Gladden longevity — Episode #42

Steve Reiter: Welcome to the Gladden Longevity Podcast with Dr. Jeffrey Gladden, MD, FACC, founder and CEO of Gladden Longevity. On this show, we want to help you optimize your longevity, health, and human performance with impactful and actionable information by answering three questions. How good can we be? How do we make 100 the new 30. And how do we live well beyond 120?

I'm Steve Reiter and, Dr. Gladden, we just wrapped up recording with Katie Ingram, who is your Director of Fitness there at Gladden Longevity. And I have loved talking with Katie over the year that I've been involved in the podcast. She is so fun, so personable, and just brings this positive energy. And I've wanted to start to feature various people around the office to really give the listeners an idea of not just who you are but who the team around you is, and start to be able to answer their questions on the podcast. And so, this was one I was just so excited to see when it popped onto my schedule the other day.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, no, I agree. It's a fun conversation. I think the listeners are really going to enjoy this because we get into fitness, of course. Still, we get into it from multiple angles, the psychology of it, the passion of it, how you frame it up, what you do when you're traveling, how you navigate the hurdles that get thrown in your way when it comes to being able to work out, et cetera.

Steve Reiter: The importance of putting it in your schedule of just carving out that time and saying: "This is when I'm going to do it."

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, prioritizing it, right? But it turns into a really interesting conversation with Katie. I think you're really going to enjoy getting her perspective on all this.

Steve Reiter: As well as hearing who she is, where she came from, and how she got involved with Gladden Longevity.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I learned things about Katie I didn't know, so that's great.

Steve Reiter: Katie, thanks for finally being on the Gladden Longevity Podcast. I've wanted to have you on this whole year, and now it's finally November. This is probably going to air in December or January. We're finally getting you on, so it's great to have you on.

Katie Ingram: I'm excited, and it's fun to be on this side.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, good to have you here, Katie.

Katie Ingram: Right? Yeah, it's going to be exciting.

Steve Reiter: So, Katie, what is your role with Gladden Longevity? What exactly is your title, and what are your responsibilities?

Katie Ingram: My role here is the Fitness Director. So, I get to help people be fit and healthy, have fun with fitness, and tap into the different emotions and things that go along with it. And I partner up with Madeline quite a bit, our nutritionist. So, she and I work together as a team here.

Steve Reiter: Now, when you talk about tapping into emotions, what exactly does that mean for you and how you interact with clients as they come into Gladden Longevity?

Katie Ingram: So, we have several local patients here that come in and work out with me and things like that. And I'm starting to train them here now that we have this amazing gym. And so, I think there's so much about working out that is emotional. It's a commitment, and people have to have the mindset in order to continue to do this and have fun with it instead of saying: "I have to go work out." You can say: "I get to work." Things along that line.

Steve Reiter: When someone comes into Gladden Longevity, at what point do you start working with them? Because Dr. Gladden was talking, and we were talking before this, or I think it was with Lio, our producer, you interact with the clients probably the most out of anyone on the team, right?

Katie Ingram: Right, from day one. We'll perform the cardiopulmonary exercise test with them, and to be a part of that, and for me to watch them do that and get to complete anaerobic failure in a sense. I can watch them and see how they're motivated. Do they like real-time feedback? So, I'm making little notes as they go along. Or do they like to focus and grind and listen to a headset or music? So, based upon that and a DEXA score, I can then start to implement training and things like that with them while we're waiting on lab results and things like that based on their genetics with the fitness side of it. So, it's immediate from day one.

And then, here in the gym, I do a full fitness assessment where we do wall sits, push-ups, sit-ups, flexibility, balance, and then each time, they come in for their follow-up labs and things like that. We'll then assess them and hopefully move the needle in the opposite direction.

Steve Reiter: So, you mentioned the new gym.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah. So, why don't we talk a little bit about the new gym, Katie, and some of the equipment that's in there? You just talked about some of the assessments. As you walk through the rooms there, I'm just thinking you have the Inbody in one room for muscle mass, body composition, hydration, and a measure of cellular energetics there, which is useful. But tell us about the new balance device that you're using to measure people.

Katie Ingram: So, the Balance Tracking Pad is something pretty cool that I can see real-time feedback on them to see if they have an injury on their left leg, they're going to compensate on their right side and vice versa. And then, you can implement, and then I take them into the main part of the gym where we have actual balance boards, so we can put those into a program for them to help with their balance.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, I think what's interesting about the balance device that we're using to assess people is that people stand on it with two feet, they stand on it with one foot, and it measures how much wobble there is in the leg to maintain their balance. And it's very precise and reproducible. But it's also nice because you can show real improvement for people in that regard. And I think, to your point, I think balance for us is broken down into static and dynamic balance. So, you have yoga and things like that where you're standing on one leg, doing a pose, whatever it might be.

But then, I think some of the balance boards you're speaking to are also really coaching people in dynamic balance where there's something moving underneath them, so to speak. And I think, quite honestly, you and I have both seen that that's critical for anybody to really adapt and have great balance.

Katie Ingram: Oh, I think it's critical to the point where I'm even drying my hair in the morning after I take a shower, I'm on one foot, and I'm leaning over, I'm going sideways. I'm always balancing. And my kids, when they're walking on the sidewalks, I make them walk on the curb, things like that. So, it's in my daily life.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: This is a key point that you make because I think balance, a lot of people relegate it to the gym. But I think the way I got started with it was I put a balance board in the bathroom so it would be there when I was brushing my teeth. Or I’d stick it in a room in the house where I know I was going to hang out, and I'd get up and get on it or whatever. And I know people who put it in their office, get up to take a break, stand on the balance board, or take a phone call. I think with balance, you can play with it in a ubiquitous way, walking on the curb, whatever it is. Yeah.

Katie Ingram: Absolutely.

Steve Reiter: Now, in past podcast episodes, I've heard you, Dr. Gladden, talk about balance. So, let's establish, from both of you, why balance is so important to work on throughout your life.

Katie Ingram: From a personal experience, I'm in a sandwich generation where I have ailing parents, but I'm also still home raising children. And so, I can see the balance of me trying to teach my children that, and also where my parents have lacked in basic working out and strength training and things like that, that it's so crucial to balance. For example, my dad is not in good health. And so, when he walks, he shuffles. He doesn't even pick up his feet because it's easy, right? Because he thinks he's going to fall. And it's harder for him to just go to my son's tennis tournament. And he's using a cane now. And in his 70s.

He's not old, so to speak, but it's just super interesting to me where I'm working with him right now, going to his house and things like that, and helping him just stand there and pick up one leg and constantly say: "Pick up your feet when you walk. Quit shuffling. Don't make any noise when you walk." And it's just very little things like that that I see him doing.

So, it's a personal movement for me, in a sense. I know the importance of it to start it now. And with people in our practice and things like that and their age group and how it can very quickly, you get into its comfort, so you don't really want to walk, so it's easy to shuffle. And so, it's muscle memory. And so, then you just shuffle because it's easy.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: And I think a lot of people, I'm thinking of my mom here, Katie, she's 93 now and has poor balance, works on her balance, but is very muscle depleted, has poor balance, et cetera. And then, she falls repeatedly. And she's broken both hips. She just broke a couple of ribs. And it's so debilitating. And I think what happens is people simply don't feel safe. They don't feel safe on their feet, and so they certainly don't feel safe going down the stairs. They don't feel safe getting in and out of a car or stepping off a curb or all these things that we take for granted when we're young. And so, I think about it because I never want to be like that.

And so, I want to skip down the stairs like I did when I was 30 years old. And so, knowing that that's what I want to do, I continue to push myself to do it and challenge myself to do it. And I think what happens is when you do push yourself to do these things, even though you're temporarily maybe out of your comfort zone, so to speak, what you find is that with balance training, you actually feel so confident doing things. That sense of safety around you expands dramatically when you're doing balance training to where it's like: "Oh, I just got bumped off the curb, no big deal.

“Somebody just got knocked, or this or that, or I just stubbed my toe on something I didn't see running or whatever.” It's like: “no big deal”. You just catch yourself. And so, I think when you're thinking about your life, having that bigger envelope of safety around you is huge. And there isn't anything that does it more. It's not muscle mass. It's not speed. It's not aerobic capacity. There's nothing that gives you that envelope of safety around you better than having great balance.

Katie Ingram: Agreed.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah. That's why I think it's just so critical.

Steve Reiter: Katie, tell us a little about who you are, where you grew up, and how you got involved in fitness and then Gladden Longevity.

Katie Ingram: So, I grew up here in Texas in Louisville, not too far from here. I was a fighting farmer and played soccer for Louisville High School. I went to college. I didn't end up staying in college. I had a daughter very early in life and then started working immediately. And then, I was married and had three children. And in that timeframe, I was a career volunteer, so to speak, volunteering over 40 hours a week. And in my church, my kid's school and my son, who's my middle child, has extreme health issues. And so, I was trying to figure out why these kids were so sick. Why is he sicker than my girls and things like that?

And so, I started to honestly dive into functional medicine and the body and things like that and figure out why one in 13 children have food allergies where he has a lethal food allergy to peanuts. He had asthma; he had eczema. So, I was doing bleach baths twice a week on him. He was hospitalized five to six times a year because his asthma was so bad, and he was on constant oral steroids and things like that. And then, sending him to school was terrifying. So, I was a helicopter mom for obvious reasons.

And then, sending him to school knowing that Johnny's eating peanut butter sandwiches next to him that can actually kill him. So, it was terrifying. So, I chose to get involved and be up there every single day. I would set my alarm on my phone to say a prayer every day at 11:00 when he had his lunch and that people could wash their hands afterward. And he had to sit alone because he couldn't sit with his friends because they had peanut butter and things like that. And his allergy levels were so bad that the school district finally said to me in one of our meetings: "Why don't we just make the school peanut-free?"

And I said: "I appreciate that, but no, the world is not going to be peanut-free. He also has to be an advocate for himself at five years old." But anyway, life is hard, wear a helmet. So, I got involved and rewrote their entire program through Grapevine Colleyville School District, where my kids go to school, and rewrote their program for their nutrition and their food allergy program. It got it to where he could eat lunch with his friends and their cleaning protocol and things like that. And then, I put him in a program called Oral Immunotherapy. It's giving him his allergen, in a sense. It's like allergy shots, but it's oral. So, we put him in that program, and I would drive him to Dallas twice a week so he could have his peanut, and they would give him a very microdose of peanuts each time each week and then take him home.

And then, he graduated from that program in about nine months, eating a peanut butter sandwich. And now, he has been in maintenance for six years.

Steve Reiter: What does maintenance look like for that treatment?

Katie Ingram: So, we still have to give him three peanut butter cups. Darn. They're organic. No, they're not. I'm just kidding.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: No, they're Reese's.

Katie Ingram: They're actually Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. So, we have to give that to him a few times a week. So, it stays in his system. And during that timeframe, like two hours after he eats his peanut after his dose, he can't raise his body temperature and heart rate, or else he can go into anaphylaxis, which he's done twice. And I've had to EpiPen him twice during that dosing time period. But we just recently did his lab work, and he's amazing. I don't even have to give him peanuts anymore. It's truly a miracle.

And the new allergist that I went to, she actually knew his case study because she trained under the doctor that I originally went to, and she knew Lucas's case study. So, it's cool.

Steve Reiter: Oh, when I was a kid, I would've loved to have had a doctor's prescription for three peanut butter cups a week.

Katie Ingram: Right. Yeah, no, it's super cool. And anxiety, honestly, goes along with that. He has a lot of it. Food can kill him, but you actually have to have food to live. So, there's a lot that goes into this psychologically. So, I started it in that aspect and then cleaned up his gut to where his eczema was; his skin is beautiful now. I don't have to do bleach baths and topical steroids. And he hasn't had an asthma reaction in a long time either.

And then, I went through a divorce and got back into, my background is dentistry, and I got back into dentistry and things like that and knew that it wasn't in a place where that's not where I was supposed to be. So, it was definitely not my calling. And that's where I met Dr. Gladden, who was at that dental office.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: I came in for some dental work, and Katie was there working.

Steve Reiter: And talk about that, Dr. Gladden. What was it about Katie that you were like: "Ooh, you need to be a part of what I'm trying to do."

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: It was actually the other way around.

Katie Ingram: It was.

Steve Reiter: Really?

Katie Ingram: It was. I ended up not staying there, and then I was connecting with some of the girls in the office at Dr. Gladden's office. They were like: "Oh, come in and interview because we're hiring for X, Y, and Z." And then, I interviewed with Dr. Gladden, even though I knew him, but we still sat down for a formal interview, and he was looking at my resume, and he goes: "So, why should I hire you? Your background doesn't match anything that I'm doing." And I said: "Because I'm driven. This is my passion. This is my life; let's go."

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah. That's Katie's personality, her passion, and this is the thing. This is what it takes to succeed in anything -passion. And certainly, when it comes to longevity, it takes passion to succeed at this. Right? You're not going to get there unless you have some passion behind it. It's not: "Oh, yeah, I'd like that too." It's like saying: "Oh yeah, I'd like to have a Ph.D. too”, or “I'd like to have a Bachelor's too.” Right? That's not how you get a Bachelor's. You basically have to go do the work.

Katie Ingram: You have to do it.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: And longevity is the same way. It's like-

Katie Ingram: The grading.

Steve Reiter: So, Dr. Gladden, what did you see in Katie? You said passion, but what made you pull the trigger on hiring her and making her really, from what I'd been told around the office, she's a very integral part of Gladden Longevity?

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: I think the dentist she worked for was a functional medicine dentist. I saw this personnel.

Steve Reiter: What does that look like?

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, it's a biological dentist, basically. So, they're doing different testing to make sure that any filling material they use is compatible with your system. They're using ozone therapy to clean your gums. They're doing all things. If they have to extract a mercury filling, they're using all things to protect you from the mercury as it comes out. They're not just drilling it out and exposing you to tons of mercury toxins and things like that. So, it's a more integrated approach to dentistry, like an integrative doctor would have a more integrative approach to high blood pressure, let's say. So, we recommend functional or biological dentists.

And Katie, working in that world was a natural link for us because all our clients need dental work. And she already knew about that and could assess and help and connect them and all those things. So, that was a real plus. And then, her passion and desire to learn, I mean, if somebody has the desire to learn, you can teach them. If they're a bright person, you can teach them what they need to know.

So, I always look for aptitude as opposed to necessarily, I mean, what they've done in the past is always important, but it's more about aptitude and passion for me than it is about, "Well, I've already learned how to do this," thing. A lot of times, when people learn things, they learn it wrong anyway, and you have to teach them again, it seems like. So, the fact that she didn't know it just made it that much easier in some respects.

Katie Ingram: That's true.

Steve Reiter: So, Dr. Gladden, who do you see Katie is around the office? Describe what she is to Gladden Longevity and what you all are doing and the clients.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, I think through the eyes of the clients, Katie is somebody they always enjoy talking with. I've never gotten negative feedback about Katie from a client. And, in fact, it's always positive. So, if I bring up Katie's name in whatever context: "Oh yeah, I really like Katie.” “Yeah, I really enjoy talking to Katie,” that type of thing. She's just very personable and down to earth. But she also has good intuition and good psychological intuition. Not everybody has emotional intelligence, and she seems to have a lot of emotional intelligence where she can feel what people are feeling and talk to them about what's bothering them.

And I think a lot of fitness people have a program, it's like: "Well, we're going to do this many push-ups and this many pull-ups, and this many sit-ups today." And I think in our world, really adapting the program to the client on a given day is really vital because it's not about doing the same thing every day or doing more every day. It's about doing what your body is designed to take on for that particular day and then being grateful that you can do it.

So, Katie is really adept at looking at their Oura Ring, looking at their Whoop, and adjusting the program not only to their biology but also their psychology for that day. So, that's a really nice fit.

Katie Ingram: I agree. And I think that real-time feedback is because I talk to clients all the time about how they're feeling. We have a plan A, B, and C. And so, the A is when they're feeling great, they have a great recovery, let's go. It's going to be an incredible workout. You're going to crush it. B is in the red, maybe yellow. So, what's your backup plan when you don't really want to work out? And then, C is travel. So, we have three plans for no excuses.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: And I think that's critical. I think the other thing is the mistake people make because we want people to do something every day. That way, they don't have to wake up and make a decision. Because when you introduce a decision into the process, the failure rate is 100%, right? "Well, I'll do it tomorrow." So, take the decision out, and do something every day. But there are days that I wake up, and it's like: "I don't really feel like working out. I don't." If people think that, "Oh, you love to work out," I do love to work out, but I don't wake up wanting to work out every single day.

And yet, because I've committed to putting my sneakers on every day, I'm going to go do something. And inevitably, and I think Katie and I share this, inevitably five, ten minutes into it is like: "Oh, yeah, starting to feel better, starting to feel good."

Katie Ingram: It's amazing.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: And then, in the end, it's like: "Oh, I'm so glad I did that." So, I think when people work out, and they have a workout plan, they think: "Well, if I feel like it, then that'd be a good day to work out." And it is a good day to work. But, you've got to just really do it. It's like doing your homework, right? So, it's like: "Yeah, I am going to do some reading today. I may not read ten chapters, but I at least do read something."

Katie Ingram: True. I tell them on Sunday: "That's your homework. That's your homework on Sunday; look at your week for the next six days. What are you doing?" And that's what you base your plan on. Some days you can do 45 minutes of cardio, and some days, you can do 20. Some days, you can't really do cardio because you're traveling, you're on a plane, you're doing this. Well, it's a choice.

Steve Reiter: Katie, what are some of the biggest, the most frequently asked questions that clients are asking you, problems that they're running into, that they're trying to solve?

Katie Ingram: Time. I think time is a huge issue for people. All of our clients are, they're working, they're busy people. We're all busy. So, I think time restraint is huge. So, then, we'll squeeze it in. We'll figure out where there's not that time excuse. We have clients that are going on a cruise next week. I had a workout with one of them this morning. And it's like: "Okay, well, I've been on a cruise, and I know what they have, so this is what you're going to do. You don't get to sit around and just drink by the pool all day. Maybe you can do that later, but you still have to get your workout in." It's hard to make the time, but it's also hard not to do it. So, choose your hard. That's what I tell them.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: And what's really hard too, I think, is if somebody does miss two, three, four days, it's so much harder to get back into it.

Katie Ingram: I agree with you 100%.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: It's actually easier to keep going even though it's like: "I don't really want to do this," but it's actually easier to keep going to do something. And if I go out and I have, let's say, a run, but it's not a great run, it's just either average or even below average run. I always tell myself: "It's so good that I'm out here because doing this run is teeing me up for that great run that's coming down the pike." And it's always the case. And then, you go out, whatever, it is five days later, and you go for a run. And it's like: "Oh, my gosh, this feels so amazing." It's not going to feel amazing every day.

Katie Ingram: It's not. Some days are definitely harder than others. I work a lot, and I have kids at home and a husband and family and all the things, but you still have to fit it in. I'm grateful for my Peloton.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: That's a good point, Katie. It's nice to have a go-to that's quick. It's like-

Katie Ingram: It's so great.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: ... "I don't have much time today." When I'm traveling, I've gotten these B Strong Bands that I travel with now and the resistance bands, and I can do an amazing workout in a hotel room, in a hotel hallway. Really an amazing workout in about 20 minutes and-

Katie Ingram: Easily.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Easily, easily. Yeah. So, it's totally doable if you're committed to it. It's like eating. You're going to figure out a time to eat.

Katie Ingram: For sure.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: If you want to do it, you'll figure out a way to do it.

Katie Ingram: I think it also helps with just, gosh, breaking up the day. We're all stressed out, and we're all busy. We've all got things to do. You just feel better when you wake up in the morning and go for your workout. You feel better throughout the day. You have more energy. It's proven.

Steve Reiter: Do you have tips and tricks for people to be able to find those times that they can get a workout in?

Katie Ingram: It just depends on the person. So, this is where the emotion comes into it. So, when you ask them on Sunday to look at their calendar, and yes, they are traveling, and yes, they're busy. "Oh, my hip hurts; I can't do this, I can't do that." Well, those are definite excuses. I've been there, done that. When I had my knee surgery, I had 100 excuses. I can't go to the gym, which I can. I can do the arm bike and still get cardio. My heart rate's still up. Definitely, if there's a will, there's a way. So, every person is different. And so, the tips and tricks that I say is the same thing that Dr. Gladden says: “Just do it.” You just have to do something every single day.

Because when you do get out of that routine, it is ten times harder to get back on the wagon, 10 times, easily. And we're all human. We all get to a point where we just need a break from certain things and mix it up. Don't get bored with the same routine. I highly suggest everybody get a trainer. We meet with our client's trainers. I always meet with them to ensure that they are in line with our beliefs and that they are on the same path that we want them to be on. It's an accountability partner.

Steve Reiter: So, Dr. Gladden, do you have a favorite memory of Katie?

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Well, she got me a nice Christmas t-shirt for one year, or maybe my birthday. I think that's what it was.

Steve Reiter: What was the t-shirt?

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Was it a proof t-shirt? I think it was a proof t-shirt, maybe a black or gray proof t-shirt. She got me another one that was super comfortable. Those are probably my favorite memories.

Katie Ingram: And we have fun here. It's fun.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah. No, we do. But I think Katie's fun to work with. I just enjoy working with her—the banter. I'll tell you what else is, she's curious, and I'm curious. I'm endlessly curious. So, she's always showing me a new thing, like: "Hey, have you seen this or have you seen that?" Or if I come across something's like: "Hey, have you seen this? Or I think we should try that." The latest thing on that that we've added to the gym is this thing by Synaptech, which is basically a way for us to measure people's neuromuscular reaction times.

Katie Ingram: It is so much fun. The clients love it. It's just fun. It's a giant video game.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, it's super cool. The idea is that we can train them after we measure where they're at. And this is used by professional athletes. So, let's say you're a tennis player or a golfer or something, let's say tennis or ping pong or badminton, anything where there's something happening, and you have to respond to it visually. Probably doesn't apply to Bridge, but you have information coming in, and you wear these glasses that basically intermittently block your vision for milliseconds thing. So, all of a sudden, you're decreasing the visual input, and yet you're still forced to react to it with less data, so to speak.

So, what happens is that you have to grow neural capabilities to compensate for that. So then, it's like when you take the glasses off, and the ball is coming to you, it's like: "Oh, well, that's a big fat pitch." Or that 100-mile-an-hour service, like: "Oh, I can easily get that." So, this is upping your neuromuscular capabilities, which is super fun to feel more capable. It's one of the most joyous things ever is to feel more capable. So, we're super excited about it.

We have some guys that race cars, not professionally, but they're in series. So, they're doing that stuff, and they talk about: "Well, younger guys have quicker reflexes." And I'm like: "Well, maybe, maybe not." So, testing them, training them, that thing. So, this is another way to keep pushing back the aging process. But you have to train these things. It's not just going to happen.

Steve Reiter: How often do people come in and do that for when they're trying to train for racing or playing tennis?

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Well, they can do it at home. We can set them up for the glasses at home.

Steve Reiter: Oh, really?

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah. So, they can do it there.

Katie Ingram: Yeah, they can do the glasses and the iPad at home. But we do the assessment here in-house, testing depth perception, contrast, and hand-eye coordination. It's fun and super cool. It's a new feature, a new toy that we get to play with while they're here to help them obviously get better and stronger. And it helps anyone. It doesn't matter if you're playing a racket sport or racing cars. We have a lot of clients that are pilots for fun, by hobby. It's helping them with their vision.

Steve Reiter: Katie, where does that EQ intuition and positivity come from? Because I've seen it in all our conversations that we've had over this year. It's been a blast talking with you; you are just so positive. Every time I see you, it's like, Katie.

Katie Ingram: I don't necessarily know because it's as far back as I can remember. I'm a big fan of self-help. That's what I've always read—self-help books, how to be better, how to do better. Just be a good human. There's so much negativity in the world and things like that. And I've done a lot of my own therapy, and I had a traumatic divorce and things like that where I was seeing a therapist three times a week for a couple of years and trying to never repeat patterns, always getting better. And it's just my mindset. I don't know how else to explain that. It's just, I don't know, it's not fun to be in a funk.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah, I would call that an optimization mindset. I think that's one of the other things.

Katie Ingram: Absolutely.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: It's an optimization mindset. It's how we do learn from what happens exactly. How do we understand it? How do we grow from it? How do we not repeat the pattern? How do we step into a different paradigm? And that's all about really brain reprogramming on some level. And so, I think anybody that's in the longevity game needs a piece of it as well. So, how do you optimize your psychological perspective, your insight, and your emotional intelligence? How do your relationships get better? How do your relationships with yourself get better, relationships with your past, and relationships with the future?

So, I think all these things are critical, and it's really important to have an optimization mindset, which Katie does have. And I also recognized that in her, when I was talking to her initially, the passion and that optimization, get better, figure it out mindset. So, the key for success, not only in working with us, but I think for anybody listening, if you really want to go forward, this is the mindset you need to adopt

Katie Ingram: And you find your why. So, everybody has to find whatever why it is, whatever's going to drive them. Again, I'm a sandwich generation, and my parents have made horrible life choices and lifestyles. And a lot of my family members are very unhealthy and overweight and things like that. And that drives me not to go down that path. Whether that's negative or not, it's just that's my driving force. And me and my husband try to implement that with the kids and just try not to get to where they are and do the opposite because my dad's stage four cancer and my mom's stage three. But these are lifestyle choices that got them to this point. And my sister's the same way.

So, it's a blessing and a curse to work where I work, but that's my drive. I just want to be a better parent for my children, in a sense. Not that they're bad parents, I'm not saying that at all. They're amazing. But just make better choices for my lifestyle to show my children and my legacy, in a sense.

Steve Reiter: You want to pass down the positive you were taught.

Katie Ingram: Absolutely.

Steve Reiter: But then, also bring some additional stuff that you found in your life.

Katie Ingram: And break patterns.

Steve Reiter: Exactly.

Katie Ingram: Honestly, break patterns that were set for me, which I don't want to go down those roads.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: And the beauty of it is that when you focus on longevity, we've talked about it as a currency of impact. When you have your health for a long time, you have more impact. You have kids right now, and I have grandkids now, so I'm still relating with my kids. So, that's an ongoing process as well. But it's a different thing to think about the fact that I'm going to be able to engage with my grandkids in a way that their other grandparents are not going to be able to engage with them in. And they start to think of me differently. They look at me differently. "Oh yeah, Bubba Jeff's out there on the pump truck with my dad." It's like, nobody else is out there on the pump truck.

Katie Ingram: No, but you should be. Absolutely.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Exactly.

Katie Ingram: I agree.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: Yeah. So, it's super fun. It just opens up all possibilities for passing down wisdom, let's say, that otherwise wouldn't be there because kids pay attention to what you do and who you are in the context of what you're doing, not what you say. And so, when you have your health and longevity, it allows you to engage with people and to be doing with them where they get to see that wisdom played out, if you will, and that love and that connection in ways that you can't otherwise. And sure, you can read them a story, and that's wonderful, but I can do that too. But going mountain biking with them or shooting baskets or whatever else, that's super fun too.

Katie Ingram: They're both great. It's setting these fundamental steps right now for everyone to keep going and to keep getting out there and riding mountain bikes with your grandkids and picking them up. My parents can't do that with my kids. They can't keep up. There's no way. But that's massive. I don't ever want to not be able to do that. I can go for a run with my kids and play ball and tennis, and let's go. And I want to continue to do that. And so, we do all these things here that, I don't know, tees it up for you.

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: And I think that's another thing when people are thinking about their workouts. It's like, it's not the workout for the workout's sake. It's really the capability that gives you to be able to engage in life. So, that's my why for working out. I don't work out to work out. I work out because it enables me to do the things I love to do and with the people I love to be with. And that's really the motivator. And I think if people can wrap their psyches around that and find their why, all of a sudden, it's a nice big pull for them to get up and go do something on the days when they don't feel like it.

Katie Ingram: It's true. Again, with the clients that I work out with now and help train here at the gym, there's such an emotional piece to this because what they end up verbally vomiting to me, everyone is stressed out. Everybody has trauma. Everyone has things that they can just download. And it's so interesting to me that this fitness role it's bringing so much out in people. It is great for the athletic side of it, but I also think for the emotional side of it because I'm a non-biased person, like a hairdresser, and they just talk.

And it's so amazing to be able to connect with them because then, if I know that these things are going on in their lives, I can then reach out to them and say: "Hey, I know you're struggling this week, and I know this is going to be a tough week because you've got X, Y, and Z. So, let's keep pushing through that. Let's use the energy for this workout to push you through this, and you'll come out better on the other side."

Steve Reiter: So, Katie, we are getting ready to head into the holidays. This episode will probably air right before Thanksgiving or on Thanksgiving Day. And so, what tips and tricks do you have? Do you talk to people and recommend to people, as our schedules are often thrown into a loop with Christmas parties and events and all this stuff that's going to make that availability for working out even more of a time crunch?

Katie Ingram: So, again, I think get a partner, whether that's your significant other, whether that's your adult child or your teenage child, where you can go and do a Turkey Trot, where you can start the day off that way and go out for your 5k like me and my family are doing, things like that. Make it fun. Don't make it a burden. Like: "Oh gosh, the holidays are coming. I'm going to be drinking and going to parties and this and this." So, up your game with a sauna and exercise. You can still do all those things and still fit in. Everyone has time if they want it. Everyone! There's nobody that's that busy. And I know a lot of really busy people, but nobody is that busy.