What your 50-year-old self wishes you’d done for your health in your 20s & 30s with Dr Faye Bate | Future Self Series Ep.4

0:00Hi, this is Mark Bittman from the podcast Food with Mark Bittman. I've been writing about food and restaurants for almost 50 years, my whole career really. And what I know is that the good restaurants all have something in common. They're busy, genuinely, chaotically busy. And somehow in the last few years, the best of them have begun to make it look easy. And do you know why? Because they're running on Toast's technology. Toast is built for restaurant owners who understand that Toast's tools keep the line moving and keep their customers happy, with fewer mistakes and hiccups in ordering and paying.

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2:38What is up? I'm Grace Beverly and welcome back to Working Hard, the podcast ship guidebook on how to improve your own life and achieve what you actually dreamed of doing. Because life's too short for boring podcasts and bad advice. What is up guys and welcome back to Working Hard. If you are new here, hello! We are nearly a third of the way through the Future Self series which I am putting live throughout my maternity leave, all built based on one idea. That you can build the life you want by reverse engineering it very specifically. So to zoom out for a second we've come to the end of part one now which was all about getting really really clear on what your plan is going to look like going forwards.

3:14Because it's very hard to steer the ship if you don't actually know the destination and I think that's some of the groundwork that like almost ends up with you treading water because you know you're moving somewhere. You know you want a certain type of life. You probably have like an amorphous kind of representation of it flying around your head, but it's not that specific and getting clear on that plan is so important. So that's what we've done for the past three episodes and I'd highly recommend going and listening to those if you haven't already. But now it's time for us to hone in on how you're actually going to go and execute it because I am a very firm believer that you can have the most detailed, beautiful, colour-coded five-year plan in the world.

3:49And trust me, I love a good colour-coding session. But unfortunately, it will mean absolutely nothing if you're running on four hours sleep, your hormones are all over the place, you've forgotten to eat a proper meal, you're on the verge of burnout. Essentially, your day-to-day life is not maintainable in line with the long-term plan you have for yourself. Like, yes, you're going to have to put in grind to be able to get to where you want to get to. Extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary input and I will be the first person to say that. But in order to be able to graft, you have to be putting yourself in the right situations.

4:20You have to be looking after yourself in the right way. You have to be very, very clear about the type of person you are week in, week out and the type of things that person does in order to be able to actually get to where you want to get to. So I'd say this is something which my past self very much knows all too well and honestly I think we've all come way too far to not be looking after ourselves in 2026. So that brings me nicely onto the topic of today's episode. And this one is all about how we can be looking after our future selves in a health sense. And I want to make it very clear that this isn't about looking a certain way or fad diets or whatever.

4:51If you've been around these parts for a while, you'll know that it's about feeling good in our bodies and looking after yourself in a way that respects your future self. Like I think so many of us have all of these goals around health and fitness and all of that. realistically the number one goal should be respecting your future self enough to be able to make certain decisions to set yourself up for success in that way. And that means setting yourself up for success in terms of energy, focus, hormones, stress levels, so that you can carry out the plan that you have set for yourself. We obviously cannot control every element in our health, I think that's very worth saying, but we can do certain things to make sure that our bodies are set up as far as possible to carry the life we're building rather than working against it.

5:30And to help us answer that, I have got the perfect person. I really had a very clear brief for this episode because I think that you might hear something like the future self and the way all of this is about reverse engineering your life. And you might hear that and be like, okay, this is all about goal setting. And I really, really wanted to have a health specific episode in here because that I think has been one of the biggest things that's actually come in the way of me reaching my goals in the past, particularly around hormones. Like if you've listened to the podcast before, you will know that I had a two-year journey, very, very in-depth trying to sort out my PCOS, get my ovulation back, all of these different things.

6:04And prior to that, I've struggled with PCOS for what, like 15 years? And so I really found it incredibly important to make sure we're getting ourselves on the right track in order to be able to actually carry out anything we're putting in place. Because that was me from a point of view of like, well, I guess I'll just sleep later and just do all of this work. And as much as that's important, actually we're building a life we love. We're building a life we're very proud of. And that cannot happen without laying the groundwork in terms of looking after yourself. So Dr. Faye Bate is a medical doctor and creator and she began building her platform while she was still at medical school and she quickly grew into one of the UK's most trusted voices in the health space.

6:42She's also completing her master's in women's health this year on top of her medical degree. And Faye has this brilliant way of demystifying more complicated women's health topics, which I really wanted to get her on here for. She is here to answer all of the questions that you've been confused about for years, but maybe have never had the answer to. And I've asked her to bring the science back to evidence too, because you know that is what we like over here. So one of the reasons I really wanted Dr. Faye Bate on specifically is because I wanted to create a health episode that was specifically designed for high achieving women.

7:11So all around the issues that we might face, because I don't know if you know, you probably will know if you've been here for a little bit, but the amount of medical research that historically has just been done on men will never fail to shock me. Only 40 years ago, women made up just 20 to 30 percent of clinical trial participants. In fact, women were banned from some clinical trials, which means that so much of the data we have on the human body is based only on men. We are not even at 50 percent participation in clinical trials by women now. And I guess all of this is so important when we think of the knock-on effect that this has on the healthcare women receive, the treatment options we're given, the misunderstanding that so many professionals have around specific women's health conditions.

7:53And this is why it's so important when the podcast world is massive and there is so much out there on hell that we talk about this through specifically the lens of women's health. Anyway, before I go down too much of a rabbit hole, Faye is part of changing that. She's even built a whole community around it and talks a lot of the time about women being dismissed or misunderstood. And as with all of these episodes, Faye has put together a follow-up exercise and personal reading recommendations in the Working Hard newsletter this week so that you can actually take away what you hear today and do something with it.

8:20All of these episodes are designed to be as actionable as possible so that you're not just going to listen and then never think about it again. And in fact, you are going to use this information to change your life. So that's going to be sent out tomorrow if you're listening to this episode on the day it goes live. So I'm going to link the newsletter in the description box where you can find that. But for now, I will be leaving you in her very capable hands. Women spend 25 % of their life in poor health. Combine that with women's bodies being under researched and too often ignored, it has never been more important to understand your body.

8:50As you probably already know, this series is all about reverse engineering the best life for your future self. So when Grace asked if I would like to be a teacher on this series, I knew I had to do an episode on how to make sure your health in your 20s doesn't ruin your 30s, 40s and 50s because the habits you're building right now will have a direct impact on the quality of your life as we age. Why should you listen to me? My name is Faye and I'm a doctor who's obsessed with the female body who is sick of women being lied to and today we'll begin module two which is all about how to execute your future plan and that's exactly why we'll be breaking down the seven science-backed habits you can start building today as an ambitious woman who has been putting her health on the back burner for too long.

9:32This episode is such an important foundation for everything else in this module, I truly believe it all starts with getting your health in check because we'll never fully enjoy the big life goals we've been planning for ourselves if our bodies are working against us or we're simply just not feeling good enough. So without further ado, let's get into it. Now if you spend all day tired only to get into bed feeling more awake than ever before, staring at the ceiling, counting how many hours of sleep are left, then here is everything you need to know about sleep as a woman. Of course if you're feeling tired all the time you should go and see your doctor and ask for the appropriate blood tests.

10:05However if you are struggling with your sleep there are small mistakes so many of us make that could make a huge difference. But first why is sleep different for women than men and what is the damage you're doing by staying up scrolling till 11pm? In the grand tradition of women's health until recently most sleep research was conducted on men. Women felt lied to and began questioning whether the prescriptive eight hours of sleep a night had actually considered their biology. This paved the way for research that assessed gender-specific differences in women's health, with some studies and social media posts even suggesting women may require up to 10 hours sleep a night.

10:41However, this needs to be considered within the wider context of existence as a woman. Women tend to take on the majority of caring responsibilities, whether that's waking up at night for a baby or an elderly relative. Women are more likely to experience conditions like insomnia and anxiety than men, and women's hormones have a huge influence on their sleep which I'll cover in pillar four on hormone health. All of these impact your sleep quality so the statement women need more sleep isn't as clear-cut as it first appears but before I go over the practical tips I want you to be aware of the long-term consequences for not getting enough good quality sleep.

11:16Not getting enough sleep interferes with the hormones in your body that regulate your appetite, leptin and ghrelin. It also interferes with cortisol and melatonin production and can even increase markers of inflammation in the body. Poor sleep over many years has been associated with an increased risk of heart attacks, certain cancers, diabetes and obesity. However none of what I just told you will help you sleep any better. In fact it'll probably just give you another anxiety to ruminate on while staring at the ceiling trying to concentrate on counting sheep. So what can you actually do? First kiwis.

11:46Some studies have shown that two kiwis about one to two hours before bed may help sleep quality. Possibly because they contain natural melatonin but that research isn't super clear. Either way, it is a super easy low-risk habit to try out. A more obvious and unsexy habit, but it is the habit that we have the strongest body of evidence for, is exercise. A huge study looking at 7 ,494 smaller studies have found that physical activity improved basically every measure of sleep you could imagine. And the longer you kept up the exercise habit, the better the benefits. Next, early morning sunlight because this helps your body's circadian rhythm.

12:21I know with work from home it's easy to stay in your pajama bottoms until midday and it doesn't really make sense how what you do in the morning impacts how you feel at night but trust me a walk around the park to get your daily dose of sunlight before work could really help and if you've ever had a glass of wine to get to sleep quicker you aren't going to like what I'm about to say. Research looking at how alcohol impacts sleep found that you need about five standard drinks to get to sleep quicker. However you only need about two to see a negative impact on your sleep quality. Am I saying you're not allowed to enjoy an Aperol in the sun with your friends.

12:53No, but it's time to dispel the myth that a couple of drinks can help us sleep. Finally, the most important step, do not count the clock. We all have late nights, evenings where we're consumed with anxiety or ideas running around our brain, or nights spent laughing with friends. This is a part of a vibrant human life, rich in all experience and emotion, so the occasional late night won't send you into an early grave. What matters is the habits you build and the pattern that forms over decades. However, when you are struggling to sleep I can tell you with 100 % certainty that it won't help to check your clock and count how many hours until you need to get up all that does is build anxiety and make it harder to sleep creating a vicious cycle that's even harder to escape hey guys it's Paige from Giggly Squad okay can we all agree that hosting is so much fun and I really do love it every weekend it's come over for snacks let's make dinner together and somehow the second you put out a fruit platter, it seems that bugs show up before your friends do.

13:51This is why I have to have my Zevo flying insect trap. You plug it in and you let it do all the work. It's specially designed blue and UV light attracts the bugs you didn't know you had. And wow, did we have a lot. Like house flies, fruit flies, gnats. And then with Zevo, bam. Next thing you know, the pests are caught in the sticky cartridge and away from your yummy treats without any mess or strong odors. The best part is the design is actually sleek and curved, so it hides the bugs it catches, keeping them out of sight, and when the cartridge is full, you just grab the no mess tab, throw it in the trash, pop in a new cartridge, and then you're done.

14:28No mess, no stress. So whether you're hosting a dinner party or spending an afternoon baking treats with all your friends, and you want to focus on hosting and not constantly swatting at bugs, Zeevo has you covered with 24-7 bug protection. Plug in a Zivo flying insect trap so you can work smarter, not harder, and actually enjoy your time at home. Hi, this is Mark Bittman from the podcast Food with Mark Bittman. I've been writing about food and restaurants for almost 50 years, my whole career, really. And what I know is that the good restaurants all have something in common. They're busy, genuinely, chaotically busy.

15:07And somehow in the last few years, the best of them have begun to make it look easy. And do you know why? Because they're running on Toast's technology. Toast is built for restaurant owners who understand that Toast's tools keep the line moving and keep their customers happy, with fewer mistakes and hiccups in ordering and paying. For owners, that turns busy into business. To learn more, head to toasttab.com. That's T-O-A-S-T-T-A-B, toasttab.com. Toast, built for busy. When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless.

15:48Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and over 200 more marketplaces with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Upgrade your shipping operations to stress-proof your biggest sales days and capture every bit of potential revenue. Go to ShipStation.com and use code AUDIO and get 30 days free. Next, if you have ever been on a 1 ,200 calorie diet or know the calories of a muffin off by heart, I promise by the end of the next section you will understand just why this is so harmful, especially for women.

16:27So let's talk about fuel. This is the most important factor when it comes to women's health, yet I rarely see it on social media posts explaining how to balance your hormones. When our body isn't fuelled, it prioritises the systems that are essential for keeping us alive. Our brain, heart, lungs, kidneys. Baby making isn't an essential function, so it gets deprioritised. So when we don't eat enough, this can imbalance our reproductive hormones like estrogen and progesterone, disrupting our cycle or sometimes completely stopping it. This can impact fertility, bone health, libido, mood and so much more.

16:59And I don't know about you, but I value all of those things a lot more than the number on a scale. This is a really important conversation to have as women, especially in this climate, where it feels like the pressure to get smaller is everywhere we look. A Ferrari can't run without fuel and neither can you. And in the next section, I'll explain why this may even be an important factor for how long we live. But first, let me explain actionable steps to make sure you aren't unintentionally damaging your hormones by not eating enough. First, I'm going to need you to keep track of your cycle. changes to your cycle like irregular cycles or longer duration between cycles can be a key sign that something is wrong and you should speak to your doctor please eat regular meals even if you eat a large enough dinner basting for too long can put your body under stress as there is limited energy available this can disrupt reproductive hormones one for the ambitious girlies who are busy chasing their dreams please have a menu of snacks that you love and make you feel good and are easy for on the go.

17:54My personal favourites, dates and peanut butter. I love the deliciously Ella salted nuts. Do not hate me but I also do love a boiled egg and just a handful of nuts because if there is one thing I would like to de-influence you on, it's 2017 PTs telling you how calorific nuts are. Nuts are a nutritional powerhouse packed with nutrients, healthy fats and fibre, meaning lots of calories aren't even absorbed. So please chuck a handful of nuts down your gullet every couple of hours and your hormones will thank you. But honestly anything is better than nothing. I know I feel better when I'm eating nutrient-dense food as I've listed above however what's most important above anything is eating enough and if some days that is an almond croissant or a bar of Tony's your hormones will also thank you for not starving them.

18:39And please remember to eat for your exercise. Stop going to the gym with just a black americano in your tummy To get the most out of your workout and not harm your hormones, you need fuel. If you are squeezing in a trip to the gym before you're 9 to 5, I feel your pain because there isn't always time for a full breakfast. But even quickly guzzling a glass of orange juice or a banana before your workout sends a signal to your body that you have fuel in the tank so it doesn't start freaking out and telling your reproductive hormones to retreat. You can nutrient max convenience foods. We all go through phases of life where we are working hard and looking after ourselves slips.

19:12We go for deliveries and convenience foods or forget to eat altogether and you end up feeling worse in the long run. There are little hacks to get you through when life gets stressful. Microwave rice, lentil or chickpea pouches, adding a tin of chickpeas to a takeaway dinner, having an addition rather than a subtract mindset is the easiest way to get more nutrition into your diet without cutting out the foods that get you through busy phases. Next it's time to talk about one of the most ignored issues in women's health. How many of you have had a granny, auntie or older female relative break bone?

19:44I do not mean to scare you but that could be you depending on the habits you build now. First a little bit of tough love. If you are in your 20s or 30s the menopause isn't that far away. Even though we often think of it as something our mothers go through, it's a lot closer than we think. As we approach menopause the hormone oestrogen declines. Menopause impacts every system in your body from your brain and heart which I'll go into later. But crucial to understand for this section is its impact on our bones. Bone isn't just an inert scaffolding that it looks like, it's living tissue constantly being broken down and rebuilt and oestrogen helps keep that demolition and rebuild cycle in equilibrium.

20:20But when oestrogen falls away at menopause this tips the balance towards breakdown and bone density can decline sharply. In fact the drop can begin years before your final period. Risk of fracture rises steeply after menopause and it's why so many of us know an older relative who's broken a bone. Around 40 % of women aged 50 will fracture a bone over the rest of their lifetime. That's a pretty considerable proportion considering most of us aren't running around in playgrounds or playing contact rugby. Hip fractures are a huge issue, being twice as common in women than men. And when you're 80, a hip isn't just a bone, it's your independence.

20:55Your ability to get up, get dressed, go to your knitting group or an all-night rave, whatever you're into. And if I still haven't convinced you, there's a heartbreaking stat I need you to hear. In the year following a hip fracture, one in five will die. What's so heartbreaking about this topic and how it's too often ignored is that we can take action right now to reduce that risk. First, load your bones. Higher muscle mass is linked with a higher bone density and low muscle mass, aka sarcopenia, roughly doubles the odds of weak bones, known in fancy medical terms as osteoporosis. This is why it breaks my heart that for so many years women avoided the weight section at the gym, scared that they would look manly.

21:34Weights save lives so whether it's body weight exercises on a yoga mat in your living room or refusing to let men dominate the weight section at the gym, make it your mission to build muscle mass. And of course feed your bones. Make sure you're eating enough as I've mentioned, specifically getting your vitamin D in and calcium in. Brits, We already know we get nowhere near enough sun between October and April, so get yourself some vitamin D supplements. If you feel frustrated that school biology didn't cover the basics of female hormone health, then let's finally understand what is going on in your body.

22:07It's time to talk about hormones. With a basic understanding and a few simple habits, you can take back control and stop feeling as though you're at the mercy of an unpredictable rollercoaster. hormones are chemical messengers in our body and although they're often referred to as one homogenous lump they have a multitude of different functions from appetite to ovulation when each hormone is working at its best it's like a well-conducted orchestra playing a symphony when it's not working instruments are out of tune and off beat and this has a knock-on effect across the whole ensemble over 50 hormones have been identified in the human body and counting but by understanding the basics of these top five and how to keep them happy you can cover a lot of bases.

22:47The last two are arguably the most important. They impact everything from our body temperature to heart rate but they are most well known for impacting our metabolism. Thyroid hormones determine how many calories your body would burn if you lay in bed all day, also known as your basal metabolic rate. Imagine it's like how much fuel you burn in a car. The faster you go the more fuel you burn and thyroid hormone is determining how fast your body goes. This is why low thyroid hormone can lead to unexplained weight gain and there are particular nutrients you need to pay attention to if you want your thyroid to work properly, which I'll come on to shortly.

23:22Now let's understand insulin. Imagine every time you eat, some food is stored in your body, like you're getting a salary and spending some money now and putting the rest in a savings account for later. Insulin is the hormone that controls how much money you have to spend at one time, aka the level of sugar in your blood When we eat, food is broken down into sugars, causing our blood sugar levels to rise This is completely normal and nothing to be scared of When insulin is working well, raised blood sugar levels cause insulin to be released Storing the sugar for later and reducing levels in the blood However, in conditions like PMOS, formerly PCOS or diabetes, the body doesn't listen to insulin very well.

24:05So it's like a teacher in a classroom who keeps raising their voice to be heard. So more and more insulin is released. When you hear the term insulin resistance, this is what this means. As you can imagine, blood sugar levels that are all over the shop can lead to you feeling tired all the time or bursts of energy followed by crashes or feeling hungry all the time, even after eating and unexplained weight gain. Moving on cortisol if you've ever heard of cortisol as the stress hormone in the next section I'll explain why this is an oversimplification but it also plays a role in your blood sugar levels.

24:37Finally oestrogen and progesterone if you look at the diagram of the menstrual cycle these are the two roller coasters which is a pretty apt description of how the menstrual cycle can feel. Let's get the basics out of the way four phases of the menstrual cycle menstruation aka your period both estrogen and progesterone alone. Then your follicular phase where estrogen is slowly rising. Ovulation next. A 24 to 48 hour window where estrogen peaks and an egg is released. Finally the luteal phase where estrogen drops off and progesterone starts climbing. But what do estrogen and progesterone even do?

25:11Estrogen doesn't just impact your ovaries, it can affect your mood, cognition and even metabolism. So women sometimes find that when estrogen is higher they feel happier, focus better and have more energy. Although Blanket claims about how each individual phase impacts all women aren't well researched. Progesterone is more confusing. It is broken down into allopregnolone which works on the brain and for many women is calming and reduces anxiety. So why do so many women report struggling mentally in their luteal phase when progesterone is actually high? The relationship is complex and not fully understood but what we do know is different women have different responses and actually it's not the level of allopregnolone itself but a sensitivity to how quickly the levels change that causes the symptoms experienced by many women with PMS and PMDD.

25:58So when it comes to your menstrual cycle all of us are unique. Prescriptive advice around what to do at different phases of your cycle isn't backed by science and might not even be helpful. What is helpful is taking notice of how you personally feel as hormones shift and practicing forgiveness. Some actionable steps to help with hormone health. Remember that hormones are made up of building blocks. Many of these building blocks come from our nutrition. For example, iron is one of the key building blocks for an enzyme important for thyroid function. Iron deficiency has been associated with low thyroid hormones.

26:32This is why eating a varied diet and eating enough food is so important. Gut health is also extremely important and to explain let me introduce you to the oestrogen balloon. This is the bacterial ecosystem that exists in your gut and controls the levels of oestrogen in your body. There's really exciting research coming out about its role in conditions where there's a hormonal imbalance like endometriosis, breast cancer, infertility, menopause and PCOS. While the evidence on the oestrogen balloon specifically is emerging, we do have strong evidence on the best ways to support your gut. Getting enough fiber.

27:06Just remember to build up fiber slowly to train your gut as suddenly increasing fiber intake can overwhelm your gut. Finally, most important, get medical attention if you need it and practice advocating for yourself. Being a woman trying to be taken seriously in healthcare is exhausting. Hence, many women have understandably turned to social media. This can provide community and lots of helpful tips for women waiting for answers. However, it's not a substitute for getting blood tests and proper treatment. To give you an example of why this is so important, let's talk about PMOS. This is a condition where hormones are not performing at their peak.

27:41Common symptoms are irregular cycles, hair loss, acne, and struggling to lose weight. And this is caused by hormones like testosterone, the hormone typically associated with men, and insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar levels. But crucially, untreated PMOS can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and even endometrial cancer. Now, have you ever seen a TikTok about cortisol face, followed by staring at the mirror, wondering if you actually look like a moon? Here's the truth I need you to know about cortisol stress and recovery, because it isn't as straightforward as it seems.

28:14Cortisol is not the enemy. Cortisol is the hormone that gets us up every morning, keeps us alert, and gives us a kick up the bum when we have a deadline. Cortisol is essential. Where it becomes an issue is when it stays elevated for extended periods of time, and it stays high for late during the day. So let's get down to basics of how it works. In healthy individuals, cortisol peaks before you wake up. It should then slowly decline throughout the day so that by the evening we are able to get a good night's sleep. However, if you experience anything your body perceives as stress, a branch of your nervous system called the sympathetic branch is activated.

28:48This is often referred to as fight or flight, where adrenaline and cortisol are released. Your palms get sweaty, your heart races, your blood sugar spikes so that your body has the energy to do the flight part. It's cliche, but I'm going to use the gazelle example. Imagine a gazelle spots a lion, their fight or flight is activated and these changes occur in the body for the sole purpose of survival. And there are unfortunately only really two outcomes. The gazelle gets eaten or it gets away because the lion can't keep chasing it forever without getting tired. Corsazole rises and then goes down or the gazelle dies.

29:21Working too hard at work doesn't have the same binary and our body doesn't know the difference between working till 7 p.m every night or being chased by a lion. This is where chronic stress becomes an issue. In the short term, impacting your sleep, glucose levels, hormones and energy, and over the long term, contributing to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and much more. As an ambitious woman, it should not be a trade-off between giving up on your dreams or sending yourself into an early grave. So here are my busy girl tips to not getting burnt out. First, understand how to hack your nervous system.

29:53As I mentioned, the sympathetic nervous system earlier aka when your body is in fight or flight. This is like an accelerator on a car but there is also a brake, the parasympathetic nervous system also known as our rest and digest function. When the brake is pressed your heart rate slows, your body gets the signal it is safe so blood is diverted away from your muscles because it doesn't need to run away anymore and towards your gut and even your reproductive organs. This is why anxious stressed girlies often struggle with gut issues or libido. When you're stressed all the time you literally aren't getting enough blood to poop or have spicy time.

30:29The good news is there is actually a trigger on your body that can hack it into activating the brakes. It is called the vagus nerve. This is the longest nerve in your body that runs all the way down from your neck down to your tummy and plays a key role in reducing inflammation in your body. So how can I trigger my vagus nerve I hear you ask. please do not scream at me when I explain because I fully understand it is infuriating. Breathing. And before you click off the podcast thinking is that a joke, when my boss is breathing down my neck about a KPI, the last thing I want to do is a breathing exercise.

31:01I completely get you, but bear with me. When we deep breathe deep into our tummies enough so it rises, we activate our vagus nerve, signaling to our body we are safe enough to take a deep breath rather than doing the shallow breathing associated with our fight or flight response. If you've tried breathing exercises before and hate them, same. Box breathing just stresses me out more so now I just place my hands on my tummy, ideally lying down if possible, and breathe deeply enough to feel my tummy rise and repeat that for a couple of cycles until I feel my nervous system relaxing. What's important is finding a breathing exercise that works for you.

31:38Another technique some find helpful is completing the stress cycle. Taking a lesson out of the gazelles book, many people find it helpful to complete a short burst of exercise that has a finite end that signals to your body the stress has passed, giving it permission to slow down. So next time you feel angry, try going for a run. I promise you this is when I've hit most of my PBs. It's also really important to understand light switch theory. When we work late into the evening, this is often when we get into bed and can't sleep. When we are working, we expect our brains to be performing at peak and a healthy amount of stress keeps us motivated and focused but we are not a light switch.

32:14We can't just shut our laptops and suddenly accept our bodies to switch from the accelerator to the brake. We need to treat our nervous system more like a dimmer switch. We're actually turning it down. That means giving yourself a proper wind down relaxing nighttime routine so you can have the best night's sleep possible which helps your stress regulation over time. Hey guys it's Paige from Giggly Squad. Okay, can we all agree that hosting is so much fun? And I really do love it. Every weekend, it's come over for snacks, let's make dinner together, and somehow the second you put out a fruit platter, it seems that bugs show up before your friends do.

32:53This is why I have to have my Zeevo flying insect trap. You plug it in and you let it do all the work. It's specially designed blue and UV light attracts the bugs you didn't know you had. And wow, did we have a lot. like house flies fruit flies gnats and then with zevo bam next thing you know the pests are caught in the sticky cartridge and away from your yummy treats without any mess or strong odors the best part is the design is actually sleek and curved so it hides the bugs it catches keeping them out of sight and when the cartridge is full you just grab the no mess tab throw it in the trash pop in a new cartridge and then you're done no mess no stress so whether you're hosting a dinner party or spending an afternoon baking treats with all your friends and you want to focus on hosting and not constantly swatting at bugs, Zivo has you covered with 24-7 bug protection.

33:44Plug in a Zivo flying insect trap so you can work smarter, not harder, and actually enjoy your time at home. Managing our stress is essential for our long-term health, but what happens to our brains as we age? If you struggle to focus depending on the phase of your cycle, this section will help you understand why and what that means as estrogen drops off later in life. Our brain also has estrogen receptors. As estrogen lowers, many women can notice brain fog. Women are also more likely to develop Alzheimer's. So as a woman, it's critical you understand how to protect your brain. Learning a language can be helpful.

34:21And I know Duolingo teaching you what tiger is in Italian isn't going to help you order your pasta. However, our brain is like a muscle and the best way to train it is learning and applying new information. You've probably already heard it before but omega-3. A huge study of over 100 ,000 participants suggested that dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids could lower risk of all-cause dementia or cognitive decline by 20%. I have good news if you enjoy puzzles because in one study of adults over 70, crosswords, puzzles, games, cards or chess was associated with 9 % lower dementia risk. And I sound like a broken record but exercise.

34:56For our brain to work properly, it needs good blood flow, providing it with everything it needs, just like anywhere else in the body. When we exercise, our heart pumps harder and the blood vessels all over our body, including our brain, benefit. One you may not have heard of, however, is your hearing. I know it's so annoying when you get the notification that your music is too loud. I would love if my AirPods would let me drown out my anxieties in peace as well, but alas, they do have a point. Each 10 decibels of worse hearing was linked to about a 16 % higher dementia risk. So please protect your hearing now, invest in some good earplugs and as you age, get your hearing check because hearing aids are associated with a lower dementia risk.

35:36I've rattled off a lot of numbers and facts, but the most important habits are often what you can't quantify. So if you only take away one section, let it be the next one because it is the most important by far. Optimisation culture has boomed and wellness routines that seem to take over your whole life have become normal But this is what so many wellness influencers ignore In my second year working in the NHS, I spent four months working in palliative care One Friday afternoon, we were having our end-of-week team meeting And the next patient on the list was a person who had been put on end-of-life medication the last three weeks And had been almost completely asleep for all of that time This was a very unusual situation The phase before someone dies where they are more asleep can vary significantly from person to person, but three weeks is a lot longer than we had all expected.

36:26When their name came up in our meeting, my consultant said, is there a birthday coming up, an anniversary, anyone who hasn't visited yet? And I verbally expressed my shock. This person had been completely unresponsive for three weeks, and I had spent seven years at that point learning about the quantifiable limits of the human body. I did not believe that your loans gave a second thought about spending one more anniversary with your wife before giving up. The whole room turned and looked at me. Decades of experience looking after those in their last days of life and they all said exactly the same thing.

36:59This is really common. They had seen that same story play out over and over again. People hanging on just enough until a loved one told them it was okay to go. Until one special visit. Until a date that had sentimental meaning. A few days later, a relative from abroad did visit and they died shortly after. All of this to say there is so much that we don't understand and life is so much more than the amount of kilometers we run, supplements we take, grams of protein we eat or hours of deep sleep we got. As much as we can't quantify much of what brings our life meaning and joy, we do have some research I want you to consider.

37:36Loneliness and social isolation is associated with higher all-cause mortality and mortality from heart disease and cancer. Depression also increases all-cause mortality with some studies suggesting an increase of 110%. So how can we put that into practice when we are constantly bombarded with messages from social media on how to optimize ourself, but also messages telling us that we only live once? Personally, I love the 80-20 rule, aiming for healthy habits 80 % of the time and whatever makes you happiest 20 % of the time. A leading longevity doctor once said to me, if I had Brian Johnson's routine, I wouldn't want to live any longer.

38:11And I have to agree. Also make sure that your routine is sustainable. It should be built around you and your goals and what actually matters. And please don't compare yourself to others. Some people are happiest running ultramarathons and never eating ultra processed foods and good for them. Most importantly, remember what can't be quantified, joy. We can run studies on the impacts of hours of sleep and minutes exercised and the amounts of plants we consume. I highly doubt we'll ever get studies on the benefits of a late night laughing with friends or an ultra processed birthday cake enjoyed with loved ones or the days where you skip the gym for last minute plans.

38:49That is episode four complete. Thank you so much for having me as your substitute teacher Grace. I have very much enjoyed being here, probably a little bit too much And if you would like any more information on the topics that we've covered today, I have sent it all over to the Working Hard newsletter. Thank you. It's me again. I hope you enjoyed that episode. I found it so fascinating and I hope you can see why I found this topic so important to include in this kind of future self, building your future, reverse engineering success topic because you actually can't have one without the other. So a massive thank you to Faye for contributing to today's episode.

39:27And such a big thank you to you for listening to this episode of the Future Self series. And as part of that, for supporting the podcast and our team during my maternity leave, we will be doing a full breakdown of this week's episode and all of the most practical parts on The Working High on Instagram. So you can go over there to find that. Otherwise, I will see you next week where we are going to be diving into the world of mental fitness and providing a boot camp for our brains so that you can have the resilience and the tools you actually need to stay properly accountable in building this life you want to build.

39:57So have a lovely week and I will see you then.

40:21separate tools ShipStation does in one. Automate fulfillment and rate shopping to ship up to 15 times more with up to 90 % savings. Go to ShipStation.com and use code AUDIO to try ShipStation free for 60 days. Hey guys, it's Paige from Giggly Squad. Okay, can we all agree that hosting is so much fun? And I really do love it. Every weekend, it's come over for snacks, let's make dinner together, and somehow the second you put out a fruit platter, it seems that bugs show up before your friends do. This is why I have to have my Zeevo flying insect trap. You plug it in and you let it do all the work.

40:57It's specially designed blue and UV light attracts the bugs you didn't know you had. And wow, did we have a lot. Like house flies, fruit flies, gnats. And then with Zeevo, bam. Next thing you know, the pests are caught in the sticky cartridge and away from your yummy treats without any mess or strong odors. The best part is the design is actually sleek and curved, so it hides the bugs it catches, keeping them out of sight, and when the cartridge is full, you just grab the no mess tab, throw it in the trash, pop in a new cartridge, and then you're done. No mess, no stress. So whether you're hosting a dinner party or spending an afternoon baking treats with all your friends, and you want to focus on hosting and not constantly swatting at bugs, Zeevo has you covered with 24-7 bug protection.

41:42Plug in a Zivo flying insect trap so you can work smarter, not harder, and actually enjoy your time at home. There are two types of business owners. Those who are busy and those who want to be busy. Toast is designed for both, with tools to keep you humming and help turn grind into growth. That's how you turn busy into business. Toast. Built for busy.