🧾 Recipe for Resilience

As a longtime ultraendurance athlete (and someone who occasionally juggles two books, a podcast, this newsletter…and a family), I think a lot about resilience.

Honestly, it’s the trait that’s paid off the most for me both physically and mentally. So I’ve been excited to see sports science showing increasing interest in resilience as a quality to develop and track.

Resilience is simply our ability to withstand stress and recover from challenges. Mentally, it means managing thoughts and emotions in a healthy way. Physically, it’s the ability to meet high demands and repair and rebuild afterward. Research consistently links higher resilience with better psychological well-being, faster injury recovery, and stronger athletic performance.

And as we head into midlife and through the menopause transition, the more resilient we are, the better.

The good news is it’s something we can all train. So this month, we’re devoting this space to a recipe for resilience.

The Resilience Formula

Prep Time: A lifetime of showing up
Active Time: 5 to 6 days/week
Serves: Strong, adaptable midlife women everywhere

💪 Physical Base (per week)

2 to 4 servings of strength training
(heavy/compound lifts: squat, hinge, push, pull; season with jumps, sprints, or hill strides)

4 to 5 servings of cardio
(mix low and high intensity to taste)

Why it works: Strength training builds resilience by making muscles, tendons, and bones stronger and more stress-tolerant and improving neuromuscular efficiency. It also boosts hormonal responsiveness and lowers stress reactivity. Cardio builds resilience by improving mitochondrial energy production, strengthening your stress-recovery system (HRV), keeping blood vessels flexible, and supporting brain function and emotional regulation.

🍽️ Nutrition Fuel

1.4–2.2 g/kg/day protein, spread across meals
Carbs matched to training load
A generous mix of healthy fats (omega-3s, olive oil, nuts, flax)
Daily hydration + electrolytes

Why it works: A well-fueled body adapts better to stress. Adequate protein supports muscle repair and stable energy. Carbs help you train hard and recover well while keeping cortisol in check. Healthy fats support hormone balance and reduce inflammation. Hydration and electrolytes keep your heart, brain, and thermoregulation systems running smoothly. Together, this builds steadier energy, mood, and performance.

🧘 Recovery Blend

7 to 9 hours of quality sleep nightly
At least one serving of rest days or active recovery (walks, yoga, mobility)
Optional: magnesium, tart cherry, your favorite adaptogens

Why it works: Sleep is one of the strongest resilience builders, restoring your nervous system, repairing tissue, stabilizing hormones, and improving emotional regulation. Rest days and gentle movement reduce accumulated stress and support better adaptation. Optional supports can further improve sleep and relaxation. Together, these practices strengthen your ability to rebound from both training and life stress.

🧠 Mental Mix

10 minutes of mindfulness or breathwork
A generous dose of self-compassion
Heaping servings of community and laughter

Why it works: Mindfulness and breathwork help your nervous system settle and recover more quickly. Self-compassion supports consistency and healthier stress responses. Community and laughter boost mood, lower cortisol, and reinforce belonging, one of the strongest predictors of psychological resilience. Together, these habits build a steadier, more adaptable mind.

Join me in Mallorca!

After an awesome trip to Girona last summer, we're excited to be heading to Mallorca!

We're partnering with our friends at The Cyclist's Menu to offer a cycling trip on the Baleric Islands in Spain from May 17-22. This women's-only adventure includes six days of riding and five nights of dining in Mallorca.

Want to come ride beautiful roads and eat good food with Kathryn and I?

Learn more here.

💊 The Supplement Cabinet

Someone asked about Pycnogenol a few weeks ago, which is a niche supplement that has not yet saturated the menopause-support space, despite Huberman mentioning it years ago in a very early menopause episode.

Judging by current research, Pycnogenol is worth a look—especially since many women still want or need nonhormonal options, even as hormone therapy takes center stage.

Pycnogenol is a patented extract from French maritime pine bark. Rich in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds, Pycnogenol appears to support vascular health, nitric oxide production, and microcirculation, all of which can decline as estrogen wanes. Several small randomized controlled trials have shown meaningful reductions in hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbances, and fatigue, along with improvements in mood and cognitive complaints.

Studies have used a range of doses. While some research has shown positive effects with lower doses (e.g., 30 mg twice daily), other studies have used around 200 mg daily and found broad symptom relief.

Overall, Pycnogenol is well tolerated, with few reported side effects aside from mild gastrointestinal upset. It may slightly lower blood pressure and affect platelet activity, so caution is advised if you’re using antihypertensives or anticoagulants.

🔥 Feisty Badass Athlete of the Week Goes To…

Forty+ women keep crushing records. This week we applaud Emily Hugo for setting a new 50-mile world record in the 40-44 age group with a time of 5:50:54 in the Tunnel Hill 50 mile. She overtook the previous American Record of 5:57:12 set by Allison Mercer two years ago at the same event.

We love to see it! Way to go, Emily! 🎉

👉Want a chance to be featured? Click here to share your badass story

👩🏻‍💻 Hit Play Research Round Up

We spend a lot of time scouring the latest research for news you can use to stay strong and feisty forever. Here’s what’s making waves this week:

🥤Ultraprocessed foods may increase risk of early colorectal tumor development. Women under 50 who ate the most ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) had 45% higher odds of developing early precancerous colorectal growths called conventional adenomas compared with those who ate the least, according to a long-term study including 29,105 nurses. The link held even after accounting for body weight, diabetes, fiber, vitamins, calcium, and overall diet quality. High consumption of sugary or artificially-sweetened drinks, as well as packaged sauces, spreads, and condiments, were particularly associated with the increased risk.

🪻A little self-satisfaction can improve mood and sleep during menopause. A survey of more than 1,100 women published in Menopause reports that about 1 in 5 women with any masturbation history said they’d noticed that self-pleasure improved their menopause symptoms overall. When the researchers drilled down into specific symptoms, they found about 46% of perimenopausal and 32% of postmenopausal women said masturbation helped at least one symptom, most notably mood, libido, and sleep. Sixty-six percent of perimenopausal women said they would masturbate more if they knew it could positively impact their symptoms and 57% said they would be open to trying masturbation for symptom relief if their health provider recommended it. We’ll say you don’t have to wait for a prescription! Give it a whirl!

🦴Hormone therapy may help your bones through your gut. A small study of recently postmenopausal women found that those using menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) had higher bone density and lower bone turnover markers (less bone breakdown) than non-users, and they also had a more diverse, healthier gut microbiome. Women on MHT showed more potentially beneficial bacteria (like Coprococcus, Eubacterium, Lachnospiraceae/Clostridia) and fewer potentially inflammatory ones like Escherichia–Shigella, and these microbes were linked to better estrogen and bone marker profiles. The authors conclude that MHT may help protect bone partly by shifting gut microbiota composition, even before measurable differences in bone mass appear.

What's On My Mind...

Confidence. We held our first Feisty 40+ Strong Retreat with Cassi Niemann in Albuquerque, New Mexico a couple of weeks ago. Going in, I expected that women would learn form and proper technique for heavy lifting. What I didn’t expect was the look in their eyes they all left with—the unmistakable steely stare of a woman who has just pushed some serious metal. If for no other reason, I think that’s why every single woman should learn to lift heavy shit.

Want to join us for the next one? Join the waitlist.

🎧 Listen to this week's episode of Hit Play Not Pause - Muscle, Hormones, & the Menopause Transition with Carla DiGirolamo, MD, PhD

Feisty 40+ is written by Selene Yeager. Edited by Maya Smith. Ads by Ella Hnatyshyn

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