Amy Wilson | Optimize Your Starting Line At Midlife To Stay Out of the Nursing Home

Hormone Prosperity Podcast with Dr. Kyrin Dunston

Ready to learn the secret to staying out of the nursing home and living your best life at midlife? It's easier than you think, and our guest expert on today's episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is here to tell you how!
We were thrilled to have Amy Wilson, a Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist, certified fitness professional, and certified nutrition coach on the show to share her wisdom, insights, and real-life tips for conquering midlife challenges. She is dedicated to helping people optimize their health and wellness in midlife, which can be the key to staying active and independent as we age.
In this episode, we dive deep into navigating individual barriers while navigating through the journey of midlife health and wellness. Amy shares her proven techniques for finding the balance we all crave in midlife.

Amy passionately reveals her top strategies for successful weight loss, regaining good health, and keeping yourself out of the nursing home, emphasizing that it all starts with one important factor: "Optimizing your starting line at midlife."
Here are some of the powerful takeaways from today's episode:
1. Importance of Individualized Approach: Amy stresses the importance of understanding that every person is unique and requires a tailored approach to their fitness, nutrition, and self-care journey.
2. Nutrition & Fitness Balance: Exploiting simple everyday dietary changes and incorporating regular exercise routines can make a massive impact on the quality of life.
3. Mindfulness & Emotional Well-being: In addition to maintaining physical health, Amy emphasizes the importance of nurturing mental and emotional wellbeing. This includes staying connected with friends, family, and hobbies that bring joy to our lives.
4. Learning from Real-Life Stories & Scenarios: Amy shares inspiring stories of her clients who have successfully overcome midlife challenges, regained their health, and lived a happier, more fulfilling life. These tales will not only resonate with you but also motivate you to take the first step towards a vibrant life.
Grab a cup of tea or your favorite beverage, find a comfortable spot, and soak up everything Amy has to offer in this episode. You'll come away feeling inspired and ready to embrace a healthy, balanced, and fabulous midlife!

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prescription Podcast, and as always, we're grateful for your support. See you on the next episode!

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I can do what others can't. Amy Wilson, what do you need to do today so that you can do the things that you wanna do tomorrow? Stay tuned and find out.

Speaker 2 (00:15):

So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:09):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into talking about staying out of the nursing home. I know that's not a topic that you might pick to listen to or talk about, but you know what? If you don't pay attention to the things that are gonna keep you out of the nursing home now, then 5, 10, 20, 30 years down the line, you might end up there. And it's really a place of last resort that you don't want to end up in because people don't go there to get better and go home. They go there when the end of the line is in view and there's nothing else that can be done from them. And these days you're gonna hear from Amy. She's gonna talk to you about how 40 and 50 and younger year olds are ending up in nursing homes for things that are fully preventable and treatable if they had done the things that we're gonna talk about today.

Speaker 1 (02:04):

Do I have your attention now? Yes, I think so. So she's gonna talk to you about doing the things that others won't do. For whatever reason, they don't want to, they don't think it's necessary. They don't think they have a problem. They think it's not gonna happen to me for whatever reason. They're not doing the things. What are the things you need to do so that tomorrow you can do what others can't? Meaning you won't end up in a nursing home, you'll be able to travel the world, go dancing, do all the things that you love to do that I love to do, right? You wanna stay healthy, vital, alive, having fun and enjoying your life. And there's some things that you need to pay attention to that you might not be paying attention to. So we're gonna dive into that. We're gonna talk about your purpose.

Speaker 1 (02:48):

We're gonna talk about why you need to eat more . Yes, eat more. I said we're gonna be talking about that. We're gonna talk about Ozempic and some of the other weight loss drugs. So lots in this episode to share with you. I'll tell you a little bit about Amy and we will get started. So Amy Wilson is a board certified geriatric pharmacist. So she knows nursing homes, a certified fit fitness professional, and a certified nutrition coach with over 30 years of experience whose mission is to empower and equip her clients to take charge of their health and find balance in their lives so that they can navigate through individual barriers and finally be successful in their efforts to lose weight and regain health. At midlife. She's gonna talk to you about optimizing the starting line instead of worrying about the finish line. What does that even mean? So please help me welcome Amy to the show.

Speaker 3 (03:46):

Thank you for having me. I'm I've, this is my favorite kind of a conversation to have.

Speaker 1 (03:50):

Yes, mine too. Anything that helps women, particularly women over 40, get the health that they're wanting and improve their lives is right up my alley. And I love the conversation we started having just before we hit record. When I said kind of what is your main differential that you offer women and share what you said. 'cause I think it's really powerful

Speaker 3 (04:15):

Main difference is that I am not skinny. I think chasing skinny is something that we need to stop. And I know that may sound crazy because we live in a society where we think that being skinny means happiness. Being skinny means being successful, but that's not the case. What I am hoping to help people, especially women over 40, is to realize that skinny is not the end all be all. What we need to be chasing is health. What we need to be chasing is strength and balance. I'm a board certified geriatric pharmacist. I work in nursing homes. That is my, I would say my main goal is to make sure that you don't end up in one of those. Where are you gonna be in 20, 30, 40 years if you're chasing skinny? More than likely, it's very possible you may end up in one of those because of a bone fracture, because of osteoporosis. But if you start looking at health and healing from the inside out and start looking at strength and balance, then the sky's the limit. And hopefully your future self is saying, thank you very much for putting me in this amazing position where I can still live my life independently.

Speaker 1 (05:24):

Amen to that. Yeah, I loved you, keeping you out of my nursing home. That's it. And really, you know, we don't spend our lives thinking about that. We're very mortality-phobic in the Western culture where we don't talk about death. We actually act like it's something that's not gonna happen to us. And we don't like to have end of life discussions and we don't like to have nursing home discussions. But a large majority of us are gonna end up there. And a lot of us are gonna end up there for exactly the reasons that you've said because we've lost bone mass, which means that we've most likely lost muscle mass. And if we're chasing skinny our whole lives, we're probably not helping our bones. We're probably not helping our muscle mass. It's notorious that we don't get adequate protein intake. And so we're actually buying a ticket to the nursing home and I don't wanna be there. I know most of you don't wanna be there. So I think it's time we have a real discussion and get honest and have a mortality discussion and really start talking about what we're talking about when we talk about health for women over 40. It's not only our longevity, but it's our vitality span. So how did you, as a geriatric pharmacist, Amy, become interested in this? What makes you so passionate about it?

Speaker 3 (06:46):

Well, it's kind of like my story starts when I was 16 years old and started yo-yo dieting and then went to pharmacy school and became a fitness instructor while I was going through pharmacy school. So I've been in the fitness and nutrition realm as well as the pharmacy realm for quite a while. But there was a huge disconnect because of wanting to be skinny, wanting to help clients lose X amount of weight, and then seeing them turn around and put it back on again. Or seeing them just feeling frustrated that their bodies weren't doing what they wanted to do. Or especially when you get 40, 45, 50, everything that you used to do stopped working. Well guess what? Same here. That happened to me. And you know, with hormones, things change. And what happened was, honestly, all the yo-yo dieting I did for years decreased in muscle mass, affected my metabolism, affected my hormones, and I had to do something that was different. And while I was starting researching and looking at different programs for me to try, I was also seeing this increase in younger patients coming into my nursing homes. And by younger I mean forties and fifties,

Speaker 1 (08:02):

Really

Speaker 3 (08:03):

That shouldn't be happening. It shouldn't be. And 10 years ago it was all eighties, nineties and one hundred. It's, it's, you know, the end of life. It's no longer live by yourself. Well now we're no longer can live by yourself In forties and fifties. We are getting lifestyle diseases of diabetes, hypertension, strokes, certain cancers that are caused by lifestyle. And that is scary and it's also preventable. And so I saw this as, you know, not only can I help perimenopause and menopausal women, but I have to also educate on what we're doing and what we're not doing when we eat ultra processed foods, what we're causing disease states. And then also having women understand that we have to stop chasing skinny and we need to start focusing on the health aspect. We need to start focusing on the strength aspect because that is gonna decrease our chronic inflammation that is gonna help our hormones, that is going to help us be independent for years down the line.

Speaker 3 (09:13):

And that's, I think that's what everybody wants. Nobody thinks about, oh, I'm gonna end up in a nursing home. Nobody thinks that I'm gonna be in assisted living. We all see ourselves going until our last breath. But we don't realize that a lot of things that we do, we set ourselves up for. You don't go to the doctor's office and it's like, oh by the way, you just got diabetes or you just got blood pressure, high blood pressure that has been coming for years. Your body's been telling you and sending you signs. We just choose to ignore it because we think we're busy or it has to do with stress or it's, you know, I have this going on so that's why I'm not sleeping. When we start listening to those signals that our body is sending us, we can start kind of dialing back what we need to do. And when I saw this big disconnect and when I saw the increase in my nursing homes, then putting two and two together with what was going on with me, it was kind of like this trifecta. I'm a fitness instructor, I'm a nutrition coach, I'm a pharmacist. Okay, let's put all these things together and help people move forward, help people learn how to balance, help people learn to get strength and to eat and quit starving so that their future self can thank them.

Speaker 1 (10:23):

Yes. And I'm just wondering, as you're working in these facilities and you're seeing younger women come in, what kind of the patterns that you were noticing that were different in their lifestyle, in their genetic background, in their history? Were you noticing particular patterns that you found that you could work with them on? Or was it kind of too late for them? Or what was the situation there?

Speaker 3 (10:53):

Fortunately, once you're in the nursing home, it is too late. It is just the way our healthcare system is. We are not a preventative healthcare system. But I'll look at their history and physical and I'll look at their discharge summary and I will look at what's been going on in their lives. And a lot of it is uncontrolled type two diabetes started as pre-diabetes to type two diabetes. A lot of it's being sedentary, not moving and doing, you know, they don't say in the history and physical what they've been eating, but you can kind of summarize by what's going on. It's been ultra processed food, it's been fast food, it's, they haven't been walking or working out. They've lived a sedentary lifestyle causing chronic inflammation. And then something happens where they can no longer take care of themselves. And now they're in a facility that is pretty much just taking care of you. It's not there to help you get better, get stronger to go back out in the community. Rehab will do that, but they can only do so much with the time that they're allowed. And a lot of it's not changing the behavior, it's not changing the food that they're eating or putting them on a certain exercise program. It's just to get them good enough so that they can go home.

Speaker 1 (12:10):

Right. And you know, isn't it interesting? Well, it's sad actually that in 2024 we don't have dietary history as part of the intake, even though we know the extreme impact that diet has on life. But like you say, people are going there to be taken care of, they're not going there to get better. So I love it you took that and you said, oh no, this can't be, we need to keep people out of the nursing home. What do we need to do? So, and I'm just curious, as a certified nutrition coach, what was your evolution? Did, were you a pharmacist first and then became a nutrition coach and then fitness trainer? What was the evolution for you of your path?

Speaker 3 (12:59):

So I started teaching when I was 17, teaching fitness classes. So back in the days of leg warmers, big hair, all that kind of high, low and high, low gene Fonda days. And I am a diagnosed exercise addict. I used to try to out-train a bad diet, but in the eighties we didn't know it was a bad diet. In the eighties everything was low fat, it was all replaced with sugar, which we didn't realize at that time was gonna set us up for our diabetes journey. And I didn't even think about it. I would just feel guilty for eating something. I would go work out and then I would also personal train and I would personal train and work out with my clients. I blew my back out and it wasn't a good thing. I blew it out. I had to have surgery.

Speaker 3 (13:43):

You think that would've taught my lesson, but it didn't. And I was right back after surgery doing everything I was doing before, because we really have come a long way in nutrition in the last five to 10 years. Back then it was still how much you work out, how little you eat. And that was the key to keeping your weight off. We now know that doesn't work. We now know there's, there's reasons why it doesn't work. So in my thirties, I was looking for different nutrition programs. 'cause As a pharmacist, as a fitness coach, people come up to you and ask all the time about diet, about nutrition, about supplements. So I have several certifications under my belt, but they were still calories and calories out. What you and how much you work out coming into my forties perimenopause hits and the inches are crazy.

Speaker 3 (14:36):

And I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm teaching all the time. I'm working out. I'm not eating. I tried keto, I tried the latest and greatest because I am just like everybody who's listening to this podcast, I want a fix. I want it quick and I want it now. And I will try anything that looks like it might work. We're, none of us are immune to that. We all see it, we all see the shiny object. We're like, oh, maybe this will help me. And after trying all those and it would work for a hot minute and then not, it was watching a couple other friends who were instructors do a program that was called The Fast Weight of Fat Loss. And I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna try it. I threw a Hail Mary pass, tried it, didn't think it would work, it did.

Speaker 3 (15:18):

It was taking science, it was eating for what my body needed and which was a lot more than I thought. And was also really focusing on bloating that muscle. And then once I did that, it was amazing at what, how my body responded. I was pre-diabetic because thanks dad, that came through my genetics. But it was also pre-diabetes coming with the decrease in estrogen. My cholesterol was higher, my thyroid wasn't doing well. And then when I started eating and I started working out less lifting, all of those things started just to fall in place. A1C went down, my thyroid went back to normal, cholesterol was back. So it was kind of crazy. And I knew for me that if I was this way, there were a lot of other women that needed help, who were throwing their hands up in the air and saying, this is not fair.

Speaker 3 (16:14):

Why is this happening to me? And trying everything out there only to get frustrated. And when I switched in my head with health and strength and stopped chasing skinny, it was the light bulb. It was, okay, this is what we are meant to be. This is how we're supposed to be treating our bodies. Our bodies are one big chemical reaction and we need to be giving it the right fuel, the right chemicals in order for it to do its thing. Instead of relying on the latest, greatest shake or packets of food, we need to understand that it's science. There are reasons why we need to eat certain foods. There are reasons why ultra processed foods do not help us. And I think honestly, when I started putting two to two together and getting rid of that disconnect of what food does to your body and understanding what food can do, that was the aha moment. And I get that with all my clients now too. It's like when they get that aha moment and realize that, oh wait, there really is a correlation to what I put in my body and how I feel and how I'm sleeping and how much energy I have and losing inflammation. And when you get that, you don't wanna let go of it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:29):

And you know, I think it's so important to talk about what food is. I think most people are trained to think about food in terms of calories. It's just caloric energy when it's so much more. It's information. There's the energy information that comes with food, there's the nutritional information that comes with food. And then when there is non-food stuff in food, there's the chemical information. And so there's so many aspects to food. There's the allergic component that maybe an IgE allergy or there may be a sensitivity and there is intolerance, particularly when it comes to dairy. So there's so many considerations for the food that you put into your body. I think most people really need to expand their understanding of what food is. It's just like education. When your kids go to school, they don't just learn one subject. It's not just one subject that they learn.

Speaker 1 (18:30):

There's so many. And so food is equally as complex. I think that this would be a great time, since you are mentioning weight loss, it is the beginning of a new year. A lot of people didn't meet their weight or health goals last year and now they're on the resolution and they're like, I know I hear you Amy, but I'm just gonna go get that medication that my friend took where she lost a ton of weight and then I'll deal with doing it. Right. Do you wanna talk a little bit about some of these medications like ozempic that are available that some people are getting amazing weight loss results with?

Speaker 3 (19:05):

If you haven't heard of these medications, they're called GLP one glucagon. Like Peptide one, Ozempic, wegovy, Monro. And there's several others that are gonna be coming out pretty soon. And first of all, if you're on them, and this is not to beat you up and say, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're doing this, this, I'm gonna give you the pros and cons and then if you're on them, what you need to also be doing in conjunction with those medications. The problem with those medications are some of the how it works or the side effects and how it works is that it slows down your GI tract. So it will slow down gastric emptying, which causes you to feel full. And I know every female is going, oh my god, it's about time. I want something that's gonna help me feel full. I want something that does that.

Speaker 3 (19:49):

Yes and no. If you feel like you're a bottomless pet, if you feel like all you do is crave sugar, I'm going to challenge you with the fact that you're probably not eating enough and you're probably not eating enough protein either. We can actually work with our own hormone, the GLP one by what we intake and food-wise. But what the medication does will slow down gastric emptying. It will also help with insulin and insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance. Those are great. But the side effects are that it can cause something called gastroparesis, which is a total shutdown of your GI tract. Unfortunately, it's not reversible. It's something that you'll have to live with for the rest of your life. And if you know anybody with gastroparesis, it is not a pretty disease state at all. And the other thing that it does, because you're not hungry, you are not eating, your body, like I said, is a chemical reaction.

Speaker 3 (20:45):

It needs fuel. If you are not giving your body fuel, your body's pretty smart number one goal is survival. And it's gonna take amino acids from your muscles. It's gonna take minerals from your bones. So what we're gonna be seeing probably in about, I wanna say three to five years of something I call old lady syndrome, we're gonna see those people who should not have it yet in a disease state of osteopenia, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, which is muscle wasting. We're gonna see all these later on age-related diseases because of not intaking the proper fuel. And that's scary. And it's all because of chasing skinny. So if you are looking at taking something, maybe you have a high A1C, which is diabetes, pre-diabetes, maybe your doctor says this is what we need to put you on. If that's the case, then please, please, please work with somebody to make sure that you're getting adequate protein to make sure that you are building muscle and that you are getting your vibes and minerals.

Speaker 3 (21:46):

Because the last thing we want is for your body to take away from your muscles and your bones. And that's what we really need to focus on with these medications. If we can do it without the medication, perfect. If you're gonna go on the medication, please be aware of the side effects because a lot of people go in and say, oh you know what, it won't happen to me. I'm not gonna be that person. You have to be prepared to be that person that it happens to. And then also understand that, you know what, maybe I can try one more thing before I go on this medication. One more thing, I never tried really eating. I've always starved. I never really tried weightlifting to get some muscle mass. Maybe if I just try this one more thing, that would be my ticket to where I wanna go health-wise and not have an injection that pretty much I will have to be on for the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 (22:37):

Yeah, I think those are all super important points. And I've honestly never seen a person who said they had tried, quote unquote tried everything to lose weight and said they couldn't lose weight. I've even had people say, I haven't been able to lose a pound in 20 years when they address the underlying causes, the hormone imbalance, the gut dysfunction, the toxicity, all the things that weren't able to lose the weight. And so I've, I, that's why I don't know much about these medications is because I don't use them. 'cause They're really, I don't find that they're necessary. And like you say, they have potentially short and long, long-term negative consequences and you really do have to be prepared to be that person who got that side effect from that drug. So I know that you take a much more holistic approach to, it sounds like that's not your first line either.

Speaker 3 (23:30):

To me it's almost, I would say the last line and you know, I had, I was talking to someone yesterday. Well what about people with diabetes? Absolutely there are purposes for medication. I would say I'm a pharmacist who prefers that you try something else before medication or that we try to get you off of medication. All medications have side effects. I don't care what medication, all supplements will have side effects too. So I'll get somebody I like, but it's natural. Yeah. So is Deion that is used for your heart. That's all natural too. It's a flower, it's a plant. And there's still side effects with that. And to understand that the one thing that doesn't really have side effects for most people, unless you have an allergic reaction, is nutrition and weightlifting. The side effects are positive, they're not negative. And so if we can kind of get back to realizing that Mother Earth has pretty much provided us everything that we need that we don't need pharmaceuticals, they're there.

Speaker 3 (24:26):

Pharmaceuticals are great for treatments but not necessarily cures most of the time. And you know, who wants to be someone in my nursing home who's taking 30 medications? Because when you start with one medication, you're gonna take another medication and then there's a side effect. So there's another medication. Nobody starts out wanting to take a pill for this. It just happens. And then there's another pill. So if we can stop that whole cascade in the first place and yeah. Does it take a little bit more work? Absolutely. I'm not telling everybody this is, this is rainbows and unicorns. It takes behavioral change. It takes work to learn how to eat for what your body needs. It takes work to learn how to prepare food again instead of going through a drive-through. But is it possible and is it the best and possibly the right thing to do? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (25:16):

You know, I had this visual come to mind when you were talking about going on medications, but really the, the first medicine for the body is food and movement are the first two medicines. And it's kind of like, you know, we say, oh but there it's natural, but cyanides are natural and can kill you. Right. It's just natural. Doesn't mean it's good for you. I don't know why, but transportation popped into my mind. Airplanes. So taking a drug for everything is kind of like taking an airplane everywhere. You still need to know how to walk . Mm-Hmm . Yes And yes how to ride a bike. And it's like, just because we invented airplanes and, and air travel doesn't mean we throw out everything else. But really with our mainstream medical culture, that's what has happened. I mean, like you said on your intake at the nursing home, they don't even ask about diet when that is the foundation of health. So great. We talked about those medications. Now we've touched on muscle mass and bone mass. Let's talk a little bit about why those are so important. 'cause I know some people might have heard and gotten the memo about how important muscle mass maintenance and bone mass maintenance are for longevity and vitality span. But some people are not aware. So what would you tell them? The biggest,

Speaker 3 (26:36):

Or I would say used to be the biggest reason that somebody would go into a nursing home was a fall or a break. And that is directly correlated with muscle mass. It's directly correlated with bones. And we don't think about those kinds of things. And we think that sometimes when, oh, I'm in my fifties, I'm in my sixties, I'm in retirement and all I wanna do is just sit around, I'm going to challenge you. It's like, I don't think that's what we want. I think we wanna live, I think we wanna be active and to be active, we need our bones healthy, we need them strong. And to be active, we need muscle. We need muscle to be able to get out of a chair every day. We need muscles to pick up our dogs and our grandkids. We need muscle to be able to take the groceries inside.

Speaker 3 (27:24):

And hey, if we're gonna get on that plane, I want to be able to go over that overhead bin and put my luggage there. Everything that we do, everything that we do on a daily basis requires us to have a strong skeletal system and a strong muscular system. And if we let that go, everything else goes downhill. Everything does. We no longer can lift, we no longer can get out of a chair. We no longer can maybe lift our head up because we have osteoporosis and we have all these bone fractures in our cervical area. I don't think anybody wants that. That's not living. And if we can do the best by fueling our body, by strengthening our bones and strengthening our muscles, honestly that's the fountain of youth. Keeping your muscle mass. Keeping your bone mass is the fountain of youth. And I think that is, at least for me, that's the ticket that is not a pill, not the fountain of youth per se. Going and drinking the water, that's something that I can do on a daily basis is to help my bone strength and my muscle mass so that in the future I'm able to thrive. And I think most people want that. They just don't realize it unfortunately until it's too late. When we're in our forties, in our fifties, in our sixties, whatever age you are right now, it's not too late. And now is the time to start training for your future self.

Speaker 1 (28:50):

Yeah. And I think it's super important to realize that these changes and the downgrade of our musculoskeletal system happens so slowly and gradually over time that it's almost imperceptible. And you can write off these changes as being normal and think that you are not on that downward slope again, you're not the one who's gonna get the side effects from the medication. You are not the one that Amy and I are talking about. But this was a real reality check for me, , when I heard of the squat test and how you basically stand straight up and then you want to lower yourself into a cross-legged position without using your arms, y'all arms. And then from the squat leg position, you want to get back up off the floor into a standing position without using your arms. If you can't do that, descent has already begun. And that was a real wake up call when I heard somebody describe that. And every woman in the room kind of looked at her neighbor and said, I can't do that. You know, look at kids, they do it effortlessly. So what are some other signs that you would tell people to look for to know that they need to pay attention and they need to start paying attention now?

Speaker 3 (30:11):

Energy levels. How are you sleeping if you're not sleeping well, if your energies are constantly crashing and you need coffee to get you through the day. If you're constantly grabbing for the sugar because you're hungry or you just want to have that sugar craving. And what does that do? That shows that you're not fueling your body enough. That shows that you might have some hormonal imbalances that you need to get checked out. And the other thing is, you know, do you feel weak? Is it hard for you to park way out of the grocery store and walk in? Do you find the closest parking space? Or are you someone who just can't carry anything and you're like, oh, you know, it's just 'cause I'm tired and looking for those little things that are adding up now or that are kind of giving you a wake up call that, hey, I need to really listen to my body and start taking care of it and start training to get better. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (31:09):

Those are super important things to look at. And I know we're busy, we lead busy lives, we're doing a million things and we're like, oh, I just feel a little tired. And it happens so gradually that we don't even realize it. And so I say pay attention sooner rather than later. And do you wanna talk a little bit about protein intake and weight lifting and maintenance of muscle mass?

Speaker 3 (31:35):

Yeah, so the one thing that we are great at is not getting enough protein. We really, especially females, we are, we do not get enough protein. And as we age, we actually need more protein. And sometimes that's difficult. There are easier ways to find protein. You can go to the grocery store and there's, there can be like a chicken breast or get some Turkey bone broth. It's a great way to get protein. You don't have to rely on the shakes. And sometimes those bars are just like a candy bar. They're not, they're not good for you. You need protein and you need protein in order to keep your muscle and in order to build your muscle. And I think a lot of times I will get, especially some older women will be like, Ugh, but I don't wanna bulk up. I don't wanna look big.

Speaker 3 (32:24):

And I'm going to tell you you're not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen unless you have some pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical help that then, then possibly you might get bulky. But for most of us, that is not possible with lifting three days a week with increasing how much weight. And I'm not talking about your three to five pounds. That might be somewhere that you start out with three to five pound dumbbells. But if you start lifting 15, 20, 25 pound dumbbells, you will not get bulky. What will happen, especially if you're fueling your body, is that you will actually change your body shape to the way that you want it to be. It will be shapely, it will be, I hate saying thinner, but it's going to be more compact. So you're gonna lose inches because we are going to increase your muscle. And then if you're fueling yourself properly, you'll start burning fat. And that's, I think what most women want is that they have this idea of what they wanna look like and they think they have to do it by starving when it actually is the exact opposite. That if you start fueling your body with carbohydrates, with fat, with protein, and you do a simple workout routine for 30 minutes, not hours, that is gonna get you well on the path that you wanna go. Yes.

Speaker 1 (33:49):

So important. Eat more, exercise more, way less, feel better, be healthier. Do you wanna give any guidelines? What guidelines do you like to offer for people for their protein intake in terms of numbers or you know, palm of the hand size, how many times a day? What do you usually recommend? So

Speaker 3 (34:09):

Usually, you know, palm size is usually a serving size, so anywhere between 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal. So right around anywhere between 80 to 100 grams per day. And it just depends on who I'm coaching. And some of my clients, some of my clients take way more than that. But it also depends on their activity level. But that's just a good starting point. You'll see people that say, oh, you only need 30, 40 grams per day. Honestly 80 80 to 100 is where we need to be A midlife.

Speaker 1 (34:44):

Yes. I second that. Amen. . And then, you know, at the beginning of the year, people going back to the gym, it can be intimidating to go to some gyms and you see all these big muscle guys working out and it smells like a man's locker room . So what you suggest for a woman who really has no experience with weights, it's foreign to her, that whole gym scene is foreign. Maybe she hasn't stepped foot in a gym since grade school. What do you suggest? How does she get started? If

Speaker 3 (35:18):

The gym scene isn't for you, so let's invest in some bands. Let's invest in some dumbbells. You can do a program at home. I work out for the most part at home. My program has daily workouts that we use. I do it at home. I go to the gym once a week when I teach and I'm in and I'm out because I don't like the gym atmosphere anymore. It's changed since covid. And if you're like, okay, I just, I can't get the energy just to go to the gym, I don't wanna deal with traffic, I don't wanna deal with people, but can you get the energy to go stand up and go to maybe a different room and 30 minutes is all you have to do? And I, and someone says, but I haven't worked out, just try five minutes tomorrow, do six minutes the next day, seven minutes.

Speaker 3 (36:08):

You will be surprised how quickly you will get in shape. And what I always get is like, but I'm not in shape enough to work out. You gotta start somewhere. You have to start somewhere and be okay. Being a beginner, we are so worried about being perfectionists all the time. We gotta do this perfectly. We gotta do this perfectly. How about progress? How about a little bit better every single day? And I know it's the new year, I know when someone starts a program, it's like, I'm going to clean out my closet, I'm gonna clean out my pantries, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna get up at 4:30 AM. Do what you know you can do and then build upon that. Don't think you have to go all in 120%. Do what you can do today and build upon it tomorrow. And that will set you up for success.

Speaker 1 (36:58):

I noticed something in the materials you submitted before we did the interview. I'm wondering if you can explain what this means. I like what it says, but I'm not sure entirely what it means. Optimize the starting line instead of worrying about the finish line. What does that mean?

Speaker 3 (37:13):

That is one of my favorite books, James. Clear Atomic Habits. Mm-Hmm. . And he kind of says, all right, we look at the finish line, maybe it's the spring and you're going on vacation to a cruise and you're like, oh, I wanna buy this outfit and this outfit and this outfit and I need to be this weight by this time so I can wear this bathing suit or get back into this close. So we're looking at the finish line, we're not looking at what we need to do to get there. So if we can optimize the starting line, maybe it's getting our new pair of shoes and, 'cause we have, we, we don't have a decent pair of walking shoes. Maybe it's getting dumbbells so that we have something to lift. Maybe it's getting some resistance bands, it's getting everything you need to get to the finish line, but you gotta have a starting point first.

Speaker 1 (38:09):

I like that. Focus on what you can do now instead of, oh, I gotta get to this, this point. Because sometimes it can feel like climbing Mount Everest and, but I can go get some dumbbells. I can pull my sneakers out of the back of the closet. I can put out my workout clothes before I go to bed and set my alarm, you know, 10 minutes earlier so I can go in the living room and I don't know, I like sweating to the oldies, something like that. Yeah, yeah. Great. I love that. And you also have this other information that I like and I'm wondering if you can explain. So I was put here on this earth on purpose for a purpose. I love that. What does that mean to

Speaker 3 (38:53):

You? Yeah, we struggle sometimes. I think all of us struggle. We struggle. What's our calling? What do we need to do? Whether it's our job, whether it's our family, whether it's our career and we question everything. And that grounds me. I was put here on purpose for a purpose. And when sometimes I feel like maybe I'm not doing what I should be doing, maybe I'm not helping enough people. And I, one of my clients who's lost 130 pounds posted something yesterday and I was almost in tears. And those things ground me. It's like, you know what? That's my purpose. That's my calling. So I was put here on purpose for a purpose. And I think we all know our calling, we all know our purpose. Sometimes we don't think it's big enough or it's, we think it's just too small. But realize every single thing that you do that is your calling, that is your purpose, is huge and makes an impact.

Speaker 1 (39:43):

It's so true, Amy, and I think that sometimes our purpose is so integral to who we are, that we almost do it effortlessly and then we think it, our purpose has to be hard. Mm-Hmm . It has to be some hard journey or degree or something that we accomplish or somebody gives to us. But it's really a part of who we are. And really, I think one of the aspects of health that I love to help women see is their uniqueness. And so understanding their personality from all its aspects, whether it's learning about the Myers-Briggs and human design and their astrology and so on and so on. And really what makes them uniquely them so that they can be on purpose. And sometimes I find that like Bill, not Bill Gates , not Bill Gates, the Apple guy, , I see Jobs , he says, you know, the dots can only be connected going backwards.

Speaker 1 (40:47):

And I recently had an experience, you know, anyone who knows me knows I've been through many transformations in my life professionally and personally. And every time I'm kind of like, okay, what's happening now with this transition? I thought I was on purpose. And I had an experience just last week where I woke up to this even larger purpose . And it's like I had to wait 59 years to get that. I couldn't know it at nine, I couldn't know it at 1929. Right. So it's ever unfolding. And if you just keep following the dots or the breadcrumbs as they're laid out. And I do believe that if you're listening to this podcast, this is one of your breadcrumbs. You're here for a reason. You're hearing this for a reason. You're being called to pay attention to your longevity, your vitality. You're being called to pay attention to the fact that we're talking about staying out of a nursing home. or your attention is being awakened because this is a part of you fulfilling your purpose. 'cause You're not gonna fulfill your purpose if you're not healthy. Oh, right.

Speaker 3 (41:56):

So true. Oh yeah. Abs, I, I may have to use that. I love that. That is so true. So true.

Speaker 1 (42:02):

Yeah. And I love this other thing you said today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I can do what others can't. Talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 3 (42:12):

Well, I mean, let's look at my nursing homes. Yeah. We don't think about what can happen to us in the future, we don't think about what we should be doing now. We think when we get that diagnosis or something happens is I wish I could have, although I would've should've. Things come to mind. I'm choosing not to have those. So today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I will do what others can't. I suck it up. I sometimes say embrace the suck, suck it up, and I do my lifting workout on a day. I don't feel like it. I get my nutrition on a day where it's rough. I'm busy and there's meetings after meetings or a podcast or client calls. I make sure that I take care of myself first because I can't give to others if I am not taking care of myself.

Speaker 3 (43:04):

And I think as women, we tend to do the opposite. We give, give, give, give. And we think that's what we should be doing and not taking care of ourselves. I take care of myself first so that I can take care of everybody else so that I'm able to coach, be able to be a great, a pharmacist, a fitness instructor, and then in 20, 30 years when there's others my age who maybe can't stand, maybe are in a nursing home, planning on being in Costa Rica on a beach somewhere. So , I mean, I'm planning on being 80, 90 years old and power walking and enjoying life and not being in a chair watching it go by.

Speaker 1 (43:50):

Yeah. So I think that's a great call to everybody to pay attention. I think it's a great place to end. You have an amazing five day blueprint, five day fat loss blueprint. We're gonna have a link in the show notes. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about what they're gonna find there and also all the places they can then connect with you online? Sure.

Speaker 3 (44:09):

The best places I'll give you two. One is my website, amy k wilson.com. And then I'm known as the nutrition coach pharmacist on Instagram. So on my website, amy k wilson.com or Instagram, the nutrition coach pharmacist. So what I am giving you is a five day blueprint that has lots of recipes and also has two more recipes on there. One is my favorite chili recipe. So if you like chili and if you like Wendy's chili, the rumor is that this recipe was taken by Dave Thomas who made it the Wendy's chili recipe. However, this one is easy, this one is healthy and it can be made in the crockpot, Instapot, or stove. And I love things that are easy and nutritious at the same time. I will say on the five day blueprint, just look at it. Just think about maybe taking one day and multiplying those meals by two. So that way you have two days and then there's like 15 different recipes, I think. So that makes it how many days we multiply that too. That's a whole month worth of stuff. So I hope that helps people, maybe get you on the road, get you started. Because sometimes when you listen to these things you're like, well, how do I start? What are you talking about? How do I, what do I do? This will give you some ideas on how to get started.

Speaker 1 (45:26):

Yeah, I love that. And thank you for that. And I would just add, I love making multiple servings of one recipe and then freezing in single serve containers. So when you are busy, you can just grab it and defrost it and you've got a healthy meal and you don't have to go without. So amazing. And I wanna thank you so much for coming on the show, Amy. I have to say, you know, of all my colleagues in medicine, some of the most beleaguered colleagues are the ones who do work in nursing homes because it's kind of a rock and a hard place position there. It's too late for them to really transform anyone and bring them back to the health that they could have had. And so they kind of become despondent and hopeless, those colleagues. Mm-Hmm, . But you have taken that pain and you are out doing something about it, helping people to stay out of your nursing home. So I say, yay, you and thank you , thanks so much for joining me today.

Speaker 3 (46:25):

This was awesome. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (46:27):

And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I know you're inspired, I know you're gonna go download that blueprint. I know you're gonna make that chili and I wanna know how good it is. I love a good bowl of chili, so tell me about it on social media. Look forward to hearing about your results and look forward to hearing about all the insights that you had and how inspired you are for an amazing 2024 and beyond. Until next week when we'll have another episode, I'll see you then. Peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (47:04):

Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

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