Behind Every Setback Is a Comeback

In this episode, I sit down with Carol Covino, health and wellness coach, author, and advocate for healthy aging, to talk about what happens when life forces you to slow down.

After multiple surgeries and months of recovery, Carol found herself facing something she had spent her entire life helping others overcome: the feeling that everything had been put on hold.

But instead of asking, "Why is this happening to me?" she asked a different question:

"What can I still do from here?"

That shift changed everything.

What began as a conversation about fitness, menopause, and healthy aging became a much deeper discussion about resilience, identity, and learning to redefine success in every season of life.

Transcript

Carol Covino 0:00

The very worst thing we can do is just stop. And something that helped me too was I found as I was recovering everything that I could safely do movement-wise and did that. Focused on my nutrition, focused on my movement, and allowed my body time to heal. But I think it's easy to fall into a depression and feel like, oh, this is gonna last forever. I was doing so well, this is a stepback.

Dr. Laura Purdy 0:31

Welcome to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where the biggest questions in healthcare and wellness meet the collective wisdom of industry leaders and innovators. I'm Dr. Mark Burdy, and here we explore the intersections of AI, care delivery, telehealth policy, and more. Through the lens of those who are reshaping healthcare. This is not just about theory, it's about lived experience and real industry insights. Let's dive in and get wiser together. Welcome to today's episode of the I Am Wiser Podcast with Dr. Laura Purdy, where I explore the real stories behind groundbreaking healthcare innovations and the human impact they have on patients and providers. On that note, I am very delighted to be able to welcome Carol Cavino, a passionate health and wellness coach who helps women transform their bodies and embrace their purpose, especially during the often overlooked phase of life we know as menopause. Carol's own journey of personal transformation and her mission to empower others highlights exactly how menopause can be a time of strength, a time of resilience, and a time of newfound passion. With her expertise in fitness, nutrition, and coaching, she's here to share how women can not only embrace but also thrive through this powerful life transition.

Carol Covino 1:58

Welcome, Carol. Oh, thank you, Dr. Purdy. Thank you so much for the lovely introduction and for having me on the show.

Dr. Laura Purdy 2:06

Well, thank you for being here. And I just want to say thank you for having me on your show almost two, maybe two and a half years ago. It's been a while since we connected, and I'm excited to touch base with you and talk about the life that we've lived since then and how we've grown wiser in our pursuits. So fill me in. What's going on? What have you been up to since 2023?

Carol Covino 2:30

You know, it's been a challenging couple of years, but I have to say I've learned a lot through the process. So we were talking, you know, off-camera a bit about me having uh back surgery. It was a long uh standing problem that I had for about a decade or more. So I did have uh back surgery about a year and a half ago. Um, had to have shortly after that a rotator cuff repair. So no, not was that a fitness injury?

Dr. Laura Purdy 3:01

What did you what did you do?

Carol Covino 3:02

Yeah, it was it was a kind of a freak accident. I was out at the gym working out with my daughter, as a matter of fact, and she had thrown an extra plate on, and I didn't notice because I went to check a call on my phone. So I sat down on the machine and pulled as if it were the lighter weight and felt that that kind of snap. Um, so yeah, two big surgeries over the course of they were about six months apart. Very challenging. But the good thing that came out of that was being able to really work on my mindset. So fitness is it's been such a huge part of my life. I have a lot of energy. I'm always moving, always working out. And this forced me to kind of slow down and think about things, think about how I spend my time, think about the choices I'm making and work a bit on more of the mental aspect of health, so to speak. So, you know, there's always those challenging times where we can choose to, oh my goodness, I'm I'm laid up, I can't work out, this is awful. Or we can see it as an opportunity.

Dr. Laura Purdy 4:10

Not being a victim. So you're talking about not being a victim of your circumstances, but almost viewing your circumstances as an opportunity to, what would you say, shift your mindset, look for opportunities in that time?

Carol Covino 4:25

Yes. You know, when you have to slow down, when it's kind of forced upon you, which with me, I'm always going, it has to be forced upon me. It really gives you time, I think, to think about things, to think about, okay, um, even my business, how do I want to approach that? Do I want to take it a different direction? Um, I've been podcasting for five years. We were talking about that. Do I want to continue that? So it gave me an opportunity to reassess, to take inventory of my life. And then I feel too, it gave me so much empathy for my clients because working with women over 50, 60, sometimes 70, you know, they they have those joint issues, maybe. They've had injuries, they've had surgeries, they've had knee replacements, things like that. And to encourage them that, you know, life doesn't stop. Your fitness doesn't stop there. You can overcome this.

Dr. Laura Purdy 5:21

Yes. I think what I tell people is our warranties start to wear out eventually. Eventually, but it's actually protective. It is protective for us to continue to exercise in the way that we can. I did a lot of work with disabled veterans when I was in the military, and we saw the same challenge there. If you have a surgery or an amputation or a head injury or insert issue here, finding a way to still meaningfully engage in your fitness can be really empowering and it can also be very healthy and healing. Do you find that for your clients too? Oh, yes, I agree.

Carol Covino 6:00

The very worst thing we can do is just stop. And something that helped me too was I found as I was recovering everything that I could safely do movement-wise and did that, focused on my nutrition, focused on my movement, and allowed my body time to heal. But I think it's easy to fall into a depression and feel like, oh, this is gonna last forever. I was doing so well, this is a setback, but behind every setback is a comeback.

Dr. Laura Purdy 6:28

And so, yeah, I love that. Behind every setback is a comeback. But how I mean, how was that for you? You're the coach, you're the mentor, you are the role model, you are the person who women look at and say, if she can do it, so can I. If she believes in me, I believe in myself. How was that for you being in that position of the person who needed mentoring or coaching or pushing? How did you, was that difficult for you?

Carol Covino 6:54

You know, it was. I would be not truthful if I said, Oh yeah, this was a breeze and no problem. It was so easy. And I had, yeah, I had my good days and bad days. So for instance, with my my shoulder, which was actually in many ways harder than my back, is I had six weeks of not sleeping because anyone who's ever had that rotator cuff repair, you cannot get comfortable. No matter how you turn in the bed, you're forced to sleep in a position you don't sleep in. So that was a challenging six weeks because without that restful sleep, you know, it's easy to go down the rabbit hole. It's easy to get negative. So, what I tried to do was take every opportunity I could to reach out to my audience to let them see the struggle, let them see I'm not perfect. This is a struggle, and we we can get through this, we can come out the other side and be resilient through this. And I ran a challenge. I tried to focus on business and use that time to um, you know, create a challenge, create a program, a membership, things such as that. And this helped a lot because keeping your mind occupied during this time, especially if you're a very physically active person, is important.

Dr. Laura Purdy 8:12

So I'm hearing the wisdom here is during your time of struggle, number one, your mindset, your mindset, even in transparency and honesty to say, I'm not okay here, but your mindset was protective. Community, not isolating yourself, not withdrawing from your social circles or your connections to people for you, it would be your audience. But a lot of people want to isolate, they want to withdraw, they want to turn inward, but you turned outward. And then the third thing, what I'm hearing you say is instead of thinking about what you can't do, you focused on what you could, what you could do and what you can do. And those were three pieces of wisdom you could say that helped carry you through that time.

Carol Covino 8:57

Yes, very true, very true. Uh, the focus on the I can do these things and finding everything that you can do and doubling down on that, very important when you're recovering from any kind of injury, surgery, um, coming back from an illness. And instead of focusing on I can't do this and I can't deadlift and I can't do a barbell squat and all these things. No, you could not ensure. Yeah. So it it's you just have to reassess, you have to redefine, and and and life is like that. It's constantly throwing things our way. And and we make these plans. We none of us plan on having these things happen, but they they they happen. And being resilient, um, I think is is very important.

Dr. Laura Purdy 9:43

How do you define resiliency? Like what is what is Carol's definition of resiliency?

Carol Covino 9:50

I would say it's persevering, not giving up, moving forward, even if it's a baby step at a time, taking action, even if it's messy, even if it's not perfect. And this is from I I was a perfectionist, oh terrible growing up. My father would say, this is not going to help you. You need to get rid of get rid of that. And so kind of getting rid of that mindset and really adjusting to each thing that life throws at you. And, you know, we were talking off camera about this. Each decade requires something a little bit different. So I think back to my 40s and the things, the changes I had to make then, my 50s and now in my 60s. And so, resiliency, I think, is moving forward despite the imperfections, despite the messiness of life.

Dr. Laura Purdy 10:42

With the imperfections. We could say moving forward with the imperfections, moving forward with the mess. I've heard it said, and I'm sure you have too, that the only way you can really fail is to give up. Because up until that point of giving up, we haven't failed. Right. Right? We're learning, we're struggling, we're trying, we're doing. Maybe we're taking a step back, maybe we're taking five steps back, but we're not failing. It is only when we give up that we have failed.

Carol Covino 11:12

Agreed. Yes, absolutely true. And, you know, once again, just getting rid of that idea that everything's going to be perfect. And in my mind, if we're not failing, we're not living. We're not living life. I love that. Because you got to take chances. You got to kind of fall on your face sometimes and and you know, try new things. And if we're in a bubble and we're afraid to try anything, we're really not living. Yeah. What are we doing?

Dr. Laura Purdy 11:39

What are we doing? We're playing it safe and staying in one place. Well, playing it safe, staying in one place. So tell me, you have put your podcast on hiatus. You had to kind of, you also mentioned to me that you have finished competing. So you are not going to be competing anymore so that you can make space for your body's need to slow down a little bit in this decade of life with all of the surgeries that you didn't plan to happen, that you got to have. So, what what are you doing in this phase of life? What does life have you up to? What does business, are you still owning a business? What are you up to these days?

Carol Covino 12:16

Yes. So I still have my health coaching, fitness and nutrition business. I work with women who are primarily over the age of 50. I run group programs. I do some one-on-one, although I'm transitioning out of the one-on-one into more of a group model. Um, so that's on the in the works. Uh, I wrote one book that was a health and fitness book a couple of years ago, Finding Purpose in the Pause, Your Guide to Thriving in Menipause and Beyond. But now I'm writing my second book that has absolutely nothing to do with health. It's fiction, it's a novel. But, you know, to those um women listening that are maybe in their 60s or late 50s, you realize, okay, time is really precious. How I spend my time and the things you've been putting off. Like I would always say, one day I'm going to write a book, one day I'm going to write a novel. I've been saying that since I was 10 years old, eight years old. But it's not going to happen unless we set aside that time. So that's what I'm doing right now. I cleared that space to be able to really fulfill a dream I've had since I was a little girl. I don't know where that will take me, what will happen, but I'm going to get that book written. I'm going to get it out there. Very excited about that. So I needed to clear up that space because I can't do everything. I can't do all of the things.

Dr. Laura Purdy 13:42

You have you can only do some of the things, right? Right. You can only do some of the things. Well, that's exciting. Can I ask you? I mean, I don't want to make you give away all your secrets, but what genre are you writing in?

Carol Covino 13:53

Mystery and domestic suspense. So psychological suspense. It's um what I love to read. It's my escape, and I listen to um audiobooks all the time. And at a certain point, I had read every health and fitness book. I'd listened to every health and fitness podcast. I was getting a little bit burned out, and I still enjoy listening to those things. But I'm like, you know what? I need to step a little bit away and not always do work-related things. Yes. So that's when I kind of started reading again and reading the type of books that kind of light me up, that I enjoy. And that's when I decided to write my own book.

Dr. Laura Purdy 14:36

Hey, there's a beautiful piece of wisdom. Do non-work-related things. I'm saying that for myself. I'm actually saying that to me, but to all the people listening, do some non-work-related things. That's that's very healthy. We should do that. Well, I'm excited for your book to come out. I will totally read it and maybe you can come to Miami on your book tour, huh? Oh, I would love that. Love Miami, by the way. It's so fun. Okay. Well, so shifting again. So we've talked about, you know, what are we letting go of? What are we diving into, especially when it comes from our joy, our passion? You also shared with me prior to us getting started today, is that you have started to shift the way that you approach your coaching style and methodologies and some of the foundational principles that you use when you're working with your clients, especially about health in the, we'll say, second half of life, right? The later decades of life. So I would love to hear a little bit more about that.

Carol Covino 15:37

Oh, absolutely. I love this subject. I've been I've been on a roll with it. Let's do it. So, what I feel, especially women of my generation, we grew up in a diet culture and everything was about counting calories. You couldn't be thin enough. I mean, that was actually a saying, you couldn't be wealthy or thin enough. And I remember my mother dieting, my grandmother dieting, it was all around me, going on my first diet at age 13. And over the decades, what I have found is women are holding on to that mentality of weighing a certain number on the scale. And I'm not saying it isn't important to have a healthy weight. And sometimes, yes, if someone needs to be in a caloric deficit, they need to be losing weight, it's the healthier option. But what I see is too much of an emphasis on being thin, being small, women shrinking themselves down to a certain size. Not enough emphasis on being strong, aging with strength, aging with power, having strong bones, being resilient. And at a certain point, this doesn't serve us to focus just on let me let me diet down, let me do another detox, another six-week quick weight loss program. We're too focused on that. And really, if we just shift over to being healthier, being stronger, um, how are we going to lift our suitcases, our carry-on above into the bin? Are we going to be able to lift up our grandkids? Are we going to be able to climb a flight of stairs? So as I've aged, this has naturally evolved. And it's not that I don't think the aesthetics, how we look, isn't important. Because yes, when we look good, we feel good, we feel more confident. I'm all for it. I'm all for if you can wear a bikini when you're 65, awesome. Do it. But I also feel that we need to be more focused on what is going to keep us independent, strong, and able to enjoy life.

Dr. Laura Purdy 17:46

And to not be brought down by, maybe we could say the term like dysfunction or loss of function or lack of functionality due to the way that our bodies change when we age.

Carol Covino 17:59

Yes. Yes. And, you know, I've seen this in my siblings. I've seen it when I watched my parents age. There is a certain point if we don't do, if we don't do certain things, if we don't focus on that, that muscle, building that muscle and really getting strong, working on the power, working on endurance, have making sure our cardiovascular is healthy. It can kind of go off a cliff pretty fast. And I'm sure you've seen that as a doctor. It's like, um I believe Dr. Peter Atiya calls it the marginal decade, where people just kind of drop off. And I'm all for what can we do to age better?

Dr. Laura Purdy 18:41

I love that. So you know what? I'm in my 40s, and I'll speak to the people in the 40s, right? Because I think in my generation, which would be the millennials, we think I'm not there yet. I'm not quite there yet. Okay. I'm not 50, I'm not 60, I'm not 70. I've got time. But let me tell you this. I've had five children and I've spent at least, as far as I know, at least over half of a decade being vitamin D deficient. And I will be in menopause within the next decade. My mom thinks that she went into menopause around age 44 or 45, but um, you know, when she was going through that, there wasn't a lot of education, there wasn't a lot of knowledge, it wasn't really a conversation. And I think it was more her going to the doctor worried that something was wrong with her and being told, surprise, you're in menopause. So I look at my next decade and I think, okay, vitamin D deficiency for over half a decade. Yes, I'm in my 40s, but my mother hit menopause in a couple years, right? At this age. And I need to, I just told my husband a couple weeks ago, I need to be in the gym. I need to be going to the gym. So I retired from the military. Well, I guess I left the military. I didn't retire in 2021, and I haven't worked out since then. So I'm in my 40s, not exercising, vitamin D deficient for half a decade, approaching menopause, and I have a grandmother who did have osteoporosis. So if you are a woman and you're listening to this and you're in your 40s or even 30s and you think that's not me, I don't have to worry about that yet. Yes, we absolutely do because you do not know when you will enter your menopausal stage. It is different for everyone. And the things that happen to your body in your 30s, in your 40s, in your 50s sets the foundation for the life and the functionality that you have in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. So I'm I'm ratting on myself here. I'm telling you, I will be going back to the gym because I don't want to break a hip.

Carol Covino 20:46

You know, I have to tell you, Dr. Purdy, I in my 40s, I was just, it was like I was asleep. I knew nothing. And like you said, no one was having the conversations. So there was this shroud of shame around the subject of menopause. It was an embarrassing topic. You didn't want to admit you were going through that. Um, doctors would tell you, okay, how you're feeling is just a part of it. You know, you're just getting older. And the information simply wasn't out there at the time. And so I did all the wrong things. I did everything you're not supposed to do. Um, for me, it was I was the cardio bunny with with no weights, counting calories. And that's how I was trying to control um the changes that I was seeing in my body.

Dr. Laura Purdy 21:36

You mean like doing like tons and tons and tons of treadmill or elliptical and just trying to, but not building any muscle, so just driving it down to the smallest size possible. Is that is that what you're talking about?

Carol Covino 21:47

Yes. I was a marathon runner, so you can imagine. And so when I was training for a marathon, it was sometimes uh a hundred miles per week. I would clock in and then I would head to spin class while the kids were at school. Maybe a boot camp thrown in there. Oh my. I just I was doing it all spin, boot camp, um, running at one point. I was cycling long distances and running long distances. And yeah, I had great endurance, but my body did not look good as I was as I was getting into my late 40s doing this.

Dr. Laura Purdy 22:21

So do you so then do you recommend more weightlifting like the squats, the deadlifts, the arms, the back? What do you what do you recommend to women in that position? Or is it not enough of a one size fits all to be able to recommend like that?

Carol Covino 22:37

I I do believe strength training is a non-negotiable. That's that's my belief on that, just based on my own experience, my clients, everything I've learned over the the course of my career. So strength training and non-negotiable. How often you strength train depends on your your goals. I would say, you know, minimum two to three days a week would be absolute minimum. Four would be better. Um, cardiovascular is important. We have to keep that VO2 max up as we age. Very important. So we need that in there, but everything has to be within balance. Yeah. So um I think that women often will overdo the HIT workouts where they're doing, you know, five HIT workouts a week. And I think of cardio like a prescription. Like, you know, hopefully we wouldn't take a whole bottle of antibiotics that your doctor gives you all at once. So, you know, it's it's in these measures. And then I do a lot of walking, I do a lot of zone two cardio, which helps me relax my mind and my body. So it's really about that balance. But strength training, I think non-negotiable. Um, the type of strength training, of course, that's gonna depend. Like now I have back issues, so I don't do heavy deadlifts. I don't load up a squat bar, but I do a lot of other, there's many different ways to squat, many different ways to work your lower body, your upper body.

Dr. Laura Purdy 24:01

Yeah. Have you shifted into more body weight exercises? Like, do you do more body weight exercises like planks or I don't know, planks is the only thing I can think of right now, but are you doing more body weight exercises and less loading with heavy plates and things like that?

Carol Covino 24:17

Um, actually, no. I'm still lifting as heavy as I can safely do. It depends on the move. If I'm doing a shoulder press, you know, my shoulders heal now, I can I can move some weight on that. I can move some weight on my back. I have to be careful with the lower body. Um, I use a lot of machines that put me in a fixed position, so I'm not using my back as much. Yeah, so I work around my problems. Um, I do very little body weight, maybe just for my abs, like you said, the planks. Um and then I've incorporated a little bit of jumping lately for the bones. Like, okay. Um, more of that force down on the bones to um prevent osteoporosis. Because I, yes, yes. Um, I did on my last DEXA scan have a little bit of osteopenia in in certain areas that scared me. So I've gotten really proactive with nutrition, supplementation, and this program where I'm just gradually, gradually putting in some jumping. I love box jumps.

Dr. Laura Purdy 25:26

I love it. Now, okay, I know you're not a doctor, but you are a coach and you've been doing this for a long time. Are there specific because we've talked about a few things. We've talked about vitamin D. I've been tested every time because I've breastfed for so long. We talked about um DEXA scans. Are there certain types of tests or imaging studies that you really tell your clients these are the things that you must make sure your doctor is doing for you? Because not all doctors might not recommend a DEXA scan, not all doctors, unfortunately, might not recommend vitamin D because there's no, you know, the American Heart Association doesn't tell you to do that. There's no Cancer Society that's saying you should test for vitamin D. These are things that either we have to ask for or our doctors have to know and be thinking about ordering it for us. So, what else do you recommend for your clients? Hey, make sure you're having this done, make sure you're supplementing in this way. Any recommendations like that that you that you have to share?

Carol Covino 26:24

Um, I think it's important to get tested. Like I do regularly test vitamin D levels because not everyone will need to supplement. Like for me, I I just naturally my body just really produces vitamin D. I'm out of the sun a lot. So I tend to go too high. So I do have it tested. So I don't across the board, I've I've learned not to say to clients, oh, everyone should take this, because maybe that's not the case. Yeah. Um, I do recommend uh hormone testing, know where your hormones are at. Not not every woman needs to do bioidentical hormone replacement, but I think it's a conversation that we should all have and we should make our decision based on being informed. Know what's happening in your body, know your hormones. Um, of course, your lipids, many of us, once we um transition through menopause, we'll start to have a problem with those lipids. And it's bewildering. It's like, wow, I never had this, I never had my LDL this high. What is happening here? I'm not eating, you know, a bunch of saturated fat. What's going on? So it's important to know those levels as well and certain vitamin levels uh for sure. I have a practitioner. I'm very, very fortunate. I've had her since I was, oh goodness, 51. And she does all of this for me twice a year. I'm in having all of these tests run. Of course, um, the mammogram, keeping up with that, colonoscopy, big believer in keeping up with all of this. Yes, it can save your life. Yep. Um, so the DEXA scan, and it really is a crime, I think, that women are forced to wait so long before insurance will cover it. And then they'll tell you, oh, it's only every two years. And you know, a lot can happen in two years.

Dr. Laura Purdy 28:16

Especially when your hormones, right? When your hormones have dropped and you're having all these changes in your life. Absolutely, a lot can happen in two years. So I agree. And I would even probably also throw in A1C. Hopefully, your doctor is checking for your A1C too. But that can also be something that I see creep. There, there are guidelines in place to tell you to test for that. And hopefully you don't have to ask for it like you do vitamin D and hormones. You will definitely have to ask for hormones. Nobody's gonna test you for hormones unless you're asking for it. Um, but A1C is important too to watch for, you know, signs of prediabetes or diabetes starting to creep up as well.

Carol Covino 28:53

Absolutely. Yes. I typically do that one. A fasted insulin will do. Um, APOB is another marker that can be indicative of cardiovascular issues down the road. Beautiful.

Dr. Laura Purdy 29:06

Okay, fantastic. Well, Carol, we are reaching the end of our time here, but I feel like I could just talk to you for hours. And I remember feeling that way the first time we talked. You're so inspiring. You are a role model. You are handling everything that life throws at you with grace. And I can understand why people love you. I can understand why people want to be coached and mentored by you. Because even through life struggles and difficulties and transitions and changes, you are so positive and you inspire people to continue going even when things get hard. So thank you for being here. Thank you so much, Dr. Purdy. This has been an absolute, absolute pleasure. Likewise. So here's our last and final question. If somebody's listening to this and says, okay, I definitely need to be in one of her coaching groups because I need to know more about all of this stuff. Where can people find you these days?

Carol Covino 30:03

Um, the best couple of places, uh, CarolCavino.com. Very, very simple. My website describes uh the programs that I'm currently offering. I'm on Instagram, mostly on Instagram. I'm on the other platforms, but that's the one where I'm most active. That's at Carol CavinoFitness.

Dr. Laura Purdy 30:20

Beautiful. Okay, well, thank you, Carol. I really appreciate you coming here today to talk to me. Hopefully, we don't wait two and a half years to reconnect again.

Carol Covino 30:29

I know, I know, but that just shows time does go fast. Thank you so much for thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.

Dr. Laura Purdy 30:36

Bye-bye. Thank you for tuning in to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where each episode brings us closer to a wiser, more human approach to healthcare. If today's conversation inspired you or sparked new ideas, share it with someone who's ready to rethink healthcare. And if you have a story or innovation that could light the way for others, reach out. We'd love to hear from you. This space is yours too. Don't forget to follow, rate, and review us on your favorite platform. Until next time, stay curious, stay courageous, and stay wiser.