It's in skim milk. It's in your coffee, luxury drink your drive thru, it's in ketchup and barbecue sauce. If you're not aware of where your sources are of getting it well, you've already had a
Put down the skim milk. But don't panic. Welcome to random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College, where we talk to experts from all around who dispense their knowledge to us. I'm Steve Fast, and today we're going to talk about what you might not know about personal health and wellness, especially for those who aren't spring chickens anymore. To get started, let me introduce our knowledge dispenser, or rather, let her introduce herself.
My name is Lisa Summers, and I own a business called Live Centered. And I work with fitness and wellness for all ages. My sole purpose is to teach people how to find their best version and their version of fit and healthy and that looks different for everybody. So I tried to work with the individual, I got affiliated with Heartland because I teach community and continuing education courses on wellness, fitness and healthy living. And I also am a personal trainer that loves to use the space at the heartland FRC. So I have clients that come to me and I also have Heartland staff and students that work with me at Heartland fitness and rec center.
Well, you mentioned that people need to find their own fit. Is it kind of a universal truth that people that it's harder to stay fit or to stay healthy as you get older?
I think what typically happens is as we get older, what worked for us in the past doesn't seem to work as well, once we hit certain ages, so whether it's our diet or exercise program, metabolically our body changes. And so we're at a loss because we don't understand why what we used to do worked, and now we're not getting the same results.
That raises a good question you do know those people that always seem to not have to worry about anything. And the the way people put it is oh, the high metabolism. Does that eventually catch up with everybody?
You know, I really as I get each individual, I laugh because one, we typically want what we don't have. So if we have more of a mesomorph muscular frame, those clients really want to be the really after more than people and I always go to each of them and say genetically look back at your genetic code. Some of it has to do with our biological back brain. So I tell people to look back at with their family looks like genetically, is there anybody in your family that looks like Kelly Ripa? And if nobody in your family is set up to look like Matthew McConaughey or Kelly Ripa, it's not that it's impossible. But we do have to look at genetics and biology a little bit as far as our physique goes.
So you can only work with what you've got. I think that we need to
stop looking aesthetically, at what fit and healthy looks like I tell people, a lot of the people that you would see in a gym that are super fit, super defined, probably may work at their fitness because they're also struggling with other things. So I talk about peace of mind and how you feel. And yes, we have to work with what we have. But I go for the goal of how you feel your best. And that's not just physically, it's mentally too, because healthy also is what our mindset is,
well, how does one start to build up a healthy mindset?
Well, when I talk about centered living, I talk about being deliberate. And I think unfortunately, with our technology and the demands of our family, if we have kids their schedule, we stop thinking about what we're doing and why. And it makes me sad how many people live in autopilot. And they don't take time out for themselves. Because with the demands of their career, or their kids sports schedule, they stop taking care of what they are doing to help themselves be healthier. And their mindset is to just get through each day. And I don't believe that's a great way to live life. And I think most of us don't want to look back and think that's how we chose to live. Well, if
people are looking for a quickstart to improve, maybe even taking inventory of their eating habits. What do you suggest they do?
One I always say Read labels. Sugar right now has become the big demon. And people are afraid of it but they don't realize where it even is. So it's in skim milk. It's in your coffee, luxury drink your drive thru. It's in ketchup and barbecue sauce. And so if you're not aware of where your sources are of getting it you think, Oh, I can't have the candy. Well, you've already had it and the barbecued chicken and the milkshake and your coffee for morning. So I say Read labels to start and then think logic glean. My big thing is it's not rocket science, we've made this so complicated. And my goal is not to make this complicated. We kind of know what's healthy and what's not processed, not the best choice?
Well, it seems like there is a lot to remember, especially when you're reading labels. And sometimes those labels lead you in the wrong direction. Before you get too deep in them, you have to remember, what are fats? And what are trans fats? Is that all fiber good? Is there too much fiber? Not enough fiber? How do you try to tackle those sorts of things? Is there a way to kind of keep in mind what you should be looking for? And looking past some of those things that often are kind of marketed as being healthy, but they might not be the right healthy direction for you?
Absolutely. You have to know what you're looking at and what you're looking for. If you're a type two diabetic, you're going to look at things a little bit differently than just a common 30 year old who wants to be healthier. I typically work individually with each of my clients and or their families. And then I am offering periodically workshops to kind of talk about what is this label even mean? And do we realize that PepsiCo or Coca Cola sponsor a lot of the health foods that we think are healthy? So I do a workshop where we kind of break that down, and we look at a lot of variety and the misleading parts of label reading as well.
You mentioned workshops, one of the workshops that you conducted at Heartland is fighting fat over 14 mentioned how people's metabolism has changed. And people's lifestyles change a little bit as they get older. But as you approach 40, or past, and those things that you mentioned that used to work aren't working, what is the best thing that you can do to try to counter how Mother Nature is treating your body?
Well, it's consistency at its best, because I think at 40, if we have children or careers, that's where it's in full swing. So a lot of times, that's what goes to the wayside is our workout and our healthy eating habits if we had those, so one being consistent is key. And that really works for all ages, but particularly at 40. When we notice maybe our metabolism nosediving or hormonally, we feel like we're not feeling our best. We typically are in the grind of trying to get our kids places and our careers going. So I tell people move every day, find a reason to move and do things that you enjoy. People sign up all the time to do five K's and they say I hate running. And I will say you're not going to enjoy any of the training then. So there are so many varieties. We're lucky at all the gyms, there's so many varieties of swimming and workouts that you can do that you might enjoy. So find things you'd like to do. And then as far as the food part, be smart. Don't drink crazy coffee drinks, don't fill up on Pepsi for your afternoon snack, don't eat cookies, because it's Thursday, just think more logically about what you're putting in your body if you want it to perform and get fuel
should men and women take different approaches towards their health and towards maintaining their fitness when they get a little bit older.
I think that men biologically and physically have more lean muscle mass and all research that shown they also have a higher percentage of testosterone, which is kind of a natural boost for them. So men typically may not have to watch as closely. But I think eating whole foods, and minimizing sugar is across the board for men or women or children.
When it comes to other factors, you know, you talked about diet, you talked about exercise, but there are other things that affect people as they get older. And one of those is stress. Does stress affect you physically?
Absolutely. All the research shows that when we are stressed a we make poor choices, because we're usually just running through our autopilot cycle, and B our levels of cortisol raise which is not to our advantage. So stress is when I talk about mindset, we have to look at what we're doing and why. So that we can minimize or help work on the areas that are causing us the most stress. Unfortunately, we start thinking we have no control over things. And what I try to teach people is this is your life, you get one of them. So please take an assessment, find what's causing this stress, whether it's the job your friend group, or all the activities you've signed up for, and then start to work on ways to minimize that. And I would tie in sleep works really closely with the stress. When we are getting poor sleep, our metabolism our body, nothing is going to work as well as it should. So that's another area we often have to work on. And when you're stressed it's hard to sleep. When you don't have a lot of sleep you get more stressed so they work hand in hand.
So do you have any suggestions for people that are looking to sleep better, anything that they should take a look at to make sure that they are getting the right amount of sleep?
I do think that all Less require different amounts of sleep, some people can run better with less. However, I do know that physically our bodies perform better when we get solid good sleep. So if you're stressed, or if you have insomnia, then absolutely, you need to assess what your week looks like, and what areas are raising your blood pressure or making you feel like you don't have a lot of control over them. And start to slowly but surely make small changes to get yourself more centered on what your focus wants, what your focus should be, and what you want your focus to become.
I imagine as somebody that works with people on their fitness, you often see a recurring problem of people may be coming in with a lot of motivation. They want to change their life, they want to get more fit, they want to feel better, absolutely. But that motivation isn't necessarily self regenerating. So is there anything in particular you did to try to keep people motivated to make changes in their life,
motivation is a great thing, some of the ways you can get that is meet me. So I do have clients that, you know, eventually they shouldn't need me. But some like to still meet me a couple days a week because they know, I'm going to work with them and give them a workout that's going to push them out of their comfort zone potentially, and help them get to where they want to be. And if they don't have that appointment, they'll find an excuse not to come to the gym. But the other component with motivation is discipline. And that's the hardest one, no matter what gym, what trainer, nobody sells that there is no discount to find self discipline. So we have to work with some trends, theoretical behavior models, and looking at how your motivation is and how dedicated and disciplined you're ready to become. Because it doesn't happen overnight. It is like four steps forward, and often three steps back. But once you start to make choices daily, different choices daily, become habits and habits become lifestyle.
Does it take a long time to build a habit depends on where you're at. Some people
have hit rock bottom, and they know based on their doctor and how they feel they've got to make a change. Other people are kind of lingering in that stage of it's not that bad yet. And so it depends on where they're at in the journey.
Thanks for joining us today, Lisa. Thank you. If you're interested in ways to learn more about fitness and healthy choices, check out the continuing education classes at Heartland Community College at heartland.edu/continuing. Ed. I'm Steve fast. Thanks for listening to random acts of knowledge
