Biohacking for Women in Your 40s and 50s: Where to Actually Start

Biohacking for women is having a moment — but here's the catch: most of what you read was never designed for your body. Until 1993, clinical research largely studied men, and women have been following men's rules ever since. So what actually works when you're a woman in your 40s or 50s, and where on earth do you start?

That's exactly what this episode is for. Azra Alagic is a biohacker, longevity coach and founder of Biohackher, and she's spent years working out what genuinely moves the needle for women — and what's just expensive noise. We walk through her four pillars, brain, body, beauty and balance, and for each one Azra answers the same practical question: what's the free thing that helps most, and what's actually worth your money?

Along the way she explains why the ice-bath trend can backfire for women in midlife, why muscle is the longevity organ you can't afford to lose, and why the most underrated tool for your nervous system costs nothing at all.

And then, the way every episode ends, she brings it back to one thing. Not a forty-step protocol. One foundational habit that quietly supports all four pillars at once. If you've been overwhelmed by the biohacking world and just want to know where to begin, start here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Wellness Simplified. I'm Kelly Nichols, and this show is for busy people who care deeply about their health but are drowning in conflicting advice and don't know where to focus. Every episode, we simplify one area of health. One habit, one simple experiment, one clear next step that will actually fit into your life. Together, let's optimize our health. One simple step at a time. Hey, welcome back to Wellness Simplified. I'm your host, Kelly Nichols. Here's something most people don't know. Until 1993, women were largely left out of clinical trials. So a lot of the health advice we've all been dutifully following was actually designed for men. And for women, our bodies don't play by the same rules. What works for a man doesn't necessarily work for us, especially in our 40s and 50s. Which might be why the whole biohacking world can feel like it's shouting at you. Cold plunges, gadgets, supplements, 40 things to do before breakfast. And none of it was built for your body. My guest today is Azra Allergic. She's a biohacker and longevity coach who has spent years working out what actually moves the needles for women and what's just expensive noise. We go through her four pillars: brain, body, beauty, and balance. And for each one, she tells you what's free and what's genuinely worth the investment. So let's get into it. Hey Ezra, thank you so much for joining us. I'm I'm looking forward to this conversation. I think the problem with this conversation is going to be how I can curtail it to not go too long. Because I was trying to think of, you know, all the things I wanted to ask you, and I've tried to make it not too long because you're a wealth of knowledge. So yeah, welcome.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Oh thanks, Kelly. So great to join you. And yes, there's so much we can chat about as we've already um realized when we've chatted offline. So I have no idea we'll have a great chat today.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Awesome. I am I always like to jump in to just try to get a sense of our guests, like the guests' life. So could you tell me a bit about like your morning routine and how you set yourself up for the day?

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Yeah, I'm one of those people that really likes structure and tends to have a fairly regular routine. So I live on Acreage and the gorgeous Gold Coast Hinterlands, and I get up pretty much with the sun every morning, if not a little bit earlier, and within 20 minutes of waking up, well, first I'll go and wash my face, brush my teeth, do some tongue scraping, I'll have some water with some lemon and some Celtic sea salt in it, and then I go straight outdoors after that. And I get some morning sunlight uh into my eyes just to make sure that I'm supporting my circadian rhythms. But as I'm doing that, I'm doing breath work, I'm doing grounding as well, and I'm feeding up all our animals. I'm feeding up the horses and connecting with them as well, which is a really lovely way to start the day.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

I love that. That's so beautiful. I could just imagine it. I think I mean there's so much science about that simple habit. I love it when habits can be simple, you know, and just getting that at least 10 minutes first thing in the morning, but then being able to go out into nature and feed the animals and add in the breath work. How cool! I'm imagining you there, how beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah, it's it's I'm very fortunate to live where I am, and uh, it is just such a beautiful way to wake up every morning and and just start the day in that way. And I end the day that way as well. I'm always outdoors at the end of the day feeding up the animals again and just spending time training my horses, and it's really made a huge difference for me in terms of managing my stress levels since we moved down onto the farm. We've only been here for two years, and we used to live in in the suburbs prior to that, but I've always wanted to come back onto Acreage, and honestly, it's the best thing that we ever did. It's it's just such a beautiful environment to live in.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

My partner and I have it on our our dream list, so you're inspiring me. I'm also keen to hear, like, is there because you probably have a lot of habits, health habits that in your life, is there any that you've implemented recently that are you've kind of been surprised by how beneficial it's been?

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Yes, definitely. I was thinking about this because there's something that I have been concerned about as I've got older. So I'm 57 years of age and you know, post-menopausal woman, and you're very focused on what's happening with your health as you're getting older, particularly as a biohacker. And I noticed that my HRV levels, my heart rate variability was low, and I thought, what's going on here? And look, that can be as a result of numerous things. But what I have found that I've recently implemented in a more rigorous way is that breath work. Um, it has really made a big difference in increasing my HRV levels. And sure, I've done breath work, you know, over the years, and it's really great for nervous system regulation. And I really value it as a powerful portable tool that I can take with me when I'm traveling, and if I'm feeling a little bit unstuck or if I'm feeling like I'm ungrounded, then I come back to try and always come back to the breath. Um, but having a more focused sort of routine with it, I have found has has really helped to improve my HRV. So that's the latest hack that I've been experimenting with.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

I love that. That's really, really interesting because I definitely, I mean, I've read a lot of the literature because I've also experienced that kind of decline in HRV and have been researching it, and uh, it's very obviously, like you're saying, specific to women. Um, but I find I've read about the importance of specifically resonance breathing. Do you do that? Like what specific type of breath work do you do, or do you just interweave different types?

SPEAKER_02 5:48

I tend to interweave different types depending on how I feel on any given day. I I'll do my my usual go-to is the the four by four the box breathing because I find that that's that really works quite effectively for me. I think it depends on you as an individual as to what works for you because we're all different and and our bodies will react to you know different uh modalities.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah, and that's the thing, I suppose, just being curious about it and trying it over time and seeing what actually makes a difference. So have you actually noticed that your HRV has increased since you've been doing that?

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Yeah, definitely has increased, and quite I was quite surprised that it worked because you know you sometimes you hear these things, you're like, I'll give it a shot and see. And that's the nature of being a biorehacker, you're always experimenting. And to actually see it change, to see the hack being implemented and then see the results in in a uh in a with a positive outcome uh is always you know very rewarding as a biohacker. Um I think it's a work in progress. Uh it depends on stress levels as well, it depends on what I'm doing on any given day. Um, you know, we're cyclical beings and so our bodies will fluctuate accordingly depending on what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Yeah. And are you trying to kind of do it at set intervals? Because you said you like structure, or are you more just listening to, oh, I'm feeling stress, so I'm gonna take five minutes to do some breath work? Or a mixture?

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Okay, yeah, it's again it's a mixture because I tune into my body. So yes, I'm there's structure because I'm doing it in the mornings and I'm doing it in the afternoon. But if I feel like I am feeling a bit stressed as a result of a meeting that I've just had, or something else that's happened during the day, and I will make an effort to take you know at least five to ten minutes out to do that breath work, to come back in, tune back into myself and refocus again and just really activate my parasympathetic nervous system so that I'm not in that sympathetic nervous system.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah, amazing. So I thought today, as I said, it was hard to try to figure out all of all the things I wanted to talk to you about. But I really like on your website you talk about the you know, the balance, um, brain, body, beauty. And so I thought we would take those four lens, and then with each one, we would look at um what are the specific things for women that will make the biggest difference in these areas. And we can look at starting with free because there's so much free stuff we can do, and then what's actually worth investing your money. But maybe before we dive into that, just to explain to the listeners about why it's so important that there are specific protocols for women, because as you and I know, so much has been researched on men, um, and yet women's bodies behave very differently, and like we're following all this recommendations in science based on male body research.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yeah, 100%. And we know now that the research up until 1993 was focused on male biology, and it wasn't until then that the FDA in America approved for women to be included in clinical human trials. So everything prior to that was focused on men's bodies, and so we've been doing things that were designed for men essentially, and so this is where I'm so passionate about making sure that women are tuning into their bodies and that we're doing biohacks and doing things to nurture our health and wellness that is in alignment with our female bodies because we are cyclical beings and we need to take that into consideration. And as women, we are often the caregivers, we are often trying to multitask, we've got multiple things going on in any given day, and so we're doing a lot of juggling, and all of that impacts how our bodies will be feeling on any given day, and so that's why it's so important to tune into that and really focus on well, what's right for me today, and what should I be focusing on? You know, am I currently in my follicular phase and my estrogen is rising, and um you know, that's when we potentially will be having more energy at that time, and so okay, let's get out there and and do some good strength training or something like that. But if you're going through the menstrual phase, then you might be, you know, wanting to ease it back and really looking at doing some rest and restoration, and so doing things like you know, some gentle walking outside or doing some yoga or something like that, that's really honouring where you are at within your body at that particular time. And so, yes, we we need to focus on on activities, I call them hacktivities that are really essential for women that are in alignment with who we are as cyclical beings.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

And I think it's particularly important in like you and I both are in the or interested in in the biohacking space, but that is very like there it is, quite the bro kind of um lens in a lot of things. And I remember, I mean, it's still big these days, the whole ice bath thing. And I love ice baths from the perspective of training myself to surrender in when my body is stressed. But that said, so my example of what you're saying is my partner and I went a couple of years back and did this ice, like intense weekend ice immersion thing, and it was incredible. But my HRV afterwards like completely dropped and stayed dropped because I was already experiencing stress at the time, and his HRV went through the roof. Um, and it's just a perfect example. We did the exact same thing, but our bodies reacted differently. And that's you know, if you're if I'd just been listening to all the podcasts and so forth at the time, it was like, you know, ice baths are brilliant for everyone. So, not necessarily in it for a woman, it would depend on where she is, cycle, how her stress is feeling, all of those things. And there's so many examples like that.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Yeah, 100%. And it's really interesting because that's exactly what happens with a lot of the biohacking space, that it's it's there's an expectation that everybody can do the same biohacks regardless of where they're at in their life or what gender they are. And that's a really great example of the fact that you can't necessarily do that. I used to do a lot of cold plunging when I was younger, um, probably in my in my 40s, uh, and didn't find any negative impacts there. And I could do a cold plunge down five degrees, no worries at all, and it wouldn't increase my cortisol levels. Now, as a 57-year-old uh postmenopausal woman, I find that if I go and do a cold plunge at five degrees, it drops my blood pressure significantly, it spikes my cortisol levels. So again, I'm having to listen to my body, my body's saying, no, this is not okay, I'm not okay with this. And you know, we need to do it in a different way. So for cold plunging, we should really, as women, be targeting no colder than 10 degrees, probably more around 10 to 13 degrees, and and that's what we encourage our ladies to do if they're um in a position where they're open to doing it and they feel like they can do it, they do that on our and our live with longer retreats as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yeah, brilliant. Okay, let's jump into those four areas. Let's start with the brain. This is one, um, and I've said on previous podcasts that I have a particular interest in. My mum had Alzheimer's, and so I saw firsthand about you know that cognitive decline and how destructive it can be for a family. But I think in general, regardless of whether you have family history of anything like that, for women, we often get the brain fog, you know, maybe you're forgetting words, whatever it is, and that can be deeply frightening. So would love to hear your perspective on the research, what it specifically says for women in regards to maintaining or even optimizing our brain as we age.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Well, when I look at biohacking and supporting women through nourishing their bodies and improving their health, I look at it through those four pillars of brain body beauty balance because I like to look at it from a holistic perspective. And for me, ensuring that we're supporting and nurturing our brain and improving our cognition as we get older in particular is so critical. We know now that dementia is probably the number one killer in women now. It used to be heart disease, it's now been absolutely overtaken by dementia. And there's nothing worse than as you're getting older where you start to notice that cognitive decline. Like you said, you forget where your keys are, you forget somebody's name, um, or you have what I call the brain pause. You could be a mid-sentence, you think, what was I, what was I going to say? What's my train of thought? Well, I'm sure we've all experienced that. Um, so this is why I feel it's really important that we target improving our cognition and making sure that we're we're looking after ourselves. Because if we're not doing that, if we're not targeting these specific areas within our body, I mean, how often do you think about improving your brain health? When was the last time you thought about that? Yeah. And so we we might think about doing some general things like going to the gym and and and doing the workout. But what do we do in terms of trying to create a gym for our brains?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Yeah.

unknown 15:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

And if you leave it until there's a problem, then that means the problem is already quite um progressed. Whereas if you actually start addressing it before you're experiencing too many problems, then you can make a real difference.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah. Yes, unfortunately, we have in Western society what I call a reactive health model rather than a proactive health management model. And I'm an advocate of the proactive approach. And so for me personally, I like to look at my body and try to ensure that I'm foreseeing what potentially could occur if I'm not doing certain biohags or if I'm not managing my health in a proactive way. And so I coach women through this to be able to proactively manage their health. And so when you're thinking about cognitive health, we need to be looking at making sure that we're fueling our brain properly because it's a really fatty organ and so it uses up a lot of energy. And so we need to make sure that we're fueling our brain properly. We need to make sure that we're resting our brain as well, so that during the night when we go to sleep, we have that what I call the garbage truck coming through and cleaning up all of the wasted toxins in our brains and making sure that we lose that dirty brain and we end up with a clean brain when we wake up in the morning. Um, and that we're also training our brain to say stay sharp as we get older so that we continue to rewire the brain neurologically with doing things like learning a new thing, whether it's an instrument, it might be a new language. Um, I recently took up line dancing and you know tried to overcome my two left feet and my little brain a little while to get over that one, but it caught up eventually. And so challenge yourself in those ways to really um step outside of your comfort zone and learn new things and do new things is what's going to help maintain your cognition as you get older.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Okay, so you talked about the importance of rest, the importance of diet, and specifically you mentioned like fatty, as in healthy fats, not any kinds of fats, healthy fats, and then learning new things. So, is there anything else on that kind of free and easy to do that you would recommend in terms of brain health? And then we might jump to because there's also so much out there that you can pay for, but we can talk about what you think is actually worth it.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Yeah, definitely. Look, sleep. Yeah, you it is is so underrated, but it is the my number one buyer hack. I really absolutely do not compromise on how much sleep I get at night and what time I go to sleep and the quality of sleep that I'm trying to aim for. Again, women are often the bearers of having a poor night's sleep because of various reasons. They might have a husband that's snoring next to them, they might have children they're having to wake up for, they might be working late at night because during the afternoon they're spending time with their children. And so, if we're not getting restorative sleep, the brain doesn't have the opportunity to regenerate and to heal overnight. And so we're looking at trying to ensure that we get to sleep by a certain time. 9.30 at night is the preferable time, the research shows. And it's during those first two hours prior to midnight that you actually have that garbage truck coming through and cleaning up those waste toxins in the in the brain and making sure that you are going through that regenerative process so that you are restoring the brain and you're fresh and ready to go the next day. Um, so don't underestimate how important sleep is, and that would be my absolute free hack to do for improving um brain health.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah, absolutely. And I think what you mentioned, and it's uh I funny, I learned this like 20 odd years ago when I was meditating all the time at a camp about my meditation teacher said that the hours before midnight are by far the most important. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, okay, cool, whatever. And then subsequently I've read the science on it that it's actually true. And I definitely find that for myself. So talk me a little bit, like what's your PM routine? Like, how do you set yourself up to optimize to get that kind of optimal sleep?

SPEAKER_02 19:15

It's really important to ensure that you've got a regular routine to get that optimized sleep. And so for me, I try to avoid eating too close to bedtime. So try to stop any food from about two to three hours ideally prior to bed. Try to avoid having any heavy protein before bed so that your digestive system isn't trying to work too heavily overnight, and that's why you're avoiding eating two to three hours before you go to sleep at night because you don't want your digestive system to be working during the night. It should be resting and you should be restoring. Um, so I will do that, and then I will turn all the lights down. Um, I will either turn them off and just have some candles lit, or if we you know it's winter at the moment coming into winter, so we've got the fire on, so we've got that nice amber light, or you get some red light bulbs so that you're changing, you're not having that bright light on during the night because that can impact your melatonin levels, it can increase your cortisol levels as well at night, which you're not wanting that to happen. Um, so you're wanting your cortisol levels to be decreasing at night so that your body can calm down and start to go into that rest and restoration phase. So I'll do that. I will avoid any screen time at all, at least one hour before bedtime. Um, I'll take some magnesium glycinate as well, straight after dinner, and then I'll have a nice hot shower before bed as well, do my usual wind-down routine, and then I like to crawl into bed at night with a nice hot wheat bag, which helps to manage my body temperature because you've you've increased your body temperature while you've been in the shower, you maintain that sort of hotter body temperature for a little while longer, and then as the body goes down into sleep, you're wanting your body temperature to decrease so it can actually go into that deep rest and restoration. Um, and then I'll read for a little while. I'll probably I only tend to last about 10 minutes to be honest with my book, but it's never on an iPad, it's always a hard, hardcover book that I'll be reading. Yes, um, so that I can ensure that I'm I'm not getting any sort of blue light exposure. And I do wear blue blocker glasses as well, um, as well, straight after Dimit as well. I mean, there's mixed, mixed reviews out there about whether they work or not. Um for me personally, I find they do work, um, but my eyes are super light sensitive, and so I I find that they that's just an extra uh byhack that I implement every evening to help support that window routine.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah. I want to get my house like the full red lights everywhere in the house. I have the glasses, yeah, but I do feel like they don't totally kind of block it out. Like I think, and plus it's a thing about it, because you know, you're a behavioral change expert. Got to make it as easy as possible. So if there's literally no option to turn off bright lights, um, yeah. Okay, awesome. And then in terms of the brain, there are so many gadgets out there. Um, brain training, brain stimulation, I could go on forever. What have you tried and what have you found has made the you know greatest difference in terms of training the brain?

SPEAKER_02 22:24

I think it's what I touched on before learning something new, learning a new language or learning you know a new skill set, learning a musical instrument. That's for me what's worked. Um and yes, there's lots of different gadgets out there. You've got the brain tap, you've got lots of different gadgets like that out there, and but not everybody can afford those things. And so I always like to look at well, what are those sort of cost-effective or cost-free options that somebody can can implement? And quite often the foundational biohacks are so much more powerful than any of those, you know, highly expensive tech biohacks that are out there. That's not to say they're not great, absolutely they are, but it's about looking at what can you afford within your budget, what can you implement. And we need to make sure that good health is achievable for everyone, that it's not just for the for the rich, right? So I like to ensure that we're whenever I'm communicating about any biohacks, that I'm giving people options in terms of what people can and can't do.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Yeah. And I think you know, we were talking earlier about how you and I are slightly addicted to learning. So we probably do so much of the learning that we don't need to be doing. My partner's really into all the brain games, and I try and I try to do them, but I'm like, oh, I just find like I can't do them. I they find I find them boring. But that said, I love learning, like I'm literally constantly learning something or other.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

So yeah, same. I can't do those games either personally, and I I do find them boring, and I'm not the sort of person that likes board games or scrubbing and anything like that. But if I'm wanting to learn something new, if I'm wanting to educate myself about something, if I'm wanting to, you know, go out and learn a new skill set, sign me up for that 100%. I love doing that sort of thing. Um, but sitting there and doing something that's been gamified for me, you know, doesn't really, it's not appealing to me.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah, same, same. Okay, let's jump into the body. Um, I've seen lots of posts of yours about the the work, like strength work and so forth you do, but maybe you could talk to us because uh-m, and I think lots of women as they hit their 40s, they start to notice. I did an episode about this recently, how the things that used to work no longer are effective as far as like training the body. So if you could talk to us a little bit about that, for what aspects of training the body are really important for women as they age.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Look, it's all about muscle, ladies. Strength training is your going to be your superhero movement to do from your looks really from 30s and onwards. Um, we often think that it's something that women should be focusing only in their 40s and their 50s and beyond, but I think the younger that you can start with strength training and building muscle, the better you're going to set yourself up for as you get older. That's not to say that if you're in your 50s and your 60s, 70s, or 80s, that it's too late for you to start doing strength training because it's absolutely not. You can definitely start training, doing strength training at any age, and it's so important to ensure that we are maintaining and building that muscle mass as we get older. Because what happens is that we see significant muscle deterioration as we get older, particularly from when we hit perimetopause and onwards. And it's really interesting to see that there are the women that are in my circle, those that don't strength train, you can see the difference to those that have been strength training. And so the reason we're wanting to ensure that we're strength training is because if you have a fall in your 70s or in your 80s or your 90s, you want to ensure that you've got strong stabilizer muscles so that when you trip, you can catch yourself and you can ensure that you're not going to fall down, you're not going to break a knee, you're not going to break a hip, which is going to really impact, especially if you break a hip, is going to impact your mortality likelihood. And so we want to ensure that we may staying as strong as we possibly can. And so we need to be lifting heavy. And sometimes I'll go to the gym and I'll see ladies lifting, you know, like a five kilo dumbbell set. And I'm like, okay, yes, we all have to start somewhere, but we need to be incrementing that, you know, to heavier weights the more that we train. And so we should be targeting to be lifting uh as heavy as possible so that we can increase and improve those stabilizer muscles. And muscle is the longevity organ, it really is. That is what's going to help you stay well for much longer and improve your health span, not just your lifespan, but your health span. And I think that when we're looking as we're moving into perimenopause, midlife menopause, that we need to start rethinking about how much cardio that we're doing as well. Because when we were younger, we used to do probably a lot more cardio, and we think that that was what used to keep us lean and keep us fit, but all of a sudden it's not working anymore, right? When we hit midlife. Why? Because our hormone levels have changed and we start to store fat in different ways, and our cortisol levels are doing silly things that says, you know, to the body, no, doing that sort of cardio is not actually going to um, you know, be great for our body. And so we start to store fat, um, you know, particularly around the mid-belly section, a lot more when you get into midlife. And so we need to be aiming to do that strength training instead and probably doing a cardio session maybe once a week or twice a week tops is what I would do.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Yeah. And I find I find weights, like especially when you're actually really lifting heavy, it's it's empowering. Like I love it that I can, you know, lift heavier than my body weight in certain things, and like it feels you get out of there and you feel good about yourself, which we want as women to feel, right? Empowered.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yeah, 100%. It's so empowering. And it was so funny because I live on a farm and I have to go buy horse feed on a regular basis. And I walked into the stock feed place the other day, and and the guy behind the counter says, Oh, what do you need? I said, It's okay, I've got it. And I went over and I picked up, you know, these big 20 kilo bags of horse feed and threw it over my shoulder and took it out to the park.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

And he just looked at me as like you just saw his jaw drop down. I'm giving you a hype now. And just the look on his face, I just gave him a wink and I'm like, I've got to make this all go excited.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Um, but I suppose that's a really great example of the fact that you don't necessarily need to have a gym. And so it can be cost-free. I live on a farm. I do a lot of heavy lifting on the farm by you know pushing a wheelbarrow feed around or mucking out the paddocks or the stables and pushing the wheelbarrow around to manure up the hill. Um, there's always some sort of activity, physical activity that I'm doing, and particularly on the weekends, I'm doing you know, 25,000 plus steps a day when I'm on the farm working on the farm. Um, and so there where there's a will, there's a way. You don't, you know, if you feel like you can't afford a gym membership, use your body weight. Find something else at home, whether it's tin cans that are five kilos, if you're going to start with that and or you know, a sack of potatoes or whatever it might be, um, find a way to be able to really start to do some strength training.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Yeah, beautiful. And do you have any like particular hacks that you found useful, whether it's you know, types of strength exercise or tight like anything like that, that you can get those in like incremental gains?

SPEAKER_02 29:51

I've really been focusing on on lower leg strength training. And so I think when you're doing things like pharma carries, so you know, carrying kettlebells or some other heavy weights. So my heaviest weights that I have at home are 20 kilo dumbbell weights, so I'll have one of those in each hand and do a pharma carry. Um, so do that. I, you know, also doing single leg um uh lunges as well, so that really helps to improve the stabilizer muscles. I've got the worst balance on the planet. I'll just I'll just flag that and say that right now and fess up about that. And so I've had to really work on that, and that's the result of having had numerous injuries to my ankles and knees when I was younger as a young athlete. So I've really had to focus on working those stabilizer muscles personally so that I I can stand there and do a single leg uh lunge without falling flat on my face. So I think that's really important for those stabilizer muscle groups, and and so that you later when you're older, you can get up, you know, and out of a chair unassisted, and you're not having to lean on something and push your way, you know, out of the chair that you can stand up and and and and sit down quite easily and unassisted.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Yeah, yeah, awesome. And what about mobility? Do you trade mobility much?

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Yeah, look, I think mobility is so critically important. Doing those type of exercises to really maintain joint health in particular, the flexibility, doing yoga as well, um, lots of squats, um, you know, really getting down onto a yoga mat as well. Um, I do that, you know, probably every other day. But then again, for me being on the property as well, I'm doing lots of you know mat mobility exercises on a any given day anyway, just through the nature of the activities that I do on the property. Um, but really getting focused on those mobility exercises is is really important.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Yeah, yeah, I'm much more into my yin classes these days than I ever used to be. I used to be the Ashtonga girl, but now I've changed it up. Which brings me into, which is nice about the balance section. Um, I think that for women, particularly, I mean, in general, but probably more 40s onwards, that kind of inner cum becomes, should become a priority, but is also most challenged because of the change in hormones, because like all of those caring roles from older parents to kids, etc., high, you know, going up in whatever job or business that you have. So there's a lot of press pressure and it can be quite hard to manage. You've already started at the very beginning by talking about breath work. Could you talk to us a bit about um your experience with for yourself and your your clients in terms of helping women navigate that?

SPEAKER_02 32:40

I think it's probably the pillar that's most underestimated. Um, we we tend to focus on so many other things before we think about our our nervous system regulation. And you're right, you know, we have Rushing Women's Syndrome quite often. We're we're busy all the time, we're caretaking for others, and we often forget to take care of ourselves. And so I think that coming back to balancing our bodies so that we are feeling calm, we are activating the parasympathetic nervous system and coming out of that flight or fight mode to ensure that you are not having increased cortisol levels, that your heart rate's not elevated. Because when we have this sort of elevation on a on an ongoing basis, and we have that it creates the low-grade chronic stress, which can be really detrimental to our health and our longevity, causes inflammation in the body, um, and you know, inflammation can then lead to so many other things and so many other diseases. And so when I work with our my ladies, I really like to look at well, what how can they implement some sustainable balance activities on a day-to-day basis? And again, I come back to the breath work because obviously that's a portable tool that they can use, even if you're in the car and kids are screaming, you just pick them up from school, just stop, you know, and take a big breath in and then another quick short breath, you know, physiological sigh, breathing, yeah, yeah. And then let it out through the mouth, ladies, and just really just let that stress go.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

My kids love taking the piss out of me because I'm constantly doing this. Like the mornings are always such a rush in our house. I've got two boys and um getting them to the bus at 7:30, and I'm often doing that, you know, that so they start in the back, you know, like mimicking me, doing the thing.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Which isn't a bad thing. It's great to teach the kids as well because quite often you'll see young children that have a tempered tantrum or or are struggling to be able to use their energy or manage their emotions in in a positive way. And so if you bring them back to the breath, um, and it's like um a friend of mine taught me, get them to blow the candle out on their finger. So that's yeah, the candle, blow the candle. So it brings them back to the breath and gets them to focus on that so they're able to then self-regulate. Um, and even with the work that I do with my horses, it's all about the breath work, it's about self-regulation because they pick up on my energy. And if I'm in my if I'm in my sympathetic nervous system, they're going to be all flighty and think, oh, what's going on? Why is she upset? You know, I do I need to be worried about something. But as soon as if I if I if I approach them in in that state, I then actively have to stop and pause, acknowledging that they're reacting to my energy, and then do the breath work with them. And the change in them is is dramatic. They they will settle down straight away, put their heads back down, start grazing again, behave. They won't try to react physically to me at all. Uh so the energy that we're putting out as a result of the the state that we're in in terms of not managing our balance is is is quite intense when you think about it and and how you know a horse can react to you in that way. Yeah. The other thing that's I think is really underestimated when it comes to balancing is getting that morning sunlight in the mornings. So I mentioned before that I get out and I love to get out in in the mornings and get that morning sunlight. So targeting 10 to 20 minutes of morning sunlight every morning, um, not having any sunglasses on or anything like that on during the morning, so that you're getting that beautiful light into your eyes, it's going to help to manage those cortisol levels, it's going to help to manage your circadian rhythms as well, and just really help to rebalance you. Doing the groundwork as well, I quite often will be walking around barefoot on the grass on the property and just balancing myself that way, and meditation as well. So if you're wanting to, you know, obviously doing breath work and morning light is something that's free, it's available to everybody. You could get a meditation app at a smaller cost and do some guided meditation if you struggle to really be mindful and still the mind and come back into the body, so then you might need a bit of guidance. Um, and for me, just doing other things like massages as well, that again bring you back to the body, bring you back to what are you feeling, what are you sensing within the body, and and just having that release where you can just go just really relax.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Yeah, I love the example that you gave with the horses because I feel that with kids, they're so energetically attuned. So, like they're mirroring how, especially younger, I think once they hit teenagers, they're they're in their own world. But like I can still see it with my younger son, how attuned he is to my energy, and it's such a beautiful, like quick, sometimes not beautiful, but a reflection. And so I can imagine with the horses, um, like that's such a beautiful, like real-time reflection of how your energy is and how energy works in general.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Yeah, definitely. And and that's why equine therapy is such a a beautiful uh option for for people as well who are struggling with any trauma or or um any sort of balance issues as well, that they can go along and get some equine therapy because the horses will really reflect your energy and communicate to you that you know what you need to be focusing on and coming back to yourself.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Yeah, amazing. And I suppose uh we should mention with the biohacking world, I mean, there is tons of devices in this regard. Um, I've tried a few myself. I I've got two that I use regularly, but I'm keen to hear from you. Like, do you is there any like devices or things that you find useful?

SPEAKER_02 38:33

Yeah, look, sauna is probably my number one go-to. I love a good sauna, and I have a sauna here on the farm, and I do a sauna probably three to four times a week, and there's some really good research behind uh the benefits of sauna for um uh longevity, for brain health as well, for improving dementia. There's some really new research that's come out around how this how saunas can benefit um cognition as well. So that's probably my number one. The other one that I really love is my PEM app mat, my pulse electronic magnetic field mat. Yep. Um I use that every evening, so I'll I'll that really helps. I forgot to mention that actually as part of my wind-down routine in the evening, so I'll I'll be on that um after I've popped on my blue blocker glasses and I'll go and spend some time on the mat while I'm reading. Um and and that's probably one of my other favourite um pieces of technology that I like to use. Other ones that I've tried are like the pulsetto for vagus nerve activation as well. You don't necessarily need to have a piece of equipment to activate the vagus nerve, you can do things like humming, singing, or tapping as well to be able to do that. Um, but and then other I don't have them at home, but I'm a big advocate of hyperbaric oxygen therapy as well. Um, I've done cry therapy before, I've done the HoCat as well. So look, there's lots of different technologies out there, it just depends on where your budget is. Um, but again, I come back to that the foundations often get you, you know, more than halfway there in terms of improving your health and wellness in your longevity.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

Yeah, totally. And with the penth mat, what type? Which one do you use?

SPEAKER_02 40:14

I use the best self one, so it's B E S T C E L L F mat. Um, highly recommend them, they're amazing. It's a lovely um young couple that owns it on the Gold Coast uh here where I live. And um, yeah, I think they're they're amazing, amazing mats.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Yeah, cool. Awesome. Okay, let's finish with um beauty. So, yeah, just keen to look at how we can look as glowing and useful as possible for as long as possible. That doesn't mean trying to look like we're still 20, but I think you're a beautiful example of this. If anyone's watching, because this is on YouTube and you're absolutely glowing and stunning. So, what do you find are some of your main kind of hacks?

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Oh, look, for me, it all starts in the gut, it all starts from the inside out because yes, there's lots of things that we can put on our skin that's that's topical, but the key things for me are getting good sleep because you don't want to wake up with that haggard look, and trust me, I've been there, I've had mornings like that. Um, and it's amazing how tired you can look if you haven't had a good night's sleep. So I find that having a bad night's sleep definitely can impact how your skin looks the next morning. But from a nutrition perspective, making sure that you have a healthy gut is absolutely critical to having good glowing skin. Um, that's something that I've worked on extensively because I have had gut health issues some years ago. I was diagnosed with leaky gut syndrome. And uh, that has a whole heap of other side health impacts as well, where it impacts your joint health, it may cause me severe to have severe migraines on a regular basis. So it has a whole big flow on impact if you if you have poor gut health. Um, there are a variety of reasons that contributed to my gut health, and I won't go into those in too much detail now, but I think when we're focusing on gut health, we make you need to be making sure that we're looking at trying to eat organic whole foods as much where possible, that we are eating a variety of plant food in particular as well. So, you know, eat the rainbow as they say. You should be looking at you know at least 20 to you know 30 different plant type foods a week to eat. Um, making sure that if you're eating animal protein, that it's good quality, grass-finished protein, getting lots of legumes, eating healthy fats like salmon, olive oil, some nuts and legumes, as I said. Uh they're kind of the key things that I really focus on in terms of my nutrition and also fermented foods as well. So really looking at making sure that I'm balancing the good and the bad bacteria in my gut so it's nice and healthy. We need the bad bacteria just as much as we need the good bacteria. Um, and then it just balances the gut out, and you have a nice flat tummy, and you're you know having regular bowel movements as well, uh, which is making sure that the gut is flowing like a river, which is one uh what one uh gastroenterologist told me that um that I interviewed on my podcast. So we're wanting it to make sure that that it is like a rainforest and it's flowing like a river, and that we've got that really good balance between the good and the and the bad bacteria within the gut. So definitely starting you know with with nutrition. I think, secondly, if we're looking at something that is topical, one of the things that I've recently implemented implemented in the past probably just over a year now is beef tallow.

SPEAKER_03 43:50

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

Oh my gosh, I absolutely love it. I really, really love it. I use it morning and night. I found it's made a big difference in terms of improving the way my. skin looks. You don't necessarily always need to go for those really expensive hundreds of dollars in skincare ranges. So there's you know different options there, but I find that beef tallow is you know really suitable for lower budgets, but it it does make a significant difference. I've noticed a big difference in my skin. Having sunscreen as well but preferably non-toxic sunscreen as well so that you're you're managing your your exposure um to the sun and and avoiding any sort of damage to the skin. But then also looking at red light therapy as well. I find that that's really been beneficial for my skin too. So that'll probably be at the higher end of the budget then I would recommend getting a red light mask or some red light therapy of a panel here in the studio that I use every morning as well. Or you can get like a mask a red light therapy mask as well it really helps to improve skin conditions and improving with fine lines as well and skin um clarity as well.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Which type do you use? And you use the panel? Yeah I've got the I've got the Boncharge um uh devices that are the ones that I use yeah yeah nice awesome and is there any um there's so many different like you know uh different treatments out there are there any that you find that you think are actually worth investment I've done the PRP or what they call the vampire facial.

SPEAKER_02 45:35

The vampire yeah yeah yeah I've done that several times uh I really like that because it's using your own plasma and they essentially take take blood out of you a small sample of blood out of you put it in a machine spin it they get the what they call the I call the gold on the top and then they they microneedle that back into your face and you and you end up looking like your face is bleeding. It sounds really horrible but all of these things are the things we do. But it really helps to stimulate um collagen uh as well and regeneration um I think that that's really great. Obviously uh collagen as well I think taking a collagen supplement is is really important um uh as an oral supplement um I think that you can't underestimate how that can really significantly improve uh your skin quality as well and there's all the peptide have you gone down the peptide route yet already yes yes I have I I'm currently trialling some peptides as we speak actually so I'm on GHKCU which is the copper peptide that some research has shown and this is um you know obviously we need to be careful with our peptides they're not TGA approved here in Australia and but you can get certain peptides uh through functional medical practitioners um and get them prescribed so GHKCU is has been shown to really benefit um uh skin quality and improve uh collagen production as well so I'm trialing that at the moment it's it's early days yeah so that's orally or topically because I use it topically no I don't use it topically I I inject it subcutaneously into my body so it's an injection um I think I don't believe that the oral peptides um are superior to the injectables I feel that the stomach acid well there's research to show this it's not that I feel it's the fact that the stomach acid breaks down before it even has you know the body has a chance to absorb it. So there's that and then you've also got um BPC157 is is another um injectable peptide that I'm trialing at the moment as well. But sure there's peptides that you can take topically as well but I think that they have they have limited um you know benefit in terms of of what they can achieve. But I will be interested to see how it compares with the injectable peptides that I'm currently on compared to the the ones that you just put on topically.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Yeah. And actually while we're on that before um I remember a post of yours on Instagram in regards to the IV I've also tried IV what do you find most like what do you find or feel or notice in your data the biggest like difference in regards to that yeah I've often will have an NAD uh IV trip so I'll probably do those twice a year and so how many painful I've heard they're very painful.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

Depends depends how you do it if you're crazy like me and and and get it infused into your body really quickly like within an hour and then it can make you nauseous and make you throw up ideally don't want that. I was time poor on one particular day and I said no let's I sit to the next let's just go for it. But you typically would allow a couple of hours two to three hours for for that IV to work through your body. So I will probably do NAD twice a year and then I will often go and do depending particularly around when I'm traveling if I'm about to go overseas or if uh just after I've come back I will do um a bit of a concoction that's really focused on my immunity system and and and gut repair as well so that again for me health starts from the inside out not necessarily from the the outside in.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

Yeah I've um I've heard a lot about the NAD and have thought about it but I'm like oh god it do I really want to make myself well you don't this is the thing if you start to feel nauseous the nurse will just slow down the rate of dosage um and she'll slow it right down and then it will make your tummy a little bit upset as as as it's as the drip's going through but um she can slow it down so that it doesn't impact you as much. Those that have had gut health issues like myself tend to be impacted by more than those that haven't had gut health issues.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

So if you haven't had gut health issues then you know maybe that's not me I have okay all right I live too long in developing countries to yeah I definitely did not escape from that. Wow we've covered so much this is amazing. I had other questions but I'm aware of time so maybe we should try to bring it all together as I try to do every episode with if there was like one habit that you and I almost certainly know what you're gonna say but one habit that you could leave people with or if you like you could say you know try start here and if you're already doing that then you know move on to B kind of thing what would that be that would cover all of those areas?

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Definitely sleep. I knew you were going to say it I knew you knew I was going to say that it's it's you can't underestimate its importance in in for overall health it it probably is the most cost free is the it's the only cost free BIH that I think that has the biggest bang uh compared to any of the other um BIHs that you do. So it can you know improve cognition it can improve your skin it can improve your your um gut health it it has so many benefits having a good night's sleep and anything else that you're going to do on top of that if you're not getting a good night's sleep it's not going to work so get that get your foundations get get those right first um and then strength training would be my next one for for women in particular really focus on that strength training and building and maintaining your muscle because that again will also help you age better as well and support you as you get older.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

Yeah and it's funny how those two they affect all four areas that we've discussed today plus many others.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

Yeah 100% and this is the beauty of biohacking you can do one biohack but it will it will support you across all four of those pillars and in brain body beauty balance and and and that's you know something that I think is is gold that you know we don't necessarily have to have a whole heap of you know different types of biohacks all the time where there's some foundational biohacks that really can provide a support across many of those pillars of health.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

Yeah yeah and I I like your approach I mean it's the whole name of this podcast is making it simple and I think you do a really great job of that. So thank you so much. Let's let's let everyone know how they can hear about you.

SPEAKER_02 52:21

You've got some amazing retreats I want to come one day I you're going to run one in Sydney I thought did I not Sydney in Australia I saw somewhere maybe I made that yes we've got our live well longer retreats and so we've held two in Bali and and our first one won the destination deluxe award for Best Group Retreat. So that's a couple years ago we just came back from Bali with our second retreat in Bali but we are going to be announcing shortly that well we've announced already that we're going to be bringing our Live Well Longer retreat to Australia now for the first time. It will also be open to men and women for the first time where previously we've only had it open to women we've had so many men approach us and say hey what about us why can't we come we want to live longer as well that's right so that will be the location for that Live Well Longer retreat will be announced shortly so you can go to any of my socials so via hack underscore official on on Instagram or you can go to my my website as well so viahack hyphenher.com and I'm also on Facebook as well and then I've got my buy hack her podcast um that people can can listen to on your podcast favorite podcast platform and on YouTube so there's a different number of different ways um that you can reach out to me and and and follow along.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

Beautiful well thank you again I'm so happy we got to do this maybe we could have a follow up at some stage so but yeah I really really appreciate your time and um thank you.

SPEAKER_02 53:56

Thanks so much Kelly and I just would like to also let everybody know that I've also got a book coming out as well. So we're going to do the book cover reveal in the next couple of weeks so that um book is called Buy Hack Her Live Well Longer it focuses on longevity for women and I'm hoping that there will be lots of ladies out there who will be able to really learn something from it and learn how to proactively manage their health and get some great long-term benefits to ensure that they are living like absolute divas for the rest of their life and doing what they absolutely love to do.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

Love it let's all live like divas yay that's very exciting thank you again thanks Kelly now it's your turn take what you've learned today and put it into action try the habit run the experiment and actually track how you go I'll be doing it right alongside you and sharing on socials. So come find me there. Links are in the show notes. Tell me what's working what isn't and what questions are coming up I genuinely want to know. And if today's episode helped share it with someone who needs it. And if you haven't already hit subscribe so we can keep optimizing our health together one simple step at a time. Take care and I'll see you next week