Twelve Days of Christmas - Health and Four Calling Birds

In this episode, host Terri Kellums discusses the importance of health and the top three health goals for 2024: mental, physical, and financial health. She shares her personal health challenges and highlights the need to focus on these areas. Terri explores statistics on financial health, life expectancy, and common health issues. She delves into weight loss and the various diets people follow. The conversation then shifts to exercise and the importance of building muscle mass. Terri shares her experience with intermittent fasting and emphasizes the need to measure progress beyond just the scale. She provides tips for improving health, including reducing stress, finding joy, and being kind. The episode concludes with a discussion of financial responsibility, giving back, and finding passion and purpose in life.

Takeaways

• The top three health goals for 2024 are mental health, physical health, and financial health.
• Weight loss is a popular topic, but focusing on overall health and strength is important rather than just being thin.
• Exercise, particularly building muscle mass, is crucial for longevity.
• Intermittent fasting can be effective for weight loss and overall health improvement.
• Reducing stress, finding joy, and being kind are essential for a healthy lifestyle.
• Financial responsibility and sustainability are important aspects of overall health.
• Giving back and finding passion and purpose contribute to a fulfilling and healthy life.

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Personal Health Challenges

01:26
Financial Health

03:21
Life Expectancy and Health Statistics

03:51
Weight Loss and Diets

07:08
Exercise and Physical Health

08:59
Intermittent Fasting and Measuring Progress

09:27
Tips for Improving Health

14:39
Reducing Stress and Finding Joy

18:51
Financial Responsibility and Sustainability

20:15
Giving Back and Being Kind

23:02
Finding Passion and Purpose

25:24
Celebrating Small Steps and Changing Mindset

26:21
Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

You're listening to the what Women Want Today podcast. If you love the idea of being part of a community of women who are looking to thrive, not just survive, you're in the right place. Join hosts Terry Cullums and Amanda Keeper each week, as they bring you topics and guests to help you improve your relationships, your health and your emotional and spiritual well-being.

Speaker 2: 0:36

And today we are on day four of the 12 Days of Christmas series, and we're going to be talking about health. So, interestingly enough, the top three things that people will be setting goals around in 2024 are mental health, physical health and financial health, and I don't find that really very surprising at all. I know for myself personally. 2023 brought quite a few health challenges. I was in a life-threatening motorcycle accident, I got diagnosed with arthritis in my knee, I had a thyroid nodule that had to be biopsied, my husband had a skin cancer scare and, most recently, I had a procedure done because they suspected uterine cancer. So when I say that I had to focus a lot on my health this year, I am not even exaggerating a little bit, but I've always been someone that's health conscious. I've always cared a lot about my diet and I've been an exerciser for years, so I'm not really surprised, though, when I started digging into this topic today some of the things that would drive people towards focusing on health. Now I've got a couple of statistics here for you, so let's talk about, let's see where do we start here. Let's talk about financial health. So when people are focusing on financial health, they're focusing on increased savings, reducing debt and for some of them, it'll be creating another income stream. I know I am working on something now that I'll be talking to you about in the days to come, so make sure you're following on Instagram. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. There might be some changes on the podcast as we gear more towards YouTube. So there's lots of people out there that are looking to create another stream of income because we've seen some instability in the job market. And when we talk about physical and mental health, it could be improving the quality of your sleep, being more mindful about healthy eating, exercise, managing stress and prioritizing self care. So let's talk about financial for a moment. In the US, credit card debt is at an all time high, for America is currently over $1 trillion of credit card debt, and the average is out to be $5,733 per credit card holder. This is an all time high in America. That leaves only 23% of Americans that can say they are debt free. Switching gears a little bit, let's talk about the life expectancy in America. We're currently at about 79.11 years. It's a little bit higher for women than men. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for both men and women, and that is not just in the US, that is worldwide, and the US has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest death rate for avoidable or treatable conditions, and we also have the highest suicide rate. The amount of antidepressants prescribed has increased 34.8% in the last six years. So it really is not a surprise that health remains at the top of our minds and we're thinking about like what habits do we need to change for 2024 to get closer to the life that we really want, the health that we really want?

Speaker 2: 4:22

I wanted to start out with weight loss. Weight loss is such a big topic. It's such a big money making industry in America and I started thinking about, you know, like my mom when I was growing up she was a very big yo-yo dietter. Like I watched her yo-yo diet pretty much my whole life and the way that that affected me was that I didn't really want to diet. I didn't really want to have to think about deprivation or everything I put in my mouth, and so I can't say I've been on a lot of like quote-unquote diets.

Speaker 2: 4:58

As far as like some kind of organized type diet that has an actual name to it, I don't really remember if I've been on, I've had some very poor diet choices. I remember in my gosh early 20s Must have been very early maybe even late teens my sister and I we just focused so much on well, I won't say that we focused so much on being thin, but I don't think we focused enough on nutrition. So we had some terrible health habits. We would eat like toast for breakfast, cereal for lunch, soup for dinner, and maybe some of that was to do with the amount of money we were making at the time. Maybe we were like poor college students, but I have made some really poor diet choices in my life and fortunately, over the years it's taken a much higher priority and I've gotten better at it. But when I started thinking about all of the stuff I hear and all the research I do and all the groups I belong to, I started making a list of all the different things that just popped into my head. So we've got paleo, which I really was gonna look up, and I still don't know what paleo is. We've got keto, which is more meat and less carbs right, I'm not really sure about the dairy parts. I'm not really into this whole diet thing.

Speaker 2: 6:18

Whole 30, weight Watchers, carnivore, which is a newer one to me I'm just now hearing about that in the last few weeks. Calorie restriction I think that's probably one of the older ones. We've always been told calories in, calories out, and now they're starting to kind of change the tune on that a little bit. Calorie is not a calorie. It's not a calorie. Calorie eating is not a calorie, burned and so forth. Intuitive eating, which might I'm laughing because at myself, because I think, gosh, if I ate off my intuition sometimes it would not be pretty. Intermittent fasting, water fasts, omad, which is, I learned, as one meal a day vegan, pescetarian, vegetarian eating for your blood type. Eat fat, don't eat fat. Like there's those two camps Eggs are good, eggs are bad, oatmeal's good, oatmeal's bad.

Speaker 2: 7:15

In the carnivore, I believe, diet a lot of those folks really think that vegetables are not good for you, which I don't know, sounds kind of crazy to me. But and then, of course, we've got gluten free. So, as we're trying to decide what our own health goals are for 2024, and if that includes a change in diet, there's a lot of conflicting and confusing information out there for us to choose from and to try to wrap our brains around. And then we're hearing all over the place that we need to increase our activity. Like longevity for Americans at least, and I'm sure it's probably worldwide like our longevity is tied into our muscle mass. There's a lot of research that goes into saying your muscle mass has a lot to do with your longevity. So we hear that and then we think about okay, well, what should we do to exercise? So runners there's the whole running group and they wanna keep their body lean. And then there's the body builders. And then there's HIIT, crossfit, yoga, pilates, strength and resistance training, cardio. And then there's the camp that says no cardio for midlife women because it increases cortisol and it causes us to hold onto our belly fat in midlife. And then, you know, the 10,000 steps a day I think has kinda came along with the Fitbit craze and the smartwatches. But I'm not a health coach, you know.

Speaker 2: 8:42

Today's episode is not about telling you what I think you should do. I can tell you that I've had some success since July doing intermittent fasting. It's, you know, with my sluggish thyroid. It is the first thing that actually moved the needle for me. When I say the needle, I mean like I saw results in, and you know it was funny. For the longest time I was one of those people that weighed themselves and I would say that there were times when my mood would be affected by whether or not I saw the scale go up or go down. And throughout this whole intermittent fasting that I've been doing since July, I've realized that we can't always really measure ourselves by the scale, and especially if we're doing strength training. But we can, you know, say I'm going to, I want to reduce my waist, and we can measure our waist. And you know, I did see my waist decrease by two inches since I've been fasting.

Speaker 2: 9:43

So you know, if I were here to tell you what to do, no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't tell you what to do, but I do have some things that I think are very sound, solid advice. So I Would say move your body daily, make the most out of every opportunity, from carrying in the groceries to vacuuming, to taking the stairs at work, parking far away at the grocery store. I know like for me it's almost like it's gotten to be, almost like a little game. It's like, you know, it used to be.

Speaker 2: 10:12

If there was something heavy or something, I'd say all wait for my husband to pick that up, move that, whatever. And when we were leaving Phoenix the other day, getting ready to come back down here to Southern Arizona to come home. There was a pretty heavy gift that we had gotten for his son and it ended up being a duplicate gift, and so I offered that we would just take it back and he could get something different. And I don't know how much it weighed, but it was heavy. I'm gonna say like 40 or 50 pounds. I might be wrong, but it was heavy. And I picked it up and I caught myself saying, oh, this is too heavy, I'm gonna ask Brian to come get this. And then I was like no, I'm not gonna ask Brian to come get this. This is an opportunity to use these muscles that I've been working so hard at building and I haven't been able to work out at the gym since we've, you know, been in Phoenix, and so I'm gonna use this opportunity to lift something heavy, to challenge myself, to push myself a little bit. So I'm just saying like, instead of, you know, being sedentary or you know, letting the holidays be a good excuse for Eating a little bit differently than we normally would and not exercising, like, find other opportunities to move. That's all I'm saying. All right, so Back to our list. Build your muscles, as this is a key indicator of longevity, as I already stated.

Speaker 2: 11:32

Hydrate and I purposely said hydrate instead of increase the amount of water you drink, because I have learned from my intermittent fasting that water sometimes is not enough. I have done a little bit of research into Other things that we can do to hydrate ourselves better than drinking just plain water, and we can talk about that more in the Facebook group if you're interested in that. Don't smoke, don't over consume alcohol or sugar, and I am not. I am preaching like to myself because I Love a good glass of wine and I have cut down. I had a couple of different people on the podcast this year that recommended that you don't you know, drink seven days a week. That you know, you.

Speaker 2: 12:20

You, tanya Pennington Miller, was the one that said if you're going to drink, you need to drink two days in a row and give your liver a chance to rest, and I don't know if it was her that told me this or if I just learned this along the way somewhere, but when we Consume alcohol, our liver stops processing other things and focuses entirely on metabolizing the alcohol. So if you're struggling to lose some inches around your waist or if you're watching that number on the scale, cutting down your alcohol consumption. I put sugar and alcohol in the same list because Of, like I said, I'm not going to stop drinking a glass of wine. I enjoy a glass of wine, I'm just going to be smarter about it. And I'm going to say the same thing for sugar, because I know that sugar is a very powerful Poll for a lot of people. My husband is one of them. He has a really hard time resisting sugar and so you know, if you're like my husband, I would say, hey, can you just cut it down to a treat instead of a daily thing? You know to have a Dessert every night after you get done eating dinner and you go pop yourself on the couch oh, talking about my husband again, but no, and this is what I said to him recently. I said you know, if you were to eat this treat that you think you have to have every day, like if you were to eat that at lunch instead of dinner, at least you would have some time to work that off. Get that spurn off that sugar at some point during your workday. You have no chance of working that off while you're sitting on the couch watching TV and subsequently falling asleep on the couch. Okay, so back to our list.

Speaker 2: 13:55

Reduce things in your diet and environment that lead to inflammation in your body. So sugar and alcohol do definitely Contribute to the, the inflammation in your body. For some people it's other foods, people that have food intolerances. I myself have Troubles with onion and certain kinds of peppers mostly bell peppers, but other peppers too. And then I put environment in there, because I've really started educating myself more on. You know the things in our environment that kind of mimic estrogen and that kind of don't serve us well. You know all the fragrances and stuff and cleaning products and candles and perfumes and our cosmetics and the odorants, and I'm just going to encourage you to do your own research on that. I'm not here to preach to anybody about what they shouldn't, shouldn't do. I know I love smelling nice, so at the holidays I I'd squirt it on some perfume and I haven't worn perfume in quite a while, and I do enjoy the essential oils over the candles by far. So those are just a couple of things.

Speaker 2: 15:06

And then find ways to reduce stress. So I mean, this is not new information, right, guys like this. We've been talking about this. Stress is at the root of so many different diseases and Is really at the core of a lot of unhealthiness, whether it's the brain or the body, or or both, a combination of both, like. We really have to recognize the impact that stress is having on us and find ways to reduce that. Whether that's Walking, being in nature, meditating, journaling Exercise is great for reducing stress. Talking to someone, I'm sure. I'm sure there's some in your mind that you're thinking right now that I have not even thought about, so Head over to the Facebook and tell us your favorite way to reduce stress. I find laughing to be a great way to reduce stress, and that was the next one on my list is laugh. Like we all need to have some joy and some laughter.

Speaker 2: 16:07

Spend time with people who bring out the best in you, people who encourage you or are excited about your growth, and spend less time with people who are toxic and bring you down and Make you feel like you're not enough for them. Read or listen to something that helps you grow. I think this is like just a given, like everyone should be doing this on a daily basis. I think 15 minutes Minimum per day. Find ways to express yourself creatively. I'm a big believer in this one, so that could be photography, gardening. There's so many ways to express yourself creatively, and what feels like creative Creativeness to you might not look the same for the next person. So Don't look at somebody on Facebook that creates Brilliant works of art out of trash and think I need to do that.

Speaker 2: 17:05

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about Something that you actually enjoy, something that brings you a lot of Calm and relaxation. Spend time outdoors that's one of my favorites. There's just something and there's lots of research about grounding. If you've not looked into that, that's something that they're showing. It's really great for us to do it. To be outside barefoot. I love the idea I talked about with recently, with the circadian rhythm of being outdoors when the sun comes up, watching the sunrise, and then again watching it set in the evening.

Speaker 2: 17:42

Watch less TV. I know that's not going to be a popular one for some of y'all because you're going to be like well, terry, you know I'm tired at the end of the work day. I just want to sit down, relax and watch a TV show with my hubby or whoever, and I'm not talking to you if you're spending an hour on the couch at the end of a long day. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the person who you know. You know who you are if you're watching way too much TV. Spend less time on our phones. Oh my gosh, I was barely on my phone over the Christmas holiday and it felt so awesome I didn't even care, I didn't miss it one bit.

Speaker 2: 18:21

Be present and mindful. And actually my stepson said this to my husband at one of our little gatherings around the holiday. You know he's like hey, just like be present, because it was like there was something going on and the phone came out and you start scrolling looking for one thing and next thing you know you're 10 miles deep in and something that's not what's going on right in front of you. I always think, like why do we believe that other people's lives that we barely know on social media are more important than creating a better life with the people that are right in front of us? Be grateful.

Speaker 2: 19:05

We've already discussed this one quite at length, so I'm not going to go into that one very much. Don't spend more than you make. I mean that one just is self-explanatory, right. That causes a lot of stress. Back to that credit card debt that we were talking about before. I realize that for some it's easier said than done, because we are seeing crazy price inflation at the grocery store and in other places, like rent for our younger folks. It's sad, but that also means that we don't always need everything brand new.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Don't throw away something that someone else might need. So this is a big one for me, because I hate the idea of things going into the landfill. So if you're in that decluttering that we talked about yesterday and you have this big pile of things that aren't really serving you anymore, they're just taking up space. You don't use them, but they haven't outlived their usefulness. Go on Facebook Marketplace, put them for free. Go to your Goodwill. Go to any thrift store that takes donations. Ask your family members and friends do you need a bookcase or whatever it is? So don't throw away something that someone else might need. My next one is Find a Cause you Care About.

Speaker 2: 20:29

Now, since we have been down here in Southern Arizona, my husband has just really got himself all in and involved with an animal shelter here, and she doesn't just do dogs, she's not just like a dog rescue, she is like a full-on animal rescue. So many people gave up like horses and things during this craziness that we've had over the past few years and couldn't afford the horses anymore and gave her all. She has so many horses over there and I guess it just costs thousands of dollars every month to feed these horses. So my husband's always over there. We donate monthly to them. If you're interested in learning more about them, reach out to me. I'll let you know. She really is. She has a huge heart, huge animal lover and has all sorts of animals over there. I think it was last year about this time she rescued like 86 dogs from a puppy mill. I think it was 86 dogs that she took in. She's just yeah, she's very selfless.

Speaker 2: 21:34

Be kind, and I'm probably getting this from just scrolling through Facebook and or Instagram or wherever you are and just seeing people be so mean to each other and I just feel like it's so unnecessary. I love to go out of my way to put a smile on someone's face. It doesn't take that much If you're at the grocery store. I was going to get my card at the grocery store today and there was a person behind me and I just took the first card and I gave it to them and then I got my own card. There's just those little tiny things. I think they have a ripple effect and you being kind to someone might inspire them to be kind to someone else. I love the idea of being kind and then help someone might go along with, find a cause. But I'm just thinking of giving out of your strengths and talents.

Speaker 2: 22:38

I don't know, do you belong to the next door app in your community, because it's big in our community. There's a very engaged community of people on there and there's been a lot over the holidays. There's been a lot of people like hey, I don't like to ask for help, but my kids aren't going to have Christmas presents or they're going to turn my electricity off. A girl that I went to high school with. I saw her do a big push on Facebook to help this family who, the mom, had gone through some pretty major health concerns and the outpouring of people being willing to step up and give to a family in need. It was just very inspiring.

Speaker 2: 23:23

Then I put the last on this. I put love something I put in all caps like love something If it's gardening, reading, painting, decorating, your pets, your houseplants. But I want you to really think about what you love, what gets you out of bed, what makes you smile, what is it that you can't wait to talk to somebody about or share something in your life with other people? What is that thing? What is on it? What is it that you can't wait to talk to somebody about? Okay, if you have health on your list for 2024, I want you to get really granular on what that focus is going to be. Don't just say exercise more, cut back on sweets or lose 10 pounds. I will tell you when I was younger, I wanted to be thin, didn't we all? I think the majority of us we wanted to be thin. That's the era we grew up in. We want to be skinny, but now I just want to be strong.

Speaker 2: 24:28

I saw an elderly man at the gym today. He had to be in his 90s. I saw him on the bicycle for a little bit one of the recumbent bikes. Then I saw him just walking around. I did see him chatting with a few people, which I know is so important. To be social, to not sit at home all day when you're elderly and get out there and talk to someone I feel like that is so important. I saw him doing that. I said to myself that's going to be me. I am going to be one of the ladies.

Speaker 2: 25:02

I remember years ago I belonged to a health club. It was new in our community and it was really nice probably the nicest health club type thing I'd ever been in. They had the saunas and the steam rooms and then the heated pool and the not heated pool. I remember the heated pool. Now my enjoy is probably like 35. At the time I think I saw the little old ladies in the pool doing that water yoga.

Speaker 2: 25:33

I'll admit I probably had the thought that, oh, that doesn't do you any good. I probably did think that. I'm sure I did. Now I think, well, good for them If that's what gets them moving. Good for them. I'm going to be the little lady at the health club in the swimming pool, moving my body, wanting to walk around and talk to everybody. If you see me, make sure you come over and say hello. I am not going to be stuck to my chair and watching life pass me by. Health will probably always remain very high at the top of my list.

Speaker 2: 26:11

I wish you all the luck when you're thinking about your health goals. Just remember to celebrate the small steps on the way to the end journey. Most of all, remember that we don't accomplish things with the same mindset that we went into with them. You're going to have to change your mindset a little bit to get to the end of the goal. I love it when people say this, and I'll probably say this again. You'll probably hear me say this again is goals are not just about reaching the end, but they're about the person you have to become along the way to reach to the end and reach the goal.

Speaker 2: 26:47

That's my spiel today about health Day four, which is four calling birds. The four calling birds can be seen as messengers. I will encourage you to communicate your goals and intentions. It's always more powerful when we share our aspirations with others. And until tomorrow, I wish you good health. Take care, amanda. I don't know if this ever happens to you, but I sometimes will learn something really cool on a podcast, on a YouTube video, audio book, whatever. I think I'm going to remember it and then I forget. Does that ever happen to you?

Speaker 3: 27:26

Yeah, I call it brain after 40 all the time.

Speaker 2: 27:29

That's what we'll officially call it, but we've come up with something. Do you want to introduce it?

Speaker 3: 27:35

Sure, it's from an app called quick, jim quick, and it's an acronym called fast.

Speaker 2: 27:41

Yeah, and it stands for Facebook. So we're inviting you officially right now to come over and join us on Facebook. Get involved with the community, share your favorite episodes with your friends on Facebook.

Speaker 3: 27:51

Yeah, the A is go ahead and take an action, so you can't remember anything if you don't act.

Speaker 2: 27:57

And S is for subscribe. Make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel.

Speaker 3: 28:01

And then T is teach. Teach what you've learned to somebody else. Share the love.

Speaker 2: 28:06

All right, we hope that works for you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next week.

Speaker 3: 28:10

Bye, bye.