Have you ever looked in the mirror and wondered where on earth did this belly fat come from? Maybe you’re eating healthy. Maybe you’re exercising. Maybe you’re actually trying harder than you did ten years ago. Yet your stomach doesn’t seem to be changing. If that’s you, girl, you are not alone. belly fat after 40 is incredibly common. That doesn’t mean it’s inevitable. One of the biggest myths I hear: I just need to do more ab exercises. Crunches are great for strengthening your core, but don’t they don’t specifically burn belly fat.
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Vanessa Carlson Fitness podcast. I’m Doctor Vanessa Carlson, physical therapist and founder of Vanessa Carlson Fitness, where we help busy women become stronger, healthier and more confident without spending hours in the gym. All right. I’m excited about today’s topic because I have experienced it myself and also with women that I’ve trained over the years.
As I was coming up in the ranks these last 20 years. So can I ask you a question? Have you ever looked in the mirror and wondered where on earth did this belly fat come from? Right. Maybe you’re eating healthy or healthier. Maybe you’re exercising. Maybe you’re actually trying harder than you did ten years ago. Yet your stomach doesn’t seem to be changing.
If that’s you, girl, you are not alone. And today I want to explain why this happens and more importantly, what you can do about it. All right, guys, let’s dive in. Okay. First, I want you to know something belly fat after 40 is incredibly common. That doesn’t mean it’s inevitable, but it does mean you’re not the only one experiencing it.
Our bodies change as we age. I’ve always explained to women that I meet, whether it was in the past when we owned our gyms. We used to have a coed boxing kickboxing gym for a few years, and then for about seven years we owned two ladies gyms with personal training. Every decade our body is changing, right?
So whether I was working with someone who was entering their 20s or their 30 or 40 or 50s, you know how people say, oh, when I turned 40 or when I turned 50? It’s not just them, it’s all of us. Our body is going to go through some changes and the hope and the the good news is that exercise helps with all of this.
But okay, going back. So as we age, our bodies change, hormones change, muscle mass naturally declines if we don’t work to maintain it, right? Muscle is important. Muscle is good. We don’t have to be afraid to have muscle. And it’s never, never, never, never, never too late to start working and building your muscle. Your body was made to have muscle, right?
That’s the beauty. Daily activity often decreases, especially now. We live in the most inactive, sedentary era ever, right? We spend hours. The average person spends at least 11 hours sitting in a day. That’s crazy to think about. Daily activity is often decreasing stress levels, especially when we’re not getting outside and we’re not moving and enjoying the Earth because maybe we can’t.
Maybe we’d like to, but we just can’t because of school and work and kids and schedules. But stress tends to increase and then sleep sometimes gets worse. All of these things can make maintaining a healthy weight more challenging. Okay, I’ve had women tell me, Vanessa, I weigh the same as I did ten years ago, but my body looks different.
It looks completely different. And that can happen because body composition matters. If we’ve lost muscle over time, especially if something has happened. I’ve worked with women. Most of the people that I’ve worked with have gone through something medically. Maybe it was a new knee replacement, maybe it was a motor vehicle accident. Right. And and surgery to back, hips, shoulders, hands.
Maybe it was an unfortunate diagnosis and having to go through treatment. Maybe it was a big shift in your life. And now you find yourself a caregiver to your parents, as well as taking care and being there for your kids. And now you find yourself being a grandparent for whatever reasons, schedules and life happens, and maybe your schedule, just in terms of keeping those those healthy habits of exercising that got put to the wayside.
You’re not alone. And just over time, you’ve lost muscle and you’ve gained body fat. The scale might barely change, right? But our body shape can. Okay, so that’s one reason I encourage women and men to focus on building strength, not just losing the pound. Right? Here’s one of the biggest myths I hear. I just need to do more ab exercises.
Man, I wish it work that way, and I do. Don’t get me wrong, I love working my abs and crunches and doing Pilates and things like that. Crunches are great for strengthening your core, but don’t they don’t specifically target or burn belly fat. Right. Your body decides where it stores fat. Everyone’s body is so unique and that’s why I love being able to work well.
My team and I being able to work with people individually during our one one on one zoom live sessions because I really get to know people, their season of life, where they’re at, where they’re striving to be, and getting to know their body, where their body is holding on to things, their lifestyle, and where I can come alongside and figure out what is the key they need to unlock to reach their goals and build the strength.
Okay, so going back to what I was talking about. So your body decides where it stores fat and where it loses fat. We can’t choose that with just one exercise. Man oh man, I wish we could. But here’s the hope we can improve our overall health by combining consistent movement, good nutrition and strength training and that compound effect of a little bit of this, a little bit of this, a little bit of this, a little bit of this over time will yield exponential gains.
It’ll help you for the now. Right. But it’s also going to help you for your future self. Another factor many women overlook is stress, right? When we’re constantly stressed, we’re often sleeping less. We’re eating whatever is convenience. We have hormones that are working against us, our skipping workouts or feeling too exhausted to move. Mentally. We’re overloaded. Stress doesn’t just affect our minds, it affects our habits.
And then our habits can affect our health. So we want to keep that positive feedback loop going. And here’s the thing you don’t have to do it alone. That can be feeling like you’re all by yourself trying to figure out what workouts to do, what my plan should look like, plus everything else that you have to tend to, right?
So can I encourage you? Please don’t spend your life fighting your body. Work with it. Care for it. Be patient. Your body has carried you through a lot and I just wanted to share. I remember when I started having a we started having our children later in life, not by choice. That’s just how it all worked out. I was pregnant with it was actually my second pregnancy, but our first child was born when I was 36, and then after her I had a great like.
I was able to stay home even though we had our gyms, we had a great staff and I was able to, you know, have some time to recover and, you know, slowly ease my way back into it and work from home before going full time back into the gym. However, with my second child, who was born when I was, let’s see, 536 I was 38.
Okay. And this season of life was different for me. We didn’t have the same staff. There was a turnover. There was a lot of fear in our culture, in our community, in society, all the things going on that were outside of my control. And I was back at work in our gym within the first 2 to 3 weeks.
Actually, after the first week, I was already having to go back in, and I don’t recommend that, right. But I’m sharing that because my body just went through nine months of carrying a child now delivering and birthing a child. Now I’m taking care of not one, but two plus our two gyms. Having to go back. I was breastfeeding, trying my best to pace myself, but it was a very stressful time and my body wasn’t getting that recovery it needed.
And I remember myself after it was probably she was already about three months old, just feeling super frustrated. And then when she was almost a year old, looking at myself and like, what happened? Where is my muscle? Where? Where is my curves? What’s happening to me? And so I can understand how things are like, wow, what’s going on?
And it can be overwhelming. It can be frustrating. It can it can be kind of sad. But guys, there’s hope. We just have to give our body some TLC, tender loving care and make changes where we can and know that over time we don’t give up implementing little things here, little things here that we can’t control. Right? Like I was trying to find ways, talking with my husband, working with our staff, with the schedule, finding ways to get more sleep, to make sure I drink my water, to get in my three servings of vegetables, and easing back into my workouts without with and pushing away those thoughts, silencing those thoughts that were saying you’re not
strong enough, you’re a bad example to your clients and to to your staff. I was being super hard on myself and I had to tell those thoughts. Be quiet, get out of here. You are not in control and focusing on the things that I did have control of, and over time things did get so much better. And it’s a journey.
It wasn’t just overnight, right? So instead of asking why is my body betraying me instead ask, how can I care for my body better today? That’s a much healthier conversation, right? I remember one client who came to me feeling defeated and she said, you know, I’ve tried every diet, I’ve done all the cardio, and I don’t understand why nothing is working right.
She was walking a lot. Lots and lots and lots of walking. She was Chinese YouTube workouts. And there’s nothing wrong with walking and there’s nothing wrong with working out on YouTube. We have we we actually have our own YouTube channel as well. But instead of chasing another quick fix, we’re focusing on the basics, right? Strength training, walking and changing.
I don’t want to take walking out of it because it’s good to walk, but making sure that, you know, maybe changing the atmosphere, going on a different path so it’s not the same, you know, so she’s not getting bored. We want to actually enjoy it going a different way each time. And instead of walking on the treadmill, getting outside or walking by the water, especially where she lives, she has that ability to change the scenery is my point.
But again, focusing on the basics change, training, protein, getting better sleep, a sleep routine like okay, instead of going to bed at 2 a.m., can we push it back to at least midnight and before midnight, starting the routine of winding down, putting the phone away, reading, stretching. So again, strength training, protein, better sleep, consistency, not perfection. So we focused on the basics of strength training, walking, changing the scenery, protein, better sleep, consistency, not perfection.
And over time, God, she’s becoming stronger, right? Her body is changing in the way that she wants. She has more energy, her clothes fit differently. And yes, she’s gradually losing inches and body fat too, especially inches around her waist. But it’s not overnight, right? It’s giving your body what it needs and it’ll take you places. Remove the overnight, but through sustainable habits, through sustainable habits that she can actually maintain and not only maintain it, but enjoy it and understand why she’s doing this and how it helps her body.
And I love that I can come alongside her and tailored a program or tailor a program to fit what she needs. Because if she’s not having fun, she’s not going to do it. And if it’s not specific to her body, it’s going to be super frustrating for all of us. Okay, so here’s what I recommend. Instead of focusing and or obsessing over belly fat, let’s build muscle, right?
Let’s eat enough protein. And I know that sounds super like I’m painting this broad stroke of build muscle. And you’re like, I know that, but how do I do that? And again, there’s different phases of strength training, right? There’s the stability phase. There’s the strength in doing phase. There’s the high hypertrophy phase. Excuse me. Maybe there’s max strength but it’s figuring out what is where are you.
Right. And that’s what I love. When we do our reach and rise assessment is to see where is their baseline okay. So I can meet them where they’re at to get them to where they need to be. And they start learning and understanding why we’re doing this. Wait for this amount of reps and sets and so on and so forth.
So yes, building muscle there, there is some specific specificity or specifics that you may need. And that’s where I would love to come alongside you and help you with that. Our first assessment we only charge a dollar because if it’s a good fit, great we move forward and not. If not, at least you get some good value information that you can take with you and move forward.
Okay. Going back. So instead of obsessing over belly fat, build muscle, eat enough protein. And I actually have another story I want to share. I’m working with someone now. We’ve been working with each other for a year. She’s actually getting married this week and we’ve been focusing on strength. She’s building muscle. Her waistline came in and has been coming in, and this last month, instead of meeting once a month, we met, you know, twice a month, every couple of weeks, every other week.
And within a two week period, we just saw like in her meals, she just made just a little change. Instead of having the car that she normally eat with potatoes for, for dinner or that carb, she just increased her protein a little bit and within a two week time she lost over an inch around her waist. Again, she’s not starving herself.
She feels good. She’s planning her wedding and feeling radiant. I mean, that is important. So again, building muscle, eating enough protein, staying active most days. Get good sleep whenever you can. Even if you feel like you’re not sleeping, just take a moment to lay down and close your eyes. Focus on your breathing. Maybe use some essential oils, not ones that have synthetics.
Good essential oils to get your mind to relax and take deep breaths and get out of that fight or flight response. Okay, managing your stress and healthy ways. Drink enough water. And please, please, please, please, please. I’m giving you these as examples, but don’t expect perfection, okay? Progress over perfection. We’re just trying to get better 1% each day.
Perfection is overrated. These habits or those habits support your overall health. And over time, they can support healthy body composition to okay, so remember remember remember your goal isn’t just a smaller waistline. It will happen. But let’s not let that be our focus, right? Your goal is a healthier life. Your goal is to have more muscle, more energy, more strength.
A program that fits your body that’s tailored to your needs so you can have more confidence and more years enjoying your career, your business, your family, your community, going on adventures because that’s what life is all about, right? We are blessed to be a blessing to others because when you feel good, you do good and it’s good for everyone else around you.
It’s not selfish, right? Helping yourself helps others and that’s worth working toward. Nothing looks as good as being healthy feels. It’s one of my favorite quotes that I used to put up in our gym and even post on social media. You know, when you look at clothing or fashion or losing weight and building muscle, but, you know, health looks good on everyone, no matter how short haul tall your complexion of your skin health healthy looks good on everyone, and nothing looks as good as being healthy feels.
I truly believe God gave us these bodies so we could spend every day using these bodies as a tool to worship him and help one another, right? Not so we can spend every day criticizing ourselves and others, but we can use our these bodies to serve. We can use these bodies. We can use them to love, to play, to enjoy life.
Take care of your body because it’s the only one you’ll ever have, right? We don’t get another one and be thankful for it, even if you’re not where you want to be. Thankful you were made to move. Thankful that I mean, gosh, I remember doing dissections in grad school and just amazed the muscles, the nerves, the fascia, the arteries, the veins, everything working without me even having to think about it.
Right. That’s amazing. If you really sit and think about that, you can’t help but be grateful. So treat it with gratitude, not frustration. And I share that with you. I have had to share that with myself in the different seasons of life, right when when I went from working full time as a physical therapist, a full time business owner, from being signal single that single to being married, from being married and a business owner to having children and now homeschooling and on and on.
Okay, so here’s your challenge this week. Instead of asking, how do I lose belly fat, ask yourself, what is one healthy habit I can improve this week? Is there a way I can add in strength workouts? Or maybe if you only have one going on, is there a way I can add in two strength workouts in the week?
If you’re not getting enough movement, maybe it’s taking a daily walk ten minutes during your lunch break or after dinner. Maybe it’s getting to bed 30 minutes earlier. Maybe it’s eating like I mentioned before with my gal who’s getting married looking at her meals. Maybe it’s just eating a little bit more protein. Pick one. Just pick one this week.
Pick one. Let’s do it. Come on, master it, then build from there. You got this and you’re not alone. I’m telling you, not alone. You’re not the only one thinking these things are going through this. Small habits lead to big results. All right, guys, I really hope that helped you. Gave you some things to think about and do right.
You just don’t want to hear. It gets get to doing. Let’s get to moving. Let’s get to changing. This is one life we get to live. Let’s make it epic. If today’s episode encourage you, would you share it forward with another woman who needs to hear this right? So many of us feel like we’re by ourselves in this journey.
So many women believe that they’re failing when really their bodies are simply just changing and they need a sustainable plan, not another fad. And if you’d like help building a plan that’s designed specifically for your body and your goals and your lifestyle, I would love to walk alongside you. You can reach us at (207) 467-5509, or visit us at Vanessa Carlson to learn more about our one on one coaching, live virtual training and supportive community.
If you’re enjoying these episodes and want more practical health tips every week, please take a second to subscribe. It really helps us to grow and reach more people. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. As always guys on till next time. Keep moving, keep smiling, keep getting stronger because your health is about so much more than a number on a scale.
God bless you and I’ll see you in the next episode. Episode nine, and where we talk about why walking maybe isn’t helping you lose weight. All right, Ciao, for now.
Vanessa Carlson, and I am the owner of Vanessa Carlson Fitness. I am Raider Carlson and I am the general manager. At VC fitness our first goal is our fun first approach with all of our clients. Working out should not feel like a punishment at all, and we strive to make it the highlight of their day. The workouts are tailored.
I love using my background as a doctor, physical therapy to make sure that we’re meeting our clients where they’re at, to help them to get to where they want to be. And I think the third thing is the accountability and communication. So not only do we have one on one sessions with our clients in person and via zoom, but with the app, we are communicating with our clients almost on a daily basis so that they feel confident.
Those companies don’t have a doctor of physical therapy on staff. And so obviously Vanessa is a doctor of physical therapy and highly sought out around the country. And that brings me to my next point that we are the highest rated, the most reviewed personal training company in Portland, Maine, where our headquarters are located. However, we train virtually nationwide through zoom, through live zoom sessions, and so it doesn’t matter where you live.
You can work with Vanessa. And then the third thing is our very first session with Vanessa is only a dollar. We call it the region rise assessments, where basically it’s a meet and greet where she looks at your body using her Doctor of physical therapy skills to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your session and make sure that it’s a good fit for you.
I mean, obviously, we know that we can work with anybody, but obviously it’s got to be a good fit for you. So when I was a child, my grandmother had breast cancer and I was very close with her and was with her for a lot of her appointments with chemo, radiation, all the things and kind of seeing how that affected her.
And I just knew early on I wanted to do something to help people with their health. I didn’t really know what that was going to look like. Fast forward as a child, I remember getting my first Barbie workout video working out with Dance Barbie, and that just was a core memory for me. It closed the door, worked out, felt great, and then fast forward some more.
I knew that I wanted to do something in the health and medical field, and had really great mentors and teachers that helped direct me where I knew I wanted to have a gym one day. I didn’t know how I was going to look, and we had our opportunity. As I was a physical therapist to open our first gym, I just went for it and just really wanted to help people learn how to take care of their bodies.
I just knew that fitness was my passion. And just over the years, it just all worked out together. And here we are. The rest is history. So here’s the thing you don’t have to figure this on your own. And I totally understand how exercise can be overwhelming. We all know that we need to eat healthy and exercise and work out on carve time for it, and don’t feel like you have to know it all.
Do it all by yourself. And even if you’re feeling unmotivated, know that you’re not alone. So my my message to you is surround yourself with someone who is motivated. For someone that is passionate about exercise and eating well and building a positive habits, good healthy habits. I don’t know how to paint, but if I want to make a canvas painting, I’m going to go to a place that the person is a great teacher and passionate about it.
And I’m going to come out with a beautiful painting. Same thing with this. Take the shame. Take the pressure off of your shoulders. You’re not alone in this. Many people I work with all the time don’t know where to start, and I am honored to come alongside and help you figure it out. And just start building that momentum and get in your stride.
And I promise you, you won’t regret it. So anything that we’re saying resonates with you. Don’t wait. Just call the number. Or you can put your information on our website and someone will get. Get back in touch with you very, very quickly. I mean, you got to do it so fast and you don’t know what you’re doing because your mind, which I get in the.
So don’t let them get in the way. Only it’s only $1 to try, Vanessa. And it might be the most impactful hour in 15 minutes of your life. Here at VC fitness for your first consultation, it’s only $1. The assessment is going to just go over some things that are on your heart. Give me a good idea of your body awareness, your mechanics and see if we are a good fit and it only costs $1.
So you can find us at BC fitness. Or you can call the number (207) 467-5509. Again, that is (207) 467-5509. And you can look at us and VC Fitness dot live. And one more time you can call (207) 467-5509. And we are waiting for your call.