EP 84: My Top 10 Tips That Transformed My Body at 47

0:00And welcome back to Becoming Her, Fit or Better, and Stronger over 40. I'm your host and 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 over 40, working hard, and still feel like your body is not reflecting your effort, this episode is for you. Today I'm sharing the top 10 tips that helped me transform my body at 47 so you can build muscle, lose fat, feel strong and confident in your skin again, and stop spinning your wheels, spending time doing what doesn't work for you anymore. Because if you're anything like me, you grew up hearing that low fat everything was better and burning more calories was better.

0:35The 90s diet culture just taught us to eat less and move more. Now hear me out. 90s music is a hard yes, but the 90s fitness advice, however, that's going to be a hard pass. For years, I followed all that advice. I was doing all the things I was supposed to do. I was in the gym six days a week trying to burn off every calorie I ate, eating less and less. And while I looked kind of fit, I wasn't getting the results that I wanted. I felt like for all of the effort I was putting in, I should see better change. And I wasn't. I wanted more definition. I wanted to feel stronger. I wanted more confidence.

1:07Most importantly, I wanted my effort to match my results. But then something changed. You know, I had my first son at age 39 and I wanted to be healthy for him for the years to come. And so my fitness journey, my relationship with nutrition, my relationship with my body completely changed. I started to focus less on getting smaller and more on getting stronger. These days, I'm eating more, working out less, but feeling and looking far better than ever because I started doing the right things. Now at age 47, I'm stronger, leaner, more muscular, and more confident than I ever was in my 20s or 30s.

1:42So today I'm going to share those top 10 tips so you can start to look and feel your best in your 40s too. Now tip number one is that I started to walk daily. And I'm starting with this one because it's the least sexy one on the list, but it's the most impactful. I never thought walking was really powerful. I thought I needed boot camps, HIIT classes, spin classes. I thought I needed to sweat and burn, feel exhausted at the end of my workouts. But here's what I've come to learn. One of the most underrated drivers for fat loss isn't what happens during your workouts. It's actually what happens during the other 23 hours of the day.

2:14Walking has helped me increase my daily activity without adding more stress to my body. It's helped me burn more calories without feeling depleted. It helps with my recovery, helps with managing blood sugar, and it helps me stay active consistently. And consistency is where results come from. And science supports this. One of the biggest reasons that walking is so effective has to do with something called NEAT, which stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. NEAT simply refers to all of the movement you do outside of your formal workouts. So things like walking, cleaning, running errands, gardening, taking the stairs, or simply moving around through your day.

2:49And what's fascinating is that for many people, NEAT accounts for a large portion of their daily calorie expenditure, most times even more than the structured workouts they are doing. In other words, the calories that you burn through your everyday movement have a bigger impact on your overall energy output. That's why increasing daily movement matters so much. It's not just about your workout, but also about how active you are during the other hours of your day. Adding more walks into your day or taking the stairs, parking further away, those small moments of movements will add up significantly over time.

3:20And unlike intense cardio, walking doesn't come with a huge recovery cost. And at this stage of life, that's really important. Because if you're constantly exhausted, constantly sore, and constantly trying to out-cardio your diet, eventually something's going to give. I do add intensity a couple times a week with things like incline walking or just picking up the pace, especially during a fat loss phase. But walking has become one of the most enjoyable parts of my fitness journey. Some of my most creative ideas come while I'm walking. It's also a great time to catch up on podcasts or listen to worship music, spend time with my family, or simply just get outside during a lunch break.

3:55And what I love most is that it's so accessible and sustainable. And sustainability, again, leads to consistency. And consistency is how you win at anything, especially when it comes to your fitness goals. Now, tip number two is that I stopped exercising and I started to strength train. And this one changed everything. For years, I was exercising but not training. And yes, there is a difference. My workouts felt hard. I was doing circuits and classes, different programs, whatever would make me sweat. But what I was not doing was strength training with the goal of building muscle. And that's the big difference.

4:28I began to understand that the body I wanted was not going to come from just getting smaller, but rather sculpted and shaped. I wanted shoulders. I wanted glutes. I wanted muscle definition. I wanted strength. I wanted confidence. And now with my son, I wanted longevity. And those things come from muscle, not just burning calories, but building muscle. The reality is that after 40, building and maintaining muscle becomes even more important. It supports metabolism, insulin sensitivity, it improves your function, your mobility, your body composition, and it's just going to help you age well. Unfortunately, many women are losing muscle every decade without even realizing it, especially when their workouts are focused on burning, not building.

5:06And that's why I shifted my approach. Today, my workouts revolve around compound exercises, you know, things like hip thrust, Romanian deadlifts, rows, pull downs, shoulder presses, exercises that allow me to challenge my muscle in a progressive way over time. My workouts are repetitive, but that's only so that I can track and make progress and get stronger. But those boring workouts have led to really exciting results. I'm now in the gym less than I ever was, but ironically, it's what's helped transform my physique the most. Now on to tip number three, which is I stopped working out fasted. For years, fasted workouts and fasted cardio were promoted as the answer to burn more fat.

5:43You wake up, have your coffee, and go sweat and go burns of fat. Or at least that's what we were told. And that's what I did for a long time. But when I shifted to building and not burning, I realized that I was going to perform, recover, and maintain muscle when I fueled my workouts. When you are properly fueled, you can train harder, you can lift heavier, you can push closer to failure and get one more rep. Do that week over week, month over month, and that makes a significant difference. I started to have a small meal before training, just enough to give my body the fuel it needed to push. And the difference was so incredible.

6:18My strength was better, my workouts were better, the recovery was better, and ultimately my results were better. Now, we know it can be a struggle if you train early, but try something that's quick digesting, like a clear protein and a banana or rice cake. I have a full guide with meal ideas in the description, so check that out, but give it a try. I guarantee you, you're going to feel stronger and perform better when you do it fueled. Now, tip number four is that I started to prioritize protein. In the early part of my fitness journey, I had no awareness of protein. My only goal was to eat less.

6:48But once my goals shifted towards building muscle, I realized how important protein really is. This is a pitfall I think a lot of women get stuck into is because the 90s era, again, was just teaching us to eat less and move more, not to prioritize protein, not to prioritize muscle. That led to scale changes, but we didn't realize at the time we weren't just losing fat. We were also losing muscle, which meant we were slowing down our metabolism, which left us in this place now where we feel soft and stuck. When I started to track my protein intake, I was really surprised at how little protein I was getting.

7:20And that matters when we talk about muscle. because protein is the building block of muscle. It supports recovery. It helps keep us full. It helps preserve your lean mass during fat loss. And after 40, it becomes even more important. As we age, our muscles become less responsive to the portions of protein that we have. This is referred to as anabolic resistance, which means we just need more protein to get the same muscle building response. Today, I make sure I prioritize protein at every single meal because it's protecting my muscle. And muscle is so important. So that means protein is important too.

7:54For me, that usually means somewhere between 30 to 50 grams at each meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I keep it simple with foods like whey protein, lean ground beef, chicken, eggs, egg whites, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, fish, things like that. One of the most powerful habits you can do is simply to build your meals off of protein. Protein requires more energy just to digest it when compared to carbs or fats. It helps you stabilize your blood sugar, your appetite. It reduces your cravings throughout the day. and it plays a critical role with preserving and building lean muscle, which, as we know, is really important with age.

8:25But the benefits go far beyond body composition. It also provides building blocks for every cell in your body, especially hair, skin, nails, and your overall health. When I finally started prioritizing protein, I noticed better energy, improved recovery from workouts, fewer cravings, better body composition, and longer, stronger hair and nails. Now on to tip number five, which is that I also started to prioritize fiber. While protein gets a lot of attention, fiber is just as important, especially with women over 40. Unfortunately, diet culture taught us to fear carbs, making us believe that fruit, potatoes, and other carb-rich foods were somehow the enemy.

9:00But the reality is there is no single macronutrient that causes you to gain weight. Weight gain occurs when we consistently consume more calories than our bodies need over time. Yet still so many of us are afraid of carbs. You know, I remember when I was following the keto diet, I found myself craving apples. And And that was the moment I realized that something was off. You know, my body wasn't asking for cookies or candies. It was asking for an apple. And that was my sign to change my approach. The truth is, is that many women aren't struggling with their weight because they're eating too many fruits and vegetables.

9:30They're struggling because they're probably not eating enough of them. When you have more fruits and vegetables, you're going to have more fiber. Fiber plays a powerful role in our overall health. It helps increase satiety. It slows gastric emptying, similar to the mechanism with some of the popular weight loss medications. Helps you feel fuller for longer. it's also going to support your digestion and your gut health. Once I started to prioritize fiber and stop fearing every single carbohydrate and focus on quality foods, everything started to improve like my digestion, my hunger, my energy. Carbohydrates also play an important role with helping our bodies manage stress.

10:02They support serotonin production and that can help us feel more energized and balanced, especially during the demanding seasons of our lives. For most women, And aiming for around 25 to 35 grams of fiber a day is a great goal. Some of my favorite foods that help me reach my fiber goals are oats, potatoes, apples, berries, leafy greens. All of these are things that I incorporate into my meals most of the days. Now, as you increase fiber, you also want to make sure you're getting enough water so that your body can process it. Fiber and water work together. So getting enough of both is going to make a huge difference in how you feel.

10:35One of the biggest benefits I've seen from embracing fiber and adding more quality carbohydrates into my diet is that it starts to feel more sustainable. Instead of constantly feeling restricted, I've learned how to build balanced meals that include protein, fiber, healthy fats, and carbohydrates. And that balanced approach is something that I can do long term. Now tip number six is that I started to think of myself as an athlete and not a dieter. And this might be the most powerful tip on this entire list, but for years, I saw myself as a dieter, someone who was just wanting to get smaller and lose weight, always trying to eat less, always trying to take up less space.

11:10And if you have been on some sort of diet since your 20s, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But thinking like a dieter has you asking yourself questions like, how little can I eat? How fast can I lose weight? How quickly can I get results? But athletes think completely different. They think about how they can fuel their body, how they can recover better. How can they improve in general? How do they get stronger? How do they perform their best? The moment I started to think like an athlete, instead of a dieter, everything shifted. I stopped trying to shrink myself and started to try to build myself up.

11:42I stopped focusing on being smaller and started to focus on becoming stronger, more capable, and more confident. And here's what I want to invite you to consider. What if you started to call yourself an athlete? Not when you lose the weight, not when you reach a certain size, not when you can lift a certain amount of weight, but right now in this very moment, start referring to yourself as an athlete. Because being an athlete isn't about competing. It's about showing up for yourself. You know, if you are on a fitness journey, you're trying to get stronger, you're prioritizing your health, you're already doing what athletes do.

12:15And when you begin to see yourself as an athlete, you start to make decisions completely different. You eat to fuel your body. You train to get stronger. You recover to get better. And you speak to yourself differently. That identity shift influenced every decision that followed. And it became one of the biggest reasons I was able to create the strongest, healthiest version of myself. And I know it's going to help you too. Now on to tip number seven is that I set strength goals and not just weight loss goals. For so many years, my goals revolved around the scale. Like so many women, I believe that progress could be measured by a single number.

12:49Every new phase started with a weight loss goal. Lose five pounds, lose 10 pounds, get back to a certain number that I thought was the number. And while those goals gave me some short-term motivation, they never really took me to that place that I wanted to be, you know, that strong, defined, confident version of myself. And the scale also had a way of messing with my mindset. You know, I might have an amazing week and felt stronger and more energy. I was making great choices, but if the number didn't move in the way I expected, I felt like none of it mattered. Eventually, I realized something really important is that the scale was not the end-all be-all, but strength really was.

13:24So instead of obsessing about what I weighed, I started to pay attention about what my body could do instead. I started to lift heavier. And could I do more than I did last week? Could I do another rep? Did I improve my form? Was I getting stronger? Was I more capable? That's what I focused on. And those goals excited me. I became excited about my workouts. I started to add more weight. I was getting stronger. I was performing better. Strength goals gave me something positive to chase from trying to be smaller to becoming stronger. And the ironic thing is that the more I focus on strength, the more my physique improved.

13:57My body started changing in ways that the scale could never really capture. I built more muscle. I developed more shape, more definition. I felt more confident in my own skin. Strength and muscle go hand in hand. And looking back, this was really another version of that athlete mindset that we just talked about. You know, dieters are going to focus on just the sole outcome of what they weigh, but athletes focus on performance and strength. When you focus on building a stronger body, the aesthetic changes you're hoping for often become a natural byproduct of the process. Now, tip number eight is that I used bad days as lessons instead of reasons to quit.

14:34And this lesson applies far beyond fitness. For years, I was that person where one bad day became a bad week, a bad week became a bad month, And eventually I'd find myself quitting and starting all over again. I spent years in that cycle, but eventually I realized something really important. One meal doesn't ruin progress. One workout doesn't create results. And one bad day won't define you. What actually determines success is what you do next. Now, when something doesn't go as planned, I ask myself, what can I learn from this? Because every setback contains information. Every challenge teaches you something.

15:10Every mistake is an opportunity for you to improve. So something did go wrong. I examined it. Maybe I didn't prepare enough protein ahead of time. Maybe I didn't get enough sleep. Maybe I overcommitted my schedule and I didn't leave room for the things I needed to do. And those aren't reasons to quit. They are just feedback that I can use to revamp my plan. The people who are successful with fitness and honestly in life aren't the people who never fail. They are the people willing to fail more than everyone else. and they're willing to make mistakes, learn from them, adjust and keep going. They don't view mistakes as evidence that they're incapable.

15:46They view mistakes as part of the process. And every skill that you've ever learned required failure. You didn't learn to drive perfectly on day one. You didn't learn a new job without making mistakes. You didn't become good at anything by avoiding failure. And fitness is no different. The women who ultimately succeed aren't the ones who execute everything perfectly. they're the ones who keep showing up day after day even if it's imperfect they learn the lesson they apply it and they move forward over and over again that's resilience and resilience is often what separates people who achieve lasting results from those who spend years starting over when we stop treating mistakes as failures and start treating them as data we can change everything we become more capable we become more confident and we build that resilience now tip number nine kind of piggybacks off of our last one, but I stayed consistent and not perfect.

16:40You know, perfection is impossible, but consistency is achievable. That's the great news because transformation doesn't happen during one perfect week. It happens during hundreds of ordinary weeks. Women who succeed long-term are not the ones who are the most motivated or perfect. They're the ones who are the most consistent. They keep showing up. They keep moving forward, even when life gets busy, even when motivation disappears, even when progress starts to slow. I remember when I was first starting my new fitness journey, I will call it, when I was 39 turning 40 right after I had my son. There were so many times where I thought about quitting, but I knew if I quit, I would stay where I was.

17:20And I also realized that if I just kept going forward, whatever that looked like, you know, Even if it just meant a 15-minute workout while he napped, that was adding to my momentum. I was staying consistent. I was building the habits. I was building my routine. I was building my strength. I was building that belief. And as I progressed, those days turned into weeks. And then weeks turned into months. And months turned into years. Seven years later, here I am feeling my best. But I would not be here unless I took those small steps and stayed consistent early on, even when I didn't think things were progressing.

17:54So if you're in that space, if you're in that messy middle, just keep going because I promise you, you will get there. The only way you will fail is if you quit. So just keep going, stay consistent, trust the process, and you will get there. Now, our final tip, tip number 10, is that I built habits and values and stopped relying on motivation. You know, motivation is one of those things that we think we need it, but we don't. It's unreliable. Some days you're going to feel really excited and motivated, and other days you won't. If your success depends on feeling motivated every day, what happens on days you don't feel like doing the work?

18:28What happens when life gets stressful? What happens when life gets busy? What happens when you're tired, overwhelmed, or discouraged? There is something in motivation that we can take. If we break down the word motivation, which is motive, what is your motive? What is your reason? What is your why? Because your why is far more powerful than any fleeting feeling of motivation ever will be. Motivation is an emotion, but your motive is your purpose. And purpose lasts far longer than emotion ever will. When you get deeply connected to your why, it changes everything. Maybe your why is about having the energy to keep up with your kids or your grandkids.

19:03Maybe it's feeling confident when you walk into a room. Maybe it's reducing your risk of illness or disease because you're watching some relatives or parents struggle now. Maybe it's being strong and independent and capable as you age. Maybe it's proving to yourself that you're capable of more than you've been giving yourself credit for. Whatever your reason is, get clear on it. Write it down and revisit it often because your why becomes your north star. It's the thing that guides you when motivation disappears. It's what's going to help you make decisions when life gets messy. and it's what's going to remind you of why you started this in the first place.

19:37So cast a vision. Who do you want to become? Not just what do you want to weigh, not just what do you want your pant size to be, but who is the woman that you're working towards being? How does she think? How does she feel? How does she walk into a room? How does she show up in her life? Create a clear picture. Then ask yourself some important questions about her values. You know, what does she value? Because our habits are a reflection of our values. If the woman you want to become values strength, she makes time to strength train. If she values her health, she's going to fuel her body well. If she values longevity, she's going to prioritize sleep and movement and recovery.

20:13If she values confidence, she's going to keep the promises she makes to herself. Once you're clear on her values, start aligning your habits with them. Focus on one small action at a time because transformation is going to happen when your daily habits begin to match the person that you're trying to become. That's what I've done with my own journey. I don't walk every day because I'm motivated. I walk because being active is a part of who I am. I strength train because I value strength and independence and longevity. I prioritize protein because I value building and maintaining my muscle. And these behaviors aren't things I force myself to do.

20:46They're habits that support the values and the life that I want to have and the woman that I want to be. If there's one thing that I hope you take away, it is this. Your best body is not behind you. At 47, I'm stronger, leaner, healthier, and more confident than I ever was in my 20s or my 30s because I stopped chasing the quick fixes and started to focus on the fundamentals. Walking, training, fueling, building muscle, developing healthy habits, developing that athlete mindset, and showing up consistently. All of those things have changed my body in so many amazing ways, but more importantly, they have changed my life.

21:21Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. If you found it helpful, I'd be so thankful if you left a rating or a review. And if you have show ideas, you know the drill. Reach out to me on Instagram. I love hearing from you. And until next week, keep getting stronger and I will see you in the next episode.