Welcome To The Aging Grace Podcast

Hi there. Welcome to the Aging Grace podcast. My name is Andrew Blakey, your host. 

And today we're going to be talking about what you can expect from the Aging Grace podcast. 

Now about seven years ago, I was sitting in one of my lectures, and I want to talk a little bit how I got into personal training. 

So I'm sitting in my lecture and they just informed us that as a part of the requirements for the program. For kinesiology. We had to train somebody doing personal training for about 15 weeks. And I remember. Dreading it. I did not want to be a personal trainer, which is funny and, fast forward seven or eight years later but I did not intend on becoming a personal trainer. 

I was actually using kinesiology as a stepping stone to get into physiotherapy or occupational therapy.

 And I was mentioned at the time I was kind of dreading it. And then on that very first week of training with this man named Jerome, he was one of my very first clients, never worked with. I remember sitting there and hearing about his story and about how he kind of struggled with, with health and fitness. 

For, for quite some time, he hadn't been into a gym in probably the last 10, 15 years. And I remember starting to feel a little bit of excitement because I knew that there was this man sitting in front of me, who I can. Who I can genuinely help. I can, I can really have an impact on his life. And after about 15 weeks, we did the 15 weeks. 

I got to know him. I got to hear about kind of what he does for work and outside of work. I remember hearing all these different stories about what his family had done the last weekend, and that kind of stuff. And I remember thinking, wow, this is not at all what I had expected.

And at the end of the 15 weeks, because again, we were only, we were only working, with each client for only 15 weeks. I remember him. Kind of. How do I even describe it? He had this twinkle in his eye as if I kinda knew he was ready to go off and do this on his own. You know, I'm, I've always been a very big teacher. 

I love to to teach while I'm working with people, because, Inevitably, we're not going to work together forever. I'm not going to be working with any of the clients that I'm working with. Now. There's no way I'm going to work with them for the rest of my life or the rest of their life. So I believe that by, by really making an emphasis on teaching, that's where I can make the biggest impact is by teaching people, the fundamentals of exercise, teaching them what they really need to know and teaching them sustainable practices. They can stick with for the rest of their life. 

That's how I can make an impact. 

And now that you know, a little bit about how I got into personal training, there's another story that I'm going to tell you a little bit later on and it's going to be about. Kind of how I went through my own 40-pound weight loss transformation. But before we do, we need to talk about what you can actually expect from the Aging Grace podcast. 

WelL , let's go into what this podcast is not.  

Now, I'm not going to be telling you what diet to follow or what to do this, or do you do that? I'm not going to be telling you to buy a supplement, which I so happened to be conveniently selling. And I'm not going to be making any sort of promises or claims or anything that isn't supported and backed by research by scientific good research.

But here's what you can actually expect.   

I'm going to be giving you the information education regarding fine details in your health and fitness journey. Using scientifically backed evidence studies, right? We are going to be using scientific studies as an inspiration, and I'm going to be breaking these down into ways that you can actually understand, and how you're going to understand how you can actually use these in your everyday life. 

We're going to put some meaning behind those studies. And I'm also going to bring you some of the best experts that I know that have been individually handpicked to speak on this show. Some of these people include occupations such as dieticians and physicians. Sleep coaches. You name it and it's going to be coming on here, hormone coaches, and basically all the other experts that are, are directly applicable to you in your life. 

And I want to help you begin to develop that foundation so that you've got the knowledge of, of health and fitness protocols and, and the information that you need so that you can really decipher that good and that bad information that you see online. I find that, especially now in the age of social media, you've got someone preaching random information that can be hard to decifer if it's good or bad.

All the information that we are going to provide you on this show is going to help you understand the different things that you need to, to be successful and sustainable in your health and your fitness journey. 

It's going to give you the tools. So that you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to follow something.  

And now I mentioned a couple of minutes ago about my own journey with, with health and fitness. And I think that it's a little bit of a unique one and something that we need to kind of learn about in order to understand why this podcast is coming about. Now about six or seven years ago, I remember sitting in my apartment and. And I was about 40 pounds overweight and I remember. My knees were achy. 

I remember feeling confused and honestly, even a little bit ashamed that I'd let myself get to that place.

And now, if you remember at the time I was studying kinesiology, it, which is essentially the science of the human body in relation to exercise. And I, and I had all the knowledge, but I wasn't making the changes that I needed to in order to lose that 40 pounds. 

And for me, the thing that really kind of sparked it. And made me make those changes was that my knees were starting to Aiken at the time I wanted to be, you know, one of the best, one of the best players in my position. I was playing college volleyball at the time. I wanted to be a, one of the best players in that position in the country. And I knew that if I wanted to do that, that I needed to lose that weight. 

And now fast forward another five to six months. 

I dropped the 40 pounds. Um, I was in the best shape of my life. I went on to, to kind of be one of the best players of my position, the next couple of years for college volleyball. And the reason why I'm telling you this is because you're probably not aiming at being some high level sports star. Um, you know, you're probably, you know, a mum or dad to is looking at, at wanting a higher quality of life down the road. 

Right? You want to be able to keep up with your kids and your grandkids and, and set a good example for them as well. And the reason why I was telling you a little bit my stories, because I've been in a spot where I felt confused about what I needed to do. I've been in a spot where I wasn't able to, to execute and make those changes. 

Um, and that's what kind of inspired me to start my business and why this podcast exists as well as, because. I don't want somebody to have to feel those same feelings of confusion. Um, and feel like they have to go through their, their health and fitness journey on their own. I don't want somebody to have to. 

I have to feel like they don't have somebody that they can ask those hard questions to. Uh, and that's what this is about is about providing the education, providing you with the resources so that you can make a sustainable change in your life. And stick to it for the rest of your life. And this podcast exists because there's so much information out there. Almost like information overload and I just, I just could not sit back any longer and, and stand by and stay silent when I saw these terrible recommendations online, these harmful recommendations online. And that's what this podcast is about, is providing you, with good, solid information, backed by science in a way that you can understand. 

So join me on this adventure and let's change what living means, right? Don't forget to subscribe or share this podcast with somebody who you think might benefit from it. Or that you just want to see you live a long and healthy life. So don't forget. You've got this. My name is Andrew Blakey and this is the aging grace