Menopause Made Exercise Feel Pointless. Here's the Mindset Shift That Changes That

Ever been told exercise is good for you and thought... yeah, yeah, I know? In this episode, Dr Orlena tackles the real reason so many women quietly give up on healthy habits: they're waiting to see results that don't show up fast enough, and it feels like it's not worth the effort.

She unpacks why the evidence on exercise is some of the most unanimous in all of health science — cutting your risk of premature death by up to 30% — and why strength training after 30 isn't just about looking toned, it's about staying independent in your 80s and 90s. Plus, the mindset shift that turns "why bother" into "my health is in my hands," and why consistency (not perfection) is the only thing that actually moves the needle.

If you've ever thought about quitting because you're not seeing the scale move, this episode is your permission slip to keep going — for the right reasons.

References:

WHO Activity page: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity?c=MY2024&utm_source=chatgpt.com 

Cardiovascular fitness: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/58/10/556.long 

Health span: https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.l6669 

14 years: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29712712/ 

Strength training: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35228201/ 

7 Day Free Trial of Dr Orlena´s Menopause Thrive Community. Get the support you need to make healthy living easy and fun: https://www.skool.com/dr-orlena-menopause-thrive/about

Transcript

 Imagine I offered you a tablet that could help you live 14 years longer. What would you say? What am I talking about? Healthy living. And today, I want to think about this idea that so many people have: it's not worth it, or rather, why bother? What's in it for me? I see a lot of people who are struggling to lose weight, and they know what to do: eat healthy, do some exercise, get some sleep, think about stress.

Yep, we know all the things. And yet, they are struggling to be consistent doing those things. And one of the reasons why is because they are using weight loss as their primary measure for whether they are succeeding or failing. So what happens is they start doing things, they don't see immediate results, and then they think, "What's the point?

Why do I [00:01:00] need to do this? Why should I bother? It's not making any difference anyhow." And that is where I want you to halt and stop, and we will take a look at is it worth it, and what's really going on underneath. And here's what I want you to change fro- in your mindset, from it's not worth it to, "Oh my goodness, my health and wellness is in my hands, and there's so much I can do that is gonna help me live longer and be healthy and strong."

Most people think that their health just happens to them, and that is not true. Yes, of course, there are some things that happen to us. For example, my children have a nasty genetic disease. Ooh, this is a good time to talk about nasty genetic diseases. My children have a nasty genetic disease that is affecting their eyes so that they are going blind.

And in September, we are organizing something called [00:02:00] Steps for Sight, which is a fundraiser designed to help inspire you to get some movement. And by the end of this podcast, you're gonna be going, "Yes, I really want to get some movement. I understand why it's so important." And also fundraise money for Coragemia Research Foundation.

Coragemia is the illness that my children have, and the Coragemia excuse me, Coragemia Research Foundation is the foundation in the United States that is leading the charge on research. And I am super hopeful that we can find a cure before my children go totally blind. That would just be absolutely amazing.

And whilst contributing this, you can set a goal and do some movement. So if you... I'll leave the link in the show notes, and if you have any questions about it, obviously sign up and email me. Okay. So going back to exercise. Yes, there are some things like choroideremia and other various illnesses that we have zero control [00:03:00] over.

But the vast majority of health and wellness actually is impacted by what we do. Except most people don't realize that. So here are the things that, we can do, the things that I teach you: eating healthily, exercising, sleep, and our mindset and our stress levels. So when we have a look at it, it is amazing what we know about exercise.

let's have a look at some statistics. And I want you to know that, yes, I understand that certain parts of health and nutrition are controversial because we have studies that conflict, and small studies, and not everyone agrees. This is an area that everybody agrees on. These studies have been done on hundreds and thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, and we, all doctors agree that, or all people in the health profession agree [00:04:00] that exercise is good for you.

So the WHO has a physical activity sheet, and it says that adults who are physically active have a 20 to 30% lower risk of dying prematurely than people who are inactive. It says that a whopping 4.8 million deaths every year could be prevented if people were more physically active. So what does phys- being physically active do?

It reduces your risk of heart disease, of stroke, of type 2 diabetes, of dementia, of depression, and of some common cancers What else do we know? Being cardiorespiratory fit is one of the strongest predictors of longevity. So there was a paper, and I'll put these in the show notes as well, that was associated with 11 to 17% of lower risk of all-cause mortality.

So when we talk about activity, there's [00:05:00] basically two bits that we're talking about: getting strong, building our muscles, so that's going to the gym and doing weights, and then there's cardiovascular fitness, which is our lungs and our hearts. And what I see is a lot of people are not very fit, and when you start exercising and you start pushing yourself, it feels really uncomfortable.

It feels like, "What? I'm not used to doing this." And your natural inclination is to go, "Yeah, this isn't great." But if you keep at it and you keep at it, actually your body gets used to that. Now, I'm not saying that you don't get out of breath and your heart rate doesn't go up, because that's the point.

That's what we want to be doing. We're constantly pushing. We're constantly going against that edge. But your body gets used to it and your body likes it, and this is actually where you feel energized. If you are somebody who exercises regularly, you enjoy re- exercising regularly. Your body enjoys that experience.

It feels good afterwards. But I totally [00:06:00] take there is a little bit of what I call the rickety bridge, getting over that hump so that you get to that place where you think, "Yeah, this feels great, and I enjoy it." Okay, strength training, so this is thinking about muscles. Exercising m- muscle strength activities are associated with a 10 to 17% lower risk of all-cause mortality, so that means dying from anything: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers And we know that when we look at muscle and aging, that after the age of 30, we start to lose our muscle mass un- unless we do resistance training.

So we really want to be doing resistance training so that we can maintain our muscle, which has a big impact on our health and wellness, but also it helps us maintain being autonomous, being able to look after ourselves later on in life. And I am sure many of you have heard me tell this story previously, but a couple of [00:07:00] summers ago, our neighbor, who is in her 90s, was outside in her garden, and she fell off a chair.

And my husband noticed this because our gardens back off on each other. He couldn't see her. He could hear her. And she was lucky that he heard her because she was fine, but she fell off her chair, and she couldn't pick herself up because she didn't have the strength to do that. Now, what happens to a lot of people is they fall over, and then they can't pick themselves up, and they lie on the floor for a long period of time, where actually more damage happens, and that's then a downward decline into not being able to look after yourselves.

So being able to do what we call activities of daily living, we need to maintain our muscles. Now, if you're in your 50s or 60s, you might be thinking, "Yeah, okay. Obviously, I can do that." But this work starts now. And yes, you can totally get to your 80s and 90s and still be able to do that, but you need to put in the [00:08:00] work now, as opposed to arriving at that time and going, "Oh, now I'm having problems."

Now you've got a lot more work to do. You know what they say, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now." Okay, what about the reverse? What about being sedentary? Sitting for long periods of time is also ins- associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and premature death.

So here's the bottom line: Exercise is amazingly good for you. If healthy habits came in a pill, everybody would want one. But that's not how it works. And actually, exercise has more impact than healthy eating in terms of if you are eating healthily and doing no exercise, you're actually in a worse place than people who are physically fit and not eating as healthily.

But I do see a lot of people focusing on [00:09:00] nutrition, and I guess it makes sense because we have to eat, right? We have to eat yes or yes, so we either eat stuff that has a negative impact on our health, or we eat foods that have a positive impact on our health. And obviously, we want to be doing all of the things.

So picking food that has a positive impact on our health is much better than picking food that doesn't. But on top of that, we also want to be doing exercise because, yes, it 100% helps us lead a longer life. And so of course it is worth it. It's just that sometimes it doesn't feel like it, and sometimes you cannot see the benefit because the benefit...

It's a bit like brushing your teeth, I always say to people what happens if you stop brushing your teeth?" And the answer is I don't recommend you do that experiment to find out." I used to tell my kids when they were little, "If you don't brush your teeth, they will turn black and fall out."

And that is true. So we brush our teeth, and we hope never to see them turning black and [00:10:00] falling out because we are doing something to prevent that. And this is exactly the same with exercise. We're doing something to prevent something from happening, and so we never really see the benefit. Yes, you can see the benefit in terms of I'm getting stronger, I'm feeling good, my energy levels are high.

Now, when it comes to weight loss, exercise is important, partly because it is gonna help us with our insulin levels. And if you are a menopausal woman, then insulin is playing a big part in that abdominal fat, and being able to reduce your insulin levels is helpful. However, it is not a switch. It doesn't mean that the minute you start exercising, suddenly all of that weight is going to come off.

It's a slow burner. It's like investing. If you invest $10 a week, after four weeks, you've got $40. You've got enough to go and have lunch somewhere. But [00:11:00] after 20 years of investing $10 plus all the interest you've earned, suddenly you've got a million dollars. I don't know if that maths is mathing, but you take my point.

It's about cumulative benefits as opposed to just doing it once. It's about consistency rather than perfection So when we are thinking about weight, it can be really frustrating because a lot of people are thinking, "Okay, so I'm doing this exercise because I want to lose weight, but I don't really notice the weight coming off.

So what's the point of doing the exercise?" Here, my friend, is where I want you to make a mindset shift. Instead of thinking about the weight, if you focus on your health and wellness, suddenly it becomes worthwhile doing all of these things because you've just understood all the statistics and you think, "Yeah, I'd like to live for another 14 years, and also live in a healthy way."

So what we [00:12:00] call health span, living those years being healthy as opposed to living those l- years being unhealthy, that is definitely worth the effort. And I would add to that, enjoy it. Do something that you enjoy. Find your exercise that lights you up. Now, in terms of weight loss, yes, I get it can be frustrating from time to time, but that doesn't mean give up.

That doesn't mean stop doing these things aren't worth doing. Yes, they are 100% worth doing. Sometimes with weight loss, we need to make other changes too. That's a topic for another day. That's a big topic, and what I would tell you is that people get different results. People are all different.

So some people, the weight is much slower to come off. Other people, it happens much more quickly, and it's difficult to predict how that is going to be for people. But one thing I know for sure is not doing all the things, not looking [00:13:00] after yourself, not doing the things that are really going to help make you healthy and strong is not the answer.

Giving up is never the answer. So if you are interested in how you get to healthy amazing you, what I can tell you is right now I am doing something called the Menopause Habits That Stick Sprint, and it's a two-week mini program really looking at mindset and all of the things that we're talking about so that at the end of the two weeks you're thinking, "Yes, I can absolutely do this.

I know why I'm doing it. It's worth doing it. I'm gonna enjoy doing it, and yes, I can do it, and I can consistently doing it." As opposed to being one of those people who is "Oh, again, Monday, I'm starting again. I'm starting again." No, we're gonna build on consistency because it doesn't have to be perfect.

So when it doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't matter if you haven't done it perfected- perfectly. So it's not too late to join. We're currently on day two, but you can catch up. So even [00:14:00] if you join on day three or four, or even after it's finished, it will send it out on a daily basis. So even though you're not doing it live, it will seem like you're doing it live.

And I really recommend starting there and understanding why it is worth leading your healthy life so you can get to healthy amazing you. Have a lovely week, and I will see you in two weeks.