Speaker 1: A lot of people come to me for just the physical,
Speaker 1: but we go through the whole thing. We start with
Speaker 1: mindset and we delve into that because if the mind
Speaker 1: ain't right, the body ain't list. Okay, okay, say that again.
Speaker 1: If the wind ain't right, the body ain't list, and
Speaker 1: you may be able to do it and push it
Speaker 1: and suffer with it. And that's what I call it suffering,
Speaker 1: because that's what people are feeling when they're trying to
Speaker 1: push something that they haven't developed. What's up, everybody, I'm
Speaker 1: Gammy and this is positively gam In this episode, we're
Speaker 1: going to be discussing how to live fit and fabulous,
Speaker 1: and fitness is something that I get really really excited about,
Speaker 1: so I'm so glad that we have joining me on
Speaker 1: this podcast Wendy Ida. Wendy is an author, a life
Speaker 1: transformation code and fitness expert. She is an eight time
Speaker 1: award winning national Fitness Champion and let me tell you,
Speaker 1: if you could see her, you would understand. At sixty
Speaker 1: eight years old, she is truly living her fabulousness and
Speaker 1: here today to tell us how we all can be
Speaker 1: fabulous as well. Welcome Wendy. Thanks Gary, I'm telling you
Speaker 1: I am excited to have you because, like I was
Speaker 1: telling you before we actually got started, I love working out,
Speaker 1: but I'm getting ready to turn sixty seven and I
Speaker 1: am really struggling. I am struggling with my workout. I'm
Speaker 1: having a lot of health issues or injuries, I should say.
Speaker 1: So I'm just really glad to talk to you today, Wendy.
Speaker 1: But let's back up for a little bit. How did
Speaker 1: you come up with the phrase take back your Fabulousness? Well?
Speaker 1: I came up with it first because it was too
Speaker 1: in capsule. Everything a woman is wants to be, should be,
Speaker 1: and and everything that they deserve. And take back your
Speaker 1: fabulous is really about developing courage. It's an inside out approach.
Speaker 1: So I start with courage, confidence, a purpose, and a
Speaker 1: swagger that nobody can shake up or shake out of you.
Speaker 1: That will also help you flaught life's possibilities without fear
Speaker 1: of judgment and helps you kind of sachet through life
Speaker 1: and through life's challenges. And that's kind of how I
Speaker 1: put it together. Because some people think it's just about
Speaker 1: the external, is not. It starts from inside out. That
Speaker 1: is so true, Wendy, So true. And I am someone
Speaker 1: who has suffered and still suffers a lot from low
Speaker 1: self esteem. So working out for me was really really
Speaker 1: important in my journey as well. What in your own
Speaker 1: personal journey has made you want to get into fitness
Speaker 1: and wellness. I think our stories are a little similar.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I knew nothing about fitness until the age
Speaker 1: of I started getting into it about forty three years old.
Speaker 1: But I started out with the old attitude of until
Speaker 1: that time that the way you were born and how
Speaker 1: your parents were and all that is how you're going
Speaker 1: to be, as if I had no control. But part
Speaker 1: of my thinking in that also is I got married
Speaker 1: early in my twenties, actually nineteen twenties something like that,
Speaker 1: and I married into an abusive relationship and I was
Speaker 1: actually being abused before the marriage and felt forced but
Speaker 1: didn't think I had any options, So I did what
Speaker 1: I thought I had to do with force, and that
Speaker 1: my marriage lasted for thirteen years. It was abusive mentally, physically, emotionally,
Speaker 1: and sexually. I many times didn't believe I was going
Speaker 1: to reach past the age of forty three, and many
Speaker 1: times I thought I was not going to make it.
Speaker 1: But it was a really, really tough time in my life.
Speaker 1: I gained weight, I had two babies. I was emotionally
Speaker 1: out of control, and I felt very trapped. And then
Speaker 1: one day I had the nerve. I felt like I
Speaker 1: had to go, really go for the third time. I
Speaker 1: left twice. On the third time, I saw my children
Speaker 1: being affected. And the straw that broke the animal's back
Speaker 1: was the day we were on our way to church,
Speaker 1: my husband, im my two kids. He was smoking dope,
Speaker 1: drinking alcohol, and my babies were crying as they normally did,
Speaker 1: and they cried out, you know, mommy help, and and
Speaker 1: I'm there and and I couldn't help. Uh so I
Speaker 1: felt helpless. It was. It was awful. But the straw
Speaker 1: that really broke back because that was a continual thing
Speaker 1: that happened Hito critical going to church. But on this day,
Speaker 1: the babies cried louder, and I got the nerve to say, please,
Speaker 1: please stopped for the sake of the children. And he
Speaker 1: looked at me and called me all kinds of names
Speaker 1: and said I couldn't do anything about it. And I
Speaker 1: realized I couldn't really at that time. But then he said,
Speaker 1: I am going to teach my kids everything I know, smoke,
Speaker 1: drink everything, and you can't do anything about it. And
Speaker 1: at that moment, he handed my five year old son
Speaker 1: a swig of his beard, and my heart sank and
Speaker 1: my life went up and smoked. And more importantly, I
Speaker 1: got this vision gamming, and this vision showed me my
Speaker 1: children's future, and it showed that their life was worse
Speaker 1: than mine. And and the biggest thing about it, I
Speaker 1: can get goose bumps right now. This. I never get
Speaker 1: over this, even when I talked about it. But the
Speaker 1: biggest thing in that vision was my children's lives were
Speaker 1: worse than mine. But most importantly, in that vision, it
Speaker 1: showed me I felt the pain of me being responsible
Speaker 1: for that, and I also felt the pain of I
Speaker 1: couldn't live with that and that I'm ended because of
Speaker 1: the guilt. And with that, I was on my way
Speaker 1: to planning to get out of there. Did anybody know
Speaker 1: that you were going through this? Did anybody know that
Speaker 1: you and your children were suffering? Any of your family
Speaker 1: members or friends, and you shared any of this with anyone?
Speaker 1: It's funny you should ask that or his family. Let's
Speaker 1: not forget about his family. Yeah, yeah, that's a big thing,
Speaker 1: because you know, people don't realize. People don't realize what
Speaker 1: makes people stay. I was young and impressionable and wanted
Speaker 1: to be a good wife, but most importantly my mom.
Speaker 1: She passed away early around the same time. I didn't
Speaker 1: feel like I had anybody I could go to. His family, however,
Speaker 1: did know about it very well. They didn't know about it.
Speaker 1: And the worst thing about all of it is his mother.
Speaker 1: And this was a lot of my resentment for many years.
Speaker 1: But his mother told me that I had to stick
Speaker 1: with it. That was the only adult impression I had
Speaker 1: at the moment. He and his family, everybody knew and
Speaker 1: his mom. Mom sat me down and said, it's up
Speaker 1: to the woman two be able to keep this together.
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter what the man does. It's your thing. I
Speaker 1: wonder if she had suffered abuse herself, so you maybe
Speaker 1: right on track, because that's what I was going to
Speaker 1: follow up with. So, yes, m that's what was in
Speaker 1: their family, generational curses what I call it. It was
Speaker 1: in my family too. So my dad wasn't home a lot.
Speaker 1: He was a musician, so he was always on the road,
Speaker 1: and I would see some fighting between mom and dad,
Speaker 1: but mostly I just didn't have him there. I was
Speaker 1: that daddy's girl always waiting in the window for him
Speaker 1: and him not showing up. So I lived with that
Speaker 1: for a lot of years. But I was trying to
Speaker 1: be better than that and thought I was getting good
Speaker 1: advice from his family. So I persevered and I stayed
Speaker 1: with it and fraud and I almost got choked out sometimes.
Speaker 1: It was and the worst thing about he was a
Speaker 1: police officer, so that's why I felt trapped in in
Speaker 1: a small town where his friends would come to bail
Speaker 1: him out, not me. So what about that day? What
Speaker 1: when that day when you had that vision, You made
Speaker 1: a decision and you made a plan, and how were
Speaker 1: you able to execute? We get out? Wow? So that
Speaker 1: was that was God sent, that vision. I stayed low
Speaker 1: because I was watched. So I actually had to escape.
Speaker 1: I had ten minutes to get out, but I planned.
Speaker 1: I bought a plane ticket for the three of us
Speaker 1: for two days away. On the day that I escaped,
Speaker 1: I had ten minutes and I just throw what I
Speaker 1: had in the car. We went with just the clothes
Speaker 1: on our backs. My kids were in disarray, they didn't
Speaker 1: know what was happening, so it was very frantic. I
Speaker 1: jumped in the car. We were riding away. Most times
Speaker 1: I was kept there because he would hold onto one
Speaker 1: of the kids. I knew I wouldn't go anywhere. So
Speaker 1: on this day, he almost took my son, but I said,
Speaker 1: I'm right behind you. Off the church. We got away,
Speaker 1: but my kids were crying so bad. I was trying
Speaker 1: to give them some comfort. Gave my daughter her dog.
Speaker 1: My son wanted the dog, that was his comfort. That
Speaker 1: couldn't happen. So two blocks away, I ran back to
Speaker 1: get his drum, one of his drums, just trying to
Speaker 1: do everything, be everything, but they were coming back for
Speaker 1: me already. So here I am in a movie. I
Speaker 1: felt like in a getaway car, dodging each corner, each
Speaker 1: light and everything getting away. I was just about to
Speaker 1: get out of the car to get his drunk and
Speaker 1: I had to jump, I had to take off. So
Speaker 1: it was crazy because it's happened so many times, and
Speaker 1: he chased me in his car just to drag me
Speaker 1: away from whatever I wanted to do. So this was
Speaker 1: another one of those times. And somehow, Gammy, somehow, I
Speaker 1: got away. Yeah. God went to a hotel, stay for
Speaker 1: two days and got a plane to California on that
Speaker 1: that Tuesday, And only when I was up in the air,
Speaker 1: did I exhale? Otherwise I've been caught before and dragged back,
Speaker 1: So I wasn't safe until I was up in the air.
Speaker 1: And five years following that, I was still a victim
Speaker 1: in my own mind because I was also threatened. That's
Speaker 1: why I had to go that far from New Jersey
Speaker 1: to California, because I was threatened that he was gonna
Speaker 1: come and get me and take me back. And I
Speaker 1: believed it because it's been done. How did you break
Speaker 1: out of that thinking, out of that victimhood to get
Speaker 1: to your fabulousness? What made you do it through? Because
Speaker 1: it sounds like you got to physical fitness. Hey, yes,
Speaker 1: you know fity fit my fit spirit? Yes, yes, all
Speaker 1: kind of they all kind of go together. And it's
Speaker 1: it's the reason why I say that our our our
Speaker 1: journeys are similar because I also married very young. I
Speaker 1: was in high school, I had Jada, and my husband
Speaker 1: was abusive and he was an addict. Wow, my story
Speaker 1: certainly is not as filled with trauma as yours was,
Speaker 1: and not at all. But from that I then had
Speaker 1: my own journey with addiction, many years of addiction all
Speaker 1: of Jada's childhood, and I didn't get clean really, probably
Speaker 1: until I was like about thirty seven or so, I
Speaker 1: think when I first came into the fellowship. I can't
Speaker 1: even remember, you go girl. Yeah, So I was about
Speaker 1: in my forties to my mid forties when I when
Speaker 1: I started working out, and I remember I used to
Speaker 1: keep a picture of Hanna Jackson on my refrigerator because
Speaker 1: my ab were to IY for member. Yes. So, as
Speaker 1: I was cleaning myself up as part of my journey
Speaker 1: in recovery, I decided that I wanted to really get
Speaker 1: physically fit as well. And it was also a way
Speaker 1: for me too because it almost it didn't become an addiction,
Speaker 1: but I was pretty obsessed with working out. I really
Speaker 1: became a gym rat. But it was a combination. I
Speaker 1: stopped smoking and I stop musing at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know. So it was a spiritual and mind, body
Speaker 1: and spiritual journey for me to get clean and just
Speaker 1: get myself together and create a new life for myself.
Speaker 1: Was there someone who led you to the church to
Speaker 1: get you well, we're headed app No, I went into
Speaker 1: a twelve step program. Oh, but I have to say
Speaker 1: that through the twelve step program that actually led me
Speaker 1: or help me find a god of my understanding, which
Speaker 1: I did not have before. Yeah. Yeah, So for me,
Speaker 1: in terms of getting away from the victim mentality, at first,
Speaker 1: I would just walk close to buildings. I was a
Speaker 1: scared little rat because I knew a van was going
Speaker 1: to come up any day swoop me in to take
Speaker 1: me back, and I felt that that was my last
Speaker 1: chance to get away. Probably after about five years, I
Speaker 1: started lightning up a little bit. But I also had
Speaker 1: a little therapy. Can't do it yourself. I mean I
Speaker 1: was having nightmares every single night for so very long.
Speaker 1: Every now and again I get them, but it's so
Speaker 1: much less and it might just take a little thing
Speaker 1: to set it off. But and going and realizing that
Speaker 1: it was not my fault. And I also lies that
Speaker 1: his mother, who gave me the advice, didn't know any
Speaker 1: darn better. Oh absolutely absolutely. She was only give me
Speaker 1: what you Yeah, so I had to get through that,
Speaker 1: you know that, that was a real thing that I
Speaker 1: had to get through, growing through the therapy, Realizing that
Speaker 1: people are people and they don't know any better. Realizing
Speaker 1: I had to come to terms with my mom's death
Speaker 1: because I didn't feel like I was there for her,
Speaker 1: and didn't get all through that until after about twenty
Speaker 1: years growing like that, meeting this gentleman in the gym,
Speaker 1: I was just going and I thought, okay, I had
Speaker 1: to live with I lost because I lost eighty pounds.
Speaker 1: So at the time, so any minute, I want to
Speaker 1: stop you right there? You lost eighty pounds. Was that
Speaker 1: weight loss just due to like a depression or you
Speaker 1: went on a diet? Like where did the weight laws
Speaker 1: come from? Yeah? So at age forty three, when I
Speaker 1: really was turning around, that was my turning point, and
Speaker 1: ironically that's when my whole life, that's when I really
Speaker 1: started to live at age ironically, that was the age
Speaker 1: where I didn't think I was going to live to
Speaker 1: see So what was the impetus for that that you
Speaker 1: said your life changed at forty three? Yeah, So first
Speaker 1: with the therapy meeting this gentleman, I had already gained
Speaker 1: this weight, and the weight was partly from my two pregnancies.
Speaker 1: I had pregnancies back to back. My kids will liven
Speaker 1: months apart. I was eating to make myself. I didn't
Speaker 1: have any other way to gain to lose. At first,
Speaker 1: I thought I had to live with it because my
Speaker 1: mom was overweight, my auntie was. And I met this
Speaker 1: gentleman who said, when do you could be better? It's
Speaker 1: just a friend, and I started working with him and
Speaker 1: stuff starting to change on my body that hadnt done
Speaker 1: anything before. So he was a fitness person. He was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was a fitness professional. Okay, And you met him
Speaker 1: and he got you him him he yeah, got it.
Speaker 1: He got me into the gym and I was working
Speaker 1: at Fox at this time. I was an accountant for
Speaker 1: twenty years. After meeting him, and my body started doing
Speaker 1: things that I thought, there's some secret to this stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, So right away I started studying and seeing, hey,
Speaker 1: what's this magic? What's going on? You know? My personality
Speaker 1: started changing. In short, I changed to the real meat.
Speaker 1: When I went into the office. I was conservative and
Speaker 1: that's not me. But I did what I had to
Speaker 1: do to get the promotions I had to get and
Speaker 1: do what I had to do. So I patterned everything
Speaker 1: after this guy. I went found out about everything about
Speaker 1: keeping your body fit because it was something going on.
Speaker 1: And I just started doing commercials because that's what he
Speaker 1: was doing. And I was still working at Fox. But
Speaker 1: when I switched, I felt myself come alive. Inside, and
Speaker 1: then I switched back when I went into the office.
Speaker 1: So that was kind of the turning point. But most
Speaker 1: of all, dammy, my mind was clearing the clutter, being
Speaker 1: less afraid, more confident. I was feeling good and I
Speaker 1: knew most of all that I am in control. I
Speaker 1: knew that, and that was empowering. That was a real
Speaker 1: awakening for you. I can hear it. That was a
Speaker 1: real awakening for you. I remember feeling not quite as
Speaker 1: intensive about it, but I do because, like I said,
Speaker 1: I just really suffer from low self esteem and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't do anything anything by myself, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to do something with somebody, but this
Speaker 1: was something that I just that I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to wait to find anybody. Is there
Speaker 1: a girlfriend that wants to work out with me? None
Speaker 1: of that. Like I knew, I needed to do this
Speaker 1: for myself, and I just went in. I joined. I
Speaker 1: was never forgetting I joined Bally's Gym or Root forty,
Speaker 1: went in there. I ended up getting myself a trainer,
Speaker 1: and I just went for it. I just went for it,
Speaker 1: and I've been working out in some form ever since.
Speaker 1: So my journey has been long. You just had this
Speaker 1: epiphany that let me do this because this is going well.
Speaker 1: It was maybe, yes, it was really part of my
Speaker 1: recovery process. Mmm. You know. And so the change we
Speaker 1: know starts from inside, so it's an inside out job.
Speaker 1: So I was working on my inside already, but then
Speaker 1: I just felt like, Okay, I need to do some
Speaker 1: work on the outside too, because it was something that
Speaker 1: I had always wanted to do, but I didn't have
Speaker 1: time because I was too busy getting I Okay, it's
Speaker 1: something you always wanted. I was always interested and and
Speaker 1: being fit. I always liked the way a fit body looked,
Speaker 1: very toned and strong. I always like that. I just
Speaker 1: never had time for it. But you had something special
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of people today that like the
Speaker 1: tone fit body, but they can't exactly get there, so
Speaker 1: it's a difference and really going for it. I was different.
Speaker 1: It didn't even occur to me. I was so wrapped
Speaker 1: up in my life that I didn't even think about it.
Speaker 1: I didn't even think it was possible until I went
Speaker 1: through these changes of meeting these people and started feeling
Speaker 1: and it just kind of grew on it. So I
Speaker 1: left completely my twenty year corporate accounting career. That was
Speaker 1: that around forty three. Then at fifty seven I entered
Speaker 1: my first bodybuilding competition. Eight time national champion. Then at
Speaker 1: sixty I went from McGuinness for a record because that
Speaker 1: was one of the things on my bucket list that
Speaker 1: so it was amazing. That was telve when I turned sixty,
Speaker 1: and I'm still champ. Some people sometimes people when they
Speaker 1: were not since COVID, but they would try to go
Speaker 1: for a record and they see the record. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: birpis Oh yeah, you're kidding. Everybody says that right for
Speaker 1: the audience that doesn't know. A burpee is sort of
Speaker 1: a squat thrust back into your position, jumping back up
Speaker 1: and jumping in the air and then just up and
Speaker 1: down and up, you know. So it's pretty cool. I
Speaker 1: had to do to set the record, I had to
Speaker 1: do at least thirty in a minute, and when I
Speaker 1: looked it up, the regular athlete that's what they told me.
Speaker 1: So the regular athlete does about fifteen in thirty seconds,
Speaker 1: so it made sense when they said they kind of
Speaker 1: doubled it. You gotta do thirty in a minute, and
Speaker 1: you did that at sixty sixty. Oh I did thirty seven.
Speaker 1: Oh girl, you wanted to make sure. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: on the roll when I get go and I'm focused
Speaker 1: and I'm going out for the win. I'm not playing around.
Speaker 1: And and the thing about it is you couldn't cheat
Speaker 1: because you had to measure. They made sure to tell
Speaker 1: you had to come back when you squat thrust it
Speaker 1: back and to push your position. You can't do a
Speaker 1: little jump a bunny jump had dumped all the way back. Wow.
Speaker 1: So it was a certain amount of measurement I had
Speaker 1: to do to make sure I jumped back past the line.
Speaker 1: And if I didn't go past the line, it didn't count.
Speaker 1: So I made every darn one count. I sucked up
Speaker 1: everything that wasn't the easier. Enterprised that you could have
Speaker 1: broke the record in their birthies. Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: wanted to do well the other one. But yeah, and
Speaker 1: so I still do that. And I was at sixty.
Speaker 1: So I'm working on other things on my bucket list.
Speaker 1: But that's what keeps me going. Yeah, I keep it moving.
Speaker 1: Ever since that day, I promised myself that I was
Speaker 1: gonna keep challenging. I didn't. Actually, I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was even a promise. It was it was like
Speaker 1: every time I pushed the limit, I could push the
Speaker 1: limit more and it worked. So that told me that
Speaker 1: these humans bodies are amazing and I love the challenge
Speaker 1: of them. And so you should have been. You mentioned
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, self esteem and all that
Speaker 1: I had been. Let's see this yesterday. I give it
Speaker 1: class every Thursday, and this week, ironically you said it
Speaker 1: this week. It's an eight week program. But this week
Speaker 1: we were talking about deserved level. Oh it's so good.
Speaker 1: It's wait a minute. You know, women need that you've
Speaker 1: been bringing up. Raising your deserve level is what it
Speaker 1: was about. So that leads us into how you incorporate
Speaker 1: the inside work, the inside change. Yeah yeah, and so training,
Speaker 1: how do you do that with your clients because most
Speaker 1: of your clients are forty and over, right, that's your specialty. Yes,
Speaker 1: women over forty. I'm talking about my baby bull girls.
Speaker 1: You know, we need cheerleaders to support them and to
Speaker 1: show us. And this isn't part of what I preached
Speaker 1: to them, but this is what it's about in terms
Speaker 1: of bringing yourself together. A lot of people come to
Speaker 1: me for just the physical but we go through the
Speaker 1: whole thing. We start with mindset and we delve into
Speaker 1: that because if the mind ain't right, the body ain't list. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: let's say that again. If the mind ain't right, the
Speaker 1: body ain't list and you may be able to do
Speaker 1: it and push it and suffer with it. And that's
Speaker 1: what I call it suffering because that's what people are
Speaker 1: feeling when they're trying to push something that they haven't
Speaker 1: developed the habit in the right way to stick with it.
Speaker 1: They put it for a short time and then they're
Speaker 1: gonna go back to what they always were doing. So
Speaker 1: it's really essential to get the mind in tune with
Speaker 1: the body and prepare it. And that's what we do.
Speaker 1: We start off with the mind. Then we do goal
Speaker 1: setting planning to see how that goes. We start to
Speaker 1: work into core work. Why because once again, core is
Speaker 1: the center of you're being. You can't hit a baseball,
Speaker 1: play golf, any of it. You can't do anything, and
Speaker 1: those are just the arms or the legs. But when
Speaker 1: you have a strong core, it gives you more power.
Speaker 1: And I've proven it over and over again these guys
Speaker 1: that I've worked with in the gym o MG. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of times you see the guys going right
Speaker 1: and there there whole body right. Okay. So I love
Speaker 1: guys like that because I get a handle on them,
Speaker 1: and I started to test their core and they're all
Speaker 1: over the place. Once I get their core up to snuff,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, that you can lift more, you can
Speaker 1: hit more. I've worked with doctors. Remember the six year
Speaker 1: old sixties something year old, and he was upset why
Speaker 1: his golf game was off. And I tested him and
Speaker 1: did an assessment and I said, your core is off.
Speaker 1: And when I work with him, he was so used
Speaker 1: to being old school like, he didn't want to do
Speaker 1: the core work. He thought he had to go back
Speaker 1: to the old school with and I would have to
Speaker 1: give him a little bit of what he wanted. But
Speaker 1: then I give him what he needed, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the core and the stability start. He was amazed.
Speaker 1: Then he got a ward with me. He understood, sometimes
Speaker 1: that's what you gotta do to bang me Bomas. You know,
Speaker 1: we want to stick to those old ways, but each
Speaker 1: time everything else you do is so much better, and
Speaker 1: it's healthier, and you go through the ages much better.
Speaker 1: Meaning when you're getting all up in age and you're
Speaker 1: not testing your core, you're gonna be bad posture, everything
Speaker 1: is going to go down. So it's my pleasure to
Speaker 1: be able to put a new light in their head
Speaker 1: to make them understand and be better. But after that
Speaker 1: we get to working and talking about eating and then
Speaker 1: the desert. Yeah, waiting before we get into eating, what
Speaker 1: happens to the body as you start to age. What's
Speaker 1: happening inside, what's happening to our muscles and our joints
Speaker 1: and yeah, so so you can be better, but you
Speaker 1: just gotta do it differently because our bodies are changing
Speaker 1: and it goes through cycles, Gammy, and people don't realize
Speaker 1: that we're stuck in our heads of what I used
Speaker 1: to do when I was twenty and in our minds
Speaker 1: were there, but our bodies are saying, I think that's
Speaker 1: what's happening with me right now. On my my mind
Speaker 1: is still back when I was, you know, fifty, but
Speaker 1: I'm getting ready to turn sixty seven and it's just
Speaker 1: not working anymore. So continue yeah. So, so so you
Speaker 1: go through these cycles. One of the things that happens
Speaker 1: is are the fluids, the hormonal fluids and everything that
Speaker 1: we get that's changing some we're getting more of, some
Speaker 1: we're getting less of. Inflammation is a part of aging,
Speaker 1: so as we age, we definitely have to zero into
Speaker 1: that much more. Some of the foods we have are
Speaker 1: contributory to inflammation, and we have inflammation, You're gonna have pain,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be these little other things. I have
Speaker 1: a five step list of things that you can do
Speaker 1: to stay young, but people ask me that all the
Speaker 1: time on social media. On my YouTube channel, they've gone
Speaker 1: crazy because I put so many more videos out. But
Speaker 1: in terms of keeping your youth up, One, you gotta
Speaker 1: ban the sugar. Okay, go yes, ban the sugar. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you what ages you faster than anything I've
Speaker 1: seen people get gray hair, quicker and all that. Number Two,
Speaker 1: you've got to reduce the stress. Again, the stress is
Speaker 1: going to age you. Is gonna put gray hair on you,
Speaker 1: it's gonna cause your heartbeat to race and everything. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: I've had this happened to people, and some of them
Speaker 1: to myself when I was going through a thing. All right,
Speaker 1: So my clients, they've all experienced this and we had
Speaker 1: to change it. The other thing is you got to
Speaker 1: increase the strength you know why, because your muscles are
Speaker 1: going to at yourophee. And when you're getting older, that's
Speaker 1: why some people fall or they knocking the stuff and
Speaker 1: they're breaking their bones. All kinds of stuff is happening,
Speaker 1: and it's not a good look. Just because you don't
Speaker 1: have me overweight, but just because you think you are small,
Speaker 1: that you're better, you are not. I've had so many
Speaker 1: people whisper in my ears saying what about us, the
Speaker 1: skinny fat ye had. The lady called me from Malaysia
Speaker 1: because some of my clients are in other countries. So
Speaker 1: this lady called me from Malaysia, and she wanted to
Speaker 1: do a whole thing for the Malaysian women because she said,
Speaker 1: what's in their mindset there is that they're all small,
Speaker 1: but they just know to eat less, but they don't
Speaker 1: know anything about weights, so just eating less is not
Speaker 1: doing the trick. And and and she said they're sick
Speaker 1: and those are skinny fat people, so she wanted them
Speaker 1: to be well. I was in this none little thing
Speaker 1: I did. I was in this competition. You you had
Speaker 1: to be sixty two be in it. It was a
Speaker 1: beauty competition, so everybody was over sixty sixties in there
Speaker 1: even so, it was really fun and really great to
Speaker 1: see these women and do a talent. The talent is
Speaker 1: still alive and women over sixty, it's amazing. The thing
Speaker 1: I want to mention though, the one that had their
Speaker 1: gowns on and they some of them were small and thin,
Speaker 1: but they look sick. And the one woman I talked to,
Speaker 1: she had this down on showing her shoulders and they
Speaker 1: were like bones sticking up at him. And I saw
Speaker 1: it and I knew what was happening, that she wasn't
Speaker 1: doing any weight training and it looks sickly. And she
Speaker 1: brought it up, maybe because of her observation and comparing
Speaker 1: to me or or whatever. It caused her to bring
Speaker 1: conversation up. And she said, you know, my doctor said,
Speaker 1: you have no muscle in your shoulders. You need to
Speaker 1: do weights, you need must soul. Then that's a sign
Speaker 1: of aging, Gammy, when you see skin dropping and bones perking.
Speaker 1: On the contrary, when you got muscle madness sex. So
Speaker 1: the number four was ad supplements. Why because I'm writing
Speaker 1: this down when he just like, you know, add supplements.
Speaker 1: Why It's because of what I said before of when
Speaker 1: we're aging, we're getting less and in fact, women and
Speaker 1: men the testosterone and the estrogen changes. Men start to
Speaker 1: get more estrogen, women start to get uh yeah, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: and women some women get a little bit more testosterone,
Speaker 1: not always, but women definitely get less. You know, that's
Speaker 1: just one thing, and then there's so many other fluids
Speaker 1: and different things that change. And let me just mention
Speaker 1: a lot of times when people age, they start to
Speaker 1: drink less water. And I haven't gotten behind the primary
Speaker 1: or looked at statistics, which I really mean to do,
Speaker 1: of why that happens. It doesn't wouldn't have anything to
Speaker 1: do with just um being concerned about having to go
Speaker 1: to the bathroom all the time, because that gets on
Speaker 1: my nerves. I have to admit that has been an
Speaker 1: issue for me. I know that I'm not drinking the
Speaker 1: amount of water that I used to drink, but because
Speaker 1: I'm constantly having to go to the bathroom and it's annoying,
Speaker 1: I got stuff to do. I can't be running to
Speaker 1: the bathroom every five minutes. No, but we need to
Speaker 1: drink more water, because when you don't drink enough water,
Speaker 1: you start to get all these other ailments going on
Speaker 1: that you don't think it's related, but it is all right.
Speaker 1: So the last one, the last one is just fine.
Speaker 1: Purpose people lose the will to live, and not only
Speaker 1: just to live, but to thrive in living. I don't
Speaker 1: mean just to get by in living. But if you
Speaker 1: have a purpose, you're gonna live life with venom right
Speaker 1: Because a lot of people are going through changes around
Speaker 1: that age. They may be uh, empty nesting or whatever,
Speaker 1: empty nesting. Other their friends are maybe passing away. You've
Speaker 1: got medical things that you haven't had before. You still
Speaker 1: emotionally upset of what happened when you're thirty. That's piling
Speaker 1: up on everything, and everything has come home to right.
Speaker 1: And again that's the reason why you have to incorporate
Speaker 1: your your spiritual well being as well as if physical,
Speaker 1: absolutely and you and your mental well being. Spiritual spiritual
Speaker 1: is a basic for me, and that was one of
Speaker 1: the first things I had to find when I came
Speaker 1: to California. I felt so lost as a soul and
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do with myself. And without that,
Speaker 1: there's no grounding for about it. Got it, And it's
Speaker 1: hard to work with somebody who has no grounding at all.
Speaker 1: I've worked with two people in my career it's been
Speaker 1: about twenty five years and I worked with two people
Speaker 1: that we're agnostic or atheists or something, and they had
Speaker 1: no grounding. And this person that I'm thinking about had
Speaker 1: just she was in a mental institution at one time.
Speaker 1: She knew how to work out. She did that well,
Speaker 1: but people don't just come to me for the workout part.
Speaker 1: It was an emotional coaching thing with her and I
Speaker 1: got it and and that's what you needed. So I
Speaker 1: had to actually get her in the gym for her
Speaker 1: to pay attention and do some of the things that
Speaker 1: she needed to do. So the gym was sort of
Speaker 1: her grounding. But that was a creative thing I had
Speaker 1: to come up with. But everybody is different, but I
Speaker 1: had to find per thing. So talk to us a
Speaker 1: little bit about metabolism. I know that your metabolism slows
Speaker 1: down as you get older. Yes, so metabolism does slow down,
Speaker 1: and partly because your body is changing. You are less
Speaker 1: active a lot of times, and that alone, when you
Speaker 1: have less muscle and more body fat, is going to
Speaker 1: slow your metabolism down. So that's why I'm such a
Speaker 1: proponent of weight training no matter what your age one
Speaker 1: because it's going to speed up your metabolism. It's going
Speaker 1: to burn body fat while you sleep, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: help you feel energetic and stronger. And when you don't
Speaker 1: have that, now you feel it you don't have energy.
Speaker 1: And I get a lot of complaints from people about
Speaker 1: not having energy. How do I get energy, Wendy? But
Speaker 1: one of the ways is first you got to find
Speaker 1: a purpose, find a goal, find the reason why you
Speaker 1: want to live. So you're talking about strength training, but
Speaker 1: how important is cardio. I feel like I don't do
Speaker 1: as much cardio as I used to. But I also
Speaker 1: know that this weight that I've gained lately has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with COVID. But I know that I'm
Speaker 1: not doing as much cardio. Like if I didn't do
Speaker 1: anything else, I would do cardio every day, every single day,
Speaker 1: And I'm not doing that anymore. I stopped that about
Speaker 1: probably about four years ago, maybe even longer. So, Gammy,
Speaker 1: everything is balance, and we've got to find our own
Speaker 1: little personal balance right now. What I'm telling everyone in
Speaker 1: COVID times especially, you gotta get a structure to your
Speaker 1: day and in that day, find something gives you some joy.
Speaker 1: We gotta definitely find that besides reaching out to people
Speaker 1: we know and love. But in terms of the balance, yes,
Speaker 1: cardio is very important. Why because even it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: to lose weight, but it's to keep you heard of it.
Speaker 1: So in order to do that, how much cardio do
Speaker 1: you think that someone over fifty um should be doing?
Speaker 1: Like everyone you're working, If you're going cardio every day
Speaker 1: or every other day, how long? For how long? Thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: sixty minutes? Okay, so let me just preface this with
Speaker 1: when anyone is getting started on all of this, besides
Speaker 1: checking their doctor is the first, right, but the other
Speaker 1: thing is after that, it's what is your goal? Is
Speaker 1: it to lose weight, is it to stay healthy or
Speaker 1: is it just heartfit? That being said, the norm if
Speaker 1: you're just getting started, do whatever you can to get started,
Speaker 1: Start with ted fifteen minutes or whatever you can, and
Speaker 1: then at least try to do thirty minutes. Thirty minutes
Speaker 1: is a good measure to go by, and if you
Speaker 1: want to again, it broils back down to your goal.
Speaker 1: If you want to get your heart more fit, or
Speaker 1: if you can do it now within that thirty minutes,
Speaker 1: you might want to put a little intensity into it.
Speaker 1: It just is up to you. I put my stretching
Speaker 1: in with my meditation I combined. I might wake up
Speaker 1: in the morning and I do just a little life
Speaker 1: stress just to wake my body up. So I mix
Speaker 1: it up and sometimes I'll go right into my meditation.
Speaker 1: Other times I just do a little stress because sometimes
Speaker 1: I get up and I'm feeling still. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: like it right, So I just gotta just wake something up.
Speaker 1: And I might do some cardio first because that opens
Speaker 1: my oxygen up and I gets my blood breathing, and
Speaker 1: then I feel like I'm really open to the spirit, uh,
Speaker 1: to listen and find the silence within me, to find
Speaker 1: the answers that I need for that day, for that week,
Speaker 1: or that whatever I'm working on. And then the stretching
Speaker 1: comes within that. I just mix it up within that
Speaker 1: and it seems to open up my body and open
Speaker 1: up my spirit in a different way. Okay, So that's
Speaker 1: on my list. That's on my list of things that
Speaker 1: I gotta work for. My meditating and my my stretching
Speaker 1: had to go back and forth with it a lot,
Speaker 1: particularly medical. Yeah, I was getting better with it, but
Speaker 1: then I find myself falling off again. So it's just
Speaker 1: one of the things. It's just one of my struggles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody's got a different struggle. Here's the thing to make
Speaker 1: it easier on you, to make it feel like it's
Speaker 1: a part of your life, not something I gotta suffern
Speaker 1: I gotta go do. I don't want you to feel
Speaker 1: that way. But if you say, give it a certain
Speaker 1: part of the day, like a certain time that fits
Speaker 1: with how your day is structured. For example, I have
Speaker 1: found out that first thing in the morning does not
Speaker 1: work for me for meditating. It just doesn't work. Because
Speaker 1: I wake up and I'm ready to go. I cannot
Speaker 1: sit still. My mind is racing thinking about all that
Speaker 1: I have to do today or all that I want
Speaker 1: to do today, even if it's nothing, all the nothing
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna do today, whatever. Your first thing in
Speaker 1: the morning is not the time for me to meditate.
Speaker 1: I do better. I do better later on in the evening. Okay,
Speaker 1: some people doing midday evening morning. Don't matter. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: That's all you. That's your pattern, that's unique to your lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Make it a regular thing. In other words, I just
Speaker 1: told you thirty minutes, right cardio. Some days you can't
Speaker 1: do that. So the important thing you remember, don't skip him.
Speaker 1: Maybe you got twenty minutes, maybe you got ten, maybe
Speaker 1: you got five. Do a little something. And the reason
Speaker 1: why I say that is the it goes back to
Speaker 1: the mental tracking, the mental habits to keep you consistent,
Speaker 1: and if you can do a little something to stay
Speaker 1: in the game, you're still in that rhythm. Got it?
Speaker 1: So what what are some of the aid's to find
Speaker 1: tips that we can all benefit from while we're at home?
Speaker 1: You have some interesting ones. And then I'm gonna and
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna jump in to what your actual routine is.
Speaker 1: Your actual daily routine is, Yeah, there's something about ice.
Speaker 1: Oh I h So, first of all, I gave you
Speaker 1: my five steps. Yea, so those are my five basics.
Speaker 1: You look up, You look amazing you. There's no way
Speaker 1: in the world that you look like sixty. You know, no.
Speaker 1: I I gotta say that because people always try to
Speaker 1: make a fuss about me, and I'm like, I'm not
Speaker 1: the only older woman out here that looks good. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's come on now, to stop trying to make a
Speaker 1: feel like I'm a unicorn. I am not. We are aging. Well.
Speaker 1: I think there's plenty of us that you know are
Speaker 1: are taking time and want to be healthy and fit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then there's not enough of us. And that's why I
Speaker 1: do the work that I do to lift people up,
Speaker 1: because we gotta sit together on this. So let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about diet too, because you said that
Speaker 1: thirty of your diet is protein. Talk to us a
Speaker 1: little bit about how important nutrition is because I really
Speaker 1: still feel, particularly as I've gotten older, I really really
Speaker 1: feel like what you're putting inside of your body really
Speaker 1: is almost I don't know if it's more important than
Speaker 1: the exercising, but it certainly is as important as exercise
Speaker 1: you have, and and for people who want to lose weight,
Speaker 1: it's at least of the of the results. Now, have
Speaker 1: you ever worked with anybody who is vegetarian? For the
Speaker 1: most part, I eat plant based that plants who are
Speaker 1: vegan or vesgetarian, Yeah, vegetarian. You know all of that
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, but for me personally, and I just want
Speaker 1: to touch on what you eat also has everything to
Speaker 1: do with your skin. That's true. Where are you getting
Speaker 1: most of your protein from as a person who is
Speaker 1: mostly plant based? Because so, um, I know people want
Speaker 1: to give me a lot of beans, but bleep beans.
Speaker 1: I don't digest. I have a I'm somebody who has
Speaker 1: an extremely sensitive stomach. Every time I turn around, my
Speaker 1: stomach is upset from something. So you're not doing beans?
Speaker 1: What are you doing fish? Okay? That's most of my
Speaker 1: proteins come from fish and vegetables. Okay, some grains are
Speaker 1: high in protein as well. You can mix it up.
Speaker 1: What is your daily routine for exercise? So, man, I
Speaker 1: got this felloton fight overl oh. Now you know what
Speaker 1: my husband and I were thinking about giving the peloton.
Speaker 1: You love it. You have no idea how much I
Speaker 1: love it. It is the bomb. Let me tell you,
Speaker 1: it is the best thing. Who know we were gonna
Speaker 1: be in COVID and it has saved my ass. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you. Okay, let me just give you a quick rundown.
Speaker 1: So and I get almost a lot of times, I'll
Speaker 1: get on it before I even have my first client,
Speaker 1: you know. And I have them five six in the
Speaker 1: morning or whatever. But I ride that for whatever minutes.
Speaker 1: I make the time work for me. But you either
Speaker 1: takes the classes everybody and anybody your taste and riding
Speaker 1: the peloton where you can take a class in all
Speaker 1: different kinds of classes or and this has been my
Speaker 1: special treat because I love to travel and I haven't
Speaker 1: been able to and I don't know when it was
Speaker 1: rattled in, but since COVID, I have been traveling on
Speaker 1: my bike. So in other words, you can take a class,
Speaker 1: or it has different scenes where you can ride in
Speaker 1: Italy and wherever, or you can just ride. But it
Speaker 1: has really been a lifesaver. Okay, so back to your question.
Speaker 1: So I am doing my bike for my heart's sake.
Speaker 1: I do my workout. I have a structure where I'm
Speaker 1: doing the weight training, gotta do that a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot more core training I'm doing now for myself, and
Speaker 1: then in flexibility, I do that at night. I might
Speaker 1: do it a little right after my workout, especially my cardio.
Speaker 1: For sure, I'm stretching out my legs. But then I
Speaker 1: like to do a little nice stretch routine before bed.
Speaker 1: I have my phone roller. When I do my stretching
Speaker 1: at night, I sleep better. Uh huh. I thought this
Speaker 1: this foot massage thing. Yeah, I got you, I got
Speaker 1: I got But I'm doing upper and lower given my
Speaker 1: body of rest in the meantime, putting in the time
Speaker 1: because I still am really busy even during this time,
Speaker 1: so I really have to structure it. Just like I
Speaker 1: said to you, put it in part of your day
Speaker 1: where it's you time. Yeah, it's me. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you this, Wendy. Let me ask you some advice for
Speaker 1: myself personally. Like I said in the beginning of the show,
Speaker 1: that I am struggling a little bit. I have an
Speaker 1: issue with my hip. I've been told that it's arthritis,
Speaker 1: but I also think that there's an injury in there
Speaker 1: somewhere right. And because of COVID, I have not, you know,
Speaker 1: been able to really get out and really really get
Speaker 1: attention to it, because you know, the doctors don't really
Speaker 1: want to see you in the offices unless it's like urgent,
Speaker 1: and it's not. I've been living with this for quite
Speaker 1: some time now, but it is affecting my ability to
Speaker 1: work out and what I can do. We are quarantined together,
Speaker 1: my daughter and my granddaughter, and we work out together.
Speaker 1: But I swear they're killing me. I cannot. I can't
Speaker 1: keep up with them anymore. And it's disheartening for me
Speaker 1: because I'm used to killing you how trying to keep
Speaker 1: up with trying to keep up with their routine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I just realized that I can't do it anymore.
Speaker 1: And it it's made me a little sad because it
Speaker 1: is coming to accept my age. And my husband said
Speaker 1: it to me the other day because I worked out
Speaker 1: with someone just the other day and I was in
Speaker 1: so much physical pain, not while I was doing it,
Speaker 1: but within a half an hour of completing the workout.
Speaker 1: And that was even me paying attention and saying, okay,
Speaker 1: I've had enough of that. I can't do that. Exercise
Speaker 1: is not working for me. Even being trying to be
Speaker 1: very aware of that, it was still I still ended
Speaker 1: up being in a lot of physical pain from this hill.
Speaker 1: And it's disheartening like that. You hear it all the time,
Speaker 1: kidding old is not for the week. It is not.
Speaker 1: And I've got to figure out a routine where I
Speaker 1: can stay fit but stay healthy. And it's not my
Speaker 1: upper body, it's my lower body. I've always disliked lower
Speaker 1: body worth because the results don't show up as quickly.
Speaker 1: So as a result, my upper body looks much better
Speaker 1: than my lower body. And now when I'm trying to
Speaker 1: really focus on that, because I really really see the difference,
Speaker 1: I don't even know I'm not even sure what really
Speaker 1: to do. Should I just be using fans, Should I
Speaker 1: just be using lower weights with more reps? Like I'm
Speaker 1: kind of in a state of confusion, m m so.
Speaker 1: Or should I just be doing something like yoga? Should
Speaker 1: I just let go of the weight training? What you're
Speaker 1: experiencing is open ended one because you haven't been able
Speaker 1: to get you a doctor to locate what the problem is.
Speaker 1: Definitely have arthritis in my left hip, so I do
Speaker 1: know that I definitely have arthritis in my left hip.
Speaker 1: What irritated definitely squats and sometimes even walking. Oh you know,
Speaker 1: like if I get on the treadmill, like I typically
Speaker 1: don't run because my knees aren't all that great. Okay, now,
Speaker 1: so I'm typically walking. But sometimes do you have a BikeE?
Speaker 1: I don't. I haven't. I have an elliptical. Does that
Speaker 1: irritate you? So that doesn't? Maybe the bike is okay
Speaker 1: for you as well? You guys need to get to peloton.
Speaker 1: It's so fun. It just gives you more of a
Speaker 1: challenge and more things to do, more variety as opposed
Speaker 1: to just a regular bike. That might be something that
Speaker 1: it keeps you going for a longer period. Of time
Speaker 1: and interested for a longer period of time. So if
Speaker 1: liptical and bike might be the thing for you in
Speaker 1: terms of cardio, you could also do some weight training
Speaker 1: on the bike and liptical by raising up and down
Speaker 1: the resistance on that. Okay. Other than that, you don't
Speaker 1: have to do squads. And for someone who is experiencing
Speaker 1: like me or hip even back, isometric exercises is great
Speaker 1: for you because they do isometric exercises right out of surgery.
Speaker 1: That's what they pretty much start with. But there it's
Speaker 1: pretty safe and painless. And the other thing is in
Speaker 1: terms of working your quads, you can do leg extensions
Speaker 1: and extensions are gonna help that part of it. You
Speaker 1: can do donkey kicks that with weights with an ankle
Speaker 1: with yeah, yeah, that's gonna work on your book. Okay,
Speaker 1: so those are and then of course the hamstrings you
Speaker 1: can do some strength training with resistance fans or with
Speaker 1: free weights with that as well dead lifts for your
Speaker 1: hand string and go into fit leg dead list. With
Speaker 1: the leg extensions and some calf raises you can get
Speaker 1: with the donkey, you can get all of your lower
Speaker 1: body without bothering your hit. Got it, got it? And
Speaker 1: the free tring side, and then the cardio side with
Speaker 1: the bikes and shout out to Peloton and Peloton is listening.
Speaker 1: I need a bike, all are That's really really good advice, Wendy.
Speaker 1: Moving on, because we're coming to a close. I want
Speaker 1: to move on a little bit to mental health because
Speaker 1: in this time during the pandemic, it is so difficult
Speaker 1: for me and for a lot of people, I'm sure
Speaker 1: to stay motivated. Just so much going on in the
Speaker 1: world that is heavy. We're in such a state of
Speaker 1: discord in our nation right now, So how does one
Speaker 1: stay positive while trying to process all of this? And
Speaker 1: I guess it goes back to what you've been talking
Speaker 1: about all along, and that is your own trying to
Speaker 1: stay true to your own personal journey and your own
Speaker 1: personal purpose. Absolutely to stay same in this climate we
Speaker 1: are in the world today. One of the first things
Speaker 1: you have to do is find some structure in your household,
Speaker 1: get a rhythm, get a system, because everything is in
Speaker 1: disarray ever since COVID had Get a system. And these
Speaker 1: are things that I actively do that definitely work for me,
Speaker 1: because right now it's just me, Yes, it's I don't
Speaker 1: I don't even have somebody I'm living with right now.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are in that situation where they're alone,
Speaker 1: right so that alone can drive you crazy. And then
Speaker 1: I talked to my son, and my son I got
Speaker 1: five grandkids, and he's going up, like you know, in
Speaker 1: the house and help you here. I'm like, Okay, me
Speaker 1: and you are in opposite ends of this phonico. But nevertheless,
Speaker 1: it's all challenging for everyone. And that's why you got
Speaker 1: to recreate some structure in your household. How you eat,
Speaker 1: how you work, I take my breaks. I have some
Speaker 1: recess time that I have set my little timer here
Speaker 1: where it'll go off, where I set a certain amount
Speaker 1: of time for me to work, because I can get
Speaker 1: stuck in this chair. The second thing is reach out
Speaker 1: to someone that you like talking with. You gotta be
Speaker 1: in contact with people, not necessarily the family members like
Speaker 1: for you. If you're living with everybody like my son,
Speaker 1: you know you've got all that going on. Maybe you
Speaker 1: already have that interaction. Maybe you've got a little other
Speaker 1: personal time you want to dedicate to yourself for reading
Speaker 1: and something like that. So it's surely is going into
Speaker 1: the structure. The other thing and the real important thing
Speaker 1: is shut the darn TV off. Yet the facts and disappear.
Speaker 1: Yet the facts and disappear. And then each day find
Speaker 1: something that sparks joy with you, something that makes you happy,
Speaker 1: something that will make you laugh. And I regularly do this, Gammy.
Speaker 1: I will go to YouTube, kids and animals, all of it, right,
Speaker 1: Richie Pryor from old school, right, But there's so much stuff,
Speaker 1: and it's so at our fingertips. And that is some
Speaker 1: of the I laughed all the time. I might talk
Speaker 1: to myself, I'm like, oh, you gave me good answer, girl.
Speaker 1: You know I'm crazy like that. So it lifts me
Speaker 1: up when the people you talk to make it positive
Speaker 1: people because some people, so you got to choose you people.
Speaker 1: Some people you're talking, they always talking downward right, right.
Speaker 1: But the person in my family might do that. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: nothe of that? Can we talk about exactly? And you
Speaker 1: know what? You know what works for me too? And
Speaker 1: I think about it because I realized how much of
Speaker 1: my life and I don't know if people really think
Speaker 1: about that, but the pandemic really really highlighted how social
Speaker 1: we are as beings. Right, all of my activities that
Speaker 1: I joy so much involved network dancing. You know my stepping, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I am a stopper, a Chicago stepper, yes. And roller skating.
Speaker 1: I was learning how to roller skate. I've always wanted
Speaker 1: to learn how to roll escape. And I was just
Speaker 1: really getting into my groove and then the pandemic hit.
Speaker 1: Like I was going roller skating like three times a week.
Speaker 1: That's a cool thing to do. And that's the other
Speaker 1: thing in terms of staying young. So you're onto something there.
Speaker 1: Dear me not to get old and send your ways
Speaker 1: learn no stuff. Even with this technology, it keeps you
Speaker 1: young and youthful and learning and thinking. But you were
Speaker 1: talking about watching stuff on YouTube that brings you joy.
Speaker 1: So that's I can't dance right now. So I'm on
Speaker 1: YouTube all the time watching people stepping. I did it before, anyway,
Speaker 1: but I watched people stepping. I danced with the door, yeah,
Speaker 1: because joy. Right now, I'm listening to music, and like
Speaker 1: you said, I definitely stay off of the TV as
Speaker 1: far as news is concerned anyway, And I'm doing a
Speaker 1: lot of reading and a lot of self help work
Speaker 1: right now. I'm taking this time of the pandemic to
Speaker 1: do a lot of soul searching and work on me
Speaker 1: that I need to do. Yeah, Wendy, one thing I
Speaker 1: forgot to ask you what everybody wants to know. Do
Speaker 1: you have a cheat day and what is your favorite cheat? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: people tell me, oh, you just want you so strict.
Speaker 1: I'm a normal person and I have really what I want,
Speaker 1: So gimme. I use the eight rule. I eat good
Speaker 1: most of the time and the other twenty I do
Speaker 1: my thing. Okay, So I got to share with you.
Speaker 1: My thing got right downstairs ruld boys waiting for me
Speaker 1: for this weekend, because that's how I celebrate. Is um
Speaker 1: an apple cinnamon vegan muffin. Okay, I see it from
Speaker 1: hopeful Wow, some chocolate cake? Or my thing is that
Speaker 1: chocolate cake that has the fudge on the inside with
Speaker 1: a scoop of vanilla ice cream? Girl? Please whatever, as
Speaker 1: you're talking about a muffin, that's your cheek, alright, right,
Speaker 1: grow back, that's okay, alright, Wendy, God bless you, God
Speaker 1: bless you, because I have to agrieve your friends. You
Speaker 1: are extremely and highly disciplined. Yes, and that's why you
Speaker 1: why you do Listen. Yeah, I wish you could see
Speaker 1: my face, yall, that's all I can say. You could
Speaker 1: see my face. We're gonna wind down. We're gonna rune
Speaker 1: down and roll on out of here with our rapid
Speaker 1: fire questions for you. Tell me what book you're currently reading. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I'm reading choo books. One of them is called
Speaker 1: stick Ability by Greg Reid. Uh huh. It's about the
Speaker 1: power of perse theory. Okay, yeah, okay. One thing you
Speaker 1: want to get off your chest? Okay, So one thing
Speaker 1: I'd like to get on my chest is the phrase
Speaker 1: that I've heard plenty of times on social media, black
Speaker 1: don't crack, Okay. And the reason why I say that
Speaker 1: is sometimes when you say that, you discount all the
Speaker 1: hard work and all the other good things that I'm
Speaker 1: really doing. So I never buy it out it that way. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is true, and that's the way I take it personally.
Speaker 1: I say, black don't hey, wait a minute after the
Speaker 1: last stuff. And the thing that I follow up with
Speaker 1: that is, yes, melanin, darker melanin protects us from a
Speaker 1: lot more than lighter melanin. So that is a true fact.
Speaker 1: But I have people in the family that I can
Speaker 1: take two people side by side, one who has led
Speaker 1: a clean lifestyle and the other one. They both got
Speaker 1: the same genetics. They both black, don't crack, but the
Speaker 1: other one has led a tough life different, completely different.
Speaker 1: So black don't crack, don't cut it. It is true
Speaker 1: in a sense, but don't discount the other hard work
Speaker 1: that is very necessary to the vibrant and thrive and life.
Speaker 1: That makes total sense. I get that. I totally get that. Last,
Speaker 1: but not least, what's a model you live by? I
Speaker 1: truly live by this. I always say it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what your age is, where you come from, or what
Speaker 1: you've been through. What matters is that you don't give up,
Speaker 1: because it's never too late to take back your life.
Speaker 1: There you go, never too late to take back your fabulousness. Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us, Wendy. We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: And now please tell the audience any events or things
Speaker 1: that you have coming up and where they can find
Speaker 1: you on social media. Well, you can always find me
Speaker 1: on YouTube. I'm doing plenty of videos on their self
Speaker 1: help videos and I love to dance, so you can
Speaker 1: always kind of dance your videos. Absolutely yes, and that's
Speaker 1: on YouTube when you eat a fitness and on Instagram, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and LinkedIn Wendy, thank you so much. We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, and you are You are fabulous. You
Speaker 1: are fabulous. Thank you so much. So here are my
Speaker 1: takeaways from this episode with Wendy Eta. What you put
Speaker 1: in your body is as important as what you do
Speaker 1: with your body. Cut out the sugar guys, let it go,
Speaker 1: and that means me too. Let me tell you, the
Speaker 1: struggle is real. Find the cardio that works best for you,
Speaker 1: and consistency is paramount. It's tough times out here. Find
Speaker 1: something that brings you joy. Don't be afraid to try
Speaker 1: something new or learn a new skill. Along with a
Speaker 1: good support system, find your why and use that to
Speaker 1: help keep you motivated. Positively gam is produced by Westbrook Audio.
Speaker 1: Executive producers Adrian Banfield, Naris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Amanda Brown
Speaker 1: and Fallon jethro Co. Executive producer sim Hoti, Segment producer
Speaker 1: Ash Francis, Associate producers Erica Ron and Kobe Hartberg, editor
Speaker 1: and mixer Calvin Bailiff. Positively gam is in partnership with
Speaker 1: Art nineteen