Get Stronger to Boost Longevity (and Overall Health) Says Fitness and Menopause Expert Amanda Thebe
Show Snapshot:
Fitness and women’s health expert Amanda Thebe offers no BS ideas to feel fitter, stronger, faster, and saner in 2023.
This is not a “New Year, New You” show from the land of diet culture and commodified wellness. Beauties, you are already more than enough. But as longevity increases, (re)commiting to fitness practices and healthy lifestyle choices keeps the trains on the tracks and fuels better health—for the long haul.
Ready to amp up your 2023 fitness? We talk at-home workouts versus the gym, kettlebells, mobility work, and functional fitness, how often to exercise (and for how long), and why time-crunched midlifers can embrace a “fitness snack” approach.
In This Episode We Cover:
The single most effective, no-BS fitness habit to adopt stat!
How to be fit, strong, and healthy in midlife differs from what worked in our twenties and thirties.
The vast benefits of strength training and why it’s accessible to women at every age and fitness level.
What’s sarcopenia? And why women need to build muscular-skeletal strength.
Gyms versus at-home exercise, trainers versus DIY exercises.
Too “busy” to work out? Adopt a fitness “snack” approach.
Practical tips for fitness: accountability partners, how many minutes to work out each week, at-home exercise tools must-haves.
Why showing up consistently is the secret sauce for fitness (and life success).
The surprising fitness skill Amanda acquired in midlife.
How Amanda’s journey with peri- and menopause was like getting “hit with a bus.”
Show Links:
Quotable:
We need to do everything we can do to reduce the risk of things that are eventually going to harm us. And that includes disease and all-cause mortality. Strength training changes our body at cellular level-its been shown to mitigate and reduce the risk of all major diseases.
Transcript:
Katie Fogarty [0:04]:
Welcome to A Certain Age, a show for women who are unafraid to age out loud. We are a few weeks into the new year, so you are probably sick and tired of being bombarded with “New Year, New You” messaging, from the land of diet culture and commodified wellness. Beauties, you are already more than enough. Do not let anyone tell or try to sell you something that says otherwise. But still, the blank slate, fresh start of a new year does often start up an urge to reboot our habits, recommit to healthier choices, and invest in practices that keep the trains on the tracks. We can still be age positive but not want to fall apart.
So, I’m delighted to welcome today’s guest, fitness and women’s health expert, Amanda Thebe. Following Amanda on Instagram will make you want to up your fitness ante or at the very least, learn to swing a kettlebell or hold a plank for even a fraction of her time. I’ve had the pleasure of being on Amanda’s podcast, With All Due Respect, reading her frank, informative, and hilarious book, Menopocalypse, and hanging out with her IRL in New York at Naomi Watt’s, New Pause, menopause symposium. She is a breath of fresh air in the fitness and menopause space, outspoken, honest, totally delightful, totally inspiring. If you want to feel fitter, stronger, faster, saner, stick around, this show is for you. Welcome, Amanda.
Amanda Thebe [1:28]:
My god, you make me sound amazing. Thank you.
Katie [1:30]:
[laughs] Amanda you are amazing! I loved following you on Instagram, we've gotten to connect in person, and I had the pleasure of having you on an Instagram Live to talk about Menopocalypse. You’re somebody that is just incredible in real life as you are on your social media. I’m thrilled to be sitting down with you today. This is a total treat for me today.
Amanda [1:56]:
And me, and me Katie. And I just want to add onto that that we definitely share the same sort of viewpoint and alignment and I really want women to know that there’s so many of us out there that desperately want women to make the most of this time of their lives without being dragged down, with all of the messaging that we’re seeing, especially at this time of year.
Katie [2:19]:
Absolutely. it’s hard to avoid it. I live in America, I think that you’re in Canada now and the western world, probably the whole globe really can make women feel, you know, the messaging does a number on us. We get to midlife, and we start to reject some of those patriarchal beauty standards. We reject all the anti-aging messaging that we’re getting. But the reality is, our bodies are changing. What it takes to be fit and strong and feel healthy at midlife is different from when we were in our twenties and thirties. And we do want, or at least I do– Sometimes I joke that my fitness goals are being able to put my luggage in the overhead compartment on an airplane. We want practical fitness that’s going to make us healthy for the long run. That’s something that you do so well. You offer practical, doable advice. You call out a lot of the BS that surrounds women’s health, and fitness, and wellness. What’s the single most effective no-BS fitness habit that we can adopt in 2023, that you think really makes a material difference in our overall health and wellness during menopause and beyond?
Amanda [3:31]:
You may have actually already answered that question. Your example was being able to lift your suitcase in the overhead baggage. I was on a flight recently, I think I got COVID from the flight, but we won't go there. But anyway, I was on a flight recently and there was a young girl, I would suspect in her twenties, had to ask somebody to help her put her bag up and I just was looking at her thinking, I always want to be the person that can do my own things, I always want to be the person that’s independent. And it’s really interesting that you know, you compared where we are now in our lives to where we were, in the past, in our twenties and thirties. There’s definitely a dynamic shift and it changes from where we maybe were more aesthetically driven to where we’re now more practically driven into, how can I do something that’s going to transfer over into my real life and make my real life easier, make my real life more enjoyable, make my real life last a bit longer?
And so, there’s so many things from a lifestyle perspective that women can use. There’s a big toolbox out there, that’s how I talk about it in my book, just to make it practical. But to me, the top of the list is strength training, or resistance, it’s an interchangeable term. It’s one of those things that I think a lot of women feel it might be too out there or maybe exotic, or maybe too difficult, or only for like, muscle-bound athletes. And I think my job, and what I’m trying to do, is to show women that strength training can be accessible to every woman, at every level, at every age and the benefits are so vast that I don’t know a single person that’s started to take control of their health by adding strength training that’s regretted it. They always feel so much better. And so, that’s my sort of like, in a hierarchy, strength training would be up there as one of the best things.
Katie [5:42]:
So, what are some of the benefits of strength training? You said it really improves overall fitness beyond muscles.
Amanda [5:51]:
I talk about that all the time. I’m like, how can we talk about strength training outside of how it makes you look? Right, because that’s part of it though. When we look at studies and motivations of why women exercise, they do because they want to look a certain way and we can't move away from the aesthetic motivations, and neither should we. What I’m trying to do is shift it to other really good outcomes that really make a difference.
So, for example, one of the things that we know is that as we age, from the age of 30, 35 onwards, we start to really struggle to hold onto our muscle mass. Any muscle we might have, whether we can see it or not, your body’s got muscle on it. And if we don’t do our best to preserve the muscle we have, or even try and build on the muscle we have, it will start to decline. The main reason that things like that happen are from being sedentary and getting older, but it’s also accelerated through menopause. It’s called sarcopenia and it’s a real issue. It doesn’t show up until we’re in our sixties or seventies, when we start falling and we can't get back up, or we fall, and we break bones, and we don’t have the muscular skeletal strength to support our body.
So, strength training as far as helping our longevity goals is a no-brainer. It also helps with building and maintaining our bone strength. So, these are two big things for women. The list goes on, and on, and on but to me they’re some of the main reasons to start. And I think that knowing that this sort of decline potentially happens in our thirties, I’m all over it saying to women, can we pragmatically look at our health and say, we’re going to get older, even if it doesn’t feel tangible, and we need to do everything we can do to reduce the risk of things that are eventually going to harm us. And that includes disease and all-cause mortality. Strength training changes our body at cellular level that’s being shown to mitigate and reduce the risk of all major diseases.
Katie [8:03]:
It’s so incredible. I had a wonderful nutritionist come on the show, Heidi Skolnik, she’s also an exercise physiologist specialist and she talked about exercise as being an investment in your future self, 10 years down the road. So, what you’re doing today is going to impact you, I’m 53, so when I do strength training today, I’m investing in 63-year-old Katie’s ability to carry her groceries. And sometimes we don’t take the long view, we’re really focused on today.
I added strength training about 6 months ago. I work one on one with a trainer once a week and I see you doing things on Instagram like working with kettlebells and doing weight training at home. Where do you land on gyms versus at home exercise, trainers versus DIY? Or does it not matter?
Amanda [8:58]:
I have huge thoughts on that. I just wanted to say though, do you regret starting strength training?
Katie [9:02]:
No! In fact, you know, I feel like I should be doing it more but it’s not cheap and I’m somebody who it’s like, okay fine, I’ve invested, I’ve booked the time, I’m actually doing it. If I had to do it myself, I’ve got to admit, I’m a little bit... I might rather you know, read a book.
Amanda [9:22]:
Yeah, you may not have the motivation or the ability to have that consistency. And so, when it comes to accessibility about fitness, I try and look at this big picture because not everybody is in a place where they can afford to have a trainer. If that’s something that’s accessible to you, I definitely recommend it, even if it’s just for a month or two so that you understand what the expectation is, how to do it safely, get somebody to look at your form and just truly let you realize that it’s not a crazy thing that you need to be doing and a lot of the basic things that are available to us, as far as exercises, work. The basics always work in every situation in my viewpoint.
But you know, COVID was a really good eye opener for women to see that you don’t have to go to the gym to work out. And so, how I like to look at it is this, just look at your life and see what is available to you. If you literally can't afford a gym membership, then there are ways to make working out at home completely doable. If you can invest in a trainer and you want to, I definitely would recommend that too but you’re not going to get a lesser quality workout by working at home, even if you don’t have all of the equipment, because there’s ways to make it work.
Now, the thing is with strength training, and this is a positive, is that when you start and if you’re the ultimate beginner, it might feel that you’re really weak and you’re not making a whole ton of progress but all of a sudden you get strong really quickly and it’s amazing. You’ll find that the 5-pound dumbbells you bought really don’t serve much purpose and you maybe need to buy 15-pound dumbbells. Our progress can be quite quick in the beginning of doing strength training, so that’s one of the limitations of working at home. But there’s ways to move around that too. There are weights out there that are changeable, you buy one set of weights that have got different abilities to have different weight levels on them.
And so, one of the reasons that I think working at home can be a really valid way to do this is because starting somewhere is better than not starting at all and if you can buddy up with someone, one of your mates comes around, or you both log into this YouTube video together and you do it together, or you know, you commit to doing it, having your workout clothes laid down by the side of your bed, you put them on and you do a little workout... all of these things, even if they don’t feel like they’re making a huge difference, like you said, we’re investing in our health for 10, 15 years down the road. Just keep going because even these small 10-minute, 15-minute fitness snacks that you’re doing all compound on one another and really do make a difference.
Katie [12:13]:
They do make a difference Amanda, I completely agree with you. And I love that you shared that strength training, at the beginning, you can really start to see some results quickly because that was my experience.
We are heading into a quick break but when we come back, I want to ask you about some of the equipment that we might want to have in our homes if we’re choosing to work out there. We’ll be back after this quick break.
[Ad Break]
Katie [13:52]:
Amanda, we’re back. I loved two ideas that you shared as we headed into the break. One, to find an accountability partner, a buddy to work out with, maybe a friend. My accountability partner for strength traingin is my trainer, as I shared. But I do think the idea of working out at home as a starting point is so smart for somebody. Let’s not put obstacles in our way and if we’re at home with some of the right equipment, we could get going next week. So, you mentioned dumbbells of different weights, different sizes. What would you recommend for somebody who is new to add on beyond dumbbells? Are there other at home equipment tools that you use consistently?
Amanda [14:34]:
Yeah, I mean I’ve obviously built quite the arsenal over time [Katie laughs] but that’s what tends to happen. I do think though that when you do start strength training, your body itself can be a great place to start because if you’re not actually capable of holding a plank for very long or working on the biomechanics of what your squat position looks like, or working on a push up, all of these bodyweight things can actually because really super helpful. And I still do bodyweight exercises within my workouts that I use with weights. So, know that your body, to start with, can be a great tool and there’s ways to make it work harder as well without equipment.
But then when you start investing, I know that buying weights can be expensive. Christmas was just around the corner so maybe you got some presents there, but I think that you can go onto secondhand websites and stuff, people are always selling–
Katie [15:28]:
There’s no shortage of people getting rid of exercise equipment. By February you can probably buy anything you want on the market. We have Facebook Marketplace in my town where a lot of people... I see Pelotons on it, I see weights, I see other things that people maybe outgrow or move away from.
Amanda [15:46]:
That’s exactly what I was going to say. The Peloton, they’re everywhere now. But when it comes to actual resistance training, the idea is that you’re trying to create a stimulus where the muscles in our body are overloaded, and you only really can create overload by progressively adding more weight to it with movement. But it doesn’t have to be anything crazy. So, I definitely recommend to start out, that women buy two sets of dumbbells, or you can buy, like I said, the ones that are racked already, they’re like a combination. Maybe something in the, like 5–10-pound range for one set of dumbbells and then another set between 15 and 25. Because you’ll find that when you’ve got 5-pound dumbbells, that’s not enough of a stimulus and it doesn’t feel hard enough when you’re doing your squats, for example. Your upper body tends to be a lot weaker than your lower body and so it’s just handy to have those around.
And then maybe you might progress to buying a moderate weight dumb and kettlebell, something like a 20-pound kettlebell. The kettlebells are so much fun to work with and again, you can do so much with them. And so, you don’t need to have a whole ton of stuff in there. I think an investment of two sets of dumbbells could last you maybe 6 months without even having to consider buying others because there are so many variable ways of doing this, and then the good thing about this is.
And then the good thing about this, and I really am happy you asked me about the at home workouts, is because when we look at how people are successful with strength training, the thing is, the showing up and the commitment and the consistency. The main driver of motivation is curiosity. Now, I don’t jump out of bed in the morning and go, "Woohoo, today I’m going to go and do a massive strength training!” [Katie laughs] I’m not that person. I show up most days because it’s a rhythm I’m into, I understand the benefits.
Katie [17:43]:
So, what’s a rhythm? You say consistency; consistency is key with everything, that’s how we drive results. What is a consistent weight training regimen look like and how do you do that in your own life?
Amanda [17:57]:
Yeah, like how does showing up look? So, for me, I try to do three full body strength training workouts a week and the workouts are no longer than 40 minutes but included in that is some mobility work and some cool down stretching, so about half an hour of decent strength training. Sometimes it might be four times, it depends, but the fourth time tends to be maybe a 10- or 15-minute quick kettlebell workout, something just to stoke the fire. I move every day and that’s really important to me and I think most women underestimate the power of just actual activity and moving, you know, walking, running up and down the stairs a lot in the house. The daily movement to go alongside the strength training, to me, is key.
For most people starting, two or three times a week is more than enough. The national recommendations in the UK are 150 minutes of exercise, moderate, that can be anything. But with two resistance training sessions a week. So, if you can commit to that...
Katie [18:59]:
Yeah, that totally feels doable. I love this notion too that your simple daily activity can count toward movement. We’re up and down the stairs, maybe you’re going to the laundry room, maybe you’re walking with a friend as a way of socializing, getting outside. That’s so key. What are the mobility exercises that... You shared that that’s something you prioritize now as well. What does that look like?
Amanda [19:25]:
So, exercise science is an evolving science and when I started getting my personal training certification it was nearly 30 years ago and we were always taught, you’ve got to prep your body for exercise and to do that you need to some stretching and then you need to do your workout and then stretch afterwards. But we know that static stretching before exercise is really not the best way to prep our body. In fact, the mobility work is really to sort of oil those joints and you’re not going to oil your joints by being still in a stretch. And your muscles tend to be pretty inflexible when you start working out; you want to get some blood flow there; you need to get movement there.
So, for example, if I was going to do a lifting session, now bear in mind I’ve been doing this a long time and I go to the gym and I like to work with barbells and stuff. So, if I’m going to do a big squat session with a heavy barbell, I’m going to do bodyweight squats to start with, I’m going to move up and down in a squat, I might hang out in the bottom of the squat and wiggle around a little bit. It doesn’t have to be exotic like I’ve said, things can be very practical. Using the exercise movement that you’re about to perform in your workout is probably the best way to do it. So, if you’ve got a strength training session coming up and you know, potentially, what’s going to be within that session, say you’re going to be doing some overhead lifting, you need to do some shoulder mobility just to get your shoulders ready; just shoulder circles, lifting up and stretching out through the shoulder joint but with movement. And so, it just gets you a little bit warm and ready for the exercise and to me, it’s the most practical way of doing it.
And you know, we’re like glow sticks, I don’t know about you, Katie but in the morning, it’s like, click-click-click-click-click. [Katie laughs] Everything cracks, but nothing glows. That’s what I feel like every morning.
Katie [21:13]:
Oh my gosh, that’s hysterical; your midlife body is a glow stick. I know exactly what you’re talking about. You need to crack them open to get them glowy and gorgeous. I love this notion of oiling your joints.
Amanda, I want to actually switch gears for a minute and ask you about something. Because I’ve been following you for so long and we’re friends and I’m just excited about seeing what you’re up to on social media, I know that you have taken something on in midlife that you didn’t have, that sort of eluded you when you were younger. You learned to swim in midlife. I love this notion of taking on a beginner’s mind with exercise. I would love if you could share a little bit with our listeners about what that looked like for you and why you decided to tackle this.
Amanda [22:00]:
It’s actually one of my proudest lifetime achievements. I’m so proud of myself and I don’t mind boasting about it because it was something that eluded me. I’m obviously an athletic person, I also married someone that’s an elite swimmer, and I don’t just mean he’s good, like, he’s an elite, national level swimmer, his sister holds record for Scotland, we have a Scotland connection Katie and I, so I come from a swimming connection. My husband’s tried to teach me to swim for 20 years, I’ve took swimming lessons. I mean, I’m not going to drown, but I just could do one length or one lap and then I’d be knackered like, "I can't do this!” And then during COVID, I got COVID when it was first popular.
Katie [22:49]:
[laughs] You’re an OG COVID... You had it at the beginning.
Amanda [22:54]:
I am the OG COVID long hauler. And the thing is, I don’t know why but I got COVID, and it took months and months to get well, like 4 months, and it was a horrible time. I was super depressed during it because I couldn’t get off the sofa, I couldn’t walk up the stairs. I just was knackered, and it just wasn’t me. It was ripping me of my personality. And while at the time, I was living in Texas, and the weather was beautiful, and we were part of this fitness club that had an outdoor pool. I’d go and I’d have, every day, the pool to myself, it was amazing. So, I would just do breaststroke up and down and it just felt so nice because I’d been so sick. And then I thought to myself, you know what? I’m going to fucking learn to swim– Sorry, I don’t know if I’m allowed to swear.
Katie [23:36]:
[laughs] You can say whatever you want, Amanda.
Amanda [23:39]:
Yeah, I mean, try to hold me back. Anyway, so I thought, I’m going to do this and so I just started watching like, YouTube videos and Tim Ferriss did a book, The 4-Hour Body, and I actually don’t like to book, to me, it’s full of naff pseudoscience. But there was a swimming chapter in it, and he taught himself to swim a mile because he set himself this goal and I thought, “You know what, I should be able to do this, what’s my limiting factor?” So, he used a valid swimming method and it’s called total immersion. And I’m really cheap, right, so I didn’t want to buy the program, so I just looked at all of these YouTube videos, I watched them for about a day, and I came away with four things that I needed to work on.
So, over a period of ten weeks, every time I went to the pool, which was about three times a week, I just worked on these four components. One was floating. One was learning to relax. One was the breathing, it was just different elements of the swimming. I practiced them over and over again and then one day, I would do one length and then a week or two later I would do two back-to-back, and I just started slowly progressing. But I went into it with a mindset that, I know that as we get older, it’s so important to keep our brain stimulated, that we need to learn new things because it’s part of– the growth mindset can only happen if we challenge ourselves. And then the second part of it was like, I just needed to crack it because it frustrated me that I couldn’t do it and it was just this secret project I wanted to do but it’s a life skill as well.
So, anyway, long story short, I went swimming with my husband and it helped with my COVID recovery with all of this swimming and the breathing together, it made me feel better. And I went swimming with my husband about a month later, and he was like, "What are you going to do today?” And I went, “I don’t know, I’ll just flop up and down next to you,” and he was going to swim 5k of whatever. And I was next to him, and I swam a mile next to him and he stopped me and went, "What happened? When did you learn to do this?” [Katie laughs] And it was just the coolest thing because I’d never shared it with him.
Now, I’m back in Canada, it was only two years ago I did this, and I’m open water swimming in Lake Ontario in a wetsuit and I’m just trying to challenge these, overcoming things because I realized just how much of an achievement it felt like. I just encourage all people as they get older to find something new that you think is achievable like go for a little bit of a win and just keep doing stuff like that because it really does reap so many rewards when you can do stuff like that.
Katie [26:20]:
Amanda, I love this story so much. First of all, I love that you shared that you’re proud of yourself, and you should be. It’s hard to confront fears. Sometimes, it’s hard to put ourselves in vulnerable positions. You’re so good in so many areas of fitness, but this was, you had to work on it. I also love that you shared practice over, and over, and over again to get to where you are. That’s the magic recipe for life the people who succeed, the people who write the book, the people who are building companies. It’s because they do it over and over and over again. You have to just show up consistently to effect change. So, thank you for sharing this story. I wanted you to share it because I feel like anyone who is listening here... Sometimes you look at other people, and you think, “That’s easy for you.” It’s easy for you to be fit, or to try this, or to write a book. And the reality is, it’s not easy.
Amanda [27:15]:
That’s it. Yeah, that’s it, Katie. It wasn’t easy and I had plenty of days where I went and it was crap, I hated it, I felt disappointed in myself. And that’s normal. And I had to keep reminding myself that it’s never linear. It’s definitely a roller coaster type of progress and showing up, even when it’s crappy is still part of the process as well.
Katie [27:37]:
I so, so love this. All right, I want to switch gears because we want to talk about menopause, which is such a big topic, we’re not going to get to cover all of it. We connected when you came on my Instagram Live to talk about Menopocalypse and I would love if you could give an overview of why you wrote that book and your experience with menopause and how you took on menopause education advocacy as something that’s so personal and important to you professionally.
Amanda [28:07]:
How did I come to a place where I’ve made a job for myself, because I’m in a place now that I never expected to be, Katie, maybe you are too. It’s so interesting. I mean, I’ve been in exercise and nutrition for now, three decades, and have so many qualifications to the point where if you were pregnant, I could help you through your pregnancy and post-partum, I can help elderly people, I’ve worked with professional athletes, I’ve worked with NBA teams, I’ve got a vast amount of knowledge about human physiology. And then 42-years-old I get hit with a bloody bus at me [Katie laughs] and I couldn’t work out what was going on and...
Katie [28:48]:
The menopause bus.
Amanda [28:50]:
The menopause bus literally felt like it ran me over. But it was awful because, like many women, my story is one of many, and this is the thing that drove me is that I spent two years in a very good healthcare system here in Canada where people definitely wanted to help me with the symptoms I was experiencing, but couldn’t work out what was going on. They were like, "Yeah, you clearly don’t look very well and feel very well, we acknowledge that,” so there was no gaslighting, “But yet, we don’t know what it is.” And then I went to see my gynecologist, probably missed a couple of years of having an annual checkup, and he was like, "Yeah sure, this is perimenopause.” And I’m like, “The what? The what, what, what?” This is like 10 years ago now, and at least this word is out there now.
So, then I just was furious, and I actually went to meet my husband afterward, and I was kicking things as I was walking down the street going, fuck, fuck, fuck. I’ve had two years of feeling terrible, nobody could help me, and somebody knew all along, that this is going to happen to every woman, and yet, what, we don’t talk about it? This is crap.
And so, that was a stimulus for me to go down the menopause rabbit hole, and it was a bit slippery down there, but I came out the other side with a voice that tried to represent women and what they were going through, and I wrote the book, and I built a community, and now, it’s just evolved, and I’m just seeing where it’s taking me. But I do lots of presentation, advocacy work, education in companies because they’re now wanting to create this culture of support in their workplace and the medical community. So, I’m so happy that there’s all of these women in this space that are talking about it, but most of the women who were doing the talking, came from a place like me where it was just like, a dire situation that didn’t need to happen.
Katie [30:44]:
I know. What I’ve learned from starting this podcast about my own body astonishes me. I was going to a gynecologist every year, and no one put this on my radar.
Amanda, I know you published Menopocalypse in 2020. Here it’s 2023. You said at one point menopause was shrouded in secrecy. You shared that you’re walking down that street kicking things because you couldn’t believe people knew this existed, but no one had bothered to help educate you. Have you seen a change in the conversation in the three years since you’ve written the book? What has changed, and what still needs to change?
Amanda [31:24]:
Yeah! We have menopause conferences now. That’s how we’ve met in real life. But I think that the work that’s being done is making a difference, but it’s coming from the ground up. It’s not coming from the top down, as is most change. You know, there’s resistance at the top for changing our curriculums in schools, so at least there’s a paragraph about it within our biology classes. There needs to be change from the medical community, where it’s compulsory training for all GPs and all OB/GYNs instead of it being something like 8% of them who take that training. There needs to be workplace representation. There are so many needs to change from the top down.
But from the bottom up, it’s making a huge difference. And you know, it’s now a commonplace word, we’re talking about menopause with our peers, with our children, with our partners, so I see that the change is happening. But I also see that it’s a place for opportunity, Katie, and you know that’s something that riles me because I think that what we need to do is be authentically in this together and show women that things are going to happen, things are going to change, the change is unavoidable, but we can work with our body instead of fighting against it. There are treatment options out there that you can utilize and that you’re still capable, there are still things to look forward to, et cetera, et cetera. But instead, where that’s us, you and I Katie, and this middle ground being the most reasonable, responsible advocates for women but then on the periphery we’ve got, “Take this supplement, do this diet, and buy this cream.” So, the women are going for those options because they’re saying, "Well, I feel really crap right now, so I’m going to try and do this magic pill rather than listen to reason.” Because they’re in a pale of vulnerability and they’re being exploited and that’s what riles me about this industry because now it’s worth multibillion of dollars, right.
Katie [33:24]:
Of course. Yeah, there are a lot of products, businesses, and services that have sprung up around this. And you know, I agree with you. To me, my number one piece of advice for women in perimenopause or struggling with the symptoms of menopause because there are real, true changes that happen to your body, there are emotional changes that happen as you’re on this hormonal roller coaster, my number one piece of advice is to find yourself a medical support team. Work with a doctor who gets it, work with a doctor who has got menopause training, work with somebody who is not going to ignore your symptoms. You can go onto you know advocacy groups like LetsTalkMenopause.org which has a lot of great educational tools; you can go onto NAMS, the North American Menopause Society. You can find specialists who have been trained in menopause.
What would be your number one piece of advice for women in peri and menopause to do, to help manage symptoms?
Amanda [34:25]:
Yeah, so you know what, my number one advice is the boring answer, and it’s literally knowledge and education. And I think that you can't start from a place of advocacy for yourself. You can't create that autonomy for informed choice about what you want to do with your body unless you know what you’re talking about. What happens is, you’ll speak to Sharon down the street, and she’ll say, "Oh yeah, menopause, I did keto, and all my symptoms went.” Oh, I’ll do that then. Instead, I’m like, no, let’s get every woman educated. For me, it would be so great if you went to your doctor at 35, and they said, “By the way, in your early forties, maybe late thirties, you may go through perimenopause, here's some basic information.” So, I want all women to have that information, which is why I wrote my book.
But the North American Menopause Society has information. Let’s Talk Menopause, like you said, is so great. There’s Donna who does that. There are a ton of people out there giving really solid advice. I would say, be educated and then consider menopause to be what it is which is a life phase that all women will go through. Now, I am not dismissing the women who go through menopause in a more abrupt, forced manner, like post-cancer surgery or early menopause, because typically those women have a much worse experience and need to be under medical advisory for that, for preventative stuff. There’s a difference, and I think that needs to be looked at differently.
But for women who go through this in a natural life phase, I think there’s a couple of things we need to do is with the education is then look at your body as this 360, full person and not just, “I need hormones.” Because yeah, you might need hormones, but that’s just one part of the conversation. You need to be looking at your sleep quality and your sleep, you need to be moving a lot, even if that’s just going out for a walk every day, your body actively wants it and you need to be nourishing your body and fueling your body, and not starving it within an inch of your life. You’re not 20, you don’t need to be eating a salad for every meal and you know, over-exercising; your body is going to hate you when you do that. So, I think that with the education, then go through this change without resistance and start respecting your body and respecting the fact that it will change, and you can really work well with that and it’s the much better outcome for you.
Katie [36:52]:
Yeah, that’s such great advice. There are so many wonderful solutions.
We are going to be heading into our speed round in a few minutes since our time is over, but I love everything that you shared about how it’s... Women in midlife are not just menopause. It’s 360. You have to look at all the different components that weave together to produce health and wellness. LetsTalkMenopause.org, which Amanda and I both talked about, has a symptoms checklist on its website that you can download, and you can track what’s going on with you and then bring it to your GP or bring it to your doctor when you go in and say, “I’m experiencing these symptoms,” and get the help that you need to navigate those. Because there is help out there. You can work with doctors around treating all these different symptoms, and I think that my number one piece of advice is, find yourself a doctor who gets it.
Amanda, I could talk to you all day long, you’re going to have to come back and do this again because this has been so informative and so fun. I’m so happy we’re starting 2023 and spending time with you. We are moving into our speed round, which is a high-energy way to end the show, and I know that you’re going to be so awesome at this because when we were at that Naomi Watts event, I want everyone to picture this with their mind, Amanda was on stage leading a room of like, two or three hundred women through... What were we even doing? I can't even remember... it was like, you came out exercising...
Amanda [38:19]:
I grapevined onto the stage.
Katie [38:21]:
Yes! Grapevine, thank you, that was the word! I’m like. There’s some 1980s step aerobics word that’s escaping my mind right now. But it was grapevining. Literally, in my mind’s eye, I was wearing those rolled-up big thick socks and white sneakers, but it was so fun.
So, let’s do this thing. Let’s head into our speed round to close. So, these is just one-to-two-word answers so let’s do it. Okay. Your go-to exercise that you can't do without: _____.
Amanda [38:52]:
Pushups.
Katie [38:52]:
Pushups. Okay, nice. A new exercise or home gym piece of equipment you’ve added to your own mix recently: _____.
Amanda [39:00]:
Sandbag.
Katie [39:01]:
Sandbag, that sounds scary. All women need to add this simple fitness choice to their repertoire, stat: _____.
Amanda [39:11]:
Strength training, duh.
Katie [39:13]:
I love it, okay. Fitness takes fuel. What nutrition choice helps power muscle building for you?
Amanda [39:21]:
Protein. So, just try and eat more protein.
Katie [39:24]:
Okay, perfect. You call out what you call, “Wellness wankery.” We love this word. What’s one thing you’ve seen lately that is total BS?
Amanda [39:34]:
Detoxing your estrogen.
Katie [39:37]:
Okay, that’s like... [laughs]
Amanda [39:39]:
Don’t even go there. [both laugh]
Katie [39:40]:
Trusted menopause thought leader we should all have on our radar: _____.
Amanda [39:47]:
Jen Gunter!
Katie [39:48]:
Yes, she’s fabulous, and I need to figure out how to get her on this show. You’ve had an incredible 2022. What’s one thing you want to do, try, or take on in 2023?
Amanda [40:00]:
I had an Achilles injury this year, so I want to get back to running. Simple.
Katie [40:04]:
Nice. Okay, I hope that works. Finally, your one-word answer to complete this sentence: As I age, I feel _____.
Amanda [40:12]:
Resilient.
Katie [40:13]:
Oooh, I love it. All right, resiliency in 2023, let’s all take that on. Thank you so much, Amanda. Before we say goodbye, how can our listeners find you, and learn more about your fitness work, your book, your podcast, all the good stuff?
Amanda [40:27]:
Well, the gateway to all things Amanda is just my website, it’s AmandaThebe.com. I actually have a full resources page for menopause as well, so that’s sometimes handy.
Katie [40:36]:
Fabulous, I’m going to put those all in the show notes.
This wraps A Certain Age, a show for women who are aging without apology. Thank you for tuning in, spending time, and being a friend of the show. If you learned something new, nodded along, took mental notes, or feel smarter, energized, or more inspired after tuning in, I would so appreciate a review or rating over on Apple podcasts. Reviews truly matter. They help other women find the show and help the show grow.
Special thanks to Michael Mancini, who composed and produced our theme music. See you next time, and until then: age boldly, beauties.