2Inspire Health & Fitness Magazine #13 - October 2020

Keeping Fit After 50 3 Everyday Activities That Can Improve Your Fitness How Yoga Can Benefit Older Adults?

How to Track and Measure Your Fitness

Talking Bodybuilding and Hormones with Strong, Sweet Caroline DeMesquita 2Inspirenutrition.com October 2020 FREE

4 Simple Lifestyle Tweaks to Improve Your Fitness

INSIDE THIS MONTH’S ISSUE Keeping Fit After 50 - pg. 3 3 Everyday Activities That Can Improve Your Fitness - pg. 14 Talking Bodybuilding and Hormones with Strong, Sweet Caroline DeMesquita - pg. 17 4 Simple Lifestyle Tweaks to Improve Your Fitness - pg.24 How Yoga Can Benefit Older Adults?

- pg.26 How to Track and Measure Your Fitness - pg. 27

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Keeping Fit After 50 A Guide for Improving Your Life and Longevity

What You Need to Know About Fitness After 50 Aging brings changes to your mind and body.

Some of these changes are wonderful. For example, many people over fifty say that they feel more self-assured and relaxed about life than ever before.

Some changes aren’t so welcome.

For example, it’s not uncommon to wake in the morning with aches and pains that seem to come out of the blue. And recovering from a workout is certainly different after fifty than it is when you’re younger.

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However, for all of the changes that take place after 50, both physically and mentally, there are an abundance of myths – things that just aren’t true. Many of these myths center on physical ability and fitness.

Let’s take a look at the speed up that so-called more pervasive myths and slowing metabolism, build kick them to the curb. muscle, and increase your endurance.

As You Age, Your Body Declines So while it’s true that if you’re sedentary your Okay, it’s true that things body is going to continue change as you age. to decline as you age However, most of these when you’re sedentary, changes are related to it’s also true that if you’re inactivity. When you active then your body can exercise you don’t lose hold steady – or actually bone density as quickly. improve. It’s all about what In fact, you can increase you do with your glorious bone mass. You can also body.

You’re Too Old to Exercise of exercising after age 50.

Bah! You’re never too old to do anything. You’re not too old to go back to school, get married, or become a parent, so you can certainly exercise.

There are hundreds of different exercises to choose from ranging from hiking and walking to yoga to CrossFit. Choose an activity that fits your personality and exercise goals, and have fun!

There’s No Point in Exercising When You’re Older, Because There’s no Benefit Exercise provides an abundance of benefits to all people of all ages. The benefits don’t cease simply because you’ve reached a magic age. Whether you’re 15 or 75, exercise provides the same benefits. In fact, you’ll probably attain more benefits as an older exerciser. In this report we’ll take a look at: • 7 Powerful Benefits Of Exercising After 50 • Challenges Seniors Face When Exercising And How To Overcome Them • Getting Started With Fitness After Age 50 Let’s start by taking a look at the abundant benefits 4

The Benefits of Exercising After 50 You probably know you should exercise, but you may not know exactly why. What’s in it for you?

Many people exercise because it helps them lose weight or maintain their weight. And fighting obesity is definitely a good reason to get active.

However, there are a number of other benefits that can have a powerful impact on your life at any age. These benefits can help you live longer and live better, and they’re all yours for the taking.

Better Sleep Studies have shown that exercise improves the quality, and often the duration, of sleep. A study conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that people sleep better if they get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week. That’s an average of 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

you are sick more often, and you certainly don’t feel energetic or vital.

Exercise helps improve your sleep. For those with insomnia, it can take a few months for the full effects to kick in.

Doctors have found that longer duration exercises seem to have a better impact on sleep quality than shorter workouts.

However, any exercise is better than none for improving sleep.

According to the Sleep Foundation study, they found that the average increase in sleep each night was 1.25 hours.

And this dramatic improvement in sleep is without any sleep aids or pharmaceuticals.

If you struggle with sleep or want to improve your quality of sleep, exercise has been shown to have a dramatic impact.

Improved Sex Life

Sex stops after 50, right?

Heck no! And exercise has been shown to help improve your sex life.

At a fundamental level, As people age their quality when you sleep better of sleep can decrease. Poor you’re going to have sleep impacts your mental more energy for your health and general sense love life. Exercise also of well-being. When you boosts a general sense of don’t sleep well at night, well-being and energy.

Exercise has been shown to be effective for fighting depression – it really does make you feel happy and alive.

your home or outside on your own. This isn’t great for building social connections.

2. You can join or create an exercise club. For Additionally, when you example, you might start to exercise you’ll feel organize a group of more connected to your friends to walk, run, body. You learn to trust or bike several times a your body to sustain and week. This gets you out support you. You may and active, while also also enjoy the physical allowing you regular changes in your body time to hang out with when you exercise, and a your friends. You’re better connection to your improving your health, body and a pride in your they’re getting healthier physique make it much and you are able to easier to enjoy a better sex enjoy the benefits of life. friendship.

3. Take an exercise class.

Scientifically, exercise From Zumba to a boosts blood flow to spin class, when you those important areas. It regularly attend fitness increases sex hormones, classes you’re going to testosterone specifically, see the same people in both men and women. at every class. This And when you exercise provides an excellent you’ll be more flexible and opportunity to connect your stamina will improve. with new people and make friends.

Ready to go out and lift People who exercise some weights or run? together bond over Wait, there are still more the activity, and it’s not benefits to explore. uncommon to forge great friendships with Better Social Connections the people you meet in a fitness class.

There are an abundance of 4. Join a gym. Just like opportunities to socialize taking an exercise when you exercise. class, when you join a Generally speaking gym you’re going to there are five different see many people on approaches to exercise. a regular basis. It’s not uncommon for gyms 1. You can exercise in to make efforts to build 5

community around their gym. In fact, many CrossFitters say that’s one of the biggest benefits to being a member of a particular gym; the sense of community feels great.

5. Hire a personal trainer.

Hiring a personal trainer helps you stay motivated and it makes sure that you’re performing the movements correctly, and for maximum benefit. Small group training means that you train with others who have similar goals. It can be social and fun.

The social benefits of exercise are often ones that we don’t think about.

Yet they can be profound and have a dramatic impact on your life. Friends and social outings are beneficial at any age, and fitness helps you bond with likeminded people.

Improved Mobility Many older people have mobility issues. It happens for a variety of reasons.

Sedentary lifestyles reduce blood flow to joints, ligaments, and muscles.

Bone density decreases and bones become fragile.

Vision decreases, which impacts balance and confidence.

of getting an airborne illness like a cold or the flu.

2. Exercise also causes your immune system and white blood cells to circulate more quickly through your body. This puts them in contact Exercise combats these with more viruses and challenges in a number invaders, and may help of ways and can make prevent infections and you more mobile. As your illness. mobility increases, pain 3.

The increase in your decreases – and so too body temperature does your risk of injury. when you exercise can Strength training increases prevent bacteria from bone density as well as multiplying. They don’t muscle strength. like heat, which is one of the reasons why you It also increases blood run a fever when you’re flow to your tissues which ill. It’s a natural defense improves mobility. When mechanism. you’re more mobile you’re 4. Finally, exercise able to do more and be combats stress by more active. So exercise reducing the release improves mobility, which of stress hormones in turn enables you to get like cortisol, which can more exercise. damage your immune system.

Reduced Risk of Disease/ Stronger Immune System (Source: http://www.nlm.

According to MedlinePlus and the National Library of Medicine, exercise helps strengthen your immune system in four key ways.

1. Exercise gets rid of bacteria in your lungs and airways, which can reduce your risk 6

nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/ article/007165.htm)

Additionally, exercise reduces your risk of many major diseases, including: • Cancer • Diabetes • Heart disease • Alzheimer’s and Dementia

The bottom line is that exercise is great for your health. It gives you more energy, it improves your sleep and it strengthens your immune system. But we’re not done yet.

Improved Longevity Studies on exercise and longevity have found that 150 minutes of weekly exercise can add more than three years to your lifespan. In one study, people who went for a brisk walk each day were more likely to be alive 15 years after beginning their walking program than those who were sedentary. Another study said that people who lived sedentary lives were six times as likely to die from heart disease (the number one killer in America) than those who exercised.

There are a variety of reasons why exercise helps you live longer,

and many of them have a direct correlation with your blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. Exercise balances your body and strengthens your systems.

And the good news is that it’s never too late to start. You begin to receive the benefits almost immediately, and exercise – even begun later in life – can add years to your life expectancy.

Improved Mental Performance Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about the increasing number of people being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. While doctors don’t know the cause of many different types of Dementia (including Alzheimer’s), they do know that people who exercise have a reduced risk of the disease.

Additionally, people who exercise have a stronger memory, response time, and improved cognition.

Forgetfulness and slow reaction times are often associated with aging, but they don’t have to be.

Regular exercise can mean staying on top of your game and staying sharp well into your golden years.

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The benefits of exercise are significant, and it’s important to mention that exercise can mean anything that you want it to. If you love to dance, then dance for your exercise. If you enjoy rock climbing then hit the gym or your local climbing area. If you like to walk or bicycle or swim or lift weights, it’s all good.

while. As we talk about the challenges, it’s important to remember that you can do anything.

Embrace exercise as a way to move your body and get your heart pumping.

It can mean going to the gym and getting on a treadmill, but it doesn’t have to. Having a preconceived notion of what it means to exercise is one of many challenges people face when they are thinking about starting an exercise program.

Here is a small example of what’s possible no matter what age you are:

Seniors have their own set of unique challenges. Let’s take a look at them next, and then we’ll talk about how to get started with your fitness program.

Challenges Seniors Face When Trying to Get Fit and How to Overcome Them Let’s be brutally honest and say that there are definitely some challenges to getting fit when you’re older, particularly if you’ve been sedentary for a

There are amazing men and women who are well into their 70’s and 80’s who are running marathons, winning bodybuilding competitions and competing in national and global fitness events.

• Ginette Bedard who finished the New York City Marathon at 78 years old with a fantastic time of 04:33:42. In fact, last year there were 88 runners age 75 or older who competed in the event.

• Ernestine Shepherd was 74 when she became a bodybuilding champion and found herself in the Guinness Book of World Records.

She didn’t begin exercising until she was in her mid-50’s.

• D. Paul Miller competed as the oldest cyclist in the National Senior Games: he was 96.

You may have to do it differently than you would have twenty years ago but anything is possible.

Mobility Issues We’ve already talked a bit about how your bones can lose density and become more brittle as you age. This can impact your mobility. And your ligaments and tendons can become stiff when they’re not used on a regular basis.

The good news is that once you do start exercising, your mobility will improve. You can overcome this challenge by starting slowly. For example, if you decide to take up running, your first month or two of training may be mostly walking and alternating between walking and jogging. Each day that you exercise,

you’ll improve your mobility.

Strength Challenges You may not feel like you’re very strong, and maybe you’re not. But it doesn’t matter. When it comes to strength, everyone has a starting point. It doesn’t matter if you begin exercising with only bodyweight movements or if you can deadlift 300 pounds.

What matters is that your strength will improve as you exercise.

The same thing is true for your endurance. Sure, today you may only be able to handle a ten minute walk. Tomorrow you’ll be able to handle a 12 minute walk, and every day you’ll get stronger.

Fitness is something that changes over time and it doesn’t matter where you start from as long as you keep going.

It’s Boring Not all exercise is boring.

It’s important to let go of the concept of exercise and embrace fitness as an activity. As we’ve mentioned before, exercise can be anything that you enjoy doing. If you love to swim, then swim.

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Play tennis or go golfing.

Hike, bike, or lift weights.

Whatever makes you smile is what you should do. And if it’s boring, then find something else that moves your body and feels more like fun than a chore.

Your Body Doesn’t Cooperate With What You Want It to Do Marie started exercising in her late 40’s. She hadn’t ever really exercised much, and certainly not consistently. Everything she tried felt awkward and the learning curve was high. Something as simple as a pull-up felt nearly impossible. It’s easy to attribute this challenge to age, but that’s a cop out.

Think about any new skill that you’ve learned.

Chances are you didn’t get it right the first time.

You had to put the pieces together. You had to try, and fail, and then go back and practice. Remember back to the first time you tried to skip. It probably looked nothing like a skip.

That’s because your body had no idea what you were asking it to do.

Your body may not cooperate with you.

Things may feel awkward and uncoordinated when you start. That’s okay.

That’s how we learn. With patience and practice, you’ll figure it out.

Finding a Good Program, Class, or Instructor This is another challenge that you may face.

There are an abundance of fitness classes and instructors to choose from.

You’re not going to like all of them. That’s okay. Do a little research and be willing to give different classes and instructors a try.

If you have unique needs or challenges then look for instructors that have 9

experience working with clients like you. For example, some classes are geared specifically for beginners or for seniors.

Some instructors have special certifications that may make them more knowledgeable about your situation.

If you’re not sure whether a particular class or instructor is right for you, give them a call and ask questions. Many times you can get a free introductory class, which is an ideal opportunity to evaluate the instructor and the program.

Eating and Hydrating For Fitness Hydration is essential for fitness. It’s important that you drink enough water to not only stay healthy, but also so that your body can convert the food you eat into energy. Your cells need energy and water to work, and if you require more from them then they likely need more water.

You also want to make sure that you’re eating enough protein and vegetables to fuel your body properly for good health. If you’re not sure whether your hydration

and nutrition is adequate for exercise, talk to your doctor.

age 50 include: • Better Sleep • Improved Sex Life • Better Social Connections • Improved Mobility • Reduced Risk Of Disease/Stronger Immune System • Improved Longevity • Improved Mental Performance

The bottom line is that regardless of the challenges you may be facing, there are exercises and fitness programs that you can embrace.

With most challenges, it’s important to address them head on and to give it time. You will become more mobile. You will get When you begin stronger and you will learn pursuing a new fitness new skills. program there are a few key considerations. For You’re never too old to example, you may need do anything, and you’re to buy new equipment, certainly not too old to set goals, and assess exercise. Ready to get your current fitness level. started? Let’s talk about There are seven steps to how to get begin your getting started with a new very own fitness routine. fitness program and it all begins with choosing your How to Get Started with activity. The first step is to Your Fitness Program find a fitness activity that you enjoy, so let’s start There are many there. considerations when you’re getting started Step #1 Find Something with any new fitness That You Like To Do program. We’ve covered the challenges that you There are dozens and may face, and perhaps dozens of different fitness the obstacles that have activities to consider, and kept you from pursuing more are being invented a fitness program in the each year. This variety past. provides you with the ability to try new things Now it’s time to move and discover fitness forward toward the programs that you might benefits that we discussed enjoy. earlier. If you remember, the benefits of fitness after When thinking about 10

what fitness programs or activities you might enjoy, consider the following: • What did you like to do when you were younger? You might even think back to when you were a child.

Maybe you loved playing baseball or dancing. Perhaps you remember enjoying weightlifting or skiing.

Those activities are a good place to start.

If you enjoyed them when you were younger, you may still enjoy them today.

And you’ll have some degree of comfort and muscle memory.

• What have you always wanted to try? Consider the activities and sports

you’ve thought about trying in the past.

Maybe you wanted to learn to tango or rock climb. Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn how to play golf. Again, those activities are an excellent place to start.

Look for a class in your area.

• What do you think you might be good at? What looks like fun? Explore the fitness programs and activities available in your community.

Chances are you can find everything from rugby to water aerobics – there’s something for every interest.

Take your time and explore the options. Remember that you can do anything from creating your own community walking group to joining a CrossFit gym.

The approach you take is your next consideration.

There are different exercise personalities.

Step #2 What’s Your Fitness Personality?

Will a scheduled class or a membership fee help you be more accountable and support you in working out on a regular basis?

Or are you someone who prefers to exercise on their own schedule and work out by themselves, and are motivated by something else? For example, would you prefer: • A group dance class • Hiking with friends or • Yoga in your living room?

in ounces every. So if you weigh 150 pounds Your fitness personality then you should drink 75 will guide you to make the ounces each day. (That’s a best exercise decision for little more than 9 glasses your particular needs. For of fluid, so it’s not as example, if you sign up for much as you might think). a fitness class but you’d Additionally, while water really prefer to exercise is always great, you can outdoors with friends, include coffee, tea, milk then you might struggle and other beverages in to stick to your plan and your tally. It doesn’t have attend your fitness class to all be water. on a regular basis.

Furthermore, if you’re Choosing the right activity going to be exercising for and the right approach more than 30 minutes, for your personality and make sure that you have needs is important. It will water with you. Buy a support you to exercise reusable water bottle regularly and reap those (one with a built-in filter benefits we talked about. is great) and you’ll always have tasty water wherever Step #3 Stay Hydrated you go.

Consider whether you’d like to join a fitness class or an exercise group, join a team or work out on your own. Are you motivated A good rule of thumb for by others? Do you want adequate hydration is to a sense of community? drink half your weight 11

Step #4 Fitness Nutrition Make sure that you’re

consuming about 30 grams of protein per meal.

Remember that there is protein in grains and vegetables. It’s true that there’s more protein in meat, but you don’t have to eat meat to get protein.

You also want to make sure you’re eating plenty of whole foods and cut out the sugar and starchy carbohydrates.

While you do need carbs for energy, the slower burning carbs are better.

They don’t cause a blood sugar spike so you won’t get spikes or drops in your energy levels. Pay attention to what you eat before a workout and how it impacts your energy and digestion. Some people can eat an hour (or less) before they exercise, while others need more time to digest.

You’ll also want to explore your post-workout nutrition. If you’re doing intense activities or strength training then it’s a good idea to have some protein and slow burning carbs within 30 minutes of your workout. Protein smoothies are a good option because they’re both fast and convenient.

Sports nutrition is important for athletes of all ages and as you age, it can become even more

important.

new fitness program.

Step #5 Get Enough Sleep

Step #6 Good Fitness Programs to Consider

Exercise impacts your sleep, and your sleep impacts your ability to exercise. People who don’t get enough sleep often have lackluster performance when they work out. It makes sense.

You might be surprised to learn that many competitive athletes get ten or more hours of sleep each night.

If you’re still unsure about where to start or what activity to try, consider the following.

This is because your body regenerates during the night and athletes’ bodies need more time to repair.

Your body may need a little extra time and TLC to repair as well. Pay attention to your energy levels and any soreness.

Soreness is normal but it should recede in a day or two. If it doesn’t, you may not be getting enough to eat or drink and you may not be sleeping enough. DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is something that happens to everyone.

When you try a new sport or activity, your muscles need time to adapt. Be kind to your body and allow it some time to repair and adapt to your

• Walking – Studies have shown that people who walk five or more miles a day (approximately 10,000 steps) are healthier than people who are sedentary.

Walking is a great way to ease into fitness and start moving your body.

Walking is also low impact and it improves strength, bone density, and endurance.

• Strength Training – Strength training doesn’t have to mean hitting the weight room and lifting heavy weights. It can mean that, but it can also mean bodyweight exercises and light weights, or calisthenics like push-ups and pull-ups. A simple movement like a bodyweight squat can really help strengthen your lower body and help you become more mobile.

• Hiking – The rough terrain of many hiking

trails is excellent for mobility and strengthening, not to mention the fact that it boosts your endurance.

If you like to explore the trails in your area, then hiking can be an enjoyable way to get out and get active.

• Zumba – If you love to dance then consider trying Zumba or another dance fitness class. You can make the moves as intense as you want to.

• Aqua Sports – With any water sports like swimming or water aerobics, there’s zero impact. You’re able to get your heart rate up and strengthen

your muscles without worrying about any potential joint or ligament issues.

• Yoga – There are dozens of different forms of yoga. Many focus on relaxation, mobility, strength and flexibility. Others focus on sweating and are quite strenuous. Try a beginner yoga class to see which type is best suited for your needs and goals.

Step #7 Talk to Your Doctor Before you start a fitness program, consider talking with your doctor about what type of exercises

might be best suited for you. If you have any health challenges then your doctor may be able to guide you about what to be aware of and offer tips to get started.

Simply by starting a fitness program you’re doing something wonderful for your health and wellbeing. Exercise is about more than getting in great shape. It improves blood flow, mood, and helps you connect with people in your community. It doesn’t matter how old you are.

You’re never too old to start, and you’re never too old to begin reaping the benefits of fitness.

3 Everyday Activities That Can Improve Your Fitness What if I told you that increasing your physical activity by just 30 minutes per day you could decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease by 15% - and not step foot in a gym. Wouldn’t that be something you would want to do… especially if you hate exercising?

The truth is there are numerous ways to get in physical activity that don’t involve doing structured exercise workouts.

Known as unintentional exercise or incidental physical activities, these ways burn more calories as part of a normal daily routine. Let’s look at a few of the common ones broken down into at work and at home: At work Walking - Getting to and from work are two opportunities to get in some exercise. For example, if you take public transportation to work, get off a stop or two before or after your closest stop and 14

walk into work the rest of the way. If you drive, park at the far end of the lot and walk in. Once inside the building, take the stairs instead of the elevator.

During your lunch hour, walk outside leaving just enough time to eat your healthy brown bag lunch you brought from home.

Need to message a co-worker inside the building? Walk over to their desk instead of sending an email. The beauty of this exercising is two-fold; one, it works the large lower body muscle groups which burn more calories than smaller muscle groups such as the upper body; two it doesn’t seem like you are exercising.

At home Housework Opportunities abound while at home. Doing laundry, vacuuming, cleaning house, doing dishes – the list just goes on and on. It all adds up

during the course of a day.

Shopping - Have you been grocery shopping?

All those steps counted while you were pushing the grocery cart around the store. Then you had to carry the groceries to your car, into the house and put them away. These everyday tasks work both the upper and lower muscle groups for an overall increased level of fitness.

Want to improve your fitness level even more?

Add in 30 minutes of structured physical activity each day in addition to the unstructured opportunities and not only will you achieve a higher level of fitness, but will do so in a shorter amount of time.

Of course, the other half of getting fit is to eat a healthy diet comprised of lean protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats at a ratio of about 30%, 50% and 20%, respectively.

Talking Bodybuilding and Hormones with Strong, Sweet Caroline DeMesquita This month, I’d like to introduce you to Caroline DeMesquita, a certified health coach with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. She specializes in female hormone balance, gut health, and metabolic repair. Caroline is a top three national-level NPC Wellness bodybuilder who coaches health clients and bodybuilding athletes. She works with many corporate clients to help them learn how to better manage stress and balance work and home life with their health goals.

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habits caught up with me and it hit me one day that I needed to make a change.

I didn’t feel good in my own body, and I found bodybuilding as almost an extreme weight loss measure. In 2015 I reached out to an old friend at Caroline DeMesquita: Ohio State, and she was I grew up in a rural my first-ever coach. I did community, graduating in a class of 123 students. my first competition, placed dead last, not even The focus for us was enough muscle to really on the local agriculture be on the stage, but it movement, the way was through that journey that our local farmers of learning my body raise food, community involvement, local farmers and understanding the markets, local events and discipline and the sacrifice, activities, and not as much and the day-by-day small habits that build up to the on the nutrition side. large results, that got me more into the sport.

As I was growing up, I always had a petite, slim Dennis: What inspired you figure, but I was never to dive into women’s health really athletic. Once and hormones?

I got to college, like many other freshmen, Caroline: After the first I started partying and show, I developed an enjoying food and social eating disorder. This time. I didn’t put on the freshman 15—I put on the happens to a lot of female competitors. You are postgraduate 20. restricting your foods so intensely that after the I took my first outdoor agriculture sales role and show, all you want to do is moved to Indiana, then to eat the foods you couldn’t, Nebraska, selling seed and whether it’s sweets, pizza chemical products. I wined or burgers and fries. Most of the time, the foods you and dined customers choose after a competition because that’s what are very high sodium, salty, you do—you go out for sugary, processed meals, lunches and you have a conversation over a meal. because after prepping your food for 12 to 16 Eventually, my eating Dennis Postema: Tell me a little about growing up in northwest Ohio and how you decided to put health and wellness at the forefront of what you do now.

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weeks, you don’t want to have to cook your own meals. You just want to enjoy going out. It was through that cycle that I was restricting during the week and bingeing on the weekends, and I was punishing my body with overtraining, overdoing the cardio. At that time I also figured out that I had amenorrhea, which is a sign of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and I didn’t have my period for two and a half years.

All of these things built up and I had to figure out what the heck was going on. Through that evolution, I learned more about the way the nutrients in our food affect our bodies and how the way food is produced affects our bodies.

I also learned how our daily lifestyle affects our bodies, especially for women who struggle to manage their stress.

Even though we seem really resilient on the outside, our bodies and our hormones are like, “No, no, no. You’re too stressed.

You aren’t going to make a baby, because we’re reserving your energy to prevent you from dying.

Right now, you’re not sleeping well, and your

cortisol is through the roof, so we’re going to not let you lose body fat because we’re trying to preserve any sustenance that you have, because we think you’re dying.” It’s become such a big passion of mine to connect food to health, to a sustainable lifestyle.

Dennis: Tell me more about what you went through with your own health.

Caroline: The first time I found out I had a hormone issue was in 2015, when I first started competition prep and I lost my period after one or two weeks of a strict meal plan. I thought back to my hereditary history and growing up, whether I ever had any hormone imbalances. I’d had a little bit of acne, PMS acne, and I’d have fluctuation with my cycles. Some cycles I’d have maybe two days I would bleed, then I’d skip a month, and then I wouldn’t have any good tracking measures.

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That was the first indicator that there might be an issue. Then I started going to gynecologists and doctors to try to figure out whether I was doing something wrong. I’ve never been on hormonal birth control, and all the

doctors wanted to do was prescribe me hormonal birth control. They would do the Pap smear and do an exam, then say, “You look good. Do you want to go on birth control?” My response was always, “You say that I’m healthy, and I don’t need birth control if I’m not sexually active, so help me understand why you’re giving me this drug to put a Band-Aid on a nonexistent problem in your eyes.” That, to me, was a red flag that there’s something that either the doctors aren’t telling us, or I don’t know ... and they don’t know.

That was what led to this journey of learning more about the holistic nutrition side. That’s also when I dove deep into the hormone connection to the gut and not just the reproductive system,

because essentially, it all ties together—the brain to the gut to the reproductive system.

Dennis: Is it very helpful that your husband is into bodybuilding as well? Is that a good support system that helps you at home?

Caroline: It is. David and I are both competitive bodybuilders, both type-A personalities, and if people see us in person, they call us a power couple. In bodybuilding, especially, it’s very important that your partner understands what you’re going through from not only the physical aspect, but the mental aspect.

But David and I experienced last year that he and I don’t do well doing prep together, and you would think we could,

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right? Bodybuilding as a sport is very individualized.

It’s almost selfish to an extent, because nobody but you will push you in the gym, or make sure you’re eating all your meals, or getting your sleep, or getting your water. There hits a point during prep where, if you’re going in to win it, you have to be 90% to 100% focused on that, and you make sacrifices in other areas of your life. That’s where it can be really challenging

to balance a healthy relationship or a family.

Dennis: Tell us a little bit about being one of the first top U.S. Wellness bodybuilding athletes.

Caroline: I found out Wellness was coming out in 2019, after I had just done a national show in Charleston and placed fourth in figure. The judges’ feedback was that I have an Olympia-caliber physique, but that I either needed to bring down my

legs or grow my upper body. I’d already taken two years off to try to grow my shoulders and back, and I kept getting injuries and I was having the hardest time. I started questioning whether I was going to continue in the sport.

Then they announced Wellness, which is leg dominant, and I decided to make that my focus. I was already planning to hit the stage in fall 2020, then COVID happened and it was perfect because

it lined up a bunch of national shows back-toback.

So I did the Mel Chancey Harbor Classic in August, and I ended up winning the overall, which was awesome.

Dennis: Where do you get your inspiration and your drive from?

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Caroline: What motivates me is, how am I going to give back to the world?

Growing up on the farm, I did physical labor with the cattle and baling hay in the summertime. I was always involved with 4-H, Future Farmers of America, and band, a lot of community activities. I think that was my baseline [where I] developed that internal discipline and drive.

you’re below where I’m at, sorry, I’ve got other people who are ready to invest themselves and are ready to dedicate time to evolving.

It’s since evolved to me not wanting to just serve people, but to be better at serving people. I’ve always been very focused on personal development, trying to culture the pearl and make it better. I’ve found even as a coach, I have a high standard for the people I work with.

If you aren’t committed to your goals, I can’t work with you, because I need to be level here. If

On a day-to-day basis, I’m motivated by thinking about how I can show up and make the world around me better. I had a really hard past two weeks mentally, and I had to dig myself out of the ditch because I was just in this cloud of, “Oh, woe is me. What’s going on with my life? I’ve got so many moving pieces,” and I couldn’t get it all straight.

Then it just clicked one

day. I was listening to a podcast while driving to work and I was like, “I don’t have it all that bad. I have a lot to be thankful for, and people are looking up to me for that.”

Dennis: Why do you think it’s important for women to weight train?

Caroline: Weight training has so many benefits, not only from the way it makes your body look but also your metabolism. When you have more lean tissue, usually you can eat more food. Now, it should be healthy food either way, but a lot of women are

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also insecure about their stomachs or their legs.

When you start weight training, we can’t spotreduce fat, but a lot of the time, that stimulus in increasing cardiovascular health and the strength from using the weights can create a huge change in your physique, making body recomposition happen.

A lot of women also notice when they start weight training that they have more energy throughout the day, a more positive attitude, higher endorphins. You’re also preventing issues down the road with things like heart disease and osteoporosis. When you lift weights, you’re strengthening your bones, not just your muscles, so being able to add that in now, even if you’re only weight training three or four times a week for 30 minutes to an hour, is going to benefit you the next 10 years.

Dennis: Do you find that a lot of your clients, when they first come to you, try to cardio themselves to death versus weight training?

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Caroline: I think women lean on cardio because either they don’t know how to properly do

weight training or they get insecure in the gym because it’s male dominant.

A lot of women don’t want to walk up to the dumbbell rack and grab dumbbells because they’re like, “Well, if I’m only grabbing the fives or tens, people are going to judge me and stare at me,” which isn’t always true. I know a lot of people at my gym who will help women if they’re starting to weight train, or they need a spotter or anything like that, or need help correcting their form.

But to your point about just the cardio versus weight training, it’s good to have both, and I think it’s healthy to have both, depending on a person’s metabolic health, because if you overtrain on the cardio, you can have metabolic damage, and you might not be able to start putting on muscle or losing weight until you cut back on the cardio.

Dennis: What do you think the most undervalued part of bodybuilding is for women’s health?

Caroline: For me, bodybuilding is just a segue to creating discipline and habits in

other areas of my life.

Bodybuilding is not meant for everyone, and some who take part in bodybuilding competitions develop mental health issues from that.

You can live a sustainable, healthy lifestyle with similar habits to those of a bodybuilder without becoming one yourself.

You can, for example, meal prep on Sundays so that you have food prepared and you’re not tempted to go eat out every day at work. You can schedule on my calendar your cardio, weight training, stretching and yoga days.

If you are trying to be serious about weight training and you want to start putting on muscle, you need to either do your own research or hire a coach to help you, because we all know that if we don’t have somebody to hold us accountable, eight times out of 10, we’re not going to do it.

Dennis: Does personal development help you with organizing your meal preps and everything?

Caroline: Absolutely. If you ask anybody from my

high school and college days, one of my best skills is organization. I’ve always been extremely organized and I think that’s been a benefit for me. I always make lists and track my workouts. I have a log in my phone of what workouts I’m doing, how it feels, what weights I’m using, what my time under tension was and so on.

That’s extremely analytical, right?

You don’t have to be that detailed, but you have to have some type of organization in your life if you’re going to progress in anything. That’s typically why we have managers and bosses at work, because that’s their job. But if you can take accountability and you can figure out, “Okay, I can do this on my own,” or “I know myself enough that I need to hire help,” that’s what you’ve got to do.

And that self-awareness, a lot of people don’t have unfortunately, but that also takes time, just like anything.

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You can visit Caroline on Instagram, @ strongsweetcaroline, or visit her YouTube channel, Strong Sweet Caroline, for workouts, nutrition tips and relationship advice.

Caroline on eating late and movement: Sleep issues were something else I had to figure out. What I was doing was eating too late. You want to eat your last meal of the day two to three hours before bedtime.

Some studies say not to lie down after a meal because it affects digestion. I was like, “I wonder if that’s why people get sleepy at their desk after lunch.” So after eating, try to go for a walk to improve digestion and help nutrient absorption.

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4 Simple Lifestyle Tweaks to Improve Your Fitness The human body is an amazing thing. If you do the same workout routine over and over, it will become more efficient at doing it and not have to work as hard. But, that means you are not burning as many calories, if losing weight is your goal, or tearing as many muscle fibers, if you want to build muscle.

If your workout isn’t working out as good as it has in the past, you can get back in the groove by implementing these simple lifestyle tweaks.

Change the intensity Because the body adapts to doing the same thing, you may have to change it up if you have hit a plateau. One easy tweak is to increase the intensity of your routine. For example, if you typically run on a treadmill for 30 minutes, instead sprint for a few minutes, walk, and sprint again.

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routine up for as long as you can.

Change your routine Another change you can make is to do a different routine. This way you are challenging different muscles. Because muscles do adapt if doing the same thing over and over, your fitness progress may stall out. By switching to a different routine, it will push your body in different ways. To change intensity and routine, choose HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training). It alternates between going all out for a few minutes, walking for a few minutes and then going all out again. Keep up this routine for as long as you can. Expect to be sore the first time as it is something different for your body.

Change your diet

Changing your routine, intensity and diet all at the same time gives your body the one/two/three punch Under this routine, you it needs to get going push yourself hard for a again. Vegetables should few minutes, rest for about be your mainstay of foods half the time you pushed and you should be eating hard and then push hard at least five to nine servagain. Keep this work/rest ings per day. In contrast,

limit your intake of processed foods to lower the amount of saturated fat and sugar consumed.

All calories are not created the same. Take a 100-calorie cookie and 100 calories of carrots. Not only is the quantity vastly different, which means the carrots will fill you up more, but the nutritional makeup is very different. The cookie is basically empty calories while the carrots are nutrient dense.

Change the amount of sleep Getting enough quality sleep at night is paramount to good fitness.

When you are sleeping, your body is recovering and your muscles are repairing themselves. And if losing weight is part of your fitness plan, you can actually gain weight if you are not getting enough sleep.

Changing intensity, routines, diet and amount of sleep are just four tweaks of many that you can implement to get your fitness efforts back on track.

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How Yoga Can Benefit Older Adults?

Yoga is not just for the young. According to one study, 18.4% of the 15.8 million yoga practitioners in America are over the age of 55. Why do older adults like yoga?

One, it is low impact making it easy on the joints.

Many other types of exercises, such as cardio, hurt arthritic joints such as shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.

Two, it can lessen the effects of many medical conditions, like chronic back pain, Type 2 diabetes and arthritis, along with improving heart health and quality of sleep – all issues that seem to effect seniors more so than other younger age populations.

Three, it increases joint flexibility. As we age, our joints begin to stiffen. By doing a series of different yoga poses two to three times per week, you can actually get back some of joint range of motion you lost over time.

Four, yoga restores balance. As falls are a major 26

cause of broken bones among seniors, regaining your balance can save you a trip to the emergency room and follow-up pain and care afterwards.

Five, it keeps the mind sharp. Yoga not only is a physical type of exercise for the body, but also exercise for the mind. Most types of yoga involves meditation which can keep your thinking clear.

Which Yoga Class Is Right for You? If you are just starting yoga, be sure to get in a class geared to your level – beginner or Level One. Not only will you learn how to do the poses correctly, but it will move at a pace more comfortable for older adults. Even after learning how to do yoga, be sure your class is geared toward seniors. If you have some physical limitations already, then look for a “restorative” class.

With over 100 types of yoga at last count, it can be hard to choose a type that will be right for you.

Ashtanga, iyengar, hatha and vinyasa are all good types to choose at the beginner level.

One type you will probably want to avoid as a senior is Bikram Yoga. It is done in hot/humid environment with a room temperature of 105 degrees F and 40% humidity.

To find a beginner yoga class in your area, look no further than adult education programs, YMCA/ YWCAs, libraries, gyms and other community organizations. If you belong to a health club, most offer yoga classes. Some include classes as part of a membership while others offer it for a fee. Most classes last 60 to 90 minutes.

Regardless of the status of your health, yoga will most likely be able to help you. The key is finding the right class so try out a few different types of yoga to see which one is right for you. Five-thousand years of yoga teachings can’t be all wrong.

How to Track and Measure Your Fitness

It’s so easy to get discouraged when you’re trying to get healthier, and the main reason is that weight loss isn’t linear.

Usually, you’ll lose a good deal of weight in your first few weeks but then, as you begin to edge closer to your next milestone, you’ll find the weight loss slowing down. You might even see the scale come to a screeching halt as you struggle to move further forward.

due to things beyond your control, like water weight and muscle gain.

Your at-home scale can also be inaccurate by one or more pounds. Not to mention that your clothes and shoes will add to your weight and so many other factors that can make you feel stuck. Once the scale stops showing results, sometimes it’s best to ditch it. #2 Take measurements

A much more accurate way to track your progress overtime is to take measurements of your body using a sewing tape measure.

This will allow you to get accurate measurements of your natural waist, hips, and thighs along with anything else you want to measure--like your neck, #1 Know what the scale is arms, or calves. Write these telling you numbers down. In a few weeks, take new ones and The scale can fluctuate compare. by as much as 10 pounds Unfortunately, this is an issue that most people will run into, but you shouldn’t let it be the end of your fitness journey. There are many different reasons for it, and your success all comes down to how you track your progress throughout your weight loss.

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Oftentimes, these measurements will continue shrinking even when the scale isn’t showing positive results.

But, keep in mind that bloating and eating can cause measurements (especially at your waist) to grow. Always measure first thing in the morning to minimize such fluctuations. #3 Save pictures Many people don’t want to take before photos because they dread seeing themselves. But, simply looking in the mirror won’t allow you to see progress until you have made a lot of it. After all, you see yourself everyday so it’s hard to spot gradual changes.

Take before pictures and, down the line, you’ll be very happy you did when you get to share an incredible before-after transformation!