Beyond the Plate: An Inside Look at Health Coaching - Session 5 Joanna

Hi, Joanna. What is new and good? Hi, Donna.

I'm doing well, thank you. Not much new. I don't think so. How about yourself?

Yeah, I'm okay. I'm excited to hear how the last couple of weeks have been for you.If there was anything that you encountered, struggled with, felt success with any good, bad and ugly.

Yeah. Yes. So I guess we could start with the bad. I struggled with food logging. I was not. Not super successful.I think I did like half a week or so and then fell completely off the wagon. But I. I tried out some of the things that we talked about the last session, like putting chia seeds in my yogurt. I think that's a really nice thing.The problem that I have is it actually makes me almost too full. And then. And then I kind of like I'm shifting my eating back a little while or a couple hours more than I would would just eat the yogurt. So. Yeah.But I like it. I don't find it, you know, unpalatable. I've tried as well the pickle juice, the apple cider vinegar with salt.Also liked that, especially with a dash of hot sauce in it. I didn't say that was allowed, but took some liberties.

Sure. Sounds perfect, actually.

Yeah. I'll just go through my notes from the last session.I did not try making my own electrolytes, but I had some electrolyte packets, so I've been having those. And I haven't gotten back into like, really tracking intermittent fasting.But I think, you know, my body is kind of now on this schedule where I naturally just want to stop eating by 7. I don't have anything but coffee until 10 or 11, so it's normally on a sort of, I guess. What is that, 14, 15 hours? Yeah.But I think I would like to maybe get back into tracking. Just being a little more intentional about it. I have an app that I was using just to keep track of it.So maybe that's kind of one of my goals for this month.And I was wondering today if we could talk a little bit about movement, because I know we have covered kind of nutrition pretty thoroughly, and I'm feeling already quite a lot more energy, like, able to work through the day now. Like 4:45 comes up or 5:00', clock, I'm like, oh, wow, okay.It's already that late, you know, so really big change from a few months ago where I would just completely slump at, you know, 3 o' clock and feel like I can't. I can't do anymore.But, yeah, I Have questions about movement, strength training, cardio, I guess, or like those just that are incorporated into the everyday, like active minutes, let's say. So I was wondering if we could, we could dive into that topic a little bit today.

Yeah. 100.Well, first of all, would it be okay for you if I just ask you a little bit of questions about what you mentioned at the beginning of the call and then we will dedicate the rest of the call for movement and everything you asked about?

Yeah, absolutely. I brought up a lot of stuff, so.

No, and that's perfect. That is, that is the ideal call is for you to come up with everything and, and for me to just kind of feedback on that. So that's, that's beautiful.You sounded disappointed about not managing to keep your food diary. My question would be, is it something that you still want to continue doing in a certain capacity?Because I know we talked about kind of the, the keeping to a food diary versus just a dot in the agenda. So my question is, do you want to keep it at a certain capacity?Do you feel that not keeping it has made you, you, you use the wording fell off the wagon. Did. Do you feel that not keeping it makes you also not be as attentive to what you're eating? Where is the disappointment coming from?

I mean, mostly it's coming from the fact that I sort of promised last time that I would continue keeping it for a couple more weeks, and I didn't manage that.

So.

So I don't like to promise things and then not deliver. I think there's a little bit of that as well.If I, you know, I noticed if I was keeping it, then I would be a little more careful about what I was eating. But I wouldn't say that, like, my eating habits changed drastically on the days when I didn't log my food, you know.

Okay, so that's, that's already something to pat yourself on the back, in my opinion.Because, you know, if it was something that was keeping you in check for yourself and as an accountability for me, then that would be a bit of a problem. But if you feel like I, I feel pretty confident, yes, of course, I'm human, so there's the 20, 80% rule, but otherwise I feel pretty confident.Then I would say, yeah, the fact that you promised me that you would continue it, it doesn't, I'm not taking it personally, so you, you don't have to feel guilty because of that. But if it's something that really feels like it is helpful to you, I would really just Then direct you to the simple dot in the agenda.You know, just really the, the red, the red, orange, green.If you feel that you want to include a little note about why is it red or what is the orange, then it's just a little note and it keeps you from spending more time writing every single thing that went into your body to. I'm pretty proud of everything I ate today that's a green. Pretty proud.But maybe I had the, you know, like, I don't know what would be an orange, but let's say I had pasta. It was a healthier version of pasta. But you know, I was hoping that I wouldn't necessarily have that carb. Then that for me would maybe be an orange.And then the red would be like, dude, I ate a whole bar of chocolate. Or I, you know, had that coffee, pre, pre iced coffee thing, you know, that, that we know is full of sugar or other things.And you're not super happy about that, maybe mark that as red. And then you can just add a note coffee. And you would know it's not the regular coffee that you're having.And that really kind of dumbs it down and makes it really simple where you can say, okay, I have no excuse. It's just a little dot or it's just a little note. Right. So it doesn't have to be every everything.Like if you're having a consistent meal, every breakfast, let's say that's mainly the same. You don't need to write it down every day. You can, you know by now. I know by now. So it doesn't have to be too much of an emotional load on, on you.Right. So that's just an idea again, something to, to just try out from, from what it sounds like.And correct me if I'm wrong, it sounds like you tried to go back to the full blown, you know, food, which just kind of wasn't, wasn't going for you anymore. Okay. Yeah.

I have. What I've used before is this kind of like habit tracker type thing.This from a while ago, but like trying, you know, tracking like did I exercise or not drink alcohol or drink more than the minimum number of glasses of water? So now I'm thinking, okay, maybe I will just print out another one of these and try it with the stoplight system. Yeah, that would be great.That's that. That I kind of get into. I like kind of tracking my data like that.

Yeah. And usually when it's colorful, it just gives you a little bit more joy in life.

I think it's Kind of fun.

It is, isn't it? Okay, excellent.So now that we kind of removed that out of the way, I mean, with everything else that you talked about, I think with the intermittent fasting, you're almost there. It doesn't have to happen overnight whenever you feel like, okay, great, I can stretch a little bit.Maybe the apple cider drink is helping me to push a little bit longer or something like that. Then you can just try to monitor. You don't have to monitor how many hours, but you can say, okay, great, I finished at 7.Then in your mind, 7 means I eat at 12. I don't know if I'm doing the right calculation right now, but I think I'll eat at 12. It's 11, 11:30. Can I stretch it another hour?And then you just get into that habit, and within a couple of days it will become a new habit. So it doesn't have to happen every single time.But it's super helpful for many aspects to do it just a couple times a week, two to three times a week more regularly. So just to see for yourself, oh, is it helping me to maybe lose some weight, or is it helping me to maybe gain even more energy?A lot of people notice that there's even more energy g with not being so busy digesting all day. So it kind of makes sense. Right. But otherwise super happy with the results that you're experiencing. So that's really great.So having put all of that aside so I can sleep tonight, let's talk about physical movement. You did mention that you feel like you've gained more energy.That for sure, the mental energy is there to work and then feel like you didn't just, you know, run to the ground at the end of the day. What is the. And it's okay if it's zero. It's again, no judgment from my end. What is your nowadays physical activity level? What do you do? How often?

So I bike to and from work. That's 20 minutes there with rather like five minutes of steep hill climb at the end and then 15 minutes back as I zip down the hill.Yeah, I would say on average, probably three times a week. Because I don't like to bike in the rain. So typically it'll end up being where I have to carry something.And then, you know, I try to bike everywhere that I can. Like if I have errands in town or something, I'll often ride.So what I've been doing is like Wednesdays and Saturdays or Sundays, I'll try to go for a jog we half an hour not. I'm a very slow runner so I just focus on the time that I spend running, not the distance.

Sure, sure, sure.

You know, I, and then I walk, you know, so probably like average seven, 8,000 steps a day. Of course on the weekends or when I'm free, then it's more and then at the office and it's, you know, less, a lot less.But I also want to build in strength training and so I'm wondering like if I have an average, let's say of like 100 and I use my, my fitness tracker, you know, to track my minutes.So if I have like an average of say 175, try to getting it up to 200 of like active walking, biking, movement time, should I just focus those two workout time slots that I have on strength training instead of jogging just to get more benefit, to like maximize my time or. Yeah, what's your take on that?

Sure, yeah, that's a really, really, really good question. It sounds like cardio wise at least, you know, a few times a week you are getting, of course you can always do more.But let's not even talk about that because geez, you know, like we, we only have 24 hours in the day and we want to sleep as well. I do think, and especially from age 40 onwards that strength training is hugely important. Hugely important.Reason being is not only because, yeah, of course we want to strengthen our bones, our muscles in order to be able to function better as we age. It's also the fact that we're losing a huge amount of muscle mass from age 40 onwards.Like it felt like literally from the day I turned 40, I was like, what is happening? It's very noticeable. So we're losing a lot of it and the muscles that we're training are actually strengthening our bones.So a lot of people are scared because you know, our bones become more fragile as we age. A lot of people fall down, break their hip, they die from pneumonia a month later.It's the muscles that we need to build in order to help the bones and the joints stay strong. So yes, I feel that there is a huge benefit to starting slash, continuing some sort of muscle training, you know, from our 40s onward.And I would definitely say yes, if you're very conscious about which it sounds like you are, you know, biking, walking to certain places and stuff like that, I would say yes.Then do allocate the time that you have to jogging, especially if you feel like, well, I'm a slow jogger as you said, like I'm just, I'm jogging, but it's not like I'm running a marathon now. And I'm getting super sweaty and I'm getting out of breath. That would be a level of cardio that's amazing.That five minute uphill that you go up to work, I'm sure at the first few times was a lot harder. Now it's a little bit easier. Maybe not. You know, I'm sure I hate uphill. So, you know, but that's, that's saying a lot. Right?So you are doing that and you are pushing through. Yes, I would definitely say allocate muscle training. The question really is how do you see yourself doing that? Right.Are you feeling like, oh, it's time to join the gym. That will keep me accountable. Is it? I have a home gym and I know I'm gonna do it if I allocate the time for it.What, how do you see that working for you?

Yeah, it's hard to get to the gym.I do have a very cheap gym membership through my work, so it's there and available, but it's just like my days are so hectic that it feels really hard to take time out, like over my lunch break or whatever to go do a strength training workout.So what I typically do is when I'm at home, like on my day off or on the weekend, I do a YouTube workout by my bed and I, I focus on, I mean, when I was doing it regularly, now I'm just trying to get back into it, but I would focus on body weight exercises. I have some lightweight dumbbells, I think two, three kilos each.I do, yeah, mostly kind of like push ups, squats, like the sort of classic body weight stuff. Okay.

And when you did do those exercises in the bedroom with YouTube, did you feel that you're getting to a point where you feel your muscles afterwards, that you actually feel like you had a workout? Okay, perfect. And there were no injuries to be said. Doing something in a wrong way, that no one is there to feedback you.Maybe you should hold your body this way or that way.

No, I don't think I ever injured myself.

Okay. Yeah, perfect. Perfect then.I mean, look, if you know that you will be accountable for yourself to do that a couple times a week, try to get to a point where, yes, you're doing it like a good. I don't know how long the, the workouts that you followed on YouTube are, but it is important to try and get, especially if you're, if it's.Let's Pretend that it's only twice a week, right? It's only twice a week. You want to try and make sure to get a full body workout.So it's not like one day is leg day and one day is upper body, but rather, let's get top to bottom, like arms, shoulders, you know, back, bum, legs, like, kind of try to get like a full spectrum of the workout. If you're doing three, four workouts a week that are muscle training, then you can definitely do leg day, upper body day. Right?But otherwise, if it's just those couple of times, then definitely try to get full body.And what's very easy to miss out on is when you're doing these exercises, when you're doing it on a regular basis, it does start to become a little bit slower, sorry, easier with time, because you're building muscle. What's important then is to notice that and to give your body a little bit of a challenge.Because if you get into the same rhythm and you're doing the same exercise, the first month you're going to feel like, wow, muscles are sore. And then the second month you're going to be like, I'm getting used to this, but I'm going to continue the same exercise.Because that's what they're telling me on YouTube. That's the exercise that I'm doing, or those are the dumbbells that I have. Then it just becomes almost like it's not pointless.Of course, you're continuing to. To keep those muscles that you have, but you're not necessarily strengthening them anymore. It's just maintenance by now.So it is important to try to push a little bit now. Again, I'm speaking now, not knowing what you're watching and how much feedback they give on different exercises and stuff like that.But what's also important is, you know, they say to make sure that you're doing the same exercise, let's say, let's pretend, right? You're going to the gym, you're sitting on a machine, you want to do at least two wraps of 9 to 13, 15 exercises each with. For each wrap, okay?And by the end of that nine or 15 exercises, you should feel like you really. Like, the last one is like, oh, my God, I had to use all of my strength and power to get that through. Okay? And it's okay if it's just nine.But when you got to that level, you know that you've really made sure to use your muscles to the extent that they can. And we're finding out more and more with studies at the moment that you don't have to go to the gym every single day.Actually, it's worse if you go to the gym every single day. It's more like three to four times a week.But even if you do twice a week, if you get to that level of exhaustion, you've done your job right and you're really giving your body then a chance for the rest of the week to let the muscles relax and heal, not be sedentary for the rest of the week. But it's okay to do a bit of more movement. It actually helps the muscles afterwards to. To relax.Massage if you have time for it, a bit of sauna, whatever floats your boat. If it's something that is available to you and you like, does that give you a good kind of idea?Do you have any other questions that maybe I didn't touch there?

Yeah, no, that does give me a good idea. I mean, yeah, it's. I think. Yeah, no, it's a good idea.

Where's the hesitation there? Like, it sounded like you were.

Yeah, no, I was just gonna say, like, it's not really new information. Like, I know this stuff, but it's good to hear that.Yeah, you would say, like, you know, instead of the jogging, maybe work more on the strength training stuff. I was wondering if you have any recommendations for, like, who has good workouts that I could follow along with or.

Yeah, that's a good question. I. I'm going to the gym. But I had at the time an app, I want to say. It's. It was called five Minute Workouts or something like that. And it had a lot.A really nice range of exercises that you can do at home with weights, without weights, everything. It. You could really set up the exercise routine that you like. You can go into each exercise and it shows you how to do it correctly.So I think no matter what you end up using, you. You want to make sure that whatever you use that you get the feedback from them on. How do I do it correctly?Because if you come out of it with a jammed back or like a stiff shoulder and then you're not doing exercises at all because you're screwed up because of that exercise, then we're not doing it right. Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I think that' more important part of it is really just to make sure that whoever you're following that you like it, that you enjoy it, but also that you get the right feedback on how to do it correctly. Let me just quickly ask you, though, the gym that you mentioned, that was like in inhouse gym at work. Okay.And is there anyone there, like a coach, a someone that can actually also support you there or is it just a free open gym?

Yes and no.So what I did was I made an appointment for a consultation and they do a sort of like individual kind of take your history and set your goals and then they make you a workout plan. And you're supposed to do the workout plan a couple times a week for three months. And then you come back and they adapt it based on your feedback.But then when you go in to do the workout, there's nobody there, sort of like watching. Maybe there is somebody there, I'm not sure. But you know, you just kind of go and do it on your own. And that was great.Except that the majority of the exercises they gave me are with machines. So I. Most of it I can't do at home. There are some like the warm ups I can do. No warm up has like a medicine ball.I guess I could do it at home with like, I don't know, some water bottle or something. But yeah, so that could be one option that I go back and say, hey, can we redo my plan but make it without any machines.

It sounds like you don't necessarily want to do that within the workday when you're in the office. When and if that changes, it is great to utilize those machines. If they're literally in the same building,

it's just, I think that's a thing. It's like, it's probably like a 10 minute walk. It's in a different building on the campus.And then, and then you got to change and then, you know, by the time you're in there, it's like 20 minutes has gone by on each side and then it's just.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. So it eats up your. Your work. Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, it eats up a lot.And the other thing is that, you know, you have those exercises but they're like do the exact same exercises twice a week for three months and exactly like you were saying. Right. Like those get easier. You're supposed to push yourself every time.But it's still kind of like it's the exact same little bits of muscle that you're working each time. That was a bit. Yeah, like I was doing it. I think I did it six or seven times. And then like this kind of dumb.I don't know because I wanna, you know, like. Yeah, that we have. The one area on my bicep is really getting strong.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, there are people who thrive at the gym. I'm one, I love going to the gym. There are people who find it so freaking boring.Like my husband's like, I will never sign up for the gym. I don't care how much you push me. So it, yeah, it just, it needs to happen the way that it works for you.But then I would definitely say look into maybe investing in some, some dumbbells that you can change the weight so you don't have to have a bunch of different weights, but rather just ones that you can take out, put in a little bit more weight, really feel when you are ready to, to up the weight a little bit. And of course there's other ones, but I would definitely say then investing in proper dumbbells.And they have them in decathlon and they have them everywhere now quite affordably. So. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, that's good to know. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I, I also like the gym. When I get there, I like to, you know, go, go do the circuit and stuff.But, but the thing that I usually do when I join a gym is I go to the classes. Because then when I'm at the classes, I always work out so much harder than when I do at home. Pausing it.Or I could go get water and then go to the bathroom.

Yeah, and that's your thing.

Fast forward through this one. I don't like this one.

Yeah, and that's the thing. That's why I was kind of asking because I assume that at work there aren't any classes, but sometimes it's actually worth finding.You know, if it's not part of a gym membership that you need to purchase it, they should be more affordable. Those once a week, twice a week exercise classes that really push you to your, I am dying right now, I'm gonna crawling back home.But the feeling the day later that you feel your muscles and you feel like you've done something, that's just priceless in my opinion.So it might actually be worth if, you know, you know, you, you know what actually works best for you and what kind of motivates you to continue going. And look, you got three kids at home. I say if the classroom was outside of the house, thank goodness, right? Because you get to leave the house.Maybe I'll stop on the way back and stop at the supermarket and get dinner or blah, blah, blah. But you know, like those excuses of like, I'll just go because anyways, I have to go there.If you get into the rhythm of that, I think that's also very motivating.Because you do feel more of the progress that you're doing when you're being pushed externally, as you see, you know, with our work together, which it's not. It doesn't take much. It's just. That's true. Signing that paper and then you're like, okay, I gotta do this.

Yeah, accountability, buddy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's true. And I mean, the kids, that's the other thing.The reason I haven't gone for like a dumbbell set is they love dumbbells. And so they will. I hide them under my bed, you know, but we don't. We're in an apartment.We don't have a spare room for gym stuff that I can lock or anything. Right. So they go and they play in with them and then they drop them on the floor or they're swinging them around next to the mirror and.

Yeah.

So I haven't wanted to go all in on like a home gym setup because they go in and they find all the stuff and then it's kind of like a hazard, you know, dropping dumbbells around. But yeah, I used to do. God, I used to have a subscription to the. The Mink Road gym.

What's it called?

Fitness park or whatever.

Yeah.

I paid so much money and the only thing I would do there is go to Friday morning Pilates. And I loved the teacher. She was great. I was like, you know, if I go every week, it actually is the same price as just going to a Pilates class.And then if I want to, I can go to the sauna or whatever. But she stopped teaching during COVID And then I was going to a bar studio and had a great teacher, and then she moved her studio.So I think it's just about kind of defined that. That class that I like. And then I'm. I'm very. You know, I'm a person of habit. So if I have my Wednesday morning class or whatever, I will go to that.

How about this then? How about we make.

Wait. Second question for you. I really like Pilates.I was, as I mentioned just now doing it for many years or barre, which is also very Pilates based because I have chronic back pain and I found when I would do Pilates, it supported my back a lot. The back pain would. Would just completely disappear. Or 95% disappear. But is that sufficient for sort of full body strength training?

Yeah, 100%. When you get the right Pilates teacher. And yeah, 100%.It's a very good exercise because it is focused on core muscles, which is why your Back pain was lessened. It's an incredible exercise. So, yes, I would say let's make that as one of your goals for the next couple of weeks until we talk again.You don't have to sign up yet. Just do the research.Just see where, when, which ones actually offer classes at times when you know that you can carve out and go on a regular basis, make them sign a contract that they're not moving in the next three years anywhere else, and then we're good as gold, you know?

Yeah, exactly. Okay. Yeah, that's a good goal. I mean, I. I would love to get back into it.And actually my gym does have classes and they do offer Pilates, but it is first come, first serve and those ones are always snapped up, especially on the times when I can go. So. Yeah, I think I just. I probably just need to find a studio and suck it up. The 38 francs per class.

Exactly. Check with your insurance, by the way, because they might actually cover part of it, if not all of it. That's true. There's a things you discover. Yeah.Excellent. So we did talk about finding a Pilates class. And we did talk about maybe just keeping to the color coded food diary ish system.That sounds like amazing goals for. For the next couple weeks. Are you feeling happy and confident with those?

Yeah, I feel that's manageable. I can handle this.

Excellent. Perfect, Joanna. So I'm looking forward to talk to you in a couple of weeks and hear all the good news.Meanwhile, just keep on trucking because you're. You're doing incredible job.

Thank you so much, Donna. Appreciate it.

No worries.

All right, talk to you later. Bye.