Finding Exercise Motivation After Menopause

If you personally are struggling with motivation, or you're trying to tirelessly motivate a friend or sister to get started, or maybe you're listening, you're a health or fitness professional, and you're trying to get your client to get on the bandwagon and stay there, this episode is for you. Welcome back to the Flipping 50 Show. Those of you who are rejoining me, if this is your first episode, welcome, welcome. I'm Debra Atkinson, and we're diving deep into exercise motivation after menopause. So that can be you're, you're in your late 30s or you're over 40 and you can't figure out why it's so hard to get started or stay with it. Now, especially for those of you, I think it's most puzzling for you if you've never had an issue with this before and now suddenly you do. It's actually not you. It's potentially not what you think. And yes, your hormones of course impact it, but it's something else and there are answers. It's not you, it's your neurotransmitters. So before we dive in, I wanna let you know this episode is sponsored by the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist. And during Menopause Awareness Month in October, we're enrolling early for 2026 with huge savings to the menopause fitness specialists who join us then. There are perks, there are huge savings, and an opportunity to get in before rates increase in 2026. And you don't have to wait until the rest of the cohort joins us late in the year wishing they had done it sooner. You can get started now. I am a firm believer that your successful January or the following year starts at the very least with planning that begins in your last 90 days. Of the year before. This is when I'm looking at what's going on in all of our launches, in our new products. I'm reflecting on the previous year, and even from October to October, as opposed to January through December, you've got 12 months to look at. Maybe you're newer in business and don't, but this is the perfect time to get started. So whether you're serious, you're already a trainer serving women, but maybe not getting them the results that you want, or have a formula so that it's a little more similar. And I don't mean a cookie cutter. I mean you have framework so you have a reliable step-by-step. Even though each woman's journey is different, there is a congruent, cohesive way to walk her through so that you're not missing something that you could pay for later. So the link in the show notes for today will give you all the details and reach out to us I'm always still opening my own DMs in Instagram. If you have questions, you don't have to be a certified trainer or coach yet. If you're one of our members and you want to dive in, now's the time. All right. So are you struggling with motivation after menopause? Things can change. So if you're wondering, why can't I— why can't I get motivated to exercise after menopause? I want you to close your eyes for a minute. Well, don't do that if you're driving. Certainly don't do that if you're walking. But I want you to imagine you're playing musical chairs. You remember? The music plays and say 6 people are walking around a circle of 5 chairs. And as the music stops, one person won't get a chair and will be eliminated. Another chair is removed and the music plays and the game goes on until there's just one person left who manages to get her little fanny in the chair before anybody else as the music stops. Say you're at a church bazaar, and now you know a little bit about my childhood— Methodist, by the way. It's called the cakewalk, and the lucky winner walks away with her choice of the cake that the ladies of the church baked and brought to earn money for charity or mission. At a birthday party, the winner wins some kind of a favor. So the chairs represent your dopamine receptors. And if you're not quite sure what dopamine is, give me a moment. Every song represents your menopause transition. You have fewer dopamine receptors to receive feel-good hormones. When you exercise. Yeah, let that sink in for a minute. So menopause and estrogen decline basically took away chairs. So feel-good hormones that normally would come in when you exercise don't have a place to sit down. There's no room. Standing room only. And you would think maybe that's a good thing, but standing doesn't cut it. You need them to be able to sit down, to latch on in order for them to count. So this reduction in dopamine receptors leads to reduced physical activity. Studies are showing, and I know right now that is like a dynamic term, that there are research police in academics out there that are gaslighting anyone else who doesn't have a PhD and who are calling themselves doctors because they hope you're fooled thinking it's medical doctor. It's rude. All right. We're at war with each other, wasting time and energy pointing fingers. But the truth is, I hear medical doctors all the time say, as they're giving a speech, the studies say, the research says, So please don't shoot me. Don't shoot arrows, don't shoot daggers, don't shoot bullets and say, oh, she's not credible because she says science says. So if you want to come to the show notes and you're a prove it to me girl, you're my kind of girl. And the studies are in the podcast. So please do go realize that if you happen to be seeing this, watching this, or hearing this on YouTube, That's a free platform and we're gifting you the access to it. So sometimes true, we don't always include the studies when we say the research shows, but let me tell you that you cannot teach in the Department of Kinesiology and wing it. You cannot lecture internationally and get asked to present at major fitness associations or sit on the board of advisors or write programs or write textbook chapters without concrete science and evidence. Please know I do my due diligence and I share it with you without naming by name and by year because after 41 years you can imagine that gets a little hard, right? So yes, every once in a while I do quote a study and I'm breaking down the study and all those notes are right in front of me, but when it's not I don't. You'll find a study today in, from Metabolism, the journal, as well as from the Journal of Surgical Medicine, and an older study that included, because it's relevant to a conversation I had with an expert, it's one of his published studies, and it is older, kind of outside of what we generally consider, which is about 10 years of legit science that we talk about. But this study published in obesity is very relevant. It was in 2010, and there have been multiple studies published on this topic. That'll make sense to you in a minute. So I'm sorry about that side note, but I felt it was— I'm such a— it's a red flag right now for me. Right now, every time I say that, I catch it. I realize that you should be asking questions. I think it's great if you are. I hope that you're very aware You should ask somebody, do you have the science or where can I find it? And the answer to that today is in the show notes. It's right there. So, all right, back to the task at hand. So dopamine receptors are tied to— so fewer dopamine receptors that occur in menopause because the function of dopamine receptors is decreased after estrogen levels decrease. That's also tied to lower physical activity. Why would that be? It seems when there's no brain reward— and I'll explain what dopamine does in a moment— when there's no brain reward, like if you were on drugs, if you, if you were having coffee, let's say, which actually is a drug, if you're having coffee for a little pick-me-up in afternoon. If there was no pick-me-up, you probably stop having coffee. You're not just having it for the taste or the flavor, are you? I don't know, maybe. But someone sent me recently, uh, something that is a non-caffeinated drink that also will give you energy. And I was like, okay, I'll try it. But I haven't. It's on my counter because I'm like, but no, I want the caffeine, right? So there are things if we don't get the reward for doing them, we're not going to do. And a lot of us look forward to that reward after exercise. That is like, you know, like stress is down and maybe a boost of energy and a better mood. Like I can conquer the world. Like it's like you walk out of the gym or you walk out of your home gym and you have your cape on again, like, ta-da, here I am, you know, and you're flying off to, you know, save small children and leap tall buildings, that kind of thing. So think of it that way. If there's no mental reward at the end, we actually will stop doing it. You may have noticed this in your relationship. Maybe you used to do certain things for your partner or your spouse, and they kind of stopped recognizing you for that, stopped thanking you, stopped acknowledging or letting you know, I really love it when you do that. Chances are you might have stopped doing those, some of those things that you did earlier in your relationship. Same kind of concept. So exercise can increase our dopamine receptors, and this is in animal studies. In humans, there doesn't seem to be much research about exercise increasing dopamine receptors. It's harder to find. I struggled, didn't see any. However, a decreased dopamine and serotonin response also occurs in response to food consumption. So I want you to gather this: there's a decreased dopamine and serotonin response that occurs in response to our food consumption. So unlike with exercise, which some scientists think this decrease in— we're not getting as much dopamine or serotonin when we say, "Eat a sweet potato." We might be more likely to eat more. Scientists believe that that decrease in dopamine and serotonin when we're eating could be the driving force leading to the desired feelings by eating more. Maybe it's a part of obesity. So there's less motivation to exercise, which can be associated with more negative feelings. Most of us, when we eat, there is a positive feeling associated with that. You know, we may not get the, ooh, you know, the hit from it in the same way. And so we'd keep eating, Because, I mean, unlike exercise, it's not painful. There's no discomfort. There's no having to sweat, take another shower. There's a lot of reasons why someone might be less likely to want to exercise, but food is kind of different. And yet there is a similar response for it. So there's less motivation to exercise, which can be associated with negative feelings from past experiences. Or discomfort, again, aches, pains, joints issues, just maybe even just embarrassment, there's more motivation to eat to create pleasure because there isn't that acute discomfort. And in some cases, it's perceived that eating or overeating provides some kind of pleasure. That's acutely, by the way. So there, of course, are those feelings of guilt afterward if you've eaten too much or eaten things that you wish you hadn't. There is going to be that most likely. I mean, we've all probably experienced that to some small degree. Those of you who might suffer from compulsive overeating, or there's a certain food, and I'll tell you right here, true confessions, for me it used to be popcorn, right? And I, I don't know when that got started, but I loved popcorn since I was a little girl, and it also is associated with just being at home, feeling safe, you know, popcorn on Sunday nights with a movie, and definitely on holidays. Do you remember when they used to play The Wizard of Oz or The Sound of Music, or it was The Ten Commandments, you know, and it was both the movie but it was all the whole family in the living room, my mom making the popcorn for everybody. And that was— so it's got some connotations with it, right? And then going to the movies was so fun. And yet when I got married, first of all, back up to college. So popcorn seemed like— if you walk into a dorm floor, you know what it's like. You go through every hallway and it feels like every room is making popcorn. It's like I can smell it. So that was a thing. But we used to feast on popcorn, like overeat it, and sometimes that would be supper, but we'd have a ton of it. And then when I got married, my husband also loved popcorn. So we would go to the movies, like on a Friday night, and that was dinner. We'd get a huge tub of buttered popcorn, the one that you get refills with, you know, a huge tub between two Just adult humans, that is enough, like beyond enough. No, no, he would go back and we would fill it. He would fill it again, come back, and we'd probably demolish that too. Both of us have popcorn gut the next day. It was awful, but we would repeat it again and again over time. So I've since learned my lesson. By the way, I don't eat popcorn anymore. It's one of those foods I really can't control myself with. I haven't had it for probably a long time. I took my mom to the movies probably 8 years ago. Um, I take that back, it was in 2019. It was the last time I spent Christmas with her. She hadn't been to the theater in a long time, and I got her popcorn, and, um, and she was a little forgetful at that moment. And I said, I thought you weren't supposed to eat popcorn because of your teeth, because she had told me that the dentist told her don't do that. You know, because that's why you broke a tooth. And whether she didn't remember it or she claimed— she's like, no, what are you talking about? Because you were not going to take that popcorn bowl away from her. So there you have a little insight into my family. All right, so let's come back to what is dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. Dopamine Dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin. They're three I've talked about in the past. I've talked about them in books, but just to refresh your memory, they're basically feel-good hormones. Dopamine gets enhanced and makes you feel better, powerful. Serotonin is slightly different. For females, serotonin is very powerful. If you have depression, your first thing that they're going to suggest is an SSRI. It is to support your serotonin production. But did you know that natural ways to produce more serotonin include exercise? Doing the exercise outdoors, exposure to sunlight is really strong to help serotonin production. So you may notice you're in a better mood if you've gotten outside and venting to our friends is actually true. And Dr. John Gray, the author of the Mars and the Venus books, has been on the show I think 2 or 3 times at this point. A favorite downloaded, by the way, so you might want to go listen to those. But he said there's actually science behind the fact that women boost their mental health by gossiping. And it's, you know, just talking with a friend, venting. We don't have to solve problems. Like, men feel better if they can solve our problem, if we're talking to them about a problem. But what we really want is just somebody to listen. We want to talk it out. That's it. And it works really well for women to do that. So there is that. So the trilogy for creating your own serotonin, giving yourself a boost, a mood boost. Get outdoors with a friend in sunlight, do a little talking, venting, gossip if you must, and do the movement while you're doing that. So going to exercise classes with a friend can also help. I'll give you some more suggestions at the end of the show. But similarly, oxytocin is known as the cuddle hormone. It's the hug hormone. As soon as you give somebody a hug, your oxytocin goes up. Being with pets, petting them, petting a horse, riding a horse, being with animals increases your serotonin. So it's not just hugs, by the way. It's holding hands. It's, you know, having somebody's arm around you. Sex actually increases oxytocin. So there you go. I'll write you a note if you need it. So these things all enhance our mood, make us feel potentially, some of them, a little more safe. Or heard. And another one is called BDNF. It's brain-derived neurotrophic factor that also increases from exercise, but that has to do with your memory. It has to do with somewhat cognitive function, firing on all cylinders, and with mood. So again, mood, mood, mood, mood. It's— exercise is very closely linked to those things. Obese individuals have lower baseline levels of BDNF. So we're really talking here about menopause. But if you're also significantly overweight— and I want you to remember something that I think we all thought, well, obesity, that happens to somebody else. But obesity is your classification if you have 30% or greater body fat, and it's not that hard to get there. So if you are losing muscle mass, you have been taking your eye off that ball. Never put it there in the first place. Gaining lean muscle mass is one of the first solutions to fix that problem. So realize that we need this. So just coming back to summarize, a decline in your estrogen that occurs naturally for every woman by the time she hits her 40s impacts the availability of dopamine receptors. Dopamine controls motivation and reward. So there it is. The signaling for it is altered. So again, exercise can increase those neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin, as well as BDNF. And I will sum suggest some ways we can also increase serotonin, another neurotransmitter related to mood. So here's the bottom line: exercise simply doesn't feel as good as it used to. And if you're— you've been overweight your whole life, you've never really, quote unquote, bonded with exercise, it's not going to be any easier to start now. You've probably been trying for years knowing you should, and now you really potentially feel it. You know that aging well is dependent on your exercise and your muscle. The muscle affects the bone density. The muscle affects the brain health. The muscle affects your ability to be independent as you age. All the positive quotes and uplifting affirmations that you don't personally feel will fall short when it comes to exercise, simply because you don't have these baseline rewards. So you can't just say it. But also, I want to drive this home, it's really tied this to meditation, the success of meditation. Because I know a lot of people will say, well, I've tried it before and I've tried affirmations, like I have them plastered on my mirror. That's great, but if you're just reading it, and you actually aren't yet feeling it, you have to not just connect your brain, which is the reading it logically. Yes, it makes sense to you that if you keep following that path and thinking it, you'll get there. But the missing piece is the emotion. You have to actually put yourself there in the moment where you have what you want and you're feeling the way that you want to feel. Because if you're there and you can have gratitude for that, your, your mind will conspire to help you make that happen, to, to make it come true, because it doesn't know the difference between living in the moment and having that actually be true and having you just close your eyes and feel it. You know, when you wake up from a dream, and if you wake up at just the right time, it is like You're looking around feeling that I was just in that moment, like I was just there, like that person was right there. That is how strongly you have to feel when you're doing a meditation. It has to be that real for you. I have to be in the moment. So obviously you want to meditate on something good because it will be more possible once you've created that. People start to exercise all the time. And some continue and some don't. Why? There's a couple of reasons, lots of them actually. Too much too soon. It's not just about injury. That's what we have to consider. And I think that's where if you're listening and you're a health coach or a trainer, you want to really tune in. This is about your brain's response to the exercise as well as to too much too soon for your joints or your ligaments or your muscles. Or your tendons. So I want to take a brief pause here and just let you know that no matter what you're doing exercise-wise, exercise alone can't overcome a lack of protein.

Hey, this is Debra Atkinson, and there's one thing that you can't do in the gym at your age And that's get all the protein that you need. You've got to do that in the kitchen. To make it easy for myself to not only get the protein but the fiber, fruits and veggies that I want daily, I started drinking a smoothie a day over 30 years ago when I realized all the junk, the sugar, and the extras that you don't want hiding in most protein powders or pre-made shakes. I finally caved in after years of saying I'd never ever ever sell supplements. Look, stop skipping, skimping, and sabotaging yourself in the morning and after workouts by always being prepared. Protein plus fiber kill cravings and boost satiety and build muscles and a strong future. Use code PODCAST for 10% off your first order at flipping50.com. Today.

One of the reasons I created the Flipping 50 Protein— we're now calling it Longevity Pro because longevity protein, right? We need more protein than we've ever thought before. Most women that I've worked with over the last 41 years are eating too little overall, not just protein. But almost at 50% of the total protein that they actually need for muscle protein synthesis. So about 100 grams a day of protein, that's just in alignment with metabolic health based on research by Dr. Donald Layman. We need that for metabolic health. And what does that mean? That means body composition optimization, blood sugar optimization, Being healthy, not sick. That we're not talking about fitness and standing up on stage and flexing in a bathing suit, scraping into your buns. We're just talking about living independently, strongly. That's about 100 grams minimum for everybody. Not, not just this woman or that woman or his weight or her weight, but minimum of 100 grams a day. But more in alignment with ISSA recommendations for women in sport, closer to 0.7, and that's, I would say, low in my opinion, but 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of your healthy, your ideal body weight. So what is that? I right now weigh about 130, 132. By the way, I just put on 2 pounds of lean muscle. And that means what? It means my clothes fit the same, but I have more muscle tone, more muscle definition. I sleep better, and I'm probably gonna age better because I've done that. Now, that wasn't easy because I have been very consistent, and unless I've been sick or injured or excruciatingly busy, I have been very very diligent over 4 decades. Yes, that's true. So how did I, at 61, put on 2 pounds of muscle? I didn't spend more time in the gym. I don't have more time, actually. Some days I'd really love to do that and hide out there as opposed to behind a computer, but I can't. I, I'm on a mission and I'm committed to it and to you and to our health. And our daughters' and our daughter-in-law's health. And we need to change the message, and we need to change what's happening within the fitness industry so health coaches and trainers who are heart-centered also have the knowledge so they can be found by people like you who might be listening and who can also create a lifestyle that they love. I mean, no longer should trainers say, well, I do this for free and not be able to make a living doing it, because too often that's what happens. They can't be found because there are a lot of good marketers who are no good at what they're doing, and that's who you find, and then you're frustrated. So we're not after that, but the mission I'm on means I don't have a lot of time to exercise. I didn't start eating tons more protein either, but I, I did take a supplement, and I'll be spilling the beans on that in a little bit. But the Flipping 50 protein powder has been key in helping me fit in. You know, I generally do a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner, but when I'm really lifting and really want to really build muscle and focusing on it, I need that fourth time of an eating incident with 30 grams of protein. So 30, sometimes I can get 30 or 40 to 50 grams of protein in a meal. And if I can do that, 3 is enough. But I'm a, I'm a huge fan of the dose spread out throughout the day during whatever your eating window is, to give a bump and a bump and a bump and a bump that is consistent over time so that the body can absorb it. And if you have any gut issues, you will recognize that this makes it more comfortable to eat throughout the day. So by the way, if you have gut issues right now, it's really very important that you deal with that because you could be eating things that you're not even absorbing. It's not natural to have gas, bloat, constipation, or diarrhea. But if you too want to try Flipping 50 Protein, you can find that at flipping50.com. Www.thefitclubnetwork.com/protein, and you'll see all of the options that we've got there. Vanilla is our top bestseller, so we've actually discontinued chocolate. Cacao powder makes a great chocolate protein and offers some benefits of its own. So there you have it. So let's talk about this. The secret to motivation, a lot of people think, is willpower. Like they think they're lazy and it's just a lie. The secret to motivation often is through commitment. So it doesn't take motivation or willpower once you've committed when it feels better, and you have to be committed to it for long enough to allow yourself to have the feel-good from it. Because when you first get started, you may be uncomfortable because you're embarrassed, you lack confidence doing it. And if you are more overweight or you have joints that haven't moved for a while, there may be some slight discomfort. Biomechanics are not what they should be, and we need to address that as well. But we humans run to pleasure and we run away from pain. So what you believe is also very important, so that there is a knowing that what you are doing is getting you where you want to. Then we do it. When you believe what it is you're doing is getting you what you want and where you want to go, we tend to do it. So part of this is really an understanding, and this is what I found so true for women over 40 in the last, in the last 20 years because I've paid so much closer attention when I've been over 40. But I think I knew this intuitively. I think I was one of those old souls. So at 22, I was raised by older parents. My siblings were 16 and 13 years and also 6, but older than me. And my parents— my mom was 38 when she had me, so an older mom in that time anyway. And my stepdad was 10 years older than she was. So when they got married, they were 54 and 44. My parents— that's me in first grade, right? So my parents were the same age as many of my friends' grandparents. That's who they played cards with and hung out with at the golf course. And so it was hard for me because, you know, other parents like socialized together, but mine didn't. They socialized in a different crowd. So it was a little odd and awkward, but what you want to do is get yourself to a place where what you do and you believe is understood. You're, you're thinking, I can connect the dots between here's where I am, here's where I want to go, and here's what somebody is telling me the steps are. You're not just following blindly, but you actually understand. This makes sense. So you're looking for a guide who can say to you, okay, you've just explained something that maybe was complex to me in really easy-to-understand terms. I've gone through a lot of people who explain tech to me. And many of them explain it in a way that I don't understand. And when that happens to me, that's a red flag. Because the smartest people in the room can take that complex thing and make it simple. When people are trying to explain something and then they're kind of talking in circles and they're passing it off as, you know, well, you don't need to know that necessarily, but what you do need to know is this. And I'm kind of like, if you can't explain it in a way that I can understand, not sure that I trust you, right? So I want you always to be in a place where you know ask a question if it doesn't make sense why you're doing that, because you should be able to push that button with whoever is supporting you and get an answer that is reasonable, that resonates with you, that you understand. And you should also be able to ask a question about that, their answer to that, and they should not be offended or flustered or perturbed that you keep asking. Very recently I've heard answers to questions in two different situations. One of them was, because I have a master's degree. That was a trainer speaking to a client. In another instance, it was like, because I'm the doctor. And that was someone who was my doctor for about 5 minutes and after that was no longer. Like, that's just like I'm asking you a question and that's your answer? Like, I'm asking you why you'd say that. I'm asking you what makes you come to that conclusion. And instead of giving me what I needed in order to feel safe, secure, and treated by the right person, I got something far different and defensive. That doesn't make sense and it doesn't work for me. I hope it doesn't work for you too. We become addicted to things for this reason, like the quick fix, right? So it's really easy to know that there's something you're going to get an immediate result from, and then you do, or in one way or another. So I'm going to give an example to somebody who's following an exercise program that is actually not getting them the physical results that they want. And yet it may be giving them that brain-derived neurotropic response that feels kind of like a bath for the brain. It feels really good. Or maybe they're getting a little dopamine hit from it because high-intensity interval training, by the way, will do that. Endurance activity it doesn't necessarily do that, especially for women of a certain age anymore. But if you are doing exercise that does not give you results and yet your brain is getting a little fix, you might continue to want to do it because you want to feel good. And if you don't do that, you don't have other sources of feeling good. You know, and, and by other sources, what I mean is I don't me drugs, but I mean, you know, a hobby or listening to music or allowing yourself to be quiet and enjoying, you know, a night by the fire or getting outdoors in nature. So the other things that can also give you a little fix. So think about this, whether it's— might be going to church actually might make you feel that way. That probably in inspires oxytocin because you potentially will shake a lot of hands. You're going to hear music, music that's probably tied to emotion from love in your childhood. And you're going to do a routine, like, you know, when you go to Sunday service, you go to confession. I'm not Catholic, but I'm guessing. So those things are ritual and routine, and there's some comfort in things like that for most of us. If there is, right? There may be those of you listening that would say, "Absolutely not, triggers me." But it also could be Diet Coke, right? So a little hit of caffeine, maybe the bubbles bring back memory. Maybe you hear the song in the back of your head, <LYRICS>I'd like to teach the world to sing.</LYRICS> Is that Coke or is that Pepsi? I might've got that wrong. Okay, but you get the idea. Like it triggers good memories. It could be shopping, it could be gambling, it could be porn. Yeah. And it could be exercise. We can overindulge on that too. Feeling good only when we're doing something right isn't working. We actually want that feel-good, yes, but we also want to feel good around the clock because of the physical changes that are happening. Your values play a big role in things you do every day. So that was a real pivot, right? So talking about addiction, feeling good from some kind of addiction, and there's positive and negative addiction. And this discussion really became pretty widely explored back in the late '70s and '80s, much more so about the time I was in undergrad and going on to grad school, and I wanted to really study this. My major professor was just like, no, no, and no. Why? She was adamant. She's gone, so I can't ask her anymore why that was true. But your values are also very important. They play a big role in what you and I do every day, how we spend our time. I want to tell you something. It's It's 3:15 on a Sunday afternoon. The sun is out. It's been raining here for 3 days in a row. You know, I really value the swimming pool, but I value being outdoors in sunshine and relaxing on a sunny day. But I also value hard work getting a message out, and I like keeping my promises to myself and to my team. And I need to record a podcast right now for working ahead. I have a very busy couple of weeks coming up. Moab retreat with our Flipping 50 retreat attendees coming up, and then I am a speaker for a conference for A4M, which for some of you, that is a functional medicine conference for primarily physicians, but other health pros are there as well. And I'm presenting to physicians on muscular skeletal changes that occur in menopause, what we can do about them, for them, what the exercise prescription is, and how we take care of— for them, patients, for me, clients— and help women age better. It is a women's health conference. Busy times. So I'm doing this because this is a really strong value, and I'll get outside somehow for a little sunshine too. Less probably than is ideal. You know, if I could have had my way, I would have been at the pool 2 hours ago and stayed all afternoon. But I have more urgency to do things that are really in my higher sense of value right now. How you spend your time will make it very clear to people who don't even know you very much what your values are. I'm going to meet with, you know, about 8 people this week. Who value their health, their wellness, their physical fitness level. And we're going to talk about longevity at our retreat, talk about what they're doing to get out of their comfort zone for their longevity. So even if you and I didn't know each other, if we had a conversation that involved, you know, what you do for a living, how you spend your time, where you live, I would probably know, and you me, by the end of that conversation what each of our values were. It's based on our daily habits, where we spend our time and our money and our energy, and by how we drive, what we drive, how and where we live. They aren't as easily apparent because in some ways we may have just picked up things and do things because of status, and somebody can interpret them differently than intended, that's for sure. But this is— motivation is way beyond just, you have to know your why. A lot of fitness professionals will say that. A man named Simon Sinek wrote a book, you know, about your why, and it can be really important, but I prefer your cry why. What is that one thing that you— that makes you cry, or would if you didn't have it? You know, if I took XXX, you know, you fill in the blank, away from you, if it would 100% change the way you feel and you act and you live, it's a value. If I— somebody took from me the ability to be physically active. For me personally, that would be devastating because it's such a piece of my core values. The ability to be outdoors and move my body freely in sunshine or cloudy days, to feel the wind on my face, to explore nature, or even, even a city if it's that, but to do it physically, not in a bus or car and taxi. So what would you do? Or would you find a way if something was taken from you? You're a runner who can no longer run. Would you find another way to do it anyway in some other way? There's a lot of people who would, who would struggle at first, but who would find that When you really tap into all that we've gone over today, and there's diverse topics here, a diverse amount of them. Number one, it's not your fault if you've lost some motivation. The reduction of estrogen means there is reduced receptors for all those feel-good hormones. Still, exercise will help help you create more dopamine, more oxytocin, more serotonin, and more BDNF factor, but you will be at a lower base number, baseline number, than you were before. That doesn't mean go get more exercise longer or harder or more days a week. It means give yourself some patience. And here's what I would say I would couple it with things that also amplify dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Walk with a pet, ride a horse, be out in nature, do it with friends, get exposure to sunlight. All of those things are ways that you increase your neurotransmitters. So if you're— add music to it, if you're dancing, you're moving, all of those things may help you amplify the dopamine and the function of it. If you are, for instance, on hormone replacement, you may find that it really changes the motivation that you have for exercise. But if you're not on HRT, you can still help yourself with all of these things. Get your favorite tunes on your phone, listen to them as you're moving. Go to a class, dance with someone, ballroom dance. What are you getting? You're getting the sense of touch, touch with someone, standing close to them, moving to music, and the music— all of those things amplify it. So there's so many ways that you can help yourself with motivation, but don't forget, those physical things are one piece. The other piece is the emotional. Can you close your eyes? Can you see yourself feeling the way you want to in your body? As you're moving or doing things that you want to do in your future? Can you close your eyes and tap into the feeling of gratitude for already having it? And you have to check in. Is physical fitness, being fit, a strong body, is that a core value? If it is, you're going to have an easier time. If it's not, you will have a harder time. But if you're here in the, the intellect of knowing you're going to age better, stronger, be more independent, be able to take care of yourself is a strong motivator for you, you may be able to overcome it because you value that. Maybe what you value value instead is mastery, independence, and that physical fitness is just the road to it. Tapping into your value is what matters, not tapping into mine, which is actually the physical fitness and the ability to move and enjoy movement. That may not be your value. Tap into what is. If you want more on tapping into values and you'd like a workshop, I've done a workshop for almost 25 years now as a life coach. You never hear me say that because that sounds a little godlike for me. So I've always used wellness coach, functional health coach when I speak of my coaching. But I did A few years ago, on January 1st, I released a podcast episode that was really like a workshop that I would recommend you listen to and you push stop. It's the only podcast where I've ever said I would prefer that you do this like a workshop. Don't go for a walk while you're doing this one. I want you to sit and listen and take notes and write down things because it will talk you through your values. They'll talk about how you're spending your time and what you want in your life, or what you want to change, and what you love already, by the way. So I'll put the link for that in the show notes, as well as the references for you Prove It to Me girls listening, and I love you. And those of you who are interested in the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist list, jump in. October is Menopause Awareness Month, and we all know the awareness of menopause and its importance in our health now and our health later is extremely important. It's a pivotal time in our lives, and we are either going to age better because of the way we lived and exercised during menopause, or we're going to age worse. There is no neutral. I hope you choose to age better with me. I'll see you on the flip side. Thanks so much for joining. If you would share this with just one person, you help expand our reach, and I thank you.