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Summary
On episode 656 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Gwendolyn Bounds, an award winning journalist whose career spans the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Consumer Reports, CNBC, and Smart News, and the author of Not Too Late: The Power of Pushing Limits at Any Age.
Gwendolyn shares how she became a competitive obstacle course racer at 45, a sport she never considered herself capable of, and how that decision reshaped her identity, her confidence, and her marriage.
The conversation moves through her melanoma diagnosis and how it changed her relationship with risk and protection, the communication breakdowns and repairs that came with reinventing herself in midlife, and what she calls “the bridge,” a way of thinking about reinvention that does not require blowing up the life you already have.
Links
- https://gwendolynbounds.com
Key Takeaways
- Midlife often means falling into the cycle of sameness. Gwendolyn describes reaching a point where the same routines, friends, and conversations had built a comfortable but static life, and that recognizing this is often what triggers the search for something new.
- Reinvention does not have to mean blowing up your life. She uses the metaphor of a musical bridge, a section that changes key and tempo but still connects to everything before and after it. Pursuing something new can make you appreciate the old rather than replace it.
- A cancer diagnosis reframed her relationship with control and risk. Her melanoma surgery was a wake up call not just about sun protection but about the illusion that hard work guarantees safety. She now treats emotional health as seriously as physical health.
- Big life changes require deliberate communication with the people you love. When Gwendolyn started training for obstacle racing, she did not explain her reasoning well, even to her wife, Lisa, who found a large pull up bar delivered without warning. She stresses giving the people around you a real explanation, not just the outcome.
- Fear should be evaluated against what is on the other side of it. After her cancer diagnosis, Gwendolyn had to decide whether the fear of more sun exposure outweighed her desire to keep racing outdoors, including in the heat of Abu Dhabi, and she built specific habits, protective clothing, high SPF sunscreen, and timed outdoor exposure, to manage the risk rather than avoid the sport.
- Trying something you are bad at builds confidence that transfers everywhere. Gwendolyn was often the oldest and least fit person in the gym in her early obstacle racing days, and getting comfortable with not being the best fed her willingness to take a career risk later, leaving a stable job at Consumer Reports for a startup.
- Change in one person often ripples out to the people around them. As Gwendolyn leaned into racing, her wife pursued voiceover work and her best friend became a serious volunteer firefighter. She describes this as a community feeding off one another rather than growing apart.
- Know the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Gwendolyn uses a sleep test: if you are excited to wake up and dive into something, it is probably intrinsically driven and will stick, while things chased for medals or money tend to be transient.
- Gwendolyn’s three strategies to get and stay well: identify what genuinely drives you from the inside using the sleep test rather than chasing external rewards, start small instead of overreaching so you actually get moving instead of getting stuck in prep, and build simple travel habits, hydration, a foot roller ball, a resistance band, so wellness does not depend on perfect conditions.
“We kind of all feel like we’re not done yet. And that’s a powerful feeling when you have a community around you and you’re inspiring each other.”
Gwendolyn Bounds
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 657 – Finding Discipline
Episode Notes
Podcast: 40+ Fitness
Episode: 656
Published: 2024-08-20
Host: Allan Misner (aka Coach Allan), author of The Wellness Roadmap
Guest(s): Gwendolyn Bounds · Rachel (post-show), an award winning journalist and author whose career spans influential media brands including the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Consumer Reports, cnbc, Smart News, and more, Not Too the Power of Pushing Limits at Any Age
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