Wellness with MKStahl and Linda Kreter
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Welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio with Linda Prater. Women are pressed daily to give more, learn more, and be more, often at the expense of mind, body, or spirit. Each week with intriguing guests and topics, we'll bring you fresh ways to view your limited time, encouraging a shift to new, healthier perspectives. Wise Health for Women Radio, helping women thrive. And now here's your host, Linda Prater.

Good morning and welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio. I'm Linda Crater. And you know we talk about a wide variety of topics on our program. And that's very intentional because just because something is of interest to me, and most things are, does not mean it's touching on what you need in your life. So I'm really pleased today to be talking about fitness and movement and how

you know, part of our body, mind and spirit thing about wellness is so important that we move. And right now in the United States, we have an enormous number of people who are not well, and they are not well because we just went through a lovely pandemic and

We fell on perhaps poor habits. We may have gotten out of the discipline of doing movement every day, exercise. Call it what you will. Whatever doesn't make you feel threatened and makes you want to participate.

But we really need to, for the health that we're looking for, move our bodies every single day, even if for a short time. And so I am very pleased to welcome Mary Catherine Stahl, known by MK, to our program today. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me. You know, it's my pleasure because I really find that

So many people are turned off by the idea of exercise. I've got to go here. I've got to go there. I have to do 10,000 steps. I have to, have to, have to. And just along with all the shoulds that we have, it sometimes makes people push back in denial of, I'm fine. You know, I walked up the stairs with the laundry today. That's good. That's enough. Or I walked the dog.

But it isn't enough, is it? No, no. I love how you explain that, though. Most people think of it as like a chore and not as a way to enhance their life. They look at it as something that, oh, it's just another mark on my to-do list. It's something that I have to find time for that I just don't seem to ever have enough of.

You know, and we're all pressed for time. And yet the funny thing is what I always tell myself is we're all given 24 hours in every single day. It's what we choose to do with it. And I like to, I push myself when I say, okay, now 30 minutes of movement isn't going to end the world if you take time out to do that. Because that 30 minutes is going to go by anyway.

So why wouldn't I use it? And, you know, whatever time period is beneficial for you. But frankly, moving every single day just keeps everything moving. There's a wonderful commercial that says, you know, a body in motion stays in motion. It's true. Yeah, definitely. And I think, too, a body in motion helps your mind stay in motion as well. It helps your mental health in so many ways.

Well, and that's been proven. Oftentimes they're talking about in studies that exercise and nutrition, taking care of yourself basically with the right ingredients, with the right movement, can really work better than any pharmaceutical you could take. And it's a fascinating discovery. And I think a lot of people found out during the pandemic that

They actually moved more. I know many, many people, the ones you hear about are the ones that became the couch potatoes, but not everyone did. No. Yeah. Yeah.

And I think too, during COVID, people were able to look more at how they spend their time. And they either decided to spend their time poorly or they decided, hey, I'm going to use this extra time and I'm going to start taking care of myself. And I'm very lucky to be around the people who did make that shift. I know there's still a lot of people out there that they're just scared to take that leap of faith. They're scared to try something new.

I think it's more than just trying something new. In my opinion, they're disappointed in themselves. They wish they had made the other choice. And they don't stop to give themselves the grace that, okay, I'm out of shape. But I didn't get here overnight. It took three or four years. So as I face doing something about it, it's going to take me some time. Right.

Yeah, and most people aren't willing to put in that time because they want the quick fix. And we see this a lot at Fit Body Bootcamp. It's people come in on a six-week challenge and they're all excited and they see short-term results. However, they're not then willing to stick with it to really see the long-term results. And the key to feeling and looking your best

forever is really just consistency. Like what got you to that point? You have to continue for a lifetime. It has to become a part of your lifestyle. Well, it also helps you age better. If you have movement, if your joints aren't sore, if your legs have been strengthened, so you have better balance. What harms people as they get much older is often a fall or

Or something that, you know, you risk something you used to be able to do and then you fell. And once you get hurt like that, it's very hard to recover as you get older. So I have been working out my entire life. I'm very fortunate that way that I had parents who constantly stressed when we had the, as my daughter calls it for her children, the wiggles. You know, we ran around the house three or four times a day because that was, you were outside. Right.

You were outside being very, very active. And then the next generation came along with a lot of competitive sports. But I think when we look as women, what can we do? It is really something wonderful to be able to follow a program. As you say, people come in for the six-week challenge. Do you have any idea what they do after that if they are not returning for the challenge? Do they find something else to move with?

Have you followed these people? Oh, yeah. So, I mean, I've been doing this for many, many years. And, you know, I've met so many amazing people who they do come into boot camp on a trial or on a challenge and they're excited, like I mentioned. And some of them do see really good results. And the ones that don't end up staying, it's often because they don't feel like they're worth it. Like they feel like, okay, whatever.

I've made progress. I've done well. And I think I can probably back off a little bit and I can either do this on my own or I can give myself a break. And when that happens, they lose their progress and they have to start all over.

And so typically it is, it's just, they don't believe in themselves. They don't think that they're worthy of taking that time for themselves and continuing on that path. Or they think, okay, I've learned enough. I can then do this on my own. And a lot of times they don't have the motivation to do it on their own. They don't have that support of the people working out around them. They don't have a coach, a motivator. They don't have any accountability at all. And so what

while it may be easy to start out doing that, it's often hard to stick with it. And so that's usually the two things that we see when somebody ends up leaving. It's true. And I think also you really do need the buy-in of your family. If you have children and if you have a spouse or partner, it's easy to become sabotaged when they say, well, can you skip tonight? Because it's really important that we do this.

Well, a skip here and there isn't going to hurt. But if something's important to you, you are worthy. You are worth it. And being healthy helps in so many ways. I love the connection you made with the mental health and the physical health because it is such a strong mind-body connection. And you watch people stand up taller.

carry themselves better, even breathe better, they move better. And yet it is helpful to have a support team, a coach, something like that to help someone stay accountable.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, exercise, you know, improves anxiety, can help people with depression, negative moods, just improve your overall self-esteem and cognitive function. And then, you know, also it just, it triggers those neurotransmitters, you know, the serotonin and the endorphins.

And what we see sometimes at boot camp is you're talking about moms. Moms, they may feel kind of lonely in the stage of life that they're in. They may have young children or even like middle school grown children who they feel almost like a victim to their kids' schedules and just the routine of their day-to-day life.

And so they don't have a lot of time for themselves. They likely don't have a full support system or this so-called village that we hear of. And so when they go to boot camp, they get that support system in other people and in the coaches and just having that sense of community. And that might be the only place that they're getting that in their life. And that's really helping with their mental health. I mean, it's helping with their physical health, but it's just so much more than that.

I think you're absolutely right. And then I need to bring this up because I know that I was formerly concerned about this. And I'm talking about the scale, the numbers on the scale.

Because I thought it was very interesting in my own pandemic journey. I worked out. I was very consistent. I used the time wisely. And I'm grateful that somehow I made that terrific decision. But weight fluctuates. What I found over a period of the first three months is that my whole body shape adjusted.

And it became trimmer and leaner. And I was pleased. But the scale didn't say that. And so I stopped paying attention to the scale. And it's interesting because in a support group on one of the social media platforms, people called them non-scale victories.

And I'm grateful for that because if you measure yourself before you start, that's a very good way to give you a baseline. But that darn scale can be how much salt you put on the chickpeas last night. Right. Yeah, I love that. I love that story that you shared. And to that point, what we tell people at the gym is we say, you know, do you have a pair of jeans that you've really been wanting? Yes. Like...

Try on those jeans and just keep trying them on every other week or every week, whatever works for you. And if those jeans fit, if you get those jeans on, you can button those jeans, you can sit down and you're comfortable. Who cares what the scale says? Like start paying attention to how you feel in your clothes and

How you show up, like just as a person in your work life, in your role as a mom, in your role as a wife, and just pay attention to that. It really doesn't matter what the scale says. And I like what you pointed out with your body feeling leaner. You know, a lot of women, especially when they enter that phase of motherhood and they start having children, they have a body recomposition. And that's not anything that you can control. I mean, your body completely changes after giving birth.

And while some people may enjoy the changes that their body is going through after they start a new exercise program, for some, it may be very difficult to look in the mirror and say, gosh, like, you know, I used to be so muscular. I used to be so skinny. And now I have this sluggishness.

stomach that's flabby and I just no matter what I do it just won't tighten and it's just like that's that's how it is like everybody's body is different and after you have children you don't know what's going to happen to your body and so I think paying attention to your muscle mass and your body fat percentage and like you said taking measurements of your body that's a much better indicator of how you're doing and what progress you're making than by getting on that scale

Well, and it's helpful because it doesn't depress you. If you think, well, I've been working out for 6, 10, 12, you know, 16 weeks and the darn scale is actually going up a little. That's weird. And so, but it makes sense. And then you have to

You have to really adjust your mind. So we are talking a strong mind-body connection because the jeans is perfect. The other is a bathing suit. Who likes to go put on their bathing suit at the beginning of the season? Oh, no one. No one. I mean, no one.

And no one likes to try them on in a store. Like it doesn't matter what the mirrors are just never right. It's the mirror. The lighting is so harsh and awful. And at least that's what we say to ourselves, but it's, it's true about how things fit. And also I liken it to women don't have this measurement, but if a man buys a tuxedo when he's about 30 years old and then has to try it on periodically over the years, um,

That's their jeans moment. Right. Because they may not think of that. Women, our jeans is a better barometer. But for men, you've invested in that or you've invested in your work wardrobe. And if things are suddenly not fitting.

that's enough motivation for me to take changes. I also don't like feeling like I didn't feel before. Right. Yeah. You know, everybody's a little different and yet I think we need to give it time.

Yeah, I agree with that. And I do think once you start feeling good, like you get a taste of what it feels like to wake up and just feel your best. Like for me personally, I crave that feeling. And like if I'm, you know, suffering from a cold or, you know, anything that like makes me have a setback where I'm not feeling my best, I just crave feeling my best self again. And so I never want to do anything to jeopardize that. Like I always want to feel like that.

Well, you bring up another point is if you're physically fit and mentally at your best, your immune system is bolstered. Yes. And that's a huge thing. So even if you start small and I mean, everybody's got apps and contraptions and Fitbits and iWatches and all these sorts of things. And if that works for you, terrific. But tune into how you feel. Right. Yeah.

Oh, definitely. And I think too, like, you know, talking about our mental health and anxiety and depression with women today, like your Fitbit and your Apple watch, they can actually cause you to have anxiety. I've experienced this myself. And I actually did a segment on my podcast about this. And I was in this

In this like cycle about a year ago where I was obsessed with how many steps I was getting each day. And if I was closing all of my rings and how many calories was I burning? And I got to one, one day and I was just like, why does this matter? Like I am setting this expectation for myself that no one else is setting and I need to lower my expectations.

expectations, still keep my standards high, but I don't need to have, you know, 800 calories burned every single day on my watch. I'm just like wearing myself to the ground. And so it can cause anxiety if you let it. Well, again, it has to do with quote, making it easier for ourselves. The easiest thing of all is to just move every single day. You know, it's funny. I

I think there's a big difference in movement and the discipline of exercise, which uses different muscle groups, pays attention to not overusing certain muscles. Because I think, I mean, I can work a day in the garden.

And I'm beat. I am so beat because I've been up and down a million times. But it isn't the same thing as when I do strategic exercise on, you know, that does a variety of body parts. And I think that's also important. Do both. Manual labor can kick your butt. But working out

tends to work in a more strategic manner, all of those muscles, because I don't know anyone who loves to do abs. No. I mean, I, after years, I taught 12 years of jazzercise myself and I used to say to my class, I'm really glad you're here because abs are not my favorite. Yeah. But I would do it because, you know, it was part of what I was doing, but it's, it's necessary to keep

moving everything because otherwise you become very imbalanced. Right, right. I love that you shared that with your garden because I recently took up tennis and I do tennis once a week and

And the story behind that is my husband is very, very good at tennis and he and I want to start playing together and we want to get our kids to play. And so he's like, I'm going to sign you up for some lessons. So good are doing these lessons. And the day after every single week, I am so sore.

And I'm more sore after tennis than I am in my normal workouts. And it's because I'm doing something different. And it's so good to do that, to introduce new things, like not everything at once, but just slow trickle in of new movement activities that you can do just in your everyday life, like you mentioned with gardening.

Well, I have another story. I was painting the soffit on my house. You know, the part that goes underneath the roof. Well, I'm on a ladder. I've got one hand holding the paint and another holding the brush, and it's all over my overhead. Do you know I built the greatest arms I've ever had during that summer? Well, but it was great.

It was manual labor. Somebody said, nice guns. I'm like, they said, what are you doing? And so I'm painting my soffit. So the point is, mix it up. And if you like projects like that, which I do, it's a funny way because that was not structured exercise. Although I have to admit, one deltoid got really big and the other bicep got very big. So I had to switch and I'm not.

you know, ambidextrous, but I tried to a little bit each time. Talk about how just knowing how your body works and is connected can also just really intrigue you into working different muscle groups. Do you know what I'm asking?

Yeah, yeah, I think so. And we find like at the gym, people will come in and they'll start people that are new to exercise, you know, they'll start coming in and we'll do some squats. And then the next day, they'll, they'll say, Oh, my goodness, I had the hardest time, just like putting on my pants this morning, or I had the hardest time walking up the steps in my office. And I'm like, Yeah, it's those squats. It's those lunges that you've been doing. Yeah.

And we do love to point out at the gym, some exercises that they're doing that kind of replicate just an everyday movement. So when we're doing squats, we say it's just like you're sitting down in a chair. Because truthfully, if you are looking at exercise as a way, looking at it as a way to stay fit, like for a lifetime and looking at the longevity of it, it really needs to be about functional movement. Like what are you doing every day? It doesn't

need to be any of this extreme stuff. I mean, today you see we do burpees at the gym, but honestly, like how often are you going to be being doing burpees in your life? And so that would be really almost never for me. Exactly. And so there's certain movements that we do in the gym that are just for fun, but most of them, we like to really make it seem like, okay, this is something that I'm actually doing in my everyday life. It's going to help me forever.

Well, that's the gardening is all the squats. Right. I mean, I'm up and down for a million times in a day. And in the heat of summer, you know, it's 103 degrees outside. And you do acclimate to the temperature. You do if you make efforts to do so. But it is very interesting to me that I still need structured exercise to work on all the muscle groups. And that's why programs such as your boot camp and other programs are

that really take a look at, okay, here's a leg day, here's an upper body day. And if you forget any of those things,

your posture and your back and your sleeping will show you that something's off. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Fit body. What we do is we were open six days a week, so we're closed on Sundays and we have the programming where our clients know what the programming is for the entire week. But the way our programming is structured is it really is for someone who can come four to five days a week.

And we have, you know, two to three strength days, two, two cardio focused days, one more like cardio abs, like a little bit slower pace towards the end of the session. And so we try to structure our workouts where if you do come every day, you're not always working the same muscle group, but then also like it's a slow progression with your strength. You know, and strength training,

is wonderful for creating more muscle mass, which burns more calories even at a resting stage. And I think that's what's beautiful about this, is that exercise helps you to become healthier and more metabolically solid.

Right. Oh, definitely. Yep. The more muscle you have, the more you can eat. Exactly. And then add good nutrition choices to that. And you really have made a big difference. Also, women at a certain point, metabolically, we change.

And so going through those changes, you know, presumably you wish to stay more or less where you were in your younger years, but it's not so simple anymore. So you have to be more strategic about your nutrition choices. I mean, I always laugh. People say, I really do have a six pack. It's just under this layer of fat. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, but abs are often made in the kitchen too. Right. Oh, definitely. So talk about that a little bit. Yeah. So with Fit Body Bootcamp, we talk about nutrition a lot. And so we have challenges, as I mentioned, where we focus on nutrition for six to eight weeks, but then most of our bootcamp locations offer ongoing nutrition support always. And so what we do with our clients is

we first kind of ask them, you know, what's your goal? Like, what is your overall goal? And I don't like the short-term goals. It's really the long-term goals that I like to talk about and really getting down to like the root why, the root cause of why they have that goal. And so asking yourself, you know, if you want to lose 20 pounds, why do you want to lose 20 pounds? What is your life going to look like when you lose 20 pounds? And

And if you really get to the bottom of that, that's usually easier for someone to stay on track or to keep going when they feel like giving up. Because if they don't have a why and their why is not big enough, it's so easy to just throw in the towel.

And so with nutrition, we always say, you know, focus on protein. Protein for women is so important, especially when you are trying to build muscle and you're focusing on strength training. We as a society are just under eating protein. And then two other areas for women that...

This is what I call just like the foundational habits of nutrition is focusing on getting at least half your body weight in ounces of water each day, if not more, if you're outside in the hot summer heat, and then focusing on your sleep.

That's something else as a society, like we do not sleep enough. There are so many women that are sleeping five, six hours every single night and their body just becomes accustomed to that. And when you are under, like when you're not sleeping enough, your cortisol levels are higher, which makes it harder for your hormones to regulate, which makes it harder for you to have a steady metabolism and burn fat. So if you're going to the gym,

four or five days a week, you're working out, but you're trying to eat healthy, but you're not getting good sleep, you might as well only work out two days and get really good sleep every night because you're not doing your body any good. You're not offering up that adequate recovery time. And so that's like kind of the three areas that I always tell people to start with when they're trying to focus on dial in on their nutrition is the protein, the water and the sleep.

It's very interesting because our hormones are mostly made in our gut.

So by eating properly, by balancing it and hydration, it really does make a difference. Cortisol is your stress hormone, and it often makes you women put weight on right in the middle, right where you do not want it or, you know, in your hip area. And so, you know, they talk about men are apples, women are pears. Either way,

let's be less fruity and just move ourselves so that we, we feel better, but you are right about the, the protein deficit because we're, we're so conscious that,

And yet going to extreme, I'm not fond of the word diet. I prefer everything in moderation. And that way you can maintain it. I know even my sister went on a strict keto diet and it worked. Worked fine. Worked beautifully. Short term. But it wasn't easy to maintain. So the best exercise you can do is the one that you will do. And the best nutrition you can follow is the one that you will maintain. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, for me personally, I'm not willing to do anything in the short term that I wouldn't do forever. And I kind of look at, like, I take that approach with everything when it comes to, like, supplementation. You know, like, I'm not going to take...

10 pills a day if I'm not going to be able to take that forever if I if I got sick and my doctor was saying hey like you really need to take these of course you know I might reconsider but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna do anything that's like so crazy and drastic that I couldn't continue for a lifetime

I think also what you're amplifying here is having a positive mindset about I want to be the best I can be. I want to be moving when I'm 70 years old. I want to be able to do things with my children and grandchildren. I think taking a long-term view is really interesting because I know a lot of extreme sports people too who go – they're so fit.

But will they be able to maintain that or are they causing microscopic injuries that become worse as they go better? And then there's, you know, moms rushing around and grabbing meals. There does have to be a certain amount of planning involved unless you want to end up snacking all day long or fast food. So balancing all of this and then throw in entrepreneurship on top of it, it's a lot, right?

Definitely, definitely. And I think that's a good point. It's just like taking that approach that's going to, you know, set you up for your future.

Well, and you want it to be a healthy future. Right. As much as you can. I mean, we don't know what tomorrow brings, but if we set ourselves up to be strong and healthy, it really does give us a head start on making good choices. So I want to make sure people know where to find out more information about you and the program. And that's at fitbodybootcamp.com.

And it really will give you a lot of options for what you're doing. You know, as MK is talking to us, you know, she's an entrepreneur. She's a fitness expert. She is a healthy mom. And, you know, everything she's talked to you about today is something you can achieve as well. Anything you'd like to add, MK?

I don't think so. Yes, just check us out on our website. We have over 225 locations nationwide. We specialize in 30-minute HIIT-style workouts, different workout every day, and it's for all fitness levels. And then also I have a podcast called Beyond the Scale, and we talk about everything beyond the scale, health, fitness, mindset, entrepreneurship, motivation. So check that out on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Terrific. I'm really glad that you joined us this morning. This is a really topic I'm fond of. And may you all move today, eat as well as you possibly can, and get your rest because that truly counts for a sound mind, body, and spirit. And get outside. Thanks so much for listening. Make it a great week. Thank you for tuning in today. You can find more shows at wisehealthforwomenradio.com.