Shownotes
Season 7: Episode 182
Episode Overview:
Diagnosed with MS and paralyzed by Guillain Barre syndrome, she didn't just recover; she became a European weightlifting champ.
Today we chatted with Kim Rahir, a 60-year-old powerhouse who turned her health battles into victories. Now, she's coaching women to unlock their inner strength through resilience, muscle reactivation, and smart nutrition. Remember, it’s never too late to transform your health and mindset.
Episode Takeaways:
**Embrace Routines**: Routines are a skill learned through small, consistent habits. Start small to make big changes.
**Strength Training**: It's crucial for bone health, muscle mass, and mental clarity, especially as we age. Modify and adapt exercises to suit any limitations.
**Nutrition without Restrictions**: A balanced approach to eating with flexibility allows for sustainable, healthful living without the rigidity of diets.
**Resilience in Action**: Kim's journey underscores the power of pushing through challenges and taking control of one's health narrative.
Links:
**Join the Conversation**: Become part of the Hey, Boomer community groups, Boomer Banter and Boomer Believers for enriching discussions and personal connections. Go to https://buymeacoffee.com/HeyBoomer0413 to join.
**Connect with Carelink 360**: Use our discount code boomer at checkout to stay connected with aging relatives while managing their and your health. Go to https://mycarelink360/ref/boomer
**Visit KimRahir.com**: Take a free health and strength assessment and learn more about Kim's coaching for inspiration and motivation.
If today’s episode sparked something in you, share this episode with a friend and help spread the word that we all can age well throughout every decade!
And leave a comment to let us know what you thought.
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Transcripts
Hello and welcome to hey Boomer. My name is Wendy Green and I am your host for hey boomer. And hey boomer is the podcast where we go beyond the surface, sharing real talk about aging well. So just imagine you awoke one morning to find that your legs did not work. Not only could you not walk, you could not even stand up and support yourself. Imagine how frightening this would be, especially when you're not even sure what the cause was. My guest today faced this challenge and I'm going to let her tell you the rest of the story and how this relates to our to journey of aging well is the inspiration we can gain from her resilience and her use of strength training and nutrition to find a road back to health. One of the advantages of doing the show live is that you can interact with us in the chat.
Wendy Green [:So don't be shy. Put your questions in the chat, put your comments in the chat. We'd love to hear from you. We will get to as many of these questions as possible, and if we can't answer you live on the show, then we will certainly answer you after the show is done. So let me tell you about my guest today. Her name is Kim Rahir and she's a 60 year old mother of three who had an earlier diagnosis that I alluded to in the intro before she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. That diagnosis came in ten years ago. Kim decided to use strength training to muscle her way back to a fulfilling life last year.
Wendy Green [:This is amazing. Last year she became the european champion in master's weightlifting in her age and weight category. Her journey inspired her to leave her career in journalism in her fifties and become a health coach for middle aged women with a big focus on reactivating and rebuilding muscle. And today, Kim helps women tap into an abundant source of vitality. It works by reactivating and maintaining muscle and eating to nourish and flourish. But before I dive in, I want to remind you of how you can get involved with Hey Boomer. We have the Boomer Banter and the Boomer Believer membership groups. In the Boomer Banter, we get to meet as a community and dig into some of the topics that interest us, that challenge us, that help us grow and build a sense of community.
Wendy Green [:As I said, the Boomer Believers is the other membership group. And being a Boomer Believer means you are also part of the Boomer Banter group. Boomer Believers get to meet one on one in a Zoom meeting with one of our guests from that month and really ask all of the questions that they felt like they want to personally get answered from that particular guest. So go to buymeacoffee.com/Heyboomer0413 and become a monthly member of either the Boomer Banter or the Boomer Believers. I also want to remind you that having a long distance, well, I don't need to remind you this. You know this, if you have a relative who doesn't live close, who is aging, alone or in assisted living, you feel really cut off from them. And with our partner, Carelink 360, you can feel easily connected to them. And easily is my keyword.
Wendy Green [:They don't even need to be comfortable with technology. Everything is accessible by the touch of the screen. They get a 15 inch screen where they can touch on your picture to initiate a phone call with you. And you can call them from your Carelink 360 app on your phone and it will allow you to see them when you talk to them. Think of the comfort that's gonna bring you when you can see how they're doing and having a conversation with them. This access can also be provided to others in the family, grandchildren, physicians, care providers. So it's a really useful thing. And besides being able to visually talk with your loved one, they will also have access to brain fitness games, reminders to take medications or get up and move, as well as a resource of learning modules.
Wendy Green [:To see all that they have to offer, go to mycarelink360.com/ref/boomer, and use the word boomer at checkout to get 5% off your purchase of a digital health companion. Okay, let me bring Kim on. Hi, Kim.
Kim Rahir [:Hi, Wendy.
Wendy Green [:Thank you for joining us today.
Kim Rahir [:It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited about our conversation.
Wendy Green [:I am as well, and Kim happens to be in Spain now, so it's evening time where she is. And so I really appreciate you making the time to talk with us today.
Kim Rahir [:Yeah, you know, spanish life is their evening doesn't even start for another 2.
Wendy Green [:Hours, so that's because you get that siesta in there. Right.
Kim Rahir [:And it's also because they're actually in the wrong time zone, which gives us daylight and early spring now until 09:00 p.m., already. So.
Wendy Green [:Ah, okay. Okay, cool.
Kim Rahir [:Nice trick.
Wendy Green [:Nice trick. So I alluded to the beginning of your story in the opening, so why don't you go ahead and fill us in because I think that's going to help with the whole rest of the conversation.
Kim Rahir [:Yeah, it is a bit of a saga and I'm going to try to make it as bite sized as possible. So I was 45. I lived in Berlin with my husband and my three small kids. The oldest was ten, and I had a full time job, and I had three kids, and we had a nice house and everything. Everything seemed perfect. And then one day, I was picking up my kids from school. I realized that I was seeing double, which is really scary. That was the first scary part, because, you know, when you have, like, a little niggle in the lower back or your knees feel stiff or whatever, you can sort of ignore your way through this and think, ah, this is going to go away.
Kim Rahir [:When you see double, you know there's something wrong in the brain. So went to the doctors, they sent me to the hospital. Lots of tests and examinations. They thought it was something autoimmune, but they couldn't really put their finger on it. I spent six weeks there, and after three weeks, I was completely paralyzed from the hip downward. I could not wiggle a toe. It was like my legs didn't belong to me. It was really super scary.
Kim Rahir [:I was, you know, some kind of darkness was creeping into my soul because nobody could tell me what was going on. The problem was that I had symptoms all over the place. So the cross crossed eyes could belong to one syndrome, the paralysis to another syndrome. So, actually, I left the hospital after six weeks when my sensitivity came back in my legs. And they had tried all kinds of treatments, so we didn't know what exactly did sort of change it.
Wendy Green [:Yeah.
Kim Rahir [:And it was long after I had gotten back home and learned to walk again, that they made up their mind and said it was a syndrome called Guillain Barre, which is a one off comes and goes. It is really scary, but it's, you know, supposed to be just once. And I was even kind of lucky in this because, like, the paralysis can actually be more ascending and reach, like, your autonomic nervous system, at which point you can't breathe anymore and they have to ventilate you. So it stopped at the hips. For me, it was very unpleasant. But even then, I knew that, you know, I sort of had gotten away with a bit of an easier sort of version of this and got some treatment for two years, I think. And then I was told that this was over and I had a clean bill of health. And I was so grateful and so happy.
Kim Rahir [:I had learned so much also from this experience. And actually, to this day, I'm grateful this happened. It sounds, you know, my mom, when I tell her I'm grateful for this, you said, what are you talking about? This was so horrible.
Wendy Green [:Right.
Kim Rahir [:But it did change my perspective.
Wendy Green [:Okay. And then after that, you were well for a while. And then what happened?
Kim Rahir [:We moved. We were always moving, you know, that was the thing. And we moved from Berlin to Paris. And one day I felt my left hand going numb. And I thought, because, you know, these sort of weird sensations that you get with neurological conditions, I thought maybe it was the same or something similar coming back, even though they had said it was a one off. But then what do they know? Went to the doctor, lots of tests, and this time they said it was different, and it was actually an immune attack on the white matter inside the nerves. And if it happened again, I would be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. So for an entire year, I hoped that it would not come back and that this was just a one off, accidental, accidental autoimmune thing.
Kim Rahir [:But after a year, it came back. It felt very mild. It was by far not as strong as the numbness in my hand. It was just a tingling in the spine because I was attentive to my sensations. I realized that something was wrong, and I said, yeah, it's the same. It's another lesion in your spine. And now you officially have miss and you need lifelong treatment.
Wendy Green [:How frightening and how unfair that must have seemed at first to say, well, I got over the Guillain barre, and now I have missed.
Kim Rahir [:It was a low blow, I could say that. And it was like, very, very dark times, because, you know, when I was in hospital, they didn't really know what it was, which is scary. And I was wishing for a diagnosis, but then when I had a diagnosis, that was so scary. That was really super terrifying, because with Ms, you really do not know where you're going. It could be anything. You know, I was even told while I was in the hospital for a test that, you know, I could go blind. I could end up in a wheelchair. You know, like, young doctors are not particularly sensitive when they talk to you about your condition.
Kim Rahir [:So that was something where I thought, oh, no, this is just one too many. This can't be. I was so grateful and happy to just have a normal life, right? I was grateful for being able to do the chores and do the dishes and everything, and I was enjoying every single minute of it. And then this struck again. So that was super scary. And the idea of lifelong treatment, that was the scariest of all, because you give away your power when you accept that. And I fought with the doctor for an hour because I didn't want it. And I said, how can you be so sure.
Kim Rahir [:The second was, like, milder. Maybe I'm getting better by myself. And then, you know, if I don't get anything, no more relapses, we will never know. Is it because my body has healed or is it because of the treatment? And he was not used to women asking questions like this or patients talking back and sort of resisting what he was, he was going to prescribe it and send me on my way with this prescription.
Wendy Green [:Right. Because that's the prescribed method for treating miss. I mean, not like I, I think I told you I have a friend with Ms. And. Yeah, interferon stuff. That's it.
Kim Rahir [:That's, that's the protocol. I just wanted to understand everything. And it's something that I, that I tell women now, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be like a dramatic condition like Ms. It could be anything. When your doctor says, oh, you have blah blah blah, and you got to take blah blah blah, ask, what is it called? What are you giving me? What does this mean? What does this do? Ask until you don't have any more question. Don't just take this, go, come home and not know what's actually going on and what the doctor is actually trying to achieve with what they're prescribing. I think knowledge really is power in that case, because you don't feel like you're just the object of something that's going on. You can sort of keep some kind of say in what's happening to you.
Wendy Green [:Yeah, I think that's brilliant advice, Kim. Thank you for that. So did you then say to your mother again, oh, I'm grateful that I have Ms?
Kim Rahir [:No. No, I didn't. And I can't say that I was grateful for that at any point in time. Inside myself, I still fought with this. And maybe this was some kind of denial, but I just wanted to have a normal life. I didn't tell new friends that I had miss. We moved again to a new country. I joined a gym where I didn't tell anybody I had Ms.
Kim Rahir [:And I tried to live as normal a life as possible. Interferon is something, I don't know how it is for your friend. For me, it caused me flu like symptoms. So whenever I injected myself, I was miserable. I had headaches and heavy limbs like you feel when you get the flu. And I had that three times a week. The injection sites become very sore, but I just ignored my way through this. I would take over the counter drugs against the flu symptoms and just try to have as normal a day as possible, even when I had injected myself that morning.
Wendy Green [:So when did you realize, Kim, how resilient you actually are, to turn your perspective, to push through the pain? I mean, that's pretty amazing.
Kim Rahir [:I think the first thing that I noticed, and that struck me after the conversation with the doctor was that I really fought him on this decision, which is like. I mean, it's obnoxious, right? You know, he's. He's a bloody doctor. And I'm just 40, 40 something. I was turning 50 that year, actually. I was a 50 year old journalist talking back to him about did I really need that treatment? So that was like my fighting spirit of sort of waking up. And I think it's linked to the experience in the hospital. When you are a helpless patient in the hospital, you lose so much of your dignity and your humanity.
Kim Rahir [:I mean, that's what you feel. You feel like a thing. And the idea of giving up my power again was really scary. And then I asked the doctor if I could exercise, and he said, yeah, but please be careful, which didn't mean anything.
Wendy Green [:He didn't give you any boundaries, anything other than careful.
Kim Rahir [:He was like, maybe, I don't know. Basically, he didn't know what I was asking or what I was going to do. He just didn't want any responsibility for an area he has no training and education in. And that's okay. I don't blame him too much. But maybe if he didn't want to take any responsibility, maybe he could have sent me to someone to help me with that decision. And I was lucky because I talked to a nurse later who showed me how to inject myself, and she said, exercise is great, makes you fatigue resistant. And fatigue is a big thing for MS patients.
Wendy Green [:So did you start out weightlifting, or were you doing just regular gym stuff?
Kim Rahir [:When I started training after that, I used to do regular gym stuff before. Went to the gym, always with this idea of staying fit, maybe changing the way my body looked. Things like this stuff that you do as a woman when you think, you know, if you just do enough crunches, you're going to have a nice waistline and stuff like this. This time I came with a purpose. I wanted to become strong, like physically strong. That was really the only thing I wanted. And I armed myself with a book, and it was one of the first that said women should lift heavy. And I thought, this is great.
Kim Rahir [:I'm going to do this. And I think it's what drove me was really this desire of getting my power back. I can say this with hindsight at the time, it was just, I want to be strong, I want to become muscular, I want to be strong. Why did I want to become strong? I wanted to be my own boss again. I wanted to feel that I was in charge of my body again, that I could rely on my body, because autoimmune diseases are some kind of betrayal, actually, because the body is attacking itself and you have no, no sensational feeling that shows you that your body is doing this. So I think it was this desire to become strong, and I got stronger really super quickly.
Wendy Green [:Did you?
Kim Rahir [:Oh, yeah. And this works, if you do this, it works great quickly because most of the strength is actually something that happens between the brain and the muscle. So it's not so much the amount, the bulk of muscle fiber that makes your strength, it's the quality of the connection between your brain and your muscle.
Wendy Green [:So what is so important about weight training for women in particular?
Kim Rahir [:I think it's just that it's like healthy insurance and it's like all around coverage because it helps you, you know, of course, with physical strength, which is linked to quality of life, functional independence, being able to open a pickle jar, you know, picking stuff up from the floor, lifting your groceries. So it's just basic quality of life. It's also for your bone health, because when you load your muscle, you load your bones and they, you know, we lose bone density at an alarming rate when, from 35 onwards. So we want to really hold on to that because 35 is the maximum, whatever you have at 35, you're never going to have more. It's only going downhill from there. So you want to work on maintaining that, and you do that with resistance training by loading those bones. We now know that, you know, strength training is also protective of cardiovascular disease. And there's, yeah, there's some molecular, molecular stuff, oh, my God, you know, some chemical stuff that is at work, but there's also just the contraction of, you know, quality contraction of muscle that helps the heart pump the blood, which makes sense.
Kim Rahir [:And it's extremely important for metabolic health because it helps your body manage blood sugar. Muscle is a storage site for sugar, so the more muscle you carry, the less sugar will be circulating in your blood because it's going to be taken right to the muscle. And then the most important part, and I think this is what helped me so much, is strength training is incredibly powerful for mental health. It just makes you feel good about yourself.
Wendy Green [:So you said you started with a book, but my understanding of strength training, particularly if you're not working with the machines. I've seen your videos where you're lifting these really big bells with big weights on them. Did you get a trainer? I mean, form is so important, isn't it?
Kim Rahir [:Absolutely. So when I started with my book, I did stuff that we call powerlifting, which is like the basic moves. Deadlifts, bench presses, squats, all these things. When we moved to Spain, I started working with a personal trainer. I was still doing these moves, but then one day he said, would you like to try Olympic weightlifting? So it's something that is widely unknown, but there's a big difference between powerlifting and weightlifting. And strangely enough, it's the powerlifting that is slow and deliberate, and it's the weightlifting that is explosive. So it's very technical. And, I mean, I was over 50 at the time, and he was a young guy of 25 or something and said, would you want to try that? I did.
Kim Rahir [:I sucked at it, but I was hooked right away because it's an amazing mix of technique and strength. So it's not enough to be strong. You have to have impeccable technique because the bar has to travel overhead for the snatch. In one move, you have the bars go from the floor over your head, and for the clean and jerk, it goes on your shoulders first, and then it goes overhead. And the challenge is amazing. You have to focus on every single lift. And I think this is really something that's so important in life, too, to be, you know, to focus on the moment. You can't think, what did I lift yesterday? Or because you have to really, because the bar moves quickly.
Kim Rahir [:You have to be concentrated fully. I loved it so much that I signed up for a weightlifting club.
Wendy Green [:You did?
Kim Rahir [:Yes. And that was six years ago now. And after two weeks training with them, they said, kim, do you want to compete? And guess what I said? I said, oh, do you know how old I am? Stupid question. I would never ask that again. They said, we don't care how old you are. We have women your age who compete. Do you wanna compete? And then I said, what the heck? Yes. And it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Wendy Green [:So you not only love that, it's given you your power back and makes you feel like you're more in control, but it's also the mental concentration that has helped. But let me take you to the other side. I mean, are there days when you feel like you said the word dark? Days when you feel like, I just can't do this. I am tired. I don't want to go like what do you say to yourself to kick yourself in the butt and say, no, come on. You do want to do this. Maybe you don't want to right now, but you do.
Kim Rahir [:It's weird because. And it probably doesn't sound. I don't really get those days. I don't. I mean, yeah. For example, I go for a long walk every morning, and several times a week, I wake up in the morning and I. My first thought is, oh, my God, I don't want to go for that walk today. But I'm a strong believer in habits.
Kim Rahir [:And when you have that habit, you know, I wake up, I think, I don't want to go for that walk today. And half an hour later, I'm putting on my shoes, because it's just so automated with lifting. I can't remember a day when I didn't want to go. I just. I just love it so much. Some days suck. Today sucked pretty hard because I wasn't doing anything right, and I didn't have had the right sort of body tone or tension that you need to do that properly. But there's never a day where I don't want to go lift.
Kim Rahir [:There are days when I don't want to go walk. I walk anyways. And when you have routines. And I like to turn routines, actually, into rituals because they have this component of being, like, super mindful and celebration. Even the, you know, most mundane things that I do every day could be the first cup of coffee or taking the bus to go to my training. And that helps me. I just keep doing it. Have no room for negotiation in my head for that.
Wendy Green [:Okay, so you're very self motivated, self disciplined, and you have your morning routine down.
Kim Rahir [:I think. I don't really like the word discipline, because it makes many people feel that if they. If they're not disciplined or if they're not managing to do this, then it means there's something wrong with them or that it's a personal flaw or a character trait. I really do think that those things are skills that you practice through small habits. So you just do small things over and over again until they become second nature, and then you can move on to bigger things. But I strongly believe that this is a skill that you can learn. I think it's really important, because so many people, they struggle. They want to do things.
Kim Rahir [:They probably start too big when the changes in their lifestyle. January 1. January 1. I'm gonna go to the gym three times a week. Just imagine how many decisions do you actually have to make to go, you know, when you start going to the gym three times a week, you have to pick a gym. You have to pick up, you know, buy a gym bag. You have to pack that gym bag. You have to go to the car.
Kim Rahir [:You have to start driving. You have to go through traffic, find a parking spot. Then you have to go into the, you know, you have to do so many things that if that's new and it's big change of your lifestyle, there's no way you can go through with this. You want to make it a small habit, and you practice and practice and then it becomes second nature. And you, you don't even negotiate anymore. But it's really, I'm really very focused on this, calling this a skill because it takes out this shame and guilt and pressure that people feel when they don't go through with things because they think it's a personal flaw. I think it's just a skill that you haven't mastered yet.
Wendy Green [:Yeah, that's a great, a great point to make. You know, Yvonne says skill and practice is a great mindset. And, you know, we all, I mean, it's like learning anything new. Like when I learned to play the piano, you had to keep practicing and practicing. You don't, you're not good at it from the very first day. You know, I think with any habit, skill, routine, whatever you want to call it, you know, it's not going to come automatically from the very beginning. So. Yeah, thank you for differentiating that.
Wendy Green [:That's great. So talk to me about the nutrition. How did that impact your, your kind of journey through MS and trying to feel healthy again?
Kim Rahir [:Yeah. So this change of perspective and framing the exercise, like, I didn't want to shrink my body. I actually wanted to make my body stronger, build myself back up again. Also changed my perspective on food. I was thinking about food in terms of fuel. What kind of foods do I need to eat to perform, to be strong, to feel good. Good. So it's really like a paradigm shift.
Kim Rahir [:You know, so many people talk about bad foods, unhealthy foods, forbidden foods all the time. And I think it doesn't really fit with the way humans are built. We need something constructive. We want to build something. We love building stuff. We love creating stuff. So I went into this thinking, what's going to fuel my workouts? What's going to help me build muscle? And it's pretty basic. You basically want to focus on protein and then eat tons of vegetables and fruits to get all the nutrients that you need.
Kim Rahir [:And that's the baseline. And then if there's room or hunger left for, you know, a little bit of whatever it is, pasta or rice or fun foods, and that's fine as long. And I think this is like a really important change to think. If you fuel. If you feed, you nourish your body, right, it will be able to deal with the odd donut that you're eating or the odd glass of wine that you might have in the evening. But if you focus on really nourishing and giving your body what it needs, then you can forget all the worries about the other stuff.
Wendy Green [:So it's not sticking to a specific diet. But I've been reading a lot, too, about protein and the importance of protein. Particularly as we age, we need a certain amount of protein at every meal. And do you do any of these, like, intermittent fasting or, you know, six mini meals a day instead of three major meals a day? Do you. Do you prescribe any of that?
Kim Rahir [:So intermittent fasting is. I mean, we'd have to do another show on this because it's such a huge thing. I'm just going to say one thing. Just skipping breakfast is not intermittent fasting. If you want to use intermittent fasting, you want to make it work for your circadian rhythm. And for some people, it works really well in a weight loss context, it works well because people have less time to eat, so they eat less. That's all it does. There's no.
Kim Rahir [:There's no physiological magic at work. You have less time eating less. I make sure that I get 12 hours of not eating in, in every day just to give the system a break. And I'm not into the six meals either, because I think we're all totally disconnected from the needs of our body, from the feeling of hunger, from the feeling of being empty and needing food. So if we constantly feed ourselves, we get further removed from this, knowing what we need. And this goes back to what does the body need? And when you have a good meal in the morning and there's a good amount of protein in there, you shouldn't be hungry for a few hours and you want to wait for that hunger just to know that you, you know, you're actually doing what your body needs and you're not just not stuffing food in there when, you know, maybe the body hasn't even called for food by, you know, with a grumbling stomach, stomach or something like this. So I'm. I like three to meals a day going, that's for me, because I don't.
Wendy Green [:Want to skip breakfast, particularly if you're working out.
Kim Rahir [:Yeah. And the circadian reasons, too, because you want to trigger certain activity and motivation hormones in the morning, and that happens with light and with food and with exercise, which gives you, like, a really nice fatigue in the evening and a good night's sleep. That's what works for me. If someone hates breakfast and wants to throw up when they have to eat breakfast, by all means, please don't, you know, don't force yourself. This is also something we're always looking for prescriptions. Should we do this or that? I think whatever really works for you is what you should do. You need to take time and you need some patience to find out what does work for you. You're not going to find out in two or three days of intermittent fasting.
Wendy Green [:Right, right.
Kim Rahir [:When you take the time and you find that this is my perfect, like, you know, maybe some people, they have, they get GI distress when they eat big meals, or maybe they really are better off with smaller meals. But I'm really big fan of knowing when we're hungry, getting hungry every now and then, and, like, really physically hungry and then eating.
Wendy Green [:So when you work with your clients, do you customize for each client around the kind of weight training they would do, strength training, and around the nutrition that they would do?
Kim Rahir [:So, yeah, the training, especially when we start out, is very customized because everybody starts at a different point. Depends on your skill level, your experience level, how strong and mobile you are at this point in your life. And this is a really big thing for midlife women because so many really want to do something. I want to do strength training. I want to move more now. And then you find a program online, and there's really great stuff out there, but it's just not made for women who have maybe high mileage knees or problems with, you know, stiff shoulders. So I look at every client, look at how they move, and then we start at that point, make it challenging enough, but not too challenging. So, you know, they don't, you don't get hurt.
Kim Rahir [:It's just, like, very, very basic. And my food system is really just a blueprint because I think that's the only thing. A blueprint really is the only thing that works because life is so varied these days. The times when we were living in the same place and eating the same foods every day are long gone. So this must work when you travel, this must work when you go to a restaurant. And that's why I work with the blueprint approach, where you focus on getting your protein, getting your vegetables, no matter how, and then the rest is ad libitum.
Wendy Green [:Yeah, well, that makes a lot of sense. I love some of the comments we're getting. Sheila says she's been strength training for 13 years and can't believe how much she can do considering that she didn't start until she was 55. And she loves it when people ask if she needs help carrying something to the, she's like, I got this.
Kim Rahir [:Yeah. One of my favorite moments when the delivery guy comes with a heavy box and says, oh, this is heavy. And you go, oh, no worries. Yeah.
Wendy Green [:And Jana's thinking about doing some strength training, so she's inspired by your success. And Gladys also, she's like, this is so encouraging and interesting. So congratulations to you.
Kim Rahir [:She says, oh, that's very kind and really something that I, that I want to share all over. It's never too late. You can always start. And when we, when we got going to all or nothing thinking and say, I can't do this because my knees hurt, or I can't do this because I had a back injury a few years back. You can circumvent, circum train almost any injury or limitation that you have because you want to keep the rest of the body moving. You cannot stop the whole body from moving just because one part heart has a limitation or an injury or there's pain. You can always work around that and make sure that you keep moving.
Wendy Green [:So, like you did, though, you got diagnosed and then you figured out your program. So if somebody came to you and said, you know, Kim, my knee, I really have problems with my knee, my doctor says eventually I'm going to need knee replacement. You would know how to work with them on something like that.
Kim Rahir [:Absolutely. Yeah. I'm quite creative when it comes to finding things that you can still do. And I think it's great not only on a physical level, because it will also give you motivation and confidence when you see, yes, I have a limitation, but I can still move and I can still do things and I can still improve.
Wendy Green [:Oh, gosh. I mean, for your mindset if nothing else, you know, to get out and to be able to feel like you can walk or carry in your groceries or something. Yeah, absolutely. So what do you feel like you're the most proud of, Kim?
Kim Rahir [:That's a tricky question.
Wendy Green [:I know.
Kim Rahir [:I'm proud of traveling to international weightlifting competitions and actually daring stepping out on the platform when all eyes are on you. And I keep thinking of all the other women, so many. Tell me, you know, when you turn 50, you become invisible. And when you're on that platform, all eyes are on you. You're not invisible at all. And it is exhilarating. It's also scary. And I think that's, like.
Kim Rahir [:That's the mix we have to look for. If we don't want to be invisible, we have to also accept being visible, you know, in all our authenticity. So that's something. Because it can be scary. That's something I'm proud of.
Wendy Green [:That is something to be proud of. I mean, and just to even get there, the work that you've had to do to get there.
Kim Rahir [:And I see guys there, and mostly guys, women. You know, I might be the first one who goes to a competition when she's 89. I sure hope I will. There's guys who travel. They come from, you know, from all over the world. Some of them are 89. They travel, they sleep in a hotel or in a hostel. They go to the weigh in, and they still compete.
Kim Rahir [:I mean, it's so inspiring. And that means you can always. You know, sometimes they even have difficulty walking towards the bar. But when they lift, they lift, but they're there. They're showing up, and they're not giving up. And I find that really, really inspiring.
Wendy Green [:You gotta show up. Yeah. So your kids, your husband, they must be so proud of you, too.
Kim Rahir [:Yeah. I think they find that pretty cool, I actually always say, because after my first brush with illness and I realized that so many things we care so much about are so unimportant, I became a much cooler mom. That's. That's for sure. And now I even go lift weights and compete, so, yeah, I think they're quite. They're quite impressed.
Wendy Green [:Yeah. Did they worry about you at first when you were like, I'm gonna go start doing this weightlifting thing, and I'm gonna compete?
Kim Rahir [:No, not really. And I. This is also something that I'm. I'm really grateful for. And I know that every. Every family has, like, different ground rules, but we are very. We're all very free. You know, if I.
Kim Rahir [:If I said I want to go weightlifting and compete, nobody would say, are you crazy? That's not possible. They might say, oh, really? Wow, that's interesting. They wouldn't necessarily say, well, this is fantastic or amazing, but they would. We don't stop each other from doing things like, my husband last year wanted to drive an aid convoy into Ukraine with friends, and I said, of course you go. So we don't stop, which are doing scary things.
Wendy Green [:That's awesome. June has a question. She says she's 90 plus, and she has developed arthritis in her knee and her right thumb, and she does some exercise. Can it still help?
Kim Rahir [:She says absolutely. And you, the thumb is a problem when you want to lift a barbell, but you can do so many things where you don't even need a dumbbell. You don't. You can just use your own body weight. And with the knee, the thing is you want to keep moving in some way, so. Absolutely. And the stronger your muscles become, the less load there is on the knee and on the joints in general. You want to start building muscle to relieve those joints, actually.
Kim Rahir [:And I think doctors even recommend sometimes with arthritis moving through pain just to keep the mobility.
Wendy Green [:Yeah. And at 90, maybe it's a good idea to work with a trainer to get the right exercises.
Kim Rahir [:Yeah. You don't want to go to a gym and work with an 18 year old pt because they're just going to tell you to drop on the floor and rep out some push ups. Yeah. It's good to have someone who can scale that exercise to you, but you might be quite strong and mobile.
Wendy Green [:Never know.
Kim Rahir [:The age itself doesn't necessarily say anything about your physical status.
Wendy Green [:Oh, I love that you said that. Yvonne says, kim has taught me that action brings motivation, not thinking about doing something, but actually getting up and starting. Like you said, you got to show up.
Kim Rahir [:And this is a big one because guess what? When I talk to women every day and when I ask them, but what's keeping you from doing things? And they say, I don't have any motivation. And that's, you know, if you want to sit back and wait for motivation to come, motivation is like a mood. So it's, you know, and just, just remember what you did. I mean, when you had kids, you took them to school every day. Did you need to be motivated to do that? I don't think you were, you know, did you think that must be enjoyed? Did you decide every day, oh, today, I'm going to pick him up tomorrow, or maybe not. No, you just. And it's the action that creates the motivation. And when you know that and you start with this tiny action, complete, super small, that's fine, but it will give you this momentum.
Wendy Green [:So you've shared so much with us, Kim, and, you know, I'm wondering if you can kind of encapsulate two or three takeaways that you'd like to leave with the listeners today that they can get started with.
Kim Rahir [:So the first thing I want to say, and I want to shout it from the rooftops, you want to get moving? No, matter where you are at, no matter how hard it feels, no matter how long you've been sedentary, your body is optimized to move. So every day you don't move, you get worse. And just know it's never too late. And you can start from anywhere, but you want to get moving. And then the second point, and I think this is just as crucial, is you want to start small. You want to start small. I know that it can feel so discouraging when you think, oh my God, I have to climb this super high mountain and what, I'm just going to take a step of 10 cm? That's not going to get me anywhere. But we have to forget the big picture.
Kim Rahir [:Don't look at the mountain, just look at what you can do today now. And if you can go, you know, after you listen to this show, you can go and have a big glass of water or maybe go for a little walk around the block, whatever it is. That's a start. Start small to make sure that you can keep doing it. And that's how you create momentum and that's how you, how you, you know, end up doing bigger things.
Wendy Green [:Yeah, I think that's brilliant. So, so show up, start small and keep moving. Thank you, Kim. So let me show people how they can find you. Kim's website is KimRahir.com. That's kimrahir.com. And on there you can contact her. You can read some of the inspirational things that she has written on there and you can get started with the program with Kim, which would be, I'm sure, very inspiring and very motivational.
Wendy Green [:But like she said, you got to find your own motivation. So it's KimRahir.com. Awesome. Thank you, Kim. That was just amazing.
Kim Rahir [:Thank you for having me on that page. By the way, you can take a health and strength assessment.
Wendy Green [:That's right.
Kim Rahir [:Which is free. You can sort of get a glimpse of what, where you are at and what might be, you know, the first steps that you can take if you want to start doing.
Wendy Green [:And don't forget, like I did when I took it, it says at the top, get out a paper pencil so you can kind of score yourself. So make sure you do that.
Kim Rahir [:Yes. It's not fully automated. Yeah. Read the directions. Don't be a man. Read the manual.
Wendy Green [:Yes. And then join, Hey, Boomer, the Boomer Banter or the Boomer Believers and become part of our amazing community by going to buymeacoffee.com/heyboomer0413 and check out carelink 360. Really is a wonderful way to stay connected with relatives or loved ones who are not close by and give them a sense of connection and comfort as well. So if you go to mycarelink360.com/ref/Boomer, you'll see all kinds of information about what it offers, and if you are interested in purchasing one, you can use the word boomer at checkout and get 5% off of your purchase. So we're going to continue one more week talking about healthy living, and that is going to take another look, which has to do with alcohol and how much is okay for each of us. So my guest next week is a woman named Maureen Bankovich and she is the founder of something called the sober fit chick coaching. Maureen was a successful pharmaceutical rep, a personal trainer, a fitness instructor, all while struggling with alcohol. And she's going to talk with us about the shame that overusing alcohol can bring and how to be fit, healthy, happy and sober.
Kim Rahir [:Sounds amazing.
Wendy Green [:I know, doesn't it? Each episode of hey Boomer is an invitation to listen, learn and apply the wisdom gained from each episode. And Kim, we got so much from you today. Thank you. So the path ahead is not always easy, but it's traveled best with shared support and insight. Thank you so much. And I will see everybody back here next week.
