What if the life you’ve built no longer fits? In this candid, hope-filled episode, author of A Grown Up’s Gap Year, wellbeing commentator and host Monique van Tulder, interviews fellow author, editor and Fit HIIT Pilates founder, Melinda Louise Hutchings, to talk reinvention, no regrets, and why it’s never too late to rewrite your next chapter.

Melinda Louise Hutchings - who not only contributed a powerful chapter to A Grown Up’s Gap Year, but also edited the book.

Melinda knows what it’s like to take a moment to plan a fresh start - from leaving a life that no longer felt right, to retraining, relocating, and rewriting her own rules. We talk about what really happens when you stop saying “one day” and begin instead.

This episode is for anyone hovering at the edge of change:

• If you’re wondering whether it’s too late (it’s not)
• If you’ve been collecting “maybe later” dreams
• If you need to borrow someone else’s courage before you can claim your own

Melinda shares how she let go of the known, handled pushback, and discovered the unexpected joys of beginning again. We also talk ageing with purpose, rewriting mid-life myths, and the power of Pilates (yes, really).

• fithiitpilates.com

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
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A Grown Up’s Gap Year starts here — Tiny acts, big shifts: the art of feeling alive again. (no job-quitting or plane ticket required).

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram

Before the book, the podcast, or the well-meaning comments about being “so lucky,”... there was a woman who ran away. Not forever - but far enough to hear herself think.

In this bonus episode, author and wellbeing commentator and host Monique van Tulder shares the real reason she wrote A Grown Up’s Gap Year - how this community was born - from financial truths and invisible workloads to the quiet ache of disappearing behind to do lists and family schedules.

This isn’t just about one woman stepping back. It’s about the systems that keep so many stuck - and why it’s time we talked about them.

💬 Includes a book reading from A Grown Up’s Gap Year, powerful insights on motherhood, money, and mental load, and an invitation to rethink what mid-life could really look like.

⚡ This show isn’t fluff - it’s fuel. For women floundering in beige. For daughters watching. For sons who need a new kind of masculine.

Listen now, and begin your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year - no plane ticket required.

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram