going on?
Dana:
Why do I have a layer of something in my midsection? I didn't have it last night. Where did it come from?
Jennifer:
Right. Where did that come from?
Dana:
How did you make that transition? Paralegal and then health coach. Tell me about that.
Jennifer:
I've always loved health and fitness. I've always been obsessed with it. I've always loved to work out. I always loved to learn about nutrition.
But back in the '90s, going into health and fitness was not a job.
I was kind of poo-pooed on it. Like, "You need to get a real job, girl. You need to get something that pays the bills."
So I got into law. I actually always loved law, but it wasn't my passion. Nutrition and fitness were my passion, but law paid the bills.
I always dabbled in fitness and nutrition while I was doing my legal work.
Dana:
You still got to do your passion.
Jennifer:
Yes. I still did it because I loved it so much.
Women would always ask me, "I'm going through X, Y, and Z," or, "I have a wedding. What do you recommend for me to lose 15 pounds?"
Back then, in my 20s, I was like, "Oh yeah, let's drop the 10 pounds real quick. Let's make you look amazing."
That's what I loved to do.
Obviously, it transitions now that I'm in my 40s. It's not that anymore.
Dana:
Now it's like, I could do all the things and it's not coming off.
Jennifer:
And it's not working. What do I do?
It's a weird dynamic, but I made it work for myself because I went into law, but I always loved nutrition and fitness, so I always did both at the same time.
Body Image, Comparison, and Learning About Nutrition
Dana:
How did you get into nutrition and fitness? Was it from a young age?
Jennifer:
I always tell this story and nobody believes me.
I was very chubby. I was a very plumpy young girl. Even in my teenage years, I was always the heavy one.
I wanted to get healthy. I wanted to understand why my body looked different from other girls.
Back then it was more of a comparison thing.
Dana:
Oh yeah.
Jennifer:
All the other girls were thin and I wasn't.
Dana:
And that's still very much a thing today.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
For me, probably emotionally, mentally, internally, I think that's what pushed me toward it.
But once I got in there, I really loved it.
I'm like, "Okay, if I do this, this happens. And if I do this, this happens."
Dana:
It becomes like a game, right?
Jennifer:
Yeah. It's a manipulation game.
I jumped into it more because I was overweight, the other girls weren't, and I wanted to change my body to fit in.
I think I was 10 or 12.
Dana:
That must have been hard, feeling like you had to change your body because you didn't fit in.
Jennifer:
That's correct.
Back then, it was so different than it is now. I think women and girls still experience it, too, but back then there was no information.
It was more like you look at the magazine, you see the skinny girls, and it's like, "Here, do this to drop the 10 pounds."
As a teenager, you're going through so many changes. You're going through hormonal shifts. You're going through your menstrual cycle for the first time. Your hormones are going crazy.
And you don't look like the other girls.
So you're forced to think, "Okay, how do I change myself so I can fit in? I don't want to be the odd one out."
It was hard.
But I feel like, for myself, it kind of made me who I am.
Dana:
It drove you to something that you love.
That's where we could say trauma, quote, unquote, can lead to a lot of amazing things because it helps you find your passion.
Jennifer:
Yes. One hundred percent. I think that's what it was for me.
"I'm Doing Everything Right. Why Isn't It Working?"
Dana:
Tell us about who you typically help. What are the struggles they have and the things that set your soul on fire that you love doing?
Jennifer:
The clients who come to me were me.
I was the one who checked all the boxes.
I worked out. I went to work. I did all the things the right way, and I pushed hard. I did everything the hardest.
It worked really well for a while until I went through perimenopause, which was around 38 or 39.
Dana:
Yeah. I'm 46 going on 47. Mine started at 38.
Jennifer:
And six or seven years ago, nobody was talking about it.
The women who come to me are me. They're working really hard, doing all the things, going through hormonal shifts.
You may not even know you're going through hormonal shifts, but something is happening to your body.
You're working really hard, but you're still bloated.
Dana:
And nothing's working.
Jennifer:
Nothing's working.
You're bloated. You have low energy. You can't sleep. You're dealing with brain fog.
You go to the doctor, and the doctor's like, "You're fine. All your lab results are great. Don't worry about it."
Dana:
Those are ranges that are determined by who?
Jennifer:
Not only that. It's not even taking into consideration your life, your stress, what you're doing, how much you're working out, or what you're eating.
The women who come to me are super frustrated. They're doing all the "right" things, feeling like they're doing what they're supposed to do, what society tells them to do, and it's not working.
They're like:
"I'm broken. There's something wrong with me. Fix me."
"Give me something. Give me a supplement. Give me a GLP-1. Give me a peptide. Give me something that'll fix me."
But they're not focused on what is causing these symptoms.
It's more like, "Let's put a Band-Aid on it. Let me just make it go away."
You have to get to the root.
Dana:
That's why I love our overlap, because that's the same thing with mental health.
Getting to the root.
Stop Masking the Symptoms and Start Getting Curious
Jennifer:
I think women are very good at masking.
Dana:
We're so good at it.
Jennifer:
I think we deserve prizes because we're so good at it.
Dana:
Academy Awards.
Jennifer:
Academy Awards, right?
We're fantastic at masking everything.
We're like, "Let's just put a Band-Aid on it. Nobody will notice. I'm having hot flashes. Let me just put a Band-Aid on it."
Dana:
Let me just keep going because the kids need to be taken to sports, all these things need to be done, and we have a project due tomorrow.
Jennifer:
Getting to the root of it is like, "That's too much work. I don't want to do it."
But for longevity, in order for you not to be dependent on these supplements and these things, we need to get to the root cause.
That's basically what I do with the women who come to me.
Let's get to the root of it.
Dana:
Because you want to make sure you're treating the right thing.
Jennifer:
Exactly.
Women are doing so many different things, and they have no idea what they're fixing.
They're just like, "Whatever. Let's try everything."
Dana:
Because we Google stuff, right?
These are my symptoms. I see this thing. It must be this, so let me start taking this supplement.
Data-driven treatment.
Just like in therapy, let's do some assessments, get a baseline, and do a biopsychosocial to understand an entire person's life before we decide on treatment.
Jennifer:
Correct. Absolutely.
It's the same thing with nutrition.
Let's talk about where your stress levels are.
Let's talk about what you're eating.
How long are you going between breakfast and lunch?
Are you skipping breakfast?
Are you eating enough protein?
Are you working out?
How hard are you working out?
Are you giving your body time to rest?
All these things come into play.
It's not just, "Here's your meal plan. Good luck."
It's more in-depth.
Dana:
It's a holistic view and approach.
Jennifer:
Yes.
I think the women who come to me appreciate it because it's not, "Here's your meal plan. Just eat 1,300 calories. You'll be okay."
Dana:
Oh God. That sounds horrible.
Jennifer:
That's what it is out there.
Women feel like every time they hire a nutrition coach or fitness coach, it's, "Here's your workout. Here's your meal plan. See you later. I'll see you in a month."
Dana:
It sounds like they're talking at somebody instead of getting curious first.
Tell me about your life.
Tell me about a day in the life of you so I can really understand why your body is responding the way it does.
Because symptoms are survival strategies.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
It's the way your body communicates with you.
I tell women all the time:
Your symptoms are not things to fight. They're actually your body's way of communicating with you.
Dana:
Yes. It's telling you something.
Jennifer:
Start paying attention.
The women who come into my world appreciate that because I teach them.
If you're having brain fog, what's going on?
Maybe you're not eating enough. Maybe you're not eating enough calories.
If you're waking up in the middle of the night, let's look at what's happening.
It's driven by your symptoms, so pay attention.
That's what I tell the women who come into my world.
Let's pay attention.
Let's listen.
Let's start communicating.
Dana:
Observe.
Jennifer:
Exactly.
For me, it's about trusting our body again.
But how do we get there?
We have to start listening and paying attention.
Dana:
The only way to build trust is to start paying attention and listening.
Become a Detective
Dana:
Can you give us an example of the type of assessment that comes up and what you pinpoint?
Jennifer:
I actually just had a client who signed up with me last week.
She was super nervous because she's going through menopause and she's tried everything under the sun, and nothing worked.
Dana:
It's a fear. Is this going to not work, too?
Jennifer:
Correct.
Is this going to fail me again?
With her, she'd been conditioned to think:
"Let's eat less. Let's move more."
The less you eat, the better you are.
She came to me, and I basically had her become a detective.
Dana:
I love that.
Jennifer:
Let's pay attention to everything that's going on during your day.
You're going through your day and you have no idea what you're eating.
The majority of women, when I ask, "So what do you eat?" they're like, "Coffee and a salad."
Dana:
That sounds awful.
Protein, protein, protein.
Jennifer:
With her, I told her:
"No judgment. For five days, I want you to track what you're eating. If you're not comfortable tracking, that's okay. Let's take pictures. Let me see what you're eating."
It brings awareness.
She was able to conclude, "Holy crap, I'm not eating anything."
And I'm like, "Yes."
Dana:
No wonder you can't think straight.
Your body's literally trying to mobilize to go hunt for food.
Jennifer:
With her, the symptoms were inflammation, bloating, low energy, and lack of sleep.
Those are the four things that came up right away.
Right now we're just working on rebuilding.
Little things. Little steps.
Because this is another thing.
When women want to get healthy or start to build their body again, they do everything.
Cold plunges, fasting, this diet, that diet.
Dana:
They go into a hurricane reaction.
Like a healing crisis.
Jennifer:
Exactly.
You want to do everything, and it's like, okay, take a step back.
Are you really going to be able to sustain all that?
Probably not.
Let's work in little steps.
The Basics Aren't Sexy, But They Matter
Dana:
It's interesting how we all tend to do that.
When something's up, the answer could be so simple, like eat more.
But we go into, "Let me do a cold plunge. Let me do this. Let me jump off a bridge."
Whatever it is for healing.
That's a big part of this podcast.
Let's cut through all the bullshit about what's healing.
It's usually so fucking simple.
It's not that complicated.
When we listen to our nervous system, everything becomes really easy to understand.
Jennifer:
It's so true because a lot of women just don't pay attention.
They want to do everything.
I'm not a trauma expert, that's your field, but I do realize that the way women feel is the way they show up and experience life.
Nutrition has so much to do with it.
When you feel well, when you're well-rested, when you're well-fueled, when you're not undereating, you experience life so differently than when you're under-fueled, not sleeping, lethargic, and hungry.
Dana:
I always say:
Story follows state.
The state of your nervous system dictates the quality of the thoughts you have.
If you are sleep-deprived and malnourished, you're going to be in more of a sense of fight or flight.
Then everything you experience in life is going to be through that lens.
It's going to be, "That person's annoying," or, "This never works out for me."
There's that irritability.
Versus if your body has everything it needs, your nutrients are met, and you're well-rested, something annoying can happen and you'll be like, "Oh, I wonder if that person's going through a hard time."
It's interesting how your thought process can be so different.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
A lot of women just don't realize it.
Dana:
It's so simple.
Jennifer:
It is.
It's the basic crap that works.
Dana:
It's the basic shit.
Jennifer:
It's the basic shit.
It's not the crazy stuff or the injections.
Let's focus on what you really have inside.
Your body's already telling you what it needs.
Pay attention and give it what it needs.
Food Is Fuel
Dana:
When we think of trauma, trauma is not just experiences.
There are things that can be traumatic to our nervous system, and that's where nutrition and assessment become important.
If our body's in survival mode, we want to understand what's contributing to that.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
One of the biggest things women go through is inflammation and bloating.
There's so much out there saying, "Here, take this pill and the bloat will go away. Take this pill and the inflammation will go away."
But are we going to rent out our body to these supplements and everything?
Let's try to figure out the root cause.
What is causing the inflammation?
A lot of women I see aren't eating enough or aren't eating at the right times.
Especially working women.
They're stressed. They're going through so many things, skipping meals, not eating enough, and then they expect their body to perform at this high level.
Let's first focus on giving your body some fuel.
Let's work our nutrition into our life, not the other way around.
Dana:
I always use the analogy with clients:
When you go on a really long car ride, don't you fuel up the gas tank?
Food is fuel.
When we're going through stressful things, we also need to make sure our body has the resources it needs.
Pushing Through Everything Has a Cost
Jennifer:
I think so many women have gone through emotional ups and downs that have made them think:
"I can push through anything."
"I can drive to Albany from Tribeca with a quarter tank. I can do that."
Dana:
No problem. Watch me do it.
Jennifer:
Then you break down midway and you're like:
"Oh my God. What is wrong with me? I must be broken."
You haven't even given your body the things it needs.
Dana:
So much of that is probably coming from years and years of women being suppressed and not being allowed to show up and do stuff.
That drive of, "Watch me do this," can be part of the residual effects of being kept quiet for so long.
Jennifer:
One hundred percent.
I say to my husband all the time, I joke, "The woman who woke up and said, 'Let's go to work,' sit down. I'm tired. I'm done trying to prove I can do everything."
Dana:
Please.
Jennifer:
I want to stay home and raise my kids.
Dana:
I know.
But it's so hard.
Jennifer:
I joke because I love doing it. I would still work.
Dana:
That's so funny.
But it's that inertia, what drives it.
Why Under-Fueling Can Be So Hard to Challenge
Dana:
Where do you see people get stuck the most in your industry?
Is it the under-eating?
Jennifer:
The majority of women I've worked with, it's under-fueling.
Again, we feel like if I cut, cut, cut, then the bloat and inflammation will go away.
It can make things so much worse.
Women come to me saying:
"I'm eating like 1,000 calories, but I'm working out every single day. I'm running a business. I have two little ones."
And I'm like:
"How are you alive right now? How are you functioning?"
The number one thing is definitely under-fueling.
When women have been under-eating for so long, I have to explain that what they're doing may be backfiring for them.
We need to bring their calories up.
Nine out of 10 times, they lose their ever-loving mind.
They're like:
"What? I freaking hired you to help me lose weight and you're telling me to eat more? Are you fucking crazy?"
Dana:
If I heard that, I'd be like, "Yes, finally. I can get on board with this."
Jennifer:
The beginning is more educational.
If you're eating 1,100 calories and you think you need to cut more calories, where are we going?
How far down are we going?
Are we going to get to 500 calories a day and think that's okay?
Dana:
Your metabolic health at that point is going to get destroyed.
And your nervous system is just shot.
That window of tolerance goes...
Everybody, you want to kill them.
Your employees, your boss, everybody.
Food 'tude. Hangry. All of it.
Jennifer:
Women can't comprehend why they can't function or do a project or embark on something new.
"Why can't I do it? Oh, it's my hormones."
No.
It's not just your hormones.
You're hungry.
You need to eat food.
"How Far Down Do You Want to Go?"
Dana:
When do they eventually get the buy-in?
Jennifer:
They get the buy-in when I start educating them.
If you're eating 1,000 calories, how far down do you want to go?
You're eating 1,000 calories. How do you feel right now?
Most of them say, "I feel like shit."
Okay, great.
So we want to keep cutting so we can feel like shit, or feel even worse?
No.
Let's try this for a little bit and see how you feel.
Give it two to three weeks.
Then they're like:
"Oh my God, I have so much energy."
I'm like, "Yeah. What a freaking concept."
Dana:
No kidding.
Jennifer:
Once they experience it, they get it.
I would love to live in a perfect world where I tell somebody something and they're like, "You're so smart. Absolutely."
It doesn't work that way.
Dana:
First let me resist.
Jennifer:
Exactly.
They've gone through so many years of under-fueling that when you tell them the complete opposite, you sound crazy.
They have to experience it, feel the effects, and see that their energy has improved.
Then they're like, "Okay, I got it. Let's keep going."
We're Complicated Houseplants With Emotions
Dana:
That's why I love analogies.
I always use gardening analogies because they're so appropriate.
As human beings, we're really just complicated houseplants with emotions.
That's really all we are.
We need food, sunlight, water.
If you don't water or fertilize a flower, what happens to it?
It starts shriveling up.
It holds on as much as it can.
Our bodies will survive.
We won't necessarily thrive.
Jennifer:
We're just going to get by.
Dana:
Exactly.
And that's the difference.
Stop "Renting Out" Your Body
Jennifer:
I think women are starting to learn more, and perimenopause and menopause are being talked about more, which is great.
But it can also backfire because there's so much information out there.
Women become dependent on the information and kind of rent out their body to supplements, peptides, and all that.
Dana:
I like that term, "rent out their body."
Jennifer:
I always tell women:
"You have information available to you. Start paying attention to your body."
I tell my clients, "You don't need to rent out your body."
Your body can give you information.
Pay attention.
Trust your body.
Listen.
I want women to understand that health is bigger than one supplement or one intervention.
Dana's Experience With GLP-1 Medication
Dana:
I have a question for you.
One thing my endocrinologist told me that was very helpful was about GLP-1s.
I was totally against doing them.
I was having the hardest time after I had my daughter.
I've worked out my whole life. I met my husband at the gym. I am a lifelong fitness person.
I was doing all the things, eating all the things, and the weight would not come off.
Finally, I went to the doctor, and she said I would be a candidate for it.
The way my endocrinologist explained it to me was that there are metabolic and hormonal factors that can affect weight regulation, and the medication may help support those systems.
I did semaglutide first, and then I did tirzepatide.
I lost weight. I feel great.
But the part I don't always love saying is that I also work out like an animal and eat really healthy.
It wasn't just the injection.
I feel like it helped me tap into my body's own ability.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
You just said it right there.
For me, I always tell women they can work on nutrition and lifestyle habits, but there are also situations where medication may be an appropriate tool with medical guidance.
I've had clients who were on GLP-1s but hired me to help them with nutrition and fitness.
They were doing it simultaneously.
You were combining nutrition with it.
Dana:
And I had PCOS, so that was really helpful.
Jennifer:
PCOS is an important medical consideration, too.
But you hit it right on the nose.
You worked out. You watched what you ate. You were combining nutrition with that.
Some women depend on the medication alone.
They do the GLP-1, peptides, supplements, and then that's it.
Dana:
That's not health.
That's not movement.
That's not nutrients.
Jennifer:
Correct.
And when weight loss occurs, preserving muscle is important, especially as women get older.
Dana:
Right.
It's about how to use these tools smartly.
Jennifer:
Exactly.
Use them wisely.
My concern isn't that they're inherently bad tools. They can be helpful for appropriately selected patients under medical care.
But I don't want women thinking a medication replaces nutrition, strength training, recovery, or understanding what their body needs.
There Is No Overnight Fix
Dana:
Everybody wants a quick fix.
They want results tomorrow.
It's the same thing with therapy.
You didn't get traumatized overnight. It's been a lifetime of experiences.
You're not going to feel better overnight.
It takes time.
Jennifer:
Especially with trauma, you have to unravel things.
I'm not a trauma expert.
Dana:
It's the nervous system.
That's where it's fascinating to me because there's so much overlap.
Our experiences can shape our nervous system.
What we ingest can affect how we feel physically.
Our nervous system is constantly shifting and responding to the environment.
There are times when we might get super anxious and that's appropriate.
If there is a stressor or something dangerous, we want that fight-or-flight response to come in to keep us alive.
My husband is in real estate, and once he said, "I have to go to this not-so-great area. I'm really nervous about it."
I looked at him and said, "Good."
He looked at me like I had 10 heads.
I said, "Because if you're anxious, that means you're going to be much more aware of your environment."
You're vigilant.
If someone tries to mess with you, you're going to fight or run away.
I don't want you being so calm that you're not on guard.
Jennifer:
That's actually a really great analogy.
Your Body Is Working With You
Dana:
So much of it, especially as women, is understanding our body.
When we lean into it, we can understand that our body is really working with us.
When we try millions of different things at once, sometimes we're overriding the signals we're trying to understand.
Jennifer:
That's where women usually get stuck.
They're trying to throw all these things at it, and they feel broken because it's not working.
"What else can I throw at it? What else can I eat? What else can I do?"
Start listening to your body.
Pay attention to what it's telling you and bring that information to the professionals supporting you.
Dana:
The body is so savvy.
Jennifer:
It's brilliant.
I'm fascinated with nutrition and how our bodies respond.
Again, I'm not a trauma expert, but I see so much correlation between your emotions and your physical health.
It goes hand-in-hand.
Your body gives you information.
We need to start listening and paying attention.
Becoming Your Own Fact Finder
Dana:
Do you ever use glucose monitors?
Jennifer:
I don't really do that with my clients because I'm a nutrition coach.
Dana:
I heard about it on a podcast and thought, "That sounds cool. I want to try it."
That's how I get myself into these things.
For me, it was wanting to learn about my body.
I do it once a year. I don't have diabetes. I'm trying to understand patterns.
I'll log experiences. If I went through a stressful event, I'll write it down. I'll write down what I eat.
I'm seeing how my glucose responds and how my body is handling the environment.
Jennifer:
That's awesome.
That's basically how I got into doing what I do.
When I started going through perimenopause and nobody was giving me answers, I thought, "You know what? I'm going to start paying closer attention myself."
Dana:
How did you figure it all out?
Jennifer:
Nobody was helping me, so I had to start gathering information.
I tracked my food and my symptoms.
I would eat breakfast, and an hour later I'd ask:
How am I feeling?
How's my energy?
How's my digestion?
I did it for about three months.
I was able to collect so much information and started noticing patterns between what I was eating and how I was feeling.
While I was going through hormonal shifts, I could make adjustments to my habits and see what changed.
Dana:
You were curious.
Jennifer:
Literally.
Dana:
Do you know how many times I'm a total asshole to my kids and then I'm like, "Wait a minute. Did I eat something? Did I not sleep? What's going on with me?"
Jennifer:
That's me.
I started tracking my sleep, my gut health, my skin.
Dana:
The skin is our biggest organ, right?
It can tell us what's going on in our body.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
I wrote everything down.
That's why I tell my clients:
"You're detectives."
Let's be detectives.
Write things down.
At the beginning, it sucks.
Dana:
Sure, but it's also cool when you know why you're doing it.
You're trying to find an answer.
Jennifer:
Yes.
You're gathering information you can use.
Then, if you need additional help, you can bring those observations to an appropriate professional and have a more informed conversation.
The Problem With One-Dimensional Healthcare
Dana:
That's my big issue with healthcare right now.
Sometimes you go to the doctor and it's like, "It sounds like this. Here you go."
But how do you know?
You don't know my life.
We need data-driven treatment.
It's like if you go to a specialist for something, they're naturally going to see your symptoms through the lens of their specialty.
But if you want to understand the entire nervous system, having different professionals who can see the bigger picture can be helpful.
My trainer Lou says it great:
"It's not healthcare. It's disease care."
Our body is a system.
It is not one-dimensional.
Jennifer:
It is a system.
There are so many moving parts.
You can't just say, "It's my hormones."
Are you sleeping well?
Are you eating in a way that supports you?
How are your workouts?
How is your recovery?
Dana:
How is your support system?
That's a huge one in therapy.
We're wired for connection.
I probably say it every single episode.
Without support systems, we're going to be in more of a state of survival.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
Sometimes we're not seeing things for what they are.
We're just saying, "I need to eat less. I need to work out more."
Having support can offer another perspective.
A therapist, nutrition professional, fitness professional, medical provider, whatever is appropriate for what you're dealing with.
Look at the Whole Person
Dana:
I always say it's never one specific thing.
Everything works in tandem.
External stressors in your life.
Things affecting you psychologically.
Nutrition.
Relationships.
Support.
My goal for anyone listening is:
Don't look at yourself through one lens.
Look at yourself biologically, psychologically, and socially.
What's my life like?
Is there an area where I'm lacking that might be affecting the other areas?
Jennifer:
Yes.
Get the information.
Give yourself the capacity to understand what's going on.
Be a fact finder.
Dana:
I love the detective.
"I'm 40. I'm Doomed."
Dana:
What's something people treat as black or white that you see as more complicated?
Jennifer:
In my experience, it's:
"I'm gaining weight. It's my hormones."
"I'm 40. I'm doomed."
"It's downhill from here."
"I'm 45 or 50. What can I possibly do?"
"Let's throw in the towel. It's already too late. I'm so old."
No.
It's not.
There's so much more we can dive into.
My biggest thing right now is helping women with longevity.
Let's live longer and healthier.
Let's not live to 80 and be unable to participate in our lives.
Let's be able to walk up and down the stairs, play with our grandkids, run, move.
Dana:
Have our bodies stay with us.
Jennifer:
Yes.
Your Health Is Yours
Dana:
I want to grow my own shit in my backyard and make my own bread.
Jennifer:
Which is awesome.
Dana:
I'm very big on going against all the shit that's out there.
I want to have a cabin out in the middle of nowhere with my own compound and my own food.
The only thing I won't be able to do is kill my own animals.
I love animals, but I also love meat.
I can't kill my own cows.
My dad was a butcher, too, which is really fucking funny.
I'm the person who puts a spider in a cup and escorts it outside.
Jennifer:
Oh my God. That is hilarious.
Dana:
That's the only problem if I live somewhere in the middle of the woods.
If my dad was still around, he'd probably handle it for me.
I'm just totally feral and insane.
Jennifer's Truth About Healing
Dana:
Jennifer, to wrap up our episodes, what is one truth that has helped you in your own growth?
Something that might not even be a fan-favorite thought, but something you feel in your heart is absolutely true for you.
Jennifer:
For me, it's:
Working hard and pushing hard to the extremes is not always successful.
Dana:
I love that.
Jennifer:
I think I lived my entire life working hard and pushing hard just to be accepted.
Dana:
Over-functioning, right?
Jennifer:
Right.
Now, in my 40s, I'm like, "Fuck that."
Dana:
Girl, bye.
Jennifer:
I'm going to do what I want.
I don't give a shit.
I'm going to speak my truth, and this is why Revibe is here.
Let's start speaking the truth.
Let's start listening to our bodies.
Let's say what we want to say.
Who cares?
I want women to understand their body, trust their body, fight for their body, and not start renting their body out to every new thing that comes along.
Understand your body.
Trust your body.
Dana:
Well-behaved women rarely make history.
I always loved that.
Jennifer:
I love it.
I was always Miss Proper.
Best posture ever.
People would look at me and think, "My God, she's got it so great. She has it all together."
Inside, I was totally not that.
Now, at 40, I'm like, "Fuck this."
I am going to do what I want.
This is what I have to say.
If you like it, great.
If you don't, I'm sorry.
Dana:
As long as you're respectful, kind, and clear, that's all that matters.
I tell my kids all the time:
"Don't be a dick, and don't be a doormat."
Those are the two Ds.
Don't be a dick, and don't be a doormat.
I'm sure I'm going to get a call from school one day. "Your son said dick."
And I'm like, "Well, whatever."
As long as you're kind, clear, and respectful, you can say, "I disagree with that."
That's okay.
Jennifer:
Absolutely.
Respect yourself.
Dana:
And advocate for yourself.
We are often our own worst critics. Nobody else is sitting there thinking about us as critically as we're thinking about ourselves.
Jennifer:
Exactly.
That's why you've got to advocate for yourself.
Where to Find Jennifer
Jennifer:
Dana, I could talk to you all day.
Dana:
Oh my God. This was so much fun.
Thank you so much for chatting with us.
I would love to have you on again and talk about all the things.
Jennifer:
Oh my God, I would love it.
Dana:
Thank you, everyone, for listening to another episode of The Truth About Healing.
Thank you to our guest, Jennifer Rozon, because I needed to throw that in there again.
As always, I am Dana Carretta-Stein reminding you that:
We repeat what we don't repair.
See you on the next one.
Closing
Dana:
Thank you for listening to another episode of The Truth About Healing Podcast.
If you know someone who's still stuck, share this episode with them because, as you know, the truth can set them free.
And if you're ready to get started to see what you need to repair, contact us at Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling, and we will get you started.
Until next time, I'm Dana Carretta-Stein reminding you:
We repeat what we don't repair.
Podcast Disclaimer
This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health or medical advice. Listening does not create a therapist-client relationship. If you need support, contact a licensed professional or your local emergency services.
Crisis Support: If you're in crisis, call or text 988 in the U.S. or contact your local emergency number.
Transcript lightly edited for readability while preserving the meaning and conversational tone of the original recording
Subscribe to The Truth About Healing Podcast
The Truth About Healing is about looking beyond the surface and understanding what's really driving our patterns, emotions, relationships, and behaviors.
Through honest conversations, trauma-informed insights, and nervous system education, Dana challenges common beliefs about healing and offers a more compassionate way to understand ourselves.
Because healing isn't about becoming someone new. It's about understanding what shaped you, repairing what still impacts you, and creating space for something different.
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We repeat what we don't repair.
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