She Ditched ALL Her Medications at 65 and Built Her Dream Body (Without Dieting!) - 234
Today I'm joined by Elaine McCormick, a 65-year-old grandmother who went from needing a seatbelt extender on airplanes to maintaining a 91-week strength training streak. Elaine opens up about her transformation from a size 3XL woman defeated by decades of yo-yo dieting to a thriving coach helping other grandparents reclaim their health.
Elaine shares how discovering blood sugar stabilization changed not just her weight, but her entire relationship with food and her body. At 65, she's medication-free with perfect blood work, proving that strength training can start at any age.
If you've been telling yourself you're too old or it's too late, Elaine's story is proof that our bodies can heal and get stronger at any age. Start with one small movement today!
Conclusion:
While society tells us that transformation belongs to the young, stories like Elaine's prove that age isn't a barrier to health. It's another starting point. From restrictive diets to "anti-aging" products, the wellness industry profits from our fear of getting older.
It's time to reject ageism in health and embrace the truth: your body's capacity for healing and strength workout has no expiration date!
In This Episode:
00:00 Elaine McCormick’s health and transformation journey
04:18 How she moved from a seatbelt extender to strength training
06:38 Elaine’s approach to health: blood sugar stabilization
09:56 Why choosing health over weight is critical
12:03 Daily routine of a health-conscious 60-year-old
16:08 How Elaine transitioned to health coaching
18:18 Importance of blood sugar control and movement
21:43 Top 3 tips for staying active in later years
24:32 Why balancing carbs and proteins is important
27:48 How to connect with Elaine McCormick
Resources:
Get certified as a blood sugar balance and sustainable lifestyle coach
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Elaine McCormick: It doesn't matter if we're 50, 60, 70. I can tell you my hips used to hurt. My feet used to hurt, and because I built those muscles, I don't have that pain anymore. What are your
[00:00:10] Carrie Lupoli: top three tips that you would give anybody? The first one is I'm Kerry Napoli nutritionist, award-winning behavior specialist and unapologetic disruptor of diet culture.
[00:00:23] Carrie Lupoli: If you've spent decades dieting and still don't have the results you want, it's not your fault. You've just never been shown how to fuel your body with love and science. This podcast is where all that changes and we rewrite the rules where food becomes simple. Freedom is possible and real lasting results.
[00:00:44] Carrie Lupoli: Finally begin. Let's dive in. I just finished interviewing Elaine McCormick, also known as Nana knows better. A 65-year-old health coach who will blow your mind with what she teaches us, how to think differently about age, [00:01:00] how to move differently regardless of a pain or just belief systems that we have that we can't move and.
[00:01:07] Carrie Lupoli: How to fuel our bodies in a way that is totally different than what you have probably been hearing for your whole life. So if you are a nana or nose a nana, that needs to do better. This episode is for you. Four decades. Elaine battled what she thought were her weight issues, cycling through diets from age 13, from Weight Watchers to fasting, feeling defeated and unworthy at every single size.
[00:01:31] Carrie Lupoli: The turning point came when she discovered blood sugar stabilization, not another diet, but a lifestyle. She gained energy. She slept better. She started exercising consistently, and this nana of three in her early sixties went from a size three XL to an L. She ditched the seatbelt extender and now walks beaches with joy.
[00:01:55] Carrie Lupoli: Currently now at age 65 with a 91 week [00:02:00] strength and cycling streak. She is proof that it is never too late. Motivated by her transformation and the need to help others define this incredible lifestyle, she became a certified coach and she helps others, especially fellow grandparents, dish dieting, and embrace healthy aging through simple sustainable habits.
[00:02:18] Carrie Lupoli: Elaine McCormick, Nana knows better. That's how you go by. Welcome. Welcome to the show. I am so excited to be able to meet you, to talk to you, to share all of the chips that you have for other women that are in their, what, sixties and seventies, who feel like they're just too old to actually turn around their life, that maybe it's too late and you are here to say that it is not.
[00:02:43] Carrie Lupoli: Welcome.
[00:02:44] Elaine McCormick: Hello. Thank you.
[00:02:45] Carrie Lupoli: That's
[00:02:46] Elaine McCormick: awesome.
[00:02:47] Carrie Lupoli: I am so excited about what you have to share today. I mean, it, it's really true. Like in your sixties you started making changes that actually like [00:03:00] transformed you into like a strength trainer and now a coach, like, I need to understand about how all this went down.
[00:03:07] Elaine McCormick: I can tell you that in the beginning, um, kind of my turning point was. The seatbelt extender. We went on a trip and I went to get into a seat and I couldn't buckle the seatbelt. Um, not only was it embarrassing to have to ask for that seatbelt extender, but it was just like, it just kind of wrecked my vacation.
[00:03:26] Elaine McCormick: So the other part is that pretty much everyone in my family is diabetic. I was headed to pre-diabetes and I didn't wanna get there. So that's kind of what my turning point
[00:03:38] Carrie Lupoli: was. Yeah. I mean you were sitting in that, that statistic of 93% of people in their sixties and seventies that have metabolic disease.
[00:03:48] Carrie Lupoli: Yes. And you
[00:03:49] Elaine McCormick: were in your
[00:03:49] Carrie Lupoli: sixties.
[00:03:50] Elaine McCormick: I was. I was, and I was headed to even worse, and I didn't want that to happen. So, but see,
[00:03:56] Carrie Lupoli: here's the thing, Elaine, and this is what I, I see all the time, right? It's not [00:04:00] like you woke up one day with a seatbelt extender and were like, okay, now I'm gonna try to figure this out.
[00:04:05] Carrie Lupoli: You had been trying to figure this out for your whole life. How many years do you think by the time you were in your sixties, you had been dieting or trying to quote unquote lose. Well,
[00:04:17] Elaine McCormick: probably 50, 47, 50 years. I had been trying to do that. I mean, I did everything. I did shakes where you had 800 calories a day.
[00:04:27] Elaine McCormick: Mm-hmm. Um, and the minute I started introducing even broccoli, my weight skyrocketed again. What
[00:04:33] Carrie Lupoli: did that say? Right. I know, I know, right? Oh my gosh. Your body is like, uh, nutrients. No, no. So, and they're like, we don't
[00:04:40] Elaine McCormick: trust you. We gotta hold on to everything you feel. Yeah. So, you know, between that and then points.
[00:04:49] Elaine McCormick: So what if I eat all my points by 10 o'clock in the morning? Oh my gosh. Right. You know, then what do I do the rest of the day? Just not eat? So, yes, yes. I went through all of [00:05:00] that. I mean, or you cheat, you either don't eat or you cheat, right? Yes, exactly. Or it's like, okay, I'll just eat this. It's supposed to be healthy, even though I'm over my points, you know?
[00:05:11] Elaine McCormick: And then you have weekly points, but you know. If you use all of those up in one day, you're in trouble. So, alright. So
[00:05:19] Carrie Lupoli: you also said that you're strength training now you're on a Yes. Like a, like a three month Every streak that you haven't broken that is.
[00:05:27] Elaine McCormick: I'm an almost a two year streak. Oh, is that what it's, it's 90, well, I think it's 93 weeks right now.
[00:05:33] Elaine McCormick: A week. Oh, you're right. Weeks. Geez. Yes.
[00:05:37] Carrie Lupoli: That's amazing. Yeah. But you didn't, did you, were you like a worker out or a strength trainer before
[00:05:42] Elaine McCormick: you decided to like, um, ditch the seatbelt extender? I did run when I was way younger. Um, but that had so much impact on my knees and things like that. Mm-hmm. I did enjoy it when I had married my husband, he was a runner, so he got me started into running.
[00:05:57] Elaine McCormick: Okay. But this
[00:05:58] Carrie Lupoli: kind of stuff like [00:06:00] strength training and all of that, that's new to you? That is new to me, yes. Well, I mean it since you've been in your sixties.
[00:06:07] Elaine McCormick: I'm doing it consistently. Yes. Yeah.
[00:06:09] Carrie Lupoli: Yes. So, I mean, just starting out, you know, so what I, I, I really wanna get into what you've been doing, of course, right?
[00:06:17] Carrie Lupoli: Mm-hmm. But also like once you realized that you cracked the code, or once you believed you kind of cracked the code on what needed to happen, how were you Sure? Because with everybody, everything that you've tried in the past, you know, like if you're, like most women, especially now, by the time you're in your sixties, you've.
[00:06:34] Carrie Lupoli: Gained and lost. And gained and lost. Mm-hmm. This time when you lost weight and started changing different habits or the way you felt, how did you know that you had really cracked the code?
[00:06:46] Elaine McCormick: I knew when I might eat some ice cream. And I didn't feel like I had to get on the scale or I didn't feel like I had gained weight and I didn't feel like I was [00:07:00] defeated and like, I can't have that, you know, and, and the lifestyle.
[00:07:04] Elaine McCormick: There isn't anything we can't have. It's just about learning how to balance that. So that was probably the biggest realization is that I can go on vacation and we can still go out and have ice cream.
[00:07:16] Carrie Lupoli: Mm-hmm. Um,
[00:07:16] Elaine McCormick: and I don't have to worry that when I get home from vacation. Then I've gotta find a new diet to lose everything that.
[00:07:23] Elaine McCormick: I gained while we were out having fun.
[00:07:25] Carrie Lupoli: So that is so much freedom, isn't it? And isn't it crazy that it took you that long to learn it, to figure it out? I
[00:07:33] Elaine McCormick: know. Yeah, absolutely. I always say, I wish I didn't learn this way longer, but maybe I wasn't ready for it.
[00:07:38] Carrie Lupoli: What are you doing? Like, how are you eating differently?
[00:07:42] Carrie Lupoli: How are you thinking differently? Like, whatcha doing that at 60 in her sixties after 50 years of dieting? You really found this, this like magic solution? Like tell us what you're doing.
[00:07:57] Elaine McCormick: Yeah, I mean it's definitely blood sugar [00:08:00] stabilization. It's also realizing, um, that I'm not on that journey about my weight anymore, right?
[00:08:08] Elaine McCormick: It's about being healthy. So where my weight settles is where it's gonna settle. Okay. And it'll change at different times, but I am so much more healthy. I can now go out and do things. I can strength train, um, and I don't have to worry about hurting. Um, you know, it's just about being healthy. My numbers, I just had blood tests run.
[00:08:31] Elaine McCormick: Every one of my numbers is in perfect alignment. Normal. You know, for 65, I am not on any medications. I have no medications that I take at all.
[00:08:43] Carrie Lupoli: So to me, and you were not going in that direction?
[00:08:46] Elaine McCormick: No.
[00:08:47] Carrie Lupoli: Yeah. Wow. Okay. So you're balancing your blood sugar. So we're gonna talk about what that looks like. Do you believe that because you've learned how to balance your blood sugar, that, is that what gave you this like new [00:09:00] look at the importance of health versus weight?
[00:09:03] Carrie Lupoli: Like. What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Yeah,
[00:09:07] Elaine McCormick: so I think, I mean obviously before it was the weight, so you know, but now it was like not having that sick extender and the fact that many folks in my family were diabetic and I didn't wanna get there. So that ended up being number one. I didn't wanna get to that point 'cause I saw how they were suffering, how they were having to make, I don't know, exceptions and limits and, no, I can't do that.
[00:09:31] Elaine McCormick: I can't do this and I didn't wanna get there.
[00:09:34] Carrie Lupoli: Well, you know, and also Elaine, I will say this just as a little bit of a sidebar. I was just having this conversation yesterday. I, I think people need to understand how serious a diabetic diagnosis is. A diabetes diagnosis to me is no different than a cancer diagnosis, except it's actually like you can almost guarantee an ability to reverse it.
[00:09:55] Carrie Lupoli: With lifestyle changes. Yeah, absolutely. With cancer, once you get to that point, that [00:10:00] is a very, it's, it's very challenging. And can you imagine if I said to somebody like, I have a guaranteed way that you can reverse cancer. People would be like, what? Yeah. Cure cancer. But yet we don't recognize that diabetes is just a debilitating, it's a death sentence.
[00:10:15] Carrie Lupoli: It's just that with medications, we can slow it down, but it's a horrible way to live and a terrible way to die. Exactly. And unless we actually make significant changes. It's not about medication that's going to actually reverse it because it won't. It's about actually doing something different to get something different.
[00:10:32] Carrie Lupoli: So anyway, I get very much on my soapbox about the idea of not just, I don't want diabetes, but like I refuse to have a diagnosis that will kill me like that.
[00:10:41] Elaine McCormick: Yeah, absolutely. And I just seem, like I said, how people have had to do not do things because they just can't. Yeah. Or because their muscles hurt or they have swelling and the inflammation that all of that can cause.
[00:10:54] Elaine McCormick: Yeah. And they're miserable and I didn't wanna be miserable.
[00:10:57] Carrie Lupoli: Okay, so you kind of made this decision that [00:11:00] you were going to focus on health versus weight and then through that process, and it's so interesting, right? Because once you open up your eyes, I always say like, you know, when I like, I tell my clients like I want them to ditch the scale.
[00:11:13] Carrie Lupoli: When you get rid of the scale, your eyes open up to so many other things. Or like once you start focusing on something. Like if you're only focusing on the scale, it's suddenly like your brain is just showing you all the reasons why the scale is important. I often joke about how my daughter, when she wanted to get her first car, she wanted a Subaru Crosstrek.
[00:11:32] Carrie Lupoli: And I was like, I've never seen a Subaru Crosstrek. Really? And then all of a sudden I saw Subaru Crosstreks literally everywhere. And it wasn't because everyone started driving Subarus Crosstreks, but it was because. Suddenly my brain was filtering that out. I told my brain, that's what we are gonna be doing today.
[00:11:47] Carrie Lupoli: So when you started telling your brain, we gotta focus on health versus weight, is that when like your brain almost opened up? To the idea of blood sugar.
[00:11:58] Elaine McCormick: Absolutely [00:12:00] crazy and, and it was amazing how even my framework of my brain about what I can can eat, I could eat anything I wanted. Okay. I just needed to make sure I was balanced it.
[00:12:10] Elaine McCormick: But it was amazing how my brain even went to those healthier choices. It wasn't about the cookies and the cake and the candy anymore. My husband and I used to joke, we wanted the five Cs from the store. Coke, cake, chips, cookies and candy. That's not a good diet. Okay. Right, right. So anymore, that's not even in our card anymore and we don't Because you don't even want it.
[00:12:33] Elaine McCormick: Not because you feel like you have
[00:12:34] Carrie Lupoli: to restrict it.
[00:12:35] Elaine McCormick: Correct. And I think that's part of it. When you think you can't have something, you want it even more.
[00:12:41] Carrie Lupoli: Okay.
[00:12:42] Elaine McCormick: So by saying, Hey, I can have it if I want, I choose not to. So that makes a huge difference. And then all kind of goes into the healthy, and then when you start getting healthy and you start seeing the results and the close sizes start going down, yeah.
[00:12:56] Elaine McCormick: You're like, oh, well isn't this cool
[00:12:59] Carrie Lupoli: without [00:13:00] feeling restriction or, or, or having those cravings and things like that. Okay. So let's walk us through what is a typical day of a retired nana look like? Who is winning, winning, winning with her health?
[00:13:14] Elaine McCormick: So for me, um, I'm usually up about seven o'clock. Um, I get up, I do my morning time, love my morning time, and then I usually go down.
[00:13:23] Elaine McCormick: We have a gym down in our basement. Um, we did that when kind of COVID came around and stuff. Um, but I actually got it really into spa, uh, place, um, and nice and functional about two years ago when I started the, you know. In my early sixties when I started this journey. Um, but I go down and I usually work out, um, for about an hour.
[00:13:43] Elaine McCormick: Um, I'll do strength training, I'll do some, I have my bicycle. I will ride that. We have a treadmill if I wanna walk. Um,
[00:13:50] Carrie Lupoli: I love following
[00:13:51] Elaine McCormick: you energy
[00:13:52] Carrie Lupoli: gym and watching you down in your gym.
[00:13:54] Elaine McCormick: Yeah. Yeah. So it's fun and there's just so much that you can do between kettlebells and dumbbells. It's not [00:14:00] expensive to set up something like that.
[00:14:02] Elaine McCormick: 'cause a lot of people may not necessarily wanna go to the gym. You know it, it can be intimidating, but if you can start somewhere and just do a little bit.
[00:14:11] Carrie Lupoli: Yeah. And
[00:14:11] Elaine McCormick: it's amazing. 'cause a lot of times, some mornings I don't wanna work out. It's just like, I just don't wanna do it. I'd rather do something else.
[00:14:17] Elaine McCormick: But how do you know what to do? Do you follow like,
[00:14:20] Carrie Lupoli: like. YouTube people or do you make up your own? Or like, are you knowledgeable enough to like make up your own workouts now? Like what do you, how do you know what to do? Because I, that would probably be a big question for people. Yeah. In their sixties and seventies they're like, I don't even know what I would do with a weight.
[00:14:34] Elaine McCormick: I think currently, um, it's just starting out with something small. Mm-hmm. You know, take a few steps, go walk to the kitchen counter and back. Um, I know a lot of times like, 'cause I do have my step counter, um, if I'm waiting on something, I'll go walk around my kitchen. Just to get some steps in. If I'm waiting on tea or something in the microwave, hold onto the counter and do some squats.
[00:14:57] Elaine McCormick: Yeah, and you may not be able to go down very [00:15:00] far. Maybe you only go down a half an inch or an inch. You're gonna see that in a couple, you know, a couple weeks. Maybe a couple days, you're gonna build that strength. So it's not about lifting the big dumbbells or the barbells or things like that. It's about taking little steps at a time in order to get you to where you wanna be.
[00:15:18] Elaine McCormick: And that's where I started because again, I did not want, you know, I, I don't, not into this workout thing, I'm gonna hurt myself. Right. I, I'm, I'm in my sixties, I'm gonna hurt myself. Yeah. Well, as you build that muscle and that strength. You are actually better off. I can tell you my hips used to hurt. My feet used to hurt, and because I built those muscles, I, I don't have that pain anymore.
[00:15:41] Carrie Lupoli: Isn't that amazing? We think it's just like, I'm just old, so therefore it is, but you're reversing, you're literally reversing aging. Are you eating before you work out? Are you eating like I do fasted. Like whatcha are you doing?
[00:15:53] Elaine McCormick: Um, I do have a meal before I out, so usually during my morning time I will have my meal.
[00:15:59] Elaine McCormick: What do you [00:16:00] have? What, what's a normal meal for you in the morning? In the morning for me it's a protein bar and a meat stick. Oh, okay. It's something quick. It's not heavy, so when I go work out right away, I don't feel it. You know, some people might get an upset stomach when they have stuff like that in their stomach.
[00:16:14] Elaine McCormick: So for me it's a protein bar and a meat stick. Yep.
[00:16:17] Carrie Lupoli: And now I assume that when you're coaching your clients, you're just sort of like adjusting in terms of like, what, what do they feel like they, they can handle depending on their routine and their morning.
[00:16:26] Elaine McCormick: Awesome. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, some people like their eggs in the morning, which is great.
[00:16:31] Elaine McCormick: Um, and then we'll pair that with a carb and, and a fat, um, depending on how they cook them. And that's great for them because maybe they don't wanna work out until later in the day. Mm-hmm. For me, working out in the morning is. It, I have to get it done because I need to get my shower and then get my rest of my day started.
[00:16:48] Carrie Lupoli: Right, right, right. And
[00:16:49] Elaine McCormick: now you're a busy
[00:16:49] Carrie Lupoli: coach. You're coaching clients all the time. Yeah. So then, and, and you're no longer working out in the corporate world anymore from what I understand. 'cause now you're re quote unquote retired, but now [00:17:00] you're also this incredible health coach to women, uh, just like you.
[00:17:05] Carrie Lupoli: And so, uh mm-hmm. I, I love, I love that. Like, what made you decide like, I know so much now. That I wanna get certified and actually help other people, like, yeah. What made that switch? Can you, I mean, can you imagine having done that, like if you were sitting in that airplane asking about seat extender, can you have imagined that a few years later you were gonna be like, I am actually coaching
[00:17:27] Elaine McCormick: women now?
[00:17:28] Elaine McCormick: Absolutely not. I mean, that was furthest from my mind, you know, being horrified for a signal extender for me in 50 years. I felt good. I knew where I was going and I wanted to learn more, more for me, so I wanted to learn more. Um, I was able to get certified and while I was doing the certification, I'm like, what if I can help other people?
[00:17:50] Elaine McCormick: You know? It took me how long to find this. I need other people to know this sooner than what I did, or even if they knew, do it now. Age is not a [00:18:00] factor. You can do this at any time in your life. So if I can help people to realize that they can feel better and making that, that. This part of our life is not about sitting and watching tv, that we can go out and we can run with our grandkids and that we can go out and walk on the beach and not have our feet and our hips hurt.
[00:18:20] Elaine McCormick: Um, I felt like I had an obligation to be able to get that out.
[00:18:24] Carrie Lupoli: Oh, I love that. Such an obligation. And being certified as somebody that then. Understands blood sugar stabilization at a deep level is very unique. Most people out there are not certified to truly understand. They're talking about macros, they're talking about calories, and you are really teaching the concept of blood sugar stabilization in a lifestyle based on where you are in your journey.
[00:18:47] Carrie Lupoli: Would you agree? Yeah. Okay.
[00:18:48] Elaine McCormick: Yeah, I would agree. I mean, so many people I come across when they ask me what I'm doing, oh, what are you doing since you're not in the corporate world anymore? Mm-hmm. And that's my response. I help people stabilize their blood sugar. It's not about, I'm helping [00:19:00] people lose weight.
[00:19:00] Elaine McCormick: Mm-hmm. Um, and we'll talk about it further, that that will come. Right. But it's about helping people stabilize their blood sugar, because so many people at my age, that's an issue for them right now.
[00:19:11] Carrie Lupoli: Well, I mean, and we know it's an issue for everybody, but when you have been on a blood sugar rollercoaster for most of your life, and we know that as you get older, you're, you have much more sensitivity to.
[00:19:23] Carrie Lupoli: Glucose to blood sugar spikes, and you have to be even more aware. Also like what you're saying right now around strength training, this is what's so important because not only do we have to fuel our body correctly for mm-hmm. Blood sugar stabilization, but everything that you're talking about with strength training is like I, I think it's foreign for your age group to believe that's even possible or necessary.
[00:19:49] Carrie Lupoli: But when we think about bone density, bone health, I mean, this is it. There's a, there's a statistic I just recently heard around how 60, and it might even be higher than that. I've been [00:20:00] hearing recent like a, a variety of different numbers. Recently, 60% of people who end up falling are die as a result within six to eight months.
[00:20:09] Carrie Lupoli: Yes. That's crazy. And that's because, and and I'm sure you know so many people, right? Like they fall and it just triggers
[00:20:17] Elaine McCormick: a whole lot of other things. Yes, it does. Well, not only that, the people that are younger than me that have already had hip replacements and knee surgery, knee replacements and shoulder replacements mm-hmm.
[00:20:28] Elaine McCormick: And things like that, it's just amazing to me that we could present that.
[00:20:34] Carrie Lupoli: Yes. You
[00:20:34] Elaine McCormick: know that if, you know, the sooner we start the better, but it's never too late to start.
[00:20:39] Carrie Lupoli: No, exactly. But what I'm hearing you talk about is the importance of fueling your body correctly. Yeah. And recognizing the dieting piece isn't working, and also moving your body in a way that's intentional.
[00:20:51] Carrie Lupoli: Uh, I used to always say a body, I mean, this is a quote that I did not make up, but a body motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest. I think about. My [00:21:00] husband's grandmother who sat in her chair for, for the entire, you know, 20 years that I knew her mm-hmm. Did not get up off of her chair, diabetic, and died a pretty, uh, sad in a, in, in a very, very sad state without a lot of of purpose.
[00:21:17] Carrie Lupoli: And even she who struggled, could have. Benefited from you and all of your support? Yeah. Wow. I think about my parents in their seventies and my husband's parents who I think, you know, because I am their daughter, I think they're much further along, but it, it really is so powerful to me that you. In your sixties are coaching other women because let's be honest, a lot of people in their sixties and seventies don't want a 20-year-old, 30-year-old, or sometimes people like me, a 50-year-old coaching them.
[00:21:49] Carrie Lupoli: You can relate the lifestyle. It's, it's just powerful. There's not enough people like you out there, Elaine. Oh, well thank you
[00:21:56] Elaine McCormick: now, and it is important for people to realize that it [00:22:00] doesn't matter if we're 50, 60, 70, however old we are, we just have to do something.
[00:22:05] Carrie Lupoli: And
[00:22:05] Elaine McCormick: starting out a little bit, you are gonna amaze yourself how much you are really capable of.
[00:22:10] Elaine McCormick: Yeah. And I don't think a lot of people realize that or they're not told. They're told, oh, don't do that. You might fall on, might hurt yourself, because our families will tell us that because they're concerned about us. Yeah. But if we can get better at that and get stronger, it just, it just makes for a better one.
[00:22:26] Elaine McCormick: Our buddies
[00:22:27] Carrie Lupoli: really are amazing and they are want to actually heal and get stronger. Mm-hmm. We just have to give them that little bit of, you know, effort in order to be able to do that. They also think belief. So Elaine, let's tap this into like, let's really honed in. What are your top three tips that you would give anybody that is in their sixties, seventies, eighties?
[00:22:49] Carrie Lupoli: That know, that's listening to you and they're like, okay, this is inspiring. If she can do it, I can do it. I just dunno where to start. Let's, let's give them the top three [00:23:00] tips.
[00:23:00] Elaine McCormick: Yeah. So the top three tips for me is, the first one is you are never too old. You are never too old to start something. If you wanna do something and you have the desire, you can do it.
[00:23:14] Elaine McCormick: So don't use age as an excuse. Okay. I love that. That little mindset's we start with mindset. That's right. It's like, it's like,
[00:23:20] Carrie Lupoli: uh, you're a girl after my own heart. Starting with the mindset.
[00:23:24] Elaine McCormick: Yeah. So the second thing I think is movement. We've got to get movement in. You don't have to lift a hundred pounds in, you know, a dumbbell, or I'm sorry, a barbell.
[00:23:35] Elaine McCormick: Um, you don't have to lift heavy weight. Now, yes, we wanna lift something that's going to give us benefit, but just getting up and moving is the starting point for that. So I've been seeing so many
[00:23:46] Carrie Lupoli: beautiful reels lately of like older women especially. Mm-hmm. Like a actually at the gym with a trainer. And I mean, I love the idea because trainers like I just am bringing a trainer on for my parents because they just think [00:24:00] having a professional is just.
[00:24:02] Carrie Lupoli: Absolutely priceless. Mm-hmm. But literally starting with sitting down and standing up. Yes. And they have to hold on to stand up. Mm-hmm. And I see these reels all the time too. What an amazing first step that actually is building strength. And if we can't sit up from a sit seated position by ourselves, that's what we can work on first.
[00:24:22] Carrie Lupoli: I, I just love that. Absolutely.
[00:24:23] Elaine McCormick: That's amazing. Absolutely. I mean that and just lifting things up. So many people have issues with their shoulders, and as we can start building some of that muscle, it's gonna help you to put the dishes away.
[00:24:34] Carrie Lupoli: It's a really good point. I think sometimes if you lift up your shoulders and you feel pain, you feel like.
[00:24:39] Carrie Lupoli: You need to stop. And I'm not saying you, you work through the pain. Right. But I think sometimes we have these limitations that keep us stuck and then we never actually push ourselves just to keep doing it so that it gets easier. Right, right. Yeah. To labor. So good. Okay. So we've got a mindset shift realizing we're not too old.
[00:24:56] Carrie Lupoli: It's never too late. Yep. We've got movement in some way, [00:25:00] shape or form, start moving our bodies.
[00:25:01] Elaine McCormick: Correct. And then the third thing I would say is so many people don't necessarily have the protein in their meals. So they might have for breakfast, a muffin or oatmeal or something like that because that's what they're used to having.
[00:25:13] Elaine McCormick: Or pancakes.
[00:25:14] Carrie Lupoli: Yeah. You know,
[00:25:15] Elaine McCormick: and we can still have those, but you need to have that protein that goes with it. And so many times people our age are not getting enough of that protein. So
[00:25:25] Carrie Lupoli: tell us about protein. Why is it so important? Like as you're thinking, as you focus on blood sugar stabilization, how does protein.
[00:25:34] Carrie Lupoli: Fall into that category of supporting blood sugar.
[00:25:38] Elaine McCormick: Well, your carbs will turn into to sugar. So your protein is a, is a complete amino acid that will allow you to get the nutrition that you need and not spike your blood sugar. So by having that protein, it keeps your sugars stable so that when you do have some of those carbs with your meal, because we wanna have carbs mm-hmm.
[00:25:59] Elaine McCormick: Um, [00:26:00] your blood sugar is not going to spike because that protein will help keep you in that balanced state. I
[00:26:05] Carrie Lupoli: love that. I love that. And and you mentioned like pancakes and muffins and all of that, and that's what everybody thinks of as carbs, but. Let's go through some of the carbs that you would really recommend.
[00:26:16] Carrie Lupoli: We can make some like norin or swaps to, and then I wanna hear some of your favorite proteins.
[00:26:20] Elaine McCormick: Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, some of the carbs, obviously vegetables, fruits, and vegetables are your best. Yeah. People don't realize that those are carbs too. I know. I know. Yeah, so fruits and vegetables are awesome.
[00:26:33] Elaine McCormick: You can have some crackers. Those are a little bit more dense, so we, I like to keep mine more. I call it leaning green, so keep them more. I know I planted a garden this year. I'm so excited about it. So keep 'em more. What's coming out of the ground? Oh, I love that. So I love zucchini. Zucchini is one, and it's so versatile.
[00:26:51] Elaine McCormick: Um, you can make, you can make muffins from it. Yeah. Um, and that actually gives you some of those healthy carbs in there. So, [00:27:00] um, those are probably what, what I use for swaps.
[00:27:03] Carrie Lupoli: Yeah. As much as you can. I mean, I love that because. When you're keeping your blood sugar balanced and you're eating like small meals all day.
[00:27:11] Carrie Lupoli: Mm-hmm. And you wanna incorporate carbs, you also wanna have as much nutrients as possible. Yeah. So what you're talking about just gives us as many nutrients as possible, which is like, it isn't, I always say it isn't what you are, but you eat, it's, you are what you absorb. Yes. And the more fruits and vegetables we can get.
[00:27:26] Carrie Lupoli: In as carbs. This the better it is for us. But like you said, if you want pancakes, you can still have the pancakes, right? It's just a matter of what your body is actually, you know, what, what you're feeling like your body is saying to you. Okay. Give us your favorite protein.
[00:27:40] Elaine McCormick: My favorite protein is, oh my gosh, there's so many.
[00:27:44] Elaine McCormick: Uh, we eat a lot of chicken. Okay. Yeah. So I Chicken is also very versatile. You can make changes. We like to grill chicken out on the grill. Mm-hmm. Um, so I would say probably chicken and then that's. Pretty easy. Um, yeah, you do so much with it. [00:28:00] Yeah. Um, but even we do a lot of the organic deli Turkey as well.
[00:28:04] Elaine McCormick: Those are easy. As a quick, as a quick grab and go protein as a quick grab and go. If I'm gonna be out running errands, I have my cooler, I will throw in some deli Turkey, some carrots, some almonds, and I've got a meal right there. Oh. So yeah.
[00:28:16] Carrie Lupoli: Super fast. Grab and go. I, um, oh gosh, I've been grilling a lot of shrimp lately.
[00:28:21] Carrie Lupoli: I've been loving. Grilled shrimp. So yeah, I think a lot of people don't fully understand protein. I always think about like if you're not vegan. The simplest way to do to think about it is an animal based protein.
[00:28:35] Elaine McCormick: Yes.
[00:28:35] Carrie Lupoli: Like animal based. If it's animal based, you're gonna have a complete protein in there.
[00:28:39] Carrie Lupoli: Correct. So, absolutely. That's great. Yeah. Elaine, you are incredible. I love that your Instagram handle is, Nana knows better. Is that right? Yes, that's correct. Uh, Nana knows better. So make sure you are following her because I think, I mean, you're doing tips. I mean, you even do gardening tips and quilting tips like all the grandmothers [00:29:00] want to hear, but you are just so real and you're so authentic, um, and you're so knowledgeable.
[00:29:05] Carrie Lupoli: So please make sure you go follow Nana knows better. Where else can we find you if like. On your website and things like that, what's your website?
[00:29:13] Elaine McCormick: Yeah. My website is www
[00:29:15] Carrie Lupoli: www.elainemccormick.com. Okay, great. We'll put those in the show notes. You guys connect with her. Elaine, thank you so much. You're inspirational.
[00:29:24] Carrie Lupoli: I mean, it isn't, like you said, just the fact that you don't have to wear the seatbelt extender. It's what that means. Yeah. 'cause it means your body is healing. You're reversing metabolic disease. You've gained so much confidence and now you're living a life of so much purpose that's serving others to be able to do the same.
[00:29:43] Carrie Lupoli: So congrats to you all of your success. I'm so proud of you and I'm so excited that you're able to share your story here today. Thanks, Elaine. Well, thank you for having [00:30:00] me.
