Seasoned Athlete

In this episode I highlight and discuss fad diets and the myths around nutrition for those seeking to live an active and athletic lifestyle, especially for women athletes and aging women athletes. 

With so much information out there, it’s important to understand the research you’re retaining when exploring what nutritional lifestyle works best for you.

We discuss:

- How living an athletic lifestyle requires a mental shift when it comes to food.

- Understanding the relationship between food and our bodies as not only athletes but as aging women as well.

- How women athletes tend to focus on calorie intake which has statistically been known to lead to eating disorders among the athletic community. 

- Fad diets and the male body vs the women's body.

- Low energy availability: what does it mean and how does it affect you in your day to day as an athlete?

- The Ketogenic Diet: does this fad diet really work for the woman athlete?

- Intermittent Fasting: where men see gains and results, women see the opposite. 

… and more!

Here are some highlights.  

Low Energy Availability and your cycle

“If you are menopausal, low energy availability can exacerbate some of the effects of aging, including increasing stored fat in the body. And that right there is something to make note of - because although younger populations might be keenly aware that they are in a low energy state on their periods, and can act quickly to do something about it, older populations may not realize it’s happening. Or worse, it may lead to a line of thinking that despite all the exercise you’re doing, you’re not losing weight - so you should eat less. When really, you may need to be eating more.”

The Ketogenic Diet and what the research is telling you

“For women, the ketogenic diet increases cortisol, which can then result in muscle breakdown. We lose muscle as we age, and as a result we need to emphasize resistance training and protein consumption to prevent muscle loss. Keto makes this even more difficult.

Intermittent Fasting can affect your body in many ways, not all beneficial

”Intermittent Fasting has become popular for weight loss because in general, if you’re fasting at least half of your day, if not more, you’re likely taking in fewer calories. And yeah, when calories out are greater than calories in, weight loss typically happens. So you can see why people - especially women - have been quick to adopt Intermittent Fasting. The problem is that there simply has not been significant research on it in athletic populations. But we can infer that severe time-based restriction like this can play a role in low energy availability, and all of the problems that come with it.”

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and connect with us on Instagram too!

Ready to take the inspiration you get from Seasoned Athlete and put it into action in your own life?

Grab the new pop-up mini podcast called How To Age Like An Athlete. In this three-episode series, Robin share stories of people just like you who made a choice to step into their own athletic potential at various ages and changed their lives in the process.

Then she'll give you a simple step by step method to make this happen in your own life right now!

Subscribe for free and listen now at RobinLegat.com/privatepod.

Should women and men train differently? In this episode, we explore this question based on the comparison of two articles highlighting why, when, and how women should train based on their menstrual cycles.

We discuss:

- Comparing studies measuring the results of modern exercise in men versus women.

- Breaking down the bias of these studies.

- Women training and competing around and during their cycle.

- Understanding our cycles and bodies and how to incorporate that information into our training and nutrition as an aging athlete. 

… and more!

Here are some highlights.  

Understanding our cycles

”When we are on our period, we are in what's called the follicular phase of our cycle. Estrogen drops during this phase, and our muscles have greater access to energy stores. As a result, we are better primed for high performance.”

Using the education of our bodies to enhance and better utilize training

“When we're in the high hormone phase and the weeks leading up to the period, we don't have as much of an ability to go hard. We have a reduced ability to tap into our stored carbohydrates since those are being reserved for a potential fertilized egg. This is a fancy way of saying the body wants to make a baby, and the period happens when the baby doesn't happen, right, but the body is still preparing for it. That's why we can't tap into those stored carbohydrates. Ultimately, the more we can learn about our cycle and the hormonal fluctuations that come with it, the more nuance we can add to our training.”

Be diligent in your research

“Women deserve education and knowledge around how to train, eat and recover, but for the most part, that's not what we're seeing in the media or in the bulk of fitness and nutrition studies, which are still mostly being done with men. So what can we do to ensure we're not getting caught up in misinformation around these topics? Don't believe everything you see in the media about exercise recommendations for women or for aging women.”

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and connect with us on Instagram too!

ageUP is a revolutionary membership community for women over 40 who want to age like athletes. This is your fast track to becoming fearless, feeling ageless and living LIMITLESS! Discover the life-changing benefits that come with exploring your athletic potential at any age or fitness background - get on the waitlist to join ageUP when the next enrollment window opens at https://robinlegat.com/waitlist

In this episode I had an amazing chat with Betty Lindberg, an incomparable 96 year old runner and race walker. Betty has made an art form out of her ability to slowly build up her body and stamina and not let mental distractions get in the way.

We discuss:

- Betty calls herself the original ‘couch potato’

- Betty proves everything is possible when you keep your body moving

- The optimistic attitude from Betty has served her well in live and in athletics

- Betty’s workouts include lifting weights which is very important for women as we age

… and more!

Here are some highlights. 

Girls were never supported in sports growing up

“When I was growing up girls didn’t do anything except maybe Jacks or Hopscotch,” says Betty. “That was about as wild as we got. It just isn’t the thing that young ladies did. So, no, I didn’t really do anything. I was the original couch potato. I don’t recall any girls in high school doing athletics and I didn’t get to go to college because of World War II, it was 1942. Girls just didn’t do that sort of thing.”

Betty breaks records without knowing it

“It’s amazing when I look back because I have some of the records from back then,” Betty said. “People in their 60’s, 67 and 68, there was nobody older than us racing. So in the last 30 years we have got it up to the 90’s. In USA Track and Field you compete in the 5 year age groups. Because they know that a you get older you get slower and you get less strength. So it’s always fun the the women’s 90-95 year age group! There are some others in my age group because I have records I’m trying to beat. There are some women in their 100’s!”

You just need to show up

“Something that has always inspired me is the quote ’98% of winning is getting to the start’ “ says Betty. “You don’t have to worry about how many people will finish ahead of you or are going to be faster than you. You have trained for this and you’re going to do the best you can and that’s going to be it.”

The true test of a runner

“The major long distance I do is the 10k, which is 6.2 miles,” Betty said. “The most recent time I did it I was about halfway through and I kept telling myself “this is it, this is the last time you’re going to do this race.’ And it was my 30th time doing that race. The last 3 miles of that race are mostly uphill and you just keep telling yourself that you’re never going to do it again. And then the moment you finish and all you can think is ‘next year I’ve got to train a little bit harder.’ “

Betty keeps her body strong enough to do more races

“And I spend time with personal trainer 3 times a week,” says Betty. “And I do everything while there at the gym from lifting weights to working my legs to stepping. I’ll also do lunges and sit ups and the last thing every session is planking! I once did a 4 minute plank. Your body has to be strong to do these races from your legs to your core and your arms. But most especially, your brain.”

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and connect with us on Instagram too!

ageUP! is a revolutionary membership community for women over 40 who want to age like athletes. This is your fast track to becoming fearless, feeling ageless and living LIMITLESS! Discover the life-changing benefits that come with exploring your athletic potential at any age or fitness background - join ageUP! at https://robinlegat.com/ageup

In this episode I set down a few steps we all can take to start the new year with 2021 Vision. Together we’ll figure out what our ‘Big Idea’ goal for the year is and all the steps we can take to get there.

We discuss:

- How can you start this year with 2021 vision

- The goal of this episode is to make you think big for yourself

- What is something you would like to do that younger you would be surprised by?

- You’ll have a goal, a date, a plan, and then milestones

- Make sure you feel those wins each time you pass a milestone

… and more!

Here are some highlights. 

Robin is looking at 2021

“You may have started 2020 with a plan, with a vision of what you would like to do with the year,” says Robin. “What you would like to accomplish, what kind of goals you had. But, for many of us, those plans, those goals, those ideas, got derailed around March. And that’s fine. We had to spend that year collectively figuring things out. But now it’s a new year and it’s a new opportunity.”

What is your ‘Big Idea’

“Step 1 is to come up with a ‘Big Idea,’” Robin said. “It can be a fitness related ‘Big Idea’ or a life ‘Big Idea’ or even a work ‘Big Idea’. As a coach I like to think about fitness and athletics. I’d like you to think of that one big thing that you’ve always wanted to do or you never imagined you could do.”

Use your ‘Big Idea’ to create smaller ideas

“Hopefully your ‘Big Idea” helps you to come up with smaller ideas that are going to help you accomplish a goal” says Robin. “And that goal needs to have a date. So we’re going to name that goal and give it a date. Put it in your calendar and make that date real by putting it in front of you. Because that is how you make a plan.”

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and connect with us on Instagram too!

ageUP! is a revolutionary membership community for women over 40 who want to age like athletes. This is your fast track to becoming fearless, feeling ageless and living LIMITLESS! Discover the life-changing benefits that come with exploring your athletic potential at any age or fitness background - join ageUP! at https://robinlegat.com/ageup

On this episode of Seasoned Athlete, we’re talking to professional sky diver Amy Chmelecki. She’s done over 19,000 sky dives, broken 20 sky diving world records, holds 5 world titles and 10 national titles…and that’s just some of it!

In this episode, we discuss…

-  How participating sports can help you find confidence

-  Why trying new things (even if they scare you) is so important

-  Why having a growth mindset helps with achieving your goals

-  What it means to be a woman in a male dominated sport

…and more!

Connect with Amy here: https://www.instagram.com/amychmelecki

Here are some highlights…

Amy’s early athletic life

I didn't discover athletics until about 14 and when I finally did, something completely changed in me. I remember realizing like, ‘wow, I'm good at this,’ and before that, I never really had felt good at anything. As a child, I was like, ‘I'm not smart, you know, just like kids stuff.’ And on the field, I felt good. Things were moving fast, I could really see things more clear and I could move better. I had asthma growing up, really bad, so it didn't come easy running around on the field, but there was something about it [field hockey]. The moment I discovered athletics as a young girl, it completely changed my life.

The first time she went sky diving

I went to a sky diving facility with a friend of mine, who I still skydive with to this day, he's on the Red Bull Air Force with me. That first day when I walked on to a drop zone, which is another name for a coding facility, I saw just all these amazing, happy people, and that was in New York. I grew up outside of New York City, and people weren't always happy like that. This was in 1996, it was a different time. People are happier in New York these days.

I walked into the ski facility and I realized that it was something that you could do [professionally], that it could be part of your life. Until that point, I just thought you did it once or you were in the military. I didn't really understand. And pretty much from that moment on, I never looked back.

All about the sky diving community

It's like-minded people that are enjoying [the same thing.] It's people from all walks of life. Maybe you're hanging out with a brain surgeon, and a lot of times you don't even know what they do for years, and it'll be someone in this intense insane career. I was a bartender to pay for my skydive in the first five years when I was becoming a professional sky diver. So you have really this big range of people, but everyone enjoys sky diving and for the most part, everyone is so nice and happy. It’s a total sub culture once you’re in it.

What it means to be a pro sky diver

There are a lot of different avenues you could take to become professional in the sport, believe it or not. There's a lot of opportunities and different roads you could take. It’s also a nice sport that you can do into your 40s and 50s. I have friends that are still going strong in their 60s as professional skydivers so it's really a great sport. I have one friend that was on his way to being a professional soccer player, and he was sky diving too and he saw that as having more longevity, he could do it for longer, so he decided to take that path and he excels now.

Right now I have three main aspects to my hustle. I work with Red Bull, they sponsor me on part of the Red Bull Air Force, and that's about a third of what I do. We do demonstration jumps, and we do project-based social media projects and VIP tandem experiences. We’ll take the IPs on tandems and they’re such an amazing company to work for. They hired me when I was 36. A lot of people think that Red Bull doesn't work with older athletes, but yeah, they hired me when I was 36.

I also coach different groups within the military, and that's also a big part of what I do. And then I work with a non-profit called the Women's Skydiving network It's a great endeavor. When we can, we're gonna do a world record, but it's a huge endeavor getting 100 women together to break a world record for sky diving.

Amy shares why it’s important to uplift other women sky divers

It’s always been a drive of mine from the beginning. There are not a lot of women that sky dive at all, and I always used to wonder why. I would hang around the drop zone and it would be like me and 20 guys. That is still a lot of the normal though it has changed in the last 25 years since I started sky diving, but I was always thinking ‘Gosh, it'd be nice to jump with a bunch of women.

 So even as a very young sky diver, I would get groups of women together and say, ‘Hey, let's all do jump together.”

And it really was just a different feeling because it was so rare to get to do it. It was just usually a lot of men, which I'm really not complaining, that was also kind of fun... Let's face it as a 18-year-old girl. That was fun.

It also became apparent that other people wanted to do it, so it was an easy way, not only to do things that got me motivated and were helpful to other women, 'cause it was inspiring when people saw women reaching certain goals and making this great things happen, but it was also something I could hustle, something I could do and make a business out of, so it was kind of an easy, clear path for me.

Robin shares her own goals for helping women become athletic

It's nice to help other women see the side of themselves that you were able to see at a much younger age. This is something that I really stand for too, as a coach, and part of this podcast is that I want to help women see this potential in themselves. When many women have been conditioned to think that things like skydiving are just not for them, and to be able to open up that opportunity and you're doing it by example, you're showing what's possible, you're helping to create opportunities for other women. I think it's so important because we are under-represented in many sports, it's just how it is.

Amy’s experience working on stunts in Hollywood

I feel like a lot of my career, I can't deny it it has to do with luck. I met some really amazing people early on in my career, and they got to kind of watch me grow, including the Captain of the Red Bull Air Force. They also do a lot of stuff in Hollywood, they're based in LA and we do a lot of cool stunts. Generally, if I fit the description, so it's gotta be kind of a blond woman around my height and around my build, I will get that job. That doesn't always happen, but when it does, it's so awesome 'cause Hollywood, anything you do where it's like a big stunt like that, it's always so challenging and you're with a group of extreme professionals!

The challenges of breaking world records

World records are a little bit like that. They're brutal through the process. It's freezing, you're jumping over and over again. You're getting the same sky dive over and over again. People are getting exhausted. You’re having to cut people from the sky dive 'cause they're not performing, which is always heart breaking. But the whole thing is, it's about the journey. Every job we're getting better, but really it's like, it’s about the journey. When you're done with it and now that's in the record books, that's where the reward is.

Amy’s perspective of the unique challenges of being an athlete over 40

I was afraid getting a bit older. I started thinking, how much longer can I do this? And am I still valuable? I wasn't sure. I was so used to this concept of like “Oh, I'm gotta be young to do this.”

Then there was this awakening in my 40s where I'm like, ‘Wow. I still have a lot to offer.’ I have so much experience to offer people, and although I've had to refine my performance and my strategy where I'm not doing 12-15 skydive a day, every day training for world championships like I used to, I'm bringing all my skill set and all my connections and all the experience I have,

So it really, it has been nice that discovery of how much you do have to offer.

I would say on the physical side, obviously any athlete in their 40s knows that it gets harder. You have to take more care of yourself. Big time. It used to be that I could stay up and hang out and socialize and have beers and then just travel across the world and get somewhere and then go to work the next day, and now I'm like, I have to really plan more strategically, make sure, I'm hydrated, make sure I'm rested.

Amy’s Parting Words of Wisdom

I would say be open-minded. Be in that growth mindset. I can't imagine a life without trying to wake up every day and be open-minded to being a better person. Don't limit yourself. There’s so much more possible than you think.

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and connect with us on Instagram too!

ageUP! is a revolutionary membership community for women over 40 who want to age like athletes. This is your fast track to becoming fearless, feeling ageless and living LIMITLESS! Discover the life-changing benefits that come with exploring your athletic potential at any age or fitness background - join ageUP at https://robinlegat.com/ageup

Welcome to the final episode of 2020! It's been a long, painful, traumatic year on a lot of levels, so this episode is all about the top lessons that I’ve learned in this most unusual year. I think it’s important to reflect, even if the year was not what we hoped it would be. I could go on for years about it, but here are my top 3!

Full show notes: https://seasonedathlete.me/episodes

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/agelesswomenathletes

In this episode I talk to retired tennis pro, Brenda Schultz-McCarthy. We talk about her path to becoming a professional athlete starting while she was still a child and some of the sacrifices her family made to get her there.

Full shownotes: https://seasonedathlete.me/

In this episode I take a step back from my regular interviews and look at our collective mental and emotional state going into a new year.

In this episode I talk to runner and athlete, Melissa Huff. She talks about how she never did any sports or athletics at all until she was in her forties.

Full show notes: https://seasonedathlete.me/

Connect with Melissa: https://www.instagram.com/mrsbuff2u/

Connect with Robin: https://www.instagram.com/robinlegat/

In this episode I’m talking about HOW to find the motivation you need and why you are still an athlete even when all of your favorite sports aren’t available. Yes, Covid has changed it for a lot of us!

Full shownotes: https://seasonedathlete.me/