Get Your Dream Body By Moving Daily

Introduction to Menopause Fitness 0:00

Hello. Welcome back to Mastering the Menopause Transition 2.0 Summit. Save Your Hair, your figure and your mind. And today we are going to learn all about saving that figure and what you need to be doing to get in shape. What's the right exercise for you at this point in your life? This is such an important topic. There's so much confusion around it. And it is really true that we may have been cardio queens growing up, but that is not necessarily what we need right now. And so my special guest today is Tracy Steen , and she is an online fitness coach who specializes in this.

And we actually met online. It's like, oh, we met on Instagram. And she just has an amazing I mean, if you want to know how to be working out, she is on there every day showing you what needs to be done. She walks her talk. She has a a huge community. She's giving out such good information. And so I am just so happy that I was able to grab her way and bring her here for all of you so that you, too, could learn from her and get started. And what you need to know for, you know, doing the right kind of workouts and getting your body in shape.

So welcome, Tracy. It's just great to have you here. I am so glad to be here. I love talking about this stuff. This is yeah, this fires me up. And just the thought about how critical it is, I you know, I've just got a lot of passion about this. So we'll be diving deep today. Yes, we will. We will. So, I mean, let's just let's just do it. I mean, before we start giving out the information, I'm just curious, like, how did you become this huge fitness influencer for all the ladies? Is there a personal story behind this?

Were you struggling or just something you've always been passionate about? I honestly, it is something that I've always been passionate about. I started off in the realm of psychology and just really, you know, as I was starting to work with people in this realm of fitness trying to get fit and healthy, there was always this like stall point, right? Sometimes it was mental health issues, sometimes it was motivation,

Psychology and Exercise Adherence 2:25

sometimes it was drive, sometimes it was willpower. And that just kind of seemed to be all this psychology of of how to move forward. And so as I began to sort of explore that, I, I think I tapped into an audience that also saw that it wasn't just about give me a diet, give me a workout plan. It was really about this 360 approach. Right? It was looking at things like hormones, like sleep, like stress, like motivation and willpower and really uncovering sort of the genesis behind those things and exploring them.

So so once I started to speak like that, I feel like my tribe or the audience started to connect. And it just seemed to be so many women in this age group, you know, 40 plus. I mean, there's younger women in there as well. But it really seemed to attract those women who wanted to not just get fit, but to optimize their health. So I started sort of just talking more about that, more about it was seen fitness through the lens of psychology, right? So not just the watch and in nutrition as well. It wasn't just the watch, but it was the why, right?

Why do I do the things I do? Why do I sabotage my workouts? Why do I eat this? When I said I wasn't going to so I really enjoy opening up Pandora's box and taking a little deep dove into that. In when I'm working with women. I love that. I don't know that I, I knew that about. Yes, I'm going to learn right along with the audience today. So and I love that you said that because I always said that I was just being interviewed like a half hour ago. And I said the same thing. I was talking about health, but it's like it's not just the what.

It's not like, what are you eating? Oh, you're eating organic broccoli. Great. It's like, why are you eating it? Who are you being while you're eating it? When are you eating it? Where are you eating it? And that much more important. So before we even get into like talking about muscle and workouts, I'd love to just talk about that a little. Like what? What do you find? Because that is such a common thing, whether it be like, yeah, I'm going to go to the gym and then, oh, I sabotage. And now I didn't go and I'll go tomorrow and I didn't go.

And now it's two months and now it's two years. And what kind of tips do you have for unwinding that? And also the other thing you said about like, you know, today's going to be a good day and I'm going to eat healthy. And then by the end of the day, you're knee deep in a. Bag of champions and just it's just so many things. That's a thing. And that was my journey as a personal trainer, as a young trainer, 15, 16 years ago when I started, I couldn't understand why women would start a journey and then they would stop.

And it just just bugged me so much. I just wanted to know so much about why did that why did you stop? Like, this is going well for you. You're going in the right two directory and you're you're changing your life, you're optimizing health. And so I would stick. So I would stay with the journey, but then others would stop. And then I just I had to figure out why that was. So as I began to explore that, I think what I discovered was just I want to say ten fold. There was just so many things. It's again, it's not just one thing that we can pinpoint, say, oh, it's just that if you fix that, then you're going to be able to, you know, be fit and healthy for the rest of your life.

It wasn't that. It was upbringing. Right. What type of family did you grow up in? What what were the values of that family? Did they value fitness and wellness and nutrition or did they not? Because that's going to write on the slate of you as well. I had a client once who grew up in India and his parents wanted to sort of keep him indoors so that the sun wouldn't brown his skin darker. So that was, you know, a value there. So he did not exercise outside a lot. He spent many, many of his young years inside his house.

And he got really smart. He read lots of books and got very smart and went to Harvard and became a doctor. But then later in life, he's like, I know the necessity of it, but I didn't grow up with it, right? It wasn't a value of ours. So it's hard for me to stick with this process. It's hard for me to stay with the program because it just wasn't modeled for me. So that that's an issue. That's a thing. That's a that's something that we need to sort of work with because I would look and I would see women who are sticking with it.

And so many of them had good role models, not everyone, but there were so many that had good role models and they had it. Yeah. Modeled for them as they were growing up. So that's an issue. And then, you know, motivation for sure is an issue or are you a Type A personality? Are you someone who can motivate themselves or do you look for motivation externally? Where you you want to have others around you help motivate you? And if that's the case, that's challenging for people to stay with the program because, you know, what happens when someone doesn't, you know, motivate you the way that you're supposed to do or you just become lackluster.

So you know that that that's an issue for people as well. But yeah, I think it's just it's it's interesting to watch a woman's journey and see where she's going and, you know, it just it's it's exciting. But, you know. I think that's why I don't think we often think about psychology and our upbringing when we're thinking about our exercise habits. And I think that is such an important piece to bring in to it. And if you haven't had it model to you, how can you go back and repair that inner child or just create good because it is good to know like I know about myself.

It's funny, the other day a girlfriend said to me, Oh, I've got like these yoga classes online, I'm going to send them to you. And I was like, Don't bother, I'm never going to do them, but I have no use being committed. I go to my yoga studio, you know, like clockwork, and I wouldn't miss it for anything. I just know that me alone in a home on a computer, that's not what I'm going to do. And then for some other people, it's the total opposite. And I think when we can really get engaged with what is not going to be kicking and screaming in a fight.

Yeah, I always tell people to choose what's going to be the easiest for them. What are you going to be able to do with 90 to 100% accuracy? That's really important because the biggest predictor of exercise adherence is self-efficacy. So do you believe that change is possible? Do you believe in yourself? And what we want to do is basically hit a home run right off the blocks so that you do feel motivated so that you do believe that change is possible. So I think sometimes people set the bar really high, right?

They they September comes, January comes, they just do it. All right. They commit to an exercise program. They go on to probably extreme diet and they try to really, you know, become who they want to be. But really quickly instead of slowly over time. And so often they they just fall because the bar is set so high. And what we want to do is, again, hit that home run or do something where you're like, okay, I've got this. I'd committed to walking three days this week and I walked all three days. That was amazing.

So now you have a little bit more belief. And so now you have this sort of moment where you're like, I can do this right? I can make these changes in shifts, but if the bar set so high, then fail. And then we lack motivation when we don't see, you know, have that self-efficacy. So when we believe in ourselves, we tend to spend more time at the task. And when we spend more time at the task, we see more change. And when we see more change, we believe a change is possible and that creates exercise adherence.

So it's an important thing to set the bar slightly lower. And I know that might seem counterintuitive because we think go set the bar high, but in fitness and nutrition,

Menopause, Muscle Loss, and Why Strength Matters 10:20

do what is sustainable with 90 to 100% accuracy, because then you're going to hit a home run and then you're going to feel like, okay, I can do this and that. Self-belief with women I feel is so huge when we don't believe in ourselves. Right. And it comes from even into that internal voice. Like, what do we say to ourselves about ourselves? Do we say that change is possible or is that internal voice? You know, it's saying, no, you can't do this, you'll never do this. You're going to do the same thing as last year when you failed.

Of course, you just messed up again. Of course you missed your workout, right? What is the language that we're saying inside of ourselves? To ourselves. So that really has to be noticed as well. And a great way to notice that about yourself is walk by a mirror or reflection when you're walking in a mall just turn and take a look at yourself in that reflection. What's the first thing you say to yourself about yourself? Right? What's the language inside that comes out? It's a great telltale sign of sort of the things that we say to ourselves.

And if it's a look at you, Oh, you suck or you're fat or you're overweight, or you just are so sluggish or you just were if that's the language, I mean, we're going to live out our lives according to the things that we say to ourselves. So that's where it starts. I feel like, how do you talk to yourself and what are you saying that's positive, that's life giving, that's affirming, that's motivating. MM Right. And you can't even believe it right away. But, but we say it and then we would, then we become it.

I couldn't agree more and it's so funny. This is, this theme is coming up in a lot of the talks that I'm having here on the summit. And so it's like overarching take home message ladies. Like, you got to love yourself, you got to be kind to yourself. That is no good. Health grows and yes, I love that's setting the bar low because then you can be like you, hey, I did it. It was like I just walked for 15 minutes, three times a week. It's a much better thing to be. Yeah, you did it then. Like you said, I didn't do it. I no loser.

I'll just spiral down into never doing it. And, you know, we want to create healthy, positive neural pathways. So I love, love, love, love, love that so that so so let's talk menopause and what is going on. Why is the body changing and how does our workout need to change? Like, let's just dove in and give them the information they need. You know, I just had a DEXA scan today. I had my first DEXA scan. Have you had a scan now? Okay. Okay. It's it's really so tell telling. It just lets you know what's going on inside the body, which is great.

And my doctor was absolutely thrilled with my numbers. He was like, You're her bone density is amazing compared to women your age. Like, why don't you do it? You're like, are you like. Are you taking your clients? And then also the visceral fat, it shows you your vat, your visceral adipose tissue, right? So it shows you that on the scan. And again, he said, according to women your age, you're just doing tremendously well. And I said, I mean, part and parcel is because I have been moving daily and lifting weights in, right.

Very weight on ligaments and joints for the better part of 25 years. And and so we have to say that the earlier you start, the better. That said, it is never too late to start and it is never too late to make that shift and begin to increase bone density or increase lean muscle tissue. Sarcopenia is a thing, right? So as we age, we are losing lean muscle tissue. So it must become this critical element in our brain that we have to maintain or build lean muscle as we age just because the drop off is so drastic year after year.

And so making that as part of our our target is part of our goal to build muscle is going to benefit us. It's going to benefit our posture. It's going to benefit us from helping us, prevent us from falling. It's going to increase longevity, right? It helps to increase our telomere length, which are like the little caps on the end of our chromosomes. Right. The shorter those are, the shorter our lifespan. But if we have longer telomeres, visibly exercise and nutrition and management of stress and management of hormones, we're going to have longer lifespan and a shorter disease span, which is crucial.

So so in terms of lifting weights, as you know, in menopause, I just think it's it has to be part of our routine. And as Sharon said, you know, years ago, we may have been cardio queens. That might have been something that we used to lose weight or lose body fat. But really, resistance training is going to be sort of your ticket to ride in order to maintain. Right. Your weight or even to increase muscle, which will make our body more metabolic, which can help us decrease our body fat as well. So so that was a lot.

Are you are you do you allow or do you permit cardiovascular or is it just weight resistance training? And what is it like for someone who's listening and see either they've never worked out or someone who's listening and they're like, Ooh, you know, I run five miles a day or I go to the stair stepper and that's what I've been doing. Like how? How do they make the shift? What do we need to know? Yeah. I mean, I love boats. Don't get me wrong, I think cardiovascular training is super important. Aerobic, anaerobic.

We need to push the envelope. So Dr. Peter Attia is someone I follow on. He he talks a lot about he calls it the Centenarian Olympics. So if you think about who you want to be when you're 100, think about maybe the things that you want to be able to do. Do you want to sit down on the ground to be able to play with grandchildren? Do you want to be able to climb up the stairs by yourself? Do you want to be able to lift a toddler above your head? You know, what are the things that you think you want to be doing in your older year?

Is 80, 90, 100. And then basically what we need to do is reverse engineer, right, or back past this concept of thinking, how are we going to train today? In my fifties, in my sixties, in my seventies, in order to be able to sustain movements and functional patterns like that as I'm older, right? So if I want to lift up a toddler above my head and the toddler is £20, but I'm never lifting £20 over my head now. Right? Am I going to be able to do it then? So it is this concept of challenging the muscles is challenging your aerobic peak.

It's challenging your zone too. So you have endurance, right? So there's lots of different facets that we can look at and we can break that down into lots of different categories. But I think all are important as we age. So I would definitely not say ditch the cardio, you know, that's over and let's just focus on strength training. I think both are important and how you can incorporate them into a week would be a real fun week of workouts in my opinion, right? I mean, you can have zone to cardio by doing walking or like a light jog, maybe some stair climbing.

You could do some aerobic or anaerobic training where you're doing some hit training, even. We can talk about that because I know a lot of older women think that they shouldn't be doing high intensity intervals any longer. But again, I think when you push the system and you challenge the heart, you're going to it's going to adapt and it's going to be available to you when you need those functions. And we may not be running from bears in our lives any longer.

Cardio, Resistance Training, and Longevity 18:35

Right. We may not need to do sprints and and things like that. But it is important to challenge the heart and your cardiovascular system as well. So so having both, I think is a real important factor. Now that's good to hear because sometimes you just hear you got to ditch the cardio and it's only resistance training. And I'm like, no, I love my cardio. I love hiking. All those. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think it's just I again, I've been reading that book, The Telomere Effect by Dr. Alissa Appel and Dr.

Blackburn, and they talk a lot about lengthening those telomeres through aerobic activity. And so I think it's important to continue to to train like that now in terms of even changing your body composition, there are a lot of studies that have shown that both are beneficial. But when people are trying to lose a large amount of body fat, mass aerobic training plus resistance training is actually dominant over just resistance training. So it is important for for fat loss as well. You're going to get a good caloric expenditure when you're doing aerobic training.

But again, it helps increase the heart rate, which increases blood flow. So I think it's I think it's beneficial for a lot of reasons. And if you enjoy it, I mean, that's the bottom line. What do you enjoy and what are you going to sustain and what are you going to continue with? That should really be the thing that we're looking to find in our lives. You know what? What is the most enjoyable way for me to move my body? And if it's plane pickleball with your friends, you know, four days a week, that's awesome.

Do that. And then two days a week, try to pick up those weights because again, from this DEXA scan and knowing what we know about osteopenia and osteoporosis and sarcopenia, we want to be bearing weight on the ligaments and joints. We want to be using those muscles so we don't lose those muscles. Right. But your other days of fitness, I say fill them with the things that make you feel happy and that you love and joy. I mean, I love hiking, so I do hiking multiple times a week. Right. But I know the critical mass of bearing weight on my ligaments and joints and sustaining my muscle tissue, because, again, it's going to impact so much of my life as I age.

I had this story of a of a client and she's giving me permission to share this, but it's really profound. So I'm going to share it with your audience here. So her mom was 70 years old and she saw something down in the shower, in her bathroom one day, and she went down to pick it up and she slipped and fell. She wasn't showering or anything. She didn't even get hurt. But she went to pick it up, fell on the ground, and then went to stand up. And she couldn't she couldn't she didn't have the strength in her legs, her arms, her hips to stand.

And so she's down on the floor going, Now, how am I going to get now? So she crawled over to her bed where her phone was on the bedside table, and she called her kids and no one answered. So she just sat there going, Well, I have to cook supper. How am I going to stand up here? So she ended up calling 911. The ambulance came and to break down her door, get into her house, all they had to do was help her stand up. And my client said to me, Tracy, that will never be me. So whatever I have to do to ensure that that is not me, please tell me what I need to do.

And so we started a routine of functional training where she's bearing weight on those ligaments and joints, doing functional patterns and functional movements like squats and deadlifts and, you know, actions that we have in our everyday life. And we're training the muscles around there so she can sustain that and continue to do that forever and ever. Mm hmm. Well, that's that that makes you think great, because, like you said, even break anything she just put in couldn't stand and isn't there that that test rate of like age like can you bend down and then get up on your own, right?

Yeah. Wow. So so two days a week of strength training. So for someone who wants to get started, what do you recommend? Because you want to do it properly. You don't want to hurt yourself. Are there any tips for getting started? You say that I think that's a good minimum is two days a week. Like if you're like, I don't want to do it. I don't like strength training, I hate weights, then at least try to commit to that two days. I mean, optimally you're doing it 4 to 5 days even or 3 to 5 days, right.

You know that. So let's go to the your question here about beginners. If you could afford to hire a trainer, I think that would be ideal, right? Because then someone is watching just you. I give tips and tips, tick trip tips and tricks on my YouTube channel. I talk about form. I'll correct my own form and I'll coach while I'm working out. But I can't see you right. I can't see the person working out, so I don't know if your form is good or not, but a personal trainer can certainly critique your form and help you.

I think if you haven't done it before, if you haven't done resistance training before, so often we don't know how to really use those muscles in a way that is not going to get us injured and in a way that's going to maximize these lifts. So that is a good recommendation again. Now, if you can't afford it, there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube that are free and that's just wonderful. It's a wonderful resource I think you can tap into. We have over on my channel a full beginner playlist, so there's almost 100 beginner workouts, so they're all low impact, right?

We're lifting really light and we're starting to progress from there. That is one mistake I feel like a lot of people make, and when I would take a client on for the first time, she would grab the weights and and, you know, be able to lift maybe £10 over her head. But then I would pass the £3 dumbbells to her initially, and she'd be like, I think you're heavier. I'm like, Yes, it's true. But normally you would only lift something overhead once, not 12 times. And now I'm asking you to do it 12 times.

And if we do that for a few rounds by the end of our session today, you're going to be so sore by tomorrow that you're not going to even be able to show up again tomorrow. And truly, that is the key. We need to be able to show up again tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Right, to build that consistency. If we talk about how do I build muscle, right? How do I put on more size volume is the driver of that hypertrophy. So hypertrophy is the increase in muscle size. So you need to be able to show up again tomorrow in order to get the volume required for that growth.

Now, a lot of people also think, well, I don't like lifting heavy weights. It's, you know, I've got arthritis or it hurts or I don't have heavyweights. Could I still build muscle with lighter weights? And the answer to that is most definitely yes, you can. It used to be the answer. And this is interesting. Dr. Brad Schoenfeld, he's he's a big name in the sports medicine arena. And he's done a lot of studies over many, many years, the last 20, 25 years that have shown that while we used to think that you had to lift heavier weights in that 10 to 12 rep range for 3 to 4 sets, now studies have shown that you can't lift lighter weights, the volume is going to be higher.

So say for an example, if I did a shoulder press and I was only using three or £5 weights, okay, I'm not going to fatigue at 12 reps. It's going to be still too easy. But I might fatigue right at that 15, 20, 25 reps. So the key, if you're lifting a little bit lighter is that you still have to push the system, you still have to cause some sort of overload or adaptation so the muscle shifts and changes and grows.

How to Start Strength Training Safely 26:45

And if it's duration or volume, right, that could be a good driver of that muscle change. So if you're lifting later, just always think about that because I think sometimes people will grab a weight and lift it. But there's no fatigue in the muscle, right? There's no there's no. Yeah. It doesn't come close to failure. It doesn't fatigue. And so it's great for ligaments and joint health. That's great. But if you want to build muscle, right, it has to be overloaded in some capacity. So in order for those muscle fibers to tear down, I mean.

Yeah. So first of all, I just want to say, like, did you see her gun's like, follow her this leading. That's what she's doing. I'm like, Oh, so, so you want to be lifting to where you're like, Oh, I like where you get the shakes. Is that. So? So what it's called is reps in reserve. So this is a good thing to remember when you're lifting. So let's take the three sets 12 reps category kick is that's a that's a typical lots of trainers on YouTube will lead in this area okay so within that first set you're sort of testing and trying to weight.

So you're seeing how it feels for your muscles in that specific lift and you'll get to the 12th rep with the weight that you have. And maybe it's only an £8 dumbbell, right? Maybe you're doing shoulder press again. You should have about three, four or five reps left in reserve. So that means you should be able to go for an additional three, four or five reps, cast rep number 12. Okay. So that's good. You know, you're sort of getting the ballpark, but now we come to the second set, you want to have less reps left in reserve.

Maybe this time it's only 2 to 3 reps. Let's so you're going to pick up a heavier weight and this is sort of where that trial and error comes in. It's also really helpful to write down the weights that you used last time so that you sort of know where to start, what ballpark, what arena you should start him. So you pick up the weights and you're going into your second set and again now you're thinking, okay, I only want to have 2 to 3 reps left in reserve. So you finish off with the 12th rep and you're like, Okay, yeah, I could have done just about two or three more.

And then the last set, now you want to push the envelope a little bit more and bring it closer to that fatigue and maybe only have 1 to 2 reps left in reserve, maybe even 0 to 1 reps left in reserve. So now you're going to choose a weight that you think you can do for that 12 reps and really push the system. So reps ten, 11 and 12 should be where you're like, Oh yeah, this is getting hard. This is getting hard. But if you're lifting in endurance with later weights, you're going to be okay. Reps 15, 16, 17 or 22, 23, 24, 25 Now I'm starting to really feel it and yeah, so you always have to just think that's the caveat.

Am I challenging the muscle to overload and adapt to the weight that I'm giving it? And again, it can be lightweights with high volume. It can be like weights with isometric contractions, right? You can be holding a weight out there. So I'm not even lifting. I've got £2 weight. So my hands I'm doing a bar workout, right. And I'm just got these little movements or whatever I'm doing. But I have to hold my arms there for a full minute. And so I'm feeling that fatigue, I'm feeling that burn. And that is that's the overload right there.

So I think so often we'll pick up lighter weights, but we won't feel any of those things. And again, good that you're doing something. I think that's great. It's better than sitting on the couch. You're still increasing circulation, which is going to decrease inflammation and disease and decay. So that's good. But if you want to grow muscle, right, if you want to offset Sarcopenia and increase that lean muscle tissue, then we have to push the envelope. We have to push the system and challenge those muscles better.

That makes sense. And do you recommend having like a leg day and arm day, back day, or do you work? How do you do that? Yeah. So again, this depends on what your target is. Okay, this is my main question. I say to my members all the time, what's the top target? Because that really is going to determine your nutrition. It's going to determine your training protocol. It's going to determine your neat factor. It's going to determine so many things. Okay. So if your top target is to increase lean muscle, let's just stick with that one for a second.

You're going to break down your body into muscle groups. You're going to get real specific. Okay. So Monday might be that chest and triceps because what I want remember that volume is the driver of hypertrophy. So I need volume throughout my week in order to get that growth. So triceps, I'm going to have to hit at least probably twice a week chest. I'm going to have to hit at least, you know, I'm going to have to do one main day maybe and then do some chest in another day so that I get that volume.

And typically speaking, when I say volume in hypertrophy, that's really anywhere between that ten and 15 sets per muscle group in a given week. So that's some good volume. Like that's, you know, you have to be training five days a week for that. So then yes, maybe chest and triceps on a monday, maybe back and biceps on a Tuesday, maybe a rest day on Wednesday where you're doing some active rest like walking or a little jog or hike. Thursday might be, you know, a glutes and shoulders workout. Friday might be a nice total body.

Saturday might be again, whatever you miss during the beginning of the week, maybe another upper body or, you know, combination of that. So we're really looking at the week in your you dividing it up into specific groups where everything is kind of getting a little bit of a target. Now, if your top target is for longevity and you just want to move your body because you know that's important and you want to, again, increase, you know, circulation, but you want to include things like maybe some yoga, Pilates or cycling or some of these sports that you enjoy.

Then maybe perhaps doing an upper body on one day in a lower body on another day throughout the week would be a great way to again target all of the muscles. Also, you could do two total body workouts, right? You could just if you're only doing it twice a week, then you could do that. If you're doing it three times a week, you could do a lower body one day, then skip that upper body one day, then skip then a total body on the third day. So lots of combinations, right. But I always kind of think about the whole body and think, okay, how am I targeted, you know, the major muscles in my body today or this week, rather?

And so it major muscles. I'm thinking shoulders, biceps, triceps, chest back, abs core. So that would be your lower lumbar erector spine wall and then quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves. So that's kind of how I think. Did everyone get a chance to work out this week? Right. And then if there's parts that I want to grow, then I'm going to need that volume. I'm going to need that overload on those on those parts. So, you know, for people who want to sculpt their arms and get some good toned, sculpted arms, well, this is where people make a mistake.

So often women will just say, oh, I want really nice triceps. I don't want, you know, flabby arms or what have you. But they'll only have two tricep exercises in a given week that was in their total body workout. Well, that's not enough. That's never going to target the back of that class. I think we also must remember and be cognizant of this fact everyone's bodies are so different. And, you know, you may have been born with a different somatic type than someone that you admire. So maybe someone who's an actor more or sorry to an actor more who's really lean, wants to be, you know, amazing morph, someone who gains muscle easily and loses weight easily or, you know, but you're you're just different.

You're born different. And so I think it's important to recognize that you may not want to say, not be able to reach a certain point, but it's going to be more challenging for some people than it will be for others. And I think it's important not just to focus on what we can gain esthetically and especially as we age. I think it has to be important that we begin to develop other targets as well. So I'm talking about targets like maybe I want to go for strength. Could I get stronger this year? Could that be one of my targets that I'm really going to improve my strength quotient and I'm going to I'm going to mark that.

I'm going to gauge that. I'll I'll take notes about how much I can lift and I'm going to look at the scale. I'm not going to, like, focus on how skinny I can get or lean, but I'm really going to focus on strength.

Training Structure, Volume, and Body Goals 35:45

Someone else is might be I'm going to work on balance and stability because I don't want to fall as they age. And so this is going to be a primary goal. And target of mine is to focus on these things for other people. It could be I'm going to work on agility and just can I be fast? Can I be agile, right? Can I stop and catch myself? So I try to help women just see that the only target, it doesn't have to be like how skinny you can get or lean you can get. Let's make it some other things. Let's make it how strong I can feel right how energetic I can feel, how confident I can feel.

These things have to be a part of the conversation as well, because we just not all of us are going to get there, like to the lean, you know, look that we think that we want to we just we just want not all of us will write. Better to have that extra five or £10, but be strong and be balanced and be healthy. Be moving as. Well. And those extra 5 to £10 costs something as well, right? There's a cost to being lean if that is something that you desire. I mean, you could be if you want to be, but it does cost something, right?

There's a lot of commitment in the training, in the eating, right, in the sleeping, in the supplementing a lot of commitment there. So I think I tell women to just gauge for themselves what the target is and what you're willing to do to get there. Right. So I can help women compete so that they're stage ready and they can be in a body composition competition. But is it sustainable for the long haul? Right. Are you going to. Yeah. What's it going to cost you to get there? What's it going to cost you emotionally, psychologically?

Because this is what happens to a lot of people. They'll they'll go on these, you know, on plans where they're losing a lot of weight, maybe getting very lean, getting very wrapped. And and but it's really challenging to stay there. So they get to this place. They feel really good. They look really good. But yeah, like, unless you're willing and your lifestyle is willing to take that drastic 360 change and, and sustain what you've achieved, you know, it's you won't be able to you won't be able to stay there for long.

And that can then mess with us. Psychologically speaking, we're like, Well, I was leaner, right? I did look good. And then we can go into a cycle of beating ourselves up. But really was that sustainable from. And he was like for most people, it's not maybe for people who are getting paid to be there, it's more sustainable. But we hear this story all the time, right? That people just we have a natural set point in your body sort of does have that natural set point. And what if you could camp there, but be strong, be healthy, love yourself.

You know, honor your body with the things that you do, honor your body with the foods that you put in it, and focus on that more than just, you know, esthetically you look like. Hmm. That's part of going through the menopausal transition and getting that wisdom and learning what's truly in life. So I really agree. That being said, you know, what can you say? Because it is a common thing I hear in my office from patients and I'm sure you hear continually, you know, I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted and not gain weight.

And now, you know, I drive by a supermarket and I gain £5. And so I'm sure you hear this as frequently as I do. And why is that happening? And what do you have? How do you speak to that? Well. Yeah, I do hear that all the time. And it's frustrating for all of us because, yes, what used to work no longer works. But there's a lot of things that are going on as well. Right. Studies have shown that as we age, we do slow down so we're not moving as much. Right. We're not as active maybe as we once were.

And so with that slowing down or that lack of non exercise activity thermogenesis in place, right, we don't have that caloric expenditure that we possibly had when we were younger running after kids and running, you know, all around the city would drive into soccer camps. So this I always say to women in this age, your non exercise activity thermogenesis for your net activity has to be in place. Okay, so this this isn't necessarily just walking daily, although I do recommend that I recommend that for reducing cortisol, for being with friends, for being in nature, for getting morning light in the eyes.

Like it's just a game changer for most women that I make do do that it's a game changer but but non exercise activity thermogenesis can include things like balance in your life, right? You got like jiggling, wiggling, fidgeting, standing, standing desk, taking a call, standing your call. There's there was a wonderful study that was done on soleus raises. So this is where you are lifting your heel up and doing like a calf raise, but in a seated position. And so how that soleus raise when done, it was done for a long time.

It was something a two hour time frame that someone these would be subjects were doing soleus raises. But it showed how like after someone ate a meal that was high in glucose, how it helped offset unstable insulin spikes and glucose spikes just because the muscles were moving and using that up. So I think that has to be something that we really do consider that, you know, yes, we used to be able to eat what we want, but we've also slowed down. So how can we integrate in our life more movement? Right, because that's going to help increase that caloric expenditure.

I mean, you know more about this hormone fluctuation than I do, but from what I know is that as that estrogen drops in our bodies capacity to manage glucose shifts. Right. And so I tell my my members and we talk about this all the time that we need to try to manage glucose and find ways to either eat foods together in a different pairing. That's going to help do that. Right? If we eat carbs by themselves, we get more glucose into the system. And so then we'll have more of those glucose spikes. And if you're not using up that glucose, which is provided to us as energy, if you're not going out on a marathon run and using that all day long, anything that's excess is just getting stored as fat in the body.

Right. Just gets stored. So we need to sort of monitor the amount of glucose that work and see where the carbohydrates that we're eating and begin to prioritize protein. That's another thing that's important because protein has the highest thermic effect of food out of all of those macronutrients at a fat and carbohydrates. So that means for every 100 calories of protein you're consuming, your body is going to use about 30 calories to break that down. So you're you're burning energy while you're eating that macronutrient.

And so and it also helps us to build lean muscle, right? Protein is the building block of lean muscle and regular regular like are RDA amounts of the. So what basic websites will recommend for protein is pretty low compared to what is really required to build lean muscle. So a lot of arteries will say that around 50 grams of protein a day is good. But if you're wanting to build muscle, most professionals would say you need to be upwards of 1.8 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.

So for me, I'm 58 kilograms. That means I'm anywhere between that 92 and 120 grams of protein per day to put on muscle, to build muscle. So that might be a lot more than you were eating. Right, but it does help. It does help the body become more metabolic as well. So it's little things like that I think are so important to understanding sleep and how sleep impacts our ghrelin and leptin hormones, right? So ghrelin is the go hormone. That's the hormone that makes us snack and makes us feel like we

Protein, Nutrition, and Sleep for Menopause 44:25

to have more hyper palatable foods, eat more in the afternoon. And if you're having less than seven or 8 hours of sleep per night. Right, we're going to have increased levels of ghrelin and lower levels of leptin, which is the stop hormone. So we need to switch that around. What we want is higher levels of leptin and lower low levels of ghrelin. Sleep can impact that greatly. So yeah, lots of things. Could you just give a few examples of, you know, you said that's a high amount of protein and I agree.

But what could that for someone who's listening like thinking, you know, 57 steaks a day like does that look like how. Could that look. Like lunch? Dinner? Yeah. How is that palatable? Sure, sure. And let me just say this, too, because I think that intermittent fasting is a great protocol in menopause. It is for me. I do enjoy it, but it makes it a challenge for me to get that adequate protein. And so if I'm I need about 90 grams a day, you know, I'm somehow going to have to fit that into my eating window, which could be a challenge.

Right. So, yes, choosing foods that you enjoy and I think it's really important for longevity and lifespan to makes a lot of those protein sources plant based right. So increase in fiber and increase in vegetables I think is important as well. So for an example, I suppose if you're looking at okay, give me a 90 gram of protein day of eating, you might start your day with something like protein pancakes. I do a protein pancake that I really enjoy. You know, it's got, what, one tablespoon of large flake oats, two eggs, half a cup of cottage cheese, cinnamon, a little piece of banana, blend that up and then make a pancake.

You can top it with Greek yogurt. That's a good 30 grams right there. So a little bit of all natural nut butter and some blueberries. That's great. Lunch might be something like a chicken salad, right? So four ounces of chicken is around that 28 to 30 grams of protein. So that's great. Lots of leafy greens, healthy fat with a homemade dressing with olive oil and maybe some nuts and seeds on top. So that would be great if you could fit a snack in, if you're still hungry or needed a snack, even having something like a protein shake.

If you wanted to supplement with protein powder, you don't have to. I would say Whole Foods TRUMP But if you if you have a hard time fitting in that amount of protein, a protein supplement like a protein, whey protein is an easy way to get in 30 grams right there. But you could have something like some Amazon veggie sticks that would be lower protein option, but you could even have some Greek yogurt maybe. And some berries. That's a good, good source right there. And then dinner might be something like stewed lentils, right? With some salad.

That could be a good protein source or maybe a salmon dish with some asparagus and quinoa. That would be another great probably 30 grams protein right there. So it's it's totally doable to get in that 90 to 100 grams is just how how's your appetite, right. And if you're doing intermittent fasting, it is a challenge. I find it hard because I'm not as hungry in that, but I am trying to prioritize protein. So I make sure that every single thing that I consume has protein in it. Right? As you age, your hunger levels go down too.

You don't have as much of an appetite. So every sort of food that you put into your mouth has to have some thought behind it. Does it have fiber? Because fiber is crucial for our gut health, right. And for we must have fiber. It also helps us to feel satiated. It makes us feel fuller longer. So guess, does the food have fiber? Does a good have protein? Does the food have that healthy fat source? Does a feed have complex carbohydrate that is high in fiber and. Right. So there's a lot to think about.

We've got to thinking about our plates and making those decisions. But again, it kind of comes down to what's the top target like? What do you really want to do first? And then let's look at the secondary targets and try and pepper those in throughout that. Mm. Very helpful. And I'll just add on, that's something I harp on all the time that when you're eating all that protein, you want to make sure you're actually absorbing it. So checking to make sure your hydrochloric acid levels, most of us have deficient stomach acid, so you want to make sure that's optimized so that when you know that you're chewing it and you're liquefying the food and you're very mindful and eating it in a nice parasympathetic state. Yes.

You're absorbing it. But yeah, that is that's all really, really helpful. So any last, you know, we've kind of went from lifting to eating to thinking, you know, the whole like you say that 360 view. Is there any last nuggets of wisdom or anything you want to share with the audience before we wrap up? Yeah, I think that the main thing to think about is that you're not trying to identify as just goals or targets to move toward. I want to lose £10. I want to fit into these jeans. I think what would be better and more helpful is to think about this shift now as this lifestyle habit.

Who do I want to be? Right. What? How do I want to feel? And could I begin to shift my whole life so that it it begins to reflect who I want to be and how I want to feel. And it could mean you're shifting from some friendship groups, maybe, right? Like I had a client wants to. She was known as Cocktail Cara and everyone came to her house for cocktail hour every day at four, and she's like, I don't want to be this person anymore. But that that meant shifting a whole friendship group and changing that, you know, environment.

So as we think about what we want to do, wouldn't it be nice not to have to be thinking about that next year going, Oh, and I really need to change. I wish I could make a change. I wish I could lose weight, I wish I could get fit. I think what we need to start with is by thinking, What do I want to look like? How do I want to feel? What do I want my life be? And then let's reverse engineer some of these microprocessors that I'm going to have to do day in and day out to make that happen. My favorite quote is by Ovid, and he says, Dripping water on the stone, hollows it out, not through force, but through persistence.

And that's really the key. It's like how do I find the little things that I need to drip on the stone? Drip, drip, drip? It's my waking up at 5 a.m.. It's my drinking water, it's my taking the supplements, it's getting my hormones checked. It's making sure my sleep is intact. Those are the dripping water on the stone. It's going to hollow it out. And and what needs to happen is that we just show up for ourselves and and continue to do those things day in and day out. And we can't do it alone. And I think community is a huge way that we can support ourselves in this journey.

Lifestyle Mindset and Final Takeaways 51:35

Right? It's Facebook groups, it's friendship groups, it's walking clubs, it's, you know, friends at the gym, whatever it is, find your tribe and have that support because there's other women just like you and me that want to do this as well. I'm so beautiful. And that in cocktail cara the events, that's such an act of bravery and sometimes those are the hardest things we have to do to really change. And I love I hope you all. Well, first of all, I hope you all go follow Tracy. So tell them I don't do YouTube a lot, but I follow you on Instagram.

We have this age, so how do we find you on YouTube or Instagram? So YouTube is TracySteenMoveDaily. I mean, any any you could do it daily and anything would pop up. But that's YouTube move daily. Instagram is new daily fitness big Facebook group right now called the Move Daily Hustle. You could also find me on Facebook. Tracy Steen one Tiktok is Tracy Steen. So lots of platforms. Yes. She's an awesome player. Fun, fun platform. So be sure to follow her and get your daily dose of moving. And I hope that you all you know, there were there's so much in this.

I hope you go back and listen to this interview again. You know, just even one little nugget of the thought or, you know, something that's really sticking with me is that like, you know, who do I want to be? Do I want to be strong? Do I want to be agile? Do I want to be stable? Because we do that. That's huge. It's like, you know, because we do tend to just be like, you know, I want to fit in my size three genes on at the to end and where we're why is now there's there's a little more to it than just fitting in our genes and yes, of course we want to you know, carrying around too much extra weight is a health hazard, not what we're saying. Yes.

But there's you know, there's the whole gestalt of it. So I hope you really can digest and think about that. And now we have permission to do cardio. So for those of us who are like Annie McCartney, oh, we've got permission. So thank you so much for just educating us and spending some time with us here at the summit and sharing your wisdom and just really appreciate you and all that you do. And for everyone else, you've got a little bit of homework and a little bit of things to think about. And we'll be back with another amazing interview for you at the Mastering The Menopause Transition 2.0 Summit.

So we'll see you soon. Right.