{"id":322515,"date":"2026-11-06T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T17:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322515\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T17:16:09","slug":"leah-lizarondo-shares-details-on-her-upcoming-column-about-women-and-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322515\/","title":{"rendered":"Leah Lizarondo Shares Details on Her Upcoming Column About Women and Aging"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Leah<\/a><\/p>\n

PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA<\/p>\n

A familiar face is coming back to Pittsburgh Magazine \u2014 this time to talk about life at the doorway to middle age.<\/p>\n

Longtime readers of Pittsburgh Magazine may remember Leah Lizarondo for her \u201cBrazen Kitchen\u201d column, which ran from 2012 through 2015. What began following her diagnoses of fibromyalgia as a way to treat food as medicine would go on to win national accolades. It also inspired Lizarondo\u2019s later work at 412 Food Rescue, which she founded in 2015 and served as CEO through 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now 53, with two kids in college and one starting high school, Lizarondo is returning to her roots as a writer with a new Pittsburgh Magazine column, 50 Sense. The monthly series will serve as \u201ca journey forward into this new stage of life,\u201d she says, addressing a range of questions and quandaries that women may share as they enter a new chapter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ahead of Lizarondo\u2019s first column, I sat down with her to talk a little about what readers can expect. It was a fun reunion for us; in 2020, when I was a senior journalism student at Duquesne University and Lizarondo was the CEO of 412 Food Rescue, I took part in the Women\u2019s Press Club of Western Pennsylvania\u2019s Gertrude Gordon Writing Contest.<\/a> Each student had a set amount of time to interview Lizarondo about her work and write up an article highlighting her many, many accomplishments. I was honored that my article took home first place<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lizarondo\u2019s new 50 Sense column will be another feather in her cap.<\/p>\n

OG: If you had to give an elevator pitch to this column, how would you describe it?<\/p>\n

LL: So kind of like with the Brazen Kitchen, the reason why I did it was that I was in the process of figuring things out. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and I didn\u2019t want to be on medication for the rest of my life. And so I started doing research, and in that research, I found out that changing the way you eat can have massive implications in terms of alleviating symptoms of not only the autoimmune disease that I had, but many, many things. I really wanted to share that journey with everyone. \u2029 Brazen Kitchen was the result of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m going through this next phase of life, where I\u2019m somewhat experiencing similar symptoms, but in a different way, you know? Like, these body pains, inability to sleep, all of these changes, and I\u2019m starting to educate myself on this process. I thought I could share my experience in the hope that it helps someone, and helps people see that they\u2019re not alone. It\u2019s really in the hopes that what I learned is useful to someone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OG: That\u2019s so exciting! What are some of the topics you want to address?<\/p>\n

LL: I want to address a number of things. So first is the changes in our body, just really physically. What is going on? We talk about estrogen, we talk about hormones. We talk about what it does to our joints and our skin, our hair, our mood, our everything. We talk about our teenage years, puberty, a lot; Now, though, people are talking about this stage of life, and I think the more women are getting educated about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s writing about our bodies, and then writing about other things: Who are the doctors out there that they can go to, physical therapists. Then just the more subtle things like our sleep, and then the other things that we go through in this life; this is the stage of life where a lot of people experience that sandwich period \u2014 caring for your kids, caring for your parents. How do you even navigate that? What support systems do we have out here? And then with our work in our career? A lot of people my age are going through a lot of changes not only physically, but also socially in their relationships. Anywhere from children going off to college, possibly navigating divorce and a new kind of independence, or you\u2019ve spent 20 years in a career, and you want to change. What is that process like?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then when you talk about ourselves too: I\u2019ve had this identity of mother, and that\u2019s in the center of my life. And now that my kids are going off to college, it\u2019s like, how do I get back to myself? Oh, my goodness, I have some time. What do I do with this time? Who do I want to spend time with? So it\u2019s all of these things that you think about.<\/p>\n

OG: It\u2019s a new chapter. But it\u2019s also one that I feel like people historically haven\u2019t really talked about, especially for women. It was just this culture of suffering and silence.<\/p>\n

LL: Exactly. Maybe you don\u2019t even have to suffer at all, because there\u2019s support now. We know more about it now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our bodies are just the starting point, right? But then even how we look; It\u2019s like, even grappling with gray hair. It\u2019s just all of these questions, right? Some of them subtle, some of them really clear and distinct. It\u2019s that range of things I want to talk about, because I know I\u2019m not going through this alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OG: Why do you think this is something that you wanted to write now versus a year ago or a year from now? What makes it feel like this is the time for these stories to be told?\u00a0<\/p>\n

LL: I think I needed time to reach a point where there\u2019s something that I can say about it. If I wrote about it right when I turned 50, I didn\u2019t know what the process was like. Not that I know the full process now, but I feel like I\u2019m a little bit more in it. You know, I knew what kinds of questions I was actually asking.<\/p>\n

OG: Definitely. Can I ask how old you are now?<\/p>\n

LL: 53.<\/p>\n

OG: Oh awesome. Can I put that in the article?
LL: Oh yeah! That\u2019s what this whole column is about. Why are people ashamed to say their age? I read somewhere that, you know, the greatest gift is aging. It\u2019s like when you think about it, it really is. It\u2019s like, to have the opportunity to age is like the best gift. Just be able to say you\u2019ve been on this earth for that long, you know? I\u2019m so happy I haven\u2019t died yet. *laughter*<\/p>\n

OG: You\u2019ve talked about feeling less alone and feeling more empowered to find these resources, but what specifically do you hope readers will take away from this column?<\/p>\n

LL: I hope it\u2019s useful. That\u2019s really it. I hope it answers someone\u2019s question out there. Yes, there\u2019s the Internet for research, but it\u2019s kind of different to hear it from a person\u2019s voice in the city they live in.<\/p>\n

OG: How would you think it\u2019s similar to some of the things you\u2019ve done in the past, like Brazen Kitchen?\u00a0<\/p>\n

LL: It\u2019s great to come home to Pittsburgh Magazine. What I\u2019ve always done is just follow where things bring me. It\u2019s similar in the sense that I\u2019m researching all of these things, I\u2019m learning all of these things. I\u2019m sure there are people with the same questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My perspective is only one perspective, of course, but it\u2019s something to build community around, the same way that the Brazen Kitchen built this particular community around food that just kind of grew and grew and grew. Hopefully for this one, it builds that kind of community as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OG: That\u2019s fantastic. What\u2019s different about this endeavor than previous things you\u2019ve been working on, if anything?\u00a0<\/p>\n

LL: Well, it\u2019s different because it has a subject matter. I mean, that\u2019s really it. It\u2019s not food; there will probably be things about food in it, but it\u2019s not all about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the end, the Brazen Kitchen evolved into something. It started out with recipes, and then it just became about the resources within the community. It became about community and helping others, and in the end, really, it was the start of 412 Food Rescue. So it\u2019s just that cool. You don\u2019t know where it\u2019s going to go. For me, in every journey that I take, I just take the first step.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m grateful to Pittsburgh Magazine for really asking the same questions and knowing that their readers are asking the same questions.<\/p>\n

OG: Are there any challenges that you see in the way people talk about women\u2019s health, or is there still a reluctance to talk about women\u2019s health? How do you think that that conversation is developing?<\/p>\n

LL: There\u2019s a number that I read: only 1% of health research goes to women\u2019s health. Now there\u2019s more awareness that there\u2019s a need, and there\u2019s more women talking about it. There\u2019s Dr. Vonda Wright, who started out in Pittsburgh and is now one of the biggest voices in women\u2019s health. There\u2019s all of this momentum now, and I think that it\u2019s getting easier to talk about it because of that. We know so much more now because no one ever talked about it with me. My daughter will know more about menopause than I ever did.<\/p>\n

OG: What would you say to someone who maybe was a little shy to talk about it?<\/p>\n

LL: Again, hopefully more people talking about it will remove this\u2026 I hate to use the word stigma, but it\u2019s almost like this taboo of even talking about your age. Is there something about being so much younger that passing a certain age invalidates you? It\u2019s all of these questions that are physical, emotional and cultural, really.<\/p>\n

We all age. You can\u2019t stop it. \u2029It happens every year.\u2029I mean, every single moment you\u2019re aging. Age is about a number; it\u2019s time passing. That\u2019s all it is, and it should be celebrated, celebrated again. You\u2019re alive.<\/p>\n

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

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