Day 4: Running Reignited: 5 Day Challenge

Welcome to Day 4 of the Running Reignited Challenge!

So far, you’ve explored:

✅ WHO you are and the runner you want to become
✅ WHAT your body is going through in this season of life
✅ WHERE your strength and energy are really coming from

And now it’s time for a question most runners never ask:

⏳ WHEN Should I Push… and When Should I Pull Back?

If you’ve been taught to keep pushing, to stay disciplined, to never skip a run…

…then chances are, your body has been sending signals you’ve learned to ignore.

That’s not your fault.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that pushing through fatigue or soreness means we’re strong.

But in this next phase of your running life, awareness is the new superpower.

Today, we shift from doing more to listening better.

✅ TODAY’S ACTION: ENERGY + RECOVERY CHECK-IN

Your body is always communicating. Today, let’s tune in.

📊 Rate each of these areas from 1–10
 (1 = low/poor, 10 = great)

• Energy today: _____
• Average energy level this week: _____
• Sleep quality last night: _____
• Soreness or stiffness: _____
• Mood or stress level: _____
• Hunger or cravings: _____

Then reflect:

• Which areas feel off?
• What might your body be asking for right now?
• Do you need movement—or recovery—today? 

🌀 Optional Add-On: Try 5 minutes of nervous system downregulation:

• Box breathing (inhale 4 counts, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4)
• Legs up the wall
• Gentle walk outside
• Just sit in silence 

📥 You’ll find today’s tracker and prompts in the workbook:

👉 Access Day 4 Materials ➝ DOWNLOAD DAY 4 WORKBOOK HERE

Today, I’ll show you how to train with nervous system awareness—not guilt or guessing.

We’ll cover:

💥 Why recovery is actually part of your training
💥 How midlife stress adds up—and what your body does about it
💥 What signs to look for when your system is dysregulated
💥 When to pull back—and when it’s safe to push

After today’s check-in,

✨ What did your body tell you today?
✨ What did you notice when you slowed down and tuned in?

This is the part of running no one taught us—but it changes everything.

Your nervous system isn’t holding you back—it’s protecting you.
 

When you start honoring it, your energy returns.

Your strength returns

Your results return.

P.S. Tomorrow, we put it all together—so you can move forward with clarity and confidence. You’re almost there!

Thanks for Listening!!

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Don't forget: The information on this website is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition or to provide medical advice. It is intended for general education in the areas of health and wellness. All information contained in this site is intended to be educational in nature. Nothing should be considered medical advice for your specific situation.

Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:01

Alright, welcome. It's day four of the Running Reignited challenge. I'm so excited that all of you are back. those of you that are here live, thank you for being here live and spending this time with me. Say hey in the chat. and those of you that are catching the replay, thank you for taking the time. So remember to go back and watch the recording too. So I want to acknowledge you as well. and I would love to hear your takeaways. So even though you can't be here with us live, come to the Facebook group, okay? If you have Facebook, of course, and let us know what your takeaways are from these live replays, because I want to hear from you as well. I know that somebody, made a comment. I wish I could be chatting along with all of you in the live videos. That's what the Facebook group is for. Okay. Put your takeaways, your ahas, your insights, your questions into the Facebook group.'cause that is what it is there for. What's up Lori? Hello, Cindy. so far this week we have explored who you are. What is going on in your body and where your strength and energy come from? And today we're getting into when to push and when to pull back based on what your body is telling you. And this is something that is very important, a very important conversation that we are going to have today because we have been taught for so long to ignore what our bodies. Tell us, and a lot of us don't even understand that some of the things that we're experiencing are the ways that our body is communicating with us. So I want you to start to be more aware of this because this is the piece that so many runners are missing. It's not more miles, it's not pushing harder. It is that awareness of what is going on in your body and what your body's trying to communicate with you. How you can interpret those things and then what you also need to do so that your body starts responding in the way that you want it. Make sense? Sound good? So the first thing that we're gonna jump into today when we talk about when to push and when to pull back. The important thing I need you to understand, and we've started to talk about this in some of our previous days as well. actually before we jump into today's content, I would love to know, does anybody have any questions from the strength tests yesterday? I saw a lot of people in the chat and in the Facebook group talk about, an imbalance between the two sides, right? They noticed that there was one side that was stronger than the other. there was some, someone that said, they were able to do 10 on one side and then zero on the other side. That's a red flag, right? These are again, things for you to be aware of and we haven't gotten into what to do about all of it yet. Okay? That's what tomorrow's for. Tomorrow's really going to show you the big picture and the blueprint and what to do moving forward. So how many of you noticed that there was a difference between your sides? Gimme a yes in the chat. If you notice that one side was, it was easier on one side versus the other. Okay. Yes. Yes. Lots. Yes. Lots of yeses. This is very common and it doesn't mean that anything is wrong. Okay? It just is something to notice, especially if you are someone that tends to get injured on one side more than the other, okay? That's telling you something. And in all my years of physical therapy, I have noticed in talking to thousands of patients. Most people have one side that tends to be more problematic, quote unquote, than the other, right? like some people, it's the right side. You notice it's the A, it's the right ankle, it's the right hip, it's the right side of your lower back. There tends to be one side that tends to get more of the problems that we experience versus the other. And again, although this is common, that doesn't mean that it's okay. And the goal here is to figure out why that's happening. So sometimes the side that is the more painful side can be the weaker side, and sometimes the side that is the more painful side can be the actually the stronger side. And this is what we have to then start to tease out. And this is one of the things that we do inside of our coaching program all the time, because one of the things that we often think is, the, if I'm having pain in that spot, it's because there's weakness in that spot. And that might not be the case. That side or that spot might be fine. There could be a different. Area of the body, maybe on the other side, maybe above or below that area, that is weak, that is causing more stress and strain on that area. So for example, okay, some people have, let's say, right side knee pain, but the problem is actually with the left hip. Like what, and this is one of the fun things about being a physical therapist, because at the PT I get to be essentially like a detective. I get to figure out, where is the problem here? Because oftentimes the problem is not with the actual joint itself. Like the right knee is just getting the brunt. Of the weakness in the left hip. So by strength, if we, this is one of the reasons why a lot of people think that physical therapy or strengthening exercises don't work. Because if you're having right knee pain and your physical therapist or trainer, or you decide, okay, I'm, I need to strengthen my right knee and start doing exercises for the right knee, you're not actually addressing the root of the problem, which is the left hip. In this case, right? But because of the left hip is weak, there's more stress going through the right knee or the left knee, right? I'm just making up a total an example here, but that is why getting to the root cause of what's going on is really interesting. So did any of you notice that your weakness like was on the opposite side of some pain or some problems? Gimme a me in the chat if anybody noticed that. Because that's some, that's something that we often see too. Or if you have a, an a big weakness in say the sit to stand test, and you're like, I don't understand why this is a problem, because I always thought I had a problem with, fill in the blank. So again, this week is about awareness. This week is bringing awareness to some of these areas where we haven't maybe shy, shown, shined a light before. So again, this is all data, and this is one of the things that we talk about in the team as well. Like everything that we do in our training. This is data. When you run a race, when you do a training run, this is all data. How do we interpret the data to help us move forward? And again, we're gonna be doing more of that tomorrow. And so today we're gonna be focusing on. Our nervous system some more. Okay. Because part four of becoming a better runner after 40 is learning how to regulate your stress response. And we've talked about recovery, we've talked about pushing harder. We've talked about strength training and we've talked about why training. I hit record, right? Yeah, I did. your training is actually breaking your body down. Your training is actually adding more stress to the system, and that is why recovery. Is also part of your training. It is an essential part of your training, and there are so many runners that ignore or try to rush the recovery process and then they blame themselves when they plateau or get injured. But the truth is you don't grow and you don't get stronger from the training session. You grow from the recovery afterwards. And if your body doesn't feel safe, it won't adapt. Remember, we talked, I think it was two days ago on Tuesday, about accumulation versus adaptation. Are you just accumulating stress on your body or are you adapting? Is your body actually adapting to the stress that you're placing on it? Because if your nervous system doesn't feel safe, it's not going to allow you to adapt. It's going to continue to conserve and protect you. So you don't get stronger by doing more, you get stronger By recovering well from the right things, by placing the right types of stress on your body and allowing the proper, adequate amount of recovery, that's how you get stronger. Okay, so let's bring back that stress bucket. You guys remember the stress bucket metaphor that I brought up a couple days ago? We have one stress bucket in our body. Stress is not just from your training. Stress is also coming from your life. Demands like your family, work, relationships. Stress is also coming from poor or inconsistent. Sleep from emotional stress like grief, resentment, pressure that we place on ourselves or that other people are placing on us under fueling or skipping meals also places additional stress on your body. Which a lot of you started to realize yesterday of oh shoot, I am under fueling. Like I know I'm eating healthy, but I don't think I'm eating enough. That is a huge piece to be aware of and I'm gonna actually post something in the group after this session. there's a great resource on the internet, Dr. Mary Claire Haver. You guys familiar with Dr. Mary Claire? She's fantastic. She's an O-B-G-Y-N that specializes in menopause, and she just posted a reel today about why calories in calories out does not work for women in perimenopause and menopause. Fantastic.'cause everything she does is research based as well. So if you, if you aren't following her, I highly recommend following Dr. Mary Claire on Instagram. Okay. Or probably other platforms as well. So under fueling and skipping meals can actually be making all of these problems worse, can actually be, leading to more weight gain that a lot of women don't wanna have. Okay. Chronic inflammation. Also adding more stress to your stress bucket. And this is a piece that I really wanna talk about today. And then of course, yes, the hormonal shifts in perimenopause and menopause are also adding more stress to your bucket because estrogen and progesterone helps to dampen the effects of stress in the body. So as we lose them, those things affect us more. Okay. Yeah, Melissa, I'm gonna put all of that information in the Facebook group today'cause I'm gonna link to a specific reel that she just posted. so I'll put that information in the chat or in the Facebook group. So let's talk about inflammation for a second. Okay. Because this is a topic that is out there, but is very. misunderstood in the science, in, in the health and wellness world. We'll just say that. Okay, so in midlife there's two types. Thank you, Sarah. There's two types of inflammation. There is acute inflammation and then there is chronic inflammation. Acute inflammation is something that you would think about, like spraining your ankle, right? When you sprain your ankle, then your ankle swells up. There's an acute level of inflammation. It lasts for a couple of days and then it goes away. That is acute inflammation. Chronic inflammation tends to be more systemic. Systemic means that it affects every system in your body. It's widespread throughout the body, and in midlife, women often experience more systemic inflammation, even if they're eating well and training regularly. What, why, what seriously, Angie, really. You're telling me that I'm gonna be chronically inflamed, even if I am training regularly and eating well, I thought those were the things that I was supposed to be doing. This is where it can get really frustrating for us because we think that we're doing the right things, but yet we're not getting the results that we want. And one of the reasons is this chronic systemic inflammation. So why are we experiencing this in midlife, lower estrogen levels? Number one. Okay. So as your estrogen starts to decline, they remove this natural anti-inflammatory buffer that we have. Okay? So estrogen helps to buffer inflammation in the body. Cortisol is one of the reasons that happens because estrogen helps to, again, buffer and dampen the effects of cortisol. Cortisol levels, especially chronically elevated cortisol levels lead to more systemic inflammation in the body. Okay? Poor sleep, nutrient depletion and chronic stress all add more fuel to that chronic systemic inflammation. Fire. And then even your training when stacked on top of the life, stress can become pro-inflammatory, meaning that it's adding to that inflammation. And I know that this sounds really like a sad story right now, but don't worry, I'm not gonna give you all of this information with nothing to do about it. Okay? So how do you know if you are experiencing possibly chronic systemic inflammation? One more frequent soreness. So if you just notice that your body is sore a lot more, or that it takes you time, more time to recover in between your training sessions, slower recovery times, okay. Digestive issues can also be a sign of chronic systemic inflammation, gut and GI issues If you have puffy and swollen joints. That can be a sign of chronic inflammation, fatigue, chronic fatigue or fatigue. that doesn't match your effort, right? I don't understand why I am so tired after that. Like I thought I went on an easy run, or I thought today was a recovery day and I'm still tired. Like your body's just not bouncing back the way that you want it to, or the way that you think you quote unquote should be recovering. Does any of the, do any of those things sound familiar? Give me a number one in the chat. If you are experiencing more frequent soreness, slower recovery, digestive issues, puffy, swollen joints, fatigue, that doesn't match your efforts. Yeah. Okay. So this is something that a lot of women are experiencing, right? So in midlife, when we start to go through perimenopause and menopause, we have lower stress resilience. And that's really what this all kind of comes down to. And Dr. Mary Claire actually was just talking about this the other day on her platforms as well, is that. She was talking about how she was reading a bunch of articles and there just seemed to be this theme that kept coming up with the authors of those articles, like almost qualifying and making excuses for why women are feeling this way. oh yeah, her kids are leaving and there's all these other things going on. It's We've been dealing with that stuff for a long time. Like maybe not your kids leaving, but stress. We as women, we deal with levels of stress all the time. Who has ever can you think about any period of your life where it wasn't really stressful? Let's be real. I. The issue now is not that we have more stress, it's that we have less resilience to stress. That stress affects us more. We're not able to bounce back as quickly or as fully from those little stressors. So the things that maybe didn't use to bother you now all of a sudden seem like these huge things that are really big deals. Has anybody noticed, just like your tolerance for other people's crap has gone way down? I think that's, can I honestly think that can be a good thing, right? I'm not mad about it. because I think that when you start to get into your forties and your fifties, you're just like, you step more into yourself and you're like, yeah, these are the things I'm gonna deal with and these are the things I have, I'm not gonna tolerate anymore. And that can be a beautiful thing, especially when you feel like. You. You have the power, right? Stepping into your own power. That is a beautiful thing. Yes. Idina. I also feel more stress even from the happy things going on, right? Like it's not just like the negative things that are happening, it's just oh my God, there's so much happening, especially in May, right? Like any moms in May, like they call it December, if you guys heard that term. That's a pretty funny one.'cause December's like the holidays and all the crazy things, and in May you've got End of school and all the graduations and parties and like all sorts of stuff like teacher appreciation, like all these millions of things that we're dealing with. Sarah's nodding over there, right? Yeah. Patients can be thin and that's because in midlife, in perimenopause and menopause, we don't have estrogen backing us up anymore, so we have a lower resilience to stress. We also have higher baseline inflammation because again, of those hormone changes. I said hormone funny there. And then there's also that cumulative load on the nervous system. Okay. When we are overloading the nervous system, when our nervous system is dysregulated, it can't process things as readily and as quickly. So these little things that used to just fly under the radar didn't use to bother us. We just let'em go. It's just they're just adding up, and it becomes more of a cumulative load. That stress bucket that we have starts to overflow more often, and so the result of this is that so many women are unknowingly training on a full bucket every day. Your stress bucket's already full. Now you're going out and you're trying to push yourself really hard. And so it's not because you're weak, it's not because you're outta shape. It's because no one's ever taught you how to adjust your training for this new reality, for this new body that you have. So it's not your fault. It's not that you're lazy. It's not that you're you. You know your body's broken. It's not that there's something wrong with you. There are. I think over 700 women that have registered for this challenge that is telling you something, right? There are women out there that are struggling. That is why I do these challenges, because I wanna help less women struggle. And you have a choice in all of this, and that doesn't mean it's your fault, but it does mean that you have power. You have responsibility, and when you start to own that power and own that responsibility over your choices, all sorts of things start to open up for you, right? Because when we're training on a full bucket and obviously not getting the results that we want, your nervous system doesn't care how motivated you're you are. If the bucket's full, it's going to flip the circuit breaker, and inflammation is a big part of what fills that bucket. All right. Is this making sense? Gimme a yes in the chat if you guys are still with me. Fantastic. Okay, so I talked about connection, learning how to connect to what your body's trying to tell you. So we have to become detectives. We have to start to learn how to read the signs, how to know when it's time for us to push and how to know when it's time for us to pull back. So if you are experiencing some of these signs of dysregulation that I talked about, like low energy or constant fatigue, which is pretty much almost everybody that signed up for the challenge, right? Disrupted sleep, moodiness anxiety, brain fog, sugar cravings, appetite swings, soreness that lingers or worsens, repeating injuries or just feeling inflamed, like feeling tight and sore all the time. If you continue to push through these things, that does not make you tough. It keeps you stuck, and in a lot of cases, it sends you in the opposite direction. It sends you into decline, it sends you into injury and burnout and illness because we are just trying to ignore the signals that our body is trying to send us and just continue to push through. This is why so many people get sick after a big training schedule or a big training, cycle or get sick after a big time in their life. I know this used to happen to me, like when I got, came home from college. Obviously I was in my twenties then and I was a lot more resilient to stress, but I was staying up super late sometimes pulling all-nighters, studying, definitely not eating well, right? I'd get through my finals, I'd come home and I'd be sick. Because my body was like, and I'm done. And this happens to a lot of runners also. there's a thing called the mar, the post marathon flu, right? Because you've been pushing and pushing, and then you finally run the race and your body's okay, thank God I can actually recover now. But it doesn't have to be that way. It's because so many people, when they're training for things like that, really big goals, they're ignoring their body.'cause they think I just have to keep pushing. I just have to get to that finish line. I just have a couple more weeks I can, and a lot of times it works. It can work for a short amount of time. It's not always necessary for you to pull back all the time. Sometimes pushing through and ignoring your body can be helpful in a really short period of time. If you're in the middle of a marathon or if you're in the middle of a 5K. Yeah, five Ks are painful. If you race a 5K, five Ks arguably are like the hardest distance out there because you are like almost redlining the whole time, right? If you're really pushing and your body's screaming at you to slow down. If you're at mile 22 of the marathon and all you wanna do is lie down on the ground, right? It can be helpful to push through. Those are good times to push through. That's a good time to do the whole like mind over matter thing. But not every training session, not every week, not every day. And that's what happens to so many women, not just with our training, but with all of our, like every area of our lives. I. I just gotta get through this. I just gotta get to May. I just gotta get to the end of school. I just gotta get to the end of the summer, right? we're just like giving ourselves deadlines. I just gotta get to this. But in doing that, we're missing out on experiencing the fullness of life and experiencing the fullness of what you're training could be. Training for a marathon is not just about reaching the finish line. It is who you become in the process. You don't become a marathoner. Over the course of 26.2 miles, you become a marathoner over the months of training that you put in to get you to the starting line of that marathon. So if we are just pushing through all the time at this phase of our lives, we're gonna start going backwards. Okay. And to this, people might say to me, but Ange, what if I'm just not motivated? And I know there was a lot of you that checked off when I asked you about some of the things that you were experiencing. Lack of motivation was a popular one as well. And this is also a signal that your body's giving to you. This is not just something wrong with you, again, because it's hard to feel motivated when your nervous system is overloaded. When your body is stuck in survival mode, it's going to shut down your desire and your drive to go out and do the hard things, right? Like it's gonna be really hard. You might be able to do it. Sometimes you might be able to push through and use willpower and use motivation and hype yourself up with some good music and whatnot and get out the door. But day after day, it's gonna run out. And it's not because you're lazy, it's because your system is protecting you. Motivation is fleeting. It's a feeling, right? We feel motivated and feelings are not reliable, and feelings are not sustainable the same way that you're not gonna feel happy all the time, right? Because it's a feeling. Feelings come and go. Sometimes we're happy, sometimes we're sad, sometimes we're excited, sometimes we're frustrated, sometimes we're confused. There's all sorts of feelings in the human range of emotions, right? You're never stuck in one feeling all the time, so it's normal for you to have feelings of motivation and sometimes not feeling motivated. But the good news here is that you don't have to find motivation because action creates motivation. Not the other way around. I know that when I gave you guys, I, we talked about the feeling wheel on day one go. If you think back to our cb, our loop, where our thoughts create our feelings. Feelings lead to actions. Actions lead to results. But I also told you that it doesn't have to start with a thought. It doesn't have to start with a feeling. It can start anywhere on that loop and sometimes it can be really helpful to start with an action. I. Sometimes getting out the door when you don't feel like it can help to kickstart and create motivation. I don't feel like going today. Too bad. Get your butt out the door. I know. I do that to myself and I always go back to, why? It's not motivation that gets me out the door. It's that identity piece. Touching back on what we talked about in day one as the undercurrent of all of this, I'm a runner. Thursday is my running day. If I check in with myself and really be honest with myself, I'm just being a whiny brat. My brain is just being a whiny brat and just doesn't wanna go today because I'm a little tired. Okay. Sometimes you just gotta get out the door. That's why. Have you, has anybody ever heard the phrase, the first mile is a liar? because it, it takes your body time to warm up sometimes. And like after that first mile, okay, I can do this a little bit longer. But sometimes in that first mile you're like, do I really wanna do this? But then you get going. Sometimes you just gotta commit to five minutes, just get out the door for five minutes. And then if I'm really feeling still crappy, then I'll go turn around and come home. But chances are, if you get out there and you start going, you're gonna keep going. because action creates motivation. Sometimes you do have to push yourself out the door just to start the loop, just to take that first step, and so many times that first step changes your entire state, right? You just get out there and you're like, I'm just gonna start. I'm gonna commit to 20 minutes. I'm gonna commit to 10 minutes, and then all of a sudden you've done your 45 minute run and you feel so much better, right? Has anybody ever felt that way? I know I have for sure. but when that kind of push helps you feel better, that's the right kind of effort. That is a good time to push yourself. But if you're pushing yourself out the door every single day, dragging through every session, and still not seeing results, that's a red flag. That's not a motivation problem. A lot of people think it's a motivation problem. That is not a motivation problem, that is a nervous system dysregulation problem. Your nervous system is telling you something is off. I need help. What you're doing isn't working. And the deeper truth of all of that is it's not just about regulation and dysregulation, it's about adaptability. Because a lot of times when people think about nervous system regulation, they're like, oh, does that just mean like breathing and meditation? And it's yes, those are tools that we can use for sure to help with our nervous system. And those are tools that, that I teach inside of our program, but it's not just about being calm all the time. It's about our nervous system being adaptable, that nervous system. Remember back to day one, we talked about the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. You need to be able to shift between each one. You have to shift between states. You have to be able to shift from effort back to recovery, from challenge, back to ease, right? And so many of us women over 40. Because of our hormone shifts and our nervous system, we're just stuck in sympathetic in efforting and challenge, and we're not allowing ourselves to get back into ease and rest and recovery because our culture tells us that it's not worth it. Our culture tells us that we're lazy. Our culture tells us we're not doing enough, and you have to push harder and do more. And we put that on ourselves. We take that on. And so what I'm telling you is that it's okay to put that down. Sometimes it's okay to put that idea down and rest and take a nap. Sometimes you just need to take a nap, and that's a beautiful thing, right? Without the guilt that comes along with it. Because sometimes we're like, all right, fine, I gotta take a nap. But then we like lay there and we feel guilty and then we can't fall asleep, right? And we're like, I shouldn't really be doing this. I should be vacuuming, or I should be doing something else. there's a million things on my to-do list. But again, shifting, we're not meant to just go all the time. That is not how our bodies are created. The earth is cyclical. The day is cyclical, right? Women's bodies are cyclical. We are designed as cyclical beings. And if we're constantly trying to do one thing over and over, we're not allowing for the natural cycle and the natural flow of the way that we were so divinely designed, right? So if you're constantly forcing yourself to show up. It's time to stop blaming motivation and start supporting yourself in a better way that will allow your nervous system to be more adaptable, because that's what's going to lead to progress. That's what's going to build resilience. That's what's going to make running feel good again, because your body is always communicating with you. And now I hope through this challenge and some of the awareness that you're starting to gain this week, you're gonna start to listen. Then you're gonna start to learn how to interpret, not just listen, but then, okay, interpret those signals and then do something differently, right? Because our culture is always teaching us to override the signals, but your body is always communicating with you. But if you're constantly trying to override or ignore those signals or numb those signals, especially as women, we're not going to be able to sustain that. So your nervous system is not the enemy. It's a beautiful internal GPS that's showing you where you need to go. And this is why so many people get on a training plan, and those training plans don't work because if you're not feeling it that day and you're like, but I got something on the schedule here, and you just keep pushing through. If you're ignoring what your body's trying to tell you. So training plans are definitely a helpful tool, and we've got tons of training plans inside the team for all different types of goals and all different types of bodies. But your plan cannot replace self-awareness. You have to be able to understand what your body is telling you, right? So I want you to think of your nervous system like a dashboard. The lights that come on aren't the problem, right? They're just telling you where to look. If you have your check oil or your check engine light come on in your car, it's not like you're like, duh, this stupid dashboard lighting up, right? You're like, oh, I wonder what's going on here. I better check into that. Better take my car to the. Mechanic or I better add gas to my car. You're like, thank you dashboard for letting me know that I'm low on fuel so I don't run out of fuel on this and end up on the side of the road. We're thankful for the dashboard to alert us of a possible problem and that's what our, that's what our nervous system is too. And so often we're getting mad at it'cause we're like. Why am I so tired? Why am I sore all the time? Like we get angry about it and I get it. I'm not saying again, you're doing anything wrong. Again, this is about bringing awareness and I understand why you feel that way. But when we can start to shift and see, okay, your nervous system is just trying to tell you what's up, bring awareness to areas that need attention. That can be a really beautiful thing, and that's why it's in today's workbook. I asked you to start, tracking your patterns, right? Your daily pattern tracker. I asked you to rate on a scale of one to 10. Whoop, where'd that go? On a scale of one to 10, how was your energy level today? And then how has, what's like your average energy been this week? Also. How is your sleep quality on a scale of one to 10, your soreness and your stiffness, your mood and your stress level, your hunger and your cravings, right? Rating those on a scale of one to 10, why? To bring awareness, to start seeing what are some of the areas that your body's asking you to bring awareness to? If you're hungry all the time, if you have sugar cravings at night. That can be a sign that you're not fueling your body enough during the day. Your body's not getting what it needs. So what's it doing? It's telling you, I'm hungry, I'm under fueled. Please feed me. Right Where when you start to give yourself enough protein, enough healthy fats, enough carbohydrates, those hungers and those cravings will probably start to go away. There are people that are like, I just have the biggest sweet tooth. There's nothing wrong with sweets again, but how much are you eating? How often are you craving those sweets? Because if your body's craving sugar all the time, there's an issue. That's a signal, that's a sign. You're not, your body's not getting what it needs if you're constantly. Anxious and stressed and in a bad mood, and you feel like you're walking on a thin wire, like someone's, some, someone says one thing to you, you just snap at'em. That's telling you something. Stress bucket about to overflow. Warning. Warning, right? If you're sore and you're stiff all the time, what could that be telling you? If your energy is low, what could that be telling you? All of these things that we're experiencing as women, yes. Some of them can be telling you that you're going through perimenopause. True or menopause, But what else is it? that's part of it, but it's what? Perimenopause and menopause are not the problem. Perimenopause and menopause are something that our bodies naturally go through. Again, that's the way we were divinely designed. I. The problem is what it does to our nervous system. It is how the hormones now losing those hormones, now our stress bucket starts a little bit fuller. So this is why our choices matter a lot more, right? Because we're not starting with an empty bucket anymore. our buckets starting a little bit more full than normal. We don't have as many workers trying to shovel out the water, right? So that's what's going on. So let me know in the chat what's something that stood out to you like on when you rated yourself, what was something that you rated as the lowest things like which area to you felt most out of alignment today? Let me know in the chat. What was one of your lowest numbers? I sleep and stress level. Energy level. Stress level. Okay. So what might your body be asking For energy? Yeah. Not great sleep last night. Do you know why you didn't get great sleep? Sleep last night. Extra soreness today to retire. There you go. That's an option, right? That is an option. It's a choice. We all have lots of choices. More sleep. Maybe chill out for a few minutes. Yeah. Have y'all if just taken three to five minutes. I know that's, that was the optional nervous system reset that I offered to you to take three to five minutes to perform one of those activities. Box breathing legs up the wall, a gentle walk outside, or just to sit quietly in stillness. Take three to five minutes to do that and then see how you feel. It's almost miraculous sometimes. That when just taking three to five minutes to breathe and put your phone down and be in a little bit of quiet, if that's possible. Can totally reset how you're feeling. All of a sudden you feel like, okay, I can go in here. I can handle this situation now. Whereas before, maybe you were frazzled and your nerves were like shot and you're like, I'm just gonna breathe. I'm gonna take 10 deep breaths. Friends, we all have time for that. I know we're busy. I know you've got a lot on your plate, but we all have time to take some deep breaths and having your breath with you is a game changer because it's always with you. You can always tap into it any time of your day. Yeah. Legs up the wall with calm music. Fantastic. There's a lot of techniques that we teach inside the program, and I know that some of you women that I've even see on the screen right now have told me I started to do this, and I was like, at first I'm like, why am I doing this? And then all of a sudden I was sleeping through the night, right? Sometimes they seem really small and they seem really silly, but it actually helps. It actually works, and then you start feeling better. Using the Headspace app nightly has helped me relax. Love it. Lemme see what else you guys have put in here. Sleep. I have a bad habit to break of listening to audiobooks with earbuds in. Yeah, it plays all night. Yeah. A lot of people do that. try to fall asleep with the TV on. They let, I know I've talked to a lot of people that say they, I have to have the TV on to fall asleep. I need that like white noise, that distraction, but it. Affects your body and your sleep quality on a subconscious level. I've been really tired over the last week. Did a yoga sound bath yesterday. I feel like I've been on a holiday. Yeah. Cool. That's awesome. We start each morning with a dog walk in the park on the trails. It really helps with sore muscles and a nice way for the brain to start the day. I love that morning. Getting out into nature is also very grounding and very helpful for your nervous system. We are designed to be connected to nature. And so getting outside, getting in nature, getting sunlight in the morning, 10 minutes of natural sunlight in the morning is very regulatory for your nervous system and your circadian rhythm and all sorts of things. So there's a lot of really cool things that you can start to implement that don't take much time, or things that you can do like in addition to what you're already doing, like just the different way that you're doing it, that can change how you feel and the extra benefits that you get from it. And so when you learn how to have that adaptable nervous system, when your body feels safe and can shift between states, that's when you start to have more stress resilience. You'll notice that you feel better. You notice that you'll be able to push harder on your hard days. And also going back to day two, if you go easy, you learn how to run easy. On your easy days, I get you'll have more energy on your hard days. Yes. Oh my gosh, yes, Sarah. It's so true. I still get that with my 12-year-old. I don't know if that's helpful or not, but it's with my girls now they're older. All of a sudden it's like time to go to bed and there's a million things that they still have, to do or now. Now I'm gonna tell you about all the middle school drama that happened today as I'm tucking you into bed and I'm like banging my head up against the wall, but not really anymore. I used to, right? But I saw something that said, a teenager that wants to talk to you at bedtime is the same thing as a three-year-old that's scared of the dark. Because they need, that's when they need you. That's when they're trying to let their nervous system come down. And we as moms, even though I wanna go to bed, my 12-year-old needs me to help. She hasn't learned these things yet. She hasn't learned how to regulate herself yet. She's doing okay. I'm teaching her, I'm teaching her little, little by little, but they need our help to for that. And then we actually have to then take care of ourselves too. So instituting some head space, instituting some deep breathing after you finally leave the room can be very helpful. Yeah, because that's what you're doing. Like when you're. Kids, whatever age they are acting out. Sometimes it's a three-year-old throwing a tantrum. Other times it's a 15-year-old screaming at her sister. It's because they're dysregulated. They don't know how to deal with all those big feelings. Their hormones are shifting too. Especially my teenage girls. Just like I saw a real once that was like me dealing with a. teenager while I'm going through perimenopause and it was like this funny, I forget exactly what it was. It was two animals that were like going at it, but. It's true, right? Because they don't know how to do this stuff yet. And that's part of our jobs as moms, I hope, and that's what I would love, and this is the ripple effect of what I do, of what I hope for in the world is like by me helping you and you helping yourself, and then you can then help the people in your lives, there's a beautiful ripple effect that can happen. So what I want you to take away from today is that your nervous system is not holding you back. It's protecting you. And when you start to honor your nervous system, your energy returns, your strength returns, your results return. Feeling better on your runs, running longer, running faster. Whatever it is you want to achieve can come back when your nervous system feels safe. Sound good? Who's got questions? Anybody have any questions on this? Everybody's good. Nervous system. Pros now. Nervous system pros. All right, cool. put. Any questions, any insights, any ahas, please share them in the Facebook group. because we've got hundreds of women in that Facebook group that are not. Coming to the calls, maybe they're not able to make it. Maybe they're catching the replays. but show them how insightful, like the, not I want you to tell them how these calls are helping you so that they'll go watch the calls and get help also. That ripple effect. Help me spread the word. Okay? and if you have friends that still wanna join, it's still not too late because we've got all of the replays. All right? So tomorrow. Tomorrow's day five, and I feel like excited, but also sad because we're coming to an end of this, but this is not the end. This is just, again, a transition, right? Just like perimenopause is a transition into the next phase of our life. Tomorrow is going to be that transition. Okay? So tomorrow we're gonna be putting all of it together and I'm gonna show you how to keep building a stronger, more energized body with a clear path forward. Because we've got, we've talked about a lot of things this week, and so tomorrow it's my job to put all that together and show you the path forward. Okay? And anybody that wants to continue on this journey with us, we've got an amazing team of women, inside of our program. So we are here to support you. This is not a goodbye. This is just a transition. Okay. Y'all, I'll see you in the Facebook group, post your takeaways. post in there, some of the things that you learned or the things that you realized or the things that you are going to try to do moving forward. And, I'll see you in there and I'll see you tomorrow too. All right. Good. Awesome. Bye guys.