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51. The Real Secret to Consistency With Your Health Habits · Midlife Glow Up: Simplifying Fitness, Nutrition and Healthy Habits for Women over 40

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to paint a picture for you and see if this might sound familiar.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you're in a really good groove with everything.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're getting your workouts in pretty consistently, and you're planning out your meals.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell that you're increasing your protein, you're really working on getting your steps, and you're feeling good about the habits that you have built, and maybe you're even starting to see and feel some progress.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then out of nowhere, life happens.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And work gets crazy, or you have to travel last minute, or one of your kids needs you, or maybe one of your parents needs you, or maybe you even get sick, or you have house guests come, or it's the holidays, or maybe, like me recently, you get injured out of nowhere, and suddenly the routine that was working so well for you isn't even an option anymore.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And before you know it, those healthy habits that you were feeling so good about start to slip away.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then that familiar thought creeps back in, like, oh, I need to get back on track.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Have you lived through some version of this before?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think most of us have.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And today I want to talk about why we keep finding ourselves in this cycle.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And more importantly, how we can get better at taking care of ourselves even when life doesn't look like what we planned.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because the goal is never to create a life where nothing ever interrupts your healthy habits.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is to build healthy habits and a mindset that can adapt when life is lifeing.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Midlife Glow Up Podcast, where we simplify fitness, nutrition, and healthy habits for women over 40.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Joan Dandano, your midlife health and wellness coach.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are ready to feel strong, consistent, and confident in this season of life, then you're in the right place, my friend.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have coached women for about 30 years now, and one of the biggest struggles that I have seen over and over again is that women know what to do.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: We know that strength training is important.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: We know that prioritizing protein is really crucial.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: We know that vegetables are good for us and we know that we should be moving our bodies.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: But truly the challenge is not knowing what to do.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually doing those things consistently, even when life is complicated.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of the problem is that we tend to build our health routines around this ideal picture that we might have in our heads of our lives.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know about you.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I go, oh, I have like not much on this week, I find myself still at the end of the week with a giant list of to-dos that I didn't finish.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because life is always lifing.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have this ideal plan of like, okay, we're gonna work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I'm gonna grocery shop on Sunday, and Monday is my meal prep day, and I'm gonna go to bed at 10 p.m.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna make sure I get all my steps every single day.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And when the week actually cooperates, that plan works out beautifully.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But more often than not, the workout that you had planned for Wednesday gets bumped because your appointment runs long and you get home late on Sunday after traveling and you just don't have time to grocery shop.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then that throws off your Monday food prep plan.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And one night you have a terrible night's sleep, and then the next day somebody needs you and your family, and then something completely changes, and then all of a sudden you find yourself injured like I am right now.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, wait, what happened?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: My perfectly beautiful orchestrated plan is now out the window.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if you follow me on social media or you're in one of my programs, you probably already know that I recently injured my knee uh wake surfing.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a grade one MCL tear.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And in a matter of seconds, on just one last final run on the wake surf, my entire routine has been impacted.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I went from teaching all my classes and demonstrating all the exercises and doing my own workouts and walking and playing pickleball and pedalboarding and all the things that I love to being on crutches and having to figure out what movement looks like for me right now.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell you, this has been a really interesting mindset exercise for me because I am someone who is incredibly consistent with exercise.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's just part of my life.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've built my entire career around it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Movement is just part of my everyday, it's part of who I am.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I do not love sitting still.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly do not love being helpless.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be really easy for me to focus on everything I can't do right now.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And at the beginning, when this first happened, I remember being optimistic.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: But then since then, it's been about a week, I'm like up and down and up and down.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh my goodness.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll go from one moment being like, oh, it's not so bad, to the next moment being like, my life is over, and to the next moment being like, okay, maybe it's maybe I'm gonna get a good prognosis.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: To then, oh no, what if I'm like out of activity and exercise for like a whole year?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard some really bad horror stories, like what's gonna happen?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: The good news is, is it is the best case scenario that could have been.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the MCL um does not usually require surgery.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is only a grade one, so it should heal on its own.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: I should be back to normal, not even thinking about it in a few months.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it really is the best case scenario.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: But it's funny because once I got that prognosis, that was my focus.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And everything that day was like beautiful and rainbows and unicorns, and I got this amazing brace that makes me feel like I have a bionic leg and I can walk without too much pain and I, you know, still take my time going up and down the stairs and things, but it really put in perspective this could have been a lot worse.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next morning I woke up and the pain was pretty bad.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh my gosh, now I'm at the depths of despair again.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why did this happen?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I could turn back time and just not take that last run on the wake surf, but it happened.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I work on my mindset a lot.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I can tell I am up and down, I'm on a roller coaster of emotions right now dealing with this.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's, I think, pretty common.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the biggest lessons that I can share from this experience that I'm currently living is that your plan has to be able to be flexible when your circumstances change.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So right now, success for me doesn't look like doing my full capacity of life and workouts that I was doing before I got injured.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like me respecting my injury and following the guidance that I've been given and modifying the movements that I need to do and continuing to move in ways that I safely can while giving my body what it needs to heal.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that for me, right now, is how I'm gonna take care of my health.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to focus on what I can control, which is my nutrition, which is my mindset, which is getting to sleep on time, which is focusing on the numerous messages that I've gotten from people in my world just saying, you got this, and you know, you'll be back in no time.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like the support that I have received has been amazing.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I choose to focus on these things because I could very easily focus on the pain and the disruption to my normal routine.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I could focus on how far I still am now to getting back to where I used to be.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know exactly how quickly I'll be able to get back to everything that I was doing before.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: But my plan right now is to focus on what I can control, take care of my health in the ways that I can, stay connected to who I am as a person, even though my life and my routines look a little bit different right now.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where mindset becomes such an important part of our health.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think a lot of us have a very specific picture in our heads of what being quote unquote consistent should look like.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: If your definition of success is three 45-minute workouts, then if you have to default to a 15-minute workout, it feels like it doesn't count.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: If your nutrition goal is perfectly planned out meals all week, then grabbing a rotisserie chicken and a bag of salad somehow feels like you're failing.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you normally walk 10,000 steps and you only have time for 5,000, then you might think, what is the point?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Or in my case, if I define exercise by what I was capable of doing before my injury, almost everything I'm able to do right now would feel inadequate.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: But that, my friends, is all or nothing thinking.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And all or nothing thinking is a trap that we easily fall into and it makes consistency incredibly difficult because real life is rarely ever that picture perfect ideal scenario.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if your definition of success requires you to follow your plan perfectly, then normal life is constantly going to give you reasons to feel like you're failing and you're behind.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have to make room for flexibility because that's what allows us to stay consistent over time.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the best things you can do for yourself is to decide what your healthy habits look like when life is busy or circumstances change.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like what is your minimum or what is your baseline?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: What is the version that keeps you connected to that habit and connected to that identity that you have for yourself, even if life is lifeing?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if your normal strength workouts are 45 minutes, what is your busy week version?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Could it be 20 minutes?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Could it even be 10 minutes?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe your normal routine is three strength workouts in your week.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: But based on what's going on in your life, maybe this week you only realistically get two, then have that be your backup plan.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Plan for that.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you get injured, your version of healthy might need to be completely modified for a while while you heal.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just part of life.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And nutrition can have a real life version too, because if you normally cook several meals during the week, but this week it's just not happening, then have a backup plan.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have something in the freezer?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Can you make eggs for dinner?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a few go-to recipes that are easy peasy that you don't have to stress about, that you maybe even have available in your pantry and your freezer, that's you preparing for real life instead of expecting life to always be this ideal version.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Your backup plan, your plan B just needs to keep you in the game.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's especially important in midlife because our lives have a lot of moving pieces right now.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: We can't build healthy habits that only work when everything else in our life is going according to plan.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Our habits need to be able to flex.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And this is probably the biggest mindset shift that I want you to take away from this episode.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You do not need to keep starting over.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: You just need to get better at continuing, but maybe it looks different.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what I'm doing right now.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am certainly not waiting until my knee is 100% to go back to my old routine in order to consider myself on track.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just continuing with what I can do now.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: It looks different.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm teaching my classes different.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm exercising differently, I'm moving differently.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm adjusting my expectations of how long it'll take me to get out of the house because I live in a three-story house and it takes me a lot of time to get down the stairs right now.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm paying attention to the things that I can control, which is my recovery, my nutrition, my sleep, my mindset.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: My goal right now is not to prove that I can just push through an injury.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: My goal is to take care of my body in the way it needs me to take care of my body today.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really important distinction because maybe Monday through Wednesday, everything went beautifully for you.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then Thursday and Friday were chaos.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that doesn't have to erase the whole week.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to punish yourself for it.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't need some giant reset on Monday.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: You just wake up on Saturday morning and you continue.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe with whatever you're dealing with, you scale back or you change the plan or you ask for help, or you prioritize one or two foundational habits and temporarily just release the other ones.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then when your capacity changes again, then you adjust again.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what consistency is.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency and perfection cannot live in the same sentence because consistency is what you do when it isn't perfect.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency is returning, it's adapting, it's being able to continue to take care of yourself through different circumstances and different seasons of life.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a tremendous amount of confidence that comes from learning that skill.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency is a skill.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because eventually, when it becomes something that is just ingrained in you, you will eventually stop being so afraid of quote unquote getting off track.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know you've been there, you've done this, you've adapted, you've flexed before, and you have always come back.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because when healthy is part of your identity, you almost can't lose it.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And learning how to adapt like that is exactly why I believe mindset deserves just as much attention as the actual fitness and nutrition habits that we are trying to build.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you think about everything we have talked about today, I didn't suddenly forget how to exercise when I injured my knee.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't need a whole new nutrition plan.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge was figuring out how to take what I already know and apply it to a completely different set of circumstances.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that brings me to something I really want you to consider.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes your biggest opportunity for growth isn't fitness or nutrition.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you already have plenty of knowledge about both of those.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your opportunity is learning how to follow through when circumstances are not ideal.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's working on that all or nothing mindset.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's adjusting your expectations when your capacity changes.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's learning to create a smaller version of your habits instead of abandoning them completely.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's changing the way that you talk to yourself when your week doesn't go according to your plan.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you need more support and accountability.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think we keep searching for another workout plan or another nutrition strategy or another piece of information that we hope will somehow magically solve our problems or finally get us to our goals.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I believe the real opportunity might be learning how to consistently apply what we already know when life is life.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why periodically stepping back and really assessing your health can be so valuable.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what we're going to be doing together in my upcoming free training, the Midwife Health Audit.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's three 30-minute sessions designed to help you recognize what's already working, identify your opportunities for growth, and then decide where it makes sense to focus next.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: On day one, we'll focus on your fitness.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: We'll really take a look at the things like strength training and cardiovascular exercise, your everyday movement, your mobility, your balance, your core strength, and really take a look at are the things you're doing currently helping you to reach your goals and really move the needle in your fitness.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Day two is all about nutrition.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll really take a look at the foundational habits like protein, making sure you're getting balanced meals with fruit and veggies and fiber.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hydrated enough?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then what about planning and preparation?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then on day three with mindset, we'll be looking at how are you actually following through.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And after the week that I've had, I can tell you that this one feels especially relevant to me right now.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Day three is where we're going to look at what happens when your plan meets real life.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: We'll assess things like the all or nothing thinking, your expectations, your ability to adapt or pivot, your self-talk, and how consistently you're actually following through on the habits that you are trying to build.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll also take a look at your support and your accountability.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you have people in your corner?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have support when life gets hard?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have some form of accountability that keeps you going?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we know what to do.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: So our opportunity is more within creating the mindset, the flexibility, and the support that actually helps you do it consistently.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose of this audit isn't to find everything that you're doing wrong, but instead, we are looking for opportunities.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your biggest opportunity is fitness or nutrition.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're doing really well in both of those areas, but your opportunity might be within your mindset.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this training is valuable no matter where you're starting from.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are a beginner, you're feeling overwhelmed by all the health information, then we're going to help you really understand the foundations and identify your next best step to really begin.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if you've already established some of these healthy habits, I want to help you see where you might have some room to grow.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're already doing great with your health, then you can use this audit to really fine-tune what you're doing and identify your next opportunity or simply confirm that you are on the right track.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're meeting live on Zoom September 22nd, 23rd, and 24th from 5 to 5:30 p.m.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's Pacific time.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I chose Zoom intentionally because I want us to be able to actually connect human to human.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be able to participate and ask questions and share what you are learning and maybe hear from other women who are also going through this process.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have a little bit of homework each day that you can turn in directly to me for feedback.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I promise I will be looking at it.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: You'll get to share what is coming up for you during this audit, where you think your biggest opportunities are.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I will personally review and give you feedback because sometimes it is hard to take an objective look at our own patterns clearly.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: But having another set of eyes can really help you recognize how much progress you've already made and where your attention could really have the biggest impact next.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't make the sessions live, no worries, you'll have access to the replays.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So this three-day free training, the Midlife Health Audit, is completely free.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll put the registration link in the show notes below.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would love, love, love to have you join us.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I want you to pay attention to this week.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what happens when your healthy habits don't go according to plan.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you just have a busy day or you didn't sleep well, or maybe you got injured, whatever it is, notice what your brain does next.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Does it immediately tell you you're off track again?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go, have to start over again.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or can you adjust and continue taking care of yourself, even if it looks different?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: I am literally practicing this alongside you right now.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: This knee injury was definitely not part of my plan.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I would prefer to be back to moving and teaching and living exactly the way I was before it happened, but that is just not my reality today.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the next best thing I can do is figure out what taking care of myself looks like today and for the next few months.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow I might have to adjust that again.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: But that's okay.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not starting over, I'm just continuing differently.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's something that you need to practice now too.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, my friend.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, progress over perfection and consistency over intensity.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep growing, keep glowing, and bye for now.