Episode 23: My Personal Health & Weight Loss Journey – Part 2

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Welcome to the Reclaim Podcast. I’m your host, Leah Van Dolder. I’m a weight loss dietitian and a mindset coach, and this program is for you if you’re a busy working woman or female entrepreneur, and you’re ready to take charge of your health. You’re ready to lose weight and make lasting positive change in your life. The only kicker is that you’re on the brink of burnout. You’re exhausted, frustrated, feeling discouraged and uncomfortable, and this is how I help my clients. Giving you simple, practical, and savvy strategies to help you achieve your goals while reducing your stress, boosting your mood, your energy, and your self-confidence. To learn more about working with me, check out my website at leahvandolder.com. Welcome to the show.

Hey guys, welcome to this week’s episode of the Reclaim Podcast. We’re going to keep rolling here with my personal health and weight loss journey, and I know I told you last week there are only two parts, but I lied. I’m going to extend this into part three because I’ve got so much to share with you because I’m so passionate about getting you to a point in your life where you look in the mirror and you are happy with what you see.

You are proud of the woman that is staring back at you, and you feel so comfortable and confident in your skin. Because I know a lot of you, and I was actually just talking to one of you this morning. She said, “I literally look at myself in the mirror and I hate what I see. I’ve let myself go, I barely recognize the woman that I’ve become, and I’ve got to make a change. There’s a lot at stake. I’ve got kids, a partner. I’ve got to make a change. I can’t keep trying to figure this out on my own, right? It’s obviously not working for me, so I’ve got to make a change.”

And I said last week too, the reason why I do what I do is because there is nothing more powerful and beautiful than being there along your journey. It has everything to do with nutrition, but it goes a lot deeper than that. Just being there every step of the way with you as you transform into the best version of you. And I love getting texts from clients saying, “Oh my gosh, I just bought white jeans for the first time ever, and I’ve been thinking about doing that for decades but never felt comfortable enough to do it.”

Or getting messages like, “I signed up for a soccer team, and I’m keeping up with my kids, and I’m kicking my kids’ ass in soccer versus the other way around.” Stuff like that. It’s just so amazing because girls just run the world, and the more happy, healthy, vibrant women out there, the better this place is.

And today, I want to talk to you about my journey to a healthy relationship with exercise, and we’re going to be talking all around strategies. What do I got here? I got five. I have five strategies for you that have helped me get from a place of using exercise as a way to burn calories and basically exercise as punishment for eating too much or overindulging, or to balance out poor choices, to a place where exercise is a necessity but an enjoyable necessity.

I was just at a dinner party the other night, and one of the girls there was like, “You just look like you have so much fun with exercise. You make it look fun.” I said, “I do because I genuinely enjoy myself when I’m moving my body, and I’m going to tell you about how I got there so you can get there too.”

And hey, if you haven’t rated this podcast, pause, go take 10 seconds of your time to go rate five stars and review this podcast. It helps the growth of this podcast, and I want to keep coming at you every single week with these episodes because I’ve got a lot to share, and I know these are really helpful for you. So thank you so much for doing that. I really appreciate your time, and I appreciate you being here.

Okay. So top strategies.

The first thing that is so helpful when you are making a sustainable lifestyle change, it doesn’t matter if you are asking yourself this question around exercise or asking yourself this question around nutrition or sleep or whatever it is, but I would ask myself, “Is this goal or is this tweak that I’m about to make to my lifestyle or to my nutrition something sustainable that I can carry out for the long haul?” I would always ask that question when I was going through this transition period in my life.

So with exercise, I would think, “Okay, well, I want to exercise seven times a week or getting to like four exercise classes a week.” But I would ask myself, “Is this sustainable with my schedule right now? Is this something that I can keep up with?” So it was always having that reality check with myself because if you’re feeling stressed out around exercising, if you’re feeling like a failure (and I say that in quotes), it’s likely because you’re setting really high expectations or setting very unrealistic expectations of yourself and unrealistic goals, and then you can’t follow through with them with your current schedule, and then you feel really defeated.

So ask yourself, “What is realistic? What is doable for me based on my current schedule?” Because this must be sustainable in order for it to work long term. We’re not here for a quick fix, you know, fitness challenge. I mean, they’re great. They can get you motivated and going, but you’re here for more than a six-week challenge. You’re here to change your life. So I find that question always very helpful for me.

Now let’s get into some strategies.

One thing that I learned over the years of working in weight loss and working with a ton of weight loss experts and exercise specialists was this fact right here. Exercise is a terrible weight loss plan. And I’m going to repeat that again. Exercise is a terrible weight loss plan or weight loss strategy.

I know some of you are like, “What? To lose weight, you have to exercise.” Well, exercise is great for your overall health and it has awesome benefits for your weight, but not weight loss. It’s very good to help with maintaining your weight, building strength, changing your body composition, and managing your hunger, stress, and cravings. But if you are banking on exercise alone to lose weight, you are going to be so underwhelmed.

And I’ve had this conversation so many times with women, and they’re like, “I don’t get it. I work my ass off. I’m in the gym five times a week, and nothing’s changing on the scale.” Or some women gain weight while they’re exercising. And I mean, that is a whole other topic for another episode. But the faster that I understood that I don’t have to bust my butt every single day doing these crazy intense workouts in order to lose weight, the better.

So I thought, “Why am I basically putting myself into these situations where it was just grueling, and I wasn’t enjoying the exercise, and I wasn’t seeing much change on the scale anyway?” So I said, “Okay, let’s switch this up.” That was a big one for me, not only helped with the mindset shift around exercise but really looking at the science. Weight loss alone is not going to help you lose weight.

And okay, I’m going to backtrack just a sec. I’ll give you some stats on some of the biggest research studies out there around exercise and weight loss. People who exercise about five times a week and were eating similar calories to people who did not exercise, guess what the difference was in terms of weight at the end of one year? It was two to three pounds. That’s it. So exercise alone is not going to make a significant difference in your weight loss.

I want to hear your opinion on this too. You can shoot me a message on Instagram if you want. I’d love to talk about that, but that was a big one that really helped me just take the freaking pressure off. And that’s what helps a lot of my clients too. So you don’t have to bust yourself in the gym in order to get incredible benefits for your body.

And this leads really nicely into the second strategy here and the second tip. Find exercise that you actually enjoy. If you hate running, you don’t have to run. If you hate spin classes and your crotch is numb after 20 minutes, you don’t have to do a spin class. Find something that you enjoy. And I’ll often ask clients, “What were you doing years ago, or maybe some enjoyable exercise from when you were younger, whether it was skating or kayaking or paddleboarding?” And there are some crazy exercises too. I was just doing the old TikTok scroll last night because I saw this exercise class. It was almost like bungee jumping. It was like a bungee jump thing from the ceiling, and these women were flying around in the gym fitness studio. I was like, “Wow, that looks like fun.” Or these little trampoline exercises, you know, we’ve got everything out there now. It’s hilarious. But finding something that is fun and finding something that really makes you feel strong and makes you feel good in your body. If yoga is your thing, awesome. Lean into yoga. Maybe it’s Pilates. It doesn’t have to be these crazy P90X workouts where you are literally trying to pick yourself up off the floor and you can barely sit down on the toilet for three days after because your thighs and your glutes are burning for days. For me, I know a lot of you follow me on Instagram. I love aerial silks. I joined the circus club here in town just before COVID. So I’ve been doing silks for maybe a year and a half now, but I absolutely love it. And it brought a few things from childhood in, a little bit of dance, a little bit of figure skating, the strength, the poise, the controlled movements, and the creativity. I really love that. So write a couple of things down right now that you’re thinking of. It’s like, “Oh yeah, I used to really enjoy that.” Write it down. Go take a Google search, see what kind of classes are available in your area, and find something that you enjoy.

Tip number three, layer in your exercise. So many of you try to fit so much in, and this goes back to the unrealistic expectations. You don’t have to start with five workouts a week. If you are easing back into exercise right now, because a lot of women that I work with, they say, “Well, I’m embarrassed to say, but my exercise regime is pretty much me walking to and from the car and up and down the stairs at work.” So something like that, start with say two times a week. A client, we started working together about a year ago, but we started her with walking. Walking her kids to school in the morning, one kilometer there, one kilometer back. That’s two clicks. Great. Can’t remember how many steps that was. And then two to three strength training workouts a week, just 20 minutes. That worked for her. And then she really got a good hang of that. And I think it was about two months later, we upped her steps, brought in a lunchtime walk. Layer this stuff in, take a progressive approach. You don’t have to go full tilt right out of the gate. And using that question again, right? The thing that I decide to do for exercise right now, is this sustainable with what’s going on in my life right now? So layer it in. The other thing I like to mention here is cardio and strength. And I do get this question a lot. And for fitness, especially for women’s fitness, hormonal health, and sustainable, I’ll say maintaining your muscle mass, because that’s a big piece here as you’re losing weight. But strength training is really important. I didn’t start including strength training until maybe like six to nine months ago, just doing it twice a week, 20 minutes. And then aerial silks once a week, which is a better hour class. But that again, that was something that I layered in over time. But strength training is so beneficial. Cardio, I mean, I personally love cardio. I find it very therapeutic, getting my heart rate up and just releases these endorphins, you know, the runner’s high. You guys know that. I love running, I love hiking, I love cycling, biking, mountain biking, all that stuff. And it’s really great for your cardiovascular health. And honestly, here’s my opinion on exercise. You know, should we do strength or cardio? Strength for sure to keep your muscle mass maintained. And to be honest with you, I think cardio is really important too. And the science shows us that. And if you’re a strength gal, you can keep rolling with strength. If you’re a cardio gal, keep rolling with cardio. But I do highly encourage you to bring in some strength at some degree, but again, doing something that you love because strength training doesn’t have to mean (and this is almost redefining what strength training means) it doesn’t mean you going into the gym, lifting these huge weights and grunting and groaning like an animal. That doesn’t have to be strength training. It could be something like, you know, I’m just coming up with this idea, but do they do weighted Pilates? I don’t know. If so, great. If not, I gotta make that class. Strength training could look like using some 15-pound weights and doing some functional movement with a trainer at the gym or doing something like one of the YouTube videos online. What does it grow with Joe? She’s got some awesome stuff. So you can redefine what strength training means or what strength training looks like. Same thing for silks, right? I kind of had to redefine that too. It’s like, “Well, that’s strength training. For sure it is. Am I lifting massive weights above my head? No, but I’m moving my, I’m lifting body strengths or my body weight.”

Strength training can be redefined as a versatile and effective method for busy working women and busy moms to improve their fitness and overall health. One important tip is to remember that some minutes of exercise are always better than no minutes at all. Whether you can dedicate 20, 15, or even just 10 minutes, every bit counts. This accumulation effect can have a significant impact over the course of a day. For example, breaking up your daily step count into multiple short walks can result in a substantial increase over time. Similarly, incorporating short strength training sessions or quick workout videos can provide noticeable benefits.

It’s easy to get caught up in unrealistic expectations when it comes to exercise. Many of us think we need to spend hours at the gym or commit to intense workout routines to see results. However, life often throws us curveballs that make it difficult to stick to such rigid plans. Instead of getting discouraged or putting off exercise entirely, it’s crucial to modify our approach. Even if you can’t spare a full hour, finding 20 minutes in your day to move your body is still a significant achievement. Give yourself credit for showing up and exercising, regardless of the time spent. This reassurance helps build confidence and allows you to feel good about your progress.

It’s easy to become fixated on visible results like weight loss or inches lost. However, these changes don’t happen overnight, especially with exercise and nutrition. It’s a common pitfall to become frustrated when immediate physical changes aren’t apparent after just a few workouts. But it’s important to take a step back and remind yourself that your body didn’t change overnight either. The process of getting unfit or gaining weight took years, and it will take time to reverse those changes. Patience is key.

Rather than focusing solely on physical transformations, shift your perspective to appreciate the immediate gratifications of exercise. Even in a 20-minute workout, you may not lose significant weight or inches, but you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment for showing up and following through on your commitment to yourself. The mood-lifting effects of exercise are immediate, allowing you to think more clearly, focus better, and regulate your emotions. These immediate rewards are worth celebrating and can keep you motivated on your journey.

Instead of fixating on numbers on a scale or measuring tape, redirect your attention to the immediate benefits you experience during and after exercise. By appreciating the joy, satisfaction, and sense of achievement that comes from moving your body, you can cultivate a healthier relationship with exercise. Weight loss and physical changes will come as a byproduct of consistently showing up and enjoying the process. It’s about falling in love with the act of moving your body and nurturing a healthy lifestyle that you genuinely appreciate.

If you resonate with the tips shared here and feel drawn to my approach, I invite you to reach out and discuss your goals. No strings attached, just a genuine conversation to explore how I can help you achieve sustainable weight loss and level up your life. Your dreams of a healthy and happy lifestyle can become a reality, and I am here to support you every step of the way. My signature coaching program spans six months because I believe true transformation requires time and commitment. Imagine the progress you could make by starting now and envision yourself entering the new year without the pressure of resolutions but with a solid foundation for a thriving life. Reach out to me on Instagram or check my show notes to learn more about working together.

Don’t forget to tune in to part three of this series on my personal health and weight loss journey. I’ll be sharing valuable nutrition strategies, game-changing techniques, and systems that have helped me lose weight, maintain it while building a business, and stay energized and satisfied. I’m excited to share these insights with you so that you can experience the same positive shifts. Your healthy and happy lifestyle starts now, and I’m here to guide you on this incredible journey. Thank you for being part of the Reclaim Podcast community. Your support means the world to me, and I genuinely believe in your ability to achieve your goals and be successful in everything you set your mind to.