The One You Feed - Jackie Warner

Episode Date: June 17, 2015

This week we talk to Jackie Warner about using exercise and food to improve low moodJackie Warner is best known as the star of Bravo’s “Work Out” and “Thintervention”Jackie is one of the world’s most sought-after fitness experts. She wrote two New York Times Bestsellers, This is Why You’re Fat (and How to Get Thin Forever), and 10 Pounds in 10 Days. Her new is book This is Why You’re Sick and Tired. Jackie has contributed to over thousands of articles, making her the among the most quoted fitness authorities globally. She also stars in several best-selling DVDs. Our Sponsor This Week is Aloha- Try their new Plant Based Superfood Smoothie Kit. Enter GETFIT20 for 20% off your order.  In This Interview Jackie and I Discuss...The One You Feed parableHer new book: This is Why You Are Sick and TiredMonitoring whether our energy brings happiness or sadness to others.Using food and exercise to improve depression.The prevalence of toxicity in our cells.For additional show notes visit our website    Some of our most popular interviews that you might also enjoy:Dan HarrisMaria PopovaTodd Henry- author of Die EmptyRandy Scott HydeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you have hope, you will always be in sort of an excitable state in life. If you lose hope, which many people do, then that's when big problems come. Welcome to The One You Feed. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have. Quotes like, garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think ring true. And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't have instead of what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit.

But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. Thank you. I'm Jason Alexander and I'm Peter Tilden and together our mission on the really no really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor. What's in the museum of failure? And does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to really know really dot com and register to win five hundred dollars. A guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. The really know really podcast.

Follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us. Our guest today is Jackie Warner, best known as the star of Bravo Network shows Workout and Thinnervention. Jackie is also the author of two New York Times bestselling books, including the latest one, This Is Why You're Sick and Tired and How to Look and Feel Amazing. She has starred in five bestselling DVDs and is one of the country's most popular fitness trainers. Here's the interview. Hi, Jackie. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to have you on the show. Your new book is all about having

more energy, which is a topic I'm always interested in. And, you know, you've also gone on quite a journey in your life, and we always like to explore that on the show. So thanks for taking the time. So our podcast is called The One You Feed, and it's based on the parable of two wolves where there's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson. He says, in life, there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love. And the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love. And the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandson stops and he thinks about it for a second.

He looks up at his grandfather and he says, well, grandfather, which one wins? And the grandfather says, the one you feed. So I'd like to start off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do. There are so many levels that I could talk to you about with that parable, because if you break it down, I studied metaphysics, and I studied metaphysics actually since I was very young. And for me, it's about energy. It is really, really the energy that you put forth, the energy that you carry yourself with out there in society or even in your own home, the energy starting with your thinking of yourself and therefore it translates to how you feel about others, is very powerful. And so for me, I always think of it, do I have a good energy?

Meaning when I walk into a room or get around other human beings, does my energy uplift and brighten that room or does my energy bring that room down? And I think I have a power to do that, either turn a room down or turn a room up, as we all do, especially if we work on honing that energy. So to me, it's not such an ugly side or a good side, because we now know that ugliness and feelings of loss of hope and things can be a chemical issue. You know, I study chemistry like serotonin, dopamine, or epinephrine. Many, many, many people that are not diagnosed properly are suffering from slight mood instability, which can make us feel ugly and angry and dark. And so, yeah, and so my whole teaching is to how do we kind of improve that serotonin, that dopamine, and that norepinephrine so we can have a more balanced and more pleasing feeling about ourself and others. And you can do that largely through food and certainly through some intense exercise. And that's been my entire goal. I healed my own depression when I was

in my early 20s. I healed it completely through diet and exercise. And my whole life mission is to be working with others to try to heal that within themselves through diet and through nutrition and exercise. So do you see how that loops back around? Yep, absolutely. Your new book is called This Is Why You're Sick and Tired. So why are we sick and tired? Well, there's three factors and I break it down in the book. One is that we have toxic cells and that's largely from our over-processed diet. And some fantastic shows and things and media are starting to really talk about how cancerous and how toxic our processed food industry is. So that's number one, is toxic cells, which I'm going to break it down to three aspects

of the cell. The mitochondria, which is the battery or the energy of the cell. The nucleus, which is the DNA, which is responsible for fighting disease or getting disease, and then the outer portion of the cell, which is responsible for communication. And if that's pulling the wire, then your moods are going to be unstable because you're not communicating well from your brain to your body. So I break it down to three aspects of that. And then, of course, adrenal burnout is a big problem in this country because we rely a lot on quick fixes, such as multiple coffees, caffeine, drinks, and things like that for a quick energy boost.

And then, largely, it's sleep. You know, most of us get probably about three hours of sound sleep a night, and the rest is talking and turning, and a sleep deprivation where you're just not completely rested. So you're not getting full seven cycles of sleep. So what I do is I address all three of those aspects of what's making us sick and tired through a really, really strong kind of cookbook or foods that you can make in about 10 minutes. And an exercise program that works each week, it changes. So each week your food changes, and each week your workouts change.

And it progressively gets harder, and it progressively gets more intense. You talk about resetting our adrenal glands in the book. What causes that adrenal burnout, and what are some of the remedies for it? Well, the biggest cause is too much coffee. So we should never be having more than two cups of coffee a day. That's number one. So, you know, coffee and power drinks and caffeinated drinks and even green tea extracts and things like that are just not good for if it's taken too much. And then number one cause of adrenal burnout is stress. So anxiety and stress. So maybe a stressful job, maybe a

household that isn't running as smoothly as you'd like it. Maybe your relationship, your marriage, your partnership. Maybe you're working up the ladder after college and you've got a big, partnership. Maybe you're working up the ladder after college and you've got a big, you know, college bill and you're trying to start at a lower income job. I mean, these are all really very strong stressors. With the economy, a lot of people have had a tremendous adrenal breakdown because of the stress of the economy. After the 2008 crash, people just didn't recover as well. And I noticed a huge difference in my clientele and how they were handling anxiety after that crash. A huge difference. You can do things such as eat some adrenal cleansing snacks that are super charged and really clean that energy.

And that's like garbanzo beans over a veggie salad or avocado sandwich with sprouts. Oatmeal with mixed berry on it, carrots and hummus, apple and walnut, celery, and any kind of nut butter. So these are all adrenal cleansing foods. Yeah. So I am in the first couple days of attempting to scale back my caffeine intake a great deal. And I think my adrenal glands might be kind of burnt out. But I'm getting through it.

But by this time of the day, I usually re-up with some coffee or energy drink. Okay. Yeah, let me give you a little tip. And it's a surprising and simple tip. Ice cold water. Get yourself like a good liter of water, either in a refillable bottle that's BPA, you know, not having toxic plastics, and take that and get yourself a liter and keep it in the fridge, ice cold water, and then add a tablespoon of lemon to that.

It's a tremendous energy booster if it's ice cold and it's cold okay yeah so instead of your afternoon coffee instead of your afternoon energy drink try that and drink the entire liter so it's not for enjoyment purposes and it's not to quench your thirst it's literally to quickly um kind of cleanse your liver and quickly give you an energy boost. So drink it quickly and drink the entire thing. And that really, really helps. I was addicted to coffee where I had to have two cups every morning. And I wasn't even human. There's no way I could conceive of walking out of my house

without two cups of coffee in the morning for years. And I started thinking, you know, I'm just feeling like I'm having two cups in the morning and then I'm having a cup in the afternoon because I enjoy coffee. Um, and I started saying, okay, I'm gonna have one cup in the morning and I'm going to drink a liter of ice cold water with lemon. Then in the afternoon, I'm like, well, that really worked. I feel good on one cup a day. And then in the afternoon they started doing that because you really shouldn't be drinking

coffee past noon because it can mess with your sleep cycles. And most people drink it at what? Two to four o'clock for an energy boost. Yep. So just try that and see if that helps. I'm not saying it's going to be as effective as caffeine, but it will definitely pick your step up. as effective as caffeine,

but it will definitely pick your stuff up. And like I said, your liver is the organ responsible for metabolizing everything, toxins, alcohol, fat, weed, everything. So the cleaner your liver is running, the better and the more energy, and the better you're feeling, the more energy you'll have.

I will give that a try. I drink a lot of water, but I will try the ice cold one liter in a fell swoop with lemon. So you say that our health crisis runs deeper than our weight. What do you mean by that? Well, you know, like I referred to the nucleus of the DNA of the cell. That's the disease control or is responsible for disease control. Okay, so the issue is with our processed diet. So our food has changed greatly since I was young. So in the 70s

and the 80s, for instance, we didn't have nearly as many chemicals and nearly as much processed food and processed soy and processed corn and everything in our diet. It just was not as prevalent. So we didn't have the kind of issues that we're having, especially with children and fertility issues that we're having today. So the issue is, if you can do anything for yourself, at least go with your meat and your dairy. So anything that comes from an animal, go to free range. So if you can do any good choice for yourself, go to free range. I'm telling you, I've put people on just an organic diet and not changed what they ate,

but I put them on an organic free range diet and they lost and dropped weight naturally, just going from a processed diet to an organic diet. And the reason is because in terms of disease, I write an entire chapter about disease and particular foods that we're eating. But the issue is, you know, cancers and things like this. Now the FDA is really, really looking very clearly because of all the studies with the correlation of cancer and, you know, particular processes of food. So just really, really, really organic is the way to go. And if you can spend your last dime

not poisoning yourself, that is a wise, wise choice. And you will feel much better on an organic diet, much. And you're going to keep yourself off the surgery table, the surgeon's table, and out of the doctor's office longer, for sure. In your book, the first part of the diet is, I'm interested in why it's that way, and then how it changes as an entirely vegan diet, which is something that I spent, I've eaten mostly vegan for about the last, I don't know, year, year and a couple months. I'm curious why that's the first part of your diet, what benefits you see from that. Because I wanted

people to feel such a drastic change in their energy and in their, the way they felt, that I had to really, really give them the cleanest diet possible, which is why I really carefully chose certain fruits and vegetables in combination with certain proteins and gave them a diet that I thought was tasty because that's my number one issue. It's got to taste good. So tasty, but also was going to make a shock of a difference. So, for instance, if you make a shock of a difference. So for instance, if you do a vegan cleanse or my vegan cleanse, after about two days, you're going to feel like a different person.

You're going to notice your skin texture changes. You're going to notice your eyes change a little bit. You're going to notice that your energy levels are up. And that's what I wanted to do is really shock the system from a processed diet to a vegan diet. And then we introduce free-range meats as we go. And it also is paired up with a particular type of workout each week as you go. So first is the vegan, okay, to shock the system and to really cleanse the cells and give you a ton of energy so that you'll want to mentally want to move forward. You know, I always call it tricking the brain. You know, as human beings, we want to sabotage. It's human nature. We want to sabotage and we

want to go, many of us, to the easiest route. So the issue is you've got to kind of trick that brain. And if you can be varying your diet and kind of be progressive with your diet and make changes each week or so, then it intrigues you, it interests you, it challenges you. And so I know that about human nature. So I tried to really, really address that in this book. So we go from vegan. And then the next phase is the 40-30-30, which is the zone, which we still know is the best way to eat. And then the next phase, as we get into ladder training, which is a little bit more intense style of free weight training, we get into a higher protein and meal timing regimen. and here's eric with the rest of the interview you mentioned that you used to have depression you talk about how you largely um heal that in yourself you know listeners know i've depression

is something i've battled on and off i think a lot of people on the show do and and i think that you and i would probably both agree that exercise is one of the very best antidepressants that there is. Give some thought maybe on how people who are... I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like... Why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor.

We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you. And the one bringing back the woolly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by.

Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging.

Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, really. No really. Go to reallyn, really. Yeah. No, really. Go to really, no, really.com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. It's called really no, really. And you can find it on the I heart radio app on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts are stuck right now, not exercising. Cause when you're not exercising at all and you're in that depressed state, getting going can be so hard. So what are some tips for people

who aren't going to, you know, hire a trainer? What are some ways to at least get the ball rolling for them? Well, I think you have to make very easy goals for yourself. So for instance, it started for me just by walking. My college, it so happened, was about 41 blocks total from my dormitory. So instead of taking the bus when I was 18, I started walking. I got up a little earlier and I started walking. And I walked the entire way there, the entire way back. And I noticed a big change in just a couple of weeks. Not only in my weight, but because I gained weight my first year, my freshman year. So not only did my weight scale back, but I noticed that I was feeling more alert in class. I was feeling brighter.

I was feeling less shy, more eye contact with people. These are the benefits of exercise that come with that. I always say it's the way you carry yourself. When you've moved your body and made a good choice with your body, an explosion of chemistry happens during that little, even like a 10-minute bout of exercise. An explosion of chemistry happens happens and connections between brain and body are made. And in that explosion, there's a feeling of well-being and balance that you would have to take like a pro-zack or a walk to get to. And so, you know, that's what we get from exercise and what we have to remember. And like I said, even starting with a 10-minute walk, even going just around your same block 10, 15 times is enough.

Then you start timing and say, okay, I'm going to run. I'm going to run around this block once, and then I'm going to walk it. So you make little goals for yourself. And I always love, you know, um, classes. I have to tell you after what, 24 years of training myself, just myself, six days a week, almost, you know, my entire adult life. Um, I enjoy classes. I like the energy to support system.

I like that healthy minded people are all there for the same reason that we're respecting and loving our body. And, um, I, I get a lot of pickup from that. So classes are more affordable, especially in other parts of the country. They're kind of expensive in LA, but in other parts of the country, they're more affordable. All you have to do is Google your town, Google the thing you like, and I guarantee you will find it. There are classes all around you. If you like hip hop dance, that's a workout. If you like Pilates, that's a workout. If you like yoga, that's a workout. And do the thing that you've always wanted to do or kind of

are excited about. If you wanted to learn how to rollerblade, I mean, that's kind of dating me, but if you wanted to learn how to do anything, you can incorporate that. So do the things that you think you want to do and that are fun for you. Don't do the things just because you think you should. So for instance, I know free weight training is the best style of training. It's going to get your body and your mind in the quickest way possible to the best place possible is free weight functional training. Okay. Now, a lot of women don't like that style of training. So do I try to force my method of training down their throat? No, I don't. I say, well, let's find something you enjoy doing and let's do it three times a week. You know what I'm saying? Yep. So I think that's the key. Exercise

is so important. Like I said, it changed my life. I've changed, I've trained thousands of clients with two gyms, two medical clinics. And I'm telling you, in a week's time, I've got a client now, actually, our fourth session in, I already noticed a big difference with his body, so does he. And he feels amazing. He feels amazing. Fourth session in. So that's four hours of training. Four hours. That's it. It does make a huge difference. It's kind of the number one thing that, at least with myself, if I'm like, why am I feeling so lousy? I can usually look and go, oh, well, I didn't exercise in the last three days or whatever. It's almost, it's very clear for me. Almost, it's very clear for me.

It's funny to me that something that's that good, that makes me feel that good, still sometimes can be that challenging to do. I don't quite understand why it works that way. You'd think something as good as exercise would just be right at the top of the list. And maybe it seems like for some people they cross over into that where they just love it all the time. it seems like for some people they cross over into that where they just love it all the time well i think people that cross over and love it all the time are definitely people that um are taking a say a negative crutch such as maybe um drugs alcohol um and certain like sugary foods negative foods um and they are have traded it for a positive crutch, which is what we all try to teach in my industry. Okay, here are the things you're doing that your body doesn't like.

Here are the things you're doing that your brain really doesn't like. Here are the things that are making your energy just kind of yuck and why you're not opening doors, why you're not getting promoted, why you're not getting along with your partner. These are the things. And then what are the positive stuff that we can bring in? And a couple of things, I don't just deal with a client by training them. I also talk about what can we do as a creative outlet that really defines you, because you, um, because you're not just your job. Most people don't enjoy their job so much.

So for those people that don't enjoy their job and don't have passion for their job, they need something that they feel that they're good at and that they are creating. So we try to find things like painting or writing or poetry or any kind of, you know, music. I mean, there's so many things that you can do now that can make you feel great about yourself. So I address all those issues, which if you've gone to my website, you see that it's a very creative website. There's a lot of creativity on it. Yep. And so let's maybe transition into that

a little bit. On your website, you say that when you turned 40, you kind of fell into a crisis. Can you describe maybe what led up to that crisis and what that crisis was like for you? Well, I think that, to be honest, I was working on... I don't love filming television. And my life at that time was TV. And I didn't love the process of reality TV. The TV I was doing, I wasn't really, you know, super positive about. And that was my job. And I've just never been a person that, you know, um, could just do a job. Say, you know, you shoot 13 hours a day, six to seven days a week. It's pretty intense. And so I wasn't a person that could just do that and not feel a repercussion from that. Like maybe I'm doing something that I didn't love doing and that I wasn't a hundred percent proud of. And, um, and so I think I kind of, uh, you know, went down a path that I was not living to my potential, quite frankly. And, um, so, you know, it seemed seemingly I had the whole world,

um, you know, I had a new book deal. I had DVD deals. I had contracts. I had a TV show and all of that, but it just wasn't exactly what I loved doing. I stopped training people at that time because I got too busy with the brand. You know, the brand can completely encompass you and take your life over. And so I stopped doing the thing that really gave me a satisfaction, a personal satisfaction, which is one-on-one training. And I think that was a big mistake. I sold my gym at that time, big mistake, because I no longer, then I started working out of my house or traveling a lot as opposed to going in and inspiring on a daily basis and working with other people that were inspiring. So I would say a lot of change occurred in my life as a business

owner and as a personal trainer and then as a TV personality. And it just wasn't working for me at the time. So what did that crisis look like for you when you kind of went into it? I know myself so well. I work on myself every day as a chance for me to grow. You know, I'm one of those where I love to set goals for myself on a daily basis. I love to achieve them at the end of the night. I accept it. I know myself very, very well. I'm very in touch. So maybe somebody else's idea of completely having a spiral is never my idea. I still went to the gym every day. I still ate well every day. I still was a loving daughter and family member, a loving friend, a loving partner. So all of those things. So, but I wasn't happy. I knew that I wasn't happy and that something felt a little

false to me. And that's what was kind of under my skin and bothering me. But in terms of like doing anything, you know, like destructive, no, I'm just not a self-destructive person. And that comes from years of gaining respect for yourself. You know, you're self-destructive because you don't have enough respect for yourself. And you constantly make bad decisions. So, that's not going to happen with me. You're never going to

look at TMZ and see that I went on a an alcoholic binge where I was driving drunk down the street or doing, so you're never going to see that with me. You never will. Right. But it just was a feeling of just like, hmm, so you're never going to see that with me. You never will. But, um, it just was a feeling of just like,

Hmm, I'm just not happy for a couple of years. And it lasted a couple of years. And then I did some growth and now I'm, I'm, I feel very, uh, very well adjusted. What do you think is the lesson that has taken you the longest to learn in your life? The lesson for me personally is be kinder to yourself.

Don't be so perfectionist, like be a perfectionist with yourself. It's funny, I'm not a perfectionist with others at all, but I'm a perfectionist with my body, myself, what I've achieved, what I've gained, my money, things like that. I'm very, very hard on myself. I'm my biggest critic and I'm my biggest fan, but I'm my biggest critic. And sometimes I can just say, oh my gosh, your expectation of yourself is so off the charts. oh my gosh, your expectation of yourself is so off the charts, you're never going to be satisfied. And that's tricky. So I think my biggest learning lesson is just be kind to yourself,

you know, be nicer with that internal voice that speaks to you throughout the day and night. And the way you would treat a client is how you should be treating yourself. I would never say things to a client that I say sometimes internally or have in the past to myself, you know? So at least be as loving to yourself as you are with the ones around you. Yeah, I think that's an interesting way to think about self-talk. I was talking with someone about that the other day, and exactly like you just said, I was like, well, if you were trying to help a friend do this, you would never talk to them that way. You wouldn't let them completely off the hook either, right? If it was a friend who you cared about, you would tell the truth, but you would tell it in a kind way. Yeah. Yeah. It was tough love. So, in fact, I just met with a friend for lunch today. There was a little tough love in that conversation. So, you know, but that tough love starts with saying to my friend, listen, you are beautiful. You're intelligent. You have so much going for you. You're this, you're that, you're this, you're that.

that, you're this, you're that. So, you know, let's think of why we might be engaging in this sort of behavior right now and what that could be coming from, you know, and where this lack of confidence is coming from. Well, you know, that's a loving way. It's a tough love, but it's a loving way to discuss where's this lack of confidence coming from at this moment? What's it tied to? I, to myself, back in the day, would be like, oh my gosh, shut up, snap to it, you've got this, you know, I would be so mean. And I think a lot of us have that internal clock, like, okay, you're fat, you're ugly, you look at yourself in the mirror. I mean, I know a lot of my past clients that are overweight or obese, which it doesn't take much to be obese. But they wake up and the first thought, and I mean it, the first thought that comes into mind. I'm Jason Alexander.

And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like... Why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you. And the one bringing back the woolly mammoth.

Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Bryan Cranston is with us today. How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really No Really, sir.

Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, really. No really.

Go to reallynoreally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. It's called Really, No Really, and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Their head in their awakened state is one of disgust and of also negativity about their body image. And that nearly makes me want to cry for them because I have the blessing in my life. And I say this to them. I wake up in the morning feeling strong, feeling powerful, excited, and loving my body. And I want that opportunity for you, because it's the greatest feeling in the world to

wake up feeling that way. And I want that for you so badly. So let's work on that together and see where we can get. And it's just amazing how you have to start right with that negative reframing and change that the way you speak to yourself and and uh mainly yeah and i think that's so true that being so hard on ourselves and hateful to ourselves although it seems like on one level that would be motivational it's usually so exhausting that it ends up not being motivational whereas that approach that you said more of i want to do this out

of a sense of caring about myself versus I'm bad, seems to just, it produces much better results. It does. It produces, there are actual studies about this, by the way, and it produces long-term results. So in the short term, screaming at yourself inside of your brain and telling yourself how disgusting and what a pig you are and this and that and get to the genesis. Short-term, that works. It does. It works short-term.

Taking a picture of yourself in a bikini that you don't like and then flattering and putting that on that fridge. Yeah, that works short-term. It does not work long-term. We know this now. Long-term is simply saying, oh gosh, you know, I'm at work and this cake and birthday cake and stuff. Do I want that or would I rather just go and have my snack that's in the fridge that I prepared for myself or a boiled egg? Like, you know, what's the best decision and why? So it's just, you know, realizing like, does my body want that or does my body want this? And I love my body, so let's give it the thing it wants. You know, that kind of talk is good.

Like, I wake up every morning, I don't want to work out, to be honest. Sometimes I'm like, because I work out so intensely for myself that sometimes I don't want to put that effort out. And so, but I say, wait a second, I always feel so much better after I work out. And I have so much more energy after I work out. And I sleep better that night after I work out. Okay, let's go. You see? Yeah.

So it wasn't that I was like, oh, you're going to get overweight or you're going to not look good in this photo shoot or you're going to look disgusting or you're not going to feel good about yourself. I never do that because it's not effective. You've got a quote. I'm not sure where I saw it of yours. It says, never think of a health program as depriving yourself. Think of it as giving yourself the most loving gift of all. Yes, and that's true. It is giving yourself the most loving gift,

and it comes from self-esteem. How do you build self-esteem? It starts when we're children. We set a goal for ourselves, meaning maybe grades at school, a test. We study for that test. We get an A on that test. We feel good about ourselves. That adds to self-esteem.

Same thing as adults. We set a small goal, not large, but a small doable goal that's realistic in our actual lifestyle, not in my lifestyle, but your lifestyle, your individual lifestyle, and say, okay, it's not realistic for me to cut all processed foods out, but it is realistic for me to add some spinach and an apple a day. So I can do that. I can add some spinach and an apple a day. So just adding that to your existing bad diet is something that your body craves and loves and that you will feel a difference from. So adding good foods to the bad. So, and then at the end of the day, you're like,

I did my body's nutrients. They're really crazy. They're good for it. And it helps fight disease and autoimmune disorders. Great. I did a good job today. And you feel good about yourself. So it's those doable goals. And again, you know, it comes from self-esteem. If you think you're worth it, then you start making changes. If you think you're worth it, then you start making changes. If you think you're worth it. Same thing with hope. If you have hope, you will always be in sort of an excitable state in life. If you lose hope, which many people do, then that's when big problems come.

Big problems. And that's when we start relying on our negative crutches. So there has to be like, you know, hope for yourself, hope for, you know, changing your level of fitness, your level of energy, and then just making that very attainable goal. Right. Yeah. We always say on the show, start small and then connect the dots. You know, if you can, if you can just make, you know, a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing, which is where a lot of us find ourselves. Yeah, I don't like vegetables.

I just don't like vegetables. You can believe that. But we're supposed to be eating four servings of vegetables a day. So what I do is I sneak it in to things, you know, like my protein shakes, for instance. I love fruit, but I don't like vegetables. So I put spinach in there because spinach you know, like my protein shakes, for instance. I love fruit, but I don't like vegetables. So I put spinach in there because spinach is a vegetable that's not too strong and you can't even taste it. So I put some spinach in there. And then in the afternoon sometimes, I will microwave a big, like two cups of broccoli for like a minute and a half in the microwave and

i gulp it down with a fork is that the best way to make it no but it's the only way i'll make it it's the only way i'm gonna do it i'm not gonna sit there and get a steamer out at four o'clock or five o'clock in the afternoon and steam myself some broccoli that i don't even like and eat it but i will stick it in a cup, frozen broccoli, I'll microwave it, and I'll gulp it down like a vitamin. So this is what I'm talking about, and I feel good about myself. Oh, I got two vegetables today. Great. I did it. Yep. So we're near the end of our time. I'd like to ask you one last question. And, you know, people who are, you've been very successful, you're very ambitious. I'm always curious about how people balance this in their life,

which is the paradox of being ambitious and striving to be better with also being able to accept where we are in life and enjoying it in the moment. How do you handle that paradox? If you don't already have it, you have to change your view of failure. Okay, so for instance, I've had things in the last couple of years that have not gone my way.

I could look at that as a monumental failure and thus be negative about it, or I could say, okay, that road was not the road that I should have gone down. Let me try this road. Let's see if I can get to my goal, but in a different way. Or let's say I change my goal and make it more realistic to set myself up to have more positive end results. So that's kind of what psychologically

we need to do. Instead of, if you don't get what you want, let's say you write a business plan, you save all your money, you get an investor, you start a business, it's like having a child, and the business doesn't go well. I see it every day. I see restaurants that come and go in six months' time. It's always heartbreaking to me because I know what that business owner has invested into that business. But what do you do with that? Do you say, well, I'm a failure. I'm not going to open a restaurant again, or I'm not going to, you know, try to do anything again. No, you don't. You say, okay, now what? What's next? You always have to kind of intrigue and excite yourself because you are the most important person. If you're not right, the people around you aren't

right. And that means your kids too. If you're not right, mom and dad, the kids aren't right. kids too. If you're not right, mom and dad, the kids aren't right. So it's most important that you invest in yourself and be the best that you can be. And part of that is the way you look at your life about failures. In essence, I don't believe I've had one failure in my life because I refuse to look at it that way. But I've had many no's and I've had disappointments. Excellent. Well, Jackie, thanks so much for taking the time to be on the show. I've really enjoyed the conversation. Thank you. I really did too. Thanks so much. Yep. Have a great evening. Okay, you too. Bye-bye. Okay. Bye. As many of you know, Eric has been doing some one-on-one coaching sessions.

And we figured instead of us telling you about it, we would just let a participant in the program share what they thought. And here's what one client had to say about working with Eric. I really enjoyed his approach to coaching because I like one thing he said is that, you know, I call it coaching for kind of lack of a better word

because a lot of the times in the past, I would be a bit turned off by kind of personal coaching and like, you know, that kind of thing. You know, when people use those sorts of terms, I'd be a bit disengaged. When I listened to his podcast, though, he seemed like very genuine. You know what I mean? And he's just sort of thought a lot about, you know, just being a better person. It's not it's not all about personal effectiveness, even though that's a huge part of it.

It's just about trying to be a better person and trying to give as much as you can give. So, yeah, I really liked liked his genuineness. For those of you interested in some one-on-one coaching with Eric, be sure and email him at er podcast at one you feed.net slash Jackie