#161: Build the Body You Want to Spend the Rest of Your Life In

Three years ago I got my body back. And that changed everything.

It was the spark that started this podcast in the first place. 

In this episode, I share the story of what drove me to transform my own body after menopause, and what I have learned about building a body that not only look and feel great now but will allow you to thrive in the decades ahead.

Because here is the thing: we cannot stop the wrinkles or stop our skin from getting looser with age. But there is a LOT we can do to stay strong and functional, and not get frail.

This is my story of how I built the body I want to spend the rest of my life in. Hopefully, it will provide some inspiration for building yours, too.

Enjoy the show!

Resources mentioned:

1. Episode #139: Perimenopause & HRT - My Personal Story >>

Transcript

#161: Build the Body You Want to Spend the Rest of Your Life In

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, and I help women build the bodies that they want to spend the rest of their lives in. How do you like that catch phrase? Huh? I'm turning 55 on April 1st. So the day after this episode comes out and. I was just thinking about that is actually what my whole mission was when I started this podcast, and I think I feel that way even today.

So this podcast turned three in February and I started it a year after I started strength training. And it was because I realized the power of strength training in allowing us to get our bodies back.

Now, I don't know if that's PC to say, because I know, you know, we're not 20 [00:01:00] anymore. We shouldn't be endeavoring to be 20 anymore because we're midlife, and I totally agree. But at the same time. For sure. I did not want a midlife body. I didn't want what nature was gonna hand to me, which was something that was much weaker than it had been earlier in my life, where I would be limited in being able to do certain things that I would feel less confident, and my body, I wouldn't feel so good in my clothes. I didn't want that. I wanted my body back. And maybe I just need to be bold enough to say that even now, I want to continue to feel amazing and empowered and confident and sexy in my body. And okay, sure. I'm gonna have wrinkles. My skin is of course, looser than it was when I was younger. That all [00:02:00] happens with age, but. I think there is just something magical about feeling good in your physical body, and I want to enable women like me to feel that way.

So that was really my biggest motivator in the beginning was getting my body back, and it took me a long time. Well long time. Long time. It took me. Um, a year and a half really. And part of the reason that it took me so long was that I didn't know what I was doing in the beginning. If I had had a program like one of them that I, have now available for you, I, it would've happened so much faster, but. I figured it out as I went along studied, because I was studying to be a personal trainer and a fitness coach, so I learned the things that way. But oh my goodness, the first half year was a little bit clumsy. And also I was following this, [00:03:00] online program where they changed up the workouts every time, even though it called itself strength training. I quickly realized as my study is progressed that that was not the most efficient and effective way of doing things, and my superpower really has always been to be able to figure out systems, to make things more efficient, to simplify the complicated, so that you could get to your result faster.

 Actually, it's been three years now, believe it or not, since I achieved my result, my transformation, and I've been able to keep my body looking and feeling great ever since then. I mean, yeah, I have a few more pounds than I did back then. Because I have decided that it is not worth me not eating any candy or never having a drink, you know, or being so, so, so strict that I would need to be, to stay as thin as I was at [00:04:00] the end of my fat loss phase three years ago. And plus, um, I don't know how many of you were with me back then, but I had quite a. Devastating breakup with a guy that I was dating. And so when I'm struggling emotionally, I don't eat. So I actually overshot my fat loss phase a bit, and I started to get too skinny, which my friends started commenting to me that, Lynn, maybe you should start eating. And I literally had to start monitoring my eating. That's never happened to me since, but that was kind of an interesting time. But I'm digressing.

And part of getting your body back, is. How it looks, right, that you are firmer, that you feel firmer, that you don't have the squeeze on your waist from the belly fat and from the visceral fat that starts to accumulate when you are in midlife. It is also about [00:05:00] how your body functions. You know, if you're used to being able to carry the groceries or get up the stairs, no problem, having it be strong and functional is super important. So that's part of getting your body back.

And then if you think about the body that you want to spend the rest of your life in, that encompasses so much, right? This is our one vessel that we have. We don't get to just trade it in, like move our brain from one body to another and like, oh, oh, screwed up that one. You know, let's swap to a new one. No, this is the one body we have, and for us to have a really good quality of life going forward, we need to take care of it. Because what do you want as you grow older? You want a body that's healthy. So you stay healthy, right? So you're not [00:06:00] dealing with illness all the time. You have a body that's functional and strong, so you can manage an everyday life, okay?

You have wear and tear from age, you might have arthritis and other things, old injuries coming back to haunt you. And you need to keep your body strong so it stays functional despite those, I don't know about you, but I have definitely, I mean, my hip is a big issue for me because I. I got it out of place back when I was like in high school and dancing ballet.

Actually I was in grade school, so it was probably like seventh and eighth grade or something like that. Even younger actually. I was in, yeah, it was probably before sixth grade that I was trying to do the splits in ballet class and my hip dislocated and it recovered eventually, and throughout my youth in college and all that, it was no problem at all.

And then in my thirties and forties [00:07:00] it started to bug me and oh my God, it is like a forever bugging thing. But I'm able to manage it because I keep the muscles strong. In other words, my hamstrings, my glutes, my quads, and the same thing with my arthritic knee. It's not bothering me because I keep my legs strong.

So that's the part about like building the body that you want to spend the rest of your life in the body that works. So, yeah, so let me know what you think of that. But that is really, I think, what I represent here in, in helping you to do. And so there is the strength training part, of course to keep your body strong.

Then there is the fat loss part to have a body that you feel really good about. You're proud of what you see in the mirror. Your clothes look good. And then there's the part that I think I talk about a little bit less, or I have talked about a little bit less, but I have talked about in some episodes, [00:08:00] and, and that is the pleasure side.

I mean, I'm. Definitely a physical person have always been, I get a lot of pleasure from doing things with my body, and I don't only mean sex, I mean like I like to move, I like to work out. I like to sweat. I mean, I was an athlete all through high school and played division one lacrosse in college and have been an avid runner and fitness class goer and all that.

But I've always also enjoyed physical intimacy, and this is a part that, yeah, I can't personally help you, make that better. But what I can do is share my own journey on that and how I have worked on that. And I have shared that in my episodes on hormone replacement therapy because.

At two points in my life, it has, and in my adult [00:09:00] life, like after menopause, I've had situations where, sex didn't feel like anything or I didn't enjoy it, or orgasm was harder to achieve. And there I have. Started hormone replacement therapy in order to help that. Okay. When I started on estrogen and progesterone, the main part of that was that I was severely depressed. I had. Brain fog, all the things. I mean, I was on antidepressants, were not helping at all. The situation was just getting worse. And finally, with HRT, the situation started to get better. So there started to be light at the end of the tunnel. And I came outta that depression. It, it didn't happen overnight. It was like a year process. So obviously when you're depressed, sex drive is gone, but even later, I have noticed that the hormones have definitely helped with the sex drive. And then two years ago, about where I [00:10:00] noticed a significant change in my sex drive and, and that was when I went in for hormone testing again and tested my testosterone levels. And they were like on the floor, so, so my testosterone was gone and, I got testosterone replacement therapy and that has brought that side back to life for me. And oh my God, I never thought that at 55 I would be , having some of the best sex of my life. Just sensation and pleasure wise, just amazing.

I mean, my kids are always like, mom, come on. You're like a thousand years old. What, what? What do you want to do? And I'm like, Hey, I'm 55 and I have decades ahead of me, so why shouldn't I be enjoying myself and all the ways I can. So yeah, so [00:11:00] that is also part of what I represent is. That life does not end in midlife. You know, it's not like we're over. And I, and I know in so many ways, society tries to tell us that it is over. I remember my mom when, I was a teenager, my mom always said as we'd be walking the mall, she's like, yep, she is invisible. Now that she has this daughter and I refuse to become an invisible woman just because I am 55 or in midlife and to start doing things that I should do, like stay home on the weekends, go to the opera. I mean, nothing against people who like to go to the opera, but I like to go move when I don't need to be sitting at my computer.

I wanna represent getting the most out of your life and not kind of calling it quits [00:12:00] when you're in midlife. It's the physical part of how you feel and it is the mental part of how you feel, and there are the levers that you can pull on to help with those.

 There is the exercise that you do to make you physically feel better, to give you more energy, and there's all kinds of research coming out about how important strength training is for longevity for your brain health. For preventing dementia Alzheimer's. So that is really important, for neurological connections, but also managing things like your hormone levels.

I think it's not talked about enough, and for sure, I'm not a doctor, so I would only say that I consider that a lever, something that I need to be aware of. And by the way, it's not a set it and forget it. It's not like, okay, you go on hormone therapy and you get this and then you forget about it. No. You need to [00:13:00] then, be regularly checking what your hormone levels are so that they're at an appropriate level.

Like any medicine, if you were on thyroid medicine, which by the way is another hormone, you would. Go in and check your thyroid levels, to make adjustments in your medication accordingly. So it's the same kind of thing with HRT and this I mention because I was just recently working with a one-to-one client and she got on HRT, never had a blood test, right. They put her on testosterone. And then she was having symptoms and they were like, oh, we'll just give you more and more and more. And they never checked her blood work. She was losing her hair, her sex drive was through the roof. She was like, I feel like a 16-year-old boy. And, in my opinion, having been in a level where my, testosterone levels were too high. I know that those are signs of them being too high [00:14:00] and yet her provider was not even checking that. And I think that's really irresponsible. So, , please, when you try these things, make sure that you are doing it with somebody who knows how to do it and also is checking your blood work regularly. Okay. But that was a really big aside on that.

But getting back to the main topic, which is helping women build the bodies that they want to spend the rest of their lives in. I was thinking about that and I realized. You know, I have my strength training programs and I have my fat loss program, and for sure you can do those two things on your own, but I think whenever you start something new, you need to have some kind of motivation. For me, the strength training was because my body got blobby and I was like, I need to get my muscle back. But then the fat loss, my motivator was that I had a college reunion coming up that summer. And I was like, I'm going back to the [00:15:00] States. I haven't seen these people in forever, and I want to show off my muscle. I wanna look my best. So that was my huge motivator. And now as I mentioned, I've been maybe going out a little bit more often. Well, that's partly because that's one good way to see my aging parents. I, I take them out to eat because they're a little bit bad about eating anyway, so all of this has led to me. Gaining a few extra pounds, which I would love to get rid of for summer, but I find that the motivation to get started with that is really challenging because I don't have any reunions, weddings, anything where I need to look amazing this summer.

But I still would feel better when I slip into my summer clothes. If there were maybe five less pounds of fat. And so I was thinking that maybe you feel [00:16:00] that way too, that it's been really hard to get started and you kind of need a boost. You need some kind of motivation, you need some kind of accountability, maybe somebody to do it with, and so. I am actually going to run a group coaching program starting in April, which will combine strength training and fat loss, eight weeks coaching with me in a small group format. So I'm taking maximum 15 ladies because I wanna have time to actually help you out.

So you'll get strength training twice a week. You can do it at home or at the gym. If you do it at home, all you need is dumbbells. If you do it at the gym, any commercial gym will do so. The programs are different. You use more than just dumbbells at the gym program. [00:17:00] And then we together are going to figure out your fat loss formula and make it easy for you to lose fat because I tell you, I am super busy just like you. I hate cooking. Well, I don't know if you love cooking or hate cooking, but maybe like some of you, I need it to be a simple system that I can just do for eight weeks. Without having to stress about it. Okay. And that is what I teach and we will do that together. So I haven't opened the doors for that yet, but I have started a waiting list .

So is summer a time where you feel like, yeah, this summer I do have a wedding, or I do have a reunion, or, this is the summer that I wanna feel great in my clothes again . Let's get you there, okay. In eight weeks, starting in April, so that by [00:18:00] mid-June you are in a totally different place than you are today.

And by the way, this is not like some sort of crazy crash diet when I did this three years ago, I learned so much about my eating habits, how to structure my eating, how to make eating so much less stressful. I no longer, I'm like, oh, I'm hungry. Let's see what's in the fridge.

Ooh, fridge is bare. Oh, maybe there's something in the cupboard. Ah, there's some chips. Lemme grab chips. No, that is never a scenario in my house. After I learned these systems that I've put in place, I always know what I'm gonna eat for lunch. I always have a plan for dinner, and it makes it easier for you to maintain your weight like forever.

So these are habits you will learn and you'll use those habits to lose fat now, but then you'll use those habits to continue to maintain your [00:19:00] weight in the future. So anyway, if that interests you, then the link is in the show notes to sign up for the wait list, it's definitely worth joining the wait list because then you will get access to some early bird bonuses and they are definitely worth it. 

And by the way, I just got amazing pictures from one of my members who's been building muscle in my membership. And now in the fall before school started, she finally did my fat loss formula and she looks. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. And she's so happy. She's like, I finally got to unveil all the beautiful muscle that I had been building.

And so, yeah, so that was really exciting because I know what that feels like. It feels great. All right, .

So those are my thoughts as I turn 55, and I remind [00:20:00] you and myself. That age is just a number, and the choice you get to make is how you age. Do you wanna age strong? Do you wanna feel confident and wonderful in your body, or do you wanna let yourself get frail and. Invisible and disappear.

And I think if you're listening to my podcast, you are in the same boat as I am, which is that life ain't over yet. The best years are still to come. And with that, I leave you till next week and wish you happy training.