Have you ever thought you were too old to try something new? In today's episode of The Uplifters Podcast, Gerilynn Berg is going to prove it's never too late. In fact, like Gerilynn, your whole life may have been preparing you for your next big adventure.

Recently, on her 70th birthday, Gerilynn competed in a bodybuilding competition. She oiled up, taped her breasts in place, slid on her stilettos and a skimpy bikini, and strutted her stuff while competing with women at least 25 years younger. You can see a clip of her big moment here.

Gerilynn recognizes bodybuilding isn't for everyone, but believes fitness is. Her goal is to bust the myth that getting older automatically leads to declining fitness and less vitality. She's living proof that getting fit at any age is possible if you're willing to challenge self-limiting beliefs.

Competing on her 70th birthday was particularly momentous for Gerilynn, as she is a recent cancer survivor – something she thought she'd never have to say. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Even though the prognosis was good, she didn't know if she would celebrate her 70th birthday. She is not 100% cancer-free, but she continues her rigorous strength training and nutrition discipline, believing a strong body helps you have a strong mind, be fearless and courageous, and overcome life's most challenging obstacles.

A few uplifting lessons we can all take from Gerilynn:

* The three Ms – mindset, muscles, and macros – are key elements in achieving fitness goals.

* Having a supportive community and friends can greatly impact your fitness journey.

* Strength training is essential for building lean muscle and improving body composition.

* Setting goals and embracing challenges can lead to personal growth and transformation.

* Fitness and wellness are lifelong pursuits that can enrich us at any age.

After you listen, grab your ticket 🎟️ for Uplifters Live on May 17, where you’ll meet the inspiring Uplifters Ambassadors you’ve heard on our podcast, including Gerilynn, who is one of our featured panelists, and many other inspiring women! Learn about this one-day in-person gathering for creative growth and collaboration HERE and use code BIRTHDAY FOR 50% off the registration fee this month.

TUP EP 053

Gerilynn, thank you for being here today.

Now, mind you, I'd never run in my life really. And I, it was quarter mile field. I could not make it around like a half of that. I was huffing and puffing from the outside. I look pretty damn good. All right. But from the inside, apparently not so good. And it just occurred to me, I can't do this. I, this doesn't seem right.

So that's kind of the beginning of kind of a little bit of a idea in my mind, like maybe there's something not right about this. Maybe I'm not as fit as I could be, even though I'm looking really good, because I was always driven. And I think a lot of the women that we know are really driven with this idea in society to be thin.

That was in my era. That was a big deal. You saw Twiggy, you saw these women, they were just like, they were like emaciated. And I came from a background, my mother was super critical, super critical. Like always, you're too fat, you're too this, you're too that. And really, it kind of did a number on me. I grew up in LA.

And when I think about what's important for really helping people with fitness, I like to call them the three M's. I'm calling it the Lovingly the Berg Method, but the three M's are your mindset, your muscles, and your macros, which is what you eat, the first one is how you think, the next one is how you move, and the last one is, you know, what you eat, how you eat.

So backing up to that, first thing is, I met a woman, my friend Maddie, and she introduced me to a food co op. Now, I didn't know anything about food co ops. And I really wasn't even thinking about that. I had no knowledge about that. I mean, I grew up eating, you know, red meat and, you know, spaghetti and meatballs and steak, and there was no health and frozen vegetables.

So, swimming is kind of meditative. The running, meditative. I started to do yoga. It would be a break from my mind and I would be so happy. It wasn't that I was studying it and the science of all this now that I know it 50 years later, but at the time, I only knew that, wow, when I do these things, I feel so much better,

And the last thing, I started weightlifting because I always loved when I saw these women with this great definition. And I, I just said, like, how do you do that? I thought, oh, that is so cool. I want that. So I was in this little hotel gym or something. They only had a bench and a few dumbbells or something.

Aransas: Uh huh.

Gerilynn: He was my teacher.

Aransas: Wow.

Gerilynn: And it was phenomenal.

And I learned so much and, you know, I learned from him something very interesting, an interesting lesson that he told us. He said, listen, don't go telling all your friends, like a rant says, you've got to try this yoga thing. It is the greatest thing since slight spread. I mean, look at me. I'm so phenomenal.

I'm doing yoga. And look, I just like, I'm a different person. He said, just be that person, you know, be the example to others. And they'll go, Hey, Gerilynn, it's really different. Something's different about you. I wonder what that could

Aransas: be. So well said and what a beautiful triangle of support, right? And they say, right, the triangle is the strongest structure.

And so this three part structure here feels so stable and sustaining. Did you, do you think of yourself as an Well, I love that word, but you know, you have to understand,

Yeah. And so what I realized is that's a pretty darn good athlete.

Aransas: Yeah.

Gerilynn: And you know, I really was, and I had just no idea, I had aptitude for it, but I didn't have any support for it. Do I consider myself an athlete? Yeah, I do. You know, I do call myself a gym rat, but I know that most people don't like the gym.

Aransas: Yeah.

Gerilynn: I get it. And it can be an intimidating place. Totally. I get that part, but you don't have to go to the gym. Right. You could be at home. You could, you know, let's take COVID. I mean, you could buy yourself some dumbbells, some bands. That's what I did. But the point being is just do it. Just be

Aransas: there. I was raised by a very mobile, physical person.

I hear stories like this and it gives me not only encouragement and belief what's possible but also excitement to do it. So I want to talk about these last few years for you of sort of opening up your realm of what's possible for you as an athlete.

Gerilynn: Yeah. Well, Oh, first of all, that's such an inspiring story.

Dan Buechner, he's been studying longevity and these centenarians who, you know, who really, they're still vibrant and healthy at 90 to a hundred in one of the things that you just said, it is moving. It doesn't have to be in the gym or anything.

And I said, Oh, why? He said, because we pray on our knees. And what he explained to me is that in his community multiple times every day, they get up and they get down. And it is that routine mobility that keeps people

Gerilynn: alive. I think people think of exercise to be this formal thing, not necessarily, necessarily, but to your question about the later in life, because I think that's the interesting part too, right?

Okay. So. You know, and it's so funny when I think of this, because now I say like I'm 70, I think about 55 was young for me. How cool is that? Isn't that cool? It's like, oh yeah, but I gotta tell you something too, is I feel that the, if you ask me, how old do you feel? I would say like, 32. Yeah, I don't know why, but the fact is I don't even understand the number.

When I started and I'm backing up, okay, so I do this thing called the DEXA scan. It measures a couple of really important things. It measures your body fat, it measures your lean muscle, and it measures the fat around your organs. The fat around your organs is what causes disease. You need to be cognizant of that and figure out what I do about that.

And I was so frustrated. I was not feeling good about myself. I was not feeling confident. I was feeling It was just awful. [00:11:00] So, you know, I was in the gym one day. I saw this woman. She's really toned. Beautiful. So I went up to her. I said, Hey, what do you do? She said, I'm a trainer. I'm also a nutritionist. And I thought, Hmm, I like her.

I said, Hey, do you work with others? She goes, Yeah, I'd be happy to work with you. Sandra brought me back to how are you eating macronutrients? It's what your body needs to be healthy. So that was that one piece. I was strength training three times a week. I started out, this is pretty dramatic, with 32 percent body fat.

And mind you, I was a lot younger than I am now. That was six years ago. I have 21 percent body fat now at a 70 year old person. That's the athlete category for, not for people my age, Erances, for women 20 to 29.

Aransas: Oh my

And I'm thrilled. I mean, I'm just like, wow, for me, because I was that chubby kid, you know, I was that kid. And it's so, it's really thrilling, it's really exciting because I want other people to see that you can take control of these things. You don't have to believe these stereotypes and these myths out there because that happened to me.

But it's gonna take some, some help, it's gonna take some discipline, it's gonna take some learning. It's not insurmountable.

Aransas: Mm hmm.

Gerilynn: But it's possible.

Aransas: Yeah. I love this reminder, though, that we can reinvent. That we can become something more or different than we've always seen ourself as. Because to your point, those beliefs really weren't even ours to begin with.

They come from other people. And ultimately what I hear you doing is carving out this new space that is uniquely, powerfully yours. So, talk to me about competition. Sandra,

When I was 63, 63, I said, I'm going to do that. On my 65th birthday, I competed for the first time in my life. And it was exciting. It was phenomenal. I literally was the only person over 50. Okay, my category was 50 plus. I was 65. I was 65. It was just so fun, right? And it was really just more than I could have ever expected.

First of all, all the women were like 20, 25 years younger than me. This whole community, community of women, they were wonderful. I remember my boobs were falling out of this little teeny tiny bikini. I had no idea what to do. I was like, Oh my God, I got to get on stage. I don't know what to do. This lovely woman, she goes, Here's some wig tape.

Cause you know, I want to be you. Aw, Jeralyn. I know. And I thought to myself, you want to be me? Because I thought, Nobody ever wants to be me. You know, it's like, I didn't want to be me. It's like, oh my gosh, like, I didn't get how inspirational this was. These are young women looking at this person so many years older than them.

That's looking like them. I was like vibrant. I was like, they're all tired sitting on the floor

Aransas: and I'm, you're like in a bikini and high heels, oiled up on a stage, oiled up on

Gerilynn: a stage, walking on five inch stilettos. Oh my gosh. But you know something? I was so prepared. You get back to your mindset. I mean, I had a major breakdown the week before.

I mean, I had by that time, I had done in my thirties to my fifties, several triathlons, right? So I kind of had done some major athletic types of things that I had never done before in my life as an older adult. But I thought this is something different, a challenge that I just can't even imagine that I could do.

And then in my head too was, all right, 65. And then I said, what's my next milestone? 70. And I thought, okay, I'm going to do it when I'm 70. Well, I still stayed fit between 65 and 70, but what did happen to me, and this was a couple of years ago, I got diagnosed with cancer and shocking, you know, shocking to me.

Aransas: Yeah.

Gerilynn: Are you going to let that take you down or are you going to figure out how you're going to move forward?

And as soon as I could after that, you know, to heal, of course. But then it was like, all right, I could get back to working out. I remember one of my doctors saying to me, and I'll never forget this, he said, look, he said, you know, I don't want you to think about this as you have a disease. He said, you have a situation, you have to do what you can do.

Aransas: You're paying attention to it and managing it using the data, but you're not letting it define your beliefs about yourself and your life. And there are plenty of people out there who have absorbed a story that says, well, this has happened. So now the potential that we once felt we had is now vastly limited.

And certainly I hear that it's impacted you. You're just not letting it fully define you.

Gerilynn: I think that's a really good point. is don't let other people define what's possible for you. I think sometimes that's

Aransas: really hard to do. So talk to me about your 70th birthday. When you were 65, you competed, then you began your battle with cancer, and then you decided to celebrate your 70th birthday in a pretty unique way.

My mom is 52, but my mom needs to start working out. And I want to show my mom, look at this woman at the competition. Like she, I was the oldest person by, you know, 25 years, 30 years. This community, when you're there, everybody's supportive and everybody's just like, it was such a great experience. But that whole thing about the mom thing, because I don't feel like I'm their mom, but realistically, I'm probably a grandma.

And then a week after the race, I'm like, signing up for another race. So what are you thinking, Gerilynn? Do you think you want to do this again? Well, I love that question because

Gerilynn: of course I've thought about that. And I think right after that, because you know, remember what I said in the beginning, this determination, craziness that I have, right?

I thought to myself right after I thought, you know, I didn't do as good as I wanted. ,

Absolutely. I'm going to do this again. There's no doubt. I'm going to do this again. And, you know, I was even looking like what's happening around my birthday this

Aransas: What is a snapshot of a typical week for Gerilynn now while not training in terms of how you manage your mindset, your movement, and your macros?

So let me start with the

They have a better day. And you think like, why did that happen? You, cause you set an intention, you're kind of setting yourself up for success. And to kind of say it in a way that People could get it. It's for me, it gives me that more space to respond and react more thoughtfully, not just react, react, react when things happen.

It's kind of in a more thoughtful way. The other thing, and I, I've been doing this, it's kind of great, getting out of bed and making a statement and intention of what you want, which is, I mean, verbally say it, it's going to be a great day. Now, great to you and great to me can look very different.

Why would I stop doing that so I just sit around and do nothing? No, that'll probably make me ill. I go to the gym, I work out, probably an hour of strength training. I also love spinning. I had my protein breakfast. Egg whites, spinach, some carbs, oatmeal, banana, you know, balanced. Tomorrow I'll do some yoga and, you know, also managing this mind here, this monkey mind here.

So yeah, so, you know, that's kind of it. And swim. So I'm still, the thing is, I'm still doing all those practices that, and those disciplines I started way back when, you know, and it still gives me that, you know, peace of mind. It gives me an opportunity to really think through things, to do some problem solving, to just kind of let my mind just go and see where it takes me.

And it's also a really creative process. Cause I find out of doing those things, sometimes things come to me like, depends kind of what age you are. If you were older or something, I might say to you, Hey, do you want to be able to pick up your grandchildren? Do you want to be able to get out of your chair?

It's going to keep that fat burning longer by strength training.

What would you say to any uplifter out there who questions her potential as she ages?

Gerilynn: I would say that you can be whoever you want to be. You own it. You don't have to listen to the myths, the stereotypes of aging.

I think that, in fact, I think it can even be better as you get older and this is what I have seen. That I would have never said, Oransis, if you had said to me that, yeah, Charlene, you're going to be 70 and you're going to be, you know, strutting across the stage in this tiny bikini in front of hundreds of people.

But here's the thing, it takes some effort. And guess what? Nobody's going to do it for you. You need to decide, fine, what do you love? What works for you? Whether that's walking, running, I don't care what that is, but what gives you joy? And you really have to make it a practice and a discipline. You really kind of have to plan it out, just like you plan a meeting at work, you put it on your calendar, you know, put it on your calendar that yes, you know, this day I was just coaching one of my friends in fitness.

I want to support other women in this effort because I just see how important it is. You're never too old. It's never too late and it's never too early. I was spending at the gym one day and to finish the class. And the 25 year old instructor came up to me and she said, wow, you're like, you're a beast.

Like, you're just like killing it. She goes, I want to be you. How do you do this? I want to hear everything. It's never too early. It's never too late. Right. What a beautiful thing to

Aransas: say. And Uplifters, as you listen to this, I hope as always that This means something for you and your own story, and that you see your own potential in Jerilyn's potential.

Gerilynn: Thank you, Aransas. This has been so much fun and I love being with you and sharing with other uplifters out there and other women the beauty of taking control of your life and living the life and you can be the best version of yourself at any age.