Longevity for Women in Your 40s and 50s: Where to Actually start

The full transcript of this episode is below. Lightly edited for readability.

Kelly: Hey Ezra, thank you so much for joining us. I’m looking forward to this conversation. I think the problem with this conversation is gonna be how I can curtail it to not co go too long as I was trying to think of, you know, all the things I wanted to ask you and I’ve tried to make it not too long because you’re a wealth of knowledge. So yeah, welcome.

Azra: thanks Kelly, so great to join you. And yes, there’s so much we can chat about as we’ve already realized when we’ve chatted offline. So I have no doubt we’ll have a great chat today.

Kelly: Awesome. I I always like to jump in to just try to get a sense of our guests like the guests’ life. So could you tell me a bit about like your morning routine and how you set yourself up for the day?

Azra: Yeah, I’m one of those people that really likes structure and tends to have a fairly regular routine. So I live on Acreage and the gorgeous Gold Coast Hinterlands and I get up pretty much with the sun every morning, if not a little bit earlier, and within 20 minutes of waking up, well, first I’ll go and wash my face, brush my teeth, do some tongue scraping, I’ll have some water with some lemon and some Celtic sea salt in it, and then I go straight outdoors after that and I get some morning sunlight into my eyes just to make sure that I’m supporting my circadian rhythms. But as I’m doing that, I’m doing breath work, I’m doing grounding as well, and I’m feeding up all our animals. I’m feeding up the horses and connecting with them as well, which is a really lovely way to start the day.

Kelly: love that. That’s so beautiful. I could just imagine it. I I think I mean there’s so much science about that simple habit. And I love it when habits can be simple, you know, and just getting that at least ten minutes first thing in the morning, but then being able to go out into nature and feed the animals and add in the breath work. How cool. I’m imagining you there. How beautiful.

Azra: Yeah, it’s it’s I’m very fortunate to live where I am and it is just such a beautiful way to wake up every morning and and just start the day in that way. And I end the day that way as well. I’m always outdoors at the end of the day feeding up the animals again and just spending time training my horses and it’s really made a huge difference for me in terms of managing my stress levels since we’ve moved out onto the farm. We’ve only been here for two years and we used to live in in the suburbs prior to that. But I’ve always wanted to come back onto Acreage, and honestly, it’s the best thing that we ever did. It’s it’s just such a a beautiful environment to live in.

Kelly: partner and I have it on our our dream list, so you’re inspiring me. I’m also keen to hear, like is there, because you probably have a lot of habits, health habits that in your life, is there any that you’ve implemented recently that are you’ve kind of been surprised by how beneficial it’s been?

Azra: Ha ha. Yes, definitely. I was thinking about this because there’s something that I have been concerned about as I’ve got older. So I’m fifty seven years of age and you know, postmenopause are woman and you’re very focused on what’s happening with your health as you’re getting older, particularly as a biohacker. And I noticed that my HRV levels, my heart rate variability was low. And I thought, what’s going on here? And look, that can be as a result of numerous things. But what I have found that I’ve recently implemented in a more rigorous way is that breath work.

Kelly: Mm.

Azra: It has really made a big difference in increasing my HRB levels. And sure, I’ve done breath work, you know, over the years and it’s really great for nervous system regulation. And I really value it as a powerful portable tool that I can take with me when I’m traveling, and if I’m feeling a little bit unstuck or if I’m feeling like I’m ungrounded, then I come back to try and always come back to the breath. But having a more focused sort of routine. With it, I have found has really helped to improve my HRV. So that’s the latest hack that I’ve been experimenting with.

Kelly: I love that. That’s really, really interesting because I definitely, I mean, I’ve read a lot of the literature because I’ve also experienced that kind of decline in HRV and I’ve been researching it and it’s very obviously like you’re saying, specific to women. but I find I’ve read about the importance of specifically resonance breathing. Do you do that? Like what specific type of breath work do you do, or do you just interweave different types?

Azra: I tend to interweave different types depending on how I feel on any given day. I I’ll do my my usual go-to is the the four by four, the box breathing, because I find that that’s that really works quite effectively for me. I think it depends on you as an individual as to what works for you, because we’re all different and and our bodies will react to you know different modalities.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s the thing I suppose just being curious about it and trying it over time and seeing what actually makes a difference. So have you actually noticed that your HRV has increased since you’ve been doing that?

Azra: Yeah, definitely has increased and quite I was quite surprised that it worked, because you you sometimes you hear these things, you’re like, I’ll give it a shot and see. And that’s the nature of of being a biohacker, you’re always experimenting. And to actually see it change, to see the hack being implemented and and then see the results in in a in a with a positive outcome is always, you know, very rewarding as a bio hacker. I think it’s a work in progress. it depends on stress levels as well, it depends on what I’m doing on any given day.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah.

Azra: You know, we’re cyclical beings and so our bodies will fluctuate accordingly depending on what we’re doing.

Kelly: Mm. Yeah. And are you trying to kind of do it at set intervals? Cause you said you like structure, or are you more just listening to I’m feeling stress, so I’m gonna take five minutes to do some breath work? Or a mixture?

Azra: Okay. Yeah, it’s again it’s a mixture because I tune into my body. So yes, I’m there’s structure because I’m doing it in the mornings and I’m doing it in the afternoon. But if I feel like I am feeling a bit stressed as a result of a meeting that I’ve just had or something else that’s happened during the day, and I will make an effort to take, you know, at least five to ten minutes out to do that breath work, to come back in, tune back into myself and refocus again and and just really activate my parasympathetic nervous system. So that I’m not in that sympathetic nervous system.

Kelly: Yeah, amazing. So I thought today, as I said, it was hard to try to figure out all of all the things I wanted to talk to you about. But I really like on your website you talk about the, you know, the balance, brain, body, beauty. And so I thought we would take those four lens and then with each one we would look at what are the specific things for women that will make the biggest difference in these areas? And we can look at starting with free because there’s so much free stuff we can do, and then what’s actually worth investing your money. But maybe before we dive into that, just to explain to the listeners about why it’s so important that there are specific protocols for women, because as you and I know, so much has been researched on men, and yet women’s bodies behave very differently, and like we’re following all this recommendations and site. That’s based on on male body research.

Azra: Yeah, 100%. And we know now that the research up until 1993 was focused on on male biology. And it wasn’t until then that the FDA in America approved for women to be included in clinical human trials. So everything prior to that was focused on on men’s bodies. And so we’ve been doing things that were designed for men essentially. And so this is where I’m so passionate about making Sure, that women are tuning into their bodies and that we’re doing biohacks and doing things to nurture our health and wellness that is in alignment with our female bodies because we are cyclical beings and we need to take that into consideration. And as women, we are often the caregivers, we are often trying to multitask, we’ve got multiple things going on in any given day, and so we’re doing a lot of juggling, and all of that impacts how our bodies. Will be feeling on any given day, and so that’s why it’s so important to tune into that and really focus on well, what’s right for me today, and what should I be focusing on? You know, am I currently in my follicular phase and my estrogen is rising, and you know that’s when we potentially will be having more energy at that time, and so okay, let’s get out there and and do some good strength training or something like that. But if you’re going through the menstrual phase, then you might be. you know wanting to ease it back and really looking at doing some rest and restoration and so doing things like you know some gentle walking outside or doing some yoga or something like that that’s really honouring where you are at within your body at that particular time. And so yes we we need to focus on on activities hack I call them hacktivities that are really essential for women that are in alignment with who we are as cyclical beings.

Kelly: And I think it’s particularly important in like you and I both are in the or interested in in the biohacking space, but that is very like there, it’s quite the bro kind of lens in a lot of things. And I remember, I mean, it’s still big these days, the whole ice bath thing. And I love ice baths from the perspective of training myself to surrender in when my body is stressed.

Azra: Yeah.

Kelly: But that said, so my example of what you’re saying is my partner and I went a couple of years back and did this ice, like intense weekend ice immersion thing. And it was incredible. But my HRV afterwards like completely dropped and stayed dropped because I was already experiencing stress at the time. And his HRV went through the roof. and it’s just a perfect example. We did the exact same thing, but our bodies reacted differently. And that’s, you know, if you’re if I had just been listening to all the podcasts and so forth at the time it was like, you know, ice baths are brilliant for everyone. So not necessarily in it for a woman, it would depend on where she is, cycle, how her stress is feeling, all of those things. And there’s so many examples like that.

Azra: Yeah, 100%. And it’s really interesting because that’s exactly what happens with a lot of the biohacking space, that it’s it’s there’s an expectation that everybody can do the same biohacks regardless of where they’re at in their life or what gender they are. And that’s a really great example of the fact that you can’t necessarily do that. I used to do a lot of cold plunging when I was younger, probably in my in my 40s, and didn’t find any negative impacts there. And I could do a cold plunge down five degrees, no worries at all. All and it wouldn’t increase my cortisol levels. Now, as a 57-year-old postmenopausal woman, I find that if I go and do a cold plunge at five degrees, it drops my blood pressure significantly, it spikes my cortisol levels. So again, I’m having to listen to my body, my body’s saying, No, this is not okay, I’m not okay with this. And you know, we need to do it in a different way. For so, for cold plunging, we should really, as women, be targeting no colder than 10 degrees, probably more around 10 to 13 degrees. degrees and and that’s what we encourage our ladies to do if they’re in a position where they’re open to doing it and they feel like they can do it they do that on our and our Liver Longer retreats as well.

Kelly: Yeah. Brilliant. Okay, let’s jump into those four areas. Let’s start with the brain. This is one and I’ve said on previous podcasts that I have a particular interest in. My mum had Alzheimer’s and so I saw firsthand about, you know, that cognitive decline and how destructive it can be for a family. But I think in general, regardless of whether you have family history of anything like that, for women, we often get the brain fog. You know, maybe you’re forgetting words, whatever it is. And that can be deeply frightening. So would love to hear your perspective on the research, what it specifically says for women in regards to maintaining or even optimizing our brain as we age.

Azra: Mm. Well, when I look at biohacking and supporting women through nourishing their bodies and improving their health, I look at it through those four pillars of brain body beauty balance because I like to look at it from a holistic perspective. And for me, ensuring that we’re supporting and nurturing our brain and and and improving our cognition as we get older in particular is so critical. We know now that dementia is probably the number one killer in women now. It used to be heart disease, it’s it’s now been been absolutely overtaken by. Dementia. And there’s nothing worse than as you’re getting older where you start to notice that cognitive decline. Like you said, you forget where your keys are, you forget somebody’s name, or you have what I call the brain pause. You could be mid-sentence, you think, what was I going to say? I’ve lost my train of thought. Well, I’m sure we’ve all experienced that. so this is why I feel it’s really important that we target improving our cognition and making sure that we’re

Kelly: Mm-hmm.

Azra: We’re looking after ourselves because if we’re not doing that, if we’re not targeting these specific areas within our body, I mean, how often do you think about improving your brain health? Right? Well, when was the last time you thought about that? And so we we might think about doing some general things like going to the gym and and doing the workout, but what do we do in terms of trying to create a gym for our brains, right?

Kelly: Mm. Yeah. Yeah. And if you leave it until there’s a problem, then that means the problem is already quite progressed. Whereas if you actually start addressing it before you’re experiencing too many problems, then you can make a real difference.

Azra: Yeah. Yeah. Yes, unfortunately we have in Western society what I call a reactive health model rather than a proactive health management model. And I’m an advocate of the proactive approach. And so for me personally, I like to look at my body and try to ensure that I’m

Kelly: True.

Azra: Foreseeing what potentially could occur if I’m not doing certain biohags or if I’m not managing my health in a proactive way. And so I coach women through this to be able to proactively manage their health. And so when you’re thinking about cognitive health, we need to be looking at making sure that we’re fueling our brain properly because it’s a really fatty organ and so it uses up a lot of energy. And so we need to make sure that we’re fueling our brain properly. We need to make sure that we’re resting our brain as well, so that during During the night when we go to sleep, we have that what I call the garbage truck coming through and cleaning up all of the wasted toxins in our brains and making sure that we lose that dirty brain and we end up with a clean brain when we wake up in the morning. And that we’re also training our brain to say stay sharp as we get older so that we continue to rewire the brain neurologically with doing things like learning a new thing, whether it’s an instrument, it might be a new language. I recently took up line dancing and you know trying to overcome my two left feet and took my little brain a little while to get over that one, but it caught up eventually. And so challenge yourself in those ways to really step outside of your comfort zone and learn new things and do new things is what’s going to help maintain your cognition as you get older.

Kelly: What cool? Hmm. Okay, so you talked about the importance of rest, the importance of diet, and specifically you mentioned like fatty, as in healthy fats, not any kinds of fats, healthy fats and then learning new things. So is there anything else on that kind of free and easy to do that you would recommend in terms of brain health? And then we might jump to because there’s also so much out there that you couldn’t pay for, but we can talk about what you think is actually worth it.

Azra: Yeah, yeah. Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Look sleep. Yeah, you it is is so underrated, but it is the my number one buyer hack. I really

Kelly: Yeah.

Azra: Absolutely do not compromise on how much sleep I get at night and what time I go to sleep and the quality of sleep that I’m trying to aim for. Again, women are often the bearers of having a poor night’s sleep because of various reasons. They might have a husband that’s snoring next to them, they might have children they’re having to wake up for, they might be working late at night because during the afternoon they’re spending time with their children. And so if we’re not getting restorative sleep, the brain Don’t have the opportunity to regenerate and to heal overnight. And so we’re looking at trying to ensure that we get to sleep by a certain time. 9:30 at night is the preferable time, the research shows. And it’s during those first two hours prior to midnight that you actually have that garbage truck coming through and cleaning up those waste toxins in the brain and making sure that you are going through that regenerative process so that you are restoring. the brain and you’re fresh and ready to go the next day. So don’t underestimate how important sleep is and that would be my absolute free hack to do for improving brain health.

Kelly: Yeah, absolutely. And I think what you mentioned, and it’s I funny, I learned this like twenty odd years ago when I was meditating all the time at a camp about my meditation teacher said that the hours before midnight are by far the most important. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, okay, cool, whatever. And then subsequently I’ve read the science on it that it’s actually true. And I definitely find that for myself. So talk me a little bit, like what’s your PM routine? Like how do you set yourself up to optimi to get that kind of optimal sleep?

Azra: Mm. It’s really important to ensure that you’ve got a regular routine to get that optimized sleep. And so for me, I try to avoid eating too close to bedtime. So try to stop any food from about two to three hours ideally prior to bed. Try to avoid having any heavy protein before bed so that your digestive system isn’t trying to work too heavily overnight. And that’s why you’re avoiding eating two to three hours before.

Kelly: Yeah.

Azra: you go to sleep at night because you don’t want your digestive system to be working during the night. It should be resting and you should be restoring. So I will do that and then I will turn all the lights down. I will either turn them off and just have some candles lit or if we you it’s winter at the moment coming into winter so we’ve got the fire on so we’ve got that that nice amber light. or you get some red light bulbs so that you’re changing, you’re not having that bright light on during the night because that can impact your melatonin levels, it can increase your cortisol levels as well at night, which you’re not wanting that to happen. so you’re wanting your cortisol levels to be decreasing at night so that your body can calm down and start to go into that rest and restoration phase. so I’ll do that. I will avoid any screen time at all, at least one hour before bedtime. I’ll take some magnesium glycinate as well straight after dinner, and then I’ll have a nice hot shower before bed as well. Do my usual wind-down routine, and then I like to crawl into bed at night with a nice hot wheat bag, which helps to manage my body temperature because you’ve you’ve increased your body temperature while you’ve been in the shower, you maintain that sort of hotter body temperature for a little while longer, and then as the body goes down into sleep, you’re wanting your body temperature to decrease so we can actually go into that deep rest and restoration. And then I’ll read for a little while. I’ll probably I only tend to last about 10 minutes to be honest with my book, but it’s never on an iPad. It’s always a hard, hardcome book that I’ll be reading.

Kelly: Mm-hmm.

Azra: so that I can ensure that I’m I’m not getting any sort of blue light exposure. And I do wear blue blocker glasses as well. As well straight after dim it as well. I mean there’s mixed mixed reviews out there about whether they work or not. For me personally I find they do work. But my eyes are super light sensitive and so I I find that they that’s just an extra barhack that I implement every evening to help support that window routine.

Kelly: Hm. Mm, same. Yeah. I wanna get my house like the full red lights everywhere in the house. I have the glasses, but I do feel like they don’t totally kind of block it out. Like I think and plus it’s a thing about because you know you’re a behavioral change expert, you’ve got to make it as easy as possible. So if there’s literally no option to turn off bright lights, yeah. Okay, awesome. And then in terms of the brain, there are t so many gadgets out there.

Azra: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly: brain training, brain stimulation, I could go on forever. What have you tried and what have you found has made the you know greatest difference in terms of training the brain?

Azra: I think it’s what I touched on before, learning something new, learning a new language or learning, you know, a new skill set, learning a musical instrument. That’s for me what’s worked.

Kelly: Yeah.

Azra: And yes, there’s lots of different gadgets out there. You’ve got the brain tap, you’ve got lots of different gadgets like that out there. And but not everybody can afford those things. And so I always like to look at well, what are those sort of cost effective or cost free options that somebody can can implement? And quite often the foundational buy hacks are so much more powerful than any of those, you know, highly expensive you know, tech

Kelly: Mm-hmm.

Azra: buy hacks that are out there. That’s not to say they’re not great. Absolutely they are, but it’s about looking at what can you afford within your budget, what can you implement. And we need to make sure that good health is achievable for everyone, that it’s not just for the for the rich, right? So I like to ensure that we’re whenever I’m communicating about any buy hacks that I’m giving people options in terms of what people can and can’t do.

Kelly: Yeah. And I think, you know, we were talking earlier about how you and I are slightly addicted to learning. So we probably do so much of the learning that we don’t need to be doing. My partner’s really into all the brain games. And I try and I try to do them, but I’m like, I just find like I can’t do them. I they f I find them boring. But that said, I love learning. Like I’m literally constantly learning something or other. So

Azra: I hope. Yeah, same. I can’t do those games either personally and I I do find them boring and I’m not the sort of person that likes board games or Scrabble or anything like that. But if I’m wanting to learn something new, if I’m wanting to educate myself about something, if I’m wanting to, you know, go out and learn a new skill set, sign me up for that hundred percent. I love doing that sort of thing. but

Kelly: Mini tää.

Azra: sitting there and doing something that’s been gamified for me, you know, doesn’t doesn’t really it’s not appealing to me.

Kelly: Yeah, same, same. Okay, let’s jump into the body. I’ve seen lots of posts of yours about the the work, like strength work and so forth you do. But maybe you could talk to us because and I think lots of women as they hit their forties, they start to notice I did a episode about this recently, how the things that used to work no longer are effective as far as like training the body. So if you could talk to us a little bit about that for what aspects of training the body are really important for women as they age.

Azra: Hmm. Look. It’s all about muscle, ladies. Strength training is your going to be your superhero movement to do from your looks really from 30s and onwards. We often think that it’s something that women should be focusing only in their 40s and their 50s and beyond, but I think the younger that you can start with strength training and building muscle, the better you are going to set yourself up for as you get older. That’s not to say that if you’re in your 50s and your 60s, 70s or 80s, that it’s too late for you to start doing strength training because

Kelly: Mm-hmm.

Azra: Is absolutely not. You can definitely start training doing strength training at any age, and it’s so important to ensure that we are maintaining and building that muscle mass as we get older because what happens is that we see significant muscle deterioration as we get older, particularly from when we hit perimetopause and onwards. It’s really interesting to see that there are the women that are in my circle, those that don’t strength training, you can see the difference to those that have have been strength training. And so the reason we’re wanting to ensure that we’re strength training is because if you have a fall in your 70s or in your 80s or your 90s, you want to ensure that you’ve got strong stabiliser muscles so that when you trip you can catch yourself and you can ensure that you’re not going to fall down, you’re not going to break a knee, you’re not going to break a hip, which Is going to really impact, especially if you break a hip, is going to impact your your mortality likelihood. And so we want to ensure that we may staying as strong as we possibly can, and so we need to be lifting heavy. And sometimes I’ll go to the gym and I’ll see ladies lift, you know, like a five-kilo dumbbell set, and I’m like, okay, yes, we all have to start somewhere, but we need to be incrementing that, you know, to heavier weights the more that we train, and so we should be targeting to be lifting.

Kelly: Mm.

Azra: As heavy as possible, so that we can increase and improve those stabilizer muscles. And muscle is the longevity organ, it really is. That is what’s going to help you stay well for much longer and improve your health span, not just your lifespan, but your health span. And I think that when we’re looking as we’re moving into perimenopause, midlife menopause, that we need to start rethinking about how much cardio that we’re doing as well. Well, because when we were younger, we used to do probably a lot more cardio, and we thought that that was what used to keep us lean and keep us fit, but all of a sudden it’s not working anymore, right? When we hit midlife, why? Because our hormone levels have changed and we start to store fat in different ways, and our cortisol levels are doing silly things that says, you know, to the body, no, doing that sort of cardio is not actually going to you know be great for our body, and so we start to store fat, you know, particularly around the mid belly.

Kelly: Mm. Two.

Azra: section a lot more when you get into midlife and so we need to be aiming to do that strength training instead and probably doing a cardio session maybe once a week or twice a week tops is what I would would do.

Kelly: Yeah. And I find I find weights, like, especially when you’re actually really lifting heavy, it’s it’s empowering. Like I love it that I can, you know, lift heavier than my body weight in certain things and like it feels you get out of there and you feel good about yourself, which we want as women to feel, right? Empowered.

Azra: Yeah, a hundred percent. It’s so empowering and It was so funny because I live on a farm and I have to go buy horse feed on a regular basis and I walked into the the stock feed place the other day and and the the guy behind the counter says, what do you need? I said, It’s okay, I’ve got it. And I went over and I picked up, you know, these big 20 kilo bags of horse feed and threw it over my shoulder and took it out to the truck and he just he just looked at me. He’s like you you just saw his jaw drop to the ground. Thanks. And just the look on his face and I just gave him a wink and I’m like, I gotta make this all good. So

Kelly: I’m giving you a high five now. Yes, I love it.

Azra: but I suppose that’s a really great example of the fact that you don’t necessarily need to have a gym. And so it can be cost-free. I live on a farm. I do a lot of heavy lifting on the farm by you know pushing a wheelbarrow feed around or mucking out the paddocks or the stables and pushing the wheelbarrow around to manure up the hill. there’s always some sort of activity, physical activity that I’m doing, and I’m particularly on the weekends, I’m doing you know 25,000 plus steps a day when I’m on the farm working on the farm. and so there where there’s A will, there’s a way. You don’t, you know, if you feel like you can’t afford a gym membership, use your body weight. Find something else at home, whether it’s tin cans that are five kilos, if you’re going to start with that, and or you know, a sack of potatoes or whatever it might be, find a way to be able to really start to do some strength training.

Kelly: Yeah, beautiful. And do you have any like particular hacks that you found useful, whether it’s, you know, types of strength exercise or tight like anything like that that you can get those in like incremental gains?

Azra: Mm. I’ve really been focusing on on lower leg strength training. And so I think when you’re doing things like pharma carries, so you know, carrying kettlebells or some other heavy weights. So it my heaviest weights that I have at home are 20 kilo dumbbell weights, so I’ll have one of those in each hand and do a pharma carry. so do that. I you know, also doing single leg lunges as well. So that really helps to improve the stabilizer muscles. I’ve got the worst Balance on the planet. I’ll just I’ll just flag that and say that right now and fess up about that. And so I’ve had to really work on that. And that’s a result of having had numerous injuries to my ankles and knees when I was younger as a young athlete. So I really had to focus on working those stabilizer muscles personally so that I I can stand there and do a single leg lunge without falling flat on my face. so I think that’s really important for those stable stabiliser muscle groups and and so that you later when you’re older you can get up, you know, and out of a chair unassisted and you’re not having to lean on something and push your way, you know, out of the chair that you can stand up and and and and sit down quite easily and unassisted.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And what about mobility? Do you trade mobility much?

Azra: Yeah, look, I think mobility is so critically important. Doing those type of exercises to rain really maintain joint health in particular, the flexibility, doing yoga as well, lots of squats, you know, really getting down onto a yoga mat as well. I do that, you know, probably every other day. But then again, for me being on the property as well, I’m I’m doing lots of you know mat mobility exercises on a any given day anyway, just through the nature of the activities that I do on the property but really getting focused on those mobility exercises is is really important.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, I’m much more into my yin classes these days than I ever used to be. I used to be the Ashtanga girl, but now I’ve changed it up. Which brings me into which is nice about the balance section. I think that for women, particularly I mean in general, but probably more forties onwards, that kind of inner calm becomes should become a priority, but is also most challenged because of the change in hormones, because like all of those caring roles from older parents to kids, etc., high, you know, going up in whatever job or business that you have. So there’s a lot of press pressure and it can be quite hard to manage. You’ve already started at the very beginning by talking about breath work. Could you talk to us a bit about your experience with for yourself and your ki your clients in terms of helping women navigate that.

Azra: Mm. I think it’s probably the pillar that’s most underestimated. We tend to focus on so many other things before we think about our nervous system regulation. And you’re right, you know, we have Rushing Women’s Syndrome quite often. We’re busy all the time, we’re caretaking for others, and we often forget to take care of ourselves. And so I think that coming back to balancing our bodies so that we are feeling calm, we are activating the parasympathetic nerve. nervous system and coming out of that fly to fight mode to ensure that you are not having increased cortisol levels, that your heart rate’s not elevated. Because when we have this sort of elevation on a on an ongoing basis and we have that it it creates the low grade chronic stress, which can be really detrimental to our health and our longevity, causes inflammation in the body and you know inflammation can then lead to so many other things and so many other diseases. And so when I work with our my ladies, I really like to look at well what how can they implement some sustainable balanced activities on a day-to-day basis. And again I come back to the breath work because obviously that’s a portable tool that they can use. Even if you’re in the car and the kids are screaming you’ve just picked them up from school just stop you know and take a big breath in and then another quick short breath, you know, physiological sigh breathing and then

Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Azra: let it out through the mouth ladies and just really just let that stress go.

Kelly: My kids love taking the piss out of me because I’m constantly doing this. Like the mornings are always such a rush in our house. I’ve got two boys and getting them to the bus at seven thirty and I’m often doing the, you know, the and so they start in the back, you know, like mimicking me doing the thing.

Azra: Yes. Well which isn’t a bad thing. It’s great to teach the kids as well, ’cause quite often you’ll see young children that have a temper tantrum or or are struggling to be able to use their energy or manage their emotions in in a positive way. And so if you bring them back to the breath. and it’s like a a friend of mine taught me, get them to blow the candle out on their fingers. So blow the candle, blow the candle. So it brings them back to the breath and gets them to focus on that so they’re able to then self-regulate. and even with the work that I do with my horses, it’s all about the breath work, it’s about self-regulf-regulation because they pick up on my energy. And if I’m in my if I’m in my sympathetic nervous system, they’re going to be all flighty and think, what’s going on? Why is she upset? You know, I do I need to be worried.

Kelly: Yeah. interesting.

Azra: About something, but as soon as if I if I if I approach them in that state, I then actively have to stop and pause, acknowledging that they’re reacting to my energy, and then do the breath work with them. And the change in them is dramatic. They will settle down straight away, put their heads back down, start grazing again, behave. They won’t try to react physically to me at all. So the energy that we’re putting out as a result of the state that we’re in in terms of not managing our balance. is is quite intense when you think about it and and how you know a horse can react to you in that way. The other thing that’s I think is really underestimated when it comes to balancing is getting that morning sunlight in the mornings. So I mentioned before that I get out and I love to get out in in in the mornings and get that morning sunlight. So targeting 10 to 20 minutes of morning sunlight every morning, not having any sunglasses on or anything like that on during the the morning so that you’re getting that beautiful

Kelly: Yeah.

Azra: light into your eyes, it’s going to help to manage those cortisol levels. It’s going to help to manage your circadian rhythms as well and just really help to rebalance you. Doing the groundwork as well, I quite often will be walking around barefoot on the grass on the property and just balancing myself that way. And meditation as well. So if you’re wanting to, you know, obviously doing breath work and morning light is something that’s free, it’s available to everybody. You could get a meditation app at a smaller cost and do some guided meditation if you struggle to really be mindful and still the mind and and come back into the body so then you might need a bit of guidance. And for me just doing other things like massages as well that again bring you back to the body, bring you back to what are you feeling, what are you sensing within the body and and just having that release where you can just go and just really relax.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. I love the example that you gave with the horses because I feel that with kids they’re so energetically attuned. So like they’re mirroring how especially younger, I think once they hit teenagers, they’re they’re in their own world. But like I can still see it with my younger son, how attuned he is to my energy. And it’s such a beautiful like quick, sometimes not beautiful, but a reflection. And so I can imagine with the horses,

Azra: Okay, thank you.

Kelly: Like that’s such a beautiful like real time reflection of how your energy is and how energy works in general.

Azra: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And and that’s why equine therapy is such a a beautiful option for for people as well who are struggling with any trauma or or any sort of balance issues as well, that they can go along and get some equine therapy because the horses will really reflect your energy and and communicate to you that you know what you need to be focusing on and coming back to yourself.

Kelly: Yeah, amazing. And I suppose we should mention with the biohacking world, I mean there is tons of devices in this regard. I’ve tried a few myself. I I’ve got two that I use regularly, but I’m keen to hear from you. Like do you is there any like devices or things that you find useful?

Azra: Yeah, look, sauna is probably my number one go-to. I love a good sauna and I have a sauna here on the farm and I do a sauna probably three to four times a week and there’s some really good research behind the benefits of sauna for longevity for brain health as well, for improving dementia. There’s some really new research that’s come out around how this how sores can benefit cognition as well. So that’s probably my number one. The other one that I really love is my PEM app map, my Pulse Electronic Magnetic Build Map. I use that every evening, so I’ll I’ll that really helps. I forgot to mention that actually as part of my wind-down routine in the evening, so I’ll I’ll be on that after I’ve popped up my blue blocker glasses and I’ll go and spend some time on the mat while I’m reading. and and that’s probably one of my other favourite pieces of technology that I like to use. Other ones that I’ve tried are like the pulsetto for vagus nerve activation as well. You don’t necessarily need to have a piece of equipment to activate the vagus nerve.

Kelly: Yes.

Azra: Nerve, you can do things like humming, singing, or tapping as well to be able to do that. but and then other I don’t have them at home, but I’m a big advocate of hyperbaric oxygen therapy as well. I’ve done cry therapy before, I’ve done the HoCat as well. So look, there’s lots of different technologies out there, it just depends on where your budget is. but again, I come back to that. The foundations often get you, you know, more. than halfway there in terms of improving your health and wellness and your longevity.

Kelly: Yeah, totally. And with the pimp mat, what type? Which one do you use?

Azra: I use the best self one, so it’s B E S T C E L L F mat. Highly recommend them. They’re amazing. It’s a lovely young couple that owns it on the Gold Coast here where I live. And yeah, I think they’re they’re amazing, amazing mats.

Kelly: Yeah, cool. Awesome. Okay, let’s finish with beauty. So yeah, just keen to look at how we can look as glowing and useful as possible for as y as long as possible. That doesn’t mean trying to look like we’re still 20, but I think you’re a beautiful example of this. If anyone’s watching, because this is on YouTube and you’re absolutely glowing and stunning. So what do you find are some of your main kind of hacks?

Azra: For me, it all starts in the gut, it all starts from the inside out because yes, there’s lots of things that we can put on our skin that’s that’s topical, but the key things for me are getting good sleep because you don’t want to wake up with that haggard look. And trust me, I’ve been there, I have had mornings like that. and it’s amazing how tired you can look if you haven’t had a good night’s sleep. So I find that having a bad night’s sleep definitely can impact how your skin looks the next morning. But from a nutrition.

Kelly: Mm-hmm.

Azra: perspective making sure that you have a healthy gut is absolutely critical to having good glowing skin. That’s something that I’ve worked on extensively because I have had gut health issues some years ago. I was diagnosed with leaky gut syndrome.

Kelly: Same.

Azra: And that has a whole heap of other side health impacts as well, where it impacts your joint health, it may cause me severe to have severe migraines on a regular basis. So it has a whole big flow on impact if you if you have poor gut health. There are a variety of reasons that contributed to my gut health, and I won’t go into those in in too much detail now, but I think when we’re focusing on gut health, we make need to be making sure that we’re looking at trying to eat organic whole foods as much where possible. possible that we are eating a variety of plant food in particular as well. So you know eat the rainbow as they say. You should be looking at you know at least 20 to you know 30 different plant type foods a week to eat. Making sure that if you’re eating animal protein, that it’s good quality grass finished protein, getting lots of legumes, eating healthy fats like salmon, olive oil, some nuts and legumes as I said They’re kind of the key things that I really focus on in terms of my nutrition and also fermented foods as well. So really looking at making sure that I’m balancing the good and the bad bacteria in my gut so it’s nice and healthy. We need the bad bacteria just as much as we need the good bacteria. And then it just balances the gut out and you have a nice flat tummy and you’re you know having regular bowel movements as well, which is making sure that the gut is flowing like a river.

Kelly: Yeah.

Azra: which is one what one gastroenterologist told me that that I interviewed in my podcast. So we’re wanting it to make sure that that it is like a rainforest and it’s flowing like a river and that we’ve got that really good balance between the good and the and the bad bacteria within the gut. So definitely starting you know with with nutrition. I think secondly if we’re looking at something that is topical, one of the things that I’ve recently implemented implemented in a past probably just over a year now is beef tellow.

Kelly: Interesting. Hmm.

Azra: And I’m my gosh, I absolutely love it. I really, really love it. I use it morning and night. I’ve found it’s made a big difference in terms of improving the way my skin looks. You don’t necessarily always need to go for those really expensive, you know, hundreds of dollars, you know, skincare ranges. so there’s you know different options there, but I find that beef tallow is you know really suitable for lower budgets, but it it does make a significant difference. I’ve noticed a big difference in my skin. Having sunscreen as well, but preferably non-toxic sunscreen as well, so that you’re you’re managing your your exposure to the sun and avoiding any sort of damage to the skin. but then also looking at red light therapy as well. I find that that’s really been beneficial for my skin too. so that’ll probably be at the higher end of the budget that I would recommend getting a red light mask. some red light therapy. I have a panel here in the studio that I use every morning as well. Or you can get like a mask, a red light therapy mask as well. It really helps to improve skin conditions and improving with fine lines as well and skin clarity as well.

Kelly: Which type do you use? And you use the pa the panel?

Azra: Bonchar. Yeah, I’ve got the I’ve got the Boncharge devices that are the ones that I use. Yeah.

Kelly: Yeah, nice. Awesome. And is there any there’s so many different like, you know, different treatments out there. Are there any that you find that you think are actually worth investment?

Azra: Hmm. I’ve done the PRP, or they call the vampire facial. Yeah. I’ve done that several times. I really like that because it’s using your own plasma and they essentially take take blood out of you, a small sample of blood out of you, put it in a machine, spin it, they get the what they call the I call the gold on the top, and then they they microneedle that back into your face and you and you end up looking like your face is bleeding. It sounds really horrible, but it’s the things

Kelly: Yeah. A vampire, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. All of these things so terrible, yeah.

Azra: Do but it really helps to stimulate collagen as well and regeneration. I think that that’s really great. obviously, collagen as well. I think taking a collagen supplement is is really important as an oral supplement. I think that you can’t underestimate how that can really significantly improve your skin quality as well.

Kelly: And there’s all the peptide have you gone down the peptide route yet or are

Azra: Yes, yes, I have. I I’m currently trialling some peptides as we speak actually. So I’m on GHKCU, which is the copper peptide that some research has shown and this is you know obviously we need to be careful with our peptides. They’re not TGA approved here in Australia and but you can get certain peptides through functional medical practitioners and get them prescribed. So GHKCU is has been shown to really benefit skin quality and improve Collagen production as well. So I’m trialing that at the moment. It’s it’s early dates, yeah. So the jury’s out. No, no, I don’t use it topically. I I inject it subcutaneously into my body, so it’s an injection. I think I don’t believe that the oral peptides are superior to the injectables. I feel that the stomach acid, well, there’s research to show this, it’s not that I feel it, it’s the fact that the stomach acid breaks down before it even has.

Kelly: Morally or topically? ‘Cause I use it topically. Hmm. Gotcha. Yeah. Mm. Mm.

Azra: you know the body has a chance to absorb it. so there’s that and then you’ve also got BPC157 is is another injectable peptide that I’m trialing at the moment as well. But sure there’s peptides that you can take topically as well but I think that they have they have limited you know benefit in terms of of what they can achieve. But I will

Kelly: Yeah.

Azra: be interested to see how it compares with the injectable peptides that I’m currently on compared to the the ones that you just put on top of the

Kelly: Yeah. And actually while we’re on that before, I remember a post of yours on Instagram in regards to the IV. I’ve also tried I V. What do you find most like what do you find or feel or notice in your data the biggest cha like difference in regards to that?

Azra: Yeah. I’ve often will have an NAD IV drip, so I’ll probably do those twice a year. And so our NAD depends depends. Depends how you do it. If you’re crazy like me and and and get it infused into your body really quickly, like within an hour, and then it can make you nauseous and make you throw up. Ideally don’t want that. I was time poor one particular day and I no, let’s go sit to the nose, let’s just go for it. but you

Kelly: Are theirs painful? I’ve heard they’re very painful.

Azra: typically would allow a couple of hours, two to three hours for for that IV to work through your body. So I will probably do NAD twice a year and then I will often go and do, depending particularly around when I’m traveling, if I’m about to go overseas or if just after I’ll come back. I will do a bit of a concoction that’s really focused on my immunity system and gut repair as well. So that again, for me, health starts from the inside out, not necessarily from the outside in.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve I’ve heard a lot about the NAD and have thought about it, but I’m like, god, do I really want to make myself that sick?

Azra: Well you don’t this is the thing, if you start to feel nauseous, the nurse will just slow down the rate of dosage and she’ll slow it right down and then it will make your tummy a little bit upset as as as it’s as the drip’s going through, but she can slow it down so that it doesn’t impact you as much. Those that have had gut health issues like myself tend to be impacted by more than those that haven’t had gut health issues. So if you haven’t had gut health issues, then you know.

Kelly: Right.

Azra: Maybe the everyone. Okay. Okay. All right.

Kelly: That’s not me, I have. I live too long in developing countries to yeah, I definitely did not escape from that.

Azra: Right.

Kelly: Wow, we’ve covered so much. This is amazing. I had other questions, but I’m aware of time. So maybe we should try to bring it all together as I try to do every episode with if there was like one habit that you and I almost I’m certain I know what you’re gonna say, but one habit that you could leave people with, or if you like, you could say, you know, try start here and if you’re already doing that, then you know, move on to B kind of thing. What would that be that would cover all of those areas?

Azra: Definitely sleep. No. I knew you knew I was gonna say that. It’s it’s you can’t underestimate its importance in in for overall health. It it probably it’s the most cost free is the it’s the only cost free biohack that I think that has the biggest bang.

Kelly: I knew you were gonna say that.

Azra: compared to any of the other biohacks that you do. So it can you know improve cognition, it can improve your skin, it can improve your your gut health. It it has so many benefits having a good night’s sleep. And anything else that you’re going to do on top of that, if you’re not getting a good night’s sleep, it’s not going to work. So get that. Get your foundations get get those right first. And then strength training would be my next one for for women in particular. Really focus on that strength training and building and maintaining your muscle because that again will also help you age better as well and support you as you get older.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, and it’s funny how those two they affect all four areas that we’ve discussed today, plus many o others.

Azra: Yeah, a hundred percent. And this is the beauty of biohacking. You can do one biohack, but it will it will support you across all four of those pillars in in brain body beauty balance. And and and that’s you know something that I think is is gold that you know we don’t necessarily have to have a whole heap of you know different types of biohacks all the time where there’s some foundational biohacks that really can provide a support across many of those pillars of health.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, and I I like your approach. I mean it’s the whole name of this podcast is making it simple. And I think you do a really great job of that. So thank you so much. let’s let’s let everyone know how they can hear about you. You’ve got some amazing retreats. I wanna come one day. I you’re going to run one in Sydney, I thought. Did I not Sydney, in Australia I saw somewhere. Maybe I made that up. I don’t know. Tell me about it.

Azra: Yes, that’s right. Yes, we’ve got our Live Well Longer retreats and so we’ve held two in Bali and and our first one won the the destination deluxe award for best group retreat. So that happened a couple of years ago. We just came back from Bali with our second retreat in Bali, but we are going to be announcing shortly that well we’ve announced already that we’re going to be bringing our Live Well Longer retreat to Australia now for the first time. it will also be open. To men and women for the first time, where previously we’ve only had it open to women. We’ve had so many men approach us and say, Hey, what about us? Why can’t we come? So we’re like, Okay, yeah, that’s right. so that will be the location for that Live What Longer retreat will be announced shortly. So you can go to any of my socials, so via hack underscore official on on Instagram, or you can go to my my website as well, so via hack hyphenher.com. and

Kelly: We wanna live longer as well.

Azra: I’m also on Facebook as well and then I’ve got my Buy Hack Hit podcast that people can can listen to on your podcast favorite podcast platform and on YouTube so there’s a different number of different ways that you can reach out to me and and and follow along.

Kelly: Beautiful. Well thank you again. I’m so happy we got to do this. Maybe we could have a follow-up at some stage. So but yeah, I really, really appreciate your time and thank you.

Azra: Thanks so much, Kelly. And I just would like to also let everybody know that I’ve also got a book coming out as well. So we’re going to do the book cover reveal in the next couple of weeks. So that book is called Buy Hack Her Live Well Longer. it focuses on longevity for women and I’m hoping that there will be lots of ladies out there who will be able to really learn something from it and learn how to proactively manage their health and get some

Kelly: Yay.

Azra: great long-term benefits to ensure that they are living like absolute divas for the rest of their life and doing what they absolutely love to do. Thanks, Kelly.

Kelly: Love it. Let’s all live like divas. Yay. That’s very exciting. Thank you again.