GHUTV LIVE! The Fountain of Youth: Protein and Strength Training

Hey, hey, everybody. So glad to see you all here on a Friday. First time we've ever come live on a Friday. I'm Chris Freytag, founder of Get Healthy U TV, and this is Sam Cameranesi. Hello.

How are you? Good, how are you? Good. Now you guys might say, "Why are you wearing matching outfits?" Because we're like fifth graders. We are.

We text each other. What color of shirt are you wearing today? Wear the Army Green one today. So we love to match. People always ask about, we're gonna get into this, don't worry.

But people always ask about Get Healthy U TV, like, how are we always coordinating our outfits? We just think it looks better on camera. So we always try to coordinate, like, the color hue, et cetera. Anyway, that was so far off of what we're here for today. Today is about strength training and the Fountain of Youth because honestly, strength training is the Fountain of Youth.

It's one of a few things, but it's a very important part of aging gracefully, well and capable. So I'm super excited to talk about, it's something that I'm super passionate about at my age. I'm turning 56 next month. Yay! You know?

Woo-hoo. Happy early birthday. Closer to the 60 than I ever thought I was gonna be. Our little friend over here. How old are you, Sam?

I'm 30. She's 30, half my age. And we both strength train and we both strength train a lot. And, you know, I'm really proud of people who are in their 30s who are taking strength training seriously. Honestly, I honestly started seriously strength training at about age 30.

That was when I started. Because we didn't do a lot of strength training prior to that in fitness. We were dancing around but we weren't lifting. So it's a really great topic. I'm super excited to talk about it with you and at all, every decade, you are going to benefit from it.

So I know we have a bunch of pre-asked questions that you guys drop in the posts that we made. I know we get a lot of you live, although it's a Friday, so this is new to us. You know, give us a comment or two to tell us, is Friday a good day for you or not? We typically are live Tuesday or Wednesday, right? Yup, or sometimes Thursday, but yeah, Tuesday, Wednesday.

And we come live once a month, just so you know, at Get Healthy U TV to answer questions. We typically pick a subject, but everything is fair game. You can ask anything you want. So let's get right into it. Absolutely.

So today, Fountain of Youth and strength training, so protein. Can you give some simple quick protein options for after a workout and how much protein would you recommend post-workout? Okay, and I'm glad you just threw the word protein in. Yes, strength training goes hand in hand with protein. If you are strength training, you need to feed your muscles protein in order to repair and refuel.

Correct. So ask the question again, hashtag menopause brain. Can you give some quick simple protein options for after a workout? So simple protein, so okay, just talking about after workout, there is a little bit of timing to your protein. If you are really strength training, you're really breaking down those muscles.

You really feel like you're giving yourself some good strength training workouts. And it's really important to get the protein in your body within about two hours after your workout. Optimal would be within 45 minutes, but within, like, two hours after your workout. So if you are about to eat a meal, like, let's say, you finish your workout and you're gonna have dinner, you don't need to have a snack, you can just wait till that dinner comes. If you, like, for Sam and I, we work out early in the morning and we have our breakfast right afterwards.

So boom, there's your protein source. But if you are doing a workout where you're not gonna eat a meal for many hours, then do give yourself a snack within that two hours just to get protein into the muscles when they're most receptive to receive the amino acids, which is what protein is made of. Now type of sources, really, you know, it's up to you. Obviously, animal products are a good source of protein. So meat, dairy, any, you know, eggs, those are all really nice, good sources of protein.

And animal products have what we call a perfect amino acid profile of your essential amino acids. So animal products have all nine essential amino acids. But that being said, plant products, or plant products, is that the right word? Plant food is also a good source. Many leafy greens, some vegetables, nuts, seeds, they all have, you know, beans, legumes, they all have good sources or amount of proteins.

They don't have the perfect nine essential amino acids that your body needs. But if you are combining different plants throughout the day or in each meal, you are gonna end up with all nine of those essential amino acids. You don't have to really worry about it. So, you know, for me, I'll do hard boiled eggs after I work workout. I do a protein shake in the morning.

That's typically my breakfast. I always throw nuts and seeds. I eat a lot of pumpkin seeds, so I throw nuts and seeds in my shake. I do eat a lot of chickpeas. I love chickpeas.

In my salad, I love hummus. I do black beans every week. It depends on what meal I'm eating. What do you do? What are your best protein sources?

I do protein powder. So, you know, in the morning, I always do a shake. That's just the best way for me. And then, you know, ground chicken, ground turkey at night or just chicken breasts. But I know that there actually is a question, you kind of touched on a lot of 'em, protein options.

I answered a lot of things at once. You did. Protein options beside meat because there are people that, you know, are not eating meat. And so, you know, my boyfriend is actually, you know, he doesn't do meat. Is he vegan or vegetarian?

He's vegan. Vegan, okay. Yep, and so beans and legumes, like you said, edamame is a really good one. I know there's a pretty good source of protein in there. Quinoa, you talked about quinoa a lot.

Yeah, quinoa is actually a grain, it's crazy, that doubles as a protein. And so it's gluten-free. It got the nine essential amino acids that an animal product has. It's like the most glorious grain you can possibly eat. It's nutty, it's easy to cook.

It stays really well in the fridge if you make a big batch of it. So I highly recommend quinoa as a staple for protein. Absolutely. And then I know Ezekiel bread is another one. It is also, you know, a grain, but, like, there's all the really whole grains in those, so.

Right, and if you can get non-GMO breads, grains, you know, meats, all that kind of stuff, that is, you know, important, at least for me personally. But yeah, even my daughter was vegan for, like, five years. And it was amazing. She could end up with a good amount of protein in her diet. So, you know, I eat animal products.

So I love Greek. Greek yogurt is another one for me. I like creamy. I like anything that resembles ice cream in any form. And Greek yogurt reminds me of ice cream.

So I buy the plain, I don't buy all that pre-made fruit stuff where there's all this sugar in there. I put my own. I put usually, like, just one packet of monk fruit. That's been what I've been using, monk fruit. And then I'll mix in blueberries, raspberries, banana chunks.

I'll throw in some nuts or seeds or whatever. And literally, it's like a little yogurt parfait. I love it, good source. Do you ever do tofu or like tempeh? You know, I go in spurts.

So when my daughter was younger, you know, now she lives on her own. But we did buy a lot of tofu and tempeh at our house. And what I think is interesting about tofu is when you saute it in a pan, it takes on the taste. I don't think it tastes like much. It takes on the taste of whatever seasoning you're using.

So it's kind of a great product because you can buy soft, medium or firm. If you get the firm tofu and you cut it in chunks and you saute it with some interesting spices and olive oil, it's really, really good, I think. And tempeh is just fermented tofu, so I like it too. It's an acquired taste. And I love seafood.

Do you eat seafood? Love it. You eat salmon? I eat salmon, yeah. That's my main one.

Let's see. Should I take protein after running or after weightlifting or both? Does it matter? Both. I mean, when you're running, you're using a lot of muscle.

And again, you have to use some common sense. Like, if you run one mile, do you really need an extreme source of protein? Maybe not at that moment. If you, you know, do a 10-minute workout, do you need to have a 400 calorie shake? No, you don't.

So it's about, like, the intensity of your exercise and the length of your exercise, quite honestly. And most people say, how much protein in a sitting? So our bodies can digest. Again, it depends on your gender, mostly your weight and your size and the way you metabolize. But somewhere between 20 to 40 grams of protein in a serving.

But if you're eating less than that, let's say, you're just having a couple eggs and you're gonna end up with 12 grams of protein or something, that's great too. So how many grams of protein should women aim for daily? Daily, so the rule of thumb out there by most, you know, dieticians is approximately a half a gram to a gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 140, that would be like saying, you need somewhere between 70 to 140 grams of protein per day. So pretty doable.

I kind of fall somewhere within there. Now we did a whole hour on macro counting. Macro counting, yeah. What was that, two months ago? Yes, yep.

Two months ago. And so if you are interested in learning more about macros, go back and listen to that Q&A. But I do about 25% of my daily diet in protein. And so I eat probably about 500 calories of protein a day. And so divide that by, do some quick math.

What's 500 divided by four? You'd think I could do that but I can't. Or yeah, by four. Do you know what it is? I'm really, really good at math.

Okay, so then I have to reopen my computer. Bottom line is my macros that I kind of decide matches with approximately what I, um. What did you want? 400. 500 divided by.

Four. Yeah. 125. 125. Yeah, there.

So that gives me about 125 grams of protein a day. Thank you. I'm like, one quick math. Which also matches what I just said about a half a gram to a gram of protein per pound of body weight. It puts me right in there.

So I typically will have my, and why the variation? 'Cause it depends on your activity, how heavy you lift. Extreme athletes will even do, you know, a little higher than that, like, up to two grams of protein per pound of body weight depending on how they're training and what they're doing. But in our world, you know, I'll eat like, okay, a scoop of protein powder in the morning, that's 20, I'll eat a chicken breast, that's like 20, 25. I eat, you know, a bunch of nuts, seeds, probably getting myself another 25 in there.

Then I'll probably have another protein source at dinner. I'll eat a thing of Greek yogurt, that's about 20 grams. So I usually do get to about 125 per day. Yeah, I mean, it's easy to get there if you're really kind of watching. If you have protein with every meal.

You just need to make sure that you're having protein with every meal. And I'm just gonna throw this out there 'cause we're going to be talking about menopause in the month of October. We talk a lot about it because many of you are in those perimenopause or menopausal years. And that spans a wide age range. Women will start perimenopause sometimes in their 30s but typically 40s.

And people hit menopause, women hit menopause anywhere between, like, the average age in America, I think, is 51, 52. So somewhere between 50 and 60, typically in somewhere between 50, 55, people are hitting that menopause time. So that's a large span, that's over a decade of time that your hormones are fluctuating. Strength training is such an important thing when it comes to menopause for, we're gonna talk about the Fountain of Youth, for maintaining your metabolism, for maintaining your body composition and structure so you stay strong for bone health, for joint health. And then if you're going to do the strength training, you really need the protein.

So it's kind of this, you know, what do you call it, snowball effect or a circular thing where you need all of the components. And by the way, if you are listening and you are interested, we are doing a Menopause Muscle Builder challenge for October. We are super excited about it. It's the first time that we've had a calendar that is focused on menopause. So you can click on the link to sign up now.

If you are already are a gold member for Get Healthy U TV, it is a free challenge. So click on already a gold member, it's in little words right there. Click on that and you can sign up. If you are a premium member or not a member at all, you can join this challenge for $13. And the bonus is you also get a year-long membership.

So if you sign up today, you have an entire year till next September 24th, is today the 24th? 24th, yep. 2022, you will have a membership to Get Healthy U TV. So it's kind of exciting. The calendar itself has some really good strength training on it.

And that just kind of gives you a little taste of what our calendars are like. Now we have, I think we counted the other day, like, 45 to 50 calendars on our website and we are consistently adding more calendars. So just a little taste of what that looks like. And you have a whole nother year to, you know, try other calendars. To check out other calendars.

And really, why we make calendars is because people do better with a plan. When someone tells you what to do for 28 days, being a personal trainer for the last 30 years, I know that that works better than you waking up and looking at the wall going, "What should I do today?" You have to have a plan. Planning to fail is failing to plan, failing to plan is planning to fail. So that's really important. But the menopause, so we're always talking about like, what type of calendar are members asking for?

But this is really unique because what we did, it's three days of strength training. It's one full day of just a good cardio sweat, which cardiovascular health is so important at every age. And especially in our world today when we're dealing with, you know, fighting off viruses and diseases, cardiovascular health, lung capacity, all that is so important. And then also, you get one day of yoga because flexibility training as we get older is also so important. And then you get two days of rest.

And why are you getting two days of rest? Because that's what I do. No, we are modeling it after me. She's sharing her secrets. But if you want more days, then you'll take an extra day.

If you don't want those days of rest. If you're like, "You know what, I don't need two days of rest." Then you can get creative and add a new workout there. And for me, a day of rest is walking. So on a day of rest, I'm gonna walk probably three to five miles outside, but I'm not gonna strain my body in any way. So if you are interested, sign up for the Menopause Muscle Builder.

It'll give you a taste of like what we're all about and they are challenging. No doubt these workouts are challenging, but we give you modifications, we help you through. We're gonna be in the Facebook group talking about menopause once a week. We have to still set the time, but we're gonna do that. And so I'll be live every week chit chatting with you for the month of October and I'm just really pumped about it.

We do have Julie, she said she signed up for the Menopausal Muscle Builder challenge, but she feels like she might need to do a beginner calendar first. Do you have options for that? Yes, if you look at the welcome email. And I signed up for the Menopause Muscle Builder so I could make sure that everyone was getting their welcome email and I got it right away. And on that welcome email, we tell you, I believe it's on the welcome email, and even on the page where you signed up, that if this is too challenging of a calendar for you, we did make a brand new beginner calendar.

It's called Beginner Program 2.0. And so anybody who feels like they get started or they take a peek at the muscle menopause one and they go, "Whoa, that's, like, way too much." Then the Beginner 2.0 is gonna be the one that you would follow. Awesome. All right, it looks like we have a lot of people excited for that challenge. Back to our protein topic.

What are good protein bars that are nut-free and peanut-free? I should be the one to be able to answer that question. You should be able to answer 'cause she is nut-free and peanut-free. And there are not a lot out there. And so to be honest, if you have a nut allergy, I just kind of stay away from 'em just because, you know, there are a lot of cross-contamination as well.

So I should know the answer to this, but I don't. You just don't eat bars. Because there really aren't that many out there, so. And I don't eat a lot of them either because so many of 'em have so many, like, weird things in them. And quite honestly, I know they've changed over the years.

There are some really good ones. But they used to like bloat me and not make me feel that great. So honestly, if I'm gonna eat a protein bar, it's gonna be a granola bar. Like I will buy, Costco right now has this brand, of course Costco's always changing their brands but it's called Autumn's Gold, I think. You can't eat it.

Oh, shoot. It's full of nuts. What am I saying? It's a grain-free granola bar. Okay, forget that.

But for those of you who like granola bars and can eat nuts, it is an amazing granola bar. I'm trying to think of something that's not free 'cause the ones that I eat are typically like a granola bar with lower sugar, but they still have nuts. Probably loaded with nuts. Yeah. So you're probably gonna be better off with, like, an apple and hard boiled eggs.

And what are your favorite snacks? 'Cause you are nut-free. I know I am nut-free, but I do a lot of just like veggies and fruit 'cause they're easy to take on the go with you. I also make overnight oats, which is another really good thing to make the night before. And I throw protein powder in it.

So overnight oats is super easy. Hard boiled eggs is also easy. I'm really into fruit and veggies right now, so. Do you just dip 'em in anything or no? I love hummus and I love guac.

Okay, me too. So those are the my dipping sauces. Okay, yeah, 'cause just to give some flavor 'cause, you know, it gets boring just noshing on celery, so. It does, yep. And see when I eat celery, I like to dip it nut butter.

I was gonna say peanut butter or some nut butter would taste great. But let's see. So yeah, people are asking nut-free portable snacks to keep on hand that have protein. Again, I also am somebody that will just make chicken and I'll keep it with me and I literally bite on some chicken throughout the day. So I know it sounds super like, you know, not great.

But you also have to just figure out what works best for your body and what feels good for, like, my stomach. I'm a very bland eater and so I'm not the best person to ask about food. I'm not, but I do eat a lot of nuts and seeds. But I will put veggies in a bag and bring hummus with me. I have all these little containers with lids where I can throw hummus and guac in there and I just take it with me.

I do eat nut butter though, so I also take nut butter with me. And I do eat dairy. I don't eat a lot. You know, the only dairy I eat honestly is yogurt. Every so often I have milk because I really love a true latte.

If I'm gonna spoil myself with a latte, I just like regular milk. But sometimes I do almond milk but I'm not a big cheese eater. But you could do, like, toast too. Like, if you do an Ezekiel bread or something and you can do an avocado mash on top, like, that is delicious. That's delicious.

Hard boiled eggs. Hard boiled legs are good. I'm obsessed with hard boiled eggs. Yep, I'm really into my overnight oats right now. And here's the other thing.

Okay, I have this recipe, maybe we should publish it, for muffins. See, I love things like cookies and muffins, You guys, I have the propensity to eat, like, a ton of sugary food, but I don't, 'cause I know better. But I have this recipe for muffins that my girlfriend actually, she kind of formulated and it's almond flour and oats. That's like the base. And then some baking powder.

I think that might be it for, and, like, salt. Okay, so that's the dry. Then the wet is mashed banana. I don't think there's an egg. Do you have oats?

Oats are in the dry. It's mashed banana. I actually add some lately because it's fall, I've been adding some canned pumpkin to it. But there's, like, vanilla and a little bit of, I put a little monk fruit in it. You mix it up and you can add, like, chocolate chips to it or cacao chips or you could add blueberries.

I do both. I add walnuts. You don't have to add that. But then you got these homemade muffins. Seriously, like, all summer, I've been kind of obsessed with that.

I actually had made some, like, it was a sweet potato, carrot, I think, muffins. They were really good and there was not a lot to it and there was pumpkin puree in it and shredded carrots. Sounds really weird, but it actually keeps the muffins super moist. Yeah, yum, yum. And delicious.

So another option. I like it. All right, how many days or minutes of strength training should a woman in her late 40s be doing, especially since we are fighting the clock? Okay, so here's the first thing. If you are considering strength training or you're doing strength training, you're amazing, okay?

Because there is a study out there and I don't have the exact statistic, but it's a staggering percentage of Americans who are doing less than 10 minutes of exercise a week. A week. Yeah, so to me, that's just staggering. So if you are considering doing anything, I'm super proud of you. You are cut above the rest.

That being said, the CDC sets the activity guidelines and what they say is 150 minutes of heart pumping cardio a week. So that's getting your heart pumping, cardiovascular system, detoxing your body, mental health, and then two strength training sessions a week using all your muscles, no other guidelines. So what does that say? That says that the CDC has realized that when you give people too many rules, they do nothing. And so what we have found out is that, you know, two strength training sessions, you know, maybe take about 20 minutes if you're really efficient to get through all muscle groups.

Maybe you go 30 minutes. Maybe you divide it up and you do three or four days a week and it's 10 minutes. You do, like, a different body part every day. You can divide it however you want, but use all muscle groups in some sort of a strength training session at least twice a week. That's the guideline.

So for instance, in this Menopause Muscle Builder calendar, we're gonna have you strength training three days a week. Yep. So you're gonna be doing three really good total body muscle workout per week. So we're gonna take care of that for you. But that's the guideline.

So the reality is most people don't do that. Most people are like, "Okay, well, I'm gonna just do a couple of bicep curls. Ugh, I'm so bored, okay. Oh, oops, gotta go, phone's ringing." Or whatever, and they don't really get anything else done. So we're gonna have you squat and lunge, bicep curls and triceps.

We're gonna get your triceps popping out of the back of your arm. We're gonna give you chest muscles, back muscles, shoulder muscles. I mean, and that's the whole idea of getting it in. But as we age when you say, you know, we're fighting the clock, we start to lose bone mass and we start to lose muscle mass starting at about the age of 35 if you are not actively replacing it. Those are the key words.

If you are not actively replacing it. For somebody who has been active. Oh, I was active in my 20s. Oh, I was chasing little kids. And then all of a sudden, you hit 40 and you're sedentary.

You kind of gave up on the exercise, and you're not doing anything to really work your muscles besides opening the fridge. Okay, so now you're losing muscle mass and, you know, you could be in a position to be losing bone mass too, depending on the strength of your bones, a lot of different things. So it's really important that you do that strength training to keep your longevity. Bone health matters, especially as our hormones start fluctuating, bone health starts to be compromised, calcium starts to be compromised, metabolism starts to be compromised, and muscle composition. So you hear all that and you go, "Oh, my God, how am I even alive?" But the bottom line is you have to just take charge.

And if you stay steady, and believe me, if you feel like, "Well, Chris, I missed the boat, I'm 55 and I haven't done anything." You haven't missed the boat. I've seen women at age 70 start strength training. You have not missed the boat, but you have to start doing something. Start with baby steps 'cause your joints need to get acclimated, your muscles need to get acclimated, but just keep going and it will make such a difference. Yeah, and it's a huge, like, mood booster too.

Those endorphins that are released when you are working out, it feels so great. And confidence, it builds confidence. When you know that you can pick something up and put it over your head, it makes a difference. As a matter of fact, my mom is 83 and going through some rehab for her hip. And she said to me, one of the hardest things to accept is that she can't do things by herself, that she has to ask somebody to grab something for her as she's rehabbing.

And I understand that as you get older and you can't do things for yourself, you can't pick that box up and put it on the top shelf 'cause you don't have the strength, that's different than when you go, "Hey I'm just gonna pick this up and put it up there because I can." So it's confidence, it's mental health, it's physical health, it's everything. And if I could just give people, like if I could just, I'm on a soapbox already, but if I could get on a taller soapbox, I would say, just do something and there's no, like, one right way to strength train. It's not like you have to pick up dumbbells. Like some people use medicine balls or they use body weight or they use resistance bands or, you know, they play a sport that involves muscular contraction or, you know, you do ballet or whatever it might be. There are ways to strength train.

Kind of going off of that, somebody just had a question. What is the best exercise for women in menopause? There is no one best exercise. But I would say one of the best things to do is to combine, at least this is how I feel and a lot of trainers feel, I know Sam feels, is combine your cardio and strength together. It's just multitasking at heart.

When you do a repetitious circuit or interval workout, where, you know, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna squat, curl press, and then I'm gonna get into a plank and I'm gonna mountain climb. You get your heart rate up from the repetition. So you're benefiting from the cardiovascular training at the same time you're training your muscles. And therefore, it's a time saver.

It feels really good and I think people are more apt to stick with that. It's more fun. And so again, do what floats your boat. Everybody has a different personality and there's no one right way to get from point A to point B. But I do think when you, you know, combine the two, especially when we get a little older.

And you think you have more time on your hands when you get older. You know, people say, "Well, you don't have kids anymore." Well, you know, I don't have kids at home anymore, but my job is so busy. And then if you're helping other people or volunteering or dealing with your aging parents or helping with your grandkids or whatever it might be, you are busy. And so if you can find a way to make sure you're fitting in your day, it makes a difference. We do have somebody asking, "Is it bad to strength train every day for your body?" So the rule of thumb, no it's not bad, is if you are super sore, like we've all had those days where, oh, my gosh, I can barely stand up out of my chair and my butt is so sore, or my arm is so sore, I can barely pick anything up.

Then you should definitely give your body a rest. That's called delayed onset muscle soreness, DOMS. And when your muscles are that sore, they usually take about 24 to 48 hours at least to repair. So give them that little bit of rest. No need to overdo it, but if you strength train a little bit every day, like we do.

I mean, and so here's another thing, it has to be how it works in your schedule. So many years ago, I used to strength train Monday, Wednesday, Fridays. And that was kind of a good little schedule. Sometimes it was Monday, Wednesday, Saturday. So that was like this great schedule.

Well, then my life changed. and now I strength train some Mondays, depends if I'm with Get Healthy U TV. But then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So I'm like front-loading it to the front of my week and then I go Friday, Saturday, Sunday without weightlifting. And so someone would say, "Well, that doesn't sound very efficient." Well, again, you gotta get away from the rules.

That's what works for me in my schedule. So no problem. I take, like, three days of muscular work off. Friday is our cardio day. We always kickbox on Fridays.

Yeah, kickbox, yep. So it depends on what works for you. And then I work really hard, but I'm not typically, like, super sore because my muscles are used to it. But there are days, and Sam and I joke about it all the time, like by Thursday I'm like, I- No more weightlifting. I can barely pick these weights up by Thursday.

So then I know that it's time for me to give myself a rest. So you have to do a lot of self-awareness. Yeah, and I mean, I'm somebody that loves to pick up the weights, you know, if I could Monday through Sunday. But as, and I say this very lightly, as I get older, it's just like, you know, you feel things like you're back or whatever. And so I have gotten to the point where it's like I take, you know, one or two days where it's an active day of rest or I just do more cardio.

But you gotta do what works best for your body. And so I, you know, personally love taking one day off without the weights, maybe two, because, you know, you just need to give those muscles a little bit of time to repair. And that's the difference between her and I in terms of age. So when I was 30, I took maybe one, maybe two days. And now I take two, probably three, usually three days off of weights per week.

And that's just so that I have more time to repair because I do notice that I do get a little more, lethargic isn't the right word. I just get really, like, I can just feel my body's tired. So you have to, you know, you have to go with it. Any tips for cardio when you get winded easily as she was told that she may have some emphysema? Hmm, well, again, being no doctor, emphysema, asthma, like, I can't really help you with that.

You definitely need to be in contact with your doctor about that. But if it's a factor of just getting more fit, like you're new to exercise, a lot of people get discouraged because they get winded literally walking up the block. And they're like, "I can't even barely walk up the block without having to stop and breathe." I get that. That's going to take cardiovascular training. Your cardiovascular system, it's kind of like a window, like you gotta push it a little bit, push it a little bit, and it's like the window gets up, open a little more, open a little more.

And then you have a larger capacity of area, where your heart rate can go up and down, where you feel good. But it takes practice. However, emphysema, COPD, asthma, that's a whole different thing. So you definitely need to check with your doctor on that. Absolutely.

We have somebody asking, "What is the best strength training calendar for a 63-year-old that has not exercised in about a year?" Wow, okay. So we like the Beginner 2.0. Yep. It has a lot of strength training in it. It has a lot of strength training with, you know, days off and extra, you know, cardio.

It has a little bit of everything in it. Just kinda like our Menopause Muscle Builder calendar, we do also have our Beginner Program 1.0 is coming back too. Yes, somehow it fell off of the website. And we're like, "Where did 1.0 go?" So it should be coming back soon. The Foundations.

Oh, Foundations. Okay, I'm looking it up right now. Calendar is also a more beginner place to start. It's a really good place. There are some chair workouts in there.

So you know, if you don't need to sit in a chair then stand up and do it. It's a great, you know, beginner just really focusing on the weight training aspect of it. Or if you do need to sit in a chair, those chair workouts, you guys are awesome. And I was gonna say, I really like the Walk, Sweat, Sculpt calendars. It's a lot of indoor walking, along with, I'm looking at this calendar right now.

It's got some core blast Pilates in it. It's got walk and tone express, walk and tone. So you're picking up weights. It's got a couple other, like, tone every zone type workouts. And also, when you go to our calendar page, click on All Calendars and you'll see a little notation that says beginner in the upper left corner of the calendar.

So that you know if you're picking a calendar that works for your fitness level. Awesome. Somebody just asked the question, "My weight gain has started to concentrate in the middle waist area. Any suggestions on how to target that?" Yeah, often. So the fat storing hormones that really kind of work on the middle are insulin and cortisol.

So insulin is, you know, a lot of people have trouble with insulin now because we're living in a world of type 2 diabetes being the norm. It's hard. It's, you know, people can change it and reverse it all through food. I've seen it happen so many times if you're not too far over the edge yet with how many years you've had it or whatever. So food, food, food makes a difference.

You wanna lower the insulin issues. Now what happens is if you're eating a lot of processed foods, not just sugar but processed foods, 'cause processed foods turn to sugar in your body immediately, it's like you're eating sugar. It elicits insulin response. So your pancreas releases insulins just trying to mop up the sugar. But if it's in a constant state of trying to mop up stuff for seven days a week, it just literally has, I always say it gets a virus, like a computer and it doesn't work properly.

And it starts to take some of that and store it primarily as belly fat. So I don't know what you eat, but I would definitely, definitely be challenging you to check out your diet and definitely focus on fruits and vegetables and plant-based foods and get rid of processed foods and colorings and artificial flavors and all that stuff. And then cortisol is a stress hormone. And if you have a lot of stress in your life too, that might be something where you wanna reevaluate. Do you need some meditation?

Do you need more yoga? Do you need some more relief? Do you need a kickbox? That's my stress relief, just punching stuff. What do you need in your life to possibly reduce that?

The other thing is it just tends to be also a menopausal muffin top type of a thing. As we get older, it tends to settle there. So it's, you know, nothing has changed when it comes to weight gain. It's still, no matter how you slice it, no matter what you do, it's energy in, energy out. How many calories are you taking in, how many calories are you expending.

You have to have a calorie deficit to lose body fat. That's the quantity. Then you have to focus on the quality. The type of calories that you are eating really, really matter. Especially as we get older, you need to feed your body more of the real food.

And then strength training, and then you need the strength training exercise. So you know, just eating healthy and exercise is the craziest, easiest advice that I can give you. It is. Let's see, okay, "For those of us in our 50s who are fighting the muscle loss, what are your thoughts on BCAAs and creatine?" She's not a bodybuilder, she's just a mom. Yeah, okay.

So I know because as we get older, it's a little harder to maintain the muscle mass. I noticed that on myself. Like it's just harder to get that bigger muscle mass because my estrogen is down, my progesterone is down, my testosterone is down, it's all down here. It's all in the toilet. Here's the thing, once you get past that menopause point, you kind of even out, like, you don't have any hormones necessarily left.

But you start to even out where there's not the fluctuations, which is where you feel the most crazy. But that being said, it is a little harder to put on the muscle mass. BCAAs are very good. So those are the branched-chain amino acids. So for those of you who, you know, we'll go back to the beginning of the hour.

Protein is made of amino acids. There are 21 amino acids that make up food and protein. And of the 21, 11 of them can be manufactured in your body, nine of them have to be taken in through food, which is why you need to eat protein every day. You need those nine essential amino acids. Of those nine, there are the BCAAs, which are the isoleucine, leucine, and valine.

Those are the branched-chain amino acids. They're branched-chain, I'm not a scientist, but they work on muscle synthesis better or more effectively or they're more important than some of the others. So you can get BCAAs in a powder or a pill form. Some people do like to take them before their workout. I don't do that.

And I'm interested to hear from people if BCAAs give them more energy before their workout, I tend to take them after my workout in my protein powder. So I feel like that is a good thing. Now I don't take additional BCAAs 'cause I use BiPro protein powder, which is a whey-based protein. We talk about it all the time at Get Healthy U TV 'cause we've partnered with them for the last decade. It's a clean whey protein and it's very high in the BCAAs.

So that's my source of BCAAs. But you can buy just BCAAs and take them. And some people do use them pre, during, or after workout. Creatine. Creatine is a substance that holds onto water.

So when people take creatine, it does give you more pump, more energy, but it also holds water. So you look a little more, what's the right word? Puffy or. I don't wanna say bloated but- Bloated or soft or something. You're just holding more fluid.

And so as a female, I've never been interested in creatine 'cause I don't wanna hold more fluid. We try to hold none of that. When you're younger, you through the, you know, your times of the month where you do feel like you're just retaining water and fluid and then, you know, you go through that next part of the month where you go, "Oh, thank God I just got rid of that." Well, everything I've heard about creatine is you feel that muscle swell, if you will. Guys love it. Like my son when he was playing hockey, both my boys, when they're playing hockey a lot, they were using creatine and you have to use it smart.

You don't use a lot. You need to start taking it slowly. It is over-the-counter. Like it's not a prescription of some sort. It is safe, but you have to be smart about it.

Anyway, my bottom line is I guess I have never experimented with creatine myself. So take it for what it's worth. Have you ever used creatine? No. No, okay.

Does your sister or brother? No, my brother did when he was playing hockey back in the day. He still is playing hockey but he is not doing any of that anymore, so. No, I don't have much experience in that either. And your sister is an Olympian.

She's an Olympian. A gold, okay, listen to this. Hopefully, she's not watching today. Her sister has a gold medal. She was on the women's US hockey team that won the gold medal last.

Where did they play? Pyeongchang in South Korea. Yeah, yeah. Can you freaking believe that? She has a gold medal.

Is creatine, you might not know this. Is it a banned substance? I believe, yes, it is a banned substance. It's probably a banned substance because, you know, with the Olympics, they have to be really, really serious about it. Yes, because they can get tested anytime.

So yes. All right, let's see. We have somebody saying that she recently bought strength tubes. Do you have more than one type of workout using resistance tubes for strength training? Yeah, so if you wanna look up any piece of equipment on Get Healthy U TV, like if you're like, "I love a medicine ball." 'Cause I do love medicine balls.

They are fun. They are fun and kettlebells are fun too. Well, we do have a section for kettlebells. But if you wanna look up like medicine balls, resistance bands, mini bands, BOSU trainers, put that in the search bar, put that as your search term in the search bar. And up will come all the workouts that use a resistance band.

The long tubes with the handles, we probably have 10 workouts with resistance bands. And we're happy to record more. We love your feedback. We listen to our private Facebook group and we're happy to, you know, do what you guys want. We're here to serve you.

But they just don't get as viewed as the dumbbell workouts. We have some suggestions rolling in. So I'm writing them down. Okay, we like 'em. We like your suggestions.

Perfect. Let's see. Okay, so Pilates, yoga, those type of workouts, and mobility, are they considered active recovery type of exercises, strength training? What are those kind of considered? So Pilates and what?

Yoga and, like, mobility work. They're active recovery. Now that being said, there are some Pilates classes that are super intense. Or if you've ever been to a yoga class, where, you know, you're like, some of the yoga sculpt workouts. We have a new yoga sculpt workout which involves weights.

That's a premium workout. And then in the gold category, we have what we call Buff Body Yoga using the weights, that can be a little more intense and count, you know, as a workout. But if you're doing one that's maybe a little more low key and it's all about like mobility and stretching, we just had a yoga tune up for the back and hamstrings. That definitely is recovery. Pilates is borderline.

Pilates is hard work. I'm gonna count that as a workout. Yeah. And as a Pilates instructor myself, I really, like, every year, my New Year's resolution is to do more Pilates because it is seriously a game changer for your body as you age. And we've been adding more Pilates workouts to the website.

You can actually use Pilates as a search term and come up with stuff too. But yeah, I'd say that like depending on the intensity of the yoga and the recovery work. Yeah. You know, 'cause they vary. Are there any exercises that you should not be doing after menopause?

It's not because of menopause that you shouldn't be doing something, it's your body. So if you have bad knees and you hit age 55 and one of your knees is, you know, holding on by a thread and you know you're gonna need some arthroscopic or whatever, then you need to be mindful of your knee. If you've got a bad shoulder, you got a bad shoulder. But there isn't, you know, there's nothing that says, oh, you shouldn't do this after menopause. And actually, after menopause, you are at high risk for bone loss and muscle loss.

So it's really important, you know, those hormones were protecting you. When you got a lot more estrogen, progesterone, and even women make a little testosterone, your metabolism and you're protecting your bones and you're protecting your joints and you're, you know, protecting a lot of your bodily functions. And then as our hormones decrease, it's really important that you're doing the exercise to try to help yourself. So I've never heard like, "Don't do this." You know? I think we have a few friends that, you know, are in their 60s and I think it's amazing, like, what they- How much they can do.

Can do still do. And again, they just listen to their body. And some of these women can do basically everything and anything. But, you know, if something's feeling a little sticky, like, you know, I know that they're past menopause or pretty dang close if they're not. And it's amazing what they can still do, so.

Well, and I would say for myself, I jump less than I used to. Like I can still jump, I do burpees, I do jump squats, but I do less of them. Like if I'm doing a series of jump squats for, like, a minute, I might do 20 seconds and then I go low impact and then I go back to high impact and then I go back to low impact. Like I just give myself that grace. And I never feel bad about it.

I think that's what's interesting. I think people really need to get past that I feel bad about myself because I'm not doing. Flip it on its back and say, "I feel good about myself. 'cause most people who are my age are doing nothing, so." We have a question, is it unhealthy to eat too little protein? It's not unhealthy if you're eating healthy food.

I mean, but everybody should have a balance of their macros. If you are eating a balance of your carbs, proteins, and fats, then you are getting a good balance of your micronutrients, which are your vitamins and minerals. And so those substances, vitamins and minerals, are in your food. So if you cut out a food group in whole, let's say you just cut out protein, you're missing out on a lot of vitamins and minerals that your body needs to perform well and function well. Whether it's brain function, whether it's bodily functions, whether it's organ functions.

So it's important to have a little bit of all three macronutrients in your body. Now you might have less protein than somebody else, but as we do get older, it is important to add the strength training in and definitely eat a little protein at every meal to support muscle repair and growth. We have somebody asking, "What is the best way to measure body fat? And does being naturally big breasted give you a higher body fat percentage?" Huh. That I don't know.

Yeah, there's a lot of body fat if you are big breasted. That's a really good question because most of the time, body fat is measured. Well, if you're doing a pinching method, then it's not taking into consideration your breasts. But the pinching method was kind of always the method 20 years ago. But it's really inaccurate.

Like if you have a trainer pinching you here and pinching you there, like, they can be so far off by percentage points that, you know, for a lot of women, they hang their hat on it. So let's just say someone tells you, "Well, you're 37% body fat," but you're really only 30. Like that could throw you into a tizzy. And they could be that far off. So the pinching mat that I'm a little worried about.

Now, the bioimpedance and when you stand on a scale, not always accurate either because it depends on your water content, what you've been drinking. So those can be, they're more accurate, but they can be off by several percentage points also. So again, give yourself a little grace when you step on one of those types of scales. There also is this thing called the egg. Oh, my gosh, what's it called?

Bioimpedance. Yeah. The bioimpedance where, I'm forgetting the main word for it. It's like a pod, isn't it? It's a pod, yeah.

Like you get in this egg and it's air displacement and that is very accurate. So that to me would take into consideration your breast, because your whole body's in there. But it's very accurate in giving you your ratio. It's the Bod Pod. The Bod Pod.

That's what, yeah. It's like air displacement. So the Bod Pod, lots of clinics, hospitals, even like rehab centers now have a Bod Pod. I've done the Bod Pod twice. And super interesting and very accurate.

Isn't there another one where you, like, go underwater? Yep, that is the hydrostatic wing, where you literally, like, dump yourself in a tank of water. Not very convenient. Don't know where you're gonna do that. I had to do it in college.

You did? Yeah. For dance or what? No, for exercise science. That was my major.

And so we had to do all of those. I was in college back then, so those number's still high. I'd rather not dunk myself in a huge tank of water. And again, that's displacement of the water to your body. But what's really important is maintaining a decent body fat to muscle ratio.

And as we get older, we get what I call fluffy, where you lose your muscle and you just potentially gain more fat. And you can still even be, I guess I hate this word, but skinny. There is, you know, such thing as skinny fat where you are, you know, you haven't grown in size, you can still look great in your clothes or whatever, but you have zero muscle mas, so you're mostly body fat. And that puts you at a high risk for heart disease, which is the number one killer of women. So again, another plea for you to pick up weights no matter who you are and what your size is.

Absolutely. We have Sandra asking, "Do any particular workouts lead to an hourglass figure?" Ooh, hourglass figure. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, hourglass figure, who has that anymore?

Not sure. Kim Kardashian. And she does weird stuff with her waist. Like, I don't know, she's got like. Yeah.

Yeah, she like, I don't know, waste trainers and weird crap that I don't think works, but that stuff is weird. I don't know. No, I mean, obviously, like, I'd love to tell you like, "Oh, if you do Russian twists, you're gonna whittle your waist." I mean, you definitely are using those muscles, but nothing promises you an hourglass figure. And if you see an infomercial that does, I'd be suspect. I love it.

Some of that is genetics. You know, like I always say, genetics loads your gun, but environment pulls your trigger. Like, you know, what you eat and what you do and where you live and how you interact, that is hugely responsible for your health. But I mean, we're all built with a genetic frame. Like, if you have a certain frame, I don't know how you're gonna, like, whittle your waist down to nothing or, you know, change the way you look without some sort of plastic surgery, right?

Yep. Can you explain the difference between collagen and protein? Can you do both together? Are they different? Tell us.

Yep, you can do both together. They're both a form of protein made of amino acids. So like I said earlier, there's 21 amino acids out there. And so for the amino acids, collagen is a different amino acid profile than like a whey protein. So they're two different products.

Collagen has a whole bunch of, I can't pronounce all these amino acids 'cause they're like, they all end with like, like, weird, you know, valine, isovaline, leucine, whatever. You know, there's like all these different words. But collagen has a different profile. So the amino acid profile in collagen is going to be more geared towards joint's, hair, nail, skin, that kind of thing. Whereas whey protein is gonna be geared a little bit towards muscle recovery.

So you really can use both. To me, they aren't interchangeable. Like you can't say, "Oh, I do collagen so I'm not gonna do whey." I would still do the whey protein. If you are heavy into the weightlifting, I would still do the whey protein for the muscle recovery. Now I do both.

I used to do both protein powder and collagen powder in my shake and it was just too much powder in my shake. So now, I mean, I still sometimes do, but I usually put the whey protein powder in my shake 'cause that's my breakfast, that's what I like. And I take collagen pills, which is maybe not as effective because you have to take a lot of pills to equal the amount of protein powder. But for me, it's consistency. And I remember to take my collagen at bedtime every night 'cause I just have it sitting on my counter.

So I'm brushing my teeth and I just take my collagen pills right then and there. So it's how I stay most consistent. But there's no right way. Absolutely. All right, this is a long one, so get ready.

I'm ready. I better listen. "I'm 57, 5'1, so I'm short, working out regularly four to five times per week plus walks and I eat pretty clean, log my food on MyFitnessPal." She's staying between 1,300 to 1,400 calories a day. But her belly seems bloated and she's gained a 10, excuse me, 10 pounds in the last year. She started adding protein to her smoothies two months ago, is also doing the Serious Strength calendar back to back.

Okay, still following. She is not seeing any changes. Weight is staying the same, but her midsection is still bigger. What can she do to kind of, I mean, she's not seeing any changes so she's looking forward to finding maybe some advice on how to. Is she 57?

She said she's 57 and she's 5'1. And she's eating healthy. Did she say healthy? I mean, I know you said 13 to 1,400 calories a day, but what kind of calories? She did not say what kind of calories.

Okay, 'cause getting rid of food coloring, additives, MSG, sugars, all that stuff is absolutely, positively huge. But if you are not eating any of that and you are weight training intensely and you are maintaining such low calories, I mean, that is low calories. But again, she said she's 5'1, so she's really tiny. So when you are trying to lose weight, that might be okay. I would definitely get my hormone profile taken.

I would go to a doctor and get my hormones, my thyroid, my blood levels, check my A1C, your blood sugar and see what's going on in your body. 'Cause it sounds to me like you're doing a lot of the right things. And sometimes, again, I have a regular doctor that I really love. But I think a naturopath can also be a good option, or a functional medicine doctor, I should say, 'cause functional medicine doctors really treat the soil so that you don't get the disease kind of a thing. So they look at the big picture and they might be able to recommend supplements.

And when I say supplements, things like herbs and things that can help your body reduce inflammation, manage, you know, your thyroid or your hormones. I mean, for those of us going through menopause, if you aren't taking some sort of a hormone replacement, again, a functional medicine doctor can help you. That's why I did, like I take calcium and vitamin D and magnesium every day and vitamin B and vitamin C, the things that can help me navigate my fluctuating hormones as they fluctuated down and ultimately decreased. But I got through it. But anyway, that's not the question.

The question is, I'm thinking you should consult somebody. 'cause it sounds like you're doing the right thing. Yeah, and I think it's so interesting, Chris, because obviously, I learned a ton from you and, you know, menopause wasn't something that I ever talked about and now I talk about it all the time. But I actually was having a conversation with my younger sister who's 24. And all stages of life, whether you're 24, I'm 30 listening to you, listening to my mom, like your hormones are changing yearly, like, all the time.

It is so interesting to hear you talk about this. I am going through gut things too and it's like, okay, what do I have to do? What supplements do I have to take? It is like ever-changing thing, which I've learned hormones are a huge part of that. A huge part of it.

And like estrogen, for instance. Estrogen dominance is really not good for our health. And some people will say, "Well, how could I be estrogen dominant? Like, you know, I'm going through menopause. Like, how in the world could I be estrogen dominant?

I'm losing my estrogen." But if you're eating a lot of bad foods or if you're putting a lot of weird chemicals on your body, you can become estrogen dominant. And if your progesterone is decreasing at a rapid pace and your estrogen isn't decreasing as fast 'cause you're, you know, eating or putting stuff on your body, you might have estrogen dominance, which puts you at risk for a lot of different things. So it's really, it is good to get a hormone profile. But that being said, gut health, like you just said, gut health is so important. 70% of your immune system is in your gut.

If you follow Dr. Hyman, you guys, we talk about him all the time, Dr. Mark Hyman. I mean, he has, like, 1.5 million followers and he's, like, the real deal. Like he tells you the real stuff about what's going on with food.

He is a true MD that became functional medicine. He's part of the Cleveland Clinic, I think advisory staff, and he has his own clinic out on the East Coast now. But anyway, that being said, he always talks about the fact that gut health matters. So if the flora in your gut is off, so many things in your whole body can be off. And so eating fermented foods is really important.

And 90, I don't know, there's some statistic, like, 94% of Americans don't eat any fermented food at all. Fermented foods are things like apple cider vinegar, kombucha, tempeh, sauerkraut, kimchi. Like, are any of those on your list? And getting the right flora in your gut so you have the good bacteria that helps your immune system stay strong also matters too. There's so much going on in your body.

So if you are doing all the right things and you feel like you're reversing and things are going the wrong way, really, really consult somebody who can help you do a makeup of what's happening in your body, from your blood work to your A1C, to your hormones, to your thyroid, all that stuff. Just a few minutes left. And we do have a few questions along the same line. "So I can't do whey protein because I'm lactose intolerant. It bothers me.

Is pea protein okay to use?" Yeah, pea protein's great. I mean, any kind of animal, or I'm sorry, plant protein, pea protein, rice, what do you use? I use pea protein plant-based. So we do have somebody asking vegan protein powder options. Organifi.

Organifi. Has a really good. Their protein powder is so good 'cause some of them are not. And it's super clean. We give you guys a code for Organifi if you go to their website, organifi.com, and put my name, Chris Freytag, in for the month of September, for the month of September.

My code is worth 20% off right now. It will end in October, it goes back to 15. But a lot of our people who also use Organifi products are all stocking up in September. Yes, and they just came out with a chocolate protein powder. So it was just vanilla, which I am obsessed with.

Haven't tried the chocolate, but they have a chocolate that just came out. Yay, we need to try it. We do. And then just a few, like, you know, just kind of take a look at what's in the protein powders. I think you talked about hemp seed protein powder.

Hemp seed protein and pumpkin seed protein powders. I think the Organifi has some pumpkin seed in it. I think it does. Yeah, it's very good. We're kind of coming to the end.

We are coming to the end. I do wanna mention the Menopause Muscle Builder one more time, you guys. It is a challenge that we're starting October 1st. We're super excited about it because so many of you have asked about it or asked about menopause. And so we thought, let's do this together, let's talk about getting our bodies, you know, back on track, getting our strength training in every week, a little bit of cardio, a little bit of flexibility.

Let's give you some advice. I'm gonna be live in a private Facebook group, the Get Healthy U TV private Facebook group every week, talking about menopause, answering your questions, starting discussions among all of us. We have emails that are coming out. Are you guys able to put that banner up again or do they already see it? I don't know if they can- There it is.

There they go. There they are. So if you wanna sign up, sign up. If you're a gold member, it's free. And if you're a premium member or not a member, it's $13 to get started and you get a year to Get Healthy U TV.

So that's exciting. Chris, we do have a few people asking 'cause they are not on Facebook. Is there a way that they can join in on those conversations? Maybe something we need to think about. Kind of no, because the problem is, to download off of Facebook and put it up on YouTube, we have found is really not easy.

And so maybe what you do is create a profile, you know, Facebook, people don't realize it. Like, you can just create a profile and then you can just close it down. It's very easy to do. You can create a profile, use it for nothing else, but joining the Get Healthy U TV Facebook group, be a member of it for a month, and then just close the account. It's super easy to do.

And so I would suggest that 'cause it's gonna be a delay and it's gonna be hard for us to get those over to YouTube. Yep. We have somebody, Sandra is asking, "How do you spell Organifi?" It is O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I. Go to their website, organifi.com, and then Chris's code is Chris Freytag. And people have been stocking up in September.

I mean, 'cause you and I both use, we use the reds every day for energy. I use the reds. Like you just shake 'em up. They're like a Starbucks drink, but it's so healthy and they're sold out right now. I was gonna say they're sold out.

So if you're looking for those, that one is sold out. So hold tight on the reds. We drink the gold every night too, which is turmeric, turkey tail mushroom, reishi mushroom, cinnamon, like all these good things for your immune system. And I'm obsessed with it. And they do have the gold and the pumpkin spice gold.

Pumpkin spice, yeah. And the greens. I mean, just check it out. They've got so many healthy things that are good for supporting our immune systems and our just total body system. Oh, my gosh, you guys.

One hour goes fast. Menopause, strength training. It's all so interesting to me because it's who we are, it's our real life. Like, this is what's happening to us right now. So it's important that we discuss it together.

So thanks for joining us. Did people give their opinion whether they like Friday? No one gave a comment. No one commented? Okay, let us know.

You know, 'cause we're here for you. This is the first time, I think, we've ever come live on a Friday. It is, yep. We're trying new things out, so let us know. I do know that there was an issue with Facebook, so we're on Get Healthy U TV right now and YouTube, so lots of channels.

All right, well, you guys, take care. We'll see you in October for the Menopause Muscle Builder, or we'll see you again at another live Q&A or a Monday morning or a Friday morning live workout. Yeah. Yep, so. Lots of chances to see you.

Lots of chances. Have a great weekend, everybody. See you later.