How to Stop (And Reverse) Midlife Weight Gain, Boost Energy and Retain Muscle with Nutrition Pro Heidi Skolnik
Show Snapshot:
Struggling with midlife weight gain? Time for some myth-busting—your metabolism does not slow down in midlife. But your ability to create fat-burning muscle does decrease, which can cause the pounds to pile on.
Renowned nutritionist and exercise physiologist Heidi Skolnik offers ideas for how diet choices and protein timing can help manage—even reverse—midlife weight gain. Plus, how muscle building impacts overall wellness, including bone and brain health.
Heidi walks us through the latest science and dives into nutrition and exercise ideas from her NYT bestseller, The Whole Body Reset: Your Weight-Loss Plan for a Flat Belly, Optimum Health & a Body You'll Love at Midlife and Beyond.
In This Episode We Cover:
The myth of a slowing midlife metabolism.
Surprise! Midlife weight gain is often linked to the loss of fat-burning muscle.
What’s protein timing and why is it a weight loss superhero?
How much protein do we need daily to build and retain muscle?
How to jumpstart optimal nutrition in the morning.
Good fats, anti-inflammatory foods, protein powders, and more.
Focused on cardio? Time to add resistance and strength training to your workouts. (And no, you aren’t going to get too bulky).
Did you know building muscle improves bone health, lowers cholesterol, and improves blood sugar?
Need inspo? What you do to your body today, impacts how your body will work 10 years from now.
Quotable:
What you do now predicts your vitality 10 years from now...On a day I don't feel like moving for me, my current self, I think of my future self. And I go, you know what? My future self really wants to be strong and vital and healthy. And so I'm gonna get moving, I'm gonna go do something. I'm gonna go lift something heavy.
Many of us believe, and have heard, our metabolism slows as we age…I even bought into that for years. But a revolutionary study came out last year that proved our metabolisms work just fine. We are still humming along from our twenties to our sixties. So, it is not metabolism. But there is a reason why we gain weight. As we get older, we begin to lose muscle.
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Transcript
Katie Fogarty [0:29]:
Welcome to A Certain Age, a show for women who are unafraid to age out loud. Here’s a statement that may surprise you: You don’t have to gain weight as you age. Are you with me, or thinking, "Hard no! What on Earth is she talking about?” I’m guessing that a lot of you are shaking your head thinking, “Hard no!” because I recently saw a stat that said, “Weight gain is a pain point for more than 75% of all midlife women.” So, what’s the deal? If aging doesn’t automatically cause us to gain weight, yet so many of us struggle with unwanted weight gain in midlife, what exactly is going on?
I have good news. My guest today is going to help us figure this out. I’m joined by Heidi Skolnik, one of the country’s leading exercise science and human nutrition experts. Heidi is a sports nutritionist at the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. She oversees performance nutrition at The Juilliard School and the School of American Ballet. She spent 15 years helping the New York Mets, she’s worked with the New York Giants. She’s written numerous books and she’s here to talk about her latest, the New York Times Best-seller, The Whole Body Reset: Your Weight Loss Plan for a Flat Belly, Optimum Health, and a Body You’ll Love at Midlife and Beyond, which she co-authored with Stephen Perrine. Welcome, Heidi.
Heidi Skolnik [1:54]:
Hey, it’s great to be here.
Katie [1:56]:
I’m so excited to dive into this topic with you. I did an Instagram poll of my listeners and asked them what they wanted to see covered over the summer and nutrition and midlife weight gain was on the top of the list. So, I feel so excited to explore this with you and to dive into this book.
One of the reasons why I’m excited is because you make a pretty revolutionary promise in The Whole Body Reset; that simple changes to the way we eat can reverse and halt age-related weight gain and muscle loss. I want to dive in by doing a little myth busting. We think that slowing metabolism and weight gain is inevitable in midlife. Is this a myth? Help us bust it if it is.
Heidi [2:47]:
Okay, busted. [Katie laughs] So, for sure many of us believed and have heard, our metabolism slows as we age and that’s why it is just inevitable. And I have to say, I even bought into that for years. But a revolutionary study came out last year that was very substantial and disproved that. Our metabolisms work just fine, thank you. We are still humming along from our twenties to our sixties, so it is not metabolism. But there is a reason why we gain weight.
Katie [3:20]:
What is that? Because I’m starting to feel like it might be the bag of Lays potato chips I ate at lunch. Does that have anything to do...? [laughs]
Heidi [3:28]:
Well there’s that too. But what really happens is that it’s a natural part of aging; as we get older, we begin to lose muscle. So, starting around 30 to 40 years of age, we lose a little bit less than 1% per year; between 40 and 60, that’s a significant amount of muscle to lose. The other thing that happens is that we become what’s called, anabolically resistant. I know that’s a big word but really what it means is that, when you’re younger, you drink a glass of milk and you’re growing, and that 8 grams of protein gets turned into muscle and you don’t have to do much, you’re all muscle. When we get older, our body goes, “Meh, I’m not going to work that hard.” Or, "I’m going to make you work harder.” And it says, I need more protein and I need more protein more often, protein timing. So, we need 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal in order to press that muscle building button.
Katie [4:36]:
And what does that look like in terms of what’s on our plate? What does 25 to 30 grams of protein add up to in terms of steak or other protein-rich food?
Heidi [4:46]:
I think that’s really important because it’s not a lot. It’s actually not a lot. This is not a high-protein diet, it’s an adequate protein diet that’s distributed throughout the day. Because most people eat about 60% of their protein and night and they might have for breakfast for instance, oatmeal, which they think, “This is nutritious, I’m really trying to eat well.” And it clearly is nutritious but there’s not a lot of protein in that. Certainly, if you’re someone who gets a croissant and a cup of coffee, there’s no protein in that.
So, protein foods include things like Greek yogurt, or eggs, or cottage cheese, or regular cheese, or lox – I’m from New York so I’ve got to throw that in there – or protein powder that you could put into a smoothie, or milk. But it’s having enough. So, if you grab a small yogurt and think, “That’s my breakfast,” you’re still not getting enough. You have to hit those 25 grams and you have to hit it in the morning, midday, and nighttime.
Katie [5:47]:
Okay, so that is fascinating. I love Greek yogurt, but I also love oatmeal, and now I know which one to prioritize to start my day. But I didn’t recognize the importance of how the protein gets distributed and I know that that is a big building block of your book. You have a chapter on what you call, "The age-defying magic of protein timing” and I want to hear a little bit more about what that exactly is and how does that work? Is it as simple as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or is there more to it?
Heidi [6:26]:
Well, I also want to go back and add to what you said, how do you prioritize? The truth is you can have oatmeal and yogurt. I think as we get older and as our weight shifts, and we live in such a diet culture, we keep thinking, "Less. We have to eat less.” But we need to eat enough. Most women actually probably need to eat more or again, distribute what they eat more evenly throughout the day. So, you can have oatmeal and yogurt because one’s a starch and a whole grain, which we need, filled with fiber, which we need, along with that protein. That would be like having eggs and toast. It’s not one or the other, you can have eggs and toast. So, prioritize both.
Katie [7:16]:
Okay, so this is really good news because I like, as I said, I like both so I’m delighted to hear that they can both be jumpstarting my morning.
We’re going to be heading into a quick commercial break Heidi, but when we come back, I want to hear a little bit more about how you might design a perfect plate with protein.
[Ad Break]
Katie [8:32]:
Heidi, we’re back. When we went into the break, we were talking about the magic of protein timing, how it needs to be distributed throughout the day, how you can build a system of protein intake throughout your day and how many women need to be eating more than they think they do. Your book has a lot of recipes, we’re not going to be able to get to them all today but help us think through how we put together different meals throughout the day.
Heidi [9:03]:
Well, it’s really a very balanced plate. This diet is very inclusive, there’s no one food, no magical times, really whether you are vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, whatever your preference, you will find your way. Because again, it’s about hitting that adequate amount of protein, it is including fiber. Fiber is really important to our gut health, which is another thing we care about as we age and helps how we absorb the nutrients. You and I can both eat blueberries but we’re not necessarily going to get the same nutrients from it; we want to keep our gut healthy. You know, we care about having fruits and vegetables, not only for their fiber but because they really are anti-inflammatory, and fat is inflammatory. We can build more muscle when we squelch some of that inflammation. And again, we really care about building, maintaining that muscle that we have.
You know, you had asked this before and I think I had pivoted to respond to something else... I want to circle back to say muscle is so important because it’s really our function and our health. Our muscle is the thing that helps our mobility, keeping adequate muscle helps our bone health, so important as we age. More muscle is related to our brain health and cognitive function, it’s what helps stabilize our blood sugar, it’s related to cholesterol and hypertension, or better management of our blood pressure. It’s just related to so many health outcomes. Of course, we all care about our aesthetic, but this goes beyond our aesthetic to really, our health, our well-being, and our function as we age. We want to be functional; we want to do things. For me it might be climbing mountains and for someone else it might be climbing stairs, or biking, or you know, playing with your grandkids, going to work, whatever it is you love to do.
Katie [11:04]:
Yeah, even carrying your groceries, or lifting the suitcase on an airplane into the overhead bin. You need to be able to live your life and muscles that...
Heidi [11:14]:
Independently.
Katie [11:15]:
Exactly. And that’s the goal, is healthy, vibrant aging. So, you shared at the top of the show that there’s a decrease of 40 to 60% of your muscles and the link between adequate protein intake to sort of power those. I have two questions. My first question is, the protein intake, where do you land on food versus powders? Is one preferable than the other? Is it a hybrid?
Heidi [11:45]:
I think that food first is always good because you’re getting more than one nutrient when you eat a whole food. Most foods provide us with vitamins, minerals, if it’s plant-based, phytonutrients, so there’s lots of reasons to eat whole foods. But also practically, protein powders can be really, really helpful in helping us to meet our protein needs or to bridge a gap between the food we’re comfortable eating and how much more we want to have, or depending on where you are, the timing in your day, access, all of that.
So, I’m all for protein powders, we include that as an option in the book and in recipes that we have in the book. So, I don’t think we need to be all or none about anything, I think different things work for different people. Some people don’t like to use protein powders, but they certainly have been shown to be effective and for some people, if they are doing... we can talk about movement and exercise and what makes sense at this age. After resistance training and strength training, having a protein powder is a really great way to help maximize.
Katie [12:50]:
Great, that makes a lot of sense. You know, I haven’t incorporated protein powders into my diet, but you’ve gotten me curious about it. Sometimes you’re on the run and I do sometimes find myself eating bars and other things and, you know, I could be adding protein powders to my oatmeal that we talked about.
Heidi [13:09]:
Exactly. I was just going to say that. That’s a great option.
Katie [13:11]:
Or into smoothies and other things, or maybe you could incorporate them into salads and just kind of get a one-two punch and kind of, level up the food that you’re eating.
Heidi [13:21]:
I love that, level up.
Katie [13:21]:
I definitely want to dive into some of the exercise too but the second part of the question I was thinking about in terms of, is it food, is it powders? The second part of the question is, you said 25 to 30 grams of protein is the goal, but women come in all shapes and sizes. So, is this just a universal standard or does this vary based on maybe your weight, or your race, or your level of overall fitness? And how do you figure it out for yourself, besides reading your book?
Heidi [13:53]:
That really hits the majority of people. Certainly, if you’re much smaller you can have a little bit less and if you’re much bigger you might need a little bit more. My ballerinas that I work with versus the football players. So, there is a range, but this really covers the majority of the people. The actual number, I think it’s 0.4 grams per kilogram of body weight per meal, if you really want to get that specific. We wanted to keep this as easy, and doable, and accessible as possible so we went where the majority of the people are going to fall, in that range.
I think that’s one thing that I’m really proud of in terms of feedback that I’ve heard is that people... And in fact, doctor’s offices are now using this as part of their counselling because it’s just very easy and straight forward and very doable. It's very inclusive; we’re not cutting out food groups and making it where it’s hard to socialize or using special foods that you really can't get access to.
We don’t want to overcomplicate it, but there are some very science-based recommendations that matter, and most recommendations out there are for younger people. Every study that we looked at and we used in The Whole Body Reset, was done on people in our age group and I think that’s really important because that’s the whole point is our bodies respond differently in midlife and beyond. And so, looking at what some intervention does or just how the body works when we’re younger just doesn’t apply to us.
Katie [15:35]:
I know and you say that we really need to start eating differently by our mid-forties, in our fifties. The way we eat in midlife needs to be different than in our thirties.
I’m curious about beyond the loss of muscle, most of the listeners on this show are women. You do, in Chapter 5, a very deep dive into the gut, you give us a low-down on belly fat, which obviously affects men and women. But since my listeners are women, I want to hear from you about what people often refer to as the “muffin top” or “meno middle,” this sort of roll of fat that starts to happen. It changes the way we dress a little bit. Is this our imagination? In my case, it’s not my imagination. [laughs] So, I’m asking specifically, why is this happening besides the loss of muscles? Being a woman, does the loss of estrogen play any role? Why is it hard to get rid of, and how can we specifically address this one core area?
Heidi [16:37]:
That is something that we don’t go as much into as you see in the book because we’re not really addressing all the hormonal changes, we are really focused on our muscle. So, there are hormonal changes that shift the way in which we lay down fat, which is why we begin to take on, and why our risk of heart disease also increases because we begin to lay down fat a little bit more around our midsection. This is typically, not always, a male pattern of how they lay down fat, and one of the reasons they are at a higher risk for heart disease in terms of the type of fat belly fat is. So, there is a shifting of that. I could go on and on, we could do a whole other podcast on body image, and body acceptance, or body neutrality, or how we might change our style in clothing and still feeling good. So, there’s skin elasticity, that changes. There are some changes that go on with aging, so we go down a different road around that.
But in terms of how much and how to maintain that muscle. So, you know, muscle is the enemy of fat, and fat is the enemy of muscle. The more muscle we have, the less fat we potentially have because our muscle is what is metabolically active. So, we started this by talking about metabolism, our metabolism works but because we have less muscle, our metabolism may in fact be lower but it’s not because it’s not working, it’s because we have less metabolically active tissue when we lose muscle. So, we want to keep that muscle, we want to stay active, and we want to help continue to be able to utilize the metabolism that we have.
Katie [18:28]:
Right, and one of the ways of doing that, we’ve covered nutrition. Talk to me about exercise. What are the specific muscle-developing exercises that you recommend to your midlife clients? Because you know, none of us are ballerinas. What would you recommend?
Heidi [18:45]:
It’s clear, we have to include resistance training. Some women grew up with that, but some didn’t, and I think especially for my generation, it was a generation of runners. It was all about cardio, cardio, cardio. If you had sneakers you could get on the road, get on the elliptical, aerobics classes. And you know, it is important to take care of our cardiovascular health, we do have an increased risk of heart disease and so we want to do that, but not exclusively that, and not for more and more and more. Cut back and make sure you’re getting strength training two to three times a week because that’s what’s building your muscle, that along with the protein. If you don’t exercise, what we’ve talked about still helps you maintain your muscle. But you want to really maximize it, combine that with strength training.
Katie [19:32]:
And so, this is weights. Could it be resistance bands? Could it be even like body weight, where you’re doing like, planking? Walk us through what you recommend.
Heidi [19:41]:
100% all of that works. You’ve got to find what works for you or change it up and do different things on different days. But it can be going to a gym and using equipment. It could be free weights, it could be dumbbells, it can be resistance bands, it can be body weight, it can be Pilates or yoga, it can be a class-based thing but it’s some form of resistance strength training. Any of those. But it is really important to be doing that and that’s all about muscle.
The third thing is balance exercises as we get older and that doesn’t feel like you’re working out, it’s not hard and you’re not sweating but it has been shown to really make a difference as we get older in terms of preventing falls. I think when you’re in your forties and fifties, you’re not really thinking about fall prevention. But the time you hit your sixties I think you might be, but yeah, incorporating that is also important.
But for muscle building, strength training for sure. I do think a lot of women shy away from it or haven’t done it and then it’s like, "Do I really need that? If I just do more cardio, I’ll be thinner. I just need to burn more calories.” And that is not a good way to build muscle, that doesn’t build muscle. And burning more and more calories, our body compensates the rest of the day, it lowers its metabolism a little bit or there’s compensatory ways in which we don’t expend as much energy when we actually work out longer and we find that we don’t really burn as much as we think. It doesn’t mean we’re not getting lots and lots of benefits form it, absolutely we do, cardiovascular benefits: vascularization, our capacity, our VO2 max, our ability to take the stairs and all of that. But it’s not great for weight management like you might think. And strength training is hugely important.
Katie [21:39]:
I also love your emphasis on doing some balance training. Frequent listeners to this show will probably remember the fact that I talk about one of my guests from Season 1, her name is Dr. Vonda Wright, she’s an orthopedic surgeon and an expert in longevity fitness. She shared the simple hack of standing on one leg while you brush your teeth, and you better believe I’m doing that. And I alternate legs, and if you’re feeling really crazy you can close your eyes and I’m almost toppling over, it’s very, very hard and you realize very quickly how even doing some very simple things can really make a difference and you needing to use your core muscles to keep your body upright. I think when people hear weightlifting or resistance training, maybe your mental image is big dumbbells or even small hand weights. There’s a lot of exercises that you can do by simply using your own body.
Heidi [22:43]:
And you can do it, like you said, if you want to do it while you’re watching TV then do it while you’re watching TV if that makes you do it and that makes it more enjoyable for you. You don’t have to go to the gym and it’s really building habits like other things in our life and it’s very doable.
Katie [23:03]:
Totally. You’ve got to sneak it in in little bits and ways. So, you have one chapter also that’s called The Six Secrets of Better Health. We probably don’t have time to dive into each one of them, but I would love it if you could share with our listeners sort of a topline overview, what are these six?
Heidi [23:21]:
The six secrets of better health?
Katie [23:23]:
Yes.
Heidi [23:25]:
Or the six secrets that you have to do in order to get that better health? Because we do have six different action steps that we encourage people to do in order to... which we talked about fiber and...
Katie [23:38]:
So, fiber is one, one of the secrets, one of the actions.
Heidi [23:43]:
Muscle, dairy. And you know, we’ve got a lot of questions about the dairy, but dairy is one of those foods that again, it’s very accessible, it’s very affordable. It’s rich in protein, and it’s rich in an amino acid called leucine, which really seems to be like a spark plug for building muscle. And so, I highly– we do include that. But if you don’t eat dairy, we have lots of other options as well. And of course, it is calcium for our bone health. So, we do encourage that. We encourage healthier fats, again for the anti-inflammatory effect which really... we’re even looking at fats as it may impact the mitochondria of cells, which are the powerhouses of cells, to keep them healthy as we age and that’s really important.
Katie [24:39]:
And what do we need to do to do that?
Heidi [24:43]:
To get in healthy fats?
Katie [24:44]:
No, the mitochondria...
Heidi [24:47]:
Yeah, that’s the healthy fats might really be again, related to anti-inflammation and perhaps its role in keeping the mitochondria healthy.
Katie [24:57]:
Okay, so this is stuff like fatty foods like salmon? Stuff like avocado? What else should we be adding to the mix? Sardines, I think I saw on one of your...
Heidi [25:08]:
Sardines are great. Sardines are actually more calcium than a glass of milk and vitamin D, they’re really a powerhouse. Again, that’s a food of my parents’ generation, I don’t know–
Katie [25:18]:
I love sardines! I will order a sardine if I see them on the menu. I remember eating them when I went to Greece years ago, and I was like, "What is this magical fish that nobody else likes?” So, I always get sardines. Maybe there’s sardine powder, maybe people can sprinkle their sardines. [laughs]
Heidi [25:37]:
There you go.
Katie [25:39]:
That’s a new business idea. You also have a chapter in your book which absolutely caught my eye, it says, "The whole body reset can fight disease and save your life over and over again,” and I thought that is really intriguing. What do you mean by this?
Heidi [25:55]:
Well that has to do with again, the role that our muscle plays in our health and well-being from our cognition to our blood sugar, to our cholesterol, to our bone health. There are so many different things that maintaining muscle and having adequate muscle helps with, that goes way beyond the aesthetic.
Katie [26:18]:
And how do you incorporate the muscle building focus into your own life Heidi, what do you do? Walk us through maybe what a week looks like. Obviously it’s nutrition but are there exercises that you do that we should know about?
Heidi [26:32]:
Well, starting with nutrition, it is really... And I’m just like everyone else, I have to make a thoughtful... I love yogurt and berries and some avocado toast pretty much every morning, but I have like five different breakfasts that I can interchange when I want to have something different so that I’m really starting my day in a muscle building mode. Because you can't make up for that, when you miss that window, you can't make it up.
So, with each meal I make an effort... Same thing, it’s easy if you get a turkey sandwich, but let’s say I want a salad. It can't just be a sprinkle of beans; you’ve got to hit enough. So, it has to be beans with some nuts or seeds and then maybe some cheese. If you’re going plant-based then with tofu, or edamame, or whatever, you have to stack it and make sure you’re hitting enough. So, those are two meals that I think you have to really pay attention to make sure you’re getting it in.
I can tell you what I do, I’m often reluctant to do that because it’s not about comparing, it’s about finding your own path. But I do do cardiovascular a few days a week and I do strength training two or three times a week. I try to do yoga, I’m not a big yoga fan so I’ve been trying to do more of that because I think it’s good for my mobility and balance exercises. I try to do maybe just 20 minutes of yoga once or twice, or some stretching two times a week to really make sure that I’m maintaining my flexibility and range of motion. Every now and then I take a dance class, I might go outside to bike ride, or go for a hike. I try to do different things to keep it interesting.
Katie [28:09]:
Yeah, it’s like you’re cross training. I love that. I understand that people have to find their own path too, but I take inspiration in hearing what other people do and sometimes I think that you can add things. I appreciate the fact that you said I don’t really like yoga and I’m trying to do that. Because I’m thinking to myself, I really don’t like picking up heavy things, but I need to try to do that. [laughs] So, it’s important to hear that even somebody who has made a career out of fitness and nutrition is willing to incorporate things that maybe is not her first love. Because when you hear that from other people it makes me think, gosh, I could be doing some things that I don’t like to do either.
Heidi [28:47]:
Everyone always says, "Find what you love.” And I get that. But you know what? I don’t love everything about my job, and I still show up every day.
Katie [28:56]:
Of course!
Heidi [28:56]:
I don’t love everything about taking care of my family, but I still do what I need to do. It’s about taking... I love myself enough to do things that are hard that I know are good for me. And any one day, I might not– and I don’t work out seven days a week, I always make sure I take a rest and I try and balance hard and easy days and listen to my body. On the other hand, I sat in a conference one day and the speaker said, “What you do now predicts your vitality in 10 years from now,” and that just stuck with me. Because on a day I don’t feel like moving, for me, my current self, I think of my future self and I go, “You know what, my future self really wants to be strong and vital and healthy so I’m going to get moving, I’m going to go do something, I’m going to go lift something heavy.”
Katie [29:45]:
That is such a great thing to have stuck in your brain. It’s for future Heidi, it’s for future Katie. I have a confession to make right now. So, one of the earlier guests on my show is a phenomenal wellness and women’s health coach named Renata Joy, and she talked about strength training, and she does just a massive amount of strength training, which she started later in life, and she got me so lit up I’m like, "I am definitely taking this on. I am going to start to do this.” And guess what? It’s two years later and I haven’t done it.
So, you have lit me up about the fact that I need to make good on that promise to myself and invest in the ability to be on an airplane in 10 years when I’m 62, and to be able to lift my suitcase in and out of the thing. And I just keep focusing on that because I feel like it’s such a great universal experience; everyone’s watched somebody with their suitcase over their head and I’m like, I don’t want to be the person that needs nine people to help them. So, that might happen someday, maybe that’s happening in 20 years. But I want to pick up grandchildren, I want to pick up groceries, I want to be able to do the things that just make you live your life.
Heidi [31:01]:
And you know, I will tell you that doing a squat, which is like being able to sit up from a chair and sit back down, and actually being able to sit up from a toilet; that is your independence, eventually. It’s hard to think of that when you’re 60, you’re thinking 10, 20 years ahead, but you’ve got to keep those muscles. That is your independence.
Katie [31:23]:
That is a great incentive. That’s actually a better incentive than my silly suitcase story. Listeners! This is priority number one; we need to invest in our thigh muscles. So, I want everyone to go out and get this book, I want you to absorb a lot of the commonsense wisdom that’s in it and very practical information. I agree, I second what Heidi said is that they don’t make it complicated, you make it easy to understand. It really spells out some of the steps that we need to be taking.
I so appreciate you coming on to walk through the basics of some of the book with us. We are nearing the end of our time together, but I do want to move into our speed round because I always enjoy ending this way, it’s sort of a quick, high-energy way to end. Are you ready? It’s one-to-two-word answers to these questions.
Heidi [32:08]:
Okay.
Katie [32:09]:
Okay. People don’t really realize this food is a protein superfood: _____.
Heidi [32:15]:
Greek yogurt or cottage cheese.
Katie [32:16]:
Both are good. You will always find this food in my pantry: _____.
Heidi [32:22]:
In my pantry... beans.
Katie [32:25]:
This item is never in my grocery cart: _____.
Heidi [32:29]:
Sausage.
Katie [32:31]:
My personal favorite way to get protein in my life: _____.
Heidi [32:36]:
Oh, I like so many different protein foods. I’m probably still going to say Greek yogurt.
Katie [32:41]:
Greek yogurt for the win!
Heidi [32:43]:
But I do eat steak, I eat chicken, I eat fish, I eat hemp seeds and plant-based. I just eat a great variety. I know that’s not quick.
Katie [32:53]:
No! That’s smart. You’re laying multiple gems on us, that’s fine. Everyone should have this fitness or exercise routine in their muscle-building routine: _____.
Heidi [33:03]:
Squats.
Katie [33:04]:
Surprise, I recognize the importance of exercise, but you’ll never find me doing this one: _____.
Heidi [33:10]:
Oooh... What would I never do...?
Katie [33:16]:
While you’re thinking I’m going to throw mine in: swimming. I don’t love going up and down lanes.
Heidi [33:21]:
No, me either, I don’t like swimming either. But I would not never do it. I would never bungee jump but that’s not really a fitness thing.
Katie [33:27]:
[laughs] All right, I keep meaning to incorporate this into my fitness routine: _____.
Heidi [33:32]:
Oh man... you’re really challenging me [Katie laughs] because I try to incorporate everything you know... More plyometrics.
Katie [33:41]:
Plyometrics.
Heidi [33:42]:
Yeah, plyometrics is where you’re bounding, doing more like if you jump onto a box, jump down from a box, jump back up. It’s more like power, which we kind of lose when we get older, some of our power, our fast twitch.
Katie [33:56]:
I’ve seen that. I’m going to google some of that and put it into the show notes so when people look for the links for the show, I’ll find a couple different exercises to put in there. This is our last question. Your one-word answer to complete this sentence...
Heidi [34:10]:
You can see I’m not good with one-words.
Katie [34:12]:
[laughs] Well, hopefully, this one’s easy. As I age, I feel _____.
Heidi [34:16]:
Conflicted.
Katie [34:18]:
You are the first person to say that, and I feel that. I see that.
Heidi [34:23]:
It’s honest.
Katie [34:24]:
Yeah, you know, there’s the goods, the bads, the ups the downs, the rollercoasters.
Heidi [34:30]:
I mean, ultimately, I embrace it. But... there are some really great things but there are some things you have to grieve and let go of. It’s different, it’s a different phase.
Katie [34:40]:
Absolutely. Conflicted, I think that sums it up for a lot of us.
Heidi, this has been so informative, so interesting and you have inspired me. I’m not going to be doing this in year three saying, “Oh my gosh, Renata and Heidi inspired me to start lifting weight and doing resistance training.” I am making a promise to myself, I’m getting to that this summer.
Heidi [35:00]:
Start small.
Katie [35:00]:
Yes, thank you for putting me in action. But before we say goodbye, how can our listeners find you, your books because you’ve written others, and The Whole Body Reset?
Heidi [35:11]:
The Whole Body Reset is through any place you buy books, I believe. All the places you buy books you can find it. And you can find me at HeidiSkolnik.com
Katie [35:23]:
Fantastic. Heidi, thank you so much.
This wraps A Certain Age, a show for women who are aging without apology. We are just a few short weeks away from our 100th show and our second birthday. That’s right, A Certain Age is turning 2! And we are celebrating with a series of amazing giveaways, special offers, and a special birthday show. Follow all the fun over on Instagram, you can find us @ACertainAgePod or by signing up for our free, weekly newsletter AGE BOLDLY. Sign up over on ACertainAgePod.com.
Special thanks to Michael Mancini who composed and produced our theme music. See you next time and until then: age boldly, beauties.