EP 58: Stronger, Leaner, Sculpted Over 40: The 10 Changes That Completely Transformed My Body

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger Over 40. I'm your host and coach, Shauna. I am a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach helping women over 40 become their best. And today we're talking about the exact things that I changed that helped me completely transform my body in my 40s. And more importantly, why they worked. This isn't about magic tricks, gimmicks, extremes, fad diets. We've been there and we've done that and we know they don't work. But this is about understanding how your body actually works, especially now at this age and stage, what it responds to and how to finally stop fighting it, working against it and start working with it.

0:39So if you are someone who's training, who's eating quote unquote healthy, being pretty disciplined, yet you feel like you are just looking softer, you feel stuck, you're inflamed, you're tired and your body is slower to respond than it used to be. This episode is going to bring so much clarity. By the time we're done, you're going to walk away with real knowledge, real strategy, and hopefully that spark of, okay, now I get it and I can start to take action. So let's jump in to the top 10 things I changed to transform my body over 40 and why they mattered so much. Number one was I started to walk daily.

1:18It became one of the most strategic things I did. And I think a lot of women overlook walking because it's not sexy. It's not flashy. It doesn't feel hardcore. It doesn't sound like it should count as much as a workout. But physiologically, walking is one of the most powerful tools we have, especially as women over 40. Walking is low intensity movement and low intensity movement uses fat as its primary fuel source while keeping your cortisol levels more regulated. That matters because when your nervous system is constantly stressed, fat loss becomes harder, cravings increase, sleep gets disrupted, your metabolism becomes less efficient.

1:58Walking also improves insulin sensitivity. It supports your blood sugar regulation. It reduces inflammation. It helps your digestion. It improves mental clarity, and it's incredibly restorative for your nervous system. But beyond that, walking helps to preserve lean muscle tissue, And that has got to be the focal point for everything that we do at this age and stage. When women rely heavily on intense cardio, like running as their main source of exercise, especially without proper fueling, the body doesn't just burn fat. It actually starts to break down your muscle tissue too. And over time, that might make you look smaller, but actually softer.

2:40When running or high intense cardio becomes your main strategy, you can start to lose muscle. slow metabolism, and look more soft than sculpted. Walking, however, allows you to burn calories, it supports fat loss, and it keeps your muscle. It's muscle preserving. It's one of the simplest, smartest, and overlooked fat tools that we have. Not to mention, it's very inclusive, meaning you can do it anytime, anywhere. You don't have to go to the gym, you don't have to have a special outfit, you can get steps in any time of day. And you can add some intensity. Let's say you're in a fat loss phase and you're in a calorie deficit, but you wanna intensify that deficit, you can use incline walking, add a weight vest, something like that, and it's gonna allow you to burn a little bit more calories while still preserving that muscle tissue so that you don't lose muscle as you're in that deficit.

3:29That is so important. That is how so many of us have ended up regaining weight and being stuck with fat loss afterwards. When you lose muscle tissue, you're gonna look softer, but more importantly, you're impacting your overall health and your metabolic health. When I have gone through periods where I was cutting calories, running all of the time, I definitely got pretty small, but I was soft. And all I had to do was look at a cookie for five pounds to come right back. So which is why it's so important to make sure we're preserving lean muscle tissue, not to mention all of the protective health benefits that muscle can give us.

4:03Muscle is our fountain of youth. So we want to make sure we are doing everything we can to preserve it and or build it, which is why walking pairs so well with our plan. Not to mention if you are in a deficit, walking does not spike your hunger like running or high intensity cardio. One of the worst things you can do when you are in a deficit trying to eat less than you burn is do an activity that spikes your hunger. You're setting yourself up for failure. So lean on walking and you don't have to walk 10 ,000 steps a day, but be intentional with movement. We are meant to move. We are not meant to be sedentary.

4:37So even if you have a job where you are sedentary for most of the day, add 10-minute walk snacks into your days. When can you move? Park further away from the stores. Take the stairs when you can. Wake up a little bit earlier and get yourself a walking pad. That's how I start my day. a daily staple for me and my routine. It's one of the first things that I do. I wake up, I pray, I have some coffee, some time with the Lord, and then I get my walking pad out. I have a foldable one in my bedroom and then I just walk. It helps me wake up. I get some mental clarity. I feel energized and ready to attack the day.

5:12And I absolutely love it. It has done wonders for my physical and mental health. And it's helping to preserve my lean muscle, which, like I said, is key at this age. Top tip number two would be that I started to properly strength train. This was a big shift because before age 40, I was in the gym, but I was just exercising. I wasn't strength training. And there is a huge difference. For a long time, I did what I think most of us were taught to do, which is lots of classes, HIIT training, random workouts, weight weights with high reps, chasing a lot of sweat and exhaustion and calorie burn, but that doesn't equal results.

5:53Yes, you get your heart rate up. Yes, you burn a ton of calories, but you are not building lean muscle. And like I mentioned before, lean muscle is key for your body to look sculpted, for your metabolism to stay in a good place and to age well. After 40, muscle becomes everything. I know I sound repetitive, but it's so important. Muscle gives your body shape. It supports your metabolism. It protects your joints. It improves posture. It supports your hormones and it's what makes you look sculpted instead of just smaller and softer. When you train with intention, meaning you follow a structured plan, progressively challenging your muscles, lifting with intensity, lifting consistently, and stepping to the gym with purpose, your body will respond.

6:36Strength training allowed me to build lean muscle, which increased my strength, improved my metabolism, and it changed how my body looked. I wasn't just a smaller version of myself. I was a completely new shape. I had shape in my shoulders, definition in my arms and legs, and firmer glutes. And those changes didn't come just by burning calories with a workout. It came from being intentional with training. And it looks a lot different, and it feels very different than what we were taught in the 90s. It's not just about how hard you can push yourself and get sweaty. It's about tracking each workout, trying to progress week after week and sticking with the same program.

7:16Yes, it might seem boring, but that is how you challenge your body and change it. And it changes in the most exciting way. So sometimes the plan can seem boring, but the results are far from boring. When you start to see your body changing, it is the most powerful thing because you recognize that that's your effort coming to fruition. Every rep, every time you stepped into the gym and you were tired, but you didn't want to do it, but you did it. That's what you see when you start to see that muscle definition come through, is you are hard work. And it only comes when you are strength training properly.

7:50That means sticking to one program for a set amount of weeks, six to 12, using a weight that is challenging for your muscle, getting you close to failure within your rep range, using slow control tempo, and then striving to improve week after week, tracking your reps, tracking your sets, and striving to get better. That is how you strength train. It's not through just random variety and pummeling yourself into the ground with a hard, sweaty workout. It's about intention. Yes, you want your workouts to be hard, but you also want them to be intentional. Now onto tip number three, which was I stopped working out fasted.

8:26Let's talk about fasted workouts because this is a big one. For years, I thought that fasted workouts were this magical way to improve fat burning, making the workout more effective. But what I now understand and what I want you to understand is that fasted training does not improve your ability to burn fat. What it can do, especially for women over 40, is elevate cortisol, decrease your training performance, impair your recovery, and make your body feel like it's constantly under stressed. And a stressed body does not respond well. Even more importantly, training fasted can threaten our lean muscle tissue.

9:06And we already know how critical it is that we preserve and build that. When there's no fuel available and you're pushing hard, your body still needs energy. And if you are under fueled, your body will tap into lean muscle to get it. When you lose muscle, your metabolism slows, your body becomes softer, and you feel weaker and more depleted. When I started to fuel before my workouts. I felt stronger. I could lift heavier. My endurance improved. My recovery improved. And most importantly, I protected and preserved and built my muscle, which is what gives you that sculpted look. So when you're going into the gym, I want you to remember the gym is where we build the body.

9:49You want to optimize yourself to be as proficient as possible with building, not burning. The fat loss that you want is going to come from dialing in your nutrition and matching that to your goals, not from trying to burn as many calories in the gym. That's not strategy. When it comes to your workouts, I want you to remember this, is that the gym is where we build, the kitchen is where we reveal. The kitchen is for fat loss, the gym is to build. When you're going into the gym to build, I want you to think like an athlete. I want you to think about how can I optimize my body to perform my best.

10:23You're going to go in hydrated. You're going to go in with something in the tank so that you can actually push and get those muscles to build. When we're talking about fat loss, that's going to come from matching your nutrition to your goals and making sure those calories align. When you do that, your body will start to respond in ways you never knew possible. Fat is going to start melting away. Muscle is going to preserve, revealing that sculpted physique that you want. Make sure you are fueling for your performance. I'm going to leave a free guide in the show notes that gives you some ideas, but I promise you, you're going to feel and look 100 % better when you start to do this.

11:01Tip number four was that I started to prioritize protein and make sure that I was getting 30 to 50 grams of protein at least three times a day. Protein has to be a non-negotiable. As women over 40, we simply do not utilize protein as efficiently as we used to. As we age, we experience something called anabolic resistance, meaning we need a higher protein threshold at each meal to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So getting 30 to 50 grams at each meal helps to build and maintain lean muscle. It stabilizes your appetite. It reduces cravings, improves your blood sugar. It boosts your recovery and it supports hormone health.

11:39Protein is foundational if you want that sculpted, firm, defined body because muscle requires enough protein. And whole food protein sources matter, especially animal-based proteins, because they provide a complete amino acid profile, including the essential amino acids necessary for building muscle. So think of things like chicken, beef, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt. These are all amazing protein sources to help your body composition. Sometimes it's hard to get all of your protein needs met with just whole foods. So supplementation can definitely help. I will link my favorite whey protein in the show notes.

12:17It's from Legion. It's all natural, lactose-free, amazing quality. It's my favorite, favorite protein. I've tried many. This one is very easy to digest. I have it every single day. My favorite flavor is cocoa cereal because it tastes just like how it sounds, like the milk from your cocoa cereal bowl, if you remember that when you were little. Use that to supplement if you need to, but try to make most of the protein that you're getting in coming from whole food sources. The other thing I want to quickly mention is the frequency of protein. Having it broken up into three to four times a day versus just having two meals or one meal, if you are someone who fasts, just allows more optimization for muscle protein synthesis.

12:59It allows your body to have that trigger of building muscle more times in the day. You are just optimized to build muscle when you are getting it three to four times a day versus just having it once or twice a day. So make sure you're getting 30 to 50 grams of protein three to four times a day. Try to make it whole food sources, but if you need to supplement just to reach that threshold, check the show notes because I will leave my favorite brand below. Now on to tip number five, which is that I made sure I was prioritizing carbs. Yes, I said carbs and fiber. The 90s diet culture trained so many of us women to be terrified of carbs, but fiber-rich carbs support fat loss and overall health in huge ways.

13:41Fiber supports gut health, hormone balance, digestion, inflammation reduction, appetite regulation, blood sugar stability, and metabolic health. It also helps to regulate your cortisol levels. When I started to fuel with balanced meals that included fruits, vegetables, rice, potatoes, sourdough, I wasn't white-knuckling hunger anymore. I wasn't constantly thinking about food. My body felt supported, nourished, and energized rather than depleted. When your nutrition supports your physiology, your body responds with ease. The other thing that I make sure I do is have carbs pre - and post-workout.

14:19They help with your performance and your recovery. And it's when your body, your muscle is primed to shuttle that glucose into those muscle cells. I saw a huge difference when I was making sure I was having fuel that included protein and carbs before and after training. Again, I will leave my fueling for performance guide in the show notes. It gives you tons of ideas for pre and post workout meals that include carbs and protein so that you can optimize your training and optimize your ability to transform your body over 40. Now on to tip number six, which was I started to think of myself as an athlete, not a dieter.

14:54And this mindset shift is so powerful. Take a moment. Just take a moment. I want you to say outside to yourself, I'm an athlete, not a dieter. It's a whole vibe, right? When you're an athlete, you're focused on your performance, your recovery. You examine how you did with that performance. How can you improve? How can you optimize your next performance? A dieter is someone who is just trying to get smaller and shrink themselves. It's not an empowered state. An athlete is an empowered state, and that's the mindset we want to have. Dieters think short-term. Dieters chase smaller. Dieters constantly restrict.

15:33Dieters feel like they're always trying. Athletes, however, ever think differently. Athletes fuel. Athletes train. Athletes prioritize recovery. Athletes play the long game. Athletes build their bodies. They don't fight them. When I shifted from how do I lose weight to how do I build a stronger body, everything changed. My decisions, my actions, and over time, my body started to reflect the mindset and those new actions. So start to think like an athlete, not a dieter. Tip number seven is that I set strength goals, not just weight loss goals. And this is a huge one because we are not meant to be in a calorie deficit forever.

16:16So if we just are focused on the scale only as the measure of our success, that's self-sabotage. We're setting ourselves up for failure. You are meant to be in maintenance phases where you are allowing your body to optimize metabolism and muscle tissue growth. When you're in maintenance, the scale isn't going to really change. So we have to rely on other metrics that are actually going to show us that we are progressing. So things like strength, things like photos, looking at body composition, measurements, all of those are metrics that actually tell a bigger, more truthful story. When the goal is only weight loss, you miss the actual transformation.

16:57The scale is one metric, but it does not tell the whole story of strength, capability, or body composition. Setting strength goals gave me something meaningful to work towards. It gave me momentum and it gave me pride. When I got stronger, when I saw myself actually physically get stronger, that felt so good. It felt 10 times better than just seeing a smaller number on the scale. And every time I got stronger, my body composition improved right alongside it. Performance will drive your progress. Progress is going to drive your confidence and confidence is what changes everything. So make sure you are focused on how strong you're getting, not just how small you're getting.

17:36And it's going to give you the aesthetic changes that you want as well. Now, on to tip number eight is that I use bad days as lessons instead of quitting. And I want to be real here. In my early 20s, I was a quitter. I quit on myself all of the time. I started college and then I quit. I would get different jobs and I would quit. And I was really in a place of not trusting myself and feeling like I was never going to amount to anything. And then I finally went back to school. And that was a pivotal moment for me of like, you can't just keep quitting on yourself because you're never going to get anywhere in life.

18:10And I saw it through. I stuck it out. I had to say to myself, like, you don't have a choice anymore. If we keep quitting, life is going to go nowhere for you. And it was the first time I stayed committed. And it was hard. It was really hard. but I saw what came from that decision of sticking with the hard choice. And on the other side of that was amazing accomplishment and a newer confidence in myself because I trusted myself, because I said, I'm going to do this. And I followed through. And that was a big lesson for me. And that's not to say that I didn't make mistakes after that, but I always remembered that feeling of like, when I chose to do the hard thing and saw it through, that taught me so much about myself.

18:51And so I took that and I used it in my fitness journey. You know, most women don't struggle with effort. They struggle because they have this unrealistic expectation that they are supposed to be perfect. And we interpret an imperfect day as failure and then decide we have to throw it all away. Progress doesn't come from perfection. It comes from consistency. And so when I had an imperfect day, when I had a misstep, I just got curious about it. Why did that happen? And how can I support myself better in the future? I want you to start to think like the CEO of your life. Think about a CEO of a company.

19:25It is imperative for the success of that company, for the CEO to remain in a place where they just evaluate a mistake rationally. They look at it objectively. What happened? Why did it happen? How can we make it better in the future? And then get right back to it. That's exactly how you have to view these things. Yes, you're going to have bad days, but it's not about avoiding those bad days. It's how you navigate through those days so that you just keep going, that you don't give up on yourself. This is about consistency, not perfection. That's what will drive true transformation for you. And tip number nine falls right in line with tip number eight, but it's that I stayed consistent, not perfect.

20:06A lot of us believe we need these perfect plans to have results and that if they're not perfect. We just abort altogether. But I'm telling you, that's not how you're going to get results. Results come from consistency with some of the boring basics like walking, getting enough protein, getting good sleep, getting a lift in two to three times a week. It doesn't have to be four, five, six days a week. But showing up imperfectly but consistently built the foundation that my results stand on today. And I've told this story before, but when I was 39, I had my first son. I was turning 40 that same year.

20:43And I started a new fitness journey then. I knew I wanted to get stronger. I knew I wanted to build the strongest body I could so that I can live as many years as I can with quality with him. And that changed how I viewed nutrition and training. but in those early days it was far from perfect. I was a new mom. I was figuring out life with a new baby. He wasn't sleeping but I just stayed as consistent as I could with some of those boring basics. Protein, movement, sleep when I could, hydrating, lifting and every rep, every walk, every meal compounded itself over time and you're going to have seasons where you can be more dialed in than others.

21:28But the point remains that you want to be staying consistent. Do not give up on yourself. Continue to do what you can when you can and just stay consistent. And that consistency will compound for you over time as well. Now on to our final tip, tip number 10, which is that I built habits and values instead of relying on motivation. I stopped depending on motivation altogether. Motivation is not something that any of us should rely on. It's emotional. And emotions are inconsistent. If your success depends on feeling inspired, your success is fragile. What actually creates sustainability is being deeply connected to why this fitness journey matters to you.

22:14That why will become your North Star. For me, my North Star was, you know, I was mom and knowing that I wanted decades of health, strength, and energy ahead of me. I wanted to be present and capable for my son. I want to be here for the years to come and living vibrantly and joyfully. I think about being able to play with my future grandkids, hopefully, being able to travel, move easily, live fully and independently, and not worry about my body and its ability to keep up with my life. That why drives me more than any aesthetic goal ever could. That why turns choices into alignment, not discipline.

22:55So I encourage you to do the same. How would your life improve if you achieved your goals? And what would it cost you if you never changed? Get honest with yourself about both of those realities. And when you do that, you can anchor yourself to purpose and you will never need motivation again. Like I said, motivation is an emotion, it's fleeting. But when you connect with your why, you can build habits and values that support that. And then that just becomes who you are. It's not discipline, it's not motivation, it's just who you are and that's how you stay consistent, how you get the goals and how you keep the goals.

23:34So those are my top 10 tips. I hope that they brought some clarity as to why they are so helpful, why they can really help you on your fitness journey. And I really want you to seize this time. At this age, we have a unique opportunity, right? Because we still have time. God willing, we all still have time to make amazing strides with our goals. But we also have this perspective of how quickly time goes. So please do not waste any more time. Do not doubt yourself. Do not give up on yourself. Do not try to keep doing the things that aren't working. Start to really get connected with yourself, your body.

24:14Start to appreciate it in a new way. Start to help it get stronger. Start to work with it instead of against it so that you can live out the rest of your years, the next 40 years, thriving and loving life and loving yourself and loving your body. And when you do that, you know, it's so much more than a physical change because it opens you up to all kinds of opportunities and ways that you can serve when you are not your healthiest, when you are not your most confident, it closes you off. And there are so many things waiting for you when you open that door. So I invite you, especially with this new year, to take a different approach.

24:55If you have been frustrated, if you feel stuck, take a different approach. Leave those old ways behind and start to lean into strength, lean into health. And I promise you doing that will give you the aesthetics and that's just the cherry on top. You're going to feel and look better, but the biggest win is that you are going to have a body that's going to allow you freedom for the decades ahead. And if you're listening to this and thinking, okay, I'm ready. I want a plan. I want structure. I'm ready to do this. I'm ready to tackle my fitness goals in 2026. I want to invite you into my six-week Soft to Sculpt a Challenge that's kicking off on January 5th.

25:36This is where you get the science-backed workouts, the strategy, the education, the tools, the community that you need to sculpt your body, support your metabolism, and finally start to see some progress. I will leave all of the information on the six-week challenge in the show notes, plus the link for 25 % off. Like I said, we kick off on January 5th. I would love to see you inside there. Plus there's some amazing cash prizes. But if you need deeper personalized coaching, I'm also accepting new one-on-one clients and this is the best time to start at the end of the year because my rates are going to change for next year this is for that person who just needs that more one-on-one approach you and I work closely together and map out a plan that's going to help your metabolism help your health help your confidence and walk you into that true body transformation inside and out I will also leave my link to my one-on-one coaching in the show notes there is a whole page that tells you who I help how I help them and an application so you can fill that out if it looks like it's the right choice for you.