Play and Rise Every Day with Janet Omstead | 010

Welcome back to another episode of Resilient AF with

Blair and Alana, but no Alana today. Just Blair and

Janet. Janet Olmstead, I've known her for

a few years, maybe longer than that. I think I met you before the

pandemic. I'm super excited to have her here today

because not only is she an author in resilient

AF, Stories of Resilience volume 2, but she's an absolutely inspiring, amazing human. So Janet

Olmstead is a board amazing human.

So Janet Olmstead is a board certified health coach, author of the

best selling book, The Playbook, How to Get in the

Habit of Good Health, and play expert with over 20 years of

experience in the health and wellness industry. She's on a mission. Her

mission is to reignite the world's passion for play as the solution to the

global inactivity crisis. And listen, if you're sitting

down in a car at a desk listening to this, you know. You

know. And so Janet believes that when we create the motivation

and desire for regular movement using play as the

catalyst for better health, regardless of age, we address our

body's inherent need to manage itself effectively and create an environment that promotes wellness, fun,

and joy. And so Janet believes that when we create the motivation and desire for

regular movement using play as the catalyst for better health, regardless of age, we address

our body's inherent need to manage itself effectively and create an environment that promotes wellness,

fun, and joy. And, you know, I talk about this, like, how you strengthen

your resilience muscle is by moving your body, you know. And so this is

something that, like, I speak this language. And so as such, using play

as an exercise opens up the door to physicality, emotional

emotionality, and psychologically healthy society. A

psychologically sick healthy society. That's a tongue twister. We're all

happier. And so this is cool too. Because

whether speaking, coaching, or leading Red January Canada, which we're

gonna talk about, Janet's strength lies in her playful approach

to life. So, Janet, welcome.

Oh, Blair. It's so great to be here. Thank you for having me. Oh,

I'm so excited. Sorry that that was like a the last sentence was like a

tongue twister. Alright. I'm sorry. I probably could have written that better, but

Well, she shells, she shells. Right? But okay. So, like,

I've known you for a while. I met you, through a women's

entrepreneurship community. You know, I've I've walked you

walked alongside me while I was navigating a lot of things, you

know, the things. And then I walked alongside you while you

navigated your things, and now we're here together. We've come back together

to talk about what you're doing in this

world. And, you know, you're someone who's had 3

near death experiences. And the first one, just a few years ago at

the age of 24 Few years. Yeah. Total. 6 weeks

before your wedding. And first of all, I've

I wanna talk about each of these near death experiences and what that was like

for you. Like, I don't even know if I've maybe, like, would I know if

I've had a near death experience? Like, I've been in car accidents, but I've I

don't know. I mean, let's talk about it. And then I also wanna know how

you know you're in the near death experience. Because when I was preparing for this,

I was like, have I had a near death experience?

I don't think you know until you've come out the other side. K. Well,

let's talk about it. I don't think it's something that you you kinda go, oh,

oh, this is okay. It's happening. You know, it's not like I am

you're dying. Yeah. I'm near dying. But when you come out the other side

and go, holy crap. Like, if

if these things didn't line up the

way the universe obviously meant for me to continue to be here Yeah.

Then, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Exactly. I really don't

believe that there is a telltale sign that these things are happening.

I do believe there are signs, especially

my, near death experience prior to getting married.

My I actually was in a situation where I was

ignoring all the signs. Like, I have my body was screaming

at me. I had suffered from, ovarian cysts through my

teens into my twenties. And,

a surprise bachelorette happened for me 6 weeks before I got married, and I had

not been feeling well. In fact, I had been waking up at night feverish,

you know, popping the Tylenol, thinking, oh, man. What's going on?

Maybe I'm nervous. What's happening? And then it

was when I, I was in crippling pain that,

and kind of at my bachelorette friends were dancing. I

crawled off to a bedroom to, like, just catch my breath

and think, okay, I'll be okay. I'll be okay. You know, you can talk yourself

through those things. It's like, I'm okay. I'm okay. And then

I wasn't okay. So yeah. And,

got myself into a very scary situation that had my friends not driven

me the 2 hours to the hospital, I wouldn't be here talking to

you. So there's that. And what do you mind going into what

was going on? So I had excruciating abdominal

pain, fever, and it had been happening for a

couple days. Like I said, I was popping the Tylenol. And what was

going on was that, I I don't know if you've

ever been in a situation where, you know, you know something's going on and you're

trying to convince yourself that it's really not that bad. You know, when I work

with clients and they're like, oh, I've been in pain for, like, 8 years with

this hip, and it's like, well, pain isn't normal. It's your body's

response to telling you something's wrong. Whether you are suffering a headache or a

leg, back, whatever is going on, Your body

does talk to you, and I kept choosing to ignore it.

So, finally, it shut me down. And,

my friends recognized I was in distress, so they

took control when I couldn't. And so I was,

very gratefully looked after and put in a position where

someone could help me because I didn't think I needed help, but I really did

need help. Wow. And it worked late. Yeah.

Yeah. What a bachelorette party. Oh, what a bachelorette party. In

fact, those girlfriends are still my dearest, and

nearest friends. And, whenever we get together, I always look

them in the eye and I say, without you, there wouldn't be me. So thank

you. Well, I'm glad they saved you that night.

Yeah. No kidding. Yeah. I don't remember the ride to the hospital.

I just remember getting to the hospital and there was a lot of

like the franticness. Is that if that's a word.

There was just a lot of, lights and beeps, and I

had, you know, an emergency ultrasound. And then they

just looked to me and they said, we need to get you into surgery, and

we'll try and save your ovaries. And, that was all I remember. And

then, I woke up and here I am. What a

bachelorette. What a bachelorette. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's scary.

And, like, thank God for your friends to recognize you're in distress and that you

didn't die. Exactly. But then you had a second

near death experience. When did that happen? Tell us about that.

Yeah. So in, my around my 40th birthday,

Yes. 19 97. No.

9 2,007. 2,007. My family and I were,

driving up to my brother in law's place. He has a

house just north of Toronto. Everything seems to be out of the city.

Anyway, we were driving up north. It was noon on Thanksgiving

weekend. We were we had our, you know, contribution to the

potluck in the back and, clear, beautiful, sunny

day. And I

was just changing the CD because CD players were still a thing. I

was just putting in a new CD, and I literally

unpackaged, tried to put the CD in, and the next thing I know, there

was screech and

smoke and yeah. It was,

the result of 2 brothers decided to street race. The

decided that was a good day to street race each other. And

they one of them lost control and skidded across the highway and

caused a 6, car chain reaction.

We were the last car to get hit. My children were in grade 3 and

grade 7, and we walked away.

And it's a real miracle because the first car that got hit, 2

women died. And they were luckily

contained within their car. And so that

was a that was a real, to have my

family involved and to, have to be

pulled out of the driver's side window. We were none of us were

physically hurt, but mentally that moment lasted a

long time. So we had,

therapists. We had, yeah, a lot of,

support to help us get through that. And we

had just bought this car that saved our life

too, that summer. And, had we

been in our old car, I don't think our outcome would have been the same.

So Oh, wow. Put into place for us to be,

at that juncture at that time. So we still drive up to my

brother-in-law. He still has a place up there, and we are

we have a moment of silence every time we drive by.

And, yeah, it was quite the thanksgiving. A lot to be thankful for for

sure. Wow. Thank you for sharing. And,

what car was it? Oh, well, we had a

VW Touareg. Oh, them Volkswagens.

The Volkswagen. It was a bit of a beast. It was before the big and

then the whole Volkswagen situation happened. You know, how they had all that

recall and the result. No. We had been driving a Dodge Caravan, and we

switched to the VW. And, I actually still have the

VW. I had to go, a couple weeks later up to

the the, car lot that they drove

our car to because it was right off. Yeah. And, I

saved the logo off the back. I pulled it off

because, I just had a lot of yeah. A

definite moment of gratitude for that. My family, weren't

hurt. Tiguan's.

Yeah. I Yeah. Yeah. And and do you remember I and this is

so a minor detail, but I'll tell you why I'm asking

after your answer. Do you remember what CD it was that you

were either putting in or listening to when that happened?

I think it was a new Cirque du Soleil CD. I don't know

why. I think I we had been to a show and they had given them

out or I bought it because the music on those shows are so, so, like,

esoteric and cool. Mhmm. And I was like, oh, this we should play

this. And yeah. Yeah. I I love that. I've,

car accidents are really scary. I've been in a few. And

in high school, I was driving my sister to school, and we

were listening to, like, my favorite album of all time.

What the the Fugees. We're listening to the Fugees. I love the Fujis.

And we got in a car accident. We were t boned. And, like, I

still can't listen to the Fujis when I drive. Because

it was, like, I have, like, lifelong injuries from it, so does my sister. Of

course. Of course. Yeah. And, like, so so it's I was just wondering

about the CD and the what you what it was because I don't know. I've

try actually, I've listened to the Fujis a couple times to try and, like, get

back into it, but I can't listen to Killing Me Softly, which is the song

that I yeah. I I yeah. I I can imagine that.

And in fact, if you if I even saw the CD cover,

like, I think I've erased it. Yeah. It doesn't leave an imprint,

ironically. That's interesting. Yeah. But I

mean, that's that's amazing that you guys, you know, you

walked away with your physical bodies unscathed and,

you know, and that you got the support for your family

for the mental health aspect because that's that's pretty big foresight

because a lot of times that's just completely neglected.

Right. Well, and those mental health, that

moment in time, the feeling of being out of control, like being at a

loss of the ability to control a situation and protect your

family. Mhmm. It's it's shown up a lot in our

lives, since. So it's,

it's good we were kind of introduced to that then, but we've had

certain reiterations of asking for help

since. Because those things live.

They do. They do. And, like, what a gift to your

children to be given an opportunity

to process and heal or or learn tools,

you know, and be able to carry that with them. So I think, like,

that's, you know, good job on that for sure.

Thank you. You're such a good mama. Well, we just wanna

protect our families. Whether we have have children or animals, you

know, we just it's kind of the role we assume. And,

when you feel vulnerable by that, it's a very, very,

scary feeling that whether we're trying to protect our parents or our kids

or whatever. It's yeah. Going through the those stages

of protection is yeah. It's quite something.

It definitely is. And so you had a third near death experience.

Yeah. That same year. I think it was that same year. The hurricane

don't know. 40 was quite something. Anyway, we were had

8. I'm I get those years blurred. Forgive me, listener. But

you can Google search this. Anyway, we had been in the Dominican

Republic and on a vacation in August. Our family

had lived abroad for a number of years.

And while we were away, we ended up taking holidays in August. But when we

moved back, we didn't realize that it's hurricane season in the Caribbean.

Anyway, we were like, oh, it's kind of cheap to go to the Caribbean in

August. So we flew down to, Dominican Republic. We had a

nice time. And as we were flying back, well, actually, we a

couple of days while we were there, you know, we had to, like, sit in

our room because there was a hurricane going through. We weren't really paying attention. We

just knew, oh, gosh. It's really windy. Do not go to the beach. Whatever. Anyway,

we get to the airport. Our our flight is at night,

and we had taken off. And the pilot had said, you know, it's

going to be kind of turbulent. There's we're flying

over this weather

system. And, I don't know how

long in, so I can't timeline this. But I do know

that, suddenly, our plane was hit by, like, lightning

Struck by lightning. We were flying through

this storm. We didn't realize the catastrophic

outcome of hurricane Katrina till after. Anyway, when your

plane is hit by lightning, I don't know if you've ever been in this situation

before, but there was a tremendous bang.

All the lights go off and you drop in space.

I'm gonna say it's 10,000 feet. Oh my gosh.

But it's pitch black. There's no lights And people

are screaming because there's a another sense of not being in

control. All these things. The common theme here is

not being in control. So, that was,

like, terrifying. But then we got hit again. And the pilot didn't come

on and say anything. People were screaming like

we were going to die. I was screaming like we were going to

die. There were certainly blood curdling sounds coming out of people.

And then the lights came back on and we were,

flying, like, like, we're all looking around

going, holy Hannah. Like, this

it I'm I'm not doing it justice. I'm trying to be polite for your

listeners. Yeah. But no. But, like, I think yeah. The

That's terrifying. The truth of the matter was you're in

the dark. You're dropping, thousands of feet. I've never

been a real roller coaster person, just so you know. So I don't go on

roller coasters willingly. I'd go on planes because I like to travel,

but this was next level. And it wasn't till,

it felt like forever. It could have been 5 minutes. Who knows? But, anyway, the

pilot came on and he said, what you've just experienced is our plane

getting hit by lightning. And the plane did its

job, but, again, we are

we're all altered by the effect of

not feeling in control. But, again, being altogether, you

know, quite frankly, if I'm gonna die, I

don't want anything to ever happen to my family. So the fact

we're all together was the next level of terrifying for

sure. So anyway yeah. I I I hope

they're done. Like, touch touch wood, man. Like, I don't Yeah. Well, like, it's

she's not going anywhere, guys. Awesome. I know. Well, the fact

that I still get to be here makes my mission even

more fundamental to me because I

I I get to help people and I want to help people.

And, a, the opportunity to

have a vehicle like resilient AF to share

my story and help people understand what is in

their control and how play is the

fundamental habit for better health, feeling better, eating better, sleeping better. Yeah.

These are the things you have choices and control over, and you

might as well make them fun and find the joy because we just don't

know. We just don't know. We just don't know.

No. No one has a, you know, a magic,

mirror or ball crystal crystal ball to know

anything. So live every day and play, which means please look

after yourself. Like that is the fundamental, two versions

of what play is. Play as in move your body to feel

better and manage your life better. But play is please look

after yourself. Please look after yourself. I love that.

And, you know, thank you for sharing all three of those really

terrifying experiences. And, you know, you're right. You're so out

of control in those situations. So what can you control? And, like, what is in

your control? And, you know, you're a great catalyst,

and you're full of so much information, you know, to bring us to this awareness.

Right? To remind us the things that we know, but they're lost.

Right? You know, we're we're gonna run out of time, but

I I wanna talk about Red January, because this is this is somewhat new to

you. This episode will come out in January.

Yeah. I know. So so if you're listening to this, you recorded it

before January. So what's Red January? Tell us all about it.

Red stands for rise every day. It's a movement that I have brought

to Canada from the UK. It's been,

a campaign that's run-in the UK, to inspire people to move their

way through the month of January for their mental, physical and social

well-being. I was so inspired by what the founder was doing, Hannah

Beacham Beacham, that, I said, I think

Canadians really deserve the opportunity to, be part

of something that is not a one size fits all. It it fits with

play in that how you like to move your body and

doing something positive in an otherwise and and joyful in

an otherwise kind of cold and dark month. And

including someone in that, whatever whatever that looks like to you.

So is it walking with a friend? Is it walking with a friend at a

mall? Is it swimming? Is it dancing? Is it whatever

movement brings you joy, it's it's it doesn't you don't have

to go to a gym. You just get the opportunity to

explore ways that make you feel good through movement.

And it very much aligns with, how I I help

people through play and through, behavior change.

Because truly finding something you like to do, like what

did you like to do as a kid? Start there. If you if you don't

identify as active person, that's okay. You're still

welcome to discover that. And when you put those things into

place through the month, you're much more likely

to continue that behavior beyond January. So it's just this

incredible opportunity, for people to join. It's

free. And we have partnered in Canada with the

General Project, which is Canada's campaign

to help people connect socially to

beat loneliness. And, when you move

together, you're actually 78% more likely

to stick to a exercise habit when

you are with someone else. And, gosh, it's like

magic. And it's fun and it's free. And that's right, January.

I absolutely love it. We'll put the the link in the show

notes. For sure. You don't need to be in Canada to do it. I we

have people all over the world. Right? All over the world. Yep. There's,

hundreds of thousands of people in the UK, and you can donate to

their charity, which is Mind Over Mountains this year. It's 10 years in the

UK. We're 2 years in Canada, and we are looking

at, yeah, just growing this incredible campaign

globally together. I freaking love it. Oh

my god. So good. So good. So,

and you have a gift for everyone. Tell us a bit about your gift.

Yeah. So, in my I wrote a book called The Playbook, How to Get in

the Habit of Good Health, and it is based on the habit

of moving your body. And it's not an exercise book.

It's actually a book to, have you

taken take control of your health, finding a way. It's the I'm

I'm your coach. I'm your guide on the side. And this book is is giving

you the guide to figure out those things, like how you're gonna

move and meet your requirements for better health. Anyway, in

my book, because people are stuck, they really are. I mean, there's

1.8 people in the world that do not do enough exercise to keep healthy,

and that's 20 minutes a day. So I thought, okay, well, if

we need a 150 minutes of movement a week, which is about

20 minutes a day, that doesn't have to be all done at once. How what

are a 150 ways to move more that can help people?

And so I have a list of those. 150 ways to move more in my

book, and I have a free download that you can

grab the list. And, I wanna share that with people because,

everybody deserves to move in a way that makes sense to them. And it's simple

things, Blair. It's like stand on one foot while you're in the

line at the grocery store. Park farther. Jump on all the cracks

on the sidewalk. Use a tree to do a squat. You

know, like, these are just things that are available to us everywhere.

Making the world your playground and simple things that you can add into your day

that are playful and fun and bring people joy.

I love it. And I have your book and it's amazing. So

so what a gift. You're such a just you are a gift. And

So are you. So I appreciate that. And thank you for

developing this incredible platform to help people learn other

people's resilient stories to identify

with and motivate them, and it's it's wonderful. Am I

oh, thank you. And so let's wrap up with a piece of advice. I

mean, it can be for someone who's had a near death experience or,

like, maybe it's just a play piece of a play advice. Whatever you're called

to, give us a hit us with, like, today, your best

piece of advice. My best piece of advice I would say

is always listen to your body. And if you can't identify

what listening to your body is, use some

deep breaths every once in a while in your day to

just be present and aware and,

understand that, you know, pain isn't normal.

Fueling your body is great. What is what is optimal

living to you? But really, the behaviors and the approach

to being able to listen to your body is just being quiet for a

minute and listen to what you need and pay attention to the

signs because your body talks to you. It was almost

too late for me. I was forced to listen to my body. So I hope

for somebody to just please look after yourself and listen to

what you need and fill your soul with the things that bring you joy.

25. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Like, we're

here. We're we're launching a book. You're gonna look

after yourself. Janet said, please. Please

play. Please play. That's it. Play. And we're gonna

rise every day. Red January. So thank you so

much for joining us on, this fantastic episode.

Thank you for having me, and I love chatting with you. And I can't wait

to to see how amazing this book and this podcast

is gonna be. Oh, Thanks. And thank you to everyone

who tuned in for another episode of Resilient AF with Blair and

Alana. And today, Janet, no Alana, but that's okay.

We were honored that you took the time to learn, grow, inspire, strengthen

your resilience muscle, bounce forward with us. You're not

alone. You don't have to do it alone. And you know what? If you're

not feeling okay, that's fine. It's okay to not be okay. You're

not alone. There are resources out there for when you're ready, including us.

Us. Let the Global Resilience Project be that lighthouse in the storm.

I'm here for you. I got you. Let's hold hands. Let's get through it

together, because, friends, you are resilient AF.