The Ultimate Guide to Weight Loss: Exercise Tips That Work

You're listening to the empowering working moms podcast, episode number 90. Hello. Welcome to this week's episode of the empowering working moms podcast-real talk with Dr. Prianca Naik, that is me. I am a board certified internal medicine physician, but most importantly, the mother of two beautiful children and motherhood changed everything for me.

And that's really what brought me to doing the deep work that I did to get here and then help others to do the same to really heal and do the work, heal from the inside out to create another generation that will be happier, healthier, our next generation, our kids that hopefully won't have to do as much healing because of this work.

So this work that we're doing here, inside overcome burnout for good is so much more than just ditching burnout and exhaustion, which it does, but truly having a ripple effect with our families.

So many of my clients have better marriages and a better connection with their kids. And this ripples out, right, but also it will have a generational ripple effect, too.

So today, I'm going to talk about the follow up to last week's episode on healthy eating nutrition stuff. So now I'm going to talk about working out. So I'm really going to teach you about how to finally get that workout routine under your belt. Because I myself hated exercising for the majority of my life. And then really, since my son was born, I've had a consistent workout routine for almost six years, even though most of my life I hated it.

And what most people do is really they're following society's standard of success personally and in their career, instead of really focusing on what would make them happy, or you're putting the needs of others above your own, putting yourself last. And all the hard work you're doing is based on other people.

And here's what happens if you're doing that. You're feeling exhausted, depleted, you're giving way too much at work and at home, nothing to yourself, you're in survival mode, and really just not doing what you want to be doing. Like working out, for example.

And there are so many ways to figure out how to get exercise going. But I'm going to give you my best way in this episode, I don't want to overwhelm you, so that you're finally getting time yourself to work out. So you have more joy more presents, you're gonna get the mental health benefits, peace of mind, and really feel better.

So before I get into strategies and how you're going to get more exercise into your life, I want to talk about the benefits of exercising, which includes increasing longevity, really healthy aging, because exercise is associated with a decrease in mortality.

So consistent exercise shows an increased lifespan and a lower risk of dying from age related diseases, which is awesome, right? That's what we want. And it really promotes healthy aging by maintaining physical function and really delaying the onset of chronic diseases.

And in fact, large observational studies suggest that regular exercise reduces risk of disease specific mortalities for most people, men and women, a wide variety of age ranges. And this is really seen across the board, different ethnicities, different income levels, different geographic settings, it is totally the same where physical activity is associated with lower risk of mortality.

So if that's not a reason to get your butt in the gym and exercising, I don't know what it is. Also exercise enhances muscle strength and endurance because working out stimulates muscle protein synthesis, so creating proteins, leading to more muscle strength and endurance which is so important for just daily living as you get older.

It also boosts our immune system. So it really helps us to make it easier to fight off an infection when we get sick. It's helpful in weight management, really burning calories and helps get your metabolic rate higher which helps with weight maintenance and weight loss.

Physical activity as you know probably releases endorphins, which are really feel good hormones and this helps our mental health So this reduces feelings of anxiety and depression while really boosting overall mood. And I will say, so my number one reasons for working out are improving my mental health. If I'm having a bad day and I work out, I just feel better after.

I find even that often I'm on my peloton, and when I'm on my peloton, my breath is quick. And I really have to focus on my breath to keep myself going. And it's almost like a meditation while I'm working out. And working up a sweat and getting my heart rate going, I just feel better.

And then the number two reason I personally exercise is for boosting confidence. I just feel more confident if I work out, I feel better about my body, I just feel good.

And then of course, the third reason is just all of the health reasons that I'm getting into now, which I'm going to add another one, it enhances cognitive function, because you're going to have better blood flow to your brain when you're exercising, you're opening up your blood flow in general, you're getting your heart pumping better. And you're going to help your aging process, decreasing cognitive decline.

Exercising also regulates blood sugar levels, which is awesome because it helps in regulating insulin. So it reduces insulin resistance, because you get insulin resistance in diabetes. Helps in glucose metabolism. So just sugar metabolism, which reduces the risk of type two diabetes.

And even if you're managing diabetes that you already have. Now, a lot of genetic factors play into this kind of stuff. But we can do things in our power, like working out to help change this. It also strengthens bones and joints.

And so when you're doing weight bearing exercises, even as simple as walking on the treadmill, where you got your bone on bone going. Not if you've got bad osteoarthritis of your knees, but that kind of training helps to increase bone density in men and women and really helps reduce osteoporosis, which is a condition that creates brittle bones and osteoporosis creates more fractures. And then that's a worsening mortality for elderly folks.

So things you can do to strengthen your bones and prevent osteoporosis are walking, running, lifting weights sometimes, depending on how much your joints are working on that. Not things like swimming, or even biking.

Another thing that exercise does is it improves your sleep quality, because regular physical activity is just going to tire you out, deepen your sleep, have you fall asleep better. And also, exercise improves cardiovascular health because regular physical activity strengthens the heart, therefore reducing blood pressure, improving circulation, like I mentioned in preventing cognitive decline, and thereby decreasing risk of cardiovascular disease.

Now, many studies have been done showing a strong inverse relationship between exercise and the risk of coronary artery disease. So the more you exercise, the less risk you have of heart disease, heart attacks, cardiovascular events, all that stuff that's pretty freakin scary, right?

And I'm just gonna get a little technical and medical in case you're interested. I think it's interesting, of course, because I'm a physician. But just so you know that we're not making this stuff up. Aerobic training induces beneficial effects on lipoproteins.

So lipoproteins means your LDL and your HDL, so it's going to increase your good cholesterol, decrease your bad cholesterol. And that's how you can help your cholesterol levels, which we know we want to maintain an LDL of around, let's say 100.

So physical activity is also associated with lower levels of inflammation. So if we did blood work on you and your CRP, which is an indicator of inflammation, you can look at that. And if you work out regularly, and you're healthy, probably that would be lower within normal limits, which is awesome. That means the body is less stressed. And you're also going to have just general well being, healthy body, all that stuff.

So just think about all of those effects and benefits that working out can have. Moving our bodies is so important. And if you think about this, what's happened to modern day is we've got sedentary jobs, we've got busy, hectic lives.

But naturally we are meant to walk around, right. Cars are all artificial constructs. But back in the day, cavemen were hunting and gathering foods. So they were out all day and that was their form of exercising. So now we have to be mindful of doing that, basically simulating. So if we simulate that, we're going to be forcing ourselves to exercise.

So you might ask, what do I know about this? And how am I coming to you today with a little bit of an off, beaten approach on exercise? So I mentioned this on last week's episode. But essentially, I was overweight as a child, probably from around 10 to 13. And then my weight fluctuated for a while until I hit my 20s.

And even in my 20s, I watched what I ate, I watched my diet, and I was able to maintain a healthy body weight, but I really never had a consistent workout routine. And funnily enough, when I was in residency, I would get on health kicks, and I would exercise but it would never last, right.

And then what ended up happening was, I really had to examine my life after my son was born, I just was so overloaded working as a full time physician. And then my most important work, my most important job is being a mother and realizing that being an anxious mess all the time just isn't an okay atmosphere for a child to grow up in.

So I started doing all the self care things, including exercise. And as I really stuck to it, and I found that it really helped my mental health, I just did it. And that was it. But what I found was making that commitment to exercise on a regular basis, it eventually became my identity.

So when you're deciding to exercise, you really have to see yourself holistically and see yourself as a healthy person, whether you are or whether you aren't. I'm healthy, I work out, and that's just what I do. So when you don't work out, that feels weird, not the other way around, right.

So when you know that I'm just a person who works out, that's just who I am. That's what you say to yourself, because the thoughts that we feed ourselves truly create our reality. So you get to embody the identity and speak to yourself in a way, that means I workout regularly. Okay, so it's an identity shift more than anything. That is the critical, crucial piece in this is embodying the identity of a person who's healthy of a person that works out.

Now some generalized principles on this, and then I'm going to give you really specific tools and tricks and tips to work out. The generalized things you can do is really, to ditch the all or nothing mentality. I think people, they have these crazy lofty goals, they go from not working out at all. And then some of my clients will even come to me telling me, hey, I want to work out for an hour a day, four days a week. And I say to them, that's really a lot to do when you're starting with zero. And it's just too much.

I mean, if you can do it, you can do it great. But I feel like when we set ourselves up for failure, we get discouraged. And then we're much less likely to actually carry out our goal. So ditching the all or nothing mentality and really embodying the something is better than nothing. So believe me, I'm human, you know, I'm definitely not perfect.

And on the days when I don't want to exercise, and I'm really sluggish, and I just don't feel like it, I will force myself to get on my peloton for 15 minutes or do some other workout for a really short period of time. And what I find is that after the workout, I feel better, and I'm proud of myself for doing something, because something is always better than nothing.

And there's always a compound effect of this kind of stuff over time, over months, over years, where your 80 year old self will thank you for doing the workout. And if all else fails, just take a five minute walk outside or run up and down the stairs for five minutes. That's all you have to do. Just a little bit is truly better than nothing.

And remembering with the identity piece, why you're doing the workout. So for me, I know I'm gonna feel better if I exercise and the aftermath of working out is helpful for me just to get going on days when I don't want to.

And really thinking about your longevity, your long term health goals and knowing that exercise is a part of that plan.

Now in terms of crafting routines, you really want to have some flexibility around this. It depends on your personality type, but I find the more rigid I am with my routine, the less I want to do it. So I started out exercising two to three days a week. Then it went from three to four days a week. Now it's at about four to five days a week, sometimes even six. Because the less pressure I put on myself the better I personally do.

So have some goals for yourself. You can start with one to two days a week for literally five to 10 minutes for those two times. You don't have to start with a half hour or 40 minutes. Something is always better than nothing. And you want to make it realistic and doable.

So one great thing you can do is you wear your workout clothes when you're feeling like working out so that you're going to work out. I have never put on workout clothes and not worked out. Maybe once in several years, it just doesn't happen.

So that's one thing, two is to do something at home. Having a gym membership is great, but it's a production, going to the gym, doing your routine and then driving home depending on how far it is. And the harder you make it for yourself, the less likely you are to do it. So you want to really get rid of any barriers between you and working out.

Have a few things that you find not totally terrible, not totally boring, and do those workout options. For me that really is either a workout video through my peloton app or getting on an actual bike, I find those doable, helpful.

And even actually, I was a member at this gym called lifetime and they had childcare so I could drop my kids off on the weekends. And I would go do my workout. And it was almost like a little ritual that we would all do. And it was nice because afterwards, my kids and I would go get food.

So you can find all kinds of ways to make it more appealing for you. Now, if you're lacking time or you're lacking motivation, the time lacking part, I think really start small, like five to 10 minutes, even a couple days, you don't have to do it every day. And that's it, you'll see that you can do it if it's a small goal. And then once you get a little bit of momentum, you will be able to find time and increase your time to do that.

Now motivation wise, it's always helpful to have an accountability partner or maybe someone that you could go on a run with or go on a walk with, be it your partner or a friend. That can be really helpful to keep people active.

Some other easy to follow tips are if you're a person who really lives by your calendar, schedule your workouts in. Involve your family, maybe all of you can go on a walk or bike ride or run. That makes it more fun, doable. And that way you don't even feel like you're taking away time from your kids.

My peloton is actually in my basement, which is also the children's toy area and they love going down there to play with their toys. So when I go downstairs to do my peloton workout, I can watch my kids at the same time and they're having fun. So that's all good.

Incorporating physical activity into daily tasks. Maybe even start as small as taking the stairs at work. Parking far away as long as it's not winter and icy to get in more steps. Embracing outdoor activities like a hike. Rest when you need, create some variety in workouts.

Also people love joining gyms and going to the workout classes, that can be a really fun way to make friends and create a sense of community. Create like a five minute workout rule if you're going to force yourself to work out for five minutes, and then after five minutes, you're not feeling it, you can stop.

You can pair it with TV shows. Let's say I know Gretchen Rubin on her podcast happier she does it with her sister and her sister's a type one diabetic has to exercise. So her sister only lets herself watch The Real Housewives if she's on the treadmill. Otherwise, she's not allowed to watch it. So her incentive is to have that paired activity like her guilty pleasure, like the Real Housewives. And she will only do that when she's exercising.

Find your optimal time to work out when it works for you. For some people, that's first thing in the morning. For me, it tends to be in the afternoon or early evening after I'm done with work. But before it's time to spend time with my children, that is my optimal time. First thing in the morning for me doesn't work.

It's different for everyone, but really figure out a time that you can stick with. And maybe you could even depending on what time you have, you could do five minutes in the morning and then 10 minutes at work, take a walk. If you've got a lunch break or something at work, you can do that. And even if you can't make time to work out or go to the gym, but you set an intention to exercise.

You could do something small like work with resistance bands, you could do some body work where you're doing, let's say core exercises, stretching, yoga, a quick walk. And also one of the most important things in all this is to really keep a positive mindset and congratulate yourself.

Be proud of yourself when you complete a workout. That is awesome because you're doing awesome just to do a little bit of it. And truly finally, embrace consistency over perfectionism. It's so important to be consistent over weeks, months, years.

And it feels so good to really look back and think about all the time you've been working out. Because if you have a consistent routine you are going to see, and especially eventually when you're older, feel the benefits of all of the things I mentioned in the beginning of the episode.

Now, I want you to remember that your journey is unique to you. Working out is really not just for weight loss and having a fit body, which that's part of it. And it also helps to maintain body weight. But it's really more about your identity, how you feel.

And finding what works for you, having flexibility and just having compassion for yourself when you're trying to make these changes. And have fun. It's so important to not be so intense and take life so seriously, because we are really good at that as moms in demanding careers.

And if you find yourself having this successful career that you're proud of, but you're feeling guilty almost every day because you're just not showing up for your family or even for yourself in the way that you want.

Or you're really weighed down by stress and anxiety every day because every hour bleeds next at work and the next thing you know it's time to go home do more work and there's always more work piling up or a mess to clean in the kitchen, lots of crumbs. Maybe you have a Dyson vacuum.

But you find yourself just working your tail off and somehow your life just isn't where you want it to be. And you've probably tried therapy or counseling, it helped for a bit, you're not feeling better. Or you've tried grocery delivery apps to have better time management skills. You've downloaded meditation apps and you just don't have the time to meditate.

And you still find yourself just depleted exhausted, burning out, then really book a call with me, PriancaNaikMDcoaching.as.me. The link is in the show notes. Talk to me because I've helped so many moms just like you. Call me to see if we are a fit to work together and to see if I can help you too. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will talk to you next week.