Watch Here: https://youtu.be/5NFaOMMj6c0
Coach Justin: “I have a very special guest, somebody that I’ve had the pleasure of working with now over the last year and she’s getting ready to graduate, I coach university So as I always deal with graduates, I love to bring them on the podcast here so that y’all can kind of hear their journey and hopefully, you know, be able to learn from their experience here and be able to you know, hopefully trans transfer some of that knowledge into your own life and hopefully some of it applies to you. So without further ado, Miss Gay, how are you my friend?”
Gay: “What’s going on? Happy friday. Thank you I’m doing excellent, very excited to be on the podcast!”
Coach Justin: “I’m excited to have you, I’m excited to have you. So for the listeners here, tell them a little bit more about yourself just so that they can kind of, there’ll be some people that can see us here and then some, they’re just listening, so tell them just a little bit more about you, You know, what, what you do, you’re a teacher, how old you are. Just, just, just some of the simple background. and then we’ll kind of start diving into your journey.”
Gay: “I’m a teacher, I’ve been teaching 39 years, I’m getting ready to retire. I’m 62 years of age and been married 30 years, 31 years Oh, good grief. And, I have two kids.”
Coach Justin: “That’s awesome That’s Awesome. I love it. so, so let’s take it back before we, so we started working together about a year ago. but kind of walk us through just the 10,000 ft view of your journey with nutrition and fitness before we, before we started working together, where, where were you kind of, at with nutrition and fitness before before we went before we met and also why? Why did you kind of reach out in the first place? What were you looking for?”
Gay: “Well, in my twenties, as we talked about, I was a competitive bodybuilder. I, you know back in the day to where there weren’t really any trainers and nutritionist to help them with it, I just read a lot, lifted weights, follow the nutrition plan, did some competitions, but then as I got older, you know got into the real life teaching married having kids I kind of fell off the wagon. I always exercise, but my nutrition was never on point. I, even though I knew what to do for all those years, I just could not bring myself to go back to that. I was really hesitant to go back to that. When my weight got really out of control I would do really crazy things, I had the lap band done and I lost a lot of weight with that, but then my body began to feed on itself, right? It just, it just started shutting down because I wasn’t getting enough nutrition in. and I was, you know, regurgitating it back up. So even though I got down to the weight I wanted to get to, I was very unhealthy. So I had to go in and have that removed. and then I slowly gained the weight back and when I got back up to £210, I went the ideal protein route and again, I lost the weight, but it was difficult, I was hungry, I was tired I had no energy and I lost the weight within about six months, I lost £56. But then again, when I went back to normal eating the weight began to slowly come back on and I wasn’t feeling as good. And so at that time I had a friend that was going to a nutritionist a different nutritionist and I said, okay, I’m gonna look for a nutritionist, I need to figure out how to deal with food, I need to figure out what I can do for a long term for the rest of my life to stay healthy and have a manageable, you know, wait, have a realistic weight because also in my past I had been bulimic and anorexic, so I’ve always had a very unhealthy relationship with food and so I was tired of the rollercoaster ride. I didn’t want to go back and eat packaged food I couldn’t stand the thought of drinking another protein drink or another, you know, protein bar. I just couldn’t face it, it was just overwhelmed. I just didn’t want to do it, but I wanted to figure out a way to change my relationship with food and to live a healthier lifestyle. So I googled you, I found you called you up, we had our conversation and I said, okay, I’m going to do this, it’s going to be harder, It’s not gonna be a quick fix because it’s always easier to have somebody tell you exactly what to eat when to eat it and how much to eat it, you know, because you don’t have to think about it. Well that’s not real life and it doesn’t work long term.”
Coach Justin: “Amen sister man. So there’s there’s obviously a lot to kind of you know, a lot to kind of break down there, but you know, it’s it was it was it’s been an interesting last year, right, you know, as we’ve talked about many times now, you know, we we essentially we worked together for for six months and then we ended up, you know, working together again, you know, for for six months kind of back to back there, right? and we’ve kind of talked about, you know, what that first six months was about. And then we’ve kind of talked about what like the second six months was about. So, you know knowing the history now for the listeners as we start going through this journey, let’s kind of like start breaking down the last year. So, so first off, like before we, you know, obviously we have that discovery call right? Where I I try to paint the picture as best as I can, right? But even then, right? I mean, what did you, what did you, what did you expect right out of that first six months? I mean, what did you think that that first six months was gonna entail? And then what ended up happening? What did you end up getting out of it? Well, I really kind of thought you’d give me a food list and tell me what to eat when to eat it and then it didn’t turn out that way right?”
Gay: “I had to, you know, log my food, measure my food, everything was available to me and at first it was a little overwhelming because everything was available to me for years. I had not eaten fruit because I had insulin issues and I was really scared to start eating fruit, but once I started adding it back into the diet right and having the exercise and the protein with it and the right portions and things like that. I didn’t have all the adverse effects that I thought I was gonna have with my insulin. it was definitely a challenge because I had a very unhealthy relationship with food, you know when I’m stressed out, I want enchiladas, you know ice cream, those kinds of things and so I really had to wrap my mind around Everything’s available, but everything within limits, you know, portions of the 80 20 lifestyle, that type of thing, I didn’t have to be perfect, but you know, I needed to deal with you know, having a wide variety of food and and that mentally was a little difficult. Now I would say the first six months I think I did get over that and I did have a much better relationship with food, I wasn’t so reactive, you know, if I had a bad day at school I didn’t drive through roses and get a plate of enchiladas you know, like I might have in the past, so that aspect of it was gone, but then we began to deal with the job loss and things like that injuries and so you know I had those things to deal with as well, but the first six months I thought were really productive as far as getting my relationship under control with food I don’t fear it anymore. I don’t stress out anymore with it. If I mess up on one meal, I don’t mess up the next one we’re in the past, it would have been all or nothing. Okay, well, I’ve already messed up at lunch. I might as well keep it going and just start over the next day or messed up this week. I just might as well keep it going and just start over on monday I don’t have that kind of mindset anymore.”
Coach Justin: “Well, and I think that’s something for, you know, so many people listening to this right now, that is a big deal, right, because there’s so many people that they come to a coach wanting to lose weight, right It’s gonna be wrong if your goal is weight loss, of course I want to help you accomplish that goal. But so often if the history has been similar, so what we just described there, a lot of the times your body doesn’t even feel ready or feel, it doesn’t even feel safe to be able to, to do it and you don’t even have the relationship with food or with your body or with weighing yourself on the, you know, or with, you know, any of these things to be in the right spot to to to be able to make those changes. And so a lot of the process in the beginning regard the timeline is to start to make sure that we do have a healthy relationship with food and with your body and with the process and with the journey and that we start to kind of paint the picture as to like, hey, there’s not an end date on this, right? We, like you said from the very beginning, it’s like we’re really trying to build out something here that is sustainable for the rest of your life, right? And you know, I think that that’s something that is, is really, really hard for people because, you know, sometimes, you know, you might lose weight along the way, but sometimes the focus should be in just learning how to live a healthy lifestyle, right? And if weight loss comes out of that that’s great. But we have to teach you how to live a healthy lifestyle because regardless of whether you lose weight or not, that’s what you’re gonna have to do for the rest of your life, right? and most of the time whether it, you know, as the saying goes, it’s like whether it takes you three months, six months nine months a year, three years, five years, right You’re gonna be looking back and you’re not gonna really care about how long it took you to get there. You’re just gonna care that you got there, and more importantly that you stayed there, right? And you stay there in a way that you enjoy your life, it improved the quality of your life rather than feeling like you’re a prisoner of some diet or whatever there. Right? So I love that That’s awesome. So, so and I guess even before we dive into the, I guess that second six month period of time there there was a few things that that you came to me with, right that I definitely want to highlight which is we had the high blood pressure, right? We had the cholesterol issues and then we had the insulin resistance issues. Right? So we touched on this a little bit before we started the podcast. But can you just kind of like share you know, with the listeners, hear what you share with me kind of before we got started.”
Gay: “Well, I’ve been on blood pressure medicine since I was 21. So genetically I’m just predisposed to that And then when I got into my mid fifties, late fifties I began to have insulin resistance. And so and high cholesterol. So, they had put me on medication, which had helped. Right? But then once I started the diet for, well, for instance, my insulin, I could never get it below 21. Even with the medication and your insulin has to be below 10 because what happens your body produces so much insulin at some point in time if you don’t keep it under control, you’ll become a full on type two type one diabetic. So even with the medication, I couldn’t get it below that 21 22. Once I started the diet and adding more fruits and veg And and it becoming more balanced. And once I started adding you know, more consistent with the exercise, I’ve always exercised but becoming more consistent, I was able to get those numbers down. You know, my insulin now is below 10. My blood pressure is extremely well. In fact, they cut my medication down to just half a pill And my cholesterol, although the medication brought it down, the exercise brought it down even more. I hang out around 1 31 40. Now, the great thing about this is that’s a great number. But I’ve never been able to raise my good cholesterol And it’s very important to have that, you know, be at that 50 with that good cholesterol. But since I started the diet, the exercise I’ve been able to raise that cholesterol, that good cholesterol up to where it’s supposed to be you know genetically I’m predisposed to this stuff and you know it is what it is. So even though I may have to continue to take the medicine being on the diet and exercising has made the medication work better if that makes sense.”
Coach Justin: “Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I and I think that it’s encouraging for those that are listening right, because sometimes we hear some of these things right? And again, I’m not a doctor. I’m not even a registered dietitian, you know, but I can but but we can help to understand these things and way without being, you know, essentially fearmongering into, you know, severe restriction, right? Like for example, just with the fruit conversation, right? I mean, you eat fruit, whereas before you weren’t eating fruit right? And so it’s like, you see these improved improved insulin resistance, you see these you know, you see you see these improved, you know, markers of health right? When there are plenty of people out there that are saying, hey, you need to never eat fruits.”
Gay: “You know, fruits, the devil don’t eat sugar or whatever right? So, and I will tell you when you told me to eat fruit, I was very stressed out. It really stressed me out. I had to really trust and I just would almost break out in hives anytime I would put fruit on my plate and eat it. So once I got the blood work back and it showed that my insulin had dropped even more I was like, freedom, right? I don’t have to cut out something I love, you know, I don’t need to eat six plates of it every day, but I can add it into my diet, right? I don’t have to cut anything out, you know? So that was a big eye opener. But I will tell you I was sweating bullets. I don’t know if you remember me texting you back and forth, you know texting you saying I’m really stressed out about this. I haven’t eaten fruit in 56 years and I I just don’t know that I can do it. And so you just said just try it see what happens and, you know, we got the confirmation back with the blood work that it was all good.”
Coach Justin: “Oh, I mean isn’t that amazing? Right? I mean, I think it’s just like it’s I see this all the time, right You know, maybe maybe somebody’s doctor tells them that they need to cut out gluten or they need to cut out, you know, dairy or soy or, or whatever fruit, you know, whatever it may be there, right? And to be honest, it’s like there are some situations where yes you may need to, you know, cut it out completely or at least like, you know, really minimize it. but for most people, you know, like on the gluten piece, for example, like unless you’re diagnosed with celiac, like you shouldn’t have to, you know, completely remove that from your diet there. So it’s like it just, it’s understanding some of these things because without understanding, right? And with, with lack of awareness with lack of knowledge, you can really create even more unhealthy relationships with food, right? And and and you know, I I just think it’s interesting as a point to highlight to, you know, it’s like there’s so many people that are maybe, you know, scared of things like sugar that’s in fruit or GMOs or gluten or soy or whatever. But then they like still drink alcohol or like they are, they still eat, you know and enjoy like on those times where they stress eat or when they, you know, they just say screw it or it’s the weekend or whatever and they go and eat whatever It’s like, you know, it’s like, that’s what our conversation was, right. You know, one of the at least was like okay, well we’re scared to eat fruit, but yet we’re over here eating, you know, whatever on saturday night Exactly. So it’s like, it’s like, look, if you were over here being like 100% crazy strict and never eating anything bad and you were scared of fruit. Maybe you had an argument there, but like, you know, it’s just like, I think at the end of the day, right? What we’ve really established there in that first six months was like, hey, with freedom and you know, comes, comes discipline, comes responsibility. Like you should be able to eat every last thing that you want to eat right You should be able to have a healthy relationship with food and that food is food right? And not, not having to, you know, rely on a list of this is good, This is bad. You can have this, you can have that, you know like that’s that’s just that’s not freedom. That’s not flexibility being strapped to that right? You’re imprisoned, right? And so if you want the freedom and flexibility like everybody should have right, you just have to build the awareness right? You gotta build the awareness of the education around what works best for you, right? What what allows you to feel your best to look your best perform your best and that takes time to learn. But but if you’re open to the process right, you have an opportunity to really start to build you know that that that lifestyle right that you dream of. So yes, I would agree with that. I think that if I took you know nothing against any of these other companies or whatever, but like it’s like if I took something like ideal protein right? Or if I took something like getting lap band surgery done or if I, you know it’s just like all of these things are either you know a quick fix that get you know quick results or whatever It’s almost like a band aid over, you know, putting a band aid and instead of addressing the root of the root cause the root of the problem. and and and none of the things are sustainable, Right? I think the last time I checked, I can’t remember if it was ideal protein or Octavia but it was it was $400 a month. And I’m sitting there saying to myself, I’m like, this thing is $400 a month, my coaching for one on one is $400 a month. I’m like, I should be charging twice twice as much as that. I mean this is insane. It’s more than that depending on how much food you get, you know, how many snacks you get.”
Gay: “It was it was, it was crazy expensive. It was crazy expensive. And you know, but I don’t have any long lasting results, right? So I just took that money and just throw it away because you know, I didn’t gain all the weight back, you know I gained about 25 £30 back, but still it what a waste And, and my mindset was no different. Right?”
Coach Justin: “Well, it’s almost like, I mean it’s, I think of like the indian giver right? That like gives you something that ask for it back, right? It’s kind of like, that’s what these diets are. They, they like give you weight loss but then they take it back. Right? so that’s, that’s one thing that I, I would love to ask, like, if you think about, you know, all of these diets or programs that we’ve tried, you know, up into this point and then now you think about, you know, I hate the word diet, but like if you think about like what you’re doing, how you’re living your life now from, from all the aspects of, you know, all the pillars of health like is what you’re doing now sustainable for the rest of your life because I think that’s the biggest question or that’s that’s the biggest hurdle that we haven’t been able to, you know, overcome there up into this point essentially.”
Gay: “Yes, because the iCoach plate was such an eye opener for me because I can go anywhere and make an athletes play if I have to go to an event or go to someone’s house, I can always figure out an athletes plate and what I’ve started doing is calling ahead saying what’s on the menu. Right? And so I pre plan it before I even go if I know that we’re gonna do a family celebration and we’re gonna go out to eat, I will either call the restaurant and see what’s in the steak or whatever. I’m gonna eat ingredients, things like that, or I’ll look on the menu. But another thing I do when I go to the restaurant and even though I have picked out what I’m gonna eat ahead of time, I will ask them, how was this prepared? Did you use goose fat? Did you use you know olive oil, did you use butter, those kinds of things because what I found when I was putting it into the habit tracker, I wasn’t including all those things So even though I thought a X amount of calories I was eating way more than that. So I learned to ask those questions and I I just decided I wasn’t gonna be embarrassed about it. You know, hopefully they don’t spend my food but you know, I just wasn’t gonna be embarrassed about it because this is the rest of my life. I’ve lived more life than I have life left. So I want what’s left to be quality. I’m not a grandmother yet. I really want to be a grandmother. You know, when my kids see fit to finally do that for me, I want to be active and healthy and able to do those things that my grandmother did with me. So yes, this is sustainable. You know I anywhere I go without cook at home or I get caught somewhere else, I can figure out something to eat according to the athletes play. I love that. That’s amazing. And just for the listeners here that the athletes played or the I coach played or it’s probably mentioned, there’s a million different things out there. But what what is, what is that? “
Coach Justin: “Just for the listeners, right, What’s that breakdown look like?
Gay: “Well, it’s a portion of protein, I guess about you know, a fistful of rice and then 3/4 of your plate is fruits and vegetables. So if you break it down 1/4 protein, 1/4 some type of carbohydrate and then the rest is vegetables and fruits and vegetables. So you’re really eating really way more of the fruits and vegetables right, then you would the protein, you’re four ounces or six ounces of protein. But like I said, I can make that plate anywhere. I go to water burger and make that plate. You know, if I get caught somewhere like that where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?”
Coach Justin: “But yeah, that Confidence of being able to know that, Hey you know, like when I go out to eat 99% of the time, it’s not hard to eat healthy when I go out to eat. It is, it is hard though to make the healthy and you want to eat and you don’t always have to make the healthy decision, right? But the majority of your decisions when it comes to eating should be in line with health and with living a healthy lifestyle, right? And that’s kind of where that 80 20 breakdown, it kind of starts to come into play. But I think, I think, you know, if you think about, oh, I’m doing keto or I’m doing ideal protein or I’m doing this or I’m doing that right A lot of these diets out there, you don’t have that confidence with it, Right? Because again, you’re, you’re following a set, you know, list of foods. I’m, I’m doing whole 30, well, you’re screwed. When you go to Mexico or whatever, right? Like a lot of these things are just there, you can do them when the time is right when everything’s perfect when it allows you to do that. but, you know, most of the time when life happens right? That’s when you end up like falling off. And so that’s where I want to kind of transition into this next next point, which is, you know, we learned a lot about stress through this journey, right? There’s a lot of different things that happened. Covid happened right? There was a loss of a job there, there was injuries there was the work that the stress of school and being a teacher during Covid, Right? I mean, so, so if we think to ourselves, right? the period when you’re in school versus what we’ve just experienced here in the summer right through these last few months. And you talked a little bit about just how you’ve learned, you know, to to really prioritize stress management and how stress affects nutrition and training and sleep and all these other things that we’re trying to work on being consistent with in order to reach our goals.”
Gay: “Well, teaching in Covid was very stressful. You know you do not get a break from the kids. You may love your students, but you know, sometimes you got to get a break from you there with you pretty much 24 7. you work longer hours because you’re not only dealing with the students in your class, you’re making plans for students that are online. So you’ve got double the work, the stress of, you know, losing a job during covid my husband and, you know, trying to figure out the financial situations. I had to give up some gym memberships and things like that. And I was able to hang on, hang on to one and just that constant fatigue that mental emotional fatigue, I had always really prided myself on being a very disciplined person, right and organized. And I really struggled with that during the first part of the second, six months. I sustained a back injury which kept me out of the gym for about a month., you know, stress a lot of times played havoc with my stomach. So, you know, I wasn’t consistent with working out, wasn’t consistent with my calories you know, just depending on what was going on, I was eating out a lot, you know, just because I was calling Wilmer and say, hey, maybe at the restaurant, I need to eat and I need to go back to work, you know that kind of thing. And so it was a real struggle at the beginning. I really struggled with it. I wasn’t sleeping as well and when I don’t sleep well, I don’t make good decisions, I will give into those cravings a little bit more. And so, you know, the first three months of that was a real struggle., and then I got over my back injury, was able to get back into the gym and get a little more regular and I kind of put on a little bit away with a little bit of the, you know, stress eating that I was doing, I wasn’t doing a huge amount of stress eating, it wasn’t like I was going and getting a whole lot of platter from taco bueno or anything like that, It was just, I was eating out too much and breakfast, I would eat breakfast out on my way through chick fil a those kinds of things and I kept thinking in my mind, well I’m doing the I coach play well if you’re not exercising with it and you’re not putting all the tenants to it, it’s like a, you know a two legged table, it’s not gonna be balanced and you’re not gonna be balanced. And so I put on a little weight and we were having this conversation and I was really upset and I was really frustrated and I was like, I feel like I need to cut my calories, I just, you know, if I, if I gained another £3 I can’t get my clothes and you were like, fine, cut your calories, I don’t care, joe just be consistent you’re all over the place, you know, I’d be really good with calories one week, horrible the next week good for two weeks, you know awful for three or four days and you were like, you just have to be consistent find some consistency And I remember after that meeting you know, drove home and was crying because I just realized I have become uncoachable, right? I’m throwing my money away. I’ve become uncoachable. I’m just checking off boxes. I’m not really truly buying into it. I’m just going through the steps, the motions, right? And so that night I just decided I’m gonna go buy the groceries I’m gonna start re planning, I’m gonna start cooking and since then I’ve been much more consistent. It was just like The brain fog listed lifted and it was like I need to be consistent if I want to reach my goals I have to have some consistency, at least 80% of the time now when school was out. So we didn’t cut up my calories. You know, we stayed at the level we were but I became more consistent and things began to work a little better. Then when school was out I was like okay, I’ve got about 60 70 days that I am not stressed out. I’m in control of my own schedule.I decide, you know, when I work out, when I get up, you know, all those kinds of things so I can sleep as long as I need, I’m not having to get up at four am to go work out before I go to work. So we did cut my calories back and, I feel like I have with the exception of vacation Have been much more consistent with that And I’ve seen a lot of body composition, composition changes my clothes are fitting better. We also make the decision not to weigh on the scale anymore because every time I would gain a half pound or ounce or whatever I was freaking out and just wanting to abandon the whole thing and go back to 1200 calories. Right? So that was very helpful to getting rid of the scale. Really helpful. I would consistently stayed with my workouts. I consistently stayed pretty close within my calorie range was much more successful and I feel like after doing that and kind of proving to myself right that I could do this because that was a big frustration for me. A big disappointment. I couldn’t understand how someone is disciplined and organized as I was, could not be disciplined. Right? Well I never really gave it a chance because I was just going through the motions. You know, there’s a difference in going through the motions and then internalize what you’re learning I don’t know if that makes sense. But anyway, so you know, as of now I’m back into my clothes fitting comfortably I definitely can tell a change in my body composition you know, things look better. Things fit better. But I’m not stepping on the scale and I probably will. I probably won’t step on the scale for the rest of my life to be really honest, unless I go to the doctor and then I might close my eyes.”
Coach Justin: “Hey, look, I mean, you know, I think first off with the scale again, it’s just an awareness thing, right? The scale is literally a piece of metal or a piece of plastic with batteries in it, right? Either surgery or it doesn’t, there’s there’s a million other ways to measure progress as we’ve learned, right? But I think that, you know, that one call and this is something that, you know, as a coach. you know, I’ve had these types of things quite a bit of times over the last decade, right? Which is you know, this, this, this coming to jesus moment, if you will, right? Like it’s, there just comes a time where you realize right, that you’re either following through with the thing you say that you’re gonna do or, or you’re not. And, and it’s really easy in that moment, you know, to use the blame game and to blame somebody else or the situation or the stress or whatever it is that’s going on right. It’s really, really hard to take extreme ownership and to go all in on your situation, right? and so in this situation, it’s like well, we definitely got to give ourselves because you’re sitting here thinking yourself, you know, I’m such a disciplined person, why can’t I figure this out? But you’re also working twice as much as what you’ve ever done in your whole life because of Covid, you’ve never experienced Covid and in the 40 years of teaching right? and so it’s like the demands. I mean, there are 100% people that I work with, where I’m like, look your job is a huge reason why you are not living a healthy lifestyle, right? And there’s there’s seasons obviously with certain jobs and different things like that and everybody’s got the stress of it. But that that was something we had to definitely give you grace with because it’s it’s something you had never experienced in your whole career of teaching, right? everybody in the world was under stress, right?”
Gay: “It was a very stressful time there, but it’s also easy to let that turn into not doing the things that you have control over, right. You have to come to the decision of, it’s my choice. I have power over this. I either choose to do what I need to do or I don’t know if I choose not to. Why am I spending this money? I’m uncomfortable. So it did come down to personal responsibility I could continue to blame my back injury. I could continue to blame Covid work. You know, job loss, all those things. But when it comes down to it, it is personal responsibility. It is your choice. And so you either make the choice or you don’t one 100%.”
Coach Justin: “And, you know I would say over the last 11 years or whatever of coaching over 1000 people, one on one, I would argue that if you’re consistently doing the things that you have control over right and you’re really minimizing the things that are self sabotaging your goals. Well you end up getting the results that you want, right? I mean the timeline is typically indicated as to how consistent you’d be there, right? But it’s very rare that like, you know, say for example with those five big rocks, I always talked about right with your sleep your nutrition, your exercise, your hydration, your stress management. Most of those things like we do have control over that those things fall into that that you know, hey, focus on things that you have control over 80% or more of the time, right? The things like covid and and and the job and the work stress and some of the like that falls into that 20% bucket of of, you know, try to try to spend 20% or less of your time on things that you don’t have control over, right And, and, and if you can have that perspective and you have that balance and also remind yourself that hey, this is just a season of life, this is not gonna be like this forever. Right? Well then hopefully that allows you to scale back right to more of a place of maintenance on your health, right? Because you do have all these other things that are that are pulling at you, right? But you don’t fall off completely, right And that’s the biggest difference. People are either all in or they’re all out, right? And we got to find the balance in between because all out, that’s when it’s really, really a problem, when you’re in kind of that balance and you can maintain that’s a much better place because now you don’t feel like you’re constantly starting and stopping. You’re just going from a gas of the pedal to to slowing down, right? It’s just it’s just like driving a car. That’s a perfect example right? There sometimes where you speed up, there’s sometimes where you slow down, there’s sometimes where you stop, right? But we’ve got to make sure that we just keep moving forward because living a healthy lifestyle that never stops, there’s no end date on it, right, Right? And and and that’s what I was looking for. And that’s the main thing that I’ve gotten out of this, you know, consistent with workout consistent with 80 20 lifestyle, that means I don’t have to be perfect 24 7. Right?”
Gay: “So that pressure’s off of me, that pressure, you know, teachers have this tendency to want to be perfect, right? That perfection in us So, you know, if I have pancakes at breakfast, You know, 20% of the time, that’s okay. I’m not gonna mess anything up, right? So, you know, that’s the thing I’ve never had as healthy of relationship with food as I do right now, and that is the biggest gift, you know, I have struggled struggled since I was 20 ish right, with unhealthy relationship with food, I could blame it on a whole host of things, but I had a very unhealthy relationship with food and and part of that perfection in me, you know, I used food to either reward or control, you know, either the intake or the lack of intake, right? So, and I was looking thinking back when I was at my best way, you know, I never really felt good because I wasn’t taking in enough calories or I was getting rid of the calories I was taking in as part of the bulimic and anorexic right? not always being on a restricted diet, my workouts they were hard, you know, and and it just, it was a hard lifestyle, you know, at first when I went on this and started working with you, I was like, this is so hard, it’s so much easier when I was doing ideal protein and I just knew exactly what to do and when to do it. But now that I’ve gone through this process, I realized that was a bad way of thinking because one I had no energy on that guy, I was still getting up at four o’clock every morning going and working out but then I might have to come home and take a three hour nap because it really extended all my energy. I don’t have that problem now, you know, this summer I’m still getting up early to go work out because I want to stay in that habit before when school starts but I’m not coming home and taking a three hour now you know, I’m getting things done, I’m being productive right? Because even though I’m at a little bit lower calorie now, the food I’m putting in is better, the food I’m putting in is providing me with much more energy and feeling better and those kinds of things And one thing I’ve noticed this last six months because I also have hormonal issues, right? Menopausal and I do hormone replacement since going through this and coming to the end of it, I’m not having as much of a roller coaster ride with my hormones, the hormone replacement that I’m doing with the pellets seem to last a little bit longer, whereas before, you know they would last so long and then I’d have a huge dip right? I would just kind of hit the wall this last time now that I’ve been consistent and have have really You know, work the program, the 80, 20, I find that I’m not having that huge dip. I’m not hitting that wall. So I’m interested to see what my blood work’s gonna be here in a week or so just to kind of see, you know what’s happening with the hormone levels My suspicion is with the workout, the weightlifting and things like that, that’s helping with the testosterone levels. So that’s my suspicion. But we will see, I don’t know if that’s true, but we will see, but I’m definitely not hitting that wall. Have not hit that wall because I’m due for my palette, I have not hit that wall at all.”
Coach Justin: “Well, it’s amazing. I mean, look I think that, you know, the name, it all goes back to the name of the game, which is consistency, right When you think about, you know, even even with here what you just described, right? Well, if I’m if I’m on the roller coaster ride when it comes to sleep and and and nutrition and exercise and hydration and stress management, then, you know, of course I’m gonna be on a roller coaster ride with my hormones, right? But if I can, if I can start getting more consistent with these healthy habits right now, where it’s a starting and stopping thing, but when it’s a consistent thing 80 80% of of a 365 day years, you know, whatever, 270 plus days. Right? So, I mean, again, that just gives you that perspective, right? As you don’t have to be perfect, but the majority were a product, right? Us as human beings, we are a product of what we do the majority of the time, right? And that product comes from what we consume, right? Both from a food standpoint from a new standpoint podcast standpoint information standpoint and environment standpoint, we’re a product of our environment, right? So I mean I’m just excited for you in that in the grand scheme of things here one year is like nothing compared to your whole life thus far. Right? And so I would only expect all of this to improve more and more and more and more. Right as these years go on, right? I mean you’re literally just getting started with this, right? And I think that that’s hopefully you know where that’s that’s where the excitement encouragement comes in even more you know, and I give you those examples like shout out to you know, Susan and always blank on that other lady’s name. But you know the ladies here that you know, sit there and and and and make these life transformations you know, at 50 60 years old because you know, as we’ve talked about and this is gonna be the point, I’ll finish on is there’s so many people out there that are whatever age 40 50 62nd, like whatever, it doesn’t even matter that are just done right? Like they don’t exercise anymore. They don’t prioritize their health, like they blame everything on getting old or menopause or whatever it may be and not to discount all of those things that are harder and there’s a lot of facts in that I get it. But again, it goes back to what are the things that you have control over, what are the things you don’t have control over your, you get older, It’s something we can do about it, right? You’re gonna go through if you’re a female, you’re gonna go through menopause if you, you know, whatever, right, you’re gonna get injured. These things are gonna happen, right? But it all goes back to, what am I doing the majority of the time? How am I living my life? What are the decisions that I’m making there? So, can you maybe just talk allowing, you know, for anybody out there that is maybe going through menopause right now or you know, maybe somebody that’s they’ve had injuries and and that’s kind of kept them out of the gym really, just, you know, what’s your, what’s your mindset now on kind of where, you know, where there’s a will, there’s a way and you know, you don’t have to be doing what you’re doing in your twenties or thirties or whatever, but you can still be healthy and active in those things you know, later into the years of, of life, right?”
Gay: “Well, for me, working out even at 62 if I don’t, I am gonna get stiff, right, because I have a bad back knees, I’m wrapped up like a money when I go work out but I go I’m gonna get stiff, I’m not gonna have movement I’m gonna be more tired and I’m gonna feel more run down. So I do think that that has definitely kept me younger. So I look at my friends who are my age who do not work out at all and they struggle, right? They struggle with their knees arthritis, things like that And they have a hard time moving. I struggle with all those same things too. I do, I have arthritis, my knees are bad, my back is bad, but I do what I have to do and I modified, you know, I’m doing your exercise program. I can’t do every exercise, but I can find the exercise. I can do that will work that same muscle group. So what I find is a much more active. I’m able to move more. I don’t have as much pain, you know. and I know it’s gonna be that way as I get older You know, it’s just, you’re just gonna have more aches and pains. So again, it goes back to that mindset. What do I want? What is why is your, what is your why what is my why my why is to live on this earth a really long time. So I can be a really good nana, right? My goal is to be healthy. Both my parents were very unhealthy. My mother died young. My father struggled the last years of his life with his health and being in continuous pain. I can’t give into that I can’t give into that pain. I can’t give in to that arthritis. I have to keep moving forward. I follow train with joan, there’s several other people that are my age or over that. I follow that have this mindset you know, and they say the same things. I have all the aches and pains of everybody else, but I can’t let the old woman in if I want to have a quality of life, like I said, I’ve lived more than I have life left, but if I want that to be quality, I have to keep moving. It has to be a priority. And for me, working out in the morning, doing aerobics in the morning, I have a much better mental attitude for the rest of the day. You know, I do my aerobics, my weightlifting in the morning now. But when school starts, I’ll still do my aerobics in the morning, but I’m gonna have to move my weight lifting to after school. Well, I’m gonna have to make that commitment, no matter how tired I am, because if I stop moving, if I stop working those muscles, if I if I don’t keep those joints lubricated by moving, then I’m gonna really hurt, I’m really gonna hurt all over, so I just can’t give in to it. Well, I, you know, I think that it’s it’s it’s one of those things, right, where are we’re human beings right? Our bodies, they want daily movement and there’s a lot of different ways to achieve that. but you know it’s it’s it’s one of those things where, you know you don’t know how good you can feel until you feel that way.”
Coach Justin: “And this is a perfect example in that Yeah you might still have all these eggs and gains or whatnot But you feel better than these other people do because of these things that you prioritize, right? I mean let’s be honest, if I took a person A and person B same age, right? One person’s prioritizing their sleep nutrition, exercise, hydration, stress management, the other person is not, what do you think is going to feel better, look better and perform better, right And I think that’s something that everybody could, you know, everybody could agree with there. So I love it. I think, and you know, not even to mention, right I mean, we’ve talked about it before. There’s there’s the whole, you know, the other side of it to the mental side of the emotional side for the mental health, right And and what that aspect can do for us. I mean, I joke all the time if I haven’t been in the gym and like, like around the three day marker. So that’s what my wife is like, you need to go like work out or something. You’re you’re a little you just need to go, right? So it’s like i i it is very much so mental health for me? I I know that if if, you know if I’m not prioritizing moving my body and and and and training specifically for me, like the string training is something that really does that and gives me that stimulus. I’m just not right immensely there. So it can be, it can become something that’s a superpower right? But it’s all in perspective, right? Is this something that you have to do? Or is this something that you get to do? Right? Because being able to look at it like that, especially in those days where you when you don’t want to work out, which we all have that really changes the game, right? Because you don’t there’s plenty of people out there that would love to get to work out and they can’t, you know, and so perspectives everything and there’s so, again, I want to respect your time here. I probably could chat with you all day, but I want, I want to go to wrap this this whole podcast and journey up into and and and and one more question. what, you know, there’s a lot of coaches out there, there’s a lot of diets there’s a lot of programs, there’s a lot of, there’s so many different things that are out there these days right? But if you’re somebody that has struggled with nutrition with your weight with exercise, living a healthy lifestyle, whatever, you know, kind of your whole life, right? And and you’re, we’re in a similar situation maybe like you were right, what’s kind of your advice for somebody that is on the fence in terms of working one on the coach because you know, especially for those that are older, like y’all grew up on, hey here’s a meal plan, good luck, right? So to sit here and think that, oh, I gotta invest $2000 or whatever in the one on one coaching that can be scary. That can seem like a lot of money, like all of these things for people. So what I mean, what, what’s kind of your advice on that?”
Gay: “Jump in and do it because it will change your life in the fact that you will be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life and it can improve your life. Some people think when they get to a certain age, you know, that they just might as well throw in the towel, right, that it can’t be done, things can’t change for me because I felt that way, I thought once I hit menopause, you know, nothing’s ever gonna help me, I’m always gonna feel this way nothing can change. and that’s kind of how I felt after ideal protein. Well, why should I take a chance on this? Because is this really going to be the answer I broke down and cried before I signed up with you because I was like, I cannot go down another rabbit hole. I just can’t do it. I cannot, I mentally, physically mentally cannot do it. And Wilmer just really encouraged me right to go ahead and sign up and to do it and that there would be nothing, nothing lost from it, That I, I couldn’t lose any more than I had already lost as far as you know, nutrition and things like that. So it will make a difference. You know, you may not go back to looking like you did when you were 21 but you’ll sure feel like you did when you were 21 right mentally you know, because me getting up and doing that workout in the morning, it completely changes my whole trajectory for the day mentally, I don’t have depression, I don’t get down, I don’t get frustrated I don’t get angry on the days that I skipped that work out for whatever reason I have those issues, so take the jump, You have absolutely nothing to lose because you’ve already done all those other things. You know it cannot be any worse than that, right? But the surprise of it is, it’ll be so much better. So just do it wow what a testimony my friend.”
Coach Justin: “I it’s so, it’s so cool. This is why I love doing these podcasts right because number one, you get to reflect back to the journey. but number two, it’s just cool for me to, to listen to you and listen to the growth. I what I should do is probably record the first coaching call we ever have together, right? And then record the, you know, the last one and then that way you can like kind of compare it side to side, but I mean that’s my favorite part about coaching people right, is seeing the transformation, right? And transformation by definition does not always mean physical, it does not always mean emotional or mental, it can be, it can be all of them it can be one of the like transformations can be so many different things, right? But I think being able you know, as a coach to be able to see people transform their life, right? And and get them to be able to to start living their life in a way that they’ve been saying that they want to do, but maybe there was just a lack of awareness or education or whatever it was that that kind of prevented them from being able to do that. And so now it’s like, you know, graduating from my coach university, it’s like all right, You have the education, you have the tools, you have the skill set, right? You have the confidence to be able to go and live a healthy lifestyle. Is it going to be hard? Yeah, of course it is. It’s still hard for me and I’ve been doing this for half my life right Like it’s always gonna be hard, but right, choose your hard, right? It’s hard to do this, but it’s even harder to not do Yeah, to do the other because you won’t feel good.”
Gay: “I do want to say one thing about 63 or 62 and feeling like you’re 21, I went to Florida this summer and I’ve had award, right? And all my friends were like, oh my gosh, why are you doing that? You know? And it was just like, well one, I can’t, I’ve always wanted to do it And the water was really rough and rocky. I was able to maintain my balance. I had enough strength to do it. We really loved it and it’s not only things like that, but it’s, it’s, it’s all kinds of activities to living that active lifestyle That is so much better than being 62 sitting on the couch. I still want to be able to do those and if you take the plunge and do this, you’ll be able to do it too.”
Coach Justin: “Mm wow, I love that. That’s awesome. I mean that’s really what it, you know, that’s what motivates me, right? I mean, that’s what this is all about. You wanna, you wanna, you want like you want to prioritize living a healthy lifestyle so that you can do anything in life that you want to do, right? I mean for some people maybe they want to paddle board for some people I have a client that’s 63 that’s about to go hike up to base camp Everest there. I mean, you know, it’s like for some people, they love that stuff for other people. They don’t, and that’s fine. But at the end of the day, whether it’s playing with your grandchildren or being able to paddle board or whatever, it may be right, being able to just keep working out. So you have that mental health or have that morning routine that you know, helps you thrive for your day, right It’s, it’s just that it is something that is such a helpful skill set to have. And it’s something that for most people, you did not learn growing up, right And you know, that’s why I say it’s a skill set no different than developing any other skill set out there And I would argue that this skill sets probably one of the most important skill sets that you can ever develop because it helps you to really establish that foundation that allows you to thrive and all those other areas of life. Right? As I always say, it’s like the strength that is gained in the gym transfers out into every other area of life, right? So, I love it I love it. Well, this podcast has been amazing, my friend, thank you so much for taking the time and for the listeners, I hope that y’all get so much out of this, you know, make sure y’all comment here with any questions or comments or whatnot. but I really appreciate you taking the time today to do this and I know that it’s, it’s gonna serve quite a few people there and I hope that it adds value into, into everybody’s life that gets an opportunity to listen to this. So thank you again for taking the time!”