What’s Working, What’s Not

Andrew Dewar [00:00:00]:

Today's episode is a little bit different than our past ones. We are celebrating 30 episodes, and we wanted to share with you guys what is working for us right now and what's not. When it comes to personal growth, personal development, there's often a lot of trial and error. So it's always good to share with you what we're doing, what we're thinking of doing, and what's worked and what's not. Welcome to the five year you podcast, a show dedicated to helping you become the best version of yourself one day at a time. I'm Andrew.

Catherine Collins [00:00:32]:

And I'm Cat. And we promise to keep it raw, real, and relatable.

Andrew Dewar [00:00:37]:

Are you ready to grow? Cat, how are you feeling about this episode?

Catherine Collins [00:00:41]:

I like it. I like doing something a little bit different. When we record episodes, they're evergreen, meaning most people can pick it up and listen to them any time of year. But we are recording this midway through the year, so I think it's good to do a mid year check in as well.

Andrew Dewar [00:00:56]:

Yeah. And I think with stuff like this, if somebody can always come in and listen and go, oh, okay, well, they're trying this then. And maybe a year from now, when we come back to this or we do another one at the end of the year, we can just kind of share what things are kind of getting picked up and dropped. So I like this idea of having a bit of a series with this over the years as we continue on. When I ask you what's working for you this year so far, what kind of pops to mind?

Catherine Collins [00:01:23]:

I mean, I think that this year, just like the last few years for me, has been full of a lot of changes. And I think the most positive change that I can say, I guess there's two things at the midpoint of the year. The first positive change is in my health, and the second positive change is in my finances. I made a lot of big decisions financially, moved to Chicago, took my kids out of private school. I did a lot of different things that I never thought I would for more reasons than just money. But all of the decisions that I've made have allowed me to pay down a lot of debt so far this year. And I'm on track to reach the goals that I want at the end of this year, provided it all keeps going well. And then, health wise, I mean, we're always trying to improve our health, but I have three different autoimmune diseases.

Catherine Collins [00:02:23]:

And last year, when the third one got tacked on, I was really devastated. Like, I just. I've always been active. I danced my whole life for 20 years. And just the thought of having any type of health issue, like, was sort of shocking to me, but explained a lot. And so I've been doing a really good job taking my vitamins, minerals. You and I have both drastically changed how we eat, and I've noticed a lot of positive changes in my energy levels. My major disappointment, honestly, is that I didn't do this ten years ago, five years ago.

Catherine Collins [00:03:01]:

I always just thought I was a low energy person and never understood why everyone else had so much more energy than me. And now I'm starting to feel a lot better, and it's been life changing. What about you?

Andrew Dewar [00:03:13]:

Well, first of all, that's awesome. I think that's with any good discovery, we're always like, man, why didn't I discover this so long ago? But the things that are working for me are. I started looking into biohacking. I don't even know how I stumbled onto it. I think, you know, just the Internet gods just showed that in my feed one day. And one of the things that we discovered was like, you know, having the right vitamins and minerals in our bodies kind of helps give us better fuel. So I looked into that a lot, and, you know, and I shared that with you. And those basic things, like, I think it's vitamin Dake and minerals, like a yemenite, broad assortment of minerals, were really the things that were working for me.

Andrew Dewar [00:03:53]:

And it's like any kind of car, right? If you put better fuel in, you have better performance. If you have kind of lesser fuel, it's not as great for the car. And that is about all I know about cars, too, ladies and gentlemen. So that's where it goes. So what wasn't working for me at the start of the year was my medication, as we talked about in an earlier episode. And one of the things that is working for me, and I've. I haven't been perfect with it. And that's how I know it's working for me, is the avoiding inflammatory foods and kind of going on more of an anti inflammatory diet, so to speak.

Andrew Dewar [00:04:31]:

I don't want to use the word diet because I don't know that has just negative connotations.

Catherine Collins [00:04:34]:

But we've tested a new food lifestyle.

Andrew Dewar [00:04:38]:

For the most part, and it's been very, very beneficial to the point where we know the things that aren't good for us. And when we have them, there are effects that can happen within, like, half an hour, depending on the type of food, to, like, days afterwards, where we're like, this is awful. Like, why did we have this thing? But it's, you're human and you have the cravings and stuff. So it's part of it is just kind of knowing how to handle yourself through those things. So when it comes to health, there's a lot of things I didn't do, but I'll focus on the things I have done and I'm trying to move more every day. I've bought a whole bunch of different things and just trying to make more sense out of how do I get more in my day while at the same time making more time to slow down, which we'll get to in a minute. But the biggest things are making sure the body that I have is at an optimal state. And when it's not, I've noticed that everything else falls apart.

Andrew Dewar [00:05:38]:

You know, the relationships are harder, friendships, parenting, all these things get harder when you feel. Feel like you have to basically lug yourself around.

Catherine Collins [00:05:49]:

Yeah.

Andrew Dewar [00:05:49]:

On a day to day basis.

Catherine Collins [00:05:50]:

So true.

Andrew Dewar [00:05:52]:

It sounds so funny to say, but once you get that out there and you're like, wow, when I have energy to do things, I feel better. And the people around me are better because I'm not like resenting the things that I have to do. So that's been a big one.

Catherine Collins [00:06:07]:

Yeah, I think that's great. I think by and large, like all of us, all of us grown ups around here, we know what we're supposed to do. All of us know we're supposed to move our bodies and eat well and sleep well. We just don't. The thing that we're learning, and we are, as always, we throw out disclaimers like, we are not experts in this stuff. We are just sharing what we're doing in real time. But one of the things that we learn from reading and researching different articles is that in the past, the food that you eat would have the proper vitamins and minerals that you would need to sustain your body for a variety of reasons. The food that we have today, food production is very different.

Catherine Collins [00:06:50]:

Don't have as many of the minerals that they're supposed to have. And so we have been adding those in and it's made such a big difference. Was it a biohacking book that talked about the vitamins and minerals?

Andrew Dewar [00:07:05]:

Yeah. So that was there was like smarter, not harder, was one of them. And I just got through fast this way. Another good one was plant parasite paradox. I knew nothing about my body. So, like gut microbiome and all these things and all these fancy words that, you know, are really good in Scrabble, but not much else in my conversations. I gave myself permission to be a learner again, which is always a key thing. And so plant paradox kind of got me to get rid of a lot of foods or at least identify the ones that were bad for me.

Andrew Dewar [00:07:40]:

Even doing the 23 andme where I saw, okay, all my genetics are from Europe. Certain foods from this continent aren't great for me because my body hasn't got used to them yet. And we're not talking, like, in my lifetime, I probably will not get used to them in the way that people who are from this continent originally in an ancestry type of way. But the vitamins was really, really key. Like, even taking, I think our first little foray into it was like, having calm, you know, like the magnesium.

Catherine Collins [00:08:09]:

Yeah.

Andrew Dewar [00:08:10]:

Before bed sleep. Yeah. And that just helped relax us. And, you know, if you are feeling really tense and stressed out, you might have a magnesium deficiency. Of course, go talk to your doctor and all the. All the disclaimers, but read all the things.

Catherine Collins [00:08:24]:

Yeah, but we're just trying different things, and we're noticing what's working for us.

Andrew Dewar [00:08:29]:

Yeah. So that was a big, big one because I think that was the one that happened where I'm like, wow, I had a good night's sleep, and now I feel better, and I'm interacting in a more pleasant way with everyone around me and more importantly, with my own mental self. And then you start to go, okay, well, what else could help? Not what's missing, because I like to think that, you know, you're okay as you are, but, you know, if there's things that are boosting you, you want to look into them. So I've really gone into proper food supplements, timing of things, and I'm giving myself permission right now. I haven't even talked about this with you at all, but I have started to look at, like, the dosages, and, you know, it'll say, take three capsules once a day. I'm looking at it going, okay, well, let's just try one capsule and see how that goes. Because when you start taking a whole bunch of things, you. You want to make sure you know which ones are working and which ones aren't.

Catherine Collins [00:09:21]:

That does make sense. And honestly, I feel better now physically than I have in a long time. Before I had my autoimmune diagnoses, I, you know, would lie in bed at night and have this, like, searing hip pain. And I remember, like, finally going to a doctor about it and had x rays on my hips and all this stuff. And of course, it's like, you know, not much is wrong, but it's like all these things that I could have done, all these invasive things to figure out what was wrong. Now I know exactly what makes my hips start searing in pain. I know exactly what food does it for me, and I've gone, like, months and months without pain. And it's just wild to me that it's like, we know this, but it's becoming more and more apparent how much our food is really.

Catherine Collins [00:10:14]:

It's everything. It's our mood. It's our mental health. It's our energy levels. It's everything. I'm waiting for both of us to just, like, finally accept it some more. You know? It's like, we know it. We're doing so much better than we ever have, but we do like our little treats sometimes.

Andrew Dewar [00:10:31]:

Yeah, it's really hard to stop cookies and stuff like that. But again, if you look at it like it's a challenge that you want to rise to the occasion of, okay, I just need to find a quote unquote healthy treat. It gets a little easier. I think it's when you feel forced to do it, it's. It's a lot more of a challenge. You know, we're both kind of type a, go getter type people, and so when somebody tells you you have to do this thing to be better, you grit your teeth a little bit and you kind of go, well, I'll show you. I'll find a different way. But this food thing is starting to be that, okay, maybe I need to just kind of give in to certain things.

Catherine Collins [00:11:06]:

And for the record, that makes this type of conversation really hard, because the predominant thoughts in my mind are everything I could have done better. It's like a mid year check in. I'm like, well, I could have done that better, and I could have, like, been this on the scale, or, you know, I could have paid off a little bit more debt, or maybe I could have promoted our podcast a little bit more. And so I am, like, actively fighting that part of my brain that's telling me that I'm naughty enough. In this conversation, I'm trying to say, no, I've done a good job. You know, I have done some things better.

Andrew Dewar [00:11:41]:

You know, it might help for each of us to kind of acknowledge what the other person has done better, because I know that voice in your head, because I know it because it's in my head, too. I think we all have that, and that's why we're talking. What's working what's not, not what I didn't do that I should have done. So I think you have done an amazing job this year. You've moved states. When I think about what's working and what's not, I've been trying to stretch out my timeline beyond even the five years and kind of thinking of things like, okay, so I'm going to say I have. I'm going to say I have 100 more years on this planet. Let's just use that nice round number.

Andrew Dewar [00:12:19]:

If I can make these little changes today, just a little change, like maybe taking my vitamins every day is that thing that gives me more energy and that more energy gives me an extra, let's just say, half hour of productivity every day. That's a lot over the next five years, but it's an incredible amount over the next hundred years, or even 1020, whatever timeframe you want to have. So what you've been doing has this monumental impact on your life, with your diet, with finances, with your energy. Yeah, it feels like, yeah, you could have done more. We all could have, but that's not what it's about. And the biggest thing I'm trying to work on in my mind right now is to get the drill sergeant, which is the guy that has been pushing me my whole life, to be the best person ever to become who I am to everybody else, which is like, you're doing so good. And that is my goal for the rest of the year, is to just be kinder to myself and see if that actually helps me move forward faster. And if it doesn't move forward faster, I'm hoping that if nothing else, it's the same speed and it just feels better.

Andrew Dewar [00:13:28]:

And I think that's a big thing because I find, like, the anxiety, I mean, anxiety comes from within. Right. And when you can acknowledge that, you know what, you're just putting these unreal expectations on yourself. Let's just celebrate what you did and see if that makes you feel any better. Maybe when you feel better, you want to do more. Much like when you took the vitamins and got the good sleep and ate the good foods, you felt like doing more versus the other stuff. So I think you've done a lot this year, just for the record.

Catherine Collins [00:13:58]:

Thank you. And same for you, of course. I mean, it's been a huge year of transition, and I've been with you as you have, especially in, during the time period that you were slowly weaning off antidepressants, you know, getting used to and getting your body kind of back used to creating its own, you know, good vibes again on its own. And that was a really difficult transition for you. I was worried about you quite a bit, but you came through it. And that's the thing about you, Andrew, is you are always trying to improve. You never, like, sit back on your laurels and, like, I know we're supposed to be practicing that more, but it is a cool thing about you is that if something's not working, if your sleep is not great, if, you know, you want to learn something more, you always do.

Andrew Dewar [00:14:49]:

I'm a doer.

Catherine Collins [00:14:50]:

That's right. I do love that about you. And I think would be helpful for our listeners. Like, we're just sort of this sort of chit chat episode. But I will tell you that one of the New Year's traditions that Andrew and I do is, you know, we have taken, like, a long walk, and we try to go through each month and, like, think about something that we did or got accomplished or that we're proud of. And, like, for us, it was like, oh, we went to this place or, you know, went to this conference, like, and then you can really see, like, how much you've done in a year. But at this midway point, it's also a good idea to do that just in case you want to get to the end of the year and start feeling, you know, really good about everything that's happened this year. And even if this year was, like, your year of rest, the time that the year that you finally, you know, stopped running at such a hairy pace and when you finally started to just, like, you know, knit again or whatever it is that you like to do, that's a win, too.

Catherine Collins [00:15:47]:

Like, you get to define for yourself what your wins are, and you get to decide for yourself, like, what feels good for you, what makes you proud of you. And that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the year. So, with that said, andrew, I was just curious, the last half of the year here, what's, like, the big thing that you hope to say when we do our yemenite or sort of New Year's check in? What are you hoping in this last half that you can be like, oh, I did this in August and September.

Andrew Dewar [00:16:16]:

I almost resist putting this out there because that means I know I got to do it. So here we go. I want to get going on my creation as far as, like, social writing. I'm submitting that book proposal again today. As you know, I'm going to start just adopting the lifestyle of being a writer, and I've really hesitated on it the first half of the year, largely because of, I know when we did the episode of coming off the antidepressants, I was pretty much off them and I was going on the highs and lows and stuff, but there's a readjusting period that took a lot longer than I thought. It took about three months, I think, for me to be like, okay, I think I'm good now, you know, and then something would happen and the storm had to settle emotionally. And I'm grateful it did. So now, kind of going into the last half of the year, I'm looking at things going, okay.

Andrew Dewar [00:17:07]:

I know I'm here to help everybody. I want to start doing more on the site as far as writing and sharing more ideas. Things that I'm playing with that are working, aren't working right now. I'm. I spent a lot of the beginning of the year as, you know, focused on getting good sleep. And so I'm just kind of talking about that on Instagram and on our channels and stuff because I'm really trying to drive forward to people that it doesn't have to be these huge things. And doing one little thing every month is still twelve things that you didn't do at the beginning of the year. So my big thing is I want to get to the end of the year and go, wow, look, you are living the writer's life that you wanted to live when you were 1314 years old and finally are doing that.

Andrew Dewar [00:17:50]:

And I'd like to see our kind of coaching, our program get out there. And I think that's all kind of tied up into what we're doing. How about you, Catherine?

Catherine Collins [00:17:58]:

The number one thing that I think about, and I think it will make the biggest impact on my life, is I really want to get to the end of the year and look back and say I have paid off all of my high interest debt because not only does it bother me on a daily basis just managing it and thinking about it and working towards it, but it also creates a lot of, like, self loathing in me and, like, feelings of being like, an imposter. Because my day job is as a financial writer and I have published a personal finance book. And this high interest debt is a result of going through a divorce two years ago. But it's been two years and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm making some really good progress on it. And I just think mentally for myself, I would just feel like so much better about me. And if I could start the new year, you know, without it, I will feel like I can then start to really reach some of my other goals that I want to do and like do more fun things and travel and things like that. But right now most of the decisions I make every day are thinking about dealing with that. We have collectively lost quite a bit of weight.

Catherine Collins [00:19:19]:

I think collectively we've probably lost about 50 pounds this year or maybe in the last twelve months or so.

Andrew Dewar [00:19:25]:

To be fair, every time I find it after Chick fil A, but go on.

Catherine Collins [00:19:31]:

You know, we've done a great job. Not that the number on the scale is a big thing, but like, I want to keep making progress, keeping my energy up. I don't want to quit any of the good habits that you and I have developed that have been working really well. But I will say that is like the biggest thing that occupies my mind as far as self improvement, trying to get to the five year version of myself and all of that.

Andrew Dewar [00:19:55]:

Cool, I like that. Let me know how I can support you with all that stuff because that's what we're all about is having a good community where we can support each other and do.

Catherine Collins [00:20:03]:

I am taking coffee donations, but other than that.

Andrew Dewar [00:20:06]:

All right, sounds good. Sounds good. A couple of rapid fire things that have been working for me and what I've noticed working for you are consistency. We talk about streaks like, I know you started Duolingo. That's really awesome. I stopped my meditation streak probably when I really shouldn't have, but that's just me being mean to me. But I was. I was at like 1200 days or something like that.

Andrew Dewar [00:20:32]:

I was just doing different energy trainings and stuff. So I was doing a lot of energy work and I just didn't do the meditation part. And I noticed that not having it has impacted me. So I think I need to be consistent. Yeah, I got to get good at streaking in a non nude sense, of.

Catherine Collins [00:20:49]:

Course, but you were all thinking it.

Andrew Dewar [00:20:53]:

I really do find that, you know, you got to know yourself and some people can go Monday to Friday and then pick up. I can do that with certain things, but I feel like, you know, if I'm enjoying it, why wouldn't I want to do it a little bit every day? So that's been one of my big insights for myself and what I'm kind of noticing for you, too. You've set that for a few things and you're like, I got to do this. And if you don't have that streak, you don't do it at the end of the day, when you're going to bed, you won't learn that extra french word or spanish word on Duolingo because you don't have the streak that's keeping it going.

Catherine Collins [00:21:27]:

Yeah, I think streaks are a major, major motivating thing. And I used to think it was just a you thing, like just sort of how your math brain works, but now I'm realizing it's actually really good for me, too. So that can work for anything. And you, you know, different apps have streaks. You can keep track, but you can also just print out a calendar and put an x on it and just keep connecting all the x's on each day, whatever it is, taking your walk, doing yoga, you know, reading ten pages of a book, whatever it is, and just try not to break those. Connecting X's and it's. You really don't, especially if you have a visual reminder, you really don't want to mess it up.

Andrew Dewar [00:22:05]:

Yeah, exactly. I think it was Jerry Seinfeld that said, like, that's what he attributes to his success. He used to print out like a month's worth of calendars on the wall and he put an x next to every day and he had to write a joke every day and he said, like, you know, he was writing for the trash basket. But it's just that proliferation and effort and consistency that is going to bring your success. So it doesn't have to be huge, too. It's not like he said, I have to write the world's greatest joke every day. He's like, I had to write a joke and it could have been good or bad, and it's just getting your brain into that tuning of it. I think that's a really good thing.

Andrew Dewar [00:22:40]:

I'm very happy you're streaking with me and I couldn't leave it. I really couldn't.

Catherine Collins [00:22:48]:

You couldn't anyway.

Andrew Dewar [00:22:49]:

No, I probably could have, but I wouldn't be me. I wouldn't be true to me without making a bad dad joke. So for me, if I was to attribute the things that I really am happy with, this first half of the year were all energy based things. Good sleep, good food, good vitamins, good activity. You know, I'm trying to get movement into my daily routine as much as possible. I kind of feel like once you take care of the body, the other stuff's going to be easier because you have the energy to do all the other things. It took a lot of trial and error, but I feel like I'm at a better spot with that. I feel like you are too.

Andrew Dewar [00:23:25]:

Definitely from the start of the year, for sure.

Catherine Collins [00:23:27]:

I think back to, you know, how I felt, of course, like, when my twins were born, my energy was like nothing. I think back to even five years ago, three years ago, and the way that I feel during the day is drastically different. And I'm so grateful for all the things that we've learned, and I'm glad I finally took the time to take care of myself. And so I guess my biggest message to anyone listening to this is it's definitely worth it to, you know, put your own oxygen mask on first. And if you have things that you've been putting off or things that you want to do, like feeling good about yourself and having energy throughout the day really does make all aspects of your life better, your relationships better, makes you more patient parent. It makes you less grumpy with your other half, all the different things. So if that's one thing that I could share, is, I hope that you, listening to this can hear that. All of these things are new changes for us.

Catherine Collins [00:24:28]:

They've been very gradual and incremental. We have not made any drastic decisions, but they've all contributed and worked together to help us make some progress in the first half of the year. And we still have some to go and things to work on, and I'm looking forward to that.

Andrew Dewar [00:24:43]:

Awesome. I really like that. So we always end with glimmers, but I feel like this episode is a little different. Do you have a glimmer you want to share, or.

Catherine Collins [00:24:51]:

I was thinking of a glimmery thing. And I agree this episode is slightly different, but I will say, and this is on the same vein of everything we talked about, that I have been talking to Andrew about getting a, like a mini trampoline, like a resistance trampoline. And you recently gifted it to me, and so I can't really report back on it. Cause I've only had it for a few days, but I can report back at the end of the year to let everyone listening know how I liked it. But so far, it's a really fun thing, and I'm really surprised at, like, how my legs and arms are burning in just, like, 60 seconds. I'm like, whoa. So that'll be sort of a new fun exercise thing. I'm trying to sort of start that streak habit.

Andrew Dewar [00:25:35]:

Good for you. I like that. I'm gonna go with the same thing. I bought myself a vibe platform, which is like the biohackers version of the trampoline. And I'm just kind of curious because what it does is it does a bunch of things, but the one I'm looking at, it vibrates at a certain frequency. And the idea is that when it's vibrating at 30, you do a push up. Your body thinks it's doing like 30 pushups. So I am trying this out, and it is a lot harder to do push ups and squats and different things on it.

Andrew Dewar [00:26:07]:

So I'm, I'm leaning into the biohacking stuff as a new thing, but I'm curious to see how it goes by the end of the year, too.

Catherine Collins [00:26:14]:

Awesome. Well, I think that's a good place to stop. And as always, like, we would love to hear how you're doing in your first half of the year. If there's anything that's worked for you or hasn't worked, you can email us anytime at hello. Iveyearyou.com.

Andrew Dewar [00:26:29]:

Thanks, everyone. We'll see you next time.

Catherine Collins [00:26:31]:

Bye.

Andrew Dewar [00:26:32]:

Hey, one last thing. Don't forget to go to fiveyouryou.com future to start getting those emails from your future self. It will change your life.

Catherine Collins [00:26:43]:

Hey guys, quick disclaimer, we're podcasters on the Internet. If you need to seek professional help, please go see your healthcare professional.