December 12, 2025 • 11 mins
There's a lot going on right now, and I'm catching you all up on what's happening with me and the stuff I've been navigating this week. Plus: Answering a listener question on how to get better quality sleep, and the difference between quality and quantity.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Expert Tips For a Better Night's Sleep
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@emilyabbate
@hurdlepodcast
@iheartwomenssports
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hey, everyone, Emily here, you're listening to five Minute Friday
on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
This week has been an emotional week for me.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I won't even front I did something on Wednesday that
I've been putting off for a very long time, and
that is that I went to Spring Fertility here in
New York to sum up my stance on where I'm
at with whether or not I want to freeze my eggs.
Until basically the last few months, I was pretty steadfast
(00:49):
on whatever is meant to happen in my life is
going to happen in my life.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I am in my late thirties.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Now, and I had made the decision for a number
of years that eggs reasoning wasn't in my future. And
when I was unpacking that with a friend, I kept
coming back to, aside from I believe what is meant
to happen in my life will happen, and I don't
want to necessarily mess with that, I kept talking about
(01:16):
the cost of it, and she looked at me and
she said, I know that the cost isn't the thing
that's going to hold you back from doing this. What's
really going on here? And the answer was it was fear.
It's a lot of fear of the unknown. It's fear
of this thought confronting that I'm at this place now
that I never expected to be in my life, and
(01:37):
that's a difficult thing to do. I don't talk openly
about my personal life very often on here, and I
feel so content ninety nine percent of the time doing
things on my own.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I love being an independent person.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I feel very empowered with what I've been able to
do on my own, from my personal life to building
a business, and all of that is great. And I
find myself in this place a lot lately where I
just want to share these things with somebody else, and
so I know that going through this egg freezing process
(02:17):
is going to remind me of those feelings. It's going
to remind me that I'm doing this on my own
right now. To be clear, I'm not interested in having
a child on my own. I do know other women
that have made that decision, and I think that is
such a beautiful, beautiful choice. It's just not the choice
that I'm interested in making. And so I'm just feeling
(02:40):
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. The holidays also bring about
so many thoughts and feelings as well. I decided that
my best way to deal with all of these things
is twofold one. Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed, which is kind
of how I feel right now, I always make plans
with people that I know really care about me and
(03:02):
have my best interest in mind and like love me
and I love them, and so I have some of
those on the horizon which make me really excited. And
then I made the decision to get warm because that
was something that was in my wheelhouse. So I'm heading
down to Miami next weekend, which should be really lovely
(03:22):
to have some time. I'll be able to see a
couple of friends while I'm down there, get some sunshine,
hopefully come back with a little.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Bit of a tan.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
If me and the weather gods can be in kahoots
on that, I would really appreciate it. I think the
takeaway that I want to share from this is that oftentimes,
when we're going through experiences that feel very overwhelming, it
can be a mistake when you think I am alone
in this, and I know that I am not alone
(03:51):
in what it is that I'm going through. I know
that I'm not the only woman in her late thirties
who's like what's going on here?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What you go an I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I also know that it's really important to have the
tools in the toolbox, Like I mentioned, knowing that surrounding
myself with people that care about me is really important movement,
a massive tool for me.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I woke up this morning, sat down.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Journaled, like, got the thoughts out of my head, really
felt like I had a really great fresh start from
some of the things that were frustrating me yesterday. And
I recognize that every day I get the chance to
do that. Every second I get the chance to do that,
Every second is an opportunity to start fresh. I saw
something recently that really resonated with me, and it's framing
the day as if it was dollars. So, if you
(04:37):
have one thousand, four hundred and forty minutes in a
day and you have a bad two minutes, are you
going to let those two minutes ruin the other one thousand,
three hundred and thirty eight minutes. Are you going to
if you had one thousand, four hundred and forty dollars,
throw away one three hundred and thirty eight dollars because
(04:57):
you lost two dollars. No, you're not going to do
that you're going to do the best you can with
the remaining balance. And so when I have these days, weeks, hours,
minutes that feel heavy, I come back to this concept
that it doesn't need to make for a bad day.
A bad minute doesn't need to make for a bad day,
(05:19):
a frustrating week doesn't need to make for a bad year.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
But it's up to you.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
It's up to me to make the choice to do
the best that I can moving forward.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Heavy episode this week, a little vulnerable for me.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I again know that I'm not going through this on
my own, and so if you have experience, if you
want a yap, if you want to chat, always feel
free to shoot me and email over at Hello at
hurdle dot us or drop the Hurdle account a dm
over at Hurdle podcast. I'm really loving what's going on
in the Daily Hurdle channel. I hope that you're in there.
It's a subscriber channel over on at Hurdle podcast on
(05:56):
Instagram right now. In there, we're going back and forth
on a journaling channel that we are writing through one
prompt day for the rest of December, thinking of continuing
this to some sort of an extent in January. If
that's something that would excite you as a New Year's challenge,
shoot us a DM or tag hurdle in your story
and share five Minute Friday with your friends your followers.
(06:19):
No matter how big the following, the love is always appreciated.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And now a listener question.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Hey, Emily, love the show and your guests recently have
been fire.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
My current hurdle is consistency with sleep. I've heard you
and your guests talk about the importance of recovery for performance,
but I often struggle with getting high quality restorative sleep,
even when I do prioritize the time in bed. I
do things like avoiding screens before bed and keeping my
room cool. But for someone who is already active and
fairly disciplined with training and nutrition, what would you say
(06:57):
has made the best impact on your overall sleep and
how do you get better sleep quality over just quantity.
Thanks so much, Tricia, that was a really well formed question.
Hig Trisia sleep is I love sleep, and I've done
a lot of things to really impact the overall quality,
(07:19):
which is what you're asking about specifically. Just so we're clear,
there's a difference between getting a lot of sleep and
getting a lot of good sleep just because you're someone
that can get eight to ten hours of sleep, If
that sleep is all light sleep and you're waking up often,
that won't serve you as well as say, seven hours
(07:40):
of high quality sleep that has higher concentrations of both
deep and rem sleep. I do have some episodes on
sleep in the Hurdle catalog, and I'll link one of
those in the show notes in this episode. When we
talk about sleep quality, there are a few things that
are non negotiables for me. I am all about blackout curtains.
(08:01):
I'm all about sleeping in a consistently dark room, whether
I'm here at home or I'm traveling, and so sometimes
when I have the opportunity to pick my own accommodations,
I'm looking to see what's on the windows. I know
that can be silly, but it really makes a major difference,
especially if you are traveling across time zones, to do
(08:23):
the best you can with setting up your circadian rhythm
in a new place. The other thing that I'm really
big on is a cool room. I would say that
I'm not sleeping in a room that's warmer than sixty
five degrees, give or take, and I'm the kind of
person that I do love being cozy. I do love
(08:45):
being warm, but I do not like to be warm
to sleep. So I'm the kind of person that I
might not even turn my heat on some nights. I do, however,
have the eight sleep pod pro the mattress topper, and
that warms my actual bed. So I'll get into the
bed and the bed is warm and cozy, and then
the air around me is cooler, and that sets up
(09:06):
a really nice Goldilock situation for my sleep. So I
talked about the benefits of making your room dark. I
talk about the benefits of making your room cool. And
then you mentioned Tricia not looking at screens before bed.
That's a really helpful trick to get your body and
brain ready for the activity that's ahead, which is rest.
(09:30):
The last tip I will offer you is making it
a priority to get into bed at a time that
you feel like supports your schedule.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So I am a morning person. I talk about it
all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I'm naturally waking up between five fifteen and six am
most days, and that's because I make it a priority
to get into my bed and sleep before nine point
thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So I'm getting into my bed.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I've set up the environment the best way that I
know that I can, and I'm setting my self up
for success by making that success a priority. So, just
like anything when it comes to what's important to you,
if it's important, you need to make accommodations for it,
and sleep is no exception. One other thing I know
(10:15):
I mentioned quality versus quantity. You won't really know that
much about your sleep quality unless you're wearing some type
of wearable. I wear an aura ring constantly, but if
you have an Apple, watch, a garment, a chorus, a whoop.
So many different devices now can monitor the different sleep
stages that you're in throughout the night. So it could
(10:36):
be something to throw on your holiday wish list if
you are genuinely very serious about trying different approaches to
better the quality of your sleep. I'm going to link
some of my favorites, including the aura and the whoop
in the show notes as well. If that is of
interest for you, Make sure you're falling along over on
social It's a hurdle podcast. I'm over at Emily a
(10:58):
body another hurdle conquered.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Catch you guys next week.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Hm
Hey, everyone, Emily here, you're listening to five Minute Friday
on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
This week has been an emotional week for me.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I won't even front I did something on Wednesday that
I've been putting off for a very long time, and
that is that I went to Spring Fertility here in
New York to sum up my stance on where I'm
at with whether or not I want to freeze my eggs.
Until basically the last few months, I was pretty steadfast
(00:49):
on whatever is meant to happen in my life is
going to happen in my life.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I am in my late thirties.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Now, and I had made the decision for a number
of years that eggs reasoning wasn't in my future. And
when I was unpacking that with a friend, I kept
coming back to, aside from I believe what is meant
to happen in my life will happen, and I don't
want to necessarily mess with that, I kept talking about
(01:16):
the cost of it, and she looked at me and
she said, I know that the cost isn't the thing
that's going to hold you back from doing this. What's
really going on here? And the answer was it was fear.
It's a lot of fear of the unknown. It's fear
of this thought confronting that I'm at this place now
that I never expected to be in my life, and
(01:37):
that's a difficult thing to do. I don't talk openly
about my personal life very often on here, and I
feel so content ninety nine percent of the time doing
things on my own.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I love being an independent person.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I feel very empowered with what I've been able to
do on my own, from my personal life to building
a business, and all of that is great. And I
find myself in this place a lot lately where I
just want to share these things with somebody else, and
so I know that going through this egg freezing process
(02:17):
is going to remind me of those feelings. It's going
to remind me that I'm doing this on my own
right now. To be clear, I'm not interested in having
a child on my own. I do know other women
that have made that decision, and I think that is
such a beautiful, beautiful choice. It's just not the choice
that I'm interested in making. And so I'm just feeling
(02:40):
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. The holidays also bring about
so many thoughts and feelings as well. I decided that
my best way to deal with all of these things
is twofold one. Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed, which is kind
of how I feel right now, I always make plans
with people that I know really care about me and
(03:02):
have my best interest in mind and like love me
and I love them, and so I have some of
those on the horizon which make me really excited. And
then I made the decision to get warm because that
was something that was in my wheelhouse. So I'm heading
down to Miami next weekend, which should be really lovely
(03:22):
to have some time. I'll be able to see a
couple of friends while I'm down there, get some sunshine,
hopefully come back with a little.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Bit of a tan.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
If me and the weather gods can be in kahoots
on that, I would really appreciate it. I think the
takeaway that I want to share from this is that oftentimes,
when we're going through experiences that feel very overwhelming, it
can be a mistake when you think I am alone
in this, and I know that I am not alone
(03:51):
in what it is that I'm going through. I know
that I'm not the only woman in her late thirties
who's like what's going on here?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What you go an I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I also know that it's really important to have the
tools in the toolbox, Like I mentioned, knowing that surrounding
myself with people that care about me is really important movement,
a massive tool for me.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I woke up this morning, sat down.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Journaled, like, got the thoughts out of my head, really
felt like I had a really great fresh start from
some of the things that were frustrating me yesterday. And
I recognize that every day I get the chance to
do that. Every second I get the chance to do that,
Every second is an opportunity to start fresh. I saw
something recently that really resonated with me, and it's framing
the day as if it was dollars. So, if you
(04:37):
have one thousand, four hundred and forty minutes in a
day and you have a bad two minutes, are you
going to let those two minutes ruin the other one thousand,
three hundred and thirty eight minutes. Are you going to
if you had one thousand, four hundred and forty dollars,
throw away one three hundred and thirty eight dollars because
(04:57):
you lost two dollars. No, you're not going to do
that you're going to do the best you can with
the remaining balance. And so when I have these days, weeks, hours,
minutes that feel heavy, I come back to this concept
that it doesn't need to make for a bad day.
A bad minute doesn't need to make for a bad day,
(05:19):
a frustrating week doesn't need to make for a bad year.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
But it's up to you.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
It's up to me to make the choice to do
the best that I can moving forward.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Heavy episode this week, a little vulnerable for me.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I again know that I'm not going through this on
my own, and so if you have experience, if you
want a yap, if you want to chat, always feel
free to shoot me and email over at Hello at
hurdle dot us or drop the Hurdle account a dm
over at Hurdle podcast. I'm really loving what's going on
in the Daily Hurdle channel. I hope that you're in there.
It's a subscriber channel over on at Hurdle podcast on
(05:56):
Instagram right now. In there, we're going back and forth
on a journaling channel that we are writing through one
prompt day for the rest of December, thinking of continuing
this to some sort of an extent in January. If
that's something that would excite you as a New Year's challenge,
shoot us a DM or tag hurdle in your story
and share five Minute Friday with your friends your followers.
(06:19):
No matter how big the following, the love is always appreciated.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And now a listener question.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Hey, Emily, love the show and your guests recently have
been fire.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
My current hurdle is consistency with sleep. I've heard you
and your guests talk about the importance of recovery for performance,
but I often struggle with getting high quality restorative sleep,
even when I do prioritize the time in bed. I
do things like avoiding screens before bed and keeping my
room cool. But for someone who is already active and
fairly disciplined with training and nutrition, what would you say
(06:57):
has made the best impact on your overall sleep and
how do you get better sleep quality over just quantity.
Thanks so much, Tricia, that was a really well formed question.
Hig Trisia sleep is I love sleep, and I've done
a lot of things to really impact the overall quality,
(07:19):
which is what you're asking about specifically. Just so we're clear,
there's a difference between getting a lot of sleep and
getting a lot of good sleep just because you're someone
that can get eight to ten hours of sleep, If
that sleep is all light sleep and you're waking up often,
that won't serve you as well as say, seven hours
(07:40):
of high quality sleep that has higher concentrations of both
deep and rem sleep. I do have some episodes on
sleep in the Hurdle catalog, and I'll link one of
those in the show notes in this episode. When we
talk about sleep quality, there are a few things that
are non negotiables for me. I am all about blackout curtains.
(08:01):
I'm all about sleeping in a consistently dark room, whether
I'm here at home or I'm traveling, and so sometimes
when I have the opportunity to pick my own accommodations,
I'm looking to see what's on the windows. I know
that can be silly, but it really makes a major difference,
especially if you are traveling across time zones, to do
(08:23):
the best you can with setting up your circadian rhythm
in a new place. The other thing that I'm really
big on is a cool room. I would say that
I'm not sleeping in a room that's warmer than sixty
five degrees, give or take, and I'm the kind of
person that I do love being cozy. I do love
(08:45):
being warm, but I do not like to be warm
to sleep. So I'm the kind of person that I
might not even turn my heat on some nights. I do, however,
have the eight sleep pod pro the mattress topper, and
that warms my actual bed. So I'll get into the
bed and the bed is warm and cozy, and then
the air around me is cooler, and that sets up
(09:06):
a really nice Goldilock situation for my sleep. So I
talked about the benefits of making your room dark. I
talk about the benefits of making your room cool. And
then you mentioned Tricia not looking at screens before bed.
That's a really helpful trick to get your body and
brain ready for the activity that's ahead, which is rest.
(09:30):
The last tip I will offer you is making it
a priority to get into bed at a time that
you feel like supports your schedule.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So I am a morning person. I talk about it
all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I'm naturally waking up between five fifteen and six am
most days, and that's because I make it a priority
to get into my bed and sleep before nine point
thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So I'm getting into my bed.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I've set up the environment the best way that I
know that I can, and I'm setting my self up
for success by making that success a priority. So, just
like anything when it comes to what's important to you,
if it's important, you need to make accommodations for it,
and sleep is no exception. One other thing I know
(10:15):
I mentioned quality versus quantity. You won't really know that
much about your sleep quality unless you're wearing some type
of wearable. I wear an aura ring constantly, but if
you have an Apple, watch, a garment, a chorus, a whoop.
So many different devices now can monitor the different sleep
stages that you're in throughout the night. So it could
(10:36):
be something to throw on your holiday wish list if
you are genuinely very serious about trying different approaches to
better the quality of your sleep. I'm going to link
some of my favorites, including the aura and the whoop
in the show notes as well. If that is of
interest for you, Make sure you're falling along over on
social It's a hurdle podcast. I'm over at Emily a
(10:58):
body another hurdle conquered.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Catch you guys next week.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Hm
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