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The Health Habit Nobody Puts on Your Supplement List

Writer: Melanie Grime RHN
Melanie Grime RHN
11 minutes ago
4 min read

Last week I went to High Vibe Women, an event with 220 other female entrepreneurs. All of them building something and figuring it out as they go.


And yes, you go to these things to network. To meet people, make connections, but I also go to learn, to be inspired and be reminded. Because sometimes someone says the exact thing you've been hearing for months, maybe years, but she says it differently. Different words, different story, different moment. And suddenly it lands. Something you "knew" becomes something you actually feel. Here are just a few of those moments over the two days.


  • Imposter syndrome being renamed imposter thinking. 

  • Joy is the fastest way to shift your energy.

  • Every woman is a genius and we all owe it to ourselves to go out and play big, because when we do, we change the world for the better.

  • What are you willing to say no to, to protect a larger yes?


Building a business from home, mostly in front of a screen, mostly by myself, can be really lonely. Some days my only coworker is Scout, who is an excellent listener but not much help with a launch plan.


When you're alone with your thoughts long enough, they get loud. The doubt gets louder. The "who do you think you are?" voice gets louder. And you start to believe you're the only one who finds this hard.


Then you walk into a room full of women nodding at the same struggles, and that story falls apart. You're not the only one. You never were.


That feeling of oh, it's not just me sits at the heart of my work with women.


So many women I talk to are convinced they're the only one.


The only one waking at 3am with her heart racing for no reason.

The only one who's completely exhausted no matter how much she sleeps.

The only one who looks in the mirror and feels like a stranger in her own body.

The only one who feels lonely in a house full of people and a calendar full of plans.


I felt like that too but I now know better and I want you to know that you’re not alone. Not even close. And I've come to believe that hearing that from someone who gets it is part of the healing, not a nice extra on top of it.


This is where my nutritionist brain kicks in, because this isn't just a warm, fuzzy feeling. It's physical.


You've probably heard of the Blue Zones: the handful of places in the world where people routinely live into their nineties and beyond, like Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, Nicoya in Costa Rica and Loma Linda in California. Researchers looked at what these communities had in common and found nine shared habits. Some are what you'd expect: moving naturally, eating mostly plants, not overeating. But two of the nine are about people. Belonging to a community, and surrounding yourself with the right "tribe," social circles that support the way you want to live.


In Okinawa, they have something called a moai: a small group of friends who commit to each other for life and show up for each other through everything. I love that so much.


And it isn't only the Blue Zones. In 2010, researchers pooled 148 studies covering more than 300,000 people and found that those with stronger social relationships had a 50% greater likelihood of survival over the course of the studies. They concluded that the effect of our relationships on how long we live is comparable to well-established risk factors, on par with things like smoking.


We'll spend money on supplements, trackers, the right protein powder, and I'm not against any of those! But connection rarely makes the list. And it may be one of the most powerful things we can do for our long-term health.


In midlife this matters so much because it’s often a season when our connections quietly thin out. Kids grow up and the hockey-rink and school-gate friendships fade. Work gets busier. Friendships that only worked when we were over-giving start to drift. We're so used to taking care of everyone else that we stop reaching out for ourselves.


And so many of us learned that needing people is a weakness. That the strong woman handles it on her own.


But you can't white-knuckle your way through midlife alone and expect to feel well. Your body isn't built for that. None of ours are.


You don't need to find 220 women by next week. Start smaller.


  • Who's one person you've been meaning to call or reach out to? 

  • Who do you feel more like yourself around? 

  • Is there a walk, a class, a circle or a coffee you've been putting off because you're "too busy"?


Choosing connection is choosing yourself. It's one of the most ordinary, unglamorous, powerful things you can do for your energy, your mood and the years ahead of you.


When was the last time you were in a room that reminded you you're not alone?


Mel x



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