The 10,000 Steps Are Cancelled So Now What

When life is flat out, why do your healthiest routines disappear first, and how do you stop the slide without needing “perfect” days? This week on the pod,  I’m sharing a practical, no guilt approach to staying consistent with wellness when work, family, stress, and midlife hormones collide. 

I unpack the real reasons consistency breaks down, including decision fatigue, rising stress, and the way women so often put their needs last. Then I flip the script with a simple strategy: keep the habit cue, shrink the habit. If you can’t do your full workout or mindfulness practice, you can still protect the routine with 30 seconds of breathing, a short walk, or a tiny nourishing choice that keeps you connected to your goals. These micro habits support stress management, cravings, sleep, and confidence during perimenopause and menopause. 

You’ll also hear how to use minimum viable habits across nutrition, movement, hydration, and sleep, plus how to plan for real life with flexible structure and simple food prep that makes healthy eating easier on busy weeks. We finish with the mindset piece: identity shifts, mantras, celebrating small wins, and why support and accountability can be a game changer for weight loss and wellbeing in your 40s and 50s. 

If this helps, please subscribe or follow, share it with a friend who’s in a busy spiral, and leave a five-star review. What’s the one minimum habit you’re choosing this week?

Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause or menopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

I’m here to help with my proven method.

Here's how I can support you -

1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Autumn Podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist, and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and ageing so that you can be ageless and autumn in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome Podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset, and outrageous confidence. Hit subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's episode of the Ageless and Awesome Podcast. I'm Susie Garden, your host, Perimenopause naturopath, weight loss nutritionist, and proud Perimenopause survivor.

Why Busyness Breaks Healthy Habits

SPEAKER_00 0:50

This week I want to talk about how to stay consistent when life gets busy. Because this is something that happens to all of us. Life gets busy, and then the first thing that goes out the window is the very thing that's going to support you during that time. And it's usually things with regard to wellness. Whether that's going to be your exercise routine, whether that's going to be your food choices, whether that's going to be your mindfulness practice if you have one, whether it's going to be your sleep routine if you have one. It's, you know, you can be consistent and feel really good. The busyness happens or the stress happens, and then it just all goes out the window. And we've all probably, I know I have, been guilty of it. I think most women have or people have. So if you've ever said I was doing really well and then life got busy and I just fell off track, this episode is for you. So why is it that when we get busy or stressed, then our habits and routines that those very habits and routines that support us break down. There's a few things that happen here. Um, when life gets very full, our decision fatigue increases. So when you're I'm sure you may have heard of decision fatigue, and when you're having to make lots and lots of decisions, it just can get really overwhelming. And so sometimes it's just easier to take the easy option rather than making good decisions, particularly when it's you, as you know, I've spoken of before, many women, most women, probably all, put their own needs behind the needs of the other members of the household, whether that's family, whether that's um friends, whether that's work, whatever. Often women will put their own needs last. Everything else gets supported and done and looked after except for ourselves. Um, and this is one of the big reasons I feel that that many women really struggle during their 40s and 50s because it is a very busy time of life. So our decision fatigue is increasing. When life gets full, our routines can break, right? Our routines can get kind of broken up by other things, other activities popping up that require your attention. And what we know, particularly if you look at the research, there's a fantastic book called Atomic Habits. If you haven't

Keep The Habit With 30 Seconds

SPEAKER_00 3:42

read it, I highly recommend it. It's a great book for business, it's a great book for life in general, and it talks a lot about yeah, building small habits. Obviously, you can tell by the uh the title, but about consistency as well. And even if you can't do your full routine, so let's say, for example, you have built yourself a beautiful mindfulness practice, a meditation practice, and maybe you spend 20 minutes a day meditating, and then when life gets busy, that just gets thrown out the window. Even if for 30 seconds at that time of day that you normally do it, even if for 30 seconds you just sat and breathed and observed the breath going in and out of your nose for 30 seconds, that's gonna help you continue to maintain that habit and you will get a benefit. Even though it's not the benefit you're gonna get from 20 minutes, you're still maintaining that consistency of routine that is really beneficial. And that is that applies to anything, any sort of routine that you have. If even if you can just do a fraction of it at that same time, uh uh, you know, that's the ideal. Again, if it that's not available to you, even if it's something you do every day, that you actually just get it done once a day is ideal. Even in that breathing one I just mentioned, you don't even necessarily need to be in a quiet space to do that. You could be driving, you could be shopping, you could be cooking, you could be just doing something that's part of your daily life and still become aware of your breath moving in and out of your nostrils for 30 seconds. I can do it while I'm I'm recording this podcast, and you will get a benefit from that.

Stress Management In Tiny Moments

SPEAKER_00 5:33

The other thing that happens when life gets full is our stress rises. And when our stress rises, we can just feel very overwhelmed. And when you're feeling overwhelmed, often the the safest feeling thing to do is to do nothing or to do the bare minimum. So if there's a way that you can find to manage the stress, and again, a mindfulness practice helps, but so does spending time in nature, so does um spending time doing activities you enjoy. And again, even if you can only do it for a short period of time, patting your dog, you know, reading two pages of your book instead of spending 20 minutes reading your book. Something that helps to manage your stress in this time will be so beneficial to help you stay consistent in the routines that support you when life gets busy.

Minimum Viable Habits That Still Count

SPEAKER_00 6:30

The other thing I wanted to talk about is your minimum viable habits that kind of feeds into that consistency that I was just talking about. So instead of perfect days, perfect meals, perfect routines, aim for the bare minimum, the minimum viable habit. And that can be just simply having protein at meals. It can mean if you can't get your 10,000 steps, or if you do have a goal around steps, so just using that as an example. Can you get five? Can you get something in there? Can you drink enough water to stay hydrated? Can you get into bed early enough to get seven to eight hours sleep? And again, that again, any of these may be uh not necessarily achievable when you're in that really busy time, but your bare minimum still counts. It still helps you keep in that habit and that routine, it helps reduce decision fatigue, it helps keep you on track towards your health, wellness goals, weight loss goals, and that will all help you manage these busy times better. Also, actually, I wanted to include in oh no, I'm gonna talk about this

Plan For Real Life With Prep

SPEAKER_00 7:57

now actually. Um, the next bit I wanted to talk about was just planning for real life. Because most of us have know we're gonna go into a busy time and then a quieter time. And of course, sometimes just things just happen, like you know, I don't know, say your partner goes into hospital or something, so you suddenly you're left doing all of the things that need to be done, plus supporting them. Uh, and that can be obviously a very stressful thing that all of your things can just go out the window. So if you plan for real life, but have maybe some flexible structure around that, that can be helpful. If you can do some basic prep, um, I've talked before, I generally will do some basic prep on weekends, which would usually involve just it's the easiest thing in the world is just roasting up whatever veggies I have. It's particularly good if you've got veggies that are kind of on the on their way out. Just roast everything up so I've got them there to add to meals during the week, uh, that I can very easily put together a really nutritious meal, lots of brightly colored veggies and mix some salad through whatever. And it really doesn't take long at all. The oven does all of the work. So just having some prep already done so that you can throw a simple meal together very quickly does help you plan for real life. And just setting realistic expectations for yourself, not putting too much pressure on yourself. This is not a time where perfection has a place, it's just sometimes about getting through it in a way that means you're not reaching for a packet of chips or a packet of chocolate, that you're able to do things that are gonna keep your brain healthy, your body healthy, and help you feeling good about yourself at times where life is just crazy.

Identity Shifts Self Talk Support

SPEAKER_00 9:52

And sometimes a part of this is having a bit of an identity shift, being, you know, I'm someone who can maintain a routine, I'm someone who keeps going, even when it's tough. Not oh, I'll just start again Monday. You know, that the old I'll start again Monday is such a common uh strategy, if you can call it that, uh, when things are getting tough. But if you can maintain those little habits, I'm just gonna go back and review those. So, you know, understanding that when life gets busy, your decision fatigue increases. So you're gonna be less likely to make good decisions because you just can't, you just need things to just be happening without you necessarily taking control. Your routines can break, whereas consistency can make a huge difference. So even if you don't have time, if you can spend 30 seconds doing something, that will help. Helps you feel good about it too. It helps you achieve a goal. Going for your minimum viable habits, whether that's around nutrition, whether it's around movement, hydration, sleep, mindfulness, your bare minimum still counts. Planning for real life, whether that's food prep, whether that's actually booking into your reformer class, for example, whether it is even just pre-making meals so you're ready to go, having realistic expectations around that. And then that identity shift, whatever that, whatever's you know, fits into your language, whatever suits you in terms of what that might look like, whether it is I'm just someone who keeps going, I, you know, I'm not someone that's gonna give up. I start again Monday. Finding some sort of mantra to keep you going during these busy times can be super helpful. And really celebrating all of those small uh moments. So you did get your 30 seconds of breathing and go, yes, I did that. I did that. I'm awesome, I've got this, really, really helps that positive self-talk and self-celebration, congratulation makes such a huge difference when you're busy, when you're stressed, to have that positive voice inside you rather than the negative one, which probably for many of us can be more dominant a lot of the time if we haven't worked on it. That can be an absolute game changer. The other thing that can really help is support and accountability. So whether that's having a friend that is you can be accountable to, maybe you can be accountable to each other, whether it's someone like myself or a coach of some kind, that can help you stay on track, that can make a

Book Assessment Subscribe Review DM

SPEAKER_00 12:38

huge difference. And that's exactly what I do inside the GLO protocol. So I hope this has been helpful today. Uh, feel free to book in for a peri weight loss assessment if you think you would like to learn a little bit more about what that sort of accountability and support looks like. And yeah, take care of yourself if you are in that busy spiral. I hope you got something out of this today. Even if it's just a couple of things that you could implement today, then that would make me really, really happy. So take care, be well, and I'll see you next week for some more fresh content. Thanks so much for joining me on the Ageless and Awesome podcast. If you would like this episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple Podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify so that you get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you feel like writing me a five-star review, you would absolutely make my day. If you found this episode resonated with you, head over to my Instagram and DM me at the Perimetopause Park. I would love to connect with you.