Menopause Fitness Questions: Part 2

00:00:00 Free 5-day menopause fitness challenge for women.
00:04:41 Timing of eating and exercise is crucial.
00:06:41 Protein tracking helps muscles. Avoid old dieting habits.
00:11:18 Specific dietary recommendations for midlife women.
00:15:48 Carbs are needed for women's energy.
00:18:13 Add color to your plate, prioritize protein.
00:22:52 Massage and yoga help with joint mobility.
00:24:50 Analogies show how pain can be referred.
00:30:27 Cortisol breaks muscle, stress hampers growth.
00:32:31 Analytical mindset helps me manage stress better.

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Transcript

0:00

When menopause hit, my go to fitness plan came to a screeching halt. Hey. It's Cam. And if you're experiencing slow recovery, endless exhaustion, and no results. Despite exercising, I have a free 5 day menopause fitness challenge designed for you. September 18th through 22nd. The right kind of strength training is the best way to increase your energy and see the results from your efforts. So over 5 days, you'll do strength and core workouts plus you'll learn all about your midlife metabolism. So you know what to do and when without staying stuck frustrated or exhausted. So join me and other midlife women inside this free challenge and embrace this chapter with strength and confidence. Head to camoiler.com/fitness or visit the show notes to sign up. Hey, Siri. What other questions are menopause women asking about fitness? Part 2. Hi. I'm Cam, Holistic health coach, mom, the 2 humans, and 4 pets. Hi. I'm Amelia, laboratory scientists by day, and food scientists by night. Welcome to our show. Join us as we share our holistic approach to life after 50. 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. Hey, everybody. This is a the 2nd part of a 2 part series on, the most popular questions that women ask about fitness during menopause. And we covered the first five questions last week, and we're bringing you 5 more questions and answers this week. So we're super excited. Yes. Please check out episode 118 from last week, and the you'll be caught up. Absolutely. These are questions that we have probably covered in part in many episodes before, but, we used artificial intelligence actually to come up with some of this stuff. And it's super cool. And we really think you're gonna enjoy, both the questions and the answers. Totally agree. So here we go. Our first question of today How can I manage weight and metabolism changes during menopause? Because gosh, you know, is your body like you wake up and you're like, oh, what happened? Right. This is this is a very, very common question that I hear, Cam, and there's all kinds of ways to answer it. But the first answer I'm gonna give is recognize that you are different than you were in your thirties. Yeah. I just got off a mastermind call with other online people, and they're all over 50. And they we were talking about string training. And that that is key. Understanding that you are chemically different now compared to when you were younger like, that is something that a lot of women don't know, including the people I just were talking to on the on the Zoom. So maybe you're in that boat. Yeah. Absolutely. And even when you we tell you these things, sometimes I think it's hard for for people to really absorb what that means. Okay. You tell me I'm different. And then they're observing all these changes, and it's like, oh, then the light bulb comes on to actually, you know, internalize what that looks like. And it's so easy to double down and go, I'll just run three miles. That always worked. I'll just go run, run, run, and not eat or, you know, and and then just bat fires. And so The best way to do this is adding strength training as part of your weekly routine and being consistent is the best way to improve your, your body composition on the outside, but also how your body functions on the inside. Right. And I think we've hammered this home, but I wanna reiterate it because we we're talking about this before we hit record was the fact that strength training is a non negotiable piece of your fitness routine, in midlife. That it should your, your workout routine or exercise or whatever should center around strength training. So This helps your metabolism, and it will obviously, you know, affect where the weight is deposited. So strength training is way up there at the top of managing this. Absolutely. And the more muscle you have, the better your midlife experience is gonna be one of the benefits of having muscle is improves how you metabolize food. So we're talking about our metabolism and gaining weight. And so the more muscle you have, I like to call them sugar suitcases. Yeah. The more muscle you have, the more places you have to store sugar, if you will, and by moving your muscles, like, eating, for example, it helps encourage storage in your muscles versus raising your blood sugar. It's very simple. Just walk after you eat Excellent advice cam. And also with regard to eating and exercise, the timing that we do these activities is important. And maybe we didn't pay attention to these in our, twenties and thirties, or maybe you did. Maybe you were enlightened, but, Not exercising too late in the day to sport to to spike your cortisol, not eating too late in the evening. So that we are managing our metabolism using the timing. And the funny thing, Cam, as I was listening to the news this morning, and they were talking about it college students 1st, week back in college at school. And for new college students, what are some tips and tricks for eating on a budget and, you know, managing this new freedom that they have in life. And one of the tips was don't eat late because that's the tendency of college students. But I was like, wow, that's really cool that they're even telling young people to do that. That's good. I mean, I feel like they're ahead because I remember ordering breadsticks in the middle of the night. Yes. Yeah. There's, you know, at the time, there was nothing better than pizza 10 or 11. Oh my gosh. No more. Yeah. Well, right. So those things definitely matter. And, also, I'd just like to say from the blood sugar point of view, you are more insulin resistant in the evening versus the morning. So, like, carby carbs are better tolerated earlier in the day. So, you know, that's just another argument for eating earlier in the day. So for sure. Absolutely. And one thing that I'm almost hesitant to recommend because I fight it myself. If you are really battling, weight gain and you are working or your arm moving your body. I like that term better. Consider even for a short time tracking macros and macros are just proteins, fats, and carbs. So that you kinda see where you are. And I know Cam you and I have both used some sort of app to track this just for a short period of time. It can be used baseline just to make sure you're kinda tracking. Yeah. And it's really mommas. If you grew up in diet history or diet culture and you have a history of dieting, You know, maybe this isn't for you, but maybe just track your protein. You know, how how much protein is in my plate because that is going to help you build and repair and keep your muscles for longer and you have to feed them. Right. So you can't starve yourself. And I think it's so easy to go. Well, this is what I always did. I just cut out bread. I just didn't eat a lot. And then all of a sudden, my body responded maybe when you were 20 or 30. And now you try that and you're feel horrible. You feel bloated. The scale goes up. You're like, what am I supposed to do? Is my body betraying me? Exactly. Just taking that step back and recognizing, you know, that there is a difference. How about let's move to our next question, Cam? Which is how do I balance cardio and strength training for overall fitness? Yeah. So, part 1, we talked about this as well. Strength training is a big rock and, like, look at your weekly schedule and plan it. Amelia suggested adding it to your work calendar. Like, really, like, this is your investing in your current health, but also your future health when you strength train and build muscle. So that needs to go in first. And the way I like to program is, you know, twice, maybe three times a week, about 30 minutes. So it's not like your whole life. It's not like when I was doing crazy crossfit 2 hours, 2 workouts a day. Like, you know, it's not like that. And then let your cardio be fun. So what in your world is fun cardio, Amelia? Oh, well, I love cycling. I would I did that this morning. And, you know, my husband and I, we run once a week, and I say run-in air quotes because it's a it's more of a little job through the woods where we're enjoying nature, but it works for us. So those are the 2 things I like to do. Walking is also great. We walked last evening, and it's just great because it's got such a benefit of being outdoors as well. Yeah. And I know there's pickleball fans in the listener you know, let that be your fun cardio because that is cardio. It's really interval training. If you think about it, you're going to stop it and you're going, you're stopping. You're with your friends. You're outside. You're moving your body. Like, there's so many other benefits. But, you know, make strength training a priority and then let the cardio be the fun thing. So so let me ask you a question. If if on a given week, someone is really busy and they're like, oh my gosh. I normally work out or have time to do something to move my body four times a week, and only gonna be able to do something twice this week. I'm just making this up. Would you advise that they do the strength training workouts and forego the court the cardio altogether? Yeah. And that's what I would recommend. That's what I personally do as well. How about you? What's your thought on that? That's been an evolving, process for me because you know, I still think about strength training as requiring equipment or requiring some change of clothes. We talk about the difference between moving your body and exercise. I kinda have to adapt that because the first thing I think of given my crazy, ex endurance athletic self, It's just, oh, I'll just go for a run. You know, I just get up super early and just, you know, run down my road and back, which is, like, two point eight miles. So that for me has been a little bit of a change in of a mindset, but I'm getting there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it does require a mindset. And if you were a victim, I'll say, of diet culture, and you believe cardio is the only way to get your body composition goals that you want. It's time to change that. It's time to look at something else and see what else you have out there. A 100%. I love that, and I don't think we can overstate that cam. I think it's just our age group and our generation. You know, it we we've got to retrain our brains. Yeah. And I think when you retrain your brain brain to think of something else, I actually listened to a great podcast last night, and it was feeling heavy in your body and heavy in your energy. And the person was run going on a run, And she was asking herself better questions, which I am a big fan of. Like, ask yourself questions. You have to come up with an answer. And also trust that the answer will bubble up instead of going to the tapes that you always played in your head. Right. Good. That's really good advice. I love that. Yeah. It was a it was a super great power powerful podcast. I was went for a walk after dinner, and I didn't want to. And I was like, that's crazy. Put on your shoes. Get your dog and go. And I listened to I picked the perfect podcast because it was about feeling heavy in your body. And I not, like, heavy on the scale. Just like, I don't wanna do this. Right. You know, and it was amazing. So, anyway -- Super cool. I love that. So the next question is, are there specific dietary recommendations for women in this age group, you know, midlife. And I love this one, Cam, because, you know, as we talked in the first question about managing weight and metabolism, I think the second question around that is oftentimes, well, what am I eating that's wrong? Like, how how why is my quote diet Meaning just the food you put in your body. Why is it suddenly wrong? And the wrong is meaning that you're gaining weight. So I really love that we we include both of these questions in our discussion today. Yeah. In my general, when I think about it, I wanna eat the most food I can and do the least amount of exercise I can and still keep my goals. Get reach my goals. And when you think about that, there's so much freedom in that. You're eating a ton and you're moving just enough to get, you know, keep your goals. So -- That's pretty profound. And if people are honest, I bet that is a very popular way to think. And I think some people would say, oh, that's kind of a cheating mindset, but it's not at all. It's the perfect one. Right? Like, we We have other things to do in our lives. So why not do enjoy the most beautiful food and, quote, work out less so that you can enjoy all of the things. Yeah. And I'm talking about working out, like, going to a home gym or to a gym. I mean, like, I love hiking I wanna have energy and strength to hike all day. So that's why I do what I do, and you do it to go biking all day, you know, you you have to have a y outside of the gym. The gym is just helping your body look better or improve whatever your goals are and also function better. And then you can enjoy life more. So, you just don't have to spend hours in the gym. That's a that's a myth. Absolutely. And with regard to dietary quote recommendations, I think the first thing I would say Cam is prioritizing protein. You know, I I, again, we we've talked we've touched several times already on the diet culture and and the way things were when we were in our twenties, which was the fat free craze and all of that. And, a lot of animal sources of protein do have some sort of fat. So getting over that fear of any kind of fat is might be a challenge for some people, but I use all kinds of protein. I use lean lean meats. I use beans. I use yo you know, high quality, high protein yogurts. I use all sorts of things to get my protein in. And I love that from a gut health point of view, like diversity is important because you're feeding the good guys in your belly that help break down your food and make your body stronger. So I love that. I think it's wonderful. I would say realizing I needed more protein as a new moment for me. I would say in, you know, in the last few years. I did not know that. I did not know that I needed more protein and menopause. That was shocking to me. Think it would be shocking to a lot of people. And I think the amount of protein people are eating may be a complete mystery. So, again, if you're if you're able to and amenable to tracking it, I think it's a really good thing to do. Yeah. And it it's not forever. It's just like a research perimenopause being experiment of 1? What are you eating? How much are you eating? And what if I eat more of it? How do I feel? Do I notice that I'm stronger in the gym? Do I notice I, you know, there's more time between meals? I'm not craving weird things, like, you know, and just be an perimenopause, but chances are in science tells us that we need more protein now and also the benefits are numerous. Yeah. Absolutely. And we already touched on this. The timing of foods So starting your meals, not with that bread, that all the restaurants are crackers that bring to the table. No. No. No. Start your meals with vegetables or protein so that it will blunt the blood sugar spike you get when you do have the carbs. Absolutely. And and as mentioned earlier, have the carbs earlier, like, carby carbs. Like the carbs that turn to sugar faster, you know, earlier in the day because your body's more able, more capable of responding to it then versus at night when it's dark and you're going to bed. 100%. That's that's been a little bit of a tough one for me, Cam. I I do love crackers or not so much bread, but I do tend to like carbs at night. And so I've had to kinda Watch myself on that front. Well, and it's a sticky point too because if you're denying yourself carbs, then you that's more you're more likely to wake up in the 3 AM is hour. And so we don't want that either. Right. But women need carbs. And I cannot tell you how many times women I've worked with are on keto because I hear keto works. And it works for men better than it works for women, we need carbs, period. And we have a tipping point of carbs. And I would say perimenopause, it's different than it was when you were younger, surprised price. But it's worth experimenting. You need carbs for energy. It is your brain's preferred energy source. Mhmm. Mhmm. You know, but eating your veggies first or your protein first and then having the carby carbs, that's going to help you as far as blood sugar goes. Do you need carbs in your life? Yeah. Absolutely. And another common thing I hear from people, I don't think I suffer from this because I've I tracked my food on occasion, but under eating. Again, we've talked like, we're, like, broken records about, how you're different now, and and how, you know, you can't do what you did in the in the 20 when you were twenties and thirties. And what we tended to do back then again, that you know, bad diet culture is to just not eat, and that's not good at all. Mhmm. Yeah. If you're eating 1200 1500 calories a day. That's not enough to support your body and flourish. And so, yeah, I know. Exactly. And, you know, I've used apps and I've, done some, body analysis where I know what my basal metabolic rate is. If you have access to something like that. The basic metabolic rate is the like, literally you're laying in bed all day. So keep that in mind that that doesn't mean, oh, well, I can't have, but whatever that number is. No. No. No. If you're doing any activity at all, like, you're getting up and getting dressed and going to work, you need more than that. Yeah. And he this is a general guideline general. So what she's talking about when Amelia's mentioning is if you take your body weight by times by 10, that's how many calories you need just to stay alive and do nothing. Lay on the couch all day. Yeah. So Right. That's a really good one. Yeah. -- to you. Yeah. That's just a baseline. I mean, we're way more than a calorie calculator, ladies, but that's just a baseline. You need to be well north of that number. Whatever number is times 10. So just so you know. Very good. I love that. And another one, this kinda goes without saying for me, Cam, and I think it probably does for you is add color to your plate, lots of fruits, and veggies. So we said to prioritize protein, but you still need plant food. You still need beautiful greens and tomatoes or or whatever the the things with, you know, whatever red food or things with lycopene, because there's so many phytonutrients in plant foods, and we need all of that. So don't don't, you know, say, oh, well, I'm having this chicken breast and that's enough. Now have a salad with that or some steamed broccoli or some kind of plant food. You want you want a colorful plate. Yeah. Well, sometimes I'll do this. I'll spot check how many varieties of plant fish do I eat in a day? It's shocking. Some days, I'm like, not good. And some days, I'm amazing. You know? Like, last night, I made a salad and I on purpose added raspberries, cucumbers, pumpkin seeds. I like, what else can I put on there? Let's keep going other than just the beautiful assortment of lettuces. So challenge yourself, you know, mix it up. Yeah. And I'll say another thing I like to do to try to get more veggies in. I never well, that shouldn't say never. I rarely throw food away. So if you've got something left over, You can always add that to a stew or a soup, even a handful of things. And literally last night, I had the weirdest side dish with some chicken. I had, you know, sauteed up some like onion and green pepper, and I added some tomatoes and some beans. I had, like, literally about a half a cup of rice. I dumped that in there. So, you know, you can you can actually create really flavorful dishes just by kinda combining the leftovers from previous meals. Yeah. We're a big fan of leftovers, and there's a previous episode called, I don't know, What's it called? But yeah. They get something about using leftovers, and it quite might be quite old. I'll have to look up the number and put that in the show notes. Yeah. Yeah. It's anyway, we're we're fans here. I'll throw it on salad at Amelia loves to add beans. Yeah. And then her, side dishes are bigger. So -- Yeah. That's Absolutely. Anything I can do to, you know, just like you said, the more food I can eat, the better. Yeah. Right. So diversity. So you're up in your protein and you're adding lots of diverse fruits and veggies. That's And then probiotics and probiotics, which we have an episode on that as well. You know, that's, probiotics are filled with the good bacteria that colonize in your belly and help break down your food and build your body, basically, which I think is fascinating. And then prebiotic foods, those are, fiber rich foods. And so if you're into tracking, I recommend 25 grams of dietary fiber a day. If you're curious, like, where you fall, you're not going to the bathroom on a daily basis -- Yeah. -- slowly work up to that number. Yeah. Absolutely. And, Cam, after had to pay a lot of attention to the probiotic foods, yogurt, kimchi, sour kraut, kombucha, to get that more diverse my by him. I went through a period of time where I did take a probiotic supplement. And I I don't currently take 1, but I know that some people do, but you really can get that stuff from whole foods and especially fermented foods. Yeah. So I haven't talked about this on the podcast I would say I'm on my 3rd month. I'm taking a prebiotic probiotic, capsule to every day. It has it has changed It has changed my bathroom habits. I'm just gonna say that, and I'm really I'm a fan. So I just wanna say that. And I do eat a diverse, Variety of foods, but this has been like, oh, okay. This is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Number 5. What's the best way to manage joint, joint pain, mobility issues through exercise? I'm sorry. This is number 4. I can't count. No. That's quite alright. And this is also I think the older we get, the more important this is, And we're gonna, again, sound like some broken records because one of the main things you can do to manage your joint health is strength training. Yeah. It's kind of a use it or lose it situation. I've had the surgery in the past from mopping the floor and a water skiing injury. And, like, during that time when I was not moving, I was stiff and sore. I don't know. And so the more you move, the better you feel. And I just wanna point out that muscle and bone loss Our we peaked at 30 and we started losing both of those things around 30. So it's interesting to know that both of those seem to be connected and strength training and using your body, challenging your muscles helps your bones and your muscles. Very good to know. The next couple of things are things that aren't, things that well, there are actually things you can do, that are a little bit front. I'm a big fan, and I think you are 2 cam of massage. And this doesn't speak directly to joint pain per se, but certainly mobility as we age, sometimes our muscle patterns, if we're not, paying attention to moving in all planes, and that's actually a a different tip, but like our the fascia or that that connective tissue that kind of, connects your bones and your and your muscles can get sticky. And so sometimes I will go for a massage, which is basically a myofascial release or some people call that, structural integration therapy. And it actually really helps because it kind of loosens up. It up the joints and the muscles and all that kind of stuff. And another thing is stretching in yoga. I go through periods where I'll go to yoga quite regularly, and then I'll go through periods where I don't. But there's some yoga positions that are really good for certain areas of your body. Obviously go to a very experienced and reputable practitioner. You don't wanna get injured. So those are actually just another kind of anecdotal pieces that you can use to aid in your joint, health and mobility. Yeah. I wanna go back to Fasha for a second. Have you ever peeled an orange and it was, like, dry, the white stuff? Yeah. So that's what happens to our fascia. It gets dry and yucky. And our skin our skin should move. Like, if you move your finger on your on your heel right now. Your skin should slide and it should move. We wanna be the kind of orange that you peel and it's and juicy on the inside, and things are moving versus the dry orange. That's like, I don't really wanna eat this thing. So that's a way to think about fashion, you know, So I love that analogy, Cam, and I think I think we've talked about this before in other context, but it could mean if you're having pain in one area, it may be referred because you have some sort of joint or fascia issue in a whole another area. For instance, I recently had some foot pain and I couldn't figure out. I thought maybe it was my shoes, but I had ridden in a car for many hours when I went to see my kids, I went to see my massage therapist who certified instructional integration, and she really worked the fascia on the outside of my leg from my hip all the way down and even across my shin bones and so forth, I'm not kidding you at cured me. And she said, you know, these movement patterns and and sitting in a car for so long has just created this stiffness, and we just needed to work that out. Yeah. And I see this often too. When people's lower back tends to hurt, they're usually sitting all day on their glutes and their hamstrings. Right. And so if you smash and get those glutes and hamstrings moving, then the lower back pain tends to go away in most cases. Now you may have an injury in your lower back. I'm not saying that, but oftentimes, especially in when I was coaching crossfit, you know, they were sitting all day. People come in and, like, oh my back. And then you smash your hamstrings and you're, like, ready to go. So -- Interesting. Very cool. And the last tip on this particular question about managing joint pain and mobility has to do with moving your body in multiple planes, not just forward and back. And this is really poignant for me. Because as a triathlete, I was basically moving forward. If you think about my hip flexors were always contracting as I brought my knee up towards my chest while I was cycling or running. And so there was no lateral movement whatsoever. And so I think incorporating some different types of movement really help in this area. I a 100% agree with you on that. Yeah. And and just in life, we're always in front of us. So, like, we're curved over our shoulders or not over our ears and hips and, like, like our phones, everything's in front of us. And so we need to think about the backside and the sides of us as well. Yeah. There's actually 7 to sync movement patterns, and we don't have to get into the specifics of that, but a good strength program would include all of those things. You're not just doing one thing. You know, I we used the example of sit ups last week. You're not just doing sit ups. First of all, we don't prescribe to those anymore. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So I guess we can move on to our last question, Cam. What role does stress play in fitness for women over 50. Oh my gosh. I know this one personally. So we if we spike our cortisol, that is We can spike our cortisol. If we are having stressful thoughts, we can spike our insulin. We can, have a blood sugar response. Yeah. So Cortisol has a definite role in our fitness as far as, like, belly fat and not the ability to build muscle. And, you know, stress management has to be on your like, I need to figure out my life and get my life not so stressed. Yeah. It seems like I have no idea what episode this was, but there was an incident where you scrub like the dog. You were wearing a CGM, a continuous glucose monitor, and the dog was like barking and bugging you or whatever. And you literally saw the spike in blood sugar. So that cortisol response from the dull barking translated into a blood sugar spike and that sort of lack of of glucose control, if you will, is a is can be a source of belly fat. So there's a huge relationship there. Yeah. And I wanna say, like, we're hardwired to respond. So if you were in danger and you were cave lady and you needed sugar. Of course, your body's going to release sugar into your blood, so you have the energy to respond to the danger. My dog, Maverick, was not a danger with my hard wire. You know, I'm still hardwired that way. And so getting in control of of your metabolism as far as, you know, your blood sugar control is a big deal. It's one of the 2 hormones you can control. In fact, cortisol is the other one. So cortisol and insulin, they dance together. I don't know. It's hard to separate the 2 from them, but those are two things you can control in midlife. Yeah. Very good. And cortisol also affects your sleep. So if you exercise late in the evening, which will spike your cortisol, it may affect your sleep, and that's just a vicious cycle. If you're not sleeping, then your blood sugar control might be at risk the next day as you crave carby carbs and or you might a crappy workout because you're just not rested. So it is a bit of a vicious cycle. Right. And then you're reaching for the those crackers and then you feel like crumb and then you go work out and workout stank or you skip your workout. And then you click you lace a few of those days together, string a few days together, and then then we're having a month of not exercising or 2 months or, you know, it's easy how it sneaks up on you. Yeah. Absolutely. And what I found Cam is -- dealing with stress, I. E. Cortisol spikes. It requires energy. And if you're spending energy dealing with this, then that's energy. You don't have to do other things like work out or like make good decisions planning your meals. Just simple things that should be relatively fun and easy become very difficult if you're in a state of stress. Yeah. Absolutely. Like, on a night that you don't sleep, like, decision making the next day is not fun. No. I know. It's crazy, isn't it? And chronic chronic stress, doesn't allow muscle growth. Can you explain that to us just a little bit? Yeah. So cortisol is catabolic, meaning it breaks down. So if we're running on cortisol all the time, we're not allowed we're not our body's not allowed to build the muscle. Now here's the weird thing. When we're exercising in strength training, we're stressing our muscles enough. So that they do grow and repair between our workout sessions. And so we want the right amount of stress, you know, to stress our muscles and stress our bones so they get stronger and bigger And then we wanna recover between those workouts so they have time to recover and grow bigger and stronger. But if we're running on it all the time, like, If you're under chronic stress, you're not digesting your food for 1. Like, when when we go into this alert state, everything shuts down. Our digestion shuts down. Our eyesight actually gets keener so you can see the danger. Wow. Your heart rate, accelerates, your breathing Changes all of these things because your body's in this alarm state, and we cannot grow muscles and bones when we're in this or digest food when we're in this alarm date. So there you go. That's, yeah, that's pretty major. So the bottom line is, stress does affect our fitness. It does affect our metabolism. It affects a lot of things. And that's probably been one of the number one things I've learned. I feel like in 2022. I learned how to sleep. And in 2023, I've been focusing on stress management and, you know, really saying, What are my triggers? How do I manage it? I think we probably I think recently we had a an episode on stress, which was really good, but that that's been my to, like, to do or subconsciously. I've worked on that all of the year. I love that. That's a great story. So this is your stress here. I love it. You know, you make a list of things that you love to do and take the stress and burden away from your body and your mind. You know, I love going on a walk myself. Like, just, you know, outside its nature and, you know, sometimes I listen to music or a podcast or sometimes I listen to my own thoughts, but That's one of my things. What what like does it for you, Amelia? Well, a lot of times, I'm very analytical. And so when I'm in the stress, phase, I'll try to ask myself what was the trigger and why do I feel this way? A lot of times I'll link it to how am I feeling. With regard to how I deal with it a lot of times, I try to separate myself because mine is typically work stress. Mhmm. So I walk away from my desk or literally, you know, step away from that problem because my default mechanism is to dive deeper into it to try to fix it. Or to try to, like, work through it when indeed it works better if I separate myself for a few minutes from it. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Like, versus the old you maybe would push through. I know I would. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And now it's more of a flow thing. You, like, step away and flows, and then you're keeping your cortisol under control. Yeah. 100%. So there's a way unpacked a lot of stuff in the second episode of the most frequently asked questions, Cam. Can you think of anything else? Any closing thoughts that we need to leave our listeners with today? Yeah. If any other questions come up Please send us a message on Instagram because we love hearing from you. Yeah. So the whole purpose of the last two episodes was you're not alone in these questions. And there are simple, although they might not be easy, solutions to your questions. And so we're in this together, and we're glad that you're here. Thank 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.