Episode 90: 7 Boring Habits That Keep Me Lean & Strong at 47

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger over 40. I'm your host and coach, Shauna. I am 47, a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach, helping women over 40 become their best. If you are in your 30s and 40s and you are working on fitness goals, I want to share seven boring tips that have helped me with my fitness goals, but also with my life. I call these boring because they're nothing flashy, they're nothing fancy, but when you practice them and stay consistent with them, they will create exciting changes. At 47, I feel better and look better than I ever did in my 20s and 30s.

0:29While I still have goals to meet, I have zero doubt that I will get there because I finally understand what it takes to create lasting change. So let's dive right into those boring habits so that maybe you can start applying them to your own life and start to reach your goals that much faster. The first boring goal was that I started to walk daily. And this powerful habit impacts so much more than you think. It helps your metabolism. It helps you stay lean. It regulates your blood sugar. It supports digestion. It reduces stress. It improves your cognition. And it's something that you can do forever, whenever.

0:59It's also not an activity that costs you a lot of recovery, which is especially important after 40. We become more sensitive to stress and require more recovery time. When you pair strength training, which does require recovery, with walking, which allows recovery, you have the elite combination for looking lean and strong. I walk every day first thing in the morning for about 30 to 60 minutes, and it meant waking up a little bit earlier, but it's become my favorite part of the day. I'm up before the world. I put on my worship music. I unfold my walking pad and prepare myself for that day. I also take little like walk snacks throughout the day, you know, 10 minutes here and there.

1:34One of the best things about walking is that you can do it anywhere, anytime. You don't need a gym or a special outfit, but I encourage you to start your day with a little bit of a walk. Build that habit into your day and watch how it shifts your mind and your body. While walking has become one of those habits that supported looking and feeling my best, It wasn't the habit that changed my physique the most. That came from the next habit, which is RAM. I'm no stranger to the gym, but in my 20s and 30s, I was all about burning calories, sweating more, and working as hard as I could. I would spend six days in the gym for one to two hours at a time looking for different workouts every week.

2:10I was doing classes, HIIT workouts, circuits, supersets, even plyos between my sets. Working hard, but if I'm honest, I never really got the results that I wanted. Versus now where I'm in the gym about three to four days a week, 45 minutes to an hour, and I use the same program for months at a time, always basing my workouts around the same foundational compound movements. Lo and behold, it's given me far better results. And this is because I'm putting effort into the right places. When we're talking about looking lean and defined, we're talking about two different things, building muscle and losing body fat.

2:42The problem was that all of my workouts were not supportive of building muscle. To grow lean muscle, you have to give your body a reason to change. And that means lifting with challenging weights, getting close to failure, tracking your lifts, and then gradually improving over time. Even doing a program that's six to eight weeks only means you've performed each exercise six to eight times. There's still so much room to improve and get stronger. And getting stronger is one of the biggest drivers for muscle growth. Instead of my effort going into more days, more time, or constantly changing my workouts, it now goes into getting better at the same workouts for months at a time.

3:15I build in the gym and I reveal in the kitchen by aligning my calories to my goals. This approach has changed my physique in the best of ways, especially my legs. I used to have a lot of cellulite on my legs, but building more lean muscle has changed that for the better. I actually made a whole video showing how I change my legs with changing my workouts. So I will link that below if you want to have a look. And I think that's where a lot of women get tripped up. We've been conditioned to believe that a successful workout or a good workout means we burn a ton of calories. we are sweaty, exhausted, when in reality, the workout that's going to create definition, give you that sculpted, toned look, is the one that allows you to grow muscle.

3:53And muscle is built with repetition, consistency, and progressive overload over months to years, not by constantly changing up your workouts and trying something new. Now, I'll still add variety to my workouts by changing up the exercise selection or the rep ranges from time to time, but in general, I'm sticking with the same foundational lifts, a squat movement, a hinge movement, a press, and a pull movement. These are exactly what I use with my clients, and they see massive changes. These are women who, just like me, were doing all the things in the gym, running themselves ragged. Now they're getting far better results while spending less time in the gym.

4:27And this is what I call working smarter and not harder. While strength training is where we build the muscle, nutrition is where we reveal it. And one of the biggest things that's helped me stay consistent with my nutrition is not a fancy diet. It's actually eating many of the same meals over and over again. And that's habit number three. And this will change your life and simplify reaching your goals in the best of ways. And hang in there with me because I know your initial thought might be, I'm going to be bored eating the same things all of the time. And I used to think the same way, but then I realized that when I did order takeout, I was often ordering from the same restaurants, getting the same exact meals.

5:03So I had to stop getting in my own way. Like I mentioned, the gym is where we build, the kitchen is where we reveal, which means we need to align our calories with our goals. And tracking food is one of the best ways to do this. It doesn't have to be forever, but it does have to be for some time, especially when you have a specific goal. I like to compare this to money. If you had a goal of paying off debt or saving for a house, you would look at exactly what's coming in and what's going out to manage it in a way that helps you reach your goal. Nutrition works the same way. As you track, you build awareness so that you can eventually eat more intuitively because you know what four ounces of chicken looks like, or you know what two tablespoons of peanut butter look like.

5:40You build that skill set and then you have that for life. Think about it like this. If I gave you$200 to spend in the grocery store but told you you could not look at any price tags, you would probably come pretty close because you've spent years looking at the prices of different foods. Tracking calories over time works the same way. You learn the cost of different foods, so eventually you don't have to think about it as much. The other thing is that tracking is so much easier with the smart apps that we have. You can scan barcodes, You can save your favorite meals, but sometimes even adding in another task into an already busy day can feel like a lot.

6:12So my workaround to that is repeating meals. I have about three or four favorites for each category, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, and dessert. And that means I prep once, track once, save them, and simply copy and paste them from one day to the next. Or at the very least, I save each meal so I don't have to enter every single ingredient the next time. Now, there are days where things change, and on those days I will adjust. But in general, I set it and forget it. It becomes more like checking off something on my to-do list rather than having to make another decision. And decision fatigue is often where we get tripped up.

6:46We make thousands of decisions every single day. By the end of our day, our minds are tired. And when you add in hunger to the mix, things can go sideways real quick. Doing this will help you stay ahead of that. It removes that decision fatigue and, most importantly, helps you reach your fitness goals. This does not mean you have to eat boring meals. I eat meals that I love. I prioritize protein. I align my calories with my goals, and that's the hack to getting and staying fit. You don't need to eat plain chicken and broccoli unless that's your thing. You can build meals that you actually enjoy.

7:15Just keep protein the star of the show and align your calories with your goals. If you'd like some ideas, I'll link my high protein recipe guide below. It's packed with simple high protein meals that make hitting your goals so much easier. Now, while repeating meals has made nutrition almost effortless, there was another habit that I never expected to have such a big impact on how I looked and felt. and that was giving up alcohol. And this fourth boring habit of giving up alcohol wasn't because I had an issue with it. I used to have one to two glasses of wine on the weekend and then I decided to take a break and it was eye-opening.

7:47It just allowed me to see how much those two glasses of wine were really impacting my sleep, my energy, and ultimately how I felt every day. I was starting every week downgraded and I realized that the trade-off really wasn't worth it. The biggest surprise to me was that life became more fun after I stopped drinking. Alcohol was something I kind of leaned on to feel more confident at parties or social events. I'm a little bit of an introvert, so it helped me feel a little bit more confident. But realizing that I could show up fully as myself without it was so empowering. And honestly, I've just become addicted to waking up every day feeling my best.

8:19And alcohol was something that wasn't allowing me to do that. I'm not saying that you have to cut it out completely, but it is something that you want to explore your relationship with and potentially take a break just to see how you feel without it. Because it will definitely impact your fitness goals, Your body treats alcohol kind of like a toxin, so it prioritizes metabolizing that before doing anything else. That means fat loss and muscle building get put on the back burner. While you can still make progress, it will likely be slower if you are drinking regularly. The other tricky thing with alcohol is that it can increase your appetite and lower your inhibitions, making it very easy to overeat.

8:51It can also have a significant impact on your sleep. While it might help you fall asleep faster, it reduces the quality of your sleep, meaning you wake up less recovered. Poor sleep also impacts your hunger hormones. So ghrelin, which triggers hunger, will increase and leptin, which triggers fullness, will decrease. So that next day you're going to be hungrier, less satisfied, and more likely to be craving some high calorie foods. Which can leave you in a tricky position the day after you drink because you're trying to make healthy choices on a body that's tired, poorly recovered, and actually telling you to eat more.

9:20That's not to say that you can't incorporate alcohol and still make progress. But if your goal is to feel your best, it might be worth taking a break and just seeing how your body responds. You might be surprised by how much better you sleep, how much more energy that you have, how much stronger you are for your workouts, and how much easier it is to stay consistent with your nutrition and with everything. Now, speaking of sleep, that's the next boring habit that I dialed in, and it's been really impactful. Because when you get consistent sleep, every other habit on this list becomes much easier.

9:49As a busy mom, late nights used to feel like my time to unwind. While everyone was asleep, I would stay up late and scroll. But then I would wake up tired, cranky, and feeling behind. And I realized I had to change something. And when you're scrolling and getting those quick dopamine hits, it actually keeps your brain more alert. And so it can impede your sleep. And when you shortchange yourself on sleep, it comes with some significant consequences. You're going to impact your hunger hormones like we just talked about. So you're hungrier and less likely to feel satisfied. It increases cortisol.

10:17It's going to impact your cognition. It lowers your energy, slows your recovery. On the flip side of that, when you get enough sleep, your hormones are better regulated, you have more energy, you think more clearly, you recover better, and everything else just improves. When I started to go to bed earlier, my workouts became better because I had the energy to push myself and the recovery to actually grow from them. And going to bed earlier allowed me to wake up earlier and incorporate my morning walks, which have become one of my favorite parts of the day. Even if you enjoy watching a show at night, maybe set a limit or maybe save it for the next morning and watch it while you're walking.

10:48This is a great way to enjoy your show and still support your fitness goals. If you struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep and you're over 40 like me, it might be worth looking at your hormones. Declining estrogen and progesterone can definitely impact your sleep quality. I'll leave a link below to the hormone clinic that I work with. You can schedule a free consultation and talk about some options. But the other thing you want to do is make sure you have a healthy sleep routine. So take a shower or a bath. It helps to cool your core temperature. Take magnesium glycinate. It helps to calm your central nervous system.

11:17Have your room cool and dark. And then eliminate screen time about 30 minutes before bed. And that last one was really hard for me because I had built a habit of scrolling in my bed. But replacing that habit with the next habit that I'm going to talk about changed everything. And that is the boring habit of reading at night. So instead of reaching for my phone, I swapped it out for a book. As I mentioned, a bad habit that I got into was scrolling at night. And the problem is, is scrolling is designed to keep your brain engaged. Every swipe, every video, every notification gives your brain another hit of dopamine, making it really hard to relax and prepare for sleep.

11:50Even if you feel like it's relaxing, your brain is staying stimulated. So instead of quitting the habit of scrolling cold turkey and just lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I decided to swap my phone for a book, which has become an amazing way to support my sleep, but it's also giving me some dedicated time to expand my mind every single day. And I can do the same for you too. If you enjoy fiction books, they can transport you to something completely different after a busy day. Personally, I love to learn, so I tend to read nonfiction books, things about health, nutrition, mindset, leadership.

12:18But honestly, it doesn't matter what you read. Read what you enjoy. The goal is simply just to replace a habit that wasn't serving you with one that will. And if you want to continue learning and growing and become your best, reading is one of the best investments you can make into yourself. Reading about 10 pages a day means you could finish a book in a month, and that's about 12 books in a year. Imagine how much more knowledge, perspective, and personal growth that adds up to you over time. And as a bonus, you're also creating a calming bedtime routine that helps you sleep better, which is only going to make every other healthy habit easier to stick with.

12:51It's one of those habits that doesn't seem life-changing in the moment, but over the course of months or years, it absolutely is. And that leads me to the final habit, the one that has impacted my life and my fitness goals more than anything else, and that is praying first thing. And I saved this one for last because it has been the most transformative habit. I used to start my mornings rushed, immediately checking my phone, my emails, turning on the TV. Before I had even gotten out of bed, I was flooding my mind with distractions, stress. Now the first part of my morning is where I give myself space to anchor into what really matters.

13:24Every morning I wake up, I drink my water, brew my coffee, I sit down with my devotional and spend time in prayer and get connected to him before the world has a chance to pull me in every other direction. No matter what your beliefs are, I encourage you to take some quiet time for yourself every single morning. Don't immediately rush to the distractions, the noise. Give yourself the opportunity to begin your day intentionally instead of reactively. Taking 10 minutes out of every morning to fill your heart and your mind with hope and peace will shape your days and ultimately shape your life in the most beautiful ways.

13:54And that wraps up the seven boring habits that have really helped me transform over 40. I quickly want to mention that every one of these habits is powerful on its own, but they all become more powerful when you stay consistent with them. Consistency is what you always hear you need to succeed, and it's true. And that's because time is your multiplier. One walk won't change your body. One workout won't build muscle. One healthy meal is not going to transform your health. But when you repeat those same simple habits day after day, week after week, month after month, time will multiply your effort.

14:24So don't underestimate the boring basics. They may not be exciting in the moment, but over time, they take you places that quick fixes or shortcuts never could. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please subscribe because every week I share practical science facts, tips and strategies to help women over 40 become their best. If you are ready to stop guessing and start following a plan that actually works for women over 40, I'd love to help you. I'm currently building something that I'm so excited about. It's going to be a place where you'll have everything you need to build muscle, improve your metabolism, fuel your body, and finally simplify the process.

14:55If you'd like to be the first to know when it launches, join the waitlist using the link below. You'll get early access, special pricing, and all the details as soon as it's ready. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. If you found it helpful, I'd be so thankful if you left a rating or a review. And until next week, keep getting stronger and I'll see you in the next episode.