EP 83: What Took Me 20 Years To Learn About Fitness After 40 (In 12 Minutes)

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger Over 40. I'm your hosting coach, Shauna. I'm 47, a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach helping women over 40 become their best. If you're a woman over 40 trying to get fit, you've probably noticed everyone seems to have a different opinion on what to do. Lift weights, do cardio, eat carbs, don't eat carbs, take supplements. Supplements are a waste of time. It's no wonder so many of us feel so confused. Now, there are nuances to the fitness game, nutrient timing, recovery protocols, advanced training methods, etc.

0:27But after spending 20 years learning about fitness, making a lot of mistakes, chasing trends, coaching women, and building what I believe is my strongest and healthiest body at age 47, I've realized something. For years, I was trying to turn the dials before I mastered the basic foundations. I was constantly looking for the next thing, the next workout, the next diet plan, the next strategy, or the next hack promising to get me results. And a lot of women I talk to and coach do the same thing. But what I have learned is that if you master the foundations that I'm going to share with you today, you're going to get further than most people.

1:00Once those foundational pieces are in place, that's when you can start turning the dials if you need to. But spoiler alert, these will likely have you looking and feeling so good you might not need to. In today's podcast, I'm going to share what it took me 20 years to learn about fitness over 40. Not the trendy stuff, but the stuff that actually matters, moves the needle forward and changes your body. What I have found most is that everything comes back to three main categories, movement, nutrition, and recovery. Let's start with movement. For years, I thought exercise should be all about burning calories.

1:32I thought the best workout was the one that left me drenched in sweat, completely exhausted, and feeling like I had earned my food for that day. I did classes, circuits, boot camps, endless cardio. I had that more was better approach. And while some of those things helped me burn calories, they weren't really helping me build the body that I ultimately wanted. I now know that if you want to have a strong defined body, it's not going to come from burning calories. It comes from sending a specific signal to your body. And that signal is to build muscle. And this is so important for us after 40 because we can lose muscle.

2:03And that's going to impact how we look, our health, how we function, our metabolism, all of those things. Muscle is so important to us. We want to make sure we are building and preserving it. When I was younger, I thought muscle was just for bodybuilders and I was worried about getting too bulky. But now I understand that muscle is one of the greatest predictors of how we will age. It improves our insulin sensitivity, metabolic health, regulates blood sugar, it protects our bone density, it helps us with stability, mobility, and longevity. And of course, it helps to create that toned, sculpted, defined look so many of us are chasing.

2:35Which is why if I could only recommend one form of exercise to women over 40, it would be strength training. Here's the good news about strength training. It doesn't need to be complicated or take up a lot of your time. For most women, three to four structured strength training sessions per week is plenty. And the word there is structured, not random, not holding dumbbells and turning it into a cardio session and not constantly changing programs, but following one plan that allows you to progressively get stronger over time. Your body is incredibly adaptive. So if you continue using the same weight week after week, it has no real reason to change.

3:07That's where progressive overload comes in. And this simply means you're giving your body a reason to adapt. That might be adding weight, adding reps, improving your form, getting a better range of motion. But the goal is to simply become a little bit better week after week. Another thing I've learned is that intensity really matters with strength training. For years, I just blindly follow a workout, grab some dumbbells, do 10 reps, and think that was enough. I wasn't really challenging my muscle. Today, I understand that those last 2 to 3 reps should feel hard. If your workout calls for 10 to 12 reps, you should use a weight that brings you close to failure at that 10 to 12 rep mark.

3:40If you stop short of that threshold, you're not going to see the results that you want to and you're leaving gains on the table. I also paid more attention to my tempo, meaning the speed I performed the reps and made sure I took the rep through a full range of motion. This really helps with mind-muscle connection and then also allowing your joints and your supportive tissues to adapt and grow stronger along with you. Getting stronger in the gym isn't just for muscles. It can actually help your joints as well. The goal with your strength training sessions is not to be sweaty and burn a ton of calories.

4:08the goal is to make them effective at building muscle by using intensity, tempo, range of motion, and progression. This is also why sticking with one program for a set amount of weeks is critical so that you can track and see if you are getting stronger with the same lifts. If you are, there's a good chance that you are in fact building muscle and a great chance that that toned body is going to start to show up. Now on to the second piece of movement and that has nothing to do with the gym and honestly it may be one of the most overlooked pieces of health today and that's walking or simply just trying to move more.

4:37Modern day life has made it incredibly hard to be active. We sit while we work. We sit while we drive. We sit while we watch TV, while we scribble on our phones. Over time, that lack of movement will catch up with us. Finding ways where you can walk more in your day helps to off-put that. It's going to support your metabolism. It's going to support your heart health, support your digestion, your energy expenditure, your mental health. And it's sustainable and doable. You don't need a gym. You don't need a special machine to get out and walk. You can do it anywhere, anytime, and mostly at any age.

5:06Now, before you go thinking that you need to do 10 ,000 steps, just start getting intentional with how much movement you're getting every single day. A good goal to have is about 7 ,000 to 8 ,000 steps a day. That's considered active, but meet yourself where you are. If you're doing 2 ,000 steps a day right now, just work to improve from there. Add 1 ,000 steps every week or so, and just work to add more movement into your day over time. Now, yes, there are benefits to other styles of cardio, zone 2, conditioning work, but if you strength train three to four times a week and are intentional with how much movement you get every day you're checking two of the biggest boxes plus after 40 we need more time to recover between our training sessions so walking allows you to stay active recover and not add stress load strength train get in more daily movement and then turn those other dials if and when you need to if you're looking for a structured program i have a six-week challenge that kicks off today there is still time to join it's a one-time purchase with lifelong access You get the plan, an in-app tracker, tons of resources, an amazing community where you feel supported and have that accountability.

6:09And I'll be inside the community every single week teaching you all the things you need to know to build your best body over 40. I'll leave all the information in the show notes and I hope to see you there. Now on to our second category, which is nutrition. And this is where I spent so many years overcomplicating things. I was worried about carbs, eating after 7 p.m., meal timing, worried all about these little details. Meanwhile, I wasn't paying enough attention to the things that actually mattered most. What I now know is that nutrition can be largely simplified into four categories, calories, macros, micros, and the 80-20 % rule.

6:39Your total calorie intake is largely going to determine your body weight. So if you have fat to lose, you will need a calorie deficit. If you want to build muscle, you'll need to eat at maintenance, maybe even slightly above so that you have the support and the nutrients to do so. One of the best things I ever did on my transformation and that I see help so many other women is phasing the approach instead of trying to chase both goals at the same time. If that's new to you, I have a whole episode that I did that I will leave in the description. For years, I thought the answer was always just to cut calories.

7:06But what I understand now is that fat loss should be a phase, not a lifestyle. Some of my biggest breakthroughs I've seen in my physique and with clients happened during maintenance phases when we stopped chasing fat loss all of the time. Now, the second piece to nutrition here is macros. Macros largely determine your body composition. If there's one macronutrient we should all be paying attention to, that's protein. It's going to help build and preserve your lean muscle. It helps support your recovery, helps you with satiety. It burns more calories just to digest it. And because we become more resistant to building and maintaining muscle as we age, it becomes even more important for us to get enough protein.

7:43Good rule of thumb is 0.8 to one gram per pound of current body weight or goal body weight if you have fat to lose. And when I'm talking about protein, I'm talking about whole food options for protein, lean protein sources, things like chicken, lean beef, turkey, low-fat dairy, fish. And then if you have a hard time reaching your protein goal, you can always supplement with a quality whey protein or pea protein. A lot of foods that are labeled high protein aren't necessarily high protein, and they pack unnecessary calories and don't give you that return on investment when you're talking about how many calories per gram of protein that you're getting.

8:16Stick with whole lean sources of protein, and you can't go wrong. Now, the other two macronutrients are just as important. Carbohydrates provide energy. They support training performance, recovery, help our stress levels, and they help us with our muscle. And then fats are also really important for hormone health and brain health. And the goal should be to include all three macronutrients in a balanced way. That said, research consistently shows that when calories and protein are matched, fat loss results are very similar regardless of how fats and carbs are distributed. To keep things simple, focus on hitting your calorie target, your protein target, and those two things are going to have the biggest impact on your results.

8:52Now our third piece is micros or micronutrients and these are the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber that help your body function optimally. These allow us to have more energy, better digestive health, better health overall and the easiest way for us to improve our micronutrient intake is to have most of our foods be whole foods. Things like fruits, vegetables, potatoes, rice, beans and by the way when you eat more whole foods, more fiber, more protein you end up burning more calories just to digest them and they create more satiety making it less likely that you're going to overeat. But before you click off this video thinking that you have to eat boring to feel your best, there is a world where you can eat healthy and include some of your favorite treats.

9:31That's where the 80-20 % rule comes in. 80 % of the time try to make your food choices whole nutrient-dense options and then leave 20 % for a little fun. You know birthday night, pizza night, date night. Leave some space for the things you enjoy. That might look like having a moderate portion of the real treat or it might include making a macro-friendly version of that. But the goal is to create meals that nourish you, support your goals, and that you enjoy. Because if your nutrition plan only works when life is perfect, it's not going to be sustainable. Now on to our last topic, which is recovery.

10:02And this might be the most overlooked category. And if I'm being honest, this is probably a category I underestimated the most. The younger version of me thought that the results would come from doing more. More workouts, more cardio, more discipline, more restriction. But what I now know is that results come from balancing stress and recovery. And that starts with sleep. Sleep is not a luxury. It's a biological requirement. Poor sleep will impact your hunger, your hormones, your recovery, your mood, your energy, your training performance, your decision making, cravings, and your overall health.

10:31You cannot expect your body to perform at its best if sleep is constantly neglected. Now I know many women over 40 struggle with sleep because of hormonal changes and that's a real thing. But before swimming it's all hormones, start with dialing in a good routine at night. You know, limit your screen time before bed, keep your room cool and dark, stop caffeine after 12 p.m. Control those habits first and then see if you still need support. The second part of recovery is stress management. And this is a big one. Chronic stress impacts everything in the body. Often for me, stress meant that I would turn to food.

11:05But something I heard a long time ago that still stays with me to this day is that food will never fix what is not hunger. And if that was my only stress management tool, it meant my stress wasn't going anywhere and I was only compounding to it because I was creating another problem. It's important to build some tools, some things that you can lean on when stress comes, because it will, so that you can manage it in a healthy way. Things like getting outside, going for walks, deep breaths, spending time in nature, limiting doom scrolling, and not starting or ending your day with negative news. Instead, start it with gratitude.

11:37Start it with prayer. Protect your peace. Faith has become a pivotal part of me feeling my best over 40. You know, the older I've gotten, the more I've realized that not everything is mine to control. And I start my day every day with my daily devotional, and I anchor myself in faith, and I give away what's not mine to carry. And that simple practice has brought more peace into my life than anything else. And while everyone's journey looks different, we all need something that helps us slow down, reconnect, and create space for peace. When we protect our peace and our energy, we can show up better everywhere else.

12:09We make better decisions. We have better energy. We have better patience. We take better care of ourselves. And ultimately, we become better equipped to build the life and the body that we want. I hope you found these tips helpful. Make sure you save this episode and come back to it when you need to because it's so easy to get lost in the land of all of the information out there. The fitness industry is always going to try to convince you that the answer is something new. But after 20 years, I've learned that the women who get the best results are the ones that really get good at mastering the basics.

12:38So master these foundations first and then turn the dials only if you need to. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. If you found it helpful, please take a moment to rate or review. I'd be so appreciative. And if you have future show ideas, reach out to me on Instagram. I would love to hear from you. And until next week, keep getting stronger and I'll see you in the next episode.