My Morning Routine and How It’s Changed Over Time

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What are you waiting for? Good night. How should you start your morning? How should you start your morning if you actually want a stellar day full of energy, no cravings, stable ability to focus and concentrate? I've got all the answers inside of this, and I share not only what my current morning routine is and why it's changed since I was younger, but what I wish it was. Stay tuned for that.

I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50. I started this podcast over a decade ago to answer questions about fitness in menopause and beyond before you knew to ask them. The goal to to help accelerate your results with science and the practical application of proven protocols while living your best life. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than a midlife woman, and it's not just about you but the 3 generations that you influence. My unique 40-year career career, including being a university senior lecturer in kinesiology, an industry subject matter expert, and an international speaker, to founder of the first and the only exclusively made-for-menopause and beyond fitness membership in the world. Every week I interview experts behind the scenes and the science of optimal hormone balancing, fitness, and longevity, and share answers to our community's questions so you can have the vitality and the energy that you want, need, and deserve.

In my 20s, I would go for a run probably within an hour of waking. And the older I've gotten, the longer I would linger over my coffee and my studies or my work. It wasn't just like sitting, staring off into the sunrise with my coffee, but it was actually focused on writing articles, learning something, memorizing something for a class, or literally brainstorming it, what it was I wanted to do and to be. Do you remember those good old days when you didn't actually have the to-do list yet? You were deciding what you wanted it to be. Yeah, that. So I have, I have confessions to make. So it wasn't always coffee. It wasn't, definitely wasn't always matcha, which is my go-to now. It's my first thing in the morning now. But there was a time when it may or may not have been Diet Coke. I know. So yeah, and you wonder why I had gut issues when I was younger. I don't wonder that at all. But I will tell you that. And yeah, there was a time where I was teaching a lot of fitness classes and I was doing it early. I was, I was even doing it late because there was a company in town, just outside of town, that was shift work, and they liked to do a workout when they got off, like at 11. Yeah, and Debra's a morning girl, she always has been. So can you imagine? I, I had empathy and learned the hard way what was it like for shift workers. And at that time when I was teaching those and this wasn't a regular gig, but when I was teaching those 11 PM classes, you know, that meant you get home, you know, and in not a large city, so get home, you know, wash your face, get in bed, you know, it's maybe 12:30, but you're kind of wound up. It's not all that easy to kind of come down off of that. And then I was teaching, uh, like a 6 AM class again. Yeah, so those were the crazy days when we all thought that was a good idea. We no longer do, and I'm pretty sure I knew it really wasn't a great idea then for me because when I wasn't working out, I was tired and recovering. I needed caffeine or I needed food. I was probably looking for sugar instead of looking for the right things. So there's that. But I still wanted to move in the morning. When my habit got so that I pushed my workout back a little bit, it wasn't out of intelligence or knowing that maybe the pressure— intervertebral pressure with discs plumping overnight, and then you're trying to also add additional pressure to that by exercising. It wasn't that I knew that in advance. And by the way, if all of what I just said is new to you, I will link in the show notes. So check to my team, let's make sure that we do that about some special science that is out there suggesting that you don't do that vigorous exercise until 45 to 60 minutes afterward. After you've been up, just upright, all you have to do is sit it up and you're golden. Gravity will do its job. So that's an important thing. But this is really important because I discovered early on— I got lucky— that my focus on concentration, my ability to just brainstorm and kind of daydream about what I wanted to write articles, to be creative, was really best first thing in the morning. And, and it's true, even later I found that if I stayed focused on studying or a project delayed the run or whatever it was gonna be for a couple of hours, I could get another chunk of creative time after I came back from that exercise, showered, ate, and then boom, it was almost like I can get a second wind and do that again. I often will say to people, if you're a morning person, you identify with this. I can get more done between 5 and 9 than most people do between 9 and 5. So number one, fewer interruptions, right? Nobody's gonna bother you too much at 5:00 AM. And just dogs and babies is what I found. So all of a sudden, when I had a baby, my quiet time in the morning was gone for a period of time anyway. Well worth it, by the way, if you're listening. But even when I was training for iron distance triathlons, And that's when you start putting in a lot of endurance work. And by the way, that's not a suggestion for any woman who's going through perimenopause or menopause necessarily as a way to get in shape. It's not what I would recommend. Definitely. I would need to get in a long swim or a run, or maybe a 3 to 4 hour long ride. And by the way, longer, again, not beneficial is, you know, I get some good ideas on the bike. I have conversations with people I should never have in real life with people while I'm on the bike or even in a swim. But you don't necessarily tap into those ideas and bring them back all the time. You know, now I could probably do that much easier because you can pause, you can probably use your phone and record a voice memo. I don't know that I used that to my full potential when I was in those training eras that I was using. But after a really good long training session, there was not much second wind. I might come in, dump a few ideas that I've got before I jumped in the shower, but afterward you're toast. You just want to relax. You want to watch some numbing thing on television where you don't have to think. And then pretty shortly after that, you're going to want to go to sleep. You eat, sleep, and exercise. That's pretty much it. The science behind, though, the sharper mind in the morning is related to cortisol. So our brains tend to work best on higher stressful situations early in the day. Mental focus tends to be best. Now, this is not absolutely you or I, but it tends to be best between about 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Now, I don't know about you, but I think we spin that dial if you're a morning person You know, I'm probably good till about noon, but I come back from lunch and it's like, yeah, no, it's not the same as it was at 9 AM. It's just not. For those of you that are more night owls, you don't probably start with firing on all cylinders first thing in the morning. It may be 10 to 2. It may even be a little bit later. Maybe 12 to 4 is a better time for you. But I would say for almost nobody is late at night. A good time to focus. And if you are, you're probably not sleeping worth anything. And if you're not sleeping worth anything, your hormones are not getting the reset and recharge that they actually need, meaning cortisol calming down, your testosterone and growth hormone releasing. You're not getting the benefit from those things. Then the next day, your insulin levels, blood sugar is wonky. You know, nothing is working in your favor if you're a woman in midlife. So let's think about this. You know, it may be based on whether you, like me, are a morning person or you're an evening person. But think 10 to 2, and maybe you move it a little earlier. For me, I would say it's, it's probably more like 8 to noon, or I really rather would get up— I think this morning I had to lead a class from 8 to 10, but I also had some things projects I needed to get done, and I got up before in order to do them. I think the alarm went off at 4. The dog and I didn't get up until we have to cuddle, but he needs oxytocin, so do I. And, you know, so like 4:30, I was up before an 8:00 AM so that I could do some of that focused time, get, you know, 20 to 30 minutes between him getting a little bit of a walk, me getting some sprint intervals so that I was firing from 8 to 10 energetic. And when that meeting was over, I'm still highly energized. Had I not exercised and moved before that, I would not have felt that good all day long. That's just kind of a— you set yourself up for success. I'll come back to this at the end. So a hint again at At the end, I'm gonna tell you what I wish my morning routine was. And as we go into these last weeks and/or months right now as I record of the year, I'm working toward getting to that again. So I believe it's possible. I think you just slip into habits and all of a sudden they feel like, ugh, it's so hard to change, but we can do it. My best focus comes in the quiet of the morning. Nobody else is up yet or around. It's generally between 5:00 AM and 9:00 AM. This morning again, I got up because my productive window would've been lost had I waited until 10:00 AM when that class was finished. Now, another compelling reason for waiting to exercise is that science behind back injuries. So I just wanna remind you that, you know, getting up and doing a little bit of focus work, and maybe for you there's nothing really burning, you're not creating articles or you're not creating new programs What if you're planning your holiday dinner, you're deciding, you know, inventory, you're planning some surprise for an older adult at Christmas time or for a younger person, you know, all of that creative work that you might be doing, or as president or an officer in a club. There are things that I'm sure that each and every one of us does that maybe we don't give enough credit to. That quiet time first thing in the morning may be a great time for you to do this. So a fascinating article about sleep, sleep and wake cycles, and the benefits of naps and a shorter sleep compared to one long sleep at night and no naps may make you a believer in sleep or in naps. But even me, I'm a pretty proclaimed non-napper. Because I personally find it difficult to wake up and reengage in the day after a nap. I feel more groggy if I have taken a nap, and it doesn't matter for me. I mean, if you lay down, close your eyes, you get a power 15 or 20 minutes. For me, I'm done. Unless, unless, unless, and maybe even more, if I'm out in the sun. In a bathing suit on a beach, you know, no alcohol involved, but just, you know, taking a nap. I could probably do that 'cause I'm very relaxed. The sunshine is amazing for me. But even that, I would be just chill and relaxed the rest of the day. I am not gonna walk away and fire on all cylinders. There is something that we do in the Western culture about working too long. Essentially, it's the way we do it, the way we're rewarded for do it. Like, You come in early, you stay late, you're just the best. But your work productivity and quality-wise may be just crap, right? It doesn't matter, but we tend to reward people. I mean, when was the last time that really truly and authentically you've heard anybody get rewarded for taking a vacation? We tend to kind of say, you know, well, look at you, or I'd love your life. Even, even if somebody hasn't taken a vacation, you know, really for years and then they do. So we have to really be careful of that one, support each other. But I want you to think about this. There is something about the way we work and we just push through a day. We go in early and we stay late to get things done. We one more thing ourselves to death. I know every woman listening. Can identify with that, but it's just like one more thing, one more thing, right? And you're sitting there waiting for a meeting to start, but you get, oh, I'm going to start this because I have time. And then you realize you're late for the meeting. Well, you were there early, but you just got down this rabbit hole. You know, that is disrupting to something called your potassium sodium balance. Now, that may ring a bell as far as electrolytes go, and it would be true. When we work, we try powering through, we're in beta brainwaves. Now, when we sleep, we get more time in theta brainwaves, and that is where we're most or more creative. So it's why dreams can happen. And sometimes it's really beneficial to think about something important or plant a seed for what you want to happen before you go to bed, because you sometimes are just giving your mind something to play with overnight. So when we sleep, we get that more creative time. And if you study meditation at all, you're going to hear about different brain waves, and those are the waves associated with higher mental function, those that you're trying to at least tap into with meditation. Just before we go to sleep, we go from beta— that's our awake and analyzing, so we're really thinking about things to alpha where the mind chatter quiets. And then we go into theta where we're just, it's that half awake, half asleep thing. And then our deepest sleep cycle is delta. And that is where probably in your third and fourth phases of sleep in a 90-minute cycle when we're releasing growth hormone and testosterone levels, when we really recharge our hippocampus that's our memory central, gets an opportunity to kind of lock in everything we did from the day. And all of that says we do these 90-minute cycles during sleep. And when you wake up in the middle of the night, say, and you go to the restroom or do it, but you weren't jolted awake by anything, you were probably at the end of that 90 minutes and aware enough to feel, oh, there's a little urgency there. I should go take care of that. So you go do it and you fall right back asleep. But if you were, say, jolted awake by somebody snoring, the door closing, teenager coming in, you may not get back to sleep as easily because it was like boom, out of it and jolting, as opposed to finishing that cycle and then going right back into another cycle. So During the day, apparently our brains do much the same thing. It's not just at night. So during the day, if you get up and you start focusing on something, if you've ever noticed, I first learned this and then I put this to the test and I was like, geez, it's absolutely true. You know, at about 90 minutes, somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours, your brain just starts like wondering, like I'm working on it, working on it, but it's like, oh, the phone, I should scroll and see if anybody texted me last night. Wonder who's talking on my WhatsApp. And you just, you look for the numbers and how many likes did I get? It's like something to make your brain light up. It's crazy, but we get little dopamine hits. We get, it's not healthy necessarily, but we do it. But your brain just is like, I'm done focusing. I'm gonna go squirrel, penny, shiny penny. We can do that and try to bring ourselves back to it, or we will be more productive ultimately if we could take those 90 minutes, really work, and then 20 minutes, take a break. A brain break. Can be a physical break as well, which would be great for your blood sugar levels. But if you can do that, you're actually gonna get much more done and be more productive. Even if you end up not having a longer extended day, but just during those 90 minutes you are focused, you're gonna get more done with fewer errors. So realize that that's gonna happen for you. I discovered this myself by pure accident, and then I leaned into it more as people told me, no, no, no, there's science behind that. So it is really hard, or was, at first to honor the habit of meditation first thing in the morning. Now that I have a puppy, I was really, really into it. I got into it, took me the longest time, I mean years and decades that I'd wanted to and finally did. So if you happen to be watching the video right now, that was a terrible face 'cause I was about to sneeze, just saying. But once I got into meditation, it's now hard for me because I've got a puppy. And then figuring out how do I bring that back into my life? Because the best time to meditate is that first half hour or hour right after you wake. You're in this just slightly trance, you're still moving from sleep into awake. And likewise, right before you go to sleep is another good time. The risk for me, if I do it in the evening, is I'm too relaxed, I'm actually more likely to fall asleep. So you never want to really meditate. I wouldn't say never, but when you're first learning, you don't actually wanna meditate lying down because the risk is you'll fall asleep and that's not where you wanna be. You wanna be in that in-between stage and to be able to get yourself there in an upright position. So if you're finding that you aren't as productive or energetic as you'd like to be. And yet years prior, you got away with it. You may not get away with it anymore. Maybe you're ready to try a new routine. I've got some suggestions for you so you can find a morning routine that works for you, not necessarily have to do mine. So briefly, here is mine. So I will get up or wake up generally naturally. So I have stopped getting up to an alarm. And unless, like this morning, I knew I had some things I had to get done and I would feel better getting up a little bit earlier, getting them done and feeling more energetic. And I do. It's almost 5 PM here, and it's just been, you know, a great day energetically wise. I'm going to go do a little movement before I have dinner. It'll be light cuz we do light late, right? But first thing in the morning, I will get up. I'll take thyroid meds and turn it back over, cuddle with the dog for a little bit, take him out. So by that time I am ready for a cup of matcha with coconut, either coconut milk or coconut milk powder if I happen to be traveling. But this is, This is not coconut creamer, right? Any creamer has things in it you don't want. They're chemicals. So try not to, if you can. So just make it as single ingredient as you can is ideal. So I will do that. I'll have 2 mugs in, in between and before, huge glass of water, huge glass of water, matcha, huge glass of water, matcha. Done, and I'm either ready for something to eat or I'm gonna take the dog out to go for a more proper walk than just around the backyard. And then it may be time for me to have some kind of quick bite before I go lift weights. So I'll have some protein or I will do high-intensity interval training, or I'll just go for a walk. Either it's a, I've got a 30-minute and a 60-minute loop, so 2 or 4 miles. Just to walk, generally catching up with some kind of a podcast. Christmas time, it's Christmas music all the time. But that's just me. That's my morning routine. And then I'll come back into the work. So those 2 cups of matcha are while I'm working. That's generally, you know, hour and a half and then another hour and a half, mug to mug. And a little break between, cuz the dog needs to get out, the dog needs some attention. We'll go throw the ball a little bit. So I get the break too, the mental and the physical break, the movement. And then we're back and doing it again.

Hey, this is Debra Atkinson, and there is one thing 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, not only to get the protein but the fiber, the fruits and vegetables I want daily, I started drinking a smoothie a day 30 years ago. But when I realized all the junk, the sugar, and the extras that you don't want, that I don't want, hiding in most protein powders, That's when I finally caved in after years of saying I will never ever ever sell supplements. Stop skipping, skimping, and sabotaging yourself in the morning after workouts by always being prepared.

Look, yep, I agree, real food first, but it's just not convenient to carry a turkey sandwich.

Sometimes the protein and don't forget the fiber They kill cravings and they boost satiety. And you've got to make it easy to do the right thing. You can use code PODCAST for 10% off your first order at Flipping50.com today.

So that's my current morning routine. I'll tell you what I wish it was and what I may try to get to again. But I've got 4 steps for you. Create your own personal instead of adopting my routine or thinking you should do somebody else's. Number 1, learn your personal patterns. So become just aware, first of all, of what are you doing, you know? And if you were doing some kind of a time tracker, you know, keeping track of your time because you are a contractor and you are going to have to bill somebody for the hours you've worked, Do it the same. So you're looking at, say, what did I do between 5, 5:15 AM? And maybe that's not the time you get up, or 6 and 6:15, 6:15, 6:30. And maybe it's gonna be the same for several of those, but write them down. Keep track also of your energy level in different parts of the day. So is that morning? Is that mid-morning? Is it early afternoon? Is it late afternoon? Where? So you'll see eventually when are the best moments for you to work and rest. So we have this basic reset activity cycle. So think reset-activity. And that is just similar to that nighttime 90-minute phase 1, 2, 3, 4. We're gonna do it again, phase 1, 2, 3, 4, where you're starting in light sleep, going into deep sleep, and then doing it all over again. But you can learn more about your own personal best routine even within the confines of work or kids and dogs, animals, all of it, you will still notice there's a time when you really feel on. Now here's the trick, doing that without caffeine. So if you are like, oh, you know, I'm really firing, but oh, I just had 2 cups of coffee, you're potentially overriding your own system here. So I don't, I don't think that you're optimally wanting to do that for long periods of time. That is going to backfire if you're a female. So you might be just looking to— let's figure out why you need the caffeine. So maybe you're trying to work at times you actually should be resting, or you've powered, powered, powered through, and now you're just kind of crashing instead of working, recovering, working, recovering. So that's not gonna work best, right? So trying to just record your own personal energy time isn't gonna work best until you've begun optimizing your habits like high protein, low carb breakfast, avoiding coffee only till noon kind of rituals. I know for those of you that say intermittent fasting's the only way you can lose fat, if it was permanent and really worked, you wouldn't have to keep doing it. I'm gonna let that sit for a pregnant moment. Okay. Avoid skipping meals. If you're a healthy woman who uses her brain and makes decisions, you should have an appetite for breakfast, for lunch, and for dinner. Yeah. And if you're finding it hard to get in protein, 'cause you're only eating once or twice a day, that too, that's, that's a challenge. And there are times when your body might be sluggish, your metabolism might be sluggish. Your energy level might be sluggish, and it's okay to have a, you know, lower energy day intake-wise and output-wise. But that shouldn't be your norm because that would tell me you're slowing your metabolism down. We want to keep it humming, just keep it humming. So you're digesting, you're eliminating, you have a good appetite, you enjoy food, you put food down, and you enjoy that too. You exercise and move and you have energy to do it. And when you exercise, you feel better after you exercise. Those are all signs your metabolism is working. We're not saying you're stick thin. Your energy level should simply be one that is, you're ready. Yeah, you're up for things. You wanna go. It doesn't mean that you are not, you know, either a night owl or a morning person. You don't have to go at all ends of the day, but you're looking for how do you focus and work best. So you're not using coffee to get started, you're not using wine to wind down. None of this is gonna help you as directly with daytime energy if you sabotage yourself with those things. And I know in the back of some listener's mind you're thinking, but I wanna lose weight. I know, I know, you know, that temptation to— I want to burn more calories and I want to eat less. And it's what you've heard for decades and decades and decades. And I gotta tell you one more time, if it's not working, what if we tried something else, like fueling your exercise, fueling your energy, fueling that brain that you were using? It might work better that way. The second thing, after you've monitored, when are, what are your energy levels? Assess your own. These are my energy high times. This is when I really kind of want to dig in and do the harder work, the editing, the writing. Now that you know what that is, number 2, step 2, maximize your peak cycles. So when you've identified this is, this is a really high energy time, plan your day in order to take advantage of the moments where you have the most energy. And if you work for somebody else and they're calling the shots for you, maybe that won't work. But I think even in many work instances, work environments today, we have the ability to say, okay, I've got these tasks I'm responsible for, these outcomes or part of it, and you can kind of get it done within the confines of your hours if you've got them, or if you're working independently and you're a contractor. You know, I think the beauty of what people discovered when they were working at home in the pandemic is, first of all, they're a lot happier because they had more flexibility. We took it, right? I mean, and I say we— I had the flexibility, I was working at home, but you took it. I think people working for other people took the flexibility. Like, all of a sudden you didn't have a commute, you didn't necessarily have to be at a meeting every day or have somebody see you walk into your office at a certain time. You could log in and be on, but you could be in your pajamas, you know, and it was much more relaxed and people were happier about their work. I know we got a little social lonely, right? We were in isolation, but it did work. So I share this content with the health coaches and trainers in our Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist program and with our team members behind the scenes too. And though there are things that have to be done, you know, maybe every 12 hours or on a 24-hour period within our business, we allow flexibility for team members to do them like when it works. And I say to my team, I don't care if you do it at 1:00 AM. I'm not going to look at it until 6 hours later, maybe even more, because I'm not going to look at it first thing when I get up. You know, and I remember somebody shared something and said, yeah, I shared it with you like at 11 or 1, I think. I'm like, hello, no, I'm going to need daytime communication. Like, you know, that's not going to work for, for us. I need you on during the day, you know, and if you do both, that's okay. But I'm guessing that's not going to work really well for very long. So where we have issues is If there are too many errors, if you are making errors in your own work, there is oversize, it becomes obvious somebody isn't firing on all cylinders, I would go back again and look at, are you just trying to push through to get it done, but you're not really doing high-quality work and you're feeling like you should be rewarded for the discipline, the willpower, but really maybe not because It's not your greatest quality of work. So think about that. Take a break is number 3. So you're gonna assess where you are. You're gonna optimize the peak energy cycles that you have just naturally. And then number 3 is take a break. When you're in a down cycle where this is not your most productive time, you should be probably taking a break at least 10 minutes, 20 if you can do it. So that will work over lunch, right? For a lot of people, it's like, we could get 2 90-minute cycles in and then we could take a break for lunch. You know, afternoon is a little trickier because there's probably 3 cycles that might happen in that longer stretch of the afternoon. But you're gonna need that break, and potentially you're gonna need more breaks. And you might say more stimulating, right, to wake you up, like coffee, caffeine. But you actually might need more relaxation. You might need something that can help you calm down because we get a little hangry, angry. Cortisol comes down, we get edgy. And so you actually need potentially a little chill pill, but rest is not optional. If, if you thought like that, how would it change your energy? My personal breaks, my mental breaks from work are generally physical movement. Thanks to a dog, number one, I have to get up. Take him outside. He comes at me with a ball, like he's gonna tackle me. So after 3 or 4 hours of morning focus, but I've had a little break between, I will break to actually work out. And in the afternoon between sessions, I've gotta get Moses outside again, do fetch, or we will do what I've coined as our 10-minute longevity snacks in our membership. The dynamic balance, the agility moves, you know, and there is a minimal warmup during that period of time. But what you're— we're doing two things. We're engaging our brain in a different way, not trying to get it to write an article or make sure we've got the punctuation or the grammar correct, but we're focused on balance, dynamic balance. We're focused on agility, you know, and those kinds of things., you know, require you to focus and be in the moment, which gives you a mini vacation from where you were. It's one of the things I used to love about training for iron distance. You get in the pool and you know it's kind of a haven. You're doing an hour swim and it might be actually broken up. It's not like swim laps repetitively for an hour. You're doing a set of, you know, 3 200s. And you rest at the wall between, you're doing 6 300s, you rest at the wall between, or you do so many 100s and kicking inside. And, but it's the knowing that I've gotta focus on this, I'm gonna focus on my stroke. And pedaling on a bicycle, you know, you're seeing things, you're out in nature. It feels like you've taken a vacation when you come back mentally. And that is one of the advantages. Now, we don't necessarily have to go to that extreme in order to get it, but those of you who've gone on a long hike or a bike ride or you, your thing, you experience that too. And that is part of the benefit of exercise, certainly. So number 4, the 4th step in figuring it out is get enough sleep. So in order for you to be at your optimal during your activity, thoughtful cycle during the day. You need enough sleep. Sleep deprivation results in your prolonged cycle lowering your productivity. So it's not gonna work as well no matter what. You know, your morning routine or your work routine, it's gonna be unique to you for sure. But those 4 steps again are this. First of all, just pay attention, learn your personal patterns. So write 'em down, jot down, you know, what's your energy level? How would you grade it? At certain points during your day. Even if you take bigger blocks like 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM, 9:00 AM to noon, noon to 3:00— maximize your peak cycles. You have them. So, and if you can do that, you're going to be happier at the end of the day with more energy as well. 3, take a break. Try to work them in, plan them in, do them on purpose. And number 4, get enough sleep. So make sure you're optimizing that bedtime and your wake time will be much better. For me, sleep has always been a non-negotiable. I really, in high school, slumber parties would wreck me for next couple of days. I was in bed by 10:00 PM most high school nights. I just preferred it. And now all of us, you know, were teens with different sleep habits at one point in our lives, but Even in high school and college, I was up irritatingly early for my dorm roommates. At least women in midlife are more susceptible to negative effects of stress. It's just simply a factor of hormonal changes. Estrogen decreases, our cortisol levels rise. So being exposed to this same stressor that we had 10 years ago will impact us very differently. And that's gonna impact our brain as well as our physical body. Doing either of these types of stressful work, meaning a workout, or like, this is really hard. I have to write a speech. It has to be right. Has to be perfect. Doing those things early in the day will reap us better rewards for women in midlife working with cortisol levels in this way. Is beneficial, meaning working with them when you already have a higher cortisol level, much more beneficial than trying to do it outside of that. You can avoid the conversion of other hormones necessarily for sleep and rest to cortisol to supply the energy in late-day exercise. Let me say that again a better way. So if you attempt to do hard things late in the day primarily exercise, like you put it off, you don't do it in the morning because you power through the work, and then you try to go do a late-day boot camp at 4:30. Now you might get through it, but you don't have cortisol, your energy hormone, at the level you really need it. And cortisol supplies the energy for moving like that. Your body will convert other hormones into cortisol. That's all well and good, right? Because you're like, oh, that's magic. Great. I'm covered. But when you go to write checks for your sleep and your rest time and chilling out, you don't have any money in that account because that hormone was converted. So your pregnenolone, which can convert to either progesterone, which is chill out, get better sleep, or cortisol, it's already been used. So you might find over time that late day activity as you get older and you're a woman in midlife doesn't work as well. Your sleep isn't as high quality. Even those of you who might be saying, oh, I fall asleep like really quickly, do you stay asleep? Are you in as deep a sleep cycle? Are you waking rested? Those would be questions I'd ask. And again, you know, don't fix it if it's not broken, but ask yourself those questions honestly and then make a flip if you need to. So it seems to go well for women during, but the quality and the quantity of sleep can be negatively affected if you do those late day. High-intensity workouts by studying scientific processes and anecdotally having thousands of clients flip their intense workouts to morning. We've seen improvements in their energy, their fitness level because they're working harder but without it being perceived as harder. And their fatness has also improved. Body composition improves and sleep improves. And when sleep improves, body composition improves. I mean, it is like if we help this, that will get helped and vice versa. So for those of you struggling with weight loss, feeling like I'm doing all the things, watching my diet, and I'm eating all the right things, potentially I'm going to come back to you and say, of course, are you eating enough? Are you eating enough protein? Are you digesting okay? So no gas, constipation, diarrhea, bloating. Those would be signs you're not absorbing and getting in, breaking down the foods that you're eating. But then there's also, are you sleeping? Those are really important things to look at. So I'm gonna put several references that we used for today's podcast and link to several other episodes that you might enjoy. There are also resources. And if you need some help with a morning routine, sometimes that starts with not a good night's sleep. Surprise. Yeah, it actually can start with the morning. Start the morning routine and that will help ensure you get a better night's sleep the next night or this night, right? So setting the time that you get up consistently is really a big one. When it comes to sleep. We have a 12-day Blissmas challenge if you are listening to this in real time when we released it. And sleep is important anytime, so don't go away. But if you're listening and you wanna join the Blissmas challenge, it is about staying consistent during the holidays, but it's also about a lot of yoga, relaxation. We do a little progressive relaxation actually, and using softer music, getting you through the holidays with here's what you do for 12 days in a row. You don't have to break the clock and bust your buns, you know, making the cookies, wrapping the presents, doing the shopping, and going to classes just the same as this were normal, you know, but you can do a little bit less, stay consistent, and potentially because other things in life ramp up, exercise can come down a little bit in the demand on you, and your fitness level will potentially increase. So if that's appealing, you can find everything at show notes, and show notes for today will be at flipping50.com/mymorningroutine.

Thank you for listening. To listen to a decade of episodes and to get the show notes, visit flipping50.com where you'll be able to find all the previous episodes. And I made it super easy to make the most of your listening time and get exactly what you want to listen to as top priority by getting the top 10 episodes in the areas you most care about. Care about, like how much protein do you need, weight loss, and other 3 ultra important topics we've identified as our community's top 5. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than you, midlife woman. So go and listen right now.

Hey guys, Okay, so that was a quick and dirty kind of look at my morning. So my morning routine changed from when I was in my 20s, and you really— having a baby changed it dramatically in my 30s. But from my 20s, late teens, you know, I was probably up for no more than an hour, and then I would go walking is what it started at, and then go, go running first thing. But later, you know, over time I evolved and I realized if I needed to study that that was the best time for me to do it because it was quiet, I was focused, I could get things done with no interruptions for my brain, no distractions. And then, you know, I realized that's actually a great asset because I'm protecting my back a little bit more by not jumping into exercise first thing. So super smart. Here's what I wish it was, right? So I told you that currently I will get up and naturally I'll wake up at about 5:00 if I don't set my alarm for earlier. It's 5:00 is like I'm naturally awake whether it's summer or winter. So whether the light is coming in or not, definitely solar powered. I'd be awake earlier if it were summer, but I'll have a couple mugs of coffee or matcha. So it's the equivalent of my coffee, but a warm comforting mug, little bit of caffeine, yes. And I am working during that, but it is almost the ritual of holding the mug, drinking the coffee. I love it. Having a favorite mug, and I'm getting a lot of work done in a very quiet, calm state where I'm focused. And then about 3 hours after I'm awake, I'm taking a real full-blown break for going for an hour walk. I'll do a weight training workout. Generally, I'll have something to eat as well. But just kind of giving you the snapshot of time, come back from that, and maybe if that's been an hour walk or it's been an hour workout, it's generally an hour, and then it's food and shower, and then it's start back. And maybe it's appointments. So I've got a couple appointments back to back. Energetically, I notice that if I've got, you know, an afternoon of podcasts, you know, I can do 2 and then I really need to get up and just out of the chair, move around a little bit. Even if I'm coming back to do 1 or 2 more, that's okay, but I need to get up. I can't just do 4 in a row, boom, power through. Because I'm not going to be at my best for the guest or for a solo like this. What do I wish it was? So what I realized and wish— I had two mornings this week. Today was one, but I had two mornings when I really got back to just getting up a little bit earlier on purpose to get some thoughtful work done, then going to get some exercise and then going on about my day. The rest of my days, both on that day and today, have just gone better. Just the energy boost. And let me be clear, this was not like a long workout. It was just enough time to— I think the dog got maybe 15 minutes of a walk, not a huge walk, but enough so he was stretched out and quiet while I was on my meetings. And then I got on the treadmill and I was good and warm, so I— that his walk served as my warm-up, and I started with intervals. And I did interval training for about 15 minutes, just sprinting 30 seconds, recover as far as needed in between, and then a cool down for 5 minutes. Done. And I quickly changed out of my sweaty clothes, rinse, boom, I'm ready to go. So not a long workout. I just want to paint that picture that I want to get back to. So that's going to take a little discipline, and the discipline is going to come in the evening. If you're going to get up a little bit earlier, you don't necessarily— if you know your sleep needs, you don't necessarily want to short-sheet yourself from that. You're going to have to dial back the bedtime in order to get up a little bit earlier. So that's an important distinction for me, but I wanted to summarize that for So when you are doing that, analyzing your energy peaks, I learned this year, right? And I'm 42 years into really being conscious of health habits. And so if you've taken for granted what you're doing first thing in the morning, or you realize you need to shake it up, don't sit in the same chair when you have your coffee, don't use the same mug, face a different direction, try to do something different. Because if you keep doing the same thing, it's really hard to break out of any habit that you've got. Hope that was helpful.

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