5 Facts You Didn’t Know About Your Body | Episode 126: Angie the Expert
Working out and eating healthy are only touching the surface on understanding your body and it’s abilities.
In this episode of the Carrying Connected Conversations podcast Ang is letting us in on 5 important facts that most people don’t know about their own bodies. These facts leave Syd’s mind blown as she gains a better understanding of her parents' health as they age, and her own health. Whether or not you’ve reached rock bottom in your physical health, there is one thing we can all agree on and that is that we’d rather prevent the rock bottom if we can. Ang is sharing exactly how to prevent some of the most common health issues we see people experiencing as they age. This episode will completely change your mind on why you need to work out a minimum of twice a week.
Listen to the episode now to learn some important facts that you most likely didn’t know about your body.
You can continue reading about the conversation Syd & Ang had on the podcast through the transcript below.
Syd: Hello and welcome back to the carrying connected conversations podcast. I am Sydney if you are new here, one of your co-hosts of this podcast. We have my other co-host Angie, but I will be introducing her in a second here. A whirlwind of excitement to bring this topic to your ears today. We are bringing in Angie’s expertise, if you don’t know she is a fitness trainer. She talks about physical wellness and nutrition, self-love and basically all of these things to take care of your body. Your body is a beautiful home for you to live in and for you to create a life where you can thrive. I am really interested to dive into today’s topic specifically because Angie is bringing forward these rock bottom moments we can experience when our body fails us. When our body fails us it’s probably because we weren’t taking care of it. I am really excited to talk about these rock bottoms that we can experience in our physical health and how they affect our life. Plus how we can support ourselves to not reach those moments.
Before we jump in, ANgie I am so excited to chat with you. How are you doing today?
Ang: Hey! I am doing so well. I too am super excited about this because I find a lot of the things we are going to be talking about today are very much coming from a place of a preventative standpoint. Like you said, we want to make sure we can create sustainability in our life but there are also a lot of preventable things we can do so we don’t reach that rock bottom, like you were expressing earlier. So, let’s go ahead and jump right in.
Syd: Yes! Let’s jump right in. I want to point out that you said that from a preventative standpoint. It’s also a reminder that we don’t have control over a lot of things that end up happening. So yes take care of yourself to prevent something from happening, but even if you are taking care of yourself something may still end up happening. SO what do you do in that case? I am excited to jump in and find out.
I know you’ve prepared some notes here on five worst case scenarios that you can experience and how that affects you and your life. Can you talk about preventing falls, fractures and breaking limbs?
Ang: Yes 100%. I love that we are starting off on this one because i find it’s the most common. Before I jump into all of the points I do want to put a disclaimer out there. These rock bottom scenarios might sound as if you aren’t going to experience it until later on in life. Especially around falling and breaking a bone we think about the older generations. I am talking about that in some regard, but at the same token it is applicable to us now as adults. I wanted to throw that in to start.
If you can think about it when you are young, a child at their school playground, you are young, nimble and have a lot of energy. If you can think about your friends that may have broken their arm as a child, they most likely were in a cast for only 6 weeks and then they could move on with life.
Now where we are in a place of getting older why does it feel like a broken bone, sprain or even a strain is taking 6 months to get better? Or even over a year? It’s because we are not actually using our muscles and bones to our benefit. What happens is that over time our muscles, bones and joints all decrease in strength. Our joints are where a bone attaches to a bone. A muscle attaches from the bone. If we can increase our muscles, we are helping the bones. By us helping the muscles and bones we are helping the joints. They all go hand in hand. The more often we are training those muscles we are helping ourselves to create a lot more rigidity.
Syd: I have a question and because it’s popping up, before I forget it I want to ask hahaha! It is very common for people as they age to need knee replacements, and hip replacements. My dad has had a hip replacement and one of my clients recently had a knee replacement. What you are talking about is strengthening your muscles and hoe that helps to strengthen your bone. If we were able to take better care of our bodies from 30 onwards, by working out and taking care of our muscles in a supportive way, can you say there is a greater chance that we might not need a hip or knee replacement? If someone sits at a desk all day, but doesn’t do much physically. Do you get what I am saying?
Ang: Yes I do. The short answer is yes. But at the same time you could be someone who is very active and you still need a knee replacement, it could happen to anyone. But it prolongs the period before needing a hip or knee replacement. What happens is our bone density actually decreases as we age, which is why we are so much more prone to fractures and it’s why it takes longer for it to heal. It could even lead to osteoporosis, which means a major decrease in our bone density. This is why we are more susceptible to bone fractures. To the point that a simple tap to the arm can create a fracture.
Have you ever heard the term if you don’t use it you lose it?
Syd: Ya.
Ang: Ok, this applies to this regard. If you don’t use your muscles, and bones regularly then you will lose them in working to your benefit. Which simply means falling and breaking something. The actually prevention of falls I am going to talk about more specifically in my last tip. I want to paint this picture that if you don’t add in exercise two to three times a week, whether you are 20 or 30, 15 even if you wanted to start. If you don’t add that now then your bones and muscles will deteriorate at a much quicker rate then someone who doesn’t exercise at all.
Syd: Okay I love that we are talking about 20 year old, 30 year olds and possibly even 15 year olds. But what about the 40, 50, 60 and 70 year olds?
Ang: Same would apply.
Syd: They can still start now? Even if they are starting now with working out, and a bone broke, but they did a year of working out and strengthening their muscle, is there a greater chance of their recovery time being shorter? Versus not having had that year of working out?
Ang: Absolutely.
Syd: Okay, very good to know. Especially because with what you are saying around your bone density becoming weaker naturally. It’s easier for you to experience breaks whether you work out or not. Literally from the day we are born we grow and get bigger, then our body is slowly failing us. Unless we take care of it. When we take care of it we not only prolong our lives, but we create a healthy lifestyle where we can thrive and do the things we want to do.
Ang: Exactly. That is the whole point of why we need to be incorporating exercise in our lifestyle now at 15, 20, 30 45. Whatever age we are because if not then that rock bottom is going to be waiting for a year for that fracture, sprain or strain to heal.
Syd: I love that. Okay let’s jump into the next topic you wanted to discuss which is reducing your risk for chronic illness. You mention diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and even cancer.
Ang: Depending on your intensity and duration of your exercising, so that means you are working out once, twice or three times a week for however long each time. This can all decrease your chance for getting one of those illness by 24-36%. That is huge. A lot of the time we think of these illnesses as hereditary, but I am here to give you some unpopular opinions and little more truth to this so you can better understand. So Syd, have you ever heard that diabetes or heart disease is hereditary?
Syd: Ya definitely.
Ang: Okay I want you to tell me a little bit about what you know or have been told.
Syd: I think it’s something when going to the doctors to get a check up as an adult, the question is always asked if I have experienced any of these things or if anyone in my family has. There is a list of them and then you have to check the boxes or who in your family has experienced it and which one did they experience. So for me, I have and had family members that had diabetes and heart disease, so those are things I always had to check the boxes for.
Ang: Ok, have you ever heard the term that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?
Syd: Yup! Definitely.
Ang: Hear me out for a second. We live in a very common environment based on how our parents raised us. This is so true for anything and everything. Where this unpopular opinion comes from, I want you to hear me out here. Not all heart disease and diabetes is hereditary and genetic. For example, type 1 diabetes is when our body is completely incapable of creating enough insulin. The insulin is what regulates the sugars in our body that makes sure we don’t have too little or too much. That is the bottom line of what insulin does. Type 2 diabetes is actually dependent on our lifestyle and it comes a little more later on in life. It is directly dependent on your lifestyle. Let’s say your parents have a very inactive lifestyle, they sit a lot and watch TV a lot and you do the same. Chances of you getting type 2 diabetes is going to be a lot higher if you don't have a completely different lifestyle then your parents.
Syd: Ya that makes a lot of sense. Maybe in some cases it can be genetic, but exactly as you are saying it makes me think of the work I do on emotional wellness. Sometimes our emotions and belief systems are not actually ours, we have just been taught them from our parents based on the lifestyle they created. So that makes a lot of sense.
Ang: That is exactly it. There are studies that show there is a 40% chance of you developing diabetes if your parents have it. The bottom line the main correlation is about being in the same environment. Whatever is based down to you chances are you are going to be doing the same thing more repetitively. So in order to prevent type two. Well, type 1 you cannot prevent and you can be diagnosed from 4 all the way until 40. How do you prevent type 2, have more exercise, better eating habits and stay away from tobacco use and alcohol use. Making sure you have proper eating habits rather than eating take out food all the time. These are things to be mindful of, but also coming from a standpoint of “do I live exactly like my parents? Is this why I have this disease?”
Syd: WHat I am taking away from what you are saying is that it is your lifestyle. If you put love into your body, in the way you treat your body, then it will take care of you. Obviously there are things that are out of our control, like what you are saying with the falls and fractures. Sometimes you don’t have control over those things, they happen even if you take care of your body. Which brings me to an example I want to share and I’d love to get your feedback on this.
In my family around heart disease, my mom has had a stroke, my dad has had a heart attack. My mom’s sister, so my aunt, has had a heart attack and my uncle, who is of no blood relation to me, had a stroke recently. So all four of these people have had something massive happen to them in their life, within a month of my uncle having a stroke, he was mountain biking. He was biking better than me, I mean he has always been a better biker than me. Recently my parents and my aunt and uncle were all mountain biking together. Two stroke victims and two heart attack victims in their 60’s and 70’s, mountain biking. To me, that shows you can’t always control what happens to you. But if you take care of your body, if you live an active lifestyle, the chances of recovery are not only better and nigher, but faster as well. Is that something that resonates with what you are sharing today?
Ang: Absolutely. That hits home for me as well. Like I said, it’s not to say that it’s not at all hereditary. If you have multiple family members that are having the same illnesses then chances are yes, it will be hereditary. If you are talking about one parent in a blue moon and it hasn’t happened again then it’s more based off your lifestyle. Exactly as you are saying though, the more active you are the easier it is to get to the recovery stage. Regular exercise helps us to age more slowly. It’s not to say that you are not going to have any issues when you are older. It’s to say you will have a more manageable life until aging literally becomes inevitable.
Syd: I really like what you said, regular exercise helps us to live more slowly.
Ang: Age more slowly.
Syd: Thank you. Age more slowly, I thought I said it wrong. What was the last point you said?
Ang: It helps you live a more manageable live until aging becomes inevitable. Because we are all going to age at a certain point of our life, but up until what point are we no longer living that manageable life. You said it yourself, your dad had a heart attack, your mom had a stroke, they are both out mountain biking. Even your uncle, although he isn’t blood related. It shows they had an active lifestyle ahead of time, they’ve had something happen, yet no the longevity of their life is continuing because of how they took care of themselves before it happened.
Syd: Everything you are sharing is about understanding these things to show us why we need to prevent hitting the rock bottom. It also makes me think about my dad. He had a heart attack pretty young in his life, he was in his late 50’s I believe. Dates, I don’t remember these things hahah. He was still working and his heart attack was because of stress and he didn’t take care of his body and what he ate. At the same time, it was a blessing in disguise because it was a huge turning point for him in how much alcohol to drink and what to eat. He had already shifted his career that was less stressful. Yet my mom says that if hadn’t shifted his career before hand he could’ve died, because he shifted his career he already started to decrease his stress so it was a heart attack that didn’t kill him. It gave him that boost to see he needed to start taking care of himself better so he could live and enjoy life. It really gives the example of how he did hit the rock bottom.
Ang: That is exactly what I am trying to get to that you don’t have to live your life to hit rock bottom. I hate to use your dad’s example, but you explained it so perfectly. Once he had his heart attack it was his rock bottom. It doesn't matter what age he was because it took him until that moment to realize he needed to live a more active and healthy lifestyle. You want to create a more manageable life and by doing these simple things every week it helps you prolong that period. That isn’t to say that he is or isn’t going to get another heart attack later on in life, but it;s definitely going to show that his chances of getting a heart attack are going to be more reduced than if he didn’t make any changes at all.
Syd: Your point about if he does have a heart attack later in life, putting myself in his shoes. So if I was him and had that same experience in my life, I would look at that second heart attack and I would take a moment and be grateful for having had the first attack, making the changes I did make and being proud of myself for really stepping forward in how I’ve chosen to live. Whereas if he had a heart attack and didn’t take care of himself, then had the second heart attack, it would be a second opportunity for a wake up call, except it’s too late. Now, if he were to have a second heart attack and look back on his life, I hope he would be proud of the choices he made and they way he lived his life and taken care of himself.
Ang: Absolutely, I love this. As much as I would love talking about chronic illnesses I would love to move to the next point if you wouldn’t mind introducing that for me Syd.
Syd: Yes! Definitely! The next point you wanted to share was about decreasing your risk for dementia or alzheimer's disease. This hits home for me so please share.
Ang: Yes absolutely. You know when we are young and we absorb things like a sponge. We learn quicker than an adults pace for example. This is me bringing myself back to when I was young and learning a new language. I grew up in english, but french was my second language. Now as I am older I am trying to pick up spanish and italian. It is so much different from when I was younger, it’s harder to retain this information because i have to think and apply myself more. It’s so much harder than when I was a child trying to learn something new for the first time. As we get older, our cognition level decrease unfortunately. Same thing for our nerve induction and reflexes, everything decreases. The only way we can improve our cognition levels as well as our reflexes is by exercising at least two to three times per week. This doens’t mean it’s going to completely prevent it but it will reduce our risk of having dementia or alzheimers by at least 30%, according to some studies. That is a very big difference. How this helps us, is when we shift quickly from a task, say bicep curls to then squats, your brain is having to think about doing an upper body motion to then going down to a lower body motion. This quick switching back and forth helps our brain stay on. This way when we get older the dementia doens’t come a lot faster than if we aren;t doing anything for our whole life.
Syd: That makes a lot of sense, the constant use of your brain and how you use it when you are using your body. Such a good use of your brain. I am thinking of myself this morning getting stuck in a spiral of thoughts and overthinking. Not a good use of my brain. I literally said out loud this morning, I wish I could stop thinking. I wish I just didn’t have to think. Not a good use of my mind. What you are saying is using your body and how it triggers your mind and it keeps certain parts working. It’s as if you are exercising your brain while exercising your body.
Ang: Well, funny enough that does bring us to our next point.
Syd: Okay let’s jump into it. You want to talk about avoiding bad sleeping habits.
Ang: Yes yes yes! Believe it or not whether you are 20 or you are 70 we need the same amount of rest. Somewhere between 7 to 9 hours. It doesn’t mean you need less of, just as you get older you may notice your grandparents going to bed earlier, but they also get up earlier. It doesn’t mean they are sleeping longer.
The reason why sleep is so important is because night time is the best time to replenish your body and your mental stamina. This way it is in better shape for tomorrow. If you don’t give yourself time to restore and replenish then how is it going to be of better use for you tomorrow? Chances are it’s probably not. One thing I want to ask you Syd is do you know of anyone in the older population that has a difficult time going to bed or staying asleep?
Syd: I definitely know that my mom sometimes struggles with waking up in the middle of the night. Also, my aunt has had the issue of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go to sleep. I also talk about energy and how that is affecting our sleep so this one really connects with me as well. You said that sleep is the best time to restore and replenish and I’ve always considered sleep as the time where we shut off our brain. Especially when we find ourselves filled with worry and doubt, sleep is when we have that time, as you said to restore and replenish. As a Spiritual Mentor I know that sleep is when we get connected back to spirit because we are not stuck in our thoughts, we are not stuck in our ego mind overthinking everything. So that is really the time when we get into that deep connection, so when we wake up first thing in the morning there is nothing clouding our connetcion. There is no doubt or worry, we are in connection with Spirit, but as we move throughout the day the stress piles on because we start thinking about everything.
Ang: Yes exactly. I love that you brought energy into this. When you don’t use your energy what are you left with? A lot of energy! Exercise actually makes you tired believe it or not. Who would have thought. It’s literally made to do that on purpose. When we think we’ve reached out maximum believe it or not that’s only 60% of what our bodies are capabel of doing.
Syd: I read that this summer and I remember on my hike I was telling that to my cousins girlfriend or my aunt. I said that when you think you are done and you have no more energy left, you actually have 40% energy still in reserves, it’s just your mind telling you that youre tired.
Ang: It’s so crazy! When we think about it, why don’t we push past that point? Because we either don’t do it or we don’t do it enough. With exercise and repetition, not only does it allow us to train our bodies, it also allows us to train our minds. We can push past the physical exhaustion, then lead us not into mental exhaustion but improve our mental stamina. It will help us stay a lot longer before we get to the point of needing to quit.
Syd: That resonates so deeply with me. I was watching a YouTube video of a guy who was training for a marathon and he was saying it was one of the best things he had ever done in his life because of the times he thought his body couldn’t continue, he kept going and he was able to improve his mindset and perspective on what he is capable of doing.
Ang: Absolutely. As well, without enough rest, it brings us to irritability, it makes us more prone to falling because we lose all of our senses and coordination. It decreases our overall mood which brings us to the last point.
Syd: Yes the last point is reduce your stress, anxiety and depression levels.
Ang: As we get older we have a lot more things to think about. That means we have worry, doubt, and fear which easily translates into stress, anxiety and depression. I know Syd does this in her line of work and it’s the same in my line of work. Exercise increases your endorphins, in layman terms its the feel good hormones. It raises your dopamine levels and those good feelings or good vibrations in order to not have more stress, anxiety and depression. To some people, exercise feels like it has to be an all or nothing. They think the have to exercise 5 days a week to help their depression levels and if they can’t do that then they will do nothing. A little bit can actually go along way. To add to that, the social engagement is huge. As we get older we naturally get less social. As you’ve aged up to this point has your friend group gotten bigger or smaller.
Syd: It’s definitely gotten smaller and it’s interesting because I feel like after I hit a certain point I noticed how hard it is to make friends. Hahaha!
Ang: Well, not that I am older than you, I am here to say that it doesn;t get any easier when you get older. If anything it gets smaller and smaller. If you are finding that you are having more things to worry about, doubt and fear in your life, exercise is the perfect way to increase your social engagement because you are surrounding yourself with other like minded individuals. That is why I said it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If you go to the YMCA once a week it means you are getting out of the house and meeting people who are in the same mindframe as yourself for one day a week. Rather than staying home and doing nothing because you think sitting in your fear, doubt or worry is somehow a better thing and you do nothing at all.
Syd: A couple weeks ago we talked about when you had your garage sale and how moving the physical energy around you helped to move the spiritual and emotional energy from within you. Physical movement is a way to move energy, so I am resonating so much with everything that you are saying. WIth all of these points at first I thought it was so many. Now I am understanding that it’s seeing a bunch of different ways you can reach rock bottom and all of them have one solution. Start taking care of your physical fitness and physical health. Like you said, a little goes a long way. If you are working out once a week that is better than nothing. That resonates so much with me. As we wrap up this topic, can you wrap things up, whether you have any last tips, what do you want to say to the people?
Ang: Yes I am really glad you asked me this because I did have a bonus tip. This will be a applicable to you, the listener in you life right now. My tip is, grab a pen and paper, it’s never too late. Let me repeat it one more time. It’s never to late. If you think you’ve reached rock bottom, it’s not to late to put on those stretchy pair of pants and that ugly tshirt and walk up and down the stairs ten times. Just because you received that diagnosis that now you have type 2 diabetes and you need to lose weight, it’s not too late. There is a way for you to manage where you are at in your life as long as you choose to do something different. That last point you said Syd hit home as well. Just moving your physical body allows you to clear up that mental chatter. A lot of us as human beings we have so much of that, so remind yourself it’s never too late.
Syd: Oh that is such a great reminder. I saw a quote today that said, the choices you make between 19 and 24 will either create your future or destroy your future. I thought fuck that shit, I am so against that. Whatever age you are, you can choose differently. You can never destroy your future because it’s about living in this present moment and creating the best experience for yourself. If you are past 19 to 24 don’t worry, like Ang said it’s never too late.
I am so glad you brought this topic up. Being 32 years old it gives me a great opportunity to look at some of the things that my family members have experienced later in life and to ask what I am doing to take care of my body. I don’t have terrible eating habits. I do walk and try to take care of my body. It encourages me more to take care of my nbody even more. So thank you for bringing this topic forward.
Ang: Oh my gosh that gave me chills Syd. You are welcome. I really hope that one of the things I’ve said today, I know it was a lot of facts. But sometimes looking at the cold hard facts is what we need to decide to make that change.
Syd: Yes! Maybe not all of the points you shared resonate with everyone, but some of the examples you had and bringing in my own experiences something resonated with everything. I want to put it to the listener now. If this lit a fire under your butt and you are thinkoing that you need to start taking care of your physical health and you don’t know where to start other than working out. If you don’t know what that looks for you and your lifestyle, then lucky for you we have fitness expert right here in this podcast. You need to reach out to Angie because she will help you create a fitness routine that works for your lifestyle. She won’t tell you to do all this tasks beyond your ability, she will get on a call and help you figure out what small steps you can start doing right now to work on your physical health. Send her a message, all the links are in the description to reach her. Again, if it lit a fire under your butt then leave a rating and review so we know that you enjoyed it. Thank you for being here, and thank you Angie for sharing your expertise.
Next week I will be sharing my expertise as a Spiritual Mentor. We will be talking about 5 tips to create a more peaceful life. SO if that interests you then stay tuned. We are going to love you and leave you until we chat at you next week. Bye everyone!
Ang: Bye!