Ladies Kickin' Ass

#123 - Unlocking Strength and Longevity Through Fitness with Kim Rahir

• Tanya Wilson/Kim Rahir • Episode 123

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Ever wondered how to turn adversity into strength? Meet Kim Rahir, a 60-year-old powerhouse who shifted from journalism to personal training and Olympic weightlifting, all while battling and overcoming a severe illness. Kim's story is a living testament to resilience and the transformative power of fitness at any age. You’ll be inspired by her journey and learn how finding your passion can lead to overall well-being and longevity.

We tackle common fitness fears and misconceptions, particularly for women who find the gym environment intimidating. Kim’s advice is straightforward: start small, stay consistent, and gradually build up your strength. With just 15 minutes of daily exercise, you can reestablish the brain-muscle connection and set yourself on a path to better health. From navigating gym equipment to understanding the benefits of muscle training over cardio, Kim provides practical tips to help you build a sustainable fitness routine.

Kim doesn’t shy away from discussing the hard truths about weight loss drugs and the importance of sustainable lifestyle changes. Empowerment through healthy habits is the name of the game, and you’ll discover how intuitive eating and personalized fitness plans can make all the difference. Whether you’re starting out or looking to refine your fitness journey, this episode is packed with actionable insights and motivational stories to help you claim the well-being you deserve. Join us for this empowering conversation and take the first step toward a stronger, healthier you!

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Tanya Wilson:

Hello badasses, Welcome back to the podcast. Today is going to be a good, fun one, and today we're going to throw in a little bit of let's work on our personal selves, because it's summertime and this is what we're talking about, along with kicking ass in our business and being a kick-ass mom at home to all these kids running around our house. We have to remember and we've talked about it so much the last couple of weeks that we also need to take care of ourselves, and so we couldn't have a better guest to come on today to talk about this. Kim Rahir is here with us today on the podcast, and she has quite a story about her that is absolutely. You're just going to be marveled by Kim.

Tanya Wilson:

I will put everything in the show notes for you to follow along with her on social media. It's absolutely incredible what she has been able to do, and many times you're like well, I didn't start when I was 20. I didn't start when I was 30. I didn't start when I was 40. You know like it's too late for me to do things. Kim is a true testament that you can start whenever the hell you want to and still be super awesome at what you do. So, Kim, thank you so much for being on the podcast with us today. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself what, who is Kim? And then tell us what you love to do for a living and how you're helping women?

Kim Rahir:

Yeah, okay, thanks for having me, tanya. It's a really pleasure to be here and I can feel that this is going to be so much fun. So my name is Kim, as you said, I'm 60 years old, I'm a German, but I live in lovely, sunny Spain. I used to be a journalist for something like 20 years of my life. Then I got very, very ill, muscled my way literally out of that illness, got better, thought hmm, I might be onto something here with that muscle thing, um, and started, um, you know, certified as a personal trainer, health coaching, everything, um, and now I'm helping women, um, become strong physically and solve a ton of problems that they, that they experience with their health, with their fitness.

Kim Rahir:

Uh, in the process, like it's very close to a one-stop shop. I mean, you know you can't drink through the nights and not sleep and then build muscle. That's not going to work. So you're going to have to make it a bit of a lifestyle. But if you focus on muscle and strength, so much of shenanigans and unpleasantness will go away. And on the way, I also became an Olympic weightlifter. I started lifting in a gym normally and then I somehow found Olympic weightlifting, which is an explosive sport. So you would guess that a 60 year old woman shouldn't do this, but I'm loving it. I'm super passionate about it and I warn you, if you ask me any questions about Olympic lifting, I'm going to ramble for half an hour.

Tanya Wilson:

What is Olympic lifting? Is that, like I have, I'm lifting like insane amounts of weight? Or like, how did you get into? You say you found it? How does one find Olympic weightlifting?

Kim Rahir:

Yeah, it kind of found me. So I was lifting in a gym, lifting, lifting heavy you know what not many women do and I was working with a personal trainer who loved working with me because I just, you know, said, bring it on, let's lift heavy, and trying to work up to a 200 pound deadlift and stuff like this. And one day he came and said you know, I just started this thing. This is like really fun, it's olympic weightlifting. Do you want to try it? Um, so, yeah, why not? Yeah, let's give it a go. Um, and it's actually, you might have seen those. It's like usually it's like fat guys on a, on a on a scene. Um, they wear these weird leotards. That's how I saw them as a kid. They had this weird leot and at the time the leotards were like criminal because their bellies hung out and everything.

Kim Rahir:

And there's just two movements in Olympic weightlifting. So the idea is to put the bar overhead from the floor. It's on the floor, you need to go overhead, and there's two movements. The first is called the snatch and that's why you do that in one move. So from the floor it goes straight over your head, and then the other one is the clean and jerk, where you can rest it on the shoulders first and then you put it overhead and that's it. I tried. It sucked at it like totally, because it's very technical and that's the fascinating thing, because it's not just pure strength. You need technique, so it's not only physical, it's also physics. You have to sort of outsmart gravity and you have to mechanize the movement, because it's explosive. There's a point where you don't consciously control the movement anymore, so you have to just do it over and over again to make sure that your lifts look as similar as possible. But it's hard, but it's fun and I got hooked and I'm loving it, that's so cool.

Tanya Wilson:

So when you are doing competitions with the weightlifting stuff, is this something that, like, you become recognized for this and you get invited to competitions? Is it kind of like in the United States, spartan races are big things, like people will go and compete in all of these different kinds of races throughout, but it's kind of like you just go and you sign up for them. Or is this something like you become recognized as this and you get invited to go to these competitions?

Kim Rahir:

Well, there's like federations, like national federations, international federations and you have to meet certain standards international federations and you have to meet certain standards. So you have to compete, like locally or nationally, with a certain amount of referees to make it like a recognized minimum standard that you achieved and then you can sign up. And when I first started, I was still in the commercial gym, but I switched to a pure weightlifting club really quickly and they asked me if I wanted to compete after something like two weeks and I thought, oh my God, I'm 55. I'm competing, and I said, yes, let's do this. So the first meet was local and I got curious and I checked the standards for the European competitions and I actually had met that standard. So I said, well, might as well. You know, let's go international.

Kim Rahir:

Really exciting, that was, in 2019, my first European championship, and so you need to have the minimum standard, which, actually, you know, when you turn 60, from 59 to 60, it drops by many, many pounds. You know, the older you get, of course, the lower the standard is, which is I mean you know the older you get, of course, the lower the standard is, which is I mean you know it's. I think they sort of calculated that and know that from experience that this is like a challenging weight for you know, for a woman of that kind of weight and that kind of age. And yeah, my plan is to be still there when I'm 80 and still go there and lift in those competitions.

Tanya Wilson:

That is so cool. Oh my gosh. If you're listening to this and you're like, oh, it's just too late for me, I want you to remember Kim and be like look, I'm like flabbergasted at the ability of somebody to take this on, and like that scares me to death when I go in the gym. I'm like I'm too old for that.

Tanya Wilson:

I'd say that to my daughter all the time and I'm like I have to stop using them as an excuse, because the more I got to learn about you, I'm like, oh my gosh, she's kicking people's ass out there and it's so cool to be able to see that you went on that journey. A lot of things I think to getting into let's talk about, like physical shape, losing weight, you know, just really working on your personal health is a lot of mental things too. I've like you telling yourself I'm too old for this. You telling yourself that you can't do this. How did you get your mind to a place where you're like I can do this and I can be really good at this, and really believing in yourself to go out there and do it?

Kim Rahir:

Well, I think it's got something to do with my personal history, because I had a very traumatizing brush with autoimmune disease which, when I was 45, from one day to the next I found myself in hospital and after three weeks I was actually totally paralyzed from the hips downwards. I didn't know when I was going to be able to walk again, which was super scary and traumatizing because you know you lose all your power Already when you go to a hospital. You lose your power because you cannot decide who's in your room, the lights on in your room or off, or when you know when you're going to have your breakfast and all these things. But when you can't walk, when you're like paralyzed, you have zero, you have like minus power because you feel like a thing you have to ask people to take you to the toilet and stuff like this. It's absolutely horrible. I got over this. It was a one-off, that one.

Kim Rahir:

Two years later I was, however, diagnosed with MS because I had more autoimmune troubles and I think from this hospital experience I had this desire to become really badass strong. I just wanted to be physically strong after this experience of powerlessness, and that's how I started. And the thing was, I got myself a book and I lifted heavy and this was one of the first books that said women should lift heavy. You know, stop the stuff with the pink little dumbbells. You know it's not going to take you anywhere and I got better so quickly.

Kim Rahir:

That's the amazing thing. I didn't have much damage from my MS relapses. I mean, to this day I just have no sensitivity in my left hand or very little, but otherwise I had no. No, I had some reflexes that had gone and stuff all came back. And I don't say that you can cure MS with, with, um, weightlifting, you know, because I haven't had any, any, any symptoms for for years and years and I even stopped my treatment. But I think what it does and I think that's what helped me also later on, when you lift heavy, you get this experience in your in your brain and literally in your fibers that you can overcome resistance you know, in the gym it's gravity in the gym.

Kim Rahir:

it's gravity and you say, okay, my bar, let's see if I can. You know, yeah, in the gym it's gravity. In the gym it's gravity. And you say, okay, my bar, let's see if I can, you know, lift you up. Gravity doesn't want you to go up, but I'm going to get you up there just the same. And I think that this experience, that it sort of gets really ingrained in your being and when you meet resistance in other parts of your life, you, you have this experience. You know that you can overcome it. It's not, it's not a reason to stop and any kind of limiting belief that we could have, like I'm too old for this shit or I'm it's all, just some kind of resistance it could be inner resistance could be outer resistance, but once you've learned that you can overcome that, you know you're kind of unstoppable.

Tanya Wilson:

Yeah, oh my gosh. So much of everything that we accomplish or even try to do is how we talk to ourselves inside of our heads, and lots of times we're not very nice at the things that you say. If you would say out loud some of the things that you think about yourself looking at yourself in a mirror I remember hearing this from a podcast years ago and I was like that just stuck with me forever. Because when you tell yourself I can't do this or I shouldn't do this, or you know, like I'm too old for this shit, like you said, or things like that, would you ever say, like, turn around as a mother and be like, say that to your kids. Would you ever say that to your friend?

Tanya Wilson:

or your spouse or your partner or anything? No, but we say such horrible things to ourselves and then wonder why we're not accomplishing things. It is because of the way that you talk and believe in yourselves, and I love the, just the whole attitude of lifting heavy and taking on hard things, like you said, like you know that you can now fight resistance with things when you do that hard shit. It makes you stronger to want to take on bigger and better and crazier ideas and things, and just getting started is where it all comes from. I know for women a lot of times when I'm in the gym and I see people it's like we just hit the cardio like crazy. We don't ever do the lifting heavy things because women are scared of that.

Tanya Wilson:

When you started doing that in the gym, you said that you were working with a trainer. Did the trainer inspire you to do heavy lifting or was this something that you kind of came up with to do that? Because I think women are like okay, I hear this, I need to build muscle mass. Like we're getting in that age where we're like we need to like work on you know you need muscles to protect the rest of your body and to be like you're talking about fighting off even things that you've been dealing with with with health issues. Where would somebody get started on doing something like that if they're interested in pursuing what you have done?

Kim Rahir:

Well, I actually started with this book and to this day I don't remember where I found this. It has a very weird title. It was called Live Like a man, look Like a Goddess.

Tanya Wilson:

I don't know why.

Kim Rahir:

I liked it so much and the authors say that nowadays they wouldn't call the book like that. Apparently it wouldn't be very you know in fashion anymore to say something like that. I don't know why.

Kim Rahir:

I found the idea great that you could do like like yeah, like, like, like raw stuff and like really lift heavy, and that you would still, uh, look great. And I think this is a, this is a big one because, um, so many women worry you know how how they would make them look, when I all I can say to that is just ask yourself, how, how is it going to make you feel?

Kim Rahir:

And then make your decision based on that. I think the step into the gym is a big problem. Like they say, the heaviest weight in the gym is the front door and I think for many women that is a big thing I speak to many many women who really don't want to join a gym and you need to find a way to start small and start at home.

Kim Rahir:

If you are such a stranger to this, there's no point in saying, on January 1st, I'm going to go to the gym three times a week or something like this, because it will be extremely excessively hard to go through with that.

Kim Rahir:

If you have never been a gym goer and we have this idea that we're taking this one big decision right, we're going to go to the gym three times a week. My one big January decision, when what we're actually condemning ourselves to is taking like 20 decisions three times a week packing the gym bag, getting into the car, driving through the traffic, finding a parking these are are all decisions that we have to take in something that we do not have ingrained, that we do not have automated. That's not a habit. So you know, the very first day you have a bad day at work or something comes up. You were just not going to do it because you won't have the force to take all these decisions that are so totally out of your comfort zone and your habits. So what I do with the women I work with, I have them start at home. 15 minutes a day, nothing more, and stuff that you can do in your pajamas in the morning.

Kim Rahir:

So you really only have to take one decision, which is like when you get up, just do my exercises and be done with it, and I think that's a way where the resistance, your inner resistance, and also the resistance, you know, of your schedule and the people around you and everything, is minimized.

Tanya Wilson:

You want to minimize the resistance listen to this podcast, who are obviously go-getters. They're like, if I'm going to go to the gym, like I'm going to be there for a whole damn hour and I'm going to get this done, and I'm going to get this done, they're all or nothing. I know that I have thought that a lot myself too. I'm like well, if I only go to the gym one day a week, is it really making a big difference? I just won't go then, or I have to consistently be going five, six days a week, or I kick my own ass because I didn't make it.

Tanya Wilson:

And I love what you said about how it's not just the decision to go to the gym, it's all the decisions you got to make in order to get to the freaking gym to start with. I know that all too well because I use those excuses myself. So, at 15 minutes a day, so somebody starts working with you, they're doing 15 minutes a day. So somebody takes starts working with you, they're doing 15 minutes a day. What does that 15 minutes a day difference really do for them versus not doing anything at all? Because most people will be like 15 minutes that's not enough time. But it's better than nothing, right, yeah?

Kim Rahir:

It's. It's what so many people think, because, uh, we're exposed to so much stuff, you know, like extreme running and heavy lifting, and we see all these things, and we don't work 50 minutes a day. What can that do? Um, and for most women, uh, who haven't exercised in a while, the main point is actually to start rebuild the connection between the brain and the muscles. So the effectiveness of a muscle contraction is actually the speed of the signal that comes from your central nervous system, and if you haven't used that connection in a while, you know, the brain sort of puts it offline. So I don't have to contract my butt muscles, okay, so why am I going to waste energy on that connection? And then there's something that happens when people have not exercised for a long time and been sitting a lot, they actually can't contract their glutes because this muscle memory is lost. So, with most women, when I start, there's 15 minutes we use just to rebuild that connection so they become much more functional. And then we work on just very simple basic movements. Because that's the crazy thing yes, we want to build muscle, but we are training movements, not muscle. And by training movements we are building the muscle. So we're doing stuff, like you know, pushing and pulling and picking stuff up from the floor and getting stuff down from overhead. So it's very functional.

Kim Rahir:

It will carry over into your everyday life, especially if you have kids that you carry around. They will feel much lighter already after a few weeks. And the first and biggest effect of doing these 15 minutes a day is an energy surge. It's the, you know after two weeks, oh my God, I have so much energy and that's, you know, the biggest. The knock-on effect of that is immeasurable because you will have more energy to make you know good food decisions. You will have more energy to move around more, because when you're tired and when you're feeling so exhausted all the time, your brain will downregulate your movement without you even noticing it. You will just get up from a chair less often. You just walk shorter distances and stuff, and that is something your brain does without you even noticing when you're exhausted. So nothing but this energy surge from training 15 minutes a day will have knock-on effects that will be noticeable very, very quickly.

Tanya Wilson:

Yeah, and it's like you kept a commitment that you made to yourself and that's 15 minutes and you've done it for two weeks consistently. You start building more confidence to maybe even increase that to 20 minutes a day because you have just shown yourself that you can do it for 15 minutes a day. So sometimes it's that starting like being confident, able to start over as a beginner of something. I think women that are high achievers are kind of like I got to get in there and instantly be great at this. That is not what you have to do with things.

Tanya Wilson:

I think a lot of times for women in the gym too, they get in there and they're like I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to be doing in here as far as weightlifting goes, because a lot of them are not shown.

Tanya Wilson:

So if you're not working with a trainer, you may feel a little silly in there because you're not quite sure what you're supposed to be doing, and so they instantly default back to the treadmill because it's like well, I know how to run, so I can do that while I'm here. What would be your advice for women just getting into the gym that say they're going to the gym, what do they start with. That's just something that's really simple, or a suggestion for them to get started to, where everybody at the beginning is a beginner and everybody isn't looking at you necessarily the way that you think that they are. But what are some tips that you would give somebody that's getting into the gym to just get started on single things as far as weightlifting goes, um, you definitely want to go in there with some kind of plan or program.

Kim Rahir:

So that's something that you can stick to If you want to. You know you're on the gym floor. Maybe it's a stressful situation for you because you have these reservations and insecurities and then you're supposed to recall the exercises you wanted to do. That's never going to happen. So you want to have something like a written plan I mean it can even be on your phone or on paper, whatever it is but some exercises that you want to do and then what you really can do.

Kim Rahir:

If you don't know how the machines work or how the free weights work, you can, you know, take that exercise, go to someone and ask them how do I do this? And it could be a trainer who's walking around the gym floor. Because you know, if you're shy of talking to other gym goers, that's totally normal, but there could be a trainer walking around. There should be, you know, if it's a good gym, there should be a trainer walking around. And then you say, okay, I want to do bicep curls, can you? You know, can you help me a little bit? What kind of weights should I pick? And they will love helping you. This is something we I know. It's like this defensive reflex that we all have.

Kim Rahir:

We go to this unknown territory and we think and this is our ancient brain, right, that's the animal that lives inside us, we'll say, oh my God, I don't know this, this must be dangerous, this is very threatening and your brain literally feels like, oh my God, I might die here because I don't know where I am and there might be predators and stuff. So you have to override this fear with your reasonable brain. Remember that most people in the gym are like really happy to to help you out. There might be some who are totally in the zone or doing crazy stuff, but you'll always find a friendly face that you can ask how do I do this? But it's best if you come with something, some kind of plan.

Kim Rahir:

If you have no plan, um, then you know it's like you're walking in there blindly and and that's that's really tough. And then you need to, like you go back into a beginner's mind. Beginner's mind is a great attitude anyways, because everything is changing all the time and even if you've done the same exercise for years, you will never do it in exactly the same way. So you might as well have this open mind and try to experience something new. And then, of course, as you said, most people are not really interested in watching us and see what we're doing or how we're looking. They're busy with their own stuff and they'll be happy to help if we ask them stuff and and and they'll be happy to help if we ask them.

Kim Rahir:

This is, I mean, this is a big shift, you know, in the mindset to go there with this intention of of you know, getting some kind of help or advice. Because when you go in this defensive attitude and think, oh my god, I hope nobody sees me, I just want to do something quick, and then you know you're not, you're not going to get it done, you have to make this decision before and say, okay, I'm, I'm going to get there, I'm going to do what I've written down here, and if I don't know where or how to do it, I'm going to ask someone.

Tanya Wilson:

Absolutely so. A big part of that takeaway I get from the ladies is have a plan, because we talk about this all the time. Fail the plan, plan to fail, you get in there. You get overwhelmed because you don't know what the hell you went in there to do in the first place. Show up with a plan.

Tanya Wilson:

There's so many apps that you can download on your phone now for like super cheap that will give you all of the fitness workout stuff. We've had Fit Foodie Chicks on here before. They're great friends of mine. Here in Gilbert. They have an app that will walk you through like all kinds of workouts. If it's something that you're wanting to do, so be sure to check that out.

Tanya Wilson:

And if you get into the gym, bring some badass music, turn it on and focus on nothing but yourself. You can tell when you go into the gym, the ones that are in there to look good and the ones that went in there to work out. You know what I mean. Like I know that is a big thing in the United States. It's all of the fitness influencers that you know. They may have a bead of sweat by the time they leave, but they've made their videos. That's not what we're in there looking for anyways. We're not trying to be those people. We're in there focused on our health. One of the things I see in the gym a lot too, is conversations with women in gym classes. I've been in where they are having this debate of whether cardio is better or weightlifting is better. What are the benefits of lifting heavy and building that muscle mass versus just taking a three mile run on a treadmill?

Kim Rahir:

We just have to keep our muscle. Muscle is the tissue of longevity. We have so much research now. It's for every single aspect of our health. It's for our metabolic health, for our cardiovascular health, for bone health, joint health and mental health. If you build muscle, you're going to be. It's really a complete solution. And I always have this hierarchy of exercise. If you only have, you know, say you have very little time, you want to spend that on strength training, definitely because you're going to build a bigger engine. You know your muscle mass is like your engine.

Kim Rahir:

You have a bigger engine. You need more fuel, so you don't have to worry so much about your food intake, and it's something that we never consider. But if we have a bigger engine and we can eat more, we can also eat more nutrients. Because we can eat a bigger variety of foods, we can make sure that we get all the multitude of micronutrients and vitamins and enzymes that are in different foods. If we become smaller and smaller and smaller and our engine needs less and less fuel, the variety of nourishing food that we can eat also shrinks, and that's a health risk. So the hierarchy is this If you have a little bit of time, do strength training.

Kim Rahir:

If you can do three days of training a week and you still have some time left, then you can start doing some cardio. For the average person, I actually think that walking 10K steps a day is all the cardio that you need when you begin, so you don't have to worry about other things and I don't know. I know that cardio is fun. I love it too, but if you do only that, you're not going to build enough muscle, you're not going to build enough bone density and bone strength. And then, if it's like running. For example, I know so many women who start running because for some reason and I think we have Kenneth Cooper to thank for this from the 70s, so many people still think that running is like the best that you can do for your health and for everything. And it's great and it's going to make you very lean and slim and everything, but for most, people who haven't moved in a long time.

Tanya Wilson:

It's just going to get them injured. Yeah, yeah, for sure that I think something too. I love what you said about the bone density part of stuff. None of us are getting any younger. The older that we get the importance they had all these commercials for many years that was like oh, if you drink milk, then you have strong bones. If you have, it's like all of this, I'm just going to take calcium and I'm going to have strong bones, or I'm going to do this. As we age, especially women, the bone density gets so much less than what you had when you were younger. Talk to me about what the effects are with protecting your bones more when you build muscle versus just worrying so much of the time about being lean and skinny.

Kim Rahir:

Yeah, so muscle and bone tissue gets sort of broken down and rebuilt around the clock in the body and the bone density, the way your bone is built and strong and can withstand force, it depends totally on what you put on it as a load. So if you do not load your bones they will just become more brittle. The body is so ruthless. It's the same that I said before about the brain that says, oh, we don't contract the glutes, so then we're going to just shut off that connection. If we don't load the bones, then the body says, oh my God, we don't need this, so I'm going to take stuff out of there and put it somewhere else. It's in. The body says oh my God, we don't need this, so I'm going to take stuff out of there and put it somewhere else.

Tanya Wilson:

It's in the body.

Kim Rahir:

It's all about allocation. It's all about allocation. We have to understand this that there's, you know, the brain sort of allocates resources to the body parts that demand and that need the resources. And if you do not demand those resources for your muscles and your bones, they're not going to get them and they're going to break down and they're going to become weak and with bones, that is really dramatic. It's dramatic.

Kim Rahir:

Falls are like a big cause of mortality. They are so debilitating. One fall and that could be, I mean, are like a big cause of mortality. They are so debilitating. One fall and that could be, I mean some women start having tumble, taking tumbles in their 50s and one fall can make you age like a decade because it immobilizes you, it makes you dependent. It also makes you sort of afraid and scared because you fell once, you don't want to fall again, so you move even less and it really can start a vicious cycle. You want to load those muscles and then the bones with it to make sure that they stay strong. And if we don't do that, from 35 years onwards it goes like we lose bone density at a very alarming rate and when 35 is when we have the most we're never going to have more than we had with 35. We can't build anymore from then on. We can just conserve, conserve, conserve, like, really be like, really deliberate about this, because it's such a big health risk.

Tanya Wilson:

Yeah, oh, that's so important, and I think it's something that women aren't talked to a lot about, because some women still have this mindset of if I go lift heavy weights, I'm going to, you know, look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or something you know, like these big bodybuilder guys, and it's you're like it's that's not going to happen. Like a female's body is not going to just plump up like this without adding some other stuff to it too Correct, like that's not what's going to happen to these ladies when they lift heavy?

Kim Rahir:

Absolutely never. I mean there could be one or two like genetic outliers that put on muscle easily. You, you know, because we have outliers. You know both genders, and men and women, sure, but no, the the average woman, no, there's no way. Actually think of it this way. You want to to build that muscle mass because it's your health insurance, it's your longevity, longevity insurance. Uh, why would you worry about putting on muscle? It's so hard to do that. I can't understand. If you see guys, they want to be like hench and they go and train and some of them they toil and toil and toil and they train for years and they can't get this bulky look.

Kim Rahir:

And then women come along and think, oh my God, if I look at this pink dumbbell, like from two yards away, I'm just, I'm just going to blow up. It's, it's, it's not happening. It's not happening. And what I said before. Here's the question why on earth are you worrying about how this is going to make you look, when you should ask yourself how is this going to make me feel? Look, when you should ask yourself how is this going to make me feel? What kind of priority is that? How do you want to feel? And I can guarantee you, when you feel great and strong and confident, you are just going to look fantastic.

Tanya Wilson:

Oh, so well said.

Tanya Wilson:

So well said Because right now I know for sure I mean, you're in Spain.

Tanya Wilson:

I'm not sure how it is over there, but what we see here in the United States is there is this massive, just praise over these weight loss drugs and it's ozempic and govi or whatever and the only reason I know that is because it's constantly on the TV some kind of advertisement which I think like and I know women that have been on this, I know women that have had complications from this, like ended up in the hospital situations and what long-term effects this is actually making.

Tanya Wilson:

What I wanted this entire podcast to be about today is really look at your health, and that's why I love what you just said there, like why are we always so concerned with? We're going to make a decision based upon how it's going to make us look versus how it makes us feel, because feeling is so much more important than how it makes you look If you want to lose weight for a vanity thing and take these drugs and it all comes off super fast and you're like woohoo, talk to me about, maybe, what some of those implications are, with women doing that, versus choosing to lift heavy, choosing to make a lifestyle change and choosing to take a little bit more time to get it off. But the difference between those two weight loss methods?

Kim Rahir:

Yeah, I think the first thing that everybody needs to know and I don't think everybody's very clear on this, because I've heard people women say oh, it's my metabolism, it's my this, it's my that and I just can't get the weight off I need this weight loss drug. What these drugs do, and the only thing they do, is they make you eat less. So it's no magic tool to increase your metabolism. It's not an automatic fat burner. They actually just get you to eat less.

Kim Rahir:

It's as basic as that. They do that by repressing or lowering the reward center in your brain, and I can tell you that there were experiments. I think it was even on the market. There was a weight loss drug a while ago that lowered the reward center in the brain so much that there was a big number of suicides of people who took this one, because it doesn't only take away the joy from eating, but from everything else in your life too.

Kim Rahir:

Now I know that the ones that we have now are safer, and this is not. But I want you to understand. The basic principle is it makes you eat less. Now I really think that there are some people and there's even like a bit of a genetic predisposition to this who struggle tremendously with eating less and it's close to impossible for them. This kind of drug helps them get started and if they're like, really dangerously overweight, I think there's really this is a justified use for this to help them get going, get some kind of result. But it has to come with lifestyle coaching. They have to start moving and changing their eating habits, because the data is very clear on this the minute you stop taking those drugs, the weight goes back up, except if you change your ways.

Kim Rahir:

And then there's also this question of power for me, because I mentioned this about my illness and how I felt so horrible having lost my power. It's also a way of giving away your power. So you're saying, saying, okay, I need to eat less. I can by no means achieve that myself, so I'm gonna sort of have, you know, pay for someone, inject myself, depend on this thing, um, to make it happen. I think, as women, we want to be empowered. We don't want to give power away. We have have to fight so much for our power in so many situations and, like you said, just for a way that we are going to look, we want to relinquish that power. I'd much rather try and work on how can I really eat less?

Kim Rahir:

And you know people tell me often, kim, I mean, you know you have a business, a health business and a coaching business. Don't tell people they need to eat less, because they're never going to work with you. Nobody wants to eat less. I don't want to lie to people.

Kim Rahir:

It's we have so much food around us, we are eating too much, so we need to eat less. And I think we can achieve that with a patient sort of loving and caring approach. We can actually end up eating less. You know of our own sort of decision and controlling this by ourselves and not depend on injections. You know spend an enormous amount of money on this. It comes with a lot of discomfort too, you know. It slows the emptying of your bowels, so I don't think you feel very good. I think it comes with nausea and all these things, all these things that keep you from eating. But I think it's really important to know that's all they do. They make you eat less and if you think that you have even the slightest chance of eating less without that, then go for that and give that a shot.

Tanya Wilson:

Yes, thank you for talking about the empowerment part of that too, because I never even really thought about it that way. But so true, it is so true. Like we said earlier in the podcast, you want to build confidence. Set something up for yourself and stick to it. Show up for yourself. How many times do we show up for all of these people on our schedule Our kids, our parents, our spouses, our teens, our everything? And you put yourself on the back burner there you start showing up for yourself, for things, and start believing you can do stuff. You don't want to give your power to somebody else. Now they stopped making this. Now somebody has control over things. For me it's a control thing. Like, I will figure this out.

Tanya Wilson:

I will do this myself because I want to be in control of. If I know that I'm in control of the effort that goes into this, I sure as hell will bet on myself all day long before somebody else, because the only person you have true control over is yourself. So I love that you said that and that's a really awesome way to look at things. I know there's a lot of women, especially moms, they're like I just don't look the same. I don't. You know I struggle with a body image situation, but what we need to remember and I love so much about what you're doing, kim is that it's an evolution of things.

Tanya Wilson:

You've been through all kinds of things health, challenging, wise which you've come out the other side because you've stayed positive and you took the control yourself to do that. That is something that we can do also as women. We're supposed to evolve. You're not supposed to look like you did when you were 18 and now you're 45. That's just weird to even put that expectation on ourselves, and I know that's what society does, and this is where you have to make that decision of I'm going to be me, what makes me feel good, what makes me feel healthy, instead of what you think everybody thinks you should look like. So I love that so much. Kim, this has been such an awesome conversation. I've loved this so much. Why don't you tell us what awesome conversation I've loved this so much? Why don't you tell us what you do in your health coaching business and how people can contact you if they're interested in working with you or learning more about what you offer?

Kim Rahir:

Yeah, I'd love to. So I work with women who want to sort of get in shape but who are sort of bought into my concept that this works through becoming physically strong. So they want to train, they want to work out and they want to take control of their eating, just as you said, but in an intuitive and mindful and a loving way. So I build a training program for you and that also meets you where you are at. I think this is really important. You know, with all the workouts that we see online that you've mentioned, and there's so much great stuff it must really be right for you. So you can. You know you're challenged but you're not overwhelmed, and everybody has a different story, a different body, different experience, different skills. So it's really a personalized program. This is this. It has to be like this, otherwise it will not work.

Kim Rahir:

The magic that it does what, once you know you start doing this and and and the nutrition part is like really tuned back into your body and and take control in a way where you, you are able to understand how much food you need, what kind of food you need, and you can use that method, that blueprint that we work on for you in any kind of situation, so you can go on a cruise and eat well for yourself, you don't have to worry. You don't need an injection, you don't need a meal plan. You have this all sort of internalized and it works because it's forgiving, it's caring, supportive, and it has no forbidden foods or anything, because those things, they just drive us crazy. And it makes for a gentle, very effective change. And then you know there's a community of support, which is also very important. I think we you- know we need to support each other as women.

Kim Rahir:

So the support is like 24 7 and and really very, very close, which is a great difference also to a pt, who you see three times a week, which is great, but then that's three hours a week and for the rest of the time you're alone and in online coaching because with your phone you have a connection with me all the time, which is really great.

Kim Rahir:

If you want to find out more, what you can do is follow me or look at my accounts on social media Kim Rahir. With my name I share the stuff that I'm up to Lots of thoughts and ideas and tips on how to go about this. Then you can also go to my website, kimrahircom, and on there there's a free assessment where you can actually get a very good picture of where you are at right now. So it's sort of like a holistic kind of questionnaire about your physical strength and how it sort of plays into your daily routine, how you can cope with your routine, and once you've taken that, I give you some hints and steps on. You know what you can do next in this very, very moment.

Tanya Wilson:

Very cool, very cool. Well, we will definitely link all of that good stuff in the show notes so it makes it nice and easy even the quiz for people to jump on and take a look, see where you're at. If you're a beginner in something like this. Be a beginner, it's okay. If you're going to change a lifestyle that you've never lived before, then you've got to be okay with being a beginner, and we talk about that on the podcast all the time. You want to be good at something you've never tried before. Get really good at being okay with being a beginner, because it's usually where people give up, because they're like well, I'm so good at all these other things and now I started something new and I should just instantly be good at it. It's very difficult to bring yourself back down to that. But be the beginner, be the student again and you know you don't always have to be the teacher. Be the student again.

Tanya Wilson:

Follow Kim on Instagram. There's beautiful things, even just topics that she's talking about. Like we jumped on and kind of talked about why we should lift heavy and not the pink baby, wussy weights. You know why we should be. You know, maybe you feel like you're not eating enough. Maybe that's your problem. I know I've struggled with that in the past too. Maybe it's not overeating, it's under eating. She addresses all of these things through. I've been looking through your Instagram and I think it's fantastic, so definitely there's tons of people out there that can help you.

Tanya Wilson:

Kim is a beautiful example of what can be done and somebody that you can follow right away if this is a health journey that you're wanting to go on yourself. So, kim, at the end of every podcast, I always ask everyone this question, because I'm really fascinated with the way that people look at themselves in society, and when they hear a phrase like ladies kicking ass, I want to know what it means to people in their lives. For some people, ladies kicking ass means I'm taking a break because I have just been in grind mode forever. You know, sometimes ladies kicking ass means I'm going to start prioritizing my health and stop putting everybody in front of myself, because without me, I can't take care of that. So when you hear the phrase Kim, ladies kicking ass, what does that mean to you in your life?

Kim Rahir:

I think it's a lady who has total clarity on what she needs and she's not afraid to ask for it.

Tanya Wilson:

Yes, yes, yes, yes, you got to be able to open your mouth and have a big voice and ask for what you want. I think, as women, we have suffered for a long, we've self-suffered for a long time of saying, well, it's not happening for me, but we're. We haven't ever asked for it either. So I love that. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want.

Tanya Wilson:

And if you want a whole nother level of help, kim is a great person to follow to do that and just take care of yourself. Babes. There's too much shit we need to get done and too many things that we want to do to feel like crap all of the time. So if you find yourself in this place or you want to take it to another level, I'm cheering you on and I'm sure Kim will be as well.

Kim Rahir:

Thank you so much. And yeah, it's. We have to be really clear on what we need and then go for it, and I think that's that's a great step that you take today have a think about what do you need and then go for it. Thank you, kim.

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Tanya Wilson

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