Episode 339: The Easiest Secret Weapon for Overall Health

Intro:

Welcome to The Healthy Catholic moms podcast where we make moving and nourishing our bodies the priority, so that we not only fulfill our vocations, but excel in our callings. I’m Brittany Pearson, a Catholic wife, mom, personal trainer, and I’m here to help you build healthy habits that actually fit your life. I am here to teach you how to get the results that you want and maintain the results that you want without spending hours at the gym, or meal prepping all weekend long. I understand I am right here with you getting my workouts done in the nooks and crannies of time, looking up recipes, while nursing babies and trying to prioritize my own health amidst everything else going on. But I have really good news for you, you can get the results you want. In less time without doing hours of cardio and restrictive dieting. I’m going to teach you how to use strength training and eating in a macro balanced way to get you feeling so good and your skin full of energy, and strong to carry out your life. Okay, on this podcast, we’ll delve into how to lose fat in a simple, sustainable way. What your workouts and nutrition should look like during different seasons of life, like during pregnancy and postpartum times. We’ll also discuss healthy quick meals, and how to get them on the table make food that kids will actually want to eat. Mom hacks for making your day run more smoothly, and so much more. All the while with continuous encouragement to stay the course and live with discipline. This is a place where we’re striving to steward our bodies well, in order to joyfully serve. I am so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in.

Main Episode:

Hello, beautiful people. I hope you’re having a wonderful September so far and a wonderful day. Thank you so much for joining me and for pressing play on today’s episode. I know that we love to talk about mornings here. Because if you’ve been a listener for a while I’ve done a couple episodes on tips to wake up really why it is so important to wake up early, how beneficial it is for fat loss all these things. And they tend to be some of the most popular episodes, I wanted to revisit this concept and maybe it’s the first time some of you are going to visit it at all with me. So I thought we’d come back to it with kind of the start of this. We just came out of that healthy fall prep like it is the start of a new season, maybe you’re starting to implement some different routines and rhythms. This has got to be a part of it. I’m such an advocate of waking up at a reasonable time going to bed at a reasonable time, the why behind it the the tips and tricks to do it. So we’re going to dive into that today. Before I get there, I want to let you know September 18, we kick off the eight week challenge. This is the program you need to do if you have never worked with me before. Before you try the chasing greatness monthly workout group before you just hop on a coaching call. It’s a really great place to get the foundation of everything you will walk away knowing how to feel your body, how to move your body and your workouts. And it just I hold your hand and walk you through it. You have me the whole eight weeks to ask questions to bounce questions off other people who are in the group. And we are kicking off September 18. So you can go to healthy Catholic moms.com For more information, or message me if you have questions, but I only open it a couple times a year it is a limited number of spots, just 20 Ladies each round, and it’s a game changer. I’ve done this for years. And there’s a reason I have kept the program the way it is eight weeks seems to be the perfect duration, we’ve gone from 30 days to 12 weeks, whatever eight seems to be enough time to teach you everything and for you to start getting results. So a lot of times I share before and after pictures on my Instagram. And that’s where you see those from ours from the eight week program. So that’s coming up September 18. Now, Early to bed early to rise, I want to start with the reason I thought that it was time to come back to this circle around and revisit some of this as I have been reading the book introduce an introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis to sales. It’s been my spiritual reading book for all of 2023. Because like I can rip through some books that are you know, multiple 100 pages. This one is I think, like 320 something pages, but it’s just been a hefty one. It’s been something that I’ve sat with in the morning with my coffee or whatever. And just done a couple pages at a time. It’s really nice because most of the book, a lot of the chapters are only one or two pages. So it’s like perfect, digestible amount to to you know, break down just a couple pages a day. Now, I was on page 192. And the chapter of this one was called the practice of external mortification and they kind of he kind of went into different external modifications and when it’s appropriate when it’s not, but on page one, he said in quote, everyone should take that just proportionately than the night which he requires for being usefully awake in the day, Holy Scripture, the example of the saints and our natural reason all come in the morning as the best and most profitable part of the day are blessed Lord Himself is called the rising sun and his mother, the Morning Star, I recommend you, therefore, to go to rest early at night, so that you may be awake and rise early in the morning, which is the pleasantest and least cumbered time of the day, the very birds call us to awaken to the praise of God. And early rising is profitable, both for health and holiness. And quote, and I love that I love that too. It said, Yes, we have the example of saints in Scripture, even our natural reason, would lead us to find a morning as the best time of day now, I think this can be a sliding scale. Some business people in high level operators and CEOs and things will have quotes out there that they wake up every day at 430. Or some people do that. And it works for them. That discipline works for them. Jaco willing is somebody I’ve talked about on the podcast before who always shows his alarm in the four o’clock hour that that’s when he’s gotten up. And that’s what works for him and keeps him discipline. I think there’s a sliding scale, and there’s a what works best for everybody, my body would love to do a 10pm to 6am stretch of sleep, like that is ideal to me that very naturally, in the summer, I would wake up around six in the winter, it’s a little tougher if it’s still dark, but I like I’m not really kind of in between, I’m really not a night owl or a morning person. Like that is the combination to me of six is early enough. But 10pm is late enough, like I don’t make it much past that anymore. So you know, it’s just everybody’s different. But and here’s the big caveat, like our life is not set up to be that way, if I got up at six, it would be too late to do a lot of the things that I want to do to be able to have prayer time workout time before my kids wake up. It would be later than like, my it doesn’t match up well with my husband’s work schedule. So we are slid back a little bit earlier, we tried to be in bed by nine. And then we’re usually up around five. And again, sliding scale there. Sometimes it’s later the weekends, we definitely ease up a bit. And it’s more like 11 to seven or 1030 to 630 or something like that. This past weekend too. Yeah, it was more like a 1030 to 630. And that was great, I still got up before the kids felt really good. But that was what worked out. It’s just something that we can’t ignore and denies that our bodies have a circadian rhythm. And they do like similar times. Some people are very, very scrupulous about this in the health field and say, you know, every single day you should be getting up and going to bed at the same time for optimal performance. Now, most of us listening are not Olympians. So do I think we need to ABS have these absolutes, where we never stray from that. I don’t think that I’ve shared on the podcast kind of recently, there was an episode about, you can have it all, just not every day. And we’re going off of the book, pick three. And it’s about how you can basically pick different things, but you can’t have it all in one day. Like if you’re gonna prioritize sleep, then you might not be able to be prioritizing friendship, because a lot of times when we get together with friends is at night after commitments. And I definitely find that to be true been doing a small group lately and once a month. And it’s like, yeah, those nights for meeting start at eight o’clock. And it’s somewhere I’m driving home from when the meetings done. And then I want to get up early again the next day, like I’m going to lose some sleep. But that’s a sacrifice to be made for friends. So we all have to kind of personalize this and make it fit our lives and also be okay with when things deviate from the norm or deviate from the schedule. It’s kind of like yo yo dieting where if we think we have to be all on or all off. Like once we’ve eaten one Oreo, we’ve blown everything. And we might as well blow the next three meals, right? Where really it’s better to pick up from where we are like work it in, keep going make The Next Best decision. And I think that’s totally fine. But we cannot ignore and deny that overall people who seem to be healthiest, most consistent in a lot of areas rely on mornings. There’s that quote that’s been attributed to Ben Franklin too. That’s not new to any of us early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. In the scriptures. In the book of Proverbs, they talked about proverbs 31 Woman rises while it’s still night. Right. And what I have found to be true in my own life, and in the lives of those I’ve worked with, is that those who have a much more extreme night morning situation like go to bed at 12 or one and wake up at eight or nine or something. Or even earlier, a lot of people are very under, like, you know, you’re like you don’t have to tell me Brittany that I have very little sleep, like sleep deprived. There’s a lot of people who will go to bed at midnight and wake up at seven or Looking for the job or go to bed at midnight and wake up at six. And that sleep deprivation is considered six hour average or less. So if you’re averaging six hours and think it’s pretty good, that’s actually considered sleep deprived. So you might want to revisit things and examine like what can help you get more I know there are extenuating circumstances in different seasons of life where we would all like to be getting more sleep. And that’s just not the season. But, you know, overall, the things that we can control, we should be shooting for the seven to nine, not averaging five to six. But what I found to be true for those who go to bed more along the lines of nine or 10, wake up around five or six, they tend to be healthier people and have less struggle with their weight have a more easy and sustainable relationship with their body where they are not overweight, they are just able to maintain their routine. You know, obviously, someone needs to develop that routine, but then maintain it. They have less, you know, indulgent habits and think about it, it makes sense. For me personally, if I’m staying up late. What am I doing, then, I’m not usually staying up late to pray. Not usually staying up late to do work. Although sometimes that’s the case. I’ve usually if I’m staying up late, it’s usually accompanied by snacking on less than healthy foods, right? We’re not usually craving asparagus at night. Usually when the chips come out, or the ice cream or whatever we get snacky

usually there’s some screen time involved. Maybe we’re staying up late to be on our phones, or to be watching a show something along those lines. You know, lots of moral evils to can come up and tempt us there’s a lot of I didn’t pull that many verses today. But there’s many scripture verses about like things, not great things happening at what do we hear all the time in the darkness in the dark, but we’re supposed to be children of the light. Now obviously, we can just take that to mean right children of the light, as in leaving a pure and blameless life, not indulging in sinful behaviors. But most often think about it like things are attributed with darkness with night, that’s when crime happens. That’s you know, when temptations arise is usually in those night hours deep in the night. So that and then like I said, just even me personally, I know, even if I’m staying up, there have been times where I’m staying up late to work. And inevitably, I take the snacks out with it. Sometimes then I’m so wound up from working. And I put on a show after to try to calm down. like nothing’s super beneficial. Whereas when I wake up early, the things I’m doing in the morning are not things that I’m doing at 10 o’clock at night. So if I wake up at 430, or five or 530, I’m making time for prayer, I am exercising, I am doing something to prepare for the day. Like I don’t wake up at 5am to watch a Netflix show. So it’s usually the more productive, healthy, helpful things that I’m starting the day with, you know that I would not be doing a night because some people say that like they feel pop and like, well, I don’t think you need to wake up early necessarily. Because if you’re just not a morning person, that’s fine. And that’s why I think there is a sliding scale. I don’t think everyone has to wake up at 5am. But say you, you know wake up at seven and say your norm is 11 to seven that’d be another one that I wouldn’t mind I wouldn’t mind in 11 to seven. And you the ideas you still need to be doing the good healthy things that are going to be beneficial for you long term. So if you are you know, doing 11 to seven then what are you doing in those hours from like 9pm to 11pm? Are you doing hobbies? Are you praying? Are you exercising then like, that’s fine. If you literally flip flop what I would do at 5am or 6am. And you’re doing it at 10pm Great, but that is what we need to consider and look at and make that tweak for for really the health of our entire Mind, Body Spirit. We are integrated people. There’s a lot of facets to us. And it all works together works harmoniously. So think about that. Sometimes we’re setting ourselves up for failure when we’re trying to live healthy lifestyles, or like I need to eat more vegetables and need to get my workout in. I need to do this, this this. But there’s just not enough time in the day we’ll look at it because really if you are a later sleeper, but look at the things you’re doing at night. Are they helpful, healthy, productive things? You know, and I encourage you to just slide things up a little bit. If you’re one of those like 12 like midnight to 6am people or midnight to 8am people. Could you start going to bed at like 1130 and waking up at 730 and then starting your day off with some of these healthy actions we’re talking about. I just did a podcast recently about self care and ways to incorporate that and I consider the really basic self care to be prayer and Sacraments, moving our bodies and eating healthfully. So What typically, you know, from and I’ve read a lot of books about this, I read the book, what most successful people do in the mornings. There was one that was specifically how I think was called How did she do it, and it showed tons of different schedules of women. Like, and and just anecdotally, from my own life, I have taught fitness classes for a long time, I’m not actively teaching outside the home anywhere, but when I was the morning crew, and you know, this, if you work out in the morning somewhere, or you’re a fitness instructor yourself, the morning crew is the most dedicated crew. And it’s not just because, oh, they’re really dedicated people, are they really dedicated personalities, they’ve also discovered and found out that morning is the most uninterrupted time, like if you’re doing a 5:15am, or 6am spin class, not that many people need to at 6am, who might need you at 7pm, or 5:30pm, or whatever, it’s just what we carve out time for in the mornings is usually what is going to get done, even if the rest of the day goes awry. So starting out, I think just there’s so many things we could give time for in our mornings and a lot time for. There’s lots of people who have lots of opinions on this, to make time for meditation and for sauna and for ice plunge and for this, and for that, and journaling. And this. And the Miracle Morning was a helpful book that I read about morning time, too. And I like what I think that’s by Hal Elrod, and he breaks it down to two like gay if you have a half hour or an hour, this is what your miracle morning can look like. But you can also do this five minute version or this 10 minute version. And I remember that being really helpful and keeping components of that in my morning routine. But I think, in general getting a jumpstart on your day, early, where, you know, it is undeniably a pinch to wake up, you just force yourself to do it. There’s really no way around that people are gonna carry motivated, how are you motivated? Well, you just have to do it. It’s zero option mentality, you the alarm goes off and you get up, you don’t battle with yourself haggle with yourself, you just get up and get these things going. And sometimes Seriously, that’s like just the cascade that you need to set all these other healthy actions in motion. It’s just giving yourself the morning to do that. And the time to do that. And it does not need to be three hours. If you’re not waking up right now, if you’re a mom, and you’re listening to this, you don’t wake up at all before your kids, I’d encourage you to just start waking up 15 minutes earlier than them, brush your teeth, say some prayers stretch, and you’ve started off way healthier than you did a couple days ago. You know, and then you start to truly crave that time. There’s another episode that you can scroll back to where I shared other listeners morning routines. That was the resounding message that we heard was, I crave this time now from 5am to 7am, or from whatever to whatever to read a personal development book to read the Bible to get moving. And it’s uninterrupted. It’s quiet. A lot of us crave that time for silence and for recollection. So we don’t feel so frenzied, so busy. I know I think all the time, like if I could just hear myself think you know, and we’ve got to find that time and make it and like I said we’re probably not doing that tonight. I feel like pretty I could stay up till 12 till midnight and I could do the same thing. But are you like, Are you sitting there meditating or journaling or praying the rosary at 12? Or are you flipping through the Instagrams because I know when I stay up later, it’s that’s when the temptations come out. That’s when I’m not staying up to read Scripture. I’m watching the great British baking show. Okay, which again has the time and place but overall, go back to what for St. Francis de Sales that it’s even in our common knowledge and common instinct and natural reason that it makes sense to get going in the mornings and to go to bed at a decent hour. All right, I hope that was helpful. Thank you so much for tuning in. Remember to go sign up for the eight week challenge if that is something that is a good fit for you right now. And next episode we’re gonna talk about tips and tricks for increasing longevity and what is best for all our longevity. So we’re gonna talk about nutrition and exercise that supports being healthy for the long term. Really looking forward to that with you guys. Alright, have a great rest your day. I’ll talk to you next time.

Time stamps: