Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 464: Stefanie Obregozo- The Art of Listening to Your Body (Bonus Episode)

Episode Date: February 28, 2017

Stefanie Obregozo is an international, holistic lifestyle and exercise coach, whose passion for wellness stems from her own experience in overcoming childhood obesity and addiction. Her main specializations are functional rehabilitation, fat loss and long-term health. (www.stefanieo.com) In this episode Sal, Adam and Justin talk to Stefanie about her journey where she shares the value of listening to your body to achieve greater health, vitality and fitness. Get our newest program, Kettlebells 4 Aesthetics (KB4A), which provides full expert workout programming to sculpt and shape your body using kettlebells. Only $7 at www.mindpumpmedia.com! Get MAPS Prime, MAPS Anywhere, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint, the Sexy Athlete Mod AND KB4A (The MAPS Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Make EVERY workout better with MAPS Prime, the only pre-workout you need… it is now available at mindpumpmedia.com Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you via video instruction on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Get your Kimera Koffee, Mind Pump's first official sponsor, at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Add to the incredible brain enhancing effect of Kimera Koffee with www.brain.fm/mindpump 10 Free sessions! Music for the brain for incredible focus, sleep and naps! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts! How Sal met Stefanie / Her early childhood story (1:53) Her thoughts on birth control / Her experience (6:58) How she got into holistic health / Fitness (15:39) What shattered her paradigm when it came to health/wellness (20:06) SIBO and her battle with treatment (23:04) How to balance your thoughts / Become aware (30:12) Her thoughts on nutrition and gut health (36:43) Her thoughts on organ meats / Go-to foods for menstrual time (45:25) Her current thoughts on fitness / Neutral spine dysfunction and fluidity (50:49) Sal and his yoga experience  What are you doing now (1:01:48) Related Links: ELDOA Cert. at MindPump Media Safe cosmetics campaign People Mentioned: Tony Little target machine Paul Chek Products Referenced: The Permanent Pain Cure How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!

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MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. All right, you're going to hear us talking to a good friend of mine, Stephanie, Obrigozzo. She's an exceptional personal trainer. I've known her for a long time. She's a lifestyle and exercise coach. I consider her one of my experts, one of my personal experts on gut health, she would hate me calling her that, but it's true, she's extremely knowledgeable on gut health, on things like food intolerances, on correctional exercise. She's somebody that I consider one of the best trainers I know and I've worked with, and we got a chance to talk to an interview her

So here we are mind pump interviewing Stephanie Obrugrozo Do that again with your toes Toesplay bam boom Look at that. Can you can you articulate each one? Can you do that? Like not everyone? But pretty wide with the pink. That's pretty good. It is pretty good. Bro she could pinkies out there Do you okay so rip things do you do you attribute that to your aldoa knowledge or your check Knowledge where did you are have you always been that good you learned to spread your toes. Yeah Have you always been that connected to those toesies? No, I don't think so

I learned to spread my toes like this from on a forest when I did forest yoga teacher training She's really big on active feet. Yeah, and staying really grounded by not letting your feet go to sleep while you're in yoga poses So you already had that before you moved your way over because you've got checked and you've got Aldo I believe underneath you right? I did the Aldoa one. Okay, yeah, and I did study with Kiwoye when I was over in London a couple of his so much training courses What does Aldoa stand for again? It is a flinch echelonim. And I do not speak French. I thought you were actually going to spit it out

because it's a very hard one to say. Yeah. Translated into English, it stands for longitudinal osteoarticular decoaptation stretching. Oh, loads. Which sounds just as hard to say as I French. You may say to French.

I know it's interesting very interesting. It's a mouthful. So you already had that tell me I'm really interested because I did South tell you we have Aldoa coming here. Yes, he did and I'm very excited about it. Yeah, very excited to we actually kind of started to dive in through some of the videos and it seems really, really interesting. What did you like about it?

About the LDO, of course, specifically. Yes. Well, it's a great way to address issues with certain segments of the spine. And it works pretty quickly. So it's a good tool to have in your toolbox. For example, if somebody has degenerative disease or has lost disc height or has a lack of mobility at L5S1, there's a very specific stretch that you do and it's a very active stretch. And it will... Like instant relief right after you do it.

For a lot of people it is, but you do have to stick with it continuously, but you do the aldoa for one minute and a lot of people will find that they get instantaneous relief from that, that it does help create more space between L5 and S1. Which makes sense, right? It makes sense, that's really cool. So I met Stephanie, God, how long ago was it that we met? That was right when I started teaching yoga.

It was like 2010. Was it so maybe seven years ago? Yeah. So I had opened up a separate facility that we were we taught. We had group classes. And then I met Stephanie because at the time, she was a yoga instructor.

And I was very impressed with her approach to fitness and wellness. And she was really good when she would teach class. There was a lot of charisma. I could see people connecting to her. But you have a very interesting story. And what got you into fitness and wellness in the first place? Well, I was really actually very overweight as a child and I did not play sports. I had

very little self-esteem, very low confidence. Okay, wait, you don't look like you were overweight. How overweight? I was like 25 pounds more than I weigh now when I was 11. Okay, oh wow, 11. Yeah, 11. Okay, wow, so cute though. I was a little rotund cutie, wasn't I? Yes, I just squeeze it.

Just squeeze it. Now, can we dive into a little bit of that? Like, what do you attribute a lot of that to? Do you think as a kid, like I grew up, my parents let me eat whatever the fuck I want. I had cereal for dinner or we had ice cream all the time candy like crazy like Sugar cereals. Yeah, what do you what do you attribute a lot of that to and is it the way you raise what you are around Would you are exposed to and you don't tell me how that you know?

It's funny because my parents my father's from Spain. He's basque and my mom is from Korea and so growing up I ate a wide variety of real food. Like, we had a lot of unprocessed food, but I always felt like I was an outcast. Like, I wanted to be, I wanted to have blonde hair in blue eyes, like I wanted to be American, and I wanted to be like the other kids with their American normal parents.

So I actually started to ask for junk food, and then I just kind of found solace in eating these sugary processed foods. And then I became addicted to them. And I actually had a lot of signs of fungal infections at that age. Like what? My fingernails were just growing in like all weird. And I just had fungal infections there.

I even had like a toenail fungus at the time. Interesting. And I had chronic ear infections as a kid. And just like lots of skin problems, eczema, cracking skin behind my ears, my ears bleed, it was terrible. And I was really, really sick all the time. But once I got into eating processed foods and like microwave stuff, I just wanted more of it.

And then I used that to soothe the feelings that I had about myself, which was that I felt like I wasn't good enough. I wasn't like the other kids, you know, I wasn't good enough, I wasn't like the other kids, I didn't play sports, I wasn't in shape. Now this is you reflecting back on you being 11. You didn't put this together at 11, did you? Oh no, no way. This is you later on going like, wow, okay,

this makes so much sense now. Yeah, exactly. And at what age did you finally make that transition? So you're 11, you're overweight at 11, you're eating all kinds of processed foods and getting wine to be as American as possible, which is funny, right? It's the American way.

TV dinners and candy. Yeah. When did it start to come together for you? I, right before high school, I decided I was gonna lose weight. I was tired of being tormented and I really, I felt like it might not even have been true, but in my mind, everyone was making fun of me, and even like my big brother would say stuff here and there,

and it would get under my skin. So I decided I was gonna lose weight, and this is really actually very funny. So I'm 13 years old, and I see an infomercial for Tony Little's Target training. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Gazelle Master.

Tony Little's a man. That's sexy machine. Oh, yeah. I'm in a tiny tail in a singlet. Yeah. I've never seen that. Superman blue singlet anymore. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. That bulge. Yeah. I felt like I became a woman that summer watching him on VHS. Oh, it's cool. And I literally started doing his ab routine workouts. I was like, this is totally gonna work. And you know, I was going through a growth spurt

and I was like jogging on the side and trying to watch what I was eating even though I didn't know what the hell I was doing. So that initially allowed me to shed about 15 pounds before high school. But then I started to run into a lot of hormonal problems. I had an ovarian cyst that ruptured when I was 15 and I landed it myself in the ER

going what's going on. Like endometriosis or? They never diagnosed it as endometriosis. They just gave me a shot of motrin in my butt cheek and they were like you're fine, you just get on birth control, you'll be okay. Oh my God. So they actually recommended you going on birth control. Well, that is what they recommend.

That's actually the first line of medicine that they'll give a woman when she has issues with that area. I mean, if you're menstruating too much, okay, so I want irregular, all that stuff, it's like birth control, right? Because you're an very educated woman, what is your thoughts on that? Let's just talk about that for a second.

What are my thoughts on birth control currently? Yeah, currently with birth control, the being that is... Using it as a treatment. Yeah, using that as a treatment, what's your thoughts on that? Well, it's not a treatment. It treats the symptoms potentially,

but it does not address the underlying reason why the hormonal dysregulation in the first place that's causing all of these problems. And now, a lot of research is suggesting that it actually destroys the microbiome. So for that reason, oh, for that reason, alone birth control, oral contraceptives. And I not sure about like the injection ones and things like that, but oral contraceptives are very hard on the microbiome and they alter a lot of things and a lot of women will report they're afraid to get off of it

because they don't want the acne to come back or they're afraid that their body won't know what to do. And it took me a long time to get myself back into working order where I now have a 28 day cycle. You know, my periods are very regular. And I also use an app called Period Tracker. It's a free app. Oh, that's the one Justin had. It's great. Yeah. See, it's great because Justin doesn't always knows when he's fertile. Actually, it's not for it. And I avoid it like the plague. No, I recommend this for men so that you know when you're you know when your girl is about to. Well, that's I just and uses it for when he's going to he's trying to figure out when he's going to be able to get sex.

He's like, OK, I know right here. We're on Sunday number 22. OK, this is my comment. I'll just get Justin comes out in his little costume. I told you. Yeah. He's a good he's a smart guy. He's a numbers guy.

He pays the. Yeah, he plays. guy. He plays the odds. He knows he's getting sex. He's got all my cards seven times out of the month. He tries to lie. Seven times a month. That's not bad actually. It's not a yawning. But two kids. Yeah, he's yawning. He's usually worse. Okay, so they put you on birth control. 13 years old. You hop on birth control. I know this was when I was 15. For 15. okay, 15, so they got you on birth control. How long, how long are you on it for? I took it for about a year and a half,

and my experience was I was nauseous every single day. Oh man. And they were just like, no, that's a side effect. Like, it's just a side effect. I'm like, oh, I guess I just feel like I'm on the verge of barfing at times, and that's supposed to be acceptable. But at that age, I just didn't feel like I had options

and I didn't even feel like it was okay for me to ask questions. It was just like, I'm the authority here. I'm gonna write you a prescription, take this. If you don't wanna take it, here's a prescription for vicaran and I'm not kidding. Because I said my cramps are unbearable and I don't wanna take birth control. This was a few years down the line.

Here's some more drugs. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that was just a... Passes up. Their answer was like, well, some women just have to experience it that way. And I just wasn't in a position. I wasn't mature enough to say, you know, I'm not going to accept that. I want to know what's going on here. Wow. 15 years old. So at one birth control, here's some viking in. Well, you can.

Well, because I know Stephanie and I know she's extremely passionate about wellness and fitness. And it all makes sense when you start to hear this story. Oh, yeah, of course. Because she went through it herself. And when you do this, you really empathize quite a bit with everyday people. And then you look at a fitness industry that kind of prays on the cosmetic and talks about everything has to do

with, you know, lose weight, get in shape, look fit, and you know, promotes kind of products that don't really promote real health and longevity. And it can make you angry. But I know you have a lot of empathy for people in this particular situation because you went through a lot yourself. When did you start changing things? When you start? Yeah, yeah, continue the story. You got me all into this. Now we're at 15. We're taking, did you start taking Vicodin too? No, I did not. Okay. It didn't make me feel well.

Like I had to take it when I broke my knee and a skiing accident when I was 13 and I just, I felt horrible. So I was like, okay, this stuff isn't for me. But I did start doing cocktails of like a leave and you know, ibuprofen and Tylenol. Just whatever I could do to kind of manage the pain. Right.

The thing about the type of birth control I was taking is called orthotrycycline. And it's my understanding that it really elevates your estrogen. So I had a huge rack in high school. Like it was like crazy. Like, hey there. Like so much.

Some benefits to this. No, well. Sweater puppies. Hold on, hold on. I'm about to tell you why this was not such a benefit. Okay. Running? No. No, I on. Hold on, I'm about to tell you why this was not such a benefit. Okay. Running? No.

No, I went to a, like I ran. I was just, I just started gaining weight from taking this as the point that I'm trying to make, but after I stopped taking it and when I started eating healthier and living a healthier lifestyle and I lost the weight, I was left with stretch marks. And then I had to deal with that whole thing of like being 21 and going to see a plastic surgeon to contemplate getting a breast lift. Like that was, and that was just a whole other struggle. So I was really pissed off because I was like, all right, I wasn't given any options.

This didn't help me. In fact, I think it probably hurt me, you know, more than anything. And so after I decided to get off the birth control, which really wasn't so easy, I kind of went from one thing to another to another. I tried that nuva ring, and it was the first time in my life I had ever felt suicidal. I was a fucking hormonal mess. I was crying all the time. I was filled with rage, like these feelings that I was just like, where is this coming from? I did not feel like myself and it was horrifying. You know, I don't think it's funny

because we don't connect, especially when it comes to birth control. We do, obviously hormones are very strong drivers and our body, they tell you, they tell the body to do certain functions and the influence your moods quite a bit. And although this may be one of the more rare side effects to birth control, the more common ones are milder.

I've had many female clients come to me and tell me just like, I just don't feel like myself or I feel kind of off or, and it's a lot of times. A lot of times we'll switch birth control and they'll get a totally different experience, right? Exactly, and they'll accept it like, okay, this is just the way, this is just the way I guess I'm supposed to be. And I'm glad you're talking about this because it's kind of letting women know that maybe

you look there because I can't tell you how many times I've had a client, that's the last place they look. But like, oh, I don't feel like myself. It must be this, this, and the at. And then, you know, ask them, are you on both controls? They will have you considered it might be the hormones that you're on. So, now, I know this is total anecdotal,

but Katrina is the first woman I've ever been with, that's never had birth control in her entire life, and she is the least crazy out of all the women. Just saying, you know what I'm saying? Not a general say, say at all. Not a good scientific study. I've got nothing to back there. I've got my Adam.

That's my first experience. Your girl's like, he's so sweet. He just gave me the best compliment. Although, she's the least crazy person in comparison. That's not a hard like metric. That's what she would say. From the stories I know, she would say it's not a compliment at all. So, so when did you start to look at fitness and wellness? When did you start to look in that direction and start to want to educate? I mean, just, is this something you knew you wanted to get into? Are we even there yet? You're only 15, 16 now.

21. Okay, we shot forward to 21 now. Okay, so 21, what's going on now? So you've been taking aspirin and stuff to kind of dull the pain. You're still on birth control. You've tried the new varing. Where are you at? So at that point, I was no longer taking birth control. And I was just trying to manage, you know, the irregular periods and the severe menstrual pain that would sometimes actually make me black out. Like, it was that bad that I, and I did it at a gym one time. It was so embarrassing. I was in a spin class.

And I was like, okay, I kind of have cramps. I'm like, maybe the spin class will make me feel better. And I started peddling and it just got worse and worse. By the time I got off the bike, I could, I walked out the door and I collapsed outside the door. Some random guy picked me up and had to carry me down the stairs at like a lottaless of Marin. And then he like put me on the floor in the office where I was just writhing in pain. He like shut the door. He didn't know what to do. They didn't, I didn't know what to do.

And it was one of the scariest moments of my life. So, okay, kind of back up a little bit. So after high school, I got into dance. I finally found something that I like to do where I could be active, that I enjoyed, where I didn't feel like I had to go to a gym and do something that wasn't fun for me. So that was kind of how I had to go to a gym and do something that wasn't fun for me.

So that was kind of how I started to get my body in shape in a more natural way, but it wasn't until a few years later that I really started getting into the holistic health because I had gone to, there's something called the Safe Cosmetics campaign and they had put on an event in Oakland where I was working at the time. And basically, they were like, did you know that 89% of the ingredients found in your personal care products have never been tested for human safety? And many of these ingredients have been taken out of products by the European Union, but they're still allowed in our products in the United States.

And I was working in retail. I was wearing a lot of makeup, like most women, deodorant, perfume, all of these chemicals. And I was like, whoa, a lot of this stuff is carcinogenic. It causes birth defects, it causes infertility. What am I putting on my skin? And that was kind of my introduction into holistic health. And now from there, when did you start, I guess, educating yourself or deciding that this is something you want to do? Well, real quick, real quick question before you go there with her. I'm interested in because I find you have this really, really cool outgoing personality.

Now, were you the same way when you were going through all this or this? That's a great question. And this kind of changed you. That is a great question. I would kind of changed. That is a great question. Yeah. I would say yes, but it was a disguise. It was an act. It's like today, I feel I'm like this because this is genuinely who I am.

Like I wouldn't be able to live my life any other way at 35. You know, God, I hope I would have grown out of it by now. But back then it was my cover. I was the funny one. And because when I was fat, I was the funny one. Like that was how I got by without wanting to shoot myself every day. I'm just going to be funny, and that will be my thing.

But there was a lot of pain that I was hiding underneath that. Great self-awareness. Yeah, very good. OK, so now, getting into fitness, getting into wellness, when did you make that decision? When did you say, hey, this is what I wanna do? I wanna work with people or educate people in the field of wellness.

I mean, is that something you knew you wanna do, or was there a moment that it happened? Sort of, because I studied psychology, and so I got my bachelor's in 2004 in psychology, and I thought that I wanted to go all the way with that, and then it dawned on me that I wasn't really in a place to be doing therapy for the rest of my life. It wasn't what I wanted to go all the way with that. And then it dawned on me that I wasn't really in a place to be doing therapy for the rest of my life. It wasn't what I wanted to do, but I wanted to help people.

And I thought, maybe I'll become a personal trainer. I'm interested in fitness, but I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm taking cardio kickboxing. Everything I did was a cardio class, by the way. I was killing myself with like, you know, so many spin classes, a week, cardio kickboxing, step aerobics, you know, so many spin classes, we cardio kickboxing, step aerobics, you know, anything that got my endorphins going. And that was what I decided to do was go to personal training school so that I could figure out what I was doing. And

then that was how everything started. And then that's when I met the check guy. Oh, and then that took you to the next level. That took me to the next level. Wow. So now having been in the industry now for, how long have you been working professional and professionally in fitness? About nine years now. About nine years now. What are some of the biggest myths that you see in fitness?

Or what are some of the biggest challenges you see? Oh, big, I'm shattering moments for you. We talk a lot on the show about, you know, because God, we've been doing it for 16 to 20 years and I don't know how many times during our career. Oh, we've evolved so much. Oh my God, I can't believe I was telling people this, oh my God, I can't believe I was doing things this way.

Do you have moments like that that you remember going through this? Because, you know, one thing is for sure, you definitely, I mean, to get in, Paul Check being one of your first major. You would like right to the top. Yeah, you did go right to. You knew a lot about wellness too, which is like, we were probably spouting all this apex information out.

Yeah, then she's coming in with pretty solid stuff. We came from the meathead side. Exactly. What happened, you know, or she came more from that wellness side, especially going to Czech side. I guess a better question is how do you get buffed? No, what was that process like for you, you know, getting information from someone like Paul Check, who a lot of people still don't know his philosophies or ideologies and stuff

like that with health and wellness and what was it like for you learning from him, seeing everything out there, probably working with peers that had total different opposing views. What was that like for you coming up in the industry? Oh man, I don't even know where to begin with that one. I guess, but the thing that kind of shattered my paradigm from what I had originally thought, fitness and health and wellness was all about was this mentality that more is always better. And I'm still seeing it everywhere. I know you guys are seeing it everywhere

and I'm so glad that you talk about it on your show because not very many people are and the people who are do not have access in general to like larger crowds. But yeah, this mentality that you always have to push harder, burn more calories, do more this. Man, my life changed for the better when I started to strip away. Not talking not talking about my clothes. Although that too, synthetic clothing, like even that kind

of stuff, you know, like the Lululemon type fabrics. But really just seeing what I could take out of my life that was causing more problems or doing more harm than good was the biggest paradigm shift for me. Because that was hard for me to do. I'm a doer. I want to do things. And I've got a lot of energy and I'm always trying to do more. Which explains why the class setting of high energy fed right into that tree. Exactly. So how long did you struggle with that? Like before it finally went, okay, I'm done with this shit. This is not helping me. It's doing more harm.

Because I know the things that we went through to, it's a consistent reminder that I have to remind myself. Oh, I still go there. Yeah, because there's almost a part of, you're partially addicted to it, right? The endorphins, like you talk about. So, what was that like? Was it like this?

Okay, once you knew, then how long after that, did you battle with yourself back and forth? You know, I wanna say that this is embarrassing because it was up until last year. But I'm not embarrassed by that because the truth is that knowing something is completely different than experiencing something. So even though intellectually I knew I needed to cut back,

do less incorporate more meditation, more time alone, more time in nature, less time in a gym, trying to mold my body into something that could arguably not be my body type or what's right for me. So last year, I got really, really sick. I got tested for SIBO, small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which is when the good bacteria from the large intestine creeps back up into the small intestine where it doesn't belong, and it starts eating your food and it creates bacteria which creates hydrogen and methane

gases and creates a lot of gastrointestinal discomfort. I feel like this is more common than we think. Oh. I've met now since I've talked to you, I've actually met several people who fit symptom-wise right in that category, and then I'll tell them, hey, you should go look into potentially having SIBO, and a couple of them came back to me and said, oh my God.

I do. Way more have this issue than realize, and they just think, oh, I got an upset stomach or a bad stool or whatever, right? I imagine that's where they probably just connected to that. What are some of the common symptoms people can have when they have such an issue like this? And why do they get that? Why does it even happen? So, the symptoms depend on which type of gas is produced. So, if they have excess hydrogen,

which was what I ended up having on my test, you're gonna experience more loo-stool diarrhea. You could have a lot of belching, bloating, just abdominal distension, abdominal discomfort. For me, it was like I would eat an hour and a half later, I could feel this really creepy, crawly kind of disgusting sensation like in my small intestine, knowing the food had already left my stomach because it wasn't really my stomach.

It was more like an intestinal discomfort. And then it was leading to actual anxiety attacks at night. I was getting nocturnal, and it's different for everybody, but I was getting nocturnal panic attacks where I was waking up, standing next to the bed with my heart pounding out of my chest, going, what the fuck am I doing up right now?

What just happened? Nothing going on in my mind, no nightmares, no bad dreams, but it would absolutely ruin my night of sleep. Well, the gut communicates directly with the brain now that they've identified how the lymphatic system actually connects directly to the brain and their study after study after study is showing how influencing your microbiome influences your mood.

So it could definitely cause, you know, psychosomatic issues where you're getting, you know, anxious or depressed, depression, they're connecting to it now. My sister shares a very similar story. So she got, she's battled in a metriosis and she's hyperglycemia. And when she found out she was hyperglycemia,

she tells a story very similar like this of in the middle of the night waking up and just with anxiety and sweats and like, just super anxious and that's where they finally, they rushed to the hospital, it was so bad one time and then they diagnosed you're hyperglycemic and she had no idea up into that point. So yeah, that's, it's so crazy how much,

how much the gut influences everything. Oh, it's incredible. So how do you, how does one go about treating something like this? You have to go through antibiotic course and then repopulate with probiotics or what do they do? Very quickly, I just want to go back because there's another type of gas that's produced by SIBO. So if you've got the methane producing bacteria, then you will experience chronic constipation.

Oh, well, the opposite. Yeah, but potentially also all of the other digestive discomfort that there is. So it really depends and the tests are pretty good about showing that. Wow. And so you have it. Once you get it, what's the treatment look like?

What do they do? Is it a long course of antibiotics, I would assume? So Dr. Pimentel, down at Cedar Sinai, he is like the leading expert in SIBO. And he typically treats with antibiotics, but the recurrence rate with antibiotics is 45%. So it's a little bit of a deterrent to take maybe two weeks or three weeks of, I think it might even be a month of antibiotics.

Just to know you're probably going to get it again. We all know that what that does to your microbiome, so you basically have to build it up from scratch and cross your fingers that it doesn't populate with more pathogenic bacteria. But there are herbal protocols as well, which is what I chose. That was the route that I chose. I was working with a functional medicine practitioner and taking the herbs. And it worked for you. It helped.

Fantast... Oh, that's good. That's good that it helped. Fantastic. Oh, that's good. That's good that it helped. But what I came to realize was that it was more about the state of my nervous system than it was about what I was eating or like the herbs really helping me. And this is where, for me, a lot of the stuff does come back to the foundational teachings of what I've learned at the Czech Institute and from Paul Czech, is that the underlying foundation principles of health, if they are out of balance, it doesn't matter what treatment or therapy you use, it doesn't matter how great of an exercise program you write for somebody.

If they are not balanced in their thoughts, their breathing, their hydration, nutrition, movement, and I careful not to use the word exercise because a lot of people need to work in as you had mentioned previously rather than work out and circadian rhythm or sleep. So while we can get really cerebral and get really complex about all of this stuff and it's super interesting and I love it too and I really get into it, I find myself coming back 98% of the time with my clients to balancing the foundation principles. When these principles are balanced out, most health problems will resolve themselves. The body then just seeks to heal itself.

Let's be honest though, as all of us in here are all trainers, how challenging that is. Oh, good lord. I mean, it is, it's somebody to fully reach out. I mean, I rarely work with people anymore now, and I always keep a handful at most of clients, and so it's, and they're fans of the show, they know our philosophy, they know everything already giving coming in, and they still, when am I gonna run?

When am I gonna do that? When am I gonna do that? Dude, we still gonna lay the foundation here, and it's, God, it's so hard for us as Americans to think that way. I mean, it's, it's, it's unrightened. And I think that's why, you know, I think we, we come out so hard on the beast mode thing

and the, all these extreme things that the fitness industry puts out there because that's why, because we know that we're speaking to the majority. And there's always, because you're always gonna have somebody be like, oh, well, I feel that helps me or that's motivation for me or whatever like that, but it's like, man, you're the exception.

Well, I think that's what people have a hard time getting the basics. They are. And I think it's a testament to how there's some truth and a lot of the information we were getting from the wellness hippie kind of crunchy crowd, which up until about five years ago, did not communicate with the fitness,

look good, aesthetic, build muscle, burn fat crowd. They were two separate camps. And you just talked about the foundations of health, and one of them you mentioned was thoughts. And I want to talk about that for a second, because it sounds woo-woo, it sounds, you know, new age, like thoughts, like what are you talking about? How do I work on thoughts?

Like what do you mean by that? So let's go into that for a second because I know now through experience both with myself and with through clients is a very very important component to Overall health and wellness including your physical Symptoms of health thoughts play a huge role. So let's talk about that for a second. How What do we see when we see people having issues with thoughts and how do we work with that? What are some good practices that we can do to balance that particular part of our wellness out?

That's a really good question, Sal. That is probably the most challenging of the foundation principles to help somebody rewire and balance out. Because think about the old tapes that play in all of our heads. You know, like the voice of, let's say you wake up in the morning, you don't really feel well, you feel like you need more sleep,

but you have it in your schedule that you're supposed to work out today. And then there's that little inner critic that's like, you pansy, like what do you mean you don't feel well? You should just go to the gym, make it happen, do it, do it, it's better if you do it.

You know, and it's like, suddenly it's not okay for us to just be like, you know, I'm really not feeling it today. I'm gonna like honor my body and what my body is telling me it needs, what it needs is more rest. Then maybe you go to the gym, you push it, you hurt your back, you blow out your knee, you know, something like that happens. So, the first thing that we have to do with our thoughts is become aware of them, because

a lot of people do not listen to how they talk to themselves. You know, they're just unaware of it. It's like this thing that's just kind of playing in the background. And so awareness of your thoughts is definitely number one. Now if you find yourself thinking a negatively oriented thought, and I'm not saying we're supposed to think positive all the time, but if it's something that's damaging, if it's something that's coming from a place of fear or lack or Disconnection from yourself, then you can stop and say, okay, I realize I'm having this disempowering thought or this limiting belief. How can I tell myself a new story, you know? And just do your best to catch yourself doing

that and flip it, flip it on its head. So it's literally, you're just stopping the cycle. Well, I think you saw, you said something other day on the show that I think was just great information as far as, you know, learning first how to work out because you love yourself, not because you don't love your right? Which when you think about 90 plus percent of the clients that come and hire any of us, they're normally coming to you. And it's more like, okay, I'm doing it,

I'm paying somebody to help me because I can't figure it out. And they're angry or they're disappointed or not. They hate their bodies, they hate the way they look. They hate it. I've never had someone hire me and say, hey, I love myself so much. And I know that you know more about the body

and you're gonna help me on this journey. Have you ever had a client hire you and say those things to you? No, they're like, I don't like this. I wanna get rid of this. I'm not happy with this. I wanna change, it's all these things that. So I think that's a great place to start for everybody

is learning to go and move and to eat better and to do these things because you love yourself, not because you're unhappy with yourself. I think it starts there, right? It's almost like the advice you would give. I used to ask clients this all the time, it's okay, they would say things about themselves. And I'd say now, if you were talking about a loved one,

if you were talking about your child, would you be saying those things if they were in the exact same situation you were in? And of course, they always say no. Like, I would never tell my kid, you look horrible, you're fat, you're ugly, or they would never talk to someone they loved in that way, and yet they can talk to themselves that way.

And it's a very interesting, it's a very interesting thing to ponder. And I do think a lot of us get stuck in those repetitive thoughts of, I'm not good enough, I'm not whatever enough, I need to beat myself up, I need to punish myself. My body's gross, that's why I'm going to the gym. Oh, I have to work out, I can't stand the way I look. One thing, what really brought that to my attention was having children. When you

have kids, you become a little bit more aware of how, of the things that you say. And I would, I was, I was never would say anything to my kid. I would talk to him about nutrition, right? And I would never say things like, if you eat this, you'll get fat or if you eat this, you're going to, I never said those things. I would say things like, this gives you, if this gives you good energy, this fuels your brain, this is good for health. But then I would say things about myself, not realizing that they're internalizing that.

So I'd say things like, oh, you know what, I can't eat that because I'm getting too fat or whatever. Not realizing my kids are listening to me, and it really hit home one day when my son, we were eating something or cake, it was a birthday or something and my son said, no, I don't want that, I don't want to get fat.

And I remember thinking like, you know, he's like a seven year old kid. What the hell is it? What the hell is it? And I realized he heard me say that about myself. I never said that to him about him. It was about myself. And so I became more aware of really, you know,

treating myself a certain way and then it just changed. Well, that's just it. When you're talking in front of kids, you just see how much is absorbed. It forces you to become aware of what you're saying because it comes right back at you as feedback. You know what I mean? It changed how I started changing,

how I worked out and how I ate because I became aware that someone else was watching me. And I just needed that impetus to get me going in that direction. So when you're working with clients, do you see a, because there are definite challenges that men and women see separately, maybe different kinds of pressures or different ways that they treat themselves? Do you see that a lot?

Do you, do you notice there's a big difference in maybe how you approach sometimes training a man and a woman might have different goals or different pressures on them, where I find, you know, if you look a little bit deeper into the story behind the story, it all comes, it all stems from not feeling like enough, not feeling good enough. I will be great when I lose 10 pounds, enough, not feeling good enough. I will be great when I lose 10 pounds. Then I'll be good enough. But then the person loses 10 pounds, they find that they still have these feelings of

inadequacy. So where is it coming from? It's coming from a much deeper place. Wow, so that's great. So you're finding the commonality. I love that. Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about nutrition.

Now, I know you've done quite a bit of research. You have a lot of knowledge on nutrition. You're actually my go-to person when it comes to you are. I've actually sent you a couple of people. You know that. Well, thanks a lot. I've sent you a few people. When it comes to gut health, you're somebody that I you know that I really admire because of your knowledge on the subject. And you've done some experimentation with different types of nutrition type programs. You recently did a stint eating a ketogenic diet.

What was the motivation behind that? What'd you find from eating that way? I could not tell you what my motivation was. I literally woke up one morning, having known about the ketogenic diet and its benefits for, you know, four plus years. And never really feeling inspired to try it, but my boyfriend's been on it for, I think,

over a year and a half. And it's just worked out really well for him. And one morning I woke up and I was like, I'm gonna try this. And I like just put, you know, two tablespoons of fat in my coffee that morning. We fried up some bell cambo chicken wings, and I was good, and when I went into the gym that day,

I just had this lasting energy, whereas I used to get the blood sugar crash. I would know when I was just done with glucose, I'm like, okay, I'm done, and I guess my workouts over and over now. So I just felt really, really good, but what I noticed as time went on was the nocturnal panic attacks stopped.

Oh, interesting. The SIBO symptoms stopped. I suddenly there wasn't enough carbohydrates seemingly for the bacteria to be feeding. So you were starving now? Yeah, to a certain extent. Now, I wasn't going into it thinking, oh, this is a cure for SIBO. You know, I understand that they can still adapt, you know, in a ketogenic environment. But it was a way for me to manage my symptoms, and it was the best that I can do at the time,

and I was like, wow, how easy is this? And it was just so nice to not have to eat, like not to feel like I was gonna kill somebody if I didn't get some food, because I would start to feel anxious when my blood sugar would get low. So yeah, that was something that I just felt was right for me at the time. So, I tried it.

Now, you've kind of gone away from it now. It sounded like more like it was just like a natural progression. Like it wasn't like you, oh, I'm done with it. You just kind of, now you still introduce carbs. Tell me a little bit about that because that's a similar, we all kind of went ketogenic around the same time and it was, we had Dom Diagostino on the show and we'd already been doing our own research on it. We were like, all very interested in giving you a try. And I remember I was the last to really want to do it

because I was a 400 to 600 gram of carbs a day guy. And I could maintain a physique that I was happy with. So in my mind, I was like, why the fuck would I ever want to give up all these beautiful things that I get to have? I was really excited about the baking day of my work. So yeah, Justin was an easy close, but for me it was like, but then I never forget, I heard me saying that on the show, and I thought, well, shame on me. We talk about being open-minded, and we always talk about, you know, challenging ourselves, and our paradigms being shattered.

Well, why don't I just do it and see how I feel? And I was born away. So I have psoriasis, so I have autoimmune stuff. I noticed that go down just like you. I didn't have these peaks and valleys in the day because I wasn't relying on glucose as my primary source of fuel. I noticed that. I even noticed saying, the aesthetic changes just the way my muscle belly's even filled up, that weird things like that. The bit and satiety throughout the day, I didn't have cravings, I used to be a major carb craver.

If I hadn't had carbs, if I was low for the day, like I want them bad, and then it definitely would lead into binging a lot. So I noticed a lot of these things. What I noticed that I didn't like about it after I had been doing it for a while was my natural food rotation. I found like a lot of coconut oil, a lot of bacon,

a lot of avocado, a lot of macadamia nuts, and it was like this kind of starting to look very familiar. Yeah, two familiar. And we talked so much about the benefits of rotating your foods and all the different things that you get by doing that. And so I thought, okay, well, confining myself into just this ketogenic diet, I feel like I'm limiting myself of all these other nutrient dense foods. So then what I started doing is I took what I got from that, which is, wow, I had never

eaten that high of fat and that lower carbohydrates. So now I kind of live that way, where it it's a modified version of it, I could say, or I'm just a much lower carbohydrate, a much higher fat intake. What was your experience and what was your progression of coming out of it like? I didn't, like you said, I didn't really plan on coming out of keto.

It was like Thanksgiving happened, moving back home, seeing old friends, my birthday, the holidays, like everything just kind of conspired for me to be like, you know what, let me just see what happens. If I eat some carbs, like that I haven't eaten in three months, like sweet potatoes or even like some kind of a gluten-free cracker. And at first I felt fine. And I was like, oh, okay, this is okay.

And I'm not the kind of person that likes to be on anything rigid because, you know, I'm always changing. People always change. Oh, wow, that's a great, that's a very, very good point. Absolutely. I just like to listen to my body for what it needs, but then it got to the point where I was incorporating so many carbs. I started to get the blood sugar issues again, and then the SIBO symptom started coming back. And so for me, it was kind of like, okay, so the ketogenic diet is a great tool

that I can use to manage my symptoms, regulate my blood sugar, and not that this is a goal of mine, but I did lose four pounds, you know, within the first two weeks of going keto. And I'm sure a lot of it was water, but I just felt so good being on it. And it's so funny how many people want to tell me it's bad for me who have a never try to ketogenic diet be you know are still stuck in the mentality that saturated fat will kill you see have no idea where I source my food which is you know the cleanest possible sources I can get. And it's just at the end of the day I'm like why are you trying to tell me I shouldn't be doing this.

I live in my body and it feels fucking great when I'm doing this. So I don't understand why you have such an issue with what I'm doing. And so at the end of the day with my coaching, what I'm trying to teach people is not tell them what they should be doing, but teach them to think for themselves. And you know, at Sal, I've heard you say this on a previous podcast, listen to the signs in the symptoms. Your body is giving you. If you have good energy, clear skin, you know, your body just feels good. You got good

energy. You're in a good mood. To me, those are all indications you're on the right track. But if you've got bowel issues and skin issues and, you know, things that are causing you pain or to feel sluggish, then that might be an indication to look at things and make some tweaks. Yeah, regardless of what your diet is, I'll have people come to me and be like, hey, I've been doing, you know, the keto diet or I've been doing the keto diet, or I've been doing this diet that you guys talked about for two months. And I just feel horrible.

I have no energy. Am I doing it right? And I'm like, stop doing it. It's not working for you, dude. Time to start to go off that. You shouldn't be throwing up or having diarrhea or whatever. You know, in indication.

I literally had somebody message me and be like, yeah, I've been doing keto now for three months and I'm just constantly, constantly, I'm bleeding out of my eyes. I poop like once a week and I'm like, okay, well, you probably shouldn't, do you just go off keto? If that's happened, yeah. I feel most people, I feel they get themselves

in this kind of limbo, at least in my experience, when I try and teach the principles behind keto, because as Americans, we did such a good job of demonizing fat for so long, that even when you tell someone, hey, we're going to have a high fat diet and like virtually no carbs. Yeah, not only they freak out, but then even when you finally convince them to do it, their high carb is double what they were intaking and what they really need to be doing is like quadruple it where they were. And so they're in this limbo of like, they're not getting enough fat, they're not getting any carbs.

And so they don't feel good. They're just miserable. Yeah, they're miserable. Their body is turning proteins into glucose. Yeah, it's like, you're, yeah, your body is like, you're not giving it enough source of fuel. And we've gotten rid of the carbs Which you were so adapted and used to having for so long and then you barely are giving yourself enough fat

Well, and you're act probably very low calorie, too. So what do you expect? So I usually encourage people, you know Do do your research? Educate yourself about it because a lot of times people will hear about something and they'll be like well I'm gonna try this. It's like well, you know first learn about it So you know you're gonna be doing it the right way or work with a professional who feels confident that they can coach you through this diet or whatever lifestyle change you're willing to make.

And then, you know, try it and see how you feel. Don't be hell bent on, well, this person did it for a year and they felt great. That's that person. Their biochemistry is completely different than yours. Absolutely. I have to ask you this question because you were friends on Facebook and you post videos that are great to watch, where you'll have like a pot of food and it's on the stove. And inside the pot is like a fish head or like a heart or like some animals kidneys or a testicle or a testicle like

let's talk about this for a second. What is it with these foods? Why are you eating these foods? Why are you preparing meals with these types of foods? Are they good for us? What's important about them? Well, it depends on the food. Organ meats.

Let's talk about that for a second. Kidneys, heart. I've seen a few videos where you make it where you was it there when we were like cutting a heart probably brought yeah problem holding a heart in my hand that's what it was and i was gonna crop hot it it was it was delicious i mean if you don't tell people what it is and you just serve it up not not

that i've done this a whole lot but people will agree they're like oh my gosh this is amazing i feel so good when i eat it and like that's testicle. Surprise. Organ meats are really high in fat. Donky balls. Donky balls. Vitamins. ADEK. They're high in a lot of other things. Actually, Dr. Terry Walsh was one of the first

people who was suggesting that we eat include organ meats in our diet at least once a week. You know, if you eat mounds of it, but you know, a serving of a meal liver from Rosodi Ranch, it's as pasture as veal can be, you know, babies drink and mounds of it, but you know, a serving of a vial liver from rosodi ranch, it's as pasture as vial can be, you know, babies drinking milk from mom-womoms on the pasture. And that has a nice mild flavor. I just had some goat liver last night because I'm on my cycle right now. And I find that it helps me put iron back in because on the functional medicine scale, on that range, which is, you which is different than a normal medical range,

I am borderline anemic, or I was like a few years ago when I got tested. So I was like really low energy, I was exhibiting signs of anemia. They have different criteria or different ranges for sure. Oh yeah, normal range, like if you go to, you know, your standard doctor, they're comparing you against the average American, which I'm sorry, I don't wanna be compared to that.

That to me is just because it's normal, doesn't mean it's healthy, right? But in functional medicine, they are actually showing what is the healthy range for vitamin D, what is the healthy range for iron, what is, you know, everything else they do blood work for? Wow, so you were anemic on the functional range, but normal.

Borderline, borderline anemic on the functional range, but my standard Western medicine tests were saying that I was fine. Oh, wow. Now, okay, I wanna talk about something that she brought up right now, because I used to do this for my female clients like during period time as far as giving them

recommendations. Period time. Well, no, like foods, foods. Moondown time. Foods that would help replenish red butt blood cells, iron stuff like that. So do you have like go to foods, like whether it be some sort of a fruit bowl or a type of salad that you make around that time

that's go to or that you recommend? She sucks the energy from the soul of her boyfriend. Yeah. I mean, he has so much iron. I'm like, oh, it's insane. Yeah. Well, I just want to kind of put a disclaimer out there

that, you know, because people often get nutritionist and nutrition coach confused, I do not practice clinical nutrition. So when somebody asks me for a plan, tell me what macros I should be eating. No, I'm going to refer you out to somebody who does that kind of work, because I teach people how how to eat and that's very different than clinical nutrition. So I don't have an actual meal or thing that I do, but I definitely will eat liver or organ meats.

Like usually I try to do it right before my cycle starts or like by day one of my cycle. And I find that I feel so much better if I do. And this is what your favorite is liver? Well, I don't know if I'd call it my favorite, but yeah, it's easy. It's easy. Yeah, I started eating chicken liver more recently because it's so high in cholesterol. Yeah, I believe it not actually seeked out cholesterol

because I know because I read some interesting studies that increasing your dietary cholesterol intake will increase your strength. And anecdotally speaking, it was very true. I noticed when I ate more cholesterol, stronger in the gym. But aren't you gonna die of a heart attack? No, I don't think so. The chicken liver is quite tasty. I can't do the veal. I did the veal liver. Who was it, Doug? Was that you that bought? I think it was... The veal though. It was just cow liver.

Oh yeah, that's strong. Yeah, I was a little strong Yeah, he had a big old thing in his freezer of liver any other What about the fish head stuff that I've seen you make her yeah, what did you do that once? I probably eyeballs it was something like that. Oh, you know, I was making a fish stock No, I don't buy bags of eyeballs. It wasn't I could have swore I saw I'm gonna get that like I'm just gonna go find a witch at the farthest market I'll take two pounds of your eyeballs But no fish heads. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of cartilage and there there is a lot of nutrient chicken heads

That's what you're thinking that's what it was because I had a pot and it looked so scary because all these chicken heads Just floated to the surface and they're like it looked so scary because all these chicken heads just floated to the surface and they were like, ah! It looked so gravy. But yeah, I mean, those are some of the most collagenous parts, right? And so if you boil that down and you get a nice gelatin soup, I'm gonna use it like a stock then, that's what you, oh okay,

you're not actually eating the chicken heads. Yeah, I don't like rip it open while it's raw and like shove it in my face. I'm gonna be honest with you. I am half Korean, so I have been known to eat some crazy stuff. That's hilarious. Let's talk a little bit about exercise. What do you see when you look at the current fitness routines of people out there?

What do you see wrong out there? What are some of the things you think people can implement or add to the routines that might be better for them? Wow, that's such a loaded question. You told me, yeah, I love the load of ones. I don't even know. I don't know. Still, I'm seeing like so many people doing cardio

at the gym, which is so funny, because like, have you gone outside? It's amazing. It's so beautiful. It's so beautiful. I'm like, what are you doing in here breathing? Like all this disgusting, building air and like looking

at a TV while you're jumping up and down. It's nutty. So yeah, that's a pointless thing that I myself used to do. But you know, if I'm gonna do cardio, I'll just go outside. Go for like a walk or a hike or a walk. Yeah. But as far as like movement patterns go, like this is something that's pretty new for me.

I think in our industry industry it's standard for people to take primal movement pattern, squat, bend, lunge, push, pull, twist, and perfect form on these things and then experiment with different variations of them and get better. And once they get better, they tend to add more weight and then continue to get better and more efficient in these movement patterns. But one thing I figured out when I started dancing again last year is that I had this inability to isolate my rib cage and like my torso. Like I can move my hips, you know, I was doing

salsa dancing, but we were trying to do this rib cage isolation. I was like, oh, I only know how to do like neutral spine. Like I am so weak when my spine is inflection because I've actually trained my own body into a neutral spine dysfunction, meaning I'm extremely strong in neutral's vine, but when my spine is, like, if I had to do a roll-up off the floor, like, imagine doing a setup

where you peel yourself up one vertebra at a time, I can't do it. I get like halfway and I'm like, oh, I'm stuck. I can't go anymore. I was literally just teaching Katrina that last night. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, just being able to do that is slow and is in control that you possibly can't do.

I think we should do. We'll do a video of that because I think it's- Would you mind being in a video with us on that stuff? I'd love to. I'll show you how I have Bob kind of assist me to like give me just the littlest bit, like just a couple pounds of assistance so that I can actually do-

So you can roll up. It's so funny you said that I did a post a while ago on Instagram that got a lot of heat from people because I was demonstrating. The plank. Did you remember that? Yeah, and all that neutral spine. Everybody freaks the fuck out

because it's all, everything has to be a neutral spine and you just said something interesting. I've never heard that term before, but it obviously makes sense. It's neutral spine dysfunction. I don't know if that's actually a thing. That's just what rolled up. Well, we just made it. We just made it a thing. Neutral spine dysfunction? I don't know if that's actually a thing. That's just what rolled up. Well, we just made it.

We just made it a thing. We just made it a thing. Neutral spine dysfunction, which basically means you're strong and neutral spine, but outside of neutral spine, everything breaks down. Exactly. Boom. Ching maps.

Yeah. No, no, that's a great, great point. Which is, I think, the extreme of what happened to, there's, I think that's a great example of a paradigm probably shattering moment for you. Like as trainers, we were all taught neutral spine, neutral spine, neutral spine. And you know, I mean, after all the time that we've been spending with brink, and you know, when I started getting into Kelly Star and Dr. Spanon, all these guys that are, uh, the opposite of that, you're like, oh, shit, like we should be able to, you know, and I met guy when we had brink in here

and we had him like he got down in the quadruped and then he can start articulating every vertebrae. Yeah, each vertebrae individually and they like wanted us to get down to it all. It's where like no. I don't even know how to start. Yeah, but that was just sticking my butt in. That was such a like a wow moment for me that it's just such a simple movement. We're not even moving away, but how disconnected we have become.

But yet I consider myself as this trainer who trains in all these planes and I'm strong in all these planes, but yet that I can't even articulate my spot. Yeah, we're coming from the point like my toes. Our goal, like you said, those primal movements, we're always trying to figure out how to make those better specifically. And then you go to do like any kind of functional movement or you play a sport or whatever it is

and it's just like it doesn't translate and why is it translate not we're not robots and so like when you do those movements and you're so hell bent on neutral spine all the time the movement starts looking robotic and it's like if that's how you want to move around in the world, that's fine, but we're meant to be fluid. Right, fluid. Fluid. That's another one right there. Write that down, Doug. What's up? I'm gonna be Adam right now.

Write that down, Doug. That's fine. Just fine. That's fine. I wanted you to come in here to Mind Pump Media and have you on the show because I think from day one I recognize you as a trainer who's Kind of doing it right who's really bringing the right message and kind of gets it I had it up until that point. I haven't seen very many people who understood all

Just the broad spectrum of wellness and fitness I saw people on one end it kind of got some stuff, but didn't get the other stuff And I mean I had a I have a great, you know, story about that. Like I went to, and I was so glad when you came to teach yoga, because I want to take yoga classes, because the experience I had going to yoga was probably what some people feel when they go to a meathead gym for the first time, or like a woman will go to a meathead gym and leave, because she feels uncomfortable. This is how I felt taking a yoga class. I went into a yoga class and here I am and I'm not some massive buff dude, but in the yoga world I'm like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I walk in there immediately everybody's like who's the big stiff guy? He's wearing the wrong pants. Yeah, who's the big sweaty guy in the corner with the wife- trying to yoga? I did wear a wife Peter and I'm doing the class and of course my first time so I'm not good at it I'm not gonna be good at it and I own a I own the facility I made my place very welcome. I did not feel welcome whatsoever Yeah, in fact the instructor made a couple snide joking remarks to the big guy who can't get into the move and what I realized was no it was a woman I did I did right in the face wow no I didn't do that but I you know trying to get into positions I had a

tough time doing it obviously my first time but she made me feel like it was a different camp you know I'm saying? Like, oh, this is our world. You don't belong in our world. You stay over there. Look, look, kids, here's an example of what we don't want to be like. Yeah, like totally, right?

And with Sucks, I had a similar experience my first time, you know. Did you see what Sucks was? I hear I am recognizing the benefits of another modality. And I was there, by the way, not just for the yoga movements, but I was there for the meditative aspect of yoga, because I love, I think that's a very important part

of yoga practice is the whole learning how to breathe, getting in the savasana, I believe is the name of the, where you're on your back. Is that the... Corpse pose, yeah. Oh, shit, that I said it wrong. So I said, I called it Salvasana, because I thought my name would be in it.

Always interjecting himself. What's the other one, Chaturanga? Sure. Yeah, I called it Chaturanga. I called it Chimichanga. Chattanooga. So, I would do that. I went there for those things that I recognized the benefit

that they could have for my overall wellness, fitness, and health. And here I felt like, not only was I an outsider, but I wasn't welcome because I'm from the weight training world, you know what I'm saying? And you know, when I met Stephanie, she kind of got it all.

You kind of understood it all. You understand the resistance training. You had come in and did some stuff with the TRX. You talked about things like gut health, but you also talked about nutrition from a macro component. You did the yoga, and I was like, okay, this is this is where I think the future of fitness and wellness should go and Part of the I think part of the reason why some people like mine pump is because here you have three meatheads

Who have locker room talk who then talk about these things that nobody that looks like tends to look like we do We talk about feelings man talks about that tends to look like we do. We talk about feelings, man. Talks about that, just that you feel super uncomfortable right now. So, but I mean, seeing that kind of stuff, if somebody were to enter into the fitness industry and want to work as a fitness professional, where are some areas you recommend that they start looking, do you think check would probably be a good place to start? It depends on what they're most interested in, I would say. If somebody really likes to nerd out on the assessment stuff and really check practitioners take measurements of spinal curves, we measure degrees of pelvic tilt, we measure head

carriage, we use goniometers to measure range of motion to see which stretches a person might need. If you're into geeking out on all the assessment stuff, I think check is a really great place. And also, if you're into more corrective exercise or rehabilitative exercise, it's great. I recommend their holistic lifestyle coaching course for anybody, like anybody.

It doesn't matter what type of work you do because level ones all about getting you healthy. I believe that HLC1, right? Yeah, holistic lifestyle coach. We actually have access to it right now. Well, yeah, we do. And I believe that I believe there, that's what they're going to be teaching here.

So we have them coming, I don't, Doug, do you remember when they're coming? I don't know when they're coming. Well, I was pre-owner. Anyways, they're coming in the next couple of months to teach their HLC1, so I'm excited. Very cool. Very cool.

If I can just add something about the yoga, you know, I think people like to identify with certain groups because it makes them feel comfortable It's like they can kind of show that there are either expert or confident in something Unfortunately, I mean it's not just the yoga world. You find that in a lot of different areas But interestingly I really hurt my body with yoga and that's why I had to stop teaching. You told me that. How did that, what happened with that? I just had a lot of unexplained pain, and a lot of that was connected to adrenal fatigue. I was doing too much, I was working too much,

I was teaching too much, I was talking too much. I mean, that does take a lot of energy. But I actually, at my check practitioner level one, the instructor used me as an example for all of the assessments we did because he's like, she's the most screwed up person in here. So yeah, he was like, oh man, like just breaking down my gate and every movement pattern I had. And basically what his analysis of my body was, it was that I had kind of ruined my global system by doing yoga and holding

these poses for very long periods of time. And I had weakened the muscles that support my joints. So I was getting a lot of ligamentus laxity and it was the hypermobility that was causing a lot of my pain. So sometimes people look at yoga and they think, oh, yoga, it's all about like how far you can stretch and how much you can bend. It's like, first of all, that, also, practice, the physical practice is just one part of yoga. But yeah, there's this whole world of spirituality and introspection, meditation and awareness that that's really

the main foundation of it. Are you teaching classes anymore? I'm not. What do you do now in fitness? Are you just doing personal training? Do you have a studio? I know you had a studio at some point, right? Yeah, I did. You did. And do you are do what are you doing now with fitness? Um, now that I've just moved back from LA, I've opened up an office space with a squat rack in it. And it's in, uh, Mill Valley, which is just a few miles north of San Francisco. So I'm doing integrative coaching, lifestyle and exercise coaching.

Awesome. How's it going for you? Great so far. Fantastic. I know you traveled for a while there too, right? You were doing some coaching overseas in some other countries. I was. I was I was coaching a member of a royal family and living in the UK for about a year. And that was a friggin trip. Was it really, it was really fast? It was really strange.

Oh wow. Can you talk about it? You can't just say that, leave us there. Royal family's caboose. She's like, is this gonna air? Well, you know, I mean, you can edit this out, right? Cause I mean, I'd love to tell you guys but it's not something that I can share. Okay, you know, we'll do that. We out, right? Because I mean, I'd love to tell you guys, but it's not something that I can share Okay, you know, we'll do that. We'll wait till after

And we'll talk a little bit Okay I just pissed off ours Oh no! Oh no! It's an interesting hit all the days Okay, so be it Well on that note, we're gonna wrap up so I can hear this story

I know, alright Hey, thanks for stopping by Yeah, any time Thank you very much Listen, if you like Mind Pump, leave us a five-star rating review on iTunes. If we like your review and we pick it, you'll get a free Mind Pump t-shirt. You can also find us on Instagram, Mind Pump Radio. You can find me at Mind Pump Sal, at a Mind Pump Atom, and just in at Mind Pump Justin.

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