Live better and longer with the Fitness Show, hosted by fitness expert, author, and TV personality Fitz Kohler. She'll tell you why diets are dumb, supplements are snake oil, and the truth about how you can earn a lean, hard, pain-free, and athletic body. Now for our favorite bossy blonde, Fitz Kohler. Well, hi team. I'm Fitz Kohler, your well-rested fitness expert and race announcer from Fitzness.com. And welcome to the Fitzness show. I have been home for a whopping three days, I think.
So I'm finally getting a few good nights rest in a row and it feels fantastic. That's right. There's nothing like waking up thinking, huh, that was enough. I achieved quality sleep and I did that today. I did that last night. And so I'm feeling good, feeling sassy. In fact, I'm recording this podcast ahead of time because I had a little zip, a little zing left at 8 p.m. So why not? Why not go answer some of your incredible questions? And I love answering your questions. In fact, you know what?
Your questions to me are a drug. That's right. I've never done drugs, but I'm guessing this is what crack cocaine feels like. Your questions being asked and my ability to answer them makes me high. That's it. I'm very, very excited. Also, I'm just coming off of the Donna TPC 5k weekend. You're probably familiar because I've spoken about it before, but the Donna National Marathon finished breast cancer is a race weekend I announced in early February each year.
And they have two other events throughout the year. They have a Mother's Day 5K and then in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we have a 5K on the TPC golf course in Ponte Vedra, which is stunning. And. You know, obviously the location is fantastic, but I'm there for the people. It was a sold out show. We had 1,200 athletes for our 5K and about 100 women and one man who's had breast cancer in the past.
So the camaraderie is really special. And I love doting on these people. I just love doting. And I love doting on all of you. That's just one of my favorite things to do. It's my hobby. My hobby is doting on people who like to exercise. And it just makes me giddy. And the Donna is a race series where it's totally okay that I put out my arms and I give everyone a squeeze and nobody thinks I'm weird. At least nobody specifically has told me yet that they think I'm weird for doing
it. Although, listen to this. There's this guy. He comes through the finish line and he's wearing the yellow hat with the green O. It's an Oregon duck hat. And so like I do for every team, even if you're a Seminole, even if you're a dog, whatever, I will cheer for your team. So I look at this man and I say, go Ducks. And he looks at me, he goes, we're going to kill your Buckeyes today. And I go, oh, well, I'm a Gator. And he goes, sucks for you.
So I got dissed so hard within 10 seconds of each other by the same man. And I thought, what have I done to deserve your ire, right? Guy, why are you so mad at me? I don't even think I mentioned the fact that I was at a Buckeye game the week prior. I mean, maybe I did. Maybe he listens to this podcast, but dude, if you do, ouch, you got to lighten up a little bit. I said, go Ducks. I gave you a cheer. When someone cheers for you, don't be hostile in response, but he was the only one.
Other than that, everybody was honky dory and sweet, sweet, sweet and fun, fun, fun. And I'm headed to Phoenix this weekend for a mud girl event. And those are. Raucous, raucous. We have such a good time too. So anyways, my life is wonderful, not only because I have a great family and besties and stuff, but because I have you and all of these athletes that I didn't know before that show up and become my besties, at least for the moment.
I'm well-rested and I'm giddy. I'm giddy. We're answering questions and we will be right back. Are you looking for the perfect gift for a loved one battling cancer? The Cancer Comeback Series by Fitz Kohler offers hope, inspiration, and practical guidance. With Your Healthy Cancer Comeback, My Noisy Cancer Comeback, and The Healthy Cancer Comeback Journal. These books are a lifeline for all patients and survivors. Right now, you can order autographed copies at a special discount.
Show your support and help a loved one go from sick to strong. Visit Fitzness.com today. That's F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S.com. Fitzness.com. We're back. We've got some good ones tonight. As per usual, and I'm going to hop right in. So the first one came from Jenny Vale. That's right. That's GidgetGirl on Instagram. She's one of my fitness fiends, my ambassadors.
And then Chrissy Lyons, who's also one of my ambassadors, she had a question that I answered in the last podcast, but in the same vein, they want to know how to tackle fitness while going through menopause or being post-menopausal? And the answer is really simple. For the most part, you tackle fitness the same way everybody else does. And this is a question I've gotten, I've received over and over and over, over the years.
And it looks very similar to others. Well, I hear what you're saying, Fitz, but I'm going through menopause, or I just had a baby, or I have migraines, whatever. There's always some special thing. And what I want to tell you is the rules still stand. All right. The rules still stand. You still need to pursue the four pillars of fitness, cardiovascular fitness, strength training, balance, flexibility.
All four pillars of fitness are relevant to you. Even if you're going through menopause, even if you're done with menopause, you still have to pursue those four pillars of fitness and do so with a vengeance, right? The same way you were before. If you're trying to be your fittest, you're trying to be your fittest. It doesn't matter what's going on in your life. The fact that I had cancer X amount of years ago doesn't preclude me from the four pillars or from nutritious eating.
So for starters, it's the same it's always been. It's you doing your best in these four pillars of fitness. However. I can tell you that with menopause, sometimes people end up with osteoporosis, we lose bone density. Okay. So that means you get a little more aggressive with strength training because strength training builds bone density. And then so does impact exercises. So those are two places you can go even harder, strength training and cardiovascular impact exercises.
That would be running, that would be walking, that would be dancing, anything where your foot goes pound, pound pound on the ground is going to be good for your bone density. When it comes to nutrition and you're having the hot flashes and so forth, maybe stay away from the spicy foods, cut down on caffeine and alcohol. Other than that, it's the same. It's the same ladies. So yeah, the same thing I've been telling you forever still counts.
Now you might be struggling. You might have issues related to menopause. I get that. And that sucks. However, the fitness guidance does not change. So cardiovascular, you go out to huff and puff. Strength training, you go until you crunch. Flexibility, you reach until you win. And then balance training, you do things that make you wobble and that will make you more stable. So yeah, easy question to answer.
The same rules apply to you. And when you approach the gym or fitness class and in your mind, you say, but I have menopause or I'm doing menopause or, but I've been through menopause. Just stop, just stop, just stop and go pursue fitness. And I feel really good about that answer. That was quick. That was easy. It may not be the answer you were looking for, but it's the truth. It's the actual truth. You pursue fitness as usual. Do your best in each category. All right.
Next up, I've got Laurel Adams with another stellar question. She's also a fitness fiend. Hey, Laurel. Oh, my Canadian queen. She's had a respiratory bug and she's worried about her marathon. On. She's going to do just fine, Laurel. I know you're ready. Okay. So she says my go-to eating all spring and summer has been fresh, healthy fruits and veggies with fall coming in and imported produce, very expensive. And the focus is potatoes and squash. Any tips staying healthy?
Yeah, Laurel, you're, well, Hey, there's a whole bunch of fall produce items that are in season and should be affordable. There's grapes, there's green beans, there's beets, There's cauliflower, apples. Think apples for the fall. Apples are a great price. Pineapples, kale, kiwi, radish, peppers, mushrooms, turnips, Brussels sprouts. So there's a whole bunch of great options. Don't feel like you're not going to be able to get fresh produce during the fall.
You'll just get different produce, right? I didn't say watermelon. Watermelon's not on that list. Watermelon is a summer fruit. However, there's a ton of other things that are in season and they should be sold at a decent price. Now, the way to get your favorites year round is to buy frozen produce. And so many farmers... They overproduce more than they know they're going to sell this week. So what do they do? They flash freeze those products.
They ship them to the frozen sections of your grocery stores and they will remain there for the year. They have a long shelf life. And if you love watermelon or strawberries or blueberries or the things that we like to pick in summer, just go to the frozen section. In fact, many of my friends here in Gainesville, Florida, they slash we go strawberry and blueberry picking during the summer. We've got some great farms nearby and you can go pick them and we pick excessive amounts.
And then if it's strawberries, we wash, then we chop off the lids, right? The leaves, let them dry and then freeze them in a bag. We get those freezer safe Ziploc style bags. Same thing with blueberries. We remove the stems, wash them, let them dry. So if you don't let them dry and you try to freeze them wet, then all that frost, it's not frostbite, it's just frost, right?
Frost accumulates and it gets a little yucky. But if you let the berries dry, you can freeze them and they will remain lovely. And then you just pull them out of the freezer, sprinkle them in your yogurt, throw them in the blender for your smoothie, add them to your pancake recipe, whatever. So preparing for the fall and winter by freezing your own freshly picked fruit is a really good idea. But I love the produce section.
Not only are those items usually a little more nutritious than the fresh produce items, and the reason they're more nutritious is because once they've been frozen, which is usually right at the farm or damn near close to it, they maintain, they preserve all of their nutrients if they're frozen.
Most fresh produce loses nutrition in transportation. So if you're buying something from Colombia or from the other side of America, as it goes via planes, trains and automobiles and ships, they will lose nutrients along the way. So frozen produce is often even more nutritious than fresh cut or fresh produce. And I find so many more BOGOs and on-sale items in the frozen department than I do in the fresh produce department. So that's how you eat healthy year round.
You prepare for it or you switch, right? You just, you eat more apples than you do watermelon. Easy peasy. Fantastic question. Also, don't forget, I just recorded a podcast on saving money on groceries. I released it about a month ago. And I think it's awesome because it's filled with your tips. That's right. I had so much input and I think we covered all the basis on saving money on groceries. So go back and listen to that if you haven't done so already.
All right, next question from Paul Fox, whom I love. He says, I'm asking this from my niece. What are some ways to improve running endurance and increase the amount of time you're able to run without needing to walk? So it can be simple and then it can be complicated. The simple, stupid way to increase your running endurance is just to run more, right? So right now, let's say you can run one minute at a time and then you have to walk for a minute.
All right, start running for one minute and 15 seconds and then walk for a minute. And then eventually get up to one minute and 30 seconds with a one minute walk break. So you can gradually just increase the time you're running and decrease the amount of time you're walking. So that's one way. The other way to do it is to just really take things up a notch. I love the treadmill. So many of you might be going, oh, the treadmill, ew, I hate the treadmill.
The worst. Well, I think it's a really smart and productive tool if you are trying to be precise with your capabilities. And so one of my favorite things to do when I'm trying to be able to run further or faster is I get on the treadmill. And normally I run at about five miles per hour. That's my average, right? I'll go a little more than that, but let's say five. Well, if I want to be able to run further or faster, I will take that treadmill.
I will hit eight miles per hour. and I will get up to running eight miles per hour and I'll stay there for 10 seconds and then I'll hit the arrow down and I'll go to 7.9 miles per hour for 10 seconds and then go to 7.8 miles per hour for 10 seconds and gradually decrease until I get back down to five miles per hour and then I run there casually for a while until I'm ready to do it again.
I might even go down and walk at four miles per hour for a couple of minutes, but that's a really intelligent way to pick up the pace and increase your running endurance. Now, eight miles per hour might be a little too much for Kaylee, and that's fine. That's fine. She can bring it up to six miles per hour, whatever's challenging for her without being impossible, without putting her at risk for flying off the back of the treadmill. But picking that speed and working your way down,
is highly effective. And when I used to train people many moons ago, I would have them do the same thing. It was always really effective. The other way to increase the amount of time that you can run is to increase your incline, right? So let's say you're doing one minute of running and one minute of walking. If all of a sudden you're running one minute at an incline, you are building your endurance.
So eventually, when you want to run on a flat surface, you're going to be able to do it for much longer because it's so much easier than running at an incline. But overall, your most effective tactic for being able to run more and walk less is to run more and walk less, okay? And just increase the time you're running and decrease the time you're walking. In fact, you could increase the time you're running and maintain the same walk break. So let's say you like to do a 60 second walk break. Fine.
Just get yourself up to walking or running one minute at a time, then running a minute and a half at a time, then running two minutes at a time, running up to five minutes at a time with that same 60 second walk break in between. But yeah, that's, that's the secret. That's not really a secret is gradually run more and walk less. It's not going to happen overnight, but it will happen if you are consistent. All right. And also, Paul, nothing motivates a niece like running with her uncle.
That's right. If her uncle gets out there and runs with her, she's going to be having so much fun. She might forget that it hurts a little bit and enjoy your company. And she might be running full marathons in the matter of like, I don't know, six days or so just because you're with her. So great uncle-ing. Thank you for asking a question for your beautiful niece. All right, my next question is from Jennifer Riaz.
Now, Jennifer, she's also a fitness fiend. I'm getting so many good questions from my ambassadors. Thanks for all your interactiveness, guys. I love it. I love it. Jennifer. I think I've mentioned this before, but I want to say it again because it's worth repeating. Jennifer and I met in fifth grade. She showed up at my school as the new kid in fifth grade. She says I was the only person who talked to her, which makes sense because I'm an adopter, right? I never had switched schools.
I started a kindergarten, went all the way through, went to the appropriate middle school, went all the way through, went to the next high school. I mean, I never had to be the new kid other than kindergarten, right? So I, Jennifer and I became fast friends and remained so through high school, then lost touch. So Jennifer's had some health issues. And when we reconnected, I don't know, maybe six months or so ago, she was, she told me she was disabled.
She said, I can't walk almost at all. I have a chair in the shower. I moved from the couch to the bed, but I don't do, I never walk outside. And I said, well, maybe you could do something. Like maybe you could just lift your arms while sitting in a chair. You could do some exercises sitting down or you could do some leg lifts while you're in bed. And she said, yeah, maybe. And then I told her about the exact formula because she was mentioning that she wanted to lose some weight.
And so she started doing leg lifts in bed and started lifting her arms while seated in a chair and using the exact formula. She has lost over, I think it's 46 pounds in just maybe three, four months. And she is so motivated. She's now going for walks on the beach. Can you imagine being stuck in bed not to go for a walk on the beach when you live near the beach? And now she can walk on the beach and she posts these beautiful videos with
just oozing joy. I could see the emotions in her eyes, her little twinkly eyes. I'm so happy for her. I'm proud of her, yes, but I'm happy for her because she has earned her life back. She's doing what I wish so many people would do is give fitness a chance, give fitness a chance, right? Just start watching what you put in your mouth and start moving your body just a little. There's so many people who think they're disabled permanently when they're not.
They just haven't done the thing they need to do to get up and get active again, and she's doing it. So incredible. Jennifer, I'm so proud of you, and I love bragging about you here. So her question is in regards to what happens if you don't eat enough calories? So she deprived herself and went down to 1,000 calories, and she said you got lightheaded. Well, that's what happens, Jennifer, is if you do not eat enough calories, you get lightheaded. Your entire body stops functioning. And so.
Your exact formula is exact, right? And maybe there's a little bit of wiggle room, but there's not major wiggle room. If you're trying to be 150 pounds and you eat 1,000 calories, you're going to suffer. You're going to have some major consequences. Being lightheaded might be just scratching the surface. Your body needs fuel to go. Your body needs fuel to do the things it needs to do. So if you have not eaten enough, you will likely end up with little to no energy.
You will likely get a headache, dizzy, you could pass out, you could be unstable, you could have poor balance, weakness, everything in your body starts failing if you have not fueled it properly. So the exact formula is exact. Please don't deprive yourself. Do not starve yourself. Starvation has no benefit. Starvation has no benefits. And that's one of the reasons that I am so opposed to diets. I think diets are dumb, right? I say it all the time, but they are so many diets.
Remember the cabbage soup diet? And I don't know, there's just a bunch of other dumb, dumb diets. Keto, stupid. Intermittent fasting, stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I could go on forever. I'm not going to beat it here because I have beat that horse to death on other shows. But yeah, you should not be starving yourself. And it's funny because people say, well, if I don't eat enough calories today, I'm going to screw with my metabolism.
Well, not really. I'm not going to do it that day. If you starve yourself in a prolonged manner, you can start messing with your metabolism. But for today, if you don't get enough calories, your body will let you know. In fact, I am exhibit A because as happy as I am right now, if I have not had enough food, I get crazy. I am that hangry girl and all my sunshine turns to hurricanes. I become a bit of a nightmare if I'm hangry. So snacks, snacks, snacks, keep the food coming.
And I don't want to be under budget. I want, I want to give my body the food it deserves, the food it needs. And hydration is also a really important factor there. If you are not hydrated, I mean, there's food, food matters a lot, but if you're not getting enough water, Oh my goodness. Our body, I think our overall body is 67% water. Our body is basically a big old thermos. That's it. We are a thermos with mostly water swishing around inside and some chunks of
other stuff, which is probably not the most lovely way to describe our bodies. But. Mostly water. Our brain, mostly water. Our kidneys, mostly water. Our blood, mostly water. Our other organs, mostly water. So it's really important that we drink. So do not deprive yourself excessively of calories. Use your exact formula. That's good enough. And then lots and lots of water.
Okie dokie, that was it. Is that the quickest podcast? It might be the quickest podcast, but these are three questions and I wanted to answer them again. I was all excited to get to you. And talk about menopause and fall produce and calorie deprivation, et cetera, et cetera. Now, I do have a communication tip, of course. This one, this one's a biggie. And I mean, part of me feels like, yes, you can do this easily. For some of you, it may be excruciating.
But this is important. When you talk to people, look at their eyes. Actually look at people when you talk to them. So take a moment today when you're talking to anybody and observe how often they look over your shoulder, up to the ceiling, behind you, down at the floor.
None of that is good. None of that is sincere. And I understand if you are going to take a moment and think, especially if you're trying not to use the word like, and you might look up at the ceiling or look, look elsewhere to conjure up the word you're trying to say, but you should be looking at people's faces when you talk to them. When I FaceTime, it's very funny. I do a lot of FaceTime. I mean, people in general, I'm always communicating.
I'm always connecting with people startling how many people will not look at my face. And sometimes I start, my eyes start bugging out a little further and my chin jets forward and I'm thinking, look at me, look at my face. What's wrong with my face? Why won't you look at me? Sometimes people are just very shy, insecure, and those aren't qualities you want to project, right? You guys are go-getters, you're winners, you're probably employed.
You probably want to deal confidently with your customers or with your boss or with your clients. Or maybe you own a business and you definitely want to project confidence. So look in people's eyes when you talk to them. Don't get weird about it, but look at them in their eyes. You know, it's really funny. As my poor dance instructor, Michael, I always stare right at his face while we're dancing. I have to, I just do stare right at his face. I think sometimes he probably thinks fits well.
Stop staring at my face, but it's where I look. He's right there in my face, so I look at his face. I like his face. It's a very good face. But yeah, we should be looking in the other people's eyes or at least look at their nose or something. Target something in their oval or round face. You got that? FaceTime. And then this is my song of the week. This one's very exciting. Why? Because I heard it today and I thought it was fun. and it's Milli Vanilli, girl, you know, it's true. That's right.
We're going back to the eighties. Good girl. And if you'll remember with Milli Vanilli, that they were these two hunky black males from, I think Germany, and they had braids and they were great dancers and they were very good looking. And, and they, they, they went on tour. They had a number one hit. I think they had a second number one hit. And my best friend, Christy, she actually went to their concert. And about a week after she went to their concert, she found out that they were lip syncing.
They weren't even singing their song. They were just hired because they were hunky guys who could dance. And we all fell for it. We love Milli Vanilli. But yeah, they were good. That song was good. I don't actually know who sang the song. Who is the actual or who are the faces behind Milli Vanilli. I'd like to get my eyes on those humans and see, I don't know, maybe I'll think of them when I listen to their song, but this song was great, right? So, phony baloney artists, but the song was great.
Girl, you know it's true. I want you to listen to that while you are treading water in the pool. That's right. You're going to set your phone on the side and you're going to blast that song and you're going to tread water to this. Perhaps you're going to be playing racquetball or doing track practice. You're going to be doing hurdles, listening to Girl You Know It's True, or you could do that little Girl You Know It's True dance. And girl, you know what it is.
All right, that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening to The Fitsness Show. It would be so nice if you would hit share on this episode and introduce it to a friend who may be interested in this content. I bet you have some friends who could learn a little bit about exercising during and after menopause, or maybe a friend who doesn't need enough calories, or maybe a friend who wants to run a little further. I'm guessing you do.
It would make me so happy if you did that. Yeah, that's it. I love you. Get to work. Bye, team. Hi, this is Rudy Novotny, the voice of America's Marathons. We all love how much running has benefited every aspect of our lives, so much so that most of us only wish we'd started sooner. Wouldn't it be wonderful to gift the opportunity to children of today? Well, you can.
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