Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.

That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body so that you can take the targeted action needed.

With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with doct Esmina, an incredible integrative GP, and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health.

Visit v three sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more.

This is healthy Heir with Amelia Phillips and welcome to another one of my monthly Ask Me Anything episodes.

I absolutely we love hearing from my beautiful listeners.

Sometimes you email me, sometimes you send me a DM on Instagram, but it's great to always chat with you guys, and look here in Australia right now, spring has well and truly sprung.

Oh my gosh.

I absolutely love this time of year because it's something that I like to call a temporal landmark.

And what these are really great opportunities for us to reset, to recharge and to really feel some motivation that maybe has been lacking.

So temporal landmark tends to be these key milestone events or dates in the year that we can kind of stick a flagpole in the ground and go all right, you know, this is a significant event.

So New Year's Eve or New Year's Days a great one.

Birthdays, particularly big milestone birthdays, are great ones as well.

Parents.

Sometimes the beginning and the end of a school term is a great temporal landmark.

And of course seasonal changes, and I just think spring represents such a beautiful energy of renewal, of a fresh star, of growth, of energy.

And I absolutely love this time of years, almost like a shedding of our winter ring and a reconnecting with the world around us.

Well that's what it means for me anyway.

I don't know what it means for you.

Maybe you're sitting here rolling your eyes going Amelia.

For me, it means sinus issues and histamine issues and allergies and hay fever.

But I hope that you can feel some of the energy of spring and you are feeling a little bit motivated, and it certainly is a great time to refocus on your health and to make exercise a priority.

Anyway, I do encourage you to make a conscious chapter change and to really sit and enjoy this season change and shift your energy.

Now.

I am pretty excited at the moment as well because I have had some incredible guests come on my podcast recently.

Some of them have already interviewed, some are coming up soon.

Doctor Libby Weaver.

I did two great episodes with one on Overwhelm and the Invisible Load, and one also about iron deficiencies.

So I think as we published this, the Invisible Load has been published, but I think maybe the Iron episode is yet to come out, so look out for that one.

I've also had the incredible doctor Stacy Simms come on all about how to get the most out of our exercise, which I think is very timely considering it is spring and we're getting longer days here in Australia.

And I've got another two episodes coming up all about Perry and menopause.

I've got these amazing experts, so doctor Carrie Jones, who's just an absolute firecracker, who's going to be talking all about how we can manage our Perry symptoms without hormone replacement therapy and what we can do our side of HRT.

And then I've got doctor Louise Newson, who really is the Grand dum of menopause, and she's talking all about HRT and strategies and new research around HRT.

Plus I've got Yana Pittman coming on.

I've got Osha Ginsburg all about addiction and getting unstuck.

Oh my goodness.

These conversations just light me up, and I really hope they do for you too.

It's also an exciting time in Via Vitality three sixty program because we've just opened up a brand new intake of members and it's the first time we've done it in quite a few months, so we've got lots of new members piling in and doing all their functional testing as well.

I love seeing all the results coming through and the patterns that I see, lots of them on a large scale.

So if you are wanting to test over fifty five key functional health biomarkers you know around inflammation, metabolic health, cholesterol, micronutrients, hormones, and learn what your results mean.

Then check out the link in the show notes for more information about my Vitality three sixty programs, particularly my flagship program, which is called Inner Vitality.

Doctor Esmina and I are also really busy working on our book.

It's just such a treat to be working on this, and you know, the topic is all around perimenopause and menopause.

I did have a dream that I would rent a little cabin somewhere overlooking the mountains and a bubbling brook and a little log fire, and I'd just sit there and just write on my own.

That was kind of how I imagined it.

Or maybe a little bit like love actually, you know, when he goes into the Italian was it the Italian countryside or the Portuguese countryside?

Anyway?

Of course that has not transpired.

I'm pulling late nights and early mornings, but it's okay because when I'm deep diving and spending a few hours in one of these really key topics, I actually love it.

It almost feels like a meditation.

So I am enjoying it.

But I'm going to try to get away for a writer's retreat at some point between now and when the manuscript is due, so I will keep you along for the journey and talking about that journey as well.

I have mentioned in a couple of episodes that I'm actually pulling together a little inner circle group of you guys, of anyone that's perry menopause or menopausal or recently postmenopause, and that you want to learn more and you're also willing to share your story, and that you'd love to come along for this book journey.

And if that sounds like you, I would love to invite you to be in this little inner circle group of amazing ladies, and we might interview you and I'll let you know what's happening with the book, and of course give you a copy of the book when it first comes out.

Just flip me a DM or an email if you'd like to join our little inner circle.

Just going to get a few of you, not too many, just to have a little group to keep the conversation going.

Anyway, Enough about my world, let's step into your world.

How are you?

What's been happening in your world?

My beautiful listeners world.

And look, today's all about your question.

So thanks to those of you who have sent you questions in I love getting them.

So let's dive in and see what questions we have today.

Okay, our first question comes from Dita.

Oh Dedra, I think is it Dita or data Dita or de Dra over Instagram?

Hello?

Now she has said, I've heard you talk about strength benchmarks for health and longevity.

Can you give me a couple?

Oh?

Yes, we love these, don't we.

We hear about a lot of them.

What are these kind of benchmarks that signal that you know we're doing well in our strength.

I'm going to give you five quickis that I think are really helpful.

And look, some of them are standardized and some of them are just a little bit of you know, bro science of longevity experts kind of setting these benchmarks.

So don't shoot me if they're not all of them completely scientifically validated, but they're still great goals to aim for.

So the first one I'm going to mention is something called a dead hang.

Now, a dead hang is literally if you imagined a set of monkey bars, or if you're in a gym, you know, like a chin up bar and you literally pop up, step up, climb up, jump up, hang off the bar and set the timer.

Ready, set, go, And your goal for women is to be able to hang for ninety seconds or for men is one hundred and twenty seconds two minutes, okay.

And this is a proxy for grip strength because there is a lot of research around grip strength and longevity and frailty.

It's, you know, basically, a stronger grip strength is linked to all cause mortality risk, a lower all cause mortality risk.

Basically, the stronger grip strength, the longer you're going to live, essentially, and that's just because usually a strong grip strength means that the rest of your body is really strong.

So dead hang ninety seconds?

Can you hold it?

Whatever you get to every month, try to increase it by five seconds, okay.

My second one is a push up, a strict push up, so on your toes and then lowering your chest to the ground.

Can you do fifteen push ups on your toes for women and twenty five for men?

If you are able to press that body weight from the fl or it's a really good marker of functional strength and particularly in that upper body.

And it's what we call a compound movement that moves and uses lots of joints and muscles in your body.

So that's number two.

Number three is a VO two max proxy.

So basically, if you're wanting to get a bit of an indication of your votwo max, which is your fitness level, then we can do a two point five kilometer walk or run test.

So women, if you could aim to complete two point five kilometers in less than seventeen minutes in a brisk walk or less than fourteen minutes in a jog run, then you've got a really good healthy VO two max.

And men, you want to do sixteen minutes at a brisk walk or twelve minutes at a jog.

Okay, So that is for your VO two max, all right.

Number four is a dead lift, and that is you know a dead lift where you've got the barbell and you're it's on the floor, You've got really heavy weight and then you're standing up.

So you want to be able to deadlift your body weight ten times.

Now, this is definitely an advanced move so do not try it unless you are proficient in deadlifting and build up to it.

But if you can work up to trying to lift your body weight ten times.

You're doing extremely well.

And then we move on to a back squat, which is a squat with your barbell across the back of your shoulders down to a parallel levels, so no relatively deep back squat.

And your goal is to be able to squat three quarters of your body weight, so body weight multiplied by zero point seventy five.

If you can squat that between five to ten reps, you're doing super super well.

So write all those down od DRA and maybe you can set yourself little monthly targets to try to improve them.

So it was a dead hang, the push ups, the VO two max two and a half k walk or run, the deadlift your body weight ten times, and the back squat three quarters of your body weight five to ten times.

So there you go, some little test for you to try.

Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.

That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body so that you can take the targeted action needed with a functional health approach plus testing.

We go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with dottsmina, an incredible integrative GP, and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health.

Visit V three sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more.

So.

Question number two was a little bit of an SOS that came in over email.

She wanted to remain anonymous, and I could just sense she was struggling through the email.

I just wanted to reach out and give her a big hug.

She wrote, what is the first step to take if I feel completely stuck with my health?

And I get it, And it can be so hard, especially if you've got health challenges, and it can really feel like whack a mole where you fix one health challenge and then another one pops up and then you have another setback.

It's awful.

And when you feel completely stuck with your health, sometimes just getting started is really the hardest but also the best thing you can do.

So I'm gonna give you my best advice here, obviously without knowing you personally, is that do not think about overhaul everything at once.

Don't have that table flip moment where you just like that's it.

On Monday, you know, sugar's in the bin, I'm quitting smoking, I'm stopping drinking, I'm exercising six days a week.

It only leads to overwhelm, it only leads to feeling like a failure, like shame.

So instead, I'd love you to pause and just get curious and ask yourself, what is one thing that would make even a small It doesn't have to be a big difference, but a small difference to how I feel right now, and just think about all the possible leavers you could pull, which feels doable and like it might just make a little difference.

For example, for a lot of people, it starts with improving sleep, especially if you're feeling stuck, and if you're feeling overwhelmed, you know, improving sleep and really focusing on that bedtime routine, that sleep hygiene can be a game changer.

And if you're exhausted.

Then obviously that's going to improve when you start to sleep better.

But for other people that are feeling really stuck, it's actually action that can make the biggest difference, and that's moving your body daily.

And do not underestimate the power of getting out in sunshine, ideally in nature, or around nature, ideally in a social environment, whether it's an exercise group or meeting up with a buddy.

But even if you're doing that a couple of days a week, anonymous, and even if it's only ten minutes or a short one to start with, that can make a huge difference.

So please start with just one small, doable habit.

Don't worry about everything else.

Just start with that one habit.

And then the other huge tip that I have that makes such a big difference is to consciously celebrate any little win that you have.

And it seems so crazy and so ludicrous that the little celebration can make a difference, but literally, whatever the small win is, even if you get all the green lights on your way somewhere, like actually sitt into a happy or play a song that you know is a happy song.

It's like a small example for me is I've been so overwhelmed with the amount of work that I've had to do lately, and I keep missing deadlines and keep not doing what I need to be doing, and so I write these lists every day of kind of what I want to accomplish that day.

Well, yesterday, for literally the first time in forever, I accomplished everything on the list, and I consciously stood up and just danced around the room like a crazy person for thirty seconds, because I want to attach a positive, physical, visceral feeling to that achievement, because then tomorrow, when I sit down to that task again, I'm going to be flooded with those positive feelings and that positive physiology, which will hopefully help me get the task done.

So celebrate, celebrate, Celebrate every little positive, little positive iodor of a thing that happens in your world, because over time that really does change your state and you start to become more of an optimistic glass half full kind of person.

That I am sending you huge hug, Anonymous, and I do hope the temporal landmark of spring is going to help you feel unstuck and start to make those small positive changes.

Keep at it.

Your health is absolutely worth fighting for, So keep at it.

My friend, and our final question comes from Lauren McRae.

Hello Lauren, what daily habits have made the biggest difference in your health?

Oh?

What a great question, and what a great question to put back on you listening.

Think about all the little healthy habits that you've accumulated over the last ten years, compared to your twenty year old self, who was probably out partying and drinking and smoking out in heels all night and doing whatever we did in our twenties.

Think about all the healthy habits you've accumulated.

What has made the biggest difference in your health and happiness?

What a great question.

Okay for me, definitely regular exercise.

I am a religious exerciser.

I'm not an excessive exerciser, but I do train five days a week and do not get in the way of my workouts, like literally do not.

My husband and I will even argue over it.

When there's school things coming up.

I'm like, I'm not skipping that workout.

You have to take them to school early that day.

Or I sit down with a schedule and I map everything out so that those workouts get in.

And that's why I'm an early morning exerciser, because before the rest of the world wakes up.

I just like to get it done.

I look back and nat has been a cornerstone habit that has definitely made me healthier, happier.

My body has responded well to it.

So yes, regular exercise is my big one.

The other really interesting one, which has only happened in the last few years, is really getting off my sugar addiction and my just massive sweet tooth.

If you a regular listener, I've told the story many times of how I, up until a couple of years ago, was eating desserts seven nights a week.

And I am talking a full bag of those big cobs popcorn, I am talking chocolate, I am talking Ben and Jerry's.

I had dessert every single night.

And I think I've always been able to get away with it because of marathon runner and you know, exerciser.

But it was just getting worse and worse, and as I was hitting perimenopause, I could just feel it not doing me good and serving me.

And I've been able, very challengingly but very consciously to wean myself off it, and now I'm a good two years into it.

I don't even crave sugar after dinner, which is unheard of two years ago.

I tried, and I remember Tim would be sitting on the couch next to me with an apple and I would look over at him and I'd be like, how can you just eat an apple for dessert?

And so then the next night I'd be like, right, I'm not having dessert tonight.

We'd sit down on the couch, we'd press play.

I could feel my skin starting to crawl.

He's them chewing, chomping loudly on an apple that I'm like, I don't even want that apple.

I want the cobs, and I know it's in the Hubbard.

After about twenty minutes, I would then race into the kitchen, grab my dessert, smash it down, eat it, and then feel bad.

Anyway, It's a whole other episode to how I got off that, but I did, and now I don't even crave it, which is unheard of the other two quick ones.

I'll just say Collagen has made a big difference.

I've been now a regular daily taker of Collagen for a year and I cannot tell you the number of people that comment on my skin.

You know, I do work at Channel nine, so I'm in always different hair and makeup people, and so many of them are like, oh, your skin's so good.

Oh wow, you know you're really healthy.

Your skin's glowing, You've got really nice, plump skin.

I mean I'm wrinkly, Like don't get me wrong.

If you see photos of me, you might disagree, but I have had a lot of people.

Even had a massage last week and she commented on my skin.

So I feel like it is helping.

And I've always had really thin hair, but my hair is actually holding up well even through menopause or perimenopause, I should say.

So.

Collagen's been another one, and then the last one I just want to mention, which is more recent, is a real paradigm shift around giving myself permission for downtime.

Historically, I would never kind of feel good about consciously resting except for at night.

Whereas now I'm finding, as I'm getting a bit older, I've scheduled these two big blocks of time.

It's on a Friday afternoon and a Sunday afternoon where I've actually scheduled time in my calendar for downtime.

And this is full permission to watch trash TV, to relax, see anyone, to kind of not be serving others.

And that has really helped with my stress levels and even just physically.

Not only do I put it in my calendar, but I actually changed the color of the meeting to a blue, to a soft blue.

So now if it's like a Wednesday afternoon and I'm super busy and I look at my week and I'm overwhelmed, I think how am I going to get through the week, I'm like, oh, there's that little, blue, beautiful oasis coming up of downtime.

Sometimes I do something special like book a message.

Other times it's literally just crashing on the cow.

But just that paradigm shift of giving myself permission to chill and just relax has been a game changer for me.

So there you go, Lauren.

I hope that helps you.

Certainly, not evidence based or anything like that.

It's just what's worked for me.

Regular exercise, getting off that sweet sugar addiction and sweet tooth collagen, and permission for downtime.

All right, Well, they were wonderful questions.

Love hearing from you all.

I hope you enjoyed the episode, and I will see you back in the booth very soon.

Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, well, you're not imagining it.

That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body so that you can take the targeted action needed.

With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with Doctyasmina, an incredible integrative GP, and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health.

Visit v three sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more