July Challenge, Honesty, and Walking It Out

Being in tune with my body has helped me identify hormone shifts that affect my moods, allowing me to communicate honestly with my family and manage stressful moments better. After returning from vacation, I'm implementing small but meaningful health changes that make a significant difference in daily life.

• Recognizing triggers and mood shifts connected to monthly hormone cycles
• Practicing transparency with children about women's health issues
• Dreaming of creating financial support systems specifically for struggling mothers
• Implementing post-vacation health resets for the entire family
• Benefits of short 15-minute daily workouts, including improved mood and bone density
• The power of walking to raise serotonin and lower cortisol
• Fitting exercise into busy schedules without needing hour-long sessions
• July challenge to commit to 15 minutes of movement daily

Join me for the July Steel Roses challenge - 15 minutes of movement every single day! Let's try to make this happen together. Whether it's walking, yoga, or anything that moves your body, commit to daily movement for better physical and mental health.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Summer Minisodes
• 1:15 Recognizing Hormone Shifts
• 3:45 Thoughts on Financial Support for Moms
• 6:11 Post-Vacation Health Reset
• 7:24 The Power of 15-Minute Workouts
• 10:10 July Challenge Announcement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everybody, this is Still Rose's podcast. This podcast was created for women, by women, to elevate women's welcome again, another episode in our summer series. You can't see it, but I did jazz hands when I said welcome again because I was excited. But you guys don't know that, so that's why I have to tell you. So I'm getting into the swing of things with getting my episodes recorded. I'm shooting for about three minisodes a week, hopefully more. We'll see where I net out. About three minisodes a week, hopefully more We'll see where I net out. What's the? It's like the. The reality point is halfway between your ideal and what you don't want, kind of thing. So let's say I really want to be at three episodes. Actually, if I could do every day I would, but I don't want to overextend, as I usually do.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Anyway, one thing to note. I like to talk about this with you guys because I wanted to kind of point it out. So you know, my standard mood is usually pretty even keeled. I can handle a lot of pressure and thus, you know, carry a lot on my shoulders. What I, what I will wanted to share with you, is what I start to notice, when I start to notice I'm slipping. So if I notice that I'm getting kind of tired, just feel fatigued or if I notice that I'm snapping over something stupid and really losing my shit for lack of a better term on my kids, it always makes me pause. Now that I'm so in tune with my body and so well aware of my moods, when I do have a moment of wait, this doesn't feel like my normal self. What is this? It helps for me to step out of this situation and look at it for what it is, which unfortunately for me but you're all going to hear it from me because I want you all to be aware of it is hormone shifts in my monthly cycle. I've told it to you guys a bunch of times and the reason why I'll keep repeating it is because I want you to be in tune with your bodies and pay attention to your mood throughout the month, because once you can identify what the situation is, once you can identify the root cause, then you can take steps to actually address the problem.

Speaker 1: 1:52

I take a whole bunch of vitamins. Nothing's helping me out. I take, like, a menopause support vitamin, not doing a damn thing, I'm just finishing it because I paid for it, but being aware of that week in the month where I'm just not going to be a pleasant person to be around is really helpful, because then I can actually make my family aware it's not their fault that their mommy is losing her mind a little bit for four days out of the month. So I just what happened was I'm, you know, I was cleaning the kitchen up after everybody ate dinner and I had gotten everything wiped down and cleaned up and the kids decided they wanted to make toast as their like final whatever that they were eating. They didn't actually want to even make toast, I just had cinnamon bread and they just wanted to eat a slice of cinnamon bread and it like sent me over the edge because there was little crumbs all over the counter and when they opened the bag they ripped the plastic so the bread was falling everywhere and it's like little stupid, dumb things. But it like really set me off and I'm yelling at them and I'm flipping out about it.

Speaker 1: 2:51

And then I kind of paused and I said to, I said out loud, I was like, oh shoot. I was like, guys, my period's coming, this is what's happening. And my daughters now are like they're um, they're young, but they're aware what a period is so. So they're eight. I talk about it in front of my son because I'm like he's going to have a girlfriend, he's going to have a wife one day. He needs to be aware I don't want, I'm not raising a barbarian here. So I just said I was like, ah shoot, I'm getting my period soon. I was like that's why I'm going to be honest with you. I kind of like because I'm able to just tell them like I'm not perfect, this is what's happening right now with mommy. You need to be aware so you can be supportive to mommy too. Period Like this is it. This is a family. We're supporting each other.

Speaker 1: 3:37

I'm going to be in a foul mood for a couple of weeks, for a couple of days. Bear with me, that's it. It might also have something to do with the fact that I'm my vacation ends today and I go back to work tomorrow. That's making me a little bummed out. I've really enjoyed I mean, who wouldn't really enjoy being paid to just be? We had our cruise and then I took extra time off so I could be home and just get things done at home that I haven't gotten to. Man, how good does that feel if I ever win the lotto.

Speaker 1: 4:01

You know what I think about sometimes. If I ever had the kind of money that the billionaires and the wealth of you know the world have and generate, and not even that large like even if these tiktokers that are young 20-somethings that are making like millions of dollars from their tiktoks. There's so much good you can do with that money. There's so many people who just need a leg up and I've been in that scenario where I was painfully, paycheck to paycheck, down to the penny, scraping by, just praying that I don't overdraft anymore for the rest of the month. You know like it. It was so painful and I've always thought to myself if I ever had the means to do it, there's a few people that would get blessed immediately.

Speaker 1: 4:45

But If I ever had the means to do it, I've always thought to myself that I would set up like a mom, almost like a mom loan not student loan, but like a mom grant or something like that where moms could fill out an application stating their need, submit their paperwork and it gets reviewed by, like myself, on a committee and then we could say like grant these people some money, some support to help them with like childcare, to help them with healthcare bills, to help them with groceries, like to help rent. I mean, we wouldn't have made it without our parents helping us, and there's so many people out there that have no one and they're just trying to stand on their own two feet and it is a tremendous struggle, especially today, now as I'm saying this, the economy is in such a bad position. Things are so painfully expensive that even now, with the salary that I currently have, which is the highest that I've ever earned in my entire life, I'm very proud of where I am right now. But I think back and I'm like, wow, if this was 10 years ago, like we would be like rolling in dough and like have loads of money left over, but the economy is in such a bad state that like we're kind of just making it. You know so and I know it's a lot to share, but it's true. Like that your reality is, people are struggling and in much worse positions than me. So I'm grateful, grateful to the universe, you and I said it on that last episode incredibly grateful for being able to maintain what I have now.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Moving on from there, I'm from the share. I have a thought starter for you that I want to just drop on you quickly. So, post-vacation, myself, my stepkids, my kids and my husband, we're all very much like we need to get back on the wagon. We were eating very late and not healthy foods throughout the cruise. I don't drink alcohol normally, but I found myself drinking alcohol throughout the cruise. Tequila is my choice, by the way, just in case anybody really needs to know that Tequila is my drink of choice. But again it came back, all of us wanting to do a detox because we all know what these things do to our bodies. So it was almost hard for us in the beginning. The first few days I didn't touch a drop because I was like hard for us. In the beginning, the first few days I didn't touch a drop because I was like I can't do this. But, on that note, exercising has become something that's been more prevalent Now.

Speaker 1: 6:57

A quote that I just saw that I wanted to read to you guys and I'm going to tie it all in to what I just said is you can walk off a bad mood faster than you can talk it out. Movement raises serotonin. Walking lowers cortisol. Your brain is built to solve problems at three miles per hour. This is the quote.

Speaker 1: 7:13

But then it got me thinking, because part of my struggle with exercising well, one I view it as a luxury that I don't have time for because time. But will it be okay to do a 15 minute workout? Does that make a difference? Does that matter? The answer is yes, and I say this, and the reason why I want to bring this to your attention is because you don't have to get up at 5am and work out until 7am. You don't have to. You don't even have to work out for an hour. You could, legitimately, if you're just trying to move your body and you're no set goals, you do a 30 day challenge where you're just getting up and moving. You can do 10 to 15 minutes a day and you will start to notice differences.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Now, it may not be what you're expecting. I'm not saying if you did 15 minutes of walking every single day, are you going to have a six pack at a set of abs at the end of a month? No, my God, of course not, because diet and exercise goes hand in hand. But I'm not talking about that part. I'm talking about taking a moment and I'm speaking to all the mothers out there too taking a brief moment to get up and move and move your body and get your heart pumping, getting the serotonin flowing in your brain. It will work wonders for you. I didn't do it at all when my kids were little. I'm not going to sit here and be a hypocrite and say like oh, you know, do it. Blah, blah, blah, like now you know if you can do it, even if you incorporate it in with the kids like I used to do I think I have mentioned it on another episode I used to do dance parties with them.

Speaker 1: 8:37

That's cardio, like get up and move, shake it out. So when you look up the benefits of short exercise sessions, it's improved mood and energy, cardiovascular health, increased adherence, meaning like you're going to stick with it. If it's just 15 minutes, that's not that big of a deal. Muscle engagement, metabolic boost, convenience and flexibility, reduce risk of injury, improve bone density. Now that one for my ladies who are listening that are in their 20s and 30s and maybe younger but I sincerely doubt I have any teen listeners, any teen listeners. If you're in your 20s and 30s, one of the most beneficial things you could do for your health right now that will set you up for your 40s and 50s and 60s is jogging and walking and anything that puts an impact on the bottom of your foot is going to increase your bone density, setting you up for success later, because I'm currently at the age where I'm going to start losing bone mass. These are all things that are really incredibly important.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Does anybody know about this? No, we're not taught this, hence me telling you about it. So I want you all to like take a minute. See where you can fit 15 minutes in for your day. Now. I want you all to pray for me, because tomorrow, tomorrow, when I go back to work, tomorrow, when I go back to work, I have to start my morning workouts. That's the only time that I know that I'm going to be able to do it, because I think in the evenings it's too hard for me. I'm tired and I'm probably going to end up having to work late. My kids are off of school now and the mom juggle often entails that I have to work at night because I have to give up more time during the day for my kids. So this is the plan In the morning, getting up before everybody else.

Speaker 1: 10:08

I don't have to start breakfast until 7am, and if I can get up at six o'clock, then you have to be five. If I can get up at six and just work out for 15 minutes, that's going to be goals right there. So I'm committing here July 1st I already started working out. I haven't done every day since I've been back. No, I have. I think I've at least walked every single day, like today. I did squats and lunges and I walked for half a mile. Tomorrow I'm probably going to go a whole mile and maybe I'll try to do some weights in there as well, but it just depends on the timing. So this is sort of my plan now.

Speaker 1: 10:42

I'd like you all to join me on this. Let's do a July little still roses challenge. See if we can get in there 15 minutes every single day and make it happen. I'm going to try to do something every single day, so if it's walking, anything, a yoga, like anything to move the body, let's try to make this happen. I hope you enjoyed this little mini-sode. I am super excited to be doing these with you and I will catch you on the next one. Take care.