Run Like A Woman Challenge - Day 5

It's Day 5! You've made it! Woohoo!

Today is the most important day of the whole challenge, because today we are putting it all together. You deserve to get stronger and to take this time for YOU! 

DAY 5: THE BIG PICTURE

This week, you’ve already accomplished a lot! 

You’ve discovered that in order to run better you have to move with intention, which includes movement quality, movement control, and intentional running.

But like I mentioned at the start of the week, moving with intention is just the first piece of the puzzle.

If you want to run stronger after 40, there’s two more pieces we still need to talk about. 

Even if you have missed some of the days so far, be sure to join us LIVE today, so that you can get the blueprint and see how all 3 pieces fit together to help you become the strongest and healthiest version of YOU, no matter your age or current fitness level!

Because, as you’ve seen this week, it’s not just about how much you’re doing; it’s about HOW you’re doing it and how committed you are to the process.

Running is a practice; you can keep getting better if you do things intentionally. 

ACTION ITEM:

Meet yourself where you are. 

Use today to catch up on an action item this week that you haven't done yet.

If you're all caught up, pick one of the days to repeat. 

If you had a hard time performing the strength test on Wednesday, modify it—use a higher chair or use your arms to help you to do the single sit to stand until you can do 3 sets of 10 on each leg. If you have pain or are unable to do it with one leg, use 2 legs to stand up and try using just 1 leg to lower back down.

I want you to see that anything is possible when you do it with intention and move forward with a PLAN and modifications that work for YOU!

Fill out these quick questions to help you move forward with intention!

Thanks for Listening!!

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Don't forget: The information on this website is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition or to provide medical advice. It is intended for general education in the areas of health and wellness. All information contained in this site is intended to be educational in nature. Nothing should be considered medical advice for your specific situation.

Transcript

0:22

welcome to day five y'all It's the five day running challenge and today is day five and i'm super excited that all of you Have carved out this time to join me whether you're joining me live Thank you. Thank you for making that time for yourself and for carving out this time To make yourself a stronger runner and a stronger woman in this second phase I Of your life ready to go with intention and curiosity. when you talk about like how you're feeling as far as moving forward into this next phase of your life, do you feel, how about this? I have to ask a clearer question. Has this challenge helped you? How about that? Have you, what have you gained from this challenge? Have you, is there at least one thing that you can take away from this challenge? All right. So today we're, it's day five and I'm super excited that you all are here because we're really, today's a party, right? We're celebrating that we are done with the challenge and we're looking at the big picture so that you know how to move into this second phase of your running life with confidence, with clarity, and with a plan. And the fact that you are here and you made it here today means that you are committed to improving yourself and you're willing to do the work to get there. So that alone. is a huge celebration. And if you're like a lot of our previous challengers who have made it to this point, you're probably asking, okay, how can I take this new knowledge and actually know what to do with it? And you've given me some tests throughout the week, you've given me some dynamic warm ups and some mobility drills and some other things throughout the week. How do I actually apply that and implement? Because if I just do this one thing, I don't think it's really going to make that big of a deal. And you're right. Like doing one thing will help you for sure, but it's not the full picture. So how do I take what I've learned and create a plan to help me know what to do every day? So now, that moving with intention is that first step. That's what we've been talking about all week long, but you might be thinking, how do I create a plan? And know that it will actually work for me. And what about the two of the other ingredients that we've been talking about this week? What do I need to do about those things? my nutrition you keep talking about the nervous system what the heck are you talking about? What do I need to do in those areas to get better? Does this sound familiar? Is anybody thinking any of these kinds of things? Give me a yes in the chat if some of those questions might be coming up for you this week Okay, because if so You're in the right place, right? That's what this whole perfect. All right. That's what this whole fifth day is about is really helping you connect the dots and put everything together because what we're going to do today is going to really help you understand how all of those things do fit together. So just a traveler on a journey needs a map and a destination. In order to begin your phase two running journey, you need a goal and you need a plan. And if you don't know where you're going and you don't know the step by step directions to get there, chances are low that you're actually going to reach your goal. You're actually going to reach your destination. And one of the biggest things that you need to realize, okay, we've talked about lots of different mindset shifts this week. We've talked about, moving into that building over losing. We've talked about quality over quantity. We've talked about thinking of yourself as an athlete. The other thing, the big thing for today that I want you to understand. Is that running is a practice. So in the book, The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek, anybody read that one? Anybody familiar with Simon Sinek? I love Simon Sinek. I think he's fantastic. He's such a huge thought leader in our generation today. And in his book, The Infinite Game, he takes a concept, I forget the original researcher, but this is a concept that someone else came up with in the 1980s. And he describes, He takes that concept and he describes the problem that a lot of people have when trying to make certain improvements in their life. Because there are two types of games or two ways of looking at your life. So finite games or finite games have an end point. They have rules and they have boundaries. The goal is to win. So those of you that watched the Orange Bowl last night and saw Notre Dame, Win the Orange Bowl, y'all know I'm a big Notre Dame fan, so I was up very late last night, and So football is a finite game, right? There's a time, there's a clock, you only have 15 minutes per quarter, You have an end, you have end zones, the goal is to get, score more points than your opponent. And Notre Dame did that last night, so we're going to the national championship, baby. I'm so excited. Can you tell? Alright, so football, basketball, a marathon, right? Those are all finite games. Infinite games, on the other hand, have no end. They have no defined rules, and they have no boundaries. And the goal is to keep playing the game. So things like relationships, right? Friendships. Leadership, a lot of these like bigger concepts that we think about if you wanna be a better wife. Is there a an end point to that? If you wanna be a better mother? Is that, do you ever win motherhood? right? y'all know if you're a mom, there are definitely days that you feel like you're winning the game and there's definitely days you feel like you are losing the game, right? oh, screwed that one up. So the problem be is the problem occurs. When we apply a finite mindset and rules to infinite games. And running is an infinite game. And sure, there are checkpoints and goals along the way, like races, right? A 5K is a finite game, a marathon is a finite game. But the main goal for running Is to keep doing it put the put a one in the chat if you agree with that If you want to be able to run for the rest of your life At least to be able to run, to have that choice to run, right? to get stronger, to keep improving, to continue to be able to run, that is an infinite game. So you can't keep doing things the same way that you've been doing them in the first phase of your running. Your, the second phase of your running needs to look different. And that's why you need a strength based running program to succeed and to keep playing the game. But first, before we jump into that, before we take a look at where we're going, I want to first take a look back at how far you've already come in just five days, okay? So let me know in the chat what has been one of your biggest takeaways this week, okay? I often say, what was your number one takeaway? But sometimes that puts a little too much pressure on us, right? But what's been a big takeaway from you? What is something that you will take away from this challenge? I currently am not training for a race. I am currently not training for that like a specific goal like we often think about with running. And I think that's one of the things that I would love to talk about today too is running and training when you don't have a race on the calendar because there's a lot of runners that think that you need a race in order to train, right? So when I use the word train, I'm not talking about just race training. I'm talking about training for life. Quite honestly, and we're going to talk about that later today as well. the 80 20 rule and limiting beliefs. Yes, Terry. Two things, strong over skinny and that our bodies aren't failing us, we are changing. Oh my gosh, Heather, if you can just take that away, what a huge win. Absolutely. Nothing's failing, nothing's wrong here, right? this is the natural transition that we as women are supposed to go through, right? That's a beautiful thing as long as we start doing things differently, right? We just have to start changing how we think we have to start changing what we're doing. I love that so much that was your takeaway intention when I don't have a specific goal. Yes, Stephanie built focus on building rather than losing nervous system regulations. So many things. Good. I'm glad. Okay. But. I don't want you guys to feel overwhelmed. Okay. So don't allow yourself, understand that overwhelm is a choice. So that's, again, that's what today is for. Today is really helping you see that big picture, that blueprint. Alright. So let's talk about what we've talked, what we've gone over so far as a short little recap. So on day one, you all committed, and you put your yeses and your ones in the chat, to that number one mindset shift that you need to make in this second phase of your running life, which is building over losing. Or strong over skinny, depending on how you like to look at it, right? We talked about the importance of building strength, and using our training to build muscle and build bone, instead of focusing on just losing weight. Because by focusing on building strength, you will lose fat, you will get faster, you will improve your endurance. On the other hand, if you're only focusing on getting weight and getting faster, you're more likely to push too hard, not fuel your body well, and make other mistakes that lead to fatigue, pain, soreness, injury, and even weight gain. So you just have to focus on the right thing first. That's the beautiful thing about what I want to show you, what I want to teach you and what we go through in our coaching program. Our coaching program is different than any other running coaching program out there because it's really about. First, thinking about things a different way, shifting the way you're thinking, shifting your mindset, because that controls everything that you do. And if you're focusing on the wrong things, it's going to lead to actions that are probably going to lead to injury and pain and fatigue and all the symptoms that you don't want to have, right? But by focusing on the right thing. It becomes even more fun, because you're focusing on something that you know is good for you, building strength and building muscle and building bone, and then the performance goals that you want will come more naturally without you having to hyper focus on them, right? So your focus is where your attention is. And you discovered with that first ingredient that you need to become a stronger runner after 40. Which is moving with intention on day two, you learn the prop, the importance of quality over quantity, and specifically the quality of your movement. You learn that it's not just about how much you do your mileage, your paces, or those quantifiable numbers that so many runners get so. tied into. It's about how you're doing it. It's about the intention behind your movements, your running, your training, your life that matters even more. You also learn the difference between joint mobility and soft tissue mobility and why both are essential for your body to feel better as a runner over 40. You learn some powerful techniques and some hands on techniques to help start loosening up some of those tight areas and areas of restriction that So that your body moves, can move better so that you can feel better. On day three, we focus on increasing movement control by improving strength. You learn the importance of strength training to improve lean muscle mass, bone density, metabolic health, brain health, and so much more. You also discovered that three types of strength training that you need to incorporate into your weekly routine and how to meet yourself where you are in. On day four, you learned about intentional running and how hard your runs need to feel in order for you to make progress and all about effort based training. You started to see the importance of connecting to your body rather than relying on external gadgets and external factors. We talked about running drills and how they can help to naturally improve your mobility, your running form, and your efficiency. And if you've missed anything thus far, don't worry. Okay? So that's just our little highlight reel. You can go back and catch all of the content from this week. All of that content will continue to be up, through next week. So you have plenty of time to go back and catch any of the things that you missed. Okay? So today, on Day 5, we're talking about reimagining what you want perimenopause and menopause to look like, and what you believe is possible for yourself, right? Because your thoughts about a thing will determine your experience of it. So your thoughts about perimenopause, your thoughts about menopause will determine your experience of it. And so I love what, I think it was Heather that said, that shift of, my body's not failing me, it's just changing. That shift alone is huge, right? Because again, your thought about that thing is going to determine how you experience that thing. If you think to yourself, my body's failing me, how will you act, right? That's, that leads to a lot of like just giving up. For a lot of women, right? And just being like, I guess I just have to accept it. Versus, okay, my body's changing. Tapping into that sense of curiosity. Okay, what does this mean? What do I need to do now? How do I need to adjust things? In a way that is right for me, because it's all about meeting yourself where you are in order to move forward with strength and confidence in this second phase of your running life. So as you've seen throughout this challenge, a strength based running program is your key to running after 40 to running without injury, to getting stronger, to feeling better. You have to operate with a strength based running program, and there's three ingredients. So like I told you earlier this week, I've been a physical therapist for the past 18 years. I've been a runner for over 20, and I've been a running coach for 10, and every single woman That I've worked with has proven this to be true, has proven that strength based running is the way to go. And when I think back on every single patient that I've ever worked with, this has proven to be true. We need to improve no matter what. injury they came into the clinic with, whether it was plantar fasciitis or lower back pain or a glute pain or a hip pain or knee pain, for every single one of them, we worked on strength and we worked on mobility. Now, unfortunately, especially when I was a younger therapist, I didn't realize some of the other ingredients like nutrition and nervous system regulation that I now understand. And when, that's why when you put all three of those things together, that's really the secret sauce. Because I've always known how to make people stronger. I've always known how to improve their mobility. I've always known how to help them move with that intention. But what I found as a younger physical therapist, especially, is that I would help a patient get better. They would leave the clinic and then I'd see them back and again, six months later or a year later. with the same problem, right? Because they didn't change their mindset, number one. I didn't really talk to them about mindset, especially early in my career. I did later. I have, in, in the later years of my career, definitely dug into more of that psychological aspect, of commitment and of, making sure, having people follow through. And understanding what the things that they need to do to stay strong, not just to get them better, but then to stay better moving forward. Yeah, nervous system regulation is a game changer. Absolutely. So when I think about my running journey too, how I went from hating loving, hating running to loving running, from thinking of myself as a slow runner, to now thinking of myself as a strong runner. No matter my pace or distance, this has also proven to be true. This strength based running program. You can't just get away with running anymore. Just running, right? Your focus needs to change because a strength based running plan is the only way to train effectively after 40. So how do we do that, right? That becomes our next question. What the heck is a strength based running plan? And how do we do it? And that's really what I want to show you today. Okay? So I've developed a step by step method to help you understand how to create and implement a strength based running program. So first, the first step, let's see. Okay, because like you guys already know, strong is the new skinny and you start losing up to eight percent of your lean muscle mass every decade starting at age 30 Unless you start to actively do something about it one in two women will experience a fracture from osteoporosis And 80 of people with osteoporosis are women We've always believed that a smaller, skinnier body will make us happier, more confident, a better runner, right? If it's, if my body's smaller, then I'll be faster. It's not the case, right? We've been taught that restriction and dieting are ways to get healthier. We've been taught that if we're gaining weight or getting slower, we're just not doing enough. We've been taught to push harder, to restrict, and to ignore the signals that your body is sending you. But that leads to hormone imbalance, that leads to osteoporosis, that leads to fractures, that leads to frailty. So we have to start releasing those years of conditioning and building a new way of viewing our bodies, right? That is the key. Because what most women don't realize is how you feel and perform is not just based on your running, it's not just based on how much you exercise, it's based on how strong you are. And in perimenopause and after menopause, it's harder and harder to build that strength. because of the loss of estrogen and progesterone. Your body is just not operating the same way that it used to. And it's also not just about strength training and lifting weights. Okay. That's not the full picture. It's not just Oh, okay. I have strength based running. I just have to add strength training into my routine. There's more to it. Okay. Like I just mentioned, even with my patients in the clinic that I helped to rehab from injury. It's not just about movement. It's not just about the strength training and the mobility. That is the biggest piece. That is one of the biggest pieces, right? I shouldn't say it's the biggest piece because all three of these pieces are really important and they have to work together. If you want to actually get the results. So what you've also learned this week is that there are two phases of running. And I want to just break them down a little bit because you've heard me say that a lot, right? So phase one, I like to think of as unintentional running. In phase one, you could probably throw on a pair of shoes and Go out and run like you didn't have to pay attention to this many details, but that doesn't work anymore Right just like you used to be able to fall asleep on the couch and wake up refreshed You know you probably need you know a dark room the right temperature The right sheets like all these other things to help you fall asleep, right? A salt bath before bed. So your body's just not operating the same way as it did when you were 20 years old, when you were 30 years old, when you were 35. And phase two I like to think of as intentional running. So in phase two, everything matters more, right? We need to have the right balance of hard days and easy days. We need to have the right balance of nutrition, the right amount of sleep, the right shoes, the right clothing. If you want to feel better, but most importantly, you need the right focus for training. And that's really what we've been talking a lot about this week. what I want you to think about is this, is that you essentially need a bridge, right? From phase one into phase two. Because fighting it doesn't, just makes it worse, and ignoring it doesn't make it go away. All of us are going through, are going to go through menopause, right? If you have made it to this point in your life, you are blessed that you are going to experience menopause. No woman gets away with it, without it, right? Unless you don't make it to this phase of your life. But you're here, which is beautiful, which is wonderful. So again, we have to think about this as a blessing, as a good thing, as just a change. We just need to figure out how to bridge this gap, right? So the real question is, what happens if you don't adjust what you're doing? what happens if you just keep doubling down on what you've always done, right? So that's where we are right now, is figuring out how do we build that bridge to the second phase, And that's what we were talking about with this strength based running program. So this is Erin. Erin's one of our clients. She came to me with plantar fasciitis for over a year. And, with our strength based running program, she was able to go out and she just, this is her finishing a 50K, I believe. I know she just did another 50k in November and she's doing like a three day trail race, I think, of 50 miles over the course of three days in March or April, which is super awesome. So she understands now that I can't just go out and run. I also have to focus on strength and mobility and nutrition and my nervous system in order to get the results that I want. Okay? So let's talk about these three essential ingredients, right? We've talked about moving with intention. That's really what we've been talking about all day. All week this week, because what you now understand is that estrogen supports anabolic activity, right? Estrogen helps us to build stronger muscles, stronger bones. So as you lose estrogen, your body has a harder time building muscle and building bone. And training is a catabolic activity, which means that training is actually breaking your body down. And so if you're not, if you're Train over training if you're training too hard if you're doing too much You're breaking your body down and your body doesn't have what it needs to build back up And this is what happens to so many women and this is why our training choices are so important because with the loss of estrogen your training choices matter even more So what can you do? We've talked about mobile mobility this week, right? Helping your body to move better. Range of motion, the quality of your movement, the control of your movement. And when things hurt, people often avoid these movements. Which makes the problem worse. if it hurts, just don't do it. We've talked about that mistake this week and how that's what, unfortunately, a lot of doctors tell people of that. If it hurts, don't do it. And in fact, we have to be doing the opposite. We need to lean into those movements even more, but we need to do it right. Intelligently, right? We need to meet ourselves where we are and progress through some of those painful movements in a way that's going to help us to improve those movements and strengthen our body through that movement so that we don't have that restriction and that limitation. We talked about strength training. Okay, we should be strength training at least two to three times per week, and this needs to be a mix of strength, stability, and power movements, which we talked all about on day three. Okay, so if you missed day three, go back and under, you can go back and understand all those different, those three different types of strength movements that we need. And then the third thing we talked about yesterday is polarized training or intentional running. Making your hard days hard and your easy days easy. Making sure that we have more easy days than hard days. And how to incorporate cross training into our plan to help make sure that we're not putting too much impact on the body. We want impact, right? Impact is not a bad thing. But we don't want to overdo it. Again, depending on who you are, what your body's your history of injuries, all those things, cross training can be a huge help in this next phase of life. So Patti understands this, Patti came to us, Patti's in her 50s, but she actually went through menopause early because of breast cancer, and so she actually went through menopause, I think in her late 30s, I think she said she was 39, and she had arthritis in both of her knees, and, but she wanted to run, and so Patti, Drink my Kool Aid and now understand that strength training is the way for her to do that. And she's been able to, with her plan, she's been able and she's a lot like a lot of you on here that, talks about not just training for a race, right? Patty is someone that just trains because she wants to be stronger. She wants to improve her health. She wants to keep getting stronger and keep getting faster. and she's now in her fifties and she is setting PRS in her 5k. And I think she's training currently right now for a 10 K, but she's not someone that always has to have a race on the calendar, right? She understands the benefits that she. Receives both physically and mentally from following the plan from strength training from incorporating better nutrition, and from the regulation of the nervous system. Alright, so ingredient number two, I want to talk about a little bit more today because we haven't had a chance to dig into this as much, this week. So ingredient number two is nail your nutrition, right? because We've talked about training. We've talked about moving with intention. And the problem is that's where a lot of runners stop. They think that as long as they have the right training plan, everything will be fine, but that's only the first ingredient. Now you understand that, right? And now you also know that training breaks your body down and it needs to be balanced. Like your training needs to be balanced with easy days and hard days, but there's more to it. If you want your body to build back stronger, you have to give your body. The building blocks that it needs to build muscle and that's why ingredient number two is to nail your nutrition So this is where we talk about dieting. Okay. So what am I talking about when I say nail your nutrition? I'm talking about what you eat when you eat how much you eat and How you eat all of those things have a major effect on the way that your body feels and how your body responds to training. But that does not mean that you need to go on a diet. Okay? Because one common symptom during perimenopause and menopause is weight gain, especially around the belly. what do most women do? If you notice that you're gaining weight, what's the thing that most women do? Let me know in the chat, if you've ever noticed this, you've probably done this before as well. I know I have, definitely done this, multiple times, in multiple forms. Eat less! Yes, eat less, cut carbs, yep, exactly. So we're talking about dieting, right? You go on a diet. So that means some form of restriction. We're restricting your food, you're restricting your calories, you're restricting your carbohydrates. If you grew up in the 90s, you restricted your fat. Everything was fat free or low fat, right? Diets change all the time, right? And so all of these things matters. Like I just said, when you eat, What you eat, how much you eat, and how you eat. Because, and without estrogen, your, nutrition becomes even more important. Because estrogen helps you maintain your weight. It helps to regulate insulin and cortisol. And so as it declines, your body does not process food the same way. If my husband tells me one more time, it's calories in, calories out. Yes, punch him, Stephanie! No, I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna advocate violence. But it's, yeah. I'm kidding. maybe you could pinch him. My mom used to like, when we were little, my mom used to pinch, if we were misbehaving, she used to come and pinch us right in the back of the arm and it wasn't, it didn't have to be hard, but oh, man, that, that was a, oh, it is not the same, yeah. For men, maybe, but guess what? Men's bodies are different than ours, right? And that's why a lot of the typical nutrition advice that you hear, especially from men, Is poor advice because if you as an active woman just continues to eat to restrict what you eat It's one of the worst things that you can do want to know why? Because when you lose weight via calorie restriction only now this study was done on both men and women When you lose weight via calorie restriction only 25 to 50 percent of that weight loss is muscle, right? When you restrict your calories, your body sheds weight, but it's not just fat. You lose fat, you lose muscle, you lose water, and 25 50 percent of that weight loss is muscle. Some of it's just carbohydrate stores or glycogen stores, right? It's gonna help you, the, number on the scale to go down. Okay? So why is that? Why do we lose so much muscle if we restrict calories? It's because muscle is the most metabolically active tissue, meaning that it requires the most amount of calories to just maintain. We talked about that the other day as a benefit, right? When we have more lean muscle mass, that means that we burn more calories at rest, right? That is one of those benefits of having more lean muscle mass. But when we try to restrict our calories and lose weight, we're, your body's first going to get rid of the tissues that are taking up the most energy, right? When we think about offloading things, we're going to try to get rid of the biggest offenders first. And the biggest use of calories and energy is your brain. So our brain, we can't get rid of our brain, obviously. But that's one of the reasons why people, have you ever noticed, if you're on a diet where you restrict, it's like your thinking is off too, like your thoughts get more foggy and you're not like thinking as clearly, you're like, ah, I'm so hungry. And that's why people get hangry also, when you don't have the food, it's, everything is dysregulated. Okay, so if you're not feeding your body enough, your body is super smart. It's going to get rid of the tissue that's using up the most resources. And when you restrict calories, you're actually raising your cortisol levels because your body does not have what it needs to build back up, especially if you're training. Especially if you're training and trying to restrict calories at the same time. Your body stays in that catabolic state, that state of breakdown, even if you're resting. Now, if you remember, we talked about our sympathetic nervous system being that fight or flight. And then, I'm going to talk about this in a couple slides here too. And then the parasympathetic is our rest and digest. That's the time when our body is resting and recovering that it's able to build back stronger. But if your cortisol levels are high, your body stays in that catabolic state. It doesn't shift over into the building, into the anabolic state that we need if we want to build stronger muscles and bones. And like we already mentioned, we're already losing muscle after the age of 30. So if you're now restricting calories on top of it, trying to train more, you're throwing your body into even more hormonal chaos. So here's the crazy thing. Eventually, at some point, like all diets are unsustainable. We all know this, right? We all know this logically. If a diet actually worked, you'd still be, you'd probably still be eating that same way because it's probably not a diet. It's just the lifestyle. It's just the way that you choose to eat, right? Here's the crazy thing. When, so when they lose the weight 25 to 50 percent of that is muscle, but when they gain the weight back, 80 percent of the weight gained back. Is fat. So your body composition is changing and it's getting worse with every single diet you go through because you're losing muscle and then putting fat back on when you start to eat normally again. And during this whole process you're actually sabotaging your whole metabolism. Every time you restrict you're slowing down your metabolism. Your body is super smart. If you're not giving it enough fuel, you're It slows down and it tries to use less energy because it doesn't think it has enough energy coming in. And so this just makes the weight gain worse in the long run. So eat less, move more could be good advice for sedentary people, but it's terrible advice for active women and for runners like you, right? You need to give your body the fuel that it needs to perform and recover properly and timing. Of that is also very important. Oops. I forgot to click here. And that's why I talked about earlier when you eat. as an active woman is also very important. There's a lot of, things out there like intermittent fasting and time restricted eating and all these different things, right? And I'm not gonna tell you to do any of that because that also, for runners, can throw your body into a state of hormonal chaos. Again, hormone, your hormone balance is so important. So the key to your long term success is to learn how to fuel your body. And change the way that you eat. Change what you focus on with your nutrition. Fuel your body for the activity levels that you currently have. Training for a 5K is going to require different fueling than training for a marathon. You're asking your body to do different things. You're fueling and your nutrition need to reflect that. If you're trying to enter a bodybuilding competition, your nutrition needs to look different, right? so it depends on what you're asking your body to do. So following arbitrary diet rules that stress you out, Is not fueling your body and it's not helping you get any better And so when I talk about nailing your nutrition, there's really four keys. Number one is nutrient timing. It's understanding when It's most important for you to be eating. It's knowing when to have Protein to have carbohydrates to have different things, right timing is very important It's about prioritizing protein making sure that you're giving your body those building blocks that it needs to build those stronger muscles It's about hydration making sure that you're drinking not just enough water, but also water and electrolytes Believe it or not estrogen. That's one more thing that estrogen has plays a role in Your electrolyte balance, sodium, potassium, magnesium. How much should I be drinking again? That's going to depend on what you're doing, where you live. Like me in Florida, when I'm going out and running, when it's 90 degrees outside, it feels like 105. My hydration on that day is going to look different than going out today when it's 50 degrees outside. Slightly. We also talk about gut health. All right? You also need to understand what your gut microbiome is, what the health of your gut is. There's so much emerging research about the importance of your gut health on so many areas of your body. They're actually calling your gut your second brain, okay? Because it's that important. You have a whole, host of, microbes and like colonies in your gut and all of that matters. Okay, so we have to be really aware of our gut health in the second phase of our running life as well. this is Cindy. I think she said when she was 59 and she's, she shares that openly, so I'm not like outing her. All right, but she came to us and she was like Do you think I could, I want to run a half marathon. I'm like, great. Sounds great. She's do you think I can? I'm like, of course. And she's do you think I could run a marathon? I'm like, absolutely. You could. So this is Cindy after her first half marathon in 2023. and the super fun thing about Cindy is that she also, she took this nutrition thing, and she's really learning, she's still learning, of course, like we all are how to fuel her body. And she just finished her first marathon at the age of 62, which is. So awesome, having never been a runner before, right? So again, I want you all to start to see what's possible. That's why I want to show you these amazing people. And I want to show you that this stuff matters and this stuff works, right? When you start to train in a way that works for you and your body, age is just a number. Anything is possible for you here. right, ingredient number three. So now you have the first two ingredients, but this next ingredient is the secret that so many people don't understand. And ingredient number three is regulating your nervous system. So what am I talking about when I talk about regulating your nervous system? Your nervous system controls everything that goes on in your body, all right? And there's different branches of your nervous system, but for right now we're going to talk about your autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary processes, things like things that happen automatically, your heart rate, breathing, digestion, blood pressure, all of those things are controlled by your autonomic nervous system. And there's two branches of your autonomic nervous system. There's your sympathetic, which is your fight or flight, and there's your parasympathetic, which is rest and digest. And there's And stress activates your sympathetic nervous system. how do you feel? Let me know in the chat. When you get stressed, what do you notice in your body? What do you notice? When you start to feel stressed. Anxiety. Yep. What else do you notice? Physio, physically in your body. Tightness. Yeah. you actually feel tight, right? Your body feels tight. Increased heart rate. Yep. Breathing changes. Yeah. You get stomach issues. Anybody get sweaty hands? I, yeah, I start feeling hot. Increased heart rate, right? So that shows you that your nervous system can't think straight. Yeah, exactly, right? So stress, just thinking about something that is stressful, right? A lot of times when we feel stressed, there's not something, there's not like an actual lion coming at us, right? We're just thinking about certain things, right? We're thinking that we're nervous about something or, we're worried about something. It's causing stress and all of a sudden your body physically starts to respond, right? So that shows you. Everyone has had some sort of experience of that, right? Rapid breathing, racing heart, that sense of fear or doom or sweating or feeling hot, right? Your body's physically responding to a mental stimulus, to stress. And estrogen has a protective effect. and helps to regulate our stress response by helping to regulate cortisol. Anybody heard about cortisol? I feel like cortisol is having its heyday. Everybody's talking about cortisol levels now, right? So as estrogen declines, Cortisol is more unchecked, and it can stay elevated, and this is where cortisol becomes a problem. Cortisol itself is not a problem. Cortisol is a beautiful thing. Cortisol does a lot of really good things in our body, but chronically elevated levels of cortisol become problematic. That leads to chronic inflammation in the body. That leads to a lot of other issues. And that keeps our body in a state of sympathetic activation. It keeps our body in that state of fight or flight. So your body is overstressed, right? How many of you have ever felt that, anxiety, right? And this is why anxiety tends to increase in perimenopause and menopause. It's because of the cortisol levels. It's because of your sympathetic nervous system. So you are, you're like, I don't understand it. little things bother me more, right? That's because of this. It's because of what's going on in your body, right? And so your body is already in this state of stress because estrogen is declining, so cortisol levels are higher. And so if you're constantly pushing yourself harder, on every run. If you're thinking to yourself, if I have to do more, I have to run more, I have to push harder, then you're continuing to elevate that stress response, right? Because running is a stress on the body. So if we just keep training more and pushing harder without the proper recovery, without the proper balance of easy days, without understanding how to regulate our nervous system and how to shift your body from that sympathetic into a more of a parasympathetic state. Then your nervous system becomes even more dysregulated. And this is why your training choices matter so much in this phase of life. Because, It's not like running is the only thing that we're thinking about, right? how many people here have a little bit of a stress in their life, right? Being a woman in midlife, there's a lot of things going on. We've got kids, we've got parents probably that are aging and that we need to start making some really hard decisions for, we've got career stuff going on, awakenings and, other things, right? There's a lot of things coming at us. Fires in LA. it's horrible what's happening and we're this 24 seven news cycle that we're a part of, even if you're, thousands of miles away from these. Tragedies and these things that are happening in the world, you oftentimes feel it, right? We're all affected by these things and our prayers to everybody that's in that area. I hope that they get those fires under control It's awful, right? But it's causing stress in our lives and this is again causing our nervous system to become even more dysregulated But there's something you can do Right? And that's really what we want to teach you. Because if your body's in that constant state of sympathetic activation, that fight or flight, it's just leading you down a really bad path. And this is something that I'm really passionate about. Because this is my husband, Kevin, and you guys haven't had a chance to meet him. But Kevin's story is a big part of my story and a big part of why I really dove into the nervous system. And have become so passionate about this. So Kevin is a very good runner and obviously he doesn't have to deal with perimenopause or menopause, but this is a very important part of the story. So Kevin ran division one track and cross country and he ended up injured. Okay. So he ended up having to quit the team, due to injury. He had a knee pain that just wouldn't go away because. He was pushing himself, trying to keep up with all Americans, trying to keep up with the fastest guys on the team, so he ended up injured. So I went to physical therapy school, we figured out how to strengthen his knee, and we fixed his knee with physical therapy exercises, okay? So he's a perfect example of what I was talking about before, how a lot of patients, I can fix their physical problems, right? But Kevin ended up, you can see here, this is when we were a family of four with little kids are those two little beautiful girls right there are now 15 and 12, which is insane to me. And you can see Kevin is holding the finish line of a marathon that he won. Okay, he was training for marathons, he was training really hard. He even won a marathon. He won half marathons, right? His training on paper and looking in from the outside was going very well. But, until it wasn't. Until Kevin ended up in the hospital. Until I got a phone call one day that I'll never forget from the principal of his high school. He's a high school teacher. Who told me that Kevin just had a seizure. And what? What are you talking about? This came out of completely nowhere. But it's because his nervous system was so dysregulated. He was staying up late. grading papers, spending time with the family, trying to be a good dad, a good teacher. He was waking up so he'd probably, we were probably staying up to like midnight and then he'd wake up at 4 35 a. m to go out for his runs. So he was overstressing his body in so many ways. His nervous system was completely dysregulated and it ended up leading to a series of three seizures that year. This was back in 2017. Until, so we had to overhaul everything, and that's really why I dove into the nervous system and really started to understand what a huge effect stress and our nervous system has on our bodies, not just on how we perform, because like I was saying, he was winning stuff, right? But at what cost? So it's not about how much you do. It's about how you do that thing. And your real life matters. The other things that are going on in your life that are causing stress or that are causing other things going on, it matters for us to take all of those things into account. It doesn't mean that we allow those things to become excuses for why we're not training. It doesn't mean that those things should be, should get us out of, doing the hard things in our training. It just means we have to consider those things as pieces of the puzzle. And we have to align our training and our nutrition and our nervous system in a way that we can continue to get stronger and build ourselves up and not break ourselves down. Is this making sense? Give me a yes in the chat. So it's really about learning that brain body connection and improving your ability to control what's happening in your body. So when we talk about regulating your nervous system, your choices matter, right? You can learn how to decrease the sympathetic fight or flight activation and increase parasympathetic activation through your training and your lifestyle choices and your nutrition, okay? And we have to also understand how to balance stress. In all areas of our life and recovery. And still make sure that we're doing enough to move ourselves forward, right? Because a lot of people are like, Okay, polarized training, great, I just have to slow down. I just have to run easier. But you still have to do hard stuff too. We just need the correct balance and that balance changes after 40 and that balance is different for every single person on this call because your life situation is different than mine. You have a different family. You have different friends. You have a different work situation. All of those pieces matter. And again, do not let yourself get, be overwhelmed by this. This is a beautiful thing. And there's so many ways that you can learn how to control all of these things in your life. Okay, question time. Are you guys starting to understand why it's necessary to have a strength based program that incorporates all three of this ingredient, all three of these ingredients, right? Because it, all three of these things work together and if you're missing just one, You're not going to get the results that you want. Are you starting to see this? Yeah, Katie, I feel like my blood pressure is through the roof. Right now, or just in general? I hope I haven't led to an increase in your blood pressure thinking about all these things. But yeah, it was horrendous, and I st Yeah, I sustained an overuse injury because of it, right? Because that's what happens. When we're really stressed out, our body can't absorb training in the same way. It doesn't work. Okay, so now I want you to think about this, right? What happens if you don't make some of these changes? What happens if you keep doing things the same way? Because when we only focus on losing weight, when we only focus on getting faster and running harder, or improving our endurance, we often think it will lead to this. But it's actually leading to this. And this, possibly this, and eventually this. Because if you keep breaking your body down, your body is going to keep getting weaker. And this is going to put you at an increased risk for running injuries. And we all know that running injuries and not being able to do what we want is not fun. And can lead to so much pain and frustration. And I don't want you to have to stop running. And I don't want you to end up needing help to get out of bed. Because if you continue to break your body down and only focus on dieting, your bones are going to get weaker, your muscles are going to get weaker. And this is something that I can say with certainty, none of us on this call want. None of us want to come face to face with this, right? And so the good news is, now you know that a strength based running plan is the only way to train effectively. After 40 in the second half of your running life because a strength paced running plan will give you more energy on your runs and in your daily life. It's going to give you increased strength and speed on your runs. It's going to help you improve your endurance. It's going to help decrease your risk of chronic health conditions, improve your bone density, improve your muscle health and decrease belly fat and weight gain. So maybe right now you're thinking to yourself, okay, but I've tried running plans in the past. I've done, I've done a lot of these things. Thanks. But I ended up getting hurt or I ended up quitting because it was too much. And that's why you need that customized plan for you. Like I mentioned before, your life, your training, your body is different than every other runner, right? So a plan that is right for one person might not be the same plan that works for someone else. And maybe you're someone that's thinking, I'm new to running. I don't know if I'm ready for all this yet, but I want you to understand that everyone starts somewhere and you're actually in a great position because. You don't have to undo years of poor training and years of doing it the wrong way. You can start fresh at this point and start to understand and build your training plan and your program in a way that works for you. And some of you might be feeling overwhelmed right now, which I hope you're not. Okay, but if you are that's okay. Again, we want to think, go back to what happens, what's going to happen if you don't change, right? What does that lead to? There is a man, there's a story that I like. Where a, a man's walking by, he's walking down the street and he walks by his neighbor's porch and on the porch there's an old man and there's a dog and the dog is sitting there and the dog is whimpering. And as he walks by he says to the old man, what's wrong with your dog? And the old man says, he's sitting on a nail. He's why is he sitting on a nail? Why doesn't he just get up? And he said, it doesn't hurt enough yet. It doesn't hurt enough yet. at what point is it going to hurt enough for you to start making a change? Do you really want to allow it to get to that point before you start making a change? Do you want to experience more running injuries? Do you want to experience more pain? Do you want to keep getting more and more tired? Yay, Heather, you're feeling hopeful. I love it. Yeah, Sharon. Thank you, Sharon. That's what I want you to think about. How, what would happen if you don't change things? Number one. And number two, how long do you want to wait to change things? Because that's totally up to you. And if you've been participating in this five day challenge, I hope that you see, you can start to see what's possible for you. You can start to see based on these amazing women that I've already showed you just a couple of them What is possible when you start training differently? How much more strength is available to you? How much more joy is available to you? How many more accomplishments? We all want to be proud of ourselves. That's why one of the reasons we run. We want to challenge ourselves. We want to be proud of ourselves. We want that sense of accomplishment. Such a beautiful thing. only you can tell, answer that question. So if you are ready to understand how to put all three of these things together, in a few short days I'm going to be opening the doors to my coaching program. And like I told you at the beginning of the week, I would tell you a little bit about it. at the end of the week if you're interested. Okay? I have created a step by step coaching program called Press Play, and it's specifically designed for women in perimenopause and menopause. And, in a couple of days, You can see if this program is right for you, okay? I wanted to give, I didn't, I don't want to make like a pitch right now and try to sell you into the program. That's not what I'm here for. I want to give you enough time to process everything that you've gone through this week to catch up on any videos or any of the daily action items that you haven't had a chance to do yet and tighten up any loose ends that you might have from the challenge, right? So the doors to Press Play are going to be opening on Monday. But if you're already, if you already know that you're ready for this transformation, you can sign up for our priority list. I have, I'll put that, I'll put that link in the chat. Okay, if you sign up for the priority list, it does not commit you to anything, but if you're like, you know what? This sounds really good. Priority. This sounds really good. I could really use some guidance in this area. I'm interested. Put your name on the priority list. That way, you'll be the first to know when those doors open. and, And, inside that program, we go through weekly action items. You get lessons so that you understand this even deeper. So that you can fight back when your husbands tell you to eat less and move more. You can give them science and research and be like, you're wrong, and this is why. You'll also get a customized training plan that includes all of your runs, all of your strength work, all of your mobility, all laid out for you and then coaches, like Sharon said here, I will be there with you every step of the way. How do I adjust this? Things aren't feeling right. I've got this pain popping up. What do I do about it? do you want to have a physical therapist in your back pocket. Yes, that sounds fun, right? So like when things do come up, because your body, like I mentioned, perimenopause is a transition, right? Into menopause. So this is just that transition period. So your body's going to be constantly changing and perimenopause can last up to 10 years. And then after menopause, it's the rest of your life, right? And your body's still changing, even though your hormones aren't changing. in as much of a state of chaos after menopause, you're, but you're, then you just don't have estrogen anymore. You don't have estradiol anymore in the body, right? So things change and things shift, all right? So if you want more information about the coaching program, go ahead and get your name on that priority list. You'll be the first to know. And also if you sign up for the priority list and you do decide to join the program, There'll be some special bonuses for everyone that's on the priority list as well. Put your, PF, is that plantar fascia? yeah, you had some plantar fasciitis coming into the program, I'm happy to help you figure that out. If you want some, if you want some coaching or some, somebody to like bounce ideas off of. I know you did some really amazing things in the last few years, which is awesome. But again, that's again, I talked about the difference between finite games and infinite games, and how, oftentimes, we treat running as a finite game, and that becomes problematic. Because then, if we don't have a race on the calendar, if we don't have, a very specific thing, We stopped doing it. We lose motivation, right? So we have to start thinking about running differently, in this next phase of life. So go back and check that out when, once this, video is over, you can go back and watch that. Thank you guys for being here. I'm so glad that you're feeling hopeful. that was really my goal this week is to help you see that you don't have to stop running. You don't have to stop training. You don't have to make your goals smaller. you can still accomplish amazing things. In your running and really in the rest of your life because running is that gateway running is the gateway to show you how strong you are to show you how much power you have over your life because if you can do things that in your running that you never thought possible. Imagine what else? There could be, which is really cool, right? That's one of the reasons that I love running, because it has helped me to personally break down a lot of the limiting beliefs I've had about myself and thinking to myself as a slow runner and never being, good enough or any of that. And I think running can really help a lot of us to do that same thing. I hope that you will at least consider the coaching program, at least take a look at all the details. thank you. when the doors open on Monday, and I hope to see some of you inside the program because I would absolutely love to be your coach and to help guide you in this next phase of your life, help to guide you through this perimenopause transition and then coach you for as long as you want, for as long as you want to stay strong. and so you'll be getting all of the details on Monday for that. and if you guys have questions about Press Play, ask them in the Challenge Group. A lot of our members are in the Challenge Group, so hear it from them, right? I'm gonna tell you it's great. Obviously, I created it. obviously, I think it's great. Ask my members. ask the members what they, what their experience has been. And I think I'm gonna have some of them go live with me next week so they can tell you. so you can see that it's not just me blowing smoke. I, yeah, I've done all the research. Everything is scientifically based. But it works in real people's lives. In a lot of different, Areas and a lot of different types of people, right? With different goals, which is super cool. do you do about overtraining? I suggest you stop overtraining. That's a short question, right? so there's one train of thought, that says there's no such thing as overtraining just under recovery. You're just not allowing your body to recover from the training that you're doing. Again, it's that balance, okay? overtraining is oftentimes because you have this mentality of, I have to do more, I have to do more, and you're not giving your body actually time to, reap the benefits of that hard training, right? Which stinks! training is hard, right? give yourself the time to actually reap the benefits of it. That's the beautiful thing, you actually get stronger when you're sleeping, right? sleeping is the best thing for you. The amount of sleep you get plays a huge role. Sleep is one of those things we go into in the program as well, but it's the one of those things that in every research study where sleep has been studied. No matter what they're studying, they pretty much have shown whether it's cardiovascular health, muscular health, bone health, you name it. Chronic disease, if you don't get enough sleep, the outcome is worse. And if you get enough sleep, the outcome is better. across the board. Sleep is hugely important. Okay? any recommendations for electrolytes? I think it's one of those things, it's personal preference. but I like LMNT. Okay. you have to be careful with it because it's super salty. so I don't use a full packet. I use like a little bit. It depends on a lot of different, you have to be careful with electrolytes, okay? Because we just had somebody in our coaching program who was using LMNT, just to flavor her water and it ended up causing high blood pressure. All right? And when she stopped doing that, her blood pressure went back down to normal. So again, it's about finding that correct balance. So basically, the best answer for overtraining is to make sure that you're on a plan that's actually working for you, because your plan, you might not be on the right training plan. But I would definitely suggest trying to avoid overtraining because that's one of the biggest things that leads to injuries and other problems. Alright, thank you all for joining me and keep an eye on your email, join that priority list if you're interested in Press Play and keep an eye on your email for the doors to open next week. And I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, talk to you later.