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Category Archives for "duo show"

July 25, 2023

Episode 600 – Behind the Scenes at 40+ Fitness

Apple Google Spotify Overcast Youtube

On episode 600 of the 40+ Fitness Podcast, we take you behind the scenes.

Transcript

Episode

[00:02:53.760] – Allan

Hey, Raz. How are you?

[00:02:55.660] – Rachel

Good, Allan. Things are getting exciting up here. We've got a lot going on this month. Got a couple of trips to see family, all of our big birthdays. We have a lot of July birthdays in our families. We've got a lot of parties lined up. July is our busiest month, I think, of the summer. But things are going good.

[00:03:15.340] – Allan

Good.

[00:03:15.800] – Rachel

Yeah.

[00:03:16.600] – Allan

So happy birthday, I guess. It's not really a birthday, but this is kind of a landmark episode.

[00:03:26.730] – Allan

This is episode 600 podcast. Now a couple of different things. Obviously, I'm going to talk a little bit about the podcast today. So this won't really necessarily be a. Health and fitness thing, but I just wanted to kind of give folks an idea of how things work behind the scenes and how they can be a part of it and help us keep this thing going.

[00:03:49.050] – Allan

But I've actually even had there were some bonus episodes out there that didn't count towards episode numbers, but they weren't really episodes, they were just me making an announcement and putting it out there early on. So there actually have been more than 600 items released as part of this actuallypodcast, but actual 600 episodes.

[00:04:11.940] – Allan

So kind of wanted to talk a little bit about the story because a lot of people don't necessarily know they found this podcast at some point over the last several years. They started listening. They're still listening, and that's great, but new people are finding us every day. And so you may not know the story of where this podcast came from.

[00:04:33.180] – Allan

And why it's here, or a few other interesting tidbits, but I started this podcast predominantly because I had made some significant changes in my health and fitness and I had people asking me about it.

[00:04:50.160] – Allan

And one of the challenges I had when I was trying to figure my path out was that there wasn't anything out there.

[00:04:57.860] – Allan

There were no online personal trainers focused on people over 40. There were no podcasts in the health and fitness space for people my age. Everything that was out there was pretty much CrossFit, a lot of nutrition stuff. So the vegans had their ones, some runners had some podcasts, but again, none of these were specific to who you are when you're over 40. And I just thought that was bizarre that I couldn't find answers to this thing. And even when I did searches, or even when I went and said, okay.

[00:05:30.000] – Allan

Well, what about 40 Plus Fitness? And I actually keyed that in 40plusfitness.com and keyed that in nothing, someone owned it. Someone owned the domain, but when they weren't doing anything with it, and I'm like, this is just kind of crazy. So I did start the podcast and.

[00:05:48.590] – Allan

I did a lot of work before I launched it. What a lot of folks don't know is this wasn't actually my first podcast. I had one before that was about internal audit. The problem with that was I would work twelve to 14 hours a day in internal audit, and then I was trying to produce a podcast about internal audit, and that was a little much.

[00:06:13.660] – Allan

Yeah, and I didn't know anything at the time when I launched that podcast. I think I got like 600 downloads on one of my first episodes and I just thought that was terrible. I'm like, there's 70,000 internal auditors out there and only 600 of them listen to my podcast. I didn't realize 600 was actually a pretty good number, particularly when you're first starting out.

[00:06:37.280] – Rachel

Sure.

[00:06:37.810] – Allan

So that said, I did sign up with a coach to help me launch the podcast the second time. And so I went through the process that he had laid out. It was a big group thing.

[00:06:50.400] – Allan

I had friends that we became an accountability group within this thing and putting this all together. So I literally started planning the podcast like June of 2015, and started putting together ideas for how the show was going to work and then lining it all up.

[00:07:10.560] – Allan

I built a Facebook group and a Facebook page and started getting people to like that page. And I was putting some stuff out there. Not a lot, but just enough to try to get people involved before I launched the podcast. Because at that point, pages were really kind of valuable. People were seeing the posts from pages.

[00:07:28.020] – Allan

So if I had thousands of people that like my page, thousands of people would see my posts. And I thought, okay, this is a good way to kind of launch this podcast. So I launched the podcast December 6 of 2015.

[00:07:39.670] – Rachel

Wow.

[00:07:40.310] – Allan

And part of the timing of that was I wanted to have a certain number of episodes out before January 1. And I wanted to make what at the time was actually a pretty big deal called New and Noteworthy on Apple. And I wanted to be New and Noteworthy on Apple on January 1, and. I actually was number one in New and Noteworthy.

[00:08:06.330] – Rachel

That's awesome.

[00:08:07.770] – Allan

So it's pretty cool. And that kind of helps spur people finding it, because people would get their Christmas phone and then they'd get on there, they'd put that podcast app on, and then the first that it pop up is New and Noteworthy. So if you said, okay, Health and Fitness, New and Noteworthy, there's my podcast.

[00:08:24.470] – Allan

And so I was new. I wasn't necessarily noteworthy yet, but I was new.

[00:08:32.790] – Allan

And then when I first launched this my format was very different than it is today. It was predominantly a solo show. I wanted to do five episodes a week, make each of them about 15 minutes, and it was just go for a walk, be walking, be moving while you're listening to this podcast, because it was one of the things of people our age weren't moving around enough. So if I could just encourage them to move for 15 minutes a day, that's so much better than what they would have been doing otherwise.

[00:09:06.990] – Allan

I felt like that was a win. Now when I started doing interviews for. Parts of the show, because I realized. Okay, I can't talk five times per week, every week and be interesting. I had clients I was training. So there was a science session, there was a client session. There's a lot of other stuff in there. So it wasn't just me talking the whole time, but there were themes to each of the days and that went on for I'm guessing somewhere around eleven or twelve weeks and I was really burning out because that's a lot of episodes.

[00:09:45.830] – Allan

And then I did an interview of a guy, he had three different books. I said, well I'll interview you once for 45 minutes and break it into three episodes. So I literally staged and had the conversation three different books I had read and put them together and I was like, I really like this interview. I didn't like having to try to keep it to less than 15 minutes because if someone starts talking, I don't want to tell them to shut up.

[00:10:12.930] – Rachel

Right?

[00:10:14.850] – Allan

At any rate, so I decided I would drop it back to three and I'd be a little bit more liberal about how long the episodes were. But even then I wanted to do more interviews and reading the book and trying to do three interviews in a week was just a lot, so I dropped it down to one.

[00:10:33.680] – Allan

Now here's one of the interesting things that came about from all of that though was the years that I had hundreds of episodes come out, I didn't have more downloads per episode. I may have had more total downloads that year, but not per episode. Whereas when I dropped it to once a week, I actually peaked out on the volume of people that listened to each episode.

[00:10:57.420] – Allan

And so what I found is if someone comes on and say they missed three or four days, what they're going to do is they're going to pick and choose one. They're not necessarily going to say, I'm going to listen to all three of these, some people will, but they'll pick one and then they'll listen to that one and they may not listen to the other two. So it actually was a diminishing return to just having more episodes done and now I'm able to focus a lot more on the quality.

[00:11:22.090] – Allan

So I do dive in a lot deeper in the conversations and I'm able to do that because I can dedicate more time to planning each of these podcasts.

[00:11:30.920] – Allan

Now I've changed the music a few times. One time the original music I had was out there and then I decided I want to change it and I changed it. And then the guy who sold me the license or ran the license through the company called Pixaby sued me, didn't really sue me, but claimed copyright on YouTube, meaning that he claimed rights to my show. And that meant if at any point in time I was monetizing the show through YouTube, he would get that money, not me.

[00:12:04.310] – Rachel

Wow.

[00:12:06.010] – Allan

I messaged the dude directly because I had the evidence that I had actually paid him because that was a voluntary thing anyway, was to pay someone for that music. I did voluntarily and I kept sending the declines. I declined that. This is copyright but the way YouTube was set up, I had the burden of proof. So if they said it was theirs YouTube just accepted it. And then they were the arbitrator, they were the judge, they were the jury.

[00:12:39.310] – Allan

And so I just decided, OK, I want to change it. And so I can't remember the exact episodes, but it's been a little while now. But Dave Gerhart. You can find him at www.steeldrummer.com. He's doing our current music. It's kind of a Caribbean vibe, which I like because it's the steel drums. So we're running with that right now. And that's our current music. I don't have any intention of changing it anytime soon, but that's there.

[00:13:08.110] – Allan

And then of course, I changed the format another time when I brought Rachel on. So, Rachel, you came on in September of 2020.

[00:13:17.680] – Rachel

My goodness. Well, it's been a while.

[00:13:21.890] – Allan

It has, but the whole point being is you decided you were going to work on your personal training cert, and co-hostso we were talking back and forth and somewhat mentoring you through that process. And then when you passed it, it was like, do you want to come on and be a co host?

[00:13:40.950] – Allan

And part of the reason I wanted that was you and I are different. We do different things from our training perspectives. You're female, I'm male. I just felt like it give the show a little bit of balance when we talk about the different interviews. And so I think it has. And we've get a lot of great feedback from people that are glad you're on the show and insight you bring. So I think that's been a huge addition to the podcast.

[00:14:11.550] – Allan

Now I'm going to shift and just talk a little bit about how we do this whole big crazy thing of a podcast. And there might be some bits of this that you didn't even know, Rachel.

[00:14:22.840] – Rachel

Probably

[00:14:23.560] – Allan

Because I'm the producer in the background doing a lot of this stuff. So basically the way the podcast works is it's a bunch of bits and pieces. Okay? So each little section and you may not be able to pick them out as sections exactly, but they're each their own music file. Own file. So it's an MP3 file of some sort.

[00:14:43.790] – Allan

And so what I do is I start out I have a Trello board. So Trello is this application that basically lets you kind of keep lists and keep organized. So you have a list and then you can put an item on that list, like a note card.

[00:15:02.160] – Allan

And then what I'm able to do is each of those columns, those lists are where we are in the process. And so as I start the idea for a podcast, like, maybe I see there's a book that's going to be published, I have the author's name and they're under the contact. And then we'll go through that whole process and I'll kind of talk about how that works in a minute. And then I'm just able to move the cards across as we go. So as I get into production and then closed, each card has a place.

[00:15:30.220] – Allan

And then within the cards, I can put the order so I know which episode, which date, and I can just put information in there about the book and everything else. So it's all in one place, but it helps keep me organized so I know, okay, where am I with current episodes? So I can tell you, I just recorded episode 603 a couple of days ago.

[00:15:52.180] – Allan

I'm going to record episode 601 tomorrow and then the next day 602. And so I can kind of tell. I've got a lot of reading to do.

[00:16:03.750] – Rachel

Oh, gosh, yeah.

[00:16:05.590] – Allan

And tomorrow I'll be reading a lot, but that's cool. And then sending over show plans and doing that to get them on the interview.

[00:16:14.550] – Allan

Obviously, guests are an important aspect. I want to have good quality, a good variety of guests. So we're talking about a lot of different issues that affect our health and fitness. A lot of people ask, well, where do you find your guests? I get over 100 emails every single day.

[00:16:35.280] – Rachel

Wow.

[00:16:35.950] – Allan

Of someone that wants to be on this podcast. And some of them will even go out and find my phone number and text me. They will WhatsApp me. They will email me, they will fill out a contact form, all the different ways that you could get in touch with me these folks find ways to do that.

[00:16:55.990] – Allan

And say, hey, I want to be on your show. And I'm like, great, what are you going to talk about? It's like just health and fitness. Nope, no, you're not. So there's hundreds now. Sometimes these guests are excellent. Tony Horton, his agent reached out to me. There's been others that I'll be like. Yes, I absolutely want to talk to this person.

[00:17:21.550] – Allan

But 99.9% of them are a definite no. And when you think I'm getting 100 or more emails every day, okay, I only have one show per week, so. It becomes pretty clear that I can't get that many interviews out.

[00:17:39.940] – Allan

And again, I'm really looking for the quality. So over the years, I have developed some good relationships with some publicists. So there's a few of them that as soon as I see their email in my box, I know this is golden, and I'm going to want to talk to their guest, to whoever they're supporting. So there are a few of those that I do have a good long term relationship with, and it's the same when I send them a request, they definitely jump on it pretty quick because they know I'm going to give a good interview for their clients.

[00:18:09.540] – Allan

But most of my guests come from Amazon. Yeah. What I do is I go out on Amazon and I search for a topic or sometimes just generic health or health and fitness, and all these books come up. And then if you look on the left hand side if you're doing on a computer, you'll see these filters and you can go filter. And one of the filters that's out there is books that haven't been published yet, upcoming books, so you can see 90 days, 30 days, and then upcoming books. So I click on that upcoming books and then I get a kind of a list of books.

[00:18:44.890] – Allan

Now sometimes people do this kind of silly thing where they basically write the same book and they publish it on. Amazon like a hundred times. It's an ebook, like a workbook or something like that. They'll do, but they'll name it a hundred different things and throw them all out there. So they're all showing that they're going to come published soon and they clog up that whole search.

[00:19:06.590] – Allan

So then if I need to, sometimes I'll go over to that same set of filters and you can filter on hardbound. What I've found is the big publishing houses are always going to have a hardbound version, so they tend to be the higher end guests.

[00:19:21.030] – Allan

And so then I'll kind of have a list and I'll go through and add them to my trello of potential upcoming guests and I'll line them up based on their published date and everything else. I'll say, okay, I'll start reaching out now.

[00:19:32.710] – Allan

What I do is I go in and find out who the publisher is and then I Google the publicity for that publisher and I get their email address and then I send my pitch to their publicity department.

[00:19:46.170] – Allan

And for most of them, because again, this is an upcoming book that they would love to promote and have podcast interviews come out while the book is when the book goes live, I'm in a position to do that. So they'll then kind of work on my behalf to get the guests booked.

[00:20:04.140] – Allan

They send me an electronic copy of the book. Now, I used to get the hard copies, but they send me an electronic copy and once I have that, I send them a link to book on my zoom. And I use a little app called Tidy Cal, which is like Calendly, if you've used Calendly, but it's done by a company called AppSumo and it's a one time payment and then it works just like Calendly. And you don't have to pay for it every year because I do have different booking types and so I would have to pay for the calendar type book, calendar every year. I think it was $144 a year. Versus I paid once for Tidy Cal and it works just as well.

[00:20:47.630] – Allan

And so, yeah, they'll book their interview. And then what I do is, once. I see when the interview is like I said, I've got one that's coming. Up tomorrow, another one that's coming up Thursday. I'll go ahead and do reading the book. I'll send over a show plan. My show plan is just basically a set of bullet points to give them. An idea of what I'm going to talk about, what we want to talk about.

[00:21:08.870] – Allan

So if at any point in time you've ever heard a guest say, I have no idea what that is, or I don't remember,

[00:21:14.200] – Rachel

oh, no.

[00:21:16.950] – Allan

I told them what we were going to talk about. And even before we go online and when we start the recording, I kind of ask them if they have any questions about the plan. So they knew the questions. They knew I was going to talk about it, but they just didn't pay attention.

[00:21:32.230] – Allan

But that's neither here nor there. I do try to make sure the guest is prepared for the conversation. And then, yeah, I do record the interview on Zoom.

[00:21:40.770] – Allan

Now, when I get through with that interview, I now get an audio file from Zoom where I've recorded, and I get a video file, and then I get two audio files, one with their channel and one with my channel. So there's actually four different files that I work from.

[00:21:56.980] – Allan

So the first one is the full recording, and I put that in a folder for Rachel to listen to, so that's the interview she's listening to is just a full audio of both of us that I put in her folder. I take the video file and I put it in my admins folder for her to make clips for YouTube or Facebook and things like that. And I'm just terrible about not posting those regularly enough. But I have them. They're out there. She's working on them, and so they're out there, so I have them.

[00:22:29.070] – Allan

And then I take the two audio files that are different channels, and I put that into a folder that's my production folder for that particular episode. Okay, then what I'm going to do is I will record the intro and the outro. So that thing you hear me say on episode of the 40 Plus Fitness podcast, we're going to meet such and such and discuss their book, such and such. You can find the full show notes for the say I've memorized it because I've done it a lot.

[00:22:59.140] – Rachel

A few times.

[00:23:00.300] – Allan

A few times.

[00:23:01.770] – Allan

But the point is, then I make those files. So as you kind of see, now there's two files for the interview. There's now two files, intro and outro. I'm bringing in the music that we play at the very beginning, which I call the show music at the front, and then at the end, the outro for the full version of the song, the steel drum thing that Dave did. And so basically, I have those files.

[00:23:31.370] – Allan

And then each now, Tuesday morning, Rachel and I get on Zoom and we record our part. So there's usually a hello section, and then there's a discussion section. And if you get on the Facebook Group, I'm going to actually put the videos of those together. So, like, Rachel and I will come on and kind of have a quick little conversation about where we want to go. And then we'll have our hello section, and then we'll have our discussion section. And basically I've recorded those for the last interview we had. And I'll go ahead and share that on the Facebook page. I mean Facebook groups, if you go to 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/group, that'll take you to the Facebook group and you'll see a video of Rachel and I going through that little bit of the production.

[00:24:19.150] – Allan

But from our production recording, I have now two more files to add. And then of course, if I have a guest on, I have to record the bio. So I'll go out on Amazon and find out how their bio is organized out there. Some of them will send me a bio because they're publicists put together all this collateral and material. So sometimes I'll use that. But that usually almost always agrees with what's in Amazon. They don't rewrite all that stuff. So I'll read that, but that takes a little while because I screw that up about a dozen times.

[00:24:56.270] – Rachel

Oh gosh.

[00:24:57.170] – Allan

Well again, I don't want it to sound like I'm reading, but it probably does. And there's going to be words, particularly when I'm dealing with doctors and scientists, that I'm going to mispronounce a few times. So I try to get it all right, or at least as close to right, where I'm just like, okay, that's cool. So now that goes into the audio file.

[00:25:17.840] – Allan

So now I end up with on average usually about nine files that then are there. Now what I do is I have to download that as a zip file and then I share that with my audio production group. And so each week they go in and they put it all together. Now there are some weeks I get a little behind because they need 48 hours. So I get a little bit behind sometimes I'll do it myself and just get it done. It takes me probably about 2 hours to do that myself versus they can get it done probably a lot faster. And I'm not involved.

[00:25:56.090] – Allan

When they get done, they email me and say your file is ready. I download that and then what I do is I upload it into an application called Happy Scribe. And what Happy Scribe is, it's an AI that does a transcript. So this AI does the full transcript of the show and it's fairly good. I mean, it's not perfect. So what I do then is once it's uploaded and done that way, I send that over to my assistant and I tell her, okay, this one's ready to review. She goes in and she puts the because the timestamps are already there, but the AI doesn't know who's speaking. It just knows it's probably a different voice.

[00:26:36.070] – Allan

And it's again, pretty good about that, particularly you and I. Rachel knows you're you and I'm me.

[00:26:43.305] – Rachel

Neat

[00:26:43.710] – Allan

So it keeps this part. I've had some guests that sound too much like me and as a result it can't really pick up who's who. But if that's the case, again, she goes in and puts the names and makes sure the timestamps are all set up. And once that's done, then I kind. Of have what I need for posting.

[00:27:01.020] – Allan

So what I have to do then is I have this audio file and I have the transcript. I take the audio file and I have to add some tags to it. So the picture that goes along with it, so you see it on your. Pod catcher, whatever you're listening to podcast, you see the logo for that episode, the notes of what you see on your app, that all has to be written up and ready. And then of course, other information like my name, your name, those things that are in that audio file. So it picks up what it needs when it goes out there.

[00:27:38.390] – Allan

I use a company called Liberated Syndication or Libsyn for short, and they're basically where I host all the audio files. So the audio files go out there. And then what they do is they release it. And so Apple goes out there and picks up off of them, as does Google, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Amazon, Audible, all of them go out there. So this thing kind of basically syndicates my files, all those files out as a podcast.

[00:28:10.750] – Allan

And then I have to create a post on my website. So the website 40 Plusfitnesspodcast.com is basically a blog. It's a WordPress type site that is hosted. I use Deluxe Hosting as my host. They're really good for just small companies, small business kind of stuff, and you. Get a good amount of hosting space and throughput it works really well. But it's important to make sure that your podcast host and your music or the actual music file are hosted on different platforms.

[00:28:44.250] – Allan

So basically I'm not slowing anything down. It can pick up regardless of where we are. But if you try to put it all on one, like if I try to put it all in Deluxe Hosting, it's all my eggs in one basket. And they're not set up for podcasting, whereas Libsyn is. And there are a lot of new players out there in the game and some are good and some are not. But I've been with Libsyn since the beginning and so it worked very well for me.

[00:29:17.490] – Allan

And so then basically as I go through, I'm posting the transcript out there links to the book, all the different things that you see. If you go out there and look at the show notes, I get all that post out there and then I'm pretty much done just all that scheduled. And then if I do some promotion, I will put all that out there. And say, okay, here we are, here's the episode, things like that. And that's it pretty much soup to nuts.

[00:29:44.080] – Allan

Now the interesting thing is, if you think about. It, this is 600 episodes. I put about 10 hours of just my time. So I've got people helping me, but. I put about 10 hours per week of my time into just about every episode. All the things yeah, so if you. Take that 10 hours times 600 episodes, that's over 6000 hours that I've dedicated just to this podcast in seven and a half years.

[00:30:16.630] – Rachel

That's a lot. It's a lot of time, Allan.

[00:30:20.810] – Allan

It is a lot of time. It is a lot of time. But to me it's valuable time because I'm able to bring some great information forward, have some conversations that people need to have, teach some concepts that no one else really is talking about. And I think that's where I really struggle with a lot of this, is that if there was someone else doing this the way I'm doing it, then I would probably stop doing it.

[00:30:49.630] – Allan

But most people don't stick. The average podcast that's out there goes live and maybe gets seven, maybe 15 episodes, and then caput, it's gone. Some people do get bigger, and some people do keep going, which is great. But they're usually in their own little niche, their own little thing, and it doesn't really have anything to do with you. And so that's why I do what I do.

[00:31:16.780] – Allan

And right now, reading a book about menopause why are you reading about menopause? Well, I'm reading about menopause because it's really important for most of the women that are listening to this podcast, because you're either almost about to be perimenopause, you are perimenopause or you are menopause. You're one of those three right now if you're a woman over 40.

[00:31:40.350] – Allan

And so I want to make sure you have the best, most current information. And, yeah, I've been talking about it for seven and a half years. Is there anything new under the sun? I learn something new every time I read a book.

[00:31:52.950] – Rachel

Every time.

[00:31:53.570] – Allan

Every time I read a book, there's something in that book. And so this is just another one. I want to make sure that that context and information is out there. So, yeah, we've done 600 episodes. That's over 385 guests.

[00:32:07.920] – Rachel

Wow.

[00:32:08.570] – Allan

And almost every one of them wrote a book that I read. It's a lot of books. The episodes are longer than 30 minutes, particularly today. But if you just said, okay, the average episode was 30 minutes, then that's 300 hours of listening, time of information and stuff that you can find. So you can do a search on my podcast. If you're on Apple or something, like some of these apps, they only show you like, the last 100 episodes or last 300 episodes. All 600 of them are available for you to listen to. So you can go to our website, 40Plusfitnesspodcast.com/podcast, and you'll see that there's sort of the different pages for all the posts.

[00:32:56.340] – Allan

You can click on the biggest number over there. I don't know how many that is, and that'll take you to the first episode. And it's horrible.

[00:33:05.930] – Rachel

Oh, jeez.

[00:33:07.380] – Allan

it is horrible. But it was me getting started, and as I say, progress over perfection. I got started. I got a little bit better. I invested a little bit more money here and there to make sure that this is growing and giving information.

[00:33:25.360] – Allan

And we've had about 3.6 million downloads of this podcast since I launched it. Some are a lot bigger than others, but most are getting 5000 – 6000 downloads per episode, and they're getting those within the first two months. And then after that, they have kind of what I call long tail, because we get about 10,000 downloads per week. And so you can kind of see how this thing goes if you're getting 45,000 to 50,000 downloads a month and there's only four or five episodes, it's not just those episodes. People are listening to the back episodes too, which is great. It means that I'm relieving some value out there for people to find, and I really like that.

[00:34:09.920] – Allan

So I don't have any real intentions of stopping this. I want to keep doing it as long as I possibly can but I do want to ask for just a little bit of help.

[00:34:22.850] – Allan

First off, you could leave a rating and review for the podcast. I haven't asked anybody to do that in years. But if you do like the podcast and you want people to find out about it, go leave a rating and review it's right there. There's three little dots or something right there on your phone. You can click on that and leave a rating and review. And that does tell the people that give you that app, be it Apple or Google or whatever, that you like the show. And that means they're much more likely to show it to someone else when they start looking for shows, you can tell someone about the show.

[00:35:01.550] – Allan

There have been times when I've been sitting there talking about the show and someone says, well, what's a podcast and how do you listen to them and where are they? And I'm like, okay, let me see your phone. And I literally pull up the app and I search for my podcast and I hit subscribe and I say, There you go. There's the last four or five episodes. And you can listen to whenever you like. It's right there on your phone. So you could do that, just tell people about it, or you can go.

[00:35:28.540] – Allan

To 40plusfitnesspodcast.com and if there's any books that you're interested in. So let's say I'm having a conversation with Dr. Hirsch about Menopause, and you're interested in her book, The Menopause Types. You decide that's an interesting book rather than going directly to Amazon yourself. If you go through my website and click on that link, there is a small affiliate commission, 2 – 3%, but it's still a little something. Let's say you decided you want to buy a car on Amazon, you could click on that link first, buy the book and the car, and I'd get a nice little commission check out of that.

[00:36:10.150] – Rachel

Sure.

[00:36:11.910] – Allan

But yeah, as you're doing your shopping and you think, I want to go on Amazon if you have that cookie. I mean, they're not using cookies anymore, but whatever it is, if you click on my link and go over there and then do your shopping, it will help the podcast. It'll give us a little bit of money.

[00:36:27.260] – Allan

You can go over to Amazon and get the book. So you can go to 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/book and that'll take you to the. Wellness Roadmap on Amazon and you can buy my book. It's still valid. It's still evergreen. I even talking to someone who read it just this week and she's like, I can't believe you wrote that five years ago. You could have written it today. And it's just as valid as it was then. And I'm glad someone actually recognized that because that's what I was trying to do then. And so it is still a good book.

[00:36:59.590] – Allan

And then, yes, there's always working directly with me on my site, 40plusfitness.com. There are challenges, there are programs. So if you want to just do something, there's a sugar challenge, there's a functional fitness challenge. If you're interested in working more directly, you can get in contact with me there.

[00:37:19.450] – Allan

And then, of course, Rachel, you have some places you'd like to send people?

[00:37:24.580] – Rachel

Sure. I think the easiest place to find me would be on my website, which is Strong-Soles.com. That's souls, as in the souls of your shoe. S-O-L-E-S. Strong souls.com. And from there, I've got a contact form if you want to ask me any questions or give me some feedback on the 40 plus fitness podcast. But also there's links to my two socials on Facebook and on Instagram. Those are the only two platforms I'm on. It's plenty for me, so you can reach me in any of those places quick.

[00:37:55.910] – Allan

I do this podcast for you. And so if there's a topic that you just want more information on, something you're dealing with specifically, or someone your family is dealing with specifically that you'd like to know more about, reach out to me. Like I said, I do searches for guests, and I'm looking for specific topics at times. So if you come and tell me here's an issue that I'm dealing with, and I'm looking at your podcast and there was not really any one thing out there for it, would you be interested in finding somebody to talk more about this thing? I'll be glad to do that.

[00:38:39.350] – Allan

I need a new guest every week. And while I do get hundreds and hundreds of solicitations, most of those are just trying to sell some corporation that they're a part of. They're not actually trying to inform you about anything. So if there is a topic or something you're interested in, just let me know and I will do what I can to try to find somebody to talk about that particular topic so you'll have some more information, better information, and have a good starting point for your education going forward.

[00:39:10.220] – Allan

So with that, I'd just say thank you so much for being a part of 40 Plus Fitness. We've been doing this since December of 2015. We're going to keep doing this. Because I'm only doing one a week. We're not going to hit 1000 for another 7.8 years. So we won't be celebrating 1000 anytime soon. But we will keep going. We will keep recording, we will keep looking for awesome guests and I will keep reading the books and making sure I'm asking the right questions for you.

[00:39:44.990] – Allan

But I appreciate you very much. Thank you for being a part of all of this. And if you have any questions, just let us know.

[00:39:52.530] – Rachel

Awesome. Congratulations, Allan. Congratulations on 600 episodes and a lot of great information that people can actually use.

[00:40:00.480] – Allan

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that.

[00:40:02.360] – Rachel

You bet.

Music by Dave Gerhart

Patreons

The following listeners have sponsored this show by pledging on our Patreon Page:

– Anne Lynch– Ken McQuade– Leigh Tanner
– Debbie Ralston– John Dachauer– Tim Alexander
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Thank you!

Another episode you may enjoy

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August 2, 2022

Frequently asked weight loss questions

Apple Google Spotify Overcast Youtube

Trying to lose weight when you're over 40 brings a whole new set of challenges. On episode 549 of the 40+ Fitness Podcast, Rachel and I answer the most frequently asked weight loss questions.

Transcript

Let's Say Hello

[00:03:21.070] – Allan

Hello, Ras.

[00:03:22.360] – Rachel

Hey, Allan. How are you today?

[00:03:24.790] – Allan

I'm doing all right.

[00:03:26.300] – Rachel

Good.

[00:03:29.870] – Allan

If you kind of followed the news outside the United States, then you know that there's a lot of countries, particularly countries that have a large proportion of their people that are living right at or below the poverty line. And Panama is one where they have some individuals here that are really rich and there's a lot of individuals that are pretty much hand to mouth. What they make today, they eat today kind of people. And so with the way prices and inflation has been going up, it's making it really difficult for these folks. And so there's basically strikes/ protests going on around the country. And what that means is their favorite way to protest is to basically just shut down roads. So all across the country you have various industries that are completely going on strike. Transportation is one of the key ones. And then, yeah, they block all the roads. So what that means is that fuel, for example, isn't getting to this island because it can't get through the roadblocks. And what that means is that our power is run by generator. They're due to run out of power today. In fact, while we're recording this, my power might just go out.

[00:04:51.040] – Rachel

Oh, no.

[00:04:53.090] – Allan

But I do have a backup power. My computer is plugged in and charging, so I should be able to finish the podcast in the dark. But if it happens, it also means that people traveling around the country are getting stuck. So they get one place and then they run into a roadblock. And then before they can really turn around and come all the way back, there's another roadblock behind them and they're literally trapped on the road. It's making travel very difficult, making plan, anything. So Tammy is due to take our granddaughter back and it's like, well, I can't chance the bus because we might get stuck and spend a couple of days on the side of a highway with no services. She's concerned about that and so she's got to reconfigure her travel. They're going to have to fly to Panama City and hope that they can get to took them in the airport because that road has been blocked off a few times too. And then, yeah, I've got a trip in August, so I'm hopeful that they take care of some of this stuff and get some of these things out of the way.

[00:05:54.200] – Allan

But it is what it is. It's kind of tense, but it's not like burning down cities and stuff like that. That sometimes happens. So at least at this point, it's relatively peaceful. And yeah, there have been a few fist fights because if you're sitting on the road trying to get somewhere and you've been stuck for hours and there's just people just sitting on the road, it can kind of upset some people. So there have been some fights, fist fights and things like that, but nothing major so far. But I think as it gets going, it could blow up and be bigger. Wherever you are, be safe. It's not that this won't happen in the United States. So just realize take care of yourself, take care of your family, and the best thing you can do is take care of your health and make sure that you're in good shape that way because you just never know what's going to happen in the world for us. The Chinese proverb, may you live in interesting times. I'm there, baby.

[00:06:59.170] – Rachel

Yeah. That is very interesting. Well, I hope it gets to be a little more peaceful. I hope things resolve soon.

[00:07:06.240] – Allan

Yeah. Because the meat market where I buy most of my meat, she says she hasn't gotten a shipment. She doesn't know when she's going to get in the shipment. So we could easily run out of food on the island. In addition to running out of fuel, we capture our water. So it's been raining, so we're going to have water. But the food thing might actually start to be a problem for us. But I'm sure they'll figure something out.

[00:07:30.480] – Rachel

But my fingers are crossed.

[00:07:32.950] – Allan

How are things up there?

[00:07:34.390] – Rachel

Good. For this early morning podcast, I had to get up a little bit earlier than normal, so I got to see the sunrise this morning and enjoyed a wonderful morning run and have a coffee sitting here with me while we chat today. And I'm just in a good place. It's going to be a good day.

[00:07:52.640] – Allan

Yes, it's going to be a good day. And the reason we're recording this early is we want to have a little extra time. And so we pushed our recording to a different day and then all of the conflicts and things that I had, this was the only time we could record. But this is a special episode because this is going to be one of our question and answer episodes and we want to have these more regularly. So if you have questions about anything, you can join us on our Facebook Group at 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/group. And in the group occasionally I will post for questions like I did this time.

And then you also, Rachel, you posted in your page, Strong Souls. Strong Souls?

[00:08:34.820] – Rachel

Yes, Strong Souls.

[00:08:36.770] – Allan

I don't know why I can't stick that in my head. I know it's you. When I see the post. I said, okay, that's Rachel.

Weight Loss Questions

[00:08:45.770] – Allan

This week we are going to discuss frequently asked weight loss questions. We had a few people that did submit some questions, and then some of the other questions that I put in here were questions that I get all the time from my clients or questions that I've seen regularly either on the group or just in other forums.

[00:09:05.630] – Allan

So I wanted to talk about those. So today we're going to talk about weight loss questions. Now, the first question comes from Melissa, and I believe Melissa is a client of yours and she's in your Strong Souls page group. She posted the question, what should be the number one thing to focus on? And she said macros, water, exercise. I'm going to add calories because a lot of people ask about whether they should do calories in, calories out and all of that. And you're not going to like the answer to this, Melissa, but the answer is it depends.

[00:09:43.150] – Rachel

Yeah

[00:09:44.750] – Allan

it depends. I've seen people be extremely successful just by focusing on their calories. They do the calories in, the calories out, and the formula just seems to fall in place for them. They eat a little bit less, they lose some weight, and they feel good. So there's that. If you decide you want to try to do some macros based stuff like keto or low carb, then obviously now you're focused on the macros a little bit more. We all know that drinking enough water is important to stay hydrated and sometimes full. So you start feeling a little hungry, drink some water, you kind of lose that.

[00:10:27.980] – Allan

You get that fullness sensation and the hunger kind of goes away. So if it's binges and kind of urges and things like that, water can be a great tool. And then exercise. And we're going to talk a little bit more about exercise. There's another question on this later, a few questions on this later because we talk about exercise. But exercise should not be your weight loss plan. It seldom works. Yes, you're increasing your calorie usage, but there are reasons why sometimes your body still won't lose the weight. So exercise is important. It's important for a lot of reasons. It can be a tool, just a tool in your tool chest that makes losing weight a little easier. And mentally it probably helps a lot because I've noticed as I get people moving, they suddenly start paying a lot more attention to the other things that can make them healthy. They actually start eating better because it's kind of like, well, I went for that run this morning and now I'm in the drive thru at McDonald's. That feels kind of weird. And so you start maybe eating a little bit better, you start working out, you get more energy, and you have more energy now cooking, batch cooking, doing the things to have healthy food, putting a little bit energy, more energy into that you're able to.

[00:11:47.340] – Allan

So from my perspective, you have to pick a strategy that you know will work for you that can be focused on macros, that can be focused on calories. And then the water and the exercise are tools that you carry along with you regardless of the way you choose to do this, that then become ways that you can make sure that the weight loss is consistent. And yeah, if you find yourself plateauing, well, put a couple of hit workouts in your month and that might be just the thing to trigger it. But the other thing I'd caution is, I think sometimes when people do macros, they forget the calories count.

[00:12:24.430] – Rachel

Right.

[00:12:25.730] – Allan

And I've got lots of friends in this industry that are keto, and they've been keto for five years, six years, seven years, and they are still obese. And I can kind of tell them why they don't like the answer, but the answer is that they're overeating. Their macros are fine. Their body knows how to use the fat for energy. They're just eating too much and they're not moving enough.

[00:12:54.040] – Rachel

Okay.

[00:12:56.030] – Allan

Both yeah. Go ahead.

[00:12:57.550] – Rachel

So that's where I was going to go, too, is one of the things I like to say, is, if you can measure it, you can monitor it. And with the apps nowadays, like Fitness Pal and there's a number of different food diary apps you can use, I think that we are not fully aware of how many calories we're eating and in what macros specifically, it's just easy for our mind to think, yeah, we're only having a half a cup or a quarter cup of nuts. When you really go down to measure it, you're eating a full cup or something or cereal or a glass of milk or whatever it is that you're eating. We just have this way of not really recognizing the true volume of what we're eating, and in that case, we're not really recognizing the true number of calories that we're eating. So that's what I would have suggested. If you can measure it, you can monitor it and then find your weak points. If you start measuring what foods you're eating and paying attention to any trends, you might notice that maybe you're having too many carbs in a day or too much fat in a day or too much of something else in a day, in which case, if you're eating too much of something, then you're lacking in something else.

[00:14:08.280] – Rachel

So it's really good to keep some sort of a food diary and observe any trends in your habits and see what you can do better.

[00:14:16.320] – Allan

Yeah. And just what you said. Your example of half a cup of nuts that then turns into a full cup of nuts, let's break that down. A serving of nuts is about 2oz. Ounce or 2oz. So you could be having anywhere from four to eight servings of nuts. And you look on there and it's like, oh, well, it's 160 calories for a serving of nuts. Well, guess what you just did. You ate 800 calories of nuts.

[00:14:44.090] – Rachel

I'm good at this. I know this trend very well because this is what I do. I'll measure my food, a quarter cup of nuts, and it looks like a little bit of a hill in the palm of my hand. I can fit this much ounces of nuts in my hand. And so then I put the measuring cup away and I start pouring the nuts in my hand, and the pile gets a little bigger and a little bigger. Oh, it's just a few more nuts. It's just a few extra calories, but it snowballs it can be a lot more calories, and it's just easy for our minds to kind of overlook that. So it's important to measure and monitor.

[00:15:18.390] – Allan

Yeah, because an almond is about 16 calories,

[00:15:22.610] – Rachel

so they add up really fast

[00:15:24.450] – Allan

really fast. A couple extra in there, and over time that's more calories. And so, again, they both matter. Your body is going to react to different foods, different ways. Certain things are going to be inflammatory for you. Inflammation causes you to weight more. Even though it's not fat, it causes some other problems. And you do retain water and all this stuff with inflammation. So you're going to weigh more. You just naturally are just having a balance to this and looking for what does work for you is going to be the key for this.

[00:15:59.810] – Rachel

You know, a good point on the inflammation. Right now it's the middle of summer and we should be chugging water like it's going out of style. We're sweating a lot. If we're working outside, we need to replace that. But if you're eating a lot of carbs and drinking a lot of water, you're going to feel a little bloated. You could see that scale change a little bit, and you just have to recognize that you're drinking a lot of water for a reason. It's important to have this in you, and it might cause a little inflammation. It might cause you to bloat up a little bit. And so just don't be so hard on yourself if you're going on a run like I did this morning, I sweated buckets, but I also drank a ton of water when I got home. And so if I step on the scale, it's not going to reflect what I'm really doing on a day to day basis.

[00:16:45.300] – Allan

Yeah, I typically ask my clients to weigh themselves first thing in the morning, get up, do your little potty break, and then step on the scale. And typically that's the lightest weight we're going to weigh that day because overnight we've kind of dehydrated a little bit. We haven't drink any water, we haven't eaten any food. And then if we just went to the bathroom, we've gotten rid a little bit.

[00:17:09.650] – Rachel

Yeah, right.

[00:17:10.560] – Allan

Okay, now you weigh yourself, and then I also recommend that you not weigh yourself every day if you're someone who's going to kind of get yourself a little put back. Because what could happen is on day one, you lose a pound and you're really excited. That's a whole pound in a day, that's great. And then the next day you gain half a pound. The third day you gain a pound, and the fourth day you lose a pound. Now if you sat there and weighed yourself every day, you had a loss and then you had two gains. And for a lot of people that early in there, they're going to sit there and say, oh, my God, I'm gaining weight. I wanted to lose weight. And then what they do is if you weigh yourself out every four days, you've lost a pound and a half in four days, and that's good. You're targeting about a pound to a pound and a half, maybe 2 pounds in a week. You're three quarters of the way there, baby. You're there or three quarters of the way there for a max loss of 2 pounds. You've done really good, and you should be proud of that.

[00:18:16.420] – Allan

But if you let yourself get disgruntled or want to quit because the scale didn't go down every day, because guess what? It won't ever go down every day unless you just start cutting off body parts, if you're cutting off body parts, then absolutely, you can lose weight every single day until you can't. But that's kind of the whole part of this is to say, okay, I have to be reasonable about it. How does my mind work? And don't necessarily weigh yourself every day. Weigh yourself for trends. Don't track your food every day if you don't feel like doing it, track it for trends one day and say, okay, I'm going to track what I'm eating. I'm going to weigh it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to make sure that I got all my servings right. I've got my calories right. My fitness pal is great for that because it's a very big database. But some of the items on the database aren't 100% correct. They do need you to pay attention, because I couldn't tell you what 100 grams of steak looks like.

[00:19:19.820] – Rachel

Oh, gosh no.

[00:19:20.730] – Allan

but that's not what you pop up 100 grams of steak, and they make out like that's a serving. I'm like, okay, I look at steak by ounces, and I know that the palm of my hand, just the palm, is about a serving size of steak. So for dinner, I might sit down and have two servings of steak, and I know that's what I'm having, because about the size of two palms. If I'm going to have chicken, I know that's my full hand. Okay, fish my whole hand, 5oz. 4oz for steak, 4oz for pork. And when you start getting that down, you know what it looks like. You talked about the palm of your hand and the almonds. Yes, that's exactly what we're talking about. You start understanding what a serving is just because you spent a little time studying it, what it looks like. And so with some of my clients, instead of doing my fitness pal and tracking, I just say, send me photographs. Just take a picture of your meals and send them to me, and then if I see something, I'll say something. But for them, they'll think, okay, well, that was a serving of chicken.

[00:20:23.140] – Allan

I'm like, when you went to that restaurant, they gave you three servings of chicken. You thought that was one serving of potato. No, that was probably three servings of potato. And so you got to get that and understand that. But however you go about that, that's really important. So it does depend and you just have to find a way of eating that really works for you. And these other tools, get them in your tool chest and it will happen.

[00:20:50.910] – Rachel

Yes. Perfect.

[00:20:52.190] – Allan

All right. Now, the second question is kind of related. Is low carb better than low fat?

[00:20:59.260] – Rachel

That's a good one.

[00:21:00.600] – Allan

So I'm going to let you start on this, Rachel, because you do you and what you do works. So I want to hear your side of it first.

[00:21:09.160] – Rachel

Well, all of us are different, so again, I'll wave the flag of it depends on who you are, but for my personal opinion is that low carb is better than low fat. I think we need the healthy fats in our diets because they deliver so many important nutrients and energy that we don't get. But it's the carbs that I definitely keep an eye on, because not all carbs are good for you. And it's not just bread carbs that we think of, although those are the ones that we tend to overdose on, and I use that word specifically. We have cereal grains at breakfast and toast and sandwiches with giant submarine sandwich buns at lunch and then dinner rolls for dessert and cakes and things, cookies for desserts. We get so many carbs each and every single day and they all taste good, but they actually do nothing for us. There's very few nutrients in these types of products. So when I think of carbs, I think of the carbs that I'll get in the fibrous fruits and vegetables that I choose to eat. So my opinion is you just got to keep an eye on those carbs and just don't overdose on them.

[00:22:27.590] – Rachel

I'm not going to say everyone needs to go keto or any such thing, but I am saying again, if you measure it, you can monitor it. And I just think that we get way too many carbs in our day to day diet than we need. We can't use all the energy and then it just turns into fat later on.

[00:22:43.570] – Allan

Yes, I do also tend towards low carb with most people because what I found is you can feel satiated longer with fewer calories.

[00:22:55.310] – Rachel

Absolutely.

[00:22:56.250] – Allan

But where I would caution on either of these is realize how smart the food industry is and when we start having these things like low fat, when low fat came out, all the products hit the market. Low fat, you walk into a grocery store now, sometimes it is hard to find full fat yogurt.

[00:23:16.630] – Rachel

It is. And I'm looking

[00:23:18.830] – Allan

and literally, you go to the milk place and it's like they'll have one little space for the whole milk and then skim milk and semi skimmed milk, low fat milk and all of that and all the other stuff where they're taking out the lactose so you'll find more milk that's not whole milk than milk. And so just be cautious that they do that. And then now with low carb, as that started, really kind of getting some traction, you're seeing the same thing. They're making products that are higher in fat and lower in basic carbs or a lot more fiber. So your net carbs are lower, which fiber is good, but a lot of what they're putting together is not food. And so it's easy to get trapped into the well, this is a keto friendly snack. This is a keto friendly meal. I go in there and there's a TV dinner, and it says keto man. And there's your toss it in microwave. It's processed stuff.

[00:24:21.240] – Rachel

It's still processed

[00:24:22.490] – Allan

and your body is not good. So the true answer is whole food. Now, rather, that has a lot more fat in it. It should have the right fats in it.

[00:24:34.430] – Allan

So you're trying to get your omega threes. You're trying to get the healthy fats from nuts and seeds and olives and avocados and those types of things, and you can find what works. The reason low fat is a diet thing at all is because fat has more calories than carbs, but it also has a higher energy requirement to use it. And it stays in your system longer, so you stay fuller longer. Protein has the same number of carbs calories as carbs, but it's going to stay, takes a lot more energy to burn it and use it. That's called the thermal effect of food. And it's going to stay in your system longer and you'll stay fuller longer. So a high fat, medium protein food stuff is going to take longer. You're going to burn more energy burning it than you would with carbs. Some carbs will hit your system like a sugar freight train.

[00:25:34.840] – Rachel

That's right.

[00:25:36.170] – Allan

And your blood sugar is going to spike up. You have all this energy. You're going to feel great, but you're not burning it. So what's going to happen immediately thereafter is your insulin is going to kick in. It's going to pull it out, it's going to put it where it puts it, which if you haven't burned it out of your muscle and liver, it's going to put it in fat for short term storage, it thinks. But we know it stays there a lot longer. And then you're going to sugar crash. And so you had that high carb, low fat breakfast. You had the juice, you had the cereal, and it's fortified. And it's fortified, so it's healthy. And then your blood sugar plummets at 10:00 and you find yourself snacking. And if you didn't bring a healthy snack to snack on you're at the vending machine or yeah, and then boom, another sugar rush. And then lunch comes and you can kind of see how this roller coaster of up and down with your blood sugar is not serving you at all.

[00:26:34.200] – Rachel

Yeah, absolutely.

[00:26:35.340] – Allan

Now, low fat makes it easier to be sustained for longer. When you get to where your body is comfortable burning a good amount of fat, it'll start looking at your body as food. I've got body fat here. I've got enough energy to last the rest of my life. I never have to eat again. And you might actually find that you're not as hungry and you forget to eat. I know that sounds weird in the culture, but you can forget about food. You cannot think about food. 24/7. But it does take understanding what real food is. And just because you go low carb does not mean you're not eating vegetables. Okay? And it does not mean you're not eating fruit. I want to put that out there. There are ways for you to include fruit in your diet and still be low carb or keto. There are ways for you to make sure you're getting adequate vegetables and a good variety of vegetables and the fiber and things that they bring. I just did an interview. It's going to air in a few weeks. When we talk about this, we talk about this very thing. Food is medicine and how having what we would call more of a plant based diet is actually better for you.

[00:27:48.200] – Allan

And guess what? You can be plant based and low carb.

[00:27:51.950] – Rachel

Well, you also mentioned real foods, real fruits, real vegetables, real protein sources, things that didn't come out of a box or a jar. And since you mentioned that, too, if you're eating like that, then you're also keeping an eye on sugars. And that, I think, is even more hideous than anything else, because if you're looking at a low fat or a low carb food or low calorie food, what they do is they put a ton of sugar in it, and there's probably 30, 40, 50 different names for the word sugar. And it just is hidden in all these foods. And you don't realize how much sugar you're getting throughout the day. And if you start reading labels and watching for how many sugars are in a product and not even added sugars are the worst, but just all of the different sugars that are in products, you would be so surprised how much sugar you're getting in a day. And that's probably worse than anything else.

[00:28:47.370] – Allan

Yeah, I'm running a sugar challenge. I set it up, kind of, to run Evergreen now. So if you want to take the Sugar Challenge, you can go to 40plusfitness.com/sugar. It's a low cost program. It's 28 days. It'll teach you how much sugar you're eating. It'll teach you why you don't want to be eating that much sugar. And I set goals for various levels of sugar. And it's interesting. People will come back and say, there's no way I can keep my sugar below 25 grams. And, like, people do it all the time, and they lose weight and they feel great. But the thing is, this is, you don't know how much you're eating, but the average person, I want you to think average person is eating 152 pounds of sugar per year

[00:29:38.460] – Rachel

and no one thinks that. And because it's hidden. It's hidden in all these foods. And you just don't think it's not just candy bars, it's not just ice cream, it's hidden, it's in pasta sauces and pizza sauces and just all the things that we add to our foods. It's ridiculous.

[00:29:56.130] – Allan

Yeah. So if you're interested in cutting your sugar back or paying attention to it, I think this is a really good challenge to take you through 28 days to get sugar out of your life, or at least get it down to a manageable level, and you're going to feel a lot better for it.

[00:30:11.730] – Rachel

I think that'll be great.

[00:30:13.230] – Allan

Okay, so the next question in our weight loss questions is what exercises are best for weight loss?

[00:30:20.330] – Rachel

That's a good one.

[00:30:21.310] – Allan

Okay. And I'm going to go ahead and push this one also over to you, Rachel.

[00:30:25.270] – Rachel

Really? You're not going to believe what I'm going to answer.

[00:30:27.810] – Allan

You're the runner. You're the runner.

[00:30:29.930] – Rachel

Yeah.

[00:30:30.720] – Allan

Come on, run those pounds off, lady.

[00:30:33.720] – Rachel

The best exercise, the absolute best exercise is the one you're going to do. Honestly, just find something that you love to do and start doing it. Walking, running, hiking, going to the gym, lifting, hit classes. If you're going to do it and stick to it, you have some consistency, then it's going to work for you. But everyone is different. Everyone has different preferences, everyone has different abilities. But there are some exercises that are probably better and more calorie burning than others. But honestly, if you're not going to go do it, then what good is it?

[00:31:08.870] – Allan

As I said in the first answer to the first question, it was, okay. Exercise should not be your strategy for weight loss to start with. Okay. You're not going to burn enough exercising to do any sizeable weight loss. I think a Snickers bar has, what, 350 calories?

[00:31:29.640] – Rachel

Sure.

[00:31:30.160] – Allan

I'm guessing. Okay, if you eat a Snickers bar, you'll eat that Snickers bar in less than two or three minutes.

[00:31:35.740] – Rachel

Right.

[00:31:36.560] – Allan

In most cases, people are not savoring a Snickers bar, they're scarfing the Snickers bar. Okay. And you eat that Snickers bar, it's 350 calories. It will take you an hour of moderate exercise. So that whole fitness class, that whole hit class you did where you sweated your butt off for an hour, that's just the Snicker bar.

[00:31:57.040] – Rachel

Yes.

[00:32:00.570] – Allan

Go ahead.

[00:32:01.520] – Rachel

What I like to say is you cannot run away from your diet. You can't. And as a runner, I'd rather run than do anything else every day, but I can't outrun the diet. It's just impossible.

[00:32:15.770] – Allan

And so, yeah, I agree with you on doing the exercises

[00:32:18.950] – Rachel

it's important.

[00:32:20.320] – Allan

Like to do, that's important. But also, I want you, as you start thinking about your overall health and fitness journey, to think about exercise as a different way. We use words like exercise, workout, that kind of stuff. I prefer to think of it in terms of training, and so it's trained to be who you want to be. So when you're 80 years old, do you want to be frail and weak? Do you want your bones to be brittle and weak? And I think for most of us, the answer would be no. I want to be able to wipe my own butt when I'm 105. Call me weird, but I want to be independent, and I want to live in a good, long, healthy life. So exercise is important for that, and that includes weight training. So I have strong muscles and dense bones, and so I think resistance training needs to be in there. I think having stamina work, which can include running, biking, hiking, classes, all of that is great for building stamina. And then you can also work on other things like balance and mobility and agility and other things for what you enjoy in life.

[00:33:33.920] – Allan

Now, exercise does burn calories, so it can be a tool that will help. And what I've also found and I said this before, was when people start exercising, they start paying attention. When they start paying attention, they start eating better, they start trying to get better sleep. They try to work on stress management. And in many cases, exercise becomes a part of their stress management process. I used to love not love, but if I got really stressed out at work or really angry at work happening a lot, I would throw around really heavy weights in the gym. It's like suddenly I'm going beast mode in the gym because I need to get that negative energy out of my body. And I'm not talking to anybody. I'm just in there. Okay, I got the bar loaded. Deadlifts. Kill it. I can put 20 more on there because I'm just that mad. And the thing about exercise that I also want to caution is sometimes exercise can be counterproductive to weight loss. When I was training for marathons, I ate more, and I didn't realize how much more I was eating. And I was eating runner food, which at the time was pasta.

[00:34:52.280] – Rachel

Oh, boy.

[00:34:52.980] – Allan

So I was the pasta theme. I was eating pasta every day, carb up and be able to run further and faster and all that. And I would put on weights. I'd start training, I'd be about 185 pounds, and then boom. By the time I was running the marathon, I'm over 195. They have a category for that called Clydesdales. So, yeah, I'm standing there with all these skinny people about to do a marathon, and they're all looking at me like, dude, you don't need to be doing this. You need to be doing something with of course you're lifting weights, your body might retain water, you're going to put on muscle. And so all those things will say, maybe you're not going to lose weight because of your exercising. But if your training is important enough for what you want to be, the weight loss will come. And that's the other side of it. Exercising, stress management, sleep, those are ways to manage your health. And a healthy body realizes it doesn't need the body fat anymore. There's nothing scary going on. If you're feeding your body the standard American diet, you're sending out a constant signal, we're going to die.

[00:36:00.710] – Allan

We're eating poison because there's nothing else to eat. And there is. It's all over the round, the outside of the grocery store. When you start putting whole food in there and you're doing these other things, your body starts feeling healthy. And then it says, you know what, I don't need to hold on to this extra bit of body fat. I can safely let it go. Okay.

[00:36:22.610] – Rachel

The other thing is, ads are made in the kitchen, right? We've all heard this, and it is important. And as far as if your focus is on weight loss, the kitchen is where you want to start. But exercise enhances that weight loss. If you're out there moving and have an active lifestyle, you are going to shed a few more calories maybe than what you're taking in. But it's something that it goes hand in hand. You've got to watch and do the other. The other thing with exercise, specifically with running, like I like to do, and most of my clients are athletes, are runners, we learn really quickly what not to eat really quickly. The stomach ailments that runners get are really fun. And so you learn, like you mentioned the drive thru at McDonald's or something. If you go for a run after having that, you might end up with heartburn, you might end up with the runners tracks. I think again, you start to realize, well, this food isn't serving me. It's not helping me not only in the weight loss health realm, but it's also not helping me be better at the exercise that I'm choosing.

[00:37:27.720] – Rachel

Running, lifting weights. I'm sure you've been in the gym feeling, oh, I probably shouldn't have had that for lunch, as you're trying to lift the weight, I think the two things go very well hand in hand.

[00:37:39.110] – Allan

Yeah, I prefer to exercise faster, so typically if I'm doing anything I didn't eat that day, or like, I'm going to do the tough mudder, I'm going to have a breakfast. I start the tough mudder at ten, so I'm probably going to get up a little early and I'll go have a breakfast. And it'll probably be what I normally eat, lots of eggs. So I'll have some eggs for breakfast and depending on where I am, maybe bacon with that. But for the most part, it's just going to be eggs. And so it'll be the weird guy who walks in and says, okay, I want five to six eggs and then I'll eat them all. But then I'll digest them, and they won't be in my stomach. They'll probably be somewhere around my small intestine or large intestine before I start the run. And it's something I eat every day, almost every day. So I know my body tolerates it. And then I'll do my tough mudder. I won't eat during the Tough Mudder because I don't have to. I don't have to feel it that way. But I know, and it's somewhat happening now, is that I'm not losing weight because I'm training for a Tough Mudder.

[00:38:46.910] – Allan

I wanted to lose weight. I started trying to lose weight, and I did lose some. I lost a bit, but I haven't hit my goal. And now I'm realizing I may not. And I'm okay with that because I know that I'm in a condition to be able to complete the Tough Mudder, and that was the goal. So it's setting your mind and understanding that if you have these competing things, you have to take a step back. And I would never prioritize weight loss over fitness. I would never prioritize weight loss over health.

[00:39:26.190] – Rachel

Perfect. It's important.

[00:39:29.550] – Allan

All right, the next question is, I haven't changed my diet, but I stopped losing weight. Why?

[00:39:36.930] – Rachel

Oh, my gosh. Are we at a plateau?

[00:39:40.710] – Allan

We may be at a plateau. I think some people call the plateau way early. Well, if you're weighing yourself every day and you go two days without losing weight, I'm at a plateau. What am I going to do? Now, the way I like to think of plateaus is this, if what you're doing is good for you, good for your health, and it may not be like a plateau. It may just be a ledge on the side of the mountain. So you've been climbing this mountain and doing really well and feeling really good about what you did, and now you get up onto a ledge, and it's flat or maybe even feels like it's going sloping down a little bit. Well, if you stop there and say, I'm not climbing anymore, then you're not going up the mountain anymore either. So you have to walk across that ledge. You got to spend some time there until you get to the point of the mountain where you can start climbing again.

[00:40:40.290] – Rachel

Yeah.

[00:40:40.980] – Allan

Okay. So you're doing the right things, and sometimes just all you need to do is just hang in there, keep moving forward, keep eating the way you're eating, keep training the way you're training, keep doing the things you've been doing for your health, and then your body will get past this set point, past this plateau. I can tell you that's for a lot of people, it's really hard. Well, it is, because you just don't see that progress, which is why I'm also a big fan of not just measuring weight loss as a metric, measuring other things, like your waist circumference, your hip circumference, looking at your blood work. I mean, if your A1C is dropping and you're no longer prediabetic or diabetic when the doctor is saying, I can take you off of your blood pressure medicine, or I can lower the amount of medication that you're taking for blood pressure, that's a huge win, okay? And if you can fit in a smaller dress size, even though you weigh the same big win, who cares, right?

[00:41:43.680] – Rachel

Exactly.

[00:41:45.030] – Allan

So there is that and then there are other things you can do to jump set this. Okay? So the plateau is important for one core reason, and this is why your body likes consistency. Your body wants to stay the same, same is safe. Change is scary, and we feel that way about everything else we do. Our body feels the same way. So you'll notice that your heart rate resting heart rate stays about the same. Unless you train up, it'll change a bit. Your blood PH stays the same. It's in a certain range. Your body temperature stays in a certain range. Those are healthy ranges. Your body wants to keep your blood sugar within a safe range. And so your body is constantly fighting to make those things happen. And all these processes throughout this very complex system, multiple systems on top of systems, is going to cause your body from time to time to want to stop losing weight, just like it would stop everything else. It wants to stay the same. So you're going to have these set points that are going to happen. Everybody has them, everybody hits them. And then just for one reason or another, the scale does not want to budge.

[00:43:08.260] – Allan

Now, what we didn't realize is we also had set points on the way up, and some of those we blew right past, and some of those we saved. Someone will tell me, for five years, I stayed at 230 pounds and they were like, then it's like someone hit a switch and I'm at 269 and gaining, I got to do something. I'm like, yeah, okay, so you had a set point and you broke that set point and now you're at another set point going up. This is a great time to say, okay, let's go back down. But there's a set point. So you have to start working your way down and you might get back down to that 230 and find, yeah, that's another set point I'm going to struggle to get past. So just recognize those are normal. Your body's not angry?

[00:43:51.750] – Rachel

No. I think that we hit a lot of plateaus, like you had mentioned, because we don't give what we're doing enough time to work. We're not very patient people and we want to see overnight success. So first sit in, like you said, sitting, and do what you're doing for a while and see if results come after that. But then when we do hit a plateau again, or we're not making any progress, maybe it's time to switch it up. Maybe it's time to do something different. Reevaluate remeasure what you're doing food wise and exercise wise and really dive deep into what you're doing to see what can you do to change. And I do want to point out, too, that a lot of people decide that this is a good time to cut calories, and cutting calories may not be the answer.

[00:44:39.600] – Allan

Yeah, I agree with you. I think it's really important to kind of reiterate one of the things you said. This is a good time to start measuring. And what you may find is you've let some carbs slip in there, you didn't really realize what was happening, and now your body's acting like it's in maintenance and it's running in maintenance. It's not wanting to lose that weight. So that's really important. This is a good time to get the scale out, get the measuring cups out for a few days, pay attention to what you're eating and what your portion sizes are and kind of rebate yourself. So then the next step would be yes. What tools and what things have I used that have done this for me in the past? So some people it can be. I'm going to implement an additional hit class this week, and I'll do that for the next three or four weeks and see if that helps me break this plateau. It could be unless you mentioned water. It could be. Okay, I'm really not drinking enough water. I'm going to start drinking a little bit more water and see how I feel.

[00:45:42.690] – Allan

And then again with the measuring, if you find okay, yeah. Let some carbs in there. Tap them back down. Get them back down. Increase your fiber intake. Increase your protein intake. Good, too. You might need to lower your fat intake. So you might have your macros nailed down, and you're in ketosis, and you're still not losing weight. As I mentioned, I have friends that have been doing keto for years and still obese. Start thinking about what the food you're eating is. They like to make those keto pizzas and the keto pies and the keto cakes and all that, and those are regular things they're eating. Almond flour is still a processed food. Okay? And while it's not going to give you the insulin spike and the sugar spike and all of that, your body is still digesting it and using it. It's there. And so you just got to think about how whole food am I? And am I doing the right thing? Am I eating enough vegetables? Am I getting enough protein? And if the fat's out there and just you're eating a ton of fat, your body doesn't really need to burn body fat because you're doing that.

[00:46:51.990] – Allan

It could be that you cut back on a macro like fat, and maybe you bump up your protein a little bit, and that could be the change that makes it happen. But it's normal to be at that point, and you need to sit in it, and you need to walk across that ledge. You got to get back to the mountain climbing. You're still moving forward, and that's the other side. If you know what you're doing is good for you, you're still moving forward, even if you don't see it on the scale. So keep doing what you're doing and then reevaluate to see if you need to do something perfect.

[00:47:27.290] – Rachel

Yeah, absolutely.

[00:47:28.420] – Allan

All right. And we have one more question, and this comes from Hope in our Facebook group. How do you lose weight around the mid section? And I hear similar questions like this. How do I lose weight in my hips or my neck or my arms? Like the behind the arms, the tricep area, they got the wings and that type of thing. So Rachel I'll let you kind of jump on this one a little bit.

[00:47:54.350] – Rachel

Yeah. I wish I had the answer. That question probably make a million bucks off of that. But fat doesn't come off that way when you're eating well and exercising a lot, it just sheds evenly all over your body. So you really can't target one specific area with weight loss, but you can target specific areas in the gym with weight training.

[00:48:19.650] – Allan

Yeah, you're absolutely right. We can't really target this, but we can look at what are some reasons that this happens, particularly for women. So for men, it's a natural thing for us to store body fat around our body, but then it'll predominantly be in the stomach area as we're gaining weight that we really don't need. So once we start getting past the healthy BMI, the body fat is likely to accumulate in the stomach. And I'll say if you eat a lot of bread, you drink a lot of beer and maybe even some other alcohols, that's where it's going to want to store that fat. So a lot of it can be the foods and the drinks that you're choosing to put in your mouth that could be causing the fat to be there. Other issue, and this is where it more affects women. Is it's hormones baby. Hormones are going to tell your body where to store fat. So when you're young and your estrogen was awesome and your progesterone was awesome, your body said, well, stored in the butt and stored in the boobs, because that's what guys like. That's going to help us procreate and get their attention.

[00:49:34.750] – Allan

And that's where our body would tend to store that fat. As our estrogen goes lower, as our progesterone goes lower, our body says, well, you're more like a man now. I'm sorry. That's what it says. And so it's going to start wanting to store the fat more in the mid section. So if you're in perimenopause, some women and I'm not proposing this at all. I'm not diagnosing at all. Okay. I'm not a doctor. But some women will go on hormone replacement therapy. And that does help them not put as much fat in their mid section because. Again. The hormone replacement is telling them they're a younger woman and so they can replace the hormones safely if they work with your doctor. There's a particular window when it's really safe to do this and other times it's not. And you may have some other medical issues where it's not right for you, but that's one way that you can look at this problem and say, okay, I can delay the problem or prevent the problem there. The other thing is just realizing that you're going to lose the weight in the mid section when the body is ready to get rid of that weight.

[00:50:39.070] – Allan

Again, hormones, so you can cut your calories, you can do everything else to lose weight. The mid section should go down over time. Now you might find I lose the body. Like me, I lose body fat, my face, my arms and my legs first. The mid section will be darn last to benefit. Regardless of what I do, I'm going to have that in the middle all the way until I get down to really low body fat. So I just know that's where it's going to be and there's not really anything I can do about it. It's a visceral fat. So even going into a plastic surgeon and saying, hey, look at this, they're like, can't help you there. I could do a tummy tuck, but I can't really pull that fat out of there because it's all around the liver and we really don't want to play with the liver. So short of surgery, short of hormone replacement, it's really just about trying to get yourself healthy. Not drinking beer, not eating certain carbs that are going to cause body fat gain. And that, over time should shrink your midsection. But there's really no way to spot lose outside of surgery.

[00:51:59.940] – Allan

And again, if it's a mid section fat, then most likely even surgery won't really do you any big good. And no one should think surgery is an answer to a problem like weight loss. Again, there are people that need bariatric surgery and things like that, that's fine. If it's something you need to do for your health, by all means do it. But as far as just trying to lose the body fat in the mid section, just do healthy stuff and your body will drop it as it needs to.

[00:52:32.920] – Rachel

Yes, for sure.

[00:52:34.210] – Allan

All right, so that's the end of our weight loss questions. Rachel, I appreciate your time today going through this with me. I really appreciate your take on most of these, all of them actually. Anyway. Okay. So if you have additional weight loss questions, go to our group at 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/group. You can ask your questions there. Rachel and I, we pretty much live on that page.

[00:53:04.030] – Rachel

Yes, we're there.

[00:53:05.300] – Allan

If you post something on there, you're going to get an answer from us. And if you're struggling with something and even if it's not weight loss. We're talking about weight loss questions today. But if you have exercise questions, if you have running questions, if you have lifting questions, if you have sleep questions, stress management questions, anything to deal with health and fitness and over 40 years old, we want to have you in the group, and we want to add those questions out there. And if we get a good collection of questions in other areas, we'll have another episode like this.

[00:53:36.700] – Rachel

Sweet.

[00:53:37.160] – Allan

And share your questions, and we'll answer them in more detail then.

[00:53:40.540] – Rachel

That would be fun.


Post Show/Recap

[00:53:41.730] – Allan

All right. Well, Rachel, it's great to see you again today. This early. Finish up your coffee.

[00:53:46.850] – Rachel

Thank you.

[00:53:47.270] – Allan

You've already done your run, so you're going to have an awesome day.

[00:53:50.340] – Rachel

It's going to be an awesome day.

[00:53:51.840] – Allan

All right, so you, too, have an awesome day, and we'll talk to you next week.

[00:53:56.520] – Rachel

Take care.

[00:53:57.350] – Allan

You, too. Bye

[00:53:58.390] – Rachel

bye.

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Another episode you may enjoy

Less...

October 18, 2021

How to protect yourself from colon cancer

Apple Google Spotify Overcast Youtube

On episode 508 of the 40+ Fitness Podcast, Rachel shares her experience going through her recent colonoscopy. 

Transcript

Let's Say Hello

[00:00:46.220] – Allan
hey, Raz. How are things going?

[00:00:48.630] – Rachel
Good. How are you today, Allan?

[00:00:50.960] – Allan
I'm home. We got home yesterday is a lot of travel, a lot of 4700 miles driving two different countries. We were all over the whole East Side of the country. And so it was just a lot. I'm exhausted. I'm tired, and I started my training today for my tough Mudder. So right at this point, I'm like, I need a nap and I just need a nap. And so, yeah, it's good to be home. This is home now. I really I felt that way. I was in the United States, and I was like, you know, Bocas is my home.

[00:01:30.510] – Allan
And getting back here, I was like, yeah, this is where I want to be sleeping in my own bed, that kind of thing. So it's just good to be back. And now I can get back into a rhythm, back into what I like to do, focus on me, focus on my wife and my dogs and just living our lives and doing the things we do here, back in the gym, working out, no excuses. Just go, go, go. But at the same time, just having that comfort of knowing.

[00:01:59.760] – Allan
Okay, my bed is literally just one third of a mile that way. So.

[00:02:07.000] – Rachel
That's good. Glad you had the chance to visit all your family. I'm sure it was very rewarding to be on vacation and visiting with everyone. But, yeah, there's certainly nothing like the first night back at home in your own bed.

[00:02:19.670] – Allan
So If haven't answered your email or your Facebook questions or messages. I apologize, but the traveling really made it a lot more difficult for me to keep up with things. And so I fell behind a lot of things. And it taught me a lot about how I am not the same guy I was ten years ago when I could go, go, go, go, go and then get up and go. I need more downtime. I need more recovery. So that's one of the things here that I learned on this trip.

[00:02:51.560] – Allan
So future trips won't be quite as ambitious.

[00:02:54.940] – Rachel
Oh, wow. Yeah. Good thing to learn. That's for sure.

[00:02:58.220] – Allan
Well, how are things up there in Michigan?

[00:03:00.330] – Rachel
Great. I am such a good mood today. Mike and I had a much shorter vacation over the weekend. We had another runcation. We took our camper up north, a little part of Northwestern Michigan, and we ran a half marathon in the Sleeping Bear Dunes campground area. And we just had a fun time. The weather was perfect for running. The Hills were horrible. We survived, and we just had a wonderful time over the weekend. And again, just like you, it's nice to be home.

[00:03:32.980] – Allan
Good.

[00:03:33.970] – Rachel
Yeah.

Episode

[00:03:34.750] – Allan
All right. So today we're going to talk about getting your colonoscopy. There are two things that happen. As you get close to 50. You're 50 is you get your AARP invitation in the mail. I think I was 47 when I got mine, and then you're supposed to get your colonoscopy. There's kind of write a passage to your golden years, if you will, or you're happy years or whatever we want to call it. If you got into this, you've just turned 50 and you have family history up with cancer with particularly colorectal cancer.

[00:04:17.870] – Allan
And so for you, this was a day one. Get it done. Don't worry about it. Don't even think about it. It's not like I'm gonna put this off for a little while because I think I'm low risk. You just like, Nope. 50 get it done. Almost on your birthday. And your birthday wasn't .

[00:04:34.490] – Allan
And then you actually were doing some reading and found that now they're trying to move the date. If you have history, they're trying to move that screening date to age of 45.

[00:04:44.730] – Rachel
Right. You know, it's interesting. I go in every year for an annual physical. And I have done this for many years. And on my 49th annual physical, 49th year, they said I had to wait until I was 50 to have the colonoscopy. And it used to be age 55. And so when I got my annual physical shortly after my 50th birthday, I just was past July, they said, time to sign up. And I said, sure. And they said, by the way, the age has moved down to 45.

[00:05:14.200] – Rachel
And I thought, wow, that's really interesting that they're moving the age down in these increment brackets. But once I did a little research, I figured out why and what the American Cancer Society has found that even though the number of colorectal cancer diagnosis has gone down in a certain age group, it actually has increased for the 55 and younger age group, and it's increased only by 1% year after year. But I think that's part of the reason why they moved it down to 50 go to 45 right now.

[00:05:47.000] – Rachel
But even though that's the case, I still needed to check with my insurance to make sure they would pay for it, or at least know what it would cost me if I had to pay anything extra out of pocket. So it's definitely something you need to talk to your doctor about and also your insurance company.

[00:06:01.400] – Allan
Yeah. Now we're talking about colorectal cancer. There's a reason we're doing the screening, and I think we all know the C word. We get scared of it because it happened so much. It's one of the top leading causes of death, particularly in the United States. Right behind, I think heart disease and diabetes is right in that circle of the top three that you're probably going to deal with at some point. And unlike heart disease, which a lot of people will have an episode and then it'll be treatable and they'll treat it for decades.

[00:06:37.830] – Allan
In some cases, cancer has your number shortly after you realize that you have it over almost 60,000 people per year die of colorectal cancer.

[00:06:50.810] – Rachel
Yeah. According to the American Cancer Society, again, they were estimating in 2021. There would be 104,270 new cases of colon cancer and 45,230 new cases of rectal cancer in the United States. And right now, there are more than 1.5 million survivors of Colorectal cancer in the United States. And like I mentioned, the reason why the death rate has gone down for that is because of screening because of things like the colonoscopies. But as well as the new advances and different types of stool testing that can also catch it early, so early detection.

[00:07:36.400] – Allan
And that's the point. The earlier we detect it, the easier the treatment is, the more successful the treatment is. If we're catching it late, and you mentioned earlier when we were doing our pre talk, is it's one of the kind of cancers that you might notice a little bit of issues with your bowel, you might notice a little bit of issues with the fact that you can't seem to empty your bladder. There are other reasons, guys, for that prostate, which again, another screening you might want to go take a look at.

[00:08:03.850] – Allan
But if you're noticing some changes and that's one of the things in talking to different doctors, much of self diagnosis or at least being aware of a problem is being aware of self, of being aware of how things are working now and then not just saying, oh, that's a part of getting older. It can also be a symptom of something else. So the screening, they're giving you some preset dates and that's for the insurance to pay. I did a little bit of research because I thought I'm traveling in the United States.

[00:08:31.510] – Allan
I won't have time in my schedule to stop and do the three day purge and roll, which we're going to talk about in a minute here. I didn't have time for that. I get one here, and I haven't priced one here because it actually would be relevant to you guys anyway. So I thought, what if I was going to go ahead and do the sample version? You'll see the advertisements of the little box that arrives at your house and you put a little poo in a little container and send it back to them.

[00:08:58.830] – Allan
I did some pricing on that to look it up and they go ahead and say, okay, $30. And if you file with your insurance and then we'll deal with that billing stuff later. The $30 is just an administrative charge for the company that's facilitating getting the testing. But then I said, okay, if I'm going to just pay cash, they do give $100 discount. But it's still about $700 to get this test done, which is not cheap. But again, it's cheaper than the colonoscopy. So if your insurance company isn't going to cover it or you're going to end up paying out of pocket because you have a higher deductible insurance policy.

[00:09:36.060] – Allan
I did a little bit of research in what I was seeing were numbers right about the $3100. It can be a little more than that, a little less than that. Obviously, if you've got biopsies and other things that need to happen at the end, which we'll also talk about later, I guess the cost could go up for you, because again, now you have a medical thing you're treating versus just doing a standard routine screening. So, yeah, we're looking at about $1,100 if you wanted to pay cash for this or $3100, if you have a higher deductible, that's probably about what's going to come out if you're paying like an eight or 20 kind of thing, and you're looking at the 20% of that.

[00:10:13.560] – Allan
So still some money. And you got to think about that with your health care as we get older. We got a budget for the screenings. We got a budget for those things because we've been young and foolish thinking we're going to live forever. And maybe someone who's almost never hits your deductible well, over the age of 50, you're going to find more years that you hit it. And over 60 more years that you hit it, then you don't. So just be recognizing that as you're getting older, having the finances to focus on taking care of yourself and getting these pre things down like a screening, not putting it off because $700, that's a car payment as like, just do it.

[00:10:55.560] – Allan
You pay $1200 for a phone. Just do it right.

[00:11:02.120] – Rachel
It would be a great thing to add to your monthly budget just to keep a little nest egg of money for these types of screenings, because I can guarantee you that this little cost for screening is going to be a whole lot less than what it will cost for different surgeries. Or if you get cancer than the radiation of chemotherapy that often comes with it definitely blow up and be a lot more expensive. So screening here, add that to your budget is definitely well worth the investment.

[00:11:31.980] – Allan
And this is the location where you're past the digestion of food. But at the very time, if you're having difficulties here is going to work all the way up your digestive track, and it's just going to affect other parts of your life that you don't really want to mess with. So get the screening done. So you're getting the results you need and you're getting the healthy and you're getting the treatment early, which is the key to surviving this. If you do have something, let's keep moving forward.

[00:12:01.130] – Allan
You've signed up. It's like signing up for a race, but they don't give you a number. They just show up in comfortable clothes, but there's a pre process because the proctologist doesn't want to just go in there.

[00:12:18.040] – Rachel
Yeah, yeah. The average person can have up to about 14 or 16oz of stool in the colon at any given time. And so the whole purpose of this prep is to clean it all out. And what was interesting was that my prep, which could be different than anybody else's, and it probably will be if you've had a colonoscopy. I imagine it'll be different than what you've gone through. It just varies from doctor to doctor, and it took a little bit longer to prep for this. Then I would have it expected about a week out from the surgery.

[00:12:50.110] – Rachel
The first thing I had to do was cut all my medications and vitamins, even which I was kind of surprised by that. I didn't ask any questions. I can go a week without taking vitamin E and fish oil and whatnot? It's not that big a deal, but certain vitamins, like iron keeps you constipated or can cause constipation. So those in different prescription medications had to be cut. I'm sure that there are a few medications that if you need to take them, they would let you take them.

[00:13:20.400] – Rachel
But again, that is something you need to discuss with your doctor. Seven days out, I had to quit all my vitamins. I don't take any prescriptions, and then five days out, they want you to go on a low fiber diet already, so they want you to tone down the fiber that you have in your daily diet.

[00:13:38.630] – Allan
They're talking keto.

[00:13:41.320] – Rachel
Yes. Which is easy for me because, yes, I am keto. I don't have bread, I don't have pastas or rice or a ton of fiber. I do eat vegetables, so that's definitely a good fiber and a half. But yeah, I don't have a high fiber diet to begin with. So that was an easy cut for me as well. So then where it gets really interesting is then the day before that you start the prep, you need to be on a liquid diet. So a clear liquid diet at that because you can't have anything that's blue or red or purple, because that could die some parts of your colon and make it think that there could be blood in your stool when it's not or in your colon.

[00:14:26.480] – Rachel
So I had to drink some chicken broth, some beef broth. I had a clear electrolyte drink water. I was allowed to have black coffee, no dairy, because that's also a constipating item. So a liquid diet, lots of water the day before I started the actual solution part. And that wasn't difficult either. Again, being keto, I think that gave me an advantage because I didn't really feel a lot of hunger. I'm still drinking a ton of liquids. My stomach was very full. I was getting nutrients in the broth and in the electrolyte drink.

[00:15:05.110] – Rachel
So I was totally fine with that. That wasn't a problem. So not too difficult so far.

[00:15:11.170] – Allan
Yeah. So you got to give up your red wine for a few days, you gotta give up your red wine, you got to give up your heavy foods and regular foods. And then I think for me I would probably just fast. I don't know that I would feel like I needed the broth unless it was just to have some kind of flavor. And so if I were to do it, I would say, okay, I'll do some one, maybe a little bit of bone broth here and there. But for the most part, I just say, okay, water and electrolytes and coffee, probably some coffee. For two days

[00:15:50.100] – Allan
I can fast, and I might be a little hungry, but that's fine because I would look at it because I know what the next stage of this grand journey is. And I would just say, the less that has to come out, the less trouble I've got. So it's like if you do that right, then that's going to make this next phase easier.

[00:16:11.450] – Rachel
Yeah. Now this is the hardest part of the whole procedure. That is the most uncomfortable part, but that painful. And this part can also vary from doctor to doctor. So my test was going to be at 10:30 the following morning. So that's important to note, because you have to drink the prep solution in two sections of it and two occasions before the test. So for me, this is where it got oddly specific, but remembering that my test was at 10:30 the next day. So the night before, the day before the exam was my liquid diet.

[00:16:52.400] – Rachel
And at 05:00 in the evening, I had to take a set of laxatives that was prescribed by the doctor and the laxatives just like to get everything flushing out of your intestines. There's not a whole ton of stuff in my intestine to begin with. I'm not sure how effective the laxatives were really working for me anyway, but I took the laxatives as prescribed by my doctor at 05:00. But then at 06:00 is when I had to start drinking this prescription solution. It's a gallon mix, which is sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and potassium chloride.

[00:17:29.840] – Rachel
Now, if you think of that, basically, it's salt water.

[00:17:36.290] – Allan
It's electrolytes. It's salt water. But it's electrolytes too. So like I was saying, if you start flushing out a lot of fluids to keep your electrolytes up and literally, that's going to actually pull fluid into your muscles, into your body and into your blood. And that's why something they'll tell you if you have high blood pressure, you might not want to eat a lot of salt because that will raise your blood volume, which would raise blood pressure. So depending on your circumstances, they might give you a slightly different cocktail there, but it's generally electrolytes.

[00:18:07.570] – Allan
They're going to make sure that you don't crash from sodium or potassium deal. You're going to have enough electrolytes to be good with the flush. That's about to happen.

[00:18:19.970] – Rachel
So I needed to start drinking this at 6:00 the night before my exam, and I was only going to drink half a gallon at this time. And so at the rate you drink it, it's supposed to be 8oz every 15 minutes until that half gallon is gone. So over the course between six and eight at night, I was drinking about 8oz of this drink every 15 minutes. And really, it wasn't terrible until it was terrible. So 8oz of water every 15 minutes or a half a gallon over the course of 2 hours really doesn't sound horrible.

[00:18:57.780] – Rachel
But for me, I got a really small stomach and at the end of that half gallon, I was stuffed. I was stuffed like I just ate two Thanksgiving dinners in a row. I was so full, I didn't think there was any room for me to keep drinking it. And the other challenging part of it is that you're drinking ocean water, you're drinking salt water and it tastes terrible. And so one of the tricks, one of my friends suggested was to take a hard candy, a piece of a hard candy like a lemon drop or a Mint or Jolly Rancher or something like that.

[00:19:30.670] – Rachel
Put it under your tongue. Drink the solution with a straw. So you're not getting a whole mouth flavor of salt water and drink it as quickly as you can through the straw, which worked really well until it didn't. But for this first half gallon, I got it done. I was stuffed to the gills. And because I started at six, it took me to eight and I was full. But then at the end of the half gallon at 09:00 and then again at 10:00, I was to date two gas tablets to prevent the gas from developing in my stomach.

[00:20:05.350] – Rachel
I never felt gas. Maybe it was the gas tablet. I don't know, but that was my first day of prep up till 10:00 at night, and I was stuffed and exhausted.

[00:20:17.530] – Allan
One of the funniest things have you ever played football, particularly on the offensive line, is when the quarterback goes behind the center and the center has gas. It's hilarious for us offensive Line man, it's not so much fun for the quarterback, so I imagine it wouldn't be so much fun for the proctologist.

[00:20:34.920] – Rachel
probably not.

[00:20:35.880] – Allan
Probably the reason why you're taking the gas pill.

[00:20:38.670] – Rachel
Probably. I never felt it. But I did what the doctor said to do, and I finished it off. So sadly, this is where it gets more uncomfortable. None of this is painful, it just is getting uncomfortable. So the next day at 4:30 in the morning, I had to wake up and start drinking the second half of that half gallon of prescription solution. It was early in the morning. It tasted terrible. It was not a black cup of coffee that I had rather have had in the morning, but I started drinking it and at this point the lemon drop candies were losing their effectiveness, and the salty water was even saltier.

[00:21:18.870] – Rachel
Probably because I didn't shake it up well enough or something, and it just got to me. And sadly, I threw up the last second to last 8oz of the solution and I wasn't even able to guzzle down the last 8oz of solution. So I got a little bit down in the morning, but I couldn't finish at all. And so then you're not allowed to drink anything but 3 hours before the procedure, you can't drink anything you're done. So again, that was the uncomfortable part of it, but not painful.

[00:21:49.780] – Allan
Okay, well, I would probably take a nap because doing this thing all the way until 10:00 at night and then being up at four to start all over again, I'm like, no, no, you don't understand my sleep. My sleep is the most important thing and my health journey right now, and I won 8 hours. And so I would probably would have asked that question when I was reading it. I would have given them a call and said, Look, I don't see 8 hours of sleep in here and we're doing this for my health.

[00:22:20.340] – Allan
So how do I adjust this to get my 8 hours in? Granted, I have never tried to drink that much salt water before, but I could just tell you from a water perspective, I can easily drink a half gallon of water in 2 hours. That wouldn't have a problem with that at all.

[00:22:41.220] – Rachel
That's good.

[00:22:42.540] – Allan
So yeah, for me it'd be like, okay, I'll start at 06:00. I'll finish at eight. I'm going to go to sleep. I'll be up at four. That'll probably be up about eight times to pee anyway, then I'll wake up around four and I'll drink that a half gallon over the next 2 hours. And then, yeah, go ahead and take another nap, because what am I going to do for 3 hours? We can't drink or eat anything. I'll sleep. Okay. So now you've done all this. Probably didn't sleep very well.

[00:23:11.230] – Rachel
And here's where it gets interesting. Is that what the solution does is that it's moving through your colon. You're not really absorbing the liquid in the water that you're drinking. It's actually flushing out all of your colon. It's like you're hosing down your entire colon with this liquid solution. So after about the first half gallon or so it started to kick in and I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom partially because of the completely liquid diet. My bladder was working over time. But then when you drink this prescription solution, your colon is working overtime.

[00:23:47.130] – Rachel
So I spent a good part of my evening in the bathroom, and I did get a couple hours of sleep, but it wasn't rested sleep because I was getting up to go to the bathroom. Still, I guess looking back in hindsight, I think I might decide to pull in all nighter in this case and just sit with the book in the bathroom and just let the prescription do its job because it wasn't great sleep. And I probably got up about once every hour or so to flush out my colon.

[00:24:18.050] – Rachel
And then the next morning at 4:30, that's when it really started to kick in, and it didn't even take as long as the time period to get from my stomach to my colon and out. It was just go, go, go. And in fact, I wasn't sure how I was going to make it from my house to the hospital the next morning without needing to have a bathroom stop at the gas station or something. So that's the whole purpose of the solution is literally to hose out your colon.

[00:24:45.720] – Rachel
And I'm not kidding about the hosing out part.

[00:24:48.180] – Allan
Yeah, I can understand the all nighter thing. I'm glad you said book, because the whole taking your phone to the Ioo. Like a lot of public bathrooms when you're traveling. And so I'd walk in and people be in their stall talking on the phone. Oh, no. I hear them with a click, click, click, click. I'm like.

[00:25:09.510] – Allan
No, no.

[00:25:11.150] – Rachel
Yeah, that's a private time right there. Oh, goodness.

[00:25:16.920] – Allan
Okay. So we're on our way to the hospital. This is kind of one of those Logan's run thing because just like when you're in labor and just like, let's get to get there quickly because we don't know, I'm going to make it.

[00:25:28.200] – Rachel
That's right. Yes, I had my daughter drove me today. You have to have your driver because you're going to be sedated and you can't drive afterwards. So you need to have a driver. My daughter got me to the hospital. We got checked in. And even though I had drank all this electrolyte and as well as the prescription solution, I was very dehydrated, and they had a hard time finding a vein that would stay open for the IV. That got me it's couple of times until they got a good one.

[00:25:58.140] – Rachel
So that was kind of interesting. So I got checked in at 9:30. The procedure was at 10:30. I had my IV going. They got another bag of electrolytes to keep me going and got into the procedure room. And they said, You're about to take a nap and we'll be done in about half an hour. And I'm telling you, I had the best nap of my entire life. I was counting down to ten and I might have got to seven and I was out like a light.

[00:26:30.570] – Rachel
so I had a great nap and got back to my room and woke up and they got me a cup of coffee. And by the time I finished my coffee, I was fully awake. The sedation had worn off, and I got the good news that they did not find any polyps. And that's what they're looking for in the colonoscopy is if there's any polyps anywhere in my colon or rectum, and that's where they would take any out. If they had found any, they would take out the polyps.

[00:26:58.050] – Rachel
And they would do a biopsy to see what they were.

[00:27:01.480] – Allan
And that's where the detection goes on a standard one, which fortunately you had they didn't find anything notable. They all clean. All go. Now it's just a function of you getting yourself back in order and then getting yourself home and all that. So I think one of the things you talked about in your notes was wear comfortable clothes.

[00:27:23.370] – Rachel
Yes.

[00:27:24.800] – Allan
Throughout the whole thing. Just sweat clothes. If it's too hot, then just wear something loose and easy to wear a mumu. I don't care, but just comfortable clothes, something that makes your life easier. Rest when you can rest. But then if they were to have found something, now you're into this new stage. So they've gone in there. They pulled the polyps and they're going to do some biopsies. They'll be able to give you some information. And this is when you start triaging with your doctor, you form a medical team, if you will.

[00:27:58.040] – Allan
And you've got to take a leadership role, even though they're the expert, you have to take a leadership role in how you're going to address this from the perspective of your health.

[00:28:09.680] – Rachel
Yeah. And also, just like, what every cancer out there, what would happen to you will just depend on what they find. So a couple of polyps here and there, they could take them out. And that could be the end of it. Or if it was a tumor like my uncle had had, that might require a different type of attention. There could be surgical procedures involved if they decide they want to take out pieces of your colon. Totally possible. And then there's a cocktail of radiation and chemotherapy that could be given, and it all just depends on the exact type of cancer you have and the extent at which they find it.

[00:28:52.720] – Allan
One of the things about cancer, though, that I want to kind of put out there is that there are the different types. Some move very, very quickly. The metastasize really, really quickly, and you don't have a lot of time that you have time, others metastasize much slower or won't metastasize at all. So knowing a lot more about the type of cancer you have and what's going on gives you kind of a timeline for the decisions that you need to make. One doctor's decision or opinion won't necessarily be another doctor's opinion.

[00:29:25.650] – Allan
And you might love your doctor to death. But this is a point for you to realize you're the CEO, someone has brought you some information. But before you go in and start doing anything drastic, you might want to get another doctor's opinion in there. And we've talked about this over and over again. Some doctors are going to be a little bit more surgery prone. Some are just going to say, why don't we do a little bit of this chemo drug and see if it gets smaller?

[00:29:53.740] – Allan
Some of them may, I don't know. They may recommend some dietary changes and things like that because it's just not at that point where they feel like you need have to do something right now. They've removed the polyps. And so at that point, they're gone and the other was a problem. But it's obviously not anywhere else. So let's wait a year and do another one and see what we've got happening here to make that decision. Cancer is one of those things where it can flare up, but it's just your body hasn't had a chance to kill it yet.

[00:30:26.340] – Allan
And so there's just different things out there. I've had doctors. We've talked about prostate cancer. We've talked about other cancers, and the reality of it is the doctors over the years have learned a lot, but each doctor has their own little bias for whether they want to do a surgery where they want to do another treatment, what they've seen work. But you have an opportunity. Rather, it's something that you need to do quickly, or if it's something you have some time to do. You have time.

[00:30:52.240] – Allan
Either way, it's not an e jerk. Just let's go do what this doctor says. Do a little bit of reading, talk to us, get a second opinion, maybe even a third opinion, and just figure out what the most appropriate decision is for you. Some of these surgeries are not something that you're just going to get the surgery and you're good. There's surgery, there's chemo, there's all kinds of stuff, radiation. And you talked about your uncle. They went on for years. He went on for over a decade of different treatment protocols to try to do something.

[00:31:24.030] – Allan
And so just recognizing that this can be a long journey or it could be a short one. And some of the folks that I've talked about, particularly prostate cancer, those decisions that you're making have other adverse effects to your body. So a surgery in your colon? Well, it's not where you're getting your nutrients from. It's a part of the channel and chain that's making that all happen and things and changes you do in one part of it can adversely affect the way your whole digestive tract works.

[00:31:52.710] – Allan
And that's your second brain. So I'm not going to say this is complicated as brain surgery, but the ramifications of some problems there, it can be detrimental.

[00:32:05.610] – Rachel
Right. Definitely get second and third opinions for sure. When your car breaks down, you can take it to a mechanic. But if you have a hot Rod or Lamborghini, you go to a Lamborghini dealership to get it fixed. So similarly, you want to choose your oncologist. Don't go to any guy who is the local oncologist at the hospital. You find the person that specializes in colorectal cancel or whatever other kinds of cancers that you're going to be dealing with. You go to the specialist and you get that second opinion and you find out what is the best treatment for you based on your existing medical conditions and the exact type of cancer that you have.

[00:32:44.560] – Rachel
But the good news is that the death rate for colorectal cancer has dropped because of screening like the colonoscopy and with stool tests, and you could definitely have a good chance of survival. Your survival rates increase with early detection. So when it's your age like it is for mine at 50 or for any of those 45 year olds out there, don't be afraid of being uncomfortable by taking a stool test or being uncomfortable for the couple of days of the liquid diet that I had to do a colorectal test.

[00:33:19.740] – Rachel
Get that peace of mind by doing the screening that you should have at that age bracket and early detection 100% gives you the best survival rates.

[00:33:29.320] – Allan
And I know I would have done it. I don't know if you did it. Did you weigh yourself before you started the process and after the process?

[00:33:37.220] – Rachel
Yes, I did. And I was one tiny pound difference from day to day.

[00:33:43.870] – Allan
And then you start eating again. And you're full of it again.

[00:33:48.500] – Rachel
Exactly. Yeah. Like I said at the beginning, 12 to 16oz of stool, and it was legit, right? Yeah. So it was not a difficult test. It was not painful, a little bit uncomfortable, but right now, I don't have to go back for another colonoscopy for ten years unless something else goes sideways. So I'm very happy with the knowledge that my colon looks squeaky clean.

[00:34:14.970] – Allan
You hose it off of the fire hose.

[00:34:17.420] – Rachel
I sure did.

[00:34:18.610] – Allan
All right. Well, Rachel, anything else you want to talk about before we call it a week?

[00:34:25.060] – Speaker 2
No. Just go get screened, please.

[00:34:27.760] – Allan
Yes, please. All right. Well, we'll talk to you next week.

[00:34:30.590] – Rachel
Take care.

[00:34:31.160] – Allan
You too.

[00:34:32.000] – Rachel
Thanks.

Patreons

The following listeners have sponsored this show by pledging on our Patreon Page:

– Anne Lynch– Eric More– Leigh Tanner
– Deb Scarlett– John Dachauer– Margaret Bakalian
– Debbie Ralston– John Somsky– Melissa Ball
– Eliza Lamb– Judy Murphy– Tim Alexander

Thank you!

Another episode you may enjoy

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May 24, 2021

Nutrition for running – part 2

Apple Google Spotify Overcast Youtube

When you're running or taking on any longer endurance work, how you handle your nutrition can make all the difference. Join Rachel and Allan as they discuss nutrition for running.

This is part two of a two-part series. You can find part one at 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/486.

Transcript

SPONSOR

This episode of the 40+ Fitness podcast is sponsored by Naked Nutrition, what does getting naked mean for supplements? It means no unnecessary additives. It means premium sourced ingredients without fillers. So you don't need to compromise on your diet or your goals. That's what Naked Nutrition offers.

Back in 2014, a former college athlete didn't understand why protein powders and other supplements had so many unnatural ingredients. If they're supposed to be health supplements, why can't you understand the ingredient list? Naked nutrition was started with five single-ingredient supplements, including the best selling Naked Whey, which has only one ingredient whey protein from grass-fed California cows and the bestselling Naked Pea, a vegan protein made from one ingredient raw yellow peas grown in the U.S. and Canada.

The company has grown to offer over 40 products, but the vision of sourcing the best ingredients using a few of them is possible and being transparent so you know exactly what's going into your body is the same today as when the company was founded.

Whether you're working towards losing weight, having more energy or improving your endurance to become a better runner, what you put in your body directly impacts how you feel and the results you get. Naked Nutrition is committed to shortening the steps between their farms and you. Get naked. Visit naked nutrition. Today, it's nutrition with nothing to hide. Use the discount code 40plus and get 10% off your first order. nakednutrition.com.

Let's Say Hello

Rachel Discussion

Interview

Text


Post Show/Recap

Post show with Rachel.

Patreons

The following listeners have sponsored this show by pledging on our Patreon Page:

– Anne Lynch– John Dachauer– Margaret Bakalian
– Deb Scarlett– John Somsky– Melissa Ball
– Debbie Ralston– Judy Murphy– Tim Alexander
– Eric More– Leigh Tanner

Thank you!

Another episode you may enjoy

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May 17, 2021

Nutrition for running – part 1

Apple Google Spotify Overcast Youtube

When you're running or taking on any longer endurance work, how you handle your nutrition can make all the difference. Join Rachel and Allan as they discuss nutrition for running.

This is part one of a two-part series. You can find part two at 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/487.

Transcript

SPONSOR

This episode of the 40+ Fitness podcast is sponsored by Naked Nutrition, what does getting naked mean for supplements? It means no unnecessary additives. It means premium sourced ingredients without fillers. So you don't need to compromise on your diet or your goals. That's what Naked Nutrition offers.

Back in 2014, a former college athlete didn't understand why protein powders and other supplements had so many unnatural ingredients. If they're supposed to be health supplements, why can't you understand the ingredient list? Naked nutrition was started with five single-ingredient supplements, including the best selling Naked Whey, which has only one ingredient whey protein from grass-fed California cows and the bestselling Naked Pea, a vegan protein made from one ingredient raw yellow peas grown in the U.S. and Canada.

The company has grown to offer over 40 products, but the vision of sourcing the best ingredients using a few of them is possible and being transparent so you know exactly what's going into your body is the same today as when the company was founded.

Whether you're working towards losing weight, having more energy or improving your endurance to become a better runner, what you put in your body directly impacts how you feel and the results you get. Naked Nutrition is committed to shortening the steps between their farms and you. Get naked. Visit naked nutrition. Today, it's nutrition with nothing to hide. Use the discount code 40plus and get 10% off your first order. nakednutrition.com.

Let's Say Hello

Rachel Discussion

Interview

Text


Post Show/Recap

Post show with Rachel.

Patreons

The following listeners have sponsored this show by pledging on our Patreon Page:

– Anne Lynch– John Dachauer– Margaret Bakalian
– Deb Scarlett– John Somsky– Melissa Ball
– Debbie Ralston– Judy Murphy– Tim Alexander
– Eric More– Leigh Tanner

Thank you!

Another episode you may enjoy

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April 5, 2021

Running longer distances after 40

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Most people who get into running start with a 5K as an initial goal. But then what? On this episode, Rachel and Allan discuss how to train for longer distances.

Transcript

Let's Say Hello

[00:02:03.700] – Allan
Hey, Raz, how are things going?

[00:02:05.890] – Rachel
Good, how are you today, Allan?

[00:02:08.800] – Allan
I'm doing great. We're not really going to have much of a preamble for this one because I want to get right into the meat of this. I'm going to have my favorite running coach on the show, Rachel Everett.

[00:02:21.070] – Rachel
Thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me back.

Interview

[00:02:25.840] – Allan
So, yeah, to the last time you were on, we talked about training for running, just getting started running. And for most people, that's going to take the form of something like a couch to 5K type program, where they're just building up some basic endurance to be able to do a little over three miles, probably not in the overall training. They might not make it to three miles, but in a race, they would feel confident that they could keep going and complete the 5K, which is a 3.1 miles.

[00:02:55.390] – Allan
Today we're going to talk about running longer distances after 40, which is a different beast.

[00:03:03.550] – Rachel
A little bit.

[00:03:05.890] – Allan
A little bit. It's something that a lot of us do because we we we master the 5K at least, you know, we realize that we're not going to be able to run any faster than we are. So we forget PRs in the 5K and we start looking to longer distances as that next challenge that's going to keep us excited about running. So, you know, we'll talk about some of the basic distances when someone saying, OK, I've run the 5K, what's kind of the things that they could see coming up and training for that, they would be in a really good position to to reach out and do?

[00:03:45.040] – Rachel
Well after the 5K is the 10K and then the half marathon. And I lump those two together because they have very similar key points in training that we can talk about today.

[00:03:57.070] – Rachel
But before we get to the 10K, I want to celebrate the 5K, in that you've made it this far and you should celebrate your accomplishments because not very many people run 5Ks, but the 5K is actually a special kind of race in and of itself. It's a challenging distance. You can improve your time. You can find different races to support. You can do them all the time. You can do one or two a month or three or four a month if you're so inclined. So the 5K is really kind of like a perfect distance for running in that it will maintain your weight, it'll improve your health. And there's still a lot of joy that you can get out of the 5K for sure.

[00:04:38.530] – Rachel
But when you're ready to run longer distances after 40, the 10k I fully recommend is the next step.

[00:04:45.250] – Allan
Yeah, and the other thing that I think is really cool about the 5K is when you're in 10k or even marathon shape, the 5K can still be a fun run. It can be a part of the training. So, you take you do a 5K and you use that as your speed or you run. That is an interval set. So you're trying to run faster and then, trying to use that as that.

[00:05:08.350] – Allan
Or, when I ran my first marathon, it was the Blue Angels Marathon. The Sunday after that, they had a 5K over the bridge into Pensacola Beach. So since I was already in town, I didn't live in Pensacola at the time. I was like, I'll just stay over one more night. And instead of just getting up in the morning and driving, I will go ahead and get up and I will do a slow 5K as a way to get my muscles moving because I was pretty certain with the first one I was going to be I was hurting. And I kind of was.

[00:05:45.040] – Allan
But it was good to get out there and kind of do that that short distance. I mean, at the time, relative to a marathon, the shorter distance just do it casually. In fact, I was running along at one point this woman passed me, she was pushing a stroller. So, yeah, I wasn't in any hurry. And I did it. And then then I was good to go for my five-hour drive home.

[00:06:07.840] – Rachel
Oh, wow!

[00:06:09.610] – Allan
If I had just gotten in the car right after the marathon and tried to do that drive, I wouldn't have recovered as well. And we're going to talk a little bit about recovery later. But to me it was a good way to flush the legs, get some more blood going through what we call active rest. So you can take these 5Ks and make them really cool.

[00:06:32.740] – Allan
And the other thing that's really interesting about most 5Ks is there's usually a pretty cool charity associated with the 5K. A lot of the 10Ks is do too. And sometimes there's 5Ks and 10Ks in the same race or at least the same day. And sometimes there's even marathons, half-marathons, all kind of paired together. It's just a pick your distance kind of deal. And a lot of times they do have charities. But what you'll find with the 5Ks is that there's a lot more participants. And as a result, those can raise quite a bit of money for charity. They're typically not that much I mean, you pay something like I guess right now it's probably somewhere but 30 to 40 bucks in that range for most of the 5Ks.

[00:07:16.970] – Rachel
Yeah.

[00:07:17.240] – Allan
You get into some of the longer races because of the costs associated with the time distance that you're covering, they can get a little bit more expensive. Plus, for most people who are doing marathons, there's not five or six marathons going on a month in your general location. You're going to be traveling to many of these. So and that's also a big cool part of the whole half-marathon, 10K is to go someplace you've never been and make a weekend of it.

[00:07:42.080] – Rachel
Oh, absolutely. I do love to play in races around vacations or maybe vacations around races. Either way, it is nice to get out of town, that's for sure.

[00:07:51.320] – Allan
Or even work trips, because that for me that was a big part of it, me saying, okay, I happen to be working in Washington, D.C. when the Marine Corps marathon was going on. I also did I also did a 10K there. And so, yeah, I just happened to be there and I'm like, okay, I'm flying in already. I'll just fly in a day or two early and I'll just do this little race.

[00:08:13.870] – Rachel
Awesome. That's wonderful.

[00:08:16.040] – Allan
So yeah, there's lots of opportunities to do these, these runs. And so, Rachel, if someone is considering running longer distances after 40, what are some of the key things that they should consider?

[00:08:30.170] – Rachel
Well, right off the bat, I would suggest you talk to your spouse and your family and friends and share your goal to run a 10K or a half-marathon. Like I said, we're going to lump both these two distances together. And the reason why I say that is because you're going to be spending a little bit more time on training for this longer distance than you had done for the 5K. And what that means is there's going to be a slight disruption of the balance of responsibilities at home.

[00:08:57.800] – Rachel
You're going to have to balance your responsibilities at work and you may not have as much time to spend with your friends and social engagement. So you're going to be spending some time on training and that might kind of disrupt the balance of your normal daily life. So share your plans with your friends and family for sure. Yeah, I know.

[00:09:19.430] – Allan
When I started training, I basically had a membership at a gym. I couldn't run around D.C. because it was just all concrete. And I didn't feel good running on concrete ever. I never have. I've never liked running concrete, but so I just went to the gym and I'm like, okay, I'll do, you know. 20 minutes on the treadmill. They limit me to 20 minutes on the machine. So I go to machine and do 20 minutes and then I've moved to a different machine somewhere else and do something else. And so I was doing elliptical, I was doing stepper, I was doing all kinds of stuff and so up about 20 minutes at a time and I built up to a point where I was doing that for four hours and the only way I could really do that was to leave work at six o'clock. And so to be able to do that, I had to be at work at eight o'clock and work my ten hours and not take a lunch to get my training in.

[00:10:09.890] – Allan
And so I had to talk. I even had to talk to my boss because it impacted my work schedule if I wanted to get that training in. And so that's basically what I would do. I would do four hours for three days of the week and then Friday would Thursday be my day off. And then Friday would be another kind of medium speed day. And then Saturday and Sunday were my long runs. But I had to do my Sunday run early in the morning. My Saturday was kind of free. I could do it when I want to. But yeah, I had to have a conversation with my significant other at the time and say, hey, I'm going to be doing this run. And that means I'm not going to be at the house for potentially three or four hours on a Sunday.

[00:10:54.080] – Rachel
That's right. Yeah.

[00:10:55.550] – Allan
While I'm going and doing this thing and what's your schedule look like and just trying to make all that fit.

[00:11:00.650] – Rachel
Yes. And when you have kids and school and other outside responsibilities, it does get kind of tricky. That's why you want to have the buy-in of all the important people in your life.

[00:11:13.040] – Allan
Now, the second one you have on here is is pretty interesting because I think a lot of people think to run longer distances after 40, you just run more.

[00:11:23.120] – Rachel
Yes. And most runners like that. Most runners like to run more, but there's actually more to it. And when you're moving up to a 10K or a half-marathon, many of the training plans you'll find will include specific drills like speed drills, hill repeats. They will also include cross training. You don't want to spend all of your time running and and hurting all your joints and just damaging your body. You just need to give your running muscles a break every now and then. So that's why there's cross training built into plans as well as rest days.

[00:11:58.190] – Rachel
So a lot of training plans will have you bike or swim and a rest day is not necessarily sitting on the couch and binge watching TV all day, they might have to do some act of rest and that could be just taking your dogs for a walk or just getting around the house, doing chores around the house, yard work, whatever. As long as you're staying busy, you don't want to sit too long.

[00:12:19.930] – Allan
Yeah, I know. When I was doing my training, it was it was kind of one of those cross training things where I was like for a marathon distance. I needed to be able to move for four hours. That was kind of my target time was to finish the race within four hours. And that's how I trained. I trained to keep my body going. I recognized that there would be hills. And so you got to run some hills, although I was in Pensacola, so there actually weren't that many hills for my first one. Big Sur was an entirely different matter.

[00:12:54.220] – Allan
But, you know, you you know the course, particularly if you know the course, that you're going to be trying to run understanding, okay, there's a hill and this is you know, this is what people are doing. And so if you're talking to people that know the race, they'll be able to tell you, yeah, there's actually a section of it that's in sand and that's really, really hard to run in.

[00:13:16.840] – Allan
And you have to do that for a period of time that's going to really where your legs out if they're not stronger than you would think you would need to be to run on asphalt.

[00:13:25.880] – Rachel
Oh, so true. Yeah. If you do have a goal race in mind, if you've picked the place where you want to run your first 10K or first half-marathon, it is good to check out some of the race reports and see a description of the race to see if there's a lot of vertical gain. If if there is a trail or like you said, sand. I've run a couple of races in the sand. So if you know what to expect on race day, those are things that you can practice during your training to make sure that you get some extra hill repeats in there or practice on the trails in the parks around your home or something.

[00:13:58.780] – Rachel
So that type of specificity is important as you do get closer to race day and at the other cross training things are other ways that you can build up your muscle, strength and endurance as well as your cardiovascular system without beating up your legs by running day in and day out.

[00:14:16.870] – Allan
Absolutely. So now the third one you have here on our list is clothing. One I would say with clothing, I think we're actually going to talk about this a little bit later. But there's a there's a lot of options out there, some that are very bright and shiny, fluorescent so people can see, which is important. And while people will tell you and it's true, running can be the cheapest sport there is because you literally have all the equipment right there with you right now, you don't even have to buy shoes. You can run barefoot if you want. Most people will buy shoes. And I advise people to invest in at least one good pair of shoes to start with. But let's talk a little bit about what should people be considering with apparel, particularly when they're trying to run longer distances after 40?

[00:15:13.870] – Rachel
Well, I'm going to start with the shoes again, because the proper fitting shoes is probably the most important gear that you can possibly have. So take a look at the bottom of the running shoes that you've been wearing and see if you can see signs of wear and you'll see the lugs, the little knobs on the bottom of your shoe. They'll wear down in certain places. After some time, you'll feel the foam on the inside or the insole that you have in the shoe just doesn't feel quite as bouncy and cushiony as you had felt when you had first put them on.

[00:15:44.380] – Rachel
And that means the shoes have worn. There's kind of a rule of thumb. Your shoes can last anywhere between three and five hundred miles, which sounds like a lot to a new runner. But you'd be surprised if you're wearing them and walking the dog or walks in the park as well as during training. The shoes get beat up pretty fast and even the foam needs about 24 days to recover after you pound them down on a run. So shoes are so critical.

[00:16:11.710] – Rachel
I know that they are expensive because I buy a lot of them myself. But I can tell you too that they are a lot cheaper than visiting the doctor and rehabbing an injury because you stuck in the same shoes. So make sure you invest in the proper fitting shoes.

[00:16:26.980] – Allan
Yeah, I'm a pronator and so the outside of my feet, that part of my shoe will wear down when I'm running. I went to a running store when I was training for the marathon. I said, okay, I'm going to be doing some running and training for it. And this I was getting into it and the guy goes on, he says, okay, I want you to run down the street here and then run back to me.

[00:16:50.830] – Allan
And then he kind of sized me up and you said, okay, you're a pronator. And so he he kind of he said to measure my foot. You've got very wide toe set. So you to. I Toback's and you need something that's going to provide stability, and so he recommended a couple of different brands of shoes, I tried them on and found one that I liked that I didn't have to mortgage my house for.

[00:17:18.650] – Allan
And I think the other two things I would add with shoes is one. One is more expensive. Doesn't necessarily mean better.

[00:17:26.670] – Rachel
Right.

[00:17:27.330] – Allan
OK, that's one thing is, you know, just get just look for better and you can pretty much go online to the running magazines are running really good running sites and they'll review the shoes every year. So you can go in there and kind of get an idea because they'll tell you, this is an overpriced shoe. Don't pay $500 for this running shoe, $120 is probably about as much as you would have to spend to have a really good running shoe, maybe even less than that in some cases.

[00:17:55.410] – Allan
And the other thing is, I would say wear the shoes that you're going to run in to train it. Don't have a race pair and a training pair. Replace your shoes regularly, but have shoes that you break in and feel good with in training because the things you do in training will reflect how you do in the race as long as what you're doing in the race is the same thing you did in training.

[00:18:23.490] – Rachel
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And don't pick out shoes by color. They're all kind of crazy colors these days. And that's okay because then people will see you.

[00:18:33.600] – Rachel
And similarly with their apparel, with your dry-fit shirts and shorts and socks and everything. This is where you're going to want to pay a little bit closer attention to what you're wearing. Now, when you were training in the 5K, you might have been running for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. And now as you're training for a 10K or half, that might extend into maybe 30 or 40 minutes at a time. And you might also even have a little bit of a walking warm-up and maybe walking cool down.

[00:19:06.810] – Rachel
So you're going to be spending a lot of time in these clothes. And what you're going to want to watch for would be chafing and blisters on your after your socks and your shoes. So with chafing a lot of the tags and the neck of your shirt or in the back of your shorts that can irritate the skin around your neck and on your back, the seams that go around your shoulders or around the bottoms of your shorts or even on your waistband, they can get irritating as well and really irritate your skin causing chafing, which hurts a lot. You don't want that.

[00:19:42.900] – Rachel
And you won't recognize that when you're training, when you're only running for maybe 20 minutes at a time, you may not notice. But when you're wearing that same shirt or that same pair of shorts for 30 or 40 minutes, you'll start to feel this friction, which is why you want to have clothes that fit well and that have that dry wicking quality so that when they do get wet, they can dry a little bit faster and not irritate your skin quite as much.

[00:20:08.310] – Allan
Yeah, I had all kinds of blister problems. And I can just I can you know, it took them longer distances and really I didn't have a solution that got a lot better stuff today than they had when I was running. But moleskin is your friend. So if you do find that you're doing some training and you get a hot spot on your foot, go out and invest in some moleskin that will save your skin and keep you from blistering.

[00:20:31.530] – Allan
So if your shoes giving you a hot spot, just be aware of that and you might have the wrong size shoes, as we mentioned before. So you might need to be fitted with another pair of shoes. But beyond that, moleskin can be your friend. If you just start noticing the hot spot and you notice it early enough, a little bit of moleskin can go a long way. And then the other thing I'd put out there, just as a general advice, don't wear a tutu.

[00:20:56.508] – Rachel
Tutu's are fun. Skirts are fun.

[00:20:59.640] – Allan
Skirts are probably fine. I don't know. I don't have any experience running. But we were doing a we were doing it but run it was a warrior dash. And the guys, we were kind of joking around about different things are going to wear. So we were going to wear these football jerseys. The girls wanted pink and they voted pink. And so they got pink. And then they also wanted us wearing tutus. So we were all wearing tutus. And I'll try to find a picture of that and put it in the show notes you can go to 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/480 and I'll see if I can have a picture of us in the tutus. But yes, chafing I didn't have I couldn't carry my arms high enough to not shave on the on the tutu. So I don't advise running with a tutu.

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[00:23:17.190] – Allan
So, Rachel, then you talk about we talked I talked a little bit about this, the optional gear, the other things that you would potentially want to have with you or be have on you to help you while you're going through and doing your runs.

[00:23:31.530] – Rachel
Yes. So when you're spending more time on the road, chances are you're going to be getting up early at the crack of dawn, maybe running later at night and reflective gear and lighted vests, any sorts of lights that you can put on your shoes, your visor, a vest. Those are all going to be really important, especially if you are spending any time on the roads or where there's traffic. There's no shortage of lights that you can get from any sort of running or a big box athletic store. That's super important.

[00:24:03.120] – Rachel
But the second thing is, is that, again, now that you're spending more time outside at all, different times of the year, you want to have clothes that are going to be weather appropriate and comfortable. You never know if it's going to rain on race day. So you want to make sure that you have the running the rain gear, that you want to have to keep you as comfortable as possible while you're running in the rain or in the snow like I do up here. Go through the apparel section of your local running store and ask for input from the salespeople for maybe what type of gear that you can get for these different types of scenarios.

[00:24:40.800] – Allan
One of the things that I think is really important, if you have any form of medical condition or things like that, make sure you have something on you that's going to tell someone that that's there. So like, if you're allergic to certain medications or just anything else that someone should know about you, if they find you. Just have that on you. So some ID so someone can contact someone. If they find you and they're taking you to the hospital, you're going to want that on you if you're not conscious and not that that's going to happen to you. But you're going on this run. You don't necessarily want to carry a bunch of stuff. So you're not running with your purse or maybe not running with your wallet, but you need some identification and maybe some taxi fare in case you just got a little too far out of and have to take a taxi back, but just kind of be situationally aware of what your needs are.

[00:25:38.070] – Allan
If you're doing an out and back run as you're trying training run, you do have to make that back. And so just kind of being aware of that and having with you what you need is going to make that a much safer run

[00:25:50.250] – Rachel
For sure. And when I when I personally run long, I actually do carry my driver's license and maybe a few dollars just in case I need to buy a water at the gas station or something. So I'll stick that in a Ziploc bag so that I don't sweat all over it and stick it in one of my pockets somewhere. Yeah, there's a lot of road ID type bracelets, medical bracelets. If you do have a serious allergy or something, have your stuff with you and as well as ID.

[00:26:18.900] – Rachel
The other part of the gear that you might consider too, is some sort of a hydration item. When you're running a 10K and definitely a half-marathon, you're going to be spending a lot of time on the road. And although races have aid stations, in training you're not going to find those same aid stations quite as handy. So there are handheld water bottles, which I have plenty. And there's and I also frequently wear a hydration vest where I have a bladder in a backpack for longer distances and more water. So it's a point where especially in the summer when you get dehydrated, you're going to want to have water or electrolytes with you. So this would be one other item that I think would be very handy.

[00:27:00.030] – Allan
Yeah, one of the things I used to do was I would set up my own aid stations before I did my run so I would drive the route that I was going to run, in particular, if it was going be an out and back or something like that. And I would set up my own laide stations and I'd have water sitting there, you know, at each just a little, you know, little bottle of water.

[00:27:19.770] – Allan
And so I guess I came up on a location. I have that bottle of water. I'd scrunch it up and stick it in my pocket to keep going and not leave the plastic behind. But, yeah, I created my own aid stations. And, that's why I actually encourage people, if you're going to do some training, training on a loop other than when you're trying to do, you know, maybe hills or repeats or something. But if you can try to find a lap, you know what you're doing shorter laps of. Let's say you wanted to go do a 5 mile training run. If those can be half mile or one mile laps, that's going to give you an opportunity to have that regular aid station right there where you started.

[00:27:59.610] – Rachel
Oh, absolutely. That would be ideal. That would be perfect.

[00:28:03.150] – Allan
So let's dove a little bit deeper into nutrition and hydration.

[00:28:08.070] – Rachel
This is a good topic, Allan, and I really think that we could spend probably a whole podcast talking about it, because, as you know, there are going to be carb-burners out there as well as the fat burners, which I am. I follow the keto-type of eating. Nutrition is still a really highly individualized situation that really you just have to experiment with and see what your body needs to run long distances or fast, as well as what you can tolerate, whether what your stomach will tolerate. Because as you're out there for longer, your stomach may not like the things that you've been eating and you might have a problem. So this is a big topic.

[00:28:55.190] – Rachel
Let's start with hydration, you're going to want definitely water and or electrolytes with you, especially in the summer. If you find that you're that you sweat a lot and you're a salty sweater and that that little white grip is left on your face or on your arms, you're sweating out a lot of salt.

[00:29:12.140] – Rachel
So in that case, you're going to want some electrolyte products, Nuun and Ucan are really great electrolyte products. Even Pedialyte is a proper electrolyte product. And you want to mix that up with water on occasion just so that your stomach doesn't feel like you just had the sugar bomb dropped on it. Although there's no not a lot of sugar in Nuun or Ucan, just the sweetness of it can irritate your stomach. So alternating that with water is very helpful.

[00:29:41.960] – Allan
Yeah. You know, I think that that was that was one of the big wake up calls for me is I was running my first marathon, I think it was in the spring. And then by the time I was running my third or fourth, we were getting into the winter months and. I was running this, and it was it was in Mississippi, it was a long flat course, but it was cold, really, really cold. And I actually got more dehydrated running that race in the cold than I did running the marathon in Pensacola in the spring.

[00:30:19.110] – Allan
And so, you know, it was warm and humid for that first one. And then for this other one, it was really cold. I wasn't expecting it. I occasionally ran by an aid station thinking, I'm not thirsty. But I realized after the run that I didn't hydrate properly. And so, you know, making sure that you're staying hydrated and in your training runs, there's no one there to look after you.

[00:30:45.230] – Allan
So you're responsible for you, making sure that you have what you need and what you do and what you do in your training, again, must be something that you consider doing in the race. So don't change up your fuel. Don't change up your hydration. Find something that works for you. That's why you're training so you can learn your body and learn what you're capable of. And then in the race, that's when you're going to try to push yourself. You want to be doing the same thing so that you have a base for what you're trying to accomplish.

[00:31:17.570] – Rachel
Yeah. And this is a good point to add. Again, maybe having a hand-held hydration water bottle of some sort is also a reminder for you to drink periodically. It's really interesting between heat and cold running, your body is just as thirsty on both occasions. However, in the summertime, it's obvious that you're you're sweating, you're feeling thirsty. The air is dry and it's almost as much of a habit as it is a physical need to drink in the summertime, whereas in the winter you don't feel quite as thirsty, just like you had experienced.

[00:31:52.370] – Rachel
But your body is thirsty. It's just not recognizing that the same kind of sensations as you feel in the summer. So it is important to drink whether you're on a hot day or a cold day. And if you had that handheld water bottle, that might have been a good reminder to sip at every mile or a couple of miles or something.

[00:32:12.830] – Allan
Absolutely. So, Rachel, number six on your list, I think, is maybe one of, if not the most important thing for people who are running longer distances after 40. That's recovery.

[00:32:26.900] – Rachel
Yes, more recovery. And then when you think you've done enough recovery, do some more recovery. This would be a good time to really prioritize foam rolling and stretching after your run. I mean, mark that on your calendar and make it an item on your calendar that you do foam rolling and stretching after your run. It's really important to loosen up those tight muscles, especially as you're adding more miles to your training program. And then if you add strength training, biking, swimming, and other activities or on a day that you did speed work or hill repeats, you want to do more foam rolling and stretching to loosen all those muscles that you just tightened on a run.

[00:33:08.690] – Rachel
And in addition to foam rolling and stretching, this might be a time to experiment with some compression gear, like there are calf sleeves and arm sleeves that can help promote circulation. There are socks that go all the way up to your knee that help promote circulation and ice baths and water baths are another recovery tool that you can experiment with.

[00:33:33.980] – Allan
A lot of times people will not listen to their body and they'll push and they'll push and they'll be like, well, this is what my plan is. And so they had a plan and the plan was, okay, it's Sunday, it's my long day. But they're not really recovered from what the work they've done that week. And they get out there on their long run. And the next thing they know, they're hurting in a way that they can't run anymore.

[00:34:05.420] – Rachel
Mm hmm.

[00:34:08.870] – Allan
Your body is incredible. It's capable of doing so many incredible things. But if you don't let it recover. The way it needs to that wear and tear, and that's one of the things that a lot of people struggle with running is it is a repetitive activity.

[00:34:28.490] – Allan
If you're doing it on concrete, I hated that because when I was heavier as a runner. So every impact on concrete for me was just huge. And I would run as litefoot as I could, but at one 195 pounds, there's a lot of hitting on my legs. And so I just had to be really, really careful to make sure that I wasn't overdoing it, or else I would have injured myself and potentially been out.

[00:34:58.640] – Rachel
Well, that's a good point. And, you know, we've been raised with the no pain, no gain mantra. If it's not hurting, it's not working. But this is the time to really put that aside, especially after 40 when we are getting into these longer distances, pain becomes a different kind of signal. And, you know, your body is adapting as you're doing more miles and cross training and doing all these different things.

[00:35:21.740] – Rachel
Your body is going to have the DOMS, the delayed onset muscle soreness that you often feel when you're doing a new activity. That's fine. A little bit of ache or soreness that's normal because you're doing all these new things, then pushing your body in a way you haven't done before. However, there's a really fine line where that becomes a pain and that is a signal to take a minute and reassess the situation. I have seen a lot of runners have a pain, which is very subjective, but it shows a stress fracture. And that stress fracture, if you don't listen to it, will become a real fracture and then you'll be spending a lot more time on the couch than you'd ever wanted to before.

[00:36:03.080] – Rachel
So there could be muscle tears, you could have tendon injuries, and it could be just inflammation. But you don't have an x-ray machine or an MRI. So this would be the point where you go to a doctor and get a proper diagnosis. And the sooner you get to the doctor, even if it's a minor pain, you'll get one, the reassurance that it's nothing more than DOMS or a muscle ache that you need a day or two off or you'll get the treatment for a more serious condition and you'll get treated faster so that you can get back on the road faster.

[00:36:33.470] – Rachel
So pain is a signal that something is wrong and you need to do something about it.

[00:36:38.060] – Allan
Yeah, there's another version of recovery I kind of want to get into, because for a lot of people, particularly when they start trying to run longer distances, they'll find that they get this little ache right under their ribs. I would typically get it right on my right side, right up under my ribs. We called it a stitch. And for me, there was a particular strategy as I was. It was because I didn't want to not finish the run. And that was not enough. I was in pain and I didn't like it, but it was not a kind of pain that I knew I should quit running. So if someone gets something like a stitch or something like that, what's what's the recovery method for them to to be able to still complete the run and get and not and know they're not hurting themselves.

[00:37:23.630] – Rachel
Sure. I've got inside stitches before. It's been a while, but I would I would stop and walk it off and do some deep breathing techniques, try and stretch out your abdomen, do some stretches, try and loosen up those muscles, practice some breathing, deep breathing to calm down a minute and then see how that responds. But what was your technique?

[00:37:45.530] – Allan
It was it was basically just slow down the core of it. What I knew was that my diaphragm was not aligned with the way I was running and so it's just creating kind of a for lack of a better word, a cramp in there because things were getting tight and I just needed to slow down and let my breathing resume. You've got to get past the ego. You know, we're over 40 now. I had way too much ego back then. It was always just to me, devastating that I'm like, I've got to slow down and let this go. But I just knew it was not something that was going to go away on its own. I needed to slow down and let my body recover and kind of get its mojo back for lack of a better word so that I could complete the run.

[00:38:36.080] – Rachel
That's absolutely perfect. And it's actually a bigger point there, Allan, because running longer distances after 40 means you do need to slow down your 5K pace will not be the same case that your pace that you run a 10K or a half-marathon. So pacing yourself slowing down is a good way to to run safely and injury free, especially over 40.

[00:39:00.590] – Allan
Yeah. One of the things I like about the longer distances is that they become a thousand times more social.

[00:39:09.740] – Rachel
Oh yeah.

[00:39:10.640] – Allan
You know when you run a 5K for some reason or another, most people that want to have a good time, they're just running all out. There's like no conversations in the first two-thirds of the pack of a 5K. The walkers in the backyard or they're having a blast.

[00:39:28.080] – Allan
But when you get into the longer distances, people kind of let go of the fact that we're racing something and it's more about completing the distance than it is about beating yourself or beating someone else. So it becomes a much more social thing as you start doing longer and longer distances. But you have one on here that I think's actually really, really cool, because a lot of times when we're trying to train running seems like a really lonely thing. And it's kind of hard to explain. It's like, no, you'll have more conversations on a marathon because you're running for four, maybe five, maybe six hours.

[00:40:07.020] – Allan
That's one of the most social days of your year because you're making all kinds of friends as people are running slower or faster, walking or whatever is going on in that race. But you you recommend that people join a run club?

[00:40:19.890] – Rachel
I do. And there are run clubs probably associated with the running shoe store. There could be just groups of people in your in your city or town that you live in. And the RRCA has a listing of run clubs. That's rrca.org, where you could look up different run clubs in your area. And the best thing about a run club is that you're going to find like-minded people trying to do the exact same thing you are. You're going to find other people trying to get faster at the 5K or maybe doing their first 10K or first half-marathon.

[00:40:53.850] – Rachel
And you will find people that are at your pace. And it would be so much fun to meet people at the run club nights or different days depending on your schedule. And running with people at a similar pace is really fun. It's entertaining is a great way to meet people.

[00:41:10.260] – Allan
And I think that you just touched on something that's really, really important is the longer runs are really are about pacing. To finish a longer runm you have to understand a pace and understand the pace, you have to practice the pace. So having someone else, maybe somebody who's even a little bit more experienced than you and you go into a run and you're like, okay, we're going to do an 11-minute mile for four miles.

[00:41:36.720] – Allan
And so having someone who understands how to to do that versus we're going to say sprint out and leave you there and then you'll see him at the finish line, you know, later, you know, having someone there. I think one of the coolest things is, you know, if you and Michael couldn't find a run club, you started what we did.

[00:41:58.950] – Rachel
Yeah, we did. Because everywhere that we have moved so far, there's always somebody who also likes to run. And so why not get together and run together and enjoy some conversation and the scenery at the same time while also getting fit. Run clubs are a great way to meet people and also push your speed because there's going to be somebody faster than you. There's also going to be somebody slower than you. But it'll be a good way to be pushed and see what other people can do.

[00:42:27.810] – Allan
Yeah, and it's actually really cool to have people that are fast or news. So when you do the race, they're there to cheer you when you finish.

[00:42:33.860] – Rachel
Yes, yes, yes.

[00:42:37.380] – Allan
That was what was so cool. And I ran with was Redbud. Yeah. You guys are Redbud. You were Pea Ridge in Florida. That was so cool. I ran with you guys on that one run and everybody finished before me I guess because so many people stand at the finish line yelling my name. That's so cool.

[00:43:00.510] – Rachel
Yeah. It's nice to have a bunch of people supporting what you're doing. It's just so encouraging and very motivating. Cool.

[00:43:07.710] – Allan
All right, Rachel, so now that someone's considering running longer distance after 40, can you kind of just go over a quick recap of the seven things that they should be paying attention to?

[00:43:18.330] – Rachel
Absolutely.

[00:43:19.350] – Rachel
First of all, share your plans with your friends and family and get their Buy-In and support because you're going to be spending a lot of time on the road. Make sure you find a training plan that works for you. There's a ton of training plans out there from the couch to 5K, which they have the 10K. Jeff Galloway, Hal Higdon, if you're having problems finding a training plan, hit me up. I could probably give you some advice on how to choose a training plan for your abilities.

[00:43:44.520]
Proper apparel shoes will always rein king. You need to have good shoes so that you can stay healthy and start to look at the shirts and shorts and other apparel that will keep you comfortable for these longer distances. As far as optional gear goes, reflective gear, lighted gear, weather-appropriate apparel as well as hydration items would be nice to have as soon as you can afford that or find a need for it.

[00:44:09.180]
And nutrition and hydration is very individualized. We could have a whole podcast that talks about this. The best thing you can do is experiment with the products, the food products and drink products that agree with your stomach and training days always try and training and don't forget to do recovery and then maybe some more recovery. Prioritize foam rolling and stretching, just like you do every other training session. Make sure you take your rest days when you're training plan says to take a rest day, but that's an act of rest, not a sitting on the couch all day kind of a day.

[00:44:43.520] – Rachel
And lastly, find a run club, get inspired and motivated by other people in your town and join other people in the same goals that you're trying to accomplish as well.

[00:44:55.220] – Allan
All right. Well, if you have a run that you want to do and you see it on the horizon, you want to start training for that, I'd strongly encourage you to reach out to Rachel. Rachel, your site is strong-soles.com. And you have a strength training course there that will help someone with their cross-training as they're trying to get to these longer distances.

[00:45:20.540] – Rachel
Yep. On the first page of my program on my website, strong-soles.com, scroll down to the runners' workout that'll be emailed to you directly. And if you have any other questions, there's a contact page on the website as well.

[00:45:35.550] – Allan
Awesome. So you can go to 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/480, and I'll be sure to have the links there. All right, Rachel, this was a great conversation. I hope you have a great week and we'll talk next week.

[00:45:49.790] – Rachel
Thanks, Allan. Thanks for having me on again. Take care.

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Another episode you may enjoy

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January 25, 2021

How to get started running after 40

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Maybe you've wanted to get into running, but being over 40, it seems so hard. On this episode of the 40+ Fitness Podcast, Rachel and I discuss how to start running after 40.

Transcript

Let's Say Hello

[00:01:48.900] – Allan
Rachel, how are you today?

[00:01:51.000] – Rachel
Good. I'm good. Allan, how are you?

[00:01:54.090] – Allan
Good. Good. So we're, we're putting a little twist on the podcast this week because we wanted to is as we're getting into and I know it's probably really, really cold where most of you listening to this are, but it's we're getting into the running what we normally call the running season, particularly in North America and in Europe. This is the running season. We get into the spring. Now COVID's probably going to affect this running season as much, if not more than last year. Things are getting better and worse, depending on how you're looking at things. But in a general sense, this year is going to be kind of the same thing. But no one can really deny that running is a really good protocol for getting yourself in better shape. It helps you build stamina, helps to a lot of different things. We're going to talk about that today with running coach Rachel Everett.

[00:02:49.410] – Rachel
Yea!

[00:02:50.590] – Allan
All right.

Interview

[00:02:52.020] – Allan
Rachel, you've been a co-host on the podcast now for a few months, but just so folks know who you are, what you're doing and why you're relevant, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

[00:03:05.700] – Rachel
Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me on today, Allan. I just got my NASA certified personal training certificate earlier this year or earlier in 2020 during the shutdown because I had a lot of time on my hands. But prior to that, I have been running for about 20 years, a little over 20 years and I've run hundreds of 5K and 10k distances. I'm closing in on probably 40 half marathons, couple of fulls, and a couple ultra's. And this year I'll be hopefully lining up at my first 50 miler later in the summer.

[00:03:43.080] – Rachel
So I've been running a really long time and you could probably tell I really love it and I really do get excited when people choose running is a great way to get outside, regain their health. I mean, there's so many reasons to start running. And Strava actually recently released some information indicating that they saw a huge increase in activity in 2020, probably directly due to COVID. And a lot of people are out there putting in a ton of walking and running miles. So this is perfect. This is a great time to talk about starting running over 40.

[00:04:21.510] – Allan
Good. Besides not getting caught by a bear, what are some of the benefits that someone will get running after 40?

[00:04:32.730] – Rachel
Well, it's a really great way to improve your cardiovascular system. It's a great way to burn some calories. And in times like this, it's actually an ideal way to burn off some stress. And if you're having a problem sleeping at night, like a lot of us do as we get older, burning off these calories and that stress can actually improve your sleep habits as well. And and it's really important that we get all the sleep that we can, especially when we're doing new pursuits like running.

[00:05:02.490] – Allan
Yeah, the sleep thing is is important. And one of the reasons I think you're seeing a benefit was sleep, is that you're getting blue light, you're getting outdoors. One of the things that we've gotten away from in our modern lifestyles is we're in an office and we're cooped up and it's artificial light. It's not the same. And so getting outside for a run is going to expose your skin to sunlight. It's going to basically turn on your hormone cycles. It's going to tell your body what time of day it is based on the light and the time of day you run. And then, yes, because you've done that thing to set your clock, your circadian rhythm.

[00:05:46.360] – Allan
You've said that you've set that clock now. Yes. Your body's going to be a much better position to sleep. And it is a good step for that. And it is a good step. It does burn some calories. Again, most of your weight loss should come from what you do in the kitchen, what put your mouth. But yes, it's a good way to to get some extra calorie burn going, if that's what you're after.

[00:06:08.770] – Allan
And then the other thing is just general stamina. You know, people who don't run at all when they find that they need to do something like run or jog or try to catch a bus or something, just something. That's why they're winded, going up the stairs quickly, they're winded. Whereas someone who has been training for a 5K or something like that, they'll notice that they can get up a flight of stairs a lot easier. So really good, really good reasons to consider running after 40.

[00:06:39.460] – Allan
So let's just say I'm a person who's come to you, Rachel. And I say, “Okay, look, I want to start running. I was I was I was active when I was a kid and I was all running all over the place back then. But now I've got all these aches and pains. I've been in an office job for 25 years, but I want to start running. I know it's you know, I don't really get back in the gym right now. I just don't feel safe there. But I know if I could get out and do some running, that's going to do a lot of benefits for me (the benefits we just talked about).” So if someone wanted to get into running, what are some things that you would tell them to to do?

[00:07:15.430] – Rachel
First, I would say congratulations. I'm glad you're ready to run and I'm ready to run with you. I'd be so happy to, but I would start with finding a way. What is your motivation to run? And a lot of people will set their own a goal. And maybe there's a five K in the town for a really good charity. A lot of charities, a lot of churches, a lot of schools, local parks, systems, a lot of people will host a five K race.

[00:07:43.630] – Rachel
And it would be great to put that on your calendar. You've got some big neon sign that you can look forward to and you could get ready and prepare for that particular race. I know that there may not be a lot of in-person races going on in 2021, or at least not for a while. But there are still a ton of virtual races and in many cases these charity teams.

[00:08:09.373] – Allan
Like the sloth running team.

[00:08:09.400] – Rachel
You bet, like the sloth. But a lot of these churches and schools and park systems, all these other charities still need the same amount of money, whether there's people in person or not. And so if you could find something that you can support in your local community, look to see if they're going to host their five K in person or if it's going to be virtual and go ahead and sign up, that would be a great place to get started.

[00:08:32.450] – Allan
OK, now, so I decided I'm going to run a five K, OK, you've convinced me I'm going to run a five K. I look on I look on the calendar and there's a virtual five K that I can do because there's not 5Ks here on my Island. But I say, OK, I want to do a virtual five K and I want to sign up for it. And so I go and I do the sign up online and it's going to happen in about ten weeks, 12 weeks.

[00:08:57.550] – Rachel
Perfect.

[00:08:58.280] – Allan
OK, what do I do next. What do I do.

[00:09:02.350] – Rachel
Well to get started I would say find a plan of some sort that you could follow. The coach to five k plan is really well known and it's very successful and it's a very similar plan to what Jeff Galloway, former Olympian Jeff Galloway has put out with his walk run program. And both of them are walk run programs where there's a ratio.

[00:09:27.790] – Rachel
So, for example, you might start with three or four minutes of walking, followed by thirty seconds of running. And then you repeat that ratio for a set amount of time, whichever the plan dictates. And the great part of having a walk run program is that it's going to teach your body slowly how to move faster. And so when you're in the running segment, for example, you might have a 30 second run. I want to make sure that people know this isn't a sprint.

[00:10:00.190] – Rachel
This isn't where you just turn on the afterburners and go all out for that thirty seconds. This is actually just go a little faster than what you were just doing during the walk. And the whole point of that is that a lot of people just assume you go out there and you zoom around the block or something and your heart rate goes up. You're breathing. It's not comfortable and then it becomes not fun and then a lot of people will quit right then and there, so you start off walking, you do a little segment of running like maybe at a jogging pace and then you walk again. And it just is a slow introduction to running. It's really perfect.

[00:10:39.110] – Allan
We had Jeff on the show to talk about his run, walk, run method. So that's an episode. I'll make sure to have a link in the show, notes to that one. And then again, yes, as Rachel mentioned, the goal is not to red line as in Jeff's book. In fact, you don't want to because that's going to cause a buildup of lactic acid. And that's where you're going to feel that burn. That's where you're going to feel the pain afterwards.

[00:11:03.140] – Allan
You're going to be sore. Whereas if you're doing that kind of the way I put it, gentle, nudging a little bit faster than your walk gets your heart rate up to 75 percent, maybe 80. But that's kind of the line. And then, you know, you could still generally have a conversation with someone and then you're 30 seconds is up. You drop back down to your walk, you do a little bit of recovery. And those those intervals of walking in the running really do help you build that endurance and the way these plans are structured, you the couch to five KS or several of them you get on your phone, some of them are pretty cool.

[00:11:38.600] – Allan
They've got voices. The guys are they're talking you through it. Some of them are built up like zombies are chasing you and things like that, you know. And so so there's there's some there's some fun things out there that'll get you going and get you moving over time. And that kind of that gentle nudging getting you to a point in the interesting thing I like to tell people that are training for five kids, you don't have to be able to run five K, which is three point one miles to do a five K.

[00:12:05.480] – Allan
In fact, a lot of people will train. They won't quite have ever really run a full three miles. But on race day, the adrenaline kicks in and suddenly they find themselves running a five K, so you realize your race will probably be faster and actually probably easier than the training was. There's the people, there's the thing unless it's virtual. So in that case, find some buddies to do it with. But yeah, there's those programs are really, really good.

[00:12:35.210] – Rachel
They are very successful. I actually took the Jeff Galloway training program when I was training for my first full marathon, and I was resistant to try it at first because I just couldn't comprehend how if you were to walk, you know, a third of the time that you're running it, how you're going to get to the finish line any faster. But truth be told, it's true and it's easier on your body.

[00:12:58.670] – Rachel
And when you're over 40, things are changing. You're not a teenager or a kid running around the baseball diamond anymore. I mean, when you're 40, you just need to ease into it. And a walk run program is so safe and it's designed to reduce your risk for injury. So it's really important that you find a couch to five K or Jeff Galloway type plan to get yourself eased into the repetition of running.

[00:13:25.580] – Allan
OK, so now I'm getting ready to go out and run and, you know, what are some things I want to consider as far as you know, obviously, time is great. You know, you say, OK, walk for three minutes, run for 30 seconds. But I kind of also want to know how far I'm going. Right?

[00:13:43.590] – Rachel
Right. So when I started running over 20 years ago, I did not have a GPS watch. I had a car and it had an odometer and I would drive around my subdivision. I marked out a half mile and a mile and I use those landmarks to find where I was going. Well, nowadays we have these fancy watches, although you don't need to buy one if you're going to just start running at this point. But you can look for a track or a local park system with trails and find a place where you could do this walk run program safely.

[00:14:18.950] – Allan
Yeah, that's a that's a key if you're out on the roads, you know, that's and we're going to talk about safety a little bit later, but find a route that is something that you know very well. So you're not getting lost. I went I went for not so much to run, but as a long hike when we were traveling in Hong Kong. And I went up this hill and it was beautiful up there. And I was like, Really you know, because you're thinking Hong Kong a big city. But we were over on the Kowloon side. And so I go up this hill and it's like wooded and pretty and just really nice park. And then I got to the other side of the hill and I'm like, OK, I'm going to come back. And I came back and I was at an entirely different place than where I started up that hill. And I had no idea where I was, like none.

[00:15:01.310] – Allan
And I had not brought my phone with me. And so I had zero idea where I was. And so I was like I literally just got into a taxi. I told them where my hotel was. And I was on the exact opposite side. I mean, it's just amazing how far away I was from where I thought I was because I just made a wrong turn. So, yeah, kind of knowing your route, knowing some of the risk of the route.

[00:15:24.980] – Allan
And then, of course, you've always, you know, now these days you've got a GPS on your phone. So that's going to help. You know it. I use an app called RunKeeper that will basically track my runs-walks. So when I go out, I know my timing, my splits and all of those things. So, you know, if you're into data, there's some pretty cool apps out there to help you with that.

[00:15:46.640] – Rachel
Yes, that is perfect.

[00:15:49.100] – Allan
Now, one of the reasons that I think a lot of people aspire to running versus some other things that they might do is one, you know, it's something you can do on your own so you don't have to have a partner. So it's not like playing tennis where, you know, at some point it's no more fun to just keep hitting the ball against the wall or serving yourself. At some point, you know, you have to have a teammate or someone to go against.

[00:16:11.900] – Allan
And so a lot of sports let things go that way. And with running, you can be outside. But the other thing that's really cool about running is that it costs virtually nothing. I mean, let's talk about the equipment because thats one of the…

[00:16:27.860] – Rachel
Yeah, it's true. Running has a low barrier of entry, which is great. You really only need a pair of athletic shoes, although it is kind of a joke, because once you get into running, things can add up. But you don't need all of these fancy gadgets, fancy clothing, fancy nothing until you really know what you actually need. So I'm sure everybody has in their closet a pair of tennis shoes or running shoes of some sort. We all have leisure wear shorts of some sort, basketball shorts.

[00:16:59.510] – Rachel
There's actually a famous ultra runner who runs in basketball shorts. That's her choice. And so just dust out those dust off those shoes out of your closet. And but if you are lacking shoes, I do totally recommend going to your local running store and talking to the salespeople about shoes. When you're ready to buy running shoes, they will be able to answer all your questions. They will ask you what kind of mileage you're going to run, if you're going to be on the road or the trails.

[00:17:32.720] – Rachel
If you're a heavier person, you want to sturdy shoe. If you're pro, if you pronate one way or another, you want a stability shoe. So get advice from the local running people. They actually do know what they're doing. So it's a good place to go first.

[00:17:47.480] – Allan
Because you know, when I started getting into the longer runs the marathons, that's exactly what I did. And so you go in and you know, at that point I was considered heavier. You're not one hundred ninety five pounds and running marathons and ultramarathons, at least not a lot of people were back then. So I was I was big for runners, so. Yeah. And and because my foot is generally wider, I had to have a shoe had to have a type of shoe that would have a larger toe box.

[00:18:14.420] – Allan
So I couldn't use Nike's, I couldn't use Reebok's because they were cut too thin. They really didn't have a wide shoe box. So at that point it was new balance was the brand that had the the wider toe box, that was the right shoe for me. Now, would I have ever walked over and bought New Balance and the answer is probably not, because Nike was the king of running shoes that came out of Oregon for that very reason.

[00:18:42.080] – Allan
And then Reebok was coming behind. And then there was this other brands that you would see in running stores and say, I went into a running store. The guy was running, says, you pronate a little bit. You're going to need some support. Your foot's generally wider than most, so you're going to need a big toe box. And so he pulled out a set of new balance and said, put these on. And, you know, I did great, you know, and it is important at some level, particularly if you have had problems in the past, because when I was in the Army and did a lot of running, I started having knee problems.

[00:19:14.180] – Allan
And that was on the concrete that was, you know, not having good shoes, in some cases combat boots. And then so I had knee problems when I was in basic training in the first year or so that I was in the army. And then here I was trying to basically four years later start running marathons. And my knees could have easily gotten shot again with the volume of training I was doing. But I had the right shoes. I went in and bought a good pair of shoes and it went a long way.

[00:19:43.520] – Allan
But initially all you need is just a comfortable pair of shoes because you're looking at lower distances. You're just going to be doing some walking and some jogging. I actually also use basketball shorts when I run, but if I'm going to a longer distance, I realize there's a chafing issue. Then I get runners shorts on. So, you know, if you're

[00:20:03.650] – Allan
doing the shorter distances just in any pair of comfortable shoes, shorts and some halfway decent shoes and, you know, moisture wicking clothing and you're typically good. And then, of course, if you're running and it's cold, you need to layer. If you're running and it's hot, you need to somewhat layer. So you can also kind of cut down to a lesser profile of clothing, but it's really easy to get started.

[00:20:30.350] – Rachel
Yeah, and I totally recommend that you just go through your closet first and get in a couple of training runs and see how all this equipment works for you. When I started running, I did wear cotton t-shirts, just your basic hanes, white cotton t shirt. Well, you know, after I put on some more miles, I realized that the dry, wick clothing would be a lot more comfortable to wear. And you can buy that at any big box store, Amazon, any anywhere running, of course, you're running store.

[00:20:58.550] – Rachel
But the point is, is that you don't need it until you recognize that you need it. So don't go out and get all outfitted for running until you know exactly what you need. And the same goes with your shoes. Once you've run in your own shoes from your closet for a while, see how your feet are feeling, see how your knees are feeling. And if you're getting aches and pains, then go to your running store and get some advice on getting a better fitting shoe.

[00:21:23.990] – Rachel
And similarly, while you're getting shoes, take a look at the running socks. Now, I personally have always been prone to blisters. I just have bony feet. And so there's a friction element in between your shoe and your sock. So cotton socks, they're not going to last you for very long. If you start getting blisters, then definitely go to your running store and look for some dry wicking socks that will make you a whole lot happier to be comfortable. And they're not terribly expensive either. So socks would be a good thing to buy pretty early.

[00:21:57.140] – Allan
OK, so now I go out and I do this good, good run the first day. I feel really good. Do I just do it again tomorrow and then the next day and the next day, or do I need to take some days off?

[00:22:10.520] – Rachel
Well, that's the exciting part about having a plan, is that the plan will tell you when to do these routines and usually plans like the couch to five K will have maybe three or four days of running during the week. And and then that'll tell you that you can cross, train or take rest days and the other days. And I have to say that as we are 40 and over, this is really important to do some cross training as well as take the rest days when you need it.

[00:22:40.550] – Rachel
You really do have to listen to your body. You know, when you start a new workout routine, you're going to have the delayed onset muscle soreness, the dams. Everybody knows that feeling. But if you're getting something more serious, more aches and pains, you really need to pay attention and and listen and take that rest day if you need it. Even if the plan says to run, take that day off.

[00:23:02.690] – Allan
Yeah, you know, one of the things when you when you get which which if you if you get into running and you do some of these things, you start doing a five K or you join a running team and you do these different things, you're going to start running more. And when you start running more, you start recognizing some some aches and pains, you know, running after forty. You know, even though I'll say this. When I started running marathons, I was a baby, you know, from their consideration, I was twenty nine years old and they consider they all consider me a baby.

[00:23:31.700] – Allan
There weren't many young guys like me doing Ultra's. Most of the people, you know, you start talking to them. They didn't start running marathons until they were after 40. They're over 40. And in one case, I finished an ultra. The guy was 68 years old. So, you know, this is an old man's an old woman's sport, if you will. I mean, unless you're doing it competitively, then, of course, you know.

[00:23:53.140] – Allan
Yeah. Uh, Hussein, Boltz and the you know, all those folks out there, they're younger. But in a general sense, if you're looking at the recreational runner, most of us are a good bit older. But your body talks to you, you have a language in your body. And there's some there's some pains that you definitely want to pay attention to. And there's some that you you don't just need to change something. So, like, you know, one thing that will happen when you're doing some running, you might notice that you have an ache, a really bad ache in some cases called a stitch that occurs right under your ribcage, right under your diaphragm.

[00:24:26.200] – Allan
It hurts a lot, but there's a way around it. So you make a change. And that's typically the case with any time you feel pain. So, Rachel, let's talk about some of the common things that runners experience and what they need to do. Just generally a little short clip-clop. This is some things to consider with regards to each one.

[00:24:45.130] – Rachel
Well, I know a lot of runners end up with tight caps. It's part of the push pull of the motion of running. And it can have something to do with the shoes. It can have something to do with overtraining, it can have something to do with too much vertical climb in your route. Which is tough. I live in a very hilly area, so I struggle with my calves. And so when you get these aches and pains, you really need to take a minute and assess the situation.

[00:25:15.880] – Rachel
Is it your shoes? If you especially if you have new shoes that could upset your gait a little bit. If you're maybe twisting an ankle on a trail on a route or a rock, you just need to take a minute, walk it out, maybe go home and try try it again another day. But for runners over forty, I have a pre-hab in a rehab. And the pre-hab is you need to do the dynamic kind of warm up before you go out and run.

[00:25:48.520] – Rachel
If you think of your muscles and tendons as a rubber band, if you've got a rubber band that's cold, it's going to snap under pressure. And your muscles, they need a minute. They need to get warmed up before you go out and start doing anything vigorous. So a little foam rolling, little dynamic stretching, you know, some jumping jacks, get the heart moving, then go into your run. And then equally important is coming home and getting your body back down to normal equilibrium.

[00:26:17.230] – Rachel
So I like to walk before I start. So I usually take my dogs out for a walk in the morning before I run. And then when I get home, I usually walk it off. I'll get out the foam roller and I'll hit my tight calves or any other particular muscle group that's tight. So it's important to pay attention to your body and then act to resolve those issues.

[00:26:38.620] – Allan
Yeah. So, you know, with the tightness, I think that's really kind of one of the big ones, because that's that's one of the most common things I see with people who are over 40 is we do have tight calves that comes sometimes from wearing heels. So not just the shoes you're wearing when you're running, but what you're wearing at work and things and sitting at a desk and that. And you're not getting the what we call dorsiflexion from a personal training perspective that you would normally be getting.

[00:27:07.660] – Allan
And yes, running is definitely going to tighten up your calves. I have extremely tight calves and so I do have to make sure I stretch them and in some cases, you know, go ahead and roll them. But I am not rolling, I'm literally pressing into the muscle to make it release. It's painful. And I have to use a one of those girls softball. So, you know, this is a hard round object that I have to do because my my calves are that tight.

[00:27:33.280] – Allan
It takes that much to get them to to release, but it affects every bit of my movement pattern. So if I'm trying to do a squat, if I'm trying to run, if I'm trying to do anything, if my calves are tight, my movement pattern is messed up. And so if I don't do that for my knees, or for my calves, here's what's going to happen. The front of my the front of my shin, the periformis, I think it's what it's called, it's going to cramp because it's going to try to get tight to to compensate and it's going to start to really hurt.

[00:28:06.310] – Allan
And then what the other thing is going to happen is I'm going to not be getting a good gait, so I'm going to be putting additional stress on my quadriceps and my knee. And if I run for a long time that way, I risk really missing my legs up my knees and all of it. So, yeah, it's a very important aspect of understanding your running habits and you're running your body and what it's telling you so that you're addressing those types of things. So really important.

[00:28:33.010] – Rachel
Shin splints are a nightmare and that happens a lot for new runners. And it's and it's because you're you're moving in a new way. I mean, everybody walks every day, but not very many people actually run. And so when you get into that running gait, definitely shin splints are a real pain. And then on the opposite side of that plantar fasciitis, that's the tendon that goes up through your soleus in the back. And that that is causing some pretty intense heel pain.

[00:28:59.260] – Rachel
So the calf muscle is kind of like the epicenter for all of these problems. And it's really important that you address that. The technique you had mentioned to me earlier this year, along with using a softball on my calves instead of a foam roller, when you find that really tender spot and I know that it hurts, that's when you want to sit on that softball, put a little pressure on it to get that muscle to release. And that works so well for me this year with my tight calves.

[00:29:26.320] – Rachel
Another garment that might be worth investing in, it's not terribly expensive are the compression socks or compression sleeves. It's basically a calf sleeve without the sock portion on your foot. And that pressure can help loosen up some of those tight muscles as well. It's a sometimes I wear them running, usually I just wear them for recovery. But that could be a very helpful piece of equipment to get.

[00:29:51.250] – Allan
Yeah. OK, so Rachel. OK, so now we're dedicated. We're going to run this five k, really excited about it. What are some other secrets that are going to make sure we're successful in completing this five K.

[00:30:07.120] – Rachel
Oh well take a look at your nutritional habits would be a good thing for right now. I like to have people think that an athlete doesn't exercise and diet. They fuel and train. So if you think of food as fuel, you'll be able to hone in better on the on the foods that help fuel your run and not weigh you down. So this would be a good time to cut back on the sugar and the junk food and give yourself the nutrition it needs to work harder on a run.

[00:30:40.640] – Allan
I think a lot of people, think they will see these products particular. If you go into the run store, you're going to see this these products, particularly at the front counter. And what I'm going to be called goo. And there's a lot of other brands out there now. And, you know, all this different stuff in it. But if you look at the main ingredients of every single one of those, it's sugar or some form of sugar, probably high fructose corn syrup. In the bay still is that they think you've got to refuel while you're doing the run.

[00:31:11.380] – Allan
Here's here's the the cold, hard facts. You have enough glucose and glycogen in your body right now that you could go out and complete not just a five K, but easily a ten K and probably even half a marathon without ever needing any fuel at all.

[00:31:32.020] – Rachel
Yes, I caution caution people. They look delicious because there's really fun flavors out there, like birthday cake and an espresso coffee flavors. But no, you certainly don't need any of these running nutritional products for a five K or a 10K. I think that I, I would wager to guess people have probably closer to twenty miles of glucose in their bodies before they really hit the wall, which is a common running term. But so I would stay away from these products until you get into the higher distances.

[00:32:04.810] – Rachel
They're just not necessary. But what is necessary would be obviously water and possibly electrolytes, especially if you're training in extreme heat and you're a big sweater like I used to be when I was in Florida. I used to sweat buckets in that heat and humidity. And so electrolytes would be could be very helpful. And even in the winter, even though you're not thirsty in the winter, you still need that hydration. So be sure to have water before and after. May not need it during, but maybe a handheld water bottle could be helpful if you find that need.

[00:32:41.920] – Allan
Yeah, I think one of the one of the core things to think about and it's it's more important when you get to longer distances than maybe a five K, but you are how you train and you should eat the same way you would eat. So don't change up your routine, your food routine for your five K for your race, find a way of fueling yourself that feels comfortable.

[00:33:05.260] – Allan
Some people don't want to have anything in their stomach when they're running. Some people need something to eat before they run. So find out how you are as far as your training, particularly as you get towards the end of your training by focusing on what you eat and then following course to do the exact same thing on race day and you'll you'll you'll feel a lot better and you'll be properly fueled that way.

[00:33:28.800] – Rachel
That's a really good rule of thumb, is never try anything new on race day so that and any new equipment, that food or anything at all. Definitely. And it is true. Once you clean up your diet a little bit, you'll find that the heavier foods, the junk foods will weigh you down. They don't give you the energy that you need. You don't need sugar to give you that boost. And when I lived in Florida, I remember one evening I took my kids to Chick fil A for dinner, and then I met my run club at night. That was probably the biggest mistake of my entire life. So, yeah, just be careful what you eat and when you eat before you go out on a run.

[00:34:13.710] – Allan
Yeah. And a part of that, you know, one of the cool things about these things like 5Ks, particularly when you start getting into some of the longer distance, like half marathons, marathons, is they're typically a road trip. You're typically traveling to another location in another state, maybe even another country. And so if you're doing that, one of the things I'd caution you is, like she said, having the same stuff. Don't check you're running apparel.

[00:34:40.770] – Rachel
Good point.

[00:34:41.880] – Allan
Don't check it. Carry it with you. I was going to the Marine Corps Marathon and they lost my luggage. And the only good thing was I arrived on a Friday night for a run that was Sunday. And so I had Saturday to go to the expo, which I wanted to do anyway. But what it meant was I bought a new pair of shoes. I bought new running shorts, I bought new running shirt. And so everything I was wearing was new and I had blisters and chafes.

[00:35:15.960] – Allan
And it was it was it was a wonderful run, don't get me wrong. But at the same time, it would have been a much better experience if I was wearing the stuff I had already broken in and that I was comfortable with. So, yeah, just just little things like that you'll pick up on as you as you get into this. OK, so Rachel, I'm ready to go. I've got I've got everything planned. I've got my nutrition set. I'm ready to go. What are those things that are just going to keep me moving. It's going to keep me excited. Keep me seeing progress.

[00:35:48.480] – Rachel
Well, the big secrets to success is basically consistency. You just got to keep at it. And a lot of people will follow that couch to five K plan repetitively because it's such a good plan. And then then maybe aim for a bigger distance like the 10K or half marathon. But the plan should keep you on track. And then the specificity, you know, if you're going to do trail runs, get out on the trail and see what it's like to run on a trail versus the road.

[00:36:18.660] – Rachel
And enlist your friends. A lot of people do the couch to five K with a friend because it's fun to run with someone and it's encouraging to have that accountability as well as the motivation with their friends, which is why I'm a huge fan of run clubs. I have been in several run clubs. And when you've got 20 or 30 people out there cheering for you at a race, there is just nothing more satisfying and motivating than hearing your name being shouted as you're approaching the finish line. It's just wonderful.

[00:36:53.790] – Allan
Yeah, and the cool thing with the way Rachel and I run is everybody else in the run club is at the finish line before we get there.

[00:37:00.210] – Rachel
Yes, that's right. Which makes it very special. Yeah. Yeah. We get the most out of our runs. That's for sure.

[00:37:09.410] – Allan
Yeah. Yeah, so, you know, joining a run club, having a training partner, you know, and then making it fun because you know, I think that's one of the cores of this is if you if you find yourself being the competitive type, well guess what, they're going to tell you the time of your five K maybe the next year when you run that same five K, you try to get a better time. Or like when I was doing the marathons, it was like, oh, here's, you know, in this Run magazine, because I got into buying the running magazines at the time.

[00:37:45.660] – Allan
We didn't really have the Internet to the extent we do today. Was here was this run this, you know, marathon in California, it was deemed the most beautiful marathon. It's called Big Sur Marathon. And you're running through the rainforest and then over the Bixby Bridge right along the coastline in Northern California. And it is beautiful. It's also a very, very hard marathon. But at the same time, it was it was wonderful to fly out to California to spend some time in Carmel by the sea and to to do this marathon with a lot of other people.

[00:38:27.110] – Allan
So it was just a lot of fun and, you know, less so with the five KS unless you're running with some people, you know, but the longer the run it seems, the more social they get. So, you know, over the years, as I was doing it met some really cool people. We had some great, great times on the runs and there were some of them that I actually see them at another marathon somewhere else in the country, you know, so this guy who was at the Big Sur was then also at Washington, D.C., you know, so I ran into the same guy. You know, there were thousands of people at one and then over 17000 at the other.

[00:39:01.880] – Allan
And I happened to run into a guy I met on another run. So it's a very social opportunity and the run clubs are really cool. If Rachel moves somewhere there isn't a run club, rachel's going to start a run club.

[00:39:15.690] – Rachel
You bet!

[00:39:15.690] – Allan
But, you know, they talk about run clubs. So that's not one of the rules.

[00:39:20.720] – Rachel
That's right. It's the only thing to do is talk about it. Yeah.

[00:39:25.700] – Allan
And I think the final thing is and this is also very important, particularly if you're if you're looking at you're running and you either want to make sure you're doing it safely and you're doing it the right way beyond the apps, beyond the programs. And you just want to have that that that tool that's going to make you a better runner it's going to make you safer runner. You really ought to consider getting some input, getting a trainer, because that can go a long way towards helping you improve your gait.

[00:39:57.860] – Allan
So your form is there. You understand if your calves are too tight, you understand if your gait is going to cause you some problems in the future. You also understand, like, you know, I'm a pronater, heavy pronater. And so I did a special kind of shoe to prevent some problems with my knees and ankles in the future if I'm putting on any kind of distance. So, you know, having a coach is going to go a long way. And Rachel is our running coach here at 40+ Fitness.

[00:40:24.650] – Allan
So if you're looking at getting into running after 40, I definitely consider hiring a coach because it's going to keep you from a lot of aches and pains and injuries that you hear about a lot in this sport. So, Rachel, thank you so much for joining us today. If someone wanted to learn more about you, learn more about your run coaching, where would you like for me to send them?

[00:40:49.370] – Rachel
Well, I just launched my business and I'm at strong-soles.com, and I'll send you that link. And through my website, you could find my Socials. I'll be on Facebook and Instagram as well. And there's some contacts, some easy contact forms on my website. So if you did have any questions, go ahead and shoot me an email and I'll see what I can do to help you. I've been running for over twenty years, so I have been through it all.

[00:41:16.370] – Rachel
I have blistered, I have changed. I have done crazy things and all my many miles out there and I bet I could help you get through running. And I and I love it and I want you to love it too. So let me help you make it enjoyable as well.

[00:41:29.120] – Allan
And Rachel, you have a freebie for us, too, don't you?

[00:41:32.780] – Rachel
Yes, I've been working on a runner's workout, and while it is important to run, it's also important to cross train and also to do some strength training. And I have a very simple circuit style training, which is just body weight movements. You don't need anything except maybe a towel or a yoga mat for your floor. So these are all movements that runners need to strengthen their glutes, their hands, their quads. And it'll be a great cross training for you on the days that you're not running. It's called the runners workout. And if you go to my website, sign up for it and it'll be automatically emailed to you.

[00:42:10.550] – Allan
And I will be sure to have a link in the show. Notes you can go to 40plusfitnesspodcast.com/470 and I'll have the link there. So Rachel, as always, it's such a pleasure to have you on the podcast now, but also as a CO. So thank you so much

[00:42:27.020]
Thanks so much Allan. I love running and I hope that your listeners will too.

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