Peri-Menopausal Weight Loss

Exercise every day. I already track my macros and those things don't work for me. I'm like, well, it's because you're probably not doing something correctly within there. Maybe you're under eating.

Maybe you're eating too much to see results. Like there's so many different things at play in addition to your mindset. Like, you know, that plays such a huge role in it as well, but it's just fine tuning, you know, everything from your sleep, your digestion, your, are you spending time outside in the sun? All of these things make a huge difference in how your body manages stress and thus your ability to lose weight.

Welcome to the Thrive Her podcast. I'm your host, Amy Sanders. I'm a fitness and wellness pro, mom, step-mom, second wife, and master certified life coach. I'm here to help you manage your mind so you can uncover the most potent version of yourself and create the thriving life you love.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Thrive Her. Welcome back to the Thrive Her podcast. I'm your host, Amy Sanders.

And today I'm like so excited for this interview for multiple reasons. One, we're going to talk about business. We're going to talk about health and fitness, but most importantly, I've brought on one of my friends that I've known for a million years, and I have had a front row seat seeing her success over the years with fitness. And when we first met, we were having our first babies.

You had one baby, I had just barely had my first baby. And that's how it started for us in our friendship. So I'm welcoming Lindsay Matthews to the podcast. Thank you.

Yeah. So you own a successful online fitness company where you train tons of women on how to basically do all of the things when it comes to wellness and fitness and all the things. It's been so fun. So as we bring her on...

She has a massive following. She has helped. I don't even know. Like if you were to guess...

I mean, it's so hard to say because I've tried to figure this out before. And there was a period of time in my career where I worked for a supplement company and we did a lot of free things online. I know one of my free challenges has been downloaded over 2 million times. And so it's hard to say how many people I've helped because it's...

I don't know. I kind of just can't even quantify it. I don't even know. I guess we could say.

A lot. It's a lot. Yeah. Both of us are like women of like fitness is our life.

And when we met, this is what I want to... I was just talking to her about this before you hit record. But when we first met and we both had barely had our babies... Yeah.

Because Kenzie is Brinley's age, right? So your first and my second, I think are really close in age. Yeah. And I do not think you were pregnant yet.

So you'd had... Okay. And I had had my second, but barely. And this is why you're barely.

It's because you met me when I was really young. Yeah. And I had had my second, but barely. And this is why you're really overweight.

And you thought that was normal. Hey, I've had some people that met me during that part of my life too. And I was so embarrassed, actually. It was...

I mean, we might get into this story, but I remember telling somebody, this isn't how I normally look. And I was like, how sad that I felt like I had to say that as a disclaimer. So silly. But anyway.

But that's how you met me. But I was like, are we teaching fitness classes? I was already into the fitness world. But you had decided...

I just remember you were asking me questions and stuff. Do you fitness? I was like, do it. And what was so impressive to me about Lindsay was she came to me and she had some questions for me.

I was teaching fitness and all the things. And she's like, I want to do that. And within the shortest amount of time, you dove all in. Yes.

She took her test. She did everything. She dove in, like, I swear, faster than anyone else that I had seen in this fitness realm. And you made it happen.

Like, all of a sudden, you had all these bootcamps. You had all these women just, like, raising their hands, saying yes to you. And you really started creating waves right out of the gate. Yeah.

I mean, that's kind of me in a nutshell. When I do something, I just go all in. And it's a blessing and a curse, I think. So...

Yeah. I just remember being so impressed because I was like, wow, she didn't, like, hesitate. She just said, wait, I think I want to do this. And then you did.

And you still are. Like, you failed. Yeah. That was 20-something years ago.

Yeah. You found a passion. You just went for it. And here we are years later, and it's evolved.

So you started with, like, these bootcamps. Yeah. And 20 people. And then from there, how did it go for you?

Yeah. So kind of in a nutshell, I started... I had a lot of issues with imposter syndrome. And I started...

You know, I knew I would need some experience at a gym. And so I got hired at our local... It was an Anytime Fitness. And I remember...

Do you remember the Anytime Fitness kind of in Springville up by the canyon? I remember I went there in particular because it was a small gym. And I was embarrassed because by this point, I had had my second baby. And I was in the place where you say you were when we met.

And I was, like, not confident in how I looked or how I felt. I had, like, a three-month-old. You know, everybody knows that feeling. And here I was, like, trying to be a, quote, personal trainer, you know?

And I did not feel confident in how I looked or anything like that. And so I wanted the smallest gym that I wouldn't know anyone at so that nobody would judge me. And I went there. And I was actually working there one day.

And one of the trainers told me, you know, group fitness has always been a thing. Like, you've been... You taught it forever before I got into this world. And she was, like, but, you know, private boot camps are, like, kind of the new up-and-coming thing.

I think you have the personality for it. You should totally go try to do that. And I remember thinking, like, there is absolutely no way I could work out in front of a group of people with a mic on and have them all watching me. Like, absolutely no way.

But this was back in... By this time, it was, like, 2006. Or 2007, I think. My husband was recently graduated from school.

So we were in that, like, poor kind of young family phase, you know? And I was, like, well, it could make more money, help more people, you know, in a shorter amount of time than, like, just one hour with one person kind of thing, you know? And I was, like, hey, I'm going to give it a shot. And I was, like, if I get at least six people to do this, maybe it was eight, something like that, then I'm going to do it.

You know, if we don't get enough people to sign up, then, you know, we're not going to do this whole program. And I remember the day that the eighth person signed up, I... About had a panic attack because I was, like, oh, my gosh, I told myself I was doing this if I got at least eight people to sign up. So here we are.

So I got to do it. But it was, like, the funnest thing ever. And it completely changed my confidence. I did that for eight years.

And during that time, I continued to help people one-on-one. Like, I say that I did online coaching before online... Before, like, online was even a thing. It was all over email.

There wasn't even Google Docs. There was no social media. Like, we're literally talking 2004. Like, I tell people now...

Like, people who do online coaching now, like, oh, I've been doing it for a long time, since, like, 2016. I was, like, oh, honey. Like, I might get... Yeah.

Like, this is when, you know, I wrote out a workout and emailed it to them. And, like, I wrote out a food log in Excel, and they filled it out and emailed it back to me. Like, that's what it was back in, you know, the early 2000s, right? And so I did my boot camp program.

It continued to grow. We started it at our local clubhouse, actually, where... Remember where you and I lived. And after a while, we just outgrew that place.

And so we moved into a gymnastics studio and just continued to grow. I only stopped it because I moved up to another county, and it wasn't feasible to keep driving down there. And that was in 2015. But by that point, I was, you know, still coaching clients one-on-one online, but I was approached by a supplement company to be their head coach.

There's lots of little mini stories in here. I don't know how much detail you want me to get into, but I was a head trainer for them, and they wanted me to do, you know, a lot of stuff. And I was like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this.

I'm going to online challenges and, you know, free eBooks and, you know, all that sort of thing that go along with their supplements was kind of the idea. And when I was there, they were like, it was... I think I got hired in 2013, and Instagram was just barely a thing. Facebook had been around for a while, but they're like, you need to have a Facebook page, like a trainer account, which it's so normal now.

But at the time, I was like, what? No, like, no. There is no way I'm going to, you know, go on social media and be like, look at me. You should listen to me.

Like, that is so not my personality. And they're like, well, actually, no, you have to because part of your job is you're selling our supplements, and so you need to go on there and talk about it. And I was like, oh, okay. This is not something I get to choose, you know?

And so I created Trainer Lindsey on Facebook first, then Instagram, and it just kind of grew from there. It was, you know, back in 2013, 14, 15, where pages grew super fast, super easy. And I got quite a bit of following on, on Facebook specifically, Instagram too. But, and yeah, we just, we had free challenges and lots of things just get exposure.

And then in 2019, I actually left that company. There was an acquisition. Things kind of went downhill a little bit. They've since gone out of business.

And then I just decided I wanted to go all in on my coaching business. And I might be just taking away the story. Do you want, I mean, do you want me to just- No, I actually love this because I have- Okay. Things I want.

Yeah. I mean, there's just so many things you have done. So yeah, go, go, go. Okay.

Keep going. Okay. So in 2019, I left the supplement company and decided I wanted to go like all in on my own one-on-one coaching business. Cause I had been doing it, but it was just me and one other coach.

And I knew like, it was pretty scary. I was leaving a full-time salary, like a full-time job trying to do this on my own, you know? And I knew I needed marketing help. And so I hired a marketing company and I worked with them for a couple of years.

But yeah, since 2019, my online business has just, it was, you know, growing 20%, 30%, 50%, just continuing to grow every single year. And we're, we're still growing even as of, as of now. So yeah, there's lots of mini stories in there. Like I had, I used to compete.

I had a period of time from 2018 to 19, where I actually gained 52 pounds in a year. So yeah, I don't know where you want to go with those new stories. Well, the reason why I wanted you to tell the story is because you have done a lot. You have stayed true to yourself and that's, you've stayed true to yourself and what your passion was, which was fitness.

Like you just said, you decided that and you kept going. Yeah. And for the people that are listening, I want you to hear that. Like Lindsay is just, she's a powerhouse, but she really stayed true to what she wanted to do.

Having no idea where it would take her. Well, you also had no idea how it was going to go. Like you're like, go to anytime fitness because you had imposter syndrome, but you still did. You didn't go to the big gym because you're like, oh, that's too much.

But what if I do this? And then without even realizing it, you were cutting edge. Like you were doing things where other people started doing them. Yeah.

And I think that's really amazing that like you just tuned in and trusted. It's like you had the self-trust and the imposter syndrome at the same time. And I think that's incredible. Yeah.

And I mean, that happened a lot throughout my journey too. Like, you know, with just as silly as it sounds, but starting a social media, I'm like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. Like that was really scary back in the day because people have personal accounts, but it wasn't super common to have like a look at me.

I'm a trainer type of account, you know, and now they're all over the place. Right. But I mean, especially too, when I was gaining all that weight, I still showed up on social media. And that was one of the hardest things I've ever done because every single week I was gaining and gaining and gaining, and it happened for an entire year.

And that was hard to continue to position myself as an authority when at the time I had no idea what was going on with my body. You know, I felt so much imposter syndrome at that time too. And you just had to keep powering through. But now I know, I remember one day specifically during that year, I was crying.

I cried a lot during that year. And I was thinking, you know, I am big on everything happens for a reason. Everything happens for us, not to us. Right.

And I was like, why is this happening to me? Why? What, like what got me here? Why is this happening?

And I just remember I had a strong feeling of like, you're going through this so that you can help other people through this. And I was like, I'm going to do this. And that just gave me so much purpose. So I was like, I know I'm going to figure this out because that's why I'm going through it is to help other people with the same thing.

And so now that's really my passion is we work with a lot of women in perimenopause who have, you know, stubborn weight they have to lose or not. They have to lose. They want to lose and just figuring out how to do that at this different stage of life and how to, you know, dare I say naturally balance hormones because it is actually possible with your daily habits. And yeah, just that's how kind of how I found my purpose was pushing.

Through more of that imposter syndrome and continuing to show up even when like it was the last thing I wanted to do was to go create content when I was 50 pounds heavier than I wanted to be, you know? Yeah. And again, you pushed through the imposter syndrome and looked at it in a lens that actually helps you and helps so many other people and your platform changed. And that's one thing I want to also like bring forward is sometimes we're on this journey.

You're going to have like different pivots. You're going to have things that happen to you, that change the trajectory, but that just gives you more power to lean into that passion, lean into that purpose, which is what you've done. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Which is really amazing. And with me, so we met when I was into fitness, which I mean, I still am. I'm still all the time involved in fitness, but yeah. Yeah.

My, my pivoted into more mindset because I was so with this woman, things are working for her. This woman, things are not working for her. Why? You know, so it's why.

I got obsessed with like the body, but even more so like the mind, like what's happening in your mind to sabotaging your ultimate goal of like losing the weight or feeling better in your clothes and being more confident, you know? So that's, but again, that changed the trajectory of my world, which everything was about fitness back then, even though it's still the very like prevalent in my life. And I still have clients that come to me wanting to lose weight. It's like I work more with people with mindset and helping them pass those blocks, which you just never, no, but that's even more like, I'm more passionate about that now, you know?

He's just, it's yeah. Because you had an experience that, that prompted you to pivot that way. Yeah, exactly. So let me ask you now.

So you work a lot with pre-menopausal women. Uh-huh. Let's dive into what was happening with your body and what you, yeah, yeah, for sure. So I had competed in bodybuilding, bikini and figure divisions from 2010 to 2018.

So it was a lot of years. I had some years off in there, but for the most part, it was just, go, go, go dieting, lots of cardio, lots of stress on my body. And I realized that, you know, most of the women that come to us now do not come from a competition background, but the overarching idea is my body was overly stressed out. And it left me in a place where I had super high cortisol.

I was estrogen dominant. My thyroid was sluggish and I had really high blood sugar and insulin issues. And so the people that come to us now are in that same position from other types of stress. Maybe they've gone through a lot of stress.

Maybe they've gone through a divorce. Maybe they've had really like death in the family. Maybe they've just are normal woman who thinks they have to eat 1200 calories a day. And that has been an ongoing stress in their body.

Maybe they're a past endurance athlete who ran a lot of marathons and didn't fuel properly for them and had just kind of ran their bodies into the ground. Like what, you know, the type of stress is different for everybody. But the idea is that stress, if not managed well, can completely wreak havoc on your hormones and make it so that you can't see the results. That's what I learned through this.

I learned that, you know, I worked with different coaches and different mentors. When I'd read a book on something, I would book a call with the author and pick their brain a little bit more like so much of my own just reading and studying and trying things on myself to figure out the protocols that we use with clients now. And so much of it is just your basic daily habits. And, you know, implementing these things will to all talk to women all the time.

And they're like, well, I exercise every day. And I'm like, well, I already track my macros. And those things don't work for me. I'm like, well, it's because you're probably not doing something correctly within there.

Maybe you're under eating. Maybe you're eating too much to see results. Like there's so many different things at play. In addition to your mindset, like, you know, that plays such a huge role in it as well.

But it's just fine tuning, you know, everything from your sleep, your digestion, your are you spending time outside in the sun, all of these things make a huge difference in how your body manages stress. And that's your ability to lose weight. So as you said that a question came up for me, as someone just tuned in and listen to this, what if she's now feeling overwhelmed? She's like, Oh, my gosh, I have no hope.

Like, she just said, Yeah, all of these things at play. What do I do? Yeah, I would definitely look at one thing at a time. You know, just think about you know, what is your biggest struggle right now?

Maybe for someone it's I am so exhausted because I don't get good sleep. Okay, let's focus on sleep first. And once you've kind of got that under control, then you can focus on something else. Maybe someone else is like, No, I, I feel pretty good.

I just have a really hard time controlling my cravings. After the kids get home from school, and I find myself just eating snacks all the time. Okay, maybe we look at need to look at your nutrition more. What are you eating in the morning?

And are you making sure you're well fueled throughout the day so that when the kids get home from school, you're not just ravenous and start eating, you know, whatever it is they pull out of the pantry. So the biggest mistake I see people make is trying to do too many things at once, you know, I would look at one habit and try to incorporate that into your daily life and make make it so that feels easy before starting on something else. And so maybe for one person, I mean, like I said, it's, I feel like figuring out what that is might be just what's your biggest pain point right now that you are, you know, really, really struggling with and just focus on that as opposed to all the things that I just listed off that that might help. You don't want to go out and say, Okay, I need to do 8-10,000 steps a day and sleep eight hours a night and do this and do that.

You know, it's like one of those Oh, I just have to do all these 10 things. And then I'll be okay. Like, no, just choose one of the things that you hear from me or on social media and just work on that until that becomes easier. Yeah, just like one bite at a time.

One. Yes. Test it. See how you feel.

What would you say is the thing that most women are struggling with? Like when you look at all these different things, because okay, a lot of people say, Okay, bring your cortisol levels down. I'm gonna ask 5 million questions right now. I just feel it.

Okay, so yes, yeah. I was like, all that stuff came into my head. Yeah, eight to 10,000 steps a day. We hear that around eight hours of sleep.

We hear that all the time to read a lot cortisol levels down. I think this is where a lot of women get stuck. So how do they do that? There are, I mean, so many ways.

And it's all just, you know, I'm big on natural, you know, there are supplements that can help us supplements are not going to do anything for you if you're not living in a way that is natural. So I think it's important to do that. And I think it's important to do that. And you know, as low stress as possible.

You know, everybody has a certain amount of stress in their life that they can't control, right? Maybe you have a tough teenager, maybe you have some money struggles you're trying to work through, you know, maybe you have a hard parent or in law or something. No, these things can't really go away. I mean, they can, but in your life right now, it's hard to manage that, right?

So you want to think about things that you can control. And those things are the things you just mentioned, your sleep, sleep is really, really important for lowering cortisol, getting out in nature, sunshine on your face. All of these really just lifestyle hacks, I like to call them because they are. They're just little biohacking things that can really, really help lower stress levels.

Restorative yoga is really great. And I don't mean like hard flow yoga. I mean, basically like adult nap time kind of yoga, like get into a child's pose and hold it for a couple of minutes, like where you're really more focusing on your deep breathing, clearing your mind, that kind of thing. I mean, listening to you, working with a mindset coach, like that kind of thing is so good for lowering stress.

And I really think a lot of it too, is just how you view life. I mean, I know you mentioned before, you're like, there's this lady and there's this lady. Why is one seeing results and why is not the other one not? And I don't, I don't know the science behind this.

I have some theories. But you know, we see it in our clients all the time, the client who is always complaining every week, and they never have wins to share in our in our client check inform, we asked for the wins from the week, they never have wins to share. They're always just saying that progress is too slow. Everything's so hard.

When you look at life with that view, my guess is that your cortisol might be higher, because you are just a little bit more stressed out more on edge. And it's going to make your weight loss harder, you know, and so things like a gratitude list, like a lot of just lifestyle things can help lower lower stress levels. Another big one that we focus on with clients is doing something that you enjoy every single day, even if it's just for 10 to 15 minutes, reading a book, doing a hobby, taking a bath, you know, meditating, anything like that. That's for you.

Because so often, we put our families first, we put our careers first, we're driving kids around, we don't ever take the time to do something that we want to do. That's just for us, you know. And so when we talk about, you know, lowering stress levels, and just lifestyle stress management, it's these little things, it's not necessarily like you have to take this medicine or this supplement. It's like just your outlook on life and how you can kind of tweak how you live to be a little bit more stress free.

Does that make sense? It does make sense. And I actually love everything that you're saying, because they are the little things and they're simple thing and do that actually don't even require any money. No, no, no, no.

Yeah, for sure. It's like you just, there are things that we can do everything every day that we see on social media to do every day. It's just whether or not we do that. Yeah, another big one too, is, you know, and people don't like it when I talk about this, I get I get hate for this.

But certain styles of workouts are more profitable, I get hate for this. But people who go from class to class to class and spend an hour on the stair mill, and then are doing like CrossFit four times a week, and then F45. And that kind of thing. It's just not enough recovery for our bodies when we're over 40.

For most of us, I am speaking generally, you know. And so when we have clients that come to us, we have one client in particular right now, that was doing F45 six days a week. And she was not eating very many carbs. I don't remember it was she was doing really low carb.

And she was like, I'm doing all the things that I'm supposed to do that worked for me in the past. And nothing, she's completely stuck. We have we convince her it's hard to convince people to give up the classes. But we're like, can you just for a month?

Can you just for a month, just stop going to F45? Just put it on pause. You don't have to cancel. Like, let's just see how this goes.

She dropped like six pounds that month of inflammation. And she felt so much better. She's doing more traditional lifting. I'm not saying you can't exercise.

But you just want to focus on your body. And you just want to focus on your body. And you want to focus on that recovery. And just that traditional strength training where you do a heavy set, then you rest, then you do a heavy set, then you rest, not that go to this exercise, then this one, then this one, then your burpees, then you're running, then then you rest, you know, just traditional strength training.

And she is getting so strong. She's hitting like deadlift PRS. She's leaning out like every single week. And she was like, she hasn't gone back to F45.

Because she's like, I feel so much better. And people don't like to hear that because they don't want to change what they're doing, you know. But there's certain things that you can do. There's certain styles of workout and eating that are that do lead to more high cortisol situations.

Yeah. So what would you say about cardio? Like, how would you much how much good what would you say about cardio? Yeah, I actually just did a class on this for our clients last week.

And I am not someone who hates on cardio. Okay, I have never been one who loves it in my life. But I, I just feel like it depends on the person, but I'll speak generally. So when I was going to the gym, I was going to the gym, I was going to the gym, I was going to the gym, I was going through all of my hormone issues.

And I had coaches who were helping me through it. We cut out all cardio, all of it, my only cart by only I put this in quotes, cardio was my steps. And so we would adjust my steps based on what I needed for for my weight loss. Once I started losing weight, I think my steps got up to 13,000.

So we were definitely using them as a tool to increase the calorie deficit, right? Kind of like one reason why people will use cardio. But we were using it, we were using walking, low intensity steady state. So lists, you might have heard of people, you know, people say as that tool, because it's very low stress on the body.

So it was a way to expend more calories to move like lifestyle movement, but also kind of create more of that calorie deficit there. And so that I did that for nine months. And I didn't do any, any cardio, and I lost my weight. And I learned like, Oh, I don't actually need cardio for weight loss.

You can do this through nutrition, lifting, lifestyle movement. And that's a more healthy way to do it if you have hormone issues. Because I think that if you want to run a marathon, and that's on your bucket list, and that's like something you feel strongly about, by all means, do it. But you don't want to do it in a calorie deficit.

Like that's where people have the problems like you have to fuel for your activity. You know, I mean, I know you run a lot of a lot of races, I assume that you're fueling well for those. And that's why you're still like thriving through them, you know, but so often we get women who think I want to run a marathon because I want to lose 10 pounds. Like those are two conflicting goals.

Like you have to eat while you're running. And in a in for weight loss, you need to be in a calorie deficit. Like those don't go together. And that's how you end up with problems, you know.

And so when it comes to like how much cardio I this summer, I did a little I did a it was a research study, actually, where I had to lose about eight to 10 pounds, I can go into I mean, it was through that a university in Florida, the study was actually studying reverse dieting, like how to get people to maintain weight loss after a diet phase. But as part of that, I had to lose 5% of my body weight. So it was actually like seven pounds or so. And through that, I did use cardio as a tool.

So I love to rollerblade. If you if people who follow me on social media, I rollerblade all year long in my winter coat and my beanie. And like, it's my favorite thing ever. So yeah.

And so this summer, through that weight loss period, I did cardio three days a week. One was I did like a 4550 minute session, like a 35 and then like a 30 minute session, mainly because I love doing it. I love doing it. I love doing that in the summertime.

And my body did great with it, because my hormones are in a healthy place, you know. And so it really depends on the person. If someone comes to me, then they're like, I'm doing all this cardio, and I can't see results. And I'm tired all the time.

And my stress levels are through the roof, we're going to cut out the cardio, maybe not cut it out completely, that might stress them out even more. But we're going to bring it down. But if you've got someone who is otherwise internally healthy, then we are going to use cardio as a tool. And we're going to increase that as needed, based on their results.

I think cardio is amazing for your heart health, your lung capacity, your immune system, like so many benefits. But the problem is people are not fueling properly for it. And that just leaves them feeling like crap, you know. So it's hard to say like, how much someone should do because it's totally individual.

It's going to depend. But yeah, I wanted to bring that up. Because you and I over the years, you've been less cardio, and I've been like, all of the marathons. Yeah, yeah, yes.

But it's because that's what you do. You love that. And I do it. And so we've taken two different journeys to really get us to the same place, you know.

And that's what I wanted to also bring forward is actually, I mean, I love the endorphins from the cardio. And I also love the pushing myself to new levels, right? So that's yeah, yeah. But yeah, you do have to fuel for it.

And the reason why I'm talking about it is because you're a really fit person who's been in the fitness industry. And I also am. And we both look great. And we do train differently.

And it works for both of us. But I still have to recover. Like, otherwise, you're correct. Like the inflammation with marathons and stuff, it can go out the roof.

Yeah, it's no joke. And but you're educated. And you know how to plan that and time it. A lot of people don't, you know, and they just think they have to run, run, run, and not eat any carbs.

And then they're going to lose 10 pounds, then they find themselves up 10 pounds. They're like, what? I thought I was doing all the right things, you know. And that's what's so hard is it actually doesn't have to be hard, right?

Right. Yeah. Which is what I love about you and the way that you are training all these women is that you do simplify it, you look at what they're doing, and then you show them how they can have success, which is awesome. I can talk to you about this.

I mean, maybe we need to like, come back on and meet again. So I could talk. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Never.

But we're to leave with some bits of advice when it comes to weight loss. And just being healthy. What would you that you haven't already shared? What else would you share with our What else?

Let's see. You know, I think that the biggest thing, like I mentioned before, but I'll take it a little further, is just focusing on one thing at a time. But I think with, you know, it really does come down to your nutrition. Nobody wants to hear that.

Or it's easier to say, oh, just exercise more or go on more walks or whatever. But truly, if you're trying to lose weight, which you know, 95% of our clients are and they're in their 40s, you have to one manage the stress, which we've already talked all about. But number two, just you have to be in a calorie deficit. And whatever way that you can be consistent with that is great.

You know, people will say, oh, keto is great. Oh, paleo or low carb or whatever, all of those work, because they're putting you into a calorie deficit. And some of them might affect your blood sugar, your inflammation a little bit differently, that might work better for you than someone else. But you need to find something that you can be consistent with long term.

If you want to see long term results in them, maintain them. Because anything that you do is going to work. But if you can't, if you can't, you can't do it. You can't do it.

For long periods of time, that's when you get on the yo-yo train of like, oh, I did this for six weeks, but I couldn't sustain it. So I gain all the weight back. And now I think that's the only way to lose weight because it worked for me before. So I have to go back on that.

And it's just like this back and forth yo-yo, you know. And so finding, taking the smallest step that can push you a little harder, you know, I we don't ever suggest our clients drop calories really quickly or do tons of cardio really quickly. We try to do things, you know, one step at a time, let's cut calories a little bit and see how you do. Take that change as far as we can.

Then maybe we need to add a little cardio. Then maybe we need to cut calories a little further. And so it's just finding a level that you can be consistent with, but still knowing, okay, if my goal is weight loss, I need to be in a calorie deficit. And what is an approach that I can be consistent with in that calorie deficit long term?

That makes sense. I don't know. I feel like I kind of went around in circles there for a minute. No, I think it makes sense.

And really, another thing that comes up for me is like being okay to be hungry sometimes. Oh yeah. When you're in a calorie deficit, sometimes you're hungry and it's okay. I think even in maintenance, I think the reason why so many people gain the weight back is they don't realize that even in maintenance, it's normal to like be hungry before your next meal.

Like that's a normal hunger cycle. You eat, you get satisfied, you digest your food, you're hungry again. But most people eat before that and they end up overeating and gaining the weight back. It's time to eat again.

I always go back to like cavemen. I don't know what they used to do. And even people in the 1800s, it's like meals were not easy, right? So people were hungry all the time and their bodies were really lean and they were, you know, they were like out there working and whatever.

They weren't just sitting at a computer. So it's like looking at our bodies, our bodies have been around for a really long time. It's like we do have to fuel them correctly, but it's okay to be hungry. And it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, yeah, for sure.

Yeah. And it's having that balance of, you know, you don't want to always be hungry so that you're waking up at night starving. Like that's not good, but you don't, you're not necessarily going to always be full and satisfied either. It's that middle balance.

Yeah. So good. Yeah. Lindsay, you are such a powerhouse in so many areas.

I just have loved having you on the podcast today. I'm sure a lot of people got lots of nuggets of wisdom. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course.

Like moving through that imposter syndrome, even if you have no idea what you're doing, because you're really good at doing that, while also showing women what is possible when it comes to their bodies and confidence and all the things. So thank you for being on the podcast and guys, we'll be back here next week. We will see you guys later. All right.

Thank you. Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you've got to come check out my signature program, Thrive Her Academy. This is where we do real coaching and inner work transformation. I teach you how to apply it.

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