#031 TCF: 5 Lessons I learned creating MED Method

1. Your metabolism is fine

If you're like me, you've heard how everything goes downhill after 40. Weight gain is inevitable, your metabolism crashes.

But the science doesn't back that up.

The truth is our metabolism accelerates 0-20 years, stabilizes from 20-60, and only begins to decrease from 60 years old and on. But even that decrease is modest.

Our metabolism is one of the most tightly controlled physiological systems in our body.

When I actually sat down and did the math, that 7 lb weight gain I had expereinced over the course of the pandemic and going through menopause, came down to 75 calories a day.

It was the extra handful of nuts at 4 PM or piece of chocolate I was popping out of boredom that had me stuck. NOT my age and metabolism.

When I eliminated that habit, I lost the 7 lbs and have kept it off. I walk you through step-by-step how to do this in MED Method.

2. Post-childbearing to Pre-Medicare is a complete dead zone of medical/scientific interest

When developing the fitness assessments, I wanted to use relative 'norms' to bench mark how I compared to healthy women my age.

Spoiler alert! Not a lot of interest in the scientific/medical community for woman between the ages of 40-65!

Most women have given birth by then but not yet tapped into the benefits of Medicare. The amount of good, clinical data is pitiful.

Yet, what we do from 40-65 is going to determine how healthy we are from 65-95.

Fortunately, I did find some norms but what's most important is determining your baseline.

The assessments take less than 30 minutes and will provide you a wealth of information.

3. That daily stress you feel may actually be trauma

For years, I've been teaching stress management tools like mindfulness, meditation, pranayama. But it didn't occur to me until recently that maybe that's not the root cause. Trying to "manage stress" without dealing with trauma is like trying to mop up the floor with the water still running.

In the MED Method, I included a validated assessment for childhood trauma as well as stress assessments so you can see if there's any underlying issue or experience that needs more support and care.

4. You're closer than you think - small changes can have a huge impact

I named it MED (Minimum Effective Dose) for a reason. Small changes, consistently done, over time have a huge impact.

I thought I was lost in the wildnerness and needed to accept my 'new norm'.

The reality was a few really small, subtle habits had snuck in over time that was keeping me from hitting my goals and feeling my best. Once I identified those and made a few changes, I was right back on track.

5. You have control

The most important lesson I learned through developing this program is we have much more control than the narrative out there wants us to believe. There are billion dollar industries and marketing campaigns that are dependent upon us feeling out of control and fighting our bodies. Because then we need them.

The truth is, you have control and agency over your health and future.

Taking the assessments for each pillar of health; food, fitness, stress and sleep, you'll know exactly what to focus on and how to change it.

What I discovered with the MED Method:

my metabolism was fine, my 4 PM snack habit was derailing me
my muscular strength is disportionately weaker than my cardio strength
years on the laptop has degraded my grip strength
worse - I'm highly dependent on visual cues for balance and years of laptop use has really deteriorated my eye strength
Eating and drinking wine late, dramatically effects my sleep quality and heart rate variability
My flexibility was terrible (looking at you again laptop)

My New Rules:

cut out the mindless/boredom snacking
dropping a few days of cardio for resistance training with a focus on upper body strength
using this $9 grip strengthener several times a day (grip strength is essential for fall prevention)
taking vision breaks every hour for distant outdoor gazing
dinner by 6:30, no alcohol after 6:30 (if having), and I sleep like a baby
10 minutes of focused daily stretching
retake assessments every quarter to measure progress and areas that need focusing