Tina 00:00:00 Getting fit and staying fit in midlife can be quite the challenge, and so can losing weight. And I know because I'm there right now. Today I have special guest Lisa Swanson on, and she is the founder and owner of Body and Soul Coaching, an online health coaching business that she started to help women over 50 build the confidence and healthy lifestyle that they desire, and I'm so excited to have her on as a guest today just because I get to pick her brain. So let's get into today's episode. You're listening to the Soul Online Self-care podcast. I'm your host, Tina Stinson, and I had a stroke at the age of 39 from stress and burnout that shook my world. Now I'm laying it all out. The deep level self-care practices and mindset shifts that I needed that kept me healthy, balanced, and thriving. Join me in this intimate space as we explore healing, resilience, and the soul's journey to alignment. This is where real conversations about deep level self-care happen. Let's get into it. Hello, Lisa, welcome to the Soul Line Self-care podcast.
Tina 00:01:19 How are you doing today?
Lisa 00:01:21 I am doing great today. Tina, thank you so much for having me here.
Tina 00:01:25 I am so excited to talk about some of the topics, that I'm interested in personally, but I feel like a lot of the people in my audience would also be very interested. So to get started, if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do and how you got there or your story.
Speaker 3 00:01:42 Oh, I.
Lisa 00:01:43 Could make that last a long time, but I won't. I'll keep it short. So, I am a health and fitness coach and, you know, somebody says, oh, well, you know, what are you certifications like? There's so many, you know, 35 years in the industry, you pick up a lot. I'm certified as a personal trainer, a group fitness instructor, orthopedic exercise specialist, nutritionist, a few different nutrition certifications, as well as a health coach and a specialist in the female metabolism and hormones. My background.
Lisa 00:02:11 I had three studios that I was working through, working, working quite a lot and exhausted and knew I needed to do something different. And at the same time I was noticing how I had 26 trainers, wonderful trainers, but they were younger and they didn't quite get the older female. They didn't quite get how to train them. They were always asking me questions about and and looking at research. There wasn't much research out there for women over 50. And I'm like, there's such a need for women over 50 to know the truth about how to lose weight, because it's not about what we think. I'm sure we'll go into it's not about like exercising like crazy and eating the way we eat in our 2030s and 40s. It's very different. And we have to say, yeah, we have to take a different approach to that. So I just started mulling about this. Actually, when I turned 50, just took this long walk on my. It was like this moment when I'm just like, what do I want to do with my life? And I realized I just wasn't happy with what I was doing.
Lisa 00:03:06 And I came to the conclusion that I wanted to work strictly with women over 50 because it was in need, and there was women that I could connect to, and I understood. And so I slowly started selling my studio's off, I sold my studios and just dove into this online world that I knew nothing about. And so, oh my God, growing body and soul coaching.
Tina 00:03:29 I love that story. And that must have been a hard transition for you after doing it for so long, because you build that up and it's a lot of work. So it must have been a really hard transition.
Lisa 00:03:40 Yeah, it was, it was a it took a while to make the decision, but when I really started listening to my intuition and, and asking myself, I would actually say a sentence, I don't know how you do it, but it's just like, okay, I own these three studios. And it made me feel very contracted. And then I started thinking, okay, I have a new business that I'm bringing online to serve women over 50, and it made me feel very expansive.
Lisa 00:04:03 So I'm like, okay, I know I need to be going in that direction. So in that respect, it was very easy because I had been doing the other for so long. It was definitely time for a change and I knew it was something that was very needed. But then when you get into it, it was a little scary because here I was, an entrepreneur who, you know, since my 30s, and I felt very confident knowing what to do to grow a business, how to run that business. Now I'm online, it's a whole different ball game. And I was yeah, it was a woman in my 50s not knowing what the heck I'm doing.
Tina 00:04:36 Now yeah. Been there, been there myself. Yeah. Same. Yeah. But that's that's very it's amazing. And I, I agree with you 110% as a person over 50. I'm 55 and I've always been really active and very like physically active, very physically fit and very mindful about taking care of myself. I'm also a health coach, and, I love to hear you talk about how women over 50, they need to be doing something different.
Tina 00:05:10 The things that we did when we were in our 20s, 30s even 40s, don't have the same effect on your body, and I assume that has a lot to do with the shifts in our hormones and perimenopause and menopause and all those things. And I could I'm very tuned into my body so I could see the things that are happening. And it's very, very interesting. So I would love for you to talk about some of the things that, are different for us.
Lisa 00:05:37 Absolutely. And I love how you said that. You can see the things happening. And I think this is what a lot of women are experiencing. They are they are watching their bodies change. And it's like, I don't know how to stop this, you know? Yeah, it's not fitting. And I don't understand why I'm in that in my closet trying jeans on, and they're all ending up on the floor instead of on me. Like, what the heck is going on with my body? And so to try to solve that, they do what they did before.
Lisa 00:06:02 It's like, well, let me I'm going to cut my calories down. I'm going to not eat carbs anymore or, you know, or get rid of all fat, you know, whatever it is that they decide to do, they're going to do that. And then they get to the gym or at home and they start, they're running, they're doing peloton or spin classes. They're doing everything they can, and they're actually causing a lot of stress in their body. When we were younger, we could handle that. So in order to solve this, they have to sort of make this shift into knowing that they need more rest than they do exercise. I guess I should say we because I'm, I'm in my 60s, so it's we so we the thing is, our metabolism is much more sensitive to stress, to the effects of cortisol. Because when we were younger that the Estrogen that we had in our body was protecting us from the effects of cortisol. We don't have all that estrogen anymore. So now as we're working out, we're building up that that cortisol is coming higher and higher.
Lisa 00:07:02 We get that stress. Your body's like, okay, we store away this fat. And it's a fast growing hormone right. I mean we do need some cortisol right? We need cortisol to wake up in the morning. We need cortisol to build muscle. But too much has the opposite effect on us. So the thing is what people try to do, and I always say this, is that people try to eat less and exercise more. And this big gap that they're creating in their energy in and energy out is creating stress. Our bodies cannot handle that stress. So what I like to do is put them on the edge of dieting. So it's yes, you're going to eat less, but you're also going to exercise less. So now there's much less stress going on in your body. So your metabolism can basically relax and say, oh yeah, you're not going to stress me out, and you're giving me enough food so that I can carry out all the functions that I need to do. The first functions they're going to do is keeping you alive, taking care of your organs.
Lisa 00:07:55 And if it doesn't have enough food to go past that, it's certainly not going to work on building muscle. Muscle actually costs energy to the metabolism. Instead, it's going to store body fat away because you're not feeding it enough. Let me just hold on to this fat. And I better let go of some of this muscle to let that break down, because that's muscles costing me energy. So when I do that, keeping on the edge of dieting, eating less, but exercising less metabolisms, relax, you're getting enough energy coming in so that you can start letting go of body fat. You can stop building muscle now. You really start changing your entire body composition. And that's what women over 50 need to start focusing on.
Tina 00:08:33 Oh my God. Like that's right there. Can we just like, frame that whole paragraph that you just said? Because people women just don't understand that because it's it's almost the complete opposite of what we did in the past. You know, I've always I've been. I'm a, I love running.
Tina 00:08:51 I actually really like it. and, you know, I learned exactly what you said, that that's what I need to do, and but it is a fine balance because I still run. But instead of, like, running, you know, maybe 6 to 10 miles, I'm running 3 or 4 miles, and I'm doing it every other day. I never run two days in a row. I'm giving myself that time to rest. And then I'm doing yoga, and I'm doing other things that can lower my cortisol, like not having caffeine first thing in the morning before I eat and and doing, excuse me as much as I can to reduce my stress in my life and, become more resilient so that I could handle the stresses better. And so it's just this it's it's like you're it's almost like your body. It just turns into this whole new person. And you have to, like, your soul has been, like, put into this new body and you have to learn about this whole new body that works completely differently.
Tina 00:09:50 That's what that's how I describe menopause, like. So yeah.
Lisa 00:09:55 excuse me, I'm going to have to cough now to the, well, can you talk about stresses like taking that time in between workouts, making sure you sleep because the metabolism that we're talking about, what it basically is, is a stress barometer. It's not a calculator. I think everybody wants to look at metabolism like a calculator. Energy and energy out. Right. But it's not because so many things affect us that have nothing to do with calories. And the big thing is stress. Whether that stress is coming from a stressful job or a home life, or not getting enough sleep over exercising under eating, those are all stressors. So how is your metabolism going to respond to that now that it's so sensitive to stress, it's either going to slow down, right, which is metabolic adaptation, or it's going to say, let's pick up, let's kick up the hunger and cravings cues so that you will eat a little bit more than people say, oh, I'm having such a hard time getting through this diet because I'm so hungry all the time.
Lisa 00:10:51 It's like, well, that's your metabolism saying you're not doing it right. We have this. You shouldn't be starving when you're trying to lose weight, which again, is counterintuitive, right? Because everybody thinks, oh, I get to starve myself.
Tina 00:11:04 Yeah. Yeah, I, I have to say I haven't. I'm doing a pretty good job, but I definitely don't have it all figured out. but I have noticed that when I eat, and I knew this because I, you know, I've studied culinary and nutrition and stuff like that, so I, I knew this, but when I, when I have more protein in my meals. So, I eat very intuitively. So if I'm not really hungry, say at breakfast time, I eat when my body's ready to eat, okay. And then when I eat, though, I have a good meal, you know, so I'll have like, make sure I have a lot of protein, make sure I have a lot of fat, like healthy fats.
Tina 00:11:42 And and then I don't force myself to eat lunch. If I ate a late breakfast, you know, I'm like, okay, maybe I'll have a snack, maybe I'll have an apple with some nuts, or maybe I'll have a smoothie or something like that. but then I'll have a really good dinner. But I find when I, when I include a good amount of protein and a good amount of fat and my in my breakfast, I, I'm not starving in an hour like I it takes me hours to get hungry again. And so by really making my breakfast full of all the nutrients that I need, it really helps me stop all those cravings. Instead of trying to eat like super, super light, I, you know, I believe that our bodies need the fat and the protein and stuff, you know? So what are your thoughts on that?
Lisa 00:12:29 that was great topic. we absolutely need all the macronutrients, period. Right? Yeah, we need them all. and that's why I can't stand when I hear people going on diets and they're omitting all carbs.
Lisa 00:12:41 It's like carbs aren't bad. You just need to learn how to eat them in a way that matches up with your metabolism and your lifestyle. I mean, somebody has a desk job, you know, and they don't doing any exercise. Can they eat a lot of carbs? No. Probably not. Right. Because they're not utilizing that energy. Somebody else who has a job that's got a lot of activity and they're on their feet all day, or they exercise a lot. They definitely going to need those carbs. But it also has to relate to them and their metabolism. Women over 50 or in menopause definitely can't handle the carbs the same way that we used to. Because carbs increase insulin insulin. We're much more insulin sensitive at this, well, insulin resistant at this point. So you have to think about that. But as far as like what to eat, I always say start with your protein. That's the most satiating of all the macronutrients. And we need more protein than ever. Now they're finding out that women over 50 need more protein, a lot more protein than when we were in our 20s and 30s.
Lisa 00:13:35 I'm eating a lot more protein than I did when I was younger. even up to 30g in a meal. It's funny, like way back, way back when, you know, the industry was like, oh, women don't have more than 20g at a meal. You know, men can have 35 and now they realize they absolutely have 30g at a meal for women that actually, starts that muscle protein synthesis by getting 30g of protein. And, and I do believe in intuitive eating as long as somebody understands and really can be intuitive with their food. Because if I have somebody say, coming into my program and they're trying to lose weight, they're not sure what to eat, I can't say, okay, let's eat intuitively because they don't know what to eat, and even their hormonal signals could be off. They'll they're growling, which tells you when you're hungry, you're leptin, which tells you when you fall. A lot of that is off kilter. Yeah. So it's like, no, let's get you balanced first and find out what works for your metabolism, not what works for my metabolism or any of the other clients in the program.
Lisa 00:14:34 Specifically what works for you. And once we get the ball rolling with that, then it might be, okay, let's, you know, have a day where you eat intuitively. How did that work? How did you feel? And if it goes right, it's like, good, do it again. If it doesn't go right, go back to logging your food. Let's see what happened there. So I think it's it's definitely a process. And I think the most important thing is to let people know that there is no one answer. There is no one diet. There's no magic bullet out there. It really is super individualized because every single client that comes into my program, they don't get a meal plan. They're always happy about that, right? It's like, no, just Lisa, tell me what to eat. But I don't give meal plans. I don't give diets. It's like, log your food. I need to see where you're coming from before I can make any adjustments to what you're doing.
Tina 00:15:20 Yeah, there's everybody's so different. And that's a real excellent point because, Yeah, I do eat intuitively sometimes, but I'm also a health coach, a culinary nutrition educator, and I and I've been doing it for, for years. And, and I still don't have it down perfect. Because as I said, my body is changing. And so it's really me trying to figure things out. And what you said about the the carbs too is, yeah, oatmeal and bread just doesn't have the same. It doesn't sit the same with me anymore. If I if I eat too much oatmeal or bread, it just it's too much. it's too much for me. You know, I have to like, and actually, oatmeal. I almost think that I should need oatmeal at all. Just. I ate oatmeal, and, like, an hour later, it doesn't matter what I do to it, how I serve it up. I'm starving. Starving, you know, and so it obviously. Oh, well, sometimes I do I, I usually do like hemp seeds and ground flax and blueberries.
Tina 00:16:23 And sometimes I even put like a scoop of protein powder in it and still like an hour later, I'm still starving and I'm like, okay with it. Yeah, yeah. It's so I don't know if it's my thing. It's it might be Sometimes it's really good for me to do. Like if I had a really big breakfast and lunch and I'm just looking to have a small dinner because, you know, I'm not active at night really most of the time. And so having a small dinner is perfect for me sometimes. And if I overeat, then I don't sleep as well. And so, so having, like, a bowl of oatmeal at night might be perfect, you know, and so it's about kind of looking at it that way.
Speaker 3 00:17:00 But,
Lisa 00:17:02 Yeah, I, I agree with you. It depends like you're coming as a health coach and you know how your body responds. So and like teaching people, okay, we have to listen to your body how it is. You don't want to take that time to learn because they want to be told what to eat instead.
Lisa 00:17:17 And I get that because, you know, it's very frustrating trying to lose weight, and especially if you've been trying diet after diet and they haven't been working and you just like, just give me something to get it off, they're like, I don't want to take the time to learn this. But on the other hand, a lot of women come and go, and I'm sick of this and I just want to find something sustainable. Right. And that means. Okay, you're gonna have to take time to learn this, right? So you can't just say, well, eat whatever. Eat intuitively. Let's get you to where you can be at a place where you do understand what your body needs. And a lot of times with those, like you say, I eat, I eat the oatmeal and I'm starving. It's like, cause you have to get that protein. And first, it's really important that we get that protein first. 30g of protein in the morning is really important. And with each subsequent meal, I'll even have 30g of protein and even snack time.
Lisa 00:18:04 I'm having at least 20 to 25g of protein, so dripping that protein in throughout the day is a great way to keep you satiated and then sprinkling in the carbs and the fats where you need to have them. And of course, lots of vegetables, like getting those vegetables in so that you're getting the micronutrients that actually help break your food down into energy. I think a lot of things that people forget about. So how many people have you talked to that they say, oh yeah, I eat well. And you see them maybe getting two vegetables in a week, so.
Tina 00:18:32 Hardly any vegetables. Some people, hardly any. They're eating.
Speaker 3 00:18:35 All these.
Tina 00:18:36 I got my liquid greens that I'm drinking, so that's good. And it's like no it doesn't.
Lisa 00:18:43 Some kale.
Speaker 3 00:18:44 Yeah.
Lisa 00:18:44 Some spinach. Yeah. Salad. it does. It makes a difference when you start getting that the fiber in from your vegetables and all of that. And just knowing how your body works, like for you, oatmeal at night might work great.
Lisa 00:18:57 And for another person, oatmeal at night doesn't allow them to get into fat burning overnight. So they're waking up and they're still not into fat burning. And then they're going and having carbs again. So, so many different aspects of it. And I think that's why women get confused. But if you can just I guess if I had a recommendation for it was like, take a breath, you know, take a breath and just start out not expecting to be perfect and just allow yourself to make some mistakes and learn from those mistakes will really help you.
Tina 00:19:28 Yeah. And I think what you do with your clients, where you start off, I don't I don't work with most of my clients. I don't work with as a health coach, I work as a life coach, and I work a lot with people who are experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety. I work with healing the nervous system, so I don't really have a lot of clients where I'm doing like health coaching with, but some of them I do.
Tina 00:19:48 But I like the way you you start off because you have to know where they're coming from. Even when you're working as a life coach, it's like, I have to know where you're coming from in order to know where I could take you. And so doing like that food diary and really learning how they're eating regularly is so important because, even myself, even when I do this with myself, when I'm trying to, like, reset myself, I, you know, I get on the, what do they call chronometer, you know, and I'm like, how many, how much protein am I really am I really getting, you know, and then I'm like, geez, I'm not I'm really not getting enough. You know, it really, like, wakes you up a little bit so you can see what you're eating and, you know. Oh, I, you know, even know I'm vegetarian. I have my own garden. Even sometimes. Then I'm not getting enough vegetables, you know, I'm not getting like a.
Tina 00:20:41 Yeah, it is amazing because when you're not paying attention, you just go in day to day and you get like almost in, like a, like an a groove. You're eating the same things over and over. And whenever I get like that, I'm like, oh, I need to switch it up a little bit, because not only am I getting bored, but you're not getting enough nutrients.
Speaker 3 00:20:59 exactly.
Lisa 00:20:59 I can't tell you how many clients come in, and it's like, where are your vegetables?
Speaker 3 00:21:02 You know?
Lisa 00:21:03 Yeah, looking at the food and I and I agree with you, I, I am a health coach and this is what I do. And and I can find myself slipping away because we get into that that rut, if you will, of, you know, eating what's quick eating. What do I have? What can I call. Yeah. Too long. Let me just see. What can I grab real quick? I'll. I'll cook tomorrow night and of course, yeah, night comes and it's another crazy day and it's like, oh, I'll cook the next day.
Lisa 00:21:27 But it's so important that we take the time out to do that because I know when when we start changing people's food up and we say, well, you know, we could have to get more protein. And usually we're working with the macronutrients, right? Yeah, used to that. And a lot of the women are so full they're like this is a lot of food. You know I it's like, yeah, that's because you were focusing on carbs and fats, carbs and Fafsa. Not as satiating as protein is. So now when you, you know, you take that same amount of calories and you make a bigger portion of it come from protein, they're really full, and they're surprised when they see the scale stock going down, like, how can that be? It's like because you're eating the right foods now, your metabolism is happy as it's allowing you to lose weight. But but you're right. Like when you have that protein in the morning, it's just like, wow, I'm really full.
Lisa 00:22:12 I could, I could go for hours without eating, but, well, we don't want to go hours without eating. But I try to, you know, find that fine line where you don't want to be hungry an hour later, but you also don't want to be full for six hours. Then it's like, yeah, well, you know, that probably ate a little too much then at that last meal.
Tina 00:22:27 Yeah. And then. And then I tend to get to, like, if I wait too long, I get too hungry, and then I overeat, you know. And so and I don't want to do that because then I don't feel good. So it's yeah this is a it's a nice balance you know. So I'm not totally hungry for lunch. I'm still going to eat something, but it's going to be more of a snack. You know, it's not going to be a big meal. And I also agree. Yeah. Like sometimes at the end of the day, you know, I might have planned on cooking something or making something or even making a salad.
Tina 00:22:55 And I'm like, I just don't feel like chopping anything right now. Like, what can I make? That's easy? And, so I'm all about like, doing the meal prepping and the meal planning and, stuff like that. But there's those times where I'm just like, maybe I'll just have a piece of toast with a little bit of peanut butter on it. And I know it's not the best thing, but I'm just like, so tired and I'm not going to eat, you know? So it's like.
Speaker 3 00:23:21 So it's hard.
Lisa 00:23:22 It's hard. And we all realize that, you know, it's not just hard for somebody losing weight, you know, maintaining you got to do that as well because I live this lifestyle. And you're right, it's very easy to say, yeah, let me just grab some toast and peanut butter. Wouldn't that be easy? I think when you start, when you allow yourself to have some go tos around the house. So I guess that's there's two sides to this.
Lisa 00:23:42 One is have some go tos around the house. So, you know, in a pinch you could have a protein bar. I'm I'm not an advocate of protein bars to be honest with you. They glorified candy bars really. But you can find some decent ones out there. And but to have a couple of those around to have protein powder around. So at least it's like, well, let me at least get some protein powder down. And then the protein drink, and then I'll have a slice of toast with peanut butter. Now you've actually had a balanced meal. You know, maybe there's not vegetables in there. Well, unless you put spinach in the protein smoothie. But having those things around will help you to stay on track, especially if you're trying to get somewhere. Because sometimes when you go off track, it's not that it's bad to go off track or you're going to start gaining weight right away. You won't, but it could stop you from losing weight that week. And if you have too many nights like that, like week after week, if something keeps coming up, I find this happens.
Lisa 00:24:31 Do you find this with clients? When they're trying to make a change, something comes up each week that stops them from moving forward. It's like, oh, I had to get my girlfriends this week. Oh, this week I had a dinner to go to. This week there was a wedding. Now I'm going away. And those people that have something come up week after week, they're not really looking to change their lifestyle. They want they want a solution, but they still want to live the same life that they've been living, which got them in the situation to begin with.
Tina 00:24:58 Yes. Well, can I just tell you that that was my biggest frustration when I was doing health coaching was, people that wanted a quick fix, you know, very quick fix. And I'm, I wasn't willing to do it.
Speaker 3 00:25:11 Because.
Tina 00:25:12 It's all about changing the lifestyle. I was like, I, you know, I could do that for you, but it's not going to change anything. You know, after we stop working together, you're going to gain all the weight back or, you know, it's, you know, you have to it has to be a lifestyle change if you want to make that, you know, if you want to keep the weight off and and it's it takes time to do that.
Tina 00:25:32 It's not going to happen in two weeks or a month or, you know, even two months. You know, it takes it takes a lot of time, to make that shift. But it's so worthwhile. And you could tell the people that come to you that want that quick fix, you know, and, and I was always just completely honest with them because I wasn't willing to just, you know, have someone pay me money in order to lose weight and then to have them, you know, have the success, but then, you know, month later, have them calling me back, saying, you know, you know, I gained all the weight back. What did I do? Like, you know, that kind of stuff I was it was so.
Speaker 3 00:26:08 Such a good.
Lisa 00:26:08 Point. That is such a good point. I think health coaches, you know, all health coaches especially, you know, weight loss or anything, if somebody's not ready to do that, if they're not willing to do that, we have to be willing to say no.
Lisa 00:26:24 Yeah. Not a good fit for you. And I can't take you on. And I know some people might be saying, oh, you're just going to let money go out the window because it's about more than money.
Tina 00:26:33 It is. It's about your reputation and it's about just being being a good person.
Speaker 3 00:26:39 Yeah, it was a good person.
Lisa 00:26:40 Don't listen. The last thing we want to do, like you said, is have somebody come in, pay you this money, and they're not going to do they're not ready to follow through with it. And just psychologically, they're not ready to follow through with that. They need to be ready to take action.
Tina 00:26:58 Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 00:26:59 It's so.
Lisa 00:27:00 That action. Right. They also be looking for somebody to say do it for me. Even though even though intellectually I think people know. Well, no, the coach can't do it for me cause I have to. But there is a mindset there that, well, I'm going to sign with this coach and she's now responsible for me losing the weight.
Lisa 00:27:19 And I think that's something People need to be aware of in themselves. Are you looking for that person to create your motivation and are you looking for accountability? And how? How do you perceive accountability? If accountability means you're expecting your coach to chase after you and keep said, come on, come on, do that. That's not it. I always tell you, accountability is a partnership. It's an agreement between two people that both people are going to show up. And if you can't do that. So those are the red flags I think people should look for when going into a coaching program. You need to be willing to be held accountable to yourself, not just the coach. Like know that it is a partnership and that you you have to do your part.
Speaker 3 00:28:03 You have to.
Tina 00:28:04 Yeah. Coaches. Yeah, the coaches, the guide, the coaches. You know the support. But they're not going to do it for you. And they're even if they say they're going to do that, that's just not going to it's just not going to happen.
Tina 00:28:17 You have to do the work. And I even write that, you know, even even though in my life coaching on my my private coaching page, I even write that it's like, this is this is what this is my side of the equation. This is what I'm supposed to do. And this is this is your responsibility, you know, because a lot of people like, am I, you know, am I guaranteed success? Am I how do I know this is going to work for me? And, you know, it's it's basically you have to ask yourself the question if that's going to work for you, because it's really almost 100% like the decision has to be yours. Right. And then the coach is the guide, right? But if you can't make that decision that this is going to work for me right from the beginning, you know, it's not going to happen. You have to make that decision before you hop in to any coaching.
Speaker 3 00:29:04 And yeah, they have to.
Lisa 00:29:07 Then they have to be ready to step back and and wait, you know, wait a little bit and do some more reading if you need to do some more soul searching.
Lisa 00:29:14 And when you are ready that the, Relationship between a client and the coach is incredible what you accomplish. I mean, you can, I mean, I yes, I'm a coach, but I believe in coaches. I've had so many I have a coach now. Yeah, I have two coaches and three actually three coaches are working with because the coaching can just really shorten your learning curve. It can take that that journey that you're on and shorten it. So like instead of just struggling, trying to figure out, you know, why not go to somebody who has the answers, who knows how to do it. And like you said, just guide you through that and just and get you there a lot quicker than you can do on your own.
Tina 00:29:52 Yes, exactly. That's that's the perfect way to explain it. I yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't have said it any better but yeah.
Lisa 00:30:00 Well we could that write that down.
Speaker 3 00:30:01 Yeah.
Tina 00:30:03 Well going into like changing the subject a little bit, talking about metabolism.
Tina 00:30:07 And you said something earlier about how like the oatmeal working, working with your metabolism. What did you mean by that.
Lisa 00:30:16 When I'm saying working with you. Metabolism. By that I mean, when somebody first comes to me, I need to find out where is your metabolism at? So we have them record what they're eating for a week. we don't give them any exercise. We don't tell them what to eat or anything. It's just we call what you eat, and the first thing we do is have them fill out a form. So this is this is I'm finding a way of metabolism that and I'm asking, we're saying, okay, we're seeing exactly how you ate. And then we ask a series of questions. Are you did you feel moody? Were you hungry? Were you getting cravings? could you sleep at night? Did you have digestive issues? We're looking at all of that so that we can have. It's like if somebody ate that way and they're like, well, I maintain my weight.
Lisa 00:30:55 But I felt all of these things happening. That's a signal. Hormones are off and we need to change something. I metabolism is off. We need to change something. So then we start changing the macronutrients and we do the same thing the next week. What happened this week? Did you lose weight? Did you maintain? Did you gain. Now it's like, well, I lost weight. But you know what? I was having all these cravings. It's like, okay, that we have to make a shift again. Something is off. So in that case, it might be you don't still not getting enough protein. So we increase protein the next week. Hey I lost weight. I was, you know, actually kind of full but the scale went down. Great.
Speaker 3 00:31:30 Yeah.
Lisa 00:31:31 Yeah I know we have metabolism now we know what what fits you. And that's going to work a lot better. And last you a lot longer than filling out one of those calculator sheets where they tell you how much is supposed to be.
Lisa 00:31:43 I've never seen them work out correctly. so this is, this is you and I testing what what's going to work? I mean, we I usually am pretty good at nailing it in that first week. We so we sort of dial in because you are used to combinations that works. You know, typically for women over 50 and and but but there's always little tweaks to make. And then teaching them as we're doing this we're teaching the client. Well this is this is what we changed to meet you with your metabolism. If you're losing weight and you're feeling good, that means your metabolism is happy. So we met your metabolism and it can stay there for quite some time. But then over time also you might be like, wow, I'm really getting hungry again. Now I'm getting hungry. That's like, you know, because your body is changed and your metabolic needs have changed. So now guess what? You get to have more food, you know, sees that adding more food. And if that's that's the case for that person which goes that way something.
Tina 00:32:36 Another point I want to make and let me know if you agree with this, is that, we're talking about women over 50, but this could happen a lot earlier for a lot of a lot of women. Like, they might start experiencing these changes, you know, as early as, like 35 and up. It might just be a slow change. So when you start to when you're starting to feel those changes in your body, I think there there's not enough awareness for women because doctors aren't advocating this. There's even OB GYNs aren't advocating this. It's changing. I see a shift and in some areas people are talking about it more. But I think that it's, you can start going through, those changes that perimenopause and your, your estrogen dropping and all those things that affect, you know, the way your, the way your body is metabolizing and the way you bottle the body is, you know, how it's I can't even, like, put it into words, how it's handling the nutrition that you're you're putting in your body and the exercise and stuff like that.
Tina 00:33:44 And so as you're, as you're getting older and you notice, like as soon as you start noticing those changes, that's when you need to start asking yourself the questions, oh, this doesn't seem to be working anymore. And just, just know to all the women out there that are listening that that's normal. Like, it's it's totally normal to, like, have to change the way you do things. And I can't tell you how many times I have said to women, and I think it's because of the way I am, like, so I'm a runner, as I said, and I've been a runner. I think I've been a runner since my 30s. I think I was started in my 30s, and so a lot of the people and I do a lot of races and stuff like that. So a lot of the people that I hung around with were hardcore runners, you know, running marathons and stuff like that. And then as we're moving into like midlife, you know, my friends saying things to me, well, you know, I'm just not losing weight anymore.
Tina 00:34:39 I have this pooch and it doesn't go away. I, you know, I've been running 25 miles a week and it's not it's not going away. I keep running more and more and I'm like, that's because your body isn't like fight or flight. Your body's like trying to save you. And I said, believe it or not, the more the more you run, the more your body's going to hold on to that. And they would not believe me. They were like, they're like, no, that's not how it always worked. And I just, I just wish that we could put like a big neon sign up that, you know that. Let women know that that this is normal and this is what happens because, God, isn't it nice to be able to. For me, from my perspective, isn't it nice for me to run maybe 2 or 3 times a week and then do yoga, and then I lift weights because it's good for women our age to lift weights, right? We could talk about that too.
Tina 00:35:29 But like, I'm doing a lot less work than I used to. And, better results. Yeah. And I feel better. It's easier on my body. It's just. It just feels a lot better.
Lisa 00:35:43 You know? Not just the hormones, but our cells are turning over at a slower rate. Right? So when do we repair? We don't. We don't build muscle while we're working out. We're we're breaking it down at that point. We're building while we sleep, especially while we sleep. And we're building in between the workouts. Right. That's when our cells are building and repairing.
Speaker 3 00:36:04 So I have to.
Tina 00:36:05 Stop you right there. Just just for a second. I want you to say that again, because that's so important for all those hardcore workout ladies out there. You're not building muscle when you're working out. You're building it when you're resting.
Speaker 3 00:36:17 Yes.
Tina 00:36:18 And so if you don't rest.
Lisa 00:36:20 Exercise. That's the breaking down point, right? You break those fibers, you're doing those bicep curls.
Lisa 00:36:25 You're breaking all those fibers down. And then the muscle, you do it enough. Your muscle says, oh I better build up stronger so I can handle it. Sally keeps doing to me. So it's important that you have that rest and it takes more rest than we had before. That's why you can run a couple of times a week, workout a couple of times a week, and get better results. I had one client come to me and she had been doing, you know, spin classes five days a week. I can't remember, I don't know how much she was lifting. she was more into cardio and she had gone to her doctor. And you guys, you have to know doctors don't have a whole lot of nutrition education. They get a couple of weeks and all those years, and they're through medical school. They are educated in medicine, right? They're not educated in and nutrition.
Speaker 3 00:37:07 So very true. Good point. Right.
Lisa 00:37:09 And the doctor would say, well number one you're over 50.
Lisa 00:37:12 Forget about it. Nothing's. Yeah. I've heard that so many times. Don't believe that.
Speaker 3 00:37:16 Please take them to the curb. Yeah, right.
Lisa 00:37:19 And, and so they, you know, they said, oh, you're oh, you're not eating enough. And they just immediately upped her calories to higher than what she needed because they do it by those little calculators. And she kept doing her spin class. She was I feel like a sausage. I'm gaining weight. My belly fat is getting more and more. It's like, right, because you're stressing the heck out of your body.
Speaker 3 00:37:38 And you're.
Lisa 00:37:38 Not eating the right balance. So we did what I said. We brought it in. So okay, let's see what you're eating and what you're doing. How do you feel? It's like, this is where I'm eating, I'm gaining weight, I'm not sleeping well, etc., etc. and all the stress in her life. So because of all her stress, remember we want that metabolism as a stress barometer.
Lisa 00:37:55 We have to balance that. So somebody with a high amount of stress, it's like forget the workouts for right now. Go for a walk. Go relax. Yeah right. Get you sleep. Go for a walk. give her a couple of strength training workouts, and I. I took her beloved spin classes. Okay? And I'm not saying anything bad about spin. So first, I just want to know that I'm not saying for this woman at this time in her life, it was take it away and the weight started coming off the the belly fat was gone. She felt slimmer. She was leaner, stronger energy. She could sleep at night. So it's like, okay, so now you're sort of repairing that metabolism, right? Which I don't know if that's the right word for saying repair, but you're making it flexible that that's the right word.
Speaker 3 00:38:36 It's resilient.
Lisa 00:38:37 Right. And and the, the flexibility to be able to use utilize different energy sources, carbs and fats and protein, in a way that's going to work with your body.
Lisa 00:38:49 So. And she was she was thrilled. She was. I can't believe it. You know, all the time I just kept going to spin up to spin and then she's it. But I really miss my spin class. It's like, okay, but now, now your metabolism is nice and calm and it's happy. Go take a spin class, but don't go back to five days a week.
Speaker 3 00:39:05 That's.
Lisa 00:39:05 That's hurting you, you know. Take. Take one. How do you feel? Good. Go try. Take to find out. What is that? That tipping point for you.
Speaker 3 00:39:14 Yeah.
Tina 00:39:15 And that's what I had to do with with running and yeah that was like a big part of my lifestyle. Like that was my social you know everything. And so it was a big change for me. But I feel so much better now. I feel a lot better. And because I have the tendency to be stressed and anxious, and that's why I do the work that I do. And so now that I can and I can still, for all those runners out there, I still can run the races, you know, I still see my time go down, you know.
Tina 00:39:48 So even though I'm only running three days a week, I still see my time improving because I'm not stressing my body out.
Lisa 00:39:56 I bet if you ran more, you would see your time going go up.
Speaker 3 00:40:01 Yeah, time go up.
Lisa 00:40:02 Thank you.
Speaker 3 00:40:03 Oh my. Oh I did I.
Tina 00:40:04 I have to say I did that accidentally one year on I, it taught me a really good lesson. So this was and this was probably like five years ago I was training for a marathon. And so I signed up for this marathon training program with a woman. She was my running coach. And then it was a bunch of other women. We trained together. It was fantastic. But then I was also in another training program, like a group training, because those were all my friends. And so I wanted to hang out with my friends. So I was doing two like marathon training programs, and I was and I was like, this is just going to make me the biggest badass, like, I'm going to be.
Tina 00:40:39 I'm going to be like a rock star. My time is going to be like cut in half. And, I'm going to be so, like in such good shape. I'm not going to have any fat on my body. Well, I noticed that I just had that pooch like and it was, I was holding on to it. by no means was I fat, but it was just annoying. And I was like, what is that? You know, why is my stomach jiggling? And I was so I was holding on to the fat. And at that time in my life, I did not know what that meant. Right. So it was I, you know, I was like, I don't know what that means. I'm not sure what's happening. So this is longer than five years ago because I was in my 40s. I remember I was in my 40s and then my time was horrible. I was slower, I was weak, I was slower, I was weaker, and I just didn't get it.
Tina 00:41:26 And I think a friend of mine explained it to me that another coach explained it to me, and I was like, oh, okay, you know, I need to rest. I wasn't resting, you know? And yeah. And so, yesterday, after I went for a run, I noticed that my time went down like, you know, by like a whole minute since I first started. And I've only started, like, running a couple times a week, maybe like 2 or 3 weeks ago. That's really fast to lose a minute. And I was just like, that is so interesting to me because I haven't even been trying. I don't really care how fast I am, like, I'm not, I don't I'm gonna run a race at the end of the year, but I'm not training for anything. I'm in competition with myself, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 00:42:14 Yeah, that's right.
Tina 00:42:16 I was like, Holy crap, a whole minute. I was like, that's so interesting. So, yeah, I could validate that.
Tina 00:42:23 That is like 100% true. It's just like, it's amazing. Yeah. So this this has been, like, such a wonderful conversation. I could talk to you forever, but I want I don't want to go too long. but maybe I could have you back on and we could talk about, weightlifting and stuff like that, because that's. Yeah, because that's so important for women. And I was really lucky. I accidentally, like, banked my muscles out in my 40s because my kids were into CrossFit. And like, as a family, we did CrossFit together, and I just became so, like, muscular and. Yeah. And I didn't realize what a service I was doing to myself and my body because, for all those ladies out there, I could feel my muscles going away as I go through menopause. I could see it and I could feel it. And it's crazy because I'm still working out and I'm still doing the things and my muscles are still getting smaller, and I'm like, okay, I have to do something different here.
Tina 00:43:26 Obviously, once again. And weightlifting is that different. Like I haven't been weightlifting.
Speaker 3 00:43:32 But but I very.
Lisa 00:43:35 Fastly it's called sarcopenia right?
Speaker 3 00:43:37 Yeah.
Lisa 00:43:37 Starts in the 30s and it just speeds up with each decade.
Tina 00:43:41 Oh my god it's so annoying. It's so annoying. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:43:45 Yes. It's like.
Lisa 00:43:46 I work so.
Speaker 3 00:43:47 Hard. I know.
Lisa 00:43:48 You know, I got Covid earlier this year and well there's two times I started. I'm actually working on building muscle up myself because as I switched over to this online business like it didn't go completely online at first. I was still seeing some people in person because it's fun to see people in person.
Speaker 3 00:44:03 And yeah.
Lisa 00:44:04 So I wasn't sitting as much. But then as I got more and more into the online and it's I've been strictly online for ten years, but over the years I'm noticing it's like, oh my goodness, I'm not walking as much. Even I've got three dogs and I'm still not walking as much as I should, because I'm sitting so much all day in front of a computer.
Lisa 00:44:21 And I was like, wow, I lost a lot of muscle. I get to start working on this and of course you get busy, you know, when you have your own business and there's stress from that. So it makes it a little bit harder to build the muscle. And then this year I got Covid first time and it wiped me out. I could not work out. I got it took me over a week to get over it to the point so I could actually go back to work, but it took me four months before I could actually exercise. Yeah, I and I lost so much muscle in that time. I was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 00:44:51 I look like.
Lisa 00:44:51 I don't even ever work out. I've got to get my muscle back. So I know it's going to take time. And so you have to give yourself some grace with that. Like, you know, for anybody out there, if you're injured or if you've never worked out before and you really want to get muscle because you do have to focus on that, that would be a great topic.
Lisa 00:45:08 just be be kind to yourself. Start out slowly because you don't want to injure yourself.
Tina 00:45:13 Oh yeah. Absolutely. You also don't want to get so sore that you just stop.
Speaker 3 00:45:18 Exactly right. So not a little soreness.
Lisa 00:45:21 Not bad. A lot of sudden. It's not good.
Speaker 3 00:45:23 Yeah. Yeah.
Tina 00:45:24 You want to be able to walk down the stairs. You know you don't want to.
Speaker 3 00:45:28 Oh my.
Tina 00:45:29 God. It's been such a pleasure talking to you. could you let everybody know where they could find you? Where they could connect with you?
Lisa 00:45:36 Oh, absolutely. go to my website, body and soul coaching.com. Okay. you can. There's lots of information about me there, in my programs. And you can also find me on Instagram. Lisa Swanson fit, and my Facebook page is Lisa Swanson, Dash health coach.
Speaker 3 00:45:56 Hey, we'll put all those in.
Lisa 00:45:57 When you go in there, you'll even find that I have a I have a free, Facebook group where I have support for women in there.
Lisa 00:46:04 so you can get to know me a little bit better.
Tina 00:46:06 Oh, that's cool. All right, so we'll put that, and I just write that down so I don't forget that. we'll put that in the show notes so people can connect with you that you have the Facebook group and everything. so once again, thank you for sharing all that knowledge and, so many good nuggets in there for people that, especially women over 50. So many good nuggets. So what a good, good education. Oh my God, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.
Lisa 00:46:33 Welcome. I would love to come back. We can have great conversation. Yeah. We should get to talk about that strength training.
Tina 00:46:38 Yes. I just made a note of that. And so I'll reach out to you maybe in my next season we'll do that. It would be so cool I love that.
Lisa 00:46:45 Great. Thank you so much for having me Tina. Really appreciated it.
Speaker 3 00:46:48 Yeah.
Tina 00:46:49 Thank you to.
