Start in the Middle

Embracing Midlife Empowerment: A Conversation with Ashley Lowe on Health, Wellness and the Power of Weightlifting

• Kristi Ballard Falany

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Ever felt like the hill you're climbing was too steep? Is the big 4-0 looming large or perhaps already in the rearview mirror? Well, our guest today, Ashley Lowe, a certified life coach, is here to show you it's time to embrace those midlife milestones and take control of your health, relationships, and overall happiness. We explore Ashley's personal journey of transformation as she navigated the trials of weight loss, mindful nutrition, and the discovery of strength training. She shares her incredible program, Cardio Bunny to Jim Shark, specifically designed to give women an empowering introduction to the world of weightlifting.

Ashley's mindfulness approach to health and wellness lends itself to a deeper understanding of the mental aspect of weight loss, translating to not just physical but emotional empowerment. We delve into the multiple benefits of weightlifting - improved daily functionality, better balance and posture, and an undeniable boost in self-confidence. And for those who are ready to take the plunge, Ashley unveils her latest resource, The Ultimate Guide to Home Gym Essentials. So, if you're at a crossroads, looking for inspiration and ready to redefine your life, this conversation with Ashley Lowe is the perfect place to start. It's time to put the spring back into your step, leave age-related cliches at the door, and embrace the extraordinary.

Connect with me at: Kristi Falany Coaching.com
Connect with Ashley: Ashely Boyden Lowe.com
Ashley's FREE resource: The Ultimate Guide to Home Gym Essentials

Thanks for listening. Follow me in Facebook and Instagram.

Kristi:

Hi. I am Kristi Ballard Falany. I am a certified life coach who found herself at four forty two, freshly divorced, kids off to college, and having never dated in my adult life. I was starting the middle. If you haven't yet hit start on your middle time in life, let's do it together. Let the journey begin.

Ashley:

Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Kristie Falaney. I am your host for start in the middle. And in case this is your first introduction to me, I am a certified trauma informed life coach and I work specifically with midlife women. I have a very special treat for you today. I have a guest here with me. Her name is Ashley Lau. Ashley, if you wanna say hello to our listeners, Hello. I'm so excited to be here. And I want to tell you guys a little bit about Ashley before we dive in. So Ashley is also a certified life coach. And my favorite thing about having a podcast and having you in my circle is that I love to introduce other life coaches who are not necessarily in my same niche being that I work with midlife women on the things that they're struggling with in their life, that changes that are happening for them and the transitions that they want to make. But I love to be able to introduce other coaches who do other things in the coaching realm. So I want to tell you a little bit about Ashley today. So as Ashley was approaching that forty, she embarked on a transformative journey She was seeking change in her health, in relationships, and in overall happiness. She was frustrated with body insecurities, as we all know, because we have those two. I'm sure, So she joined a weight loss program. She she added twenty five pounds and discovered mindful nutrition. Now Ashley is a coach. She is the coach that she wished she had during her journey. And she empowers other women with smart effective training programs to help them build muscle, embrace their bodies, and feel extraordinary. Ashley, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. I've been a list center of your podcast and just so excited because I really do think we share a very similar audience. Of women who are in their mid life stage or approaching mid life. And it's like, they're wondering what's next and it's really time to, you know, think about that next chapter and how they can raise the bar. Stop settling for less and what does that change look like as we, you know, go into our forties, fifties, sixties.

Ashley:

Right. And I always feel like, you know, like, I didn't really know as I was, you know, heading into my forties, you know, forties. Didn't feel like a milestone for me. You know? It just felt like, oh, okay. I'm forty. Because I'm just someone who's like never really thought about, you know, the number. But as I started, you know, getting to the point where, you know, I was approaching fifty. Fifty was my big number. But as I was approaching that milestone, I was noticing, like, how many changes were actually going on for me. You know? I was facing empty nest. In my mid forties, I went through a divorce of twenty one years of being married, And I found myself, you know, just kind of thinking, man, where do I go next? So you're absolutely right. There's so many transformation and changes that go on during this time. But I wanna ask you, tell me what the significance of forty was for you.

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh. So I was actually thinking about this that this morning. As I was on my morning walk. And, like, why was it forty? And, you know, there were several things going on, but when I think back to my childhood, I remember when my dad was turning forty. And my mom and grandparents had big fortieth surprise birthday party for him. And I remember us kids were hanging out in one of the bedrooms while they had this big adult party And the theme was over the hill. And it was all of that awful gray and black, like over the hill streamers and signs and stuff. And, I mean, what kind of message does that send? I feel like growing up, we always thought forty was so much older. And then you get here and you're like, Oh, what would be thinking? I thought that I would be so, you know, old and majorly and shriveled and it's not the case at all. I feel like for most of us women, it's such an opportunity to think about that next whether it's the next half of our life or, you know, next two thirds of our life maybe. So I don't know. I think The other thing that was at play is I have two children. So I had my second so my son is eleven and my daughter is nine. And as I was turning, you know, thirty nine is when I really started thinking about it. Mhmm. They were both off in school becoming a little bit more independent. And I still had some extra weight from having kids and just thinking about how I wanted to be different in my forties. I wanted to be more active with them. I wanted to run around with them without getting tired. I wanted to be able to do more outdoor there's so there were a lot of things at play that just happened to have, you know, come up around the time I was turning forty.

Ashley:

Yeah. Yeah. And it and it makes so much sense, you know, after having kinda looked back in in that story of your dad turning forty in the over the hill, you know. And it's so funny how, you know, like as we're younger, it's almost like we look forward to that next milestone. You know, like, when we are in our teens, we're, like, can't wait to be in our twenties and how different things are gonna be. And then once we get to, like, that forty and fifty range, we're like, hey, wait a minute. Time slow down. Okay. So I mentioned in your bio that around this time frame, you know, you really started thinking about, you know, that extra body weight that you were that, you know, you were still carrying around and you were having some thoughts about that. And you joined a weight loss program. And I mean, hitting twenty five pounds or losing twenty five pounds is such a milestone. And so what did that transition and that transformation mean for you?

Speaker 3:

Gosh. It's it's so funny now looking back because for me, it's no longer about the weight. And sure, it was about the weight. And I really that goal weight that I set is like what so many women do. I thought about a time in my life when I was smaller. And that was the number that I picked. And then, of course, I got a little greedy and set a different number. And I never did reach that number. Because I got into strength training instead. And what happened is I went through this weight loss program which was incredible. It really focuses on mindful weight loss habits and losing weight for life. Incredible skills that I learned from that. But as I became my smallest self, it was like, wait, my body's still kind of the same shape I still have these stubborn areas, I thought I would look like a shredded athlete at this weight. And for how active I was, you know, I was writing my Peloton every day. I was doing Peloton strength workouts, which I love my Peloton. But I knew that there was more. I knew that I was capable of more. And so I turned to weightlifting, which is something that I had done a little bit of, like, in high school and college. I didn't know a lot about it, but I knew enough to know that that could really help me transform my physique. So I hired my first coach, strength coach, and You know, she was awesome. Gave me a program to follow. I started at home in my home gym like so many women do, most of my clients do. Until I outgrew my weights and that's something that a lot of women don't ever dream will happen, but it can happen pretty quickly and then I transition to the gym. And yeah, it's twenty five pounds. Now, I am definitely not twenty five pounds down from where I'm started. I'm somewhere in the middle, and it's because I've been working on gaining muscle. And The funny part is I don't look like what I looked like before because as you gain muscle, muscle is so compact It just really changes the shape of your body and gives you that toned sculpted look that you're looking for. So I think in my bio and my website, I say something like, you know, now I'm trying to gain weight, make the scale go up with muscle growth, and that's a huge feat. Right?

Ashley:

Right. Wow. That's amazing. Something that you mentioned that I kinda wanna bring to our listeners is this idea of mindful weight loss, you know, because There are so many different programs out there for losing weight. Can you talk to me for just a minute about that idea of mindful weight loss?

Speaker 3:

Well, I think the only way for weight loss to be successful is for you to Start with the end in mind. Start with what is your goal for losing weight? And what would that future self look like when you reach your goal? And then design your process around that. I also when I'm working with my clients, a lot of what we talk about is other programs only address the how in terms of or even the what like the what you eat and the what you do. They don't address the why behind it. And So so much of it is understanding what's deeper, what your thoughts are around losing weight, or the thoughts that may be causing you to overeat and to buffer. So, yeah, I think mindful weight loss is so important and that's part of what I do is I help my clients beyond just strength training because As you said, I wanna be the coach I wish I had. It doesn't just stop with a program for in the gym and give you a nutrition plan. No. You need to figure out how you adopt it and make it your own. And that's the way that I think all women will be successful is once they ditch the quick fixes and realize, nope, I'm doing this and I'm doing it for the last time and I'm doing it my way.

Ashley:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think what's really important to to, you know, bring to life is the mind part of it, you know, the fact that you know, we can go ahead and we can do all the things. We can, you know, get on a specific diet plan. We can cut this food out, you know, cut these things out and we might lose that weight. But then a lot of times women will lose that weight but they don't see themselves as having being someone that lost that way. And they don't address the mindfulness of it. And so oftentimes, you know, they'll gain it right back because they don't really understand what's going on in their brain that is causing them to overeat or causing them to eat the things that aren't necessarily good for their body. So I love that you address the mindfulness of it too. Because like you said, it's not just about what you're taking in and how, you know, all the exercise that you're doing to get it back off.

Speaker 3:

Right? Absolutely. And my weight loss coach would always say you have to lose the mental weight before you'll feel great about the weight loss. And I think that's so true. But what's interesting is what I find is women coming to me aren't looking for that. And so it's an interesting it's so interesting because I feel like us as life coaches, we know We know how to go about it to help them get results, but that may not be the results they're looking for when they initially come to us. So a lot of women may be focused more on the aesthetics or, you know, the extra energy how they're gonna feel. And then what they learn is what we coach them. Right? So in terms of for a strength training program, but along the way, Like, I love the biggest compliment that I get from my clients is, yeah, I lost the weight or I changed my shape, but had no idea how different I would feel, how good I would feel, how amazing I would feel it turning fifty. Mhmm. I just wanted to live better. So

Ashley:

Yes. Yes. I've and it's almost like it's almost like we're giving them double for their money. We're giving them an extra surprise, you know, that absolutely, you know, once you lift the weight from the thoughts that you're thinking, And the reasons that things are going the way that they are, you know, in your life, those things transform as well as the transformation of their body as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Ashley:

Yeah. So that's always a chance. Okay, Ashley. So tell me a little bit more about your coaching program? Absolutely. So

Speaker 3:

I do one on one coaching for women. And what I do is, you know, teach them how to lift weights and to get into the gym for the first time. So they can really feel amazing about their body. Some women that I work with have already lost weight like me and are just you know, wondering what's next. They know they're built for more. Somewhere in there looking for weight loss and strength training at the same time. And so we go about that, you know, in tandem. But I do one on one coaching, and then I also have a program I'm gonna be launching this fall. Called Cardiobunny to Jim Shark in twelve weeks. And that is designed to teach women who are new to weight lifting, how to get started. It includes a training program. It's all based in evidence based training, which is called hypertrophy training. And hypertrophy basically means building muscle. So it's very smart programming that will save women time. So instead of spending hours and hours on cardio, whether it's the stairst upper, the elliptical, or you know, I feel like gosh, so many women I see in the gym stay in that machine area, the cardio machine area and never step foot in the weight room.

Ashley:

Mhmm.

Speaker 3:

And what I wanna do is give women the skills and the confidence to do so because while cardio is incredible obviously for cardiovascular health, and I would say there's great mental benefits for it. If you enjoy it, awesome. Keep it up. It does not change the shape of your body. It will not give you that toned sculpted look that you're looking for. And that's what a lot of women want. They wanna feel strong. They wanna feel empowered, and they wanna look great. So through lift weight in a very smart way, you can start to see that transformation. So, yeah, that's a little bit about my coaching.

Ashley:

And I think that it's also, you know, kind of easy, and it makes sense, you know, why they would feel so so much more comfortable on a machine. You know? I mean, because you go to the treadmill and all you have to do is hit go, you know, and and adjust how fast you wanna go in those things and you know, same for, like, the elliptical bike and things like that is that, you know, all you have to do is get it started. Right? Versus and I can see where women might have, like, more more fear around coming off of those machines and moving into the weight room where they may not know exactly what they're doing or how to utilize those weights best. And so that's Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. I'm so glad that you brought that up because you learning how to do it appropriately and safely and to not look like you don't know what you're doing that does take some guidance. It's not something that I mean, sure you can watch YouTube videos, but to really get to know your way around a gym and to know things like how much weight should I be lifting? Where should I start? How much intensity or tension is actually gonna make a difference for me. You know, among my peers, we talk about the pink Barbie dumbbells. So many women are used to doing high repetition with really light weight. And unfortunately, that's not enough to initiate hypertrophy of the muscles. So it's teaching women how to lift enough to really see the benefits without hurting themselves. It's also, you know, I help my clients with things like gym etiquette, which is something you might not think about. But how do you know when you can go ahead and jump on a machine. How can you ask somebody else how many more sets they have so you know when they'll be done? How do you save a machine if you need to go somewhere else? Do you need to wipe down your machine? How do you rack your weights? Yeah. You know, once you get to barbell training, it's like, what's the easiest way to put one of those big heavy plates on a barbell? And do it safely. So there's so many, like, little things that you would never think about. Mhmm. But that's what I empower my clients to do is I say, alright, this is exactly how we're gonna do it. I'm gonna walk you through it, break it down into super simple steps. So that way, when you go into the gym, You know exactly what you're doing.

Ashley:

Oh, I love that. I love that. You know, because like I mentioned, I think that, you know, the biggest fear that keeps women from utilizing that part of the gym is the things that you mentioned, not knowing how to utilize them, you know, and then you might get comfortable with one or two machines and then you find somebody, you know, who's using that machine and you're like, oh my gosh, you know, am I gonna have to wait forever? So I love that you address all of those things that, you know, we don't even think about, you know, as we're entering into the gym, and that fear around, you know, utilizing that specific part of the gym versus just the machines. Yeah. I love that you teach them that. Can we talk for just a minute about the benefits of weight of weight lifting and not just so much like you said, the look of your body. What are some other benefits that you can inform our listeners about?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely. There's so many benefits of building muscle especially as we reach midlife. You know, when you do cardiovascular exercise, you are burning calories during your workout. But when you are building muscle, it's like the gift that keeps on giving because it increases your resting metabolic rate. So you continue to experience positive effects of muscle building while that tissue repairs after your workout. So that's a really cool benefit of lifting weights. You increase your muscle mass, which is great for protecting your bones and your organs. You also have improved bone density, which we all hear about, and I think a lot of us are like, I'll address in my seventies or eighties. Right? Yeah. No. You start addressing it now and then you're set. Right? It's something that you can start working on and just maintain. And that's another cool thing about building muscle is It takes work to build. It takes less work to maintain. So it's something that can really become a lifestyle that you can keep forever. And then I think there's some other benefits that we don't always think about. You know, I always say one of the things that I started lifting weights for us because I wanted to do things without the help of my husband or having to call a guy and to help. So For example, if I wanna move the furniture around, I can do it on my own. If I wanna organize my closet, I can get the big heavy bend and pull it down. We have a farm. I can load around fifty pound bags of feed with no problem. Those are things that I didn't think about in the beginning, but have certainly become a huge benefit is just the functionality in everyday life, not to mention being able to do really active things with your kids with your grandkids, you know, getting up off the floor to or getting on the floor to play with kids. Yeah. It can improve your posture immensely, which is something I think a lot of us think about as we age. And I think, oh, it also improves your balance. So it can help as you age with keeping from falling. And then just overall self confidence. I think that's one thing I know we've touched on a little bit, but so many women start this journey with one thing in mind and have no clue how their confidence will grow and how much change something so simple is starting to lift weights can be a catalyst for so many other changes in your life.

Ashley:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think the amazing thing about life coaching is that you can tack on your life coaching to any other facet of your life. So for instance, within your group, within your program, you're attacking the weight lifting and the etiquette, but also the mindfulness of it. You know? How it's going to make you feel on the inside, the confidence that they're going to gain, and the mindfulness that they may not have had before. And so I think that, you know, adding the life coaching in with something like this is just such a benefit for everyone. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Ashley:

Right. I mean, go ahead.

Speaker 3:

I was gonna say a great example of this. My one of my clients she came to me she was forty nine, so this was just a little over a year ago. She just turned fifty. She came to me and in her past lives, she's an ultra marathon runner. She's a yoga instructor. She's a mountain biker, super super active woman who was like, I want to feel amazing in my fifties. I wanna set an example for what aging gracefully looks like and I wanna do it different than the generation before me. So we started working together and she's completely transformed her body. I mean, walking around training in a sports bra isn't not something she ever dreamed about. She's wearing a bikini and that's all great. But she says that she just feels mentally stronger and happier than she ever thought was possible. And going into her fifties feeling this amazing. So you know, that's what brings it all home for me is hearing those stories where it's like, yeah, we can see that the results on the outside, but to hear that transformation that's happened on the inside. Mhmm. That's everything. That's why we do what we do as life coaches.

Ashley:

Yes. I love that. I love that. So, Ashley, we've talked about all kinds of things today. And so, this is so valuable, you know, to any woman in their forties and going into their fifties and just to to have that mindfulness and to have that strength within their bodies, you know, like you said, to show up, you know, as as someone who is strong and confident and sure of themselves as they're heading into this older age bracket. And so I really, really appreciate you coming on today. So I want to give you an opportunity to tell me something exciting about your business. Tell me something that you're working on that you're excited about.

Speaker 3:

Okay. I am really excited. I have created a really cool resource for women. It's the ultimate guide to home gym essentials. So I've put together a list of everything you'd need to put together your home gym. I've included shopping links directly to the products, so you can go on to Amazon or other websites and you know, just in under an hour, you could literally order everything that you need to get started. And I've broken it out into three different tiers. So the first tier is just the basics, just the things you need to get started. The second tier is if you wanna, you know, add a little bit more and then third tier is what I am building. So I am actually in this tiny little room right now instead of my home gym because I'm in the process of building one. So the third tier is what I am ordering at this stage in my in my fitness journey. Mhmm. So that's for free. It's on my website, which is ashleigh boydin loud dot com. You'll see it right there on the homepage in Brightpink. So if you are looking to build a home gym, that's a great place to go. And then under my work with me tab, you can find more information about my coaching programs and my waitlist for the cardio bunion to gym shark program that we'll be launching this fall.

Ashley:

That's exciting. I love that. Awesome. Okay. And I also wanna let you know listeners that I'm going to provide all of the links that Ashley has talked about for her how to build a home gym, the new program that she has coming up in the fall, And also, if you want to reach out to her to see what it would look like to work with her one on one, all of this information is going to be in the show notes. Alright, Ashley. I just again wanna thank you so very much for coming on today. I really appreciate your time, and I really appreciate this message that you're bringing to our listeners.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure, and I hope to talk to you again soon.

Ashley:

Alright. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. I really appreciate your time. And again, check out the show notes. All of the information for myself, and Ashley will be there for you. You guys have a great week. Who is your life coach?

Kristi:

I would love the opportunity to work with you as you are rediscovering the woman you were meant to be. Visit christy ballard fulleini dot com for more and information on how we can work together to ignite that passionate, enthusiastic woman who may have been tucked away for some time. Let's start in the middle together.