Are you curious about how fitness impacts men and women differently? In our latest podcast episode, Pastor Sarah is joined by fitness professional Cara Foote to dive deep into the unique challenges and benefits that each sex faces in their fitness journey.

 

Pastor Sarah, with her extensive background in biblical studies and professional counseling, provides a holistic view of how God’s word can guide us towards a healthier lifestyle. She emphasizes the importance of understanding our bodies and the distinct ways in which men and women are designed.

Cara, a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach, brings her expertise to the table, discussing the nuances of fitness for different sexes. She highlights how men and women have varying hormonal profiles, which significantly impact their fitness routines and outcomes. For instance, while men might find it easier to lose weight and build muscle, women often face more complex challenges due to hormonal fluctuations, especially during menopause.

One of the key takeaways from the episode is the importance of personalized fitness plans. Cara explains that what works for one person might not work for another, even if they are of the same sex. For women, factors like menopause, hormone levels, and even the type of exercise can make a big difference. She shares valuable insights on why walking might be more beneficial than running for women going through menopause, due to the stress running places on the body and its potential to increase cortisol levels.

Pastor Sarah and Cara also touch upon the societal pressures and misconceptions surrounding fitness and body image. They discuss how social media and the internet have changed the landscape of fitness, providing both positive resources and unrealistic comparisons. Cara emphasizes the importance of finding what works for you and not getting caught up in the latest trends or what works for someone else.

The episode is not just about fitness; it’s about embracing who you are and finding a balanced approach to health and wellness. Pastor Sarah encourages listeners to seek guidance from professionals who understand their unique needs. She suggests finding a personal trainer who is up-to-date with the latest research and ideally, someone of the same sex who can relate to the specific challenges you face.

Whether you’re just starting your fitness journey or looking to refine your routine, this episode offers a wealth of information and practical advice. Pastor Sarah and Cara’s conversation is a reminder that our bodies are wonderfully made, and with the right knowledge and approach, we can all achieve a satisfied soul in our everyday lives.

Tune in to this enlightening episode and take a step towards a healthier, more informed you. You won’t want to miss it!

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More of a reader than a listener? Keep scrolling to read the full transcript.

 

This week we’re talking about the differences between sexes in fitness

>> Pastor Sarah: Hey, listeners, this is Pastor Sarah. I am coming to you for week three of, fitness with my friend Kara. She is my guest for these four weeks for the topic on fitness and how it affects your body. This week we’re talking about the differences between sexes, and we actually recorded this already and had technical difficulties. So this is take two. this is my friend, Kara. I’m going to let her introduce herself and tell you a bit about herself.

>> Cara: Hi, my name is Kara Foote, and Sarah and I have known each other now going on around somewhere around eight years or so, and actually, I think it’s a little bit more. But anyway, I am a fitness professional. I am a certified personal, trainer, nutrition, coach, et cetera, et cetera. I help women mainly, especially while they’re working on things like macros, weight loss, and, you know, muscle gaining, all of, all of the above and so I appreciate you for having me here, Sarah, and let’s try this for round two.

Things change differently for men and women when they lose weight

>> Pastor Sarah: So, you know, we talked about fitness, for moms, we talked about fitness being over 40. And I wanted to broach the subject of fitness for different sexes because, my husband was a certified personal trainer, he did not keep his certification up. but I have seen so many back and forths of what, is acceptable for women, what’s not acceptable for women. And so I’ve gone to him for advice, and I have valued his advice also, knowing that he works on his own body, and a really, really nice body works on his own body, but he works on it per what helps him. So he will scour posts, he’ll scour articles, talk to other bodybuilding friends, people at the gym, asking them questions, getting advice. And it’s what works for men. That doesn’t mean some of it doesn’t work for women. But I do know things change differently for men and women. We are designed different. We’re actually designed to fit together. And so you can’t fit two of the same pieces together. And, yes. And so, you know, God created us to have differences for a reason. And I don’t know about you, but I look at my husband and I’m like, how is it that the older you get, the better looking you get? I mean, yes, he’s got more gray hair. He hates his gray hair. I think he looks very distinguished. but he gets sexier and sexier with the years. And it’s outrageous how his skin is still smooth, he’s got a tiny bit of wrinkles around his eyes. And like I said, he’s got some gray hair, but other than that, he’s in the best shape of his life. so he ages gracefully.

>> Cara: Oh, and my husband, I’m already worried when we’re 60 years old, he’s gonna look way younger and better. And I don’t know, men just get better and better. Looking just looks better and better.

>> Pastor Sarah: I am.

>> Cara: I noticeably started seeing changes in the last few years that were substantial. The grays, the wrinkles.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah.

>> Cara: Sagginess.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah, yeah.

>> Cara: All of the allies of the things.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah. you know, teens were, everything was not fully developed in its place. Twenties, everything was perfect and perky. Thirties, stuff looked well put together. Like the moment you hit 40, it’s like everything just goes south. I have saggy places that I didn’t have saggy before. I have cellulite in places, stretch marks like you would not believe because my kids did a number on my body, when I lose weight. Have you noticed when you lose weight, you get more wrinkles? You get women lose weight and they get sadly uglier like that.

>> Cara: Wrinkles start to show.

>> Pastor Sarah: You look older.

>> Cara: Then it makes you think, maybe I need to stay lumped to have a.

>> Pastor Sarah: More of a baby face. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I lost a whole bunch of weight. I was down in, like, 184, I think is where I was. And I had so many wrinkles on my face, and it looked like I had wrinkles on my neck, and I looked like I had gained 15 years. And so I was like, well, I can’t go that extreme of, eating. Like, I took out all carbs, basically, to lose that weight. And it was like, it just looked. Yeah, yeah, gross.

>> Cara: I know. I loved my body when I was in my early thirties and I lost a bunch of weight and I was under 120 pounds, I was close to 115 pounds. I thought it was phenomenal because, of course, I could fit in all my, all these clothes that I couldn’t fit. But, I mean, we won’t even talk about my boobs and how they were like deflated balloons.

>> Pastor Sarah: Oh, yeah.

>> Cara: But every, like, other people look at my pictures that know me and they’re like, oh, my goodness, your face, you, like, look old and sad and, like, unhealthy. Like, you’re like, you don’t actually look good.

>> Pastor Sarah: Right.

>> Cara: So, I mean, perception is different. I just felt good because I was tiny, you know, I was a size like zero and one.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah.

>> Cara: And, you know, but, yeah, I definitely look younger with a little more, a, little extra. But anyway, yeah, we’re going on this rabbit trail. We gotta pull back to these.

The world of exercise and fitness and health has drastically changed

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah, men, it isn’t, it doesn’t feel fair that men go through this. And when you were saying that about fitness, it, made me think, too, that things have changed a lot over the years. And I know you said at some point that your husband got certified many years ago, and one of the reasons why they have us keep up on certifications is because things have changed so much. Back in the day, back when Arnold Schwarzenegger was the one that was, you know, all the men wanted to be like. There was, there were very few women. It was kind of frowned on that there were a few women bodybuilders, a few women that were doing things, things we didn’t have, things like Crossfit. We didn’t have a lot of extreme sports like we have now. So the world of exercise and fitness and health has drastically changed. And we know a lot more. And part of that advancement is having the, Internet and social media. That’s helped a lot. And so it’s great on one hand for, you know, things like trying to research, like I’ve been on, you know, a kick, learning more about menopause, since I’m going through that myself. And so learning. So that’s a plus side. But on the negative side, now, we also compare ourselves more to other people, or we think that we’re all a cookie cutter thing and all having the same macros, even if we were the same way, is the same. And it’s not, because what works for. one, work for another.

>> Cara: And for men, a lot of that actually can hold true, is men are a little bit more similar. They don’t have as many individual things going on that it seems like us women do. When it comes to hormones and our own journey, our own timeline, we’re all so different. And yet, you know, there’s. There is some science that backs it, but we all have to find what works for us, and men don’t have.

>> Pastor Sarah: To do that well, and men don’t go through such a huge, drastic change as women do. Men lose a little bit of libido. Yeah. And they, you know, sometimes go get the happy pill to help with that.

>> Cara: Or testosterone shots or whatever they get.

>> Pastor Sarah: Right. But women actually drastically change because our hormones go into dead zone, basically. and so there is a huge difference in how God designed us. And, you know, he said we were fearfully, wonderfully made, and he knit us in the womb, but he knit us differently for a reason, because we were meant to fit together. And so although my husband has, I would say, 90% of his research and information on physical health is right on the money. But I think the other 10% is the lack of, individualized women issues, because even women in general are different from guys. But even just a woman to a woman, you’re gonna need maybe more carbs than I do, or I’m gonna need maybe more protein than you do or whatever. Because we are completely different in the way our bodies are designed. I tend to carry most of my weight. This is funny with talking about the difference between men and women. I tend to carry women. Women typically carry weight in different places. Men, they just kind of put it on, like, pretty evenly. Relatively. I think the.

>> Cara: Sometimes.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah, relatively. Men put weight on evenly. There are men that will carry more around their love handles and their belly, but usually it’s relatively.

>> Cara: And that’s a hormone thing. But not necessarily testosterone versus estrogen.

>> Pastor Sarah: Right.

>> Cara: More of, like, cortisol, which is a hormone.

>> Pastor Sarah: Right. That’s a stressful, negative hormone.

>> Cara: and then men have a lot of digestive issues that cause things like that, too, but they tend to take on a lot of stress or sleep worse. And I mean, not to say we don’t, but, yeah, it affects us all over.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah. And so we. We carry weight in different spots.

>> Cara: Yeah.

>> Pastor Sarah: And so mine tend to be the lower half of my body. But ironically, when I lose weight, I lose it in my upper half of my body.

>> Cara: My boobs go bye bye, and then I’m completely opposite. I tend to carry most of my weight in my belly and my boobs. And I wish that was like, the first thing that I lose it from. But the first thing I lose I have to work so hard for is my booty. And I lose it, it will go flat. If there’s like, I’m like, you want to lose weight around your waist? Nope. Yeah, I’m gonna give you the same size waist as booty. I’m like, no, nobody wants that.

>> Pastor Sarah: You want the definition?

>> Cara: Yeah.

>> Pastor Sarah: But, yeah, so there’s just a huge difference. I mean, we have to take different vitamins that, you know, there’s a reason why there’s one a days, men versus women. There’s a reason why, you know, we take different levels. Like, I was just talking to my husband, actually, about testosterone, and women have to take testosterone. when we go through menopause, both you and I are experiencing menopause stuff. And so, I’m gonna have to go get tested on all my hormones again to do my regulation. And when I first got tested, they said, well, you’re low on your testosterone. And I’m thinking, okay, how low? Well, I was in eight.

>> Cara: I was like a two.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah. And women, ironically, their average is ten to, like, 80, and I’m like an eight. That’s not really that low.

>> Cara: And the doctor I saw said she wanted it closer to 200, but she said that men are usually closer to 400.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yes, 204.

>> Cara: Hundred.

>> Pastor Sarah: So, the doctor I saw was telling me that men, if they are really healthy in their testosterone, are between four to 800. Yeah. And so I’m over here with thinking eight is. Yeah. And, and you, know, just that one hormone alone shows how much of a difference we have in our body.

I heard somewhere that walking is more beneficial for women than running.

And so one thing we were talking about when we were talking about the different, things about women is, you know, we were. I was saying I had heard somewhere where walking is more beneficial for women than running? Because you and I were talking about the MRF challenge and wanting to get ready for that. And there’s, there’s things that you have to do to prepare. And this is a difficult challenge. I mean, you have to do a, ah, mile a mile run. You have to do 100 push ups, 200 pull ups, and 300 squats, and you have to do them to completion in order. And so, you know, that’s a difficult task for me because I’m not a bodybuilder and I’ve never been a runner. I just, I have never had the, like I joke. But, you know, if you’ve ever seen friends, there’s an episode of Phoebe and Rachel running, and Rachel’s got this whole rhythm going, and you can hear her doing the breathing. And then Phoebe is running and her arms are flailing and her legs are both going different ways, and she’s just kind of yelling as she’s running. And I’m just like, that’s me running. That’s what it would look like. I would hurt people if I ran. And so we were talking about trying to do that, and we said, you know, in real reality, it is probably better because of being female, because of my age, because of menopause, that it’s more of a benefit for me to walk daily than it would be for me running. Can you explain that?

>> Cara: Yeah. Yeah. So there’s a couple different points in regards to why walking would be better than running, or doing some kind of vigorous exercise. And, number one, it puts a lot of stress on your body. and so, like, oxygen.

>> Pastor Sarah: So pause real quick.

>> Cara: Okay.

>> Pastor Sarah: Stress on your body. So we were just talking about cortisol. Yeah, I have heard and you and I have talked about it. Cortisol.

>> Pastor Sarah: When you have it in your body, no matter how hard you work out, that cortisol level, being high will not help you lose weight, because if you are working out and you’re strenuously working.

>> Cara: Out anything, it’s making it higher.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yes.

>> Cara: And you’re causing your body more stress.

>> Pastor Sarah: More stress while you’re gaining weight.

>> Cara: Right. Especially when we get to be like, 40 and above, because most people start hitting perimenopause from about 40 to 45.

>> Pastor Sarah: Is what they say.

>> Cara: And then about 45 to 55 is when we’re actually menopause. I’m 44. I’m hitting it a little bit early.

>> Pastor Sarah: And you can go early if you’ve had a hysterectomy or if you started your period at a young age, which I did.

>> Cara: Yeah. Yeah. And all of us are different. And perimenopause is very similar to menopause, but it’s like your body’s first warning sign that, hey, this is coming. And you gotta, if you don’t have, like, all this stuff under control, it can kind of go out of control really quickly. So it’s really important to understand this. And I’m still kind of going through it. So, you know, I should be an expert here, hopefully soon, and be able to help much. You know, many more women kind, of walk through that journey.

Running can have a similar effect on bones as walking, Arnold Schwarzenegger says

But when it comes to the running versus walking, because I used to be a runner, in my research, and there’s a lot of books and a lot of things, a lot of research on this, if you look at running, it can actually. So our bodies are super resourceful. God made us, our body’s able to get what it needs even if we’re not giving it. So if we’re not giving it, all the micronutrients especially that it needs, our bodies will still get it. we still have, our bodies have a lot of those things in it. But, like, our bones, for instance, have, you know, things that we need. So our body will literally go to the most available resources, which are like muscle and bones. And so you’ll see a lot of runners are really lean and thin. And it’s not because they aren’t working on building their muscles. It’s because that’s the, you know, best source of energy, oftentimes for runners is their muscles and then their bones. So they’ll usually have a smaller bone structure. And so regardless of the stress, then you also have that. And so, and it’s not to say with that, you know, men, don’t seem to struggle with that as much now. It can have a similar effect on their bones. But typically speaking, it’s the women that struggle with things like osteoporosis, and they find that slowing down walking is so much better. They say it adds years to your life. Don’t quote me on all the exact numbers, like, but if you’re just walking even 15 minutes a day at a decent pace, that, is huge. And that can help you, like, if you were to use your apple Watch, for instance, and record how many calories you’re burning running versus how many calories you’re burning while you’re walking, it is so minuscule, that it’s like, why would you put your body through that risk? Kind of hurting it more. Unless you love running there. You want and you have a goal to run, right?

>> Cara: And then, I mean, go for it. But do be aware that at some point, if you are especially going through menopause, that it might be worse for you and more detrimental and might be better for you to, like, walk. And it’s the same in things in the gym. I know we were gonna head there at some point because there’s certain things like, I know last time when we were recording this, you brought up shrugs.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yes.

>> Cara: So am I. Am I stealing your thud?

>> Pastor Sarah: No, no, do it.

>> Cara: Every, every man I know, you know, no matter who, if I dated a guy, they were always doing shrugs. And I was like, what the heck? And that was way before I became a trainer. my husband does shrugs. I know your husband does shrugs. And I remember going, this is ridiculous. Because I remember some guy taking me through a workout, like, oh, you got to do these shrugs. And you grab the heavy weight, the bar, and then you’re literally like shrugging and trying to build up your traps that are, you know, the muscle that’s between your neck and your shoulder. And you get those anyway when you’re doing things like squats at the bar or there’s a lot of other things. And honestly, part of mine, I think I have such big traps because, I have boobs that I have to hold up with this bra, especially when I’m wearing a sports bra. And I feel like, man, that’s built my traps better than any shrugs. But, but, it’s not like, so doing certain things like that for us women, we’re not concerned with that. you know, we usually want to have a little more aesthetic appearance. And if you do want to have more muscle in those areas, you know, there’s other ways to do that.

>> Pastor Sarah: So, it’s not that it’s harmful, it’s just that it’s really like kind of a waste of time.

>> Cara: It is. It’s a total waste of time. And not only that, so men do it because they saw somebody else do it. And somewhere along the line, this person taught this person, this person thought this person. Now it’s online, it’s on YouTube. I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger doing this. And it’s kind of like with Arnold’s, those are a type of a, ah, shoulder press. If you do an Arnold shoulder press, you’re basically putting an extra movement in there that is completely unnecessary. It literally does nothing for you to do that extra movement. Some people swear by it, especially men tend to. And when I became a trainer, I trained in person. I didn’t just, just do some little online course and then go to whatever I learned in the gym from somebody on the, whoever on the Internet. I learned in person. And the biggest thing is they talked to us about was form and how to not hurt yourself. It’s really important. And one of the things they actually brought up was Arnold because And they didn’t bring up shrugs as far. I mean they might have, but it was like one of those unnecessary things like this is going to potentially cause more harm and you could actually hurt yourself and you don’t want to do things that are, especially as women that are harming your shoulders. Now I’ve seen a lot of injuries in men too, but as women, as we get older, even, especially when we reach like menopause age, things start breaking down a lot more. We start having a lot more joint pain and things like that just start having more inflammation. So why would you put yourself at risk doing those things? if you’re going to risk inflammation, it’s just not practical and you know, again, it’s all about lifestyle. So whatever you’re doing now, you want to continue to do that. Now. Most men probably won’t continue lifting, you know, in their sixties like they are in their thirties and forties. My husband’s, whereas he will, And I don’t know, he may, he may not. I know my eye myself, I lift a lot and I probably don’t, I don’t foresee myself lifting like that when I’m in my sixties. So I want to start creating habits now as a female that are going to last me into my fifties and sixties that are healthy things having to do with nutrition. and as women when it comes to nutrition, we need a little more fats than probably men do. Just the mere fact that you know, what is considered healthy for a man, their body mass is considered healthier at a very low bmi and ours as females is supposed to be higher. I truly believe that God created us to have a little bit more on us and not be, you know, even out of like a, if you’re at a ten, I mean the average is, I remember exactly, it’s like 18 to 20 some, whereas men are supposed to be up to 18 and then they’re considered obese if they’re over that. So you know, it’s the. And I don’t, I don’t agree with all of those standards and I don’t agree with how doctors get to that either. But, it’s typically, that’s why men, when they weigh in at the doctor, they’re like, oh, you’re fine, you’re not obese. But then you can take a woman, and if she has muscle, they’re like, they don’t take into account for that. And now you’re obese because the doctors say, I’m obese, and I’m talking about.

>> Pastor Sarah: That at some point.

>> Cara: And I’m like, I am not obese. We are both muscular. We’re not obese.

>> Pastor Sarah: Right, right.

>> Cara: So. And we’re healthy. We are. We’re doing. We’re making choices. We’re living a healthy lifestyle. You know, we have. Yes, we carry inflammation. Yes, we have a little bit of extra maybe fat here and there, but, we’re not unhealthy.

It’s hard for women when they’re trying to lose weight

I know you’re not sitting there pigging out on, fast food. And it’s not fair that men seem to be able to eat all they want, if that, and it doesn’t affect them. right off the bat, however, I mean, maybe heart and things like that is.

>> Pastor Sarah: I mean, that’s another good point. It’s hard for women when they’re trying to lose weight or trying to get healthy and trying to do physical fitness in a way that helps their body when they’re like, I have to cut out everything. I can’t even tell you how much stuff I had to cut out. I cut out sodas. I haven’t drank sodas in almost ten years. lemonade, one of my second favorite things to drink. I just recently started drinking coffee again, but I cut out all coffee and creamer for several years. I cut out the really good sugary syrup. I cut out sugary cereal. Any desserts? Like, I don’t eat. I used to love Jojo’s or swiss cake rolls. Those are my favorite.

>> Cara: I did back in the day. They don’t even taste good to me anymore.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah, well, I won’t try them because I don’t want to know whether it tastes good or not anymore. They do. I stopped eating candy. I haven’t had candy in almost two years. Good candy.

>> Cara: It’s awesome.

>> Pastor Sarah: Not even Halloween candy. I cut out. Not even chocolate. Well, no, I’ll take that back. We did have s’mores, so I did have a s’more. but that’s like, maybe twice a year, I’ll have a s’more. I cut out most carbs, so, you know, when my daughters make pasta, I’ll have some. But I make, like, a fist size portion of the meal. Yeah.

>> Cara: Ah.

>> Pastor Sarah: but I’ve cut out so much stuff that was so fun to eat, and it was like, this tastes so good. And relatively, most of it that I’ve tried. Like, I can’t really go to fast food restaurants anymore because when I eat it, I get sick to my stomach. I cannot handle it.

>> Cara: I feel awful.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah. you can feel the digestion is not good, but, I relatively cut everything out. And here’s my husband, like, oh, you know, have some ice cream. Yeah, I’ll have a bowl of cereal. He sat down with my granddaughter and ate, like, lucky charms cereal together. And I’m like, I couldn’t even possibly have a bowl of lucky charms cereal because it would literally go straight to my hips within seconds. It’s not. It’s just not good. and so it really is, you know, hard when you’re trying to make healthier choices and the male population can just, at whim, have whatever they want.

>> Cara: My husband weighed in this morning, and he was like, and granted, after he drank a whole big thing of water, you know, because he downs so much water every day, he gained five pounds from that water that he drank, which was insane. but he got on the scale and he was like, oh, 208 pounds, and he’s been around 220 pounds. He’s not trying to lose weight. He wants to be around 220 pounds. He gets discouraged when he loses, and he just is like, it’s because I’ve been eating two meals a day for the last, and he’s not eating healthiest meals. Like, he’s eating, eating a lot of food when he is eating those meals. And I’m like, every woman I know would just kill to be able to lose weight as fast as he can. I’m like, he doesn’t have to think about it and he loses it. He doesn’t want to even. And I’m like, I don’t even know what that’s like, right. Especially being in our forties. And I’m like, he’s in his forties as well. He’s, you know, almost 46.

>> Pastor Sarah: And I’m like, yeah, things just don’t run the same way. Like, you know, I noticed there’s just things that you just never thought you would have to deal with once you hit a certain age. And women have more of these issues than men. Like, let’s just be real ladies. You might as well invest in tux pads. what was that? what is it called?

>>Cara: Oh, gosh.

>> Pastor Sarah: Preparation age cream, wipeys. You might as well invest in anti aging wrinkle cream. Your body just does not ever recover. It just gradually goes downhill. Right. Whereas I don’t know what it is with guys, but they just get better and better. They get. My husband is unbelievably sexy, and every year it’s like, oh, my gosh, he’s even sexier than before. Yeah.

And so, I mean, what are your big takeaways when thinking about fitness between the sexes? What do you want people to know to get them to understand that men and women are different when it comes to fitness?

>> Cara: Well, like I said, not just our anatomy, but our, you know, our hormones are so different. Our bodies react so differently. and because of those things. And, and, you know, I know we didn’t mention this in here, but I know we mentioned it last time about the water intake and how that affects us and fiber intake as well, because, I know that most women struggle with, sorry to be gross, but with our bowel movements, which is.

>> Pastor Sarah: Why we need preparation age tucks, pads and wipes.

>> Cara: But if you’re eating, you know, I mean, and then we have digestive issues, too. If you eat too many greens, if you eat broccoli, then you have gas, then you stuff. So, you know, you want to get micronutrients, you want to make sure you’re covering that base, you want to make sure you’re getting enough sleep, and rest. So if you are going to the gym, you’ve got to have rest days, whereas men seem to be able to go day after day after day, and they, they seem to want to. But I. For us women, we actually have to have to conscientiously rest, our bodies to be able to adequately and honestly losing weight goes hand in hand with that. It doesn’t mean you’re necessarily losing muscle, because if you’re doing, progressive overload a couple times a week, then that’s adequate. Sarah and I are on 75 hard, so that’s, I’m speaking to the choir in the sense of we’re, we’re not exactly doing, you know, but we’re walking more, we’re taking it easy. We’re understanding we’re not going to get in the gym and lift hard every day. Right? I hope.

>> Pastor Sarah: Right.

>> Cara: Okay. you know, your nutrition is huge, so we can’t do everything that we did in our teens and in our twenties and in our thirties. and just accepting your body for how it is, which something I still struggle with, is going to be key. men don’t seem to have that struggle that us women have. And so understanding, we really cannot compare ourselves to men in any way, shape, or form, or try to do all the things they can. We were built completely different. We were created for different purposes. Men were literally told that their job was to toil in the fields and ours was to bear children. So just that alone right there shows we’re very different. We’re creating for different things. We’re there to be a help meet for them, but to take care of our home, take care of our children, and, you know, it, bleeds over into everything else. So, like I said, making sure you’re covering all of those bases, is going to be huge in. And then slow down if you’re overdoing it. I have to tell myself that all the time because I get, like, this competitive mindset with my husband for some dumb reason, and he can lift way more than me, but it’s like. And he’s like, go hard, come on, you can do it. And then I’m like, yeah, I can do it. And then I go way too hard. And then I’m really sore for like a week. And it was pointless. Cause I have all this inflammation and probably gain weight. So then I’m just. It’s just like I said, it’s not a good thing and a good mindset for us to be in. We need to understand we’re different. And it’s okay to slow down and just learn your body how it is. So.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah, so I think my biggest suggestion for anybody listening is, find a personal trainer that’s, up to speed on the latest and greatest.

>> Cara: Probably get a female.

>> Pastor Sarah: Well, I would say if you’re a male, get a male. If you’re a female, get a female. For many reasons, but basically because although the person’s gonna know general knowledge for both sexes, they will have invested more time in the information of their sex.

>> Cara: Absolutely. So m men, just men will never, as much as they try, will never be able to relate in a sense of, oh, yeah, I went through that. No, they will never be able. They, they won’t go through menopause or…..

>> Pastor Sarah: Have, you know, saggy body parts.

>> Cara: Well, maybe they will do to.

>> Pastor Sarah: Due to a, ah, human being coming out of them.

>> Cara: Yeah, yeah, they will never have that.

>> Pastor Sarah: Right. So, this was awesome. I hope. I know, yeah, second round. I hope, you know, our listeners are paying attention to their bodies and the differences that happen that they, you know, get on a good vitamin for what they need, talk to their doctors about what is needed for their age group, and just start making different choices for their health. So thank you again, Kara, for joining me. Next week we’ll be talking about fitness benefits.

>> Cara: Sounds good.

>> Pastor Sarah: Yeah, I’ll see you then. Okay.

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