How to Get Better at Life with Kristin Weitzel, Founder of SHERPA Breath and Cold and Warrior Woman Mode

8:10AM Nov 4, 2022

Speakers:

Angela Foster

Intro

Kristin Weitzel

Keywords:

women

body

feel

cold

females

day

big

ice bath

breathing

love

lifting

programme

research

put

breath

beautiful

stress

talk

muscle

training

When we're getting in a cold shower, we're getting an ice bath and we're getting a cryo. We're creating a sympathetic response in the body and the beauty of it comes when you get out. So it's like type two funds and when you're done, your body is creating adaptation.

Welcome to the high performance health podcast with your host Angela Foster. The show where we talk about everything you need to break through limits and achieve a high performance, mind, body and lifestyle.

So you are in for a treat today. This is a fun filled biohacking podcast with my friend Kristin Whitesell, also known as warrior woman mode, on her website on Instagram and everywhere you can find her basically, and she is a true warrior. If you haven't checked out her social media posts, they're incredible. She dives into the cold, full head lunges. She even does kind of hit style training in cold plunges where it's kind of one minute in one minute out. really inspirational. She's absolutely lovely. We talk about biohacking for women how to switch on your warrior woman mode. We talk about nutrition, really, really wide ranging topics. But everything aligned with my lovely female audience to help you optimise your mind, body and spirit for high performance, which is what we're all about. On the high performance health podcast. I think you're really going to get a lot from this episode, and really enjoy it. And we talk about breathwork which often actually you don't really hear about too much from women, it tends to be a lot of kind of quite male dominated industry, the breath work industry, but we women breathe too. And we like to expose our coal ourselves to cold sometimes, maybe not as often as I should. But anyway, it is a fun chat with my friend Kristen. So without further delay, let me introduce you now to the lovely Kristin vital.

So Kristin, it is so awesome to be finally having this chat together, we met at the summit, the health optimization summit in London. And I think it's taken us quite a few months, not weeks actually to pull this together.

Totally true. Pulling it together, adjusting our schedules, I'm adjusting the lights, so everything is perfect. So we can spend this time chatting.

Amazing. It's so nice to be with you. And I just like I love watching your content on Instagram and just following everything that you're doing, especially with kind of the cold exposure in the breath work because we were talking just a little bit back there offline. And I think that it's such a well, the whole kind of biohacking thing primarily is quite masculine. And I think that particularly like it's getting better girl is getting better is because of people like you and the bio hacker babes. Yeah, a few people I think, and myself try to push it. But breathwork wise is something and cold showering just seems very masculine. And so I just love it when you're posting about it. I have some questions for you. Because when I've been looking at the research around cold exposure, it's not and we talk about women's kind of menstrual cycle optimization. From a cold exposure, you might correct me on this, it doesn't seem like you need to change that according to the menstrual cycle because it doesn't want to up regulates dopamine. My understanding is it isn't really up regulating things like cortisol so much. But I'm just curious, I know you've done a lot of research into this and you're a big practitioner of it, what your thoughts are.

Yeah, the other thing I want to just say I do have to address because I think it's important before we go into this, which is what I love about the women's biohacking circle, movement, inner circle all of us that are doing this because you're in the world educating so many women as well. Is that it doesn't feel to me competitive. What I really like is I feel like all those women's you named and Molly McLaughlin and Molly Maloof, all these people that are in the mix, Jolene Brighton, you know all of them. I don't ever feel like there's any competitive nature to us. Speaking, I really try to continue to be like rising tide lifts all boats, when I'm working with women, I will collaborate with people, I'm like, There's a millions of women out in the world, let's get to them in the way and the voices that they need to hear. And if it's not my voice, that's great, then it should be yours. And I think that that is just something that I don't always see. And the other let's say the other half of the biohacking scene whether that be this isn't all about men and women. And when I talk about females, I typically mean like physiological females, women with a genetic makeup of a female because you know, the world is changing and everything's fluid. But I, I love your work. And I want to say that out loud. And I love that you exist in the world and that for years I've been following you I just we've never really had the chance to get deep like this. So that's important is that the women out there just hear that there is a place in a space and especially in this health optimization sector where we are lifting each other up, because that's not always the case. You know? In other industries, too? Yes. I think it's important to say because we all learn from each other well, and of course, I have moments where I'm like, can't Can you read a Dutch test? Like nobody? And I'm like, oh, I want to learn how to do that and go on your online, you know, education tool, and they say, okay, great. And just doing a webinar on it, I want to learn, as opposed to worrying the other way, right? Where we like, kind of dig ourselves into the hole, and we have FOMO. And we feel less than and yeah, so that's my, that's my, that's my soapbox lately with women is just like, there are other women out there in the world, we can just ask for help. They're men and women, just like they're experts. So we have to stop feeling like crap about ourselves and hiding from the curiosity and leaning into getting ourselves healthy, because we are the future.

We are indeed I love that. And ditto, I've been following your work for such a long time. And absolutely love it. And I think the thing is with women is, I think we support each other and also form amazing communities together. That's the thing. I think that's the thing we have as women, just so kind of like the community spirit and from my own communities. I just absolutely love kind of the people that are attracted into health optimization and biohacking. And yeah, it's just beautiful. So I'm excited. I'm excited for our chat today. And also to, for you to kind of inform me on some areas that I'm definitely not that knowledgeable. So yeah, it's exciting.

We can talk about cold and the, the, the cycling with cold peace, that the cool part is that I, I, I'm pretty alpha and the way that I work in the world, I've been working on my divine feminine and my softer side, because there's so much strength in that as well, being a female. And I had a lot of, I get a lot of lab work like you. And I'm always sort of navigating the cortisol thing, right? Cortisol is highly vilified, and especially the nutrition or the health space, and in some ways, and we do need cortisol, and it is it is the thing that helps us with so much of our day. And also if we have an overabundance of it, it's, it can be a little crushing. And so I'm always working on my cortisone number because it tends to ride that that edge that adaptation edge, like, you know, is it Am I close to burnout or not? And when Huber man the first time I really heard about it, like six months ago is because there's wacky research, because we have to preface the whole thing by saying the cold exposure research world is really interesting, because all of the studies are so different, right? First, you're dealing with not a lot of women in the studies in the reproductive years, which is like across the board, and then you're dealing with and even menopausal women are less than, and then you're dealing with layers of there's a little bit of a funding challenge there. Sometimes it's like who finds the study is like the way the study goes? And that's like, follow the money. It's not as much of that and cold, seemingly. And then there's all of these different times, like, how long are people exposed to whatever type of cold there's the type of cold? Is it a cold shower? Is it just putting your left arm in before training? Is it putting your whole body in? Is it and then there's a there's temperature? So it's like, is it you know, two degrees or 60 degrees, whatever we, you know, Fahrenheit Celsius all over the map, like, where are we sitting in it, what temperature. And so the research is pretty widespread. And it leaves a lot of room still for fully understanding deliberate cold exposure. And I think we have to keep doing that kind of research. But what I do notice, because I've put over 2000 people on the ice one on one at this point, and when you look at breathwork, and cold exposure groups, even more than that, and really with women, a very, very big thing is women will come to me and say, I'm not going to pledge today because I'm on my period. And I'm like, okay, cool, you have autonomy to do whatever you want to do. And it's actually hormonally if you're not, you know, this is the big this is the big picture is that we all want to use our intuition and how we feel coupled with what's actually going on in our body if we have a good understanding of our hormone profile. And for someone who is generally in healthy hormonal state, the menstrual period is a good time, as long as intuitively you're not like, Oh, I'm cranky, and I'm angry. And I don't want to be around people. Because if you're doing an intergroup it's a time where our hormones are most sort of like they have their lower right, it's like a lower phase of hormones. And it's actually really, I like to train on my period day two and beyond. I like to get in cold on my period, especially if I have anything that feels like inflammation or crankiness. It really just boosts my mood. It keeps me really you know, focused and also just it's like a state shifter. And recognise that when I talk about deliberate cold exposure and my practice I'm typically getting fully submerged in a tub that's cold water that is about two or three degrees Celsius, so sub 40 degrees Fahrenheit. And there are that you don't have to start there. But um, but the period thing is an interesting thing. And then like, we don't have to cycle it with our cycle, but you know, I imagine you feel a little bit like this, which is that last week that leads up to our period and we have a bit more cravings when we have a bit more insular feeling potentially, you know, intuitively and we want to be a little bit more secluded, maybe we're dealing with some PMS symptoms, it depends right women to women, it's very different. I'm always trying to talk women out of their PMS symptoms. It's sometimes it's like I'm so crampy, it might actually help to get in cold. But that week for me is like the days leading up to the period, that's typically like the time that I'm most resistant, and I can feel that rising in my body. And I can feel that I'm like, I'm quite sensitive right now is my Allostatic stress load for the day, plus the fact that I'm about to get my period, going to just be like over the top. And so there isn't a lot of research around this. It's just what I typically see. And I think that not going upside down not going. Because this is that's an Ayurvedic thing, don't go upside down on your on your period, I think Ayurveda medicine is amazing. And also interesting is sort of designed by males long time ago. And the same with cold. It's like, you know, it's a, it's a story we tell ourselves that we can keep. It's also, I think, highly possible, as long as you don't have contraindications to go in the cold anytime of the month, that feels right. And in order to do that, you want to know what cold feels like to you, you know,

and walk up slowly, as you say, what's interesting, isn't it as if you put on a CGM device and you track it, quite often you'll see a blood sugar spike when you go into the cold. Right, which presumably, is because cortisol is rising momentarily in that anticipatory response to the cold. I just might not be stressing the body long term I can imagine from a period perspective, actually, it's probably helping with inflammation. But as you say, you are more sensitive. And you notice if you found this Christian, but going for wax, right? If I go for a while, leader, and I got the pain, like why does it hurt so much more, just in and around the time of your period than any other time of the month? Yeah, it's kind of doing that

you're saying that which is a great point. It's like later on today, I'm going for a wax. Also, the times that my CGM because I don't know if you're like me, this woman in my life, I have a season for tracking and a season for not tracking and being intuitive. But now I'm like hooked up to like her new house and my bass strap is charging and my aura ring on CGM, and it's all on my body and I feel like a robot. But it's important to track that data. And my biggest glucose spikes happen when I'm under stress is not. I can do it with food like cassava, which in the States is really big right now as like a Keto, you know, green free like have all the cassava you want and chips and everything's made out of cassava gluten free pizza with cassava, cassava flour, and that route spikes my glucose like nobody's business. And so I just it's not great for me, right. And that's maybe different for everyone who's listening to this. But that's an important piece. And the stress when I'm running late to something I can see on my CGM. And when I have instantaneous moments, fitness, which is important, like important to state that that's okay, we're body wants to dump glucose to help the muscles function. So we're gonna glucose is gonna rise when we're worth doing a workout. But moments of stress where I'm like running out the door, 15 minutes behind to get to like an appointment or meeting seeing my friends or whatever. I'm actually it's a psychological response. It's a physiological response, but based on my psychology of knowing I'm late, as opposed to, which is the practice for me as opposed to like, okay, um, I can't make 15 minutes in time to add to the clock. So how can I do this as easily as possible? And that's a big practice for me. And then the cortisol thing, which I, when I was talking about labs, I didn't even quite get to, which is like six months ago, he Roman, of course, the famed and he remained on his podcast talked about ice baths, not spiking cortisol. And so the research is, there are a few studies, not a lot, and a lot of people will say, I read it a lot on on research aggregated websites, right? These wide swaths of statements that are like, does not spy cortisol, it's like, cool. I want to have a little more research. And then when Andrew spoke about it, I was like, He's not gonna speak about it without research behind it, that's sufficient enough for him to understand that. So for me, I spouse because I would stay away from them in moments where I felt I had a lot of cortisol response going on in my system, and I was managing it. And then the minute I heard that, I was like, This is great. It can shift right, let's be clear, when we're getting in a cold shower, we're getting an ice bath, and we're getting in cryo. We're creating a sympathetic response in the body and the beauty of it comes when you get out. So it's like type two fun, it's fun when you're done. Your body is you're creating adaptation. And so I think it's important to say to a lot of times I see women I don't know how much you love an ice bath. People say to me all the time, no one loves an ice bath. And I'm like, Well, I'm like in that camp, and maybe that's why I'm doing it for you know, part of my My breath and cold instructor training and being in this world. But the sitting in the cold sounds scarier than it is the anticipation of cold is much worse than the cold itself. And so I really encourage females to, you can start with a cold shower. Awesome. I don't like to do cryo, just because it's so expensive for three minutes. And so it's like, fine, it's fun, it helps me sleep. But it's also all the long term benefits exist in the cold water immersion and really deliberately getting ourselves into a tub of cold water or ice or something or a cold body of water if you're lucky enough to live near that. So it's pretty interesting because there's like so much, you know, there's this arsenal of literature and we're trying to to navigate it, especially as females, right, because we are more sensitive, but we're equally as sensitive as we are powerful. So I'm not an advocate of like ice bath thing every day. As a woman. I think it's a lot for our system, hormonally.

I think as you saying like getting started and not going as cold, like you're saying like the two to three degrees. Are you talking here? You're saying yes, centigrade, right? 40 degrees.

Fahrenheit and like sub five degrees Celsius,

it's just kind of like a refrigerator. But you can also I mean, I've read that you can start to get the benefits when you're looking at kind of 11 degrees centigrade sub so you can start kind of there and then work your way down. I think people sometimes the anticipation, as you say, so great. And they feel like wow, I have to go like really, really super cold and totally put off. Whereas actually, it's a little bit like with the culturing, like in terms of thinking about hydrotherapy, actually, for detoxification, and blood vessel, it's quite good to cycle. And a lot of people find that a really easy way to get started. Really fast, hot and cold, hot and cold. Exactly. So you can do obviously, by going in the sauna. If you've got one at home, I love to do that. But if they haven't, then you can cycle between the hot and the cold in the shower. Sometimes that just makes it I think, however you want to get started. I mean, you're the the expert, obviously on this, what have you found is, I'm just curious with like exercise training, what have you found is optimal for women who like to exercise a lot, and how much and how close to exercise, they should be having that cold exposure for how long?

Yeah, I mean, the reality is that like with, with the short term benefits that a cold shower brings on, if you were to do a strength training session, then just have like a short cold shower, it's not going to mitigate. Like we something we have mTOR in our system when we are when we're working out, right and the mTOR is going to create the, the neogenesis to create new muscles so that we are we're basically finally tearing our muscles, and then they're rebuilding. And so if you get into the cold, you can stunt the end mTOR response and so if you are like I'm training to really build a lot of muscle if you are this is why I'm I'm not a fan of women in perimenopausal menopausal years, it's already hard enough to build muscle, let's not work out and then go sit in cold ice. But you could get away with a shower, that's like quick, that's cool, because sometimes it feels good after a workout. But my recommendation is always to stay away from the cold for at least four or five hours after a training. I actually tell people, my clients and women that I work with to get in the cold before a training session, if they're going to choose to do so,

that's interesting. I like that idea. It's a bit like doing your red light therapy because it improves it improves time to to say you could actually do a red light session right when infrared called an hour and then go in strength train.

Yeah, and then the big thing with contrast, like contrast is great. And it's a great way to start. And the reality is like start how you have to, don't worry so much about like what's gonna happen with your muscle growth potential. And all of that just like start how you have to so you can get some practice, and contrast is a great way to do it. And then when you truly get to a place where you're contrasting between cold and hot tub or cold and a sauna, the big thing is like have to let the body do the work or you're stunting the benefits. So let's say that I'm in a cold, cold tub. Or let's just say I'm in a cold tub, because I like to talk about the immersion part, because it's really it is more, I prefer being in a tub of cold water for five minutes, versus a five minute cold shower or a three minute cold shower, I just don't like to be pelted with cold water and only get short term benefits. It's like let me get in it. Let me reverse engineer my nervous system to understand how to manage and adapt to stress by using my breath, and then get out. And then it's like a full experience and my body will reap the benefits for at least 2436 hours after an A metabolism stamp from a metabolism standpoint. And then after that, you know, my cells are like upregulating to make me better. But the contrast piece is interesting because I see people a lot of times at the gym or the spa or that wherever going from sauna to cold and sauna to cold and so on it a cold back and forth and it's cool, you're gonna get some benefits. And also if you're in the cold for three minutes, and then you go right into the sauna. You're not letting your body do the work. You want to have a shiver response. That's where a lot of the beautiful cascade of effects happens. You want spend I tell people at least five minutes between the two. So it's like cold five minutes of a rewarming period and then hot, hot five minutes of a cooling period and then cold. Because if you let the body do the work and you're in hot enough or cold enough your cold shock proteins and your heat shock proteins are gonna get affected. And this is what we want is what we want for creating brown adipose tissue, which is the good fat and helps burn the white fat. You know, usually that's I'm like halfway through that sentence. And then women are like, I'm never getting in cold or like already in the ice.

Okay, I'm getting in.

Like, I don't know, what did you said? I mean, I mean, yeah, all of that, you know, and I think it's there's so many beautiful ways to explore the practice of, you know, it's just an Amsterdam, and I loved it, because I went to a spa that was like, just just like a naked spa. And it's like, it's not a fancy spa, per se. It's nice, but everyone's just like naked and going from hot to cold to red light to it. And it's just like, easy. And nobody's you know, we tend to be a little more conservative minded. I think maybe in the UK or US

definitely in Germany or Switzerland. Yeah, if you go skiing or in Austria, and you get in the sauna, everyone's gonna be in there naked. Yeah. And

if you show up in a swimsuit, you actually feel more awkward. Like, just the body is this natural, beautiful physiological thing. all shapes, sizes, colours, everyone's in it to win it. And then you can do cold and you can do hot and you can and you see i i watched people cycle in so many different ways all over the world. That I just like, I think that that's like a pro tip is let the body do the work because you really want to get max benefit.

Yeah, that's a very cool tip. I am kind of thought of it the other way around, actually coming out with a sauna and cooling your body first, before you get into the cold. It's interesting. But the other way, I think just felt really intuitive. Yes, you know, but actually letting your body cool before you go into the ice bath. That's interesting. With the breath work. What do you advise people to do? What's the best way for someone listening to this who's who's a beginner and they're thinking, right, I'm totally inspired. I want to have more brown fat. That's it. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to turn the box to cold and go. What's the best way for them to prep themselves to that because actually, when you look at like some of the Wim Hof stuff, if you're doing that properly, you can get really quite dizzy. And I would say for for a beginner, and lightheaded that might not be the best way to then just plunge straight into cold. I'm just curious what you think for someone who's just getting started in cold,

for sure. And I work the same way with all the beginners and even even people are doing advanced protocols. I love Wim, I love his work. I think it's great what he's doing let's climb mountains. And let's in our shorts, and he's so funny and and really, it's like tapping people into the power of breath. And he's done that for the world in such a big way. Certainly there's other people like James Nesta, who's writing about it and Dan relay who's sort of been doing it for 25 years, and only recently getting the more and more notoriety. But when and his you know, what he's known for is that super ventilated hyperventilating type of breath, because it's, it's sensational, it's out there. And he certainly does other kinds of breathwork styles. But with beginners, I really like to figure out how women can meet. So I say women because I work with so many but especially because we are sensitive and anyone who's new male, female, non binary, any of that we can start with meeting the ice or meeting the cold with ease. Because that's a very different, it's sort of like a it's the opposite doesn't mean either way, it doesn't mean one way is better than the other, I just find that it is a way to teach yourself. When I'm in a let's just say I'm driving a car in LA where I used to live in there's massive traffic and people are cutting me off and on their phones. And I'm kind of feeling hyper stressed. And I need to make a quick decision to not get hit by another car in a moment. I need to be like focused and calm and understanding that my body is like downregulated and it was aware and wide vision as possible. And I won't even know that that's about to happen potentially. And so if I'm sitting in that car doing like a Wim Hof you know, super ventilated style breath to meet that stress. It's like I don't it doesn't work right? It doesn't manage my stress it up levels, my stress, it totals my vision. Like you said, it might make me dizzy, please don't do it in a car. But in that example, it's like what I want to do with people in the cold is like as it goes in cold it goes in life. So how can I meet the cold water this thing that's going to have I have a simple everyone has a sympathetic response to ice cold water. How can I get into it and actually breathe in a way that is telling my body that I'm safe and teaching my body how to down regulate best as possible from a breath perspective, ease fully in cold water. And if I'm sitting in my car and I'm driving and I don't know what's happening or I'm feeling some stress, come on, if I match that similar breath style, ease fully gracefully breathing, then I can mitigate hopefully the accident or the stress in the car so I'm trying to we don't get in the ice to get good at getting in the ice. I know it looks like that on social media. I know everyone's like I have you know this Add part is it's like skin to win, I have one that I did that was about like women's health rights in the states and stuff. And I'm like, I'll put on a bra and panties and go in the ice bath. And like, as much as I can't stand it, that's like the reels, it's gonna get the most views, which is, you know, I'm just trying to get a message across. So when when we're going to get into the ice, and we're seeing it on social media as a sensational thing, what we're really doing is we're trying to get good at life, we're not trying to get good at being in the ice or getting more fans or followers. How do we get better at life? How do we get better at managing stress. So that's a long answer to the short one sentence thing, which is, I tell people who are new to set themselves up with maybe a 2x breath pattern and breathe nasally only. So that means they're breathing in for two and out for four, maybe in for four out for eight, although initially in the beginning, and for two out for four is totally plenty of account and using your nose. Now knowing that you're gonna walk into the step into the cold in any way shower, or cry or anywhere. And your first response is, your body's gonna go, you're gonna have a response, let that give yourself a second, two seconds, three seconds to have that response, whatever it is, maybe, Okay, a couple of breaths out, but then settle yourself in breathing into the lower lobes, lower belly, and use your nose and breathe in for two and a half or four. And like over and over again, that's like a good way to just serve your body and in a stressful environment, so that you are keeping yourself aware and focused and in a calm state. best, best you can. And that applies to life. And so that's that's the way I like people to start out. That doesn't mean you can't do the other thing. But the other thing is like, it makes sense in the sense of super ventilated when breathing Wim Hof style breathing that we see so often is exciting the body it is like an attempt at matching what you're about to get into to make what you're about to get into easier, right. So it makes that make sense. And it's two different ways of looking at a situation. I just want to do it coming off of quarantine for three years and everyone highly stressed and anxious. I want to do it in a way where especially with new people, were teaching us ourselves how to calm our state and try to relax and unwind versus wind ourselves up.

That's interesting. Actually, I like that approach. I when I do the WIM style breathing, I actually I feel very relaxed after actually don't feel like going and psyching and doing something because when you get that, you know he talks about being high on your own supply when you get that kind of quite heady feeling. And she just feels really nice. And he's you know, localised, and I'll just kind of let it lie there and shavasana and just kind of like visualise very relaxing, but I guess, yeah,

it's different, but I'll do it face down, which is cool too. Have you ever tried this? No. Put my hands over like a little diamond and put my forehead and then do some of the WIM breathing face down just because it's an interesting perspective. When you can fill the back body with like air, it's just like it feels different in the body. And always lying down. I've like it lying down because I think what you're talking about you get that like floaty sensation,

really nice floaty sensation. Let's talk about fitness. Right? Because both of us are kind of into strength training, general fitness and optimising it around female hormone health.

I want you to lead off and tell us about fitness a bit because I'm so curious as to sort of what your habits are. And I love when I see you just bang in some heavy weights on so.

Well, it you know, it's funny, I think it's funny because people say to me, oh my God, why do you do that? How do you do that kind of thing. And it's the fitness side for me as I think they're like body composition, I do it for body composition for longevity, because I think it's so important. And obviously being in my 40s I have to work harder now to maintain that muscle mass. However, it really like exercise for me for a very long time since I have depression has been a mental health benefits first. So it's kind of like if I wake up and I still I think, you know, for anyone listening that struggled with clinical depression, they'll recognise it when you've been through that, particularly for a number of years, like I did, you're always not every day, but you're gonna get those days where it's just a battle. It's a battle to kind of really spark that positive mindset in the morning and for me exercises my go to so I know that I just feel so much better when I've done it and it doesn't seem to matter. Interestingly, whether I've done something high intensity, whether we're strength trained all different kinds of repetitions is just moving my body going out for like a fully nasal breathing run. I love because you just come back in that Zen state and you've been out in the fresh air. But I it's interesting because the way I've been playing with it is we don't have that much research. And obviously we know that, you know, not going too hard in the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase is a positive thing because we're more catabolic, but I find that the biggest stress that's on women is actually psychological stress unless you literally are are an athlete and you're training for like four to six hours a day, most of the stress that you're experiencing, and I think whoop, actually now is got better at picking this up with HRV readings is psychological stress. So I've been looking at, well what happens while I might not go and do sprint interval training in the luteal phase, what really is the strain on my body as assessed by whoop when I'm doing it, and it'll get to like a five. So I don't see that as particularly stressful, necessarily. However, I'm careful not to do that in the in the sort of luteal phase. And so what I do is I tend to, because you've got to lift heavy at my age, yeah, so I've got to go kind of sub six reps to really provide that stimulus. Yes, I still have a very regular I'm very fortunate to have a very regular menstrual cycle I haven't needed like all those things like that yet. But what I found is that I do feel like I need that more stimulus. And I'm conscious to protect the downside right before I get into my 50s and hit menopause. So I will do the heavy compound lifts in the first two weeks of the month, and then kind of move to more like higher repetitions on sort of accessory moves. And then I'll do quite a bit of zone two, because I have dogs anyway. So that's easy, and I like it. And then I will throw in some kind of hit or sprint interval training maybe once or twice a week on top. And then as I get into ovulation, or like past that stage, I tend to and I'll see my recovery change. And I think for anyone listening to this, when you look at something like like in your room, for example, look at that. You want to be tracking your luteal phase metrics against last month's luteal phase because you can always look under recovered if you're not because it's measuring you against your follicular phase most likely, because that's just what you've come through. And so I then, but at that stage, what I tend to do is I will move into more endurance style reps, but then to kind of keep the blood flow, I'll do some, instead of resting between sets. So let's say you're doing like 10 to 12 reps at this point, instead of then resting for 30 to 60 seconds. On some of those sets, I might do some like cardio, just to keep the blood flow going. So I'm working in the cardio that way. And so Week Three is still kind of a bit stronger than it's going to be by the time I get to week four, which I use them as just an opportunity for what I don't want to do I resist it. But I use, you know, more functional movement patterns, I basically I should do more yoga, I don't do enough, I'll move to more endurance reps in Europe, focus training, and really work on the things that I might not be doing earlier in the month, you know, because when you often with compound lifts, like if you're thinking about squats, and deadlifts and rows and things like this, you're only moving in two planes of movement, right? It's kind of front to back. So this is a really good time where you can do like clock lunges, or lateral lunges, or you can use the cables and do twists, and welcome all building up and doing injury prevention work. So that's kind of how I do it. And as she keeps the month really fun, but I'm super curious to see what you do person.

Yeah, those are so beautiful I love it's like just this is why we have to continue everyone who's listening to this as well, you have to continue to do research on your body and the way that you train. It's such a beautiful cadence and pace of everything that you just outlined. It's like how you're working in these different modalities. And it's the, it's the, this is the rub of, you know, if men had the patterns we had, when it came to hormones over the course of 30 days, or 20 days, or whatever it might be, there would be 50 or more, you know, cycling with your cycle workout programmes that were laid out and easy to use, and apps and all of this and we've been training like males for so long, it doesn't mean it's not going to work to some extent, it's still moved mobility and training and lifting heavy shit. And that's great. And we can do it so differently. And just what you described is such a beautiful I train. Similarly, I would say my periods been like doing this 26 day 32 day like it's starting to have some interesting fluctuation. So that's like made it more challenging as I'm getting slightly dysregulated and that's fine. It's just like comes with getting older. And learning and really the biggest. It's what I call with clients max effort week is like the seven days from like day six to six to 16 is 10 days. So it depends sort of on the client length of their period and like their cycle. It's about a week's worth of time where it's like max effort where I will be like, okay, when can I lift weights? And can I do it every day or like with only one rest day in there? And so answer time that I have our bodies just physiologically and I'm going to mention to you that I'm not on any form of birth control. Oral Contraceptive, as you already know, is a it's a whole gamification of figuring out how you can get hired I show results from hormones that are not really your real hormones. And I never like to tell anyone what to do. But oral contraception and hormonal birth control can really be just challenges this whole paradigm, right? And then the same thing happens with perimenopause and menopausal clients. It's like we there's just like, there's hormones and who knows? And how do we so there's, it's working in that realm. But um, I like to have like a Go Big maximum effort week where I'm it's like strong, steady and slow. It's like you're talking about these compound movements, really lifting heavy. I love that you're like, I'm lifting heavy, because low reps, because that's where I am, in my age, my lifespan. And I want to say to every single woman that's listening to this podcast right now that it doesn't matter where you are in your lifespan, you need to be lifting heavy, and you need to be lowering your reps. If I had a nickel for every time someone came to me and said, I'm just plateauing and I'm not know what I'm doing. And it's like, it's like, they're in the gym doing like accessory movement, or they're lifting, like, they're deadlifting, 80 pounds, you know, 15 times six sets. And it's like, of course, you're not moving, you're not giving your body any stimulus at this point. It's like, cool, I can do that with my eyes closed. And so the psychology of it is, is it's so important. And then there's enough research that we can see where the connectivity between thinking about moving a muscle. And instead of like texting or social media in or looking at the cute person across the way from you thinking about doing the work, actually potentiate better work. So it's like, how can you get in lift heavy, do compound movements, especially during that time of your cycle where it's important. And I love that you said like doing sub six or six reps, because it's like that's that last rep on three sets, three sets of six should feel like I can't do it. It should feel like failure. We don't want to be failures as women, but this is not about that at all, this is about getting better, because you are writing your edge. So that's like, to me the most important time of the month. And then I do a lot of what you do. Like I haven't been good about yoga lately. But I do love yoga, I taught yoga for seven years and mobility work I've been doing but I also would like I'll do more sauna. I'll do like more sauna protocols. And that last week of the month, because I'm like, Well, I'm getting steady, stable, I'm just sitting my

thing. I love that. too. And you're like, and all I'm doing is just sitting it

hanging out. I'm like, you know, sweating. I'm daydreaming or I'm like, you know, downregulation is, you know, we teach what we need. constantly talking to the women I work with and the communities I'm working in about, you know, what's your downregulation buffet or menu look like? You know, what are the seven things you love to do? Or maybe you don't love so much, but you have as options to downregulate? How do you calm your state? How do you recover. And then most importantly, after I'm done with any kind of training, I always take like three minutes and put my legs up the wall or on a bench or lie on the floor almost immediately after, which doesn't go it's like ah, at the spin studio. Have you I don't know if you've do any of these breathwork things after training or whatever we just I'm setting my system up to recover immediately instead of the Hour of the weird like sweating, nervous system fluctuation that happens. So I want to just down regulate and do that same breathing pattern we talked about in the ice 2x breathing for three to five minutes after any big class or big LIFT session or what have you more important than then getting the hour. And if you only have 45 minutes, it's like 40 minutes of working out five minutes of downregulated breath right at the end. But at the spin studio here in Texas, I like lie down there's no it's just designed with a flow that there's like really no like wall it doesn't have like biker clothes or things that are being sold on it. And so there's like one little wacky like Central bench where everybody's then changing back into their regular shoes. And I lay on the floor on my little towel, which is like, it's not gnarly, but I'm on the floor like in between people. And my legs are up on this bench. And I'm always like, Oh, I'm just doing some breath work. And every time somebody will flag my instructor who stands at like the front and be like, Okay, what's wrong with the girl on the floor, she's not doing so well. And so it's just like, funny that these things are not more woven into the work we're doing or the spaces were doing. I used to do it in the bike room. And then the women come around with the spray. And they're like spraying over me and I'm just like breathing cleaner. So these are the funny instances that it's like you have to sometimes I think you see this especially if you're cycling what your fitness with your cycle. Women might come to you and be like, I feel like you know, there's an internal dialogue that's like I feel like the strange one or the weird one or that why am I doing this or, but no one else is doing this. It's like we're all learning together. And this is the experimentation in the practice of fitness training and the fact that your nasal running like out there doing runs like I know you had Patrick on and he's so amazing to talk about all the ways that we can use nasal breathing to train and so doing that run is so good for your body and so good for your breath mechanics and your pelvic floor and everything. And so

relaxing, like when you come back. It's like the best form of meditation because it's having that conversation actually with one of my groups today. And they were saying, How do I do? How do we do how to walk up and it's like the same issue with the cold exposure, right? Just take it really slow, if you can only neighs it. And Patrick, by the way, has amazing videos for anyone listening on how to unblock a stuffy nose if you have that. But then when you start and you've unblock the nose and you start running, and you're speaking to someone who has asthma, in fact, he called me out on my first interview on dysregulated. My reading was from asthma because I have often pneumonia, I had infection induced asthma. But so you're hearing from someone who struggles with breathing, and if you develop it, and as you say, it is about just accepting the failure, right, if you can only nasally breathe for three minutes, and then you've got to walk, it doesn't matter. Like it's so worth the investment of your time of like, run, walk, or jog, walk, jog, walk like this. And then eventually you build up until you can go 30 to 40 minutes. And when you come back, all that muscle tension, anything you've experienced, just falls and melts away. Like it's so amazing.

It's a whole different state of recovery, right? And it's like a neuro runner, like I you know, I see your physique, I know that you're super fit. It doesn't need to be even scary. If people are like, I'm not a runner. It's like you can power walk and nasal breathing. You can regular walk a nasal breathe, right, let's like we leave No, no. no stone unturned. And I have quite often I'll have women do, who don't want to run the lunges. So it's like, lunge, dummy lunge, right? So this is a little lunge or a full lunch. And it's just like nasal breathe and adjust your lunge height or your turn it into a walk when you start to feel like oh, I have to breathe through my mouth. And the good news is, if you need to open your mouth, just take a breath, right? Yeah, exactly. It's like, okay, I'm freaking out. I'm open my mouth. Okay, fine. And so there's so many ways to train that. And it's yeah, I'm very aligned with the way that your ways that you're training, I like to cheat the system. The last sometimes during do like a presentation or talk at a conference, someone's like, so do I have to train at all the last week of the month, the last week before my period, and I'm like, I want to say like, it's a great time, we need to all be moving every day. And also, if you're going to cheat the system and just do the easier stuff or throw yourself in a sauna. Like that's a great week to do it. I like I get a little bit more. I'm really extroverted. And so I, for me, I feel like when I feel really insular, and I feel like I want to like journal and stuff, those those last few days, and I know that my period isn't coming, just sort of help a parameter with the fluctuations I'm having. But you know, that's, I'm pretty aligned with you, I think the biggest thing that I see, I don't know, if you've seen this in your communities is just like the resistance to the strength training. And body resistance training is awesome, you know, if you're like, Hey, I'm just doing a plank cold I'm doing you can do that. There's just no substitute for like finding ways to safe and effective safely and effectively lift heavy weight, I mean, just get out there. And and this is why personal trainers are great, you know, I will do this with some of my one on one clients, because I have this background and certification. But it's like a lot of the people I'm working with also will have, they'll get like five personal training sessions as an investment and say to the trainer, I don't need you forever. But what I'd really love is if we could go through the major movements, and biomechanically, you could coach me, because once you know them, as you know, you can like start racking your own weight, and like, how badass Do you feel if anyone hasn't seen you and these like, racks or whatever, when you're training? It's like a back squat with a barbell or like, it's awesome. Like how bad you feel like I just accomplished some shit. And I don't care that there's no, there's plenty of I had plenty of like gym fails where like, drop a weight or a bar like and there's four dudes around like, Oh, who is this ding dong, who doesn't know how to use it? Like, it doesn't matter. You just learn you get better. And then there's plenty of there's plenty of men that I see that just from my background. And I'm like, well, that's not exactly the optimal way to do that move. I'm certainly not going to go over to them in the gym and say, Why don't you try this? It'd be better. But, you know, we're all learning from each other. And this is like failure. How do we fail faster and make it fun?

Definitely, definitely, I couldn't agree more on Don't worry about the fact that there's just so many men in the weight room. Like don't let it deter you. I think a lot of women are scared. I go in there. And it's like, there's so many man. I think one day I posted I was like, where it all the women. But anyway, I think the other thing is what I say to people listening is remember, this is heavy for you. So like I was having this conversation with Mike Matthews, who I love, I think he's works amazing. And you know, it's so much harder to get the results like the changes in somebody who's highly trained than it is somebody who isn't trained. And I think understand that the less you do in the beginning, you're going to get results anyway. So you don't have to suddenly go oh my god, I've got to do split body parts. And I've got to go five days out of seven and all this actually two to three times a week. And what's heavy for you is going to be a result because if you've been used to just doing Pilates and just your own body, adding any kind of resistance is now going to be providing a form of stimulus and then you walk up heavier over time. I think that's the thing is, and I think sometimes women feel a bit self conscious because they think, Well, I'm not going to be lifting that heavy and everyone's like loading up the bar, maybe just the bar is the right thing for you to start with, you know, and also get a trainer, because posture really, that's the biggest thing is don't get injured, but learn how to do the lifts first. And you would never start with three to six reps, you would start with kind of 10 1215 reps and a lower weight to build all the movement patterns for a few weeks. And then when you're confident start dropping the reps down.

Yeah, yeah, that bar comment you made is important because this is like how I biomechanically learn to do barbell lifts. And even with dumbbells, just starting with smaller ones to get the understanding of if it's a compound movement, or if it's just a simple movement, but really just working with the bar. And when you're sitting in a room where everybody's just like, let's also be clear that sometimes the biggest workout I have is when I have to D load the bar that some muscle had mal or left on a 400 pound weights on the bar and I'm having to pull off like 25 and 50 pound plates one at a time and then like that's like my pre workout please reracked your weights people

but he's been rack them in order items. You know what I have this thing with OCD, we went in our gym was closed for like, I think it was 72 hours where they closed it for deeply, and that they do. And everything was put back beautifully. Like it was so nice. You know how the orders do the weight plates decrease in size, and oh my god, this just appeals to exactly how I have my house. Everything has to be perfectly. And then people go in and then it's like, they're all out of water. It drives me crazy. It's just like, it's just my thing. I wish they can order. But anyway, that's awesome.

No, it's all fun. And it's just like, Yeah, you get on the bar and you're like cool. The bar, I love it. I'm on the bar, the bars can be like 15 pounds, I don't know what they are, are you up to like 45 pounds. The fact that they call the heaviest one the men's bar and the lighter one. The Women's bar is also like stairs.

Because here we have them. They're all basically what they call an Olympic bar. So they're all 20 kilos. Or they are we have some slightly shorter ones, but they're mostly all just picked bar.

But it's like a learning bar that you'll find sometimes it's around, I don't know what isn't kilos, 15 pounds, and then you'll have like 35 pounds and a 45 pound. And when you go to a place sometimes the 35 pound ones are pink, that's even more annoying. Really, they make where they make pink ones. And then and then the I won't rack a 45 pound bar, I'd rather rack on a 35 buck bar. It's like what I'm used to. And that's why but it's just like, it's also just, you know, it's 10 pounds, either use it on plates or use it on the bar. And then also, we're talking about barbells and dumbbells, which are also, you know, I love those because they are not attached to anything if you know how to use them correctly, because then you have to use the most important thing, let's stop doing 5000 squats, I mean, 5000 crunches, you have to use your core muscles. In order to lift those things, you have to engage them the entire time, you know, you want to get a six pack of ABS, it's not about doing 1000 crunches, it's also about moving your bodies in other in other ways in spaces and verticals with heavy weight because you have to have intra abdominal pressure to be able to build that core. And so that's so critical to do and also if you're nervous about those things, right? I'm sure your gym has this too. There's 4000 machines that are like everything's attached and it gives you directions and you can if you let it go It's not going to hurt you and even when I was was when I was over for HLS I went to a I was in Amsterdam and they had like this amazing booty blaster machine where you like strap in your seat but we don't I haven't seen them in this scene knows all follow Brett Contreras.

I don't follow it. I don't know if I follow him by know who you mean because he's there. He's all on the glue guy. Yeah, I've got it on myself actually. Yeah,

yeah, he's he's just rad because he's his clientele is like 90% female and he really debunks a lot of myths. And it's just nice to go and see a lot of his women are training to get on stage right to comp to be in competitions. And but it's nice to see before and afters and that it's taken some women he's worked with three, four or five plus years and we don't all have to be like in clear heels onstage posing like it doesn't if that's not our goal, that's fine, but he just really makes it accessible. He makes it I have a number of clients that will show up to me and say I want a good home programme. I want a good programme I can print it out and he has a programme that's like called booty by Brett that I just you know no affiliation. I just I like it because it's a lot of strong women being like Hell yeah, I just did that. Like I just squatted or I hip thrust 350 pounds, which is no joke. And also you look at the pictures of the women and they're not Arnold Schwarzenegger, thick. They're, they're, they're, they're feminine. I mean, some of them are stage training, right? They're getting muscular. But you see them in jeans, and it's just like, oh, I can lift that much weight with my glutes and have them be like firm and tight and small. It doesn't mean that I'm gonna get big right? Do you have that with people coming to you saying You don't want to give too much like a big, yeah,

but it's the biggest misconception, right? Because generally, what I found is when I'm in a lifting and like, say, for example, I did an experiment, during lockdown, when all the gyms were closed, and I was like, right, I'm just because I'm kind of, like, I might do my nasal runs, I prefer hiking than normal, just running, like, I don't really go for a jog, so to speak, because that kind of grey zone training, I don't really like, I don't think you get as good results. But because it was locked down, I was just like, I'm gonna get a running condition, I'm just gonna try this, I just want to see, right, and I just all I'm going to do is run the body composition, oh, my God, I absolutely hated it, everything was a bit softer. I just didn't, I actually did thicken up around my waist, right, which is what I tell everyone, like just constant jogging is causing higher cortisol, and thus, you're not getting what you want. When you start to strength train, you're just gonna do smaller, everything's gonna go. And in and you get those lovely, when we talk about curves, those curves come from, and everyone has a different type, right? So I think in terms of their perception, you want to look how you want to look in the mirror, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, my just want people to understand that, if you think you're going to get bigger in the gym, you're unlikely to unless you're really eating a lot, or kind of a lot of fat. So yes, you can have like intramuscular fat, and you can have fat over your muscles. But if you're having to help, which helps recovery anyway, a decent amount of protein likelihood is you're just going to get these really beautiful lines and just go at smaller, and then it's up to you how far you want to go. Right? That's very, very individual. And everyone has a different size. And I think a different perception of what they like, and also a different body type, right? I think, you know, if you're naturally more of an ectomorph, you're just going to find it really hard to get big. It's not going to be easy. Even as a guy, it would be hard.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And the protein thing we should we should talk about the protein thing, the protein thing, and the food thing is so important to that whole experience. And this whole there's this beautiful misnomer. We use it a lot on North America, I'm gonna build the muscle, it's like, what what is that, like, you're gonna build muscle, and it's gonna make you leaner. Build like lean muscle and thick muscle, I mean, yes, like, you can use height to hypertrophy in different ways. This is just like, the way you can build muscle. And also you can have moments where like, that's also you have I'm sure seeing this, there'll be a week that I might be like working out tremendously, but I'm gonna have created some inflammation, it's intentional inflammation so that I can have protein muscle muscle protein synthesis happen and get muscle where my body is a little puffier. And that's because I'm working out a lot. And it's not real weight. And it's not real size. And it's not like I'm talking inches, I'm saying it's feels a little bit puffier because maybe I'm going harder at the gym. But all of that is again, like putting that stressor into the muscle to be able to adapt. And what happens at the end is that you get tighter, stronger, leaner. And that's the thing that I think, you know, if if we're if you're listening right now, and you're like getting on the scale every day, and you're like, Well, I feel like this every day, I want to invite you to really start leaving yourself post it notes or get a dry erase marker and write the things that one thing every day on your mirror that you think or post every day on your mirror. One thing that you think positive about yourself one thing that you think is beautiful about yourself one thing that your mom says or your lover says or your best friend tells you and if you don't know call them and we'd spend a lot of time obsessing about what we look like or don't look like in the mirror yet. And we only get this moment this day, you know, every day. And so I have a lot of women that actually do that I write on my dry erase, I have a sign over on my right on a dry erase marker on my mirror. I have a sign over my bathroom hallway like my bathroom doorway that says you are effing magic. Because it's just like a reminder, if I'm leaving, and I've just beaten myself up a bit in the mirror or about anything about ageing or weight, whatever, whatever right? We all are going to do it. Even if it's like, oh, I caught myself, nobody's nobody's not going to do that men, women, everyone included. But I find and I don't know if you see this, but I just find women are so are so hard on ourselves. Everyday scale and the everyday it's like just you if no matter who you are, what you're doing, and you're out there, you're having this conversation with us right now. You're an incredible, amazing, beautiful female or male but females, like you have so many special gifts that no one else has. And that's not about being woowoo. That's just about what are they lean into them keep doing the work small consistencies every day, right is what gets us to the long term goal. And yeah, I'm just I because a lot of our cells are listening. That's what my partner would say ourselves are listening when we are talking to ourselves in the mirror in negative ways, or just in general, our cells are listening and it's like something that's potentially aiding us in the wrong direction. For, you know, our mental health and for the way we show up in the world, I see that a lot as well.

I love that. And I think I think what you say there are so important question because, you know, when people beat themselves up, I think they don't realise that actually, it perpetuates the very behaviour that they didn't want in the first place. And so it's kind of like, you know, oh, my god, I hate Why do I get so many cravings? And why do they then give into it, and you're in this stress state all the time, which drives more cravings. And then you go and eat, and then you beat yourself up, and then you weigh yourself. And I just don't really like clients to weigh themselves. Particularly, I think, weighing yourself occasionally to keep an eye is a great idea. taking some measurements, if you have body composition goals, and if you can get your body fat percentage done. But even just taking some tape measure measurements, and just how you look in the mirror, and then look at the change, you know, it's so powerful, like I have clients, and they'll say, I didn't think I was really massively losing weight and the scales wasn't showing like dramatic amounts of weight loss. But I look in the mirror and I look dramatically, so different, because muscle weighs more than fat. And it's like, why don't you go where the look and feel of your clothes. And if you look, and you just feel great, you feel fantastic, then we know we've got the right result. That's all we need. Because in any case, women's weights, like can change in a day just so dramatically, assists, I don't want you weighing yourself because then you also you've put it, you're not in control anymore, right? What the situation is controlling you. Because whatever that number says, now controls your mood. And that's just never great thing.

Yeah, and in our cycling years, like Stacey SIMS I do, I do a lot of her programming. And Stacey Sims talks a lot about like, there's a blood plasma shift in our body. And you know, you look at it, it could be two pounds for one woman, it could be seven for another. So like that blood plasma is like growing and shrinking, right? It's like an increase in decrease. And that's like, um, it's based on our hormonal profile. And we can't, it's not much you can do about that, right? I'm not talking about this thing that we talked about. That's like, why I have waterways? That's different. This is like, blood plasma. And so there's so many different variables. Yeah, yeah. And I love that you just said that it potentially it, it continues, the cycle continues that vicious cycle, there's a there's a, you know, like, if you talk about limbic looping or just ruminating in your brain or any of that stuff, it's like, there's, like, could you just take a moment and say, Okay, I'm gonna, a lot of times I do this with breath with clients, just like you want the cookie, or whatever. Sit down and do three minutes of specific style of breath work, maybe even it's like more like that. When breath work, we talked about a super ventilated breath or lay down and do some breath work. And if you still want it in this to the same level, then have it after the three minutes. And quite often, you'll see if you calm your nervous system, or you shift your state, that craving goes away. I have been spending, you know, quarantine did this for me. And a lot of people I don't know if you felt like this, but I just I was in my house more. Even when I had an ice bath on my roof in LA. I was like, I didn't go in it for two months. And there was like, I'm Private. It's my own little rooftop, I have an ice bath. And I like didn't go in it because I was like, but it's COVID it's quarante. Like it just is like that was the energy behind the action of media. And I finally was like, why am I not going my ice bath on my roof like this is a healthy practice. Let me like get my my booty back in there. There's this there's this like notion that if we continue to go and like unwind and take the space and it doesn't have to be an ice bath, but it could be a walk outside I got so stuck inside for so long for so like, if I'm sure if you measured my hours indoors, pre pandemic, post pandemic and still not perfectly where I want to be now. And I intentionally go outside in nature, but I just went and I spoke at a conference a gathering on breathwork in Amsterdam that was held predominantly in this outdoor tent in the fire in the middle of the tent. It was the coolest thing ever. But you're sitting on the ground, right? And you're watching a lot of talks and a lot of it's experiential. And you're out in nature for lunch, you bring your plate outside and I did that for six days. And nine hours a day. I was like on Earth in trees just outside of Amsterdam a couple of hours, right? And I came that my period came on time regulated with some of the other females there. I felt like there's a lot of transformational stuff happening so you having a lot of fields during the week. And also when I came home I felt like oh my goodness, I'm grounded. I meant my mental clarity is totally shifted. No cravings I'm so motivated I'm and there's I am not it is not lost on me that that is the predominant result of being in nature for so long. I just it's like outside it changes the game. It's like this. It's a simple tool, like breathing like whatever but that that piece of the grounding like you talked about this too but that I'm just it's a continual reminder for me that coming home from that I was like, Oh, I'm not in nature enough. I even like wet I found like this little like resort he outdoorsy by the lake kayaking thing and I went like on a staycation. 30 minutes from here the weekend after I get back because I was like, I need to just go sit on more grass and all this stuff. I have no grass left here because it's 110 degrees. It just killed my whole lawn.

This is in Texas now.

Yeah. I moved to Texas from LA. Yeah. Just a year ago. Now. How is it? hot?

Really hot summer here.

Yeah. been crushing. We had a heatwave for a month or so. And I moved just after August. So I missed the summer last year. And so this was like my first official summer and it was like one of the hottest on record. It's not like this all year. It's pretty beautiful. And the community is really wide moved here. It's the people are amazing.

Amazing. Yeah. So any last things before we kind of like it's been really fun chatting to you. I never have to do a party for people.

I think I just I would love to I want to get I like to always ask to, you know, just from a female biohacking perspective, just from your perspective. Like what are the other three keys that you're like right now? Maybe it's right now. Or maybe it's just long term that you're like, These are a must dues that are let's just say out of a baseline, normal potential health optimization tool that you're really like vibing on right now that you're really like, this supplement is the game changer or this thing I've really done. You know, hormonally, which is the big question I always get, which is like, thank you so much for for doing the stuff you're doing with analysing and sharing and doing your group around the Dutch because the more I continue to learn about that, the more I've gone through my results and seeing what they're doing, the more it's just like, such a good, it's such a good test

to get test. I always think it's a shame actually, when, because I think serum test blood urine tests are really important, and worked really well for, you know, like doctors using them with replacement therapy and things. But I think sometimes when people really overlook it and dismiss it and just say it's not good test, I think it's such a good test, because it really, I think my biggest thing like you, Kristen, is to empower women to become the CEO of their health, I just want to educate them and help them understand so they can come back. And we've pretty much completed a programme I've run on the Dutch test. And I wanted them to be able to learn how to interpret those results, and then come back. And if they want to retest in six months time, it's all there, they understand it. Because it's like, understanding you were talking at the beginning around cortisol and your stress and understanding like, what is your body doing? Like? What's the baseline that we've looked at when we're taking a snapshot that day? And is your body trying to protect you from further stress? Is it making cortisol available? Is your DHEA like matching up? You know, have you got enough DHEA to counter the stress that you're under, because everyone's under stress? You know, we've come out of a pandemic for two years. And now we're looking at, you know, everything in the news. And I don't like to read the news, but it is literally everywhere you look is talking about financial concerns. And I think that really is worrying for people because that threatens, you know, your very survival mechanism right in your head. And so understanding your stress and developing resilience through things like UTeach, like the cold exposure, the ice baths, the fitness work, all of these things, the breath is so important. And I think that if you can understand your baseline, where am I in between you can use a wearables to track those metrics like both you and I are trying out Harney, you can look at, you know where we've been and or and comparing those metrics, what's going on? I think they're so valuable and just understanding so you can really take control of your health, and then understand how is that affecting my sex hormones because you know it looking at oestrogen. For example. Women don't understand that when they're getting certain symptoms. It might not be the level of oestrogen per se but it's the pathways it's going down. And what can you do to correct those pathways and it's that's the very concept really of biohacking is to understand your body. And to really I kind of use the term often bias thinking because I think we want to sync with our biology and it just feels a bit more feminine and intuitive to me, because it's sort of hacking into something sounds very masculine or kind of technology based. I

love that. Let's make that a hashtag.

And I have been sharing quite a bit about it because I think that and I have a new programme now all about bio sinking and sinking with rhythms, right. It's not just about your hormones that you want to sync with. But it's about syncing with ultradian and Freedia rhythms but also your circadian rhythm. I just think this concepts really important. And so understanding like, you know, not just taking because almost as long as social media deems amazing. Yes, it is an amazing supplement, but it's amazing if you're going to use it because your oestrogen is high and you want to shift a pathway but actually if the pathway you want to shift but oestrogen over was low, it could actually just bring on symptoms for you, you know. And so I think it's about really understanding the mechanics. And the more, you know, you and I can educate women, so they really understand this. It surprises me. I don't know about you. But here in the UK, how many women I have that they come, and they talk about. They talk about like they've been to their doctor and something will be high, and they are not even informed of it. They're not, it's just like, oh, yeah, that was your blood test. Like, why is nothing being done about it? And I just think it's frustrating or they might have subclinical thyroid hypothyroidism, so it's just not being dealt with. Because it's kind of not bad enough. But why do we have to wait for things to get bad? If you've got symptoms? And it doesn't feel right, it isn't right. And I think just really dig deep and work with someone who's going to look at your lab work and understand it and a bit like we talk about functional training, let's look at you know, how can we functionally, like, look at your nutrition from a functional health perspective, your stress levels, your sleep, all these things? Because the beauty is when you put all those things together, the body inherently knows what to do. And the mindset superb. I loved what you said about your partner, talking about your cells. Hear what you say, because it's so true. And then that's when you know, like, you can't leave the mindset piece out. Because you know, that's how Joe Dispenza talks about the body controls the mind then, right? Because the cells are so like, wrapped in these neuro chemicals that you keep releasing and these hormones of stress and now is driving it and even what you think you want to do the subconscious leading you in another direction. And so I think it's about not taking parts of the body, but really looking at it as a whole and understanding the mechanics, and really trying to optimise your health and really just live the best life you can. That's the thing.

Yeah, yeah. And like so we can show up for other people, right? We don't show up for ourselves if we're not taking care of ourselves, or we're last on the list. And we can't show up in the best and the brightest way. And those ranges on those lab on the lab work. I was like last night I posted last night and my stories like everyone else is up doing like Netflix and chill. And I'm watching videos on lab work dissection, like different styles of lab work and how the you know, my mentor would say like how you're finding the head of the snake, right? So there's all of these things going on in your body. Maybe your oestrogen pathways are blocked or what it's like, how do we get to the head of the snake like the root cause of the issues? And so this is it's why people work with you. It's why people come work with me or functional medicine people or you know, whoever, because it's, it's getting someone good, who understands the range to say, hey, I have like one little breadcrumb on the trail that maybe there's a gut health issue. And and as I started to pull the pieces together, it's like, now I can see why vitamin D is low. And what pathway is not detoxing? Well, and you know, especially with all the environmental stuff, it's like the the future of medicine in some ways, like what we take out of our body versus what we're we're putting in, but the ranges on those labs are like your green, it's cool. It's like the range is 11 to 90 on something and it's like, well, you're at 12. But like you're fine, because it's like not dis ease. Yeah, right, that all that lab work is set up to like red flag when there is dis ease in that moment, like to find the bad stuff as it's happening, as opposed to mitigating the bad stuff. And that's why those ranges, and I do find this thing where someone will show up because my labs are normal. Or like the doctors like Oh, I'm gonna put you on extra progesterone. But there's like no conversation around it. There's no like, there's just it's like, okay, cool. I got this prescription, should I take it? I'm like, I don't know, get me on the phone. I do some calls with doctors who are always like, Who's this crazy girl that's coaching you. But uh, you know, I'll have a conversation because what I'm really trying to do is advocate for my client. Because they're there, we all get, you know, you either get no time at the doctor's office, or there's a white lab coat syndrome, which is like scary. So I'm just telling you what to do. So you just like do it because you think they know and you don't know. And we maybe we don't know, but like to ask the questions and advocate for yourself, especially females to say, why are you having me do this, especially if it's like hormones, right? There's so many different pieces of our neuro chemistry, like, let's just know, like, let's ask a little bit of the why. And, and it's okay to be nervous. And it's okay to get someone to advocate for you. But I see that yeah, I see that all the time. What about like tech tools or something? What's like, that's the fun, wacky hack that's going on. You got we always got something under the tablecloth. That's like, saying, I don't know if it's better or not.

Do you know the biggest thing that I've been playing with recently is just love the brain tap. I think I've like developed a kind of healthy addiction to it. This was a reporter's voice. I'm just like listening to him twice a day. And when I interviewed him, it was just amazing. Like, how many like he's like 30,000 brain scans and what he's found and how to train the brain. And I've been really kind of working on it just trying to train my brain and change the way that it sees things and I'm starting to see really big changes just in my perception, but also just in like things that, I guess just opportunities, I see synchronicities, things like that. It's been really fun to like play with that app. And I think the full sensory experience is amazing, because people have been asking me since I released the podcast, you know, should I just like, do the free trial that he shared? And try that? And I think, yeah, definitely go start there. Because you always want to start where you can, however, you're missing out on the full sensory experience, just the lights and the ears and the, across the eyes, and the isochronic tones, and all these different things and the binaural beats. So that for me is really fun. I've also been playing with harneyz, looking at my, like, HRV in real time, which has been insightful. And that's why I say, you know, when you look at women's stress, actually, a lot of it, I think comes from, like psychological stress, or just feeling like Oh, my God, it's that percent actually stress perception. But you were saying, I loved what you said earlier in the in our conversation around, you don't get into an ice bath, to get good at ice baths. You do it to get or cold water exposure to get you do it to get good at life, because it's the same, right? Our stress perception, how we perceive things is so much more important than actually the situation and the reality that it is. And I think that yeah, just that's been interesting to see. And also like, yes, it really does take its toll when you're running around with three kids, and you're trying to run a business and you've got a podcast release, and everything's going crazy. You know what I mean? It does actually have an impact. You might have just done yoga, because it's week, four of the month. But that doesn't really make a huge difference when you've got all this other stuff going on. So those are kind of the things I've been playing with. And also I think, like, I fell in love with the supplement Nichido. T levels. Have you tried it since?

Yeah, I like it a lot. Yeah, they miss so wild. I was like, I'm not sure if that was the thing that I hesitated a year or two ago when I first got it was like what new Cheeto I don't understand the name. And they're like all the research that's behind that. What's in that and Sean wells will talk about that as well. He's spoken at a tonne of conferences I've been on, set good friend. And he'll talk a lot about the efficacy of of the supplements that within that range for longevity, right and how they're finding more and more even just like with niacin, like you know, like there's just more and more research on how it's really flush, non flush, like not the flush free stuff. But the legit stuff is really helpful from a longevity perspective. So I'm loving all that.

What have you been playing with? I'm curious.

I'm excited to hear you talk about range braintap, because I am going into the recording studio next week to record some prep work for that.

Yeah, so that's exciting, I'll be

fun. And it will be some of it will be targeted around females and stress and releasing shame. And all of these things and unwinding negative thought patterns. So that'll be fun. They won't all be that serious. Some of them I will make light hearted and easy. But I think you know, I I'm on the amp coil a lot. And so that's like, that's been an interesting thing in the last like, six, eight months for me that I really was like, Oh, the jury's out, I don't know bioacoustic electromagnetic frequency. So it's a test modified tesla coil. I don't know if you're on at the conference, or you've been on it, but it's like a modified tesla coil. That's why wired to an Amplification box, and amplifier and coil, hence the name. And it is attached to software that plays frequency tracks. So songs do the coil that you put on your body. And so it's if you go back into the world of looking at each one of our you know, our every one of our cells is made up of electrons, every different part of our body, whether it's our skin, or our kidneys, or whatever is is oscillating or operating at a different frequency in like a hertz standpoint, like it's measurable, then this is a device that is basically singing a song to yourselves, like you put it on your body, you can't really hear it audibly, but it's singing and fluctuating at that frequency to be able to create states for the body to realign and for me, the other piece of it is I'm sitting still for 20 to 50 minutes while I'm using it and it's a really beautiful opportunity to stack breathwork to stack red light to stack downregulation and I was always like I don't you know I see the benefits of like programmes like relax all which is like a nervous system tone thing and I dig it. It's not inexpensive, but but when I had COVID I don't know 18 months ago a year ago was the first time that I was like, Oh, I ran a bunch of journeys because I was I was pretty intense COVID for two weeks. And it really really really helped and it was like oh this is there's something really here that I did and the testimonials are an insane what people are sort of using

and coil. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so I do get it's like it's much more like subtle body but again, you set up you're setting up a set situation where you're running these frequencies that the train of your body is like, Oh, can I can heal because everything is feeling less than just regulated. And people are using it for all sorts of things. You know, I'm sure I can't make any claims. But yeah, and I'm the low hanging fruit is always going to be red light therapy for me too. It's like I have my panel at my Flex beam all my stuff behind me like I just, I love to use red light switches. And I often do

GG red light therapy.

So I have a facemask, my Flex beam. So the portable one when I'm on the road is always the flex beam with me. So I've been using that more often. I use it almost every night on my guts because I've got great brain connection and just the way I feel when I wake up in the morning. And then I use my panel when I'm home. I'd say like every other day, I think it's totally great to use every day. There's just like moments. If I don't have some other practice to stack with it. I could sit in front of it and meditate. I have a meditation cushion. Normally I just did a podcast with the guy who owns light path led, and so had brought it in here. But normally it's in the other room in front of my meditation cushion. And if I'm meditating or like having my coffee, and I have nosy neighbours and a big window, so I can always be standing naked.

That's hilarious. Yeah.

The other thing that I'm like vibing on which is like so I want to say it's simple, is creating and creating this. I wasn't creating I am a huge fan of for a very long time. And then I just the more I was looking into it, the more Shawn was talking to me about a lot Sean Wells was like creatine is like, it's every single thing you look at as you're ageing, especially as like a woman or looking at like bone density loss, we're looking at sarcopenia muscle loss and things like that. Every single thing that we're looking for neurochemically even is in creatine, and it's inexpensive. It's typically well sourced, it's hard to get it wrong. Sure there's probably crappy brands out there. And in the States, I think I was deterred from it. Because I was like, oh, it's like muscle milk. Like all of these like brands are like creatine. It's like big bulky gym, bros that are like putting all this creatine and their shakes. And whenever and so for years, I just didn't use it very much. Because I was like, oh, that's like weird. It's for like, some bro culture that I don't really get. And that's like my mistake, right? It's like, I get curious Christians are doing research. And then, you know, Sean talked to me a lot about it. And he's, you know, World's Greatest succulent, formulator. And he knows all these ingredients. ologists. So he doesn't own a brand, but he is does the ingredient profiling and research. And he's like, it's crazy. It's like, you know, it's an $18 thing that you can get that will last year, you know, 60 to 60 days, why would you not put a little linear and your protein shakes, and I'm really liking it.

I find the neurological benefits are really good. And also, it was very interesting when I interviewed Dr. Greg Potter just about how it helps make up for any sleep deficit that was just you know, what put me off is

like at the store in the middle of the podcast interview like sleep deficit crazy.

Let's have some more granting. Well, he put it in a supplement he'd formulated, which was for sleep deficits and the benefits of like cacao in the morning as well. So really interesting over coffee, but I do you know, I'm a caffeine drinker. Yeah.

Eight months ago, I didn't think I could and I when I need something. I'll have a little cacao in the morning. But I found like finding a really good dark decaf, because I like the ritual and the flavour, but like decaf sucks. And so I found one coffee that I really like, I just wondered if you were doing caffeine, it was really

well I like caffeine. I like that you don't think coffee shift? Yeah, what made you stop coffee?

My cortisol scores. Okay, like I don't need any extra. And then I just started to understand like, I don't know some a different style of like evenness. And I will I will do cacao sometimes, which has a little caffeine and I know there's like 1% caffeine and decaf. And I will do herbal teas a lot. And I will even bulletproof them all. It's just and I'm not anti me and I love

that like actually is I cannot put any kind of fat or MCT anything like that in my coffee. I just I don't know what it is. It's the the oiliness the taste. I just Yeah, I can't, I have to have it black.

Yeah, well, which is nice for a really nice cup of coffee. And then I will bulletproof it. And a lot of times I'm starting early in the morning, and I won't really get chance to eat till 11. And so I'm like that breakfast at 11. I'm, I'm conservative on fasting for women. And so, and for my own body, too. I'm just conservative on it. And so that's I'm like I want to get something in so I'll typically do aminos and I'll do a bulletproof and that's like my breakfast, you know my 10 minute breakfast or whatever I can do that doesn't feel like I'm shoving too much in my face before I either go together. No aminos I just put in water. It's like, well look like this. Just like I mean it was in water. Sometimes I'll do like lemon or vinegar. or something? I'll mix aminos and electrolytes salt, what have you. And I'll have a big water and I have a big, like a decaf bulletproof. I don't go too crazy with the. I don't want to like overdo the butter and the oil, but I like the I like the smoothness of it because decaf doesn't really taste good. You're gonna like if I did, I'm sure there's moments in eight months, I've had probably four caffeinated coffees where someone brought me one I think in London, we went out because it was a beautiful coffee bar. I was like, I'm having a full Caf coffee. And then then it feels like when you've been offered so long, then it feels like high. Yeah.

Eclectic.

Yeah. I mean, I just was wonderful. I was like, This is amazing. But caffeine has great research. And it's excellent like to weave a little bit into your life and around workouts. And it's just for me, the cortisol scores were just too alarming. And I was like, what are the six things I can take out? What can I you know, some of that being people? And what do I do, you know, from an adaptogenic standpoint, so like using, you know, I use Rhodiola a lot, which I really find helpful and has a tonne of research and people just don't talk about it enough. And, but more research even then ashwagandha which is what most people will take for cortisol, both of those are just amazing. Adaptogens right, they if it's too high, it can help mitigate it and if it's too low can help keep it balanced. And so that's I really love

the idea and applies really well as well as Schisandra Yeah, well together. Yeah. And yeah, I love adaptogens and mushrooms. I love I have definitely got into mushrooms over the last I'd say two years otherwise they just the medicinal ones like lion's mane and, and Reishi and Chaga. So like Reishi I love it by time with a bit of cacao. She's really nice. And then I have Lion's Mane works really well pre workout.

But record the steps together is what I will do for pre workout has

a very good workout meant Yeah, you know, what's interesting is, if you can't get it in the UK is that by optimizers, I've got a supplement, I need to reach out to them called kala Genex where they've isolated. Is it kind of genius or

snake jar? And it's like chocolate. You can't

know. And it's got a high dose of lion's mane and coupled with culture and I need to get I need to get hold of some.

Oh, just like can you just put just Do I have your address? Send me home address. I'll send you a couple of containers of it. Oh, you're

amazing. I knew I died. Yeah. I was actually going to reach out to them and say what's happened? Like why have we always were always bit late. Like for a long time you can get their chocolate protein now we can get all their nootropics I was experimenting with all their stacks.

They're so fun.

But some of them I was a little negative when they said don't don't have any caffeine with this in case you're sensitive. And I was like what the heck, I'm not sensitive, not back to suppressors and had it anyway. I was like, last time I had the tro keys for the blue carnitine I had no idea. This is like going back three years maybe. You know, they come in like the four little squares. Yeah. And so I opened it up. So just put the whole one in front for a run. And I still feel really nauseous. And they'd really I think they'd send them to me via Instagram or something. So I got back and I message them and I was like are you sure meant to feel like this? And they were like, You're too small to have. So what do you mean out? Four? I didn't have four. I just had one. And they were like, no, no, no, that is for those little squares. build up from there. Yeah, I think maybe I get a bit crazy sometimes where that I just be fine.

It's fun to experiment, you know. And the all these brands that we work with a lot or they're very safe, right people using pharmaceutical grade ingredients and I trust a lot of those players and you're like me, you're like doing your research and knowing who's who's up. Although I've had plenty of fails, you know, plenty of things. I'm like, I'm just gonna put these things together and then I'm like, oh my god, what but I just do. Yeah, yeah. I love you so much. It's so nice to have you on seriously, send me your address. I'll get you I'll ship off this week. Or this weekend even I'll just ship you one and then you can be like the first person to have a college genius.

Have you taken it? Um, see,

I really like it. It's like I I interviewed Mark F injure who's like Mr. newts, right. He's like, Mr. News, is it Yeah, he's like head honcho. And he's just such a lovely guy and so nerdy, which is beautiful. But the he was like it has like a chocolate flavour in it, like seemingly and it's really just what it's comprised of. So it's beautiful. I like you can put it in I put it into my decaf. Some days. I put it in my smoothies. I put it into it. You can you could do it just in like water or like warm water if you want, but it's

just the natural particle effects when you take I just I

like don't I was putting regular collagen from time to time in my coffee when I had it in my cabinet. I like collagen for bones and joints. I think it's over marketed in the States. But this this blend has all of the mushrooms and all the things that you want. So instead of like all the little packets and all that, it's like all in one. And it feels. I don't wanna say it feels like no tropic, but it feels I just feel like energy and I feel even. And that feels really nice. I just feel like even in in in it, you know? Yeah, it's sort of like something I don't think I would get more from coffee back in the day. And so anything that's gonna give me that while I'm off coffee is a beautiful opportunity to weave it in. It feels like safe and easy to take everyday. Whereas some of the other nootropics I'm taking it certain times of the day or certain like when I have a podcast interview or when I have to do right coffee, but I'm like using them wisely.

What are you taking them? makes me curious. So what are you taking when you're writing copy? For example, when you're being creative? What are you taking?

The thing I like? Well, for me, there's a there's a few nectar acts I really like which is I think it gets it gets me it's sort of positively motivated to write copy because I want to say I don't love writing copy when I get it once I get into it, I'm in but getting motivated to start doing that. So nectar X there's an AMPM formula I really like and apex is apex is great. If I'm speaking out copy and then typing Well, I sort of feel like I have to be talking while I'm typing. And for podcasts, I really love a PECS. It's just gives me verbal acuity come to my brain that I have known but I don't use and the way that I can navigate explaining something like if I'm talking about like the gas exchange in the lungs are I just have more verbal acuity and like mental clarity, when I'm taking Apex apex is one of my favourites out of that, out of that whole box. The box is cool because it's it's I think it's a gateway to learning about nootropics. And if I'm a fan of the prescriptions crew to doing the methylene blue, I like the just blue. I don't just not respond well to nicotine, but I but the whole Newtopia setup is such with their app that it's like, okay, you're going to do nectar X today and you're going to try focus savagery. Which by the way, like I can't, I don't. It's not It's great if you need focused savagery, what the names of these are crazy, but But I already have a lot of alpha energy and high focus intensity. And so for me that's like, if I'm taking that no one is nobody wants to be around me.

One funnily enough, that for me was just, it was a bit too much. Yeah, whereas I love the apex, love the results of that. And also just well, and like I love taking magnesium as well, particularly if I'm like really having a stressful time. I'll just take more. And we're like, you can just keep taking it until you end up on the toilet, effectively. But then it's funny, because when I did my blood, your magnesium is really high.

Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, I take it all the time and weights big and cycling and these like a high dose kickoff, you know, like that, like a two week protocol. It's like three to six pills a day and all of that. And I think that that's cool. I think it's also about like, the average person shows up maybe low in magnesium and magnesium is a you know, lots of people talk about like three it's a cofactor and 300 physiological functions of the body. But when you really look at the research, it's like over 600 things that our body does like neurologically physiologically with magnesium so we need it. And yeah, has the bio optimizers magnesium breakthrough was like second to none. I just I really I really vibe with it. Yeah, it's like one of the one of the one of the big three that I tell people that tell women I work with it's like you gotta get that magnesium and but yeah, like dosages, everything right? You got to know what you need.

Yeah, you got to know what you need. And it's interesting as well. Like, I'm not saying people should go and do this. But when I've given it to my kids, they sleep super well. Like me if they're having problems sleeping, but anyone I've recommended that magnesium to they literally if it goes out of stock they're like oh my god oh my god engine or like the magnesium has been out of stock. How do I get it? Because everyone falls in love with it. I think that's the thing. It's just so good. So yeah, amazing. Oh, it's been so fun. It's been so fun. I love it. I love your work. I can't wait to share it with my listeners.

How will you tell everyone right now so that when I'm sharing it on willpower, where they can find you and the programmes that you're you're weaving into the World of Wellness right now.

Yes, I would love to do that. So I Where can they find me? So my main website is Angela foster performance. You can can find all the podcasts there, podcasts, offices, high performance health. And if you want to get yourself a kind of a free health check with a personalised report on my sort of shift protocol, you can go to your total health check.com And we'll give you scores and stuff and send you a report with recommendations of how you can improve. I love just everything about women's woman's I have a kind of biohacking membership called the female bio hacker collective, which you can find on my website. And my latest project now, which is really exciting is a brand new programme called Bio sinking, which is putting everything in terms of putting what we've been talking about just, you know, breathwork, circadian rhythm alignment, hormonal health, nutrition, genetics, all these things together, brain health and how to optimise different brainwave states. So that's my new thing is by syncing with so I'm just loving it. So it's probably been the most fun thing I've created. But yeah, you can find links to everything and get to know me and then Instagram is Angela s. Foster. But what about you, Kristin, please share, so my listeners can connect with you.

Yeah, and I just I love that the, if anyone just listening to audio, when and just talking about the BIOS thinking programme, if you could see the way that she lines up, it's really beautiful to know how passionate you are about this space. And getting women to understand that like, this is a 360 project. And it's not going to happen overnight. And just the sweetness that you show up with really I think, is a it's a beautiful opportunity to work with a coach like you who you feel very like understanding and approachable in a way that's like, okay, she's gonna tell me what's good. And then she's gonna give me a little leeway, and some grace if I need it to understand like the answering of questions and the knowledge base that you come with. I think the big thing that that's that's your welcome, girl, you're welcome. The big thing that's been has been resonating a lot with me lately is the sharp breath and colds. I'm in the middle of a rebrand. So in another month or so everything will look a little different, just a little and sharper breath and cold is a sort of created itself a programme out of a calling for more breath work and more cold exposure, not just for females, but for men and women. And then this year, I launched an instructor certification programme. So I'm training people and sometimes people will call it the Sherpa method, what I really found out in the world was that there was a gap in the place the marketplace for there's all these different styles and methods of breathwork. And then styles and methods of ice plunging. And what I wanted to do is like create a hub and a two day live course where I travel to a host location. I just booked Maui. How exciting is that for December exciting.

So your training instructors as part of this training instructors. Yeah,

running over training so far. 32 instructors, 36 instructors now. And it's been really beautiful to just sort of have the universe gift me with this opportunity. And so I call up people were calling me here in Texas, they're like we sharp me through the ice. And then I said I might get cancelled if I call the business that and I checked with check with everybody I could. And really Sherpa stands for surrender history, exposure, respiration, performance and adaptation. And it is a it's a great opportunity. I do community sessions here. I do some online breathwork. And then I do this instructor training, which is a very big piece of my heart. And then I have a programme online that's like a women's health optimization course, as well. That's a wow factor. Women optimising wellness online course which talks about 11 different areas of health. And that's like a hybrid of you know, live coaching on Zoom. And then also a course that has videos and content so women can learn. Yeah, and then I will, that will live this interview will live in there as well so that women can get a chance to meet you and understand the beautiful work you're doing in the world. Well powers the podcast and warrior woman mode, I will never let loose or live down that that name. Sometimes people are like, I don't know what her name is. They're just like warrior woman mode. Get over here.

I love the warrior woman. And you know what I love though, is as you say, like, You're definitely a type A personality, but you have that kind of beautiful femininity at the same time. And I just think it's just so powerful. It's amazing. I absolutely love your work and I can't wait to share it with my listeners. And the fact that you're doing some structure training is just super cool. You're going to be bringing that to Europe because I know you've been to Europe quite a bit recently. Yeah, and

I'm going back to Amsterdam in a month and I'm travelling to Stockholm next year and I'm around I am I did my first international training and Toronto was great 10 people up there and super beautiful and hopeful to go to Israel next year. I've been talking with a host there but I'd love to come to the UK and that's like one I have lots of contacts and friends and things and so if anyone's listening to this and wants to have the Sherpa breath and cold instructor training come to their facility I'm so all about it. I would love to come to the UK love to come to London and really just like dive in pun intended, and sharing that because it's about people leaving these trainings and instructors and coaches and I have had massage therapists and trauma therapists and all different types of people come it's about being able to spend a weekend in a small community of people who have passion points around breathwork holdings or even if you're just new to it. And what I guarantee you is that you get to you leave being able to teach a safe, fun and effective breath work and or breath work and ice plunge experience. And that's, that's sometimes what I was seeing the gap was like people learning all this information, and then they go home to make a class and they're like, where do I start? How do I weigh this into my business? So we spend a lot of time over the weekend practically, applying what we learned after I run people through some info and insight and research and then experientially and then people can we spend a couple hours at the end to talking about how effective we can be by how do we weave this into your business specifically. And I think it's something that I wanted when I was a teacher when I was rolling around the world master training on other fitness formats that I tried to provide with the Sherpa breath and cold instructor course. But yeah, people can find me at warrior woman mode on Instagram and willpower dot life online and all of that. I'm around find

your super cool videos on there, which I love of getting in the cold as well. So inspiring. Really, really inspiring. I love that you've called it sharper. I mean, obviously it has its meaning in terms of what it stands for as well. But it's it's such a great night. I'm gonna have to come and see you when you're in Amsterdam or something.

Oh, yes. And then we'll just have to breathe and get in cold water, which is there's lots of places to plunge in Amsterdam, which I like.

Yeah, amazing. Oh, thanks again. Kristen. Thank you so much for having me on.

Yeah, my audience is gonna love you as much as I do. And then let's just keep the fires burning between us. Let's do that for sure.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. As always, the show notes will be over on my website, Angela Foster performance.com forward slash podcasts. And you can download the transcript there together with the show notes and all of the other resources that I have on my website, Angela Foster performance.com. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening. Remember to review and subscribe, you can grab the show notes, the resources and highlights of everything Angela mentioned over at Angela Foster performance.com. You can also snatch up plenty of other goodies, including the highly helpful Angela recommends page which is a list of everything she personally recommends to optimise your mind, body and lifestyle