Fitness, Strength & Resilience for Women 40+ with Kary Odiatu

This transcript has been generated using AI technology. There may be errors or discrepancies in the text. The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding your specific health needs.

Susan Sly: 00:00

Well, hello, and welcome to this episode of the Menopause Health Podcast. And you know, here's the thing—we know we need to exercise, and you're already like, Oh my gosh, do I really want to listen to this episode? We need to get 30 minutes of movement in every single day. And according to the CDC, about 20% of women actually do get 30 minutes of exercise a day.

We know all the benefits. We know it will help our heart, our mindset. There's so much research on just daily exercise in terms of things like preventing dementia, and yet so often, women don't get the exercise in. And my guest today is a world-renowned fitness trainer. She is just absolutely incredible. As a former competitive athlete, she's a best-selling author, and she's going to share with you the tips on how to get the workout in even when you don't feel like it. She's going to talk about the different exercise personalities, and you will absolutely love her.

Before I bring her out, a couple of quick things. You know, every single day, I am running a million miles an hour, just like many of you, and I still have one child at home. I've got three other kids, but it doesn't stop just because they're not living at my house. And running a business, volunteering my time, and all of the things that go into life—and one of the things that helps me get through life and saves me time is thePause™ app.

I use the app to be accountable—checking my box that I did my workout, making sure I send gratitude messages. And we know that for women going through menopause, consistently drinking alcohol raises the risk of almost every kind of cancer. So I go in and check off that I didn’t have alcohol that day. I also use Harmoni™, our AI agent. I’ve used her when I have been just looking to get a workout tip—What can I do in 20 minutes?—to I’m literally having some anxiety right now. And she’s absolutely amazing.

thePause™ app is available in the App Store. Samsung on the Play Store is coming very, very soon. Right now, it's only $3.99 a month. And as the founder of the company, I’ll share that it wasn’t free to build the technology. So, you know, we charge $3.99 a month as an introductory offer—$29.99 for a year. And the thing I’ll say about the app is we’re getting rave reviews. One of my friends reached out to me, and she’s like, Susan, even that daily affirmation—she’s a single mom of four—is just so grounding. And the more I go into the app, the more value I see. So check it out—go into the App Store, or go to www.thepause.ai, and you'll see a link to get the app.

So as we go into the show today, my guest is Kary Odiatu. And you could see her on Instagram and say, Wow. You know, this girl is fit. She’s got zero body fat. She’s absolutely beautiful. She must, my gosh, have a team of personal trainers, plastic surgeons, you name it. But you couldn’t be further from the truth.

Kary is a single mom. She had her last child when she was 45, so at age 55, she has four kids at home. Her youngest one is turning 10, and she also had her child die in her arms when he was eight years old. And you’re going to hear from a woman who is looking at fitness as a way to build resilience, who is devoting her career to helping women 40-plus live their healthiest, best lives ever. And she’s going to give you real tips from a real woman to get that workout in—regardless of whether you don’t like working out, you love working out, your body is changing, whatever’s going on.

So with that, let’s go ahead and get started with this episode of the Menopause Health Podcast.

Voiceover: 04:25

The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding your specific health needs.

Voiceover: 04:50

Welcome to the Menopause Health Podcast—your go-to resource for practical advice brought to you by credentialed health professionals and industry experts. Here’s your host, Susan Sly.

Susan Sly: 05:06

Well, Kary, first and foremost, welcome to the Menopause Health Podcast. And you know, anyone who follows you on social media, they see this woman who is, like, fit, gorgeous, like, will throw in a catsuit now and again. I mean, like, seriously. And the reality is, what they don't know is you're a single mom to four kids. You still have kids at home. You're 55 years old, and sometimes, whether it's eating healthy, getting the workout in—it is messy. And I know people who listen to the show, they want those real tips. They want to know. So...

Susan Sly: 05:43

How do you structure your day so you can get your workout in? And you might have sick kids at home, lots of stuff going on.

Kary Odiatu: 05:52

Yeah, you're not kidding. And just to give that a frame as well—exercise must be great for fertility, Susan, because I tell you, I had two kids in my 40s, the last one at 45. So I’m 55, but I have a kid turning 10, so it's a busy home. It's a busy home.

I'm navigating menopause now and dealing with four kids. The eldest is only 18, so they're all here, and there are a lot of different dynamics in the house with university, high school, and elementary age. So for me, it's a lot about mindset and then taking action on the mindset—knowing what needs to be done. And you really have to change that mindset as you get older and you enter menopause, because a lot of us were doing fitness for short-term reasons when we were younger, right?

I wanted to look good for contests. I competed all over the world, representing Canada. So for me, it was the stage—I had to get ready for the stage. I wasn’t thinking much beyond that. I had to get ready for the stage. I wanted to get ready for the beach. I wanted to get ready for the summer, for the reunion, for the party—those were my goals.

Now, at this point in life, where the stage is well behind me for competing, I'm getting ready for other things, and I think people need to get clear on that. So if there was a first piece of advice, it would be to sit down with a journal—maybe it's a vision board, your diary—and get clear on why. Why you need to take action with your health and wellness at this point in your life, right now.

And for me, it’s about mobility. It’s about staying independent as an active older adult. It’s about being nimble as I maneuver around the Canadian snow when I walk my dog. It’s about having confidence at this age to come on a podcast, because I’m feeling good in my skin. I’m enjoying who I am and where I’m at.

I don’t want to be falling and breaking bones at this point in my life. So my goals are different now, and I think every woman needs to take a reassessment. Because I’m still talking to a lot of women about, you know, why they want to lose weight, and they will still say things about their mirror and their scales, and, you know, they have a class reunion or a daughter’s wedding to go to or something. And I’m saying, We need to reframe this, and we need to start looking further ahead.

Susan Sly: 08:22

And I love that with the mindset piece, Kary, because something you said—I’ve never really thought about it that way before. You and I were athletes, right? So workouts had a focus.

And for the listeners who don’t know, I was a professional triathlete for a while. And so Sunday was the endurance workout—there was like 10 hours of training. I swam, I biked, I ran. And then Tuesday and Thursday were intervals—intervals running, intervals biking, and all these things. So all of my workouts had a purpose.

The first purpose wasn’t about looking skinny. The first purpose was functional. Am I strong? Am I fast? What is my endurance like? Right? And I think for me, in my 50s, I look at my workouts differently from the mindset standpoint, because I still put in the interval workouts. I still like to do races. But for me, the mindset around listening to my body and going, You know, I don’t necessarily feel like a certain kind of workout today, so I’m gonna go hiking, or I’m gonna go do yoga.

How has that shifted for you? And I want to speak to—you know, we know in the United States, 80% of women don’t even get 30 minutes of exercise a day. We know that 70% of American women, about 65% of Canadian women, are overweight and obese.

So we know that there’s a whole cohort of women listening who are like, I don’t like to work out. We’ll talk to you in a minute. I want you to speak right now to the people like us who were athletes, who struggle because their bodies are changing. They can’t push themselves like they used to. So how did you shift your mindset around that?

Kary Odiatu: 10:10

That took a little bit of time, because as I was going into perimenopause, I think I was feeling more of the symptoms you would typically associate with the whole menopause transition.

I 100% believe that good nutrition and exercise have helped me a lot because I haven’t had, you know, a lot of complaints—like with the hot flashes or getting up at night. My sleep is still good. But the little things, right? Like, I can no longer go and do backflips and train gymnastics. And I was doing it up until age 49. But you have to shift.

You have to, at some point, recognize that maybe it’s time to honor this vessel that I’ve been given. And I don’t need to push it to the limits in this way. But how can I challenge myself in another way?

So I took a really deep look at what I needed most in my life right now. And I know for most women at this age—especially if you're dealing with, you know, your children maybe getting older now, they’re driving, they’re going off to university, maybe you’re an empty nester, or you now have parents that are at the end of life.

I lost my mother in: 2020

But does that mean you’re right off the wagon? No. It means we get back up and do what we need to do and what we can do where we are.

ad lost my firstborn child in: 2013

Because you lose a bit of your identity when you give up things that you associated with who you are—which for me was my competing. Now what?

I knew that for me—and for most menopausal women—by the time you hit 50, you’ve suffered through something, right? Whether it’s divorce, breakup, something with a kid, or, like I said, the aging parents, stress, loss of a job—we’ve all dealt with stress. And that is the biggest killer right now.

So for me, I thought, Okay, instead of training for the stage for fitness, I am now training to be calm, centered, and resilient. Because life is going to keep kicking my legs out from under me. That’s inevitable.

Exercise trains me to be stress-resilient. And I know that’s why I was able to deal with having a medically fragile son for eight years of my life—because I had so much resilience built up from the hard training I did and all the accomplishments in the gym that I was able to take that energy and put it towards taking care of my child.

So of course, my health, my energy, my working out was not the same at all. If I could squeeze in a 20-minute walk during that time, it was like, Thank God.

So now, for me, over the past couple of years, it’s been to reset my nervous system—to make sure that stress is, you know, as minimal as possible, as far as what it’s doing to me.

Stress is always going to be there, but how can I be better prepared to deal with it?

So that meant I had to go back to yoga. I liked yoga when I was younger. I did it a bit. I was in gymnastics—yoga wasn’t fast enough. Now, I love it.

And so then I thought, Well, how can I challenge myself a little bit with this so that it’s exciting for me? Well, let’s go get a yoga teacher training, right? So I signed up for that, and it just gives me that focus, and it forces me to do the yoga—which maybe isn’t as exciting as the backflips and the gymnastics, but it’s given me something to focus on, and there’s a goal there to complete the training, right?

So focusing on things that will be good for me where I’m at right now.

Yoga was one. Breathwork was another. Meditation and guided visualization were another.

And then changing how I train in the gym. So I’m not going in there right now to bust down muscle tissue every day. Once in a while, yes. But most of the time, it’s to get that flood of endorphins—the serotonin, the oxytocin—all those feel-good hormones that are the hormones of healing and growth, the growth factors, right?

So I train hard enough that I can feel it, right? But I’m not training so hard that I’m breaking down and having to, you know, spend so much energy on recovery and repair—which we were doing as athletes.

That’s been some of the major changes for me.

Susan Sly: 15:06

I love that—shifting the focus to resilience and really thinking about what that looks like.

And this morning, I had come back from a run. Kary, my neighbor—who walks every single day—she’s like, Wow, you’re still running? And I’m like, Yeah, I’ve been running since I was 11, so 41 years.

And she’s like, What about your knees? What about your hips?

And I said, Listen, anyone who’s run as long as I have—if they want to do it, they have to be stretching. I go to acupuncture. I do yoga, you know, three, four, five times a week. And I do the foam roller. I don’t like it, but I do it.

Like, I have that love-hate relationship with that damn foam roller. I see it, and I’ve got the knobby one, Kary—it’s not nice. But I do it, for very different reasons. And I know, and I gauge my body.

So a lot of what my workouts center around are stress management—really around How adaptable? How resilient can I be as I’m going through the day as a CEO?

Another example—last night, I was like, It’d be really great to have a glass of wine. But instead, I got on the treadmill, and I power-walked for an hour. That’s what I did, right?

Because when we start to identify what our triggers are—and that’s, you know, transitioning to people who don’t want to work out into Why we do a behavior that’s destructive?—including choosing not to get 30 minutes of exercise in a day.

We have these triggers, and we aren’t doing the most healthy things.

So, what would you say to someone who’s in that 80% who’s like, I don’t have the time. I don’t have the energy. I just don’t want to do it?

Kary Odiatu: 16:59

I love this because this is something—it’s one of my favorite conversations to have with someone. And I wait for it to come up—like no time, or lucky you, or must be nice. I love this part of the conversation.

So first of all, I tell people, We need to, first of all, flip that time script. Because a lot of people say, I don’t have the time or the energy.

And I’ll say, When did you feel the most energetic in your life?

And they go, Oh, back when I was doing this and doing that.

So we know that exercise gives us energy, but in the moment, we perceive that we don’t have enough to get going.

So I tell people, You have the same amount of time as everyone else, and you’re not going to find more time. Twenty-four hours in a day is all we have. But we’re going to have to make time for this.

Because the Mayo Clinic even says, you know, you can increase your lifespan by about seven years—around seven years—if you exercise. Your BDNF—like, your brain...

Susan Sly: 18:04

Seven healthy years, no—like...

Kary Odiatu: 18:06

Quality, yeah—quality years.

The executive functioning, the ability to make decisions, the ability to learn new information, retain it, and then be able to...

And I find a lot of women our age are maybe building a side business, so I need to bring in things that matter to them.

So what really matters?

I like to find out, you know, What do you like to do? What matters to you? What are some activities you do every day, without fail?

Like one lady told me, I can’t go to bed or end my day or watch my TV until my kitchen is clean. It’s just a rule.

And I said, Well, how about you don’t get to clean that kitchen until you’ve put in at least 15 to 20 minutes of physical activity?

I don’t care if it’s a walk after dinner, if it’s some Dynabands around your exercise stairs, if it’s a videotape that you watch, if it’s your yoga mat out on the floor, some push-ups and air squats.

Let’s start stacking behaviors a little bit so that, A) we can find something that you can identify as, Oh, I can’t clean my kitchen until I put in my 15–20 minutes.

Because I know that girl is cleaning her kitchen because that is her line in the sand. I don’t do anything until my kitchen’s clean—that’s when I hit into my evening routine.

So I find behaviors that people will do, and I try to attach some kind of physical fitness—or benefit of physical fitness—to things that are important in people’s lives.

So think—what means a lot to you?

And if it’s your friendships—maybe you have friends, and you really enjoy people, and you’re a social butterfly—well, we need to find a fitness activity for you that’s going to fulfill those needs so that you can get your needs met with being around people.

But maybe you need to attend an exercise class—like, that person is not going to have success with exercising in their basement, right?

So let’s find something for you.

And what is your exercise personality like? Do you like to be alone? Do you want to be yelled at by a trainer? Do you want a class? Do you want slow? Fast?

So usually, we can find something that’s going to help fulfill some needs when I figure out what a person’s personality is like.

So there are a lot of little tricks you can do and a lot of ways that you can stack.

For me, I always think—I go to the gym, and it takes care of so many needs.

I get to the gym, and I’m taking care of, literally, my spiritual needs—like, the gym is where I do a lot of what I might call visualization, meditation, gratitude.

What somebody else might say is prayer—maybe they go to a church—but I’m doing it at the gym.

So it’s just a give and take, like, Where are you going?

I have a friend that goes to church every day. I’m like, I go to the gym every day.

And at the gym, I pray, and I’m grateful, and I’m going over those things while I’m physically exercising.

I like to do positive affirmations for myself.

I like to come up with creative ideas at the gym.

I allow myself—I don’t wear earbuds with music. I literally sit there and let the noise of the gym, or whatever, go around me, and I think about something I need to solve or something I want to create.

And I start to get really good floods of ideas at the gym—because those hormones that are coming are going to happen.

So I think of the gym as a happy place—a place where I get to spiritually feel good, where I get to affirm, You know what? I’m a badass. I’m successful. I’m powerful.

And I’m doing that while I’m exercising—I’m talking really positive talk to myself while I’m exercising.

It’s a place where I can have a bit of community, right?

So I’ve got the people that I like to say hi to and chat with, and I’ve just got so much belief and so many positive associations with that time in my day that it’s almost a no-brainer for me.

But I do have my times when it’s not something I want to do.

Like you said—you wanted to go have that glass of wine, you know?

That’s when you really have to dig deep.

And you’ve got to have a bigger goal and a bigger purpose, or it’s not going to happen.

You’re going to have the wine.

Susan Sly: 21:57

Absolutely. And that—and the cause and effect, right? And knowing, If I’m going to play a big game in life, right? And you and I are here to play a big game in life.

And I know how I’m going to feel the next day because it’s that domino effect, right?

And so I have to be selective and say, Okay, if I’m choosing—you know, I’ve got a business dinner tonight—so if I’m going to choose to have a drink tonight, then I’m not getting up tomorrow morning and running intervals or whatever the case is.

I know that I have to stack to that point—stack the habits differently.

On the other side of that, you brought up something I thought was so interesting—these different exercise personas, right?

And there—you know, Shakespeare said, To thine own self be true.

So if you don’t like—I love going to my yoga class, but I don’t necessarily want to be in group exercise every day.

So one of the things I did—like, you know, I love watching CNBC in the morning, trading stocks. It’s all like—love it, love it.

So I have, you know, put up a television in my workout room, so then it’s like, I want to watch CNBC. I really want to watch CNBC. And it’s dark outside, or it’s cold outside, and I don’t feel like going outside to work out, so I’m going to get on my Peloton, and I’m going to watch CNBC, because that’s the thing that matters to me.

I want to ask you—so we see a lot of women, and they’re fabulous at getting their cardio.

They will walk on a treadmill, they’ll go walking—but they’ve got bat arms, you know? There’s no muscle tone. They’re starting to get slouchy.

They either have never been trained to lift weights, or they have this false perception that if they lift weights, they’re going to look very masculine.

And as women are going through perimenopause and menopause, their bodies are changing anyway. And they’re like, Oh, you know, I’m not necessarily feeling like myself.

Let’s talk about resistance training.

I love your videos where you make it so easy and so fun.

For the woman who’s like, I am terrified of it, but I know I need to do it—what are some easy ways that she could get started with resistance training?

Kary Odiatu: 24:18

100%.

Kary Odiatu: 24:19

I’m just going to show something—because like you said, people have this concept that I’m going to lift weights and turn into a man.

Now, I was a fitness competitor in the IFBB, and I was a natural fitness competitor before I got to the IFBB. I was in the Worlds, and I was in the natural amateur division, where we had to be drug tested by the same drug testing people that would test for the Olympics.

So, you know, people would always say, Oh, well, Kary, you still look like a woman, you know.

And most women say they want to look lean.

They want to see a little bit of abs, maybe a little bit of cut arms.

Maybe they don’t want to be this toned, and that’s fine—you don’t have to diet as hard as I did to get into that shape.

But maybe you just want to see the muscle.

So—you won’t turn into a man.

It’s only going to happen if you start taking some steroids or some other performance enhancement.

Now, like you, the amount of training I do and the amount of lifting I do—I just get compliments all the time.

And, Oh, I’d like to look like you. I’d like to look like you.

When people see how hard I’m lifting, or how heavy I’m lifting, they’re like, Oh no, maybe not so much.

So first of all, again, we need to realize that muscle is one of the quickest ways to get to those goals.

You have to be lean.

Okay, so women always say, I want to get leaner. I want to be toned.

Well, you need muscle to get lean and toned.

It’s going to speed up your results.

Okay—doing the cardio? Sure, that’s great for your heart. It’s great for your brain. It might be good for your mind, your mood.

But you need the muscle because after you leave that cardio, you’re done—like, you walk out of the gym, your body’s back to normal.

When I go and do a muscle workout, my body is still burning at a higher rate.

So my metabolism is up here because I have to repair whatever I’ve done to those muscles.

So there’s just a little shift in the thinking there—that when I do my muscle training, I’m going to get more bang for my buck at the gym.

So when you go into the gym, start with the resistance training.

Start with the resistance training.

And now, as I’ve gotten older, what I’ve done to satisfy that need to keep my heart rate up and get the endorphins flowing is I do more circuit training style.

So if I’m pushing heavy on legs today, I’m still doing things in between.

I don’t push on the leg press, then sit there on my phone for five minutes.

I push the leg press heavy—so it’s hard to get to 10, like you want it to be heavy.

And then maybe I go and do some push-ups, and maybe I do some squat jumps.

So I keep that energy up.

I keep my lungs working so that I’m getting a good workout and getting that feeling that I like from cardio, right?

Because some people are addicted to that feeling too.

So I’m getting that with my resistance training too.

And then you can squeeze your workout and compress it into a short amount of time.

I can literally go to the gym for 30–40 minutes and feel like I got some good heart benefits, health benefits, and I’ve worked a couple of muscle groups.

So maybe changing the way you train a little bit—letting a trainer know that you want to focus on having more strength, better mobility.

You want to be strong and functional—so if you fall down, you’re not going to break some bones.

We know that we increase bone strength when we work out with weights.

That’s not going to happen as much with cardio.

Pounding a little bit on the legs, of course, is good—but we want to build for the upper body, because when you fall, it’s your upper body that’s going to hit the ground, right?

So let’s think about why we’re training.

Let’s get strong so that when we fall down, we can get back up, right?

And let’s start doing exercises where you have to push and pull and squat and press.

And build in the cardio with it by doing some different fun exercises where you continue to move.

And I think that’s a really great thing for women our age to do—like circuit training style.

People see me in the gym, and I look like a rabbit because I’m moving around all the time.

But I feel the effect, and I know I have only a shorter amount of time than maybe when I was training three or four hours a day when I was younger, right?

Susan Sly: 28:12

Yeah, and having the kids at home, having—you know, your time is limited. You're an entrepreneur, you're the community fitness ambassador for thePause™. I mean, you have a lot going on.

And I just—you know, for those of you who maybe don’t have kids or don’t have kids at home, just the sheer volume of emails that come for each kid, like, it’s just—that’s a full-time job.

Go back—I am that. I am that person.

Resistance training is not my favorite. And of resistance training, I only really enjoy working back and shoulders.

I love back and shoulders. That one I’ll do.

I am that person who’s like, I’ll do my cardio first, then I’m training, and then I’m taking a break in between the sets, and I’m, like, catching up on texts and emails.

So that’s how I make myself do the resistance training.

But another one of my friends—she also uses thePause™ app and loves it—she’s super lean, she’s turning 50, and she does her resistance training in the morning, her cardio at night.

I find that by the time I get to four or five at night, I don’t have the same energy.

And so you gave some great tips about just getting it all in on limited time.

You know, your workout—circuit training in a high-intensity interval training—could be 30 minutes. It could be 40 minutes.

Even the yoga like you do, and I do the stronger style, where we’re doing push-ups and squats and stuff in the yoga—body weight resistance training—it all helps.

Now, I want to ask you—the person who’s listening, who’s like, Okay, Kary, I’m sold. I know I need to do this, but I’m really out of shape.

Where would you suggest they start?

Kary Odiatu: 30:08

Well, first of all, don’t think it’s all or nothing.

You can literally get results, and studies show even 30 minutes of resistance training done two times a week can make a difference, right?

They’ve taken seniors—so people in their 80s and 90s—put them on just 20 minutes, three times a week, and they’ve had seniors go from wheelchairs to walkers, from walkers to unassisted walking, just by 20 minutes three times a week.

Like, it’s not that you need hours on end. You just need to be focused, and you need to get started.

And if somebody’s a beginner and they’ve never done it before, they need help.

Like, I wouldn’t go and try to learn how to be a dental hygienist without going to school, right?

We need to go and get the help.

So here’s what I say, because some people are like, Oh, I don’t want to spend the money on a trainer.

And I always tell people when they’re going in to work with a trainer—tell the trainer what your goals are.

Tell the trainer how much time you have or how many days a week you’re committed or willing—maybe it’s three days a week, 30 minutes, and you’re going on your lunch hour, whatever it is.

Let them know your goals and get that trainer to train you to be independent in the gym.

Now, this is a good distinction to make.

I don’t know how many times I look around the gym and see a trainer handing dumbbells to people.

Or I see a trainer reaching over to pull the pin out of the machine and put it up a little higher, and the person’s just sitting there.

And I think to myself, That person has no clue how to properly pick up dumbbells, how to put them back down, has no clue how to change the pin in the machine.

So one piece of advice I’ve given so many people over the years—where I just see the little light bulb in their heads go off—is when you’re at the gym with the trainer, you tell the trainer that you want to be independent in the gym.

That’s one of your goals—to be able to come in here and feel comfortable with the machines and the weights.

So, Please teach me how to safely pick up the dumbbells. Teach me how to safely get them in the air, bring them back down. Teach me how to safely return them to the rack. Teach me how to switch the resistance on the machines.

That is a huge, huge thing.

If you’re worried about being tied to a trainer for the next 10 years of your life—you do not have to be.

Within three to four months of going, you will know what to do.

Now, another thing you could do, which is another tip I’ve given people—sign up for a personal training course.

You don’t ever have to be a personal trainer, but why not go take one?

Find out if there’s anybody or any certification plan in your area, near your area, where you can go and do the personal training portion of the course, where they take you around the gym, and you’re actually learning.

Like, it’s kind of fun.

So, like, my goal of taking my yoga teacher training, right?

To make me more interested in yoga.

And now I love yoga.

I’m like, Wow, there’s so much more to it than what I thought when I just went to this one class.

Now, I’m learning so much and so many different styles.

So if you go and take a personal training course, you’ll be forced to go.

It will be something that you’re going to complete.

And you can pat yourself on the back, and you will know how to train yourself.

That is the best—you know, the best person you could be training is yourself.

And there are so many resources out there now, too, if somebody just even wants to get started at home.

I mean, there’s not really an excuse when you can go to YouTube now and you can put in something like body weight resistance for seniors—and you’ll get some safe, effective exercises with videos showing you how to be safe and effective for yourself.

So there’s not really any excuses.

And, you know, I always say no excuses—there’s no excuse not to take action on something you know will give you so many benefits.

And there aren’t many things in life that are going to give you as many benefits, I think, as resistance training will give a human body—whether it’s your brain, your heart, your health, your strength, your mobility, your flexibility, your mindset, how you feel after, your energy.

It’s just got one of the biggest payouts.

Susan Sly: 34:14

Yeah, I love that you said payouts, because, you know, if you think about it—if we went on any of the online savings calculators, and you showed, like, If you save $25 a month, and you start at age 18, by the time you’re 65, you have millions of dollars because of the compound interest—the same thing is true of our bodies.

And I love that you brought up that study and that research—women starting resistance training in their 80s and 90s.

Because if someone said, Okay, if you invested 20 minutes, three times a week, and you knew that when you got to 90 years old, you would still be living independently—you would not be in a walker, you wouldn’t be in a wheelchair—would you do it?

And so many people keep pushing it off and pushing it off and pushing it off—until they fall, until they wake up one day and they’re like, Oh, I can’t get out of bed, or whatever the case is.

And you and I know a lot of people who do just cardio, cardio, cardio.

And it’s great—you’re in your 50s, you do it in your 60s.

But then in your late 70s, you’re like—you’re that person who’s in the walker, right? Or using the walker.

Kary, final tips for everyone.

I love these tips, and they need to come into thePause™ AI Facebook group, because you’re in there every day giving nutrition tips, fitness tips.

They can ask you questions.

But what are your final tips for everyone listening?

Kary Odiatu: 35:43

Well, here’s another good one with resistance training too.

So say you’re just getting started, and you’re like, Oh, I don’t know where to start.

Maybe you go online, and you start looking things up.

Here’s what I would do for a program.

So if you want some specific tips about exercise—your goal in a week is to get your whole body trained.

So say I only have twice in a week.

I can go Monday and Thursday.

Then maybe I want a whole-body circuit Monday and Thursday—so I’m getting my whole body done.

So maybe I do a leg and all the big movers, right?

So I’m going to do a leg exercise, a push exercise, a pull for back, push for shoulders.

And when you do back and shoulders, you also get your arms, right?

And if you do chest—so you’re pushing for chest—your arms are getting worked out.

So if you can cover all those bases twice a week, that’s a good start.

Say you can go three times a week—20 to 30 minutes.

I don’t know about you, Susan, but you probably remember the old book Body for Life by Bill Phillips?

Yeah.

Like, that workout in that book has never failed to give good results.

If you’re looking for something new or something to do, and you have a limited amount of time and you want to get the most impact—

So say you can go three times a week.

You go upper body, lower body, upper body.

And you just repeat.

So now the next week, you’re going to get lower, upper, lower.

So one week, you’ll have two upper body, one lower.

The next week, two lower, one upper.

It’s brilliant.

And it’s a great little workout.

There—Body for Life.

Old book—you can get it for cheap on Amazon.

So that’s a specific tip on working out—just, you know, upper body, lower body, or full body, depending on what you can start with.

And then the last tip I’m going to say is—self-care is not selfish.

Self-care is not selfish.

And one of the biggest reasons people would give me—especially women—other than time, is they would feel guilty.

Guilty to take care of themselves because they thought it was taking away from family, maybe friends—mostly family, kids.

They’re taking care of their parents.

I don’t—there’s no time for me, because I gotta do this, and I gotta do that, and I gotta work.

So, Taking care of me is selfish.

And that is a big shift.

I think—you know, I always joked around and said, A man will not drive away from the house and worry about whether or not the baby’s diaper is getting changed, or the dog’s getting fed, or the plants are watered.

The woman will drive away from the house, and, you know, it’s nonstop. It’s never-ending.

And I think we need to shift into a little bit of that mindset of, Hey, I need this little chunk of time for me—for my relief of whatever stress or whatever I’m having to deal with in my life.

It’s a little bit of relief for you.

And when you take that little bit of relief and you can combine it with something you enjoy—whether it’s friends, whether it’s a supportive community like our Facebook group—

Maybe you like to listen to podcasts.

Audible has been one of my favorite things I’ve done recently.

And when I do cardio, I listen to an Audible book because I love to read, and I love knowledge, so it’s a perfect use of my time.

Instead of just sitting here and reading the book, why not ride the bike while I’m doing it, right?

So finding that—and then just realizing that self-care is not selfish.

It is the best gift you can give you.

And when you give yourself that gift, it impacts everyone in your circle.

So everybody in your circle of influence gets impacted.

Your kids are watching what you’re doing, not listening to what you’re saying.

They’re watching.

So that’s their long-term health.

It’s ingrained—Mom used to work out, and I really admired Mom for that, so maybe I should do that.

It’s, you know, that energy that you’ll have at the end of the day to go and help your mom out if she’s at that age and needs that help.

It’s going to impact everything in your life.

People will notice it.

At work, your friends will notice—everybody.

So give yourself that gift, and don’t think that self-care is selfish.

Susan Sly: 39:30

No, it is absolutely not.

And at this stage of the game, they often say midlife.

And if it really is midlife, you can’t be looking in the rearview mirror.

You have to be looking through your windshield as you’re driving toward your goals.

And you get to redefine it.

And Kary, I love everything you talked about in this episode, because it really comes down to that redefinition of reframing and, you know, opening up to the possibility that, you know, in your 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond—you can have a hotter body than maybe you ever had in your life, right?

It’s not over. It’s just beginning.

Well, Kary, thank you so much for being on the show.

Kary Odiatu: 40:09

Thank you for having me, Susan. And I hope everybody takes some action, gets inspired, takes some action, and gets out there and gets fit.

Susan Sly: 40:17

Awesome. Well, thank you Kary, again.

And for everyone listening, this has been another episode of the Menopause Health Podcast.

I would encourage you—give us a five-star review.

Share the show with all of your girlfriends, your sisters, your colleagues—everyone you know who’s 40-plus.

And go and check out our past episodes.

And if you love this episode, check out the episode with Dr. Jen Burke, Olympic team doctor.

Jen also talks about the physiological aspects of getting these workouts in.

So with that—go rock your day, and I will see you in the next episode.

Voiceover: 40:52

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This transcript has been generated using AI technology. There may be errors or discrepancies in the text. The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding your specific health needs.