Latest / Midlife Glow Up: Simplifying Fitness, Nutrition and Healthy Habits for Women over 40 / 54. What Could Actually Change in 8 Weeks?
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: What could actually change in your health in eight weeks?
- 0:02SPEAKER_00: I bet it's more than you think.
- 0:05SPEAKER_00: So let's say that you committed to just two 20-minute strength workouts each week.
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: That might not sound like much, but over the course of eight weeks, that is 16 workouts or 320 minutes of strength training, or more than five hours spent intentionally getting stronger.
- 0:22SPEAKER_00: Or what if you decide to eat a protein-forward breakfast five days a week?
- 0:27SPEAKER_00: That's 40 breakfasts over the next eight weeks.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: And if you spend 10 minutes planning your meals and workouts at the beginning of every week, that is eight opportunities to practice a skill that could make taking care of yourself easier for years and maybe even decades to come.
- 0:42SPEAKER_00: None of those things sound particularly dramatic on their own, but that is how progress happens.
- 0:47SPEAKER_00: It's the small things that we repeat consistently that start to add up over time.
- 0:53SPEAKER_00: And eight weeks from now is coming either way.
- 0:56SPEAKER_00: So today I want to talk to you about the things that you could realistically accomplish in eight weeks, what progress might actually look like, and why you don't need to completely transform your life in order to change the trajectory of your health.
- 1:10SPEAKER_00: Because the next round of the Midlife Glow Up, my signature group coaching program, starts on Monday.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: And registration closes tomorrow.
- 1:18SPEAKER_00: And if you've been thinking about joining us, this is officially your last chance.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited to get into today's episode.
- 1:24SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Midlife Glow Up Podcast, where we simplify fitness, nutrition, and healthy habits for women over 40.
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: I'm Joan Dandineau, your Midlife Health and Wellness Coach.
- 1:33SPEAKER_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.
- 1:40SPEAKER_00: I think we start any new health program and we tend to do one of two things.
- 1:45SPEAKER_00: We either completely overestimate what should happen in a short period of time.
- 1:50SPEAKER_00: So we think we're going to lose all the weight and completely transform our body and we're going to get our nutrition dialed in.
- 1:55SPEAKER_00: We're never going to miss a workout.
- 1:57SPEAKER_00: We're going to get to sleep on time.
- 1:58SPEAKER_00: We're going to drink so much water.
- 1:59SPEAKER_00: We're going to manage our stress and somehow emerge eight weeks later as a completely different person.
- 2:06SPEAKER_00: Or on the other hand, we underestimate what can actually happen in eight weeks when we consistently focus on a few things that matter and are going to move the needle.
- 2:15SPEAKER_00: And that's what I want to challenge today because eight weeks is not a deadline for having everything figured out, but it is enough time to start building something meaningful.
- 2:25SPEAKER_00: It's enough time to practice new habits, new routines.
- 2:29SPEAKER_00: It's enough time to learn what works for you and your body and your schedule and your life and what doesn't.
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: It is enough time to get stronger, to improve the way that you're fueling your body, to create systems that make taking care of yourself easier and start recognizing some of the patterns that have kept you stuck over the decades.
- 2:50SPEAKER_00: And eight weeks is absolutely enough time to change your trajectory of your health.
- 2:57SPEAKER_00: When we think about making progress with our health, we often immediately think about the outcomes.
- 3:03SPEAKER_00: How much weight did I lose?
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: Am I fitting into a smaller pair of jeans?
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: Does my body look different?
- 3:08SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing wrong with having those goals.
- 3:11SPEAKER_00: But I think we miss a lot of the really important progress when those are the only things we're measuring.
- 3:17SPEAKER_00: Maybe progress is going from strength training whenever you can squeeze it in to consistently doing it twice a week.
- 3:25SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's going from grabbing whatever is convenient for lunch last minute to having three easy lunches that you know how to throw together and you can do that consistently.
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just getting protein at breakfast or learning how to build a balanced meal without having to track every macronutrient.
- 3:44SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's finally figuring out how to plan ahead so that when Wednesday night rolls around, you're not standing in front of a refrigerator again thinking, what the heck are we gonna have for dinner?
- 3:55SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's going away for the weekend, enjoying yourself, and then coming home and returning to your normal habits instead of deciding that, oh, you're just gonna have to get back on track next Monday.
- 4:06SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's missing a workout and simply figuring out what else you could fit in instead.
- 4:12SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's recognizing that all or nothing thinking has really kept you stuck for years.
- 4:18SPEAKER_00: And now you're learning to continue differently when life doesn't go according to plan.
- 4:22SPEAKER_00: Those are all examples of progress.
- 4:25SPEAKER_00: And they might not make a dramatic before and after picture, but they are the things that actually matter and that actually, when they add up, can change the way that you look and feel and live in your body.
- 4:38SPEAKER_00: I want to come back to some of those numbers that I shared at the beginning because I think we really underestimate what small actions can add up to when we repeat them.
- 4:47SPEAKER_00: So two 20-minute strength workouts can become 16 workouts over eight weeks.
- 4:52SPEAKER_00: And a protein forward breakfast five mornings per week could equal up to 40 breakfasts, where you've practiced fueling your body differently intentionally.
- 5:01SPEAKER_00: And 10 minutes once a week to look at your schedule, decide when you're gonna work out, get those workouts on your calendar, think through your meals ahead of time.
- 5:10SPEAKER_00: That becomes eight opportunities to practice what it feels like to plan ahead.
- 5:15SPEAKER_00: One workout does not dramatically change your life.
- 5:18SPEAKER_00: And one balanced breakfast does not change your health.
- 5:22SPEAKER_00: And one planning session is certainly not going to make your whole life feel organized all of a sudden.
- 5:28SPEAKER_00: But that's not how consistency works.
- 5:30SPEAKER_00: We have to stop looking at every individual action and asking whether it's enough.
- 5:34SPEAKER_00: Because the power is in the accumulation.
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: After eight weeks, strength training twice a week doesn't feel like something that you're constantly trying to start anymore.
- 5:43SPEAKER_00: It just becomes something that you do, and that is the powerful shift.
- 5:47SPEAKER_00: Maybe you don't have to think as hard anymore about how to get protein because you've practiced it at breakfast dozens of times.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: And maybe looking at your calendar and planning your workouts before the week begins has become just part of your routine.
- 6:02SPEAKER_00: And that's when these small actions start to become habits and systems that actually support you, the life you're living now, but also the life that you want to live in the decades to come.
- 6:13SPEAKER_00: And here's the other thing I want you to think about.
- 6:15SPEAKER_00: Eight weeks are going to pass either way.
- 6:18SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I think we spend so much time waiting for the right time to make a change.
- 6:22SPEAKER_00: We tell ourselves that we'll do it when work settles down or when the kids' schedules aren't so crazy, or maybe once we get through the holiday season, or maybe when we have more energy, or when life just feels a little more manageable.
- 6:34SPEAKER_00: But there's always going to be something.
- 6:36SPEAKER_00: At some point, if nothing changes, nothing changes.
- 6:39SPEAKER_00: If you keep approaching your help the same way you've been approaching it, you're probably going to keep getting a lot of the same results.
- 6:46SPEAKER_00: And I think that's worth really digging into here because eight weeks from now, you don't have to be a completely different person and you don't have to have everything figured out.
- 6:55SPEAKER_00: But you could know something that you don't know today.
- 6:58SPEAKER_00: You could understand yourself better.
- 7:00SPEAKER_00: You could have learned what works for you and what doesn't.
- 7:03SPEAKER_00: And you could have practiced doing something differently enough times that it starts to feel more natural.
- 7:09SPEAKER_00: You could also have proof that you are capable of following through on something that you said you wanted to do, something you said was important to you.
- 7:17SPEAKER_00: You could simply just be further down the road than you are today.
- 7:21SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that's really what it all boils down to because if nothing changes, nothing changes.
- 7:27SPEAKER_00: There probably isn't going to be a perfect eight-week stretch where life suddenly gets easier and you have all kinds of extra time and energy to focus on yourself.
- 7:34SPEAKER_00: But eight weeks is coming either way.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: And you could use those eight weeks to start moving in a different direction.
- 7:42SPEAKER_00: I want to share my story with this number of weeks, eight weeks.
- 7:46SPEAKER_00: When I first hired my business coach, I hired her for an eight-week program.
- 7:51SPEAKER_00: And I remember genuinely thinking, cool, eight weeks, I'm going to get in there, I'm going to figure everything out, and then I'm going to be good to go.
- 7:58SPEAKER_00: And it's so funny because I think sometimes we also get hung up on what we think we can accomplish in a time period.
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: And we assume that we should be able to get to some sort of finish line.
- 8:09SPEAKER_00: And the main lesson that I learned inside of those first eight weeks with my coach was how much I didn't know that I didn't know.
- 8:17SPEAKER_00: But what I started realizing was I needed to be asking different questions.
- 8:21SPEAKER_00: And I started to see things in my business that I hadn't been able to see on my own.
- 8:26SPEAKER_00: And I made decisions that I had been spinning on, but I got clarity around what actually was important.
- 8:32SPEAKER_00: And I started really learning which skill sets I was missing and which ones I needed to start practicing in order to completely change the trajectory of my business.
- 8:44SPEAKER_00: So at the end of eight weeks, I did not have my entire business figured out.
- 8:48SPEAKER_00: Hardly.
- 8:50SPEAKER_00: But I certainly was not in the same place I had been eight weeks earlier.
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: Those eight weeks completely changed the way that I thought about my business, the way I show up in my business.
- 9:01SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really good way to think about this time period.
- 9:06SPEAKER_00: And specifically my group coaching program, the midlife glow up.
- 9:10SPEAKER_00: I don't expect my clients to walk away after eight weeks thinking, great, I figured out my health.
- 9:15SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go ahead and check that off my list because that is not real life.
- 9:20SPEAKER_00: We are going to continue aging and our bodies are going to continue changing.
- 9:24SPEAKER_00: And our schedules are going to change and we will travel and we will be busy and we will get sick and we will have injuries and we will go through stressful seasons.
- 9:33SPEAKER_00: And life is going to keep on lifing.
- 9:35SPEAKER_00: But what I want my clients, these women inside of my group coaching program, to learn is how to navigate those things differently and how to continue putting your health, your self-care, your wellness at the top of the list because it's just who you are.
- 9:51SPEAKER_00: It's part of your natural routine.
- 9:53SPEAKER_00: Inside of my program, we are going to celebrate the wins that happen during those eight weeks.
- 9:58SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice when you're getting stronger and celebrate that.
- 10:03SPEAKER_00: I want you to give yourself some credit when things start to feel easier, or when you follow through on something that you've really been struggling with, or when you realize that something is finally starting to click.
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: Those accomplishments matter and we should absolutely celebrate them.
- 10:20SPEAKER_00: But what matters even more to me is what happens after the eight weeks are over.
- 10:24SPEAKER_00: What did you learn about yourself?
- 10:26SPEAKER_00: What did you practice enough times that it started to become part of your life?
- 10:31SPEAKER_00: And what are you still doing three months later, six months later, even a year later, because of what you learned during those eight weeks?
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: That's really the point.
- 10:40SPEAKER_00: We're using these eight weeks to build a foundation that you can continue building on long after the program ends.
- 10:46SPEAKER_00: And that's why some of the wins that women have shared with me after going through the glow-up have very little to do with a number on the scale or a dramatic before and after picture.
- 10:56SPEAKER_00: The things they're most proud of are often things that they know they can carry forward.
- 11:00SPEAKER_00: I have spent some time this week really going back through the graduation forms from the women who have completed previous rounds of the midlife glow up.
- 11:08SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I love most is seeing how different progress looks for every woman going through this program.
- 11:14SPEAKER_00: For Cindy, one of the biggest shifts was simply deciding that she was worth investing in.
- 11:19SPEAKER_00: She told me that for years she would think, I can do this for free on my own.
- 11:22SPEAKER_00: I don't actually need a coach.
- 11:24SPEAKER_00: But then she realized that years had gone by and she was really struggling with the same things over and over again.
- 11:30SPEAKER_00: So for her, joining the glow up was her way of saying, I'm worth this and I'm going to follow through.
- 11:36SPEAKER_00: And by the end of eight weeks, she told me that she felt stronger, that she could see progress, and that progress was creating more confidence in her and more hope.
- 11:46SPEAKER_00: And the line that she said, these are her direct words, were, I believe I can do this now.
- 11:52SPEAKER_00: And to me, that is progress.
- 11:54SPEAKER_00: When you stop wondering whether you're capable of changing and you start believing that you can actually keep going and making a difference in your life, that is progress.
- 12:04SPEAKER_00: And fun fact, Cindy joined this time last year.
- 12:07SPEAKER_00: She also joined in the spring, and she also is joining again this fall.
- 12:11SPEAKER_00: Absolutely love when women are like, heck yes, I am repeating this program because we always have room for improvement in our health.
- 12:19SPEAKER_00: Lauren came to the program with a very specific goal.
- 12:22SPEAKER_00: Her son was getting married and she wanted to lose the weight for the wedding.
- 12:25SPEAKER_00: And yes, she had those physical changes.
- 12:28SPEAKER_00: She told me that people were complimenting how great she looked and how beautiful her mother of the groom dress looked on her.
- 12:34SPEAKER_00: But what I love most about Lauren's story is that somewhere along the way, her goal became so much bigger than just getting in shape for a wedding.
- 12:42SPEAKER_00: She was tracking her workouts and she was making them a priority.
- 12:45SPEAKER_00: And she was noticing that she was also getting stronger.
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: And by the end, she told me, I am now super inspired to get and remain healthy so that I can grow older in the most graceful way possible because I am so worth it.
- 12:57SPEAKER_00: She said, I truly did have a glow up.
- 13:00SPEAKER_00: And I love that because she started with a short-term goal, but she came out of those eight weeks thinking about the kind of life she wants to be living years from now.
- 13:09SPEAKER_00: For Amy, her biggest transformation was within her mindset.
- 13:13SPEAKER_00: At the end of the program, she told me, I experienced a total mindset change during this program.
- 13:17SPEAKER_00: I understand that it is okay to make myself and my health a priority.
- 13:22SPEAKER_00: And I am doing just that.
- 13:23SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of women in midlife can really relate to this.
- 13:26SPEAKER_00: We spend so many years taking care of everyone else, managing the schedules and the household and raising the kids and building careers and supporting our families and putting our own needs somewhere further down the list.
- 13:38SPEAKER_00: So sometimes progress in eight weeks is deciding that your health deserves a place on that list too, and then beginning to act like that is true.
- 13:48SPEAKER_00: Okay, I have to share about Nora.
- 13:49SPEAKER_00: Nora has done every single glow up group coaching program that I have offered, including the one starting Monday.
- 13:54SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that she is most proud of at the end of the last program was creating a plan B instead of just saying, Oh, I'm just too tired to work out today.
- 14:05SPEAKER_00: So she is a teacher, she's incredibly busy, she has a family, she has a dog.
- 14:10SPEAKER_00: And when she comes home from teaching school all day, she just wants to collapse on the couch and working out is the last thing she wants to do.
- 14:17SPEAKER_00: But she knows how important it is.
- 14:19SPEAKER_00: She knows it helps her to feel stronger and also is great for her mental health.
- 14:24SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that she has really worked on over these group coaching programs is saying, okay, I have all this going on.
- 14:32SPEAKER_00: I am overwhelmed.
- 14:33SPEAKER_00: I am exhausted.
- 14:35SPEAKER_00: And I also know that my health and my fitness and my strength is really important.
- 14:39SPEAKER_00: So if I'm not going to get in my plan A, which is my 30-minute workout twice a week, what is my plan B instead?
- 14:46SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes that would be 10 push-ups and 10 sit-ups and 10 squats before she got in the shower.
- 14:51SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it would be moving her workout to a weekend day instead of a weekday.
- 14:56SPEAKER_00: But the point is, she's not giving up.
- 14:58SPEAKER_00: And so that helps her to show up more confidently and have more self-trust as well.
- 15:04SPEAKER_00: And then finally, I want to share Kay's story.
- 15:07SPEAKER_00: So Kay made some really practical nutrition changes during the program.
- 15:11SPEAKER_00: She started eating more protein and getting more nutrition, like really front-loading her day.
- 15:16SPEAKER_00: And she noticed that that was actually helping her reduce her need to snack and overeat at night.
- 15:22SPEAKER_00: She found easy protein shakes and snacks that she could just grab and have in her purse as she left the house for her busy long day.
- 15:28SPEAKER_00: And she started thinking about prepping breakfast the night before and making sure that she had protein forward options available for when life got busy.
- 15:35SPEAKER_00: But she also had a mindset change underneath of those habits.
- 15:39SPEAKER_00: She told me, I now have more patience with myself and I give myself more grace when times get unpredictable or chaos.
- 15:47SPEAKER_00: And that combination is exactly what I want women to walk away with: practical strategies that make taking care of yourself easier and the ability to give yourself some grace when everything doesn't go perfectly.
- 15:59SPEAKER_00: So when I ask what can really change in eight weeks, these are the kind of things I'm talking about.
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: You might get stronger, you might improve your nutrition, you might finally establish a consistent workout routine, you might learn how to pivot instead of quitting, and you might start prioritizing yourself again.
- 16:15SPEAKER_00: And maybe the biggest change is that you leave believing I can actually keep doing this and I am worth this.
- 16:23SPEAKER_00: I want to share one more story because I know that there's someone listening right now who is thinking, this sounds great, but this really just isn't a good time for me.
- 16:30SPEAKER_00: I want to share about Lara.
- 16:31SPEAKER_00: So she joined one of my previous glow-up group coaching programs, and life threw a lot at her during those eight weeks.
- 16:38SPEAKER_00: Her circumstances were certainly not ideal.
- 16:41SPEAKER_00: She had to fly to India a couple times during the program.
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: She ended up losing her father during the program.
- 16:49SPEAKER_00: She wasn't able to follow the program exactly the way she might have imagined when she signed up.
- 16:54SPEAKER_00: But afterwards, she told me, I have tried other programs before, but this one stands out.
- 16:58SPEAKER_00: Life threw a lot at me when I started, but the coach, that's me, genuinely cared and went the extra mile to make sure that I still got every bit of value from the experience.
- 17:08SPEAKER_00: She also described the program as being designed with empathy for what women face at this stage of life, with real support that adapts to what's going on in your real life.
- 17:17SPEAKER_00: And I think that is just an important reminder that you don't need eight perfectly calm weeks to do this.
- 17:25SPEAKER_00: In fact, learning how to care for yourself while real life is happening is part of the work that we do together.
- 17:32SPEAKER_00: So I want you to imagine yourself eight weeks from now, you probably, whether you do the program or not, you won't have everything figured out.
- 17:39SPEAKER_00: I certainly don't, and I've been doing this for a really long time.
- 17:42SPEAKER_00: But you could feel stronger and more confident.
- 17:46SPEAKER_00: You could have a much better understanding of what works for your body and your life.
- 17:51SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you have a better understanding of what your obstacles are that are getting in your way and what you need in order to be able to follow through.
- 17:59SPEAKER_00: You could trust yourself a little more because you've spent eight weeks showing yourself that you can make your health a priority, that you can adapt when life gets messy and keep moving forward.
- 18:10SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a pretty powerful place to be because the real opportunity in these eight weeks is to come out of them knowing yourself better, having more confidence in your ability to take care of yourself, and feeling like you're headed in the right direction.
- 18:24SPEAKER_00: And that's what I mean when I say that eight weeks can totally change the trajectory of your health.
- 18:30SPEAKER_00: So if you are listening and thinking, okay, Joan, this is exactly what I want these next eight weeks to look like, then that is exactly why I created the Midlife Glow Up.
- 18:38SPEAKER_00: If you have been listening over the past several weeks, or maybe you joined me for the Midlife Health audit, the free training, maybe you have been reading my emails, or maybe you've clicked over to the page and thought about joining us, this is your last chance for this round.
- 18:51SPEAKER_00: Registration closes tomorrow, October 9th, and we start on Monday, October 12th.
- 18:56SPEAKER_00: The Midlife Glow Up is my eight-week group coaching program for women over 40 who are ready to prioritize themselves and stop spinning their wheels with fitness and nutrition.
- 19:04SPEAKER_00: Inside, you get to choose the path that fits your life, either fitness or nutrition or both.
- 19:10SPEAKER_00: And you'll learn simple strategies and build sustainable habits so that you can embrace midlife and beyond with strength and confidence.
- 19:18SPEAKER_00: And regardless of which track you choose, we're going to create a plan that fits your actual life.
- 19:23SPEAKER_00: And then you will have eight weeks to practice it with coaching and accountability and support and a community of women alongside you.
- 19:31SPEAKER_00: We'll have weekly group coaching calls and a group chat and direct opportunities for feedback from me.
- 19:38SPEAKER_00: And we'll have habit trackers.
- 19:40SPEAKER_00: And if you're focusing on fitness, then you will have all the workouts laid out for you in a progressive strength training program.
- 19:46SPEAKER_00: And if you're working on nutrition, you'll have all the recipes and the resources for food prep that you need in order to really take on your nutrition.
- 19:54SPEAKER_00: And if you're sitting here thinking, like Cindy used to think, couldn't I just do this on my own?
- 19:58SPEAKER_00: Of course you could.
- 20:00SPEAKER_00: But the question that I want you to consider is have you?
- 20:03SPEAKER_00: Have you done this?
- 20:04SPEAKER_00: If you have been wanting to make these changes for a while and you're still struggling to make them happen consistently, maybe what you need is a really clear focus, a realistic plan, and then some accountability and some support and a coach to help you figure out what to do when the plan inevitably bumps up against real life.
- 20:25SPEAKER_00: Eight weeks from now is coming either way.
- 20:28SPEAKER_00: You could have 16 strength workouts under your belt, you could have 40 protein forward breakfasts behind you, you could have eight weeks of practicing how to plan ahead and how to adapt when life happens and how to continue instead of constantly starting over.
- 20:41SPEAKER_00: You could have eight weeks of evidence that you can show up for yourself consistently.
- 20:46SPEAKER_00: And you still won't have everything figured out.
- 20:49SPEAKER_00: But you could be in a very different place than you are today.
- 20:52SPEAKER_00: And more importantly, you could have a foundation that you know how to keep building upon.
- 20:57SPEAKER_00: So if this sounds like what you've been looking for, please go to the show notes or go to the link in my Instagram bio and click on the midlife glow up.
- 21:05SPEAKER_00: Learn more, read about it, send me a DM at Jones Fitzone on Instagram.
- 21:09SPEAKER_00: Registration closes tomorrow night, October 9th.
- 21:12SPEAKER_00: We start Monday, and I would love to coach you through these next eight weeks.
- 21:16SPEAKER_00: And even if you don't join us this round, I hope you take this message with you.
- 21:20SPEAKER_00: Eight weeks from now is coming either way.
- 21:22SPEAKER_00: That's 56 days.
- 21:24SPEAKER_00: 56 days to practice doing things differently.
- 21:28SPEAKER_00: 56 days to follow through, make adjustments when you need to, learn what works in your real life, and keep going even when you don't do it perfectly.
- 21:38SPEAKER_00: And I think you might be surprised by how much can change when you give yourself 56 days to actually put what you know into practice and let consistency do its job.
- 21:48SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, my friend.
- 21:49SPEAKER_00: Remember progress over perfection and consistency over intensity.
- 21:53SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep growing, keep glowing, and bye for now.