It was great to chat healthy ageing with celebrity fitness trainer Richard Callender and Jacqueline Hooton (amazing PT specialising in healthy ageing). (If you’d like to know more about how CB elebrity fitness trainer Richard Callender and Jacqueline Hooton (amazing PT specialising in healthy ageing). D can help with anti ageing click here )
Richard:
Let’s talk pro aging then, okay? And let’s just change the narrative because as you said, it’s the question of fitness is so many different things, nutrition is so many different things. I mean, a whole healthy lifestyle is about balance, we know that, but not everyone understands the nuances to it. I mean, since you guys grew quickly, what does aging mean to you? It’s natural. Claudia, what does aging mean to you?
Claudia:
It means maintaining our vitality and continuing to live our best lives. I mean, I always think that the aim, the goal is to die young at a ripe old age to keep ourselves disease free, to keep ourselves healthy and motivated and enjoying life.
Richard:
Love it. Jacqueline, hit me with yours. What does aging mean to you?
Jacqueline:
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I couldn’t agree with that more. Well, I think it’s important for people to understand, there’s a difference in the UK in terms of healthy aging and your longevity, the average life expectancy. So there’s a big gap. So although people are living longer. Yes, people are living longer, but there’s a big gap between healthy aging and life expectancy. So to me, aging is about narrowing that gap. So that as Claudia is saying, so that we live longer, but in good health, because who wants to live until they’re 85 if the last 20 years of their life is spent in poor and deteriorating health. And sadly, that’s the reality for the average woman in the UK, certainly. Because life expectancy is about 83, 84, but healthy life expectancy is 64. And as a 58 year old woman, I find that horrifying to think that if we’re talking averages here, I could only have another six years in good health.
Richard:
No, I agree with you. So aging to me, it’s just a number. It really is a number. So many people get [inaudible 00:08:45]. We celebrate numbers as you grow older. Your 16th, your 18th, your 21st, your 30th, your 40th. And you get to a point where people stop celebrating when you get beyond a certain age. You’re like, “Oh, I’m just old now. What’s the point?” And you go, actually, if you’ve gone into good habits as early as possible and you keep those habits going then you can redefine how your story plays out. And as you said, what’s the point in living to a hundred years old, if the last X amount or even 80 years old, the last 20 years of your life it’s full of pain and [inaudible 00:09:13]? We want to adopt some good habits now that you can carry forward.
Richard:
So I would say, what do you think we need to be doing as a society? Not just women. I know women are your specialties, but we do have some guys out there who tuned. But as a whole, what do you think we need to be doing? I don’t mean a massive list, but things that people could write down and go, “Actually, I’m doing five of those things.” For example, what things do you think people need to be doing now to prepare for the future? Now I don’t care if you’re 21 years old, you get into good habits now, that will carry you forward. So what do you guys think?
Claudia:
Shall I jump in here?
Jacqueline:
Yeah. Sure.
Claudia:
So I think the single most powerful steps that you can take to ensure longevity and to preserve your health is to reduce inflammation in the body. Would you agree with that, Jacqueline? I mean, we know that between 70 to 90% of chronic disease is caused by inflammation. And by that, I mean, arthritis, blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, all sorts of-
Jacqueline:
It’s a precursor, isn’t it? To many things. Yeah.
Richard:
Love that. So it’s about reducing inflammation in the body. So in a quick pop shot, how can people do that? What do people need to be doing now to start looking at it, identifying that for precursor and making tweaks to their lifestyle, their diet, their movement patterns, what could they be doing now to try and start bringing that down?
Claudia:
So number one, cut out the sugar or reduce the sugar as much as possible. Number two, bring in the berries and the dark green leafy veg, the oily fish and the olive oil and avocados.
Richard:
Love it.
Claudia:
Mediterranean, Mediterranean.
Richard:
Mediterranean. It does work. And as you just touched on this thing with the sugar. Some people going, “Oh no, should they cut it out?” We’re not demonizing sugar. What we’re trying to say is, we’re saying it’s about some people just aren’t aware of how much sugar they take on board. That’s all. Once you’re aware of something you can make an educated decision to go for it. Anyone who follows me knows I’ve got a mild addiction strawberry laces, but that balance within a healthy diet. I’m not going to say to people, “Don’t do that.” Because I’m like, actually I don’t drink or smoke, why can’t I have some strawberry laces or some sweets every now and then. If I find myself having too much, I have to sort of have a chat to myself. It’s because I know my levels. So what we’re saying is, we’re not demonizing it or anything, we’re saying just be aware of your levels of everything. Jacqueline.
Claudia:
That’s right.
Jacqueline:
So some real practical things. I think first of all, I think we challenge what we expect. So I think we should raise our expectations. So it is possible. And this is why it’s really good to have older role models out there that people can relate to as opposed to… Obviously, we’re seeing loads of impressive fitness stuff with youngsters, but we need to see older people engaging in fitness, in activity, health, nutrition, and doing well for people to go, “Oh, it is possible. So what’s the difference?” So that’s the first thing. But also say there is some groundwork we can be doing when we’re younger because, for example, the better our bone density is when we then reach menopause, the more chance we have of offsetting the [inaudible 00:12:19] things like osteoporosis, which is a bone health issue. So if we’re in our 20s we can be building bone density.
Jacqueline:
So anyone younger watching this, this is fantastic time to be getting into the strength training because by the end of your 20s, your bone density is never going to be sort of better than that. It’s always going to diminish. So that to me would be a starting point. What was the original question? Sorry, I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent. What was the number one…
Richard:
As in what do you think we can do to affect or slow down or just adjust the aging process?
Jacqueline:
Well, I think that the thing is, for you to understand aging, there’s different things that play here. So we’ve got the chronological age, we can’t change that. Yeah. I’m going to actually have to reeducate you as well, Richard, because that age is just a number thing, we can’t do that either because age is much more. So age, chronological age, yes, is exactly that. It is just a number. But we also know we’ve got things like functional aging and biological aging. And we know that if there’s real diversity in the diet, and Claudia knows this, and have it promote a healthy gut biome. These are all things that are going to support that healthy aging. We kind of need to recognize the things that are toxic in our environment for us and things like alcohol consumption.
Jacqueline:
Like you, we don’t want to demonize anything, but we need to just get a handle on that from a younger age, really. Be really aware of everything we put into our body, how that affects every single cell of our body. And as Claudia’s already talked about that inflammation that there’s no this sort of cheating on your diet and all the rest of it. But actually, there’s no cheating on anything. Everything you eat, you drink, smoke, your activity, all those things are impacting. Sorry. It’s a bit of a long-winded answer to that. Claudia’s much more [crosstalk 00:14:09] than I am. I’m going to let Claudia deal with the answers.
Richard:
No. No.
Claudia:
Can I just jump in, Rich, with something else?
Richard:
Yeah. Go for it.
Claudia:
There’s a really interesting study that I read last week about Jacqueline talking about this diversity of microbiome. And sometimes these changes, they don’t take long. The results were shown within three weeks and the study was a cohort of women over 55 years old. So it’s never too late, is my message as well.
Richard:
Absolutely.
Jacqueline:
That’s such an important message, isn’t it? That’s really, really good for people to know that, as opposed to thinking that, “Oh, it’s a bit late for me. I’m stuck in my ways. I can’t make a difference.”
Richard:
And that’s where I was going. So where you pulled me up, Jacqueline, is where-
Claudia:
Sorry.
Richard:
It’s fine. Is where I was saying it’s just a number because so many people will live for that number. They’ll go, “Oh, well, I’m young and carefree…” When you get to a certain age you go, “Oh it’s too late for me now.” It’s like, no, it’s never too late. There’s people I know who are thinking, “Oh, shall I go and join the gym? Or should I do weight training? Oh, it’s too late for me now.” Or they’re maybe just in their 40s or maybe in their 50s. You’re like, it’s just a number. Get past that. Start moving, start eating and making these changes as Claudia said. And it really is just a number. Because we know there’s people out there who are 55, 60, 65, 70, there’s some amazing role models out there that people just aren’t aware of, but aren’t looking for. They’re looking for quite typically, unfortunately, the stereotypical gym shark, fit… You go, that’s fine. Look for other role models you can go, “That’s where I want to be,” okay? And there’s no point me-
Jacqueline:
Yeah. Exactly. And I think [crosstalk 00:15:38].
Richard:
Right. There’s no point in me as a 45 year old going, “Oh, my role model is a 30 year old ripped to shreds athlete who trains, who’s [inaudible 00:15:45] and eats a certain way. I can’t attain that. My role model should be somewhere around my sort of social level and age level and maybe even heart, I can go, “That’s what I want to be like. That’s my aspiration.” We should all be looking at people like yourself, so you can go, “Yeah. It can be done.”
Jacqueline:
Yeah. It’s relatable role models. I think it’s really important so that people feel that they can access the industry and they feel that it’s possible. This is why I have a real thing about being absolutely up front about my age and I encourage other women who are working in the industry and guys to be really… I think when I first joined the industry, I was sort of approaching maybe 40. And I thought, “I don’t know, it’s a bit of a young industry. Maybe I won’t tell people my age.” And it was actually [Charlotte Ord 00:16:32]. You’ve worked with Charlotte, haven’t you?
Richard:
Yeah.
Jacqueline:
Who said, “Jacq, I think one of your key selling points is your age. I don’t think you should hide it.” And I guess it made me think about it a bit differently and I’ve been really upfront about my age. And I think that’s also important because we need to get away from… We’ve still got so much ageism in society and this is a problem. So we’ve got women who don’t want to talk. People of my grandmother’s generation is like, “Ooh, she’s of a certain age.” And women over 40 didn’t say if you were your age. And I’m like, no, tell people how old you are. People need to go, “Oh gosh. Actually, 55 isn’t nearly half dead.” Do you know what I mean? Or whatever age or 40. You’re over it by the time they’re 40. This is so important to have those relatable role models that we change people’s perception of what age looks like.
Jacqueline:
Because I think so many people are stuck with this idea that older adults means you’re in a… We’re seeing through COVID, you’re in a nursing home, you’re not independent, you’re relying on other people, you can’t get up and stand out of a chair, you need help getting to the bathroom. That’s what lots of people think old age looks like.
Richard:
Absolutely. And the thing is though with the changing of body shapes, as it has over the few generations, people have almost become accepting of those and going, “Okay. I’ve got my middle-aged [inaudible 00:17:55].” Or wherever it’s sitting and then going, “That’s just me now.” And you go, “Well, if that’s you and you’re happy with that, fine. But if you’re not happy with it, you can change.” And so many people going, “Yeah, but…” It’s that whole kind of catch 22, people are saying I should accept myself for however you are or do I change? It’s all down to the person, but you don’t need to give up because people dictate you or you think your age dictates it. At whatever age you can be, you can make a change. We all agree on that.
Claudia:
Absolutely.
Jacqueline:
And I think also, please people understand anything is better than nothing. So very often fitness sounds scary because they think you’re going to make me go running or are you going to make me do this and I can’t do any of that and I’m really frightened and it’s going to hurt and I’m going to sweat a lot and I’m going to hate it. And it’s also just helping people. Actually, any step in that direction is going to help.
Richard:
Any step. Totally. The comfort zone has aged and killed more people than anything else. Where people just gone, “It’s enough now. I haven’t got the time to commit like those people over there, I’m not addicted to the gym, I’m not addicted…” And people think that you have to be addicted to be working on yourself. As you get older people think that’s not fair, you’re taking time away from your partner or from your family or from your job. And it’s like, no, it’s not taking time away from that, you’re actually just investing time back in yourself. And if more people took time to invest the time they have in themselves rather than, for example, sitting down and binge watching a whole series or something on Netflix over the course of a weekend.
Richard:
You think how many hours have you just committed to your sofa, doing nothing.You can take a fraction of that time and build something to better yourself. Not just for an age, whereas you’re talking in regards to your health and your fitness. So I think people also need to get past the fact that they think anyone who’s doing well or doing good to try to push themselves forward, they’re addicted. It doesn’t always work that way.
Claudia:
And Rich, it’s the same with nutrition. I mean, small changes can make a huge difference in the long run. Even if it’s just as simple as drinking more water and getting your hydration levels. It shows on the skin. It can make a big, big difference.
Richard:
So let’s talk about that. So let’s talk about the things we see. So I mean, the effects of aging on you externally. Let’s talk about the external. What do people see? So when you get older, what changes on women externally? The people watching this will go, “I’ve seen that. I felt that.” Tell me about the things that change that you noticed as you’ve gotten older or more mature.
Claudia:
To me?
Richard:
To anyone. I don’t mind.
Claudia:
Jacqueline, do you want to add this one up?
Jacqueline:
Do you want to start with the nutrition? So how that might show up on…
Claudia:
Yeah. So I-
Jacqueline:
I felt that was where Richard was going with that, that’s why I was just…
Claudia:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sure. I don’t know if you’ve heard of a very famous dermatologist in America called Dr. Nicholas Perricone. And he talks about how sugar increases the puffiness, it reduces the contours of the face, it increases the fine lines. And he says that that sugar absolutely affects your health, but also your skin. And we know that because we’ve seen, clients with type 2 diabetes, we’ve seen that glycation, the acceleration of the aging in the skin. So of course, it’s often the skin, but this is where collagen and nutrition can play a huge role. And we can support our body’s production of collagen by enjoying all the bone broth and chicken stock or maybe we reached for marine collagen supplements. Or we can be looking at hyaluronic acids from internally as well as just putting it on on face creams. There’s really, really a lot we can do. And it doesn’t even have to be what we’re ingesting. I don’t know, Jacqueline, if you’ve ever tried a silk pillowcase.
Jacqueline:
Yeah. I’ve heard a lot about those recently because of gray hair. So I stopped dying my hair about three years ago and gray is more liable to break and everything. So I’ve been interested in the latest sort of information around silk pillows, but also for the face.
Claudia:
Yes, for both. So a lot of people come to me, they see changes in their hair, and often that can be related to low iron or thyroid or, of course, the menopausal changes. But when we have a silk pillowcase, it’s so much more gentle on the hair follicles and our night cream that we might be putting on our face. It doesn’t-
Jacqueline:
Richard’s just making a note.
Claudia:
It stays on our skin, it doesn’t go into that cotton pillow and we’ll never wake up with a creased face again with the silk pillowcases. So I’ve done a bit of a plug for the silk pillowcase. But there is something-
Jacqueline:
Well, so it’s going to be a bit of a run the silk pillowcases [crosstalk 00:22:31].
Claudia:
Yeah. It has to Mulberry silk.
Jacqueline:
Oh, mulberry silk. This is getting very precise.
Richard:
Mulberry silk.
Claudia:
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Jacqueline:
What is mulberry silk? Who knew?
Richard:
Don’t worry. [inaudible 00:22:44] I’d know. I’m like, “Google, buy mulberry silk pillow. Three.” Wow. Okay. So, Jacqueline, what’s it to you? So the changes, what do you see changing for women, men, physically as they get older?
Jacqueline:
Well, muscle loss, really. So if we’re not challenging ourselves, we’re not engaged in strength training, then we’re going to see muscle loss and then visually, we’re going to see that. So it’s not that people might want to look big and muscular as they’re getting older, but they are going to notice that sort of loss of muscle. And sort of worse still, I guess, for women and men is that tipping over into frailty, so then we start to see those postural issues. So more rounding through the shoulders in terms of physical pain, more back pain, for example, the loss of any definition in the glutes. So we’re talking about flat bottoms, which obviously is a visual thing, but actually that has real implications in terms of our strength and our ability to be able to walk and move. And if we’ve got weak glutes, everyone wants a booty at the moment, but it’s way, way more than that because that thing is going to lead to back pain as you know and so on.
Jacqueline:
So it’s going to show up in the body and in those sorts of physical ways, as well as how our face is looking. And also for women, weight distribution is going to change and that’s going to be more centered around the midsection post-menopause just because of those hormonal changes. So we’ve got more predisposition. Prior to menopause, we might be more… I hate talking about women in terms of fruit shapes, but more curvy in terms of breasts and hips. Post-menopause is where women typically, when they’re laying down fat, lay down fat around the midsection. And it’s not that the thermodynamic properties of food have changed, but we’ve got a sort of a number of issues going on here.
Jacqueline:
It might be a bit more sedentary, doing a bit less exercise, diet, if we sort of might be self-medicating menopause, if you might be drinking more alcohol, turning to the comfort foods because we’re dealing with symptoms and all the rest of it. And all those things can kind of brew up perfect storm. So that’s another thing physically we might look like. So how we might visually change from that point of view. The whole stooping, all those things, neck jutting forward, all those things going on.
Richard:
So the reason I asked that is because I want people who are watching this to go, “Oh yeah. I can identify with some of those symptoms.” They’re not symptoms. Those changes. Now it doesn’t mean that just because you got one or two you’re suddenly aging. We want people understand that we’re all people, we’ve all been through a lot of those ailments, got all these conditions, whether it be back pain or puffiness or whichever the case would be, people have to understand. I mean, one of the questions that came in just now was a lady saying, as she’s got older it frightened her into pushing herself [inaudible 00:25:43] body. Her health is a lot worse, she’s got high blood pressure and thyroid problems. How can I safely start?
Richard:
So what I want people to understand is this talk is my way of saying to people, right, a lot of people have a fear factor of getting started. I’m bringing in two ladies who’ve been there and we’ve all got experience, we’ve all got years and years, decades of experience, okay? The fact of matter is you just need to start, small steps, small tweaks. No one’s asking you to go from wherever you are, whether it be 33 to running a marathon. Too many people go from extreme to extreme. We’re saying just start with small steps. Would you agree? Small tweaks to your nutrition, small tweaks to your movement, as in your activity levels. It doesn’t have to be working out, [inaudible 00:26:26] your activity levels. And small tweaks to your lifestyle. That’s like a three headed snake. Do you know what I mean? You go nutrition, movement, lifestyle. Small tweaks. What I’ve found… And you guys might be different or you might agree. Is those who start fast end fast. It’s too much.
Richard:
So it’s start slow and make a few changes, get that nailed down and then move on to another part. Nail a few things, get the [inaudible 00:26:56] and then you can cycle back to yourself and just keep adding on because it means you keep moving forward up that ladder. And that’s how people can succeed. People tend to want things… I’m sure you guys will agree, people tend to want things right now. People have no patience anymore. They see people saying, “Hey, 12 week transformation your body.” Or, “Three month total loss.” And everyone’s like, if it takes longer than a certain period of time, I’m not interested. Where you go, hold on, if you did a small change and you kept that change going for a year, for example, you’ll be in a much better place in a year’s time consistently, than starting, stopping, starting, stopping. And that whole year you effect. And so that’s why I think people need to understand as we’re getting older, you’ll get to a point in your life you’re going to go, “I wish I’d done this earlier.”
Jacqueline:
I think it’s a bit like pensions, isn’t it? I can say this because my son works in the financial area. And people often don’t think. We don’t think about getting old and investing in pensions when we’re young, very often. And it’s a bit like that and what we need to understand it’s like money in the bank for when we’re older. So at any point when we’re doing this, it’s about that sustainability, but it’s very hard because I think many people, in all walks of life, we don’t address something until we hit a pain point. So very often it will be a medical condition or something that will bring someone into addressing their diet or their fitness. For example, I’ve got a recent lady who’s contacted me and her father is in a nursing home and she’s had a real wake up call because she’s looked around her, she can see the general health of those people and she herself feels that she’s not very healthy at the moment because of her lifestyle and doesn’t want to be in that situation in 20 years time. So she’s having a bit of a wake-up call.
Jacqueline:
And sometimes people might have a particular pain or perhaps they’ve been told they’re pre-diabetes or there’s something going on or they’ve got an injury and it’s that… So it’s very difficult to say to people, “Please do it whilst you’re fit and well.” It’s a hard serve, isn’t it? And I understand that transformations, it’s… We love all that’s really showy. It’s very hard to sell health, it really is, until we become ill. It’s a difficult thing.
Richard:
I agree. No, I’m with you on that, a hundred percent. Because I do think, especially with the likes of social media, people like the glitz, the before and after. And you go, yeah, but it doesn’t always have to be about before and after, why can’t it just be about just the pathway?
Jacqueline:
So you know my photograph, Richard, because I know that you’ve seen it before. I will share it fairly frequently because I’ve got a photograph when I was 18 and I quite often put it’s a new birthday and what I look like now. Which is pretty much, it’s not a transformation because I still look the same. It’s all obvious I’m 58, but my physique, I have not gained loads of weight, for example. And when I share that, I really talk about sustainability. It’s not about rapid transformation, it’s doing it day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out. And that’s what’s required, really. And it’s building a habit. I was asked today, “How do we find motivation?” I said, “Please stop chasing motivation.” Motivation’s a fickle friend. It’s about embedding those habits so that you couldn’t not think about doing it because it becomes such a way of life.
Richard:
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I’ve lost count of how many people are surprised by how old I am when I’m lifting big weights in gym sometimes. I’m not even a big guy in the slightest, right? But I’ve been training for 30 years. I started when I was 14, 15. I was doing sprinting, I used my brother’s weights. I’ve been lifting weights for 30 years, I’d love to think I have a certain degree of knowledge and [inaudible 00:30:39] relatively well. Same as you, my body doesn’t change. I don’t even show off my body that much. That’s a different issue. I’d love to have that kind of confidence where I just rip my top off and walk around pecks and abs everywhere. That’s not me. So I don’t tend to change much at all.
Richard:
So I’m very boring in that sense, but I’m hoping to leave this planet, leave this earth, and that’s it. Just keep it going. I want to have not a bad looking corpse. I want to have an open closet, people will walk pass and go, “Damn. Go on, Rich. Well done.” Do you know what I mean? Hey, it’s about sustainability. So let’s go over this. So I’ve got a couple of questions here. We know nutrition is vital. We know movement is vital, okay? Why aren’t people doing it?
Jacqueline:
Do you want to take nutrition first?
Claudia:
Ooh, it’s hard. Jacqueline, you talked about motivation. Motivation is just an emotion. Yeah. It’s really difficult. I don’t know. I think sometimes we need proof and sometimes when we start with the small changes and we begin to see the changes and the impact it’s having. I mean, I wish everyone would learn from and follow the advice. I always say that the genes load the gun, but it’s the environment that pulls the trigger. And this is where we can be setting ourselves up for a healthier future. And hopefully, people are taking it on board and motivated by this.
Jacqueline:
That’s really interesting because I see someone’s just said, “Because it’s hard. If it was easy everyone would be fit and healthy.”
Richard:
Go get them. Go get them, Jacqui.
Jacqueline:
No, no. And I’m thinking this is why we’ve got such a responsibility in the industry to make it accessible. I worked with a client today and she said to me, “Oh, such a relief. I thought you were going to kill me.” And it was like, “No, no, no, I don’t…” One, she’s got a couple of medical issues, we’ve got to work around that. I want people to enjoy what they’re doing and take them on a journey with it, so they look forward to it, it feels achievable. I explained today, it doesn’t take any skill at all to beast someone in a training session. It takes zero skill. I could do that day after day after day. The real skill is about safe and effective exercise prescription and making sure people enjoy it, they want to do it, it’s achievable for them.
Jacqueline:
It might not be the showy stuff that you see on social media. We think, God, what they’re doing, they’re leaping off this and they got their foot around their head or whatever. It might not look visually, whoa, but actually this is what we want people to do. It’s why it’s so important that we make it… There’s a place where you can step onto it. Here you are. It’s just from where you are, here’s a little step, can we do that first step? When you said how people start. Very often I say to people, “Could you walk 10 minutes from your home and 10 minutes back again? Are you doing that at the moment?” “No, I don’t walk.” “But can you walk?” “Yes, I can walk.” If someone’s not immobile. “Can you walk 10 minutes away and back again?”
Jacqueline:
“Well, I thought you’re going to make me do…” “No, I don’t want you to do that. I literally want you to go for a walk 10 minutes from your home, 10 minutes back again. Could you do that maybe every other day?” By the time we’ve gotten doing it every day, I’m thinking brilliant. Now we’ve reached the public health England 150 minutes of cardiovascular activity a week. We’re already on a health path. I think people are reassured when they hear things like that because it brings it down to anybody can do this. Literally anybody could do that.
Richard:
It’s all about the low hanging fruit. So what I mean by that is, some people understand that analogy and some people won’t. The low hanging fruit is the things that you can just do straight away. You don’t have to climb a ladder for it [inaudible 00:34:27].
Jacqueline:
No equipment.
Richard:
No equipment. And there’s people out here right outside right now and may not be watching this, but there’s people people know who may be elderly, and when I say elderly, I’m talking sort of 70s, 80s. My mom is probably a great example personally, she’s 84 years old. She’ll still pick up Esme, my daughter, and walk around the house with her. And I’m like, “Mom.” And you know why? Because my mom has never stopped. Whenever tired, she went in the garden and she tended to the garden. She’s always walking up and down stairs. I know if my mom had to stop, she would probably age. So she has never stopped. And because she’s never stopped, we never stopped. And she [crosstalk 00:35:05].
Jacqueline:
We can see more of your mom on social media. Has she got an account?
Richard:
Not yet. It’s coming.
Jacqueline:
Well, we need her on. This is the thing. So this is why I love… I don’t know if you know Train With Joan who’s in her ’70s, who’s got a huge account. But I really love her because her transformation has only been in the last three or four years. And she’s got medical conditions. So she’s very relatable for people. It’s not like, “Oh yeah, but she always trained. She’s always been athletic.” No she hasn’t. And really, her life could be so different at this point. She’s made that change very recently, absolutely living proof that you can jump on this at any point. The sooner, the better, we’d love you to start sooner, but actually it’s never too late.
Richard:
Yeah. And that’s the thing. And coming back to what you said earlier on about people don’t tend to make a change until there’s a pain point. It literally is that analogy of a car. People just drive around in their bodies until something breaks down, until the mechanic or the doctor or medical or health professional says, “Unfortunately, you have an issue here. You have to deal with it.” Then they’ll go, “Oh, I better deal with it.” And what you find is a lot of people will socially, it’s the group of people people hang around with as well. If you are the one person in a group of five or six who says, “I want to make a change.” But the other four or five are saying, “Why? You’re fine as you are.” You then have that peer pressure at whatever age it is, do you make that change? Are you strong enough with that willpower to say, “Actually, I’m going to step away from what they want to do,” which might be drinking, smoking, doing all kinds of things on the weekend and make a change. Or do you fall it with the crowd?
Richard:
There’s so many social aspects that come to this as well. And which is what we’ll probably touch on in part two. But the main thing is… I don’t want to go on too long. But I do want to do this. I want to wrap up with some strong ones here. Tell me in your own words why it’s important that we address the maturing aging process right now? And anyone who’s watching who’s thinking, “Maybe tomorrow I’ll do this,” or, “Maybe I’ll do my food shopping on the weekend. I’ll keep buying those cheap nuggets because they’re great for family.” Why should someone start making the change now? Claudia.
Claudia:
Because we want you living your best life, that’s why. We want you feeling your best, we want you at your most productive, we want you enjoying your best life and avoiding health concerns and conditions in the future.
Richard:
Love it. Jacqueline.
Jacqueline:
Yeah. Absolutely. Do it. Just do it now. To absolutely, your future. Your future depends, the decisions you make today, impact your tomorrow.
Richard:
Ooh. Deep. I will leave it with this because that’s two great endings. I’m going to say this, do it now because there may not be a tomorrow. So why don’t just do it now? And if it’s not for you, do it for your partner, if you haven’t got a partner, do it for your friends who love and care about you. If it’s not them, you got children. If you’re healthy and happy, your circle are healthy and happy and they will worry less about you, okay? This has been an absolute pleasure. I know this was a short one, but I think we’ve done pretty well. We ticked a few boxes.
Jacqueline:
Before you go, you’ve got lots of votes for Mommy Callender coming on social media. There’s a whole team of people saying, “Mommy Callender, Mommy Callender.” You have to get her on, Rich.
Richard:
I might speak to my mom and say, “Mom, when I do a part two, do you want to come on? Even if it’s just to say hi.” So I’ll see what I can do.
Jacqueline:
[crosstalk 00:38:31]. I’m sorry. She’s going to be way more popular than you.
Richard:
Let me leave with this thing very quick about my mom. Our family is like the Cosby Show. We’re just a real close family and we’ve been through so much and obviously, we lost my father three years ago. But throughout the whole process of everything, my mom and dad have always been consistent. They’ve always preached to all of us kids. We’ve all done some element of fitness, we were all competing when we were younger, but we’ve all kept moving. Whether it be sport and fitness like myself, or martial arts my brother, or badminton. We’ve all done things, but we all carried it forward. So whilst there’s any parents out there, if you’ve got kids, it’s not about having to compete to win, just have your kids play, try different sports activities, whatever. Even if you just go for long, walks with them. Instill it in them at an early age and you keep doing it and they’ll keep doing it because you are role models. You really are role models.
Richard:
If you can’t be the role model, find someone who can be a role model to your children if you can’t give them what you think they need. And it doesn’t matter what age your children are, even if your friends, actually, it can be other adults, if someone needs a role model and you can’t be that role model, help them find a role model who can lead them forward because that’s what we need more of. Not just social media costs everything. We need great role models of every color, shape, size, demographic, you name it. I don’t care. We need people doing good things, so other people do good things and then part a way forward. And we’ll all grow old together. How about that?
Jacqueline:
Yeah. Lovely. Love that [crosstalk 00:39:58].
Claudia:
Fantastic.
Jacqueline:
You said it. You said it.
Richard:
Hey. Hey. I want to say a massive thank you. This is the pro aging process what we’ll call this. The pro aging process. It’s been Claudia, it’s been Jacqueline. Everyone if you’ve watched this, whenever you’re watching this, whether it be today, whether it be in 2022, 2023, whenever you’re watching this, please follow these two ladies, hit them with any questions you have. I saw some of the questions from earlier on, people were asking about certain things and giving some of their statements, I’ll try and double back and answer some of them, but if not hit me up with a DM, hit the ladies with the DMs, they’ve got their specialty, they’re amazing people. But I want to say to everyone thanks for tuning in, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Ladies, thank you, I appreciate your time. You didn’t have to do this.
Jacqueline:
Thank you [crosstalk 00:40:42].
Claudia:
Thank you for having us.
Richard:
I just feel a bit underdressed. You guys are all glamorous. I want to go and…
Jacqueline:
No, not at all. It was just like, “Ooh, what can I wear? It’s so hot.” I’ve been living in a bikini.
Richard:
Well, no, no-
Jacqueline:
I thought that might be just a bit too much.
Richard:
I mean, it would put pressure on us. But I’m just going to go finish my Amazon order for my silk pillows.
Jacqueline:
Yes. Quick, before they run out.
Richard:
Before they run out. I’m going to buy as many as I can and then you can find them at richcallender.com/silkpillows. But apart from that, ladies, have a great evening. Everyone who’s watching, all the viewers, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Send your comments below. If you’ve got any other questions, hit us up. Otherwise, I’ll see you guys all soon. Ladies, thank you.
Jacqueline:
Thank you. Bye now. Bye everybody.
Claudia:
Thank you, Rich. Bye.
Richard:
Goodbye everyone. Bye-bye.
Claudia:
Bye.