Positively Gam: Wendy Ida - Mind, Body, and Soul

trying to push something that they haven't developed. What's up, everybody, I'm Gammy and this is positively gam In this episode, we're going to be discussing how to live fit and fabulous, and fitness is something that I get really really excited about, so I'm so glad that we have joining me on this podcast Wendy Ida. Wendy is an author, a life transformation coach, and fitness expert. She is an eight time award winning national fitness Champion and let me tell you,

if you could see her, you would understand. At sixty eight years old, she is truly living her fabulousness and here today to tell us how we all can be fabulous as well. Welcome Wendy. Thanks garing me I am here. I'm telling you, I am excited to have you because, like I was telling you before we actually got started, I love working out, but I'm getting ready to turn sixty seven and I am really struggling. I am struggling with my workout. I'm having a lot of health issues

or injuries, I should say. So. I'm just really glad to talk to you today, Wendy. But let's back up for a little bit. How did you come up with the phrase take back your Fabulousness? Well, I came up with it first because it was too in capsule. Everything a woman is wants to be, should be, and and everything that they deserve. And take back your fabulous is

really about developing courage. It's an inside out approach. So I start with courage, confidence, a purpose, and a swagger that nobody can shake up or shake out of you. That will also help you fought life's possibilities without fear of judgment and helps you'se kind of sachet through life and through life's challenges. And that's kind of how I put it together. Because some people think it's just about the external, is not. It starts from inside out. Yeah,

that is so true, Wendy, so true. And I am someone who has suffered and still suffers a lot from low self esteem. So working for me was really really important in my journey as well. What in your own personal journey has made you want to get into fitness and wellness, because I think our stories are a little similar. So yeah, I knew nothing about fitness until the age of I started getting into it about forty three years old.

But I started out with the old attitude of until that time that the way you were born and how your parents were and all that is how you're going to be, as if I had no control. But part of my thinking in that also is I got married early in my twenties, actually nineteen twenties something like that, and I married into an abusive relationship and I was actually being abused before the marriage and felt forced, but

didn't think I had any options. So I did what I thought I had to do with force, and that my marriage lasted for thirteen years. It was abusive mentally, physically, emotionally, and sexually. I many times didn't believe I was going to reach past the age of forty three, and many times I thought I was not going to make it. But it was a really really tough time in my life. I gained weight, I had two babies. I was emotionally out of control, and I felt very trapped. And then

one day I had the nerve. I felt like I had to go, really go for the third time. I left twice. On the third time, I saw my children being affected. And the straw that broke the camp was back. Was the day we were on our way to church, my husband, im my two kids. He was smoking dope, drinking alcohol, and my babies were crying as they normally did, and they cried out, you know, mommy help, and and I'm there and and I couldn't help. Uh so I

felt helpless. It was. It was awful. But the straw that really broke back, because that was a continual thing that happened, hit the critical going to church. But on this day, the babies cried louder, and I got the nerve to say, please, please stop for the sake of the children. And he looked at me and called me all kinds of names and said I couldn't do anything about it. And I realized I couldn't really at that time. But then he said, I am going to teach my

kids everything. I know, smoke, drink everything, and you can't do anything about it. And at that moment, he handed my five year old son a swing of his beer, and my heart sank and my life went up and smoked. And more importantly, I got this vision gamming, and this vision showed me by children's future, and it showed that their life was worse than mine. And and the biggest thing about it, I can get goose bumps right now. This. I never get over this even when I talked about it.

But the biggest thing in that vision was my children's lives were worse than mine. But most importantly in that vision, it showed me I felt the pain of me being responsible for that. And I also felt the pain of I couldn't live with that, and that by my ended because of the guilt, and with that, I was on my way to planning to get out of there. Did anybody know that you were going through this? Did anybody

know that you and your children were suffering? Any of your family members are friends, and you shared any of this with anyone? It's funny you should ask that or his family. Let's not forget about his family. Yeah, yeah, that's a big thing, because you know, people don't realize. People don't realize what makes people stay. I was young and impressionable and wanted to be a good wife, but most importantly my mom. She passed away early around the same time. I didn't feel like I had anybody I

could go to. His family. However, I did know about it very well. They didn't know about it. And the worst thing about all of it is his mother. And this was a lot of my resentment for many years. But his mother told me that I had to stick with it. That was the only adult impression I had at the moment. He and his family, everybody knew and his mom. Mom sat me down and said, it's up to the woman two be able to keep this together.

Doesn't matter what the man does, it's your thing. I wonder if she had suffered abuse herself, so you mayby right on track, because that's what I was going to follow up with. So, yes, that's what was in their family, liner rational curses what I call it. It was in my family too. So my dad wasn't home a lot. He was a musician, so he was always on the road, and I would see some fighting between mom and dad,

but mostly I just didn't have him there. I was that daddy's girl, always waiting in the window for him and him not showing up. So I lived with that for a lot of years. But I was trying to be better than that and thought I was getting good advice from his family. So I persevered and I stayed with it and fraud and I almost got choked out sometimes it was and the worst thing about he was a police officer, so that's why I felt trapped in in a small town where his friends would come to

bail him out, not me. So what about that day? What when that day when you had that vision? You made a decision and you made a plan, and how were you able to execute? We get out? Wow? So that was that was God sent that vision. I stayed low because I was watched. So I actually had to escape. I had ten minutes to get out, but I planned. I bought a plane ticket for the three of us for two days away. On the day that I escaped, I had ten minutes and I just throw what I

had in the car. We went with just the clothes on our backs. My kids were in disarray, they didn't know what was happening, so it was very frantic. I jumped in the car. We were riding away. Most times I was kept there because he would hold onto one of the kids. I knew I wouldn't go anywhere. So on this day he almost took my son, but I said, I'm right behind you. Off the church. We got away, but my kids were crying so bad. I was trying to get them some comfort. Gave my daughter her doll.

My son wanted the dog that was his comfort. That couldn't happen. So two blocks away, I ran back to get his drum, one of his drums, just trying to do everything, be everything, but they were coming back for me already. So here I am in a movie. I felt like in a getaway car, dodging each corner, each light, and everything getting away. I was just about to get out of the car to get his drunk and I

had to jump, I had to take off. So it was crazy because it's happened so many times that he chased me in his car just to drag me away from whatever I wanted to do. So this was another one of those times. And somehow, Gammy, somehow, I got away. Yeah. God went to a hotel, stay for two days and got a plane to California on that that Tuesday, and only when I was up in the air did I exhale. Yeah, otherwise I've been caught before and dragged back, So I

wasn't safe until I was up in the air. And five years following that, I was still a victim in my own mind because I was also threatened. That's why I had to go that far from New Jersey to California, because I was threatened that he was gonna come and get me and take me back, and I believed it because it's been done. How did you break out of that thinking, out of that victimhood to get to your fabulousness?

What made you do it through? Because it sounds like you got to physical fitness, yes, you know, fit by fit, my fit spirit, yes, yes, the kind of they all kind of go together. And it's it's the reason why I say that our our our journeys are similar because I also married very young. I was in high school, I had Jada, and my husband was abusive and he was an addict. Wow, my story certainly is not as filled with trauma as yours was, and not at all.

But from that I then had my own journey with addiction, many years of addiction, all of Jada's childhood. And I didn't get clean really probably until I was like about thirty seven or so, I think when I first came into the fellowship. I can't even remember, you go girl. Yeah, So I was about in my forties to my mid forties when I when I started working out, and I remember I used to keep a picture of Hanna Jackson

on my refrigerator because my ab were to die for remember. Yes. So, as I was cleaning myself up as part of my journey and recovery, I decided that I wanted to really get physically fit as well. And it was also a way for me too because it almost it didn't become an addiction, but I was pretty obsessed with working out. I really became a gym rat. But it was a combination. I stop smoking and I stop musing at the same time,

you know. So it was a spiritual and mind, body and spiritual journey for me to get clean and just get myself together and create a new life for myself. Was there someone who led you to the church to get you well, we're headed app No. I went into a twelve step program. Oh, but I have to say that through the twelve step program that actually led me or helped me find a god of my understanding, which

I did not have before. Yeah. Yeah, So for me, in terms of getting away from the victim mentality, at first, I would just walk close to buildings. I was a scared little rat because I knew a van was going to come up any day swoop me in to take me back, and I felt that that was my last chance to get away. Probably after about five years, I started lightning up a little bit. But I also had a little therapy. Can't do it yourself. I mean, I was having nightmares every single night for so very long.

Every now and again I get them, but it's so much less and it might just take a little thing to set it off. But and going and realizing that it was not my fault. And I also realized that his mother, who gave me the advice, I didn't know any darn better. Oh absolutely absolutely, she was away give me what you Yeah, so I had to get through that, you know that, that was a real thing that I had to get through, growing through the therapy, Realizing that

people are people and they don't know any better. Realizing I had to come to terms with my mom's death because I didn't feel like I was there for her and didn't get all through that until after about twenty years growing like that. Meeting this gentleman in the gym, I was just going and thought, okay, I had to live with I lost because I lost eighty pounds. So at the time, so any minute, I want to stop

you right there? You lost eighty pounds. Was that weight loss just due to like a depression or you went on a diet? Like where did the weight loss come from? Yeah? So at age forty three, when I really was turning around, that was my turning point, and ironically that's when my whole life, that's when I really started to live at age ironically, that was the age where I didn't think I was going to live to see So what was the impetus for that? What that you said your life

changed at forty three? Yeah, So first with the therapy meeting this gentleman, I had already gained this weight, and the weight was partly from my two pregnancies. I had pregnancies back to back. My kids will even months apart. I was eating to make myself. I didn't have any other way to gain to lose. At first, I thought I had to live with it because my mom was overweight, my auntie was. And I met this gentleman who said,

when do you could be better? It's just a friend, and I started working with him and stuff starting to change on my body that hadn't done anything before. So he was a fitness person. He was Yeah, he was a fitness professional, okay, And you met him and he got him him he yeah, got it. He got me into the gym and I was working at Fox at

this time. I was an accountant for twenty years. After meeting him, and my body started doing things that I thought, there's some secret to this stuff, you know, So right away I started studying and seeing, hey, what's this magic? What's going on? You know? My personality started changing. In short, I changed to the real meat. When I went into the office. I was conservative and that's not me. But I did what I had to do to get the promotions I had to get and do what I had

to do. So I patterned everything after this guy. I went found out about everything about keeping your body fit because it was something going on. And I just started doing commercials because that's what he was doing. And I was still working at Fox. But when I switched. I felt myself come alive inside, and then I switched back when I went to the office. So that was kind of the turning point. But most of all, dammy, my mind was clearing the clutter, being less afraid, more confident.

I was feeling good and I knew most of all that I am in control. I knew that, and that was empowering. Yeah, that was a real awakening for you. I can hear it. That was a real awakening for you. I remember feeling not quite as intense about it, but I do remember it because, like I said, I just really suffer from low self esteem and I wouldn't do anything anything by myself, you know what I mean. I always wanted to do something with somebody, but this was

something that I just that I wanted to do. I didn't want to wait to find anybody. Is there a girlfriend that wants to work out with me? None of that. Like I knew, I needed to do this for myself, and I just went in. I joined. I'll never forgetting I joined Bally's Gym or Root forty, went in there. I ended up getting myself a trainer, and I just went for it. I just went for it and I've been working out in some form ever since, so my journey has been long. You just had this epiphany that

let me do this because this is going well. It was, Yes, it was really part of my recovery process. M you know, and so the change we know starts from inside, so it's an inside out job. So I was working on my inside ready, but then I just felt like, Okay, I need to do some work on the outside too, because it was something that I had always wanted to do, but I didn't have time because I was too busy getting I Okay, it's something you always wanted. I was

always interested and being fit. I always liked the way a fit body looked. I felt very toned and strong. I always like that. I just never had time for it. But you had something special because there's a lot of people today that like the tone fit body, but they can't exactly get there, so it's a difference and really going for it. I was different. It didn't even occur to me. I was so wrapped up in my life

that I didn't even think about it. I didn't even think it was possible until I went through these changes of meeting these people and started feeling and it just kind of grew on it, so I left completely my twenty year corporate accounting career. That was that around forty three. Then at fifty seven I entered my first bodybuilding competition.

Eight time national champion. Then at sixty, I went from McGuinness more a record because that was one of the things on my bucket list that so it's amazing that was when I turned sixty and I'm still champ. Some people sometimes people when they were not since COVID, but they would try to go for a record and they see the record. Yeah, birpies, Oh so yeah, you're kidding.

Everybody says that right for the audience that doesn't know, a burpee is sort of a squat thrust back into push up position, jumping back up and jumping in the air and just had it up and down and up, you know. So it's pretty cool. I had to do to set the record, I had to do at least thirty in a minute, and when I looked it up, the regular athlete that's what they told me. So the regular athlete does about fifteen in thirty seconds, So it made sense when they said they kind of doubled it.

You gotta do thirty in a minute, and you did that at sixty sixty. Oh, I did thirty seven. Girl. You wanted to make sure. Yeah, I was on a roll when I could go and I'm focused and I'm going out for the win. I'm not playing around. And and the thing about it is you couldn't cheat because you had to measure. They made sure to tell you had to come back when you squat, thrust it back, and to push your position you had to do a little jump, a funny jump you had jumped all the

way back. Wow. So it was a certain amount of measurement I had to do to make sure I jumped back past the line. And if I didn't go past the line, it didn't count. So I made every darn one count. I sucked up everything that wasn't the easier. Enterprised that you could have broke the record in their birthies. Oh my god, I wanted to do well the other one. But yeah, and so I still do that. And I was at sixty So I'm working on other things on my bucket list. But that's what kissed me, going, Yeah,

I keep it moving. Ever since that day, I promised myself that I was gonna keep challenging. I didn't. Actually, I don't know if it was even a promise. It was it was like every time I pushed the limit, I could push the limit more and it worked. So that told me that these human bodies are amazing and I love the challenge of them. And so you should have been. You mentioned in terms of you know, self esteem and all that I had been. Let's see this yesterday.

I give it class every Thursday, and this week, ironically you said it this week. It's an eight week program, but this week we were talking about deserve level. Oh it's so good. It's wait a minute. You know women need that you've been bringing up. Raising your deserve level is what it was about. So that leads us into how you incorporate the inside work, the inside change. Yeah, yeah, and so training, how do you do that with your clients because most of your clients are forty and over, right,

that's your specialty. Yes, yes, women over forty. Well, I'm talking about my baby bull girls. You know, we need cheer leaders to support them and to show us. And this isn't part of what I ap preached to them, but this is what it's about in terms of bringing yourself together. A lot of people come to me for just the physical, but we go through the whole thing. We start with mindset and we delve into that because if the mind ain't right, the body ain't list Okay, okay,

let's say that again. If the mind ain't right, the body ain't listed, and you may be able to do it and push it and suffer with it. And that's what I call it suffering because that's what people are feeling when they're trying to push something that they haven't developed the habit in the right way to stick with it. They're pushing it for a short time and then they're gonna go back to what they always were doing. So it's really essential to get the mind in tune with

the body and prepare it. And that's what we do. We start off with the mind. Then we do goal setting planning to see how that goes. We start to work into core work. Why because once again, core is the center of you're being. You can't hit a baseball, play golf, any you can't do anything, and those are just the arms or the legs. But we have a strong core. It gives you more power. And I've proven it over and over again. These guys that I've worked

with in the gym O MG. You know a lot of times you see the guys going right and there there whole body right. Okay. So I love guys like that because I get a handle on them and I start to test their core and they're all over the place. Once I get their core up to snuff, oh my goodness, that you can lift more, you can hit more. I've worked with doctors. Remember the six year old sixties something year old, and he was upset why his golf game was off. And I tested him and did an assessment

and I said, your core is off. And when I work with him, he was so used to being old school like. He didn't want to do the core work. He thought he had to go back to the old school with and I would have to give him a little bit of what he wanted. But then I give him what he needed and all of a sudden, the core in the stability start. He was amazed. Then he got a ward with me. He understood, sometimes that's what

you gotta do to bang me Bomas. You know, we want to stick to those old ways, but each time everything else you do is so much better and it's healthier and you go through the ages much better. Meaning when you're getting all up in age and you're not testing new core, you're gonna be bad posture, everything is going to go down. So it's my pleasure to be able to put a new light in their head to make them understand and be better. But after that we

get to working and talking about eating and then the deserve. Yeah, wait, before we get into eating, what happens to the body as you start to age, what's happening inside, what's happening to our muscles and our joints and yeah, so so you can be better, but you just gotta do it differently because our bodies are changing and it goes through cycles, Gammy, and people don't realize that we're stuck in our heads of what I used to do when I was twenty

and in our minds where there our bodies are saying. I think that's what's happening with me right now. One day my mind is still back when I was, you know, fifty, but I'm getting ready to turn sixty seven and and it's just not working anymore. So continue yeah. So, so so you go through these cycles. One of the things that happens is are the fluids, the hormonal fluids and everything that we get. That's changing. Some we're getting more of,

some we're getting less of. Inflammation is a part of aging, so as we age, we definitely have to zero into that much more. Some of the foods we have are contributory to inflammation. And we have inflammation, you're gonna have pain, and it's gonna be these little other things. I have a five step list of things that you can do to stay young, but people ask me that all the time on social media. On my YouTube channel, they've gone

crazy because I put so many more videos out. But in terms of keeping your youth up, One, you gotta ban the sugar. Okay, go yes, ban the sugar. Let me tell you, it ages you faster than anything. I've seen people get gray hair, quicker and all that. Number Two, you've got to reduce the stress. Again. The stress is going to age you. It's gonna put gray hair in you, it's gonna cause your heartbeat to race and everything. I'm saying. I've had this happened to people, and some of them

to myself when I was going through a thing. All right, So my clients, they've all experienced this, and we had to change it. The other thing is you got to increase the strength. You know why, because your muscles are going to atrophy and when you're getting older, that's why some people fall, or they're knocking the stuff and you're

breaking their bones. All kinds of stuff is happening, and it's not a good look just because you don't have to be overweight, but just because you think you are small, that you're better you are. I've had so many people whisper in my ears saying, what about us, the skinny fat you know. I had a lady called me from Malaysia because some of my clients are in other countries.

So this lady called me from Malaysia and she wanted to do a whole thing for the Malaysian women because she said, what's in their mindset there is that they're all small, but they just know to eat less, but they don't know anything about weights, so just eating less is not doing the trick. And and and she said they are sick and those are skinny fat people, so she wanted them to be well. I was in this none little thing I did. I was in this competition. You you had to be sixty two be in it.

It was a Muty competition, so everybody was over sixty, sixty, seventy eighties in there. Even so, it was really fun and really great to see these women and do a talent. The talent is still alive and women over sixty, it's amazing. The thing I want to mention though, these women had their gowns on and they some of them were small and thin, but they look sick. And the one woman I talked to, she had this gown on showing her shoulders and they were like bones sticking up at him.

And I saw it and I know what was happening that she wasn't doing any weight training and it looks sickly. And she brought it up, maybe because of her observation and comparing to me or or whatever caused her to bring conversation up. And she said, you know, my doctor said, you have no muscle in your shoulders. You need to do weights. You need muscle. Then that's a sign of aging, Gammy, when you see skin dropping and bones perking. On the contrary,

when you got muscle, manness sex. So the number four was ad supplements. Why because I'm writing us down when he just said, you know, add supplements why. It's because of what I said before of when we're aging, we're getting less, and in fact, women and men the testosterone and the estrogen changes. Men start to get more estrogen, women start to bid uh yeah, yeah exactly, and women some women get a little bit more testosterone, not always,

but women definitely get less. You know, that's just one thing, and then there's so many other fluids and different things that change. And let me just mention a lot of times when people age, they start to drink less water. And I haven't gotten behind the primary or looked at statistics, which I really mean to do, of why that happens. It doesn't. Would it have anything to do with just um being concerned about having to go to the bathroom

all the time because that gets on my nerves. I have to admit that has been an issue for me. I know that I'm not drinking the amount of water that I used to drink, but because I'm constantly having to go to the bathroom and it's annoying, I got stuff to do. I can't be running to the bathroom every five minutes. No, but we need to drink more water because when you don't drink enough water, you start to get all these other ailments going on that you don't think it's related, but it is all right. So

the last one, the last one is just fine. Purpose people lose the will to live, and not only just to live, but to thrive in living. I don't mean just to get by in living. But if you have a purpose, you're gonna live life with venom right because a lot of people are going through changes around that age. They may be uh, empty nesting or whatever, empty nesting. Other their friends are maybe passing away. You've got medical things that you haven't had before. You still emotionally upset

of what happened when you're thirty. That's piling up on everything, and everything has come home to right. And again that's the reason why you have to incorporate your your spiritual well being as well as if physical, absolutely and you and your mental well being. Spiritual spiritual is a basic for me and that was one of the first things I had to find when I came to California. I felt so lost as a soul and I didn't know what to do with myself. And without that, there's no

grounding for about it. Got it, and it's hard to work with somebody who has no grounding at all. I've worked with two people in my career. It's been about twenty five years, and I worked with two people that we're agnostic or atheists or something, and they had no grounding. And this person that I'm thinking about had just she was in a mental institution at one time. She knew how to work out. She did that well, but people

don't just come to me for the workout part. It was an emotional coaching thing with her and I got it and and that's what you needed. So I had to actually get her in the gym for her to pay attention and do some of the things that she needed to do. So the gym was sort of her grounding. But that was a creative thing I had to come up with. But everybody is different, but I had to find per thing. So talk to us a little bit about metabolism. I know that your metabolism slows down as

you get older. Yes, so metabolism does slow down, and partly because your body is changing. You are less active a lot of times, and that alone, when you have less muscle and more body fat, is going to slow your metabolism down. So that's why I'm such a proponent of weight training no matter what your age one, because it's going to speed up your metabolism, it's going to burn body fat while you sleep, and it's gonna help you feel energetic and stronger. And when you don't have

that now you feel it you don't have energy. And I get a lot of complaints from people about not having energy. How do I get energy, Wendy, Well, one of the ways is, first, you gotta find a purpose, find a goal, find the reason why you want to live. So you're talking about strength training, but how important is cardio. I feel like I don't do as much cardio as I used to. But I also know that this weight that I've gained lately has a lot to do with COVID.

But I know that I'm not doing as much cardio. Like if I didn't do anything else, I would do cardio every day, every single day, and I'm not doing that anymore. I stopped that about probably about four years ago, maybe even longer. So Gammy, everything is balance, and we've got to find our own little personal balance right now. What I'm telling everyone in COVID times especially, you gotta get a structure to your day, and in that day,

find something that gives you some joy. We gotta definitely find that besides reaching out to pe folk we know and love. But in terms of the balance, yes, cardio is very important. Why because even it's not necessarily to lose weight, but it's to keep you heart fit. So in order to do that, how much cardio do you think that someone over fifty um should be doing? Like everyone you're working, If you're going cardio every day or every other day, how long? For how long? Thirty minutes,

sixty minutes? Okay, so let me just preface this with when anyone is getting started on all of this, besides checking their doctor is the first, right, but the other thing is after that, it's what is your goal? Is it to lose weight, is it to stay healthy or is it just partfit. That being said, the norm if you're just getting started, do whatever you can to get started, start with ted fifteen minutes or whatever you can, and

then at least try to do thirty minutes. Thirty minutes is a good measure to go by, and if you want to again, it broils back down to your goal. If you want to get your heart more fit, or if you can do it now within that thirty minutes. You might want to put a little intensity into it. It just is up to you. I put my stretching in with my meditation, I combined. I might wake up in the morning and I do just a little light

stress just to wake my body up. So I mix it up, and sometimes I'll go right into my meditation. Other times I just do a little stress because sometimes

I get up and I'm feeling still. Yeah, I don't like right, So I just gotta just wake something up, and I might do some cardio for earth because that opens my oxygen up and I gets my blood breathing, and then I feel like I'm really open to the spirit, uh, to listen and find the silence within me, to find the answers that I need for that day, for that week, or that whatever I'm working on. And then the stretching

comes within that. I just mix it up within that, and it seems to open up my body and open up my spirit in a different way. Okay, So that's on my list. That's on my list of things that I gotta work for my meditating and my my stretching, and to go back forth with it a lot, particularly medical. Yeah, I was getting better with it, but then I find myself falling off again. So it's just one of the things. It's just one of my struggles. Yeah, everybody's got a

different struggle. Here's the thing to make it easier on you, to make it feel like it's a part of your life, not something I gotta suffering, I gotta go do. I don't want you to feel that way. But if you say, give it a certain part of the day, like a certain time that fits with how your day is structured. For example, I have found out that first thing in the morning does not work for me for meditating. It just doesn't work. Because I wake up and I'm ready

to go. I cannot sit still. My mind is racing thinking about all that I have to do today or all that I want to do today, even if it's nothing, all the nothing that I'm gonna do today. Whatever. Your first thing in the morning is not the time for me to meditate. I do better. I do better later on in the evening. Okay, some people doing midday evening morning doesn't matter, doesn't matter. That's all you. That's your pattern, that's unique to your lifestyle. Make it a regular thing.

In other words, I just told you thirty minutes, right, cardio. Some days you can't do that. So the important thing you remember, don't skip him. Maybe you got twenty minutes, maybe you got ten, maybe you got five. Do a little something. And the reason why I say that is the it goes back to the mental tracking, the mental habits to keep you consistent. And if you can do a little something to stay in the game, you're still

in that rhythm. Got it? So what what are some of the aid's to find tips that we can all benefit from while we're at home? You have some interesting ones. And then I'm gonna and then I'm gonna jump into what what your actual routine is? Your actual daily routine is. Yeah, there's something about ice. Oh I huh. So first of all, I gave you my five steps. Yea, so those are my five basics. You look up, you look amazing you. There's no way in the world that you look like sixty.

You know, no, I I gotta say that because people always try to make a fuss about me, and I'm like, I'm not the only older woman out here that looks good. I mean, let's come on now, just stop trying to make a feel like I'm a unicorn. I am not. We are aging well. I think there's plenty of us that you know, are are taking time and want to be healthy and fit. Yeah, then there's not enough of us. And that's why I do the work that I do to lift people up, because we gotta sit together on

this m hm. So let's talk a little bit about diet too, because you said that thirty of your diet is protein. Talk to us a little bit about how important nutrition is, because I really still feel, particularly as I've gotten older, I really really feel like what you're putting inside of your body really is almost I don't know if it's more important than the exercising, but it certainly is as important as exercise you have, and and for people who want to lose weight, it's at least

of the of the results. Now, have you ever worked with anybody who is vegetarian? For the most part, I eat plant based that clients who are vegan or pscytarian or yeah, vegetarian, you know, all that doesn't matter, but for me personally, and I just want to touch on what you eat also has everything to do with your skin. That's true. Where are you getting most of your protein from? As a person, who is mostly plant based because so um, I know people want to give me a lot of beans,

but bleep beans, I don't digest. I have a I'm somebody who has an extremely sensitive stomach. Every time I turn around, my stomach is upset from something. So you're not doing beans. What are you doing fish? Okay? That's most of my proteins come from fish and vegetables. Okay, some grains are high in protein as well. You can mix it up. What is your daily routine for exercise? So, man, I got this peloton fite? Oh birl, Oh, now you know what my husband and I were thinking about getting

the peloton. You it. You have no idea how much I love it. It is the bomb. Let me tell you. It is the best thing. Who know, we were gonna be in COVID and it has saved my ass. I'm telling you. Okay, let me just give you a quick rundown. So and I get almost a lot of times, I'll get on it before I even have my first client, you know. And I have them five six in the morning or whatever. But I ride that for whatever minutes.

I make the time work for me. But you either take the classes everybody and anybody your taste and riding the peloton where you can take a class in all different kinds of classes or and this has been my special treat because I love to travel and I haven't been able to and I don't know when it was rattled in, but since COVID, I have been traveling on my bike. So in other words, you can take a class, or it has different scenes where you can ride in Italy and wherever, or you can just ride. But it

has really been a lifesaver. Okay, so back to your question. So I am doing my bite for my heart's sake, I do my workout. I have a structure where I'm doing the weight training. Gotta do that lot, a lot more core training I'm doing now for myself, and then in flexibility, I do that at night. I might do it a little right after my workout, especially my cardio. For sure, I'm stretching out my legs. But then I like to do a little nice stretch routine before bed.

I have my phone roller. When I do my stretching at night, I sleep better. Uh huh. I thought this this foot massage thing. Yeah, I got you, I got got. But I'm doing upper and lower given my body of rest in the meantime, in the time, because I still am really busy even during this time. So I really have to structure it. Just like I said to you, put it in part of your day where it's you time. Yeah, it's me time. Let me ask you this, Wendy, let

me ask you some advice for myself personally. Like I said in the beginning of the show, that I am struggling a little bit. I have an issue with my hip. I've been told that it's arthritis, but I also think that there's an injury in there somewhere right And because of COVID, I have not, you know, been able to really get out and really really get attention to it, because you know, the doctors don't really want to see you in the offices unless it's like urgent, and it's not.

I've been living with this for quite some time now, but it is affecting my ability to work out and what I can do. We are quarantined together, my daughter and my and daughter, and we work out together, but I swear they're killing me. I cannot. I can't keep up with them anymore. And it's disheartening for me because I'm used to killing you how trying to keep up with trying to keep up with their routine. Yeah, and

I just realized that I can't do it anymore. And it's made me a little sad because it is coming to accept my age. And my husband said it to me the other day because I worked out with someone just the other day and I was in so much physical pain, not while I was doing it, but within a half an hour of completing the workout. And that was even me paying attention and saying, okay, I've had enough of that. I can't do that exercise. It's not

working for me. Even being trying to be very aware of that, it was still I still ended up being in a lot of physical pain from this hip And it's disheartening like that. You hear it all the time, kidding old is not for the week. It is not. And I've got to figure out a routine where I can stay fit but stay healthy. And it's not my upper body, it's my lower body. I've always disliked lower body worth because the results don't show up as quickly, So as a result, my upper body looks much better

than my lower body. And now when I'm trying to really focus on that because I really really see the difference. I don't even know. I'm not even sure what really to do. Should I just be using fans? Should I just be using lower weights with more reps? Like I'm kind of in a state of confusion, so or should I just be doing something like yoga? Should I just let go of the weight training? What you're experiencing is open ended one because you haven't been able to get

to a doctor to locate what the problem is. Definitely have arthritis in my left hip, so I do know that I definitely have arthritis in my left hip. What irritated definitely squats and sometimes even walking, Oh you know, like if I get on the treadmill, like I typically don't run because my knees aren't all that great. Okay, now, so I'm typically walking. But sometimes do you have a BikeE? I don't. I haven't. I have an elliptical? Does that irritate you? So that doesn't? Maybe the bike is okay

for you as well? You guys need to get to peloton. It's so fun. It just gives you more of a chance lenge and more things to do, more variety as opposed to just a regular bike that might be something that it keeps you going for a longer period of time and interested for a longer period of time, So it's liptical and bike might be the thing for you. In terms of cardio, you could also do some weight training on the bike and liptical by raising up and

down the resistance on that. Okay. Other than that, you don't have to do squads. And for someone who is experiencing like me or hip even back isometric exercises is great for you because they do isometric exercises right out of surgery. That's what they pretty much start with. But there it's pretty safe and painless. And the other thing is in terms of working your quads, you can do leg extensions and extensions are gonna help that part of it. You can do donkey kicks that with weights with an

ankle with yeah, yeah, that's gonna work on your book. Okay, So those are and then of course the hamstrings you can do some strength training with resistance fans or with free weights with that as well, dead lifts for your

hand string and go into fit leg dead list. With the leg extensions and some calf raises you can get with the donkey you can get all of your lower body without bothering your hit got it, got it, and the free train side, and then the cardio side with the bikes and shout out to Peloton and Peloton is listening. I need a bike, all right. That's really really good advice, Wendy.

Moving on, because we're coming to a close. I want to move on a little bit to mental health because in this time, during the pandemic, it is so difficult for me and for a lot of people, I'm sure to stay motivated. Just so much going on in the world that is heavy. We're in such a state of discord in our nation right now. So how does one

stay positive while trying to process all of this? And I guess it goes back to what you've been talking about all along, and that is your own trying to stay true to your own personal journey and your own personal purpose. Absolutely to stay same in this climate we are in the world today. One of the first things you have to do is find some structure in your household, get a rhythm, get a sit stuff, because everything is

in disarray. Ever since COVID had had a system, And these are things that I actively do that definitely work for me because right now, it's just me. I don't I don't even have somebody I'm living with right now. A lot of people are in that situation where they're alone, right so that alone can drive you crazy. And then I talked to my son, and my son I got five grandkids, and he's going, look like you know that here, I'm like, okay, me and you are in opposite ends

of this phonicle. But nevertheless, it's all challenging for everyone. And that's why you got to recreate some structure in your household. How you eat, how you work, I take my breaks. I have some recess time that I have set my little time er here where it'll go off, where I set a certain amount of time for me to work, because I can get stuck in this chair. The second thing is reach out to someone that you like talking with. You gotta be in contact with people,

not necessarily the family members like for you. If you're living with everybody like my son, you know you've got all that going on. Maybe you already have that interaction. Maybe you've got a little other personal time you want to dedicate to yourself for reading and something like that. So it's surely is going into the structure the other thing, and the real important thing is shut the darn TV all. Yet the facts and disappears. Yet the facts and disappear.

And then each day find something that sparks joy with you, something that makes you happy, something that will make you laugh. And I regularly do this, Gammy. I will go to YouTube and kids and animals, all of you, right, Richie Pryor from old school, right, But there's so much stuff, and it's so at our fingertips, and that is some of the I lacked. All the time I talk to myself, I'm like, oh, you gave me gonna answer, girl. You know,

I'm crazy like that. So it lifts me up when the people you talk to make it positive people because some people, so you got to choose your people. Some people you're talking, they always talking downward right right. The person in my family might do that. I'm like, okay, enough of that. Can we talk about exactly? And you

know what? You know what works for me too? And I think about it because I realized how much of my life and I don't know if people really think about that, but the pandemic really really highlighted how social we are as beings. Right, all of my activities that I enjoy so much involved network dancing, you know, my stepping, yes, yes, I am as a Chicago stepper, yes, and roller skating.

I was learning how to roller skate. I've always wanted to learn how to roll escape and I was just really getting into my groove and then the pandemic hit. Like I was going roller skating like three times a week. That's a cool thing to do. And that's the other thing in terms of staying young. So you're onto something there. Darn me not to get old and send your ways learn no stuff. Even with this technology, it keeps you

young and youthful and learning and thinking. But you were talking about watching stuff on YouTube that brings you joy. So that's I can't dance right now. So I'm on YouTube all the time watching people stepping. I did it before, anyway, but I watched people stepping. I danced with the door. Yeah, it's me joy right now. I'm listening to the music and like you said, I definitely stay off of the TV as far as news is concerned anyway, And I'm doing a lot of reading and a lot of self

help work right now. I'm taking this time of the pandemic to do a lot of soul searching and work on me that I need to do. Yeah, Wendy, one thing I forgot to ask you what everybody wants to know. Do you have a cheat day and what is your favorite cheat? Yeah? Okay, people tell me, oh, you just want you so strict. I'm a normal person and I have really what I want, So gimme. I use the eight rule. I eat good most of the time and the other twenty I do my thing. Okay, So I

got to share with you. My thing got right downstairs wild boys waiting for me for this weekend, because that's how I celebrate is um an apple cinnamon vegan muffin. Okay, I did it from hopeful Wow, some chocolate cake or my thing is that chocolate cake that has the fund on the inside with a scoop of vanilla ice cream? Girl? Please whatever as you're talking about a buffer, that's your cheek. Alright, right, girl, grow back, that's okay, alright, Wendy, God bless you, God

bless you, because I have to agrieve your friends. You are extremely and highly disciplined. Yes, and that's why you what you do. Listen, Yeah, I wish you could see my face you. That's all I can say. You could see my face. We're gonna wind down. We're gonna run down and roll on out of here with our rapid fire questions for you. Tell me what book you're currently reading. Okay, so I'm reading Choo books. One of them is called stick Ability by Greg Reid. Uh huh. It's about the

power of perseverory. Okay, yeah, okay. One thing you want to get off your chest? Okay, So one thing I'd like to get on my chest is the phrase that I've heard plenty of times on social media, black don't crack ah Okay. And the reason why I say that is sometimes when you say that, you discount all the hard work and all the other good things that I'm really doing. So I'm never find out it that way. Okay, yeah it is. That's the way I take it Personally.

I'm like, say, black don't hey, wait a minute after a lot of stuff. And the thing that I follow up with that is, yes, melanin, darker melanin protects us from a lot more than lighter melanin. So that is a true fact. But I have people in the family that I can take two people side by side, one who has led a clean lifestyle and the other one. They both got the same genetics. They both black, don't crack, but the other one has led a tough life, different,

completely different. So black don't crack, don't cut it. It is true in a sense, but don't discount the other hard work that is very necessary to the vibrant and thrive and life. That makes total sense. I get that, totally get that. Last, but not least, what's a model you live by? I truly live by this. I always say it doesn't matter what your ages, where you come from, or what you've been through. What matters is that you don't give up, because it's never too late to take

back your life. There you go, never too late to take back your fabulousness. Yes, thank you so much for joining us, Wendy. We appreciate you. And now please tell the audience any events or things that you have coming up and where they can find you on social media. Well, you can always find me on YouTube. I'm doing plenty of videos on their self help videos and I love to dance, so you can always kind of dance your video. Absolutely, yes, and that's on YouTube when you eat a fitness and

on Instagram Facebook and LinkedIn. Wendy, thank you so much. We appreciate you. I appreciate you, and you are You are fabulous. You are fabulous. Thank you so much. So here are my takeaways from this episode with Wendy Eta. What you put in your body is as important as what you do with your body. Cut out the sugar, guys, let it go and that means me to Let me tell you, the struggle is real. Find the cardio that works best for you, and consistency is paramount. It's tough

times out here. Find something that brings you joy. Don't be afraid to try something new or learn a new skill. Along with a good support system, find your why and use that to help keep you motivated. Positively gam is produced by Westbrook Audio execut producers Adrian Banfield, Naris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Amanda Brown, and Fallon jethro Co. Executive producer sim Hoti, Segment producer Ash Francis, Associate producers Erica Ron

and Kobe Hartberg, editor and mixer Calvin Bailiff. Positively gam is in partnership with Art nineteen