Get Your Cravings Under Control!

0:01:06.9 Kim Schlag: Same day I am launching my menopause weight loss course. This is going to be an incredible opportunity for you to get some coaching time with me. Working together for nine weeks in a group setting, it’s gonna be nine modules. You’ll get a new module in your course each week and it’s going to be the key components. So the webinar is gonna tell you like, “Here’s what to do,” the course is going to actually help you put it into practice. We’re gonna work together to get you real results, losing weight in your 40s. If you’re tired, if you’re struggling with belly fat, if you’re just like, “Why is weight loss not working for me anymore?” This course is for you. Again, look at my website, kim@kimschlagfitness.com, cart goes live, Monday, March 29th. It will be open for one week, registration then closes, and I won’t be offering it again ’til the fall, at which point, price is gonna go up. Alright, let’s hit it.

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0:02:02.4 Kim Schlag: Hello. Hello. Answering your questions today on this episode, questions I’ve gotten on my feed, and questions I’ve gotten in my stories, and questions I’ve gotten on my DMs that I wanted to spend a little bit more time talking you through. Of course, if you ever want to have me coach you through a question, I love doing that. It’s much more of a give and take versus me kind of assuming what I think you might answer to a question. We can have a really in-depth discussion that I then find not only helps you, but helps other people as well. If you would like to do that, you wanna hop on a call, message me, kim@kimschlagfitness.com. Put “question for your podcast” or something like that in the subject line, and then tell me what your question is, and we will set it up. Nothing to be worried about. It’s not anything fancy. It’s not like I’d be interviewing you. It’s literally a call just between the two of us that I happen to be recording for the podcast.

0:03:00.1 Kim Schlag: Alright, on to my first question today. This is a question that came through on a feed post that I did the other day. It wasn’t related specifically to the post, and I find it very relevant to many people, so I’m gonna read her questions here. So I read your post and my question is, is 800 to 900 calories too little? I’m gonna wager to guess if she’s read very many of my posts, she knows my answer to that is, yes it is. I am STARVING at that number, yet it’s the only time I lose weight when I’m that low. Dieted, exercised and have counted calories for 20 plus years. Is this sounding familiar to you, ladies? I always yo-yo. Right now, I’ve been fighting my weight for two years, and only gaining. I begin to lose when I cut down… I want you to really listen carefully to the next few lines. “I begin to lose when I cut down to 800 to 900 calories. I don’t think I can happily live like that. I can do that for… ” And this is the important part. “Maybe two days and I’m a bear, then I tend to binge to 1500 to 1600 calories because I’m HUNGRY. Is that the secret to lose? Is it to be hungry?”

0:04:05.7 Kim Schlag: Okay, listen to this again, 800 to 900 calories. How long did she do that for? Two days, and then she binges, and she’s guessing she’s eating 1500 to 1600 calories. I can assure you, if she’s binging, it is way more than that. And then here’s the real deal. She’s not at a deficit eating 800-900 calories. When you average it over the week, she’s eating more than her maintenance calories. I’m going to wager that she’s in the thousands of calories per day. You know, I don’t know how big this person is, so I have no idea what her maintenance calories would be, but I have a really strong suspicion that 1500-1600 calories is actually deficit calories for her, not maintenance, which then leads us to believe these binges are actually in the thousands. Look, it is so easy to clear 3000 calories if you’re eating cookies, donuts, cakes, pizza. If you have a meal out and then dessert, you’re snacking all day, 3000 calories in a day, super-duper easy. Like, I wouldn’t even have to think about it. If you told me, like, “Hey, Kim, eat 3000 calories without thinking about it,” I am so there. And you are too. You don’t know it, but you are.

0:05:12.3 Kim Schlag: So here’s the answer to your question. Stop trying to eat 800-900 calories. That’s what’s doing you in. Eat in a moderate deficit, and I can certainly help you figure that out. A couple of options for you. You can go through my free five-day fat loss crash course. I can help you set your calories there. I have many posts on this in my feed. You can go to my guides. I don’t know if you guys are aware of that feature. If you go to my… What is that called? My bio page, and you look right below the highlights tabs, there’s these little icons. One of the icons is a book. This is only like half a year old that they have these, and you can click on the little books, and I have made guides on various topics, and there’s definitely a guide there on setting your calories. You can look there for some guidance. If you’re feeling like you need more intense guidance, it’s gonna be a long shot to get in on my one-on-one coaching right now. I have a very extensive wait list, you can absolutely get on there. You can email me, kim@kimschlagfitness.com.

0:06:12.8 Kim Schlag: The best way to work with me in 2021, if you are a woman over 40, you can hop into my menopause weight loss course which is launching on Monday, March 29th, that’s in like three days, three and a half days from now. Super excited about that. Would love to have you in there. In there, not only will I help you set your calories, I’m gonna walk you through nine weeks of me helping you to reach those calories, so give that a look. In the end, the answer to your question is this, no, the secret to losing weight is not to be super hungry, some hunger comes along with weight loss, it is inevitable. It is part of the process. If you are struggling with that, you need to remind yourself what a calorie deficit is, you’re literally eating fewer calories than your body needs to maintain its current weight, of course you will be hungry. There is so much you can do to mitigate that hunger, does not need to be extreme hunger. In fact, I would say it should not be extreme hunger that is uncomfortable and likely to lead to you not following through with your plan.

0:07:11.9 Kim Schlag: So you can do things like, eat in volume. So to do that, focus on lots of leafy greens, focus on melon, strawberries, egg whites, shrimp. Those are all foods you can eat in big quantities for very low calories, that’s one suggestion. Eat enough protein, protein is the most satiating of all the macro nutrients, so it’s more satisfying than carbs or fats, it’s gonna keep you fuller longer, so eat plenty of protein, do not skimp on your protein. Get plenty of fiber that also has that filling effect, so look for high fiber foods, so you can… There’s so many high fiber foods. Avocado is a high-end fiber, all of a sudden I drew a blank on high fiber foods. Raspberries, avocado. Gosh, seriously, [chuckle] I blanked on high fiber foods. Obviously there’s high fiber whole grain, so I like to do Ezekiel bread for a high fiber whole grains, peas, beans, apples, all the pears, artichokes, lots of foods that are high in fiber put high fiber, shooting for 30 grams of fiber, 20 to 30 grams of fiber daily can really help with that hunger piece.

0:08:24.6 Kim Schlag: And then of course, getting some dietary fat, you wanna be careful to measure out with a scale, your dietary fats, because they are higher in calories than your carbs, your proteins, so you don’t wanna mess up and overdo those, but having those in your diet is really gonna help with the staying power of your meal. So doing some combination of all of those things while at a moderate deficit is gonna help you actually stick with your deficit rather than slashing down to 800-900 calories for two days, and there goes the yo-yo. I so hope this has helped you. Please reach out again. I hope you’re listening to this. I didn’t know what your username is, it’s a dash and then Krees and then another dash. So Krees, I really hope you’re listening and that this has helped you some. Alright, next question, this is a question that came through in my DMs.

0:09:11.0 Kim Schlag: My heaviest weight is 30 pounds. How do I add more weight without buying heavier ones? Okay, so a couple of things I would say here. One, what is your hesitation around buying heavier weights. Is it a cost issue? Is it a space issue? Over the long term, you’re going to need access to heavier weights to progress. You will, okay? So a couple of options you have there, one, get a gym membership, it can be a cheap gym membership, if your gyms are open, I realize some people now have gym access, some people do not. Here in 2021, who knows? [chuckle] Who knows if you do or you don’t. If you do and you’re comfortable going, look, even a place like Planet Fitness, that place gets poo-pooed on a lot, there’s a lot of weird stuff about it, right? Like, I don’t love the one to one thing, I certainly don’t like that they’re serving pizza and donuts, but as far as the equipment, it’s great. I’ve had plenty of clients, I currently do have plenty of clients who train at Planet Fitness, it is not a ton of money. If you can swing that in your budget, go for something like that. You’ll have the heaviest weights you need there, you’ll be good to go.

0:10:12.6 Kim Schlag: If you’re like, “No, not joining a gym.” Then what I would suggest for over the long term, this is not short-term, we’ll talk about short-term in a minute, is that you start really looking at yard sales, second-hand places, online like Facebook marketplace. Equipment is there to be had. Absolutely, you can find it. I would look at buying things… Most of my gym I bought second hand. Not all of it, but a good bit of it, for a pretty good price. If space is the issue, look into getting adjustable dumbbells, they go up fairly heavy, you can certainly get more than 30 pounds, so look into getting adjustable dumbbells and over the door chin up bar, a TRX, they have benches, incline benches that fold, and you can put them in your closet and look into getting something like that. So if space is an issue, look into that. If you’re just like, “I don’t have the money, I don’t have the space, none of that,” for right now, look into the future and think, “What will I do?” ‘Cause eventually you’re gonna need access to this equipment.

0:11:04.9 Kim Schlag: Am I gonna join a gym? Am I gonna start building up my home gym? In the meantime, there are ways to progress without adding heavier weight, okay? So things you can do and you can do this even when you do have access to equipment, these are things I do to change up client’s programming without constantly just being like lift heavier weight. Okay? So you can add a pause to a movement, you can do these with almost any movement that you can think of, I’m just gonna give you the example of a squat. Let’s say you’re doing a squat, you can add a pause, so you come down to the bottom, distinct pause. I use two seconds a lot, that’s not a rule, you can use any kinda second you want, but it should be a very distinct pause, don’t blink and come back up, really count like, one Mississippi, two Mississippi. And then, squatting with that 30-pound dumbbell is going to feel heavier, ’cause you have more time under a tension, you were holding that load longer. So pauses, a slow eccentric.

0:12:00.0 Kim Schlag: The eccentric is the muscle lengthening part of an exercise, depending on… For many exercises that is the down portion, the lowering portion, it’s not for all. For a squat, it is the lowering, for a lunge, it is the lowering, for a deadlift, it is the lowering, for a row, it is lowering, and for like a lat pull-down, it’s actually gonna be the raising part, so the part where your arms are getting straight, but the eccentric is the muscle lengthening piece, so you can emphasize that piece. So again, let’s go back to our goblet squat. On the way down, as you’re just coming down, you can come down for a very slow count, you could do a count of three or a count of five really slowly, and then back up with power and speed. That, again, is gonna make that 30-pound dumb bell you said you have a lot heavier, that literally doesn’t get heavier, but it’s going to feel heavier, it’s going to tax your muscles more.

0:12:49.9 Kim Schlag: Another option, adding an extra half rep. You can do this again with many movements. For the squat, what that would look like is coming all the way down to the bottom of your squat, coming up halfway, going back down to the bottom, and then standing all the way up, and all of that is rep one, okay? All the way down, half way up, all the way down, all the way up, adding an extra half rep. Love doing those. And then the last technique I would suggest to you is, doing something called constant tension reps. In a squat example, what this would look like, you would come all the way down to the bottom, so you are gonna get full range of motion, at the bottom, then you’re gonna come back up, but before you lock out at the top, when you think about the top of a squat where you lock out, you stand straight up, you’re not over-arching your back, but you’re standing straight up, and you give your glutes that nice little squeeze, your hips are fully extended, okay, not over-extended, but fully extended, you’re not gonna get to that position, you’re gonna stop short of that.

0:13:42.3 Kim Schlag: So you go all the way down, you come back up but you stop short of that lock out, and you come back down, and you just keep, kind of like a piston, up and down, up and down, staying away from that top end motion where you lock out. That’s called constant tension. So that’s another technique you can use to make that 30 pound weight feel heavier. You can also use more unilateral movements, so doing one legged-things. So doing a single leg RDL. That’s gonna make better use of that 30 pounds than doing with two legs. Doing Bulgarian split squats instead of a goblet squat. Again, that’s going to be… You could hold a 30 pound weight in each hand, if you can even do that, right? And that will be harder than holding it and doing a squat, holding the weight with two legs. Obviously you hold the weight with two legs. You know what I mean. [chuckle] Squatting with two legs. So, using unilateral movements more is a really good way to make use of lighter weights.

0:14:45.8 Kim Schlag: Obviously, you can increase your reps. That works to a point. You still wanna take your reps close to failure, and you don’t wanna be doing so many reps that it’s going to make your workout be super long, or that it’s just ridiculously light. But you can certainly increase your reps, you just wanna make sure you’re working close to that failure point. Alright, that is my best advice for you. The other thing you can do is scrounge around and look for heavier items. A lot of people did this during lockdowns. One of the smartest things I heard my coach suggest that people do this, and I started suggesting a really great idea, go to a store like Home Depot or Lowes and buy sandbags. You can buy them in varying increments, bring them home, and put them in duffel bags, so you could get several sandbags and stack them together and make them heavier, okay? So, looking for heavier items around the house. That’s my best advice for you. Over the long term, still gonna need to find yourself a way to get access to a heavier weight, but you can use these techniques in the meantime while you’re doing that.

0:15:46.6 Kim Schlag: Alright, moving on to our next question. This question: “I’ve lost 97 pounds, but I struggle to keep it off. I am feeling defeated. Any advice?” First of all, can we just take a second to realize how difficult the thing is that you achieved. Losing 97 pounds is a struggle. Holy cow! That is a lot of hard work, that’s a lot of hard work. Really, that does not come easily. That was not a fluke. You can absolutely figure out a way to maintain this weight. Let’s talk about it a bit. It’s important to note, it is easier for a person to maintain a certain weight, never having dieted down to that weight, as opposed to a person who was much heavier and then dieted down to that weight, it is harder for that person to maintain, so keep that in mind. That should not be disempowering. It’s not like, “Oh great, now I can never maintain this.” You can. One thing I would say that you should really do is evaluate whether it is an appropriate weight for you to maintain at?

0:16:47.9 Kim Schlag: Look, I could diet myself down to 115, 112 pounds. I can tell you for a fact, I’ve been… The lowest I got was 119 when I was very… I was fit. Like, I’ve been lower than that and super not fit when I was much, much younger, like a teenager, but as a grown woman who worked hard, built muscle, the lowest I got down to a few years ago was 119. I did not like the lifestyle that I needed to maintain that weight. It was not maintainable for me. It meant not indulging hardly at all, ever, in the foods I liked. It was incredibly difficult for me to maintain that weight. So that for me is a no-go. I don’t want the lifestyle that goes with that weight. So that’s a question to ask yourself. Do you want the lifestyle that goes with the weight you’re trying to maintain? I have no idea where you started and what your weight is now, and what your activity level is, and how tall you are, and how old you are, and all these factors, I have no idea. But give that some consideration.

0:17:46.8 Kim Schlag: Do I want the lifestyle that comes along with maintaining this weight? And maybe maintaining it five pounds higher or 10 pounds higher, you’re still gonna like that look, but you’re gonna feel more comfortable in your life. Is that a good trade-off for you? The next thing I would say is to consider the habits that you have. Are they supporting you in keeping your weight off? I again have no information from you on how you lost this weight. You could have done a crazy crash diet, and you could have done Optavia. I can never say if I’m telling… Know if I’m saying that word right. You know, where you’re just… You’re living off their little packages, and it’s 800, 900 calories a day, and you’re not exercising, maybe that’s what you did. And now you have not built a whole host of habits that actually lend to keeping weight off. You haven’t done that. And so, now is the time to do that. And you can absolutely do that.

0:18:34.0 Kim Schlag: So what kind of habits am I talking about? Things like strength training. Are you doing it? Do you have a consistent strength training program, minimum two times a week, ideally, at least three times, three or four times a week, strength training with progression, are you doing that? What is your daily movement like? Are you a sedentary person who just switched up their diet, or did you add movement into your life? If you did not, now is the time, or if you just didn’t add very much, now is the time. Getting up to minimal, like 6500, that’s a really good place to be. And you can even go higher. You can go 7000, 7500, you can go up 10,000, 12,000. There’s no reason to go higher than that.

0:19:13.5 Kim Schlag: So adding some daily movement maybe. Are you eating vegetables at most meals, are you eating protein at every meal, are you are having non-food fun? All of your entertainment? All your down time all of the things you look forward to, are they all associated with foods? Are all of your hobbies associated with foods? If so, this is part of a lifestyle change that needs to be made. If everything that you look forward to doing with your loved ones revolves around food, that is an issue for weight maintenance. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy good food with your loved ones, you absolutely can and should. You don’t need my permission to do that, but if you wanna keep this weight off, finding things you can do with them that don’t involve food, and it could be a million different things, you could play yard games. I love playing KanJam with my family. So it can be like, a yard game, it could be going for a walk, it could be like, “Hey, we like to go to museums.” it could be, “We like to go for bike rides.”

0:20:08.8 Kim Schlag: It could be swimming, it could be doing puzzles, it could be all kinds of different things, but it shouldn’t revolve around food. Okay, so that’s something to really think about and to tackle. And doesn’t have to be family, like if you could be single and be like, “Hey, my friend group, like everything we do revolves around drinking and food,” I’ve had clients with that issue and they have literally had to change their friend group. They have that or had to… Some of them changed their friend group, some of them said to their friends like, “Hey, can we start doing some hiking instead of just going to the bar?” And sometimes your friends will be open to that and sometimes they won’t, and that’s a clue as to who best fits into your life. Not all friends are meant for all stages of our lives. And I know that can be hard to hear, but if you value being active and not drinking every weekend and your friends just wanna drink every weekend, that’s not a great fit, and that’s something that you need to address. Again, it’s not always about the food, these are big, important, fundamental lifestyle changes. And then another big one is emotional eating, is that something that you have tackled yet or did you kind of brush that under the rug and, again, do some kind of not sustainable diet or just to diet, even if you are calorie counting, but you just didn’t address any of these issues? It’s something to be addressed.

0:21:24.4 Kim Schlag: Look at your emotional eating, how do you handle it? What ways do you have to cope with stress that don’t involve food? I have a great video on stress eating and overcoming that on, my YouTube channel Kim Schlag Fitness, you can look there. And of course if you’re listening to this before March 29, you can get in on my free webinar, I’m doing a free webinar Monday, March 29th, two sessions, and if you come live, if you actually show up live to the webinar, not just get the replay, you can get for free, a copy of the workbook I made for my clients called end emotional eating and it works you through step by step what to do to overcome emotional eating, it’s not a quick process, this is not like, “Oh, do these three things and you have fixed it,” but I will give you the tools that over time, you will be able to switch from being a person who was an emotional eater to being a person who has other ways of managing their stress or their loneliness or their boredom.

0:22:20.2 Kim Schlag: Okay. So I hope that that has helped. I know it’s a really big struggle, and again, congratulations on losing that weight, you can absolutely conquer the second hurdle, which is how the heck do I keep it off? Alright, next question. Help for PMS cravings, they are ruining my deficit. Okay, a couple of things you can do here. The number one thing I would say that you can do is to try to anticipate this happening, okay, if you struggle with PMS cravings, it’s likely not a surprise to you, right? You know that it’s gonna happen, you’re just not thinking about doesn’t… This is funny, ladies, how many years we’ve been living with this, and how many of us are like, we’re acting crazy, we’re saying stupid things, we’re so touchy? It’s not until our period comes and we’re like, “Oh right. That’s why I thought everybody hates me and the world was ending yesterday. Oh yes, there it is.” Why do we do that? Why do you do that? Now, if you are in perimenopause, you might have the struggle of, I don’t know when the freak I’m gonna get my period. I never know. I have a tracker, I would suggest you get an app, I use an app, and for me, it is still you just don’t know, I’ll go six or seven months without having a period, and I will tell you sometimes during those periods, even though I don’t get a period, I still have the PMS.

0:23:34.8 Kim Schlag: And it’s really hard to pick out, and usually it’s when I get a whole conglomeration of symptoms like everybody’s bugging me. The world is ending. I’m super tired, I start getting really bad headaches, I’m craving things, and after a few days like that, I’m like, “Ah, yes, this is clearly hormonal, and then I still look at my period.” So if you are in that situation, I feel for you, I know it’s hard, still keep trying to keep track of that, what is your conglomeration of symptoms so that you can be like, “Ah, that’s what this is.” If you are somebody who has a regular cycle, amazing, that is a really good knowledge for you, keep that on your calendar, I have some clients who keep that on our shared Google doc where we track their calories so they can anticipate, “Oh, this is the week I’m definitely gonna struggle with my calories, this is definitely the week I’m gonna be struggling with cravings, so I’ll tell you some more things you can do about that in a second.

0:24:20.4 Kim Schlag: So that is number one. Anticipate it, the app I use is called My Period Tracker, but there are tons of them. You don’t have to get that one. I like that one. So knowing it is coming is really powerful stuff that is helpful to anticipate like, “Okay, I’m going to be craving more,” and then you can prepare, “What am I gonna do?” One of the things I do, I just freaking go to bed. I go to bed earlier. If I’m craving food and I’m exhausted and it’s PMS week and you know what? Just go to bed. There’s just no… If you skip the television shows, you can tell your kids, guys, I’m going to bed early tonight goodnight, if you have little ones, that might be harder, but if they’re old enough to be like, “Fine,” better if your husband can take over or your partner can take over. Great, that’s a big one, I would say, is just go to bed. Keeping sweets out of your immediate environment during that time is so crucial, even if typically you can keep a bag with many Snickers in your cupboard and you’re like, “I can just dole out one a day,” and when your period comes, if that’s not the case, if you’re like, I’m eating them by the handful, then that’s not necessarily a good strategy for you, so let’s get those out of there, don’t keep them at home.

0:25:25.8 Kim Schlag: It doesn’t mean you can’t still eat Snickers, you’ll just go out and get them, so if you decide like, “You know what? I’m craving the Snickers, go out, go to the 7-Eleven, buy yourself a single Snickers bar, it can be a full size one, they’re like, what? 250, 275 calories, eat it and be happy. You’ll come home and eat it, don’t eat it at the store and then buy another one, so that portion control is really, really useful.

0:25:47.4 Kim Schlag: Something you might not have thought of that might feel really counter-intuitive and you might be like, “Ooh, I don’t know if I wanna do that,” I will tell you this works really well. I have done it with a handful of clients. Not everybody wants to do it or needs to do it, but it can work very well, and that is purposely upping your calories during the week that you have PMS. It works especially well if you are on a very regular cycle. You know, “Okay, I’m going to up my calories to maintenance this week.” What it helps you to do is actually be at maintenance rather than in a surplus, because if you try and be in a deficit and you’re white knuckling it and you’re just not being successful at it, and you’re having a lot of cravings, and then you’re going well over your maintenance calories, isn’t it better to stay at your maintenance calories? You’re not gonna lose any progress. You’re gonna stay right where you are. You still have the other three weeks of the month to be in a deficit. So that is something I would consider giving a go.

0:26:34.7 Kim Schlag: And then the last thing I would suggest is adding some more dietary fat. I have read some things and I wish… I don’t have anything to quote for you, I wish I did, I don’t know where I put it… That upping your dietary fat when you were having these PMS cravings can actually help. This isn’t the weird kind of stuff. You know I totally hate those posts. There’s one I have that I saved, it’s really dumb, “If you’re craving chocolate, you should eat… ” and it gives you some weird combination of foods, and the one I have saved somewhere, it’s like, “If you’re craving chocolate, you should eat rabbit.” First of all, where the heck am I getting a rabbit? [chuckle] I don’t want rabbit, I want some chocolate. So I’m not saying that, but absolutely if you’re a person who is typically a little bit lower on fat, bump up your fat, you bump up your calories through fat and see if that helps with the cravings in that way. So a whole host of things you can do. I know it can be a really… It can feel really out of control at that time, so going into it with a strategy, going into it with a plan, going into it knowing, like, “Ah, here it comes,” is much more empowering than feeling at the will of your hormones.

0:27:36.7 Kim Schlag: Alright, I believe this next one is my last question here… Yes. Alright, this one says, “I don’t know where to start with exercise. I am really out of shape.” I actually made a post about this yesterday. I think I got started writing that post because I’d written this question down to answer here on the podcast today. Such a good question and I want you to know, no matter how out of shape you are, fitness is for you, exercise is for you, and it should meet you literally where you are. You don’t have to achieve some level of fitness to feel worthy to step into a gym. You can just start where you’re at, and any coach worth their salt is gonna be able to help do that. There’s just no question about it. If they can’t meet you where you are, that isn’t the problem, the problem is with them, not with you. Let’s say you’re like, “I’m not getting a coach yet. Okay, what can I do?”

0:28:27.9 Kim Schlag: The number one thing I would say to do is start moving more. Start walking. And maybe for you what that means is you literally make a goal to walk for five minutes after every meal every day, and that’s it. Then do that for a week. Maybe two weeks. Once you’re like, “Okay… “And you don’t have to go fast. This doesn’t have to be a fast thing, a sweaty thing, a get my heart rate up thing. It can just be moving. You don’t have to put on special clothes to do it, just put on some comfortable shoes and go for a slow walk. Five minutes, five minutes, then maybe you could up it to 10 minutes. Increase that over time. Eventually, you can create a step goal for yourself and say like, “You know what, I’m gonna get a thousand steps a day.” And then sometime when that feels really comfy, “I’m gonna get 1500 steps a day. I’m gonna get 2000 steps a day.” And before you know it, you’re a person who moves, and that’s gonna feel really, really good.

0:29:16.3 Kim Schlag: Then as far as getting into strength training, if you’re very apprehensive about this, my number one piece of advice is to get an in-person coach, or at least a friend who knows what they’re doing, and have them walk you through it. And if you’re like, “Ooh, that’s more money that I can handle regularly,” just get somebody for a session or two, or like I said, get a friend who knows more than you do. A person only needs to be a few steps ahead of you to get you started. If you’re like still, “No, don’t know anybody. I don’t have the money,” watch my YouTube videos. Go to my YouTube, look at my tutorials, look for ones on the squat, look for ones on push-ups. Don’t worry, there’s a push-up variety for you, I promise. Look for my hip hinging drills, look for my glute bridge tutorial. Watch those and give them a try.

0:30:00.9 Kim Schlag: You can do them in your own home. Watch the video, try the movement, try the variety that I say like, “Hey, if you’re just starting, do this,” and do it, and just practice that. You can just go through the motions for a few times and then you can set yourself up a little program and do three sets of 10 of each of those exercises. So do body weight squats, hand elevated push-ups, do the hip hinging drills until you nail those, and then turn those into a Romanian deadlift, and do a glute bridge.

0:30:28.9 Kim Schlag: Do those things, and if you feel like you can add one more, add on a row. You might not have any weights at home, so if you do or just grab something heavy and do a row. That is what I would suggest for you to get started and again, you can do this. Everyone is capable of doing those things. Look, if you sit down into a chair and get up every day, guess what you just did? You did a squat. You do. When you sit down on your chair, and you stand back up, you did a squat, so you can do it. There’s no reason you can’t. I know it feels intimidating. It feels like people are just ahead of you and like, “Who am I to be doing this?” You know who you are? You’re a person with a body who deserves to be healthy, and you can do it. You can absolutely do it. All right, and reach out to me any time for help with those things, I hope these question-answers have helped for you today. Hit me up if there’s any other questions I can help you with. Always happy to get you on here to chat, and thank you for listening and spending your time with me. I do not take lightly that you spend your time here with me each week. Thanks so much. Catch you next time.

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0:31:38.8 Kim Schlag: Thanks so much for being here and listening in to the Fitness Simplified podcast today. I hope you found it educational, motivational, inspirational, all the kinds of -ational.

If you enjoyed it, if you found value in it, it would mean so much to me, if you would go ahead and leave a rating and review on whatever platform you are listening to this on. It really does help to get this podcast to other people. Thanks so much.

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