Latest / All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting / 111. TBT: Meredith MacKenzie on figuring out how to reconcile being a high achiever and also new mom

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111. TBT: Meredith MacKenzie on figuring out how to reconcile being a high achiever and also new mom · All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the all figured out episode.
• 0:02
  My name is Andrea Barr. I am your host.
• 0:05
  Thank you for being here again this week.
• 0:08
  I am going to be taking a little break over the holidays, so
• 0:12
  there's going to be a couple weeks here where I will not be
• 0:16
  freshly in your ears. But fear not, I will be back on
• 0:20
  January 8th with all new episodes, amazing guests, some
• 0:24
  solo episodes, some more Youtubes, all the things.
• 0:28
  So don't worry, just taking a little break.
• 0:31
  I personally know that I'm not listening to as many podcasts
• 0:34
  over the holidays, but sometimes it's my chance to catch up on,
• 0:37
  you know, some old episodes that I might have missed.
• 0:40
  And so to help you do that, what I'm going to be doing over the
• 0:42
  next few weeks is actually do some reruns of some of the
• 0:46
  episodes that have resonated with you the most.
• 0:49
  So if you're a new listener or you've just joined in the past
• 0:51
  year or so, I'm going to be playing for you some episodes
• 0:55
  that have really gotten a lot of attention.
• 0:58
  And this is not that These are my favorite guests ever,
• 1:01
  although they were some of my favorite guests for sure.
• 1:03
  These are topics that clearly based on the numbers and
• 1:06
  analytics behind the scenes, we realized there's something to
• 1:10
  these topics that really, really resonated with this audience.
• 1:12
  And so we want to give you the opportunity to listen to it for
• 1:15
  the first time or re listen to it.
• 1:18
  So I want to wish you an incredibly fantastic holiday
• 1:23
  season. I hope that there is so much
• 1:25
  magic for you in the next few weeks, next month, and I hope
• 1:30
  you really take time for yourself.
• 1:32
  I know I'm personally going to this holiday season and I just
• 1:35
  really want to focus on the magic and at all costs, I just
• 1:38
  want to feel that holiday magic for myself, for my kids.
• 1:43
  And in order to do so, I need to be taking care of myself, be
• 1:47
  taking care of, you know, the systems and my business and how
• 1:49
  I'm working. And so I really hope that you
• 1:52
  can take that as well. I hope that there is magic
• 1:54
  whatever you celebrate that this is just a very light filled
• 1:58
  season 1. I know in the northern
• 2:01
  hemisphere, it can be a bit of a dark time.
• 2:03
  And so light those candles, have a bubble bath, go do things that
• 2:07
  really light you up, have the delicious cozy food and just
• 2:12
  enjoy the magic. So that is my that's my holiday
• 2:15
  wish for you. And since it's around the
• 2:17
  holiday season, I want to thank you for being here.
• 2:20
  I think this is always a great time to pause and reflect,
• 2:23
  especially coming up to the end of the year.
• 2:25
  And I'm just so thankful for every single one of you who
• 2:28
  listens. I don't know that I can stress
• 2:30
  this enough. Seeing the numbers in the back
• 2:34
  end and seeing how many of you are here now and how far we've
• 2:39
  grown from even this time last year.
• 2:41
  I don't take it for granted and I don't take it lightly that I
• 2:44
  get to join you on your drive, on your walk, cooking dinner,
• 2:49
  doing chores. I know that's where I listen to
• 2:52
  my favorite podcasts. And so, yeah, if you're
• 2:55
  listening to this, then clearly you listen to the podcast.
• 2:57
  And so I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for
• 2:59
  being here. I know 2026 has got so much in
• 3:04
  store for this podcast for myself, and I know it has so
• 3:08
  much in store for all of you. So yeah, thanks again and I hope
• 3:13
  you have a beautiful holiday season.
• 3:15
  Now let's get into today's guest, We have Doctor Meredith
• 3:20
  McKenzie. So since we recorded episode 6,
• 3:23
  early Early days over 100 episodes ago, Meredith is a dear
• 3:28
  friend of mine. She is a business confidant.
• 3:30
  We met in a business community and we became fast friends.
• 3:34
  Meredith, at the time of our recording, had one baby and she
• 3:38
  was pursuing her pH D and she was in it with the PhD.
• 3:43
  Now we are on the other side of her PhD.
• 3:46
  She is Doctor Meredith McKenzie, and she has a sweet baby girl as
• 3:50
  well. And so it's so fun to kind of do
• 3:53
  a, where are they now? On the podcast, you might have
• 3:55
  been wondering, you know, where did all these people go?
• 3:58
  And that's what's up with Meredith.
• 3:59
  This is a conversation on how to figure out how to reconcile
• 4:03
  being a high achiever and also a new mom.
• 4:06
  Meredith is an extraordinarily high achiever.
• 4:09
  She is an incredible therapist, practice owner, academic friend,
• 4:16
  mother. Oh my goodness.
• 4:18
  She just wears so many hats. And she is the definition of
• 4:21
  high achiever. She can get things done like
• 4:23
  nobody's business. She can grasp all the new AI
• 4:26
  concepts in business ownership like nobody I know.
• 4:29
  So this conversation is still just as relevant as it ever was.
• 4:33
  And I know that you are going to love.
• 4:35
  So if you haven't listened to this episode yet, so please
• 4:37
  enjoy. You're listening to the All
• 4:41
  Figured out podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Barr.
• 4:46
  I'm a career coach for parents, mom of two, and a
• 4:49
  self-proclaimed expert at winging it.
• 4:51
  I've learned one thing, No parent has it all figured out
• 4:55
  and that's OK. So grab a coffee or hide in your
• 4:58
  car for some knee time. We're about to figure out this
• 5:01
  work, life and parenting stuff out together.
• 5:06
  Before we dive into today's episode, I've got something very
• 5:09
  exciting for you to celebrate the holidays and to thank you
• 5:12
  for being a part of this community.
• 5:13
  I am running a special giveaway. Here's how it works.
• 5:16
  Leave me a written review on Apple Podcasts.
• 5:19
  Tell me what you're loving about the show.
• 5:21
  What is resonating or your favorite episode or guest or
• 5:24
  solo episode. And then before you hit submit,
• 5:27
  this part is really important. Screenshot it.
• 5:30
  Head over to andreabarr.com/giveaway and fill
• 5:33
  out a very quick form. You will immediately that my 5
• 5:38
  Steps to Career Clarity guide sent straight to your inbox for
• 5:41
  free and you'll be entered to win a 90 minute strategy session
• 5:46
  with me that you can use in January New Year New Me vets.
• 5:50
  If you want a second entry, leave a comment on Spotify and
• 5:53
  upload that screenshot to the forum as well.
• 5:57
  If you do both of these things, you've got two chances to win.
• 6:01
  I will be announcing the winner on the episode coming out on
• 6:03
  January 8th. I am so excited to hear what is
• 6:07
  resonating with you and I want to thank you in advance.
• 6:11
  Alright, let's get into the show.
• 6:15
  Welcome Meredith McKenzie to the All Figured Out Podcast.
• 6:18
  Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 6:20
  Thank you for having me. So for everyone to get to know
• 6:22
  you a bit more, give us a bit of a snapshot of I know you have a
• 6:26
  very interesting career journey and so I would love for you to
• 6:28
  share with us what was your career journey and how did it
• 6:31
  land you to where you are today? Yeah, I think like a lot of
• 6:36
  people who follow the academia route, there's many, many years
• 6:40
  and steps involved with that. So I actually started a lot of
• 6:44
  my journey and research and the reason for that was, you know,
• 6:47
  you want to build up your resume so that you can be competitive
• 6:50
  for applying to grad school. So I spent quite a few years
• 6:53
  working in research and common thing to say is that research is
• 6:58
  research and I was definitely attracted to the area of
• 7:02
  disorder, heating and women's body image and all things that
• 7:05
  impacted me and my my social friend group at the time.
• 7:09
  And I just wanted to know more about it.
• 7:11
  So I did a lot of work with different labs, which is kind of
• 7:15
  what you do in psychology. So I did research on women and
• 7:20
  their competitiveness with one another, with their bodies, how
• 7:23
  they engaged in disordered eating.
• 7:24
  And that then spurred my own interest for my masters degree.
• 7:28
  And I looked at relationships between men and women and how at
• 7:33
  different stages of your relationship, you might have
• 7:36
  different feelings about your body and engage in disordered
• 7:38
  eating in different ways. And then I'm now doing my, my
• 7:41
  PhD at the University of British Columbia.
• 7:43
  So that's all kind of come from my research experience.
• 7:47
  But then that also led me to my clinical work working with
• 7:50
  women. So I've worked kind of all along
• 7:54
  the the spectrum of eating disorders as well as with
• 7:58
  different each group. So I've worked with children and
• 8:00
  youth with eating disorders as well as adults.
• 8:03
  And finally now I'm in my own private practice at Parallel
• 8:07
  Wellness where I work individually with women as well
• 8:09
  as in groups. And I really do take it all back
• 8:13
  to my research experience and being like, OK, yeah, that was
• 8:16
  the starting point. That's what kind of fueled the
• 8:19
  fire and really helped me understand myself.
• 8:22
  And then also I think it really helps me understand the clients
• 8:25
  that I work with. Oh my goodness.
• 8:27
  Well, firstly, I want to say thank you for the work you do.
• 8:30
  I think it's unbelievable it, I can only imagine how challenging
• 8:33
  it is, but perhaps rewarding. So thank you for that work,
• 8:37
  because I think it's so needed, so important.
• 8:41
  No, when you went into academia. Did you, did you kind of have an
• 8:44
  idea of what route that would or that would take you?
• 8:47
  I did my didn't like, I, I grew up in a very like small town.
• 8:53
  My parents did not go to university, so I didn't have
• 8:56
  that influence for myself. And I, I totally went into
• 8:59
  university thinking I'm going to be a doctor.
• 9:00
  It's like you have 5 choices when you're high achiever of
• 9:03
  what you can be like doctor, lawyer, dentist.
• 9:05
  And I was like, I'm going to be a doctor.
• 9:07
  And I got there and it opened up my experience so much of all the
• 9:11
  different career paths that you can take.
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  And I even think, you know, further down the line I have
• 9:15
  even more ideas of what I could have done.
• 9:17
  But getting there and taking that first psychology course and
• 9:21
  just realizing that there maybe was a solution for me to
• 9:25
  understand the people around me and understand myself better,
• 9:28
  that that shifted things into me wanting to do psychology.
• 9:34
  Wow, that's so interesting. And so then you went there, the
• 9:37
  research group, and it's almost like each, it sounds like each
• 9:40
  phase that you went through, more doors were unlocked and you
• 9:43
  understood more of what might be possible next.
• 9:46
  Yeah, absolutely. And I think so in psychology,
• 9:49
  there's kind of a few streams that you can go into.
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  You can stay the more academia route or research can start
• 9:57
  melding into clinical practice. And so the type of research that
• 10:01
  I was most interested in was the clinical practice.
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  So essentially researching how you work with people, how you do
• 10:09
  interventions, how you help people recover from different
• 10:11
  things. And so it goes really well
• 10:15
  together. And for a long time, I could
• 10:17
  really imagine myself both providing clinical practice and
• 10:21
  doing research. And who knows, maybe that's
• 10:23
  something that's in my future. But yeah, that was my my dream
• 10:26
  of originally. Good for you, and you will have
• 10:31
  also recently become a parent. I have, yeah.
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  So what was the journey like for you to?
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  You are such a high achiever from what I know of you and
• 10:41
  incredibly smart and super driven throughout your Courier.
• 10:46
  You're welcome. Thank you.
• 10:49
  So what was that journey like to?
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  Becoming a parent. Yeah, I I definitely identify as
• 10:55
  being a box ticker. There are things that I wanted
• 10:59
  in life and I was driven and I was going to get them and I
• 11:03
  could figure out the strategy to get there.
• 11:05
  And with academics and career that was that worked really well
• 11:09
  for me and served me really well.
• 11:12
  But from the fertility, having a baby, starting a family side of
• 11:16
  things, it was the complete opposite.
• 11:18
  And I think for me that really threw me for a loop because this
• 11:21
  was something I couldn't control.
• 11:22
  This was something I couldn't figure out.
• 11:24
  Didn't matter what I changed in my diet or my stress levels or
• 11:29
  you know, what time of the month I was trying to make a baby, it
• 11:31
  just wasn't working for us. So we actually tried for two
• 11:35
  years without any kind of intervention.
• 11:37
  And you know, then through all that to China work on my PhD, we
• 11:42
  moved to Newfoundland, Canada for my residency.
• 11:46
  And so lots of things were happening at the same time, but
• 11:48
  we were very focused on wanting to have a baby and it just
• 11:52
  wasn't working. And so we actually connected
• 11:56
  with the fertility clinic in Vancouver and we were able to
• 11:59
  conceive our son. And so huge, huge, huge
• 12:03
  blessing. And something that has shifted
• 12:05
  my life in ways that I never could have imagined.
• 12:09
  But that process of going through fertility, especially
• 12:12
  with trying to balance my career when I'm almost like almost at
• 12:16
  the finish line of finishing my PhD and achieving that, that big
• 12:20
  tick box at the top of the hill, but then really wanting this
• 12:24
  other side of my life as well. I'm sorry that you had to go
• 12:28
  through that door, that struggle on that journey.
• 12:31
  I'm so happy that you're on the other side of it with your
• 12:33
  gorgeous son. What did that feel like to be
• 12:36
  unable to progress that one part of you when your PhD in your
• 12:39
  career was progressing so well? It was incredibly frustrating
• 12:44
  and lonely and I think that that's something that even
• 12:48
  still, I, I wish that it could have been different for me and
• 12:53
  us, but it feels as though it's something that we don't talk
• 12:57
  about. Um, people see that you're doing
• 13:00
  really well and I, you know, people will give me lots of
• 13:05
  praise and congratulations of everything I'm doing career
• 13:07
  wise, but not see that that whole was missing for me and
• 13:11
  something that I, I really desperately wanted.
• 13:14
  And now that I'm on the other side of it, I definitely can see
• 13:19
  how I compensated for that. I think that I felt really
• 13:26
  validated my, my career, that I, that was something that made me
• 13:29
  feel good about myself, something I did have control
• 13:31
  over. So I really threw myself into
• 13:34
  that versus, you know, being home.
• 13:37
  My husband is wonderful and I love the, the relationship that
• 13:40
  we have and the family we've created, the two of us.
• 13:42
  But there was still always something that was missing and
• 13:46
  that we wanted and not having that was, I think, almost too
• 13:52
  heavy of a feeling for me to to really deal with on for so long.
• 13:56
  And people with fertility will explain to you too, like every
• 14:00
  month that you get your period and you menstruate, that's
• 14:02
  another kind of like in your face of the failure of what you
• 14:06
  wanted. That isn't going to happen.
• 14:08
  Another, you know, dash stream. I would have almost like pseudo
• 14:11
  pregnancy symptoms and I'd be like, Oh, I'm feeling nauseous,
• 14:14
  Maybe I'm pregnant, totally wasn't pregnant.
• 14:18
  So and and that's the difference with my fertility is that I just
• 14:21
  could not become pregnant. I had no issues with carrying my
• 14:24
  baby, but I just could not. And so I never knew what it was
• 14:27
  going to be like to be pregnant. And so, yeah, just horribly,
• 14:33
  just devastating. It was horrible at that time.
• 14:36
  And I, I do think that it really impacted my mental health for
• 14:39
  quite a while. What?
• 14:42
  How did you survive that? Like what tools and resources
• 14:45
  were you able to lean on in order to get through that time?
• 14:51
  Being open with my husband and doing a lot of talking was
• 14:55
  really important because it does take a huge toll on a
• 14:59
  relationship and it impacted the way we related to one another
• 15:05
  and the expectations that we had.
• 15:08
  You know, there's only so many times that you can really enjoy
• 15:13
  the process of baby making when it becomes so robotic and
• 15:17
  mechanical and by a certain day. And so that was something we had
• 15:20
  to definitely talk about and just reaching out to other
• 15:25
  people. As much as I said I felt alone,
• 15:29
  I had to be careful with who I told because sometimes the the
• 15:32
  responses weren't helpful. And so keeping it a little bit
• 15:36
  closer to my chest was helpful, I think sometimes.
• 15:39
  And then doing things. So I developed it was also
• 15:42
  during COVID, right? So developing a habit of going
• 15:46
  for a walk every night so that I wasn't sitting at home.
• 15:50
  I lived with my sister for a while.
• 15:51
  Again, COVID and, you know, spending time with people that I
• 15:56
  cared about and I, I wish, I wish I could say that there was
• 16:00
  something that I did that was magical and it helped me cope.
• 16:03
  But really, I think I just survived and I had to really the
• 16:08
  the professionals that I ended up working with, they were the
• 16:10
  people that helped the most. It's incredible letting people
• 16:15
  like yourself who help others who are going through these
• 16:19
  incredibly challenging times. I think finally, the world's
• 16:22
  waking up to the power of counseling and therapy.
• 16:25
  And I think you and I have talked about this before, how
• 16:28
  finally you can talk about it at the dinner, you know, a dinner
• 16:30
  party and say, oh, I'm talking to my therapist about this and
• 16:33
  it's not taboo. And you touched on, you know,
• 16:36
  certain people that just didn't necessarily always have the best
• 16:38
  reactions or responses. And I think we all have had
• 16:41
  those moments in our life, breakups, whatever it is.
• 16:45
  What advice would you give to a friend or a loved one of
• 16:48
  somebody who is going through fertility challenges and how
• 16:51
  they could be a bit more supportive?
• 16:54
  And this is totally going to be a counseling way of supporting
• 16:58
  somebody. But I would definitely say just
• 17:00
  stay in that pain with them and just stay there.
• 17:03
  Like, you don't have to find a solution.
• 17:05
  You don't have to give hope. You don't have to, you know, do
• 17:08
  anything to make anything better because there's no way that you
• 17:11
  can make it better. It's an incredibly unfortunate
• 17:15
  situation for somebody to be in. And if you haven't experienced
• 17:19
  it yourself, you probably don't know what it's like.
• 17:22
  And even that person has never experienced something like that
• 17:25
  before. And it's normal to just be
• 17:27
  struggling and to be having a hard time with it and to just be
• 17:31
  there with them in that pain, you know, listen to what they're
• 17:35
  saying, have empathy for what they're saying.
• 17:38
  And if you do really feel like you need to help, you know,
• 17:42
  maybe it's let's walk and talk or let's, because that's what
• 17:45
  really helped me, just being able to talk it out a lot.
• 17:49
  But just don't feel like you need to make them feel better,
• 17:51
  because to be honest, you probably can't.
• 17:55
  The point? That's such a good point for
• 17:57
  life. What a great counseling
• 17:59
  response. I love that.
• 18:00
  And knowing how much. You've overcome, especially in
• 18:04
  the last couple of years. Pandemic and all.
• 18:07
  What was that mindset, mindset shift like when you did become
• 18:11
  pregnant and you did become apparent and then it's like this
• 18:14
  huge dream of yours has been fulfilled and then you're kind
• 18:17
  of looking back on this career that you created.
• 18:19
  And I imagine, was there a bit of a poll or what was that
• 18:22
  mindset shift like for you? Yeah, I before I obviously I had
• 18:27
  very much invested into my career and my education and
• 18:31
  before I became pregnant, I imagined myself being that
• 18:35
  person that you would take my maternity leave and then return
• 18:38
  to work and that I would be perfectly content with doing
• 18:43
  both at the same time. I, I don't know what how I
• 18:45
  imagined that I would actually physically do that, but that I
• 18:49
  would have that separation or that my identity would just kind
• 18:52
  of stay the same. But now I had an added person to
• 18:54
  my family and it has changed so much.
• 18:59
  For one, just even how I relate to myself and my body has
• 19:03
  changed a lot because I don't think I was fully aware of it,
• 19:07
  but that I was really at war with my body before getting
• 19:10
  pregnant because I was so disappointed that things weren't
• 19:12
  working the way I wanted them to.
• 19:14
  And just kind of repairing that relationship throughout my
• 19:17
  pregnancy and being able to say, like, we did this together,
• 19:20
  you're growing a human way to go.
• 19:24
  Completely fascinated with what my body was capable of doing
• 19:28
  now. And I, I struggle to like put
• 19:32
  words to it because I don't want it to sound as though, you know,
• 19:37
  women need to have children or anything like that.
• 19:39
  But for me personally, my son filled a hole in such a way that
• 19:44
  I did not know existed. And he is so fulfilling and just
• 19:49
  the, the joy that I get with spending time with him every
• 19:51
  day, I want to be there. And it's shifted my priorities
• 19:56
  in a way that's really giving me a lot of perspective on what
• 19:59
  motherhood and parenthood is like, in that I would have very
• 20:04
  probably not in the most compassionate way.
• 20:07
  Compared myself to other parents that I worked with in the past
• 20:10
  and would have thought, Oh well, they're not as career driven or
• 20:13
  they're not as serious and thought less of them almost.
• 20:17
  And I, I really regret that I had those thoughts and feelings
• 20:20
  because I just didn't understand what it was.
• 20:23
  And I used to think like, Oh, you're priority shift.
• 20:26
  So now parenting is more important than the work is less
• 20:30
  important. And that's actually not how it
• 20:32
  is. Instead, it's made me think my
• 20:35
  work is very important and my family is very important.
• 20:39
  And in order for me to have both of those things, my work
• 20:42
  probably has to shift in a way. And, and I have to change to be
• 20:47
  able to do both of those things. Both of those things are both
• 20:50
  things I still want, but I might becoming a parent and becoming a
• 20:55
  mom has just really made me think, wow, like I was so far
• 20:59
  down the, the career path that things are just going to be
• 21:03
  different. I, I just think that the, the
• 21:05
  box ticking too, I realize like what was the end to that?
• 21:08
  Like what was the purpose of that?
• 21:11
  What was the outcome that I was going to get other than the
• 21:13
  golden carrot? The elusive golden carrot that I
• 21:15
  was chasing, chasing, chasing and never receiving.
• 21:19
  And I'm not looking for any carrots like I'm growing my own
• 21:22
  garden now. Man, so well said.
• 21:25
  I'm just thinking, you also gave me that visual, like what is
• 21:28
  that final box? Like what is the very last box
• 21:32
  that we're supposed to be checking on to?
• 21:33
  Anybody actually have that in their mind?
• 21:36
  You know, it's such a it's such a good reminder.
• 21:39
  Do you think that are you feeling like I know that you
• 21:42
  know for our audience just to have a bit more insight you are
• 21:45
  going to be coming out of your mat leave with is in the next
• 21:48
  couple of months. You're still taking 18 months?
• 21:53
  You know what's your? Mindset.
• 21:54
  Like right now in terms of do you feel like being a parent is
• 21:58
  holding you back in any way? Yeah.
• 22:00
  And again, this is like where I thought and maybe this like This
• 22:03
  is why I'm glad I'm here because I'm still figuring it out and
• 22:06
  trying to figure out what will be best for for me.
• 22:10
  And I that's again a huge mindset change of what is good
• 22:14
  for me because in the past I think I've very much dedicated
• 22:18
  myself to my employer and my role and wanting to do a good
• 22:22
  job. Looking for probably some praise
• 22:25
  and adulations from them. And now it's very much come back
• 22:29
  to OK, but what's going to work for me?
• 22:31
  And, and that's the part I'm still figuring out what what
• 22:35
  will long term be the best for me and my family.
• 22:39
  Things that I do know is that I was working a full time career
• 22:43
  as a therapist for the government and I was also
• 22:47
  creating my practice parallel Wellness.
• 22:49
  And I was also doing my PhD and that's there's not that many
• 22:53
  hours in the day. And then where do you fit in
• 22:55
  family time and you know, time for myself as well, which there
• 22:59
  wasn't any time for. So really having to reevaluate
• 23:03
  like what are the, the values that I want to honor going
• 23:08
  forward and what are the things that maybe need to shift and
• 23:12
  change because working that many hours is not going to be
• 23:16
  something that I'll be able to sustain.
• 23:18
  And I almost want to get like the best bang for my buck.
• 23:23
  And not meaning in a financial way, but in terms of those
• 23:26
  outcomes like what are going, if I just had to pick a 5 things
• 23:32
  like what are those five things and how I'm going to get them in
• 23:34
  the least amount of time I guess?
• 23:38
  Yes, what a good way to put it. I've heard on a previous podcast
• 23:41
  that's no longer running that I used to love called Straight and
• 23:44
  Curly. One other episodes was about the
• 23:47
  four. I think it was the four or five
• 23:48
  burners theory and how it would be like if you had a propane
• 23:51
  tank, you know, sitting underneath your desk and you
• 23:54
  turned it on and then there's only so many burners you could
• 23:56
  have running before the tank ran out.
• 23:58
  It's almost like which burners are you going to turn up and
• 24:01
  which ones can you put on simmer or just turn off for a bit?
• 24:04
  You can always come back to them.
• 24:05
  So it sounds like you're kind of in that phase of just deciding
• 24:08
  what you have so many options and you have so much available
• 24:11
  to you. It's almost a a good and
• 24:14
  probably hard problem to have where you're trying to decide
• 24:17
  which ones do you turn on. Yeah.
• 24:19
  And I think too, like, it's because I'm at this like very
• 24:23
  pressured point. If I need to make a decision of
• 24:26
  what's going to work, it's given me a bit more bravery to maybe
• 24:30
  do some things that have scared me in the past, you know, to
• 24:33
  stay the straight and narrow and continue to box check and be the
• 24:36
  overachiever. That was simple.
• 24:39
  You know, you just follow the plan, you just follow the map.
• 24:41
  It's going to workout. And I can imagine that I would
• 24:45
  have a very fulfilling career and a happy life and be
• 24:48
  financially stable and all the good things because box checking
• 24:51
  gets you back. But now that I'm realizing that
• 24:55
  I want something else for myself, it's making me a little
• 24:59
  bit brave of like, what, what else could I do?
• 25:02
  If I didn't follow that plan and I wasn't so rigid about the
• 25:07
  financial stability, what else could I be doing?
• 25:11
  And I guess the, the part that I'm figuring out is is like a
• 25:14
  structured 9:00 to 5:00, five days a week kind of work,
• 25:20
  something that I want to commit to long term.
• 25:22
  And that's such a hard thing to even like verbalize because
• 25:25
  that's really scary. But I I feel like I'm starting
• 25:28
  to get brave about what could life look like if I wasn't
• 25:31
  employed and I took my own path and did something just
• 25:35
  completely on my own. I'm so excited to see what you
• 25:39
  choose and I love the word bravery that you chose for that
• 25:42
  and just stepping into a new season.
• 25:45
  Because there's a lot to lose. And I think like that's where
• 25:47
  people like way out their options.
• 25:49
  There's pensions and consistent pay and colleagues that you can
• 25:56
  rely on. And on the other side, it's
• 25:59
  maybe you're being a little bit more inconsistent with your pay
• 26:02
  or there's the chance that it could be.
• 26:04
  Or is there also the chance that could workout really well
• 26:06
  financially? But I feel like the fulfillment
• 26:08
  that I get from creating things on my own is something that's
• 26:13
  very attractive to me right now, and the possibility that I could
• 26:16
  make my own schedule to spend more time with my son.
• 26:20
  It's almost like you're like, yeah, here's what there is to
• 26:22
  lose, but you also always have to then ask what is there to
• 26:25
  gain? Like if I say no, that is one of
• 26:26
  my saying yes to, which is really interesting.
• 26:29
  I'd love to know about the conversations without divulging
• 26:32
  too many personal intimate details, but what are the
• 26:34
  conversations like that you're having with your husband about
• 26:37
  this? Because we know that oftentimes
• 26:39
  we're in dual income households and it's not just a one person
• 26:42
  decision. It's not just the mother's
• 26:44
  decision to pivot or finagle her career to make things work.
• 26:49
  How is that going and how are those conversations going with
• 26:51
  your husband? Yeah.
• 26:53
  Oh, wow. Until we're gonna get personal,
• 26:54
  then it's kind of funny when we can imagine like the first
• 27:00
  couple dates that we went on, I essentially said to him, like,
• 27:04
  I'm building an empire. I I've got plans, I've got
• 27:07
  things that are happening. And I laid it all out.
• 27:12
  And I think that was also something just in early dating,
• 27:14
  I was pretty scared to do because I was just, you know,
• 27:18
  vulnerable today. And I felt obviously that was a
• 27:21
  good sign that we were a good match for one another, that he
• 27:25
  saw that as a positive and was like, oh, yeah.
• 27:28
  He'll even joke about it now of like, oh, Meredith, you're
• 27:30
  building an empire. And I don't even know if I
• 27:33
  really knew what that meant at that time.
• 27:35
  But like, I, I saw a vision of something that I was building
• 27:39
  and I wanted somebody to build that with me.
• 27:41
  And I'm, I feel very fortunate that he is also of that vision.
• 27:46
  He is happy in his work. And we work very different
• 27:50
  careers. He's very, very supportive.
• 27:54
  And uh, yeah, we talked about finances and I almost just think
• 27:59
  that he sees that I'm confident that financially it would work
• 28:04
  out. And that's probably the, the
• 28:06
  biggest important piece for him because there's also all that to
• 28:10
  weigh out of, you know, how much money do you spend on daycare?
• 28:13
  And there's so many things to be balancing.
• 28:17
  So we're, we're still, I think in the beginning stages of that
• 28:20
  because we do need to lay everything out because it would
• 28:23
  be a lot of moving pieces to make sure that.
• 28:24
  They fit. But me being satisfied, I'm
• 28:28
  very, very fortunate that he values that as well.
• 28:31
  That's huge. That's huge for your happiness,
• 28:34
  not just Meredith. You need to be making X amount
• 28:37
  and screw whatever happiness is that's up.
• 28:40
  There and I guess I can say too like the other piece that's
• 28:45
  complete variable at this point like we don't even know what
• 28:48
  will happen. Is that what do we do with the
• 28:50
  next steps of wanting to grow our family?
• 28:52
  Are we going to experience additional fertility challenges?
• 28:56
  Is this going to take a couple of years for us to try for
• 28:59
  another baby or is it something that's going to happen quickly?
• 29:03
  And the, the structure of, you know, being on maternity leave
• 29:07
  and going back, while I feel very lucky that I live in Canada
• 29:11
  and I have that opportunity to be able to receive those
• 29:14
  benefits from the government, it's, it's still something that
• 29:19
  it feels a little bit restrictive in some ways, right?
• 29:22
  That you, you do need to return and you do owe a certain amount
• 29:25
  of time back before you're even qualified for taking another
• 29:29
  leave. And so also making some plans
• 29:31
  and that way of what would a maternity leave look like or
• 29:34
  would I even be eligible for one?
• 29:36
  Hmm, That's a really good point. And what you're talking about
• 29:39
  for anyone listening is the when you have a top up from your
• 29:42
  government organization that you work for or company, a lot of
• 29:45
  companies are now finally offering things like top ups.
• 29:48
  Yeah, they're often is a period of time that you have to stay
• 29:50
  with the company or organization in order to keep the money that
• 29:55
  you had received as top up during your maternity leave.
• 29:58
  And then the point that you're making as well is that having to
• 30:02
  kind of put in a bit more time is that is that kind of how it
• 30:06
  works. So it's like putting in more
• 30:07
  time before you're eligible for another mat leaf.
• 30:10
  Yeah. So I happened, to be honest,
• 30:12
  looked into the exact number of hours.
• 30:14
  I think they recently changed it again because they had a
• 30:17
  shortened period during the pandemic and they've just
• 30:20
  recently increased it again. So I don't know what the current
• 30:23
  number of hours is that you're required to work before you're
• 30:26
  eligible for like the Canadian government, just one everybody
• 30:30
  gets for Matley. But also the top up is requiring
• 30:35
  a return of service. So the amount of time that you
• 30:38
  take off is the amount of time you go back to the company.
• 30:41
  OK, Can I just say my reaction to that?
• 30:43
  I'm going to be bold. It's such BS that you have to
• 30:47
  put in a certain number of hours when you come back, that you
• 30:52
  have to commit to something that you have no idea you can commit
• 30:55
  to before you have a child, before you bring this little
• 30:59
  human into the world and change your life forever.
• 31:02
  And then that when you come back, you have to put in so many
• 31:04
  hours before you can you're allowed to get pregnant again.
• 31:07
  That is crazy. It is really hard to, like,
• 31:12
  reconcile all that because on one hand, all I can say is that
• 31:16
  I feel so fortunate to be living in Canada, to even have that
• 31:20
  option because I've, you know, communicated and interacted with
• 31:24
  so many women from other countries in the United States
• 31:26
  where, you know, they're expected to go back to work
• 31:29
  after two weeks of birth. And I can't even imagine that.
• 31:33
  Like I was barely even together by that time.
• 31:37
  So on one hand, I'm like, oh, I'm so grateful that I live
• 31:40
  somewhere that values women and our mental health and our
• 31:43
  physical health and the family bonding that happens in the
• 31:46
  first year of life. So wonderful.
• 31:49
  And at the same time, how does it not keep you kind of stuck in
• 31:53
  the decisions that you can make? Absolutely.
• 31:56
  And I imagine there's a lot of people out there and maybe this
• 31:59
  is a huge factor for your family as well, who feel completely
• 32:02
  tied to going back to a job that they recognize is no longer
• 32:05
  right for themselves, their family and financially.
• 32:08
  They can't pay back that money. So they're stuck in it and say
• 32:12
  you take 18 months, you're stuck in it for another 18 months.
• 32:14
  Like that's, that's, that's incredible.
• 32:16
  But I, I love that you said it's, there are two sides to it.
• 32:20
  One side is that we're incredibly fortunate to have
• 32:22
  opportunities like that here. It's almost like giving a gift,
• 32:25
  but like, like you're giving a cookie, but you're like, what?
• 32:29
  I'm gonna hold on to half of it. You can have half the cookie I'm
• 32:32
  going. To show you the full cookie, I'm
• 32:33
  going to let you eat half of the cookie, but I'm gonna hold on to
• 32:35
  the other half. It's like, well, that's kind of
• 32:38
  a weird way of giving a gift, but OK.
• 32:40
  Yeah, I hmm. I I'll say it, but I don't know
• 32:47
  if I really want to say it's not me saying it's not me saying it.
• 32:50
  I've heard the term golden handcuffs used.
• 32:53
  Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:56
  Absolutely it's and it's being talked about war, which I think
• 33:01
  it's everyone's always felt it. Golden handcuffs can also be,
• 33:05
  and again, for anyone listening, golden handcuffs or that feeling
• 33:07
  of organizational or corporate hold on you.
• 33:11
  Things like benefits, stability, paycheck top UPS that you have
• 33:15
  to pay back, stops, pensions, investments within the like, you
• 33:20
  know, having to wait for your stocks to invest.
• 33:23
  If you're within public company, like there's so many of these
• 33:25
  pieces, which again are benefits and it's amazing.
• 33:28
  Those are good problems to have, but they do, especially for
• 33:32
  parents when you're trying to figure it all out, make things
• 33:36
  really, really challenging, difficult.
• 33:38
  Makes me. It's so remarkable to me that,
• 33:42
  you know, the I'm, I'm actually looking at him because I have
• 33:45
  the my second screen here with photos of him revolving through
• 33:49
  it. But that that little person is
• 33:52
  worth so much to me that I'm willing to clearly go through
• 33:58
  discomfort financially to even consider possibly not returning
• 34:02
  or what would life look like if we had to take a pay cut or pay
• 34:06
  back a top up or, you know, even considering all those things.
• 34:09
  I just think it's, I don't know, it speaks a lot to how powerful
• 34:13
  management can be. Would you say that that boldness
• 34:16
  that you were talking about before, that bravery, has it
• 34:18
  increased because of him? As in like twofold, like one
• 34:24
  just even from the box checker mentality of like, well, what
• 34:28
  else is there now? You know, I've got the happy
• 34:31
  home, I have the baby, I have the job.
• 34:34
  Like I almost have my degree. Like what else is there that now
• 34:38
  it's kind of given me a foundation of being like, well,
• 34:41
  let's just try something else. But then also it's made me want
• 34:46
  to, it's going to sound so incredibly corny, but like I
• 34:50
  want to be the best version of me.
• 34:52
  I want to be a part of me that lives a full life and can show
• 34:56
  that to him. I want him to be brave in his
• 34:59
  own life and make choices for himself that aren't based in
• 35:02
  fear or other people's expectations or what he thinks
• 35:05
  he should do. And I want to be a role model in
• 35:09
  that way. So I know that sounds corny, but
• 35:11
  just to be able to, I don't want him to ever look back and say,
• 35:15
  oh, well, my mom did this. Like, I think a lot of us can
• 35:18
  say that about our parents, that, oh, I can see where they
• 35:22
  regretted things and I just don't want to regret anything.
• 35:26
  So tell me more about what we can expect from you in the
• 35:29
  future coming up. Yeah.
• 35:31
  So my group program is called One Body to Love, and it's for
• 35:35
  women who have, you know, struggled with chronic dieting
• 35:38
  and have come to the realization that the experience of
• 35:42
  restricting themselves and then most likely.
• 35:45
  Overeating emotionally. Eating and just really
• 35:47
  developing a a negative relationship with their body and
• 35:51
  food. It's just not working for them
• 35:52
  anymore and they're looking for an opportunity to reconnect with
• 35:56
  their body, is to reconnect with how they relate to food and have
• 36:00
  a more positive relationship. It's a personal experience that
• 36:04
  I've gone through and it's something that I've seen to be
• 36:07
  such a valuable and life changing process for so many of
• 36:11
  the clients that I've worked with individually that I've
• 36:14
  wanted to bring that to women as a group.
• 36:16
  I've done also lots of group work for women in the past and
• 36:20
  so just seeing the magic that can happen when women come
• 36:22
  together and they speak about things in such a vulnerable way
• 36:26
  that, you know, most of the time we don't get the opportunity to
• 36:29
  speak to one another and that just human to human connection.
• 36:32
  So I will be launching or you know, restarting having a new
• 36:38
  start date in February, February 7th or 8th until Wednesday.
• 36:44
  So that's coming up for me and that's really my main focus
• 36:47
  right now. And I think that's what's giving
• 36:48
  me so much passion and excitement of to have this
• 36:51
  opportunity to connect with women on such a deep level and
• 36:54
  to see the the change that happens for them and just
• 36:57
  building a better relationship with themselves.
• 37:00
  That's incredible. Good for you and Congrats on the
• 37:03
  launch and now relaunch and letting more people into the
• 37:07
  really intimate program that I know you've created.
• 37:09
  And if we could kind of go on a tangent there, what experience
• 37:13
  do you have or what do you know about parents, specifically
• 37:16
  mothers who have gone through a pregnancy and who have become a
• 37:19
  different person and gone big body changes and things like
• 37:23
  that? Like what have you noticed in
• 37:25
  that community? Yeah, I think just even like
• 37:31
  women in general, there's so much pressure on us to change
• 37:36
  our bodies or to refit into a body that we had pre pregnancy
• 37:42
  there. It's kind of ironic and horrible
• 37:44
  at the same time that while you're pregnant you get so much
• 37:48
  praise and, you know, excitement and validation for this
• 37:51
  beautiful growing belly that you have and the changes that are
• 37:55
  happening to your body, everybody who's an ozo over it.
• 37:57
  And then almost instantaneously, the expectation is that you're
• 38:01
  going to start at least having the intention to change your
• 38:04
  body and shrink again. And I think if you don't have
• 38:08
  even the intention, it's really looked down upon.
• 38:11
  I know of so many women who feel just, you know, they're, they're
• 38:17
  already struggling emotionally. They've got this brand new role
• 38:20
  of being a parent and trying to work on new identity in that
• 38:23
  realm, having all these emotions that are going on up all night,
• 38:28
  You know, you got spit up all over you.
• 38:31
  And then to imagine, well, now I have to go to the gym and watch
• 38:34
  what I'm eating. And it's important to know too,
• 38:36
  like if you are, you know, breastfeeding or if you're, you
• 38:39
  know, feeding with your own milk, that that actually
• 38:43
  requires you to nourish your body in a way that if you're,
• 38:48
  you know, restricting your food or over exercising in any way
• 38:50
  that that can really impact things and your body still in a
• 38:53
  recovery state for quite a while.
• 38:56
  So pushing yourself beyond what your body is really capable of
• 39:00
  at that point is can be really dangerous.
• 39:05
  And I think it's just a lot of expectation on women.
• 39:07
  So it it really does impact them when they're already going
• 39:10
  through so much. That's a really great way of
• 39:13
  putting it. I I've never actually, I mean,
• 39:16
  I've, I went through it. We went through these
• 39:18
  experiences in similar times. I have an 18 month old and I
• 39:22
  never thought of it that way where you're, yeah, people are
• 39:24
  like, can I touch your belly and they're rubbing you like you're
• 39:26
  a genie. And for the lamp and.
• 39:31
  They're like, has your belly button popped yet?
• 39:33
  Like. They.
• 39:34
  Think things are so cute? Your body is so cute when
• 39:37
  you're. Pregnant, you're so cute, it's
• 39:39
  so beautiful. And then also nobody tells you
• 39:42
  that like you've got that bump for a bit after you give birth.
• 39:45
  Like that thing doesn't just go away.
• 39:47
  You gotta uterus that's the size of a watermelon doesn't just
• 39:49
  shrink overnight and you're healing and you, you have extra
• 39:55
  padding probably, which is healthy and normal and natural
• 39:58
  and is helpful in your post pregnancy from my experience.
• 40:02
  And yeah. And then all of a sudden you're
• 40:04
  supposed to be like, oh, yes, I'm finally cleared for
• 40:07
  exercise. Like I think I remember getting
• 40:08
  cleared. I just see section for getting
• 40:11
  cleared for exercise. I was almost like, what are you
• 40:14
  kidding me? I don't feel ready for that.
• 40:17
  I don't feel like this is safe. Not because my body felt
• 40:20
  physically. You know, still in pain from the
• 40:22
  surgery, but I was like, you trust me to like go and do
• 40:27
  something at like a gym or a like a spinning class.
• 40:30
  Are you kidding me? No way.
• 40:31
  I don't think it was like for a couple more months that I was
• 40:34
  even ready for that mentally that side of it.
• 40:36
  Imagining your program would be really incredible for for new
• 40:39
  parents as well or new moms. And I think too, like the, this
• 40:44
  is something that we do talk in the program, but you know,
• 40:47
  there's things that happen biologically to your body, like
• 40:50
  you mentioned about pregnancy and the way your body changes.
• 40:53
  And you know, for some reason our society really values that
• 40:57
  one specific visual or aesthetic.
• 41:02
  And you know what's so wrong? Like when you mentioned the
• 41:05
  padding, it's like when I look at my stomach, I, I see that's
• 41:09
  the stomach that grew my baby. Like that's the stomach that's
• 41:12
  stretched and the belly button didn't pop.
• 41:15
  It almost popped but the the the skin that stretched and made
• 41:19
  room for him so that he could grow.
• 41:21
  And why is that vilified? Why is that something that
• 41:24
  someone would look at and say ohhhhh she still has the pouch
• 41:27
  when that pouch is amazing. That pouch almost never
• 41:31
  happened. That pouch was something I
• 41:32
  begged for and wanted so desperately.
• 41:36
  Like I that that pouch is awesome.
• 41:38
  I love that pouch. Yes.
• 41:40
  Yes, yes. To the pouch.
• 41:43
  Bring back the pouch. Oh my gosh, Yeah, I I hear you.
• 41:46
  And that's, Oh my goodness. There's so much to it.
• 41:50
  We could talk, we could have a whole other episode.
• 41:51
  We. Will have you back and we'll
• 41:53
  have a whole other episode on that's how things and one more
• 41:56
  question I had thought I was actually I've actually just kind
• 41:58
  of been thinking about recently and working with some parents
• 42:01
  who are recently postpartum or pregnant.
• 42:03
  Currently I've been noticing A trend and just because I'm not a
• 42:07
  counselor psychologist and I do not go into that realm as a
• 42:10
  coach. I always stay in my own lane.
• 42:12
  But you know, talking with people about the things or the
• 42:16
  baggage or their shadow sides that people have before
• 42:18
  pregnancy. It's almost like you think that
• 42:20
  all that's not going to surface or is is going to be gone and
• 42:24
  you'll have different problems in pregnancy or different issues
• 42:27
  that might pop up when lo and behold, you have anxious
• 42:30
  tendencies before pregnancy. Those can kind of come with a
• 42:33
  vengeance, like in pregnancy. Is that something that you also
• 42:37
  notice? And why is that narrative not
• 42:39
  talked? About like, I don't work
• 42:42
  specifically with women in pregnancy, like there are
• 42:45
  therapists that work with, you know, prenatal and post Natal
• 42:49
  mental health. So I wouldn't say that that's my
• 42:51
  specialty at all. But I can say from my own
• 42:53
  personal experience and it was something that I, I'm grateful
• 42:57
  that I had the training that I have, that I was able to reflect
• 43:00
  for myself and that my experience definitely was that
• 43:03
  those things continue. And it surprised me that almost,
• 43:08
  and I would call it trauma of infertility impacted me
• 43:11
  throughout my pregnancy in a very deep way.
• 43:14
  And that I had to really come to understand that, you know, at
• 43:19
  the time when I was struggling with infertility, I thought it's
• 43:23
  just this mechanical, you know, you make a baby through X&Y and
• 43:28
  this goes together and it's all going to be worked out.
• 43:31
  And these difficult feelings I'm having are just the normal
• 43:34
  response to it not working. But I didn't give it a lot of
• 43:37
  space or even time to really think about it.
• 43:40
  And it wasn't until I was pregnant and in my trying to
• 43:44
  think, I think it was like weeks or 9 weeks, I started having
• 43:46
  some bleeding. Um, so I guess I should probably
• 43:49
  say trigger warning for anybody who has experienced infant loss
• 43:54
  or pregnancy loss that I will kind of just talk a little bit
• 43:57
  about that. But I I was terrified that I was
• 44:00
  going to lose my baby and luckily I did not.
• 44:04
  And then later on in the pregnancy, we also found out
• 44:07
  that we had some very concerning anatomy results that resulted in
• 44:13
  us having to do some very extensive genetic testing and to
• 44:17
  be followed by maternal fetal medicine for quite a number of
• 44:20
  months. Again, very luckily, nothing
• 44:23
  actually came of it. But at the time we were very
• 44:26
  worried about what that meant for the health of our baby and
• 44:29
  what life might look like for him and for us.
• 44:32
  And all of those anxieties and all of that pre fertility,
• 44:36
  infertility trauma came back and I was constantly anxious.
• 44:42
  Every little sign told me that I was gonna lose my baby, I wasn't
• 44:46
  gonna be a mother. And for me, it really took time
• 44:49
  to realize that. It almost felt like I was always
• 44:51
  waiting for that other shoe to drop.
• 44:53
  That in reality, not reality. In my reality, I believed I
• 44:59
  didn't deserve to be a mother, that that's why all this was
• 45:02
  happening, That I was never actually going to be a mom.
• 45:05
  That I didn't deserve it and something was going to happen to
• 45:12
  make things go wrong. And it was almost as soon as I
• 45:14
  realized that I was like, oh, that's not true.
• 45:17
  Like, I 100% deserved to be a mother or, you know, the world
• 45:21
  doesn't work that magically, so no one deserves or doesn't
• 45:24
  deserve or whatever. And it really freed me of that
• 45:29
  anxiety that I was having. But it took me noticing that to
• 45:33
  make sense of it for myself. But I definitely struggled
• 45:36
  throughout my entire pregnancy with believing that or
• 45:40
  struggling to realize that there was 100% a baby inside of me.
• 45:44
  It was almost like this mental disconnect that I had to do in
• 45:47
  order to survive it because I was so terrified that things
• 45:50
  weren't going to work out. Thank you so much for sharing
• 45:53
  that. I think this is this is
• 45:55
  something, these are the things that aren't talked about and
• 45:57
  these are the things that I can imagine are just really hard to
• 46:00
  talk about as well. But I imagine there's so many
• 46:03
  people who can relate with that, who perhaps had similar
• 46:06
  experiences. So thank you for sharing that.
• 46:09
  And what a hard thing to do when you're growing, you're human to
• 46:12
  try to confront feelings and emotions like that and then have
• 46:15
  to then use that you have, you are truly actually a scientist
• 46:18
  as well and have to come out and step back for a second and say,
• 46:22
  OK, what is reality? What is my reality?
• 46:25
  That's that's just a testament to your incredible strength as
• 46:28
  well. So Meredith, I want to ask you,
• 46:31
  I don't even know what your answer would be to this because
• 46:33
  I don't even know if you have anything left to figure out, but
• 46:35
  what are you still figuring out? I know we've touched on little
• 46:38
  bits and bobs here and. There I feel like I still need
• 46:42
  to figure out what is going to fulfill me or, you know, fill my
• 46:49
  days with joy and, you know, contentment and satisfaction and
• 46:55
  allow myself to be OK that the path might be changing and what
• 47:00
  that would look like. And then figuring out, you know,
• 47:03
  what do we do in the next 5 years?
• 47:05
  Like as soon as I say anything about a five year plan, I get
• 47:08
  really like tick boxy. So I try to hold back on that.
• 47:12
  But you know, when, when is the time that try for another child?
• 47:17
  When do we make decisions about our finances and career?
• 47:21
  All the all the boxes. The boxes that you're trying to
• 47:26
  pack away in the garage for a bit.
• 47:27
  Yeah. This time next year, you're
• 47:29
  going to have a doctor in front of your name.
• 47:30
  Are we gonna have to call you, Doctor McKenzie?
• 47:32
  Yes, and my husband has already agreed that we'll we'll, we'll
• 47:37
  hopefully this time next year. You know, it's all it's all down
• 47:41
  the line and getting things done for my husband's already said
• 47:44
  that he's totally cool with being doctor and Mr. and having
• 47:48
  my name go first. So I'm excited for that.
• 47:51
  I know we're talking about throwing the check boxes out the
• 47:53
  window, but hey, that's a pretty, that's a pretty badass
• 47:56
  check box to left to check on. Imagine there's a lot of people
• 47:59
  here who are going to want to connect with you.
• 48:01
  Reach out, learn more from you, learn more about your program,
• 48:04
  the one body That love program that is launching February 8th.
• 48:08
  So where can everyone connect from you and learn more from
• 48:10
  you? I am most often on Instagram and
• 48:14
  so my Instagram is at parallel Wellness and I also have a
• 48:19
  YouTube channel with the same name, so Meredith McKenzie
• 48:21
  Parallel Wildness, where I mostly talk about disordered
• 48:25
  eating, binge eating, overeating, intuitive eating,
• 48:28
  all those things. And yeah, that's those would be
• 48:33
  the two places that I would suggest finding me.
• 48:35
  Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 48:38
  Thank you again for your vulnerability and your openness
• 48:43
  to just share your experience both as a professional in this
• 48:46
  space, but also as a parent who is going through it right now.
• 48:49
  So thank you so much again. Thank you so much for listening
• 48:55
  and since you made it this far, please share this episode with a
• 48:58
  fellow parent who you love, respect, and want to support.
• 49:03
  And while you're at it, hit me up on Instagram at All Figured
• 49:05
  Out. Andrea, I would love to meet you
• 49:07
  and hear what you are trying to figure out these days.