Trouble Sleeping

Amy: I'm Amy.

Whitney: And I'm Whitney, and this is Midlife.

Amy: I don't like how I sounded.

Whitney: I know, that was really weird.

Amy: I'm Amy. All right, let's try that again. I'm Amy.

Whitney: And I'm Whitney, and this is Midlife.

Amy: But you're anything but mid.

Whitney: Did I say that right?

Amy: I don't know. Do you ever say, this is Amy and this is Whitney?

Whitney: You may be in midlife.

Amy: You may be in midlife, but you're anything but mid.

Whitney: No, that's what you say.

Amy: I don't know.

Whitney: This is midlife.

Amy: I've lost the plot.

Whitney:I think that... I think we did it right. How sad this happens. And you're seeing a midlife moment.

Amy: Yep. In action.

Whitney: Oh, man.

Amy: I do have a midlife moment.

Whitney: Okay.

Amy: Yes. I am ridiculously excited about Practical Magic 2.

Whitney: Oh, that is hilarious. When is it coming out?

Amy: I love the trailer. I just got a little chill in my arm.

Whitney:Oh, I haven't seen the trailer. So for people who don't know what the fuck you're talking about, Anybody watches this? Anyone in midlife knows Practical Magic. Yeah, it was Sarah... Sarah... it was Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.

Amy: And then like Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest are in it as well, which we love them.

Whitney: Yeah, they're still alive. I'm glad.

Amy: I think so.

Whitney: Yeah, I think they're in it.

Amy: I definitely saw Stockard Channing.

Whitney: That would be some magic.

Amy: And yeah. And then they've got daughters now, so, you know, they're passing the magic down and yeah. Yeah, the music and stuff in the, in the trailer is such a vibe. And their hair. I'm like, how?

Whitney: Well, they look the same.

Amy:It's fucking... don't you feel like it's kind of problematic?

Whitney: They are real witches, I think.

Amy:Well, it's just a problem. Like, is that good for us? No. To see women that, that like literally are not aging. Has it been 30 years? How long has it fucking been? And They look the same. And I don't know that that's really good for us, but that's...

Whitney:I'm still...

Amy: they still look fucking great and I still can't wait to see it.

Whitney: And now I want to Google if Sandra Bullock has had work done.

Amy: She's 60. I think she probably has, but she looks really fucking good.

Whitney: Her face is so adorable.

Amy: She looks really fucking good.

Whitney: She's consistently denied having plastic surgery or going under the knife for a facelift.

Amy: Maybe she just takes good care of herself. I don't know.

Whitney:Yeah, she seems...

Amy: they all deny it though. But anyway, whatever.

Whitney: Why deny it? I don't know why deny it. That's why I appreciate Denise Richards so much. She just had a crazy facelift and she's just like, let's talk about it. Yeah, let's go there.

Amy: I do too.

Whitney: I do too. Okay, well, that is hilarious that you're so excited.

Amy: So did Ricki Lake. You know, she just came out and talked about hers and like, well, she looks great, huh?

Whitney:Ricki Lake, doesn't she have... didn't she... she's got gray hair, right?

Amy: What?

Whitney: Does she need to color her hair?

Amy: I don't know. No.

Whitney: You said you just saw her.

Amy: Well, no, I saw her talking about her facelift.

Whitney: And is her hair white?

Amy: I don't remember.

Whitney:Well, I'm sorry, but...

Amy: Oh, you can't get on board with that?

Whitney: I can't get down with that. John Taylor's got his hair white now, and I'm like, you have aged 20 years with that hair.

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: Don't, don't. But I guess on the same level, if he was still trying to maintain the color and he's got gray hair and it would look sad that way.

Amy: Here's the thing.

Whitney: Tell me.

Amy: Once you do that, And you go gray, you instantly look 20 years older, but then you look the same age forever. So that's my theory. So like Steve Martin, you know, went gray really early.

Whitney: He was premature.

Amy: So he looked like he was like 65.

Whitney: Yeah.

Amy: Right away. But then he never aged and then he looked the same age forever. So I have a friend that she had gorgeous hair and it was black, you know? Yeah. So she went gray gray and finally she was like, I gotta grow it out. I gotta just push through.

Whitney: And that's frightening in itself.

Amy: She said, It was so hard. She had some false starts, right? Where she like thought she could make it and then just was like, I can't. And she finally has done it. And I told her that though. I was like, you're going to age a lot at first.

Whitney: You're going to look older. Terrible.

Amy: You're going to look older. But then everyone's going to think you look the same age for like the rest of your life. Then they're going to be like, you don't age.

Whitney: So when are you going to go gray?

Amy: I'm not.

Whitney:The trouble with red hair...

Amy: I don't have enough gray to go all the way.

Whitney: I think I probably do.

Amy: You might. Yeah, you might.

Whitney:Hey, sorry. Listen, I'm going today. I know I'm going today to get it colored. But the problem with red hair is it... the color is difficult to maintain once you lose your, your natural color. Trying to maintain, finding a good color and then getting it to look the same every time.

Amy: That sucks.

Whitney: It sucks.

Amy: That sucks so bad.

Whitney: But you're very rude.

Amy: I love red hair. I love red hair, though. It's my favorite.

Whitney: So I can't even imagine. Maybe I should have AI, like, do a picture of me with gray hair. You could go blonde. Gray. I would just feel washed out.

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: I don't know.

Amy: I don't know.

Whitney: I'm gonna have to think about it.

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: But at some point it's not gonna get, it's not gonna look pretty. I like you redhead.

Amy: I love redheads.

Whitney: I love redheads. I love a good redhead as well. Don't change.

Amy: Don't change. I know. And, and Nicole Kidman in that movie, she's got long red hair.

Whitney: Yeah. But even when you look at Nicole Kidman, if, and, and even Julia Roberts, if you watch them across the board and what's the other woman?

Amy:Um, well, Nicole Kidman's regularly blonde now. She's...

Whitney: oh, she is.

Amy: Yeah. All the time. Julia Roberts. Yeah. She's like, she goes light brown.

Whitney:And then what's the... Julianne Moore. All of them had beautiful red hair. And then over the years, you can see it's just the color keeps fluctuating and they just can't keep it.

Amy: Julianne's closer to you. Like, she's kept hers pretty bad, right? Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I met her once. I love her so much.

Whitney: You did? Was she nice?

Amy: Oh my God. So nice.

Whitney: She seems nice.

Amy: Fucking queen.

Whitney: I, um, drove by Lyle Lovett today.

Amy: What?

Whitney: He, he must live in my neighborhood. He walks, he walks in my neighborhood.

Amy: Lyle Lovett is walking around your neighborhood?

Whitney: He's walking around and he's always wearing a bright colored like kit, you know, like, a workout shirt or biking shirt. And today it was bright yellow and the last time I saw it was orange. No, he's got like a hat on.

Amy:But you still recognize...

Whitney: I, you can't miss that face. You cannot miss that face. And, um, the first time I saw him, I was like, is that? And so I went home and I did some Googling and yeah, he lives in my neighborhood.

Amy: What? That's so awesome.

Whitney: I, next time, like today I was rushing to get here and I was in my car, but like I already told myself the next time I see him, I'm gonna be like, hey, Lyle.

Amy: Is he single?

Whitney: Oh, I don't know. But no, I don't want it from, I don't want that. Why?

Amy: No.

Whitney: Remember when he was dating Julia Roberts?

Amy: They married.

Whitney: Oh, yeah, that's right. And everyone was like, huh?

Amy: Yeah, I remember a quote from him. And People magazine was like, hey, there was talk about you as Sexiest Man Alive. And he said, that'd be really funny.

Whitney: He actually went to my high school.

Amy: What?

Whitney: Not when I was there, because he's much older. But he went to Klein High School.

Amy: I thought he was like our age. No, he's older.

Whitney: No, he is like How old is that? Late '60s.

Amy: What? Oh, well, no, we don't want that. I don't even know. I fucking love his voice so much.

Whitney: Yeah, I'm a voice nerd. 68.

Amy: Oh, okay.

Whitney: He is 68 years old.

Amy: That's like too much.

Whitney: But yeah, he was born in Klein, Texas. Wow.

Amy: Cool.

Whitney: Yeah.

Amy: Anyway, what are we talking about?

Whitney: We are talking about cortisol today. I always hear about it.

Amy: I can't wait.

Whitney:Oh, I always hear about it. I love that reaction. And I'm not... I don't really understand it. I know I always thought it was bad and that you have to...

Amy: Right.

Whitney: And then you get down.

Amy: Good. Yes.

Whitney:So, so let me tell you why it's bad, because this happens to me all the time. You're... it's 3:15 a.m.

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: And you're staring up at the ceiling.

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: And your bedroom is at the perfect temperature, right? You've taken all of your hormones.

Amy: Mm-hmm.

Whitney: And, um, and yet suddenly outta nowhere your brain just wakes up and it's usually around 3.

Amy: Yeah. Do you have that? I just, I think I had a cortisol spike last night. So it's funny that you mentioned this.

Whitney: Was it at 3:00 AM?

Amy: Well, it was early in the night because I was worried about Gigi coming home, but I couldn't stay awake to, yeah, till when she got home. Yep. And so it was like on my mind and I was stressed about it and I think it just prolonged through the night. Mm-hmm. Because I slept, I slept kind of shitty. I haven't even checked my aura.

Whitney: Oh, let's check my aura.

Amy: Aura ring, but I was like, I don't even want to check my aura ring because it's going to be like 65. Oh, maybe it's 87. Oh, well, anyway, continue. Continue.

Whitney: I'm not sold on the aura ring. I know. You'll be like, I slept like shit. Oh, I actually slept great.

Amy: 87.

Whitney: Anyway, and then, but suddenly you wake up in the middle of the night. Typically it is around 3-ish because of the way your body is working at that time. And it's all about your core cortisol and your brain starts spinning on stupid shit. You've seen those memes of like, yes, it shows a person like laying in bed with their eyes wide open. It's like, whatever happened to my t-shirt from soccer in 8th grade or whatever? You know, you just start worrying about the dumbest shit or what you, what, you know, where's that Duran Duran album that I had in 1980?

Amy: I just start raking myself over the coals for anything I can dredge up. Like, yeah, I will worry about my taxes. Yes. Or cortisol, you guys, something I can't do anything about it right there.

Whitney: Yes. It's, it's midlife and it's cortisol and it sucks. And you get this massive, massive surge of like manic anxious energy.

Amy: Oh yeah.

Whitney: And, and I get that. And I just want everyone to know it is totally normal. It sucks. You're not going crazy. You don't, you don't have OCD. I mean, you may, but it's not, it's not like, you know, anything that you can control. Well, you can control it. I'm gonna help you control it, but it's totally normal.

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: It does have to do with midlife. Great. Great. And we're gonna dive into the science of why your body is throwing this hormone anxiety party at 3:00 AM.

Amy: Mm-hmm.

Whitney: And even when you're on HRT. So let's talk about it. Okay. Okay. Um, cortisol, just so you know, is your body's built-in alarm system.

Amy: Mm-hmm.

Whitney: Which is why when you wake up, you are, you're thinking, you're not thinking like, oh, I love my life. You're waking up and you're going, what the hell? Where did, where, you know, is Gigi home?

Amy: I haven't done that yet and I'm, everything's going to fall apart. Right, exactly. My entire life's falling apart.

Whitney: Yes.

Amy:I'm the worst person in the whole... that's what happens to me.

Whitney: Yes, exactly. And it's across the board. It happens to everyone. So it's because of cortisol. It's your built-in alarm system. It's a steroid hormone produced by your adrenal glands, which are basically these little tiny, like, hat-like organs that sit right on top of your kidneys. And back in the day, cortisol was used by our ancestors to run away from danger like tigers. I always use saber-toothed tigers as an example. And when a threat appears, your brain hits the panic button, cortisol floods your system, and suddenly your heart rate spikes, your blood sugar rises. Your, your blood sugar rises because it goes into your muscles. Wow. That blood sugar's going into your muscles so that you can fucking run away or fight someone or lift up a car off of your baby.

Amy: So why is it happening in the middle of the night?

Whitney:Right. And nonessential functions. It also includes helping your nonessential functions dial way down and save power so that you can fight. It's fight or flight mode is what it is. So it gets a lot of hate online and in certain circles, in longevity circles especially, but it's actually your friend because in those moments...

Amy: When we need it, we need it.

Whitney: When you need it, you need it.

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: So it's also a natural alarm clock. It spikes in the morning to help you wake up and feel alert. Oh, that's called cortisol awakening response.

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: It regulates your energy, manages how you use carbs and fats.

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: And in short bursts, it acts like a powerful anti-inflammatory. So like in those moments, if you get bitten by a shark or broken, you know, you break your leg running from the tiger, that cortisol is going to keep you from feeling the pain and getting inflamed so that you can keep running. Running or swimming.

Amy:I thought that was adrenaline, but that's...

Whitney: no, it's cortisol. It's probably both, both, but I'm only talking about cortisol. Okay.

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: So I'm sure it's probably both, but that, that is some of the things that it will do for you. This is the problem, and we've talked about this before. Your brain doesn't know the difference between the saber-toothed tiger or an unread email or a passive-aggressive text or the doom scrolling or the worry right before you went to bed about where is your daughter. Your body doesn't, your brain doesn't know that. It doesn't know it's not life or death. It only knows high alert. And because, and I think you and I have talked about this, I don't know if it was on the air, but because our world now doesn't have those immediate dangers, we create, right? We create our own dangers.

Amy: Yes.

Whitney: And, and, and it's ridiculous and it makes everything go out of whack. Yeah. So when you're constantly stressed, which I feel like even though we're not running from tigers, A lot of people are walking around stressed all the time.

Amy: For fucking sure.

Whitney: For 24/7.

Amy:I've seen some reels where the girl will be like, you know, like, like, yeah, she'll just check herself and be like, yeah, this isn't life or death right now. And like, just relax your... yeah, everything. Like, because we just hold it.

Whitney: Well, and think about it, with, with social media and 24/7 news and unlimited information, You're not only hearing the terrible thing that happened in your little community, you're hearing about every single horrible thing that has happened in the entire world.

Amy: Oh yeah.

Whitney: And by the way, news and, and, you know, the, the clicks that they want, they even exaggerate those dangers.

Amy: Oh yeah. My assistant knew about Camp Mystic. Oh yeah. And she's in the Philippines.

Whitney: Yeah.

Amy: She, she was like, oh yeah, I heard all about it.

Whitney: Yeah. And now, yeah, it, it, you're on in a constant state of fight or flight, so you're cortisol is never getting a chance to reset. It's going 24/7. Chronic high cortisol leads to brain fog, terrible sleep, skin breakouts, and that miserable feeling of being wired but tired. So what can I do about it, Whitney?

Amy: Tell me, what can I do about it, Whitney?

Whitney: First of all, you may be thinking to yourself, why is my hormone replacement therapy not helping me with this situation? Because at night, many of us take progesterone.

Amy: Yep.

Whitney:Which is a natural... well, we're not taking... it's not natural anymore because we're taking it, but our bodies naturally use progesterone to calm us down, to get us in a calm state so that we can go to sleep. I'm doing all of that. I'm taking the progesterone, you know, why... or the magnesium or whatever it is that we've been told will help us sleep better, and it's not making a difference. We're all waking up around 3 AM with the worries and the anxiety? Um, well, the answer is that cortisol is stronger than your HRT.

Amy: Wow.

Whitney:It's gonna... and think about it, if you're dead asleep and a tiger shows up, you don't want to be... you don't want to be fighting the progesterone. You want that cortisol to kick in.

Amy:I want my progesterone... I want my cortisol really, really...

Whitney: yeah, exactly. So it's gonna block your progesterone and wake you up.

Amy: Yeah. And if your body never has a chance to reset, then, I mean, don't you ever hear a sound and you're like, you know, like, oh, all the time.

Whitney: And it's just like this feeling, this like, and then I think, was I even asleep? Like, how did I wake up so fast?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: And hear that? Was I even ever sleeping? Um, anyway, that hormone is floating around in your bloodstream and it cannot bind to your brain because, wait, I'm talking about progesterone. Sorry. Cortisol, cortisol blocks your progesterone. So even though you're taking the progesterone and it's floating around in your bloodstream, it's not going to bind to your brain because your nervous system thinks you're under siege.

Amy: So wait, so, so if you, if I have high cortisol, my progesterone's not working.

Whitney: Exactly. Exactly. Your cortisol levels are going to impact your progesterone.

Amy: That's why I'm on 300 because you've got too much cortisol.

Whitney: Probably. Yeah. 'Cause I am, I'm, I'm not managing. My stress levels in the way that I should. So even though we want our HRT to be working, we have to deal with this cortisol issue.

Amy: The other day I was like just sitting on the couch and I was like, why am I like tense and anxious right now? And I was like, why am I preventing myself from enjoying my life? I am in my 50s. Why can't I just allow it? And I looked around and I was like, everything's fine.

Whitney: Yeah.

Amy: If you don't get everything done, no one's gonna die.

Whitney: Yeah.

Amy: If you don't do anything, everything's still okay. Yes. And I, I was like, why am I crazy?

Whitney: I have been asking myself the same question. And honestly, just to get off the cortisol for a second, think about the, the collective state of the world right now, or even just in our state in Texas, the collective state of worry. We're about, we're going into, um, you know, elections and people are putting the signs in their yard and everybody's always talking about, you know, the politics or everyone's sending their kids back to school and there's stress in that. Like our energy is feeding everyone.

Amy: So not only that, Whitney.

Whitney: Yeah. Tell me.

Amy: It goes back generations. Mm-hmm. And when you think about it, your egg, the egg of you.

Whitney: Yes.

Amy: Was in your grandma.

Whitney: Yes.

Amy:Right. And so like that's... wait, what?

Whitney: Yes.

Amy:Why? When your mom was born, when your mom was born, she had all the eggs that she was ever gonna have. Oh, right. In her. So you were in your grandmother, which is such a trip, right? So you were in your grandmother. And so those generational things... I'm listening.

Whitney: I can't wait to tell my kid that you were in your grandmother. So creepy.

Amy: But, but I'm listening to a podcast right now about the Vietnam War and the Cold War.

Whitney: No wonder you're stressed.

Amy: No, actually, it's really, really interesting, but it's all about the Cold War and everything like that. So this isn't just now. This is like This goes way back. Wow. And so, mm-hmm, it's, it's like so in us to break those cycles.

Whitney: Yes.

Amy: Break those patterns is really hard.

Whitney: Yeah. I mean, I'm just gonna say one more thing. My, when, if I was in my, if I was in my grandma, then I was there when my grandma is having to deal with a very abusive, yep, just got back from the Vietnam, or not Vietnam, from World War II, just got back from World War II, alcoholic, abusive husband trying to protect her children. And I'm just a little egg in there absorbing all of that energy.

Amy:If she was pregnant with your mom, yes. Oh yeah, she would have to be pregnant. Never mind, it would be... but still, then it would be in your mom.

Whitney: It would be in my mom. Yeah. All right.

Amy: Yeah, it would be in here.

Whitney: So it's still valid.

Amy: It's super valid.

Whitney:It's crazy. But then also think about the things that you're sitting in in your home. You've got a microwave that's emitting energy. You've got You know, the TV, anything that's plugged in is giving you energy. And then anything... I mean, I know a chair has energy.

Amy: When the power goes out sometimes, do you sit there and you're like, whoa, I didn't realize all those things that were going on around me. Yeah.

Whitney: Yeah.

Amy: And, and I mean, because you don't notice. And then when you have that silence, when the power goes out and you're like, oh, it's weird. I can feel it in my muscles. It's crazy.

Whitney: And you, you may be getting stressed and your cortisol levels are going up just listening to us right now.

Amy: I'm But guess what?

Whitney: Okay. Okay. We can help ourselves by activating our body's built-in off switch.

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: And it's the vagus nerve. Ah, the old vagus nerve. The old vagus nerve to the rescue. It is a wandering nerve that goes all the way down your body on the left and the right. There's a left and right nerve running down both sides of the body. And I remember, I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna get this a little wrong, but I remember once somebody telling me that it was like you have a tree of life in you. And even it goes back to like biblical stuff, the Tree of Life. And that vagus nerve is the trunk of the tree.

Amy: Wow.

Whitney: And then your brain is the blooming of it and the crown of it or whatever. But anyway, and there's more to it, your root chakra and stuff. But anyway, that's good, you get it. Anyway, it's important. And, um, and it is the way we can turn off these cortisol spikes, turn off the anxiety, turn Um, so how our crazy thoughts. Well, let me tell you a little bit about the vagus nervous.

Amy: Okay, good.

Whitney: Um, it controls involuntary body processes through the rest and digest response. It regulates resting heart rate and blood pressure. It manages digestion and gut movements, which your gut is just your second brain. It influences breathing rate and immune response, and it affects mood and voice production.

Amy: Interesting.

Whitney: Which, you know, when you get nervous, or if I'll talk about myself, my voice gets higher. Your voice can go up higher.

Amy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Whitney: Anyway. Vagus nerve. All right, how do we get our cortisol under control? How do we do it?

Amy: Tell me.

Whitney: Here is how you can reset it so that your health stays anything but mid. We have 5 daily rules to stand down that cortisol.

Amy:But high cortisol is going to fuck you up, right? Because inflammation, autoimmune...

Whitney: like, it's related.

Amy: You're asleep.

Whitney:Like, if you don't... and we've said this so many times... your sleep is really the key to the reset. If you cannot get your sleep under control Then your body never gets the full reset.

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: And then you don't get to take full advantage of this wonderful machine, for lack of a better word.

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: All right. The first thing, and we've talked about this before, you light max in the morning. You get natural sunlight in your eyes.

Amy: Light maxing.

Whitney: Like fiber maxing. Light maxing. You get natural sunlight in your eyes within 30 to 60 minutes of waking up, cuz your sunlight tells yourself, hey, it's morning, which helps set that natural cortisol spike early in the day. So that it drops properly at night. Do you do that? Yes. Well, first of all, one of my, um, my windows, the, the, the shutter or the whatever it's called.

Amy: Mm-hmm.

Whitney: That I can't think of. Um, isn't closed fully all, all the way. So the light comes in naturally, but then once I wake up from that, I will get up, get my coffee and go sit out on my back patio.

Amy: Me too.

Whitney: And it doesn't have to be direct sunlight and you're not obviously supposed to look at the sun.

Amy: Just FYI, don't go stare.

Whitney:Don't stare at the sun. But you are supposed to get out in that natural sunlight and it will naturally set itself. Your body will set itself to the day for the day, and your cortisol spike will... it'll spike early, wake you up, and then it will slowly, you know, calm down for the nighttime if you keep it in check during the day.

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: You know, all right, here's something interesting. You're not supposed to drink your coffee on an empty stomach. Hmm. Stop chugging your coffee on an empty stomach, which is hard for us because we take a thyroid medication.

Amy: I like it. I know.

Whitney: And you have to wait 30 minutes.

Amy: Yep.

Whitney: But this is what it says. Caffeine naturally boosts your cortisol.

Amy: No.

Whitney: So drinking coffee on an empty stomach the moment you wake up is a massive shock to your stress system.

Amy: Whoa.

Whitney: Eat something before you have your coffee if you can. Because it, it helps with the cortisol.

Amy: All right, all right.

Whitney: Number 3, swap the K. This was interesting. So your workout might be a problem.

Amy: I've read this.

Whitney:Yeah, you're... when you exercise, your cortisol level naturally spikes. That's part of... that's, that's part of getting your energy and helping your muscles. But the goal is preventing that spike from becoming permanent. So a lot of women will do like intense cardio, right? Like the boot camp class, the 60-minute boot camp class. You're pushing hard for an hour and it's not giving your body a chance to recover. You're trapping your cortisol into a permanently elevated state when you do that cardio for 60 minutes. Your cardio, your real extreme cardio should be short, 30 to 40 minutes per week total, 30 to 40 minutes total of intense cardio. And you're supposed to then mix in lower intensity stuff like walking, yoga, your weightlifting. And then, and this is all about the, the hard cardio.

Amy: Mm-hmm.

Whitney: Then you have to give yourself a 48-hour buffer before you do another hard cardio. Oh, we're all out of time to give your adrenaline glands and your muscles a chance to fully clear. The cortisol that was already in there.

Amy: Wow.

Whitney: And that's coming from the National Institute of Health.

Amy: Oh wow.

Whitney: In case you wanted to know where I got that little tidbit.

Amy: Yikes.

Whitney: So we're doing it wrong. We are. Cardio is great and that boot camp is great, but if you are working intensely for 60 minutes, you're trapping cortisol. And then if you do it every other day, because we were told like Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Amy: Oh my God, I used to do Well, I would do some intense cardio for about 5 minutes a day.

Whitney: Yeah, that's fine. 5 minutes a day is fine. I would do 30 to 40 minutes total and really push myself.

Amy: Yes. And it was like, really, I was in the best shape of my life actually.

Whitney: Was that during the pandemic?

Amy: No, it was before I knew you. It was, um, like 2014, '15.

Whitney: Oh, okay. Anyway, yeah, you're only supposed to be doing that hard cardio 30 to 40 minutes per week, and you need to give yourself 48 hours before you do it again, the cardio again, so that you can get all, get all that cortisol cleared out. Isn't that crazy?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: All right, 2 more tips for you. The practical physiological sighs. And you did it when we were on a break a minute ago. When you feel panic, or if you're waking up at 3 AM, you can take actually 2 quick inhales and then a slow exhale. So 2 quick inhales through your nose.

Amy: You have to do that first and fast.

Whitney: Like, yeah, you went 2 quick inhales. Yeah, that's it. 2 quick inhales through your nose followed by 1 long exhale through your mouth. You do this 2 or 3 times and it immediately slows. I kind of feel it.

Amy: Did you? I do too.

Whitney: I feel good. Immediately slows your heart rate and And it signals your nervous system to chill, chill out. Now, if that doesn't seem to be working because you are so panicked, can you do that in the middle of the night? Yeah, of course. Of course. I don't know. Well, if your mouth is taped, no, I haven't been mouth taping.

Amy: I haven't even been doing the nose thing.

Whitney: Yeah. And, you know, there's certain yoga breath. There's breathwork. Yeah. And there's a whole thing about breathwork. And then, like, you do one nostril here. I don't remember any of it, but I do believe in that stuff. It is resetting your, your your body for sure.

Amy: I think it's facts.

Whitney: Yeah. But if the breathing isn't enough and you want to really shock your system, this is like a little biohack. You can splash ice water on your face or put an ice pack on your chest.

Amy: Uh-huh.

Whitney: And it triggers the mammalian dive reflex.

Amy: Which is what?

Whitney: I don't know.

Amy: I should have looked that up.

Whitney: I should look that up.

Amy: It triggers a reflex that lowers your cortisol.

Whitney: Reflex that lowers your cortisol.

Amy: I would think that would raise it.

Whitney:I think it takes... I think it kind of does a reset like a cold plunge.

Amy: Well, that's really interesting because for as long as I can remember, since the '90s, every morning when I wake up, I splash cold water on my face. Oh, all right.

Whitney: Well, I'll tell you what the mammalian dive reflex is. It's an automatic body response that helps land and sea mammals, including humans, survive underwater. When cold water touches your face and you hold your breath, your heart rate slows down, blood vessels in your arms and legs tighten, and blood moves towards your vital organs to save oxygen.

Amy: Huh. And that does something with your cortisol.

Whitney: Yeah, it's, it's slowing down your heart rate.

Amy: Oh, okay.

Whitney: So weird.

Amy:Yeah, that's so weird. No, I've... I don't know why it helps me wake up in the morning. I just feel like it makes me look better too.

Whitney: And every morning, well, it tightens everything.

Amy: Yeah, I've a cold water splash on my face every single morning. Oh yeah, I think it's been really good for me.

Whitney: Um, another biohack that I thought was interesting is you can just gargle water aggressively at the bathroom sink.

Amy:It's... there she is gargling again.

Whitney: It stimulates the muscles connected to the vagus nerve and forces cortisol to come down.

Amy: What?

Whitney: Crazy. Hold on, I'm gonna gargle, but it has to be aggressively. You probably put too much water in there.

Amy: That's an aggressive gargle.

Whitney: I thought you nailed it, but you, you just put a little too much water in there. Like, that was aggressive. It felt like a cortisol spike. How does, how does, how does your cortisol feel? Yeah, that's a biohack. The ice on your face or chest and the gargling.

Amy: Anyway, who discovered the gargling? Who was like, I don't know, I'll try gargling. And then like, how?

Whitney:Okay, I don't know. Anyway. How does anybody fix... somebody had the idea. I wonder if gargling will help.

Amy: You know what we haven't tried? Gargling.

Whitney: I don't know, maybe something to do with your breath and stuff. I have no idea. But anyway, at the end of the day, cortisol is not your enemy. It's just an overprotective bodyguard that needs to learn how to relax. Okay, so stop trying to white-knuckle your way through the stress and that 3 AM stuff. Just tweak a few daily habits.

Amy: I like it.

Whitney: Get your sleep locked in.

Amy: Yes.

Whitney: Which, and just get great sleep. Oh, did you just hurt yourself?

Amy: My tonsil hurts from gargling. I think I pulled my tonsil. Is that okay? I gargled too aggressively. No, really. I'm having pain.

Whitney: Oh no. I know.

Amy: All right.

Whitney: Well, at least your vagus nerve is activated.

Amy: Uh, great. Okay.

Whitney: Well then there you go. So we're just trying to help you guys live in anything but midlife. In all the different ways. So if you have any suggestions for how you get through your life in an anything but midway, let us know.

Amy: I love that.

Whitney: Send us an email.

Amy: Yes, please. Yeah.

Whitney: Send us an email, anythingbutmidpodcast@gmail.com, or shoot us a DM. Slide into our DMs, y'all.

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: Just slide on in.

Amy: Whatever. Slide in. We love you.

Whitney: We're here for you. We're living it with you and it's hard.

Amy: It is.

Whitney: But at the end of the day, We do what we want. Please follow and subscribe to Anything But Mid anywhere you get your podcasts. Email us your mid moment at anythingbutmidpodcast@gmail.com. And remember, we do what we want.