To Compete or Not to Compete: 108
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In this episode, Cheryl McColgan shares her personal journey in health and wellness, focusing on the importance of muscle mass, protein intake, and the development of consistent habits. She discusses her experience with weightlifting, the potential of competitive bodybuilding, and the role of coaching in achieving fitness goals. Cheryl also addresses the challenges of fat loss and the daily commitment required to maintain a healthy lifestyle, emphasizing that it's never too late to start lifting and pursue personal goals.
Episode mentioned: Motivation is Overrated: How to Crush Your Goals Without It
Takeaways
- Every meal is an opportunity to stimulate muscle growth.
- Optimal protein intake is crucial for muscle maintenance.
- Building habits is more important than motivation.
- It's never too late to start lifting weights.
- Diet fatigue can impact your commitment to goals.
- Having a coach can provide accountability and guidance.
- Setting specific goals helps maintain focus in fitness.
- Muscle mass is vital for longevity and quality of life.
- Transitioning to a new gym can reinvigorate your fitness journey.
- Daily commitment is key to achieving health and wellness goals.
Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.
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Episode transcript:
Cheryl McColgan (00:01.806)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Heal Nourish Row podcast. I am Cheryl McColgan, your host and founder of Heal Nourish Row. And my apologies for showing up on here looking a bit disheveled, but I just finished my basement workout. And so while this is on my mind, I thought I would get this recorded for you. So it's something I've been wanting to share for a little while. And I actually started to record it yesterday, but it was such a weird day. I had gotten some crazy news and
It was just, I was not in good head space. So thought I'd revisit it today and try to put together my thoughts for you a little bit more coherently. But anyway, just in case you haven't listened to previous episodes, I will give you some background here. So, you know, the whole channel and the whole podcast is focused on health and wellness, and that's probably how you found it if you're listening to this. But pretty much my whole life I've been involved in health and wellness in some way.
And over the years I have dabbled in lifting kind of on and off, but I've never gotten to stick until the last couple years here. I finally I'm over 50 now and I'm like, well, this whole push in social media and in education for older people about maintaining their muscle mass and how it really relates to longevity and just overall.
you know, however long you are going to live, living your life well, because you can function on your own when you have muscle. And it's really an epidemic right now of sarcopenia, which is the lack of muscle mass as you get older, as well as obesity and many other things, but a lot of things that are just really preventing people from living well into their older years. And so having seen, you know,
various people over my life and having been blessed with still being healthy at this point after watching my dad battle cancer and things like that. I'm like, owe it to myself to really take this on and finally commit to maintaining my muscle. So that is what I've been working on the last several years. And it started with really just
Cheryl McColgan (02:10.913)
getting optimal protein and making that a big focus. And so if you've followed my content for a while, I've been talking about that just in case you have not heard this before. I want to make sure I put this out there. Every meal that you eat is an opportunity to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, which is the process by which your body maintains and builds muscle mass. And in order to stimulate that, you need about 30 grams at least of protein at each meal.
is that will include about three grams of leucine, which is thought to be the amino acid that really stimulates muscle building. And then as you get older, your body does not process protein as well. So you actually need a little bit more protein to stimulate that process. really as anyone over 35 to 40 years old, you should really be shooting for 35 to 40 grams of protein.
in each and every meal. Each time you eat protein, it's really an opportunity to stimulate that, so don't miss out. So that being said about protein, I really started getting onto that for myself about five years ago and really worked to get the optimal protein because I had been following some people and listening to people that even if you're not lifting weights, that getting optimal protein really can help this process of maintaining your muscle and possibly even building some, depending on how long.
your body has maybe been without protein. So for example, I had a period in my life of about eight years where I was a vegetarian, which was probably a huge mistake. But during that time, I'm sure I was not getting enough protein. And so if you've had a period of your life where you haven't been getting enough, then you might take some more time in building up this process of finally getting more optimal protein.
and your body will be like, I finally have the building blocks and maybe replace some of that muscle. So there's a thought there, but really the best way to stimulate muscle is to lift heavy things. And like I said, it's something I have dabbled with over the years on and off. I actually, when I was playing eighth grade basketball, we had a weight stack thing in my garage at home that my dad had always used. And when I was doing basketball, I lifted. And then when I played college golf, I was lifting and…
Cheryl McColgan (04:24.535)
at various points over the years. I remember even the pandemic, was still when the gyms were open, I was going to Planet Fitness then. And what happened, like always happened, was at some point I'd get injured. And then instead of keep on lifting and doing what I could do, I would just quit it. And I've always been, you know, hiking, walking, running. I was a runner for 17 years. So I've always been very active, but I've just never enjoyed being at the gym. I always would rather be outside or hiking or doing something like that or playing golf.
And so that's kind of what I always relied on. But now that I, again, like I said, it's such a priority now and it's something that you have to be focused on if you don't want to lose your muscle. And so about, it's been about a year and nine months ago now that this is April of 2025, that I started going to the gym and really committed and I really have not missed anything since then. I've been very consistent. That is one of my…
gifts and as you know if you've listened to my previous content one of the things that I really focus on is creating new habits and once I personally get a habit kind of ingrained in me it's it's really then very easy for me to maintain it and that is one reason I always put out all these tips and information about creating habits because really you will and there's a whole another podcast episode I'll link it in the comments if I can remember that but
about discipline over motivation or just habits over motivation. You won't always be motivated to work out or to do these things. So it's really a matter of just making it become something that you do that's integrated into your life. That's a habit that you just do like brushing your teeth. You don't skip it. So it's not that I'm always motivated. And that's actually why today was a great day to get on here and talk about this, because I am so
tired friends. I really just, I did not sleep well last night. I had so many wake ups. Like if I look at my aura thing, it's like so many white spots where I was awake throughout the night. And I really just did not have the energy to do my workout today, but I did it anyway. So, so that's the thing about being a habit is it just becomes something that you do. And so it was a struggle to get through it. It's, not as fun when you have days like that and you go to do your workout.
Cheryl McColgan (06:46.607)
But it's done, now it's finished. And then I hopped right on here. So that's why I'm looking a little disheveled, as I mentioned. But the thing I wanted to talk about is I've been kind of keeping this from, I haven't been talking about it anywhere outside of my own house. And it's something that has to do with being a competitive person. So I mentioned that I played college golf and I played sports in high school and I was a runner for 17 years.
So the point to all of that is to say that I've always had something that I was very competitive in and that I did as kind of a thing that kept me accountable. You even when I was a runner, I was never very fast or anything like that, but I would register for races and I would train for them and it would give me something to focus on. So sometimes if it was a 5K, maybe I'd be working on getting faster, doing some interval training, that sort of thing. Or if I was running a half marathon or a marathon, would…
be training to work on building up my distance and increasing my mileage over the week. So there was always something to focus on. Same, you know, with golf, always trying to get better, practicing, preparing for a tournament, that sort of thing. And since I had to quit running because of my knees, I haven't had that now for many, many years. And since I got back into this, into weightlifting, it started making me think about
you know, having something like that with lifting. And the thing that is the only thing, there's two things actually with lifting. You can do power lifting, which I don't think I would be very good at that, number one, just because with my previous shoulder surgeries, you know, one of the power lifting exercises is the bench press, and that would be very stressful on my shoulders. So I don't think that's the best idea. And then it's bench press, deadlift, and…
my goodness, squat, yes. So, and then you go to these tournaments and they add up your score and you weigh in for your class. And then that's, so that's a competitive thing. Or the second thing in bodybuilding is actually getting onto a stage, which is absolutely terrifying to think about, especially possibly doing it for the first time at the age of 52 years old. But that's the other competitive thing that you can do with weightlifting.
Cheryl McColgan (09:05.879)
And so it's kind of been in the back of my mind for a little while. It started, I started thinking about it. So I've been going through this process. I was injured a couple of years ago and had to wait until my body recovered from that before I could start lifting. you even though I said doing what I could do, I just waited until I could do lower body cause it was my knee. And so it was something where I could have only done upper body and I just couldn't make myself go to the gym just for that, at that point, since I hadn't been into it now since then I've, I've,
actually been injured since I started again and I've been able to maintain going to the gym just working around the injuries and but so what had happened with that is I did a DEXA scan at the beginning of that because I really wanted to see where I was as far as muscle mass and what I could build once I did start lifting and then quickly after getting that scan is when I got injured so I had to wait again to start and about six months later I got a second scan and I learned that I had lost like two
pounds of muscle mass and one of the interesting things about the dex is that actually shows you in what parts of your body you'd lost mass and because I had injured my knee, it was my lower body though had lost some muscle mass. So of course that was quite disheartening at the time but also the good news was I was going to get back into the gym and I was going to gain that back and so I started from that new point where I had lost that muscle mass.
And then about eight, nine months later, a year later, I got another one and I had been able to put on about seven pounds of lean mass during that time. So that was really exciting, especially at this age to know that it's still possible. And if you focus on proper nutrition and lifting heavy, that you can still build. And especially that first year, there's such a thing as newbie gains. I've talked about that on the podcast before. I wish I had really known that and been much more intentional during that timeframe, because then the longer you lift the less.
able that you are to put on more mass. So that first year that you start lifting is a really crucial time to sort of have a plan, take it seriously, optimize the amount of muscle that you can build during that time. So it's really kind of a cool thing. But so I still did pretty well, I would say, even though it wasn't as totally intentional. But then, you know, during that time, I was really just focused on healing, on eating really well, letting myself
Cheryl McColgan (11:25.266)
you know, since I knew I was building muscle and focused on that, I knew I was going to gain weight, which I did. And I just allowed myself to not think about that for once, just really focus on building and lifting and getting in that routine. And I knew at some point I would want to get back to more of a body fat level that I feel comfortable with and that made me feel good in my body. And in the fall, I kind of decided I was at that point. So I had been building, building, building for a while and I was ready to kind of loosen fat. And so…
Then I started to decide that I wanted to go to a new gym. I wanted to go to a gym that was like more of a small community, that was more focused on bodybuilding, that kind of thing, and just had some different equipment that wasn't in your traditional commercial gym. Cause I think I mentioned like I went to Planet Fitness and they have the basics, but they don't have some of the more interesting machines that you can get into like with squats and different kinds of leg presses and things like that. So I found a gym locally, that was a small gym.
that looked like it would have a great community, really cool owner, and started going in there in September. And the point of that is to tell you that this has been in my mind since September because I actually mentioned it to him because he asked me why I was switching gyms, what were my goals, and things like that. And I said that I had it in the back of my mind that maybe I might compete at some point, but I wasn't sure. But that had been something that had crossed my mind for these reasons I said.
having something to work towards and having new goals in a thing that I've started to get involved in. And so that was September. And just around then I decided, you know, started to, we got back from vacation. I started to think about, you know, once you're ready to lose that, obviously you have to be in a deficit. And while I wasn't quite ready to make that full mental switch, I did just start kind of evaluating some of my choices.
and I've always eaten really healthy, but I was, you know, obviously eating an amount that allowed me to train a lot in that I had been slowly putting on weight to build the muscle. And so you have to cut back at that point. And that is a topic that I want to go into a little more deep dive on a different day, because it's been several years now since I've been in a big fat loss phase. Actually, back when I wrote my book was probably the last time I did that, which was back. You know, I think it's been twenty twenty now. This is it. If you're
Cheryl McColgan (13:49.838)
not aware that this exists, the 21 Day Fat Loss Kickstart. But so it had been quite a while since I'd done that. And it just being in this process has reminded me of a lot of things about fat loss and about weight loss that I want to share with you at some point. But I want to kind of save that for a separate episode and get through this thought process. So because I've always been so involved in nutrition myself and been a coach, I've never coached people with any kind of
training or anything like that, you know, wellness, health and wellness and weight loss certainly have done a lot of coaching in the past with that. And so I never had to coach myself. Didn't feel like I needed it. Certainly for the nutrition and fat loss phase, I have a good handle on that, but where I could really use help is like training for specific things, you know.
if you are stepping on stage, depending on what division you're in, there's certain body parts that need more focus and stuff. So I knew that I probably needed some help with that. And then in addition, the great thing about having a coach is it gives you somebody to be accountable to. And it helps you set your goals and have a date in mind, a goal in mind, a show if that's what you're doing, something like that, or like I said, a running event. You have a date so you know what you're working towards.
So I decided to get a coach and when I did that I did that in February and since then I've been in this serious fat loss mode and actually Did two more decks as we were back in Utah so I could use the same machine That I had been on since I started and I was really interested in doing that just to kind of see Where I was because I the last time I was there was when we sold the house Last summer and so it had been about eight months since then so I kind of just wanted to check in and see how I had done since then and then in addition
have a beginning point to this fat loss phase. And so while I was in Utah, I did that. And then at the end when we were leaving eight weeks later, I got another one. And so the fat loss and again, I'll do this more in a separate episode. But basically what I was able to learn from the Dexa is that I had lost 10 pounds of fat and not lost any muscle. And if you go back to my other previous episode about the Dexa, there is a margin of error.
Cheryl McColgan (16:00.334)
in the DEXA measurements, but I try to be as consistent as possible when I do it same time in the morning, same level of hydration, all that kind of stuff. So I feel pretty confident that that's fairly accurate. Usually, if you're losing a lot of fat, you're going to lose some muscle just by the way that the DEXA or any kind of machine like my fat loss scale that I love, the Hume that I talked about before, heelnourishro.com slash Hume.
you get a discount on top of the sale using my code and that has tracked really well using that scale with what I learned from the Dexa and that continues to be the case since I've been in this fat loss mode. Obviously scale weight is going down but in addition the fat loss and stuff is going down on the scale as well. So that's a great tool and I've loved having that because again like I do these Dexes but having something
that really shows you on a day-to-day basis, a week-to-week basis, a trend of what you're really working on. And again, the Hume Scale has also showed that while I've been losing weight, I've been maintaining muscle mass, and that is exactly what the DEXA said. So I feel really confident in that tool, that it's fairly accurate when you use it the same way, like again, first thing in the morning after you go to the bathroom, same level of hydration before you drink of anything and do that every day. And you're gonna get a trend that is accurate over time.
You know, day to day, there's some little fluctuations. I've talked about that before, but overall it's been a really great tool. But anyway, where was I with all this? So all that is to say, got a coach. It's helped keep me accountable. I have been training and working on fat loss as if I'm going to do a competition. I still have not a hundred percent decided though. Again, it's terrifying the thought of being on a stage in a bikini at this age.
But it has helped me having that in my mind, focus on this goal. Again, like train, eat, fat loss, as if I'm going to do it. And so I still haven't decided. I finally just thought I would share this because I think no matter if I do it or not, it doesn't matter. And no matter what other people think about it, I really don't care because everybody's gonna have an opinion. Everybody's gonna have an opinion about a 50 year old woman doing something like this, right?
Cheryl McColgan (18:22.126)
And whether you think it's a positive or whether you think it's a negative, it doesn't matter to me because in my head I'm going to do whatever it is I think is going to help me work towards my goals and share information that's helpful for others and inspire people in some way. It's never too late to get started with lifting. It's never too late to possibly do something crazy like a bodybuilding competition. So we'll see. I haven't decided, but it's in the back of my mind to…
targeting end of May, mid-June kind of timeframe. There's a couple of competitions that are close enough that I don't have to travel a long way to do it. But there's definitely a lot involved with it that haven't decided if I'm up for it, I guess, or if I want to keep pushing through this. Because the one thing I will say, and the one thing that I do want to address, like I said, in a further episode about fat loss is, regardless of how quickly
you move forward with the fat loss days, there's diet fatigue and it's is kicking in real hard right now. And without a goal in mind, it would be real easy to take a break and I can definitely do that because I started out at a healthy body weight to start with and you know the lower your body gets in body weight the less energy you have, you're eating less of course so that gives you less energy.
So it's definitely affecting me on a day-to-day basis more now than it did in the beginning. And so that's definitely another consideration as well, because it's not something I have to do. This is a choice. And this is all in the name of experimentation and a new experience and all that kind of good stuff. So I don't want to make it a crazy thing if I decide at some point that I don't want to do it. I'm not going to feel guilty about it. But by the same token, I also feel like I kind of want to.
push through because I want to, you know, I had this goal, I'm all about goals, I'm all about doing these crazy challenges over the years and stuff and so to me this is just another challenge that I'm doing and regardless, I have learned a lot in the process, I've learned a lot about myself, it's reminded me of a lot of things about dieting and about weight loss that people really struggle with and some things and some…
Cheryl McColgan (20:41.834)
lessons and things that I've learned that I can share that I hopefully will help you if that's something that you want to work on in the future. But yeah, I think that's my update. I think that's all I wanted to say about it for now. So I'm just over here. Really, at this point, it is a day by day process and a day by day decision. Yesterday and today have been very challenging.
you know, every day it's just still like stick with the diet, stick with the plan, stick with the workouts and make it to bedtime, go to bed and wake up in the morning and then see if I can do it again. So that's where I am at the moment. Definitely some days have been way easier than others. But yeah, I think sharing that is important to know because if you are on a weight loss journey or a fat loss journey or you would like to get healthier, just know that it's definitely not easy. It takes time. It takes commitment.
It takes day-to-day decision-making that just keep you in line with your goals because you could really decide at any point, like I'm starving, I'm just gonna get something or eat more or whatever it is, but you just have to keep reminding yourself of why you're doing it, your goals, your reasons, getting healthier, avoiding the things that have affected people in your family or your friends, and just take it one day at a time.
So that is the main lesson here today. And the title of the episode, I kind of already decided it's going to be to compete or not to compete. I don't know if I, you know, want opinions or need opinions. I don't know if it'll really affect my final decision in the end, but definitely if you have any commentary or advice or thoughts on this, feel free to drop in the comments below or shoot me an email and yeah.
I'm open to hearing it. I'm not saying I'll necessarily follow your advice, whatever that might be. But yeah, it's been an interesting process and it's something that I'm glad that I took on mentally, even if I don't follow it through the end. And if I do follow it through to the end, obviously I will bring you along for that journey and share kind of the final results and whatever comes out of all of that. So anyway, wherever you're listening to this, whatever time of day is, hope you have a great rest of your day and
Cheryl McColgan (23:03.331)
I will see you again next time.
