Timeless Health: Where Well-being Knows No Age

Have you ever felt like staying healthy is too time-consuming, especially as a woman over 40? Michelle Rieckman, a distinguished physical therapist, personal trainer, health coach, and yoga instructor, joins us to debunk this myth. She brings a wealth of experience to our chat, providing illuminating insights on maintaining a healthy lifestyle without it consuming your whole day. Michelle emphasizes the significance of muscle mass for metabolism, the trap of short-term diet fixes, and how prevention is always better than cure.

We then navigate the labyrinth of food labels, as Michelle guides us to spot harmful ingredients like added sugars, hydrogenated oils, and trans fats. We also dwell on the advantages of strength training, which doesn’t necessarily require a high-end gym: you can do it at home with just your body weight, bands, or weights. I even reveal how I mastered the art of pull-ups at 40, with just 10 minutes of exercise a day, thrice a week.

Before we bid farewell, Michelle delves into her association with Safe Families, a nonprofit proving that small acts of kindness can make a profound impact. We explore how understanding nutrition and making thoughtful food choices can revolutionize our health. Wrapping up, we introduce you to the Little Give project, encouraging you to connect with us, share videos to our Kindness Clip segment, and join the Little Give TV Show Facebook group. Listen in for a heartwarming conversation teeming with actionable tips for a healthier, happier lifestyle.

https://www.micheleriechman.com

Chapters

• 0:10 Health Coaching for Women Over 40
• 12:07 Promoting Health and Avoiding Harmful Ingredients
• 20:16 Understanding Nutrition and Mindful Food Choices
• 29:33 Strength Training and Short Workouts Benefits
• 35:41 Small Actions and Nonprofit Support
• 42:40 Little Give

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Little Give. Go ahead, meet our guest, tell us where you're from and tell us what you're all about.

Speaker 2: 0:17

Hello, my name is Michelle Rieckman and right now we are living in Phoenix, arizona, so it is hot, hot, hot here. My husband's in the military, so originally from the Midwest, but we have moved here in December. So I am my doctorate in physical therapy and I'm an online personal trainer, health coach and yoga teacher, so I help women over 40 really find a way to get in shape and get healthy without dieting, and I'm also a mom of four, so it's really important for me to keep things simple and keep things quick and effective, because I remember when I had my third child and I was going up a flight of stairs and I was out of breath and I was like I can't live like this. I don't want to live like this. How am I going to be as I get older? So what I did was going up a flight of stairs doesn't take long, so I didn't need to work out very long, so I started with 10 minute workouts and I find a way to keep things simple and quick and get healthy and keep my nutrition healthy. So that is what I love encouraging other people do.

Speaker 2: 1:20

How did you get started with all of that?

Speaker 2: 1:23

Yeah, so even in high school, I started to have a passion for health and wellness and that is what led me to physical therapy. But even why I was in school for physical therapy, I did personal training because I really love the whole prevention side. Right, we want to prevent getting sick, we want to keep our bodies in the best shape that we can. So all throughout my life I'm 41 now for 20 plus years I have loved health and wellness and I think, as we go through these different time periods in our life like obviously having kids or getting new jobs or retiring or moving there are things that shift in our life and we have to shift with that to continue to take care of ourselves. Because, like so many people, it gets so easy to put ourselves on the back burner and not take care of our health, because it takes a long time to develop diabetes or some of these chronic conditions. So we have to step back and see how can we adjust as our life moves so that we can take care of ourselves.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Absolutely. It's reminding me of a book I recently read called Out Live. Have you read that book? I have not. Yeah, it's very interesting. It talks a lot about that, about the health care system is currently set up to where you just treat something when it goes wrong instead of coming up with all the ways to keep it from going wrong, and it's like preventative instead of treating the problem or the issue. So it sounds a lot like what you like to do. Is that correct?

Speaker 2: 2:45

It is. It's totally a pill for an ill in our country right now in our medical field and there's really not a lot placed on prevention. So even though we know people should be exercising and eating more fruits and vegetables and whole foods, it's really not the way our societies set up and really even doctors aren't really given that much information about nutrition and about general health, nor do they really have the time when you go to see a doctor to have a conversation about how you can start changing your habits. So that's really where the power of health coaching comes in and it's not quite integrated into our health care system. There's some doctors offices that might have them, but it's not quite there yet. But hopefully it will be something that continues to grow so our country can really be healthier and feel better and move better.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Absolutely so. What made you want to help people over the age of 40? What got you inspired to help that age group?

Speaker 2: 3:41

Yeah, so one. I love helping moms in general because obviously I'm a mama for and I still have, I'm still in that my kids are 6, 11, 12 and 16. But especially once we get 40 and over, women are also have put themselves on the back burner for a really long time and they don't know how to take care of themselves. They're so used to taking care of other people and by the time you get 40, it starts taking more of a toll. Our bodies don't quite rebound like they used to and also women start to experience hormone changes that affect our bodies and affect the way we feel or sleep, and all that as we age. So I was just sort of drawn to this and also people from that age group were also drawn to me, so I sort of just have dived deeper into that.

Speaker 1: 4:27

It makes perfect sense exactly what you're saying. You're right. You know so often us moms we really are we're just taking care of everybody all the time and trying to make sure everybody just can get through the day and a little time left over to take care of ourselves. So can you give the audience an example of one really big tip for if they're over 40 and they're experiencing any of this?

Speaker 2: 4:47

Yeah. So it depends what direction. But one thing I think people get to is that they've done lots of diets because we look everywhere there's keto, there's low carb, there's paleo, there's all these different diets that are typically short term fixes, especially for someone who's looking to get healthier or lose weight. Sometimes specific diets can really help specific conditions. But if you're just looking to get healthy or to lose weight, you have to find something that's sustainable. So I always tell people the thing that they want to do if we start this, can you sustain it? Because there's no, you starting something that you can't sustain.

Speaker 2: 5:25

Because what happens is, if you lose weight because you followed something and you can't follow through, you've also typically have lost muscle mass. And then what happens when you stop? You put that weight back on and you've also slowed your metabolism because you've lost that muscle mass, and muscle helps us to burn more calories and it's more metabolical than fat. So if I have more muscle than the person sitting next to me, even though we weigh the same, I'm burning more calories doing nothing. So that yo-yo dieting can really hurt your metabolism.

Speaker 2: 5:59

So we really want to find something that is sustainable, something that we can stick with, because I also find, as people get to 40 and 50, they want to get healthy and they want to move better and feel better. They want to run around and play with their kids or grandkids, they want to be able to get down on the floor and back up without struggling and they want to be able to go on a hike and not be the one that's lagging behind. And I think that's great when people start to shift to these goals that are more important than just weight or just a pant size, because that's what's going to keep us motivated when we really think about what we want to be, what we want to do.

Speaker 1: 6:37

Right. The longevity part of it kind of starts to really weigh on you and you start thinking, hey, I need to be able to sustain for a long period of time from now on. So then making those little shifts and like you said earlier. So oftentimes people think there's like a quick fix or a bad diet or a pill, but really, ultimately it really is the nutrition exercise that can really cause you to outlive. Is that right?

Speaker 2: 6:59

Yeah, and it's going back to these basic healthy lifestyle habits and a lot of us generally know we should be moving our bodies, we should be getting some exercise, we should be eating healthy, whole foods, but usually the problem is is we're not in a supportive environment. We don't know how to do that. We don't know how to implement it. We're not necessarily encouraged. Some of us, when we were young or a child and we were sad, we were given ice cream and we're stuck with these habits and we're stuck with what people do around us. We go to different parties and every party it's a celebration with usually so much sugar and then we feel guilt, like we need to have that but we don't necessarily need to. So really being able to work through some of these patterns that have stuck with us because we have patterns in our brain, we build strong neural connections to what we're used to doing. So when we try to do something new, it's really hard to build that connection at first, but the more we can come consistent with it, the stronger that connection comes in our brain and that's when a habit becomes a lot easier.

Speaker 2: 8:06

So I like to help people change their habits. So maybe if someone's working with me in nutrition. We might start with just adding two non-starchy vegetables a day, and it's different for everybody. But what happens is we're not going to fall some complicated diet plan. We're going to start building these healthy habits. So maybe they start with those two vegetables and they do that consistently and it starts to get a lot easier, and then maybe a few weeks later we can add something else on and something else. And then what happens? A year later? They have built this really sustainable, healthy lifestyle where they didn't get overwhelmed, where they didn't give up, but they were able to shift with the changes in their life and things started to become easier for them.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Absolutely. Yeah, I've noticed that, like on packaging. Of course, genius marketing. You know they put on there like no added sugar, but then you look at the back of it and it says you know there's, you know, 24 grams of sugar or something crazy in there. How do you, what advice would you give somebody when they go to grocery store to not be fooled by those false labels?

Speaker 2: 9:05

Oh yes, they can put whatever they want on the label. So it really goes back to reading the ingredients and just scanning that real quick link, you can see sugars versus added sugars in it, because they can put whatever they want on there. So just because something is keto doesn't mean it's healthy. Just because something is gluten free doesn't mean it's healthy. So, whatever those are, remember that that is just marketing that they smack on the label. What you want to read is the ingredients and what we also want to have is buying a good chunk of food that doesn't even have labels. You know that is one ingredient, one thing where we don't even have to worry about what it is.

Speaker 2: 9:43

So, making sure that you are starting to become informed and also remembering as you're shifting if you're eating a lot of processed food or a lot of takeout food, is you don't have to shift to completely whole foods, is you can do this slowly, and the slower you do it, the more likely you're going to sustain it. So maybe you're just starting with your breakfast and figuring out what are some different breakfasts that you can have and then slowly start to work through the rest of your day. But a lot of times when you try to do a cold turkey and you're like I'm just going to pull in, I'm totally going to do this, I'm 100%, and that fades off pretty quickly. And so we don't want to get where we're sort of all in and then we're all out and we've given up, we don't know what to do. So we want to make these shifts slowly so that we can really sustain them and really change what we're eating, how we're moving our body.

Speaker 3: 10:33

Hi, my name is Justin Clark and I'm the president of the board of directors for Driving Single Parents, a 501C3 nonprofit serving the citizens of San Antonio and Bear County, Texas. I'm here today to tell you a little bit about the great work that our organization is doing for the citizens of San Antonio. What you're about to see is just a few photos and videos of the way that we're changing lives for single parents in and around San Antonio, Texas. Our first giveaway took place in April of 2017, just one short month after the formation of our organization. John, a Bear County resident, was the victim of a horrible drunk driver incident. He and his daughter survived the crash and we were so proud to give our first car to this deserving family. Fast forward to 2020, a very difficult year for nonprofits, we were able to secure four vehicles for single parents in need. Our organization, including our board of directors, list of partners and portfolio of people we've been able to help in San Antonio, continues to grow, and it's all thanks to donors and local community organizations that have helped us along the way. This giveaway took place in 2021 and shows that we continue to help single parents even after the struggles brought about by COVID-19. Because of limited funds and the overwhelming need.

Speaker 3: 12:07

We at Driving Single Parents are incredibly selective with the people we help. Some are victims of domestic violence. Others had a spouse pass away tragically or otherwise fell on hard times. These single parents show adversity in the face of challenge and aren't looking for a handout. We offer a hand up and help get them back in the driver's seat. Many of the single parents we help go on to graduate college, get promotions, get married, mentor others and some have even been so touched by the gift we gave them that they have decided to join our board of directors to pay it forward and ensure the continued growth of our organization. If you would like to help our organization continue to grow and continue to help single parents in need in San Antonio, Texas, and Bear County, Texas, we would really appreciate your support. Please visit us online at wwwdrivingsingleparentsorg. Thank you. Now it's time for… Little.

Speaker 1: 13:16

Give Kindness Clips. Hello everyone, I wanted to chat with you about our Kindness Clip segment, so I need a little help from my audience. So what I'm looking for are short little videos of you talking about a time that someone was kind to you, or maybe there's a time that you were kind to someone else. Share those stories with us. You can email that to me at Cindy at littlegivecom. You can also hashtag Little Give online or you can just find me on any social media platform and tag me under Cindy Whitman. My name is spelled C-I-N-D-Y-W-I-T-T-E-M-A-N. Thank you all so much for participating and spreading that kindness and I can't wait to feature your clip on a future episode, absolutely so. I want to go back to that trick label. So, like you said, it's really important to read those ingredients. Can you tell the audience some examples of some things they should totally avoid? Like? I know a lot of people read those ingredients but they're not really sure. Like is this good or what is this and is that bad? So maybe some advice from you would help.

Speaker 2: 14:21

Yeah, and so when we look at a label, some things we want to look at is if there are sugar in it so you can read the label, and even things like honey or maple syrup we can have a little bit of, but also those if it's because you can get a granola bar and maybe it has just honey in it, but it might have a lot of sugar and that can really spike our blood sugar. So we need to make sure that we're minimizing that added sugar. And even for our kids you know our kids are constantly bombarded with sugary treats, so we need to watch that for them. The other thing is any hydrogenated oils or trans fats. So those are really inflammatory. They really increase inflammation in our body, can increase our cholesterol. The other things is a lot of the other process oils like soybean oil, vegetable oils. Those can tend to be inflammatory too and they're not always the best for our body. And anything that you don't know how to pronounce or say or you're like what is this, is this a food? That's a good hint that it's something that is sort of man made process that we don't want either.

Speaker 2: 15:31

So when you look at that label and you read those ingredients, you want to be able to know the words and know what each ingredient is, and then you want to make sure you're not having a lot of extra sugars. They will link in spaghetti sauce and sugars. Barbecue sauces tend to be loaded with a lot of sugar catch up. So really starting to know some of those places that they're sneaking the sugar in. And salad dressing. Finally, we got a salad dressing and I didn't read the label and my son was just like loving the salad dressing, like literally like licking it off the plate. And when I went and looked at the label it had like a lot of sugar in it. So no wonder why he was doing that. So really finding those sneaky places that they are adding sugar into.

Speaker 1: 16:16

We hear a lot about high fructose corn syrup. Is that another one to?

Speaker 2: 16:19

avoid. Yes, yes, so high fructose corn syrup. It comes from corn, but it's a very concentrated form. It tends to be very inflammatory and is obviously just pure sugar that will spike your blood sugar, but in studies it is sort of worse than regular sugar. So we definitely want to avoid that one. I'm glad you brought that up.

Speaker 1: 16:43

So when you say inflammatory, can you explain what that means to the audience?

Speaker 2: 16:47

Yeah. So inflammatory means it's affecting the inside of our body. So a lot of times we're just thinking how we look, so maybe our weight, our pant size, but when we're talking about health, our health really matters what's going on inside of us. So inflammation in our arteries and things that are going to lead to heart disease, high cholesterol and there could be inflammation in our stomach that is causing problems. So when we're thinking about health, we really want to think about what's happening on the inside of our body. So we can't see it, sometimes we can feel it, sometimes we can't. Sometimes it takes a really long time for things to build up to have a negative effect in our body. So we want to be eating stuff that isn't causing that much inflammation. And some people will feel this inflammation and sometimes you may not, depending where it is and how it is. But that helps to keep our heart healthy, our blood vessels healthy. It helps to keep our brain functioning well and our gut functioning well too.

Speaker 1: 17:47

Thank you so much for explaining that. I really love to show the audience and when I'm speaking to people in general, just explaining and letting them know why, because I think if you can understand the why of the things that you're doing, then it makes more sense and then you're more likely to stick to it. What about dyes? I hear a lot about dyes too.

Speaker 2: 18:05

Oh, yes, yeah. So dyes are especially bad and everybody's body reacts a little bit differently. But even for kids here, they're finding, with ADD and ADHD, that those can be triggering and so, again, it's just something artificial, it's something made up, it's just a coloring. We don't need it. But again, some people's bodies are going to have a harder time processing that, and that goes with a lot of those chemicals I was talking about, where we don't even know what that is. A lot of those chemicals our body can really have a hard time processing.

Speaker 2: 18:41

So we want to make sure that we're not adding those, and a lot of times, especially if you're making something at home, it's easy not to do the food dye but that's one to really look at the labels, because sometimes they're adding that into things we're not even aware of, and I'm just going to give Gatorade an example here. So Gatorade will typically have food dye I think they make some without it now but it also has lots of sugar in it and lots of things that we don't need. But we are marketed to that. We need this, especially if we're working out or we're an athlete or kids need Gatorade, and it's really not true. It goes back to we just need water. We might need some salt or some different electrolytes and extreme athletes who are working out more. They might need a little bit of carbs or something to keep their muscles and their fuel going, but most of us don't need that.

Speaker 1: 19:29

Great, great explanation. So earlier you mentioned trying to stick with foods that have one ingredient. Can you give us a couple of examples of just raw vegetables, or what were you thinking?

Speaker 2: 19:39

Yeah. So raw vegetables, raw fruit, and it can be cooked, and it can also be at home. Obviously, you can buy different ingredients and combine them, but and even things like rice or quinoa, so it's this one thing. There's nothing else mixed with it. You could buy a bag of beans and cook them.

Speaker 2: 19:59

So we really want to get back to eating more whole food because, if we think about it, a hundred years ago there weren't all these processed foods that have all these different ingredients. We don't even know what is in it. So we want to get back to the basics of eating more whole foods. And again, it doesn't have to come from a place of perfection. So it's not a place where we have to feel overwhelmed, and it's also not a place where we can't have cake or we can't have something.

Speaker 2: 20:27

But we have to create some rules and boundaries around these sweets, because we're bombarded by them.

Speaker 2: 20:33

They're all in the grocery store we go out to eat, they're always there, they're at parties, they're at schools, they're everywhere.

Speaker 2: 20:40

So we have to create some boundaries for us of what we want to allow in our body, because the food that we put in our mouth, every bite we're taking, is affecting the hormones in our body, it's affecting our immune system, it's affecting our gut and we have that choice by choosing what we put into our mouth. So we have to become empowered and start to really understand nutrition and understand this impact that it has on our body and the control that we have over it. There's a lot of things we don't have control over, but we do get to choose what we put into our mouth and we can also keep things simple. So eating healthy and eating whole foods doesn't have to be hard. It can be simple. You can eat a whole apple. You don't even have to cook it, you can cut it up. That's it. As we start to come back to simplicity and simplicity of eating whole foods, it starts to get a little bit easier, right.

Speaker 1: 21:32

So I like how you keep going back to the fact that it's not so much about your waist size or the size of pants you wear. It's more about your body and how your body is processing all of this food you're putting into it. So I like how you're doing that, because it's really not about the vanity part of it. It's about we only get one vessel for our whole lives and if we don't take care of it, then it doesn't last as long as we'd like it to. So I love how you're pivoting back to that every time. So thank you for that. What other advice would you give the audience as far as nutrition goes?

Speaker 2: 22:04

Yeah, and it's really too. I want you guys to think about your metabolism. So the metabolism is sort of how our body uses energy, and so food is meant to give us energy and in our culture we're always sort of focused on calories and we think if someone wants to lose weight, we equate that with being healthy, which it may or may not be, depending how you do it. And we're taught to eat less and exercise more, and what that actually does is it stresses our metabolism. Our body doesn't like when we have big changes, because our body thinks it's going to go into starvation mode. Our bodies are meant to protect us, so what we need to do is take a slower approach. So we actually want to move a lot, and moving here I mean steps. It's not necessarily exercise. Our heart rate isn't up, our muscles isn't burning, but we're just moving more because our bodies are meant to move and that's what it needs, and it doesn't stress our metabolism when we're moving a lot. And we also want to exercise a little bit, because what happens is when we exercise too much, and exercise is where our muscles are burning, where our heart rate is up. So one of those we want to do that a little bit because we want to build muscle. Because when we have more muscle we're going to increase our metabolism and our body's going to work better.

Speaker 2: 23:25

And what happens when we start to eat more whole foods than processed foods is it takes our body more energy to break whole foods down, so especially fiber and protein.

Speaker 2: 23:36

So let's say I have 100 calories of chicken and I have 100 calories of a granola bar, so we think it's the same thing. It doesn't matter what we eat if we're trying to lose weight. But what happens is our body that 100 calories of that granola bar, it absorbs all those. But that 100 calories of the chicken, our body has to break that protein down and it takes more energy so we don't absorb all those calories. The same things where things have fiber in it, our body takes more energy to break that down. So this idea of calories in calories out there is some truth to that, but it's not the whole truth, because it depends exactly what we're eating and how many calories we're absorbing. It depends how much muscle mass we have on our body to how much our body is going to burn those calories. So there's a lot of different nuances in this, so it's really important to understand that.

Speaker 1: 24:30

Absolutely. The other day, somebody asked me well, what's the difference of eating out versus eating home? Like what does it matter if you're making a hamburger at home versus eating a hamburger at Waterburger or a fast food restaurant? What difference does it make?

Speaker 2: 24:43

Well, it depends how you are making and eating that hamburger at home. But typically when you're eating out, there's going to be a lot more salt, and when they make food good whether it's eating out or a processed food they're basically adding salt, sugar or fat to it to make it taste better and they manipulate those three. So it's the same thing when you're going out to eat and like why does this hamburger taste better? There's probably more salt. They might put more fat in there. There's different things that they're doing to that, or they add, you know, some type of dressing or mayonnaise or something that again probably has inflammatory oils in it and might even have sugar. So that would be the difference.

Speaker 2: 25:24

But when you're at home, you're more in control. If you're making that hamburger from scrap, you can take the meat and you're choosing what to put into it, and you're choosing am I going to do a bun with it or am I going to have some vegetables on the side? So you have more flexibility. But it's still a choice and it depends what you do and how you cook it.

Speaker 1: 25:43

Right, so I like that. Earlier you said, you know, it's not like you can't ever have cake and it's not like you can't ever have ice cream. You just have to, you know, be mindful of what you're putting into your body, and so I guess the same thing would go for if you're in a situation where it's somebody's birthday and so you must go to a restaurant to eat out, and then you just be more intentional about what you would eat at that restaurant. Do you have any tricks on that?

Speaker 2: 26:06

Yeah, I think, right there. I love the word intention that you use, because a lot of times we're not intentional. So then when we go to a party or we go out to eat or we bring leftovers home, if we don't have an intention set, we're just going to sort of do what we normally do. So before you go out to dinner, you could look at that menu. You could decide hey, I'm going to go for a salad today and I really want the dessert. Or you know what, I'm actually going to go for that hamburger and fries, but I'm only going to have half of it.

Speaker 2: 26:36

So when we make these decisions before before, we're in that moment where we're feeling stressed, where we're maybe feeling a little pressure. We've made that decision and then it's easier to follow through that with that decision and really understanding why am I making this decision? Why am I only? Why am I going to eat a salad instead of getting a hamburger and fries? And maybe that goes back to. Well, I really want to move around and run with my kids and my grandkids. I want to go on that hike and not be the last person left behind.

Speaker 2: 27:06

So, really deciding ahead of time what is your intention and being able to stick to it and having that motivation, that reason why you are doing this, and a lot of people will start to notice that they're feeling better. And it's really important to amplify those wins and those feelings, because a lot of times we minimize it or we don't even think about it. So one thing I always do with my clients is asking what's going well, what's your wins, how are you feeling? Because they need to hear that reflected back to them. They need to hear that amplified, because that is what provides motivation for that next week and realizing oh yeah, I really am feeling better. You know what? I was actually able to go up the stairs and I wasn't out of breath. So we need to have that. We need to hear that, because a lot of times we're negative, we're seeing everything wrong that we do and when we amplify that negativity, that's what we get. So we need to amplify that positivity and those good changes that we're making.

Speaker 1: 28:01

Hi, my name is Andrew Fraley and I believe that sometimes we all need a little bit of help. If you're in the San Antonio community and we need some legal help, call me at 210-725-4658. Now it's time for Little Give Clip Quest. All right, so for this week's clip quest, what I want you to do is go back. I want you to watch episode 15. I want you to tell me why they designed the shirts that they give to cancer patients the way that they did. I want you to email me that answer at Cindy at littlegiftcom and if you get the answer correct, I will feature you on a future episode.

Speaker 1: 28:39

I can't wait to see you on the show, right? Yes, I like how you talk about your why. Once you figure out your why, why are you eating healthier? Why are you exercising more? Why and once you have that, why it's so much easier to make those small decisions to make sure that you carry out that? Why? So I like that you go back to that. Let's switch off to fitness now. Give us a couple of tips on how a busy mom of four could actually stay fit and stay exercising without wasting too much of her time.

Speaker 2: 29:06

Yeah, perfect. So one is that movement we are talking about, so thinking about how we can just move a little more in our day. And the second thing is exercise and so, just like I talked about for myself, I started with 10 minutes and I really think five or 10 minutes is a good place to start and I really recommend doing strength training because as we get older, our muscle mass decreases, especially if we are not doing strength training to keep that muscle mass and potentially put a little on. So strength training can be things like body weight exercises, so doing squats, push-ups, lunges, different things, without any equipment. You could also use bands or you can use some weights around the house.

Speaker 2: 29:45

So I don't go to the gym, I just exercise at my house and I have 12 pound weights and lower, so you don't need anything fancy. Those weights last a super long time, so it's not something you have to keep buying. So you can do this at home and as you start to put on that muscle mass, you're going to one feel stronger, you're going to feel better, you're going to be able to go upstairs, and when you're also putting on that muscle mass, you are increasing your metabolism. So the more muscle we have. The more metabolically active our body is, the more we're going to burn calories and you don't have to do this long.

Speaker 2: 30:22

But the thing is staying consistent, and so I don't do any more than 30 minute workouts. It's always 30 minutes or less, but I'm focusing on strength training and I'm staying consistent. So at 40 years old, I was able to learn how to do a pull-up and I learned it in only 10 minutes a day, three days a week, and I was able to get there by staying consistent, by I had someone help teach me how to like do it and I learned a couple little tricks, but it didn't take a lot of time and I knew I wasn't going to spend a lot of time. So it really goes back to that idea of staying consistent and you can do short workouts.

Speaker 1: 31:00

Absolutely. That's what I do 30 minutes a day. I do 30 minutes of high intensity interval training and same thing. You can use soup cans, little light weights, whatever, just or no weights at all. You can also modify it. So that's what I do and I love it, and so you can work it into your schedule. It's convenient, it's easy and I find it gives me more energy than I've ever had. So it's people think that working out can make you tired, but actually for me it's the opposite. Have you seen that before?

Speaker 2: 31:26

Yes, and so what happens when people do cardio so when we're doing cardio, so it's a sustained level, intensity over a long time is that it can actually sort of slow our metabolism a little bit. So it's not for doesn't happen for everybody, but for a big chunk of people, especially when they're doing it longer and they've sort of done that like zero to 60 is that our body burns so many calories at once and then our body is going to kick up the hunger hormones and other things to fill back in that gap and it can be really draining to us. But when we do the shorter workouts, and especially if you're not working out, start small, start 10 minutes and slowly work up to 30 minutes. But it doesn't stress our metabolism, it doesn't stress our hormones, because when we're feeling that fatigue it's putting a stress on our body, something in our hormones has changed that it's leading to that we're doing too much. So it is important to start small.

Speaker 2: 32:22

And I love how you mentioned the hit. So high intensity interval training is a great way to get a cardio workout. So in hit you're doing an interval of high intensity, so you're sort of working out at your max and then you're resting and then you do it again and you repeat, and there's different ways to do that, but I also do a hit for myself a couple of times a week and I incorporated into my clients who want to do it too, because it's a great way to get that cardio workout without stressing your body.

Speaker 1: 32:53

Absolutely Okay. Well, I'm going to switch off to go and ask you the two questions I love to ask all of my guests, so one is going to be can you give the audience an example of a little thing that they can do in their community that might be a little give on their end but might make a big impact on the other side?

Speaker 2: 33:08

Yeah, so I think creating connection within community is so important. So I'm a military spouse so we moved around, so I might be a little more drawn to this. But really creating connection in your community. So that's getting to know your neighbors, maybe that's if you have a local Facebook community group, setting up a play group, a meetup, maybe you meet someone and you bring them a freezer meal. But really starting to connect to the people around you and the needs, because a lot of us, even though we have the internet and we have all these ways to connect with people, a lot of people can really feel disconnected and alone and just creating that space, that safe space for one person, can really make a big impact for their life.

Speaker 1: 33:52

I love that great example. Community is so important. We were not meant to do this alone, so absolutely so. Can you give the audience an example of a time in your life where somebody did something little for you, that might have just been a little give on their end, but really made an impact on you and your life, even if they didn't know about?

Speaker 2: 34:08

it. Yes, so about 13 years ago maybe 14, my husband we had one child at the time and we were waiting to have our second and he got orders for a six month deployment. So we decided that we would. We could get pregnant, we were trying and he would be back in time. Well, we, within 24 hours we got pregnant.

Speaker 2: 34:30

We found out that they changed the deployment to a year deployment and my brother in law also took his life. So it was a really, really hard 24 hours and one of my friends called me, who was also a military spouse, and she just created this safe space for me. She just let me talk, she let me cry, she listened, she gave me some of her wisdom, she prayed for me and it was super healing and it's still something I go back to. So it was an hour phone conversation out of her time but it literally changed. It changed me and it changed that course of that year deployment and it wasn't something I dreaded and I got to live with my family. So I got to embrace that and have fun and enjoy those moments that I had with them. But it really allowed for this healing to shift in me and to enjoy.

Speaker 2: 35:20

We had about a couple months before my husband left and then allowed me to shift and enjoy that time with him. That's beautiful. Did you get a chance to tell her? Thank you, I did. But even though I've told her a couple of times, I still don't think, like she probably doesn't understand, like how helpful and how healing that was to me.

Speaker 1: 35:41

Yes, that's why I try to show people all the time on this show is those little things you know. The other day we had a guest who came on and said that you know, 13 years ago she was just walking through shoes in a master's degree program and had a really rough day. And this guy just says you have kind eyes. And then he just walked off. And yet there she was on my show 13 years later talking about this experience. And then now you saying the same thing 13 years ago. This conversation that was just one hour of a little gift from your friend really changed the course of your life and the way you felt. And so at, those little things that you do really do make a big impact. Yes, absolutely, okay, awesome. Why don't you go ahead and tell our audience where they can find you, seek out your services and ask more questions that they have any?

Speaker 2: 36:23

Yeah, so you can head to my website, MichelleReekmancom. I also have a podcast called Healthy Beyond 40. So you can find that in your favorite podcast app to really get that little inspiration that that you need to keep moving forward in your health.

Speaker 1: 36:42

Awesome. Well, I love everything that you're doing. I really enjoyed our conversation today. It's been very informative. I love that how you talked about the why, and I love how you talked about nutrition and fitness and all the different components that are easily fixable, able to put into our lives. It's just you could just fit it in real simple and real easy. It doesn't take some dramatic shift overnight. So I love that you've shared all that. Can you give the audience some parting words?

Speaker 2: 37:08

Yeah, I think is to just be able to sit. So when you're making changes in your health, in your life, is to be able to sit and get really clear on what you need to do and making sure that it's something doable, something that you can sustain, and making sure that, if you have multiple ideas, that maybe you just start with one or two, Keep that piece of paper and put that off for a little bit, because a lot of times we get this like burst of energy and we get this excitement and we want to do a lot but that's not what we can sustain. So we want to keep those ideas but slowly introduce those new ideas and those new habits and those ways that we're seeking change in our life. So do you have any nonprofits that you're excited about? Yeah, so one I love is called safe families. So before we moved to Phoenix, we were in Illinois and we were able to get involved because we saw other families getting involved.

Speaker 2: 38:02

So what safe families is is basically, I like to think of it as a pre foster care. So a lot of times there are single moms. They're ending up homeless. They're really struggling and maybe they don't have a home for their kids because they are homeless. So what safe family does is there's these families that are willing to take in these children till the mom can get back on their feet. So maybe that's for a couple weeks, maybe it's for a few months, but it's creating the safe space so these children can stay safe so that they don't have to go and foster care while these moms are finding jobs and getting what they need to. So the organization is helping the moms get the jobs, find a house, do what they need to, and it's also creating this safe space for this children.

Speaker 2: 38:50

So you can donate to the organization. If there is one in your local area, you can sign up to be one of those families. You can also sign up to help the moms. You can also sign up to sort of fill in for, like weekends or times here or there where people can, if you're not willing to commit. So I really love this organization and I really think it's important to create the safe place for kids when they're going through this hard time.

Speaker 1: 39:16

Wow, such a fantastic mission. How did you come to know about this nonprofit?

Speaker 2: 39:20

Just from seeing other families. So we were homeschooling and there was a couple other families who we were at a co-op and they would bring these other kids with them. So seeing these other people do this and love on these kids, kids, and just sharing their experience really inspired us to do that.

Speaker 1: 39:40

Well, I appreciate you sharing that with us. I haven't heard of that one yet and it's awesome, so I wouldn't have thought of that type of need being there where it's kind of pre foster care. Can you explain a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 39:52

Yeah, I mean we want to keep our kids out of the foster care system and we really want to support mom. So you know I've been blessed. But you know, when you're a single mom and you're losing your job, and then you don't have money and you're losing your house, I mean what do you do? You're stuck in a really hard time and especially if you have little kids at home who aren't in school, and how do you find a job when you can't afford daycare or babysitting? So it's really filling in that gap and trying to support and encourage these parents to get back on their feet and giving them the opportunity, because some of these moms don't have families who are willing to help them, or maybe they don't have families at all. So it's a really great way to sort of fill in that gap.

Speaker 1: 40:37

Definitely. I'll be definitely referring people to that. I founded a nonprofit six years ago and we give away cars to single parents in need Okay, not single parents who are, like you know, really, really on the lack in where they don't have a home, but the single parents are in kind of in the messy middle where they're working really hard, sometimes working two jobs, and they need that transportation to be able to get themselves in Next level. And we've had people graduate from college and we've had all kinds of success stories with that nonprofit. So I like the this resources available and out there for people who are in that, who maybe don't need a car, who need childcare or other resources that are available through that nonprofit.

Speaker 2: 41:14

Yeah, I love that with the car too, because it can be hard to sort of get a job and do what you need to to live in this world when you don't have those resources.

Speaker 1: 41:24

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 41:25

Yeah, it's really hard to kind of get yourself to the next level if you literally don't have the transportation to do so.

Speaker 1: 41:29

Yeah, especially here in San Antonio where we live, it's the transportation system is available, like via bus and whatnot, but those routes run long and might take you two or three hours to get somewhere. They're often late. They often lose their job because they couldn't get to work on time every day. Also, getting the kid to childcare on a bus and then also getting home to themselves to work and then also get themselves to the grocery store or doctors appointments, are all those things. Taking two or three hours to just get to one place and then get back from that one place can be really taking so much of your time that you can't work that second job or you can't enroll in college or you can't do all the things that you need to do to be able to get yourself to next level. So that's the point of our nonprofit, and this one seems like an awesome nonprofit. That's also kind of feeling those gaps that are kind of unseen.

Speaker 2: 42:17

Yeah, absolutely. I love that.

Speaker 1: 42:19

Well, fantastic, well. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, and if anybody out there is passionate about this nonprofit, please do go donate a dollar or $5. Every little give can make a big impact to these nonprofits, can really help a lot of people in a big way. So thank you all so much for watching and we'll see you next time. Thank you so much for watching this episode of little give.

Speaker 1: 42:40

If you would like to learn more about how I highlight ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help others, or maybe you'd like to be a guest, or maybe you know a nonprofit that you would like to see featured on a future episode of little give, you can find all the information on our website at little givecom. If you'd like to get involved with our kindness clip segment, please do send in those videos, send them via email to Cindy at little givecom, or you can tag us on any social media under Cindy Whitman or hashtag little give. If you'd like to know more about our podcast, you can also find us on all major streaming platforms under little give podcast. Please do find our Facebook group under little give TV show and join it. We'd love to keep you up to date with future episodes. Thank you all so much for watching and I can't wait to highlight the next ordinary person doing extraordinary things to help others. See you next time.