Episode 45Mar 6, 2026· 8:31
Your Past Failures Are Actually Your Fitness Roadmap (Especially After 40)
About this episode
What if every diet you've abandoned and every workout plan you've quit was actually preparing you to finally succeed? Fitness expert Domenic Angelino joins Ashley with a fresh take on weight loss after 40 that will completely change how you see your lived experience.
In this episode, Ashley reacts to Domenic's voice note about why people over 40 have a hidden advantage most fitness influencers never talk about.…
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Full transcript
00:00
Okay, so just do what works for you and stop
00:02
doing what doesn't? I mean, that sounds kind
00:04
of simple, right? What's up, you guys? Famous
00:12
Ashley Grant here. Welcome to More Movement,
00:13
Please, the podcast where I hope to inspire you
00:15
to move your body more. Today, I have another
00:18
awesome voice note to share with you, and this
00:19
one comes to us from Dominic Angelino. Here's
00:23
what he has to say. So the number one way to
00:25
lose weight after 40 is actually sort of simple.
00:27
You just have to do what works for you and not
00:31
do what doesn't work for you. You know, you have
00:33
a lot of lived experience, right? Either pursuing
00:36
fitness schools in the past that have worked,
00:38
haven't worked, sort of worked, or just living
00:41
life and kind of learning what you enjoy. You
00:43
can use that knowledge to your advantage. You
00:47
might think like, hey, I'm over 40 right now.
00:49
I'm kind of disadvantaged when it comes to fitness
00:51
compared to people that are younger and have
00:53
physiology on their side. Well, that's not necessarily
00:55
true entirely, right? Because, well, physiologically,
01:00
things may be a little bit harder than they used
01:02
to be. You have a lot of lived experience that
01:04
you could draw on to increase your odds of success
01:06
drastically. So, for example, right, when we
01:09
lose weight, the main thing we really are trying
01:11
to do is just burn calories. If you burn more
01:13
calories than you consume, you're going to lose
01:15
weight in some form. And so if you think about
01:19
that, right, on the fitness side of things, you
01:21
really just want to find activities that cause
01:22
you to burn more calories in a sustainable way
01:25
that you keep doing. So just think back to things
01:28
in your life that you enjoyed. Anything that
01:30
you have an interest in or tangentially are curious
01:34
about. There's probably some fitness -ified version
01:38
of it that exists right now. Like, for example,
01:41
if you like music, there are tons of VR, like
01:44
virtual reality games. that get you up and moving
01:48
your body and just burning a hundred calories
01:50
really fast while feeling like you're doing nothing.
01:53
Like the game Beat Saber, for example. And there
01:56
are plenty of other gamified fitness experiences
01:58
and things like that. Just find something that
02:00
aligns closely with what you like, then just
02:02
do that. And focus on having fun rather than
02:05
doing activity to lose weight explicitly. That'll
02:10
come as a positive side effect. And the other
02:13
thing is that you know what doesn't work for
02:15
you, right? Like if you think back to your past
02:17
failures, you can pretty much pinpoint the things
02:22
that have been triggers for you in the past for
02:24
stopping a diet or for just losing motivation,
02:29
right? Like an easy trap that some people fall
02:32
into is they might eat a lot of low calorie,
02:34
low volume foods. Like they might eat like rice
02:38
cakes or things like that when they're trying
02:40
to lose weight. But that might lead to them feeling
02:42
like unsatisfied because they're not really adding
02:45
a lot of like absolute volume to their stomach
02:47
and they just don't feel full. So they end up
02:50
binging and they consume more calories overall
02:53
than if they just ate something higher volume
02:55
outright. And also then are just going to give
02:58
up their diet more short term because they don't
03:00
feel satisfied. So you could like learn from
03:02
experiences like that because certain nutrition
03:04
and fitness approaches work for some people.
03:07
And they don't work for others based on their
03:08
personality and just what organically makes sense
03:11
for them. Look at where you failed in the past.
03:13
Look at where you struggled. Identify those things
03:15
and find specific solutions to those things in
03:18
a personalized way. And you'll drastically increase
03:20
your odds of success. Okay, okay. Can we just,
03:24
let's just sit with that for a second. Because
03:27
everything he just said, it kind of hit me right
03:29
in the feels, right in the chest. Let's start
03:31
with the part about being over 40 and feeling
03:33
like you're at a disadvantage. Because y 'all...
03:37
I definitely have said this out loud to myself
03:39
and the mirror, all the things, more than I care
03:42
to admit. Like, oh, I waited too long, or oh,
03:46
it's harder now, or oh, if I'd only started when
03:49
I was younger. But you guys, I didn't start when
03:52
I was younger. That's kind of the whole problem.
03:54
And this is Dominic basically saying, hold on.
03:57
Yeah, things may be a little harder physically,
04:00
physiologically. But you also know yourself now
04:05
in a way that your 25 -year -old self absolutely
04:08
did not. And honestly, this reframe, it kind
04:13
of stopped me in my tracks. Because think about
04:15
it. I know now that if I'm not having fun, I'm
04:18
not going to show up. It's just the facts. I
04:20
know this about myself. That's why I couldn't
04:22
do pickleball. That's why I didn't enjoy. you
04:24
know, doing racquetball. I'm not a sports girly.
04:27
I am a group fitness girly. It's exactly why
04:31
I chose Zumba as my thing. I love dancing. And
04:35
I wasn't a thousand percent sure about that just
04:39
10 years ago. I was out here thinking I just
04:41
needed to white knuckle my way through some treadmill
04:43
sessions and eat less bread and cut out all the
04:47
things that I love. And guess what? You guys,
04:49
that did not work. Shocking. I know. And the
04:53
stuff he said about food, well, oh my gosh, the
04:56
rice cake example. I felt that deeply because
05:00
there was a season of my life where I was eating
05:02
unsatisfying diet foods, like the most crappy
05:06
crap you could possibly imagine. And I bet you
05:09
can guess it. I was miserable. And truth be told,
05:12
when you're dieting, you give up. Because eventually,
05:15
if you're like me, you just want to blow the
05:17
whole thing up because you're so hungry and you're
05:19
so done with it. And oh my God, was that me?
05:22
I thought I just had no willpower. But Dominic's
05:25
point is so important. It's not a willpower problem.
05:29
It's a wrong strategy for my personality problem.
05:33
And that is such a different conversation, isn't
05:35
it, you guys? And I really wish someone had said
05:39
that to me a long, long time ago whenever I had
05:42
first started my fitness journey. Because, yeah,
05:45
I only got serious about this like seven months
05:48
ago. Yeah, I did join the gym two years ago,
05:52
but the truth is, two years ago wasn't when I
05:55
tried going to the gym. I haven't really talked
05:59
about this much, but after I did all the shots
06:01
and pills and I gained all that weight back,
06:03
I actually did join a gym down in Tampa. I tried
06:05
doing some other stuff. It didn't work, and now
06:08
I kind of know why. I really want you to hear
06:12
this. When he talked about looking back at your
06:15
past, And thinking about the failures, not as
06:18
shame, but as data. Oh, you guys, doesn't that
06:22
just sound so much better to think of your past
06:24
as a roadmap to where you quit and what triggered
06:27
it and what made it feel impossible? Because
06:30
if you can identify those patterns, you can actually
06:33
build a plan that works around them instead of
06:36
just hoping this time will be different. Because
06:39
you guys, when you're just hoping and wishing
06:41
and praying that things will get better, it's
06:43
the very definition of insanity. We're doing
06:46
the same things over and over again, praying
06:48
for a different result. And I'll be honest with
06:50
you guys. I used to avoid thinking about my past
06:53
failed attempts at getting healthy because it
06:56
just made me feel bad. And the more I'm on this
06:59
journey, the more I finally see that all of those
07:02
failures were actually teaching me what I needed
07:06
to know. I needed group fitness. I needed music,
07:10
really good music. I needed people in the room
07:12
with me. And I needed to actually enjoy what
07:15
I was doing. And I had to fail at a bunch of
07:18
other stuff just to figure that out. So if you're
07:22
listening to this and you're in your 40s, or
07:24
honestly, if you're listening to this at any
07:26
age and you feel like you've tried it all and
07:29
you failed it at all and you just don't know
07:31
what to do, I want you to take Dominic's advice
07:33
to heart. You're not starting from zero, y 'all.
07:36
You're starting from a whole lifetime of experience.
07:39
So use it. That's what I've got for you today.
07:42
If you want to leave a voice note for me for
07:44
a future episode, whether you're a fitness pro
07:46
with tips to share or just someone who's just
07:48
like me on a journey and wants to tell their
07:50
story, I would love to hear from y 'all. Head
07:52
over to famousashleygrant .com backslash fitness.
07:54
I would love to hear from you. Onwards and upwards,
07:57
my friends. Have you worked out today?
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