In this episode, Cheryl McColgan shares her personal journey in health and wellness, focusing on the importance of muscle mass, protein intake, and the development of consistent habits. She discusses her experience with weightlifting, the potential of competitive bodybuilding, and the role of coaching in achieving fitness goals. Cheryl also addresses the challenges of fat loss and the daily commitment required to maintain a healthy lifestyle, emphasizing that it's never too late to start lifting and pursue personal goals.

Episode mentioned: Motivation is Overrated: How to Crush Your Goals Without It

Takeaways

Every meal is an opportunity to stimulate muscle growth.

Optimal protein intake is crucial for muscle maintenance.

Building habits is more important than motivation.

It's never too late to start lifting weights.

Diet fatigue can impact your commitment to goals.

Having a coach can provide accountability and guidance.

Setting specific goals helps maintain focus in fitness.

Muscle mass is vital for longevity and quality of life.

Transitioning to a new gym can reinvigorate your fitness journey.

Daily commitment is key to achieving health and wellness goals.

Episode transcript:

Cheryl McColgan (00:01.806)Hey everyone, welcome to the Heal Nourish Row podcast. I am Cheryl McColgan, your host and founder of Heal Nourish Row. And my apologies for showing up on here looking a bit disheveled, but I just finished my basement workout. And so while this is on my mind, I thought I would get this recorded for you. So it's something I've been wanting to share for a little while. And I actually started to record it yesterday, but it was such a weird day. I had gotten some crazy news and

It was just, I was not in good head space. So thought I'd revisit it today and try to put together my thoughts for you a little bit more coherently. But anyway, just in case you haven't listened to previous episodes, I will give you some background here. So, you know, the whole channel and the whole podcast is focused on health and wellness, and that's probably how you found it if you're listening to this. But pretty much my whole life I've been involved in health and wellness in some way.

And over the years I have dabbled in lifting kind of on and off, but I've never gotten to stick until the last couple years here. I finally I'm over 50 now and I'm like, well, this whole push in social media and in education for older people about maintaining their muscle mass and how it really relates to longevity and just overall.

you know, however long you are going to live, living your life well, because you can function on your own when you have muscle. And it's really an epidemic right now of sarcopenia, which is the lack of muscle mass as you get older, as well as obesity and many other things, but a lot of things that are just really preventing people from living well into their older years. And so having seen, you know,

various people over my life and having been blessed with still being healthy at this point after watching my dad battle cancer and things like that. I'm like, owe it to myself to really take this on and finally commit to maintaining my muscle. So that is what I've been working on the last several years. And it started with really just

Cheryl McColgan (02:10.913)getting optimal protein and making that a big focus. And so if you've followed my content for a while, I've been talking about that just in case you have not heard this before. I want to make sure I put this out there. Every meal that you eat is an opportunity to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, which is the process by which your body maintains and builds muscle mass. And in order to stimulate that, you need about 30 grams at least of protein at each meal.

is that will include about three grams of leucine, which is thought to be the amino acid that really stimulates muscle building. And then as you get older, your body does not process protein as well. So you actually need a little bit more protein to stimulate that process. really as anyone over 35 to 40 years old, you should really be shooting for 35 to 40 grams of protein.

in each and every meal. Each time you eat protein, it's really an opportunity to stimulate that, so don't miss out. So that being said about protein, I really started getting onto that for myself about five years ago and really worked to get the optimal protein because I had been following some people and listening to people that even if you're not lifting weights, that getting optimal protein really can help this process of maintaining your muscle and possibly even building some, depending on how long.

your body has maybe been without protein. So for example, I had a period in my life of about eight years where I was a vegetarian, which was probably a huge mistake. But during that time, I'm sure I was not getting enough protein. And so if you've had a period of your life where you haven't been getting enough, then you might take some more time in building up this process of finally getting more optimal protein.

and your body will be like, I finally have the building blocks and maybe replace some of that muscle. So there's a thought there, but really the best way to stimulate muscle is to lift heavy things. And like I said, it's something I have dabbled with over the years on and off. I actually, when I was playing eighth grade basketball, we had a weight stack thing in my garage at home that my dad had always used. And when I was doing basketball, I lifted. And then when I played college golf, I was lifting and…

Cheryl McColgan (04:24.535)at various points over the years. I remember even the pandemic, was still when the gyms were open, I was going to Planet Fitness then. And what happened, like always happened, was at some point I'd get injured. And then instead of keep on lifting and doing what I could do, I would just quit it. And I've always been, you know, hiking, walking, running. I was a runner for 17 years. So I've always been very active, but I've just never enjoyed being at the gym. I always would rather be outside or hiking or doing something like that or playing golf.

And so that's kind of what I always relied on. But now that I, again, like I said, it's such a priority now and it's something that you have to be focused on if you don't want to lose your muscle. And so about, it's been about a year and nine months ago now that this is April of 2025, that I started going to the gym and really committed and I really have not missed anything since then. I've been very consistent. That is one of my…

gifts and as you know if you've listened to my previous content one of the things that I really focus on is creating new habits and once I personally get a habit kind of ingrained in me it's it's really then very easy for me to maintain it and that is one reason I always put out all these tips and information about creating habits because really you will and there's a whole another podcast episode I'll link it in the comments if I can remember that but

about discipline over motivation or just habits over motivation. You won't always be motivated to work out or to do these things. So it's really a matter of just making it become something that you do that's integrated into your life. That's a habit that you just do like brushing your teeth. You don't skip it. So it's not that I'm always motivated. And that's actually why today was a great day to get on here and talk about this, because I am so

tired friends. I really just, I did not sleep well last night. I had so many wake ups. Like if I look at my aura thing, it's like so many white spots where I was awake throughout the night. And I really just did not have the energy to do my workout today, but I did it anyway. So, so that's the thing about being a habit is it just becomes something that you do. And so it was a struggle to get through it. It's, not as fun when you have days like that and you go to do your workout.

Cheryl McColgan (06:46.607)But it's done, now it's finished. And then I hopped right on here. So that's why I'm looking a little disheveled, as I mentioned. But the thing I wanted to talk about is I've been kind of keeping this from, I haven't been talking about it anywhere outside of my own house. And it's something that has to do with being a competitive person. So I mentioned that I played college golf and I played sports in high school and I was a runner for 17 years.

So the point to all of that is to say that I've always had something that I was very competitive in and that I did as kind of a thing that kept me accountable. You even when I was a runner, I was never very fast or anything like that, but I would register for races and I would train for them and it would give me something to focus on. So sometimes if it was a 5K, maybe I'd be working on getting faster, doing some interval training, that sort of thing. Or if I was running a half marathon or a marathon, would…

be training to work on building up my distance and increasing my mileage over the week. So there was always something to focus on. Same, you know, with golf, always trying to get better, practicing, preparing for a tournament, that sort of thing. And since I had to quit running because of my knees, I haven't had that now for many, many years. And since I got back into this, into weightlifting, it started making me think about

you know, having something like that with lifting. And the thing that is the only thing, there's two things actually with lifting. You can do power lifting, which I don't think I would be very good at that, number one, just because with my previous shoulder surgeries, you know, one of the power lifting exercises is the bench press, and that would be very stressful on my shoulders. So I don't think that's the best idea. And then it's bench press, deadlift, and…

my goodness, squat,