I make a living by teaching energy, health and longevity for women over 50. There are many components to it: daily energy routines, yoga, eating a diet rich in a variety of plants, getting enough sleep, eliminating alcohol, meditation and contemplation, regular cardiovascular exercise and strength training.

I don’t teach anything that I can’t/won’t do myself.

I spend a lot of time learning from my teachers and reading research specific to women over 50.

That part is really important – it’s increasingly well known that the results of a well designed study will be different, often VERY different, in postmenopausal women vs. men or women of child bearing age.

It’s because of our hormones.

The more I research, the more it becomes screamingly clear that a vital part of longevity for women over the age of 50 is muscle mass.

If we’re not actively working to at a minimum maintain our muscle, but ideally build more, we lose it fast. Because of our hormones.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve built beginner strength training videos into all of my programs. In Radical Health Accelerator (my signature 90 day program for women over 50), there are strength training videos to do every other day.

I personally go to the gym about 3 times a week to lift weights.

But I don’t enjoy it.

I love to run, bike and hike. Cardiovascular exercise is my jam.  I crave it.

I drag myself to the gym to lift weights, do it half-heartedly, skip the parts I don’t like, and go home.

That has to change.

I am going to change.

Drastically.

I’ve paid a scary amount of money to a strength coach and I’m going to overhaul my healthy vegan diet into a made-to-build-muscle vegan diet.

I hired a vegan strength coach – that was critically important to me.

I’m entering into an experiment on myself. He will tell me how to eat every day. I’ll get a directive of how much protein, fat, carbs and calories to eat. And I will adhere to it.

I have a rule that I shared with him though. I won’t eat protein powders or isolates. Only whole, plant foods.

And I’ll be in the gym a lot more, doing exactly what he says.

I need to buy a scale, I haven’t weighed myself in years. I’m going to track my weight each day.

And I’ll take those progress photos you’ve seen – where you take weekly pics in a bikini and send them to your coach.

It’s terrifying.

I’m willing to get uncomfortable though. I’m ready to learn something new. Not from a book…

I WANT to be uncomfortable.

You can’t change if you stay in your comfort zone.

I’m in Montana right now helping lead an Energy Medicine Yoga teacher training at a retreat center near Helena.

I return home to Colorado next week and start my new program.