Speaker 1: Goody everybody.
Speaker 2: Sam here with another episode of the Good Life. Now
Speaker 2: I am sounding a bit croaky, and it's not because
Speaker 2: I've had a big weekend, I promise you it is.
Speaker 2: I had my four year old's birthday party, so we
Speaker 2: had a rainbow unicorn slime party, which was nineteen kinder
Speaker 2: kids making their own green slime and purple soap.
Speaker 1: And then I went off to the footy.
Speaker 2: And my beloved Hawks had a very unanticipated wins and
Speaker 2: I think I was cheering a bit too loudly, So
Speaker 2: that's why I'm a little bit croaky, just to give
Speaker 2: you guys a bit.
Speaker 1: Of background knowledge.
Speaker 2: But hopefully I'm not doing the majority of the talking today,
Speaker 2: so that should be okay. Because we've got the incredible
Speaker 2: Gema Lee who is coming on the show, who I
Speaker 2: have heard her explain our menstrual cycles in a way
Speaker 2: that is different to anyone before. Whether your male or female,
Speaker 2: or it's for you or for someone, doesn't matter. Stick around,
Speaker 2: listen to this, You'll absolutely love. And then I'm going
Speaker 2: to tackle some of your food questions, which we get
Speaker 2: a lot of on the show, so hang around for that.
Speaker 1: Afterwards.
Speaker 2: It's all coming up next on the Woode. I am
Speaker 2: joined in the studio today by menstrual cycle expert, qualified
Speaker 2: natural fertility educator and creator of Welsome, which is a
Speaker 2: business that helps women with their menstrual cycle and period.
Speaker 2: Gemially welcome to the wood life. And when I get
Speaker 2: asked about this a lot, and I have done probably
Speaker 2: for fifteen years, even as a personal trainer, And the
Speaker 2: thing that I always found was most women that I
Speaker 2: were working with to help them with their fitness were
Speaker 2: working this out for themselves without any expert guidance. Most
Speaker 2: of them were solving the puzzle of what do I
Speaker 2: do or how do I do it around my menstrual
Speaker 2: cycle from an exercise perspective, based on trial and error,
Speaker 2: and they were kind of working out of this works
Speaker 2: for me planned over a decade. So I'd love to
Speaker 2: learn from you, first of all about the different stages
Speaker 2: of our menstrual cycle, and then from an exercise specifically
Speaker 2: perspective or just movement in general, what are your rules
Speaker 2: around how we should move our bodies train our bodies
Speaker 2: during these different cycles.
Speaker 3: This is a really great question. Thanks Sam. Your spot
Speaker 3: on that these are not really topics that have been
Speaker 3: talked about for a long time in history, and I
Speaker 3: think they've been really shunned and shamed for so long,
Speaker 3: and so we're really starting to have a big percentage
Speaker 3: of and I call them menstruators or born women, really
Speaker 3: starting to be like, hang on a second, you're experiencing
Speaker 3: the same thing I'm experiencing, Like, how can we haven't
Speaker 3: spoken about this, you know, for the first ten years
Speaker 3: by menstrual lives. And I just want to remind everybody
Speaker 3: who's listening to this, regardless of whether you're a male
Speaker 3: or a woman or however you identify, like, you exist
Speaker 3: because you were created through a menstrual cycle. And so
Speaker 3: I'm a really passionate educator for all genders because men
Speaker 3: need education just as much as women do. Whilst it's
Speaker 3: the female experience for women when it comes to sport
Speaker 3: and movement and exercise, is that really a lot of
Speaker 3: these sports that people are really into, we're created for
Speaker 3: men by men. And the reason why that is is
Speaker 3: because men are very stable and so they're an easy
Speaker 3: subject to study. And when we think about that, men
Speaker 3: run on what I educate as a twenty four hour clock.
Speaker 3: So most men like to eat the same thing daily
Speaker 3: for breakfast or the same thing for lunch or the
Speaker 3: same thing for dinner. They like to kind of stick
Speaker 3: within their norms. They find what exercise routine works for them,
Speaker 3: and they're like, got a down pat, We're just going
Speaker 3: to keep doing this. And what we've found over the
Speaker 3: last twenty thirty years in diet culture, we started to
Speaker 3: recognize that women couldn't sustain a diet in inverted brackets
Speaker 3: like men could. And the reason why is because they
Speaker 3: run on this what we call a full week or
Speaker 3: a twenty eight day twenty nine day cycle, and so
Speaker 3: every day is different for them. We're trying to push
Speaker 3: against what's actually the norm, and that actually looks like
Speaker 3: us swimming up the river or swimming against the rip
Speaker 3: in the ocean, and instead of going with the flow
Speaker 3: of what actually suits our body, and so so many
Speaker 3: more men's durators are like, hang on a second, but
Speaker 3: this doesn't feel right. And so I think we're starting
Speaker 3: to really have more open conversations and that's really empowering,
Speaker 3: but also it's really daunting. And so what I hear
Speaker 3: a lot sam women who were like, and I hope
Speaker 3: you don't mind if I swear no, no at all,
Speaker 3: But a lot of women are like, why the fuck
Speaker 3: wasn't I taught this at school? And why has it
Speaker 3: been twenty years or why have I had three kids?
Speaker 3: And I'm entering my premenopause or time in my life
Speaker 3: and I'm only just discovering this ability to adapt and
Speaker 3: live in tune with my cycle. And this can be
Speaker 3: really confronting for a lot of people. And something I
Speaker 3: love about training and sport is I was the tomboy,
Speaker 3: you know. I grew up surfing and skateboarding and playing
Speaker 3: basketball and doing all the boys things and used to
Speaker 3: wear you know, baseball cap to bed. So for me,
Speaker 3: when I got my menstruation for the first time at
Speaker 3: fifteen and a half, like what we would consider a
Speaker 3: late bloomer, like, I didn't want to be a girl,
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't want to have to deal with that.
Speaker 3: And so we had an error or where a lot
Speaker 3: of women were happy to not menstruate, they were happy
Speaker 3: to go on hormonal contraception, that were happy to not
Speaker 3: talk about it, whereas fast forward to today, we have
Speaker 3: a lot of young menstruaders and women who were starting
Speaker 3: to be like, hang on a second, is this normal?
Speaker 2: Is this right?
Speaker 3: What's going on? And so when it comes to like
Speaker 3: a sports perspective and movement perspectives, that our hormonal structure
Speaker 3: is completely different and because of that, how we move
Speaker 3: can feel different at different times of our cycle. And
Speaker 3: so when we start to educate women about that, they
Speaker 3: can really start to feel empowered that like, oh, that's
Speaker 3: why that day I just did not want to go
Speaker 3: to the gym. You know, my trainer was telling me
Speaker 3: to do this thing and I just couldn't think of
Speaker 3: anything worse. And looking at the cycle is actually there's
Speaker 3: huge underlying keys there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it is an uncomfortable thing. Potentially, I
Speaker 2: understand why it is hard for people to speak about.
Speaker 1: But then even just hearing you and I can.
Speaker 2: See the breakthroughs you must have with people like you
Speaker 2: must have so many people have this epiphany of oh,
Speaker 2: why didn't I just talk about this hard topic earlier
Speaker 2: and would have made such a difference to my life. So, Jemma,
Speaker 2: explain the four stages of the menstrual cycle to me,
Speaker 2: because I actually don't don't understand those four cycles and
Speaker 2: I need to really go back to basics, which I'm
Speaker 2: sure many of our listeners do.
Speaker 3: Okay, So the easiest way to explain them, and it
Speaker 3: is the foundation, literally is I always like to link
Speaker 3: the four phases of the menstrual cycle with the four
Speaker 3: phases of the seasons of the year. And I find
Speaker 3: that's the easiest way because every single person knows what
Speaker 3: summer's like, and every single person knows what's wins is like.
Speaker 3: And when we think of the menstrual cycle, the first
Speaker 3: thing I want to highlight is that when I ask
Speaker 3: this question in like a pre assessment form for a
Speaker 3: new client, or I ask this in schools, is most
Speaker 3: people think the cycle is actually their men's duration. So
Speaker 3: they think, when I'm bleeding, I'm on my cycle. But
Speaker 3: your cycle is actually from day one of men's duration
Speaker 3: through to the next day one of men's duration, So
Speaker 3: it's actually a much longer timeframe. So the menstrual time
Speaker 3: of your cycle, a healthy men's duration is anywhere from
Speaker 3: like three to five days in length. You might not
Speaker 3: bleed all of those days. You might bleed, say the
Speaker 3: first two to three, and then you have some spotting days.
Speaker 3: That's what we consider the first phase of your cycle,
Speaker 3: and that's mens duration. We link that season with winter.
Speaker 3: I love to ask, you know, well, what is it
Speaker 3: you like to do in winter? How do you feel
Speaker 3: in winter? And most people respond with I don't really
Speaker 3: want to go out. I'm much less you know, much
Speaker 3: less social. I like to just you know, cook more
Speaker 3: warm foods. I like to be a bit more of
Speaker 3: a hermit. I like, you know, I withdraw myself a
Speaker 3: little bit and I'm more of a homebody in winter.
Speaker 3: That's what our ments duration is like this particular I
Speaker 3: call it the inner season, So the inner winter. I
Speaker 3: like to refer to them as the seasons of the
Speaker 3: animals too. So winter is like the bear season, Like
Speaker 3: you're a bear. How do bears move in winter? You know?
Speaker 3: They move? So everything of training, this menstrual time is
Speaker 3: really about slowness. It's about restoration, Like this is the
Speaker 3: taper season for an athlete. So this is what the
Speaker 3: bears want. They want nurture, love and care. And so
Speaker 3: when we're menstruating, the hardest challenge that women face is
Speaker 3: that we live in a very patriarchal world and we're
Speaker 3: very much encouraged to like, oh, anything you can do,
Speaker 3: I can do bleeding, and so it's it's like this
Speaker 3: unhealthy feminism. So I always encourage women that if you're
Speaker 3: menstruating challenge yourself. Like, people will take three days off
Speaker 3: the gym to go to all wedding for a friend.
Speaker 3: That's like a getaway weekend. But they won't take three
Speaker 3: days off to menstruate. And so you can last three
Speaker 3: days for a good celebration at a wedding. But what
Speaker 3: about when you're menstruating, Like, what if The challenge here
Speaker 3: is what if whilst you were menstruating, your body was
Speaker 3: calling for so much care that it meant that you
Speaker 3: could peek and perform better at other times of your cycle.
Speaker 3: But that's the first phase of our seasons of our cycle.
Speaker 3: It's a really good simple introduction. Now the second phase
Speaker 3: is spring. Every woman knows what it's like to menstruate,
Speaker 3: and then a day or two after they finish mensterating
Speaker 3: and they're like, oh my god, I'm back, and you
Speaker 3: start to have this what I call like the dolphin
Speaker 3: attitude where you feel really creative, you feel really joyful
Speaker 3: and expressive. And so this phase of your cycle, in
Speaker 3: the medical terms, they would say this is postminstruation or preovulation,
Speaker 3: and this spring time is where out in the hormonal
Speaker 3: structure our body is starting to become fertile again. So
Speaker 3: where we have esogen rising, estrogen is a confidence hormone.
Speaker 3: As esogen rises, we are literally more playful, we're more creative,
Speaker 3: we are more actionable. So this is a really great
Speaker 3: time of the cycle to try something new because you
Speaker 3: have confidence is going to support your decisions and also
Speaker 3: the new changes. So this dolphin season is literally like
Speaker 3: a dolphin. You're splashing around. It's like rainbows and butterflies.
Speaker 3: And think about the outer seasons here when it's spring
Speaker 3: outside of us, and knowing that you and I both
Speaker 3: in winter. When spring arrives in september's here and then
Speaker 3: you know we're moving into October here in the Southern hemisphere,
Speaker 3: people start to just be more joyful, you know, people
Speaker 3: start to like come more alive and they want to
Speaker 3: do more things, be more social, have more picnics, have
Speaker 3: more get togethers. And that's how we are in our
Speaker 3: cycle too.
Speaker 2: It's a wonderful analogy. I mean, that's the positive of it,
Speaker 2: you know. So yes, there'll be times where you need
Speaker 2: to listen to your body and wine things down, But
Speaker 2: the flip side is there are times when you'll be
Speaker 2: able to ramp things up. In fact, it's an opportune
Speaker 2: moment to ramp things up. I've really needed this. This
Speaker 2: has been great. Okay, we come out of the dolphin stage.
Speaker 2: We're in spring.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming we now go into summer.
Speaker 3: Your assumption is correct. Okay, Summer is the season of ovulation.
Speaker 3: It's the shortest season of the cycle. Think about summer
Speaker 3: in the outer world. You know, when summer comes, it's like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, finally some warm weather. You've got days
Speaker 3: where you just want to be at the beach. The
Speaker 3: sun sets really late because the day late savings, and
Speaker 3: so in Chinese medicine, they actually call the summer season
Speaker 3: the fire season, and that's the season where you just
Speaker 3: want to do it all. Yeah, you have all this
Speaker 3: energy and you're like, Okay, I'm going to do this
Speaker 3: in the morning, and then I have this plan for
Speaker 3: lunchtime and the dinner we're going to do this, and
Speaker 3: then after dinner we're going to go see these people.
Speaker 3: And so summer is very much like that with your
Speaker 3: energy and the way that you train or move your
Speaker 3: body is that it's like the peak. This summer time
Speaker 3: is where if you are a female and you're a
Speaker 3: mens strator, not on homon or birth control. But if
Speaker 3: you are a mens durator and you were trying to
Speaker 3: improve your speed, your agility, or your weightlifting, this is
Speaker 3: the time that you want to really peak or aim
Speaker 3: to peak for that in your session. So let's just
Speaker 3: say you do group training. This is the time you
Speaker 3: know in yourself to up to up your weights or
Speaker 3: to push yourself a little bit harder. So that summer
Speaker 3: time I call there's two animals for this time. The
Speaker 3: first one is the peacock. You know, women love showing
Speaker 3: themselves off at this season, and that's because their peak
Speaker 3: fertility is occurring at this particular time and they are
Speaker 3: putting themselves out there. That's when women want to be seen.
Speaker 3: They feel sassier, they feel sexier. I also sometimes call
Speaker 3: this the Beyonce phase because that's how you feel in summer.
Speaker 3: And the second animal is the lioness. Now, this is
Speaker 3: a really important important part here is the lioness phase
Speaker 3: is very much about the prow It's about the leadership,
Speaker 3: but it's also about the don't f and tell me
Speaker 3: what to do because I know my body so well.
Speaker 3: But I like to also share the lioness because a
Speaker 3: lot of women don't recognize that they can be a
Speaker 3: b tch sometimes too, And a lot of society says, well,
Speaker 3: that's when you're pre minstrual. However, if there is something
Speaker 3: underlying going on in your life and you haven't addressed it,
Speaker 3: let's just say you've had a challenging conversation with someone
Speaker 3: at work and they've been itching at you behind your
Speaker 3: back and you want to just tell them where to go.
Speaker 3: If you haven't dealt with that, when you have your
Speaker 3: peak of confidence and you're ready to show the world
Speaker 3: who you are, when you're ovulating, that side's going to
Speaker 3: come out too. And that's why I like to throw
Speaker 3: it in as the liones, is that you can really
Speaker 3: put your stance there. And so for people in heterosexual couples,
Speaker 3: is that this is where women are most likely going
Speaker 3: to convince their male partners to buy a house, or
Speaker 3: you know, let's get married on this particular day, or
Speaker 3: convince them of something that otherwise they wouldn't be as
Speaker 3: convincing in sharing. So this ovulatory time is where we're
Speaker 3: really full, like summer, and it can be hot, it
Speaker 3: can be fiery, and it only lasts three or four days,
Speaker 3: so it's quite a short season, but when you're aware
Speaker 3: of that and you're training PBS and all of that,
Speaker 3: it can be a really really powerful time.
Speaker 1: Love that.
Speaker 2: I mean, the animal analogy too, is just bloody brilliant.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 2: I really paint such a vivid bitchure.
Speaker 1: I love it all right, let's thank you, Let's do autumn.
Speaker 3: So autumn is the longest phase of the cycle for
Speaker 3: those who have a consistently healthy length cycle. But autumn
Speaker 3: is generally the longest. It's like eleven to fourteen days
Speaker 3: in length, so it's like around half the length of
Speaker 3: the cycle. In the medicine world or the medical world,
Speaker 3: we call that the louteal phase of the cycle, and
Speaker 3: that's because of the lutinizing hormone and progesterone. So this
Speaker 3: is the progesterone dominant part of the cycle. So we've
Speaker 3: gone from the first half being focused around estrogen, the
Speaker 3: second half flips and all of a sudden focused around progesterone.
Speaker 3: That progesterone cycle is really more analytical, it's more disruptive.
Speaker 3: We have a big peak and then we have a
Speaker 3: big dip, and so so this particular phase of your cycle,
Speaker 3: I call this the turtle phase. It's where you're like,
Speaker 3: you want to be out in the world, and then
Speaker 3: you don't want to be out of the world. You
Speaker 3: want to be out in the world, and then you
Speaker 3: don't want to be out in the world. And so
Speaker 3: after summer has finished, so Southern Hemispherians, this is where
Speaker 3: like February March comes and people like, I don't want
Speaker 3: to deal with autumn. I just want someone to keep going.
Speaker 3: I've loved summer, I love the heat, I love the fire.
Speaker 3: I just want this more. And so instead of them
Speaker 3: dealing with autumn, they go traveling overseas where it's hotter.
Speaker 3: And that's because a lot of the you know, the
Speaker 3: people in the world, unless you love the cold, avoid autumn.
Speaker 3: And so that's the same and said to be true
Speaker 3: in our mental cycle is that we've just gone through
Speaker 3: this huge lead up, like amazing spring and fantastic summer,
Speaker 3: and then we're like, oh, autumn, great, what do we
Speaker 3: do here? This is where you want to take your
Speaker 3: training and your movement outside, balancing with natural fresh air
Speaker 3: being on the ground. So whether it's on the beach
Speaker 3: or in a park, or going hiking or riding your bike,
Speaker 3: like being outside in the elements is very very grounding
Speaker 3: for women in their pre menstrual, post of litory, autumn
Speaker 3: phase of their cycle. So I call this at the
Speaker 3: long and strong movement. So this is where you are
Speaker 3: more likely to do, like if we use weights as
Speaker 3: an example, you're more likely to do maybe a heavier
Speaker 3: weight and less reps as opposed to light away and
Speaker 3: faster reps. And so this is where the body wants
Speaker 3: that long and strong style movement. And that's because our
Speaker 3: body is really getting all the things done in preparation
Speaker 3: for the bear to hibernate in the cave. And so
Speaker 3: when we think about the menstrual cave, we want to
Speaker 3: kind of get all the things done. So for women,
Speaker 3: this is where you might notice this in your wife.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to clean the cutlery drawer and then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, the whole kitchens redecorated, and you're like, what, Like,
Speaker 3: I was gone for five minutes, what just happened?
Speaker 1: So true?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so that's that same like our brain, So
Speaker 3: like the chemicals in our brain around these hormones are
Speaker 3: triggered about finishing everything off and preparing for our winter.
Speaker 3: And that's what harvesting and autumn's all about. So try
Speaker 3: to make at least a plan once a cycle, in
Speaker 3: this time of your cycle to go out in nature.
Speaker 3: And that's why I kind of call it that turtle phase.
Speaker 3: It's that in between both worlds as you get ready
Speaker 3: to transition into what we call the you know, the
Speaker 3: rebirth of the cycle, and that's where we get to
Speaker 3: literally taper. And I just want to wrap up by
Speaker 3: saying that, imagine if men every single four weeks they
Speaker 3: got an opportunity for three days to just veg the
Speaker 3: f out and not have to answer to anybody and
Speaker 3: not have to reply or respond or turn up like
Speaker 3: they would be much stronger, you know, supportive men. Women
Speaker 3: are the same. We are going to be stronger and
Speaker 3: supportive women if we get that time to nurture ourselves
Speaker 3: and allow ourselves to, you know, step into what do
Speaker 3: I need right now? And how am I going to
Speaker 3: support myself? And what would I do differently compared to
Speaker 3: last cycle. So I got round about this forever, but
Speaker 3: I think I think that's the summary you're looking for.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love it, and I keep thinking when you
Speaker 2: understand it, you can work with it so much better.
Speaker 2: If you don't understand it, which, to be honest, after
Speaker 2: twenty two years in the industry, until the last forty minutes,
Speaker 2: I didn't realize how little I did understand it. This
Speaker 2: analogy has been just brilliant.
Speaker 1: We'll leave it there, Gemma, as much as we could go,
Speaker 1: I'm sure.
Speaker 2: Down many many other rabbit holes and visit many other
Speaker 2: animals bears, dolphins, peacock's, lionessa's turtles and the life I've
Speaker 2: loved it. Where can our listeners find you? And where
Speaker 2: can they find out a bit more about what you do?
Speaker 2: Because I'm sure as much as you've helped thousands of
Speaker 2: people today, you've probably also spiked the interest of many
Speaker 2: of those as well.
Speaker 1: To find out a bit more? Where can people find you?
Speaker 3: Thanks Sam? The first step I actually recommend for everyone
Speaker 3: if you're listening to this the way to get to
Speaker 3: really know wh where am I in my cycle and
Speaker 3: what phase am I in? Is I actually have on
Speaker 3: my website it's a free menstrual cycle tracker. It's principal.
Speaker 3: It comes with video guides on the seasons on what like,
Speaker 3: how to use it, how to use it if you're
Speaker 3: on hormonal contraception, how to use it if you're pregnant,
Speaker 3: how to use it if you don't have your period
Speaker 3: at the moment for whatever medical or health reason. If
Speaker 3: you just go to Welson, which is we double L
Speaker 3: S O M E dot com forward slash l y
Speaker 3: C for Love your Cycle, and you're just it's a
Speaker 3: free download, so people can just get that access it
Speaker 3: as much as they want. Once you've got it, you
Speaker 3: can revisit and download as much as you want. But
Speaker 3: that's the best place to start. Welson Underscore GEMI Lee
Speaker 3: j E m A LW on Instagram. I love talking
Speaker 3: about this topic to all because it's it's it's awakening.
Speaker 3: People hear it and they're like, oh my god, I've
Speaker 3: been feeling this like. It's not a teaching, it's a remembering.
Speaker 3: So that's where they can find me to learn more.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much, Sam.
Speaker 2: Thank you so so much. I love that you've got
Speaker 2: that free resource on your website too. I'm sure many
Speaker 2: people go and check that out because that's part of
Speaker 2: the challenge.
Speaker 1: How long does each stage last? Where am I at?
Speaker 1: And all the different variables.
Speaker 2: So thank you so much for joining us on the
Speaker 2: good life, and I'm sure we'll speak again soon.
Speaker 3: You're welcome.
Speaker 2: That was really interesting, such an easy way for me,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure many of you to understand. And yes,
Speaker 2: I've got two girls where that's relevant in our household
Speaker 2: now two ladies, two women, But I've got three little
Speaker 2: ones too, So understanding it now and getting ahead of
Speaker 2: the curvers, I.
Speaker 1: Need to understand.
Speaker 2: This is a dad with something that I'll find really beneficial.
Speaker 2: I'm sure many of you, from your own perspective or
Speaker 2: from your partner's perspective put of too. We're now going
Speaker 2: to We're going to talk food. If I'm being honest,
Speaker 2: I think food is the most confusing part of getting
Speaker 2: into shape. There's so much information, misinformation, marketing, led information
Speaker 2: out there that everyone's trying to sell you the next
Speaker 2: big solution or quick fix. So we are going to
Speaker 2: dive in to your food questions and that's coming up
Speaker 2: next on the Woodluffe.
Speaker 1: It is food question time.
Speaker 2: And this is a really interesting one because I feel
Speaker 2: like the rise of organic food fifteen ten years ago,
Speaker 2: I used to get this question all of the time.
Speaker 2: I don't get as often now, but I think it's
Speaker 2: still a really important question to answer.
Speaker 3: What does it mean when certain foods claim to be organized.
Speaker 2: So before I give my opinion, and it is just
Speaker 2: an opinion, the definition of organic means that it has
Speaker 2: no exposure to pest aside or antibiotic exposure, and it
Speaker 2: hasn't been genetically modified. So you are getting food. I
Speaker 2: guess this is my now definition. I've moved away from
Speaker 2: the technical definition in its purest form. Now is that
Speaker 2: the best way to get your food?
Speaker 1: Yes, it is. Does it come at a literal price? Yes,
Speaker 1: it does, And.
Speaker 2: I guess that's the thing is, particularly in these really
Speaker 2: hard economic times, that organic food can be significantly more expensive,
Speaker 2: and so it's a real I guess way up of
Speaker 2: is it worth the extra cost if you can afford it, yes,
Speaker 2: I think you do it where it is practical to
Speaker 2: do so. If you can't afford it, because it is
Speaker 2: a significant uplift, I think you just need to still
Speaker 2: go back to the philosophy which I always live by,
Speaker 2: and that's.
Speaker 1: Are you eating real food?
Speaker 2: Are you still buying unprocessed, unpackaged food from the market,
Speaker 2: from the supermarket, fruits, vegetables, meats, whatever it might be
Speaker 2: in their simplest forms. The time is most of what
Speaker 2: you eat not highly processed packaged food. If the answer
Speaker 2: to that is yes, then that's holding you in good stead.
Speaker 2: If you can afford to take at one level further
Speaker 2: and you're buying those same foods in an organic form,
Speaker 2: well that's probably the best option, but of course it
Speaker 2: has to make sense economically, and I don't think that
Speaker 2: should be dismissed. Our next question is one that I'm
Speaker 2: sure this time of year many of us can relate to.
Speaker 4: Hey, Sam, I've been pretty much sick almost all of winter,
Speaker 4: and I'm just struggling to fully kick this cold and flu.
Speaker 4: I was just wondering what foods you'd recommend that I
Speaker 4: eat to try and get on top of it.
Speaker 2: So I'm sure most of us can relate to this question,
Speaker 2: particularly this time of year, and I'll put an extra
Speaker 2: particularly there, particularly if you have young kids. We have
Speaker 2: three little kids who are always coming back with some
Speaker 2: kind of sniffle.
Speaker 1: From kinder or prep or whatever it might be. But
Speaker 1: I guess there's two parts to this.
Speaker 2: There are foods that you can eat that are recommended
Speaker 2: to help you recover faster. So we're talking about chicken
Speaker 2: soups and broths and garlic and hot teas and honey
Speaker 2: and ginger and spicy foods, and then fruits, avocados, coarse
Speaker 2: green leafy vegetables, salmon. But I also think sometimes the
Speaker 2: damage is done by what we don't do proactively, because
Speaker 2: we tend to always look at how we eat with
Speaker 2: a magnifying glass once we've already fallen sick, and we
Speaker 2: perhaps haven't been taking care of ourselves or eating as
Speaker 2: healthily as well as we can, particularly during winter when
Speaker 2: we sort of crave these heavier, denser type foods. So
Speaker 2: the key is still get those greens in, still get
Speaker 2: those healthy, high antioxidant foods in in a proactive manner,
Speaker 2: not just once you fall sick and you'll get sick less,
Speaker 2: I absolutely believe that, but also sleep, exercise, you know,
Speaker 2: particularly rest. I think when we're run down through not
Speaker 2: eating as well as we can, we're just vulnerable. We're
Speaker 2: just the same sickness that we may have beaten can
Speaker 2: sometimes beat us.
Speaker 1: So the more.
Speaker 2: Proactive you can be, the better off you're going to be.
Speaker 2: But if you have already fallen sick, which I understand
Speaker 2: many of us are, in that case, I'll just race
Speaker 2: through the list again. Chicken soup, bros garlic, coconut water,
Speaker 2: hot tea honey, ginger, spicy foods, bananas, oatmeal is a
Speaker 2: really good one that didn't mention our oats, yogurt, certain
Speaker 2: fruits avocados, greefully and vegetables and salmon would be my
Speaker 2: top picks to have you bounce back when.
Speaker 1: You're feeling sick in winter as quickly as you can.
Speaker 3: Is there a certain number of fruit and veg that
Speaker 3: we should be eating every day or every week?
Speaker 1: So this is a really good question.
Speaker 2: You know, we're breaking it down across a week, remember
Speaker 2: not a day, so don't get too alarmed that this
Speaker 2: is in a day. This is across seven days, So
Speaker 2: four to five different foods a day, preferably because the
Speaker 2: magic number. And you may remember this from a previous
Speaker 2: episode that we did with the incredible Christiano Velis. She
Speaker 2: said that we should be adding thirty different fruits, vegetables, nuts,
Speaker 2: and whole grains across a week. Variety is important. Our
Speaker 2: body needs to get all the different vitamins and minerals
Speaker 2: and antioxidants and essential nutrients from our food. We want
Speaker 2: to spread our wings as wide as we can. I
Speaker 2: think embracing seasonality is a really good tip on that
Speaker 2: you know what in winter tastes great? Is in season
Speaker 2: is really accessible? Use the seasons to your benefit. But
Speaker 2: you know, maybe as a once off exercise, look back
Speaker 2: across a week and see how close to thirty you got.
Speaker 1: So how close.
Speaker 2: Did you get across a seven period to that magic
Speaker 2: number of thirty? And is it something you're typically getting
Speaker 2: close to and you probably don't need.
Speaker 1: To worry about, or are you a long way off.
Speaker 2: And you need to shake things up a little bit
Speaker 2: and add some more variety. Loved these questions coming in.
Speaker 2: I always love these business questions coming in. I love
Speaker 2: that we get food questions. As I said, I do
Speaker 2: think it's the most conflicting, confusing part of our health
Speaker 2: and it's the thing I get the most questions about
Speaker 2: for that reason. As always, please there's a link in
Speaker 2: the Woodlife inbox in the show notes. Love to hear
Speaker 2: from you with any questions at any time until next week.
Speaker 1: I'll see you later.