Click on NOTE CATEGORIES to browse by topic, read through the entire archives, or type a topic in the search box.In this episode, Katy and Jeannette continue the Move Your DNA annual tradition of reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the next. Through a series of questions Katy and Jeannette reflect on 2024, discuss movement goals for 2025, and invite you to play along. They explore moving through injury, menopause and how to keep progressing with age. They share their plans for 2025 and Katy provides novel strategies to help us all MOVE towards the goals we have for ourselves and our families.
Venn Design | Correct Toes | Movemate | Wildling | Peluva | Smart Playrooms
OVERVIEW
(time codes are approximate)
00:04:10 - The Dynamic Collective (Jump to section)
00:05:45 - The Questions 2024 (Jump to section)
Questions for Year-End Recap 2024
- What was your biggest health triumph or movement win? (Jump to question)
- What was the smartest health or movement decision you made in 2024 or your favorite movement choice? (Jump to question)
- What single word best sums up your 2024 health and movement experience? (Jump to question)
- What is the greatest lesson you learned about yourself this past year? (Jump to question)
- What was the most loving service you performed this year in 2024? (Jump to question)
- What was your biggest piece of unfinished health or movement business in 2024? (Jump to question)
- What movement goal or health goal are you most happy about completing in 2024? (Jump to question)
- Who are the three people that had the greatest impact in your health or movement this past year (Jump to question)
- What is the greatest health risk you took in 2024? (Jump to question)
- What was your biggest health surprise in 2024? (Jump to question)
- What important (movement or health) relationship improved most for you this last year? (Jump to question)
- What is a compliment that you would have liked to receive but didn't? (Jump to question)
- What compliment would you have liked to have given but didn’t? (Jump to question)
- What else do you need to say or do to be complete with 2024? (Jump to question)
00:49:00 Listener Question sponsored by Movemate (Jump to section)
00:55.35 Questions for 2025 (Jump to section)
Looking ahead to 2025
- What would you like to be your biggest health triumph or biggest movement win in 2025? (Jump to question)
- What health advice do you want to give yourself for 2025? (Jump to question)
- How are you going to change your movement or movement results in 2025? (Jump to question)
- What indulgence are you going to experience and what are you willing to do for that indulgence? (Jump to question)
- What would you most like to change about your health in 2025? (Jump to question)
- What are you going to learn in 2025? (Jump to question)
- What are you most committed to changing or improving in 2025?(Jump to question)
- What is one as yet underdeveloped talent that you are willing to or planning to explore this year? (Jump to question)
- Who are you most committed to loving and serving? (Jump to question)
- What is one word you would like to have as your movement theme for 2025? (Jump to question)
LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW
My Perfect Movement Plan Workbook
Exercise Advent and more Reels
Upcoming Psychology Book: I know I should Exercise But…
Episode #150 - Katy’s Foot Injury
Episode #157 - On Spicy Children
SPONSORS: THE DYNAMIC COLLECTIVE
This episode of The Move Your DNA podcast is brought to you by The Dynamic Collective, a group of six companies that create products and services helping you to move more. The Dynamic Collective is:
Peluva: Five-toe minimalist shoes that are functional and stylish. Peluva are offering our listeners 15% off their purchase with the code NUTRITIOUSMOVEMENT valid until April 2025
Wildling: Minimal footwear handmade from natural materials for toddlers, kids, and adults. Wildling is offering our listeners free shipping on all purchases until April 2025 with the code KATYWILDLINGS
Smart Playrooms: Design and products for active living indoors. Smart Playrooms is offering our listeners a 10% discount on monkey bars, rock wall panels, and rock wall holds with the code DNA10 valid until April 2025
Correct Toes: Anatomic silicone toe spacers and other foot rehabilitation tools. Correct Toes are offering our listeners a $5 discount on all purchases with the code myd-toes5 valid until April 2025
Movemate: World's first dynamic active standing board designed to make movement a natural part of your workday, without disrupting your workflow!
Venn Design: Functional furniture for a balanced life - sit still less and move more
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
(Theme music)
This is the Move Your DNA podcast, a show where movement science meets your everyday life. I'm Katy Bowman, biomechanist, author, and I am not a journaler. And I'm Jeannette Loram, biologist, movement teacher, and I just turned 50, so reflection seems particularly appropriate this year. Every body is welcome here. Let's get started!
(music fades)
KATY: Ok. Welcome.
JEANNETTE: So, Katy?
KATY: Yeah?
JEANNETTE: You have been doing this end of year recap, look forward to the next year for how many years now?
KATY: I don't know. So many! So many years. I'd have to go back ... I mean, at least I did it in writing form early on and then Dani, my first podcast host, years ago she and I used to do it. And then we took a couple year break and then we came back on and have done it again the last couple of years. And now here we are doing it together. And it's this set of questions that we're doing - you can go get a set of questions on the show notes for this episode. You can download those. I said at the beginning of the episode I'm not a journaler. I reflect a lot. But there's something about answering a specific question that makes you really think. If you're listening and you generally follow along and you think "oh I think my answer could kind of be this" but when someone is putting you on the spot to convert it into words or in this case I think we both have pieces of paper where we've written down...
JEANNETTE: Yes.
KATY: ...it really changes the way your mind processes the thing that you're trying to think about. And I left a note saying as much in the beginning of the workbook that I wrote recently, of why isn't this an app? Because the process of holding yourself to an answer - to actually come up with the words to synthesize the thought and write it down, I think it makes it easier for your brain to solve an issue.
JEANNETTE: I think so. And actually I find writing by hand even more powerful than typing on my computer. There's something about that putting pen to paper. I have my written notes. So do grab a notebook, a pen, and some nice festive beverage and you can join us and just play along.
KATY: You could actually use this as guided journaling exercise. Or you can just actually go out and exercise and listen. We don't judge. Whatever works for you works for us. So the questions are broken into two sections. We're basically reflecting on 2024 and then we're looking ahead to 2025. And these questions that I got over a decade ago were not necessarily pertaining to movement. We sort of converted them around. You could answer these about just your life in general. But we've focused them on thinking about the physical aspects of your life in answering them in that way. So sometimes they're a bit oddly worded because we forced movement into the otherwise...
JEANNETTE: Yes. Yes. And some of the answers are sort of - you could have similar answers.
KATY: Yeah.
JEANNETTE: So bear that in mind too.
KATY: And also, Jeannette, because this is your first time doing this podcast ... Dani and I would feel very comfortable going "We're not going to answer that. I don't have an answer for that." So if you feel like there's anything that you don't feel like answering, you don't have to.
KATY: We want this to be a positive experience. Before we get started, you have probably us recently starting to thank our new Dynamic Collective. And these are smaller companies that have come together to become one podcast sponsors group. It's just sort of my way, I don't know if people know this about me. I'm not a big purchaser. I don't like big advertising. I don't really like to self promote or market. I just am trying to do things in a different way. So this was my attempt - we need podcast sponsorship. It's expensive to put out a podcast. So we need the sponsorship. But instead of just putting an ad, we want you to get to know some of these companies over time. They're all companies that we use and love. They're all movement specific. So, our Dynamic Collective is made up of: Movemate - these are dynamic, active standing boards. Wildling - minimal footwear handmade from natural materials. Correct Toes - these are anatomic silicone toe spacers. Venn Design - functional furniture helping you move more. Smart Playrooms - design and products for active living indoors. And Peluva - five toe minimalist shoes that are functional and stylish. Thank you for supporting this podcast. Let's get to our questions! So 2024.
KATY: I think it was my long walk. I think it's the long walk, the Hadrian's Wall that I did. And I call it a triumph because you can go back and listen to that full episode that we did on it. I hadn't trained. It was the idea of well, I keep myself just with day to day consistent movement rich lifestyle. Strong enough to do something that's fairly athletic. So that was a triumph for me. What about you?
JEANNETTE: I wouldn't quite call mine triumph. I'm definitely going to call it a win though. I would say moving through the menopausal transition. It was rocky. But I feel like I'm coming through the other side. And movement was a big part of how I navigated it. Which we might get into later. So I would call that a win.
KATY: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely I would.
KATY: Returning to the basics. Returning to basic mobility. So you you have to pick a focus. I really think we're always picking a focus whether we know it or not. And I had focused on long distance walking for a long time. But we're usually playing with about the same amount of time. And so as I prioritize other things, I could just feel parts of me become stiffer. And even though I still carve out plenty of time - I would say other people would be like, "wow you do a lot of mobility work". But I just wanted to get into the nooks and crannies of my body in the way that I used to maybe 10 years ago. I mean even longer - 15 years ago. 16 years ago. And so a return to shining a light on that part of my movement plan was really helpful in that I just felt better.
JEANNETTE: Interesting.
KATY: No aches and pains.
JEANNETTE: Right. And did that come out through your writing of My Perfect Movement Plan or was it something that, like you said, was kind of organic - just happened. It was what your body was craving.
KATY: I made some other movement changes based on writing My Perfect Movement Plan but that switch to mobility work came from my foot injury.
JEANNETTE: Ah, yes.
KATY: It was actually being in pain. Being injured was like, oh right, I forgot that sort of the general preventive watering as far as injuring goes really depends on making sure all these little hinges are supple. And strong too. But it's hard to get strength in there without those ranges of motions. I like to do movements that get both at the same time. But prioritizing that was definitely in hindsight.
JEANNETTE: Yeah. Very interesting.
KATY: What about you?
JEANNETTE: I actually think it's doing more cooking and more food shopping for me. So I don't know how it is in your house but my husband and I, we fall into patterns of doing certain chores. And I seem to do all the laundry and he's better at shopping. I don't like driving, so I resist going to the shops. And I also, I get in trouble because I never seem to buy enough food.
KATY: Yeah. Right. We've heard that - this is a theme.
JEANNETTE: Yeah it really is. The kids don't like it when I shop. But I, differently from the rest of my family, I don't eat meat. I risk finding the - my husband had prepared something for them and cobbling together something at the last minute and not really taking as much care. So I have tried to take on more of that role and cook things that I think everyone should eat. And if they want to add meat to it, they can. And I certainly feel better for that.
KATY: Right. Yeah. Not just licking the plates of everyone else hoping to get enough sustenance for yourself. And enjoyment, what's that?
JEANNETTE: Yeah.
KATY: And I'm a big fan of the bowls meal where everyone can add. Because when you start trying to please everyone's either nutritional needs or preferences, you can quickly go bonkers. So I'm a big fan of just having seven or eight little bowls of things and then people can add exactly what they want and need. And then I can make exactly what I want. It's just a win win. It's a win-win.
JEANNETTE: We do a lot of things like deconstructed sushi where we have the rice and people can pick their protein. I felt, this past year, I really needed to take a handle on that. So, that was a good decision.
KATY: I love that you're taking care of yourself - making something that you enjoy too.
JEANNETTE: Yeah.
KATY: That's great.
KATY: Well the word is going to be just as boring as it actually felt. And that's just: consistent. I was very consistent this year. Which isn't - you know sometimes it can be "outside" or "super strong" and my word this year was just "consistent". I was consistent.
JEANNETTE: I love it and you'll see why later. It has some relevance to me. Can I have two?
KATY: Of course. These are guidelines.
JEANNETTE: So mine was: Up and Down.
KATY: Ok interesting. Tell me about that.
JEANNETTE: I actually started in, let me think, in 2023, I started experiencing abdominal pain. A new kind of thing for me. Now, as I look back, I think what it is a very old injury with a newer injury. And then the kind of menopause chaos of digestive changes, neurological changes, pain sensitivity. That's my interpretation. There's nothing terribly wrong with me medically, so that's my best guess. But it was a struggle, as anyone with recurring chronic pain will attest to. It's a struggle. But, movement was actually how I dealt with it. I found my discomfort would come on after periods of no activity. So one position for a long period of time. And movement was how I got out of it. So, gentle, like walking, swimming, and I developed a little series of tension relieving abdominal and hip exercises which could kind of just deal with it. So I feel like it was a year that I was dealing with this for the whole time, but the trajectory of it is now definitely on the up.
KATY: That's great.
JEANNETTE: Yeah.
KATY: You're making it through.
KATY: That I have, I'm not phrasing this correctly, but that I have an end. I've always really felt endless in terms of energy, physicality. I've never really felt a cap to that before. And I feel a cap now.
JEANNETTE: Interesting.
KATY: I'm like, I'm at the borders. Feeling like you could walk forever across the landscape that never ends and then you come to like, "oh there's the cliff." Or there's the thick dense forest that I can't penetrate. So yeah. I discovered that I, in fact, do have an end to my capacity.
JEANNETTE: You are mortal after all.
KATY: I have never thought about it in those terms, but always just thought if I got enough rest and had good energy, and fed myself well that it was sort of an endless resource. But I was able to actually blaze through my resources. So whether I have just done more than I ever have before, which I think it is, versus I physiologically am no longer able to replenish, which I don't think it is. But I know it's got to be either one of those things or a little bit of both. I really still feel like it has more to do with the situations of my life than my physicality. I think it would be easy for me to say "oh I'm just older. I'm in menopause now" or perimenopause and that's affected my ability to replenish. And arguably it could be some of that. But if I hadn't seen such an elevation in my life in things that I was climbing over, I do not think I would have the same physical experience now. So anyway I have an end.
JEANNETTE: Ok. Lovely. I think this time of life is often like that though, isn't it? That you're dealing with maybe you think it's perimenopause but actually your responsibilities at this age seem to be increasing rather than decreasing.
KATY: And the world also too. Our roles in life and then there's just the arcade that I am in has never been louder with clangier bells. It's just a massive infrastructure that I'm trying to scale every day. And it's exhausting. And I think that - I don't think that my body has as much to do with it as ... I think it's gracious to think that, I think. And also because what are you supposed to do about the arcade? It's very hard to pair down the arcade. But I do recognize that that is actually where the primary solution lies.
JEANNETTE: Where the issue is.
KATY: Yeah or at least it requires - pairing down the arcade requires as much attention as me beefing up my physicality.
JEANNETTE: Right.
KATY: I can't get through it with just - I can't put on 30 pounds of muscle and expect to climb the arcade. I think that's putting a lot of my energy in the wrong direction. I'm gonna pair down and I'll beef up a little bit.
JEANNETTE: Yeah. Lots of food for thought for me there too. Ok, what did I put here? I'm looking at my notes now. Oh, yes! So, I learned that I really need to get out of my head sometimes and stop overanalyzing. And this relates to a little bit to the previous answer that when I was trying to deal with this pain issue that I was experiencing, in the past I'd always been able to cognitively figure out what the issue was. It was either obvious or I could figure it out. And so I could see the solution. And for me, understanding an issue is part of how I'm made. I'm like a dog with a bone. I'm like, "I need to figure this out and then I've got the solution." So I tried all my usual kind of - I was trying to figure it out. I was tracking things. I was tracking what I was eating. I was tracking what exercises I was doing. And nothing was falling out. The data was everywhere. I couldn't tie it to anything. So I remember the day I said, "I just have to stop with this." This might just be the way it is right now with my current stage of life. And I actually just need to take care of myself and do all the things. Stop taking things off the table. Stop saying maybe it's this food or it's this kind of movement and just put everything back on the table and look after myself. And do the things that I love and that I feel good. I'd already figured out these things that relieved my discomfort so I'm like, "You have the tools. Just uses them." And since then, things have improved.
KATY: I love that.
JEANNETTE: I just needed to talk to myself and say, "Enough." Let's just get on. So that was my learning. experience.
KATY: I have so much to say about that but it could be its own episode and I know this one is short.
KATY: Raising puppies.
JEANNETTE: Oh! Of course!
KATY: That was just 24 hours a day. It was like having 8 newborns and also taking care of my own beloved dog at the same time. From the midwifery to seeing them all into their homes but still monitoring them and making sure everyone's got the support that they need. I'm still in it. Hands down that was the most intense thing that I have ever done. In a short period of time. You know, raising human children and I've worked on bigger projects of service but this was a lot of dedication.
JEANNETTE: Yeah.
KATY: Hand raising them, I would say. Really being concerned that they all had that optimal beginning.
JEANNETTE: Because that is so important for socializing, for health, for all these getting people to handle them even. That's really important. I can appreciate 8 weeks of chaos.
KATY: Well, we kept them for 12.
JEANNETTE: Oh, that's right.
KATY: Because that's actually the better recommended thing at this point - is that they actually need, I mean we just did a dog episode. We could do a puppy episode. And recognizing oh they can't be walking around on slippery surfaces. You know dogs on slippery surfaces is not good. I wrote that article, remember years ago, about babies and onesies. My toddlers and emerging walkers and how that’s slippery for them. Only to find out that that's also an issue for dogs. Especially when they go from crawling, wiggling around like moles, to being able to come up off the ground they need that traction. And so if they're in a place where the blankets are slipping or they're in a slippery form, they need vitamin texture. They need traction and to set them up so they can be outside and have that den feel but be covered and supported. Make sure that the ground was clean for them but also that they were protected from above. It was so much. It was a wonderful learning experience. It was wonderful for our whole family and our community. But it took a lot of work. It's what I did this summer. I didn't do hardly anything else.
JEANNETTE: But you got these beautiful puppies.
KATY: We did it. And great dogs.
JEANNETTE: And now they're set up to have a wonderful life.
KATY: And now she's spayed. Because it was wonderful and that was enough.
JEANNETTE: Yeah. And she's doing ok because it was recent? IS she doing ok?
KATY: She's wonderful.
JEANNETTE: That's probably good for her too. She's probably done with one. One 8 litter.
KATY: She's smart. That was great. That was great.
JEANNETTE: Now let's move on. Ok so I have to say I felt a lot of guilt when I read this question because in previous years I've done more service in my community. Live volunteer swim coach and things. Which I have left this year. So I'm going to say my most loving service was in my own home and it was as exam cheater. My eldest is going through - he's currently doing prelims for his Nat5s which is kind of the exams that people take in Scotland when they're 15-16. And I have done an awful lot of Math and Chemistry recently. English too. So yeah, I am official exam cheater.
KATY: The maths are different now. That's the one thing that I am challenged with. I'm like, "What are you learning?" Because I almost have a minor in math and actually applied for it but I achieved it. And so I'm fairly fluent in mathematics. And I have to, when I get a school math textbook, go figure out what this new process is. And I always find it so confusing.
JEANNETTE: I am so glad it's not just me.
KATY: No, it is not.
JEANNETTE: I wonder if it's because they have these very sophisticated calculators so they're doing things that I do not remember doing at that age. I mean, like you, I'm reasonably mathematical. I didn't do it at university but I did A level math. I think the terminology is different too. They'll say something to me. Surds, I heard for the first time. It's square roots of things. But I had not heard the expression. But I can figure it out.
KATY: I can figure it out too, but I don't have time to retake math. "Oh well here's this little shortcut". But it is all presented differently. Of course it's math in the same system. So it's not ultimately differently. But there's just tests or maybe they've figured out that processes are easier for a wider range of how people think so they're trying to change the language... I'm not exactly sure what is going on. But also to your point, yes, I think a lot of math sort of assumes that everyone will always have access to a calculator the whole time. And originally I would say math was all about the shortcuts to long processes of just learning how to think about a problem to be able to do it mostly by hand in an easy way. So yeah, that makes sense as the tools are different now.
JEANNETTE: The tools are different. And I do think, actually, that's what I found that's missing when I say to my kids, "Why are you doing this? What is the reason?" And they know the terminology but I'm like, "What's the point?" And I think they sometimes miss the point. So I feel like going through equations at a line almost tip me over the edge. Because I was doing it every couple of days. And then my eldest son, who's got a great sense of humor says, "But it's just taking less time each time you go through it." So that was my win. But I realize he didn't know why he was doing it.
KATY: Right. And I have found that too. There's a lot of computer based math here and it's just trying to plot things in. And I'm just like, "but don't you know rise over run?" And they say, "What are you talking about? That's old fashioned. That's from the 1900s." I'm like, "Stop saying that!" They like to call my time the 1900s. And I'm like, "Oh you are not getting anything you want for dinner. That's my punishment to you." Um, ok...
JEANNETTE: Math.
KATY: You're welcome everybody. You are welcome everybody in this movement podcast to hear about math. Our feelings about math.
KATY: Oh gosh. Unfinished business. I don't have one.
JEANNETTE: No?
KATY: No because I feel like I did all I could do. And so I'm letting myself off the hook of having anything that needed to be done.
JEANNETTE: I wanted to turn it around because I just want to say, "Menopause have you finally finished your business with me?" Because frankly I'm done. Can you be gone now?
KATY: Yes.
KATY: Well, this is a big goal. This is more like a parenting goal rather than a personal goal. I really can see the effects of a movement-rich family culture this year. You know as my kids transition into being young teenagers and just their language that they use around movement. It's like, "Oh I need to go move my body." They have this and I just feel really pleased that out of all the things that I had hoped for in parenting, and watched them all burn down, that this one is solid through line. You know, to watch everybody stretch in the evening if we're watching a movie. That everyone's doing something physical. It's just sort of in their fabric, their cultural fabric. And the pinnacle was this morning when my daughter, who doesn't like to get up early, it's like I need a crowbar to basically get her out of bed, to school in the morning asked me...
JEANNETTE: Hasn't she always been that way?
KATY: She's always been that way. She's the night owl. She likes to sleep and she's the night owl. Party all the time. And she asked, "Can we go to the gym early in the morning at 6:30 before school?" And I said, "Sure. set your alarm and I'll be up." And I heard her alarm go off and she came out and said, "Oh bed is so comfortable. I'm just gonna put on these cozy clothes for 2 minutes to feel like I'm still in bed before putting my..." you know, she wanted to put on her shorts and a t-shirt because it's freezing. And I said, "Or we could just take a walk. What do you want to do at the gym?" And she's like, "Oh my goodness, go on the treadmill" and do this or that. They're just kind of getting into gym culture. And so "we could get all cozied up and just take a walk." And she said "great." So we went for an hour-long early morning walk this morning.
JEANNETTE: Lovely.
KATY: She's like, "Wow the sky lights up so quickly." She's such a nature centric kid, pointing out the owls and the different plants and how they look in the shadows. It was just a miracle.
JEANNETTE: I love that.
KATY: And I don't expect that feeling to be any other part of today. I don't have any expectations of that magical movement but it happened this morning. It was wonderful.
JEANNETTE: That's amazing and lovely. So for me, I think for me it was - getting back this word consistent again - getting consistent about more cardio vascular exercise. So that was always my favorite.
KATY: You're a runner.
JEANNETTE: I was a runner. More of a swimmer but I was a runner when I was, I would say, young adult. I did a lot of running. And when you have young kids, it became much more about moving with them. A lot of my day was more at their pace and I might carry and do those bigger things. But actually the kind of consistent cardio ... so I think carving out the time to get to the pool frequently and really doing some interval stuff that I enjoy. And mentally, it really calms me down. So that, for me, has been great. And I'm pleased that that has become a consistent think in my life again.
KATY: I love that swimming is cardio for you. Because I would never consider swimming cardio for me. Because I don't get in and sort of doing it fast and hard. It's much more playful and like intuitive dance for me. And it's lots of muscular insurance, like I will swim across this lake. I will stay in this pool for four hours without ever touching the ground but never to the point where the intensity is high. So I just love that. Even a modality doesn't say very much about how it's done. It's really still the way ...
JEANNETTE: The way you do it.
KATY: ... the shapes that you're making and the rates that you're doing it is really ultimately the variables.
JEANNETTE: And I love those things too. Being in open water it's much more stretchy and slower. But when i'm in a pool, I do.
KATY: Training.
JEANNETTE: Yes training.
KATY: I also really like training. That's something I recognize about myself: I like to train.
JEANNETTE: And something that I know how to train well so it's kind of easier for me.
KATY: Familiar.
KATY: Well I have two kids so we're gonna give one and two to them and also I would say my walking buddy, Jordan. Consistently. We've done 10 years of walking...
JEANNETTE: Wow.
KATY: ...many mornings a week.
JEANNETTE: I love that.
KATY: And that's amazing. Talk about ultimate consistency. And there's really been no other person who has had that consistency like she and I have. There will be people who come in and come out but it's not in the fabric of their day. But it's totally in the fabric of our lives and our relationships. It's really great.
JEANNETTE: That's lovely. I am going to say actually two people that you know, that are your teachers. Michelle and Kirsty. Michelle Muldoon and Kirsty Hall. And the three of us in the past year have set up a weekly meeting on a Wednesday where we actually do one of your classes.
KATY: A virtual studio class?
JEANNETTE: We do a virtual studio class. We do it together. And sometimes we have a bit of time for community and chat. And I think it was Kirsty's idea but they are wonderful friends of mine and seeing them every week is both community and peer and we get to hang out with you too!
KATY: That's great. Do you talk while you do it, like, "Oh what is this?"
JEANNETTE: We tend not to but we will if we have. If we've got a question, "What's she doing now?" We will pause it and have a little conflab.
KATY: Oh great great.
JEANNETTE: It's totally interactive.
KATY: Interactive.
JEANNETTE: It's interactive which I love. And then I now feel bad because I'm only saying one of my kids, which is terrible so don't tell the other one. But my eldest kid, he is such a walker. That's what he will do with his friends on the weekend. And he also walks dogs for a job. He has a part time job. And he always asks me to go. And I have made a rule to pretty much never say no. If I can't swing it I can't swing it. But he's close to 16. How many times he's gonna ask me to still come out and hang out with him are getting smaller. But he also gets me out more than I would be. And now our roles have changed. I used to push him. He was into doing physical challenges. And now he's challenging me. He's saying, "Come on you can do this. You can come up to this really high cliff and jump into this freezing water." And it's like, "No". And he's like "yes, you can." So he's my cheerleader now. So the roles have reversed.
KATY: Years ago I had my kids on some mountain hike somewhere. Where we're going uphill and this older guy, I mean he was probably in his 80... he was almost 80. And he's walking. And he said, "I started my kids out like this." He said,"And just last year my daughter made me hike this huge mountain for 5 days." And I love that. This circle of it. And to be "oh right." And also that recognition that you have when you don't want to do something is really the way they feel when they're younger. It's like, "I don't want to." It's not always fear. It's just resistance somewhere. So for you to be in that space too, I think really helps with the empathy of someone else being in that space that you might be guiding. I think that's beautiful.
KATY: Well whether it's risky or not, it felt risky. Feels risky. And that's playing soccer. So again to have really an authentic connection with my kids and what they want to do, they love movement and they're both really great athletes. And I was a swimmer. But I never did a lot of fall sports. And those were definitely holes in my movement diet. A lot of coordination stuff - eye hand coordination and then just kicking something really hard, throwing something really hard. Those movements were sort of missing for me. And so getting out there to play, it feels risky because there's a lot of agility. It's slippery. And if you don't grow up doing that you sort of bring your perimenopausal body that's going... I'm in my own version of puberty. "I don't know, could that go? I'm not sure." And I'm not a big fan of jumping into a movement that's novel to you with its new forces and new directions without being adequately prepared. So I had to make sure, "oh I need to get my knees in shape for doing this. And I need my back to be in shape for doing this." And I had always wanted to keep those places pain free. But keeping them pain free, the mobility and the movements for that is different from keeping them game ready and injury free given that environment. So I had to shift my movement plan a little bit to make sure that I was training for this new landscape that I was going to be playing on.
JEANNETTE: I'm so proud of you doing that. My kids try to get me to play rugby and I'm just like, no way. Kudos to you for doing that. I think that's awesome.
KATY: I mean as all the movement... and they're just like, "C'mon mom!" And you know how teenagers just know how to pull the barb. They're like, "Oh you're a movement teacher. Oh. You're not gonna come out and move with us?" So they know how to hit me right in my Achilles heel.
JEANNETTE: Yes, that's evil.
KATY: My metaphorical Achilles heel. And I will rise to the occasion.
JEANNETTE: Which you have done. Which is amazing.
KATY: That's what I'll do. Because they're right. Because they're right. And that's the thing about teenagers because they're often hitting you where they're right. And I don't like it.
JEANNETTE: No.
KATY: I don't like it one bit. And it's not that I don't like them being right, it's the feeling of I don't like being wrong. So here I am schlepping around on the soccer field. And really, every time, just like a walk, I've never regretted going to play soccer.
JEANNETTE: Oh that's awesome.
KATY: Yeah. I'm definitely a lot more injured now. But I missed the heavy injury phase of childhood because I was reading books. So I'm just sort of tacking that on to the end of my life.
JEANNETTE: Brilliant. So I'm going to say my biggest health risk, which doesn't sound like it should be a risk, but was actually taking a really long trip. Because I've been dealing with these issues, this abdominal pain, and it came about when I was sitting for long periods of time, the thought about doing multiple flights and being in cars... but we felt it was a really important trip as a family, to go back to where we used to live, which was Bermuda. And it turned out to be the best thing I could have done for my health. Because I totally knew how to care for myself when I'm travelling, thanks to you, largely. You know I prepared well. I don't care that I stand up and read my book in a plane or move around. And the climate was just - I had two weeks of blissful heat and in warm water. And it turned out that I hadn't felt that good for a long time. So it was a win in the end.
KATY: These might be the secrets to menopause and perimenopause. Find the things that you love and make you feel better and just do them.
JEANNETTE: Yes. Just do that. I think we might have to move back to a small sub-tropical island because I feel great.
KATY: Yep.
KATY: A new sleep pattern. Again, these kids in my life that's a big influence. So, as they naturally shift to a sort of staying up later. We've always been early to rise early to bed and now they just naturally stay up later. And I still want to go to bed but it seems like at 10:00 is when they're like, "Hey, here's all the things I wanted to talk to you about all day that I said that I didn't have anything to talk to you about." So I can see that that's sort of a natural enough phenomenon where there's memes about it. So there's just that and shifting my early mornings a little bit later and shifting my bedtime a little bit later. And I know it's a phase. It's just a phase. Like having younger kids, really younger kids, that sort of woke up through the night. It's just a different version of not sleeping through the night is how I'm looking at it. And they'll all be gone soon. And I'll be "Look, they want to come and talk to me." I'll do that.
JEANNETTE: Yeah. Absolutely. I think all teenage parents are hearing you right now. My eldest just comes alive at about 10:00.
KATY: Oh my gosh. Why? Why?
JEANNETTE: I know. It's just hard when you're an early bird like you. My dad has always been a late... he's more of an owl. And he and I used to talk for hours at night. And we had this great, I remember it being a special time in our relationship when it was just the two of us. I was the eldest in my family so I got that time when everyone else was in bed and it was just me and him. And I remember that really fondly. So I'm sure your kids will look back and think how wonderful you were for listening to them at 11:00 at night.
KATY: Yeah. And it's payback for making them get up at the crack of dawn to do early morning stuff with me. So it's all fair.
JEANNETTE: I'm going to be brief here. My biggest health surprise was for me that day to day I could feel so different. This post menopausal first year.
JEANNETTE: The unpredictability of it. But also the power of attitude. Ok moving quickly on, because we've got 2025 to do too. What important movement or health relationship improved most for you this last year?
KATY: Me and the floor in the evening. We've talked a lot about doing a lot of standing where certain sitting positions have become so uncomfortable. So I noticed even in the evening I was continuing to pick standing exercises. And I was like, "Enough. You need to get down on the floor." And since I have given myself these 45 minute evening hangout where they were playing a game or watching a show, just digging deeply in these sitting positions and I feel so much better.
JEANNETTE: Oh that's great.
KATY: So just tuning in. I'm dating the floor again. It's going great.
JEANNETTE: Good. I love it. I love it. Well funly enough mine was my relationship with bed.
KATY: Ok!
JEANNETTE: But just, I think, again, accepting there are times when I just need to go to bed. And I can't keep pushing through, like you said, that there is an end to your capacity. And also sometimes just not having the alarm. You know if I haven't got to just actually saying "I don't have to get up." Because I actually am really tired. And that has been hard for me to accept but I'm doing it. Ok, this one I'm laughing at number 12: What is a compliment that you would have liked to receive but didn't?
JEANNETTE: Oh!
KATY: Because I think it does. It certainly doesn't hurt me as much to talk anymore. So I've been working on my throat.
JEANNETTE: Well here you go, here's a compliment for you because I had a meeting with our podcast technician, Chris, and I said, "I don't sound as good as Katy." Partly my voice is deeper so I'm not quite ... but you are very clear.
KATY: I think it's the opposite.
JEANNETTE: How funny! No he agreed with me. So there's your compliment.
KATY: Are you sure it isn't your audio setup? Are you talking about your microphone?
JEANNETTE: No, I think it's your voice. I think that your voice is very clear. So there you go, there's your compliment just too late.
KATY: Exactly.
JEANNETTE: What did I? There are so many compliments that I would love to get and don't. But this one is funny. This made me laugh. So it was kind of a compliment. So I was in the pool and my friend, Thomas, was also in the pool. And we don't swim together. He just happened to be there. And he said, oh you have a lovely stroke. You swim beautifully. And I said, "Oh that's really nice." "You swim like a..." And I was hoping it was going to be like dolphin.
KATY: Again! Didn't we talk about this last time? You want a different animal than someone gives you!
JEANNETTE: Always. They always give me the wrong animal. I was like, maybe whale. And he said, "Eel." I am not happy with that one. I was dying. I went straight home and told my husband. I thought it was hysterical. I was waiting for this great compliment and I got eel.
KATY: Long necked eel. You're a long necked eel. You're like if a heron and an eel came together.
JEANNETTE: That's right. That just made me laugh.
KATY: Well, eels are lovely swimmers.
JEANNETTE: They are. They are.
KATY: What stroke were you doing?
KATY: I give all the compliments, hopefully.
JEANNETTE: Yeah.
KATY: I don't know. I never know how to answer that question. Check the tapes. I don't know.
JEANNETTE: No.
KATY: Maybe not saying thank you enough. So I can just say... how about this? And maybe this is not a compliment but this is just maybe gratitude. It takes a lot of people to - when I put something out with my name on it there's a lot of people at this point who have had some hand in editing it ... brainstorming examples with me. We're doing this exercise advent. All these reels are made by someone who works on our team, Michael. Just thanking the large number of people out there who makes what Katy says possible.
JEANNETTE: I love that. I wish I told my dad, am I'm now going to go and do it, what a great teacher he was. Because he, in fact, spent an hour on the phone with me explaining some of my son's math. And I realized he was the mathematician.
KATY: You should cut out the middleman!
JEANNETTE: There was one time I was like, "Speak to your grandson." But he is such a patient teacher. And I don't have the same level of patience. He's also a very gifted teacher. So, I'm going to tell him that. I'm going to give him that compliment before the end of 2024.
KATY: Wonderful. All right, and finally the last one.
KATY: Print the book. Print the book. There was an extra book that came in this year. So I did two books this year. And that's part of why I feel my brain is broken right now.
JEANNETTE: I was going to say, that might be why you feel you've got an end.
KATY: Exactly. So just print it. Let's just hit print before the end of the year and I'm going to step back and take a break for a while. You?
JEANNETTE: I think that's a very good idea. I feel like I really need a clear out. I have lived in this house for the longest I've lived anywhere and I feel - I get overwhelmed when there's too much stuff.
KATY: Same.
KATY: Ok, so we're gonna go to 2025, but let's break that up by taking a listener question. Today's question actually came in through my social media and I thought that I would share it because I thought it was just a beautiful question. And I actually wrote back an answer to the asker and I'm just going to read that. This question is sponsored by Movemate. Movemate has created a dynamic active standing board - so much different than a wobble board. There are wobble boards when you get on it really are unstable - a single plane isn't the right way but there's one fulcrum - you're bending around a single fulcrum. Movemate has multiple fulcrums within their standing boards so it creates a wavelike action. So not only does it wobble around its central axis, it wobbles relative to itself, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And it's very dynamic. Dynamic in lots of different directions. It's a very neat design. It has articulated beautifully shaped pieces of wood that move and glide in three different dimensions. And I like that it's pretty. So much home exercise stuff is not pretty. As I look around at my house it's like, "ugh". There's a lot of primary colors that's kind of clashing with the aesthetic. You can find them online at LetsMovemate.com. That is L E T S M O V E M A T E dot com. And I said "let's move mate" kind of like an Australian, but I think it's "let's move, mate." I'm not sure. You decide.
JEANNETTE: So the question is, "Hello. Reaching out in a bit of desperation. Not really expecting an answer but hopeful. I am a 54 year old with hypermobility spectrum disorder. A mom of 6 adults. A former dance teacher and now a massage therapist. And I have been following you and Jill Miller for a while and love your content. Six months ago I injured my right knee out of the blue. I was finally able to get an MRI, and it is a complete root tear of medial meniscus with extrusion. Choice of repair and long recovery, or rapidly progressing arthritis with knee replacement in near future. Both sucky. Hard to find any testimonials of women my age with this repair. Mixed messages from all sides. If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate it."
KATY: All right. I'll just read the answer that I sent her. "I can imagine the stress of this decision. Sorry you're in this space but also happy you are too, where repair is an option because it didn't used to be," (for her particular injury) "Seems like going to bone-on-bone in a year or two would come with its only surgery, possibly replacement. Have you compared that recovery time and success rate to repair. While it is a long recovery, my approach would be to: 1) figure out my whole body movement plan after surgery so I know my fitness and healing won't make me frustrated. It's bound to be different modes of movement and new exercises for you but that would be one way that you could continue to stay moving as you recover. And I'd also make healing my job versus pushing it to the side of my life and hoping for the best. It would have my full attention and even my work and play would be set up to be supportive of that healing objective. You are in a good spot, dear questioner, because you're still young, but you're not minding young children. So as a mom you can focus on yourself and you wouldn't be taking away from your kids or feeling like you're taking away from your kids. And you're also body aware, too, which is huge." (you know she's listed dancer, massage therapist. So just to even have that toolbox of kinesthesia - good proprioception, these are things that really help with recovery.) "So you might even be the person if you're reading about how recovery goes. You might not even be the basic set of people that is being researched for a particular outcome for a surgical repair. So your healing toolbox is unusually large but, again, I think getting your movement figured out way ahead of time will be key in reminding you that you're much much much more than your knee and you can still say physically strong to support this very small area that's needing to rest and recover. Wishing you the best."
JEANNETTE: I love that. That's great. And I think lots of people will find that helpful.
KATY: That's why I wanted to include it because I think we get, again this book that I just finished, the psychology book, we get into the either or. I either have to heal, or I can stay moving as long as possible.
JEANNETTE: Right.
KATY: And you can move and heal at the same time.
JEANNETTE: I can put it forward, I just deal with it in the future.
KATY: Yeah, or just the idea that your whole body has to stop moving when a small area of you is injured. Because I think we haven't thought through. We're just going, "I know what I do for exercise." It's often the thing that led to the injury, you know, or at least contributed to it mechanically. And then "so then I have to heal and then I want to go back to the thing I was doing before." Instead of, again, looking at the movement diet and saying, "Let's broaden our concept of movement and being able to, if you're like myself, and probably even like you too, Jeannette, and many other people, where movement is a big part of your mental health. And part of you, in seeing that you're about to go to something that's going to keep you from moving is like, "I'm not going to be able to take it." A good episode to listen to is, I don't remember the title of the podcast episode, but it's the one dealing with my foot injury because I was really talking about all the ways that I planned to say moving and kept myself moving while letting this foot rest. So that's a really good episode to go to.
KATY: Thanks Movemate for supporting that question. If anyone has a listener question please send it in to podcast@nutritiousmovement.com and Jeannette will weave it into a show. All right. So we're going to go to 2025. Rapid fire. It hasn't happened yet. How much time could it possibly take? So what would you like to be your biggest health triumph or biggest movement win in 2025?
JEANNETTE: Ok, well I put pull-ups on my 2023 list and I was derailed. So I'm going to put that back on. And not that I would like to get to be able to do some pull-ups. I've got a hanging practice. But I want to take that next step. But really it's all the pieces of strength that go into that. So it's the journey as much as the destination.
KATY: For me I think it's going to be the hip mobility that I've lost through so much standing. That's really a big focus. It's not going to be the total focus but that would be a big win for me. If I feel like at the end of next year that my hips are more supple than this year, I mean, that's great. Given I'm just getting older. What health advice do you want to give yourself for 2025?
JEANNETTE: Oh goodness. I thought this was a big one. I think change requires appropriate progression and consistency.
KATY: Mm-hmm.
JEANNETTE: And that continual nudging in the right direction. And I feel like, without getting too much into it, it's really about time. About actually what's important, what's really important for me to do and let's carve out the time and protect it. So it's a little bit more about strategizing how I'm going to set things up. Because I know how to do it. I just have to protect the slots that are going to get me to where I want to be. Yes. Very briefly.
KATY: And you kind of mentioned mine which is progression. You have to really work uphill at this point. There's not really maintenance to maintain - means to do more at this point. When you're younger it doesn't really work that way, but because the loss is more rapid, maintenance means you have to have progression really highlighted in what you're doing. So looking for things that are more challenging than you normally would do. They're more challenging of your coordination. They're more challenging of your strength. They're more challenging of your mind. Just think uphill. And not in a bad way. Going uphill is amazing.
KATY: Uphill just seems like a lot of work, but there's a reason. It is more work but the payoff - is the payoff bigger? I don't know. It's worth it. I'll say the payoff is worth it. What indulgence are you going to experience and what are you willing to do for that indulgence?
JEANNETTE: So I would not have called this an indulgence a few years ago. But it's a weekend, probably Sunday, long walk with my family. We used to do it all the time when the kids were little. And you know what? Life... I have more work now. The kids have more stuff they're doing. It's kind of fallen off and I want to reinstate it. And like I said, I feel like it's an indulgence now to take that time out. But I think it's really important for everybody in the family. And we live in this beautiful part of the world. It's just a chance to get out and enjoy it as a family - all four of us.
KATY: Yeah. That's great. I'm gonna forgo my answer for this time to say, just for people listening, to say, "That would be great." Again, with this psychology book that is so helpful, is maybe your Sunday walk doesn't happen on Sunday. Because I think when we've got this slot that it fits in in our mind it's so easy to disrupt. "Oh I have exams on Monday so I really need to give my Sunday." Or, maybe you're teaching a Move Your DNA weekend. Or someone is away. What is what a Sunday walk is? You want a 3 hour uninterrupted period of time. But maybe that happens "hey there's a holiday this time." We can call it a Sunday walk but when you have that flexibility around when it happens and you still get the what, I think it's way more likely that you get it on a regular basis.
JEANNETTE: That is so helpful. I love that.
KATY: This is the way this book has changed my thinking just in working on it to be "here's the problem". Because I want the Sunday walk or the after dinner walk and sometimes it doesn't happen in that shape. And so the more you can identify exactly what it is that you want and be open to how it appears...
JEANNETTE: And I wonder, probably your book might help with this, because I think once you missed things once, it's much easier to miss it the second time.
KATY: Exactly.
JEANNETTE: So reframing it to "it's just going to be a weekly walk" you're much less likely to miss it. I love that.
KATY: And getting resentful. "No one will ever do this with me" or "I can never make this happen." is something about yourself. And just saying no the definition of what it is that you want has become so inflexible it's easily derailed. So if you just keep it broad it's more likely to show up for you.
JEANNETTE: I love that.
KATY: Maybe it's not everybody. Maybe all 4 of us can't do it today for whatever reason, but 3 of us can. And that's not a loss. It's still a win.
JEANNETTE: Right.
KATY: Go pre-order that book.
JEANNETTE: I will. I'll go do it now.
JEANNETTE: Ok, yes it's along the lines of what you said for progression is strength. I'm really happy with my - so cardio ...but I know my strength has declined. And I'm a small framed person. I'm now postmenopausal. Bone health is important to me. I need to make that - I would like to get stronger. Let's just leave it as simple as that. That's the focus.
KATY: Yeah. And for me, I think more challenges. Not health challenges. I'd like to meet more physical challenges just to keep myself, I think of it as stronger overall. Stronger for the environment. Getting into those freezing waters and climbing that mountain or playing soccer. Just things that are challenging. I'm feeling really compelled to do things that I think are hard.
JEANNETTE: Great.
JEANNETTE: I put one physical and one academic. Physical, it's not learn but I'm going to practice butterfly swimming. It's a stroke that I do not do and I think it will pair really well with trying to get stronger. It's the thing that I resist. It's a challenge for me, it's a harder stroke. So I'm going to ...
KATY: It's because of your eel-like swimming. Being an eel doesn't transfer to being a butterfly.
JEANNETTE: I need to be a dolphin. I need to be a dolphin. And then I have a kind of late interest in philosophy. And I think philosophers have really very important things to say in everything but definitely science and biology. And this is not something that I learned in school. I was not instructed in any kind of philosophy. And I think the answer ... why are we asking the questions that we do? Why do we think the way we do? And logic - how do we approach the problems that we're interested in. The problems of our time. The problems of our culture. So I'm planning lots of reading into that.
KATY: I've got some recommendations for you. And I do think that what most people don't, or they're not aware of, is philosophy is sort of the leading edge of science. Because it is setting up the where are you inquiring? What is the question? You have to sort of be kind of out there to be able to imagine the most amazing questions...
JEANNETTE: Right.
KATY: ...to then figure out where to look. If not then there's not a lot of creativity to where you're looking. So, ok, I know what I'm going to send you for Christmas now. And for me, mine is actually, I would say it's physical and academic at the same time. I'll use academic - it's got academic rigor to it. And that's track and sign. So I'm trying to find the antidote or the balance to so much working with symbols on a computer. For me the balance of that is to look at physical tracks being left on the earth by other animals and other plants and seeing what they say. Interpreting them. So I'm in an almost year-long course of doing that here. And so to get to go on to mountain lion kill sites and see deer carcass that have been also fed on by bears and you're just putting this whole puzzle together. It's got problem solving and it's got keeping yourself within what you can actually see and watching the tendency to create a story bigger than you can actually see. So there is good rigor for me, just in general being science minded.
JEANNETTE: You're not inferring anything?
KATY: No. You have to really watch the tendency to infer and then also to be able to pick up on subtle bits of information that's there. So it's such a physical practice of 1) moving your body all over the planet to be able to trail something or track something. Learning how to listen to the substrate of bird sound to tune into what's being ... "oh there's an owl over here." I can tell because of the way the ravens are behaving. Just that fabric is so rich for me. That's sort of my future direction just as a human being here. So that's what I'm looking forward to continuing next year.
JEANNETTE: Oh that sounds amazing.
KATY: It's amazing. It's just amazing. And I love gait. It's gait. It is a much broader - if you want to go from human laboratory gait to natural human gait to all animal gait with the context of ... I just find that to be the same path I've always been on but open up in to greater degrees.
KATY: Much broader. It's really hard to understand human gait if you don't understand animal gait and basically biology and why everyone is moving in the first place and what is trying to happen. What are you most committed to changing or improving in 2025?
JEANNETTE: For this one, I have put my schedule on calendar and it's not really changing, it's just being much more careful about putting the things in that are really important for me to do with my family and personally and work needs and personal needs. And kind of ring fence them. Yeah. And kind of make those go in first so I don't get drawn into other things. I think, you were going back to this arcade. It's very easy to get sucked into arcade. So it's being really rigorous about putting the things I value into my schedule.
KATY: Yeah, right. And for me, just one word. Performance. So I was consistent last year but I'd like to be better. So it's a combination of consistency plus progression to get to...
KATY: ...what I would consider performance, yeah. What is one as yet underdeveloped talent that you're willing to or planning to explore this year?
JEANNETTE: Ok well you are the inspiration for this one.
KATY: Oh!
JEANNETTE: Because I have put writing about complicated things in a simple and accessible way. I've fallen off the bandwagon with my newsletter but I want to write about things that are quite complicated. I've done a lot of research on. But writing about them in a simple, accessible way is not necessarily easy and it's not my strongest suit. And it's something you've been working on for years. But the thing about it is, there's also, as well as wanting to provide some information, is also how I learn is really distilling my thoughts.
KATY: Right.
JEANNETTE: So it's kind of a win-win. So, yeah, that's mine. How about you?
KATY: So we'll be looking forward to your book, coming soon.
JEANNETTE: Yeah, right. And what about you?
KATY: Well, for me this seems kind of lame compared to yours but there's a big ... I don't have a lot of beauty in my life. Beauty is sort of an arm that's important to a lot of people. And I'm not just talking about personal appearance beauty. I'm talking about setting up spaces where they're not cluttered and they're simple and they're beautiful. And their beauty is in the colors that are being chosen. And I've gone to a couple of Buddhist tea ceremonies where you're sort of in this meditative, it's an hour long meditation. But someone is making tea for you and you're being served in this group. And it's silent. And the Japanese culture is one that often is centered around beauty. That's the kind of beauty that I'm talking about. It's more like a simple aesthetic. We talked already about decluttering. And so for me, I'm really trying to improve the aesthetics of where I'm placing myself. And of myself but not in sort of a ... about being attractive in that way. But really simple and clean so that it frees up my mind. I was looking around at the clutter. I find this really aggravating. It's very difficult. The lighting isn't good in here. You know, big things about a home. And I know that affecting my health. And it's even affecting my movement in the sense that it takes me longer to try to figure out or get done what I need to get done in spaces that are disorganized and cluttered. And I'm losing too much time to disorganization and clutter. In my work life, even though it's an online cluttering...here's 100 documents that are all coming from different formats and it's out of control at this point. And it's affecting my ability to get things done in a way that doesn't have - that's either taking too much energy to get the same amount done. Anyway, beauty is the word that I have around that. And that's what I'll be exploring this next year. Prioritizing.
JEANNETTE: I love that. We did up our living room a couple of years ago and my husband has rigorously protected it from what he calls, am I allowed to swear ...
KATY: Sure.
JEANNETTE: ..."my witchy shit".
KATY: You've got your wool combs and your plants...
KATY: And some people need certain things to help them but it's just overwhelming. The amount of energy it's actually taking for me to function sort of blocking out the noise of seeing the things. That's just wasted energy. Just take the time to clear it out. Take the time to clean it up. Or organize it. Or stack it up. Or display it in a pleasing way. But where it is right now is only creating aggravation and work. Ok last question. No two more questions. Who are you most committed to loving and serving?
JEANNETTE: Definitely my kids. I'm getting into that kind of end game of kids being at home.
KATY: Yeah. For me it's myself. Just to really prioritize or recognize my needs. I think of this menopausal time. In premenstrual time, I don't know about you, but I would always get to a point where my husband would say you lose all sense of irony. And I would say I lose patience.
JEANNETTE: Yes.
KATY: And I feel like perimenopause is longer - it's sort of like premenstrual...
JEANNETTE: You've lost it in time.
KATY: I think of it a little differently now where I think probably we are high masking - that we mask so much of the time to be like I feel disrupted by all these things that are going on but yet we need to get done so I will bring up my level of masking, the amount of irritation or whatever I have. But when something changes physiologically/hormonally, you lose the ability to mask. You lose the energy or ... I'm not sure if there's a chemical component to it but whatever. So I feel it's less like - it's more authentic. This is really actually not ok all of the time.
JEANNETTE: Right.
KATY: And whatever hormone was in charge of masking is now depleted. So you're just getting...
JEANNETTE: deal.
KATY: Yeah you're getting a more authentic reaction to the situation without the do-do-do on the top. So the antidote for me has been just recognizing I have a need for quiet. I just have a need for sleep. I have a need for movement. I have a need to go away for a couple of days. I have a need for you to do... I try to keep it in terms of my needs, not needs for other people to do certain things. I need a clean area so that will be my room and no one else is allowed to come in unless you're allowed to keep it clean. So that is what I mean by serving myself. Is just being really authentic with my needs because in the end I think everyone's happier to be "oh I didn't know that that was a big need of yours." Now that you've communicated it.
JEANNETTE: I have one kid who is very very good at articulating what he's feeling and what he needs. And it's inspiring, actually. He will talk through a scenario: "I am now feeling worried about this and anxious. This is too much." And I think you're right, as parents or as women we mask our own feelings and then eventually just lose it.
KATY: Exactly. And everyone is "Wow, you are so chill. You were so chill 20 minutes ago." And you're like, "I haven't been chill for the last 4 days and we have to get all these things done."
JEANNETTE: And you guys didn't notice until I threw flour all over the kitchen.
KATY: Exactly. Oh, you too?
KATY: It feels really good to just do it sometimes. So that's another: episode Mary Van Geffen on Spicy Children. Deconstruction. You need to break something down. And if you can do it in a controlled way where you're not breaking the windows at your house, even better. Get something to smash or break. All right, last question: One word that you would like to have as your movement theme for 2025.
JEANNETTE: This I have written down is: Consistent. Which is so funny. Isn't that funny? I am a year behind you, not in age...
KATY: In some ways but not in other ways.
JEANNETTE: ...in our words.
KATY: And my word is: Focused. Which is kind of equally boring but it is, I think it's a good word to sum up what I'm going to do with my consistency. Because you can be consistent and still not really go anywhere.
JEANNETTE: True.
KATY: And so I know where I want to go and I'm going to apply my consistency to a focus. And it's also the summation of My Perfect Movement Plan. What's your focus? You need a focus for your movement plan. If you do not have a focus it makes it really hard to continue to get uphill a little bit. Which, as you get older, is I think really important. Maintenance plus, if you're doing the same amount that you normally do to maintain and were decreasing function at more of an accelerated rate, you're still going to be experiencing more of a decline. Which, ultimately, is inevitable. But I think if we just ramp up our movement, especially since we're still talking about the one hour we move, the 90 minutes we move but there's a lot more minutes in the day, I think you'll get there more to where you want to go with a focus. You can't focus on everything but you want to figure out what your focus is and then set up your movement calendar. Set up your movement habits. Set up your movement communications with the people around you to make sure it's being supported.
JEANNETTE: Brilliant.
KATY: All right. That was wonderful. Thanks so much for doing this with me. And we miss you, Dani.
JEANNETTE: We do! And I kind of felt a bit odd stepping into big shoes to fill!
KATY: The new girlfriend.
JEANNETTE: Yes. So Dani, we miss you.
KATY: We love you.
JEANNETTE: So, thank you to all you listeners. Hopefully you enjoyed doing the recap and looking forward to 2025 with us. Thank you for listening. And this episode has, again, been brought to you by our Dynamic Collective of Smart Playrooms, Correct Toes, Wildling, Venn Design, Peluva, and Movemate. And do not forget, if you have any questions you want answered, please send them to me at podcast@nutritiousmovement.com. We will see you next time.
(Theme Music)
KATY: Happy New Year!
Hi, this has been Move Your DNA with Katy Bowman and me, Jeannette Loram, a podcast about movement. We hope you find the general information in this podcast informative and helpful, but it is not intended to replace medical advice and should not be used as such. This podcast is edited by Chris McClaren. Thank you Chris. And transcribed by Annette Yen. Thank you, Annette. And our theme music is performed by Dan MacCormack. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to audio. And find out more about Katy, her books, and her movement programs at NutritiousMovement.com. We wish you all a Happy New Year, and look forward to being back in your ears in 2025.
(Theme Music ends)
Questions for Year End Recap 2024
- What was your biggest health triumph or movement win?
- What was the smartest health or movement decision you made in 2024 or your favorite movement choice?
- What single word best sums up your 2024 health and movement experience?
- What is the greatest lesson you learned about yourself this past year?
- What was the most loving service you performed this year in 2024?
- What was your biggest piece of unfinished health or movement business in 2024?
- What movement goal or health goal are you most happy about completing in 2024?
- Who are the three people that had the greatest impact in your health or movement this past year
- What is the greatest health risk you took in 2024?
- What was your biggest health surprise in 2024?
- What important (movement or health) relationship improved most for you this last year?
- What is a compliment that you would have liked to receive but didn't?
- What compliment would you have liked to have given but didn’t?
- What else do you need to say or do to be complete with 2024?
Looking ahead to 2025
- What would you like to be your biggest health triumph or biggest movement win in 2025?
- What health advice do you want to give yourself for 2025?
- How are you going to change your movement or movement results in 2025?
- What indulgence are you going to experience and what are you willing to do for that indulgence?
- What would you most like to change about your health in 2025?
- What are you going to learn in 2025?
- What are you most committed to changing or improving in 2025?
- What is one as yet underdeveloped talent that you are willing to or planning to explore this year?
- Who are you most committed to loving and serving?
- What is one word you would like to have as your movement theme for 2025?
