The Bossticks - How To Break Through The Obstacles In Your Life & Focus On Getting What You Want Ft. Saman Munir

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

#530: On today's episode we are joined by Saman Munir. Saman is a Toronto-based certified trainer, Under Armor representative,recipient of American Influencer Award for International Fitness Influence...r of the Year2021, mom of three, a proud Muslim woman and the newest addition to the Evolve You app's all-female global training team. Today we discuss how to break through the obstacles in our lives and really hone in and focus on getting what we want most out of life.  To connect with Saman Munir click HERE To connect with EvolveYou click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential This episode is brought to you by AG1 You take one scoop of AG1 and you're absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole food supported superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens to help start your day right. This is the best option for easy, optimal nutrition out there. Go to athleticgreens.com/SKINNY and get a free 1 year supply of Vitamin D + 5 travel packs with your first purchase. This episode is brought to you by Live Conscious Beyond Collagen® is your secret ingredient for bringing out the full radiance of your skin, hair, & nails—promoting skin elasticity and firmness. For a limited time, get your next purchase of Beyond Collagen® with an exclusive 15% OFF for TSC listeners only. Go to www.weliveconscious.com/skinny or use code SKINNY on their site. This episode is brought to you by Mindbloom Mindbloom is the leader in at-home ketamine therapy, offering a combination of science-backed medicine with clinician and guide support for people looking to improve their mental health and wellbeing. Go to Mindbloom.com/TSC and use code TSC for $100 off your first six session program. This episode is brought to you by Perfect Snacks Don't go nuts this holiday season, Fuel yourself with Perfect Bar: The original refrigerated protein bar. Go to perfectsnacks.com/skinny to find out how you can try their Refrigerated Protein Bars for free. Produced by Dear Media

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to you by Botanic Tonics. Okay. So they have this wellness tonic. It's called Feel Free. It's like a healthy productivity enhancer and an alcohol alternative. How I like to take this is I get a little feel free. I get them at Sun Life or I buy them online.
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Starting point is 00:01:07 Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. I was a makeup influencer first before even I became a fitness influencer. I was just, you know, going on YouTube videos, watching makeup, and I wanted to see how to do hijab in a different way. And at that time, there was no hijab videos. And that's how I started. I started posting pictures on Facebook with different hijab style with makeup. Then my husband's like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:01:37 There are not a lot of Muslim couples doing workout together. And I just started posting. It was like a whole journey that I was just like, you know, let's just do it. Welcome back, everybody. Welcome back to the Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show. That clip was from our guest of the show today, Saman Munir. And today we're talking all things, health and fitness to round out the year. Saman is a Toronto-based certified trainer, Under Armour Representative, recipient of American
Starting point is 00:02:01 an influence award for international fitness influencer of the year in 2021, a mom of three, a proud Muslim woman and the newest addition to the evolve you apps, all female global training team. With that, Saman, welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her show. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. All right. Let's get some context. Give us some background. Where did you grow up? Where were you born? Start with that. Okay. So I was born in Toronto, Canada, but when I was six years old, I moved back to Pakistan. And I came back when I was, I believe, 13 years old. So I studied there from grade two to grade eight. And then I came back here in grade nine. And then since then, I'm here. You moved when you were six years old to Pakistan.
Starting point is 00:02:49 Correct. Why did you decide to move? It was my parents well, because they wanted us to learn the culture and their religion, get more closer to the family, because we didn't have any family. So it was only my parents here. So they said, okay, let's go back home. But my father, he was there for six months because we thought that we're going to stay there forever, but that didn't happen. So after six months, he's like, I cannot find a job. I don't think I'm going to stay here.
Starting point is 00:03:12 So he moved back and we stayed there for seven years. And what is it like? Without him. Without him. What is it like? Explain it to someone who's never been to Pakistan. Oh, my God. It's just a different world.
Starting point is 00:03:24 Totally different. It's a lot of differences, like school, education-wise. it's just it's a third world country you know how it is so it's it's nothing like Canada but then again you have your family there you have your culture your religion and all that stuff where i mean it's here as well i felt like i was more closer here in canada than i was in pakistan so but it's the family aspect that we have the whole family there so when you say it's a third world country you know how it is explain more on when you it's not clean there is load shedding there is no electricity there's no water. If you're rich, you're good. And if you don't have money, if your middle class, it's just not
Starting point is 00:04:03 enough. It's hard. And what is that like growing up a six-year-old being surrounded by that? It was tough. It was especially my father not being there. And he was in Canada. So he would come visit us once a year. And that was really tough. Yeah. So it was all my mom. She practically raised all three of us. Yeah. And when your dad came back, did you guys like freak out? Oh, he would come visit us every December. Okay. So winter holidays and he'll come with us, stay with us for two weeks and then he will leave. So we'll be excited, yeah, to see him. And was his thought that you guys were better being closer to family while he was working? Correct. Yeah. And what was, I imagine that's a bit of a lifestyle shock when you kind of when you go from Canada, which is not a third world country, and then you go back and then he's going back and forth. So how did that feel as a young girl? So it was obviously difficult for us because we grew up without him, right? And he also,
Starting point is 00:04:57 got into really bad habits, staying by himself. And that's when my mother decided in 1990, or I believe that we're going to move back. We actually went back to Canada just for a visit. We said, okay, you know what, it's been seven years. You've been coming over. We want to go and visit you now. So when my mom saw my dad, he's sick and he has a diabetic and he had alcohol issues. And alcohol is a big no-no in our religion. And my mom was like, that's it. No, I'm going to stay here. I'm going to stay here with you. But I think he had some other issues as well. And after a year or two year later, he left us. He's like, I can't live with you guys.
Starting point is 00:05:33 He was so used to living independent. And then he's like, I'm going back home. So he left us. So do you think in hindsight he was kind of maybe doing that setup, but like it was kind of trying to take kind of an easy way to maybe leave without actually having to like officially leave? Yeah. So I was in high school.
Starting point is 00:05:50 I remember. And I was coming back from school. My mom told me she's crying. She was like, your dad left. In a way, it was, I felt good. he was very abusive when he used to get drunk. And that was really tough on my brother, my sister, myself. And we were just tired of that lifestyle. And my mom obviously never said anything. She should just, you know, take it in and all that stuff. So when he was gone, we were kind of happy.
Starting point is 00:06:12 We're like, okay, you know what? That's it. It's not going to happen anymore. With your religion and you can't drink, how does one even try alcohol if you can't drink? Was it something that just happened when he was away and you don't know? There's a lot of good and bad Muslims, right? There's like, in every thing. culture in every religion they're good and bad people. So obviously there are a lot of Muslim people who do drink and all that stuff. But with him, because he was all by himself, nobody was there to say anything. So he just went on like, you know, because he was living on by himself. So I think he just got in the habit of drinking. Did your mom uphold a really religious household when your father
Starting point is 00:06:47 wasn't around? Yes, she did. She prays five times a day. She still does till now. You know, she reads Quran and she always told us, you know, you did the same thing, guiding us on the right path, you know, this is not the right thing. So for her to see him doing all that was so difficult, was so difficult, but she couldn't do anything. Because it's also, I mean, it's also a culture where divorce is not common. Oh, yes. So that's also like a very taboo thing. And when you have, your mom was probably in such a tough position raising all of you. And then there's this alcohol abuse going on. And then she's like, well, what am I supposed to do? Because she's supposed to hold everything together. Absolutely. Because culture and the people, what are people going to say?
Starting point is 00:07:22 That was the, that was what I been raised with. What are people going to say? So obviously, there was no divorce, but then he left us when we came back to Canada. Is that how you felt like everyone surrounding you was what were people going to say or more like your mom? That's what my mom felt like what people were going to say, because that's how she's been raised. I think a lot of people in that generation thought what are people going to say or they were comparing. I feel like there was an element of like they were brought up on what. And now I think it's more like, who cares? Who cares?
Starting point is 00:07:55 Right. No, everyone's like throwing. themselves out there. Like, we're just seeing what works. But with my parents and other parents that were their age, I had, I feel like the same kind of like keeping up with the Jones's energy. Correct. It was always like that. What people are going to say, we can't do this, we can't do that. Your father's not here. You're not allowed to go here. You're not allowed to do that. So there was a lot of restrictions and all that stuff. Yeah. And did you have a positive experience with your religion when you were young? Was it all good? I mean, we've had a lot of different people on this podcast talk about positives and negatives. I always had a positive because my mom was there
Starting point is 00:08:26 us. So she's always said, you know, have faith in God because if you will get through it, just pray five times a day. And I tell my kids the same thing. I said, I don't care if you do well in school. Just pray five times a day. Be on the right path. And that's it. That's what I care about it. Because when you're a good Muslim, you will do good things. So for me, it's all about that. Is there a prayer schedule? Yes. What's the schedule? So one is like before sunrise. Then one I just, before I came, I prayed. And then one is at three o'clock. And then one is at three o'clock. And then one is at the sunset and then the last one, the fifth one, is after the sunset. Hold on. I have a question. Is this in your calendar with alarms or do you just automatically do it because you've been
Starting point is 00:09:06 doing it since you were little? We have an app. You have an app. Yeah, but obviously with the timings, like you get used to it. You know, okay, you know what, it's three o'clock. It's time to read. It's like sunset. It's time to read. And then it's like nine o'clock. It's time to read. And is it the same prayer every time or are you actually like, you know, praying for something or praying for people or is it is it the same every time or different times it's the same every time but it's little or more it's the same arabic words that we're reading so yeah that is discipline yes that i mean that really what i think that teaches severe discipline even to your children absolutely yeah even the did they wake up before sunrise they do i i do yeah i do you take notes here maybe
Starting point is 00:09:47 maybe she's going to start praying here no i think that this this shows discipline it shows what after a long time, something that builds up, there's a lot of different things that this shows to a child, I think. You know, religion's always a tough subject. But I think religion, like, religion has brought a lot of great things in the world. And it's also, you know, brought a lot of bad things. But if you have, I think, like, the morals that religion, especially to young children, you know, it can be a very positive impact on young children's lives because it gives them that kind of,
Starting point is 00:10:16 you know, frame of morality. It gives them that discipline. It gives them a higher power. It gives them all. So, like, I think that's great. where I think sometimes it gets out of hand is when people abuse it or they misinterpret it. Or force it on the kids.
Starting point is 00:10:26 I cannot force it. I tell, like, I wear hijad. I tell my daughter, you're 14. I'll tell you, I'll guide you. But if you don't want to wear it, don't wear it. Well, the best thing that you can do, I think, is a mother is show them. Correct. When they see you doing it.
Starting point is 00:10:40 Exactly. I think it has nothing to do with saying, you have to do this. You have to do that. Like when they see their mother, my daughter watches me meditate all the time. And the other day, she, you know, she's two. and she was laying there with her eyes closed. She told me she was meditating. Because she's seen me do it.
Starting point is 00:10:55 And if she hadn't seen me do it and I told her meditate, meditate, meditate, she probably wouldn't. Absolutely, all right. How did you come back to the United States? I know you said your husband's from South Africa. How did you meet him? Tell us the story. Canada.
Starting point is 00:11:07 I thought you said South Africa. No, he's from South Africa, but Canada. She's in Canada. No, I know you're in Canada, but you said your husband's from South Africa. You said United States. You said you actually said United States. Oh, it's okay. All right, guys.
Starting point is 00:11:18 You said your husband's from South Africa. Correct. Not United States. How did you meet him? Tell us that story. So we met in Toronto. We met in Toronto and I did tell my mom about him and my mom said, hell no. What was the reasoning? Because he's South African. Why? Why? Why? Why? I want to understand that.
Starting point is 00:11:37 So religion does not say that. Islam says that you can marry another Muslim person does not matter what country they're from. But it's the culture. It's the culture because she's been raised that way. She knew my father was not there. She's like, okay, what are people, like I said, what are people going to say? Someone got married to South African. Her father left and now she's doing this and she's doing that. So that was really hard for her to digest that.
Starting point is 00:11:59 My daughter's going to get married to South Africa. First of all, she did not even know. Like when you say South Africa, she thought it was not a Muslim person. I said, no, mom, he's Muslim. He's his background. It's Indian. He's still, but no, it has to be Pakistani. What if he wasn't Muslim?
Starting point is 00:12:14 Would she have been even more mad? Oh, my God. Let's not even go there. Really? Let's not even go there. Let me ask you this. Is that a generational thing with your mother? Like if your daughter grew up and married someone who's not Muslim, what would you do?
Starting point is 00:12:28 I can't do anything. I can't do anything. There's nothing that I can do. I prefer my daughter marrying a Muslim. I don't care what color. I don't care what background. I don't care if he's a convert. I would love her to marry.
Starting point is 00:12:42 But if she finds somebody else, what can I do? I'm not going to disown her. She still went up. Right. You can't control it. Exactly. Whatever happens. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:49 It happened. Okay. So when you introduced your mom to your boyfriend at the time, what did she do? What did she say? What did she do? She was like, no, this is not going to happen. It's never going to happen. You are not going to marry him.
Starting point is 00:13:02 So the way I introduced was like, I met him. And then we knew each other for a couple months. And then I told my mom. And the whole family came over. And my mom said, okay. But she's like, nope, it's not going to happen. I'm not happy with this. It's never going to happen.
Starting point is 00:13:16 So he left. He went to South Africa. Wow. In front of him, she said that. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, in front of the whole family, not just him. The whole family. She's like, nope, not happening. So a lot of this is like a family decision. Everybody gets together and it's like, we're all here. We're all making, we're all part of this.
Starting point is 00:13:32 You had an opposite experience. You said, I don't give the fuck what my family's saying. I'm just going to do it I want. That's not true. I can't. It wasn't as much of a group consensus, I guess, in my case. So when your mom gives you this information, are you like laughing because you're going to do it anyway?
Starting point is 00:13:46 You're freaking out. No, I'm not going to do it. I will go with her will. I can't because she's been so much hurt from my dad and I didn't want to hurt her further. So I said, okay, fine. Then I won't. And that's why he loved. People out there that are not marrying the loves of their life because of their parents is what you're telling me.
Starting point is 00:14:05 Yeah. Who could be. But now of the time has changed. So what happened? We're not going to do that. How did it end up working out? Okay. So he came back after one and a half year and he's like,
Starting point is 00:14:16 I'm coming back. I said, I was still not married or anything, so there was nothing going on. So he's like, I was like, yeah, but my mom said no to you already. And then what happened? What once I got a text message? And at that time, I was going to the gym and all that. And my brother goes, who is that your trainer? I said, no, it's for him.
Starting point is 00:14:35 And he goes, oh, he's back. I say, yeah, he is. So I told him the whole situation. And he's like, okay, I'll talk to him with me. So he came over again after one and a half year. I think at that time when he came, it was 23. He was only, I think, 23 or 24. I can't remember.
Starting point is 00:14:51 He's too he's younger than me. And at that time, he looked very young. And now after a year later, he looked, I think he was working out. He looked more built. So he looked more better. And then my mom was like, okay, but even that, it took her a while to accept him. And now it's like, oh, my God, I wish my son was like him. He's the best son-in-law.
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Starting point is 00:19:04 we liveconscious.com slash skinny for an extra 15% off. That's on top of their standard savings and valid for Beyond Collagen as well as their entire line of 23 unique offerings designed to balance your mind, your body and your spirit. So some of the, some of the morals that you grew up with or some of the biggest takeaways from your childhood, like what are you, what are you hoping to pass on to your children and what are you saying like, oh, maybe we're not going to be that strict in other areas? We're not going to be that strict. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. When you say that strict to someone like me who grew up very free, flowing, kind of beat to the tune of my own drum, I don't think I understand what you mean. What do you mean very strict? Like, give me some things,
Starting point is 00:19:50 like some little details that is very strict. Like I will allow her to marry whoever she wants to marry. I'm not going to be like, oh, no, this guy is like South African or he's this or he's that from that background. I don't care. What is other things that happened that were so strict? You look back, you're like, oh, my gosh, that was so strict. Oh, my mom didn't allow us to go to the malls.
Starting point is 00:20:08 Girls don't go to the malls. Girls don't go to the gym. Girls don't do this. Girls don't. So it's like we never did anything. You stayed at home. Stayed at home until I started working. Did you have to cook, clean?
Starting point is 00:20:19 like keep up the house? She wanted me to, yeah. She wanted to teach me how to cook. I hate cooking. I'm sorry. That's something I can't do. You guys got something you're calling here. I can't cook. So when you decide to marry him, what was the wedding like and how quickly did you guys have kids? What is your family like? If I want to get into your entrepreneurial endeavors after that. But first tell us when you guys got married, what was the wedding good vibes? Was everyone on the same page when you had kids? Oh, everybody was on the same page when we got married? Everybody was happy. They were happy that it's, you know, what's happening. Then when my daughter was born, I was working before my daughter was born. I was working as a document specialist in an aerospace company called Honeywell. And me and my husband decided
Starting point is 00:21:00 that once we have kids, I'm not going to work. I'm going to stay home, take care of the kids. And that's exactly what we did. So I left my career. And then when did you decide to get into what you're doing now? Tell us exactly when you had the epiphany to start what you're doing and how that sort of started. So I was a makeup influencer first before even I became a fitness influencer. When I had my daughter, I was just going on YouTube videos, watching makeup, and I wanted to see how to do hijab in a different way. And at that time, there was no hijab videos. So I said, you know what? Maybe I should start doing something on Facebook. And that's how I started. I started posting pictures on Facebook with different hijab style, with makeup. I started getting like business from other brands, like Islamic brands. It starts sending me
Starting point is 00:21:46 hijabs, started sending me makeup from different brands. Like I got Two-Face, you know, you name it, all types of makeup. And, you know, just started doing videos and all that kind of stuff. I did that for seven, eight years. And then my husband's like, you know what? There are not a lot of Muslim couples doing workout together. Why don't you create another account and start doing fitness? Because I always liked fitness.
Starting point is 00:22:07 I was always in it, but I was not, I didn't have that positive mindset. It was like, how can I get skinny? How can I just lose weight? How can I be a size zero? So that was my mindset. So at that time, I said, okay, you know what? Let's just do it. He suggested it.
Starting point is 00:22:23 That's why it's called SFM underscore fitness. Someone, my name, and then his name, Fahim, and then we both have the same last name. So we started off. And then a week later, he's like, I'm too busy. You do it yourself. So I started posting everything on my Instagram page, on my fitness page. And I started going to UFC. That's after my third child.
Starting point is 00:22:43 I said, okay, you know what, I'll join the gym. And when I started joining the gym, I started posting videos on my workouts from the USC gym. And I started tagging UFC. So UFC gym said, you know what? You don't have to pay any membership. Just keep on tagging us, promoting us. And just from there, it started from one to the other. And then I started tagging all the brands, Under Armour, and all those other Nike, Editas.
Starting point is 00:23:05 And then I emailed everybody. And then I said, you know what, I would like to collaborate with you guys. And then Under Armour was the only one that came back to me and said, okay, you know what? We will take you as an influencer. And what were these, what were the workouts that you were doing? Oh, just like normal workouts like kettlebell, functional training, hit training. My form was not even good because I just started. And I just started posting. It was like a whole journey that I was just like, you know, let's just do it. I think people like that though. I don't think they want the perfection at the end of the tunnel.
Starting point is 00:23:35 I think they like to see the evolution of the person. I'm even like with TikTok, like people just like, like to see what's really happening, I feel like. What kind of messages do you get? from your community. Oh, they love it. They are so inspired. They want, they want to do it. They even the male like the guys, they will message me like, oh, we can't even do what you're doing. We're so proud of you. And all types of messages, positive. And there's some negative as well. Well, I imagine, especially from what you explained coming from Pakistan and the culture you come from in saying that women aren't even allowed to go to the gym in some cases, it's probably inspiring to a lot of women that come for your culture to see you not only doing these things, but building a substantial
Starting point is 00:24:16 career at the same time. Correct. Correct. So I imagine you get a lot of, I mean, that must make you feel good to get those kind of messages. Correct. That is true. Yeah, because I would say like my mom was a bit different, but I know that a lot of Pakistani parents do allow, they do give a lot of freedom to their kids. I think my mom was in a situation because she grew up that way and because my father was not there, so she was strict with us. But I know a lot of friends of mine who are Pakistani who have a lot of freedom. They go out. They travel with their friends, even they're not married. But with me, it was not, I had no choice like that. I could only travel if I'm working. Do you like living in Toronto now? Do you ever miss living in Pakistan? No. Never. No, I love, I love living in Toronto. I don't
Starting point is 00:24:57 think I want to go back. And why? Why don't you want to go back? It's just the way things are. Like, there's no electricity. There's no water. I do miss my family. My sister lives there. She lives there. She moved from here to there after she got married. But I think the lifestyle here is. so much better. It's busy. I mean, I understand like, you know, she has a good lifestyle to it because she doesn't have to work. She has maids and she can do whatever she wants. But I like the lifestyle here more because there's more security. There's more opportunities. A lot of things. I think I'm just so intrigued because I've never been there. And when you've never been somewhere, you can look at pictures all day long, but it's not the same to actually go there and feel it and smell it and see it.
Starting point is 00:25:36 And so I think it's, I keep asking you so many questions about that because I've never been there. And I think a lot of people listening probably have never been there. So it's interesting. The pollution itself, it's just horrible. Like 3,000 times worse than LA bad? Oh my God. I don't know about LA, but it's really bad. It's really polluted. Yeah. So now that you have your business, what are you working on now? How are you growing the business? How are you evolving it? So I'm a trainer with, obviously, for Evolve you. I'm their sixth trainer. So I've been doing that. Plus with Under Armour, I've been working with them as well. So I've created a program. with Evolveu called Focus Program.
Starting point is 00:26:12 We have like beginners, intermediate and advanced program. So it's like a hit style program. Anyone can do it. It's not like you have to be an athlete to try the program. No. No equipment. So for my program, you don't need equipment.
Starting point is 00:26:27 Maybe a dumbbell, but for the beginners, you don't even need to use that. So there's no excuses. Yeah, no excuses. It's like literally less than 30 minutes. And it's for everybody. It's for everybody.
Starting point is 00:26:36 Like I said, you don't have to be an athlete. Anyone can do it. And do you have any products that you're working on? Are you doing anything in the business world? Or is it just focused on the app that you're doing right now? Focused on the app right now. Yeah. Are you guys just growing and expanding it? Cool. What advice do you have for entrepreneurs that maybe are starting something new and they're nervous? So that's not my app. That is Chrissy Chella's app. Got it. Right? So I'm just a trainer. No, but you're also very entrepreneurial. What you started and what you did with your makeup and everything. I don't do anything with makeup anymore. I'm done with that. But I mean, you have entrepreneurial spirit. Yeah, yeah, no, no, I did. Like, I worked with a lot of brands and stuff like that, you know, just even people ask me right now, how did you got with Underarm? I said, just email them, tag them. They watch your stories. They do watch your post. They might not reply to you, but it doesn't
Starting point is 00:27:24 hurt to, you know, email everybody. I also think, too, if you're listening and you want to work with a brand and you don't want to like tag the brand big, you can always tag the brand small. So if there's a brand that I absolutely love that I'm dying to work with. Like, let's just say Yeti because I have one in front of me. What I'll do is I'll tag at Yeti post my Yeti, but I'll shrink it to be really, really, really, really small. So no one can see it, but Yeti. But they can see it. There you go. But they can see it. And then that's like a way to just get attention to be like, hey, I love your brand. I'm a big fan. But you're not obnoxious about the tag and like annoying your audience. True, true, true. I think that has worked really well. You are a mother. You're a wife. You have a business.
Starting point is 00:28:04 how do you balance everything? Do you have like a very set schedule? It's not easy. Oh my God. It's tough because all three of my kids go to school. So it's easy for me to drop them off to school. And that's when I do my workout videos and all that stuff. So right after they're like in school, that's my time to, you know, do whatever I can do like my emails and my workouts, my recording and all that stuff.
Starting point is 00:28:26 What about nighttime though? Because it's a lot to wind down at night. Especially we have a two-year-old, like I said. Who is it? We have a two-year-old. Oh, wow. We have a almost, yeah, two-year-old and a four-month-old. Do you have any wind-down tips?
Starting point is 00:28:38 Last night she was up till 10 p.m. I remember at that time, oh, my goodness, it was tough. Like, my husband helped me a lot. I'm not going to lie. He helped me a lot. Like, he will get up at nighttime and do whatever I can. You're looking at her. He does, too.
Starting point is 00:28:52 No, he does. He does. I'm looking at him like, thank God. A lot of husbands don't help. Yeah, but I'm so lucky that my husband is very, very supportive. Like, even through my pregnancy, he helped me a lot. after I have them, like, you know, giving them a bath, making them food, everything. Like, he really took care of me.
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Starting point is 00:30:53 That's mindbloom.com slash TSC promo code TSC. All right. So recently I organized my entire fridge. I just wanted it streamlined so Zaza could open up the refrigerator and grab a healthy snack. I have the fruit in one place. I have the cheeses. I have the meats, everything so she can grab it. And of course, I also have snacks. And one of the snacks that we have are perfect bars. So these are made with freshly ground nut butter, organic honey and 20 organic superfoods. But most important to me is that each perfect bar contains 17 grams of protein per bar. So Zaza can grab that. She gets a little treat because they have flavors like dark chocolate chip peanut butter, coconut peanut butter, and salted caramel. but she's also getting the protein.
Starting point is 00:31:41 And really important to me, they're made with all whole food ingredients and they contain no artificial preservatives. So I store them in the fridge. I like to keep them cold. You can grab one after a workout. This is like such a great way to wind down at night with a cup of tea or a snack. Like I said, they're all non-GMO Project Verified, gluten-free soy, free kosher, and low GI.
Starting point is 00:32:02 The one that I'm personally into, and so is my goal, is the dark chocolate chip peanut butter with sea salt. So good. It has like the perfect texture. and the sea salt's absolutely delicious. They also come in snack size. And the snack size is great to travel with. I just pack them in Zaz's lunch,
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Starting point is 00:32:47 You get a free perfect bar today. Happy snacking. It's important to have a husband that helps, especially if you're going to work. My thing is if I'm going to work, then you got to help. It's like a 50-50 thing, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I have like a friend that the husband won't change any diapers. They won't wake up.
Starting point is 00:33:09 That's not fair. I feel like that would end in divorce with you and. I think it's strange. I mean, I want to help, right? And my children, I don't, I don't, like, obviously, I want to help my wife, but I also want to help my children. I always find it strange when guys, like, set lines in the sand and like, I'm not changing a diaper. I'm not doing this. Like, oh, man, you know? I honestly thought it was like our cultural thing, but it seemed like it's everywhere. It's not just a cultural thing. Some men just don't want to do it. Yeah, I don't, I think it's, yeah, I think it's, yeah, I think you're right. I mean, I think there are some cultures that are stronger with like that
Starting point is 00:33:37 masculine feminine line. But I, I think there is like whenever, like, any culture. whether someone's like, I'm the man and you're the woman, like they, they kind of like create these weird rules that I just don't think need to exist anymore. Correct. I think it's probably more damaging at this point than helpful, right? Yeah. And that's how my parents were. Like, my father would drink coffee and he would not pick up his cup. What? Yeah, he would just drink coffee and leave it there. And then my mom has to pick it up. Oh, I thought you were saying like he wouldn't even drink the put the cup to his lips like she was like holding the cups. I was like, wow. I was like, well, maybe we're going to try that, learn, actually. I am pretty tired in the morning.
Starting point is 00:34:09 I thought he was like sitting back and he was being like, put the coffee to my lips. Still, put your coffee cup away. You got to put your coffee cup away. Yeah. Michael's pretty good. I got to give my, I would give Michael a 10 out of 10. I mean, he's, you, he woke up with the baby. Much higher than I thought.
Starting point is 00:34:27 You woke up with the baby three times last night. I think. I was asleep. Yeah, she does this thing. She's like, don't worry. I'll get up in the night. She doesn't get up. That's not my specialty.
Starting point is 00:34:37 You know what? My specialty is carrying the baby for 10 months. There you go. You're welcome. I carried the baby for 10 months. You can wake up a couple times in the middle of the night. I'm sorry. I really truly feel like that.
Starting point is 00:34:47 I don't care if that's delusional. I like literally sometimes when he's like carrying all this stuff, I'm like, well, I carried the baby. Yep. So did you and your dad ever recover? My dad passed away when I was pregnant with my daughter. I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah. My dad passed away when I was so, yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:03 He called my mom and he asked to, you know, forgive him. And my mom said, yeah, that's fine. You know, come back if you want to. My mom is very forgiving. That's one thing that she taught us. You know what? Just forgive someone. It's okay.
Starting point is 00:35:12 Life goes on. I agree with your mom. I feel like it's liberating and free for the person to be able to be. You feel. You have that piece of. Exactly. Yeah. You have that peace of mind.
Starting point is 00:35:23 Yeah. So you are very into fitness. It's a huge part of your life. What are some wellness food tips for our audience? What are things that you grab on the go? Breakfast, lunch, dinner. We would love to hear it all. I'm not going to lie.
Starting point is 00:35:36 I'm not very disciplined when it comes to food. I don't lie. If you're like, I eat McDonald's, great. No, I don't eat McDonald's, but I try my best. I love sugar. I just ate sneakers before I came. I love the honesty. What I would say is like obviously eat your vegetables, your fruits, your protein, that is a must. I mean, I do eat healthy food as well, but I indulge. There is no way that I just can eat, I just can't eat clean all the time. No, it's not happening. I love my brownies. I got to eat it. I love my cookies. Is there any food that we need to try that you would always eat in Pakistan?
Starting point is 00:36:06 That's so good that we probably have a turn. Have you tried? Have you tried butter chicken? Because that's the famous thing to every brionni, chicken brittani. Uh-oh, what's that? Oh, no. Maybe we've tried it.
Starting point is 00:36:15 I don't know. What's butter chicken? Butter chicken is like it's chicken cubes marinated in like yogurt and like spices and a little bit of butter and everything. Yeah. You gotta try butter chicken and none. This could be your one dish you learned to make me.
Starting point is 00:36:30 What kind of yogurt? Greek? No. Just any plain yogurt. Just plain yogurt and butter. Yeah. No, no, but it's been cooked. It's been all marinated with spices.
Starting point is 00:36:38 and all that. Don't cook like that. I'll look it up. Yeah, look it up. Yeah, look it up. Yeah, look it up. Yeah, Ooh, veal briani. Yeah, it sounds good. I'm a big veal fan. Okay. You got to try the veal briani. Okay. I got to try it. I got to come to Toronto because I feel like you probably know the spots Oh, absolutely. If you could leave our audience with a piece of advice that you think would really change their life. Out of everything you've learned in your life, what would it be? Just do whatever you want to do. You know, don't let people tell you what to do, what to do. especially for the Muslim girls, like don't let your hijab prevent you from doing anything. A lot of people, girls think, you know, they're jabi, they cover themselves, they can't do this.
Starting point is 00:37:17 You can. Explain what you mean by that. Because there's a stereotype. Like, you know, you hear it all the time, Muslim women don't do. The Muslim women are oppressed. That's not true. I'm a mother. I have three kids.
Starting point is 00:37:27 I have an amazing husband. I do whatever I want to do. And he's very supportive of what I do. So I don't want people to think like, you know, Muslim women are oppressed. We're not. If you ask my husband, he's going to tell you straight up. he's oppressed. And I said, you're not oppressed. Well, I think you're right, especially in this culture, if you see people that are ignorant and see a woman covered up, they think, oh, somebody must be
Starting point is 00:37:45 forcing her to be covered up. Exactly. And they think, oh, they're not allowing her to uncover. Yeah. And that's my choice. It's not his choice. It's not anyone's choice. Not my parents' choice. It's my choice. Because I had it on when I was, when my sister put it on. And then I took it off. As I was like, you know what? I'm not comfortable. I don't want to put it on my job. And then when I turned 23, I just decided, I'm like, you know what? No, I want to put it on. That's it. You know what's, interesting that you just say that at the end is that one of the reasons I wanted to have you on on the podcast is because exactly what you just said. I feel like a lot of people think, oh, you're oppressed. But to me, when I looked at your page and saw what you were doing, you didn't
Starting point is 00:38:21 feel oppressed at all. And so I think that's an important conversation to have for someone to come out and say, I want to wear this. I'm not oppressed. I'm doing whatever I want. That's cool. I think the difficulty is in some places there are obviously people that are oppressed. Correct. And in those cases, obviously, they're not making that choice. Correct. It's not applicable to everybody. Absolutely, yeah. That's true.
Starting point is 00:38:44 That's not what Islam teaches. I think that's where the culture comes. The oppression comes from the culture, not from the religion. If the religion doesn't teach that, is this just some bad characters taking advantage of misinterpreting the Quran or something like that? Yep, yep, yeah. So they've taken this. It's frustrating, though.
Starting point is 00:39:01 For someone like you who doesn't feel oppressed at all. Right. No. Yeah. Yeah, because it is, I mean, especially if you read, it's a beautiful religion. But to your point, there's a lot, there's, I mean, in any religion, and there's a lot of evil that comes out of any. And I think if you have these kind of people that can take advantage and like twist words and then makes a huge difference. Yeah. I think it's awesome what you're doing. I think it's really cool. And you're beating to the tune of your own drum. Where can everyone find you? Tell us how they can work out with you. Give us all the details. So you guys can find me on Instagram, SFM underscore fitness. Even on TikTok, SFM underscore fitness. And then if you can download the app, evolve you, there are six trains. We're all doing like there's yoga, there's bar, there is hit. My program is called hit focus program, which like I said, it's consisted of three levels, beginners, intermediate and advanced.
Starting point is 00:39:48 And you can try whatever you want. And like I said, you don't have to be an athlete. You don't have to be super fit to try my program. It's for anybody and for anyone, especially for the moms who don't have time because it's less than 30 minutes. You don't need to, you know, you don't need a gym membership and you don't need much equipment, just a dumbbell or maybe a resistant band. It really is no excuse. Nope. You can do it when the kids are screaming.
Starting point is 00:40:10 Absolutely. You're sleeping. Yeah, sleeping. Well, mine's not sleeping until 10 a.m. So I'm exhausted. Thank you for coming on. It was very nice to meet you. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:40:19 Everyone go follow. Thank you. Thank you so much. Wait, don't go. Do you want to win a TSC beauty and wellness package for me? It's a great way to start the new year. All you have to do is rate and review the podcast on iTunes. It takes like two seconds.
Starting point is 00:40:34 And someone from my team will slide into one of your inboxes and send you as an incredible package. I hope you guys are relaxing so you can feel so rejuvenated for a new year. Cheers!

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