

Discover more from Lou O'Reilly takes out the trash.
“We are looking to work with ten, high functioning women over 40, to help them take back control of their bodies and live their best lives” (words to that effect)
Lord help me.
I won’t say who authored this, but if you were thinking a 20-something year old dude in a home gym with social media game, you’re on the right track.
I asked a couple of times on the Facebook ad - what, pray tell, was a high functioning woman, or more specifically, how did women qualify for this lofty goal of function.
He said “busy women. 40+”.
“Are the bodies robbing banks?” I asked.
“And how are they out of control, so I’ll know whether your programme is the right one for me and my out of control body?”
And.. blocked.
Sure, I might have been trolling a bit. And you can call me cynical, but a wee bro in his early 20’s looking to help busy women control their bodies from an unspecified “out of control” act, has an odour to it that I just can’t put my finger on.
Bullshit.
That’s it.
What this wee bro wanted to do, is first make vulnerable women feel like their bodies are wrong in the first place, and then make bank on a made up solution to an entirely invented problem. Out of control bodies, for goodness sake, have a day off!
And this wee bro is merely one of thousands out there, tricking vulnerable women into handing over a stack of cash in the hope they’ll feel better.
But they won’t feel better by wee bro, because women in their 40’s, that also feel like shit are generally suffering from two things.
They are burned the fuck out. Exhausted from an exceeded mental load. Maybe working out how to be a parent really well, and have a job. Maybe running the lives of other people, not just kids, and actually, there’s no more gas in the tank to do a good job of all the things required of them. So they do a good job of some things, and a super shit job of everything else, and then guilt enters the chat.
The spectrum of menopausal symptoms. Honestly, when it comes to this shit show of mid life, you don’t know what you don’t know, until the symptoms hit you like a sack of bricks, and then you know.
I’d love to be corrected but you probably can’t gym so hard and eat a salad to be free of the feeling of hormones draining from your body. You certainly can’t pay a wee bro a bunch of cash to give you an exercise challenge to feel better.
Endorphins from exercise is one of the best feelings. Moving our bodies is good for health. Eating a colourful range of fruits and vegetables and getting enough protein carbs and fat, can certainly go a long way to mitigating feeling shite. I just don’t think you need a wee bro to tell you how to do that, and you’re probably already doing the best you can in terms of exercise and eating well. Am I right? Aren’t we all out here just doing our best?
Keep your cash, don’t give it to wee bro or any one else who claims to know all the things. If you’re burned out, give it to a specialist who knows how to teach you some coping strategies. If it’s menopause, give it to an endocrinologist who specialises in when hormones go a bit pear shaped.
And if you don’t know what’s up, give it to a travel agent because there is not a single woman over 40 who doesn’t need a break!
Thanks for reading this newsy. I really appreciate the time you give to me for this and I hope you get some value from it. If you have any questions you can reply directly to this email or if you’ve landed here from a link, email lou@sweatypals.nz. You can also follow me on Twitter here, and instagram here.
Please remember while I am a qualified fitness trainer, nutrition is an interest of mine, I am not a registered dietitian or nutritionist. Information shared here is through my own lived experience, personal study or a peer reviewed study I have nerded out on reading and sharing with you.
Lou xx
Out of control bodies..
Preach! 👏
Funny and great advice! Wee bro 💀