Ep 431: Shredding Life’s Challenges on the Ski Slopes With Lynn Mroz

It’s said aging isn’t for the faint of heart but Lynn Mroz is breaking all the standards!  Lynn Mroz, is a wife, a mom, an executive, explorer, and health advocate.  From bike tours, skiing, swimming and driving Formula One cars for fun, Lynn is defying aging wherever she can!  She has overcome a car accident, multiple surgeries, three TBIs and was diagnosed a year ago with Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia, a condition that makes one at high risk for developing breast cancer and despite it all she’s thriving!  In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Dr. Jannine Krause interviews Lynn Mroz on perserverance, juggling a family and a high performance marketing career and what it takes to keep adventuring, skiing and trying new things at any age!

Resources From The Show:

• Instagram: @lmroz7
• Linkedin:  linkedin.com/in/lynnmroz
• Facebook: Lynn Mroz
• Women Who Ski Facebook Group
• Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book

Our Partners

Podcast Transcript

2:55 – Lynn’s Story 

7:55 – One thing Lynn feels she is too old for 

8:46 – Lynn’s first sprint triathlon experience 

11:37 – Lynn and her husband get a tandem bike 

15:48 – Important things to do as you age 

17:11 – How Lynn juggled her life with kids and a career

19:49 – Dealing with the death of a parent

22:06 – Confronting a health scare

33:50 – How a ski vacation turned into teaching at ski school

34:59 – Two TBI injuries

50:56 – What is next for Lynn?

JANNINE: [Intro] Welcome to the Health Fix Podcast, where health junkies get their weekly

fix of tips, tools and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds and fit

physiques for life.

Hey health junkies, on this episode of the Health Fix Podcast, I’m interviewing

Lynn Mroz. She took me up on my offer to interview podcast listeners on

on their amazing life, stories, and all of their stories

of defying aging.

And boy, Lynn has quite a story.

She has had three traumatic brain injuries.

She’s working on managing atypical ductal hyperplasia

in the breast, but she’s not boring.

She’s not routine, and she’s not uninspiring.

That is for sure, because throughout her life,

she’s held positions high up like vice president,

senior vice president in advertising positions,

and she’s managed to find time to drive Formula One race cars

for fun, to ski, which is her big hobby.

And not only that, cycle, swim, and really,

even get down to playing tennis.

She’s fascinating, I love all of her thought processes

on life and her mission, and really,

she’s just learning to make lifestyle changes

to help reduce stress and inflammation over time

with her traumatic brain injuries,

but also as she’s getting older,

she’s working on mindfulness,

she’s working on meditation,

and she really does believe

that you’ve gotta keep trying new things as you get older.

And gosh, she’s an inspiration,

she’s got a great story,

and I can’t wait for you guys to meet Lynn.

So let’s get on with the podcast.

Hey, health junkies, I have Lynn Mroz,

and we are going to be talking about

getting older, overcoming obstacles,

and really just having fun with new adventures

as life moves on.

So, Lynn, welcome to the Health Fix Podcast.

LYNN: Hello, thank you, it’s great to be here.

JANNINE: My pleasure, when you pitched to come on,

I was like, yes, let’s talk because you have so many things

that are not uncommon for a lot of folks to have experience,

but also you’ve got this underlying adventure.

At like every decade, you were doing something different

that that I find absolutely cool and so many,

you’ve done so many things that I haven’t done.

So I’m like, I have things now on my new bucket list

that keeps changing every single day.

Now, of course, when I bring people on,

then I always want to talk about

in terms of getting older.

When you were say five, six, that kind of age range,

what age did you think folks were kind of old?

What was in your mind when you started looking

at grandparents and their behaviors?

What kind of had in your mind like, oh, they’re old

and that misconception of what getting older really is?

LYNN: Well, that’s an interesting question

because for some people like my teachers,

I thought they were really old.

I went to a Catholic school in Detroit

and then moved to the suburbs.

And so I had a mix of private and public school.

And so some of the teachers to me seemed really, really old,

but my immediate family, they didn’t act that way.

My grandparents were all very active,

my parents were very active,

my grandparents and my dad’s side skied

into their 60s and 70s.

They had a cottage and so, you know,

they would take us out boating, sailing,

we water skied.

And so I just kind of had this justp osition of,

you don’t really have to be old, act old.

You can, you know, have fun and enjoy life.

And every weekend, when I was very in elementary school,

we would either go to my parents,

my grandparents’ cottage in Northern Michigan.

And it was just fun.

It was, we went, you know, mini biking, water skiing, boating, swimming, every day.

It was a fantastic childhood and a great way to get out of the city of Detroit, you

know, when it would be very hot.

And, um, and then, um, in the winter, we would, we started first, we skied locally

in the Detroit area on some local hills.

And then I think around the age of seven, um, well, actually, there’s pictures of

me stomping around her backyard in Detroit with skis on.

But when I was seven, I think it was,

we started going up north on a fairly regular basis in skiing.

And my dad made friends with an Austrian ski instructor

who missed her, yeah, Ushi.

Her name was Ushi, she missed her family at home,

took me under her wing and you know,

you just, you went where she went

And she yelled back, “Bends in knees, bends in knees!”

But she would take me in the lodge and get hot chocolate, and, you know, and then I went

from there, started getting involved in ski racing, and a friend of mine, his name was

Todd.

We, at eight years old, we begged the lift operator to let us get the gates out, and

We set our own courses on the hills and then that led to starting within what’s called

the CUSO, which is the Central United States Ski Association, the Midwestern Division.

And I think it was around eight years old and I was in the elite division of CUSO.

Oh, wow.

You know, and with that, you know, my parents were there and they were skiing and, you know,

I don’t know.

We didn’t have that. My grandparents on both sides lived until their 80s. Right now, our

aunt, my mom’s sister, she’s 98. Wow. She lives alone. Doesn’t like to hear, “You’re

getting old, so things may have to change.” And my dad, he was still playing golf three

times a week into when he was 90. Wow. And he won tournaments at his the clubs, not for

his age group and not from the advanced T’s. He would, you know, yeah. So that was my role,

Madam, I remember my dad telling me, you know, then you have a choice when you wake up in the

morning, you can wake up and be grateful. And you know, another day to do what you want to do or

You can complain about every ache and pain you have in your body and trust me when you get into your 80s

You have a lot, but he goes people don’t want to hear it and you know it for your mindset and we’re gonna be positive

You should you know, you can acknowledge it, but you don’t focus on it

JANNINE: That’s huge. That’s huge

You know, I think a lot of folks don’t have that kind of positive

positive message or also role models like you had of everybody being active a lot of folks

unfortunately have folks who kind of their parents might be like well I’m getting older I’m just

gonna quit or I’m just gonna you know give up or oh I am getting older so I can’t do X Y or Z.

Now of course you definitely have have defied that because I was looking like in your 40s you

drove a Formula One race car. Most people once we get to our 40s and I’m in my mid 40s now I’ve

like, I’m like, and it’s crazy and I’m curious if this happens to you where even maybe before,

maybe not so much now, we’re in the back of your mind, you’re like, I might be too old to do this.

Do you ever think that or did you ever think that? LYNN:  I do think that for bungee jumping.

As much as I’d love to do it, I have a fear of heights. So that’s like one thing where I’m like,

yeah, no, I’m not doing that. But no, nothing else, nothing else. I, you know, and I think

both my parents instilled it. And my dad definitely, for sure. I mean, when I was about five years

old, he had me, what they would call wakeboarding back then, behind an aluminum fishing boat.

JANNINE: Michigan, that’s a thing in Michigan and Wisconsin, guys.

That is a thing.

LYNN: Yeah.

Yeah.

And then I advanced and, you know, it kept going.

But, um, no, I, I don’t, I don’t have that approach.

It’s when we moved to Austin in 2014, I met a woman who was a fitness director.

Her name was Jackie and super positive.

And I was taking her classes, like her spin classes and her kickboxing classes.

So she comes up to me one day and she says, Hey, Lynn, you want to do a marathon?

And I’m like, do I look like I’m doing marathon?

And she goes, oh yeah.

So anyway, fast forward, we go down to San Antonio.

And then the morning when we have the bike

and we have everything all set up,

I’m like looking around, I go, well, there seems to be

like a pattern here, like a setup or something.

Jackie, what am I supposed to do?

And she goes, wait a minute, have you never done this?

And I go, I told you I had never done it.

And she goes, well, don’t worry, it’s a, it’s a, um, everything’s shorter.

You know, the swim is shorter, the bike ride is shorter.

It’s like 12 miles.

I go, oh, 12 miles.

I can do that.

The run is only a couple of miles.

So then we get in there and there’s people, all ages, who’s women.

I think I’m mostly at that event.

And my competitiveness kicks in.

So I’m trying to go fast.

I find out it’s a sprint triathlon.

She failed to mention that, but she couldn’t believe that I had never done it before.

JANNINE: And you just showed up.

There was no training at all.

LYNN: No, we didn’t–

I mean, it was her spin class.

So I didn’t know, like, you’re supposed to position your helmet this way so you can jump

on the bike and you know, you want to wear these kind of clothes.

No.

JANNINE: That’s hilarious but the fact that you just jumped up and you were ready to do it I think for a

lot of people you know 5k–people trained for five 5K’s you know and so just looking at a triathlon

where there’s three individual things she just saw you in spinning and she’s like let’s do this

I mean that’s huge that’s huge how how young were you when you did that one LYNN: I think I was 56

somewhere in there yeah 

JANNINE: Holy cow because yeah those are things too that folks even in their

20s will train for. So I think a lot of people are like, dang, you must be superhuman. Of course,

I love to explain that you do not have to be superhuman to do these sorts of things. Now,

you were telling me earlier that you and your husband have a tandem bike and that– 

LYNN: we do.

JANNINE: When did you guys start riding around in the tandem bike?

LYNN: So my husband, John, he has been active similarly, you know, he used to run a lot in college and

do the 10k races. And then at some point he had to switch, I think he was having some hip issues

and they suggested biking. So then he became, and he’s like a rocket ship on his bike. I mean,

he just passed me. And when our youngest who was around six, he went out and bought a tandem bike.

And I mean, I was with him, but he said, let’s go check out the bikes. Let’s get a tandem bike.

like we can start doing rides together.

And it was funny because the owner of that,

there was a continental bike shop

and outside of Detroit said, when we got on the bike,

he said, we came back and he goes,

do you guys have a good marriage?

And I’m like, well, I don’t know.

What do you think?

And he goes, I think you have a really good marriage

because you just got on like, and you were gone.

Like, no arguing, nothing.

And I guess that doesn’t happen for some people

that pick out the Tandem’s.

But anyway, so we got a Tandem.

And of course, the first thing we decided to do

is to train for a four day bike tour

from that basically starts at Michigan State

in the middle of Michigan and goes on a Northwest route.

And then you end up at the Mackinac Bridge.

JANNINE: Oh, I love the Mackinac Bridge.

LYNN: and you can sign up.

It’s usually like 80 to 100 miles a day.

And the one we did, the quad century,

we got about 40 miles, I think, from the bridge.

You have to go through this area called the tunnel of trees,

which is gorgeous and up by Herbert Springs, Michigan.

And my hamstring must have had a small terror in it or something.

I don’t know, it started hurting really bad.

So we got off and they do a great job with this ride.

They have to support people everywhere.

I got off and I had tears coming down my eyes

and like, oh, the bridge, it’s so close.

I really want to finish and,

but I just thought, oh my gosh, this hurts.

So one of the paramedics brought over a big bag of ice.

And my husband said, we can stop.

We don’t have to keep going.

I go, no, we’re going to that bridge.

And so I asked the paramedic for duct tape.

And I duct tape bag of ice to my leg.

And then I put on Stevie Ray Vaughan and just got there.

JANNINE: Wow, wow.

I mean, a lot of people, of course,

would have been like, yeah, I’m done, I’m done.

But, you know, of course you had mentioned earlier

before we hit record that you’ve got quite a bit

of a history of sports and ski, you know,

ski racing, of course too.

And I think there is a little level

of like we will push ourselves a little bit harder

challenge ourselves a little bit harder sounds like you you were rocking out and

had some drive LYNN: oh yeah yeah Stevie took me home across the finish line tears

coming down you know that’s everything hurt but yeah mind over matter you know

and I think that probably started a young age because I remember my mom saying I

would say I can do it I can do it my dad taking me skiing for the first time

when I was about five years old, and I didn’t wait for him to buckle his boots, I just took off.

And I crashed, but I came up, I was smiling and laughing, and then he gave me a tennis racket,

back then they were wood. And we went out, we hit balls, I used to practice against our house

and Detroit and I’ll never, I remember, I think I was holding on to it when Billie Jean King

did her famous tennis match and I was just like cradling the rack and like,

like, if you can do it, I can do it. And so, yeah, it’s just, I have had challenges

because I’ve had injuries and things like that, but, and I think more now, it’s knowing

It’s okay to kind of set a limit on yourself. You don’t want to diminish yourself, but you might

say, okay, I’m not going to do the hit classes now. I’m going to do other things. And I think even

more important now as I get older is like, I used to do yoga a lot, but like yoga, stretching,

mindfulness, all of that is just as important. Whereas before it was leave work, go to the gym,

run, you know, as fast as I could on the treadmill, get home, and now I think it’s more important

to have kind of like a 360 view of health.

JANNINE: Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I mean, it’s one of those things that as we get older, we start to kind of go, you

know, we do have that dialogue, even myself in my head, I’ll have that dialogue of like,

how much should I do of hit?

Or how much should I do of this?

When should I do it?

You know, am I getting older?

I shouldn’t, you know, not am I getting older, but it’s more of a question of am I too old

for this kind of thing in terms of how, how do I juggle this?

And I think one of the most important things you kind of mentioned there was with, with

family, I’m going to work, then I’m going running as fast as I can on a treadmill.

So a lot of women juggle, right?

Taking care of their family, taking care of their parents too, at this age.

How, how do you juggle everything?

You’re saying taking a 360 view, give us the scoop of how, how you juggle things as your

kids were getting older. And and as now, I’m sure you’ve

probably had some instances in which you’re watching over

parents and things of that nature. Give us a scoop a little

bit about how that played out for you.

LYNN: Yeah, well, when our our children were young, we I would

take them to different babysitters, sometimes family

members, sometimes like private, you know, places. And then

we were fortunate when our youngest was like around

kindergarten age. We found a woman, a young woman, and she, her

name is Lisa. She was fantastic. She became part of our

family. And, but I really did try. I usually had a kind of

a long commute and I really did try like once I got home, that

was it. You know, I can focus on the kids. And then when the

kids were older, we had some high school students that helped

us and we’re still in touch with all of them. One’s named Bonnie and another one’s Liz and

you know our kids were in their weddings and stuff like that and you know I did really make

an effort to be there as a mom even though I did have this career as well that was sometimes

stressful and crazy but I don’t know you know my friends asked me how did you balance it I

you know, when I look back, I was getting my master’s degree at night. I was married. We had

our son, you know, I would read my textbooks, you know, and he’d be next to me reading his book,

and then, like, we’d switch. And he’d say, “Your book isn’t fun to read, Mom.”

So, um, and imagine, you know, it, I was fortunate, um, both my husband’s family and my family are

extremely supportive, very helpful. Um, my mom, she was diagnosed with cancer when I was 34 and

that was a shock. She was completely healthy. Um, they never found the originating site. So it’s,

there’s a possibility it was breast cancer. But by the time they found it, it was another, it was

And I had never heard of that either.

I actually said to the doctor,

I don’t even understand how that’s possible.

But I guess with some cancers,

they can’t always find the originating site.

Like, and she, boy, she, she fought, she tried hard.

And even when she was going through chemo,

she looked like a model.

She’s just like, “Mom, you kidding me?”

Should she was, you know, she, that’s how she was.

And she passed away a year later.

I was actually next to her and she was home.

My dad had taken care of her

and I had walked in the bedroom

and I don’t know what made me do it,

but I crawled into bed with her and I put her in my arms.

And I said, you know, I didn’t know what to say.

I was the only one that didn’t read the hospice booklet.

But I knew from like watching TV,

not supposed to say stay. And I just instinctively said, you know, we’ll take care of each other.

And everybody will be, well, we wouldn’t be okay. But I said, we’ll be okay. And then she passed

away my arms. And that was that was hard. That was that took a long time to to walk through. You

don’t get over it, you walk through. But then one day, I

thought, you know, I would think it was skiing. And I thought,

you know, I want to think about her in positive times. And so I

just started talking and I instead of crying, I was smiling

and laughing. And then was okay to keep going after that. But I

think about her every day, you know, she’s just, she’s the type of person that could make you laugh.

She was the type of person that would make you feel you were the most important person in their

room. And that’s a gift. So.

JANNINE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

LYNN: Yeah.

Those are huge parents passing are huge obstacles.

Absolutely. And can and can give you that sense of like, I give up, you know, or.

And unfortunately, we also have this, this concept of, oh, if that happened to mom, it’s going to happen to me.

And in your case, you are dealing with a situation where it is a little bit of a mystery as to what’s going on with the atypical cells there in your breast tissue, so the atypical ductal hyperplasia.

Can you explain to us a little bit about the diagnosis and kind of when that came about and how that might have impacted a little bit of how you move forward and how you’re looking at aging going forward?

Give us a scoop of what went around in your head and that one.

LYNN: Sure, so I’ve always felt it very important to keep up with all of your appointments and your doctors and we have moved

a few times and so that’s a little bit of a challenge, but I definitely always kept up like with mammograms and

annual exams and things like that. I think I had my first mammogram when I was 35. I

had a very good doctor in Michigan and

and I over the years, you know, they would find something but it was like, no, I don’t worry about it and

But then the whole thing concept of dense breasts came about

and

Probably two years ago. I had a ma’am. I never I had a mammogram in Houston and

When the results came back and I also had a pelvic exam and when the results came back

It said atypical cells and my pelvic exam, and I thought mm-hmm. What’s that?

Just because this my you know with my mom right in my back right in my head

So I asked the doctor and she’s a very good doctor. I asked her and

The answer kind of I don’t know it just it didn’t settle right and that’s another thing

I also speak with my aunt about it’s like, you know what you didn’t go to medical school, but you know your body

really have to you know

Ask the doctor for their advice. So I

The answer I got back just didn’t sit well and so I was referred to MD Anderson in Houston and I went and they said

You it is a typical and apparently when you reach

Postmenopausal women reaches certain age you might get a a typical

Result and a pap smear

But because my history, I was at, there were no risk factors involved, and so they just

said, “You don’t have to worry,” and I’m like, “Well, okay,” I mean, you know, two

doctors and the Anderson is probably one of the best places in the world, right?

But the woman, the gynecologist said, “When you’re due for your mammograms, did you know

we can do them here?”

And I’m like, “Well, I don’t have cancer.”

And they said, “No, we have a whole wellness area.”

So, with a grace of God, I went, and I think their technology is probably the best, right?

And they found something, so it was a cyst, and they said that they wanted to do a fine

needle biopsy, which I had had one in Michigan years ago, so I said, “Okay, so we did it.”

And when you’re at there, they test it right away.

They don’t have you leave.

You still lay there.

They take the sample.

JANNINE: Wow.

LYNN: Yeah.

And a woman came in from the lab, got it, and they came back, and they said, “That was

benign.”

I was like, “Thank you.”

They said, “However, we see some cells that are suspicious.”

And I’m like, Oh, and I said, does it like a cyst?

And they said, no, it’s like, it’s not one.

It’s just cells.

And they said, for that, you need to come back

and have a core biopsy.

And I said, okay.

And so my husband drove me for that

because they give you some medicine.

And I don’t know if you’ve ever had that

or your listeners have ever had it.

Oh my God.

So you go in, you know, you’re in your gown,

lay down on this table and there’s a hole in it for your breasts to go through. They lift the

table up and they go under the table. They’re sitting on a chair and they go under the table

and they take the cells same thing. And then I was like, “Oh my gosh, I feel like I’m getting

oil change I’m like oh my god and it does hurt even though they numb you it

hurt a lot like I felt like somebody’s stabbing me not that I anyway the top

doctor came in and kind of patted my back and said you’re doing great you’re

doing great and look you can’t move at all because that could affect it anyway

they that they came back and they afterward they wrap you in this tight

They wrap and then they say, they came back and they said, you have these atypical, ductal,

hyperplasia cells and we recommend that you go on an estrogen blocker.

And because you’re a post-medopausal, we recommend that you go on this, well there were a couple

choices, but they told me the one that they recommended was a certain one.

And so I started that, actually on my birthday last year, a year ago, so you just take it

every day.

And there are side effects that you have to watch out for like blood clots and some other

side effects.

JANNINE: Wow.

Has had you had any symptoms at all, like any breast tenderness or even like through

menopause and going through perimenopause?

Did you have hot flashes?

Did you have any symptoms at all?

LYNN: No, so my, um, I started my period, I think when I was about 14. So it was a little bit later than most of my friends and then I ended at 54 and I really didn’t have any of that and so when you’re the interesting thing is this estrogen blocker, it really doesn’t block it because you’re still at risk, but it greatly reduces the risk.

I had to I had had flashes. Oh my god. This is horrible. Oh my friends. I went through this

That’s part of it that one of the other symptoms. So yeah, this has been fun

JANNINE: Not now you’re getting your taste of what the rest of the folks were going through. Oh, goodness

Oh goodness, you know, it’s it’s wild to think you know

I think a lot of people don’t really realize that we kind of a typical cells

You think about it cervix right and we think about it down below

But we don’t think about it in terms of breast tissue and and I’m glad that you’re sharing that and I definitely wanted folks to hear about that

And yes, breast MRI’s even when they put you into the machine

You’re down like you’re getting your oil change. They put you in the tube just as much as getting a biopsy. It is weird

It’s absolutely weird and you’re right not we before we hit record guys

We were talking about not a lot of people talk about that and and it’s a weird

It’s a weird experience as as a whole but the the good news is is it seems like for now things are staying stable as of your last checkup

LYNN: Yes

So grateful

So I’ve had so now I’m in a schedule where you have an MRI

It was breast exam and MRI six months later

A breast exam and a mammogram and then six months later, so I just had my second MRI

And then I had a mammogram in between. So I’ve had three follow-ups and it’s a friend of mine who had breast cancer

I remember I worked with her and I didn’t even know she had it

Incredible and she said the those appointments are the worst day of your life and the best day

And I said what do you mean and she said because you go in and you’re so worried

But then you come out and you like find out you’re good. See in six months and

Yeah, so– 

JANNINE: There is definitely some some relief and knowing and and I think that’s important for folks to hear that like testing

You know in certain cases having the testing whatever it may be, you know

Just knowing having that peace of mind because I think we can

Work ourselves into some things too if we’re if we don’t know the answer. I I find that true LYNN: Very true and I have friends

quite a few who’ve had breast cancer and

Some are very, you know, they’re they go to every appointment and then I’ve had friends that they’re very nervous to go back and

I

Understand both approaches my approach is just as always been I’d rather know I’d rather know I

Want to know because then I can make a plan and from that, you know, we can go forward and in fact

Someone had mentioned to me a book

I think the title is brass and it’s like dog-eared and, you know, a gynocologist

out in California that wrote it. It’s an excellent book. And yeah, I’m

just trying. I’m drinking green tea. And, you know, again, I think that whole thing

about like incorporate mindfulness and trying to calm your yourself down. It’s

It’s a little like being in the starting gate on the ski race, which is because as you know

with playing sports, your heart just starts, you know, your adrenaline kicks in and you

just start going and so you have to focus, breathe, and be ready to go, you know.

JANNINE: Isn’t it fascinating how our sports as one were younger?

And I think even as we’re older, if you have a coach, if you start getting into something,

you can really use that same, you know, foundation for a lot of obstacles in life.

Now not only, and this is something, of course, I want folks to hear too, not only have you

had the breast diagnosis and you’re working with that, you’ve had three traumatic brain

injury. So guys, three TBIs, two. And she’s still moving forward here. Now, unfortunately,

the last one was doing something you absolutely love and skiing in the mountains. Let’s talk

a little bit. I want to turn it positive, of course, because, you know, we want to keep

the positive vibe, but also educate at the same time. You took a quarter break in your

life and you went to teach in Dear Valley, correct? Did I get that right?

LYNN: Yes, ski school. 

JANNINE: Tell us tell us about that teaching season, you know, a lot of people will think you know

When I was 20, I don’t even know if they was like 22

I mean how there was I was like I wanted to teach ski school, you know

And I’m gonna go do it now because if I if I wait till I’m older

I can’t couch surf and do it so give us the scoop about making the decision to go teach the ski school

old when you’re older and how that all looks and even having the two traumatic brain injuries prior

to that you know a lot of people would be like oh I don’t know so this is great on that? 

LYNN: Right um

so I never took a gap year after college and got married we started our family started working

was went to school at night to get my master’s degree so fast forward to um our my mid 50s

I had an opportunity, I was done with one assignment and it wasn’t starting another assignment because

by then I was freelancing, so I just finished an assignment with Facebook and so I just kind

of put everything I hold and it was kind of spur of the moment, but we decided to go up to

Dear Valley and we were just going to ski for like the week and then my husband,

jokingly, he got a job and I’m like, well, now what am I going to do? Like he’s like,

like, “Well, just go ski. You’ve always wanted to ski.”

And I’m like, “I can’t ski seven days a week.”

So the next day I went to the ski school and got a job.

And of course, I don’t do it like two days a week.

I do it five days a week.

And then in my off days, I ski.

And it, oh my gosh, I had a blast.

I just smiled.

It was so much fun and was with the little kids

and telling knock-knock jokes and just, you know,

just making them that Deer Valley has a saying

of the Deer Valley experience and they’re very proud of it.

They want to give every guest.

They want every guest to just have a great time, have fun.

So you go up and that fit with my previous experience

working and advertising, taking care of clients.

And so I did that and on the off season I,

I mean on the weekends I went free skiing

to places like ALTA and doing double black diamonds

and things like that, which, you know,

I grew up ski racing, so it was fun.

But the challenges of the TBIs right after I had them,

because one was falling out of a truck in 2014

and then in 2015 being in a car accident,

I did have all of the typical symptoms.

And you can see in the MRI

where my left temporal lobe was damaged,

which I did have some testing done

and that showed executive function

and working memory challenges.

And also a hearing loss in my right ear

from the car accident that I was in.

But the good news is with that, I can get a hearing aid.

And because it’s not like you’re getting old hearing loss,

it’s like, you know, damaged.

So, but no, I just went up to Dear Valley

and had a great time.

I just, I smiled every day, it was so much fun.

And then went back into the corporate world for a while.

And then fast forward to this past year was skiing again.

And it was nobody’s fault,

But somebody came into me and they didn’t realize,

I’m not sure how, but whatever, they were pulling me

and I was like, “Hey, hey.”

But I don’t think I was yelling loud enough

because with my hearing aid or hearing issue,

I always feel like I’m yelling inside my head.

But other people say I’m soft-spoken.

So I was being dragged.

I slammed backwards on the hard snow

and I got another concussion and a TBI.

I was nauseated and same exact same pain

that I had had before, and I also had whiplash from it.

So that led me to being evaluated

and going through PT and actually I’m going through

some PT right now, both for physical PT for balance,

but they’ve also said that I could,

I qualify for, they call it speech physical therapy.

And I’m like, okay, well, I was stuttering

right after the car accident and I couldn’t find words.

Like I would know that, you know,

an object was a glass, you put water in it,

but I couldn’t come up with the word glass.

Or like in the movie Finding Alice,

I think is her name, or Still Alice, the movie

it’s based on a book.

She goes to an area campus

and she doesn’t know where she’s at.

That happened to me coming out of a store.

I had no idea how I got there, who I was with,

why, and it was a store that I’d been to for years.

then even when she’s doing her speech with the marker, I had to do that when I was presenting at

work. Oh wow. But I hadn’t seen that movie until years later. So I just found ways to compensate

and with the speech PT they’ll also do cognitive PT. So yeah.

JANNINE: That’s good to know. I think a lot of people don’t realize that if they’ve had a concussion

that there’s actually physical therapists now who are geared towards helping folks to recover.

Did you take any supplements? Did you eat differently? Did you do anything in that

realm of things to help you recover as well? 

LYNN: Yes, definitely. Definitely change.

Well, I never really ate greasy food or anything like that, but definitely was trying to eat food

for my brain. I think so fortunate that my doctor in Michigan after the car accident said

I was back there visiting and he said eat as much healthy fats as your brain can stand. So like

avocados, like just olive oil, everything. That will help. And so I did that. I took supplements

that would help. And I don’t drink much caffeine when I was working. I was probably drinking

like six cups of coffee just because you have to be creative constantly. And so I drank maybe

one two cups of coffee tops. I had stopped drinking alcohol for about 20 years when my kids were a

little. I just didn’t want to be in that situation in the business that I was in because I saw a lot

of people have trouble with it. But then when we moved to Austin and I fell out of the truck

onto the cement backwards and so I slammed my head and my back onto the cement.

having alcohol was like, and I found out later why, but I didn’t understand why, but it just felt

like my brain was on fire full of inflammation. And apparently that’s exactly what it is. And so

a lot of people after they have TBI, they stopped drinking because it just it doesn’t, your brain

actually hurts, you know. And what was happening to me is that I

was getting very tired. And so I’d go to my car at lunch and

sleep. Oh, wow. And they explained it as your brain was

shutting down. And so your body just would, and even to even

now, like family will be like, Oh, you, you’re like, you’re like,

like, when you’re tired, you are tired. You, it’s like lights

So, you know, and I do have a problem with there’s a big group of people talking, I’m

kind of like a squirrel, like, I can’t follow the conversation, which was a challenge in

my job because you can imagine being in a creative industry, where you’re in multiple

screens up at one time. And the doctor said, you can do like one thing at a time. That’s

it. You can’t have like a Excel spreadsheet open, a PowerPoint listening to somebody on

a, you know, that’s your brain. It’s overload. Can’t handle that. So that I had to come to grips

with, you know, like, Oh, okay. Maybe there’s some stuff I can’t do. And that’s a, you know,

so anyway, that’s how I kind of pivoted into this other area of writing. And that’s been fun.

JANNINE: Do you feel like, do you feel like pivoting into writing has helped you to be more

mindful and work on meditation and kind of helping you to kind of

of focus, your energy towards your work that way?

LYNN: 100%, yeah, that’s great, yeah.

That’s, when I graduated from school,

from high school, it was in 1980.

You know, there weren’t a lot of jobs.

I was fortunate somebody took my resume in

to an ad agency in Michigan,

’cause I didn’t know anybody that worked in advertising.

And so I got a job and then,

And then the focus though at that time,

I actually almost became a packaging major.

(laughs)

Not because I like packaging,

but because you could make a lot of money.

JANNINE: Yeah.

LYNN: There was nothing about be happy in your career.

It was go out and start making money, you know?

And I think it’s really cool

that younger people today are going,

I don’t know, I don’t want to do that.

I think I want to be happy from the start.

It’s probably ’cause they saw all of us being crazy, right?

(laughs)

JANNINE:  Do you think that folks, I mean, my age group too,

go out and make money, find a job that’s going to make you money.

That’s kind of what I learned from my parents.

It’s what’s kind of the programming that we all had

when we were younger.

Do you feel like if you would have started out your career

doing something that you would have loved.

Do you think that things would have been different?

Or do you think this was your mission anyway?

Your life turned out as you wanted it to anyway.

LYNN: My life would have been different.

I was actually in the hotel and restaurant program

at Michigan State, which was other than I think Cornell

was like one of the best ones at the time.

I think it still is.

And so I was taking a lot of business client,

for economics classes, but then I also had like a cooking class. It’s crazy. And then my dad came

to visit me. We went out and he just said, “You know, Lynn, wouldn’t you rather be the person that

visits the resource rather than works at the resort?” And the reason he said that was because he was

thinking, “Eventually, if you ever decide to have a family, how are you going to do those hours at a

resort which is typically weekends and the funny part of working advertising is you work

at gazillion hours because I switched my major over to advertising and so my life definitely would

have been different you know but I don’t regret the way that it I mean I think it’s it’s definitely

been an adventure and a lot of fun and I’ve met great people along the way that I’ve still stayed

friends with. But it, you know, the career, it was a little

mixture kind of like if you take that show “Mad Men” and with

“A Devil Wears Prada,” the book, with “The Morning Shell.” I mean,

that was kind of every day, we’ll walk in, it’s just chaos, you

know. So I just tried to remain very calm in the chaos and set

goals and really learn to be very, very productive,

because I did have young kids at home.  

JANNINE: Which is a juggle for everyone.

I mean, that’s that’s raising kids or taking care of parents,

depending on which phase you are in life.

So Lynn, how young are you right now?

LYNN: 61. All right.

JANNINE: I was hoping that you would tell me in it.

Of course, we had talked about it a little bit earlier.

I want folks to hear like she’s 61.

She’s driven formula race car, you know, formula and race car.

She’s skied.

She’s, I’m sure you’re still skiing, even though I, I don’t know about the ski

situation in Texas, are there any ski resorts in Texas?

I don’t even know.

Are there even mountains in Texas?

I probably should know this.

LYNN: Well, you can go down to the Big Bend,

which is kind of like the Texas Grand Canyon,

but there’s not snow down there.

So when my husband was transferred to Austin,

I said, okay, cool, but I’m getting a ski pass.

And so I have the icon ski pass.

So we normally go, I mean, I’ve been fortunate

to be at pretty much every resort in the country,

But we typically go to like Utah or Colorado, so.

JANNINE: So is Deer Valley one of your favorite ski resorts

still after having worked there?

LYNN: Oh yeah, they are, they were incredible

as far as like a place to work.

People work with the bosses.

I think the ownership has changed,

but they’re still, it’s still first class.

Another area that I like to go right around,

it’s on another canyon across.

It’s called Alta.

And when you’re at Alta,

you just think you must be in heaven

because it’s probably the Deer Valley and Alta are

probably the best snow on earth, in my opinion.

JANNINE: Nice.

And so of course, the competition in Colorado

then over the border there.

Now, wearing Colorado is your favorite place to ski.

What’s your favorite resort there?

LYNN: I was fortunate to go to Vail

I was 17. And that was just mind-blowing. So Vail is great, Aspen, Snowmass. I love Breckenridge.

I had an opportunity to ski at Telluride. I mean, they’re all great. They’re incredible.

Yeah. They’re just incredible. 

JANNINE: Vail at 17. That had been really neat because it was before

all of the big, you know, blow up of all of the resorts and at that time, so I’m jealous.

I wish I could have experienced that. 

LYNN: Yeah. I remember we had dinner at Pepe’s

by the watchtower, and then we went downstairs and Howard Head was there.

The owner of the head, the founder of the head skis. Yeah. It’s just a different time,

and I remember I’m meeting an instructor, and he thought I was racing in college at that point.

point, which I did end up racing in college. I mean, I was still in high school, but I

did end up racing in college. And it was a, it was not a varsity sport at Michigan State.

And so we had to raise our own money. We coached ourselves. But we qualified the girls team,

women’s team qualified for the NCAA’s of ski racing.

JANNINE: Nice. 

LYNN: Yeah. And that was just such a thrill. We showed up. We were like bad news bears though.

We had like sweatshirts for our uniforms and, you know, all these other people,

the one piece suits and coaches and massages and. Yeah. 

JANNINE: You know you– LYNN:  We still, we still

placed and we placed respectable. So. Yeah. 

JANNINE: We just do it differently in the Midwest.

LYNN: Exactly. 

JANNINE: That’s how it works. That’s how it works. We know how to ski on ice. We don’t need

all the big powder and you know that’s one of the things that I find you know just interesting

when someone tells me to learn how to ski in the Midwest I’m like well you’re gonna be great and

in the mountains you get you tackle the powder you’re great!  

LYNN: Exactly no turning you don’t turn

on ice you just go over it but people are too afraid so they try to turn and then they catch

an edge and go flying but you see the ice just be a toboggan and go straight. 

JANNINE: Very very

wise lesson, very wise lesson. So of course, Lynn, I want to know what’s next for you.

What’s on your bucket list? What haven’t you done yet? What do you got planned this year?

Are you skiing this year? Because as we were recording this, it’s December folks. So I got

to know what our skiing agenda is. And what’s next for you?

LYNN: So I will be skiing. I have a new helmet. They said throw the other helmet away,

because it could have micro cracks. And so I have a helmet that has concussion padding in it.

I probably will be careful or maybe not even go down the double blacks, although I was hit

on the top of a blue. So go figure. But yeah, I definitely can go skiing. My husband and I are

talking about passively doing a long distance bike ride from Texas to Arizona. Not sure if

about that. We’ll see about that. And then I might possibly start, I don’t know, we’ll

see. I have an idea for a book. And so I may, I put some thoughts down and there’s been

some interest. So we’ll see, maybe do that. And then I’d also like to get back to traveling

again. We were fortunate to be able to go over to Europe and to South America. So maybe

do that and maybe incorporate a ski trip in possibly but the and then the other thing is I also picked

up plain tennis again. Yeah but I did find out because I was like wow I think I think my reaction

time is slowed down and you know is that part of aging like you know and I know it is but actually

my physical therapist told me that there’s a delay on my eyes from the concussion so I can go from

from like say one letter to another,

but I don’t quite get all the way over to the letter.

Like I get partway and it’s sock leads or something.

Anyway, I can, I can, good news is,

I can practice those six times a day

for a couple of minutes at a time and I can improve.

JANNINE: So, huge, huge.

Yeah, those cicadas are important doing,

doing those types of therapies.

I think it’s important for folks to have heard this in terms of, you see that there’s a little bit of a slow down and you, yes, we’re instantly going to think, oh, is it age, but you didn’t give up and say, oh, it’s just age.

You went and looked and asked questions and, and that’s, that’s huge.

LYNN: I did.

I did.

I asked her that and I asked about my balance because basically the right side of the body.

body cut kind of crush. And I lean to the right. So there’s balance exercises I can do. Although

when I get on the, what’s that thing? It’s like a half a ball with all the– JANNINE Oh the Bosu ball. 

LYNN: Yeah, I’m like,

is there an earthquake under me? What’s going on? So I always have to make sure a wall is close by,

but you can you can also do that to improve over time and then

The friend that I played tennis with she said you’re not a you’re not a beginner or like you’re

You know you can do this again

And so I’m gonna she gave me the name of a coach and I’m gonna call her and try to set up some lessons

so

JANNINE: Awesome. Awesome. No, that’s huge the muscle memory is there the muscle memory is there

LYNN: Exactly and if you look at most tennis players as they’re older, they are for the most part. They’re all really fit

Mm-hmm, and that’s my goal. I want to stay fit my dad. He was playing golf three times a week and

Up until his night. It was 90 when he passed away

He was playing and up until four months before he passed away and

He was winning tournaments

You know for the whole club not just his age group

So I know he’d be you know, he’s passed away about five years now, but he’d be smiling right now

For sure, my mom would be too

JANNINE: Absolutely absolutely no doubt no doubt so Lynn before we wrap up completely. I want to

Just have you impart

Some wisdom on folks if there’s one thing you could tell someone who’s going

Am I getting older and do I need to slow down?

Do I need to just, you know, give up on some of my bucket list things I haven’t tried?

What would you say to them?

What would be your, your parting words or your inspiring words to someone who’s just

like, I’m not sure about what to think about getting older?

LYNN: You know, I think it obviously it’s physical, but it is definitely a mindset.

And I want to be around for my kids and their families.

And I think if you can find something, we hear this all the time, but find something

you enjoy, whether it’s dancing or zumba, yoga, or just the key is to move.

So many people just don’t seem to move.

I think too, as you get older, like weight training is important, you know, balance exercises.

So I think that, you know, the great news is we have so many options now.

You can pull up a YouTube video, you know, you can do classes with friends, and it’s

just, you know, it really affects not just your body, but your overall happiness and

your mind.

you’ll have setbacks but you have setbacks when you’re younger and you know and you know I kind

of did do the oh is it getting older because you know my reaction time is slow but you know your

body so go ask the experts and ask them say you know hey you know I’m noticing this about myself

but and okay maybe I can’t run you know a 5k anymore but I can bike ride you know I can’t bike

ride on my bike, but I can get one of those E-bikes, you know,

like there’s so much now are, you know, this type of hit

classes just don’t work for me anymore, because I don’t want to

carry a tire down the block. But you know what, I can get a

kayak. 

JANNINE: Yep. Yep. 

LYNN: You know, so you know, I think just finding

ways to adapt and keep moving forward. You know, you move forward, I think you’ll be okay.

JANNINE: Absolutely. Absolutely. Sage advice. I love it. I love it. I think everyone’s going to be able

to take a little nugget away from that. Now, of course, you’ve got some social media. You’ve

got Instagram. You’ve got LinkedIn. Let’s tell folks where they can find you and keep tabs on

all of your adventures and find out when and if this book’s coming out.

LYNN: Sure.

So, yeah, I have this idea for a book.

I have a woman that I’ve been working with, her name’s Alison Lane.

She’s been fantastic and helping me guide me to put the book proposal together.

I don’t have a title, but hopefully this year I can get it sent out to the agents because

’cause what I didn’t know with a book,

you don’t write the book first, I thought you did.

You only write like some summaries and some other things.

So I have to put it together and hopefully get it

to them this year and then, you know, it depends.

I don’t know how fast the publishing actually happens

but definitely have some fun stories to tell

that I think people would laugh about some wild times

in my career.

So yeah, and then I’m at an Instagram, Elmero’s seven,

an Instagram, and then you can find me on LinkedIn

with my name and I can give you the information

if you wanna post it too.

JANNINE: Yeah, we definitely wanna put that in the podcast notes

at doctorjkrausend.com.

And so, For LinkedIn, is it Lynn, L-Y-N-N,

and then Mroz M-R-O-Z.

LYNN: Yes.

JANNINE: Okay, perfect.

– Mr. Oz, if you can’t remember my last name.

(laughs)

JANNINE: We talked about that, that’s right.

– That’s right, that’s right.

LYNN: And if anybody wants to reach out

and they’re involved in sports

and wanna do something, let me know.

‘Cause I’m on a Facebook group,

Women Who Ski and we’re always doing fun stuff.

JANNINE: Oh goodness, Dang, I wish we would’ve talked about that,

but we’ll make sure we get that in the podcast notes

at doctorjkrausend.com ’cause I like the idea of Women Who Ski

’cause I am one, of course.

LYNN: Yes.

(laughs)

JANNINE: Nevertheless, Lynn, thank you so much

for volunteering to come on and chat with me.

I sincerely appreciate it.

LYNN: Oh, thank you.

This has been terrific.

Thank you so much.

All right.

JANNINe: Hey, Health Junkies, Dr. Janine Krause here.

I am looking for some help from you all.

And what I’m looking for is some inspiration,

some inspirational stories that I can share

of men and women defying aging

and defying it by crossing things off their bucket list

that maybe they thought they could never do,

maybe coming back from an injury,

starting something new,

like skiing at 40 years old.

Whatever it may be,

I wanna know about these stories,

and I wanna interview folks.

Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s someone you know.

Doesn’t matter.

I want to help inspire folks out there

that you don’t have to follow social aging norms.

You can defy stuff,

you can get better as you get older,

You can make so much progress at any age.

You can build muscle at any age.

You can have a stronger heart at any age

and you can crush all those things you want

to do on your bucket list.

Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you have to give up

on yourself and your dreams.

And this is something that I wanna share

and inspire folks with.

And so if you have a story or someone you know,

email us at info@doctorspelledout.

So, d-o-c-t-o-r-j-k-r-a-u-s-e-n-d.com.

Let’s spread the word about how amazing life can be

as you get older and all the cool things that you can do.