episode 175: are your workouts too hard, too easy or just right?
This episode is long overdue! Today I’m talking about the transformative changes I've made to my workout routine since last August, and the insights I've gained from adjusting how I exercise as I approach my mid-forties and navigate perimenopause.
At its core, this is about understanding how our bodies adapt and respond to different types of movements and intensities, and making informed choices that enhance our well-being. I've shifted from long, leisurely walks to a more structured approach involving strength training and varied cardio, and I've noticed significant changes not just physically, but to my body confidence and body image issues as well.
What you’ll hear in today’s episode:
The importance of evolving your exercise routine over time as your body adapts
Why integrating strength training into regular fitness regimens to maintain muscle mass, metabolism, and overall health is something you HAVE to do
The role of higher intensity workouts and how to approach adding them in to your routine
Why working out needs to feel at least a little uncomfortable sometimes
How to know if you’re working hard enough
I hope this epodes gets you thinking about what steps you can take to make your workouts more aligned with your health goals and how you want to feel in your body.
Follow along with my friend and trainer Gina Wright on IG.
For more helpful tips to improve body confidence and lose weight without a diet check out episodes 156 and 168.
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175
[00:00:00] Hey everyone, it's episode 175 of A Die Diaries. Thanks for being here. Thanks for taking time from your day to listen to this podcast. Um, I've been looking at my podcast data and being totally honest, like it's, um, shrinking a little bit. Um, which is fine, like I don't, I will always show up and record this podcast whether there's one person listening or a thousand people listening.
Um, And, you know, part of me is wondering, like, I feel like every day there's a new podcast out. It's just such an incredibly saturated market and there's so much to listen to. Um, that sometimes I think it just could be, just get to be, like, too much. Um, so if you're here and you're listening, thank you. I appreciate you so much.
As I always say, whether it's your first [00:01:00] episode, your fifth, your tenth, or you've listened to, uh, God bless you all 175. Um, I can't believe that it's been that long. It'll be four years in November that I've been doing this podcast, which really kind of blows my mind. So anyway, enough about that. I've been kind of like talking about doing this episode for a really long time on social media.
And what I'm going to talk about today is how I've changed my workouts over the last, um, since like August and then going into September. Um, what I've been doing, why I've been doing it, changes I've noticed. Um, just to kind of share like sample size of one, what I've experienced, um, as a, I'm almost 44, um, you know, approaching or already in perimenopause, um, and dealing with all of that and the role that exercise plays because it plays a big one, plays a much bigger role than you probably want to acknowledge or accept because it means that you have to, um, you do something about it.
Um, which takes work and it takes effort. I'm not going to lie. [00:02:00] Um, so here's kind of like a little bit of my backstory. If you've been listening for a long time, you will know this. And if you haven't been listening for a long time, totally cool. Um, I'm going to give you enough to, to go off of. Um, so I have been walking for exercise for a very long time at this point, probably like six months.
six to seven plus years, like walking almost every day outside. Um, and walking probably for like 45 minutes to an hour, like a really good amount of time. And I listened to, I'm like an audio book person. I don't read very much the book or Kindle in my hand, but I listened to a lot of books and I love it.
And I look forward to it. And I just, I love walking. It feels amazing and it's doable and, um, I wasn't getting super sweaty. I didn't have to have special clothes. I could drop Ben off at school and then go for my walk. So that was a really big part of my routine for, I mean, Ben was in elementary school for, you know, five years and I would basically drop him off at school and then go on my walk and then come back and start [00:03:00] my work day.
Um, that changed a lot this year with him in middle school because we no longer walk to school. We have to drive to school. And so that changed a lot. Um, and it kind of synced up with when I decided to make some changes or kind of recognized that I needed to make some changes. So you know, I've been walking and enjoying it and loving it and it was fine and great.
But when my, what is it, you know. I am a huge advocate of walking and I'm going to talk about that. Um, walking is wonderful. No matter how much you kind of exercise or don't exercise, walking always counts as movement. What I will say, and this kind of starts to maybe jump ahead a little bit, but I won't go too far, is that the amazing thing about human bodies is they adapt, and they respond to the things that we do or don't do.
And my body was adapting to all of the walking that I was doing. And I [00:04:00] say that because The, the length, I was walking for like a long time, 45 minutes to an hour, five, six days a week is a lot, right? It's a lot of time. But the intensity of the walking during that time was low. Um, I was walking like a good clip but not walking like super fast and pretty much on flat ground.
And it is harder to get the intensity up on flat ground Especially if you're not really paying attention to how fast you're walking, which, when you're listening to an audiobook and you're looking at, like, all the things around you, and enjoying being outside, which I was, it's very easy, your body's gonna kind of settle into, like, your natural cadence.
Some people are naturally fast walkers, one of my closest friends. is like the fastest walker I've ever met. And I know when she and I go on a walk together, it is going to be a workout. That's not my, that's like her natural cadence. It's just how she walks. It's like a thing. Most people don't walk that fast.
And so when you're, if you're not [00:05:00] explicitly and purposely paying attention to how fast you're walking, you're going to settle into like your natural cadence. And So what had happened is I was walking and I would probably settle into somewhere between like an 18 plus, 19 plus minute mile, which is not like fast.
For someone, for one person might be fast. For me, it wasn't. And I've been doing this for years, years, with no other really, not saying no other, with not a lot of other higher intensity exercise missed in, right? I would go to a dance class once a week and I kind of go, as much as I love dance, I do go through phases with it, um, in terms of when I go really consistently.
where I don't go as consistently. Um, strength training is in and out and, you know, once in a blue moon I'd get the urge to like go for a run, which was like literally like I could count on one hand the number of times a year that would happen. Um, so I was [00:06:00] really, there was no intensity, there was not like really anything challenging about these workouts.
I would go and I would do them and the movement was wonderful and I would get like these, you know, I mean, I would easily get over 000 steps a day, no problem, between doing that walk and then walking to pick Ben up at school and just steps throughout the day, like no problem. And I was starting to notice over time, so this is like, right, we're mid April right now.
Going back over a year ago, changes in my body, right, my belly, I carry my weight in my belly, you guys know this, and again if you don't, now you do. Um, that is part of having PCOS and it's also just genetically like how my body is, I've been this way since I was a teenager. I was starting to carry more weight in my belly, and some of my clothes were feeling tight in the waist, and I hadn't really changed, I had not really, I had not changed how I was eating.
And I'm like, what, like, this is frustrating, what's going on? And this was around the time that I went to see the functional medicine doctor, and at one point there was some [00:07:00] stuff with my thyroid, the levels had been off, and we readjusted, and like, and then it helped, but then things kind of reverted back.
And I'm like, what's going on here? So and I was just feeling like not great in my body, right? I mean, you guys know who are listening. A lot of you who are listening are in perimenopause, menopause, or have gone through it and you know what happens, like changes happen in your body. You don't know where it's coming from.
You don't know why it happened. And you feel out of control. It's like, and you don't know what you did or what to do. And it's really frustrating. And like, that's how I was feeling. So, I have been consistently inconsistent with strength training over the years. And what I mean by that is I will go, I will strength train for like 4 to 5, maybe 6 months and then stop for 4 to 5 to 6 months.
And then pick up a new 5 to 6 months and then stop, right? Consistently inconsistent. And that's like, it's not that it's, it's not bad. [00:08:00] But I No, partially because of the field that I work in, my time working, teaching strength and movement. Um, very good friends of mine who are like experts in this space.
One of my closest friends is one of the smartest, most educated people I know in this space. space. I'm going to talk about her because she's the one who programs for me. And I know that strength training is really fucking important. And if you are listening, it is really fucking important for you too.
And I will tell you in no uncertain terms, it is something that you have to be doing. And I know you don't want to hear that. And I know it's like, well, why do I have to do it? Or you don't have to do anything. If you care about your health, if you are struggling with weight gain in places you're like, what the fuck is happening right now?
If you want to, um, prevent or mitigate osteoporosis, if you want to be able to get up and down off the floor as you age, if you want to [00:09:00] maximize your quality of life as you age, if you want to have the freedom and the the confidence to be able to move and do whatever you want, right? As you age over the next 5, 10, plus years, you need to be flexible.
strength training. You need to be picking up a weight that feels heavy for you. And so around all the time that this was happening, I was, had not been regularly strength training for a while. And I'm like, okay, I need to do something about this. So I reached out to my friend, Gina, who I just mentioned before, I'm going to tag her because yes, she's a good friend, but she is also fucking brilliant.
And I asked her to program for me. And it was very specific. I was working out at home and I wanted the workouts to be really only around a half an hour because I previously, I have done programs where it's like 45 minutes to an hour and I have to be at a commercial gym to have a barbell and that's what ultimately would lead me to being that consistently inconsistent.
Like I couldn't stick with it. [00:10:00] So I got real honest with myself. I know I need to be able to do this at home and I need this to be a length of time that feels really doable. And so she. created a program for me. It was three days a week and the workouts are between 30 and 35 minutes and they can be done either at a commercial gym or at home.
She always has like variations of exercises. And this was early August, so I don't know, how many months ago was that, eight, nine months ago? I don't even know. And I started doing it and I have been consistent, right? Have there been weeks where I haven't worked out at all? Yes, of course. I've been sick.
We've gone away. Have there been weeks where I've only done one or two workouts? Yep. Have there been weeks where I've done all three? Yep. Right? But I have showed up and if I have missed a week or 10 days or even two weeks, I have kept going. Yep. Yep. I have like thrown out my hands and said, Oh, here we go again.
Like, look what I did. I stopped again. Like, I have to start over. I have to find a new program. This isn't working. No, this is working. I have to make the effort and the commitment to show up because it's in alignment with how I want to take care of myself. And [00:11:00] I really got honest and realized that strength training is really fucking important.
And if I want to take care of my body and feel good in my body, I have to be doing this. Whether or not I get excited about it, whether or not I love it, whether or not I look forward to it, there are certain things that we have to get honest about doing and taking care of ourselves, and I firmly believe that strength training is one of them.
Eating protein is another one, and they go hand in hand. I will tell you that if you are strength training, you need to be eating protein. That's where the strength and the muscle is going to come from. Not eating enough protein, you're going to diminish the impacts of your strength training. So, I started doing these workouts, and we have a decent variety of dumbbells, but nothing crazy.
I will tell you what we have. We have fives, tens, fifteens, eighteens, twenties, twenty fives, thirties, 40s and [00:12:00] 55s. I know that sounds like a lot while I'm rattling it off, but most people probably already have four to five of those sets. You probably already have some of that. And we added over time, right?
We didn't have the 40s for a long time. I bought those probably halfway through, meaning so like, you know, four or five months ago, I added those because I felt like I needed them. Um, and I have a bench, which was not that expensive. And I have like some bands and stuff that I don't really use that often.
And so if you think about, if you pay to go to a gym and you never go, if you were to add up that money, you could easily add a couple of sets of dumbbells to your collection and have enough. I don't have a barbell. I don't have any cable machines. Like, I have dumbbells. That's it. I have a couple of small kettlebells.
I really don't use them that often. Um, Because I use the dumbbells. That's what I have. And I make it work. Um, and you can make it work. And I like doing it at home because it's very easy for me to go downstairs, do it in the basement, come back up, shower, get dressed. [00:13:00] I don't have to drive to the gym and come back and it's like this whole thing.
I know some people prefer to leave the house because it's like I'm leaving the house. I'm going to work out. I'm doing my thing. I get it. You have to get honest about what works for you. How consistent are you being? I'm not. And are you doing it or are you not doing it? And why, why is that? I really realized that I don't want to have to leave the house to strength train.
I have to be able to do it at home and I have to be able to do it in about half an hour. So she programmed for me accordingly and I just started doing it and I have kept doing it. Now, what I love about this is this is not like she, it's in an app. Um, so the workouts are in an app and I can track them and I can schedule them and all of that.
So there is like some accountability that I know she's kind of checking in and looking to see if I did it. But I can track and I can see my progress and it, it, I don't have to write anything down. It like does it for me. It tells me like, Oh, three months ago you did this exercise with this weight. So it kind of gives me an idea of like, you know, if I'm doing that, that exercise and it's been three months, what weight I might want to pick up to use it.
So I started doing that and I was consistent with it and [00:14:00] I was feeling good, right? Feeling strong. I, I, some days I really look forward to strength training and some days I don't. Um, and there are some exercises that I love, and I will be honest, there are some exercises that I hate. What I will say is that the feeling of picking up a heavy 4Q weight, which is different for everyone, is a feeling of vitality and aliveness, which is like another word for vitality, and um, confidence and capability that is really unmatched by anything else.
So yes, there's of course all the physical benefits, but there are a lot of emotional and mental benefits to it as well. Um, especially as we age, there's all these things, don't, you're going to do, don't, don't do that. You're going to get hurt. Don't do that. You're going to throw your back out. Don't do that.
Don't do that. You might hurt your hip. You might do this. The reason that all those things happen is because you're not strong. Because you're not strength training. So it's like then you get stuck, you get like one thing begets another, and it's like [00:15:00] because out of fear of hurting yourself, you then don't do these things, but then you're more likely to hurt yourself.
This is like the truth of it. and strength training with a very structured program like this is very different than going to like a boot camp class, um, of which there are many in the town that I live. I'm calling them boot camp classes. You can call them whatever you want. That's what they are. Um, there's a lot of community with those people like going to them.
They are very high intensity, multiple days a week is a lot for your nervous system, really more than your body needs. We need some intensity, not too much, not too little, Goldilocks. And it does not kind of progress your strength in the same way that a very kind of specific, um, strategic strength program does, which is what Gina does, created for me.
And I'm, this is not like, I'm in like a group. I don't really like connect with the group, but she does this. There's like, I don't know, 10 or 15 women and we all get the same program. And like, we [00:16:00] modify as needed. It's not personalized to me. She does do that, but like, I didn't really need that. I was like, I can do what the group does.
you know, whatever is happening for the group. But the way that she programs it over the course of the month, the way she's programming the sets and the reps and the weights is very thoughtful and very strategic and very informed by what the research says about how our bodies adapt, um, how we build muscle, how this impacts our metabolism, and how this all plays into peri and menopause.
So this isn't just like going and doing like a random workout. Again, I'm not saying that that's bad, but I'm saying like if you're doing that and you're not getting the results you want. Or the thought of doing that makes you want to like, bleh, which it does for me. There's a lot, there's another way to approach it.
Um, so I was doing this, I was feeling good. Physically, like, I wasn't really feeling any changes, like, in my body in terms of my pants. And I wasn't expecting that, right? Like, Typically, body composition [00:17:00] changes are driven by nutrition. Now what I will say is that my nutrition was basically on point. There was really no wiggle room for me.
And I didn't, I had no interest in like, you know, working on fat loss from a nutrition standpoint. Um, I was happy with what I was eating. I was eating a lot of protein. Everything around, like, my relationship with, like, sweets was, like, in check, feeling good, making good choices. And my body was just responding to all that in, like, a slightly different way than it had before.
So we had a conversation, I don't remember. I think it was, like, maybe a month or two into it. Gina and I were talking, and we were talking about the walking, and that maybe my body had adapted to all of the walking. That the lack of intensity, and just kind of like these, you know, pretty, you know, You know, what you can call them zone one in terms of heart rate, which is just basically like where you spend your whole life living.
I was walking, but my heart rate was not really getting elevated a little bit, but not to like, [00:18:00] not high enough. That my body had just adapted to this, and especially over that past year had really adapted, and it caused a little bit of weight gain, and a little bit of shift, and this could all be connected to perimycosis, and or it could also just be the way my body was adapting.
So we're like, okay, let's start putting in some zone two cardio and zone two cardio refers to your, refers to your heart rate zone. And if you want to figure that out, 220 minus your age times 0. 65, that's going to give you your heart rates. And then it's like a range, a little bit below, a little bit above, somewhere in that range is your zone two.
It is a totally doable, it is not intense, it's, you can talk through it. So when I do my walks on the Peloton Tread, that's what I'm doing is zone two cardio. I listen to a book. I have my Apple watch that does track it for me. Um, it's helpful, right? You could use a heart rate monitor. You could use nothing and just gauge by like your level of effort.
You should be able to talk. You're not dying. You're not out of breath. You can do this for 30 to 45 [00:19:00] minutes. Like I'm not going to say no problem because if it's brand new to you, it might feel somewhat challenging, but this is not like, this is not a bootcamp workout. This is not a sprint. This is not a run.
This is like. a walk at a good pace, probably with some elevation to it. And I started doing that several times a week, and we also added in HIIT work, high intensity interval training. Now Gina is very specific about HIIT workouts, and she does true HIIT workouts. Most of the HIIT workout is not, 45 minutes.
It's not, um, even necessarily half an hour. It is intervals of very high intensity work followed by an interval of rest. And these intervals of high intensity work are no more than a couple of minutes followed by a couple of minutes of rest. But usually they're shorter than that. Usually it's like 60 seconds of work, 60 seconds of rest, 90 seconds of work, 90 seconds of rest, something like that for 10, 15, maybe 20 minutes would be like really on [00:20:00] the upper end.
I started doing those once a week. They were hard. They were very hard. Did I love them? No. Because in order for that high intensity work, I did, I would run, I'd run, I still do. run on the treadmill. You can also walk at a very high incline. I did that for a while. It's something going on with my foot. I couldn't run.
So I walked on a high incline that got my heart rate up high enough for it. You are in like a high zone. This is going to feel hard. You are going to feel out of breath. You are going to be like, when is this going to be over? That is how you are going to feel. That's how you need to feel. But it's only for one minute, you know, 90 seconds at a time.
And for 10, 15, max 20 minutes, once a week, right? It's not a lot. And you look at the whole picture of your week. And after a couple of months of doing that, adding in the Zone 2 cardio, adding in one HIIT workout a week, yes, in addition to the strength training, I started to feel a difference in my clothes.
I had not gotten on the scale, our scale, the battery's broken, I haven't replaced it, so I have not stepped on a scale in a very [00:21:00] long time. But my clothes started to feel different, where it had been tight in the belly, now felt comfortable again. And that has remained the same. Have my clothes gotten, like, big on me?
No. Have I lost, like, 10 pounds? No. Has there been a shift? Has there been a sub reduction in body fat to the point where, like, my clothes are comfortable? Yes. And I say this because I'm not, like, for me to lose 10 pounds, like, I have to Would have to make so many changes to my interest. I have no interest in that.
I don't need to do that. I don't care. It really means nothing for me. But we all want to feel comfortable in the clothes that are hanging in our closet, right? We all do. Um, And I was getting to the point that my clothes were wearable. It wasn't that I was like, Oh my God, these are way too tight. It was just, I could feel a difference and some things were uncomfortable.
And there were some things I was avoiding [00:22:00] wearing. You know, some things have like more flexibility than others, you know, like everyone knows kind of how to manage our closet in that way. And I wanted, I wanted everything to be comfortable. I wanted things to just pull right on and zip and button up and where I'm not thinking about it over the course of the day.
And it was this change in my exercise that got me there. Now again, I will say that my nutrition was already, was already there. I was already eating, you know, over 100 grams of protein a day, already eating a lot of veggies. You guys know that I rarely drink alcohol, um, incorporating sweets in a very thoughtful, intentional way.
Not to say there weren't days where I had like, not a lot of protein, or overate, or had like, a bunch of cake. Of course, I'm a human. We all have those days. But overall, big picture, my nutrition was really in place. Um, and I'm not saying that this is like, the thing that is going to like, quote, work for you.
Hello! But what I will tell you is that nutrition plays a huge role. So if your nutrition is not there, that has to be addressed, right? Like, [00:23:00] you can't not be eating enough protein and, um, be overeating sweets frequently and overeating carbs and having a really shitty relationship with food and try to do this and expect changes.
Like, it's not going to happen. Um, but for me, because all of that was in place, this has made a really big difference. And again, I'm not sitting here telling you that, like, I, like, Wearing smaller size clothes. I'm not like you would never look at me and be like, oh, she looks different Like my body looks the same um But I can feel a difference Right, I can feel a difference like in my body when I when I move and I exist in my body, right?
We all know how that feels When we've like gained weight in certain areas and just feels different and I can tell obviously by how my clothes fit um And so, that is a direct, it's not a coincidence, like that, my body had adapted to that walking, so that walking was just like, It wasn't doing anything for me anymore, like, our bodies adapt.[00:24:00]
And that's what's so amazing about them, is that, why I hate the analogy, oh, like your body isn't, your body's not a machine, it's not a machine, it adapts in response, that's how we heal, right? That's like, it's just, that's how neuroplasticity, that's like the amazing wondrousness of being a human being. And so my body had adapted to all that walking and I needed something more, right?
It makes sense. My body had adapted. And so I was like gaining a little bit of fat or things were like shifting in terms of where my body was storing that fat and I needed to increase the intensity. And as a result of doing that, I felt some physical changes. And I, again, I did that the zone two cardio because I was elevating my heart rate now several times a week, whereas when I was doing the walks outside, my heart rate was not getting elevated.
And I added in the high intensity interval training once a week, and I was consistently strength training. Right? So that is a huge part of it, too. That takes a long time to build up as you build muscle and you're consistent with it. [00:25:00] Right? It's all of it working together. Um, so, and there's a lot of science out there, and Gina is the expert on this, so I'm not going to talk about it.
But you can follow her and, you know, learn from her. because she's an incredible wealth of information. There's a lot of science out there that says that for, I mean, this is important for all women, but as you get into perimenopause, including more intense exercise is very important. And if you are gaining weight, if body fat is relocating and moving around as it does, that's normal.
The drop in estrogen um, creates a prime environment for abdominal fat. That is actually a normal part of the process. We just don't know how to mentally deal with it. That's a separate episode because that is part of this too. This isn't about like fixing things. This isn't about getting rid of belly fat.
This is about feeling good in your body and exercising and taking care of yourself because all the systemic benefits [00:26:00] of that, both physical and mental, and then alongside that also working to accept that like these are natural biological changes. Just like when you go through puberty and you go from not having boobs to having boobs.
Right? And your body, like, gets a different shape, right? Like, maybe, like, more of those curves than when you're, like, a little girl and you're, like, stick straight. You know, this is the same thing. It's a shift. It's, like, puberty in reverse, and there's a lot of mental stuff that's wrapped up in that, but it is a normal part of of the biological aging process.
We've just been told that it's a huge problem, that it needs to be fixed, that it's not okay. You never tell a girl going through puberty that getting boobs isn't okay, right? Like, no, it's glorified. But except to women on the other side, it's like, oh my God, no, this is terrible. This can't happen. And also we want our clothes to fit, right?
There is, there's a both and here. I'm not like, you guys know, I really try to like, straddle that and acknowledge the realities of dealing with this. [00:27:00] And taking care of ourselves and the mental piece. So I kind of like went off on a bit of a tangent there. What I want you to understand is that you need to be moving your body and you need to be moving your body in such a way that it feels somewhat challenging.
You need to elevate your heart rates. I'm not going to say you need to sweat because everyone sweats differently. If you're doing a high intensity workout, you're going to sweat, right? Like, so for that, like once a week, yes, let's try to sweat. Um, If you never feel challenged in your workout, if it never, never feels hard, if you never say to yourself, Oh my God, like how many more do I have?
You're not working hard enough. It shouldn't feel totally easy. It shouldn't feel, and I'm using the word should, but whatever, it shouldn't feel like, oh, I'm breezing through this. then it's not challenging enough and it's not doing for you what you think it's doing for you and what you want it to do for you.
Intensity matters and we need to use it accordingly. You don't need to do super [00:28:00] intense workouts five days a week. Not at all. Zone two walks are like, boom, get on the treadmill, listen to my book, I'm walking. I can breathe in and out through my nose or my heart rate's elevated, but it's not super intense.
Like I never dread those. I actually look forward to The strength training needs to feel challenging. Am I dying? Nope. They're a half hour, 35 minutes, right? So that helps modulate the intensity. And also, like, heavy is relative. What's heavy for me may or may not be heavy for you. So I'm not going to give you, like, weights you need to be using.
That's something that you have to figure out, like, if you decide to do this. Needs to feel hard. Doesn't need to feel impossible. You don't need to feel like you're dying. You don't need to feel like you're killing yourself. You don't need to feel like, oh my God, this fucking sucks. I hate it. I hate it. You might not love it.
You don't need to love it. You need to do it anyway, right? That's part of this too, is accepting that you don't have to love every single thing about this. Part of being a human, we don't get to love everything we do. That's like a [00:29:00] fantasy land. That is not part of being human. It's not always about being happy.
This is like, goes back to the thing of like, I've talked about in my emails, like this concept of wholeness. Yo, it's okay to be uncomfortable. It's okay to work hard. It's okay to feel intensity. It's okay to feel like, uh, when is this over? That's okay. That's part of being human. You need to feel that. If you're not feeling that in your workouts, you're not doing enough.
And again, you don't need to do that every day, once or twice a week. So I'm not here to like write you a workout program. I'm just trying to give you some insight for as a way for you to check in with yourself and be like, okay, where am I at? Like, am I feeling that? Am I not feeling that? Am I doing too much?
Am I, am I trying to like kill myself five days a week at the gym? Am I like walking out of every workout being like, oh my God, I'm so glad that's over. No, it doesn't need to be that hard. Um, you need to find that sweet spot. And if you have been struggling in your body, with body image, with perimenopause or menopause, you know, physical changes, emotional [00:30:00] changes.
If you are struggling, I mean, and then put premenopause aside, if you're struggling with weight changes or gain in general, this matters. And this is not about, I want to be really clear, like, this is not about, I ate this, so now I'm going to do this workout to burn it off. That is a mental thing.
relationship that we create. What I will say is that it is a scientific fact that our bodies adapt to what we do, what we don't do, right? I was not doing enough exercise, enough of the right type of exercise. I was walking a lot, right? So this goes to show it's not about necessarily the number, I was walking, I had 12, 000 steps a day, doing 45 minute walks five days a week, and I was gaining weights, right?
So more is not better. It's about the quality and the nature of the work. And what I will say is that changing the type of exercise I have done and being very strategic and [00:31:00] thoughtful about it, then changes how my body responds to the food that I eat. And that is not a one to one relationship. And what I mean by that is that is not like a Oh, I had three slices of pizza and ice cream last night, so tomorrow I'm going to do a longer workout.
No. That is a, just calling a spade a spade, a disordered relationship with food and with exercise, which I lived with for years, decades. Changing the way that you work out in terms of being very thoughtful about the way you're using intensity and frequency and the type of exercise, Then impacts systemically your entire body.
Is it going to impact your metabolism? Yes. Is that going to impact how your body responds to food? Yes. Is that going to maybe give you more flexibility with food? Maybe. Yes. [00:32:00] I want to be very clear that is not the same thing as that one to one relationship where I have to either preempt a big dinner with a workout or I react to a big dinner with a workout.
That is entirely different. It doesn't work that way. A calorie burn that you see in a treadmill is not like, that's whatever, doesn't mean anything. Just like the calories on your Apple Watch, that means shit. That it's like, those are usually 30 to 40 percent off in terms of like the accuracy of the data.
You can't calculate that stuff. You cannot rely on that. So that's why like the one to one relationship of oh, I ate ice cream, I need to do extra time on the treadmill, it doesn't work that way. Your body is actually way smarter than that. But when you are big picture strength training and using intensity appropriately with your workouts, your body adapts to that in a certain way and that can impact how your body kind of processes, metabolizes, uses [00:33:00] food essentially.
So I hope it's clear. This episode is getting long today, but that's okay. I knew it was gonna be a longer one. I hope that, I'm hoping that that makes sense and that you see a distinction between those relationships. Um, and to be honest, like I was hesitant to, to bring that up because I know so many of us have struggled in the past with that, I'm calling it that one to one relationship, you know, eat more, workout more kind of thing on like a very, uh, micro basis, meaning within the same day or within like a week or whatever.
And this is not that, this is very different. And this is really understanding the science. metabolisms work and how our bodies adapt and change and how we build muscle and the role that that muscle plays and then how that cascades through our entire endocrine system in terms of hormones and estrogen.
It's very, very complex. I am not even going to sit here and attempt to explain it because I can't, and I don't need to, right? You don't need to know all that in [00:34:00] order to work on this. So I think, oh my God, there's like one of these thumbs up. I don't know what this is. Um, I think that's it. I just want to reinforce the idea of consistency.
That getting uncomfortable and doing hard stuff is necessary, that starts somewhere. If you're not strength training, you don't all strength train once a week for 20 minutes, right? I'm not out here doing like these crazy programs and doing this at home in my basement for 30 to 35 minutes. Yes, I have a treadmill.
That is a wonderful resource. It's been a wonderful resource. You don't have to have a treadmill. If you have a bike or a rower or if you can get outside or you can do jumping jacks, there are a lot of ways to get your heart rate up. And if you need structure, reach out to someone. Gina's awesome. If you want virtual support, if you want in person, find someone in your community.
But please know that strength training. And exercise and movement is a very, very important [00:35:00] part of your health care. And it is up to you to take action on that. Nobody can do that for you. And it's going to be hard and it's going to be uncomfortable and it's going to take effort. Yes. And it will be so worth it because you are literally improving the quality of your current and future life and you will never regret it.
It will be one of the best things you've ever done for yourself. So I'm going to leave you with that. But thank you for listening, and um, of course I will be back next week.