TRANSKRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Midlife Hunter Flight.
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That's the EU.
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I'm your host, Larry Montaleg.
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This is the study where we circulate like BS.
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Move the club and get real about what it means to try in that second act.
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Each week I'm going to buy it to walk in their own conditions midlife public.
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We're talking menopause, divorce, reinvention, and everything in between.
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Hello and welcome back to Midlife Unplugged the Fucker Is.
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I'm your host, Lara Portelli, and I have the lovely Michelle Bazanet from Canada joining me today to talk all things midlife, midlife, edit, midlife, unplug, second act if you like.
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She's going to talk about her experience uh in midlife, in coaching clients, in in what what's uh what she does around uh this second act, if you like to call it, uh midlife prune, pruning a garden, whatever you like to call it.
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So welcome, Michelle.
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Welcome and hello.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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I'm really happy to be here.
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Thank you, thank you for joining us.
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So uh Michelle, tell us a little bit about your suck at moment and when you knew it was time to do.
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I think women, it doesn't always have to be around midlife, but becomes a time where you go, you know, I've got a stirring in my soul, I've got something going on here that I know I need to do something a little different.
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Tell us a little bit about that moment for you, please.
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Yeah, so I have been in the health and fitness space for a few decades.
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Uh in my early 20s, I did a course to become a coach.
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And in all honesty, I didn't have the courage to be to start a business as a coach.
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I'm a registered massage therapist.
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I was working as a massage therapist back then.
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I've been teaching group fitness classes for 23 years.
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And I'm really good at like taking another course and then doing another thing and then saying I want to do this coaching thing, but always had this fear of starting.
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And not until I was in my early 40s did I realize, okay, now is now is the time to do this.
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And I decided to just say, fuck it, and figure it out.
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I think that was the biggest thing of like, how do I do this?
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Where do I go?
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How do I take that first step?
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And the the the coolest thing that I've experienced is that once you take one step, the next step appears.
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We don't have to know all the steps and the direction we're going, but we just need to know that first step.
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So I decided to step into the coaching space, but the struggle for me was I didn't know who I wanted to coach or and in what what uh what area I wanted to like specialize in.
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So I actually uh had a local gym here in town who who had this program that they did for weight loss.
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And he had a big following and ran a great program in many ways.
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But what I found was the focus of the program was to teach people how to eat, how to move their bodies.
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And it was actually a 90-day challenge to see who could lose the most weight the fastest.
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And I remember seeing that and thinking, oh my gosh, the poor people in this program are really just focusing on what they're eating and how they're moving a body, their body and not thinking at all about what's happening in their mind, in their brain, and how they're looking at things and how they're looking at their bodies and their habits.
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It becomes a quick fix for 90 days, and then it doesn't be it isn't sustainable.
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So I actually reached out to him and said, Hey, would you be open to hiring me to be the mindset coach for your members?
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And he did, which was the catalyst for me to really start to focus on how to help people build really solid habits in their lives, in their life.
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And from there I decided to actually, I think I had my revelation that um I'm in midlife.
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I didn't suddenly, suddenly realized I was there.
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How did that happen?
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And wanted to coach women in their midlife years and really help them look at how they look at food, how they look at movement, how they look at dieting.
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Can they create results without ever dieting?
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I had spent decades dieting.
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I'm not sure about your experience with your body and dieting, but I have spent decades since my late teens looking for the next thing to do in order to lose weight.
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And I did many things and I got results many times, but results never stayed because I was never doing anything that I intended to actually keep doing.
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I intended to do things until I got my results, and then I was just going to go back to doing what I was doing before because I didn't know you had to keep doing the thing you did to get the results.
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Load full transcript
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So I created a program for women in which we really work on building really simple habits and we do things in a drastically different way where we just take our time and we do things really slowly and we build our build some habits and set women up to win in a way in which they never feel like they have to diet and in a way in which they're not just chasing a smaller body.
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Like I really want women, especially in these midlife years, to start thinking about like fuck the smaller body.
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Let's get stronger, let's think about how we want to feel in the decades to come.
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What do we want to be doing?
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We want to be living independently when we're seven and eighty.
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Okay, what do we need to do now?
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We need to get strong.
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So we're shifting that focus with women and helping them look at things in a different way that they're not usually taught.
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Love that.
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Love that.
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So for our listeners at home, did you just hear that?
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Stop what you're doing.
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And did you just hear what Michelle said?
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It's about creating longevity, longevity for our bodies and sustaining and fueling our bodies and what we need into the second act of our life.
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Um, not it's for want of a better term, the diet, and I actually owned uh uh to answer your question from earlier, Michelle.
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I actually owned a women's health facility for six years myself at the Curves Women's Gym.
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And the reason I went into it was to help women.
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I've worked in many arenas helping women for a long, long time myself.
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I soon realized that the diet communicate cultures are a trillion, trillion, trillion dollar industry that don't get me wrong, they've got their place, but they're there to make us feel less than.
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And as you were saying before, we often don't know what our steps are.
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If we can just take the first step to get the correct guidance, coaching, help.
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It's like following um the yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz or the crumbs for Hansel and Gretel.
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It's for those people that don't know Hansel and Gretel, yeah, you can look it up.
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But it it's it's a we now need to be women that expand our mind, boom, and go, what do I need to sustain me correctly into my second half of my life rather than a culture where I need yes, if you need to do weight loss, that's important.
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However, I like what you were chatting about as well.
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That for some to some degree, Michelle, would you agree with this that we shrink our bodies, but we also shrink our voice.
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And if our mind doesn't keep up with what's what's going on with dieting, etc., we lose another part of ourselves.
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Would you agree with that?
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100%.
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100% because we need to change our identity when we are on this journey.
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We really have to change the way in which we are looking at ourselves, the looking at the reason why we're doing things and really setting ourselves up for success.
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Because what we're really good at is we're we're chasing fast things, we're chasing things that sound sexy and that can get you like quick results.
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And women are spending so much money, they're wasting their money.
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And I see it, I see it online, and it breaks my heart when I see women who are chasing fad things because that they want to feel better in their bodies, and they think though, they actually think that getting into the smaller body is going to make them feel better about themselves.
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At the end of the day, they're not chasing the smaller body, they're chasing a feeling that they think they're going to experience in that smaller body.
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They think they're going to feel confident, they think they're going to be loved more.
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They maybe think they'll love themselves more.
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So instead of chasing that, let's work on how we can love ourselves more?
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How can we build ourselves up more?
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How can we build habits in our lives which make us feel good?
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Because I always say to someone, like, you, it just starts with doing like the littlest thing.
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Instead of buying the plan and thinking we have to change all of these things on that list on a Monday morning that we're going to start being this different person.
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Start with one thing.
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We're not an on and off switch, right?
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We're not that person who turns on in a Monday and we have the skills, disciplines, and habits to do what these programs sell us.
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Let's be a dimmer switch.
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Let's dial that dimmer up.
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What is the one little thing that you can dial up?
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Like I want to create freedom for women to be able to know that every day looks different, every situation is different, every season is different, and every every day is different.
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So we're gonna
dial up and do the best that you can in that day, and it's gonna look different than the next day, and that is okay.
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And create from some freedom in this space to create the habits to help them feel better.
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Because when we do better, we feel better.
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When we do good things for us, it feels better.
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Instead of sitting at home and thinking I should go for a walk and I should go to the gym and I should eat a certain way, like all of that feels so heavy.
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And for people like I have ex I had conversations with women who feel like I don't have time to work out for 45 minutes.
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Well, who says you have to?
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You can go and you can put one song on and you can go for a walk for just one song.
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Because you going for a walk for one song is going to make you feel better than sitting on the sofa thinking about all the things that you need to do.
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Right?
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You drinking an extra glass of water is going to make you feel better than overhauling your diet.
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You starting your breakfast with protein is going to make you feel better than struggling all day with having to like modify your whole diet.
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So when we take some actions that take us closer to the person we wish to become, like we have to, every action is a vote for the person you wish to become.
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And do do those things and become her instead of just going through the motions and acting like someone without kind of taking your internal self along with you, that makes any sense.
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Taking your head and your heart along with you.
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And I think if we can pause on that for a moment for our listeners and the lady at home, the woman at home that's you know, maybe elbow deep in the dishes at the moment and or thinking, I have to do the vacuum next, what's next, what's next, what's next.
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And I like what you touched on, Michelle, that it's very important that if we can just stop, breathe, and um, you know, for the lady at home, who are you?
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What what what's happening for you in that moment?
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Can you hear what Michelle is saying that if you're thinking in that moment purchasing that diet that I'm going to on the whatever it is, the 2nd of January, starting that?
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However, is that really what is going to make you feel better about yourself, as Michelle's saying?
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Is that going to make you feel better in that 14 days challenge or the 20-day challenge, whatever it may be?
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Is that going to change here?
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Is that it's it's such a journey?
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And I like what you talk about too, Michelle, in that so many women, I think uh including yourself, we hit this point when we don't know what to do through lack of education and some self-love and self-respect, where we white knuckle it, so to speak.
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That white knuckle that you talk about.
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It's like, oh, if I just hang on and if I hold my breath for forever, I might just come out the other side live and be okay.
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It's not what we want for women, right?
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We want we want better.
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As you were saying, we want better.
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And when when we do better or feel better, we do better.
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Yes, yes, a hundred percent.
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Um and the other thing you were saying, uh the other thing you talk about too is when we stop obsessing about what we're not eating or the calories that we've burnt or not burnt today, life becomes a whole lot happier.
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Would you agree with that, Michelle?
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100%, a hundred percent.
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Yeah.
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I I think there's like a time and place for tools that that women can do in order to achieve whatever it is that they're looking for.
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And when I speak of anything in regards to our bodies and our health and fitness space, like you said, it's not just about weight loss.
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A lot of times it's weight management.
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There are it's an important piece, especially in these midlife years, to consider, okay, how can I manage my weight?
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Manage my weight can be how can I stay this weight?
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Maybe you want to gain weight, maybe you want to lose weight, whatever it is, to have your body function optimally for you, whatever that looks like for you.
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You know, how can we move our bodies?
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For me, it's the movement, that's a big thing too.
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How can we move our bodies more?
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Um, and and do these things uh to really be in a place where we can like move with ease and we can you know go on vacations when we're a little bit older, we can play with the grandchildren.
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And and it's and it is tough when we are in this is a lot of some people can be in some really busy seasons right now.
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And if you're listening to this and you're in a really busy season, you just know that every season that we're in, they're they're temporary, right?
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We're gonna have some busy seasons, we're gonna have some seasons that kind of flow with a bit
more ease.
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And again, everything looks different in each season.
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When I teach my group fitness classes, I always say to someone, I want you to do your best today.
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And doing your best today is gonna look different than doing your best yesterday.
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If you maybe are under the weather or you're very stressed right now, your best is gonna look different than when you had a really great sleep and you're feeling very energized.
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So it's not about judging how you how you feel or how you're doing things, it's just understanding that am I doing, am I doing my best?
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And that's all you can ask yourself for is to do your best.
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I I think that's great.
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Today is different to yesterday.
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A lot of women in midlife uh are having trouble sleeping.
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So if you've been awake half the night and you go, okay, and I've done it, I put my hand up to it.
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Oh, uh I have been awake since 3 a.m.
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or 2 a.m.
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And I need to go to my Pilates class today or my Aqua class.
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I'm feeling washed out, but I better go.
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I better go.
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You know, I need to go because I need to go.
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Uh and you have this mental, emotional wrestling match with yourself before you would you agree with that, Dickie?
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100%.
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It's heavy, it's taxing, it's so taxing the negotiation that we do.
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We do so much negotiating, self-negotiing right.
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And I I teach very early classes at 6 a.m.
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And I always say my my big tip for any woman out there, I'll just can I actually just share a tip, something that really served me well in these years.
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I have three children.
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Uh, I wanted to be more consistent in the gym.
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I love working out, but found it hard in my schedule at times.
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So I made a decision a year and a half ago, almost two years ago, to do all of my workouts before my kids went to school.
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So I need to be home by 7 a.m.
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So my workouts done by 7 a.m.
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And I told myself a story for a really long time that I couldn't work out that early every day because I would like every day I would get more tired.
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It would just build up the fatigue because I'm doing it day after day.
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And I thought, okay, again, we tell ourselves a lot of stories.
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I said, no, I'm just gonna do it.
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I can say, with just my truth here is that it has been the biggest blessing in my life making this decision because over time it has become a habit.
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And me working out, getting up at 5.15 in the morning is just a part of who I am and what I do, the same way I get up and brush my teeth.
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And I don't have to negotiate at night.
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What time am I waking up tomorrow?
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When am I working out tomorrow?
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Like I have created so much space for me to be able to do other things because I know I'm setting my alarm for 5.15 and I know the second my alarm gets up, and this is what I teach my class, you do not lay there and think.
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You move immediately.
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Because you're good, you're really good at negotiating your way out of the workout if you stay in bed and start thinking.
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So I lay my clothes out the night before, my alarm goes off, I get up, I move, I get changed, and I go and I go to the gym.
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With there's no thinking, it just is.
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It just, if I'm tired, maybe I do less sets in my workout.
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Maybe I cut my workout a little bit shorter because a shorter workout on most times is better than no workout.
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There is the odd time that a woman may say, I need to sleep today, and that's okay.
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There's nothing wrong with that.
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But really trying to like stop the negotiating, right?
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And really follow through and honor your word with what you said you would do because sometimes not honoring that word feels heavy.
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I didn't do it.
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Feels heavier than not going, right?
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Yeah, I didn't do again.
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I want like I want women who are listening to know that something is.
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I I preach, do not do all or nothing.
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I'm not an all or nothing person.
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It's it's something.
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We can all do something.
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And I mean something as little as do five squats in your kitchen while you're making dinner.
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Pause and take three breaths if you need to do some form of meditation.
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Um, what you can go for that five-minute walk or just walk down the street and back, doing a couple push-ups on the ground, you know, having, like I said, having that protein at breakfast.
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It can, and some women may think, well, how does that matter?
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It matters because you go to bed at night putting your head on your pillow, knowing you did something.
00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:12.160
And that that feels good, and we want to chase that good feeling.
00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:20.799
And so when you say that you're getting up or you are getting up at 5 15, is that teaching or for your workout?
00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:28.880
So Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I I get up for my own workout.
00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:34.240
Two uh Thursdays I teach at 8 30, so I get to sleep in an extra hour, and Friday I teach at 6 a.m.
00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:36.880
So it's a mixture of both.
00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:39.200
So you have the mixture of yeah.
00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:46.079
So for for people listening, for our listeners, I it it doesn't like you're saying, I love that approach.
00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:48.799
It doesn't have to be all an all or nothing.
00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:54.960
Michelle's made it that some of her week is teaching classes, and some of it's just for her.
00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:57.759
And you know, we talk about doing something for you.
00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:06.640
And it it may be look, I've been at home, it's okay for you ladies to get on here and talk about yes, yes, yeah, and I've heard it all before, la da da da da.
00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:32.000
But if you've been at home all day with your children and you know, I just can't get out as your husband comes through the door or your wife, whoever your support person is, just say, I need five just to walk to the end of the street and back, as Michelle was saying, around the block, just some fresh air to reset here when you've been inside with children when it's been raining all day, or whatever your situation everyone's circumstance is different.
00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:32.480
Yes.
00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:36.960
But find that support person that can just relieve you for 15 minutes.
00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:41.359
And I think I think we hear a lot about you need to do self-care.
00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:47.680
So you need to go to the the most expensive hotel, run yourself a bath, and be away for a weekend.
00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:49.279
It doesn't have to be like that.
00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:49.920
No.
00:19:50.240 --> 00:20:01.279
No, you know how I I actually, when you talk about doing something for me, I got offered to teach another class, and I'm a bit of I can be a yes person sometimes, but my gut was saying to say no.
00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:18.400
But so I said yes initially, and 24 hours later, I said, no, I need to not take, I don't want to take away from my workout because me being at the gym, putting my AirPods in, listening to music or an or a podcast, I always say that's kind of like my therapy.
00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:21.279
Like it is my space, my time.
00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:25.519
And for the ladies, it could be that walk with just being in your own space.
00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:32.880
And I know, and I want to acknowledge that I wasn't able to do these early morning workouts when my kids were younger because the kids get up earlier.
00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:35.200
Like my kids are 12, 14, and 16.
00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:40.640
So I am in a season where it's it is easier for me now to do these things in the morning.
00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:46.240
For those who have younger kids, it may be more challenging, or it may be having a conversation with your partner.
00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:49.839
What days out of the week can you do the morning routine?
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:52.799
Or can you help with the morning routine and negotiate?
00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:54.319
Negotiate some time.
00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:58.079
If you're fine, you're looking for space to do something for you.
00:20:58.160 --> 00:20:59.759
Maybe negotiate with the girlfriend.
00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:03.839
I'll watch your kids one day at 9:30 or after school.
00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:08.880
So you can go and get some time for 30 minutes, or and then you can you can swap.
00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:13.279
So just be open and curious about how I can make this work for me?
00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:15.119
How can I find the time for me?
00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:21.759
What can I say no to in my life to create more space for me for what's important for me?
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:27.920
Because I hear from so many women, they usually the story usually goes like this is I used to.
00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:32.960
I used to work out, I used to do this, I used to do that, and then I had kids.
00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:34.480
Right?
00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:36.559
And and I know what it feels like.
00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:39.200
Our life gets a little chaotic with the kids.
00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:54.720
But if you have a desire to do something for yourself, get curious about how you can fit it in your life, but also be open that it doesn't have to look the way in which you think it should look, or the way in which someone tells you it should look.
00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:56.960
How can you make it work for you?
00:21:57.279 --> 00:21:59.599
And it may be, again, a 10 minute thing.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:01.279
Instead of a 30.
00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:05.519
Or it may be doing it with your kids, right?
00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:07.519
And taking them along with you.
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:14.880
Um, so there's many different ways to to look at it, but I think sometimes we get, as much as we get caught up in all or nothing, we get caught up in black and white.
00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:16.160
It has to look a certain way.
00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:17.440
It should be like this.
00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:19.759
Instead of understanding, it could look different.
00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:27.599
And I think it goes back a little bit, Michelle, to what we talked about a little bit ago that don't beat yourself up.
00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:32.640
Listeners, if yesterday I got 30 minutes to walk.
00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:36.400
I
had planned to go to the gym today.
00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:38.160
Some things happened, so that's it.
00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:38.559
I'm done.
00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:39.599
I'm not going again.
00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:40.319
Right.
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:40.880
Right.
00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:41.440
Right.
00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:41.839
Yeah.
00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:42.319
Yes.
00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:45.680
I understand that you I've seen it happen when I was coaching.
00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:46.400
Yes.
00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:48.640
Um, it didn't work today, so I'm not coming.
00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:53.200
I'm canceling my my appointment because something got in my way.
00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:53.519
Right.
00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:57.279
And that goes back to what you were talking about just now, about desire.
00:22:57.839 --> 00:22:59.440
Okay, today didn't work out.
00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:02.880
That black and white, mm, all or nothing, black or white.
00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:06.000
I think it's about, I think the word would be flexibility.
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:11.119
And life doesn't always as you said, you might have been up all night with a crying baby.
00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:13.200
Some of us have got aging parents.
00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:16.799
We have to go and visit them or help them with medication.
00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:20.400
And oh five o'clock this afternoon was when I was going for a walk.
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:21.680
That was going to be my time.
00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:24.000
Okay, it didn't work today.
00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:27.440
Maybe I can do a swap with my partner tomorrow morning.
00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:32.400
They can take the children to swimming, whatever.
00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:42.079
And uh I or I can swim when it's about having that flexibility and desire to say I'm important in here too.
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:48.960
But just because the world, the the life dropped a clanger today doesn't mean I can't get back on tomorrow.
00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:55.359
Is that what you and as yeah, and as you say that, it makes me think of another important lesson I I I teach.
00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:05.119
And I I want the women listening to kind of reflect on your own answer that when you have when you start thinking about things that you want to do for yourself.
00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:13.759
And again, I'm always in me because my passion is the health and fitness space, I'm talking about ways in which you eat, about habits you build, the way in which you move your body, the self-care.
00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:18.640
Do you do it with the intention of it being forever?
00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:23.920
Or do you do it with the intention of it being for 30, 60, 90 days, six months?
00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:25.759
And I want you to think about your answer.
00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:31.039
So for a lot of people, their intention is I just do it for a little bit of time.
00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:35.359
And that's why it's easy to say, I'm throwing in the
towel because I can't keep this up.
00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:38.880
Like we, this is a lifelong journey.
00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:42.799
We want to build the habits to do forever.
00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:49.920
And when you think of forever, the missed workout today is very insignificant, yeah, right?
00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:53.200
It's very insignificant on the forever scale.
00:24:53.759 --> 00:25:01.920
It's it could be significant on the 30-day scale, but in the forever, like we are going, think about all of the things you're going to go through in the coming decades.
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:04.079
There's going to be lots of bumps on the road.
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:06.319
And you're not going to stay off the road.
00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:14.079
You're going to get back on, and you're going to like wind off it again sometimes, but you always want to come back on because this is a forever thing.
00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:16.720
We always, I and I'm going to say the word need.
00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:25.680
We always need to be continuing to work on building those habits that will really serve our bodies, serve our minds, serve ourselves.
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:27.119
I love that.
00:25:27.279 --> 00:25:30.880
I love, I think that's a boom light moment for listeners.
00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:33.599
It's a forever journey.
00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:34.319
Yeah.
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:37.359
It's a it's an endurance, it's not a sprint.
00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:55.119
And building our mental capacity, building our our bone structure so that as you were to go back to what you were talking about early on, Michelle, that you know, in our 70s, we don't break a hip because we've we've built strength.
00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:08.720
And, you know, let us know what you're thinking about this when you you know you hear Michelle's episode that building forever strength, building forever health, that you want to go on that holiday to Canada.
00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:11.680
I want to go on a holiday to Canada when I when I can.
00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:13.440
Uh and I want to go on a holiday.
00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:14.640
I want to see the world.
00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:15.599
I want to do things.
00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:18.480
I want to be able to still do things in my 80s.
00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:19.039
Yes.
00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:29.920
And I'm not going to think back to the 16th of December 2025 and go, oh, I threw in the towel because uh I was on a 90 day.
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:31.119
And there's nothing wrong with that.
00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:36.079
There's nothing wrong with those, those, those ways of, you know, achieving your health.
00:26:36.319 --> 00:26:48.000
However, if we can look at a little bit more longevity and look at it forever, as you were saying, Michelle, I think that's that's the way to, you know, really change here as well.
00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:48.559
Yes.
00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:50.160
Yeah, it has to be forever.
00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:56.000
And I want the women to know that what feels hard today becomes easier when you do it consistently.
00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:56.480
Absolutely.
00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:04.079
Like it's that's the most beautiful thing to experience yourself when it's like suddenly it just becomes a part of who you are.
00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:14.079
And that is how, so if you look at somebody who is doing something, or maybe they're working out consistently or they have great heating eating habits, it didn't happen overnight.
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:19.200
They're probably 10, 20 years in, or it could be even a year in.
00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:31.119
But if you start doing little things today, you will build this like a repertoire of all of these things that you do over time that will look drastically different than your day today.
00:27:31.599 --> 00:27:39.039
And it's just the consistency of doing it, doing it imperfectly, but doing it without throwing in the towel.
00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:42.160
Like, and the front never, you never throw in the towel.
00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:48.559
You can have a day where it's like, I don't need it today, or I'm not going to do it today, but it doesn't mean you're quitting.
00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:53.839
That there's no quitting because there's it's again, it's that there's that the road never ends.
00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:56.960
It's a life road, and it's a long life road.
00:27:57.200 --> 00:28:03.359
And it gets bumpy, and there's U-turns, and there's a stop sign, and it's construction.
00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:05.440
Right?
00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:07.519
Lots of problems, lots of things on the road.
00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:08.559
We all see it, right?
00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:10.720
And and if so, so it's the kind of the analogy.
00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:23.039
I'm not sure if you've heard this, of you know, if you are on the road and you're you get a flat tire, you don't get out of the car and say, Oh, okay, I I'm just gonna slash my other tires because this one's flat.
00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:26.319
No, you fix the tire and you keep moving.
00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:27.279
Get on with it.
00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:38.559
So if there's something on your journey and you feel like it equates to that slash tire of I couldn't get into that workout, or I ate the bag of chips, like you're not gonna slash the other tires just because you did that.
00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:41.039
You adjust and you keep going.
00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:46.960
And as you were saying, you yourself you did small steps for your 6 a.m.
00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:51.839
workouts, you got your shoes out, your runners, uh, your workout gear, your runners.
00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:56.400
Uh, and 515, and it was a non-negotiable, and you built it.
00:28:56.559 --> 00:28:56.960
You built it.
00:28:57.599 --> 00:28:58.000
It built it.
00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:01.359
And I didn't think and I I didn't think I would initially.
00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:03.519
I spent years telling myself I couldn't.
00:29:03.680
--> 00:29:09.200
And I think another tip I would love to leave for the women who are listening is to set yourself up to win.
00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:16.880
And what I mean by setting yourself up to win is I want you to listen to any of the information that you receive, even from us.
00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:20.559
And I want you to decide what you are capable of doing.
00:29:20.880 --> 00:29:28.000
Because your your next thing that you're going to add into your life may look different than mine or Laura's.
00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:30.000
It may look different from your girlfriend's.
00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:31.200
It has to work for you.
00:29:31.359 --> 00:29:34.799
I want you to look at the thing and think about, okay, be honest.
00:29:35.119 --> 00:29:37.519
Can I actually do this consistently?
00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:44.880
And if you feel like you can't, you're going to go back to that dial and dial it down a little to the place where you can.
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:47.759
Because again, you gradually build that up.
00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:51.119
And then I always tell my clients, do a couple of weeks of that.
00:29:51.279 --> 00:29:58.160
And if you feel like you're not doing the thing consistently, like 80% of the time, I want you to dial it down even more.
00:29:58.960 --> 00:30:00.400
And then a dimmer switch.
00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:07.279
A dimmer, and then when you feel like you're doing it 80% of the time, it's a great, it's a great habit that you've got going.
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:11.359
You can then decide to like add more, dial up, or add the next thing.
00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:22.480
But I think a missing piece is we feel like it's a failure if we have to back off a little, or if we have to tone it down, or maybe do a little less.
00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:23.599
That's winning.
00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:29.920
If you were evaluating and acknowledging it's a little much for me, you know, I'm not doing it consistently.
00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:35.440
People, that's when the throwing in the towel happens, instead of just modifying, modify.
00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:38.559
Or I need to keep up with what my friend's doing at boot camp.
00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:38.880
Right.
00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:41.119
She's got the latest gear, and I don't have that.
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:44.960
I've got a baggy t-shirt, so I'm not going because she's got the latest gear.
00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:45.920
Focus on you.
00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:47.279
On you.
00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:48.079
Yeah.
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:48.880
Wow.
00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:51.279
As we wind up today, Michelle, thank you.
00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:53.440
They've just been such uh I love it.
00:30:53.519 --> 00:31:04.880
They've just been such uh functional, healthy, uh new forming habits that uh you've left listeners with and it's um that you've you know shared today.
00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:06.160
It's been amazing.
00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:24.880
And if there's one uh if there's one phrase or some or a habit that you've while we're talking about habits that you've instilled through all your changes and over your time, as you said, you've been in the health and um fitness industry for decades.
00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:31.279
What's one uh thing that is a non-negotiable for you when you're having a fuck it day?
00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:32.079
I've had enough?
00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:34.000
What's a what's a snack?
00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:35.920
What's uh what's a habit?
00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:39.279
What's a shut the door, leave me alone?
00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:39.759
Yes.
00:31:39.920 --> 00:31:43.599
What's what's your go-to when I've had enough of the world today?
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:50.079
I I'm a little weird and I do like to move my body that I feel like it's my stress relief.
00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:53.839
How so I think when you when you were saying that, I'm like, I walk.
00:31:54.400 --> 00:32:00.000
I walk, I get out for a walk with some I podcast on, or I walk in I walk in gratitude.
00:32:00.079 --> 00:32:03.039
I walk and I'm like, thank you for all the blessings in my life.
00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:04.960
And it just changes how I feel.
00:32:05.119 --> 00:32:11.920
And it's an opportunity to reflect, it's an opportunity to move, it's an opportunity for me to escape and just get some fresh air.
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:16.000
And that tends to change, that tends to change how I feel in my space.
00:32:16.400 --> 00:32:17.519
It's a shift for me.
00:32:17.599 --> 00:32:18.880
I I'm a I'm a bit the same.
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:19.680
Thank you for everything.
00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:24.240
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to do the XYZ.
00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:26.240
Um, and it's it's enough to shift.
00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:28.079
It's just enough to shift.
00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:31.279
Um Well, thank you, Michelle.
00:32:31.519 --> 00:32:38.000
It's been it's been amazing chatting to you, and uh we wish you all the best and we will keep in touch.
00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:38.880
Yeah, thank you.
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:40.000
Thank you so much for having me.
00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:42.400
Absolutely, absolutely.
00:32:42.640 --> 00:32:46.079
That's a wrap of this episode of Midlife Unplugged.
00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:55.920
If today's conversation is something happening new, please subscribe, share it with your midlife crew, and keep the conversation going on Larry Fortnite.
00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:59.519
See you next week for another four real and apologetic app.