This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil - 025 / Building a Foundation of Health and Fitness with Jennifer Nagel

Episode Date: August 5, 2020

In this episode, I welcome guest Jennifer Nagel - Certified Personal Trainer and Body Transformation Expert, to share her 3 M’s of health - you’ll need to listen in to learn what they are! As women we often struggle with prioritizing our own health, so our needs can get put on the back burner. Jennifer talks about how you can work out effectively in less time (because who has 2 hours to get to the gym?!), and how you may need to eat more (the 1,200 calorie diet doesn’t cut it). You only get one body, this body. What if you loved it, cared for it, honored it like a sacred temple, like a home? What would THAT look like for you? This is Woman’s Work To learn more about what we are up to outside of this podcast, visit us at NicoleKalil.com

Coming up on this episode of This Is Woman's Work. Most women who have been taught to exercise are told to go running or get on the treadmill or get on the elliptical or they want to do strength training, but it's intimidating or they don't know how to start. You are listening to the This Is Woman's Work podcast, and I'm your host, Nicole Khalil, speaker, coach, hotel snob, and wine and cheese enthusiast. You can follow me at Nicole M. Khalil on Instagram for a daily dose of inspiration, quotes, you know I love me some quotes, hopefully some laughs, and the occasional breakdown. I mean, at least part of redefining what woman's work actually is,

is learning to pick ourselves up after a bad day, right? So in today's episode, I've enlisted some help for one of my going on four month COVID breakdowns. The area that I've allowed to suffer the most has been my physical fitness. I've invited Jennifer Nagel, certified personal trainer and body transformation expert, where she helps women over 30 get fit for life to join us today to talk about muscle metabolism and meals. Because full confession, I've had a lot of meals. I think the only muscle I've built is the one in my arm that brings food and wine to my face. And I think my metabolism has pretty much given up on me. So Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us. And please talk to us about how you went from professionally

stressed and overweight to peak fitness and how you help others do the same. Thanks, Nicole. I'm really happy to be chatting with you today and all of your listeners. This is such an interesting way that I came into this role. I, as a kid, always really enjoyed health and fitness and I was active. I think my grandmother called me wiggle worm because I could never sit still. And so I was super active into my teenagehood and college and after, and then I went to work and sat most of the day, but I still managed to, you know, get my fitness on. So it all kind of changed for me though, when I was a few years into my job and I went through a divorce. So I was a young mom, now a single mom, and I had to leave my home.

And it just is a ginormous lifestyle change. So I was not exercising. I certainly wasn't taking care of myself. And then I got promoted, which sounds awesome, but it was probably one of the most stressful jobs that I have ever had. And so between all of those factors, I think I just kind of broke down. I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't handle it. I didn't eat well. I think my arm was hooked up to a diet, Dr. Pepper IV. I just was not taking very good care of myself. I lost a lot of divorce weight. Then I gained a lot of divorce weight. And I think there were days where I may have eaten all the peanut butter all day. It was awful. So I had several months of that. And then I just started feeling terrible. I mean, I was overweight. I didn't feel good. I was extremely stressed. I wasn't sleeping. And so I was,

you know, of course, one day I wasn't feeling bad, go figure. I mean, I'm feeling bad, go figure. And I ended up going to urgent care and almost immediately they put me on blood pressure medication. And at the time I was only 31 years old and it scared me because it was the first time that I ever considered for a second that I might not be around for my daughter. And so, you know, I at that moment decided something had to change because I was someone who saw myself asany and then the next year I was in the best shape of my life, but the honest to God truth was it was a journey for me. So I started off slow. I did what I could. And I started learning. And in the learning, I started to rediscover why I loved being active and why I love nutrition. And I started getting certifications and I started teaching classes and I started coaching people and, and it snowballed from there. And when I tell you I'm a slow learner, the time that I was diagnosed with high blood pressure is about 31. And nine years later is when I actually decided to leave my career in

higher education after 15 years of stress and being overworked, yo-yo weight and all that stuff, but to leave it and then really pursue what I loved. And what I love is helping women who were in my spot, who were stressed and tired, or maybe going through a major change and, and book solid and not knowing how to fit in health and nutrition or health and fitness. And I love helping them discover how to do it in a practical way. So that's my story. I mean, it, it really came out of desperation. I tell people I wasn't fit all my life, but that's why I'm really good at what I do now. I can really appreciate how difficult it is. I can appreciate having an extra 40 plus pounds on you. I can appreciate going to a job where you're exhausted and then trying to figure out when am I going to actually

eat decent food or move around or something like that. It's a real challenge, but I love what I do now. I've been an online fitness coach for two and a half years exclusively. And I have met and worked with some of the most amazing people who've really turned around a lot of great habits and are feeling really wonderful. And so that's why I do what I do. That's my story. Jennifer, first, thank you for sharing your story and being transparent and vulnerable with that.

I think, I mean, I know people can't see me. I was nodding so many times as you were sharing that. I'm sure people listening doing the same. There's so much that you said that I think we can all relate to. So I think one of the things, at least that I can relate to the most, is we as women have a tendency to struggle with time and in that maybe more struggle with prioritizing our own health. Like we'll do whatever we need to do for our children. We'll do whatever we need to do for our teams or, you know, our work or whatever. And women who have a tendency to do that on how we can begin to prioritize ourselves and our health? Yeah, that's such a great question and such a common issue.

And I think the first thing it's kind of start with a mindset of taking care of yourself is the best thing that you can do for the people that you love. So it's not selfish, it's self-care and it's critical because just like for me, you know, I was putting my daughter first, like when I was eating all the peanut butter, she was eating like good food and you know, all this other stuff. But then I realized it's like, wait a second, if I'm dead or if I can't move around and I can't take care of her, then I'm not able to take care of the person that I love the most. So I had to put me first. So she exercises, she's in sport, she likes to stay active, she drinks water, and she takes time for herself.

And that's the thing that you want to pass on to your kids. It's important that they see their mom or the person in their life do that. So the first thing is a mindset. The second thing is like a lot of people think that it's gonna be this ginormous endeavor to start something new. And I'm a big fan of reading.

I just recently finished Atomic Habits by James Clear. And one of the things that sticks out, and of course, he said it so much more eloquently than I've been saying it, but you can break down any goal into a two minute habit. So if there's something big that you're trying to tackle, that seems impossible, you know, backward plan until you get to the thing that takes two minutes. So recently I had a conversation with, with a client and one of her big goals was she just simply wanted to eat vegetables with each meal. I mean, that was her big, big goal. And so we went backwards like,

okay, what needs to happen in order to do that? Why need to have vegetables in the house? Okay, well, what needs to happen to do that? I need to have, I need to buy them at the grocery store. What needs to happen to make sure you buy them at the grocery store? I need to make a list. And so her first two minute habit was making a list with vegetables on it. And so if you can get into a habit of breaking down something into something very manageable, then that doesn't feel like this big, scary thing. And then you continue to just build these small little habits and progress until you get to the big goals. So not only is it not scary, it also becomes so much more sustainable and you're racking up wins. And a lot of times we

tend to beat ourselves up when we're like, oh, I, I didn't do my two hour gym session and eat vegan for 17 days. And now I'm, I'm horrible. And instead it's like, Hey, I made my grocery list with, you know, um, Brussels sprouts on it. And then you get to give yourself a high five and feel really good about what you're doing. So it's a mindset and it's about breaking things down into small manageable chunks that help you feel successful. And when you feel successful, you wanna do something else that makes you feel successful.

And so that's one of the things that I would recommend for us ladies who tend to be pretty busy. You are so speaking my language right now, because I see that in the coaching work that I do, helping people achieve their professional goals and things like that is we have a tendency to make these big goals and then beat ourselves up, you know, one day when we don't, you know, check the box. I love the manageable bite-sized chunks. You know, how do you climb Mount Everest? One step at a time. So you've got to collect your wins. I love it. Okay. So talk to us about the 3M method. So muscle metabolism and meals of health and fitness. Yeah. I, you know, it's for me,

it's those three things that make, make you feel healthy. Um, so let's start with meals. Cause that's my favorite because we all love to eat and we all need to eat. Right. And I think in our diet culture and I love, you had a guest on, I can't remember how many episodes ago was talking about intuitive eating and diet culture, but it's true. Our culture is so uber obsessed with the right food and this is good and this is bad, which makes eating a meal probably one of the most complex things that people do throughout the day. So one of the things that food does for us is it provides us fuel. It gives us energy.

And it's important to have balanced food so that we get all the nutrition that we need. And it really kicks off and it provides a foundation for everything else we're going to do. So a lot of times when I'm working with clients, the first thing is I'm looking at their food. Because the way that our society has and culture and all the apps that are out there, it tells us to eat very little. And it tells us to only eat certain things. And that's usually the first thing that people freak out. I'm like, you need to eat more food. And they're like, Oh no, I can't eat more than 1200 calories. It's like, Oh my gosh, please eat. So the nutrition is key because it's just, it's just gives you energy. It's like, oh my gosh, please eat. So the nutrition is key because it just gives you

energy. It gives you fuel for the day, whether you're exercising or going to work or you have a big day or you're wrestling with kids or trying to figure out how you're going to homeschool kids during COVID. I mean, the food piece is huge. And we do have a lot of processed and food that doesn't give us great energy. And so my philosophy is usually 80-20 rule where you're really fueling yourself with a wide variety of foods from generally natural sources under less processed sources. But then there's still room for the cookie or the glass of wine because I mean, we're, we're human. We like those things and we don't do perfection very well. So meals is huge. Then I go to muscle. Most women who have been taught to exercise are told to go running or get on the treadmill or

get on the elliptical, or they want to do strength training, but it's intimidating or they don't know how to start. But strength training is one of the most effective, helpful things you can do. Number one, those workouts can be short and I'm all about 20, 30 minute workouts, maybe 40 minutes if I'm feeling myself and really just want to listen to Beyonce while I'm working out. I love it. More. Dancing versus strength training, but right. Um, is huge because it does so many things for us, especially as women. So first it helps us with our bone density, which is something that gradually gets, you know, we, our bones become more brittle as we get older. And so weight training and weight bearing exercises keeps our

bones healthy and strong. The second thing is there's so many great hormonal responses when you weight train. So we're all spending $8 million on creams and stuff for our eyes. But if you weight train, you're going to naturally boost something called HGH, your human growth hormone, which makes us pretty. It also fights inflammation in the body. And a lot of the things that we struggle with, especially as we age or as we're stressing, weight training can help combat. And then the other just metabolic calorie thing is it burns calories. And if you work out at a certain intensity, it'll burn more calories throughout the day, even after you're done. And cardiovascular exercise is

important. We want great heart health, but if we're trying to manage stress, have a positive hormonal response, feel more confident and, you know, get the, you know, if it is aesthetic, you know, improve our physical features, then weight training is where it is. So I always tell people, if you're short on time, weight train, and then do cardio that you like, you don't have to do this grind it out. I hate, I hate this cardio. You're not going to earn a cookie. And I hate it when people use cardio and calories to do that. But take a walk, play with your kids, go rollerblading. One of my favorite cardio things when I was young, when I was younger, when my daughter was younger, was doing just dance with her, you know, doing the little,

what was, I can't remember the platform, but you know, we're dancing in front of the thing. And that was great. So muscle is number two. Metabolism is the thing that brings it all together. So your metabolic set point or your metabolism, a lot of people will define it generally. And there's a wonderful scientific explanation that I'm totally not going to share. But basically the way we think about it is the total number of calories that we burn in a day naturally. And so things that can impact that are the, how we're eating the types of food that we eat, what our body composition is, how much muscle you have on your frame and hormones. And so a lot of the hormones can be influenced by things like

sleep or lack of sleep, stress, and a lot of things that are completely within our control, which have nothing to do with exercise. So they are all connected. The metabolism piece is huge. And typically when I talk metabolism with my clients, we are really focused on stress and sleep because that's as busy career women, that's where we fall down. The whole, I have to grind in order to do well in life usually wreaks havoc on stress and sleep. So if you can get seven hours or more of sleep, wonderful. And if you can manage your stress or have moments or meditate or journal or breathe or walk away, that really helps because it helps manage your cortisol response and lots of cortisol, again, inflammation and impact it, it, it can make us ill. It makes us more susceptible to illness. And then it also helps retain belly

fat. So sleep in stress, work out, do some weight-bearing exercises, and eat really good food. That's my secret. Those are those three Ms. Yeah. You said a few things in there. Well, you said a lot that resonated with me, but there were a few things that really jumped out because they're different than at least what I've been taught, right? You know, good foods versus bad foods. That's something I've had to unpackage in my own brain a ton. But another thing is the shorter workouts. I think that really appeals to me. It used to be, you know, if I wanted to work out, I'm thinking, okay, I had to get in the car, drive to the hour class, drive back. And now we're at a two hour event and who has time for that? So share maybe some

tips or thoughts around some of the myths of the three Ms or of health around shorter workouts or what these workouts might look like? Yeah, no, that's a wonderful question because that is one of the biggest challenges. It's hard for them to wrap their head around that they can work out less and still have an effective exercise plan. Again, strength training gives you so much bang for the buck. And there've been studies that show, even if you do like three, 10 minute sessions a day, it's just as effective as if you do a 30 minute session all at once, but I only strength train. So I'm a former amateur body builder FYI. So I'm someone who really likes to be in the gym. So I'm someone who honestly could go for two hours if I wanted to, but now I'm 42 years old. I have lots going on in my life. I strength train for about 30 minutes,

like I said, maybe 35, and it is extremely effective. So the key is that you're doing compound exercises and those are exercises that use multiple muscle groups and major muscle groups. And I like to talk about the six core lifts. So squats, deadlifts, overhead press, a row or a pulling motion towards you and pull ups or pull downs, because those are the things that number one, make work most of your major muscles. And number two, mimic the things that we do in our normal life. You know, if your kid drops something, you are squatting or bending over to pick it up. And so if you could create a workout, which maybe could be like four or five exercises with a couple of sets and working out with some level of resistance, which could be anywhere from body weight or resistance bands to full on gym equipment, you're going to have a really amazing workout and a full body

workout. And you don't have to spend a whole lot of time in it. So that's myth number one, workouts can be short to be ineffective. The second thing is that you have to severely cut your calories in order for you to lose weight or make a difference. A lot of women that I work with, especially over 30, have somehow, I call it the 1200 calorie myth. And I'm going to blame my fitness pal for this. And I love my fitness pal as a tool, as long as you know how to use it. But if you've ever used my fitness pal, I guarantee you've had the experience where

you put your weight in and they ask you, well, how much weight do you want to lose? And of course, we're like, we want to lose the most weight possible. I want to lose 25 pounds a day. You put in two pounds a day or whatever, and it spits it back and says 1200 calories. And then people think that that is the amount of calories that they need to eat. And the thing is, MyFitnessPal is a simple math formula. It doesn't really take into consideration all the nuances of who you are, what you need. And technically, it's like it takes into account levels of activity. But in reality, most of us need to eat a lot more than what we actually eat. And then we also need to be thoughtful about the types of foods that

make us feel good. So that's the second big myth that I usually work with my clients to dispel. And people are so much happier. I mean, when you eat 2000 calories a day versus 1200, that's a big difference. You can enjoy really great foods. You feel really good about your body. You have the energy to tackle the day. Your boss doesn't get on your nerves as much. I mean, there's a lot of really great things that come with eating more food and having more energy. So

between the long workouts and eating more food or not eating enough food, those are the two that I usually help people get past and they become much, much happier afterwards. Yeah. I love it. What about, and I'm interested in your perspective on this. Um, you had mentioned meditation or I think of like yoga. What about this idea that you have to be dripping sweat after each of your workouts? Um, is there some truth to that? Is there not, you know, should I be counting yoga as a workout or not? You know what I mean? No, I think that's great. There are four pillars of fitness. There's strength, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, and oh, I always forget the fourth, balance. And so to me, every workout has elements of all those four things. And so

for someone who lifts, lifts, lifts all the time and doesn't work on their flexibility or balance or those types of things, then they're kind of out of whack. Their body feels a little out of balance. If you never, ever do cardiovascular exercise, you know, your heart health might suffer. But it can look a lot of different ways. And the other thing about sweat is that some people sweat more than others. I'm a sweater. You don't want to be next to me when I'm exercising. It's not pretty, but that's okay. But that's how my body responds to keeping myself cool. Other people can do the exact same thing,

work out with great intensity and not sweat as much. So I think a better indicator is, do you feel like you have challenged yourself? So I try to help people understand how to listen to their body a little bit more. So just because I can lift 100 pounds and you can only lift five, it doesn't mean we haven't equally challenged ourselves. So when you're doing a workout, if you feel challenged but not dead, I think that's a really great indicator of success.

I love yoga for other people. I love flexibility and stretching, but certain, like, I really like the type of yoga where you lay down and stretch and the stuff where people are twisting like pretzels. I have not personally been able to get into, but I love all types of yoga is for fitness because so many benefits. I think yoga not only teaches you about stretching and recovery or power or strength and balance, but in many yoga practices, there is an element of meditation and calming your brain is again, a wonderful part of helping keep you balanced and keeping your metabolism healthy. So yeah, I think yoga is a great workout. Um, you may not see me next to you on your mat, but unless you're in the, um, what do we call it? The, the, um, the yoga practice

where it's literally just like stretching and holding poses. That's my favorite. Well, it's, I'm so glad that you said that too, because kind of in the same vein as good foods and bad foods, good workouts, bad workouts, you know, I think each of us individually need to find what works for us. That's sort of my beef with diets is this idea that there's one way of doing it that's going to work for everybody. And that based on, you know, my experience is a load of crap. But same with workouts, you're finding something that you actually like to do. And that brings you joy while it challenges you is, is, I think, important. I think that's probably why when you were saying that you were much more active when you were younger, so was I. but I didn't think I was working out.

I danced because I loved to dance, not because I had to check a box of doing it three times a week or anything like that. Right? Exactly. Yeah. And, and playing sports is a workout and playing with your kids is a workout. And, um, even like yard work, especially my yard, that's a workout. I mean, as long as again, those four pillars of fitness, strength, cardiovascular balance, and flexibility.

And then a lot of times when people have goals around more energy, weight loss, increasing metabolism, strength training is just a big pillar of that. And I think that for most women anyway, it tends to fall by the wayside because just, we are not taught, we're not taught like our brothers or our, you know, our male counterparts. And, you know, one of the things that I help women do is feel more comfortable in that environment and understand that strength training can look very different from person to person. And as long as you're doing weight bearing exercise, you're fulfilling that, that really important pillar of fitness. So I love strength training. That's one of my favorites.

And I, it's one of my, my, my personal mission. So those of you who are my clients, if you're listening, no, it's my personal mission just to help people feel comfortable doing the type of strength training that they enjoy. And like I said, it can look very, very different from person to person, but it's such an important part that many of us don't do. And so I like to focus on that. No, that's great. So you had said earlier, a lot of us don't do strength training because we don't know what to do. We're not super comfortable or know where to start. Um, any actionable steps or obviously there's your online, uh, classes, but, um, can you give us maybe a few ideas of things that we could get started on? If there are people like me who have kind of pushed this to the side over the last couple months, especially given the

coronavirus and that it might not be as easy to get to the gym or classes or things like that. Yeah. Strength training does not have to happen in a gym. It doesn't. It can happen in your bedroom. It can happen outside. I would say my first advice is start slow. Like if you've never done this before, please do not have the expectation that you're going to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger pumping it up somewhere. Um, and I would say, start with body weight. You're just moving your own body is resistance, you know? So again, I would start with those basic six core lifts that I talked about. So a squat and, and there are lots of videos to talk through squat form. Um, if you're working with a coach, they can help coach you

through squat form, but basically start doing those six basic movements. And even if you do like, okay, one day I'm going to do 10 squats and then I'm going to do 10 wall pushups because the pushing motion or something like that. So if you've never done strength training before, or you haven't done it in a while, then start really slow, maybe two sessions a week for 10 to 20 minutes. And start with those six core exercises and maybe session one, you do three of the exercises and session two, you do the other three. And just again, and start with body weight. Then you can start adding on something simple, like a household product. So an overhead press, if you grabbed a water bottle and pushed it over your head, that gives you a little bit of weight. Or what we used to do as kids, we were, we were really interesting kids and you should probably have my mom on because she would crazy stories, but we would use soup cans

as weights because, you know, we would beg our parents for weights because that's what we did at nine years old, but we would just use soup cans and push it over our head. So we were really awesome. Um, or we would lay down and use it as dumbbells. Doing a deadlift, which is basically bending over at the waist and picking something up. If you have a broomstick or if you have kids toys or, you know, anything on the ground, you can practice doing deadlifts. You can, and again, weight, body weight, that's exactly where I would start. If you are new, start slowly, start with something small, and then build it up over time. My last question, I'm a results junkie, and I've had to break in my head using the scale as my metric of all results related to health.

So for those of us that want to measure results or see that there have been tangible results, if we begin to do strength training, what recommendations would you have there? Yeah, no, that's a great question because strength training, sometimes in the beginning you get what we call a pump. And if you're eating more food and your muscles are filling with glycogen, the scale might even say that it's gone up and people get nervous. So I'm a huge fan of multiple indicators of progress. The scale is helpful, but not the only one. Taking pictures is huge because you will see changes. You will. And then measurements is another one so I um sometimes like if I'm let's say I'm working towards a goal and I start uh changing up my routine a little bit I notice the fit of my clothes are different so the jeans the scale might not have changed at all but and I

put my jeans on and they just kind of like slide on like butter, you know, I know that's really great. And so, and then I would say just every now and then you have to check in with how you feel, because that's something that I think we get away from. We're looking at all these external things to tell us how we feel. But the thing that most of my clients report when we're working together one-on-one is that they feel more energetic. They sleep better. They feel more confident. They stand up taller. And these are those intangibles that make such a huge difference in your day, especially if you're someone who is that go-to person. The energy and feeling really good about yourself is something that you should be recording as a win and recording as a result. So if you like the measurement scale, actual measurements, photos, clothing fit, but then also be tracking or maybe journaling like, hey, I feel this way today.

And I think most people who adopt strength training into their routine start to see some major changes on all of those fronts. Jennifer, this has been awesome. I don't think anybody has ever had me feel compelled to do strength training. Like I've heard about it before and thought like, that's a good idea. But now I like, I'm ready to sign up for your online course. So thank you so, so much. For those of you listening, you can follow Jennifer on Instagram at TheRealJenniferNagel. It's J-E-N-N-I-F-E-R-N-A-G-E-L,

so at TheRealJenniferNagel. Or check her website out at TheRealJenniferNagel.com, where you can find her signature program, The Body Blueprint, which I'll be checking out myself. Jennifer, thank you so much. You're welcome. I'd love to have you as a client, Nicole. You'd be awesome. Yeah, let's do it. All right. You heard it here first. I'm taking pictures, ladies. Yay. All right. This conversation came at a perfect time for me because I got a little tired and annoyed with myself a couple of weeks back and decided it was time to take care of myself, to feed my body with health, energy, and gratitude in mind, to move my body with longevity, strength,

and spirit in mind. I'm not on a diet. My priority is not how I look. I'm trying to take care of my body the way I'd hope anyone I love would, the way I hope JJ will. We only get one body, this body. What if we loved, cared for it, honored it like a sacred temple, like a home? I'm going to give this a try. It won't be perfect. And I'm still going to eat cheese and drink wine on occasion because that's how I'd honor somebody in my own home. But I'm committed to a healthy relationship with my

body. How about you? What's one thing that would make you feel good? That would make you feel proud? Let's do this because we can't redefine woman's work without taking care of our bodies, without taking care of ourselves. Let's do it, ladies. This is woman's work.