180: Picking Up Her First Weights at 45 with Kristie Goode [“I Did It” Series]

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps after Babies radio episode number 180.

Hello and welcome to Biceps after Babies radio. A podcast for ladies who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or PRs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, wife, and mom of four.  Each week, my guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel, and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you, my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in, now let’s jump into today’s episode.

 

Amber B  0:46  

Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to another Friday episode of biceps after babies Radio. I'm your host Amber Brueseke. And these Friday episodes are a little bit shorter than our typically typical Tuesday episode. And this is where we bring on typically Macros 101 alumni to be able to share about their experience of how they did it. That's why we call the “I Did It” Series, this idea that if we can see more women doing big things and great things and hitting their goals and learning lessons, then it becomes easier for us to believe it as well and that's the whole point of the “I Did It” Series. 

 

Amber B  1:23  

So today on the podcast, I'm so excited to be able to have Kristie Goode on the podcast. Kristie and I, Kristie has been someone that I've gotten to know a lot over this last year. And that's because you know, she joined Macros 101 and Beyond Macros 101 . She also came and joined us in our first round of coaching academy. So Biceps After Babies Coaching Academy is where I teach other coaches how to coach and how to coach from an actual transformational level where we're actually changing, pitch helping people transform from like a belief and thought level. So it's more powerful and it's not just focused on just trying harder, just changing the actions, but actually getting down deep to like, well, what's actually keeping someone stuck. So I had the pleasure of being able to work with Kristie there. And then she's also joined me with some of the business stuff that I've done and some of the business coaching that I've done over the years. And so I've just gotten to know Kristie really well, and I'm excited for her to be able to share her experience because I gotta see her evolution of coming into Macros 101, not really having lifted much weights or just kind of starting to dabble in weightlifting. And you know, in her mid 40s, picking up weights really for the first time and what that's been able to do for her body, for confidence, for her life in general has just been so awesome to be able to experience. 

 

Amber B  2:47 

So I often have women who are in their mid 40s or 50s or 60s who haven't ever weight lifted before. And I think sometimes there's this idea that it's too late, you know, I missed my 20s, I missed my 30s. Maybe I've missed my 40s and it's too late. I can't teach an old dog new tricks can't really learn. It's like I'm gonna hurt myself. There's all this fear around starting weightlifting. And what I think is so great about Kristie's story is that she really shows that it's never too late. And that the benefits that come from weightlifting, both the physical benefits as well as the mental benefits can happen at any age. And what it really takes is just getting started, and everybody starts from ground zero. Everybody walks into the weight room and doesn't know what to do. Everybody picks up a dumbbell for the first time. Those are universal experiences for anybody who has weight lifted. And that's something I tell my clients to remember that when you're going into the weight room, every single person that you look up to, every single person who's in that weight room, every person you look up to online, they had a first experience of going into the weight room and being the new person there. We've all had that experience. And so Kristie is going to share her experience about what got her into weightlifting as you know, in her mid 40s And what that experience has been like for her. 

 

Amber B  4:12 

And we also in this episode talk about reverse dieting because that was a big part of Kristie's journey. And if you don't know what reverse dieting is, or that's not a topic that you're very familiar with, I highly recommend going and listening to episodes 9, 42, 114 and 170. Those are the reverse dieting episodes and if you forget those numbers, we'll put them in the show notes so that they're easy to find. 

 

Amber B  2:47 

Alright, without further ado, let's jump into the episode with Kristie Goode. 

 

Amber B  2:47 

I am so excited to have Kristie on the podcast today. Kristie,  How are you doing?

 

Kristie  4:48  

I'm great.

 

Amber B  4:50  

I'm excited about the conversation that we're going to be having. I know you pretty well. We've had a lot of time together both in Macros 101 and in Coaching Academy. So I'm excited for you to talk about your journey, I'm always really clear that the goal of these episodes is not about me. And it's really about you and about the other women who are out there who are just like you. And that's one of the things that I think is so wonderful about having a platform to be able to share all of these stories is because they're going to be people listening, who are going to hear your story and be like, that's me. Like, I totally resonate with where Kristie was, and they can hear the process that you went through, and they can have a little bit of hope for themselves in the future. So because of that, will you just tell us a little bit about yourself? And maybe you know, where you were before you joined Macros 101 and maybe what some of the struggles that you were feeling or some of the thoughts and feelings that you were having before you started that?

 

Kristie  5:46  

Yeah, absolutely. So I am now 46 years old. And I didn't even really, I had a fitness journey. Don't get me wrong. I started probably six or seven years ago, trying to figure out what foods worked and didn't work in my body. That's kind of how I got started in nutrition, and trying to figure out how I was going to feel my best. And I learned a lot about myself through that so much that I wanted to become a nutrition coach. But at the same time, I wanted to learn a little bit more, well, I never lifted weights, I only did cardio the majority of the time. And that was great. That worked for me. But then I started to recognize that I want to just do something a little bit more. So income COVID was about two years ago, and I started just looking on Instagram and just trying to find some different workouts that I could do, maybe ways that I can build muscle. And I found a group that I liked. And I actually ended up joining it through an app. And I did that for a while. And I did like it. And with that I learned about macro counting. And I didn't really know that much about macro counting to begin with. And I was like, Oh, this is kind of cool. You know, I knew a lot about nutrition, but I didn't know macros. So when I started to learn how to do those through this challenge that the group did, I learned about macros a little bit, I wouldn't say too much. And I was able to apply that to my journey. However, it was time for a reverse. And I didn't really understand how to do the reverse. So I did the best I could. And I did that reverse with what I knew, I did it very slowly. And we'll talk about that I'm sure in a little bit what will take some aid. But I did it really, really slowly. So then another challenge came around again. And I was like, Okay, I'm going to do this again. And I'm going to cut. Well, during that time I had found you on Instagram and through some other friends that also follow it on Instagram. And I really loved what you did. And I really started to understand more about macros. Well then last February, when you were ready to open the doors to Macros 101, I was there. I was like, I'm going to learn, I am in, I am learning how to do a reverse the proper way. And that was the turning point for me. I wanted to know how to do a reverse properly. That's when I started in Macros 101

 

Amber B  8:12  

Awesome. So let's talk a little bit about reversing because this is a topic that I talk a lot about. And I feel like a lot of people come to, you know, to my page or to my podcast and a reverse diet or metabolic adaptation is not a term that they've ever heard. I wish that it was more like well understood by many people, that's part of like, my goal is to have this be an understood concept, but it's not very well understood. And there can be a lot of fear that goes into going through the process. So like kudos to you for being like, I need to do a reverse. And I don't really know how to do a bomb is gonna like, I'm gonna do it. And you said you made a couple mistakes. But you did it anyway, like, and I love that about you. So I'm curious, like, will you walk us through that first experience of the reverse? What was that? Like? What are some of the missteps that you had that maybe you didn't maybe know at the time were missteps? And then contrast that with you know what you learned in Macros 101 and what made it different the second time around?

 

Kristie  9:12  

Yeah, absolutely. So whenever I first started doing the reverse the first time, which was probably over a year. Well, it's been well over a year ago, almost a year and a half. I was afraid to add calories because I was afraid I was gonna gain weight. And that's just common. Everyone knows that. We're all scared. Oh my gosh, we're gonna gain the weight back. Simple. I did it slowly. I didn't like 25 calories a week. 

 

Amber B  9:35  

Oh, wow! I know you were kidding.

 

Kristie  9:39  

I did it really slowly but I'd never done it before. So I was like, I don't know if this is right or not. So then you know, comes macros 101 And everyone's like, Okay, let's start at 100 calories, you know, pick your carbs and fats and add them well, which before I kind of knew how to do that. But, on the contrary, I learned that I added 100 calories a week. And that was how you properly reversed and in between the carbs and the fats. But what I did get excited about was once I started adding the calories, then I got in the mindset, which is crazy. It was a total shift. And that's what I love about this program. I totally shifted my mindset to Ooh, how much can I add? How much can I add in this? That might have been, and some people may find themselves in this spot, I might have overshot it a little bit. But I wanted to see how far I could push it. Because as we all know, the more food that you can take in and still maintain your weight or even cut even when you're cutting, the more foods you can have and that's wonderful. That's why I took it a little bit more. And that's okay, because I knew I could drop those calories back down. But I wanted to find my true maintenance.

 

Amber B  10:53  

Okay, so let's talk. Let's talk about this for a minute. Because I actually love that word that you're bringing this up. Because I have had that experience with people feeling like, oh, I kind of messed up my reverse, I overshot it, I ate too many calories. And I love the perspective that you will because it's very similar to my perspective of, I would way rather have you overshoot your calories and like make sure you're squeezing out, it's like squeezing out every last bit of that wet rag, you know, squeeze it out, rather than undershooting your calories and kind of cutting yourself short with the, you know, the number of calories that you could be eating long term. So I, those of you who are listening, who maybe have had that experience, I don't think that's a mistake. I actually love that, like you pushed the boundaries on that and found the maximum amount of calories that you could eat. Again, to me, it's way better to do that, than to sell yourself short. And be too scared to get your calories up.

 

Kristie  11:49  

Oh, yeah, thanks. And the thing about this, too, is it was controlled. And that's just realizing it has to be controlled if you're going to do that. Because otherwise, if you're just eating and you don't know what you're eating, I was still tracking, I mean, absolute tracking and making sure that I stayed within that.

 

Amber B  12:06  

Yeah. And you said something really smart, too, which is that you had built the pattern, you'd built the habits and that you knew you could always go back, right. And I think sometimes we feel like when we're adding calories, it's almost like once you add them you can never go back. You can never it's like, no, no, like you can try it for like a week. And if it's not right, you can go back to your calories from the week before. Nothing that we do in this process is permanent. And so I love this idea of experimentation and making it a game kind of like you said, How high can I get my calories? Like that's the game that we're playing. That's an exciting game, versus the game of like, oh my gosh, I'm so scared to like, increase my calories. That's a terrible game to play. Like, let's play with “how many calories can we eat?” game. That's fun. That's awesome. So tell me a little bit about weight training? Because I think first of all, you said you didn't really start weight training until you're in your mid 40s. Okay, so why was that? Like, why was cardio the focus during your 20s and 30s?

 

Kristie  13:08  

You know, I think it's because it kept Okay, so I was a yo-yo dieter way before that. And I had at one point been 80 pounds more than what I am right now. So that was several years ago. And then I lost that weight just from walking. And I never have been a runner, I just I've always done you know, just walking, I didn't even do fitness classes or anything like that I truly just power walked all the time and that's all I did. But I also ate lower calories, if that makes sense. So whenever I got to a point where I just could tell I had no muscle definition. And I knew just from studying nutrition of how important it is to weight train, I mean, everywhere up there and just following different people on Instagram, following you. And just recognizing I need to have some muscle on my bones, you know, it's just, I need that to be able from my ability when I get older. This is so important, and it's never too late. And that's the one thing that I loved about you always saying it's never too late, you know, just get in there, just lift those weights. So that's what was the turning point for me was just taking control of my health and being even more in control and knowing that I needed to put on some muscle and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I was like sure, you know, I like the way I look. But I look a little I need some muscle.

 

Amber B  14:31  

Yeah, yes. Yeah. So and has that muscle gain now that you're focusing on that has that come with weight gain, and how have you dealt with that?

 

Kristie 14:39  

Yes, it absolutely has. And as I was going through the reverse, I did understand that I knew that I would gain some weight and I've put on 10 pounds in the last year. And that I'm okay with that. And that's what I think is the best thing that has happened to me in the last year is being okay with the 10 pound weight gain, because I see that there is muscle there, too. And granted, yes, I'm wearing a size larger and pants, but that's okay because I see in my arms, as seeing my legs, as seeing the muscle that I've built. So I know that the 10 pounds isn't fat gain, I'm sure there's a little bit there because that comes with the process of going you know, of putting on a bulking basically, you know, you do gain some a little bit of fat, but just the muscle, I know it's there. And I'm fine with that. And that's where I'm so happy I am because before I would have been afraid I was going like, oh, goodness, no, no, I can't you know, that I don't want to put on 10 pounds, you know, that's just

 

Amber B  15:44  

And how do you think you got to that point of being okay with it, because I know that there's gonna be somebody who's going to be listening, and is like, I would love that I would love to, like put on some muscle and be okay with gaining 10 pounds. But right now I'm not. So how did you  change that to being okay with it?

 

Kristie  16:00  

It was definitely a belief that I had to work through. It's something that Macros 101  absolutely helped me work through, it was the whole mindset shift, the whole letting go and learning to let go that it's okay. Because if you're looking to gain something, if you have another goal, if you want to put on muscle, you're going to have to let go of that fear of gaining weight, so that you can get to your next goal and that's muscle gain. And that's having the mobility later in life, you just have to learn and it's hard. It's very difficult. And I'm not gonna say that if a switch flipped, and I was just like, Okay, let's just do… What, you know, what is better? Saw the benefits and I'll tell you what, just recognizing the strength that I had gained being able to pick up a big 24 pack of bottled water and not having pain in my back or being sore. That is what kept me going. And that's when the belief started to shift that you know what this is okay, I feel good and I do I feel great. I feel so much better than I did even a year and a half ago.

 

Amber B  17:13  

Yeah. And I think something that you said that I really want people to pick up on is oftentimes when we want something new, we want a new reality, there are things that we have to let go of from our previous reality. And a lot of times we focus on the fact that we're going to lose something like I'm going to lose this number on the scale, but I'm like held to for so long. And what you said that is so important is that if we focus on like, Oh, I'm just gonna lose this. Yeah, it feels like why would I? Why would I want to let go of this, if I'm going to lose, but what you're saying is that what you focus on is what you gained. Because when you let go, yeah, maybe you lose that number on the scale. But what you gained was so much more, right? Was this feeling stronger, feeling healthy, having a body shape that you felt more comfortable with. And so it was less about, like, what you were losing and more about what you were gaining. And that was actually a question I was going to ask you is like, have you noticed the feeling of strength that's different in your life, because I think one of my favorite, it's like one of my favorite posts that like people put up in you know, any of our groups is always like, Oh, I went to Costco and I picked up like a 50 pound bag of flour. And I just  hold it  onto my cart. And some guy walked past it was like, Whoa, like, way to go, you know, like something like that, where it's like, this physical manifestation of strength in a very lifestyle, daily life. You know, it's this crossover between what happens in the gym is important. But the reason we do what we do in the gym is because you carry that strength and that confidence with you all the time, not just in the gym. So do you have any other experiences that have like how you feel like there's that strength you've built in the gym has carried over into your daily life?

 

Kristie 19:00  

Oh, absolutely. My boys, 14 and 18, don't have to carry everything for me now.

 

Amber B  19:07  

Yeah,

 

Kristie  19:08  

Whenever we go, we have snow. It's a weekend getaway. Basically, it's when we go skiing or mountain biking. And they always carried the cooler in for me, but every once in a while now I still let them do it just because I'm busy doing other things. But every once in a while I can pick that cooler up in your account, where you know, I wouldn't have been able to do that before. So that's um, that's definitely and just the mental. Just the mental side of you. I think that's a big, big shift.

 

Amber B  19:36  

Yeah, for me, it's so awesome. It's so good. Okay, so last question. If there's someone who's listening to this, and they are maybe in the same like, you know, age group, they're in their 40s they feel like maybe it's a little bit too late. They haven't weight trained. What would you say to them? 

 

Kristie 19:55  

Oh, it is absolutely never too late to start weight training. And the other thing that I didn't even mention was Build Your Own Workouts you guys. That's what I love. I started that this past June. And that has been a game changer for me. I've learned to build my own workouts, so that just being able to do that and to be able to make your own workouts just is so empowering. And it's so much fun because I can put in every six weeks or every four to six weeks, I'll change my blocks and just build that. That is, I love it. It's been priceless for me.

 

Amber B  20:29  

I remember our conversation on a coaching call, where like, I forget, I don't even remember what you asked, but I remember the conversation that you were asking about weight training, and I was like, okay, so you just need to go buy  Build Your Own Workouts, it's gonna answer all those questions for you, Kristie and you're like, okay, because you're such a good student you like went and bought it, and then you're like off to the races. I love that. Oh, one thing I forgot to ask you about. We had talked about this before we hit record. You had mentioned to me that you still have a, when did you have your Macros 101? 

 

Kristie  21:00  

Oh, February.

 

Amber B  21:01  

In February of 20 of 2021. Awesome. And you said you still have a friend from your accountability group. So talk to me about that?

 

Kristie  21:09  

I sure do. And that's the other thing I was going to bring up whenever you said what you would tell someone who wanted to join Macros 101. When you join Macros 101, you need to get in an accountability group. I waffled on it. And I was like, Oh, do I really want to join when I did and they have different groups. You can do the cut group, you can do a reverse. I chose to join a reverse group. And I met six wonderful ladies. However, you know, as time goes on, things happen. And you know, not everyone can join anymore. But I still have one friend that I'm with, Nicole Conley. She is wonderful. We got to the point where we started just emailing and then we all did Marco Polo. And then it got to the point where Nicole and I after everyone else, you know, things happened. So Nicole and I are now FaceTiming. We have an appointment every Wednesday and we FaceTime each other. And we love it because that's the friendship we created. We would have never met each other had it not been for Macros 101.. And that's something that's so important that everyone wants to know the friendships that you can build and that you gain in these groups are just it. It's priceless. I can't, I don't even know another word to say. So Nicole and I, we were reversing together. We still talk and it's wonderful. She works with me. It's kind of like we coach each other, which is great. And we just love it. 

 

Amber B  22:29  

So yeah, speaking of coaching, do a little plug for your coaching. Because now it's like you are like we're the students and now you're also the teacher.

 

Kristie 22:37  

Yeah, I am.

 

Amber B  22:41  

Own that.

 

Kristie 22:44  

Absolutely Amber. That's the other thing that I gained from Macros 101, I went through a coaching Academy. And then I've moved on. And I'm a nutrition coach. And I'm in Business By Design. And I'm in a mentorship group with Amber which I love. So I've learned in my gosh, look at it, it's been less than a year.

 

Amber B  23:04  

I know. It's so crazy.  That's crazy. If you had asked me I would have thought it would have been February of 2020. Because that's how much I feel like I've gone to like knowing you and interacting with you. So it's crazy that it really has been less than a year and all you've like done all of these things that you just have that kind of taken off and it's been awesome to watch.

 

Kristie 23:22  

It is so wonderful. So everything that Macros 101 and how it brought us together. I love it. It's so phenomenal for me and my coaching.

 

Amber B  23:31  

So awesome. Well, we will link everything up to Kristie in the show notes and her Instagram account and her website and anything that she has, if you're interested to connect with Kristie, but she's amazing, and I'm so thankful that you came on the episode and talked about your experience again. I know there's gonna be people who really resonate with you sharing your story. So thank you so much. 

 

Kristie  23:51  

You're welcome. 

 

Amber B  23:52  

Thanks for listening to this episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm so glad that you're here and I really hope that that episode spoke to you and that you enjoyed it and got something out of it. That wraps up this episode of biceps after babies radio. I'm Amber, now go out and be strong because remember my friend, you can do anything.

 

Outro

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