The higher your fitness level, the more resistant your body is to injuries.
Okay, a few more sentences.
A higher fitness level means less hypoxia (decreased oxygen available to the tissues) and less acidosis (excessive body fluids acidity).
When those two go up, the tissue resiliency goes down.
-J
A common theme I see with new clients is a daily glass or two of wine at the end of the day. To wind down after a day’s work. Although there’s nothing inherently “bad” about this, when you look at the science, alcohol has zero physical upsides.
There’s no way around it, regardless of how antioxidant-tinted glasses you might be wearing.
Now, super moderate social alcohol consumption might have some psychological benefits. But for most women going through menopause, the physical downsides of drinking are usually quite immediate:
– Hot flashes and nighttime sweats get worse
– Sleep quality suffers (and sleep often isn’t great to start with)
From what I’ve heard and observed, all of that makes the following day significantly less pleasant.
Should you stop drinking altogether?
I am not one for blanket statements. Instead, regardless of your current drinking habits, see what happens to your menopause symptoms if you reduce your drinking for the next few weeks. You might be positively surprised.
One of my clients has set herself a weekly goal to have 3-4 alcohol-free days a week. Or, as she calls them, AFDs. (An acronym I had to unlearn and relearn because I’ve always associated AFD with something else. And that’s not what she meant. I checked.)
On AFDs, her strategy is to stick with low-calorie sodas. That way, she still gets that feeling of social drinking without the alcohol. I am happy to report that it works for her.
One of my previous clients also used the same strategy. She subbed wine for herbal tea. And it worked for her too.
And as someone who uses sparkling water and non-alcoholic beers to achieve the same, I vouch for the effectiveness of this strategy. Even if I am neither a woman nor going through menopause right now.
-J
Each one of them is a sign of you putting in the effort.
Mistakes and failures are the breadcrumbs of your commitment to showing up.
We don’t care about perfection. But about the commitment to the unavoidably imperfect process.
Because that’s what counts.
-J
That’s a direct quote from a client when she signed up for online coaching earlier this year, a month after her 40th birthday. Since then, she’s:
– Hiked up a mountain she probably would’ve not done without having the trust she now has in her knees (her words).
– Participated in a couple of multi-day horse riding camps.
– Started adult community ballet.
– Transformed her identity from inactive to active.
– Struggled like every other person but hasn’t given up. She’s persisted through illnesses, soreness, and dips in motivation.
– She’s made strength training twice or thrice a week into a habit using minimalist, home-based workouts. While also managing work, family and a busy social life.
There will never be a perfect time to start. There will never be enough time. So you might as well start now.
In a few months, you’ll be grateful you decided to start today.
-J
Most of us naturally emphasise our daily mistakes and misfortunes while barely acknowledging our wins. Especially the small wins. And as we’re more likely to remember our mistakes and poorer choices, it can distort how we see ourselves.
We become less confident in our skills and abilities to achieve our goals.
But that stops now.
In a world obsessed with social media highlight reels of here’s-me-cuddling-a-panda-in-a-submarine, we often underestimate the power of small wins.
But small wins are like compound interest for your motivation. Each small win boosts your confidence, proving that you can do it. And that’s a kind of big deal.
You’re not just ticking a box every time you successfully complete a healthy behaviour, be it a quick workout, a healthy UberEats, or 60 seconds of mindfulness.
When you acknowledge and celebrate a small win, you reinforce the behaviour you want to become a habit. It’s introductory psychology: positive reinforcement. You’re more likely to repeat an action if you associate it with a positive outcome.
So, how do you make this actionable? Simple. Keep a pop-psychology-smelling ‘Wins Journal.’ I know, the overly upbeat name itself activates the gag reflex in me too. But…
By keeping a ‘Wins Journal,’ you’re not just tracking your actions but creating a tangible record of your capability. It serves as a frequent reminder of how far you’ve come and fuels you to go even further.
When you complete your chosen behaviour or anything worth feeling good about, jot it down. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. A single-line entry will do.
The key is consistency.
-J
Sarcopenia: ever heard of it? No, it’s not a new brand of gluten-free pasta or a remote Greek island. Unfortunately.
Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of muscle mass and function and has long been considered an inevitable part of aging. By age 50, we start to lose about 1-2% of our muscle mass annually, and the percentage increases as we hit our 60s and 70s.
If that were a retirement fund, we’d be burying gold in the backyard. And you can do that and then some with strength training.
Current resistance training research not only reports preserved muscle mass in older adults but also shows gains comparable to younger folks.
Muscle is metabolic currency. Strength training improves insulin sensitivity, bone density, cognitive function, and a hefty reduction in chronic inflammation.
The key to these upsides is to customise the training intensity, dial in the rest, and gradually challenge your limits to make sure you keep progressing.
As with a retirement fund, the earlier you start accumulating muscle into the fund, the better.
-J
Let me guess: you probably don’t need any more stress right now. Right. Neither do I.
A prolonged lack of focus leads to a pile of undone work and a mountain of stress. We can’t control everything, but we can do a lot to improve our focus and reduce a significant stress source in our lives: unfinished work.
Here’s my list for improving deep focus.
Gathered from smart folks who know humans and brains.
1. Delay caffeine 90-120 minutes in the morning to allow cortisol to lower naturally.
2. Exercise earlier or at lunchtime instead of after work.
3. 1-5 minute cold shower at an uncomfortable but manageable temperature. It’s optional, but I find it makes me more alert.
4. Set detailed, time-specific goals. A time-specific goal can be anywhere between 5-90 minutes. Create these goals before starting work, perhaps the night before or during a morning walk.
5. Our brains can handle two to three 90-minute deep focus spurts in a day. Plan accordingly.
6. Space deep focus spurts with non-focus demanding tasks (different to work-related tasks). Social media, YouTube and browsing the internet are not great options.
7. Before each break, write down a quick plan for when you return.
8. Include short activity breaks throughout the day. Even a few minutes counts.
9. Kill all the notifications on your phone and computer.
10. Park the unrelated tasks that come to mind during the deep focus on a piece of paper. You can return to them later.
11. Motor control stuff helps focus: drawing, stress ball, crawling…
12. A lighter lunch might help afternoon focus.
13. Meditate to teach your mind how to wander and how to bring it back.
14. Learn to tolerate boredom. Sit with it.
15. Sleep. A lot.
-J
The goal of the workout is not to get you exhausted and sore.
The goal is to get you closer to where you want to go.
Sometimes, that involves exhaustion, even soreness as a by-product.
But 99.9% of the time, it doesn’t. Especially when you’re training for your health and fitness, not for a competition.
If you’re constantly chasing exhaustion in your workouts, you might use the gruelling workouts to manage other, more psychological needs.
-J
It can be tough to stick with your workouts when the only motivation is the health benefits.
Look at the non-physical activities that surround the things you do with impeccable consistency. Whether that’s writing, reading, theatre practice or Saturday arvo get-together with your friends.
What are the benefits you get out of these activities? Why do you keep going back? Is it the social benefits, the personal rewards, the challenge, the battle with yourself, the joy, etc?
Find ways to bring some of those benefits to your physical activities.
-J
When a workout, a run or a dinner with three vegetables seems about as manageable as attempting a nuclear fusion in your bathtub, it’s easy to feel disheartened and frustrated.
During those daily struggles, most of us wish things would be easier and effortless.
But when was the last time you did something easy and felt an immense reward for it?
Every meaningful reward requires us to work through frustration and struggle. It’s the difficulty in the process that makes us appreciate the reward.
And the commitment to the process is the only way to work through those difficulties.
-J