Dhru Purohit Show - The Step By Step Longevity Protocol this 72 Year Old Followed to Reverse Her Osteopenia, Build Muscle and Become the Oldest American Ninja Warrior

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

This episode is brought to you by Vivobarefoot and Lumebox.  We’ve heard the experts tell us the importance of maintaining muscle mass and strength training as we age. But, for some of us, it may feel like this advice came too late in life. Today's guest is here to share that it’s never too late to focus on building and maintaining muscle and becoming active.  Today, on the Dhru Purohit Show, Dhru sits down with competitive athlete Virginia (“Ginny”) MacColl to discuss the biggest myths about fitness as we age. Ginny shares her strength training journey, reversing her osteopenia and ultimately becoming the oldest person to complete an American Ninja Warrior obstacle at 71. Virginia MacColl, also known as Ginny, is a dancer and competitive athlete. Ginny began strength training, inspired by her daughter, Jessie Graff, who has gone farther than any female on American Ninja Warrior. At 63 years old, Ginny did her first pull-up and competed in American Ninja Warrior, making history at age 71 as the oldest person to complete an obstacle. She was named the oldest competitive female ninja athlete in the 2024 Guinness World Record Book.  In this episode, Dhru and Ginny dive into (audio version / Apple Subscriber version): The biggest myths about fitness (1:44 / 1:44)   Ginny’s story (9:33 / 7:13 )  Strength training as a method of getting diet in check (18:00 / 15:45)  How Ginny’s life has changed and how it has increased her confidence (24:11 / 22:03)  Moving parts don’t rust, and the power of “yet” (30:35 / 28:53)  The importance of social connections in Ginny’s life (34:55 / 31:39)  Finding your why and Ginny’s why (43:20 / 39:06) How Ginny meets her daily protein goals (53:20 / 48:18) Target levels of activity for Ginny, including walking (1:05:23 / 1:01:44)  How to get started as a beginner (1:10:15 / 1:05:57)  Also mentioned in this episode: Try This-Grip Strength and Longevity  Hello listeners, just a note that the audio quality on today’s podcast is not the best. However, this conversation was so meaningful that I didn't want my community to miss out on the overall message and the inspiration from Ginny’s story. Let your feet do their natural thing, and upgrade your shoes. Just go to vivobarefoot.com/dhru and use the code DHRU15 to get 15% off any order.  Lumebox is offering my community $260 off their FDA-registered portable Red Light device! That's over 50% off! Go to thelumebox.com/dhru and get your Red Light device.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ginny, welcome to the podcast. You have a wild story. In your late 50s, you were diagnosed with osteopina. And for those that don't know, it's the first step on the way to osteoporosis, which is something we don't want. And doctors told you the time that this was a normal part of the aging process. And you believe them and continue to move forward with your life. But then only a few years later, you saw your daughter, Jesse, compete in America Ninja War. which is a fitness competition, and you got serious and inspired about getting strong and focusing on resistance training. And in only two years, you reversed your osteopina, which is a huge deal, right? That doesn't happen that often. And you radically became stronger. Today, at age 72. You are fitter, in my opinion, from what I've seen, than most 30-year-olds, maybe even a lot of 20-year-olds that are out there. And last year in September, it was announced that you were officially inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest competitive female ninja athlete, which is a huge accolade and very inspirational. You know, I've invited

you on the podcast today to talk about your story, but to also talk about the top myths that holding people back, especially those that are in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond, the myths that hold them from aging gracefully and getting stronger and most importantly, stepping into their true potential. What do you feel is one of the biggest myths that are out there that are holding those individuals back? The biggest thing that I would say going forward is that you're too old to get fit. I don't think I ever thought that you could do other than just main your muscles as you got older. But I'm living proof that you can get stronger because I had no upper body strength when I started. And I got stronger and I'm still getting stronger. So I'm going to

see how long I can keep this going. But I think that's a lot of people's problems. They see the age 50 coming around the corner and they're going, oh my gosh, I'm downhill from here. But your body doesn't break down just because you age. They say it's not the years in your life, but the life in your years. So you'll never know your potential if you don't give it a try. So that would be the biggest myth. But also it's the women out there. We weren't encouraged to lift weights.

They didn't start weightlifting in competition for women until the 1980s. So that was well beyond my time. And growing up for me, we didn't lift weights. We, you know, did girls push-ups. You really, they didn't want you to sweat. They really said that you don't want to get too bulky because it's not feminine. So these are all those social norms that we hold in our heads for so long. In fact, many people still say that.

I don't want to get too bulky. But that's a myth because, you know, You know, you can stay lean and become strong as well. So there's there's a lot of myths out there that I think that we need to break today. Well, that's what you're doing by just being a living example. You know, there's that Mahatma Gandhi will, you know, be the change that you wish to see in the world. And here you are being that change. And it's worthwhile to just share at the top of this interview before we get into your story that this isn't just.

about looks. And this isn't just about being stronger for stronger sake. We've had so many experts, researchers come on this podcast and share the crazy statistics that are out there. But I'd love to share some of them. The first one is, after the age of 40 for both men and women, typically every decade, you're going to lose, if you look at the population, you're going to lose 10% of your muscle mass every decade. after the age of 40. So that is scary. And why is that scary?

It's scary because as you get older, especially above the age of 60, 65, for women, and I learned this from Dr. Gabriel Lyon, who's been on this podcast, for a woman who's age 65, who ends up falling, half of them will end up,

if they break their hip, half of them will never walk again. And it's muscle, and it's lean mass, and it's the ability to protect yourself from a fall, and it's the ability for your muscle to protect your bones that ends up being that protective shell. The next thing that's there is that...

I love to make because I also have the statistics. It says that you lose 30% of your lean muscle by age 60 and 50% of it by age 70. That is so scary. That's scary. That's scary. That's scary. And that's what's happening.

And that also, that loss of lean muscle, it also shrinks the body. Your bones get smaller. You start hunching over. Muscle is that protective tissue. And I'm also, I'm sure you've also seen the stats that muscle is metabolically active. When it comes to being metabolically healthy and 88% of Americans are not metabolically healthy, it's actually muscle that soaks up the glucose and keeps you in a good, range of your blood sugar, helps you have a better fasting insulin.

All that is so important when it comes to reducing your cardiovascular disease as you age. So this isn't just about getting strong. This is about being totally healthy and nobody has done a better job than explaining this than Peter Atia in his new book and so many other experts that are on this train. So I just wanted to start off with that because this, yes, we're talking about getting fit, but really we're talking about longevity, which is so important. Absolutely. Yeah, and they say with a bone that you lose 2% per year after age, I forget what that age is, maybe after 30 or 40, 2% per year of bone mass that you lose.

And that's, you know, statistically. But again, I'm living proof that you can reverse an osteopenia. Now, some people have said that you can't reverse an osteoporosis. but you'll never know unless you try, right? I still feel that you can reverse osteoporosis. I'll tell you how that happens at some point or another as I get older. This episode is brought to you by Vivo Barefoot. You know, my journey with Vivo Barefoot started a few years ago.

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What did your, when you looked at examples of healthy aging around you, were there examples? We know that it was your daughter, Jesse, that got you excited when she got into American Ninja Warrior. But did you have, you know, when you looked around at your friends, were they also struggling with some of the same issues and challenges that were there? Oh, absolutely. I mean, when I first heard the word osteopinia, I didn't even know what it was, really. We weren't schooled in that kind of a thing. I just wish that we could get our younger folks out there to start lifting weights at an earlier age and being aware of these things, because maybe, just maybe, they will never get osteopenia if they start early enough and keep going. But you can also reverse it later in life.

So it's not too late. Yeah, absolutely. You know, you have been lean, as you've mentioned, because you always were active. You were a dancer. You had different sorts of modalities of exercise. But as you know the stats, most people today in this country, probably a lot of people that are watching this interview, they're not individuals who are lean. In fact, they probably struggling with maybe obesity or being overweight at least.

And, you know, when you look at some of the key. things that you did in your life over the years that helped you? You may have not had a lot of muscle and you focused on that later in life, but were there key things that you did to help you stay lean over the years? Well, it's certainly dance. I started dance when I was in third grade because I was extremely shy and my parents wanted to give me some kind of an outlet, which it was. it was expression by movement. And I continued with the dance and went to New York and became a professional dancer. So I danced from age eight, nine years old to age 30.

And I had never seen them. My parents never exercised at all. So I'm not quite sure where that came from, maybe just because I saw all the medicines and things that they needed to take that I felt that it came strongly to me that exercise would keep me healthy. And so the dance was really it. It gave me a discipline for life as well, because once you are moving that much, it becomes a habit. And I tell seniors all the time that they want to find a passion and they want to be consistent and form a habit and then build on that. So I think that that dance up until age 30 gave me that discipline to continue movement. Now, when I was in a regular

job, I had to leave acting and dancing, and I did a regular job, regular, different from acting and dancing. I had to get a real job, is what we said back then. And it was in radio, and I formed a kind of a 20-minute exercise routine. And that included like some crunches and some push-ups, 23 push-ups to be exact, and some just minor things, but no longer than 20 minutes. Because when you're working all day and you have kids that you need to get to their baseball and their gymnastics and all their different things that they have, you don't have a lot of time. So I would get up early, just a bit early, and I'd do this 20-minute routine. So I think that that helped maintain that movement. And then later, as a single mom, I taught dance. So my daughter was able to see

all the things that I was doing. And she came to every single one of my classes. And I think there's a saying that what the mother is doing is what gives a good foundation for the child. So I think Jesse saw me exercising. She taught me teaching and actually doing it. And that gave her a lot of that impetus to continue doing movement in her life as well. That's incredible. You know, it's pretty amazing that, of course, you being her mother, you set an example and you were even back then doing something that wasn't as, you know, common. You were sort of part of this early wave of fitness that was especially for women was baked in.

Even at that time, there wasn't, you know, Title IX, is it? Title II. And that was after I was in New York. You know, I was 22 years old. Right, which for those that are not familiar was the legislation that said that, you know, women's sports have to be also prioritized and money has to be given to them, which was, you know, groundbreaking legislation. Monumental. Monumental. You inspired your daughter and then later your daughter inspired you.

You know, I'm going to be jumping around a little bit because I know you're speaking so well. You know, when you got inspired by your daughter. And I think this is such an important message for everybody who's listening today. They're like, well, your entire life you were moving, your entire life you were doing these things. You already started off lean. Everybody, when they get started down some path on some goal, they're starting from ground zero. And when you try to do your first pull-up, I think that either you could do no pull-ups or you could only do one pull-up at the time. Is it accurate?

I could not do any pull-ups. I had no upper body strength. Dance is very different. It's long, lean muscles, but it's not, it's just a different kind of exercise. It's not lifting weights or it is in today's standards, but in my day, it wasn't. And I had no upper body strength. And that's what I think a lot of women struggle with, too, is their arms. They don't like the way their arms look.

And so when I saw Jessie and I saw her muscles and how healthy she was and, and strong. I just went, I want to get strong. It's not about losing weight and taking a pill or doing a certain kind of diet, in my opinion. I was all about how do I get stronger? And all the rest comes into play. Because once you start getting stronger,

you want to eat healthier. So your diet changes. So your whole life starts to get in a healthy pattern and you want to do things, drink more water, sleep better. You want to do things that are going to make you feel better like that. But seeing her, I just went, Jesse, I want to get stronger. And she says, well, many different things. But what stuck with me was do pull-ups. So at the bar that you put in the door of the closet, and I was working, I had little handles. And I was working on a pull-up. And I sent her a video and she goes, oh, mom, that's not.

not really a pull-up. You have to go all the way above the bar with your chin and straight with your arms all the way down. And I went, okay, I'm going to a personal trainer. And my goal is five pull-ups. So five, I took that number because I felt it was attainable. And that's a lot of times what's very difficult is if you say, oh, guy, I want to do 100 pull-ups. I want to do, you know, something enormously out of the range of your vision, it becomes very difficult. It's unsurmountable. So I have made that five pull-ups because I felt that was something I could attain. But unbeknownst to me, it took me a year to get one because you have to build your shoulders and your back and your chest. And you certainly have to work on your legs as well, the whole body.

So it took seven months before I started to see tone and definition. And after a year, I got a pull up. But it was, I kind of jumped to get the first pull up. It took me a while to actually use my own strength to pull myself up instead of, you know, grabbing the bar and then pushing off the ground. So it was a long process. It was a long process, but you stuck with it. And there's so many amazing themes that you just covered.

The first one that you mentioned that could be easily overlooked, you know, a lot of my audience, because of the state of where sort of health and wellness and podcasts and experts and one person tells you one thing, one person tells another, there's been so much emphasis on diet, right? So many people talk about diet and everybody has an idea about what type of diet that people should eat. Generally in this podcast, we talk about the importance of moving towards. whole foods away from ultra-processed foods, prioritizing protein and fiber. And, you know, just focusing on some of the basics that are there, right? And especially if you're moving away from ultra-processed foods, you're not going to eat a lot of the things that are high concentrations

of, you know, calories that are really fueling a lot of this sort of obesity epidemic. But I would say there's a lot of people that are out there that are pretty healthy that are putting a lot of their energy on trying to get that last five percent. of their diet dialed in the last 10%. And you mentioned just a few minutes ago that you feel that just by focusing on getting strong, not that diet isn't important. Of course, diet is important, but you feel that that kind of helps a lot of other areas get into place. Can we talk about that a little bit more? Right. Well, definitely, I wanted to get a lot more protein because I'm trying to build muscle. So that was my first difficulty and getting.

enough water. I never had enough water beforehand. So getting the protein, I started to go for those bars that you see, you know, 20 grams of protein in them. But I looked close around. I went, well, it has so much sugar in it. And I didn't want to replace it with something else. I mean, I've been little bits of limited sugar forever. I stopped soda when I was 16 years old, any kind of soda. And that's a huge difference in somebody's life if they stopped drinking soda. But it was important to get the protein. And I'm like, how do I do this? And I started getting three eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast and trying to bump up that protein to get what I needed to get,

which I try to do about the same amount of grams as my weight. And I'm about 115, 116. So that's what I, I aim for like 125 grams of protein. Not easy to get. So that was my first thing because I think when I'm having a meal, and if you have three meals a day, I mean, the amount of protein sometimes at each meal may be only 25 or 30 grams. So you need to make up for that. You need to have the fourth meal.

You need to have, you know, something that's going to get you up to that protein. And the water was very difficult too because if you're out and about, You know, I have to go to the bathroom all the time. So honestly, that was a real difficult. Like, I can't drink if I'm going to drive to visit my son seven hours away. I can't drink that whole time. So that became a huge issue for me, too. So those were the two main things that I had to really change with my diet.

I moved towards no processed foods and less meat, less red meat, and no dairy. I worked in that direction because I had found that I had 50 to 70% occluded in my carotid. And that sounded, what I heard was 70. And that sounded scary to me. So they sent me to a vascular surgeon and he says, you're okay. We don't do anything until it's 80%. And I'm like, wait a minute. I've been through this before.

Well, I want to wait until it gets that bad. I want to do something about it now. Yeah. What can I do? And he says, well, there's really nothing you can do. I'm like, so a friend actually told me about a book I read and I started really, you know, no saturated fats as little as possible. Let me put it that way.

It's hard to stay away from it completely. But I really changed my diet enormously. And I'll fast forward to two years later when I went back. It was at 40% occluded. So I have heart disease in my family. My mother had 11 stints. My brother's had five. And so I'm very aware of that and terrified, you know, that that will start to clog.

So diet became a huge issue. And I worked for two years on a very drastic diet. I now have moderated that. We'll see what happens with it when I go again. But I've moderated it. And I do, I mean, I think there's a lot to be said for all types of diets. But for me and my history of heart disease, I had to really slim down on some of the things that other people were, you know, like meats. I stopped having red meat for two years.

I do have it now. And there's a lot to be said for the carnivore diet, but it wasn't for me. And that's a great way of getting protein, too. So I have moderated it. So I do have red meat, but I don't have dairy. and I moved in these directions, not only to get stronger with the protein and to build the muscle, but I needed to get the other things too. I need to get the adequate sleep.

I needed to get the sunshine. I needed to get the protein and I needed to keep moving and all these things that you keep adding to make you healthier and healthier. And that's kind of the train that I went on and the journey that I've done. and the journey that I went on to get feeling pretty healthy today. Yeah, so much to unpack there, but I just want to start off with this feeling. You know, tell us about how is your day-to-day life, right, between mood, energy levels, and also the standard ways that we notice are strength, just doing normal tasks, getting up from a couch, you know, carrying in groceries, anything else that might be

I'd be there. Can you give us some examples? Again, mood, you know, sort of general sense of energy and stamina and also sort of day-to-day strength. Tell us about how your life has improved since going on this journey. Oh, I feel a lot more confident. That would be probably the biggest thing that I would say, confident in feeling strong. I remember on the beginning stages of this journey. I opened a door one time and it just kind of flew open. I'm like, wow, wow, I am getting stronger. One of the biggest things that I get from Ninja is that the grip strength. And you need it a great deal because you're always swinging from bar to bar from ropes. You're using that grip strain, which helps me in being able to open jars. My mom couldn't open jars. There's so many

things that she was not able to do when she reached in her 80s. And I don't want to be at that point. I want to be self-sufficient. Let me put it that way. To throw away the cane or the walker as long as possible. I'm not saying that anybody can do that. But if I can put it in the far, far future, than I've won. So mood would be that I feel, I've always felt pretty happy, a pretty happy person, even during the worst of times. I like to play and do games. And when I do ninja and when I do exercises, I like to make a game out of it.

We do a lot with balance. A balance is important when you were mentioning earlier about how you could fall, you know, if you don't have the muscle to hold up the bones and the bones are getting weaker and all this. But balance is a huge thing because we do lose some of that after age 40. And so we make games and challenges. Let's see if we can do this balance beam and do it faster. Let's, you know, and the balance beam is low to the ground. But we love to make games of it, like stand on one foot and throw the ball back and forth between the all of us, you know,

that are working out together, you know, and see how long we can hold the balance. So, so it's just fun. We laugh a lot, and that's enjoyable. So I obviously have downtimes. I mean, they just, they come to everybody. There's not, I'm not, you know, waking up with a laugh and a smile every day. Some days are groans because I have a lot of arthritis, and it's like moving. my hips in the morning is very difficult. I've taken to doing some exercises just in the bed to

try to, you know, wake up those different areas and joints that are, are difficult or painful. But, you know, once you get going and once you wake up and I like my coffee in the morning, so I think that helps my mood, too. It's like, oh, I look forward to that cup of coffee. What else did you mean about how it changed? The strength, I think the biggest thing I would say is the confidence. The accomplishment of getting through an obstacle on the ninja course to look at it and it seems impossible. Like, I'll never be able to do that. And then you do.

You break it down into baby steps. maybe you just jump up to the bar and touch it first and learn how to land on your toes the next time you may see if you get your hand over the bar and then the next time you might grab the bar and let go. So it's little steps that lead to big changes. And I think if you just keep at it, the consistency is so important because if you keep at it, you will get it. It's just a matter of time. And I see that with the girls that work with me and our group that we work on obstacles. I see such huge changes. And balance is one of those important things that everybody needs to do.

Like you said certain things that I do, I brush my teeth and I'll stand on one leg as I do this side and then I'll stand on the other leg and this side. Or I have a bar next to me and I try to hang by one arm and then switch arms and brush my teeth with the other. So I have, wait a minute, I have right here. Here's one. I do the rubber bands that you get off the broccoli. Yeah. I'm watching TV and I work it. Work my, my fingers.

That's incredible. I love how simple that is, but it's also effective. You know, anybody who's seen this show, they know that one of the biggest predictors of longevity that's out there, one of them. them is grip strength. It is. That grip strength, which actually ties into balance and how our ability when we fall, it's usually our hands and our strength that actually buffers the fall. And it's also a proxy for muscle mass, right? The more your lean muscle mass grows, typically the stronger your grip strength is. So, you know, there's some nuances that are there. But I love the idea, especially on a competitive realm. And anybody who starts to go down.

the path of resistance training as I got more serious about when I turned 40, which was a couple years ago, you know that the more you develop your grip strength, the more weight that you can hold, the more you can do in a deadlift, the more that you can do in a press. So I love that you brought that up because we've written about that a bunch and we'll put the link to it in the show notes for the article on grip strength. And I love how simple it is. Just even an idea. You don't need a fancy sort of, you know, grip strength device that people get on Amazon. Nothing wrong with that. Just even taking the broccoli rubber bands, which are usually a little bit thicker and getting a chance to work on those. You can put your hand in a pail of sand, too, and do the same thing where

you just move in your fingers. Moving parts don't rust. So even though I have arthritis and my knuckles are huge, and I can't wear rings anymore, they're still strong and I can still move them. So that's the important thing. We want to be able to move. This episode is brought to you by Loombox. One of my favorite daily practices is using red light therapy. There are thousands of articles and studies published in PubMed on its efficacy and its ability to improve all sorts of aspects of life, like improving our skin, helping with chronic inflammation. The list goes on and on. Many experts on my podcast, doctors, researchers have gone into just how powerful red light therapy can And one of my favorite ways to get that red light therapy is Lombox.

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That's me to get $260 off this portable red light device that I recommend. You have so many incredible sayings. You know, one of them is on your shirt right now. It says age is no excuse. And you just gave us another fantastic saying that I love. And if you're not already selling these on T-shirts, I think you 100% need to. Moving parts don't rust. What an incredible affirmation for anybody, regardless of your age.

You're listening today, moving parts don't rust. We all have days where we're not excited to maybe go to the gym or go for a walk or get in those 10,000 steps or even just do some resistance fans at homes. And to be able to say to yourself, moving parts don't rust. What a beautiful affirmation to step into this idea of, hey, either we use it or unfortunately, and we just have to, look around the, you know, population right now to see either we use it or we lose it. And it's a very scary thing to get older and older and feel like you just don't have control of your body. So I love that. Moving parts don't rust. If you make it into a T-shirt, I'm going to be the first person. I'll have to do that. I want to bring up one more thing,

too, that is so important in this whole scheme of things. And that is the mental attitude. Yes, let's talk about. Yeah. Instead of saying, I can't do that. You want to say, I can't do that yet. It's desire what you want to do. I mean, you may not want to go flying through the trees on vines like Tarzan. But if you find your passion, then you want to go for it. And what stops people is they haven't prepared maybe enough a lot of times. Like I say, well, get your clothes out.

Get your fitness apparel out so you know. that this is a class you're going to tomorrow. And get a buddy. That's one of the best things to do if you're going to go walking. Have somebody to walk with that you can talk to and also, you know, make you go when you're not necessarily wanting to go. Be around supportive people who like say, yeah, you can do that. Come on, let's go.

And, you know, those things, because I look at it as there's a little devil on this shoulder and the angel over here and the devil. is going like you can't do that. Oh, that recipe is too difficult. Don't do that. You know, you'll never get all those ingredients and the other was going, well, you can just go to the store and get the ingredients. Let's go. You know, they just have to weigh against each other. But I think you need to talk out that negativity and don't let that obstacle get in your way, but go for it. Do it. Such a key theme. And, you know, you're really talking about sort of two aspects. You're talking about the general mindset also, which means getting connected to our why, we'll come back to that in a

second, and then also the community support, you know, having and being surrounded by people who lift you up because habits we found from the research, habits are contagious. And the most contagious habits are typically those from our friends. There was a great research paper that came out a few years ago from the Framingham data out of the Framingham study for Massachusetts, the cohort that showed that when a friend started to gain weight, that had a direct impact on their social circle that their friend or their best friend would also start to gain weight.

We tend to have the same habits more so than even your spouse, more so than even your family members. It was our friends because we like to be like our friends for both good and for worse. If your friends are drinking a lot and spending a lot of time in the pub or the bar, whatever, that's going to rub off on you. If your friends are asking you, do you want to go for a walk? Do you want to get fit?

Do you want to try resistance training or weightlifting for the first time? That's going to have a positive impact on you. Who are those people? We know your daughter, Jesse, was obviously a huge inspiration, right? But were there a couple of friends that were also in their own way going down this journey with you at the same time? Well, let me say that I also swim competitively. And I go to states and nationals in the senior games. That's age 50 and up.

And you're in your five-year age bracket. And I went to Albuquerque a couple of years ago, maybe 2019, I think, something like that. And there were more than 13,000 people at this national competition. And it was not just swimming. It was all the sports. You could even do pole vaulting age 50 and up. And there was a woman there named Julia Hurricane Hawkins, who started walking when she was 100 and still was walking and setting records at 105.

But she started walking at 1.0 at age 100. And what I saw in my swimming part was that there were people in their 80s and their 90s that needed help to get up on the block to dive in. But dove in, did the flip turns, went 200 yards, you know, had good range of motion. And I was so inspired by those people and what they were accomplishing. I didn't see anybody. Well, I mean, there's just there's something to. be said that you can do a sport when you're close to 100 years old or over. There are people that are over that now that are breaking records left and right. And I think that this is what I'd like to

see more of and have people see as a role model. The more we see that out there, the more we see what we can do. About Jesse, so many parents came up to me. This was before I did it, but they were like, saying my daughter came up to me after they saw Jesse on American Ninja Warrior and said, you mean I can do that? And so she inspired all these girls that they could get stronger. So if we look at it and see it in front of us, like I didn't have that so much growing up. But now it's possible because we have so many seniors that are so active. And tennis and pickleball that's come about and all these different sports that you can get into.

And we just need to see more of that what we're capable of. Because if you don't, you won't know. What a beautiful statement. And we all know that phrase. You know, you've got to see it to believe it. And if we extrapolate that, it's actually go and hang out in these communities where even you just get exposure. You know, it's one thing to see it on social media, which is beautiful. It's beautiful to see it on this podcast.

And thank you for being here on this podcast and tell your story. And it's another thing to actually say, let me just at least go to where I might see some individuals, especially if we're talking about healthy aging. I might see some seniors, you know, people, you know, 60, 70, 80, and above 90, maybe even 100 that are actually doing things that are not common in the general population. They're lifting weights. They're using, you know, resistance fans. They're swimming. When you see it, now you know that it's possible for you as an individual. Human beings are so good at modeling. But we will model the standard unhealthy way, if that's all we see. If everybody around us is eating junk food, we're going to model that. If nobody around us is working out, we're going to model that. You know, there's a friend of mine who else is a podcast. His name is Lewis House. He had a great statement. He said, said, you have to go to where people grow. If you want to change your mindset and see what's possible, go to where people grow. One of my favorite things is I work out at Gold's Gym now here in Los Angeles,

and I love it because it's not just bodybuilders and things. There's actually a whole contingency of seniors that are there that show examples to me of what it looks like to be fit at 60, 70, 80. I think there's even a few 90-year-olds that are working out over there and moving heavy weight. So that's an incredible lesson is to spend more time and be around communities where people are examples. I just wanted to say one thing that I meant to say earlier, and that is when it comes to weight training and working with weights, weights. It's important to go to a personal trainer because it's too easy to hurt yourself. A lot of people in the classes that I've gone to, they're doing the exercise. exercise badly and they could hurt themselves and many have hurt themselves. So to have somebody

looking at you and saying, oh no, your knees are turning in, lift your head, you know, that are looking at you and saying this is the way you do it properly. I think is just so important if you're getting started to have that training in front of you to learn how to do it properly. Oh, so important. I've benefited myself from working with a personal trainer. And, you know, we can prioritize what we want to prioritize in life, right? Some people want to prioritize on fancy bottle of wine. Nothing wrong with that. Okay, great. Maybe occasionally here and there. Some people want to prioritize luxury goods. That's fine. But let's never forget that this is the one body that we have. Why not give it the love and attention it deserves? and even just a few months with the personal trainer to learn some of the basics could radically change your life.

So I love that example. You know, you talked about two things there. You were talking about community, which we just talked about, you talked about mindset. And one of the biggest aspects of mindset is finding your why, right? Like, why do you want to do this? Why is this important to you? You know, you've shared a little bit here and there, but if you could share with our audience again,

why was this so important to you and what was your why and what continues to be your why as you are now fitter than ever at the age of you know 70 plus that you are right now oh that's a tough question though why it's it's goals I go with these little goals if I you know somebody said that if you have dreams without goals they're just dreams And I think that makes a lot of sense, too. It's those little goals of accomplishing makes me feel so good. At the end of the day, if I can say, oh, I did all this, I got this done, even if it's paperwork that I need to get done. But those little things, I start every day with a goal.

And, you know, it may be a small goal. It may be to read a book or to get the paperwork done. But it usually has something to do with a workout. in some way or shape. I don't feel right if I'm not doing something towards activity and growth. But my, the why, I think my husband said this to me one time. He just said, because you can. And that was his answer because I fell in my first American Ninja Warrior, first and second,

my first time on it. And I fell on the first obstacle. And I was devastated. But I learned from many different people, like Jesse, said, don't let one fall to find you. Get up, train harder and go on. Or you can just leave, you know, a different kind of life. You don't have to do this. But it was like I had to.

It was like, and my husband said, you can. even though I was like, why would I do this again? Why would I stand up there in front of millions of people and fall? And you said, because you can do it. You can do this. And that's always stayed with me, is that, you know, you can. You're capable. You have it.

Maybe you don't have all the technique right now. But keep working on it. Keep getting better. Keep growing. And I think if we keep doing new things, and getting better at the things that we really want to do, then that would be my why. I also heard you say earlier in the interview

and in other interviews previously that I've listened to you of yours, it's also just being an example, not just for yourself, but for other people. That's why it was so tough for you when you went and you competed in your first American Ninja Warrior. And for those that are not familiar with it, you know, just Google it online, but it's literally an obstacle course.

It's an obstacle course at the highest. level where you have to be quite fit. And when you started your first attempt on it, I believe there was these sort of pads that you have to kind of run across and you slipped. And when you slipped and fell, it was very traumatic for you. You were like, oh my gosh, I let everybody down. I let people in my age group down. It was such a feat to even get here in the first place. And your daughter shared with you that message. Don't let it define you. Get back up. And what you did was you focused on getting stronger. You focused on getting stronger. Tell us a little bit more. What did you do at that time when you weren't able to, you know, complete the first obstacle? How did you actually focus on getting

stronger? What did you double down on? And what did that look like? Well, I did a couple of different things. I had to practice those steps. They're angled steps, by the way. When I first saw them, I went, well, I'll break my ankle on that. But the athletes make it look so. easy. And let me tell you, when they're far apart like that, you're over water and it's in the middle of the night, the lights are shining, and the people are around, it looked just, you know, horrific, like impossible to do. But, you know, the time goes off, ding, ding, ding, ding, and then you have to go, and off I went. And it was. I was totally devastated by it. And I did feel that I'd let everybody down, including seniors all over the world.

But I went, I have to get stronger somehow to do this. And so I started working on the steps every different, in many different ninja gyms that are around. I don't have any close to me, which makes it difficult. But I would travel to them and just try everybody's Quinn steps is what they're called because there are five of them. And so that I found that one leg was weaker than the other. So I needed to work more on my legs. But I found where my weakness is. And every time I do a lot of competitions, it's competition season right now,

and almost every weekend we have a competition. And everyone, I learn something and I get to practice on the obstacles. But after that fall, I started testing. So on American Ninja Warrior, they use testers that are not going to compete. And they come in and they work on the obstacles. You get to go on them several times, and sometimes they adjust them to make them a little harder or a little easier, depending on your height and lots of different things that they're trying to work out. And so I gained confidence from doing that too. So getting on the obstacles, getting stronger, finding where some of the weaknesses were.

Now my weakness is technique. There's a lot of technique that goes into it that I just don't have down pat. I didn't learn. I didn't take gymnastics or rock climbing or all these different things that give you certain strengths. So those are the things that I continually work on. Like in any sport, there's things that you can work on to get better. So that gave me the strength, too, after COVID was over and everything. Five years later, just this past year, no, in 20, 23, I was on season 15 of America. American Ninja Warrior. And they changed the first obstacle. So all that was on the obstacle, they changed it. How could they do that? And, you know, you don't get a chance to go on the obstacles.

You get to see the rules and you get to see a demo, one demo, and then you're on. So I had to work on that. And I was able to get through the first obstacle and got to the second obstacle. And I didn't know it at the time, but I became the oldest person to complete an obstacle on American Ninja Warrior. Which is huge. Male or female, you were the oldest person to actually complete. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

If I've known that, I might have been a lot more nervous about it. But it was the second obstacle I was holding on to Nunchucks, which are, I don't have an example of what to hold on to. and unchucks, they're very slippery. And I held on for a long, long, long, long time. So it sort of told the audience that I wasn't going to give up. And so there were a lot of things working because Jesse was on the sidelines and she was cheering me on and, you know, being older and doing it. I had no no thoughts that I was going to win. But I needed to get past those obstacles, as beginning obstacles. And so that desire is something that sits there.

It's those dreams. So how do you make that dream happen? And it's the little goals along the way. It's, you know, growing each time. I hope I answered your question. You absolutely answered the question. You know, the baby steps, the commitment, as you had mentioned, even to get to five pull-ups,

how long did that take you initially? That took you like three years? you said? I believe it was three years. I haven't written down someplace, but yeah, it came slowly. Yeah, I think I was able to do when I did American Ninja Warrior, I barely could do one. Yeah. And it's such an important message. Again, we live in this world where I don't know exactly who said it. The quote is attributed to a lot of people. We tend to overestimate what we can get done in a month, in six months, in a year. And we underestimate how drastically our life can change in three years, in five years, and especially in 10 years. So sticking two things,

getting clear about your why, having the right support system, you start to make, and the mental focus, which you've chatted about extensively on this podcast as well, is a huge part of it. You know, I want to come back to just something that you mentioned that we didn't get a chance to dial into, which is often overlooked, especially for people as they age, and in my experience, especially for women, you got advice that if you want to get stronger and if you want to reap the rewards of that, which would also help you in competition, but actually not just give you fantastic arms that you have right now where you can see the definition in your arms, but actually improve your health and your longevity, it was important both to work out, right? We've learned from a lot of

experts on this podcast that working out is about 75% of what it takes, that resistance training for that muscle stimulation. But the other part of it was getting adequate amount of protein and making sure that you shared, which was news to a lot of our audience up until, you know, recently getting that gram of protein for your sort of target weight that you're shooting for, right? And I believe you said you try to get in about 120 grams of 15.25 grams a day of protein. For me. For you, for your goals, for you wanting to put on lean mass, and then you talked about the different sources that are there. A lot of individuals hear this. Again, you know, not to paint with broad strokes, but knowing my audience pretty well, I hear from a lot of women in particular

saying, wow, first of all, I didn't know that. And now finally, I think more people are starting to learn that that's important part of making sure you don't waste muscle mass as you get older. But then the second question is often, but how? How do I do that? So tell us, walk us through kind of your day, especially the first meal. How are you typically getting the amount of protein, you know, the 30 to 40 grams that you need per meal to make sure that you hit your goal at the end of the day. What are you eating in the morning for breakfast? Oh, I typically have oatmeal because I get up and get going and I have the blueberries in it and I have banana and chia seeds and seems like there's something else I put in there. And I use my cashew milk with it.

And that doesn't get me 25 grams of protein. Right, that's not protein in that. But I do have a shake, a protein shake that I put together with a frozen, half a frozen banana and a tablespoon of peanut butter. So I eat a lot of peanut butter. That's how I get a lot of my protein. In fact, before a swim meat, sometimes I will just eat the peanut butter because I want that vitamin B, the bees that come in and that.

and give me more energy. So I'll have a good bit of either, you know, chicken, turkey, whatever we have leftovers and make a good sandwich. But instead of butter, I use avocado. So I spread avocado on like the English muffin or something that's whole whole wheat. And I put spinach on it. And then I have a lot of chicken on it. Before I work out, I try to have protein. And after I work out, I try to have protein.

So that might be eggs, or it might be just that leftover chicken warmed up, just plain protein. For a dinner, I try to do half a plate of protein and half a plate of vegetables. So, you know, the in-between would be the peanut butter on banana, the, you know, those got protein shake, those kind of things. But at the dinner, I eat mostly a great deal of fish. Fish is my very favorite. So that's your omega-3s, right? And I think that's made a big difference in my life. Of course, I live near the coast.

So fish is a little bit more. Fresh fish is more prevalent here. But I've really come to love having a lot of fish. So that's kind of my day. Was that too mixed up the way I put that? There's several different meals in there, but they may be a snack that has protein. I don't do the bars anymore unless I'm really desperate. Like I'm in the car and I couldn't get lunch for some reason.

Now, what I love about what you shared is that it really is the mindset of you having the knowledge of how much protein is in different foods that you eat and then finding the foods that work best for you. So that way, you know, long-term calorie trends. is very difficult for a lot of people. I can't do it. Right. It's very difficult for a lot of people. I've done it before and even sometimes it's difficult for me, but I like to kind of come into it every so often.

But knowing that it's difficult, it's important that people start to become familiar with different sort of meals or cuts of protein and getting a sense of what that would look like if they're trying to hit their protein goal. In fact, it's never been easier than ever between apps and content on social media. In fact, I came across this image that somebody shared on Instagram the day. It's from an account called coconuts and kettlebells. I like the name already. And inside of there, it's a great little image.

If you're looking on YouTube, you can kind of see it. And definitely follow the account, coconuts and kettlebells. They have some great content on there. But you see that what does 30 grams of protein look like? So it's five large eggs, for example. That might be tough for somebody to eat. eat in one sitting, but you can have three or four hard-boiled eggs and then maybe another egg, you know, you toss it into your smoothie. I know that sounds crazy, but sometimes

I'll toss an egg into my smoothie. It's six turkey slices, right? It's one six-ounce fillet of salmon. It's one patty of ground beef, if you have red meat or four point five ounces of a steak filet. It's one small chicken breast is 30 grams of protein. It's three sausages and so on and so forth. So getting familiar with what different things look like is such an important part of now starting to focus on whole foods and especially prioritized protein. And Ginny, I don't know if you've seen the data on this, but they've looked into satiety, which is this idea of what makes us feel full. And protein, along with fiber as well, but protein is actually one of the most satiating macro nutrients. So when you eat things like a chicken breast or a filet of salmon,

it tends to fill you up and you don't feel hungry for a lot of the sort of indulgent foods that people tend to want to overeat. Have you noticed that, you know, in your own sort of Yeah, I eat, I probably eat a bigger portion of the fish and the chicken than you had on there just because I work out so much. I think when you work, work out, you want to get more protein. If you're sitting in a recliner, then you probably don't need as much protein. But I, because I'm so active, I'll have, you know, more, more of the chicken or more of the tuna or more of the scent. I love salmon. I just had it last night, actually. Yeah. I have as now, as you've started to, you know, really work out and you're eating this way.

Have you seen that some of your behaviors have been inspiring some of the people that are seniors that are in your front group? I mean, obviously there's people that are in the competition, right? But do you have local friends that you kind of see that maybe are not as sort of dedicated to like the fitness side of stuff? But they're kind of watching. They're looking at your arms. They're seeing how fit you are. And, you know, have you started to see them make some small changes here and there? I see a lot of people that have made some changes for sure.

but I think most of all is my husband. He's in his 80s now, and he is still going to a personal trainer, which I think is wonderful. I mean, he moves very well. He is, of course, he eats what I cook, and he's starting to cook the things that I like as well. So we have a very healthy diet at home. Going out becomes very difficult, though, because you'll find that everything is in a sauce or there's a lot of butter on the vegetables. And I always ask for everything on the side. And usually, like if I go to a restaurant and they have some kind of creamy sauce to go on the salmon,

I don't even need it. The salmon by itself is delicious if you try it without it. In this day and age, you can't even get pizza without having, you know, ranch or something to dip it into. But, you know, if you get used to things without putting a lot of salt on it, if you get used to the actual taste of things without all the gravies and all the sauces on it, you'd be surprised at how your body gets used to that. Your taste gets used to that as well. I don't seem to need any of those sauces that are filled with crings and butters and trans fats and all that. You know, a big part of your story is also like you prioritize largely a Whole Foods diet. You're prioritizing protein and you're not, you know, afraid or demonizing some things that might be out there that are truly like

an occasional treat. Is there an occasional indulgence that you like to include into your diet every so often? Oh, yeah. Well, first of all, dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate, but, you know, I limit how much I have. And the other one is peanut butter cookies. and I have ice cream, but it's non-dairy. And I guess coffee. Coffee is, you know, I sometimes go to sleep going, oh, I'm going to wake up in the morning and have that cup of coffee. You, me, my wife, and probably half the world in that same boat.

I'm dreaming about coffee in the morning. Oh, the smell of coffee. Gets you going. It totally gets you going. It totally gets you going. Just one more. that's there on the technical aspect of, you know, prioritizing protein in the beginning, because it's such a challenge for people who maybe a lot of individuals are probably eating

half as much as protein as they really might need, right, to make sure that they're not losing muscle mass, especially as they start to get more active. It can be tough in the beginning. Did you have to have some support there, whether it was sort of enter, something into an app to look at it? Like in the beginning when you were making this a habit, was there anything you did to make it easier for you to know if you're actually heading in the right direction or not heading in the right direction? In terms of diet. In terms of diet and specifically the protein side of it. Yeah, I definitely did have an app to try to get to the point of, you know, getting 125 grams. And I would put in every day, which is a pain in the neck to put in every day,

what you're doing. And also you have to weigh the meat. So I didn't do that for very long, but I did get the idea that my chicken or the salmon and the protein was going to be from 25 to 35 grams. And then I was having the three eggs and the two turkey sausages and, you know, having a big breakfast at that point. I just, I don't have the time. I hate to say that. We should make time, right? But, you know, I like getting started pretty early. My swim classes are like at 7 o'clock in the morning. So, you know, it's kind of hard to sit there and cook eggs and such.

But I did keep an accurate idea of what I was getting in terms of protein. And that helped me to get to where I was. And I knew pretty much what I was doing when it came to that. That's great because, again, it's not that people have to track forever. But if you don't ever track or get some support in tracking, it's hard to actually know what you're eating if you don't come from this world. You may be significantly under eating. And in fact, that's what a lot of people see is that when they finally start tracking, they see, oh, I actually have to work a little bit harder. I have to plan a little bit more to make sure that I'm meeting my goals.

Let's talk about your fitness routine now, which obviously is going to look completely different than somebody who might be just. starting out. We know that the, you know, CDC and the recommendations that are out there is even the basic recommendations is that adults should be targeting 150 minutes of moderate intensity, physical activity. And yet the vast majority of people, especially here in America, aren't even getting that. If you talk about steps, we know that anything below 6,000 steps a day is considered sedentary. And a lot of people aren't even hitting 6,000 steps inside of the day, let alone the 10,000 that we often hear people floating around. So let's talk about your routine now, now that you have continued to build

on top of it, of course, separate from or including the obstacle training that you might do, what is your target level of physical activity that you typically shoot for in a week? Well, I do, that's a big loaded question. First, I want to get this in before I forget it, is that walking for two and a half hours a week or 21 minutes a day will cut your heart disease by 30%. So that is a great way to get started for people who are just beginning and find a buddy. And that's what I usually tell people, but I thought that statistic was pretty incredible that you can cut that heart disease by 30%. So that's a goal right there. two and a half hours of walking throughout the week.

21 a day, you can do that. Yeah, what I do at this point is, well, I swim. So I have classes twice a week and getting ready for a competition. I'll do it three times a week for an hour and it's constant swimming and it exhausts me. That's what I do for my cardio. and I like to think of my heart as a muscle and that I'm churning that muscle so it's getting a lot of beats and it doesn't have to work so hard because I'm keeping it so active. But the swimming is the cardio that I really depend on and I love. And a lot of times I'll find I don't know if I can go on.

I'm so exhausted. And then I see my lane partner going on and I go, well, if she can do it, I can do it. And so I do it again and I get it. I can do it even when I feel that I'm exhausted and I have nothing left. You do. You can still go on. I forget in one of the armed services they go that when you're exhausted, you've only used 40%.

You know, you still got a lot to go. So I try to think of that when I get exhausted. Like I can do more. It's my mental. telling me I can't. It's my brain that's saying I'm tired. So swimming, I do obstacles twice a week with a group of ladies and we play a lot on balance and different kind of exercises and courses that my friend puts together for us. I go to a personal trainer three times a week. And I like to do yoga. What I found when I first started doing ninja and doing a lot of upper body that I was

tightening my muscles, and I wasn't lengthening them. So that's what I did in dance. Every time you have a contraction, you want to have the release, the extension. And that way you get long muscles. And in my case, I was doing a lot of getting stronger and not enough lengthening. So the yoga gives me that stretching because I think we get stiff as we get older. That's one of those myths, I guess. You don't have to as long as you work it.

So just a couple things. And this is the reason why I wanted to ask you about this, all with the theme of this episode today and featuring your story and your journey and your example that you become is that if I understand correctly, right, just writing down a few notes of what you've shared. You get about two hours of swimming in a week, right? That is quite exhausting. Two to three. Obstacles, you're doing that twice a week, which is probably about for an hour. So that's like two hours. Two hours, yeah.

Yeah. And then you have personal training three times a week, which is, you know, three times for at least an hour. So that's another three hours. Right. And then you yoga probably at least one time a week, right? One or two times. So we're talking about at a minimum. You're getting 10 hours a week at a minimum of activity that's there.

Now, there's a few ways that people can see. it. One way for people to see it is, wow, that's a lot and I don't ever could do that much. But there's actually another reason that I wanted to bring it up. You've been very clear, you didn't start there, right? You didn't start at that activity level, right? And for years, it took you to get to the place of even doing five pull-ups. So that's the first thing. Nobody starts there. But the second reason is there's a big myth. One of the questions I asked you is that are there are some myths that are out there? And one myth that I see as people who age, and again, especially from unfortunately a lot of what maybe the media or society has taught women,

is that our bodies are super fragile. And that level of activity could in a way, you know, be bad for you or in some cases, I've even heard crazy things where people are like, if I got that much activity, my heart would explode. Your body is so much stronger. than you give it credit for. Now you don't start from zero to 10 hours of activity a week. You build up. But just seeing that example should be a reminder for anybody out there. You are capable of more than you could ever imagine.

And your body is stronger than you could ever imagine. Start small and build your way up. Any thoughts on that? Yeah, small things that add up to big things. What you do now will, you know, expand the quality of your life. and your health. And you have to expand the belief in what you can do. And you'll never know unless you try.

So I think there's so many possibilities out there that it's so important to just, you know, rid of some of those perceptions, get rid of those old social norms. Don't let anybody keep telling you know, you know, dive in a little bit by the a little bit and see what nice little journey you're going to go on. Well, speaking about the journey, I did want to touch on your story a little bit broader because you've always been somebody who's been a little bit ahead and kind of breaking rules, even in the face of challenging moments, which we've all had major life changes in moments that could either build us or permanently break us.

And I just want to acknowledge your story. you know, tell us about, you know, your start and some of the big and little moments in life, you know, even separate from fitness and you talked about being a dancer and teaching dance class, of you sort of breaking the norms a little bit in terms of what people were telling you to do. One example that I know of is that pretty early on you got into the idea of performance and eventually that led into modeling. Can you talk about that? Yeah, I don't, you know, a lot of times I look at it. I go, I wonder why my parents let me go to New York City.

I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. And I'm like, at 20, I went to New York to become a professional dancer. And then I realized that, you know, they were married by that age because it was during the war time. And, you know, they, it was just a different thing. They figured I was an adult and I could make my own decisions at that point. So off I went, which was breaking a norm because most people stayed. there and they did, you know, some of the traditional career choices. And I wanted to, I wanted to do different, but I wanted to give New York a try.

And a lot of people would say, oh, you'll never make it there. You know, one in, what is it? One percent of people even make a living in acting. But I went, okay, I'll give it one to five years. I felt like I had to have, no, not one, five years. is what I had said to myself because I thought you had to be there for a while before you really could get anywhere. And in that time, I did a Broadway show called Pippin, which was like the top of the top for me. I mean, I walked down Broadway going, I'm in a Broadway show. And that

was exceptional. And, you know, I lived there for a while. I got married and had two children there. And I started to move on to doing commercials, TV commercials, which are on YouTube. There's There's tons of them. They were done in the 70s, mostly in the 70s. And I did over a hundred national and regional commercials and anything from JorDash to Wonderbread and sizzling and, and, oh, just signal, Folgers, Mr. Clean. I mean, you name it. It was, you know, it was a great time of life. until it wasn't. And then I got a divorce. Our marriage failed and I and the children and myself moved to the Poconos. And that's when I had to get that real job that I told you about. And I taught dance and I did everything I could. It was never enough. But it was it was a real struggle because of the weather. It was we had so many blizzards, the blizzard of 96, and 96 just, you know, closed us down. It was a very rural area.

We didn't have cell phones or cable. We didn't have, you know, all those kind of things. No, no, no, just, it was just a rustic kind of life. And it was a beautiful place to be. But if something had to be done, I had to do it. And that's where I think Jesse learned her feeling of being self-sufficient. is because there were potholes. We couldn't get back to my house, so we had to fill the potholes with gravel.

There was snow on the roof, and we had to, the kids actually helped me. I'm just talking about a roof over a porch, not like the peaked roof, you're thinking. But they had to help me, like, get the snow off the roof because they were falling in at that time. One time I had to ski, cross-country ski to get medicine for my son because we were really way back there. But it was, again, a lot of obstacles, but you just have to put them. It's like hurdles. You just jump over every hurdle that comes along your way. And I thought it was a great, great place for the kids to grow up because they made, they

didn't watch TV that much. They made teepees in the, in the, uh, piney woods. So it was, it was a very difficult time, um, just to get through life and just to make enough money to, to get by. So I'm doing great in New York City and I'm at the top of the top. And then all of a sudden I was at the bottom of earning potential. And it was, like I said, a tremendous struggle. But it was, you know how they say it was the best of times?

It was the worst of times. And I think that sort of describes my Twin Lakes time. It was just beautiful, but very tough to make a living for me. Yeah, a very defining period in life. You know, we, you know, turning a breakdown into a breakthrough that really set the character of not just you, but your entire family tree, including your daughter, who was very inspired by, you know, those moments. And it became a big part of what she needs. Yeah, I think it made me stronger mentally, you know, the mental strength is that driving force that keeps you going. You have to.

Yeah, absolutely. Take us a little bit further from there. you know, talk about, you know, rebuilding that time period, which ultimately actually kind of later on life brought you back into the place you started with, which was, you know, bodily. Well, when I met my future husband, which we were married today, and we moved to Maryland. My kids grew up and went off to college and did their thing. And when we retired, we came to North Carolina.

And that was when I was like, I'm going to get back into acting. That's my true love. I had to stop it too early and I'm going to get back to it, even if I'm a granny. You know, the old, where's the beef? I don't care. I'm getting back to acting. So I find an agent. She said, go gray. So it's very liberating just to be, this is who I am right here. And I started auditioning. It took a while to get to know casting people and figure out how to do self-tapes, which is how you audition. you do your own video and you send it off. So it took a while and then I landed this great show called Poms, P-O-M-S with Diane Keaton.

And there were eight cheerleaders. The movie story is Diane Keaton as she's in a retirement villa where they can choose and make any kind of a club that. want to and she wants to do a cheerleading club. So we are all over 67 years old, Ria Perlman, Jackie Weaver, Pam Greer, lots of fun people plus three local people as I was one of them of the cheerleaders. And it was just a great show. And it actually follows my life in a way because it was you're never too old to chase a dream. If you fail at first, get up, train, train harder and go back again. And to have a buddy system, people who support you. So all those kind of

things just kind of follow my life as well. And so I started doing some more movies. Stars fell on Alabama. I worked on USS Christmas, the Hallmark Mysteries and Movies. A couple of other things that really got me back into the acting. And so I made that dream come true again. Even though things have happened in the past, I brought it back because it was such a strong desire, which is one of the reasons we moved to close to Wilmington, North Carolina, where they do a lot of the film work.

So that's happened, and that's when I started watching and cheering Jesse on an American Ninja Warrior and seeing that whole process and going, this is what I want to do now and I wanted to get back into swimming. And so it allowed me the time to do those things that I wasn't able to do before. And that makes me really happy. I would never have dreamed it. If you had told me when I was dancing on Broadway that I would one day be on American Ninja Warrior,

I would have said, or to be in a Guinness Book of World Records. I didn't try for that. That just came to me. I just got old. That's all. So, but that's, I'm going to have to keep that. I'm still doing competition, so maybe I can still do it for a couple more years and keep that record. Well, so many beautiful things in that.

And one of the most beautiful things is your entire life, you have had an idea, even starting off with the idea of moving from Knoxville, which I know very well is one of the first places that I'm, I lived in America when my family came from Kenya, we stayed with an uncle who was in the area and then moved to Nashville, beautiful little town. When you had the idea when you were in Knoxville that, hey, I want to give my shot at the big city. And I'm sure at that time period, especially being from the south, people saying, how can you let your daughter, you know, go to the city herself and pursue this? And I'm sure there was a lot of doubts that were there. Yet you had that

inner calling, that inner dream that was there that even when people said, hey, this may not work out or most likely is not going to work out, the likelihood that you will get into a Broadway play or later in life, that you would be able to be a successful model or later in life, that you would be able to figure things out moving to the Poconos after a marriage engine, which you've shared, you know, turned your world upside down. Consistent moments of people kind of having their own doubts, which are really, you know, well-intentioned from their perspective, but they, you didn't let that stop you. You didn't let that stop you when it came to training and getting serious about your fitness and getting stronger in your late, you know, 50s, early 60s.

You didn't stop that. You didn't let it interrupt you when it came to getting back into being a senior model and getting back into, you know, acting and being on movies and other shows. So that sense of resilience is so important. It's not that people won't doubt you for anybody who's listening. People will doubt you, but it's okay to have a little fear and take that fear along with you and say, I'm still going to pursue the goals and dreams that I want to make progress on and give yourself the adequate amount of time that it takes to actually see, are you heading in the right direction?

So I just love hearing your story and I hope that people take away from it, those themes that are so key. Yeah, I was just to think of another saying that I got. And this was from Rhonda Rousey. And she said, don't let the quit in. And I love that so much because that's what's going to keep you going forward. Don't let the quit in. Again, another two-shirts that we can all purchase them in a trade.

And we can get a chance to do. tell us now that you know as we're winding down here with the amount of time that we have now that you and your family and also now you know your husband and your daughter now that you all have this shared sense of essentially a lifestyle habit that this has become a major hobby right which is becoming fit and strong and inspiring others you know it sounds like you guys were already close previously but as we naturally age one of the It's theirs, you know, families are all busy. They're all doing their own thing. You know, they're raising their own kids or their focus on their priorities. And one of the big concerns is that people get lonelier, especially as they get older and people get distance. But it really sounds like this connective tissue of becoming fit and prioritizing strength has become something that has already, it builds upon already the closest that you have. And now you guys have this shared sense of vocabulary and vision.

that you guys are pursuing. Is that accurate? Would you say that's true? I think the bond that my daughter and I have and when we get together, when we can do things and she teaches me and she helps me with technique. But also my granddaughter, when I go to visit, we go to a ninja gym and she's quite good. And it's so much fun, we'll do balance. I have a couple of things on Instagram where we're doing things together.

And that is just such a joy to share that with my granddaughter. I want to show her what. women and women that are older, what we can do, what she can reach for and beyond, obviously. You know, you just don't want to be defined by your past. You want to continue to dream and go after those dreams. So important. You know, well, I have shared your inspiring story, which I came across on, social media with my family. And my family has been stepping into largely because of my brother-in-law,

who was always very fit. We've all been doubling down on our fitness goals. Some of these same things because we know how important it is to aging and longevity. And my older sister, Herschel, who helps me out with my podcast, she texted me this photo, which is a photo of my mom who lives with my sister. And if anybody's familiar, there's this whole movement of what's called rucking. It's basically where you're going on a walk or on a hike with a weighted backpack. So it's a nice way for people who walk regularly. And my mom has been getting more regular about her walking. My dad is great. He gets in, you know, 20,000, 25,000 steps in a day. And my mom is trying to, you know, get closer to that goal and, you know, get 10, you know, 12,000, 13,000

steps. But one way that she's challenging yourself in a light way is my sister says, me this photo of her putting on a rucksack for those that are listening. It's like a backpack that has some weights in it. And she's just starting off simple by walking around the house with this weighted bag on for like probably 20 minutes or so. And I love this because my sister shared it in the family chat. And we're all cheering my mom on. We're, you know, encouraging her. She's part of that. And when families start to make fitness, eating well, longevity, a positive mindset, a part of their culture and ecosystem, that's truly how I believe the world changes because that energy is contagious and now you start to become an example for somebody else

who maybe previously didn't see that that was possible. So your journey has been an inspiration to my family and I just want to let you know that we're working on some of the same things that you and your family. Yeah, I think that's a great one. I love that rucksack in that just walking around the house getting used to that. That's a great way to get started. I love that story. Yeah. And I think it's important that you don't think of winning as the ultimate goal, but enjoy the process as you go along. Just don't have your eyes focused on the outcome. Enjoy the process, the step by step. So important. Well, Ginny, this has been fantastic. It's been such an honor to have you on. I know we've been wanting to plan this interview for a while, so I'm so glad it ended up

happening. If there are any final words of wisdom you want to leave the audience with today before we tell them how they can keep in touch with you and follow along on the journey as you continue on your mission to become even more of an example, continuing to get fitter, continue to get it stronger, show what's possible as we age. Any final words of wisdom you'd like to leave our audience with? Well, you're never too old. Age is never. is no excuse. It's never too late. You want to get stronger so you get healthier and expand the belief in what you can do. And I would say change those old perceptions and social norms and things that might be hovering about like you don't want to get too bulky. There's certain things that

you need to like, you know, branch off on your own and adapt. There's a future of possibilities. And I'd like to see that we reinvent what aging is all about. I think a part of that, which by the way, that's fantastic, you know, there's a financial advisor who's kind of famous. His name is Dave Ramsey. Some people have heard of him. He has this great quote. He says, you know, if you look out there in the world from a financial lens and you say, well, most people, and there's a lot of reasons why, obviously, most people are broke. So if you want to be different, you have to be weird because being broke is normal and being wealthy is weird. And so in a way, if abnormal aging is normal, which is ending up in a nursing home, increasing your risk of developing Alzheimer's and dementia because you're not working out,

being more likely to develop cancer because you don't consistently have a diet that supports your metabolic health and you're also not working out, which by the way, working out is one of the most protective things that you could do against cancer. We know that from all the different experts that have been on there. If all of that is normal when we look out in the world, I hope that everybody today can step into a little bit of weirdness, just as you've done, Ginny, on your journey, we've been willing to be weird and do something different and actually have the courage to follow your dreams. So thank you for being that example.

Ginny, if people want to keep in touch with you, what's the best way to be able to do that and follow along? I love people to follow me on Instagram. That's where I really post all the different things that I've been doing. And that's at Jenny, just my name, Jenny McCall, G-I-N-N-N-Y, McCall, M-A-C-O-L-L. I'm also on Facebook under the same name. And if you want to have a laugh or two, you can look at YouTube at my YouTube channel. Oh, shoot.

I know it's just my name, but I think it's 996 afterwards. I don't know where they came up with that number, but Ginny McCall, 996. And it's got a lot of videos of things that we've done. You know, fun things like Jordash, sizzling. That's awesome. Well, I'll definitely be checking some of those out. And for everybody that's listening and watching on YouTube, we'll have the links to all that below. Please do follow along for the journey. I know, Ginny, I'll be following along.

I see all those world records that are in the back, including the Guinness Book of World Records book for 2024, which you are in. Thank you for being an example. I'm going to follow along because I can't wait to see some more accolades and awards being posted on the charts that are over there. So appreciate you being on. Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate all your questions and your good input. And I thank your audience as well. Hi, everyone, Drew here.

Two quick things. Number one, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. If you haven't already, subscribe, just hit the subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. And by the way, if you love this episode, it would mean the world to me. And it's the number one thing that you can do to support this podcast is share it with a friend. share with a friend who would benefit from listening. Number two, before I go, I just had to tell you about something that I've been working on that I'm super excited about.

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