F*ck, I'm Nearly 50
"F*ck, I’m Nearly 50” is a no-filter dive into the messy, brilliant chaos of midlife. From career pivots to sagging eyelids, I’m here to share the wins, the WTF moments, and everything in between because whoever has the most fun, wins. Fuck, I’m nearly 50… and isn’t it amazing?”
F*ck, I'm Nearly 50
F*ck, Let’s Talk Inflammation! with Amelia Phillips
Episode 8: F*ck, Fighting Inflammation: Movement, Midlife & Inner Vitality with Amelia Phillips 💪🔥
Is it really just ageing, or is chronic inflammation quietly stealing your energy, sleep and sanity? 😴😩
In this episode, I chats with clinical nutritionist and exercise scientist Amelia Phillips, creator of the Inner Vitality programme and co-founder of 12WBT with Michelle Bridges. Amelia unpacks how inflammation is impacting women in midlife, why your workouts might be making you more tired (not stronger), and how to reset your rhythm without burning out. 🧠💥
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Here’s what we get into:
🧠 What inflammation actually is, and how it’s sneaking into your sleep, your mood, and your metabolism
💪 Why strength training is the midlife superpower we all need and how to get started, even if you’ve never lifted a weight
😩 Burnout workouts vs healing movement and how to rethink your weekly routine
🥦 The biggest food culprits behind inflammation (and what to eat instead)
🦠 Gut health, supplements, and one underrated habit to boost vitality
🔥 Midlife Mythbusters: truths, lies and “it’s complicated” takes on fitness, fasting, belly fat and more
❄️ Hot or Hype? Cold plunges, collagen, ACV, Oura Rings and the Insta-wellness fads Amelia actually rates
✨ Her five daily non-negotiables for staying energised and inflammation-free
📚 Amelia’s real-life midlife toolkit, from books to breakfast to what she’s ditched (and why)
😳 Her own “WTF, I did not see that coming” moment of midlife, and how it changed her perspective
🎯 The ‘Try This Before I’m 50’ Challenge, Amelia’s got a beautifully simple one, and it’s a game-changer
SHOW REFERENCES
Want to go deeper with Amelia?
🌐 Inner Vitality: https://v360.health/inner-vitality/
📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AmeliaPhillips
📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_amelia_phillips/
🔗 Website: https://www.ameliaphillips.com.au/
👩💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelia-phillips/
So if you’re feeling flat, foggy or just fed up with wellness that doesn’t work—this episode will remind you that you can feel strong again.
Because f*ck, we’re nearly 50, and isn’t that amazing?
🎧 Listen now, subscribe, and share it with someone who’s ready to reset their body and mind.
🎧 https://fckimnearly50.buzzsprout.com
📺 https://www.youtube.com/@FckImnearly50
📲 https://www.instagram.com/fckimnearlyfifty
#F*ckImNearly50
#MidlifeReinvention
#WomenSupportingWomen
#InflammationAwareness
#GutHealth
#Confidenc
Let me know what you'd love to hear about next.
🔥 Let’s keep the conversation going! 🔥
📺 Watch the episodes on YouTube – Subscribe here!
💬 Join the community – Follow me on Instagram @fckimnearlyfifty and share your thoughts on this episode. Or connect with me on LinkedIn.
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📢 Spread the word – If you loved this episode, share it with a friend (or 10). Because midlife is better when we figure it out together.
Because f*ck, we’re nearly 50—and isn’t that amazing? 🚀
Hi, I'm Dom Hind and F*ck, I'm nearly 50. Actually, I'm 47 and five months, and I have started the countdown. It's weird, isn't it, you hit your mid 40s, and suddenly your body starts behaving like it's got a mind of its own. One minute, you're powering through life, back to back, meetings, workouts, parenting, chaos and the occasional glass of wine, and the next you're crashing at 3pm your guts are unpredictable, your sleep's patchy, and your genes feel personally offended. And the worst part, you're doing all the right things. You're eating the kale, you're moving your body. You're meditating when you remember, you've got a drawer full of magnesium and a fridge, fridge full of good intentions, and still, something feels off, slower, heavier, foggier, inflammed. And here's the kicker. We're told that this is just what 45 plus feels like, that it's hormones or stress or just getting older, but what if that's not the whole story? What if chronic inflammation is quietly hijacking our energy, our mood, our metabolism and even our ability to feel like ourselves? This episode dives straight into that question, and what can we actually do about it. So whether you're flat, foggy, fired up, or just curious, this one's for you. Let's get into it. Because fuck, I'm nearly 50, and isn't it amazing? Amelia Phillips is one of those women who just gets it. She's a clinical nutritionist, exercise scientist and a mum of four, and she's been in the wellness game long enough to spot the difference between a trend and what actually works. You might know her as one of the original pioneers behind the 12 WBT programme, which transformed 1000s of Aussie women's women and how they approach fitness and food. But what she's doing now, it's different. Her inner vitality programme is built for real women in midlife who are tired of feeling burnt out, bloated and wondering why they still feel exhausted despite doing everything right. Today, we're going to dive into what information really is and how it's running the show, why strength training is our midlife superpower, how to rethink our approach to food movement recovery and a few cheeky extras, some midlife Myth Busters, hot or hype, and her real vitality toolkit. So whether you're thriving, surviving or somewhere in between, Amelia is here to help us stop pushing, start resetting and get back to feeling like ourselves again. Be cool.
Amelia Philips:Big promise. Well, my work cut out for me today. Jeepers, done. What are you doing?
Dominique Hind:Well, Amelia, welcome to fuck. I'm nearly 50.
Amelia Philips:I just love the title. You had me at the title.
Dominique Hind:I just couldn't just the play on the apps. It's too Bruno, how would you describe what you do in the least wellness expert way possible. God,
Amelia Philips:such a hard question, because I'm such a wellnessy kind of person, aren't I? But honestly, when, when you really boil it down, I help women understand their bodies better, because I have seen over my 26 years in this industry, that when you understand your unique body, you understand what works, why that works, what doesn't work, why It doesn't work. It unlocks behaviour change. It unlocks clarity. And that's how you can separate the wheat from the chaff. That's how you can scroll through Instagram and go, I'm not Fauci that fad that's not gonna sit well with me, but it really it comes back to understanding our own unique bodies, and that is a journey. Oh, yeah, it's a journey for all of us, but it's one that I feel like as a collective community, us women are taking on in full charge, because we're sick of being gaslit. We're sick of being told by, you know, men who have used research that was 90% on male rodents, and then on male athletes often. And so we've kind of gone, you know, fuck this. We're going to take matters into our own hands. And so what I've really how, how I've kind of honed and created. Crafted my career, and my message is in line with my age as well, because I'm fuck almost 50 Well, 46 so heading there as well. And so it's great that I feel like I've got this unique perspective where I've got the training and the education and the qualifications. I then got this experience working with hundreds and 1000s of women over my career. So actually being on the front line and seeing change happening on a large scale, and then I'm going through it personally as well. So I just feel like I offer a unique perspective, and I have never been more passionate and more hopeful for this next phase of our life. So I want to try to get that message out that this is, this is a this is a comeback, this is a reckoning. It's such a wonderful time for us women,
Dominique Hind:yeah, and it's, it's so interesting in all of the conversations that I've had with everyone, not only on the podcast and in general, with my friends, yes, so much of it is about understanding ourself, yes. And so often we just don't put the time in. We look for everything else, rather than actually looking at ourselves and going, what do I actually want, or what do I actually need?
Amelia Philips:And, well, it's also confusing, because where do you begin? Yeah, like, you know, when Amelia says, I gotta understand my body better. Well, what the hell does that mean? Like, my height, my weight, you know, my skin, you know, where do we begin? And I think that's where the overwhelm comes in, because we haven't been given a blueprint or a roadmap, per se, but that's what I like to do. That's what my business is, that's what in a vitality is. That's why I partnered with an amazing integrative GP so that we can together take our members on this journey with a clear roadmap. But we're not just telling them what to do. We're empowering them to understand their bodies better. We're showing you these are the markers that really matter if you want to set up this beautiful second stage of your life, yeah?
Dominique Hind:And I think that is the thing, like, it's having, like, I just love the idea of having baselines. And I think it's like having a baseline or a starting point, yeah, it's such a good way, yeah, to start the journey, because you've got something to come back to. Is it working? Is not working? Yeah? And I think that, yeah, we just need to be pushing
Amelia Philips:that more, yeah? And start tracking now, before the shit hits the fan,
Dominique Hind:before you fall down the other side.
Amelia Philips:No, you want, I 100%
Dominique Hind:agree with you, yeah. So let's start with the foundation, because it's one word that keeps coming up and keeps coming up and keeps coming up about how women feel when they're flat, they're foggy or just not themselves. It's inflammation.
Amelia Philips:Yeah, it absolutely can be it can be lots of things, but silent, simmering inflammation is is a real issue for women approaching 50 and post menopause, and it's not spoken about enough, and I feel like there's a lot of confusion around it, so it's a fantastic topic to talk about. And so what is it? Okay? What is inflammation? All right? Well, in a nutshell, we all, we all understand acute inflammation. So you walk out in your fabulous heels, and you slip on a crack, and you roll your ankle, and within 10 minutes, your ankle blows up like a balloon. That's acute inflammation. So your body is doing a wonderful thing where it's sending a lot of fluid and blood to an injured site, and then it is repairing it. Or, let's say you get gastro, or you get ill and pathogens have entered your body. Well, then there's a really fast acute inflammatory response, which is all your fighter cells, just, you know, arming up and fighting wonderful. We love acute inflammation. It keeps us alive, yeah. But then we've got chronic inflammation, and that's really one of what I want to focus on today. And so this is this low grade simmering inflammation that happens in some of our bodies when certain triggers are repeatedly given to our body. And so what happens is these inflammatory markers are simmering, they're elevated, not enough that you notice it. So you may have no symptoms initially, but then what might start to happen is you notice little things, like when I have that glass of wine, I'm now getting very sinusy. Within 20 minutes of having the wine at dinner, I can feel my nose is very blocked. Or you might wake up in the morning and go to take you put your rings on or take them off, and you realise that your joints are really puffy. You can feel it in your fingers. Or you might go to the doctor and realise that you've been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimotos. Or you might find that just food intolerances, foods that you used to be able to to. Tolerate. You can't tolerate these are all signs that you have silent, chronic inflammation, but there you can test for it, yes. So this is what I think is so, so important. And so in in a vitality which is our flagship programme, our business is called vitality 360 it's a membership platform where we run a whole bunch of amazing functional health programmes using testing. So in a vitality which is our flagship programme, measures 55 key blood biomarkers, which I call the sleep well at night markers. They give you an overall snapshot of your health. So we measure a bunch of inflammatory markers, and the resounding feedback we've had, and we've had 1000s of women through this now is, oh my goodness, I've got elevated inflammation. I had no idea I did
Dominique Hind:well, even when you just said about the because I don't drink, yeah? But even, like, just the rubbing of the nose on the wine, I just it was too annoying, and I stopped doing it. I know I
Amelia Philips:started happening to me too. Yeah, yeah, I know another reason not to I stopped drinking when I started tracking my sleep, and I saw what it was doing to my sleep, and I decided it
Dominique Hind:wasn't worth it. Yeah, it's hard, but, yeah, interesting. Okay, so, yeah,
Amelia Philips:so there's a couple so, so there are a couple of the kind of signs and symptoms, and then those more starting to get diagnosed with some of those conditions are kind of, I guess, the red flags, but yes, I would like, even if our ladies listening today, just go and ask their doctor for a high sensitivity CRP, which is the kind of gold standard inflammation marker. Now just know one blood test, it doesn't tell you if that's chronic or acute inflammation. So if you're going and having a blood test, we and you're fighting an illness, and you come back with high inflammation, you don't know. So that's why sometimes, number one, don't get the blood test when you've just rolled your ankle, when you've got a big graze up your arm, for example, or you've been ill. And that's why having a few tests kind of over a period of time. You go, Oh, wow. Okay, I've tested it now two or three times this year, and it's always elevated. Yeah. And also, Dr Yasmeen is optimal ranges are a lot tighter than the reference ranges as well. So
Dominique Hind:which is, which is, that's a good point to know, because even with those ranges, I know, because I've had a couple of issues with my liver, not from alcohol, but just from stress related things. And even it's never within the normal range. But normal, who's
Amelia Philips:normal? Yeah, the reference range is essentially 90% of the population, yes, so it's not actually the healthy range that you should be in. So when you get that blood test, and hopefully everyone here is, when they do get any kind of test, they keep a copy. That's where you can start. So a lot of people still don't do that. Make sure the doctor writes patient on the referral, so that you get your own copy. And then the reference ranges you see on there are literally just societal norms. So you sometimes either ask your doctor or if they've got an optimal range, or, you know, Dr Yasmina has, and look some of them, are you they're exactly what the reference ranges are, and that's fine, but, yeah, that's just a little tip. Yeah. Okay, good, yeah.
Dominique Hind:Why does this matter? And understanding information in mid midlife matter more now,
Amelia Philips:yeah, such a great question. I think the best way to answer it is that the four biggest killers of Australians and people in the Western world, the four diseases that kill the most people, all stem from a body that is inflamed. Wow. So in a simplest form, if you can keep your inflammatory markers, and if you can keep your body in a state of low inflammation, you're kind of warding off what Peter Attia and I borrow this. He calls them the four horsemen, the four biggest killers of the Western world, which is cardiovascular disease. So heart attacks, strokes, things you know, obesity related, heart disease, cancer, yes, which a lot of people don't think of, associate with, as being inflammatory. But many cancers, or all cancers, stem from a state of inflammation, metabolic disease, which is the fastest growing of the four horsemen, and that's essentially type two diabetes is the is the big one there, and neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's, dementia, and there's a bit more talk in the media about inflammation relating to those neurodegenerative diseases. So basically, if you want to keep the Four Horsemen at bay, you gotta kind of fall think about following a low inflammatory approach and just keeping an eye on those markets through the years.
Dominique Hind:And what are the signs that some women may be living, living in that low grade or that the inflammation state, obviously, the rubbing of the nose after one are they. Any other
Amelia Philips:if you are carrying extra body fat, yes, particularly around the middle, yes, that type of visceral fat is pro inflammatory, right? So you're probably at a higher risk of of having that simmering. We call it metaflammation, so inflammation caused by metabolic imbalances. So if you're, if you're metabolically not coping very well. So for example, you're, you're carrying extra body fat for whatever reason, insulin resistance, pre diabetes, type two diabetes, you're in a state of what our markers will show if you're in a state of being overfed. I know it's a strange term, but we can see, we can look at someone's markers and say, your body is in a state of being overfed and and it's struggling, and that is actually driving up your inflammatory markers. We need to, we need to make some lifestyle changes to bring that down. So apart from the other symptoms I mentioned earlier that body fat one is, is another one, but just know it's silent. Yes, you can, yeah. I mean, if I'm looking at you, Dom and I'm you are not in my bucket of high risk. Okay, we don't know what, yeah, beneath the surface, that's why I don't like to stab in the dark. No,
Dominique Hind:I think it is. The markers are as the baseline. You've just got to get to understand what they what they all mean, and where you are, yeah, because I think the acute inflammation is always in my body. Oh, really, because I do too much exercise or try or whatever, but it's yeah. It's that underlying yeah inflammation, yeah, that yeah, you know, you just never know, no,
Amelia Philips:and it's just one of those sleep well at night. Why wouldn't you basically,
Dominique Hind:I guess, yeah, okay, I like that. So, is it just food, or is it over training? Is it stress, poor sleep? What's joylessness? What is causing it? I
Amelia Philips:like to put it into four key buckets, yes, which is diet, exercise, stress and environmental toxins, or toxic people.
Dominique Hind:So does that mean we can get rid of all those toxic people?
Amelia Philips:Let's put them all in the same bucket, shall we? I just threw that toxic people in there because it contributes to stress. I'll elaborate on those a little bit. So probably, of all of those for the diet is the biggest lever that you can either, you know, can either drive up inflammation or drive it down. Yeah. Okay, so, and I know we're going to talk lots about strategies, which we can later on, but just knowing that you know, a diet that's very high in pro inflammatory foods is really going to make a difference. And on the flip side, if you're someone that follows a diet that's very high in anti inflammatory foods, that's really going to make a difference, exercise is kind of similar. So under train, under training and over training are both pro inflammatory. So imagine a bell curve. Imagine a chart, and you've got the bell curve kind of shaped like a mountain, yeah. So if you think of, like, the sweet spot for, like, you know, managing inflammation, it's, you know, the worst is no exercise, and then the bell curve rises up. You're in the sweet spot for just healthy exercise. We can talk about what that is, 50 minutes a week. And then the bell curve falls back down again on the over training side. So elite athletes, endurance runners, et cetera, they can sometimes be carrying that low grade, simmering, chronic inflammation, although I would argue that that sort of inflammation is not as dangerous, yes, as some of the others. And that's certainly in my cohort. That's a very, very small percent. I wish I had more people that over training was an issue. Yeah, I'm definitely most of my members are the opposite end of the spectrum. So then we had environmental toxins. I think everyone understands, yep, from, from what we put on our skin, what we ingest, what we inhale, all of those, all of those factors and and then stress. Yes is a big one, chronic stress, and we've run some incredible tests on our members, measuring stress and cortisol through a special test called a car test. And I was blown away by how many of our members were highly stressed. We kind of put it into three buckets of chronic, chronic stress, what we call a blunted car. So basically adrenal fatigue and burnout, dysregulated where it was just all over the shop. So oh my goodness, the stress thing is real. Yes, it's real, and it has a physiological impact, which not many of us, I think, really land with, but it really
Dominique Hind:does. So when I was going through my liver, like, up and down, or just trying to investigate what was actually going on. On, I started to meditate, because I was just like, I need to do something to try and get the stress levels down. And it was interesting how it did have an impact on my liver, just by taking stock. Isn't that a time?
Amelia Philips:Yeah. And then you didn't even, kind of, in the beginning, believe it was gonna I did
Dominique Hind:not also, oh, this is such a crowd like as if it's gonna have an impact, but it did have an impact, and I have fallen back out of the habit of it, and I can feel my stress levels go back up.
Amelia Philips:It's breath work, even. And I'm a failed meditator, although meditators tell me that there's no such thing as a failed meditator, but I'm like, well, then describe me because I don't know what other word to use, but breath. That's why I like breath work. Breath work is, yeah, breath work is a good one, but it's remarkable what an impact that makes. And you touch on a beautiful point that I really want to I want to give all your wonderful listeners so much hope is that inflammation is one of my favourite markers and one of my favourite health metrics to manage, because it's so sensitive and so unlike others, like you know, the scales, for example, or some of these, you know, cholesterol, which can really feel like an effort to change, inflammation, markers will come down before many other markers change. So it's in such our power to make a difference with this one, and that's why we get all these good news stories where members come back, go, Oh my goodness. It's now about out of the red. It's in the green. All I did was, you know, add some blueberries, and I stopped having that fried food on a Friday night. And yeah, so it's, it's really encouraging to see how, how much our body wants to repair itself, yeah, body wants to be well.
Dominique Hind:But I think even in that, that because we're so addicted to instant gratification, yeah, so having the ability to see the changes, yes, quickly, or quicker than what it would take for something else, yeah, it's an amazing thing, yeah,
Amelia Philips:yeah. And then what you what you find people experience is these side effects that only in hindsight they go, Oh, my brain fogs. Yeah, here, that was a symptom. I didn't mention, brain fog, mood inflammation, particularly around that meta formation and inflammation in the brain affects things like mood, brain fog, anxiety, so people then say, oh, and so interesting. Also, I've noticed these improvements. I'm concentrating better. I'm not having those down moods like I used to. So, so interesting.
Dominique Hind:Yeah, that's encouraging. It is. Can we just before we move on the the food and the the foods like, even just the adjustments in what you were talking about with the blueberries, yeah, what, what are your go to like, if you had, like, three go to foods,
Amelia Philips:yeah, that's easy, good, yes, I like that one well, well, before I get to the go to foods. I want to emphasise that what you don't put in your mouth is just as important you put in your yes, because remember, I mentioned all these pro inflammatory foods, so you really need to clear those out. And for some people, they don't even focus on what they're putting in their mouth. Actually, the biggest benefit comes from they're removing so those really high, ultra processed foods, yes, big culprits for inflammation, particularly inflammation through the gut, because what happens, particularly as we age, is our gut lining and our gut integrity already degrades. Think of your gut lining like a think of it like a swimming pool that has mosaic tiles, yes, a swimming pool that has mosaic tiles on it. And over time, the grouting in those mosaic tiles starts to crack, yeah, and so water starts to seep through. Okay? That's kind of like your gut lining. So when you're young, you've got these great mosaic tiles. It doesn't matter if you've got crappy water coming in the swimming pool, you know, crappy food coming through. You've got the mosaic tiles are keeping everything, you know, out, but as we age and those cracks start to develop in our gut lining, and then we're bringing in these strange looking molecules that are ultra processed, you know, highly refined. And those molecules are now allowing and being able to pass through those cracks. And then what happens is these pro inflammatory cytokines, which are sitting on the other side, and they're like the Guardians, and they're sitting there, and suddenly these weird molecules are coming through, and they go, Whoa, pro inflammatory Danger, danger. And they trigger these pro inflammatory cytokines, yeah, so we want to reduce that, yeah, by Yeah, eliminating so hot, so Ultra processed, so simple carbohydrates, yeah, all of those really hot, highly processed, white wheat fried food, cakes, biscuits. It's funny, because when you talk about fried food, a lot of people are like. Oh no, no, that's not me. Like I don't eat Hungry Jacks or Maccas or anything like that. But you think about the, you know, the Asian meal you had, and
Dominique Hind:the area for
Amelia Philips:the saturated fat is very pro inflammatory. So if you're someone, you know, I love full cream, milk, and I love dairy. And I'm definitely telling you, stick, keep having your butter. Don't switch to margarine. But if you're having a lot of those saturated fat foods, particularly deli meats, sausages, ham, salami, prosciutto, they're all pro inflammatory, yeah. So get rid of those. Yeah. And then you're dialling up your anti inflammatory. So three foods, so anything dark purple, red. So berries, beetroot. Beetroot is a massive hero. If you're a big if you're someone that does a lot of exercise, particularly endurance style exercise, you should be trying to have three beetroot three times a week. It's okay. I don't like singling it, yeah, single foods is a nutritionist, but I have to say that it is, it is a real superfood. So those dark these are all foods that are very high polyphenols, yes, okay, so these have what anti inflammatory properties in them. They really bring it down. Dark green leafy veggies as well. Extra Extra virgin cold press, extra virgin olive oil. Okay, is another one as well. I'm sorry you probably were wanting something really cool and innovative and new, but I think
Dominique Hind:the like, even the beetroot, like, that's, yeah, what about as a cheat for the beetroot? What about like a beetroot juice? Yeah, absolutely. I
Amelia Philips:look, I love it when you are blending instead of juicing so that, okay, yeah, yes, the great thing, woollies and Coles now do these. What are they called? Not zip locked, but air tight, pre peeled and cooked sea troops. And I did some research, because I was like, Is this as good as the real thing and a tiny little bit of nitrate gets lost, but it's just as good, really, apart from that, and for me, if I had to peel it, cook it, yeah, roast it or grate it, or do whatever it takes forever. So I now just have those. And I sometimes I'm so uninventive, I literally just eat it all. I just, but no, you're so right. I trust those in my Yes, my kids are very athletic, so it's like a I
Dominique Hind:wouldn't have expected that.
Amelia Philips:I'm always, you know, throwing what I can in their smoothies, trying to, you know, keep them as healthy. That's
Dominique Hind:actually because I think they're called Love baits, like I have seen them as well, yeah, and they are amazing, and they come like in a pre pack four. But that's a great
Amelia Philips:I think, because they are airtight, they must be locking in the nutrients, this small amount of nitric oxide that gets lost in the research. I did quite a big deep dive into it, because I love beetroot so much. So there you go. That's my little high tip that should be in your shopping everywhere. Okay, and just, you know, chop it up in your salad, throw it in a smoothie, have it on the side. Yeah, yep. So they're really the heavy hitters. Dark chocolate, yes, yes, yeah, good nuts as well. Look just always eat a mix of them, walnuts in particular, Selenium. Brazil nuts can Yes. Five of them contain your RDI for selenium, and if you've got some metabolic issues or thyroid issues, a lot of us are quite insufficient in selenium. So I'm always like, have your Brazil
Dominique Hind:nuts? Yeah, I think, yeah. Okay, good. Brazil nuts are a good one. Okay, so let's bust some myths. These are the things that we've been told for years, but, you know, I don't know whether they're actually true. So true, false or complicated. Okay, cardio is the best way to lose midlife belly fat. It's complicated.
Amelia Philips:It's definitely complicated, because physiologically, the exercise that dials up lipolysis, which is fat burning. So the exercise that will have you in a state of fat burning is zone two cardio. Yes, okay. Zone two is meaning 60 to 70% of your max heart rate. It's basically cardio activity where you are able to hold a conversation, but only just okay. So physiologically, it's true, cardio is a great fat burner, particularly if you're glycogen depleted, so if you've got no blood glucose so in your blood so for example, you wake up fasted, and you train fasted cardio. Physiologically, that will get you into a fat burning state fastest, and you'll burn fat, okay? But we all know that that's not the complete story. Yeah, because for fat burning, we need to have one of the one of the biggest metabolic engines that we have on our bodies, our beautiful muscle, our lean muscle, so if you're if you're addicted to car. And you're a string bean, and you've got very low muscle mass, then metabolically, that's actually not that healthy. So that's why, unfortunately, there's no one winning. Or this is what you have to do when it comes to exercise and managing body composition, which is really important as we age. It needs to be there's kind of four key domains of exercise, and we need to do all four. All four domains of exercise have their place. Yeah, do you want me to go through? Yes, I would love to. Okay, all right. Am I doing them? Yeah, let's say hey. Well, yeah, let's find out. So the first two are cardio related. So zone two and VO two, Max, yes. Okay, so zone two, I just explained that your steady state cardio, great for mental health as well. Great for connecting with nature. If you're able to get outside and somewhere through a park or down by the beach. The second one are you doing this? Dom, VO, two, Max. These are short, sharp, hard, maximal outputs of cardio. So these are your sprints. These are your on the assault bike at the gym, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, repeated five times, sprinting to the the last 200 metres of your run. Are you doing any
Dominique Hind:Well, I'm doing spin. And in SPIN we do a lot of like, yep, there are a lot of hardcore like, okay, we're now going for a sprint.
Amelia Philips:Great. Well, then yeah, I it basically is at a point where you need to, you're at a point where you have to stop, oh, your body, literally, I will fall off the bike and look for any of our beginner exercises that are listening to this going, I do not like what this chick saying right now. I'm gonna give you six months leeway. So for my people that are just coming back into fitness, yes, you don't need to do your VO two Max work for six but well, six months time, you have to promise me, yeah, you're gonna start doing it doesn't have to be a lot, like I said, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. It could be burpees. I always call it a fast finish. Yeah, you're just doing that. Yes, you know it should only vo two Max, should only be 10% of your total load. So some people listening might be going, Oh, actually, I'm probably doing too much Bucha. I
Dominique Hind:am. But okay, yeah, based on my Apple Watch afterwards, I'm like, yeah, oh, my heart rate was a bit too high
Amelia Philips:for all that. So it's, yeah, it's, it's important to be doing that gentler zone too, especially if you're someone that is more on that stressed type, which is very hard. You're in probably an A type personality. I just stabbing in the dark here. Dom, I love it takes one to no one. Don't worry, don't worry, lots of our ladies are so that's, you know, giving you permission that actually, that just city state is really, actually, it's setting you up to the thing that's going to have you living to 100 is, is that zone two cardio? Okay, so they're the first two, then the third one is strength, yeah. So lifting heavy shit, yeah. I could talk days about this, and it's a journey. So for those of you listening who have never done strength training, you might you know people, people say is Pilates strength training. And I guess for I'm never black or white about these things, but if you've never done any strength training, I feel like Pilates is a lovely reformer Pilates is a lovely stepping stone. But if you've been doing reformer Pilates as your strength now for a while, you need to step into the weights room. You need to lift. You know, my goal with a lot of my ladies, is to say you need to lift your body weight 10 times in a deadlift. So you think about how much you weigh a deadlift. You know, the bar with the weights, don't go and try it this afternoon. Build up to it. But that's a great goal to have. You need to be able to dead hang between 60 to 120 seconds. So that's just hanging off. Go to the park with your kids, find a find a bar, and just see how time, how long you can dead hang for. There's lots of different moves, but strength is so, so important, and I feel like there's a lot out in in the zeitgeist at the moment about the power of strength training,
Dominique Hind:like it's interesting. So I was doing so much spin and Pilates, and now I have swapped it, so I do strength training three times a week, okay? Pilates three times, two times a week, and spin twice a week. So do
Amelia Philips:you know that's a tick tock trend? What is I was on channel nine two days ago, talking about exactly what you just called the 321, method. Oh, really, yep, three days of strength training, two days of Pilates and one day of cardio, and it's a trending tick tock. Did you start that? No, I
Dominique Hind:doubt I did. I doubt I do. You're doing it without even realising how cool you are, yeah? Except I do two spins, yeah, oh, yeah. Okay. Well, there you go. But Three, two, yeah, but it's, it's hard, because, when you're used to push, like, because I train hard, and I'm used to pushing my body hard, but going back to strength training, and it's really, like, I find it boring. Like, I really find it boring. And the great thing is, is I'm now in a room with six other people, and. We all do it at the same time. Australia, is it in class? It's a class where it is how they finding that much better, better if it was just myself and a trainer or myself doing it myself. It's just, I just find there's no challenge. And yeah, I
Amelia Philips:100% agree with you. And for any of the entrepreneurs listening to this, there is a huge opportunity and a gap in the market for a new strength training. You know, business trend, there is such a missing middle of women in their 40s and 50s who have never grown up in the weights room and and they don't want to do curves, no, because that's and there's an amazing programme for osteoporosis and strength training, very evidence based, is called onero, but that's also for people that have low bone density. Yeah, that doesn't, I'm looking, there's nothing in the middle. There's nothing in the middle. Yeah, look, I think pump class is a great place to start. Okay, right? Yeah, CrossFit, interestingly, and F 45 I would not recommend people go to CrossFit without having being sort of an intermediate. Yeah, you could do cross, yeah, that's why I love CrossFit, because it's got that group based component to
Dominique Hind:it. And there's a bit of a challenge too, because I like compete, like I like competing with that person next to me, and if it's a man, it's even better, because if I can annihilate, yeah,
Amelia Philips:absolutely. And there's a skill involved, because a lot of the moves in strength training, once you start doing Olympic lifting, it's there's a lot of skill and gymnastics involved, which I personally like, I never thought at my age I'd be doing handstand push ups, and here I am going upside down and then having competitions with my kids at home and losing terribly to them, but I think that you're so right. We have to. And this comes back to what I said at the very start, where the onus comes on the woman to find her own. Yeah, and it kind of sucks, yeah, but it's just where we're at. And so do if you find it boring, then you need surviving. Mix it up, try something different. And I think group based, and that's why those personal challenges of, like, can you deadlift your body weight? Yes, 10 times. There's some great period, eyes, programmes, yeah. So that's the third one. Sorry,
Dominique Hind:yes, I love the exercise. One's always been like, I'm fascinated. Yeah, it
Amelia Philips:is, oh, and it makes such a big difference. And the last one is mobility, stability. So this is the, this is all the flexibility work, but also the balance and stability work. So for example, we'll often have some challenges about members standing on one leg, yes, with their eyes closed, yeah, and seeing if you can make it past 30 seconds.
Dominique Hind:Yeah, and what, what is the is, what is there a marker or an indicator?
Amelia Philips:So I've actually got a chart, and don't make me memorise this. I won't be able to tell you. I'll get it wrong. I can send you the link to pop in the show notes. But I was on the TV show, do you want to live forever? And we did all this longevity testing. And so basically, if it shows, if you're, you know, 40 to 50 years old, you're meant to be able to stand on one leg for x seconds. And I'm not going to say because I don't want to get it wrong, but I will put it in a show notes in there. So it's hilarious, because we would then say to our participants, you know, you've got the balance of a 70 year old. And there's nothing like that to set a challenge.
Dominique Hind:Yeah, exactly. And that is it's a challenge. I know, yeah, it sounds ridiculous, but in the shower, when I'm washing my body, I will stand on one leg, yeah, and shut my eyes, yes. And
Amelia Philips:do that, and unlock your knee slightly. So when you're standing on that one leg, just slightly bend that knee, and you'll feel your ankle stabilisers start to really light up. So, yeah, just, that's a great little tip when you're brushing your teeth, yeah, one leg, okay. And the leg that you stand on first is your, usually your much better leg. So I always say you'll stand on that one leg and then go, Oh no, I'm going to switch sides. Always work on the poor leg. Yeah, okay, that is, that's a good one. So they're the four vo two, Max zone two, cardio, strength, flexibility, mobility, all of them are equally important.
Dominique Hind:Yes, and it's just in again, coming back to you and making sure what works for you as a person 100%
Amelia Philips:and if you've only got three days a week, well, you just got to work out how you can slot those in. Or what I like to do is I like to really focus on one for, for, I do use the school term because that's my whole life is in school terms. So for term four last year, was all about strength. I really wanted to be able to deadlift double my body weight, and I wanted to be able to squat my full body weight 10 times. So, so all of term four was a strength, great idea. And then term one, I'm really cardio focused at the moment. I'm trying to because you can track your VO two max on your wearable. If you've got a wearable that's actually reasonably accurate, you can see particularly Apple Watch, and I'm not sure about all the others, but so I want to get, I want to dial up my vo two max by two points so that I'm really focused on. I'm doing everything, but that's the one thing I'm focused
Dominique Hind:I think it's really interesting with your VO two Max, the only way you can actually track it is when you've gone for a walk, which I think, because I was looking at that with Justin, and we were going, oh, what? My vo two Max, it hasn't gone up, it hasn't gone down. It's just been steady. And then we went for a walk, and I could actually see that it has gone when you do an outdoor walk. Apparently, that's when it resets to see how you
Amelia Philips:is that, right? I did not know that from I thought it was, oh, there you go. I learned something new today. Um,
Dominique Hind:you spoke before 150 minutes, yeah, what? What is
Amelia Philips:look that's just the national recommended guidelines. So 30 minutes, five times a week. You can slice and dice it any way you want, but it's just the national recommended guidelines. Honestly, they can't even justify, I mean, they would like it to be a lot higher. They think it should be a lot higher, but then it's no one would ever achieve it. We're not even achieving it as a nation anyway. But it's it is the national recommended guidelines is 150 minutes a week, and they don't care how you do it. You can do 150 minutes in one go. If you could do 10 minutes three times a day, just do it. Yeah, just and if you're not an exercise of the 10,000 steps is a great one as well. Very hard to do, yeah, but a great one. If you hate the gym and you just, but you still want to be really healthy, just track your track your steps.
Dominique Hind:What about this one? You can't build muscle after 45
Amelia Philips:false, yeah, definitely false. I won't say it's easy, but you can 100% build muscle after 45 I send so many of my ladies on DEXA scans. I like all my ladies to come back with at least 40 kilos of lean, fat, free mass. And I see that number going up all the time. But I do have ladies come to me saying, Oh, I'm scared I'm going to get too muscly. And I'm like, you wish,
Dominique Hind:honey,
Amelia Philips:I wish you know I could make you more muscly. It's there's no doubt if you were to take 47
Dominique Hind:year old Yes,
Amelia Philips:and somehow miraculously, get 25 year old Dom, yes, doing the exact same strength training programme, she's gonna blitz you. Oh, yeah, of course. Well,
Dominique Hind:yeah, how annoying I am. Yeah,
Amelia Philips:competing with your 25 year old self. I wouldn't put it past you, my friend, I would not put it past you. But it is much, much harder as we age to lay down lean muscle, and it's much much easier to lose it. Yes, so it has to be taken seriously. That's why protein intake is so important. That's why we put a lot of our ladies, they need to have a protein supplement in a protein shake, because they're just not able to get it in the in the quantity of their daily calories.
Dominique Hind:It is. It's so much protein that we have to be eating, yeah, like it's, it's a lot like, I start my day, every day, with two hard boiled eggs, just to
Amelia Philips:try and get 20 to 30 grammes in in every meal, and then not get really constipated. Just I've got a little tip for you that works a treat. There's a great fibre, prebiotic so you've got your regular fibre, like psyllium husks. But this is a, it's a brand called designs for health, and it's called paleo fibre, yes, and we, we we recommend this to a lot of our ladies, and you just put it in with your protein if you get constipated, because having protein, yeah, this fibre. So it's fibre, which is great, but it's a prebiotic as well. Whereas psyllium husks, you just go here, just going through you, yeah, this one's actually really going to help with that integrity of your gut lining and and just help fertilise those healthy gut bugs. So, yeah, that's a great one. Even love that fertilise your healthy gut bug. Yeah, it's like fertiliser, prebiotics. You know, he's a fertiliser, exactly.
Dominique Hind:Intermittent fasting is a miracle for women.
Amelia Philips:It's complicated, okay, so I can tell you who should not intermittent fast, yeah, and then we'll talk about who could work for. And I know Dr Stacy Sims, who I love and I follow, and I think she's amazing. She's very anti intermittent fasting, but I get a bit frustrated because she will often caveat what she says very quickly at the start of a conversation with, with the exception of overweight or obese people. So no, you shouldn't fast, and it's blah, blah, blah, or with the exception of overweight or obese people. So let me explain. Okay, you should not intermittent fast, and I'm talking about, you know, longer than 12 hours. Yeah, pretty much anyone can fast for 12 hours, pretty so 8pm till 8am yeah, that's that's just your overnight, prolonged overnight fast, but those much longer, fast, prolonged overnight fast, like up to 1618, hours, etc, if you are have a low body fat, a very healthy body fat composition. I. Yeah, and you tend to be more of that stressed and type A personality type, intermittent fasting often doesn't work in a very what we call an exaggerated cortisol so that higher stress person, those people generally don't respond well to intermittent fasting. Then on the flip side, if you have some metabolic issues, so you might be insulin resistant, or pre diabetic or type two diabetes. This is why it's complicated for some people, intermittent fasting is a game changer, and it works really well. But if you're one of those people that's unable to control your blood sugar levels, if you fast for a long period of time, you are actually at a really high risk of a hypoglycemic episode, which is where you can faint and your body can organs can start to shut down. So although intermittent fasting can be a brilliant weight loss tool, if you know you have insulin resistance or pre diabetes, you need to fast under supervision. Yeah, that's where CGM can be really a continuous glucose monitor, because you can see if you're having a low blood sugar episode. But for everyone else, which is probably 90% of your listeners, there is a place for it, because for the majority of us, we live in what's called an obesogenic environment. We live in an environment that is working so hard to make us overeat, it's working so hard to make us eat more and move less. Yes, that for many of us trying to manage our caloric intake to meet our energy requirements and not overload, it is a really hard thing to do. So having two meals a day with a little snack in the middle. Works so well having a big brunch and a beautiful family dinner at 6pm a big brunch at, you know, 10am family dinner at 6pm and maybe a little snack or protein shake or something like that in the afternoon. And those people are sitting, you know, wherever their calorie needs are, go for it, yeah, don't worry about what Stacey's saying? Yeah,
Dominique Hind:I do. And this comes back to, you know, it's all about you and what works for you and understand your body better. Understand your body better, and understanding what works and what doesn't. Yeah, and it is true. Like even at lunch today, I had the biggest bowl of rice, and I'm like, I don't need all this rice. Like, you could cut it in half, and that would be absolutely fine. And then I was asked, what was wrong? Why didn't you eat it all? Because you are literally feeding me for four
Amelia Philips:feeding me like I'm a lump Jack. And I always say, particularly if you're trying to manage your weight and you're, you know, trying to keep that body composition in check, it's really healthy to feel hungry, yes, below the neck. Yeah, twice a day for 15 minutes, right? Okay, so think about and I often have members say I never feel hungry ever. Yeah? And I'm like, that's a red flag, yeah. So have a little experiment tomorrow morning, when you wake up, don't eat until you feel hungry, but it has to be below the neck, because that is true hunger. That is when your hormone grilling. So what happens is your your tummy comes online, like your digestive engine has to wind up. It's a bit like booting up your computer. And for some people, it takes a lot longer in the morning for their digestion to come online. And if they're trying to eat, when you know, shut down. That's not good, that's
Dominique Hind:not healthy. And he's like, is the noise in your tummy? Is that a good indicator?
Amelia Philips:Absolutely. But you often will feel it before you hear it, although, you know, some people have noisy guts, but feeling hungry below the neck and then sitting with that hunger, this is, if weight management is, yeah, for you feel sitting in that hunger for 15 minutes, because what you're doing then is you're improving your insulin flexibility, so your body is basically saying blood glucose is declining. So we need to now dial up lipolysis. We need to dip into our fat stores and start turning some of that amazing body fat into energy. And that's a real that's that metabolic flexibility. That's really, really important. But if you feel hungry above them, say, in the afternoon, yeah, yeah, you are hungry, you go, hang on. Is this below the neck or above? Oh, it's a craving. It's like a taste in my mouth, a feeling. That's when you have to go, Okay, that's a craving. And we need to, you know, there's lots of strategies to managing through those cravings.
Dominique Hind:I love that in that yeah, low or above, like and if
Amelia Philips:you're worried about energy, of really fun fact is that we have enough body fat on our bodies to fuel us to walk from Sydney to Melbourne. Okay, great.
Dominique Hind:So there's fuel in the tech, honey. There's time you go without. Yes, that craving, you can actually think about something else.
Amelia Philips:Yeah, it's not that you generally and it's funny, because we're exhausted, it's just the worst because we're we're exhausted, we're frustrated, we've got brain fog, we've got all these things that are just causing us to crave the, you know, salty, sugary or fatty foods. But actually, the best thing we can do is not step onto the road. Coaster and not have those, those sugar spiking foods, or those foods that put a lot of pressure on our digestive system. But yes, easier said than
Dominique Hind:done. Yeah, it is easier than but at least if you can identify it, yeah, I think that's a good thing. Yeah,
Amelia Philips:I was telling you off air. One of my hot tips is the collagen hot chocolate. Yes, I got a sweet tooth, and so I use chief collagen. They have a really delicious dark chocolate collagen powder that I just have in the afternoon when I'm craving something sweet and I want to pick me up. I have that with a splash of milk, and it's just delicious in honour all afternoon. And that gets me
Dominique Hind:through the and I liked it. You actually put omega Yes, like Jaffa,
Amelia Philips:yes, I've got my Omega oil, which is, I don't like the taste of it on its own, but it's got a citrusy trying to mask the, you know, fishy taste. But if I tip it in my hot chocolate, it just makes it taste like a Jaffa.
Dominique Hind:Yeah, which I Yeah. How good is it? Yes, that in the afternoon, I know. See, I just have my collagen matcha.
Amelia Philips:Much love matcha, although it has got a bit of caffeine in it. Yeah,
Dominique Hind:that's probably why I like it. But I don't drink coffee, so I usually sleep well, yeah, so I don't have a problem with sleep, then go for it, but I do have magnesium before bed.
Amelia Philips:She's got it all worked out.
Dominique Hind:I don't know about that, but there's always things you can learn with a lot of women are still training, as they did in their 30s, high intensity, full throttle, which is what we spoke about just before, and it's burning them out, yeah, and their joints and their shoulders and their knees, Yeah. How can movement make you feel supported rather than just feeling burnt out. Yeah,
Amelia Philips:such a great question. And again, it's very personalised and individualised, but know that as we transition through Peri and then menopause and then post menopause, our joints change quite dramatically. So in the in the five years post menopause, by the time we get to five years post menopause, we will have lost 30% of our body's collagen. So annoying, isn't it? And you don't do men do the same. Well, they don't go through menopause, yeah. Okay, so it's for us, it's the transition of the hormones. It's the we lose the beautiful protective element of oestrogen, which is very nourishing, and progesterone as well, and so we recognise it in skin, right? Yeah. You know, everyone's very conscious of wrinkles, but what we don't realise is that collagen is connective tissue. So our joints, when they lose that collagen, it really impacts our joints. That's why we hear a lot more tennis elbow and frozen shoulder. Yes. So you've got these ladies that may have had a break from exercise, remember that they could, you know, punch out 50 push ups in their 30s, and then they jump back into the gym and and, you know, they don't warm up. They don't do the extended warm up that our ageing joints need, and that's when those joint base injuries flare up. And then, of course, you lose confidence. And exercise isn't fun, and yeah, and it has that, and it does that exactly. It has that whole knock on effect. So that's why the good news story is that four domains of exercise and having that balanced approach, because it gives you permission to do the gentler exercise, know that that zone two cardio is setting your heart, your cardiovascular system, up for living to 100 Yeah, so it's actually you're you're doing the best thing you possibly can by dialling that back a bit. And if you're doing a lot of hard cardio because you're trying to out train a poor or outrun a poor diet, just know that it's not going to work, and there's going to come a point where you need to address your diet, because that's not what exercise is, is well,
Dominique Hind:and it is, isn't it 70% of what you put in your mouth and 30. Well, you know, yeah, everyone's different, I know, but what you put in, yeah,
Amelia Philips:you just, you won't be able to out train a poor diet. And also the poor diet, you know, we were talking about inflammation in this whole episode has a real inflammatory men to it. So you shouldn't be putting those pro inflammatory foods in your mouth. You should be working to dial them down. Yes, anyway, so yeah, it's, you shouldn't be training to outrun that diet. Yeah.
Dominique Hind:And it's, it's interesting, even just in that mindset of changing from the sweat to the strength is it's a big change. Well, for
Amelia Philips:you, I mean, you're having a bit of an identity crisis around like, it's slower, it's a bit more boring. I'm not coming out beetroot red. I'm having to sit and rest for two minutes while my, you know, muscle glycogen replenishes my creating phosphate in my, you know, it's a different type of training. If you're used to just thrashing it out in cardio. It's a real it's a bit of an identity shift.
Dominique Hind:But it's like coming from that high like. Do get the runners high, or, you know, the the cardio high, and changing it to, yeah, it's not there,
Amelia Philips:yeah. But you know what I found, I get a strength high, like, when you're okay, when you've lived, so when I lift heavy, and I'm, like, really heavy, and there's grunting, and there's, you know, it's not pretty. I'm not one of those. I'm a very I'm a messy cry or ugly crier, and I'm ugly strength trainer. I could never be like a fitness influencer, thank goodness. I think you should be, no, just you'd see all those. There'd be memes about, like the Kim Kardashian memes. So no, but there you do, you'll, I reckon you'll get to a point where it'll click in Yeah, I do see that happen
Dominique Hind:at it? Dom I'm trying. I'm trying. For someone who's never touched a weight, how do you convince them that this is the best gift that they can give their future self?
Amelia Philips:I would start by following an Instagram page called train with Joan. Okay, have you know is what colour hair like? She's a lady in her 70s. Yes, I do that, yeah, yes. But a million followers, yes, she looks like, or she did look like anyone's Granny, gorgeous, lovable, and she discovered exercise in her early 60s. And she's aged backwards. You should see her now. Unbelievable That to me is, I think, start to establish what I like to call some worthy idols. So think about maybe someone in your current decade, maybe someone in the next decade, you know, for a lot of people, could be Jane Fonda. It could be Michelle Obama's arms. You know, it could be, hopefully there's someone in your life, yes, that you look to as inspiration. Because I can tell you one thing, we are all going to be old for a long period of time, which is great news, yeah, rather that than the opposite. But we are an ageing population. And really a couple of really interesting stats on that is that centenarians in Australia are ageing at a rate or growing. So the number of people over 100 years old is growing in Australia at a rate of 6% per year, which is massive. But here's a contradictory stat, the life expectancy in Australia has just gone backwards for the first time in 20 years. Wow. So I can't remember the exact. Is it 84 for women and 81 for men? I can't remember the exact, but the recent report came out about three months ago, and you're like, Well, how do those two marry up? So here's how it marries up. The reason why our ageing, our average lifespan in Australia, has gone backwards is chronic disease. Okay, yes, yep. But if you manage to avoid those four horsemen, which you will, yeah, yeah. And I'm planning on hopefully, and all our beautiful listeners are, if you can avoid those chronic diseases, then you're going to be old for a long period of time. Yes. And therefore this body of ours needs to be able to carry us independently for a long period. And you think about pre frailty and frailty, and you only have to think of a couple of relatives that you know. Think of some people you know in your 80s, and they my mum and dad, are chalk and cheese. Yeah, my mum could sit on the couch you're on right now, which is quite a low couch, and she could just pop up without even touching my dad, I would need to pull him up. He can be he's so immobile, he's so weak.
Dominique Hind:Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? And that's strength, yeah, okay. Party is not going to do that. And I always like, I keep telling myself, with everything. What does your 80 year old body want? Like, I know you need to actually go, yeah, ask your future self like, all the time, which is why I stopped running, because I was like, my I won't be able to walk. And it's also, whenever I look at something that I go, that looks so delicious, I then go, what would my 80 year old self say? And, yeah, it's just a nice way of reframing it. It
Amelia Philips:totally is because we don't want to lose our independence. And we we want health span, not Yeah, we want to be independent. And you know, if you want to be able to go up and down those stairs at 95 you want to be able to carry three kilos in each arm at 95 which is the equivalent of the shopping, you know the around the corner you want to be able to carry three kilos for five minutes each. In your 90s, well, that means in your 80s, you got to be carrying six kilos. So in your 70s, you got to be carrying 12 kilos. So in your 60s, by the time you get to your 50s, can you pick up 220 kilo dumbbells and do a farmer's carry for five minutes? Because that's what you've got to be able to do
Dominique Hind:Yeah, which is Yeah, and that in itself is like, it's a good motivator. Don't you think that's motivated? I absolutely do. Yes. Good one person's motivated, yeah, which is why I'm sticking out the boring wipes I
Amelia Philips:know. Ask your future self, she goes, Oh, we want you to have a party. We want you to have a cocktail and. Relax, put the weights down, shut up, put yourself.
Dominique Hind:Food is one of the most confusing wellness topics out there, and when it comes to information, everyone's got their own opinion. We did talk about the three things to bring in, but what we did talk about the fried foods. Is there anything else that when it comes to inflammation in the women in their 40s, over the 40s, we should be looking for,
Amelia Philips:I think for inflammation and diet, they are the biggest levers. I feel like we covered it pretty well. There's a couple of, I'm just going to throw some kind of more context around there are supplements you can take as well. There's one called SBM active, which is a good one. Omega threes is a great one as well. These are just kind of to dial it up even more. But what I will say is, instead of thinking about just completely overhauling your diet and going, okay, table flip moment. I've listened to meals and Dom starting tomorrow. I'm only anti inflammatory all the way. And then, you know, you know how the
Dominique Hind:story plays out, right? Yeah,
Amelia Philips:let's, let's approach it a different way, which is, let's pick one part of your day. Yes, you can, because the great thing about us is we're creatures of habit, so we get many attempts at these things, because most of us live pretty, you know, consistent. I'm going to say boring for me, but I know everyone else far more exciting, but I eat relatively similarly each day. So pick one part of your day and your and your eating pattern that you'd really like to focus on. So for me, personally, I've got the world's biggest sweet tooth. And up until two years ago, I was having dessert seven nights a week. Wow. And that dessert was getting and what was it? A guy and bigger and bigger. Okay, so my Monday to Thursday dessert was, you know, those cobs, popcorn? Oh, yes, a whole bag and but that's not enough. I would get chocolate, like some form of whether it was favourites or, you know, if I was being healthier, lean, dark chocolate. I feel like I'm in a confessional. Now, I would put the chocolate at the bottom of the bowl. I call it the bomb. So just when you think you're getting to the bottom of the bottom of the bowl of popcorn, you get the bomb, which is the chocolate anyway. So yes, and I wanted to stop this, yeah. And I tried and failed and tried and failed. I would go down tonight's the night I'm not and Tim, I could just kill my husband. He would sit there with an apple and just be satisfied. And I would look at that. And so I'd sit there, and I'd get myself an apple and be watching my show, going like this, starting to feel really antsy, and then like, like, halfway through the show, I just run to the kitchen and get it all over. So for me, and it was actually my beautiful podcast, and it was a tiny habits method, I interviewed BJ Fogg Phillips, and he I interviewed his sister, who has this method called the tiny habits. And I did it, and it worked, yeah. And one of the things they talk about is like making the goal and the habit change so small, so I just started to do it, yeah, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, yes. And I could not enter the lounge room, so I completely changed my nighttime routine, where, after I put the kids to bed, instead of going down to lounge room watching Netflix, I go straight to my bedroom, and I did a whole self care ritual bath. I bought beautiful aromatherapy, I got the magnesium bath salts, and I always had a good book, and it was hard, like maybe for two or three weeks, but this the replacement of this amazing self care. I was going to better now, why? And just Monday to Wednesday, and then Thursday to Sunday, I went nuts with my dessert. But now here I am, two years later, I don't need dessert at
Dominique Hind:all. Isn't that interesting? And I was even thinking, how you've you focus? Or you said, before focus a term, yeah, for each of your exercise fitness goals, you could also do
Amelia Philips:it with the food as well, 100% which
Dominique Hind:because, if you've got something that you can couple up, yep, and it's only a short term, yeah? Because that's, I think the biggest thing is, we all get stuck on these big, lofty, even year goals, yeah, but they don't stick No.
Amelia Philips:And even the Monday to Friday thing, I think is fantastic. And, well, another great one is sleep. For a lot of people, sleep is something that they really want to improve. And so I say, just be fanatical about it. Yeah, on a Tuesday, Wednesday, that's where you're not going to watch your show. You're going to set an alarm. Yeah, no. Like, I wake up super early, so I have to work backwards if I want to be in bed for eight hours. It's embarrassing at what time I have to actually get in climbing to bed. But it works. So circling back to nutrition, pick one part of your your diet. It could be alcohol. Yes, it could be that after dinner, sweet treat. It could be pick one area. It could just be your breakfast. Like a great tip is to switch to a savoury breakfast. So no more getting on the sugar roller coaster. Our blood sugar is so sensitive first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, that if we have that extremely healthy smoothie that's got all the goodies in it, but it's got a lot of sugar in it, we're going to get on that glucose roller coaster, and we're going to crash down later on. So pick one part of your diet and dial up the anti inflammatory properties and and then just focus on that, the term, yes, I love that for weeks or whatever. Yes, once that, because once it switches from an effort into habitual, then it's effortless. Yes. And that's where you look back and you I cannot believe I used to eat that much dessert. It's, it's effortless for me to not have, deserve now, and my past self, I that was inconceivable,
Dominique Hind:yeah, well, you know, and that's, that's an amazing thing, like just being able to look back and go, I've done it.
Amelia Philips:I've come a long way. A lot of us have, have come a long way. And we don't give ourselves, you know, pat on the back. Think about how you were in your 20s, oh my gosh, you know, on a diet of ciggies and cocktails and, you know, place size was walking home in heels at 5am from the club. Like, Hey, girls, we've come a long way.
Dominique Hind:What's one underrated tip for supporting your gut health that we should consider probiotics, yeah, okay,
Amelia Philips:we need to come back to them. They had a moment. I would, I would say that whenever you go through a gut disturbance, get back on the probiotics.
Dominique Hind:And what is a gut disturbance like a flu, a cold,
Amelia Philips:anything, anything where you get where you have gut dysbiosis. So constipation, diarrhoea, you had a really bad trigger. You maybe went out one night, and then for two days afterwards, you noticed that you were constipated, and then you had diarrhoea. So when you've had something that you know is your gut hasn't liked, maybe you've been sick with the flu or, of course, antibiotics we need to reseed those really healthy gut bugs. And the three most researched, actually, I'll talk about four of them, so you want to have a supplement that includes these. Is lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, yes. And then bacillus. I know that everyone's like we've heard of those, but they're the ones that will that have got the most clinical research. And then the other real superstar coming up the ranks is akkermansia Akron, yes, particularly if you've got metabolic issues. So struggling with weight, it's an insulin sensitizer. The bad news is there's only one really good brand called pendulum, and they're expensive and possibly 100 bucks, sort of, if you're taking them for a month, but if you've got the funds, that would be worth trying. But then the other ones, I like probysport. Yeah, that's a really good or anyone can just DM me on instagram if they want to know but, but even in a Health Plus, yeah, they've got a lot of clinical trials behind them. Don't take probiotics consistently. Yes, you had a disturbance, jumped on them for a few weeks, and then use that food first approach. So while you're having in your and you're re inoculating with those you know, you want to have some food, fermented foods as well, if your tummy can handle it, pouring kefir is a great one. Yeah, the shot glass full in your smoothie. You know, pickled veggies are great. That would probably be,
Dominique Hind:yeah, that's, they're good ones. Okay, okay, trends, so, can you tell me if these ones are hot, high or helpful, but overdone? Cold plunges?
Amelia Philips:I'm not a fan. I've never been a fan. I
Dominique Hind:hate the cold. Me too. I hate it. I
Amelia Philips:just I'm not a fan. And there's more and more research coming out saying it's not ideal for ladies anyway. The other thing I've just found is we're also time poor. Yeah, what are you displacing me? You know, if, are you switching out a workout or shortening your workout, or are you not now shopping? If, if. But it comes to getting to know your body better, if you feel amazing doing it and you've got the time and it's not displacing some other healthy activity, knock yourself out. I swim once a week, just in motion. I smile, yeah, I wouldn't do it, except my friend Zoe makes me do it, and I always blame her, but I always feel fabulous when I come out. So look, if it floats your boat, you feel great. But I'm definitely not telling encouraging people to go out and yeah, I much prefer, prefer a sauna. Yeah, me too. And actually, sauna to sauna, so hot to cold has a lot more evidence and efficacy behind it than just Yeah, particularly good for circulation and for skin health as well. Okay? Good collagen
Dominique Hind:powders. Yeah, love, love.
Amelia Philips:In fact, I interviewed a really great nutrition scientist, Dr Tim Crowe, on my podcast healthy her. And he's very conservative. And, you know, a little bit he's just very conservative. So usually, everything he turns his nose up to he's very he was even very fizzy about collagen. And interestingly, again, we always love food first. But what the research is telling us with collagen is that hydrolyzed collagen, the supplement, actually seems to have better uptake in connective tissue than the food first. And I can explain why. So imagine collagen is is made up of amino acids. Yes. Think of a Lego structure, yes, okay. It's got lots of little pieces of Lego that are stuck together when you eat chicken skin or your bone broth and you digest it, those collagen, the collagen that's in that skin and that bone broth, those Lego structures have to get pulled apart by your digestion. Okay, so all those that structure gets pulled apart, lots of little Lego pieces get digested, you know, get absorbed through the gut, and then in the connective tissue, they have to then build those Lego structures back into collagen. Hydrolyzed collagen is like a Lego structure that's been super glued together. So when it's hydrolyzed, it sticks together, so it goes through digestion, and the digestive process, this is the theory. Doesn't pull the Lego pieces apart, so the collagen peptide stays intact, and it's uptaken by the skin, connected tissue, gut lining a lot more efficiently. Yeah, so it's okay, yeah, so I'm I'm very pro Collagen For Peri meno and post minnow.
Dominique Hind:Okay, amazing, good. I'll keep taking mine there. Yes, gut cleansers.
Amelia Philips:What do you mean by gut cleanse,
Dominique Hind:like, actually, a detox, like, or
Amelia Philips:so, so not a fan of colonics at all. Yes, okay, okay, so and yeah, I know I'm gonna make some enemies by saying that, but,
Dominique Hind:but, you know, this is where everyone's like, yeah,
Amelia Philips:absolutely. But I have just seen too many horror stories. Like, years later, not just I have seen some acute horror stories, but I just that our microbiome and in our digestive tract is so precious, yes, and it isn't. It is not designed to have a flush, a flush, yeah, just but horses for courses, Dr Yasmina, my business partner is who's a functional medicine GPS, and a lot of training in functional medicine is also, you know, cautions against it, but detoxes not a juice cleanse. I'm not, I particularly for over 40s, but a whole food detox, I am a fan of. So this is maybe 14 days really focused on those anti inflammatory foods. I feel like for some people, you know, a short period of time where you're really pulling out any of those pro inflammatory triggers, you're really dialling up all those healthy nutrient dense foods, the fibre, and you're really focusing on putting lots of, you know, key anti inflammatory properties, like turmeric, ginger, a bunch of herbs and spices, go for
Dominique Hind:it. Okay, great. What about apple cider vinegar? Yeah, so
Amelia Philips:in our gut health, as we age and again, I'm talking, you know, Peri meno and post, we have kind of four key drivers of optimal gut health. This is probably a whole podcast, Good talk, so I'm, I'm not going to go into detail, but, you know, you think of gut health as a whole blob, a whole thing, but there's actually four key drivers of gut health, and one of the drivers is what we call digestive function. And digestive function is everything from chewing to saliva production, to digestive enzymes. And as we age, digestive enzymes, like amylase, they degrade in our body. Our ability to produce our own digestive enzymes goes down, yeah, and so it makes it harder to digest food. Those larger chunks go through. We've got those mosaic tiles cracking so now we've got bits of food either putrefying in the gut or being passed through the gut lining, leaky gut syndrome, etc, and now we're having those inflammatory responses. So apple cider vinegar, you know, a little shot glass, or a couple of a tablespoon or 215 minutes before a meal, can be really helpful to help produce to help your digestive enzymes you have a kick along. Taking a digestive enzyme supplement like multi Jess can be a game changer for people. Bioceuticals, multi Jess or pairing your meals with foods containing digestive enzymes. So pineapple, isn't it funny? How poor. Pork is often served with pineapple, and yet, pineapple contains these amazing digestive enzymes. How did we know? Isn't that great? You know what can be hard to digest? Papaya, coconut, because you just have to Google it. There's lots of foods containing digestive enzymes. So yeah, I if you if you feel like your digestive capabilities declining then, but just if you're having it, rinse your mouth out afterwards. Can impact the enamel, same with that lemon water I want to don't want that acidic residue in your mouth.
Dominique Hind:Okay, yeah, as I said that, I just licked my teeth. Just
Amelia Philips:I might take a sip of water,
Dominique Hind:okay, nearly getting to the end. So for some fun, a quick fire round of real life go tos and things that you actually really like to do. What's your favourite breakfast?
Amelia Philips:Smash Davo baby. I'm broke all the way.
Dominique Hind:What about with a poached egg? Or, yeah, no, the
Amelia Philips:poached egg. And my mum always makes me a bag of she toasts Pepita seeds, and she puts them in a container when she comes to visit. So I've always got these amazing toasted Pepita seeds. So I will do, I will do, I'm gluten free. So gluten free, toast, smashed avo with some feta, mix through a little bit of feta, poached egg. Pepitas, or he if Mum hasn't got her delivery, hind arm reminder, then hemp seeds as well. Yeah,
Dominique Hind:what's your best $20 health buy?
Amelia Philips:Oh, that's a great question. Ah. Dr, TEALS, yes. Mineral, magnesium, bath, soap, salt. What's that? Bergamot and Himalayan rock salt. Okay, yeah. And there's lots of beautiful flavours, but I love the bergamot one. Okay, good. Not that the magnesium you absorb from a bath is nowhere near the same as what you absorb. I just love the smell, and it's cheap. Dr, TEALS. I'll buy like, six bags. Okay, all right, good. So so luxurious. And it's only, yeah, I'm sure it's under 20 bucks,
Dominique Hind:um, most underrated form of movement.
Amelia Philips:Oh, well, running is not underrated. Downward Dog. I love a good Downward Dog.
Dominique Hind:Can you actually get your heels to the ground? No, yeah, I can't either. I'm like,
Amelia Philips:you're talking to an ex marathon runner here. Just what I love about a downward dog is you do six or eight. Say sun salutations, where you just do that simple flow, where you know up to the sky, hands on the ground, jump, step back. Do your downward dog. You do six or eight of those doing the deep breaths and flows, you can roll out of bed and do them. You know, set one, you're, it's like, you've got high heels on you. You totally there's, like, what, 1015, centimetres between your heel and the ground, and by the time you get to set eight, you're only May, I'm maybe three or four centimetres off the ground. So I just, and I feel so
Dominique Hind:wonderful. Yeah, okay, I think that's that is actually a great one, one wellness thing you've completely ditched,
Amelia Philips:probably for me, intermittent fasting, because I realised that I was that more a tight, stressed, I don't have a body fat issue, and I was pushing, I was pushing that fast out and then kind of feeling jittery. And the other thing I didn't mention, one of the markers we test is Billy Rubin. And when this is a great one, for those that are questioning whether they should intermittent, fast or not, my Billy Rubin was climbing, and that's Gilbert syndrome. And if you are looking like you've got Gilbert's, it's very benign, but it just is a sign that fasting isn't for you. So test your bilirubin, you'll be able to tell if fasting is for you or not. Yeah, I see so many great benefits with my fat loss, ladies, but it definitely isn't for me. Yep. Okay, great.
Dominique Hind:What makes you feel most like yourself?
Amelia Philips:Shout out to my three besties, Sam, Lou and Zoe, who, with Sam and I, were best friends from preschool, and then the rest of us in year five at school, we'll catch up probably every six to eight weeks for a dinner, and we laugh so hard. And I just that, honestly, there's no drug, no therapy, no nothing that could give me the the halo effect and the feeling of being my authentic self, then those besties, those people in your life that you can just sit in your own skin with Yeah,
Dominique Hind:i Yes, I definitely agree with that. Okay, so Amelia, yeah, real, this has been amazing because it's made me go, okay, yeah, I've got some things to do, but I've loved thinking about focusing on Exercise. Food in terms, because I think busy mums being a term and the holidays in between, it gives you the app gives you that block of time to actually think about what you can change and making it small. Because I think when we focus on making two bigger changes, we just don't do them. Set ourselves up. We do or we do them for a little bit, and then that's it. That's done great. Last question, if I could do one thing before I hit 50, something that will push me, make me a little bit uncomfortable. What do you think I should do? Why
Amelia Philips:does it have to make you uncomfortable and push you? Okay, well, okay, what's something that I should do, I think you should start tracking your markers. Yeah, because, and it might make you uncomfortable, because it might uncover some things that maybe you know don't sit well with you. But if, if you know the premise of your show is, is around getting to 50 and setting yourself up for this wonderful next chapter of life. I think understanding your body better and having those key markers that you can be understanding and tracking is one of the best things you can do to help navigate the menopause period so that you can come out the other side feeling amazing, reclaiming your life and feeling like you're setting up that next chapter in the healthiest way possible, and it just means that you will be less confused, you will have clarity, and you'll know where your blind spots might be or your weaknesses might be, and so you can take a much more targeted approach to your health. Yeah, and relax a little, then you can, you know, you can relax, and you don't have to feel like you've got to be doing all the things out
Dominique Hind:there. And I think that's, it's amazing. So even with, like, my blood test now, yeah, I do put them into chat GDP and say, Can you please explain this to me, as I am don't know anything about my health, so that it is easy to understand, but it is yeah, understanding the markers, yeah. That's when we do, yeah. I think it's that is a great thing, yeah. And
Amelia Philips:not just being told that this is what you should be doing, the understanding the why, the why. I think, you know, functional medicine is a root cause approach. It's not, oh, you have high cholesterol, and therefore you need to go on statin statins. It's like, oh, you have high cholesterol. Let's understand why. Yes, you have high cholesterol. And then let's try to take a root cause approach. And a lot of the time that's all you need. Yeah, there's little tweaks. So yeah, I love that term based and just picking one area, focusing on that, and then before you know it, you'll add more and more. Yeah, you'll be,
Dominique Hind:by the end of the year, fabulous, four extra things that you've embedded into your life, for food, for exercise, and you'll be amazing. Yep, feel great. Okay, that was it. Thank you very much for sharing your energy and your your wisdom, particularly with so much war warmth and just real talk, because you definitely do that, and you've taken something that films feels so overwhelming like information. It's just there's so much talk out there about what it is, what it does, how it can impact you, and you just don't know where to start or what to do. So thank you for explaining us, explaining that, and you've reminded us that midlife isn't the end point, that it is actually the platform to move forward, which I love. I love that, and we need to reconnect with ourself. And I think that's what I've taken out of so much of the conversations I'm having, is it's all about making sure you know, you know you, who you are, what you want, what your body needs, and how it does actually respond. So
Amelia Philips:true. No one's coming to save us. No one is coming to
Dominique Hind:save us. No one's coming around.
Amelia Philips:Influencer, the onus is on us. See it again? Yeah,
Dominique Hind:it is 100% on us. It is worth it. Yes, it is. You know what? It is worth it, is worth it, particularly if you feel like you know you better, yeah, and you know what your body's going to respond to. It's empowering. It is very empowering. So if this episode resonated with you, like it did me, and you want to go and check out Emilio's programme in vitality. Please do so it will all be in the show notes. And it's not about becoming someone new. It's about coming back to yourself, which I think is a big thing 100%
Amelia Philips:Yeah.
Dominique Hind:And if you are sitting in the something's not right, and you need to be doing something different, then it is a perfect thing to go and explore and
Amelia Philips:even following me on Instagram, because I do put a lot on you do tips and tricks on Insta, so yeah, maybe pop my handle in, and I'm pretty active on DM, so I'm always happy to chat over DM. If you're like, what's this?
Dominique Hind:What do I do? Way too kind. Anyway. Um. If you've loved this episode, please subscribe. Send to your friends. Subscribe to Amelia, Instagram and all the things that she's got available. I'll put them in the show notes. You don't have to do everything, but you can start with one thing, and if you loved anything in here, they'll be in the show notes. Try something new that shift your energy, try the term challenge, and look at your food or your exercise, because f*ck, I'm nearly 50, and isn't it amazing?