Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How Thinner Leaner Stronger Helped Meaghan Lose 40 Pounds and Transform Her Life

Episode Date: August 28, 2019

In this episode, I interview Meaghan, who used my Thinner Leaner Stronger program to completely transform her body and life. Before finding my work, Meaghan was 160 pounds, 28% body fat, and didn’t know what to do in the kitchen or gym. Then she found my book for women, Thinner Leaner Stronger, and now she’s about 40 pounds lighter and whole helluva lot stronger. Meaghan also has a much better relationship with food and fitness and truly enjoys her new sustainable lifestyle, which she knows can keep her fit and healthy for the rest of her life. Not only that, but she’s now paying it forward by coaching other women to follow in her footsteps and transform their bodies and lives too. In this interview, Meaghan and I chat about her story and some of the key lessons she has learned along the way, including the importance of consistency, overcoming gym intimidation, staying in shape while traveling, and more. 6:16 - Who is Meaghan Janisse? 10:05 - What was your diet and fitness like before and after our program? 16:40 - What was it like managing your weight through energy balance? 19:56 - What were some of the difficulties you had to overcome? 30:33 - What are some tips and tricks to stay fit while traveling? 42:04 - What advice do you have for women who are about to start resistance training? 51:07 - What are your next fitness and business goals? 59:45 - Where can people find you and your work? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.legionathletics.com/signup/

Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider supporting my sports nutrition company, Legion Athletics, which produces 100% natural evidence-based health and fitness supplements, including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout and post-workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more. Head over to www.LegionAthletics.com now to check it out. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code MFL at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order and it'll ship free if you are anywhere in the United States. And if you're not, it'll ship free if your order is over $100. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, please do consider supporting me so I can keep doing what I love, like producing podcasts like this. Hello and welcome, welcome to another

episode of the Muscle for Life podcast. I'm your host, Mike Matthews, and this is a success story episode. This time around, I interview Megan, who used my Thinner, Leaner, Stronger book and workout program that is in the book to completely transform her body and life. So before finding my work, Megan was about 160 pounds and about 30% body fat, maybe a little bit lower than that, 28 or so. And she wasn't happy with where her body was at, but she just didn't know what to do in the kitchen or gym because she had tried many things and it didn't work so well. And at last she was just kind of confused and frustrated. Then, however, she found my book for women, Thinner, Leaner, Strong stronger. And now she's about 40 pounds lighter, a lot leaner,

and a whole hell of a lot stronger too. Megan also now has a much better relationship with food and fitness in general, and she truly enjoys her new sustainable lifestyle. And that's the goal, something that we can stick to for the rest of our lives. And she has that now. Now she knows what she can do to stay fit and to stay healthy for the rest of her life. That's really what I want for everybody. That's what I want for you and everybody who is in my orbit, who reads my books or articles or listens to my podcasts or watches my YouTube videos. Quick results are great, of course. They're motivating and you should get quick results, especially if you are new to proper weightlifting or if you have a lot of weight to lose. However, I want people to look further into the future, beyond even the first

year. Let's talk about where your body is going to be in 10 years, in 20 years, in 30 years. Because if you know what you're doing and you do the most important things mostly right most of the time, you can get into awesome shape and stay that way without ever feeling like you are missing out on anything really. Without feeling like you are depriving yourself of food or social experiences or other things you could be doing with your time as opposed to spending two hours a day in the gym or doing tons of cardio that you don't want to do or doing workouts that you don't want to do. And so that is why I really liked Megan's story. I thought it was an object lesson in what we are really going for, or at least what I'm trying to encourage people to really go for.

And not only that now for Megan, but she is helping in my mission by paying it forward. She coaches other women now to follow in her footsteps, mostly women, she said. She has some male clients, but mostly female clients and mostly busy women too. And she helps them transform their bodies and lives as well. So that's pretty cool to just know that that is one of the ripple effects of helping other people get into shape is a certain percentage of those people then decide to take what they've learned and what they've done and help others. So in this interview, Megan and I chat about her story and her transformation and some of the key lessons

she has learned along the way, including the importance of consistency over perfection and why perfection is really just self-defeating. We talk about overcoming gym intimidation, which is something I often hear from women about. Women who are new to weightlifting, for example, and are a bit intimidated to start doing that. Megan and I also talk about staying in shape while traveling because she travels a lot. And that's also a great topic that I get asked about often and more. So if you like hearing other people's inspirational stories about getting fit and staying fit, and if you also want to pick up a few helpful tips that might help you in your journey as well, I think you're going to like this episode.

Here it is. Hey, Megan, welcome to my little podcast. Thanks so much for having me, Mike. Yeah, I'm excited to hear your story. These are always fun for me. Like I was saying before we got on, they're just a nice change of pace from rambling for 40 minutes about something or interviewing a topic expert on something specific. It's always fun to just hear people's stories and it's personally satisfying for me. That's like the real payoff is, you know, why do all this? So people like you can come tell me how I've helped.

Yeah, definitely. I'm very excited to share my experience and just the crazy success. This has really brought my life and hope to inspire other people to do the same. Awesome. So, you know, it occurred to me, I think sometimes the details would come out just in the course of discussion, but a good place to start these probably is just a quick summary of who are you? Who is Megan? Like, how old are you? What is life set up? Like, what's your schedule like? And then from there, I'd be curious to kind of hear just a snapshot of your before and after. And then I think we should rewind to the before and then you can tell us what that was, what was really going on at that

time and then walk us to now. Yeah, sure. Definitely. So I am 27 years old. I am from Canada, but I live a pretty unusual lifestyle. So I'm an online entrepreneur now, and I have been living abroad, traveling the world for like several years. And now that I do it just all from my laptop, it's made it even easier. And actually what I do now is that I am also a fitness coach. And so I do it online. My typical clientele is like career woman. And so I just pretty much travel, living kind of wherever I want to and keeping up on my own health and fitness.

That's always a huge priority. And then just showing other people how they can do the same. Just kind of like sharing my story and just what I do as far as travel, fitness business, showing that on my content, my social media. And yeah, so that's what I do these days. Cool. Where are you right now? Right now I am in Paris and I've been here about a week and I'm doing like just a little bit of a

Euro tour. I'm actually very excited next weekend. I'm going to Barcelona for this international fitness summit. So it's the first kind of conference type thing like that that I've done. And I think that the focus is actually going to be more on the business of online fitness. So that's pretty cool for me to see all these people who are really crushing it come and speak about what works for them. And so hopefully I'll get some good takeaways. Yeah, it sounds interesting. hopefully I'll get some good takeaways. Yeah, it sounds interesting. Paris, I haven't been in a while, but is my probably, yeah, my number one favorite city that I've been to. Oh, wow. Yeah, I really love it here. I mean, I kind of speak French. I went to school in the French part of

Canada. So it's really fun for me to get to practice that and just to hear it. I love the language and it's just a beautiful place. So yeah, very happy to be here. Yeah, I'll actually be there next summer. So my wife and I are going to renew our wedding vows just for fun. And we're going to do it in Paris. We're going to kind of do the original wedding that we wanted to do, but we didn't get to do because my parents paid for the wedding. We got married when I was 23. She was, was I 22 or 23? And she was a year older. So because my parents paid for the wedding, it was my mom's wedding. So my dad had, he was just like, I don't know. I'm just, I'm just paying. So it was my mom's wedding. It was a nice wedding, but it was in Florida.

And it was the wedding that my mom wanted. And I'm not saying that's a complaint, but it wasn't. What Sarah and I wanted to do was something small in Paris. And who can come is who can come. We know that the most important people we would want there would come, of course. And beyond that, if it means that there's only 20 or 30 people, yeah, that's fine. It doesn't need to be 200 people. So now we're going to do it the way that we originally wanted to do. We'll pay for it this time. I'm excited. We're going to do that and then go to the French Riviera and then go

to the Amalfi Coast. Oh, wow. That's going to be absolutely beautiful and very romantic. I'm sure. It'll be cool because we have two kids, two and six turning seven. So it's kind of cool that my little daughter can maybe carry flowers or something and my son can be involved. It'd be fun for them probably too. Oh yeah, definitely. So to get back to the point here and not my marital plans. So let's get just like a quick kind of before you found me and my work, where you were at in terms of your body composition and what was going on then, and then just where you're at now. I think it's a good idea just to give a quick snapshot of where has this journey taken you? My fitness journey began about four years ago. So that was just when I literally

started from absolutely nothing. So at that time I was 23 years old and I had gotten to be like the heaviest that I've ever been. So I've never been like severely overweight or anything. And I think about this sometimes when I put up my before and after photos because, you know, I get the people being like, oh, but you still looked good before. But yeah, I was probably around 160 pounds and I'm only 5'5". So it was definitely like a little bit heavy and none of that was muscle because I didn't exercise at all at this time. And so, yeah, just it was starting to get a little out of control. I could see that I was really starting to gain weight quickly, especially because like just genetically, I'm very much, I really store my fat usually on my lower body and

not really my upper body. I kind of always had the flat stomach naturally. But at this time, for the first time in my life, I was actually starting to get some fat on my stomach and on my hips. And I just like couldn't believe it because I had never been the case. And my self confidence was really low. And my energy levels were horrible, because I just wasn't really taking care of myself. And I just saw how it was starting to get out of control. And if I didn't do something, it was going to get worse. So I was like, okay, I need to start exercising. And I really had zero clue what I was doing at first. Like I just started to do like Julian Michaels videos at home. But I think just because I went from doing literally nothing to just doing something,

it was only a couple of times a week for like 30 minutes, kind of like high intensity intervals. And in a couple, like two or three months, I had actually dropped like 30 minutes, kind of like high intensity intervals. And in a couple, like two or three months, I had actually dropped like 30 pounds. And I couldn't believe that. But as I kind of kept doing that, I was like, I might be skinnier. And that's great. But I don't really see the definition and like the toned look that I want. So eventually, I was like, Okay, you know what, I'm going to join an actual gym, because there's got to be a reason why people go to real gyms. And I felt completely clueless in there, like typical gym goer who just has no idea what they're doing. I think especially for women, it's often really bad because women are given really bad advice about what they should do to

get fit. So it was the typical, you know, like, okay, I guess I'll go on the treadmill. And then I guess I'll do like some ab circuits. Like I really had no idea what I was doing. And then so I just started researching a lot. That's like the female version of for guys. It's like, oh, I'll do definitely got a bench press and I'll do like a bicep curls, I guess, and just do a bunch of those. Yeah.

But at least it's weightlifting. At least for men, they do usually understand they should lift weights, whereas women, unfortunately, just don't realize that. It's starting to change, but definitely it's still a huge problem. So I was one of them, really had no idea what I was doing. And even if I did, maybe sometimes I'd do lunges with some light dumbbells, and I thought that that was really good. So around this time, yeah, I'd been a couple of months and I just wasn't really getting anywhere.

And even though I would go in a gym and I would spend sometimes like three hours in there because I thought that that's what you had to do. I found like bodybuilding.com, which was great. And then I was like, oh, OK, these are really like the pros in this industry. And I started doing some of the workouts that I would find there. but there wasn't really any structure to it. I was kind of just bouncing around all over the place, like trying like, okay, let me try this thing. Let me try this thing. And then along the way, I found muscle for life. And that was when everything changed. So I just started looking, I think the first articles I found of yours were like, the best ab exercises, the best leg exercises, those kinds of articles. And I just started looking. I think the first articles I found of yours were like the best ab exercises, the best

leg exercises, those kinds of articles. And I just started to devour it. And I was like, oh, wow, this is so interesting. And it's laid out so clearly. It's so precise, exactly what you need to do. And like so many people, and I know you say this in your work as well, like you might be surprised by how little you actually have to do and like how much it might even feel like you're not having your rest in between your sets, that it feels

almost too easy or something because you think that you have to be dying to get results. And then, yeah, I saw that you had Thinner, Leaner, Stronger, and I was just so excited by your articles. I was like, oh, you know what? I'm just going to buy this book and just devour it. So yeah, got the book, read it, and it just all clicked. And I was like, okay, this seems really straightforward. I just got to do it.

So went in the gym, went to the back where the squat racks were, the leg press, where all the fit people are in the gym, the area that I had been previously like very intimidated by as most people are, especially women again, are very afraid to kind of go in that area. But I did it. I was like, okay, like Mike says, you got to do this. I'm going to do it. And like, I just fell in love so fast. It just blew my mind how well it worked. And I started to see really amazing results, how well it worked. And I started to see really amazing results even within like the first two weeks. Like I could see my shoulders and arms like starting to get that definition that I had never had before. And I started to see even a six pack outline coming in on my stomach. And I just literally was mind blown. I was like, this is magic. I cannot believe how good this is. And so

I just never looked back after that. And it just turned into beautiful love affair with fitness. And now here I am showing other people how to do it as well. That's awesome. What was it like specifically on the diet? When I experienced that for the first time, just energy balance and seeing how that works, being like, it really is this simple. What was that like for you? Because I'm sure previously, regardless of what you had tried, I'm curious what you did try previously. But I'm sure an area of at least mystery. Because, I mean, it was for me before I learned about it where I just didn't know because I hadn't really looked into it. And it was like, are you supposed to, quote unquote, eat clean?

I don't know. You just try to eat whole foods and do cardio or what does it really take? But the idea that like, wait, I can eat whatever I want. And I've never been into junk food really or sugar. I mean, sure, I'll have some here and there, but it's never really been a thing. So, but for me eating whatever I want was like, oh, I can eat, I mean, protein, whatever, who cares, chicken, beef, whatever. But for carbs, hey, I like sweet potatoes. I mean, at the time when I first learned about energy balance, I remember I really carbs, hey, I like sweet potatoes. I mean, at the time when I first learned about energy balance, I remember I really liked sweet potatoes, like roasted sweet potatoes,

different rice recipes, quote unquote, healthy foods. But even today, you still have people who, I mean, low carb is more popular now than ever. It comes in different forms. Right now it's keto. Before that, the big low carb craze was probably paleo. But what was that like for you when you first saw that energy balance is how you manage your body weight? So I fortunately, unlike many women, because I now coach a lot of women like this, unfortunately, I find like, yeah, so many women have attempted to do so many kinds of diets that often usually involve like near starvation levels or cutting out all your carbs. And so that can then be quite problematic, both physically and mentally,

when I coach them and show them like, no, actually, you need to eat quite a lot of food if you want to get great results. And not only is it going to give you the results, it's going to actually make you feel amazing as well. So fortunately, I never suffered from that. Like I never honestly tried anything nutrition wise other than just flexible dieting when I eventually did it. So in the beginning, I am ashamed to say this, but the first year of doing TLS, I didn't do anything with the nutrition. I actually just did the workouts because I came up with all the excuses as to why not. I was like, Oh, well, at this time, I had just moved to Vietnam to teach there. And I was like, ah, it's such a foreign

place. I don't really like understand how to like, eat the way I would back home, whatever, I'm just going to do the workouts. And the thing was that training side of things is so powerful that I did get such good results, even just with that. But then after several months of, and I was like, I was going to the gym like six days a week. I was obsessed with it, but I wasn't doing anything. It's not a bad way to start with a resistance training program. If you're not too concerned about reducing your body fat percentage, it's actually a great way to start is that meant you probably had a good time. You were able to eat plenty of food. You had great workouts. You were seeing results and you're like, yeah, this is great. Yeah, definitely. And again, just I'm an endomorph. And so, yeah, like my fat is definitely

more on my lower body, not at all my upper body. And so, yeah, that was the thing. Like I am able to have a six pack without really tracking my nutrition, which I know is definitely that's just like I'm genetically gifted that way. So that was the thing. Like I had the six pack, I had the nice arms and shoulders and I definitely made huge gains like on my legs and my glutes. But yeah, after like several months of doing just the strength training side of things, I realized that I still wasn't really seeing the progress, especially on like the legs and glutes that I wanted to see. So yeah, it was about a year into TLS that I finally was like, okay, you know what, I'm just gonna do the macros, I'm gonna do the calories, I'm just gonna like track it all,

I'm gonna commit to this. As soon as I started to do that, I just that really blew my mind, like seeing how fast it works. And I say this now in my content and to my clients, I'm like, honestly, it's literally going to feel like magic when it happens to you, but it's not, it's just science. It's honestly so simple. It's just a numbers game. It's just a mathematical equation that you either get right or you don't. So yeah, it was not until about a year in that I started to do the actual flexible dieting. And then, yeah, like I just started to shred up really, really fast and then started to cycle between like cutting and lean bulking and just doing the whole thing. And then, yeah, that really, really changed the game and just didn't look back after that. What were some of the difficulties you had to overcome or maybe some of the painful lessons you had to learn along the way? A couple of big takeaways that I think I've just learned over the years. And probably the

biggest thing of all, and this is what I say to my clients is just that consistency is by far the most important aspect. And as you say too, you know, it's like, it's so much better to give it a little bit less effort, but make it sustainable for your lifestyle than it is to do what everybody does, where they have the mentality in many other areas. I would say, I mean, I see it just having interacted with so many people now over the years, mostly about fitness things, but then also just about, you know, sometimes it's business things or just general life things. I see that very often with any goal, regardless of what it is, where they start out with an idea of what perfect looks like. And then if they don't live up to that standard, then immediately they feel disappointed in themselves and want to give up.

So, you know, using fitness as a way to overcome that, I think is very powerful just because when you see that, eh, you just have to be mostly good most of the time. So long as you do the most important things mostly right most of the time, you're good. No one can be 100% perfect all the time. And that includes myself. I probably am the most disciplined, conscientious person I know. And I don't say that to brag, but I could at least back it up with data. I could share my lifestyle for the last six years. And I think people would at least understand why I say that. And even I'm not perfect. There are times where I have planned

in my overly planned schedule of every single day, what I'm doing at certain times to do a certain thing. And it's just not going to happen. It might be working more on learning German, working more on that at 9pm. And I do not feel like I have very much energy at that day at 9pm. And it doesn't happen. Anyways, just to share my little thoughts on that, but go ahead. Yeah, no, but it's interesting that you say that because so now I mean, I'm just coming up on my first year as a business woman, which I just never foresaw happening and in fitness, so fitness business. And yeah, like just to parallel it, like so much that I've learned over this past year being in business, like sometimes to check in with myself when I'm having the days where I'm feeling discouraged, maybe about my progress, I just can always

parallel it to fitness. And then it always just makes it so much more understandable to me where because I'm like, it's literally the exact same thing. And as you say, with any major life goal, and yeah, like how it is with fitness, where I know that fitness is like, it literally is a two step process where it's like, number one, make sure you have a scientifically guaranteed strategy, because obviously, if you want results, you have to make sure you know how to get them. And obviously, that's a huge problem for so many people. They just kind of guess and hope for results as opposed to understanding what actually works.

So that's number one. And then number two is literally just don't give up, just be consistent. And yeah, not that it needs to be perfect. It just, and this is what I say to my clients, I'm like, don't focus on perfection, just focus on progress. Like consistency is the most important thing. And so, yeah, that's just been probably the most important thing that I learned, especially, yeah, because in the early days, especially when I started doing calories and macros, like I think as most people do when they're starting it, they get a little crazy about those numbers and they can like get really stressed about it. I remember that.

I remember the guy who first turned me on to just macros, right? Flexible dieting. And I remember it was like a cheat meal, quote unquote, right? Which was a standard. He's like, just once a week, just go eat what you want. Don't go crazy, but just go to a restaurant, have some good food. Don't worry about it. And I remember texting him, not, I wasn't particularly worried about it. I was more just curious, but I just didn't know. So I remember texting him. I had went and I ate like three sushi rolls and some edamame and it was a sushi place and had what I like to eat at a sushi place.

And I remember texting him like, is that fine? Was that too much? Did I overdo it? He's like, you're way overthinking this dude. And cause I actually, ironically, when I first, when he did first introduce me to it, he didn't explain anything behind why. So I didn't know why it worked yet. He just said, how much do you weigh? Walk me through. What is your workout schedule look like? All right, cool. You want to, at the time I was maybe 13% body fat or something. And so he's just like,

yeah, I don't remember what the calories were. They probably were like 2,300 or something. He's like, yep, there you go. 2,300 calories a day. Hey, let's break them down into, forget the calories actually, just here, protein, carbs, and fat. I don't care what you eat. And I was like, what? And so, and I didn't really question him beyond it in the beginning because he was a bodybuilder powerlifter. He was getting prepped for a show. So at this point, he was probably a couple of weeks out. So he looked ridiculous. He claimed he was natural. I now, at the time I believed him because I didn't know any better, but now I know better. But regardless, I was like, all right, this dude is straight jacked. Like I've never even seen before. And what he's recommending is not dangerous, of course. So I'll give it a go. And as it was working, then that's when I would send him texts like that. Cause I didn't at the time, I didn't even know what energy balance was. It was just like, why, how does this work? Am I messing this up? So I totally understand. Yeah, definitely. Like in the beginning, you know, I would be like, I'm five grams below my

protein target. Oh no. Like what? You know? So I think just, yeah, a huge takeaway. And, and that's what I say to my clients too. I'm like, trust me, like you will see this for yourself as you continue on in your fitness journey. Like it's hard to fully understand it until it's like actually happened to you, like happened to your own body and that you will just see that it's like the most important thing. It just is the consistency and like more or less being fairly on point with your strategy. And then yeah, of course, like if you have a stricter goal, like if you really want to lose fat and like you have only a certain amount of time, you can always kind of turn up the heat and like get more precise if that's your goal. But yeah, just realizing that it's really not at all about being this flawless human.

Like I think that's just such a misconception in society. Like people just think like, oh, my God. And I know I used to think this. I'd look at these people, these women who were just really, really fit. And I just want to understand like, oh, but it looks like they eat. Cause like, you know, I'd watch like the YouTube videos, like, oh, this is what I eat in a day and stuff. And I'd be like, everything they eat looks really good. Like, I don't understand how they can have this body. How are they able to like, go on vacation and just like kind of eat whatever they want and still look

good and then now I just realize I'm like oh it's just about the consistency over time it's not about like being perfect every single day and yeah like I think that that's just such an important thing to realize unfortunately the biggest reason people will quit and not stay consistent with their fitness is just because they put too much pressure to be perfect. And not only is it unrealistic to have that expectation, it's also just unnecessary. You don't need to be like flawless to get results. So why do it? Yep, absolutely. And a lot of what we see on social media is fake too. So you never really know how they're actually eating or what they're actually doing. And especially in the case of people, I mean, it gets to the point where there's,

it's almost always women who have eating disorders who try to pretend like they're actually doing, especially in the case of people. I mean, it gets to the point where there's, it's almost always women who have eating disorders who try to pretend like they're eating pizza and hamburgers every day. Like, no, no, you're not actually. That was for a picture. That was, you're bit into the hamburger and spit it out right after. Come on. Yeah, definitely. But yeah, it's just been good for my own lifestyle because it's like, because since I do travel so much, it's kind of been to find the balance that works for me where I'm like, okay, it's not always going to be super easy to be like totally on top of my macros and totally on top of my gym training just because it's not always going to be an option when I'm like in between things. And so just to realize that because

most of the time I'm quite good with my nutrition and I'm just very consistent overall with working out lifting, it's okay that I don't do it every single day. Always. I still stay pretty much the same year round. And so, yeah, just to, to show people where I'm at now, I'm pretty much consistently more or less at 130 pounds, like give or take. And yeah, pretty consistently like 20% body fat, I would say maybe a little bit less, like somewhere between 18 to 20. When I do get kind of set up somewhere and I'm able to get into a good flow with meal prep and training. And if I just feel like it, I'm like, okay, you know what, why don't I do like a little mini cut, and then I'm able to just dial it up. And then maybe like, leanest I ever got was

15%. And that was about like 125 pounds at that time. So yeah, it's kind of around there. But honestly, I just stay this way very consistently, just understanding like, and yeah, like most of the time these days, I more or less just do more an intuitive eating style. I don't necessarily always track everything. I only really do that if I'm like, okay, it's time to shred up a little bit. But yeah, it's just been so good to really understand that it truly is a lifestyle. It's not a diet, as they say. And yeah, and it's just the best lifestyle you can have because, and this is what I say to my clients and in my content and stuff, I'm like, you know, a fitness lifestyle means

you get to look and feel great every single day. Plus you don't have to restrict yourself. This idea that you can't eat anything enjoyable or you can't go on vacation or you can't go out. No, you get to still live your life, but you get to look and feel amazing while you do it. If we're talking about food, you get to eat more. If you're working out regularly, you get to enjoy yourself, eat plenty of food while still looking the way that you get to eat more. If you're working out regularly, you get to enjoy yourself, eat plenty of food while still looking the way that you want to look and feeling good physically, one, because exercise physically makes you feel better. And then feeling good because of the psychological and emotional impact too, of again, just looking in the mirror and being like, I like what I see. That has emotional value.

What are some of your travel tips? I'm sure if you've been traveling a lot, I'm curious. It's something I get asked about. I don't travel much. I've shared some tips, but it is something that I get asked about fairly often because it's usually related to work. It's either work travel. So people who are on the road a lot for that or who are on the road, maybe occasionally, not the constantly on the road, but hey, I have to be out of town one week out of every four to six weeks or whatever. And then there's vacations. What are some of the little tips and tricks that you like to use to stay fit while traveling around? I get asked this all the time and I'm actually going to be making a video about this quite soon just to put it all in one place. Nutrition wise,

I love to go to the markets and I think that it's also a great way to not only get good quality, wholesome, nutritious food for very cheap as well, by the way, it's also a great budget factor because so many people think traveling is expensive, but it's really only expensive if you do it very lavishly, which is how most people do it because they see it more as a vacation, which is fine. But yeah, like just going to the markets is great for the budget.

It's great for your nutrition and your energy. Also, it's a really good way to get like kind of a cultural immersion because that's like the heart of whatever country it is that you're in, you get to really like see and experience a lot in the marketplace. So that's usually what I do is like I just go to markets and just get you know, lots of you know, the whole foods like eggs, oats, fruits and veg, depending on like how set up I am and how fancy my kitchen is, I maybe keep it pretty simple and maybe stick more like with plant-based just because I don't really have to do all the prep

and everything. So like chickpeas, lentils, that kind of stuff, still trying to get the protein. Protein powder is really convenient for that too. Yes, definitely. And I've been on and off with that as far as like how much protein powder I use, but I do also suggest that for people. I'm like, honestly, just there's no easier, better meal than just protein oats, like just cook oats in the microwave, throw some protein powder in there. Boom, super easy, super cheap. And it's like, yeah, really good macro friendly meal that you can make pretty much anywhere. that you can make pretty much anywhere. And then yeah, so that would be another one of my tips is like, try to see if you can find a place that would have some kind of a kitchen setup to whatever degree that might be. Obviously, with Airbnb these days, it's pretty easy to do that. Even if it is just like, okay, maybe you could just have a knife and a cutting board to like cut up some vegetables, make a little salad or like, yeah, just literally enough to cook some oats. Like,

I just like to keep it simple like that. As far as the fitness side of things, pretty much I do try to usually get in like at least one solid strength training day, which would be like a heavy leg day, maybe once a week when I don't have consistent gym access. I'll just look up, okay, like, where are the gyms? There's gyms everywhere. And then just go and depending on like the cost and everything, maybe I'll go more frequently. So I usually try to still get in a few gym workouts. But then if it's not an option, then of course I just kind of do body weight stuff at the very least.

I'm a huge fan of fabric resistance bands. I call them booty bands, which is just really good for still getting in a good glute and leg workout, even if you don't have the weight. So I really love traveling with that. And then like, just kind of trying to walk a lot. I drink a ton of water like that never changes. But that's obviously whether you're traveling or not. That's like one of the best fit tips I can say as well as like, okay, try to swap your caloric beverages for water instead. And that alone can make a huge difference for a lot of people. So yeah, I mean, that's pretty much it.

It's like just kind of sticking with the whole foods from the markets, kind of trying to prepare simple meals as best as you can. I do bring my scale with me like my kitchen scale, just so I can be like still kind of aware of the portion sizes. And then I have these little cool collapsible containers that I got off of Amazon that just like it doesn't take up space. But then I have a way to have Tupperware so that I can have some like meal prep done. And then yeah, just trying to have some kind of kitchen access if at all possible. Still trying to hit the gym a little bit just to get in like the good straight training workouts, which are pretty difficult to replicate. But if not, then yeah, at least just doing like bodyweight stuff,

walking a lot, drinking water, kind of the typical things. It's really honestly not that hard. I think that people just overcomplicate it. They're very like afraid to get out of the routine that they have going on. And I've experienced that as well. Like I used to be very afraid to go on vacation because I would be like, but I've been so good with my calories. Like now it's all going to go to waste and it won't, it doesn't work that way. Like one week off is not going to make a huge difference. But yeah, I just found that whether I am more stationary or I am traveling around, like it's more or less the same things, just like good nutrition choices overall, being mindful of getting in like your workouts.

And that's really all it is. I agree. And something else to consider is that unless someone's doing what you're doing, where you are going from one place to another, let's say for most people, let's say if it's vacation, it's what it's a couple of weeks. And it does not take much to, even if you were actually to do nothing for a couple of weeks, you would come back. I mean, depending on what you do with your diet, but if you kept your diet under control, right, you could come back looking exactly the same just by following simple tips you've shared. I've also shared some stuff that I like to do. Like if I'm going to be eating out, if I'm going to be in situations where I know my calories are going to be a bit higher,

I might skip breakfast, like, you know like simple intermittent fasting type of thing where, okay, I'm not going to start eating until lunch and I'll probably just eat protein, save up a bunch of calories, so to speak, for let's say it's going to be a big dinner. But even if you don't do any exercise for a couple of weeks, you're going to come back a little bit weaker in a sense of if you come back and put the same weight on the bar for your big exercises, you're probably going to have lost a couple reps, but that's not because you lost muscle. You'd have to actually work just to research on detraining. Generally speaking, actual muscle loss doesn't start occurring until maybe three or four weeks of absolutely no

training. And of course, that's when it starts. It's not like it ramps up hour by hour once it starts, but what you will usually lose is it's mainly just technique. It'll feel a little bit awkward if you haven't squatted heavy weights in two weeks, let's say, and you try to go right back to your previous heavy weights. Some people find that they're just right back into it. But for most people, if they could squat whatever it is for, let's say, six and they get back to it and it's now three or four and it's pretty hard. But my point is you're not going to lose anything, really. You're not going to lose any muscle in a couple of weeks. And if you just do a couple workouts per week, you're going to maintain the muscle anyway, but you will certainly maintain muscle just a couple workouts per week. If we're talking about, let's say it's just an upper lower. And if you stick with your normal style of training, those workouts, you'll maintain all of your strength too. So again, if you're gonna be gone for two weeks, that's only four workouts and you can do other

stuff too. I agree. Body weight stuff is good. Band stuff can work. Walking is always a good idea. It also, it gives you more room to eat food, which if you're in a new place is usually fun, especially if it's another country where there's like a different cuisine and you want to try different things. If you're gone for a longer time, then that two workouts per week applies really indefinitely. Like you can maintain a great physique with just two workouts per week. So long as you're keeping an eye on your calories and your macros. If you're looking at, and I'm saying, I mean, you know this, but I'm speaking to just anybody listening who let's say it's okay for a three month period because of circumstances, I'm only going to be able to work out twice a week. I mean, even one workout a week, if you were in the gym

for maybe hour, hour and a half, so you get enough volume, a whole body workout that would almost certainly, I'm thinking there were a couple of studies. One, I written about this and two of them used two workouts a week. One of them may have even been one workout a week, but I do think that just one workout a week, I'll bet you would be enough to maintain a high level of fitness if you're already there. So for anybody who has some long extended period of time, it doesn't even have to be a trip. It can just be life is about to get in the way. So long as you just, let's say you're going to go from working out five days a week to two or one. Okay. You are going to have to bring down your weekly calories a little bit, obviously, unless you can somehow offset the energy expenditure that you're going to lose through walking or other creative activities that you can engage in. But even if that's not the case, all right, so your energy balance, you have to keep that in mind, your weekly calories are going to come down a little bit, but just one or two strength workouts

per week would be plenty. Well, two would be plenty when I think one would also probably work and three would be definitely more than enough. Three workouts a week is enough to make progress up to a certain point. There is a point where you become advanced enough where it just takes so much volume per major muscle group to progress that you can't do it in just three workouts. You'd be in the gym for two hours a day on those workouts, and you'd have to be doing so much volume per major muscle group in those workouts that unfortunately, you get a point of diminishing returns in an individual workout. You get a point of diminishing returns in an individual workout, 15 sets, 15 hard sets,

for example, in one workout is not as effective as 15 sets, hard sets split between two workouts. So anyway, it's just interjecting for anybody who would find that useful is it doesn't take much to maintain where you're at. It does not take much. Yes. It takes a lot more to get to the next level, but once you're there, it is not hard to put on the cruise control. Yeah, that's exactly right. And that is just the message that I'm always putting in my content and telling my clients, especially really trying to show that women, because unfortunately still, like there's just so much of the stigma around, you know, about this, Mike, obviously you write about it. Just, you know, about this, Mike, obviously, you write about it, just, you know, women thinking like, I want it, the word toned is just a painful one, because it's

just very miseducating, because all toned is, is decreasing body fat and increasing lean muscle. That's literally it. And yeah, just how women just don't understand that muscle is a good thing to have. And so this is just what I am always kind of talking about. And like, trust me, having muscle in your body is going to not only give you the female goddess physique that you want, but it's also what's going to allow you to stay fit very easily. Like the fitter you get, the easier it gets to stay that way. And that's why when you lean out, when you build that muscle and you know, you've really got a rock and body happening, it doesn't just disappear overnight, you can maintain it pretty easily at that point. So even if you are going on vacation, or just even if life is hectic, and you can't be like totally dedicated to your meal plans and whatever, like it's not going to make a huge difference. And that's just brings us back to the point that it's really just about the consistency. As you said, too, it's like to get to that initial body composition is really where the hard work is, but then it just becomes

second nature. And like, you just understand what you need to eat, like you can kind of intuitively understand how much you start to love the gym. I when that happens like all my clients they they go from being as I was which was very afraid very intimidated in the gym and no not confident at all to walking in there and like going right over to the squat rack and just being like yeah I love it in here whether you're traveling whether you're living at home doesn't really vary too much you know just like it's just about building that sustainable fitness lifestyle and figuring out how to make it work for you in a way that is balanced and enjoyable so that you don't feel deprived, you don't feel guilty. You really do, as I say it, you get to have your cake and eat it too. You get to be fit, but you still get to eat cake too.

If you like cake, you can eat cake. Exactly. I prefer cupcakes, but hey. What advice do you have to women who are getting ready to start resistance training or maybe who have just started and are intimidated by the gym? I like to ask other women this question because I've shared my own thoughts and I've shared what women have told me, but I haven't experienced it myself in the same way. So, you know, I always like to ask women that question just because it's so common. Like I hear from women every week who, and I've actually in the

new third edition of Thinner, Leaner, Stronger addressed it more than previously, but I still hear from women every week who maybe they don't let it stop them, but it's uncomfortable. And they're just curious, like, you know, Hey, how should I, if you have any advice, I'm all ears, you know? Yeah, definitely. So I totally understand that how intimidating it can be. And for somebody who's really new to the gym, and especially maybe if you're quite unfit to begin with, I think it's, you know, it can be a bit unrealistic to think that they're going to go from being probably just somebody who went on the treadmill to all of a sudden, like deadlifting with a barbell. That's a bit of a dramatic jump. So even though I'm always very adamant, like I learned from you,

Mike, I'm like, barbell is where it's at. That is where, you know, it's going to be a game changer. So I am always adamant about like, you got to get on the barbell as soon as you can. But to kind of segue into that, both for your own level of confidence and comfort in the gym, and then also just the fact that you might not have the strength to actually work with the barbell quite yet. So in that case, I'm like, honestly, just do dumbbells, just go in the gym, practice it all with the dumbbells. You know, that's much less intimidating. You can get comfortable with the range of motion. You can get comfortable with the weight. That's a change I made to

a thinner, stronger in the third edition, specifically for pressing. I found that most women are fine with a barbell for a squat. Like most women starting the program start with that. They just start with, cause you know, it's 45 pounds, the equivalence of 20, 25 pounds in each hand, or the equivalent of that. And that seems to be fine for most women. But the bench press, for example, or the overhead or military press, for many women, the bar was too much. And so it makes more sense to start with dumbbells, of course, there. But it also, you can do the same thing with lower body too. If the barbell is too heavy or just it's too awkward to start out with. Yeah. That's a good tip. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, for sure. Definitely with the upper body, of course,

a lot of the time the barbell is going to be too heavy, but it is always exciting to see. Cause my clients will say that to me. I'm like, don't worry soon. You're going to be adding weight onto that barbell because yeah, the newbie gains is very real and the strength goes up so fast and they're always so like astounded they're like I couldn't even lift the barbell now I have weight on both sides and it's only been like a couple of weeks and they can already see such an improvement but yeah I mean that would just be my advice because I think for women the horrible advice that is often given you know they go to the gym they immediately go to like the treadmill or the elliptical or just like the machines, like the abductor machine or something

like that. And so yeah, I'm like, honestly, just as you say, to skip the machines, go to the free weights. And yeah, like if the barbell is too difficult or too intimidating in the beginning, just get comfortable just by using dumbbells, like you can still get in a very good full body workout just with dumbbells, especially if you're brand new to strength training, like it'll still be resistance on your body. And then when you're more comfortable with the range of motion, then like more confident with being in there, like that's when you can start to upgrade to the barbell. Anything just related to the psychology of it, because you have in, depending on the gym, you might have a

bunch of fit people and the idea that oh they're gonna judge me you know sometimes there are weird guys i mean that tends to become things especially i hear that seems to be in the beginning many women are intimidated for the reasons that you talked about more just these are mechanical reasons and then the psychological intimidation is usually related to judgment. And then once they get into it, though, and then they're like, oh, okay, cool. And then it's weird guys coming around trying to give them tips, kind of mansplaining what trendy people say. No, just trying to tell them, hey, you're doing that wrong.

Or just, you know what I mean? What are your thoughts on those things? This is just what I say. I'm like, look, there's two types of people in the gym. There's the people in there who know how to use the gym effectively. And those people are so absorbed in their workouts and they're so into their own fitness that they just don't really care or really even notice anything else that's going on around them. And then the second group of people are the people like yourself in this moment where you feel very unconfident and you're not really sure how to use

the gym properly you were all in the same boat so I just say I'm like yeah like I totally get the intimidation and like I think I just try to use my own story as well and like like every fit person was once somebody who was intimidated in the gym and it was like I was that way as well like I used to just make a beeline for the treadmill and avert eye contact because I was that way as well. Like I used to just make a beeline for the treadmill and avert eye contact because I was so nervous being in there. And like now, you know, I go in and a lot of the time I'm the only woman in there with all these grunting guys, but I just feel very confident there. In Vietnam or something.

Yeah, and from wherever it is that I am, it is difficult. Definitely. Like the getting past the gym intimidation is it's a challenge for every single person, but it's just as is so many things in life. It's just like, when you actually face the fear, you realize that, oh, okay, it's really not that bad. And yeah, like, I think just educating yourself, having the knowledge to back you up, just go such a long way. And I mean, that's what changed the game for me with TLS was like, I went from being so unsure about what I should be doing to get results, whereas I'm like, when you actually know like, this will work, I just need to do it, it really changes your attitude in the gym. And then yeah,

so my advice is always like, just push past the initial discomfort, because trust me, in a couple of weeks, you're going to be like, very excited to be going to the gym. And then, yeah. So my advice is always like, just push past the initial discomfort. Cause trust me in a couple of weeks, you're going to be like very excited to be going to the gym because you're going to see already that it's working, that you're getting results. And as soon as you see that you're getting results that you just want to keep going every day, cause you're like hooked. You're like, Oh my God, this works. I want more results now. Then other people see it too. Almost always happens is how this story goes is once, sometimes I hear from guys with similar stories, but it's more often from women. And then once they get into the groove and they start seeing results, then it's funny. Sometimes people who they thought maybe were not very friendly or kind of judgmental, or they had concerns in the beginning about what these people might think, the more fit people in the gym, but they just stick with it and just kind of screw up their courage a little bit and say, all right, I'm just going to do it regardless of how I feel. And like you said, having a real plan definitely helps where then they go, well, I believe in this and this makes sense. And a lot of people have had success with this, so I'm just going to do it. And then a month later,

the fit people are coming over to compliment them just to say, hey, you're working hard and good job. Because anybody who's spent enough time in gyms knows that most people don't know what they're doing. And many people don't work very hard in the gym. So when somebody seems to know what they're doing and they come in and they're efficient in their workouts, not just hanging out to talk and they're putting in work, they stand out. So then that's always a very positive payoff that

many people experience. Definitely. Yeah. So it's just that initial fear, like you really just face it and yeah, like just have a plan. Obviously following something like TLS is great and just know it's going to work. It's like, just do it. You'll feel good and you will start to see the results. Other people will start to see the results really, really fast. And this is also what I say to people. I'm like, you're going to feel the results from day one, your nutrition and fitness. Like you're going to just feel like how energized you are and like the endorphin high. And then I'm like, it's not going to be very long before you start to see those results as well. Yeah. I mean, if you know what you're doing, it's within the first month you should know like, Hey, this works really that quickly.

Yep. With my clients. I'm like, I just tell them like these calories, these macros and the training plan. I'm like, trust me. I always say, like, give me two weeks. Cause I usually feel by like about even two weeks. And if you're really committed to your strategy, like you will already be starting to see things happening and you'll definitely be feeling it. I'd say that's probably even more so for women. And the reason I say that is women tend to generally wear tighter clothes than men. And so I've heard from many women and that's like one of the first things they notice like, Oh, my, my jeans are feeling a little bit looser. Whereas with guys, it's more just like looking in the mirror and did my biceps get bigger?

Yeah. And also again, just because pretty much for most women, they will have gone from never, ever strength training or like following. I mean, if anything, they were like starving themselves. So actually eating a proper amount of food and then yeah, actually strength training, like that is just such a game changer for them because they've never done it. And then so the results come very quickly. So what's next for you personally in your fitness, in your business?

Well, fitness wise, you know, it's just kind of about continuing to just have the lifestyle. And then like, yeah, you know, sometimes I dial it up. Sometimes I'm more chilling because I've gone back and forth about whether or not I would ever want to compete. And it's not this thing that I must do or that I'm dying to do. But I do think that somewhere in the near future, I think I just want to sign up for a competition because I just think it would be really cool to just have the experience and just have that challenge of like, how fit can you get kind of like that push. So something that I think I would like to try. I would just say, make sure that you get a good coach for that. So you don't, I mean, you're not going to cause permanent damage unless you really mess it up. But if you mess it up, let's say you get the wrong

coach who's trying to tell you to do two hours of cardio a day. And you probably wouldn't do that because you know better, but this has been shown. I'm thinking of case studies that are out there where you can put yourself into a situation where it can take upward of a year plus to undo the negative side effects of overdoing it to the extreme. And I'm talking about things that matter. I'm talking about hormones and energy levels. And you can come out of a competition looking quote unquote great, at least by those standards. I think in some cases for guys and for women, I don't think it looks great. I mean, it looks impressive, I guess, but it can go too far. And then now you feel like absolute shit

for the next several months. And then six months in, you're now not feeling like shit, but you're not feeling how you feel now. And so just watch out on who coaches you. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And I mean, it's possible that I might not end up doing like, I am still just happy to have like a fit lifestyle and to just do it just because I love it and it makes me feel great and like that's just another thing that I will say that is really amazing about your fitness journey and I love when I get this feedback from my clients because it's like most people will start fitness because of the aesthetics like they are it's almost solely that reason a lot

of the time where they're like I just want like to have a great body and nothing wrong with that at all like and I think that it's particularly important to say that in the culture that we have now which is like whatever just the the body acceptance movement I feel like sometimes it's like you get shamed to want to look good and it's like no there's nothing wrong with wanting to feel confident about your appearance and it's not that you shouldn't feel confident just because you're not ripped, but it's just like, hey, like, it's just about like knowing that you accomplished this huge feat and that you were, you actually are in control of the way that you look and feel and like you took charge of that and were able to get these great results. There is something to be said for standards for beauty. And we can look to the beginning of art now for some ideas of what beautiful is. And I think that where society has gone wrong is, I think there has been too much of a push toward just super skinny. That's the only thing that looks good is

basically malnourished. You have to look like you have an eating disorder or borderline eating disorder to look good. And that is unhealthy. And I think that doesn't even align with what most people would consider aesthetic or beautiful. And I don't think there's anything wrong though with saying that bodies look beautiful when they look a certain way and they do not look beautiful when they look a certain way. Not all body types, all places where you could be with your body are beautiful. It's just, it's strange that that would even be considered controversial to say for, according to some people. Yeah, definitely. But I mean, whether, and this is true for my fitness journey, you know, like I started it really just because I was like, Oh, like, I just want to like,

I want to feel good about the way I look. I want to be happy with my reflection in the mirror. And I wasn't at that time, but what's just so amazing is as you go along in your fitness journey, yeah, you start to get the great results and yeah, you start to look so good. But it's like, you realize that that's just a byproduct of the fact that you feel amazing, and that you're just taking care of yourself. Because it's like, there's a reason why it looks good to be fit is because it means you're healthy and strong. And those are just attractive things, like naturally, people are gonna be attracted to that. But it's like, yeah, it's like, it's just a reflection of the real success that you've had, which is just, yeah, the fact that, like, mentally, you have gained so much confidence and so much, like, control. And I think just to realize that, because for most people, you know, having a great body for them, they just literally have put it

into the realm of what's impossible. Like, there's like, oh, there's no way I could ever do that. It's just never going to happen. And then it does happen. And it's like, huh, like I genuinely believe that this was an impossible feat and yet I have accomplished it. So then it just gives you that same attitude towards everything in life where you're like, well, I thought it's impossible to do this, but maybe it's not so much. And that's kind of been my experience this past year now being an entrepreneur, like I never thought that that would be my life. And so it's just changed so dramatically. And yeah, it's just very similar as well to be like, oh, you know, that's something that I would have thought was impossible a year ago. And boom, here I am. And just everything that fitness has taught me, I've been really able to translate that into this new

area of like personal development and everything. Yeah. And you know, you brought up a good point everything that fitness has taught me, I've been really able to translate that into this new area of like personal development and everything. Yeah. And you know, you brought up a good point there that having good fitness, good health and fitness habits naturally leads to a beautiful body. I mean, it actually does. If you look at it, just an aesthetic body that would again, be in line with what we've always kind of admired physically, going back to classical times, going back to antiquity. And so practically speaking, what that means is most people and most guys, for example, are going to probably gain around 30 pounds of muscle, maybe 40 and maybe a bit more if they really want to work at it.

But most guys who know what they're doing and get into working out are probably going to gain about 30 pounds of muscle, maybe 35. And most of them are going to like the athletic, not super bodybuilder shredded, just the athletic look of 10, 11, 12% body fat. You're now a Greek statue. For women, the number is probably about half that. Most women are probably going to gain 15 to 20 pounds of muscle and their body fat is probably going to be around where you, where you're at now is pretty ideal for most women, 18 to 20%. You look athletic, you look lean, you don't have any health issues, you're not starving yourself and not getting your periods and blah, blah, blah. And you are now Aphrodite. You're now by any at least artistic standards, you have the ideal type of physique, really. Anyone could do those things. And anyone could do those things just doing everything we've talked about here.

You don't have to dedicate a disproportionate amount of your life to it, period. You just don't. Again, yeah, that just ties back to what i was saying you're just about like the fit lifestyle and yeah and just what i say to people over and over it's like it's really not about yeah and like i just hate the way it is in the media where it's like fitness is so often shown as this thing where that's about like torturing yourself and making yourself miserable and like feeling guilty feeling ashamed like it's about like torturing yourself and making yourself miserable and like feeling guilty feeling ashamed like it's usually seen in this very negative light and so that's why people have such messed up ideas about it and then when you actually do a proper fitness journey like TLS

would be you realize like it's not a negative thing at all it's incredibly positive and it's like yeah and that's what I now say to people. I'm like, if whatever method you are using to get results is making you feel those really negative emotions, you're doing something wrong, and you need to take a step back. I mean, not only just because like, you shouldn't be feeling that. But also, it's like, is it going to be sustainable for you to feel negative emotions all the time? It's probably not. And it shouldn't be either. And so yeah, it's just like, that was such a realization for me in my fitness journey was just like, yeah, it's not about being ashamed or like torturing yourself. It's the opposite. It's literally about taking

care of yourself and feeling proud of your accomplishments and like just feeling really good and strong and healthy, just realizing that it should be making your life better. It shouldn't be making it worse. Agreed. Where can people find you if they want to work with you? So I would say it would be just my Instagram. So that's Megan Janisse Fitness, M-E-A-G-H-A-N-J-A-N-I-S-S-E,

and then fitness. So Megan Janisse Fitness. And yeah, I'm always more than happy to answer anybody's questions or just any ideas people would have for content that they want to see or anything like that. It's always great to get feedback, especially just from any women who are interested to learn more about like building a great female body and especially how to maintain it as a consistent lifestyle even if you have a pretty sporadic schedule and lifestyle like myself like i'm always traveling around and trust me you can still

maintain a great body and be healthy and strong even when your life isn't like perfect so always happy to help just educate or inspire anybody. Awesome. And yeah, you said you work with a lot of busy women, right? A lot of women who, and I know how that is because I worked with, I mean, virtually, obviously, but just gone back and forth over the years, many women who have full-time jobs

and they have kids they're also helping take care of. I mean, the husbands are chipping in, but so it can get pretty hectic. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And that's just part of, again, what's really important about figuring out how to make it a sustainable lifestyle that works for you as an individual. And that just comes with time and trial and error, like figuring out what you do and don't like both fitness wise and nutrition wise and kind of figuring out how to how to balance it all. But yeah, I mean, I think just such a good thing about the realization that it just doesn't need to take that much time.

And like such a breakthrough that I had when I started TLS was like, oh, because, you know, I used to go to the gym for three hours. I thought you had to. And then it's like now you know I go even maybe only for like 45 minutes a couple times a week and that's more than enough so it really is something that I think even when you have a crazy schedule like there's always a way to fit it in it's just kind of about caring enough like prioritizing it enough and another thing I say to people too I'm like you know people always say that they don't have time to work on their fitness but it it's really the opposite of what you should be saying. Like you should be saying like,

I don't have time to not do it because by not giving yourself the small amount of time it takes to be healthy and fit, you're taking away so much time, both quantity and quality wise from the life that you could be living. Yeah. And I don't like that. I don't have time for anything. It's, I don't want to make the time for, I don't want to give time. I even myself don't say I don't have time to do things. And I'm a very busy person. And there are things that, whether it's work related opportunities, other things I could pursue, or even just personal things. I don't say, Oh, I don't have time to do that. It's I don't want to make the time for that, because that's the truth. And I try to make the best decision. There's an opportunity cost.

Every minute of every day, there's an opportunity cost. And fitness, I've gone through this exercise with a number of people who were saying initially they don't have time and they're so busy and okay, keep a journal basically for a week, do it for five days, five or seven days. And each day, write what you're doing. Each time you start doing something, when you start, when you stop, and then let's look at it at the end of the week. And there is almost always time in there that could be diverted from unproductive, unnecessary things and put into something productive and necessary like fitness. Almost always. And it usually comes down to the obvious stuff. For most people, it's just stop watching TV. Oh, there you go.

Done. Now you have time. Good. Or socialize less. Do you need to be going out to meet with friends five days a week? Could you do it two days a week? Could you do it maybe even three days a week and stuff like that? Yeah, definitely. It's worth it. It's like, it seems, yeah, maybe in the beginning they think it's going to take so much time. It's just not worth it, but it definitely is. And it really does not need to take that much time is the other great thing.

And the payoff is just so huge for like, you don't want to necessarily say it's a small amount of effort. You know, it does take effort, obviously, especially in the beginning, but it is worth it. Yeah. It becomes self-sustaining fairly quickly just because it's such a positive feedback loop. Once you see the return on that effort, it's one of probably the highest return activities that you can put effort into if we're talking about immediate, visible, tangible payoff. Yeah, definitely. And I love the Schwarzenegger quote, and I think you have it in your books, but it's just like, you can have results or you can have excuses, not both.

And it's just so real. It's like, it's just sad too. Cause it's like, you can make whatever excuse you want, but at the end of the day, the only one who's missing out is you. So, and it's like, yeah, would you rather, do you, do you want the excuse, which means you're not fit, you're not confident, you're not happy, or do you want the result, which is the opposite? I agree.

All right. Well, this has been great, Megan. I really appreciate you taking the time and keep on keeping on. You're doing great. Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a pleasure to get to speak with you and thanks so much for changing my life forever and helping me to now help other women and men. I also do help some men, but mainly women helping others to spread the good word of fitness as well. It's cool to think just in the ripple effects, because now, you know, I was able to help you and you're helping people and you, how many of those people now are going to go on and do something similar to what you're doing now, where they're going to pay it forward,

maybe not professionally like you are, but everybody has a sphere of influence. And it's very obvious when somebody starts getting into better shape. And the number one question, of course, that people who are getting into shape get consistently is what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? And so it's, it's cool to just to think about the potential ripple effects that you can have just by helping what might seem, even let's say you work with a thousand people in a year, but you might actually have impacted a hundred thousand people. Yeah, definitely. It's good for your personal life, like, but it also has such a dramatic effect on everybody who comes into contact with you. Just like even just the positive energy that you radiate because you're healthy and confident.

I like it. I agree. All right. Well, thanks again. This was great. Thank you so much, Mike. Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider supporting my sports nutrition company, Legion Athletics,

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