RESOURCES
- Get the FREE Masterclass “3 phase food and fitness formula“
- Visit Alicia Jones’ website aliciajoneshealthyliving.com
- Get the books “Daring Greatly” and “Dare To Lead” by Brene Brown” on Amazon
- Follow Alicia Jones on X.com
- Follow Alicia Jones on Facebook
- Follow Alicia Jones on Instagram
- Follow Alicia Jones on LinkedIn
- Follow Alicia Jones on Pinterest
- Subscribe to Alicia Jones on YouTube
- Visit https://haleynutrition.com
- Watch this episode on YouTube
- Listen to this episode on iTunes
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro Snip
03:25 Why are so many women seeking the GLP-1 inhibitors
04:20 What is an exercise non-responder?
08:05 What is the #1 reason people get off the GLP-1 inhibitors?
09:58 When you lose weight quickly, what is really happening?
15:06 Why do you need a lot of protein when taking GLP-1 inhibitors or losing weight quickly?
16:36 Why is there such a fascination lately with counting protein grams?
19:15 How do we calculate how much protein someone should consume in a day?
23:52 What is the soy controversy?
26:00 What kind of exercise is most important as we are aging?
27:27 What is the importance of impact during exercise?
33:40 What power words were spoken into your life? “If She’s 72, so can you”
35:00 What is the CN Tower Climb?
38:08 What favorite books shaped your understanding?
39:03 Creatine, yes or no?
40:10 Do you recommend hormone optimization?
TRANSCRIPT
I started coming in with women over 50 only. And I think
that was a big moment for me.
Just, hearing I’m too old and hearing,
women say that that was the big reason they just felt like they weren’t capable
of doing these things because of their age.
And then turning that into something that was like, you can do anything you want.
You are listening to the Dr. Haley Show, the podcast dedicated to helping you optimize your health. Each episode there will be an interview or a message to help you discover better health. We will be featuring health radicals on the show to bring new ideas to the table, as well as doubling down on key fundamentals to support you living your best life.
Your host is no other than the founder of Haley Nutrition Dr. Michael Haley.
This is the Dr. Haley Show podcast. I’m Dr. Michael Haley, your show host. And today well this podcast is for those approaching, experiencing or even having already been through their midlife changes and the people that want to actually reclaim or maintain their healthy and fit bodies. Today, Alicia Jones, a fitness and weight loss expert and a certified trainer for women in midlife and a content creator and social media personality.
Alicia, thank you for joining me today. I’m looking forward to this podcast. It’s funny because just the other day I was talking with my wife and we’re in that age, mid 50s now and late 50s for me, mid 50s for her, but a lot of her friends and she’s a big yoga guru and she teaches yoga and she’s 4:00 in the morning in the garage working out before going to work where she’s going to do more yoga, and she’s just always in that go, go, go, be fit, be in shape.
One of the things we were talking about was all of her friends that are taking these well, they’re actually now almost like trendy little patches they put on their skin. Supposed to like GLP one, type things. Probably just a fad.
and they’re counting grams of protein and stuff like that. We’re going to be talking about some very current things in this area of health and fitness, especially for those that are going through their life changes.
I’m so glad to have you. I know
this is your thing. This is what you do. This is my thing. And it’s not just like I went to university for this.
not specifically women over 50, but, physiology, exercise physiology,
nutrition,
biomechanics, the whole nine yards. I take it very seriously, and I really research a lot.
I’m a very big researcher, so I’ve got a lot of stats for you and subjective. Just what’s happening with my clients and participants in my programs, because more and more we’re seeing women come in that are either on these medications or even when they’ve lost a certain amount of weight, they want to take these medications at the stage they’re at.
So there’s a lot to discuss about this, you know, why do you think that is? Why do you think it’s so trendy and people are actually leaning towards it. They see the quick results that people get and it’s just enticing. So they want that and they really aren’t aware of the potential long term effects. Or I think, what is it about it? is double edged sword
And so we really need
to look at it from all angles. I think we have individuals that are really struggling to lose weight who, genuinely are trying, you know,
they’re trying everything. They’re doing the fitness classes, they’re doing the proper eating and nutrition. But it’s almost they have this food noise is what they call it.
It is not the clinical word for it. But basically this, unable to get away from thinking about food all of the time or who, find it very difficult. If, for example, you’re talking about your wife, she eats healthy, she exercises for her, probably it’s a joy to do that for me. It’s a joy to do that.
But we have to also be very empathetic that there is a high population that doesn’t get joy from exercise. Actually, 50% of the population are known as exercise non-responders, which means that they get all of those fabulous, you know, blood balancing, insulin, blood sugar balancing benefits, heart benefits, but they don’t feel excited or a runner’s high, or they don’t love the exercise.
They do. They’re doing it for that one reason for the health benefits that they get from it. And they also don’t necessarily love the healthy food. They’d rather have the, the tastier foods. And so it’s really, really hard. There’s a psychological component to weight loss, environmental genetics. There are a lot of factors. And we have to take all of those into consideration.
I think some people want an easy fix, but some people are genuinely struggling. And so we need to come at it from both sides and really understand why they want to be on it. You know, I’m as you were talking about, that, I was wondering about you personally thinking, okay, do you struggle with that?
what are the tastier foods for you?
Are they the treats or are the tastier foods, the healthier things. So you enjoy that is,
working out a challenge for you or do you enjoy that? For exercise? I have no challenges because I get the runner’s high. For example, today is my first day back from vacation. I was away and I didn’t get to run.
I got to walk a lot. I got to, swim, but I didn’t get to run, and so I tried to sneak it in quickly. You can probably tell on my red face
if you’re seeing me. But, I tried to sneak that in so that I would get that amazing health benefit. It helps me with my anxiety to feel calm afterwards, and it also just makes me alert, so I get those benefits from it.
But I do empathize very much from those that do not get those benefits from it. Yeah, when it comes to eating, I love food. Otherwise I don’t think I would be in a weight loss category because when I was younger, I, I in one year I feel like I gained a lot of weight, I ate a lot of bad things.
And still to this day, I love foods that would be deemed unhealthy. Like we went to Quebec City was where we went for vacation. And their poutine, which is chips, cheese and gravy like fries with cheese and grapes. That is the main food down there. I’m not going to deprive myself of that. I did eat it. I ate other healthy things too.
But, for me, I start to feel really awful if I eat like that and so I am, geared towards wanting to eat healthy. But it wasn’t an easy thing for me either. It took years of slowly changing my palate and switching over to healthier foods. And there are healthy foods that I adore as much as I adore the unhealthy foods.
But,
I also eat those foods as well. I think it’s a balance. My friend Chris wark would refer to certain foods as recreational foods. Yes, I love that. I’m going to use that. Yes, yes, yes. And, every now and then I’ll have some recreational foods. But at the same time, I don’t feel good after eating them, so I’m really not looking for them.
If I’m at a party and that’s what they have, if I’m out with friends and, you know, we’re going to sacrifice for the social experience, it’s worth it. So. And I think that’s where
the GLP ones, the Ozempic or the tirzepatide like Mounjaro, which is GLP-1 and GIP’s together, combined, which are a little bit different.
That’s where they give that gift to certain people to be able to feel unwell when they’re eating those foods. So they might not have that same trigger.
my husband, for example, he does not eat very well and
he doesn’t feel bad afterwards or sleepy or, foggy. He feels fine when he’s eating that way.
And so what happens is when you take these drugs, you can only eat a certain amount. The actual number one reason people get off of them is because they get gastrointestinal issues. So nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, not feeling well, feeling bloated, that sort of thing. And so they’re getting that they’re eating less because of that. And it’s almost as though that is one of the reasons, you know, we feel that way naturally.
Not necessarily nausea, vomiting, but we feel gross when we take these and I think that gives the gross feeling to certain people that are on these drugs. Yeah, I don’t understand that. I’m going to make myself feel sick so that I don’t feel like eating and then I can lose weight. Yeah, I probably lose it too quickly like I did when I was sick.
I, I remember when that thing was going around about 5 or 6 years ago. Yeah. And when it came to my house, I got sick and feverish. And the great part was I lost like 20 pounds in, like, a week. Oh, wow. You know, because I just didn’t feel like eating. The only thing I forced down were things like garlic
and, you know, herbs and spicy things to just try to strengthen my immune system.
Yeah, but then what happened when I got off the drug of being sick? When I wasn’t sick anymore, it came back with a vengeance. All that weight came back rather quickly, and I didn’t even recognize that I was eating that much. I thought, boy, I didn’t, you know, I got my 20 pounds back, but I don’t even feel like I had 20 pounds worth of food.
And then I got back to my weight and it’s still going up. What the heck is happening? Finally, 4 or 5 years later, it’s naturally coming back to where it’s supposed to be. I don’t know why. I don’t know how I’ve been eating healthy, but let’s talk about that because the reason is you didn’t lose 20 pounds of full fat.
That’s not what you lost when you lose weight, especially when you lose weight rapidly. A certain percentage is lean mass, and it also affects bone density as well, because your muscles pull on bone. And so they need the demand of that muscle to pull on bone. So when you lost 20 pounds, some of that, and actually when we’re talking about the GLP-1 drugs,
it’s a high percentage.
We’re looking at about anywhere from 15 to some studies have gone as high as 40% of
the amount you lost is lean mass. And some of that is bone density from that as well. And you know, the average is 15 to 25%. So when you’re looking at that 20 pounds, let’s say even five of that, if we’re being generous, was your lean mass.
So yes, you feel better. You gain the weight back. But you have Less lean Mass. And so it is harder for you to lose weight. You have a slower metabolic rate because you don’t have that lean muscle, which is highly metabolically active. And also you were probably not moving as much or certain movements fatigue you more. And so that was another part of the change, you know, when it comes to the activity levels.
I remember when my wife and I said, let’s go for a walk. And we were both sick, we both had it and we went outside. We made it to the next door and we just didn’t have the energy. We said, that’s it, I’m done, let’s go back to bed. Yeah, we just didn’t have the energy for exercise. So yeah, it was no eating, no activity, fever, which increases your metabolism.
You know, as the temperature goes up, you’re burning actually more calories, or more fat and more, as you said, lean mass. Yeah. So, yeah, it was just the furnace was on
and things were just shedding. One of the things you said is also very, very important. You were talking about the, muscles, the ligaments, the tendons, tugging on bone.
Yeah. Now I happen to be a chiropractor. Oh I love chiropractors. You’ve helped me with my back. So much. That’s great. Yes yes yes I love chiropractic but I have taken a lot of X-rays and as we X-ray people in their 50s and 60s, we can start almost seeing right through their bones. Not everyone and there’s some people that are still strong and you see strong bones.
I want to drive that point home, too, because it’s not just about how you look on the outside, you know, are you thin? But you can accomplish thin just by not eating. But activity is very, very important for the lean mass, including, as you said, as you pointed out, bone density. Yes. Yeah. And I think
when we’re talking about the GLP-1’s, when we’re talking about these drugs, what happens is and again if you need to be on them for because you have a chronic condition of obesity, I completely understand.
But it’s definitely not the easy way out because your resistance training, your, fitness routine needs to be spot on so that you can really mitigate the loss of lean mass and bone density that comes with rapid weight loss
or weight loss that might occur when you’re on these drugs.
Yeah. The other problem is when you
take a way out, such as a medication or a surgery for weight loss, you kind of lose the benefit of discipline.
That is very difficult. Fasting is a challenge. And I think the reason it’s a good practice is because if you can say no to food, you gain so much control over other areas of your life, including relationships and work ethics. And, you know, as you can exercise discipline in the area of food, it just crosses over everywhere, which is why spiritually fasting is a good practice.
I’m not saying that there’s not a time and a place for the medicine or the surgery, because it can save your life.
But I’d much rather see people practice the not just self-control, learn the habits of healthy eating and living, so it can cross over into other areas of your life. Yeah. I think that if you have that, like, again, we are able to do that.
But I do think that there are certain people that just cannot do that and they are good candidates for being on the drug. I also think that, again, it is not the easy way out. You have to practice discipline with resistance training. You have to practice discipline with impact exercises. You have to have a high protein level when you are on these drugs.
So you do not lose that lean mass to the degree that you could potentially lose your lean mass. And so it is even harder, I would argue, to be on these drugs and to properly focus in on your resistance training, your impact exercises, and your nutrition during that time.
you enjoying the show thus far? One of the many health secrets that we have covered on the show is all around aloe vera. Specifically drinking raw aloe vera. Our aloe vera has helped our customers effectively heal their gut, increase their intestine health, lower inflammation in the body, eliminate and or decrease acid reflux, have glowing skin and hair, and so much more.
Now, as a frequent member of our audience, you will be exposed to exclusive specials and coupon codes for the awesome products manufactured by Haley Nutrition. That’s right, for simply being awesome and tuning in. You can get a mini discount to help you optimize and better your health. To see how we can help and support you on your health journey.
Tune in to the episodes and listen for coupon codes that you can use at haleynutrition.com. Before you make your orders of raw aloe vera. Once again, it’s www.haleynutrition.com. Now back to the show.
You just said something and I’m wondering, is that why there’s a new fascination with counting protein grams?
Because of the need for it? When people are on all of these fat loss medications? Yes. Yeah. And any sort of weight loss or high sport, and especially for women, because we, especially as we age, we have, higher degree of anabolic resistance. And that basically means that anabolic means like you can grow your grow your muscle, your bone, all that sort of stuff, but mostly your muscle.
And so, we as we get older and estrogen is no longer at the same level, estrogen levels drop. Estrogen is what send signals to help us grow our lean mass. It’s one of those signals that we need. And so we get those signals to help maintain and grow our lean mass to a much lower degree than men do as we age and the estrogen levels drop.
And so one of the ways that you can mitigate that anabolic resistance is by eating more protein, so that you have more protein available to help repair muscle, and then you add weight loss into the effect. So you’re losing lean muscle. Plus you don’t have that effect of the anabolic resistance to the same degree. It’s a double whammy.
So we’re looking at a much higher protein content than I would argue even for men. So if you’re losing weight, everybody if you’re losing weight fast. And when I say past greater than 1 to 2 pounds per week. You’re on these drugs, these GLP-1 drugs, especially if you’re a woman. But for men that are also losing weight fast as well.
You need to be having a much higher protein content than somebody that is you know, just doing their workouts a couple times a week and,
you know, watching what they eat, but they’re not necessarily doing hard workouts. Your degree of protein needs to be much higher. And then you also have to take into consideration that when you’re on these drugs, a lot of times you can’t eat that much.
So a lot of times other foods that become so important to eat, like high fiber rich foods, go to the wayside because people are trying to hit these protein levels so that they don’t lose their lean muscle.
it is harder for you to really focus in on how you’re supposed to eat when you are on these drugs.
You need to be very careful about what you’re eating. All right. Let’s talk about how much protein. And to me, it doesn’t seem like that much when you come up with a number based on body weight to me it’s like, well, that’s kind of easy. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but
I see a lot of women actually find it challenging.
They look at that number of grams and they say, how am I possibly going to eat that much protein? What’s the recommendation? Yeah. So, it is based on ideal body weight. And I want to say that first because sometimes you hear the number. And if you’re 200 pounds right now this number is going to terrify you. So how much is it that is your ideal body weight where you would be healthy or where you’re trying to get to.
That’s what the protein comes in as, and it is about a gram per pound of ideal body weight, which is about 2.2g/kg of body weight. Okay. All right. I think you said one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. So if someone’s ideal body weight was 120 pounds, yeah, it’d be 120g of protein. Yes. Now on these drugs.
On these drugs specifically. Okay. For that same person, how many calories are they shooting for in a day? So that really depends on your age, your height, your activity level, the whole nine yards. Like you can’t just give one number to that, but this protein level would matter the most. So you’ve got to make sure you’re hitting that protein.
So it really depends on what I’m seeing on these drugs is people are eating 500 to 800 calories a day because they just don’t have the appetite. And that is a big issue, because how the heck on earth are you going to get your protein levels in, right? Like
when you’re barely eating, you shouldn’t be eating any less than 1200.
And that’s still low, especially because everybody on those drugs is going to be weight training, doing their impact exercises. And so your energy expenditure is going to be much high. So you should be much higher than that. But again it also depends on your height. There are a lot of factors. Yeah. All right I’m going to assume that someone weighing 120 pounds is burning.
Let’s imagine 1500 calories a day. I don’t know if that’s realistic, but how tall are they? That’s okay. So if you’re 5’2†or 5ft, 1200 calories when you’re not doing a lot of exercise, would be great. 1500 to 1700 might be what you’re eating with a very intense workout plan, maybe even more. You know, 2000. It really depends on your workout plan.
But, yeah, height is an important factor to that for sure. Okay. And
if the ideal body weight was 120, we’re literally talking about 120g of protein. There’s four calories in a gram. So you’re talking, you know, 480 calories worth of protein. So there’s still plenty of room for the fats and carbohydrates. Looking at it like that, it doesn’t seem like that much.
Now, if you look at it and say, well, how many eggs is that? Okay, well let’s see, we’ve got, about six grams of protein per egg, maybe eight on a big egg on a large egg. So that’s a lot of eggs. Yeah. In the case of beef, there’s probably about seven grams of protein per ounce of beef.
So, we’re talking about, well, maybe eating, a ten ounces of beef. Yeah. Well, in a whole day for that. So if you’re looking at, like, let’s just break it down to a meal if you can get 20 to 30g of protein in per meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner, you’d be ideal. I think there’s a whole other conversation to be had about whether it should be meat or vegetarian and what right, what the quality of your protein is, because those are other factors.
And I know it’s just going to complicate things if we get into that. But, you know, if you were to do four ounces
of your meat, maybe you’re used to three. And that’s a thing with women. A lot of us women, I’ve been told, have your three ounces. Exactly. You know, palm of hand are a little bit smaller and you’re good to go.
Why not just make that a little bit bigger? Why not just make that portion from the three to the five ounces, and you would have 30g of protein almost from your piece of meat, your chicken, you know, just up it a little bit and that would be great. And you can have it with your fibrous foods on the side.
There. That makes sense. And when it comes to food choices, yes, I used animal foods as the example. And I know that a lot of my audience is not consuming animal foods, and a lot of their diets are based on strengthening immune system, and it’s going to be vegetarian and probably a lot of sprouts, bean sprouts and things of that nature to get their protein source.
But I like how you pointed it out. Well, and then there’s a whole conversation about soy as well, right? Because some people are afraid, especially women. They think that because it’s a phyto estrogen that they’re going to have, issues with breast cancer. That’s not true. It actually helps balance out the
inflammatory estrogens in the body and pull them out of your body.
But you could do tofu. You could do soy milk. Like, I swapped out my almond milk for soy milk. Just make sure it’s a non genetically modified, healthy organic version of a soy milk. And you’re getting a higher protein level just from swapping out your type of milk. Yeah. As you mentioned that about the soy. I’m actually going to look up a brand if I can find it.
It’s hailing or something. It’s actually a fermented soy. Even better. Which they’re using for, helping people with breast cancers and like you mentioned. Yeah. haelan. haelan951.com
But interesting. They’re actually they make a soy product where people are consuming it to actually help prevent and fight breast cancers. Yes, which makes sense. I think there’s been a bad rap. I think it depends on like if you’re just talking about, very refined soy that’s non-organic or, you know,
that can be hard at for example, a lot of people do soy protein powders.
I wouldn’t recommend that. But your tempeh, your tofu, you know, your, edamame, even for a snack that’s going to be higher in protein levels than if you were to have a glass of almond milk, for example, that only has one gram of protein, usually per cup. So as opposed to about 9 to 11g for the soy
Let’s talk about fitness. And you mentioned impact and resistance I think were the two that you had mentioned so far. There’s lots of forms of exercise and different activities and even sport for the people that don’t like to work out. Yes. What are your thoughts on the kinds of exercise people should be getting? In general, especially with age, we need to resistance training.
Absolutely. And you have to be lifting weights, and it has to eventually progress progressive overload. So like eventually if you’re lifting the 5 pound weights and at a certain repetition range, it is starting to feel hard yet doable. You can put that weight down. It needs to get to a point of failure or hard yet doable. And so oftentimes I’ll see people going for a walk and they’re holding these little 2 pound weights and they’re having a conversation and they’re going on their walk.
The walk is great for a little bit of impact. But those 2 pound weight you can happily put them down and free your hands up. They’re not doing much for you. Your body’s used to that stimulus. It’s not really going to help you with your lean mass. The impact of your walk helps a little bit. But again, you have to start doing things that challenge you a little bit, that take you to that next level.
Because again, we need to start to create a stimulus in the body that is going to help improve lean muscle and bone density. So you have to cycle yourself from easier weight training to harder weight training. Your wife for example, she does yoga. That’s amazing. I bet you she could do it for hours.
she also needs to be doing that weight training or strength training, which it sounds like she does.
You were saying she was doing that as well? She needs to be doing heavier and lighter sets of strength training. Yoga alone is not enough. It helps a lot, but it’s not enough. And there needs to be some form of impact. And when I say impact, maybe you’re going on that walk and you’re stomping hard with your feet instead.
Or a lot of people say they’ve got bad knees or hips, can you start to work those muscles in a way that are strong enough that maybe you even lift your heels up and then drop down with some force there something along those lines, or you go up on a little bit of a step and you drop down to get that force.
Those are other ways you can get impact, but you definitely need impact as well. And Michael, you probably know that because you’re in bone. So yeah, but I want to hear it from you. Why impact impact stimulates bone creation. So we have osteoblasts and osteoclasts. And you probably already talked about all of this in your podcast a thousand times before.
We have, things that help break down bone and things that then remodel or rebuild bone. And so when you do this movement and this is where the scary part comes in for people, they’re like, I do, am I, do I really want to do this? But when you do these movements, you’re breaking down bone. You’re creating this stimulus.
You’re creating little micro fractures in your bone in a non bad way. these is actually very beneficial because these osteoblasts, they come in and they repair your bone. And you know if they were to be able to talk they’d say oh my gosh, this person might do this to me again. We need to repair bone and even make it stronger so that the next time that this happens to us, we’re prepared for this and our bones won’t break.
And so that’s where that bone density, that, impact comes in. You’re creating these little micro fractures, and then you’re building yourself back up in terms of diagnosing thin bones. When we look at an x ray, a lot of times what we’ll do is we’ll look to the hip joints because right above
the femur, the acetabulum where it fits in, there. all the stress.
The weight of the body kind of sits on that bone there, which creates that extra stress, which helps to stand out as a strong part of bone. So a lot of people that are very weak boned will have that strength only in that part, because it’s getting the impact. But they need kind of that full body impact so that the hormones that build the bone are literally circulating and strengthening the whole skeleton.
When we take X-rays, the people that tend to have the thin bones have the calcium. It’s just in the wrong place. It’s in their arteries in their blood vessels. Instead. And there are hormones that say, get that calcium into the bone, which we’d much rather have it there. As you so well said, So, people strengthen your bones, impact jump rope, but you don’t have to jump rope.
That might be a little difficult. Rebounding is, kind of a light impact for those that can’t handle the heavier stomping on the concrete. Yeah, I do like the heel lifts and then drops like you’re going, because those are also great for your calves. And a lot of times calves become weak and tight. It’s a whole other conversation I know, but so it’s great for you to strengthen your calves at the same time you drop down and you get that impact going up as well.
So I love that as a great place to start if you can’t jump. Yes. And for people that want a more advanced bone strengthening workout, I know that there’s actually places committed to like there’s an Osteo Strong as an example, and they’ll even use technology for those that aren’t doing that kind of impact. Standing on a vibration plate with your knees locked and that vibration that impact rattles through your entire skeleton.
Yes, vibration plates have some really good research behind them. Yes. Great. See and you can weight train on a vibration plate. There you go. There you go to two for the price of one. I like it and.
I hope you’re enjoying the podcast as a thank you for tuning in to the Dr. Haley show. I have a special coupon code that you can use throughout the month of October 2025. Get $10 off your purchase of $100 or more at haleynutrition.com The coupon code is xxxxxx That’s XXXXXX. And as usual, you can even use this coupon with on sale and already discounted bundled items.
Enjoy the rest of this show.
I want to get to know Alicia a little bit better. How did you get into this space of fitness? And my favorite question to ask people.
Was there a point,
time in your life when someone said something to you that always stuck with you and maybe played into who you are? And, one of the examples that I give is when I was a little kid I went with my father on a business trip, and I don’t think he was actually taking me because he wanted to be with me all day.
I think he was stuck with me that day and he took me with him. I don’t know, dad, if you’re listening, I love you. But one of his people, that he was doing business and it was almost awkward, pulled me aside and, you know, looked into my eyes and said, son, just remember this as he pointed at me and said, persistence will get you anything you want.
And I, you know, that stuck with me from the time I was a little kid. And when I had difficulty, I just remembered persistence, persistence, persistence. And it seemed to always work, just like he said. So I consider those that were power words that were spoken into my life and kind of helped develop me into, who I am now.
And my dad spoke some good words into my life, too, but those stood out. What about you
has anything like that ever been spoken to you that kind of stuck with you? Well, I think the history of how I got into training with women over 50 is first,
the big impact on my life. I grew up with my grandmother, who, it was my mother and my grandmother, but my mother was a single mother.
So my grandmother was the one that was at home taking care of my brother and I. And I remember her from a very young age. You know, she was always bedridden, though, and that was because in her time it was normal to smoke. She was a nurse and she smoked,
you know, in the time where there was no seatbelts and you smoke all the time, and you smoked in the doctor’s office, you smoked everywhere.
And so she smoked a lot of her life. So by the time she was at the age where she was taking care of us as the grandmother,
she had COPD and cardiovascular disease. And I remember even at four,
so she would have been in her 70s at that time. She had to have somebody else come in and take care of us as at the same time as she was there.
But I was very close with my grandmother. I only wanted to be with her. And so I was actually quite mean to the babysitters that used to come into the house because I didn’t want them. I only wanted my grandmother there. And then years later, I had already gotten into fitness. I knew that I wanted to be in fitness
for psychological reasons, I felt amazing.
It helped me through depression.
That was my thing that I wanted to do. And so I had a whole bunch of clients who I was trying to recruit to do the CN tower climb and the CN Tower climb is a charity event where you go up what used to be the highest free standing building, the CN tower.
It’s over a thousand steps. I don’t really remember how many steps it is, but I was trying to recruit everyone and some of my clients were in the older age population and they said to me, I can’t do that. I’m too old. And so I recruited my mother, and my mother was the opposite of my grandmother. She never smoked.
She rarely drank. She did her fitness classes and ate really healthy. We had home cooked meals a lot, and so I recruited my mother and she was on board. She was like, yes, I’m going to do it. And she was 72. So my slogan from now was, if she’s 72, so can you. And every single one of the women that were saying they were too old to do that, they had to join.
They had no choice. And so it was that pivotal moment that I realized that I only wanted to work with aging populations, because we really have this fork in the road where
how our health and well-being looks is really it’s geared around how we eat, how we exercise, how we take care of ourselves. And we can be the one that’s lying on the bed
while our grandchildren are wishing and hoping they could be with us.
Or you could be like my mother, who is the role model, did the CN tower. We’ve traveled all over the world together. And so that’s where I started coming in with women over 50 only. And I think
that was a big moment for me. Just, hearing I’m too old and hearing, you know, women say that that was the big reason they just felt like they weren’t capable
of doing these things because of their age.
And then turning that into something that was like, you can do anything you want. Some people will lose breath going up a single, flight of stairs. How many stories is a thousand steps? Approximately. Do you remember? I don’t know, I can’t even it’s over a thousand actually steps. It’s like 1770. You should look it up. How tall is the CN tower?
I can’t remember, because it sounds like you may have walked up 70 or 80 stories or something like that a lot. It was a lot. I can’t remember. It is all over the internet for anybody that wants to look it up. But it’s a lot of flights because it used to be the tallest standing building, I think before Dubai had, oh yeah, well, if that’s the case then we’re talking about a big building.
Yeah, yeah, it’s very, very tall. If you go to Toronto Canada.
you can’t miss it. The CN tower how tall Is the CN tower and. Well height 1815ft. How many stories. Well, let me change that term. How many? Stories. Is the CN tower? 147. There you go. That’s it.
I was looking it up at the same time.
That’s a that’s a big building. Wow. Yeah. Impressive. Any favorite books that you read that shaped your understanding? Oh, many. Lately, it’s been Brené Brown, Daring Greatly. And then, dare to lead both of those books are hers. Actually, I listen to Dare to Lead in an audiobook when I was going to clients houses, and it’s her that narrates the book by Brené Brown.
And I felt like there was somebody sitting beside me calling me out on all my poo poo. It was an excellent book. And then after that it was
Daring greatly was the next one that I read, and I just love Brené Brown. It’s funny to love something that makes you feel so convicted, but good for you.
I think it’s just, analyzing how we react to things and
how we do things like, that’s it. It’s just it’s a great book. Wow. Creatine. Yes or no? Yes. Okay. Good, good. The more I ask that question, the more I get. Yes. How long have you been using it? I started about a year ago, I’d say.
And I don’t use it all the time. I use it during heavy lifting phases. I’ll probably, if I know I’m about to go into a heavier lifting phase, I’ll take it before then. You don’t have to go off of it. But, just for it to build up in your body. A great thing about creatine is that it stays in your muscles.
Like you can actually enhance and put more in and build it up. So it’s great for when you’re lifting heavy because it helps you lift even heavier. It gives you a little bit of support. There. But more than that, it’s also starting to be shown to help with memory and cognition, especially in older populations and especially when you’re under stress.
So if you’re under stress, have you ever been in that situation where you’re like, I don’t even remember what happened yesterday. Oh, I can’t remember what I was talking about because you’re just feeling that level of stress. It helps keep your short term memory when it comes to very
highly stressful situations. So yeah, good to be on. Now another thing that we briefly talked about was hormones and how they change in time.
Some people do hormone therapy. Some people do hormone optimization. What’s your take on it? I think if it really helps you, honestly, I think that you need to go on it if it’s going to help you. I think it’s all again, just like we talked about with the GLP-1
it’s very personal and every person is different.
I will say if you’re on a GLP-1 and you go on hormone replacement therapy,
so far the research is showing that you can maintain a little bit more of your lean mass, and the weight loss is a little bit better if you want to combine those two together. All right. All right. You have a great YouTube channel by the way.
Very well. Yeah. And it kind of both. You’re kind of like how you are right now on this podcast, very energetic and exciting, and you have a lot of good information. I would encourage anyone to check out your YouTube channel. What’s your favorite of your social media channels? I know you have a Facebook page. I believe you’re on X or Twitter.
I love YouTube and actually we were talking about Covid.
one of my most popular videos is how to get started with exercise after a long time off. And it was because I had Covid and getting back into it again was like it was such a I tell my little story in the beginning of how I had Covid, and I went back to basics with that.
So I did the workout with everyone. So it’s a very basic workout to get you started with weight training. And it does explain
That was how I started again with Covid. It was hard. Yeah, yeah, it was crazy how it just wiped you out and then you just had no energy, no desire. You know, your only desire was to sleep more.
But you know what I did and I don’t know, I feel this way. Maybe it’s the same for you, but I felt that gave me empathy for all of my people that are starting because it is hard for many, like, you know, for you to walk down the street and just feel winded and you have to be done with it.
That’s exactly how my people feel when they’re, you know, either winded with their weight training or with a small walk and, you know, you just keep on going. That’s it. But it gives us empathy for understanding where those starting points are. Again. Yeah, I had a hard time admitting that it kicked my butt so much because, well, for one, I’m kind of like the a nutrition influencer type person and I’m in the aloe vera business.
Well. Oh, I took Aloe Vera for my stomach when I was having stomach issues. Yeah, well, a lot of people use it for their immune system. And I had to admit, you know, yes,
I consumed aloe vera every day, and I still got Covid and it still kicked my butt. So, that was a tough one to swallow.
Yeah. No, but it is what it is. It was the same for me. I got it the worst, actually, in the whole house. And, I’m the athletic one and I’m the healthy one, so. Well, I think it was the same for me. I definitely got it, the worse than the whole house. Now, maybe because we haven’t been sick for years before, so our immune system wasn’t ramped up or ready for anything like that.
Whereas when people get sick all the time, or they’re
constantly,
having these pathogens, like people that are working in hospitals, their immune system is more trained and ready for the things that might get them, including other coronaviruses. Similar in structure. So the there’s almost a partial immunity already. Who knows. It’s a little complicated but is isn’t it all.
Yeah. What can we do. We continue to make the best choices and do all we can. And then we’re going to die. Yes that is true.
that’s one way of looking at it. But you know, what are we going to do with that dash in between the year you were born and the year that you die, the day that you die, how good is that Dash going to be?
How vibrant and, how much life is in you. So I think that’s what we’re focused on. I think that’s probably the one thing we can have an effect on. So yes, I agree. I enjoyed speaking with you. How do you, how do you monetize what you do? What are your and if people want to learn from you or train with you, how does that work?
Well, I do have a free masterclass. The three phase food and fitness formula every woman over 50 needs to know. I can give you the link for that. It shows the science of the exercise component and how to do it, and to maintain or work with your lifestyle. And if at the end of that, you want to join my program over 50 Fit and Fabulous, it will invite you to join the program as well.
So that’s the main way. And you can also reach out on social media, YouTube, Facebook, or send me an email at alicia@aliciajoneshealthyliving.com. Awesome. Alicia, I want to thank you so much, people. Check out
the links in the description below the video
below the podcast player.
You’ll see some text and in there I’ll have links to Alicia website. You might have to copy and paste to our YouTube channel and more, so check it out. Alicia, thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
I hope you enjoyed that episode today on the Dr. Haley Show. Make sure to hit subscribe on whichever platform you are listening to this. If this episode made you think of someone, go ahead, take a screenshot and share this exact episode with them. You can catch the show notes for this episode on drhaley.com. If you want to geek out with Dr. Michael Haley on other radical health topics.
Be sure to check out his YouTube channel where he posts exclusive video content. All the details are at drhaley.com and we can’t wait to hang out with you on the next episode.
———————–
