MAY We Finally Love Ourselves
A third of the year has already flown by and with a changing of the seasons, we find the changing in our daily routines.
This month we’d like to help you work some good habits and self-love into your routines. It’s not too late to make 2022 your best year yet!
Fortify
Anatomy of a habit
Take a minute to think about brushing your teeth. You get up in the morning and just do it. You don’t think about it. You don’t put it on your calendar. It’s automatic. It’s habitual.
So how do you make adopting and maintaining healthy lifestyle actions a part of your daily routine?
First, pick a very specific behavior you want to adopt. Next, identify a trigger for the habit, a time, and a place to do it. For example, taking a 10-minute walk on your lunch break. The short daily walk is the behavior and lunchtime is the trigger. Repeat the behavior routinely at this same time and place. Eventually, the new behavior will become as automatic as brushing your teeth!
Food
With the flattening of estrogen levels in menopause, your body becomes less efficient at utilizing carbohydrates. For this reason, we recommend shifting to more moderate carb consumption, ideally around 40 percent of calories.
Consider these hacks for managing your carb intake:
- No need to “zoodle” or “rice” vegetables on your own. Visit the “fresh cut” area of your grocery store’s produce departments for veggie options to replace higher-carb rice and pasta.
- In the bread aisle, look for thinner sliced bread, lower-calorie English muffins, and low-carb tortillas.
- For burgers and sandwiches, go open face, using just half the bun or one slice of bread. Or consider a grilled portobello mushroom as your burger bun or lettuce as a wrap for sandwiches.
- Use thin-sliced zucchini in place of pasta in lasagna or tortillas in enchiladas.
What’s your favorite way to manage your carb intake?
Share it with us at the b-untethered Facebook Group!
fitness
Just keep swimming!
What if I said I know how you can decrease your risk of chronic illness and it will only take up 1.5% of your time? Sounds too good to be true, right?
Well according to a study by the US Department of Health and Human services, just 2.5 hours of aerobic activity a week will do the trick. And what is one of my favorite ways to get this in, especially as it warms up? Swimming!
Swimming has way too many benefits to list in one newsletter but I will say the improvements can be seen physically and mentally! To name a few it’s a full-body workout, builds cardiovascular health, can improve sleep, releases endorphins, and specifically for menopausal women, swimming can improve or help maintain bone growth, regulate blood sugar, and slow down aging(SAY WHAT?!).
You can incorporate HIIT(high-intensity interval training) into swimming as well. Take this simple workout:
- Warm up briefly with a couple of laps
- Freestyle “sprint” swim for 30 seconds
- Light paddle or swim for 1 minute
Repeat for 15-20 minutes and if you are feeling tired, extend your rest periods.
We find so many ways to spend our time that don’t have a fraction of the benefits that swimming or any other aerobic activity has. Can’t you find that 1.5% of your week for lifelong results? Your mind and body will thank you.
Here are some sources to find out more of the amazing benefits:
https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/physical-activity-guidelines/previous-guidelines/2008-physical-activity-guidelines
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321496
https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/10-hidden-benefits-swimming/
Frame of mind
The power of coloring
Remember a few years ago when adult coloring books were trending? It’s more than just a passing fad and research suggests real benefit in having hobbies, including artistic ones like coloring.
Hobbies can help reduce the stress you may be experiencing during the menopause transition. Creative activities can lead to improved mood, heightened positivity, and a greater sense of well-being. While many hobbies can be done on your own, group hobbies, such as a team sport (pickleball anyone?) or a weekly book club, genealogy class, or knitting group, increase social connectedness.
While you may hesitate to add a new hobby, feeling that you simply don’t have time for one more thing, think of it more as exploring a skill or passion that you’ve been thinking about for a while. It doesn’t have to be an everyday thing; even weekly time adds new energy to your mood and wellbeing.
So step away from television shows, screen time, or other autopilot activities you do in your free time, and indulge in a passion, helping you to flourish in midlife.
She believed she could, so she did!
Tracy Knowles: Our Friend and Healthy Habit Hero
I kind of had an awakening of my emotions and realized how much I really want to do more for myself and with like-minded women.
When Tracey turned 50 in October of 2019, she was at her heaviest weight of 210 pounds. Overeating and under-active she was unhappy with how she looked and most importantly felt. With her son off to college, she was able to make some moves to put the focus on her health and wellbeing.
Tracy started small by reducing her calories and late-night snacking paired with a workout class once a week with her niece. Once the pandemic hit and her son was home from college, they started home workouts together 5 days a week paired with intervals of walking and jogging.
But after losing 27 pounds(WAY TO GO!!) Tracy had hit a plateau. In search of more knowledge and guidance, she became a participant in our very first b-untethered Bootcamp. Through the program, she learned the importance of reducing carbs and the 40/30/30 meal plan. She is slowly changing what and when she eats and has lost an additional 8 pounds for a total of 35 pounds(and she ain’t done yet!).
In addition to this, on a recent vacation to Arizona, Tracy discovered a love for hiking and now hikes every week with other women in her community.
It doesn’t have to be all at once and it doesn’t have to be scary. Making better decisions for your health can start just one step at a time, but it’s better to start one step today than wait until you have to take ten.
