#15: Celia Johnson reveals Top Tips-Fitness through Menopause

Simply Hormones Podcast

There are 3 areas to concentrate on but first off, take it easy by listening to how to achieve your body shape – then put all your promises into practice!

KC: Hello everybody, it's Kathryn Colas here from Simply Hormones.com. And today I'm here talking to Celia Johnson who

Celia Johnson

specialises in health fitness and wellbeing, and how that fits in with going through menopause. If you've been listening to these podcasts you may already know that Celia has interviewed me about menopause and we've discussed the seven dwarfs of menopause and the symptoms and how they are affecting women and we've also done an interview on depression but today we're talking to Celia who specialises in heath fitness and wellbeing and how she can help us as we go through menopause, to understand our bodies better and get fitter. But first off, let me introduce you to Celia and we'll find out a bit more about her.

Hello Celia and welcome. How are you today?

CJ: Oh hi Kathryn, great thank you. Very excited to help those women out there on the topic of exercise and menopause.

KC: Good. First off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you come from, how you got into the health industry and where you are today?

CJ: Right, well it started a long time ago. I was born in Preston, Lancashire, England. As from 18 I moved away from home. I lived in London and had a feeling that there was a career that I wanted to go on to and that started off with health and beauty. So I started off working for a cosmetic company in London, in the department stores, working with Mary Quant and Revlon, yes it was really great. I was into the makeup and everything and I really really loved it, I always thought the women in stores looked so glamorous I thought that's what I want to do. T

Then later on I moved to Ipswich, where I found my partner and then we got married, moved over to America, and again went in the department stores there, still working with the makeup, then I had a baby and started going to the gym because afterwards trying to get rid of… I was really big and fat, so I joined Gold gym, and I started in the gym and as then as I started to see results I thought “oh God this is fantastic”, but the problem there was I got addicted. I was in there morning noon and night, and also working as a job when I had the baby, I also did another college course in America, which was ‘cosmetology', which includes hairdressing and manicure, pedicures, so I got a bit more into the beauty side of it by going to college and getting more experience there. Then I became a hairdresser.

While I was hairdressing I started the gym and it just happened one day the instructor was off and the manager of the Golds gym said “oh God sorry ladies and gents we have no instructor, but I see someone who's here 24 hours a day and that's Celia. Celia what about if you'd like to take the class?” I said “what?”. He said “well you're here 24 hours a day I know you know what to do” and I said “of course I know what to do but I've never taught a day in my life”. And all the people were saying “Oh great, come on Celia” edging me on, and then she said “Oh Celia, if you do it we'll give you a month's free membership”. So anyway I did it, but then after I finished it, it gave me a real great buzz, everybody was clapping and I though “uhh, God I could do this as a living, I love it”, so that's when I transitioned then.

Later moved over to Saudi Arabia, because my husband had started working over there, and so I thought, oh I'll give some exercise classes to women. So 5 0'clock every afternoon I put on an exercise class and experimented with the ladies. Did different types of exercise and later on moved back to England, back to Preston where then started to work for a leisure centre and then decided I'm going to get qualified in the industry, so I got all my qualifications and then took this job very seriously and started working full-time in the industry. Then it just progressed from there. I had been going back to college over 10 years in time to find out more so another 10 years of studying and finding out what the ladies want, and then just working round in different areas of Preston doing things like personal training. I had my own studio, so I had my own community classes, so that we had our own group so people started to know each other, so I brought the women together, so really I've helped and transformed around about over 30, 000 women's lives as well as working internationally in different countries. So I think that's about it. I could go on a bit more but that's an overall view of where I came from and what I did.

KC: Yes, that's pretty comprehensive and the chain of events seem naturally to have led one to the other doesn't it?

CJ: Yes it has, still concentrating a little bit on their health, the beauty side I still love it, that will never be dropped, so I've got my hands a little bit in everything, but it has been mainly working mainly in the fitness industry now for 30 odd years.

KC: Now we're all involved in a particular time of our lives and I think because it's affecting us we want to know how we can improve things and make things better. And from what I understand from when we chatted before you're getting women in your classes now that are going through menopause and are asking for particular help. So can you tell us how does exercise help us?

CJ: Right well exercise can help us because in many cases with the symptoms of menopause, such as you've got, as we explained the hot flushes, we get joint pain, we suffer from anxieties, sleep disorders and we've been in the profession suffering from a lot of weight gain, and really other related diseases that can spring off there which is osteoporosis and heart disease.

KC: I don't think enough people know that osteoporosis doesn't happen overnight, and you're going to tell us now more about that.

CJ: Yes, so I think you know mainly because I'm in my 50's I attract obviously an older clientele, you know because of experience and I've heard lots of women, when they're going through the menopause, “oh Celia, I'm going through menopause, what can help?” and they're really concerned about their weight gain and especially around the abdominal area you know I can see just with normal people on the street, and a lot of my friends are in their 50s I've seen what we call the spare tyre, the Mitchellin tyre, they have this in the middle which isn't good especially if they're not doing any exercise.

KC: What exercise help in particular, because I know that must be one of the biggest complaints I hear women talking about, that spare tyre, they just can't shift it. And don't know what to do about it.

Exercises to reduce that Spare Tyre

CJ: Of course, yes. There's not one particular exercise, there are a couple of exercises which I'm going to explain. The first exercise is very important, which is an aerobic type exercise. Now these aerobic exercises will help strengthen the heart and also help women lose weight by burning calories. These are aerobic exercises and also work the large muscles in the body which benefits and helps the cardiovascular system and helps your weight.

The Zumba Craze

It's important actually to do about 20, well as I said we were just talking before about exercises and before it was like work an hour in aerobics, but you don't need to do that any more, you can work less time but as long as you do a lot of intensity exercises, between ranging from 20-30 minutes at least 3 times a week and these aerobic exercises can consist of anything from brisk walking, swimming, cycling and if you go the gym you can do dancing or you can do dancing at home as Zumba is the latest craze or the latest craze we have is also ballroom dancing. All these type of activities will get that heart pumping so that we can get the benefits of strengthening our heart. But it's very important especially if you're doing that type of aerobic exercises that you do actually feel the workout.

Find Exercises you Enjoy:

You've got to find exercises that you really really enjoy and just really, simple exercises at home, you can do ecercises at home, even gardening or just doing your housework can be exercises, just do it differently. So that's your aerobic component.

Aerobic plus Strength Training is Key

Now the other type of exercises also very important we can't work one without the other, and that is strength training. Now strength training will help our muscles and bones of our body and especially the bones because they deteriorate, you know they get less dense and also help increase our metabolism, which will help burn fat. So as we gain weight. So the strength training improves our strength, the posture and also helps reduces risk of lower back injuries and also will help us tone our body up. You can use little things, if you go to the gym obviously you'll go strength training classes or you'll work in the fitness hall and you'll work on the machines, or if you go in your class you can work with the little resistant tubes, or the medicine balls, or all types of equipment. Also at home you can have, they're very light you don't have to have any extra space in your house and you can just use these bits of exercises or these little exercise trolleys as I call them at home.

KC: We were talking before and I do star jumps now as part of my exercise regime at my home, and I do those scrunches, I stick my feet under the wardrobe, so rolling up doing scrunches, so there's a lot you can do at home. Personally I don't like going to the gym itself and going on that equipment and I think I can probably speak for a lot of women on that too. But yes if you can find somebody who can do this core training, just like you and I think, don't you record yourself doing this on your website?

CJ: Yes I have lots of exercises which I'll talk about at the end and try and get women directed to the exercises that I have. The strength training as I said is very, very important. What I have seen in the gym when I'm working, I talk to ladies all the time. They just do kind of aerobic training. They think “oh, I'm going big time, oh I'm sweating”, and I keep telling them, “if you're really really want to do a type of exercise, the most important is the strength training”, because also with the strength training your heart will be pumping more especially in the strength training that you're increasing intensity, so you can in the strength training part, you can do your aerobic exercise and strength at the same time, which is in the industry now which is now becoming more popular. Like you said you do your circuit training, which is involving aerobic and strength training, like you said doing your star jumps, squat jumps, all different types and especially, as I said I was talking about using little toys, but at the end of the day you can also, if you haven't any equipment you can use your own body weight, so there is really no excuse not to be doing your exercises.

KC: Or you could use those small bottles of water, a full bottle of water as a weight.

CJ: Yes, because you've got your litre, which may probably weigh around about, just less than a kilo so, really the strength training again try and get at least 3, do it 3 times a week, and as I said minimum 20 minutes – 30 minutes a day. But you can probably do one day on, and have a rest the next day, because obviously your muscles are going to get sore. But minimum 3 times.

KC: And you get fitter of course.

CJ: Then you get fitter and you can do more as you go on. The last type of exercise which is very important is stretching. Now stretching is also absolutely fantastic and it helps with menopause, especially when you're suffering from sleeping disorders or you're feeling depressed as we talked about last time. Because it has that hormone cortisone, that comes in, so you must also really do either stretching in, you can do the type of exercises like yoga, pilates, or just some really deep stretching exercises. And the exercises will help maintain flexibility and help the range of motion in your joints, which when we get older they do get more stiffer, so you must really keep going with your strength exercising also. Yoga is absolutely fantastic because you can get into deep stretching, you can do some simple basic aerobic exercises at home. I teach yoga and I also teach pilates, which is another added benefit which also concentrates on your core, concentrates on aligning the body up and also helps increased ability and balance, which as we get older we start to lose balance, especially if you don't do any stability or core exercises. So again it seems like, “oh God we're doing all these types of exercises”, but these 3 types I don't think you can have one without the other.

KC: Once you get into it, it becomes part of a routine and I think that's the key isn't it?

CJ; Yes you've really got to try and make it a part of your life and especially if you want to stay strong and healthy and fit you know and that will help your weight problems. So as I said you've got to find what you like. Some people might like to do yoga, some might want to do pilates, but you've really got to find out what you like to do. You're going to stop if you're doing exercises you don't like so really try and find something that you do like. Maybe you just want to do some recreational exercises like just social group walking or something. Like your tennis for instance you know.

KC: Even a bit of golf.

CJ: Yes golf if you don't want to, sometimes people don't want to, work with a group of people, so maybe you can find a friend or something that you like to do, go bicycling or whatever.

KC: So, I think that's brilliant, I just wholeheartedly put my hands up and say yes, we've got to do that because there's nothing worse than feeling like you're becoming an old woman, because I'm 60 now and I know that you've got to use it or lose it. So just finally then Celia, just as a last piece to our interview here, how do you think exercise compares with people taking HRT therapy? Is it, they can do one, do you think exercise could overcome some of the symptoms to reduce the distressing symptoms so that they don't have to take HRT what's your view on that?

CJ: Yes my view is like you said, while we discussed in other ones, that I think it can be a major part of helping us with menopause, but if you are really suffering and you do need to go to your doctor then talk to you doctor, but on a wellbeing and natural way would be try the exercises. I'm going through the menopause myself and I haven't taken a tablet I've never gone on any type of HRT hormone, because as you're going through, when you're doing your exercises you get different hormones coming into your body, and I felt that helped me a lot you know. Yes there's times I have suffered from depression but as soon as my mental state starts going into my exercises, and same with the women which I try to explain, takes it away you know you think you forget all about it.

KC: You're in a different place.

CJ: Yes you are, you're in a different place, you're so focussed on you body and what you want to do and also enjoying it you're releasing those type of feel good hormones, so once you release those type of hormones you think “oh God I feel great now”, you know.

KC: You're absolutely right, I've spoken to a few women who I know that take exercise classes, you know they conduct the class themselves, and they say “do you know what, I've never experienced any menopausal symptoms, the odd hot flush but I don't notice it, I just get on with stuff”. There is definitely something in it isn't there.

Fitness and Nutrition go hand in hand

CJ: Yes, as I said I can only speak for myself, but as I said if it's happening to me and this is from my experience, can help the people who haven't been through it, and also the other side of it is the nutritional side, what you put in your body. It's fitness and nutrition goes hand-in-hand, so I think the exercise and the nutrition plays is a major part as we are going through menopause. And just to let the ladies out there, you know, try it, what have you got to lose? If you like it, some people get their hormones released, they want more, that's from my point of view. I experienced that, it's like a drug. That's the reason why I got into the fitness. All these hormones releasing and fitness to me became like a drug. Okay for some people it doesn't, but for me it was “I want more, I want more”, the feel good factor, I felt great. I'm keeping my weight down. As I say that's what people out there experienced.

KC: I think for others, sometimes we get bogged down with “I'm working full-time, the kids, the husband, partner, or whoever else is in your life, the house and all that stuff, and I don't have time for exercise. But I think at this time of life it becomes a lifestyle change that you need to focus on and recognise, otherwise you're going to end up with your medicine cabinet full of pills from the doctor to save your life. And then you start getting side effects from the pills, other pills to reduce the side effects, it's just a vicious circle isn't it? So we don't want to go there ladies do we?

Before you head for the doctor, try exercise first!

CJ: Try the exercise first, there's bound to be something that you like to do, we don't all like to do the same, just find out what you like to do and just do it. Keep active, you've really got to do exercises and keep fit for the rest of your life because as the body ages, you know it will help tremendously through the benefits through your health. I just advise find something, carry on and I'm sure you'll be reaping the benefits of it.

KC: Most definitely. And finally Celia, you've given us so much information about the exercises we can do and why, and the benefits that they will have for us, so just in closing can you tell us a bit more about your website and what happens on there?

CJ: Yes, I have a website, address is www.celiajohnsononline.com and on that website I have lots of articles that will help ladies, all to do with how to get rid of weight problems. There's some recipes I've started putting on, and I have loads of exercise videos and I've also got some products that will help, especially the little toys that you can use at home that you can take a look at. I have done some reviews on this so you can see what these toys are all about and what I personally think, because I've used them myself.

KC: Because some of them can be rubbish can't they? You can end up spending your money for nothing.

You Tube – 60+ videos

CJ: Exercise is, again on the different components of what we've been talking about. For dancing, I teach Zumba, which is the latest dance craze, so there are some Zumba exercises on there. I also have Youtube that you can click straight into from my website and see. I've got around about 60 odd videos now, so I'm sure you can find something you can do at home.

KC: Something there for everyone.

CJ: Some focus on certain parts of your body, some the overall component and also you can find me on Facebook. You can go on Facebook and click to join my fan pages and I've just opened another fan page on weight loss, so there's lots of tips on there, on Facebook to help lots of women that are suffering from weight problems, and also another fan page, “Life is Golden” with Celia Johnson, that focuses more on women over 40 and things, so there's lots of fitness tips and again the menopause.

KC: With the advent of the internet it doesn't matter where you are in the world you can find something to suit you, you can even get your exercise regime sorted out, can't you, it's just brilliant.

CJ: That's for a fact

KC: Excellent, well thank you so much for all that Celia, and I'm going to go onto your website afterwards and get some things sorted out. I know my own daughter loves Zumba, so I can get her cracking on that. So that's www.celiajohnsononline.com, and thank you so much . And this really concludes our trio of interviews that we've been doing on menopause, and we're going to get together after, in a little while to do some more on this, because it's working so well isn't it Celia? And it just helps people understand a little more about what's going on in their life on a woman to woman fashion. We're not talking medical problems here, it's closer to home than that, and I do hope everybody's enjoyed our talk here today and so thank you once again Celia, and we'll talk again soon.

CJ: That's great thank you Kathryn, I enjoyed that. Take care for now.

Find exercise, recipes and a host of other information on Celia Johnson's website www.celiahohnsononline.com and don't forget you can find over 200 pages of information on symptoms of menopause and what to do about it on my website: www.simplyhormones.com

Until the next time …

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