Movement Snacks: Boost Your Metabolism with Mini Workouts in Midlife

 00:00 Movement snacks improve metabolism, energy, mood.

03:11 NEAT burns more daily calories than exercise.

08:29 Incorporate exercise into daily routine multitasking.

10:09 Muscles store and release glucose during workouts.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Enhance Metabolic Health: Even short bursts of movement like air squats can significantly improve glucose regulation and insulin sensitivity, helping to keep your metabolism active and efficient.
• Promote Overall Wellness: Incorporating movement snacks can elevate your mood, improve energy levels, and support cardiovascular health, reducing the risk of diseases prevalent in midlife and beyond.
• Easy Habit Stacking: Seamlessly integrate movement into daily activities by pairing it with existing routines—do squats while brushing your teeth or have a dance party during TV commercials!

Transcript

0:00

Welcome back to the Menopause Method. My name is Cam Allen. And boy, do I have a great episode for you. If you've noticed your clothes are fitting tighter, and you're doing all the things, you're going to the gym, you're exercising, you're watching what you eat, but you still don't think your metabolism is responding. I have something that's going to change your life today. We're gonna talk about snacking. And it's not the kind of snack you go get in your pantry at 3 PM when your energy is crashing, and you're looking for something salty and crunchy. No. This is talking we're gonna talk about movement snacks today. So movement snacks is literally bite sized chunks of movement throughout your day, and it can give your metabolism a major boost. We're gonna talk about how easy it is to fit this into your day without hitting the gym for hours. Because honestly, ladies, if you're hitting the gym for hours, that possibly could be one of the reasons, believe it or not, your clothes are fitting tighter and your frustration is through the roof. I know it sounds crazy. We have to find the right amount of movement and exercise for this stage of life. And if you are doing too much, it's gonna backfire. I know that makes no sense. We will do a metabolism episode in the future so I can really explain it. Today, however, we're gonna focus on movement snacks. Maybe when you hit menopause, you notice your metabolism suddenly shifted. Mine certainly did. The bandwidth of error wiggle room, if you will, is very narrow now than I'm in menopause. Your metabolism naturally slows because you are losing muscle, but let's be honest, we're also not moving as much as we used to. So consistent movement keeping you active throughout the day, can break up your sitting time into short bursts of movement will actually improve your metabolic health, your energy, and even your mood. In fact, when I'm having that 3 PM lull, my favorite thing to do is go outside and walk around the yard with my dogs. It is amazing. 5 minute break, come back, I feel energized without hitting the crunchy salty snacks in the pantry. So let's talk about the science behind movement snacks. There was actually an air squat study. Let me tell you about it. Back in 2019, the European Journal of Applied Physiology showed that doing 3 sets of air squats every 30 minutes during, like, an 8 hour period improved glucose regulation by 20%. Now let me tell you something. There are 2 hormones in midlife we can control. 1 is our glucose, and 1 is our stress response. This, doing 3 sets of squats throughout the day, is not stressful, so it's not gonna tip the cortisol, you know, too far over to the point where you're not getting results. But the amazing thing is by doing these air squats, you're using your muscles and actually you can clear your blood sugar better by 20%. That is a big deal. When we can control our insulin and our cortisol and in midlife, things move the dial. That is for sure. The key takeaway from that study is small frequent movements can actually prevent the metabolic slowdown, and it can prevent the blood sugar spikes from prolonged sitting. That's really good news. There's an area of our metabolism called NEAT. It stands for non exercise activity thermogenesis. And believe it or not, NEAT refers to the calories burned throughout the day with gentle movements like walking, standing, cleaning, going up and down the steps, parking further away, all of that. In fact, this is shocking. Meat can account for about 15% of your daily calorie burn, which is 3 times more than exercise. Now, if you're around my age, and you're in menopause, you grew up probably in a diet culture that told you to eat less and exercise more is absolutely the only way to change your body composition. And I'm here to tell you when we get to this side of life, when we get to this side of menopause, gentle movement, like just walking non exercise activity actually moves the bow way more than exercise. There's another study I'd like to point out from the American Journal of Physiology. It was in 2018, found that breaking up long periods of sitting with just 2 minutes of movement every hour significantly improved your insulin sensitivity and reduce those stinky markers of inflammation. That is amazing. Getting up and moving 2 minutes every hour is simple. It's not gonna raise your cortisol. It's not gonna raise your hunger hormones, yet it's going to make your metabolism fire turn on. There was another study in 2020, and they revealed that standing or light walking for 5 minutes every hour increased your energy expenditure, basically, your calorie burn up to 20% compared to sitting. If that doesn't encourage you to get up every hour and move, I don't know. In fact, moving every hour can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by 30%. That was another study. And when we get to this side of menopause, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women. So anytime we can improve our metabolic health and our cardiovascular health, these are huge wins. And again, these movements getting up and moving for a few minutes every hour is not going to raise your cortisol or your hunger. And those are 2 big wins when it comes to menopause. Okay. So let's talk about the exact benefits of doing these movement snacks throughout the day. First of all, it's gonna change your metabolism. It's going to keep your body in a fat burning state throughout the day. That is a big deal. That's what we want. 2nd, it's gonna improve your energy. These short bursts of movement stimulate the endorphins, happy hormones, and prevent those energy slumps. Again, my favorite hack at 3 PM when I'm like, when's dinner? When when can I go to bed? It's getting dark. That is exactly when it's the best time for me to go out and take a walk. 3rd, movement like this supports your bone and your muscle health, and I've talked a lot about muscles and bones on this podcast. So go back and check out episode number 7. It's about bone density and wearing a weighted vest, and episode number 3 is about strength training. So if you need more information, please check out those episodes. But we know that frequent weight bearing movements reduce the bone loss and maintain our muscle mass in menopause. If we are not actively doing something to preserve our bone strength and our muscle strength, we are actively losing it. That's just the truth. Like without estrogen, and we're in postmenopause, we need to do things on purpose to keep our muscles and our bones strong. So strength training is part of that. And then finally, number 4, it enhances your mental clarity. Moving regularly improves your focus and reduces brain fog. In my previous life, I was a 1st and 5th grade elementary school teacher. And let me tell you, on the days I canceled recess, the learning that happened after lunch wasn't as good as learning that happened if we had recess. There are studies showing that movement actually increases your brain's ability to learn and work. And I'm telling you, after 18 years of my own experiment in the classroom, it is true. Okay. So let's talk about how do we have it stack these movements into our day. Like, this sounds like a lot, Cam. Like, what the heck am I gonna do? I love habit stacking. Habit stacking is pairing your new movement, the thing you're trying to do more often with an existing one, so it can go before or after the existing one. So let's think about it from places you visit in the day. So let's say every time you go to the kitchen, I want you to knock out some counter push ups, or every time you visit the bathroom, do 10 air squats. You're already in that squat position anyhow. So hit 10 more air squats. Or if you're watching TV, sitting on the couch and doing some downtime during the commercial, why don't you get up and have a dance party? Or you could go up and down your stairs. Me personally, I love doing push ups on my coffee table in my family room, so that's what I like to do during commercials. Now I bet if you started dancing during the commercial, you would be smiling and having a lot of joy. So not only are you moving your body, you're feeling better too. And then what about if you're on the phone? Go ahead and walk around. Honestly, my husband is really good at this. If he's on the phone, he's pacing all around. In fact, just yesterday, he's like, I've already got my steps for the day, and he hadn't even done, like, a formal walk. But literally, he was on calls all day, and he was moving around. So stack it with a location, or you can stack it with, like, a time of day. So let's think about your morning routine. Why you're brushing your teeth? Why not do some calf raises or some air squats? That would be great. Or what if you're waiting for your coffee to brew in the morning? You could do, some counter push ups, or you could do a few minutes of stretching, getting your body moving. If you're working, you can always set a timer every hour on the hour, pick up your phone, set the timer, and do 10 air squats or 10 desk push ups every hour, or get a standing desk. I actually have a treadmill, and when I'm on Zoom, I spend hours a week on Zoom. Many times I'll get out my treadmill and this is a standing desk and I'll be walking during the Zoom call. Or what about this? Houseword chores. Turn it into a cleaning workout. Add some lunges, some squats, some dance while you're vacuuming, really work on your core. And actually, I shared in episode number 7, I wore my weighted vest when I was vacuuming a puppy hair. So you can certainly stack these things together. You know, you have to do these things anyhow, so why not turn it into fun movement for your body and your metabolism? In the evening, what could you do? Well, you certainly could do some light yoga or foam rolling or some kind of stretching while you're watching TV, and this one's great for your blood sugar. You can always add a short walk after dinner to aid in your digestion, build into your relationships with yourself if you're going alone or the people you're walking with. It will absolutely help improve your sleep, but it will also lower your blood sugar. See, here's the deal. The more muscles we have, the more places we have to store blood sugar and get it out of out of our bloodstream. So when we use our muscles, think of your muscles as big sponges. And when we're contracting our muscles like walking, what happens is it's taking the glucose out of your bloodstream and into your muscles. And the really cool part about that, the next time you work out, you'll have energy on board to actually use the stored glucose that's stored in your muscles to have energy for a really good workout. It's quite fascinating. In fact, if you were wearing a glucose monitor, oftentimes, if the movement is intense enough or you're using a heavy enough weight, your blood sugar will actually rise when you're doing that, And it's not from eating. It's literally your muscles are releasing that glucose so you have energy for your workout. It's really fascinating. So if you're into tracking steps, that's another thing that you can do. I wear an Oura ring, and it does track my movement throughout the day. I know Apple Watch does that and Fitbit, whatever, if you're into that. Now, if it stresses you out to get your steps, then I wouldn't recommend that. Again, we're always trying to balance the amount of cortisol we have in our life. But just in general, ask yourself like, how can I leave more movement into my day? That's all it is adding more movement to your day. And again, it's gonna keep your stress low and your hunger low, and your metabolism high. So here's some really simple, like, simple things you can do. These are really easy movement snacks. 5 minute walk, walk around your house, walk around your office, walk around the block, take your dog, whatever it is, Or 10 air squats, we've mentioned that. Every time you go to the bathroom, hit some air squats. Every time there's a commercial, hit some air squats. Every time you think about it, hit some air squats. Desk stretches are amazing. Stair climbing, I love doing that. Stair climbing. But this one, don't forget this one, wall sits. Did you play soccer, when you were younger? Did you have to do wall sits? As a former CrossFitter, we did wall sits sometimes. So wall sits or planks are an excellent way to hold a movement, and when you're holding that movement, believe me, your muscles are turned on for sure. Anytime your muscles are turned on, you're taking the glucose out of your bloodstream and storing it into your muscles for future workouts. So hold that for 30 seconds. You could do that during a commercial. Easy, easy, easy. So to recap, movement snacks are not the thing that you find in your pantry that's in a bag or a box. These are actually simple, practical movements to rev up your metabolism, improve your energy, and improve your overall well-being without being like a formal workout. Again, all of this falls under the nonexercise activity thermogenesis, which is about 15% of your daily metabolism. And I just want you to know that's actually the largest part of your daily metabolism that you can control on a daily basis. If you're looking for an online group to help you support your movement in simple, natural, sustainable ways, please reach out and send me a message on Instagram and ask about move the dial method. It is this wonderful group of online women. We have workouts, we have challenges, and we would love for you to join us. Okay. So I'm really excited to hear what you're doing for your movement snacks, and I'll see you next week.