Latest / Still Well Podcast / The Secret to Becoming More Resilient in Midlife: Stress, Strength, and Hormesis

Transcript

The Secret to Becoming More Resilient in Midlife: Stress, Strength, and Hormesis · Still Well Podcast

• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, my friends, and welcome back to another episode of Still Well Podcasts.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I am Brooke, and I am so glad you're joining me again today for another episode.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I screwed up.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna say it right now because I told you, if you've been listening along, that the end of each month, I was going to do a Still Well, strong podcast episode where we talked something related to physical health, vitality, physical capacity, something along those lines with longevity and wellness in this phase of life.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I forgot that this last week, now this week, as I'm talking to you all, was the last week in August.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I should have been dropping a podcast episode about physical strength and health.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And instead, I dropped another podcast about dropping your kids off at school and letting them go and them going up.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it worked out okay because I had so much to say about the kids and them growing up and them going to school.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I don't know if you were all feeling the same way too, or if it's just been on my heart and I'm being overly dramatic these days, or a little, I'm being a little emotional, too emotional, maybe.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the case is, but I'm glad that we spent two weeks talking about the kids going up and leaving home because it is a big deal.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably one of the biggest things we deal with in this phase of life, right?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: That identity shift and learning how to let go and trusting in God for them and for our next life purpose and all of those things.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that being said, I missed the opportunity at the end of the month to give you a Still Well Strong podcast episode.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we're doing it and it'll release next week, which for you all will be like the first day of September, maybe.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um definitely in the first week.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: But hey, whatever, let's be flexible and adaptable.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And as I've been talking to you, you know that I deal with anxiety and a little bit of OCD.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So me learning to be adaptable and flexible is a tough lesson.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And at any rate, let's jump into this podcast episode.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's jump into talking about being strong in this phase of life.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it really is important.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have these three pillars in this phase of life that I believe are necessary for just vitality and joy and peace and becoming the best versions of ourselves in life after the kids are grown.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that is strength.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So strong physically, steady emotionally, emotionally and mentally balanced, and then rooted in our faith.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, faith takes the top tier, right?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we don't have our faith, if we don't have a love of God and a belief in Jesus and a trust in Him and obedience, then the other things don't matter as much.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: But as we've been saying, and I'll reiterate for anyone who's listening for the first time, we're also called to put our faith into action and to be good stewards with the gifts that we have been given.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And once again, one of those gifts are our bodies.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible does say that our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe that we are called to take care of those bodies.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: While God is the great healer and he is the provider and he can do amazing things that we could never even imagine with our bodies, I still think that we need to be doing our parts and showing up for our best selves.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you listen to the podcast episode, I want to say it was maybe the fourth or fifth podcast episode.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was about midlife fitness and changing the perspective.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: You'll know that I view this as, and I'll reiterate it because it is important, that we're not focusing on physical health and physical strength in this phase of life to look a certain way or to be a certain weight or to fit into our clothes or any of those things.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're focusing on, and I want to talk to you about physical health, and I focus on it in my life because when we build physical capacity in our lives, we become stronger and more energetic and more prepared to live out the life that God has called us to.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have more energy to fulfill the purpose and the calling that God has on our lives.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what this is all about.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so today, what I want to talk to you about is struggle.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you might go, well, okay, what in the world does struggle have to do with physical health and capacity?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Give me a second, I'm gonna get there.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I shouldn't say struggle, maybe I should say maybe stress is the better word, but struggle, stress, whatever you want to, whatever you want to call it.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is a place for stress in our lives.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And believe it or not, when we are exposed to stress, we become stronger, we become more resilient, we become more adaptable, right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a really important thing in this phase of life because let's face it, we should all know by now, the older we get, the more we're taught this lesson that life is not all puppies and rainbows.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are struggles.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, Jesus said that in this world you will have struggles, but take heart, I have overcome the world.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we know from the Bible, if we're in God's word, that we know that that doesn't matter how much you love Jesus, how obedient you are, faith is not about works anyway, but regardless of your faith, we still have struggles.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just that's one thing that we have to know.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there's always going to be stress in our lives.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so we need to be thinking about how we manage that stress better, how we become more resilient, how we become physically stronger.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the best ways to do that is by exposing ourselves to stress.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to unpack this a little bit further because I will tell you, let me just be real honest, in my life over the last, I'll say right around, I mean, I'll unpack this with you guys in future episodes.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to go down this rabbit hole now, but just suffice it to say that starting in college, I had some bouts of depression type type stuff, anxiety, OCD, and those things waxed and waned through the years in my 30s, in the early stages of parenting, also in graduate school.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would say when I hit 40, I really hit, and right like maybe a year or two before 40, and then through my 40s, I hit a period of a lot more anxiety and really, really stress.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just like constant fight or flight.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think I shared with you all heart palpitations, concern, like afraid to even go up my stairs because I was convinced I have a heart problem.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot to unpack there, and we'll talk about that in another episode.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: But the reason I mentioned that and bring it up is because I got myself to a place where I just was trying to protect myself from any type of stress there was.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't push myself cardiovascularly, I didn't do hard workouts.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was just, I had one summer, two couple summers ago, where I just tried my best to just live in a stress-free bubble, which is obviously not possible, but just, you know, downtime, reading books, quiet, just gentle exercise, list walking here and there.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, this is a point to say where we do need those periods of our life from time to time.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we are just really, really burnt out and we just hit a wall.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be discerning enough and we have to spend time with the Lord enough to know when there are times that we just have to stop.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: God, you know, talks about Sabbath in the Bible and it's a very important thing.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Rest is important, but I believe for myself, and I believe sometimes for all of us, we get into a place where we're just taking it way too easy on ourselves and our bodies.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's definitely where I got.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what I am learning as I begin to exercise and I begin to push myself more, what I am seeing is that my anxiety is actually decreasing.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I know this.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know what research says.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know, like I've read about it, I've heard other people talk about it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know that one of the best things you can do for anxiety is move and push yourself and get your heart rate up and sweat.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And yet I was just afraid to do those things because here's why.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever had anxiety, you'll be able to relate.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: When you have anxiety or you have an anxiety attack, your heart rate goes up.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it feels like, at least for me, what I would experience is like my heart rate is so fast and so high.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And oh my gosh, what's wrong?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's a problem with my heart and it's not going to come down.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And how am I going to stop it?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: What if it keeps raising?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's that sort of a mindset and thought process.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so coming from that, to think about getting on a bike or on a treadmill or to run outside or to push myself to where my heart rate was high, I just it it lent itself that feeling into anxiety.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I just was quite honestly afraid of it.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what I have found out in the last, say, eight, seven months, six months, is that the best thing I can actually do for myself emotionally and mentally, and of course, yes, physically, is to push myself a little more.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's where I'm coming from, and that's what I want to talk to you all about today, because some stress on our body is actually very important.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's very good.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: There is a term called hormesis, and I want to explain that to you because hormesis, and I have the definition written down here, is a biological process where low doses of stressor cause positive effects, but high doses cause harm.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this balance.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe everybody's body is a little bit different in how they can handle stress and how much they can handle, but there's this balance of when there's short periods, small dose, low dose of stress, off and on, that's actually very good for our body because it teaches us to adapt to stress.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: It teaches us that you can go through stress and your body's gonna be okay on the other side of it.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be overstressing ourselves.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a problem too, especially for um women that are perimenopausal and menopausal of our age.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Too much stress on the body physically is not a good thing and it can wreak havoc on our hormones.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: But to some extent, a little bit of stress is important.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I went so far to the other end where I just didn't want any stress at all.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And all the message I was hearing was rest, rest, rest.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to stress yourself out.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Your cortisol, your stress hormones are already high in perimenopause and menopause, you don't want to make it any worse.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And truth be told, as in anything in life, a far extreme on one side or the other is typically never a good thing.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what's right is somewhere in the middle.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so while we don't want to be over stressing our bodies, we also have to do something.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: We can't have no stress at all.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is really an interesting thing to me.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I love this term and this idea of hormesis, and it really has been showing up for me in specifically in my workouts, but I can talk to you about some lifestyle things that can come into play here with hermeses as well.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: But let's just talk about what I've been seeing and what I would recommend to you with workouts.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And let me start by saying if you have not been very physically active recently in your life, if you've had more periods of rest, or even if you have been active, but you're getting to, you know, you're you're aging.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I just turned 50.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: You may want to go.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think it's a very good idea to have a full exam with a doctor, work with somebody who's in the longevity space.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I found somebody online who's not, I'm in New England, he's in the Midwest, and he was been wonderful for me.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And what we did was start with a really good baseline.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So he sent me, and I went to a, it was like a human health lab, and I had some tests run.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I had a VO2 max test done, which shows you how well your heart and your lungs work and take in oxygen while you are pumping and working at the highest, highest zone of your heart rate and how well you recover from that.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I had that test done.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was a little scary for someone with anxiety, but man, I'm so glad I did.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: You basically get on a treadmill, you've got this mask over your nose and mouth to the point where it's like just at the edges of your eyes, your peripheral vision.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I hate to maybe be explaining this because I don't want to scare anyone off, but and basically you're on a treadmill and you just first you walk three minutes and warm up, and then you start pushing it harder and harder and harder till you get to a place where either you feel like you can't breathe anymore or your legs just can't move anymore.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then you let them know when you stop.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that shows them you're hooked up to all kinds of monitors and they can see the specialists can see how your heart functions under that pressure and how your lungs are taking in oxygen and how your body adapts.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a fabulous thing for me to do just for my own peace of mind to see that I am healthy and my body is strong and I am capable of pushing myself and improving even more.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that was number one.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: During that time, I also did a DEXA scan, which shows your bone density, and we'll talk about that at another date.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's probably an important conversation for us to have.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, if you want to hear more about that, email me and let me know because again, I want to talk about conversations that you want to have with me.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: But that's where I started was with this VO2 Max.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then my doctor encouraged me beyond weightlifting and weight training, one to two days a week to do a cardio push.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that I hadn't been doing.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I kind of pushed off because I had been hearing and reading so much about how we don't, you know, walking is enough and lifting weights is enough for women our age.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think those are both really important.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you cannot neglect moving your body and just walking and getting outside is so important.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the best exercises for you.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And lifting weights, we'll have a whole nother show where we can talk about why lifting weights are important and how to lift and all of those things.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: But when he told me and started to mention cardiovascular and how important it was to do cardio work, I took a step back because I hadn't really been pushing myself.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so what he said that he wanted me to do was to start doing workouts where I would be, this is with zones in your heart rate, where you I would be in zone two to three most of the time, but then I would have periods where I'd push myself to zone four and even zone five, which is the peak.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And not, we don't do that for extended periods.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like in this phase of life, it's not going to benefit you to get on a treadmill or to go outside and run for 30, 45 minutes to an hour and stay in like a zone four, like upper heart rate.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a great idea, but it is a very good idea to go in and out of those.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, what I started doing, I started off on the bike on a Peloton.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And those workouts, if you're doing Peloton workouts, will take you into periods where you increase the incline, you increase the resistance, you increase the cadence or the speed, and you get your heart rate way up, and then it comes back down and you go on a flat surface.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And basically you're doing like a 30-minute cardio workout.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I would set it to, where you're going up and and down in zones of heart rate, where you're pushing your heart rate up to its limit, but then you're giving it a chance to come back down.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then once it's come back down and you're at rest, you go back up again.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I myself like the Peloton.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy being on the bike.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is easy on your joints, like your knees and your ankles.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: But for me personally, I just don't love the seat.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't love being high.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's just something, and maybe it's honestly, let me be real, it might be because it feels really hard.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I should get on it to push myself a little more.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: But at any rate, this summer I didn't have access to a Peloton as much.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started to run outside and just do run walks.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually use the Peloton app.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's a great app you can download on your phone that'll take you through.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's music in the background, and then there's one of the instructors that'll take you through.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: You start out walking, then you get into a jog, you go into a run, you come back down.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't believe what this has done for me, you guys.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's such a simple thing.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I never thought that I would start running again at the age of 50.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not out there again running like three miles at a pop.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing like, you know, two minutes of walking to two minutes of running off and on, sometimes three minutes of walking, four minutes of running.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: It varies, always going back and forth and in and out.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a very good example of hormesis where you're giving yourself low doses of stress.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're getting your heart rate up, you're making your body work, you're stressing it out, but then you're coming back out of it.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're not taking the stress and the hermesis out.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: As we said, if the stress is too much and for too long, it could be too much for your body.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not doing that.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're not doing hard cardio pushes for like long periods of time where we're keeping our heart rate way up, but we're taking little doses of stress up and down.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that is very, very good for your body.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: It causes adaptability.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: It teaches your body that it can go up and get into a stressful situation, but then it can also practice coming back down to relax.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as you relax, you go back up again.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I mean, I I can't stress enough to you how much I am loving it.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: It just it for me, A, it makes me feel so strong and confident in my body that like I can do this and I can run and I can run hard.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to do it for long periods of time, but I can run and push myself for two minutes.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: I can do anything for two minutes, and then my body knows how to calm back down and calm again.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you struggle with anxiety at all, I've for me, this is one of the best things that I have done.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I wear a garmin watch, so I've seen a difference in my sleep.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen a difference in my heart rate variability, which is just kind of monitoring how your body handles stress.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I just overall feel better.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: I have more energy.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just did a post on this last week on Instagram, and really it was just such a nice surprise.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to bring this to you and let you know what an important thing it is.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, beyond doing the weight lifting, which I think is very important, and flexibility things and posture things that we've already talked about and walking one or two days a week where you do a cardio exercise where you push yourself, again, not for long periods of time, but just coming in and out, is so good for teaching you not only physical capacity and building that VO2 max, because remember, your heart is a muscle.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a muscle just like your bicep or your tricep or your quads and your legs.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the best way to get it strong and to keep it healthy as we age is to work it.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have to work it.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: We can't just do nothing.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so the more we push it and work it in low doses, the better.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's been an amazing thing for me.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you so far, you know, I I've I've had this in my mind.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't want to, you know, as we get older, running is really hard on the joints and the impact and the concrete and this and that.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's likely because I'm doing it at low doses, but it hasn't been an issue for me.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are just getting started or you're somebody who's listening that's like, I barely walk, first step, like baby steps, just do the next right thing.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: So start walking first.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you're gonna do a run walk, it doesn't have to be a full-blown run and it doesn't have to be for two or three minutes.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: You could just do it for 20 seconds to 30 seconds and just get a little jog in.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you will see over time, if you do the next right thing, if you take the baby step and just push yourself a little bit each time, you will grow.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Your heart will get stronger and you will be able to do more.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen it in myself.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: And man, when you see those improvements, it's just such an amazing feeling.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's such a confidence builder for me anyway.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: As a 50-year-old woman, to be able to do that is amazing.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you that last week, and you're not, we're not doing this live.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: So by the time you re you watch this, it'll have been two or three weeks gone by.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: But last week, I got home from dropping my son off in Texas.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I was up for an early flight.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: I flew to Boston.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: I drove two hours up to New Hampshire.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was a very long day, but I had heard somebody talking on a podcast that they were saying that when they have jet lag or they're exhausted after traveling, one of the best things they do for their body to reslet and to sleep well that night is to push themselves physically.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: They'll go to the gym in the hotel or they'll go outside and they'll have a quick run or a quick workout or whatever that looks like.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought, hmm, I feel okay.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not like, you've got to listen to your body, remember that.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I I'm a little tired, but I'm well nourished.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had a two-hour ride where I sat.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably gonna be good for me to move my body.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see how this goes.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I went out and did a 30-minute run walk.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you, I felt so like that's the best I've recovered from a flight and a day of travel.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I felt so good after that.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I slept so good that night.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: The next day, I didn't feel worn out or exhausted.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a headache like I normally do.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's something to be said for that too.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, that might be an important thing to touch on because as we get older and as the kids get older and we have more time to free up, a lot of us will be traveling more.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So just keep that in mind that that could be a really big help as well.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I just I think it it it was interesting for me to see that pushing myself a little bit after travel would be such a good thing.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: That I also want to talk about some other ways beyond the exercise or the cardio work that we can bring some good stress into our life and so that we can build ourselves up physically and we can build our nervous systems up to handle stress a little bit better.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: So again, the the running or the run walking or getting on a Peloton or whatever that looks like with the ups and downs, those are all little ways that our body can be exposed to stress.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: But some other ways we can do that is with intermittent fasting.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of a hot topic.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like for a while, everybody was intermittent fasting and it was the thing to do, and then no, it's not a good thing.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of mixed voices you'll hear out there for intermittent fasting, especially for women at our age.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna find a group that will say, and there's research that says that do not intermittent fast at our age.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: We wanna be building muscle.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to build muscle, you can't intermittent fast.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And because when you're intermittent fasting, what happens is you're not nourishing yourself and you're actually wearing your body down, you're not in a growth state.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you're eating and you're lifting and you're building, now you're in a growth state.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of women will say, especially those that are building muscle and and strength, will say that you shouldn't intermittent fast and in fact you should eat within the first 30 minutes of you waking up.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to mention intermittent fasting because it still is a form of hermesis.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're teaching your body a little bit of stress to intermittent fast, even for 12 hours, can be a good stress to your body.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: I would also caution you that when we are menopausal or perimenopausal, our bodies are under more stress because of the hormone fluctuations.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so long periods of intermittent fasting is probably not a good thing because it can mess with you hormonally.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, just bringing you all the information, there are other women and there are other authors and other doctors who will say intermittent fasting.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Fasting is one of the best things that you can do for your body, even if you're a a perimenopausal, you do it around your cycle.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're menopausal and you don't have periods anymore that you can do it for extended periods of time, meaning, you know, 13, 14, 15-hour fasts, and occasionally even 24-hour fast.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So there's two schools of thought.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: The positives of intermittent fasting, as I mentioned, are the stress on your body to teach you resilience, also to give your digestive tract a rest.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other thing is when you do longer extended periods, say a 24-hour fast or longer, your body starts to go after and kill off dead cells and cells that are unhealthy.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a clean up mechanism or a tool to just reset and detox your body.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so those are the two schools of thoughts.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think everybody's a little bit different.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know women who absolutely do not feel good if they do any type of intermittent fast, even if it's just like they wait for an hour or two to eat in the morning, they're eating within the first 30 minutes of waking and they do great with that.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Me personally, I'll just share with you what works for me.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have found that when I wake up in the morning, if I wait for one to two hours, sometimes even three hours to have breakfast, I eat a later breakfast.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: That works very well for me.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: It ends up for me being like a 13 or 14 hour fast.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I just feel better digestively.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that little bit of stress on my body is good for me.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I like having the break.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, when I wake up, I'm just I'm not that hungry in the morning.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I like to get up and have my morning routine and stretch and move my body and do my prayers and meditation and my gratitudes, and then the cup of tea when I meditate, and then I'll start to move into eating, usually somewhere between nine and 10.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, I'll do my workout.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: But that being said, everybody's different.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would encourage you, we're all different.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can see research on both sides.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to present both of you.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you, if you are interested in this topic, do your own research.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can definitely reach out to me and I can recommend books on both sides of the argument.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I feel like moderation is always key.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I also feel like you need to pay attention to how your body feels and what works best for you.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So in my case, I can struggle sometimes digestively.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a good thing for me to take a little break.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: I make sure that when I'm coming off of that short fast, that I'm eating like about 30 to 40 grams of protein with powder in my smoothie, so I'm making up for any protein loss that there might be.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I find it for me to be a really good thing.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's also a good thing to have a little bit of stress on my body.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're waking up and you're hungry or you're just feeling like your blood sugar is tanked or you're hangry, or you're feeling miserable by the time it's time for you to eat, then maybe intermittent fasting is not such a good thing.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, one of the best things we can do for ourselves physically is to start to connect to our body and get in touch with how we're feeling and listen to it.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to your body because if you do, it will tell you what it needs.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Other ways to create some good stress or hermesis in your body are things like uh heat exposure and cold exposure.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: So saunas can be a great way to get good stress on your system.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: I like to do infrared saunas with red light panel.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't been doing them much this summer because I've been away from it and haven't had access.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: But when I do, I like to do it two to three times a week for 20 to 30 minutes.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: I typically do it after a workout.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a really good way.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Again, a little bit of low dose, good stress to build resilience in your body.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be like overwhelming, or you don't want it to be too much.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be doing it all the time.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: You probably don't want to sit in there for, you know, an hour or more.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: But here and there, it can be a really good thing.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of good research around saunas and what it does for you cardiovascularly, what it does for your blood pressure.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's also great because you get in there and sweat, so you're sweating out toxins.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's another great way to build physical capacity and strength in your body via this stress or hormesis.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: On the flip side of that is cold therapy, which personally, I'll just be straight up, I do not like it.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I don't care.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can see research on this on one side that's saying how good it is for you, on another side saying it maybe is not so good.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: I have friends who swear by it.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have other friends that have never done it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's on a little different walk.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I can just share with you my experience.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: I do not love quote exposure.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like the way it feels.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's just me.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I think I would be remiss if I didn't mention it as a form of good stress for your body or hormesis.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I will say that this summer I did start to, because I was wearing my Garmin watch and seeing that my HRV was starting to go up with the run walking, I thought, well, let me see if I can start to push this a little more.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I've been doing and what I really do love, and I'll even do this sometimes if I take a shower later at night, it seems to help my sleep is I'll take a really hot shower, and then at the very end of the shower, after it's good and hot, I've done everything I need, I'll turn the shower all the way as cold as it can go.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And just for maybe like one to two minutes, I'll stick my hands, my wrists, up to my elbows in it.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'll stick like my feet, my ankles, my legs.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll let it hit my back a little bit.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take it and like wash it over my face and drizzle it down my back.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Even just those things can create some good hormesis and stress and flexibility and adaptability in your nervous system.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't say to get into like a cold bath or like a 10-minute cold shower before you go to bed.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably not smart.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, taking that hot shower and then just a little bit of cold sprinkle there on the tail end of it, it seems like it relaxes me and helps me sleep better too.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: So um, those are just observations from my own life.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: But again, another form of hormesis is cold exposure.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: This may also, ladies, be a very good reason to enjoy that piece of chocolate cake every once in a while.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay for our body.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's something to be said for yes, we want to decrease our toxin exposure as much as possible and use clean body products and eat healthy and all of these things.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes it's okay.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like we don't have to beat ourselves up if we have the piece of chocolate cake or we, I don't know, you go and get your nails done or whatever that looks like, because some of some of this can be also from a different perspective looked at as hormesis, like a little bit of stress on your body here and there.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoying something maybe is not the best for you, but allowing your body to be exposed to stuff to figure out how to use it and work through it, it's not necessarily a bad thing.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so for what it's worth, I don't think you should be eating chocolate cake necessarily every single night of the week, but you do it here and there on the weekends, special occasions, and you just really, if you're gonna do it, you enjoy it and savor every moment of it, then I say, you know, why not?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't you?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's a a part of life, and for many of us, a part of enjoyment.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: For me, chocolate.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, give me chocolate, and I am happy.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't think there's anything much more comforting to me than chocolate.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: So just food for thought there, no pun intended.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I just want to circle back uh before we end this conversation because if we're talking about, you know, I said at the start of this conversation that this was gonna be about struggle, and then I went into horse hormesis, and it is a little, it it is definitely top more talking about stress exposure, but there is some struggle there too.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that just like it's good for our bodies to struggle physically, I want to bring this full circle and say that it's okay for us to struggle a little bit in life, and it's a good thing for us to push ourselves out of our comfort zones, not just in our workouts, but in our day-to-day.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good thing.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: It builds resilience and adaptability.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's good for us to push yourself to meet people or step out and do something that makes you uncomfortable, sign up for that class or do the public speaking event or introduce yourself to somebody you don't know, something that scares you a little bit.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Those things make us feel alive.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that grow us, those are the things that help us to adapt.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's okay to, and it's good for us to do that, especially in this phase of life, to push ourselves out of our comfort zone.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think this goes hand in hand, this conversation.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to be aware of that as well.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and also we can say that, you know, again, full circle, the same thing for our kids.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay for them to struggle a little bit.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: It builds resilience, it builds adaptability, it teaches them that there are struggles in life, but they can get on the other side of it and they'll grow through it.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you're constantly the mom who just wants to protect, protect, protect in helicopter, even as they get older and try to shield them.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know like it breaks your mother's heart, it breaks my heart.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: See, my kids struggle, it's the last thing I want.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, especially as they're becoming adults, they have to figure things out on their own.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can be supportive, we want to love them, we want to help them through things, but we don't have to fix it all.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think we should take that weight off of our shoulders to think that we have to fix everything for them and also be mindful of like it's not necessarily good for them.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to keep that in mind too.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that's helpful and useful to you.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hard thing.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's maybe one of the hardest things for a mother, isn't it?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's not always easy to get up and do the workout or to go and do the run, but man, to let your kids struggle a little bit or to watch them struggle, whew, there's nothing like it.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about causing stress in our lives.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Being a mom, it's it's I I have said so many times that being a mom is the hardest, but also the best and most fulfilling job I ever had.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as they get older, it doesn't stop, right?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't stop.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: We continue to be moms.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And as I've said so many times and I will continue to say, it's just we mom them differently.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times it's harder because the problems are bigger.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why we have to be building strength and resilience and adaptability and, you know, steady emotions and a strong mental capacity in our lives so that we can not only show up better for ourselves and for what God has us to do, but showing up better for our kids, teaching them like when we get out and we push ourselves in a run or in a workout, we're teaching them how to do the same thing.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not only doing that, we're we're building the capacity in ourselves to show up for them better and to take on more.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just, you know, if you're not, if you need the leverage and the reason why, beyond, because you're gonna feel so much better and you're gonna feel more grounded and you're gonna be able to manage stress better and you're gonna sleep better.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: If that's not enough for you, then man, let the leverage be so that you can show up better for your kids and for the people that you love.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's, you know, that's our greatest commission is to love God with our all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then to love others as ourselves.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: And again, the healthier we are and the better we feel, the more able we are to love and serve others.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so just keep that in mind.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Keep that in mind as you move forward and as you head into building more capacity and you think about these things like building adaptability and exposing yourself to a little bit of stress here and there in your life.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Again, ladies, I just want to thank you so much for joining me for this conversation.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a pleasure to have you here.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Please, please let me know what you're thinking.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: I welcome the feedback, I welcome advice, I welcome, you know, hopefully it's positive, but any type of advice is helpful for me because if I'm doing something that's not ideal, it's good for me to know.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I might not know unless you let me know.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: So don't hesitate to reach out.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know what you're thinking, let me know what you want to hear about.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've already done a podcast episode in response to somebody that emailed in.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you have any questions or concerns or there's something you're dealing with, don't hesitate to reach out because if you're dealing with it, somebody else is probably dealing with it as well.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I probably have myself.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: The email, the best way to reach me is via Brooke with an e on the end at thestillwellmom.com.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: I check that email regularly.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you to everybody that who has already reached out.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you are liking the podcast, I would just ask, and I would be so appreciative if you would take a moment to rate and review it.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's so helpful for building an audience, for getting this out to more women like ourselves and for me growing the platform.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so that would be really helpful, and I would be very appreciative of that.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: And make sure also that you check out the website, thestillwellmom.com, for everything that's going on there.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on Instagram and Facebook at thestillom.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can get updates there as well.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: And just remember as we close that you don't have to do midlife alone.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can always choose stewardship over striving, and you can be strong in body, steady in mind, and rooted in faith.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time.