# Episode 7 - Wellness Journey

- Podcast: GenX Adulting Podcast
- Published: 2024-09-13T13:00:00.000Z
- Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398379/episodes/15741819-episode-7-wellness-journey.mp3
- Page: https://genxadultingpodcast.com/transcripts/podcasts/genx-adulting-podcast/episodes/episode-7
- Source: https://genxadultingpodcast.com/episodes/genxadultingpodcastepisode7.html
- People: Brian Barker (host), Nicole Barker (host)

## Summary

In Episode 7 of Gen X Adulting, the hosts continue their discussion on their health journey in their 50s, focusing on the positive changes they've made, such as giving up alcohol and incorporating regular walking into their routine. They also share insights on their experiences with exercise, supplementation, and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as they age.

## Key takeaways

- Walking is a low-impact exercise that can significantly improve overall health.
- Supplementation with vitamins D3 and K2 is important for calcium absorption and overall well-being.
- Weightlifting is crucial for maintaining muscle mass, especially during menopause.
- Hydration is essential for health, and incorporating minerals like Celtic sea salt can enhance hydration.
- Establishing a consistent morning routine can improve energy levels and overall health.
- Cold plunging offers various health benefits, including reduced inflammation and improved mental clarity.
- Maintaining a healthy diet and being mindful of food choices can prevent gut issues and promote better health.

## FAQ

### What are the benefits of walking as exercise?

Walking is a low-impact exercise that helps improve cardiovascular health, strengthens muscles, and can aid in weight management.

### Why is supplementation important in midlife?

Supplementation, particularly with vitamins like D3 and K2, supports bone health, immune function, and overall energy levels, which can decline with age.

### How can I stay hydrated effectively?

To stay hydrated, consider drinking water with added minerals like Celtic sea salt, and incorporate hydrating foods and beverages like celery juice.

### What role does weightlifting play in health during menopause?

Weightlifting helps maintain muscle mass, which is crucial for metabolism and overall strength, especially during menopause when hormonal changes occur.

### What are the benefits of cold plunging?

Cold plunging can reduce inflammation, improve circulation, and enhance mental clarity, making it a beneficial practice for overall health.


## Referenced links

- [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8SlSyYP7Hk)
- [Listen on Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-7-wellness-journey/id1764838823?i=1000669443559)
- [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/18YdI45pCx8KZMaYX4o82O)
- [Listen on Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398379/episodes/15741819-episode-7-wellness-journey)

## Transcript

[Music]
Welcome to Gen X Adulting. This is part
two of discussing our health journey now
that we've hit our 50s, our midlife
health journey, I guess, as Gen Xers.
And so in the last episode, what did we
covered that we
basically gave up alcohol?
Yeah. So in the last episode, we talked
about giving up alcohol.
Right.
I think the next big change that we made,
would you say it was walking?
Yes, definitely.
So let's talk about the motivation behind
the walking and how we got into it.
Well, I think I, well, I needed something
low impact because I've had
issues with my lower back.
I have a herniated disc and I have a
bulging disc. And so I
used to run. I loved running.
I've been running since I was in middle
school. But then once I had
my back injury, when I ran,
consistently, it would hurt my back. So I
needed to find
something that was low impact.
And walking is like the best thing you
can do. It's probably one of the best
exercises you can do.
Yeah. You know, it is another podcast to
talk about your back.
Yeah.
How you essentially almost couldn't
really bend over. And now you can
actually bend over and pick things up and
move around and have your life back.
I have my life. We will talk about how I
got how I got my life back. I mean, there
I had days where I was in bed.
It was completely debilitating for my
life, your life, the kids lives. And you
wouldn't even know I
have a back issue now.
No, like I do everything. It is amazing.
So yes, let's remember to cover that.
But walking became the consistent
exercise for me and for us.
Yeah. And so what's funny is that I
wanted I well, OK, so I saw this tick
tocker and she was getting up at like
three in the morning
and doing her workout.
And then she would journal and then she'd
read. She would do all these things
before she even left for work.
I remember you talking about her. Yeah, I
need to remember her name. But what I
will actually put her name in the notes
for if anyone is interested.
But so she motivated me. Remember, I came
to you and this is about a month after
going dry with alcohol.
So this would have been in February of
twenty three. And I said I want to tackle
something for this month and I want to
start walking at five in the morning.
Yeah, that was hard. And we did that. We
would get up. I think my alarm went off
at four forty or four forty five.
We were out the door between five and
five fifteen. Yeah. What was cool about
it was it was dark out.
There was hardly any traffic. We would we
would see the guy delivering papers.
Yeah. And he would start to wave at us.
So we had a friend. We did.
And then we saw this other couple who
walked their dog Ruby. We would always
see them. And then this one
other lady in our neighborhood.
We'd see the dude who would be that dude
and his wife, the guy who would like lift
weights in his garage. Yes, we see that.
And we saw the the the the dude on his
bike with the spotlight. Oh, my God.
Reflective gear and too much. That guy
was actually out of control.
A negative on our walk. He would he would
have a spotlight on the front of his bike
that blinded you like someone. Right.
So it's almost like if someone is in
their car coming toward you and they put
on their brights. Yeah,
it would be like that.
But it would start way far away as he was
coming towards us. It's whatever. But we
have it was downtown
Manhattan or Miami. Right.
That would make sense. Yeah. But we live
in a residential area. Right. And and
it's just was
unnecessary. It was unnecessary.
Yeah. So I'm assuming in his past, maybe
he did get hit and he was paranoid,
whatever. But we would have our regulars.
We would see. Yeah.
And we would get back.
We would because we walked between three
and a half to four and a half miles, I
would say each time, depending. We
brought our dog
Floyd. We have three dogs.
Two little ones can't do the long walk.
But Floyd is a black German shepherd mix.
And he would come with us. And what's
nice about cousin Florida can get warm
and shepherds in general struggle with
that. But at five in the morning. Yeah.
And especially during winter here was
sometimes cold at five in the morning for
us. It was cold. Anyway, so it was dark.
There was hardly any traffic. You still
saw the moon. And then the
sun was like walking at night, basically,
it was. But then during our walk, the sky
would brighten. And, you know, you
wouldn't see the literal sunrise, but we
would have our own version of the
sunrise. And then we would get home and
then I would wake up our youngest to get
him ready for school and, and continue on
with our morning. So I loved, I loved
having it done before I got him up. I
loved having it. I felt like it gave us
more time in the day.
Because we got our walk out of the way
because our walks average an hour if we
do our full walk the way we want it.
Sometimes we have to cut them short if we
don't, you know, for whatever reason, if
you have to get on a call or whatever.
But it was wonderful. And we did that for
a few months. But the problem was is you
and I are both night out. Yeah, we have
always been night owls. We are not the
type where one of us goes to bed early
and the other one stays up
late. We both stay up late.
And for us getting up at five in the
morning or four 30, whatever it was, then
you get, it was so tired, we get the late
afternoon nap and then you'd be screwed
into the night. Yeah. Keep the night out.
Oh, there were times where at noon, I
would take a 30 minute nap because I
wasn't going to make it. Yeah. And so
what happened was is as much as we were
loving those walks, we were not getting
enough sleep because we would have had to
go to bed by nine 30 10. We would have had to go to bed by nine 30 10.
Which is really challenging when you have
a teenager, our daughter still lives with
that. She lives with us since graduating
from college. She's great. I mean, she
has a job she she is on a schedule. But
and then my mom lives with us and she's
great. But when you have a lot of people
in the house, there's a lot of noises.
And so just saying, Okay, everything's
going to be quiet by nine or nine 30. And
then we can go to bed.
There's just too many variables. So,
we, we, I think the earliest we would get
to sleep was 11. Yeah. And that's just
not enough sleep. Not for me. It's not
enough sleep. So if you go back, complete
tangent there on both of our. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. The motivation, right? So you were
talking about your back. Yes. Getting in
the walking walking is basically no
impact, right? Right. I've ripped on
running. I probably need to dial that
back a bit because I would run if I
could. And it wasn't
so bad for your bone.
It's kind of that happy medium. So when
you think back to when we started into
where we are today, what do you think? I
think it's amazing. I think, I think we,
by walking, we walk an average, when we
are on our schedule, we walk at least
five days a week, Monday through Friday.
And then sometimes on the weekends, we'll
throw in a hike or a beach walk or beach
walk, something different, right?
By doing it as long as we've done it, we
have a base foundation of being in shape.
Yeah. Meaning, so we have something we
can bounce off of, which really paid off
for us. For example, we'd been walking
for maybe a year or so, almost a year.
And I've actually
been walking even longer.
Well, no, what I, what I was going to say
was we, we had been walking for about a
year when consistently together, when our
daughter had signed up for a 5k and we
decided to join her. And at first we were
going to just walk it. But you know, when
everyone takes off running, you get that
fever, you know, it's exciting. So we
ended up running the 5k, which actually I
felt fine, which I'm so grateful for.
But I think we were able to do it and not
have any issues and be able to make it
because we had the foundation of walking.
It just gets you in that level of in
shape that you can then bounce off of it
to do other things that maybe you
normally would have struggled at. If that
makes sense. We were both surprised.
We're like, wow. But I think it's because
of the walking. So, and we, we do a
fairly quick pace and we
keep going. Like we're walking.
So, Katie, we could go faster. It's about
a 17 to 18 minute per mile pace.
Yeah. I mean, well, you know, cause yeah,
you keep track of all that.
But I mean, we're walking.
And when it gets hotter, we slow down.
Yeah. So if we get in later into the day
where it's a little
warmer, we actually do go slower.
Yeah, that makes sense. That's like, it's
like hot yoga walking. I call it down
here. It's like doing it in a sauna. It's
like doing it in a sauna. So that's,
that's completely, has completely
different benefits. So,
and the nice thing about walking is to
get your lymphatic system moving. There's
so many positives to it.
So it's something we have continued to
do. We also don't have hills here. We
don't. A hill for us is crossing the
bridge. Yes. Or crossing a canal. Yes.
So it's a little different. I wish we did
because I love the challenge of going up
a hill. But no, it's very conducive for
walking where we live. It's very flat.
So do you want to share our recent
experience of walking home from a concert
around? Yeah. You know, we got out of a
concert looking for an Uber. Ubers were
stacked. We're like, let's keep going a
little further. A little further.
We saw Billy strings. Saw Billy strings
in State College and we had to walk back
from the concert venue to our hotel.
I think we wound up walking first night
was I think, I think it was about three
miles because we totally took the wrong
path. Yeah. We took the adventurous path.
Yes. The second night was a little
better. It was only
two miles. Okay. Yeah.
I thought it was two and a half, but no,
it was nice because there were hills too.
There were hills. Yeah. Those were nice.
But it was nice because, because we had
been walking and
because it's part of our life.
It was no big deal to walk home from this
concert and it was, it's, you know, state
colleges. So cool. You felt totally safe.
You walked through neighborhoods. You
know, it was all really, it was very
nice. It was very lovely. So again, I
think it's something that we will always
continue to do to kind of like how I
talked about in the last episode.
I want to be an active grandmother. I
want to be active in my older age and I
think walking is absolutely necessary for
that to happen. I don't, if I, if we
don't walk, I don't, I think just like
how alcohol negates any progress you
make. I think exercise wise walking has
to be our foundation and then other
things build off of that. Yeah. It's
imperative. Yeah. So.
So once you, what was
next say after walking?
So it's funny because it's the year of
2023 is when I did all these changes and
every month I tried to implement
something new and then I would spend the
month doing that thing. So it became a
habit. So in January was give up alcohol
became a habit. February started walking.
Well, you know, it's funny. It's once you
give up alcohol, now you have a menu of
options to choose from. Yeah. So now you
can go walking and not feel like shit,
right? You don't have the, you slept well
or better. Maybe not great, but you slept
better. Yeah. You don't have the
hangover. You don't have the weird sugar
shit going on. So now you're able to
actually walk and then do it and build up
that base. Kind of like you were talking
about. And then before you know it,
you're feeling pretty good about it.
Right. We actually did.
The hike we went on down in the
Everglades. Right. We saw those
alligators and stuff. Yeah. 13 mile hike.
Yeah. We've never thought we would do
that. No. That was pretty good. We were
it was you could feel it. But overall,
you could feel it because again, you're
walking in a sauna and a human sauna with
bugs and sun, not a whole lot of shade,
but overall it felt great. Yeah.
I would say the last two miles I
struggled. That was rough. I talked
myself through it because I think you
thought it was an 11 mile hike and then
we realized towards the end, oh, it's
actually a 13 mile hike. Well, we did the
typical thing, kind of like walking home
from Billy strings. It's like, let's get
away from the Ubers. Let's get away from
the crowd. Then it's like, well, shit,
let's just walk home. Right. We were
like, okay, let's just go see where we
get. And then it was like, I think I
remember the
conversation. We're like, okay.
We're at this point. We either go back
and it's kind of chill or we push it.
Right. We're at that mid point. Yeah. A
little, we can go a little further. We
went for it and it got a little
exponential. It was a little rough. It
was great. But the end. Yeah. And you had
that walk in nice walking stick and I use
that. I actually had never thought I
would use a walking
stick in my life. I used it.
Redwood one.
Whatever one I gave you for Christmas.
Anyway, so then in March, I focused on
supplementation, really getting using
supplements in my life. And I would say
the first one I focused on, which is so
important is D3 with K2.
Um, that was K2.
So K2, I have these notes here, so I, I
wanted it so I didn't forget anything. So
I wrote some stuff down. Um, so D3 with
K2, the general benefits are D3 helps in
the absorption of calcium and K2 helps
direct the calcium from your soft tissue
towards your bones.
So they work together.
That makes sense. K2 helps with the
absorption of D3. They say if you're
going to take D3, you need to take K2
with to help with the absorption. I
prefer a liquid form. It's in like an MCT
oil omega three base. I do
a dropper under my tongue.
So it's got a carrier. Yeah. Carrier oil.
Right. Yeah. So I do that. Um, when
you're depleted of vitamin D3, it can...
Is D3 the same as sitting out and getting
sun? It is. It's like, cause vitamin D
was highly recommended during COVID,
right? Yes. And so it's the same. It is.
It is. Now you're combining it with K.
For the absorption. When you take it in
supplement. Yeah. When you say when you
take it in supplement form. But D3, um,
it affects your immune system, um, your
hormone function. It affects your general
wellbeing as far as energy.
Um, it just, it does a lot, it does a lot
of good stuff. Immune contributors too.
Yes. Immune boosters.
It's actually a hormone.
D3 is? D3 is. When I get my blood work
done every six months because I have
thyroid disease, Hashimoto's disease. And
that is one of the things in my blood
work they always test. Is my D3.
I know for a woman, it's very important
to have your D3 levels, right? It's
people don't understand it. I think it
can even affect your metabolism. I'm not
sure. Probably. Don't
quote me on that. But...
Well, again, during COVID our doctor
friends and our medical community friends
were, everyone was touting vitamin D.
Yeah. You know, and it was conspiracy
level stuff, right? It's like you need to
take the, you need to get the, the, uh,
the hell is it? Immunization. What is it?
Vaccine. The vaccine. Uh, you need to get
the vaccine. In other words, we're saying
you need to get vitamin D and it's going
to come out. There's going to be a whole
body of evidence. Right.
No, I think vitamin D3 is get your levels
checked for anyone that's listening that
has never gotten their levels checked.
Get your D3 levels checked. The next
thing I added in was B12 and a B combo.
Um, especially as a woman, those are very
important. B12, especially for energy.
Um, it's good for your neurotransmitters.
Um, it helps with forming red blood cells
and a lot of other good stuff. So, and I
take that in liquid form too. I take both
of those four hours after I take my
thyroid medicine. So when I wake up, I
take my thyroid medicine. You're supposed
to wait 30 to 45 minutes after to eat or
drink anything. But if you take
supplements, you need to wait four hours
before you do that. So I actually pay
attention to the time
I take my thyroid meds.
And then I do my D3 and my
B's four hours after that.
And this whole thyroid thing is another
episode. Just a huge
body of knowledge there.
Yes. That's a whole thing. We'll
definitely do that. And then I take
turmeric for inflammation, especially
with my back, but in general.
I use that in my yogurt.
Yeah. You use, you do the
powder. I do a supplement.
Yeah.
I know it's important if you do the
powder, like the spice, basically is what
you're doing is to also put black pepper
with it because in order for turmeric to
do its thing, you need the, what is that
ingredient for black pepper?
Curcumin.
Yeah. Yeah. You need to have like that.
No, no, I've seen that.
I've seen that everywhere.
It's not, I don't
think pepper is curcumin.
Whatever it is, they need to go together.
So they say, if you use the spice and
you're trying to get those benefits, make
sure you use black pepper.
And then I take, we take magnesium. I get
the calm one and in the powder
form. And I like to mix that.
We do that at night to help with sleep,
but also to help with magnesium helps
with so many amazing things.
But magnesium is like the master
facilitator. And it's that
way in plants too, actually.
When you, it is magnesium. When you look
at a plant that may not be, maybe has
yellow spots or isn't green magnesium and
calcium, Cal-Mac,
you'll see Cal-Mac as a mix.
Right.
Very common, especially in hydroponics.
That's interesting.
It's the master facilitator, basically.
Well, I know like my muscles feel better.
This helps so much with sleep. It helps
with, you know, if you're,
it helps keep you regular.
But I like to take a little bit of tart
cherry juice, like a
little bit like, I like a lot.
No, but you're not supposed to. I know.
I understand. But so, I mean, maybe I
don't even know if it's a fourth a cup
and then put the magnesium in there and
it dissolves and we drink that.
Our daughter enjoys that too. So we, and
then if I'm out of tart cherry juice, I
mix it with water. It's totally fine.
That's actually the sleep elixir.
Yeah.
And it's proven their scientific studies
and whatnot on magnesium alone and
magnesium with the tart cherry juice.
Yeah.
It works better. It's exponential.
Oh, I believe it. And then I also
sometimes do a cranberry supplement to
help with vaginal health.
But that's good for women to take a
cranberry because, you know, if you drink
cranberry juice, that's also good for
vaginal health, but they
have cranberry supplements.
I'll do that. And then I'll do probiotics
sometimes in pill form.
And but then the collagen I take, I put
in my coffee or my tea
that has probiotics in it.
So it depends if I'm getting it from the
collagen or I'll do it.
We need to find a new collagen because I
like the collagen, but it definitely that
the one we have messes with my stomach.
See, I like that one. I think the other
one is you're fine with.
And then that's and then I do the
collagen also for the gut health, the
probiotics and the collagen.
But those are the main
ones that I stick with.
I cycle sometimes, like I said, sometimes
you do the cranberry.
Sometimes I don't. I've done.
I always say this one wrong.
Reverse the troll. Reverse the troll.
Resveratrol.
Resveratrol. I've done
that. I've done the beat.
The berbering.
Well, I've done the berbering sometimes.
What's the other one? The
beat? The beat root one.
Oh, yeah. Beat root.
So and then I do DHA
EPA. That's like a fish oil.
I do that one.
We're actually we look
like a minor pharmacy.
So you know how you can get those clear
plastic containers for organizing.
We have two of those on our counter and
it's filled because sometimes I can just
sometimes I do black seed oil
because they say that can
cure anything except death.
Sometimes I'll just take
a scoop of the parasite.
No, but sometimes so
that's a whole nother thing.
But I have my parasite droppers in there.
Sometimes I do the I take
a scoop of Manuka honey.
That's good. It is.
But just a little bit.
So it depends like all dabble with the
different things in our
supplement containers.
But there's ones that I always do. And
that's the D3 and the bees and the
turmeric and the DHA.
Those are the ones I stick with.
You know what I would say?
And the magnesium.
With all the things that you're doing, it
impacts different people differently.
And it's worth experimenting.
Some people like I'm into
the resveratrol and berbering.
Some people think it's foolish.
It's fool's gold.
Others are completely supportive of it.
There's scientific data that supports it.
But everything you just described, I
think, is excellent.
But you don't you try if it doesn't seem
to work or if it creates say
digestion, digestional issues.
You move on.
So just a disclaimer.
We're not medical professionals and this
is not advice for anybody.
This is what our experience is.
And yes, like you're
saying, what has worked for me.
And again, if I have digestive issues for
maybe taking too many
supplements, I'll back off.
Yeah.
It's just like trying things out.
You know, so.
But I notice a difference when I don't
take my supplements versus when I do.
Yeah.
When when you know, one huge thing in all
of this is staying hydrated.
Yes.
Huge.
Huge.
What's your you know, we do the pre
hydration for our son.
He plays competitive lacrosse.
It's hot in Florida.
You need to hydrate.
Yeah.
So we'll use pre hydration for him.
But for you, you're you
know, what's your strategy there?
OK, so the first thing I do is well,
first of all, it's been amazing being
actually hydrated
since giving up alcohol.
That's I can say I can actually feel what
hydration feels like when I wake up after
I take my thyroid medication.
I put maybe five granules of Celtic sea
salt under my tongue, maybe six because
then I take my Stanley or we have
Stanley's and Stanley dupe.
So I don't want to sound
like Stanley, you know, brand.
But right now I have my Stanley amusing
and I drink at least half of that.
So I think that's 40 ounces in the full
Stanley or 48 ounces.
It's a lot.
I don't know if it's more like maybe.
I think it's 32.
I don't know.
I have to look.
But I thought it was 40.
I think it's 40.
Either way, I drink at
least half of that after that.
I let the Celtic sea salt dissolve under
my tongue because that is minerals.
So and that you've
been sleeping all night.
So your body's depleted
of minerals and water.
So I put the minerals under my tongue.
I let them dissolve.
And then I drink at
least half of that Stanley.
So I try to drink at least
two of those sandals a day.
I don't always get to it.
If I exercise outside
easily, I easily drink too.
And sometimes sometimes well, I'm also
well, no, I'm not done.
So when I make my Stanley, I always have
either lemon juice or lime juice in the
water.
I always have a citrus in there.
Just a just a just a
dash, not like a ton.
So that's my water base.
And then after I've waited the 30 to 45
minutes after my thyroid meds,
I make celery juice and make
celery juice every morning.
I learned that from the medical medium.
Look him up.
He's amazing.
Anthony Williams.
And so I make each of us, I think we
drink 16 ounces each is what it works out
to.
So the celery juice is super hydrating.
Um, I like it so good for your body.
Actually.
There's so many, so many pop.
Look it up.
If anyone listening, there's so many
positives, the celery juice.
You could do a whole episode on that.
It's so good for your gut health.
Oh my gosh.
He's good to actually, like I
say to me, it's like a treat.
It's a non glucose, uh, creating drink.
Really?
Yeah.
Well, and it, again, another thing to
keep your regular mess with your sugar at
all.
No, not at all.
And it keeps you regular.
Um, it's they say it
helps with parasites.
There's so many benefits to it.
So I do that.
Then I make us the, um, olive oil, lemon
juice, cayenne shot.
We have that about 15 minutes later.
Cayenne is super good for your body.
So is olive oil, lemon juice.
Obviously that's, it's
really good for bloating.
Um, so we do that.
And then I will have, I have one cup of
coffee, but I don't drink my coffee
until I've had protein.
I don't know how you do that.
Well, just for my gut, I just
can't, it's not good for you.
At least for women's that
can raise your cortisol levels.
I only have one cup of coffee because I
don't handle caffeine very well.
So I, um, I have some sort of protein.
I try to have at least 30 grams of
protein for breakfast.
So I, I, um, make that and I eat like at
least a quarter of that.
Then I can start drinking my coffee and I
have my coffee with that breakfast.
That's the only caffeine I drink.
And then through the
day, I'll have dandelion.
Is that new for you though?
You seem to have gotten back into that.
You actually, it feels like you gave up
caffeine for awhile.
So I'm a, um, maybe addicted to caffeine
or just doesn't have as much of an
impact to me, but, um, it seems that
you've just recently
got back into caffeine.
I gave up caffeine for years because my
cortisol levels were off the charts.
So to bring them
down, I gave up caffeine.
But do you think that was in play at all
or just kind of, yeah, yeah,
because I felt a lot better, but I know
having a little bit of caffeine is
actually good for you.
It's a little bit so,
and it does help me stay.
Alert and awake the rest of the day, you
know, it takes that.
It shakes off the sleepies, I guess.
So I have that, but then throughout the
day, I have dandelion,
at least one cup of dandelion root tea,
hot tea, and I have at least a cup of,
um, mint hot tea to help with bloating.
And then the green tea,
and then I have that's decaf.
So then I'll have a cup of hot decaf.
So I'm having three hot teas a day
minimum decaf green tea,
the mint and dandelion.
I'm drinking my Stan Lee's.
I've had the celery juice.
And then in the evening, if I'm feeling
like I want a glass of wine or
something, but I'm not going to, I'll
have some club soda in a wine glass
with a splash of pineapple or a splash of
pomegranate or a splash of
grapefruit and lime.
So that's another hydrating, uh, thing,
you know, so I feel hydrated by the
time I go to bed.
Oh, there was our dog,
our dog's in your shick.
Uh, by the time I go to bed, I feel like
I've completely hydrated myself.
And I noticed when I, like when we were
traveling last weekend and I was not
nearly as hydrated, I can feel it.
I can so feel it when I'm not hydrated.
That's one of the first stops, right?
Was to the, I think it was CVS.
I actually bought the
gallon jug of water.
Then we bought the individual bottles.
Yeah.
Yep, exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that was, but you still can't stay
super hydrated even on when you
vacation, it just not as
hydrated as you do at home.
No, it's not as conducive.
It's hard, especially if you're drinking.
So as we talked about in the last
episode, sometimes we do drink alcohol
depending on what's going on.
And last weekend was one of the times
where we drank some alcohol.
So that was dehydrating for us.
Yeah.
Yeah, I would say so.
Yeah.
Once, once you got the, the walks down
all this supplementation in place,
all that stuff going on, what, what other
exercise did you add in?
So I added in weightlifting, which is
especially since I've hit menopause.
It's so important.
I feel like it's the most important
exercise I should be doing even more
than walking.
So I'm really trying to focus on that.
You know, quick side note today at the
gym, Nathan and I were talking and the
guy next to us heard
us and said something.
Yeah.
He's 75 years old.
Wow.
He's been lifting weights for 54 years.
He said, wow.
Yeah.
And I looked at him
and was like, holy shit.
Yeah.
Really good.
Yeah.
No, it's, it's so important for you too.
Yeah.
It's so important as we're getting older
to try to hold on to some muscles.
Yeah.
So I'm doing that three times a week.
Um, and then on the other two days, I
tried to do weightlifting Monday,
Wednesday, Friday, and then on Tuesday,
Thursday, I do Pilates.
There's, um, I love Pilates.
So I actually, I do the weights at home
because we have, you set up like a
little outdoor gym and our backyard.
And then I do Pilates in our room.
I have a yoga mat and I
use move, move by Nicole.
I think it's moved by
Nicole or move with Nicole.
She's awesome.
She does Pilates.
She does yoga.
She's so challenging.
She has all it's on YouTube.
I can't stand it because I can't do it.
Some of the positions
they get into and stuff.
I just can't do it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I love it.
I really want to
incorporate yoga back in.
I would love to.
I used to do yoga.
I'm one of my good friends teaches yoga.
I love hot yoga.
So that's my next thing is to try to get
yoga back in back in the repertoire.
So, and at least do it
like once or twice a month.
I'd love to do it every week.
And then of course, hiking on the
weekends and walking
on the beach, all that.
But weightlifting is something
I'm really trying to focus on.
What, uh, what do you think are the, how
are you staying with it?
Right.
I know kind of how I do.
I know it can be challenging, especially
when you travel for a little while.
And we just had a huge travel snafu.
Um, took us 48 hours to get home.
Yes.
Multiple airports driving 800 miles.
So that just kind of messed with us.
Right.
And so, um, I think that's all.
How do you, what's your strategy for
sticking with all this sticking with
your, your nutrition?
You're not drinking.
Your supplementation.
Your weightlifting the walking.
It's all, it takes commitment.
It takes commitment.
Um, and I struggle with it once we leave
our home and our schedule.
So the consistency play consistency,
consistency, consistency.
Um, I've already mentioned things I do in
the morning as far as the cell
reduced to olive oil shots, eating, I'm
trying to get protein.
All it's hard to get
enough protein through the day.
I'm trying so hard.
So I'm really trying to focus because
that has helped so much with, you know,
not being so hungry
and just building muscle.
So protein.
Um, and then I really try to focus on gut
health because if my gut feels good
and not my brain feels
good and I feel good.
So anything that can help my gut health,
Thank you So much for making this lecture today.
And we eat a lot of berries.
I buy frozen berries at
Costco because fresh berries,
first of all are so expensive right now
and they just don't last as long.
So we have blue wild blueberries, make
sure they're wild and, um,
an organic strawberries frozen.
We make a boy grow our own strawberries
in the hydroponic
garden, you grow strawberries.
So we have berries.
I went dairy free pretty
much a couple months ago.
I've been gluten free for, oh gosh,
maybe six or seven, eight
years, but going dairy free.
That seems to be probably
the more recent thing, right?
Very recent, like I go last free.
Maybe a more, maybe what,
last three to six months?
Not even, maybe three months.
Maybe less, yeah.
Lactose free, so I'll have
dairy free cottage cheese,
dairy free yogurt,
dairy free cream cheese.
And I just avoid cheese.
I have lactose free.
Lactose free, I should
say, lactose free milk.
It's an interesting concept.
I know a lot of people are not
necessarily lactose.
There's some that are
lactose intolerant, right?
Then there's some lactose sensitive.
And maybe just in general,
like I would love to go lactose free
just because it
doesn't seem totally natural,
maybe creates extra phlegm and mucus
in your body type of thing.
Have you noticed, like what's your
motivation, I guess?
What's, why, how's it working?
I noticed a huge difference in my gut.
It's much less bloating and gut issues.
And I mean, I guess with the phlegm
and so I never really
noticed that with me,
but it was for me, it was gut.
So I saw a study and I
haven't gone back to research it,
but they said if you put
gluten under a microscope
and if you put dairy, like the cells,
it sells the dairy and cells of gluten,
if I'm saying this correctly.
Are they similar?
They're almost identical.
So if your body reacts to gluten,
it could very easily also react to dairy
because it can't
necessarily tell the difference.
So I just loved, I love cheese so much.
So I took me and I love ice cream.
So it took me a long time to get there,
but it got to the point where I'm like,
okay, I've tried everything, I have to.
So even when we go get ice cream,
like when you're craving
Ben and Jerry's or something,
I'll get the Oatly one.
No, that's the recent find.
Yeah, and then Ben and Jerry's
also makes a lactose free cherry Garcia
and a couple other flavors.
And I'll tell you, I
noticed the difference.
Like I don't feel, it just
made me feel like crap honestly.
So I don't feel that way,
but I really don't need a lot of grains,
like very few grains.
I'll have, maybe if I have a grain,
that's the grain I had for the day.
I try to have a lot of protein sources.
I buy a lot of stuff
at Costco, chomps, none.
Real quick, if you go back to grains,
what are you considering a grain?
Right.
Not that you're
considering, it's a real, you know.
Bread, rice.
Yeah, even gluten free bread, grains.
Yeah, no, just no grains.
I can't do corn, my gut reacts to corn.
So no popcorn.
You seem to be able to do popcorn.
No, I have a reaction.
Meaning when I say reaction,
meaning I have gut issues the next time.
I'm blown up like a
balloon and I've got issues.
So if I'm gonna eat, like
I like to make popcorn here
for our family, I
know, okay, I'm eating this
and I know I'm gonna
feel like crap from it.
Like it's conscious.
You're so dialed in in a sense.
And I can relate to that when
we're home and we're eating,
our diets are pretty limited.
We're pretty, not necessarily
strict, but just what works.
And then you leave town or
you leave town or you splurge
and you wind up feeling like shit.
Yes, it sucks.
Yeah, it does suck.
It sucks, because I wish I could feel
as good as I feel at home.
Yeah, totally.
On vacation.
There's gotta be a
way, but it's just not.
Well, I know there's
people, okay, so we drank
and it's hard not to drink on vacation
because you're on vacation.
So you're like, and you're doing things,
but that right away, that
right away affects everything.
I know like we
brought our exercise stuff,
but we didn't go to the
gym, we didn't work out.
That would have helped.
And then we indulged in different foods,
but I mean, like we went to a bagel shop
that makes homemade bagels
and they had homemade gluten-free bagels.
I'm gonna have one.
And so it's just that,
so I ate a lot of grains.
In some ways, the
problem is we're foodies.
If we're vacationing, yeah, we love food.
So you get out of market,
you get out of your normal zone
and we found this awesome bagel shop
that people recommended
and it was just amazing.
So good.
And the creamery, the
Penn State University
is known for their creamery.
It's very good ice cream.
It's hard not to go for it.
And then we went to
another place, was at Pickles
and they had gluten-free beer.
I never get to drink a beer, a
gluten-free beer in a bar.
I never get to drink a beer in a bar.
So I'm having a beer.
So it's all those little choices.
I don't think I did.
Actually, I didn't drink.
In that bar?
Yeah, I didn't.
And only mainly
because the beer selection
wasn't enough to entice me.
Where you're it's like, you know,
oh, you have a gluten-free IPA?
I'm happy.
And then when we went to
that Happy Valley brewery,
they had a gluten-free IPA.
So we enjoyed.
So we eat very limited and clean at home,
but when we vacation, we enjoy.
So, and I really didn't feel horrible
until like the last day.
We also got delayed for 48 hours.
That didn't help.
But here at home, we eat pretty limited.
We eat a lot of the same food.
And it's just making
sure to get enough protein.
I don't eat a lot of
cookies and cakes and candy.
If I do that, that's
like a special thing.
Like I'm like, okay,
so today I'm doing that.
I don't do it again
for like another month.
So even when I have chips,
I have grain-free chips in the house.
I get almost everything at Costco.
Costco has such a great selection
of organic and gluten-free food now.
Do any of our local pizza joints,
regulars have lactose-free cheese?
Probably not.
No, but you know who
does is mellow mushroom.
Oh, interesting.
So yeah, and they're
in the next town over.
I've thought about,
they have a gluten-free,
they have a vegan pizza basically,
gluten-free, dairy-free.
I wanna try it.
Cause I love pizza,
but I feel like crowds.
I'll get the gluten and the lactose.
Yeah, balance out.
But even on a vacation,
I think what helped is
we ate a lot of protein and vegetables.
I don't know, I wanna get better at that.
I wanna work out on vacation.
I want to just, I feel like again,
it was towards the end
that we kind of lost control.
We did good the first few days
and then we kind of lost control.
So it's habit, it's just--
Well, that's part of the challenge of
eating shitty, right?
Once you eat shitty,
it's a snowball effect.
You need the next shitty food
to make you feel a little bit better.
Just like drinking, you have a drink.
You wanna keep getting your
sugar back to where it was,
your buzz back to where it was.
Food's the same cycle.
100%.
So like here at home
where it's controlled,
it's not as much of an issue,
but once we leave our safe little space,
it's more of a challenge.
So I would say that's our next thing
is when we leave home,
maintaining our healthy choices.
So, you know.
Speaking of say what's next
or next challenge when
we're away from home,
what about while we're here?
Do you have any big plans for where
you're taking this thing
next?
Because I go along for the ride.
I know, I know.
I like it.
Well, some of the other
things I've implemented
are I love lymphatic massage.
I'm a big proponent of lymphatic massage.
It's a wonderful detox.
It brings down inflammation.
It's just so good for you.
So I try to do a lymphatic,
go get a lymphatic massage once a month.
I do dry brushing,
which is very similar to
getting a lymphatic massage.
And I know you're not as quite into this.
I'll show the camera.
But it's where you brush your body.
Feels like witchcraft to me.
Feels like a gimmick.
I know, but it's not.
You're moving your lymphatic system.
Your detoxing your body.
So yeah, and then I just
find it makes a huge difference
for me mentally and physically.
I stopped using AirPods about a year ago
to cut down on EMFs.
That's, I noticed a different,
like my ears would hurt my brain.
I don't know, it just...
Well, like I think we talked about that
in the last episode and
they do have those counter wave
signals, that's how
they're noise reducing.
And the way that you reduce the noise
is you emit an
electrical signal that falls.
Yeah, so that's, I don't know,
I'd like to, I need to
get wired ones for our son
cause he still uses
them, but that's been good.
You know, these babies are in fashion.
I know, but they're wireless.
So it's still the same.
These aren't?
No, these are not,
but the ones that like,
that the kids wear are still wireless.
The beats.
Well, they're not even beats anymore.
I mean, they have beats,
but not the ones our daughter has.
Hers are Sony's.
Sony's, that's right.
And then we started
incorporating cold plunging,
which has been phenomenal.
Phenomenal, the
benefits of cold plunging.
I go in for four minutes.
Cause I think three to six
minutes is the sweet spot.
Now we're in Florida,
so our blood is thinner.
And it's true, we get cold much easier.
So right now I think the
coldest we've done is 68.
You've done colder.
The coldest I've done is 68.
I got it to 62 degrees
and I was in for 15 minutes.
You go for a long time too.
It's amazing.
I love it.
Like we talked about in the last episode,
cold plunging is one of the only things
other than alcohol
that's quiet your mind.
Yeah.
So I get why you stay in.
I sound so bad.
You either need to drink or cold plunge.
I think it's for you,
your mind is always going.
It's never not going.
I think for me, like I
didn't think we talked about this,
but I get in there and I breathe
and I focus on the breathing.
And then eventually you
hit that nirvana state
and it's very peaceful
and the pain is gone.
Like the pain, not some deep rooted
psychological thing.
It's the pain of the cold.
Yeah.
The pain of the cold is
gone and it's now tolerable
and it's invigorating.
You get out and it's like, oh my God.
I get four minutes and I'm good.
So what I do is I
light my lavender candle.
I try to set it up like a
spy, like my lavender candle.
I have spa music playing on my phone.
I set the timer and
for those four minutes,
I just breathe and I
wait for the beep to go off.
I don't wanna stay in
longer, but I feel amazing.
I feel amazing.
You know, it's funny.
I was talking to my
buddy about the cold plunge
and I found this, it
was the Amazon days deal.
I think it was 85 bucks
for this big 127 gallon
inflatable tub.
Yeah.
And it's a nice way to get into it.
I can even post the
link just to see, you know,
and it gets expensive.
You gotta use the ice and
that does not scale at all.
And it's very expensive over time.
But this way, if you
find that you build a habit,
then you can invest
in something different,
which is what we're gonna do next.
Apparently that's what you wanna do next.
And build out our chest freezer.
We're gonna do a DIY chest freezer.
Maybe we'll make a video on that.
Yeah, for the YouTube channel.
That's a good idea.
And then you know what
I want is I want sauna.
So that's the next thing I
wanna start looking into.
The infrared sauna.
Either infrared or what's the other one,
finished sauna, they
call it or something.
It's worth the heat.
So I'm open to both.
So the cold plunge has been phenomenal.
I mainly just try to keep
my cortisol levels down.
I try to not, like I don't
listen to true crime anymore
because that's very low vibe.
I try to not absorb a
lot of low vibe stuff,
like the stuff I'm watching.
It's hard on social media.
Is low vibe the new way
of saying like negative?
Yeah, probably.
Like when you internalize it,
it just kind of brings everything down.
Setting boundaries, protecting
my space, that type of stuff.
That's all been really
helpful mentally and physically.
And so that's been important.
I also have started doing the breathing.
I told you about Gary Brekke.
He talks about this
breathing where you breathe
30 breaths, three times,
three sets of 30 breaths.
And if you do it first
thing in the morning,
it just changes your day.
And I just started doing that.
That's been crazy.
You feel high.
Is that the thing you were talking about?
You go outside and look into the sun?
Yeah, you don't look in the sun,
but you get sunlight in your eyes.
Or face the sun, whatever, yeah.
You just get sunlight in
your eyes for about 15 minutes
because it helps regulate when your
body's gonna set off.
Have you started it or you want to do it?
I haven't done the outside one yet.
I've done it like laying in
bed before I get out of bed.
I've tried to do the 30 breaths.
And that alone has been amazing.
You feel high, like
you literally feel high.
And it's very calming.
I don't know what that feels like.
Yeah, so, but now, next week,
I'm gonna start going
outside and getting,
because if you let sunlight
in your eyes in the morning,
the theory is, then your body
knows when to start releasing
its natural melatonin that evening.
Some biological lock type of thing.
Yes, which is my biggest challenge.
The one area that I have
yet to find any success in,
well, I found some success,
but I still am highly
challenged in sleep.
Yeah, I was just thinking about that.
And sleep is so important.
The nice thing for me is
as we come out of summer
and get into the school year,
everybody else is kind
of back into my schedule,
which is try to go to bed
early and wake up early.
Yes.
Now that school's in, our youngest,
he's gonna be in bed
earlier, just by default.
He's gonna be too tired.
Gotta get up at the crack of dawn.
So it's a wonderful thing.
So now we almost, to me, I love summer,
but not as much as you guys,
because the shit doesn't change, really.
Right, yeah, no, it'll be nice
to have more of a
regulated schedule, for sure.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
We can start walking
again in the morning.
Well, we have been walking,
it's just we can walk earlier,
because we were walking around 9, 9.30.
Now we can get back to
an early walk, not 5 a.m.
We stopped that.
What we would do is do more of a,
when I got back from
dropping him off from school,
we'd do like an eight o'clock walk.
Yeah.
So it'd be nice to try to
get to a seven o'clock walk,
but we'll see.
So yeah, it's just
sleep, getting that sleep.
Now I am getting deeper sleep,
because I take the
magnesium and I take progesterone,
because since menopause,
I am doing hormone replacement therapy.
So I do have an estrogen patch,
I think it's called
estradiol or something patch.
And I do a testosterone cream at night,
and I take progesterone,
and the progesterone has been amazing.
What's amazing is listening to this.
Yeah.
You're doing a lot of
different things, progesterone.
You described your hydration strategy
around the Celtic salt and
the water and the green tea
and all the supplements.
Yes.
It sounds kind of crazy,
but at the end of the day,
it's actually working very well for you.
I think you've, between the back stuff
and then you've got a
new lease on life, I think.
Would you say you feel better now than
you have in a while?
Absolutely.
Right?
Absolutely.
I felt like when my 40s, in my early 40s,
I got diagnosed with thyroid Hashimoto's,
and then I hit
perimenopause without realizing it.
And so I did not deal
with any of the symptoms
of perimenopause, which
is weight gain, bloating,
your brain's foggy,
your hormones are great.
There's so many symptoms, right?
Can't sleep, all that.
So I just kind of
suffered through my 40s.
We had a baby, we had a middle schooler,
we had a high schooler, then we had,
they grew into
elementary, high school, college.
There was a lot going on.
I feel like when I turned 50,
I could finally look at myself again,
and it was almost like
putting Humpty Dumpty
back together again.
Like my body and my mind, not my mind,
like I went crazy, but
because my body kind of fell apart
in my 40s, it affects your mental health
as far as how good you
feel about yourself, right?
Plus with the menopause
and the thyroid disease,
everything, it does affect you mentally.
So when I started focusing on my health
in my, when I was 50, 51,
that was, it's all these pieces.
And I like to use
both traditional medicine
and holistic medicine.
I use both.
So yes, I do take medication.
I take medication for my thyroid disease.
I am on hormone replacement therapy.
I do take metformin
for insulin resistance.
So--
I think I'm more holistic.
I don't take anything.
Well, you haven't needed to, right?
If I take an Advil, it fixes,
if I have back pain or any pain,
I take it so seldom that it's like--
Yeah, I don't take any of that.
I only take something like that.
Yeah, well, you and I
never use those at all.
But for me, maybe because I'm a woman,
I don't have hormone issues going into
menopause this year,
thyroid disease, all that.
For me, I needed the
traditional medicine,
the traditional medications,
and then I combine it with holistic
living, supplements,
and everything that goes with that.
I'm in a lymphatic massage, cold plunges.
So I kind of meld them,
but if I didn't do that,
I don't know where I'd be right now.
I would feel 80 years old
right now at the age of 53.
I feel younger at 53 than I did at 45.
And I think that's part of,
that's one of the
motivations of doing this whole podcast
and talking and putting this
stuff out in the public domain,
at least for you, I think in terms of,
you've mentioned on
more than one occasion,
it's like, I wish I knew
some of this stuff beforehand.
And I'd love to be able
to share it with people
now that I've
discovered it and feel better.
Absolutely, especially women.
I think that there's many women
that have undiagnosed thyroid disease,
and there's so many symptoms from that,
depression, anxiety, you
feel like you're going crazy,
fogginess in your mind.
Do you still have the brain fog?
No. Doesn't seem like it, right?
No. No, no.
There's a period where
it's like, what are we doing?
And there's like, I don't know.
Yeah.
And you would write everything down.
Yes, yeah, no. It's all gone.
It is gone. You're not really
doing that anymore. No, it's gone.
It's an amazing thing.
I mean, I do keep lists.
Yeah, yeah, but not the,
it's almost like the,
more like the stoners,
short-term memory thing.
No, it's, yeah, and you feel nuts.
And I still have those
moments where I walk into a room
and I can't remember why,
but I think a lot of people do.
No, I, it's all gone.
That's what I say. It's all gone.
Everything you described,
I've lived it to see it.
And if I wasn't and I'm listening,
I might be like, this is a little wonky,
but it's working.
It's an amazing thing, actually.
No, you've been my husband through this.
I mean, you, when I
popped up pregnant with Dylan,
I was older, I was 38, I had him at 39.
And then I got the thyroid disease
and things kind of just went crazy for me
for those 10, my 40s were crazy.
Because we were also drinking a lot.
So I was doing nothing to help myself.
So I feel like my 50s, I've
thoroughly enjoyed so far.
And I feel like I've
been able to focus on myself
and it's a self-care decade for me.
It's a self-care decade.
And every time there's
something new about my health,
my wellbeing, I'm
wanting to grab onto it,
hold onto it.
But what's funny is when
I don't do these things,
I feel it instantly.
Like I'll say to you, I'm like,
I need to get a lymphatic massage.
And I know it sounds very like bougie,
like I need to go get a massage.
That's not what I'm saying. Quite bougie.
I'm saying I need to go
get a lymphatic massage.
And then it almost is like
going and getting a tune up.
And then I'm like, okay,
my body just needs that help
to keep young, I guess,
or to keep functioning.
So I don't know, it's hard to explain,
but when we were on vacation last weekend
towards the end of the vacation,
I was starting to
like, I think I told you,
because you know better than anyone,
if I push myself too hard
and don't take care of myself,
or don't get enough sleep,
or there's too much stress,
I'll have a flare up, a thyroid flare up.
And what happens in those
situations is I'm in bed
for the day and the night.
I'm punched out.
Yeah, this whole
conversation we're having
just reminds me of how
debilitating it all was
and how far you've come
in terms of your health.
And even the Billy Strings
walk, we call it the walk,
because we did have a
couple of cocktails,
we were having fun.
And we made it home and
we fist bumped each other.
We're like, all right, we made it home
because we walked
three miles the first night
up and down the hills
when we did it, no problem.
We did it, no problem.
And I was like, shit, we
could have gone another,
we could double that, no problem.
Yeah, but 10 years ago, I
wouldn't have been able to do it.
And there were times in my early 40s
where I was down for the count
for a couple of days with the flare up.
I would be telling
you, I have to go lay down
because when you are having a flare up
and it's different for different people,
I think some people feel
sick, like they have the flu.
For me, it's, I can't move.
Like if a truck ran over
me, hit me ran over me,
that's how I feel.
I can't move.
I am done.
And it's not a choice.
So, and that doesn't
work when you're the mom
and you're running the show.
It just doesn't work for the family.
So yeah, it's rare I have a flare up now.
But see, I also know
when I'll say to you,
okay, I can't do this, I'm
gonna end up in a flare up.
And thankfully, you've
been very supportive.
You never through all of this,
never made me feel
like I was a hypochondriac
or that I'm making stuff up.
I know you love me.
Or that, even when
things sounded crazy to you,
you were like, okay, give
it a shot, see what happens.
Sometimes you just can't
say the quiet part out loud.
Just gotta roll with it.
You're always very supportive.
I mean, my gosh, I went to
a chiropractor for my back,
which is a whole nother thing.
I remember that conversation.
Yeah, and you did not
believe in that at all.
And that's been absolutely life changing.
Well, the price tag's
like, okay, here's the,
(mimics music)
Cha-ching, what do you think?
Right.
But it worked.
Thank God you were supportive.
It worked.
It worked.
And that's a whole nother conversation.
But while I have the best
chiropractor in the world,
I think he's amazing.
So that was life changing, but--
We need to have him on sometimes.
I do wanna have him on.
Because he's a, I've never met him,
but from what you told me about him,
he sounds like an interesting guy.
He's amazing.
Dr. Fanno, focused spine
and wellness and bocoratone.
Go to him, he is a healer.
He's amazing.
And his staff is amazing.
The best office staff ever.
So--
I hate doing the endorsement sometimes
because now you may get
stuck in a line to get in, right?
Oh, I know.
Same with Billy Strings.
I don't wanna say too much about Billy
because we're late to the bus.
I hate to have the bus blow up.
I can't get any more seats.
Gotta share the goodness.
So, but yeah, so it's been
an interesting evolution,
but it's like I said,
putting Humpty Dumpty
back together again,
it's been puzzle pieces
and it takes all the pieces
for my puzzle to be complete.
And if I don't have some
of the pieces, I feel it.
It's very strange.
Like if we were going to go anywhere
for any length of time, I
would have to pack supplements.
I didn't for this trip
because it was supposed to
be short until we got delayed.
But last summer when we were
on the road for three weeks,
we had three weeks
worth of supplements with us
and we had the
magnesium with us and all of it.
I brought bands with us.
Yeah, to exercise.
So, and that's the consistency.
That's the commitment.
I think when you're older
and you go through a period
of not being yourself and not feeling
like yourself anymore,
and then you start to
feel like yourself again
and almost recognize
yourself again in the mirror
and can do some of the things
that you weren't able to do for a while,
you don't wanna lose that.
You grasp onto that and you're like,
I'm never letting this go again.
Because I wanna live
for another 40, 50 years
and I wanna be active.
Oh, it's funny you say that
because not that I'm some power lifter,
but once you start lifting
and once you start exercising regularly,
your hormones change, right?
Your endorphins kick in.
So I hadn't lifted,
again, I'm no power lifter.
I didn't live every few
days rest and whatever.
But I hadn't lifted and
today was the first day
in nine days.
I felt great.
Yeah.
And I wasn't feeling
completely right and settled,
but then just lifting a
little bit, nothing crazy.
Got your blood running,
the endorphins running
the hormones back in line.
It's amazing.
It's amazing, it's addicting.
And I see why people
that as they get older,
once they find something
that makes them feel good
and keeps them healthy,
I see why they get very like pickleball.
Like people get very
serious about pickleball, right?
No, no, no, we're not gonna say,
but I mean, it's, I get it, I get it.
Like I get when you
get something like that,
you just don't wanna give it up.
And I, like I said, I feel
better than I have in years
and I am not willing
to give that up again.
But it's funny the guy
was talking to at the gym,
the 75 year old, what
started the conversation
as I mentioned to Nathan, my knee hurts.
And he overheard us
and he started laughing.
He's like, my whole body
hurts, but I keep going.
And he's like, if I don't
work out, my body hurts more.
I just gotta keep going.
I saw something and gosh,
I wish I could remember who said it.
It might be Gary
Brekke, I like him a lot.
It was something where they said,
a lot of people as they
get older search for comfort,
but that's the worst thing you can do.
You need to challenge yourself
and feel uncomfortable.
You need to try to make
yourself feel uncomfortable
at least once every day,
whether it's exercise
or cold, cold plunging
or something where you've gotta get out
of your comfort zone
because the more
comfortable you get as you age,
the more you're gonna age.
I think I actually, I buy into that
both physiologically and psychologically.
I love to get into something
that makes you uncomfortable
in your normal life.
Physically, it's great.
Cold plunge cures,
that's totally uncomfortable.
Extreme heat is uncomfortable.
But then just getting into something
that's just different,
whatever it might be.
My next challenge
that I'm going to start,
I might start at Monday or Sunday night
is I'm horrible of being on my phone
right up until we go to bed.
It's one of the worst
things you can do for your eyes,
for your melatonin, for
your psyche, everything.
I struggle getting off my phone.
I'm going to.
I'm gonna start with
putting it down an hour before
I wanna go to sleep and
I'm going to read a book.
I'm gonna go back to old school
and I'm gonna try to push that time back
a little bit further.
And I'd love to be at
two hours with no screen
before I go to bed.
That's my goal.
Because I think it
will help me sleep better
and it's also just better for my brain
to read and not be on my phone.
That phone, I'll tell you.
No, it's not good.
I love it, but it's, mm-mm.
I do love my Kindle.
I got the Kindle Scribe,
which is that black and white.
I like it a lot.
It's good.
You can read different books or whatever.
But it doesn't have the same effect
on your eyes and stuff,
because you're looking at a screen.
It doesn't seem to.
It doesn't emit, I think, the blue light.
Plus my glasses block blue light.
No, it doesn't seem to
have that same effect.
It has the same effect of reading a book
where I start to fall
asleep and doze out.
And then what sucks is I
might even fall asleep,
one of those, and then I'm up.
I was like, shit, I'm
up for another hour.
Yeah, you get that five-minute cat move.
I'll look into it.
But I'm starting old school Sunday night.
I decided that I'm going to
start, stop with the phone.
And that's gonna be challenging.
I like the idea,
because your phone bothers me too.
So I fully support it.
We'll see how it goes.
Sleep is going to be my next focus.
Because that helps too with everything.
It all goes together.
It's all a recipe, and all the
ingredients are important.
So that's my next
thing I'm gonna work on.
And I think it's important to continue
to find things to work on, to make
yourself uncomfortable.
Because that will make me uncomfortable.
One maybe last question I have.
When you are on TikTok,
and you're picking up
these little nuggets,
I'm more of a YouTuber.
I'll follow the YouTube trail
on something I'm interested in,
maybe research cold plunging,
which leads to other things
or lift and weights, whatever.
Walking, running.
On the TikTok front,
there's so much misinformation out there,
but there's also a lot of good stuff.
What's the, what do you think?
I don't know, the ratio?
Are you finding more good stuff?
Are you finding more cuckoo stuff?
You know what I mean?
It's a--
Well, see, a lot of what I watch
are shorts of YouTube
videos that are on YouTube.
So, and they're reputable people.
So that's, and--
You know what's that
guy's name out of Stanford?
I can't remember his name.
The guy with the beard?
Yeah, he's pretty,
can not remember his name.
I don't remember his name either.
I do like him, he's
pretty, he's a sharp dude.
Yeah, what I do is
when I do learn something
off of TikTok, I will then research it
before I participate in it.
So I'll go online and
I'll find different resources
to see if it backs up what I learned.
So that's kind of how I do it.
You didn't do that with the Tide Pods
and that almost killed you.
Ah ha ha, he's kidding.
So that's such a Gen Xer joke.
That's such a Gen Xer joke.
What do you mean?
No, but so I don't just take it off
of something I saw on TikTok.
I'm like, I'm doing that now.
You know, all sick,
oh, that's interesting.
And then, but most
people that I'm watching
are established people.
It's not just like
someone that came on and said,
"Hey, you need to go do this."
Because that it's proven,
scientifically proven stuff
or like it's not all holistic medicine
is scientifically proven,
but I think that's a whole other thing.
The FDA, you know, they
don't wanna be in competition
with some of the
stuff, but so I have found,
they call it TikTok University.
I love TikTok, I find a lot
of great information on it.
Is that a thing, TikTok University?
Yeah, which is people call it that,
because you learn so much.
But I think you have to be
careful with it, certainly.
There's definitely people on there
that don't know what
they're talking about.
You have to research what you're
learning, which I do.
I go on, I research.
And if it all jives, then I try it.
And if something works, I stick with it.
And if it doesn't, I don't.
You know, I don't do anything dangerous.
Like I'm not ingesting
things that could hurt me.
I don't take any big risks like that,
but I have found it out
of all the social medias.
Yeah.
That's mine that I like.
I'm not really a big
Facebook person anymore.
And I'm not huge into Instagram.
Like for our socials, for Gen X adulting,
but from, I will be, but I am.
But personally, I'm TikTok.
Because I find it interesting.
Yeah, I've actually given up
most social media and it's-
Yeah, you haven't really been on.
No, no, I really enjoy it.
Yeah.
It's too much.
Other than our YouTube
channel for Gen X adulting
and our socials for Gen
X adulting, it's a lot.
I finally figured out on Facebook,
I would go on there and it was all ads.
And I didn't even, I was thinking,
no one's that I know, none of my friends
are posting anything.
So I researched it and I set a filter.
So now I actually can see
what other people are posting.
Yeah.
But it's not enticed me back in.
No.
Maybe a little more, just, you know,
but not, that's kind of run its course.
I feel like it's really gone downhill
in the last like five years or so.
So that's just my personal opinion.
I know there's people
that still like it, but.
So anyways, yeah, that as far as TikTok,
anything I've learned off
of there, I've researched.
And I do go to see the doctor.
I have an endocrinologist
for my thyroid disease and-
Well, you have an
in-house expert as well.
Well, of course, of course.
Yeah, I just have to ask
you and you know everything.
What was I thinking?
Good point.
I could just go to you
and you could just tell me
everything and stuff.
It's an excellent point.
But that's where we are
so far in our journey.
And we're just gonna continue, I guess,
to keep finding things to make
ourselves feel uncomfortable.
I mean, that's kind of our, you know,
is what can we do to
challenge ourselves more
and increase our health?
A 5 a.m. walk sucks.
That's uncomfortable.
I know.
Listen, if we get the sleep right,
we can incorporate 5 a.m. walks again.
But we have to get the sleep right.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
Maybe when our youngest goes to college,
but we have four years of
high school ahead of us.
And that's gonna be a
lot of staying up until-
You know, now that he's in high school,
we'll probably lose
sleep, start drinking,
and take other
pharmaceutical grade drugs.
We are gonna lose sleep
because we're gonna have
to wait up for him with his curfew.
But that's what no one tells you.
When your kids go to high school,
so you're up with them when they're
babies and toddlers.
And then there's a
period in elementary school
where they start to sleep,
and you just start to feel
like you're getting freedom.
And then they're in high
school and they're out,
and you're having to wait up for them.
And you're back at
sleep deprivation again.
Yeah.
You know.
You become the Uber.
Yeah, for at least a couple years.
Yeah.
So that's where we are.
You know, we may do a part three
if we continue to find
new things that work for us
or new experiences, but
it's kind of our foundation.
I think I'll document
the cold plunge build.
Yes, we'll put that up
on the YouTube channel
as you build that.
And then also when you build me a sauna.
We'll put that.
I thought about that.
Actually, a sauna in
Florida can be a clear white
greenhouse looking type of thing.
Oh, okay.
Right, it gets hot.
It does, well, yeah.
Yeah, it does.
It's super hot.
It does, so yeah,
we'll document it though.
And we'll document you
going into the cold plunge.
There you go.
And all that.
So thank you for listening.
If there's anyone out
there that has any health tips
or suggestions that
they would like to share,
we would love to hear it.
I would stay tuned.
We're gonna have to do a
deep dive on the thyroid stuff.
For sure.
You did have to find that
pretty much on your own.
Then you found it for our daughter.
You've advised other people symptoms
and they start saying this,
they're some of their,
what they're feeling like
and some of their symptoms.
And you're like, you gotta
get check out your thyroid
and you're on it.
Yeah.
Not that you're a doctor,
but you've become an expert by default.
I think that happens when people have a,
especially an autoimmune--
Like a rare one.
An autoimmune disease in general.
But any silent disease, they're called
the silent diseases.
You kind of become an expert
because it takes a while sometimes
to get diagnosed or listened to.
So you start doing your own research.
And so many of the people that suffer
from them are women.
So anyways, yeah, we'll do
another one on thyroid disease
as we continue this health series.
Maybe that'll be part three,
just covering thyroid disease.
All right, interact with us.
Send us comments, feedback, whatever.
Any good success stories or anything,
we'd love to hear it.
Take care everybody.
Thank you for listening.
Bye.
Bye.
(upbeat music)