Latest / The Pressing Play Podcast / S2 E4 Pressing Play on Perimenopause and finding your strength again with Corry Matthews

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S2 E4 Pressing Play on Perimenopause and finding your strength again with Corry Matthews · The Pressing Play Podcast

• Jo Fiddy: My guest today has spent nearly 30 years in fitness, nutrition, and sports medicine, and she competed as a professional bodybuilder. Then perimenopause hit after 40, and Corry Matthews not only gained 25 pounds, she found that the strategies that she relied on no longer worked. And she went through some of the darkest moments of her life. then later came an osteoporosis diagnosis. and significant spinal damage from an injury in her competitive years. After major spinal surgery in May 26, she's documenting her journey back to strength and showing women over 40 that midlife isn't the end of our strong years. As Corry so fantastically put it, I'm not training for a stage, I'm training for my next 50 years. My loves, this conversation moved me to my core. I think I will always remember this conversation. It was so powerful, filled with resilience about a woman who wasn't taking no for an answer. And she's using what happened to her to empower women, to support women in perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. I also felt with my interview with Corey that she reminded me why I'm here and why I'm doing this work too. Her mission is so inspiring. Her story is so inspiring. And I can't wait for you to listen. all the way from LA. She is here. It is Corry Matthews. Thank you so much for coming on The Pressing Play podcast. Corry Matthews: I'm so excited to be here. Very excited about this one. Jo Fiddy: it's such a joy. I've got so many questions. And I also know that our listeners and our audience have the questions as well. Like with all your experience, what you've been through, there's a lot to learn. I think they're already getting their pens and paper out at the moment and they're going to be Corry Matthews: Yeah. Jo Fiddy: scribbling down absolutely everything. I'm just going to start really at the very beginning. So you've spent years understanding the body. You were a professional bodybuilder. with that vast amount of experience, understanding the body and exercise, a science expert, a coach, and then around 40 with your own body, you felt like it, it start to change as you're going into perimenopause? Tell us more about that and how that journey began for you. Corry Matthews: Well, I would say at 40, I had just done a big, huge cross-country move. So we lived on the East Coast. We were in Washington, DC, and we moved to Los Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Corry Matthews: Angeles. And I was just starting to meet new people and they were introducing me as this is Corry. She's a former bodybuilder. She's a fitness and nutrition expert. This is what she's been doing for so many years. And at that moment, I felt like the biggest hypocrite because I looked at my own self and I was 25 pounds of body fat overweight. So still had all my muscle and all that kind of stuff, but I just had body fat. And I was like, what is going on? I don't understand this. And right before my 40th birthday, I went to the doctor and I said, what is going on? And I am forty-eight. I'll be forty-nine soon. So this was eight and a half years ago when menopause and perimenopause was not a thing. And I walked in and I said, something's wrong. And she did all my hormones. And I remember I came back, it was my 40th birthday, and I sat down and I was going to meet some friends for lunch afterwards to celebrate my birthday and went in. And she goes, All your hormones are normal. Everything's fine. And I looked at her and I said, Well, I'm not fine. I said, I am not fine. You don't understand. This is what I do for a living. I help women lose weight. I help them get in shape. And I, as 40 pounds or 30 pounds overweight at 40, feel like the biggest hypocrite. I said, I need to fix myself. And I said the depression at that point was really bad. I was dealing with a whole bunch of anxiety and depression. And I, it's interesting now because I look back at this, I suffered really bad postpartum depression. So why wouldn't I sell, you know, have really bad postpartum depression in the perimenopausal kind of depression way? And I looked at her and I said, I think I need some antidepressants or anxiety medicine because I really I I said, I'm not gonna lie to you. There's moments where I think about taking my life because this is, I said, this is my livelihood. This is how I take care of my family. And so I left my 40th birthday with a armed with a prescription for antidepressants and anti-anxiety medicine and you know, called the pharmacy and said, Can I fill these today? Because I felt horrible. Went to that lunch with some friends on my 40th birthday. And I even had somebody, she goes, okay, now that you're turning 40, like what's your big goal and what are you trying to do? And she looks at me, she goes, so is your goal to lose weight? And I looked at her and was like, I fought, I wanted to look at her and like, there's some unwritten rule, like, you don't ask women that. Like, you just don't ask women that. But after that moment, I went home and I called my business partner, and she's five years older than me, and she has her PhD in holistic health. And I just sobbed on the phone. And I was like, we have got to fix this. And you know, long story short, we spent the next year doing all this research and All of these things that we could do. And I went back to the doctor a year later, and all of my labs were still the same. They were still fine. But she looked at me and she says, You've lost a lot of weight. How did you do this? And so I had cracked the code on what it would take. And since then, we've worked with hundreds and hundreds of women to help them feel better during perimenopause Jo Fiddy: Incredible, God that is such a powerful story and I think everyone is like going, what's the code? Which we're gonna get to, we're gonna be chatting more about that. Corry Matthews: Yeah. Jo Fiddy: But that's incredible and do you look back at your 40 year old self? Would you want to just give her a big hug and also to say thank you to her for how the resilience to keep going and knowing that something Corry Matthews: Yeah. Jo Fiddy: wasn't right. And you knew, you knew your body and you were like, no, there's something not right. And I'm going to fight this till I find out what's going on. Would you say that's about right? Corry Matthews: Yeah, because I would say just a couple months after that happened, the job that had moved my husband and I all the way across the country let him go and said, you know, we're sorry, this position, it's just not going work out anymore. And so I remember my husband telling me that and looking at me, and he's like, Why are you not totally falling apart? And I said, It's probably because I'm on medicine right now for anxiety and depression. And I know so many women don't like that stigma. They don't like to turn there, but I'm also one that is very apparent, even though I've done everything with exercise and nutrition and very holistically and very naturally. I also know there is a time and a place when medicine absolutely comes into place for individuals to help. And I'm not afraid to tell people about my journey and how that really helped me. And that when I talk to women that are really struggling, I tell them that's why these things exist is so that we don't have to struggle so bad. But yeah, it What I know now and seeing it and watching myself go through it, it's why I do what I do with women because I want them to know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel after perimenopause. When we get into menopause, if we take care of ourselves in perimenopause, menopause is this beautiful transition. And if you let it be everything it can be, it's amazing. Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And I could so relate to you. I was stress reduced menopause. And I was on SSRIs. back then where I was, and there is so much stigma, but back then that we didn't know anything back then either. I'm 46 now. This is when I was about in my over 10 years ago now. And it was SSRIs and you take what you take to support you and help you. And we didn't know about hormonal health and what you need because it is, it's, we don't realize it's in our brain. We have Estrogen receptors in our brain. It's neurochemical what we're going through, isn't it? I love how you're talking about it. And I love how you're helping other women so, so much. And so what would you say, going back to the code that you were cracking, what started that? So it's from your own personal journey. When did you think, okay, this is working. How can I help other women? How can I take that out there and support people? Corry Matthews: Well, because this had always been my background and people always knew, Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Corry Matthews: I started getting phone calls from the people that I had worked with in their 20s and 30s. Maybe they worked with me post-pregnancy, maybe they worked with me on their bodybuilding journey or just wanted to get in shape. They were reaching out and they're saying, I hit my 40s. Like, are you experiencing this? Are other women experiencing this? What's going on? And so I just started talking about more things to women about this and about the research that I had found. What was working with the women that I had seen. And I just said, more women need to know this. And I think it's because women, no matter what we do, there's this whole, you know, exercise more and eat less that everybody has heard. And so there's this women just feel like it's not so much as that they're broken, but that there's something really, really wrong with them. And it's not necessarily their biochemistry that's wrong, but them themselves. Something they are doing is wrong or bad. And so Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Corry Matthews: Any shred of confidence or ability to go through this, they just lose it. And I work with primarily, I always say 99% of my clients are working women. And so talk about these women in their 40s and 50s when menopause is hitting, they're like at the a height of their career. They're CEOs and COOs and directors, and they're, I I don't know if I can do this anymore. I don't know if I can handle these symptoms or the changes in my body and be in the rooms that I need to be in. And I just said, In my forties, as I started to see some of these women reaching out and finding out the things that I'd done, I said, I have to keep going. I have to figure this out for me and I have to figure this out for all the women that come and work with me so that I can really Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Corry Matthews: help them feel better. Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Yes. Because it does it perimenopause does come at the height of a woman's career. And we're not taught about it at school, let alone women's health. Corry Matthews: Hmm. Jo Fiddy: And even the doctors aren't really taught about it. have to say, let alone us. So you don't know what's going on. You're forgetting things. You're not sure what's happening and your body is changing. And there is a do you find this as well in your own body back then? And with your clients that kind of that grief and frustration with their bodies as they're changing. Corry Matthews: Yes. And they feel like nothing's gonna be good ever again. Jo Fiddy: Yeah, yeah. And that women are blaming themselves for how they're looking as well. Yeah. Corry Matthews: Uh-huh. Jo Fiddy: Yeah, we just have that narrative playing in our heads as well about what we should look and how we should be. Where could someone start if someone's listening right now and they're thinking, okay, I do feel, I don't feel like myself. I haven't exercised, I'm not moving or I'm not sure where to even start. What would you say to them? Corry Matthews: The first thing I always tell people is that somewhere in your mind, skip scrolling on Instagram or Facebook or whatever social media platform, in your mind, you know there's one thing you could do to improve your health. Just one thing. And what I like to tell women is start with that one thing. And once it becomes simpler and easier, and you're like, I got this, I can handle it, then add the second thing. And if they're unsure where to even start. I like to say there's two simple ways that I look at it. If you want to start with either exercise or you want to start with your nutrition, two things that you can just change that are really, really simple. Number one, and I have a guide, a free guide out that's called exercise snacks. So how do you fit in basic exercises that move the needle? And this is for somebody that's maybe never been doing anything. If you brew a cup of coffee or brew a cup of tea or whatever, why that's making, do some squats while you're waiting. Bodyweight squats. You don't need anything else. You can be in your pajamas, you can be in your towel after you got out the shower. And then the next day, use your countertop and do some push-ups while you're waiting. So basic, simple, everyday movements that we need to do. And right there, you've done strength training. And then if you want to get some exercise in movement-wise, just walk. Again, very, very simple. You don't have to walk any crazy amount, but just a little bit of movement. Now I do know that there's a lot of people on the flip side, if they're like, they want that one thing, but they said, My body hurts too much. I can't move, or you know, and I know I think we're gonna talk about it a little bit when estrogen leaves your body, there's all kinds of injuries that can come up. So if everything you're doing hurts, the other flip side on that, on nutrition, is I ask them to really evaluate where their sugar is at. Look at sugar. So that is, and you know, I tell people all the time. When I start working with you, I'm literally not gonna sugarcoat anything because I do significantly pull back on people's sugar. But on the flip side, I've done everything. I have a cookbook, I have recipes that have desserts, I have all kinds of other things. But and especially here in America, we have way too much sugar in our diet. So that's a key thing component. I don't see it as much in other countries as I definitely see it really bad in America. But start looking at, and I'm not saying cut all sugar out. People always think I'm like, cut all sugar, no sugar. What Jo Fiddy: Yes. Corry Matthews: I just want you to look at is what added sugars are you having? Are the things in your nut butters? Are you, are they in your pasta sauces? Are they in your salad dressings? Where are you getting added sugar in products that you might not necessarily need? So if you if that's all you did, you could start making huge changes just by paying attention to what's in your pantry and your refrigerator and going, this has a lot of sugar in it. If the first Four ingredients, if any of those are sugar, it's high sugar. So you can reduce that. When I start to see that inflammation change, it's crazy because I think women don't understand the hormones are all like together. And in our when our estrogen and progesterone start to change, it impacts insulin. So usually when somebody comes and they're saying, I really need to lose belly fat, I really need to lose belly fat, that's a trigger in my brain. I'm like, well, let's look at your sugar and see where your sugar is at. Jo Fiddy: So interesting. And I never have ever thought about if you're feeling achy or you feel like it's hurting to look at your sugar. Can I ask why is that? How does the sugar impact feeling more achy in yourself? Corry Matthews: So it's just, it's really causes an inflammatory response. So if you have too much sugar, then what it does is it causes an insulin resistance. So you're becoming resistant to the insulin that your body is using to digest that sugar. And there is so much research. And this is for me, when everybody asks, what was that turning point for you that really helped me lose the weight? It was the sugar. And the reason why is I came from the bodybuilding industry. So if you think about the bodybuilding industry, bodybuilding industry is all about artificial sweeteners. Every single artificial sweetener, like everything is as sweetened to the max as possible, but it's all artificial sweeteners. So all of my research that I kept doing said you need to get rid of regular sugar and artificial sweeteners in the form of keeping that under 20 grams of added sugar and no artificial sweeteners, with the exception of stevia. And so when I started looking at that and started seeing the changes, I was like, I think this is the missing piece. And so In a lot of my studies in sports medicine and working with professional athletes and different stuff, these hormones are all on this continuum. So you've got estrogen, you've got progesterone, but on the flip side, you have your insulin, your thyroid, and your cortisol. They're all motherload hormones. So if one of them starts to go a little wry, all of a sudden the other ones start to go. So for most women, what they find is if you start to look at their Your and unfortunately your general practice doctor isn't going to pull these labs for you. But when your progesterone starts to dip a little bit, now the body's technically estrogen dominant because they're no longer balanced. Estrogen dominance, there's enough research that shows that it causes insulin resistance. And so if I can for women help them balance their insulin and their thyroid and their cortisol by reducing excess caffeine, reducing some of the sugar, looking at all the processed food they're eating. Those other hormones are more balanced. So now her body can withstand the changes in the estrogen and progesterone a little bit better. And then if you talk to anyone that's diabetic, most diabetics will talk to you about they've got foot disease or they've got eye disease or any of these other things that are achy or painful. That's all from an imbalance of insulin. So once you start regulating that insulin, all of a sudden the aches and the pains feel better, and different things want to feel better. It's, you know, I'll just put this out there, it's like the big elephant in the room. But if you think about it, the number one weight loss drug on the markets today, they all target insulin. So if we can start at the root cause with your nutrition on really teaching people how to eat sugar in moderation in the right balance, it's amazing, like watching the light bulbs and the tears and the frustration and the like, my gosh, I never even thought of this. From women that I talk to about. Jo Fiddy: Well, even talking to you, I'm like, my mind is blown. I'm also just Corry Matthews: Mm. Jo Fiddy: like every day to school day. This is why I'm so happy I'm doing this podcast. Also for myself. So interesting to know it. So look at your sugar and that's, I'm going to go into your, your cookbooks, your digital books that you have as well. Cause you've created these gorgeous, gorgeous books to help with the family as well. Because I think you've got your woman and she's, she's in perimenopause and she's thinking more about sugar and she has a family and you've books haven't you to support that so women with families as well isn't that right? Corry Matthews: Well, because the thing is, is if you think about a mom who has a family who has a career and she wants to start losing weight, most women think, okay, then I have to go on diet food and I have to eat this certain amount of food. But what I wanted it to be is how easy could it be? Is if you can just elevate the nutrition of everybody in your family and just bring them along with you. That's why the cookbook has the equivalent, it's not deep fried chicken nuggets, but you know. their air fryer, oven baked chicken nuggets. We've got pizza in there, we've got pancakes, we've got muffins, we've got brownies and fudge and cookies and all these other options that when I start work working with a woman, I just will say, well, just pick some of these recipes, just slide them into the regular foods and just say, you know, mom wanted to try out some different recipes. And before you know it, you see changes. The biggest complaint I get for women that do this, that are married with a husband and kids, is they will reach out and go, Corry, I have a problem. My husband has lost more weight than me. He's looking better. He's got more energy. And I'm like, unfortunately, you know, that's just kind of how it works with men. You do a little simple changes and they get really results. husbands that are getting results just because mom is making some different foods for the whole family. And, it's it's good principles of focusing on let's eat some more vegetables, let's eat some more, you know, good carbohydrates. And I even give tips in the cookbook that says, okay, mom. If this is your goal and this is what you're looking at, make this meal and then when you serve it, add all the extra cheese or do, you know, crispy, amazing loaf of bread on the side for your family. And you just don't eat that because that's the phase of your journey that we're in. So I don't ever want to make it more complicated because that's the problem. You don't want to make it more complicated, but these women are seriously saying, somebody just tell me exactly what to do. I'll follow along and do it. And the hardest part of the plan is twenty one days. You can do anything for three weeks. Jo Fiddy: Yeah, absolutely, There's so much to unpack here because how many times that I'm one of them when you go to bed and you're just scrolling, you're scrolling, you're trying to find something like, I don't know what to eat, I don't know what to do. The information is overloaded. And also with brain fog, how many times do your family just look at you, right? What's for dinner? And not everyone, know, and it's like, don't have, it's like, don't know. And you're I can't eat another pot of cottage cheese. can't do it to myself, you know? It's like, well, you can rely on for your protein, but it gives you options and you can look in there and you can find things. It can help you with the brain fog. So you're not looking at the fridge and just staring at the fridge. And then also, isn't it, that whole like, eat less, move more that we were taught, it doesn't work now. It doesn't work. Can you also just go into that just a bit more as well to people to really understand? But I think it was really... ingrained into us in the 90s, wasn't it, in the 2000s, this culture of what we were supposed to do. And then there's that frustration of, we talked about insulin resistance, but, it's that frustration of, on, it's not working. I was going to push myself more. I'm going to do more cardio. I'm not going to, I'm going to not eat so much at the moment. Talk through if you would, the damage that can have to our bodies, but also what you can do. How can you press play on your fitness and your life? Corry Matthews: Well, I like to ask women a lot of times when they are in this journey, how do you feel after your workouts right now? And most of them will say, My joints hurt, everything hurts, this is impossible. Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Corry Matthews: And that's my indication. I'm like, okay, well, something's obviously not working. That is not the problem. You know, this is not going to get you to where you want to be. And so when we go back to the basics of different things, I will ask women, when you think of working out or exercise or moving your body, what brings joy to your life? What do you enjoy? Because they will usually say to me, well, okay, when I start talking to them about their routine or what they need to do or whatever, well, I I could exercise for five days. And I said, but what if we could exercise just as many days as you wanted to? And they'll look at me and go, that's not an option. I said, well, what if it was an option? What if it was an option and you could just do what you wanted to do? And they're like, well, I really miss dancing or I really miss I really just love walking my dog or walking on the cliff. I said, great, let's add that in. Let's make that be your exercise. Let's pull back a little bit and focus on the really big basics. And so I wish the research said otherwise, but women, as we age, we have to do strength training. That's just a fundamental given. But the science also shows you can do that in two days a week. Two days a week. If you hit all the major muscle groups, you can do that in two days a week. Then from that, I like to have women do. I want you to move. I want you to move, get up to at least 30 minutes a day of exercise in some capacity of movement. Whether that is every time you go to school and you pick up your kids, you're gonna park as far away and you're gonna walk all the way in and you're gonna walk back. That's movement. You are gonna go grocery shopping and you're gonna walk around the grocery store and you're gonna get movement. You are going to run up and down your stairs 10 times a day and that's gonna give you movement. But What happens is again, I just kind of explained that huge continuum of all those hormones that we were talking about. One of them that I mentioned in there was cortisol. And cortisol is our stress hormone. And so again, estrogen and progesterone are not what they were in our 20s and 30s. So when they are no longer the same as in our 20s and 30s, so this continuum, they're going, I like to say estrogen and progesterone feel like they're going like this. This is why nobody can tell you if you're actually in perimenopause because your hormones are doing this. Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Corry Matthews: And so as they're doing this, cortisol is over here going, okay, I'm doing everything I can to hold on, but you're all of a sudden feeling like I'm not doing enough, I feel broken, I feel fat, I feel like nobody likes me, I feel like my face is like looks so old. So you've got all this stress going on, and then maybe there's demands at work. So your cortisol is already starting to rise. And so if you're doing a workout that's just beating up your body, then You're like, that's not working. But I think what most women fear the most is that means they can never do that kind of exercise again. I will tell you, two years post-menopause, I'm back into doing some of my sprint intervals, like on the bike. I'm doing some of the, you know, maybe a little bit more intense stuff to work on my heart. And it's okay now. It's okay now because my hormones aren't doing this. They're not all over the place. I don't have other things going on. So it's not gone forever. But pull back and allow yourself, your body a little bit more to see. The other thing is, so on the flip side, when you were talking about nutrition in the eat less, if you keep eating less and if you keep eating less and if you keep eating less, then your bay your body basically adjusts to every new low that you start doing. That still happens when we're in perimenopause and menopause. So that adjustment keeps happening. But again, the problem is here that estrogen and progesterone are going crazy. So the insulin isn't working the way it used to work. The thyroid might not be working the way it used to. So many women, if I find when you stop eating, like you eat less and less and less, that negatively impacts your thyroid. And your thyroid is again, it's got energy. It helps you burn body fat. It helps you build lean muscle mass. So if you are negatively impacting these insulin, thyroid, cortisol hormones that help with your regulation of your metabolism, again, you're having issues. When I work with my clients with like, Hormone-balancing foods, I don't make them count macros and I don't make them count calories. Because if you'll eat foods that are nourishing to your hormones, you don't have to count them anymore. But it's, of course, it's not sugar, it's not pizza, it's not fried chicken, you know, it's healthier things. But when you start to eat those and start to love them, and there's this really cool thing that your taste buds change over. Here's another lovely go back to science in school. Your taste buds change over every two weeks. So if you've ever been on a diet Jo Fiddy: What? Corry Matthews: where you start eating more food and liking other things, people will come back to me after working me for three weeks. They're like, you know what? Broccoli all of a sudden tastes a lot better than it did. I'm like, Yeah, because we changed your taste buds over. You've been eating broccoli for the last three weeks. And so now your body's like, Ooh, I like this. It tastes better. Jo Fiddy: Another thing just blown my mind, blown my mind. I Corry Matthews: Ha ha ha Jo Fiddy: did not know this about my taste buds. And also what I love and what I love that you dropped in is life post-menopause. We are not going off a cliff. You know, we're going through a huge transition. Our brain is rewiring, which is we're just one of only a few mammals in the world that this happens to. And as you say, it's keep moving, keep going, and then it does readjust, it finds its own rhythm. You can do things again. And something I talk about is the perimenopausal waiting room. some people could think, it perimenopause comes and that fear of it's coming for me and people can shrink a little bit, get a bit scared of perimenopause. And maybe they don't realize that actually what you do now reshapes your future. So I would think getting women out of that perimenopausal waiting room, because they might feel tired, they might feel achy and I love that your approach is just keep moving through it. It's like unlocking that door, press play and get out of the perimenopausal waiting room because there's more to come. Especially if you look at the 100 year life, we're only in Q2. Like how do you want to spend the next quarter of your life like Q3 and Q4? I think what you're saying is just so valid. It's so interesting. And also with your history as well, because you experienced... osteoporosis and spinal surgery yourself. When did that happen? And the recovery time, did that happen when you were in perimenopause? Corry Matthews: So the surgery, I ended up having the surgery post-menopause. So the surgery was actually four months ago. Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Yeah. Corry Matthews: I had a spinal fusion surgery, but I've been going on. So when I really started noticing all of it was right when I hit. It was at the very all of a sudden I had had my last period. It had been a year and I had my last period, and I remember marking that date and going, okay, I'm officially right now, it's menopause. Right after that. So that was when I was 46. And so I knew that I was gonna do early. Menopause. My mother was done by 45. My grandmother was done by 45. So I just knew it was going to come early. But I started noticing after that, all of a sudden I started having really, really bad back pain. And I had had back pain back in like 2005. I'm pretty sure I tore a hamstring muscle when I was competing in my fitness competitions bodybuilding days. And I'm pretty sure back then I herniated a disc. And so at 46, I started complaining and I went to the doctor, I was like, my back hurts and my hip hurts. And I I remember I looked at the male doctors. I said, could this have anything to do with the fact like I'm officially menopause, like post-menopause now, all my estrogen is like leveled out, all my hormones, and they're like, no, you know, I don't think so. I don't think anything about that. And I was like, Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Corry Matthews: okay. And so I just kept asking, I kept saying something really hurts, and I just not figuring out. And so they did an MRI and they did an x-ray, and it was just this battle of going on and on and on. And so finally, last December. I went back in and I was like, I just you said if I hadn't gotten to this point, then we'd just start all over. So I want to start all over because something's really wrong. I said, when it acts up, I can't get out of my bed. There was one day where I woke up, I called my husband. I was like, I I can't step out of bed. Like the pain it feels like somebody's stabbing me in the back. And so at that point, they sent me through. I had to have like a nerve conduction study where basically like they electrocute you. Yeah, that's as bad, bad, it's about it's bad as it sounds. And that doctor said to me, He goes, I don't mean to alarm you, but I'm pretty sure you have a broken vertebrae. And so that started a spiral of things, and I got a new x-ray. Nobody had ever taken an x-ray sideways. And so we took the x-ray and I looked at it and it came back that I had completely herniated L4, L5, but With my background in sports medicine, they put up the x-ray and I looked at it and I go, that's not supposed to be broken. And my L4, basically, where you've got the vertebrae here and you've got the spinous process, it was just sheared. It was completely broken. And so that wasn't even the bad part, but because I had that herniated disc, my spine was now slipping forward. And so I went on social media that day and I just broke down and I said, you know, menopause literally broke my spine. It broke my back and I was just so because the doctor just kept saying we're gonna give you shots and we're gonna give you this and everything. And one of my friends said, You have to go speak to my wife. She's a leading spine surgeon here in Los Angeles and you need to meet with her. And I went in and she was like, You have a significant instability in your spine. And I was like, okay, what does this mean? And like I was a little freaked out. She said, you know, spine slippage can be point four. Millimeters. And that means that that's that's the range. At point four millimeters, we say that surgery is recommended. She goes, You're at 1.2. Jo Fiddy: Yeah. Corry Matthews: So three times that, and she basically said, You are lucky that you are so fit and so strong, because otherwise you would be in so much pain. She said, Your muscles are the only thing holding your spine in place. And that If I was hit in the car accident in the wrong direction, whatever, I could potentially be paralyzed. And so I'm sitting there going, Okay. And I kind of had gotten myself worked up for this because I had a feeling she was probably going to say this. And she looked at me and she goes, I can fix you. And so at that point, I remember she walked out and left me and my husband in the room. And I looked at my husband, he's like, So what do we think? I mean, whatever. I was like, I'm in. We're doing the surgery. That's all there is to it. Like, we're gonna do it because I can't live this way. And This is never gonna get better, and I'm never gonna be able to move the way I want to move or anything like that. And it was no joke. It's the most painful thing I've ever gone through. I mean, waking up in that recovery room, it it was horrible pain. And the next few days in the hospital were horrible. And it was eight weeks at home, back brace, no going in a car, no leaving the house, not doing anything. But I'm now four months recovery and I'm 98% healed and I feel better. And she had said, even looking at my spine, she said, the rest of your spine, everything you have done, looks beautiful. She said, where it's really osteoporotic is right around where you had that surgery. So she told me, I want to see a year from your surgery date, I want you to go get this osteoporosis screening again and see what you look like. But Sharing this story with women has had so many women reach out to me and say, I've got back pain, I've got this happening, and this is what I've got going on. And had I said, like in that Peri- Menopausal waiting room, when you said that to me and I saw that in your notes, I was like, it is so true. Had I not taken care of myself, had I just subjected to the pain and said, F it, I don't care. I'm just gonna deal with it, just this is what I'm gonna be, I would not be here. where I am with this recovery or feeling because I kept going and I feel kind of almost like higher power divine self. God just said to me when in my 40s, you have a mission to help women. And now again, you have a mission to help women because I think with all the things that are going on in social media right now and all the things we're trying for weight loss or, you know, all the different things with muscle and bones and everything, this is going to become Big and there are going to be women that are going to have issues with their bones and their muscles. And I've got so many tools now to help them feel better and ways that they can do stuff. And also to show them that again, the medical interventions that we do have today aren't as scary and shouldn't necessarily be avoided when they can actually offer real promise and real success. So I feel like it's just my opportunity to tell more women to take care of themselves than that really if you do the damn thing, anything is possible. Jo Fiddy: Yeah. for quite emotional listening to your story. It's just, yeah, it's so powerful. And it's like, even when I can imagine someone's that we can fix you and what you've learned and taking this message out there, because it's like for women, isn't it? It's so much pain is that, it's a given. It's like, you know, or we were at the bottom of the pile. And now is the time and listening to your story. If you are listening to this and you are in pain and you are suffering, it's like the, this is the wake up call to put yourselves first and to prioritize yourself. Go to the doctor. If you don't get the answer you want, go back, find another one and keep fighting or have someone beside you who can help you. because your health Corry Matthews: Mm-hmm. Jo Fiddy: matters, you matter. And we're so the same, I don't want women in that perimenopausal waiting room. That's why I started the Pressing Play podcast, was to bring in incredible guests like you, who could just bring their energy to help them. Someone's, if one person's listened to this in their car right now and going, okay, I need to go and check and If somebody wants to get a test, can you talk through DEXA scan? Corry Matthews: And, you know, for me, when I started asking for it at 46, I was like, I really need to get a DEXA scan. And they kind of looked at me and they said, Well, you know, that's usually for people in their 50s. Like you're really, really young. And I said, I have a family history of osteoporosis. And so I encourage all women. If you have a doctor that says, we you're too young to test your hormones, you're too young to text your bone density. I recently had two, and I'll mention this in just a second. So Anyone listening to this too can understand, but I just say get a baseline. Just tell people you want a baseline. For example, I two years ago they looked at my labs and they're like, your cholesterol jacked up and it's high. And I think what a lot of women don't understand is that estrogen is in our hearts. And this is why I think really heart disease is still the number one killer of women, is because of our hearts. And so With the fact that I had high cholesterol, and they were like, you know, they were talking about statins and they were talking about drugs. And I'm always the one that I want all the due diligence. And I looked at them and I said, Well, what else can you do? I mean, I know I've got, you know, high cholesterol, but what else? And so they had done all the heart tests. And then the final one is I said, Well, can you do a CAT scan of my heart? Because I want to see if there's any calcium buildup in it. And I went in and I did it, and the guy was shocked. He's like, most people that come in for this test are their 70s, so I'm a little like, why are you here? And I said, I want a baseline. And it came back, my score was zero, which is perfect. There was no calcium, no clogged artery, like arteries, any buildup whatsoever. But there's always ways to keep going. So I asked for, a baseline. So that's the key. Pretty much for any of my clients. I tell them, don't go in saying this. Don't say I want to test my hormones to see if I'm in perimenopause. Go and just say, I want a baseline in my hormones. I want to know where I'm at, especially if you're in your 40s and you think things are changing. Just say, I want a baseline. Can I see where I'm at? So in two years from now, three years from now, I know where I'm at. And then you have blood work that you've had already done. Find somebody that knows how to read perimenopausal blood work and ask them to look at that blood work. And they'll probably be able to find little tiny nuances that your primary care physician might not find, but that will affirm for you and go, yep, I thought it was perimenopause. Jo Fiddy: Yes. Find your baseline. I think that's absolutely genius. Because if you go, want to have my hormones tested. We're dismissed. I just feel like we're dismissed. we hear so much about what women lose as they get older, but what have you gained in this chapter? Because you started a podcast, haven't you? What the 40? Which I'm going to put everything in the show notes because it is absolutely incredible. Corry Matthews: So it's really, it's this whole new different confidence that comes in terms of taking care of. And you know, when I was younger, I there was this vanity metrics and you wanted to look a certain way and you wanted to feel a certain way. And as I've gotten to this point, I still have some of that vanity. Like I still, you still wanna look good, but it's also I wanna be able to do things and I wanna feel comfortable doing things and I wanna be there for my kids. I have high schoolers and I'm looking at them and my oldest goes off to college next year. And when I'm looking at her going, she's gonna get married soon and I'm gonna have grandkids and it's just this whole different thing. And I loved how you and I'm gonna use that with my clients and tell them that, you know, we're just coming at the end of quarter two and we have the rest of the other quarters left, is there's so much out there. And you were so right on when you said the body readjusts. this is what In perimenopause, I don't think people think. They feel like that's how it's always gonna be. It's never gonna change. And it takes a little time. It's not like you hit menopause that very day and everything is gone. Your body still, I think one year is almost too premature to get used to those hormones being different. But when you're menopausal, you have one of two things. You either have bare minimum estrogen and progesterone because you're not supplementing with any, you know, hormone replacement therapy, or You have hormone replacement therapy and everything is just level. So it's like nothing we have ever felt before. Because if you think about all the way back to puberty, even then the hormones were changing, right? This is the first time in our lives that we can have our estrogen and progesterone just be level and go through that. And it's like, this is a whole different ballgame to not have, I mean, I'm watching my teenage daughters go through the ups and downs and mood swings and all that kind of stuff and go, I don't have that anymore. Like, I don't have that. Jo Fiddy: Free. Freedom. Freedom. Ugh. Corry Matthews: Yes, and it's amazing. It is amazing. And you stop, you really do. When people, it's not it's not for nothing when you see somebody on social media go, you know, I got to this age and I just don't care about opinions anymore or whatever. It's just you realize that these people aren't paying your bills and they're not dictating your life, and all of a sudden it's not this peer pressure or anything like that. And you're like, I get to live my life for me and the way I want to live it and enjoy it. Jo Fiddy: love it. this is that menopausal, I've it called menopausal zest, which I just adore that menopausal zest for life, which I think yes, yes. And have to say what I asked all my guests this, what are you pressing play on next? Corry Matthews: So I am doing I'm doing more media. So I've recently been doing TV interviews and speaking engagements. So it is getting out in a bigger way that sometimes feels, you know, sometimes I'm a little worried because I am a fitness and nutrition expert. And what are people gonna think about the way I look or about, you know, who I am or whatever, you know, but I can't care about that all because I want a mission. And I think the best way to answer this question is I once had a client and she said, I love the fact that you are normal. You're a normal woman with normal kids and a normal husband with a normal family. And she looked at me and she's like, I'm sorry, did that really offend you? Because the way I said that. And I said, no, I said, because it's women like you that I want drawn to me to realize you don't have to do all the aesthetics or all the drugs or all the GLPs or all the other things that are all out there. You can just decide to enjoy life, navigate it through it, and do it on your own terms and take as much of all those tools that you want to help you get there. And it's it's okay to have a life that you enjoy and you love and for some may think is normal. Jo Fiddy: yes. you can say you've been a spectacular guest. Absolutely spectacular. Really and truly. And how can people find more of you? They're going to come to the end of this podcast and they're going, right. How can we find more of Corry? Where can they find you? Corry Matthews: So, a running joke. So, if you listen to this podcast and you're from America, you will remember a show called Boy Meets World. It's like 26 years old, and there's a boy in it, and his name is Corry Matthews. And so if you go Googling, you're gonna find Corry Matthews from Boy Meets World, and then you're gonna find me. And the running joke is Jo Fiddy: it. Corry Matthews: that show was running when my husband and I were dating, and I looked at him and I said, Hey, if we got married, that would be my name. So his name is spelled differently than mine, but Corry is got two R's. So I like to say it's like sorry, but with a C. So C-O-R-R-Y, and then Matthews has two T's. But if it's just CoryMatthews.com, Corry Matthews on social media, you can find stuff. And I probably I get told a lot of times by any of my mentors and coaches I give away way too much stuff. So every recipe that's in the cookbook for the most part is on my website. It's in my social media. All the workouts and stuff are all there because I just really want to reach women where they're at. Of course, I coach women if they want to work one-on-one to go deeper, but I really want it to be accessible for everyone to get started and just kind of meet them where they're at so that they can get, you know, one step closer to where they want to be. Jo Fiddy: Yeah, definitely. Corry, thank you so much for coming on the Pressing Play podcast. It's been amazing. Corry Matthews: Thank you for having me.