Building Resilience: The Power of Health in Transformation

Join Dr. Karen Falkenberg as she shares her inspiring story of transforming from a research chemical engineer to a health and fitness advocate. Discover practical tips on protein supplements, the importance of strength training, and how one can start their health journey at any stage of life. If you’re ready for a lifestyle change, this episode of ‘The Age of Reinvention’ is for you!

TIMESTAMPS:

02:01 Meet Dr. Karin Falkenberg: A Journey of Reinvention
05:40 Karin’s Personal Transformation Through Adversity
07:01 The Intersection of Western Science and Tibetan Buddhism
15:25 The Actions Framework: A Path to Vibrant Health
17:33 The Importance of Strength Training
35:46 Nutrition and Holistic Health

Emily Bron: Welcome to Age of Reinvention, Redefine Freedom Lifestyle and Purpose at Midlife. I’m your host, Emily Bron. Today, we are embarking on a journey that encapsulates transformation, resilience, and the pursuit of holistic health and fulfillment beyond 50. We are joined by Dr. Karen Falkenberg, a vanguard in health and fitness for accomplished professionals, co founder of Tiger Eye Life, and a visionary who infuses the hard sciences with the human touch of psychology and neuroscience.

From holding patents in solar cell technology to inspiring future generations as an educator, and finally reshaping the health and fitness industry for mid and later career individuals, Karen’s story is nothing short of remarkable. Throughout her life path, Karen reinvented herself many times, personally and professionally and continues to do so in her 60s.

Today she will share how she’s leveraging her vast expertise to create life changing frameworks and nurture a community where fitness breeds freedom. Get inspired by Karen Falkenberg’s incredible journey and invaluable insights. So let’s discover ways to reinvent and enrich our lives with intention and joy.

Dear Karen, welcome to the show.

Karen Falkenberg: Thank you so much, Emily, for having me. I am honored to be here and appreciate the opportunity to share my story with your guests. I’m looking forward to our time together.

Emily Bron: So am I, and for the long time, and I know how busy you are, and I’m very grateful you found time, actually, this Sunday day morning for you to be with me, with us now.

Karen, you have incredibly diverse and rich background. Your transition from a research chemical engineer with patent on solar cell technology to educating future generations and finally to health and fitness for midlife professionals is incredibly inspiring. Can you share, please? What inspired you in your latest personal and professional reinvention into health and wellness?

Why this change happened?

Karen Falkenberg: Oh, thank you for asking me that question. And I will tell you that what spurred me on and let me back up and say one of the driving forces of who I am and what I do is about connection. So I connect ideas to ideas. I connect people to ideas and I connect people to people. So I’m a problem solver and I’m always looking for what else can I do to support others in their journey?

How can I help them be their best? So whether I’m a teacher, whether I’m a coach, whether I’m a researcher, all of that is really intended to, to help people. And so here’s how I came to be what I’m doing now at the age of 67. When I was 61, I was in a very serious car accident where I was at a stoplight rear ended by somebody and I got an incredibly bad concussion.

I was under the care of a brain doctor for six months. And I’m in the process of getting healthy again or getting healthier than I was because at that point when I had the accident, I wasn’t as healthy as I wanted or needed to be. I realized that As I was learning to rewalk in a straight line again, as I was learning how to have better balance, that I needed to get myself stronger.

And there’s a backstory for why that was important to me at the time, but I wanted to get stronger. And so I drove myself to a gym and the doors to a future for me just opened. I had not been somebody who was in a gym on a regular basis. I had gone to the gym. fitness centers and, had done quite a lot of, aerobic activity and so forth.

But when I learned how important strength training was to both healing me and then providing me with an opportunity to help others do the same and have that same transformation for themselves, I said, this is really where I’m ready to take my life.

Emily Bron: Very inspiring. And even I kind of, knew your story, but I believe this details in, um, and we will speak about it even more.

Your work with select group of Dalai Lama’s lead monks and nuns in Dharamshala to explore the intersection of Western science and Tibetan Buddhist tradition must have been profound. I didn’t know before about this chapter of your life. But now I’m interested also how have these experiences influenced your approach to health and fitness particularly in relation to mental and emotional well being?

Karen Falkenberg: Oh, such a good question. So that was in the summer of 2008 and the group of people that I was with were. We’re there on the request of the Dalai Lama to help his lead monks and nuns begin to understand Western science more. They, as Tibetan Buddhists were very scholarly. Many of them studied hours and hours a day, let alone hours per week.

And part of my research was to find out from them, as they were learning from others about Western science. physics, chemistry mathematics. Did they believe that what they were hearing was in any way aligned with what they themselves had learned as a scholar in Tibetan Buddhism? And what they told me was, Oh my goodness, of course.

Yes. When the the professors were talking about the atom and all of the small intricate parts of an atom I could imagine that because I see that every day in my training where we have to just go inward and inward and inward and inward and really examine our own selves and examine ourselves at the molecular level.

And so though I’ve just now heard. recently here in this summer training about how western people imagine science or no science to be. It’s exactly 100 percent in agreement with the trainings that we’ve had. It was really impressive. And what I’ll say is The communication was really interesting too, because there were, these people as scholars were in some cases, they didn’t speak any English, or they spoke some English, but not a lot.

Or even in their own their own Buddhist language, in the Tibetan language, there were not even words that represented some of the concepts that the professors were teaching them. And so the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives had to translate. That the professor would talk about a concept and then the translator would provide context and explanation for what they had just heard.

And then those scholars had to interpret what it was that the translator was saying. And so when I had my interviews with them, as I was doing my research, I often had to have a translator help me. Get my ideas and questions across to those who I was working with,

Emily Bron: Just remind me, I was follower for some time of John Kabat Zinn and you probably know this American scientist who at the same time was and still pursuing mindfulness meditation techniques.

And actually he is one of the first. Who tried to build the bridge between Western science, but from the different perspective, psychology, biology, and Buddhist practice. But your approach as far as I know, and you can elaborate, it’s more in regards to the Like physical well being which actually lead to mental and emotional well being as well.

Yes. So do like in your And I’m a little bit jumping in, but I’m just interested in your programs, are you speaking about meditation, about different techniques of this kind? It’s whatever, best get from the Buddhist traditions?

Karen Falkenberg: That’s a great question. And so let me back up and say a little bit more about what is really a undergirding and a foundation for the way my business partner, who is Ryan McQueen and I work, and it’s easy to be living in the United States and presume that the center of knowledge is really Western knowledge is Western medicine is Western science.

And that ignores the thousands of years. of expertise and wisdom that come from other cultures, from other locations around the world and for centuries back. And so one of the really important things that we focus on is that there’s only so much that any one methodology can provide for us. And so we really need to expand our thinking and expand our approach.

to how to be as healthy as possible, whether it’s mental health or whether it’s physical health, all of these are really important. And we can get stuck if we only think that there’s a single path forward that I believe. And I would say Ryan believes as well is just not true, right? It’s just not true.

Emily Bron: Your personal journey to becoming optimally healthy is motivational. What were some pivotal lessons you learn about yourself during this transformative period?

Karen Falkenberg: Oh, what a good question. So I would say I’m a fairly introspective person and I have a fairly clear idea of who I am and what I can and can’t do.

My life is often based on challenge, right? I like challenge. I like to push the boundaries to see what am I able to actually accomplish, whether it’s in an academic setting, whether it’s in a physical setting, whether it’s in a social setting. I really like to understand who I am and what more is possible for me.

That is a big driver. So what I would say is in terms of what I learned for myself was that the methods that I, and so this goes to your former question, right? The methods that I had been using to be what I thought was my healthiest, but weren’t really getting me where I needed to be were insufficient.

They were just insufficient. And so what I’ll tell you is in the United States as an American woman, and I was born in the in 1957. So for those of your listeners or viewers, they would say, that’s so long ago. That’s right. The fact is in the United States, one of the real narratives for women was that you should be thin and that you should use aerobics to try to control your weight.

And that the diet culture can be particularly rampant. And so what happens in the United States is a lot of women follow that and they equate, if I eat this food and I need to run on the treadmill these many minutes to try to counterbalance that sort of, balance sheet. And what I came to realize was that, There are serious flaws in it, and I knew that there were serious flaws because as I went through menopause, I was looking at my body, and I was feeling what my body felt like, and I thought, this just, I’ve been trying to be my healthiest, but this is just not getting me there, and then when I realized that strength training was this.

A really important and absolutely necessary component for all people’s health, but particularly for us as we age. That was a piece of this transformation for me and what I have really pledged my life to work on is to help people not be in that same trap that I was in and having no ideas about how to really make the change that I needed and wanted.

As a busy professional, I, it wasn’t that I had lots and lots of time, but I needed the right strategies, and I needed effective strategies that were efficient. So that’s a I think a big part of this transformation for me is exactly that, recognizing that there are ways to go forward that are not often obvious.

To people and they have the opportunity to learn from somebody else who’s gone through that. That’s really where I am right at this point. And it’s

Emily Bron: actually a nice segue for my next question. Tiger Eye Life emphasize a unique actions framework. Could you elaborate please on how this framework empowers midlife clients, people to achieve vibrant health?

and optimal energy.

Karen Falkenberg: Sure. I’m happy to talk about the actions framework. And you, Emily, may have experienced this where you might be on social media and you think I want to follow this influencer. They probably have really good ideas about how to be healthy. And then I’ll follow another influencer and then another influencer.

And then you’re not me. It’s not me, but many people. Yes.

Emily Bron: I’m

Karen Falkenberg: reading books. Yeah. I’m. Self help books is another perfect example, whether it’s not social media and it’s in how many people have these libraries of self help books, 50 books. And they’re always searching for what’s really necessary for me.

And so the actions framework, which I can describe in just a minute, is the opportunity to have everything pulled together so that the next best step for yourself. is really evident to you. It doesn’t have to be the next best step for everybody. We don’t have a program that is lock step that everybody follows one after the other steps.

But there are a lot of details around the science of what is the next best thing for somebody to do, right? And so the actions framework is an acronym and it stands for these things. So A stands for take action. Take action, right? And then C is for consistency. And what we know is one of the biggest drivers of success is just showing up and trying just consistent trying.

Now it’s better if you’re trying what’s effective, but we want you to just keep moving forward and trying, right? So A and C and then T stands for training and it stands for trimming. And so those two things mean this. When we think about generally training. In the world of getting fitter, we think about exercise as this collective, right?

It’s just, I’m moving my body and I’m exercising. But in fact, with training, we’re talking here in the actions framework about strength training. And let me take a minute and describe what that means and why that’s important. So when everybody gets over the age of 30 we start to lose muscle just by The fact of we’re aging it, we lose muscle year on year.

And so as we get older, if we don’t intentionally put muscle back on our body through strength training, then what inevitably happens is we look down the street, you’re at a shopping center, you’re somewhere on the downtown somewhere and you see these people who are old and they’re in, we have walkers and they’re, stooped over and they have trouble just getting up one or two or three stairs.

They’ve lost so much muscle that their body is not capable of propelling them around and having a really healthy life. And if you lose a lot of muscle, it also means that your joints are less supported to be able to function correctly. So you again, then have problems because you’re unable to have the quality of life that you want.

So training is very specifically strength training as opposed to let me just exercise. Let me walk out on the street, which is great. Let me walk in a treadmill, which is great. Let me. All of the things that feel like general exercise. So strength training is specifically training to be stronger.

Full stop. That’s what that means. Now trimming, I think probably everybody will recognize this. If you really were very honest and you. Scan through your day all day long. What you’ve done. Is there some sort of slop? I’ll call it slop. Is there some slop? Is there some? Unintended I’m checking out and I’m gonna scroll on social media or I’m gonna pick up a book or I’m gonna zone out And watch a television show there are inevitably minutes in the day where if you redirected those And you trimmed some of that time away that you could have enough time to work on Your health, right?

So that’s what the T stands for. So in the actions framework, so we said A for take action, C for consistency, T for training and trimming. I is about identity, right? And what’s really important, and this goes back to your earlier point about mental health and emotional health. And so do you think of yourself as a healthy person is what we ask our clients to think about.

And if you don’t think you’re healthy, then can you be an aspiring healthy person? And what really helps people move forward in their actions is they given a choice between A and B. Say, What would a healthy person do? So if it comes to it’s seven o’clock at night and you’re tired and you say, let me just sit down and have a couple, three glasses of wine.

One thing that you might ask yourself is. Would a healthy person choose three glasses of wine to unwind for the evening? Because if you choose the identity of a healthy person, then you choose the actions of a healthy person. And you might say actually a healthy person, instead of having Three glasses of wine while watching TV might actually go meditate, right?

They would choose a different action because the action aligns with their identity. And so we know so much about the fact that people’s actions are intended to align with their identity. So that’s what the I stands for. So we had a C T I, we just talked about, Oh, is ownership. And so I think this one is really an interesting piece.

So when we consider accountability, right? Accountability. And we could have started the actions framework with a as accountability, but we didn’t want to do that because accountability often for most people is an external force providing you some momentum to do what’s supposed to be right? Oh, somebody is watching me or somebody is going to ask.

Did I follow through right? That’s accountability. That’s external. What we use is actually, and that’s fine for sure. But oh, in our actions framework stands for ownership. So one taking ownership of following through for themselves. And so that’s an inward to outward generated experience rather than having some external force or person or expectation causing you to make decisions.

the right choice, right? So that’s a C T I O. And then N stands for nutrition. And we know that ultimately nutrition is key because our body is designed. It’s just amazing how our bodies run. And when you really get right down to it, it’s a miracle. It’s really a miracle. And we typically treat our bodies as though it’s just, it’s going to run on its own.

But if we don’t feed ourselves the most important and appropriate foods so that the chemical processes and the neurological processes all function then we can’t really be our healthiest. And what we also tell our clients is you want to pair that with your training because your nutrition supports your outcomes in the gym.

That’s what builds your muscle tissue. And that’s really key. That’s really key. So nutrition is obviously really key. And in much of Western society, but particularly the US and in the UK we have people who are too overfed. And too undernourished. So nutrition is key and then S stands for systems and and sleep.

And a quick example of a system would be, and I like to say this, if you get in your car and you drive to the store, then what you end up having is a equipment that’s ready to go. You just hop into the car and off, off you go. If instead you had to go out to your garage and you had to Put the tires on and you had to connect the spark plug wires And then you had to put some gas in your car The probability that you’d use your car regularly is zero. And so what’s really important is that it allows you To not have to make a lot of decisions and you don’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time deciding what to eat or where to work out or how to meditate. All of those have been organized for you because you’ve got a system for all of those.

That’s what the S stands for. Are you working one to one or in group settings? We do both. We do both. So some clients prefer to have one to one support, and we certainly honor that and love to work with them individually. And others find that it’s necessary for them to enjoy the community. the community that really is a part of a larger group.

And so one of our groups is they have strength training four times a week. And that is so great because we just had that this morning at six o’clock and they all show up and they all show up ready to work. And what’s great about that is really becomes a piece of their system, right? They have equipment at home.

They use Dumbbells, bands, some of them have and many of them have graduated to barbells and plates. Just like you would see in a big gym, they have these at home. So they don’t have to go to the gym. They don’t have to dress up as though you were going to the gym. You just get there, you turn on Zoom, and you see all of your friends on the screen, and they get to work out together, which is great.

Emily Bron: It’s really great, especially for 6 a. m., with different weather changes and so you have online opportunities and in fitness center.

Karen Falkenberg: So online and the online is actually comes in from the computer wherever. So Ryan or, and I get together with folks and the group workout is actually from the gym that’s here on the premise.

And so that makes it really quite. easy for us to have a full functioning gym, and then people have their own equipment at home. And what we do is we create workout plans, and we help people get that organized by putting them on Google Sheets. And then they have the opportunity to keep track of their progress and increase in their strength as they go.

And then we move to a new program about every three to four months.

Emily Bron: And now we will speak a little bit about programs. You mentioned the importance of sketching on a broad spectrum of expertise from psychology, coaching, and neuroscience to nutrition and exercise systems, as you say. How does this approach enhance the coaching and programs at Tiger Eye Live?

What kind of programs? Are you offering?

Karen Falkenberg: Oh, that’s such a good question. So we offer, for a while we offered just nutrition and that worked for many people. But what we found is that their progress was much more accelerated when they also said yes to strength training. So that’s what we tend to do is combine both of those together.

So in any one client’s support. They get strength training, coaching, they get online content and they get nutrition support. For some people they like to have their external accountability. And so I look in their food journals several times a week. And though it can maybe seem like it’s a little bit weird that somebody is looking at everything you’re eating for some people, they have found that’s really helpful for them to.

start to make the right choices and to be more consistent in those choices. And then once they figure that out, then it’s not quite so necessary for me to be as as closely detailed into what they’re doing. We have a program related to Mindset and identity. That is, I think, fundamentally where most people are best off to start, because we often carry baggage inside, right?

Are we here in our head? You’re not good enough. You never were able to do this. And for many people, what has happened is they’ve tried all of these programs from some other, influencer or some other self help book, and it falls short and they fail. And then, or they lose weight. But they haven’t gotten stronger and then they gain weight back and they’ve created even an even bigger problem for themselves.

So we have people that come to us who have a need to work through the fact that these failures before do not mean that there are. failures to come, that they can in fact be successful with the right methodologies, with the right support, with the right science that can really be helpful for them.

And so as a quick example, I’ll give you one here. I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, Emily, or whether this has happened to any of the guests who might be or your viewers that might be listening, but it’s the end of the day. You have gone to work, you’ve come home, have dinner, your children have homework or and or they have gone to their sports programs or their piano lessons or whatever, right?

You get the children to bed and it’s 10 o’clock at night and you think to yourself, wow, I deserve a treat. I deserve a treat. So I open up the freezer door and I get out the ice cream And I stand there at the freezer, just eating this ice cream, trying to soothe myself to say, I deserve that. I really deserve it.

Look how hard I worked and how responsible I was. I deserve that. In fact, it is true that you worked hard and you are responsible and you do deserve a treat and you do want to have a sense of fulfillment and kind of closure to your day. But what you in fact have done is, let me back up and say this.

You have done damage, that’s right, because every action that we take is intended, whether we pay attention to it or not, if it’s subliminal, every action we take is designed to solve some kind of a problem that we have or fulfill a desire that we have. And what’s really important is to get into the mind and say, wait, is this what a healthy person would or should do?

Because you’re exactly right. That creates damage in the body. What we think of as stress. Chronic stress, not acute stress, but chronic stress is in fact inflicted from the world around us outside, but it’s also in big ways created by what we eat because we create damage. We create inflammation when we eat the wrong things on a really regular basis.

Emily Bron: Are you working with obese clients who coming to you already obese? overweight?

Karen Falkenberg: Yeah, we do have people that are significantly overweight. And I will tell you that we also have clients who are not overweight, but they come to us and they say, I may look like I’m not unhealthy, but in fact, I know that I’m not healthy.

And it could be from medical tests. I know that I have high blood pressure. I know that I have, low muscle mass, or I know that I have low bone density. So I have physical test results that show that I myself am not as healthy as I might appear from the outside. And that’s a key factor to is, it’s and let me just say this, about I appearance.

One of the things that has happened for lots of our clients is they’ve come to learn that if you chase, your appearance. So if you have gone on a diet to try to lose weight and then you get thinner, but you don’t add muscle. So you’re thinner and flabbier. That, that feels as though, ah, I just, it didn’t really work for me.

I didn’t get to the look that I was looking for. And what we say is if you in fact work on building muscle and eating nutritiously and not restricting in a way that feels very. Constricting that you actually end up with a better body look and shape anyway, it’s just as a nice added outcome.

But what we don’t do is we don’t have our clients, take before and after pictures with, sometimes it can feel embarrassing, especially we work with accomplished professionals who are Clearly don’t, even if we covered their face, somebody might recognize them from their outfit or whatever.

We don’t want people to feel as though they have to have their body as an example of before and after, because so many of these fitness people, they have, the six pack abs, you want to get bikini ready for the beach. Our clients are not looking for things like that. They’re looking for, I want to be functionally healthy.

I want to be able to take active vacations. I want to be able to pick up my grandchildren and play with them. I want to be able to do all of the things I want to do. I want to attract the clients that I want to attract so I have the right amount of energy. So it’s really so much less about appearance.

Emily Bron: What is the most unexpected lesson you’ve learned about human resilience? and potential that you’d like to pass on to those contemplating a significant career change or lifestyle change, especially in the midlife.

Karen Falkenberg: Ah, that it’s never too late. Absolutely. It is never too late. And I think one of the key factors in this is to say, we have accepted clients who were 70.

When they started with us, and if you think about it, the probability that you would at 65, 70, 55, whatever number people are right that you might decide to be a competitive basketball player. I would say it’s probably close to zero, right? People say, I’m not going to do that, or that I’m going to swim the English channel, right?

You’re probably not going to do that. But strength training is for everybody. And what our clients know is that there are really important ways to track progress and to be able to very slowly, very precisely move one’s ability forward. And we don’t have everybody on the same weights. We don’t have everybody on the same reps.

For example, some people have to modify things a little bit because of their mobility. So everybody is comparing themselves. to themselves, to what they were last week or what they were three days ago. And the intention is to say, I may not have increased this week, but I haven’t slid back. And for most people over the long period of time, they look at this and they say, look at the changes that have happened to me.

This is amazing. And so that’s another point about how we work that’s different is, and As coaches who have been working on our own social media and our own website and all that, we have been told by so many coaches that you need to say, we can get you X results in two months, right?

Lose 20 pounds in two months or lose 15 pounds in six weeks. In fact, as Ryan will say, it’s just such a brilliant point, right? Anything worth working on. Takes time, right? You didn’t get your college degree in five months. You didn’t get a graduate degree in three weeks. You didn’t get a promotion at the company that you worked for in five meetings.

This just does not make any sense. So when we think about the fact of how are we different and we’ve struggled with people telling us, you need to say that things happen very fast. In fact, things do happen fast, but. to have something be long term and really committing to a future for yourself.

It’s just important work. But the thing about it is it’s so gratifying and it’s really so fun because when you go back and you look, where was I last month and where was I in the month before and where was I before that? It’s mind blowing. It’s really mind blowing. And so your point about, transitions and resilience is, it’s never too late.

In fact, the best time to get started was probably several years ago, but the next best time is today, right? Today. Today is the next best time to get started.

Emily Bron: Great. And let’s speak about your nutrition philosophy. As far as I know, whatever I read, Your programs discuss fostering a positive relationship with food without stringent meal plans.

What core principles do you teach about nutrition, and why do you believe in avoiding restrictive diets? Which you mentioned a little bit, but Please elaborate.

Karen Falkenberg: Oh, okay. Let me start with the restrictive diets and then I’ll talk to you some more about the basics, right? What we think about is what is it that you can add into your nutrition that supports your body and your mind being it’s healthiest, what can you add?

And inevitably, if it’s also balanced with how hungry are you, if you’re adding nutritious foods to your diet, you’re going to not have room for some of these things that feel very compelling, right? Bags of chips and back to the ice cream or whatever. Filling your plate with nutritious food, is what your body was designed to have.

It’s how our bodies run. It’s how our minds work. And in fact, what we know is a lot of studies are coming out to say that the crisis that we have with our mental health is in part related to the fact that we don’t eat nutritious food. So it’s not just technology. It’s not just a lot of stress. It’s in fact, we are not giving our bodies what it needs to run properly because at the very microscopic level, there is a science to how a body’s able to generate energy to get through the day and to do all the things that it does.

So then when you come to, so what are some of the specific things some of the specifics. What I would tell you is the most important macronutrient. So there’s three macronutrients, there’s protein, fat and carbs, and each one has had his, limelight to be, oh, this is the one to focus on to do more, have more of or less of is protein.

And so protein is the building blocks. includes the building blocks of their amino acids of almost everything that happens in our body. It helps build your muscle tissue. It helps with your bone. It creates your bones. It just goes on and on. Your enzymes your organs, all of these are really necessary pieces of how we run our body and that runs on protein.

So you should have adequate amount of protein. What we tell people is that you should strive for one gram of protein. for every pound of ideal body weight. So let’s say you weigh 150 pounds and you really think you should weigh 140 pounds. Then what you would do is you would eat 140 grams of protein per day and sort of space that out throughout the day.

That’s really a good way to have your protein. Another thing that is really important is to have fiber because fiber helps feed the bacteria in your microbiome. We all have heard about the microbiome, and so fiber is really important for that. And it’s important for your intestines, lower intestines, your colon.

All of that is really important. Having enough water is key and then having electrolytes to help You know, really, if you think about how the brain works, it’s a lot of electricity that’s going on. And so those ions, the electrolytes actually help run the neurotransmitters and the connections between all of the neurons themselves.

So those are really important. The vegetables, the protein, the water and the there’s, and then there’s a, a number of other things, some supplements are really very helpful to have enough omega three fatty acids and so forth and have enough vitamin D and vitamin K and so forth.

But we know that people, when they. Come to us and they say they want to get healthier. If we told them you need to eat A, B, C, D, E, F, G and do this repetitively, some people are just not excited about repetition and some people find it comforting, right? So there’s that level of where is anybody on the I want it to be easy and I want it to be, repeatable versus I want it to be novel and I want it to be exciting, right?

People have this different balance for themselves. We have people that have food intolerances. I am one of those people. We have people that have cultural expectations for what they do and don’t eat, right? And then people have food aversion. Some people, it has to do with texture, right? How does that feel in my mouth, right?

Or some people feel, They have, everybody has lots of reasons for choosing their nutritional path that they have. And so what we help people do is make the best choices that help their body with accommodating all of these other factors that come into it. So we would never tell people you must eat these five things or you must leave these several things out.

There are a number of things that I recommend to clients that I say you’d be better off not to eat that because there’s not like it’s all just good or bad. It’s, this is better than that. And this is. better than that. And this is better than that, right? So there’s shades of choosing the best quality in what you choose to eat.

But what I would say it’s really most helpful if you’re trying to decide what should I have is it something that you can trace back to its source, right? Does this apple look like an apple? Or is it apple sauce? Or is it apple juice? Or you can think of any one of these items right and say, Where did that come from?

And if it’s a highly palatable, highly processed food, it’s not really a food. It’s a commodity, right? They stripped They strip things off of that so that it would, we hear about the McDonald’s hamburgers, right? That you sit on the shelf for five or 10 or 20 years, right? They have, in a lot of cases be able to make money, have stripped the nutritional value out of foods so that they have a long shelf life.

And so that’s just really not what you want to eat. And we know that if we eat foods that are hyper palatable, it causes us these cravings to eat more and more of those. And that’s just, then that’s when we really become over fed and under nourished. You wanna avoid those.

Emily Bron: There’s a lot of issues with food quality, I would say, in North America.

And I think it’s one of the reasons some people turning to the supplements. Protein supplements, shakes in powder form. Are you suggesting? Because, we are not sure now what we are consuming. Even, organic food, so called, sometimes there is some stories about proving that it’s not exactly organic as we pay for.

So are you okay with balance between good, approvable brand of, let’s say, protein powders or some other supplements for this purpose?

Karen Falkenberg: Yeah, for sure. We don’t have our clients start with, you should, or need to take all of these supplements because a lot of people have been burned in the past.

By working with somebody who says, Oh, it’s going to cost you this much to work with me, but then you also have to buy all of these extra supplements. And some people are leery of that. And what we try to do is make sure that our clients, when they are using supplements that they are getting high quality ones, because there are some that are really very helpful and some that it’s just, it’s it’s a waste of money, so it, it may not do any damage to you, but it’s still wasting your money.

So that is really key. So what we look for are protein powders that have very few added ingredients. There have been lots of protein powders in the past that have been, full of additives that are unnecessary that have been some, now this isn’t, I don’t believe this is still the case, in the past, full of, I’m going to say metals, yeah, things like that. So you don’t. Yeah, you don’t want you don’t want those. You want to be paying for protein when you’re buying protein powder, right? So we offer to our clients the ones that we consume and we say we’ve checked these out. And that’s part of working with a coach, right?

Somebody who has done a lot of this research so that you don’t have to wonder as long as you recognize it. keep people that you’re working with, have your best interest at heart. And they’ll tell you, here’s why we suggest these protein powders and protein powder itself can be really very beneficial because it can be difficult to add in enough protein, especially if you’re trying to first get started with that.

It’s a support to be able to get adequate amount of protein in. Yeah, I, in fact earlier today had A bit of my protein shake that I often put together and enjoyed that. And yeah, it’s really helpful because that helps me know that I’m getting in the protein that I’m looking for. But I will say to your point about, organic and so forth.

Another thing about working with a coach is they can help people understand this is just advertising, right? So if you aren’t familiar with what gluten is a protein that’s in And there has been this craze of saying. Things that are gluten free are better for you. There can be some merit to that for some people, but the fact of the matter is, if you don’t know what gluten is, and in a package at the grocery store, eggs that say we’re gluten free.

No, I will not buy it. Oh those eggs were, those eggs are, don’t have gluten in the first place. Eggs don’t have gluten. So there’s this thing called the halo effect, right?

Emily Bron: It’s a trend to see in the restaurant we have. And one of the reasons to be fair, because many people have allergy these days.

That’s why it’s Advertise this way to attract people, but people Not aware of and sometimes it’s hard maybe to find or there is allergy to so many food types or factors, I would say environmental factors that people limit themselves even with what we need because Gluten, it’s part of the bread and humankind was relying on bread In some areas is only food and healthy food for centuries.

Karen Falkenberg: That’s right. But we get so many messages right from all kinds of places that it becomes almost not only confusing, but impossible to know how to think about it. And unless you have the time and the energy and the skill to learn about all this, it’s just. difficult. And so having somebody who can be a guide on the side that says, here’s how to think about this.

These are the things that are the ways that you can get tricked with the labeling. And here’s how to understand that.

Emily Bron: Yes. Today people actually, consumers should be aware about many different factors and components. And even we see. I see all of them on the labels, not always we can correctly understand and evaluate what we need and what we don’t.

And you undergone actually a wide arc of learning and training to maximize your health likening it to the another graduate degree with all other subjects that you absorbed over the years. What advice would you give someone looking to embark on a similar journey but still trying to figure out where to start?

Karen Falkenberg: Is your question more about in general somebody who’s changing their career or is this more about somebody who’s embarking on the journey to get healthier and how to do that?

Emily Bron: Now we speak because it’s your topic where to start Working on yourself, making yourself more resilient, healthy in order to be prepared for other changes or they’re going together because for other changes we need to be healthy and better off as far as I understand.

Where to start this healthy lifestyle for people and you’ve been the same and I’m the same who like working till something happened, which pushing us to re evaluate our lives and lifestyle choices. And now we’re speaking about people and actually media or many people.

Article speaking that we need to start, we need to care. But again, this bombardment of all these messages the question is where to start.

Karen Falkenberg: Ah, I see. Okay. Yep. And you’re exactly right that if we have career changes or big life changes, being healthy is what’s going to help us get there where we’re going.

Yeah. So that’s the That’s fundamental to being successful is to be as healthy as you possibly can. And so one of the first things that I would say that’s important for people is to have a why, like, why do I want to do this? And for some people, the why is I have this goal and I cannot wait to accomplish this goal.

Maybe it’s and I know you work with people who, move countries and live somewhere else and so forth. Why do I want to do that? And is that compelling enough for me to be able to think about? Do I need to change some of who I am and how I operate to be able to get to that goal for other people there?

Why might be something that they’re stepping away from? They’ve come back from the doctor’s appointment. And the doctor has said to them, you’re really at risk if you don’t make some changes in this way. And that future without those changes can feel. Very scary. And that might be the why that is most compelling.

So I think that’s what people should start with. And I like to use what I call the five wise. So you say a statement, right? I want to do this or I want to be that or I want to have this change. And then, so you write it down and then you say to yourself, and nobody’s going to hear this. You can have nobody pay any attention to this.

No one’s going to know that you’re doing this. So be as honest as you can. Why do you want that?

Emily Bron: To be healthy, to be able to perform or to be better version of myself at this age and stage.

Karen Falkenberg: Oh, okay. So let’s actually play this out a little bit. All right. So why do you want to be your healthiest version of yourself?

Emily Bron: Okay. To feel better, to have more energy, to accomplish, more things, because I personally feel very often that I don’t have time to do, to perform, and, my list is now, I’m trying not to put a lot on my to do list. But we need energy, and we need balance. It’s what I’m telling myself because, work.

We understand. And sometimes we forget about ourselves. Results is dynamic, I would say. And even for learning, you need energy mind energy mind power and physical power.

Karen Falkenberg: So that’s great. So you’ve said several things. Let’s just push it. The one that was, that seems most prominent in that is that you need energy.

So why do you need energy? So this is the third why, right? So we do this repeatedly. Why do you feel that you need more energy?

Emily Bron: Because I feel often at the end of the day, or actually in the morning, that I don’t have energy. I’m not a morning person. My all activities usually, in, in the afternoon. But I understand that I’m losing, I’m not losing part of my day because I do some other chores, I would say.

I just recombine, my schedule. I’m working not like many other people. How I build my day. But I would like to accomplish more.

Karen Falkenberg: Why would you like to accomplish more? So we’ll just let, we’ll finish this why series. This question, why do you feel that you want to accomplish more? What’s the driving force behind wanting to accomplish more?

Emily Bron: Because I’ve had plan to do this, and this, and I’m tired. Sometimes I’m tired even after the walk. And I do every day, I walk one hour around in every weather. And if before, I was jumping from one, One activity to another and actually I was multitasking without any sometimes I could do the different things together.

Now it’s not working this way. So I need to pause. I need to relax. I need to do something else.

Karen Falkenberg: Ah, I see. So the theme that I’m hearing from you is you need more energy and you’re comparing it to the fact that you used to have more energy and you have plenty of big goals ahead. So having more energy for you is a big driver.

And so you have pretty much gotten to a great starting point for what’s a motivator for you. And so I think then the other peripheral pieces that you raised were, but how do I do this so that it doesn’t take all day because I’ve got lots of things to do. And then. And that’s what our clients, that’s who we focus on.

Are people who are accomplished professionals, they’re high achievers. They’ve got a very busy life. And in fact, even if people aren’t that there’s probably very few people who sit around saying, I think I need something to do. Everybody’s busy. Everybody is busy, right? So the question is, how can you fit in some of these extra activities, these extra habits, these extra skills so that what you do to help yourself get more energy is in fact, Helping you get there without a feeling as though you’re spinning, spinning your wheels.

And so that goes back to the T in the actions framework is, so what could you potentially trim out? So we would look at that and we would say, and what are you eating? Because as you and I’ve talked about earlier in this hour, that some foods can potentially be doing us damage, right? And so we’re setting ourselves up for a setback rather than, to be, getting more energy.

So there’s lots of ways in which, in a client intake, we would talk about these kinds of things. And I will say just from a physiological level, the energy that’s produced and for all of us who’ve gone to school and went to biology class, and we hear about the mitochondria, which is the powerhouse of the cell, right?

And we have all these little energy producing organelles in our cells. The fact of the matter is When you strength train, you increase the number of mitochondria that you have. So you actually get energy because you have more energy production available to you. So that’s a plus. And what’s also true is when you add muscle to your body, it helps with insulin resistance.

Because what insulin does is it drives the blood glucose to where it needs to go, and often it becomes fat. But what happens is when you put muscle tissue on your body, I’d like to tell clients it’s like having bigger closets in your house and who doesn’t want bigger closets in their house, right? So there’s lots of ways that you can now have energy reservoirs for yourself that you can tap into when you feel a little fatigued, it’s there ready to go.

Because you’ve prepared your body to be at its, it’s best for having energy production. So there’s lots of the reasons why we help people recognize that you’re actually doing yourself such a favor by strength training. And that allows you to not just be a really good at strength training, but ultimately, and I think this is such a key takeaway, right?

That it allows you to be better. At all the other things that you do, whether it’s dancing or whether it’s working or whether it’s fishing or whether it’s whatever it might be, climbing or going on vacation, you have much more ability to create those outcomes for yourself that you really We’re looking for.

And so I’ll tell you this one little story. We have this one client who’s been with us for several years. And what I really love is our clients become our friends, and they become friends with all the other people. And so it becomes like a family, right? And people don’t say, Oh, I’m going to get a 12 week program.

And then I’m going to hop off. They just come and they stay and they work because this is what’s sustaining them. And so this one client she loves with her husband to go snorkeling in Hawaii. And when she first came to us, she told us a story about the fact that they winter over there for six or eight weeks nine weeks.

I forget how long it is in Hawaii. I think it’s maybe three months. And then the prior year when she was there, she was stepping down into a place to go snorkeling. And if you’re familiar with Hawaii, it’s not all the white sand beaches and you just gently walk into the water. This is, lava beaches where it’s almost stepping off the end of a deep.

Swimming into a swimming pool at the deep end of the pool, and when you get out, you have to have enough ability to lift yourself out of that water and the year prior, she had a lot of difficulty getting out of the deep end out of this well, where they snorkel. She loves the snorkeling, but getting out of there was.

Because the prior year she couldn’t get, she didn’t have enough energy. She didn’t have enough strength. Her husband wasn’t really able to help her as much as she wished. He was, she tore her bathing suit. And then the next year when she went back, she was much stronger because she had started working out with us.

And she said, it was amazing. I was able. to have my love of my life. Her husband enjoy with me the snorkeling that I and he loved together so much. And so at this point she was able to recognize that she didn’t have doors to her future closing, right? She, through just several months of strength training, and then she’s continued on for years now, just with that little bit, several months of strength training, she recognized that those doors that seemed like they were closing to her were in fact.

And that is such a value for people to think about as they age that it’s not a case of I just get less and less capable until I’m on my last days. That’s, nobody wants that kind of future.

Emily Bron: It’s a great example, great story. And so you bring actually confidence back to people and self esteem about the physical state and wholeness actually freedom to, to enjoy the life in different aspects.

Yes.

Karen Falkenberg: Yeah, that’s right. And when you started and introduced me and you said that we say that fitness creates freedom, that is a perfect example. Of what that is, right? That at first you feel like, why am I doing this? And I don’t understand it and it’s difficult. And in fact, it’s anything new is be a little bit difficult to figure out.

But we have, we as coaches, we help people get going and we help them and we nurture them. And then They just sail, right? They just sail and they realize that they themselves have taken on this identity of a healthy person. So choosing what to eat doesn’t feel complicated because of course I’m going to choose what a healthy person would eat because I’m a healthy person.

And so I, in fact, yes, I do get the sleep that I need to get. And yes, I do take walks because that’s important as well. Because that’s what a healthy person does. And all of these pieces together. have opened the doors to my future. And the opportunity to have that confidence is just phenomenal.

Emily Bron: You mentioned the importance of pushing comfort zones without having regrets.

Can you tell us when you stepped out of your comfort zone and how it impacted your life?

Karen Falkenberg: Wow. Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say I, pretty regularly step out of my comfort zone. And let me tell you a couple of them that are from a physical activity and a couple that were intellectual, right?

So the intellectual ones were when I grew up, I came from a fairly poor family my mother and father were children or my father particularly was children of immigrants. And. Going to college was not something that was very common, but it was expected. And so I went off to college, but I had just had sepsis.

And so my ability, they had given me last rights in the hospital as a teenager. And so I said I am going to go off to college and figure this all out. And in fact, after a semester or so my grades were not as good as, they should have been because my brain was just not functioning.

So I switched to become an engineer. I had originally planned to become a neuroscientist and I became an engineer. It was easier to be engineer? yeah, people think engineering is hard. I said it would just take a lot of time, right? There’s just a lot of work to do, but I didn’t find that to be necessary, but I didn’t know that, but I knew I needed to make a change. And so I just said, I believe in myself. I’m going to jump in and figure it out. So that was one, and I would say in terms of the physical comfort zones is I, after I had kids, I became a runner, had never been athletic really before. I had been a kid who in that back in those days where you could, go outside, in fact, we’re expected to get out of the house and, ride your bike and play in the yard and play baseball in the empty field, whatever.

But I had never really been like athletic and been on a team. And so I decided after I had kids that I would become a runner. And when I realized I think I should try to have a I should run a marathon because why not? I had no idea what I was getting into. And I think that’s probably a good thing for me is sometimes saying yes to stuff that I have no idea what it’s going to entail in the long run.

But so I did that. And then I decided to work on getting a black belt in martial arts. And I have said to people along the way that I put myself in circumstances where it allows me to push my boundaries and I say it’s in a metaphorical kind of way It’s like having a little berry basket that I carry with me and I say, oh, let me I’m going to put that in my basket and let me put something different in my basket and something different in my basket.

And so that is really how I put myself in out of my comfort zone. And I guess it may be a parallel to that is I am a person that does not really aspire to. New Year’s resolutions, but every year on my birth month, which is September. So that was just a little while back. I have this tradition of choosing a personal development goal for the following year.

I’ve always tried to be an explorer, right? That’s who I am, is I’m insatiably curious, About all kinds of things. And that just allows me to step out of my comfort zone because my curiosity is actually greater than my concern about. What’s going to happen if I do that?

Emily Bron: Oh, I usually say that my curiosity is greater than my fear.

Is that so? Yes. Yeah. Because sometimes people are surprised. I do things that not many men would do. And how are you getting afraid of? I even was not thinking about it. I was curious. I know that

Karen Falkenberg: goes back to our earlier, very beginning of our conversation. I’ll tell you this quick little story.

How I got myself to the gym after my concussion. And so I was at that time 61, but let me rewind back to when I was in my mid twenties and I was in Europe and I was with family and we took one of those cog trains up to a glacier and we were going to go do some looking through a telescope and so forth.

And I saw these four people. two couples who were in the distance. They were at that point about that small, right? I never talked to them. I never really say saw them up close, but they were embarking on doing a hike down the very steep mountain. And I said to myself, and it’s so interesting how things can happen.

We’re in the flash. You never forget something. This is two seconds, right? And I saw them start and I said, they look old. Now, my guess is they probably were in their forties, right? So they looked old to me, way younger than I am now. I thought, wow, these are strong people. And I want to be like that when I get to be old.

And so when I turned 60, my personal development goal for myself was to learn how to do a pull up, which are you familiar with what that is? You have your hands, on a bar and you pull yourself up and you get your hand over the bar. So I looked on YouTube and at the time when I was 60 so seven years ago there were three YouTube videos I could see of women over 60 doing a pull up.

I was like, oh, that’s not good. I did some research and I did kind of things that you’ve done right. I get out a book, right? Or I read an article and then I talked to, we have a neighbor a few doors away who has a gym in his garage and asked him about it. And so time went by and I just didn’t get around to it and I’d never.

got experienced at it. And so in that fateful morning after I had left the Pilates class and I was still healing and I was just at a point where I was able to take Pilates because my balance was just getting better. As I said, I’m going to go to a gym and I’m going to work on that goal. And this was in January, April.

of 2019. I’m going to do that. So I just drive to a gym and I walk in. Of course, it’s a gym that’s, got all these big men and it’s smelly and it’s sweaty looking and smelling. And I said, I’m here to learn how to do a pull up. And that’s where I met Ryan. And We became so good friends right away.

In fact, I went back to friends of mine later and I said to them on, so this is Saturday, I said on Monday, I’ve met this person who says awesome as much as me, this is going to be a great friendship. I cannot wait. And so that’s really how I. step my life into the world of strength training to just work on that one singular goal and get myself somewhat stronger and have better balance.

And it’s just entirely changed my life.

Emily Bron: So you extend your comfort zone borders That’s why it’s all is possible. The more you do, the more you change, the more you extend. So your comfort is became everywhere, to do every, to start any new project and the work. And by the way, what is for this year, what is your personal goal for the new year of

Karen Falkenberg: Karen Falkenberg?

That’s a great question. So it’s a continuation of what it was for this past year. So Ryan and I have a garden and we have grown culinary veg for years, but we worked with the soil so specialist here in Colorado, who helped us prepare our soil somewhat differently, a little differently. We already had really good soil, but gave us some education on how to use our garden and for medicinal herbs.

So that project is still going to continue on. So we have things downstairs that are drying and then making tinctures out of them or salves out of them. So there’s a lot to learn about how to take plants from the earth and turn them into the medicine that so many cultures for so many centuries have already known.

It’s just something that I’m not fully familiar with. And so that’s going to continue on for next year.

Emily Bron: It’s very interesting, and I notice in my research that many people coming back, I would say, to this knowledge, generational knowledge using natural plants, food, as you mentioned, rather than using, medicine, which North Americans are used to consume without actually any benefits, I would say.

Karen Falkenberg: I, I would agree with you. And I would just say for your listeners to be considering, pharmaceutical industry is enormous. There’s a lot of money there, right? And if you follow the money and the fact of the matter is They are advertising everywhere all the time. You can’t do that unless you have a lot of money, right?

So promoting medicines that potentially aren’t going to work at all or potentially could be harmful or for some people may not be the right strategy going forward is something to just be mindful of because I think there’s so many people who have just accepted 100 percent what modern medicine says without questioning any of it without questioning any of it and That’s just a watch out.

I’ll just leave it at that, right?

Emily Bron: Yes. It’s a big topic and now it’s discussed in many different levels, even legislation, because as far as I know, only in the United States it can be promoted by TV. Big pharma can do their work not only on different marketing social media, TV, and yes.

It’s a big topic and Lastly I’m very cautious about the time and thank you very much. For being here for our listeners who feel that the best decades behind them what message of hope and encouragement can you offer based on your personal and professional journey?

Karen Falkenberg: The best years do not have to be.

Behind you. And as we were saying earlier, there’s no time like now to get started on creating that future that you really desire. It can take a bit of effort, but having the support and having a community can be incredible. Incredible support, particularly if people become friends with you and you with them it’s very possible.

There’s no reason to think that your best years are behind you. And I’ll just say, we have a client who’s just turned 55 and she said, a few years ago, I thought that what I needed to do was get some rocking chairs to have them. On my porch so that I would sit on my porch and rock. This person is a CEO, right?

This person is very vibrant, but she had modeled for her a way of the future. Or she had somehow put in her mind from all kinds of resources, right? That, you get this information from wherever that your future has to be like this. But if you, in fact, can break free of those limiting beliefs that your future.

forward is not as good as your future behind you. It’s limitless. We only have one life. And if you think about the fact, let’s just use this as a quick example. So let’s say the person is 60 right? And today the longevity could be 100 right for many people. You still have 40 more years. You have almost as many years as Was from the case of when you were a teenager till now, right?

Those 40 years from 20 to 60, you have that same length of time. It’s a long time and this is your only life. And so don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up. It’s so possible. And all of our clients will tell you exactly that. We’re not unique. We’re not special. We’re just people who are treating our bodies and our minds really well.

And these doors are open to us. The. The idea that, we can’t see in the, to the future is just not there, that it can be super, super inspiring to be with people who have that same vision. It’s so possible.

Emily Bron: Thank you very much, Karen. And actually one of the reasons I launched. The Age of Reinvention, Redefine Your Freedom Lifestyle and Purpose at Midlife, and I’m very grateful to you and many other people who coming to share the stories because I believe it’s what people need these days.

Inspiration, real life stories, examples, and actually support of the people who might help professionals like you. And I’m actually promoting some way your work and work of other coaches, because it’s what people need in our big time of changes. Thank you very much. And today I was speaking with Dr.

Karen Falkenberg.

Karen Falkenberg: Oh, thank you so much, Emily. And I want to just echo back to you how important your work is because people do need to know that their future can be very bright. And I will say one last thing. We have created an online community. On the school S. K. O. L. platform. And so I can share with you the access for people to get into our free community.

We would love to have you join us. We have it’s a platform. It’s regular conversations. We get together several times a month for coaching calls. All of it is free. There’s a lot of opportunity to get started in that way. And then stay connected with people who want to learn. Really care that you have the best future possible.

So thank you for doing what you’re doing. It’s so important

Emily Bron: Thank you very much. Thank you. And I hope that many people will join you your community and I’m looking forward as well because Actually one aspect of community which we will discuss in our next interview in some time. And all the changes our society is going through now And why we need community and community of like minded people.

It’s other topics that I’m also developing in my podcast. Both intentional communities which we will continue our conversation about. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Karen Falkenberg: Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Thank you, Karen.

Emily Bron: What an incredible journey. We’ve embarked on today with Dr. Karen Falkenberg.

Her transformative path from research chemical engineer to a beacon of health and fitness for those in the prime of their careers and beyond is a testament to the power of reinvention at any stage of life. Karen reminds us that it’s always possible to prioritize our health and being, integrate the science of the body and mind, and craft a fulfilling and empowering lifestyle.

If today’s conversation with Karen resonated with you, remember that the first step towards transformation is believing in the possibility of change. Dive into your health and fitness journey with the same curiosity and problem solving spirit Karen embodies. Thank you for tuning into The Age of Reinvention, where we explore what it means to live a life defined by freedom, purpose, and a relentless desire to become our best selves, no matter the stage of our journey. Until next time, keep redefining your limits. And remember, the best chapters of your life are yet to be written. This is Emily Bron, signing off from Age of Reinvention.

Karen Falkenberg

Coach

Health & Fitness Expert for accomplished profs 40+ Get a DFY customized strength, nutrition, mobility program & coaching to maximize your health outcomes while focusing on your business and career.

In an era where hustle culture can overshadow life’s simple joys, the conversation with Dr. Karen Falkenberg serves as a poignant reminder of the power of reinvention. Stepping away from her career as a research chemical engineer, Karen continues to inspire others by becoming a beacon of health and fitness, proving that it’s never too late to embark on a transformative journey toward self-care, wellness, and purpose.

Addressing the Dietary Dilemma

Karen’s insights on food quality challenges in North America underscore a significant concern many face today. She highlights the increasing inclination towards supplements as people strive for a balanced diet amidst skepticism about the authenticity of labels, even on organic produce. In her practice, she emphasizes the cautious selection of high-quality supplements, suggesting that while they may not harm, low-quality options can lead to wasted efforts and resources. By promoting transparency and educating clients, Karen helps others navigate this complex landscape with confidence.

Reinvention Through Health and Wellness

Central to this journey is the realization that health is instrumental to tackling life’s significant changes. Whether it’s navigating career shifts or major life transitions, Karen believes starting with a clear purpose—your “why”—is foundational. Her method encourages individuals to delve deeper into their motivations through the practice of the “five whys,” an introspective exercise that reveals underlying goals and desires.

The Transformative Power of Strength Training

Karen passionately advocates for strength training, elucidating its role in enhancing energy levels and metabolic health. The process increases mitochondrial activity, leading to more excellent energy production. Building muscle improves physical strength and contributes to insulin sensitivity, framing strength training as both a practical and strategic health measure.

The Role of Mindset in Breaking Comfort Zones

Karen’s anecdotes reveal her continuous push beyond her comfort zone—intellectual or physical. Her resilience and curiosity have propelled her into unfamiliar territories, creating a rich tapestry of experiences that fuel her ongoing growth. Whether learning to run marathons, achieving martial arts milestones, or exploring herbal medicine, Karen’s story exemplifies the boundless potential of embracing challenges and nurturing curiosity over fear.

Community and Connection

Creating and nurturing a supportive community is another cornerstone of Karen’s journey. She emphasizes the importance of surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals with a vision of health and self-improvement. Her community offers a platform for learning, support, and shared experience, allowing members to explore new horizons collectively.

A Message of Hope and Possibility

Karen’s journey offers hope to those feeling their best years are behind them. She passionately believes in the potential for a brighter future and advocates for a proactive and engaged approach to life. By fostering self-belief, staying connected with a supportive network, and remaining open to novel experiences, individuals can redefine their limits and craft meaningful futures.

As we close this chapter with insights from Dr. Karen Falkenberg, let her story guide us. Embrace the possibility of change, fuel your journey with curiosity, and remember that the most inspiring chapters of your life are still unwritten. The Age of Reinvention is upon us, and with it, the opportunity to craft a life of purpose, freedom, and invigorated self-expression. Until our next touching story, keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible.