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Steel Roses Podcast
Steel Roses is a podcast created for women by women. Social pressures for women are constant. Professionals, stay at home moms, working moms, we are here to tell you that you are not alone! This podcasts primary focus is providing real honest content shedding light on the daily struggles of women while also elevating women's voices.
All women are experiencing similar pressures and hurdles, and yet, no one is talking out in the open. If these topics continue to only exist as whispered conversations then we further permeate a culture of judgement and shame.
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Steel Roses Podcast
Amy Van Liew on Empowering Women's Fitness Journeys and Being Healthy Enough
Ready to transform your fitness journey after 50? Join us as we sit down with Amy Van Liew, a certified personal trainer and health coach who has dedicated her life to empowering women through fitness. From her remarkable career shift at the age of 50 to her inspiring resilience as a breast cancer survivor, Amy’s story is a testament to the power of reinvention and holistic well-being. She shares her unique approach to balanced health, emphasizing the importance of doing just enough to stay healthy without overexerting, and how she transitioned from an engineer project manager to a thriving fitness professional.
Navigating the complexities of entrepreneurship while maintaining personal and financial stability is no small feat. Amy opens up about the challenges she faced starting her own business, balancing it with raising young children, and how past experiences like babysitting and event planning shaped her path. We discuss the essential need for careers that align with one's passions and the significance of holistic health resources, particularly for women over 50. Reflecting on societal beauty standards and the importance of self-advocacy, Amy’s insights provide valuable guidance for anyone striving to maintain health and fitness in midlife.
Ever wondered if intermittent fasting could be the game-changer for your health? Hear how Amy and Jenny have successfully utilized intermittent fasting to reset hunger hormones, boost energy levels, and achieve weight loss. This episode provides practical tips on balancing diet and exercise, the benefits of strength training, and the importance of pelvic health and core strength. With actionable advice on nutrition, weight training, and effective fitness routines, this episode is packed with strategies to help you maximize your health and fitness after 50. Don't miss out on Amy's expert advice and inspiring journey!
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Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Still Roses podcast. This podcast was created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices. Very excited for today's episode. I have lots of questions for our guest. I've been making a list. Our guest today is Amy Van Loo. Amy is a certified personal trainer and health coach specializing in helping women over 50 get fit and healthy. She started out as an engineer project manager and found herself at 50 starting a new career. She's also a breast cancer survivor, so I mean welcome to the show. Wow, you've lived like at least three or four lifetimes, I think at this point.
Speaker 2:Now I'm only 61. I still have a lot to go.
Speaker 1:Like you've got a lot of life to live here. This is only. This is like, just take two or three Like this is awesome, Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I was 50, I thought that was oh my God, do you?
Speaker 1:remember when, like you thought, like in your twenties, that like thirties was like that's it, it's over and it's like no, we're just, we're just getting warmed up by the time you're in your thirties.
Speaker 2:It just gets better and better.
Speaker 1:So, amy, why don't you share?
Speaker 2:your story with the listeners. It's really an amazing story. And then I'll have some questions for you. You got it. You got it, yeah. So, as Jenny said, I've you got it. Yes.
Speaker 2:So, as Jenny said, I did a 180 at 50. I was an engineer. I started at Hewlett-Packard and we made HP printers. I remember the first inkjet printer was the first project that I was working on back in 1987. And I loved it.
Speaker 2:I grew up at HP. I met my husband, worked at HP. We didn't meet, we met at another job, but he worked there. I'm still the best of friends with my family. They were my family and I get to travel the world and I learned so much.
Speaker 2:Uh, and then at 50, they decided to shut down my business and then at the same time offered an early retirement. So if you had so many years of service and so at an age and it equaled a certain amount, I got a package and it was a pretty good package and almost an offer I couldn't refuse. And they let me stay an extra year from all of the other retirees to help shut down the business. So I had a lot of time shutting down the business but I had that time going. I'm out of here in so long. So I got out a book. Actually, we were in a little group at HP. We met once a week in one of the conference rooms and went over the book Jack Canfield's Success Principles how to Get From when you Are to when you Want to Be. He's the guy that did a bunch of the chicken soup for the soul books and it was a great book. If anybody's at a precipice in their life and don't know where they want to go, he walks you through a process to find what you're passionate about. What do you do that? You look up at the clock and go oh my gosh, three hours just went by and fitness and health that was for me.
Speaker 2:Back in college I got obsessed with health and fitness, not because I wanted to be healthy but because I wanted to be thin. So I started exercising and eating and experimenting, experimenting, and I was an engineer and so I was experimenting and I did every diet known to man. So that was going to be it. I even taught a bootcamp at HP during lunch, for free. So I just was always very active and very, very into being healthy.
Speaker 2:So a week after I went, I got, I was retired, I went back to school for nutrition. I had already gotten my personal training and and physical exercise group class teaching. Then I started going back to school. I'm going to help women get. I'm going to help people, you know, get healthy and they're going to get thin is what I thought. They're going to lose their weight, they're going to get healthy. And I started most of the people that were gravitating towards me were women over 50. My first personal client was over 50. Then I started teaching group classes in my garage and they were all 50, 60, 70. And I was working out hard.
Speaker 2:I was doing boot camps that I did in my 30s and 40s at HP, and I started hearing ouch ouch and I started learning how to modify. In fact, I was on a walk with my husband and we were trying to think about you know what am I going to call my company? You know I had FitTastic. I had Fitness this, amy's Fitness that, and I was telling him about some of the diets I was learning about nutrition the paleo, the keto, the raw, the this and that. And I said I just want to be healthy enough. And I went oh my gosh, that's my business and I'm just. I want people to exercise enough and not to be not enough. You don't just do enough. No, it's about doing enough to be able to do what you love to do, to feel good, to stop hurting, to get through the ouches, but not beat yourself up like I had been doing, being obsessive, compulsive about food and eating. And so that's how it evolved in 2014.
Speaker 2:I had my first personal training client, and then I'm going to just keep rattling on and then you can ask me questions. You can ask me questions so, and then in um 2018, I started filming videos for personal training clients. Uh, because it was expensive to have me one-on-one and or get to my group classes. So I I met this gentleman and he helped me film four workout videos for four 15 minute workout videos, and I loved it. And so then we sort of started kicking around the idea of filming more. So I filmed 48 workout videos in two weekends and launched an online membership. Instead of putting them out there for free on YouTube, I launched a paid membership, and that was 2019. And you know what happened in 2020.
Speaker 2:So everything in my life shifted again because of COVID, but it was for the better. So now I have an online membership. I have hundreds of women on my membership and I have over 700 workout videos. I have workout plans for hurt shoulders, hurt knees, hurt backs For this month, in August of 2024,. We're doing mobility. I have a mobility challenge, so I've got some mobility tests that we do for shoulders and hips and backs and ankles, and that's it, and I'm just loving life. I have the most amazing women in my community and it gives me a purpose to wake up every morning, and that's it. It seems like I've just boiled it all down, but boy oh boy, there were twists and turns in my journey that have led me to where I'm at talking to you today.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say, because I was like eagerly like taking notes while you were chatting and I know you gave us the snapshot version, so I'm going to ask you some questions. Yes, a couple things, though. Number one you can tell that you're meant to be doing what you're doing right now, and it's interesting how you ended up there.
Speaker 1:I always like to reflect on me personally. I reflected over the past couple of years in my journey of, like, what did I originally want to do? Like, what is something that you love to do? Exactly what you just said. What is something that you love to do that you could do it for hours and time just slips by and then you're like, oh my gosh, like I was supposed to, you know, go somewhere and I had all these like epiphany moments with that. And so I find it interesting that it was almost like the universe aligned and gave you this opportunity to say like you know what? We're going to give you this great package here and you're going to be able to explore this, because I think a big hurdle too for a lot of people, even myself included, a hurdle for me many years ago was like finances.
Speaker 1:I couldn't, I couldn't start something cause I was like I was short on time, cause my kids were all babies and like you see them walking around behind me Like they're big, they're big now, they like to debut themselves. They're big now, but like when they were babies, like there was zero time for anything. So that was always a barrier for me when I was younger, barrier for me when I was younger. And then finances when I was younger, to start something up, like I consistently throughout my life had multiple start stops for businesses. One of my very, very first business venture was like babysitting, you know and I had like a whole thing and families and a grid and all this stuff.
Speaker 1:I had all these tools that I used to use and everything. And then I had at one point in my life I was like, well, maybe I'll be an event planner. I like I like planning events, like let me do that. And so I had some family members give me some business. But then that was like, well, that's a lot of weekends and nights Like that's you know, then your social life has gone. Like your social life is event planning. I was like, well, I don't really want to do that, but I knew in my gut that at some point I would want to go on an entrepreneurial path and that there would be something there and my career took off very positively and I let all those dreams go to the wayside.
Speaker 1:And only in the past two and a half years did it start to bubble back up that I was like I need to do something else, like this, isn't it, and it took a lot of soul searching to get to like even podcasting and like finding my groove with podcasting. So I want to commend you there on that. That like. It's very I love that you had that moment, the pivotal moment of like well, what am I going to do now? I have this package like and now I could really lean into something that I really like, so that out of the gate is awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to say I was very I'm very blessed because I think in a different situation. Like you said, I think the universe set me up for that, because my husband had a good job, so I was very lucky. Finances were my biggest concern. I was leaving a nice paycheck and I didn't know where we're going to be able to pay our bills, and I swear that was the one thing that I was worried about. But, god in the universe, we've never had a problem financially paying our bills. Knock on wood on wood, yeah, but I truly believe that that it was meant to be in and the obstacles I thought were there never came to fruition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's that that part is amazing. Now, the other part that I wanted to focus in on, that I I'm like incredibly passionate about and I think I said this to you when we were having our introductory chat is that you are focusing in on women over 50. Now the reason why this is so critical, listeners, is because Google anything related to women's health. Google anything. I'm not even kidding. You could probably Google anything related to women's health and the top articles are going to be like for any ailment, take a walk, drink some tea. There's not actual, legitimate anything behind these things and I've looked things up. I have endometriosis and I remember when I first started researching it. There's like hardly anything out there and you really have to dig and be interested in reading medical journals and like all this stuff, like there is very, very little resources.
Speaker 1:And then, outside of like diseases and everything else, women's health in terms of weight loss and body fitness and like I don't really focus in on the weight loss as much, like the number. It's more about like what you said, like you need to be healthy enough. You need to be able to feel good in the morning. Do you feel well enough to get up? Are your joints aching, are your knees hurting? You know, like when I um, after I had my twins I think I was about 33 and um, I had gained a tremendous amount of weight in my second pregnancy and I was struggling to lose it and I just kept gaining more weight and I got to a point where it was painful in the morning when I had to get up.
Speaker 1:But I couldn't understand and, like you had said, I was doing all these ridiculous crash diets. I was like, oh, maybe I'll try keto this week. Oh, that didn't work. I don't know why that didn't work. Let me try paleo this week. Oh wait, that didn't work. Let me do something else Like and. And then it just it was just like a snowball thing. So I'm interested to hear, for I'm in my 40s, I'm proud of it, I'm excited about it. Sauce, turning 40 is like a big like moment for me. For somebody at my age, you know, getting healthy and being physically fit is part of the hurdle. For me is like I don't want to spend an hour in the gym, you know. So for women who are looking for something like what would be the best path?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh you've, you've. You've brought up so many good points. Oh my gosh, I have to to sort of unpack them all. Going back to not enough information for women. Just wait till you get older. It gets even harder with the menopause. I mean any, any studies. I've been looking at all these studies and I had breast cancer too, so I've been down the road of hormone replacement therapy and all of that. But all of the studies and I just learned recently that the FDA never uses women in any of their testing, because we're too.
Speaker 2:I think you told me that I did tell you and that kind of blew me away because we're too hormonal. So they'll mess up their statistics. We'll mess up their statistics.
Speaker 2:They don't want to use us and so so figuring out, you know you have to be your own scientist and you have to be your own advocate and you have to push really, really hard to get anything done. And it can be so frustrating and unfortunately done. And it can be so frustrating and unfortunately, with all of the media and all of our access to everybody, we don't know and we can't trust what we hear. I mean you hear so many people.
Speaker 2:Oh, you have to exercise like this or eat like that. And if someone asked me what I eat in a day or how I eat or how I exercise, I tell you I'm not going to really tell you. You kind of have to figure it out. You need the basics. There are basic things we, as women, need. We need to eat enough protein for our body. We need to eat enough produce and the antioxidants to give our bodies the nutrition that we need, and we need carbs. We need all that stuff and the recipe for that is totally dependent on you and what time you eat. And we do need to do strength training because as you're 40, we start to lose muscle mass when we hit 40s. The correlation between estrogen loss and muscle mass and bone health is real. Estrogen loss and muscle mass and bone health is real. And the building blocks for all of that is strength training 30 minutes twice a week, that's all you need.
Speaker 2:You know, crazy. Seriously, I do a strength workout full body, heavy weights as heavy as for me twice 30 minutes. My workouts are not much longer. I did film some 40 minute workouts and they're 40 minutes because I talk too much when I'm doing my exercise videos.
Speaker 2:But again, it's the building blocks and some people will have a hurt shoulder or a hurt knee or endometriosis and not feel very good, and so maybe just a light walk or stretching is what you need at the time. But we've all got to learn to be our own advocates and push our doctors to dig deeper, because we're the only ones that are going to get it done. And I think seeing a pendulum at least in my world. I am seeing a pendulum with the big celebrities like Oprah and Halle Berry and some of the other ones hitting menopause. I'm starting to see and maybe that's just being fed to me because that's what I'm Because you're yeah, but I am seeing some more and even my doctor just recently I had something going on with my something and she listened, where several years ago she didn't.
Speaker 1:So maybe, maybe there's, there's definitely um. I can speak to this a little bit just because of what I do in the daytime and I can say there actually is um a more of a shift towards shared decision making yeah with between patients and doctors.
Speaker 1:So, listeners, shared decision making is when, instead of your doctor just saying to you he like listening to your complaints, give me your symptoms, then here's your prescription. Here you go. They're gonna in some instances, for certain things, and it really should be for all things, but right now I think it's only for specific items. There's shared decision making models that are being produced and released and doctors are being trained on it. So what I think, listeners, what some of you might not realize, is that doctors do ongoing education throughout their careers. Not all of them do. You can tell the ones that aren't doing it, but majority of them do do ongoing education, and part of what they're learning now is shared decision-making, and that's essentially making sure that you're part of understanding what's going on. Like, for example, when I first was told I had endometriosis, all the doctor said was we got it all, don't worry about it, you're all good and left, and didn't say anything else about anything else. So and I had no idea what we were talking about. So there is a shift in that direction. One thing that I wanted to highlight too, because you talked about women, are and I'm going to say our age range, because 40s to 50s, I think that's you know, we're kind of overlapping a little bit in terms of like perimenopause, menopause, like it starts happening. The need to get protein is really, really critical and that's actually something I've always struggled with.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, I grew up in the era of um, what was it called? This sounds horrendous, I'm gonna say it. I don't. I don't agree with this, but the phrase was heroin chic and you were essentially so skinny that you looked like you were a drug addict essentially. And that was when I was growing up. I'm a curvy lady. I've been like that since I was young and everyone always kind of was like oh yeah, you just have to lose weight, lose weight. When I was in high school I was a size eight and I was still being told like oh yeah, you're too thick, you have too much, too much hips, it's too much. And you know that's in my head pretty deeply, to the point where anytime I start any kind of diet or, you know, trying to maintain something, I actually have to be very careful. I have to walk a very careful line, because my tendency is always to shift towards oh well, don't eat anything and that's how you're going to lose weight. But in my 20s perhaps that's how my body was able to function. But now in my 40s, if I don't eat, I gain weight. Like it does not work that way.
Speaker 1:Because I had started counting calories at one point and I was like my coworker and I were doing it together and then we had this we both were doing it and we're both kept saying like, oh yeah, it's going well, it's going well.
Speaker 1:And then we both had this kind of breakdown moment and I said to her I was like, honestly, I've gained five pounds. And she was like, oh my God, I've gained weight too and we will start. And what the heck? Like we just assumed that you lower your caloric intake, you're going to lose weight, and that is actually not how it works. So in your 40s you actually have to increase your protein because your body needs that to function and you do have to eat your vegetables, like you actually have to consume food. So for me personally because I have this challenge and I do have a history of eating disorder in my past because I had that I do lean on protein shakes because I know my bad habits. But I know if I at least consume this protein shake, this has the minerals and nutrients and the things that I need. That will actually help supplement the moments. That way I can continue on my journey.
Speaker 2:Now you're. You're saying that's a bad thing, like protein shakes are a bad thing, do you think?
Speaker 1:Oh no, I love protein shakes.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, You're stating it like it was something that you shouldn't be doing, and I love it?
Speaker 1:Oh no, no, I love protein shakes, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:No, so much. In there you can cram all the veggies and all your protein and everything you need.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, and honestly, it's a huge time saver too, because, like, if you're like pressed for time like you definitely are, and I know I am that's like one of the first things I go for. And honestly, I even give it to my kids, like in between meals or whatever, because I'm like they're always hungry and I'm like I would rather them drink a protein shake with me than snacking on their snacks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no. It was just in a training class for women over 50. It was a weight loss class and we were so ingrained with exercise more, eat less, exercise more, eat less calories in calories out, and they were just showing hundreds and hundreds of women in this study that they were told they eat more. Now it was hard for you people, because I had struggled with that too. I'm 5'9", 5'10" and I got big. And someone said, oh well, you're just a big girl, amy. And I'm like, oh my God, I know, in college and that threw me for a loop and I was 20 pounds heavier, 30 pounds heavier than I am now. And I did look, I'm big.
Speaker 2:But they said these women just started eating more calories and, while it was really hard, they tried to just get in the good food and their body became this fat burn furnace for the first time ever. Because it was like, okay, I know what I need, I know what I need to be at, I know my fighting weight and that's where they felt good. And we've got to get away from that looking thin and gaunt versus being strong and happy, healthy and feeling good. And maybe our clothes aren't as baggy or we can't see the ripples in our skin, but we're feeling good and we can do what we love to do. We're sleeping good, we're happy, we're not starving. It's just such a learning curve and it's so difficult because it's between our ears too a lot of it.
Speaker 2:It's not, it's just all in our head Sometimes all this crap that we got, we get sold to about how we need to be and how we should look and how we should act and all this stuff. So it's just it's.
Speaker 1:It's a struggle, it definitely is Well you know, you said it earlier, like when we were talking about being fed, like certain things, and you were like well, it looks like you know, there's more information out there about menopause. But then you're like oh, but maybe I'm just being fed this and what?
Speaker 1:I wanted to point out with this is that, unfortunately, like, I think social media is a beautiful thing in some ways, but it's also like a pit and if you go too far into that pit, like and you and you drink the Kool-Aid like you you might not come back out. Like there, there's a lot of information out there that's absolutely inaccurate and it's also the way people are portraying themselves too. Now I like chuckle to myself because my husband will show me things on his on social media from our family and stuff and I'm like, what kind of filter is that person using?
Speaker 2:Because I know that they don't look like this.
Speaker 1:And then my stepdaughter, when she comes to the house, she'll tell me like, oh, like, let's, you know, let's take a picture. And I always tell her, like, give me the one that makes me look like I'm in my twenties still. Like, give me that one. And like, and but. But it's like this stuff, like that is putting so much pressure on real folks. And it's interesting because even men are getting a very tainted men and young men and boys are getting a very tainted idea of what women are meant to look like. Now, my body went through two pregnancies one in 2016, one in 2017. Went through two pregnancies, one in 2016, one in 2017. The twin pregnancy was like I mean, it was like it was all over. I have residual, you know, skin and I've, I've stretch marks everywhere and I'm like this kind of is what it is, like, this is.
Speaker 1:And my husband's advocate for working out he works out every single day. He actually is. He keeps our kids healthy, he has them work out like we're very focused on that. But like, on the flip side, he doesn't necessarily understand a woman's body and like, so the the things that he'll say like, oh, make sure you got to do this. You got to work out here, you got to do this, that and whatever. I'm like, well, it's not. I'm like it's not exactly the right. I'm like that might not be for me, though, and that's why I was so excited to talk to you too, because I'm like I think it does actually go a different way. You know, like I think that for us, for women in their forties and fifties and sixties that want to work out, it is about like mobility. Like you said, my mom just started working out recently and she's working out with a physical therapist. Yeah, I'm so proud of her. She's working out with a physical therapist and she's not, you know, she's not like she's shedding pounds and, you know, in a midriff or anything, she's not, but she's healthier.
Speaker 1:You know, and that's what I've said to my, my kids, you know, time and time again, because they see images on social media not, they don't have accounts, they're too little for that, but they see it on TV and they see things on YouTube and stuff, and I always tell them like, yeah, like you know, this person is skinny, this person isn't skinny, but being thin is not really like the goal. Like you want to be strong, like what you said you want to be healthy. You want to be able to, like, do things like you don't want to just be. You know the wind blows and you get blown away Like and and even if you are naturally thin, okay. And even if you are naturally thin, okay, good for you. You know, like it's okay that there's all these different body types out there. I did want to ask you something Now. This is actually a new since the last time we talked when I was.
Speaker 1:I recently was at a birthday party for one of my kids' friends and the talk amongst the moms was intermittent fasting, okay, and the benefits amongst the moms was intermittent fasting and the benefits of it. And one of the moms said she was like we're all in the same age range and she was like I was struggling, I couldn't lose any weight. I was trying every single diet out there. She was like I started doing intermittent fasting, which was like the 16 off and eight hours you can eat, and she said I ate really clean. I had basically one large meal at, you know, at like five or six, and then that was that was it. And she said, and I'd have like a protein shake and snacks or whatever. And she said she was like you have, you know, you should give it a shot. And so I'm like I've.
Speaker 1:I've basically tried everything else, like let me, let me see how this is going to work. I basically tried everything else, let me see how this is going to work. And I'm like I think I can do this, because I usually don't eat until later in the day and this kind of makes sense. This is the first time in years that I've actually seen anything happening where I felt better. Yeah, I felt better. I've actually seen some weight loss. I mean, yes, that's part of the goal, but it's really more about getting myself to a point where I'm comfortable, where I'm working out on a regular basis once the kids are back in school and, like you know, maintaining my muscle mass. So I wanted to get your opinion on intermittent fasting and how you felt about it for, like women, our age and like the benefits and if there's any pitfalls.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's a great question because it is out there all over the place. I loved it. I started the same way with you. I started just shortening my eating window. That's all I did was shorten my eating window, and I was blown away at how it reset my hunger hormones, Because I was that type of person that brought up, you know, graze.
Speaker 2:I would take snacks to work all the time. They were healthy snacks. I was eating good, but I was constantly eating, so my body never had a chance to really just calm down, so I was feeding it all the time. When I I would, I started eating at 11 and then I would have a snack and I would have a good protein breakfast or lunch or leftovers from dinner then and then I would have a snack, you know, yogurt and some nuts or some hummus and things, and then I have, I would have a nice dinner and try to stop by seven and it. I swear I was the same way. I was feeling really, really good, um, until I wasn't okay. So it now.
Speaker 2:Now I want to say, because it's just for everybody when I started having my breast cancer, I started having to take pills early in the morning and I couldn't take them without a food, and so I started eating breakfast again. I had to take my antibiotics, I had to take that and I just noticed that I started feeling a little bit better. My workouts I work out in the morning. My workouts were getting a little bit better when I ate something or had something before my workout. But I have to say I always go back to experimenting. In fact I have a we do a basic strength training this month and we talk about this in my office hours and my coaching calls and everybody's different. You've got to figure it out for you. So we experiment Okay, try to eat breakfast before you work out and try to go eat workout fasted and just kind of see how you feel. Some people get a better workout and some people can't even think about doing that. And then I have to say one more thing too about intermittent fasting, about doing that. And then I have to say one more thing too about intermittent fasting. I would love every woman to experiment with it because for cancer and health, when you go without food for a certain period of time, your body goes into something called autophagy, when it eats up all the gross stuff in your body, all the cancer. So the doctor that I'm working with, the naturopath, wants me to intermittent fast at least 13 hours, which is nothing. That's go to bed and stop eating at seven and have your breakfast at eight. That's no big deal, but that time of not eating is a great reset for your body and I think more women should take a little bit. Try 13, you know, 14 hours if you can. But definitely not mix it up when you're not starting, when it's like oh, that's I. My body really wants breakfast today, have breakfast. So they call it. I've listened to somebody and she phases it up. Go through cycles and try it and then don't. You're going to see your hormones. We have our hunger hormone called leptin that tells us when we're full, and then ghrelin that tells us when we're hungry. They sort of get reset when we don't listen to them. We're like, okay, I know you're there, but I'm not going to listen to you. I'm going to eat this at this time and try that for a couple of days and weeks and see how your body feels. But definitely be your own scientist with that too.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because you actually touched on a couple of things that I've been experiencing. So I haven't actually said anything. I've told like two people that I'm doing this because you don't know if it's going to work.
Speaker 1:So I'm like I don't know and so I have actually felt more energy in doing this the first day was kind of tough because I started it kind of on a whim the day before. I was like I had heard about it at the at the function that I was at with my kid and but I was there late, so I didn't stop eating until like 1130. And so the next day I couldn't eat until like four, 30 or five o'clock and I was like going insane. So I I already knew at that point I was like all right, I'm going to have to shift the next fast, make sure that it starts at like eight so that it makes more sense. So that was one thing. I've been kind of messing with the times. So it was the energy level.
Speaker 1:And then I have noticed too, the first week, as soon as I was able to eat, I was like, and I was like trying to get all the things and I was like let me have food like as fast as I can. But now I'm in my third week now and when I get to that point where I'm going to eat it, I have much more control over it and it does. And yeah, and it doesn't feel like I'm going to binge and go crazy and like the woman who had told me about it. She was like you know, you can't eat like a sleeve of Oreos, like you have to eat healthier, you can't like. And I was like no, I'm good, like I, I would, I wouldn't, I'd be all right, I have some, some self-control in that capacity, but it, um, yeah, like I in some instances, like I'll drink a protein shake first, like that's the first thing that I do. Because I noticed if I go for like a sandwich or something heavier or what have you, I can only eat a couple of bites before I'm like oof, all right, I need a minute, and then it takes me a little bit longer to have to go back to it.
Speaker 1:I also noticed, during the time that I meant to be eating, I'm also drinking a lot of water at the same time, and you know that wasn't happening as much before. So I've noticed that. And let me think, what else have I noticed? It's just, it's overall like been a much more pleasant experience than I had anticipated. I did encounter one person, one of the medical folks that I work with that said to me she was like let me know if you want me to try to talk you out of it, and I'm always interested in hearing other people's opinions and she's a medical person, so I'm going to tap her and ask her like what, what are your thoughts here? But yeah, thus far it's been very positive and it feels like a sustainable thing. And I actually want to ask you because I haven't done the research, like the legwork on longevity of this and if you happen to know this, is it meant to be like you stick with it for months, years, or can you go on and off of it? What's your experience with that?
Speaker 2:I think it's a good thing to phase it up, because our bodies are so amazing. Our bodies get used to things and I think it's important that, especially if you're going through something like a high stress, one of the things that there's a couple of things I want to caution on even trying um shortening your eating window. One is if you've had a history of eating disorders and then you're you're you're telling yourself I can't eat again, it could be triggering. So you've got to be really careful, because depriving yourself of food could set off some of those bells and whistles that got you in that place in the first place. The other thing, too, is making. It's so important to make. While you are eating, you've got to get that protein and you've got to get all the nutrients in. It can't be Oreos or French fries or something like that. And now I lost my train of thought of the third one.
Speaker 1:I think yeah, like how long you can do it for.
Speaker 2:Mixing it up and if you are going to start doing some heavy strength training, if you do that two days a week sometimes oh, I remember what it was. So for me, as women get older, for me, your hormones go out of whack and cortisol, which is your stress hormone, is tied to estrogen and you can get a rise in cortisol more easily when you get less estrogen and not eating is stressful on your body. I did a cortisol test when I was doing intermittent fasting and my morning cortisol was through the roof it came back it came back at like 11 when I started eating.
Speaker 2:Your cortisol needs to be high in the morning, um, to get you awake, and then it should kind of roll down and mine was like way, way, way, way high and then it came down as soon as I started to eat. So I started changing that just for that stress, because it was impacting my sleep Too much cortisol. It just got out of whack. So if you're experiencing anything of times of high stress, you don't want to pack stress upon stress upon stress. If you're training for a huge event, like you're training for a marathon or a triathlon or a big hike, you've got to fuel your body. So it's just what phase are you in? It's a great. I love it as a tool. I love it as a tool to reset my body. Get reset with how I'm eating, get the hunger hormones reset, put some boundaries on food.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, when we open up the floodgates and it just gives us these boundaries, that sometimes helps a bit, just get us back on track. But again, listen to your body. You've got to be careful. It isn't easy at first. So again, you've got to go. Okay, this is a little bit difficult, so give it a couple of days, don't go off the wheel. And then the other one other thing I'm going to say too is that when you hit 50 and 60, a lot of people have to do a colonoscopy or some sort of procedure. And when you get your body used to being off of food because you have to go off of food for a whole day, when you do something like that, it makes it so much easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're okay. Then I'll be ready when that time comes. I'll be adequately prepared.
Speaker 1:You know what. The other thing I noticed too, which has been interesting to observe, is, depending on what I eat, when I my fast ends, my body is reacting like differently to certain things. So I've been vegetarian and kind of gluten-free for a really long time and I don't I don't claim to be gluten-free at all I eat like gluten but in some instances, like I will lean more on like cauliflower based products, like I, and then occasionally I would pepper in like regular stuff, but like the bread that I buy is all very like it's like two or three ingredients, like I try to eat as clean as possible. I noticed that with the intermittent fasting, like if I ate. The one day I made, I made pasta salad. It was regular pasta and I threw like loads of vegetables in it. So I was like this should be fine. The food coma I was in after that pasta salad was like wild.
Speaker 1:I like logged back into work and I'm like sitting there and I work from home, so I'm like eating my food on the side. Then I was like, oh my God. I was like I need to drink some water or something. I need to flush this out of my system. It was like a shock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was the other that just out of my system. It was like a shock. Yeah, that's the thing my husband does intermittent fasting and sometimes he's like I don't want to eat my lunch or my breakfast because as soon as I eat I'm going to be so tired Because you just get these loads of energy sometimes. Sometimes a lot of people get a lot more energy when you're not eating and then you eat and you're like oh, my God, I have to go take a nap, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And so I have to be very careful of, like, what I choose. I select the first foods to make. So today I, very mindfully, was like I had olives. I like to do like little Mediterranean, like snack plates for myself, and I was like olives, hummus, like some cracker you know like, and tried to go lighter and healthier and then like kind of keep maintain that through the day. Um, but yeah, it's been interesting. This is the one area where I'm I'm thinking about recommending to people and I think that it's a good thing for people to try.
Speaker 2:Um.
Speaker 1:I am, I will. I've spoken about um on other episodes. Like these fads that happen right now and I and I unfortunately I think a lot of women are jumping on the Ozempic train and doing things of that nature to, you know, induce massive amounts of weight loss, and I want to repeat it here because I did a whole episode on it in January the the things that, like, women, will do and people will do to lose weight, is astounding. And you don't even really understand what the long-term side effects are. And for something like that and I want to say it here for for so anyone who's listening yes, like they, there will be late weight loss effects, but you don't know what the long-term side effects are for taking a medication that's indicated for somebody who has diabetes, like you really it will affect your body.
Speaker 1:Body and depending on how often you take it, if you're abusing it, even if you're using it properly, if you're taking it for a long time, you're going to see results, sure, but at what cost down?
Speaker 2:the line. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm on the fence just because I do see some of the potential benefits of people. That, from what I've heard, it quiets that food noise and for some people they cannot shut that off. And I've heard of microdosing maybe some small amounts, as long as you're doing it with a supervised professional and working on maintaining your muscle mass, Because when you lose weight you're losing fat and muscle and you can't lose muscle.
Speaker 2:You've got to build that up in the bank because it is harder to keep it as you get older and you don't want to be that frail old woman. You visualize that skinny, old, frail woman hunched over. She can hardly walk, she's got the cane. She can't get out of their wheelchair. You don't want to be that skinny, frail woman. You want to be that strong. Maybe you've got a little bit more poundage. But I do see some potential for people that you know just can't quiet that food noise, which might be the benefit.
Speaker 1:And I do think everyone has to like find what fits for them and be on their own personal journey, because you had said it too like it's really about like the individual person in the plan, even in terms of, like you know, I'm talking about intermittent fasting here. Yeah, I think it's wonderful, but it might not work for everybody.
Speaker 1:Like this might not be the thing for other people. I told my coworker that I was doing it and she was like I do not think I could do that, like sit that long without eating food. That that's okay. And if you, like you said, if you are doing something where you're taking medication to help maintain your weight or to lose weight, make sure you're doing with a medical doctor, make sure you're having regular blood work done, make sure that you know you're doing it in a healthy way, where you're actually still consuming the calories you're meant to consume, or the vitamins and nutrients because that's the other thing, too that I think gets lost and I also never really thought about it before but the nutrients that our body. Our body is essentially a soft tissue machine and we really need to give it certain vitamins and minerals. And you're going to find that in, like your deep leafy greens, in your vegetables. What do they say?
Speaker 1:It's like the rainbow diet is like the best kind of thing that you can have, and it's crucial because here, like in the United States, our diet is overloaded with carbohydrates, high fructose, corn syrup, like you name it every single thing you're not supposed to be eating isn't our daily food. Yes, it shows.
Speaker 2:I mean you look at you, you look at pictures now of of people at Disneyland now versus you know, when I was a little little kid, it's very, very different. And or you go to Europe and you see a big difference.
Speaker 1:It's like all you have to do. If you look somewhere else outside of the U? S, it's like you're going to get this shock to your system Cause even our portions. Um, I purposefully buy plates. I use paper plates don't anyone killed me for that but I have it's for my sanity. I have to do it. I can't wash dishes all day. Um, I buy paper plates, but I make it a point to buy the eight inch ones and not the 10 or 12 one inch ones, because you don't really need all that.
Speaker 1:And the first when I first started doing that and I was trying to fit the portion that I was used to fitting on the eight inch plate, I was like, oh, this is like, this is ridiculous, and I was like knocking food off. And now I make it a point to like buy smaller plates. And it's such a silly mind trick, but it is something that you could do. It would work. If you do have sensitivities to, you know, eating disorders, if you are struggling with that sense, if you buy the smaller plate, or maybe the bigger plate makes you more comfortable and you can put small portions on it, that actually does help in some senses and it does make you feel like, oh, I'm eating what I need to be eating here. But yeah, the diet and having a balanced diet. I never learned that growing up and I feel a little silly talking about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I was pretty lucky. My mom was really good. I remember I would go to school and my mom but it was like a big glass of orange juice and oatmeal but at the time that's what we thought was healthy and some toast with that Not a protein to be found in, it's loaded with thought was healthy and it's like and some toast with that, Not a protein to be found in, yes, Loaded with carbs and sugars.
Speaker 2:And so but yeah, I think we all get sucked into kind of what we were taught in the past and trying to figure out how to make that better for us in the future.
Speaker 2:And I think we're all learning too, especially as we do get. They do get more information and we do. We do have women like us talking about things like that, like this, and sharing, sharing our own experiences and what works for us, and then maybe experimenting and adapting and trying something different. But intermittent fasting, I think, back to that subject is something that can be very, very helpful, but you have to go slowly.
Speaker 1:Go slowly, but I do recommend it and if anyone has questions about it, like I've said it on other episodes, you can message me directly. In the episode description there's like a link that says contact and you can actually reach me directly if you have questions about if I'm still doing it by the time this episode airs, because it's honestly like it really is. I'm in my third week and I'm still kind of dipping my toe and I'm like let me just see how much further I'm going to go with this and but it's been effective thus far. So, outside of the diet we talked about extensively and I know we have like a couple minutes left I do so for weight training, so you did mention earlier like 30 minute sessions a week. If someone's really trying to, you're obviously you're not going to get ripped Like we're not talking about that, we're talking about healthy.
Speaker 2:Right, healthy enough? Yes, definitely, yeah. So working the major muscle groups. What we're trying to get into your brain is how can I build my muscle mass, my lean muscle mass? And the biggest bang for your buck are where the big muscles are your legs, your quad, your hips, your glutes, and then your chest and your back. And then so you try to hit those squats, lunges, deadlifts, bridges, things like that chest press or pushups, and then rows, and then, if you want to sprinkle in the, the vanity I don't want to call them vanity, but they are, they don't biggest bang for your buck is your biceps and your triceps and your shoulders, and then that those, if you can get in that kind of workout you do some squats and lunges, pushups and and, and then the most important, important, important, important is your core. Keeping your core is the foundation of your stability and mobility and it's not about doing a million crunches to get flat abs. You cannot get flat abs from doing core exercises. It's impossible. You can't exercise away a bad diet, but you've got to keep that strong core, especially for anybody that wants to do paddle boarding or hiking or those fun things where you need your balance. And then, as you get older, you want to make sure so you have your posture and it just keeps you injury-free longer.
Speaker 2:I love Pilates, I'm trained in Pilates, I have a lot of Pilates workouts on my platform because I just love it so much. And I took a course in pelvis health for women not pelvis health for women, but pelvis health. And I'm not talking about the pelvic floor, which is what holds up all your organs, so you don't pee and you don't have prolapse and things like that. I'm talking about all the muscles that support your pelvis area. And I have an engineering degree and taking this course my mind hurt because our pelvis area is so complicated in the muscles and your hip flexors and all of your glutes. We have three or four different glute muscles and deep hip rotator muscles and if we don't keep those strong, childbirth can be a issue and recovering from childbirth as you get older prolapses when all your internal organs come through your hoo-ha and that's not good. And so I just had a girlfriend who's only 68, had to go get a hysterectomy and get that all taped up because she didn't listen to me and work on her core.
Speaker 2:So keeping the core strong, so my formula and it's for over 50 fitness but I think it could be for anybody is two days of strength training and lifting as heavy as you can, because you don't have any time to lift those little pink weights. You got to lift heavy to make sure you get to muscle fatigue and so you do that on a Monday and a Thursday. Give yourself two days, then you get some some cardio. Get get I walk. You need to walk every day. Just get 30 minutes outside walk.
Speaker 2:You can get some some impact. If you're under 30, that's when your bone density is at its peak. If you can, if you can get your young kids to get impact, when you impact your bones they say oh, uh-oh, I better do something. You're being asked me to do something. So they go into what's called an osteoblast and they start building bone Once your estrogen starts to go down. There's a balance of osteo.
Speaker 2:I'm going to probably get too technical with you guys, but you've got to get as much bone in your bank as you can because it's very difficult to maintain it as you get older and impact and strength training are the only things that will build bone. The astronauts because they go up into space. They aren't getting impact, so their bone building actually shut down because they don't need it. Their bones are safe, their body's like. I don't need to build strong bones because there's no support against me.
Speaker 2:So, getting some impact if your joints can take it little hops and little runs and little jogs I try to do a little bit of impact. Now, as you get older, you can't do too much because your joints start to hurt. So I ran a marathon once and it was probably a big regret because my knees are a little worn out because of it. So get that in on the off days and then do your stretching, do your yoga, keep your mobility and, to be honest, find something that you love to do as well. Because if you love like dance or a group class or anything paddleboarding, hiking you join a hiking club the things that you love to do or you're more likely to do. If you can sneak in 30 minutes of strength training twice a week, that could keep you healthy when you're 60 like me and I and, honestly, what I heard from you too just now is like you're, you're not saying again.
Speaker 1:You never said like you have spent hours doing this. You, you didn't say that at any point please don't.
Speaker 1:and it's really more a matter of like cortisol thing I'm talking about, yes, yes, so it's more a matter of like you know, if you can pick, like you know, check out Amy's website. Like she has great workouts on there. Like I'm already like I've already made a note to myself like Jenny, get on this, like what are you doing? You know, like there's there, there are things you can do. That doesn't mean like you don't have to, you don't have to be at the gym, you can do it at home and you can just maintain this. And it really is about like maintaining and trying to build a little bit of muscle, eating healthy. It's such a simple formula and we overcomplicate it. Well, we do so much.
Speaker 2:Oh, and I'm the first to say I did. I've tried the beach body insanity workouts. I remember doing those. But the other thing too, is that you can't just go do your 30 minute workout and then go sit on your butt all day long either. Right Moving more. They're finding just getting getting trying to get 10,000 steps a day, just moving more throughout the day standing up. While you're, we should, I should be standing up talking.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, I know, I know I should start standing up talking. Oh yeah, yeah, I know, I know I should start standing while I record.
Speaker 2:One of the worst things that you young whippersnappers are doing is looking down at your phone all day. Did you know that one inch forward of head posture puts an extra 10 pounds of pressure on the cervical spine right here, and so your poor spine is trying to keep that and it'll build that bone and that fatty tissue. So you're going to have that lump. Get that phone up, put a little thing and when you're walking around, have the phone up like this. Plus, having your phone down like this gives you neck wrinkles, and so you don't want to do that. That's going to scare me even more than that.
Speaker 1:You're going to freak everyone out now. Now that's going to. You're going to see everybody walking around.
Speaker 2:Tell someone like your husband or somebody to catch you when you're doing that, because you see, when you're doing this you're rounded forward and all that stuff and you want to get that phone up and get those good habits now because it'll really help in the long run when your body starts to lean forward naturally.
Speaker 1:I have to tell you, because I work on a computer all day, I adamantly will not look at my phone.
Speaker 1:I don't look at it I try not to look at it at night. Like good, good for you. I even go old school and read like paper books, like I know that's not, like nobody, nobody does that anymore. Yeah, um, this has been such a a great, insightful conversation. Um I, there's, there's so much in here. There's so much in here. There's so much information. Um, I want to encourage all the listeners to um reach out to Amy um via social media. I'm going to include all of her links in the podcast description so you can take a look at her website. Um, I, I want everyone to have access to your workout videos, so let's make sure that we link that or your platform your platform.
Speaker 1:free ones on YouTube too, so I have YouTube be healthy we're gonna link everything in the description for you guys and really I mean we want you to encourage you to just maintain a well balanced health. Yeah, let's not. Let's try not to do the fads Like, let's not lean in any direction and just you know, every day get that 30 minutes in something.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, and reach out to me too, if you want. If you're going through a change in your life like a precipice of where you're, you might be looking into a new job. I, you know I love to talk to people about you know what, what can you do? And you know I'm I've been through it so I could help. But also, if you're ever going through something, make sure you ask for help, no matter what. Ask for help. Get help from a therapist or a family friend or someone you can trust and talk to, because it's challenging, very, very challenging, making changes in our lives.
Speaker 1:And I think that's like a big pitfall for women as well. We don't ask for help and we really need to start raising our hands.
Speaker 2:We're women, we can do it all.
Speaker 1:You should hear me. I think on almost every episode I'm like you can reach out to me. I'm here for you guys because I'm like we need to.
Speaker 1:we need to just start really supporting each other more and being there for each other. I met with someone this morning, a young lady who's going to come onto the podcast. She'll be my youngest guest ever, she's only 19. But and I said to her, like out of the gate, I was like look, I just want to put it out there. Should you need a mentor, I'm going to be happy to do it.
Speaker 1:And like she was like stunned, because she was like, oh my oh, like you know, very surprised. I'm like we need to be doing this more for each other and even like what Amy just said, like if you, you, you can reach out for that, you can reach. Look at her physical fitness platform. There's so much more here that you can take away from the conversation. So, amy, thank you so much for coming on the show. I greatly appreciate you being on. This has been so informative and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it picking your brain as well, anytime.
Speaker 2:You can reach out to me anytime, Jenny.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you all for listening and we'll see you on the next one.
