Ruth Soukup: Sometimes it seems like Ozempic is everywhere these days, doesn’t it? And when your sister, or your cousin, or your neighbor down the street suddenly shows up 30 pounds lighter, it’s hard not to be tempted to jump on board. Or, maybe you’ve already started taking one of those new weight loss drugs, and even though you were initially worried about the potential side effects, you haven’t actually experienced any of the really bad ones, so maybe you figure, it’s no big deal.
Especially when even your doctor is saying it’s fine. But what if there’s something they’re not telling you? That is just one of the big topics I’m diving into today with my guest Amy Wilson. She’s a certified health and fitness coach as well as a geriatric pharmacist. Which means she brings a very unique perspective to this hot button topic.
And what she has to share today is so important for women in their forties and fifties that after listening, you might just want to share it with everyone, but I’ll let you decide.
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Hey there, and welcome back to the feel better, live free podcast. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ruth Sukup, and I’m the founder of Thinlicious and the creator of the Thin Adapted System, as well as the New York Times bestselling author of seven books. And today we’re going to be chatting with Amy K.
Wilson, whose diverse background in both health and fitness is and pharmacy makes her uniquely qualified to talk about a topic that’s on a lot of people’s minds these days, especially when it comes to losing weight. Ozempic and other similar weight loss drugs and specifically what the long term effect of taking these drugs will be.
It’s definitely a hot button issue, and Amy’s perspective is one I haven’t actually heard anyone else talking about, and I’m really excited to bring it to you. So, without further ado, I am excited to be able to introduce you to today’s interview guest, Amy K. Wilson. Amy, thank you so much for being here today!
Hey Ruth, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, I’m excited to talk to you, but first, I just want to hear a little bit about your background. So, tell us a little bit about What you do, how you got to be doing what you’re doing now and why you’re doing it.
Amy Wilson: Well, I’ll give you the long, short version, cliff notes, whatever you want to say.
So I am a board certified geriatric pharmacist. I am a certified nutrition coach and I am a certified fitness professional. I started teaching aerobics when I was 17. So I’ve been in this kind of realm for a long, time. And it’s, it was like, well, how’d you get there? It was just, it was a course.
of evolution that I started teaching aerobics when I was in college going to pharmacy school because I swear to God, I was not going to gain the freshman 15. And it just went from there. But then I had a love hate relationship with food. and became an exercise addict. And then that led me down to my journey of being a nutrition coach and going through all the different phases of nutrition that have been throughout the years.
And then, not only am I a coach to clients and women in the forties and fifties and sixties and actually have 80 year olds, I do it virtually. So that’s awesome. But my actual biggest, I would say my mission statement is not. to help you lose weight. And I know people will be like, what, wait, that’s what I’m all about.
No, my mission is to keep you out of my nursing homes and losing weight is not necessarily healthy. So my mission is to get you strong, to get you healthy, to lose inflammation, because I see the outcomes. of what happens with poor nutrition. Wow. That is not something that we want to do, or even not even poor nutrition, but over dieting and what we have done to our bodies with eating foods that we thought were healthy with eating processed foods.
So I call myself a triple threat. We got the nutrition, we’ve got the fitness and we got the pharmacy and I’m going to keep you out of my nursing homes.
Ruth Soukup: I love that. how powerful is that tip? Like literally see every single day the result of poor choices. It’s heartbreaking. Yeah, I bet.
Amy Wilson: I bet.
Especially when I, cause I’ll do admission reviews and I, one of the things I look at is their date of birth and I’m like, Oh my God, they’re younger than me or they’re my age. So Gen X, I’m seeing way too much Gen X in the nursing homes. I’m seeing millennials in the nursing homes. And a lot of it has to do with diet and lifestyle.
Ruth Soukup: Oh, that’s heartbreaking. And it’s, it’s scary and it’s not that surprising considering like what the modern standard American diet has done to us, which we could probably talk about that all day, but I specifically, there’s actually just based on that, there’s lots of things that I would ask you, but specifically, I want to make sure we get to this first, because I know this is a topic that my clients want to talk about all the time that people are just interested in.
And because it’s Everywhere and everyone’s talking about, but let’s talk about weight loss drugs because your background with pharmacy and knowledge and stuff. So first of all, what are your thoughts? We’ll start broad and then we’ll go in
Amy Wilson: question. I am a pharmacist. Who prefers that you’re not on medication.
And I know that may sound very weird. Medications have a purpose. They absolutely do. But if we can do things without medication, if we can prevent disease, if we can reverse disease, if we can get healthy and strong without medication, because I don’t care what it is, all medications have side effects. And it may not happen to your best friend, but it could happen to you, or it could happen to somebody else.
And my problem with diet drugs. If you look through the history of diet drugs, they don’t have a good track record. A lot of them have been taken off because of heart attacks, for other issues, mental issues. So now we have a medication, the GLP 1s. We’ll say that Wagovi, there’s a plethora down the line.
Yes. And yes, they’ve been around for quite a while. They’ve been around for quite a while in a tablet form, not in the weekly injection. That is relatively new. So we have these medications that were for type 2 diabetes that showed that they also cause a significant amount of weight loss. So everybody’s sign me up.
I want this. I want something. I want that. I want to say the easy button because if you’re on this, I’m not condemning you. I understand, but I’m also going to give you the 360, the whole picture of what’s going to happen and what you need to look out for and how you can prevent some of the issues. It doesn’t make, it doesn’t make you hungry.
And you all of a sudden don’t have that appetite anymore. And for so many of us who have been on diets for years and are always starving and can’t get anywhere, we’re like, Oh, this is, we think it’s the answer to our prayers. But put the brakes on because there are side effects. And when you think about not eating, you’re thinking, okay, that’s great.
That’s how I’m going to lose weight. Remember when I said the beginning skinny is not healthy. So we’re going to cause lifestyle diseases, the geriatric population in our thirties and forties, we’re going to increase our frailty because when you don’t eat, your body is freaking smart. It knows what to do.
We’ll slow down your metabolism. Okay, but you’re still not eating. So you’re still losing weight. All right. So now you’re losing muscle. Muscle is a fountain of use. Muscle is what’s going to keep you strong. Muscles what’s going to keep you out of my nursing homes. Muscle is also going to increase or decrease your metabolism.
So if you add muscle, you increase it. You take that muscle away, you decrease it. Not only does your body need amino acids, which is good for muscle, your body needs vitamins and minerals. And as a middle aged woman, this should scare you because it’s going to take it from your bones. So now you’re looking at osteoporosis, osteopenia.
You’re looking at what I’m calling old lady syndrome. That’s why we see people who look older who are on these medications. And they’re like, oh, it’s because, it was a big face. It was a big butt, right? But it was like, oh, because I lost fat. Yeah, you did. But guess what? These cheeks? And those cheeks are behind muscle, that’s what gives it shape.
And when it loses that, yeah, you’re going to have that sunken in look, you’re going to have that flat butt. I’ll tell you ladies, those glute muscles are so important. That’s what’s going to keep you from falling. That’s what’s going to help you get up. That’s going to help you lift things. And so when we stop eating, Because of this medication, because we were trying to get that skinny, and I understand, menopause sucks, perimenopause sucks, all of a sudden things are coming out of nowhere, you’re like, where did this stomach, how did I get this roll of fat in my back?
I’ve never seen this before. I understand, I get it. That rollercoaster is Mentally challenging, physically challenging. It’s, it can bring you down, but I’m going to tell you, GLP ones are not, the savior that we think they are.
Ruth Soukup: no. And this is this is something that I don’t think gets talked about really at all that much.
Right? Like it’s getting pushed everywhere. Doctors are pushing it. Everybody’s talking about it. Everybody’s taking it. Oh, it’s great. It’s great. It’s great. It’s great. It’s great. And, there’s all sorts of money behind. That huge push. And yet like the long term effects of that, even if it’s, even if you experience zero side effects, right?
The long term effects of exactly what you’re saying, losing muscle that you, your body needs and not giving yourself the nutrients and lose and taking it out of your bones and all, and the weakness, the long term effects of that it’s devastating, it makes, it actually makes me sick. And I don’t say that with judgment either.
Say that because I, my journey to lose weight and get healthy started a little more than three years ago. And it wasn’t really a thing yet then, right? Like I’m so thankful because I wouldn’t be sitting here doing this podcast. If I hadn’t gone through the process that I had of doing the research and figuring out like what actually works and reversing insulin resistance and all the things that have helped me to lose the weight and keep it off.
But. I would have been the first one in line for Ozepic. I know I would have, because I was desperate. I understand that, that desperation of wanting, just wanting to do something to finally have it be work. And if somebody would have handed me, said, you could just take this shot and you’re going to lose all the weight.
I would be like, great. Sign me up. I don’t care how much it costs. I don’t care what, I just want to be skinny again. I just want to look good. that’s all I cared about. Now I care about so much more and I’m so thankful, but. I also get it. I know me. I know that would have been, that would have been me and I feel bad.
So what, what do you do? First of all, if you’ve already, if you’re already taking it, what’s the solution? If you’re taking it and you’re like, Oh shoot, I don’t want, I do not want that to happen to me. So what happens next?
Amy Wilson: So if you’re already taking it, okay. Once you start giving a diary and I know this is people will be like, Oh, that’s what I hate.
You guys see how much you’re bringing in, meaning how much nutrition are you bringing in? Are you relying on quick fast food meals? Because I’ll tell you, yes, you might be losing weight, but now you’re causing chronic inflammation in your body, which is going to cause even more disease. So yes, you get skinny, but okay, now you can still get diabetes.
Even when you’re skinny, because of inflammation, because of blood sugar imbalance. So the other thing too is how much protein are you getting? Because more than likely you’re not getting protein in because that’s the last thing you want to eat. When you’re not hungry, when things don’t taste good, when they don’t look good, doesn’t smell good, the last thing you want is protein.
You got to get the protein somewhere. And if it shakes, you’re going to Not my favorite, but okay, but look at the quality of the shake. What’s the ingredients? Is it a bunch of chemicals? Is it a bunch of, artificial sweeteners? Things like that. And look for quality food and start intaking and slowly build it up because you won’t have an appetite.
You won’t You might have to force your way to eat. The other thing too, if you’re like, okay, how do I get off of this? Let gradually get off of it and make sure that you are working with somebody. Because a lot of hormones are changed during this time. Rhalin and leptin are screwed up, which are your hunger hormones.
And you want to make sure that you are eating, have a support system, and then you’re also lifting weights. And I, I see people all the time, Oh, I’m on it and I’m lifting weights. I’m like, but are you eating enough? Because if you’re working out and not eating enough, Your body needs nutrition.
It’s going to get it from the muscles. It’s going to, it’s going to get it from you because you are not consuming. So be careful of working out and not getting enough nutrition. So if you start doing that workout, you start lifting weights. Well, your body needs amino acids to build. If it doesn’t have it, it’s going to take it.
So actually doing that lifting weights. You’re not serving your body. You’re actually using that muscle for fuel and that’s not what we want. So baby steps I don’t want anybody to go. Oh my god. I’m throwing my shot away today. I’m gonna stop And then but you know talk to your doctor Think about slowly coming off of it and working with somebody Because will there be and then I know this scares you to death is that will there possibly a little bit of weight gain?
Yeah, you might get a little bit But I’ll tell you what the body that you want is muscular has nothing to do with the scale And the shape that you want is muscular, has nothing to do with the scale. So get off the scale, quit having that be your barometer as to whether you’re happy or sad, because that is not what’s going to tell you if you are healthy.
And yet. Easier said than done. I know. Believe me. I had to get rid of my scale because it’s easy. It’s Oh, I feel fluffy today. Let me get on the scale. And that just can send you down that rabbit hole. Cause believe me, I understand. It’s there are days I’m like, man, if I could just do a zump it, get rid of these legs.
They’re, genetic. And it’s but the thing is, like I said, I see the outcome of what happens with poor diet. I see what happens when you have females who didn’t eat for the longest time and now they’re osteoporosis. They have no muscle mass. They fell, they broke a hip. I see what happens when you use diet, quote unquote, diet food, that’s ultra processed.
And now we’re looking at diabetes and heart disease and strokes. So we got to get back to the basics and understand that We can eat because a lot of people say, but I tried everything. I’ve tried every diet. Yes. That’s the problem. You tried every diet. Yes, that’s the problem I had. I tried every diet looking at as nutrition and start looking at strength.
It was a game changer because now it was fueling my body. Now I wasn’t starving. Now I didn’t feel guilty and think I had to do a hundred burpees every when I had a chocolate chip cookie or the next day I would have to starve myself to make up for a dinner I went out to. So it’s changing your relationship with food.
And it’s also. Changing from a diet mentality to a nutrition mentality.
Ruth Soukup: I love that. Do you think that there’s ever a point of no return? you’re working with people who are basically and end game, right? Like they’ve now they’ve screwed it all up. they’ve had to become go into a nursing home because they’ve so devastated their body and obviously the preventative Aspect of that.
Like I can see why that you would be so passionate about that. but what do you like, where is the point where you can’t fix it anymore? Cause you’ve done so much damage. There’s been so many years of dieting and poor nutrition and abusing our bodies for the sake of trying to get skinny that like, where, do we like, is there ever a point where you can’t fix it anymore?
Or have you seen People reverse, This kind of stuff, even
Amy Wilson: I’ve seen some miraculous get my stuff together and reverse. Is it rare? Absolutely. I say that in our forties and fifties, we have this special window of opportunity that we now have. we’re at the crossroads. We can continue as is and end up this path or we can change and learn new ways and build an improved better path that could possibly reverse disease.
Now, will some people have things in their family? Absolutely. But genetics isn’t everything. It’s your environment. It’s your nutrition. So if you’re somebody who has You know, unfortunately, some people, my, my nursing homes, they’re, they’ve been on insulin forever. They never took care of themselves. There is once you’ve been on insulin about seven, eight years and been insulin dependent, there’s no going back.
And that’s for type two type one. That’s a whole different, that’s a whole different bottle ball game. Cause that’s auto immune, but if you’re type two diabetes, so if you’ve got a diagnosis that you’re A1c is increasing and by the way that happens a lot of times in perimenopause and menopause And we freak out we go back to our dieting ways and think we have to do no carbs, which is absolutely not true.
And when you start investigating going with the science, because believe it or not, science tells us what we need to do. Our bodies are freaking smart and we start using science with it. You can reverse that disease. So If you have a high 1AC, A1C, you’ve been told you’re pre diabetic or diabetic and it hasn’t been too long, you absolutely have every opportunity to reverse that.
Same with high blood pressure. Same with high cholesterol. You absolutely can decrease and have better numbers. And we always say like lowest effective dose. It might have to be on some medication, but it’s going to be the lowest effective dose. And maybe if you’re one of those that are able to decrease enough, you can get off that medication.
Ruth Soukup: Right. So what are the medications that you feel like are most effective? The safest, the least damaging, the least have to be on them forever medications, right? Because I’m very anti big pharma. So, talking to a pharmacist is I don’t know, I might be crossing onto the dark side.
But I, I, I understand that there are times where medication is, necessary, but I, like, I think my biggest problem with the pharmaceutical industry, right? Like the whole big industry is that it’s all designed now with these meds that they don’t want to heal you. They want to keep you sick. They want to keep you sick and they want to keep you dependent.
So they want to alleviate the symptoms, but make sure that you keep taking them because gosh, if they heal you, then you would stop. And how would they make any more money? And so, but I don’t think, I don’t think that’s actually how it always has been. So are there like older drugs that are actually very effective that are no longer?
Amy Wilson: Remember is that medication for the most part, for the most part is a treatment, but not a cure. And in America, we’re like, one pill is great. Three must be better. why do the work when we can pop something? how many times do you hear? It’s this is the latest supplement. That’s going to help you lose weight.
This is the latest supplement. That’s going to help you with memory. This is the latest supplement, right? We want something besides our. what we eat internally, what we do. Instead of
Ruth Soukup: having to actually, change what we eat or do. Yeah, so
Amy Wilson: let’s change what we eat. Now, if your blood pressure is still high, then yes, there are some medications to take to decrease that.
But the thing is, you should never rely on just the medication. It has to start within you first. It has to start with nutrition. It has to start with fitness. And then if you’ve done everything and you still need a little bit of medication, okay, that’s fine. The problem is that we go to medication right away.
We do that first. And then we’re like, Oh, but you know, if you want to do diet and exercise, that’s fine. Look at every single diabetes, heart disease commercial on TV. They always say in conjunction with diet and exercise. But it’s like in this buh, diet exercise very fast, very quick.
And that’s not what they’re focusing on. They’re focusing on the medication. So if we can focus on the diet and exercise, the medication is second or third. And you, then once again, we’re looking at the lowest effective dose because every medication will still have side effects. And what we want to do is alleviate those side effects.
Ruth Soukup: Right, right. So what, so are, so there aren’t any specific ones that you would say, like these ones I’m like, okay with these ones I would absolutely stay away from,
Amy Wilson: Well, and what happens is when someone goes to the doctor and they go, oh, hey, you’re pre diabetic, you’re A1C, here’s metformin, here’s this.
And instead of saying, hey, let’s give you six months to see if you can get your A1C down first. And is metformin safe? Okay. Most part, but it still has side effects. Same with blood pressure medication. Everybody’s different on what they’re going to start you with. Most of the time. It’s what’s called an ACE inhibitor, something like lisinopril.
But you know, maybe you can go for a daily walk, help your stress, start eating more fruits and vegetables, get rid of the processed foods, decrease the inflammation. I’ve had, I can’t tell you how many clients I have that I start having to make them take their blood pressure daily when I first start with them because when we change their diet.
dramatically in the first two weeks with going with whole food nutrition, all of a sudden their blood pressure comes way down. And I needed them to start looking at it and talking to their doctor because it almost gets too low because now they’re decreasing their blood pressure on their own, but they’re also taking their medication, which is also decreasing their blood pressure.
And now we’re looking at too low. That’s just in two weeks. Right. It’s amazing what you can do in two weeks.
Ruth Soukup: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know that because that like you’re working with people every day. I, see that every day and in our program, but what, why do you think it’s so hard for people to grasp The idea that you can actually change your lifestyle and change your life and change your long term health prognosis, increase your longevity, increase your energy, improve all of these markers, improve blood pressure, like whatever it is that you’re struggling with, the inflammation, the chronic pain that people are dealing with, right?
Like the gut issues, the heart, like the list goes on and on. Yeah. Why is it still so hard, number one, why is it even considered alternative that we’re talking about diet versus just popping a pill? And number two, why is it so hard for people to make that shift? We have
Amy Wilson: been trained to be dependent on things that come fast and that things should be easy.
That you shouldn’t have to work for things and you should be able to go through the drive through. You should be able to get something that’s pre made at the grocery store because you’re busy, you’re super mom, you’re doing this. And that’s Formed into almost your psyche or habits. And so now we’re trying to peel back all the layers of the onion and be like, okay, no, you can cook.
You don’t have to make elaborate meals, but you can, find 30 minutes to work out. And it’s changing the habits. It’s changing your identity. And that’s not easy. That’s why I always say it’s do it with somebody, get a coach, work with a program, because if it’s something that says, Hey, all you do is follow this for 10 days and everything is going to be a magical year and get your genes and blah, blah, blah.
I’m going to tell you right now, it’s not going to work. It’s not going to work. And that’s what sets us up for failure and perimenopause and menopause. Every single time. And because
Ruth Soukup: every time you do that, you’re actually making the problem worse. You’re messing with your metabolism. You’re like all of screwing up your hormones even more, not getting the right nutrients.
So damaging your muscles and your bones. there’s, I get it. and I look at how many years I spent on that. train of diet after diet. And I always wanted the quick fix. I always wanted the, give me 10, like 10 days of smoothies. Okay. I’m in right. if I can lose 20 pounds in 10 days, then I think that’s great.
And yeah, like now I’m like, I just, I’m horrified at myself, but also I go, well, how do we, how do Fix that as well.
Amy Wilson: And what was your deciding factor? Because I think that has a lot to do with our personalities. Cause I’m sure you’ve seen your clients. I see it in my clients. I know from the week one, my clients that will rock who are like, I’m not doing this anymore.
I am changing. I am going all in. I understand. I understand how food works. I understand how it works with my body. And then I’ll have those clients who for lack of better term, make excuses. constantly. Well, I had to go out with some friends and they have the best breadsticks. They have the best wine here.
And they try to justify everything instead of saying, you know what? No, I’m taking care of me. And I know how this food’s going to make me feel. I know it’s going to cause inflammation. I know it’s going to put me three weeks behind because of all the inflammatory markers that are coming back. So there is a definite, there’s a definite kind of trigger that gets hit.
It’s I’m done with this. Yeah, I’m no longer making excuses. I’m taking responsibility for my health and I am going to do this once and for all. And I think I had that point where now I look at that going, man, I used to make the excuses. Oh, went out with friends or we’re going to have this or, and yeah, I still go out with friends.
I just make better decisions. And I’m sure it’s probably something with you too. It’s like something triggered and you’re like, I’m not living like the same war.
Ruth Soukup: It was actually what for me, I think the trigger of not wanting to diet anymore. because I had, I was, had struggled and struggled, but I have teenage daughters and they are now 15 and 17.
But at the time when I started this journey, there were 11 and 14 or whatever, right? Like just at the age where they were starting to notice. Cause when your kids are smaller, they’re not, they don’t like your kids are oblivious to what their parents do, but then your daughters get a little older and they’re watching you.
And I’m like, I am not going to, I am not going to raise my daughters with food, the same food issues that I’ve had, right? I’m not going to, this is cycle has to end. And so it was, What can I do? How can I change my lifestyle so that I’m still cooking the same food for all of us so that I’m, and it just, led me down this rabbit hole of research and wanting to really understand like what’s actually happening with my body.
and I’m so, again, so thankful for that. And so thankful that it happened at the time that it did, but. I get it, right? that’s exactly what you’re saying. Like I, there had to be a market shift in my psyche where I was done trying to get a quick fix. I was like, however long it takes is however long it’s going to take.
I’m going to be happy wherever I am, however I am. And I am going to, Also in front of my girls, never disparage myself, right? Never say, Oh, I feel so fat or I don’t look good or whatever. And even like my husband and I had the conversation of, like he, well, you need to compliment me in front of them.
Right? Like just like we needed to change our whole. Family dynamic around food and weight. Cause my husband, he’s the same way he struggles with this weight. We’ve got on lots of diets together. And, I’m like, we really, we do not want our kids to grow up with issues. So we’re going to do this, make this change for them.
And for that, for us, that was the catalyst, but yeah, I think everybody has their moment.
Amy Wilson: It’s changing that narrative. It really is. And there’s such a disconnect sometimes of. We don’t think about what we put in our body and the outcome. We’re like, oh well this is the food it’s going to make me fat. Or this is the food it will help make me skinny.
We don’t think this is the food is causing inflammation that could cause stroke, gut microbiome issues, diabetes, heart disease, I don’t put enough food of protein, et cetera, in my body. So therefore my muscles can’t grow. I don’t get enough carbs. Therefore my thyroid doesn’t function. We don’t think about that.
There’s that disconnect. But when you start putting the dots together going, Oh, this is why I was so tired. This is why I have brain fog. This is why my joints hurt. This is why I’m suffering from migraines all the time. This is why I crash at 1 30 PM every single day. And you don’t realize it. Is that the food that you’re consuming is doing that.
And then once you put two and two together, Oh, start eating whole foods, start balancing my blood sugar, start eating the things that I need to. And you’re like, Oh, wait, how did I lose inches around my waist? I wasn’t even trying. Right. And then it’s Oh my gosh. it’s just when, then when that, and when that light bulb clicks, that light bulb clicks, but it takes, unfortunately, it’s not a pill that you can pop an easy remedy.
It takes a little bit to get there.
Ruth Soukup: It does. and I say that to like, if you would wait, if you would wake up one day and you find yourself 50 pounds overweight and you’re, you got inflammation everywhere and you feel like crap and you’re like, gosh, what happened to me? Right? if it happened overnight, I think we’d all be like, Okay, something we got to do something drastic, but I think because it’s like the slow burn of just feeling worse and worse you start to think that it’s normal when it actually is not normal.
You don’t have to feel like exhausted at two o’clock in the afternoon. You don’t have to like have chronic pain all the time. There’s so many things. That I, in exactly what you’re saying is right. When you change your approach to going, how do I nourish my body? What’s the foods that I can eat that will actually nourish me, nourish my hormones, nourish every part of me, heal my gut.
it’s completely like the weight becomes the like side effect. And it’s not even that hard, right? Like when you’re, focused on all the other things, it’s.
Amy Wilson: And let me tell people is if you are rationalizing why you feel bad, why you don’t have energies. It’s my kids, my husband, why you have a headache?
Why is this? Start thinking, let’s go back to the basics. It could be your food. And you’re just not thinking that because you’re thinking it’s work, it’s something else, it’s my job, it’s the babysitter, it’s the kids, it’s the dog, we think of all the other things besides, hey, maybe it’s what I’m eating or what I’m not eating.
And maybe it’s the lack of exercise, I’m sitting all day, I’m not moving my body. And we want to think it’s everything else except coming down to the core and that’s our nutrition and fitness.
Ruth Soukup: So what percentage would you say is nutrition versus fitness?
Amy Wilson: I’m 80, 20. So 80 percent nutrition. I am one of those people who blew my back out at 29, trying to out train a bad diet.
Ruth Soukup: You can’t
Amy Wilson: do it. You can’t do it. You have to have the fuel. You have to have the nutrition in order to have the fitness. And you, let me repeat that. You have to have the nutrition in order to have the fitness. In order for me to keep my muscle mass, in order for me to build muscle, I have to have that nutrition.
So it’s 80 20. Now, do you need to move your body every day? Absolutely. Should you walk every day? Absolutely. But when it comes down to it, you really need to focus on what you’re eating, because if you’re, all you’re doing is putting crap in your body, then you’re increasing your inflammation. You won’t be, you won’t have energy, you won’t be building muscle and you’ll just be constantly feeling in the state of trying, I always say chasing skinny, you’re trying to chase skinny and it’s not going to happen.
Ruth Soukup: Right. Right. So what you started out as an aerobics instructor, blew your back out at 29. What kind of exercise are you like gung ho on now, especially for more midlife women? Lifting. Lifting.
Amy Wilson: Lifting. Lifting. lifting weights is so important. I wish I would have started doing that in my twenties, but back then it was all about aerobics.
It was, yeah, it was leg warmers and leotards. and I had this conversation a lot cause I still do teach and yes, okay. Yes, you can go to these classes and lift a little 8 pound weights, but I’m going to challenge every single person in here, start lifting weights. Yes, maybe you start with the 8 pounds, but maybe you can go 10, maybe you can go 12.
5. Give your body a challenge, and if you’re eating right, You’re going to be able to increase how much weight you’re lifting. And that’s huge because once again, we want to keep that muscle and we want to build that muscle. Now, do you need cardiovascular? Sure. But if you are doing HIT every single day, that’s not good for your hormones.
Ruth Soukup: It’s not
Amy Wilson: good for your thyroid. HIT is great twice a week to get that cardiovascular in walking every day for cardiovascular. Amazing. If you do Peloton or cycle, don’t be doing those HIT and Tabata workouts every single day. Put some weights in there. You need to do. And I’m not talking about the weights on the bike.
That was a little three pounds doing a little weight. Those don’t count. Like really don’t count. I’m talking about actually, yeah, actually lift weights. And I think for us or Gen X growing up, it was like, Oh, you don’t want to look like a boy. You don’t want to lift, but that’s the last thing it’s going to do.
It’s actually going to help you give the shape that you want. And it’s going to keep you out of the nursing homes and it’s your fountain of youth. That’s what actually keeps you looking younger.
Ruth Soukup: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So why do you think so many women like are really averse to weights? I don’t think it’s just the, I don’t want to be muscular and bulky.
an eight pound weight is not going to make you muscular and bulky.
Amy Wilson: It’s the stair master is going to make you skinny. The elliptical is going to make you ski. when the elliptical came out, it was like, burn all these calories because we’re so stuck on calories and burning calories.
Burn all these calories without doing damage to your knees. Do these classes for hours because you’re going to burn so many calories. We got to get out of the burn calorie mentality because it’s not all about calories in versus calories out. It’s about the nutrition that you take in. It’s about the macronutrients, the fat, the carbs, the protein that you take in.
And it’s about giving your body what it needs. Your body needs muscle to support your bones. So if you want to prevent osteoporosis, you want to keep walking, you want to be able to pick up that luggage and put in the overhead bin, you need muscle. And ladies, we are not, built to get bulky.
Ruth Soukup: No,
Amy Wilson: very rare.
If someone gets both, it’s very hard to do. And usually they have help. And with us, what we have weight training is what’s going to help perimenopause weight training is going to, it’s going to help you in menopause and beyond.
Ruth Soukup: Okay. So, so far we have stay away from Mozambique to nourish your body and lift weights.
Yeah. That’s like the secret to life, right? To stay out of the nursing home. Right. Which I mean, like, why don’t we talk about that more? I think there should be required. you know how they do those like scared straight things for like majors where they take them to the max prison like the Juvenile delinquents and they take them to prisons to scare them into what will happen to them if they continue down the path.
Have you heard of those programs? But it doesn’t make money. It does not make money. If, Oh, but that should be required for all of us to realize that is our future. If you don’t handle this now, like you are. Diet
Amy Wilson: industry is 3 billion. Who knows what big pharma is right now? It’s, not something healthy.
Does not make money. No, healthy helps you keep your money. I’ll tell you that right there. Healthy is what’s going to help you keep your money. Yes.
Ruth Soukup: Speak to that. Yeah. Because people, that is one of the things, right? That you probably hear this too, right? Oh, I can’t afford it. It’s too hell. It’s too expensive to eat healthy.
It’s too expensive. your program is too expensive. I don’t, I can’t afford this. Like my response is like, how can you afford not to, but what do you say?
Amy Wilson: Yeah, same thing. What do you? Okay, so you don’t pay for it now. You’ll pay for it later with interest. That’s the problem. And you’re going to pay for it by not being able to live.
Meaning that You’re going to be in a chair. Maybe you’re going to be immobile. Maybe you’re going to be in a bed because I’ll tell you, nursing home life is not living. It’s not living at all. I think most of us want to be active in our later years. Most of us would like to go to the beach. We’d like to travel.
We’d like to do stuff maybe with your grandkids or your kids. You don’t want to be a bystander on the sidelines watching life pass you by.
Ruth Soukup: That’s
Amy Wilson: expensive. That’s expensive and it’s depressing. And if you can spend a couple extra bucks right now to prevent that, you will save money in the future because nursing homes, five grand a month.
assisted living even more. So home health nurses, what if you could live on your own? What if you could be, Betty White, 90 some years old, William Shatner, 90 some years old, these people who are just still have all their facilities with them still are, Betty White, I think was active until her last year.
So what if you could do that instead of having 20 years? or more that you’re not able to do anything. That’s expensive. Yeah.
Ruth Soukup: Something we don’t always think about. Oh my gosh. Amy, I feel like we could probably talk about this stuff all day, but why don’t you tell us where we can find you online, like with all the things, tell us all the things.
Well, if you would like to have,
Amy Wilson: I’ll give you a five day blueprint called the fat loss blueprint that has lots of recipes and went over some of the things that we talked about today. You can either hit me up on my website at amykwilson. com. That’s A M Y K W I L S O N dot com. Or I’m on Instagram at the Nutrition Coach Pharmacist.
Would love a follow. Just send me a message that you heard me on this podcast and I would love to send you the blueprints. Awesome.
Ruth Soukup: And we will make sure to add all of that to the show notes as well. Aimee, thank you so much for all your expertise today. It was so great to talk to you and wish you the best.
Thanks for having me. All right, guys, that about does it for this episode. I hope that you found this discussion as insightful and interesting as I did. And if you know Anyone else who might benefit from listening, please be sure to send it their way. Then be sure to subscribe to the podcast to be notified of future new episodes.
Feel free to leave a review anywhere you like to listen, and I will see you back here for another new episode very soon.
