Getting used to it, Midlife
Getting Used to It, Midlife is a show hosted by two executive life coaches, Beth & Suzee, who are also expert friends and are both getting used to midlife. From empty nesting and aging parents to painful sex, and let’s not forget the extra lubrication, we will sift through all of it, speaking our truth faithfully and vulnerably. Listen as we live through this in ourselves and our relationships in real time and tease through the “how to” of this next phase of life. As coaches, we have the tools, but as women in the middle, we may not have all the answers. Scratch that— we’ll have some damn good ideas, too. Join us, and let’s get used to it together!
Getting used to it, Midlife
Getting Used To It: What We’re Really Eating in Midlife to Stay Strong and Vibrant
Googling “what should I eat in midlife” at 2 AM? Suzee and Beth share their own diet detours, surprises, and laughs while figuring out what keeps them feeling strong, capable, and vibrant.
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Hi and welcome to Getting Used To it where Susie and Beth, two live coaches in the thick of midlife ourselves, where everything's a little weird, occasionally hilarious and a lot unexpected.
Speaker 2:If you're wondering whether you're the only one Googling hobbies for adults, rankling emptiness and dealing with shifting hormones, you are not alone. We're here to navigate this wild chapter of life with you, so let's go, Okay, Susie happy. What day is it that we're recording this Monday?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it's Monday. When you started out with that I was like oh my gosh, is it Thursday or something. But no, it's the beginning of the week.
Speaker 2:We're going to put this out on a Thursday, so everybody can just hold tight. Exactly, we're pre-recording this. It is for you guys, I hope you're having a great that day. Exactly Perfect, yes. So what are we going to talk about today?
Speaker 1:Today we're talking about food, eating, nutrition. Some people love this topic, some people don't like this topic, some people just don't think about it at all.
Speaker 2:You know, a lot of people I encounter do not think about it at all. And yet I have always had an interest in nutrition, just my whole life. I'm not totally sure why, but I have. Yeah, what about you? Mm-hmm, I mean since the teen years Got it.
Speaker 1:I feel like for me it's been since birth, my mom actually wanted to be a nutritionist. She was a nurse and so anytime she fed us she'd be like here, have your calcium here. She would just name whatever it is the scientific name for that. Her English may not be great, but all of her scientific words are on point. And yeah, that's even today. She's like just go ahead and eat that, that's going to be vitamin E. We're like oh okay, so it's just part of our vocabulary.
Speaker 2:Amazing, that's interesting. And what was your vitamin E today? Did you have any? They actually did come in pills.
Speaker 1:They were in capsules today.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, good, all right, yeah, I Good, all right. Yeah, I think, specifically, we talked about longevity as it relates to nutrition and what you put in your body, how you feed your body, et cetera, especially during midlife. Yeah, so our slant is that, of course, because that is the lens we look at everything through. Do you want to get us started?
Speaker 1:Well, yes and no, okay. So where I, when we started talking about this. Like I said, I've always thought about nutrition just because it's been ingrained in my family, but it's interesting. I feel like the I don't know, is it trending that everybody? It's fascinating to me. We were having a conversation about this, beth and I right before recording to me. We were having a conversation about this Beth and I right before recording, but I feel like it's on every Instagram thing, for me at least, and maybe that's because that's where I'm attuned to. But Tik, tok or what I'd like, there's always some diets, some nutrition tips, something always out there, and I feel like now more, more with menopause and midlife and things like that are coming out more with, like you know, stacey Sims and more doctors talking about these things more. So I just want to start out by saying that I'm so happy to see that there's this new trend of just talking about this more and what is better during this time of our life, this phase of our life.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, so from that perspective it's quite a welcome conversation because in some ways there is so, as we've discussed before on other episodes there's so little. I mean I feel like menopause, perimenopause, more so now menopause, postmenopause, that whole triumvirate is not super well researched.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm researched and yeah, so I'm I'm glad to see that you know, especially stacy sims talking about women over 50 and even older, and how to age better as a woman, um, versus a man. Yeah, because it's different from what I'm learning different from what I'm learning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's um, I'm learning. It's like yes and no, you know. So it's no matter what. We're both men and women are going to need more protein as we age. No matter what, we're all going to need the fiber, right Um, and then it really is. Need the fiber, right um, and then it really is. You do need to exercise, you do need a strength train, like no matter what. These are at the top of the list, right the pillars the pillars.
Speaker 2:So healthy aging.
Speaker 1:I think the pillars of healthy aging yeah, and then I think also for both male and women, females, what Male, female? Yeah, those are the two genders, kind of right. So, yeah, I know, right, but truth be told, we all should start, sooner than later as well, of caring about our health and then longevity right, Because it does lead into however we set up our foundation is how we're going to set up our aging years.
Speaker 2:As a 61-year-old. When you say that, I think oh, have I set it up, uh-oh.
Speaker 1:It doesn't mean you can't work on it still.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I feel like I've always, like we said earlier. I mean, nutrition has always been of interest to me, maybe not since birth, but definitely since the teenage years, and even so much more so now, since I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis a few years ago, and I've been following the autoimmune protocol strictly and with great effect um to my health. I feel like I am so much healthier than I ever have been in my life and I thought I was healthy before. You know, I've basically stripped my diet down and I think this is a good place to go. It's like we can talk about I'm, I'm, I jumped into.
Speaker 1:Here's what I'm doing, without upfronting it, but here's what I'm doing everybody.
Speaker 2:And the autoimmune protocol is an anti-inflammatory diet, essentially fairly strict. Yes, and it's been. I mean it's freeing, it's hard, it was hard, but it's freeing because I'm not in pain, and that's amazing.
Speaker 2:I'm not recommending this to people with rheumatoid arthritis, because you'll have to discuss that with your physicians, but this has been my experience after using it at the suggestion of my physician, and I sort of feel like I know this sounds weird, but people get sick in my household and I'm like what's going on? I'm impenetrable. Nice, my daughter says, like you never get sick, you never have it, which is really not accurate. I have not been sick much in the last two years. I had one COVID bout and that was it Since I've been on this diet, so I don't know. I mean, I've been healing my gut, which you know that's talked about probably fairly extensively out there, and the gut being connected to the immune system, it would make sense that.
Speaker 1:I feel healthier because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's been my approach. What about your personal approach?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad you said it that way, because I think that was one of the ways we wanted to talk about this, right, it's like so what have we learned about ourselves, not just throughout the years, which then ends up right Like have you always known? Quick question have you kind of based on that, have you always known you had rheumatoid arthritis? No, and then kind of okay, it came on later.
Speaker 2:No, I found out two years ago. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so did you have a before, or it came on later and you just didn't know?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I don't know. I had pain and then we explored specifically Got it got it.
Speaker 1:Because it's things like that, as we start to learn and we may have been holding onto some pain or discomfort for a long time and finally, after some time, we're like let me go do something about this, right? So this midlife time of ours is probably about when we start to say more things like that, like wait, let me go look into this hip pain, this other thing, and then we start to learn. Maybe it is about nutrition or exercise, et cetera, et cetera. And that's where Beth, yeah, wanted to feel better. So then she found this diet that suits her and what she needs.
Speaker 1:And then, for me, I just happened to have a surgery that I had a nodule on my thyroid that had to be removed. And then after that, all of a sudden I became allergic to something At the time we had no idea what it was went through all these tests and it ended up, sudden, I became allergic to something At the time we had no idea what it was, went through all these tests and it ended up that I'm allergic to nickel right now. Hopefully it goes away one day, please, dear Lord, but because of that I have to be on a low nickel diet. I bet y'all never heard of a low nickel diet or most of you.
Speaker 2:I've only been learning about it through Susie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so there are a lot of things with nickel. But now is this because of my age? I'm not sure Is this like? I think it's really just because of the surgery and there was a trauma response, right, and then so I had to do something about it. But currently, low nickel diet is how I've had to eat. Low nickel diet is how I've had to eat.
Speaker 1:Um, but right before that, I was eating in a way that I knew what. I knew how many calories I needed in order to basically sustain my day-to-day activities, and I ate within those calories. I ate my macros and protein, carbs and fats and a lot of my carbs. I was just making sure that I was hitting my fiber numbers. So you know, I was telling Beth before this call I like to geek out with this stuff Again. It's just been kind of part of the vocabulary for a long time, but I do. I find this stuff fascinating.
Speaker 1:So, um, and I've tried, like so many different diets just to see not because I want to lose weight. Honestly, Like I was like, what is Atkins? Is that something that like would be, would feel good? What is keto? Is that something, then, would make me feel good? So I tried all the things out just to see if I would feel better doing some of this, whatever, but that's kind of how I've done eating for a long time. But currently it has to be the low nickel and again, I do not believe it's because of my age, it's just because of the surgery. But after that I will go right back to doing my macros, interesting, interesting.
Speaker 2:And when you reviewed not that we're here to talk about that, but, like in the past, when you reviewed those other trending diets did you find anything out how they made you feel?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did not feel good with Atkins. I did like right in the beginning and then totally not, like it wasn't great. Um, I'm sure there was probably something in between. I think I did like the middle Eastern thing and like, uh, not middle Eastern, but is it a Mediterranean diet, which was I feel like it was great. Not, it's honestly not too far off, in a way like to what Koreans eat, which is a lot of seafood and, you know, a lot of the healthy oils and stuff. And then keto. Actually, in the beginning, for a long time it I did feel good. I actually ran a marathon that way, um, eating keto, which I was surprised I had all the energy but like it all worked for me. But the more I did everything um, the more I kept like in between I did just keep going back to like I need all the, I need all the food groups. You know I need some balance of all the food groups and I I feel all the. I need all the food groups, you know.
Speaker 1:I need some balance of all the food groups.
Speaker 2:And I.
Speaker 1:I feel like the last trend this moment. I feel the last trend of really nailing down like what I need has been my most favorite. It's been my most favorite and I feel like that I would stay with forever, because not only then do I stay on top of logging it, but then I'll also go off of logging and then just eat, based on like, how, like. My memory is Like I feel like this is enough protein. I'm not going to worry about it too much, you're recalling my best.
Speaker 2:How you recall it? Yep, and then I'll go back to logging again. Yeah, and how do you know what your body needs?
Speaker 1:Well, there is an EMR calculator that you can use and you could find that online.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're talking specifically like protein, carbs, fats, fiber et cetera. I was thinking actually that you meant, and I'm getting now that that's not what you meant. I was thinking what you meant was from like, what nutrients?
Speaker 1:what nutrients that is my, you know like well.
Speaker 2:I mean like do I need B12?, Do I need B6?
Speaker 1:Oh you, mean like the actual, actual, actual. That's what I thought you were pointing to. Oh interesting. Oh, is that what everybody else thought too? I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Because I thought you know exactly Right. Um, because I thought you know exactly Right. I mean because we know we need protein, we know we need carbs, we know we need fats, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Fiber, yes, um do you do a blood?
Speaker 2:test. Yeah, in terms of like well, how much of this do I need?
Speaker 1:And and is my body really absorbing that? I mean, that is one thing, that how much of it is it absorbing?
Speaker 2:yeah, and that's one thing, that in my um rheumatoid, um arthritis stuff yeah, I wasn't gonna use the word stuff, though I was gonna call it my rheumatoid journey, uh stuff that on my rheumatoid journey, I began to see through blood test data that some foods I wasn't getting essential things like vitamin D. We all know that that's hopefully we all know now how essential it is. Vitamin D the bees I wasn't absorbing it because of how permeable my gut was, or how I felt. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So you didn't mean that I backed you. I didn't mean that I sideways branched.
Speaker 1:But that's such a good point right. So yeah, that's where the going to the doctor.
Speaker 1:If you can and I know it's hard to find one that's going to go look in depth and like and it's hard to afford hard to afford all of that, but even if you can only afford whatever you can afford, just to take a look at it and there, just so you know, because if something is really low or too high they will tell you. So, like, do you know that about yourself? And I think for me that's my biggest learning at this point of 51 years of age in life is do you know what you need personally? There's a lot of trends out there. There's a lot of people saying whatever, it is that what worked for them. But do you know what you need and what works for you?
Speaker 1:Right, and I know I know sometimes going down the rabbit hole of looking for those answers can be expensive, but there are, I think, a lot of free information. You can listen to what people say and try to do some self experiments, right Like, and then logging. I'm always going to go back to data collecting and then just see how those things make you feel what you need you know. Have a conversation with someone that you trust about those topics. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot of information out there. I think age and there are age and there are other factors. I think for myself, what I think like a very high level thing that I think is crucial in terms of my aging and aging well, in terms of strength and capacity, and not aging, say, like other generations have. You know, it's not my goal to be frail, you know. I think like the key component is protein and it's probably one of the hardest ones for me to get in, like I would. It's so much easier for me to just eat a salad or have two salads or, you know, have some broccoli, than it is for me to kind of stuff in so much protein each day.
Speaker 2:I mean I think what everyone, what I'm reading and I picked this out of, like I think it was the Journal of Gerontology a study you know you need, like above the RDA, which is 0.8 grams of protein per one kilogram of body weight. Yeah, that's a lot, that's a one-to-one practically, and I think that is low 0.8.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah, no minimum yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, in the study it says above the RDA.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, the RDA is 0.8.
Speaker 2:Everything I've read is like 1, 1.6. I mean, I literally go for 100 a day because that's otherwise it's hard for me to get it all in, Especially for me. I'm on a limited, I can only eat certain foods, so, yeah, it's harder, you know yeah. Yeah, I think if it was open to me I could have a protein shake, but I can't because I can't have protein powders. You know what I mean like.
Speaker 2:So it's gets tricky, so try to get myself to 100 each, yeah um no kidding, and and I read something today that's really interesting about like is poultry. I mean it really what we need is low fat, uh, protein sources as we age, you know. So it's not, it's not don't have beef, but it's don't have beef for every. Don't have beef every day, right? I read something today in Aging Magazine that was like venison is the new lean red meat, because red meat has so many positives Iron, for example, et cetera but it's the saturated fat in beef that we need to kind of stay away from for our heart health. There's a lot to balance here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, To me, I just you know it it's like eat, not eating the same thing, all the time, having some changes in your diet so you know, cause that is also no matter what, more fun, and then better for you, so you're you know. But but there are some meals that I know have a certain amount of protein or whatever. That's my go-to Part of my low nickel diet and the reason why I was telling Beth today that I'm so sad that raspberries are definitely off the list is because it has so much fiber and it really does help a lot, so I that used to be one of my go-tos so.
Speaker 1:but yes, you know.
Speaker 2:by the way, everybody listening please don't think you need to be on a low nickel diet, just in case that's what you thought. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's just what disclaimer alert. That's just what number one. It's hard. Only do it if you have to do it, cause it's literally all the foods, um, and it's really because I just have this allergy to it, um, but yes, keeping the trends of whatever it is, um, and then having a rotating selection of food, um, knowing your levels of either the macros or your vitamins, you know all those things that need to be that are important. Um, huh, I think, is that it. I'm sure there's more.
Speaker 1:But going back around to, do you know what you need Right? Do you know what works for you? Do you know what you need Right? Do you know what works for you? What are you going to eat to get that much protein? What are you going to do? Like, how, how will you get your vitamin D? Like, beth does it one way, susie does it one way, but what about you? You know, um, and then trying some different things. But staying on the healthier side doesn't mean we have to be perfect. But eat as hell. I always feel like 80, 20 rule. You know like, eat, well, eat because it's part of your self care, because you do care about your life and how you feel, so go, and your body. Maybe you don't want to age. Well, I don't know your body maybe you don't want to age.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know, maybe you don't. I do, I really do. I'm like, okay, let's see, I'm 61. I got to really keep it going and be like this, vital for at least another 25 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what, honestly, it's so funny because for me, when I do see age, like my father-in-law, who passed away, was 86, but I saw him even earlier on just deteriorating and I was like I don't want that. So I know what I don't want. Yeah, yeah, and that's what I'm going for.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right right, yeah, um yeah yeah, my, my father-in-law, who died at 97, ate ate a Danish a day. How funny. But he got fragile and he had some falls, yeah, as well as some other health things, but he did make it to 97. That's fantastic, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I think there are a lot of things like we said that are out there, that you can look into, people you can make on YouTube.
Speaker 1:Resources and things like that. You can resources, resources and things like that, and um, a lot of people are talking about it more like dr peter attia, um, but we said stacy sims, there's, um, there's a doctor named dr jemma newman and I think she's on, like she does more plant based um, nutrition, um, I'm just Dr Marie I think it's Marie, not Mary, but Marie Claire Haver, and she's got the Galveston diet right, and there's plenty of people out there that are talking about just more and more. If it matters to you, go look them up, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go find out, go feel better. Yeah, go feel good, go feel good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, all right, guys Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Bye, see you next time. Thanks for hanging out with us on Getting Used To it.
Speaker 1:If today made you laugh, think or just feel a little less alone, then we've done our job. See you next time, Because if we're getting used to it, you can too.