Words of Wellness with Shelly

From Fitness OG To Longevity Coach: A Practical Path To Joyful Health with Cathy Savage

• Shelly Jefferis • Season 3 • Episode 158

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If health felt lighter, would you show up more often? We sit down with fitness pioneer Cathy Savage to reframe longevity as a joyful, no-extremes path you can live with today and still love a decade from now. Cathy helped redefine what success looks like in the gym; now she’s bringing that health-first mindset to food, movement, sleep, stress, and brain health so you can add life to your years.

We talk about building a sustainable rhythm with Mediterranean-style eating, rhythmic protein, and fiber without turning meals into math problems. Walking takes center stage—yes, it counts—with a special focus on 10–15 minute post-meal walks to blunt glucose spikes and aid digestion. For strength, Cathy introduces micro bursts: 10-minute, high-quality sessions two to three times weekly that fit real schedules and deliver real results through consistency and progressive challenge.

Stress and sleep get a practical makeover. Think boundaries as bowling bumpers, sleep choreography that trains your nervous system, and routines that protect your time. Cathy shares a heartfelt perspective on brain health—why community, insulin control, quality sleep, and purpose matter—and how to “map your decades” so today’s habits match tomorrow’s dreams, like chasing grandkids or traveling with ease. Personalization anchors everything: ditch one-size-fits-all rules, design what works for your physiology, and let simple wins stack up.

Ready to design your future health before it designs you? Press play, then share the one small habit you’ll start today. If this conversation helped you, subscribe, leave a review, and pass it to a friend who needs a hopeful, doable plan for lasting wellness.

CONNECT WITH CATHY:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathysavageofficial
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CathySavage


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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShellyJefferis

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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!
In Health,

Shelly

SPEAKER_00:

It's wonderful how everything is all about longevity now. I like to say that I have the receipts from about five or six years ago, uh posting on Facebook and everywhere else saying longevity is going to outpace the fitness world. Longevity is here to stay. Anything that you would see in the fitness world, like you and I were just talking about, it's really living joyfully, living with purpose, things that you do well in life, just really having that purpose-centric philosophy of being really genuinely happy.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you get confused by all of the information that bombards us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated, or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing? What foods you should or should not be eating? How to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries, and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more. To share tips, education, and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker, and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you. To bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness, and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will, we all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives full of energy, happiness, and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly, and I'll be your host. And I could not be more excited to have my guest on today. I consider her to be, she's an icon. She's an icon. She's an OG. She's a pioneer in the fitness space for sure. She was the first to bring fitness into onto, I should say, the online space. And she has just excelled from there in the wellness space, the longevity space, and over 35 years in this industry. She has definitely left her mark and continues to do so. And I'm over the moon to have her. Kathy Savage, welcome. Oh, thank you, Shelly. Thank you for such nice words. I'm happy to be here. I'm very happy to have you. And I know we we could talk for a really long time. So I think that we should just dive right in as to a little bit about what has brought you to where you are today. Because for our listeners who might not know, you truly are the OG. And you started out winning your career by training women fitness bodybuilders, correct? That was the beginning.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was over 35 years ago. Um after college, I really missed my competitive days of doing things, competing, sports. I've always been a huge sports fan. And I actually thought my career was going to be in broadcasting, sports broadcasting. So when that didn't happen, I got really, really uh in tune with uh the gym. I was teaching aerobics, I was doing all kinds of things um to stay healthy, doing a little personal training here and there. And I worked out at a gym. It was called World Gym in Dedham, Massachusetts, which at the time was the Mecca for fitness and bodybuilding. And fitness itself hadn't started yet. It was just bodybuilding. And I became super friendly with a lot of the bodybuilders who were getting ready for shows. And right around that time, there was this new federation or this new division rather called fitness. And it was the thing that you see on ESPN with the girls doing the one-arm push-ups and the gymnastics, and they're in swimsuits. They're not bodybuilders, they just look like they're really in great shape. And that sport was just starting. So it wasn't on ESPN yet, but I jumped right in without a playbook. And the rest is history. I started competing myself, and people liked what I did. So they asked me to help them, which was that, you know, light bulb moment, having studied the greatest sports coaches. I said, I have a niche here and I'm going to build this individualized new sport as a team concept. And that's what I did. And that's how I started all those years ago, um, without, like, again, a playbook, with just a pure desire to bring women together and do it the healthy way, which wasn't really the norm in the industry. And uh, like I always tell people in business, you want to stand out, you want to have your own unique zone of genius. And I leaned into it. And here I am today, all these years later.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so amazing. And a little funny side note, I don't know if you'd say funny, but I actually did some of those aerobic competitions back in the day. So when you talk about the one-on-pus-up and I think about all the hours that we spent and they spend in the gym, I just go, gosh, of course, could never do it nowadays, but it's a huge commitment. Yeah. And for you coaching a lot of those women, it must have taken a lot of a lot of time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was. Um, it was a wonderful labor of love because we really didn't spend hours in the gym, unlike everybody else. Um, it was the way I did it was I put their health first and they were in and out of the gym under an hour, yet gracing the cover of magazines. So it's kind of funny when I hear all these people say, you got to be in the gym two hours and you got to eat this. And meanwhile, we won every world title. We were on the covers of every magazine, doing it the healthy way. And so, but commitment, yes. It was a commitment, just like anything, of consistency. And I think, you know, even if you were never a competitor, we know that even just our own health goals, the successful people are the most consistent people. So it's it kind of mirrors just regular traditional lifestyle goals, uh, just the same as any sport or any athlete.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's such a great point. And gosh, I wish I knew you back then because we were spending hours in the gym. But of course, we did like a team, uh, it was a three of us. So we had to be all together with the whole routine. And but I remember back in those days, spent like you're saying, was spending hours practicing, hours in the gym, eating just chicken breasts and rice and broccoli, like, ooh. And I mean, I yeah, it would have been great to have had you back then, but now this is great to have you on here today so you can share, share all of your expertise with everyone. And through the years, it has brought you, or what you started with, brought you into the wellness, kind of the nutrition industry, and now into the longevity space. Do you want to share a little bit how that kind of evolved for you?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it it's wonderful how everything is all about longevity now. I like to say that I have the receipts from about five or six years ago, uh, posting on Facebook and everywhere else saying longevity is going to outpace the fitness world. Longevity is here to stay. And so many people would look at me or talk to me and say, What are you talking about? You mean like wellness, right? I'm like, no, it's more than what it's more than that. And it was probably because I read a book called The Blue Zones a mil, you know, a while ago. And I just started adapting to kind of what my philosophy was about health first and no deprivation and joyful eating and a consistent schedule that you could participate in without ignoring or uh putting your family off the priority list. That was always my goal with my competitors and my traditional clients. And so bringing longevity into the mix, again, where the blue zones was really talking about it first before it's gotten so technical, that was kind of just it added so much more enhancement to what I was already doing as a coach. And I always say there's a difference between a trainer and a coach. A trainer is counting reps with you and working on your personal best in the moment that they're with you. And a coach is different. They're strategists, they're thinking ahead, they're reverse engineering goals. And I've always seen myself as a strategist. Unlike a lot of coaches, I really again studied the greatest sports coaches in the world and kind of brought that into my own repertoire, if you will. But longevity is really kind of more of adding life to your years and adding quality and how you live your life, how well you live your life, not just living longer. And so as I got older, I became more interested in that. As I saw people in their 80s and 90s having full functional mobility, and then seeing people in their 40s and 50s, not having that. I wanted to be ahead of the game. I wanted to be a leader in this entire movement, which is where I am now. And I put both feet in, as you know, because this is the industry that is not only gonna create a lot of careers for people, but it's also gonna make us, the consumer, look at our health much more cerebral. We're gonna think about things. And the beautiful part about this is it's really just leaning into a healthy lifestyle. It isn't any extremes. There aren't any anything that you would see in the fitness world, like you and I were just talking about. It's really living joyfully, living with purpose, um, things that you do well in life, just really having that purpose-centric philosophy of being really genuinely happy and eating foods that give you joy and celebrating food with your friends instead of depriving yourself and moving your body every day instead of spending hours at the gym, and developing stress protocols so that you can handle what's coming your way instead of just spiraling, and then, of course, sleep protocols to really just kind of address our central nervous system and our circadian rhythms and really getting more on structured regimens as opposed to just staying up all night and sleeping in, just really kind of focusing on just taking care of ourselves in a different way for the decades to come.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. I just so, as you know too, I think that I am so in alignment with what you are doing and with everything that you are sharing. And it's so interesting because I think, gosh, uh, I think I shared this with you before, is that I have been sharing about longevity uh for a while, never really putting the term longevity out there. And now it's like, okay, it's out there because this is this is a big deal. And I am so with you on helping people feel uh good in their skin, live a quality, have a good quality of life, live for a long time, but in those years, feel good and have that vitality and joy, like you're saying. And I know, and this is probably true for you as well, being a mom, that that gives us so much more. I don't know if we would say purpose and motivation, but I know for me, and it this isn't for those of you who might not be moms or not a mom yet, um, it's just part of the uh experience. So we want the best, not just for ourselves to be healthy the way I look at it, be healthy for my family, my kids, but to carry it and pass it on to them. And like you're saying, this is this is carrying into future generations. And I shared not that long ago that like we we must make changes. Like when we look at what's been going on in the health system and the health of people and chronic disease, uh, we have to take the trip the reins and make changes. And so again, of course, kudos to you for starting the charge for sure. It's been amazing to watch.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, thank you. And I think something you said was very powerful there about you know, our families, our children. Um, this is something that I do ask my clients to kind of and again, unlike traditional fitness coaching or wellness coaching, part of longevity coaching is again, like you mentioned, that purpose connection, but also mapping your decades, meaning, what is what am I doing right now for my food, my movement, my sleep, and my stress that's going to help catapult me into better health for the decade ahead. And so as longevity coaches, we're looking at, hey, you're 50, but what do we want to, where do we want to be when we're 60? Do we want to be going to Disney World with our grandchildren? How old are your grandchildren? I want to know these things because I'm gonna make sure that a 50-year-old woman who's planning that big trip to Disney when she's 60 has her steps in, her VO2 max is good. She's able to get up from her seat with ease. So we're again, I always say it's a more cerebral approach to wellness, which sounds kind of terrible because it makes it sound like wellness isn't cerebral in thinking, but it's just vision casting and thinking ahead of what you want the next decades to look like. And having your children as your North Star or your future children or your future grandchildren, it's a great way to further instill your purpose into your healthy goals.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think it this just makes me think of also, I used to, when I was teaching my college students in person, we would talk often about functional fitness, functional health. And I feel like this ties right in also, right? As far as being able to do those everyday activities, but also be able to take your grandkids to Disneyland, be able to go out to the park, run around with them at the park, all these things that we don't think about when we're younger. But as we get a little bit older, those things become more and more important, as they should.

SPEAKER_00:

They really do. And we can't forget about brain health. So a great example is my mom was an athlete dancer, so energetic growing up. In fact, you know, when she was in her 70s, you could see the quadriceps of her legs. She was so athletic, competitive tennis player, all the things that people used to just marvel at her physical conditioning. Um, but as time went on, and when I lost my dad, it really hit her hard. And she was older, losing her husband, the man of her, you know, the man of her love of her life. And she really slipped into a decline. And she was lonely, even though we were with her every day. I mean, at the time, I lived seven houses away from her. My siblings all lived around it, couldn't be a better situation. We saw her every day, but you can be lonely in front of other people. And one thing that when she was diagnosed with dementia, it was just a gut punch because there was literally nothing to be done. And we could, I searched and researched and tried to find the best doctors. I'm in Boston. We have the best of the best here, and there was nobody really doing the real research that the public knew about at the time. Fast forward all these years later, longevity and brain health are a big conversation. And we know that there are things that we can do, protocols we can follow. The research is there, we're making strides. And so part of the longevity concept is to also assess brain health and things that you can do or things that you can add to make sure that your brain is healthier as the decades go by. So it isn't even just about mobility, it's about our brain health. So I'm really happy that this type of industry is taking center stage with remarkable, remarkable physicians doing incredible research. And we have just an army of people that we are working with, and you're part of this too, the collective of really making advancements so that we can help people in all aspects of their mental awareness, their physicality, their function in life, their purpose. Um, it really encompasses all of those neighborhoods of health, whereas traditional wellness really didn't per se. I mean, we we talk about stress there, but not in the category where longevity is residing. Even the big the biggest tech companies are getting involved. We've got apps, we've got biomarkers, uh, lab work is kind of just the norm now where it wasn't five years ago. And so it's a very exciting time in the longevity space.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I that is all so exciting and so so important. I mean, as you're talking and you going through it with your mom, I remember my grandfather had Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and it is so heartbreaking because, like you're saying, there's nothing that you can do, but now we have more hope with research that's coming out and things that we can do, and that's just so huge. How long ago did you lose your mom to dementia?

SPEAKER_00:

My mom passed in 2018, so it was a while ago, and uh, but my dad passed in 2013, and so one of the biggest things from a uh brain health or um an emotional awareness uh stature is that when things hit us so stressfully, or when things hit that generation in such a way, there's a there's a decline. And people seem to think that if you do A, B, and C with your mobility that you're gonna be fine. And you're not, uh it's not always the case. My mother was the picture of health. She was an athlete well into her late 70s. And it took something so traumatic to lose my dad to just really have her spiral. Everybody thought she was going to be the one that was so independent. I mean, she had two master's degrees. She skipped her grade when she was young. She didn't fit the criteria of someone who was going to fall apart, but she did. And that's what brought me into a lot of this research because I just she just didn't fit the narrative. But in speaking to so many people, it was there were things that we could have done. We cradled her and we kind of over-mothered her instead of really encouraging her to get out more and to see all the friends. She really, really um did not do that. And we were just so worried about her. We weren't equipped. Um, but we should have done certain things. We didn't have the supplementations that we have now. Um, there were a lot of things that were out of our control, but I think that's why I'm getting loud about it because when people do have these situations, there there is more hope um than what we had at the time. And unfortunately, this this disease is just beyond cruel. It is one of the worst things to see someone who was so accomplished in her life just um just be reduced to this diagnosis. It was terrible. And again, the hope is that we can really make major strides in this by doing simple things, by reducing our stress, by really controlling our insulin. These were things that were never spoken about when it came to Alzheimer's and dementia, to get care from professionals who now are leading the charge. Those people were non-existent back then. So there's a lot of hope, and um that's a big part of my crusade to get that information out, especially to families who are dealing with it.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I know I can so relate to your whole experience. And I know we've talked about this a little bit because I went through some not so much similar, but having my both my parents lose their battle with different illnesses. My mom had cancer, and and she it was her diagnosis, and a year later she was gone. And so, same kind of thing, like you're talking about, Kathy. It lights a fire under you to do more, to research more, to share more, and to get the word out to just the world as to we need to do better, we can do better, and it it definitely is exciting, but I know I went through some phases where I mean I think it's natural to have a little bit of anger mixed in, where you're like, this should have never ever happened. And when you talk about your experience and kind of coddling your mom, I mean we'd we're not obviously trained or taught how to care for our parents in that kind of a situation back then. It would be different now, right? I would put my foot down, especially with my dad. I would put my foot down a lot more than I did. But we learn, and this is what has brought us to what we're doing today. And I just again, I applaud you for what you are doing and sharing the message. And I'm so happy you brought this topic of up of brain health because it's so huge. And to know that there's so much research going into it now and so much, so much that we can do. And also I think it's so important for listeners to really take everything in that Kathy is saying, uh, but the really big point is it doesn't have to be anything extravagant. You can take simple steps to make big changes that will last well into the future. Can you share maybe some things that listeners can take away today, some things they can maybe implement like right away that will start to kind of help them in some of these different areas?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And you just hit it out of the ballpark. It isn't extravagant. Now, with longevity medicine, that can get a little pricey. You can go to these big facilities and have a lot of testing done. And I love all that. I'm really into it. Maybe I'm gonna open up my own. I don't know. However, there's so many things that you can do right now without all that stuff, and that's what really fires me up. Um, I'm actually, I was just putting together this five-day Mediterranean plan for my clients. Um, it's called the Eat Like You're in Greece, because that's really what we encourage. So I look at longevity in four quadrants: food, movement, sleep, and stress. And so, food, what people can do now is again, eat like you're in Greece. Eat beautiful Mediterranean style nutritional foods that you love. Um, and it's kind of like traditional to the heart healthy uh protocol that most doctors follow. And so that's what's so funny. This is not a trend. This is nothing new. This is something that's validated, that really actually works. Now, following it is another thing, which is why you need a coach, but the but you can make those changes right now. Um, I call it rhythmic protein, making sure protein is at every meal, encouraging fiber, eating a lot of vegetables and a lot of fruit, and just enjoying your food, eating till you're 80% full and then stopping is another philosophy within the blue zones and um all kinds of the research that really help elongate our lives in a good way. And then we have the movement quadrant. Do you really have to have an expensive gym membership? No, but you should walk all the time, everywhere, everywhere. You should do pharma carries, put two big whatever in your hand, whether they're dumbbells or heavy things, and walk around your house a lot. There are things that you can do that don't require a gym. If you have a gym membership, use it. But you don't have to be there every day for hours, unless you enjoy it. I mean, when I was young, I didn't have any responsibility. I used to love to go to the gym and kind of hang out. But two hours.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I had two hours to kill, I guess. But movement is just everything, everything. And walking is exercise. And I know there's people who say it isn't. And I'm here to tell you it's exercise. Don't let anyone tell you it's not. It is. And what I love about walking and the power of walking is if you're not doing anything, if you start walking now, what's going to happen is you are going to get so used to it, then you're going to try some weight resistance. It's it opens the door, it's a gateway for more exercise. So I don't like when people say it's not exercise. It absolutely is. And then for sleep, what they can do is I love, I call it sleep choreography, whereas you really just kind of design your own schedule to go to sleep. Uh, you can luxuriate your face with beautiful skincare products. You can just really kind of make going to bed a thing, get the lights down an hour before, and prepare your body. It's the best way to start your night. So that's something you can do. Put on some great classical music or some pretend that you're in a spa and do the spa music. I do that. My family loves it. And then the last quadrant, which is the biggest quadrant of all, our stress quadrant, where that kind of covers relationships and finances and career and responsibility. There's so much responsibility that women have, especially on their backs. And this is really a big part of longevity coaching. We really kind of look at really reverse engineering a lot of the responsibility that we think we have, but also setting up boundaries. I like to call it the bowling alley. Remember when you were young, they put bumpers up. Um, not when I was young, but with my kids. And I used to be like, well, that's really cool because it helps you stay in your lane. And so when you stay in your lane and you have boundaries and you can say no and stop saying yes to everything, that is how we can really kind of manage our central nervous system. So there's little things that you can do before you go to the big steps of longevity and take two feet in and really discover longevity medicine and start working with a physician. There's so many things that you can do before that even happens. And it's wonderful to see so many women in their 40s, 50s, 60s making major changes in their health, having incredible lab results just by doing some of the things that I described.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's amazing. Again, it goes back to just making small, taking some small steps, small action steps make such a big difference. Uh it's so interesting to go back to when you're talking about eating to when you're 80% full. I mean, when are we ever taught that? Like never. I don't recall ever. Now I was never, I didn't grow up with my parents saying, clear your plate, clean your plate, nothing like that. But when we think back to years ago, like you never hear that as a recommendation. And it's so, so helpful. And then also to your point about walking, I have to say, yes, I have to admit that, yeah, years, years, years ago, I was that person that, like, unless I didn't get my run in, I didn't feel like I got a workout in. And that's all shifted now. I know that walking is like the best thing we can do. It's it's of course less impact on our bodies, but it's such a great way to just get exercise and experience nature and to gain clarity and to de-stress. Um, I've been teaching a walking class for quite a few years now, and I just love seeing my students, because I I will ask them at the end, what what were the biggest benefits? What did you experience? And so much of it, most of the time, is the more energy but also less stress. And I'll be like, yes, that's exactly what I want to see. I don't, I don't even, I don't even focus on the physical part. Yes, some of them will say, Oh, I lost a little weight, but it's like that's not even up on the high on the totem pole, you know, as far as results and the benefits. And I think that just I agree.

SPEAKER_00:

It is such a great stress outlet for just about everything. And it's funny, sometimes people will say, Oh, I listen to um, I listen to a podcast on politics, or I listen to someone's podcast where they yell a lot. And I always say, I I I like that you love that stuff. That's cool, but use that walking time for to just center yourself. Listen to natural type music. It really is good for you. Um, nature sounds or uh whatever just calms you down, uh worship music or nostalgia music, things from your childhood, something that where the walking actually becomes an experience. Because a lot of times we say, Oh, I'm gonna listen to a meeting on my call, or I'm gonna listen to this. And while there's always place places for that, the magic behind walking is to really transport you out of your stress and just just lavish yourself with peace and connection and grounding. And so, just like when we want to go outside for about 10 minutes in the sun, I these are just little things that, yeah, like you said, we used to roll our eyes when we were young. We we'd be like, what can this do? Well, research tells us it can do a lot. So uh we see the results all the time with our clients and with people we love, and it really does make a difference. I'm glad you're doing a walking class. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, it's been it's been quite interesting. And I I've taught it for a long time, and and I'm almost I'm not embarrassed to share, but since the country was shut down, this class is online. And when I say that, I if you would have asked me 10, 15 years ago, Shirley, you're gonna be teaching an online walking class, I would have been like, no, that's not even possible. And we cannot do a fitness class online. But here we are. And so you get creative, but they do it and it's great. And I love it, and I love seeing the results, and it just it kind of keeps me in with my students a little bit because again, I'm really haven't been in person much at all, you know, these last few years. And uh so it's a great, great way to influence some of these younger, these younger, uh up and coming you know, people. So it's great. So the other thing about walking, I was gonna mention too, and you can speak on this. I I know I've I read it and I've seen that it's such a benefit after a meal, after dinner, to and it doesn't have to be a long walk, but just a little bit of movement. So the benefits to that, you want to share a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it is it what you know what's really great about longevity too is these things that come out, you almost want to say to yourself, Well, of course that works. Why haven't we been doing that? And this is something that is so vital when you have insulin resistance, or your you your sugars tend to run high, or your uh metabolism needs address uh issues in your metabolism. A simple walk 10 to 15 minutes after every major meal does a world of good. And we have seen that uh there are less sugar spikes, there is there are less um issues with digestion, all of it. Just a simple walk. And you know, it's funny. There was one night I did not want to walk, I did not want to go upstairs and get on my treadmill because we all have those days, and it was a blizzard outside, and I wanted to watch the football game, and I marched in place for 10 minutes. That's how that's how important it can be to many of us if we're watching our sugar intake or we understand that digestion is so much better when we do that. Instead of eating a lot and then sitting down, it just it's just not good for your overall health, no matter who you are. And so getting in that ritual of just a 10-minute walk makes a world of difference after you, after you eat. And you might say, Well, I'm at work, I can't do it. Um, if you have a walking desk, you can do it, or if you have what I have under my desk, it's a little, I always call it my little um, you know, elliptical. I keep that under my desk so that my legs are always moving. I mean, when you get older, these are the things that will keep you young. So it's worth it. It's worth a try to just even calf phrases at five, five minutes right after you eat. Do you need to run out to the gym? No, you can literally even sit at the dinner table, listen to your kids' stories, and do calf phrases while you're there. All of these things make a world of difference in your overall health picture.

SPEAKER_01:

And the movement is so critical. I'm noticing that at this stage. And I I don't I I try, I shouldn't say try, I avoid the three-letter word of sounds like rhymes like with cold. I always tell my husband, don't say that word. But I notice if I've been sitting for a little bit, I it's so evident now. Like I'm like, okay, I have to get up and move. I need to go for a walk. I need to do some stairs something. And it's it's even more critical in later years, along with, and we haven't touched upon the stretching and the strength training, but all of it is so, so critical. And again, it doesn't have to be a lot, and it doesn't have to be very strenuous, but it has to be something.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. This the new standards of weight resistance is about two to three times a week for a woman. And you may say, like a lot of my gym goers are like, what? Two times a week? I could never do that, or three times. Um, and yes, you can. You really can. If a good workout is a good workout, and I've always said that a lot of my clients still love the five-day, they just love it, and that's cool too. But the standard of the minimum of what you should do is two to three times a week, and that is possible. I created micro bursts for my clients who are high performers, they usually work 12-hour days, they have families, and they do 10-minute workouts. And you may laugh about those, but the results they're getting are through the roof. And it's not because the workout is so monumental, it's the consistency. Because if you tell a woman that you have to do A, B, and C and they're just looking at the enormous amount of responsibility they have, they're gonna just piece out. They're not gonna do it. And that happens too often because, like you said, we have so much stress in our lives. I like to call it responsibility. We have so much responsibility. We are responsible for everything and everyone, it seems. So if you can do 10-minute blasts or bursts that hit every major muscle group and you're consistent with it, you are going to see results. This is, these are the things that, yes, we want you to train and challenge yourself. We don't want you doing the little cute little pink weights. We want you challenging yourself, but it doesn't have to be this Steven Spielberg cinematography that you know, cinematic motion picture of going to the gym for hours. It doesn't have to be that. It can be just some weights next to your bed and just hitting the weights consistently. That's really what the research is saying. Now you're gonna see a full of fitness people say that doesn't work. Well, I was a fitness person, and I can tell you the difference between some of my clients who are doing five days a week and some of my clients who are just doing 10-minute micro bursts, there's really not that much of a difference. It because sometimes the five-day weakers are on vacation or they can't make it, or something happens, or their kid is sick, they miss workouts, and then they miss another workout, and then they miss another one because the workout itself is driving to the gym, it takes an hour, it's a whole production. But a 10-minute workout is not a production, therefore, it's never missed. And so there's a lot of strategy that goes behind this. And of course, at the end of the day, you have to have results, and we do. We have receipts, we have results that it all works.

SPEAKER_01:

It's so true what you're saying. You know, I recently started going to a local yoga studio, and it's close enough where I can walk, and that's really attractive to me. So I would walk, take class, walk home. But you're so right because I've been for so many years going, we have these great paths in Paseos where I run and walk, and then we have some weights here at home. And factoring in the getting to and from wherever you're going to work out at is something to factor in. It definitely changes things a little bit. And it's not that it's not doable, but when you have something like you're saying, that you can just jump in and do from home that's 10 minutes, that's that's phenomenal. I love that.

SPEAKER_00:

That's I mean, we just have so much responsibility. When I think back about how I would drive to the gym and spend an hour, and it was awesome. And there are women who can do that with their schedule. And to you, I say, bravo, good for you. But that's not the case with everybody else. And if you really look at the amount of responsibility you have in your life, many of us, and I dealt with this with my parents, so I'm very well aware and sensitive to it. You could have kids that are young, you could have aging parents, you're in that sandwich generation. All bets are off there. Your life is not your own. You are responsible for so many things, and then your career. Not forget about that and friendships and all of the things that the world is asking you to be front and center for. As a woman, there's never been a time like this. It's it's really every woman I talk to, and I talk to a lot, is dealing with this. And so what can we do? Instead of saying you need to do this, that, and the other thing, my question is, what can we do to make this work for you? So if you want to go to the gym five days a week because you have the time, awesome. But if you don't, it doesn't mean all bets are off. Let's devise a plan that can we can look at your time and what you can give and let's make it happen. And I that's the cerebral approach to longevity because it just didn't exist in the fitness world. It was all or nothing. If you're not doing this, this is why you're not getting results. It just longevity is such a it's such a better environment to be in.

SPEAKER_01:

It really truly is. And I I that never sat well, and it obviously doesn't now, but that never sat well with me either, the all or nothing. That's never been a part of what I've recommended or I've done for myself either. And and also when it comes to I know that we could talk about this, it's a whole other episode, but restricting ourselves, you know, when it comes to certain things, oh, I can't have that, or I can't have that, or having a whole, you know, I understand like the protein optimization and and that rhythm, like you called it, that's important. And having a little bit of a routine with with our food, but at the same time, personally, for me, I have never ever been one to weigh anything, uh count the calories, don't have this, do this. Or when I see people counting their macros, I'm like good for you. If you can do it, it's working for you because it does work for some people, but that's never been, I just it's just never been something that I I've taken the time to do, nor have I wanted to, and nor have I felt the need to. And I don't know, I'm not trying to come off as you know, better than that's not it at all. But I'm like, I just don't want to take the time to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, that just seems like well, it it's again reducing women to numbers. And if we really don't want to be a number, why are we reducing ourselves to a number? It's like getting on the scale. And like you said, if it works for you, great. But having done this for 35 plus years, I can tell you that it can lead to disordered behavior when you are literally counting every morsel, putting it in a notebook, and just freaking out if you don't hit your numbers. I remember women, we we used to do macros for a very short time, 30 plus years ago. And the women that did it, it literally drove them crazy. But the biggest part of that is it just doesn't tell the story. It's just a number. Um, it just doesn't tell the story. Do you sit all day or do you stand all day? It these things matter with what you're bringing into your body. And so I'll never forget when we changed over to just portions because we started people on portions and then eyeballing them, suddenly everybody was stress-free. Some suddenly everybody could hit their goals. Suddenly, everybody looked at food not as a math equation, but fulfillment. And, you know, it's just so funny to hear people say it's this or nothing. I like when people have a system or a rhythm that works for them and I wouldn't change it. But unfortunately, it does have to change every now and then. It just you get to a point where it doesn't work anymore. And then you then you just have to adjust this and adjust that. But if you really eat with intention, like every single world champion of mine did, who didn't measure their food and who didn't do all these things that people say you have to do, I just kind of giggle a little because I can see the results in my clients. And they would someone would ask them at a show, like, how much do you weigh? They're like, I have no idea. I don't, Kathy doesn't allow us to weigh ourselves, or how much do you get in for this? What are your what are your macros? And they'd be like, I don't know, they don't know. And while again, it works for many people, especially if you are starting, you can like look at portions of, and that's what I love to do. I love to kind of give people like a snapshot of what portions could look like with the intention of actually teaching them how to eyeball things, knowing that this might be too much for me and I'm gonna feel really full. But also enjoying food, again, celebrating, unless you're getting ready for a photo shoot or doing something where you're kind of like really trying to get ready for something, it's still if you eat 30 meals a week, or that you know, my clients will eat maybe four to five meals a day, uh, depending on who they are. So, but even just four, four times seven is 28. If you're eating 28 meals a week and one or two of those meals on a Friday and Saturday night with your family are not, you know, the most perfect things in the world. Do you really think those two meals are going to have that much power over the 26 that were really great and fortified with filled with fiber and beautiful colored vegetables and uh protein that sustained you? It's just doesn't work that way. I know people want to um dramatize and romanticize the off-track meals, but when you do things consistently and you're saying to yourself, I need to get my protein in for the day, that's not the same as measuring and counting. That is just really being strategic. And when you have that power to do it and you're not trying desperately to make all these equations work, it actually works out really well for you. And I can guarantee you that the people living the longest in the world are not tracking macros or counting calories. They're not. So if you do it and you love it, great. But it isn't for everybody. That is for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that is for sure. No, that's so great. Everything that you just shared. That's so, so important. I it's funny when you say about the scale too. I don't own a scale. The only time I get weight is when I go and have my physical, you know, go to my doctor once a year. And uh, you know, it's it is what I think it comes back to when you when you see a number. I often think back to, you know, we want people to exercise at least two to three times a week, but I remember back sharing with my students at least three times a week, at least 30 minutes. And that that is still important, but I also feel like sometimes that can discourage people because, like you're saying, someone that's that has a very full schedule, they might look at that and go, I don't have 30 minutes, so therefore I'm not gonna do it at all. Right. So it goes back to your your 10 minute bursts and how beneficial that can be.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, one of the biggest complaints I have with a lot of people in our industry, just the overall industry, is the I call it the should. What you should do, you should do this. And that just casts a wide blanket and really neglects the fact that our physiology is a different. I have clients who can have Pop Tarts and pizza and look amazing. Do I want them eating those things? Not really, but who am I to judge if they really feel amazing? Um, I encourage them to eat healthier foods. But if that's their thing and it works for them, great. So I am never going to be that person to say, you need to do this, this, and this. Everybody's different. Everybody. That's what makes our bodies masterpieces. They're they're a miracle. Um, I can do things that someone else can't, and vice versa. So the purpose of coaching is to figure out what works for each person's physiology. Um, when I had my savage girls and they were like thousands of them, they didn't all eat the same thing. People would say, Oh my God, can you send me what so-and-so eats? And I'd like, it's just not, it may not work for you. And people would say, Oh, you just don't want to tell us. And I'd be like, No, this is why I actually am a coach, because everybody's physiology is different. And what we have to do as women is we have to figure out what works best for us. And so while I encourage, that's why I encourage heart healthy because it's kind of universal. Pretty much is it's not a trend, it's not a this is what you should do. And then two years later they're gonna say it's it's wrong. The Mediterranean heart healthy way has been around forever. And so you can tweak it and make it what you really want it to be, but it's a great foundation for whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish when it comes to your nutritional protocol. But yeah, it's it's yes, we can make recommendations, but at the end of the day, everybody's physiology is different. And it's it's kind of like an adventure to figure out what's best for you.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so great. Oh, I love that. I love that. I it just there's so many thoughts that come to mind. I know we need to wrap things up and we could talk forever. But it's like when you have, you know, two friends that are on this mission to get you know in shape and maybe lose a little weight and eat healthier. And they're I would tell them when this would happen in some of my classes, look, you're both like you're saying, you are two different bodies and two different body types. It's not gonna, you're not gonna be on the same, you know, projection in in your fitness and your results. And uh it's so so true. We have to really cater and work for people in what's gonna help them individually. It's so key. Thank you so much for for sharing about that. It's so critical. Oh, you're welcome. Uh so tell us how can people get in touch with you, Kathy? I know you have a very full schedule, but if anybody wanted to reach out to you about coaching, your longevity program, we didn't even get into that, but maybe next time, what's the best?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, um, my longevity coach institute is the ecosystem where everything lives where I where I am. I founded the institute to be the premier educational platform for aspiring coaches to learn how to coach in longevity, but also to help people find their version of what their health looks like. So everything kind of resides there. Um so whether it's membership of really getting healthy uh and all of the things that I mentioned or building your brand in the health and wellness space, it all kind of lives within the ecosystem of the longevity coach institute. And uh, but people can follow me on Facebook and Instagram, Instagram I'm Kathy Savage Official. I think I'm that on Facebook too. But uh they can also just um go under the Kathysavage.com and they'll see a lot of the wonderful things that we're that you are a part of and that we are a part of. We are really trying to change the face of the longevity industry and make these amazing strategies um just available to everybody.

SPEAKER_01:

It's so exciting, and I'm just I'm honored to be a part of it. And thank you again for all that you are doing. And it's it's just gonna be it's just gonna be so exciting to see where all of this goes. I mean, it's just amazing, amazing things ahead for sure. What would be one of your last words of wellness or perhaps some inspiration you want to leave with our listeners?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I would always say you're never too old and it's never too late. And that's not an original statement, uh, but gosh, now more than ever, women just feel like they're just not deserving of everything and anything they could be. And I find that women 40, 40 and over, 45 and over, this has never been a better time for us. 50s, 60s. We are literally stepping into the era where we have more, more control over our health. We have more to say, we want to ask more questions, and we want to step into the purpose and the things that are most important to us. And so I encourage everyone who's listening that it's never, it's never too late, and you are definitely not too old. I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

Perfect, perfect note to end on. Thank you so much for this. This has been amazing. Oh, you're welcome, Shelly. You're so incredible. And to our all of our listeners, definitely follow Kathy. You will learn so much from her. And I hope you take time for yourself, your wellness, and your longevity on this day. And until next time, have a beautiful, blessed rest of your week, everyone. We'll see you next time on Words of Wellness. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did. And if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening. And if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries, and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy, and blessed week.