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THE podcast for navigating all things midlife with honesty, humor, and heart
Heidi (00:10)
if you are new to the Evolving Together Podcast, this is the podcast where we navigate all the things in midlife with honesty, humor, and heart. And I have Ashley Anderson back with me again. We finished talking about basically how we can do our best to live our longest, healthiest life.
well into our sixties, seventies and eighties so that we can follow those dreams and follow the grandchildren or follow whomever and whatever your heart desires as we get older because if we don't take care of our bodies, you're not gonna have those options. Ashley Anderson owns functional fitness in Pass Christian, Mississippi, also known as Pass Christian.
I always have to say that because some people pass what? But she is far more than a personal trainer and functional nutritional therapist. She holds a degree in movement and sports science from Purdue, puts a focus on healing the gastrointestinal system. That's your gut and your microbiome. And balancing hormones, which really makes absolute sense because it's all connected. And she's currently participating in the Active Life Professional Mentorship Program.
And she's always what I'm learning from the last episode is that she's always improving her knowledge. She's she takes herself to school, and I think that's great to continuously be growing. So welcome back, Ashley.
Ashley Anderson (01:35)
Thank you.
Heidi (01:36)
So we were talking about how too much information is too much. So we split we split everything into two episodes. So if you didn't hear the first one, please go back and listen to that. This episode is going to be really about
Where do you start when you're just beginning? And that goes for your fitness and your food, what fitness actually means, especially when you're in midlife and beyond. I mean, do you want to become a bodybuilder? You could do that. Or do you simply just want to be able to get off the toilet seat without holding on to something, or be able to walk up and down the stairs without fear of falling?
Maybe you want to get on the floor with your grandkids or maybe you want to travel across the world exactly. Exactly, exactly. And
Ashley Anderson (02:19)
As I like to say, maybe you want to hike Machu Picchu. Like there's so much you could do. Like the goals are endless.
Heidi (02:26)
so where do we begin with that? And then also how do we fuel our bodies to be able to do that? And anybody that knows me knows that I am all about keeping things simple and doable, but
You need those action steps. Like where do I start? Or maybe if you've already started and you wanna know, am I on the right track? So we're gonna start off with fitness and I'm gonna let you just kinda take it away.
and the hell do we start, Ashley?
Ashley Anderson (02:52)
This is so involved. Just go, just go for it. Like you just I just would like
to say that that can be very dangerous because I you just never know where things are gonna go with me. Okay, so let's just start fitness. There are two aspects to fitness. We have our strength portion and we have our cardiovascular system. Like you need both. so I'm gonna start with cardio because that's like usually the easiest, and it's like very low getting involved, right? I
Just to get people moving. Activity. We all have these really fancy things on. Do you have one on?
Heidi (03:23)
I don't be well,
I have one though. I just don't use it.
Ashley Anderson (03:28)
see. So
They are super popular.
Heidi (03:30)
I will. I'm gonna start.
Ashley Anderson (03:31)
And whether it's an Apple Watch or a Garmin Watch or a Fitbit, there's a million things you could do to track your activity. But I think this is a really low-hanging fruit. How much activity are you getting? forever we said 10,000 steps, and that was just some made-up arbitrary number that was thrown out many moons ago. We found research has shown that 7,500 steps ideally every day should be your minimum. So my first one is: if you really are just wanting to get started and you're like, I'm super sedentary, get yourself a pedometer.
Or get yourself a nice little Fitbit so you can see your steps. You want to visually see it. You could get fancy and use an Apple Watch and you can get fancy and use a Garmin, but they're not necessary. You can go with something low end. You just want to track the data. If you're not getting 7,500 steps every day, get 7,500 steps every day. And that doesn't mean I'm at 5,000 and I'm gonna go directly there, or I'm at 2,500 and I'm gonna get to 7,500. This has to be intentional. And it's really hard if your number is 2,500 for you to immediately get to 7,500. I would week over week try.
increase from 500 to a thousand steps every week. So if you are at 2500, that's what you're gonna do for week one. For week two, you're gonna do three thousand to thirty five hundred. And then you're gonna increase the week after that and after that until you get to 7500. That is just bare bones getting you some activity. Yeah. Go ahead.
Heidi (04:44)
Okay, I have one question. I'm gonna stop you right there. What
if somebody can't walk as well? Okay, like a stationary bike or
Ashley Anderson (04:52)
Stationary bike's
cool, bicycle, regular bicycle is cool, arm bike is cool. It's just the idea of getting you more movement. guess what? It doesn't need to all be done at once. Can you walk down your driveway and walk back? It could be done in five minute increments. It doesn't all have to be done in one go. The idea is more than what you've done. The crazy thing is, in we're dealing with pain, and the more and longer I've been doing this, and the more people I've seen with pain, most pain reduces with more movement. Which nobody likes because in the beginning it hurts to move, and I'm just gonna be like,
Like you should move. Arthritis, you should move. I just have my knee done, you should move. like it sounds so simple. And you're like, you make it sound so easy. I understand what it's like to be in pain and have to do stuff. I have rehabbed a shoulder, I have had knee surgery, like I get it. It's not fun and it's not as glamorous as I'm making out to you, but we have to start somewhere. So if somewhere is a walk down the driveway and back and you do it every hour on the top of the hour, gold star. If your driveway is as long as mine, maybe you only do half. Mine, I have a 500-foot-long driveway. So
So
maybe I'm not doing all of that. But that is gonna be step one. My mother-in-law rehabbed a hip and literally all she did was walk. And she has rehabbed better than like half the people that I see because of how important the walking was and paying attention to her gait. So like
Heidi (06:04)
I l okay, that makes sense. So tracking
tracking it and then doing more than what you did before. Okay.
Ashley Anderson (06:09)
Exactly. In very small
increments. It doesn't need to be like
I need to double it. It can literally be 500 more steps. Like it's it can be very, very simple. If you are getting activity every single day, I think that's step one. I think step two is adding strength training. We know that for maintaining muscle mass or gaining muscle and bone density that we need to strength train or resistance train. They're literally the same thing. So I don't know why we have all these words for this, but you know, here we go. So I would start with at least two times a week. Three times a week would be ideal. I have been in the gym.
For the majority of my life, I strength train three days a week. I do a lower body, upper body, full body day, lower, upper, full, or I do three full body days. It doesn't need to be crazy. I'm not built bodybuilding. Also, I if I had to train five days a week, I'd probably miss and I'd probably never do a shoulder workout ever again in my life. So I like to include all the muscle groups and all the workouts because if I miss a day because I'm human and I have a job and I have like things pop up, I'm not really missing anything, right? So that's like my important thing with why I've moved to that style of.
Training and I use it with the majority of my clients. You hit every muscle group, you don't leave anybody behind, and if you miss, you didn't miss an entire muscle group. Also, shoulders, very small muscle group. Probably don't need a whole day dedicated to just these little guys up here. Like they're not that much muscle there. Legs, lots of muscles, maybe a day just for them. So I would start there. If you are new to fitness and you have never trained before, and you're like, my gosh, what am I gonna do? So many gyms nowadays have these really awesome circuits, all weight.
Machines, they all usually have pictures on them and they tell you how to do them. That is where I would tell someone to start. Usually they have an employee on staff that will show you how to set them up. They might have like a class that they would walk you through it. If you were going to do it on your own, I would do that. I at functional fitness we do a lot of like your body is the machine and we move you in space that you would actually use. This will still be a good starting point. The reason that we don't we don't really have any machines at the gym, the reason we don't do that is because in our life we aren't typically using one muscle at
The time. We don't isolate anything. We use everything in together in a nice flowy pattern. But if you are just getting started, this is completely acceptable. The machines are great. They have a number. Some of them are gonna be 10, 20, 30, some of them are gonna be one, two, three, whatever. Don't worry about what those numbers are. It's not that we don't need to get crazy. You need to know what you do on each machine over week over week, but you don't necessarily need to know how much the weight is.
You
need to do three sets. That means you will do three rounds of eight to twelve reps. If you do eight reps the first week at level one and it felt hard, next week you try and do ten. The week after that, you try to do twelve. The week after that, you increase it to two, and then you start at eight. Like it can be very simple. Or you do three sets of ten. If you could do 15 reps, you need more weight.
Heidi (09:03)
Mm.
Ashley Anderson (09:03)
Three sets of 10, if you can do 15 reps, you add more weight. It can be done either way, very, very simple. And that's just like a very simple breakdown. If I mean, I'm not telling you to use Chat GPT, but I will say that if you just needed basic strength training, like I want a full-body workout to do that's all machines.
give me the sets and reps, Chat GPT is gonna tell you literally probably what I just did. It's really it's so silly. This is the difference of like finding a workout and like how we work with clients as coaches. Like we change your weights, we change your sets and reps, we change your program. Our clients change workouts every four to six weeks depending on their performance. So they're getting different exercise variety. we talk about different ranges of motion, different planes of motion, like we do a lot of that kind of stuff with our clients. In this case, like this is very simple. The other thing is gonna be joining a group fitness class.
You have most of them are free. I mean Silver Sneakers is gonna be a great option if you qualify and you can in your gym allows you to go to him. any other group fitness class that uses weights.
Cardio classes and weight classes are going to be different. So you want something, also, I think using the heaviest weights possible, I would rather see you have to stop because it's too heavy than you feel like you could do the class for another 30 minutes when it finishes. So I'd rather you stop, be like, I burnt myself out, than being like, man, I could do this for 75 years. so decide that. but those are kind of like the basics. And then if you're you're like the investment.
I have been training for almost 20 years. This is my grown-up job. And my dad's friends always ask when I'm gonna be get a grown-up job. And I'm like, Well, I I own a gym now. Is that grown up enough? They're like, Well, you're still a trainer. And I'm like, You're you're totally right. I am still a trainer. That's what I do.
In the previous episode I talked about, I've had clients that have worked with me five, six years. So like my clients stay, and the lot of reason they stay isn't necessarily that they can't do it on their own or stuff like that. My job is to progress you in the most effective and the safest way possible. Hey, you're ready for this. Hey, let's back this off today. I'm gonna have a pretty good idea of, hey, I noticed this today, let's switch this exercise. I'm gonna help eliminate the risk of injury and the risk of error. I'm going to change your workouts when you're ready to progress.
I'm gonna give you more weight, or I'm gonna take weight away. Those are all things that we know when we practice. And we don't just practice on you, we practice on the other hundred or so people that come into the gym and every week. So there's a lot of that. True the benefit of a trainer is they're going to get you on the most direct possible way to get there. You can get there on yourself, but you're probably gonna get there a little slower. there's research studies that have been done for people that joined the gym in January, and if they hit their New Year's resolution goals by the end of the year. Clients that do not work with
With
trainer, only 20% of them hit their goal. Clients that do work with a trainer, 80% of them hit their goal.
Heidi (11:54)
Well, and
I wanna touch on that because I think and I don't know if this is just my age. I'm fifty seven, but I guess in my mind I always thought, you get a personal trainer when you're trying to lose weight or you you wanna like I don't wanna say bulk up, but like you wanna you wanna build build muscle, I guess. And and I think it's well, right, right. And that's the
Ashley Anderson (12:14)
You should wanna build muscle. What are you talking about?
Heidi (12:17)
thing. I think th I think it's like a really old
school mentality that I've had and I've realized it's like, yeah, I do want muscle now, especially. I mean, I never had to think about it before. And now I'm like, I have to actually do something because my lifestyle was very active before. And I do have the body type that just tends to hold on to muscle longer. I was a athlete my whole life up until I guess when I moved to New York City I stopped being an athlete. But I was walking everywhere. But something you touched on in in your last our last episode is that
that muscle, and muscle memory, I call it old muscle. It's like you've had it for so long that it stays with you longer and you don't have to work on it as much, you know. My husband, he was like a I don't know what he used to he used to do power judo and and lifting and, you know, huge arms. And he hasn't been able to do a lot because of different shoulder surgeries and injuries. And I'm like, but you still have all this muscle and it's been like four years. Like what it's I call it old muscle, but but the mentality about
getting a trainer has shifted for me over the years because I'm realizing it's not it's a it's about living your life, having that quality of life. And I think having that trainer there to guide you makes so much sense. And then you can reach your goals because your goals are going to change. I mean, I don't know where I got the idea. I like, it's just for, you know, power lifting and weight loss. I don't know.
Ashley Anderson (13:45)
but
so this is and and you're probably not the only one. So many people think of that. Hiring a trainer is about efficiency. We all only have so many hours in our day. And how we break those down out of how we break down those hours is gonna be different from person to person. We all have the same twenty four hours. You're right, we all have twenty four hours. How we use them is gonna be thing. I don't know about you.
but like how many people here they have a job and they have kids or they have a parent that they're caring for or they have their own a business or they have insert all of those things and maybe they have a side hustle because they're trying to leave their whatever it is.
Time is money. Hands down. In in the money might be I'm watching TV and I want that hour. But if you were doing it yourself, in that hour, you would have to decide what you were gonna do for your workout. You're gonna dis have to decide the sets and reps, and you're gonna have to decide how you're gonna how hard you're gonna work out yourself, and you're gonna have to decide that you're gonna go to the gym. Do you wanna know what my clients have to do? Walk in the door.
Heidi (14:40)
Yeah, I like
I love that.
Ashley Anderson (14:41)
made
every other decision for them. You're gonna ride the bike for this long and you're gonna do these four warm-up exercises and then we're gonna do this for your strength and this for your power and this for your core. They don't have to make a single decision. And let's be real, I don't ever want to have to pick what's for dinner ever again in my life. I'm so sick of that decision. Now imagine if I felt that way about the gym.
I will also say I have been coaching for a long time. I do not write my own workouts. Why? Because I'm only gonna do exercises that I like. If I like cardio, I'm just gonna run on a treadmill or do the elliptical, because I like it. I just like to deadlift and do shoulder press, which means I would never do a push-up and I would never do a row and I would never do squats. Ugh, I would never do squats for real. But because I have a coach, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna work everything like I was intended to do in the most efficient way possible. My coach's goal is.
is
to like get me out of the gym in this amount of time. Like I one of my employees started writing my workouts and I'm like, hey, these these are the rules for my workouts. Otherwise I'm not gonna do them. His job is to make sure I do them. Like, isn't that like that's the whole point? Like if I'm holding myself accountable, I'm not gonna do it. Like it's I literally told him today. I had my I did my first port first couple parts of my workout and I had two parts left. I had walking lunges and these rows with TRX straps and you all don't need to know what that is, but I had to do these. And I said
If I wrote this work out I would quit.
Heidi (16:06)
Fair. That's fair.
Ashley Anderson (16:07)
Like and like that is like I am relatively motivated. I love how I feel after I work out, but like honestly, there was a lot of stuff I I'm getting ready to go on vacation. Like there's a lot of stuff I want to get done. I have work stuff, like get stuff done at home. Like it would have been so easy to not do it, but guess who was sitting in the room while I did my workout? The person that wrote it. June wanna know what that means. I completed said workout because he saw me do it. So like there is a huge benefit of just having a coach for the accountability. And I have tons of clients that are fit.
Like I could tell you, like, I have lots of clients that fit. Like, not training for everything. I got a man that's in his 60s and has six backups. And he is not afraid to show you. Promise you, he's not afraid to show you. But he trains with me because one, injuries keep popping up and we're 60, and recovering from them is not the same as they were when he was 25. And like, boom, how do I help you? Also, he hit a plateau. He's like, I just keep doing this. Like, literally, I think he came to me and he'd been doing the same exact workout program for the last six months. I'm like, okay, so you don't move.
You don't do any lateral lunges, you don't do this. Everything since he's been training three months, everything has improved since he's gotten started. Like and it's it's so simple. Like, and that's where having a trainer comes in, whether you're super fit or you have never trained a day in your life, is how do we get there the quickest? How do we stay there? How do we make it better? How do we if something's bothering you, you come in and you're doing squats and you're like, my knee really hurts today. If you are training by yourself, you're probably not gonna squat. Well, if I have a coach, I'm gonna be like my knee hurts, and my coach is gonna be like, okay, let's try.
Try
this. We're gonna walk through a minimum of three to four things to try and make your knee feel better that day. Not in three days. Then you
Heidi (17:43)
Yeah, and that's amazing. Yeah.
Ashley Anderson (17:45)
can't you can't get that with an online trainer. You can't get that when you're doing it by yourself, unless you know and you've researched. The other thing is, is if you have been working out for a long time and you've only been training yourself, you only have yourself as a research subject.
Heidi (17:58)
Right.
Ashley Anderson (17:59)
I have trained hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the last handful of in the last however many years I've been doing this. Like, and I've trained myself. And I know what this feels like. Because like I understand, and that's some of it is like the whole idea is that we're just supposed to make the process easier. And you don't need to keep a
Heidi (18:14)
Right.
Ashley Anderson (18:14)
trainer forever. But there are some benefits when you've worked with a trainer for a long time and they know, hey, this or this is going on. Or for my cycling females, hey, I know you're on day one of your cycle. What what kind of adjustments do we make because you're not feeling great today? Or hey, I know that you know you're kids.
Just moved away for college, your youngest one did, and this is gonna be your first time in the gym, and like it's gonna be a rough day. Why don't you just come in and move and hang out? it is about finding what you need. it's so much about relationships and like having that trust. And like, my job is to know what you need,
imagine training other coaches to do that. And I'm seeing it more
and more, but it is really hard. the more you watch people move the faster you can pick those things out.
Heidi (18:52)
I would think too there's some intuitive nature to it, you know.
Ashley Anderson (18:55)
I don't know. Like I I agree, but then it's like it's still science. Like it it really is.
Heidi (19:01)
Well, and intuition is yeah, and I think
there's there's science to back up that intuition is backed in science. So it's kind
Ashley Anderson (19:06)
Well and
Heidi (19:08)
of interesting.
Ashley Anderson (19:09)
but now that we say that, we can perfectly segue into talking about your GI is your second brain, and that's where a lot of your intuition comes from and that's where it all goes together if your gut isn't right, do you have good bacteria or bad bacteria, do you have H. pylori and like
can get into all deep, nerdy nutrition stuff. But if your gut isn't doing things appropriately, your intuition decreases.
Heidi (19:32)
Believe that.
Ashley Anderson (19:33)
So because it is your second brain, and if you are having struggles, GI hormones, that kind of stuff, it can be a big thing. so in functional nutritional therapy.
I did a huge certification. It was like a nine-month course. We went in person. We did all of this stuff. So I can actually do hands-on nutritional testing. I don't typically do it, but I can pull it out it's a lot of like, hey, this is going on, let's look at this or that.
But
with that, we basically break down the pillars. Like here are your foundations, and you had to use the word foundations earlier. So we have like our foundations of nutrition. diet is the very first one. And then we run into GI healing. lifestyle is in there, blood sugar regulation is in there. And then like fats, vitamins, and minerals. Those are like kind of like your foundation and that like how we break them down. But
you know, with a client, when most people come in and this is goes back to majoring in the minors, like, what does your day look like? Do you know how many times someone gives me their day? They had coffee for breakfast, they grabbed a wrap for lunch, and they went out for dinner. And they had Mexican. Mexican to me is pretty low end bad eating out. it's peppers, onions and protein with
Heidi (20:38)
Depends on depends on what you order.
Ashley Anderson (20:41)
chia sauce. So let's not if we're not yeah
Okay, so that is their vegetable for the day. They didn't have one on the wrap. They just had coffee for breakfast and they're like, I don't know why I feel like crap. I go, because you are underfueled.
That's how I look at nutrition. I can go deep and we can go into microbiome and run these labs and here's your testing and and I do lab testing with clients. But at the end of the day, when I really look at nutrition with clients is we're not eating enough whole foods. We're not eating enough variety. research studies have said the average American eats 17 different foods on a weekly basis. Seventeen. And guys at the top of the list is flour, corn, and like soy.
Those are like in everybody's list. for quantity. And then you're gonna run into like the chicken and the beef and then you the one fruit or one vegetable that people eat on the regular basis. And then after that it's like literally processed ingredients. It's it's really, really insane and really really hard. So if we're looking at diet and we've really we wanna age well and all that kind of stuff, I don't know like where do we wanna start? Water. We'll start with water, because I I just think it's so easy.
Heidi (21:44)
my favorite. That's
that's my favorite. I've done I mean, it solves almost every it solves headaches. It it solves constipation sometimes.
Ashley Anderson (21:50)
Okay.
Heidi (21:52)
It's like
Ashley Anderson (21:51)
Don't even get me started on the headaches.
Like I am at the age where I have a headache. Why do I have a headache? How much water have I had to drink? Did I sleep well last night? Did I do this? Did I do this? Before I decide that I'm gonna take something for a headache. It's ridiculous, but it is. Water is a some symptom to most things. If you have arthritis, if you are dealing with joint pain, if you are dealing with most of us are not drinking enough water. and you can get water from food, like fruits and vegetables, yes, but half your body weight in ounces is a very simple starting point. I
Highly recommend water before coffee in the morning. At least eight ounces. Take your supplements before you do that. Like, great way to get you some water first. Otherwise, the first thing you're doing in your body is you're putting in coffee, which we know that coffee is a diuretic. It's going to flush you. I don't have an issue with it. I know coffee has water. Also, don't have an issue with that. I just think we probably need to hydrate a little bit first. So there.
It
Heidi (22:42)
Yeah, that's my dad actually taught
us that when we were kids. we would get up and have a big glass of water before we did anything else. So I have one on my nightstand.
Ashley Anderson (22:50)
Hydrate, satiate, caffeinate. That's like my hands down rule for myself. I have to drink something, I have to eat something, and then I may have coffee. And the reason I do this is like so many people, if I have coffee, I like think I'm full. And that is really it.
Heidi (23:03)
True.
Ashley Anderson (23:04)
Like I think I'm full. And depending on when you work out during the day, I'm gonna work out relatively earlier in the day. I need to be fueled to have a good workout. So I'm just gonna encourage that we try and get something to eat. what that is, I mean you're a grown-up, pick your choices, I mean we can
Do a whole dive into that too. So that's gonna be like water. Water is gonna be number one. Most of us aren't getting enough. Do you need an electrolyte supplement? Maybe. I mean, you in the south, in Mississippi, if you are active and you are outside, yes, I would recommend an electrolyte supplement. but necessary, not even in the top five, ten of supplements that I would recommend for someone. I do carry it at the gym, I do like it. if you're a terrible water drinker and electrolytes flavor is gonna help you drink more water. I'm definitely gonna get behind that. So there is that as well.
the next one is going to be variety of color. when I do a full-week log and I'm analyzing a client's nutrition, I write Roy G biv across the top and I go through every day and I tally to see what colors of the rainbow they eat.
Chicken goes into yellow, and regular foods go in as well. So if you have salmon, I'm gonna mark it in orange. And if you have tuna, I'm gonna mark it in red. And like all foods have colors, okay? So everybody's gonna get put somewhere, because they belong somewhere. So I'm gonna go through and I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna look and see if there's an area that you're missing.
People are usually missing at least three colors. That's like half the rainbow. Like, come on, we don't even have a rainbow if we're missing half the colors. So, one, we're gonna work on adding those foods in, and I'm gonna work on foods that you're actually going to eat. So, this is I don't wanna eat spinach. You guys, I think spinach tastes like freaking metal. Like it tastes like iron to me. I don't really eat spinach. You do not need to eat spinach to be healthy. So we can find foods that you like. If you don't like vegetables, we start with fruits. Like we can grow and transfer and progress through these things and then try.
Try new things and a lot of reasons you don't like something is because you haven't had it cooked a way that you like, or my mom thinks boiled Brussels sprouts are a good idea. Disgusting. and I don't know if my mom ever met salt or pepper as a kid, so like nothing was all that good. So
Heidi (25:04)
Wait, wait, did we have the same childhood? No.
Ashley Anderson (25:06)
Well, I grew up in the Midwest. Did you grow up in the Midwest? Okay, so pretty glu Yes.
Heidi (25:09)
I grew up in upstate New York, so it's almost the same thing. my husband
will cook something and he'll make a joke and he's like, there's your flavorless dinner, Mom, he takes off the seasoning
Ashley Anderson (25:18)
I'm really bad about it. I'm better now than I probably ever have. My husband gives me such a hard time because he grew up in the Midwest, but his parents, his mom is a seasoner. Like she gives me a recipe and I'm like, okay, so how much seasoning? She's well, just whatever's on there. And she's like, no, no, no. And then she'll like be making it with me and she'll put like four times the I'm like, that is not the recipe you gave me. She's I don't use a recipe, it's just a guideline. So, like, cooking and baking are not the same. Cooking, recipes are just guidelines. Baking, follow the rules as intended. I my mom's a baker, so like I
have some of that. So
Heidi (25:47)
That's that's accurate.
Ashley Anderson (25:49)
okay let's try things different ways. Let's see if we like them. Like I don't like raw carrots but I love cooked carrots. You know so how do you like something to be able to enjoy it? So finding ways to like stuff that maybe you didn't like before but getting a variety throughout the week and every day.
like the rule of every meal should have a fruit or a vegetable. And if you're going to have a snack, it should be a fruit or a vegetable. And you can have whatever else with it. I want to have popcorn. I'm not going to call it corn a vegetable. Guys, we're going to stay off that. But so if I'm going to have popcorn, because that's my go-to, I'm going to have to have some fruit with it.
Heidi (26:21)
Yeah, I I I call it raw
or fresh every meal. just have something raw or fresh. And I don't care if it's a couple pieces of lettuce or a couple baby carrots, whatever it is, raw so you get those raw enzymes into you, you know, something like that. And I actually have sometimes yeah, raw you c you can borrow that. It's like Yeah, raw or fresh
Ashley Anderson (26:36)
Love that. I like it. I like it.
Heidi (26:41)
every meal. 'Cause you can do it literally every meal, even if it's like a couple grape tomatoes or a half of an apple or a
Ashley Anderson (26:46)
handful of grapes.
Like it could be so simple. Can you fit in your
Heidi (26:50)
yeah, simple.
Ashley Anderson (26:50)
hand and put it in your mouth? Boom, and then you can have whatever.
Heidi (26:53)
I know
my kids were listening sometimes because they would say, Look, mom, they'd send me a picture raw and fresh in every meal. I have a Tower garden, I grow a lot of greens and they're it's in my kitchen and sometimes we'll have a meal that it'll have vegetables but they're not raw. And so I'll just go to the Tower and I'll grab a few pieces of lettuce and just eat that. I mean, it sounds silly, but we need those enzymes from the raw food and it's not complicated. It's it's so simple.
Ashley Anderson (27:16)
We do. We do. No. But that's the thing. Majoring
in the minors. We want to worry about if apples have too much sugar in them. But when really
re what really what you should be worrying about is did you have enough fiber today? Which
Matter of fact, an apple has fiber in it, so you should probably eat the apple. Like, that's where that's where my major and the minors always comes from.
Heidi (27:37)
Yes.
Ashley Anderson (27:37)
so with the fruits and vegetables, I'm going to say, like, the variety, the rainbow, that kind of stuff. The other one is going to be fiber, especially if you are someone that is dealing with hormone stuff. Men, if you're having weird testosterone symptoms or you're at high estrogen, women, if you're dealing with estrogen, progesterone, perimenopause, menopause, if you are not getting your
Fiber, you are going to have problems. You need to have water so you don't move it. But fiber feeds your good gut good gut bacteria. So we need good gut bacteria because it helps get rid of the bad stuff, but it also helps elimination and all this other stuff. If you're not eating fiber, you are probably not eliminating enough of the excess hormones you have in your body as well, and our body reabsorbs them, which can make all of your symptoms seem worse. Fiber is so great, and
Heidi (28:20)
I just
learned that about about the hormones, about the body will reabsorb them. I'm like, wait, what? I can't remember where I heard that. it might have been Candace who was on episode six. I I don't remember who told me that, but I was like, You're kidding. I had no idea. I'm a huge fan
Ashley Anderson (28:35)
Yeah. Yeah.
Heidi (28:37)
of fiber. I mean, for, you know, diabetics and just slowing down blood sugar and
Ashley Anderson (28:41)
Everybody probably needs more. I mean there is too much.
Too.
Heidi (28:46)
But well yeah
to your point, if you're not eating the fruits and vegetables, you're not getting enough fiber, period.
Ashley Anderson (28:53)
this is the crazy thing, and I tell everyone, you can do a couple tablespoons of chia seed and do a chia seed pudding. You can add blackberries on top, and I eat blackberries by the pint because they are super high fiber. Also, they taste delicious. you can almost hit 20 grams just like that. And that's it. I say the number is 14 grams of fiber for a thousand calories. the average female, probably in our age range, we're gonna say like 1600 to 2,000 calories in a day, so you need somewhere.
between 20 to 30 grams of fiber. So men, you're gonna be a little bit more because your calorie count is gonna be like 2,000 to 25 to 3,000, depending on where you are and what your testosterone levels are looking like. But that's gonna be, you know, 25 to 35 grams of fiber a day. So like being mindful about that. I don't love to do fiber supplements or food with added fiber because your body just doesn't use it the same way.
But if you eat enough whole foods like fruits and vegetables and if you're a protein shake person, put chia seeds and flax seeds in it, boom, like I've solved half your problems right there. Like you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. but those are kind of my go-tos. and then I'm gonna bring creatine into because I'll do a little thing on supplements. So I didn't
Heidi (29:55)
Yes.
Ashley Anderson (29:55)
forget, but we're gonna hit this one next. The next one's gonna be protein. And you were talking about like trends.
Protein
is the biggest trend that gives me the biggest headache now.
Heidi (30:05)
Yeah, and I wanna really get
into this
Ashley Anderson (30:07)
if you
scroll down in my Instagram there's a picture of me and I'm holding like a chicken tenderloin and I'm eating it and I said the original protein bar
Protein like I
Heidi (30:18)
It's great.
Ashley Anderson (30:19)
I because it's so true. But here's the thing is we need protein. As we age, the amount of stomach acid we create decreases. This is why actually more people have acid reflux than and than like actually having too much. You actually don't have enough, so you're not breaking down your food so it's sitting in your stomach. What that means is that we are not breaking down our food as well, which means things that are nutritionally dense, protein sources, we're not breaking down as well, which means we're
Not absorbing as much protein that you're eating. You aren't what you eat, you are what you absorb. So if you are not absorbing protein that's sitting in your stomach, you're dealing with that, we actually probably need to be better about breaking down our food. Eating slower, digestive enzymes, potentially even like some zinc hydrozyme, which is what I use for clients that are having digestive issues. But protein is so important, but whole food source of protein. when I look at clients in supplementation for protein, and I think this is like everyone's like, well, I'll have protein chips and
and
I'll have a protein bar and I'll have a protein shake. No more than a third of your diet should come from supplemental protein.
Ideally, if you are aging and your digestion is decreasing, I would tell you a shake is going to be hands down the biggest bang for your buck because it's already broken down. So your absorption will be significantly higher. You will get more use out of it than like a protein bar or some other stuff. I also love ground meats are another great way to get it. Ground chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, ground pork, because it's again broken down better. So your absorption is there. So your body doesn't have as work as hard to break down the protein.
But in a world filled with protein chips and protein bars and protein cupcakes and my least favorite protein Pop-tarts. I love a Pop-Tart. Like this is my like 90s
Heidi (31:57)
Well
Ashley Anderson (31:58)
kid thing. Like I love a Pop-Tart. Protein Pop-Tarts suck. They taste terrible. Like, stop trying to sell them to me. I'm just gonna eat a Pop-Tart and then I'm gonna move on. Like, I think that's
Heidi (32:07)
Yeah, well it's it's
stupid because also a lot of that protein is protein isolate. It's not even the complete protein. That drives me batty I'm like it's not real food. So if you're gonna eat protein and you're gonna eat a protein bar or look at the ingredients. if it's an isolate, you're not getting what you think you're getting.
Ashley Anderson (32:28)
Yes, and then there's a there is a spot where protein isolate is gonna be beneficial. but all in all, like it's like well the cookie's gluten free. Guys, it's still a cookie. A cookie is a cookie, a protein bar is a protein bar. they're not intended to be meals, they're intended to be snacks or used as supplementation to supplement an already high quality diet. So again, this is a majoring in the minors. The major is getting protein at every meal.
Getting fruits and vegetables, and if I'm in a jam and I realize crap, I got stuck in traffic, I have a protein bar, I'm gonna eat this bar, and boom, I'm gonna move on. But this isn't gonna be an everyday occurrence. we want to stay away from stuff like that that is like kind of running us every day where it's not really contributing to our goals. Courtney who works for me, she came in the other day, she got these bars, and she's like, they said they were protein bars, and she didn't read the label, she's kicking herself in the butt. The container had two bars in it, and she's like, She's I want an
And
I was kind of like, that's enough. I don't need any more. And then I read, it wasn't eight grams of protein for one, it was eight grams of protein for both of them. Manufacturers are marketing to you like you do not know how to read a label. So take some time and learn how to read a label because that will be the biggest thing. Or in my sense of the world, eat things that don't have labels. So
Heidi (33:45)
Right. Yeah, if it's got a label I mean that's
the thing. If it's got a label on it, that's the first thing
Ashley Anderson (33:49)
and
Heidi (33:50)
and then how many ingredients are on the label?
Ashley Anderson (33:53)
Reeses for a while had like gluten-free on them or something like that. Like, of course they are. It is chocolate and peanut butter. maybe we should talk about what gluten-free is. Gluten-free is in wheat, rye, barley. It is a grain product. Of course it's not in a Reese's. So, like I think that like that's just one
Heidi (34:08)
Right. yeah. That yeah.
Ashley Anderson (34:10)
of the other things. People don't even know what it is. They're like, but gluten-free it makes it healthy.
Stamping labels on foods like that does not make it healthy. It makes it safe for someone who has celiac. It makes
Heidi (34:20)
Right.
Ashley Anderson (34:21)
it safe for someone who is dairy-free. Like, so just not thinking like, this has no dairy in it, it that doesn't automatically make it healthy. It just means that someone who has a lactose intolerance can eat it. Like, that's all it means.
Heidi (34:32)
Right. Right. I'm a I'm a big
fan of rating labels. My husband when I met him, the my husband that I'm married to now, he w was not. And so we've been together now I should know how long, but I don't tw five almost five years, I think. I don't know. But he'll come home and he's so cute, he'll come home and he's like, Look, honey, it's only got three ingredients.
And then usually if it's just got three ingredients, I don't even have to look to see what they are. But I I still do. But if it and not everything that he buys is, clean or, three ingredients, but
Ashley Anderson (35:09)
Okay, but
I'm pretty sure Diet Coke only has three ingredients. I mean, like I'm just like just to play devil's advocate, but like that's that's kind of the thing
Heidi (35:13)
k fair, fair point. Yeah.
Ashley Anderson (35:17)
is like knowing and like I drink Diet Coke's my god.
Heidi (35:21)
Well,
Ashley Anderson (35:21)
I know it's so bad. So like you can make your
Heidi (35:21)
mine is marshmallows. Ugh, I love marshmallows.
Ashley Anderson (35:24)
own marshmallows and very deliciously as well. So I'll have to share that recipe with you. But
Heidi (35:27)
I need to. I need to do that.
Ashley Anderson (35:30)
the thing is you could have things that you enjoy that it's not worth it for you to give up. But there's other places that you can make changes to feel better, to have more energy, to do all of these things. And like it's okay to keep some stuff that you enjoy, like alcohol or I'm gonna have a monster, or coffee, like all of those things can be non-contributors to your goal.
it's okay to keep stuff that you enjoy.
Unless it's really becoming a detriment to your health. So like just know like, yeah, this isn't healthy, but like, okay, well, hey, I can have this because I'm doing all of these other things. So there's
Heidi (36:02)
Right.
Ashley Anderson (36:03)
a little bit of give and take too, because perfectionism to health on some of these standards can be the thief of joy. And I've seen it so much that being in the holistic world, and like that's where like the hard part is, like, the gym is very aesthetic based and the holistic world is very health-based. Like, my god, I can't believe you're doing that thing. And I'm kind of like, you gotta.
Find
a happy place in both of them, and like we don't want perfectionism. I never miss a workout. I literally work at 110% in every gym session, or I never eat processed sugar ever in my life, and I don't have a seed oil because I never eat in a restaurant. Like, guys, I live in an imperfect world. I will eat in a restaurant and I'm not gonna ask them what they cook my food in. I'm just gonna order my food and I'm gonna move on. And I like I might ask for insert something instead of something else. Like, hey, will you not put sour cream on my plate? I'd rather have guacamole, like whatever it is.
But
Heidi (36:51)
Yeah.
Ashley Anderson (36:52)
like it doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be better. Like
Heidi (36:56)
And it's gotta be integrated,
like you said. the integration is important because you can't outrun your fork. I grew up in a household that was very strict and we did not have sugar in the house. Like we there were things we just did not have and I rebelled. I turned sixteen and I started to drive. I would drive to high school, I'd stop by the bakery on the way, I'd get three donuts and a candy bar, and that's what I ate.
basically for two years straight. Except I'd sometimes eat a meal because I worked in a restaurant. I lived on my own at seventeen. and then my health tanked, of course. But you've got to have that integration. You can't be all one or the other because we are you know, we're a holistic unit.
Ashley Anderson (37:35)
Exactly. Well and this is this
is where really where like you know, parents what you teach your kids is super valuable and I really just think about like my parents did a great job. I ate very little variety as a kid, like corn, green beans, and peas. That was my version of vegetables. I eat significantly more now and I enjoy them. But my parents, like our dinners were a protein, a vegetable, and a potato. Like always a potato. I'm a true Midwesterner. I don't think I really
Ate rice until I was in high school. So I don't even think I ate Asian food until I was in high school. Like I was a very picky eater as a child. My siblings were the same, if not worse. But at lunch, we would get a Hostess because they made Hostess stuff in the town There was the little the bakery there. So at lunch we would have that, but we didn't get another dessert. You had it at lunch. we were allowed some, but we were given limitations.
I never went on some crazy bender and have like fifty-five things. Like this is what I had and I had that today and now I have to move on. and I will say I'm very lucky. my mom was never on a diet, she was never saying these things and like that kind of stuff. So like I have a very healthy relationship with food. but it is hard and I work with tons of clients that like their relationship with food and the things they've been told about food, like food is not good or bad. It's fuel and sometimes it's fuel for your soul and sometimes it's fuel for your brain and sometimes it's fuel
for your muscles and different foods fuel different things. So what are you trying to fuel and what is the objective of the meal? Because there's a huge like mental component to that where if I'm like, okay, hey, you can't have dessert.
Okay, well, I love ice cream and I'm probably only gonna be dreaming ice cream Instead of that, I just eat the ice cream and then I move on. I don't keep ice cream at my house. I have to leave my house to get it, but I can still have ice cream. no food's off limits. Unless, if your celiac, like really probably don't eat bread, I wouldn't recommend it. But like no food is really off limits. what are our boundaries with that thing need to be? Can you have it in your house? can you get it in a one time serving?
kind of thing. Like, what does it need to look like for those boundaries to for you to be successful with feeling better and having more energy and sleeping better? Or you know what does my protein need to look like? There's so many little intricacies for each individual person. And it's kind of finding like what is the strategy that best serves me at this moment? It's not always going to be the same strategy every time too like and there's so many different ways you can look at it.
Heidi (39:51)
Yeah, and it changes
when you get into midlife. your taste buds change our bodies are constantly changing and asking for different things and needing different things. And I had a discovery, I think it was about ten years ago when I became a certified health coach and it was I I I'm like, Well, I eat really healthy and compared to a lot of people
Especially in the South, I was eating relatively healthy, I was not eating a lot of sugar, very little dairy until I finally stopped dairy altogether. That's the whole thing with my sinuses. But took me like ten years to finally stop it. But there was an epiphany the moment where I realized what I'm leaving out is just as important w as what I'm putting in.
And so even though what I was putting in was pretty healthy, I was leaving out all these fruits and vegetables, you know, and I I started really counting how many I was eating and I thought I had the variety. And then my kids were worse. Like they, you know, zero to two. You know, I hear I'm thinking, we are good, we are healthy eat you we were the healthy eaters and and no, I mean we were missing so much and it was the same things. Again, you know, the they would eat like baby carrots and
little tomatoes or you know, things just same thing over and over. And we ended up side note, we ended up getting on Juice Plus nine years ago and I haven't missed a day since except when I had my colonoscopy at fifty. But it bridged that gap because I was really missing and I love vegetables, but even when I started adding up what I was eating, it's just so hard to get that rainbow like you were saying. And I love that you put, you know, the salmon ha you know, you you give it a color. And because
I think when we think about eat the rainbow, it's not just fruits and vegetables. But I mean that's important too, like the dark berries, the blackberries and
Ashley Anderson (41:38)
Mm-hmm.
Heidi (41:39)
you know, the the darker the better and but anyway I had that moment where I'm like, you know, I'm eating well, but I'm also not eating all the good stuff that I need to eat and it's it made such a difference.
Ashley Anderson (41:52)
So when I do food sensitivity testing, this is when I see it the most because so you have green foods, yellow foods, red foods. and yellow foods you go through a period with you with you not eating them and then you add them back in. But it's like a rotation of how frequently you can have them. So I like to just like every food should be on rotation. And this could be seasonally, what fruits and vegetables are in season locally right now for you. You should eat them. Or every week, like this week is a blackberry week and next week is a raspberry week, and the week after that a strawberries.
Then
we do blueberries and you could do a nice little rotation through the berry. So it's a different berry every week. And then it could be the god-sized serving. Every fruit that has a god-sized serving. An orange, an apple, a pear, a banana. Those are god-sized servings. One serving is the thing. Okay, boom, that's our second fruit. And then maybe we'll do like mini fruits. So like one week is peaches, one week is nectarines, one week is plums, one week is I can't even think kiwis. Boom, there's your there's
Heidi (42:45)
I love that.
Ashley Anderson (42:46)
your mini ones. So now you have your mini fruit, you have a berry, and you have a god-sized serving. Those are your three fruits for the week. Very simple, very easy.
Ta-da, now we're gonna eat through them. So like you can make it simple and then like okay, hey, this week we're having these are our vegetables and like maybe it's a mixed variety. and then the other thing is it's like
If you're not gonna eat them fresh, buy them frozen. I like we got so
Heidi (43:07)
yeah. Big fan.
Ashley Anderson (43:08)
down, for some reason we got so down on frozen vegetables or canned vegetables. I promise you, a can is better than no vegetables. Frozen is better than no vegetables, like
Heidi (43:14)
Right. There's a mm-hmm.
Ashley Anderson (43:17)
and fruits. Like and I mean honestly, if you're going to the the grocery store and you're like, man, the blueberries suck, buy frozen ones. what?
Heidi (43:23)
Yeah. You know, there's there's that hierarchy.
It's like an apple off the t off of the tree is the purest f form of food that you could eat. And then, you know, you c you make applesauce. Okay. It's gone through one one kind of processing
Ashley Anderson (43:35)
Yep.
Heidi (43:36)
and then you have an apple pie. I'm a huge fan of frozen foods because you can't always get things for a number of reasons. Even if it's in season you can't always get it. So and and
Ashley Anderson (43:45)
Yep.
Heidi (43:45)
I think that's a really good point that you said about
switching it out, you know, like this week we're gonna eat peaches or whatever. And that variety does not have to be every single day 'cause you're not gonna hit on those things every single day. And I think that that's where I know
Ashley Anderson (44:00)
Well, a day
doesn't even give you the picture. And I think that sometimes we forget
Heidi (44:03)
Right.
Ashley Anderson (44:03)
that. Like, well I did really good today and I go, Great. It's like one day isn't gonna be the make or break. I mean, one
Heidi (44:10)
Right.
Ashley Anderson (44:10)
day might can actually break you, but it's never gonna be enough to make you. So if you do really good with your nutrition Monday through Friday and you blow it on Saturday and Sunday, you blew it. Like you blew the whole week. Like I'm like I'm not saying this 'cause like that's man, but guys I've worked with clients for a long time. If you blow two days, you blew the whole week. Cause let's be real. On
the
Heidi (44:30)
Yeah.
Ashley Anderson (44:30)
Weeks that you're blowing it, you don't count, and you know, as the longer I do it, the things that you measure, you manage. If you don't manage, you don't measure. You don't
Heidi (44:36)
Mm.
Ashley Anderson (44:37)
measure, you don't manage. so like if you want to do better with your nutrition, you need to track it. Whether that's a food app, whether that's writing it down, whether it's taking pictures, whatever that is. But if you track it, you will know if you did well. I like logging because I think it gives you some consistency and some ownership and like getting to learn like the quantity of how much you're actually eating. But with
Workouts. If you go to the gym and you do squats and you don't know what weight you use, and next week you start at the same weight you did the week before, or you start with less weight because you didn't pay attention, well, you're not really progressing yourself forward. So, like, all of it is hey, this is what I did last week. This is how I'm gonna do it a little bit better this week, and a little bit better next week, and maybe the next week I'm gonna drop back a little bit because then I'm not feeling all that great, and then I'm gonna bring myself back up. It's not a direct, like I mean, a dropping line or a rising line. I always go down because I'm always
Thinking like weight loss, we go down. There is a point where you kind of stay steady, and maybe you go up and then you go back down, and it's like more like going down a ski slope with you know, there's a mogul here, and I gotta go around it, or I gotta go above it, or whatever. Like, it's not a direct, like, we are not downhill skiing, like, you are not straight down like alpine, like you are not doing that. There are curves and there are changes, and that is what the journey of health and wellness looks like. It's you know, like if you're hiking up, well, sometimes you gotta go around the boulder, sometimes you gotta
climb over it and that makes it a little harder so it takes a little longer. Like any analogy works but it's always it's not as direct a path as we want it to be.
Heidi (46:08)
Absolutely.
I mean nothing in life is really linear. That's I'm learning. That's like nothing. this is a perfect place to stop because we're bringing it back around to where we started, which was tracking what you're doing. Figure out a way I love the Fitbit, the watch for your your steps and your activity. You know, do more today than you did yesterday. And then writing down what you're eating. You cannot
Miss it if you're writing down what you eat. Now it's you might miss what you're not getting, but you certainly can't miss what you are putting in your body. If you're having Coke twice a day, you're gonna see that you're having a Coca-Cola twice a day. you're not gonna see what you're not getting necessarily without really looking at it. But right. Yeah.
Ashley Anderson (46:50)
No, but then you but then you analyze it. You look at the information and then you intake it. And then
and then if you don't want to do that, that's why you have a coach.
they look at your information, they say, based on this, this is what I see.
Heidi (47:00)
Yeah. And
there's something really nice about taking that mental load off just to say, Okay, whew, I it's this not my my area of expertise, so I'm gonna show up and I'm just gonna be told what to do. Because I got the the food part down good, but boy, I'll tell you, when I decided I was gonna build muscle, I you know, I was literally doing all the research and watching videos and I'm like, I don't really know what to do.
One of my really good friends is a massage therapist and she would say, you need to pressure roll or something on your
Ashley Anderson (47:29)
Mm-hmm.
Heidi (47:30)
your peck or your this or that I'm like, I don't even know what body part that is.
Ashley Anderson (47:33)
I like tell people stuff and they're like You never use the big words and I'm like, Okay, you know the big words. I have a client and he was a former military medic and talks in terms I'm like, no one knows what that is. Stop using that word. And he goes,
Heidi (47:46)
Nope. Yeah.
Ashley Anderson (47:48)
You know what it is? I go, Yeah, but I don't wanna have to break out of the scientific method to have a conversation with you. I just wanna conversate with you. I want to talk in terms where people are gonna understand and it's going to
to
make sense. Like, hey, I want you to do right here. And we were like, okay, cool. I can do that.
Heidi (48:02)
Yeah.
Ashley Anderson (48:02)
I will show you, say it, and then you will do it. that is, it is super simple. as you were saying before, it makes me think of what do I need to do? I honestly just think of Beauty and the Beast and the song Be Our Guest. come on in, sit on down, and we'll provide the rest. that is really like how it is intended
To be is that just walk in and have someone else help you.
you go to the doctor to have someone else to help you. some of you don't go to the doctor and you wonder why you don't feel great, but like, okay, you don't want to know the doctor, that's cool. I will you can come see me and I'll tell you if you need to go see a doctor because I will send you there so fast it's not even funny. but I think there is like this like come in and like build yourself some space, and that space can be in the gym, and maybe it's with a trainer, maybe it's getting started on your own. But I promise you, going in and walking on the treadmill for 10 minutes is gonna.
be
better than you sitting on your couch. 50% in the gym is better than 0% on your couch. So like
Heidi (48:56)
Good point. Good point. And yeah.
Ashley Anderson (48:58)
really when it comes down to it's do more, and this is just like the oversimplification. Move more.
Heidi (49:05)
Move more. Yeah.
Ashley Anderson (49:06)
Be conscious about what you're putting in your body. and I can break it down, like we could go way more in depth too, if you want. But I just I want it to be simple.
check the box. if you had a list and like I want to eat two vegetables today, two fruits, I want to walk 7,500 steps, and I want to do 10 squats and 10 push-ups. And you checked the box, I promise you, that will move the needle. And then tomorrow, maybe it's a little bit more. Maybe it's the exact same list, and you do that same list for the next week, and then the next week you're gonna.
add doing a hip raise and you're gonna do 10 hip raises. You're gonna do 10 squats, 10 hip raises, 10 push-ups. Like boom ta-da. you're gonna do that for a week and then you're gonna add another thing. it doesn't need to be fancy.
Heidi (49:46)
I actually did a
checklist for myself and I had these little boxes and I put it into one of those plastic sleeves, a paper am I call it
Ashley Anderson (49:54)
Yeah, paper a page protector?
Heidi (49:56)
a page protector, yes. And I got out my dry erase marker and I would just check it off and then at the end of the day I would erase it. I mean I could see what I did or didn't do and that was helpful because I would forget. Yep.
Ashley Anderson (50:09)
Monthly calendar, three
colors. All you need is a monthly calendar and three colors. Or stickers, I don't care. You can use whatever you want. you need to check if you hit your steps, you need to check if you log your food, you need to check if you strength train.
Heidi (50:23)
I
like that.
Ashley Anderson (50:23)
At the end of the month,
you can count it up. 8 to 12 strength training sessions, 28 out of 30 days, 25 out of 30 days of hitting your steps. And I I'd like to see like 90% on nutrition, whatever that number is, of logging. I expect some days where you're gonna miss, but you should be logging. Even if you're making poor choices, you should log because it does hold you accountable to what you're gonna do the other day. and then guess what? You see it visually. It can be at your desk at home, it can be on your refrigerator, it could be in your bathroom mirror, wherever you want to.
to put it, but there's something powerful about checking the box or adding a sticker and it I don't care if you are 22 or you are 52 I love a sticker book.
Heidi (51:02)
I found a neat way to help my mom k track her water intake 'cause she doesn't like water. And you know those poppet things? They're like you know, you can Yeah, the little kid
Ashley Anderson (51:09)
Mm-hmm. Like the little kid fidget toy?
Heidi (51:12)
fidget toys and I found one in the shape of an ice cream cone 'cause she loves ice cream and that's how we've been tracking it because otherwise she'll be like, no, I'm drinking a lot I can walk by in the middle of the day and see where she's at because otherwise
Ashley Anderson (51:25)
rubber bands on your water bottle. However many
Heidi (51:27)
I I love that
Ashley Anderson (51:28)
times you want to start however many times you want to fill it up in a day, that's how much water you need to drink. You put all those rubber bands on and as the day goes on you take your rubber bands off as you refill it. That is another one
that I love and it's super simple. and even better, having just a drinking vessel that you want to drink out of.
Heidi (51:43)
That's true. I that's
Ashley Anderson (51:44)
a cup you
Heidi (51:44)
true.
Ashley Anderson (51:44)
enjoy to drink out of will make you drink more water.
Heidi (51:47)
That's true.
Ashley Anderson (51:48)
I mean as I have a water bottle on my desk. this is a lot harder to track because people don't actually pay attention to how many they have. So
Heidi (51:54)
Right.
Ashley Anderson (51:55)
you know whatever whatever works for you. I do find like the same drinking thing. I love the little Poppet idea. I'm totally going to use that with a couple clients. I actually might even buy a couple for some of my clients that are really that really struggle with water.
Heidi (52:06)
Yeah, they had
like a bulk a bunch of them and I thought I I'm w I'm willing to try anything 'cause she can't pass out again. I mean she was just collapsed a couple months ago. And it's like I'm trying
Ashley Anderson (52:13)
That's awful.
Heidi (52:14)
to keep track of the water. And I did the rubber band, but then she would well, she has early stage dementia. So if it doesn't make sense in that moment, she won't do it. So sh she likes the pop it thing and then but the rubber band she would she would roll the rubber band down as she was drinking it.
So then she's thinking that she's already drank it. So or I think she's already drank it. So I'm like, I don't know if it's up or down or I ugh, it got so bad. but the rubber band is really, a great way to to track. So I love that. again, keeping it simple, you know.
Ashley Anderson (52:43)
I love it. I love it. It's super fun. Keep it simple, silly goose.
Heidi (52:49)
Gosh,
yeah, absolutely. So thank you so much for taking the time. And we we covered
Ashley Anderson (52:53)
Of course.
Heidi (52:54)
so much. I'm so glad that this is gonna be recorded. And Ashley's gonna stick around for another episode. We are gonna actually talk about something that is really common and very
challenging for a lot of people that I know and that is fertility and infertility and the journey that she's been on. So if you can relate to that, I encourage you to tune in.
also if you want to reach Ashley, all of her information will be in the show notes. If you are on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I'd be getting my butt over there. Go have a visit. Let them take care of all the details. It sounds pretty good to me right now. So all right. Thanks so much, Ashley, for taking the time and
Ashley Anderson (53:35)
Of course!
Heidi (53:36)
and sharing everything.
Heidi (53:41)
Thank you so much for listening to the whole episode with Ashley. if you're looking for the conversation that we had prior to this, that's in episode 13 where we talk about having the energy and the strength to follow through with your dreams as we get older.
And if the conversation on fertility and infertility is something that speaks to you, that's in episode 18. So I encourage you to go back and listen to both of those. Ashley is truly so open and honest, and I found our conversations very inspiring on all levels. if you are watching, you will notice that.
There is a completely new background. So I am coming to you from the new Evolving Together podcast studio. And it's in a 1985 renovated airstream. And if you like renovation projects and things like that, go to the YouTube channel, Evolving.Together.podcast, and check out the whole process from beginning to end, including some of the very unexpected things that happened along the way.
And now it's time for the patron shout outs. I have two patrons who joined the Evolving Together Patreon. It's Vahab Namjo and Jamilee Notman Thank you guys so much for being a part of the Evolving Together Patreon. And also, if you are looking to bridge the gap between what you eat and what you know you need to eat regarding fruits and vegetables, and you want to get your hands on some Juice Plus like I did over nine years ago.
The link is in the show notes. It is my daily go-to in less than a minute. And I know it's something good for me no matter how crazy my day gets. I know I'm getting fruits and vegetables into my diet every single day. I can't say enough about it. In fact, I love it so much I became an affiliate So again, that link is in the show notes for Juice Plus.
I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Thank you so much for being here.
Heidi (55:33)
and now for the disclaimer. This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as professional advice. The views expressed are our own and should not be taken as medical, legal, or financial guidance. always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.
By listening you agree that we are not liable for any actions taken based on this content.