Fit2BTide S06.E20: Women's Health

[00:00:10] Speaker A: Happy Sunday, y'. [00:00:11] Speaker B: All. [00:00:11] Speaker A: You are listening to Fit to Be tied with Sheena and Whitney on 90.7, the capstone. And I'm gonna be honest. I almost didn't say Sunday. I almost just randomly said it's Tuesday. And it's definitely not Tuesday, but how are you. Because obviously, Whitney, I am not completely here yet. [00:00:29] Speaker B: You're behind or you're either. Is it daylight savings? Did it, like, throw you off? [00:00:34] Speaker A: It might be. It might be. I'm not really sure. I'm like, does it just not feel like a Sunday? Like, what's the deal? [00:00:40] Speaker B: So, yeah, well, you know, I'm good. I still. This is so funny because every time I put on, like, my earphones to get, you know, like, ready to record, I still feel like I am so stocked up. Like, I haven't gotten my normal voice back from, like, just a disclaimer for everybody or just to kind of let everybody know. I did have Covid about a month ago and experienced all those things related to it. But, you know, the pollen is crazy, and I just can't help but think that, like, I'm going to have this crud for a while. Like, I just don't think it's going to go away until summer. [00:01:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like this. This lingering thing, and then, like, a little bit of some drainage. Yeah. Well, hopefully it will clear up. But I agree with spring and the pollen, it kind of just. It kind of makes. Yes. And now, correct me if I'm wrong. I know when we've had conversations in the past, you've mentioned, you know, you're not so much a football person as far as, like, keeping up with that. How about other sports? And I bring that up because, you know, we just got that SEC championship in gymnastics. You know, we've been doing well in basketball. So I didn't know if you've been, like, getting into that or if you've been hanging out with people that are into that, like, kind of, you know, is that on your radar at all? Just out of curiosity. [00:01:55] Speaker B: You know, I've never. And this is so crazy because, like, in high school, I was a cheerleader. And so you would think being a cheerleader, you would, like, be into sports. And, like, I know sports, and I understand sports. I just. It's not something. I'm super excited. But I will say I am glad that sports are back because I think that it's a nice little equalizer for everybody. It gives us kind of all this, like, level playing field, and I don't know if that comes out the right way or not. But I feel like with so much stuff going on in the world and just some terrible things that have happened within the past couple of weeks, I feel like with sports. Most people I have found are pretty engaged in sports and it's a very healthy competition and it's almost like everybody has the same understanding and it kind of brings us together. And I wouldn't say, I mean obviously I know like basketball is like going on and I guess baseball season is probably coming up. I will say I love our softball team and coach Murphy. I don't know Coach Murphy if you're listening, but he'll randomly get me to go teach like some dance to the girls just to like get them to do something fun and active. And every time like I am like contacted by him. He's the most like influential, exciting person. I was like, you know, if I played a sport, that would be the sport I'd want to play. I know nothing about softball, but because he's such a leader, like that would be my sport. [00:03:14] Speaker A: Well, I was going to ask like, did you play softball? No. [00:03:18] Speaker B: I have the worst vision and I even had Lasik eye surgery last year and I still can't really gauge like I can dance all day long and I'm beating the music. But when it comes to like hand eye coordination like tennis or softball or baseball, I swing the bat way sooner than the ball comes towards me and I blame my eyesight. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I can totally get that. I did play tennis in high school, but when it comes to a ball being pitched to me and when to swing, like the timing and coordination of that is just not, not so great. It really is, it definitely is strategy to that. [00:03:52] Speaker B: There's a whole like you really got to have a good. Now we'll say I'm not bad at golf if I had to pick a sport because it's a little slow pace, it's kind of relaxing and like you can keep your eye on the ball instead of it coming towards you. You can keep your head down and the movement. I like golf, but I don't haven't played it in years. [00:04:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:04:10] Speaker B: What about you? [00:04:12] Speaker A: You know, I, I've been watching more basketball just because you know, it's, it's easy to watch when we're doing well. And like you said, it has brought us all back together kind of, it's put us on this like united front, which is nice. And I think even tonight we play our next game. I think it's like u like around seven or Something. So just shout out to that for anybody who would be following with that. But, yeah, no, I mean, I. Basketball is not something that I normally watch. The last time I really watched the NBA was, like, during the Michael Jordan days when I were, like, a lot younger. So, like, that was really the last time I was into the NBA. I've always loved going to gymnastics meets. Like, I think that that's fun. And I do think the softball games [00:04:53] Speaker B: are a lot of fun to go to. [00:04:54] Speaker A: But anyways, I know through all that ramble, it's already time for our first break, so I'm gonna shut this down and say, y' all go grab a drink, wash your hands, do what you need to do. We will catch you on the flip side. You're listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. Wvuafm Tuscaloosa. [00:05:22] Speaker B: Welcome back. You're listening to Fit to be Tied with Sheena and Whitney, and we're talking sports, something I would have never. I would ever talk about. But, yeah, it's a good thing. You know, I think maybe we should talk about it more. Maybe this should be our goal. And maybe just, you know, as we move into this spring, you know, kind of, you know, basketball and baseball and softball, like, maybe we should talk more about, you know, our sports here on campus. [00:05:48] Speaker A: We should, you know, and I mean, and then also we got to give a shout out to adapted athletics. I know our wheelchair basketball team, they just got a national championship. I mean, we've got winners all around. My goodness. [00:06:00] Speaker B: So, I mean, aside from, like, our students and faculty staff being winners, of course, we have the athletics, as always, winners. But it's just, it's, you know, things are going good, I feel like. [00:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I will do us a favor and get us off the topic of sports, because that's all I know. [00:06:17] Speaker B: I don't know anything because I'm going [00:06:18] Speaker A: to say I feel like we, you know, combined our probably, like, our conversation would probably be staying pretty brief with that. So let's transition into something that we do know about, and that's going to be being women and women's health. And we thought that, you know, this is just a great time to kind of shift gears with our topics. And, you know, and this is great for us because it's me and you today. You know, we don't have a special guest. It's really just a time for you and I to discuss some relevant topics. And, you know, we. We thought about women's health, overall and thought that, you know, hey, let's talk about it, because also, too, we are nearing the end of women's history month, so. So I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that to kind of conn on that topic. But, Whit, I know that when we were preparing for today's show, I had sent you a link from WebMD talking about the top five women's health concerns. I feel like WebMD has almost become a verb, like Google in some ways. And so, you know, I feel like with a lot of the conditions on the list, there are some things that can be done on the prevention side related to both physical activity and nutrition. I don't know if you kind of got those same impressions, too. [00:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, it's interesting. And I've kind of learned more about these diseases and illnesses and things like that now that I'm doing more education. So, you know, when I started out in fitness, it was kind of this one track mind of just, you know, fitness, fitness, fitness. But now that I get to do collaborations with you guys over at the health center and project health and that kind of stuff, but then also with wellness and work, life balance, I'm doing webinars a lot, which I really enjoy. And it's. It's been great because it's been getting me to kind of dive a little deeper into the prevention side. And really, when you think about physical activity and nutrition and all these behavior changes that we have, that's really what we're focusing on, is prevention. And, you know, we know when you go to health screening, we know there's some underlying causes and genetics is going to fall into play. But really, there's a lot of things that we can do, men and women, to just prevent some of these diseases. And we don't ever really like to talk about it. It's kind of like, we like to think about the fun side of fitness, of like, oh, I want to look good or I want to, like, lose weight. You know, it's kind of those like, like, little vein type of things that we talk about. But, you know, it is really important to think about some of these things. And, you know, Sheena, I just pulled it up, and I was just kind of like, looking through the website, but, like, the first hit is heart disease. Like, the first thing that when I was scrolling down on the page, you know, when I was talking about women's top five health concerns is heart disease. And I don't know about you, but, like, growing up and learning and just kind of, you know, hearing different, you know, health info and websites. Heart disease was kind of one of those things that I didn't necessarily think of it as something that could affect me as a female. It was just this one track mind of, like, you know, you always hear about, you know, men having heart disease, and it was never something that I thought about, but it really is super prevalent and it is the leading killer of men and women. [00:09:38] Speaker A: Right. You know, from that same information, I think it had even mentioned that like, a third, almost about a third of women's deaths are related to heart disease. And like you, I kind of have that same visual of thinking about it as being more of a male prevalent disease, because I remember when I was in elementary school, or maybe it was junior high, a close friend of mine at the time, her father had passed away from a heart attack. He was eating breakfast, like in a Waffle House. Like, that was like his morning routine. And, you know, it's just that that's always just kind of like, been a thought process, like, oh, you know, male in their 40s, 50s, or 60s, you know, whatever kind of body type, probably eats X, Y or Z. And, yeah, you don't think about women. And so that's why I do love that the American Heart association has done a lot more mass education in terms of public health, really educating women about the fact that this is a silent killer for. For us, for sure. And then when you think about those things that are correlated, like the high blood pressure and the physical inactivity and the, you know, the high blood cholesterol, and all of those things are connected with what we try to work on with our clients in terms of those physical activity behaviors and quality of diet. [00:10:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, you mentioned the whole physical activity thing. I know it's got to be challenging. You know, I am single with no kids or anything, so finding time to exercise. And I work at the rec center, so it's very easy for me to get up from my desk, which. Which is presently hard to do sometimes, but, like, going and actually doing my physical activity for the day. And then I think about, you know, people that have kids. I know yourself. You have two kids and think about, you know, Nika that's on the show with us before having two kids, being a single mom, that's really hard. And physical activity is one of those things, especially being a female and kind of having that nurturing sense. You kind of find things that you think you can let go and you don't need to focus on because you have other things in your life that hold Your attention. And so for those of you listening, we've been doing a lot of talk this semester. It's not too late to start an exercise routine. And it can be so simple as 20 to 30 minutes a day, not even consistently a whole 30 minute block of time, but maybe 10 minutes throughout the day just to get the heart pumping, just to get the body moving and then finding some sort of exercise program to progress and maybe even getting with a fitness professional that can get you on the right track because you know, with heart disease and thinking about heart attacks and hypertension and just all the things that go along with it, you can decrease your risk with physical activity and it can start really small. [00:12:23] Speaker A: And you know, we were talking earlier about how, you know, when it comes to people often making those dietary changes or physical activity changes, they see it kind of in the vein of vanity and weight loss. And I, to me, in my experience, especially with like my, my middle aged patients, they tend to have the most compliance and longevity with quality of diet and their physical activity when it's been reasons that aren't necessarily related to weight. But it's more so like, hey, I'm just doing this to manage my diabetes or prevent it or I had kids at an older age and I just, I want to be alive for them, you know, later on. Like it's more of these other like chronic health condition prevention reasons as opposed to this temporary. Well, I want to lose weight for this kind of situation, you know. [00:13:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, it goes right along. You know, you mentioned diabetes and we always think like, like if you go to the CDC or any one of the big websites, so you know, look up, you know, exercise and how much you should be doing. It's always going to say in prevention, you know, the minimal amount for prevention of these diseases like cancers, diabetes and heart disease. And those are kind of like the three that I feel like always stick out. So if you think about it, if you start exercising, whether it's just starting out small, like okay, maybe 20min a day of something to get the heart rate going, you are reducing your risk of these diseases. And it all kind of goes in hand in hand. And I know a little bit later I'm sure we'll talk more about the nutrition side of things or it's just me and you, we can pretty much do whatever we want. We can talk about it now, but it's just, it is a leading killer. And I think that a lot of times we don't think about that. And for women, sometimes we don't necessarily see the signs as a man. So I know when I'm teaching CPR to our students and, you know, they've updated, the American Red Cross has updated what kind of symptoms and signs you should be looking for. There's a lot more. It used to just be the left arm would be painful, the chest would be painful. Well, now, you know, you can have pain in your jaw, your upper back. And so I think, you know, women that are listening and men, if you can familiarize yourself with some of these symptoms and be aware, I mean, you just. I mean, I hate to sound super morbid, but, like, you just really need to be aware that something like this could happen to you, you know? [00:14:44] Speaker A: Absolutely. No, I'm glad that you bring that up just as far as being more cognizant of what those signs of a heart attack could be, because, yeah, I was mostly just thinking about the whole, like, oh, you know, there's pain in the left arm or, you know, pain or whatever else. I have a friend that is my age, leads a very high stress job, you know, very stressful home life with, like, children and all of. And she recently had a stroke. And when she told me when we were catching up and I was like, oh, my, Linda, how did you have a stroke? And this mini heart attack? And, you know, we're only 35, 36. And she said, the doctor said it was literally just the amount of stress that was just like building up. And you know, that that's not completely on the same vein as the physical activity and the nutrition, but it is. You know, when we think about us as women, like, we're often like, we're just very stressed out individuals. We got a lot of stuff. But before we open up that whole can of worms, y', all, we gotta take another break. We'll catch you on the flip side. You are listening to Fit to be tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7, the capstone. Wvuafm Tuscaloosa. [00:16:05] Speaker B: You're listening to Fit to be tied with Sheena and Whitney on this lovely Sunday afternoon. And. And, you know, it's women's history month, and it's been a good month. I mean, I've seen a lot of cool little things on Google and it's good to be a woman. I can't lie. I mean, I enjoy it. I'm not going to lie that there are some things I don't enjoy, if you get my drift. But at the same time, it's pretty great. But, you know, we've just kind of Been talking a little bit about women's health and some things that, you know, we deal with. And, you know, we talked a little bit about the heart disease and how we need to be, you know, being mindful of our physical activity and talking about prevention. But, Sheena, you brought up something really important that, you know, stress and, you know, things that we deal with mentally and anxiety, even depression. You know, I don't know about you, but, like, I feel like as I've gotten older, I'm 36. You're 36 too, right? [00:17:02] Speaker A: I am, yes. [00:17:02] Speaker B: So, like, we are on the other side of the 35. When I hit 35, I was like, oh, this is cool. And then this next birthday, being 36, I was like, well, I'm headed to 40. And I'm not gonna lie. I feel like after, you know, and it could be like with 2020 and that whole year and everything, like, the anxiety level and the stress level has elevated and I don't know, I don't even have kids, as we've talked about. So I can't even imagine, Sheena, just like your day to day of what you do, but you do it really well. You know, just shout out to you. But, you know, we're talking about, you know, just mental stresses and being a female. Sometimes they're. Because the way we're wired mentally and just, you know, hormonally and just all the things that go along with it. There's a lot of stress. [00:17:47] Speaker A: There really is. And, you know, I see these memes all the time where it talks about how you have, like an Internet browser with 65 tabs open and you can't tell which one has audio playing. Like, that's what I feel like. Our brains are so, so many times because, you know, we're constantly juggling these different and, you know, we just inherently are wired to be these caretakers in any kind of role that we're playing, whether it's in our work or family or whatever else. And it's just, you know, putting on that brave face and it's like, okay, it's go time. And. And I think that it's so important when it comes to self care. And, you know, we've used that word self care before, but really to be able to prioritize for one, you know, sleep and rest and, you know, and how we're nourishing our body and it's so easy that when we're prioritizing our day, things like sleep or the physical activity or the quality of our diet, we put it on the back burner because it's like, well, you know, we can just. We can just push that off. That's not an immediate need. And it's so funny how those are three super duper important, if not the most important priorities for us. And we constantly kind of put it on the back burner so that we can, you know, put on our. Our big girl boots and panties and, like, get stuff done, you know? [00:19:07] Speaker B: Yeah, you're so right. I mean, thinking about, like, what we do in a day. And somebody used this example really well when they were looking at kind of the difference between, you know, the male mindset and the female mindset. And I remember it was a really good representation of how we think so with males. And I don't know if this is the same for everybody, but this particular person was talking to their experiences, but they were saying that a male's mind is like compartments. It's like, literally they'll go inside their brain, take out this compartment, handle this one thing. Okay, Take care of it, put it back in this compartment. So it's a very one thing at a time. And then I've noticed, especially with myself and what this particular individual was talking about was, you know, women's brains are kind of like spider webs where you're doing so many different things at once. So it's not just, okay, I'm going into work and handling work. It's okay, I'm going into work. But then I'm also, like, thinking about what I'm going to do later with my kids, you know, what kind of meal I'm going to fix. I need to take care of this bill, this. This bill. So it's kind of like, I can kind of see that just in my experience with, you know, just my boyfriend and just my brother and how they view things. And it's kind of interesting. Like, it just. It's an interesting perspective, you know? [00:20:23] Speaker A: I agree. Yeah. I would say I love that analogy of men being able to compartmentalize things in terms of thought processes and to dos. And then for us as females, everything is more. And I know that there's a purpose to that, so I'm not even going to complain that that's how our brains are wired and how men's brains are wired, because obviously there's, like, there's a purpose and a benefit to that. But. But yeah, it can be stressful. And so, you know, just kind of on, you know, on that thread of things, you know, when we think about, like, de stressing and, you know, trying to practice that self care. What is kind of of self care look like for you? Like, what's your go to? I know we've talked about this in the past, but, you know, I'd love to remind our listeners, like what, you know, what kind of things do. Do we enjoy personally when it comes to trying to de stress and take care of ourselves and essentially escape in some ways. [00:21:20] Speaker B: You know, being in fitness, you would automatically think that I would go to like exercise. And I guess there's a couple of things that I do for myself. One is exercise, but it's not in a strenuous way. It's not in a stressful. I've got to go in life. This is just me personally. I've talked to other people that like to go hard and like kickbox and do all that kind of stuff. I like to just go for a walk with like BTS in my ears and just listen to some music and just kind of clear my head. And then the other thing I really like to do is I like to sit down and eat a meal. Like, I don't want distraction. I don't like to sit in front of a tv. I either want to sit like at my bar, eating in my house, or I want to go out to eat with somebody. Because that is an escape for me. That is just taking a breath and getting away from the rest of the world. And so, you know, I guess those are both exercise and nutrition, but it's a mental break. But Sheena, I'm curious. I mean, what do you do for self care? Because I know I have probably a little bit more time in my day not having to take care of two little ones. Well, I do have a dog and she's older, so she does require a little bit more attention. But, you know, like being a mom, how do you find time for that? [00:22:32] Speaker A: That, you know, I think so. The. I really thrive on being outside, you know, which that doesn't automatically make me this person that's like, oh, she likes to go camping. Like, no, not necessarily. Like, I like to go for walks outside. And especially now that the weather has gotten prettier. It's just nice to go outside. And honestly, it puts things in perspective for me that there is a life outside of my office. Like, it's. There's this nice reminder of like, okay, there is this like, beautiful world that exists and my life does not to constantly revolve around, like being in my office all the time. And it's just a nice, like mental escape. Obviously there are, you know, there's some serotonin and endorphins that are, you know, pumping through as you get in that fresh air and that sunshine. And then too, when I can, I really do like to protect those mealtimes, especially at work, and kind of see lunch as sacred. It doesn't always get to happen, but when it does, I like that because I want to actually enjoy my food. I feel like if I'm multitasking, tasking, I'm not taking in those flavors. I'm not escaping. I'm not. Because sometimes leftovers, they taste better the next day after like flavors have like melded and everything. And my, the biggest thing that will make me mad is to like bring really good leftovers to work and then not have the chance to enjoy them the way I wanted to. Like, I will be in a bad mood the rest of the day at work. And so it's almost like my co workers can probably tell like she did not get her real lunch today because she's, you know, because she just, she's like not very pleasant right now. And so, I mean, and those are just things in terms of like general like day to day, like making sure I'm checking in with myself for that de stressing, like obviously like a spa weekend somewhere is like a great like self care, like luxury. But when we're thinking about like the day to day, some outside sunshine with like a quick walk like in between you know, different meetings and all that kind of stuff can be just a nice little escape. [00:24:31] Speaker B: So yeah, I think you kind of nailed it with the whole idea of escape. Like maybe if we start thinking it, thinking of it in terms of, you know, we talk about self care, self care. But maybe if we think of it as, you know, I'm taking a quick escape from my day because one thing that I learned, you know, after, you know, 2020 happened and now that we're getting more on a normal work schedule is I'm trying to find that space within the day because I'm realizing that I would literally like kill myself at work. And I did it to myself. I would schedule and schedule and schedule and schedule because I thought, oh, people need me to do this. Nobody needs anybody to do anything. You have a job and you have expectations and I think it's our own personal like, oh, I have to do this. And I kind of after, you know, we were quarantined or not really coming into campus, I kind of had to step back and go, wow. I think I've been kind of missing out on a lot and A lot of it is just a simpler pace of life that, you know, a lot of people in other countries, I was talking about to, you know, one of our students. And we're gonna take a quick break, and so I'll leave y' all with this, but I was talking to one of our students from another country, and they're talking about how, you know, they factor in time to go home in the middle of the day, and it's a good two hours or so to be at home, eat a good cooked meal with their parents and, you know, spend time and rest and then go back to school. And I was like, yeah, we don't do that. Yeah, we don't do that at all. We're very fast paced. [00:25:54] Speaker A: But, yeah, no, you know, you bring up a good point because I've heard that from my saints, like, international clients. And when they've talked about that, I'm like, what a lovely concept. But, y', all, we gotta take a break, see if that's something that you can incorporate as part of your day. We'll catch you on the flip side. You're listening to it to be tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. WVUA FM, Tuscaloosa. [00:26:26] Speaker B: You're listening to fit to be tied on 90.7 the capstone, and you just get a whole hour of hearing Sheena talk about ourselves. And I know y' all are so excited, but, you know, you know, we don't ever really. I mean, we've probably done a handful of shows where just it's been me and you on the radio. We always have a guest. And this week, you know, it was just. People were busy. We had stuff going on. So we're like, you know what? We got this. We're women. We can talk about women. Things for national women. Is it History month or Women's month or both? [00:26:56] Speaker A: Women's History Month, I believe History Month. [00:26:59] Speaker B: And I started thinking last year before we shut down. I'm pretty sure it could have been last year or the year before. But because it was Women's History Month, I remember I did, like, a timeline. Do you remember that? And I, like, looked up women that had, like, medical, like, advances in. In the field. And I, like, listed them out. It was kind of fun. We should probably find that show and, like, promote it or something. [00:27:21] Speaker A: You should. Yeah. Do a little throwback. I know there's other. I've listened to other syndicated radio shows. Not saying that we're syndicated, but other radio shows that happen to be syndicated and they'll do like throwbacks of, like other episodes, like the Best of. We should do like a best of Sheena and Whitney. [00:27:39] Speaker B: We don't have that much longer in the semester because we normally record through, you know, when classes end and then summer we take a break. So maybe we can find a little time on one of our last shows or something. Who knows? [00:27:50] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. Well, I know, Whitney, during the break, you know, we were talking about just. Just some of the different stages of life. That sounds like the Lion King, but stages of life that, you know, women go through, that it is different from men. And that does change up physical activity needs and nutrition needs. And so I kind of wanted to open it up with that, with what you were mentioning just in terms of physical activity side. [00:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, you know, for some of you listening, I am going to talk hormones and some of you are like, I don't want to hear it. So if you are turned off, that's fine. Or you can listen because it's probably good and educational, you know, with, you know, men have hormones, women have hormones. Women's hormones seem to fluctuate a lot more frequently, especially monthly and things like that. And, you know, one thing I've gotten questions about from students and, I mean, faculty staff, it's just a concern that I've noticed is kind of when women do have, you know, their monthly menstrual cycle, there's always a question of, should I be exercising or should I be resting? I also know that it's a cultural thing. I also know depending on where you are, where you are from in the world, that might be different. But, you know, it's just for you guys listening, it's totally perfect and fine to exercise during these times. And actually it can make you feel better. It can boost your serotonin levels. And actually when you are maybe in that not feel good mental stage, it can kind of help you to feel better. And so I actually do recommend exercising if you feel up to it during those times of the month, you know, and it also kind of relates a little bit and we haven't really talked about this. I'm going to segue. But like osteoporosis, there's a. There's certain groups of people that it is more at risk for osteoporosis. Petite white female Asians, I believe, are also at a risk, which is me and you, Sheena. We're both. [00:29:43] Speaker A: That's right. [00:29:44] Speaker B: But you know, thinking about weight bearing exercises and actually strength training and I think, you know, as women, there has been A shift recently in the last couple of years with strength training, I see way more females in the weight room. And it's really cool. It's not this intimidating. I actually think some of the males are more intimidated now because they're so, so many females in the weight room that are taking charge and trying to exercise and lift weights. And, you know, one question I always get from our female patrons and clients is, if I lift weights, am I going to get, like, too big? Am I going to look like a bodybuilder? [00:30:19] Speaker A: That's exactly what I was going to bring up. I was like, what would you say to those people that have that concern? Because people will ask me that in session when I talk about strength training and cardio. They're like, but I don't want to get big. So I want to hear what you like, what you normally tell them as a fitness professional. [00:30:34] Speaker B: You know, I think that everybody has their own perceptions of how they think their body should look. And so even though, and I have to remind myself this, even though I may tell somebody, you're not going to get big, their perception of big could be different than mine. And so I kind of have to honor that. And I have to understand, like, they're looking at this totally differently. But I will say you're not going to become a WWE wrestler or a bodybuilder by lifting weights. You're going to increase your muscle mass and that's what you want to do. And what's cool about it is, is you actually, if you're looking at being more fit or a smaller frame or whatever, you're trying to look, look like lifting weights is actually going to help you do that. Now you could gain a little bit more weight, but in a healthy way. You're creating more muscle mass and you're decreasing your fat weight, which is awesome. And so I try to explain to them it's going to take a lot of working out supplements, that type of stuff to get to that, that super big look that you think you're going to be. And then also kind of cross training I like to tell people to do. If you're going to do strength training, there's some Pilates and yoga in there to sort of balance it out and kind of gives you that mental piece, you know? [00:31:47] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. No, and I love, you know, what you brought up in terms of, you know, what that weight could look like as somebody is doing strength training. Because it's so funny to me. I'll have, you know, patients that will come to see me and they're all about improving their overall health. But then they're like, well, I don't want to do strength training or want to exercise because, like, I end up, like, not losing weight as fast. And it's because, you know, and, you know, as a fitness professional, like, when we are doing that strength training, you know, those muscle fibers are in. Tissues are growing, so it's going to. They're going to hold in more fluid. So that's going to kind of counter any kind of, like, weight losses that they might have seen from other types of, you know, water weight loss or fat loss, where that, you know, weight isn't so much of a parameter of progress that we're looking at. But maybe we're looking at inches and we're looking at their energy levels. But, you know, it's. It's funny how I can, like, tell there's the clients that are like, I just want to see the number go down regardless of what that looks like. It's like, oh, maybe they, you know, weren't as concerned about, you know, overall health, but it was more so a matter of, like, that number going down for whatever reason. And so. And I try not to be judgmental about that either, but use it as an opportunity for just education overall, you know. [00:33:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, everybody's different. That's why I just kind of tell people you may just want to not use the scales because, I mean, it's different if you have certain clients that you need to track that type of progress that really need to lose weight for health benefits. But to be honest, that's why we always, at the rec center, push the bod pod and maybe circumference measurements and things that you can see rather than just the weight and the numbers. But we were starting to talk, keeping on the track of women because we kind of seem to just go off topic a lot. But, Sheena, you've had baby and you have been pregnant and you have exercise, and you have exercise after having kids. I'm just curious, like, for you, like, what kind of differences and changes have you seen in your own body? And then maybe we can kind of talk about some things just to give our listeners some ideas if they're thinking about getting pregnant. [00:33:55] Speaker A: Well, you know, and it's funny because. And not to just like, go back to the weight thing, but really to connect it with all of this. Like, I was. I had weighed myself for the first time in forever this morning, and, you know, when I was looking at the nut number, I was thinking about, like, the last Time I had like, been at that number and like, what my body shape was like. And there are definitely a lot of of changes for sure. And you know, I think even when it's come to physical activity, I've been more intentional about what that looks like for me because I know that physical activity while I was pregnant, there was a lot more restrictions depending on the trimester I was on as far as like, you know, not laying flat on my back for extended periods of time and things of that nature. And I think that my sty. Telephysical activity has changed in terms of trying to find things that are exercises that are more worked into my day as opposed to having had the time luxury of like going for this like very formal like workout class or going to the gym and like getting to like spend like, you know, two hours there, an hour and a half between like cardio and strength training and everything else. And so I think that my motivations for wanting to continue to be physically active, like, yes, would I like my body to look like it was like pre pregnancy. See, but it's been more so. I want to strength train so that I can easily like, carry my infants, like baby carrier into the daycare. And like, people aren't like, oh, that weakling, like, look at her, like five foot one, like, struggling to like, you know, carry this in. My toddler, he's like gaining some weight too, as he should. But I don't want to look like I'm on the struggle bus, like, trying to carry my kids. Like, I just, I'm doing it more from this, like, strength purpose of like, I just want to survive, you know. [00:35:38] Speaker B: Yeah, but, you know, I think that's good. And you know, just to kind of let our listeners know from a fitness side of things, I've had pregnant ladies of every trimester come to classes and my advice is I wouldn't try something new when you're pregnant. Like, if you're. If you're used to being active and doing certain things, your doctor is going to tell you to continue doing that, but to be mindful of like some certain restrictions. Kind of like what you're saying, Sheena, when you get to a certain trimester and you won't physically want to lay on your back, it'll be uncomfortable. So, you know, listening to your body, which is what we say all the time in fitness. And one thing I will say, just from teaching Pilates and yoga, you do get a little bit more flexible and your body's releasing hormones because it is preparing your body to deliver a baby. And so we'll have people come into yoga and pilates classes. They're like, oh my gosh, I'm like, so flexible. And I'm like, yes, you are. But we also need to be mindful not to go too far into that flexibility because we can do more damage. So I just thought that was interesting. You know, I kind of learned that along the way. And did you notice that, Sheena, like flexibility? [00:36:40] Speaker A: I did. And, and I remember us having that conversation about you, you mentioning like that release of hormones in and not to like push it too far where it's like, oh, well, I'm superwoman now or I'm spidey woman. Like, you know, so. And I remember with my very first pregnancy, I had been extremely active that pregnancy, doing a lot of like bar based exercising, like hit and all of this stuff. And I think it probably, it took me like five minutes to push my kid out. And I remember texting my bar instructor and I was like, all those pelvic floor exercises, I was, oh, we can [00:37:18] Speaker B: have a whole conversation about that. That's. Maybe we need a two parter of this show. [00:37:22] Speaker A: Maybe we need to. [00:37:24] Speaker B: We've got a lot to talk about. [00:37:25] Speaker A: Yes, we do, because. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But. Okay, it's time to take another break, you guys. You're listening to Fit to Be Died with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. Wvuafm Tuscaloosa. [00:37:50] Speaker B: You're listening to Fit to be Shy with Sheena and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone. And it's women's history month and we're just talking about women's health and some things to be aware of as you continue working out as a woman and dealing with all the many hormone fluctuations and stresses. And, and you know, we were kind of talking, you know, we talk a lot about fitness over this show. And so for the last few minutes, I'm just curious, Sheena, you know, are there specific dietary requirements or nutrients that women need to be taking in? [00:38:26] Speaker A: Definitely. Because, you know, whether you've noticed this or not, you know, when we're going to buy multivitamins, listeners may or may not have ever noticed that. You know, there's multivitamins that are out there that are geared like specifically to. Towards men and geared specifically towards women. And you know, sometimes the cynic in me is like, oh, it's just a marketing ploy. But in this case it is actually legitimate because there are some micronutrients of concern that are going to be more specific to women. You know, one of the first that I'll mention is calcium. And kind of going back to that conversation with that we had related to osteoporosis, osteopenia and everything else. And you know, the ideal situation, I would say in terms of calcium is to try to get that from as many food based sources as possible because that calcium is going to be a little bit more bioavailable in terms of your body's ability to absorb it. But I tell females that it's also important if you know that for whatever health reasons you can't get in a lot of calcium based foods generally you may want to think about also taking a separate calcium supplement aside from your multivitamin, because calcium as a mineral overall is just physically large. And if a company were to put 100% of the daily value of calcium that a woman needs needs into that multivitamin, that multivitamin would probably have to triple in size because calcium just is a physically large mineral. So thinking about doing that, whether it's a gummy vitamin or I've seen like caramel chews, I think there's multivitamins now. They look like little Snickers candies. I don't know if you've seen those. [00:40:02] Speaker B: I have not. I may need to look into that because it wouldn't hurt for me to start taking more calcium. [00:40:07] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And then along with calcium, vitamin D is going to be another huge one for women. I can't tell you what, how many patients I've talked to over the years that when they get blood work done, for whatever reason, a lot of females, we end up being deficient in vitamin D. And so for those of childbearing age, it's important for that vitamin D to be in those normal levels. As it relates to fertility, also to folate. And folic acid is also pushed heavily for our female population, especially those that are considering having children because it prevents birth defects. And B12 is another huge one, you know, because people will, when they think about anemia, will often think about iron, which is also very important for us as women's. As women's. As women. But there is another type of anemia that's related to B12 and that those low levels of B12 and a lot of times that symptom that you can feel is just low energy. And who doesn't want more energy? And then also magnesium. That's not something that is frequently mentioned for us as women, but, but it is listed many times by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as a nutrient of concern for females. So there are just, you know, there's a lot of things to take into consideration. I think that if you have a balanced diet in terms of overall kind of getting a little bit of every food group, you're good. But I tell all of my patients that taking a general women's multivitamin can be just a nice little safety net, so that if there are. There are certain food groups that aren't as consistent for you as others, you've got all your bases covered. [00:41:50] Speaker B: You know, I think that's great, and I think that's a great way to kind of wrap up the show today. I mean, you know, I'm always curious to know about, you know, if I should be taking multivitamin or not. And I. And I always grab a women's one a day, and I feel like, personally, I can kind of tell a difference when I'm consistently taking it. And I actually think I'm out now, so I should probably go stock back up. But, yeah, that's. That's great. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Well, y', all, we have had a wonderful Sunday afternoon with just the two of us. And we'll say, you know, roll tide for the basketball game this afternoon or this evening. Excuse me. And any other sports that we have going on today, y', all, but you have been listening to Fit to be tied with Sheen and Whitney on 90.7 the Capstone WVUAFM Tuscaloosa.