The Empowered Woman's Guide to Thriving at Level 57 & Beyond (As an added bonus, the secret to life)

What I'm doing as I move into my third most enjoyable era as a woman to stay healthy strong empowered and happier than ever.

This week is my birthday and I'm moving into level 57. My age has never bothered me for a couple of reasons. I feel pretty good and didn't really start feeling older until about 55. I think it's a privilege to get older and to be able to experience this part of my life. Society might not value me as an older woman but I do. Most women know how amazing we are at this age, hell at all ages. Women change so drastically through their lives. It's as if you slowed down the metamorphosis of a butterfly to last a human lifetime and this moment right here where I am, it's the grand finally, it's when I finally get to use my beautiful wings.

Moving into this stage has been a hard shift. Mostly physically. Kinda like when you go through puberty. Your hormones are bipolar, and your body is changing almost daily and there is little to no support from the "healthcare" system which at this time in history is collapsing. So, women have to turn into scientists, figure out how to ride the wave of their ever changing selves to feel good and to be happy.

I think one of the things that makes this transition easier is if you truly know and love yourself. Not the body you're in but your soul, your core. Because on those days when you feel like you might die, you have you. When you got your own back, you can have a sense of humor about all the crazy changes going on in your body.

The last reason my age doesn't bother me is, I feel so free right now. I'm also so honored to watch the fall of the patriarchy and the rise of the matriarchy. Yes, on the surface the world is really scary right now. But if you look deeper, you will see something more beautiful. I kinda have this gut knowing that everything is going to be absolutely great and my part in this process is to just be kind, supportive, and loving to people. We all just need to support each other while the systems that supposedly used to do this, collapse.

Today, I want to share what I'm doing at this stage in my life to stay strong, healthy, have an empowered mindset, and be happy during this really cool time in my life.

Let's get into it.

Journaling: This is one of the ways I connect to myself, I go deep into who I really am. What do I truly want, why, and how do I move into that. Journaling has always been to me, like a conversation with your subconscious. The more you do it, I feel the deeper you can get to know yourself and support yourself. Those of you who have worked with me know that I always use journaling. Here is a link to a cool freebie that includes a year of journaling in it. https://www.tinastinson.com/signup

Nervous System Support: I have always been a little anxious. It's been tattooed into my DNA. But I have to say, as your hormones change one of the things that can happen is your anxiety can skyrocket. I believe that if you have this tendency then, this might be something you have to deal with. This was my experience. One day, out of nowhere, I started having panic attacks. Nothing happened, my body just thought everything was a threat. Nervous system support has been a game changer for me. Some of the things I do regularly to help keep my anxiety levels stay lowered are:

Movement, I love running, walking, dancing in my living room. Anything to release some of that energy.

Yoga, yes, I know that yoga is movement, but yoga needs its own category because it does help calm the nervous system, but it's also a way of life and can help you with almost every area of your life. It has been supportive and life changing throughout my whole life physically and mentally.

Breathwork, scientifically proven to calm the nervous system and lower BP. I became and instructor and use breathwork daily.

Meditation, I am a meditation instructor and find it very helpful. Not just for my nervous system, but also in the pursuit of getting to know myself better. Meditation, just being still, can help you see things more clearly. You can see things as they actually are. This is really important in the world right now.

Nutrition, this one is a doozy. Because your body is changing so much, all the things that have worked for you for your entire life are now going to likely be different. I say likely because I think some women may not experience this. Its different for everyone. But for me, I had to change almost everything. Some of the things I changed that will be supportive for everyone are these:

Eat real food, mostly plants, and prioritize protein. First, take out all the processed foods. The chemicals, added sugars, and the salt will throw off your health. As we age, our bodies don't process protein as efficiently, also we are actively losing our muscle mass as we go through menopause. So, more healthy forms of protein will support your muscles and will help control the weight gain. focus on adding foods with as much nutrition as you can. I like to have 20 plus grams of protein per meal.

Something funny I like to do. I make a lot of protein shakes and I play this game with myself. How much nutrition can I add to this shake. I'll add chia seeds, ground flax, pumpkin puree or blueberries, raspberries, pumpkin seeds, walnuts. Not all of these in one shake, but there is so much you can add to not only make it delicious, but also very nutritious. I do this with every meal. Something I learned when I got my culinary nutrition certification.

Always ask the question, how can I make this meal better.

DISCLAIMER: I do not take this too seriously. I still eat crap sometimes. Cookies, candy, ice cream. The key is to eat well around 80% of the time to support health but still have fun and enjoy food. Life is not that serious.

Weightlifting: God, I never liked it. But now, as we are in midlife, it's like a battle. We need to keep our muscle in order to not just look good. It's a battle to stay mobile, strong, self sufficient as we get older. Women lose muscle mass at an accelerated rate, roughly 1% per year, during and after the menopausal transition, primarily due to the loss of estrogen's protective and anabolic effects. This leads to significant health risks, including metabolic slowdown, weakness, and frailty.

So, if there is one thing you take away from this blog post is this, it's never too late to start lifting weights and it's never too early, the time to start is yesterday. Oh, and yes, life heavy. Not those little weights. Start small and build. Find a trainer with experience or go the youtube route. just start!

I feel kinda lucky that I went through a very long CrossFit stage in my forties thanks to my kids. We all went together, and it was a family thing. This built my muscle up so much that I was ahead of the game. Now I have to just keep it up.

Supplements, yes, I believe that we need supplements. Today's food, unless you're growing it yourself, is not as nutritionally dense as it once was due to unhealthy farming practices that have ruined our soil.

I'll share what I focus on, but this is really important. I am not a dietician and more importantly, everyone has different needs. Your best bet is to get tested at your next physical. Some basics to get tested. Vitamin D, Magnesium, and B12. These are just the basic and most Americans are low in these.

I also take turmeric for inflammation, and a mushroom mix for brain health. I love Gaia herbs because of their farming practices. Do your own research though. The supplement industry is not regulated, heck, nothing is regulated anymore. So do your own research. This is important. Find supplements that are third party tested. This is a good first step.

Also, a little-known fact. MOST DOCTORS HAVE LITTLE TO NO NUTRITION TRAINING. Yes, they can help with basic vitamins but if you need more help in the area of nutrition, it's not really good to take advice from them. Find someone who has been trained in the area of nutrition to help you if needed.

Last but not least. This might be the most important. Make your happiness, your joy, the number one priority. A lot of us as we reach this age start to wonder our purpose. How do we find it, and is this it? Life is long, if you really look at it. But don't waste it doing shit that you don't love. I'm going to tell everyone the biggest secret that I learned while I was getting certified as a life purpose life coach. You don't need a life purpose coach.

This is how you find your purpose in life:

It's really simple but not always easy to do in our society.

You follow your joy, not things that bring society as a whole joy, YOUR JOY. Your passions. Now, you might not know what that is because you've been riding the hamster wheel for so long, as I did. So, this is how you find it.

Do stuff that you think will be fun and make you happy. See how you feel when you do it. If you loved it and it lit you up inside. Do more of that. If it didn't, try something else. Keep doing this until you're having the best time ever.

Find your joy, follow your joy, do it with as much passion as possible, share it with the world. Repeat.

That's it, this is your purpose and everyone else's too.

We are all unique in this world. So different. We are a puzzle piece in the big puzzle of the world. When we follow our own purpose (JOY) we just fit in the puzzle and things flow. When we don't, the puzzle piece doesn't fit, and things just don't flow as well.

This has been my main focus in my life this year. As I follow my joy, things shift and it feels so much better. It is a process though. I have to continually be aware, to pay attention, and ask myself the questions. How does this feel, do I want to keep doing it, if not, how do I shift.

We all have to work, right. So, making sure we spend our free time on things that make us happy is a priority. Don't waste your most valuable asset.

I know that the more I do this the more my passions will be my work. But it won't feel that way. It will feel like FLOW. This is my goal. I don't want to retire. Retire, hmmm that word sounds like death to me. Not to be too grim. Why retire? I want to continuously morph into a new version of myself that gets happier as the years go by doing all the things I'm passionate about and I don't care if that changes every day and I also don't care what anyone thinks.

This is my purpose, this is freedom.

So, what is your joy? I hope that I inspired you to start following it.

Xo, T

P.S. Lift Heavy Weights :)