[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Welcome to the Game Changer Unlocked, where we dive into stories, strategies and mindsets that help people unlock their full potential. I'm your host, Brian Fetzer. And today our guests, we have two of them. We have Dr. Megan park and Heather Wolcott, a national board certified health and wellness coach, functional health coach, personal trainer, sports nutrition specialist, and holistic nutritionist man with over 25 years of experience helping clients reach their health goals. Heather's known for helping people get to the root cause of their health challenges by focusing on four pillars of wellness, sleep, stress, movement, and nutrition. Also, she's deeply passionate about longevity and really preventing cognitive decline through strength and lifestyle habits. You know, in this first segment, we're going to, you know, step back and kind of explore Heather's journey and see how it all started and, you know, what way she's helped shape women in building sustainable health.
Heather, I'm excited to have you on and, you know, your approach, you know, focuses on simple, sustainable habits that, you know, really create long term transformation, which is so key, you know, but without the perfection, you know, or kind of extremes, you know, what led you into coaching and kind of functional nutrition?
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Well, I've been passionate about health and wellness for a really, really long time. And my undergrad in college is actually education.
So I love teaching and I love educating people. That's really, really important to me and I did that for a few years. But my passion was wellness and health and nutrition and fitness.
So I got into holistic nutrition. I've done that for a really long time.
I got into coaching more recently because what I learned was people weren't listening to me when I just fire hose them with a lot of information.
So when I would put these elaborate plans together for my clients with nutrition, and here are your meals these days and this is what I want you to do and here's your shopping list. And I gave them a lot of information and I was just kind of really just forcing a lot of stuff at them. They would get back to me and ask me a million questions and I'm like, did you even look at your plan? Did you look at your notes? And when I moved into actual coaching, I realized that it's more of a conversation and I see my clients more often and we were able to break things down. And I could still educate, but I could also listen to what they were more interested in really working on instead of just throwing what I think they needed to know at them. So the coaching pieces is the newer part, but I've been working with People for a really long time. Because I think when you have your health and you have mental health, physical health, spiritual health, health is more than just one thing. It fill. It trickles into every aspect of your life. It's going to transfer into how you perform at your job. It's going to transfer and how you show up for your family. So you show up for your spouse, you show up for your friends. So I think wellness and health are, are critical factors of, of life in general.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: I've heard you make the statement that this, Your work is more of a calling than a career, which I think is a really important statement. Can you explain kind of a little bit more about what that means?
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, I mean, we always hear. To hear people say, you know, you're.
Follow your passion and you know, if you, if you love your job, it's not a job. And that's, that's great. I think my calling, I think I've really been gifted in being able to take big concepts and break them down for people. And I'm just very passionate about health. I'm very passionate about people living at their full potential in all aspects of their life. And I grew up, my mom was sick a lot. I saw her go in and out of the hospital.
Different surgeries, some different diagnosis. She had a long story. When she was in high school, she had spinal meningitis which scarred her brain tissue. So she has something called diabetes insipidus. And now my mom has Alzheimer's. But I've watched over the course of my life how her health impacted different aspects of her life. And it was really impressionable on me through middle school, through high school, and then going into college.
So I think when we talk about a calling and we think about what's important to us, you look at how your life has been impacted by, you know, a circumstance in your own life.
And if you can do something to change the trajectory for other people and for myself. So I'd say it's a calling because it's, it's important to me on a really personal core level.
But I also think I've been gifted. Just the curiosity to learn more about my topic and to explore and to be continuing educated and work with people in any capacity that I can.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: You just cut you earlier you mentioned about, you know, you kind of changed from kind of giving advice to actually coaching somebody.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: You know, was there an early, like, client story that kind of shaped the way you coached? Is there anything that kind of like, made you pivot or change your thought process? A little bit.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Well, yeah, it's so funny. I remember years ago, like probably about 10 years ago now, I was working with this gal. I met with her several times. I was really just doing nutrition with her, consulting, consulting, consulting. And I had sent her these beautifully written out notes. I mean, it was pages of notes and all this information.
And she would just constantly email me and text me and ask me question after question. I'm like, are you even listening to what I'm. What I'm. Did you even read. It's in your notes. It's in your notes. Did you look your plan? It's in your notes. It's in your notes. And until I sat down with her. I went to her house one day and I sat down with her and we did a, like an in person consult.
And I kind of got a little bit more of her backstory and I learned more about where she was coming from. Her husband works in oncology and very conventional traditional medicine. And we were trying to have a conversation that kind of moved her into some alternative ideas and concepts when it came to how to take care of her health. And I realized that that conversation is far more important than just giving her information.
And that was a pivotal moment. I would say another pivotal moment was not really just a moment, but just the frustration of my clients jumping on fad diets. There's always a look, there's always something right? It's whatever the new book is, whatever the new thing is.
And they would get so distracted and so caught up. And I want to jump from one fad diet to the next fad diet. And I realized again, until we can have a conversation and they can be asked questions that help them have better insight about themselves, and I can ask more thought provoking questions, more reflective questions, we actually made a lot more success and got way further down the line by just unveiling some of those things.
And not just, you want to do this diet, let's do this diet. It's what's important to you, what's the end goal? Where do you see yourself in the future? All those coaching questions that look past just where you are in the moment, but are looking for the future person that they want to become in their health, their wellness, in their job and their lives. And so it was really just seeing how when you change the conversation to have deeper conversations and you have more conversations with people, you can have such a greater impact and they have far greater success. So that would be.
Sue was one gal, and then I've got current clients that when we just make small changes, like really small changes. They domino and they snowball into some really great outcomes for them. And that's really exciting to be a part of. I love it.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Okay, you just said small changes is, is what's a, what's a small change that could create big results for, for somebody?
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Okay, this is my, one of my favorite stories. I've been working with a woman for almost two years now, and she is morbidly obese. She has a lot of weight issues, she has a lot of health issues. And when we started, she really wanted, obviously she wanted to lose weight, and we're working on that. But when I started looking at her, her day to day and her routine and her schedule and she mentioned, I think we started talking about sleep and she mentioned her phone. Well, found out that her phone is in her bedroom. And so we had a conversation about that and we just tried an experiment of let's just put your phone outside the bedroom for a week. Let's just see what happens.
And again, it was that small change. Now this gal wants to lose weight. We're just starting with taking her phone out of the bedroom. It's like, well, how is that even connected? Well, we know that sleep has a huge impact on health outcomes on weight loss, on weight gain, on insulin resistance, on insulin sensitivity. Then her sleep was disrupted because her phone was in her bed in her bedroom. So she moved her phone out of her bedroom, it's into the kitchen, and she started reporting. She's like, I'm sleeping so much better. My brain's shutting off so much earlier.
So that led to her not needing her CPAP machine as frequently because her sleep was, was just better quality sleep, which led to having some wins. So then that led to a little bit more of meal planning and getting her husband on board. And it was just this, you saw this ripple of. She had a win with the phone out of the bedroom, which was really important for her because this is a gal who hasn't had a lot of wins. And she was really proud of herself. So I see her every week, we, I coach her every week. And I, for, I mean, for months, for a really long time, you know, we get on the call, I always ask her what went well this week, what's, you know, what's a win that you had. And, and she would always refer back to, well, my phone's still out of my bedroom. To her, that was really significant. And it was really important that she was able to be consistent and committed to that small behavior change. And now we fast forward a year and a half. She's down a lot of weight. But she has finally seen a doctor that she needed to see for some health conditions.
She's seeing a chiropractor. She's got some structural issues, she's got a back condition.
And she's working with a functional medical practitioner who's able to get to some root cause issues that she's having with her gut health. But I firmly believe it really started with her having the win with just getting the phone out of the bedroom. That is small sustainable things. And it's still out of the bedroom now. It was soda for a while. She hadn't had any soda for a while. And that was another win. And then she kind of fell off the wagon a little bit. But the bed, the phone's a lot bedroom and that's where she's, she just kind of rides that win and it's important to her.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Well, we're going to keep talking about sleep in other segments. I mean, I've got, I've got my ring, which is funny. It's my, on my wedding ring, but it's my aura ring. But it helped me out learning, you know, when I went to bed, when I, you know, did not work out during the day, all those kind of things, those, the normal activities that affected my sleep that I wouldn't even have known if not. And I don't, I mean all my years of coaching, I did not sleep very much. I was a sadly like a four hour a night person. I'd be up late and I'd get up at the crack of dawn. But I've learned myself, they said, small habit of trying to go to bed at the same time every night.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Waking up every single morning at the same time, you know, whether you want to wake up or not. But you're creating that pattern. So I 100% with you on that. That's, that's awesome. Especially the, the wins. I mean, you got to get wins or you're not going to continue doing what you're doing.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Exactly. And I like winning. I like, I like my clients and I'm kind of competitive. So if my clients aren't winning, I will, I will find a win for them. I'll ask enough questions for them to figure out something that went well for them so they can, so we can just build off of a win. I mean wins are so important and you know, in the sports world. Absolutely. It doesn't take, it doesn't have to be a championship win. It just needs to be Be a win. And I ride those. I ride those really far. Yeah.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Hey, we're going to take a short break and up next we're going to get. We're beginning in the practical and powerful, you know, kind of talk about, you know, what are some of the most underrated health tools out there, you know, and walking is going to be one of them. And why that simple movement can create some real results, both physically and also mentally. We'll be back right after this.
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Welcome back to the Game Changer Unlocked. I'm here with Heather Wolcott and we're going to be diving into one of her signature approaches, which I absolutely love and think it's a phenomenal part, is walking as a powerful, really kind of accessible starting point for women who want to rebuild their health.
One of the things you kind of keep in mind that, you know, many women believe they need intense workouts to see results and often it feels, you know, kind of discouraging, you know, they got to maintain these extreme routines. And in this segment, we're going to talk about how simple, constant movement like walking can build momentum, confidence and long term health, but also can kind of develop community, too. I'll let Heather kind of take a little bit on that one. But, you know, how did your walking groups, you know, walking challenges begin and why do they resonate so deeply?
[00:14:16] Speaker A: I love talking about my walking group, so this is exciting for me.
I moved to Nashville in 2021 from Phoenix, Arizona and I, we moved here without knowing anybody. We didn't have a friend. I didn't have. We were nobody. And our realtor was like my first friend. She's awesome. And she was an ultra, well, she is an ultra distance runner, marathon runner, really, really active. So we connected and clicked right off the bat. She was truly my very first friend. And when we first moved and she knew how active I was and she knew, you know, what I did in fitness and in nutrition, she planted the seed. And we moved in the summer of 21 and she said you should start a walking group. And I'm like, who's going to come to my walking group? I don't know anybody.
So that was in the summer of 21, as I got networked and connected and kind of started building my business in the Franklin, Nashville area. I started meeting a lot of people. I was very, very blessed, Made a lot of friends, made a lot of good contacts, started speak. I did some public speaking. I did some webinars.
And I actually had. I had friends, I had a bit of a community.
And when the weather started getting nicer, I just kind of thought, I'm just going to. I'm. Well, rewind it. I would have a lot of meetings with people and ask if they wanted to walk. So there was a park not far from where I live in Brentwood, and instead of sitting at coffee and just sitting for hours and hours or sitting and doing lunch, I would say, do you want to go for. We can just walk and talk.
So I did that a few times with some of these people, and I realized, like, this is a great place. So I found a place like this would be a great place to walk with people. It's a lot of fun. We can get a lot of stuff done. We can have some great conversations. So I kind of put it out there to this networking group and to whoever else I. I knew.
And the first week I had like seven gals show up. The second week, maybe about 10 to 12 women. And then every single week, it was just consistent, whether it was 4, whether it was 12, whether it was 8. But there were people showing up every. Every Wednesday. So it's the Wednesday walking group. And I created a Facebook page. I would just send out a text to, you know, the horrible text thread to like 15 people.
And I wouldn't respond if they could come or not. And it's just something that I committed to. And I said, hey, I'm going to be there on Wednesday walking. We walk for an hour on the path. It's low barrier entry. Anyone can come. You know, just wear walking shoes, bring some water. And people are coming every single week. So I ran it from April to November. The weather starts not getting so nice out here and very unpredictable. And when it was done over the winter, I had people asking me, are you going to do the walking group again next spring? And I was like, sure, I guess this is a thing now. And so I've done it since 22. So I've done it now five or. Yeah, three summers. And we have consistent people who show up every Week I have people who come when they can. They'll text me and say, hey, I can't make it this week, but I want to be there next week. And it's just this ongoing thing. It's a standing walking group on Wednesday mornings at 8am depending on the school year. In the summer, I change the time. It's been fantastic. It's built community.
It's helped some women get in better shape. It's been the gateway for some people to just get moving again and be inspired to exercise more. I get to have lots of conversations with people. People like to pick my brain on all things health and wellness when we're walking. And I love it. I get to share with them what I know, help them if I can, and just kind of get them excited to come out and walk every week. It's so fun. I love it. It's my favorite thing I do here.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: I mean, I mean, I like taking phone calls, walking, you know, as I, you know, walk through the neighborhood. I'm on a call. I know I'm going to be on a call for, you know, 30, 40 minutes. I don't need a screen or anything like that. It's just an actual call. It's. It's so much easier to do. And those calls go by, you know, so quickly.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: One of the things that I would think of that with that and you mentioned right at the beginning the, the community and having friendships and so forth. I think people nowadays kind of long for that. You know, they want conversation, they want people that they can kind of go hang out with for a little bit. Doesn't have to be long. Do you feel that that's been a big part of it as well, the community aspect?
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Oh, I have so much. If we could just. I could talk for a full hour on all my walking group stories. So I will not do that. But I will share a couple of things.
Yes, I have had. I've been very blessed out here where I've got different pockets of friends. You know, you kind of have your networking friends and I have my kids school friends and I've got my other kids school friends and I've got the baseball team. So I've got lots of pockets of moms and women that I have access to.
And I think my favorite thing is when, you know, people show up in the parking lot on Wednesdays to walk. And most of them don't know each other. They might know. They come in pairs. These two know each other. These two know each other. Everybody knows me. So everyone Knows me, but I can't walk with everybody because, you know, it's a path. And we kind of pair off and break off into twos and threes just based on the space.
But what I've seen over and over and over again is where someone from, you know, this part of my life ends up with someone from this part of my life, and they end up just walking and talking for an hour and make a connection. And then the next week when, you know, they come back again, they might end up choosing to walk and continue their conversation from last week. Or, you know, hey, how did this go? How did your call go? What happened with your husband's job? Or how was your kid? Or did that party go well? And so you start seeing these other connections form. It's nice for me because I'm seeing it from all these different areas of my life. Everyone kind of merged together and overlap. And where I get. Sometimes I forget, like, how do you guys know each other? And like, oh, from the walking group, I'm like, oh, that's right. Like, I forgot how we were all connected.
So that's been really great. 1. One quick story on community on. On the walking group is there was a gal who came her first time, and I know her from a network, from a networking group I'm in. And there's another gal I know from the same networking group, but those. These two had never met. And Doris is a fast walker. So I'm a bit of a fast walker. I will slow down and walk with anybody, but if you want to keep my pace, then you're my person. So I usually walk a little faster, and so does Doris. Well, Regina was new this time, and they had never met. I introduced them, I said, oh, you guys are both in this group, blah, blah, blah. And Doris stayed back and walked with Regina. Regina was definitely a slower pace. She was not very conditioned in a much, much slower pace. And we get back in the parking lot, the two of them are exchanging phone numbers, and they're hugging, and they're making a coffee date for the next week. And I'm like, that's amazing. And they both sent me texts and said, I'm so glad I showed up. And I walked with doors. I walked with Regina, fast forward. Those two have now formed a business together. They're co. They have a podcast together. They're co hosts for a podcast that's been pretty successful, and they have just flourished. And it all started because Doris decided to stay back and walk at Regina's pace. And now they're like best friends. And I mean, that stuff happens on a regular basis where two people connect and then something comes out of it and I love it. That just, it makes me feel so good. I love, I love that part. And so it's powerful. I think when you walk beside somebody, we all know this, when you walk side by side, it's a little bit more of a comfortable situation. You don't have to look them straight in the eye. You're not trying to make conversation. It's a little different when you have coffee or lunch with someone and you're sitting face to face and you're just kind of like, you're just right there. But being able to walk and talk and not have to make direct eye contact, I think makes it easier to open up, just to share, to feel a little bit more relaxed. So I love, I love the community part of it.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: I started thinking about that would probably work a lot better with women because if guys went on a walk together, we would just walk. We probably wouldn't say anything. We would just, I don't know, I.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Don'T know, have a walking group. I think it depends on what they're looking for and what they're there for. I think it's also, why are these women coming to the walking group? Are they coming just to walk? If so, they could put headphones on and do that. Sure. Somewhere else, you know, they're coming because they know other people are going to be there. And yes, women like to talk. Like we're, you know, we can solve a lot of problems on a, on a walk. Let me tell you, we have solved some big problems.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: I can appreciate that.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: But I think men would show up with the interest of camaraderie and I don't know. And in Arizona, guys would go hiking together all the time. It might not be as chatty as the gals, but I think if you're going there with the intention to meet people, you figure it out. They might be a little more quiet, but I think if they really just wanted to not talk to anybody, they put headphones on and go somewhere else.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: I can understand that.
Let's, let's kind of tie in two different subjects. One we're going to talk about a little bit later or right in the next segment, but how to kind of walking and strength training kind of work together on that kind of long term health journey.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Yes. So I'm a big fan of walking, but you cannot walk and get as fit as you need to get. So walking has a lot, a lot of perks a lot of benefits, but it's not the only thing you need to do.
It's important.
The other component is strength training and I think we're going to talk about that a little bit more.
What I love about balancing the two is that first of all, anyone can walk. When people feel like they have to run and they have to. Now I do like sprints. I think sprints are really important. That's kind of the next level. You need to kind of work up to sprints. So that's different than just going for a jog or going for a long distance run.
Anyone and everyone, everyone walks every day. So it's a low barrier to entry, to moving your body, to improving circulation, to clearing your mind. I love when people walk outside more than a treadmill, but I'll take a treadmill if that's just how they get started and then they want to do something outside.
But it really helps reduce stress.
Whereas when you start going into something like going on longer runs or going jogging, you know, for exercise, for cardio, right. It's just you're raising your cortisol, you're getting more of a stress response. It's harder to sustain, it's a little harder on your joints. Not everybody will loves running. It's harder to do that with people. Now running groups are really popular. So people have found a running group that they love and that's their community. That's great. Those are those people. But that's not everybody. When it comes to strength training. You're creating a different adaptation on your body, right? It's, it's tension, it's load, it's weight bearing.
You're stimulating a different pathway in your hormone profile. You know, you're, you're triggering muscle protein synthesis, you're building a structure. Walking and strength training together I think are a great combination just for overall well rounded fitness and cardiovascular. I mean you can I walk a pretty fast pace. I mean you can walk at a, at a good clip and get your heart rate up and, and make use of your time and, and your exercise. But it helps balance out the strength training.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Phenomenal. Hey, coming up next, we're going to be talking more about the deeper layers of health, nutrition mindset and really how Heather's kind of built a brand that empowers women way beyond the scale.
Coming up soon on the Game Changer Unlocked.
Welcome back to the Game Changer Unlocked. In this segment with Heather Wolcott, we're going to exploring the bigger picture. Nutrition, mindset, longevity and what it really takes to build confidence in sustainable health, specifically with women.
You know, as many women feel frustrated by, you know, changing of their bodies and conflicting nutrition advice and really past diet failures. You know, everybody's trying to do these fads.
So Heather, you know of the four pillars, Sleep, stress, movement, nutrition, where should, where should a woman begin?
[00:25:50] Speaker A: Well, if you ask your average woman where she should begin, she's going to say, I know I need to eat less and exercise more, I need to move more. Because that's the message that they've been told. Yeah, I like to start with looking at the big picture. What was their whole life look like? So we have to put stress into this bucket as well because stress is one of those pillars. But when it looks to, when I look at behaviors and lifestyle routines, when they've got going on, I always go back to sleep.
Sleep is our, I mean, it's a pillar of health, but I always say it's like the first domino of wellness. So if your sleep is not good, your diet, your nutrition, the way you move, the quality of your movement, your risk of injury and then your stress are all going to be impacted by that. Sleep is so, so important. I've spoken on this topic probably more than I've spoken on nutrition and strength training, to be honest with you, and exercise. Because if their sleep is just, if they're not sleeping well, if they're not sleeping long enough, it doesn't really matter because they're going to struggle in those other three areas of their life.
So I always dial in with sleep and when we're talking about sleep, look, everyone has a different situation. People have family lives. Some people have little kids, people have older kids, empty nesters, they've got a spouse whose sleep schedule kind of doesn't coincide with their super great. I've had to deal with couples in their sleep situations as well. But if we can get that dialed in and start with their a sleep routine and looking at what they're doing, what they're not doing, and we look at timing of meals, I look at how much time they're getting outside. You know, we're looking at circadian entrainment, circadian rhythmicity, and trying to get that circadian rhythm going into a nice consistent pattern, then we can get sleep locked in and then we can address some of these other issues. So it's, it really is where I need to start with everybody.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: You just mentioned nutrition. And you know, how does, how do you approach nutrition? Like kind of for the real, real life? I mean there's, there's Nutrition that people talk about. And then there's actual factual. This is going to actually work for real life. You know, husband, wife, family.
How do you start with that?
[00:27:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, the key is you just have to start with where people are. I mean, I've worked with people who.
I worked with this guy who sent me a food journal, and this is probably over about 20 years ago, he sent me his food journal because everyone keeps a food journal. And that's kind of the. I just need to see. It's like opening the kimono. I just need to see what. What's reality. I don't want you to tell me what you think you should be eating or I don't want you to eat, you know, anything special this week. But before I meet with somebody, it's like I need to see three to five days of what you actually eat, when you're eating and what this looks like. So I have to meet them where they are. I have a guy send me a food journal and there were three days of food, or it wasn't even food. I mean, everything was out of a bat. It was like chips and donuts and coffees and sodas. I mean, that was every single thing that was on there. So I needed to start with what is realistic for this guy? Why is this the only thing that he's eating? Does he have access to other food? Does he just not like to cook?
So you have to meet people where they are. So the reality is where are they and then what their goal is. So I get a lot of people whose goal are. It's to lose weight. I mean, that's common, is they want to lose weight in some capacity. Okay, but we need to look at again what you're eating when you're eating it.
Is it restaurant food? Are you cooking it? Do you like to cook? Who's cooking your food? There's so. It's very, very complex. So when we talk about nutrition and the real deal nutrition, the real do nutrition is who my client is and then what are they going to eat? Because I could tell them that they need to eat more of something and they might not. It's what. What are they able to do? What are they going to comply to and then how important is it? So that's where the coaching comes in to play is how important is this goal to you overall? Because if it's really important, I'm going to expect you to be a little bit more willing to get out of your comfort zone. I'm a little bit. I'm going to expect you to, you know, if you don't like cooking, you're going to figure this out. Let's find a few things that you can cook, that you like to cook. Let's find some recipes that are manageable for you, that you can vary so that you can have success, that you can have a win in this area. If I set someone up with a food plan and give them some suggested, you know, meal ideas and it is so far from where they are or their reality, they're not going to have a win, I'm not going to have a win. And it's just, it's more frustrating. I didn't help them and I wasn't of service to them at all. So when I look at nutrition now, obviously we're looking at whole foods, less processed foods, getting enough protein in. I don't get too crazy about macros right at first, but we definitely want to look at protein targets. We're definitely going to zero in on protein. I want to make sure carbs and fats are in a healthy place for this person. But have to look at their activity level, have to look at, you know, do they have any food sensitivities? What's their gut health like? So it's, I always say it depends. People ask me nutrition questions whenever I speak publicly.
I get asked nutrition questions all the time. I get question asked questions all the time on everything. And I think I answer every question with it depends. So it depends. That's my answer.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: No, that, that is true because everybody is built differently. Everybody's lifestyle is a little different. Everybody's with what you just said, what they like. You know, you're not going to tell somebody to keep eating something that they don't like and don't enjoy because they're not going to do it. It's, to me, common sense is a good approach on a lot of things, for sure.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: So, hey, let's, let's shift to strength training. And I want to ask this specifically for women over 40.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: Why is it important for a female to do some kind of resistance or strength training? You know, after that 40 year old mark?
[00:31:37] Speaker A: It's important for lots of reasons.
One, let's just get the elephant out of the room. And it's, it's hormones. So as women go through perimenopause and into menopause and that age that, that timeline can be like 35 to about 52 is the average age of perimenopause. It is a big window. And what that means is hormone production starting to decline. It doesn't mean they shut off, but they start declining. And when we look at muscle and bone and body composition, we see these body composition changes starting to happen and they start shifting in the wrong way. Right. Women are putting on more body fat. They're losing muscle.
So we have to look at what are the things that stimulate muscle and bone. Well, you've got mechanical, which is going to be strength training. You've got hormones, and you've got chemical, which would be food. That's kind of how I break it down with women. So you have your hormones, you've got exercise and movement and strength training and. And your nutrition. There's me, the stimulus, the, the things that are going to trigger the body composition changes as hormones decline. We rely a little bit more on the nutrition piece and the strength training piece, the muscle piece, because the estrogen, testosterone, which are both anabolic hormones, they help us maintain our muscle mass and our bone. They're starting to decline. So we have to start send a strong signal. I use the word signal a lot with my clients, so they understand and I, I refer to both nutrition and exercise often as you need to bang the gong. Like you need to sound a. Send a loud signal. It needs to be the gong, not like a little symbol. It needs to be a gong. So when we're looking at strength training, we're looking at two things. We're looking at skeletal muscle and we're looking at the skeletal system, and we're looking at bone.
I tell women that the bones they have when they're 40 are going to determine the bones they have when they're 70, and they're more likely to fall and break something. So if you're not doing anything in your 40s, I mean, really late 30s, 40s, into your 50s, to make sure you're building bone and you're building muscle, it's not going to happen when you're 60 or 70. You're just going to start deteriorating. We lose a percentage of muscle and bone every year. Once we start hitting perimenopause, really about age 30, age 35. So we're only losing at that point. If we're constantly losing, we have to do something that's going to create a signal to build and to gain it back. So strength training, we're looking at heavy lifting. It doesn't mean it always has to be heavy, but it needs to be heavy for that person and it should be phased. So I like phasing people through different training programs so that they're getting different rep Ranges and different stimulus. They're banging the gong in a different way.
But we're looking at sending a signal to the body to build and maintain muscle mass. That process is called muscle protein synthesis. And we, we can trigger and bang that gong for muscle protein synthesis mps by lifting weights and sending it signal that way and also through eating enough protein in one sitting. So nutrition and strength training are, are really. They're paired up together because they're going to have a synergistic, complimentary effect on each other. So when we're strength training, we're in our 40s, we're looking at building muscle, we're looking at controlled weight training, we're looking at big, I like big compound movements. For women, we're looking at squatting, overhead, pressing. It's really very basic. When I write programs for people, we're doing basic movements under different loads. So it's a squat, it's a hinge, an overhead or a vertical press, a vertical pull, a horizontal press and a horizontal pole and then some rotation in there. And if we can just work through those movement patterns and those exercises that, that do that, women are going to be set up for better success in not falling, not breaking a hip, not getting injured than if they were just to maybe only do cardio, which a lot of women at age 40 think they need to do. They think they need to up their cardio. Upping your cardio is the opposite of building your body. It's the opposite of strength training because it's creating a stress response which breaks tissue down. It's just really high cortisol.
So strength training is going to build the muscle and then we're looking at the bone. I always say muscles and bones are sisters. So as one gets stronger and bigger, so so did the other. So we're looking at our bone density, our quality of bone density as well. And that's going to come from that.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Weight bearing that is so crucial. And you're right. I see so many women that come to the gym where I work out, they go straight upstairs to, to the cardio room and they're on it and they come down and they don't ever, you know, kind of hit the area where it is. And I'm glad my wife starting to like strength training a little bit more in her own. She's not coming with me, but she's doing in her own.
So, Heather, as we kind of wrap up, this has been incredibly awesome and I we could have talked for a lot longer.
Where can women specifically or their husbands, because they Want to find out how to get their wives, you know, doing things? How can they find you? How can somebody reach out and kind of take the next steps?
[00:36:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm pretty easy to find. So the best way to connect with me that I'll see probably quickest is on Instagram or Facebook. My handle is Heather Johnson Walcott. I still have that made a name attached to that. So it's Heather Johnson Walcott. I'm the same on Facebook as well.
My website's heatherwalkott.com I think my Instagram has more up to date content. I've got reels of my self training. I've got lots of content on Instagram so that's always the best place to reach out. Send me a dm, go to my website. They can send me an email through there or book a free discovery call with me and just get to know me and I get to know them and what they're looking for and how I can help them or if I could direct them. You know, sometimes I'm not the person for, for that, for everybody. But I have a lot of resources, a lot of people that work remotely or virtually. So they don't necessarily have to be in the Franklin or in the Nashville area. Have got doctors and resources across the country.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Well, we get walking groups going all over the place. Heather, thank you for sharing your story and your heart today. To be honest, what stands out to me is that health doesn't have to be extreme to be effective. It can start with something simple, create simple habits and really, you know, believing that you're worth the effort. So hey, stay tuned. Got another great guest. Dr. Megan park is coming up this right after the commercial break.
Welcome back to the game changer Unlocked. Our next guest is Dr. Megan Parks, a chiropractor with more than 17 years experience integrating chiropractic care and functional medicine to help patients kind of achieve lasting whole body wellness.
Dr. Parks is known for her evidence based holistic approach that really empowers people to reduce reliance on medicine and restore balance and you know, live action, you know, fulfill their lives. You know, recognized for her leadership and innovation in her field. You know, she brings both heart and science, you know, to the way she kind of serves her patients. And today we're going to be diving into a powerful idea.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Health.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: It's just per, it isn't just personal, it's kind of a leadership skill really because, you know, your body and brain are running on empty and everything from decision making and confidence to resilience, you know, will really take a hit.
And Dr. Parks, I'm excited to talk and kind of dive in. We've been, you know, early in the segment with Heather, we're talking about women.
So I want to kind of stay with that and say why? You know, many high performing women break down silently. You know, they're kind of appearing to hold everything together. I mean, I know my mother's a strong woman and rarely would let somebody know that.
Why is that?
[00:39:37] Speaker C: You're around strong women. Typically high performing women are going to be a type A personality. They're used to multitasking and not just at work, but at the home life too.
So they constantly are trying to take care of others, meet those crazy deadlines and at the same time they're putting their own needs at the back burner. So unfortunately, and again, your mom was a high performing woman as well.
We don't want to break down in front of others. It's going to appear as weakness. And so we're just going to keep pushing and pushing until unfortunately we're just running on cortisol and stress. And then our body says, I'm done, I can't take anymore.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: When somebody says they're just tired or stressed, is there signs that tell you there's a deeper pattern? It's not really normal stress?
[00:40:31] Speaker C: Absolutely. So normal stress, it's going to have an expiration date. And by that I mean you have big launch, you have a big project.
However, a weekend of getting sleep, you're recovered.
Now when it's, it's a pattern. You get eight hours of sleep, yet you're still waking up feeling tired. You're going to that board meeting with brain fog, you're just not able. You're doing everything right, but you don't feel okay. Again, there's a difference between common and what's normal.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: And when somebody says, you know, my labs are normal, I went and got lab work done. They're normal, but they feel awful.
You know, what pattern are you looking for in stress? Inflammation, gut health? Is there something specific that you would look at?
[00:41:21] Speaker C: Kind of all the above. When we look at and why most people are told that their labs are normal, yet they don't feel good. When you look at the standard range of what normal that they're looking at, it tends to, to be really big, functional. We're looking at it small. And that doesn't mean you have a label. But what it does tell us, think of your check engine light on your car and it's saying, hey, there's a problem. If we don't do something, it could blow. It's the same as your body, and it's same when you're looking at it very, very small, particularly when we are looking at cortisol and thyroid, both areas affecting women a lot.
Cortisol is not a flat line. It should be a bell curve.
So in the morning, you want it to be lower, and then as the day goes, it's going to rise. But then before bed, you want it to go lower. So you need a whole snapshot. You need to figure out what's, what's happening. And when we talk thyroid, thyroid. I used to even be told it took three years for a thyroid to be bad, to show up as normal. And one of my dear friends, she just was diagnosed with Hashimoto's and she told me, well, I don't understand. My thyroid levels are still normal. And here's the thing that is normal in the early stages. What that tells us is her thyroid's still fighting. It's just is eventually going to lose the fight if we don't do something about it.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: That makes complete and total sense. I've heard you say health is a new leadership skill.
[00:42:51] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: How can improving hormones, brain health, or the nervous system kind of change your performance at work?
[00:42:58] Speaker C: That's a great question. So I'm gonna throw myself under the bus and I'll share my story. I had undiagnosed pmdd.
Basically, just think of the Hulk having pms. Yeah, it wasn't Bernie. And what happened was like, again, I am your AAA personality. I also adore people. I'm a people person.
But I am a huge multitasker. I have three screens at work and I wish I had four.
With that being said, I kept pushing off my own health. I kept saying, oh, I can just keep doing this. But I found I was snapping at people for no reason and then instantly feeling bad about it and being ready to cry. And I only have brothers, so crying isn't a thing for me. And so that just made me constantly upset set. So I did what I do with my women now. I started testing. I started putting myself on the protocol that I would do other women experiencing the same thing. And I'm going to tell you, it was a drastic difference. I mean, before, I, as a people person, didn't want to be around people, and I started having a love for that. I was able to focus, I was able to get more done. I was pleasant to be around, not only to others, but to myself. So it truly is. You're. You're coming in with an enjoyment rather saying I don't want to be here.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: You know, one, one thing to ask about is, you know, for, for women speaking about advice that, you know, I hear it all the time and I, I, I disagree with it. But I'd be very curious to hear what your advice is. When it says, you know, hey, work out more, eat less, in for, especially for busy women, kind of take that phrase and give me your perspective.
[00:44:47] Speaker C: Oh, that's a horrible phrase. So, and this is where I have a passion for women because we are really underrepresented in the nutrition and fitness world. So that piece of advice was based off of an 18 year old male. Well, let's be honest, the 18 year old male does not have hormones that go up and down with the cycles.
And so when we're talking specific high performance, busy women who are already stressed, you're telling them to work out more and limit their calories. You're basically putting them in starvation mode and their body's thinking they're being chased by a predator.
It becomes a massive, just might as well put fuel on the fire.
So it's really simple. If you're gonna work out more, I suggest eating more and specifically protein. And if you're going to work out less, I tell you to eat less. But doing it more, it's just going to, your body's going to hold on for every calorie and every fat cell and unfortunately that is going to pack on right into the midsection.
[00:45:53] Speaker B: Let's take a shift now and kind of go to a little bit older female. You know, for women that are kind of navigating the pre menopause, you know, what are the other tests or conversations they should be having with the doctor or you know, someone they confide in?
[00:46:10] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. So I think being just completely open and saying this isn't me, I don't feel right, I don't feel right from my home life, personal life to even my ability to perform my job. Can we run labs? And specifically I would love to see what the thyroid, a full thyroid panels. Doing what Vitamin D, their cortisol and their hormones, whether it be the Dutch test or the humap, which is going to give us an idea of how that cortisol is rising throughout the day or what it's doing. And honestly just being proactive in saying that and having someone who will listen to you.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Well, let me ask you this.
If somebody had 30 days to kind of start feeling better, you know, what would be a simple suggestion that you would go through?
[00:47:00] Speaker C: Sleep, food, movement, perfect sleep, ideally seven to eight hours.
Try, try to get to bed before 10 o'. Clock. I know that that doesn't always happen.
Also shut off your screen time at least an hour before it really does mess with cortisol. It messes with your body to break down and it's gonna actually makes you kind of store fat. So, so I would tell you that nutrition, make sure you're drinking lots of water. Half your body is water. You really do need to replace it with clean water and it also makes your body feel full. I would, I would hit hard on protein. I could probably do a whole episode on protein alone.
But in general most people will agree that you should be hitting about 30 grams of protein a day if you're looking for more weight loss.
And specifically when you said my older women perimenopause, menopause, you need 40 grams. And the reason why estrogen is shown to decrease during that stage, estrogen, even though it gets a bad rap, it, it deals with sensitivity to insulin, it deals with our stress and it also helps break down the protein. So we've got to get more so our body can utilize and break it down. And that's going to make a huge, huge, huge difference when it comes to exercise. Now again, there's a difference between cycling and where you're at or whether you're perimenopause menopause. But if you're in the more perimenopause menopause, I would love to see resistance training coupled with yoga and Tai chi, something that I would say our type A personality struggle with because we just feel like more and more, let's push it. But as I said, that's going to stress us out. And if you are doing a hit workout or if you're doing cardio, I would prefer shorter, like 10, 15 minute workouts. And if you're cycling first half of your cycle, estrogen is going to be higher and it's going to be able to deal with that stress more.
[00:49:01] Speaker B: That's a great. We're going to talk for one more question.
[00:49:04] Speaker C: Perfect.
[00:49:05] Speaker B: If a woman's listening and feels kind of distressed or unseen, you know, what's, what's a, what's the first step that they could take this week to kind of get going?
[00:49:17] Speaker C: First up, I would just say start with your morning, start with how you're showing up. If you're able to go outside and enjoy the sunlight. I'm in Ohio. It's not nice. But if you're able to get that fresh air, get the sunlight, whether you choose to do a devotional or I love gratitude.
You can't be negative. You can't be angry when you're starting your day. Gratitude and looking for things you're grateful for. And just make sure you're getting enough water, especially if you can start the day with 16 ounce of water. You're telling your nervous system, we are fine. We are hydrated and we are in control.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: That's awesome. A too short a time when lots of information.
Where can somebody go find out a little bit more about you and find out how they can get better?
[00:50:11] Speaker C: Perfect. You can go to our website. It's integrated medical grp.com or you can, you can email me. It's Dr. DrPeriod Megan, also@integrated medical grp.com and our phone number is 419-785-4215. If you need any questions or you would want to schedule an appointment.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: Dr. Parks, thank you, really, for reminding us that health really isn't a luxury. It's kind of the foundation of how we lead. We think and we show up, really in every part of our life. If you've been watching and you've been telling yourself this is just how life is now, maybe it's time to take a deeper look. Small, consistent changes can reconnect your body, your brain in powerful ways. And you deserve to feel clear, energized and in control again.
I'd like to thank Dr. Megan Parks and Heather Wolcott for a great episode. I'm Brian Fetzer, and this has been the game changer unlocked, where better conversations lead to better breakthroughs.
