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Welcome to Strength Renewed, the podcast that celebrates new beginnings for women 40 and beyond. This is your go-to space for empowering conversations about building resilience, strength, and confidence—inside and out.
Discover how to fuel your body with good nutrition, train smart, and cultivate a strong mindset to thrive in midlife and beyond. Whether you're navigating hormonal changes, starting (or restarting) your fitness journey, or simply striving to feel your best, Strength Renewed offers expert advice, real-life stories, and actionable strategies to help you live a vibrant, powerful life.
It's never too late to redefine your strength.
Mikki Wiiliden (00:02.401)
Hey Jess, how you doing?
Jess (00:04.44)
Timex, it's countdown time for you. It's countdown time until you run like the wind.
Mikki Wiiliden (00:07.454)
I know.
Mikki Wiiliden (00:11.747)
there'll be no running like the wind. It'll be like trudging through sand. We practiced actually, we practiced the like just moving across sand with our poles and going up sand dunes in the weekend. And my goodness, on Monday, my legs felt toast, like my quads were so sore. And...
Jess (00:27.298)
Mmm. Mmm.
Jess (00:33.308)
my gosh, so you guys literally would go to the bottom of the dune, run up to the top of the dune, walk back down, do it again, like a hill repeat essentially on a dune.
Mikki Wiiliden (00:41.019)
Yes, yep, we, yeah, that's exactly it. And in fact, it wasn't walking down as much as it was like, I don't ski, but you you see skiers sort of ski down with their poles and whatnot. Like that was pretty much what we, what we were doing, which was really great. But there's just a lot of organization going on this week, Jess, and it's not my strong point. So I'm, I'm glad that Barry is staring.
Jess (00:43.767)
Amazing.
Jess (00:49.56)
Yes, yes, yes.
Jess (00:59.778)
Hahaha!
Mikki Wiiliden (01:04.107)
that shit because my goodness I'm like I just need to be told what to do like I like I don't I'm not very good at at sort of being the leader in that sense but I mean
Jess (01:08.913)
Mmm, love that.
Jess (01:14.335)
What is the major source of organization for an event? And just remind everybody pretty much knows what you do, you're an ultra runner, but describe quickly what kind of that entails and what you have to actually prepare for, or bears.
Mikki Wiiliden (01:21.771)
Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (01:28.541)
Yeah, so it's basically, so it's because it's a multi-stage run. This is only the second we've done. So I'm by no means going to act like I'm an expert in this, but they give you like, you've got mandatory gear that you must have to run with. You've got mandatory gear you must have, you know, to be able to exist in the desert, sleep in the desert. You've got mandatory sort of food that in terms of the number of calories that you must carry with you and that you have at camp.
And but all of this has to go within a certain weight so you can't go over and above a certain weight for all of this And this is all needs to be organized by day We need to write lists for each day's food and the calorie total for that day So I mean we've got maybe 50 % of it organized, but there's a lot and so it sort of requires us to sort of just Double down and do it and then of course on top of it as you and I were talking about we've got a range of like programs
Jess (02:18.488)
Mmm.
Mikki Wiiliden (02:28.361)
and stuff that I'm either a part of now or about to launch or about to do once we hit the ground running when we get back so it's you know whenever you take a week out of real life it's not like everything else stops so so yeah there's a bit there's a bit but it's all good it's all good it'll be a relief to get on the plane that's for sure
Jess (02:43.63)
Totally.
Hehehe!
Jess (02:50.892)
That always is, because then I always say to myself, and especially when you're running your own business, like whatever is on my head and whatever I have to do, I'm just like, action decreases anxiety. So I'm moving, I'm doing the thing, and I'm getting closer to whatever that thing is, a product launch or something to my business or a big long run. But I was laughing because I'm like, the amount of mileage that you do doesn't require just like, you know, a handful packets of goo.
Mikki Wiiliden (03:04.074)
Yes.
Mikki Wiiliden (03:09.363)
Yeah.
Jess (03:20.75)
and bars and a banana, you know what I mean? Like my half marathon, right? I'm covered. But it's like you really are looking at every day as the calories in, calories out. It is a whole thing, there's probably, know, every time you go on these, I'm like, okay, and today, right now, she's on mildness. it's kind of a very cool thing.
Mikki Wiiliden (03:22.545)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (03:34.069)
Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (03:46.536)
Yeah, yeah.
I know, in P-
Jess (03:50.956)
Respect and I'm cheering you on.
Mikki Wiiliden (03:52.792)
Oh, thank you. I think people expect that because I, you know, I'm a sports, you know, I work quite a lot in sports nutrition is like 50 % of my business that I will just be have all of it down pat. And the reality is, actually it's a lot of this comes down to experience and it comes down to to clinically working with people as well. So I just had a wonderful conversation on Wikipedia with the sports nutritionist physiologist who helped
Jess (03:57.272)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Mikki Wiiliden (04:22.965)
Ruth Croft and Tom Evans to their win in a really big mountain race. It's one of the biggest in the sport the UTMB last weekend and he was amazing and I think so because so much of nutrition at the longer distance I mean it's all I think physiology plays a massive part regardless, but particularly in a sport like ultra running Like I'm like I'm such a novice compared to the experience that someone like Paul can bring to the sport So you're just forever a student I think as well
Jess (04:30.254)
Mmm.
Mikki Wiiliden (04:52.745)
So it doesn't matter that I am an absolute expert in nutrition This is a whole different field that I've not had a lot of experience in myself. I think that part of that is I find that super interesting as well
Jess (05:08.654)
Oh, I do too. I mean, you're always a student, right? Like that's what makes the best coaches are the best students, you know? But I do, I would love to kind of sit on that because I would love to understand the nutrition piece. And maybe like quickly before we, I have one question for you. What, as a nutritionist, what is your biggest like aha moment? I know this is only your second one, but nutritionally, what was like, okay. That is sort of different than.
Mikki Wiiliden (05:11.104)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (05:29.846)
Mmm.
Jess (05:35.916)
what I might have thought or why I might have assumed, like, what was kind of your aha moment there.
Mikki Wiiliden (05:37.655)
Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (05:41.684)
Yeah, I think it was on this the rest day, you know in my head I'm like cool. I'll be able to make up calories I'll be able to you know, eat a lot of food and it will feel really good but actually I felt so like spent from the the day that we just had on the back of several long days what we had a very long day and then actually I was just so exhausted that I ate a lot but it didn't digest very well and in the end the next day it was awful like I just I stuffed
down breakfast and I shouldn't have I was just like I had terrible like runners diarrhea for the first 10k of a 33k day which was the last day it was very slow anyway and I just remember thinking I so marked that up like I shouldn't have eaten so much yesterday I should have relied more heavily on glucose rather than actual food just getting liquid calories in so my stomach didn't have to digest so that was a really
Jess (06:34.104)
Mmm. Mmm.
Mikki Wiiliden (06:41.527)
big aha and something I'll definitely take with me into this next run. Just that knowledge but also a different tactic as well for the rest day because the rest day will come again after a long day and it will be a longer day because it's in the desert, it's in sand, it's not and it's at altitude so the conditions are tougher but the distance is the same so our 13 hour day ends up being about 20 hours.
Jess (06:59.212)
Hmm.
Jess (07:05.557)
Ugh.
I mean, it's just, it's so unbelievable. The two of my hardest conditions, right? Sand and altitude. But I do think you're right, like, hydrating. And it is kind of a funny little fallacy that people think like, I'm just, I should eat more, right? So that I have more like, to store up basically. Like, but you're right at the end of the day, like, your body's running and it's hard to digest it effectively. And, you know, I imagine that was, I would have probably felt the exact same thing until you don't know.
Mikki Wiiliden (07:16.353)
Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (07:33.321)
Yeah.
Well, because you're resting, so you're like, well, I've got all day just to sit around and eat. Yeah, but my goodness, my stomach did not appreciate that. So that's definitely something which I'll be mindful of this. And so we're more prepared in that realm, I suppose, this time around.
Jess (07:39.288)
Yeah, I've got all day to sit around and eat.
Jess (07:53.986)
Well, it's an interesting tie because you and I also were talking about your race and feeling as we often do. then we were talking about what in my practice, which seems to come up every other day. And that's the conversation around GLP-1s. But I'm always fascinated too about like, obviously I understand what they do. They quiet food noise, they make people eat less. That's essentially how you lose weight. But I'm a little bit interested in the gut.
piece around it, like the actual slowing of digestion. So I know I kind of jump, but it's a little like what you were talking about, right? When you're like running, it's kind of, it's sort of the same thing. You know, your body's an interesting, an interesting, you know, processing machine. And so I guess I'm a little fascinated. Two things, one, when you, you know, when you take the drug, kind of what happens that there's a slower emptying in the gut because it just doesn't digest the food.
Mikki Wiiliden (08:49.078)
Mm-hmm.
Jess (08:51.47)
is quickly, your body's just not digesting in the same way it would, I think, without the medication. And then the other piece to that is there's a lot of talk, let's say you don't take a GLP-1 medication, people talk, which I know is a completely different animal, but they talk about how you can, your body's natural production of GLP, there's something to that nature. So we'll talk about the first one, because it made, when your running story just kind of made me think about the gut.
Mikki Wiiliden (09:09.56)
Mmm.
Mikki Wiiliden (09:18.603)
Yeah.
Jess (09:19.072)
And so I thought about that first. So I don't know if you have any kind of like opinion about that.
Mikki Wiiliden (09:23.297)
And well...
The GLP, so I guess the mechanisms are very different, but that's not your point. Your point was just to sort of like segway into that. So the GLP one absolutely slows digestion. It's one of the major side effects is in fact also a mechanism with which it works. So the GLP acts directly on our nervous system, enteric nervous system actually, which is what's termed the second brain of your gut and on the vagus nerve pathways.
Jess (09:28.589)
Mm-hmm.
Jess (09:53.71)
Hmm.
Mikki Wiiliden (09:53.963)
the signaling sort of it tightens the sphincter at the bottom of your stomach and so it reduces the stomach muscle contractions so food lingers in the stomach longer before trickling into the small intestine. Of course so that's that's sort of how it works and then it's also in addition to that it slows down periostalsis so the movement of food through the intestine so in the small intestine the GLP
sort of dampens down that rhythmic wave that pushes food along the periostalsis. So nutrients are absorbed a little more gradually. And then...
Also, GLP suppresses something called glucagon, is a hormone that normally raises blood sugar. So it suppresses that and it enhances insulin release only when glucose is present. So slower emptying means a gentler, more sustained glucose curve. So there's no sudden sort of spikes or crashes. So these signals...
They reach our brain, our hypothalamus, it reinforces satiety and it reduces appetite. So this is why people who are on a JLP-1 agonist not only digest food more slowly but also feel fuller, faster and for longer. And it might delay gastric emptying by around 30 to 50%. So...
Jess (11:24.147)
Mm-hmm. That's I was wondering.
Mikki Wiiliden (11:26.186)
yeah a meal that normally clears the stomach in two to three hours may actually take about four to five hours and this is this is with
Jess (11:32.418)
Hmm.
Mikki Wiiliden (11:35.573)
like a semaglutide. So when you're looking at a two-zepatide, so a dual agonist looking at GLP and GIP, it may even be more. But so that's super interesting the way that the drug works. Completely different from my nervous system response and lack of appetite due to complete fatigue with running. Yeah.
Jess (11:57.358)
Fascinating right you know what I mean like you're like, but the but the other one but but yet like when you're on the you're running So you're exhausted and you're not you're just not hungry But it's funny how the DLP has this way of like also making you not hungry but the the slower emptying of Food out of the body. I find to be interesting because I wonder what happens when you go off of The drug does your body still just all of a sudden like go back to?
emptying out more efficiently or does it stay in that kind of slower because ultimately you don't really want that. I would guess you wouldn't want it for long periods. You'd still want to have a pretty efficient emptying of the gut system, I'm guessing.
Mikki Wiiliden (12:39.998)
Yeah, as I understand it, this is one of the reasons why people take the drug every week because the effects wear off. Yeah, because the effects wear off, so absolutely it wears off, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Jess (12:47.042)
Hmm. Something going on outside.
Jess (12:54.604)
Mmm.
I guess I didn't think about that. That's interesting. But yes, I just so, so, so the gut is fascinating that the efficiencies of it, both in a person who's not on it and running, but also just like what happens. I think I always think it's really important to understand a drug before you get on it. Cause obviously you're just kind of looking at the end game. I'm going to lose this weight, but I think it's super important to understand. And we don't, don't think people have this conversation.
Mikki Wiiliden (13:05.75)
Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (13:18.849)
Mmm.
Jess (13:25.56)
that frequently. I've even asked them like, you actually know specifically? You should know if you're owning it and you're taking it, that means you're carrying it around in your body. So you should kind of know what's happening, you know, in your body and sort of what, what is actually doing. Cause you just hear the quiet, the food noise, but that kind of sounds vague, you know.
Mikki Wiiliden (13:34.846)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's, that's, I mean, it works differently. Like we were just talking about the gut, it works differently, like it does things to the brain as well, which is the quietening down of the food noise. And that's a separate to what we were just talking about with the gut. Yeah.
Jess (13:52.578)
rate.
Jess (13:59.086)
And then this other piece is, which I understand is very different than the drug, but they're either like just, either I'm hearing a lot now, like, because the GLP, I never, never even ever talked about GLPs, you know I mean? Like in the day and I don't even mean like, and not even just in the medication or the injection, but just in general, like I never talked about it in my body naturally.
Mikki Wiiliden (14:16.729)
Mmm, I know. Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (14:23.937)
Mm.
Mmm.
Jess (14:27.054)
you what I mean? so now you hear this sort of conversation around your body, help your body, you know, produce its natural GLP. I don't know, like maybe do you have any thoughts on that?
Mikki Wiiliden (14:40.278)
Yeah, the thing is like the reality is they're so separate that when I see on Instagram people talking about GLP diets and boost your own GLP naturally it's like it's like the it's it's a completely different concept to taking a medication. A medication will increase GLP in your body, GLP-1 agonist in your body by like by
Jess (14:47.704)
Mm-hmm.
Mikki Wiiliden (15:10.104)
100 fold a thousand fold even some of them and it'll remain elevated at supraphysiologic levels for a week like like legitimately that is it whereas whereas unnatural GLP is Released in response to food will increase two to three times above baseline not a hundred times two to three times above baseline And it'll it lasts for two to three minutes
Jess (15:12.973)
Okay.
Jess (15:30.37)
Mmm.
Jess (15:35.15)
And describe that, like what is lasting for two to three minutes. Okay.
Mikki Wiiliden (15:39.65)
GLP-1 and like yeah, yeah, like the GLP-1 will increase in our body two to three minutes. I mean some of it will...
Some of it will maybe go a little bit longer, but it peaks within an hour. It's not sustained beyond 30 minutes. It's really like, a typical meal is a very short half-life, and then it'll just diminish again. So this is why I just, it grinds my gears when I see coaches on Instagram talk about their GLP-1-based diets. I'm like, mate.
That, that... Tell me every- You've just told me everything you need to tell me about what you don't know about GOP1s. Because it's-
Jess (16:24.942)
Well, this is exactly it. So why are people even saying that then? They're basically just writing the coattails of a drug that makes you essentially lose weight. So they're like, if you don't wanna lose weight, go ahead and just jump on this GLP diet, you know what I mean? Which really is a farce because that's not really a real thing. So they're just using that terminology that half the population, no offense here, really doesn't understand anyways. All we know is that GLPs, think,
Mikki Wiiliden (16:32.78)
Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (16:48.556)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jess (16:53.71)
for the majority of people like help you lose weight. We're not even exactly sure how it does it. Now you just helped people to understand how it does. And now we're gonna take that word and then make a diet out of it, even though it doesn't actually exist. Okay. I mean, we do now, like, I mean, a lot of people don't know. I mean, if you asked them, they wouldn't know how the drug worked. Yeah, yeah. After this conversation, yes, yes, yeah, yeah. 100%, yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (17:04.202)
Yeah, so we do know how it works. Like it's very well... I see what you're saying. I see. So you mean like, professionally as a... Yeah, professionally we know how it works, but...
Yeah, but I think what people are just doing is just marketing. It's just everything. Yeah, it's all it is. It's all it is. you know, people will talk about certain foods increasing your GLP and it's like, well, for 30 minutes, sure. And it might go up two times, maybe three times even, but it is not, it cannot hold a candle against medication. And I think this is the, and people just, unfortunately, it's just, they're emotionally hijacked by the concept that they'll just go,
Jess (17:23.746)
Yes, yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (17:50.359)
just go to anything I think.
Jess (17:52.974)
Hmm. I think that's a perfect way to put it. I think a lot of people are emotionally hijacked. I just want them to, like for any of the conversations that we have, just want people to like be armed with just a little bit of rational hijacking. How about that one? Instead of being emotionally hijacked, I think you should be rationally hijacked. I'm completely coining that terminology, but it's so much better. Cause then when people are, you're in a room or you're somewhere, you're like,
Mikki Wiiliden (17:55.949)
Mm.
Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (18:06.665)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (18:15.095)
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Jess (18:21.742)
No, no, no, I remember what Micky just talked about. This is what this actually is. Hold on to that. You know what I mean? Like it'll give you or you'll root you in this situation. But you did root me because I even even with all the I'm am such I'm such a wonderful, you know, I'm so glad that I got to have a podcast because I'm like also all of the listeners. I'm I'm I'm the person they're marketing to half the freaking time. You know I mean? I'm hearing it. And I'm like, well, let me tune in. Is there a food?
Mikki Wiiliden (18:25.525)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (18:45.785)
Totally, totally.
Yeah.
Jess (18:51.032)
Maybe I'll get the food that's a little higher in GLP oneness, you know? But so I guess there was also like, I needed the like, to the myth to be debunked a little bit because I wasn't sure that that was actually not a thing.
Mikki Wiiliden (18:54.335)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (19:01.689)
Totally.
Yeah, yeah, it's not a thing. if you eat and like, thing is, it's just different language to fundamentally tell us the same things about food that we already know, you know, and it's just speaking to the same audience in a different way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Jess (19:15.022)
Mmm.
Jess (19:20.154)
Mmm. gosh, I love that. That's completely true. No, it's a thing. So moral of the story is there are, the GLP medication is real. You should really understand though what it's actually doing and how you lose the weight, like how it's helping you. And then second, there isn't a GLP diet. And there's not a natural way to produce more GLP in your body either. Or...
Mikki Wiiliden (19:41.429)
Yeah, yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (19:47.545)
not in a meaningful way. So yes, yeah, there are foods that may increase it a little bit more, but not in a meaningful way, the way that these drugs work.
Jess (19:50.421)
not in a meaningful way. Okay.
Jess (19:58.092)
Yeah, you're not gonna eat that and absorb and then yeah, and get to your goals. It is a process, my friend, but I guarantee like Mickey's runs, it'll be worth it in the end. So stick with it. You know what I mean? Like folks, this is like no pun intended. It is the long game. But if you stay with it, you will see results. What are you grateful for?
Mikki Wiiliden (20:00.289)
Yeah, exactly.
Mikki Wiiliden (20:14.004)
It is the long game.
Mikki Wiiliden (20:18.339)
Exactly.
I am grateful that we are on the countdown to this event and so that in a week I will be even closer to that event. Truthfully, it's that point where I can't wait to even to start, to toe the start line. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jess (20:36.972)
Yeah, that's right. That's right. I'm excited. I can't wait to come back with all of the stories of Sand. If there is nothing better than the ready-to-sand, if you really want to kick your ass, just run in Sand for half an hour. It's unbelievable, you know?
Mikki Wiiliden (20:44.345)
I know. I know. Yeah.
Mikki Wiiliden (20:51.513)
I know, I know, yeah, yeah. How about you Jess?
Jess (20:57.726)
I am, I'm always grateful for you. I carry this wisdom. Everybody gets to be the recipient of what we talk about. I'm grateful for that. I love the idea of a continuing empowering people. I think that's very magical, you know, and I'm glad that you're feeling good and you're going to, you're going to hit it hard and it's, good. And I'm getting closer to my goal of a hundred kettlebell snatches on the other side of this coin.
Mikki Wiiliden (21:09.626)
nice I love it
Mikki Wiiliden (21:20.243)
Amazing! Yeah, amazing!
Jess (21:23.69)
I did a set today and I got 50 on one arm and 48 on the other. So progress is happening. That's been a long time. Talk about a goal that I've stayed, you know, stayed with, dear God, for years it's been this. I have just, I'm very humbled by how hard it has been to do it. But I'm glad that I'm almost there. Chippin' away. 53 pounds is not light. I'll see you on the other side, my friend.
Mikki Wiiliden (21:27.949)
That's amazing!
Mikki Wiiliden (21:36.758)
Amazing.
Mikki Wiiliden (21:41.251)
That is so great Jess, so great. Yeah, love it, love it. Alright Jess. No God no. Awesome, see you soon.
Jess (21:53.431)
Bye.