Eps. 5: From Ship Captain to Health Coach: Lindsay Zahner on Wellness, Strength, and Helping Women Prioritize Their Health

Well, hey friends, this is Laura, Laura Stansberry, your host of Just Figure It Out Later, the podcast for women bringing you great resources, tools from other women in the St. Louis community. This week, I'm excited to talk with Lindsay Zahner. Lindsay is the owner of Sailor Ho Health Coaching, and she brings to you an absolutely phenomenal perspective on health, wellness and how she can personally help support your goals as a wellness and fitness coach. I'm super excited to have sat down and talked with Lindsay Zahner. It was a great conversation. We talk about a lot of things. We talk a little bit about how sleep is the foundation of your health journey. I am personally excited for this journey. We talk a little bit about my experience, the highs and the lows of using a GLP-1, and lots of other good stuff in there too. So thanks for joining in this week And I can't wait for you to hear what Lindsay has to say. Here we go.

Lindsay, hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for visiting. We are at the Laura Stansbury studio today for the very first time recording here.

Welcome.

So where I would like to start today is you talking a little bit about who you are and your background, and then we'll kind of dive into kind of why I thought you would be great for our audience.

Hello. Okay. Um, well, I'm, my name's Lindsay Zahner. I'm a master certified health and wellness coach and 100-ton master ship captain. So Coach Lindsay or Captain Lindsay, just depending on where I'm at in the world. So in my, my little kind of a background story on me, my early 20s, I moved to Maui from St. Louis and I was just kind of searching for something like completely different from what was going on currently in my life. And moving there just kind of completely changed the course of my life, which sounds really dramatic, but it's, it's very true. I just like fell in love with, you know, the island lifestyle, the vibe there, you know, the ocean, the wildlife. That all just kind of, you know, felt like I had finally found my place and my people.

Yes, yes, that sounds absolutely miserable. I don't know how you ever managed it.

Yeah, I find myself in Hawaii, right? Like how, yeah, so the transition from captain to coach, you know, like when I first got there, you know, I got all excited. I'm like, I wanna go work on boats and, you know, start this crazy adventurous life at sea. And I kind of forgot about the fact that I'm a Midwestern girl with, you know, in a landlocked state, no ocean-going experience to speak of, you know? So I did manage to land a job in Lahaina Harbor on a whale watching boat. And spent the next 12 years bouncing back and forth between Hawaii and Alaska following the migration of the North Pacific humpback whale. Yeah, so it was a wild ride, you know, those 12 years. And I just felt like so grateful at all, all the time, you know, just for every like breathtaking moment that I got to experience on the water. And it just felt really empowering, you know, that I had kind of created this life on my own with not really a ton of help, you know? So it was just, it really gave me this sense of like, pride and self-efficacy, you know, that, that I'd accomplished something like that in my life. It's something that I have never taken for granted. I've never been like, oh, there's another whale. You know, it's just every time I see them, I'm just like, it's like I saw them for the first time. You know, it's just something that I'm, I'm just always grateful for. I mean, the whales basically paid my rent for about 12 years. You know, I, I owe a lot to them too.

And tell us what brought you back to St. Louis and what compelled you to support others on their health journey.

Yeah, so we'll go back a couple years. It happens to a lot of people. I've heard, you know, like the pandemic kind of just changes the course of your life a little bit. You know, a lot of people have to pivot or change careers, you know, and things like that. And, you know, tourism was the first thing to go. So in 2020, I found myself jobless in Hawaii, over 4,000 miles from here. My mental health just declined rapidly. My anxiety shot through the roof. I was having panic attacks. I was just stuck in fight or flight and, you know, just with so many unknowns going on in the world, there was just nothing to really grab onto, you know, with any kind of sense of control. So I just kind of thought to myself like, okay, what can I control in this situation? And that is my health. I need to look out for my health. So I started strength training. I started meditating. I focused on nourishing my body with real whole foods. Cutting back on drinking, you know, all these things that were kind of just in my control and that I felt like would eventually help me feel better, basically. So yeah, like that shift that I made while I was there just kind of hanging out in Hawaii, just languishing and drifting around, it really gave me a lot of time to think about the toll that, you know, boat work was taking on my health. I would work anywhere from, you know, 2 to 4 months at a time. While I'm away, I've got an inconsistent diet. I'm just kind of at the will of whatever they're making on the ship. Um, I couldn't have like a solid exercise routine. You know, some boats have workout equipment, others don't. You just gotta get creative, you know? And I was starting to get like repetitive motion injuries and just kind of all around feeling like it was time to pivot and maybe get out of that industry. But, you know, Captain Lindsay Zahner was my whole identity at at that point. It had been over 10 years that I had been working on the water, so I was just like, whoa, what, what would I even do? What else am I good at? So as I kind of continued to eat well and exercise, I began to like see these positive changes physically and mentally. It was kind of bringing me out of that darkness. And so I started sharing my journey on social media, just kind of for funsies, just talking basically to people about like what was going on with me and just being really candid about it. And was starting to see a lot of people like kind of in parallel journeys with me, you know, like, I know anxiety and depression skyrocketed during that time, and a lot of people had never experienced it before and were just kind of at a loss as to what to do. So it gave me a real, like, helper's high, kind of, just kind of knowing that, like, you maybe helped someone a little bitty bit in their life, you know, like that just, it made me feel so good inside. So a couple of months later, you know, that I had gone back up to work. I wasn't in tourism, but I was working on a boat up in— on the North Slope of Alaska, which is the tip-tippy top of Alaska. You can't get any more north. In the middle of nowhere, and I just kind of had this aha moment where I was like, you know, this isn't necessarily serving me. It doesn't necessarily align with my values. What does? And I thought, you know, I really enjoyed helping people kind of start their health journey. Just give them like a point to start at, you know, when it all seems so overwhelming. So I just kind of looked into, you know, health coaching courses and things that I could take and what that all looked like. And then just started class up there in the middle of the Arctic, spotty Wi-Fi and all, just like, okay, I'm gonna make it work. Like, this is that thing. And it, the minute I decided to do that, and like they say that when your job aligns with your values, it doesn't feel like work. I just had this sense of relief where I was like, oh yeah, like this feels like the thing.

I completely get that. I absolutely get that, that you finally find the thing that it doesn't feel like work. That, you know, we hear the quote like, work in what you love and you'll never work a day in your life, you know? And, and that is true. You know, to a sense, but you truly have to, I feel like, be coming at it from a serving heart. Like it's, yes, I, I have a job and I need to make money to pay my bills and all of those things, but the true desire to serve other people with what you're bringing to them really makes a huge difference. So I'm super personally invested in what I have heard you share. About your service of people and helping improve their health. I've shared with you a little bit that I've had my own health struggles, nothing traumatic. I'm fortunate to have overall good health. I am just 48 years old and not moving as much as I should be and have found myself in a place where things that worked in my 20s and 30s and even early 40s are not working for me anymore. And I've The pandemic was hard too, you know. We all just sort of stopped. We were all just like, all right, well, I guess we'll sit here and do nothing. And now we're just still sort of sitting here and doing nothing. Um, you know, I was not one of those people who went out and got a Peloton during the pandemic. I just watched Netflix and, you know, sat on my couch. And then last year, I really was not feeling well at all. I even went and had like a heart test to make sure, like, I couldn't walk or climb a flight of stairs without gasping for breath. And I thought, my gosh, is there something wrong with my heart or am I just chubby? Turns out my heart was fine. Girlfriend was just a little chubby. I mean, I approach a lot of things with humor, so I'm happy to be like, yeah, girl, you just like sat around on your couch and drank wine all day. So that's where we are with that. But I also was finding myself with a lack of motivation. And then last summer I thought, well, I'm going to jump on the GLP-1 bandwagon and was super excited about it. And I was happy to invest, you know, some monetary investment in that and some time into that. And it worked a little bit. I lost about 20 pounds. Some other positive outcomes I did have, some like I could tell I had some inflammation and bloat that just sort of went away. I also had some negative side effects too. Luckily, none of them have seemed to be long lasting except for I'm losing my hair. Since I started late last summer until now, I have lost half my hair. It sounds so silly because, you know, there's this balance of like, of course I want to lose some weight, be healthier. I also want to look good and I like my hair. It also brought me to this place of I'm not doing this weight loss journey or my health journey in a chemically medical way. I've gone that route. It didn't work for me. And I don't mean in like a weight loss point of view. I lost an okay amount of weight, but I then stopped because of the hair loss. I was like, this, this is not for me. And then we met. Serendipity. It all came out. I am so personally happy for myself, happy that we met. But I also think you have so much to share with a much wider audience than just me, and I didn't want to keep you to myself. Tell us what you think that people like me, where they find themselves in their own personal situation, but sort of a similar situation. Like, I know my story of, gosh, I'm in my mid-40s, things are— metabolisms are slowing down. Tell me what advice, what recommendations, and what tools, you know, really what you think people should know when they find themselves there.

We'll zoom out first. So generally speaking, if you want to, you know, improve or maintain your health, there's not too much of a difference habits-wise in terms of what you need to do. Um, you know, eating a diet of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, healthy fats, and getting about 150 minutes a week of like moderate to vigorous exercise. That's kind of just the standard.

Ooh, I really like the actual number on that. That makes it really concrete and easily planned for the week.

You're a numbers person. For some people, that's enough. They're just like, all right, cool, I'll take that and I'll run with it. But for others, you know, you're like, oh, that sounds really easy in theory. But in practice, like when you get into the nitty-gritty day-to-day of like cooking your own meals, you know, kind of getting away from convenience foods and things that are microwavable and stuff like that, like you start to realize like, oh man, you know, this, this lifestyle change is just that. It's a whole lifestyle change. You have to reprioritize. Things need to shuffle around. It's a big learning process. So it sounds simple on paper. Therein lies the pinch point where people get overwhelmed is they go, okay, yeah, I'm going to eat really healthy. And then they go, I don't have time to make all this food from scratch. And then it kind of snowballs into this huge thing that becomes so monumental in our minds that we just go, you know what, screw it. I'm just going to microwave some chicken nuggets. So, um, you know, as far as What you mentioned about like women, you know, coming into perimenopause, um, you know, you hit your mid to late 30s, early 40s, you know, that's kind of when that starts to kick in and it can go anywhere from like 4 years to 10 years, you know, until you hit, you know, actual menopause and, you know, your hormones can fluctuate wildly. Just a lot of stuff can, can kind of throw a wrench in what you previously did to keep yourself in shape. You're not the first person I've heard that from either, where they go, oh, I've been doing this, you know, forever, and it's— and I've been able to maintain a weight, you know, and then all of a sudden, like, you hit like 46, 47, and then it's just not enough anymore. You're just like, oh my God, what do I do? For women, it can be a problem for men as well, but for, for women, that time is when hormones change. It causes metabolism to change. It causes just kind of like, um, 2 or 3 things that are enough that if they compound can lead to that weight creep, right? So what that looks like on, you know, from a research standpoint is like, oh, well, there's so many variables when it comes to women and their hormones and how that can affect, you know, basically anything, you know, health-wise. So, you know, the first big one that kind of happens, you know, in our early 40s is the hormonal changes, like you're mentioning, you know, declining estrogen levels. That can lead to increased fat storage, especially around your midsection. And then your metabolism can slow at the same time, which kind of makes it harder to burn calories. Compounds. Compound number one, right? Compound number two is if we don't keep it up, we will lose 3 to 8% of our muscle every decade after 30. So this compounds that whole metabolism issue, cuz as we lose muscle, our metabolism slows down. Because muscle burns calories even when we're not moving. It's what we call like a metabolically active tissue, so it requires calories to exist. So if you keep eating the same amount of calories when you're, say, 37, but you don't strength train to maintain or build muscle, and you keep eating that same amount of calories as you get into your early and mid-40s, your body, your body will just gradually store more of those calories as fat, which leads to that slow weight creep. So that's how, like, when you notice, when you say, oh, the things I was doing in my 20s and 30s aren't working anymore— hear it from— there's like a, a wide age range too, which I think is a lot of times why some women don't really correlate it with perimenopause or menopause or anything like that. Because I've heard, I've heard that anywhere from women in their, you know, early 30s to women in their mid-50s. So You just never think like, oh, it might be the same thing, you know, for everyone.

So what would be a good starting point or an action plan for someone like me? Where do you even begin? I think that's kind of the hardest part for a lot of people, including myself.

I kind of wanted to cover just like a handful of common misconceptions when it comes to that. So yes, this does kind of answer your question in, in a roundabout way. This is kind of like a precursor to a plan. So find out what doesn't work is just as important as finding out what does work, right? So I think a lot of things you, you know, hear out there on the internet or from other people, a lot of that stuff's outdated. A lot of it's completely wrong. A lot of it's made up for, you know, because people want attention online. You know, the shock factor or whatever. But yeah, there's a handful of common misconceptions when it comes to to women and staying in shape in general. I mean, but definitely after, you know, your mid-30s, like 40 years old. And one, tell me if you've heard this before, your metabolism just tanks after 40 and there's nothing you can do about it.

Yes.

Okay. So yes, it does naturally slow with age, but you're not doomed. You know, this, there's an underlying theme of, of strength training, muscle gain. And that muscle's like your investment in your longevity, if you think about it that way, from like, because you're a data person, you're a numbers person, right? Like that's what you want to keep putting into your bank from year to year to make sure that you have not only a long lifespan, but a healthspan too. You know, your healthspan is how long you can continue to do the things you love, right? Like nobody wants to live a long time if they are, you know, stuck at home and immobile, can't do anything, you know? So that healthspan is like really what you wanna focus on. So a way to kind of keep your metabolism going is to build muscle, build muscle, prioritize protein, you know, just kind of keeping an overall activity level high can have such a huge impact on your metabolism. So anything that is building muscle, so whether you wanna call it strength training, weight training, resistance training, weightlifting, Those are all kind of interchangeable terms, but basically just lifting heavy stuff, lifting it up and putting it back down. I'm all about, I'm all about simplicity. Keep it simple, you know, in, in this age of just too much information coming at us like a fire hose. I love to just simplify stuff. Yeah. Lift heavy shit. Yep. So, so that's kind of like myth number one, you know, and then myth number two, we kind of covered where, you know, This weight gain that you, you know, see during perimenopause and menopause, like that's just inevitable, right? There's nothing you can do about it. Might as well just embrace it, whatever. Again, strength training. That's the answer. You know, if you can get into the gym and lift heavy stuff 3 to 4 times a week, 30 minutes a day. I mean, it doesn't have to be crazy. If you can get into a gym or, you know, home gym, anything like that, 2 hours a week. And get your steps in every day. That's huge. Huge.

You mentioned steps. How many steps per day is a good target for someone?

Yeah, I think traditionally, like, cardio was kind of the way for women to lose weight and weightlifting was kind of the way for men to stay in shape. It can actually have a negative effect on muscle building if you do too much cardio. An emphasis on strength training first and then getting, you know, your steps in. So Like, for me, I don't even have, like, a formal cardio routine. I take a 2- to 3-mile walk, brisk walk, every day throughout my neighborhood. And then I get any cardio, any, like, you know, increased heart rate kind of stuff, I get that from lifting weights. You know, as the heavier you lift, the harder you have to work. Your heart rate goes up. That's cardio.

Right.

You know? I cannot, will not, never. I hate running. I will admit it. I'm a health coach and I hate running. So yeah, so I just, I want to like shout it from a mountaintop, girls, just get in the weight room. You will see changes. You will see weight loss quicker than if you just kill yourself on a treadmill for 45 minutes. You lift weights for 20, 30 minutes. It's going to be a lot more fun. You're going to feel a lot, a lot more stronger and like probably boost your confidence too. You know, as opposed to just like dragging yourself into the gym and hopping on an elliptical machine.

Approaching the weight bench for the first time can seem a little bit intimidating. What is your recommendation to start in a weight training program? It, you know, do you just step up to the, the weight bench in the gym? Should you be worried about injuring yourself? Kind of what, you know, what is this path to, to get started?

Well, I want to start by saying you're not going to get bulky if you lift weights. I think that could be some of the reason why a lot of women just don't start with that because they're like, oh, I don't want to get super jacked. And it won't happen unless you're on a crazy eating regimen and you're in the gym 6 to 7 days a week. It's not going to happen. We just don't have the testosterone to support that. So to answer your question, getting into resistance training or weightlifting, start with— if you're brand new, start with resistance bands. You know, you really can't go wrong with anything like that. You know, lighter dumbbells. What you wanna focus on first when it comes to any kind of lifting movements is just the form. You know, getting your form down so that you don't hurt yourself. So, you know, I'm always happy to help with things like that, but if you find, you know, a credible source on, you know, YouTube, somebody that, you know, has a lot of followers, somebody that looks like they know what they're doing. You can kind of tell the difference between professional and non-professional YouTube videos. Just getting your form down and then, you know, just kind of slowly increasing it as you, as you get that confidence.

If you were able to choose one area where you think most people, women or men, setting themselves back in their health journey, what would it be?

You know, there's one, one thing that I never really see enough about on, on social media. One thing that just is kind of not emphasized, and that's the role of not only nutrition and movement in like your just total well-being, but stress management and sleep. You know, sleep is the foundation of all of this. If your sleep is affected, none of this is going to fall into place nicely. You're just gonna wind up burning yourself out and your body's just gonna be even more stressed, really. Right. So if you kind of think of them like, like 4 legs on a table. Mm-hmm. Right? If you take one of those legs away, the other ones are kind of gonna wobble.

Right.

You know, so those things definitely need to be in balance. And I just don't see enough of an emphasis on good quality sleep. You know, like around our age, even up until like your 60s and 70s, you should be getting somewhere between 7 and 9 hours a night. And a lot of us aren't. So if you can't sleep, you tend to be more stressed, you tend to not make healthy food choices, and then you tend to be too tired to exercise. So fix your sleep and then everything else will be a lot easier.

I know I'm not sleeping as well as I could be, for sure. We can definitely talk about that. What are some ways that people, myself included, could implement a better sleep routine, get into better sleep habits? Um, are there steps that can be followed? What does that what does that look like?

So I like to do something. It's, so I heard it first from a man named Dan Go. He's Dan Founder on Instagram if you wanna look him up. Uh, he calls it the 3-2-1 method. So stop eating 3 hours before bed, stop drinking water 2 hours before bed, no screens 1 hour before bed. And that kind of gives your body a chance to wind down. Even if after, you know, that last hour between that hour and when you go to bed, create some kind of wind-down routine that signals to your brain that it, like, your day is over. So whatever that looks like to you, that could be like a gentle yoga or a meditation, you know, just, just something that triggers your brain to go, okay, we can shut down for the day. Right. You know, I think that helps. And, and getting that to be a habit can take a while. I'd say anywhere from like 2 to 4 weeks of consistently doing that. But once your brain kind of gets into that rhythm, it'll almost tell you. Okay. Oh, it's time to stop eating. Time to stop drinking. Time to put the phone down. You know, I'm ready. I'm ready to relax.

Lindsay, you have a really interesting philosophy about using your own personality to craft a wellness plan, that each individual should really look at their own personality and what motivates and drives them and use those same things to focus on their fitness goals. Tell me about that. That really has sparked my interest.

Yeah. I mean, it's, it's just a matter of leaning into what works for you. You know, your, your personality plays such a huge role in how you approach health and wellness. You know, some people like me, I'm very structured, you know, I like detailed plans. I like to map stuff out. So I just time block things throughout my week. You know, my gym time is, you know, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday from 12 to 1, you know, bam, that's it. Walk every day, wake up at the same time, you know. I like structured kind of stuff. If you're someone who is bored by that, you know, you need like flexibility and variety when it comes to like what you eat and how you move, that's great. Roll with that, you know. Find, find stuff that you like doing. Find something new you want to try, you know. Take up, you know, pickleball or racquetball or Zumba even, you know. Just move, move in some way, you know, and, and just start Just start, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect, right? It can be messy, it can be imperfect, but just starting, you know? So, um, the key is to just kind of like learn, learn what naturally works for you instead of forcing yourself into just like this one-size-fits-all, like, cooker cut, cookie cutter approach that you see all over, you know, the internet where it's like, try this new diet trend and you try it, you hate it, you fail, you get down on yourself, and then you just repeat that with the next thing thinking that it's gonna be different next time, you know. So just kind of leaning into who you are as a person can really contribute to massive success when it comes to your health.

That makes a lot of sense to me. I sit here and think about how I've talked over and over again how I'm sort of data-driven and I like the numbers and the goals. And so it just makes a ton of sense that I would also like a structured plan. Today I'm going to walk for 40 minutes. Tomorrow I'm going to yoga for an hour at 2 o'clock. Just planning it out during the week.

Yeah. I mean, the minute you prioritize it, there's a shift that happens. And the minute you schedule something like that and you consider it something as non-negotiable as a work meeting or a client, you know, meeting, the minute you kind of think about it in that way, it just becomes a part of your week that you do, you know? And I think a lot of times we just don't realize how, like, it's just kind of backwards, you know? We think, oh, I don't have time to go to the gym because I have all these other obligations. And it's like, well, I could support myself in being able to handle all of these obligations better if I just moved my body a little bit and got some of that energy out. And, you know, there's so many physical benefits, but there's a ton of mental benefits too.

With the idea in mind of keeping things things super simple. If you were going to give someone bullet points of how they could get started tomorrow, what would Lindsay's bullet points be? Hmm.

If I was starting out today and I knew nothing about anything, what would I do? I think the first thing I would do is work on sleep. So like I said earlier, you know, sleep's the foundation of everything. It can, you know, I mean, you know how much it impacts your mental health if you haven't slept. Yeah. Right? It's demotivating when you haven't slept well. So I would make sure my sleep hygiene was in order first and, and kind of playing with that stress management too, you know, trying to schedule out my life and, uh, you know, just kind of make everything, prioritize things that need to be prioritized and just kind of schedule stuff out in order to kind of mitigate stress. That's how I mitigate stress is just knowing when and where things are happening. And then I would just start. Prioritizing whole foods. So fruits, veggies, lean meats, healthy fats, whole grains. If it's not one of those things, you don't need it. And then I would get myself on some kind of strength training routine that I enjoyed. So there's tons of stuff out there. You know, just do what, do what works for you. I have, you know, workout plans and things like that that I offer my clients and I kind of walk 'em through it, get You know, get them confident, make sure that they're comfortable with everything. But just as a, a general rule, you know, your strength training routine should work every major muscle group at least twice. Simple things that you can, that you can take away from this, right? Food first. When it comes to like any kind of like supplementation or anything like that, you know, try, try your best to like eat that vitamin or mineral first. You know, don't rely heavily on supplements and things like that. Finding a strength training routine, training routine that works, you know, all those major muscle groups. Prioritizing protein is a big one too. Aiming for about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight every day is kind of just a good general rule. That's gonna help keep muscle, build metabolism, keep your mentals healthy as well. You know, your brain needs all of that too. So strength training. Prioritize protein, manage your stress, get good sleep. It sounds so easy. I see the most is a lot of people, they'll take that, they'll say, okay, yeah, easy enough, I'll go do that. And they'll have success with it for a little bit. And then all of a sudden, once that initial motivation wanes, that's when you see people kind of slowly slip back into their old habits. So I think herein lies the value in a coach. Because they will, I will provide you with the accountability that you need to keep you going when you don't feel like it. So that's usually the missing piece in a lot of this is that a lot of people think, oh, I can do this on my own. Like, no problem. It seems easy enough. I'll just go to the grocery store, buy a bunch of fruits and vegetables, go to the gym a few times, easy peasy. And then, yeah, and then all of a sudden they're just like, oh God, I don't feel like doing this today. And there's no one there necessarily. Like a lot of folks say, you know, the biggest thing that they're missing is a support system, right? So I'm your built-in support system, your built-in accountability buddy that's checking in on you, you know, sometimes multiple times a week and saying, hey, how are things going with your plan? Do we need to tweak anything? Is it going well? Great, keep it up. Is it not going well? All right, what can we change to give you, you know, to make it successful? This week? And just having those check-ins can really make a huge difference in people's success. I'll do like a poll every once in a while on, on Instagram and say like, hey, what do you want me to talk about in a reel? 9 times outta 10, it's consistency and motivation. And I think a lot of times, you know, due to the fact that on social media you're seeing everybody's highlights, right? You're seeing everyone doing great and, and well, and you think everyone's just nailing this 100% of the time. We're not. We're not perfect, right? Nobody is. So instead of giving, you know, 100% effort 50% of the time, shoot for 80% effort 100% of the time. You know, that's, that is still huge progress and that is way more sustainable than trying to be perfect because you will, you will burn out. It's inevitable if you try and do all those things at once. So I always just tell people aim for 80% effort 100% of the time. And 80/20 rule also kind of applies to food as well. So 80% healthy stuff, 20% things that you actually enjoy. That's another way to kind of keep your diet sustainable too. I mean, and a lot of times too, like you have to check and just kind of undoing a lot of that, you know, you say the same thing with like toxic diet culture and things like that. Like. Like how fat was terrible for you for a long time and carbs are the enemy and, you know, the number on the scale is what matters more than anything. And just all these mindsets that like we've just been— they've been hammered into us for decades, right? And that you have to undo because they're just— they're just not true. It's a mental game for sure. It's not just a matter of like, hey, I'm going to set you up with a, you know, a nutrition plan and a workout routine and send you on your way. It's like, oh no, we're going to get uncomfortable. But ultimately, it's going to lead to long-term success. So uncomfortable on the front end, but lasting success on the back end, which is what everybody is looking for, right?

Lindsay, where can people find you?

You can find me on all the social medias. I'm on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook at Zahner Health Coaching. I actually a few months ago just finalized my own app. So you can find me in the app stores, Google Play and Apple App Stores. Um, just search Sailor Health Coaching and it'll pop up. Um, I do have a free preview of both of my educational nutrition programs on there. So just, uh, sign up, create an account, and you'll see free plan on there. So that has a couple hours of just kind of Nutrition 101 and just kind of getting into the basics of everything, how things work, how carbs work, you know, protein, what is inflammation, what do you need to do to manage stress, just kind of some of the basics. And then I also have my Fat Loss Blueprint on there, which is— includes step-by-step instructions on getting started with your health journey. I will say, this is— it looks overwhelming when you open it. Take it one step at a time. And if you have any questions at all, you know, just reach out via, you know, Instagram. You can email me, sailorhealthcoaching@gmail.com. I would love to help you on your journey. I just I want to encourage everyone just, you know, to take small steps toward health and wellness. Like, do what you can. We put so much pressure on ourselves to be everything all at once and place a lot of our self-worth on our accomplishments. But just by making the decision to prioritize your health and wellness, you've already achieved something worth celebrating. And I think that, that, that we should take a minute for that. You know, not everyone is there in their lives. And so the fact that, you know, that is something you want to prioritize now is great, you know, and just keep moving forward. You know, 1% every day is progress, you know, and most importantly, just be kind to yourself throughout this whole process. You know, your body's listening to everything your mind says. So the more positive you are, you know, inside your own mind, that translates out to your body as well, you know. So just give yourself some kindness and some grace around this. It's a lot, especially if it's something completely new to you. And we just need to be kinder to ourselves in general.

Thank you so much to Lindsay for joining us on episode 5 of Just Figure It Out Later. This was a fantastic conversation and I enjoyed speaking with Lindsay so much. I just can't tell you how she is the most kind, warm person you could ever meet. I will check back in later. I personally am going to be working with Lindsay Zahner. My first assignment is to work a little bit on my sleep habits. They're not good. They are all over the place. So I am excited to start this journey in sort of a nice and restful, cozy way. Um, I really appreciate Lindsay. It was such a pleasure to chat with her, and I can't wait to kind of move forward So next week on Just Figure It Out Later, you will get to hear from me, just me. Next week I have some fun updates, just sort of a recap on my thoughts on the podcast so far. Spoiler alert, I'm loving it. We're getting some of our technical issues worked out. This week I was only up until 1 o'clock in the morning editing. Sleep habits, nobody tell Lindsay Zahner. But it's better than last week, which was up until 6 o'clock in the— or the previous week, which was up until 6 o'clock in the morning. So baby steps, people, baby steps. We're all just figuring it out later. See what I did there?

Anyway, it's 1 o'clock in the morning. Bear with me.

Have a beautiful week. I appreciate you all so much, and thanks for coming along with me.