Hormones & Optimizing Menopause Fitness Strategies

How might your fitness plan look different from what you did in your 20's and 30's?
This episode is all about optimizing your exercise routine by accommodating your fluctuating hormones. You are NOT broken!

You may have noticed that high volume cardio and sparsely eating does NOT equate to the slim, svelte figure you expect. That's because your shifting hormones in midlife are demanding a NEW way. Join Cam and Amelia as we show you the way!

00:02:06 Discovering hypothyroidism, unaware of exercise dangers.
00:05:05 Ignoring hormone warning signs affects menopause transition.
00:06:45 Exercise intensity leading to unexpected belly fat.
00:11:14 Strength training crucial for preventing bone injuries.
00:14:06 Keep it simple with dumbbells, 2 sets
00:18:55 Scientific study confirms benefits of strength training.
00:23:05 Triathlon training prepares woman for long bike ride.
00:25:32 68-mile run: burned 700 calories, mindset changed.
00:28:49 Timing is important for cortisol and sleep.
00:31:34 Work stress can build until exhaustion hits.

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Amelia

• Website: https://www.thehelpfulplate.com/
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Cam

• Website: https://www.camoyler.com/
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Midlife Mommas IG: https://www.instagram.com/midlife.mommas/

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Transcript

0:00

This episode is for you if you're exercising, but your efforts don't equal your results. And maybe you're noticing slower recovery in your experiencing low exercise tolerance. Or maybe you have low energy and have more time on the couch. Hi. I'm Cam Holistic health coach, mom, the 2 humans, and 4 pets. Hi. I'm Amelia. scientists by day and food scientists by night. Welcome to our show. Join us as we share our holistic approach to life after fifty. you can expect real life stories with a dash of humor and a ton of truth. If it happens in midlife, we're going to talk about it. So hit that subscribe button and follow along. We're the Midlife Mommas. Oh, Amelia, this is so exciting to talk about. Today, we're gonna talk about the hormonal changes that happen in midlife, perimenopause, and menopause, and how it relates specifically to your exercise. I love this, and this is kinda what brought us together, Cam, it's such a we we have such similar stories slightly different backgrounds where I think both of us began to struggle at some point with exercise programs that had worked for many years, dare I say 10 years, And suddenly, it wasn't working anymore. So I'm super excited about this as well. Yeah. It was about it was about 10 years, probably 9 years for me. I would say maybe eight and a half years, I started noticing some weird injuries and, like, my recovery started slowing down. And then by year 9, 10, I was like, okay. Things have gotta change because I'm changing. Exactly. And I think it's so hard to accept because in those years of going into Perimenopause, we feel like we're strong. We've been strong for a while. And why are we suddenly, as, you know, the intro said, why are we having low energy? Why are we gaining weight? Why maybe we're even losing our hair. There's lots and lots of things that can happen. So I'm excited to go through through this step by step for our listeners so that we can help them avoid the pitfalls that we had. Oh, yeah. And I think it was eye opening for me personally when my first, like, thing to fall was being diagnosed diagnosed hypothyroidism, which means I was not making enough thyroid, and I was, like, cold, dry skin, hair falling out, loop, gaining weight, like, all the, like, classic. I was classic. But then when I put my timeline down and I started writing down all the things that had happened before that, and I was like, oh my goodness. It was in plain sight, but I didn't know. I didn't know exercising could be harmful. I mean, I think that's a very common misconception because, you know, Our doctors tell us exercise is good for us. public media and social media make it you know, exercise is a great anti present and exercise does this, that, and the other. It's great for cardiovascular health. And I think what it doesn't tell us is that, you know, especially for extreme athletes like we were, there too there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Yes. I learned that firsthand. Firsthand. So let's kinda dive into it, Cam, hormonal changes during menopause. Let's talk about some of those so that we kinda are on the same page for our listeners to understand the framework here. Yeah. So in perimenopause, the first thing that happens is you lose your progesterone and progesterone happens when you ovulate. So you may be having periods and not ovulating that could happen. And progesterone is like your cozy comforting -- low anxiety kind of hormone, better sleep hormone. So that's actually the first thing to fall. And you may not, like, actually notice that it's gone. and then the second thing is the estrogen. Now you're gonna notice this one because, oh my goodness, it's a roller coaster of emotions and hormone hot flashes and all the things. Did you have a lot of those? Yeah. I really did. And, actually, It's probably been 10 years ago. Now, Cam, my, the doctor I was seeing at the time, and I do not believe she was listed as a functional medicine provider she put me on a progesterone. I don't wanna say a supplement. It's a hormone. I mean, I took it orally, and I only took it for 14 days We kind of arbitrarily picked day 1 because I don't think I was menstruating at the time, but I took it from day 14 through day 30 or what ever. Mhmm. And, so that was kind of a proactive approach, but I did really notice estrogen roller coaster. And for me, it manifested very much in increased anxiety, increased. I won't say panic, but decreased ability to cope with normal situations and, decreased desire to interact with people. So I definitely felt that I don't know that I noticed as much in my physical body. I didn't have an inordinate amount of weight gain. but I also, you know, was was doing things and trying to increase my amount of of fruits and veggies in my diet and eat those lean proteins to kinda combat what I knew was coming. Yeah. Well, I think what happened with me, so after I started medicine for the hypothyroidism, and then I just went back to my ways. Like, it was totally ignoring that this was, like, the first warning sign that I was out of balance for my hormones. Anyway, What we're talking about today is really the change that you go through in midlife. And once you hit post menopause, so menopause is like that 12 month period where your ovaries really are retiring and you don't have a period for 12 months. And then finally postmenopause is when you are you're over that 12 month mark with no cycle. And that's when estrogen reaches its absolute lowest. And the thing about it is estrogen, we hear about estrogen dominance and all the negatives of estrogen. but it's so protective for mommas metabolism, our muscle mass, our bone health, estrogen has a role in all of that. Oh, our brain health don't forget that. Brain fog is real. Right? Yes. Yeah. So when this happens, it happens to you, whether it happened overnight like it happened for me when I went into surgical menopause or it happened like Amelia over several years. Do you know how long it took you? to transition? Gosh, Cam. I thought I don't I didn't keep a diary, so I wish I could be more definitive, but I think it was about 7 or 8 years. Mhmm. I mean, it's a long, long time. Yeah. It's a long time. And it kinda sneaks up on you and, like, weird things happen and you're like, why am I more anxious? Or you know, why has my fitness stopped working? But you kind of, like, make excuses. Maybe you don't understand this change is happening because it's slow. And it's not obvious. Like, mine was obvious. I was like, woke up the next day. What the heck? Yeah. And I've talked to many of my girlfriends who are in our age group And one of the things they complain on is, you know, my exercise regimen is the same or more intense as it was, and they're getting this little pooch of a belly. And these are women that never had it before. A lot of them. These aren't these aren't women that were carrying extra weight. And it's been frustrating for them. A few of the people I've talked to are big into tennis, and they'll play tennis 2 or 3 times a week And it's this strenuous workout, and yet they're not as trim as you would think when they're burning up however many calories on the tennis court for that period of time. Yeah. And so that's a very good story. So it's really not about burning calories, and it's really not about intensity. In fact, too much intensity at this stage of life when you've lost your these protective hormones may backfire, which is what you're saying. Exactly. And I was one of those women. I never carried away to my belly until menopause. And now, like, I have to stay on it. I like, and it's like, where does that come from? It's so crazy. Very crazy. But there are things we can do about this. Right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And one of the biggest signs is the younger youth fitness plan stopped working. You're like, okay. What the heck? and some women, like, double down and they eat less and they exercise more and be more intense, do more cardio because I don't know. Did you grow up thinking cardio was the only way to maintain your -- Oh, sure. -- shape? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I would say that's one of the myths of midlife and, This isn't gonna be surprising, but spring training is what should be the foundation of your midlife fitness when it comes to these changing hormones. I love it, and I actually probably fought this longer than I should have. when I was doing triathlon, even up I guess I stopped doing it in my early forties. I didn't have time for strength training. And then when you're training for triathlon, it does feel like if you're swimming, biking, and running, there's no more time coming because I worked. And so that is the point at which I began to understand there could be some benefits, but I, you know, I neglected it. It's only been in the last few years that I thought, there's really something to this. So tell us a little bit about this role of strength training in midlife. Yeah. So there's 3, like, key time periods that, strength training. Well, anyway, let's just go through this. So in your thirties and forties, your muscle mass began to decline slightly. And maybe it was so gradual that you you didn't even notice it. I was in that camp. What about Oh, for sure. Absolutely. Everything seemed to look in my clothes fit. I didn't ever really have that whole flabby arm syndrome that people, like, on the back of your arm. Mhmm. Women complain about that. I didn't really have that. and so, yeah, it kinda snuck up on me. Yeah. So that's natural. So this is when it begins. It makes me sad because gosh. I could wish I could go back and, like, build as much muscle as I could have my twenties and my thirties because that would have been good, but I didn't. Did you drink train earlier in life? Oh, heck. No. No. No. No. No. Not even close. The first time I picked up a weight, it was I was forty 1, so I was well past this beginning stage. And second stage muscle loss happens in your fifties, and women may experience more significant decrease in muscle mass and strength and functional ability. in your fifties, and it has to do with these beautiful hormones, taking a vacation, and not coming back. Or-- Yeah. And what I've seen Cam is is when this happens, if you're not combating it, we we talked briefly about the belly fat, the deposition of the of the fat in the mid section, but some people will notice a leaning out of their limbs. Like, their arms get skinnier, and they might have that, like, kind of jiggle across the back of their arm, and their legs might get slimmer too. And they're left with this weird shape where you know, the the middle is getting larger and then the extremities, you because you're losing muscle mass are getting smaller. Yeah. I know exactly. I can I can picture it in your head on my head for sure. And then the 3rd stage is postmen a pause. So the decline in muscle mass becomes very pronounced during this hormonal change. And, because of the decrease of estrogen, that's what reduced muscle mass and bone density. Oh, we need to talk about bone density because of that. When postmenopause, your estrogen reaches its lowest level, That's when you're at most at risk. And so we're gonna talk about how to solve this. Right. Exactly. When I was doing endurance, athletics, when I was in my late thirties, the physician I was seeing at the time got, had me go to, I forgot a bone density test. It was like a bone scan. Yeah. And he said for some women, you know, this sort of, High impact exercise, which running is high impact, will increase bone density, but a very small percentage of women it actually is destructive on the bones. And I know a woman. I think she's probably in her forties now for which that was the case. Anyway, that wasn't true for me. I'm very but I also have that baseline. So bone density is a real thing, and you may know, listener, you may know your mother, your grandmother, your aunt, who in their sixties or seventies took a fall and didn't seem like a bad fall, but there we go with a broken hip. And so these are the exact sorts of injuries we are using strength train to avoid. And I think, Cam, our generation of women, we're gonna see less orthopedic injury because we're realizing how important strength training is. I really hope so. I really I think that's part of our mission in this world is to help under P. W. and then, women understand what's happening and, like, do something about this. Mussel loss is a normal thing. Like, this is going to happen. Men and women both experience this muscle loss. We, as women, which is why we have this podcast, the Midlife Mommas, we're talking about the loss of estrogen in particular, is devastating to our health if we don't do something about it. We are going to be losing muscle. Muscle has health benefits. It helps us with bone density and all this other blood sugar control and Not to mention, like, confidence, like, who are you wanna stand up straight or you wanna have your shoulders back. You wanna be able to carry all eight bags of groceries in one trip. That's my goal. personally. But, I love that. I love that. I wanna see how many how how few trips can I bring my stuff in? You know, Cam, neither one of us are here yet, but Some of my friends are grandmothers. And you don't want to get down on the floor with even if it's a puppy, maybe you get a puppy or or a baby that you're a niece or a you and can't get up or god forbid you pick up a two year old and you drop it or trip because, you know, I mean, all of I I think strength training has helped my balance too. I mean, you know, I do a little bit of isolated one one side and then the other. And it there's just almost nothing that strength training won't help in my opinion. I agree. Totally. So it does help your maintain your muscle mass. You can improve your metabolism. you can support your bone health. You can get off the ground from your puppy or your grand kid, like all the all the things, hike a mountain, whatever your thing is. Exactly. So, Cam, you're the expert here. Tell us a little bit about a strength training program. Like, what would that look like? Yeah. I keep it really simple. You need, like, 2 sets of dumbbells, a lighter set for your upper body, and a heavier set for your lower body. And it's two or three times a week. you know, depending if you're in perimenopause or menopause or what's going on in your life. And it's full body. Like, I program full body exercise versus, like, a leg day. or a shoulder day. I don't I don't do that. and I think the key here is to really challenge your muscles with the best form you can. So the last few reps of each set should be challenging. Like, I'm, like, I'm struggling a little bit, but I can do this and keep good form. That's what you should be thinking. And if you're whizzing through it and you're not even breaking a sweat and you're not breathing hard and it was too easy, then You need to get a heavier weight. Sorry. That's what happened. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's a really great place to start and, you know, maintain because It's not rocket science. I mean, you certainly won't do. I love that you brought out having good form. Mhmm. Because poor form and some exercises can be can cause injury. Yeah. So, you know, I love that, and and we'll just do a plug for for your programming because you help women through this. So, you know, you don't a whole home gym. You don't have to buy an expensive gym membership. You can literally do this in your home with a couple of of dumbbells, which I think is so important for people to understand. Yeah. You don't even have to wear bra. Like, you could just go downstairs with no shoes on and no bra and just do it. Anyway, that's how I do it at my house. I have one more thing I wanna say. Like, this is not a million reps either. So I like to do rounds of work and the reps are anywhere from 8 to 15, 8 to 12, you know, somewhere around there. reps per exercise per movement, which is not like a zillion. You can do this. No. Exactly. I remember it's probably been more than a year ago. that you did. I think you posted it on Instagram. It was like 3 exercises. I think it was like, it was a step up. There may have been, like, maybe the bear crawl or whatever where the shoulder taps or plank with shoulder taps and like one other thing. Uh-huh. And you I don't remember how many rounds, but I did it. I thought I was gonna die the next day. Like, I was I've felt pretty good, and it it didn't put me on the couch. I'm being a little dramatic here. but I knew that it was effective because I did experience a little bit of soreness because I had to use my muscles in a way that they weren't used to. Yeah. I typically do, like, 4 to six rounds. And literally once you warm up, you know, you're in and out 30 to 45 minutes. It's not a lot of time. It's not a lot of time. I like to tell people too that when you are a strength training, you're not gonna, like, see instant results. And now if you're a beginner, you're gonna see better results or faster results than people like you and I that have been doing this for a minute. but it's like investing in your health. It's investing in your future. It's depositing in your savings account. So it's like I I I think adopting that mindset really helps, like, this is important. I'm losing muscle because that's the way life goes, and I'm gonna do something about it. So Exactly. I mean, just trying to I mean, it's not that we're trying to look younger per se. It's not a vanity thing I mean, it can't there's a there's a great aesthetic benefit, which I love, but that's the thing. It is about investing in your health. And, you know, it's it's no different than eating fruits and vegetables in my opinion. This is another facet of self care, really. Yeah. I read on Instagram this morning, like, taking care of your body is the ultimate, like, form of self care. Like, no one can exercise for you. No one can put the food in your mouth. Like, you're choosing. You get to choose. So loving care for yourself. That's the moral of the story. Yeah. And I, you know, and I think there's some scientific evidence out there which seems self evident to me about, you know, that this is good for you and it's beneficial The funny thing is is if I'm not wrong, a lot of these have been a more, I don't know that they, you know, not every study, obviously, came out in the last 10 years, but a lot of this research is relatively new. I think in the past, a lot of strength training literature scientific literature was based on men, and now we know that this is super important for women as well. Yeah. I'm excited about that. And we can link these in the show notes, but there are studies in the last, you know, 2016, 1914, 417, we have these studies saying, yeah, strength training is really good for women in midlife, menopausal women. So it's just nice. It's refreshing that we're not being we're being studied. I know it's complicated. We have hormones. That's what we're talking about today. And from a scientific point of view, that's a variable. Like, right? What what is it called? Exactly. What do we call miss scientist? Well, yeah. I mean, you know, a scientific study, the way I learned it was you have a controlled environment where you have some constants, which are things that are always the same, and then you you change one variable to see where the increase is. Now with human beings, it's really hard because everything changes every minute. You know, we can try to eat the same thing the day before we weigh in or whatever. but that's really difficult. But, you know, there's enough in these studies contain cohorts of enough people that this trending is valid. The trending is we know that strength training will lead to, a decrease of muscle loss. We know that strength training is good for metabolic indicators. Like you mentioned, better blood sugar control. We know that strength training helps with your functional movement, like picking up your grandkids or chasing your puppy or carrying your grocery. So these are not, you know, These aren't absolutes that are like, oh, 51% had, this percentage blah blah blah. We're talking about general trending, which is really important for the general population tonight. Yeah. And I wanna go back to the control group because you think about your women in your life. Like, we're all different. Our hormones are going crazy. Like, we're hard to study. So it just refreshing that we're seeing studies. There's one in particular I wanna point out. and this was the role of strength training in women's health. And, you know, it includes positive effects on bone health, muscle strength, body composition. That's nothing surprising. Metabolic health. Here's the kicker, cardiovascular fitness. You may not realize that strength training also benefits your cardiovascular health. You may believe that cardio is the only thing that could do that. but I'm here to tell you that actually strength training also benefits there. Well, the funny thing, Cam, is guess what your heart is. It is a must. Valid valid point. Yeah. The rest of that study included mental well-being, which I think is one of my favorite things about strength training and then overall quality of life. So, you know, if pick up one of those and carry it around with you and decide that, yep, this is gonna be for me because I want this in my life. Very cool. But, you know, while we're talking about cardiovascular exercise and hormones, the relationship and the way our bodies and our hormones react to to you know, the old term cardio. We just say it's cardio activity is maybe not what we would have thought when we were in our 30. So let's talk about that for a minute. Yeah. So when your estrogen lowers, heart disease risk have increased. That's, you know, heart disease and women. That's a thing. Maybe you've heard that before. And maybe you've also noticed in your own, like, annual blood work changes in your lipid panel. Have you noticed? Yes. Yeah. Have you noticed any of that, Amelia? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I have. Yeah. Me too. And and you just have to be mindful and, like, say, okay. yeah. It's something that happens when you lose your estrogen. I mean, honestly, Cam, I'll just sidestep this for just a second because I think it speaks to cardiovascular health. You know, I have been a healthy eater for 25, 30 years. And my cholesterol has grown up a little bit. My blood pressure is a little higher deal with the normal range, but it hurt my feelings a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Like, until I really embrace the fact that I've done nothing wrong, this is just a change in my body composite, not body composition is in fat, but body, like the way it works and embracing that. And as, Holly Burton said, you know, take radical responsibility for these changes. It's not that I'm that I'm broken. It's just that these things happen, and now I have to do things to compensate. Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, cardio does have a place, but it's it's the, let's let's say it's the flavoring. It's the spice. I really feel like a a strength training is the foundation, but I like to think of cardio as your fun things. Like, what do you love to do? And I know you have a story. You've been recently running your bike more. Do you wanna tell us something? I do have a story. So, you know, everybody knows who's a semi even a semi regular listener that I did triathlon for a long time, and triathlon is very cardio heavy swimming biking and running. You can do aspects of those exercises, especially cycling where it is somewhat strength building, but let's just side step that for a second. So I didn't ridden, you know, in about 3 or 4 years with any instancy and my daughter who lives in Vermont decided she wanted to do a company sponsored ride over a weekend where There was an eighty mile day followed immediately by 40 mile day. And she the furthest she had ever ridden her bike up to this point has been fifty miles, and she rode that with me and her dad when she was probably about 16 or 17. So I told her that I would train to do this with her. And lo and behold, you know, her dad and I were riding, and then she was riding in Vermont. And so this past week, we went to visit for our annual visit to see her, and we rode together the family. she and her dad and I, we rode almost sixty eight miles. And this was fun. It was beautiful. We weren't, like, tracking calories per se only to refuel them but it was truly fun cam. And so getting back on my bicycle, I think about I think it's a queen song that I love to ride my bicycle. And I do. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just fun for me. And I, you know, seeing the world from a bicycle seat instead of in a are is amazing. You know, you're in the outdoors. So that's my story is that I didn't center my exercise or workout programming around this, I'd flex a little bit to allow for it, but it wasn't about caloric deficit. It wasn't about, oh my gosh, I've gotta crush it. It was about I'm doing this in support of my daughter and just knowing that you know, how to rest more, how to incorporate it into my strengths training, how to eat more to accommodate a longer ride, And it was tremendously fun, and I feel so so good about it. Yeah. In general, cardio is a fun way to manage your weight, boost your mood, you know, support your heart health, support your daughter, you know, all the things. We just have to be wiser about it, I guess. You know, And I like that you said that you made sure you were fueling yourself because chronic cardio eat eat less, exercise more. I feel like cardio got that rap, mostly. Absolutely. And I will I will say I'll go ahead and say, so sixty eight miles took took many hours. Mhmm. And I took in, I you know, ate a good meal before and obviously refueled after, but over that time, I took in about 700 calories, and that was just a fraction of what I burned. Mhmm. So, you know, Our age group is notorious for exactly what you're saying. More cardio, less food, and I am totally not about that mindset anymore. I'm about how and literally camp, how much can I get? How much calories in what form can I get to support this? Because it will be really bad if if, you know, if I reach fifty miles and I'm in so much deficit, I just can't go anymore. So, you know, my mindset is completely different than it was 25 years ago when started, you know, the cardio journey. Yeah. And I just wanna speak to I have a one on one client I'm working with right now, and she loves, like, Peloton, like, intense cardio on her bike. And when we started working together in June, that's like that, like, was her thing. Like, she loved it so much. She was under eating over exercising. a few shifts in her life, and she's down 6 point £6, and she told me the other day, she's in the best shape of her life. So we've added strength training. and she does, like, one intense cardio on her bike because she loves it. Like, I'm not gonna take that away, but she needs calories to support that. And, you know, another thing that can help for us in midlife is timing of exercise because of sleep. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I will say I'm telling on myself now. You know, we did get a later start than I usually would, and I did have a little bit of a hard time equilibrating heart rate once we were done. Even though it it was a sustained effort, you know, I wasn't ever in, like, anaerobic territory. Right. But I I did a lot, and it and therefore, it took me another day to really get back to, you know, normal. And the night after we rode I did not sleep really well, but the night after that, I slept so good. But I did some other things to help with the quote stress. I mean, I did know, make sure I took my magnesium and all of my supplements. And, you know, I I kept up with the plan to remain help the even through a little bit of a a stressful time. Yeah. And and that's the whole thing. Like, if you have a goal of doing a triathlon or a long ride or running a marathon. Whatever it is, just know that you may have some, like, your disrupted sleep the night after or the night of. there may be some side effects from that. I know somebody else who trained for, I don't know what it was, a marathon or a half. I'm not sure, but she gained £10 and she's exercising more than ever. But that's what happens in the life. It's like it almost it's too much for our system. It's too much without her hormones. And so she knew this was gonna happen and it happened. You're exercising more than ever. You're eating. I don't know what she was eating, but the fact that you would gain weight when you're training for something like that does not make any sense. Right. Exactly. And you have to look for, you know, looking in a broader way for what's causing it. It's clearly that whole, I'll just eat less and and burn fewer cal or burn more calories is not working. No. It's not. Well, let's just talk about timing for a second. So one thing you can do if you're doing this kind of cardio or I like to do my strength training in the morning is intentionally light late, and it just happens to be because it helps your cortisol. So your cortisol levels naturally rise in the morning. so they'll survive that roller coaster. And then if you're raising your cortisol at in the evening with intense exercise or really any kind of exercise like you experience, Either it's either cortisol or melatonin. And it there's when one is high, the other one is low. So if you're raising your cortisol in the evening, your melatonin is not gonna, like, yeah, you're gonna mess up your sleep. Exactly. And, you know, just like I did and maybe your client, who wanted to do the triathlon, I accepted that this might happen for a day. Mhmm. And I wasn't gonna not support my daughter and not ride with her. Yeah. But, you know, just and that's another thing is accepting what is and working with what is now. You know what I mean? Like, making sure you get your minimums. Like, I made sure that I got my collagen in the morning, and I still got my magnesium in. So there's things you can do. Nobody's perfect. Like, nobody is gonna nail this every day. Yep. And if you think that's the goal, then I'm here to tell you that, yeah, maybe rethink that a little bit because doing better is great, but nailing it every day is virtually impossible even for us. No. That's it. And you have, like, tools in the tool chest and, like, you leaned on your magnesium and then you were, like, it was fine the next day. So the moral of the story is just be curious about what's going on and understand you're hormonally different at the stage of life and going back to your old ways and what always used to work, like, may not work anymore. probably doesn't work anymore. So Right. Exactly. And, I mean, you know, there is a a connection, a mind body connection with regard to stress. So you know, whether you're stressing your bot whether your stress is in the form of you road 68 miles on a bike or you got an email from work that you're like, crap, I forgot to do something that will both of those things will spike your cortisol. Yeah. So the stress that you have in your life for whatever reason, it may good stress does have an effect on hormones, and and it is a consideration. Yeah. Like, we talked about this recently. We like acute stress when we're working out and lifting weights where that's a small amount of stress. And, like, what happens is our muscles grow in the meantime when we recover. What we don't wanna be living on is chronic stress where it's like-- Right. -- day in day out day in day out. And her body's never getting the break. Yeah. That's what happened to me, ladies. Stay away from that. Well and, you know, sometimes that does sneak up on you. I've had situations, it wasn't a complete failure as far as, like, so much stress that I became ill but it will sneak up on you. I've had times where I did push myself, mostly it's with work stress, but I do try to exercise because there is part of exercise that alleviates that, but past some point, it just adds on more. And then you just find that you got nothing left and you're like, what is wrong with me. Well And yeah. It's like the analogy of the phone. Like, you plug in your phone every night, but you don't plug your body in every night. Right. Like, yeah. So, anyway, I would encourage you to explore ways that you love to move, whether it's hiking or walking or whatever, that keeps your stress low and your hunger low. Because Walking and things like that can be part of your stress management because you're not tipping that stress scale. You're actually doing something to support yourself. You're plugging yourself in. I love that, and it's so important. And I feel like I did that. There was some stress involved with, you know, riding that far, but the the beauty of the countryside and being with my daughter was something that I wouldn't trade. Yeah. And that's like joy off the plate, which we talk about often. And mean, I know we're not talking about food, but those other aspects of life are make life marvelous in midlife. So I think it's awesome. Yeah. And it's all a balance where I can. I mean, we we talk about this too. It's just finding what works for you and and what works is It's the food on your plate. It's the joy off your plate. It's your exercise. It's your sleep. We're we're complete beings, and we have a we can tweak a little bit of everything but the goal is just more happiness and longevity. Thanks for listening today. you can find us on instagram@midlife.mommas. For all of our other contact info, check out the show description below, and we will talk to you next week.