Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 326 - Colleen Fotsch

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

Colleen Fotsch is a competitive CrossFit athlete, and a former collegiate swimmer. Colleen qualified and competed as an individual at the 2019 CrossFit Games, and was part of Team NorCal CrossFit during 2017 when placed 4th at the CrossFit Games. Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT10” at checkout for $10 off $40 or more! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject  ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject   ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok ➢Power Project Alexa Skill: http://bit.ly/ppalexa FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

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It does just make, I don't know how they do it, but they pull it off. Everybody listening, you guys can do the exact same thing, too. Head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com at checkout. Enter promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off your order. And if your order's $99 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Wow. Yeah, that's sad. we had like a timer thing we've got all professional in here oh so it doesn't go too

long or yeah just yeah just so we know how awesome idea oh gotcha because like after four hours the computer melts down and then it's like we can't we can't lose yeah andrew said like the you know the worst words he's like I'll take care of it. And then, you know. He's like, oh, man. Oh, no. Yeah. It's still loading, I promise.

It's the best like when you're trying to, you know, like when you have something and you're like, I'm going to put it in this drawer so I don't forget it. Oh, and you're like hiding it from yourself. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to put it somewhere where I know I will not forget it. Oh, yep. But it's so good that I forgot. You'll never find it. Oh, and you're hiding it from yourself. Yeah, I'm going to put it somewhere where I know I will not forget it. Oh, yep. But it's so good that I forgot it. Nope.

And then you have to travel and you're like, where did I put my passport? I'm going to go find this thing. Oh. He's going to look for it. It's got to be in here somewhere. Is it the one that you bought that we were using? Yeah,

yeah, the thing that we used in LA. That was a good one. I know, we're pretty, we somehow had a hard time with like a timer i don't know why but like we tried like they just kept disappearing well they just didn't work oh it was like get to like 30 minutes it actually got to like 15 minutes and they would

just say nine nine nine nine oh geez yeah we didn't know what we were doing do you find it for now we could just use this one right here, bro, because this one works. I can see it. Oh, yeah. All right. My eyesight's good enough at this point. We can go long enough. We can go however long we need. Three hours. There we go. Yeah.

Cool. Yeah, you're on the ticker. You got 10 seconds to talk. That's it. What's going on, Colleen Fotch? Not a whole lot. Happy to be here. Yeah. It's been so long. Yeah, it's Not a whole lot. Happy to be here.

Yeah. It's been so long. Yeah, it's been a while since we've had you here at Super Training. Yeah, I was trying to remember. I think it was back in maybe 2015 even. Yeah. Yeah, since I was here. Or I was here one other time, not on the podcast, just when Jen Widerstrom was in town.

And I was actually still in my sling. No, no, no. I mean, hey, everybody listening is thinking the same thing you're saying. And everyone's thinking, hey, now, she's a very beautiful woman. That was just a, just a, mm, mm-hmm. It's not like, not like a, mm, no. It's not like that. Come on now. Come on now. It's not like we don. No, it's not like that. Come on now.

Come on now. It's not like we don't have audio and video. It's as if it would have been the same reaction if we said, oh, man, I had a delicious chocolate chip brownie. Mmm. Y'all are going to get me into some fucking trouble. I know. Every once in a while, we do have to delete stuff from this show. That might be one of them. We just can't say her name again, I guess.

Fuck. And you haven't been to this facility yet, right? Right. Yeah. First time. This is insane. Cool. It's incredible.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. We had a good workout today, and you were working on, you were showing us some front squats. And then you showed me some really brutal stuff that you can do with just a dumbbell. Yeah. And I know that your coach, we had James, it's James Fitzgerald, right? He's one of the coaches or he owns the gym that you train at.

Right. And then you have a different coach that actually trains with you, under the same principles i'd imagine right and uh you guys just sometimes just kill yourself with dumbbells right oh yeah and lots of other things but yeah sometimes dumbbells i see videos of you doing like front squats with hundred pound dumbbells and i'm like how does she even figure out how to get them up there for that like how are you doing some of this uh so you got camera tricks or something yeah yeah they're hollow uh no actually for that i asked my coach sam i said i was like do you want me to try and clean these to my shoulders he's like not today so um so luckily i had some help actually from james and then um amanda who also is training at opex and And so they helped me up.

So I put one on my shoulder and then James stood up on a bench and handed the other one to me. Yeah. I watch some of your stuff sometimes. I'm like, I'm going to give that a shot. And I think you were doing like 100 pounds, maybe 90 pounds on a particular day. You were doing one arm snatches. And I start messing with it and I get to like 50 and then I get to like 70 and I'm like these are really fucking hard I'm like I shouldn't try to compete with Colleen I'm just

gonna stay in my own lane I just use the 70s how are you getting so strong on some of this stuff um I mean Sam has made me just so much not only stronger but so much more well-rounded and I think especially with dumbbells I feel like it's a totally different kind of strength than a barbell when everything's just really nicely set up. And especially he's a huge fan of the 100-pound dumbbell. So we've been doing a lot of power snatches. Squat snatching a 100-pound dumbbell was one of the more scary things I've ever had to do one arm squat snatch yeah fuck yeah yeah so that was oh that's me yeah but yeah mostly because it's just terrifying like you're like this could go horribly if I don't do

it correctly yeah if you kind of don't if you don't catch it right and have your elbow locked real well, if your elbow is bent as you go to like whip the weight up. Yeah. You're done. Right. Yeah. It's going to come back down on top of you, right? Yeah. You know, I saw you doing some actually really dope stuff with kettlebells a few days ago in like a hotel or something.

But I'm also wondering, like, wouldn't do you do a lot of this stuff with like heavy kettlebells too because i feel like it will be a little bit less awkward right than doing that with the dumbbell or am i wrong um i think it's person to person i person and it might just be because i use dumbbells more but i'm more comfortable using dumbbells than kettlebells um but yeah i think that video you're talking about i was actually um home for the holidays and i was my parents like basement gym and the workout was supposed to be dumbbells um but we didn't have the dumbbells i needed they weren't heavy enough yeah this yeah so this was i think significantly harder with kettlebells but um i just may not be as efficient with them how heavy are those? 53 each. Oh, Jesus.

Yeah. And that's at your parents' house, you said? Yeah. It's been really cool to watch your progress because, yeah, I mean, you've always been strong, but I haven't known you to be this strong and I haven't known you to be this lean. Yeah.

You look amazing too. And even in that picture right there, or that video where you're pressing the weight overhead, you know, you're really like shredding up and you were in great shape before. Is this kind of a culmination of like everything just coming together, training, you know, proper training, proper sleep and proper nutrition? Yeah, I think like we were talking earlier, you know, when I moved out to Arizona to start working with my big dogs coach, Sam, you know, I thought that

it was just the training I needed to dial in. And granted, that has changed so much since my move out to Arizona. But there was so much more that I needed to dial in. And that's with nutrition, with sleep, better recovery on my off days. And I think just really honing in all that stuff along with my training has made a huge difference. Do you have an app or anything to track your sleep or anything like that? Not my sleep. I've been thinking about getting one of those Whoop bands just to see. Just to check it out?

Yeah. I swear, you're like the sixth person that I've heard of the Whoop from today. Yeah. I've heard a lot of good things about it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I have an aura ring and it just, you know.

Oh, yeah. I got into messing around with some of that stuff maybe about two years ago. And then it actually made me like sleep. It made me feel more tired because I was trying to sleep. But like apparently I don't get that much deep sleep. So I was. So then you're like, wait,'t get that much deep sleep. So I was. So then you're like, wait, I'm not getting worse. Yeah.

Like from like a placebo effect, you know, like just made me feel more tired. So I just haven't really looked at it much, but I do have an aura ring and it tells you like everything. Yeah. Everything about your sleep tells you about a lot about your activity. It doesn't track you through like a real workout, but it will tell you about it will tell you like you know throughout the day like hey you should get moving or hey you you know reach this amount of activity for the day yeah it's kind of neat yeah you uh track your um your food though right and you have an app for that or have worked with some people on stuff like that right yeah so i work with macro stacks and it's an app where you can um i mean my coach and I work on my set macros for the day.

But this one, if you do get it, it does allow you to, you know, have someone come up with macros that you get in a day. And before that, I was using MyFitnessPal. And then this thing came along and I've just found it to be a lot easier. And it's just easier when I track it because I stay a lot more consistent with all that stuff, which makes a big difference. And let's see if we can do some math here. 170 grams of protein. Or like 150. 150 grams of protein.

80 grams of fat. And 350 grams of carbs. How many calories is that? 350 grams of carbs. How much grams of fat 80 and then what 150 in protein

okay I just want to make a point here that she's probably like eating like everyone that listens to this show like under the table probably and they're just not like oh that's what 2000 calories yeah what the fuck that's over is it over yeah i'm usually hitting like 20 probably like 24 2500 24 2500 yeah okay maybe i did the math wrong but yeah that sounds about right yeah yeah that's not well

even if it's 2400 like for how much work you do and how many carbs did you say you eat? Like 350, 360. 350. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, it's more than that. I didn't do 350, right? But wow, that's a lot of calories. That's not too crazy. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, she keeps the fat kind of moderate, but yeah, the carbs being at 350, you know, we talk a lot on this show about the carbs being lower, but for your activity level and for the stuff that you're doing. And we also talk about, well, it really depends on what your goals are. A lot of people in America are just heavy and they need to lose some weight and going for a walk and reducing their carbohydrate intake could maybe steer them away from foods that they're addicted to. And maybe they can kind of like then be on their way to start to lose some weight and then they can find whatever diet

they want that they think they can manage for a long period of time because you can manage it for a long period of time. You'll have great success with it because you'll be more consistent with it. Right. But for yourself, I mean, you're working out multiple times a day. So I like it just wouldn't it just would not work if all you ate was like meat or if all you had was like bacon and cheese and. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think you would feel very good either going from one workout to another with all that fat in your system.

Right. Yeah. Correction, by the way, it was 2720. Oh, there we go. Oh, thank you. That's because I'm not going to have someone be like, it seemed that was wrong. So let's go back. So, yeah, 2720.

OK, should we go back and check my macros make sure we're okay no you're fucking good bro sorry sorry for interrupting you calling no you're totally good all right yeah how many calories are you eating andrew uh i i don't know enzima where am i i'm or where were you though when you were dropping i was like 240 protein and then at the very end 50 carbs 50 fat and then towards the end the protein pretty much stayed the same the whole way but i told you not to let your fats go down to 50 but you no not me oh here we go again for the last week that i would go down to 50 in terms of fat prior to that as i was saying okay it was at 70 or 80 70 and then that last week was 50 yeah okay so and

then uh carbs were like 120 then they went down to 100 and then again that last week they got cut in half and then right right now they're at 180 yeah is it hard at all for you to eat that amount of carbs like are you kind of like worried something bad's going to happen? There's like a carbophobia out there, right? Yeah. So we were talking about this earlier. I think that for me being one of the larger athletes in CrossFit, and I think growing up, I've always, it's never been hard for me to put on weight or mass. Um, and so even though I know that I need those extra carbs and Sam's really good about even looking ahead a week and being like, Hey, you know, this next week's going to be a little bit higher volume and stuff. So we're going to up your carbs, um, before we even get there just to, um, get a head start on it. And I know I need

it. And I'm also a lot of the times when I am you know the volume goes up I'm usually hungrier and so um but I think there is a little bit in me that's like oh man but I don't want to be heavier because it's going to make some things harder and like and you know but um I think that's just but I have to tell myself I'm like hey like you need that and you're going to feel like absolute garbage if you don't. And I don't want to get injured or anything. So I don't need to be like restricting. Also, I don't like being hungry. Was there a time in the past that, um, cause you landed on this and you're performing like a, just like a beast. But when in the past, like, did you really realize that I'm fucking up in

terms of my nutrition and I need to switch things? Like, what were you trying? What different things did you try? So in college, I thought I knew what was healthy and what was not. But I just had no knowledge of – I didn't know what macros were. I mean, in swimming, you know, bagels were their own food group. Like I was eating, like, I mean, God only knows how many carbs I was eating a day, but I also needed it because I was swimming hours and hours every day. You think it was more or less than now?

Maybe more, but I think my, the balance of protein, fat to carbs was just all over the place. And I think also just, you know, I love chips. I still love chips. And so I would eat like the baked Lay's every day because I'm like, these are healthy. This is perfect. I'm like, just stuff like that. And so when actually getting into CrossFit really helped me meet different people and also gain a lot more knowledge on nutrition. I definitely

tried some programs that because my goal was always to I think when I first got into it, I was like, I just want to weigh less and I want to be really lean or I want to be small. And so I definitely restricted myself a lot. And so I would be crazy about my diet throughout the week and then i was allotted one cheat meal it was supposed to be like a meal that you know that you just weren't tracking but like i would go crazy because i was so hungry throughout the week and depriving myself so much that like on saturday night it was a big event oh it was i would go to like different places i was in berkeley at the time different places in in Berkeley and there's great food there. Yeah.

And I would just collect it all, bring it home. I'm by myself. This is kind of sad. And then I just eat it all until I felt sick. And then on Sunday I'm like, okay, well, I definitely don't want that anymore. But then by the time next Saturday rolls around. It's kind of amazing. Could you picture like you see this beautiful blonde girl going from like place to place all this food you're walking down the street with like a pizza

and brownie and a thing of ben and jerry's trying to like balance it as you're walking here like huh that was that was weird like what's that girl doing we're all guilty of that though oh yeah we are all guilty yeah yeah when i was with uh my daughter one day and we went to um we went to baskin robbins and she's like oh she's like you're gonna get some ice cream on me i'm like yeah fuck it i'm gonna get some ice cream she's like dad you know because she's like don't talk like that or something and then of course i get like the biggest ice cream she's like that's a huge amount of ice cream i said yeah and after this we're going over the over uh to insomnia cookie because it's like right across the street and we like load up on these like giant cookies i buy like 50 worth of cookies just because i'm

like buying with my eyes i'm not even paying attention like what's going on i'm like eating them in the car and stuff and quinn's looking at me like i'm crazy she's like oh i could see why you don't usually eat like this i said yeah see what happens to me like it turns me into an animal i do have cookies probably like maybe one i make really good dark chocolate peanut butter sea salt cookies what and so i eat them like once a week dark chocolate yeah they're they're really good but so i make them and i eat a few and then i have to bring the rest to the gym because i can't be like because i don't want to be eating them every day you eat the cookie dough no i like them i like them when they're all done i always uh eat the cookie dough like i never make it to cooking any of them yeah i don't make it that far yeah one of the best things mark's ever

said he was like we were talking about cookies or whatever and he marks like well don't make it that far. Yeah, one of the best things Mark's ever said, he was like, we were talking about cookies or whatever, and Mark's like, well, don't go ruining that dough by baking it. Well, now they sell edible dough. I actually got some of that the other week. Is that propaganda? Yeah, I know. There's memes about it. You know, is this true, or are they just trying to ruin my life? Wait, isn't it like, I've heard heard I don't know if this is a myth but

it's like I've always been scared of eating cookie I think it's just stuff bullshit our parents made up yeah right exactly because it has eggs in it or whatever I don't know well let me ask this then too because you're eating a lot of calories

that's great what does your food look like on usually like a I guess I would maybe say a good day. Is there like, do you have like X amount of whole foods and then you can make other things fit if you want to? Like how does that structure look like for you? Like throughout the week, it's pretty clean. I mean, if I am, it's usually sweets for me is what, like if I'm craving something. It's usually sweets for me is what like if I'm craving something. But usually like Saturday afternoon, like if I am like craving something, I'll just let myself like the other week it was a donut.

I really wanted a donut. So I went and got that. But throughout the week, I just feel better the cleaner it is, especially with training. So and that's why like on Saturday, if I do let myself eat something that maybe I don't normally eat, I'm not training the next day. So odds are by Monday, I'm going to feel fine if, you know, my stomach just handles it weird. And along with that, Mark talks a lot and we talk a lot about having, I guess, control over your diet. And I used to track a lot. I don't track anymore. I just eat.

But when I used to track a lot, i was the kind of guy who i would try to let all those things i really want to fit like every single day yeah and i at the time felt oh that's fine it fits i'm in control but looking back at that i was just making excuses just to make shit fit right um like i guess what i'm trying to ask is did you was there a point where you didn't really have control and is there something you did or a habit that you brought into your nutritional protocol that gave you control over your diet and helped you feel in control of your food? Yeah, I definitely think I went through a phase very similar to that where there were all these snacks. And because I went from a very restrictive diet and then went to just counting macros.

So I was like, oh, my gosh, I can have anything I want. It just has to fit in these numbers. And then I just started not feeling great. And I'll tell like every now and again, I'll start getting not back completely back to that, but I'll be trying to make these certain snacks that I really like fit in. And then I realized that I'm not eating a lot of real food. And so every now and again, I feel like I just have to push the reset button, whether it's like I go a week with no sugar or I go a week without like for me, like plantain chips and these things that hold foods called peanut butter and jelly bites. Like, oh, it's just like it's weird things like that where I'll be looking at what I'm eating throughout the day.

And I'm like, Colleen, you didn't eat like you only ate a vegetable once. Like, or you know what I mean? It's just and I know I feel better when I eat real whole foods. So just checking in. But I mean, we're all human and I think it's hard. Like and I love food. So it's it's hard to not, you know, go down those paths sometimes. It's tough, you know, because that's kind of like the only advice we have because we're athletes and we're always trying to be better.

So we don't, we're not like really drinking or doing drugs or doing a bunch of other weird, crazy stuff. And so what do we got left? You know, hey, let's go grab a cheeseburger or whatever, right? So it makes it very difficult. Let's go grab a cheeseburger or whatever. Right. So it makes it makes it very difficult. And then, you know, sometimes it can kind of tug on some of your social life, you know, being so geared towards what you're doing, especially with two or three workouts every day. Is there room for a boyfriend in the mix? Not right now. You know, I think right now just really focusing on – Somebody listening is like, what? I think right now, you know, I've really been just trying to focus on being the best version of me. And got a lot of things going on, a lot of amazing things. And it definitely – I mean, the is, I would say I still feel like I have

it probably doesn't look the same to like what people would normally think a social life is. But to me, like I feel I'm really blessed to have a lot of amazing friends and family members who support me and don't make me feel weird for, you know, having the goals that I want, you know, weird for like if I show up to someone's dinner and I have like a Tupperware full of food and they're not just like, why aren't like, what are you doing? Like, that's strange. Weirdo, what you doing? Yeah. So it's it's good. You know, they don't really make too much fun of me for that or like just not wanting to be out late and stuff like that um so yeah would you say like a lot of your like i guess the people that you hang out with are within that crossfit lifting community or like not really um yeah for the most part like in some

way shape or form um maybe not at uh like the level I'm at just because like, I think it's hard to find, um, you know, a ton of elite level CrossFitters like within the same gym. But I would say, I mean, because of what I do, that's where I meet most of the people I hang out with, whether it's their coaching at the gym or training at the gym I go to. But, yeah, for the most part, I would say, like, somewhat fitness related. Yeah. Okay. Is training that many times a day, is it, like, just wear on you? Or do you do okay because you have the main goal in mind?

Because you mentioned to me that sometimes you train two times a day and sometimes you train three times a day. Wow. two times a day and sometimes you train three times a day. You know, there are definitely days where you start to think, you know, why am I really doing all this? Because some days are just not fun. But I think one thing that my coach Sam and I worked on a ton this year, especially after the games, was reflecting on why I'm doing this and what's the real drive behind it all. Because I think for so long, not just with the CrossFit Games, but in a lot of things in my life, I was

always thinking like, okay, when I achieve this, when I get here, then I'll be really happy or things will be easier. And I always had this thought in my head of when I get to the CrossFit Games it like it's that's it you know and like not that I would stop competing or whatever or be complacent but that somehow you know training would be easier to get through because I'm a CrossFit Games athlete now and like and it doesn't no so it's just about really reflecting on that, finding what really drives me, what makes me happy. And I think a lot of it on the days that I just really don't want to be there, having my coach there really helps. And having those really supportive family and friends around me to kind of remind me of why I'm doing it when I start to forget a little bit. But yeah, but at the end of the day, like I there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. So even when I'm like,

I really don't want to go to the gym right now. It's like, OK, well, what else would you rather be doing? And I'm like, OK, well, actually nothing else. So, yeah you mentioned uh wanting to be smaller does it have an advantage sometimes to be baker yeah for sure um in you know lifting events for sure anything like rowing assault bike definitely tends if uh you're larger just more power output um and especially with like odd object stuff you know they start incorporating you know sandbag clean sandbag carries yoke, stuff like that. Um, there's definitely, um, you know, there's, there's definitely advantages for taller, heavier people. And then there's going to be the advantages for lighter, shorter people. So it's almost like, Oh, I wish I could be heavier for this exercise, but lighter for this.

Right now, for sure if i could like go go gadget like legs and arms and like fluctuate my weight or something from event to event do you think in the past maybe you made a mistake of like like wanting to be like smaller too much like i think i just think in general in fitness i see that trend amongst men and women just you know you're just trying people are trying to sometimes to be like too light or too thin and they're just not eating enough and then they're worried about like oh if i eat too many fat grams it's gonna make me fat and all these different things do you think maybe you were uh maybe going a little bit against against your own grain against like the way that you were built and what you have oh Oh, yeah, for sure. I would say even up till like maybe three, three, four years ago, I just always wanted to be smaller. And I always

felt like I was always on somewhat of a diet. And I think a lot of it for me was more it had nothing to do with performance. I mean, I would say, you know, oh, yeah, I want to be smaller. It had nothing to do with performance. I mean, I would say, you know, oh, yeah, I want to be smaller. So muscle ups and pull ups are easier when, in fact, I think I just needed to be stronger to and have more muscle endurance in that type of stuff to be better at them. But I think for me, it was always more or less a body image thing where I was just not even in college swimming. I wasn't comfortable having like an athletic build. I just always felt so weird. And then especially like even more so after college, because you're more around people. You're not on a swim team, you know, with everyone that looks like you or

relatively looks like you and you go in the real world and people are just like you look different and not the norm. And I think that messed with my head a little bit. So I do think I was kind of fighting a losing battle because that's just not what my body wanted to do. And it was also mentally just horrible for me because I'm just, you know, hating like this body that's doing all these amazing things for me. And so and that's one of the most amazing things that CrossFit has given me is being able to focus on what my body is capable of versus how it looks all the time. And in a consequence of that, like, I like it's cool now to be like, I love that my arms are huge. And like, if anything, I just want them to be bigger.

You know, and I never in a million years in college, I was just like, I just want to be like this big. Like, so it's it's really cool to just see that journey. And, you know, dealing with a lot of that stuff like on the inside helps, you know, in performance and stuff and training and competition. Was there anyone that like was an inspiration for you at that time to, I guess, lean into what your body had? Or was it just because like CrossFit and performance and I guess one day there was a shift. Like was there a time when you noticed that shift happened for you? Notice that shift happened for you? I think a big help was when I started training with one of my best friends, Molly Vollmer, who I actually went on a team with to the CrossFit Games.

I just felt like I couldn't figure out food. And I just felt like I felt very helpless. Like I had no control over what my body was doing. And that was at a time when I was being very restrictive with my diet. And I was telling her how much I was eating and she was like, Oh, no, you're probably so unhappy. And she helped me a lot. Not only it was just nice to because I didn't really have like a super close friend in that space, who knew what I was going through. And I felt like she had been in it for a good amount of time. And, you know, so it was it was so cool to talk to her about that stuff and the struggles of it. And I'm like, oh, like you get that, too. Like,

yeah. And so it was awesome to, you know, get to train with her. And then, you know, you know get to train with her and then you know now she's one of my best friends and um that really opened my eyes to um yeah just being way better about all that stuff so are your would you say maybe that your sisters are more like kind of quote-unquote girly than you are yeah do you think that played into it a little bit different a little bit uh as you were growing up because maybe you were like uh had more muscle and maybe you thought you were like a tomboy or something like that? I don't know if it was really like comparing myself to them. But I think I definitely had the mentality of like, I'm a girl. I'm supposed to be tinier.

And I always was under the impression like, OK, well, I'm swimming now. So like that's why I'm, quote unquote, bigger. And once I'm done swimming, like I'm going to be smaller. And but that just was I don't know. It wasn't very fulfilling for me. And, you know, just trying to go to the gym. But I loved lifting. So that was a problem.

Like I associated lifting with being big. But I was like, I love this. So I'd go lift and then I'd go sit on an elliptical for like an hour because I was like, I need to like not get big from these weights. I just lifted. I you know, I think me and my sisters were so close, but we all have very different journeys and very different journeys in fitness. And I think like meeting someone like Molly was just really powerful. She's jacked, too. She is. And now she's jacked mom, which is like even more badass. And so I think it was cool just to be able to relate um with another female about that stuff so you know earlier earlier you were mentioning that you were talking with your coach and you you had to figure out exactly why it was you were doing everything you're doing right now to really push through so why i don't know if like yeah it's really pushed through. So why? I don't know. Like, yeah, it's too personal to ask or something. No, no, no.

Yeah. So for me, I, I love competing. I love CrossFit and it's, I love working hard to reach my fullest potential. And I think realizing like that, that's why I'm doing it is to be the best. I can't as corny as that sounds. But to let go of the placement, the what you qualify for, the, you know, how much you lift and all that stuff. I mean, don't get me wrong. Like I'm very competitive and I just I love winning.

And that's for the reason why I work really hard, because if you don't work hard, you don't get to beat other people who work really hard. don't work hard you don't get to beat other people who work really hard um so and i think i just you know for me like moving into next year's games like my goal you know now they impose these uh cuts throughout the weekend and so the final cut goes to 10 and um you know that was my goal this year um i would say top 20 top 10 like top 15 was what I was kind of thinking. And going into next year, I want to be top 10, but not because I get to say, oh, I'm the one of the top 10 fittest people in the world. Because that's to prove it to myself, first and foremost. And so I think just changing the mentality around it, um, has just made it a lot more fulfilling. So. Yeah, you've done a lot to pursue it. Um, you've, uh,

you trained at many different facilities, you know, you train with Jason Kalipa and then you've trained, uh, trained with Dave Spitz of Cal Strength and And then you moved. I think you were living in NorCal, right? Yeah, you lived in NorCal and then you moved to Arizona. So you're trying to like, you know, fulfill this dream as it looks like to me as hard as you can. Right. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that was the one of the biggest reasons of, you know, because when I was here trying to train full time and work full time and, you know, I just kind of saw the writing on the wall where, you know, I look at the girls that are in the top 10 and, you know, they're putting so much time and dedication into it,

100 percent of themselves. And I was like, OK, I'm kidding myself if I think I can put in 60, 70 percent of the time and energy they are and be able to hang with them or beat them. And so that's why like, you know, this Arizona opportunity to train at OPEX was so amazing because I feel like I finally got to put all the chips on the table and not be like, well, I wish I could like have this time to also do that and have the time to recover, not just train. And that's also like very, very gratifying in and of itself is that there's nothing. I feel like everything that I have in my control I'm doing.

And before I didn't feel that way. Can you tell us more? Because we were talking a little bit before we got on the podcast about the Arizona thing. That is first off dope. So can you explain that and how that all happened for you? And Big Dogs Athletes started a sponsorship athlete program a few years ago where they're essentially sponsoring athletes, paying them to train full time, which is so incredible because a lot of times, especially in CrossFit right now, it's still a new sport. it's hard to make a living just competing and so a lot of crossfit athletes have to hold down try to fit in a full-time job with training which is just really stressful and you can still get in the training you need but you don't get in the time to recover and all that other stuff so yeah um this was an incredible opportunity after I went team in 2017. I was looking for a new coach and actually, by the way, when you say went team, what does that mean? Oh, sorry. Team to the CrossFit Games. OK. Yeah. And one of my teammates, Chris, he knew I was looking for a coach.

And he said, you know, OPEX, I've been working with them for a while. They seem awesome. And I kind of heard of OPEX a little bit. And I took a call with one of their coaches and I was like, this seems like a great deal, but wasn't trying to leave California. I was like, I'll just have a remote coach. It's fine. And they were like, you know, if you really want to go like 100 percent and do this, like you should move out here. I was like, no, like, I can't do that. And I was talking to my parents. My dad was like, you know, you want to do this? Like, why wouldn't you? I was like, you know, you're right. And so like, two, three weeks later, I, or I think like a week

later, I flew out to Arizona just to see the lay of the land, see if I it would be a good fit. And then I think it was like another two weeks later, like my dad flew out to California. We packed everything in U-Haul and then just drove out to Arizona and the rest was history. So, yeah. That's awesome. And your parents are super supportive of,

have they always been supportive? You were a swimmer for a long time and stuff. Have they always been, you know, at the swim meets and all that stuff? I mean, swim meets are brutal to go to. they last they last forever i joke i was like i tell my parents i'm like good thing like i wasn't you know like a mile swimmer like a long distance and you'd have to watch that but um no they've always been so supportive i mean especially with swimming waking up at like four in the morning every morning to drive me to swim practice. And especially when I was complaining about going and they're the ones having to drive

me. But yeah, they really have to go like, yeah, we woke up at 3 a.m. to bring you fucking going. Yeah, no, they've been great. And, you know, this has been like a crazy ride, this CrossFit career thus far. And they've been super supportive. It was so cool to have them there at the CrossFit Games this year because that was my first time individually going. And like for I mean, that's the thing is like I first and foremost do this for me. But to be able to share it with the people that have also invested so much time energy into it with you um is huge like it might sound kind of silly but for me i was so excited you know because if you make the crossfit games you get all the cool gear with your last name on

it and not that that's what it's all about but i was like it's exciting though yeah that's cool makes you feel special i mean you're part of an elite group for sure yeah and i was like i can't wait to gift one of those shirts to my parents to be like we we did it like we finally got there and uh so that's what i like for christmas i put in a little frame and like gave it to them and um it just symbolizes a lot and like all of like the shit we went through with all of it. So it's yeah, I definitely wouldn't be able to do it without them. Well, yeah, that's really cool because it's symbolic of the whole family's kind of invested in. Oh, 100 percent.

And then obviously they were involved in your athletics when you were young, but it all has an impact, you know, and even even just little things like having a social media following and just, you know, you being on your phone versus like, you know, just taking a minute to talk to them and all these kinds of things. And it's all stuff that maybe people aren't as conscious of as they should be. You know, there's a lot of decisions and things where I'm thinking about, oh, man, I kind of should do that. And I'm like, I kind of can't, you know, like, yeah, there's a lot of decisions and things where I'm thinking about, oh man, I, I kind of should do that. And I'm like, ah, I kind of can't, you know, like there's too many things that, um, there's too many other people involved. You know, my kids are involved, my wife's involved and I'm like, eh, that just kind of pulls away from, from that too much. And it doesn't make sense for me, you know, to kind of go in on that. So that's great that you recognize that it's a, it's a big team effort yeah no absolutely

that's important yeah you know when it comes to like the shit you went through like you mentioned um there's a lot of crossfitters are going to listen to this because you are colleen fotch and they're probably wondering you know i feel like i have potential i have talent what kind of things should they look out for, things they should avoid, and how should they build themselves up into the caliber of athlete that you are? I think the biggest thing is finding a great coach. I think that is – and one who not only gives you a great training program but that also can guide you in the nutrition, the recovering, all that stuff. I think that's such a major. And if you are able to have a coach that you can see on a regular basis, I know not everyone needs that.

But for me personally, I think just to be able to get immediate feedback. You said for you that was a big difference because you've had coaching before remotely and it changed everything once you had somebody there, huh? Yeah, I think especially training for the games and stuff, it takes a very not only physical toll on your body but also mentally. And I've told Sam this before, but it's cool because him being there, I never feel like I'm going through it alone, which is awesome because I mean, my my family, my friends like they're so supportive and they they get what I'm going through. But like he's the only other one that like really sees it like day in, day out, like great days, days that I'm just crying, like all of the shit in between. So, you know, it's it's nice to have to really trust someone with that. And yeah, so that's been an absolute game changer. I think to just having finding ways to make it fun. And I think for me, that's finding other people to do workouts with. And it doesn't necessarily mean you have to find like, you know, always someone who's

better than you or the best person out there. It's just having someone next to you also doing something similar sometimes is just enough, you know? Yeah. And just like fun competition. I mean, that's what got me into CrossFit was I really I hated working out alone. I loved feeling like I was on a team kind of. I also liked beating people, you know, in most CrossFit gyms.

They, you know, you go in, there's one workout of the day and all the classes, you know, you write your name and your time. And I'd go in the afternoon and be like, OK, who has the fastest time? I'm going to beat them. Who has the fastest time? I'm going to beat them. But yeah, so I'd say finding a good coach, having fun with it, getting competition experience is huge. Because you can train and train and train in your own gym. But like, you know, sports don't happen in a vacuum and they're not always perfect.

So just getting out there, even though it's scary and intimidating, but it's such a great way to learn and to know what you need to work on. Sometimes you don't even realize you need to work on those things. So, yeah. Does your coach assist with working on kind of the mental game, the mental side of things, or do you have a separate coach for that or how does that work? So I like to say Sam, especially over the last few months, has become somewhat like my therapist, I would say, because I think that while the gym for me sometimes is my therapy, if I don't deal with, you know, the shits that's going on in my head or like kind of weighing me down, it's going to show up in training and in competition. So Sam is really good about like, even if it means like we're going to miss a session, like he's like, no, we're going to talk about whatever you need to like get off your chest right now, because you're not going to be able to, um, train the way you need to train today, like until you move past this. So, um, that's been huge. So he's really helped me improve on being a better athlete

by also improving me just as an overall person. So that would take a lot of like openness on your end to go to him and say, hey, like here's what's bugging me. And then does he, when you give him that information, does he help to deflect it basically? Like saying, hey, like, no, like you're you're way off. You're totally fine. This is going to work out this way. Or is he, you know, kind of just maybe steer you in a different direction? How does he kind of handle some of that? I think a lot of it is just talking through it. I mean, if if I need to be kind of just like switch my thinking or perspective about something he

helps with that too I think it's definitely something like our trust that we have like has been built over time it wasn't on like day one I'm like hey I have to tell you all my deepest darkest secrets right now but I think I just realized that by him you know if something is bothering me it's better that he knows it. So then I know that he knows what I'm going through and not to give me like an out if I'm having like a bad day or something. But it's, you know, if I don't communicate to him that there's just other shit going on in my life, all of a sudden he's seeing me, you know, way underperform. He's going to be like, Colleen, what the hell? You know, and so it's good for me to communicate that versus him just being like, is she just giving up?

What is she doing? So, yeah, I think that's just a crucial part of our coach athlete relationship. I know that this may sound too general. I'm not even sure how this is going to go. I know that this may sound too general. I'm not even sure how this is going to go. But, you know, when a lot of athletes, their internal dialogue always been positive, get at it, competitive, or was there ever a switch in terms of the way you talk to yourself and your confidence level? It's definitely not always been positive. I think for me, in CrossFit specifically, it's definitely something that I have to continue to work on. I think there are certain moments where I feel invincible and there's no doubt in my mind that

I'm going to crush whatever is ahead of me. I think I'm always in somewhat, especially with competing, always in a competitive mindset, but I would be lying if I said there weren't moments or specific events where I start to go through what could go wrong versus what could go really well. And that's something that Sam and I have been really working on in training first because I personally I feel like, you know, you got to work on it there because it's not just going to magically show up in a competition. So for me, like in training when, you know, I have a game plan and it all just goes to shit and, you know, we talk about afterwards, he's like, okay, like, what'd you start telling yourself then? And he's like, okay, well next time, like we got to shift that. Like you can't just be, cause if I still have, you know, 10 minutes in a workout and all I'm thinking is, well, you really fucked really fuck that up like and then you're just

surviving your way through versus like okay like i messed up that rep but like here's what i can focus on for the next one and then making that a positive instead of just dwelling on what's going wrong there's a lot of things too that can happen within a workout you guys move around so much and a lot of the things are timed i mean you could could potentially just, I don't know, like hit your finger on a weight. You know, it could be something like kind of small, you know, but but it hurts. And you're like, fuck. Or maybe you're doing, you know, kipping pull ups or something like that. And your hands start to really wear out and they're just worn down and in the crossfit games is crazy because it's like uh it's like over the span of like five

days and it's like four days of like non-stop activity it seems like so i don't even know how like how anyone's hands or feet like would survive any of that much less your body right the rest of your rest of your body so how do you switch the dialogue you you know, to, you know, kind of negative talk of like, oh, my God, like I, you know, I tripped on that bar, smashed my shin. And then how do you kind of get back? Do you try to talk to yourself about like technique and breathing? Do you kind of hone in on just something different so that way your mind's not really wandering and panicking? Yeah, I think like you said, I think it's just picking something to focus on that you're about to do, whether it's like, OK, checking in with my breathing or, you know, getting to the next rep, whatever it is, just so I'm not dwelling

on what just happened. And I think like for me, you know, more positive mindset is more about that versus I know I can't like it would be disingenuine of me to go into a competition be like it's gonna be so fun and it's gonna feel so great and like it's no it's gonna really hurt and I'm gonna have to dig super deep to you know beat these girls and stuff but I think for me just focusing on the moment and what I'm about to do versus getting too much in my head about this hurts or that didn't feel great or like my legs are sore from the last workout stuff like that so just really focusing on the present moment and what I'm about to do I'd imagine like uh you're all in it you know so like uh you show up and you're like fuck my

hamstrings are super sore and we gotta to run or my calves are super sore. It's like, well, that person next to you was here yesterday, too. Like they were doing it. So you really don't have a legitimate, you know, you don't have a legitimate excuse. It's tough, though, because you like want someone to empathize with you. You want someone to be like, hey, you know what? I know that your legs are pretty sore. Why don't you start out about 10 yards ahead of me? And no one's ever going to do that to you. He wants someone to be like, Hey, you know what? I know that your legs are pretty short. Why don't you start out about 10 yards ahead of me? And no one's ever going to do that to you.

Oh, that'd be kind of nice. You know, you were mentioning, you guys were mentioning earlier, how like you sometimes have two to three workouts a day. Um, and later on, I really want us to touch on how you go about all your, all of your your recovery processes because you just do so much work. But on those days where you're doing like three workouts, what's that structure like? Like, is it like a lift earlier in the day and a type of conditioning session? And I don't know what the hell else you would do. Right, right. But what does that look like?

Yeah. So usually right now my mornings are fairly aerobic. So whether it's a bunch of running intervals, lately have been doing some running with a heavy backpack, which is always fun. But yeah, so that is the backpack. 20 pounds. Oh, shit. Yeah. Yeah. So at the games, not to sidetrack too much, but the games, we had an event where we started with 20 pounds and we had to run a 1.5K lap.

And every time we came back on a lap, we had to add 10 more pounds into the bag. And it ended with 50 pounds. And I've just it's probably one of the worst events I've ever done. I just had it took so much willpower, all the willpower I had to not walk I honestly I might have been faster walking at that point but um but it was it was brutal yeah um but yeah so my mornings are usually pretty aerobic for the most part whether it's like like usually it's like running, rowing, biking, something like that. Noon session might be more geared around lifting, but not always in the traditional sense. Like the other day I did some snatching intervals where like I'm doing one or two snatches every 90 seconds or something.

And then we'll go into. Yeah, that was it so far um and then we'll do like the other day we did front squats paired with um i had to get 150 pound sandbag over the yoke like going back and forth between that um and then the third session might be more geared towards gymnastics or something but like in a Metcon form. So maybe like parallel handstand pushups with running or with squat cleans, but it's all for time. I like how she's mixing stuff, like blending stuff together that I can't do either one of. I'm just saying, OK, I'm out. I can't do that one.

I'm like, OK, I can't do that one either. OK, I can't do that one either okay i can't do that fuck all right well i'll just watch yes i'll hold your camera for you oh perfect but like it seems that crossfit has also i don't know if i'm right i could be totally wrong but it seems that they've been like implementing more strongman type movements too like is that stuff newer or has that been a part of it for a long time um i think it's fair it's always been a part of it in some way shape or form i think uh it was in 2017 they did a really cool workout i think it was called strongman's fear and it was um yo carry sled drag and heavy farmer carries but also paired with a ton of handstand walking. So yeah.

I know, I know. But yeah, so it was, it was really interesting, but it was a cool event. And yeah. What the hell, man?

Yeah. Yeah. It sounded all cool for a second. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Handstand walking.

Like, damn. Yeah. Aren't there, yeah, yeah. Handstand walking. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. Aren't there like I'd imagine aren't there athletes that just can't handstand walk or can every athlete get to a point where they can handstand walk? If you're at the games, you have to. Yeah. At the games, you should be able to handstand walk. I mean, they've actually started implementing handstand walking into the CrossFit Open, but they'll usually put it a little further into the workout.

So people who maybe aren't there yet can still do at least part of the workout. And then when they get there, it's just like practice time. I actually like really like and admire some of the stuff they do in CrossFit because like and I've been saying this about Strongman for a long time. You know, we I've had I've had friends die over Strongman for a long time. I've had friends die over Strongman because they've gotten so big because of demand. And it's their own choice. They don't have to. No one's making them do that.

But the way that the events are set up, you have to be really, really large in order to do it. large in order to do it. And I'm not saying that they should implement a handstand walks, but they should implement something that requires a little bit higher fitness level here and there so that the athlete can be a little bit slimmer, you know, maybe pull off. I know people love those big weights. I know they do. I love them too. But man, I, it's like, no one really cares about, you know, whether these guys are going to live to see 50 or 60 years old. And I think that's super unfortunate. What I like about CrossFit is the fact that it's like, okay, great job with that deadlift. Okay, let's see you run a mile. Or let's see you're like, okay, you can run a mile.

Let's see you run a mile with 50 pounds on your back. And they're going to catch you somewhere. You're going to stink and just absolutely suck at something. There's just no one's perfect at it. Do you think that Rich Froning is kind of the driving force behind some of these like, you know, workout 7,000 times a day type of thing? Because he kind of set the tone, you know, winning four championships. And I know the females have also been repetitive with their championships as well. Has this been driven by some CrossFit Games champions?

Did they kind of like lay out maybe a blueprint of what the training is supposed to look like, you think? I think a little bit. I think Rich Froning was, I mean, probably one of the first people just to do that much high volume training. People say that he works out like they turn around and he's working out again. Yeah. And I think to a certain extent, you know, to compete a full weekend at the CrossFit Games, you have to build up that volume. Like for me, being able to handle three sessions a day was definitely a process. It wasn't just like overnight, like, OK, you're just doing all of these sessions. But I do think also from person like, okay, you're just doing all of these sessions.

But I do think also from person, so I think you do need a certain amount of volume built up for to compete at the CrossFit Games. And a lot of these sanctional events now are almost very similar to a CrossFit Games, maybe like one day less. But I do think also from person to person, some people handle the high volume training really well and some people don't. I think I'm from what I can tell, I think I'm kind of in the middle. I think I definitely have to regulate it and not get too carried away. But I mean, luckily, I don't have to worry about that too much because Sam is in control of all the programming. I mean, I definitely keep him in the loop with how like I'm feeling body wise and stuff, but you kind of have to be ready

for that total beat down when you get to some of these competitions and just be ready to go, you know, really hard three, four times a day. So I think, yeah, I think that's a big reason why he was able to be so dominant, you know, while he was an individual and still

with this team. I mean, they're crushing it. Yeah. And I think a lot of that was, you know, on the, you know, third, fourth day whenever everyone else is kind of pittering out. It's like he's like, no problem. Like I do this all the time. And I think that's what a lot of people have focused on is like training for that third and fourth day, like that final grind when everyone's feeling like shit. Because we can all feel great on the first and second day. Like you're not that sore, like you're amped up. But it's like, you know, that last day when you just honestly are ready to go home and like you're not I'm not sleeping and like I'm tired and sore and all this stuff. But yeah, so i definitely think that he

kind of um laid that out for i mean just super dominant in the sport for sure well what do so let's we can go back to this then what are the i guess during the games what do you do in between days to recover because i'm assuming the things that you do in between the days of the games to recover very similar to what you're doing your training to recover, right? So what does that look like? So athletes can like take that and use it for their own benefit. Yeah. So I think the first, one of the biggest things is that I'm eating enough. Um, and especially when I'm at a competition eating very similar to what I would be, if not the exact same thing as what I normally eat. Like you're not trying to implement anything new or crazy.

Just like, yeah. You don't want your stomach to blow up. Like I'm sure that you're probably craving stuff because you're, you know, it's an emotional thing. And if you do really good in an event, maybe you want some like candy or something. But it would be a horrible idea, right? Right. Yeah. get in an event, maybe you want some like candy or something, but it would be a horrible idea, right?

Right. Yeah. So just staying up on the nutrition, not adding anything new, staying hydrated. For me, at the end of a competition day, I really like using like my Normatec stuff just for blood flow. That's blowing up your legs with a bunch of air and getting the blood flow to kind of circulate a lot easier than normal. Normatec?

What is that? They're like essentially like these giant boots that you put on and plug into. It's like inflatable pants. Yeah. Like very like Michelin, man. It feels really good though. It does. The pressure feels really good.

Yeah. So especially if I'm at a competition where I don't have access to, you know, someone for like a massage or like cool down type that thing. I'll travel with those. I think also cooling down after your events and stuff is really helpful. So you don't feel as shitty moving into the next one. When I am home, I see a PT once a week for body work. I also there is an awesome recovery place near my house now called Balance, and they have Normatex, and then they also have Asana, Hot Tub, Cold Tub, like the whole nine.

So that's really nice. Obviously, I don't really have access to all that while I'm at a competition. But, yeah, and then just it's hard because um i mean sleep is huge for recovery and so especially when i'm training as hard as i am um trying to be very consistent with that like going to bed at the same time waking up at the same time um i'd say in competitions it's a lot harder to do like for me i don't sleep great during competitions just because yeah just nerves um like i'll end up usually waking up a little earlier than i'd like to and i think too sometimes these competitions they run pretty late in the day so if you're getting done at like 8 or 9 p.m and after that high and like that adrenaline

you know pump like you're just you need a few hours before you're like ready to actually sleep you sometimes get super frustrated because like there's not enough hours in the day to like get it all done. Sometimes like you, you're coming home and you're done with your third workout and then you kind of realize you're kind of low on food and you're like, I still got to stop by the store and I still got to, I mean, it's great. You know, you, you try to always be ahead the best you can. I'm sure you have some meal prep companies sending you some stuff, but it's all very tough to keep up with. How many times a day are you eating? So when I wake up in the morning, I have like a little bit of food because I hate training on an empty stomach, but I also I hate feeling full. So it's like trying to find the

happy medium between the two um so i'll eat before my first session and then after my first session i have like a real meal like a full breakfast um and then i'll have maybe like a little snack before my second session and then after that session i essentially have like i call it like two dinners essentially um try to space them out a little bit and then maybe like one more snack. And then there's shakes and stuff in there. But especially that was one of the hardest parts transitioning into three a days was I was like, when do I eat? Because I'd be hungry after a session.

But I'm like, I have to go back to the gym in an hour. And I'm going to throw up if I eat all this stuff right now. So that was definitely a learning. There was a learning curve there for sure, just figuring out. Because I was like, I can't just eat all of my calories at the end of the day. Otherwise, it just didn't work for me. And I'd just be too hungry throughout the day. So, yeah, that was really tough to try and figure out how to get all of my calories in while I was training that

much. What are some of your staple foods in terms of, cause like you eat a lot of carbs. So what are like some of your staple carbs to be able to get in that amount? Yeah. Um, oatmeal every day. I, I look forward to my oatmeal every single day I have. Yeah. So I do oatmeal with cinnamon and then I do blueberries, bananas, um um almond butter or cashew butter and honey and that's like that sounds good i love i i would eat it like a few times a day but that'd be too much fat unfortunately yeah i was gonna ask where your fat's at again 80 grams okay okay i'm just saying because i I've been wanting a lot of the peanut butters and stuff, and I'm like, oh, shit, that's going to take all of my fat. So I was curious.

Okay. Yeah. So do your nut butters have less overall fat per serving? Or are they just natural? No, they're just regular. Cool. I tried the PB2 and stuff. That's what I've been messing with and it's not as satisfying.

No. It gets the flavor, but it doesn't have the weight. Right. Yeah. In smoothies, it's good. Yeah. I like it. Protein shakes for sure too.

Yeah. Peanut butter is tough for everybody, I think. Body builders really struggle with it. Like a lot of prep, like physique and fitness fitness checks and stuff they always talk about peanut butter that's one of my binge foods in the past when i have had an anxious day during my bodybuilding prep i ate a full tub of peanut butter oh my god yeah i had that's amazing that's incredible i don't even buy stuff like that i'll just devour that this has no chance i asked in sema like when he was helping me out during my cut. I'm like, hey, is it cool if I have just a little spoonful here or there?

He's like, you can, but be careful. I'm like, what do you mean? And then sure enough, I'm like, oh, shit. Okay, I get it now. It's like the floodgates have opened. You're like, hey, what would happen if I put a little bit of honey on this peanut butter? And then you never even get out of your pantry. You just keep spooning it in.

You don't even like sit down in front of the tv and enjoy it or nothing you're just like an animal you're just in there oh yeah throw that on some crackers and it's a party actually on that note yeah i mean you get you you get some fun food and do you have any trigger foods that you're just like fucking i'm oh um probably chips um i it's that crunch yeah it's it's it's so bad like tortilla chips like it's just i i can't every now and again like i'll get them and then it's like sometimes i just have to throw the rest away and i know that's horrible but like um i mean sometimes i'm good about like with the cookies that i make people are like well can't you just because i always give them away they're like well can't you just put them in the freezer and like you know go back to them like when you

can have a cookie and i'm like but i know they're there like it's it's not like there's a lock on the door like i'm still gonna go get them you know what would be a great idea sorry but if you if there's like a fridge right and it had a timer a thing you set up where you're like cannot open until like tomorrow at 12 oh i bet there is yeah and no matter what you do there's no codes no nothing you cannot open that fridge that'd be so awesome figure out a way but a lock box yeah just for that yeah yeah i have to have my fiancee make you some salsa then because that was my go-to for everything yeah it's so good but yeah the chips oh my gosh i'm the same way so then what else are you eating because we have

like simple i'm more of a high carb low fat guy so what else you got um so as weird as it sounds, the meal that I found works best for me early in the morning before my first session is toast with strawberry jam. It's like so random. Either that or if I'm if I want something even lighter, baby food. That's a lot of bodybuilders used to use that in the past. Yeah. Super fast. Right. Yeah.

There's a banana pumpkin one that tastes like a little mini smoothie and it's so good. I might have to look into that. Yeah. They're really good. And then with my oatmeal, I usually do turkey bacon, maybe egg whites possibly. And then my meals after my next session. So I have I use trifecta and they send pretty much all the food that I need throughout the week, which is awesome. But my meals usually look like I just have a protein, a vegetable and then a carb. And the

carbs usually white rice for my first meal um after my second training session and then my second dinner is usually maybe um like i love japanese sweet potatoes and so those are my fave too i love those things yeah those are i can't go back to regular sweet potatoes anymore um so i'll usually have that and then like another vegetable and then uh a protein so i feel like it's with your your diet, since you're low-fat, I mean, I know you have the guys that send you meals, but you'd love Pete Monti's, their steaks, because they're super low-fat. The New York steaks have like 90 grams of protein

and I think like 8 grams of fat. That's a flat iron. Flat iron is flat iron. It's the type of cattle that they have. Oh, interesting. The cows are jacked. Nice. But the meat is still tender, so it's still really good.

It's not like, you know, you think it would be like a hockey puck. Right, right. It's going to be like super lean like that. But it gives you just a different option. That's nice. You know, a lot of people have to switch to chicken when they're limited on their fat, you know. And then chicken just doesn't have.

Chicken just ain't got much in it. It's a weak bird. Yeah. It's a weak bird. Yeah, it's a weak bird. It just has protein in it. Yeah. But the Piedmontese stuff, it, again, like Mark said, it looks like it wouldn't taste very good because even when you look at it, there's no marbling or anything on it, but it's super tender and it, I don't know exactly how they do it, but it's incredible.

Yeah. That's interesting. And while we're at it piedmontese.com that's p-i-e-d-m-o-n-t-e-s-e.com enter promo code power project for 25 off your order and if your order is 99 or more you get free two-day shipping on that um earlier when we were talking we were talking about like how when you started swimming growing up um you know and i talked about like my daughter and how like we want to get her into something um how do you think like parents can go about getting their kid into more like fitness related activities because i know your family was like they were surrounded by it all the time but

maybe somebody who's not or you know like mine she's 11 now and i know she wants to play baseball which is pretty cool um we're trying to get her into jujitsu jujitsu so i don't know do you have any tips for like parents like in my situation where we want to like maybe even do swimming like we were talking about like i don't know i don't want to push too hard but i want to push enough yeah i think it's just really allowing i know for me personally like i love that my parents let me try whatever sport I wanted. And I think that really helped me not get burned out of swimming because I think swimming, especially because you can start so young. And I think over the years, people start younger and younger and, you know, feel like they have to get their kid swimming twice a day when they're, you know, seven years old.

Otherwise, they're not going to be successful in it. And I think there's so much power in letting your kid just explore other sports and like develop other skills. And it's just also more fun. You know, you get to meet more people. And so I know I was very fortunate that my parents just kind of let me do whatever. And then around like high school time, they're like, OK, you got to kind of hone in on one. But yeah, I think just letting kids have fun. I think it's hard, too, because a lot of times now I think, you know, a lot of programs, like especially swimming programs,

you know, a lot of programs, like especially swimming programs, the coaches, the other kids, parents are just so into it. And it's hard to, you know, because if you're having a kid who just wants to do it for fun, but then, you know, they're the slowest one in the pool, they're like, well, this kind of sucks now. And so I think coaches, too, it's important for especially coaches that are coaching kids just to remember that they're still kids. Let them be kids. Yeah. So I think just being able to play lots of sports, whatever that is, is is so powerful. Yeah. Just letting them kind of find their way.

Yeah. Yeah. is so powerful. Yeah, just letting them kind of find their way. Yeah, yeah. And I think I do believe, though, in, like, I mean, I'm not a parent, but I know that if given the option, I probably would have quit swimming at some point if it weren't for my parents. So I do think there's also power in, as a parent, being able to show your kid that, like, you can't just give up on it, you know, like we talked about, like seeing something through and knowing that it's not always going to be, you know, it should be fun, but it's not always going to be fun.

And that's just a good learning experience for anything you're doing. And so I do think that kids should be able to try a bunch of sports, but not to the point where they're like every week they're like well i missed uh you know a goal in soccer so i'm gonna quit i'm gonna move on to tennis now and like you know over and over again so i think i think there's a fine balance between it yeah yeah we were me and colleen were talking as we're doing a photo shoot which um she's super jacked um it was funny because i was like oh okay exhale exhale so that we can show the abs and then i look at a previous photo where she wasn't even doing anything i'm like oh you're

still ripped okay cool um so on that note have you ever thought about like training specifically for aesthetics and then doing like i don't want to say a full-on bodybuilding show but like maybe prepping for like a big photo shoot um That could be a little more up my alley. Mark and I were talking about this earlier. I think like training for aesthetics, like it would be fun like to train for a show, but I think where I would just kind of fall off the dieting and then like the show itself.

I just, I don't think i have it in me to get up there in heels and a really tiny swimsuit and yeah it's kind of bizarre you know it's like you gotta trade in your your training shoes you know for your olympic lifting shoes for a pair of high heels kind of weird i don't know whoever yeah decided decided on that but it is strange and be orange yeah don't forget the tan but yeah i think the the dieting itself alone would be really really hard for me it's tough yeah yeah it's really hard oh on that note note of like you were mentioning having kids try a lot of sports. If there are any parents listening, there's a book called Range.

And the guy who actually suggested it, John Berardi, suggested that book. And I went through it. And it was really interesting because the book talks about a lot of different athletes, but mainly Roger Federer. He didn't play tennis since he was a kid. He started at like 17 or some shit, but he had so many different sports that gave him a range of different athletic abilities that when he came into tennis, it took him a little bit to pick it up,

but he picked it up. And then he's like, he's legit a world champ. There are so many other athletes that are similar to that vein. Um, a lot of times when a kid starts a certain sport where they're super young, it pigeonholes their development athletically and they just end up not having a range of abilities. So what you said is like so damn important.

Parents should let their kids have options. During all this, you're working on getting your master's? Yeah. Never thought I would ever be doing it. Yeah, never thought I would ever be doing it. Like growing up, school was not my thing ever, especially through high school and college. I felt like I was always just surviving through school. I think school was always something that I just didn't pick it up as quickly. Like my, for example, my brother, who's the second oldest in um our family he's

super smart and not that he doesn't work hard by any means but like he in high school could study for a test for 10 minutes and just get straight A's and I'm like you know I'll study for hours I gotta see and I'm like what is going on um but uh so and especially with balancing swimming and school especially in college um i just felt like i was drowning for lack of a better word um in school and like me looking back on my undergrad i feel like i majored in swimming more than i majored in anything else because that was the goal was to get to win national titles. And yeah, you know, they, you know, promote like, you know, being a student is important, but it was just didn't, you know, I don't know. I just didn't feel like I could devote the time and energy into school.

And I also didn't enjoy it. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy what I was learning about all the time. And I just had more fun competing and training and stuff. So I was like, OK, well, school is just something I need to do so I can continue to keep swimming. And because of that, I kind of developed this mentality of like I'm I just suck at school and I'm stupid or dumb. And when my dad and I were talking, we had a lot of conversations about me possibly going back to school to get my master's and a lot of like very heated, emotional conversations. And I just flat out said I was like, I don't think I can do it because I'm dumb. Like, I just don't. And he was like, that's ridiculous. Like, why wouldn't you at least try?

And he was like, that's ridiculous. Like, why wouldn't you at least try? And so even when I got accepted into the master's program, I still was so anxious about it, was not really looking forward to it, to be honest. I liked the idea of it, but I was like, I just don't know if I can. Well, my biggest concern was I don't know if I can compete and perform the way I want to in CrossFit and also be going to school because I was like, I've tried this before being this student athlete and it didn't turn out too good. Or I mean, it turned out great on the athletic side. But I mean, in high school and college, like, you know, I'm maybe getting B's, a lot of C's in college. And so, you know, just saw myself as a very average student and kind of like identified with being a very average student. And so my first

class into this program, I just was really bad with time management. The class started the weekend of regionals that year. So I just was not concerned about school. I was like, I'm trying to compete and go to the games. And I got a C in that class. And I was just like, see, here we go. Like, again, I can't do this. And after a lot of just more reflecting, I was like, OK, like, were you really giving it 100 percent what you can do. And so I just got a lot better with time management, creating my own deadlines to never feel overwhelmed by either because I didn't because since that first class, I've gotten A's in the rest of my classes. And which is if I get anything out of this master's program, like I'm just so happy that I feel like I've overcome this very not to be dramatic, but like lifelong feeling of that I'm just not intelligent enough to be good at school. And that's been so, so rewarding for me.

There's an exercise that teachers have done where they'll say, in the beginning of the year, they'll say, what grade do you want to get? And the kid will be like, huh? And like, well, if you could just pick any grade that you want, what grade do you want to get? And the kid will be like, well, an A. And the teacher's like, well, it's up to you to get you can get an a like yeah like it's available to everybody like you know we're we're starting out with you know zero for now and you can work your way towards it and then they kind of walk you through like what would it look like if you were an a student you know you

and then you can kind of pick you can sort of pick like where you land i even had had done this with my own son uh at times i've talked to him about it and said you know what grade would you like and he's obviously said an a so i'm like okay well so that sounds like you care about school because otherwise he would have said an f i'm out of here i don't give a shit you know yeah uh and then i said well okay what if having an a meant that you couldn't do some of the other things that you really enjoyed doing? What if you had to spend less time with your friends and you couldn't do a couple other things that you like doing? And he was like, yeah, I wouldn't really want the A.

And I'm like, well, how about you get to spend time with your friends, you get to put in a good effort in school, but you're not crazy about school, and you end up with a B. He's like, that sounds good. I'm like, all right, fucking get a B, do your homework. Right, yeah. Let's go. And I think that what you give is what you get. It's a very simple concept to understand. And I think sometimes somebody will be upset because they have a problem or they have

a disability. It could be a learning disability. It could be they were born without five toes or something like that and you you have a tendency to uh try to utilize that crutch all the time and try to you just walk around with that all the time and you think oh it's not going to be a big deal no one's going to notice or no one's going to care i'll just blend in some other way and i'll be good at other shit and it won't it won't ever matter but it always matters because you know that you hear the saying too is that you, the way you do anything is the way that you do everything. And if you kind of start to think about, okay, like I really kick ass over here.

How do I take at least some of that? Right. And just not suck so bad over in this area. Yeah. I can probably do a little, like if I'm just being honest, you know, and I think that's great that you did that. That's hard to do. It's hard because, you know, we do have this internal dialogue. We do.

You do tell yourself stuff over like a long period of time and then to try to break it. That's fucking awesome that you're able to do that. It's really cool. Thank you. Yeah. And I think a lot of it, like you said, is I feel like now neither of them are taking away from each other they're almost like building upon each other and i feel more confident in both because of both which is really cool yeah and if you stop being a baby about it and realize that people have done harder shit right

100 they have right people raised four kids or five kids and gone to school at the same time and had a job right you know so it's you have to sometimes you got to be like, I'm all right. I'm I'm being a wimp. No, 100 percent. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Mark mentioned like taking stuff from your athletics and applying it to whatever else it is you're doing.

So, you know, you were mentioning that you and your coach had to figure out exactly why you were doing what you were doing to push you forward. What was it with school that made the switch? Were you trying to figure out why? Was it that you changed your major or something? Like what gave you that switch from going from doing C's to A's? Was it just the organization or was there something specific? I think it was mostly the organization. the organization like just being more proactive with my time instead of um instead of sitting there making myself anxious and overwhelmed about all these things i had to do instead of actually

going to do any of it and i think you know because i think we can all like that's super powerful there's a lot of people that have a lot of anxiety it's just kind of over the stuff that they're not doing yeah because they're doing the stuff that they shouldn't be doing when they shouldn't be doing it rather than doing the stuff they should be doing when they don't want to do it yeah yeah and i think a lot of that is um like having those talks with yourself about okay do i want to do this thing okay yes are my actions aligning with that if they're not okay do i actually want to be doing that or am i just saying i want to how many times i've had to tell myself nope yeah nothing's lining

up with nothing you fucking loser oh my god that's that's brutal but yeah you do have to be brutally honest with yourself uh do you think at some point uh when you're done with uh cross fitting and stuff like that, that you would like to have a family and stuff like that? Like it sounds like you have a very close knit family. So it sounds like something the Fotch family is into. Oh, yeah. So I'm the oldest of six. And yeah, a lot of kids. And yeah, so I absolutely 100% want a big family.

I don't know about six, but I want a big family one day. Once you have one, you realize that you need at least two. But then after you have two, you're like, I'm good. That's what happened to me anyway. Yeah, my parents were, I think, at four. My mom was like, okay, cool. And my dad was one of eight. And so he was like, come on, let's do more. She's like, OK. But I mean, it's so cool. I mean, I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's it. It was crazy. But and still is. But it's it's cool because we're all just really, really close. lot and got you and kind of kept you into swimming. And now you're having a positive impact on them

and on the rest of the family. You were mentioning your dad to me that he still runs. He started running because your mom was a runner, right? But you said more recently your dad has been paying more attention to his nutrition and stuff like that. Yeah, it's been really cool. Like my parents have always been very healthy, like in very in shape. Both like my mom did tennis throughout college, has ran so many marathons. So I'm convinced running is in my genes somewhere. I just haven't found it quite yet. But yeah, so they've always been very active and stuff like that. And I think it's been really cool recently, especially my dad being a lot more invested in his nutrition. And I think he's really, you know, connecting the dots between, you know, unfortunately, we've had some family members get sick. sick and um i think you know not that he didn't realize it before but like he's like you know like and i mean i'm happy too because i'm like i need you guys to live a long life because i don't want you going anywhere anytime soon um so it's been cool because and it's just another thing that we get to connect on um i think like it was so cool when both my parents started wanting to lift and

stuff and getting a squat rack in the basement and barbells and dumbbells and all that stuff. And now it's fun, you know, getting texts from my dad being like, hey, is this like a good snack idea? Or like, what do you think about this? And so it's just fun. You know, also like my dad, someone who like I just look up to so much, like asking me for advice. I'm like, well, this is pretty cool. So it's just awesome to be able to, you know, cause I love what I do and I love all this stuff, like, you know, nutrition, living a healthy lifestyle. And it's so cool that, you know, all my family members are really devoted to that too. So, yeah. That's awesome. You know, I was really curious about this the whole time.

But on this, we have a rap sheet on you and it said you had a really serious shoulder injury. Yeah. And like you look at your Instagram and you're doing all of this stuff that needs shoulder stability. Right. Right. So first off, what was the injury? How did you rehab it? And now, like with your shoulder, what do you do anything specific to keep things in line?

Like what do you do for your shoulder health? Yeah. So my shoulder injury was an overuse injury from swimming. So everyone hears that I've had a shoulder injury and they say I do CrossFit and they're like, oh, CrossFit. And I'm like, no, actually it was. And it's funny because everyone thinks, you know, but swimming's so good for you. There's no impact. I'm like, well, if you do it for years and years and years, sometimes that just builds up. And so I had a torn rotator cuff, had surgery in 2016. It was a much worse comeback or a very slow, a lot slower comeback than I thought. I had a lot of people saying like, oh, you'll be back in like three months to everything.

I was like, oh, that's not that bad. It was not the case at all. And yeah, I fortunately had amazing people helping me with my rehab and stuff. That was crucial. And still to this day, I mean, there's so many people that played such a huge part. But like one of my best friends now, Kevin, who we met because one of my good friends introduced us to help me with my shoulder. And there's no way I still to this day believe that like if I had never met him, I don't think I would have competed at the games on a team that year. Like I had to he was great about being aggressive enough, but also very safe with what I was able to do and giving me just getting my mobility back.

I was terrified that I was never going to be able to snatch normally again to go overhead comfortably again. I mean, especially when you're at a point where you're like, I literally can't lift my arm over my head. Like how on earth am I supposed to get back to snatching 200 pounds? Like there's no way. And so, yeah, so now more than ever, I'm just so conscious about my warmups and not just with my shoulder, but like my knees, about my warmups and not just with my shoulder, but like my knees, my hips, because I'm like, I don't want to go through that again. And Sam's been great with that, just giving me like I do a lot of scap work, a lot of like opening up my chest because I'm generally, especially from swimming, I'm very pulled forward. My external rotation's not the greatest. So I always have to

work on that. So just like you said, like making sure all those tinier muscles around my shoulder are doing their job and so I can stay healthy. Got it. Yeah. Wow. You know, you're in tremendous shape and it's like pretty common every once in a while you'll see like a jacked dude, but it's really rare to see a jacked female. you'll see like a jacked dude but it's really rare rare to see a jacked female you get like a lot of flack for that like uh people uh you know you get weird dms and you know do people say stuff to you uh in person you know if you're walking through the airport and you're in a tank top or something like that yeah in person it's usually um nice comments like no one's like walking up to me being like you look like a dude because i mean that that'd be also like, what if I'm really mad that day? But no, I wouldn't actually hurt you.

Super kick him in the chest. um a lot of people may not know what crossfit is or they just assume because i look a certain way that i must be um training to look that way instead of like training to do something um and then yeah i mean on instagram you know there i get a lot of love more than i get hate but i do get especially it's i feel like it's almost weirder when I get the dms versus like a comment just saying like you look like a man I'm like okay like I just you know yeah what a wonderful dm yeah great um but you know it's just for me I'm like I you know feel bad for that person that they that's what they choose to do with their time. But, yeah, I mean, it's definitely especially like grocery stores, airports, like I get some weird looks if I'm not like covered up and stuff.

So but, you know, I wonder what some of that is. I wonder if it's just like some dude who can't gain muscle who's just sitting there, you know, being being weird about it. It's like, you know, I think it's awesome. You know, I think it's great. Yeah, I think it might not happen as much in person because like, I don't know, when you're looking at a picture of you like on your cell phone screen and then they can like swap over to like if it's instagram like softcore porn or whatever you know it's like it's like oh she looks a little bit different than what this other like model looks like and so when they see you in person i think it's more of like like they're taken back because like like oh shit like she's gorgeous like what is that like you know because they're just so blown away so i think when somebody does say like oh you look like a dude like i feel bad because i i feel like maybe they've never seen like what a really good fit

person looks like in person you know because so when they see that online they're just like oh that looks different like that she looks like a dude but it's like if you if somebody saw you in person they'd just be floored you know they're like what the hell like i can't even figure out like you know like you're in such good shape that i think in person like they can't like say anything negative you know what i mean if that makes any sense so like i just feel bad for the people that do like yeah you know talk shit because it's like man you have no idea what the hell you're talking about well i think too i think it's more messed up when i'll have like other women um comment and like tag their friends and be like oh like I would never want to look like this I'm like okay first of all I didn't ask for your opinion second

of all like it's the thing is like to me like first of all I'm very proud of what I look like and it's taken me a long time to get to that space. And also, like for me, like the way I look is a representation of all the hard work I put into my training and my sport. And like and to me, I read that and I'm like, you're acting as if you could just have the choice tomorrow to look, you know, like me or these other amazing crossfit athletes and i'm like it's not it's like years and years and years and i think maybe they make those comments because they think like see like if we lift that's what we're going to look like right yeah i'm like oh yeah it doesn't work that way yeah i think it was margo alvarez i think she was like yeah i'll get people that'll

compliment me like oh you look great but i'd never want to have that much muscle and she was like, yeah, I'll get people that'll compliment me like, oh, you look great, but I never want to have that much muscle. And she's like, good luck. You can't. You can't. Yeah. Yeah. Like we wouldn't be working out all of the time. Yeah.

Yeah. No, it's it's crazy. Yeah. Well, how then how do we convince chicks to lift heavier then? I think it's more so. I think it's super powerful for women to lift because it or for me, like I struggled with going to the gym and not being so fixated on wanting to do certain things in the gym to look a certain way. And so even if some women are coming into, let's say, a CrossFit gym because they're like, I want to look like whatever it is, their dream body or something. And I think, you know, they get under like heavy weight and all of a sudden their mind is no longer focused on that. They're just like, I want to lift 100 pounds. And I think that's so powerful. And they start to develop different goals surrounding, you know, lifting and strength.

And it actually gives them this internal strength and I think freedom to not be so fixated on looking a specific way. And also like the result of that, like, don't get me wrong. It's like, I mean, I got into CrossFit, too, because I was like, you know, I want to be in shape. I think, like, it's okay to have, like, some, like, vanity and be like, I want to look good. But I think you don't want it to be all-consuming. And so I think that's why lifting is just such a great tool because it gets you out of that mindset a little bit. It kind of distracts you away from it. you out of that mindset a little bit. Kind of distracts you away from it.

And if you're trying to, let's say, lift 100 pounds, somebody might inform you and say, oh, you know, the real key to lifting 100 pounds isn't just the work that you do in the gym, but it's also the recovery of it. Right. And have you looked into trying, you know, any of these diets that people are talking about? Or have you looked into trying to sleep more, start to get into a pattern, you know, so you can, if you really want to lift 100 pounds, it's just like getting the straight A's, right?

It's like, we need to have, you know, probably more than one thing aligned with that. And now you're not even really focused on being skinny or being small. You're not depriving yourself. You're not hungry. You still have, you're filling yourself up every day with good nutrients that are going to make you more powerful. And I love what you said about, it's kind of building like an internal strength and like nothing can replace that. And from what I've seen, you know, I've seen so many different women come through

powerlifting and, and then end up with fantastic bodies from powerlifting. And then someone else is like, I didn't think powerlifting would, would do that. But your body, you know, has so much more to do with your mind and your nutrition. Like, those are the key elements right there. The actual training that you do, the actual lifting that you do, it's not as significant. Now, when you start to, you know, end up being built like yourself or you start end up being like built more like a bodybuilder and those kinds of things, then starts to matter a little bit more on exactly what you're doing because because you're a low percentage of body fat and it's going to really affect the overall look but aside from that um you know nutrition and and what and i'm sorry uh training is just really not it's not the highest priority uh in in terms of uh in terms of how you look.

You got any rivals? Like anyone that you're working out one day and your phone comes out and you're like, fuck, she's doing that. No, I don't think so. But I do, one of my good friends who, we have the same coach, but she lives in New York. It's always, we have like competitive or like friendly competitive moments

because we'll do like leading up to Waterpalooza right now, I'm doing some like competition simulations throughout the weekend and she'll do the same ones as me. And so it's fun to have that little like banter back and forth, just trying to beat each other,

even though we're not doing the workout in the same gym. So yeah, it's really fun. I think she's actually going to come out to Arizona in the summer and like we'll train for the games together. So that'd be really cool. Do you have a favorite in CrossFit? There's a lot of really awesome people.

I think, I mean, I feel like this is kind of an easy answer, but I feel like of the elite, I think Tia is such a good representation of what this sport is right now. She's the one who just won, right? Yeah. Okay. Because not only. She's won twice in a row? Yeah. Or maybe three times.

I think at least twice. Yeah. And not only, I mean, like all of my friends within the sport like i really look up to and they inspire me day in and day out but i think for her um not only is she's an amazing athlete but she's just a really good person i don't know her super well but when i have met her at competitions i think it is really easy for especially when you have that so much success. I think, you know, sometimes it gets to people's heads or they feel I mean, because they did beat everyone, you know, they start to feel better and everyone. But she is still like so kind, very sweet. Like, I mean, she is such a badass and she's. such a badass um and she's yeah so i i mean she's an amazing um person someone that uh i think i competed against her for the first time last year at waterpalooza and it was really cool just to share the competition floor with her you know what i think is really cool that i just

realized as you're talking about tia um when you look at like the nba versus the wnba the the nba has way more viewers yeah like substantially more viewers but when you look at women's crossfit and men's crossfit it seems to be i don't know but it seems to be like it's neck and neck that they're both getting equal amounts of attention well they also go at the on at the same time yeah the crossfit games which is great i think that's that's an amazing thing about that sport because there's, yeah, there's no, there seems to be like, I guess, no difference in popularity between both. It's rare. Oh, for sure. And I think CrossFit, like I was saying how CrossFit has done a lot for me personally with like body image and all that stuff.

like body image and all that stuff. I think it's, you know, I think we still have a long ways to go, but I think it's definitely done a great job at promoting that you can be like a beautiful, like, you know, you can be girly, but like also like be into like lifting and all of this like grunt work and stuff and having that like fun, happy medium between the two. Yeah, I noticed once, like about once a month on your Instagram, And having that like fun, happy medium between the two. Yeah. I noticed once about once a month on your Instagram, you'll post, I feel like a girl today.

And you post a picture of you like in a dress. Yeah. You're like, I dressed up finally. Right. Not just in my CrossFit workout clothes. Yeah. Got to document it because it doesn't happen very often. Oh, man.

There you go. Look at that. Yeah. You're you're fucked damn you're jacked holy shit it's all steroids don't open up that can of worms well think about it you know she started coming here around 2015 we sell steroids out of the back of this place and we have been for a long time the shoulder injury she needed a little bit of something to kind of get her through that and then all of a sudden she's like

starting to get better and better and then she's in the CrossFit games I mean steroids are just flowing around here like crazy oh yeah just breathe them in through the air well it's been awesome having you on the show Oh, yeah. Just breathe them in through the air. Well, it's been awesome having you on the show. Thank you so much for sharing so many different cool things with us today. What do you have coming up? You mentioned Guadalupalooza. That is like basically almost the equivalent of the CrossFit Games. It's that high level of competition, right? Yeah, there's going to be a lot of,

they're still releasing who's competing there, but it's pretty much a full-stack lineup of veteran CrossFit Games athletes. So that's coming up the 20th of February, so pretty soon. Anything else coming up on your end? Any travel, any going to see the family, anything like that?

I wish. But yeah, nothing till then. Back to work. Yeah. Nothing till then. And then I'll compete in D.C. in April. But yeah, until then, just lots of fun. Did you make the CrossFit Games already?

Like, how's it working? I know they switched things up. Yeah. So I haven't qualified yet. So the goal at waterpalooza is to qualify there and so what i have to do is a bunch of the athletes going have already received an invite through the crossfit open um so i just need to beat everyone that does not have an invite yeah like me so um yeah that's a goal you can beat him with a baseball bat if you have to right

that might be frowned upon oh yeah yeah sorry sorry bad advice andrew where can people where can people find you you guys hit me up on instagram at i'm andrew z and make sure you guys are following the podcast at mark bell's power project on instagram at mb power jesus at mb power project on tiktok twitter dude it's because you're sitting right here smoky's on Instagram at MB Power Project on TikTok, Twitter. Dude, because you're sitting right here, Smokey's driving me nuts. Anyways, make sure you guys subscribe on iTunes. Give us a rating and review. We've been reading reviews.

We're not going to do one today because I haven't pulled up. But it's been really cool to kind of give you guys a shout out and thank you for taking the time to do all that. Nsema, where are you at? Yeah, seriously, thank you, peeps. And at NsemaNyang on on Instagram, YouTube and Byte. And Seema Yin Yang on TikTok and Twitter. Mark?

Colleen. Colleen. I, on Instagram, I'm at Colleen Fotch and I just started a YouTube channel. Yeah. There we go. What's going on on there? Yeah. So it's been really cool.

So my brother is doing all the editing, which is awesome. So he has a huge passion for filming, editing and stuff. That's convenient. Yeah, I know. Seriously. And so we've actually talked about starting a vlog for years. And I was just not long story short, was not at a point where I felt confident enough or anything to be on camera that much and to be able to, you know, share my life that much. And, you know, was coming up with all the excuses in the world why it wasn't a good time now or I'll be ready when I get to whatever.

And I was like, you know what, screw it. And so, yeah, if it wasn't for him either i think it'd be a lot more difficult to want to do it but um it's so cool that i get to do something like this with one of my siblings so um is he yelling at you about like getting certain shots and stuff like you didn't get shit from today you know uh no but he'll it's funny because like the first video we put out last week so they're coming out every wednesday um at 12 and he put – it's funny because like the first video we put out last week. So they're coming out every Wednesday at 12 and he put over – it's funny because he'll edit it together. Like I watch it before it goes up if I like – I'm like I don't want that in there or anything like that. But it was funny like on the first video.

I'm still new to like all this stuff and like catching things that will look cool in a vlog and stuff. And so here I am with my sister. We're going into a store and I'm filming me opening a door. And I say, I'm like, yeah, here's some cool footage of me opening a door. Thinking when my brother's editing this, he's going to play music for it. So he keeps it in there and has like an editor's note. He's like, not as cool when you iterate it. Thanks, Connor.

Which like it makes it funny and it's cool that like we get to collab on this. But yeah, so it's a fun new thing that we're doing. Is it just your name, the YouTube channel? Yep. Colleen Fotch. There you go. That's awesome. All right.

I'm at Mark Smelly Bell. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch you all later. What up, podcast? Thank you for checking out this episode with Colleen Fotch. We hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did. Really, really quick, wanted to thank everybody again for rating and reviewing the podcast.

It means a whole lot to us. We really cannot thank you enough. We really appreciate it. And we want to take the time to thank Linz Crook. She says, my favorite podcast ever with two exclamation points. So, you know, she meant it. Quote, love the chemistry between Mark and Seema and Andrew. They are so motivating and so knowledgeable. My husband introduced me to the weightlifting and strength training world as well as this podcast. I love listening all day at work during road trips or running errands and then

discussing all the new things I learned and the awesome stories I heard with my husband. That's podcast. I love listening all day at work during road trips or running errands and then discussing all the new things I learned and the awesome stories I heard with my husband. That's really cool. The most recent episodes I listened to this week multiple times through was Mike Ryan, Mike and Mona, and Paul and Sean parts one through three. It was so cool hearing Mike Ryan's experience working with so many different celebrities. My favorite part of Mike O'Hearn and Mona's episode was hearing how they have been adjusting to life as new parents. My husband and I are trying and it is reassuring to hear that from couples that don't let having a baby throw them out of their habits. It is interesting to hear Sean and Paul together discussing all the benefits of the carnivore diet as well as when Mark gets into the benefits he has

experienced all in the same episode. I go between carnivore and keto and feel so much better intermittent fasting and fueling myself with meat. Bison is my favorite. I am trying to get pregnant and I feel confident that I can supply my body with the nutrients it needs on a carnivore slash keto diet. Sorry, I wrote you a book. No sorry's needed, Linz. We sincerely appreciate it. That was really freaking cool. Good luck on making a baby. Personally, I'll probably a book. No sorry's needed, Linz. We sincerely appreciate it. That was really freaking cool. Good luck on making a baby. Personally, I'll probably be trying to do the same thing pretty soon here. If you guys want to be like Linz and have your name read on air, have your review read on air,

go to iTunes right now, drop us a rating, drop us a review, and you could hear your name on air just like Linz Crook did. We'll catch you guys next time. Peace.