Weekend Warrior II - You are not Failing!

Only have weekends to work out and feel like you’re falling behind? I’m Health Coach Shay, and I’m here to take that guilt off your plate. We talk through what it really means to be a “weekend warrior,” why two consistent workouts can still deliver meaningful health benefits, and how your body can adapt to the schedule you actually live. If your calendar is tight, the goal isn’t perfection. It’s a repeatable plan that supports heart health, energy, mood, sleep quality, and long-term longevity.

We also get practical about building an effective home workout routine without turning your garage into a boutique gym. I share how to set up a small space, what equipment is worth buying first (think resistance bands, a mat, one pair of dumbbells), and how to use everyday items like water jugs, backpacks, and a chair for strength training. You’ll hear simple ways to structure your sessions with a goal, a weekly schedule, a dynamic warm-up, and a mix of cardio and strength you can do with zero machines.

Then we tie it all together with small daily habits that protect your health between workouts: short walks, better hydration, improved sleep environment, simple nutrition upgrades, and fast stress management tools like deep breathing. I also explain why I’m so big on DNA-based programming for personalized fitness and nutrition, especially when you’ve been “doing everything right” and still not seeing results. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a busy friend, and leave a review so more weekend warriors can find a plan that works.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hey there, hey there, hey there. Welcome back to 24-7 Health News. This is episode four of season two. Um is hosted by, of course, me, Health Coach Shay. And again, these topics are from my blog at 24-7 Health News or topics that I think are important to health and fitness. If you're new here, this show is talking about the complicated world of health and wellness and breaking it down into something you can actually use in your real life. So because these topics are important, I try to like dissect them and break them down so that you can apply them to your daily lives, or you can make informed decisions. I am Shay. I'm a master trainer, a holistic health coach, and someone who generally wants to help you feel better in your body. Before we get rolling, a quick reminder nothing here that I share is meant to diagnose, prescribe, or replace any conversation with your doctor. You should always, always talk with your healthcare provider before making changes to your nutrition or fitness routine. Um, especially if they're if they're uh drastic. And no, we're not diving into whatever the last outbreak is today. I don't I don't talk about those. I think there's a lot of um information out there, misinformation information, and there's plenty of people to talk to you about that already. So this space is for health and wellness and actionable strategies that you can use right now. Um, but we will talk about prevention in this space of what you can do with your life to stay safe. Um, let's see here. So today we're going to revisit some favorite topics. I want to look up the stats to make sure I get it right. You all watched the heck out of the weekend warrior uh podcast that I did a couple of years ago, a long time ago. My podcast is a little slow, and this is when I had just got started in season one. So you guys watched that. So I thought, let's revisit um weekend warrior workouts and home routines and all that kind of stuff. So today we're gonna talk about weekend warriors, why working out only on the weekend still benefits your health, and how to make it work for you. Remember, like I said, I did that short podcast in my first season and promised to expand on it later. Sorry, it's so much later. As you know, if you uh listen to any of my podcasts, I had a little stroke and it wasn't little. And um, so it postponed things quite a bit. And uh so this has taken some time for me to pull together. So also included in this because a lot of times weekend warriors don't have a place to work out, right? So I'm gonna talk about some home workout routines because as a health coach, I believe I should meet you where you are. I've always believed that. I'm not trying to say you need to go out and get a gym membership and start uh banging around the gym. I'm not saying that. Um I'm not saying that you need to build a sexy gym in your garage and park your car outside. I don't say any of that. Uh I want you to build an effective, sustainable workout place without a gym. Because these days um we're looking at the cost of living, going, okay, that gym membership, which I understand have has gone up because I don't have a gym membership, has gone up exponentially from back in the day when I had one. Um so now you need to look out what what you can do at home? And like I said, this is gonna be where you get a little health coaching for free. I don't often give that out. In my health coaching career, um, this is one of my favorite questions. So, what you're doing for workouts? What you doing? You walking? Um I'm not only gonna kick it off by telling you what to do, I'm going to try and help you find out what is working. Um, the other scene that's gonna be included in here is some small daily habits that can protect your health. Now, if you also remember, or even if you don't um know anything about it, I did another uh podcast in season one, uh another episode, 10 small changes you can make uh today to prevent weight gain. Um so this topic is a riff, probably not the right word, but it's more of the same. It is based on research showing how simple lifestyle changes dramatically reduce um illnesses. Uh so you know, I love these three topics together because they all have one common theme. Um, consistency doesn't have to be complicated, and small things can help us make things big, make big make big changes in our life. So, what is a weekend warrior? Let's let's let's talk about that a little bit. Let's let's dig in. Um, so let me tell you a quick story here. A client once told me, uh, Shay, I feel guilty because I only work out on the weekends. I feel like I'm failing. And I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're not failing, you're adapting. You're just doing the thing. A weekend worry is someone who gets most or all of their workouts in on Saturday and Sunday. And listen, I know what's up. Life is busy, work is demanding. The kids, if you got any of them ankle biters, they need you. Your schedule is packed. But on Saturday and Sunday, the kids sleep a little later, or they even occupy themselves, or whatever crazy little people do, you can sneak yourself in a workout. You can sneak yourself in your self-care. No kids work, we hope, is done with you for two days out of the week, uh, is done with you for two days out of the week. So your weekend might be Monday, Tuesday. Um, so when I say Saturday, Sunday, I'm just talking about the standard weekend for people. But your weekend could be any can couple of consecutive days or a couple of non-consecutive days, Monday, Wednesday, whenever it is, and you can get your self-care in, it's the same things. So if weekends are all you got, you're not alone, and you're definitely, definitely not failing. You're doing what you can, and that matters. Why do weekend workouts still matter? Let me tell you. Because I want you to make sure that you get it. I I gotta say it again. You're not failing. Two workouts a week is too closer to what they're trying to say is your prescribed amount that you should do. So don't trip, right? Make sure you get it. Weekend warriors are okay. So why why are you I why am I telling you that just these couple of workouts are really good? Because exercise improves heart and lung function, blood pressure, inflammation, body fat levels, cancer risk, longevity, mental health, sleep quality, cognitive function. Oh, but there's all this other stuff, right? All that stuff. It improves all that stuff. But here's the important part how often you do exercise matters. After just 72 hours, detraining begins. Meaning your body starts losing some of the progress you mean you made doing those workouts. So that contradicts what I said, right? Nope. Your body starts to understand. Uh and I'm talking a lot here about biology. Um, I've been doing that a little bit lately because I was talking about GLP1s uh just an episode ago or so. I'm talking about biology again. Um, it wasn't my best subject when I was in high school and college, but I seem to be right back in it. So, anyway, I'm talking about biology. Your body starts to adjust, understands when those workouts are coming. So, this is key. If you consistently train on weekends, your body will adapt to that pattern. You will still get the meaningful benefits. You heard me? You will still get those meaningful benefits from your workouts. So let's take a look at the numbers. Let's take a look at what I'm saying about um compared to inactive people, uh people, and what do I mean by impact inactive people who don't work out at all, right? We weaken warriors have a 30% lower risk of premature death from all cancers, a 40% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and an 18% lower risk of death from all types of cancer. So, what I want you to understand, regular exercise is exercise, you still have the best outcomes. And when I'm when I say regular, that means like people who are up to, you know, three to five times a week. Um, sometimes that's just tough to fit in. I get it. Sometimes that just is not gonna work. I get it. Even two days a week can change your health trajectory. Some movement is always better than no movement. I mean, did you hear that two days a week can change your health trajectory? Did you hear me when I said that? You are here for those kids as they grow up, and you make the million at work or whatever it is you're doing with to make money. I mean, it it just makes sense, doesn't it? Just to get something in. You wanna you wanna make sure that you get some sort of workout in. Now, I don't have any kids. Uh, however, if I had little ones, they would be my workout. We'd roll around on the floor, I'd I'd tire them out. That's what I would do. So even if you want to include your kids in your workouts, just making a point in your mind to make it huffy and puffy enough where you get that health coaching stuff here, you get that burn. If you're gonna walk your kids, if you're gonna run your kids, if you're gonna push that stroller, I see a lot of people doing that. That is an excellent workout. Put a 15, 20-pound baby in a five to 10-pound stroller and push and run. You might not get that far, but you did push and run. That's a really excellent exercise. So let's connect this to something else I hear all the time. I want to work out more, but I can't get to the gym. What was I just talking about? Pushing a stroller. I w rolling around on the floor at your kids, chasing them down the street, playing tag with them, playing basketball with them. You don't have to go to the gym. So, this is where um I have an article on 247healthnews.com. Um, there's an article, Stop Skipping the Gym and Build an Effective Home Workout Routine, right? So let me talk about that. Um, why home workouts are a game changer? Um, there's no commute, you're flexible, you're you you you can deal with it, you can deal with it on your schedule. So if you don't have to get up and take them kids um to school, and you can get up and ride your bike for 15 minutes, boom, you gotta work on it. Cost savings. So usually there's a little bit of upfront, but you don't have an ongoing gym membership. It's private. Some of us are uncomfortable about our sweatiness or whatever it is, or you don't want to put your gym clothes on and go to the gym in them. I mean, that's all good. If you have a home gym, you're in a private situation. You move at your own pace. You don't have those guys wandering around, not not necessarily just guys. Some the gym heads. Let's call them the gym heads. You don't have the gym heads rolling around looking at you about how long you're taking on the machine. All that stuff is over. And I love it. And your home gym is great for all fitness levels. You know why? Because it's yours. You don't have to talk about um something. You don't have nobody coming up with their unsolicited advice about what you're doing at the gym. Um, so I think that's a really, really good reason to get yourself together at the gym. And you have 24-7 access. Um, I know uh 24-hour fitness, you have 24-7 access, but then you got to go back to inclusivity, privacy, and cost savings, right? You got those three things that fall into place. Not private, and the gym heads are there, and uh, it's all other kinds of things that's going on at the gym in the hours that you might not want to be there. So I had that client tell me about that, say, I can't go to the gym because I don't know what to do there when I get there. And I said, perfect, then don't go. Let's build your routine at home. And notice I'm saying routine. I'm not saying you gotta pick something specific. There's something that you gotta do. Um, but the article highlights something important. People skip the gym because of barriers, not because they don't care. Um, they feel intimidated, not knowing what to do, lack of time, child care, commute costs, and overcrowded gyms. Home workouts remove all of these barriers. So you can't lie and say you can't get that workout in if you got the stuff at the house. So that cuts out some of that procrastination too. Um, I don't know if I'm covering that today, but it does cut out some of that procrastination. Uh, you don't really have anything to procrastinate about if the weights and the bands and all that stuff is in a little basket sitting next to your fireplace at in the living room, right? And you don't need a full gym. That that brings me to setting up your space, right? You don't need a full gym. You can start with a small, dedicated area that you clean up and put away every single time. You can start with a mat, some resistance bands, a pair of dumbbells, a chair or a step. You can even use household items. Like I saw a guy on Instagram the other day doing um arm extensions, right, with two water jugs in his hand, swinging them back and forth. 30 per arm. He was sweating and he was going fast. So he was burning those calories. Backpacks for squats. You got your towels, your personal towels at the house. You don't have to worry about if you're a little bit of a germaphobe, you don't have to worry about them gym towels, right? You got all those household items that you can use to get yourself together. A pair of dumbbells doesn't cost that much, and you can go pick up just a pair of dumbbells. A chair. You can get a folding chair or step stool, all good. Um, the article also talks about storage solutions and small space setups. Because I know I'm talking about all this stuff, and all you guys that are living in maybe a studio apartment are screwfacing me, looking like, what? I don't have no space for that. Yes, you do. You can make a little bit of space in your studio with a little bit of workout room and save your money, right? For whatever else you want to do. A small basket for the bands, a foldable mat or a roll-up yoga mat, a corner for the dumbbells, a closet for the dumbbells. And I'm saying dumbbells, you don't even have to buy them in you don't have to buy that many. You can buy one set of 15s or one set of 10s or whatever that your starting set you need, you can buy one more setup so that you can press yourself a little bit in the gym. And then you can buy a little wall mirror for form. Or use the wall mirror you got, most of you got one, right? So you don't need to do a lot of space. Your space does not need to be perfect, it just needs to be yours. And although I don't sell them, if you can afford one of those AI machines like Tempo, Tunnel, Nordic Track, Gym Monster, and all of that, now all those virtual or some um some I saw the virtual reality goggles. That's fun. Those guys are playing the um the one where they swing the swords real fast, trying to keep up, and there's you know, you're leveling up, that looks fun too. I would love to have that. Although these items, don't those are the expensive items, right? But I guess if you save by starting out slow, you might be able to pick you up something around there. And although these items are a bit, you know, expensive, about how long it has it, how long, how long does it take to pay for itself? Now, 20 to 50 a month, depending on what you buy, is the same as a gym membership, but you're in the house, right? And you're not tripping and you're not worried about somebody looking at you, nobody rushing you, none of that. So, what about the structure? Um, how are you gonna set up your home workouts? How do you structure your home workouts? You gotta think about, first of all, pick your goal. What are you trying to do? And that's everything with your health, right? What's the deal with going on with you that you gotta fix? Are you trying to lose fat? Are you trying to build strength? Are you trying to improve mobility or are you trying to just maintain your health? Right? Those are where your goals are, those are the questions you have to ask yourself. Plan your weekly schedule. Every two days a week, um, sorry, even two days a week consistently makes a difference. I talked about that earlier. Even two days a week makes a difference. Warm up, right? That's the one thing I can say that I'm always concerned about with people in their home. They their body learns how to do things incorrectly. So I want you to warm up dynamically, maybe watch a few videos beforehand to see how things are done. Um, but your your your warmups can be something like leg swings, arm circles, hip openers, which is hip circles as well. You know, uh counterclockwise and clockwise, march in space, march in space, march in space, that's a good exercise. March in place and do torso rotations as well. Mix your strength exercises with your cardio. Now, people get real bent out of shape about cardio. Everybody thinks you need a machine, right? So let me take you back to um and give you an idea from a stroke person. I can wal march in place for probably up to about 12 minutes now, right? That's my cardio. If you don't have money for a gym and you need to get your cardio going, marching, jogging in place, high knees, and that high knees means you are breaking the nine degree degree plane on your way up, step ups, that's if you have a step, and shadow boxing. Ladies, that's you too. You can shadow box. Imagine you punching that ex, whatever, whatever you need, whoever you need to punch, imagine. Imagine them saying your old boss, punch him in the face. Okay. Squats. That's the strength training, right? Squats. I despise them, but they're the best. I have an auntie. She's a little older. She started out doing a hundred squats a day. I I don't think I ever had to say anything to her after that when I said, do that. Do them all day. Get up, stop doing what you're doing, take a break, do 50 or 10, or how many of you can get squat until you can get them where you can do them straight through, right? 100 squats right then and there and doesn't take you any time. Then your legs are getting stronger. Because those of us, I was going to say those of us who are older, like I'm older, but I am. I'm a little older. Those of us who are older have to get up out of a chair. So if you start doing a hundred squats today and you're not older, think about what'll happen to you when you're 50 and you've done 100 squats a day as one of your exercises for all these years. Lunges, same thing. Lunges are the same thing. I I have busted up knees. I'm not great at lunges, but they're an excellent exercise. Now we're going to get to my one of my favorite exercises, push-ups. Ladies like to neglect this. Let me tell you why you shouldn't, ladies. Um, I had a I have a video called, it's called the boob challenge. Uh, the the natural boob lift. Okay, if you do push-ups, you don't need boob jobs. You don't. The boob, the push-up, the boob, the push-up works your entire um pec muscle. It will tighten it and lift it. If you want to keep those big boobs, um keep them, but you want them to be set up. You have to work that muscle behind, because boob is nothing but fat. You have to work the muscle behind the fat. Okay. Glute bridges. Uh that's flat on your back, lifting your torso up. Very, very good exercises for your donkey. Your dunk badonkadunk. You want your butt tight, do glute bridges. You want your tummy tight, do planks. Uh, one of my favorite videos to watch, um, I probably can't do it now, but is that the guy who does the the planks to uh music and he goes up and down on his elbows. And don't start there. Start on your elbows maybe every 20 seconds or however long you can hold the plank for, switch to going up and hold it on your hand, on the palms of your hand, and switch to going back down. You know, those planks are awesome. That dude is doing planks on his hands and elbows and bouncing up and down and moving his feet in and out. Do that slow. And then you're gonna get there, right? So all this stuff, so far, we haven't picked up a weight, right? So guess what? You don't have to buy any. Right? If you need resistance and weight, um, our our uh I want to say our economy, but it's not the word I'm looking for. Our our society has come up with something where you don't have to buy weights. Guess what you got? Those bands. I hate those bands because I need to use them now. But they have varying resistance levels, which will improve your strength. Um, another thing I saw on Instagram was a guy doing resistance bands um instead of push-ups. Best pecs I have ever seen. He wrapped the resistance band around his back, um, tightened it up, and he pushed center, he pushed low, and he pushed up. Best pecs I ever saw. All he did was those resistance bands. I can, and you can tell he does 20 or 30 at a time, and he does those in quick succession. Excellent, excellent workout. Then you can use, instead of dumbbells, but you can get some dumbbells, you can use some water bottles to lift exercises. Ladies, the grocery bags, um, symbolize the water bottles so you'll be able to pick up your own grocery bags if that's what you want to do, unless you got a helper at the house to pick up those grocery bags. Backpacks, good for to be on your back for walking. You know, I don't have them on my list here, which I think is one of the things you do. They have weight vests. And those weight vests are excellent because you can they start them out light and just add weights. They come with these little sandbag packs that you can put in there. I have one of those. And um, then if you're old school and you got some laundry detergent jugs, you can fill them with sand if you want. Those things end up being like 10-15 pounds, so be careful with those, but you can use those, and then track your progress. You always want to track your progress. How many reps, how many sets, how much weight, um, or how long, and then how do you feel after? Always take a look at that stuff. Uh, I'm gonna I'm I'm really health coaching uh right now. I want you to remember that small wins really matter with this. You can start just as small as you got. You can get some resistance bands and uh a little yoga mat or spread out a towel that doesn't make you slip on your living room floor. You're ready to work out. That's all you need, right? So here are some good movements or some good sample workouts to get started with. This is a beginner workout. You do 10 squats, you do eight modified push-ups, 10 lunges each leg, and 20 second planks, and 20 marching steps. That's it. Just start that. Just start doing that. You fit you finished. Right? You made it through, you did a workout. Intermediate, of course, bumps up to 15 squats, 10 to 12 push-ups, 12 lunges, 30 second planks, and 30 seconds you're dragging in place. And then, of course, advanced 20 jumping jacks, oh, I'm sorry, 20 jump squats, 15 push-ups, then Bulgarian split squats. Google those, you'll see what they are, you'll hate me. Uh, 45 second plank and one minute high knees. And then with these, so how do you go from beginner to intermediate to advanced? You go, when you're a beginner, you might only be able to do two rounds of these, right? By the time you're ready to move to intermediate, you're probably around three to four rounds of the beginner workout. Once you can do probably four rounds successfully with no problem, you're not even heavy breathing, go ahead and move to the intermediate. Now remember, I really want you to remember, um, especially the ladies about the push-ups, um, because I have a whole series, I think it's a 15-day challenge, on the natural boob job. You don't have to, uh I do it on my steps. So it's not full push-ups. It's modified push-ups. And I teach you how to move yourself into a full push-up. If you do have a dude, he'd be surprised to see you get jumped down and do a full push-up after you you you go through my boob exercises. So, what's coming up next? Let's talk about, um, let's shift to something that ties all this together beautiful. Because, like I said, weekend warriors are great, home workouts are powerful, but what about the rest of your week? What about the small things you can do every day, every single day, that that help you? Right? I told you I was gonna throw this in because I think it's really important. So, small changes, big protection are big protection against illness. Daily steps to better health. And I'm not just talking about doing the 10,000 steps thing. So I'm talking about the steps you can take. Right? So this is a really this there was an article, then I did a short, uh, like I said, it's an old episode. Um, you guys liked it. You got it got some it got some listens. Um, but you don't need to massive a massive lifestyle change to protect your health. You need small, consistent habits that create big protection. Research shows that simple daily actions can reduce inflammation, improve immune function, lower chronic disease risk, and improve mental health, boost your energy, and support your longevity. And you know what you're here for. If you got them kids, you're here for weddings and grambo-boos. You're here for those for the long haul. All right. So, you know, let's talk about the some sample items that you can that I'm just throwing out here. You can move every day for 10 to 15 minutes. Walk. Walk. Everybody talks about walk. I have seen some things online lately about walking, though, talking about making you old. I don't agree with that. Um it I think you need to get it in where it fits in. So walking improves your blood sugar, your blood pressure, your mood, because generally you might be outside, and helps your immune function. I feel like walking is like it keeps your engine going. Right? When you sit down, that's why they say that's the death of you. And I've had a death, uh I can I can attest to that because I've had a desk job for the second half of my career. Um and I the stress of having that is likely what caused the stroke. So I I think walking makes your engine go, makes makes you makes your engine realize that it it keeps, it needs to keep chugging along. When you sit down, your engine like goes into hibernation or something, and it doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't move like it should. So if walking is your engine going, water or hydration is your oil. Um, I I am constantly having this conversation. I don't know why. Um I don't I I I really don't know why I'm having this conversation, especially with a lot of older folks. You have to stay hydrated. You have to flush your body, it helps digestion, it helps your energy, it helps your cognitive function, it helps your immune health. I am so picky about my water, how much I drink, when I drink it. Um I'm really super picky about what water I drink as well. It needs to be some kind of filtered. Uh, some of you are favored enough, in my opinion, um, is favorite to be able to have those lovely natural springs um or have some sort of um old school filtration system, the sand, the water, the stone, and all those things, those are awesome. I much prefer those from this crap we bought buy off the shelves. Unfortunately, I've been on it for years, and you buy it with the plastic in plastics in it, um, and it's in a plastic bottle, and that's defeats the purpose. Uh, I gotta jump off my box, my soapbox about that. Drink, you gotta stay hydrated. Um, where was I at? So walking is the engine, water is the oil, and you have to keep your body um lubricated. It just you just can't, it's not an adjustment that your body needs to make. It's something that you have to have. Um, so next is one of the other ones that we don't think about all the time, is sleep quality. Um, small improvements like consistent bedtime uh reduces illness risk, stress, and inflammation. You need to get, some people don't need eight hours, um, but you need to get, I understand it's as low as six straight hours of sleep. So you need to get six, sometimes it's ten, six to ten straight hours of um sleep. You need to get some sleep, you need to get some rest. It's hard. Uh, I think I was just on the phone a few minutes ago uh talking with someone about a whole nother topic, and they said they weren't happy they weren't getting good rest. That's bad. You know what's interesting about good rest though? One of the other things that we don't think about with good rest is you need a good mattress. I know it's hard to say. Or you need to correct your sleeping environment. So the temperatures need to be set right. Um, I don't know. Maybe uh you need to sleep on a tatami mat. I think about that quite often. I think, hmm, maybe I need one of those firm tatami mats. But you need to fix that your bedtime, your mattress, and or your sleeping environment. I'm talking about small improvements. I know you can't fix all that stuff at the same time. Mattresses cost money, but correcting your environment in the room you sleep in, that might not cost you any money. That might not be that might not be difficult to do. Making sure your temperature is correct, that might not be difficult to do either. So just think about that. That sleep is it's gotta be good quality. Okay? Let's move on to nutrition. Okay. This is a hard one because people just don't like what they don't like, and people don't want to change their diets. Um dare I say, older folks don't want to change their diet either. There are ways to eat the stuff that you like without it being so bad. I know things taste good like butter and all of that kind of stuff. You got to tweak a little something. I had to take away rice. It spiked my blood sugar, and I couldn't have it. And it has been one of the most hateful things to take away that I can think of. I didn't realize I ate so much of it. And when and how and who and all that kind of stuff. I love me some sushi. Um, but I switched to um, you know, away from the rolls. So I don't eat those as much. So let's let's go simple though. One extra serving of vegetables. You got sometimes you gotta dig around and find a vegetable that you like. Eat a piece of fruit, one high fiber food, and one lean protein source. Now, I I'm not saying and, I'm saying and or, right? Switch out something. Uh change the oil that you use. There's a heck of a lot of conversation about what type of oil you use. If you're old school and you're using some old school Crisco, find a better place to get it from than Crisco. Okay, find find find some place where you can get tallow oil. It's not more expensive, but it sure in the heck is better. Okay, find some place. These little simple changes can help you with your diet. Try one for for 30 days, it sticks. Try the next one. So then let's move on to something that is my Achilles heel, stress management. So everyone is different, everyone manifests stress differently. So it is a really tough thing to conquer. You have to spend some time figuring out what you can do to help lower your cortisol level because that's what happens when you have stress. Your cortisol level rises, cortisol causes inflammation, and you got all kinds of problems. Right? All kinds of problems with inflammation, cancer, and hurt knees, hurt back, tennis elbow, whatever you damage show, everything can happen when you get too much inflammation in your body and your cortisol levels are too high. Only suggestion I jotted down here was two to three minutes of deep, deep breathing. That's the simplest thing I can figure out for you to do. Take a stop, sit back in your chair, and do two to three minutes of somebody take me off at work. I'm sucking in the bad energy, blowing it back out through my nose and blowing it away. Two to three minutes of deep breathing, or the slow one where you're counting as you're you're breathing in.

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In for six out for six.

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Concentrating, getting single-minded for two to three minutes can help lower your cortisol. Maybe that's a really good way to put it. Getting single-minded for two to three minutes can help lower your cortisol. I tend to go do something that I need to do physically with my hands. So I'm focused on doing one thing so that I can lower my cortisol. I deep breathe. Whatever it takes, I close my eyes and I deep breathe, or I just close my eyes and breathe slowly. You gotta find something to manage that stress. You gotta find out. You gotta figure it out. Two to three minutes of shadow boxing, ladies, men too, but anyone, two to three minutes shadow boxing. Punching that thing that's bothering you. Whatever it is, you have to figure it out. Uh something I said earlier when I started this podcast is that you have to understand all of this stuff is about self-care. And if you don't manage yourself or take care of yourself, your health will take care of you. I don't like saying it that way because that sounds corny, but it will. I mean, so this article also talks a little bit about social connection and how even a small brief show up at something might improve your immune resilience. And so, because I'm slightly germophobic, getting out there amongst the other germy people might help you out. You know, go out and have a uh a um a cup of coffee, a beer, whatever, every once in a while. If you're a home body, get out amongst the people because you need to have a little social action social connection every now and then. And invite people over, go to people's house, keep it short, if that's not your get down. I get it. Um, but you should you should get out and do a little social connection. I'm not gonna say much about that because that's a to me, that's a hard thing for people to change. But these are all things you don't have to do them all at once. I started this conversation about 10 small changes you can make. That doesn't mean you need to make 10 changes all at once. That means, okay, so this week I'm gonna take a look at my sleeping situation. Is my room comfortable? Am I warm enough? All that kind of stuff. So I just want to make sure that I'm clear. Nobody's saying you need to make a change in all of these things. We're saying pick something small, get it, get it done, and make it habit for me. And so let's take a look at here's all how these tie back to weekend warriors and home workouts. If you can only work out on a weekend, fill it in with some daily habits, right? Um, I talk a lot about telling people, because there's always some argument about a parking spot, to go park at the back side of the um parking lot as long as it's not dangerous where you're parking. Go park back there and walk into the grocery store or walk to go pick up that food you're eating. Walk, walk, walk. That gets you some walking in. Um, if you're building a home workout routine, small habits make it easier to stay consistent. So you can do small things. That beginner workout is easy as pie. And if you're trying to improve your health, small habits protect you between workouts. Just breathing helps reduce that stress. Right? Movement doesn't have to be intense, health doesn't have to be complicated. Consistency doesn't have to be perfect. One of my favorite phrases from some of these online people that I I don't necessarily subscribe to all the time, but one of the truer things I've heard is take imperfect action. It's it's good for you. Um, taking imperfect action is really, really, really good for you because you didn't pine over it. You didn't go through, you know, tests and it took you uh analysis, paralysis, and all that kind of stuff. You didn't do that because life gets really busy and schedules are tight. Motivation comes and goes. But your health is built in small moments: a 10-minute walk, an extra glass of water, a stretch break. You can do that at work, right? A home workout, a simple home workout, and a weekend sweat session or a moment of deep breathing. It doesn't have to be two to three minutes, it can be a minute. These things matter, they add up, and they protect you. So I had a I threw in a lot of stuff in this conversation that we just had. Uh, it's funny, right? We had a one-sided conversation where I did all the talking. Um, so remember, these are episodes that you can listen to if you want to get specific. There's 10 small changes you can make to prevent weight gain, but I would say just 10 small changes you can make that help you out. Um, the Weekend Warrior first episode that I did in season one is only 12 minutes long, and the 10 small changes episode is 20 minutes long. It can, these little tiny things, if you want to focus on those, these little tiny things can help you out. Listen, I have a lot of specialized programs that can help you with this, that, and the other. Um, I am a really straightforward kind of health coach. Um, I believe in listening to your body and what it wants and what goals do you have for it to try and get it feeling better and you feeling your best. Um, one of the ways I like to get there is uh my DNA-based programming. So I'm gonna do a little plug. You can look at it, you can look for it on um Facebook and Instagram uh and uh my healing365. There's a couple of places for it. So search for it, it's around there. And the link will be inside the um podcast as well uh description. But your DNA is you, your DNA is your map. It's not a health coach saying, Okay, so today we're gonna try this. What if you're running 30 minutes a day and ain't nothing happening? You know what I mean? You've been doing that for a long time, you haven't dropped off any, you haven't dropped any weight. You got good cardio going, you get a good sweat, but your body doesn't seem to be losing any weight. Um I could guess and say you probably need to lift some weights, but I could guess and say it's probably your nutrition. I could guess all those things. Your DNA is gonna tell me exactly what's going on. So it's it's the it's just that simple. Um I just I just it's my favorite thing. Um, it's the best thing. DNA-based programming is the best thing. You get your fitness information, how your body reacts to um cardio, how it reacts to muscle, whether you lose weight doing one or the other. It tells you about your nutrition, how your body reacts to all those different things. So, you know, I've told people about their um sugar levels based on what's come out of these tests. Have you ever tested yourself for diabetes? No, no, no, I don't have any problems with that. I'm not even all that familiar with sweets. Well, your your DNA says you don't process sweets, sugar, high, you know, high glucose things. So double check and make sure you're keeping those numbers down because what happens to you in your 30s is worse in your 50s. So you have to be paying attention to those things. Um, I'm not, I'm not the best measurer of things either. I got it. I understand people don't want to have time and keep these specific notes on everything. Um, there's so many apps now. Um, there's rings, uh, there's watches. Um, you can get a phone where you can just put your finger on the phone and it runs some kind of scan. Um there's scales now that do that as well. I saw one the other day where you step on it and you grab the handle and it does a full body scan. Watch out. We're so we're getting so advanced with the things that we're finding nowadays that you don't have to spend a gabillion dollars for a full body scan. You know, you can get one. What's that one thing, cardio mobile, where you can find out if you're if if you got some funky little thing going on with your heart? So there's ways to find out. My thing is, my favorite thing is the thing that I stand behind is DNA, because how could I not? I don't understand why other health coaches are not. How could you not stand behind DNA? It's your map. It's your client's map. Why would you not stand behind it? Anyway, I'm moving on. I'm wrapping up. So being a weekend warrior is absolutely okay. I just want you to know that. Building a home workout routine is absolutely doable. It's easy. Small daily habits are your secret weapon. Move your body, eat well, and stay consistent. Whatever consistently consistency looks like for you. Okay, back to that DNA DNA-based programming. What does consistency look like for you? This is Health Coach Shay. Thank you for spending a part of your day with me. Send me a DM or like this episode or call me up for some DNA programming. Don't call me. Text me. I don't think I have a phone number listed anywhere. But have a fantastic weekend, Warriors.