Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to the Weekend Collective. I think we've
Speaker 2: got this. This theme sounds like it's more appropriate for
Speaker 2: the next hour, which will be smart Money, where she
Speaker 2: works hard for her money. And I'm judging by the
Speaker 2: expression from my producer Tyre's face, she's gone, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: that's right. Anyway, welcome back to the show. Just a
Speaker 2: bit of lighthearted band between presenter and producer there. So
Speaker 2: welcome to the Health Hub. We Want Your Cause eight
Speaker 2: hundred eighty eight text on nine to two and my guest, well,
Speaker 2: she's a brain Fit coach and her name is Jude
Speaker 2: Walter and she's with me. Now, good Jude, how are
Speaker 2: you going.
Speaker 3: I'm very well, thanks Tom.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, actually, just you are from your organizations called
Speaker 2: brain Fit. Tell us about the work that you guys
Speaker 2: do specifically.
Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome. So at Brainfit, well, we are brain and
Speaker 3: memory educators and we really are all about empowering people
Speaker 3: to take control of their brain health, regardless of how
Speaker 3: young or old they are. You know, we've got a
Speaker 3: range of practical programs which are all evidence based, researched
Speaker 3: by new Zealand based neuroscientists doctor Allison Lamont, and they
Speaker 3: really help people with practical tips and techniques that they
Speaker 3: can do and apply to the stuff that they're doing
Speaker 3: every day. So it's not about doing.
Speaker 2: It's not like taking a particular vitamin. I reckon this works, No,
Speaker 2: and we'll go from there. I feel good. I reckon
Speaker 2: it works for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And look, you know there will be certainly different
Speaker 3: techniques that will work better for some people than others,
Speaker 3: and that's that's life. But the pros have already supported
Speaker 3: over eighteen thousand kiwis to have sharper brains and stronger memories,
Speaker 3: regardless of how young or old they are. And that's
Speaker 3: what we really are all about, is we'd love to
Speaker 3: live in a world where actually cognitive health got as
Speaker 3: much focus and attention as physical health.
Speaker 2: Actually, I guess because your physical health, well, naturally everything
Speaker 2: does decline in some way because otherwise we'd live forever,
Speaker 2: but we can look after our bodies so we stay
Speaker 2: fitter for longer. Is that similar for the brain.
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: Obviously. Obviously your brain at some stage is going to
Speaker 2: decline somewhat, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, so were cognitive decline is an inevitable part of
Speaker 3: aging for all of us. However, the more you do
Speaker 3: proactively to actually build what's called cognitive reserve, which many
Speaker 3: of your listeners have probably heard me before when I've
Speaker 3: been on the show, I kind of liken this to you,
Speaker 3: almost like your back up battery brain power. The more
Speaker 3: you can do to build that cognitive reserve, the more
Speaker 3: protective effect you have got, regardless of whether it's age
Speaker 3: or disease, that becomes part of your journey. You're actually
Speaker 3: stepping forward with your best foot. And so what we
Speaker 3: do at brain Foot, what our programs are all designed
Speaker 3: around doing, is really encouraging and helping people to be
Speaker 3: proactive and building that cognitive reserve. And it's not just
Speaker 3: and often when I talk to people like, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm really good. I do the suduku in the back
Speaker 3: of the paper each day. It's more than puzzles. It's
Speaker 3: more than brain teasers, you know, And exactly the same
Speaker 3: way you made the reference to, you know, physical fitness.
Speaker 3: You know, if I only go to the if I
Speaker 3: go to the gym and I only lift weights with
Speaker 3: my left bicep, I'm going to end up with a
Speaker 3: beautiful strong bicep on the left and nothing on the right,
Speaker 3: and our brain is exactly the same. It needs a
Speaker 3: variety of stimulation to stay to keep all parts of
Speaker 3: your brain and memory active, alert, challenged, and growing, because
Speaker 3: that's the beautiful thing is that our brain never ever
Speaker 3: stops growing unless we let it.
Speaker 2: I would imagine a natural sort of time where you
Speaker 2: should really folk. You don't want to be paranot about
Speaker 2: this stuff, but obviously when people have their working careers
Speaker 2: and they get up and they go to the office,
Speaker 2: so they do whatever they do, and when they retire,
Speaker 2: there is a change of social circumstance as well as
Speaker 2: well as anything. And I would think that that would
Speaker 2: This is just a guess, and it's meant as a
Speaker 2: question really because but it might come out as a
Speaker 2: statement that I would imagine that when you do stop
Speaker 2: doing things and you fall into simpler patterns in your life,
Speaker 2: that is not a great thing for your brain.
Speaker 3: I would absolutely agree, But I don't think it's necessarily
Speaker 3: necessarily sorry an age related or lifestyle kind of time
Speaker 3: of life. Because what we saw for anyone of any age,
Speaker 3: the impact that COVID and the changes in our lifestyle
Speaker 3: that COVID had and the fact that we weren't as
Speaker 3: easily interacting and connecting with people you know, in that
Speaker 3: time had massive effects on people's brains and memories. So yes,
Speaker 3: historically that that's actually where the brain Fit program started,
Speaker 3: the brain Fit for Life program, our very first program
Speaker 3: was targeted at a retiree market, actually helping them to
Speaker 3: kind of, you know, bridge that gap. But I've been
Speaker 3: coaching as a brain Fit coach now for over eight years,
Speaker 3: and I can tell you that the average age in
Speaker 3: the classes that I have community classes is probably now
Speaker 3: down in its early to mid forties. And I think
Speaker 3: a part of that is because we are all a
Speaker 3: lot more aware of health and wellness and it's not
Speaker 3: quite as tabu a subject as it potentially was eight
Speaker 3: years ago. But also I think because we are all
Speaker 3: far more aware of the fact that, you know, our
Speaker 3: brains are overloaded, many of us are. If we're not
Speaker 3: dealing with burnout, we're just aware of the fact of
Speaker 3: that overwhelm and that constant demand that we're putting on
Speaker 3: our brain and memory is massive. So memory is something
Speaker 3: that can affect any of us at any age. And
Speaker 3: my advice would be exactly the same. Well, it is
Speaker 3: exactly the same to my sixteen year old daughter who
Speaker 3: is studying for exams right now, as it would be
Speaker 3: for a ninety six year old you know, when you're
Speaker 3: you know, we all need to be able to live
Speaker 3: a productive, independent life. We all need our brain and
Speaker 3: memory to be firing on all cylinders. And that's what
Speaker 3: brain fits all about, is helping you to make sure
Speaker 3: that you are fired.
Speaker 2: Had your own journey into this. I remember from our
Speaker 2: earlier discussions that you know, you burn out in sort
Speaker 2: of a mental sort of I'm not sure if I'm
Speaker 2: being crude and describing it as a mental breakdown but
Speaker 2: shutdown or something. But anyway, you're pushing yourself too hard,
Speaker 2: which is you got a case of understimulation over stimulation.
Speaker 2: Is that a bigger threat.
Speaker 3: Than well, probably both are equally as dangerous. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, if we're a lack of stimulation means that
Speaker 3: we're not using our brains to our full potential. But
Speaker 3: if we are overloading our brains and demanding of our
Speaker 3: brains and our memories more than it is physically capable of,
Speaker 3: which is exactly my experience as a thirty three year
Speaker 3: old woman. You know, I had been burning the candle
Speaker 3: at both ends for too long, and I was just
Speaker 3: kept on pushing because the type a personality that I
Speaker 3: am should we right, you know, and all of the
Speaker 3: coping strategies that I'd had in earlier stages of my life,
Speaker 3: you know, when I was playing competitive netball and I
Speaker 3: was missing my shots, I'd just go out and shoot
Speaker 3: more goals and train harder. If I had more to
Speaker 3: do at work, I would stay longer, I'd work harder.
Speaker 3: But suddenly, as a mum with two young kids and
Speaker 3: you know, husband and a life outside of work, those
Speaker 3: coping strategies no longer benefited me, and I just I
Speaker 3: completely overloaded my brain. And it was that prolonged period
Speaker 3: of stress and the impact it had on my brain
Speaker 3: a memory which led me, as you say, to becoming
Speaker 3: a brain fit coach about eight years ago.
Speaker 2: What were the symptoms for you? And I'm sure you've
Speaker 2: told me, but I just remind our listeners as well,
Speaker 2: because there would have been a time when things wouldn't
Speaker 2: have been great. You just wouldn't. You might not not
Speaker 2: have even recognized it, and then there would have been
Speaker 2: a moment where okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and to be honest with you. I talk about
Speaker 3: this in my Brain Fit for Work programs where I
Speaker 3: go into workplaces now to try and help other young
Speaker 3: professionals not have the experiences that I I had. Our
Speaker 3: Brain Fit for Work programs all around that kind of
Speaker 3: workplace based resilience. And look, everyone's experiences with burnout and
Speaker 3: all of the chronic fatigues and the likea are different.
Speaker 3: But for me, you're right, it started as very simple
Speaker 3: things like tiredness, which yeah, you could put down to
Speaker 3: the fact that I was a full time working one
Speaker 3: with two young kids, but I knew in myself that
Speaker 3: it was more than that. And then it progressed over time.
Speaker 3: When it was at its absolute worst, I was having
Speaker 3: panic attacks, which I had never experienced before in my life.
Speaker 3: I forgot to pick up my two year old daughter
Speaker 3: from daycare one day. Now, that was a habit that
Speaker 3: obviously was a routine. Every night I left work, I
Speaker 3: went home via the daycare center picked up my daughter. Well,
Speaker 3: one night I didn't, and it wasn't till I got
Speaker 3: home that I realized I had forgotten my daughter. So
Speaker 3: that is a parenting low, but it was it was
Speaker 3: cumulative over a period of time.
Speaker 2: To be honest, I I think there'd be a few
Speaker 2: parents who might have done that. I remember, and I'm
Speaker 2: not sure if it was a sign of burnout, but
Speaker 2: because I have different routines with my daughters dropping them
Speaker 2: off at ballet, and there's one of the times I
Speaker 2: dropped one daughter off and I picked the other one up,
Speaker 2: and I dropped one off and I went home. I
Speaker 2: walked in the door, my wife says, where's Rosie. I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, it's a very good question. But I
Speaker 2: like to think that wasn't burnout, it was just absent mindedness.
Speaker 3: But well, they're all in the same. I mean, the
Speaker 3: fact that you didn't remember your daughter shows that your brain,
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, at that point in time, was under
Speaker 3: a level of juris stress, whatever overload. That meant that
Speaker 3: you weren't fully thinking about what it was that you
Speaker 3: had to do. And unfortunately, in life, you know, we are.
Speaker 3: It seems to be a badge of honor whenever anyone says, oh, howie,
Speaker 3: I'm so busy. I'm so busy, but actually I.
Speaker 2: Hate you know, Yeah, it's anyway carry out, it's just
Speaker 2: the yeah, it's a tiresome expression on my sol I'm
Speaker 2: so busy with us. I'm so busy that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well we just need to be caref because busy
Speaker 3: is good to a point, but we do have to
Speaker 3: let our brains and our memories and our bodies physically
Speaker 3: rejuvenate and recover, because otherwise, like my experience, you know,
Speaker 3: I got off that plane one day after that road show.
Speaker 3: I'd been away for work, I'd done a four day,
Speaker 3: five city road show, and I actually collapsed. And to
Speaker 3: be honest with you, the the next we patch after
Speaker 3: that is still a bit of a blur. I ended
Speaker 3: up in hospital, had a huge number of tests to
Speaker 3: cross out any other possibilities.
Speaker 2: Why did you? But what was what led you to
Speaker 2: go to hospital? Was it somebody else collapse?
Speaker 3: So I literally collapsed. I physically collapsed.
Speaker 2: What just on the floor?
Speaker 3: Passed out? Oh okay, passed out on the floor. Felt
Speaker 3: like I had had concrete injected into every vein of
Speaker 3: my body, but my body just didn't want to work.
Speaker 3: And then I was also physically ill as well, and
Speaker 3: so I ended up in hospital.
Speaker 2: I just met.
Speaker 3: It was my body's way of saying, I've been trying
Speaker 3: to warn you for a long time that you're not right,
Speaker 3: and you're not listening, so I really am going to
Speaker 3: chop you down.
Speaker 2: Pretty much like being overwhelmed with stress in a way
Speaker 2: that's physical stress. It's like marathon runners. If they push
Speaker 2: it too hard, you'll see them often they'll throw up
Speaker 2: on the line or something.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it was my body's way of saying enough
Speaker 3: is enough?
Speaker 2: What could you have done? Because there'll be people who
Speaker 2: aren't at that stage, but he'll be thinking, because you know,
Speaker 2: it's conversations like this lead us to have a think.
Speaker 2: What do you know about what you went through that?
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe here's the long winded way of putting it.
Speaker 2: In a way, there was a benefit to your collapse
Speaker 2: was that you radically reformed your lifestyle. But there would
Speaker 2: have been, likewise, also a way where you could have
Speaker 2: taken a few things differently that might not have led
Speaker 2: to that stage. And well, I can tell you though
Speaker 2: it might not have been a great thing because you
Speaker 2: might have just been under the cusp of that, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean.
Speaker 3: My mom's right now and she will probably laugh at
Speaker 3: me saying this, but ever since I was probably about
Speaker 3: seventeen eighteen years old, she had told me that I
Speaker 3: couldn't keep going at the speed I was going, I
Speaker 3: was going to burn out. And I used to go, ah, whatever, mum,
Speaker 3: I've got this. I'm all over this. And now the irony.
Speaker 3: I got to thirty three.
Speaker 2: What would you have listened?
Speaker 3: I've got to thirty three. Look, there are many things
Speaker 3: now here. I was going to say, you know, eighteen
Speaker 3: year old listens to their parents. But what do I
Speaker 3: know about myself now? And let's be I'll be completely honest.
Speaker 3: There is a period towards the end of last year
Speaker 3: when I felt my wheels getting a bit wobbly again.
Speaker 3: So I've been on this journey and I am a
Speaker 3: brain fit coach, and I'm still human. I still kind
Speaker 3: of have to keep a sense check on myself. But
Speaker 3: there are certain key kind of like indicators for me
Speaker 3: that I know are a little bit alarming. And so
Speaker 3: if i feel myself feeling really tired, and I'm generally
Speaker 3: a morning person, if I feel myself not really peping
Speaker 3: out of bed in the morning, I know that that's
Speaker 3: an early sign that I'm probably overdoing things. If I so,
Speaker 3: if I'm kind of waking at five am, if I
Speaker 3: am not exercising, all of those things for me are
Speaker 3: my coping strategies, and as soon as they start falling
Speaker 3: by the wayside, I know I'm getting to that point
Speaker 3: where things are going to get a little bit wobbly,
Speaker 3: and yep, you can cope with it for a period
Speaker 3: of time, but the longer I did it, I really
Speaker 3: started going no, I actually need to jump back into this.
Speaker 3: So things like putting my like putting myself to bed.
Speaker 3: I sound like a kid, making myself go to bed,
Speaker 3: making myself go to bed at nine point thirty when
Speaker 3: I'm feeling wobbly, making myself go to bed at nine thirty,
Speaker 3: because it's the hours of sleep you get before midnight
Speaker 3: that are most the most restorative. So you know, I
Speaker 3: make myself and that's heart. I am sorry. And there's
Speaker 3: a lot of people who can't go to bed at
Speaker 3: that hour, but for me, that was that was a
Speaker 3: game changer, and that was a key part of my recovery.
Speaker 3: I had about six months where I was religiously going
Speaker 3: to bed between so like nine and nine thirty and
Speaker 3: I mean like lights out, so I've done my reading
Speaker 3: or whatever house I needed to do before that, but
Speaker 3: just really kind of restorative and stripping back my exercise.
Speaker 3: I've always been a very physical, physically active person, but
Speaker 3: it was not running, it was walking. So I kind
Speaker 3: of peered everything back, but I had to get back
Speaker 3: into those kind of habits and strategies.
Speaker 2: It's interesting with the sleep thing because I've found that,
Speaker 2: I mean, I do some couple of overnights as well
Speaker 2: as this show, and it takes me a little while
Speaker 2: to get back on and even keel. But I find
Speaker 2: that if I when I'm adjusting back to normal sleeping habits,
Speaker 2: if I get to bed a couple of hours before midnight,
Speaker 2: I actually will sleep quite well. Yeah, but if I
Speaker 2: get now, I'm not something after midnight. But if I
Speaker 2: go to bed sort of eleven eleven thirty, I'm awake
Speaker 2: till you know, it isn't funny. You hit these windows
Speaker 2: where I feel that sleep and I just know, Tim,
Speaker 2: you've got to go. Now you're feeling that little bit
Speaker 2: of that tinge of sleepiness, take it, run with the poor,
Speaker 2: get them to bed.
Speaker 3: Well, we're both parents, and you'll know probably less so
Speaker 3: now that my kids are teenagers. But you know, when
Speaker 3: they were young, you had that small window and if
Speaker 3: they got overtired, they were more alert and impossible to
Speaker 3: put to sleep. You know, we are big kids. Adults
Speaker 3: are big kids. We are no different, and therefore you
Speaker 3: know that that kind of sleep hygiene is equally important
Speaker 3: for us as it is for younger people.
Speaker 2: That's a fascinating conversation. We might dig into this a
Speaker 2: little bit more. We also do want to talk about
Speaker 2: maintaining your brain and so you don't age too quickly.
Speaker 2: So that's what that's what I teased before the show.
Speaker 2: But we're also talking about, man if you are concerned
Speaker 2: about your own mental resilience, that's not wrong word cognitive health,
Speaker 2: your cognitive health. There we go, there, we go. That's
Speaker 2: what we've got her in there. Then we have we've
Speaker 2: got Jude Walter here. She's a brain fit coach from
Speaker 2: brain fit dot World. Oh, by the way, if you
Speaker 2: go into brainfit dot world and there are a couple
Speaker 2: of publications, they've got a couple of books there. If
Speaker 2: you put a news talks there'd be there's a special
Speaker 2: offer for you there on the price. So I think
Speaker 2: it's about half price or something, isn't it, dude. So
Speaker 2: just if you're going into their for news talk listeners,
Speaker 2: just put news talk in there. But we'll be back
Speaker 2: in just a moment. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
Speaker 2: If you've got questions around how are you coping, then
Speaker 2: we'd love to hear from you. E one hundred eighty
Speaker 2: ten eighty. This is the Health Hub on news Talks.
Speaker 2: He'd beat. It's twenty three past four. Yes, newstalks have
Speaker 2: been We're with brain Fit coach Jude while you're talking
Speaker 2: about well maintaining your mental cognitive health and if you've
Speaker 2: got any questions for us, we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: I've got quite a few questions for you, Jude, but
Speaker 2: guess what, We've got a call first, So Peter, good afternoon.
Speaker 5: Oh hi there, hi Jude. And I've been taking up
Speaker 5: tai chi. I'd be in a year at it and
Speaker 5: I thought it's quite good for keeping my memory at
Speaker 5: seventy seven or helping that. Could you give me some
Speaker 5: thoughts about that, whether it's good to continue or or not. Well,
Speaker 5: I'm wasting the time.
Speaker 3: You are definitely not wasting your time, Peter, absolutely not.
Speaker 3: Any Any exercise you can do at any age is
Speaker 3: going to be really really good for a healthy brain
Speaker 3: of memory, and exercise can come in any form. It
Speaker 3: could be doing the gardening, but it could be something
Speaker 3: like tai chi, because what that does is it alerates
Speaker 3: your alevates, sorry, your heart rate, So you're sending a
Speaker 3: fresh supply of oxygen and blood to your brain, which
Speaker 3: is exactly what your brain needs to stay on its game.
Speaker 3: The other added bon benefit of something like a tai
Speaker 3: chi or yoga is that it involves quite a bit
Speaker 3: of cross brain exercise. So a cross brain exercise is
Speaker 3: any exercise where your hands or legs cross over your
Speaker 3: body center line. So this is hard on radio, but
Speaker 3: if you imagine that you were chopping yourself in half
Speaker 3: coming running your finger right down through the middle of
Speaker 3: your nose and down through your sternum and down the
Speaker 3: center of your body, any action where your hand crosses
Speaker 3: over that center line is called a cross brain exercise.
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of that in thai chi, as
Speaker 3: there is in kind of even some of the aqua
Speaker 3: aerobics and that sort of stuff. So that's awesome for
Speaker 3: cross brain because that gets both sides of your brain
Speaker 3: firing simultaneously.
Speaker 6: Do it.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, keep it up.
Speaker 5: I'll keep it up. Thank you very much. Indeed, thanks Tim, good.
Speaker 2: Stuff, cheers, Peter. It's just a couple of things. It's
Speaker 2: so stress, as they say, stress is the greatest killer.
Speaker 2: How effective is a good cry from time to time?
Speaker 2: I like a good cry again.
Speaker 3: I'm all for it absolutely. I think I'm certainly no
Speaker 3: expert in crying. But from what I do know from
Speaker 3: a stress and brain related point of view, is that stress,
Speaker 3: as you say, is the absolute enemy of a strong
Speaker 3: brain and memory. Because actually when you are stressed, and
Speaker 3: stress can come in any form, it can come from,
Speaker 3: you know, stress around relationships, finances, health, just life. You
Speaker 3: know that stress. What happens is your body, it's our
Speaker 3: human instinct. It goes into what we call survival mode,
Speaker 3: which is often referred to as fight, flight or freeze.
Speaker 3: And when your body is in survival mode, the memory
Speaker 3: parts of your brain actually designed and too dull because
Speaker 3: it's actually not important to remember stuff when you're trying
Speaker 3: to survive. It's all your energies for your body go
Speaker 3: into survival so that ability to outrun the tiger, fight
Speaker 3: the tiger, or freeze and hope the tiger doesn't see you.
Speaker 3: Now we've moved on from tigers chasing us, but actually
Speaker 3: life is a big tiger. Sometimes that can can chase
Speaker 3: us down. And so if you live in a prolonged
Speaker 3: period of stress, and this is exactly what my experience
Speaker 3: was personally. You know, when I had my breakdown as
Speaker 3: a young thirty three year old, you know, I had
Speaker 3: lived in a state of stress for so long that
Speaker 3: the memory centers of my brain weren't just dulled, they
Speaker 3: were actually switching off. And that's why I forgot to
Speaker 3: go and pick up my daughter.
Speaker 2: So, now that we're moving on to to what we're
Speaker 2: originally talking about, as you get older, are you conscious
Speaker 2: about cognitive client decline yourself or if this is something
Speaker 2: you do something to address, or is it.
Speaker 3: Just I'm conscious of it, but I'm not terrified by it. No,
Speaker 3: And that's my biggest advice I would give to in
Speaker 3: and lots of people say, oh, it's easy for you
Speaker 3: to say you're still in your forties, but actually, let's
Speaker 3: stop worrying about the wattifs and really focus on what
Speaker 3: we can do. And research shows us that our brains
Speaker 3: continue to grow from the day we're born till the
Speaker 3: day we die, as long as we nurture them. And
Speaker 3: really focusing on what we can do to build that
Speaker 3: cognitive reserve and as I said before, Tim, it's not
Speaker 3: about expensive gym memberships. It's not about finding an extra
Speaker 3: two hours in the day to do stuff. It's about
Speaker 3: doing the stuff we do every day smarter. You brush
Speaker 3: your teeth every day, once a week, twice a week.
Speaker 3: Brush your teeth with your non dominant hand. That will
Speaker 3: trigger a different part of your brain, Stimulate your brain
Speaker 3: in a different way, that will grow and challenge it.
Speaker 3: When you are sitting at the traffic lights, and let's
Speaker 3: be honest, we do quite a bit of that living
Speaker 3: in Auckland.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I glance up now and I will look at a
Speaker 3: sign on the shop that's beside me, and for instance,
Speaker 3: if it is the Florist, i will go right before
Speaker 3: this light turns green. I'm going to think of as
Speaker 3: many words as I can that start with the letter
Speaker 3: if if for florist.
Speaker 2: This is quite hardcore for most people, like wow, she's working.
Speaker 3: But I've got that idle time when I'm sitting at
Speaker 3: the lights. It's it's about doing the stuff we can
Speaker 3: do smarter, not about doing necessarily more. And it is
Speaker 3: you know, as I mentioned before, it's more than just
Speaker 3: doing puzzles and brain teasers. It's about eating healthily, it's
Speaker 3: about getting that quality sleep, it's about interacting and connecting
Speaker 3: with different people. And this is where like talkback is
Speaker 3: brilliant because you're actually exposing yourself to different people's perspectives
Speaker 3: that actually make you sit up, think, challenge, refine your
Speaker 3: own thought processes, and all of that is stimulating your
Speaker 3: brain and new and different ways.
Speaker 2: That's funny that it's something every now and again, because
Speaker 2: you do get regular callers and you think that you
Speaker 2: know where they're going to come from. But sometimes I
Speaker 2: just go, hang on, just cancel that for a moment,
Speaker 2: and it's just let's just pretend that view is absolutely
Speaker 2: brilliant and go from there. Look, we want your calls.
Speaker 2: In fact, we're going to take some calls right now.
Speaker 2: And what are you doing to improve or maintain your
Speaker 2: brain health? Actually, because make sure that you remind me
Speaker 2: of this, and I'll write a night for myself because
Speaker 2: things like diet and vitamins and all that sort of stuff. Joe,
Speaker 2: we'll have a chat about that at some stage. But
Speaker 2: let's take some calls.
Speaker 7: Bill, Hello, Hello, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2: Lady, Jude, She's with you right now.
Speaker 3: You can say Hello, Hi Bill, Hello, how are you?
Speaker 7: I very well say yes, I agree with that. I
Speaker 7: I was in the building trade and I took retirement,
Speaker 7: retirement when I was fifty nine.
Speaker 2: Oh that's good, hasn't it.
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 7: So and then when I've got it now, that doesn't
Speaker 7: suit me. So I sat at work again, contracting, and
Speaker 7: the family started call me your work aholic?
Speaker 2: And what was it? Did you? Were you happy? Were
Speaker 2: you doing well?
Speaker 7: Very happy? Happy in my work? But my work was
Speaker 7: my my thing and because I was also what I
Speaker 7: was doing resiration work. Plus in the winter time, I
Speaker 7: used to we will restore antique furniture, and that's very
Speaker 7: very creative. Absolutely yeah. And then I start making other
Speaker 7: what what ornaments like birdhouses, letter boxes, and then I'll
Speaker 7: get to old people. And they said, oh, how much
Speaker 7: is that? I said, oh yes.
Speaker 2: The smile is this this case of the moral of
Speaker 2: the story for you has been to keep working? Or
Speaker 2: did you have a particular question you're curious about with them?
Speaker 7: With Jude, yeah, well I did. I did have a
Speaker 7: messive for her to text thirty five years ago. Oh
Speaker 7: it's three days I'm conscious. And it took them twenty
Speaker 7: minutes to get me back. They told me, Yeah, their
Speaker 7: own town. No next next month, I'll be ninety six
Speaker 7: wood work.
Speaker 3: Do you know the oldest person I've had in one
Speaker 3: of my Brainforit classes was ninety six, and she blew
Speaker 3: my mind. So you keep doing whatever it is that
Speaker 3: you're doing. Keep that brain active and agile, keep building
Speaker 3: those birdhouses and crafting, because it's clearly doing good things.
Speaker 2: I think. Actually I got a suggestion as well. If
Speaker 2: you're a listener then and you've been listening a long
Speaker 2: time listener, I love that expression, a long time first
Speaker 2: time caller. But actually, you know what, if you're a
Speaker 2: long time listening your first time call I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: That is a workout for you to put your put
Speaker 2: your point of view and explain it in a cogent
Speaker 2: way to a national audience. That has to be good
Speaker 2: for brainforit.
Speaker 3: Doesn't it absolutely. That's why I'm saying, even to my
Speaker 3: daughter at the moment, studying for exams. The ability to
Speaker 3: write notes versus the ability to actually speak or articulate
Speaker 3: uses different parts of your brain really really good for
Speaker 3: actually creating those multiple memory traces. You will be more
Speaker 3: likely to remember stuff if you do a mixture of
Speaker 3: writing and talking and you know, and the like, because
Speaker 3: it's all again this variety of the brain. There's actually
Speaker 3: forty different ways that our brain remembers things, and so
Speaker 3: all of those are stimulated in different ways.
Speaker 2: It's interesting. I'm doing a language course at the moment,
Speaker 2: just through Duo Lingo. But I'm on day six hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty one, and it does say, I mean, you
Speaker 2: can just stay on the app and click on list
Speaker 2: and click on that, but it does say, if you
Speaker 2: really want to learn the language, as you go through
Speaker 2: the lessons, write things down as well. And I'm not
Speaker 2: quite doing that, but I am trying to find a
Speaker 2: different way of thinking of everything. So I'm learning. So anyway, look,
Speaker 2: let's take another call Karen.
Speaker 6: Hello, Yeah, Hi, Yeah, you know me.
Speaker 4: I'm up at night on my days off because I
Speaker 4: do n It's just.
Speaker 2: Where are you sleeping, Karen?
Speaker 6: You're just oh, well, I get a I actually get
Speaker 6: about four zero sleeper day and I manage really well.
Speaker 6: But the problem with me is like I cannot stand
Speaker 6: brain games, you know, like.
Speaker 2: And crossroads and all that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I cannot stand anything like that. My problem
Speaker 4: is I'm like completely engaged and as soon as I
Speaker 4: hear you want radio, that's it. My brain's awake and
Speaker 4: I'm listening. I pick up on topics and I like
Speaker 4: podcasts and things. But what I was want to ask
Speaker 4: in was about a natural remedy because I like natural
Speaker 4: rememdies and I keep really good health. I really don't,
Speaker 4: but a natural remedy because I did, didn't I find
Speaker 4: that all the stimulates because it makes you kind of
Speaker 4: had the vigil And again no idea.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, it's just lying.
Speaker 4: Here resting is enough? Like I'm just laying bed here
Speaker 4: at the moment, doing nothing, just on my back resting.
Speaker 4: Is that good as good as.
Speaker 3: Like, well, it's probably not as good as sleep. But
Speaker 3: there are a huge number of experts out there who
Speaker 3: are sleep experts.
Speaker 2: So you know, I have one on our show out.
Speaker 3: There, so hock up with Alex. And there's actually also
Speaker 3: a number of podcasts that are actually really good for
Speaker 3: helping with different sleep techniques. The challenge we've got when
Speaker 3: it comes to sleep and why we go on about
Speaker 3: sleepers that actually, when you're sleeping, that is when your
Speaker 3: memories are consolidated. So it's because you've got less senses
Speaker 3: active at that time. That's when your brain does it's
Speaker 3: kind of sorting, and it's filing for the day. And
Speaker 3: I almost like in the sometimes, so you know, when
Speaker 3: you log off your computer and shut it down, sometimes
Speaker 3: it does a whole lot of whirring in the background
Speaker 3: before it goes completely quiet. That's exactly what's happening in
Speaker 3: our heads and our brains when we are sleeping. And
Speaker 3: that's why sometimes you'll have that three am in the morning,
Speaker 3: or maybe not for you, Karen, because that's actually when
Speaker 3: you're awake for night. Just but you'll have that moment
Speaker 3: of absolute clarity. We go, oh, her name was Sarah,
Speaker 3: and you actually needed that person's name hours ago. But
Speaker 3: that's because that's where your brain's got to and the
Speaker 3: filing and the sorting.
Speaker 2: Actually, is there something while we've got you there, Karen?
Speaker 2: Do you think we should you say you don't like
Speaker 2: Sadokia in any of these brain teasers? I reckon, I reckon,
Speaker 2: you should give it a whirl. And because I don't
Speaker 2: know is it worth trying it, I say that you
Speaker 2: might end up loving it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, and even if you don't love it, And
Speaker 3: a lot of the time people don't love it because
Speaker 3: they're not good at it. And we've got this whole
Speaker 3: mentality around the fact that you have to be good
Speaker 3: at something. Actually the act of doing it, the act
Speaker 3: of trying it, the act of the challenge is the
Speaker 3: bit that's going to grow and nurture your brain. Actually
Speaker 3: solving the suku, cracking the co cracker, that's all icing
Speaker 3: on the cake. It's the act of doing it and
Speaker 3: getting yourself in that challenge and growth so important.
Speaker 2: Get into the brain teaser. I love that I do.
Speaker 2: I find myself often quoting one of my favorite quotes
Speaker 2: from Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, and it's a line
Speaker 2: where mister Darcy says to miss Bennett, he says, I
Speaker 2: think she's sort of hastling, teasing, hassling him about is
Speaker 2: not being very social. And he says, I find I
Speaker 2: don't have the He basically says, I don't converse well
Speaker 2: with others. I don't have that easy knack of conversing
Speaker 2: well with others. And she says, well, I don't play
Speaker 2: the piano particularly well. But I take that to be
Speaker 2: my own fault, having not taking the time to practice.
Speaker 2: And I can't tell you how many times I've used
Speaker 2: that quote, but it is such an app sort of thing.
Speaker 2: It's like, you're not very good at it, try again, well.
Speaker 3: Do you know what? And there's a lot of talk
Speaker 3: at the moment, especially around limiting beliefs. And if we
Speaker 3: say I am terrible with nams, guess what you're going
Speaker 3: to be terrible with. Now that's one of my more
Speaker 3: and I'm forever forgetting things. Guess what you're going to
Speaker 3: always forget things. We've got to believe in ourselves and
Speaker 3: that's one of the very first things we talk about
Speaker 3: in terms of important lifestyle factors for a healthy brainer
Speaker 3: memory is self belief.
Speaker 2: Good stuff. Right, We're going to be back in just
Speaker 2: a moment. We'd love your call. So eight one hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty ten and eighty Ross is next. My guest
Speaker 2: is Jude Walter. She is a brainfit coach from Brainfit.
Speaker 2: If you want to check out her work or her
Speaker 2: world literally I mentioned that because that's her website, it's
Speaker 2: brain fit dot World. Back in just a moment, Welcome
Speaker 2: back to the show. This is the Health of I'm
Speaker 2: Tim Beverage. My guest is a Jude Walter. You know
Speaker 2: what I was just thinking living on a prayer how
Speaker 2: many times every And I listened to this song every
Speaker 2: now and again on sort of rotate in my playlist
Speaker 2: or something. And I imagine when they wrote this song
Speaker 2: and thought we're on to a winter here. I'd love
Speaker 2: to know how much money bon Jovi made out of
Speaker 2: just this one particular song. And anyway, music good, isn't it?
Speaker 3: Ju As we were just saying, music is a fantastic
Speaker 3: way to trigger and stimulate your brain in new and
Speaker 3: different ways. So listening to different genres of music, you know,
Speaker 3: reading different genres of books, watching different genres of TV programs,
Speaker 3: all of this. It doesn't have to be going back
Speaker 3: to Karen's point before about hating Sodoku's. You know, there
Speaker 3: are so many ways that we can stimulate our brains
Speaker 3: and our memories. You know, the weather here in Auckland
Speaker 3: today is beautiful. Getting out and spending time and nature,
Speaker 3: going for a walk in a new and different place,
Speaker 3: talking to different people. All of that will stimulate your
Speaker 3: brain in new and different ways. And it's that challenge
Speaker 3: and grow that needs to be our goal every interesting.
Speaker 2: I've got so many notes of things I've got to
Speaker 2: talk with you about. But we're going to take some
Speaker 2: more cause I'm just going to write down another one
Speaker 2: about it about you know, the difference between routine, which
Speaker 2: is valuable as well, and breaking that routine. But tell
Speaker 2: you what, let's take another call Ross.
Speaker 8: Hello, I love your couple of ideas about brushing your
Speaker 8: teeth with the other hands. And and I do a
Speaker 8: little bit of work on computer, and I have from
Speaker 8: time to time used by left hand.
Speaker 3: Oh you're a man. You're a man after my own heart.
Speaker 3: I do month on month off. I changed my mouth
Speaker 3: from one side to the other each month. The first
Speaker 3: first couple of days of the month with the left
Speaker 3: hand are pretty gnarly, but it's amazing how quickly your
Speaker 3: brain adapts.
Speaker 9: Yeah, okay, and I will do this staff as well.
Speaker 9: I am wondering what your thoughts are about the role
Speaker 9: of new tropics brain house and supporting brain Now what's that?
Speaker 2: What's the word neotropics? Did you say? How did you
Speaker 2: just drop out there? What was that again? Ross? Say
Speaker 2: it again?
Speaker 9: Just coming up the Bombay Hill, I c s.
Speaker 3: I don't know actually neotropics in so I I as
Speaker 3: a brain fit coach, I I am I don't have
Speaker 3: an opinion on any of the kind of vitamins, neotropics,
Speaker 3: you know, medical interventions, et cetera. Our programs are purely
Speaker 3: based around lifestyle factors that anyone can adapt to their
Speaker 3: own lifestyle without masses of increased expense. I think one
Speaker 3: of the key things that I would always be mindful
Speaker 3: of when it comes to any of the kind of
Speaker 3: supplements or the products that are targeted at lots of
Speaker 3: different health and wellbeing, but particular brain and memory, is
Speaker 3: that just be very very mindful of the science that
Speaker 3: goes over them.
Speaker 2: The term it's the term that is refers. It's basically
Speaker 2: about chemicals that meet specific criteria, new tropics, so it's
Speaker 2: cognitive enhancers or smart drugs. So I just the questions
Speaker 2: do they work and are they safe? And it might
Speaker 2: be a little bit beyond the scope of.
Speaker 3: Our it is I'm not, as I say, I'm not
Speaker 3: an expert, but I also need to be careful about
Speaker 3: you endorsing certain products. But there is what we do know,
Speaker 3: and what our neuro scientist who's part of the brain
Speaker 3: Fit team continually reiterates to us is that the majority
Speaker 3: of everything your brain and memory needs you can get
Speaker 3: from a balanced, healthy diet, and so that's the key.
Speaker 3: If you're using the supplement to make up for things
Speaker 3: that you're not getting in your diet, then that's one thing.
Speaker 3: But actually everything our brain and memory needs can come
Speaker 3: to us quite happily through a healthy, balanced diet. And
Speaker 3: there are certain foods that are definitely much better for
Speaker 3: brain and memory than others.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: A massive one is around hydration. Staying hydrated is unbelievably important.
Speaker 3: If you are just one percent dehydrated, your brain is
Speaker 3: five percent less effective. Now, actually it's massive.
Speaker 2: I think glass of water if you're feeling tired. Maybe
Speaker 2: if you feel like a coffee. Sure, But by the way,
Speaker 2: on the neotropic thing, I just done a bit of
Speaker 2: a couple of science websites that I rely on for
Speaker 2: some good and basically there's no strong evidence that they
Speaker 2: actually do anything. However, they do think that the neotropics,
Speaker 2: if you've taken, you think you're going to be fantastic.
Speaker 2: The cognitive effect from the placebo effect. It's a bit
Speaker 2: like saying negative and positive reinforcement.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm not I'm certainly not anti taking vitamins, supplements,
Speaker 3: et cetera. If you believe they're working for you. This
Speaker 3: comes back down to the self belief. If you believe
Speaker 3: they're making a difference for you, brilliant. But actually what
Speaker 3: we know through science is that it shouldn't be necessary
Speaker 3: if you are getting a balanced, healthy diet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so sorry, we couldn't we If we get we
Speaker 2: get some more info on that, we'll have a chat
Speaker 2: about that another time. A ross, So good on you.
Speaker 2: I tell you what we need to be Take a
Speaker 2: quick moment, we'll come back and just a ticket. There's
Speaker 2: ten minutes to five, do you know?
Speaker 5: No long.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to the show. Part of me was
Speaker 2: the thinking, what the hell is this? But apparently this
Speaker 2: is hip right now, so I'm not hip showing your age, Yes,
Speaker 2: I am now whe this is that we can collect
Speaker 2: and my guess is Jude Walter, it's the health Hub. Jude.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to just discuss routine because the things
Speaker 2: you talk about is it's about doing things differently, almost
Speaker 2: in a way breaking routine. Is there a better way
Speaker 2: of looking at routine because routine is also important for
Speaker 2: kids and all that sort of stuff, and.
Speaker 3: Well, actually having a routine around your own brain health
Speaker 3: is equally important. So I'm not anti routine. What I'm
Speaker 3: I guess encouraging you to do is not thinking of
Speaker 3: routine as something that is the same doing exactly the
Speaker 3: same thing every day, you know. So if you have
Speaker 3: a routine that you get up and go for a
Speaker 3: walk every morning, brilliant, But maybe don't do the same
Speaker 3: walk on the exact same loop every morning. Choose a
Speaker 3: different loop a couple of mornings a week. Even something
Speaker 3: as simple as as doing a loop around the block
Speaker 3: in reverse. So instead of going out your front gain
Speaker 3: and going to the left, go out your front gate
Speaker 3: and go to the right. It'll still take you the
Speaker 3: same amount of time to do your loop around the block,
Speaker 3: but you'll actually see things from a different perspective. You
Speaker 3: will notice things that you've never noticed before. So yeah,
Speaker 3: absolutely routine is good, but just get variety, don't. Or
Speaker 3: if you always do the saduku in the paper in
Speaker 3: the morning, that's going to be good exercise for your brain,
Speaker 3: but it's not necessarily going to challenge and grow your brain,
Speaker 3: because what we're wanting to do that challenge and grow
Speaker 3: is all about growing new neural pathways and so by
Speaker 3: you know, if you always do the taduku, maybe once
Speaker 3: a week do the crossword or the cryptic crossword or
Speaker 3: the creat code cracker. Just do something different just to
Speaker 3: get that variety of stimulation.
Speaker 2: It's interesting even on people who do there more, you know,
Speaker 2: who commute to work and you've got a pattern of
Speaker 2: what you notice and what you look at and the
Speaker 2: view you like. I sometimes do try and tell myself
Speaker 2: to look at the view in a different way or
Speaker 2: focus on something different, just to see if I can
Speaker 2: change my perspective on something. I don't know why I
Speaker 2: do that, but it's just I guess it's just playing
Speaker 2: around with my thoughts and having time to think about it.
Speaker 3: I might it's probably sacrilege saying this on radio, but
Speaker 3: you know, if you are in the car and you
Speaker 3: do have the same oh no, outrageous, Well you but
Speaker 3: choose a different I can you what's going to say?
Speaker 3: You could choose a different station. But it doesn't even
Speaker 3: have to be like that. If you want to listen to,
Speaker 3: you know, a different presenter, a different you know, you
Speaker 3: listen to one of them on.
Speaker 2: The earlier there you go listen to a news talks
Speaker 2: the podcast instead of too you know, and you can
Speaker 2: listen to our podcast of course by going to iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Just look for the Weekend Collective. By the way, if
Speaker 2: you want to check out Jude Walter, because the time
Speaker 2: is upon us, go to brainfit dot world. If you're
Speaker 2: interested in the books, if you put news Talk into
Speaker 2: the when you're buying it, you'll get you'll get a
Speaker 2: discount of about fifty percent. So there you go. Anyway, Hey, thanks,
Speaker 2: nice to see again.
Speaker 3: Jud to see you too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll look forward to next time. We will
Speaker 2: be back with smart Money, Ben Brinkerhof. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about Kiwi Saber, lots of things about Kiwi Saber.
Speaker 2: That's as much as the teas as I'm going to do.
Speaker 2: We'll be back in just Tom I love you, So,
Speaker 2: I love you, So, I love you so, Please don't go.
Speaker 2: I love you, I love you, so, I love you so.
Speaker 6: I love you so.
Speaker 1: For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Speaker 1: Talks it'd be weekends from three pm, or follow the
Speaker 1: podcast on iHeartRadio.