The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast
If you've tried all the fad diets and are sick and tired of not achieving your health and fitness goals long-term, you've come to the right place! Welcome to the Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast with me, Kristy Castillo. I'm here to help you break the annoying diet cycle, gain confidence, and reach your health and fitness goals.
This podcast will show you how to be proud of the body you have, build the body you want, and enjoy the process along the way. I'll cover topics like how to get the most from your workouts, the importance of feeding your body what it needs, and key mindset shifts that will empower you. I've broken through the BS surrounding diet culture and built my dream body, all while being a busy wife, Mom and business owner, and I know you can too!
Connect with me on Instagram at @kristycastillofit
Learn more about working together by visiting my website: https://www.kristycastillo.com/
The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast
182. 44 & Thriving(ish): Birthday Reflections, Pivoting, Prioritizing My Health, and Embracing Chaos
Today’s episode is a special one, because I’m celebrating my 44th birthday right after this releases!
Honestly…it still feels unbelievable that I’m in my 40s, and these last few years have been interesting (to say the least)!
Life has thrown me some curveballs in 2025, from dealing with high blood pressure and sickness at the beginning of the year, to navigating the wild, WILD west that is perimenopause.
Even with all of this going on, I’m choosing to embrace the chaos and focusing on what I CAN control. I have no problem pivoting when I need to, and you shouldn’t, either!
Moving forward, I plan to be super intentional and present with my body and health, and what I truly need. I’m leaning into this season of experimentation, and while growing older definitely *isn’t* glamorous, I’m learning that it’s OKAY to not have it all figured out!
I’m incredibly honored that you’re here - your support means the WORLD to me. I’m sooo pumped for what’s ahead for my podcast, business, and more over the next year, and I can’t wait to take you on the journey with me!!
In this episode, we cover:
- An update on my recent health journey & high blood pressure
- Why you can pivot or adjust anytime, instead of waiting for a special occasion
- Embracing the chaos & uncertainty of life + rolling with the punches
- Choosing to be intentional & present with my body and needs
- Prioritizing my nutrition even more in this stage of life
- My focus for my training & workouts moving forward
- Exciting updates with my business & podcast growth
Links/Resources:
- Join IT GIRL Community Membership
- Join FIT CLUB, my monthly membership with workouts you can do at home or the gym
- PRIVATE COACHING is my 1:1 program (choose 3 or 6 month option)
- Connect with me on Instagram @kristycastillofit and @unfuckyourfitnesspodcast so we can keep this conversation going-be sure to tag me in your posts and stories!
- Join my FREE Facebook group, Unf*ck Your Fitness
- Click HERE for my favorite fitness & life things!
Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take. Let's go.
Speaker 2:Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to today's episode. I am claiming this as my birthday episode. My 44th birthday is tomorrow. Well, if you're listening to this on the day that it's coming out, on the 27th Tuesday, my birthday is tomorrow and I will be 44 years old, which is crazy. It seems like we just celebrated my 40th birthday.
Speaker 2:It seems like I was actually just doing all of the things that my daughter's doing right now, like her graduation party last year and now like her first year of real life, and it's funny to kind of hear her say things and you know, thinking that she's so grown and like all the things that she's doing and classes, and you know just maneuvering life outside of high school. And I just keep thinking like I remember how I felt and what I thought and how old I thought I was and how mature, which is laughable. So it seems like I was just like 20, but it also I can remember like my 40th birthday, thinking, oh my God, I'm in my 40s and now to be 44 is a little bit crazy. But also I don't feel a whole lot different. Well, physically I do, but I don't feel a whole lot different mentally than when I turned 40. It's the weirdest thing. Getting older is the weirdest thing. So, yeah, I just kind of wanted to talk to you guys in this episode and, yeah, get a little bit real. I was going to do this on a short, sweet, spicy Friday episode, but I thought I kind of want a little more time to just chit chat. So I am excited to, yeah, just do just that, just chit chat a little bit. I wanted to talk a little bit about just a couple goals and a couple thoughts that I have for this year ahead of me and, yeah, just kind of talk to you guys about where I'm at in life. To be honest, if you've been following my blood pressure situation and my health situation, then this will be a more. I guess it'll make more sense, this little update. If not, then well, that's fine too. I'll kind of update you a little bit.
Speaker 2:But at the beginning of this year I had what I think was COVID. I didn't get tested, but we kind of know what that feels like at this point and I was, you know, just sick and I'm like, well, it'll go away, it turned in. Well, I shouldn't say it turned into. I had, I believe I had COVID. And then I did go to the doctor and get diagnosed with pneumonia. And then after that I went to the doctor and got diagnosed with influenza A.
Speaker 2:When I went to the doctor I went to the urgent care, I should say both times, for pneumonia and influenza A. They asked me every time they took my blood pressure. They said do you have a history of high blood pressure? And I would say no, because I never, ever have. Every time they took my blood pressure they would read off the numbers. I didn't really know what it meant and they'd say that's really good. And so when they told me, asked me that question, I always said no, no, no. And then it became alarming. I also went to the dentist and she asked me the same question. I'm like, okay, this isn't going away, but I was sick, sick, sick, sick. Like even when I went to the dentist I was just getting over pneumonia and my sickness wasn't clearing up.
Speaker 2:So anyway, fast forward to now, I've been to the doctor and I've talked about this on here, I know. So just kind of a little catch up. I've been to the doctor, got put on medication and everything was kind of going pretty smoothly. I had an EKG and an echo done. That went fine. So I was just put on some blood pressure medication, just hoping that it's just kind of a side effect of the COVID pneumonia. You know like being really sick and hopefully it will go away. And that's still the case.
Speaker 2:But two weeks ago, a little under two weeks ago, I went to urgent care again because my blood pressure skyrocketed one day and I just felt absolutely terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. So we did some more testing. We did an ultrasound on my kidneys just to check those. They did a full blood work panel, hormones, autoimmune panel and just general blood work panel and everything autoimmune panel and just general blood work panel and everything has come back that I am completely healthy and normal. So I just have really high blood pressure. Everything else is normal.
Speaker 2:But actually, as of right now, I have cut out energy drinks. I have cut out supplements, at least for a little while. So I'm kind of over here, raw dogging it. That's how I feel. I'm just going through life. I feel like my heart has been ripped away from me. I don't have caffeine. I don't have my little energy drink can that I think I just want the taste of because I'm so addicted. I don't have my supplements right now. The reason for that is just she says they're not FDA approved, so we need to just not take them for a little while just to see if my numbers are going down, just to see if anything helps. I don't think that it. I personally I'm not a doctor, but I don't think that it's any of these things because and this is what my doctor, my family doctor, said the only thing that's changed well, actually, nothing has really changed the only thing that's changed since the last May, when I was there for my physical which I'm going again tomorrow as I'm recording this for my yearly but I went last May and everything was fine, and then I got on hormone medication and I was really, really sick, and so those are the two things that changed. So it shouldn't be my supplements, it shouldn't be any of the things, but we're just cutting it out for now and seeing what happens. So I haven't. My numbers have decreased a little bit, but they're not in the normal range or low range. They're still in the high range. But, that being said, that's kind of a little update on myself and my health right now.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that being said, going into my 44th year of life, I do have some goals, of course, and I have some thoughts on kind of what I'm doing and what I want to prioritize, and I want to talk about these things just a little bit because they're not that serious. If you know me at all, you know me well enough that I'm going to be super consistent. I'm already very, very healthy. I have healthy habits in place. There's not a whole lot, honestly, that I need to like revamp or change as far as my health goes. So it's just these little tweaks, which is what I preach all the time and I practice what I preach and so I don't need to you so I don't need to. You know, change a lot, but there's always room for improvement and I kind of want to talk about that. So, pivoting, you know you can pivot literally on a random Thursday, on a random Tuesday, you can pivot any day of the week, any time of the day. It doesn't have to be your birthday.
Speaker 2:But I think for me, well, I felt really, really shitty. I was feeling a little bit. I felt really, really shitty at the beginning of the year and I'm already kind of in. Perimenopause started, like last year. I started noticing things. That was rough.
Speaker 2:The beginning of the year. I was super, super sick, couldn't work out normally, couldn't eat normally, like threw me off my physical game for sure. Blood pressure got that kind of figured out. I was feeling a little better the last few months. Then this happened again on Thursday and I felt like it just threw me.
Speaker 2:It was on a Thursday I should say about two, two or three weeks ago that my blood pressure went a little crazy and I thought here we go, like just about the time I feel like I have my feet under me again. Everything falls apart and I felt like that. That was kind of what was happening with my blood pressure. That night. I also had a really sore throat. I was sick. I just felt like shit, absolute shit. Every part of me felt like shit. So, going to the doctor and she was just stressing how high my blood pressure was and how bad it is. It's silent killer and you need to be so careful and there's nothing inherently wrong with you. You are so healthy. So this is so scary because you wouldn't see it coming and I think just you know, putting a little bit of fear into me, which was good. It makes me kind of step back and that's kind of where this came from, generally on my birthday or any other day of the year, week, whatever.
Speaker 2:I don't need to change a whole lot because I'm already healthy, I'm already consistent, I've spent years getting the shit in line for myself and there's not a whole lot, if anything, that I need to change as far as my goals physically, workouts, things like that and I've been really good at pivoting, even now with perimenopause and being sick. I feel like I was taking creatine again. I was feeling so freaking strong. I am still feeling strong. I'm noticing gains in my shoulders. I'm noticing gains in my glutes again. My legs are feeling massive. I'm feeling really good. I'm building muscle, I'm losing fat, I've got my macros lined up again, my food choices, and I feel like I just need to keep going in that direction, and so that's kind of what I want to talk about here.
Speaker 2:My 40s in general have been a little rocky so far, but I kind of feel like I'm getting into a groove while simultaneously losing my mind, and that makes no sense at all. But I'm sure that a lot of you were like, yeah, same, I feel some days like I'm getting, I groove back, I'm getting my shit together and then also I have literally no idea what I'm doing at the exact same time, and I've come to realize that that's how my life is just going. I think that's just how life is. Some days, we feel like I'm getting into a groove and I've got my shit together and things are going well. As soon as you acknowledge that some kind of rug is going to get pulled out from under you and you're going to be sat flat on your ass again and be like actually I have no idea what I am doing, and I think that's just for one, that's something that I'm going to embrace instead of struggle to fight against. I guess that's something that I'm going to embrace is just I will feel great.
Speaker 2:Some days I will feel like shit. Some days mentally, physically, I will feel tired. Some days I will feel alive. Some days I will feel like I know what I'm doing. Some days, I will feel like I have no fucking clue what I'm doing other days, and that's okay. None of that means that I'm doing bad. None of that means that I need to change anything. That's just how it is. I'm learning to roll with the punches. I'm learning to just be like okay, I tried, laugh at myself, move on, Like this is who I am, this is what I can do, this is what I'm capable of, and I don't want to do more than I'm capable of. I can't do more than I'm capable of or I will run myself into a hole and hit burnout and it takes me weeks to get out of burnout. And, yeah, I just feel like I'm really settling into who I am and what I, what I can do.
Speaker 2:I keep thinking like when I was younger, I would you know people would say, like older women are crazy, they just pop off and say whatever they feel and they have no filter. And I'm only 44, I realize and maybe I'm hitting this a little sooner than I thought Like back in the day when I was young, I thought older women like old women and maybe I am an old woman compared to. Maybe, if I looked at myself when I was younger now I would say, yeah, you're old, I don't know. But I was thinking it would be later in life that I would start learning myself better and saying, no, that's not something I'm going to do. No, that's not for me. No, fuck you, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2:Like I feel, like I have just really I've always been that kind of a person Always. I have always been a kind of a pop off at the mouth kind of a person not really hold back, I think you know. I think, inherently, we all know who we are and we all know what we're capable of. Like we live with ourselves. I think we've been dumbed down and all the things, but for myself I can speak for myself, and hopefully, hearing this, you will realize you have this ability to. I've always been very much like, I know, even younger, like I had kind of a bad mouth on me. I'll flip someone off at the drop of a hat. Like I will stand up for people that I love and if something is wrong, I will say it, and I'm very, very much like that.
Speaker 2:There were years, though, where I was not, and I was very much in my shell and overthinking and trying to not even really fit. Not trying to fit in, but just trying to appease and, you know, not cause a scene, and be a good girl and be quiet, and I don't know. There's so many things I could say about that. But I'm back, baby. I am like, just unfuck your fitness. That is who I am at the core is. That describes me very, very well and that's kind of how I am in life and I do feel like on my good days I feel like I am back baby. That's exactly how I feel. This morning I was working out and I looked in the mirror and I'm like she's back, like I feel strong, my legs are big, I feel good in this body and then maybe later tonight or even tomorrow I'll wake up and be like who the heck is that in the mirror? It just it is what it is. Some days are great.
Speaker 2:Body dysmorphia is real at every age. You will feel good. Some days you will feel bad. You will look good. Some days you will feel you will look bad, some days Like it. It just it is what it is and I'm not going to really stress myself out with it anymore. So that's the first thing that I'm kind of rolling into this year and just I'm already rolled into it. I'm just embracing it and being like, yeah, this is, this is what it is. Take it or leave it, I don't care. Also, I want to be more present with my body and my needs and I feel like I've already kind of rolled into all of these things. I'm just really settling into it and kind of being me saying it to you, me writing it down as me being really intentional with it, right, I want to be more present with my body and my needs.
Speaker 2:My kids are getting older. I have a little more time to myself. My kids are getting older. They're 19 and 16. They're old. Okay, I'm in denial. My kids are older and I have a little more time to myself in this stage of life and I'm getting to know myself again. I'm learning to say no and I'm learning to go for a walk and I'm learning to get my workout in at different times. I'm learning to say no and I'm learning to go for a walk and I'm learning to get my workout in at different times. I'm learning to say no, I can't do that right now. I'm learning to maneuver this stage of life a little bit better. They both have their driver's licenses, they both have plans, they both have lives, and that's a weird stage of life to be in the middle of realizing that.
Speaker 2:And also, what do I do with that? Right, and so I think, just being more present, like, do I want to read a book? Do I want to play on my phone for a little bit, do I want to do the dishes and clean the house? Do I want to work out? Do I want to go outside? Like, what do I want to do? What does my body want to do? What do I need? Do I need to read a book? Do I need to get up and move my body? Like being really present with asking myself because it's okay to ask myself what do you want to do today? Right, I would ask everybody else what do you want to do today? What do you want to have for dinner? What do you want to do tonight? What do I want to do tonight, christy? What do you want to do tonight? What do you like to do? What would you rather eat for dinner? Like that's kind of where I'm at, because those questions, every time I ask myself that I get to know myself a little bit more.
Speaker 2:As far as food, I do want to eat a little bit better and prioritize my nutrition and I think this came along because of my blood pressure situation. If I'm going to be cutting out caffeine and cutting out supplements for a little while, that is very temporary in my brain, like I will be back on supplements soon, I hope. Yeah, because I just I want to be taking my EAAs and I want to be taking creatine. That's how I feel about it and I think I don't even know if I wanted to be. I need to be, I think, better with my nutrition and, yeah, just eat a little bit better. I can cut out some processed foods and I kind of do this time of year anyway, so that feels like, well, yeah, you usually do stop eating Cadbury eggs and Oreos because they don't sell Cadbury eggs anymore. So I don't really have a choice. But I mean, naturally, I'm just thinking I want to eat more fruits, I want to eat more vegetables.
Speaker 2:I have to be careful because of my stomach issues. Sometimes those things don't digest well. Strawberries sometimes can really irritate my stomach, so I have to be careful. But I want so this is the balance, right. I want to eat better and prioritize my nutrition and I also want to be intentional with my body and what it needs.
Speaker 2:Just because I want to eat a shit ton of fruit doesn't mean that my body can handle a shit ton of fruit. So therein lies the problem of everything. Right, I should be doing this or I want to do this, but it doesn't fit in my budget. I don't, I'm not making the time for that, my body doesn't like that right. Like I want to maybe hit this huge protein goal but my body is like I can't digest all of that protein right now. My stomach, maybe my gut's a little off and I'm not feeling the best. Digesting protein is really hard for your body. So you have to be in. You know, your gut has to be in good health to be able to do that. So I'm really just kind of thinking about those types of things.
Speaker 2:So I again I have more time in my schedule now with my kids being and planning out snacks and trying different foods, and I would also kind of like to eat more meals instead of snacks. So much. I think that will really help me digestion-wise, physically, if I can, because snacking is great and it's a way that I've lived for years and years and years because I'm at baseball games. I'm at basketball games, I was at track meets. I'm not home and I have to be on the go, and that's still going to be the case. But if I can eat a big breakfast, a big lunch and a big dinner and then have minimal snacks, whereas before I was basically always snacking and having little meals and that's fine. Pivoting to whatever fits your goals is perfect, but this is just where I'm at, so I have more time to grocery shop and I can go to Costco and buy in bulk. I can spend some time cooking. My entire family is now of age to really really help me in the kitchen and try things too.
Speaker 2:So again, listening to my body, seeing what it likes, seeing what makes me feel good, I think this year should be an experimental year for me. This is my goal is to be more present with my body, to eat better, prioritize nutrition kind of change my nutrition around maybe not even what I'm eating so much, just the timing of it and work it around. My work schedule and just being intentional with this is what my life looks like. I need to make an intentional, healthy pivot for my blood pressure and just for myself, mentally, like it's time, and physically to move into a new chapter. I think physically would be really good. Also, I want to prioritize my lifting again and focus on progressive overload in a way that works for me, and I think I will do a separate episode. Well, no, I'm not going to talk about it now, so I will have to do a separate episode about this and I will be implementing this into Fit Club workouts too. So I won't get into this at all.
Speaker 2:Actually, I was going to kind of give a little brief description, but I guess it'll probably look like three full-bodied days, compound movements, with two accessory days. That way I can have shorter workouts but five workouts a week, which will be nice. I think that'll work good with my schedule. I think that's what feels good for me right now, and if I start it and it doesn't, I'll stop and I'll pivot. I'm not afraid to start a program and be like that's not for me and I'll try something else and you should do the same thing. Once I get that all planned out, I will probably post it on social media. I'll probably put the exact movements out there and say this is what I'm doing. I will put it in Fit Club. Fit Club will have the progressions of the reps, things like that, because I want to obviously put my workouts that I'm actually doing inside of Fit Club with progressive overload. So things are going to be changing a little bit inside of Fit Club in June, you know, june, july, August most likely.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I definitely want and I'm always prioritizing lifting and I'm always prioritizing progressive overload, or at least lifting as heavy as I can that day. I won't always be able to lift heavier than the week before, and neither will you, and that's okay, but always keeping in mind that I need to lift as heavy as I possibly can that particular day and just really getting back to what are my physical goals and what are my health goals and how can I make those two things work together. I mean, time is flying by. I'm 44 years old. Like I said, it seemed like I was just 20, so you know, I need to prioritize putting muscle on my body. I I have a lot which I'm noticing in the mirror now, which is great, and I've been really focusing on lifting super heavy.
Speaker 2:I talked in a couple episodes back about, you know, doing four reps for four sets like lift freaking heavy. Grab a weight that you don't even know if you can lift for that many reps and try to rep it out and be intentional about really really trying to become stronger and healthier. And I think it's just a matter of what does my life look like, what does my schedule look like and what do my goals look like and how can I best make those things come together. So that is what I am focusing on going into my 44th year and as far as the podcast goes, I'm super excited we will hit 1 million downloads. We're almost at 900,000. So we'll hit 1 million downloads in a couple months, which I'm super excited about.
Speaker 2:Things as far as work are going to be really, really exciting. We are opening the it Girl membership very, very soon to everyone. Actually, it'll be open the week that this episode comes out, so that is really exciting. So we have Fit Club for workouts, we have it Girl for our community, and if you want to be that girl, you need to be inside of the it Girl community. I hope I said that right. I always say it Girl or it Club, fit Girl and it Club. I'm a mess, anyway. And then, yeah, revamping one-on-one coaching a little bit and just kind of figuring out too, what fits into my life for client work and how I can best serve clients and what you know, what things are changing out here in the fitness world, what I'm learning and how I want to, how I want that to impact my one-on-one clients, and so I'll be making some changes there, but making sure that things are really authentic to who I am and how I feel.
Speaker 2:I cannot show up on here. I can't show because, as you know, I'm not someone to just, you know kind of settle into a space that I don't feel comfortable in. I wasn't feeling comfortable in my body, I wasn't feeling comfortable with my health, I was confused and I needed to get some answers about things. And I'm still on that track, I'm still on that course, but I can make some huge changes in the meantime and just feeling like I'm still having control. I can make some huge changes in the meantime and just feeling like I'm still having control, just grabbing that rope and just kind of keeping pulling on it and keep it coming towards me so that I don't lose grip and so I don't lose sight of what's important and how I want to feel. So I'm super excited. So thank you for being here, thank you for listening to this episode. So, thank you for being here, thank you for listening to this episode. And, yeah, I'm going to celebrate my birthday and my month of May will be over.
Speaker 2:We have, I love May. It's, I think, the prettiest month, like as far as weather. I mean, there's some rain, but the weather is super nice. It doesn't get super hot. I did get a sunburn though, yesterday, so I guess it does get super hot, but not uncomfortably like yet. So I love May and also it's my birthday month, it's my husband's anniversary month and it's Mother's Day, so I just feel like it's such a fun month. I love it. I look forward to it.
Speaker 2:That was something too in the beginning of May, just a couple weeks ago, I thought I'm not feeling right, like I'm not even excited about May, I'm not excited about life, like something is wrong, and that was when my blood pressure kind of went crazy. But I just remember thinking this is not how I usually feel. Going into May. I usually feel like, yes, let's go, this is my month, I'm back, and I wasn't feeling like that yet, and then I am now. So but thank you for listening, thank you for being here. We'll celebrate the podcast when we hit those big milestones, and we wouldn't hit those big milestones without you. So I really, really appreciate it and I really, really, really appreciate you being here. I don't think I would be who I am today without having this platform and starting this platform and having you here. So I really, really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Oh, and for my birthday gift. You could go do me the biggest favor because it's my birthday and you should get me a gift, because that's the kind thing to do. I'm kidding, and you should get me a gift because that's the kind thing to do. I'm kidding, but seriously. Go leave me a on Apple podcast. If you're listening on Apple, you can leave a rating and a review, so you can give me five stars and you can give me a sweet review for my birthday. And if you're listening on Spotify, you can review and leave a comment now on each individual episode, which I am absolutely loving. So please do that. It would mean the world to me. It's the best birthday gift ever. Help the show grow and reach more of you to become my Unfuck, your Fitness friends. So thank you for listening.
Speaker 1:I will talk to you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo Fit. I will see you next time. Bye.