SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello and welcome to Empower Your Menopause. It's James and Julie here, as ever, the podcast where we bust myths, share strategies, and empower women to thrive in this phase of life and the next one too. And today we're going to dive into probably one of the simplest yet most powerful tools for better health in menopause. And it sounds really silly when we say this, but the answer is walking. Now that might not sound exciting or glamorous, we get that, but it's a really underrated way of boosting your physical health, getting some more mental clarity, improving your emotional well-being, especially for women navigating midlife. And so we're going to talk about why this is kind of like the ultimate hack when it comes to some basic fitness that you can get for this life stage and share some practical tips on how you can make it part of your daily routine. Now, just to clarify, we aren't big fans of the word hacks because there's really no way of shortcutting your health. But if there was something that could actually do that, walking is comes pretty close to being it. So grab your trainers, let's get ready to hit the streets or the forest trails and let's get moving. So I'm going to bring Julie straight in. Julie, because I'm sure that some people are going to be listening or watching us today and thinking, I can't believe they're talking about walking when it comes to menopause. But we've both got multiple client stories about why this can be amazing for people. So I wonder if you could just share a couple of those with the listeners.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yeah, absolutely. I walking is one of my favorite things to do. And um, a couple of clients I can remember. Um, Lisa is one of them. And I I can relate to this because so many of our women clients do, but she thought exercise had to be intense or it didn't count. So she was trying to force herself all the time into this high-intensity workout and going to the gym, ending up sore and frustrated because it just didn't feel good for her to do. So she started walking. You know, it was one of those things where I said, look, just try it. If you don't like it, you don't have to keep going. So she was set out to prove me wrong initially. And she started with just 10 minutes a day, right? She said, barely enough to make a sweat. It said, watch how this isn't gonna work. But after a few weeks, there was something that kind of clicked for her because she saw her energy improving, her knees stopped hurting from all those crazy heavy HIIT workouts, and she started looking forward to her walks. That fresh air was energizing. So she went from 10 minutes to 20 minutes and then 30 minutes with her walking, and now that is her go-to stress reliever, and she is pretty convinced it's the best thing she's ever done for her body. And she she used to say, I just told me that, you know, I didn't think walking counted as exercise, but now it's the best in time investment I've made in my health. And then um another client I remember is Sarah. And Sarah was and tell me if this is familiar, anybody who's listening, too busy to exercise, right? She's got work to deal with, she's got family to deal with and everything else. So finding time to go to the gym felt impossible. And it's that, oh, I have to go for an hour or it's or it's no good. But instead of doing that, she started sneaking in some walks, um, maybe parking further away from the office, taking calls while she was out walking or adding 10 minutes of walking after dinner. And she wasn't expecting a whole lot, as many people don't, because walking seems too simple. But within weeks, she noticed how much better her energy was, her moods were better, she wasn't dreading moving her body anymore. And so now she walks every morning before work and she's calls it her secret weapon for staying focused and uh stress-free. So her comment was um, don't overcomplicate it, just start because you'll be surprised at how much better you feel. So, what about you, James? I'm sure you have your share of stories.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Well, absolutely, and I think it's the interesting thing for me about walking is you talked about um your first client there, Lisa, who's struggled really with trying to uh maybe trying too hard in the gym and working hard and super hard, and and there are all kinds of implications of that about stress that we'll dive into later on and things like that. What I love about walking is that it works both ways. So it works for both somebody like Lisa who's tried to do this whole sort of like high-energy hit routine style stuff, and it's not worked for her, but it also works the other way around as well. So if you're just starting out and you don't have any confidence about exercising, you don't have any confidence about going to the gym or anything like that, it can be a really good way to start. And we're currently working with a client like that at the moment. I won't share her name, but she was walking an hour a day with her dog. Um, but it was more, I guess, of an amble. So although she was doing some walking, she wasn't doing a lot of walking, and so now she's powered up her walks with the dog. So instead of doing 60 minutes and ambling around and just enjoying the walkout with the dog, she's actually doing it more purposefully, and she's already seeing benefits from that. So that's one story from one of our clients. Another one is I've got three people who I work with from a personal training point of view. I work with them separately, they come and do some really gentle exercises in the gym with me and things like that. But they're friends and they've recently started connecting on their walk. So they wanted something that was outside of the gym that could bring them together in a community. So they love going and just we've got a really huge forested escarpment next to us called the Cheving. They love grabbing a coffee and the three of them going out for social walk in fresh air, and we'll talk about some of the studies that show that your connection with nature is a great part of walking as well. So lots and lots of great stories about clients walking, I think. Julie, why don't you talk to us a little bit about some of the physical benefits of walking, then we'll go into the mental ones as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Sure. I mean, there's so many, it's hard to know really where to start. But you know, when you start into paramenopause and menopause, it can account for a whole bunch of different reasons that make you less likely to exercise on a regular basis. We've got physical symptoms like achy joints, we've got some fatigue, and then of course all the psychological symptoms because our moods are fluctuating, then we don't feel quite so motivated. We have, you know, we have all this stuff going on, and it can hinder even the most active people from being as active as they would like to be. So it's great for your heart health because it's gentle, it's not, you know, it's not doing that extra stress on your body, but it does include improve your cardiovascular health and reduces the risk of heart disease, which is elevated once we get into this phase of life. And it's gentle enough for everybody at pretty much any fitness level. And over time it's it's super effective. And I can attest to that myself because walking was the thing, well, the one thing I did for a number of years, and I was able to stay really fit just doing that. Um, you know, women at this phase of life are always talking about wanting to lose weight. Um, but even if you're not looking to lose weight, it's a great way to manage your weight because it supports fat burning and increased metabolism without stressing your joints. And as we age, I know that's something we need to pay attention to. So it's it's also way more sustainable because it's nice every once in a while to have one of those drop in a pool of sweat workouts at the gym, but we want to keep our ourselves inspired and motivated to continue to move. So rather than having to have two days of recovery after every hard workout, walking is something we can do and even use it as like an active recovery. Um, because I active recovery is often better than just laying low on the on the sofa and binge watching your favorite programs. There's a place for that, but ideally, active recovery will be more of a more part of our life. What what about you, James? I think there's so many benefits. What ones do you see the most?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yeah, so from a physical point of view, I think particularly, yeah, I absolutely agree, heart health, particularly when oestrogen levels fall, that is a huge risk factor for women as they as they get older, weight management as well. But I really like the benefits it's got for bone and joint health. You know, it's relatively low impact, and so it supports mobility, reduces stiffness. We've talked before about the fact that osteoporosis is a real challenge for women as they get older. The falling estrogen stops that that dropping estrogen stops the support of building new bone from the body naturally, and therefore having some kind of weight-bearing exercise certainly helps with that. And then I think a real surprising benefit that not many people might realize is that it's really good for your immune system because by walking, there are lots of studies that show when you're walking at a brisk pace, it increases the white blood cells that are part of your immune system. So that is really great for your natural defense against germs and diseases. And then, of course, and I think we should differentiate this into two separate categories. One is just clear brain health, your brain working better because that happens when you walk. You know, there's increased blood flow, more oxygen, more nutrients all get into the brain. There's a protein called brain-derived neurotropic factor, which is also released that stimulates the growth of new brain cells and connections. So physically, it's making your brain get better. Um, so helping with your memory, helping your brain to work better. But then, of course, there are all the mental health benefits as well. I wonder, Julie, just talk to us about those a little bit, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yeah, well, as you said, it increases your blood flow, right? So it's helping oxygen and nutrients move around your body. And who doesn't feel more awake and alert and refreshed after a nice walk, right? Being outside in nature, um, even if you're walking inside, just that exercise releases some of those natural chemicals that make you feel good, our neurochemicals like serotonin and dopamine and endorphins. And it's much more effective than the dopamine hit we get from scrolling on social media because it gives us a full-body, uh full-body experience. There was actually a review of 17 different studies by researchers at the University of Edinburgh that found walking in nature improved people's moods and help them feel more positive and less stressed and anxious. And I know in Japan they use this, they call it forest bathing. And it's actually a medical prescription for people who are dealing with stress and anxiety to get out in nature and spend some time walking and enjoying the green and the fresh air. So there's some other other things involved here too, because we talk about stress reduction. We know that cortisol, we've talked about this a lot. Um, cortisol levels will skyrocket when we've got a lot of stress going on. Cortisol isn't bad in itself, but if our levels are too high and they're spiking at the wrong time of day, that can be detrimental to not only to our health, but it accumulates that belly fat that we don't really want to have. And walking is it's it can be a form of meditation. I know we talk about meditation, and um a lot of people are like, oh, I don't want to sit still, I can't calm my mind. But that that rhythm, that constant rhythm we get when we're walking in an in a nice kind of even cadence is can be very meditative. And there are actually walking meditations that you can find online, and it's a it's a really great way to manage your stress. And then as we said, you know, it releases our feel-good um hormones and neuro um neurochemicals like endorphins that can really take it's one of one of the best, most cost-effective, and most effective antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications there is, and there are no side effects from that. So, so and it it it fits your life, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, a couple of things just to add on to what you were talking about there. I think the idea of forest bathing is another way of improving your immune system as well, because you get exposed to different um bacteria and bugs and things like that when you're out in in nature. And so that is a really good way of improving your immune function as well. I think this idea that walking helps with stress reduction is really, really important, and not to hammer home what you've already said and what we've said earlier in the podcast, but women going through the menopause transition inherently have a stressful time because of both the physical changes that are happening and their general lifestyle, you know, this idea that we can't say no, that we're trying to be all things to all people all at the same time. So that stress level is really high. So if your stress levels are so high, and most menopausal women that we work with tell us that they're also time compressed as well, and so their general um disposition is not to spend me time doing restorative activities, it's to spend me time going into the gym and trying to smash it with all this high-intensity interval training, which of itself is not a bad thing, but it's not great if you aren't getting the appropriate recovery, because all you're doing is adding in stresses upon stresses upon stresses upon stresses. You have that impact where your fight or flight mechanism is constantly on the increase and on the go, and your rest and digestive mechanisms are never there to offer some balance. And so that is not an attack on HIIT training, but rather saying that walkings are a really good way of being able to do something that is physically active without adding onto your allostatic load, your stress load at the same time. So, yeah, let's talk about how it fits into your life then. And I think one of the things that I see quite a lot is that people's impression of walking is that it is a bit of a lollop, that you never raise your heart rate at all when you're doing it. And the truth is is that it's a really easily modifiable activity whereby you can increase your heart rate as much or as little as you want to. So you can just go out for a stroll, you know, gentle vaulter like they're doing Greece in the evenings as if on their way to take their morning coffee and things like that by the seaside and stuff. You can equally do a purposeful walk, or you can do a proper sort of like uphill hike. And I know that I've been injured at the moment, and a lot of my recovery comes from this is from my running things that I do. A lot of my recovery is actually on a treadmill, and it's on a treadmill doing hikes with the treadmill at its maximum incline, so 12.5% and going relatively fast, four four miles an hour, maybe. My heart rate gets up into the 150s or 160s. So don't be fooled into thinking that you can't modify a walk to actually get your heart rate nice and high and be operating at those levels of 80 or 90 percent of your maximum heart rate without, and this is really key, that additional stress on your joints and bones, right? Because you aren't pounding with that 10 times of gravity that you've been in throughout running or whatever it may be. So it's really, really good. So I think accessible and flexible are two key things there. Um, accessible why? Because you can walk anywhere, you know, unless you live on an island that's a foot square, or you know, you live in a place that is so smoggy you can't just get outside, then walking it, you can just do it anywhere. You literally open your front door and head out. As long as there's a path and you can be safe, you're there. And you don't really need any equipment to do it, right? You don't need expensive running trainers, you don't need a lot of gym kit, you don't need any other equipment really. Um, I know most people these days have got some kind of fitness monitor either, anyway, whether it's on their phone measuring steps, or whether they've got a Fitbit or whether they've got an Apple Watch or whether they're running, there's always something that can measure it, but that is usually something you've already got. So you don't need anything, particularly any new equipment, I suppose, to um start walking. And then the other thing, as well, of course, is it's a solo activity if you want to head out and stick a podcast on or just listen to the joys of nature. If you're somewhere that's nice and quiet and still think that, you can do that equally. Like the three ladies that I train in the gym, I was talking about earlier. They love to go out and it's a social activity, and they go out and they walk for hours, like two, three hours. I know I said they take a coffee with them, but they're still doing it purposefully, and they're going on terrain which is quite undulating. So, again, choosing your terrain appropriately can add a different dynamic to the actual exertion of doing the walk, right? You walk out your house, you live on a flat street, flat road. Maybe less challenging. Go and find a forest park or something like that where there's a couple of hills and it undulates a little bit, and you'll see that your heart rate's going up and down, up and down, almost getting like a natural mini interval session just by the terrain changing. And then I suppose the other thing as well is that it's time efficient. Yeah. I mean, sure, you know, if you're used to running, like I'm used to running sort of like 10 miles a day, and now I can't run 10 miles a day. So 15, 20 minutes of walking that I am doing doesn't seem like a lot compared to what it was previously. But if you're just starting out or if you're pushed for time, even 10, 15, 20 minutes of walking gives you all those benefits that we've talked about: the weight management, the cardiovascular adaptations, the stress reduction, better immune system, all those benefits can come from just 10-15 minutes away. So, what about actionable tips to get listeners started then or to think more about running? Julie, what have you got to share with us?

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Yeah, there's there's so many things you can do, and it just depends on what fits into your life. Um, you know, starting small is important. If you're not a walker right now, if that's not something that's part of your day, and you keep saying, I want to get more fit, I don't have time to go to the gym. I used to go for 10 minutes at lunchtime when I was working in an office, and I found that over time I started to really look forward to that because it refreshed me for the afternoon. You can start with 10-minute walks anywhere because it's a great starting point. The important thing is to be consistent. The intensity doesn't really matter, it's getting consistent with that time, setting that, you know, setting some boundaries around that so that time is for you, or that time is for you and your friends, or however you decide to do it. And you can track if you want to track it. Some people geek out on the uh the data, and uh you can track your progress or different apps or using a journal to stay motivated. One of the things I used to do was I had a monthly calendar on my wall, and I put a star sticker on every day that I that I exercised or walked, and that was really motivating to see that accumulation of stickers across the month. Um, you know, and and add some variety to it. Maybe do some indoor stuff, maybe change to a different route. If you can at the weekend go a little bit further, um add some hills, listen to your favorite music. Um, you can listen to our podcast or your other favorite podcasts, listen to audiobooks. It's also a great way to get out with your pets. It's good for them, it's good for your kids. It teaches them good habits. So you have a lot of different options for getting started. And I would say, you know, make sure that you're wearing good shoes with that are comfortable with some good arch support because that's the one thing you want to look after to make sure it's healthy for your body. And know the terrain and um check the weather forecast before setting out because if it looks like rain is coming, it doesn't mean you can't walk. You can walk in any weather as long as you're dressed properly for it or you have at least an umbrella or a rain jacket to put on later on. And like any other exercise, I would say make sure you do a little bit of a warm up and a cool down. So maybe you go at a more leisurely pace for the first five minutes or first few minutes of your walk. And then if you get um, when you get finished, do a little bit of stretching. And yeah, setting setting some goals, tracking your progress, those are all things that that I think can can really help keep you keep you motivated and focused. And the one thing, the other thing I will say is just to be very safety conscious, um, I have a one of those um reflective vests that I put on over my coat during these dark winter mornings when I go out with the dog because I really don't want to get hit by a car, because we don't have pavements here or sidewalks for our American listeners. Um, but you know, make sure that if you're going alone, somebody knows where you are, just to common common sense safety things and just make it enjoyable. What would what would make it fun for you? Um yeah, I don't know. Any other thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Well, only I suppose to say, have we convinced you, dear listeners? Are you uh more prone to think about potentially going for a walk today? And if so, why not head out and do one? Even if it's just around the block, it's a real no pressure, no barrier way to prioritize your health. And so either head out and and do it, or if you're already a walker and you're already using this great form of exercise to better your physical or mental health during the menopause transition, why not actually tell us about it? So you can do that in several different ways. You know, you can email us so we can talk about it in a future podcast, you can volunteer yourself as an interviewee for a future podcast if you if you if you'd like to, or you can share things on social media or via email with us, and then we'll send them out to our wider community for some tips and things like that. So we've been talking a lot about the number of steps, and we've not actually mentioned the 10,000 step myth, thank God, today. But here are three that Julie's going to share with you that you can take to get better health right here and right now. Julie.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Well, the first one you can do is like and subscribe to our podcast because we're here every week um helping women in menopause with their journey with great health tips, guest experts, and information that matters about how to manage your health through this important phase of life. Um, we'd love it if you'd follow us on social media at Fabulous Beyond 40 coaching. You can find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. We even have a free Facebook group if you're interested in getting some more free information. And we also offer a free coaching call for for people who are curious about what steps they might want to take and what that journey might look like. And this is not a this is not a sales call, this is a coaching call where we have a listen to what's going on with you, what things you're doing really well, where you could use some support. And we make sure that you lead that call with with a plan. So we'd love it if you would um get in touch with us and and book one of those calls that's easily found at freecall.fabulousbeyond40.com. And of course, we'll have all of that information below in the show notes. So I'm and now I'm inspired. I'm as soon as we're done recording, I'm gonna take the dog out for a walk.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Excellent. So just remember everyone, every step you take is an investment in your health and happiness. We've been coaches James and Julia Fabulous Beyond 40 on the Empower Your Menopause uh podcast. Reminding you to stay strong and stay fabulous, and we will see you next time. Take care of the thing.