The Bossticks - Why Women Don't Lose Weight, Gain Muscle, & Stay Motivated Ft. Celebrity Trainer Senada Greca

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

#827: Join us as we sit down with Senada Greca –  a world-renowned personal coach, fitness creator, & powerhouse entrepreneur whose impact spans across the globe. With a devoted community, Senada has become the go-to trainer for icons like Kim Kardashian, Bebe Rexha, & Miranda Kerr. After moving to the U.S. from Albania, Senada turned adversity into ambition – overcoming disordered eating habits, grinding through late-nights in the gym, & building her success story to become a serial entrepreneur in the wellness space. In this episode, Senada opens up about the transformative power of strength training, the mindset behind true discipline, & what it really takes to achieve success. Influenced by empowering women, Senada shares how she is helping others level up from the inside out with WeRise, a fitness & personal growth app! To Watch the Show click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To connect with Senada Greca click HERE To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE Get your burning questions featured on the show! Leave the Him & Her Show a voicemail at [phone]. This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential Head to the HIM & HER Show ShopMy page HERE and LTK page HERE to find all of Michael and Lauryn's favorite products mentioned on their latest episodes. To step into the best version of yourself, visit the WeRise app at werise.xyz and use code SKINNY for 25% off.  This episode is sponsored by The Skinny Confidential For a better choice and peace of mind in your home, shop The Skinny Confidential Toilet Paper at shopskinnyconfidential.com. This episode is sponsored by Nutrafol Go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code SKINNYHAIRGIFT. This episode is sponsored by Purely Elizabeth Visit purelyelizabeth.com and use code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off. This episode is sponsored by Kettle & Fire Kettle & Fire Maui Nui Venison Bone Broth is available right now at Whole Foods stores nationwide. This episode is sponsored by Fatty15 You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to fatty15.com/SKINNY and using code SKINNY at checkout. This episode is sponsored by Hero Bread  Go to hero.co and use code SKINNY at checkout for 10% off your order. This episode is sponsored by Sono Bello  Schedule your free consultation now at sonobello.com/skinny. Produced by Dear Media  

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

Uh-huh. Attention all health, fitness, wellness fanatics. We are sitting down today with Sonata, Greck. She is a world-renowned personal coach, fitness creator, and powerhouse entrepreneur whose impact spans across the globe. She has a crazy community, okay? She is the go-to trainer. You've seen her all over Kim Kardashian's Instagram. Bibi Rexa also loves her and Miranda Kerr.

And it was really fun to sit down with her and hear about how she thinks about wellness, lifting weights, health, diet, fitness, and what it takes to achieve success. I will tell you, too, just a side note, it's really fun to be able to sit down with guests and see them like in real life. And her body is insane. It is absolutely beautiful. And her mindset matches that. So I'm really excited to share this episode. Sanada, welcome to the Him and Her show. This is the skinny confidential him and her. This is part two. We have to do this twice. We're going to scrap part one. We're starting fresh. Well, we actually started to do this. And 15 minutes in, I said, guys, sorry, I have to stop. I'm about to faint. And I had to lay on the floor. I'm feeling better. We rescheduled to today. My blood pressure is back to normal. And we're so happy to have you.

Amazing. I'm so happy to be here. And I'm so happy that you are all good because that was scary for all of us. Not fun. Yeah. Not fun. Thank you for coming back in. You're very understanding. That was so sweet. The least that I could do, are you kidding me? Like I said to you the day, like, my priority is like making sure that you were good. You checked my heart rate. You were so nice and understanding, so I appreciate it. I stood off to the side. We did nothing.

Yeah. Kind of like childbirth. You sat there. Like, what do you want me to do? And you're like talking about the podcast. I'm like, no, stop. Forget about the podcast. Let's talk about what do you need to do right now.

Like doctor, food, water. I just thought that because I know how it is to get all dresses. stop. Do your makeup, do your hair and come here. And I was freaking out about that. I was just like, oh. You should have felt bad for me because I took all that time to go. Not time. Listen, I think it was, it worked out well because I was so nervous that day. I feel like I was like, stumbling on my words. No, I was probably making you nervous. You're probably like, what's wrong with this bitch? I did sense that you were like a little bit, like, you know, you can sense the other person's energy. And make everybody in the room nervous and just like, get it together. When everything started going

twilight like black i was like i just have to stop no okay so many women listening what do you wish that more women knew about weightlifting that is their ticket to living a healthy long life it's not just about aesthetics i know this might be a cliche i've said it so many times but aesthetics are a byproduct of doing the right things for your health aesthetics will come and that's been my stanzas where how i've approached it in a healthy way to get fit, stay fit, and then the results just came and stuck around. So I wanted them to think about, again, how are they empowering their bodies to live as healthy as they can for as long as they can? You obviously have been someone who's been doing this for a long time. You look really amazing in

person. Thank you. How did you get into this? This was my ticket out of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders and body dysmorphia. This was strength training meant for me. Before this, I was on a path of doing as much cardio as I could, eating as little as I could, so that I could be as little as I could. And that just creates a cycle of not doing enough, not being thin enough. Like, where does it end? There's no end to it. It just fed that whole, again, depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia till I wasn't it wasn't getting me anywhere I wasn't happier I wasn't reaching this image there was some vague image of what a woman should look like so I had to stop and I had to reevaluate things it was actually also with help of

friends that were like you know I think you should try strength training there were strength training in the gym so I started to step away from the stair master a little bit and starting to lift weights and I saw what that did for my mental health and then the physical aspect obviously I when I did cardio alone I used to yo-yo so I used to go gain weight lose weight binge starve all of that when I got into strength training like everything stabilized my mental health stabilized my weight stabilized I've never felt better I've never felt better a lot of people and I think both men and women think that they can just do a ton of cardio and get the weight results that they want.

But from your experience and now doing what you do, where should people maybe educate themselves more? Because I hear this story all the time. It's like I'm doing all the cardio every single day, busting my ass, running, running, running, treadmill, treadmill, treadmill, and not getting the results. And I think, you know, I'm somebody who barely does any cardio and I've been able to maintain weight.

And I just, I wonder just because since you've done both, if you could speak to that experience. Absolutely. With cardio, you are not putting any muscle mass. You're barely putting anything on. Again, depends on your physique. With strength training, you're putting muscle mass on. That is more likely to stay.

When you're doing cardio, again, the physical aspect tends to be not as long term as when you're doing strength training. You are literally burning your muscles off when you're just doing cardio. You're not building that muscle. then you need to support your physique. And having done both, I'm a testament to that. Again, when I was doing a lot of cardio, I used to go from being super thin and frail to then not being able to sustain that much cardio

or eating as little as I was. So then it would be like a spring that you were like winded tight, tight, tight, tight, and they were just like burst. So then you're like dinging and feeling shitty about yourself. And then trying to trying to

hop on that cardio bandwagon again so then the cycle would start but with strength training now you're nourishing that muscle gain you're nourishing that muscle mass and it's a lot more sustainable than cardio where do you think your eating disorder started

is there something you remember like something you saw your mom do or something that you saw on TV yeah honestly it wasn't anything that my my I saw my mom or my dad do I think it's probably a combination of things. I think it started when I moved to the United States.

I think it had many elements of like wanting to fit in in a new culture, wanting to control the, I think the key aspect in my belief of having an eating disorder is wanting to control things that seem uncontrollable in your life. So the thing that you can control is how much you eat and like how much you work out. So for me it was that moving into a new country. with a new culture, with kids that look different that were making fun of me. What did they make fun of you for?

Accent and just looks and just wearing different clothes, you know. Obviously we didn't have much money at the time. Salvation Army was where we shopped for clothes, so we looked different. And that's, that was the turning point. Obviously, coming to the United States, like food was at such abundance. We didn't have that kind of abundance in communist Albania, where food was rationed. You know, you had to wait in line at certain points

to get your ration of food and chocolate, like forget about it. You'd get it maybe at Christmas, or Christmas was our New Year's. So it was very special, but coming here, like everything was so abundant. So, and my body was changing. I was 15 at the time going through puberty

and you're rounding out a little bit. And then somebody, one of my cousins, made a very, like, comment, like not meaning any harm, but like, you're getting a little big. And I think that was probably like the turning point there. And you know, talk about

my mom who always was like, if you're not first, your last, like kind of having that like super competitive spirit in me. So I think all of those elements kind of like came together to, to a halt and created the eating disorder. It's funny because we've had, I don't know, funny is the right word.

It's interesting. We've had a lot of people come on the podcast and talk about eating disorders. And they said what you just said, it's about control. It's not just about the way you look or your body, which you think from the outside looking in that it is. But it sounds like it's more of the control aspect. Yeah, absolutely. And wanting to, like I said, like fit in, wanting to also create a sense of confidence from the outside in versus from the inside out. Yeah. Yeah. I think that weightlifting, gives you that.

100%. And that's kind of what happened to me too is I had to lose all this weight. I felt so overwhelmed from pregnancy. And the weightlifting gives you a confidence that you almost didn't know you had. Absolutely. Is that how you felt? Absolutely. Because you inevitably are going to take up space.

You're going to take up literal physical space in the gym. So now all of a sudden you're gaining a little bit of that confidence. confidence, you're also feeling yourself getting stronger, you're lifting more weights, so that in turn turns into just feeling more confident. I mean, and also doing hard things. It is scientifically proven to increase an area in our brain that will and willpower live. So if you're literally building your brain, you're rewiring your brain to have that positive impact. And it's funny enough, like that area, it's not like I'm a doctor or scientist or anything like that, but the interior mid-singulate cortex is actually found to be bigger in like athletes

and people that are like super-agers, which are people in their 80s that have the cognitive abilities of somebody that's like half their age or even younger. So it does. It's scientifically proven and, you know, standing right here. And as you said, in your experience, it builds that confidence in and outside of the gym. Jay Shetty is a friend of ours, and I watched the interview you did with him. And one of the things you said was working out as a non-negotiable. It's like a bit of a viral moment.

Yeah, it was a little bit of a viral moment. Yeah. But I wonder, you know, we talk to all sorts of different people now, both on the show and privately, and where do you find personal discipline and accountability? And if someone comes to work with you, how do you get somebody who's maybe never been in the gym, never done weightlifting? How do you get them to start holding themselves accountable? Yeah, it's so key to create that discipline, but I think it even comes before that with a sense of being resilient. You know, when you're not giving up, when you're not able to lift, you know, that 30 pound dumbbell or whatever it is, and just stepping, not giving up, but stepping back and utilizing something lighter.

Or even starting with something small, start with five minutes, start with 10 minutes, let's not bite off more than you can chew. overwhelm yourself and then make yourself feel like it's insurmountable. So I always say let's start with small steps that you feel are achievable to you and then slowly increase from there. So make it attainable. Don't make it, don't make it into like the Himalayan mountains that you need to cross in one day. Is there anyone that goes to you that you have as a client that you're like, this person isn't going to change? Like is there a common denominator of that? Yeah, there's been those people where, you know, they're always changing when they want to work out. And, you know, I can't do it today.

And at that one point you decide that, you know, if you're not going to do this for you, you're not going to do it for me. You're not going to do it for anybody else. So I need to come from within. And if I'm unable to make you see why you need to work out, which is, for me, is like, let's put aesthetics aside. I don't even talk about aesthetics. Let's put that aside. Let's talk about the things that really matter. because the aesthetics 100% of the time will come.

That makes total sense as a trainer. You can't, like, what is it? You can't be the tugboat. Yeah, you can only be a lighthouse. You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. Yeah, like they have to want it. So in your personal life, when you wake up and you're like, oh my God, today is just not, like, how do you find that discipline to hold yourself accountable?

I try not to think about it. So let's not, I try not to overanalyze and not to rely on what I'm feeling. in the moment, I just take the steps to get me to do what I need to do. And a trick that I utilize is that I start with something that I don't mind doing. For example, seated abduction or adduction. You know, you sit, you're just kind of pushing the weight in and out. And just starting with something that feels accessible. And then I find that taking that first step will snowball into doing a full-blown workout. And you end up feeling that much better than if you felt like, okay, I can I can hit the gym today and you finish the workout.

When you're like at that point where this is the last thing that I want to do today, but you do get over that hump, it's just that much more exponential. And again, I always try to think of how am I affecting my brain with the decisions that I make? Like, am I supporting my brain or am I selling my brain short? And even if I have like even, okay, I made it to the gym, but now I have like a super hard set. And I just don't want to do a fourth set. I think of what is that not necessarily doing to my body,

or I'm like building muscle, but what is that doing to my brain? Now I'm increasing, I'm supporting my brain. Why do you think you saying working out as a non-negotiable struck such a nerve? Because people think of it as a negotiable. Because a lot of people think of working out as a nice thing to do, as a chore, versus I think of it as something that you get to do, something that you get to do to support your your health now and for the long run. What do you think that's struck a nerve?

I think it's struck a nerve because they know you're right and they're projecting onto you because they're not making a non-negotiable. Yeah. And I mean, yeah, it's also probably, you know, you save it as a reminder to yourself that that's a non, yeah, you're completely right. I think that it's a hard truth. Yeah. It's to me, it's like sleep or brushing my teeth.

We've done this show for so long, and we talked to so many different high performers in so many different areas, right? Like, not just fitness, but, you know, business, you know, all sorts of different fields. And, like, the common denominator is hard work. I think sometimes people will look at some people and say, oh, it must have been lucky or maybe they were born with this or is Trinette. But, no, but, like, honestly, like, we've done this for a long time. And the common denominators, I've never met somebody that's come on this show that's like, hey, it was just, I got super lucky. And it all just kind of happened. And, you know, it was an accident.

and somebody gave it. And I think what that does, in my opinion, is it democratizes it and makes it accessible to anyone, but then you have to be willing to face the truth that it does require hard work. And maybe some of those people that you think are lucky or you think we're given something, maybe they actually have done the hard work,

and maybe some people aren't. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. It's this thing, like, there's been moments in my life and time in the past, it's been a while now, but where you look at someone else that's doing something or has something,

you're like, oh, well, they have this because of X, Y, and Z reasons. But if I'm really being honest with myself, it's because I'm not doing the same kind of things that they maybe were doing to get those things. Exactly. It's kind of like putting the mirror on yourself and kind of really self-reflecting. You know, where am I in relationship to this person? Obviously, you want to compare, you know, because we all have different attributes and whatnot. We all have different starting points and even a genetic makeup, you know, to that degree.

But what is that person doing day in and day out to achieve those results, be it, be them physically or in business? And what am I doing, you know, holding yourself accountable? So I think you're completely right. What was your first moment in the fitness industry that was like a big moment for you? Was it someone that you that called you to train? Was it something that happened to you? What was your first big thing?

Well, the first hitting 100,000 was like, I don't think I slept that night. I was like, whoa, like 100,000, yeah, 100,000 people. That's, that was my platform for a long time. Yeah, yeah. Especially after doing it for, for a while. And it just, like, kind of slowly building up. And now I can get into that story of how that all started if you guys wanted. But also, that was like, hitting 100,000 followers on Instagram was like, who?

What was a while? Just because I think for people to understand, like, the context of how long it took to get just to that point. So I started in 2019. January of 2019 with 2,000 followers and then by, I guess, well, you guys benchmark it and just tell me that it was in the winter of that year of 2019. I think it was like at 150 or something like that, $150,000. Yeah, it's pretty decent, right? I can share like why I think that is too. But at that point there was like, wow, 100,000 people are watching this little girl from all, well, little girl, but that, you know,

girl from Albania that like grew in communism didn't think that she was going to like amount to anything yeah sure I was going to make a good a decent living with my you know business degree my master's degree but I didn't think that it would grow to be what what it was at the time and what it is now and then the other you're talking about like another or like a person that reached out it was a queen of a country that reached out at that point to train with me And she's like, I'm such a big fan. I'm like, you're such a big fan. You know, like, yeah.

A queen of a country. How do you do that? You do it over Skype? No, not. Was it Queen Elizabeth? We won't go into details. How do you train with a? No, she visited.

She visited. Got it. And like, we didn't even close down the gym. She's just like running around. We're training together. And we go to coffee afterwards at the coffee shop and just like our connection. It was just maybe because we. Our birthdays are like on the same day, some years apart, but she's just like my best friend,

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You know, when Lauren started weightlifting, it was like kind of this weird moment for me where I was like, why did I never offer to do that with her? Yeah, thanks. But I think a lot of guys, like you just, you know, like, we, I grew up in a time when you didn't see a lot of women weightlifting. And now that she does it, I'm like, oh, that, like, duh, like, coarse. But for primarily women that are listening and they're wondering where to start, where would you coach someone to start just to begin so that they're not overwhelmed. Well, first of all, maybe get a tour of the gym, get familiar. If you're working out in the gym, get a tour of the gym, get familiar with the equipment. So that you're not like a, you know, what's the phrase? Like deer in a headlight Yeah Sometimes the Albanian I mean

Comes out But yeah So you're not caught like a deer in the headlight I actually had one of the Of the girls that we hired For the team And she's like Sanada you know

I opened up We Rise Which is the training app that I have And I just didn't I was just so embarrassed Like I didn't know You know How to get started I'm like

I didn't know where the Well she didn't know Where the equipment was And I mean the gym is three floors big so it's like in a different room so obviously so you're dealing with that just get a tour get familiar with the equipment what each thing does and then once you're familiar again don't bite more than you can choose start with just you know if if 45 minutes or an hour is seems like a mountain to to overcome then start with half an hour 20 minutes or even take it down to five I know I can't

remember who like talked about this but there was a this guy that started with just like five minutes for like a certain amount of time. You'd just show up just to create that habit because the bread and butter is like in that consistency that you create. So show up, create that pattern, creating that positive habit and then from there is going to snowball and you're going to want to do more because you showed up now. You're there. Who were the next client?

Did I answer? I'm sorry. Did I answer sometimes? I forget. Because I imagine like, I answer the full question, yeah? Because a lot of men grow up, like you don't have to go to work. I remember I used to have to go to workout PE. It was like a class in high school that you would go to and you would do weightlifting, especially if you were in sports.

And so you learn when you're young. And so it just becomes, it's normal. You can walk into a weight room and everything. It's not overwhelming. Yes. But then I was thinking about her and some of the other women in my life. And I was like, I would imagine just walking into a gym, especially a three-story gym. It's overwhelming.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed myself too, especially when I go to certain gyms and everybody is like a, a bodybuilder and a lifter and I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna, you know, maybe this is another helpful thing, just like find a corner that you're comfortable with till you're, till you feel confident enough to occupy that space and to walk around, you know, I feel like everybody should be confident enough because everybody's there to better themselves. So, you know, I don't think that you should back away or find a corner, but if that makes you feel more comfortable to then ease into things. And again, start, start, start light, start, start, start, get comfortable. comfortable with the movements.

I think the reason I bring it up to is in a different lane, not in fitness, but sometimes people will come to me and ask of like, okay, how do you start a business or a brand and these things? And a lot of the reason they're overwhelmed in the beginning is for a fear of being embarrassed or failing or just not knowing where to begin or, you know, maybe putting something out there that's not perfect. And then I also try to explain to them is like you just, a lot of it is just kind of like throwing yourself out there and being willing to like say you don't know everything.

100%. 100%. I mean, I remember asking a girl when I first started where the machine that went up and down that was attached. I was talking about a Smith machine, but I didn't even know what it was. So I had to, you know, I had to explain it. It's like this machine that, you know, is attached. It's like a squat rag, but it goes up and down. So it's like, you know, you just got to kind of put that shame aside. And it is truly, like, for women, we're not taught that that's okay.

We're not thought that that is acceptable. And sometimes we are made to feel shameful for lifting weights. You know, you're going to look like a man. You're going to look masculine. I got that too. And I just kind of like, okay, well, you do you. I'm just going to do me and what feels good for me and what feels right for me. Do you think that's why women are so resistant to lifting weights?

Or do you think it's more complex? I mean, that's the biggest part, I think. It's women feel like they're going to become huge, muscular, manly, if you will. and that is just such an outdated way of thinking, you know, jump on board and let's get strong for life. You know, let's just be, we have been given this physique, an ability to build muscles. If we weren't supposed to build muscles as women, then we would not have any ability to, but we were given that for a reason. So why not do that? And plus studies over and over show how important it is to strength train, as I mentioned before, to your health and longevity, physically.

mentally, emotionally, like all of it. Like, for me, that has had an overarching effect on how it improved all of these areas in my life. I think the best part of it is it really shrinks your body composition. So even though I was the same weight before having a baby that I was when I was lifting weights,

the weight was distributed different and you could speak more eloquently, but like, I could put on jeans that I couldn't have worn. No, but sometimes even you'll go up and wait and I don't think, I think that's what, It's not a bad thing. People are thinking because the scale is increasing that that's not, that that means they're not healthy or that they're not getting the result. Like if you put on muscle, the scale is going to change. Absolutely. Shouldn't be scared of that though. Absolutely, 100% of the same with me as well. You know, I've been certain weights where I look different than being heavier,

where people thought I had lost weight, but no, I just, my body composition had changed, and you're absolutely right. Your body composition changes when you're lifting weights. Now, things are dispersed differently because, again, we're not potentially holding fat around or even like water retention around our waistline and all of the typical areas where we don't want because now we are strength training, now we are digging into that insulin resistance and just creating a better metabolic response. I've heard that a lot of trainers put a lot of work into the quads. Is there areas that you try to avoid more than others? Do you try to do it all even?

What's your sort of theory on that? I personally believe that well-balanced physique, is the way to go, at least for me. But I do believe that you need to put a little bit more weight on muscles that are bigger. And quads and glutes are bigger muscles in our body. So I do tend to favor working out those, like an extra day a week. So I would work lower body, three days a week,

and then two days, upper body, some abs, a little bit of hit. So a lot of balance? A lot of balance, absolutely. What was it like when, Kim Kardashian comes to you to ask you to train. I mean, yeah, it was surreal. I didn't, first of all, I didn't think it was real. I thought it was a scam, so we had to do like a five-step authentication.

So I had my people, aka Rob, reach out to her people and like, yeah, is this real? And, yeah, sure enough, she had spotted me on Instagram and wanted to work out with me. I think the cool thing about her, as someone that's just seen her on the show, is she's really disciplined. And it's a different kind of discipline. That's what I was saying earlier. People think that some of these things just come easy.

There was like an episode on her show where she had no sleep and she had to wake up and do acting for like 20 hours or she's always up for her workouts or she'll be studying for like something with like. at like midnight on the show. Like you could tell she puts the work in. It's real. It's real. Like just seeing it from my perspective, it's real. She is super disciplined. She puts in the work. And you can't take that away from her. You know, she'll do whatever needs to be done. When it comes to training, what's something you feel most people neglect? Most people neglect. Most women neglect, I think they're upper bodies. Like upper body strength. It's so important because you want to catch yourself when you fall. Like, wrists are such a high risk injury shoulders when we get older,

like the frozen shoulder syndrome. It's huge. So I think women need to really embrace working out upper body as much as lower body. It's funny. I think guys are like the opposite. The opposite. I was going to bring it there. But I think a lot of men are becoming wiser at that because you produce more testosterone

when you're working out your lower body. AKA your dick feels bigger, guys, when you work your lower body. They did not say that, but, you know. It does. Well, the blood flows moving faster. It feels bigger. I need to break it to you. Send this to your boyfriends.

There you go. If you want to increase testosterone in a natural way, aka what you just said. No, but it makes sense because it's the biggest muscle groups. Exactly. It is. What is your workout routine? And be so honest, like exactly what it is.

It's honestly what is similar to how I train Kim and similar to what I have on the week. We rise app. But on the We Rise app, I adjusted a person's needs as far as if they want to work out three days, four days, five days. So there's options there. It's options if you want to work out from home. But mine personally is exactly that three days lower body, two days, upper body, abs and sprints. And you think that that's a lot, but that's not because it just takes me like probably less than an hour to do that. And then I do a full body day, which is more, I guess we'll consider that a little bit more like cardio fashion because it's a circuit and I just like to do some different

movements probably some that you know I've been become famous if you will on instagram like the sonata get up I called it I claimed it it's just like different things that are I mean everything is functional but they are just more dynamic movements if you will that bring your heart rate up to that cardiovascular zone and Sundays are usually my like active rest day on my head abs or not Just go for walks. See, Michael, she works out six days a week. Yeah, but I, but as I was going to, one of my follow-up questions as you were talking. I know he's going to ask this to you.

And we spent a lot of time on the, like, the fitness and the routine and strength training. But what kind of wellness or recovery practices do you bookend your days with or weeks with? Like, what are you doing? Cold plunge, sauna, are you doing? Red light, like, what are you, like, what are the things you're doing? I mean, those are all amazing things that I don't necessarily have access to, like, every day. I wish I did have access to them more than, than I do. currently as my setup is right now but I will do things like that are more

accessible and I think a lot of people can access like meditating breath work some of those mindfulness practices yoga and I think they're great ways if you don't have it because most people are not gonna have access to a sauna a red light therapy and a cold plunge so I do that those are my recovery practices I'll get a massage although I'm so bad at like getting massages frequently but usually I try to lean on the things that are accessible to me anywhere. Okay. What are you eating and drinking?

Like, are you going to have a margarita? No, I mean, it's not like 100% not no alcohol. Sometimes, like, when on New Year's or if we get together with family, I have an Albanian family. So they're like, drink, drink, why aren't you drinking? Like, it's not actually good for you. So let's not push drinking on to others. Drinking just for me, you know, it doesn't have any benefits long term. Just I feel it physically like the next day.

I don't feel good. I'm up at night. You know, my heart rate just shoots up. So it's just I literally feel it in the hours later. So it's just like my body is telling me no. So I'm not going to do it on a regular basis. But I love a glass of wine here and there. So I'll do it every so often.

And when it comes to food, I prioritize protein. Okay, but give us a full day. Like, tell us, you wake up on Monday. Tell us the times, everything. Yeah, I'm not a super early riser, 6.30 is when I wake up. It's a late, though. Yeah, yeah, it's decent. 6.30, 7 o'clock, like 6.30.

That's my goal. Just because I value my sleep. Like, I need to get that morning sleep, which for me, that's for some reason. Yeah, comes in in the morning. wake up have about minimum 15 if I'm not feeling about like 30 grams of protein within and I know again this is like the the 30 30 30 now it's like a a buzzy thing but it is but it is sure and it's what I've been doing like about 15 to 30 grams of protein I do like a yogurt with either protein powder or and like berries and nuts to get a little bit of everything or I'll do eggs and chicken

ground chicken to balance it out with like a little quinoa or a different carb. But so the breakfast part, the yogurt part, I'll have that early on and then I'll have the eggs and chicken, ground chicken and quinoa or sweet potatoes as like a refuel after my workout. My day is not very typical because my meetings are all over the place, dealing, working with people like in different countries as well. And I always have some protein bar at hand. And at night, usually always are like prioritizing protein and having like the largest bowl of greens that you've ever seen.

And again, some sort of a carb like quinoa or brown rice or white rice. I don't care. It's fine. A lot of protein. Lots of protein. I think of protein first and then I and then the rest of it kind of fill in the gaps. But that's I prioritize protein. We went out to dinner with this guy. it's an expert in longevity.

And Michael was like watching what he ate because he's a longevity expert. So Michael wanted to see. I knew what we were going to eat because we all talked about before. But I just was like, I was curious about how he was going to approach eating. And it was like protein first. He grabbed the protein first. He didn't even look at the rice or the. Then it was like the vegetables.

Then it was the carbs. But it wasn't even like he put that on his plate like that. It's like he took the protein. He ate the protein. Then he went back and got the rice. A lot of people do the opposite. They like fill up on the. carbs and then they have a little bit of vegetable and then they don't eat any of the protein because by

that point you're full. I approach it. Like if I'm having a, and I need to have my greens like that's like my, you know, antioxidant. That's like my, my, a lot of sources, good sources of vitamins and nutrients there. So I'll eat that bowl. Like I'll even if I'm not feeling it 100%. I'll like take that big bowl of greens, eat that and then I'll go into my protein. And also there's something to say about the way that our digestive track processes things.

And when it comes to a vegetable, like when it comes to leafy greens or a non-starch of vegetable, putting that through your system first and then the protein and then the carbs. That is my approach. Who have been the other celebrities that you've trained, that you've been really happy with the result? Like, who are the people that you're like, oh my God, I'm so proud of these people? I worked with Biborexa for a while. This was, yeah, it was actually over, during COVID over FaceTime.

And she was amazing, yeah, for sticking to it through, you know, yeah, FaceTime. It's harder for a lot of people that want that one-on-one attention. So she did really well, but I can't remember what happened, but, you know, we just didn't continue for too long. Exactly, life happened, like stuff happens. But she achieved amazing result. I was so proud of her doing, doing this. that and sticking it through even though it was through FaceTime. I haven't, I haven't honestly,

because I haven't necessarily been in the business of training celebrities. They've just, I haven't, you know. It seems like they've come to you. And I've accepted when I felt it was appropriate. Because again, I've, you know, I run two businesses. I run the fitness app, We Rise, and then I have a clothing brand. So just doing those two, it's a lot of work. How do you manage all of this and the business? You know, how I manage working out. day. You just got to make it happen, figure it out, you know, plug it in the day, make sure that you are accomplishing the non-negotiables for me. It's like I have to get my workout in. I have to, again, prioritize sleep and recovery and then you just work with the rest of the hours of the day.

A few months back for the very first time, Lauren and I had Dr. Stephanie Van Watson on this podcast to talk all about fatty 15 and her breakthrough discovery of C-15, which is one of the first essential fatty acids to be discovered in 90 years. And get this, studies have confirmed that it's three times better, broader, and safer than omega-3. I can now happily report that I have been taking fatty 15 every single day since that interview, and I've never felt better. My inflammation markers are all down. I feel great. I have more energy. My body's looking tighter. My skin is looking better. My nails are growing. My hair is flowing. And I'm just feeling great. So what is Faddy 15? Faddy 15 co-founder Dr. Stephanie Van Watson discovered C-15 as a lot of

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That's skinny at hero.c.c. I have talked about Sonobelo before on the podcast. They're a partner. And then I got this note from Jessica and I wanted to share it. The Sonobelo staff is absolutely amazing. Every time I went in for appointments, I felt like I was seeing family. My journey is still going strong because I took a chance on Sonobello. Thank you for all of those who helped achieve my better me. So stories like this from Jessica are what makes the Sonobello the absolute best. The more people you talk to, the more you hear that they're experts in advanced micro laser fat removal. But you can't beat the care you get from their team.

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It also has dyes. I was shocked to know, I found out this probably a year ago, that there's all of these crazy things in tolla paper. We're wiping our most intimate areas with this all day long. My daughter is using the toilet paper. My husband's using it. I went on this like wild goose chasing. to find the best toilet paper on the market.

And while I found some brands that were great, I also wanted to create something better. And so that's what we've done at the skinny confidential. We have created a better choice. I was involved in every single detail of this toilet paper. We took out formaldehyde. We took out chlorine. We took out the dyes.

We took out all the things that I didn't want my family exposed to. And then, of course, in our very skinny confidential way, it. We wrapped it in pink, as you can see. I wanted the experience of the delivery when you got it to be very romantic and pretty. Never are you excited about getting your monthly delivery of tolla paper, and I wanted to make you excited. So it comes in the most luxurious box. You open it, it's packaged cute, and it also has our little stamp on it. And you can put this on all of the rules in your house and know that it's a better choice for you and your family. I am so passionate. about this launch. We have been working on this launch for a long time. My team is so excited about it.

It's shaking up the market and it's disruptive and it's everything that we want to bring to the table. So if you're looking for a better choice when it comes to your toll of paper, go to shop skinny confidential.com. Grab it now. We will sell out, but we're doing subscription. So I would definitely say to subscribe so you can make sure that you get it monthly. That's shop skinnyconfidential.com. I mentioned this to you on our first try, but I said that I noticed lifting weights like, this is weird, but there's something where the muscle or the skin around the muscle gets tighter, which makes the skin look more useful. Yes.

Yeah. Do you know what I'm talking about? Absolutely. I mean, one aspect of like very simple thing is like once you build muscle, it's going to fill out that looser skin. But actually studies, there are studies out there that support. that strength training builds collagen and actually working out in general can can produce collagen but strength training in particular thickens that top layer of the skin that's what i noticed yes so it makes it thicker which with age that that layer of the skin gets thinner and we want that thicker to

keep that tightness that elasticity and it's weird when i'm looking at you like that's it's a it's a certain look where your skin looks so youthful and it's because of the muscle. Yeah, I think so. I attributed to having built muscle. Yeah. Yeah, to having put muscle. I mean, you know, you also look at yeah. I mean, like you can't really compare because everybody's different, but. Well, it's like I don't want to make anybody feel bad, but there's, you know, there's a term like runners face or like when you don't have the muscle and like over time, gravity takes its toll. It happened to me. And it It happened to me when I was running, I was running marathons and I had this like gone face, barely no, you know, fat in my face and just didn't look.

I mean, that was another thing, like, just didn't like how that made me look. So that was another reason why I went into strength training amongst others. Same with like an ozempic face, you know, too. People say that. Well, runners face also to me goes into the knees, like your knees sag, your elbows sag, your tits sag, your balls sag, everything sacks. Well, because the muscles that you need to support everything are just not there. Yeah.

You know, they're not there. And plus, like, even just that motion, that constant motion to, like, I even competed in the, in the bikini level competition, like, of bodybuilding. And that was, you know, my physique, you know, look great, but my face was, like, so thin. Again, from having lost, like, a lot of weight, a lot of body fat. Don't you have to be super dehydrated? Yeah, you get dehydrated before those events, right? Yeah. Yeah.

You're like super dehydrated. Like, what did you do to dehydrate? What do you do? You try to eliminate salt. You're reducing salt all along, leading towards the competition. But then, like, a couple of days before, you're completely eliminating salt. Yeah, not for me. It was good that I tried it.

It was great to understand what goes into that process. It gave me, again, a really good kind of peek into the whole industry of bodybuilding. But it was just not for me. just what, again, having had an eating disorder and it is just not, it wasn't good for me for my mental health to put my body through that. I could do the workout part. I could, you know, put in the work. But when it came to nutrition and to like really basically starving yourself, eliminating carbs, just not a good way to go. Energy goes down. Your mood is all over the place. Oh my God, I would be such a nightmare to Michael. I can't imagine. I plan on lifting.

heavy my whole pregnancy until the day I give birth. What's your opinion on that? I am not a doctor. I'm going to put it out there. I'm glad we have to say this every show. We are not doctors. Get the disclaimer out there. Yeah, but I think and studies support that whatever you've been doing, if you have been consistently working out and lifting before, there's no reason why you shouldn't, with some adjustments, obviously, you're carrying a human in front of you, that's going to limit some movements. And there are some movements that you should not do, like planks and whatnot. But I think to whatever degree you were working out before with moving on mindfully

and working out to that similar degree through your pregnancy should be great. Maybe chill out on the clean and jerks. Yeah. And the what? The what? The what? The clean and jerks. Never mind.

I mean, there was a viral video of somebody pregnant doing that. I'm not sure. How did they go? They have to like throw it over the valve. Yeah, it was why I went viral. She was intense. We'll wait until after if you can try. Do you still try anything new?

I'm not going to try anything new. Don't push it. Like, don't do PRs. Did you say you want to do PRs? What's PRs? Personal records. I don't even know what that is. Okay.

All right. That's why I have a trainer because I don't know the names. People are like, show your workout, Lauren, on Instagram. I'm like, I am not an expert. I have someone telling me what you do. I don't know the names. They're like, how heavy do you lift? I'm like, I don't know.

He just hands me the weight. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I'm not an expert. That's why I have you on. That's so funny. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what impressed me with Kim, like when she was like starting to name exercises.

I was like, okay. Well, I'm glad that I'm leaving you behind with information. Did you know like deadlifts and RDLs? Yeah, but if you told me go show like a deadlift right now, I could do it. I think it's the one where you pick the bar up and lift it up. Yeah, you got it. I mean, pick things up when I'm not. I don't know, I don't know.

You do. You're giving yourself too little credit. Do you still train clients right now, or are you only training Kim and doing your business? Yeah, just the business isn't Kim. I can. That's impossible. It's impossible. Okay, I just thought I would ask.

There's no time in the day. There's no time in the day. Yeah, there's no time in the day. You have your app. Yes. So it's definitely, yeah, training thousands of clients, just not in person. Yeah. You mentioned earlier, you said you,

grew your Instagram pretty fast and aggressively. For people who are listening and want tips on that, what would you tell them? Consistency, like with everything else, consistency is key. The reps. Whether you're gaining one follower a day or if you're gaining, you know, hundreds a day or just keep doing it. Like I said, I started with 2,000 followers on January of 2019, and I decided this was something I was going to do alongside my job. I was in diagnostic sales at the time for people with epilepsy. So I would get up in the morning at 5, 5.30, do my workout, film it while doing my own workout. And every single day, seven days a week, I would post my workouts. No, no negotiation. Like, I would go on sales meetings that started super early, would probably stay up until like

two in the morning the night before because sales meetings, you know, I'm not sure if you guys know, but, you know, they like to go out a bit and have a drink or two. So I would get up a couple of hours or three hours, whatever it took after that. And again, getting my workout in, filming it in the gym with other people that were in the meeting. And I'm like, I have my little water bottle and my phone. And it's like, who is this person that has just a couple of thousand followers doing it? But I just kind of shut that out. And just said, I'm going to do this for a while. I'm going to do this for a year. I can't remember exactly what we said we're going to do this for. But Rob was definitely, my partner was very, was key in kind of like also supporting me and doing that.

Like, you know, let's do this for a specific amount of time, be super consistent. And that consistency is also like something that's always like hard work. It's ingrained in me, I guess, as a child from a very young age. So I just did that. Consistency in providing value. So consistency provides something of value to people. And I didn't sell for a long time. didn't sell anything. It was just like putting whatever I did out there so that people can

benefit from it. And even to this day, you know, I still put out a lot of content that is for free. You know, if somebody wanted to just follow along the workouts on Instagram, they could get tremendous results just from doing that. I think that's great advice. Yep. Thank you. How do you work with your partner? Because it can be challenging. What are your tips? What's so challenging for you? It could be challenging. Michael and I have different business. This is probably the first time that we've talked about. Yeah, how do you guys?

It can be a lot. We have wanted to, you know, kill each other a couple of times. Okay, so I'll tell you a story. The first programs that came out were web-based and were filmed in the gym that was the first floor of our condominium building, small gym. We would go there at like 9 p.m. the earliest, waited until everybody had left the gym. 10, sometimes even later, and would film for like four hours to get the content. Because we didn't, you know, if you can get the resources for free, if you can do all of that stuff on your spare time with limited resources

and start a business that way, I think that's the best way to go versus like investing in something that you don't know the outcome of. And we were able to do that. We did that, put the web-based programs out. But that came with some, you know, it was tough. just the two of us, you know, filming me doing the workouts and him. And then when we did do the second reiteration of the programs that were in an app, so now we went to Compton here and during COVID in November of 2020.

So I guess that was a little bit after the whole like start of it. But in a warehouse with gym equipment that was being renovated, they had set up a little kind of like a little studio. We set up two cameras. So he would run from one to the other. and like film one angle and then film the other angle. So again, the two of us. And, you know, when you're doing this for like 10 hours a day for like a month, it gets a little bit 24-7 with each other.

I can really work with him for an hour on the podcast. 10 hours is a long time. But we made it through. It's rewarding, though, if you can figure it out. Yeah, it is. Absolutely. I say don't do it. That's why everybody asks.

But if you can, you know, but we kind of knew that, that, hey, this could really cause major issues and the relationship. But we still push through and we're able to communicate. I think communication is key and kind of airing out your grievances, if you will, but in a constructive way. You guys made it work. We made it work, yeah. Before you go, you have to tell us how you get the divots in your arms. Do we work?

How many? I don't have that divet. What is that divet? No, the triceps. No, there's a little divet. The deltier? It's a certain divot. Yeah.

Kim has a too. from you're working. It goes like this. Right, the shoulders. Like if you're focusing on building your shoulders, it's like the wider shoulder and then it goes in. And if you're hitting the shoulder from all angles, so if you're doing front raises, lateral raises, real raises and shoulder presses. Yeah. No, but I don't have that. I can't focus up. She's, yeah, she's got layers. So I need to hit every single area of the shoulder. Ideally. Ideally. Oh, okay. All right. She's talking about the shoulder cap. The shoulder cap. This is like a feminine. The cap. Yeah, it's a, yeah, it's a, yeah, it's a. Yeah, it's a. Yeah, it's a. Yeah, it's a. Yeah. cap. It's a cap, a shoulder cab. Okay, so I hit the shoulder everywhere from all three different angles. The back, the front, the side. I've got huge shoulders and then my legs are too. I'm just kidding. I cannot believe you just took your jacket off. Oh, Taylor wants to see if he has the divvets. Let's see Taylor. Taylor just started. He just started. He's been going. He's been going. He's been going. Not like you have a. Where can everyone find what you're doing? You're working on something very exciting.

I am. Tell us all about it. Well, I can't wait for it to be. I mean, people know that there is expertise coming to the app that's beyond just fitness. We are so excited to bring experts from all different fields onto the app to share what they know, what they do in their practices, and just bring it to the app in a very absorbable way, in a very actionable way. And that's coming here really, really soon. I can't wait. That's on the Weirize app.

And people can find me on Instagram, Sonata.orgra. And then through there, you can find the Weirize app. I will be following along. You're so inspiring. You look so amazing in person. I hope part two was better than part one. Oh, amazing. Thank you for coming back. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I'm so happy that you're well. That's key. I feel good now today. I'm sorry. I'm a little woozy. Oh God. He's gonna make a little. She's done. She's not checking your hurry. No, no, no. Thank you for coming on. Oh, thank you.