Building Blocks for Better Aging: Essential Amino Acids, Protein and Aging Exuberantly with Liz Plosser
SPECIAL KION CODE: Visit getkion.com/age for 20% off
Show Snapshot:
Discover how essential amino acids could be the missing link in your midlife wellness journey. Join us as former Women's Health Editor-in-Chief Liz Plosser reveals the surprising supplement that transformed her strength, energy, and recovery after 40. You'll learn exactly how supplements like EAAs and creatine work as protein building blocks to maintain muscle, boost energy and recovery, and help you age powerfully. Hear Liz's personal journey from injury recovery to how her new protein and supplement routine changed her body composition and helped her achieve a 260-pound deadlift PR. Whether you're a fitness enthusiast or just getting started, whether you prefer strength training or yoga, this episode delivers practical nutrition wisdom and a special listener discount to help you feel stronger and more energetic tomorrow than you do today.
Show Links:
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Liz’s Substack Best Case Scenario
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SPECIAL KION CODE: Visit getkion.com/age for 20% off
Quotable:
Once I added essential amino acids, I had more energy for my workouts. I was recovering more quickly. I could lift heavier weights. I was sleeping more soundly. I just felt more balanced and energetic overall.
Transcript:
Katie Fogarty [0:00]: Katie, welcome to A Certain Age, a show for women who are unafraid to age out loud. I'm your host, Katie Fogarty.
Beauties, have you ever noticed that midlife seems to come with an entirely new vocabulary? It's HRT this and DEXA scan that. Nutrition even gets a glow up. We're protein loading and focused on the building blocks of our food. Science has gotten smarter about how to fuel our bodies and maintain healthy cellular function and fitness.
Today, we are getting smarter too, and are cracking the code on essential amino acids and how they work in tandem with protein to help midlife women age well, maintain muscle, create optimal body composition and boost our overall longevity. And we are pumping up our knowledge about how to age powerfully with an incredible force.
Liz Plosser is a longtime health and wellness journalist of two decades. For seven years, she was the editor-in-chief of Women's Health, and she worked at other power players, including Self, Cosmo, and Well and Good. Liz is my favorite kind of guest. She is deeply, wildly experienced in her longtime field, yet willing to reinvent, try new things, take on new professional challenges. She is an author and National Academy of Sports Medicine certified trainer and nutrition coach. She writes a whip-smart Substack called "Best Case Scenario," which offers a wellness playbook for helping people feel—wait for it—a little better today than they did yesterday. Yes please.
Cheers to the power of small moves day after day to move the needle. If you want 30 minutes of science-backed smarts to boost your health, energy and mojo, stick around. This show is for you. Welcome, Liz.
Liz Baker Plosser [1:53]: Hi, Katie, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm excited.
Katie Fogarty [1:57]: I have been following your work and career, probably for as long as you've had it, because I love all the magazines and digital platforms that you have been associated with. You have been a health journalist for 20 years. I know from following you, you've been on your own incredible fitness, nutrition and protein journey. You became a certified trainer and a coach. And I'd love to start off by asking, which came first? Was it the love of sports and fitness, or did your journalism career expose you to this space and get you excited?
Liz Baker Plosser [2:28]: I love that question. It has always been inside of me. As a kid, I was quite sporty. I played tennis, soccer and basketball competitively growing up, so I've known from a very young age the power of movement, not just in the physical sense, but also how good it made me feel mentally and emotionally. But I never dreamed that I could build an entire career around that love. So I feel incredibly grateful every day that I managed to do exactly that.
Katie Fogarty [2:58]: So you have been a multi-sport athlete, which is very cool. You've had this very long, active, powerful career in journalism. In prepping for this show, I saw you recently connect with a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and she calls you, quote, "a fresh-faced ivory girl with ripped abs," which I loved. I was like, that might be, like, the most awesome description of anyone ever.
And for any listener who knows your journey, who knows your work, or who may already be following you on Instagram, if they look at your page, they're gonna think, "All right, being fit and active and healthy for Liz is easy, because she looks amazing, and that's good for her, but it might be too hard for me." But I know that you have not only reinvented your career, you've reinvented your own fitness due to something that cropped up for you in midlife, and I would love if you could walk us through that journey.
Liz Baker Plosser [3:51]: Thank you. Yes, that description "fresh-faced ivory girl with ripped abs" or however she put it—I'm gonna have to tuck that one away in my back pocket for days I feel like none of those things.
Katie Fogarty [4:05]: Liz, you need to get that embroidered on a pillow and, like, pop it on your sofa next to your desk.
Liz Baker Plosser [4:10]: Oh my gosh, that's such a good idea, Katie, I think I'm gonna do it. I think I'm gonna do it truly. We all need reminders from the outside perspective that your hard work matters or that people notice it.
So yeah, I, as I said, I've always been really sporty. Fitness has been a consistent part of my life. Is it easy? No, I'm human. I also don't want to wake up and go to the gym most mornings, so I just need to put that out there. But I also know, because I've experienced it, how good it makes me feel, and how much better prepared I am to handle the twists and the turns of the day. So that is a motivating reminder on those days I just don't want to.
Having said that, yeah, I played sports, and then after graduating from college, I really missed that team atmosphere, so I got actually really into running and marathon training. That was my primary mode of activity, was running and training for half marathons and marathons. I even got into triathlons and half Ironman for a while, and then strength training was happening in the background.
As a journalist, I knew how important and good for us it was, but I didn't have much strategy or purpose around it, until I had a skiing accident five years ago where I actually broke my sacrum. I'm so lucky nothing worse happened. And I couldn't run. The way you heal a broken sacrum is you need to put a little weight on it and stay moving, but you absolutely cannot do high impact sports like running.
So it took weeks and months of working with a physical therapist to relearn how to engage my core, how to activate my muscles, and it was through that process that I finally clicked with strength training. I managed to learn how to get that endorphin high and amazing feeling that until that point I'd really only felt on soccer fields or in marathon training through strength training.
So fast forward, about five years later, strength has completely flip-flopped. I still run, but, you know, only like five to seven miles a week maximum, just for the vibes and getting outside. But strength training is my primary mode of fitness these days.
Katie Fogarty [6:35]: We have done a couple of shows on the importance of heavy lifting. I've had a wonderful guest on, Holly Perringer. I've had Dr. Stacy Sims on the show three times. She talks a lot about the importance of heavy lifting, protein intake to fuel our musculoskeletal health as we age. And I know that you have also, along with your heavy lifting journey, have also had a nutrition component to your work. We have heard about protein, we've heard about amino acids, but I would love to hear from you how you've incorporated that as part of the toolkit that you're using to take care of your bone and muscle health now that you're in midlife.
Liz Baker Plosser [7:14]: Yes, well, I love all of those guests that you mentioned, so I feel like I'm in really good company. I admire them and their work.
Yeah, so a couple years into that more dedicated strength training journey that I was on, I just became more and more curious about how I was fueling my body, and the more research I did—and as you can imagine, as a journalist, this began to show up in our content at Women's Health—but the more I learned, the more I realized that I was really hamstringing myself because I was only eating about 40 to 50 grams of protein a day, which was much too low for somebody who was as active as I am, and somebody who was my age. I turned 46 in a few days, actually, so I had reached age 40, and that's the point at which, as your other guests have shared, bone density and muscle mass and those things become extra important as our hormones are changing, and we really have to work hard to protect those—both your lean muscle mass as well as your bone density.
Thus began my journey with protein, which started out as me just monitoring in the beginning how much protein I was getting. And as I mentioned, I was pretty appalled to learn how little it was. We can talk about this offline or today, but I think a lot of that was hardwired into me. I'm a kid who grew up in the 80s, and meat and eggs and things like that, in some ways, were demonized by the media and in other places.
So that was the beginning—was really making an effort to get to at least 100 grams of protein every day. And then the more I learned, the more I started to talk to people and listen to podcasts like yours and do research on what supplements could help support my healthy eating and my protein goals. And that is when I discovered essential amino acids, which is a supplement I take every single morning, and talk about ad nauseam every single day, because it has been such a game changer in my life.
Essential amino acids are the building blocks of protein, so we need them in order for our bodies to do so many essential activities, from keeping your immune system healthy to keeping your heart healthy. A lot of people think about protein in terms of muscle mass, and yes, absolutely, protein plays a key role there, but it's also about having shiny healthy hair and nails.
And the list just goes on and on. And beyond that, I just felt once I added essential amino acids, that I had more energy for my workouts. I was recovering more quickly. I could lift heavier weights. I was sleeping more soundly. I just felt more balanced and energetic overall. So I'm really glad we're talking about them today.
Katie Fogarty [10:24]: I am too. I'm excited. I mean, I was joking earlier, at the top of the show, that getting to midlife gives you a whole new vocabulary and glossary, like you're focused on things that just weren't on your radar when you were young, like bone density, bone health, DEXA scans, HRT, which has now been rebranded by some people as MHT. There's a lot of learning, and one of the things that the show has talked about at different points is supplements. But I've never done something on essential amino acids, so I'm excited to explore this with you.
So you gave us a quick sort of heads up that amino acid is a part of, like, a building block of our muscle. How do we typically get amino acids into our diet? Is it simply meat and eggs?
Liz Baker Plosser [11:09]: There's so many sources of protein in your diet, and I want to be really clear that I believe that a healthy diet is the foundation, and amino acids, which we can get into in supplement form, really fill any gaps that you might have.
But what you're really looking for is to get all nine essential amino acids. Your body needs all nine of them to build the house and do the construction work inside your body. If it's missing any, then protein synthesis cannot happen.
So animal sources are awesome. They contain all nine essential amino acids. We talked about eggs, fish, those are great examples. I recognize that a lot of people are vegetarians or vegans. You can absolutely get all nine of your essential amino acids, but many of those sources don't contain them all in one food, so you're gonna have to be more thoughtful and strategic about it, which is actually, you know, particularly for people who choose to eat that way, EAAs can be really, really, really valuable.
Katie Fogarty [12:15]: And so you supplement. I did my research. I read one of your great Substack posts about EAAs, and I learned that—something that really surprised me is a stat that jumped out at me, that EAAs sometimes have three times the impact of a whey protein powder supplement. And this jumped out to me because I have a 17-year-old son who rows crew, and he is a big fan of protein powder. And he knows that after a vigorous workout that he should be doing a protein shake to help with recovery and muscle and strength building. And he loves a protein powder. So I was surprised to learn this about EAAs. Tell me more about that.
Liz Baker Plosser [12:56]: Yeah, so protein powder is great, too. I actually use that most, if not every day as well. But here's the deal with EAAs: they are developed in the ideal ratio, so they've got all nine essential amino acids, but you have the exact right amount of each one that makes them perfectly bioavailable once they hit your system.
And what that means is, compared to a whey protein powder or even a food like, if you're having a steak for dinner, which is incredibly high in protein, you're also getting other things in that meal. Like you're probably having some fat and carbs with it—good things to be clear. Maybe you're having a starch or you're having some broccoli on the side. It just makes it a little less efficient in your body to put those building blocks together and spark that protein synthesis.
So the benefit of EAAs is they're in exactly the right ratios. So once you've sipped them—you can take them in powdered form or as a pill—but once you've consumed them, they're immediately available to your body to begin protein synthesis.
So I'm reluctant to use words like "shortcut" or "hack." It's a nuanced conversation, but in this case, it really is the most efficient way to spark protein synthesis, which, for people like your son, who's super active, that's going to really help his recovery, help him sleep better, help him give more effort tomorrow at crew practice.
Katie Fogarty [14:36]: Yeah, absolutely. And I know you're such a fan of EAAs that you've become an advisor to a company named Kion that you work with. Tell us more about that.
Liz Baker Plosser [14:44]: Yes, I'm super proud to be working with the Kion team, because I believe in the company, and they are the—I get all of my supplements from there, EAAs, as well as creatine and also my protein powder.
So I actually met the team at Kion while I was still at Women's Health. I was, in true Liz fashion, overseeing a big project we were doing called the Protein Playbook, which was really like an educational feature to help women to add to their healthy diets by really thinking about this macro and how important it was to them.
So I met the team at Kion and started talking to them and learning about EAAs, which actually was like the beginning of me going down the rabbit hole of getting into PubMed and Google Scholar and doing a lot of my own research. And that's when I started taking it and just have been on a personal journey ever since. As I said, within a couple of weeks, I noticed a difference in how I was feeling and how my workouts were going.
So I've stayed in touch with Kion over the years. I believe in them because all of their supplements are third-party tested. They don't have molds, they don't have contaminants. It's a really smart, really kind team. And in a very happy twist of fate, since I left WH at the end of 2024, I reconnected with the CEO and some other team members, and we combined forces, and now I have the great pleasure of getting to talk about EAAs and other supplements with them every week, but also have a new platform and some new insights to share with my community on my channels as well.
Katie Fogarty [16:26]: And speaking of sharing, Liz was so kind just to send me some of these Kion EAAs for me to dive into before the show. I'm going to share with you my takeaway, my favorite flavors, after a quick break. But before we move into our break, I want to also share that Liz is very generously offering all A Certain Age listeners a special discount code on these EAAs from Kion.
If you are interested, you can save 20% by going to getkion.com/age. That's get kion, K-I-O-N, slash age, A-G-E.
We're heading into a quick break, but when we come back, we are going to talk flavors and how I've been using them, and figure out how you can use them, the doses, etc. We'll be back in just a minute.
Liz, we're back from the break. When we went into it, I was sharing that you very kindly sent me four of Kion EAAs in different flavors. It's mixed berry, watermelon, lime and mango. All are delicious. I'm gonna say I like watermelon the best, and it's been fun to have.
And one of the reasons why I like watermelon the best is that I'm a big hot yoga fan, and during the summer, with watermelons in season, I'll often come back and like, throw cubes of watermelon and mint and lime juice into, like, my NutriBullet, and kind of juice up this hydrating drink. And I've been using your Kion watermelon supplements because they arrived during the winter when there isn't fresh watermelon around, and they are delightful.
So you share that your own personal experience with these supplements and sort of sleeping better and feeling quicker recovery after your workouts got you on board with Kion. For listeners who are thinking, "I would love to get more essential amino acids in my diet, I love the fact that these are third-party tested." Tell me a little bit about how one starts to incorporate it. How often do we take them? Is there a universal dose, or does it depend upon a person and depend upon their workout?
Liz Baker Plosser [18:29]: Great questions. And I too love the watermelon flavor as well as mango, just throwing that out there. And I think it's so cool that you take it after yoga. I find sometimes, particularly after yoga actually, but after strength training too, I'm not super hungry, so I love that essential amino acids are so easy to digest. Like your body doesn't have to digest them. You just put the powder in some ice water and sip it and bam, you're done.
Which leads me to the dosing. So what I always tell people is, start with a scoop, which is about five grams of amino acids. Personally, I begin my day with them. I wake up very early. I'm like, taking my dog out, getting ready for the gym, of course, making my morning coffee. But I go ahead and take my EAAs right then, because then I don't forget, and they're in my system. So I'm primed for protein synthesis when I arrive at my YMCA and begin my strength training workout.
So once a day, I think is an awesome place for any listener out there who's going to embark on this journey and excited to see how they feel and how their body changes. I, to be honest, in my own life, I've actually leveled up how much I take over the course of a couple of years of experimenting with them. I will often take them as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon little boost. I think of it almost as like plugging a charger into the wall. You know, when your battery's getting a little low and you just need that boost. That's how they impact me. It feels like it just raises my energy level. Makes me feel a little sharper.
So you don't have to take them throughout the day, but it's great if you do. In general, I would say about protein, it's ideal to get your protein in different intervals throughout the day. So you want about three hours in between your dosing, whether that's from a meal or if you're having EAAs, because your body can only handle so much at once. At a certain point, it kind of reaches diminishing returns, and your body's like, "I've got everything I need. I can't do anything else with the extra."
Katie Fogarty [20:45]: Yes, can we ever have too much of a good thing? Is there like, a point where you shouldn't be taking them?
Liz Baker Plosser [20:51]: Yeah, so there's been research—the upper limit is so high, I would never even come close to it. There's some research that suggests, at 100 grams, EAAs stop doing anything for you. I was actually just talking to the folks at Kion about this, because we geek out over this stuff. But it's three scoops, which is about 15 grams worth. That's really the maximum of what you need.
Katie Fogarty [21:18]: Especially because you're dissolving each scoop in 16 ounces of liquid. I'm trying to figure out, like, you might have to have, like, a keg of water to get through 100... I mean, math—
Liz Baker Plosser [21:30]: Yeah, very hydrated, right?
Katie Fogarty [21:32]: I talk for a living—math is not my thing. But I'm like, if you had to have 100 milligrams of the stuff dissolved in 16 ounces of water per five milligrams, like, we're talking a lot of liquid. I think it'd be hard to hit that number.
Liz Baker Plosser [21:44]: Yeah, and the reality is, you don't need to. You're absolutely gonna see a difference and feel a difference, even just having some every morning.
Now, Katie, you follow me, and you've seen my writing, so you know I take my workouts quite seriously. I just get very lit up at the gym, and I love experimenting with my body, and I love doing heavy lifts. I have three children who are young. I have a dog, a busy husband. I'm living a very active life.
So for people like me, or people like your son, who's a competitive rower, and particularly, I should say for those of us who are in our 40s, 50s and 60s, whether we're navigating perimenopause or we've already crossed that menopause line, so our lean muscle mass and bone density needs are in a different place than they would have been back in my 20s. For people like me, if you want to have more, if you want to have three scoops three times a day, it will absolutely make a difference. It will be even better for you.
Do you need it? No. To me, this is kind of like when people say, "Okay, I know I need to strength train three times a week, but I'm only doing it once. So is it not really doing anything?" And the answer is that is awesome, like, give yourself a high five and credit. Your body will respond to that one time. But if you can find a way to integrate it into your life and level up a little bit, yeah, you'll see even better results.
Katie Fogarty [23:16]: Yeah, absolutely. And the fact that this is third party tested is really important. I've had many doctors on the show, a lot of whom are fans of supplements and talk about that, and some that are more skeptical. But even the skeptics say that third party testing is the foundation. No one should be taking anything that isn't. So that's one of the reasons why I think Kion is really exciting, and one of the reasons why when you sent me my watermelon stuff, I'm like, let's go. I'm willing to try this because the science is there.
I have a weird question, which you may not be able to answer, Liz, but one of the things that I noticed about the powders is that they're incredibly fine. And I might even say they're super fine. They're like, kind of like that Caribbean white sand beach, you know, where you feel like you're walking on flour. And the reason why I noticed this is that my son, fan of protein, whey protein, and I've also done like collagen and stuff, and that stuff gets lumpy and clumpy.
Liz Baker Plosser [24:09]: Uh-huh.
Katie Fogarty [24:10]: And these EAAs do not. These Kion things—like I pour it in water, do one swirl with a spoon, and they're dissolved. Like I cannot figure out what the magic is. Do you have any idea why they're so super fine and dissolved so quickly?
Liz Baker Plosser [24:30]: I have noticed that too. Now I'm going to ask the team. It is a great question. It must have to do with the chemistry of the powder and the essential amino acids that are in there.
I don't use collagen. I do use creatine. I don't know if you've ever used that Katie, but that is another one. It's a powder, but it gets clumpy, for sure. I have to, like, keep swishing my water bottle around to make sure that I'm getting all of it and it's not stuck at the bottom.
But I do want to point out, if you're not the type of person who wants to add a flavored powder to your water, or for whatever reason you're traveling, you don't want to—though they do come in little pouches, little single serving packets, so they're easy for travel. At any rate, I should say that there is also a pill form of EAAs that is every bit as effective as the powder form. So just throwing that out there, that there's a couple different ways you can do it.
Katie Fogarty [25:30]: Yeah, absolutely—different styles based on your needs.
So actually, this is a great moment to switch gears, because I do want to talk about creatine, which I have not used myself, and I have, of course, caught wind of it, because it's very social media famous. It's like practically a Kardashian, right? You cannot ignore it or avoid it, but I know very little, and since you use it personally, and I know that you've been writing and researching, interviewing experts on this for years—in fact, you just did a conversation with a Wall Street Journal reporter that I mentioned earlier. You guys got into this topic. Tell us what it is. Do we make it naturally? Do we need to add it? What does it do? Why is it all over my Instagram?
Liz Baker Plosser [26:14]: It literally is all over the place. So much like EAAs, this is a supplement that has a ton of research, and I'm talking like really good studies in gold standard journals. Like, you know, I do my research.
So yeah, I would say for many years, most people thought about creatine as a supplement that, like, bodybuilders or like super muscular dudes at the gym took. I guess I should just speak for myself. That's how I thought about it. I didn't think this was a supplement that could really—why would I need to take that? Didn't really seem relevant to me.
But the more research I did, and this is a cool space where there's actually more and more research that is happening on women specifically, which I say, "Let's go!" to that. That's such a delight when I see that.
But at any rate, creatine is a compound that you also get through animal products. So as long as you're not a vegan or vegetarian, you're already going to get some naturally in your diet, and then your body takes it, and your cells use it to produce ATP, which basically gives you the energy to do quick bursts of activity, to pull up heavy weight, all that stuff we were just talking about. So for people who are active, creatine is quite powerful.
And again, I have used it, and I personally have noticed a difference. It's part of the reason I just got a 260 pound deadlift PR, not to humble brag.
Katie Fogarty [27:53]: Impressive!
Liz Baker Plosser [27:54]: I do think these things are related. So once you've got creatine in your system, your cells are using it, and then you end up peeing it out, the byproduct of it in a compound called creatinine. So what that means is you need to continually replenish how much your body has to use. The goal is that your muscles are saturated to a point that they use as much as they need and can, and then you get rid of the rest. So then you put some more back in your body tomorrow.
Now, again, depending on what your diet looks like, there might be days where you're not getting any creatine through just regular eating, or there might be days where you're getting some but not enough. So again, much like aminos, this is a supplement I think of as like an insurance policy or filling the gaps for yourself, for your body. You just know you're covered. If you take a scoop of creatine every morning, you're set, your body has enough to use throughout the day.
We can really geek out on the science of it. There are some people who do an initial phase where they take a little more, like two or three scoops to really load up their body in the beginning. I didn't do it that way. I started by adding it to my morning glass of water. At the same time I'm putting in my scoop of aminos, I add my scoop of creatine, I stir it up. You got to stir it up a little more, because, as you mentioned, it gets a little clumpy.
Katie Fogarty [29:11]: It's not a Caribbean beach. It's not the—
Liz Baker Plosser [29:15]: But it is totally tasteless and odor-free, so you're not going to notice it one bit in your water.
Katie Fogarty [29:23]: All right. And it sounds like if you're taking it, you're able to stir vigorously enough to make it dissolve. So there's that—100% we got that going on.
I like this notion of an insurance policy because I, you know, I feel like I'm a pretty good eater. I've learned a lot from the show, and I enjoy a healthy diet, like I feel lucky in that way, but I'm going to be honest, there are days when I'm eating like 18 chocolate-covered almonds for lunch, and that can't possibly be good for you.
And I'm thinking of this very funny Instagram account called Big Time Adulting. I don't know if you follow that woman. She's hysterical, and she did a very funny reel that went very, very viral. And it basically said, social media has been telling her, and science has been telling her that she now needs to take protein times the number of stars in the sky, just basically saying, like, how, in God's name, am I getting all this stuff in in any given day? It seems impossible. So we all want a little helper, and this sounds like it does the trick.
Now with creatine, is there any way that, like, we can do too much? Is anyone that's sort of contraindicated for or is this something that anyone should consider adding to their toolkit?
Liz Baker Plosser [30:34]: Yeah, I mean, I just would say putting it out there. I would talk to your doctor before you begin any supplement, and let them know you're doing it. I just think that's good practice.
I have seen some research that for folks who have maybe blood pressure issues or are concerned about their kidney function, you can certainly talk to your doctor, make sure that it's good for you. Having said that, it is a very tiny percent of people where it would be contraindicated.
Just make sure you're consuming enough water with it. I don't know why you would do this, but don't just put the powder in there. It needs the water to be able—don't just like scoop powder into a spoon and swallow. It needs water to be delivered into your cells and to do exactly what it's supposed to do.
But yeah, to your point about the chocolate-covered almonds, I have been thinking about protein intake for years, and again, I'm just a human. There are some days when I'm very lucky. My husband loves to cook to unwind when he gets home from work, and he'll make like pasta for dinner with a beautiful, homemade sauce. And I'll look at it and say, "Did you put any protein in there?" And he's like, "Liz, no." And I feel like doing the mental calculations, like, should I stir some unflavored whey protein powder into the sauce? Should I add a can of tuna fish? All to which my husband would probably divorce me if I suggested doing either of those things.
Katie Fogarty [32:00]: That's hysterical.
Liz Baker Plosser [32:01]: And I don't want to eat a can of tuna before dinner. And I also don't want to be that woman. I want to like live my life and enjoy my life and eat pasta with my husband and travel and eat the chocolate-covered almonds.
Katie Fogarty [32:20]: Taking care of business right out of the gate in the morning. I think it's actually smart that you do it in the morning, because, like, sometimes I go to hot yoga at night and I'm doing it then, but sometimes I don't. So the idea of having just a more standard process probably makes the consistency easier, which I know is important. Obviously not—you know, if we could be fit and healthy and happy by doing something once, we'd already be there. So we gotta, we gotta put the work in.
Yeah, Liz, I want to switch gears for a minute and ask you a little bit about your birthday, which I was going to surprise you, because I did the research. I knew was coming up, and I was going to be like, "Liz, you're about to have a birthday," but you already told me that you are gonna get another candle on the cake soon, which is exciting, and by the time this show's out, you will be 46.
Yes, I was on your Instagram page and saw that you've got a wonderful birthday celebration from last year pinned to your page, and on it you say you want to age exuberantly. And I was like, "Me too!" This is why she's coming on the show, because we love exuberant agers. So what is joyful, exuberant aging in your book?
Liz Baker Plosser [34:28]: Well, first of all, Katie, this is like why I'm such a super fan of your show. This is really something I'm passionate about. Is that I believe every year we get older, we are wiser, we are stronger. We have grown through the ups and the downs of the previous year. So I, like you, really want to flip the script and own my own age and set an example for folks with my platforms that I think, and I hope, will be powerful, that it's not something we should hide or make jokes about. I am proud to be 46 years old, you know?
So with that said, living exuberantly just means living with wide-eyed curiosity. It means leaning into who I am as a human, which includes like dancing in between sets and reps at the gym, trying new things, playing with my children, all of those things. And I think the things we talked about today and how I take care of my body, whether it's at the gym or with my diet or the supplements I take, or going to therapy and working on my stress management and my sleep, those are the foundation that allow me to live exuberantly and to show up and be the best version of myself every morning. So I am really proud to be 46 and exactly where I am, and I wouldn't turn back the clock if somebody even gave me the opportunity.
Katie Fogarty [35:56]: Yeah, and you have been walking that talk throughout your career. I know that you had trained with Joan on the cover of your magazine when you were the editor-in-chief at Women's Health. Tell us a little bit about that, because she is somebody that I've never interviewed. She's on my guest list, bucket list. I would love to connect with her, but I follow her because she is so inspiring to me. How did that cover come about?
Liz Baker Plosser [36:20]: Joan inspires me so much too.
Katie Fogarty [36:24]: Tell them for our listeners who don't know who she is, oh yes, let's loop them in.
Liz Baker Plosser [36:27]: Let's loop them in. Joan MacDonald, she goes by the handle Train with Joan. I believe she's 78 now, maybe even 79, but she has a very popular Instagram account where she has for years been cataloging her experience coming to strength training in her 70s.
So she was navigating a whole host of different health issues. She was overweight, and that was putting her at risk for some health conditions. And I believe it was her daughter—yes, it's her daughter training her—kind of brought her into the gym and started teaching her some moves, and Joan just went for it and committed herself, even though it felt hard and she was tired in the beginning, and she felt intimidated and like a fish out of water, and she has completely transformed herself.
Her health profile is totally different. She's got, like, arm biceps and triceps muscles that, like, at any age you would be like, "Girl, you got it going on." You know, she's such a badass.
So I had been following her for quite a while, and was inspired by her. Our November 2023 issue at Women's Health was called "Forces of Fitness." It's a recurring theme we do where we were profiling and doing covers with a few different fitness influencers who we believe were making a difference in lifting up their communities in the fitness space. And Joan was—much like you, she was like my dream.
And I say that, while also acknowledging that she was arguably a risky choice for a cover, you know, most print magazines that still exist would choose a celebrity or an actor with a movie coming out, maybe a more widely known name, certainly somebody of a different age. And I was just committed to everything Joan stood for, and believed deeply that she was a force of good and would be for our readership. So we went for it, and we put Joan on our cover. And do you know what, Katie? That was our most successful, most shared, most liked, most commented upon cover release in the entire history of the brand.
Katie Fogarty [38:44]: Oh my god. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. It's so inspiring. It's so inspiring. And, you know, it's inspiring for me and for listeners right now to think like, okay, it's never too late to start today. Joan did it at 70. But I think it's a great reminder that we can loop maybe our parents in to fitness and taking care of themselves, because most of my listeners are at the stage where, you know, if our parents are still with us, they are older and have different demands and needs, and that fitness can still be a part of their lives, and perhaps we can do it together. So it's such a great lesson for all of us, and what a great story. Thank you for sharing it.
Yeah, you share so much great information. Your whip-smart Substack that I mentioned earlier is a must-read, really, because you share what's going on with your own journey, which is inspiring, but also you are clearly a researcher and a reporter from the ground up, and there's a lot of great stuff in there. You're surfacing the latest science studies on different kinds of health topics. You're putting things on our radar that we need to know about. So it is a must-read. I want you to share with our listeners how they can find it.
Liz Baker Plosser [39:56]: Thank you, Katie, I appreciate the kind words. Yeah, it's super easy. The Substack is called "Best Case Scenario," and you can just type it into your web browser. It is lizplosser.substack.com, and if you want to follow me on Instagram, where I share snippets from my Substack and all sorts of other things, my handle is @lizplosser.
Katie Fogarty [40:17]: Everyone needs to hop on over there, because it's super inspiring as well. And before I say goodbye, I gotta remind our listeners that if they want to get in on the watermelon EAA fun, go to getkion.com/age. That's get kion, K-I-O-N, slash age, A-G-E. Thank you so much, Liz.
Liz Baker Plosser [40:36]: Thanks for having me, Katie.
Katie Fogarty [40:40]: This wraps A Certain Age, a show for women who are aging without apology. Before I say goodbye, you know my two quick favors: if you learn something new, if you feel smarter about how essential amino acids and creatine can help you age more powerfully, please consider sharing this show with friends and family.
I plan to forward this on to my 24-year-old daughter. She is years from midlife, but she loves doing yoga. She is a runner. She likes lifting weights. I know she's going to benefit from learning how these nutrition tools can help her fuel her muscle building and her workout recovery. So share this show with the other women in your life, no matter the age.
I would also love your Apple Podcast or Spotify review. If you learn something on the show like I did, that makes you feel smarter about how essential amino acids, creatine can help. If you learn something about midlife health, fitness, reinvention, let me know in a review. Reviews help other listeners find the show, and they truly, truly make my day. I see and read each one, and I appreciate them more than you will ever know.
Special thanks to Michael Mancisu, who composed and produced our theme music. See you next time and until then, age powerfully, beauties.