January 2, 2024 • 27 mins
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When my own body started rewriting the rules during perimenopause, weight management turned into a bewildering quest. I soon realized that the conventional arsenal of restrictive diets and punishing workouts was failing me.
Join us as I open up about my personal struggles and breakthroughs in finding a sustainable, healthy lifestyle that resonates with the changes of midlife. Alongside the wisdom of health coach and fitness trainer Kirstie Wilson, we delve into the unseen emotional, mental, and spiritual battles that accompany this journey, promising a message of hope and actionable strategies for women who are navigating these transformative years.
As we embrace our 'Third Act', the narrative shifts to celebrating health and vibrancy in our post-menopausal decades. This episode isn't just about weight loss; it's an ode to thriving.
We address the essential pillars of fat loss, from nourishment to rest, and unravel the significance of accountability, community, and a resilient mindset. Discover how connecting with your core values and identifying a profound 'why' can arm you against the hurdles of aging.
We offer insights into mindful eating, the art of self-discovery, and the joy of aligning with a lifestyle that’s not about shedding pounds, but about reveling in a vibrant, thriving existence. Kirstie Wilson joins me in sharing these insights, ensuring you leave with not just knowledge, but also the inspiration to make lasting changes.
As promised, a gift from me to you!
You can learn more about Kirsti Wilson. She has a long standing podcast called What Well Women Want! She has been coaching women for years- to learn more check out her website.
Thank you for your time and interest in this podcast! I invite you to leave a heartfelt review on whichever podcast platform you listen to. It does so much to bring exposure to the podcast and helps lift others up!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello and welcome to In the Rising a health and
wellness podcast for those goingthrough and those supporting
those going through cancer.
My name is Bettina Brown andI'm board certified in physical
therapy, wound care andlymphedema, and you know, for me
, cancer is very personal.
It's affected my friends, myimmediate and my not so
(00:24):
immediate family, and thereforeI created this podcast and fit
after breast cancercom toaddress the multiple dimensions
of our lives during and afterrecovery.
Hello and welcome to In theRising podcast 2024.
I am so excited to be in thefourth year of this program and
(00:47):
I am really thankful for all ofthe new listeners and grateful
for everyone that stuck throughit year after year.
Well, recently I interviewedHelen Murray Finley, who was
talking about menopause, andwhen I pulled the statistics for
all of 2023, this was one ofthe top downloaded podcasts for
(01:07):
In the Rising, and I was goingthrough my files and I realized
I had also spoken to KirstieWilson, a health coach and
fitness trainer, who I talked toyears ago about menopause and
weight gain and weight loss andstress, and I feel, right after
the new year, right after theholidays, that might be a really
(01:30):
great time for a topic likethis.
I have a little gift for you atthe end, so stay tuned, kirstie
.
You and I are female podcasters.
We are women that are reallyinterested in helping others and
(01:52):
other women focus on health andwhat you call here vibrant,
thriving life, and how importantthat is.
Share a little bit with me howyou got to a place in life where
this is your focus, where thisis something that you're not
only passionate about but reallycreate a life around.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, thank you, I'd love to, and it's really one of
those.
Where it's my mess is now mymessage, as I like to say.
So I was always one of thoselucky women and I now realize
how blessed I was, but neverreally gained weight.
I was one of those women thatcould go on vacation and drink
the fruity rum drinks and eatwhat I wanted and maybe gain a
(02:36):
couple of pounds and come homeand be back to normal in two or
three days, never thoughtanything of it.
I remember Paul's hit, which Ididn't even know what that was,
didn't know it was coming.
I was 46.
And the first sign of it for mewas sudden weight gain and I
(02:59):
gained 30 pounds.
So I did what everybody does,right.
I cut my calories and I went ona really restrictive diet and
up to my workouts and I wasdoing crazy workouts.
You know, tons and tons ofcardio.
I added in hits, I added instrength training and I was
(03:19):
probably at about a net 900calories a day and not losing
weight at all.
So I have a background in publichealth.
Before I moved to Florida,because I'm from the UK
originally, I worked in publichealth and data analysis and
research and so on.
So I thought you know what.
I should be able to figure thisout.
(03:40):
It shouldn't be thatcomplicated and you know, the
interweb is so full ofconflicting, confusing
misinformation, right, keto,atkins, low carb, high carb, low
high, high high.
I am so confused so I went offand did my own research and
figured out what worked for me,right, and I realized that these
(04:02):
crazy heavy workouts and theseintense workouts that we feel
like we have to do because itburns calories, right, is just
not the way to do it.
And so I'm figuring that outand now keeping the weight off
because I'm 52, going on 53 nowand keeping it off, but still
loving food.
(04:22):
I still eat a lot.
You ask any of my girlfriends,I eat a lot of food, right, and
I love food and I'm not scaredof it.
I don't have any weirdemotional issues with food.
I don't stress it, I don'temotionally.
I enjoy my food, I eat plentyof it and I stick to the weight
(04:45):
right, whatever I do, I'm justgoing.
There's so many women out therestruggling with this and having
not just the physical strugglebut the emotional, mental and
spiritual struggle with it too,and it doesn't have to be that
way.
It doesn't have to and so justwant to get that out there and
help other women find a way toeat that works for them, there's
(05:09):
not a stress anymore and helpsthem lose the weight.
But I'm not focused on weightloss per se.
I want women to think about itmore in let me find a healthful
way to live that will justautomatically lead to me gaining
a healthy way, or getting to ahealthy way.
(05:31):
As opposed to that, to mytunnel vision Let me lose weight
, because then what happens isthe crash, fat diets and the low
nutrition that leads tomalnutrition.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Effectively, yes, yes , that makes sense.
It sure does, and a lot ofpeople.
As a physical therapist that'smy background I learned some
about nutrition, but obviouslynothing really.
And as a perimenopausal womanto where my eyebrows have lifted
in the last few years.
So I'm like what I have done myentire life and I have a
(06:05):
physical job.
Where is this coming from?
Like, what is that, you know?
Like where is this coming from?
The frustration?
Also an embarrassment.
How do you work in thehealthcare field and you're?
You know you're carrying morethan you should and also with
the health risk of, for example,I carry a breast cancer gene.
I have a genetics background.
(06:25):
I know it doesn't necessarilymean anything, but the more
weight we have, the more itmeans something.
So it is a true like healthissue and I'm seeing this and
hearing this.
So I personally am in the mess,but I also hear your message as
well.
You are also, you know, yourcertified personal trainer and
(06:46):
also certified health coach.
Share a little bit how thatprocess helped you find an
answer for yourself.
That is also helping otherwomen find an answer for
themselves.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So.
The personal trainer was kindof a prerequisite for the health
coach.
I went with the mindset of Iwant to become a health coach
and I'm glad I did the physicalthing, the personal training
thing, first, because it's sucha grounding for the health coach
.
But it also made me understandthe role of muscles and
(07:20):
flexibility in terms ofstability for women are age
because, again, I'm not justfocused on the weight loss, it's
, it's what I help women achieve, but in a overall health
approach.
Right.
So when we get to this age andour hormones change you know
this, being a medicalpractitioner yourself right?
(07:43):
So we lose muscle mass and thatincreases failure dramatically.
Once we go through paramedicpause, we're losing three to 10%
of our muscle mass every decade.
So that impacts weight lossbecause calories are burned in
the muscles, right, so if you'veless muscle you're not burning
as much.
But all that hormonal changealso means that our metabolisms
(08:08):
are slowing down, with increasedstress and physical changes
like ligaments.
You know this.
Right, ligaments and tendonsjust start to get less flexible
because of the decline inestrogen and testosterone and
all that.
Right.
And it's just so much moreimportant to think about being
(08:28):
gentler on our bodies but makingsure that we are doing the
appropriate level.
So, a moderate exercise everyday, a brisk walk right, it
doesn't need to be any morecomplicated than that.
Some amounts of flexibility, arange of motion training right.
So we want to be getting thosestretches in.
(08:49):
We want to be making sure thatour core is stable and our big
muscles of our legs have goodstrength, because we don't want
to fall, we don't want to getinjured.
You know this just as well,right?
So we want to be doing a bit ofstrength training because we
want to keep those musclesstrong.
Now again, we don't want to betrying to be on a Schwarzenegger
(09:12):
here.
That's not the look we're goingfor.
It's pretty much physicallyimpossible for women, right,
because we don't have that levelof testosterone.
But we do want to be keepingthose muscles strong.
We should be strength trainingtwo to three times a week.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yes, and the more research I'm doing, the more I'm
realizing that the cardio isimportant and that is where our
brain goes, almost like the oldtime aerobics.
But the strength trainingbecomes more important as we are
getting older and again, wedon't have to do two hours a day
(09:48):
that you actually have nothingleft to give after that, unless
you are.
That is your job, is yourprofession to be that kind of
athlete.
But the strength training waskind of a surprise for me.
Even though I'm a physicaltherapist.
This is not my area of howimportant that really is For
bone health obviously as well,but for muscle health as we are
(10:11):
going through different phasesof hormones changes.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, absolutely yeah , and the strong.
Well, to me, the importantthing is that you'll see this,
I'm sure, in physical therapy,especially working with women
this age.
We all know that lady in maybeher 60s, maybe early 70s who had
that fall and broke her hip andwas just never quite the same,
(10:38):
right, I don't want that for us.
If we start doing some strengthtraining in our 50s two or
three times a week with mediumweights and just keep that
strength, we're not going tohave those balls and if we do,
we're going to recover a lotbetter.
We're not going to have thebreaks as much, yeah, and then
the calories are burned inmuscles.
(10:58):
So we keep our metabolism alittle bit better if we keep our
strength up.
And it's spiritually good forus If you see that you've got
like a good physique, toned arms, toned legs.
I mean again, it doesn't haveto be about vanity, but there is
a spiritual thing there and anemotional thing.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
We, I think, like you also touched upon an earlier,
christy is stress.
You're working with clients.
Do you feel that they are awareof their stress levels or not
even they're just been stressedfor so long that they don't
realize those are stressorsanymore.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Isn't that the way we live in the 21st century?
Unfortunately, I actually givethem two stress assessments.
I have them go online to somestandard some good, well studied
, you know good methodologystudies and have them do them.
And every single one of thewomen I work with are surprised
at their stress level.
(12:06):
And, yeah, it's important.
I, when I work with clients, Ihave what I call my five pillows
and it's nutrition is thebiggest part of weight loss and
healthfulness, right, but alsoactivity and the exercise that
we're talking about hydration,and then stress and sleep
management.
(12:26):
Now, I understand sleep can bedifficult when there's hot
flashes and that kind of thinggoing on and they're done.
That I get it.
But we know so much more aboutsleep and its impact on us.
When we don't get quality,restorative sleep and again, so
much of this is tied together,right, you're getting good
(12:48):
nutrition and you got health isgood and you're managing your
stress and you're getting someactivity, you'll get better
sleep.
It's this whole like Venndiagram of how it all fits
together.
Yeah, I mean I cover with myladies when I work with them all
five of those put what I callthe pillows.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, yes, and.
And to just know that that isalso important because we try to
multitask, do so many thingsespecially you know it sounds
horrible there was a time thatwe didn't have to take care of a
generation above us, right,because of just.
But with our life expectancy,you are doing a lot for being
(13:28):
the children for many women,being the daughters and children
of someone that they're takingcare of, being the mothers and
grandparents of others, that's alot of stress and it's a lot of
expectation.
Right, this is my family orthis is my mother, but I'm
literally seeing our clients intheir 90s and their children are
(13:50):
retired and they physicallycan't just go home and take care
of them like they used to.
You know it.
Just that adds a stressor.
And that they're taking care ofthe grandkids.
These are all things that wetake for granted, but they
affect us.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I don't know if you've ever listened to anything
by him.
I've been nerding out a littlebit on Peter Peter Atiyah lately
, oh yeah, yeah, and I waslistening to a podcast that he
did the other day where he Imean he's very into longevity,
right, and he was working backon kind of the basic activities
(14:25):
that we all need to be doing inour 90s and working back how we
need to be building strength inour 50s to still be able to do
them in our 90s.
So he was doing things likebeing a grandparent and a child
running towards you and, ofcourse, children don't stop
right, toddlers don't stop.
When they hit you they're gonnarun into you.
(14:45):
So you've got to be able tobend and pick them up.
And it was a really interestingpodcast because he was talking
about if that child is 30 poundsand you want to be able to do
that at 90, in your 50s, youkind of need to be able to do a
goblet squat, which is the basicsame move right Of like 60 or
(15:06):
70 pounds, because you're goingto have that muscle loss.
No matter, even if you'restrength training, you're still
gonna lose some of it.
And I was going to walk andlistening to the podcast while I
was walking I was like that'sreally interesting and that's a
lot to comprehend.
But again, that's where we needto be starting to think about
it.
(15:26):
I talked to ladies.
I mean, I call it thriving inyour third act, right, because
the average age of death forwomen in the US right now is 81.
Most of us are officiallymenopausal at 51.
That's 30 years post menopausefor most of us.
(15:47):
With all that estrogen, allthat testosterone and
progesterone that's declined andthe impact that that has on our
body, on our metabolism, ourgut health, our bones, our
muscles, that's a lot of work weneed to do to keep up our
bodies in good health and ingood condition If we're gonna
(16:08):
make it to 80 with a quality oflife where we are thriving,
vibrant and confident and ableto do things.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yes, yes, and it really does take some decision
and figuring out what yourvalues are, because it's not
having to change everything andthrow everything at your pantry.
I could not do that.
I did it once.
I actually did it like fivetimes, and I do like a nice
piece of chocolate once in awhile with my evening tea, but
it is just as soulful and asimportant for my ritual and
(16:41):
peace as eating the healthysalad.
Those are all things together,everything in moderation,
including moderation, but youall yeah, you have your own
podcast and I would love for youto share more about that.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It was something I started and I probably shouldn't
admit this.
It was a really random thing.
One morning I had a call with aclient and she was really
frustrated because she wasn'tgetting anywhere and I just
literally went on and kind oframbled and ranted a little bit.
But again I have a message andI want to get it out that this
(17:23):
doesn't have to be stressful andhard work.
It can be fun.
It's about going into this withcuriosity, I feel.
There's no one size fits alldiet.
There's no off the shelf thing.
There is an optimal way ofeating, I believe, for women our
(17:43):
age, but it's about taking thatand then figuring out how it
fits you.
So that's just what I talkabout on my podcast, but I do
cover the fat pillars.
So I do talk about thenutrition, the activity, the
hydration, the stress and sleepmanagement.
But I also consider thatthere's three foundations under
(18:05):
that, which are accountability,community so I also have a
Facebook group to help womenwith the community and the
accountability.
But mindset, you mentionedhaving a why and knowing your
values.
If you don't know why you'retrying to achieve the weight
loss and it's a deep, a reallydeep reason, like I say, a why
(18:33):
that makes you cry.
If you don't have that reason,you're really not going to
achieve it.
We know so much more.
You talk about high performersand the habits that they have,
and you read any of the booksDean Graziosi or any of those
kind of guys, right?
Tony Robbins, brendan Brichard,they've all done studies on
super high performers.
(18:53):
They all have a really corevalue and a deep why as to what
it is they're trying to achieveand what their mission is.
I think that's the same withweight loss.
If you don't know what that isand you don't do that mindset,
work first when the obstaclescome along, and they will.
(19:14):
That's the thing.
Right, those struggles, thosechallenges, those obstacles,
those setbacks, they're going tohappen.
And if you can't go, hang on.
What is the reason I'm tryingto do this?
You're going to struggle andyou're probably going to cave in
a little bit to some of thosestruggles.
But and again, that's okay aswell Just at the time, achieve
(19:40):
the best you can eat, the bestyou can do with your stress.
Most of the time, as you say,moderation, including moderation
.
So that's kind of where I gowith this and that's just the
things I talk about on thepodcast.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, yeah, and into to.
Dean Graziosi is actually who Iheard this from, because you
know, I do.
I'm a certified life coach andwe get these things of 50
different values.
What are your top 10?
I put it down to top five andbut I also liked how Dean
Graziosi said this, that if you,for example, say I want to lose
(20:14):
weight, what is the why underthat?
Well, I would like to fit wellin my genes.
Why do you want to fit well inyour genes?
Because, and as you continue,usually when you get to the
fifth or sixth or seventh, whyyou actually get to the real
reason.
It's not just this global I wantto lose weight, maybe all the
(20:35):
way down to well, I really.
It's not even about my genes,it's just because I've seen my
mother or my sister strugglewith weight gain and now is not
able to get in and out of thecar.
I've seen my brother strugglewith knee pain, had me
replacements, it got infectedand then he was at, you know, in
a nursing home.
A lot of times it's not just Iwant to lose weight.
(20:56):
We all know how to do that.
We all know how to move.
There has to be something thatsets a fire underneath us that
even if there is a week wherethings kind of go that obstacle,
those hits are coming, that'sguaranteed that we're able to go
back to that deep fire in ourwhy.
That makes us cry for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yep, absolutely, why that makes you cry, I think, is
so important.
It's one of the first things Iwork with ladies on.
Like I really want you to dosome deep work, go journal and
spend like a whole week, sitdown three or four times with
this, because you've probablynever done this before and it's
hard.
You've really got to get deepin there and I think many of us
(21:39):
have lost the ability to do that.
It's like we've lost theability to connect with our food
.
We've lost the ability to eatmindfully because we're all
again the stress of 21st century.
We grab and go, we stop at thegas station, we pick something
up on the way home you know wedon't cook at home anymore, so
it all fits together the samething, right?
And we've forgotten.
(21:59):
How do you, especially as women, take care of ourselves and
think about what we want andwhat it is that's driving us and
why we want to do that?
And that kind of goes back towhat you said about we're
mothers, we're daughters, we'refriends, we're colleagues.
Right, we are not very good atgiving up obligations that don't
(22:22):
serve us anymore, Right, wetake things on, but we never let
things go.
We just keep piling things onbecause it's thinking I mean,
there's a biology there as well.
Right, we're meant to nurture,we're meant to be moms, we're
meant to be all that, but we arereally bad at letting things go
and we don't give ourselvespermission to do it, and I think
(22:47):
there's a lot of messagingaround that that we need to
start talking about as we getinto this age, because, you know
, we should be able to thriveand we should be able to do more
of the things we want.
We start to get a little bitmore freedom, right, I mean a
lot of us.
Our careers are getting alittle bit more to where we want
them to be, and we've got moreconfidence in the workplace.
(23:09):
If we're working, we might havean empty nest and we don't have
small children to take care of.
We have more adult children whodon't demand our time, and
hopefully, we're a little bitmore financially secure and we
can do some more of the thingswe want.
And yet we still pile this stuffon and we never take care of
(23:30):
ourselves and somehow, if we do,we feel guilty.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, and I think that's a core of it that
sometimes we carry this extraresponsibility.
But it may also be we'recarrying the extra weight of
everything around us, not justthe weight itself in our hips or
stomach, but the actual weightin our emotional case, and
that's where you're addressingthat with your own services the
(23:57):
other components, not just thephysical part.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Right, I mean, we know, you add all that on and
you've got the physical weight,but the emotional weight as well
, and all that extra stress,it's again.
It's just that vicious cycle,with the stress leads to
emotional stress and chronicstress, which leads to
inflammation, leads to weightgain that doesn't go anywhere,
(24:23):
and visceral fat, which is even.
I mean, that's a whole otherpodcast for myself, right.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah so yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I mean, it's a whole food kind of whole food,
holistic approach to living ahealthy lifestyle and hopefully
making weight loss a byproduct.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
There was a point in our conversation that made me
take pause and I completelyforgot, and that was bringing
curiosity back into health.
I think sometimes we look atour health journey whether it's
going through cancer, whetherit's weight loss, menopause
looking at someone else's healthand feel that it's just black
and white you're healthy oryou're not.
(25:13):
But there can be a relationshipwith your health, not an
authoritarian perspective.
Either it's healthier, it's not.
There's so many variables andvariations and sometimes the
stress and the sleeplessness isbecause of external factors.
Sometimes we're putting thestress and therefore having
(25:36):
sleepless nights on ourselves.
So it is really important tolook at what makes you you.
Why are we doing what we'redoing?
What's the why that makes youcry?
And so my special gift that I'mputting in a link below is
really looking at our values.
So many of us have values thatwe create or adopt from our
(25:58):
family and move on into ouradulthood and then we feel
disconnected and it's becausemaybe those values actually
belong to someone else orthey're not the values that we
have anymore.
So I would invite you, so I aminviting you, so I am inviting
(26:19):
you to download that.
Look at your own values andbring the curiosity not just
into your health, but into whatyou would like 2024 and
forevermore, for the next yearor the next six months, to look
like.
So, again, I thank you so muchfor listening to this podcast.
(26:39):
Please leave it a five starreview, and that helps us share
this.
Put this in the hands and earsof those that it will make a
difference for, and until nexttime, let's keep building one
another up.
Hello and welcome to In the Rising a health and
wellness podcast for those goingthrough and those supporting
those going through cancer.
My name is Bettina Brown andI'm board certified in physical
therapy, wound care andlymphedema, and you know, for me
, cancer is very personal.
It's affected my friends, myimmediate and my not so
(00:24):
immediate family, and thereforeI created this podcast and fit
after breast cancercom toaddress the multiple dimensions
of our lives during and afterrecovery.
Hello and welcome to In theRising podcast 2024.
I am so excited to be in thefourth year of this program and
(00:47):
I am really thankful for all ofthe new listeners and grateful
for everyone that stuck throughit year after year.
Well, recently I interviewedHelen Murray Finley, who was
talking about menopause, andwhen I pulled the statistics for
all of 2023, this was one ofthe top downloaded podcasts for
(01:07):
In the Rising, and I was goingthrough my files and I realized
I had also spoken to KirstieWilson, a health coach and
fitness trainer, who I talked toyears ago about menopause and
weight gain and weight loss andstress, and I feel, right after
the new year, right after theholidays, that might be a really
(01:30):
great time for a topic likethis.
I have a little gift for you atthe end, so stay tuned, kirstie
.
You and I are female podcasters.
We are women that are reallyinterested in helping others and
(01:52):
other women focus on health andwhat you call here vibrant,
thriving life, and how importantthat is.
Share a little bit with me howyou got to a place in life where
this is your focus, where thisis something that you're not
only passionate about but reallycreate a life around.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, thank you, I'd love to, and it's really one of
those.
Where it's my mess is now mymessage, as I like to say.
So I was always one of thoselucky women and I now realize
how blessed I was, but neverreally gained weight.
I was one of those women thatcould go on vacation and drink
the fruity rum drinks and eatwhat I wanted and maybe gain a
(02:36):
couple of pounds and come homeand be back to normal in two or
three days, never thoughtanything of it.
I remember Paul's hit, which Ididn't even know what that was,
didn't know it was coming.
I was 46.
And the first sign of it for mewas sudden weight gain and I
(02:59):
gained 30 pounds.
So I did what everybody does,right.
I cut my calories and I went ona really restrictive diet and
up to my workouts and I wasdoing crazy workouts.
You know, tons and tons ofcardio.
I added in hits, I added instrength training and I was
(03:19):
probably at about a net 900calories a day and not losing
weight at all.
So I have a background in publichealth.
Before I moved to Florida,because I'm from the UK
originally, I worked in publichealth and data analysis and
research and so on.
So I thought you know what.
I should be able to figure thisout.
(03:40):
It shouldn't be thatcomplicated and you know, the
interweb is so full ofconflicting, confusing
misinformation, right, keto,atkins, low carb, high carb, low
high, high high.
I am so confused so I went offand did my own research and
figured out what worked for me,right, and I realized that these
(04:02):
crazy heavy workouts and theseintense workouts that we feel
like we have to do because itburns calories, right, is just
not the way to do it.
And so I'm figuring that outand now keeping the weight off
because I'm 52, going on 53 nowand keeping it off, but still
loving food.
(04:22):
I still eat a lot.
You ask any of my girlfriends,I eat a lot of food, right, and
I love food and I'm not scaredof it.
I don't have any weirdemotional issues with food.
I don't stress it, I don'temotionally.
I enjoy my food, I eat plentyof it and I stick to the weight
(04:45):
right, whatever I do, I'm justgoing.
There's so many women out therestruggling with this and having
not just the physical strugglebut the emotional, mental and
spiritual struggle with it too,and it doesn't have to be that
way.
It doesn't have to and so justwant to get that out there and
help other women find a way toeat that works for them, there's
(05:09):
not a stress anymore and helpsthem lose the weight.
But I'm not focused on weightloss per se.
I want women to think about itmore in let me find a healthful
way to live that will justautomatically lead to me gaining
a healthy way, or getting to ahealthy way.
(05:31):
As opposed to that, to mytunnel vision Let me lose weight
, because then what happens isthe crash, fat diets and the low
nutrition that leads tomalnutrition.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Effectively, yes, yes , that makes sense.
It sure does, and a lot ofpeople.
As a physical therapist that'smy background I learned some
about nutrition, but obviouslynothing really.
And as a perimenopausal womanto where my eyebrows have lifted
in the last few years.
So I'm like what I have done myentire life and I have a
(06:05):
physical job.
Where is this coming from?
Like, what is that, you know?
Like where is this coming from?
The frustration?
Also an embarrassment.
How do you work in thehealthcare field and you're?
You know you're carrying morethan you should and also with
the health risk of, for example,I carry a breast cancer gene.
I have a genetics background.
(06:25):
I know it doesn't necessarilymean anything, but the more
weight we have, the more itmeans something.
So it is a true like healthissue and I'm seeing this and
hearing this.
So I personally am in the mess,but I also hear your message as
well.
You are also, you know, yourcertified personal trainer and
(06:46):
also certified health coach.
Share a little bit how thatprocess helped you find an
answer for yourself.
That is also helping otherwomen find an answer for
themselves.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So.
The personal trainer was kindof a prerequisite for the health
coach.
I went with the mindset of Iwant to become a health coach
and I'm glad I did the physicalthing, the personal training
thing, first, because it's sucha grounding for the health coach
.
But it also made me understandthe role of muscles and
(07:20):
flexibility in terms ofstability for women are age
because, again, I'm not justfocused on the weight loss, it's
, it's what I help women achieve, but in a overall health
approach.
Right.
So when we get to this age andour hormones change you know
this, being a medicalpractitioner yourself right?
(07:43):
So we lose muscle mass and thatincreases failure dramatically.
Once we go through paramedicpause, we're losing three to 10%
of our muscle mass every decade.
So that impacts weight lossbecause calories are burned in
the muscles, right, so if you'veless muscle you're not burning
as much.
But all that hormonal changealso means that our metabolisms
(08:08):
are slowing down, with increasedstress and physical changes
like ligaments.
You know this.
Right, ligaments and tendonsjust start to get less flexible
because of the decline inestrogen and testosterone and
all that.
Right.
And it's just so much moreimportant to think about being
(08:28):
gentler on our bodies but makingsure that we are doing the
appropriate level.
So, a moderate exercise everyday, a brisk walk right, it
doesn't need to be any morecomplicated than that.
Some amounts of flexibility, arange of motion training right.
So we want to be getting thosestretches in.
(08:49):
We want to be making sure thatour core is stable and our big
muscles of our legs have goodstrength, because we don't want
to fall, we don't want to getinjured.
You know this just as well,right?
So we want to be doing a bit ofstrength training because we
want to keep those musclesstrong.
Now again, we don't want to betrying to be on a Schwarzenegger
(09:12):
here.
That's not the look we're goingfor.
It's pretty much physicallyimpossible for women, right,
because we don't have that levelof testosterone.
But we do want to be keepingthose muscles strong.
We should be strength trainingtwo to three times a week.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yes, and the more research I'm doing, the more I'm
realizing that the cardio isimportant and that is where our
brain goes, almost like the oldtime aerobics.
But the strength trainingbecomes more important as we are
getting older and again, wedon't have to do two hours a day
(09:48):
that you actually have nothingleft to give after that, unless
you are.
That is your job, is yourprofession to be that kind of
athlete.
But the strength training waskind of a surprise for me.
Even though I'm a physicaltherapist.
This is not my area of howimportant that really is For
bone health obviously as well,but for muscle health as we are
(10:11):
going through different phasesof hormones changes.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, absolutely yeah , and the strong.
Well, to me, the importantthing is that you'll see this,
I'm sure, in physical therapy,especially working with women
this age.
We all know that lady in maybeher 60s, maybe early 70s who had
that fall and broke her hip andwas just never quite the same,
(10:38):
right, I don't want that for us.
If we start doing some strengthtraining in our 50s two or
three times a week with mediumweights and just keep that
strength, we're not going tohave those balls and if we do,
we're going to recover a lotbetter.
We're not going to have thebreaks as much, yeah, and then
the calories are burned inmuscles.
(10:58):
So we keep our metabolism alittle bit better if we keep our
strength up.
And it's spiritually good forus If you see that you've got
like a good physique, toned arms, toned legs.
I mean again, it doesn't haveto be about vanity, but there is
a spiritual thing there and anemotional thing.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
We, I think, like you also touched upon an earlier,
christy is stress.
You're working with clients.
Do you feel that they are awareof their stress levels or not
even they're just been stressedfor so long that they don't
realize those are stressorsanymore.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Isn't that the way we live in the 21st century?
Unfortunately, I actually givethem two stress assessments.
I have them go online to somestandard some good, well studied
, you know good methodologystudies and have them do them.
And every single one of thewomen I work with are surprised
at their stress level.
(12:06):
And, yeah, it's important.
I, when I work with clients, Ihave what I call my five pillows
and it's nutrition is thebiggest part of weight loss and
healthfulness, right, but alsoactivity and the exercise that
we're talking about hydration,and then stress and sleep
management.
(12:26):
Now, I understand sleep can bedifficult when there's hot
flashes and that kind of thinggoing on and they're done.
That I get it.
But we know so much more aboutsleep and its impact on us.
When we don't get quality,restorative sleep and again, so
much of this is tied together,right, you're getting good
(12:48):
nutrition and you got health isgood and you're managing your
stress and you're getting someactivity, you'll get better
sleep.
It's this whole like Venndiagram of how it all fits
together.
Yeah, I mean I cover with myladies when I work with them all
five of those put what I callthe pillows.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, yes, and.
And to just know that that isalso important because we try to
multitask, do so many thingsespecially you know it sounds
horrible there was a time thatwe didn't have to take care of a
generation above us, right,because of just.
But with our life expectancy,you are doing a lot for being
(13:28):
the children for many women,being the daughters and children
of someone that they're takingcare of, being the mothers and
grandparents of others, that's alot of stress and it's a lot of
expectation.
Right, this is my family orthis is my mother, but I'm
literally seeing our clients intheir 90s and their children are
(13:50):
retired and they physicallycan't just go home and take care
of them like they used to.
You know it.
Just that adds a stressor.
And that they're taking care ofthe grandkids.
These are all things that wetake for granted, but they
affect us.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I don't know if you've ever listened to anything
by him.
I've been nerding out a littlebit on Peter Peter Atiyah lately
, oh yeah, yeah, and I waslistening to a podcast that he
did the other day where he Imean he's very into longevity,
right, and he was working backon kind of the basic activities
(14:25):
that we all need to be doing inour 90s and working back how we
need to be building strength inour 50s to still be able to do
them in our 90s.
So he was doing things likebeing a grandparent and a child
running towards you and, ofcourse, children don't stop
right, toddlers don't stop.
When they hit you they're gonnarun into you.
(14:45):
So you've got to be able tobend and pick them up.
And it was a really interestingpodcast because he was talking
about if that child is 30 poundsand you want to be able to do
that at 90, in your 50s, youkind of need to be able to do a
goblet squat, which is the basicsame move right Of like 60 or
(15:06):
70 pounds, because you're goingto have that muscle loss.
No matter, even if you'restrength training, you're still
gonna lose some of it.
And I was going to walk andlistening to the podcast while I
was walking I was like that'sreally interesting and that's a
lot to comprehend.
But again, that's where we needto be starting to think about
it.
(15:26):
I talked to ladies.
I mean, I call it thriving inyour third act, right, because
the average age of death forwomen in the US right now is 81.
Most of us are officiallymenopausal at 51.
That's 30 years post menopausefor most of us.
(15:47):
With all that estrogen, allthat testosterone and
progesterone that's declined andthe impact that that has on our
body, on our metabolism, ourgut health, our bones, our
muscles, that's a lot of work weneed to do to keep up our
bodies in good health and ingood condition If we're gonna
(16:08):
make it to 80 with a quality oflife where we are thriving,
vibrant and confident and ableto do things.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yes, yes, and it really does take some decision
and figuring out what yourvalues are, because it's not
having to change everything andthrow everything at your pantry.
I could not do that.
I did it once.
I actually did it like fivetimes, and I do like a nice
piece of chocolate once in awhile with my evening tea, but
it is just as soulful and asimportant for my ritual and
(16:41):
peace as eating the healthysalad.
Those are all things together,everything in moderation,
including moderation, but youall yeah, you have your own
podcast and I would love for youto share more about that.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It was something I started and I probably shouldn't
admit this.
It was a really random thing.
One morning I had a call with aclient and she was really
frustrated because she wasn'tgetting anywhere and I just
literally went on and kind oframbled and ranted a little bit.
But again I have a message andI want to get it out that this
(17:23):
doesn't have to be stressful andhard work.
It can be fun.
It's about going into this withcuriosity, I feel.
There's no one size fits alldiet.
There's no off the shelf thing.
There is an optimal way ofeating, I believe, for women our
(17:43):
age, but it's about taking thatand then figuring out how it
fits you.
So that's just what I talkabout on my podcast, but I do
cover the fat pillars.
So I do talk about thenutrition, the activity, the
hydration, the stress and sleepmanagement.
But I also consider thatthere's three foundations under
(18:05):
that, which are accountability,community so I also have a
Facebook group to help womenwith the community and the
accountability.
But mindset, you mentionedhaving a why and knowing your
values.
If you don't know why you'retrying to achieve the weight
loss and it's a deep, a reallydeep reason, like I say, a why
(18:33):
that makes you cry.
If you don't have that reason,you're really not going to
achieve it.
We know so much more.
You talk about high performersand the habits that they have,
and you read any of the booksDean Graziosi or any of those
kind of guys, right?
Tony Robbins, brendan Brichard,they've all done studies on
super high performers.
(18:53):
They all have a really corevalue and a deep why as to what
it is they're trying to achieveand what their mission is.
I think that's the same withweight loss.
If you don't know what that isand you don't do that mindset,
work first when the obstaclescome along, and they will.
(19:14):
That's the thing.
Right, those struggles, thosechallenges, those obstacles,
those setbacks, they're going tohappen.
And if you can't go, hang on.
What is the reason I'm tryingto do this?
You're going to struggle andyou're probably going to cave in
a little bit to some of thosestruggles.
But and again, that's okay aswell Just at the time, achieve
(19:40):
the best you can eat, the bestyou can do with your stress.
Most of the time, as you say,moderation, including moderation
.
So that's kind of where I gowith this and that's just the
things I talk about on thepodcast.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, yeah, and into to.
Dean Graziosi is actually who Iheard this from, because you
know, I do.
I'm a certified life coach andwe get these things of 50
different values.
What are your top 10?
I put it down to top five andbut I also liked how Dean
Graziosi said this, that if you,for example, say I want to lose
(20:14):
weight, what is the why underthat?
Well, I would like to fit wellin my genes.
Why do you want to fit well inyour genes?
Because, and as you continue,usually when you get to the
fifth or sixth or seventh, whyyou actually get to the real
reason.
It's not just this global I wantto lose weight, maybe all the
(20:35):
way down to well, I really.
It's not even about my genes,it's just because I've seen my
mother or my sister strugglewith weight gain and now is not
able to get in and out of thecar.
I've seen my brother strugglewith knee pain, had me
replacements, it got infectedand then he was at, you know, in
a nursing home.
A lot of times it's not just Iwant to lose weight.
(20:56):
We all know how to do that.
We all know how to move.
There has to be something thatsets a fire underneath us that
even if there is a week wherethings kind of go that obstacle,
those hits are coming, that'sguaranteed that we're able to go
back to that deep fire in ourwhy.
That makes us cry for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yep, absolutely, why that makes you cry, I think, is
so important.
It's one of the first things Iwork with ladies on.
Like I really want you to dosome deep work, go journal and
spend like a whole week, sitdown three or four times with
this, because you've probablynever done this before and it's
hard.
You've really got to get deepin there and I think many of us
(21:39):
have lost the ability to do that.
It's like we've lost theability to connect with our food
.
We've lost the ability to eatmindfully because we're all
again the stress of 21st century.
We grab and go, we stop at thegas station, we pick something
up on the way home you know wedon't cook at home anymore, so
it all fits together the samething, right?
And we've forgotten.
(21:59):
How do you, especially as women, take care of ourselves and
think about what we want andwhat it is that's driving us and
why we want to do that?
And that kind of goes back towhat you said about we're
mothers, we're daughters, we'refriends, we're colleagues.
Right, we are not very good atgiving up obligations that don't
(22:22):
serve us anymore, Right, wetake things on, but we never let
things go.
We just keep piling things onbecause it's thinking I mean,
there's a biology there as well.
Right, we're meant to nurture,we're meant to be moms, we're
meant to be all that, but we arereally bad at letting things go
and we don't give ourselvespermission to do it, and I think
(22:47):
there's a lot of messagingaround that that we need to
start talking about as we getinto this age, because, you know
, we should be able to thriveand we should be able to do more
of the things we want.
We start to get a little bitmore freedom, right, I mean a
lot of us.
Our careers are getting alittle bit more to where we want
them to be, and we've got moreconfidence in the workplace.
(23:09):
If we're working, we might havean empty nest and we don't have
small children to take care of.
We have more adult children whodon't demand our time, and
hopefully, we're a little bitmore financially secure and we
can do some more of the thingswe want.
And yet we still pile this stuffon and we never take care of
(23:30):
ourselves and somehow, if we do,we feel guilty.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yeah, and I think that's a core of it that
sometimes we carry this extraresponsibility.
But it may also be we'recarrying the extra weight of
everything around us, not justthe weight itself in our hips or
stomach, but the actual weightin our emotional case, and
that's where you're addressingthat with your own services the
(23:57):
other components, not just thephysical part.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Right, I mean, we know, you add all that on and
you've got the physical weight,but the emotional weight as well
, and all that extra stress,it's again.
It's just that vicious cycle,with the stress leads to
emotional stress and chronicstress, which leads to
inflammation, leads to weightgain that doesn't go anywhere,
(24:23):
and visceral fat, which is even.
I mean, that's a whole otherpodcast for myself, right.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah so yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I mean, it's a whole food kind of whole food,
holistic approach to living ahealthy lifestyle and hopefully
making weight loss a byproduct.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
There was a point in our conversation that made me
take pause and I completelyforgot, and that was bringing
curiosity back into health.
I think sometimes we look atour health journey whether it's
going through cancer, whetherit's weight loss, menopause
looking at someone else's healthand feel that it's just black
and white you're healthy oryou're not.
(25:13):
But there can be a relationshipwith your health, not an
authoritarian perspective.
Either it's healthier, it's not.
There's so many variables andvariations and sometimes the
stress and the sleeplessness isbecause of external factors.
Sometimes we're putting thestress and therefore having
(25:36):
sleepless nights on ourselves.
So it is really important tolook at what makes you you.
Why are we doing what we'redoing?
What's the why that makes youcry?
And so my special gift that I'mputting in a link below is
really looking at our values.
So many of us have values thatwe create or adopt from our
(25:58):
family and move on into ouradulthood and then we feel
disconnected and it's becausemaybe those values actually
belong to someone else orthey're not the values that we
have anymore.
So I would invite you, so I aminviting you, so I am inviting
(26:19):
you to download that.
Look at your own values andbring the curiosity not just
into your health, but into whatyou would like 2024 and
forevermore, for the next yearor the next six months, to look
like.
So, again, I thank you so muchfor listening to this podcast.
(26:39):
Please leave it a five starreview, and that helps us share
this.
Put this in the hands and earsof those that it will make a
difference for, and until nexttime, let's keep building one
another up.
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