Is Pilates Enough After Menopause? Getting Strong at 62

Nikkiey: What's going on, you guys? Hey everyone. Today I have Johanna here with us. She is a WarriorBabe, and she has been active and athletic her whole life, but she's gone through two total knee replacements and the challenges of aging. She found herself struggling in a way that she never had before. What worked in her younger years no longer got her results, which left her feeling frustrated and discouraged. But then she found WarriorBabe and everything changed.

She discovered a method that not only helped her lose weight and build strength, but also gave her confidence, energy, and a plan that she can maintain for life. Today I'm going to speak with Johanna and dive into some questions so she can share her story with you guys. And I hope that one of you is inspired by what she's going to share with us today. So Johanna, welcome.

Johanna: Thank you, thanks so much for having me.

Nikkiey: Can you give the listeners a little bit of background about you? Where are you from, what do you do for work, and how old are you?

Johanna: Okay, yes. I'm 62. I live in Bend, Oregon now. We just moved here about six months ago, and I lived in Los Angeles my entire life. I'm an ecologist by trade, and in my younger years I was actually a personal trainer and a group X instructor, way back in the 80s. The big 80s with the leg warmers and the big hair.

Nikkiey: Okay, cool. We'll dive maybe into some of the narratives and stories that you were brought up with as a trainer in that time and what it was like back then. I was just speaking to another WarriorBabe yesterday for an interview, and she mentioned growing up in the 80s and the things that you guys were told to do. So I'm sure we'll dabble in that discussion. But let's dive into where you were before finding WarriorBabe. What was going on in your world in terms of where you were mentally, where you were physically, and what were you trying to figure out before you found us?

Johanna: Well, as you mentioned, I've had two total knee replacements. They were five years apart. I've always been really active. I was a soccer player up until my adult years, into my 30s, and I stayed pretty active. But then when my knee started to fail, it set me back, because one workout would take me out for like three days. And in more recent years, dealing with aging parents and having to take care of them and move them, all of my stuff got set aside. I mean, I would hike, but my biggest frustration was finding a way, in my postmenopausal years, to maintain fitness and the goals that I wanted. Everything that I learned in my earlier years just didn't work anymore. So, super frustrating.

Nikkiey: Bring me back to what years it was when you had your knee replacements.

Johanna: My more recent one was about a year and a half ago, and the one before that was five years prior. It was a slow decline in movement. I actually found Pilates, so I was doing a lot of Pilates. I was doing no weight training at all. And I think that the lack of muscle was in great part keeping me from maintaining the weight that I wanted.

After my first knee replacement, I actually lost a great deal of weight really, really fast because I had a bad reaction to the surgery. I dropped 25 pounds in about three weeks and lost lots of muscle at the same time. Then I came back from that, but I was just doing lots and lots of cardio and Pilates, and it was really hard to maintain.

I was trying intermittent fasting, I was trying paleo, all of the things. But there was so much information out there that is in direct opposition. And then I had a lot of food allergies come up as well, gluten and dairy, and it was just hard to find my way. So that's why, when I found WarriorBabe and had this framework of somebody letting me know, this is how you eat, this is how much you work out... I remember in my initial interview, I said, look, I'm doing Pilates five or six times a week. Isn't that enough? Do I have to do weight training too? I forget who it was, but she was wonderful, and she just kind of shook her head and said, no, not enough.

Nikkiey: Let's unpack that a little bit more, because a lot of women I've talked to for years now are in that same bucket. They think that doing Pilates or yoga, or maybe some boot camp classes throughout the week, or going to Orangetheory, is enough. The majority of the women that come to us want to have more muscle on their body. They want to feel stronger. They want to be more toned. Can you help me understand why you thought Pilates was enough?

Johanna: Well, look, I'm an 80s aerobics queen. I went to the actual Jane Fonda studio, and I taught aerobics. I used to teach two-hour classes that were all cardio. I mean, crazy stuff. It's no wonder my knees wore out, right? So I think there's a misperception in information. In part, I had information that was outdated. And then also there's the information for women. WarriorBabe is a women-run entity, so you understand the problems that are unique to women. A lot of what's out there is mostly for men, and I don't think it works so well for women.

So understanding the equation of how to deal with premenopause, postmenopause, all of these things, that you can slowly increase calories as you gain muscle, understanding the importance of macronutrients, the types of workouts, and the importance of taking days off, which is another thing that I hardly ever did, is so imperative to finally understanding how to get results and maintain them.

At one point, if I'm totally transparent, I thought, gosh, maybe I should try this easy out that a lot of people are doing, an Ozempic thing or something like that. I'd never, ever considered it before. But it was like, either that or I'm resigning myself to the fact that this is my postmenopausal body and I'm giving up.

Nikkiey: Well, I appreciate that honesty, and you are not alone in that statement. So many women say, oh, the better years are behind me, or they accept what they hear: this is just what it's like now that you're menopausal or postmenopausal. And tagging onto what you said about all of the information out there, it's so overwhelming. Do this, try this, try Ozempic, it's the quick way to lose weight. So I appreciate your honesty with that. You mentioned a little earlier that what worked for you in the past no longer seemed to be effective. How did that make you feel?

Johanna: I was feeling like I'm not doing something right, that I can't maintain a 1,300-calorie day and not feel like I'm going to be homicidal at the end. It made me feel like I no longer had the willpower or the determination that I had when I was younger.

Nikkiey: That's pretty heavy. That's a lot to think about.

Johanna: Well, I think it leads into self-esteem. I've had a lot of different careers in my life. As I said, I was a personal trainer, then I was a hypnotherapist, and then I went back to school kind of late in life and became a therapist. I actually work with a lot of women who struggle with body image and food issues. And I was a secret snacker, and a lot of those things are shame-based. I think that society has a lot to do with that. But to have a place to go where you have a community of women who are going through the same experience is game changing, truly.

Nikkiey: Thank you for the work that you do there. And I think this conversation right now is really important. There are so many conversations in the fitness space that talk about, this is what I ate, this is how I worked out, this is my meal plan before and this is my workout strategy now. But getting to the depth of the conversation we're having right now, with your honesty and transparency in sharing that it made you feel like you weren't doing enough, or that you weren't enough, or that you were having a shame-based experience with snacking... so many women experience those same emotions. Someone listening to this right now is most likely feeling like, oh my gosh, I'm not alone. Johanna's going through the same thing, and there are other women going through the same thing. So thank you for that vulnerability and for sharing what you experienced mentally.

I want to pull it back to what you said about recognizing, with our platform, the importance of taking days off. What were you doing before WarriorBabe workout-wise? How much were you training in a week? Were you doing tons of cardio? What did that look like?

Johanna: It was trying to get as much in every day as I could. If I could do six or seven days a week, I would. The Pilates studio I was at had both spin and Pilates, so I would do a really super intense spin class, be completely soaked, and then go right into a Pilates class, and I would do that numerous times a week. It was craziness, really feeling like if I didn't push myself, I wasn't doing enough.

Nikkiey: And what did your nutrition look like on those days? How much were you eating?

Johanna: I think it would oscillate between being super strict... okay, let's talk about the carb thing, right? Trying to avoid fats, trying to avoid carbs, eating a lot of protein because it would satiate me. And then you get to a place where it's like, I don't want to do this anymore, and you just eat whatever you want. I wouldn't say I had a binge problem, but there were no holds barred. It's like, I'm going to eat whatever I want for breakfast, get a snack, eat ice cream after dinner. So it was black or white. Either I'm really, really on or I'm off of it.

Nikkiey: When you mentioned the carbs and the fats, what was the narrative going on in your mind about them? I've heard so many different narratives, but I want to hear what specifically carbs and fats meant to you back then.

Johanna: Right. Low carb, low fat, just trying to stay away from the things that actually give you balance. And it doesn't work. It just creates a feeling of deficit, and then you just kind of go off. And a lot of it, too... I think it's important to speak to the secrecy, and how this struggle for years and years has always been just in my own head.

Taking that out, doing WarriorBabe and doing the progress photos, for me was like, really? I've never, ever done anything like that in my life. To post photos of myself in a sports bra and underwear, it's like, I'm in. I've got to change something. And the safe space of being in a women-only program, and having the support, not only of my coach, Allison Berg, who is amazing, and her group, the Unicorns... that support is amazing. But also your posts, your podcasts, your Tuesday meetings, the Facebook page. There's even a Messenger group just for Oregon babes. I don't feel alone in it, and I feel like other people are having the same experience. I think that's such an important piece of it.

Nikkiey: I love that, and that makes my heart so happy, because that's our mission at WarriorBabe: those exact things. It's to help a hundred thousand women regain their personal power and confidence in their skin. But beneath that is having a community of women doing it together, who know they're on the same page and on the same journey. If they step out into the world around them, in Oregon or wherever, and maybe there's someone who doesn't support them, or there's criticism, which comes along with any journey when someone's trying to change themselves, WarriorBabes know they can come to this community and be supported by the team of Unicorns you're with, or by your coach Allison, who is incredible, and all of the other resources we have inside the community.

So let's talk about that. How did you find WarriorBabe, and what initially drew you into the program?

Johanna: I found you guys on Instagram. And I was a voyeur for a while. Not a long time, maybe about a month. I would watch your postings and read the comments and think, hmm, maybe, maybe. And then over time I thought, well, I'm just going to check it out, and I did the onboarding meeting. I think it kind of came to an apex when I had the thought, should I just order this medication? And I thought, no, now you're back in the seventies, the NoDoz days and the Dexatrim days, and I'm aging myself, using any means possible to try to get to the skinniest. Back in those days it was skinny, skinny. Skinny fat, basically. So unhealthy. I remember always being hungry back then, always starving. And it didn't work. I think it actually set me up for failure in my later years.

Nikkiey: Well, I'm so glad that you found us. And again, you're not alone in that. So many women have experienced it. But you recognized that what worked before doesn't work now, and that you're not looking for skinny, you're looking for strong. I can't wait to talk about the accomplishments you've seen with WarriorBabe. We all experience skepticism and feeling unsure, maybe from some of the comments you were reading. What was the maybe going on in your mind for that month that initially put you off until you finally said, I'm in?

Johanna: That's a good question. There's so much information out there, and so many coaches and people posting stuff. And I've always done this on my own. It's always been a very private, personal journey. So this was really stepping outside of that, and I wasn't sure I was ready or willing to do that. I'd never experienced it.

Nikkiey: Wow, okay. I haven't heard that response yet. But if you do things by yourself for so long, it's interesting to step into another world where you're in a community with thousands of people in a Facebook group. And as you shared earlier, that's something you love about the program, right?

Johanna: Yes. Yes.

Nikkiey: What do you think, from what you were hearing and seeing on Instagram, made WarriorBabe stand out from other approaches you'd tried in the past?

Johanna: For one thing, you said low cardio, low or no cardio. I'm like, really? You held the vision of a world where no cardio existed, because that was always the grind, right? The grind of having to do the cardio. I'd done weightlifting 15 years ago, and of course we all have all the equipment, but I thought, is that something I want to get back into? It's a complete shift, going from the Pilates world, where they reward you for how many times you've shown up this week, to a completely different approach. And it was just not knowing the right way to go. There's so much different information out there, and I didn't know what was going to be the thing for me.

Nikkiey: So what made you commit and say, I'm going to give this my all?

Johanna: It was during the onboarding meeting, because I'm a skeptic at heart. She answered all of my questions and all of my concerns. And it was the commitment of buying into the program. I thought, okay, I'm either all in or I'm not. It's an investment. If you look at working with a personal trainer, I have girlfriends who have made that investment, and honestly, if you add up what they're paying, it's actually more than this. So I thought, you know what, that's really going to help my motivation, knowing that I've committed for a year. It's going to keep me on track. That was part of it.

Nikkiey: Love that. And I love that you came in saying, I'm going to give it my all and commit. I'm sure you heard about our 10-80-10 principle in the onboarding experience with Allison. Ten percent of people come into our program and they are all for it. They're committed, they know it's an investment in themselves, they know it's up to them to put the program to work, and they get results within 30 days, within 90 days. Then there's 80 percent where the narratives and limiting beliefs are still creeping in, but they're consistent. They're showing up, and they're likely to get results pretty quickly as well. And then there's 10 percent that never even leave the onboarding experience. They don't put the program to work. They don't show up.

So I love that you came in committed: I'm going to give this my all, it's an investment in myself and I'm going to put the work in. And what's so cool is you put that work in. You joined us back in early October. So let's go on that journey. Since starting WarriorBabe, where are you now?

Johanna: I've lost almost 13 and a half pounds, and two inches off my waist and two inches off my chest. It's noticeable. And it's so interesting, because I'm less invested in what the scale says, which has always been the gold standard. When I started, I weighed what I weighed when I was pregnant, just for a point of reference, which was mortifying to me.

Nikkiey: Do you mind sharing, just so we can put a number on it?

Johanna: I was at over 145, and I'm 5'4". And this is after, as I said, with my knee surgery, I'd gotten down to 121 pounds. And if I'm transparent, I had no butt. I turned around one time and did a double take.

Nikkiey: Pancake butt?

Johanna: Yeah, yeah. And I've got a bubble butt, so that was like, oh my goodness. I gained some muscle back, but I don't think I was doing the right kinds of workouts to maintain it. I didn't have enough muscle mass to maintain it. At that time I was doing everything I could to stay that size and that weight. And then over the five, six, seven years since that first knee replacement, it just crept back. Everything I tried backfired. I was just hungry, so I couldn't stay on a nutritional path that was right for me, and I gained it all back plus some.

So being at 145, I was like, okay, this is the point where I either go right or left. If I go down a path where I'm essentially giving up, I'm going to become one of these menopausal women who says, oh yeah, it's menopause. I've always been very, very active. I'm a backpacker. I did a lot of yoga. I'm always moving. And that was devastating to me. It was very depressing.

So when I went into the program, I had the thought going in that I'm doing this 200 percent. And I have fun. My husband is like, I could never track my macros like you're doing. He's completely not interested. But to me, it's fun. I don't meal plan for the week like a lot of people do, or prep. I like to decide what I'm eating that day. So in the morning I start with dinner. I put in my macros for what I'm having for dinner, and then I work backward from there. It works great for me because I love to snack, so I put in my snacks. I'm very health conscious, so I think I do a good job of balancing that. But that's just what works for me.

Nikkiey: Were you aware of what macros were before WarriorBabe?

Johanna: I was aware, but I'd never tracked them like this.

Nikkiey: And before WarriorBabe, post knee replacement, when you snowballed back up to 145, how much were you eating in a day, being as active as you are?

Johanna: That's a good question. I would say maybe 1,900 to 2,200 calories, give or take.

Nikkiey: With a macro breakdown, or just focusing on calories?

Johanna: No, no, none of that.

Nikkiey: And how much are you eating now?

Johanna: Now I'm at a little over 1,800. I'm generally not very hungry. Some days I'm like, oh, I only have this left, and other days it's like, how am I going to eat all this? And sometimes it's hard to get enough protein in. But finding the hacks, the ways to do that... I just dig it. It really suits me.

Nikkiey: I read what Allison wrote about you: you're consistent, you're dedicated, and you just put the work in, which is how you've gotten these results in a little over 90 days with us. So cool. Let's talk about where you are now. How many days a week are you working out?

Johanna: I'm working out five days a week. I do lower body on Mondays, upper body on Wednesdays, full body on Fridays, and Pilates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I walk my dogs two or three times a day.

Nikkiey: Oh, nice. So how does your programming look with the knee replacements? Are there any limitations?

Johanna: No. No. Best thing I ever did.

Nikkiey: Love that.

Johanna: I want to speak to how life can get in the way. My husband, who's 64, has had five or six different heart procedures. My dad passed away two years ago, but I had to move my parents to memory care, and my mom is still alive, and I'm managing all of these things. I think for me, and for a lot of the women I work with in my practice, it's so easy to put our stuff last or give it up. It's like, if I have to get all of this in, I won't do my stuff, because that's the easiest thing to drop, and I'll just take care of everybody. I think that needs to change. It's not that hard to make that commitment to yourself. I know that if I don't get my workout in first thing in the morning, like I did at 6:30 a.m., A, it might not get done, and B, it feels so damn good to know I'm done.

Nikkiey: Yes, I love that. Thank you for bringing that up. I think it's really important to highlight. Life can be chaotic, life can be overwhelming, and in those situations it's so easy to put everything else first and not put you first. Let's talk about some of your top achievements. I know you shared a few, but are there any other top achievements outside of the physical body composition changes you've noticed?

Johanna: I think just working the program is such a great achievement for me. Staying on it. It's been since early October, and now we're at the end of January. For me to have been this focused is a huge achievement. And now I'm trying to add in meditation, which I don't always get to. I'm really good at suggesting that to other people, but not so good at doing it myself. I really want to get better at that.

And I think one of the biggest achievements is what I spoke to a little earlier: making the commitment to myself that I'm not willing to set aside my program for really anything. Not for Thanksgiving, not when I travel into LA once a month. Having just moved here, I'll eat five or six meals out. If I know I'm going to a restaurant with friends, I'll Google the menu, decide ahead of time what I'm going to eat, and put it into my macros. Then I'm free to enjoy myself.

Nikkiey: That's awesome. Those are some solid top achievements. And what if you had never made the jump into WarriorBabe? Where do you think you'd be today?

Johanna: Well, at least 145 pounds, that's for sure. I had started buying bigger clothes, which was super depressing. I think there's a sense of loss of self that happens. Sometimes we perceive ourselves as younger than we are, but you can get into a place where you feel older than you are. That wasn't anything I was willing to do. But it was happening. It was already happening.

Nikkiey: Is there anything I haven't asked you today that you'd want anyone listening right now to know?

Johanna: I think that if there's any doubt... as I said, I'm a highly skeptical person, but the program speaks for itself. One of the things that really drew me in was how many women are in the program. I think it was something like 17,000. If that many women are connected to this program, it's not just a handful. That speaks for itself. And then there's the community, and the idea that there's so much information floating around. The diet industry is one of the biggest money-making industries out there, so it's easy to get pulled into all of these get-skinny-quick things, but they never work. This is tangible. This makes sense to me. It's not just some magic that happens. It's something I can look at and count on, and that I can do forever.

Nikkiey: I love that. How does it feel to be in control of your health and in control of your mindset?

Johanna: It's amazing. It's so empowering. It takes the guesswork out, right? Instead of, well, maybe this will work, maybe I'll try that. I think that's such a huge piece. And society has a way of telling us how we're supposed to be. This removes all of that. It's like, I'm strong. I feel fit. I feel in control and empowered, just walking through the world in my body. And that's worth everything to me.

Nikkiey: Oh my goodness, I love that. That's a very powerful statement. You should be so proud of all the work you're doing and what you've achieved. You mentioned a little earlier someone who's scared. What advice would you give them about making their health a priority?

Johanna: For me, when we get into these places and look at past pictures of ourselves, of how we want to be, it's like, what amount of money would you pay to have that? Would it be worth it? Would you pay this much per day? Absolutely, right? No second thoughts. I think it's an investment: the education, the connection, knowing that there's a community. To me, that's worth everything.

Nikkiey: I love that. Thank you so much for trusting in WarriorBabe. As you said, you're a very skeptical person at heart, so I appreciate that you were able to trust us and put full commitment and dedication into this program. You've truly proved that no matter where you are in life, it's never too late to regain control of your health and your strength. You didn't just lose weight. I sense that you've gained confidence, you've gained energy, you walk with stature, and you feel good in your skin. And as you shared, you can maintain this for life, which is why we do what we do. Thank you so much for following the plan and for trusting in us.

If anybody listening right now is wondering if this is possible for you too, the answer is yes, and all you need to do is take the first step today. Check out warriorbabe.com. Johanna, thank you so much for being here with us and sharing your story. I know it's going to inspire at least one person who listens to it today.

Johanna: I hope so. Nikkiey, thank you for all that you do. It's been everything to me. Thank you.