How Your Exercise May Be Working Against You, Especially After Age 40, with Debra Atkinson #70.

Hi, I'm Dr. Tabitha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified OB, GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey. And I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi, ladies. This week we're talking about exercise. This is such an important topic because every day I'm getting women saying what I'm doing is no longer working. I used to be able to get on the treadmill and run and lose the weight and it's not working anymore. Or I used to go to the gym and it's not working anymore, or I can't go to the gym anymore. Right. Because of COVID And so what I'm seeing is there's so many women who feel like they what used to work for them is no longer working. And it's true because you're probably in this hormonal shift and change in your life where your hormones aren't necessarily what they were when you were 20 or 30, and you need to use your hormones to your advantage and not work against them when you're trying to exercise. And so my guest today is an expert in this area. She has created her entire, you know, following of women who have gone through this menopausal transition and they're figuring out, how can I exercise for my body, my hormones, my situation? And so she's got this amazing tribe of women and she does this show called Flipping 50 TV, she has a podcast, she has an amazing, huge group of women who all learn how to exercise for them the right way, how to support their hormones and their situation. And you're just going to find so much value in this because honestly, what we've been taught, you know, the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, was you just need to exercise harder, you just need to burn more calories. And that is going to keep you lean and fit and feeling energized. And it's just not true for women in their 40s, in their 50s, in their 60s and 70s. So things our mindset needs to change, our idea of moving our body needs to change, and what we do needs to change. So this was really eye opening to me when I realized it, I don't know, five or six years ago. And you know, I'm hoping that you have some aha moments listening to Deborah today because it's really important that as we change, you know, through our hormonal shifts of life, we also change our mindset. We also change how we move our body. We change what we eat. So the diet that worked for you when you were 20 doesn't necessarily work now. The movement that worked for you when you're 20 doesn't necessarily suit your body now. So I really want you to try and think of like, how does this pertain to me? What can I get out of this episode today and figure out, you know, what kind of shifts you can make and if it feels overwhelming, like it probably will because it's a whole new way of looking at exercise and movement, then just connect with Deborah. The links are in the show notes like join her community, do the five day challenge that she's going to talk about about and just try something new. I mean our bodies love shifting and doing new things anyway, like you always seem to see results when you try something new. So I encourage you to check out Debra. But let me see your praises real quick. So she's a hormone balancing exercise coach and 37 year fitness expert. She's helped over 17, oh my gosh, 170,000 women. Excuse me. That's incredible. Deborah. 170,000 women flip their second half with vitality and energy they want. She's the author of you still got it Girl, the After50 Fitness formula for women navigating fitness after 50 and hot not bothered. I love that. That's awesome. So Deborah hosts Flipping 50 TV and Flipping 50 podcast. She's a TEDx speaker and she's an expert that's been recognized by the aarp, the Washington Post, Prevention magazine and USA Today. So her TED talk, please check it out. The link is down in the show notes is called everything women in menopause learned about Exercise May be a lie. And that is so true. And I'm so glad that she's here to share her wisdom about this because if it was all a lie, then what's the truth? Right? So that's what we're going to talk about today. She's going to talk about hormone balancing exercise. She's going to debunk the myth that you know, strength training bulks you up. It doesn't. It helps you in midlife. So important concepts. We're going to talk about bone health and you know, the impact of weight training and exercise on our bone density and our muscle mass. So lots of good information today. So stay tuned. Listen. If you have to pause it, you can always go back. That's the awesome thing about a podcast, so please try to share it with everyone. You know, get the word out, because we need to support each other. We're in this together as women, right? We need to lift one another up and help in any way we can. That's why I do this. And I hope that you get value out of it if you do. I would love it if you would hit the subscribe button or even leave me a review that lets itunes know that you want to hear about this information. You want more of this. So I'm really excited to talk to Deborah. So let's get started. Well, welcome, Debra, to the Functional Gynecologist podcast.

Well, thank you. So glad to be here.

I am really excited because when I saw your TED Talk, it was very eye opening and it was kind of an aha moment for me as a women's health provider. You know, women come to me all of the time saying, I do everything I'm supposed to. I'm exercising more, I'm eating less, and it's just not working. What I used to do is no longer working. And so I see this TED Talk like, everything women in menopause learned about exercise may be a lie. Ding, ding, ding. So I want you to share with my listeners, like, how did this whole thing come about? How did you figure that out?

Well, how long do we have? That's a really long story. But, you know, really happened because I was 49 and I left my safe, secure job on purpose to have a bigger reach. But in doing that, I realized I'm a, you know, let's just cannonball in. We don't stick a toe in the water. I realized I had a huge learning curve. So I was spending hours and hours and hours on my keyboard suddenly no longer teaching classes, no longer personal training, which is an active job. And I would let myself out of the Google Box for 20 minutes maybe. And it was because it had to work, because I had said goodbye. Take that, TIAA Craft fund. I don't need that. And I'm like, I'm going to pay college tuition starting in eight months. What was I thinking? So I realized after about a year, and literally it took me that long to have this shocking realization that I was really hardly exercising compared to what I had done. And I looked better, I was stronger, I was healthier. And I said, ok, is this a fluke? The flies against everything I had been taught. But also I'd Been an instructor in kinesiology for 15 years against everything I, I taught, you know, and so as I dug into the research, I realized that, you know, I was one of the lucky ones because given any other time where I had the time and the energy to spend, I also, if I were experiencing hormonal changes or hot flashes or a little bit of weight gain, I would have over exercised and probably under eaten just like everybody else. And that just is our default, even sometimes if we know better because, because we're so conditioned. And I was just lucky because I didn't have that luxury. I couldn't, I just couldn't do it. And so as I dug into the research, what I found was really shocking. We'd all been doing it wrong. I mean, the amount of research that features, first of all, that features females, it's about 39% of all exercise and sports medicine research is 39% female and the rest is male. Well, that may not sound so bad, you know, if you're thinking 60, 40, eh, it's not great. But we've seen worse, you know, in other areas of our lives. And yet when you look at the fact that you know better than anybody, women can go through up to about seven hormonal changes in their lives. Every single one of them demands a different exercise prescription. We shouldn't exercise someone who's prenatal or postnatal the same way an adolescent female should exercise or the same way a postmenopausal female should exercise. The things we need to focus on are so very different. When you do the math now, 39 divided by 7, that's less than 6% of all research caters to you in the phase you're in, or me in the phase I'm in. If we didn't know to ask when we walked into a class or we worked with a trainer or we bought a dvd, was that exercise program based on me and about women just like me? Because most is about mice and men and even young women because we're in this volatile stage where researchers really don't love to work with us. We're too unpredictable. Right. So that really made me birth flipping 50 and realize that there may be a very little out there, but that's going to be 100% of what I do.

At flipping 50, what was the biggest shift that you realized you had to make? Was it just cardio or was it strength training? What was it?

You know, it's everything and we can dive into each of them, but I think it really is flipping so flipping I use so very frequently and I'll keep my finger to myself. But it's really the opposite of, you know, exercise more and eat less, which we've heard forever. And it's exercise less and eat more. And of course we have to follow that with, you know, of the right kind, the quality kind. So this is not my tent talk might hint to somebody that you need to slow down and do less. And that is not necessarily it unless you need to restore before more. It's the first tenant of flipping 50. But we can work just as hard as anyone else can and as, as hard as relative we did in our younger years. So long as we take the right rest in between and we're doing more quality than quantity. So that was the biggest lesson for me. And I still need a support group. I'm an endurance lover lover and I have to hold myself back. And I got my slap in the face wake up call in 2019. I did an ironman in Cozumel in November and I'd had several life stressors happen. Exposure to mold, sudden need to move and relationship. Business was kind of volatile and I had to follow through because I had committed publicly and said I'm doing this and so this is going to be my fittest year ever. Well, long story short, I gained 10 cortisol pounds, I call them, and I couldn't get them off. And finally seeking help because of exactly what I warned women about. And it happened to me. So I wasn't so lucky that time. But it puts me in a better position to be certainly much more empathetic.

Yeah, I mean I've heard you talk about this before and it just hit home for me because I went through the same thing when I hit 40. You know, I was overweight because I was not sleeping. I was a stressed out, sleep deprived obstetrician. And what shift I made was I started to eat the right foods and the healthy foods and more of them and I stopped trying to exercise my way out of it. And that shift, you know, I dropped to like £20. And it was very clear to me then it's like it's not about exercising more and eating less, it's about eating more of the right nourishing foods and putting less stress on your body. So I started moving in a different way. And so I would love for you to talk about that a little bit more because I think women, literally, it's ingrained in us that we just need to burn more calories. It's all about the calories in calories out concept, right? And good God, it is not.

Well, and I'm sure you've said this before yourself, but I think it bears repeating. So whether you're talking about food or you're talking about the exercise, it's not what the calories do to your body, it's what the calories do to the hormones. And that controls whether you store or you burn fat. And your body can't do both at the same time. So listeners, are you hearing that? And we forget. I think, and I think women in midlife remember the time when they had 45 minutes or an hour to go and spend on the StairMaster and flip through a magazine. And I think that's what we crave. We crave that little bit of freedom more than we actually want to do the 45 minutes or the 60 minutes. We just think, well, it worked then and I felt so good and just want to get that feeling back. But you know, 1980 called and you know, wants that back.

It's just not going to happen.

But there is a substitute, there's an even better substitute that can help you feel better. So, you know, looking at changing several things, you asked, you know, what is it? Is it cardio, the big shift? What I found is the flipping 50 or the after 50 fitness formula for women. The formula is, it's about both the type and the timing of exercise. So you're working with your cortisol, you're working with your pregnenolone or at least trying not to work against it. Right. And you're exercising most intensely early in the day, as I mentioned. Restore before more. That's the first spot that you've got to hit that and say, okay, I'm rested, I'm sleeping well and you know, dealing with stress. If I have those stressors and don't we all, they don't go away. But then you move on and you do interval early, light, late. That's the mantra. If you can remember that you can do light exercise, yoga, walking, maybe it's a low level bike or sup. You can do that any time of day. But it's really important that the high intensity exercises as early in the day as you can get it. I don't like to see anybody actually do it more or later than say early afternoon because then we start dipping into that place where your cortisol is coming down and it starts to be a negative and that results in more cravings, more fatigue, more rebounding with your eating again.

Yeah, exactly. I love it. So you're doing this hormone Balancing exercise, you're really working to optimize when you would naturally make your cortisol. So my listeners, they might not realize the nice cortisol awakening response we get within a half an hour of waking up or we're supposed to get when our hormones are balanced, right? It's like our body's natural caffeine or cup of coffee. It gets us going for the day. And you're saying work out, then enhance it, optimize that time period as opposed to later in the day when your cortisol levels should be coming down. And I think that should really hit home for a lot of women because they're living in this state of upregulated cortisol all the time, managing their stressors from their job and Covid and their family and everything else. And exercising later in the day is just going to add to that dysfunction. So I love that you really focus on that and then more restorative stuff in the evening to bring yourself down out of that cortisol production. Right?

Absolutely.

Okay, so how does our age factor into that? So, you know, talk about the difference between a 45 year old and a 55 year old.

So interesting that you asked that. So I get asked that a lot and I get asked that probably a little bit more by my audience with someone who's just crossed 60 or I've got women who are in our community who are just over 70 and they'll say, well, what about us? And I said, really? The flipping 50 part? The biggest changes we're going to go through for most of us will happen at some point between 45 and 55. And none of us is predictable necessarily. So the average age is what, 51.3 where menopause happens. But I mean, none of us are average. So let's be real, right? So if you're going through that threshold and you're kind of abiding by that intense early and lightly, that really doesn't change dramatically in your 60s. You in fact may be able to do more. And we find that postmenopause. So when she really crossed that other threshold, you can reintroduce a little more exercise, but the low to moderate level kind. And that actually may help your weight control much more when you're in perimenopause. It really makes more sense to first restore before more do, maybe only lower level restorative kinds of exercise until you're really feeling good all the time around the clock, then begin to add in more exercise. And we don't want to, we don't want to forget strength training. So I want to come back to that. But when you're doing that, you know, you think small doses. It's like exercise is medicine. That's literally a trademarked term. And you want small doses regularly as opposed to big hits. What I find so frequently is women have ended up coming to see me and I'm usually the last resort, believe it or not. And you know, they've tried and tried and they think, you know, give themselves some, some amount of guilt, think that, you know, they're not trying hard enough or they're not working long enough, or they're not doing it frequently enough, and then they'll have one or two of those really long and hard workouts and then be on the couch for the next three days and then think it was me, something about me. And they'll get up and we do it all over again. And that is human nature. Even in the site that we can tell it's not working, we have every evidence it's not working. We may repeat the mistake until a more clear solution comes along. Hopefully listeners will feel like you've got a little bit of a solution here. The other thing is strength training. Small doses of high intensity interval training and small doses of strength training. A question I'm asked so very often is, well, how long should I strength train? And it really doesn't matter. It's much more about the quality of it. And have you reached muscular fatigue? Many times while I was starting that business early on, I had 10 minutes when I could get something in and sometimes still in my pajamas and before I jumped into a shower. That 10 or 20 minutes of high quality work reaching muscular fatigue is far more effective than than an hour of anything where maybe you're not quite reaching muscular fatigue. You're just putting those weights down when you're done with the set and so really challenging yourself. Have I done that? Because we need enough stimulus. Throughout all the research on menopause, whether it's perimenopause or post menopause, over and over again, where we see exercise can help symptoms. Hot flashes are lessened, either reduced in frequency or intensity or both. It's always about if the exercise is of adequate intensity. So there's nothing in the literature that says, you know, do it softer, do chair aerobics. You're not, you're not, you're not dead yet. You know, it is really work hard, just work shorter, smarter.

Yeah, I mean, I just think back to all my decades of using light weights to be tone and not bulk up. And I just think that we were sold a bill of goods. I mean, they just made these, you know, recommendations based on guesstimates. Like, women are smaller, so they should lift smaller weights. And, you know, if you lift heavier weights, you're going to bulk up. Can you speak to that a little bit? Because I think people don't really necessarily understand muscle fatigue. You want to work out that muscle, you want to build it. You're not going to look like the beefcake on Jersey Shore. Right.

So glad you asked that. One of the most frequent questions that I get asked too. And recently. So for those who are on Instagram, for instance, you may want to go and browse. And I posted something about how to work out to match your body type, because it does matter. And there are women probably watching and I know you're in the minority and we sometimes forget you who are lean and you're having a hard time gaining lean muscle and we sometimes leave you out. So you're included here. But here's the thing. I often tell my audience that they may want to go back and slap their high school PE teacher when I'm done. But many women legitimately may have felt like they got bulky lifting weights when they were in high school or college and early 20s. And we also have to remember that these women who are, you know, we're over 50, we were all in that low fat snack wells, you know, oh my God, I can, I can eat the whole box because it's fat free. So we were not helping ourselves with that bulk thing, you know. But three sets of 10 repetitions is what we call a bulk building protocol. And that's what every woman was taught, you know, 20, 30, 40 years ago. And so if you did strength train, that's probably what you did. And you know, for it worked for a very minor few of us and for the rest who were much more muscular to begin with. And we're at, you know, at 25, you're at the peak of your muscle mass, so it's probably going to work pretty well. So here's the deal. Now that we don't have that much testosterone and estrogen and progesterone, that might be something you want to revisit if you're struggling to see muscle tone because you don't have as much of those hormones that are going to cause that problem. And it may be very helpful for you. But if you're doing hormone replacement, look at your body type. And if you are more of what I call an endomorph Kind of your Marilyn Monroe, you know, curvy girls, a little more patting on the cushions, then you want to exercise and you probably want to go as heavy as you comfortably and safely can at each joint. And you kind of go joint by joint because what your knees may not be able to handle your chest press and your bent over rows, you may be able to go a little heavier. But that's actually very helpful for both weight loss by metabolism boosting and for bone density building. And if you are that very lean, linear, not really a waste, and really never had one that, you know, having a hard time gaining lean muscle, you should be doing that three sets of 10. And the rest of you who are more of what we call mesomorphs, you're athletic without trying, you look, you know, like you just respond very well to any exercise. And you're probably also fairly coordinated and good at sports when you try them. You want to do almost anything you want to, except for three times 10. You can go light, you can do heavy, you can mix it up and get lots of variety and all of it's going to work for you.

That's awesome. I love that you're fine. You know, you're breaking it down. So it's individualized, it's based on your needs of what your body is doing, your hormonal status. I just think that it's so important, you know, it's not one size fits all, it's not just more cardio, it's not just, you know, crossfit. It depends on your situation. And I think that's so important.

That's such a great point. And even, you know, I think we're kind of talking or you're talking to me and I'm talking women over 50 for the most part, or mid-40s who are into pyramid menopause and realize exactly what you said, you know, like that wasn't here yesterday. What I'm doing, you know, we used to do doesn't work anymore. But even within among us there's diversity. So I like to think in terms of a blueprint. You know, it's like the Tiger Beat quizzes that you took. And did you take them? Am I dating myself?

No, I remember Tiger Beat. Yes.

You know, and if no. And that's really how your own developing your own. What should I be doing at this moment in my time? And it might change. If you're a woman going through the roller coaster of hormone changes, it might change in three months or six months. And you might need to ask those questions of Yourself again.

Yeah. I mean, and the same is true with diet. Right? I mean, you don't stick with one diet your whole life, your needs change, your situation changes. So there's never ever one right diet, one right exercise program. So I love that you are taking a more individualized approach on this. So what kind of behaviors have you seen through Covid? What are women doing? I know my patients, they were hunkering down because they were told, you got to be respectful, you got to stay in your house. You can't go outside and do any of this stuff. And that has been a huge disaster for our mental health, for our physical well being. We stopped moving our bodies and, you know, what would some advice be? To get women off that couch.

Yeah. You know, and here's some irony. So I reported on this. I think it was in the late fall that now this is not a research study per se, but it was a poll of about 10,000 people. And what it showed is that ironically, people who were less active, you know, like just kind of on the fringe of activity, but not consistent, they actually increased their activity level. And people who were like avid gym goers, they kind of fell back into the middle zone, which, you know, for immunity. I'm not sure that either one of those is a bad thing. So potentially. Right, we're not over exercising. But the question was, to my audience, 170,000 women flipping 50. What are you doing? Well, they were all walking, walking, walking. Right. And, you know, without strength training, I mean, we're talking 12 months. If you're in the peak of accelerated muscle mass and bone density loss, when you're at the end of that perimenopause stage and just beginning post menopause, I mean, that's a double whammy. That was. You were bound to be more vulnerable just in your life. Then we have the pandemic where we're walking more, but we don't have access to those gyms to get the true resistance training. And who knew? Had you told me In February of 2020, we're going to have a global dumbbell shortage, I would have said, yeah, yeah, right. And we did. I mean, right. If Amazon doesn't have them, nobody has them.

No, I tried to get them, I think in July or August, and I still couldn't.

Still problems. Yeah. So if we weren't lifting weights, you know, we're definitely needing to get on that bandwagon now. And it's never too late. But that's the biggest key, is making sure that while we are at home, we are sitting more. Even just the incidental. Commuting up and down the hallway, getting out of your car, walking more and shopping. I mean, we just. A lot of things disappeared. I think we didn't think that was all that bad. But when you think about how many steps you're getting a day, unless you were really making that contorted effort to get out and walk and make that up, your activity level is one thing, but walking does not help you build bone unless you were sitting on the couch. I mean, there's a continuum there. So from the couch to walking, did you gain something? Yes. But after you can walk a mile regularly, more of those steps. That is only weight bearing. Your body is already adapted, we call it. It's not enough minimal effective stress to really increase bone density. That's where strength training comes in. We probably can't lift as much as we might if we were going to the gym and we were using, say a leg press. But it's definitely better than nothing. Using weighted vest has become a big. For my audience. I think that was a big Christmas thing this year. Like, finally, I need a weighted vest. I've got to get a little bit more weight and then holding weights in addition to it. So ways to overcome it. So, you know, I think it's been a great wake up call overall, Tabitha. It's just, you know, people realize now I've got to pay attention because an entire year has gone by and, you know, if I haven't been active in, people are coming back in and they're going to be doing those bone density scans. They're going to find out what is the status. And I would suggest one thing everybody should have in their home at this point is a smart scale that not just tells you your weight, but tells you your body composition. So you know what's happening to your fat and to your muscle. So that if whatever you're doing over time, you're losing muscle, you can regroup and do something about it right away.

Yeah, I think that's such an important point because it gets to be too far gone before we realize it. You know, we might be happy that our clothes fit differently, but, you know, or you might not gain weight necessarily, but you're losing muscle and it's so important. And you know, you're talking about bone health and there's not really symptoms for bone loss until you break something. Right. And then it's too late. So it's super important that we get that weight bearing exercise in and get your bone density. If you know you're at that age, there's any question you're postmenopausal. We need to know what the status of your bone health is because the statistics are ridiculous. It's like you break a hip and you're 80% likely to not heal and recover and come out of rehab and be independent again from that. So it's, it's very life altering and so preventable.

It is. And I think even for. So I had a community member who I. We had just started working together at the beginning of 2020. She in fact was realized she'd found me online, realized she was like less than 20 miles away. So she came over and met me in person and. And she'd been diagnosed with osteoporosis in the fall of 2019. And I think at the time she was 58. And you know, that can make a woman panic and you know, unnecessarily. Although I think a little bit of panic is okay. It's a wake up call. Like do something now. Don't just. I don't feel it. So it's not anything. So she then was. And she's married, she's a grandmother, she's a business owner, she sits on two boards and she's a president. So I want to make sure I paint this picture. She was not sitting around with all day to exercise, but she just a couple of weeks ago reached out, in fact, if anybody has osteoporosis. I just released her podcast Friday and she came on and she was so excited by emailing me and said here's my number. And she actually reversed some of her losses and at home in a pandemic. So I want to really emphasize there's. You can do something and it's not common to reverse losses. It's common to stop, put the brakes on. But it's possible.

Yeah, exactly. And you don't have to go to the gym. There are other ways. So yeah, I want you to share with my listeners, like how they can follow you and work with you and do all of this amazing stuff with you. They don't have to go it alone and like struggle and guess and.

Yes, well, and they'll be so surprised. So I'd love to give them a five day, just five short videos. In fact, they're 15 minutes or less. So some of you will be skeptical about. And the whole idea is, especially if you're looking to start or to restart, what you're doing isn't working. You have nothing to lose after five days. If you insist, you can Go right back to doing what you're doing now, but take a break. And as I'm teaching, I'm sharing the why and the why it's working. And so we can put that in your show notes and send everybody there. And socially, I'm everywhere at. @ flipping55:0, flipping50 TV, Instagram and Facebook and YouTube, a huge YouTube channel with lots of videos.

Awesome. Yeah, everybody needs to check that out because it sounds like you have something for every woman. You know, doesn't matter what part of your life you're in, you know, where your hormones are, what your body type is like, you just have to start doing something more loving that is in more alignment with your hormones and your life situation and try to optimize things. We've been just fighting against it for so long. I feel like we're doing ourselves a huge disservice. We're always, you know, pushing our bodies to the limits and not respecting or listening to what they need. We're just doing what society tells us to do. And it's not working for most women, honestly.

You know, on that note, I'd really love to leave everybody with this thought and, you know, this came out honestly of my preparation for the TEDx talk. And I knock on wit, everybody. I could use some prayers. I'd love to do a second one because I think the real underlying message there is for women who are so used to serving others, which is kind of a part of what, you know, you were getting at. You know, we've been conditioned, but we've been conditioned to put ourselves last and to serve everybody else and to be a good girl or serving, serving, serving, and go to bed exhausted because it's not all done. There is no more powerful influencer in the world when it comes to health than a woman in the middle of her life. She's catering to three different generations who are watching her for decision making. Her young adult kids, her own, you know, and her peers. She's a huge influencer for that. And parents and in laws. And when a woman influences 80% of household decisions, but not just in one house, three of them, you know, I mean, at least. And that's, you know, a huge message, I think, to women, to what if we didn't think about it as self care, even that might be too much, like selfish for you, but you think of it because everybody's watching, watching. And what you do, they'll do.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I share that message all the time. It's like you have so much influence, you Know, the mother directs where the family gets their health care, how they eat, what activities they do. We, you know, I hate to brag, but we kind of rule the roofs, right?

And that's how it is right ahead, bragging.

So take that as your power and realize your influence, like you're saying, and make some change, not only for you, but all those people that you love in your life. I mean, I see it all the time. Women finally get hold of their diet and they start moving their body, and their husbands want to be involved because they don't want to be left behind, Right? They're like, okay, honey, what do I need to do? You know, they'll take the supplements, they'll go to the gym with you because you do have that much control. So I love that you're putting that message out there. It's so important. I mean, women underestimate their influence. They really do agree.

And, you know, of course we're recording, but how appropriate that we're recording on Women's History International History Day.

Yay. That's awesome. Oh, my gosh. So, yeah, I'll have all the links in my show notes so women can hook up, follow you flip. Flipping 50, right? What else do you want to share with my listeners, Deborah, because you're amazing.

Oh, well, thank you so much. You know, I think the only thing would be start. Yeah, I shared. I shared Diane's story, but I will share one more success story that happened during COVID So I think sometimes we feel like we're. It's, I'm too far gone or it's too late or I've started and stopped so many times. A client, Jennifer, has been working with me for several years, and it's been a journey because of. Somewhat because of the six inches between her ears. You know, really needed some change as well so that we could get to how do we really change that metabolism. And during COVID at the very end of October, so this, she. She had been had at a gym prior, but of course, like everyone else, she is 67 and she wanted to be safe. So she's been working at home since March. She crossed the 100lb weight loss threshold at the end of October, doing, you know, eight or nine months of exercising at home. So, you know, it's not too late. 67 and lost £100. Yeah.

Wow. And. And that's just a testimonial to you and your amazing work because, you know, I think once you have a guide like you, anything's possible. Right. You know, you just have to Find the right person. And I just think that you are amazing and you are helping so many women, and I love it. I love it.

Oh, thank you so much. You know, and. And it's, you know, I appreciate you saying that, but I truly don't do the heavy lifting. Pun intended.

Well, I'm giving you all the credit. So I want people to hook up with you. I want them to start following you. I want them to do your five day. Is it like a challenge or just like. Just do these five days and see if you want to keep going.

It is called a five day kickstart, but everything in my world is a flip, so it's a five day flip.

Okay, perfect.

Flip your attitude, flip your exercise. Yes.

I love that.

Yeah.

I mean, so much of it is, you know, up in our brain, like you said, between the ears. Like learning to just accept our bodies where they are. We might have limitations. We might be in pain. We might, you know, have these thoughts and ideas in our head that we're not capable of lifting weights. That kind of stuff.

You just.

We need to squash that. We need to change what we're thinking. We need to change our mindset because we can do all those things. And I. So I think what you're doing is really important. The fact that we need to do the inner work and we need to look at the reasons we have created, the behaviors we've created, the limitations, the barriers, all that. It's just stories we're telling ourselves in our head. And it's a bunch of crap. Right. I do it the same. So that can say that. Because I catch myself like, oh, I have Hashimoto's. I can't possibly do that. I'll be on the couch for a week. I can't handle that. And it's just a bunch of crap. I might have to do it differently or slower or support myself, you know, a little more. But saying you can't do something, that. I just don't buy that.

No limits. I love that. Yep. You know, and I think that is a big part of it. I grew up in the Midwest. I mean, the middle of the Midwest in Iowa. Small conservative town. And I mean talking small. And I moved to Boulder when I was 49, so part of this major life experience and a midlife crisis. But I highly recommend it. Once you get through the other side, it's okay.

Right?

But I realized that it is who you surround yourself with. Because what I found is, you know, I mean, everywhere I looked in Iowa, I could see people easily. That I Needed to help, that I could help. I moved to Boulder and I was like, there's like, three people here. I could help. And after three months, I was like, I've helped them all. I think I should go back home. But people. People retire there to become active and to be surrounded by people who are doing that. So environment. And we have it at our fingertips now, which is, you know, we can curse social media all we want to, but there are some great ways to connect with a community of people who are just like you, doing what you are or want to be doing, and that's a blessing, especially this year.

I think it's so important to surround yourself with people that you want to be like. If you want to aspire to be healthy, you need to surround yourself and be influenced by healthy people. Right? Right. I love that your community is supporting that mindset and just lifting each other up, and that's why it's so successful. So awesome. Well, thank you so much. You're an awesome guest, and everybody needs to check you out.

Well, thanks so much. Thanks for having me.

Yes. We'll have to have you back after your next TED Talk.

You go, girl. Good.

All right, so everybody, the links are in the show notes, and we will see you soon. Okay.

All right, fantastic. Thanks, everybody.

Okay. I hope you got something out of that. You know, find one golden nugget that you can incorporate into your daily life and add it to all the other stuff that you do every week from the podcast. And by the end of the year, you're going to be amazing new woman. So I'm really excited. I think that was really good information. But you need to connect with Deborah and work with her, so at least do the five day kickstart. I'm totally going to sign up and do that. I'm really excited about it. I've been looking for a new way to exercise, so join me in that challenge. Okay. The links in the show notes, it's gonna be awesome. And, you know, don't hesitate to join her community of women. 170,000 women. That's incredible. Like, way to go, Deborah. I love it. So I'm really excited to see what she's doing and join her. So thank you for staying tuned and hanging out with us. And I really, I'm honored that you would even listen to this podcast and keep tuning in. So I do this for you. I'm here to serve you. I want to know what you want to listen to. What do you need to hear about? What are you interested in? You know, I'M going by my patients and what I hear from them every day, but I want to hear from my listeners. What do you want to hear about? So definitely don't hesitate to send me a message on social media. Dr. Tabitha T A B A T H A the links are in the show notes. Reach out to me and if you feel like you need to work with a physician like me one on one. I am licensed in over 20 states in the country. It's kind of amazing but I am here to serve you. So don't hesitate to reach out and work with me. If you feel like you actually need a physician more than just, you know, a group coaching class, something like that, I'm here to work with you one on one as well. So definitely don't hesitate to reach out. The link is for Priva MD center for Functional Medicine and hopefully we can connect. All right. Thank you so much. Go out. Have a kickass week, ladies. Bye.