Kathie Owen, a renowned Corporate Wellness Director and certified fitness trainer, dives deep into fitness strategies for menopause. Discover how tailored workouts and mindful practices can revolutionize your health during menopause. In this episode, we explore the significance of balanced fitness routines, addressing menopause challenges, and misconceptions about women's fitness in their menopause years. Kathie shares her personal journey and success stories, emphasizing the power of consistent, balanced fitness and mental well-being.
Kathie Owen's Path to Health and Wellness Coaching
Personal Experiences Shaping Kathie's Fitness Coaching
Overcoming Menopause Challenges with Targeted Fitness
Debunking Fitness Myths for Menopausal Women
Emphasizing Balance in Menopause Fitness Routines
Understanding Stress and Hormone Impact on Fitness
Consistency and Routine: Keys to Menopause Fitness Success
Integrating Mental Well-being in Menopause Fitness Regimens
Weight Training: A Vital Element for Menopausal Women
Tackling Age-Related Health Issues in Menopause
Leveraging Technology in Menopause Fitness Strategies
Inspiring Success Stories from Kathie's Fitness Coaching
Connecting with Health Expert Kathie Owen
Call to Action:
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe for more insights on fitness and wellness. Hit the bell icon for updates on our upcoming episodes. Share your fitness journey in the comments and join our community for more empowering stories.
Next Episode Preview:
Next week, join us for an in-depth exploration of menopause. We'll dive into understanding its impact and how to navigate this significant phase with grace and strength. Remember, you are beautiful, strong, and fully capable of shaping the best version of yourself. Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to catching up with you next week. Take care, and keep dreaming big!
Kathie Owen, a renowned Corporate Wellness Director and certified fitness trainer, dives deep into fitness strategies for menopause. Discover how tailored workouts and mindful practices can revolutionize your health during menopause. In this episode, we explore the significance of balanced fitness routines, addressing menopause challenges, and misconceptions about women's fitness in their menopause years. Kathie shares her personal journey and success stories, emphasizing the power of consistent, balanced fitness and mental well-being.
Kathie Owen's Path to Health and Wellness Coaching
Personal Experiences Shaping Kathie's Fitness Coaching
Overcoming Menopause Challenges with Targeted Fitness
Debunking Fitness Myths for Menopausal Women
Emphasizing Balance in Menopause Fitness Routines
Understanding Stress and Hormone Impact on Fitness
Consistency and Routine: Keys to Menopause Fitness Success
Integrating Mental Well-being in Menopause Fitness Regimens
Weight Training: A Vital Element for Menopausal Women
Tackling Age-Related Health Issues in Menopause
Leveraging Technology in Menopause Fitness Strategies
Inspiring Success Stories from Kathie's Fitness Coaching
Connecting with Health Expert Kathie Owen
Call to Action:
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe for more insights on fitness and wellness. Hit the bell icon for updates on our upcoming episodes. Share your fitness journey in the comments and join our community for more empowering stories.
Next Episode Preview:
Next week, join us for an in-depth exploration of menopause. We'll dive into understanding its impact and how to navigate this significant phase with grace and strength. Remember, you are beautiful, strong, and fully capable of shaping the best version of yourself. Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to catching up with you next week. Take care, and keep dreaming big!
Well hello there, fearless midlife trailblazers. Welcome to Create The Best Me. If you are new here, I'm so glad you made it here. If you're a returning listener, welcome back to the one and only place where we encourage and empower women in midlife to pursue their dreams and live life to the fullest. I am Carmen Hecox, your host and personal development coach. Today's guest is Kathie Owen, a seasoned fitness trainer and life coach with over 20 years of experience. Kathie's passion for fitness began in the year 2000. She quickly became a specialist in senior fitness. With Kathie's own podcast, Kathie's coaching and a YouTube channel, she is a beacon of inspiration for many. Today she'll share her expertise on crafting a personalized program, especially for older adults and women going through menopause. Let's dive in and learn from Kathie. Kathie Owen, welcome to Create The Best Me.
Kathie Owen:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Carmen Hecox:
I am so happy to have you on. For some of the people who may not be familiar with you, can you please let the audience know who you are and what you do?
Kathie Owen:
My name is Kathie Owen. I am a Corporate Wellness Director. I'm also a, a certified fitness trainer, certified life coach for 20 plus years. I have my own coaching business as well as I am a corporate wellness director for a company. So, I'm also a consultant for Corporations,
Carmen Hecox:
And you also have a podcast.
Kathie Owen:
I have a podcast. I have a YouTube channel. Yes. Kathie's coaching is my podcast. Yes
Carmen Hecox:
Perfect. Is that also the name of your YouTube channel?
Kathie Owen:
Um My YouTube channel is just Kathie Owen.
Carmen Hecox:
Kathie Owen. Okay, great. Can you share a little bit about your personal journey? What led you to become a health and wellness coach, especially for older adults?
Kathie Owen:
So, it started a long, long time ago back in the year 2000 I was I was taking water aerobics, and my kids were little. And water aerobics is typically where seniors hang out, where they exercise. And so, I was taking the class and they asked me if I wanted to start teaching and I'm like, okay, sure I'll start teaching. And so, I started teaching. And, shortly thereafter, I just fell in love with the older adult population, and I was in my 30s at the time. So, I just started working with them as well, and I got certified to work with older adults, and I'm also a certified fitness trainer. But that specialty certification led to everything that happened, including, and especially today, how I train myself. And others as well.
Carmen Hecox:
And that takes me to my next question. How has your own experience with health and fitness shaped your approach in coaching?
Kathie Owen:
So, my experience has been I know what to do as for older adults, because as a certified fitness trainer, every two years you need to get recertified, you need to take continuing education and that continuing education needs to apply for the certifications that you have. So, fitness is an ever-changing industry, as you know, and there's so many components to it that continuing education is very helpful. So, I keep learning and learning and learning and adding to that. And that helps me personally, because now I'm considered an older adult and I just use what I've learned along the way.
Carmen Hecox:
So, you're now older back when you started, you were in your thirties. I know menopause is something we all face. You're going to go through it. It's a guarantee. How have you incorporated your fitness program to help women overcome some of the challenges that come with menopause?
Kathie Owen:
Right, right. So, I'm very happy to say that I've had very few menopause symptoms and I'm in menopause now. But about three years ago, I took a certification that was all about menopause and how to balance hormones through exercise and fitness. And there's this method called the BEST method and it has to do with bone density, it has to do with estrogen dominance, it has to do with strength training, and then your training as well. And those things led me when I took this continuing education class. I was like, okay well, I have been doing all these things, so I believe that that and my mindset are the things that led me to not have menopause symptoms like I have hot flashes every once in a while. I had night sweats every once in a while, but I didn't have a lot of the things that my friends are talking about. And so, I started training them as well and my clients and started teaching them the fitness methods that I use. It's not something you can just jump into. You've got to gradually get into it. But that's how it happened.
Carmen Hecox:
So, what are the most common misconceptions about health fitness for women in their menopause years?
Kathie Owen:
Oh, I would say one of the main misconceptions is they think they have to go super hard in their fitness or not at all. It's both ends of the spectrum that are both misconception. And here's why when I took that continuing education class, one of the things that I specifically learned is that your cardiovascular and your strength training combining of both of them, you need to keep it at right around 60 percent of your max. So that would mean if you lift a hundred pounds, you would only lift 60 pounds. And if your heart rate is 220 beats a minute, minus your age, if that is in the one sixties, then they think that they need to go all heavy. Or not at all. But the thing is, and the good news is, it's all about balance and mostly about keeping it in the lower range rather than in the hard range. So, the 60 percent is like a magic number, I tell my clients. It's like a magic number. You want to hit that and just keep it in that rather than taking your heart rate up and going hard the whole time.
Carmen Hecox:
Yeah, cause I think that, um, a lot of people think that I have to like go really hard. I got to keep my heart level like way up here in order to burn fat. And because I know like I'm also going through menopause, I did notice that as I approach menopause that my muscle mass significantly changed, not for the best, for the bad, and my fat went up. And so, I know that for me, I'm like, okay, well, I can't get my heart rate up that high and I can't, I can't keep it up that high. Then I'm not really doing anything.
Kathie Owen:
Yeah, and like I said, that's a big misconception about your workouts. And here's a little thing that I noticed, during the pandemic, how I trained people was using their smartwatch. And so, I could tell when they were doing it wrong, which is taking their heart rate up and working hard the whole time. When I first started training somebody, they would send me their workout and their heart rate would be, FOOF! at hard, going hard the whole time. And I said, no, no, no, we need spikies in there. And the good thing is you need lower spikies, down at the bottom and, very little at the very top. So that is one of the huge things that help because estrogen dominance starts taking place. Our brains release chemicals that go off, especially during stress, during menopause. Cortisol becomes dominant. Cortisol has a party with fat cells in our least favorite sections on our body. And the more you release a lot of cortisol when you're working too hard. So, you want to keep it, like I said, it's the good news. It's the magic number. You want to keep it in your low number. And if you look on treadmills and some elliptical equipment, they have this little Heart rate zone training, and you'll see the green is where you want to stay if you're trying to burn fat. That's not what everybody's goal is but that green zone is like the magic zone. That's where you burn fat. That's where you're you get oxygen going through your body better. You start feeling better. You stop releasing cortisol, you release better brain chemicals like endorphins and things like that.
Carmen Hecox:
Yeah, cause I always tell my husband, cause we walk three and a half miles every day. And I have shorter legs than he does. And so, I'm trying my hardest to keep up with him. And he'll look at his, he has an iWatch I have and Samsung. And he'll say, why can't you keep up? My heart rates at this. You're really not burning any fat. And I tell them I don't want to stress myself out because here I am, I'm trying to keep up with you. And if I'm stressing myself out, I don't think that I'm actually burning fat. I'm inviting my friend cortisol to come and, kind of like eat up all the benefit that I'm think I'm trying to do.
Kathie Owen:
Exactly. Exactly. So maybe he needs to listen to this episode and see that. And I've got a ton of content that I write about that. And also, another hormone that's released is human growth hormone and we need that to be released. To just help the body. I mean, some people get it injected into them just for that reason, but when you exercise like that in the magic zone, you're going to release human growth hormone, which is something we want to be able to do. So yeah.
Carmen Hecox:
And I know you and I had had a previous discussion before this recording and I did tell him, I said, hey, you know, I was just talking to this lady, Kathie Owen, and she talked about the importance of being at different levels. And I said, I'm going to interview her. So, you're going to have to listen, because you're wrong. And she's a certified trainer. She knows she's been doing this for years.
Kathie Owen:
Yeah, that's for sure.
Carmen Hecox:
So how does the body of a woman going through menopause differ than someone who's younger in terms of fitness needs and challenges.
Kathie Owen:
Yes, for sure, you know, I kind of alluded to this a minute ago is that, if somebody's coming to me and they haven't exercised in a while, you can't just jump into this heart rate training. You can't just jump into the 60 percent max. it's all about taking it easy and not working so, so hard and gradually making it happen because what I see happen is people start exercising, especially in January, they start exercising and they go all out and then they hurt themselves. We don't want to do that, and you can get a good workout without going all out, obviously as we talked about before.
Carmen Hecox:
How do you keep people encouraged? Because I know that, like you said, there might be some people that have never worked out before, or maybe haven't done it in, several years and now they want to start and maybe they're in a group with other people that are around their same age, but the other people are doing a little bit better than they are. How do you keep them encouraged to keep going when they really feel like I'm not doing anything?
Kathie Owen:
This is a great question. I love this question because this is bottom line, what I deal with every day. As the corporate wellness director, I'm constantly trying to keep people encouraged and keep people motivated. In fact, on my website at the top of the website, it says, lack of motivation sucks. Don't let that be you. Because when I interview people, I go, what do you like to do for exercise? Well, I'm not motivated to exercise is usually first thing they tell me. Even at the job that I work at, and I'm trying to get people to come to the gym. I'm not motivated to come exercise. I get that a lot. And I get that, but motivation is a funny thing, and it comes from the inside. Most people are used to external motivations, like, I'm gonna have a weight loss contest, I'm gonna win money, and that's what's gonna motivate me. Yes. It does, but when the contest is over, do you continue? No. Most likely you don't. If your motivation comes from intrinsic motivation, like,"oh, I'm doing," you understand completely your why, you're doing it. And you have your values in there as well, then you're going to stick with it. You're going to go exercise when you don't feel like it. You see your tennis shoes, you put them on and you go out the door and you go walk. So, for somebody who feels like they're, I work with all different fitness levels. So, for somebody who feels like, oh, I'm just new and I don't know what to do. I help them see where they achieve. I go, you're not doing it wrong. You just want to do here, so you're working this muscle group. And it just encourages them and keeps them in the same line. And at the same time, I try to help them find their intrinsic motivators as opposed to extrinsic motivators. So that does it.
Carmen Hecox:
So, you're sort of encouraging the small wins and building from the small wins.
Kathie Owen:
Definitely. In fact, this month, every month I have a different calendar and this month is all about setting goals and setting realistic goals. And we take daily steps in my calendar blog that I have and my email list, and we take daily steps, and we work on it together and we motivate each other. And that calendar, I also incorporate into my job as the corporate wellness director. So, people print that calendar out. They have it at their desk. They're in fact, they'll come to me and go, okay, today is one brick at a time. And I love that because that's just motivation is a funny thing. And it's just daily steps. And, as you and I talked before we even got on here, stress is going to happen. It's not if, it's when. And when you are prepared for stress to happen through exercise, through a mindset, which is more to talk about more than anything is your mindset. If you're prepared for it, then when it hits, you can easily go through it. So, I have a lead magnet where I talk about getting into flow. Because if you can get into flow and you make flow a priority in your life, you'll be in flow at any given time, even under stress. And then when you know what flow feels like, which is what I teach in there, then when you are under stress, you know, okay, I'm taking a break. I'm stepping away from this for a moment and then come back to it. And then you look at it with different eyes and it just it helps a lot because like I said, it's not, if you're going to hit stress, it is when. Be prepared and have flow in your back pocket because it will help a lot.
Carmen Hecox:
How do you tailor your program to fit each person's individual needs, especially those going through menopause? Cause we're all different and, I might have a lot of hot flashes and someone else might have a lot of night sweats.
Kathie Owen:
Yeah. So, I work with all ages. I work with ages twenty-six to seventy-five seventy-eight. And what I do, and I don't know if it's a gift I have or what, but I can pick up on where people are saying, like for today, for example, today I had somebody tell me, she was telling me she's having problems with hot flashes and things like that. And I said well let's try cutting out sugar or at least cut back on sugar because she goes well, I have a sweet tooth. Well, I have a sweet tooth, but I cut back on sugar, and she goes you go to the other side of the gym Kathie I don't want to talk to you anymore And I go no, no, no, I get that. I also get I'm not telling you you don't want to do it. Just cut back. And she goes I can't. And I say this can't, never did anything. So just reframe your thinking because I also trained somebody this morning that's in their 70s and he's lost like 25 pounds in several months. Brought his glucose numbers down because of my training with him. All I did with him, Carmen, was I made him aware of what he was eating. He had to text me his food every day. Not everybody needs to do that. But what that made him aware, oh, I got to send this to Kathie. I better be careful. But what he started doing and he'd done it before. I've been training this man for 13 years, but he'd done this before, and he started doing intermittent fasting. But that's different from this other person. However, I'll take bits and pieces of his story and share it with somebody else. And I go, well, you know, he loves food. He loves to eat. I've known him for years and he's loved to eat, but he just cut back. He didn't cut everything out. He just cut back, and he started intermittent fasting and even fasting for longer hours. Now that doesn't work for everybody. So therefore, I'm not going to tell somebody else that's in their twenties that, doesn't want to do that. I'm not going to tell them that I just kind of tweak and play around with it. And know, what some people can do, some people can't do.
Carmen Hecox:
And I thought that's really funny when you said sugar because, I don't know, I was feeling a little stressed and when I get stressed, my go to thing, I don't know why is sugar. And so, I found myself sticking my hand in the M M container. And then I told my husband, I said, I'm getting some hot flashes, I wasn't getting those before. I said, I think it's related to the sugar. Cause I wasn't eating M& M's and now I'm eating M& M's and I'm getting hot flashes. I said, I'm not doing this anymore.
Kathie Owen:
Yeah. And sugar is unfortunately, I love sugar too, but it is a poison. It's a poison. And I noticed lately, I had a lot of sugar the other day. They kept tempting me with it and then I could feel it. And so, when you start to feel it, that's becoming aware of what it's doing to your body and feeling that and then you know next time maybe I won't do that or just cut back a little bit and still have some but not a lot if that makes sense.
Carmen Hecox:
Mm hmm. It's learning how to balance.
Kathie Owen:
Yes, balance.
Carmen Hecox:
Are there any specific exercise or practice that you believe are particularly beneficial for women in this age group?
Kathie Owen:
Yes, for sure. And that is called Routine. A routine is super-duper important. It's like a non-negotiable in my opinion and my beliefs. The reason why is because a routine, I'm not talking about so structured that you can't be spontaneous. But I'm talking about especially your morning and your bedtime. So, your morning routine, if that will get you into flow if you have a good ritual for your morning. And it doesn't have to be long. It just could be 15, 20 minutes, even 10 minutes, just something. And I'm a firm believer in getting up early. I love to sleep, but I've noticed that when you do get up early and you start your day early, you get the good feeling brain chemicals going in your body and that will pull you through your day. Whereas if you wake up and you're running out the door to go to work and you're running late and you're grabbing everything out the door, then that's already setting the moment. So, I believe if you're not early, you're late. And so, I apply that to my day, and it's served me. And I also coach that as well, because I do have people who resist that, but what you resist persists, and if you don't just 30 minutes, I say just 30 minutes earlier, it will serve you, especially in your most stressful times.
Carmen Hecox:
Yeah, and I wake up early. I mean, I've kicked it back. I used to wake up at four o'clock in the morning, but now I wake up at 5 30. But if I wake up at seven or eight and it's happened before, I just feel like I'm rushing myself throughout the day, even though I may not have commitments. Scheduled commitments, I just always feel like I'm kind of behind. And I don't know if it's because used to wake up at three, then I kicked it back to four. Now I'm at the five mark, but you're right.
Kathie Owen:
Yeah, it's a ritual. I believe it's a ritual. And instead of a routine, I like the word ritual just because it just sounds more healthy. And it also, it's also leaves you room for spontaneity, which I think is important to just be creative. Especially as a creative, you've got to have spontaneity in your life so that you can just jump in the moment.
Carmen Hecox:
How do you incorporate mental well-being and emotional support into your workout routines, given the hormonal changes women experienced during menopause?
Kathie Owen:
Okay. I can go back to an experience I had during COVID. You know, the gyms were closed so we couldn't exercise, and it was really hard. And I started having the brain fog, the headaches because I wasn't getting the exercise that my body is used to. And I think what I started doing was I had some equipment at home, I started incorporating workouts and started getting that movement early in the morning because it's been proven, studies have shown that if you do movement 30 minutes a day, especially in the morning, it's going to release endorphins that will help with those headaches that you have. It will help with the brain fog. Again, let's go back to the brain chemicals that we're releasing when we exercise and those are good chemicals, but let's not do the bad ones. So, we stay in the magic zone and get that good mindset. And I combine that with what I'm listening to, and I was just listening today to a coach talk about how music affects us and how we can listen to a song in the morning, and it can help inspire your day and you know, just make a playlist of stuff that you listen to. I personally listen to podcasts. I listen to books and those things help me in my day that help me, either maybe it's something I'm going to coach that day or maybe it's something I'm going to work with that day, but it just helps me get in the zone and that's so important. And it helps with again, let's go back to the stress and the hormone issues, it's not if it's going to happen, it's when. And so, when you have these rituals in place or this mindset in place, it's just gonna, it's going to help you all the way through.
Carmen Hecox:
Yeah. You know, and I wanted to ask you, because I think that some people will like myself may veer more to working out, like walking or doing some floor exercise. And my husband always tells me, you need to lift weights. Don't just do this stuff. You need to build muscle. Can you talk a little bit more about the importance of weight training, especially for women in menopause?
Kathie Owen:
Absolutely, because that is extremely important. And the lifting the weights will help build muscle that pulls on the bone. So, as we age, we start to lose bone density. You've heard that before, I'm sure. And when you lift weights at sixty percent of your max. So, let's go back to the hundred pounds, that's sixty pounds of weight, but even if it's ten pounds. That mean if ten pounds is your max, then that means six pounds and do ten reps two or three sets. So, my strength training program is revolved all around the posture. It's a hundred percent about your posture. You have a front muscle, you have a back muscle, you have your shoulders and your glutes and every muscle counts. So, where I work, I break the workouts up into two lower body days and three upper body, one day is core. And your core has to do with your balance. So, we build all of those muscles and it's funny because some of the girls that are like my age, they come in and they're like, oh, this is hard. I'm sore here. And I'm sore here. And I'm like, you're doing the right thing. It's all good. So, you know, it's just building one day at a time, one day at a time. But yes, strength training is super important. And let's say you don't have weights or a gym to go to. You can still do pushups on your counter. You can still do squats. I highly recommend squats for especially people who are very sedentary or sitting in a chair. Doing squats, while you're watching TV, just sit there and do squats and do a hundred squats a day. And you will start to notice a difference in your body and your glutes in the way your hips feel. I was training my older gentleman today, and he was showing me some stuff that he's been doing, like, he's been doing, he calls it fire hydrant, I call it dirty dog, where you get on your hands and knees, and you lift your leg like a dog. I can't tell you how important that is for your hips. For your hip flexors, because our hip flexors are used to working like this, you know, front ways, but we need that flexibility in the sides to help us stabilize, to help us balance. He was showing me he did, some other, like yoga he did, dog pointer. And that works your lower back. It helps it strengthened that. I'm like, yep, these are all very, very good and great for your hip flexors and he has sciatica. So that helps with that.
Carmen Hecox:
And it's interesting that you brought that up because last week I was among, some women that were my age and maybe a little bit older and we were talking about, taking, joint, supplements. And then one gal said, oh yeah, my hip hurts. And she's not very active. And then my sister-in-law who's incredibly active, she runs marathons, she also complained that she was having hip issues. And I just said, well, first thing in the morning, before I put my shoes on, I always stretch my hips. And I said, and I do that because, after having my neck surgery, my first neck surgery, they had to remove bone from the side of my hip. And that's when I started to have hip pain. And so, I found that the only way to recover from that hip pain was to stretch my hip. And now I've just kind of kept doing it. But I noticed that a lot of women my age or older are complaining of hip pain. And it's because you said, we don't open in that direction.
Kathie Owen:
Yeah, yeah, so those exercises right there. You could do those at home in the comfort of your home and just think of how I used to teach an arthritis class in the pool, and we would start at the feet. And rotate your ankle, point and flex your toe. What's good about the pool is it doesn't hurt when you're doing it, especially if you have arthritis. But if you don't move it with arthritis, you're going to lose it. So, you need to move it so they would get in the pool and do it. Some of them would get in the hot tub and do it because the hot water's even better. And therefore, we'd start at the foot and move up and move everything in the range of motion that it should be moving all the way. That's what our bodies are meant to do. And we need 30 minutes of movement a day. If that's just movement, yoga is also good. Pilates is good. And especially for women who struggle with even going to a gym, or maybe they don't want to lift weights still by doing those types of exercises. That type of movement is very beneficial.
Carmen Hecox:
How do you handle clients who might be dealing with other age-related health issues alongside menopause?
Kathie Owen:
Like what other issues maybe?
Carmen Hecox:
Well, like arthritis, cause I think that's pretty common. You know, menopause brings its twin sister arthritis.
Kathie Owen:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so, you know, arthritis is one of those things, like I talked about a moment ago, if you don't move it, you lose it, but it hurts to move it. So, getting in the water is a great way to do it. Or, I've had people, I've worked with older adults who they couldn't do those moves, but they could do them in their bed. You could do them first thing in the morning. Maybe you can't lay down on the floor, but you can do those stretches in your bed, those types of things. And then, you know, another thing that comes, I see a lot of is sciatica. Sciatica is a pinched nerve that's in your butt, as I call it, the pain in the butt move, you know, that hurts. But sciatica can be relieved by doing things like fire hydrant, by doing things like hip flexor movements, things like that. It can't be totally relieved, but also a stretch that's good for that is where you cross your ankle over your knee, and then bring your knees into the chest. And so, I tell them while they're laying in bed, if you can't get down on the floor, do it in bed. You can also do it standing up, and it's funny because I would do that stretch in water aerobics, and the whole class would be going, Ah! You know, because it just feels so good to get that hip. Because sciatica is a pinched nerve. And so, it's almost like giving it some relief and the more stress that you have or if you've put weight on, it puts more impact onto that point. And to help stretch it and pound it out. It just helps to get that going. But back to posture as well with posture and strength training, go hand in hand and you don't want to neglect the other muscle groups. You don't want to just train your legs. You don't want to just train your arms. You want to do all the muscle groups. And if you can only do the big muscle groups, like the chest, the back and the glutes. You're pretty good on strength training that way.
Carmen Hecox:
How do you, I know that you have a corporate job where you help the corporate employees stay fit. You also have one on one coaching that you do, and that's, face to face. Do you help people online, too?
Kathie Owen:
Yes, in fact, I will be having, a launch of a program in January where I'm doing group coaching and the group coaching is all centered around the questions, I get asked all the time, a hundred percent of the time by the corporate people that I work with to my one-on-one coaching. And so that will just be, it's launching in January. It's called the resolution revolution, because what happens in January, people set their goals and then they don't reach them because they don't have a concrete foundation. It's all about your foundation. And when you learn your foundation, just moves right, through; it makes it easy. And inside this program, they'll have access to how to use your smart watch as a personal trainer. What's your heart rate supposed to be. How to get oxygen going through your body better. How to feel better. And of course, most of my clients are women over the age of 50. So, we all have the same struggles and getting those hormones balanced through fitness. yeah.
Carmen Hecox:
And is there like, a support group or is it just kind of a web-based program where people are just kind of move along at their own pace?
Kathie Owen:
Yeah, so I like this question because I joined Mighty Networks and so I have a community inside Mighty Networks where, it's a free community where we bounce ideas off of each other and then inside there you'll have access to to the courses or the group coaching or, and that's if you want to do it. But if you want to just do the free community, the free community goes off of my calendar that I do every month. So, every day I have a journal prompt. I have an idea and they just go off of that. So, what we work on.
Carmen Hecox:
Can you share another success story? I know you mentioned that there was that gentleman that you've been coaching for over 13 years, and he's been able to lose weight. Do you have any other success stories? Someone who just said, I have tried everything. I've tried different trainers or different programs, and nothing worked.
Kathie Owen:
Yeah. I have numerous success stories. One that comes to mind right now is a girl that, that's relevant to your audience, I think. She's in her fifties and she was one of my sorority sisters in college and she just tried everything. She was doing Orangetheory. Orangetheory is a phenomenal workout because it does your heart rate and it watches your heart rate. It works off of it. So, I would read her stats from her Orangetheory and It wasn't, she was hitting her high number too much. So go back to that, that's the issue. And then on top of that, she was inconsistent. Consistency wins the game all the time. Consistent action wins the game, and it also burns the bridge of procrastination. Well, a lot of times people don't, they just put it off, put it off. I'm going to do this later; I'm going to do this later. And that is going to hurt you. And so, what happened with Carol is she would not be consistent. So, when she hired me to be her coach, she started going, oh, okay, I see this. We went through one whole month, 30 days. She did 30 minutes of movement every day because of what I taught her. And her success story is even better because she started seeing changes in her body. She started seeing muscle definition that she hadn't seen before. And this just snowballed into better and better things like she started paying attention to her diet. She started paying attention to this and that and it's just been better and better and better all the time. So that's a really good success story with her because she was tired when she hired me. She wasn't motivated. She felt like crap, and she just didn't feel like doing exercise even though she was going to Orangetheory. It wasn't serving her because she wasn't doing right.
Carmen Hecox:
But it goes, I think a little bit beyond that because it's not just about losing weight and being healthy. It's also about her mental well-being.
Kathie Owen:
Yes, for sure. And the thing is, she's an accountant and she was under tremendous amount of stress. Back to the cortisol. She was releasing a lot of cortisol and in fact, she had medical research done on her, she had blood work done and that blood work showed that she was working out too much. That's what her doctor told her, but she wasn't working out too much. What happened was she was under too much stress. So, her stress was releasing all that cortisol. And then we turned it around by balancing out her workouts. And then I introduced her to the smartwatch. She got, not the Apple watch, but the Android and she fell in love with what I taught her, how to use it as her personal trainer. And she just was like, that's her accountability partner. So, I showed her how to use it when she's just walking, when she's working out, she sends me her stats and I show her how to analyze it. And it just motivated her even more and helped her not release. So much cortisol and then we started releasing human growth hormone instead because of the way she's working out so.
Carmen Hecox:
And I think that's really important, cause I think there's a lot of people out there that have either a Samsung watch or have an iWatch or whatever form of smart watches that is out there. And a lot of us don't know how to use them other than to make phone calls, check our emails.
Kathie Owen:
Yes, I rely on those heavily heavily, but there's a specific way I do it I actually teach a course on how to use them either the Samsung or the smartwatch and even the Fitbit. So, I teach a course that shows you how to use it because for example what she did she was walking around Target, and she put her watch on, and it would tell her are you done with your workout, or you're done with your workout? Well, no, she wasn't,and it did not read her stats properly. But if you put it on strength training; traditional strength training the only time. I don't use traditional strength training is when I'm on a walk because I want to see the distance. I want to see something other stats. But when you're doing some kind of movement, even cleaning your house you can burn more calories in your day by turning on your watch but turn it on to traditional strength training or strength training on the Samsung watch, because it will give you the stats that I want to see. I want to see the spikies in the heart rate. I want to see how many calories you burned. Those things are things that you want to start paying attention to because every time you want to get a little bit better, a little bit better. It's all about the slight edge. Just one percent better today than yesterday. That's it.
Carmen Hecox:
Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Kathie, how can people learn more about you?
Kathie Owen:
Um, I have a website, kathieowen.com, and that's K A T H I E. My mom made it hard for me, but yeah. So, it's kathieowen.com, and I've got ton of resources there. I've got a blog; I've got my YouTube channel linked there. I'm real active on Instagram, so that's, probably the best way to find me.
Carmen Hecox:
And so, I would say the best thing to do now is to visit your website so that they can sign up for your course that's launching in January.
Kathie Owen:
That would be awesome. I would love that.
Carmen Hecox:
Kathie, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your thoughts, your insights with Create the Best Me.
Kathie Owen:
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I sure appreciate it, Carmen.
Carmen Hecox:
As we wrap up today's enlightening conversation with Kathie, let's not forget the invaluable insights she shared about integrating smartwatches into our workout routines. Monitoring your heart rate during workouts can be a game changer, and Kathie is an expert at helping her clients Harness this technology for optimal results. If you're a woman navigating the challenges of menopause and are seeking guidance from an experienced trainer, look no further. Kathie is launching a new program this January, tailored just for you. Kathie's information and today's transcript can be found at CreateTheBestMe.com/ep046 if this episode resonated with you, please subscribe to stay updated. Join me next week as I will talk about menopause. Until then, keep dreaming big. Take care of yourself and remember you are beautiful, strong, and capable of creating the best version of yourself. Thank you for watching. Catch you next week. Bye for now.