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Discovering Strength: Kim Rahir's Journey from Journalism to European Weightlifting Champion

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Life-Changing Challengers
Discovering Strength: Kim Rahir's Journey from Journalism to European Weightlifting Champion
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Season 2 Health Weight-Loss Nutrition Fitness Success

What if you could transform your life through the power of resilience and strength training?

In this episode of 'Life Changing Challengers,' host Brad Minus interviews Kim Rahir, a former journalist turned house coach and champion weightlifter. Kim, who grew up in Bremen, Germany, shares her early sports enthusiasm, academic excellence, and the challenges of being smart but not very tall.

She also talks about her diverse career, living in various countries, and her passion for weightlifting, which began at age 55.

Kim details her diagnosis with MS, her determination to become strong, and her impressive victory at the European Masters Weightlifting Championship. She emphasizes the importance of exercise, particularly strength training, for physical and mental health.

Kim also discusses her transition to coaching, helping women over 40 build muscle and improve their health. The episode highlights her resilience, dedication, and approach to life and fitness.

Contact Kim:
Instagram: @kim.rahir
Facebook: @kim.rahir
LinkedIn: @kim-rahir
KimRahir.com

Have an idea or feedback? Click here to share.

Contact Brad @ Life Changing Challengers
Instagram: @bradaminus
Facebook: @bradaminus
X(Twitter): @bradaminus
YouTube: @lifechangingchallengers
LifeChangingChallengers.com

Want to be a guest on Life-Changing Challengers? Send Brad Minus a message on PodMatch, here.

Chapters

00:00 - Childhood to Journalism

10:36 - Life in Journalism and Dubai

18:31 - Life Journey and MS Diagnosis

32:01 - Powerlifting Journey After MS Diagnosis

35:54 - Improving Quality of Life Through Exercise

48:04 - Finding Fulfillment Beyond Achievements

54:40 - Strength and Movement for Health

01:04:20 - Active Living and Weightlifting Success

01:09:24 - Connecting With Kim for Fitness Advice

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.901 --> 00:00:06.064
And welcome back to another episode of Life Changing Challengers.

00:00:06.064 --> 00:00:09.705
Again, I'm your host, brad Minus, and I am extremely lucky.

00:00:09.705 --> 00:00:23.416
You have no idea how lucky I am to have Kim Rahir with us and she is in Spain, so this is an incredible honor for me, definitely.

00:00:23.416 --> 00:00:25.657
So anyway, kim, how are you doing today?

00:00:26.698 --> 00:00:27.138
I'm great.

00:00:27.138 --> 00:00:33.271
In Spain it's very hot these days, so after 2 pm you try not to move and stay inside.

00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:37.490
Well, I live in Tampa Florida, so I hear you.

00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:45.887
So Kim is a house coach and she's also a champion weightlifter and we're going to get into that real quick.

00:00:45.887 --> 00:00:56.213
But first, as I ask all my guests, kim, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, where you grew up, the complement of your family, and what was it like to be Kim as a kid?

00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:59.807
Yeah, so I'm a northern German.

00:00:59.807 --> 00:01:02.576
I'm actually very proud of coming from the north.

00:01:02.576 --> 00:01:06.590
My grandfather was a fisherman, my great-grandfather was a fisherman.

00:01:06.590 --> 00:01:13.112
I was born and grew up in Bremen, which is not like a sea town but still very close to the sea.

00:01:13.112 --> 00:01:18.200
Bremen's trade tradition, everything, it all has this maritime context.

00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:27.234
I have an older brother and I grew up in a suburb of Bremen and I loved to play sports.

00:01:27.234 --> 00:01:30.447
I was actually a gymnast, became a gymnast when I was eight.

00:01:30.549 --> 00:02:00.091
For a few years I was very smart in school, which turned out to become at some point a little bit disturbing because I was always told to shut up and I also thought of myself at the time because of the feedback that I was getting that I was quite impertinent and cheeky because, well, apparently I didn't shut my mouth, or maybe not enough, I don't know, but I felt okay with that, like as a child it was still okay.

00:02:00.132 --> 00:02:05.216
As I became a teenager turned out that I was very smart but I was not very tall.

00:02:05.216 --> 00:02:23.533
I mean, now I live in Spain and most women are shorter than me, but I grew up in Germany where everybody was tall and at some point I even played volleyball and I was like the shortest in the group and people made fun of me and so I grew up thinking that I was smart but short and fit.

00:02:23.533 --> 00:02:29.284
But I never looked my age, which at some point you come back with a vengeance where you don't look your age.

00:02:29.284 --> 00:02:41.082
But at the time it was a bit stressful and we used to my family, we used to drive north on the weekends, take a sailboat and go out on the sea, so that's like a theme in my life.

00:02:42.085 --> 00:02:43.466
Nice, can I?

00:02:43.466 --> 00:02:48.832
Germany has a reputation for food.

00:02:48.832 --> 00:02:53.888
Not necessarily is it a spicy, not necessarily is it bland.

00:02:53.888 --> 00:02:54.469
It's got a very.

00:02:54.469 --> 00:02:57.740
What type of foods did you end up eating growing up?

00:02:58.461 --> 00:03:00.983
Well, this is a good question.

00:03:00.983 --> 00:03:12.550
My dad, when I think it was at the beginning of the 70s, so I was just about seven or eight, he had a quite dangerous form of hepatitis spent weeks in the hospital.

00:03:12.550 --> 00:03:23.837
My mom looked into food, into nutrition, how she had to feed him, and she then became a health food fanatic and a vegetarian.

00:03:23.837 --> 00:03:29.320
Health food fanatic and a vegetarian.

00:03:29.320 --> 00:03:43.627
So we were eating whole grain stuff when most people didn't even know what it was Like whole grain bread and whole grain pasta and raw vegetables until the cows came home, so anything.

00:03:43.627 --> 00:03:45.691
There was hardly ever any sugar.

00:03:45.691 --> 00:03:49.364
That was when I went out with friends or to friends' houses.

00:03:49.364 --> 00:03:50.246
I could have sweets.

00:03:50.246 --> 00:04:03.343
It was pretty, pretty strict and I mean my mom tried to make like really tasty vegetarian dishes but I was not really very much into eating for pleasure, it was eating for health.

00:04:04.405 --> 00:04:06.048
Interesting that is.

00:04:06.048 --> 00:04:10.455
Yeah, in the 70s that was not heard of, at least here in America.

00:04:10.455 --> 00:04:15.771
We were just starting our SAD, the Standard American Diet.

00:04:15.771 --> 00:04:19.884
Things were just starting to get supersized and all that other great stuff.

00:04:19.884 --> 00:04:30.065
So just because I'm curious, because so growing up in the 70s and you were a gymnast, so were you a fan of, like, Nadia Komanić?

00:04:30.466 --> 00:04:32.791
Absolutely she was my hero.

00:04:32.791 --> 00:04:33.512
I don't know.

00:04:33.512 --> 00:04:34.947
Do you remember Olga Korbut?

00:04:37.045 --> 00:04:38.831
I couldn't remember Korbut, but I remembered Olga.

00:04:40.083 --> 00:04:41.627
Yeah, of course they were our heroes.

00:04:41.627 --> 00:04:42.410
We loved them.

00:04:55.889 --> 00:05:00.153
And whenever there were like Olympic Games, we'd be glued to the television Absolutely.

00:05:00.153 --> 00:05:05.858
When the Olympics were there, every four years, that's what was on the television, no matter what it was.

00:05:05.858 --> 00:05:13.269
A lot of it was whether it was gymnastics, or in the winter it was figure skating, or it was track and the decathlon.

00:05:13.269 --> 00:05:16.466
Those were things that were always on the television during those two weeks.

00:05:16.466 --> 00:05:23.807
So every four years was like it was a celebration in my house and gymnastics was something that we followed and I remember that.

00:05:23.807 --> 00:05:31.529
I, I totally remember, because it said 1.0 on scoreboard because the scoreboard wasn't made for it.

00:05:31.730 --> 00:05:41.822
It was such a big moment it's, and you're witnessing it and you know something special is happening, but you don't realize that this is like big history going on and you're there to watch the happening.

00:05:41.822 --> 00:05:42.843
Yeah, that was.

00:05:42.843 --> 00:05:44.704
We love those girls.

00:05:45.504 --> 00:05:49.887
Great, yeah, Okay, good, I was just like.

00:05:49.887 --> 00:05:56.632
I didn't know if it was well, Olga Korver was from Russia when Nadia Komanić was from Romania.

00:05:56.632 --> 00:06:02.557
I didn't know if there was a like when you were growing up, if there was any kind of rivalry there, especially since you were a gymnast.

00:06:02.557 --> 00:06:05.603
I didn't know, but that's why I was curious, that's why I had to know.

00:06:05.603 --> 00:06:06.425
I just had to figure it out.

00:06:06.425 --> 00:06:07.507
But that's great.

00:06:07.507 --> 00:06:11.423
So, so in secondary.

00:06:11.423 --> 00:06:14.350
So you went to secondary school, right?

00:06:14.350 --> 00:06:16.653
What was that like in Germany for you?

00:06:18.341 --> 00:06:19.182
It was very short.

00:06:19.182 --> 00:06:22.225
I'm going to tell you the full truth.

00:06:22.225 --> 00:06:28.255
I skipped a grade and I skipped a grade and I still had no struggles.

00:06:28.255 --> 00:06:35.365
And then there was another thing where you could get your A-levels half a year early if you're prepared by yourself.

00:06:35.365 --> 00:06:38.848
I did that too, so I finished everything one and a half years in advance.

00:06:38.848 --> 00:06:51.009
I was always thinking and this is something that I don't believe in anymore today I thought at the time oh, if I can just get ahead, get ahead like, be faster, start everything faster.

00:06:51.009 --> 00:07:05.392
Then I don't know what I thought I would be getting to or what was going to happen, but I thought, yeah, let's do this as fast as possible, Not really focusing on the process, but life taught me how to do that later.

00:07:06.519 --> 00:07:10.490
So with that speed that you were going at, how were your grades?

00:07:10.490 --> 00:07:12.086
Because you're obviously very smart.

00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:18.648
My grades were I don't know how to translate that to US numbers.

00:07:19.189 --> 00:07:21.934
Oh, true it was like 100%.

00:07:22.774 --> 00:07:24.865
Really, my any levels was a 100%.

00:07:24.865 --> 00:07:25.790
Yeah, nice.

00:07:25.790 --> 00:07:31.108
I don't feel so good, I feel like I'm bragging, but it's just the truth.

00:07:31.129 --> 00:07:33.444
No, so a lot of people.

00:07:33.444 --> 00:07:40.565
It's hurry up right and you were very speedy on getting yourself, so obviously sometimes trying to get it done.

00:07:40.565 --> 00:07:50.567
A lot of times in my case, that means that, okay, I'm suffering, I'm going to sacrifice an A for a B in order for me to get through, but you didn't.

00:07:50.567 --> 00:07:52.911
That's amazing.

00:07:52.911 --> 00:07:55.482
Where did you go to university?

00:07:56.365 --> 00:08:05.865
I went to Bonn, which was the capital at the time, the temporary capital that had after the Second World War and nobody thought it was ever going to change at the time.

00:08:05.865 --> 00:08:10.973
And I went to Bonn and I picked my course from the catalog.

00:08:10.973 --> 00:08:13.202
I just went through it and thought, what do I like?

00:08:13.202 --> 00:08:17.322
And I picked political science because it had all the things that I was curious about.

00:08:17.322 --> 00:08:22.745
And then I matched that they had to have two more subjects and I took history because I love history.

00:08:22.745 --> 00:08:27.827
And then I took French because I thought my English was okay but I wanted to improve my French.

00:08:27.827 --> 00:08:35.250
But picking French like French philology at uni, I could tell you is not the best way to learn a language.

00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:38.604
I can imagine Just real quick.

00:08:38.604 --> 00:08:44.773
Was it a required course in secondary school to take English?

00:08:46.154 --> 00:08:46.315
Yes.

00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:49.087
Okay, and that's still going on today, right?

00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:50.383
Yes, absolutely.

00:08:50.383 --> 00:09:12.854
And I remember that my brother and my mom had a fight because my mom insisted that we took two languages and I also took French in school I just thought it was not quite as evolved as my English and my brother, he didn't want to take French, he hated it, and he somehow managed to switch it for, I think, computer science or something.

00:09:12.854 --> 00:09:17.471
And my mom was very upset and said oh, I have a diploma without a second language.

00:09:17.471 --> 00:09:19.384
Foreign language is not a diploma.

00:09:19.384 --> 00:09:20.710
And there was a big fight going on.

00:09:22.301 --> 00:09:24.105
Oh, wow, yeah, that must be something.

00:09:24.105 --> 00:09:35.282
So you actually I don't know how much after you graduated from university, but you actually were a journalist for a long time, weren't you?

00:09:35.302 --> 00:09:40.993
Yes, yes, I graduated, I think I did a master's in five years.

00:09:40.993 --> 00:09:42.142
At the time that was normal.

00:09:42.142 --> 00:09:46.392
You did eight semesters, which is four years, and then you had one year for your dissertation.

00:09:46.392 --> 00:10:04.240
Then I did a PhD, still in political science, and when I finished that I started work at a news agency in Bonn which somehow I stumbled upon that job through friends which was the German desk of a news agency from France, from Agence France-Presse.

00:10:05.441 --> 00:10:07.381
Oh wow, that's crazy.

00:10:07.381 --> 00:10:08.863
What was your specialty?

00:10:08.863 --> 00:10:10.823
Political science, probably, right.

00:10:11.624 --> 00:10:13.846
In a news agency, you have to do everything.

00:10:14.245 --> 00:10:14.605
Oh really.

00:10:14.625 --> 00:10:16.226
You have to do absolutely everything.

00:10:16.226 --> 00:10:27.812
Yes, because they cover everything and you have shifts, and there are shifts when you are responsible for the whole world and everything that comes up, it pops onto your screen and then you say, oh, is this important for Germany?

00:10:27.812 --> 00:10:28.633
Okay, we'll take it.

00:10:28.633 --> 00:10:30.875
Is this important for Germany, for German clients?

00:10:30.875 --> 00:10:32.575
Is that enough?

00:10:32.575 --> 00:10:33.596
We don't need that.

00:10:33.596 --> 00:10:38.177
And so it could be economy, it could be society, it could be like fun stuff.

00:10:41.381 --> 00:10:42.859
The only thing we didn't do at that desk was sports.

00:10:42.859 --> 00:10:47.149
What An ex-gymnast can't cover sports.

00:10:47.671 --> 00:10:48.874
Isn't that unfair?

00:10:48.874 --> 00:10:50.437
You know what?

00:10:50.437 --> 00:11:03.081
I don't know about the situation now at all, because I'm so far away from media and from Germany, but at the time there was a specialized news agency for sports just sports and they were like gold standard.

00:11:03.081 --> 00:11:07.993
There was no way anybody could have messed with them, so there was no point in spending resources on that.

00:11:09.400 --> 00:11:12.409
So how long did you remain at that desk?

00:11:14.041 --> 00:11:17.946
It was from 1990 to 1995.

00:11:17.946 --> 00:11:30.325
And then I got married to a colleague who worked in Paris and we got to know each other over the phone colleague who worked in paris and we got to know each other over the phone.

00:11:30.345 --> 00:11:30.886
Okay, that's interesting.

00:11:30.886 --> 00:11:32.610
Right 1995 was like.

00:11:32.650 --> 00:11:48.081
Now we're just starting the dot coms they're yeah, just in the beginning, and all the bbs boards and all that stuff that was started to become news and where the yahoo and all that people were making like billions of dollars, it was crazy.

00:11:48.081 --> 00:11:49.703
So there was no.

00:11:49.703 --> 00:11:58.836
There was no online dating or there was no teams or any like a facetime or anything like that or anything like this, like what we're doing right now.

00:11:58.836 --> 00:12:03.245
At the time so you made sure that you were, that you got to know each other over the phone.

00:12:03.245 --> 00:12:05.470
That's a lot of time.

00:12:06.652 --> 00:12:07.373
Well, we had to work.

00:12:07.373 --> 00:12:14.369
I mean, I had to pester him because there were always special needs for the German service.

00:12:14.369 --> 00:12:16.679
So I had to call Paris and say, could you send this paper a little bit sooner, and stuff like this.

00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:24.669
And then we got to talk and I think we met, also for work reasons, and then I think we went on dates like twice and then we got married.

00:12:24.669 --> 00:12:27.705
What I'm not making this up, it's the truth.

00:12:28.967 --> 00:12:29.649
And you're still married.

00:12:29.649 --> 00:12:32.794
Yes, that's incredible.

00:12:34.623 --> 00:12:37.115
I think it's crazy and reckless of my daughter way to do that.

00:12:37.115 --> 00:12:39.101
I would probably be very nervous, but yeah.

00:12:39.783 --> 00:13:06.306
Yeah, but I mean you're talking about most of your conversations were on the phone, no-transcript does it just doesn't happen.

00:13:06.306 --> 00:13:07.028
You know what I mean.

00:13:07.028 --> 00:13:19.107
Now the people are meeting on these, on these dating sites, and they're only lasting like a few years and it's half at least here in america, it's a 50, you know I think it's the same in western europe.

00:13:19.649 --> 00:13:19.769
It's.

00:13:19.769 --> 00:13:21.712
I think it's for relationships.

00:13:21.712 --> 00:13:23.403
It's the same as for everything that we do.

00:13:23.403 --> 00:13:27.013
We're're just totally over flooded with stimuli.

00:13:27.013 --> 00:13:29.207
We have so much choice all the time.

00:13:29.207 --> 00:13:38.886
Our brain is not really made for this and that's also why people are always seeking new thrills and going for drugs or binging TV shows, whatever it is.

00:13:38.886 --> 00:13:42.750
There's just so much on offer and our brain is built like this.

00:13:42.750 --> 00:13:54.804
It wants to go for stuff, for new stuff and interesting stuff, and then, if there is so much to be had, then it will most of the time go, try, get it, and I don't think it serves us.

00:13:54.804 --> 00:14:02.767
It doesn't serve our happiness, but that's how the world is, and I feel quite grateful to have lived in a non-digital world for a while.

00:14:02.767 --> 00:14:07.072
It's hard to imagine how we did things, but we did right.

00:14:07.734 --> 00:14:10.081
Oh, exactly, listen.

00:14:10.081 --> 00:14:18.451
I used to be a residential appraiser and that's how I made money through college and I had to read a map to get to the different places.

00:14:18.451 --> 00:14:20.767
And you give a map to somebody.

00:14:20.767 --> 00:14:23.187
Now they have no idea what it is or how to use it.

00:14:23.187 --> 00:14:26.544
If you can't GPS it, you're done.

00:14:28.123 --> 00:14:32.245
With the map you've got a real feel for the place and you really learn the place.

00:14:32.245 --> 00:14:44.524
I've been in Madrid for 10 years and I still rely on GPS for quite a few trips, because I've never really internalized the layout of the city, because I was never forced to.

00:14:44.524 --> 00:14:53.205
Before that, before digital times, you would take the map and then you would look at the street and then you walk down it and think, oh, this looks different.

00:14:53.205 --> 00:14:58.745
But somehow it inscribed itself into your brain too and next time you would know.

00:14:59.548 --> 00:15:01.443
Exactly when you used a map.

00:15:01.443 --> 00:15:03.250
You knew where to go the next time.

00:15:03.250 --> 00:15:12.606
But now at GPS, we just turn off our brains and just let GPS do what it's going to do, and you get there and that's it.

00:15:12.606 --> 00:15:19.010
And if you want to go back, you just put it back into the GPS and don't necessarily remember.

00:15:19.010 --> 00:15:20.633
Yeah, so that's interesting as well.

00:15:20.633 --> 00:15:27.457
So in 1995, you got married and, did you like, start to live together.

00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:31.089
Yes, I left my job and we moved to Dubai.

00:15:32.442 --> 00:15:33.527
You moved to Dubai.

00:15:33.527 --> 00:15:35.684
We did Before.

00:15:35.684 --> 00:15:36.649
It was fashionable.

00:15:36.649 --> 00:15:39.147
Yeah, yeah, what was that like?

00:15:39.147 --> 00:15:42.216
What was Dubai like in 1995?

00:15:43.221 --> 00:15:47.756
I always called it like a big, glitzy shopping mall in the desert.

00:15:47.756 --> 00:15:54.513
Okay, because there's no landscape-wise there's nothing.

00:15:54.513 --> 00:15:55.885
It really is like the desert.

00:15:55.885 --> 00:15:59.932
The climate is extremely harsh because it's very hot and super humid.

00:15:59.932 --> 00:16:04.227
Everybody thinks, oh, it's the desert, must be dry, because that's what we think.

00:16:04.227 --> 00:16:05.102
Well, it's on the water.

00:16:05.102 --> 00:16:16.546
It's extremely humid and even at the time, the people who were there to make money, which makes for a weird vibe in the society I mean, we were journalists.

00:16:16.546 --> 00:16:20.267
I mean I started freelancing, my husband was assigned there.

00:16:20.267 --> 00:16:22.768
So you come with a different perspective.

00:16:22.768 --> 00:16:25.970
You just watch and look for stories and you're an observer.

00:16:25.970 --> 00:16:36.625
But most people were there to make money and I mean, bless them, Of course you would, but it made for a very weird vibe and there was hardly any culture.

00:16:36.625 --> 00:16:37.986
You couldn't watch movies.

00:16:37.986 --> 00:16:46.115
I mean you could go to the cinema, but if there was something in the movie that was even remotely offensive, they would chop it out.

00:16:46.115 --> 00:16:51.259
So we watched movies and never understood what was going on, because parts were missing.

00:16:51.259 --> 00:16:51.841
Right.

00:16:52.923 --> 00:16:54.870
Oh man, they censored the movies for you.

00:16:54.870 --> 00:16:55.692
That's wonderful.

00:16:55.692 --> 00:16:58.525
So how long were you in Dubai For?

00:16:58.525 --> 00:17:01.647
Four years, four years, yeah, it doesn't sound like the best four years of your life.

00:17:03.221 --> 00:17:05.605
I can't say that it was quite exciting.

00:17:05.605 --> 00:17:07.645
I don't want to sound so.

00:17:07.645 --> 00:17:10.561
It's just that everybody says oh, Dubai, what we did?

00:17:10.561 --> 00:17:11.324
Because we were Germans.

00:17:11.324 --> 00:17:18.367
We traveled, I went, I got to see Saudi Arabia, I went to Iraq twice under Saddam Hussein, which is a.

00:17:18.367 --> 00:17:21.301
I mean, that was an experience If you've ever.

00:17:21.301 --> 00:17:32.726
I don't even know how to describe it, except that, like you can feel fear in the air so thick that you think you can cut through it, and the feeling of crossing the border and leaving Iraq is one of the best feelings I've ever had in my life.

00:17:32.726 --> 00:17:34.228
At the time.

00:17:35.028 --> 00:17:36.750
I actually know that feeling.

00:17:36.750 --> 00:17:41.421
I was there and, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly the people.

00:17:41.421 --> 00:17:47.713
When he finally fell, there was a relief in the air, except that there also was a.

00:17:47.713 --> 00:17:52.689
There was a fear, because they just thought that he could just be replaced with somebody.

00:17:52.689 --> 00:17:58.229
That was either that somebody could be worse, but let's leave that alone, but that's OK.

00:17:58.229 --> 00:18:04.387
So Dubai was like your gateway you were able to get around and see a lot of other things.

00:18:04.387 --> 00:18:05.230
That's fantastic.

00:18:05.230 --> 00:18:08.648
And so, after four years, where did you, where did you move?

00:18:10.161 --> 00:18:20.442
We moved back to Paris, which is headquarters for my husband's company, and we stayed for nine months, and then we moved to Vienna and at the end of Dubai, our first child was born, by the way, in Dubai.

00:18:21.306 --> 00:18:22.490
Oh, that's amazing.

00:18:22.490 --> 00:18:24.757
So then you moved to Vienna.

00:18:24.757 --> 00:18:26.079
Well, you're a little closer to home.

00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:30.707
Yes A little, a little closer right.

00:18:30.707 --> 00:18:32.449
I was in Vienna.

00:18:32.449 --> 00:18:33.170
I loved Vienna.

00:18:33.810 --> 00:18:35.073
Vienna is fantastic, yeah.

00:18:35.693 --> 00:18:36.775
Yeah, that was great.

00:18:36.775 --> 00:18:40.241
That was great, did you enjoy?

00:18:40.261 --> 00:18:40.942
that Absolutely.

00:18:40.942 --> 00:18:46.073
I had two more kids, which sort of keeps you busy.

00:18:46.073 --> 00:18:54.567
But Austria is just you take the car three hours, you're in the Alps, you're in the most spectacular mountain range that Europe has to offer.

00:18:54.567 --> 00:18:55.809
It's beautiful.

00:18:55.809 --> 00:18:58.013
It's beautiful, it's well conserved.

00:18:58.013 --> 00:19:04.712
They realized this sort of green ecological trend much before anybody else.

00:19:04.712 --> 00:19:09.231
It's because they had like a huge scandal with how do you call this with wine.

00:19:09.231 --> 00:19:12.670
They put they had, so they had cut the wine with something.

00:19:12.670 --> 00:19:14.346
They had spiked the wine, I think.

00:19:14.346 --> 00:19:15.308
I don't know how you call it.

00:19:15.308 --> 00:19:22.028
So they had to reinvent themselves and they did, and it was beautiful at the time and it's green the landscape, everything.

00:19:22.028 --> 00:19:24.346
You can go to wonderful places.

00:19:24.346 --> 00:19:25.651
That was a great time.

00:19:26.520 --> 00:19:31.630
I spent some time in Kitzbühel, and I love Kitzbühel.

00:19:31.630 --> 00:19:34.315
Oh my God, it was fantastic.

00:19:34.315 --> 00:19:36.324
So how long were you in Vienna?

00:19:37.227 --> 00:19:37.788
Four years.

00:19:39.748 --> 00:19:41.019
It sounds like a military day.

00:19:41.019 --> 00:19:43.065
That's like when I was in the military.

00:19:43.065 --> 00:19:45.471
It was like three years, four years and then you move.

00:19:46.260 --> 00:19:52.773
It's a bit like that, because it's very important for a journalist to not become too integrated into the place.

00:19:52.773 --> 00:20:10.404
You have to stay the observer, which in a way is great, because you don't worry too much about what's going on in the country, you don't feel too concerned, you can enjoy everything, because you know this is temporary Stuff that doesn't work so nicely.

00:20:10.404 --> 00:20:13.152
You don't take so seriously because you know it's temporary.

00:20:13.152 --> 00:20:16.246
But of course you don't have roots and you're not integrated.

00:20:16.446 --> 00:20:26.721
So trade-offs, like everything in life so between your, between being a journalist and moving all the time, you're pretty well traveled, I imagine.

00:20:26.721 --> 00:20:37.175
Can you just, so we're not gonna just gonna keep rolling with this, what other can you list off the rest of your journey to get you to Madrid?

00:20:38.299 --> 00:20:46.345
Yeah, we always went back to Paris, and then we spent four years in Berlin and then another three years in Paris, and then we came to Madrid.

00:20:47.127 --> 00:20:48.432
Awesome, awesome.

00:20:48.432 --> 00:20:52.989
So there is something that happened when you were 50.

00:20:52.989 --> 00:20:54.392
I'm not mistaken.

00:20:54.392 --> 00:20:54.893
Is that when?

00:20:54.893 --> 00:20:57.186
So you were diagnosed with MS?

00:20:57.186 --> 00:21:02.449
What were the symptoms leading up to that and what was to live to that diagnosis?

00:21:02.900 --> 00:21:04.386
Yeah, it's a bit of a saga.

00:21:04.386 --> 00:21:17.252
It started two years before I had an autoimmune episode which is called Guillain-Barré the syndrome Guillain-Barré Apparently it's very common in soldiers and could be with my three kids in my full-time job.

00:21:17.252 --> 00:21:19.347
I was soldiering on a little bit at the time.

00:21:19.347 --> 00:21:22.279
That sent me to hospital from one day to the next.

00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:26.991
I was paralyzed from the hip downwards for three weeks, had to learn to walk again and everything.

00:21:26.991 --> 00:21:30.885
But they told me afterwards that was a one-off it comes, it goes.

00:21:31.527 --> 00:21:34.292
Guillain-barrarre is the name of the two French doctors who discovered this.

00:21:34.292 --> 00:21:38.186
My kids were still small and it was super scary.

00:21:38.186 --> 00:21:47.664
And when I got over this I was like, oh my God, I get a second shot at life, I'm going to do everything much better and new perspective and gratitude and what have you.

00:21:47.664 --> 00:21:52.002
And then, after two more years, my left hand was going numb.

00:21:52.002 --> 00:21:53.906
So the first episode was in Berlin.

00:21:53.906 --> 00:21:54.950
I was 50.

00:21:54.950 --> 00:21:55.872
We were in Paris.

00:21:55.872 --> 00:22:03.767
My hand went numb and went to see the doctor and he said yeah, this time it's different, this time it's actually MS.

00:22:03.767 --> 00:22:06.326
That was a low blow.

00:22:07.900 --> 00:22:09.487
That's yeah, I can't even imagine.

00:22:09.487 --> 00:22:11.968
So just to give a little thing.

00:22:11.968 --> 00:22:14.388
So this is episode 40.

00:22:14.388 --> 00:22:17.229
Episode 24 with Kelly Magin.

00:22:17.229 --> 00:22:25.873
She detailed a very, I should say, a four-year saga of going through that, where she was completely paralyzed, couldn't talk, couldn't do anything.

00:22:25.873 --> 00:22:29.327
Wow With the Guillain-Barre, and then say that again Guillain.

00:22:29.327 --> 00:22:32.229
Guillain-barre yes, guillain-barre.

00:22:32.229 --> 00:22:34.208
Yeah, she just thought it was gb.

00:22:34.730 --> 00:22:42.125
so I'll do that in the future yeah, no, it's fine, it's fine, but that was what we just got to the point, because I couldn't say it, I couldn't remember it.

00:22:42.125 --> 00:22:44.030
But but, yeah, so check out.

00:22:44.030 --> 00:22:49.644
Next you can check, recheck out episode 24, and on the youtube version of this I will put that in the.

00:22:49.644 --> 00:22:58.527
I will put a card up there so you can grab, so you can get a little bit more, because she really dug into what it is, how it is, so you'll be able to grab that.

00:22:58.527 --> 00:23:02.222
So, so, all right, so you got, so you ended up with that.

00:23:02.222 --> 00:23:03.545
But how did so?

00:23:03.545 --> 00:23:03.845
Did you?

00:23:03.845 --> 00:23:07.530
Were you able to get past that before the diagnosis?

00:23:08.813 --> 00:23:08.992
Yes.

00:23:09.994 --> 00:23:10.255
Okay.

00:23:10.883 --> 00:23:14.760
I got out of the hospital after the six weeks I was on in a wheelchair.

00:23:14.760 --> 00:23:17.522
I had to use crutches the one crutch I learned to walk again.

00:23:17.522 --> 00:23:21.145
It's just because the nerves had been attacked and they were healing.

00:23:21.145 --> 00:23:24.368
And I got treatment for another year, I think.

00:23:24.368 --> 00:23:35.897
And then one day the doctor said we stopped the treatment, you're fine, it's all is great, and I thought I was just a normal person again, not somebody who hangs around in hospital.

00:23:35.897 --> 00:23:43.531
And then the second strike, which was a low blow and it felt very dark.

00:23:43.531 --> 00:23:46.843
Mostly, I mean, I didn't have much damage.

00:23:46.843 --> 00:23:49.448
My left hand is still numb to this day.

00:23:50.451 --> 00:23:51.553
What's the worst thing?

00:23:51.553 --> 00:23:53.105
The fear, the uncertainty.

00:23:53.105 --> 00:23:56.243
You don't know where you're going, and some doctors.

00:23:56.243 --> 00:24:10.432
I don't want to blame them, but I remember, while I was getting some kind of infusion, a doctor came by, asked me questions for a survey he was doing and he said, yeah, he was researching a particular variation of MS where you go blind.

00:24:10.432 --> 00:24:13.287
And I said, oh, thank you very much for sharing that with me.

00:24:13.287 --> 00:24:15.784
I needed to know that you could go blind too.

00:24:15.784 --> 00:24:17.567
So it's scary.

00:24:18.670 --> 00:24:21.182
Yeah, let's step back, because you said it was a low blow.

00:24:21.182 --> 00:24:24.910
But what were your symptoms that led to that?

00:24:24.910 --> 00:24:26.432
You said your hand was numb.

00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:36.394
Numbness in the left hand and it was ascending, and then it took them a while to catch it because of my gb thought it might be that.

00:24:36.394 --> 00:24:49.383
So they gave me an infusion of something that didn't help, and then they did an mri and then they saw damage in the spine and then they gave me I don't know how you call this cortisone, we call it right, right away.

00:24:49.383 --> 00:24:51.185
And then they stopped it.

00:24:51.185 --> 00:24:52.208
That stops.

00:24:52.208 --> 00:24:59.488
But because it took a while before they discovered it, my left hand is still numb, which I find that fascinating.

00:24:59.488 --> 00:25:11.488
Actually, because the sensations, the weird sensations, I do have them in my left hand, but I know that it's a lesion in my spine that causes this and it's very hard to wrap your head around that.

00:25:12.730 --> 00:25:13.432
I can imagine.

00:25:13.432 --> 00:25:19.171
It runs in my family so I got a pretty good education on it.

00:25:19.171 --> 00:25:24.310
I did have an aunt that passed away and I have an uncle right now that is affected by it.

00:25:24.310 --> 00:25:25.432
He's doing great, by the way.

00:25:25.432 --> 00:25:26.965
He still plays golf, does the whole thing.

00:25:26.965 --> 00:25:30.359
But it got a cocktail of different drugs and PT and the whole bit.

00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:34.230
So my first client that I ever had I'm an endurance coach.

00:25:34.230 --> 00:25:38.367
He had MS first client and I'll talk about that anecdote in a minute.

00:25:38.367 --> 00:25:41.173
But so how bad.

00:25:41.173 --> 00:25:43.044
So you got the numbness in the hand.

00:25:43.044 --> 00:25:44.047
That was the start of it.

00:25:44.047 --> 00:25:45.211
Did it get worse from there?

00:25:45.940 --> 00:25:46.820
No, it didn't.

00:25:46.820 --> 00:25:48.663
That was the first relapse.

00:25:48.663 --> 00:26:02.326
I had one more where I was actually I was doing a weird yoga pose on the floor and I think I was doing the plow or something and there was a tingling in my spine and I know this was another one and that was it.

00:26:02.326 --> 00:26:04.031
That was it.

00:26:04.031 --> 00:26:09.372
And I recently talked to a doctor who said, yeah, we have this five-year rule.

00:26:09.372 --> 00:26:18.119
I don't know if you're well-versed in MS, maybe.

00:26:18.140 --> 00:26:20.910
I had no idea that if you make it through five, years without relapses and problems, that you're more or less on the good side of the tracks.

00:26:20.910 --> 00:26:28.303
So yeah, so they're saying that if you go five years then they consider you in complete remission Doesn't mean that it doesn't come back, unfortunately.

00:26:28.462 --> 00:26:29.463
I'm not trying to fear you.

00:26:29.483 --> 00:26:30.704
I'm not trying to fear you.

00:26:31.125 --> 00:26:32.125
No, I'm aware.

00:26:32.787 --> 00:26:52.086
Yeah, well, it's more, for I just want it's something that needs to be put out there the doctors nowadays there seems to be an issue with ad news, they got to say it, but they try to be, they try to walk on eggshells and they're like, oh well, this is going to, you're going to be fine.

00:26:52.086 --> 00:26:57.924
And for fear of lawsuits, oh my goodness, Like here, right.

00:26:58.760 --> 00:27:02.667
You scared me so much and I'm traumatized, so pay me five million or stop.

00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:05.144
Yeah, it's well, they so, they so.

00:27:05.144 --> 00:27:13.940
The bad news is, if it's wrong or if you come out of it, then they were, they're considered a laughingstock and they misdiagnosed or whatever.

00:27:13.940 --> 00:27:19.349
And then then out here america's sue happy.

00:27:19.349 --> 00:27:24.125
It's like oh, you were wrong, you made me go through all this stuff and you were wrong.

00:27:24.125 --> 00:27:28.017
I'm gonna sue you, um and get so they can get paid.

00:27:28.017 --> 00:27:30.401
And it's ridiculous, it's just absolutely ridiculous.

00:27:30.401 --> 00:27:35.565
I would and the physicians have to carry insurance for reasons like that.

00:27:35.565 --> 00:27:36.244
It's ridiculous.

00:27:36.244 --> 00:27:37.945
It's absolutely ridiculous.

00:27:37.945 --> 00:27:58.611
So, yeah, that's a trend that's going on out here.

00:27:58.611 --> 00:28:00.660
So that was the one relapse.

00:28:00.660 --> 00:28:05.500
So you left journalism after getting-.

00:28:07.946 --> 00:28:09.030
Yeah, that was a little bit later.

00:28:09.030 --> 00:28:13.467
So when I got my diagnosis I fought with a doctor and he said you need lifelong treatment.

00:28:13.467 --> 00:28:19.646
This is I was writing the prescription and I said hang on a minute, can we talk about this?

00:28:19.646 --> 00:28:20.490
His lifelong treatment was that.

00:28:20.490 --> 00:28:32.315
I found that very scary and I think because of my hospital stay when I was paralyzed, this experience of having no power at all, like nothing in a hospital.

00:28:32.315 --> 00:28:37.625
You don't even decide what the light is on in your room or when there's a person in your room.

00:28:37.625 --> 00:28:38.508
It's crazy.

00:28:38.508 --> 00:28:50.605
You have zero power and I think somehow giving away my power again to needing lifelong treatment, that really scared me.

00:28:50.605 --> 00:28:56.424
But he I mean he was not used to people talking back, that's for sure asking so many questions.

00:28:56.424 --> 00:29:05.011
He was like really just prescribing this thing, want to send me on my way, and I fought with him for a long time until he got a little bit impatient so I had to give in.

00:29:05.132 --> 00:29:06.482
I got the treatment.

00:29:06.482 --> 00:29:21.809
I'd inject myself with interferon beta three times a week, which has unpleasant side effects which I covered with over-the-counter drugs because I just wanted to live my life and I wanted to make myself physically strong.

00:29:21.809 --> 00:29:29.130
So that's when I started training like seriously lifting heavy, and I got better and better through that, which was crazy.

00:29:29.130 --> 00:29:31.667
I had asked the doctor can I exercise?

00:29:31.667 --> 00:29:39.355
And he said yeah, okay, like actually saying I have no idea what I'm talking about, I just don't want any responsibility.

00:29:39.355 --> 00:29:41.382
Fits nicely with what you just said.

00:29:41.382 --> 00:29:45.230
If I tell you go lift weights and you hurt yourself, there's my lawsuit.

00:29:45.230 --> 00:29:50.250
But a nurse told me that exercise was great for a mass, makes you fatigue resistant and everything.

00:29:50.250 --> 00:29:55.692
So I just went for it, got myself a nice book book, started lifting heavy, very meticulous with form.

00:29:55.692 --> 00:29:57.435
I wanted to be like the perfect lifter.

00:29:57.435 --> 00:29:59.923
And everything got stronger and stronger.

00:29:59.982 --> 00:30:04.260
And I think the main thing that happens when you do strength training is your mental health.

00:30:04.260 --> 00:30:06.605
It's you become a different person.

00:30:06.605 --> 00:30:29.990
You become so confident the way you carry yourself because you I think it's somehow, it's just instinctive If you feel like you can hold your own or you can carry something heavy or you can push your car, whatever it is, I think it gives you this feeling of being adequate, or more than adequate, to whatever life throws at you.

00:30:29.990 --> 00:30:39.131
And now I experience this, and now there's tons and tons of research Like all kinds of mental health symptoms get better with exercise.

00:30:39.131 --> 00:30:40.926
There's absolutely no doubt about this.

00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:52.809
The one thing that pains me and I still haven't found a way to deal with that is when somebody is really low with their mental health and they're really feeling depressed.

00:30:52.809 --> 00:30:58.289
You can't go and tell them oh, just exercise, you're going to be fine.

00:30:58.289 --> 00:30:59.593
It doesn't work.

00:30:59.593 --> 00:31:04.211
You can't get them to take that step because they're in a place where it's hard for them.

00:31:04.211 --> 00:31:10.349
And this is something where we have to find a way get them closer to trying that as a remedy.

00:31:10.349 --> 00:31:15.566
And I think doctors they could help a lot If doctors were to tell patients try and do this.

00:31:15.566 --> 00:31:18.972
Maybe it would be a little bit easier for them to say this.

00:31:18.972 --> 00:31:26.445
Otherwise it just sounds like, oh, come on, don't be a sloth, get up and move and you're going to be fine, which is so careless and it really doesn't work.

00:31:26.445 --> 00:31:35.580
So we need to find a way to help people who have mental health symptoms to get to move without like feeling pushed or shamed or anything.

00:31:36.742 --> 00:31:39.667
And I got I mean, we moved to Spain.

00:31:39.667 --> 00:31:41.392
I joined a new gym.

00:31:41.392 --> 00:31:44.564
It's always the first thing I did when we went somewhere joined a gym.

00:31:44.564 --> 00:31:46.828
I told nobody that I had MS.

00:31:46.828 --> 00:31:50.201
That was my, my dirty secret, but I didn't want that label.

00:31:50.201 --> 00:31:54.443
I don't, I would just want it to be I'm happy to be the crazy German who lifts heavy.

00:31:54.443 --> 00:31:57.065
I don't want to be the oh, this is the lady with MS.

00:31:57.065 --> 00:32:03.890
I didn't want that and found a great neurologist here, after three years I think.

00:32:03.910 --> 00:32:11.815
We were going on a camping trip to Canada and I said can I stop the treatment for two weeks, because I don't want to take all this equipment on a camping trip?

00:32:11.815 --> 00:32:15.196
And he said you can stop period.

00:32:15.196 --> 00:32:21.111
Really he did, which is to this day very unusual.

00:32:21.111 --> 00:32:24.869
Usually you start this thing and you never stop.

00:32:24.869 --> 00:32:44.835
He is very up to date, goes to conventions all the time and he says actually we're not quite sure that this medication is very effective, and if something happens and you need medication again, it's not going to be this one.

00:32:44.835 --> 00:32:56.388
And I so love him for having said this, because so many doctors would have that's just what you described would have feared like, oh my God, you have treated me with the wrong thing.

00:32:56.388 --> 00:32:57.726
And that's not that at all.

00:32:57.726 --> 00:33:03.772
He just had the stature to say we're not sure, so you can stop it.

00:33:03.772 --> 00:33:14.232
And it gave me a lot of confidence because if I was doing so well, it made it more likely that it was not because of the medication but because I was getting better.

00:33:14.252 --> 00:33:18.862
Yeah, and was there any side effects when you came off of it?

00:33:18.862 --> 00:33:20.484
Like which one?

00:33:20.484 --> 00:33:24.458
That's awesome, like because I yeah.

00:33:24.458 --> 00:33:26.644
That's some of the fear that some people you've been on it for us.

00:33:26.644 --> 00:33:29.960
How long were you on it before you they told you to stop?

00:33:30.641 --> 00:33:32.865
I think it was a total of when did I start?

00:33:32.865 --> 00:33:36.840
I think it was three or four years, four years three or four years.

00:33:37.121 --> 00:33:42.878
They didn't know and this neurologist was up to date well enough where he was like, I don't even know.

00:33:42.878 --> 00:33:48.079
If it helps you're on it for four years and he says, all right, stop, and no side effects.

00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:49.486
And you just kept getting stronger.

00:33:49.486 --> 00:34:01.682
Obviously I'm getting stronger you're talking about that in just a minute, but but yeah, that was my second shot at life after the first, after the gb yeah and now this was and I'm I.

00:34:02.263 --> 00:34:09.364
I don't know I don't sound cheesy, but every step that I take every day, I'm grateful, I appreciate it.

00:34:09.364 --> 00:34:11.021
I know it's not a given.

00:34:12.295 --> 00:34:26.311
So, gb, that you basically were paralyzed on the side of your body, then being diagnosed with MS, were paralyzed on the side of your body, then being diagnosed with MS, and then you decide, all right, well, I've already been going to the gym, but now I'm going to strength train.

00:34:26.311 --> 00:34:35.336
What led you to dedicate?

00:34:35.376 --> 00:34:36.838
yourself to strength training, weightlifting.

00:34:36.838 --> 00:34:40.842
I had this urge I wanted to become strong, I wanted to be physically strong.

00:34:40.842 --> 00:34:41.983
It was instinctive.

00:34:41.983 --> 00:34:56.269
And once I got to Spain, I worked with a PT, which was great fun, because most women when they go to the gym and they work with a PT, they want to toy with pink dumbbells and they want to walk on the treadmill and stuff.

00:34:56.269 --> 00:35:03.728
And he was so happy to find someone who wanted to do pull-ups and deadlifts and he then one day said would you like to try Olympic weightlifting?

00:35:03.728 --> 00:35:05.822
Because he had himself gotten into this.

00:35:06.914 --> 00:35:07.920
I said okay.

00:35:08.436 --> 00:35:12.186
And I was thinking about this before when you mentioned the Olympic Games in your home.

00:35:12.186 --> 00:35:27.731
That was my memory of Olympic weightlifting Washing the Olympics with my dad and like overweight, hairy guys in totally weird leotards on a stage lifting extremely heavy stuff.

00:35:27.731 --> 00:35:31.864
But I found it like I was curious.

00:35:31.864 --> 00:35:32.885
I said, ok, let's try.

00:35:32.885 --> 00:35:38.623
And he showed me there's two movements in Olympic weightlifting and I tried it and I totally sucked at it.

00:35:38.623 --> 00:35:40.481
It's like there just have to be strong.

00:35:40.481 --> 00:35:43.518
It's technical and that's what hooked me.

00:35:43.579 --> 00:35:47.219
Because you have to every single lift.

00:35:47.219 --> 00:35:50.762
You have to be totally present, you have to give it your everything.

00:35:50.762 --> 00:35:56.686
You can never say, oh, I've done this, I do it again and I have to be like this, just this moment.

00:35:56.686 --> 00:35:57.659
This is what I have to do.

00:35:57.659 --> 00:36:03.480
And you can always get better, and I started this when I was like 55.

00:36:03.480 --> 00:36:04.021
So it's not like you.

00:36:04.021 --> 00:36:04.221
You don't.

00:36:04.221 --> 00:36:06.847
Your body doesn't learn it like, just like this.

00:36:06.847 --> 00:36:10.762
You have to grind and do it over and over again.

00:36:10.762 --> 00:36:19.684
But I loved it so much that I joined pure weightlifting club and after two weeks at that club they said, hey, great that you're trading with us.

00:36:19.684 --> 00:36:21.007
Would you like to compete?

00:36:22.148 --> 00:36:24.681
Two weeks and they're like do you want to compete?

00:36:25.355 --> 00:36:26.981
Because they ask everybody to compete.

00:36:26.981 --> 00:36:28.541
They're a competitive club.

00:36:28.541 --> 00:36:32.623
And I said something that I would never say again today.

00:36:32.623 --> 00:36:33.326
I said what?

00:36:33.326 --> 00:36:34.721
Do you know how old I am?

00:36:34.721 --> 00:36:37.523
And they said we don't care.

00:36:37.523 --> 00:36:47.065
And then I said yes, and I'm convinced in my 30s I would never have said yes.

00:36:47.065 --> 00:36:48.568
I would never have said yes.

00:36:48.568 --> 00:36:55.965
I would have thought, oh my God, this is going to be stressful, this is going to be I don't know go to competitions, do stuff.

00:36:55.965 --> 00:37:23.780
And in your 50s and so my weightlifting coach actually says people in their 50s, they become anarchists and they just do whatever they please and it's very difficult to manage them when they so I think, yes, let's do this and best decision ever made I I just just a third of the way through my 50s and and yeah, all of a sudden I don't care what people think about me anymore, I don't even.

00:37:24.101 --> 00:37:25.405
I just don't care.

00:37:25.405 --> 00:37:31.206
If I want to try something, I'm going to try it, and the hell with anybody that's going to say anything that I can't do it.

00:37:31.206 --> 00:37:33.778
So yeah, I get it, I get it.

00:37:33.778 --> 00:37:35.702
Let me share one anecdote.

00:37:35.702 --> 00:37:43.706
So I just I don't do an episode on myself, so whenever I find a comparison where it's similar than I was, that's the time that I give a little bit.

00:37:44.248 --> 00:37:48.478
My first client as an endurance coach was somebody with MS.

00:37:48.478 --> 00:37:50.824
I was in the pool, I was swimming.

00:37:50.824 --> 00:37:54.956
This guy stops me and he asked me a couple of questions what are you training for?

00:37:54.956 --> 00:37:56.900
And I says, well, I was training for a triathlon.

00:37:56.900 --> 00:37:59.302
And I says, well, and I just started my coaching business.

00:37:59.302 --> 00:38:01.965
And he's like, oh, he says, would he asked me?

00:38:01.965 --> 00:38:06.110
He says, would weak ankles stop you from taking on a client?

00:38:06.110 --> 00:38:08.302
And I'm like, no, we just strengthen them, not a big deal.

00:38:08.302 --> 00:38:10.702
He goes well, what about if I had MS?

00:38:10.702 --> 00:38:16.188
And I said, definitely, I would not turn you away because you need to move.

00:38:16.188 --> 00:38:23.137
You've got to move when you're with MS.

00:38:23.157 --> 00:38:33.737
So, to make a long story as short as possible, he started running and got to a 5K and he was great and we moved into the 10K and then he did a half marathon and loved that distance.

00:38:33.737 --> 00:38:34.958
That was his favorite distance.

00:38:34.958 --> 00:38:51.137
He did do one marathon, but his thing was is that, no matter whether it was organized or it was by himself, he did a half marathon every weekend, either Saturday or Sunday.

00:38:51.137 --> 00:38:53.764
He went out and did a half marathon straight up.

00:38:53.764 --> 00:38:55.027
Now, don't get me wrong.

00:38:55.027 --> 00:38:58.184
During the week he did his aerobic runs.

00:38:58.184 --> 00:39:08.742
I did put him in the gym for mobility and agility not necessarily for strength, but that's a side effect of mobility and agility but he kept this routine.

00:39:08.742 --> 00:39:16.588
I saw him about I think I saw him like eight years later and ran into him at a race.

00:39:16.588 --> 00:39:18.963
Of course, that's where you run into people, right?

00:39:18.963 --> 00:39:19.204
Yeah?

00:39:19.204 --> 00:39:26.925
And he gave me this biggest hug in the world and I says, hey, I'm like are you still running a half marathon every week, every weekend?

00:39:26.925 --> 00:39:29.103
He goes well, yeah.

00:39:30.094 --> 00:39:40.262
So what happened was that his medication dropped dramatically, like the dosages were next to nothing.

00:39:40.262 --> 00:39:41.585
I don't know what he was on.

00:39:41.585 --> 00:39:46.744
So at that time I now take into consideration my client's medications.

00:39:46.744 --> 00:39:51.804
But at the time I was brand new and it's not something that I thought was my, was my business.

00:39:51.804 --> 00:39:55.398
But he's like no, drastically reduced this and this.

00:39:55.398 --> 00:40:15.541
My doctor took me completely off of this and I like I am like next to no medication, not a little bit different than you, but he was still on just like baby doses is what he called it on baby doses of this stuff now, just to keep me, just to make for maintain maintenance, and I was like wow, I mean that's amazing.

00:40:15.581 --> 00:40:21.224
And he's like, yeah, if I stopped doing my half marathon every weekend, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go back on medication.

00:40:21.224 --> 00:40:25.340
Oh, no, yeah, but OK, so that's running.

00:40:25.340 --> 00:40:26.780
It's more an endurance side.

00:40:26.780 --> 00:40:33.083
Yes, he was in the gym twice a week for agility and stability, but and then three other runs per week.

00:40:33.083 --> 00:40:47.568
So he was running four days a week and yeah, and you can't tell he's lean, he looks great and he's flying like literally doing half marathon and like our 27 hour 30.

00:40:47.568 --> 00:40:49.679
I mean just crazy times.

00:40:49.679 --> 00:40:51.704
Just because he just kept doing it.

00:40:51.704 --> 00:40:52.766
I mean you're just going to get better.

00:40:52.766 --> 00:40:54.481
If you keep doing something, you're going to get better.

00:40:54.481 --> 00:40:57.523
So that's my anecdote on MS.

00:40:57.523 --> 00:40:58.016
And I was.

00:40:58.016 --> 00:40:59.822
I was very happy to see him at that point.

00:41:00.655 --> 00:41:05.666
Yeah, no, but I love that you're sharing this, because this is also nuance is always a problem.

00:41:05.666 --> 00:41:10.119
We're not claiming that you can cure MS with exercise, but you can improve.

00:41:10.119 --> 00:41:14.061
Anybody can improve their quality of life like tremendously.

00:41:14.061 --> 00:41:18.599
So when you have a condition like this, you even more.

00:41:18.599 --> 00:41:21.842
You want to try see can I maybe improve at this.

00:41:21.842 --> 00:41:23.518
It's really important.

00:41:23.518 --> 00:41:36.818
So that just because there's no guarantee that you have the outcome like your client had, doesn't mean that it's not worth a shot to feel better, get better and healthier.

00:41:36.818 --> 00:41:38.181
You need to do something.

00:41:39.041 --> 00:41:43.898
And even somebody without a terminal condition or an autoimmune disease.

00:41:43.898 --> 00:41:48.996
The first couple of weeks are going to hurt right, as you're doing things you've never done before.

00:41:48.996 --> 00:41:50.981
So that's where a lot of people stop.

00:41:50.981 --> 00:41:59.978
That's what somebody that's absolutely off the street decides that he wants to get better at something, and a lot of times it stops people.

00:41:59.978 --> 00:42:03.235
They walk into the gym, they're told what to do get better at something and a lot of times it stops people.

00:42:03.235 --> 00:42:08.307
They walk into the gym, they're told what to do, they do something, and then the next day they're so sore they can't zip up their own zipper.

00:42:08.307 --> 00:42:09.913
And and that stops them all of a sudden.

00:42:09.913 --> 00:42:11.938
You be you, they become.

00:42:11.938 --> 00:42:15.985
The association with the gym is pain, not pleasure.

00:42:15.985 --> 00:42:18.429
So they stop going.

00:42:18.429 --> 00:42:20.483
They'll try again and they do the same thing.

00:42:20.483 --> 00:42:25.664
What I found is that you need to start small and slow.

00:42:26.786 --> 00:42:27.527
Absolutely.

00:42:28.108 --> 00:42:28.409
Yeah.

00:42:28.755 --> 00:42:29.619
Preaching to the choir.

00:42:30.175 --> 00:42:31.400
Exactly, exactly.

00:42:31.400 --> 00:42:32.103
So I put my.

00:42:32.103 --> 00:42:35.956
So like my first, if I'm taking on someone that has never run before in their whole life.

00:42:35.956 --> 00:42:44.987
They literally go through sessions of walk, running, walk, run, rock run, and at very small rate, and sometimes like twice a week and that's it.

00:42:44.987 --> 00:42:54.217
I'm like, all right, you're going to go and you're going to walk for five minutes, you're going to run for three minutes, you're going to walk for five minutes, you're going to run for two minutes, you're going to walk for five minutes, and that's it.

00:42:54.217 --> 00:42:55.559
That's all you're going to do.

00:42:56.240 --> 00:42:57.903
And they feel like they feel great.

00:42:57.903 --> 00:43:02.217
They maybe the next day they might be a little tight, but they're never painful.

00:43:02.217 --> 00:43:17.242
And then I just keep increasing the run interval and all of a sudden they're doing five minute walk, 20 minute run, five minute walk, 19 minute run and a five minute walk, and they're like over the moon.

00:43:17.242 --> 00:43:21.938
And then we start removing some of the walks, but and they're just over the moon.

00:43:21.938 --> 00:43:23.980
I then we start removing some of the blocks and they're just over the moon.

00:43:23.980 --> 00:43:24.420
I can't believe.

00:43:24.420 --> 00:43:25.882
I ran 39 minutes, 40 minutes, amazing, I did that.

00:43:25.882 --> 00:43:26.902
That's amazing.

00:43:26.902 --> 00:43:35.192
And because it's slow and progressive every week, that they're not feeling like they're super sore.

00:43:35.192 --> 00:43:43.804
They don't get that pain, they get a tightness which I move to have them associate that with accomplishment.

00:43:45.447 --> 00:43:46.989
Okay, that's smart.

00:43:47.114 --> 00:43:51.842
I associate it with accomplishment, not with pain, so it's something like hey, I did this.

00:43:51.842 --> 00:43:55.820
And this tightness when I wake up the next morning or two days later.

00:43:55.820 --> 00:44:00.670
This tightness is my badge of honor that I accomplished something.

00:44:00.670 --> 00:44:04.945
So now I move their association to something positive.

00:44:04.945 --> 00:44:07.403
So they will go out the next time and they will do it.

00:44:07.996 --> 00:44:09.021
They're gone looking for it.

00:44:09.021 --> 00:44:23.436
What you're describing is particularly important for the women I work with, because I work with women in their 40s and older and if you haven't done any exercise for a while, you have no idea of where is your body yet.

00:44:23.436 --> 00:44:25.300
What can you do, what can't you do?

00:44:25.300 --> 00:44:32.648
And now, in the age of Google, so many women they say I mean they will Google something like fat burning, what's going to pop up?

00:44:32.648 --> 00:44:37.784
High intensity interval training, and they're going to try it, and then they're going to get hurt.

00:44:37.784 --> 00:44:39.744
They get disgusted, frustrated and hurt.

00:44:39.744 --> 00:44:40.735
Or you wouldn't believe the number of women I talked to try it and then they're going to get hurt.

00:44:40.735 --> 00:44:41.280
They're going to get disgusted, frustrated and hurt.

00:44:42.175 --> 00:44:46.902
Or you wouldn't believe the number of women I talked to who would say, oh, I did a couch to 5K.

00:44:46.902 --> 00:44:51.005
Not one of the women I talked to got out of there uninjured.

00:44:51.005 --> 00:44:55.507
It's like my ankle, my knee, like in six weeks or something.

00:44:55.507 --> 00:44:56.599
It's crazy stuff.

00:44:56.599 --> 00:45:14.465
And when you have reached a certain age, you really and that's the most important part you need to start where you are and you need to, like, know what is my strength, what is my mobility, how can I challenge myself but not overwhelm myself or get hurt, because that's one of the big things.

00:45:14.465 --> 00:45:23.447
When you're older you don't want to get hurt because it takes you so much longer to come back in and it will throw you back a lot more than a young person, young lifter.

00:45:23.447 --> 00:45:27.143
They get hurt and then they come back after two weeks and they're as good as new.

00:45:28.454 --> 00:45:33.233
Right, a coach that I had for a while told me this great anecdote.

00:45:33.233 --> 00:45:38.021
I don't want to say an anecdote, it's a quote Train the person that showed up that day.

00:45:38.021 --> 00:45:41.467
Right, that goes all the way around, right?

00:45:41.467 --> 00:45:47.865
You train the person that showed up, not the person you think showed up yes the person that showed up.

00:45:48.507 --> 00:45:52.623
So if you're, you have to be very honest with yourself.

00:45:52.623 --> 00:45:59.398
So, like you said, someone that has come in and they've only been training for a week and all of a sudden they're feeling 10 feet tall and bulletproof.

00:45:59.398 --> 00:46:06.726
They still got to maintain the program and still progressively get better.

00:46:06.726 --> 00:46:13.032
Not increase their load, but not increase it 10 pounds in one sitting.

00:46:13.032 --> 00:46:14.637
You're not going to do that.

00:46:14.637 --> 00:46:18.739
I'm depending on the lift, obviously, but you know, after a week of training.

00:46:18.739 --> 00:46:24.719
So you've got to friggin show, you've got to train the person that showed up.

00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:33.380
So, which you did and you kept doing until you competed, and at what?

00:46:33.380 --> 00:46:38.639
At age 60, which is just less than a year ago, and what happened there and where was it.

00:46:38.639 --> 00:46:49.599
Tell us about the, tell us about what the competition was and what it was like, and then give us the punchline well, it was a european masters weightlifting championship.

00:46:50.240 --> 00:46:51.824
It's something that it's amazing.

00:46:51.824 --> 00:46:52.867
I'm sure you know about this.

00:46:52.867 --> 00:47:01.375
Masters, like people, are masters when they're over 35, which is a little bit sad because a 35 year old person to me seems like a very young person.

00:47:01.375 --> 00:47:09.268
But then you're a master's athlete and people are now organizing competitions and events to keep playing their sports.

00:47:09.268 --> 00:47:11.041
You have it in track and field.

00:47:11.041 --> 00:47:13.423
I think it's very common in all kinds of sports.

00:47:13.423 --> 00:47:19.755
So people don't sit next to the fire and knit socks, they go out there and they compete to the fire and knit socks.

00:47:19.755 --> 00:47:20.496
They go out there and they compete.

00:47:20.496 --> 00:47:26.157
And in these weightlifting competitions you have, like these very old Easter Europeans, old school.

00:47:26.157 --> 00:47:28.119
There's a guy, I think he's 89.

00:47:28.119 --> 00:47:29.759
I have seen him several times.

00:47:29.759 --> 00:47:35.221
He travels, he goes to the weigh-in and he goes and lifts.

00:47:35.221 --> 00:47:36.521
It's amazing.

00:47:36.521 --> 00:47:38.802
I want to be like that at 89.

00:47:39.282 --> 00:47:50.445
So this one was the European championship in Ireland, in the beautiful city of Waterford, I think that's how they pronounce it, and I actually won.

00:47:50.445 --> 00:47:57.588
I won in my weight category and in my age group, which I never thought was something I could achieve.

00:47:57.588 --> 00:48:00.449
I don't know why I thought I couldn't.

00:48:00.449 --> 00:48:08.291
Sometimes I think it's because I was always told to shut up as a kid that I think I should lift more than anybody else.

00:48:08.291 --> 00:48:09.773
It was a great day.

00:48:09.773 --> 00:48:13.014
I was ready, I did what I could.

00:48:13.014 --> 00:48:19.356
You get three attempts for each lift and I never make all six.

00:48:19.356 --> 00:48:25.989
The last one is always like a bit daring and you try to do something and then more often than not would you fail that last lift.

00:48:25.989 --> 00:48:28.320
But it's fine, it's great, it was a wonderful feeling.

00:48:29.282 --> 00:48:36.487
But there's one thing that I need to say, and this is more like an overall life wisdom, but I think it's really important.

00:48:36.487 --> 00:48:39.947
It was a great day, it was a great moment.

00:48:39.947 --> 00:48:54.885
I was really super happy, but I was not like over the moon, euphoric or anything, because I am very focused on keeping my highs low in order to keep my lows high.

00:48:54.885 --> 00:48:57.309
I don't know if that makes any sense to you.

00:48:57.309 --> 00:49:12.744
We have this in all the systems in the body, in the human body, are actually like in a seesaw manner and if you've ever heard about this the book Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke the higher your highs, the lower your lows.

00:49:13.974 --> 00:49:21.059
And I try to tell my clients also make this amplitude, make it nice and small.

00:49:21.059 --> 00:49:30.465
It doesn't stick with the narrative like we have to go like big and big ass this and go for it and must be the best time of your life.

00:49:30.465 --> 00:49:42.978
And when people get married now, I think that they, I don't know travel to castles like hundreds of miles away and it must be all the best and the greatest and the most fantastic, and I don't know what.

00:49:42.978 --> 00:49:51.085
And then, after this big high, then the next day you wake up and the person next to you is not, it's not the prince, it's just the sky, you know.

00:49:51.085 --> 00:49:52.797
And then you drop very low.

00:49:52.838 --> 00:49:55.242
So I was really happy, accomplished.

00:49:55.242 --> 00:50:02.318
I felt that I had worked hard for it, but it was not like, oh my god, the greatest moment of my life.

00:50:02.318 --> 00:50:06.139
It was just fulfillment and happiness, and that's fine, that's fine.

00:50:06.139 --> 00:50:14.465
I think it's really crucial to be aware of this, that we don't need to look for just like the next thrill, the next kick and even bigger and better.

00:50:14.465 --> 00:50:20.509
And it's the same when it comes to back to my work.

00:50:20.509 --> 00:50:36.253
When it comes to eating, people are always looking for a new taste, a new combo, a new restaurant, a new this, and it doesn't really lead to happiness or fulfillment, and definitely not to a lean body.

00:50:36.855 --> 00:50:37.056
I get it.

00:50:37.056 --> 00:50:37.275
I get it.

00:50:37.275 --> 00:50:52.192
I tell my clients, both when they've achieved something that they have set out to do and they did, or they've exceeded their goals, the same as when things don't go the way they want them to.

00:50:52.192 --> 00:50:56.746
You get 20 minutes, you cross the finish line, you find your results.

00:50:56.746 --> 00:50:59.472
From that moment, you have 20 minutes.

00:51:00.201 --> 00:51:00.822
Yes, that's great.

00:51:00.822 --> 00:51:01.101
I love that.

00:51:01.101 --> 00:51:03.027
20 minutes yes, that's great, that's right.

00:51:03.086 --> 00:51:24.751
It's 20 minutes to either whine and cry or and get mad and throw things, or you have 20 minutes to be over the moon, and then you were just remain happy and go back to the, go back to that person that was just happy to be there, that was just happy to compete, right, and so I, I, I give them.

00:51:24.751 --> 00:51:26.423
I'm like you got 20 minutes, that's it.

00:51:26.423 --> 00:51:30.641
And when I get these texts, I'm like I screwed up and I'm like, and I sucked them back.

00:51:30.641 --> 00:51:33.009
Okay, what time you have.

00:51:33.009 --> 00:51:34.291
Like what time did you find the results?

00:51:34.291 --> 00:51:35.623
How, about five minutes ago?

00:51:35.623 --> 00:51:42.148
I'm like you got 15 minutes left and I don't want to hear it, oh you don't know, I'm gonna use that actually.

00:51:42.369 --> 00:51:47.630
Yeah, and I do it for both and I'm like great, I'm like fantastic.

00:51:47.630 --> 00:51:56.606
I says, keep the dopamine going, keep the euphoria for the next 15 minutes and then go get a beer so enjoy it.

00:51:56.606 --> 00:52:02.012
Yeah, so that tends to be because most of my clients are habitual racers.

00:52:02.012 --> 00:52:03.664
So there's another.

00:52:03.664 --> 00:52:05.282
There's already another race on the schedule.

00:52:05.282 --> 00:52:09.110
It might it's most likely not better or bigger.

00:52:09.110 --> 00:52:11.304
It's a race they've already done or something.

00:52:11.344 --> 00:52:12.967
So for me, it's always just want to.

00:52:12.967 --> 00:52:13.329
We're.

00:52:13.329 --> 00:52:14.981
Our goal is to do better than we did last time.

00:52:14.981 --> 00:52:18.931
Yeah, so that's, that's basically that's always the goal.

00:52:18.931 --> 00:52:20.440
You just want to do a little bit better than last time.

00:52:20.440 --> 00:52:36.293
I'm'm like you come in one second faster, or if you felt 10% better, you might not have come across any faster, but when you came across the line, you felt better than you did the last time.

00:52:36.293 --> 00:52:38.956
Yes, you've won, you've totally won.

00:52:38.956 --> 00:52:39.617
You know what I mean.

00:52:43.981 --> 00:52:45.581
And for us the course could be different.

00:52:45.581 --> 00:52:49.302
You've got to worry about wind and heat and cold and the whole bit.

00:52:49.302 --> 00:52:52.264
You know what I mean, and for us it's the course could be different.

00:52:52.264 --> 00:52:55.846
You got to worry about wind and heat and cold and the whole bit.

00:52:55.846 --> 00:52:58.547
You know what I mean which could just absolutely kill a race.

00:52:58.547 --> 00:53:05.951
But most of the time it's like but you want to go back, you want to, just want to, as coming in an hour faster, it's the same.

00:53:05.951 --> 00:53:09.952
You've got a PR, that's it Right, but that's amazing.

00:53:09.952 --> 00:53:15.574
So when did you decide that you wanted to start coaching yourself?

00:53:18.076 --> 00:53:29.744
It had always been some kind of dream at the back of my mind for quite some time and I think I took the plunge when I got off my treatment.

00:53:29.744 --> 00:53:32.271
Actually, that's when I felt, probably, this feeling like you get another shot.

00:53:32.271 --> 00:53:37.570
It's like a new beginning, and I had been a bit frustrated with journalism for a while.

00:53:37.570 --> 00:53:42.532
I'd been working a lot for TV, which is so superficial, so superficial.

00:53:43.280 --> 00:53:45.528
You don't really give information.

00:53:45.528 --> 00:54:05.172
It's become entertainment and information has become a commodity that you have to sell and I mean, I'm not against this, like I love stories and you want to, you can sell the information as a story to, to make it interesting and to you want people to enjoy the information.

00:54:05.172 --> 00:54:12.233
But if that's like the first priority and then everything else has to give way, it's not for me.

00:54:12.233 --> 00:54:15.322
It's not for me and I felt that.

00:54:15.322 --> 00:54:37.016
So I decided I think it was 2017, I had quit my treatment and I quit journalism, took all the certifications and I wanted to go online, because at the time, we were still on four-year contracts and we were already in Madrid, but we didn't know how long we were going to stay.

00:54:37.016 --> 00:54:39.949
So I decided to do everything online learn how to coach online.

00:54:39.949 --> 00:54:47.144
Then I took the ACE American Council on Exercise exams and everything, and then I started my business, which is a whole.

00:54:47.144 --> 00:54:49.931
It's like weightlifting you have to learn so much.

00:54:51.880 --> 00:55:06.342
Yep, I took that plunge in 2012 and, yeah, still learning about business, still learning, still finding stuff that's new, and in the fitness industry, things change just like dramatically.

00:55:06.963 --> 00:55:07.625
It's crazy.

00:55:08.085 --> 00:55:09.570
Yeah, even on the legal side.

00:55:09.570 --> 00:55:20.791
So, but your specialty is women over 40 and is it's and it's basically it's strength, right?

00:55:20.791 --> 00:55:23.414
You talk more about strength and habits.

00:55:23.414 --> 00:55:30.708
It's strength, right, you talk more about strength and habits than just typically the whole weight loss.

00:55:30.708 --> 00:55:33.032
You do have a program for it, but that's not your, that's not your emphasis, right?

00:55:34.195 --> 00:55:36.322
no, I mean, I think weight loss.

00:55:36.322 --> 00:55:44.025
Weight losses can be very important for health reasons, depending on where you're coming from, but it's about the perspective and the angle of attack.

00:55:44.025 --> 00:55:51.583
So the most effective thing that you could do is build muscle, and that's I mean that's for men and women alike.

00:55:51.583 --> 00:56:07.702
But since I know women's struggles better and I have this my own experience of getting better through becoming stronger, that's why I work mainly with women, and muscle and strength will take care of so many problems.

00:56:07.702 --> 00:56:12.110
It's like it's a one-stop shop solution and it's.

00:56:12.110 --> 00:56:16.021
It's actually quite simple, and here's the problem.

00:56:16.302 --> 00:56:19.865
It's not intuitive for women to want to be strong.

00:56:19.865 --> 00:56:22.148
It's not part of our upbringing.

00:56:22.148 --> 00:56:29.996
We're taught to be small, slim, elegant, cute, pretty.

00:56:29.996 --> 00:56:30.577
What have you?

00:56:30.577 --> 00:56:51.632
When you have nice parents, they want you to be educated, but nobody ever teaches you that you need muscle and as a woman from 35 onwards, you're losing muscle mass like at an alarming rate, and we notice that something's off in our 40s when perimenopause starts.

00:56:51.632 --> 00:56:57.788
And then people will say, oh yeah, that's just hormones, and my mom had this and my grandma, I don't know.

00:56:57.788 --> 00:57:05.132
It's just hormones and I hate that because it's, first of all, it's not totally true.

00:57:05.132 --> 00:57:12.813
When you start feeling lousy in perimenopause, you're just beginning to notice what's going on.

00:57:12.813 --> 00:57:23.592
For most women, it's because for decades they haven't looked after their bodies and because they have looked after everybody else, they have looked after everything and everybody.

00:57:23.592 --> 00:57:26.186
And that's when you start paying the price.

00:57:26.186 --> 00:57:30.561
And so if somebody tells you it's just hormones, no, it's also.

00:57:30.561 --> 00:57:35.233
I hate this too, because when you say it's just hormones, it sounds like there's nothing you can do.

00:57:35.233 --> 00:57:38.565
It's like glaciers exist.

00:57:38.565 --> 00:57:39.449
What are you going to do?

00:57:39.449 --> 00:57:40.771
And it's not.

00:57:40.771 --> 00:57:42.585
Nothing of this is true.

00:57:42.585 --> 00:57:50.327
Yes, there are symptoms, and they can be like very unpleasant, but there's not one of them.

00:57:50.327 --> 00:57:58.913
That cannot be improved if you take care of your physical fitness, if you look after your nutrition, and then you need a little bit of mindfulness.

00:57:58.913 --> 00:58:02.106
I think stuff like this to complement it, and that's's it.

00:58:02.807 --> 00:58:06.054
And what I love about this muscle solution is that it's so simple.

00:58:06.054 --> 00:58:10.710
It's so simple because it can inform all your choices.

00:58:10.710 --> 00:58:12.885
It will inform your food choices.

00:58:12.885 --> 00:58:14.170
What will I eat?

00:58:14.170 --> 00:58:18.268
What's best to eat to fuel my workout and to grow muscle?

00:58:18.268 --> 00:58:20.682
Yes, am I going to drink alcohol?

00:58:20.682 --> 00:58:23.369
Or do I want my body to grow some muscle overnight?

00:58:23.369 --> 00:58:33.054
Okay, am I going to go to bed on time so I can have the full benefit of growth hormone working for my body, for my health, for everything.

00:58:33.054 --> 00:58:38.148
So there's no overwhelm or overload, there's no ambiguity.

00:58:38.148 --> 00:58:45.670
It makes everything simple, it informs your choices and that doesn't mean that you have to live like a monk or something.

00:58:45.670 --> 00:58:54.769
But you know what to do and you can make an informed decision on when you're going to do it and maybe when you're going to have a party and do something else.

00:58:54.769 --> 00:59:10.007
And when I see all the solutions that are offered out there, so many women actually believe if they take like turmeric, the problems are going to go away that's been a thing about that.

00:59:10.148 --> 00:59:25.963
Some of the gurus have like figured out that they, that some of the longest living people in the blue zones, that they seem to have a lot more turmeric in their diet than anything else, and that just became, I think.

00:59:25.963 --> 00:59:28.407
But I agree with you.

00:59:28.407 --> 00:59:34.925
I think muscle is the muscle and moving to keep, yes, moving.

00:59:34.925 --> 00:59:45.250
But the old adage, it's the physics law an object that that stays in motion, an object in motion state, will stay in motion.

00:59:46.702 --> 00:59:48.585
Yes, absolutely, yeah, that's it yeah.

00:59:49.106 --> 01:00:03.768
But and I know I've noticed that just with myself, right so I work out in the mornings and then I go to work and then I come home and if I'm coaching after work, I'm fine, I have no issue with whatsoever.

01:00:03.768 --> 01:00:08.483
But if I come home and I'm just hanging out talking and being on the couch, I'm tired.

01:00:08.483 --> 01:00:12.592
So an object in motion will stay in motion.

01:00:12.592 --> 01:00:16.034
So I noticed that and I was like I don't understand why I'm so tired.

01:00:16.034 --> 01:00:16.960
I'm in good shape.

01:00:16.960 --> 01:00:18.701
I have a low resting heart rate.

01:00:18.701 --> 01:00:19.661
Everything in my blood says it's great.

01:00:19.661 --> 01:00:21.903
But man, I, my, all my, everything in my blood says it's great.

01:00:21.903 --> 01:00:26.728
But man, come like six o'clock, I am like I could go to bed.

01:00:26.728 --> 01:00:28.108
I don't understand that.

01:00:28.108 --> 01:00:33.853
But those days that I'm coaching or I'm at a meet cause I also coach cross country I'm fine.

01:00:33.853 --> 01:00:37.317
Nine o'clock, 10 o'clock rolls around, I'm a hundred percent fine.

01:00:40.639 --> 01:00:45.032
I have no issues because I stayed in motion and I think that's something to definitely we need to get out there.

01:00:45.032 --> 01:00:57.548
My always things is like, no matter what you've done in the morning, wherever the workout is, I would say that if you work in an office, you should take your lunch or eat your lunch at your desk and then take a half hour, and then take 20 minutes and go walk.

01:00:57.548 --> 01:01:01.865
After dinner, same thing go walk, no matter what you did that day.

01:01:01.865 --> 01:01:13.945
Go walk Just 20 minutes, have a conversation with your significant other or your child or something like that, and just walk, because you'll be shocked at how much more energy you've got.

01:01:13.945 --> 01:01:17.534
Just because you stayed in motion, you didn't become stagnant.

01:01:18.119 --> 01:01:19.523
Absolutely, and that's also.

01:01:19.523 --> 01:01:26.211
It's tricky, actually, because there's women who tell me but I work out regularly and still I'm tired and I can't lose weight.

01:01:26.211 --> 01:01:37.150
But if you go, even if you train every day for an hour in the gym and then you spend the rest of the day sitting down, you have a sedentary lifestyle.

01:01:37.650 --> 01:01:37.831
Right.

01:01:38.639 --> 01:01:39.081
It's not.

01:01:39.081 --> 01:01:53.637
I know it sounds so harsh and so difficult to say that's not enough, but I think we're not realizing that our bodies are optimized for movement, which means that it's not like we're sitting, and then if we walk a little bit, we get better.

01:01:53.637 --> 01:01:57.931
No, if we don't move enough, we get worse.

01:01:57.931 --> 01:01:59.806
We're sitting all day, we get worse.

01:01:59.806 --> 01:02:01.387
We function best.

01:02:01.387 --> 01:02:04.467
Our health is best when we move.

01:02:04.467 --> 01:02:15.005
Actually, what I tell my clients is, as much as you can, that I take every opportunity, and there's something in our world today that makes that pretty hard.

01:02:15.565 --> 01:02:19.112
Our environment is set up in a way for us not to move.

01:02:19.112 --> 01:02:30.409
Our environment invites us to sit at home, sit at at our desk, have food delivered to our doorstep, drive everywhere, and I'm going as far today as saying you have.

01:02:30.409 --> 01:02:32.981
We have to fight for our right to move.

01:02:32.981 --> 01:02:39.400
We have to see movement as a right and that the environment is somehow taking away from us.

01:02:39.400 --> 01:02:44.813
And it's a mindset shift that's really important, because we could easily just say, well, this is just my life, so I can't.

01:02:44.813 --> 01:02:48.115
And then I know that in the us there are areas, and it's a mindset shift that's really important because we could easily just say, yeah, well, this is just my life, so I can't.

01:02:48.115 --> 01:02:50.485
And then I know that in the US there are areas where it's extremely hard to walk right.

01:02:50.485 --> 01:02:52.369
I had a client.

01:02:52.369 --> 01:02:54.713
She said there's no sidewalks where I live.

01:02:54.713 --> 01:02:57.824
In Europe it's easier.

01:02:57.824 --> 01:03:02.458
But you really have to be intentional, deliberate.

01:03:02.458 --> 01:03:07.211
You have to say I need this for my health and I'm going to fight to make this happen.

01:03:08.519 --> 01:03:23.331
If I'm not mistaken and it's just because I watched part of the documentary and I heard something on the podcast that there are blue zones and the majority of them are in Spain and Italy.

01:03:23.331 --> 01:03:25.452
Do you know anything about blue zones?

01:03:26.273 --> 01:03:26.793
I have no idea.

01:03:27.353 --> 01:03:39.202
Okay, so blue zones are the areas with the most population of centennials Longevity, okay, right, yeah Right.

01:03:39.202 --> 01:03:40.804
And the interesting part about these blue zones is just what you said.

01:03:40.804 --> 01:03:42.288
Most of them are geared to walking.

01:03:42.288 --> 01:03:44.190
You walk everywhere.

01:03:44.190 --> 01:03:45.333
You walk down the street.

01:03:45.534 --> 01:03:54.858
And they had these great interviews on this documentary that I saw that unfortunately I don't remember what the name of it is, but I will find it and I'll put it in the show notes, but there was.

01:03:55.340 --> 01:04:00.766
They interviewed this guy and they're like they're this gentleman who was older and they were like well, what's your day?

01:04:00.786 --> 01:04:17.487
Like he says well, I get up and I move my cows to a pasture and it's like he gets on a horse and he takes them out to this pasture and I think it's like five to six miles away and it's a long, freaking walk.

01:04:17.487 --> 01:04:24.108
And then he gallops back, he says I had my breakfast, he says I read a little bit, I might take a little nap.

01:04:24.108 --> 01:04:53.606
Then I walk down the street to the bar and I meet my friends, we play games, we have lunch and I walk back and then I get back on my horse and I go back and get my cows and I bring them back and then I have a little dinner, I might walk back down to the bar, I might walk to the restaurant, I might meet some friends, and then I come home and I go to bed and that's pretty much my day and I enjoy my life and I'm like, oh great.

01:04:53.606 --> 01:04:55.010
And then they ask and by the way, how old are you?

01:04:55.010 --> 01:04:56.853
He goes, I'm 103.

01:04:58.621 --> 01:05:01.364
Wow, holy cow.

01:05:01.364 --> 01:05:03.568
Yes, that's amazing.

01:05:03.568 --> 01:05:12.349
You can see here in Spain, for example, now that the hot summer weather is here, as soon as the sun goes down, everybody goes outside.

01:05:12.349 --> 01:05:14.668
Everybody goes outside and goes for a walk.

01:05:14.668 --> 01:05:22.440
That's very common, maybe because you've been locked in by the heat and you just want to move and you haven't lost that natural instinct.

01:05:22.440 --> 01:05:23.385
Now, walking.

01:05:23.385 --> 01:05:28.907
It's crazy because walking gets either underestimated or overestimated.

01:05:28.907 --> 01:05:35.411
People who underestimate they were well, the bit of walking, that what it's not enough to get in shape, it's not enough to, which is not true.

01:05:35.411 --> 01:05:36.362
It's.

01:05:36.362 --> 01:05:42.494
I think it's like the most democratic, most accessible, simplest health tool that there is.

01:05:42.494 --> 01:05:50.304
And then, as people overestimate walking, they have a sedentary lifestyle, they walk for half an hour and then they say, oh, I walked, I can have a piece of cake now.

01:05:50.786 --> 01:05:51.047
Right.

01:05:52.105 --> 01:05:53.079
That doesn't work either.

01:05:53.079 --> 01:05:59.431
We need to understand that it should be just normal to be on your feet most of the time.

01:06:00.092 --> 01:06:07.242
Exactly, exactly the time, exactly, exactly I.

01:06:07.242 --> 01:06:07.503
This morning.

01:06:07.503 --> 01:06:10.996
I had a five and a half hour bike ride this morning at about 18 miles an hour, and I'm still gonna walk this after.

01:06:10.996 --> 01:06:15.532
I'm still gonna walk tonight after dinner yes so it's just you be.

01:06:15.552 --> 01:06:17.639
You get the habit, and I think the habits are important.

01:06:17.639 --> 01:06:19.623
Right, so you move from there.

01:06:19.623 --> 01:06:22.108
But, kim, I gotta you.

01:06:22.108 --> 01:06:23.871
I am totally impressed with you.

01:06:24.311 --> 01:06:41.266
Your knowledge, your I don't want to say theory, your methodologies, on the way that you talk to your clients and you treat your clients and you prepare and move them in the direction that they need to go, is beyond reproach.

01:06:41.266 --> 01:06:55.306
I can just listen to you talk about some of the stuff forever, because you're right on the money and you've lived it, and I think that is the biggest gift that you give people is you've lived it.

01:06:55.306 --> 01:06:59.507
You show your experience and then you back it up with the research that you've done.

01:06:59.507 --> 01:07:02.367
And I think it's fantastic.

01:07:02.367 --> 01:07:03.271
That's the only thing I can say.

01:07:03.271 --> 01:07:04.677
And it was only a year and a half ago that you've done, and I think it's it's fantastic, that's the only thing I can say.

01:07:04.677 --> 01:07:16.108
And and it was only a year and a half ago that you won, or it was less than a year ago that you won the European, yeah it was about a about a year ago, and I'm preparing the world championship now, that is, in September.

01:07:16.750 --> 01:07:24.047
Okay, all right, and she's going to the world championship, so we need to, like you, lock onto that and we need to make sure that we know when that is.

01:07:24.047 --> 01:07:26.869
So we can look that up later on and I'll provide an update.

01:07:26.869 --> 01:07:30.434
World Championships when is that going to take place?

01:07:30.434 --> 01:07:33.076
Finland, finland.

01:07:33.076 --> 01:07:38.704
Very close to the village of Santa Claus.

01:07:38.704 --> 01:07:40.306
Awesome, awesome, oh well, we're going to be rooting for you.

01:07:40.306 --> 01:07:42.190
We totally are going to be rooting for you.

01:07:42.269 --> 01:07:51.697
Yes thank you that you take home gold at that and I know, with the determination that you've got and the compassion you've got, you're going to do really well.

01:07:51.697 --> 01:07:53.806
So I can already feel it.

01:07:53.806 --> 01:07:56.068
So I'm super excited about that.

01:07:56.068 --> 01:08:02.342
So we're going to make sure that we watch our blogs and look that stuff up on the Google box so we can make sure.

01:08:02.342 --> 01:08:08.672
And then if I find it, if I can find the link to it, I will put that in the show notes, make sure that you all see that.

01:08:08.672 --> 01:08:16.439
So, anyway, but Kim could be found at kimrahercom and she's got some great.

01:08:16.439 --> 01:08:18.889
She's got an assessment that you could take on there.

01:08:18.889 --> 01:08:23.041
She's got the ability to talk to her on there, so you need to read through it.

01:08:23.041 --> 01:08:25.761
She's got the ability to talk to her on there, so you need to read through it.

01:08:25.761 --> 01:08:27.884
She's got some resources, so definitely take a look at that.

01:08:27.884 --> 01:08:29.704
Are you active on any social?

01:08:29.725 --> 01:08:30.045
platform.

01:08:30.045 --> 01:08:48.978
Yeah, you can find me on Facebook and on Instagram and I share like tips and tricks and thoughts, but also my weightlifting adventures and training, which can be hard in the summer months but because the championship is in September, you have to train through July and August, so I share stuff of that.

01:08:51.899 --> 01:08:59.548
I try to make it fun and entertaining too Excellent, and I will link both of those in the show notes as well, so you will have full access.

01:08:59.548 --> 01:09:13.710
If you want to talk to Kim, if you want to hire her, if you just want some advice, you can either slide into her DMs, contact her on her webpage and you could talk to Kim, because I think she's definitely someone that you will want to talk to.

01:09:13.710 --> 01:09:26.944
If you're thinking about either starting a strength training regimen or if you found that are stagnant, if you found yourself plateauing, I think she'll give you another viewpoint, and she's got a lot of them, so it's good.

01:09:26.944 --> 01:09:32.162
Anyway, tim, thank you so much for joining us here on Life Changing Challengers.

01:09:32.162 --> 01:09:41.627
I so appreciate you and I am looking forward to watching you continue to compete and take home a gold at some of these other competitions.

01:09:42.828 --> 01:09:43.490
Thank you so much.

01:09:43.490 --> 01:09:45.113
I had a great time talking to you.

01:09:45.113 --> 01:09:46.182
You're a wonderful host.

01:09:46.805 --> 01:09:47.688
Oh, I appreciate that.

01:09:47.688 --> 01:09:54.426
Thank you so much and for anybody who's listening, we will see you in the next one.

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