To Compete or Not to Compete

Welcome to the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. The website, this show, and our newsletter all focus on making the science of advanced nutrition and greater overall health accessible to everyone. Buckle up for our latest episode to get ideas, tools, and practical knowledge you can use to improve your health and move towards your perfect version of ultimate wellness. The Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast shares interviews with nutrition experts, health researchers, and everyday people that have changed their lifestyle and nutrition to support greater health. You'll learn how to implement lasting change and create new habits that support greater wellness and a happier, healthier life. Please visit healnourishgrowpodcast.com for full show notes and links to our guests.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. I am Cheryl McColgan, your host and founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, and my apologies for showing up on here looking a bit disheveled, but I just finished my basement workout. And so while this is on my mind, I thought I would get this recorded for you. So it's something I've been wanting to share for a little while, and I actually started to record it yesterday, but it was such a weird day. I had gotten some crazy news and it was just, I was not in a good headspace. So I thought I'd revisit it today and try to put together my thoughts for you a little bit more coherently. But anyway, just in case you haven't listened to previous episodes, I will give you some background here. So, you know, the whole channel and the whole podcast is focused on health and wellness, and that's probably how you found it if you're listening to this. But pretty much my whole life I've been involved in health and wellness in some way. And over the years I have dabbled in lifting kind of on and off, but I've never gotten to stick until the last couple years here. I finally— I'm over 50 now, and I'm like, well, this whole push in social media and in education for older people about maintaining their muscle mass and how it really relates to longevity and just overall, you know, however long you are going to live, living your life well because you can function on your own when you have muscle. And it's really an epidemic right now of sarcopenia, which is the lack of muscle mass as you get older, as well as obesity and many other things. But a lot of things that are just really preventing people from living well into their older years. And so having seen, you know, various people over my life and having been blessed with still being healthy at this point after watching my dad battle cancer and things like that, I'm like, I owe it to myself to really take this on and finally commit to maintaining my muscle. So that is what I've been working on the last several years, and it started with really just getting optimal protein and making that a big focus. And so if you've followed my content for a while, I've been talking about that. Just in case you have not heard this before, I want to make sure I put this out there. Every meal that you eat is an opportunity to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, which is the process by which your body maintains and builds muscle mass. And in order to stimulate that, you need about 30 grams at least of protein at each meal, because that will include about 3 grams of leucine, which is thought to be the amino acid that really stimulates muscle building. And then as you get older, your body does not process protein as well, so you actually need a little bit more protein to stimulate that process. So really, as anyone over 35 to 40 years old, you should really be shooting for 35 to 40 grams of protein in each and every meal. Each time you eat protein, it's really an opportunity to stimulate that, so don't miss out. So that being said about protein, I really started getting onto that for myself about 5 years ago and really worked to, you know, get the optimal protein because I had been following some people and listening to people that even if you're not lifting weights, that getting optimal protein really can help this process of maintaining your muscle and possibly even building some depending on how long your body has maybe been without protein. So for example, I had a period in my life of about 8 years where I was a vegetarian, which was probably a huge mistake, but during that time I'm sure I was not getting enough protein. And so if you've had a period of your life where you haven't been getting enough, then you might take some more time in building up this process of finally getting more optimal protein, and your body will be like, oh, I finally have the building blocks, and maybe replace some of that muscle. So there's a thought there, but really the best way to stimulate muscle is to lift heavy things. And like I said, it's something I have dabbled with over the years on and off. I actually, when I was playing 8th grade basketball, we had a weight stack thing in my garage at home that my dad had always used, and when I was doing basketball, I lifted, and when I played college golf, I was lifting. And at various points over the years, I remember even the pandemic, I was still— when the gyms were open, I was going to Planet Fitness then. And what happened, like always happened, was at some point I'd get injured, and then instead of keep on lifting and doing what I could do, I would just quit it. And I've always been, you know, hiking, walking, running. I was a runner for 17 years, so I've always been very active, but I've just never enjoyed being at the gym. I always would rather be outside or hiking or doing something like that, or playing golf. And so that's kind of what I always relied on Um, but now that I— again, like I said, it's such a priority now, and it's something that you have to be focused on if you don't want to lose your muscle. And so about— it's been about a year and 9 months ago now that— this is April of 2025— that I started going to the gym and really committed. And I really have not missed anything since then. I've been very consistent. That is one of my gifts. And as you know, if you've listened to my previous content, one of the things that I really focus on is creating new habits. And once I personally get a habit kind of ingrained in me, it's, it's really been very easy for me to maintain it. And that is one reason I always put out all these tips and information about creating habits, because really you will— and there's a whole other podcast episode, I'll link it in the comments if I can remember that, but about discipline over motivation, or just habits over motivation. You won't always be motivated to work out or to do these things, so it's really a matter of just making it become something that you do that's integrated into your life, that's a habit that you just do like brushing your teeth. You don't skip it. So it's not that I'm always motivated, and that's actually why today was a great day to get on here and talk about this, because I am so tired, friends. I'm really just— I did not sleep well last night. I had so many wake-ups. Like, if I look at my Oura thing, it's like so many white spots where I was awake throughout the night, and I really just did not have the energy to do my workout today, but I did it anyway. So, so that's the thing about being a habit, is it just becomes something that you do. And so it was a struggle to get through it. It's not as fun when you have days like that and you go to do your workout, but it's done now and it's finished, and then I hopped right on here. So that's why I'm looking a little disheveled, as I mentioned. But the thing I wanted to talk about is I've been kind of keeping this from— I haven't been talking about it anywhere outside of my own house, and it's something that has to do with being a competitive person. So I mentioned that I played college golf and I played sports in high school, and, and I was a runner for 17 years. So the point to all of that is to say that I've always had something that I was very competitive in and that I did as kind of a thing that kept me accountable. You know, even when I was a runner, I was never very fast or anything like that, but I would register for races and I would train for them, and it would give me something to focus on. So sometimes it was a 5K, maybe I'd be working on getting faster, doing some interval training, that sort of thing. Or if I was running a half marathon or a marathon, I would be training to work on building up my distance and increasing my mileage over the week. So there was always something to focus on. Same, you know, with golf, always trying to get better, practicing, preparing for a tournament, that sort of thing. And since I had to quit running because of my knees, I haven't had that now for many, many years. And since I got back into this, into weightlifting, it started making me think about, you know, having something like that with lifting. And the thing that is the only thing. There's two things actually with lifting. You can do powerlifting, which I don't think I would be very good at that, number one, just because with my previous shoulder surgeries, you know, one of the powerlifting exercises is the bench press, and that would be very stressful on my shoulders. So I don't think that's the best idea. And then it's, um, bench press, deadlift, and, um, oh my goodness, squat.

Yes.

So, and then you go to these tournaments and they add up your score and you weigh in for your class, and then that's— so that's a competitive thing. Or the second thing in bodybuilding is actually getting onto a stage, which is absolutely terrifying to think about, especially possibly doing it for the first time at the age of 52 years old. But that's the other competitive thing that you can do with weightlifting. And so it's kind of been in the back of my mind for a little while. It started— I started thinking about it. So I've been going through this process. I was injured a couple years ago and had to wait until my body recovered from that before I could start lifting. Um, you know, even though I said doing what I could do, I just waited until I could do lower body because it was my knee. And so it was something where I could have only done upper body, and I just couldn't make myself go to the gym just for that at that point since I hadn't been into it. Now since then, I've actually been injured since I started again. I've been able to maintain going to the gym, just working around the injuries. And but so what had happened with that is I did a DEXA scan at the beginning of that because I really wanted to see where I was as far as muscle mass what I could build once I did start lifting. And then quickly after getting that scan is when I got injured, so I had to wait again to start. And about 6 months later, I got a second scan, and I learned that I had lost like 2 pounds of muscle mass. And one of the interesting things about the DEXA is it actually shows you in what parts of your body you'd lost mass. And because I had injured my knee, my— it was my lower body though had lost some muscle mass.

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So of course that was quite disheartening at the time, but also the good news was I was going to get back into the gym and I was going to gain that back. And so I started from that new point where I had lost that muscle mass, and then about 8, 9 months later, a year later, I got another one and I had been able to put on about 7 pounds of lean mass during that time. So that was really exciting, especially at this age, to know that it's still possible. And if you focus on, you know, proper nutrition and lifting heavy, that you can still build. And especially that first year, there's such a thing as newbie gains. I've talked about that on the podcast before. I wish I'd really known that and been much more intentional during that time frame, because then the longer you lift, the less able that you are to put on more mass. So that first year that you start lifting is a really crucial time to sort of have a plan, take it seriously, um, optimize the amount of muscle that you can build during that time. So it's really kind of a cool thing. Um, but so I still did pretty well, I would say, even though it wasn't as totally intentional. Um, but then, you know, during that time I was really just focused on healing, on eating really well, letting myself— you know, since I was— knew I was building muscle and focused on that, I knew I was going to gain weight, which I did. And I just allowed myself to not think about that for once, just really focus on building and lifting and getting in that routine. And I knew at some point I would want to get back to more of a body fat level that I feel comfortable with and that made me feel good in my body. And in the fall, I kind of decided I was at that point. So I'd been building, building, for a while, and I was ready to kind of loosen that. And so then I started to decide that I wanted to go to a new gym. I wanted to go to a gym that was like more of a small community, that was more focused on bodybuilding, that kind of thing, and just had some different equipment that wasn't in your traditional, um, commercial gym. Because I think I mentioned like I went to Planet Fitness, and they have the basics, but they don't have some of the more interesting machines that you can get into, like with squats and different kinds of leg presses and things like that. That. So I found a gym locally that was a small gym that looked like it would have a great community, really cool owner, and started going in there in September. And the point of that is to tell you that then this has been in my mind since September because I actually mentioned it to him because he asked me like why I was switching gyms, kind of what were about my goals and things like that. And I said that I had it, you know, kind of in the back of my mind that maybe I might compete at some point, but I wasn't sure. But that had been, you know, something that had crossed my mind for these reasons I said, like just having something to work towards and having new goals in it, in a thing that I've started to get involved in. And so that was September, and just around then I decided, you know, I started to— we got back from vacation, I started to think about, you know, once you're ready to lose fat, obviously you have to be in a deficit. And while I wasn't quite ready to make that full mental switch, I did just start kind of evaluating some of my choices. And I've always eaten really healthy, but I was, you know, obviously eating an amount that allowed me to train a lot and that I would then slowly putting on weight to build the muscle. And so you have to cut back at that point. And that is a topic that I want to go into a little more deep dive on a different day because it's been several years now since I've been in a big fat loss phase. Actually, back when I wrote my book was probably the last time I did that, which was back, you know, I think it's been 2020 now. This is it if you're not aware that this exists, the 21-Day Fat Loss Kickstart. But so been quite a while since I'd done that. And just being in this process has reminded me of a lot of things about fat loss and about weight loss that I want to share with you at some point. But I want to kind of save that for a separate episode and get through this thought process. So because I've always been so involved in nutrition myself and been a coach— I've never coached people with any kind of training or anything like that, but, you know, wellness, health and wellness and weight loss— certainly have done a lot of coaching in the past with that. And so I never had a coach myself. I didn't feel like I needed it, certainly for the nutrition and fat loss space. I have a good handle on that, but where I could really use help is like training for specific things. Um, you know, if you are stepping on stage, depending on what division you're in, there's certain body parts that need more focus and stuff. So I knew that I probably needed some help with that. And then in addition, the great thing about having a coach is it gives you somebody to be accountable to, and it helps you, you know, set your goals and have, um, you know, a date in mind, a goal in mind, a show if that's what you're doing, something like that. Or like I said, a running event, you have a date so you know what you're working towards. Um, so I decided to get a coach. And when I did that, I did that in February, and since then I've been in this serious fat loss mode and actually did two more Dexas. We were back in Utah so I could use the same machine.

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That I had been on since I started. And I was really interested in doing that just to kind of see where I was, because I— the last time I was there was when we sold the house last summer. And so it had been about 8 months since then, so I kind of just wanted to check in and see how I'd done since then. And then in addition, have a beginning point to this fat loss phase. And so while I was in Utah, I did that. And then at the end, when we were leaving 8 weeks later, I got another one. And so the fat loss— and again, I'll do this more in a separate episode— but basically what I was able to learn from the DEXA is that I had lost 10 pounds of fat and not lost any muscle. And if you go back to my other previous episode about the DEXA, there is a margin of error in the DEXA measurements, but I try to be as consistent as possible when I do it— same time in the morning, same level of hydration, all that kind of stuff. So I feel pretty confident that that's fairly accurate. Um, usually, you know, if you're losing a lot of fat, you're going to lose some muscle just by the way that the DEXA or any kind of machine like my fat loss scale that I love, the Hume that I talked about before, a cherylnourishgrow.com/hume. You get a discount on top of the sale using my code. And that has tracked really well using that scale with what I learned from the DEXA, and that continues to be the case since I've been in this fat loss mode. Um, obviously scale weight is going down, but in addition, the fat loss and stuff is going down on the scale as well. Um, so that's a great tool, and I've loved having that because again, like, I do these DEXAs, but having something that really shows you on a day-to-day basis, a week-to-week basis, a trend of what you're really working on And again, the Hume scale has also showed that while I've been losing weight, I've been maintaining muscle mass. And that is exactly what the DEXA said. So I feel really confident in that tool that it's fairly accurate when you use it the same way. Like again, first thing in the morning after you go to the bathroom, same level of hydration before you drink of anything and do that every day. And you're going to get a trend that is accurate over time. You know, day to day there's some little fluctuations. I've talked about that before, but overall it's been a really great tool. Um, but anyway, where was I with all this? So, um, all that is to say, got a coach. It's helped keep me accountable. I have been training and working on fat loss as if I am going to do a competition. I still have not 100% decided though. Um, again, it's terrifying, the thought of being on a stage in a bikini at this age. Um, but it has helped me having that in my mind, focus on this goal again, like train, eat, fat loss, as if I'm going to do it. And so I still haven't decided. I finally just thought I would share this because I think no matter if I do it or not, it doesn't matter. And no matter what other people think about it, I really don't care because, um, you know, everybody's going to have an opinion. Everybody's going to have an opinion about a 52-year-old woman doing something like this, right? And whether you think it's a positive or whether you think it's a negative, it doesn't matter to me because in my head I'm going to do whatever it is I think is going to help work towards my goals and share information that's helpful for others and inspire people in some way. It's never too late to get started with lifting. It's never too late to possibly do something crazy like a bodybuilding competition. So we'll see. I haven't decided, but it's in the back of my mind to try. I'm targeting end of May, mid-June kind of timeframe. There's a couple of competitions that are close enough that I don't have to travel a long way to do it. Um, but there's definitely a lot involved with it. Uh, that I haven't decided if I'm, if I'm up for it, I guess, or if I want to keep pushing through this. Because the one thing I will say, and the one thing that I do want to address, you know, like I said, in a further episode about fat loss, is, um, regardless of how quickly you move forward with the fat loss days, there's diet fatigue, and it's kicking in real hard right now. And without a goal in mind, it would be real easy to take a break, and I can definitely do that because I started out at a healthy body weight to start with.. And you know, the lower your body gets in body weight, the less energy you have. You're eating less, of course, so that gives you less energy. So it's definitely affecting me on a day-to-day basis more now than it did in the beginning. And so that's definitely another consideration as well, because this is not something I have to do. This is a choice, and this is all in the name of experimentation and a new experience and all that kind of good stuff. So, um, I don't want to make it crazy thing if I decide at some point that I don't want to do it. I'm not going to feel guilty about it. But by the same token, I also feel like I kind of want to push through because I want to, you know, I had this goal. I'm all about goals. I'm all about doing these crazy challenges over the years and stuff. And so to me, this is just another challenge that I'm doing. And regardless, I have learned a lot in the process. I've learned a lot about myself. It's reminded me of a lot of things about dieting and about weight loss that people really struggle with, and some things and some lessons and things that I've learned that I can share that hopefully will help you if that's something that you want to work on in the future. Um, but yeah, I think that's my update. I think that's all I wanted to say about it for now. So I'm just over here, really at this point it is a day-by-day process and a day-by-day decision. Yesterday and today have been very challenging and you know, every day. It's just still like, stick with the diet, stick with the plan, stick with the workouts, and make it to bedtime, go to bed, and wake up in the morning and then see if I can do it again. So that's where I am at the moment. Um, definitely some days have been way easier than others.

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I think sharing that is important to know because if you are on a weight loss journey or fat loss journey or you would like to get healthier, just know that it's, it's definitely not easy. It takes time, it takes commitment, it takes day-to-day decision making that just keep you in line with your goals. Because you could really decide at any point, like, I'm starving, I'm just gonna get something or eat more or whatever it is, but you just have to keep reminding yourself of why you're doing it, your goals, your reasons, getting healthier, avoiding the things that have affected people in your family or your friends, and just taking one day at a time. So that is the main lesson here today. And the title of the episode, I kind of already decided it's going to be To Compete or Not to Compete. I don't know if I, you know, want opinions or need opinions. I don't know if it'll really affect my final decision in the end, but Definitely if you have any commentary or advice or thoughts on this, feel free to drop in the comments below or shoot me an email. And yeah, I'll, I'm open to hearing it. I'm not saying I'll necessarily follow your advice, whatever that might be. Um, but yeah, it's been an interesting process and it's something that I'm glad that I took on mentally, even if I don't follow it through to the end. And if I do follow it through to the end, obviously I will bring you along for that journey and share um, it's kind of the final results and whatever comes out of all of that. So anyway, wherever you're listening to this, whatever time of day it is, I hope you have a great rest of your day, and, um, I will see you again next time.

This has been the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. Again, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. You can find show notes for this episode at healnourishgrowpodcast.com. If you have feedback on today's episode or questions about the content, please email us at podcast@healnourishgrow.com. We'd love to hear from you. Be sure to sign up for our email list at healnourishgrow.com and subscribe to the show with your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. Join us next time for more information that helps you live your best and healthiest life. Thanks for listening. Content on the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast does not constitute medical advice. Content contained in the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is not intended as medical diagnosis diagnosis or treatment. Neither the company nor its owner, Heal Nourish Grow LLC, nor any of the company's employees, agents, or guest speakers provide medical advice. The content provided on Heal Nourish Grow podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult your medical provider with any questions about what health practices are right for you.