The Optimal Aging Podcast
Millions of people over age 50 represent the biggest consumer market in history for fitness, nutrition, travel, recreation and more. But most businesses don't know how to market to them. We'll interview entrepreneurs, business leaders and innovators to discuss this exciting opportunity.
The Optimal Aging Podcast
From Full-Time Foodie to Powerlifter at 60, One Writer's Empowering Story, with Jill Silva
Imagine if your job was to review restaurants, test recipes, and hobnob with the foodiest of the foodies in a major American city.
Well, my friend Jill Silva has had that job for decades. She was the Food editor of the Kansas City Star for more than 20 years and now has a PR business focusing on food and dining.
Now, at 60, Jill has a new passion: Powerlifting.
Jill’s is the kind of story you need to be sharing with your prospects, clients, and communities. It’s relatable and inspiring. She says she feels, moves, and looks great, and she’s finding new confidence — even a little swagger, if you ask me.
“I might never be that skinny young thing again, but that’s OK,” she says. “I’m strong, I feel great, and I won’t need to use a walker when I’m 80.”
Find Jill Silva on LinkedIn
Prime Fit Content
Imagine if your job was to review restaurants, test recipes and hobnob with the foodiest of the foodies in a major American city. All the cuisine, all the wine, all the best desserts. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, my friend, jill Silva has had that job for decades. Silva has had that job for decades. She was the food editor of the Kansas City Star for more than 20 years and when the newspaper industry dried up, she opened her own PR firm with restaurants, chefs and food-oriented businesses and non-profits as clients. Now, at 60, jill has a new passion powerlifting. How did a professional foodie suddenly get into fitness? What's the role that her love of food writing played and how does she hope to find a healthy balance moving forward? Well, these are some of the questions Jill and I cover in this week's episode of Optimal Aging, the show for fitness, health and well-being professionals trying to grow their businesses with more people over 50.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, jay Croft, of Prime Fit Content, which provides premium marketing material to gyms and studios serving the over 50 demographic. Jill's is the kind of story you need to be sharing with your prospects, clients and communities. It's relatable and inspiring, as we saw by the response to an article I recently wrote about her for my Prime Fit content subscribers. You can learn more about my content business at primefitcontentcom.
Speaker 1:But for now, enjoy Jill's story about her new lifestyle. She says she feels, moves and looks great and she's finding new confidence even a little swagger, if you ask me. She says I might never be that skinny young thing again, but that's okay because I'm strong, I feel great and I won't need a walker when I'm 80. Now I'm delighted that my friend has found an activity she loves so much and that it's resonating with so many people. Here's our conversation, which we enter midway and which ends a bit abruptly because, well, like the best of old friends, we were gabbing so much I forgot to put a formal start and stop to the interview and had to edit out a bunch of chatter before and after.
Speaker 2:So enjoy For all those years I was learning to test recipes, learning about new foods, dining out quite a bit and for many years that wasn't a huge issue as far as my health or my weight. But you know about the time I hit forties and that I guess perimenopausal phase for women you don't lose weight as easily and you start to notice that you might be inching up on the scale and you ignore it for a while.
Speaker 2:And I think if you just do more exercise it'll be better. And I think a lot of times I thought, well, I'm so busy with my kids and I'm so busy with work.
Speaker 2:I'll deal with that when my kids are gone. I'll deal with that when I'm retired. I'll deal with that when I don't have to review restaurants anymore. And I was laid off in 2018 in December. It was quite a blow. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do but, oddly, still wanted to be in food. I have all these things I still wanted to do in food. So the people who said to me oh, that's great, you'll probably start losing weight now.
Speaker 2:Oh you know, I didn't lose weight. And the pandemic came along and I gained weight because you know it's the apocalypse, right, and it just felt so insular and the only thing you had was to support every single restaurant and every single bar.
Speaker 1:And so.
Speaker 2:I was picking up cocktails and I was picking up food and I was supporting, supporting, supporting. And then just finally, a friend said to me well, I'm going to investigate a trainer. I've got a three session pass. My husband gave me do you want to go? I said okay, yeah, sure. And so we go to this trainer and I think she's going to.
Speaker 2:You know, stand over me and tell me to do more pushups and more sit-ups and show me how to use some of those very intimidating machines that I don't know how to use, right, cause the only thing I know how to use is a bike and barely a treadmill. So I'm walking in circles around all this stuff, cause we have a track that goes around it at the rec center, and I just keep walking and walking and totally intimidated by all the weights, get to this woman. She says well, I can teach you how to do those things, but really what I do is power lifting. So we start trying with light weights and she's not trying to hurt us or anything Just steadily work us up. Because she has a good point If you overwork and you're so sore you can't move, you won't come back, right?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:She slowly starts working us. So sore you can't move, he won't come back right. She slowly starts working us and it appears my friend who has other issues going on, like retirement and a knee problem.
Speaker 2:She kind of drifts away and I'm suddenly over at the rack because my trainer's telling me yeah, you can do that. And so I'm learning and I'm confused and I'm writing things down and it takes a long time for me to understand what we're doing, but eventually it was just like no, just so empowering, and it started to be like I could feel that my muscles were better and that all that knee pain and some of the things going down the stairs were getting better Not perfect.
Speaker 2:I still have some of that, but you just stairs were getting better, not perfect. I still have some of that, but you just get kind of caught up in it because there aren't a lot of women doing this in the gym. It's sort of like yeah, ask me my age.
Speaker 1:I am 60. I am.
Speaker 2:What do you want to know? Yeah, I don't know. It's just become kind of a personal thing and it's just doing a whole lot more for my body than walking in circles was doing, or riding a bike or or jazzercise or yoga all things I've done, all things I've enjoyed. But I think I'm just at a different point in my life and I need a different kind of exercise.
Speaker 1:So is it fair to, is it fair to say you were sedentary?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:That's real fair to say. So it's once a week with the trainer, once a week on your own, and then you're also doing another session of cardio or aerobic exercise.
Speaker 2:Trying to get that third one in. That is kind of so. I'm working with a dietician now and I am going through our university medical weight management program, our university medical weight management program, and so, in conjunction with all of this, I'm, you know, trying to add that extra aerobic, I'm trying to drink more water. You know, there's just these constant little goals that I'm working on, that healthy lifestyle things, it's, it's going well, and so I'm just working incrementally to try to change lifestyle habits.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. I want to back up to being a food person, because your job, I think, was and has been and still is something that I think a lot of people might fantasize. Oh, I wish I was a food writer or a food editor. I wish I knew all the chefs and could go to all the openings and all the wine pairings and taste all the recipes and all of that, and I'm sure it is very glamorous and exciting and fun to be a part of that world. And so tell me about the fun. I mean I imagine you going out to Kansas City's, got all this barbecue and all this great food everywhere. What's it like to be the food maven of Kansas City?
Speaker 2:It's just an area that's so fascinating because food affects every part of our life.
Speaker 2:And it's it's. I got beyond recipes. I was into the politics of food and sustainability of food and just a number of topics that were fascinating. So that's why food was so compelling to me and why I still love it. It is fun to go out and have the chef know who you are. It's fun to try special things they want you to try. Now, in my public relations communications role, it's fun to help them behind the scenes, plan those events and eat at their special dinner with the wine pairings and meet a famous chef. The other day I was interviewing somebody about his Jewish food and I'm eating, you know, pastrami and rye that had just come out of the oven. You know just delicious things. So you learn about culture, you learn about life through food, and so that's just so appealing to me. But it can add up. It's so plentiful that you just you can overeat, and food's delicious and food's fun, until you are the restaurant critic and then you realize how really grueling it is on your body.
Speaker 1:What you're trying to do is to change this direction without, without abandoning your area of expertise and the thing that fascinates you so much, and that is the broad topic of food right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yes, I'm figuring out how. How can I do this? I'm not leaving that world, but how can I do it better for my health?
Speaker 1:Yes, I think you're really onto something, and I wish more people, particularly people our age, could realize that you can still enjoy the food that you want to enjoy. You don't have to live at the gym seven days a week, three hours a time. Let's just start by moving a few times a week and let's start by looking at what we're eating and why, and then from there I think you can start making some choices, like you've been making. I really want to get back to this powerlifting. My friend Jill is powerlifting. What, what? So you're in this rec center. There's a bunch of sweaty, loud guys dropping weights and looking at themselves in the mirror, and there you are at the squat rack, deadlifting. And tell me about this. The visuals are incredible.
Speaker 2:It's just good to have a routine, so that's what my trainer has enabled me to do. She's taught me the correct ways to do things, and so I have two different routines that I go back and forth off of. It's sometimes about adding more weight, but mostly it's about making sure the form is not changing or regressing, or you know that I've got right.
Speaker 2:It's just this really empowering thing when you realize that every once in a while people are stealing a look to see what you're doing. At first I was really self-conscious about it, super self-conscious, but now I'm feeling like, yeah, I belong here, so look, all you want, look all you want.
Speaker 1:Son, you said some things when we talked a couple weeks ago for the article that really stood out to me, and one of them was a little bit about the goal of why you're doing this, you're not doing this, so you'll look like when you were 20, right, and I think that's really important. If you can remember what you said. I want you to get into that a little bit, because so many people I talk to in our age say, yeah, I'm going to get. A lot of guys will say, yeah, I played college football, so you know I can bench press this much because I did it when I was 19. And it's like well, you're 63 now, so guess what? Who are we right now? That's what matters, not what we were in college. So you know, tell me about that. What's the goal for all of this?
Speaker 2:Just to keep improving it's kind of a contest with yourself and be more consistent. I mean, some days I'm super strong and other days, I don't know, I'm a little wimpier. It's just kind of coming back each week and seeing if you can at least do what you did the week before and maybe you can do a little more, so that feels just good. Can do a little more, so that feels just good. It's a good routine. I know what I'm doing and I'm not waiting for the pounds to fly off right. I am at that age where I just realized I can't be 20 and I can't probably do the squats like the girl next to me who's 20 can do right. It's just not reality. I had knee problems because I have osteoarthritis a very 60s kind of thing and keep working out. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to quit my trainer's like nope, we'll just work around it, keep going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're not trying to look like you did in spring break in your bikini.
Speaker 2:Let's avoid the walker if we can, for as long as we can. Let's have good balance. Let's have strong legs. Let's be able to get out of a chair without using your hands. Let's do all those things that keep you moving right. Just don't quit. I could have quit a long time ago and had I quit, had my trainer let me quit I probably would never get back to it.
Speaker 1:Now, you and I grew up in the 70s and we had PE, but they never told us kids, you should lift weights, because when you're old you'll be grateful that you're they never told us. That did they.
Speaker 2:Never, never once, did anybody tell me to lift weights. I was so intimidated by weights and I knew nothing about them. The most that I'd ever done was when I was in jazzercise and they would have you strap on some leg weights while you were laying on the floor, you know. Or some hand weights that you know weighed two pounds and I didn't feel anything and it just I don't know. But I didn't know what to do, right, I just didn't know how to use weights. So it takes going to somebody who's a professional, I think sometimes spending the money, it's money well worth spending and learning, and, as my trainers pointed out, I don't need her anymore. I know what to do. I don't have to pay her.
Speaker 2:For me it's motivating too, because she's just a really great person and we're on this journey together. And be realistic about your goals. I'm not going to be marching around in cute little booty shorts. That's not where I am going to be marching around in cute little booty shorts. That's not where I am right in life. But that doesn't mean I'm not getting immense benefits, probably more than the younger people are. You know, keep doing it and the stories are tremendous. And the stories I hear not just my story, but the stories I hear from my trainer about other people who couldn't play with their grandchildren, couldn't do certain things like bend down and pick things up or just move and go on a vacation that they wanted to. All those things are just more important than how cute you are in your spring break tank top, right.
Speaker 1:Well, yes, because nobody wants to see me in my spring break tank top from 1984.
Speaker 2:I have a vision, jay, I have a vision.
Speaker 1:You probably have a photograph, I probably do your self-image. You know we're talking about not being looking like we did and not wearing the clothes and all of that, and I'm fine with it, but it is, it's most of the time. Sometimes I think, oh man, where'd that flat stomach go? How do you feel about your body now, how you look and feel and move.
Speaker 2:I'm. I'm feeling a lot better. I've lost a few pounds, which feels great. The ring that's always been tight on my hand is spinning around. I mean, one of the things that was just horrible for me was that my wedding ring got stuck on my finger.
Speaker 2:I had to have it cut off. I don't think there's anything worse than that feeling of wow, I just let this really get out of control and then to start to see things change, you're just like, oh my gosh, I can do this. I can do this. So I feel confident, both in the gym and just more confident in life, and I think we all suffer a little bit. I mean, I thought to myself God, I hope Jay doesn't think I look old. I'm looking at you and you look great.
Speaker 2:We both look old or older and I think you just have to get out of that mindset. The thing about probably everybody certainly, I think, women are harder on themselves about this is just we kind of stop in our 20s, right, Usually, or early 30s. You know that's. That's our prime time, physically speaking, when we look in the mirror and our most fashionable time when we look at our clothes and all of that. And it's just, you know, you spend a lot of time sort of comparing yourselves to the supermodels of the decade and your generation or whatever.
Speaker 1:And it's just it's.
Speaker 2:It's just. If I could tell my younger self, I would just say that's just such a waste. Just don't do it. Just don't do it. Just move on, be who you are, be happy and have the best physical, mental balance you can have.
Speaker 1:I never wrote about fitness when I was a newspaper reporter. I love the stories, and for the same reasons that you were talking about food. You can go in so many directions. It touches on healthcare, touches on economics, touches on lifespan, touches on family relationships, nutrition, diet, self-image, hollywood, the whole thing, all of these forces that are going on behind us. And then it comes down to one person who says I've got to make some changes in my life. How do I do that? And the reason I'm doing that is because I want to play with my grandchildren, or because my blood pressure is too high, or because I'm probably going to live for 30 more years and I want to enjoy it. I want to feel good and to me, the stories are just. It's really what drives me. I think of this as my beat now. The only difference is I'm on my own, I'm not at an institution of a media outlet, but it's great stuff. It really is.
Speaker 2:It's powerful and it just feels good when you can take that and understand it and then sort of make it work for you and you're lucky. I think you probably found that much earlier than most of us have, but you know, we don't all have to be jocks to find that thing right. Just right now. Weightlifting is working very well for me, so I will do it for as long as I can and see where it takes me.
Speaker 1:And we've got a few months till our next birthday. We'll be 61. And I have on my wall, right in front of me, a photo from our birthday in that little house we shared when we turned 21. So it's been 40 years. Yes, it has my gosh yeah, that crazy, and but you know what? I feel good, I look all right and my health is good and I'm trying to not have any complaints.
Speaker 2:Trying yeah, yeah, I think that's where I'm at too, you know just uh, except for the knee, all is good yeah sure sure yeah, well, you know, I started with you while you were there.
Speaker 1:When I started lifting weights. When bruce springsteen came out with born in the usa, it was right before then. Actually it was, you know, in the first two years, I think, of school you had to take p, right, didn't you have to take a p credit the first two years?
Speaker 1:something like that yes, you did the semester before that album came out. That album came out in the summer of 1984. And so I guess it would have been the spring semester of 84. I think the only PE class I could get was weightlifting and so I took it. I was like fine, whatever. Well, I kind of liked it and I was always the smallest, runniest, skinniest kid in school. And suddenly, after a few months of working out, I was putting on some muscle and people were noticing I look good in a tight t-shirt and it was like, wow, this is interesting, it's never happened before. And then Springsteen came out with the album and he was always the skinniest, runniest kid he's just a ragamuffin, right. And then he came out with that album and biceps and it's like hey, if he can do it, I can do it.
Speaker 2:I remember that period, I remember when you took that class actually, and you did enjoy it and it made you fit very quickly. I should have picked a weightlifting class.
Speaker 1:Oh, please, please. You all did tease me a lot. You gave me a lot of grief about the weightlifting you really did.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know, that's because we knew. I don't know, we knew that would probably make you work even harder, right?
Speaker 1:I just remember Defeaty used to say I'll dance on your grave Croft. Thank you for listening to Optimal Aging. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll subscribe, tell a friend and write a review. All of that helps me grow my audience. You can learn more about me and my content business at primefitcontentcom. You can send me an email at jay at primefitcontentcom. That's jay J-A-Y at primefitcontentcom. I'm also on Facebook, linkedin and Instagram so you can find me anywhere you like and be in touch. And again, thanks for listening. Join me next time.
