Show Notes
In this episode, I’m joined again by Dr. Alexandra Sowa for an honest, and grounded conversation about weight, health, and the quiet mental noise so many women live with every day. We talk openly about GLP 1 medications and the complicated emotions tied to our bodies, food, and self worth. I share my own experience starting and stopping medication, the fear that creeps in late at night, the shame and stigma, and what surprised me most when the mental noise returned.
We break down the science in a way that actually makes sense, from hormones and metabolism to why weight gain in midlife is so often blamed on willpower when it’s really about biology. We talk about side effects, safety, and the emotional weight women carry when they feel pressured to pretend it’s all just diet and exercise. Most importantly, we talk about how these medications don’t just change appetite. For many people, they quiet the constant negative self talk that has been running in the background for years.
This episode is not about shortcuts or quick fixes. It’s about removing shame, understanding your body, and learning that needing support is not a failure. It’s about choosing compassion over punishment and trusting yourself again. You are not broken. You are not failing. And you are not alone.
You can find out more here: https://alexandrasowamd.com/
This podcast is a place for trauma survivors as well as their friends and family. This is a safe environment to be vulnerable but it's also a place for celebration and moving forward. Let's all start to embrace who we are becoming by #mentalhealth #selfcare #self #judgingothers #judgingmeghan #suicideawareness #suicideprevention #survivor #WeightWithoutShame #TraumaInformedCare #MentalHealthPodcast #ComplexPTSD #BodyTrust #GLP1 #HormonesAndHealth #MidlifeHealth #FoodNoise #HealingJourney #WomenSupportingWomen #CompassionOverShame #MentalHealthAwareness #GriefAndHealing #YouAreNotBroken Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Judging Meghan
This episode discusses consent, sexual assault, drugs, and other difficult topics that may be triggering for some listeners.
In this episode I’m joined by mental health advocate and speaker Heidi Ambrose for an honest conversation about suicide, grief, and finding hope after loss. Heidi and I first met when I was a speaker at a women's event, there we connected over our shared experiences with loss. She opens up about growing up in New York City with emotionally distant parents and feeling lonely despite having financial privilege. At just 17, Heidi lost her mother to suicide following her parents’ divorce, an experience that changed her life forever.
Today, you’re going to hear a revisited conversation from 2022 between my Mom and me. We talk about her experience being attacked as a young girl and how it forever impacted her life. She has experienced unimaginable loss, including losing both a child and a husband, and has had to learn how to live again after these traumatic experiences.
In this episode, I sit down with Lizzie Semmer, a former pre K teacher who left the classroom and started a new chapter of her life in Portugal. Lizzie shares what it was like growing up between Chicago and Manhattan Beach with a father who worked in Hollywood, and how she eventually began her own career in entertainment, working with her father. After years in the industry, she followed a calling into teaching and spent a decade working with young children before the demands and exhaustion of the post COVID classroom led her to make the difficult decision to walk away.
Two-time Emmy-nominated director/producer of TV and Broadway, Riaz Patel isn’t here because of his credentials. He’s here because of his unusual perspective: a man who has spent virtually his entire life in female-dominated worlds. He grew up surrounded by women — two sisters, countless female cousins — then spent years making television about women, for female-led networks, on female-majority teams, for female audiences. And now, as a gay dad raising two kids, he finds himself once again in a world largely populated by moms.