386: I can't do it all. The small habits that are working for me right now, and what I am not doing!

ELLA 00:00:01 - 00:34:04

Welcome. You're on air with Ella, where we share simple strategies and tips for living a little better every day. If you're interested in mindset and wellness or healthy habits and relationships or hormone health, aging well and eating well, honestly, if you're just into living better and with more energy, then you're in the right place. We're not here for perfect. We're here for a little better every day. Let's go. Hey, you're on air with Ella and I am so happy to be back with you. Thank you for joining me right now. I batch recorded the past couple of shows. I told you I was traveling through the whole month of November and I'm back. So it feels to me like forever since I have talked to you. So I'm really, really, really glad we have this time today. I wanted to share a few things with you because I have really enjoyed the information that I personally have learned from the past several episodes, really like the past handful of episodes. But it's a lot, right? Like, it's a lot. So today, I want to share with you the things that I am doing, the things that I'm not doing yet, and the things I probably won't be doing if we're keeping it real, because I don't want to overwhelm you. So I thought it might be useful to share with you the things that are really working for me and the things that I really do want to adopt. I just haven't yet. OK, so I hope you're well. It is the holiday season in real time as I am recording this, and that can be chaos. And the last thing that I want to do is overwhelm you with different ways to take care of yourself when you're already trying so hard even just to prioritize taking care of yourself. Because you are trying, right? We are trying. And I will reference, this entire conversation will be outlined in an email that I will send to everyone on my email list. So if you want it and you're not on my email list, just DM me, podcast, and I will send you the list. Speaking of lists, I just sent out a holiday shopping gift guide to the folks on my email and it has gifts under $30, it has gifts under $75, and then it has a whole host of luxury gifts that are absolutely worth the money. And if you want that, you need to DM me the word gift and I'll send you the link for that. Of Of course, all of that will be in the summary for today. So again, you can just DM me the word podcast. I will send you the episode show notes. Find me on Instagram to do that, at on air with Ella.

Here's my goal. The whole reason that I started this podcast 1 million years ago was to make health and wellness and feeling good and living our best life more accessible and not feel like something that we put on our to-do list. But then when I get all this advice and input from different experts, it feels like a gigantic self-care to-do list. I mean, even just like the list of supplements, if we were paying attention, would be about 87 that are recommended to take in a day right after we journal and take a hot sauna and do yoga and breathing and meditation and breathe through our nose and drink 85 ounces of water and get 135 grams of protein. Am I right? It's too much. I don't know if it will be helpful to you to just know what is working for me, but that's what this is about. I also, like I said in the intro, really want you to know what I'm not doing at all and then what I am trying to do that I will add to my to-do list. These are in absolutely no particular order. But the first thing that I really want to address is lifting weights, resistance training, whatever you want to call it. We have been talking about that ad nauseum on the air lately. And there are so many reasons why. There are so many reasons why. And part of the reason that resistance training or lifting weights It's so very important. It's because as we age, it is not only harder to build muscle, but it is utterly critical to go into the next five years, the next 10 years, the next 20 years with muscle on our body. And I come at this from a different angle because I really like training for triathlon. You know, that's a sport I'm mildly addicted to. And when I found that sport and I found that training, I stopped exercising to change my body and I started exercising for fun and to serve a purpose. And that purpose was not dying in a triathlon. But that means I swim and I bike and I run, and that's a lot of things, right? That's already a lot of things to do in a week. And in the summer, it's very exhaustive, like it takes up all of my marginal time. But in the colder months, I definitely am not out there swimming or biking quite as much, and I have a little bit more margin, a little bit more time to play with. And so I really concentrate on that resistance training that I know that I'm supposed to be doing, but I need to keep it real with you. Whenever I see the people that I respect and follow, like in social media or just whatever platform, they're lifting like, they're doing these barbells that look massive, right? And they're hundreds of pounds. I don't know. They're their body weight in pounds. I don't know because I don't do it. And that's what I wanted to share with you. I am lifting weights and I am doing resistance training. But I got to be honest with you, and I'm not saying this is good or bad. I just want you to know I am not going to a gym and lifting barbells over my head and doing squats with 200 pounds. And I'm not doing that. The reason I think it's important to share that with you is because, yes, I could be doing better, but I'm in pretty good shape right now. And I have muscle on my body that I absolutely did not have six months ago. And part of the reason, not just the season that I shared with you, but part of the reason I'm really focused on that is I was getting injured a lot, like a lot. And I want to be sort of harder to kill, right? I want to be harder to maim. And one of the things that one of the many therapists that I've seen over the past two years has said is, you're lean, and you're agile, and you're fast, and that's all great. But like, you don't have a lot of muscle on your body. And I had never, you know how you have blindness to certain things about you? I thought because I was fit, because I was trained, I wasn't really worried about adding pounds of muscle to my frame. And then I realized I'm like a little fragile in this condition. And being lean, when I say that being strong is my priority over being small and compact, let me tell you how much I mean that. Having muscle on my frame means I'm going to age better. It means that I'm less likely to get that menopause that personally I would like to avoid, that belly weight that you gain. I personally would like to avoid that. to each their own. It means that my bones will stay in better shape. It means all the things that we talk about when we talk about perimenopause and menopause. And frankly, it doesn't matter what age you are. I want the muscle now. That is a priority for me. Why am I going on about this? Because I am doing that just with free weights. And I don't know if that's of interest to you, but I suspect quite a few of us are thinking, okay, I want the muscle, but I'm probably not gonna go do the big gigantic deadlifts in a gym somewhere. You may be, and I salute you, I'm not kidding, but for me, I am using free weights, and I'm adding pounds, and adding pounds, and adding pounds, and I'm doing overhead lifts, and I'm doing squats, and I'm doing quite a number of motions, but I'm doing them in my own home. And I think that this is important because it makes it more accessible for those of you who might feel like deadlifts are something very far away for you. And I just got this bar. I'm so pleased with it. I shared it on Instagram. I was like, I'm delighted with myself. I got this bar that I can connect my free weights to. So now I can order heavier free weights, which by the way, I'm getting them from Facebook Marketplace. I'm buying these in secondhand and I'm getting these rubber coated free weights and I am connecting them to this bar and it is turning my home gym into the thing I normally would have to go to a third place to do. So I contacted the company, as I do, and I got like a $10 discount. I thought it was already really reasonable. I bought the bar and the pad. And I feel like I bought one other thing. Oh, you can turn weights into kettlebells with the smaller connector. And I did all of that for under $100. And now I have a $10 coupon, if that's of interest. So I will put that, of course, in the notes. That is just one thing I wanted to share with you is I hear these experts and I know I should be lifting heavy and I am just not right now going to go to a gym and learn how to do that or focus on how to do that when I'm getting really good results in my own home. And this is not about where you do it, it's about how you do it. I wanted you to know it's so much more accessible than you might think. Okay, if you have any questions about that, hit me up.

Okay, I hope I did not freak you out with Dr. Shara and the truth about taking collagen in your coffee. I mean, honestly, I was in mourning for about a month because I have been taking collagen, which again, that's a non-vegetarian product unless you get marine collagen. But I've been spending money on collagen, it ain't cheap, and I've been putting it in my coffee, two servings a day, and I have gotten no visible results after six months. And when I said that to her, she was like, caffeine blocks the effectiveness of collagen. I keep saying it blocks the absorption of collagen. That is not technically true. But as you heard in that episode with Dr. Shara, that was the last episode, combining caffeine and collagen pretty much renders your collagen ineffective. Again, I'm in mourning. But let me tell you what I've done. You can put your collagen in your smoothies. You can mix it in other things. I just haven't been. I have gone back to putting lion's mane in my coffee, and that is it. And I have to say, I don't know if you remember that show I did on real mushrooms. That lion's mane that he suggested in that episode, and yeah, he gave me a discount code for that. I'll mention whenever I talk about a resource, if there's a discount code, you know I'll drop that too. But that show about real mushrooms and what ingredients to look for and what not to look for, that was useful for me. And that lion's mane powder that I am adding to my coffee, it makes me so hyper-focused and I don't care if it's a placebo effect. I am totally focused and productive in the morning and I love it. So I am still a big fan of that, but collagen, Speaking of supplements and Dr. Shara, we talked about NAD+. Now, I will do an episode just on NAD+, because I think there's so much science there. I think there's a lot of interest building right now in NAD+. You can listen to the last episode to get, you know, NAD 101. But it is expensive. It is expensive, and right now I think it's probably going to be exploitive because it's a very trendy supplement to be talking about. So NAD+, I think there are going to be, or there are, products on the market right now that call themselves an NAD precursor. And I think they suck. And then I think that there are ways to take NAD plus that are terribly expensive. So I want you to know what I'm doing. I'm doing two different things and they're not cheap. They are not cheap, but they are cheaper than getting an NAD IV and they are less expensive than throwing your money away on something that absolutely does not work. So there are two ways I'm taking NAD right now. One is expensive, and it is a patch from a company called Ion Layer. And that is expensive. You buy an entire kit for like 500 bucks, but it has six different patches inside of it. I think it might be five. I'm pretty sure it's six. Don't hold me to it. You can see it when I drop the link. But you mix the NAD yourself and then you wear the patch for 14 hours. And I do that once a week for five or six weeks in a row. That is my expensive solution. And it is less expensive than getting an IV treatment. I think they're doing some Black Friday thing. So if you're listening in real time, you will want to go check that out now because I think there's like, I want to say $150 discount. So that will be in the notes. The other thing that I'm doing because I spread out those treatments. The other thing that I'm doing is taking this tiny liquid bottle of NAD Plus supplement. By the way, I'm not advertising for these companies. They are not paying me. But that little tiny bottle is like 50 bucks and I take half a teaspoon every other day when I'm not doing the ion layer patches. So this is how I sort of spread it out and spread out my cost. And that is more sustainable for me. Why NAD Plus? I think it's slightly miraculous. I do. I hate to say stuff like that First of all, especially when something's expensive. But also, I talk about a lot of things that really work. That, to me, you heard Dr. Shara. She was like, I can't live without it anymore. To me, it is a little bit of a fountain of youth situation. And I feel really good right now. I have a lot of energy right now. I have a lot of focus right now. and I'm getting good physical results with my workouts and the supplements that I use, so I will be sharing those with you. So, so far, I'm talking about Lion's Mane and I'm talking about NAD+, so those summaries will be available to you. But there's one last sort of combo that I'll share with you that is really working with me, and I've talked about it before, so I will not belabor the point, but this creatine and amino acids mix, which is now my sports drink that I use when I'm training or working out, the creatine and amino acids that I really think is part of the reason I've been able to add quite a bit of lean muscle to my frame. I do not look jacked, but I'm, but okay, I'm stumbling because I feel like an idiot telling you this, but like, I look cut right now. You know, strangers will comment on my arms if I'm wearing a sleeveless top. You know, I feel like an idiot sharing that with you. But there are a lot of seasons where that is not the case. And as you may know, I had frozen shoulder for a year. So my right arm and my shoulder and my back muscles, they're completely atrophied, completely atrophied. So I started at nothing with my right arm and I sure as hell wasn't lifting with my left arm and not my right arm. So my left arm got pretty wimpy. It just didn't completely atrophy because it was the only arm I was using for anything. My right arm was ridiculous. I'm about a year out from that and I have muscles back on my frame. So I'm I'm pleased about that. I wanted to share that with you in case you feel like you're starting from zero. By the way, muscle memory is real. There's a lot of data about that. Muscle memory is real. So if it's been six months, one year, two years since you have really invested in body weight training or resistance training or weightlifting of any kind, you have a shorter curve than somebody who's never done it before. But even if you're someone who's never done it before, the best time to start is right now. Okay, so let's talk about some things that are not supplement related in any way. Sleep, how's your sleep doing? My sleep is nothing to write home about. I have found that now it's cyclic for me, so it depends on where I am in my cycle, so that's fun. But I used to sleep like a rock, like I had no problem. Sometimes I couldn't get to sleep because my mind was racing. But once I sort of chilled out, the actual sleeping was great for me. And there are so many reasons my sleep is probably disrupted. It fluctuates with how much progesterone you have in your system at any given point. It obviously depends on how much light you're blasting into your eyeballs right before you go to bed. And let me tell you, I wanna share with you that I am and continue to blast the light of a thousand suns into my eyes because I am looking at my phone in bed. I love looking at my phone in bed. Yes, I'm turning the dim, I'm turning that dimmer all the way down, like all the way down. And part of the reason that my husband and I do that, if we're looking at our phones in bed, is because we are not trying to blast the other one and shine the light of a thousand suns right into our retinas. But I'm still looking at my phone before I go to bed. And now I want to tell you the one tiny habit change that I've made. This is kind of personal, but the first thing that we do is we have kind of a rule where we don't get in bed and pick up our phones. So the very first thing we do is we make eye contact. So we either have a conversation or a check-in or other stuff, but we check in with each other before we check in with our phones. That is something that we started doing when we realized that we were getting in bed and picking up our phones. The second thing that we do is we do do phone time, but then we put the phones down and read a book made of paper. It's this ancient technology that our ancestors used to use, and that has been really good for me. And it switches my brain down a gear, and I will oftentimes fall asleep while I'm reading, which is kind of the goal. Like, I don't mind that at all. But man, my sleep is not what it used to be. So if you can relate, hit me up and let me know what's working for you. Okay, let's talk about our faces and skincare and face massage and face yoga and all of these things that we talked about in the not-too-distant past. Because I love Yulia. I don't know if you could tell. And she's the one that came on the air and talked to us about facial exercises and massage and things you can do in the car and that sort of thing. And those exercises, they are transformative. I know that. Guess what? I'm not doing them. Julia, if you're listening, I'm the problem. It's me. They are so good. So many of them are so easy. And I'm only doing two of them and not consistently. So I'm doing the thing where you run the tongue around the inside of your mouth to get rid of your laugh lines, I suppose. What are those puppet lines called on either side of your mouth? That exercise is, and again, if you don't remember these, don't worry, I'll tag them all. But that exercise, super easy to do while you're driving and who cares what you look like, right? And then the other thing I'll do is I'll do those little cheek exercises where you're basically like lifting your cheeks to build the muscle of your cheeks. I will do that as well, but not often. What is wrong? Like, why can't I do this? Do you have the same thing where, like, you want to do it and you believe in it, you think it'll get results, and yet it just feels too hard? because that's where I am. So I'm cheating. I'm using the TheraFace device that I talked about with Trina. I don't think we named it because I forgot what it was called, but she and I were both talking about this face zapper that we got. It has lots of modes. It has a red light and a vibration, like a pulsing mode. And I do the red light and the pulsing all over my face when I wake up just to get my blood flowing, get my lymph drained. And then it has a zapper. I don't know what it's called. It's not my job to know what it's called, guys. I'll tell you what the product is though. Anyway, it has a zapper and it stimulates my muscles. So I'm like zapping my face all over and I do this whole thing for 10 minutes in the morning or after a swim or if I forgot or didn't have time, I'll do it at night. And that TheraFace tool is what I'm doing instead of facial massage. Imagine what I would look like if I did both, but I'm not. So if you have any tips for making face exercises or face yoga or any whatever you want to call it a part of your routine, I am wide open to hearing them because it's just not something I have been successful at, if I'm being honest. Hey, I want to tell you about a couple of opportunities coming up. I am holding a dinner in northern Virginia in January. It is January 16th, which is a Thursday. So this is pretty much for locals unless you want to come visit D.C. for the weekend. I live in Alexandria, Virginia. It is just a few miles outside of D.C., and we are hosting a dinner for kick-ass women on Thursday, January 16th. Seating is really, really limited, but I told y'all I wanted to do an event in January, and it will be more than just dinner. It will be dinner and a little chatter and a little bit of each of us being in the hot seat for a few minutes and great conversation and a little bit of personal and professional development. If that sounds interesting to you or if you're nearby and you want more about that, just DM me dinner. DM me or email me dinner, okay? But let me tell you about another opportunity that might be more accessible for many of you. And that is that on May 9th, I am holding a women's personal and professional development event in New Jersey. So if you can get to New Jersey, I want you to save the date for May 9th. You do not want to miss this. It will be priced very accessibly, and it is a one-day workshop and mixer and networking event. I would call it more of a community building event. Okay, so stay tuned about that. If you're already on my waitlist, then you will get this information. But just know May 9th, all-day workshop slash conference slash session together in New Jersey. If you are in the East Coast US, this is perfect for you. And then spend the weekend in New York just for fun. That is May 9th. Stay tuned. More to come. Okay, I have a quick tip for you. This is back to physical movement, but a quick tip for you. One is, I hope you're walking. I am addicted to my walking desk. It's a walking pad. I just bought a walking pad. They're under $130 in most places. These walking pads will just slide under a high top table, or you can be fancy and buy a combo desk and walking pad. But this is very easy to jerry-rig if you have the space. And I am walking three to seven miles a day day without even realizing that I'm walking because it's so slow. So slow. Like, yes, you're moving a little bit, but I'll do conference calls this way. I'll do Zoom calls this way. The only thing I can't really do is record because the background noise is just slightly too much. It sounds like a constant hum, and I think it would be very annoying to you. That walking pad combo with the desk is life altering for me. That's not even what I want to share with you. The thing I want to share with you is that vibration plate that I told you that I got. I sold my little mini trampoline and I bought a vibration plate instead. I did not buy the fancy ones that are fifteen hundred bucks. I did not do that. I bought one off of Amazon. I did a lot of research and I bought this vibration plate. And that thing is magic. And I wish I worked for that company because I have now sold so many of those to my friends and family because they will come over and use it and they don't understand why they feel so good when they get off. And I use it at least twice a day. So 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening. And when I say 10 minutes and you're like, how are you doing this? Like you work, you have several jobs and you're just zapping your face and vibrating all day. No, it is that 10 minutes where you need a break from your phone calls or 10 minutes where you're going to scroll on your phone anyway. So you might as well do it on the vibration plate. Anyway, this thing is not only great for your lymph and they say that it's good for maintaining bone density. There's quite a bit of research behind that. I covered it in the show that I did on vibration therapy. But I'll be honest with you, it just feels really good. I'm sure some of that is the lymph drainage. But as someone who works out, I'm sore every day of my life. And that shaking, that vibration is very, very cathartic for that. And I'm just speaking anecdotally, but the actual research is in that episode. So I wanted to let you know I am doing that, and I am doing that like every single day, and I absolutely love it. Here's something you can do at home, and this sounds so stupid, but when you wake up, you can shake your body. I'm doing it right now. You can like shake your legs. Do this if you're not driving. You can shake your legs and wiggle your arms and wiggle your hips and put your head back and wiggle that. Can you do that right now? Are you in a position to do that without looking like a complete freak? If you're a target listening to me, I want you to do this anyway, okay? And that shaking therapy for 30 seconds is a brilliant way to wake up in the morning. And when you start to feel that afternoon slump and you want the eighth cup of coffee that will then actually just make you tired and you'll have like an espresso nap. that's a great time to do it. And I know it sounds so stupid and I don't like looking a fool, that's not my jam, but this thing and you raise your arms up over your head and you wiggle your wrists and you wiggle your hands and you shake everything and move your arms up and down, that little shaking therapy, again, I'm saying 30 seconds, I'm lying, it's probably 15 seconds, that is a great way to wake up and it's a great way to get things moving and it's a great thing to do between phone calls If you can't get outside and walk for 10 minutes, great, great, great, quick, quick, quick thing to do. You got to do it. Don't knock it till you try it. Finally, one more movement thing. Dr. Vonda Wright talks a lot about pounding and pounding your muscles or pounding your body so that you maintain bone density. And I got to say that the easiest way to do this, well, you could do box jumping, you can do jumping jacks. get a $7 jump rope, get a $7 jump rope, make them stocking stuffers, grab a jump rope. And as long as you don't pee every time you jump, jump roping for 30 seconds is another great little mini thing to do. So I think I really wanna drive home the point today that doing these tiny little mini things throughout your day, especially if you work from home, can really impact your day overall. So I'm doing 10 minutes on the vibration plate if I'm just scrolling my phone or need to read my emails or whatever on my phone. Doing jumping jacks or doing jump rope for 30 seconds in between activities can get everything going again and spike your energy and wake you up and also just be good for you overall, good for your bones, etc. Overall, all these little tiny things you can do throughout a day, they add up. Oh, skincare, I'm coming back to, I'm all over the place. I told you these were not in order, but did I tell you it would be chaos? The skincare stuff, the things that I talked about with Trina, those have definitely stuck for me. So I went out right away and I got bakuchi oil, carrot seed oil, and marula oil. And I made a concoction that is mostly marula oil, then maybe a third bakuchi oil, and then a few drops of carrot seed oil. And I alternate that now with my castor oil, rosehip, and black seed oil combo. So those are two different combos I've talked about on two different shows. And I, you know, I swim and the chlorine is so rough on my skin. And every couple of days I put on heavier skincare with, I told you this, estriol in it, that form that has estrogen in it. And that makes my face peel. That doesn't look good. So in between doing that, I mean like, Twice a day, I am smothering my face in these oils. So right when I get up and before I work out, I'll do it, and then before I go to bed. So we'll see, I'll let you know. I'm expecting a miracle, but I am definitely, definitely doing those. Okay, let's talk about what I'm not doing. Let's talk about one habit that I'm not doing. I'm pretty sure that I'm at the place in my life where I really, I can't even say it, I need to start trying to sort of meditate. I don't even believe the words when I say them. Let me phrase it differently in a way that's meaningful to me. I know that in order to practice what I know to be true, which is the power of checking in with yourself, the power of staying in touch with yourself, the power of knowing your needs, expressing your needs, putting your needs ahead of the needs of everybody else so that you can be functioning as a whole person in this world, I know that I'm at a point in my journey I'm at a point in my journey, I know that I'm at a point in my life where I need or I will start adding 10 minutes of reflection to my day. Is that journaling? Is it sitting quietly? I have not decided, but I commit to starting that on December 1. If that's a habit you want to start on December 1 with me, why don't we do a 21-day challenge? Why don't we do that? Because honestly, sometimes I need those to make a commitment stick. Just honest, just to make it happen. If you heard that, I'm sorry, that was my stomach. it piped up, let me tell you. Okay, starting on December 1 in the year of our Lord, 2024, I am going to do 10 minutes – 10 minutes feels like so much, oh my gosh – I'm going to do 10 minutes of checking in with myself every damn day, every day. Again, it might be journaling. Journaling is, that word, I don't know, I don't love it. It feels too, I don't know, it's not very relatable for me. But you know what it is, is writing to myself. That feels more relatable to me. And I just have like all of these empty notebooks kind of in all of my spaces. And I really like writing questions to myself. and then letting the answer sort of flow through me, if you will. And I have found that to be very useful and powerful when I've done it. So if you want to call that journaling, fine. So I think I will alternate between that and sitting quietly and listening to like a meditation done for me for 10 minutes a day. And I'll start December 1st. And yes, I just decided this on the air. If you want to do it with me, you need to let me know. And any of the spaces. And again, I'll put a little link in the show notes in case that's of interest to you. All right. I know it's so annoying to keep saying in the show notes, but I need you to know that you don't have to remember all of this. I'm going to put it all together for you. Okay. I think that's it. Oh, one more thing. I just spoke at Dr. Vonda Wright's Women's Health Conversation Summit in Orlando in November, and there were so many amazing speakers. Dr. Mary Claire Haver was with us. Shaleen Johnson was so funny. She was with us. Quite a few other names. Dr. Kelly Casperson, Dr. Vonda Wright. It was an absolutely incredible lineup. I know that there's a digital version of that available, So you can go to Dr. Vonda Wright's DMs or her website to get the digital version of that. It was so, so good. But it is going to happen again next year in November. And I have to say, I learned so much. So if you were there and I met you, or if you were there and we didn't get a chance to meet one-on-one, I just have to tell you, thank you. You were absolutely amazing. There were over 500 of you, and it was absolutely incredible. And I will also say, welcome. We're glad to have you. But even if you weren't there, I need you to know that there is just something magical about when women with shared vision or values around a subject get together in a room. That energy is like nothing I could ever describe. And that's what that was. And I say that to you because we need to be creating more of these spaces. I am, I already have plans for 2025. I mean, you heard the one I'm doing in New Jersey, May 9th, hope you can come. But I am so inspired and so energized to keep creating spaces where women get together. And I want to encourage you to either do the same, create the same, participate in the same, or come see me, come join me, because you will have several opportunities in 2025. That's it. I hope you got something out of this episode

Welcome. You're on air with Ella, where we share simple strategies and tips for living a little better every day. If you're interested in mindset and wellness or healthy habits and relationships or hormone health, aging well and eating well, honestly, if you're just into living better and with more energy, then you're in the right place. We're not here for perfect. We're here for a little better every day. Let's go. Hey, you're on air with Ella and I am so happy to be back with you. Thank you for joining me right now. I batch recorded the past couple of shows. I told you I was traveling through the whole month of November and I'm back. So it feels to me like forever since I have talked to you. So I'm really, really, really glad we have this time today. I wanted to share a few things with you because I have really enjoyed the information that I personally have learned from the past several episodes, really like the past handful of episodes. But it's a lot, right? Like, it's a lot. So today, I want to share with you the things that I am doing, the things that I'm not doing yet, and the things I probably won't be doing if we're keeping it real, because I don't want to overwhelm you. So I thought it might be useful to share with you the things that are really working for me and the things that I really do want to adopt. I just haven't yet. OK, so I hope you're well. It is the holiday season in real time as I am recording this, and that can be chaos. And the last thing that I want to do is overwhelm you with different ways to take care of yourself when you're already trying so hard even just to prioritize taking care of yourself. Because you are trying, right? We are trying. And I will reference, this entire conversation will be outlined in an email that I will send to everyone on my email list. So if you want it and you're not on my email list, just DM me, podcast, and I will send you the list. Speaking of lists, I just sent out a holiday shopping gift guide to the folks on my email and it has gifts under $30, it has gifts under $75, and then it has a whole host of luxury gifts that are absolutely worth the money. And if you want that, you need to DM me the word gift and I'll send you the link for that. Of Of course, all of that will be in the summary for today. So again, you can just DM me the word podcast. I will send you the episode show notes. Find me on Instagram to do that, at on air with Ella. Here's my goal. The whole reason that I started this podcast 1 million years ago was to make health and wellness and feeling good and living our best life more accessible and not feel like something that we put on our to-do list. But then when I get all this advice and input from different experts, it feels like a gigantic self-care to-do list. I mean, even just like the list of supplements, if we were paying attention, would be about 87 that are recommended to take in a day right after we journal and take a hot sauna and do yoga and breathing and meditation and breathe through our nose and drink 85 ounces of water and get 135 grams of protein. Am I right? It's too much. I don't know if it will be helpful to you to just know what is working for me, but that's what this is about. I also, like I said in the intro, really want you to know what I'm not doing at all and then what I am trying to do that I will add to my to-do list. These are in absolutely no particular order. But the first thing that I really want to address is lifting weights, resistance training, whatever you want to call it. We have been talking about that ad nauseum on the air lately. And there are so many reasons why. There are so many reasons why. And part of the reason that resistance training or lifting weights It's so very important. It's because as we age, it is not only harder to build muscle, but it is utterly critical to go into the next five years, the next 10 years, the next 20 years with muscle on our body. And I come at this from a different angle because I really like training for triathlon. You know, that's a sport I'm mildly addicted to. And when I found that sport and I found that training, I stopped exercising to change my body and I started exercising for fun and to serve a purpose. And that purpose was not dying in a triathlon. But that means I swim and I bike and I run, and that's a lot of things, right? That's already a lot of things to do in a week. And in the summer, it's very exhaustive, like it takes up all of my marginal time. But in the colder months, I definitely am not out there swimming or biking quite as much, and I have a little bit more margin, a little bit more time to play with. And so I really concentrate on that resistance training that I know that I'm supposed to be doing, but I need to keep it real with you. Whenever I see the people that I respect and follow, like in social media or just whatever platform, they're lifting like, they're doing these barbells that look massive, right? And they're hundreds of pounds. I don't know. They're their body weight in pounds. I don't know because I don't do it. And that's what I wanted to share with you. I am lifting weights and I am doing resistance training. But I got to be honest with you, and I'm not saying this is good or bad. I just want you to know I am not going to a gym and lifting barbells over my head and doing squats with 200 pounds. And I'm not doing that. The reason I think it's important to share that with you is because, yes, I could be doing better, but I'm in pretty good shape right now. And I have muscle on my body that I absolutely did not have six months ago. And part of the reason, not just the season that I shared with you, but part of the reason I'm really focused on that is I was getting injured a lot, like a lot. And I want to be sort of harder to kill, right? I want to be harder to maim. And one of the things that one of the many therapists that I've seen over the past two years has said is, you're lean, and you're agile, and you're fast, and that's all great. But like, you don't have a lot of muscle on your body. And I had never, you know how you have blindness to certain things about you? I thought because I was fit, because I was trained, I wasn't really worried about adding pounds of muscle to my frame. And then I realized I'm like a little fragile in this condition. And being lean, when I say that being strong is my priority over being small and compact, let me tell you how much I mean that. Having muscle on my frame means I'm going to age better. It means that I'm less likely to get that menopause that personally I would like to avoid, that belly weight that you gain. I personally would like to avoid that. to each their own. It means that my bones will stay in better shape. It means all the things that we talk about when we talk about perimenopause and menopause. And frankly, it doesn't matter what age you are. I want the muscle now. That is a priority for me. Why am I going on about this? Because I am doing that just with free weights. And I don't know if that's of interest to you, but I suspect quite a few of us are thinking, okay, I want the muscle, but I'm probably not gonna go do the big gigantic deadlifts in a gym somewhere. You may be, and I salute you, I'm not kidding, but for me, I am using free weights, and I'm adding pounds, and adding pounds, and adding pounds, and I'm doing overhead lifts, and I'm doing squats, and I'm doing quite a number of motions, but I'm doing them in my own home. And I think that this is important because it makes it more accessible for those of you who might feel like deadlifts are something very far away for you. And I just got this bar. I'm so pleased with it. I shared it on Instagram. I was like, I'm delighted with myself. I got this bar that I can connect my free weights to. So now I can order heavier free weights, which by the way, I'm getting them from Facebook Marketplace. I'm buying these in secondhand and I'm getting these rubber coated free weights and I am connecting them to this bar and it is turning my home gym into the thing I normally would have to go to a third place to do. So I contacted the company, as I do, and I got like a $10 discount. I thought it was already really reasonable. I bought the bar and the pad. And I feel like I bought one other thing. Oh, you can turn weights into kettlebells with the smaller connector. And I did all of that for under $100. And now I have a $10 coupon, if that's of interest. So I will put that, of course, in the notes. That is just one thing I wanted to share with you is I hear these experts and I know I should be lifting heavy and I am just not right now going to go to a gym and learn how to do that or focus on how to do that when I'm getting really good results in my own home. And this is not about where you do it, it's about how you do it. I wanted you to know it's so much more accessible than you might think. Okay, if you have any questions about that, hit me up. Okay, I hope I did not freak you out with Dr. Shara and the truth about taking collagen in your coffee. I mean, honestly, I was in mourning for about a month because I have been taking collagen, which again, that's a non-vegetarian product unless you get marine collagen. But I've been spending money on collagen, it ain't cheap, and I've been putting it in my coffee, two servings a day, and I have gotten no visible results after six months. And when I said that to her, she was like, caffeine blocks the effectiveness of collagen. I keep saying it blocks the absorption of collagen. That is not technically true. But as you heard in that episode with Dr. Shara, that was the last episode, combining caffeine and collagen pretty much renders your collagen ineffective. Again, I'm in mourning. But let me tell you what I've done. You can put your collagen in your smoothies. You can mix it in other things. I just haven't been. I have gone back to putting lion's mane in my coffee, and that is it. And I have to say, I don't know if you remember that show I did on real mushrooms. That lion's mane that he suggested in that episode, and yeah, he gave me a discount code for that. I'll mention whenever I talk about a resource, if there's a discount code, you know I'll drop that too. But that show about real mushrooms and what ingredients to look for and what not to look for, that was useful for me. And that lion's mane powder that I am adding to my coffee, it makes me so hyper-focused and I don't care if it's a placebo effect. I am totally focused and productive in the morning and I love it. So I am still a big fan of that, but collagen, Speaking of supplements and Dr. Shara, we talked about NAD+. Now, I will do an episode just on NAD+, because I think there's so much science there. I think there's a lot of interest building right now in NAD+. You can listen to the last episode to get, you know, NAD 101. But it is expensive. It is expensive, and right now I think it's probably going to be exploitive because it's a very trendy supplement to be talking about. So NAD+, I think there are going to be, or there are, products on the market right now that call themselves an NAD precursor. And I think they suck. And then I think that there are ways to take NAD plus that are terribly expensive. So I want you to know what I'm doing. I'm doing two different things and they're not cheap. They are not cheap, but they are cheaper than getting an NAD IV and they are less expensive than throwing your money away on something that absolutely does not work. So there are two ways I'm taking NAD right now. One is expensive, and it is a patch from a company called Ion Layer. And that is expensive. You buy an entire kit for like 500 bucks, but it has six different patches inside of it. I think it might be five. I'm pretty sure it's six. Don't hold me to it. You can see it when I drop the link. But you mix the NAD yourself and then you wear the patch for 14 hours. And I do that once a week for five or six weeks in a row. That is my expensive solution. And it is less expensive than getting an IV treatment. I think they're doing some Black Friday thing. So if you're listening in real time, you will want to go check that out now because I think there's like, I want to say $150 discount. So that will be in the notes. The other thing that I'm doing because I spread out those treatments. The other thing that I'm doing is taking this tiny liquid bottle of NAD Plus supplement. By the way, I'm not advertising for these companies. They are not paying me. But that little tiny bottle is like 50 bucks and I take half a teaspoon every other day when I'm not doing the ion layer patches. So this is how I sort of spread it out and spread out my cost. And that is more sustainable for me. Why NAD Plus? I think it's slightly miraculous. I do. I hate to say stuff like that First of all, especially when something's expensive. But also, I talk about a lot of things that really work. That, to me, you heard Dr. Shara. She was like, I can't live without it anymore. To me, it is a little bit of a fountain of youth situation. And I feel really good right now. I have a lot of energy right now. I have a lot of focus right now. and I'm getting good physical results with my workouts and the supplements that I use, so I will be sharing those with you. So, so far, I'm talking about Lion's Mane and I'm talking about NAD+, so those summaries will be available to you. But there's one last sort of combo that I'll share with you that is really working with me, and I've talked about it before, so I will not belabor the point, but this creatine and amino acids mix, which is now my sports drink that I use when I'm training or working out, the creatine and amino acids that I really think is part of the reason I've been able to add quite a bit of lean muscle to my frame. I do not look jacked, but I'm, but okay, I'm stumbling because I feel like an idiot telling you this, but like, I look cut right now. You know, strangers will comment on my arms if I'm wearing a sleeveless top. You know, I feel like an idiot sharing that with you. But there are a lot of seasons where that is not the case. And as you may know, I had frozen shoulder for a year. So my right arm and my shoulder and my back muscles, they're completely atrophied, completely atrophied. So I started at nothing with my right arm and I sure as hell wasn't lifting with my left arm and not my right arm. So my left arm got pretty wimpy. It just didn't completely atrophy because it was the only arm I was using for anything. My right arm was ridiculous. I'm about a year out from that and I have muscles back on my frame. So I'm I'm pleased about that. I wanted to share that with you in case you feel like you're starting from zero. By the way, muscle memory is real. There's a lot of data about that. Muscle memory is real. So if it's been six months, one year, two years since you have really invested in body weight training or resistance training or weightlifting of any kind, you have a shorter curve than somebody who's never done it before. But even if you're someone who's never done it before, the best time to start is right now. Okay, so let's talk about some things that are not supplement related in any way. Sleep, how's your sleep doing? My sleep is nothing to write home about. I have found that now it's cyclic for me, so it depends on where I am in my cycle, so that's fun. But I used to sleep like a rock, like I had no problem. Sometimes I couldn't get to sleep because my mind was racing. But once I sort of chilled out, the actual sleeping was great for me. And there are so many reasons my sleep is probably disrupted. It fluctuates with how much progesterone you have in your system at any given point. It obviously depends on how much light you're blasting into your eyeballs right before you go to bed. And let me tell you, I wanna share with you that I am and continue to blast the light of a thousand suns into my eyes because I am looking at my phone in bed. I love looking at my phone in bed. Yes, I'm turning the dim, I'm turning that dimmer all the way down, like all the way down. And part of the reason that my husband and I do that, if we're looking at our phones in bed, is because we are not trying to blast the other one and shine the light of a thousand suns right into our retinas. But I'm still looking at my phone before I go to bed. And now I want to tell you the one tiny habit change that I've made. This is kind of personal, but the first thing that we do is we have kind of a rule where we don't get in bed and pick up our phones. So the very first thing we do is we make eye contact. So we either have a conversation or a check-in or other stuff, but we check in with each other before we check in with our phones. That is something that we started doing when we realized that we were getting in bed and picking up our phones. The second thing that we do is we do do phone time, but then we put the phones down and read a book made of paper. It's this ancient technology that our ancestors used to use, and that has been really good for me. And it switches my brain down a gear, and I will oftentimes fall asleep while I'm reading, which is kind of the goal. Like, I don't mind that at all. But man, my sleep is not what it used to be. So if you can relate, hit me up and let me know what's working for you. Okay, let's talk about our faces and skincare and face massage and face yoga and all of these things that we talked about in the not-too-distant past. Because I love Yulia. I don't know if you could tell. And she's the one that came on the air and talked to us about facial exercises and massage and things you can do in the car and that sort of thing. And those exercises, they are transformative. I know that. Guess what? I'm not doing them. Julia, if you're listening, I'm the problem. It's me. They are so good. So many of them are so easy. And I'm only doing two of them and not consistently. So I'm doing the thing where you run the tongue around the inside of your mouth to get rid of your laugh lines, I suppose. What are those puppet lines called on either side of your mouth? That exercise is, and again, if you don't remember these, don't worry, I'll tag them all. But that exercise, super easy to do while you're driving and who cares what you look like, right? And then the other thing I'll do is I'll do those little cheek exercises where you're basically like lifting your cheeks to build the muscle of your cheeks. I will do that as well, but not often. What is wrong? Like, why can't I do this? Do you have the same thing where, like, you want to do it and you believe in it, you think it'll get results, and yet it just feels too hard? because that's where I am. So I'm cheating. I'm using the TheraFace device that I talked about with Trina. I don't think we named it because I forgot what it was called, but she and I were both talking about this face zapper that we got. It has lots of modes. It has a red light and a vibration, like a pulsing mode. And I do the red light and the pulsing all over my face when I wake up just to get my blood flowing, get my lymph drained. And then it has a zapper. I don't know what it's called. It's not my job to know what it's called, guys. I'll tell you what the product is though. Anyway, it has a zapper and it stimulates my muscles. So I'm like zapping my face all over and I do this whole thing for 10 minutes in the morning or after a swim or if I forgot or didn't have time, I'll do it at night. And that TheraFace tool is what I'm doing instead of facial massage. Imagine what I would look like if I did both, but I'm not. So if you have any tips for making face exercises or face yoga or any whatever you want to call it a part of your routine, I am wide open to hearing them because it's just not something I have been successful at, if I'm being honest. Hey, I want to tell you about a couple of opportunities coming up. I am holding a dinner in northern Virginia in January. It is January 16th, which is a Thursday. So this is pretty much for locals unless you want to come visit D.C. for the weekend. I live in Alexandria, Virginia. It is just a few miles outside of D.C., and we are hosting a dinner for kick-ass women on Thursday, January 16th. Seating is really, really limited, but I told y'all I wanted to do an event in January, and it will be more than just dinner. It will be dinner and a little chatter and a little bit of each of us being in the hot seat for a few minutes and great conversation and a little bit of personal and professional development. If that sounds interesting to you or if you're nearby and you want more about that, just DM me dinner. DM me or email me dinner, okay? But let me tell you about another opportunity that might be more accessible for many of you. And that is that on May 9th, I am holding a women's personal and professional development event in New Jersey. So if you can get to New Jersey, I want you to save the date for May 9th. You do not want to miss this. It will be priced very accessibly, and it is a one-day workshop and mixer and networking event. I would call it more of a community building event. Okay, so stay tuned about that. If you're already on my waitlist, then you will get this information. But just know May 9th, all-day workshop slash conference slash session together in New Jersey. If you are in the East Coast US, this is perfect for you. And then spend the weekend in New York just for fun. That is May 9th. Stay tuned. More to come. Okay, I have a quick tip for you. This is back to physical movement, but a quick tip for you. One is, I hope you're walking. I am addicted to my walking desk. It's a walking pad. I just bought a walking pad. They're under $130 in most places. These walking pads will just slide under a high top table, or you can be fancy and buy a combo desk and walking pad. But this is very easy to jerry-rig if you have the space. And I am walking three to seven miles a day day without even realizing that I'm walking because it's so slow. So slow. Like, yes, you're moving a little bit, but I'll do conference calls this way. I'll do Zoom calls this way. The only thing I can't really do is record because the background noise is just slightly too much. It sounds like a constant hum, and I think it would be very annoying to you. That walking pad combo with the desk is life altering for me. That's not even what I want to share with you. The thing I want to share with you is that vibration plate that I told you that I got. I sold my little mini trampoline and I bought a vibration plate instead. I did not buy the fancy ones that are fifteen hundred bucks. I did not do that. I bought one off of Amazon. I did a lot of research and I bought this vibration plate. And that thing is magic. And I wish I worked for that company because I have now sold so many of those to my friends and family because they will come over and use it and they don't understand why they feel so good when they get off. And I use it at least twice a day. So 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening. And when I say 10 minutes and you're like, how are you doing this? Like you work, you have several jobs and you're just zapping your face and vibrating all day. No, it is that 10 minutes where you need a break from your phone calls or 10 minutes where you're going to scroll on your phone anyway. So you might as well do it on the vibration plate. Anyway, this thing is not only great for your lymph and they say that it's good for maintaining bone density. There's quite a bit of research behind that. I covered it in the show that I did on vibration therapy. But I'll be honest with you, it just feels really good. I'm sure some of that is the lymph drainage. But as someone who works out, I'm sore every day of my life. And that shaking, that vibration is very, very cathartic for that. And I'm just speaking anecdotally, but the actual research is in that episode. So I wanted to let you know I am doing that, and I am doing that like every single day, and I absolutely love it. Here's something you can do at home, and this sounds so stupid, but when you wake up, you can shake your body. I'm doing it right now. You can like shake your legs. Do this if you're not driving. You can shake your legs and wiggle your arms and wiggle your hips and put your head back and wiggle that. Can you do that right now? Are you in a position to do that without looking like a complete freak? If you're a target listening to me, I want you to do this anyway, okay? And that shaking therapy for 30 seconds is a brilliant way to wake up in the morning. And when you start to feel that afternoon slump and you want the eighth cup of coffee that will then actually just make you tired and you'll have like an espresso nap. that's a great time to do it. And I know it sounds so stupid and I don't like looking a fool, that's not my jam, but this thing and you raise your arms up over your head and you wiggle your wrists and you wiggle your hands and you shake everything and move your arms up and down, that little shaking therapy, again, I'm saying 30 seconds, I'm lying, it's probably 15 seconds, that is a great way to wake up and it's a great way to get things moving and it's a great thing to do between phone calls If you can't get outside and walk for 10 minutes, great, great, great, quick, quick, quick thing to do. You got to do it. Don't knock it till you try it. Finally, one more movement thing. Dr. Vonda Wright talks a lot about pounding and pounding your muscles or pounding your body so that you maintain bone density. And I got to say that the easiest way to do this, well, you could do box jumping, you can do jumping jacks. get a $7 jump rope, get a $7 jump rope, make them stocking stuffers, grab a jump rope. And as long as you don't pee every time you jump, jump roping for 30 seconds is another great little mini thing to do. So I think I really wanna drive home the point today that doing these tiny little mini things throughout your day, especially if you work from home, can really impact your day overall. So I'm doing 10 minutes on the vibration plate if I'm just scrolling my phone or need to read my emails or whatever on my phone. Doing jumping jacks or doing jump rope for 30 seconds in between activities can get everything going again and spike your energy and wake you up and also just be good for you overall, good for your bones, etc. Overall, all these little tiny things you can do throughout a day, they add up. Oh, skincare, I'm coming back to, I'm all over the place. I told you these were not in order, but did I tell you it would be chaos? The skincare stuff, the things that I talked about with Trina, those have definitely stuck for me. So I went out right away and I got bakuchi oil, carrot seed oil, and marula oil. And I made a concoction that is mostly marula oil, then maybe a third bakuchi oil, and then a few drops of carrot seed oil. And I alternate that now with my castor oil, rosehip, and black seed oil combo. So those are two different combos I've talked about on two different shows. And I, you know, I swim and the chlorine is so rough on my skin. And every couple of days I put on heavier skincare with, I told you this, estriol in it, that form that has estrogen in it. And that makes my face peel. That doesn't look good. So in between doing that, I mean like, Twice a day, I am smothering my face in these oils. So right when I get up and before I work out, I'll do it, and then before I go to bed. So we'll see, I'll let you know. I'm expecting a miracle, but I am definitely, definitely doing those. Okay, let's talk about what I'm not doing. Let's talk about one habit that I'm not doing. I'm pretty sure that I'm at the place in my life where I really, I can't even say it, I need to start trying to sort of meditate. I don't even believe the words when I say them. Let me phrase it differently in a way that's meaningful to me. I know that in order to practice what I know to be true, which is the power of checking in with yourself, the power of staying in touch with yourself, the power of knowing your needs, expressing your needs, putting your needs ahead of the needs of everybody else so that you can be functioning as a whole person in this world, I know that I'm at a point in my journey I'm at a point in my journey, I know that I'm at a point in my life where I need or I will start adding 10 minutes of reflection to my day. Is that journaling? Is it sitting quietly? I have not decided, but I commit to starting that on December 1. If that's a habit you want to start on December 1 with me, why don't we do a 21-day challenge? Why don't we do that? Because honestly, sometimes I need those to make a commitment stick. Just honest, just to make it happen. If you heard that, I'm sorry, that was my stomach. it piped up, let me tell you. Okay, starting on December 1 in the year of our Lord, 2024, I am going to do 10 minutes – 10 minutes feels like so much, oh my gosh – I'm going to do 10 minutes of checking in with myself every damn day, every day. Again, it might be journaling. Journaling is, that word, I don't know, I don't love it. It feels too, I don't know, it's not very relatable for me. But you know what it is, is writing to myself. That feels more relatable to me. And I just have like all of these empty notebooks kind of in all of my spaces. And I really like writing questions to myself. and then letting the answer sort of flow through me, if you will. And I have found that to be very useful and powerful when I've done it. So if you want to call that journaling, fine. So I think I will alternate between that and sitting quietly and listening to like a meditation done for me for 10 minutes a day. And I'll start December 1st. And yes, I just decided this on the air. If you want to do it with me, you need to let me know. And any of the spaces. And again, I'll put a little link in the show notes in case that's of interest to you. All right. I know it's so annoying to keep saying in the show notes, but I need you to know that you don't have to remember all of this. I'm going to put it all together for you. Okay. I think that's it. Oh, one more thing. I just spoke at Dr. Vonda Wright's Women's Health Conversation Summit in Orlando in November, and there were so many amazing speakers. Dr. Mary Claire Haver was with us. Chalene Johnson was so funny. She was with us. Quite a few other names. Dr. Kelly Casperson, Dr. Vonda Wright. It was an absolutely incredible lineup. I know that there's a digital version of that available, So you can go to Dr. Vonda Wright's DMs or her website to get the digital version of that. It was so, so good. But it is going to happen again next year in November. And I have to say, I learned so much. So if you were there and I met you, or if you were there and we didn't get a chance to meet one-on-one, I just have to tell you, thank you. You were absolutely amazing. There were over 500 of you, and it was absolutely incredible. And I will also say, welcome. We're glad to have you. But even if you weren't there, I need you to know that there is just something magical about when women with shared vision or values around a subject get together in a room. That energy is like nothing I could ever describe. And that's what that was. And I say that to you because we need to be creating more of these spaces. I am, I already have plans for 2025. I mean, you heard the one I'm doing in New Jersey, May 9th, hope you can come. But I am so inspired and so energized to keep creating spaces where women get together. And I want to encourage you to either do the same, create the same, participate in the same, or come see me, come join me, because you will have several opportunities in 2025. That's it. I hope you got something out of this episode that you can use and I will put everything together in one master list for you. All right. Go have a great day. See ya. Okay, if you enjoyed today's show, please share it with someone you care about. And be sure to check out our new YouTube channel and head to onairella.com for today's show notes. You can also learn about how to work with me there, onairella.com. And I would love to hear from you, so if you DM me on Instagram, I promise I will reply. P.S. All the links you need for us to connect are right here in your podcast app in the description for today's episode. Check them out. Thanks for listening, and thanks for inspiring me. You are, quite simply, awesome.