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What will your life at 75 look like?
I hope you haven’t skipped the assignment to create a vision of your own life at 75 before you listen.
I caught up with Dexter Yeats at Ironman Cozumel 2019. You may remember our interview two years ago when I had the good fortune to meet her at Cozumel Ironman 2016. Days before this year’s race we ran into each other at the hotel and began talking about mindset.
Listen in as we discuss her plans for next year, when she’ll turn 75. Here how she responded to my question about mindset and the placebo effect.
I’ll link to Dexter’s prior podcast with me and to the book that I began our conversation talking about.
Questions we answer in this podcast (and pose for you):
- How has mindset made a difference for you?
- Share the story you told me about how you’ve rehearsed mentally since 1989
- What’s it like for you at home when you’re not surrounded by triathletes who get this lifestyle where hours of biking, running, and swimming are the norm? Do you have in-active friends?
- What are your plans for next year (when you turn 75)?
- So the last question I’ll ask here, reader, is what does your life at 75 look like? What do you want it to look like and why?
Remodeling?
Dexter’s home is undergoing remodeling right now, a new addition includes her personal workout room. It’ll be complete with a treadmill, a zero gravity treadmill, and a Wahoo trainer, with a beautiful view. (I’ll be sure to mention weights). That’s what she’s planning for her life at 75.
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Age backwards and better with me … the CAFE membership is built for women in perimenopause, menopause and post menopause. It’s based on research featuring you, proven programming with women like you… and combines what you’d get with a personal trainer, nutritionist, life coach, and gym membership all in one place. It’s only open twice a year, though! Don’t miss it!
Links to resources mentioned and Dexter:
- Dexter Yeats
- You Are the Placebo (and other fitness goodies)
- Cozumel Ironman
- Endurance Sports Travel
Other episodes you might like:
My interview with Dexter 2 years ago
12 Signs You’re Healthier Even If You’re Not Losing Weight
It happens. The scale doesn’t change as fast as anyone wants it to. So how do you reinforce your good behavior and keep those spirits up when it seems not to be working out the way you wanted it to? Focus on what’s working. Focus on the signs you’re on your way. Focus.. on your focus. Not the outcome.
Sleeping through the night
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
You’ve got those hormones specifically cortisol, testosterone, and growth hormone that are either optimized or scrambled based on sleep. They each have a domino effect on other hormones and on your ability to keep and create more lean muscle and prevent and burn fat. Constant waking pulls you out of those cycles of sleep you go through at night and prevents the good stuff from happening.
Waking rested
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight: you
You’ve got evidence that you’re getting into those phases of deeper sleep where hormone production and memory enhancement happens. Imagine your brain taking files sitting on your desk and locking them into file cabinets where the information stays safe and secure. Essentially that happens at night, if you sleep. The more decisions you make during the day the more you depend on this transfer to think clearly tomorrow. That in addition to the hormones discussed previously are optimized when you wake rested not groggy or hungover.
Clothes fit better
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
If you aren’t seeing the scale move but you’re losing inches you’ve got one of two and maybe both things going on. First, you’re likely losing fat and increasing your percent of lean muscle. Second, you may be losing inflammation and with that goes bloating or puffiness and water retention. Keep going!
The same speed, distance, or weight feels easier
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
This is exactly what you want to happen. The memes that tell you, “your workout will someday be your warm up” are oh, so true. What you start out unable to do or finding “hard” one day won’t be if you are exercising correctly. Some times it’s not even that. Sometimes it is dependent on your recovering correctly. When you start resting better, eating better, and observing how you feel more you’re on your way.
Your resting heart rate is lower
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
First thing in the morning before you get out of bed check your heart rate. It’s at it’s all time low at that point. When you see that dropping, you’ve got a good indication that what you’re doing is working. That heart muscle is finding it’s job easier and it’s pumping more blood (and oxygen) out with each beat instead of having to beat so many times.
Your cravings disappear
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
Cravings usually are an indication of micronutrient deficiency. They can also be an indication you’re ‘hungry’ for something in your life, but it’s not necessarily food. Focus on the former for this article. When you bump up your micronutrient-dense food intake and supplement where necessary, you reduce cravings. When you combine protein and fiber at meals in adequate quantities you reduce cravings. When you time the right type of exercise optimally, you reduce cravings.
Changing those will have a long term impact on your body at every level and it will show up even if in it’s own time.
You are satisfied for hours after meals
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
Similar to cravings disappearing feeling like you could really eat again within an hour of a meal is very much related to blood sugar issues. Those improve with both attention to micronutrient dense foods and the right macronutrients mentioned above and to the right dose of exercise at the right time. A stable blood sugar level keeps you from needing more food all the time.
You poop regularly (potentially more than you were)
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
Women in midlife are often more constipated than they admit- to anyone, including themselves! So if that’s you and you feel bloated or like you’ve got belly fat but you also feel like you never go completely, then improving this is a sign you’re getting things moving. You eliminate toxins from your body with pee, poop, and sweat. You want to be doing each regularly.
If gas and bloating were an issue, they’re gone
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
Those bodily reactions were most likely due to foods that don’t agree with you. Your “healthy” food list changes when your stress, activity level, and hormones do. So it’s natural for you not to be able to eat what you did a decade ago and feel or respond the same. When you’re signs something is wrong disappear there’s a better chance you’re absorbing all the vitamins and minerals you need to optimize health and fitness.
Aches and pains that were usual are less frequent or gone
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
Inflammation in your body is an obstacle to your optimal fitness. You’ve got to feel good and movement needs to be comfortable in order to have optimal fitness. You may have arthritis. Many of us will experience osteoarthritis as we age. Yet, you can manage much of the inflammation associated with it with food, rest, and appropriate exercise. Your thoughts are also potentially your most powerful tool not against tolerating pain but in preventing pain.
Heartburn doesn’t bother you anymore
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
Students in my 28-Day Kickstart are usually surprised by this one. No one actually starts an exercise program, even one focused on nutrition for exercise, with a priority of ending heartburn. But when it happens, it’s such a good sign. What you’re eating, how your body responds, and what your body can do with food has changed significantly. You’re on your way to more optimal digestion. You can’t skip past that and get to fitness and health.
You recover faster (from exercise, stress, or travel)
How it helps even if you’re not losing weight:
The sooner you can do another high intensity exercise session the more fit you are becoming. That is not 100% the truth. At least it’s not the whole story. That is relative to you. We each have different recovery needs. An elite Olympic athlete may need more recovery than a teammate. That athlete at 35 may need more recovery than she did at 20. But overall resilience will improve. If you travel frequently, you may notice jet lag doesn’t get you like it once did. If you used to start your next exercises session still sore from the last (by the way- that’s a sign to delay the workout) and now you’re feeling fresh and ready, you’re increasing your fitness.
Keep going! Any of these is a sign that damn scale does not speak the whole truth. Get a body composition scale. Get on the scale no more than once a week at the same time daily/weekly. More on that on an upcoming blog post.
Need support? Fit-U is for women in perimenopause and beyond who have 20 or more pounds to lose. It’s different after hormonal changes. It’s different if you need exercise joints love and fat hates. I’ve got you. All the science-proven research into exercise videos and the coaching tips to get positive self talk going. You matter so much. Do this for you. Do this for them. Watch this first: 
Want to dive right in? Click here.
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Are you Mindful About Aging, Fitness, Food?
Is the way you think about your habits, your every day habits that create the level of health which you currently have, aging you or slowing the process? Mindful practice of your inner and outer conversations may have more influence on your aging process than anything else that you do.
Of course you’ll have to have the right habits. Yet, if you’re mindful of them, you’ll naturally be inclined to make positive changes. You’ll seek the right information and the right steps. Then you’ll be conscious applying them in your life.
Dr. Ellen Langer, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and the first female professor to gain tenure in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. She is the author of eleven books and more than two hundred research articles written for general and academic readers on mindfulness for over 35 years. Her best selling books include Mindfulness; The Power of Mindful Learning; On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity; and Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility. Her most recent book is The Art of Noticing which pairs one-liners culled from her research with her original paintings.
Dr. Langer has been described as the “mother of mindfulness” and the mother of positive psychology.
Among other honors, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and three Distinguished Scientist Awards, the World Congress Award, the NYU Alumni Achievement Award, and the Staats award for Unifying Psychology. Most recently she received the Liberty Science Genius Award.
The citation for the APA distinguished contributions award reads, in part, “…her pioneering work revealed the profound effects of increasing mindful behavior…and offers new hope to millions whose problems were previously seen as unalterable and inevitable. Ellen Langer has demonstrated repeatedly how our limits are of our own making.”
This episode was peppered with questions:
You started pioneering this mindfulness movement – certainly about aging – before anyone else seemed to be writing much about it. In 1979, the rest of the world wasn’t quite tuned into the shock that was going to happen when baby boomers all started turning 50 and the change it would have on business opportunity, the economy, health care, so what was it that made you do that study so early in your career? Was it personal? Was there some influence of other researchers that pivoted you in that direction?
In 1979 how old were you? And now you are?
Tell listeners about the Clockwise study
When you removed them from that environment what happened?
This is a quote from some of the press reporting on the Clockwise study:
“What she found, however, surprised even her own team of researchers. Before and after the experiment, both groups of men took a battery of cognitive and physical tests, and after just one week, there were dramatic positive changes across the board. Both groups were stronger and more flexible. Height, weight, gait, posture, hearing, vision—even their performance on intelligence tests had improved. Their joints were more flexible, their shoulders wider, their fingers not only more agile, but longer and less gnarled by arthritis. But the men who had acted as if they were actually back in 1959 showed significantly more improvement. Those who had impersonated younger men seemed to have bodies that actually were younger.” [as printed in Harvardmagazine.com]
Because your body is listening you can change anything.
-Dr. Ellen Langer
Why didn’t we… the mainstream rest of the world hear more about this earlier?
The counterclockwise study results have been described in several of your books, but have never appeared in a professional journal.
Why was that?
The Impact of Mindful and Mindless Revealed
Almost 4 decades after that study… you’ve been quoted and your research cited many times in regard to placebo, the power of thinking. We’re now using and hearing the word mindset so much more often. Do you think we’re getting it? The majority of us? Or is it mindset that still limits us?
“It is not our physical state that limits us,” she explains—it is our mindset about our own limits, our perceptions, that draws the lines in the sand.”
Why is it so hard – or is it that we’re doing it wrong – to change mindset?
How can listeners put mindfulness to work for them?
But the biggest obstacle for so many is the language and thoughts that reflect their expectations. The entire premise of Flipping 50 is to first change our mindset so that our expectations send us looking for new knowledge and science that will help us live out our much higher expectations.
Exercising less, with the eye on balancing hormones naturally for more longevity and vitality, optimizing weight with more but better food not diets, and moving for joy not punishment.
“Wherever you put the mind, the body will follow”
But if the expectation is currently exercise is hard and it’s only purpose to burn off something that shouldn’t be there or change something unacceptable… or that it must take dietary deprivation and restriction … then getting healthy becomes hard.
Do you live with any care about your age?
Hotel Maids Mindful Change
The other study I love to refer to is that you did with Alia Crum with 84 hotel workers. Talk about placebo effect. The mindset we adopt when we take pills – or not – that matters.
You divided the maids into two groups and nothing changed about their physical habits at work, only the beliefabout their physical activity while at work changed. The study was 4 weeks – is that correct?
Engagement is powerful, it’s the act of noticing.
Much of what you’re saying is about the ability to accept that there is a different way to think about anything.
If I gave you some thoughts from our listeners – limiting beliefs – would you be willing to counter with something that might help them see the obstacles those mindless thoughts provide … and offer an action or thought change that would remove self-inflicted limits?
Many of the women listening are thinking:
- I’ve always been overweight.
- I’ve had insomnia forever.
- I always get injured just when I get some momentum exercising.
How has your work influenced your own aging?
How old are you now? The age of or beyond your subjects back in 1981…
“All Rules Are Turned.”
Connect:
Resources:
New book she’s working on: Why Not? The Power of Possibility
Does your mind control how you age?
Listener: Mindfulness and mindlessness were two big words in this episode. What are you doing mindlessly that if changed and approached mindfully could change everything?
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What If You Could End Dieting Hell?
This episode is all about getting off that diet you’re on or thinking about trying next. Yeah, I know you’re out there.
But first I need to let you know this episode is sponsored by STRONGER I, the 8-week early fall strength training program created for women in perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause launching right now.
The doors are not only open…but if you’re listening to this before July 25 you can get in at 50% off during the
Can You End Dieting Hell Once and For All?
Michelle Melendez is the creator of the Live in a Body You Love 90-program and Hawaii Retreat and author “End Dieting Hell: How to find peace with your body and lose weight.” She has lead thousands of live and online fitness classes and has helped women around the world understand and release their emotional addiction to being overweight.
First, that’s a strong statement… “emotional addiction to being overweight.”
Say more about that.
Other questions we answered in this episode:
- Did you struggle with weight?
- How do you end dieting hell?
- What is the biggest challenge your clients have?
- What’s the best way for someone to start?
- How do people work with you?
Get the Book: End Dieting Hell
Connect with Michelle online:
https://www.facebook.com/michellelmelendez
https://www.instagram.com/enddietinghell/
Please leave a rating in iTunes! It really helps!
- Visit Flipping 50 on iTunes
- Click listen in iTunes
- Click ratings and reviews
- Leave your 5 star rating (seriously I’d love it, but your authentic comments are what I need to grow and give you more of what you want and less of what you can leave!)
- Know how much I appreciate you doing this!
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5 Mindset Shifts for Better Fitness in Menopause
Mindset shifts are a must if you’re pursuing better fitness during menopause or after. You had socialization and conditioning that influenced you heavily at a time when, well, you were easily influenced.
Gone But Not Forgotten
You potentially buried yourself between then and now under the business of life. My students and clients tell me that they were busy in their careers and or families, not eating all that well, not finding time for exercise, and not feeling they needed it. I say that because as women sometimes we equate the need for exercise with the need to lose weight or get rid of calories or find ourselves more desirable.
Why Mindset Matters are a Challenge
Really buying into exercise as a lifestyle- the kind of exercise very different from your 20’s and 30’s – about hormone balancing not burning calories, or fat, or basically in other words, you, requires a shift from the “others” oriented moms we watched.
A midlife woman under stress responds quite differently to “more exercise, less food.” In fact, she is likely to slow her metabolism to a crawl and threaten her energy with adrenal fatigue if she does that for long.
“You really have to make up your mindset.”
It’s going to take some mindset shifts to rid yourself of those decades-old thoughts. I’ve got them right here in this post. First though before I dive in I want to begin letting you, my podcast listeners know that the Flipping 50 Café is the sponsor of this podcast and right now is the time to jump before the rate go up in July. The sooner you’re in the better your rate. Some of our founding members are in at the lowest rates and they’ll stay right there – grandfathered in –because I so appreciate them!
Here’s why now is the time to join…
We listened. I know that navigating that was once easy, gets challenging with more content. So we’ve organized it with this in mind. We’ve revamped our platform and curated mini courses in 8 areas that our members tell us are the hottest sources of frustration:
- Weight loss
- How to start exercise/eating for right now
- Joint health (arthritis, ortho issues)
- Bone density
- Strength training
- Motivation
- And more (the extensive hormone course in the works)
I’m going to share a little sneak peek of the Cafe members area. I’ll link to a video of the Café behind the scenes … though I won’t let you see the dozens of workout videos, and the How-to library, or the actual challenges in fairness to our Café members!
Enough about the Café, I could go on and on about that… let’s talk mindset shifts. (Much of the research about mindset was relayed in a book perfect for parents, coaches, and teachers in Mindset, by Carol S. Dweck)
The Status Quo Mindset
Fixed mindset says…“I’m bad at that.”
Growth mindset says…”I don’t know if I’m good or bad, I’ve never really put in much effort at it. But I know women who didn’t start running until they were 46 or doing triathlons until they were 60.
The “Natural” Mindset
Fixed mindset says…”I used to be good at that. I don’t know what happened.”
Growth mindset says…”I really just had a certain level of success naturally and never put any work into getting better. I think it’s time to try again.”
Perfect Time Mindset
Fixed mindset says…”I just don’t have time to do this right now. It’s too much to add to my plate.”
Growth mindset says…”I am busy for sure. And because of it I need this more than ever. I’m going to reach down deep and find something else to give up or say no to so I have time to take this step.”
Weight Mindset
Fixed mindset says…”If I don’t lose weight this will be another failure.”
Growth mindset says…”No matter if I lose weight or not I know learning the right way to do this will make me happier and healthier right now.”
Age-Related Mindset
Fixed mindset says…”I’m getting older, it makes sense I’m slowing down and gaining weight.”
Growth mindset says…”I don’t have to be a victim of age unless I chose not to workout and eat smarter to compensate.” It’s what Michael Jordan did. It’s possible for anyone.
Have you noticed that those naturally talented who didn’t work for it have faded? No one hears about them or remembers them.
What We Love
My client Jennifer hasn’t gotten to the pinnacle of her own fitness destination yet (I doubt she ever will- she keeps getting inspired to set new goals!). But when she posts people love it. She isn’t thin, winning, but she is OUT there.
My friend Susan, couldn’t swim when she registered for her first Ironman. She made it out of the water with 30 seconds to spare after swimming from kayak to kayak. Once it’s over no one looks at the time. She’s DNF’d many times in triathlons because she panicked in the water. She’s got tons of followers and she’s a sponsored athlete. Why? Because we like her spirit.
We like fighters. We like persistence. Sometimes we like it better than poor winners.
Do you remember the Nancy Kerrigan story, tennis star John McEnroe, or coach Bobby Knight? Those were memorable, for sure, but what kind of emotion do they evoke in you? Not likely as positive. They don’t inspire.
But it’s interesting that we might hold ourselves accountable to different standards than the ones we love in others.
Last note on Mindset Shifts
Mindset shifts are sometimes far harder than going for a walk. But when you can make them you will change everything. Not just your fitness, but your life. You can convert from fixed to growth mindset.
For listeners:
Both Jennifer and Susan have been prior guests on Flipping 50 podcast.
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5 Mindset Shifts for Better Fitness in Menopause
Mindset shifts are a must if you’re pursuing better fitness during menopause or after. You had socialization and conditioning that influenced you heavily at a time when, well, you were easily influenced.
You potentially buried yourself between then and now under the business of life. My students and clients tell me that they were busy in their careers and or families, not eating all that well, not finding time for exercise, and not feeling they needed it. I say that because as women sometimes we equate the need for exercise with the need to lose weight or get rid of calories or find ourselves more desirable.
Really buying into exercise as a lifestyle- the kind of exercise very different from your 20’s and 30’s – about hormone balancing not burning calories, or fat, or basically in other words, you.
A midlife woman under stress responds quite differently to “more exercise, less food.” In fact, she is likely to slow her metabolism to a crawl and threaten her energy with adrenal fatigue if she does that for long.
It’s going to take some mindset shifts to rid yourself of those decades-old thoughts. I’ve got them right here in this post. First though before I dive in I want to begin letting you, my podcast listeners know that the Flipping 50 Café is the sponsor of this podcast and right now is the time to jump before the rate go up in July. The sooner you’re in the better your rate. Some of our founding members are in at the lowest rates and they’ll stay right there – grandfathered in –because I so appreciate them!
Here’s some of the changes we’re making…
We’ve revamped our platform and curated mini courses in 7 areas that our members tell us are the hottest sources of frustration:
- Weight loss
- How to start exercise/eating for right now
- Joint health (arthritis, ortho issues)
- Bone density
- Strength training
- And more
I’m going to share a little sneak peek behind the scene. I’ll link to a video of the Café behind the scenes … though I won’t let you see the dozens of workout videos, and the How-to library, or the actual challenges in fairness to our Café members!
Enough about the Café, I could go on and on about that… let’s talk mindset shifts.
The Status Quo Mindset
Fixed mindset says…“I’m bad at that.”
Growth mindset says…”I don’t know if I’m good or bad, I’ve never really put in much effort at it. But I know women who didn’t start running until they were 46 or doing triathlons until they were 60.”
The “Natural” Mindset
Fixed mindset says…”I used to be good at that. I don’t know what happened.”
Growth mindset says…”I really just had a certain level of success naturally and never put any work into getting better. I think it’s time to try again.”
Perfect Time Mindset
Fixed mindset says…”I just don’t have time to do this right now. It’s too much to add to my plate.”
Growth mindset says…”I am busy for sure. And because of it I need this more than ever. I’m going to reach down deep and find something else to give up or say no to so I have time to take this step.”
Weight Mindset
Fixed mindset says…”If I don’t lose weight this will be another failure.”
Growth mindset says…”No matter if I lose weight or not I know learning the right way to do this will make me happier and healthier right now.”
Age-Related Mindset
Fixed mindset says…”I’m getting older, it makes sense I’m slowing down and gaining weight.”
Growth mindset says…”I don’t have to be a victim of age unless I chose not to workout and eat smarter to compensate.” It’s what Michael Jordan did. It’s possible for anyone.
Have you noticed that those naturally talented who didn’t work for it have faded? No one hears about them or remembers them.
My client Jennifer hasn’t gotten to the pinnacle of her own fitness destination yet (I doubt she ever will- she keeps getting inspired to set new goals!). But when she posts people love it. She isn’t thin, winning, but she is OUT there.
My friend Susan, couldn’t swim when she registered for her first Ironman. She made it out of the water with 30 seconds to spare after swimming from kayak to kayak. Once it’s over no one looks at the time. She’s DNF’d many times in triathlons because she panicked in the water. She’s got tons of followers and she’s a sponsored athlete. Why? Because we like her spirit.
We like fighters. We like persistence. Sometimes we like it better than poor winners.
Do you remember the Nancy Kerrigan story, tennis star John McEnroe, or coach Bobby Knight? Those were memorable right, but what kind of emotion do they evoke in you? Not likely as positive. They don’t inspire.
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Your Fitness After 50: Right Now and In the Future
Fitness is so much more than what size you wear or your resting heart rate. It’s not about how fast or far you can go. It’s not a matter of what workout you’re going to do.
Your fitness after 50 has the ability to decrease your risk of disease, increase your longevity and the number of years you live healthfully (your healthspan). It’s dependent on so much more than whether you go for a walk or lift weights today. This is the big picture. Your fitness after 50 will be influenced not just by exercise but by so many more things. I’m including a comprehensive list here.
I encourage you to go through this list and see really consider how well you’re doing each. Here’s the Cliff notes list in case you’re in a hurry. You can jump down to read details about the ones that interest you most below.
- Lift Weights
- Exercise Less, Move More
- Sleep Deep
- Stress Less
- Get a Community
- Stop Your Limiting Beliefs
- Start Amplifying Your Good Habits
- Cook Your Own Food
- Stop Making Excuses
- Stop Thinking Its Optional
- Stop Doing More of What Doesn’t Work
- Eat Protein on a Per Meal Basis
- Identify Your Personal Food Blueprint
- Identify Your Personal Fitness Plan
- Rest During the Day to Sleep Better at Night
- Exchange Placebos for Real Energy
1. Lift Weights
Your fitness after 50 depends on muscle. Muscle is now recognized as a key factor in bone density- or prevention of osteoporosis, as well as increased metabolism, and necessary for thriving in life rather than simply preventing frailty.
Increases in muscle through overload improve body composition.
It is no longer about the amount of time spent lifting weights.
The longer your weight lifting session the longer the rest between exercises and it is not about time it is about the intensity of the load.
Bone doesn’t benefit from “more” repetitions of lighter weight – only from heavy weight you can lift few times.
Quality not quantity matters. That is, reaching fatigue, not the number of repetitions nor how long you do it matters. Like we’ve seen results from as little as 6 minutes of high intensity exercise a week (intervals) we have seen muscle-fatigue-inducing strength exercises in minutes reap better results than hour-long classes.
Strength and endurance benefits is necessary for the ability to do additional work of interval training that you will see offers big benefits. Weight lifting also increases bone density so that additional beneficial activity is safe. Any cardiovascular exercise is good for the circulatory system, but only weight training targets the skeletal system in a way specific to improving bone density.
In studies of weight training, interval training, and combined training weight training increases muscle mass and strength most.
2. Move More: Exercise Less
Your fitness after 50 has less to do with cardio than you might think. Make cardio about your mitochondria and hormone balancing. Use your DNA.Studies show that men age 70 can reverse aging with mitochondria regeneration comparable to subjects in their 20s. Why is mitochondria important?
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of energy in the body. The aging process – if you do nothing – will negatively affect the production of mitochondria. Small doses of high intensity exercise have proven to support mitochondria function – by as much as double in three or four months in minutes a week.
You will spend more energy all day by doing 2 training sessions a week than either one or three training sessions. That’s two sessions of strength, two sessions of intervals, and some additional exercise that’s more endurance based or simply a lot of movement daily.
Samples of Intervals:
Perform 8 seconds on and 12 seconds of recovery 20 times. This is easiest to do on a bike, but it’s a challenge with almost any kind of exercise because it’s a very short amount of time to increase your work capacity to full out. Be sure your well warmed up before you begin. That’s a little over 2 and a half minutes of high intensity exercise. It’s been proven to increase fitness (in women in midlife).
In the Wingate Test protocol you do 30 seconds of all out exercise and 2 minutes of recovery 4 times for a total of 2 minutes of work. You can run or power walk up hill or an incline, go as hard as possible on an elliptical or bike or do it in a pool.
You can reduce time needed to exercise by doing these types of interval training sessions for 20 minutes twice a week (in addition to strength training twice a week), in order to have more energy for being active all day. The result is greater overall energy expenditure and reduced obesity and overweight. That’s less exercise and more movement.
3. Sleep Deep
If all you had to do was sleep more to lose weight would you go to bed sooner? Long sleepers compared to short sleepers lost more weight and more of the weight lost was fat (less muscle loss that is a natural occurrence with weight loss). Perimenopausal women all in the same weight loss program with similar status were subjects. So yes, it applies to you.
The regeneration of the mind and the body that takes place at night is the glue that holds all your other positive habits together. Pad your sleep time like bookends with habits – a routine – that prepares you for better sleep every night. If you’re not sleeping at night, tell yourself it’s just that you haven’t prioritized it.
Tell yourself that you haven’t yet found the right habits. Tell yourself that it’s possible to recondition and reset your circadian clock for better sleep.
Hormones responsible for decreasing stress (cortisol and melatonin) and promoting lean muscle tissue (growth hormone and testosterone) require deep restful sleep.
Eat carbohydrates later in the day, close the kitchen after dinner, get exposure to sunlight early in the day, and exercise – even 10 minutes daily improves sleep – just not too close to bedtime.
Your fitness after 50 will be limited or supported by your sleep.
4. Stress Less
If you have a rich life full of family, work, and activities you love, you’ve got stress. There’s no way around it. So this is no empty “lower your stress” advice. Embrace it!
The only time you won’t have any, you’re close to dead. Your fitness after 50 is a dance between exercise stress and other stress in your life.
By increasing physical strength with the right exercise you enhance resilience
Increasing the joy factor (laughter, love, relationships, experiences)
Decreasing the toxic exposure (chemical exposure>food, water, air, products)
Physical stress from toxins, lack of sleep, dieting or over exercise, as well as emotional stress all contribute to your stress load. Control what you can. Small daily actions add up.
What you’re taking out and what you put in both matter. Know that some of us do handle stress better than others naturally, but it’s also possible to adapt so you can handle stress better. If you have a strong “why,” what I call a “cry why,” that makes it all worthwhile, it helps. Make sure there is purpose to your life in ways you need it. Exercise is a big part of increasing your resilience to all kinds of stressors.
Boost removal of toxins stored in your body by gradually adding more fiber. Start with this healthy chia pudding recipe. Use this base or start getting creative with your own ideas.
Chia Pudding
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 scoop vanilla or chocolate protein (Paleo is delicious!)
- 1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla extract
Instructions:
Pour the chia seeds into a bowl. Blend the protein powder and milk until smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Add the liquid ingredients to the chia seeds. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Enjoy. This high protein pudding can double as a breakfast or a post-workout snack, depending on your goals and needs. Either way, it’s a craving killer that can satisfy you for hours. Make a couple and take one with you when you travel. Pop it into an insulated bag. Don’t forget the spoon!
5. Get a Community
Socialize with people doing what you do or want to do, thinking the way you think or want to, you soon change your thinking>actions>habits and life
We know it to be true of cults and in scientific experiments.
Research tells us that resistance to change both internal and external is one of the greatest obstacles we have. When you’re surrounded by peopledoing what you’re doing or what you want to be doing you are more successful.
If you have kids you know this one well. Remember how important it was that your kid’s friends were good kids? It’s no different for you.
It’s not that you won’t have resistance to change, but when you have more people going the same direction around you that resistance has less chance of stopping you. Your fitness after 50 is a factor of who you surround yourself with. Who do you spend the most time with?
6. Stop Your Limiting Beliefs
You’ve first got to identify that you have thinking that’s holding you back. That’s part of joining a community or having a coach. How else would you know?
Next, you have to want to change. In the past 25 years many women (who were only doing body weight exercise) ask about body weight exercises for bone density and changes in body composition. When I share the science there are about 50% that will respond, I’m going to stick to my body weight exercises, thank you.
Your fitness after 50 can’t be better than the expectations you have for it.
If you believe something is true, the biology of that belief, (it’s not just a thought), has the potential to change the expression of your DNA. If there is any tendency for it to happen genetically, your belief will be fertilizing it. Or you can pull a bad weed by believing and acting in a way that won’t allow a genetic predisposition to occur.
I’m sharing the example of the famous hotel maids study in our masterclass to illustrate this.
7. Start Amplifying Your Good Habits
The thought that a good habit is good for you (like going for a walk every day) makes it more beneficial. If you remind yourself that by being busy at work even if you have a fairly sedentary job is good for your brain health and lifting weights over your lunch hour three days a week is keeping you fit the affirmation and belief has the potential to enhance your memory and the benefits of strength training sessions.
If we could test you for 8 weeks with your normal habits, and then test again after 8 weeks of thinking it was true, science has proven that you would experience all the benefits of weight training (strength, endurance, decreased body fat, increased muscle tissue) more significantly during the second eight weeks.
That famous hotel maids study illustrates this point perfectly, too. (Are you getting invites to join my free monthly masterclass? You can get the juicy stuff I only share via email here.)
Your fitness after 50, therefore, can improve without more time and energy, so long as you’re already employing good habits.
8. Cook Your Own Food
Almost anything you eat out of convenience (with a few exceptions popping up) is going to have more sodium, sugar, and saturated fat than you would cook at home. Further, even the salad bar is not safe with chemicals added to the greens to preserve them.
On average eating out increases caloric intake by 200 more calories per meal. If you eat out the average 5.8 times a week, that’s 1160 more calories a week – of more saturated fats, sodium, and sugar. Your fitness after 50 will be enhanced by the right nutrition and sabotaged by poor nutrition.
In addition to cooking at home, eat slow. Eating fast – the 20-30 minutes per meal Americans spend on average… often rushed, checking email, means you don’t even have the enzymes to digest food, leading to digestion and elimination issues.
9. Stop Making Excuses
Nearly every excuse you give for not exercising is a reason to exercise. You have achy joints and muscles… exercise. You are afraid of falling or getting injured… exercise. You never have enough time… exercise. You are too tired… exercise.
Ask, do I want that to be true?
I’ve been there. Married with kids, jobs, and a dog. Single parent with a house, a yard, two jobs, constant contact to hundreds of clients and students, writing a book, training for an Ironman, at every golf meet. I know about busy. Don’t talk to me about busy. You just decide.
10. Stop Thinking Its Optional
If you were sick and needed lifesaving medicine, you wouldn’t dream of not taking it. Exercise prevents nearly every major disease. Why get it in the first place?
The terms Exercise is Medicine, and Food is Medicine have both become not just mantras and memes but scientific solutions to contemporary problems.
If you develop a daily regime of movement your fitness after 50 will improve. Your commitment to the exercise gets easier. When adults who exercise regularly don’t get their regular dose, they don’t feel as good, sleep as well, think as clearly or handle stress as well.
You can become one of those people.
11. Stop Doing More of What Doesn’t Work
When you’re not getting results from your current exercise program, there is no logic whatsoever in doing MORE of it. Increasing frequency and or duration of exercise is often the first default. Women assume that it’s their fault and they need to exercise more. But more exercise that isn’t already making you feel good… is certainly not going to make you feel great.
If you’re not seeing and feeling better from the exercise you do now, don’t increase the frequency of it expecting to see better results.
Improving your fitness after 50 isn’t about doing “more” if it’s going in the wrong direction. Check in with your exercise prescription now and be sure it is in alignment with your needs and not based on some arbitrary governmental recommendation or you 20 years ago.
If you’re exercising all the time, you may need to stop! Doing less can be smarter. Figure out some other way to pacify or calm yourself.
12. Eat Protein On a Per Meal Basis
It is no longer a grams per kilogram body weight, or a total at the end of the day, or worse a percent of your total diet. It’s a much more user-friendly meal-based number of grams of protein.
Early and continued research by Rasmussen and Jones and now an expanding number of protein experts both from exercise science and nutrition are coming together on this.
Much of this research compared younger and older adults to each other. Older adults actually needed more, not less, due to decreased muscle protein synthesis. Your fitness after 50 is dependent on muscle. No matter what else you want to do or measure of fitness you want to improve you’ve got to have protein, the building block of muscle in order to enjoy optimal fitness.
13. Identify Your Personal Food Blueprint
Your stress level, prior eating history, exercise, exposure to foods that cause inflammation all influence your personal ability to breakdown food and digest it optimally.
While it’s true few individuals have Celiac disease, many functional doctors who work with women in midlife recommend omitting dairy and gluten because they find that 90% of their female patients feel better when they do.
You can test for yourself on several levels. Your body never lies. So removing and reintroduction is a step I recommend every woman do. Lab testing can confirm or reveal additional information. DNA testing can show what may be true of you and encourage greater commitment to solutions. Testing:
Use“Genes” for DNA testing 20% off (ends Dec. 20)
“28for10” for the 28-Day Kickstart January
“Flipping50” for $20 off your Micronutrient testing at yourlabwork.com/flipping-50
14. Identify Your Personal Fitness Plan
The After 50 Fitness Formula for Women is about optimal hormone balance. A 2 x 2 program following a foundation of hormone reset optimally improves fitness and negates the negative effects of stress that can occur from exercise.
From your DNA, and your personal preference or dread, you can determine the best way to spend your exercise time to get optimal results. Your fitness after 50 journey should be fun, uplifting, and exciting. If you haven’t found those activities or motivators keep looking!
15. Rest During the Day to Sleep Better at Night
What’s referred to as “wired and tired” can be avoided by avoiding the feast or famine adrenalin rollercoaster most of us are on during the day.
If you’re constantly in fight-or-flight mode your body can lose the ability to rest-and-relax. Those systems, your sympathetic and parasympathetic system are meant to balance and in contemporary life, unless you override the constant on call and unplug, they fail to work correctly.
Fight-or-flight will eventually begin to store fat for you to protect you. Rest-and-relax won’t work at night if you’ve not balanced that on and off switch during the day.
It works occasionally: it was meant to, but unfortunately, we’ve turned life into constant flight-or-flight.
16. Exchange Your Placebos for Real Energy
Reaching for sugar and caffeine to wind up and wine to wind down or numb yourself all increase your weight, interfere with your sleep, and accelerate aging.
Caffeine consumption – if it’s abundant – is actually related to weight gain. It increases insulin resistance and signals your body to crave glucose-containing foods because it reduces blood sugar.
The simple advice is this. Eat when you’re hungry. Stop when you’re no longer hungry. Sleep when you’re tired. Drink before you’re thirsty. When you’re upset with someone have the difficult conversation.
If you’re not doing that, start. If you’ve ignored the urge to go to the bathroom, the need to drink more water, the need for sleep you’ll need to retrain your brain to pay attention.
One more energy placebo is adrenalin. You know you’re operating on adrenalin if you’re always waiting ‘til the last minute, or adding something to your to-do list, you’ve always got a dozen projects and your pushing to get something done. You’re always running late, or close to it. You might complain about it, but you actually don’t know how to exist with sustained stable energy.
Unlearning your old habits and replacing them with new ones can reverse aging, increase energy and you can start feeling it in days or weeks.
Have you got a story to tell about your fitness after 50 journey? I love to hear from you. Our community is inspired to hear real stories of people defying old limiting beliefs!
Resources:
https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2012798
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28373411
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-choices-health/food-consumption-demand/food-away-from-home.aspx
You Still Got It, Girl! The After 50 Fitness Formula for Women
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Think Yourself Younger, Slimmer, Stronger
Could you think yourself younger? In this post I’m exploring the question why can’t you lose weight from an angle I bring up from time to time. It’s popping up now because of several recent conversations I’ve had. I’m an exercise psychology expert in addition to a movement specialist and hormone-balancing exercise expert. A recent program, observations of students, and the interpretations of results prompted this episode.
Work In vs. Work Out
We mindfully create instances where we’ll exercise.
Then we mindlessly go about it.
We tack words on to it that are counter to making it fun, have to, should, ought to.
We call them workouts.
There’s little joy in them.
Yet they’ve become mandatory because the movement in our lives has dwindled to nothingness for many of us.
We don’t do chores in the morning, we don’t shovel (we use a snow blower), we don’t wash dishes we use a dishwasher. We don’t make food we use blenders or microwave pre-prepared meals or eat out. We don’t walk or ride bikes we commute and complain about the parking lot being too far from our building.
People put washer and dryers in the master bedrooms so we don’t have to go up and downstairs.
We’ve made everything so convenient that we don’t have to move very much unless we choose it.
If you didn’t experience joy in movement early in your life, or you are self-conscious or in pain during movement now, you have some obstacles.
Those obstacles are already there before you reach a starting point.
Then you question, what do I do?
You have a limited amount of time, or limited window of willpower or discipline. If you’re stuck with incongruent, conflicting messages about what works, the moment will pass without you having done anything.
Mindless vs. Mindful
Mindless exercise happens when you’re listening to music, you’re not even noticing the things along a path or you’re staring at a screen on a piece of cardio equipment. You’re purposefully dissociating from the moment. You finish without having ever really having connected any joy with the movement.
You may experience some endorphins and even some serotonin but you won’t enjoy the same benefits as a vacation as when you work-in.
This is not yoga. Because yoga has become a brief pit-stop on a mat in Lululemons where we’re still comparing our poses to the next person or judging our own inability to balance in a pose. We go because we know we should. We don’t practice yoga, we do yoga. It’s so very different. It’s a means to an end. It’s a physical pursuit or task. Yes, it may be motivated by the need for flexibility, which is a means to an end, yet, yoga is so much more or can be.
Noticing
Noticing is what we’re talking about. Noticing while you’re exercising for instance the difference between the way each repetition feels, or the way your right compared to your left side feels.
Say you are a nightshift nurse on your feet caring for individuals. You’re suffering from adrenal exhaustion yet beating yourself up about not exercising regularly to help you get weight off, you have an opportunity.
That is an active job. You’re doing what we call Non-Exercise Activity Time or N.E.A.T. There is a possibility that if you shifted your thoughts from calling it work to calling it exercise you can physiologically change the results of the same activity. If you think of it as “work” rather than exercise it has a different physiological effect on you. It’s been proven.
It’s called the mind/body unity theory. Changing the way you think – the language you use- will change you physiologically.
You may not have decided you want to think yourself younger, or gone looking for ways to do that, but really isn’t that a little what losing weight, not identifying with wrinkles or sagging skin is about? We don’t really accept this place we’re in. We want to feel and look equally young as we ARE thinking. That reflection in the mirror, who is that?
I named Flipping 50’s newest program STRONGER not by accident.
It is meant to from the moment you register instill a feeling that you will become stronger, that you are already stronger, and make you think of yourself as stronger. Not, thinner, fitter, curvier, but stronger. Which serves you so well in every area of your life. Will it create a more thin, fit, healthy you? Likely, yes. But striving for thin is not necessarily going to make you strong. In fact, it’s likely to make you weak and obsessed.
Changing the way you think and what you want – that’s what I’m talking about.
That serves you so much better than trying to exercise while your circadian rhythms are already causing fatigue. Learning to sleep when you can sleep, and to eat foods that serve you best on those days is a wise decision toward health and optimal weight.
If you’re pretending and you know you’re pretending, your body is going to be where your mind is.
Once you start something to improve yourself, you start weight training because you are going to get stronger, and improve your health and longevity, or you start drinking smoothies with protein and vegetables, and you believe you are healthier, you are.
It is called, and we know it works, the placebo effect. A lengthy article in Prevention Magazine last year shared emerging research about it.
In so many trials the placebo effect in fact works as well as the drug. What is called the control group can do as well as the key subjects.
Dozens of ways to exercise will improve health. There is no one right way. Cross fit, and I choose this one because of it’s controversy, but if you prefer you can choose long endurance running or Ironman distance triathlon. So many scientists, doctors, strength & conditioning experts and others who believe that these or one of these extreme types of exercise is not healthy. Yet, there are athletes in each and every one of them that are thriving examples of health and wellness. Not obsessed but love their activity and thrive with energy, strength, endurance, and fully function well – in fact so much better – than many who do far less.
Work vs. Play
I call this the “joy factor.” It’s the difference between work and play. And it’s the difference between sticking with it no matter what and having an obstacle, life event, or stress interrupt you in such a devastating way you fall off the bandwagon and get run over by it.
Why can someone do Tabata intervals and someone else endurance running and both be in optimal shape? Or why can someone eat a plant-based diet and someone else eat animal protein and both seemingly thrive?
How can someone whose had bacon and eggs for breakfast for decades and someone who has fasted regularly both be centenarians who still live independently?
In part, due to a commitment to what they believe is healthy.
That may be a moving target during your life. You may determine that the way your body is responding now to something that once you have sworn by isn’t working. So you go about finding a new fit… if you’re listening right now that may be exactly the case.
In fact, you believed so hard for so long that something was the right thing that it can be hard to let go of. That, not your body, can be the biggest obstacle for finding your best fitness and energy after 50. Our science and the way we were conditioned and socialized was so very different than what will be true for today’s 20-somethings. At least that is my hope.
No one magic bullet exists for all of us. There is not necessarily one magic bullet the same for each of us our entire lives.
There is a sense of conviction and then mindful and conscious awareness about doing it, following it, and believing it that has to exist as we create health paths.
The College Experience
Between 1998 and approximately 2008 I was teaching a 200 level course for Kinesiology students. It consisted of a lab and lecture and the purpose was to teach them the physiology of exercise by having them self-test and experience the effects of conditioning. During both semesters for that decade I often taught two sections with about 25 students in each, or about 1000 students collectively.
This phenomena of work vs. play or workout vs. joy was evident in two ways among these primarily 19-to-22-year-olds.
First, they would show up and might have a two-mile walk/run in class, outdoors when weather permitted. These were students who wanted to be personal trainers, coaches, physical therapists, or athletic trainers and many of them had been high school athletes or exercised on their own. But they usually gave about 50% effort during the workouts. It was a chore, a have to, a satisfaction of the required course. Many of them would leave after class and head to the rec center for their “real workout.”
They weren’t lazy. But when it was for a requirement, a course, an imposition, it was work.
The second thing I learned after about eight years of teaching without allowing any use of ipods (before phones had music) was how very devastating that was for them. Many of them were so used to using music to motivate –or to distract them – that they couldn’t perform the 1.5 mile run for pre and post assessments at the same level as they could if they were allowed the music.
They’d never learned to enjoy the activity. Instead, they had learned to avoid paying attention to their body and to distract themselves from the unpleasant task of breathing harder, and increasing circulation. A few of them, the collegiate athletes in my courses, were used to the no-music rule. They were the high performers. The handful of those students I still hear from or connect with on social media are still active today.
You can begin choosing something that is a means to an end. But you’ll potentially not stick with that thing unless you love the thing.
Collegiate gymnasts, swimmers, basketball and football players were among the student athletes that populated my courses. Beyond college many of those athletes don’t continue participation in their sport (and logically gymnastics or football are not conducive to it) – they also don’t participate in the conditioning activities that they were put through during college.
Running or lifting for athletes was work. Unless an athlete truly falls in love with the activity, the means to an end is not enough to encourage them to continue.
Group fitness instructors are similar. Many of them started as students in the front row of classes. Once they begin teaching their own joy of the activity changes. Group fitness instructors often seek something else for their own pleasure. They become runners or practice yoga as a student to satisfy their own missing mindful way of exercising that disappears when you do it for someone else (or something else like a paycheck).
The Midlife Experience
Back to you… and midlife exercise and hormones. Up until a point what you think will work, will work. Up until a point, because physiological actions or inaction will affect your body and health. But your psychology – the way you think and believe about something will also change your physiology.
So if you believe in me for instance, if you believe that I have done my research and you can trust me or any fitness professional to have filtered information specific to you, then you will go through a program more fully believing that you feel stronger, more energy, that you will sleep better.
If you believe that eating less animal protein and eating plants primarily will improve your health, physiologically it will. At least to a point. Your physiological body will show you the specific results in the amount of lean muscle and fat you have. The incidence of frequent illness or injury will tell you that you’ve over or under done it eventually.
How you feel never lies. It is always feedback for you.
If your belief about aging is that it is natural to gain weight, get fat, and the likelihood of disease is most related to genetics and not to epigenetics (or what you do and your environment) then you will age in that way.
However, if your belief about aging is that we are in a time when we have the power to change how we age by the application of how we move, what we eat, how we think and who we spend our time with, then you will age very differently.
Are you interested in applying the power of your thoughts in combination with exercise and want to learn more about Flipping 50’s newest program, STRONGER? Join us at flippingfifty.com/any-age and that’s where you’ll be first to know about the early, early bird registration within the next two weeks.
Wayne Dyer Knew It
This is really about creating what we want to be. What we want to be true.
Do you want to think yourself younger? or healthier? or leaner?
If you’re more interested in asking, “how can I” do it, than asking, “can I” do it, then you’re a perfect candidate.
How we think about things changes things. I went – just this last weekend – home for a funeral. I threw the trip together in a day and wasn’t even there for 16 hours. I had so many expressions of sorrow and people sending condolences but it wasn’t that. Your thoughts change everything. Mine were gratitude for the ability to drop everything and go, for the time however short it was to be with family and express their importance in my life by being there. I felt good, not sadness after being there. The warmth of your thoughts and perspective around an event shapes the event.
There have been awful and tragic events happen in the last few years to my family members and I. But in the frame we put on things comes the way we deal with them.
Hormones and stress may have robbed you of the energy, the body, you had but some of the reasons have been good – family, career you’ve loved, choices you might not change – and it’s your belief about whether you can change the outcome that really will determine whether a program will work for you.
Even a program based on the physiology of hormone balance along with psychology of aging better, has to be something you are not pretending to believe but truly believe can help you. Ready to think yourself younger?
For more details about STRONGER, join me here:
https://www.flippingfifty.com/any-age
Subscribe in iTunesby clicking hereto take Flipping 50 wherever you go.
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You’ve heard this your whole life: practice makes perfect. You may have also heard the carefully corrected version: perfect practice makes perfect. You’re always practicing something and it’s either something you consciously choose taking you in a direction you consciously want to go or it’s a habit you’re repeating that keeps you from what you really want.
Throughout this series and the eight episodes before this one you’ve been hearing about vibrational energy and whole brain state. You’ve heard exercises to help you dump stress and get into a place where you can respond instead of reacting to your surroundings. Today is about putting into practice more of the small things that will help you zero in on your most ideal state of energy.
Getting good at practicing the right things is a fast way to boost your energy.
Key points in this episode:
Life, essentially is practice
You are always practicing something: Daily routines, Daily thought patterns
Its called practice not perfection
Something to think about:
If you hesitate to start a new habit because of confusion about options – which is easy to do with dietary advice and fitness advice – try this rethink: what if there was more than one right answer? The point is not to find a perfect absolute, but to find a consistent pattern of getting better. There are many people who exercise regularly. They don’t all do it the same. The beauty of the practice of a routine providing some benefits is the point. You need to commit to a path to be able to apply practice makes perfect.
You don’t however have to stay on that path. You can change your mind. You can take a right or left turn or a u-turn and practice another set of habits. As long as you are moving forward you’re able to apply practice makes perfect. Otherwise you’re simply practicing what you’re already got and attracting more of that to you.
In our last episode 10 of this summer energy series we focus on how to solve the reason of the symptoms NOW and avoid disease later. It’s a two-for-one!
Subscribe on iTunesso you can listen while you walk or commute
This series has been brought to you by Flipping 50 and my guest Christy Mattoon. Reach out to her at Christy@mindrewire.comto book a 30-minute session with her if you want to go deeper.
Link to prior episodes in this series:
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Last episode covered how to dump stress that’s likely to keep you wired and in reaction mode. Today it’s about how to Pray, Say, and Stay Calm so you can respond. There will be storms. Things will happen beyond your control and if you can stay calm and choose how you respond you’ll be more likely to maintain high energy in spite of your environment or situation.
This episode will help you reduce stress and anxiety even when there’s chaos in life due to temporary or chronic situations. You’ll recall other episodes in this series to apply the content today. Remember how to use your thoughts to evoke the feelings you want to experience in your body. Stay calm with the right image and vision. You have control over your thoughts which influence your feelings.
Feelings of depression or anxiety aren’t feelings you have to allow to stay. You can stay calm in response to any situation that arises, putting you in control and at lower health risk.
Christy’s main points about how to stay calm in this episode:
- We were thought to prays with words
- Words are powerful
- Praying in fear + low neurochemicals
- Effective praying word + feeling
Three components of prayer stay calm:
- Confess
- Fervent
- Righteous
The key quote from today to control your ability to stay calm:
“Think your feeling.”
Next up in part nine of our summer energy series is practicing the right thing… we’re always practicing – is it the right thing? You’ll take the lessons from this episode further.
Subscribe on iTunes so you can listen while you walk or commute
This series has been brought to you by Flipping 50 and my guest Christy Mattoon. Reach out to her at Christy@mindrewire.com to book a 30-minute session with her if you want to go deeper.
Link to prior episodes in this series: