6. Physical Health: Real Talk About Cultivating Wellness and Balance (part 1 of 2)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alexis (00:05):
Hey, I'm Alexis Booth and welcome to the Breakout
Booth.
I was a senior manager atGoogle.
I'm a wife and a mother, and Ilearned the hard way If you're
not fired up, you're on hold.
I believe success is closerthan you think.
There's a set of skills andhabits you can grow to unlock

(00:26):
unbelievable outcomes.
In this podcast, we'll explorethem through real talk and bold
conversation, because I want tohelp you break out.
Hey there, folks, and welcome tothe Breakout Booth! I'm Alexis
Booth and I'm so excited toshare today's episode with you.

(00:47):
It'll be a bit different thanthe rest of the episodes I've
done up until now, where,instead of diving in deep to a
particular skill or habit, wewill explore a more holistic
aspect of your life.
Namely, we will be talkingabout physical health health.
When I think about the journeyof personal growth, focusing on

(01:08):
skills or habits in isolation isincredibly important in helping
you unlock your aspirations andtake practical steps toward
achieving your goals, butfocusing only on growth in the
absence of also finding balanceis a path that I know in my own
experience ultimately was notsustainable.

(01:30):
It eventually caught up to meand I wound up having to first
spend a ton of time recoveringand only then could I start to
rebuild myself with a healthierapproach across a really wide
range of elements.
Now, the topic of physicalhealth is much broader in nature
than any particular skill orhabit.

(01:51):
I personally think of it as acombination of six main elements
, and we'll go into detail onthis during my conversation with
today's guest, Nina Black, injust a little bit.
And while today we will startto dig into physical health, in
future episodes I plan toexplore other wide-ranging
aspects of your overallwell-being, some of which may

(02:14):
strike a chord with you andothers you might not even have
at the forefront of yourthoughts.
The next three areas I plan todig into are mental health,
financial health and spiritualhealth, and there's plenty more
that I am thinking about foreven further down the road
.
But coming back to today'sepisode, we wound up ultimately

(02:35):
having to break this one up intotwo separate episodes.
Because Nina and I had so muchto say on the topic of physical
health.
Part of it is because there areso many different elements that
contribute to your overallstate of physical well-being,
but also the way that you lookand the way you feel are so core

(02:59):
to who you are and what youthink and believe about
yourself.
We had so many stories to shareand there are some experiences
we are both honestly stillmaking sense of.
While the specifics of ourstories may not match your own
personal experience, I doanticipate that at least some of
the things we've struggled withover the years will be similar

(03:22):
to things that you, too, havestruggled with.
Now I do think it's worthsharing up front that I kind of
hoped and imagined, going intomy discussion with Nina, that we
were going to have thisamazingly inspiring and
encouraging conversation,inviting you to lean into all of
these dimensions of health inthis really, really positive way

(03:43):
.
You know, the goal would be tohelp you see what you can do and
give you a clear path you cantake to get there.
And while there is a lot ofencouragement bottled up in this
conversation and we certainlyprovided a framework to help you
think about physical health andtips and recommendations for
things that you can do toimprove yours the reality of

(04:05):
what happened during ourconversation is we also wound up
having a bit of a therapysession, and a large portion of
it was simply exploring andputting out there some really
deeply held thoughts, beliefsand honestly disordered thinking
that both Nina and I havestruggled with since we were
kids.

(04:25):
Ideas like it's good or cool topull an all-nighter studying
for an exam instead of getting agood night's rest, even though
research showsthat memory and problem solving
are worst when you aren't wellrested.
Or that excelling in a sportmeans pushing through pain, even
though that's often the path tophysical injury.

(04:46):
And we continually touched uponperhaps the trickiest area of
all, which is feeling good aboutthe body you are living in.
Because even if you woke upthis morning feeling refreshed
and ready to takeon the day, if you can't button
up your favorite pair of jeansanymore, or you're constantly

(05:06):
coming to terms with the factthat you don't have the same
tall and slender build as KateMoss or Gisele Bündchen, or if
you're trying some new fad dietand you find yourself having the
same thoughts that I did nearly20 years ago, which was that I
was so damn hungry I could eatJenny Craig.
The reality is that if any ofthese things are true, it

(05:29):
doesn't actually mean there'sanything wrong with you, or even
that you have bad physicalhealth and also you're in good
company if you've had any ofthese types of thoughts.
And rather than continue todescribe the conversation I had
with Nina any further.
Let's dive in so you can hearit for yourself.
Thank you again for joining ustoday.

(05:51):
I hope you will enjoy thisconversation exploring the topic
of physical health.
One last call out I do want tomake, in case you notice it.
I had a recording goof duringmy interview with Nina and you
may hear a bit of extrabackground noise in the episode.
We worked some magic to try andkeep it to a minimum but in
case you notice, sorry.

(06:12):
The conversation was too goodto do a do-over and you know
little reminder we are allalways learning.
I am so delighted to welcomesomeone into the booth who has
been the bearer of the mostsupportive kind of kicking my
butt the past two years.

(06:33):
Nina Black, welcome to TheBreakout Booth.
I am so glad to have you here.

Nina (06:39):
I'm so glad to be here, Alexis.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's a big honor.

Alexis (06:44):
Well, I hope you are enjoying the vibe here today.
It's great to have you here inthe booth.
If you were getting someonesettled into their very first
class right now, what would yousay to help kick it off and get
them more comfortable?

Nina (06:57):
That's an awesome question .
The first thing that I alwaysdo is try to meet anybody where
they're at and vibe off of theirenergy, meaning that if they're
coming in high energy-- which Itypically do run on high
energy-- I'm going to match themright where they're at.
And a lot of times brand newpeople that are coming into the
studio are really intimidated.
We have no idea how long ittook them to get into that space

(07:20):
, so just them walking throughthe door is a huge
accomplishment and I want topraise them and make them feel
as comfortable and supported aspossible from their very first
step into the space.

Alexis (07:32):
I love that and I definitely needed that when I
started back up.
I'm sure we'll wind up talkingabout this a little bit later on
, but that's awesome, yeah forsure.
Well, for the benefit of ourlisteners here, I want to share
a little bit more about you.
Nina is a personal trainer atthe group fitness studio that I
have been going to veryconsistently for a little over

(07:54):
two years now.
I do refer to it quite often asa gym, but it's more than a gym
.
I actually take classes,they're very structured and it's
actually a really big part ofwhat has been working for me,
because I need someone to beegging me on.
But what's kind of cool aboutNina-- I actually went through
all of my workout logs (I alsotrack all of my workouts when I

(08:15):
go there) and I figured out thatNina is not only the single
coach at the studio that I'veworked out with the most since I
started going.
She has consistently gotten meto put in extra effort in all of
the classes that I've takenwith her.
One of my favorite things aboutthe studio is that we do heart
rate monitor tracking, it'sactually built into there's a

(08:38):
screen that you can see in there.
There's screens on the devicesthat you're working out on.
So you can see when you'regetting your blood pumping and
when you're in the targetworkout heart zones and, Nina,
when I worked out with you, Igot more time in those top two
zones when I had the pleasure ofworking out with you in over
200 workouts.

Nina (08:58):
Incredible.

Alexis (08:59):
I think it was 45 or 50 workouts I've done with you over
the last two years, which isjust amazing.

Nina (09:04):
It's such an honor to hear you say that, Alexis, because
that really is my focus wheneverI walk into those doors.
For me, when I get to coach,it's actually my time off and
where I get to turn off my brainand really focus on the people
in that space and what theyspecifically need.
So when you're giving me thatfeedback, it just fills my cup
that that is what's happeningand I am able to read body

(09:28):
language, because that really iswhat it is.
I don't get to greet everysingle person in an intimate way
every single day.
A lot of times, people arerushing in or they're rushing in
even a few minutes into classand all I can do is smile or
wave at them and to know thatI'm still speaking to them in
that way or speaking to youspecifically.

Alexis (09:45):
Well, thank you.
It's awesome, and I'm so gladthat you're here today to share
all of your wisdom and reallyyour thoughts around physical
health with our listeners.
It's something that I reallydon't talk about with most
people unless some bad issue hascome out.
It's very rare that people aretalking about their physical

(10:06):
health on the regular, or ifthey've had some big win
particularly it's probably theylost a lot of weight recently or
something, and you know they'resort of had one of those big
celebratory moments.
I guess, in your world is thatthe same thing, or do you wind
up talking about health a lotmore?

Nina (10:25):
What's really interesting is that the second people find
out I'm a fitness professional,especially if it's in a non-work
setting, if it's in a socialsetting, I do feel a pivot in
what they want to talk to meabout or oftentimes,
unfortunately, they feel shame.
So if I'm at a party and we'reall eating pizza and drinking
beer, they will immediately seethat I'm a fitness professional

(10:49):
and say like, but I don'tnormally eat like this or I
don't normally drink like this.
It hurts me because thatdoesn't even cross my mind.
You know I'm not trying tojudge you, I know that we're in
a social setting and even if youdid have pizza and beer every
night, go ahead and have pizzaand beer every night if you feel
good about it and it makes youfeel empowered.
It is not my business, it's notmy priority.
In terms of weight loss, that'sanother really touchy subject

(11:11):
and it's not something I evercomment on with weight loss.
Specifically because I hadrecently gone through a dramatic
weight loss, about two yearsago myself, and it was not for
good reasons.
I was in a dark place, I wasgoing through a divorce and
weight was just falling off ofme, unintentionally.
And a lot of people were comingup to me and talking to me

(11:33):
about my weight loss andcongratulating me for it, where
there was nothing to be happyabout, like it was, it was due
to mental stress.
When I'm stressed, I do loseweight.
It's just what happens.
It wasn't due to me taking careof myself or being healthy.
It was quite the opposite.
And it was a big "aha momentfor me where I realized, because
someone has lost weight, thatis an opportunity to dig deeper

(11:55):
in the right time.
But it doesn't mean it's a goodthing.
So I'm very mindful about evertelling anyone a change is plus
or minus weight unless I knowthey are intentionally trying to
change.
So recently at work at Orangetheory Fitness, we had this
transformation challenge thatwas eight weeks long and I knew
who was intentionally trying tolose weight and still I'm not

(12:17):
gonna talk publicly to them infront of others about the way
their body looks.
I think it's inappropriate.
I think it's their business.
But when they wanna have aone-on-one conversation with me
or they wanna show their resultsfrom those eight weeks, we do
an in-depth in-body scan whichis giving you a full body
readout of your basal metabolicrate.
That's how much calories yourbody consumes at rest, how much

(12:39):
muscle you have and it's abreakdown of limbs, so your legs
, your core and your arms andyour total body fat percentage.
Showing me that is a win andreally impressive and fun to see
, but only private, I reallyview anything physical that I
can see exterior as that's aprivate one- on- one, nobody
around conversation.

Alexis (13:00):
I love that you're bringing that to the forefront
here.
People in my own circle, peoplewho I have very close
relationships [with], have hadsimilar experiences where they
wound up losing weight orgaining weight.
It does wind up being, and it'sa, it's a touchy.
I also think that if the veryfirst time you're commenting on
someone's appearance isoverweight and a change in

(13:20):
weight, that's also just weird,because it's this outlier thing.
That's the only thing you'retalking about, which is just
weird.

Nina (13:27):
Yeah, and invasive, and I also.
Whenever someone says, "Oh myGod, you look great.
" In one of your podcasts youwere talking about how we always
go to the negative right and sothat's the same thing is that
immediately it's like, oh, Ilook great, now.

Alexis (13:40):
What about the rest of the time?
Yeah.

Nina (13:42):
I didn't look great before or yeah or well, what I'm
looking like right now isdefinitely temporary.
This is unhealthy.
I know it's unhealthy, so whenI gain it back I don't look
great?
I deal with this every day.
People like to tell me what Ilook like, even still now, and I
have.
I'm glad that I put some weightback on from that time, because
it was gross.

(14:02):
Everything was saggy.
It was not what I was going forat all, and now I have people
still comment back on that timeor comment on how things are now
and how before things didn'tlook good or like "ell I was
really worried about you before.
It's all this stuff where I'mlike you can keep that to
yourself, that's not my problem.
I don't want to know what youwere thinking about before, or

(14:22):
even now.

Alexis (14:23):
Well, thank you for opening up with this.
There's quite a bit more I'msure we're going to dig into
here and there's a lot more intothe conversation, but before we
go there, I want to make surethat we give our listeners a
little bit of a background onyou.
So I first met Nina in Februaryof 2023.
So this was a little bit overtwo years ago and in fact,
February 17th that year, thatwas my first workout with you.

(14:46):
I know this from my workoutlogs.

Nina (14:48):
That's amazing.

Alexis (14:54):
And I'm pretty sure it was either that one or the next
workout that we were doing somethousand meters on the rower
challenge

Nina (14:57):
2000 meter row.
It's coming back Friday.
Oh my god.
Well, I had never been on arowing machine ever.
I played sports and did otherstuff when I was younger and
whatnot, but rowing was never mything and I was struggling big
time on it.
And I just remember you weren'tin my face but you got close to

(15:17):
the rower and you're like youcan do it, so, while I'm just
fighting so hard to do thisthing and I was totally losing
confidence that I was going tofinish it, I just remember that
little pep talk kept me goingand I did finish it.
Big victory.

Alexis (15:34):
The good news is I don't know how bad my time was
compared to anyone else, butthat wasn't what it was about
anyway, and I think you werejust trying to keep me from
falling off the equipment andbawling my eyes out.
I have bawled my eyes out atdifferent workouts, it wasn't
that one.
You know, sometimes it's alsowhat you need to get you through

(15:55):
all of that is the workout.
It's getting through it andit's also getting your energy
and your blood pumping, whichgets all the other good stuff
going.
But despite the fact that Ireally have worked out with you
more than any of the othertrainers at the studio.
I've taken okay, 46 classes, Idid figure that out.

(16:17):
I haven't actually taken a classwith you since September of
last year, when I made bigchanges in my life, so it was
actually even a shorter periodbecause I stopped coming to your
6:15 am workouts.
I decided sleep was actuallymore important to me than
showing up at that time.

Nina (16:32):
Which it is

Alexis (16:35):
So sorry, not sorry, but it opened up the space for us
to have a different kind ofrelationship and when I ran into
you in the gym actually workingout alongside you, we had a
conversation of bringing you onthis show and I I ran into you
in the gym actually working outalongside you.
We had a conversation ofbringing you on this show and
I'm so glad that we had thatchance meeting because I'd been
thinking about bringing you onthe show very realistically for

(16:57):
months at that point because Ijust loved the energy you bring.
I always felt good about beingin the studio when you were
running the classes and, yeah, Ithink it's awesome.
But what was really cool aboutthat discussion was you started
opening up about differentaspects of you and your own
experience, that I foundfascinating and I think this is

(17:18):
just going to be a reallyinteresting discussion today.
Do you want to share with ourlisteners a little bit more of
your background, yourexperiences?
Whatever you'd like to share,to sort of set the stage.

Nina (17:30):
Yeah, I would love to.
I just want to start by sayingI come from a really supportive
family and I think that so muchof all of my upbringing had to
do with my parents reallyembracing my brother and I to go
on our own adventures and notfollow the path that everybody
was on, if that's what we chose,and both him and I ended up
having really radical careersthat are unique in their own

(17:53):
right.
I've always been a physicalperson and a creative person,
but I never really could get itright.
I loved dance but I couldn'tget the steps, and I love to
sing.
My father's a jazz musician.
My whole life I didn't knowthere was music other than jazz
until I was 12 years old when Igot a boombox in my bedroom.
I played piano and I tried tosing and dance and I was never

(18:17):
very good at any of it.
I loved it, but I couldn't bethe top and I've always strived
to be the best that I can be.
So when I was eight years old,there was a local circus camp in
Highland Park that's where Igrew up, which is on the North
Shore of Chicago, and it wascalled Camp Big Top, and I went,
which was a circus arts campand I fell in love with all of

(18:39):
the aerial arts.
It was the perfect combinationof performance and physicality
and it was unique enough that Icould feel like the top dog
right away.
Because I'm competitive and Idid care about that at that time
.
As much as I like to say Idon't care about it, turns out I
do.
Every time I'm like I'm notcompetitive.
Then there's a 2000 meter rowand I can't walk for three days

(19:03):
because I was trying to be thetop dog.
So I have to get over it and belike, yeah, I guess I am
competitive.
So, long story short, the campdirector of that camp had come
from Ringling Brothers had beenon tour.
She was a legit circus performer.
Came from a sixth generationfamily of teeter board, which is
this act where you it's ateeter-totter and you stand on

(19:26):
one side and then people jump onthe other and it makes you flip
up into the air.
So she was a true acrobat,different than an aerialist.
So an aerialist means thatyou're doing anything off the
ground and typically you'reholding on to things like a bar
or ropes or fabric, which iswhat I ended up excelling in.
So she opened her own school inEvanston it's still there,

(19:47):
Actors Gymnasium.
It's a fantastic program.
It's incredibly inclusive.
I strongly advise anyone tocheck it out if they're living
in the area.
They have done an amazing jobwith that facility and I went
there from eight years old to 16.
And when I was 16, my motherhad built an art studio in the
backyard of our home.

(20:08):
It was a 17 foot split levelspace and we installed rigging
so I could be practicing.

Alexis (20:14):
That's amazing.

Nina (20:16):
Which again it goes back to how wild that was.
So then every day I was able togo practice and try to create
demo tapes and I decided that Iwanted to join the circus at
like 17.
It turns out joining the circusas a North Shore girl is pretty
much impossible.
I made all these demo tapes andwas submitting it to any

(20:38):
producer like you know Googlingproducers, circus producers that
stuff was so niche at that time.
This was early, early 2000s,like 2001, 2002 that I was doing
that.
It didn't happen, I wasn't ableto get on a show.
So I graduated high schoolearly.
I found a circus art school inMinneapolis and I volunteered my

(21:00):
services to go be at thatschool.
They had really high ceilings30 foot ceilings, which is what
I strive for was high ceilingsand I learned a lot more about
my acts and how to put actstogether and how to make
costumes and I was starting toget gigs here and there and it
took me about two years of tinylittle connections throughout
those two years to eventuallyget on a garbage show.

(21:26):
Not all shows are created equal.
This is something that in thecircus world it's called a mud
show and that means that you arenever in the town for more than
a day.
It's all one night stands.
You're playing in fairgroundsand they're called mud shows
because typically it's rainedthe day before and the
fairgrounds are full of mud andyou are performing in.
They'll put sawdust down andthen a piece of vinyl for a ring

(21:49):
and you perform there.
The shows were really shadythat I started on.
It was definitely criminalswere running the shows.
The people who were working andputting the tents up and down
were people that you'd get fromthe mission in that town.
And I was living in a bunkhousewith probably convicts on
either side of me.
My room was six feet long byfour feet wide.

(22:11):
My mom gave me a pickle jar andshe was like "this is for the
middle of the night when you gotto pee and that's how I got
into it.

Alexis (22:20):
I loved it.
There was nothing.

Nina (22:22):
I thought it was the best thing, like I had made it, you
know, and I was buying swimsuitsand gluing sequins on them to
create my own costumes for it,and I couldn't have been happier
, this was my dream job.
I was, I've made it.
I was in the circus andperforming for people on
stringer bleachers, which arepieces of plywood.

(22:43):
They're called stringersbecause they are literally
strung together with pieces ofrope and I just thought this was
it, this was exactly what Iwanted and it was at the time.
And I love that.
I got to start on mud showsbecause eventually I did work my
way up to Shrine Circus, whichwould be the competitor of
Ringling, it was a three ringshow with lions and tigers and

(23:05):
bears and all of the differentacts.
I got to travel to every statein the country except for Alaska
and Hawaii-- I wish I could gothere-- a lot of Canada, I did
Canadian tours for like fouryears and a teeny bit of Mexico.
And the reason why I tell allthis background story is because
the way you looked reallymattered on the road and I was

(23:25):
young and happy and bubbly and Iloved to eat food and I had to
be very aware of that.
The first time I realized thatanybody cared about what size
you were was at an all intensivecircus camp when I was 12 years
old, and I remember the momentI was like, "oh, I'm fat.
" And I wasn't fat, but it hadbeen put in my head right At

(23:47):
that moment as a young girl.
Like circus girls are allskinny.
Circus girls all wear thongunderwear.
And if you want to be on theroad, this is what you need to
look like.
So, starting at 12, exercisebecame part of my life.
To be "skinny.
" You know, in the 90s I grew upwith like: there was no such

(24:10):
thing as too skinny and in theearly two thousands it was that
similar,

Alexis (24:12):
Oh, like Kate Moss was you know, who also is naturally
quite petite, but I'm sure alsothere's more to that too.
But that was what was beingpromoted in the media at that
time, for sure.

Nina (24:24):
Yeah, I was always told I was the big girl on the road.
Always.
And I am really muscular, mybody just adapts to muscle very
quickly and it was somethingthat I struggled with the whole
time I was on the road, we werewearing two pieces all the time,
or tiny little rhinestoneoutfits, and the way I looked
was nonstop in my head at alltimes and that I had to look a

(24:46):
certain way.
Nobody else in the road everdealt with that, like they had
different genetics than me.
Everyone was skinny, like justnaturally rails and thin people.
So when I was on the road I wasa member of five different gyms
that I would go to.
I would find a gym wherever Iwas.
I would map quests, this is away throwback.

Alexis (25:04):
Back in the day.

Nina (25:04):
That's how I'd find out where I was going and print it
out.

Alexis (25:08):
Oh, I was about to say printing yes.

Nina (25:10):
And I'd follow a map quest , from the lot which was a
fairgrounds to wherever Gold Gymor LA Fitness or 24 Hour
Fitness or Anytime Fitness, orthe YMCA.
I was a member of all thoseplaces because I had to exercise
.

Alexis (25:24):
Y-M-C-A.

Nina (25:25):
That's one of my all-time favorite songs, YMCA.

Alexis (25:28):
They have great childcare, by the way.
I love YMCA for that.

Nina (25:32):
YMCA is great.
I was also a member of the YWCA.
I was so desperate to exerciseevery day because this had been
put in my head, that I had tolook a certain way, that if I
was in-- was in we would be inreally tiny towns.
And so I would call thehospital and ask if they had a
rehab center, and typicallythey'd have a treadmill or an
elliptical that I would pay $5to go to the rehab center.

(25:55):
Like you name it, I was thereand it was something I was also
ashamed of on the road becausenobody else exercised.
Like we did three shows a day.
I mean minimum two shows a day.
On Saturdays and Sundays you dothree shows.
Sometimes you do Friday,Saturday, Sunday, Monday if it
was a long weekend four shows,as I got to bigger shows.

(26:16):
Three shows in four days, so 12pack we would call it, and I
would be the person going tobed as early as possible, even
though we'd have late nights, towake up and go run five miles
before I do three shows becauseit was in my head that I had to
do that to keep my job or tofeel confident in those costumes
that I was in.
fastSo fast forward forward, I left

(26:37):
the show when I was on top.
I got married when I was on theshow, super young.
I had a great time and I thinkwe both realized that we were
both too young to be married andI left when I was 27.
And I had to restart my life.
I hadn't gone to college.
I had learned a lot on the road.
I was able to help run theshows over the summer and learn

(26:58):
how to connect and communicatewith all different kinds of
people Lots of people Englishwas not their first language on
the show and also how tocommunicate with different
people in different parts of theworld, like just how you sell
when you're on the road.
So you get paid to perform, butyou also have something called
a cherry pie, and that's whereyou're really making income.

(27:18):
So what I did was I had manygiant snakes, and I would dress
up in a sparkly outfit and Iwould sell snake photos for $10
a pop.
Okay, this is amazing and Imade money doing that and it was
awesome.

Alexis (27:30):
Wow, do you still have photos of this stuff?

Nina (27:33):
You know what's so sad is that I have very few photos,
because it was so routine at thetime.

Alexis (27:39):
Right.

Nina (27:40):
You know there were 19 showgirls at one point on the
show I was on that they'd golike "picture.
" And I'd be like "why?
We're going to put this on 10more times in the next three
days.
Like why another picture?
" And that is my one of mybiggest regrets.
I have very few regrets and Iwish I had just gotten in the
picture.
I'd always be like, no, I'm notdoing it.
I wasn't on Facebook at thetime.

(28:01):
They were all on Facebook and Iyes, I have some images, but I
don't have nearly as much.
I have some images of myultimate most favorite costumes,
but I wish I had a whole albumof that stuff, because this
industry does not exist anymore.
What I'm talking about.
All American Circus whereyou're riding elephants does not
exist.
It is gone.
soSo fast forward.

(28:22):
I stepped away from it and Iwas back to square one.
Like I'm 27.
I've just had this career thatI was on the road from 20 to 27.
And even getting back tocivilization, to being a townie.
Like I looked down on peoplethat lived in a town because
they didn't know what roughingit out was.
Like they didn't understand theluxury of a flushing toilet or

(28:43):
of running water or a washerdryer unit.
Like I didn't have those thingsfor all this time.
So to have that I would be youdon't get it, you don't know
what hard is.
That was my attitude.
SoI'm back home with my mom and
her husband and they completelytook me in and supported me for

(29:04):
two years, from 27 to 29, whileI got back on my feet.
And right away my whole lifehad been physical and I couldn't
not be physical.
So immediately I just went tothe place I knew, which was the
gym, and started working out andI came across some old people
that I'd gone to high schoolwith really quick and got into
bodybuilding and I was also intoyoga because I didn't want to

(29:25):
lose my flexibility.
Like that was a big thing thatI was proud of was I would do
like hyperextended splits 30feet up in the air, and I wanted
to keep all that mobility in mylife.
So I jumped to core power yoga,which is a heated corporate
yoga space, and within twomonths of moving home I was in
teacher training.
I just knew I wanted to bephysical.

(29:46):
That's what I wanted to do.
And within two years fromstarting teacher training to two
years later I had really done adeep dive into group fitness
and I got my personal trainingcertification.
But then I also was offered ajob at Oranget heory Fitness.
I also taught spin.
I also worked with specialneeds kids and taught yoga to

(30:07):
them.
I was teaching 27 classes aweek, driving everywhere, going
all over the place.
And Oranget heory I loved.
Like that was my favorite and atthe time it was a brand new
product and I just wasn't readyto put all of my energy into one
place.
Like I wanted to be as diverseas possible and see kind of
where the cards landed before Ireally picked where I wanted to

(30:28):
wind up.
So once I was able to finallymove out of my mom's house, I
was able to really focus on whatI cared about the most and all
these different kinds of fitnesstraining programs.
Oranget heory was the one thatwas for me because it
incorporated running andstrength training and super high
energy, which I was.
Unlike yoga, which I still loveand I still practice truly

(30:51):
every day.
I don't have my splits the wayI used to.
I was eventually able to fullydive headfirst into Oranget
heory because that was theproduct I actually believed in
and spoke to the most.
And I also believed in myselfand was able to pitch myself to
the franchise owners at the timeand saying you need someone

(31:11):
who's going to be really leadingthe pack.
They were opening more and morestudios, but they didn't have
any fitness side leadership,side leadership.
And I said, without a pedigree,I was just like I'm the one
that you want to be leading this, so you should hire me and I'm
going to quit all these otherplaces and I'm going to work for
you exclusively and I'm goingto build up your staff and I'm
going to make him the best inthe industry.
And they believed me and theyhired me to do that

Alexis (31:33):
And they still believe you.

Nina (31:45):
They do.
It's amazing.
It's just amazing, the way itall worked out

Alexis (31:46):
That's because you're amazing, Nina, I mean, that's
the reality is you actually havewound up delivering on all the
set things that you said like"oh, I can do this, like I'm
going to prove to myself that Ican do this, and you have which
is awesome.

Nina (31:54):
It worked out amazing.
I now I have the luxury of Ioversee 17 locations.
I manage 75 coaches and try tohelp them be the best that they
can be.

Alexis (32:04):
That's incredible.

Nina (32:05):
Find their authentic self, to kind of to have more members
like you, Alexis, be able toshare those same stories of

like (32:11):
I didn't want to do it and I did it because I had someone
believing in me before I couldeven believe in myself.

Alexis (32:17):
Yeah, well, I think that is awesome.
Thank you for taking us on thatlong and winding journey.

Nina (32:23):
I know it was long.

Alexis (32:25):
It was long, I know, but it's, I mean this, this was you
started to share some of this.
This is my first time actuallyhearing all of the details of it
, but I think it's fascinating.
At the end of the day, part ofthe reason that it also feels
like it fits so well with thistopic is that physicality that
clearly has been such a corepart of who you are.

(32:47):
You know, there's things thatI'm compelled to do, lik e I
create.
No one told me to make thispodcast.
I felt compelled to sharestories because I like to talk
and I like to sing and do thingsand just sort of like express
myself.
It seems clear that you have Idon't like the word compulsion,
because that sounds actuallyvery negative but you have a

(33:09):
keen need and your instinct isto do things that are quite
physical in nature.
And so you know, I think justbeing able to sort of you know,
know you and see you.
It's clear that that's really acore part of who you are and I
think it's really cool thatyou've been able to navigate a

(33:30):
pathway to find, you know, a joband livelihood and a career
that that works with that andyou know it's been a long
journey, clearly to get to it,but I think it's really cool.

Nina (33:42):
Yeah, for sure.
And and for sure.
I couldn't even like so, evento do this podcast, when we set
the timeframe and I was like, oh, two and a half hours of
sitting, how am I going to dothat?
I have a walking treadmill so Ido tons of meetings because my
network is really large.
We're like 65 miles from oneend to the other of all the
different studios that I manage.

(34:02):
So a lot of times I have to doit on Zoom and I have to be
walking.
I walk at one mile an hour, oneand a half miles an hour, but
like that is.
It has nothing to do withclosing circles on a device.
It has to do with like I needit, like I can't function
without it.
Being still is the hardestthing for me.

Alexis (34:23):
Well, I think it's also great that you know that about
yourself, because I thinkhearing is perhaps an opening
part of even just talking aboutphysical health.
I think some of it is being intune with yourself.
So great opening, love this.
Why don't we go on to actuallyasking some questions and
exploring this a little bitfurther?
Yes, so the best place for usto start is actually talking at

(34:47):
the most basic level, and thismay even sound like a silly
question, but what is physicalhealth?

Nina (34:54):
I talked to you about this earlier and when I said it your
reaction was like so awesome.
I said physical health startswith your heart.
And you went oh, and I didn'tmean like your heart, like I
love you.
I mean that I actually believephysical health starts.

Alexis (35:09):
I was thinking you meant from the emotional side.

Nina (35:13):
No, and you're not wrong, but like that's not what I mean.
I mean, to me, physical healthstarts internally and what
happens externally is a resultof physical health starts
internally and what happensexternally is a result of your
hard work maybe and maybe not.
ut it's to me, physical healthis your ability to live your
longest and most vibrant life,and that is what physical health

(35:34):
is and this is-- I'm, a spoileralert when we talk about what
are my power moves is that Ireally believe one size fits one
and that that is fluid and thatis all your whole life.
So, Nina when I was 20, runningfive miles every single day is
not the same as me now, and Ineed to recognize that and

(35:56):
embrace what I need now versuswhat I needed then.
And it's not the same person,and I believe that that's all
the way down to a daily level,what happened, what you did
today, what you did two yearsago in your 2000 meter row, is
nothing to what you're going todo tomorrow.

Alexis (36:12):
My 2000 meter row.
That was really abysmal.

Nina (36:15):
It wasn't.

Alexis (36:16):
Well, I finished it.

Nina (36:17):
You finished it.

Alexis (36:18):
Yeah.

Nina (36:18):
It just wasn't like--a nd that's the other thing is that I
have the blessing of seeing alldifferent kinds of people move
every single day and theyinspire me way more than anybody
realizes because they put thework in.
It's harder for them than it isfor me.
It's not something they doevery single day and they still
did.
B ut when I go to what isphysical health, it's you living
your best life.

(36:47):
It's you being able to sit downand tie your shoes your whole
life or get on and off the floorif you fall.
It's about functional movementpatterns.
So you can do whatever you love, and you might not love what I
love.
I actually love to exercise.
I love exercise.
It's my favorite part of theday.
I do it multiple times a daybecause I love it so much.
But if you love hanging outwith your kids or going hiking
or going apple picking or evensitting at a desk, you need to
have the ability to sit at thatdesk and not be sore the next

(37:07):
day or not be hunched over whenyou're 75 because you've been
sitting at a desk all day.
So that's what it is.

Alexis (37:14):
I love that and I really love the one size fits one.
I've never heard anyone saythat and I love it.
I think it's great.
I like to answer questions likethis less from a practical like
here's an actual definition.
I like to use feelings and I'lltell you.
When I sat down and thoughtabout, okay, what is physical

(37:35):
health, as soon as I startedactually really trying to
grapple with it, the answer thatI got was the big rock of
physical health is unattainable.
It's too broad, it's too much,and I say this despite the fact
that I'm arguably actually quitehealthy.
I'm knocking on wood in caseyou can't hear that.
Doctors tell me this.

(37:55):
I'm still trying to find a goodPCPA, because now we take six
months to go see a doctor.
So I've seen a lot of differentones recently and the last one
I saw I was like wow, you're ingreat health, and I was like huh
.
So when I say this thing it'sunattainable, it's because it's
too big.

(38:15):
Yeah, I hear that.
And the worst part about it isas soon as you start you
mentioned negativity bias assoon as you start getting into
the negative mindset about it itis too big.
I'm already falling into thatnegativity spiral and it starts
getting harder and harder to doanything, including continuing
to make progress in the placesthat I'm actually arguably doing

(38:36):
pretty well.
So I think the way that I liketo think about physical health
more is to break it down intosmaller pieces, because there's
actually a number of things thatI'm in a good place with.
There's also aspects of it thatare more challenging or
complicated.
For me, the one size fits oneright, and there's actually even

(38:59):
parts of my physical healththat I have generally come to
accept that I may never actuallyfeel great about them, and so I
just don't focus on themanymore.

Nina (39:09):
That's incredible.
Can you say that again?
I mean, that's a big deal.

Alexis (39:14):
Well, it's also interesting, though, because as
soon as I do start thinkingabout them, my weight would be
one of them, and we talked aboutthis.
From as young an age as I canremember.
My BMI has always put me in theoverweight range, and this is
including when I was playingsports very competitively when I
was younger and I had like asix or an eight pack.
I was very, very fit and I wasbeing told I was overweight.

(39:38):
Or even if they're like, "eh,don't focus on it, there's still
the word overweight on a pieceof paper that a doctor has
handed me, and so now I just—.

Nina (39:47):
Or there's still the color red.

Alexis (39:49):
Right and I just feel so yucky about that, and so for
me—well, and you were saying,like you know, B MI is BS.

Nina (39:59):
I actually hit the books on this one.
I did say that and I was goingto tell you.
I looked it up because when wewere talking I was like you know
that's not true.
You know that that like hasnothing to do with anything.

Alexis (40:08):
And I know it's not true and yet I still get these
messages.
So, even though I know it's nottrue, doctors are still placing
this information in front of me, which feels yucky.

Nina (40:19):
It's mind-boggling.
Just for the record, BMI wasdeveloped in the 1830s.
Wrap your mind around that the1830s.
We're still using that metric.
A Bulgarian mathematician madeit up and he took the average
man, I'm quoting the averageman's weight is what it was
height and weight ratio.

Alexis (40:37):
I'd like to meet the average man someday, by the way,
I think that would befascinating to know what they
are.

Nina (40:42):
But this is in 1883.
They're small people.
The whole thing is crazy and Istill when I--s o they do it
still at the doctors, now.
They give you that printout andit's just factor of height and
weight and it says what you are,and I do know what my-- I think

(41:04):
that a BMI is a good tool if itis done right.
Your body fat percentage is agood metric to know if you care
about that sort of thing.
When actually done correctlythat would mean a DEXA scan or
like a water submersion, whereyou're actually finding out to
the decimal what it truly is.
But when it's something likethat, it's just completely
inaccurate.

(41:24):
It is inaccurate and it'sdisappointing when I go to a
doctor and I'll point out and belike that's wrong, just so you
know if you want to put theright one in, I can tell you.
I can show you on my app whatit is and like "Uh no.
" And then I'm like why do youstill have this thing?

Alexis (41:39):
Because it's the easy button.
That's why, right, it's thequick and easy way that they can
use.
And, to be honest, if Iactually an interesting moment
I'm having here, because totallyunrelated to physical health,
but when I think about, like,good uses of artificial
intelligence, it's like you useit to programmatically identify

(41:59):
potential outliers.
But then you need a human inthe loop to actually say, "Okay,
this is a potential outlier, isthis actually an outlier?
And then you look at otherfactors and so I think, in that
kind of a sense, the idea of BMImakes sense.
And also then when I havedoctors saying, oh my gosh,

(42:19):
you're so incredibly healthy, Ialso, you know, I know to
disregard the like alert, alert,alert, and yet it still also
feels crappy because I stillwalk home and I'm like, but
they're not telling me something.

Nina (42:36):
A hundred percent.
You couldn't be more accurate,and it makes everybody feel that
way.
It's a bummer.

Alexis (42:42):
So, but when I come back to thinking about all of the
dimensions of physical health,the main ones that I would be
thinking about physical fitness,sleep, nutrition, managing
healthy stress levels which, bythe way, does start getting into
the realm of mental health, butthere are physical
manifestations of it that Ithink are important enough to

(43:05):
put it in the physical healthcategory.
And then there's ones that,when I was younger, didn't come
into play, but now that I'molder are increasingly things to
monitor and become bigger andbigger problems, which are your
physical body functions like doI need a knee replacement or a
hip replacement or other partsof your body?

(43:27):
And then the last one beingfree of disease.
So, especially as you get older,you are more prone to things
like cancer or Crohn's anddiabetes, and there are many
people in my circle who haveexperienced these things.
They're in remission or they'remanaging a lifelong illness.

(43:48):
You know it's manageable, butthey have to do things
differently than they used to,and I know for myself.
So I just listed out six things.
I know that currently I feelgreat about three of them.
My physical fitness, eventhough I actually haven't worked
out in the last week, which,but that's like a week.
I'm physically fit.

Nina (44:07):
It's okay.

Alexis (44:07):
And when I show back up at the gym, I'm going to not
have any problems.
You know, or you know, I'llhave some extra stress to work
out of my system, but it's likeI'm not starting from square one
.
My body functions very well,knock on wood, and I'm currently
free of disease.
Knock on wood again, because Idon't really want this episode
to change my life.
That would be really crappy.

Two of them are always in flux: sleep, which I would say (44:26):
undefined
changed a lot, especially when Ibecame a mother, because now I
cannot sleep through the night.
When there are little sounds, Iwake up.
Even though my youngest kid isnow five years old, I still wake
up.
There's like a I don't know whatthe hell happens in the female

(44:49):
brain when you have kids, butlike it happens, you're, you are
now responsible for keeping,you know, an infant safe.
And then the other one isstress, because life happens and
there are moments of higherstress.
And then there's other momentswhere you know, but those are
things to manage ongoing.
And there's one thing that I'mnever going to feel great about,

(45:10):
which is nutrition, which isall tied to weight, which is
the-- and this goes into I do mybest and I don't, but I don't
fixate on it, I just place myattention on the things that I
know that I can do better on.

Nina (45:24):
That's a great mindset.

Alexis (45:25):
Yeah and so when I think about this, it's really I can
claim the wins where I have themand I can focus on progress
rather than perfection.
And I can also put this otherthing you know what, like we can
try some different things herebut I'm just like I'm not, it's
not my priority.
It's not helpful for me to behyper-focused.

Nina (45:47):
Agreed.
I mean, you are many stepsahead of many people.
Being aware of those factors isstep one.
Being aware of where you excelamazing step two.
And to me, though, the mostpowerful thing is knowing that
the areas that there could beimprovement on and that you
don't obsess over them is thebiggest win, because that's
where I see the most pitfalls isthat-- diet is a huge one.

(46:10):
People struggle with diet andthey obsess over it, and it
becomes something that'sconstantly in the back of their
head and that is never going tohelp you.
That's only going to createmore stress, which could be
increasing your cortisol, whichis going to potentially give you
cravings.
I mean, it's just this terriblecycle.
So it's very cool to hear howreally in tune you are with your

(46:33):
overall health.

Alexis (46:34):
Well, thank you.
When I was prepping for thisepisode, I was like crap, I
can't just say this isunattainable.
It felt better to also actuallyeven just put those things out
there and be like "oh, five outof six?
"

Nina (46:47):
Pretty good.

Alexis (46:48):
Cool.
Like that's actually, that's atleast a solid B right.

Nina (46:55):
I think that's a B plus, at least.
I don't know.
I was never.
You know, I didn't go tocollege, I wasn't into grades
for sure that wasn't my thought.

Alexis (47:05):
Anyway, all right, well.

Nina (47:11):
But another thing, though, where you say it's not
attainable, is that I would sayanother way to phrase that is
that it's always ongoing.
You're never done and the secondthat you think you're done,
that's when things are going togo backwards.
So if you're focusing onmastering your sleep, you're
never gonna be like I figured itout, I did it.
It's a daily grind, everydayyou have to really focus on that
.

Alexis (47:28):
And then the next night you can't sleep through the
night and then you're like mmmm.

Nina (47:32):
Right.
It's just not how it works.
Same thing with exercise, samething with nutrition.
It's a constant, which is whatmakes it so exhausting and too
big to handle.
It goes all back, you know, towhat you were talking about.

Alexis (47:44):
So coming back to, I loved where you were starting to
go in terms of the when youwere 20 versus where you are now
, it's different.
you share more about what yourpersonal journey has been toward

(48:06):
physical health, ups and downsor you know, sort of like the
progression of things?

Nina (48:12):
Sure, yeah, I would say that the so from 12 years old to
27, my mindset was eat aslittle as possible.
Being hungry is good.
Exercise as much as you can.
Skinny is what you want.
I didn't actually use a scalebecause it would make me too

(48:32):
upset and put me into a crazydownward spiral.

Alexis (48:36):
That's at least good self-awareness though.

Nina (48:39):
Yes, I guess.
So I mean, yes, it is.
I would use my clothes as myjudge and you know, and sizes,
and being obsessed witheverything I'm saying is
unhealthy, just so everyoneknows.
No one take notes on this part,take notes on what not to do on
this part, and I wouldconstantly look in the mirror
and criticize.
That was my go-to.

(49:03):
So even if I was feeling cute inthat moment, I would
immediately say like, "But don'tforget about that cellulite on
your butt," or "but don't forgetthat you look fat in that one
picture that you took that youhad to delete.
" Like that was just where myhead was at and it was this
really unhealthy, terrible cycle.
And that cycle had to continueto go down even deeper when,

(49:24):
actually, when I left the tourand started living with my
parents, for me, what happenedwas I got into bodybuilding
because I thought it was goingto get me skinny, which is not
correct.

Alexis (49:36):
Yeah that would not be the way, my brain would sort of
that's not the linkage I wouldsee.

Nina (49:41):
No, I didn't, I had no idea what I was doing.
You know, I met an old highschool friend who was super
generous in wanting to help melearn how to lift weights.
This was like right as I wasbecoming a yoga instructor I was
not yet a personal trainer andhe was writing me out a diet and
also telling me, like "you needto bulk up, you need to put on
some muscle.

(50:01):
So I was like, "oh, you mean,you want me to eat anything I
want and I just have to get an Xamount of protein?
" So I did that and I did agreat job, gaining weight,
spectacular.
And then I hated myself evenmore.
And then we went on these crazy, hardcore 16 week diets where

(50:22):
everything is weighed andmeasured.
There's no fun allowed.
You cannot deviate from theprogramming, and that put me
into probably the darkest placeever.
I know that lots of peoplestill compete in bodybuilding or
physique or bikini competitionsand if that works for them, one
size fits one.
I completely support them to doit.

(50:43):
I had only a negativeexperience with it when I take a
step back.
In the moment, when I was doingit I would have had this
elitist perspective that I wastougher than anyone and I was
able to do it and you couldn't.
And that is--

Alexis (50:57):
I couldn't.

Nina (50:58):
No, I think that I was.
I don't mean you specifically.
That was just my chump attitudeat the time.
And so what would happen is youwould deplete yourself to this,
to this moment where you couldget on stage and it was
chemistry by the end of waterdepletion and the way you were
angling your body to look acertain aesthetic and you'd
paint your skin to be darker.

(51:18):
So when the lights hit itlooked just right.
And then the second, you'd getoff stage.
You would drink water, whichyou hadn't done for 24 hours,
and you would, your body wouldretain or you would cramp and
you were at your weakestphysical performance.
And that was actually the bestthing for me to realize, because
I cared about physicality.
I cared about how fast I couldrun or how heavy I could lift

(51:41):
weights, and when I realizedthat what I was doing to my
system was almost shutting itdown completely to where I would
cramp, just getting out of bedfor a week after a show because
I was so depleted, I was takingdiuretics and and I was like
really nasty stuff.

Alexis (51:59):
It reminds me of when I was in high school.
I remember there were a lot ofkids who were really into
wrestling and I know that theyhad sounded very similar and
they'd wear the sweatsuits forthe day or two before just to
get all of the water out oftheir system, sweat it off.
That sounds awful.

Nina (52:18):
It's awful and the piece that I missed is like when you
were on stage looking your bestwas also when you would be the
most critical of what you looklike.
Because you are standing, youare positioning yourself in
front of a group of judges thatare writing down everything
that's still wrong with you.
And then when you get off stage, even if you win and I
amazingly did win a few times Iwas still obsessed with like,

(52:43):
well, my glutes weren't dialedin enough or my, you know.
I didn't have the right cap onmy shoulders or I wasn't lean
enough here and I should haveconditioned better here.
You still walk away defeated,even when you win.
You still are, you still haveso much to go and it's all for
this like extremely finitemoment that you're on stage.
I mean you eventually the prostime it down to like in these 10

(53:06):
minutes is when I'm going tohit my peak and that's when I'm
going to be on stage and likeI'm going to have this rice cake
at this time with this muchhoney, so my vascularity pops.
So I took a step back from that.
I realized sounds very healthy.
Yeah, I realized actually whatwas the harder thing to do was
to be at a level of fitnesswhere you could compete

(53:28):
physically on a regular basisand feel your healthiest at all
times, and how challenging thatactually was.
And this whole idea of dietingis almost easier because you can
just I could just lock in like16 weeks I'm dieting, and then
after that I'm going to go crazyfor three weeks and I'm going
to go back to dieting, and thenit's like what if you tried to
maintain that for a year?
What does that look like?

(53:48):
That looks scary.
So after I stopped competingalmost 10 years ago and that was
my new focus is how can you beyour best self every day?
What does that look like?
And since then I have usedmyself as the guinea pig for
what works for me in that body,in that moment.
And that has changed every year, specifically this last year

(54:12):
where I'm about to turn 40 andwomen always say, "Oh, wait till
hit 40, things change.
And I was always like not me,not me.

Alexis (54:21):
I'm special.

Nina (54:28):
Well, turns it out it's gonna happen to me too and I had
to this year, completelyreframe my thinking and saying,
like, if you wanna changesomething, you have to know that
it's gonna take a really longtime and you have to trust the
process and you have to knowthat things are going to ebb and
flow and there's going to be--whatever metric you're using,
there's going to be days thingsare high.
There's going to be days thingsare low.
And you appreciate every dayand you value what your body can

(54:49):
do today.
And some days it feels awesomeand you can go hard.
And the old Nina 10 years ago Icould go hard every day.

That was my goal (54:58):
be broken by the end of the day.
And my goal is so different now.
It's like live to fight anotherday.
Save some today so you can bebetter tomorrow.
So tomorrow you wake up feelinggood not broken.

Alexis (55:14):
I love all the things that you've discussed there and
described when I think about myown journey, and I'll just
really sort of have a startingpoint and an end.
There's a lot more in themiddle of it, but you know, I
was kind of going back to when Iwas in high school, so when the
things that I remember thinkingabout I would not have admitted
it to you, but I wanted to beskinny and have good skin.
Meanwhile, I was dressingmyself very akin to what Billie

(55:37):
Eilish looks like.
I loved men's clothing.
I wore trousers and I had allof the sweater, vests and stuff
and I was trying, you know, butI was trying to like not focus
on looking like the skinny girl,because I also had a very
different body anyway.
In addition to that, I also wentvegan, and it was for some good

(55:57):
reasons.
In addition to that, I alsowent vegan and it was for some
good reasons, but I think it wasalso largely for a number of
bad reasons, including it pissedmy parents off.
What teenager is not looking topiss their parents off?
But all I ate was beige food,pasta, bread, I did eat hummus.
Okay, some chickpeas in there.
But I didn't learn how to like raw vegetables until I

(56:19):
was well into my 30s.
I also--i t was a good night ifI slept four hours, because I
was a master of procrastinationand somehow this was never a
discussion with my parents or myteachers or anyone else by the
time I was in college, and laterit became a badge of honor.
Oh, I didn't even sleep at alllast night.

(56:39):
I was cramming, like what.

Nina (56:42):
I think that's true.
I think that unfortunately isstill kind of the case.

Alexis (56:44):
Totally is.
Yeah, you know, and I'd say mystress was up and down the same
way it is now and I thinkprobably with a crappy diet and
poor sleep habits, it wasprobably more prone to be on the
stress side than the not stressside.
Yeah, you know, what I wouldsay is, over the course of many,

(57:05):
many years, you know, I sort ofdescribed having a more
positive relationship.
But for me, physical fitness,like my body's math, is, I need
two intense workouts a week.
I'd like to do more.
I'd like to do more yoga.
It's hard for me to fit it intomy life.
So as long as I can get thosetwo workouts a week, I'm good.
Sleep, I track it and you getbetter at the things that you

(57:26):
monitor.
So I have a Fitbit, I recentlygot an Aura.
Aura makes me feel better aboutmy sleep than Fitbit.
Oh that's so interesting.
I don't think in two and a halfor three years of using a
Fitbit, I don't think I've ever,ever once gotten more than
maybe an 85 in my sleep ever,and most of the time it's high

(57:48):
70s or 80.
Meanwhile Aura is giving me inthe 90s.
Like earlier this week I had a95.
So like I like my Aura better,I just don't remember to charge
it and my Fitbit still works.
So I still use it.
You know, stress it's ultimately, for me, the number one thing I
use to manage my stress isworking out.

(58:08):
There's a book Burnout by theNagoski sisters that talks about
not managing your stress asbeing really the primary thing
and not actually processingemotions as being the number one
driver of burnout, especiallyfor women.
And there's this very visceralway they describe it as like you
have stress juice and you'rebasking in stress juice and I

(58:30):
think about working out asliterally wringing out the
stress juice in my body, whichsounds absolutely revolting.

Nina (58:37):
No, it sounds awesome.
I've stolen that from you.
Wait, when we talked and yousaid that that you visualize it
as ringing out, I have used thatas a cue now ever since that.
Like when we're doing any-- Ijust tied in, if you're doing a
bicycle sit-up, I will say it'slike you're twisting out the
stress of your day.
So thank you.

Alexis (58:55):
Ooh I love it.
That's awesome.
And for me, nutrition it's notgreat.
I do find that I eat better.
When I do work out, I'm morecompelled to eat better.
I used to eat a lot more likegreasy spoon hamburgers and
gross stuff and as soon as Istarted working out I don't
crave it as much, which is kindof interesting.

Nina (59:14):
It's really interesting.

Alexis (59:15):
But I've gone through plenty of fad diets.
It's also hard to managenutrition when you're married
and when you have kids to befeeding.
But I know for me, I was veganwhen I was a teenager.
I did Jenny Craig when I was--and I wrote a terrible song
about it.

Nina (59:32):
That's a good throwback.

Alexis (59:33):
I ate Jenny Craig.

Nina (59:36):
Keep going.
There's more.

Alexis (59:38):
In a frantic panic of midnight munchies.
I ate Jenny Craig.
She was taunting me with skinnydreams, but I just wanted a
chicken leg.

Nina (59:49):
This is spectacular.

Alexis (59:50):
I don't remember the next part, but it ended with "I
ate Jenny Craig.
"

Nina (59:55):
I love it.
Put that in the show notes.

Alexis (59:58):
By the way, this was also in-- it would have been
around 2004, 2005.
It was when I was trying topursue a music career and I had
to focus on the way that Ilooked.
I was not healthy about it.
I did lose 10 or 15 pounds andI have like these gaunt photos
where my cheeks are all likecaved in, and I got a lot of

(01:00:19):
positive feedback that this washow-- it was not sustainable at
all and I was like "I can't,freaking do this, no way.
"

Nina (01:00:26):
Yeah, and your brain doesn't work.

Alexis (01:00:28):
Yeah, well, and I was being less creative.
It was harder.
Anyway, I think I for the mostpart stopped with that stuff.
I would generally say that Ijust had disordered thoughts
around eating.
But then when I was in my 30s,I did Perfect Health Diet, which
is a kind Paleolite one.
I got into Paleo.
I did the whole 30 twice.

(01:00:50):
Funny story there was, I thinkI dropped like 10 or 15 pounds,
the first time I did the whole30.
And then, right afterward, Igot fitted for a dress for my
good friend Sarah, her wedding,I was a bridesmaid in it.
In August when it came around,I was busting out of said dress.
It was so awful.

(01:01:11):
I actually changed dresses forthe reception because I was so
freaking uncomfortable it wasawful.

Nina (01:01:18):
That's such a sad story.
Yeah, I hate everything aboutthat.

Alexis (01:01:23):
I'm sure like other people have had similar things.
Anyway the most recent thingthat I've been doing, which I
actually think is probably themost manageable one, is my
husband and I have been usingFactor on and off, it's a meal
service.

Nina (01:01:37):
I was going to suggest Factor when we were talking
about hacks.

Alexis (01:01:40):
Because it's easy, it's it's not cheap, but it's easy
and the biggest thing with thatone is I learned how to eat
smaller meals.

Nina (01:01:50):
Yeah.

Alexis (01:01:51):
It was hard the first couple of days when I started
initially and I actually woundup I probably did wind and I
don't weigh myself veryfrequently but, over the course
of a couple months I droppedlike five pounds and it wasn't
any effort and I think Iactually was probably eating
more vegetables.
If you wanted to, that's awesome, right, and if you can set
aside the money for it.

(01:02:11):
For me, the biggest things thatI realized for myself is that
my number one and number twothings are working out and
focusing on sleep, and the restof it is do the best I can.
But you know, as long as I getthe first two, I can manage, and
you know, livelihood--

Nina (01:02:29):
I think that goes back to the one size fits one and that,
like, progress is fluid.
There might be a point in timewhere that changes, where the
sleep is a little bit moremanaged.
And now you're going where thesleep is a little bit more
managed and now you're gonnastart to focus a little more on
another piece and eventuallyit's gonna be coming more full
circle eventually one day.

(01:02:49):
And that's also my experienceis that I love exercise.
I know I've said it and anyonewho knows me is like she's
exercising again.
I don't have children oranimals, so I have a lot of free
time.
I'm either working or workingout is pretty much my whole life
, and still sleep is moreimportant to me than exercise.

(01:03:09):
I am going to prioritize that,because if I can't sleep, I
can't exercise anywhere.

Alexis (01:03:14):
I'm just.

Nina (01:03:15):
I'm just digging my hole even deeper and I use a Whoop as
my fitness device, so I'mtracking, I use it for
everything.

Alexis (01:03:23):
Whoop?
What is this?

Nina (01:03:24):
The Whoop.
W-h-o-o-p.
Check it out.
It's a wearable on your wrist.
All right.
It also.
But you don't have to wear iton your wrist.
They have like bra andunderwear and all sorts of
things that you can wear it andthat you can wear it and it
tracks-- deep, dive, trackseverything your exercise, your
sleep.
Specifically, I answerquestions every day about the

(01:03:47):
day before.
You get to pick what thequestions are.
So I tell it how, what mystress level was, how much water
I consumed, if I drank alcohol.
I do keep track of my calories.
I do keep track of my weight.
All because I think the metricsmatter and I think it makes me
better at my job.
The more I know about myself,I'm able to relate more to
whatever someone individually isgoing through.
he it's kind of part of my wholeprocess of helping people

(01:04:08):
become their best selves.
And again, if I'm going to wakeup at four in the morning,
which I do on a regular basis,and I'm going to exercise by 430
, and I can feel already thatweight of fatigue right when my
eyes open.
If I don't have to be at workand I was just doing that for

the pleasure of exercising (01:04:24):
nope .
And that's growth for me,because I used to just be like
you must.
You know, the mental self-talkwas so negative that I would do
it anyway, because I couldn'tget over myself for weeks if I
had missed a workout.
And I'm very grateful that I'veevolved that now I realize

(01:04:45):
sleep is more important.
Or if I'm upset about it, I saywait until tomorrow.
You're going to feel so muchbetter tomorrow.
And every time I wait untiltomorrow and I'm like, "Oh my
gosh, is this the same body?
I feel so much better.
"

Alexis (01:04:57):
Oh, I slept.
I love that.
Okay, I love talking about allof our journeys, and there's so
many things that are justfascinating here.
Let's go into a little bit of adifferent spin here.
Can we focus a little bit interms of any positive memories
or experiences that you've hadwith physical health, really

(01:05:20):
honing in on the positive?

Nina (01:05:22):
This was a tough one for me.
I remember you asking me thisquestion earlier and I was like
nothing.
Everything sucks, was myinitial reaction.

Alexis (01:05:33):
Life sucks.

Nina (01:05:34):
Yeah, and the thing that I'm really most proud of for me
right now, as the person that Iam, is that I'm actually very
slowly learning how to trulylisten to my body and actually
take action.
So I've always heard it, I'vealways been aware of when it's
tired or when it's energized orwhatever it's experiencing.

(01:05:56):
I know it incredibly well, butI just normally ignore it, right
.
So it says it's tired and I'mlike suck it up.
You will not be defeated today.

Alexis (01:06:07):
Your body is your friend , Nina.

Nina (01:06:10):
I know, and I still I absolutely am still working
through this but for me, beingable to recognize when I need to
take a step back and andOranget heory is-- I love those
workouts so much and I also getcaught up in the metrics.
So, Alexis, you were talkingabout, you know that you have
this trackable wearable andeverything's color coded and you

(01:06:31):
get points in class and untilvery recently, I would do
anything to make sure that Ielevated my heart rate.
Splat points-- that means whenyour heart rate is above 84%,
which for most people, theynever experienced that.
If you only go to the gym andyou are not really, really
self-motivated, you are probablycruising between 65 and 78% of

(01:06:54):
your max heart rate which you'reworking out, do not get me
wrong.
And there's lots of studiesthat show how beneficial that
kind of zone two training is.
It's great.
And at Oranget heory wechallenge people to step it up
another notch, to get to thatuncomfortable place where you
maybe can really feel your heartbeat or you could only say two
words at a time before catchingyour breath because you are

(01:07:16):
working at such an elevatedlevel.
And there's lots of marvelousscience on why that's so
important for your health.
And doing it every single day,365 days a year, is not a great
choice.
We do not do our programming.
We do not tell people to comein every single day.
We very much encourage restdays, active recovery days,
green days.

(01:07:37):
You know, when you say, Alexis,two hard workouts a week, we
would say the most is is two tofive.
Five is the most that we wouldever tell someone to do, and
that's someone who's really hassome ambitious goals about
changing the way their exteriorbody looks.

Alexis (01:07:50):
Yeah, I remember hearing the The advice was try for
three if you can in, four Fouris good, but listen to your body
.
That was kind of what I washearing.
I can't, .
I can't do it in my currentwhere things are at, so I do
what I 100.

Nina (01:08:06):
100 percent.
But point is is that, so I take, there are times I take more
than one class a day and everysingle time I would be trying to
get 20 minutes in those highheart rate zones and I didn't
care if I was walking out with atorn achilles at the end of the
workout.
At least I got my splat pointswas my mindset.
And now, over the past eightweeks, specifically this year, I
have a girlfriend who I workout with on Wednesdays and

(01:08:28):
Fridays at Evanston and she isan awesome power walker and I
have decided, like am going topower walk with you First.
of all.
I can't keep up with her.
She power walks crazy fast andhigh inclines.
My calves are on fire.
My heart rate is reallyconditioned.
It doesn't elevate necessarilythe same rate as if I'm running
because I'm a fast runner.
People wouldn't know thislooking at me, but running is my

(01:08:49):
favorite.
Most people think I wanted tolike weight lift all the time,
but I don't.
I put on muscle easily.
I love running fast.
That's what I want to do.
And so this evolution of beingthis is a win that you're moving
in this space and your heartrate is low and you're with a
community of people that are allmoving their bodies together.
And you now I'm trying torepresent what dialing back

(01:09:13):
looks like and that that's okaytoo.
I do know that I'm people knowme.
In these spaces that I'm in.
I recognize that people arelooking to me and looking to
what I'm doing and if I'mfollowing programming which I do
, and I also am learning how tothat you don't have to go balls
to the wall every day, and myhope is that over the course of

(01:09:34):
this year-- this is a year longproject that I'll be able to
show the improvement in, mymental wellbeing and my body
composition, because I havetaken rest and how incredibly
important that is.
I know on paper it's importantand mentally it's really
challenging for me to dial back,so that is like that's a huge

(01:09:55):
win for me.

Alexis (01:09:56):
That's awesome.

Nina (01:09:57):
Because I've never known how to do it.

Alexis (01:09:59):
Well congratulations for making the progress in that
area and actually givingyourself room to like, honor
your body and take care ofyourself.
I think that's really important.
And it's also interesting too,because you know, coming back
to-- you clearly are very gearedto be very physical, just you

(01:10:19):
as a person.
So it's also almost challengingyourself of like, even if you
have-- it's actually almostwhere your physicality might be
more of a compulsion, or you'vebuilt up enough habits or feel
like you need to do these thingsand you're like "No, actually
there's some other things that Iwant to focus on too.

(01:10:41):
" I think that's a really niceway that you've been able to
balance all of that out.

Nina (01:10:45):
It's still not balanced.
I'm still working on it, justto be clear, because anyone
listening to this will be likeshe's still cuckoo.

Alexis (01:10:51):
You're making moves.
You're making progress.
That's what it's all about.

Nina (01:10:56):
It's opened up a lot of opportunity for conversation
with people.
I will even use today as anexample.
Today I ran hard.
First 23 minutes, I ran myheart out and then I said to
myself you are going to walkthis last round and you're going
to have people look at you andask you if you're injured and
you're going to take thatopportunity to say "no, like I
put in the work," right.

(01:11:16):
I got my splat points and nowI'm going to show that you can
dial back and still get a greatworkout.
That hour is still valuable,even though now, like the second
half, I'm going to back off.
And that exact thing happenedwhere someone said "are you okay
?
" I said I'm totally okay.
Like, I'm more than okay.
I'm actually listening to mybody and realizing that I don't
need to be broken to have agreat workout.

Alexis (01:11:37):
I think that's a really great way to think about it.
When I think about myself, whenI go back to my childhood.
It's funny, I hadn't reallythought about this until I
started imagining this episodeand I was like, "oh, I have to
talk about my award-- where Iwas arguably my peak in physical
health was in eighth grade--when I received the Sportswoman

(01:11:58):
of the Year Award in my eighthgrade class.
" By the way, my eighth gradeclass had 50 kids in it, so I
was the best of 25 girls.
Yeah.

Nina (01:12:09):
Still win, still win.

Alexis (01:12:11):
What the hell does that even mean anyway?

Nina (01:12:14):
I don't know.
I was going to ask questionslike, how did that even work?

Alexis (01:12:18):
Whatever, and, by the way, probably the main thing
that I played then wasbasketball, which I actually
dropped by the time I went intohigh school because I was like
"whoa, this is way toocompetitive.
" and I probably could have doneit, but it would have been
hard-- kind of what you weretalking about earlier.
I could have put in hard workand I could have continued to
stay with the team, I think.
But there were enough otherplaces that I didn't have to

(01:12:40):
work as hard to still be doinglike really well comparatively.
The sport that actually Iprobably was focused on the most
was fast pitch softball, but Ialso picked up volleyball.
I dropped all of them by thetime I was a junior in high
school, but I loved being onteams.
I loved playing social sports.
I also loved that I got tolearn how to use gym equipment.

(01:13:03):
I think this is one of thethings that made it much easier
as an adult to get back into thegym.
I have good form when I dostuff because I learned it.
I will claim that one because I learned how to do it
when I was young and I knowwhere I should be pushing and I
know what's actually theappropriate amount of weight to
be pulling.
It laid a really greatfoundation for me to build upon

(01:13:27):
later.
I also I had a number ofdifferent periods of getting
really into running.
I remember a couple of summerswhen I came home from college.
I got really in shape over thecourse of the summer.
It was always I went back andpeople were like "whoa, what
happened to you?
" So you know clearly by the endof the school year I was not

(01:13:49):
doing these things and I didn'tquite look the same.
But it's also kind of what youwere talking about earlier.
You only get noticed andattention for the times where
you look real good.

Nina (01:13:59):
I know.

Alexis (01:14:01):
When I was in my 20s I got really into running races,
but I wasn't doing them fast,but I got into doing 10Ks and
half marathons.
Problem was when I also triedto do marathons, I tried three
of them and I kept on gettinginjured.
I never actually ran a marathonand the last one that I did I
wound up-- a year after theinjury that I thought I just

(01:14:23):
pulled a hamstring or I don'tknow what I thought I pulled--
but it turned out I had a stressfracture in my calf.
I can't run anymore and Istarted going to physical
therapy a couple times to tryand get back into it.
But I do power walking at OTFand, by the way, I think one of

(01:14:43):
the things that you should dobecause there are very few power
walkers in there.
It's very running centric.
I just I observe this becauseI'm on the other side.
When I started going there Iactually felt kind of weird
about it, like "oh, everyone'sgoing to notice me.
" But I think, because it's notas common, I think you should be

(01:15:08):
doing some sort of thing whereyou're tying together power
walkers and giving like a crossgym or cross everyone in OTF
like some kind of a challenge.
I think there there could besomething really cool of dialing
into that and sort ofcelebrating power walking,
because I agree, actually Ithink that it almost was
off-putting for me that I wasn'ta runner.
I'd had enough time of doingpower walking and like I'd
gotten some one-on-one personaltraining sessions at some point

(01:15:31):
and I was like I can't run, Ican't do anything, and they're
like "Yes, you can, you can doelevated walking.
"I was like "what?
" in case anyone listening hasproblems and they can't run, or
they hate running.
Using high incline for walkingis awesome and I love-- I
actually I've had friends who'vealso sort of compared how they

(01:15:54):
perform when they do elevatedwalking versus running and they
actually burn more calories forthemselves.
I mean, I don't know that thisis like statistically relevant.
It's more, you know--

Nina (01:16:04):
It depends on the individual body.
First of all, thank you forthat feedback.
I do have connections where Ican be actually like accessing
the template design team to letthem know about that.
That hurts to hear that youwould have felt at all like
turned off at the beginning,because I care so much that
everyone feels included and apart of it.

(01:16:24):
There is so many benefits topower walking.
That is a skill that we want tohave all the time, right?
We always want to be able towalk.
Being able to run is like thatdoesn't matter as much as always
wanting to be able to walk andthe importance of that elevation
.
And you're really building thebackside of your body.
We call it your posterior chain, but, your butt, the backside
of your legs, your hamstringsand your calves, those are

(01:16:45):
really important muscles.

Alexis (01:16:46):
Pariformis, by the way, is the muscle that I have the
biggest issues with.

Nina (01:16:51):
Yes.

Alexis (01:16:52):
Pariformis, it's very difficult to stretch and I
didn't know it existed until Iwas in my early twenties, and
someone was like, "Oh, you havea really like-- that's what's
really tight for you.
" And I was like, "What?
"

Nina (01:17:03):
Do you get sciatic pain?
Like that sharp shooting paindown--

Alexis (01:17:06):
When I went through pregnancy I had sciatica both
times.
I also have flat feet and Ihave a tendency-- so like I have
a lot of things, that also allcontributed to my running
injuries.
So it's kind of my gate.
But I'll go back into someother positive memories.
One of the other things that Igot really into in my later 20s

(01:17:28):
was I got into trekking.
I guess in the UK they talkabout trekking, it's like hiking
.
But I went on--

Nina (01:17:36):
But it's weighted, right?

Alexis (01:17:37):
Yeah, the concept is you at least have a backpack on.
But I went on some very specialtrips.
I've been to the Himalayasthree times.

Nina (01:17:46):
Amazing.

Alexis (01:17:46):
I've hiked to Everest Base Camp, which the crazy thing
about that is that at somepoint-- I mean you need to have
a certain level of physicalfitness-- but at some point it's
about how your body handles lowoxygen areas.
I was in a group and there wasa couple, like 70 year olds and

(01:18:06):
like an 83 year old and theywere like way ahead of me and I
was like *intense breathing.
*That's going to sound real great
.

Nina (01:18:17):
I wish everyone could see your face right now.
That was good.
That was a really goodimpersonation impression.

Alexis (01:18:25):
Well, actually the amazing thing was we finished
the walk and then we went onthis--i t was pretty quickly
downhill and I was running toget downhill because suddenly I
was like "oxygen.
This is amazing.
"Then some of the other things
when I think about physicalhealth: pregnancy probably gets
its own--i t's actually one ofthe topics, and being a mom and

(01:18:50):
the whole pursuit of that-- butbeing able to create in my body
a child--

Nina (01:18:56):
So cool.

Alexis (01:18:57):
Is just-- and it was wild.
We'll talk about some of thedownsides of it, but it really
was just this fascinating thingand feeling the flutters when
the kid starts to make movementsand the kicks.
It just was really wild.
But I think the last part ofwhen I really think about
positive memories of healthreally the last one was getting

(01:19:19):
back into going into workoutsand going when I started up at
OTF.
That was really huge.
The other thing that I thinkwas really important about that
one and I still remember SeanEvan was my coach that he did my
first one and he was like "well, why are you here?
" And it was I need more energy.

(01:19:40):
I was totally depleted.
It had nothing to do withweight.
It had nothing to do with anysort of measurable official
thing.
It was that I had no energy andI wanted it, and the reason
that I work out now is entirelyfor managing my energy and my
mental health.
I have done the transformationchallenges and weighed myself

(01:20:02):
one or two other times a year.
I weigh myself on occasion, butI am not doing it to look good.
When I was younger, I wastotally doing it to look good.
I have a very, very differentexperience of it now and I think
it's a lot healthier for me.

Nina (01:20:17):
For sure.

Alexis (01:20:18):
So I think that's really where I feel good about my
physical health now is it's nottied to how I look, it's how I
feel.
That's what matters.

Nina (01:20:28):
And that's what everybody needs to hear.
It really is about how you feel, because when you feel great,
everything looks great too,right?
That's why I say what happensexternally is going to be a
result of what's happeninginternally.
And if you feel great, yourposture is better, you look
better, all of those things.
You were talking about beforewhen you exercise, that you

(01:20:51):
weren't craving the greasy stuff, you were actually craving more
nutrient-dense foods.
It really all does tie in.
I did remember one other victorythat I would like to share, and
it might be a little bit off,but it goes back to body image,
and if you don't like it, wedon't have to use it, and I want
to share it.

Alexis (01:21:10):
Share it.

Nina (01:21:11):
Okay.
So one thing that I did thatreally went against the grain.
When I was 22 years old, beforeI got on the road with this big
show that I ended up being onfor the last four years, I got
breast implants because that wasthe expectation.
I got huge knockers because theprice was the same, so why not
just get the biggest onespossible?

(01:21:32):
That was my mindset with it,and they were an impulse buy.
I went to visit the doctor,like on a Monday, and I had
surgery, I think, on a Thursday,that quick, right?
A nd I was performing, I wasdoing aerial arts 28 days after
surgery, which is like I wasn'tsupposed to.

Alexis (01:21:49):
Oh my gosh, that's like majorly invasive too.

Nina (01:21:53):
Well, there's different types and mine was the least
invasive right there's under themuscle and there's over the
muscle, and I was over themuscle.
So I was like, I mean, I didn'tcare if I was cleared, I was
exercising the next day becauseI was so obsessed with it.
But here's the point of thestory.
In 2020, I admitted to myselfthat I hated those things and
that they made me hate myselfeven more than I realized when I

(01:22:17):
admitted it.
And you know, we were spendingall this time I was leading
workout classes on Zoom, so Iwas really looking at myself on
a regular basis and I got anexplant, so I got my breast
implants removed.
And I want to say that, like tome, it's really important that
women hear that that justbecause you made a bad decision
doesn't mean you're stuck withit.

(01:22:38):
And at that period of time whenI did it, you couldn't have
convinced me not to.
I thought it's what I had to dofor the industry I was in.
I was going to be in these big30,000 people arenas.
There was going to be more ofme to see I'm riding the largest
elephant in the world, so mybig knockers were just going to
match this big elephant, all thethings.
And they were not right for me.

(01:22:59):
They ended up rupturing.
They were like soup when theywere removed.
I still have pieces of implantlike that the doctor wasn't able
to remove little tiny ones, butthey stick out through my skin
now.
And aesthetics of what we'retold is beautiful at the time is
so fleeting and temporary.
And if there is something thatyou have done physically to
augment yourself, it is notpermanent and you can undo it

(01:23:22):
and you should undo it and youshouldn't let anybody else's
opinion sway you one way oranother.
Because I think I kept themmuch longer, because I felt the
pressure that I was supposed tokeep these and this is what made
me a woman.
And now I'm flat and I havenever been happier than when I
got, like from the day thatthose came out of my body, I

(01:23:43):
have felt so much more confidentwith a flat chest, knowing,
like that, this is me and thisis what I was meant to be and
this is how I was made.

Alexis (01:23:50):
he, you for sharing that .
There's so much to say on thefeeling, the need to get them in
the first place, that I'm notactually going to go there.
I'm glad that you made thechoice for yourself of what you
feel is the right thing for you.
I think at the end of the day,people can choose whatever they
want.
I will admit I have-- I neverin my life ever considered

(01:24:11):
seriously the idea of gettingplastic surgery until a friend
of mine started talking aboutgetting a tummy tuck.
And I've had two kids and I'dactually say this was also
probably a year, year and a halfago.
My body's actually changed andlike I think more consistency
going to the gym has made mybody better.

(01:24:32):
But I also I have like thisflopsy thing where I had a kid,
actually had two childrengrowing in there.
I also had a miscarriage that Ihave told very few people in
the world about and that's oneof the things I do want to
explore in a different episodesomewhere.
But I seriously was like, "ohyeah," I joined some Reddit
group that was talking aboutlike people you know they had

(01:24:55):
like before and after pictures.
That surgery is massively,invasive.

Nina (01:25:01):
Major.

Alexis (01:25:02):
Enormously, I mean it's like six months before you're
like normal again, you have tohave bags to deal with drainage.
I mean they're cutting throughmuscle and everything.
By the way, I also never had tohave a C-section.
I was able to have "naturalbirth," which is its own, you
know whatever thing.

(01:25:22):
But that's also a massivelyinvasive-- I mean they're going
through layers of muscle andorgans and things like it's
incredibly invasive.
People don't realize whatyou're signing up for or
actually getting, because it'sthe healthiest option for many
people too.
I don't even know that I evertalked to Jeff about this.

(01:25:43):
I don't think he would careeither way.
I think he would be like "Imean, if you really want to do
it, and that's the thing youwant to do, like sure I'll be
supportive," and then I was like, okay, wait, "how can I be a
mother of like of a rambunctiouslittle boy?
" I don't think it's actually apossibility truly in my life
without causing all sorts ofother weird things to happen.

Nina (01:26:04):
Yeah, you could do a whole podcast on plastic surgery.

Alexis (01:26:07):
By the way, if that's something that you want to do,
like all the power to you,

Nina (01:26:11):
I agree.
Goes back to one size fits one.

Alexis (01:26:14):
People get to make their own choices about all the
things, but they should get thechoice.
Wow, I'm going off.

Nina (01:26:22):
Hit the books.
Hit the books is what I wouldsay.
Right.
Before you go under the knife,really do your due diligence and
what that actually means foryou.
I am not anti-plastic surgery.
I'm actually really pro-plasticsurgery if it's going to make
you feel better, and just doublecheck, make sure that it makes
you feel better.
And what made you feel good 10years ago--i f it's not making
you feel good now and you havethe means to make a change, make

(01:26:44):
that change.

Alexis (01:26:46):
Yeah.
Well, so this is largelycovered.
When I was thinking aboutchallenges with physical health,
my biggest one for me wasreally the pregnancy itself was
really hard.
With both of my kids I gainedat least 60 pounds at some point
.
I stopped knowing.
I was like please just don'ttell me.
So I gained a lot of weightwith both of them.

(01:27:06):
I was able to drop most of theweight pretty quickly with my
first.
With my second it didn't comeoff, and I did the same exact
things that I had with my first.
I went back.
I was lucky enough to have aleave, I went to the same types
of gym classes and working outand the weight didn't drop and
it was mortifying.

(01:27:27):
It was also when I first finallywent to Oranget heory I was
just in a yucky place and I waslike mmmm.

Nina (01:27:35):
That stuff is so tough, you know, and I haven't had the
experience of being pregnant, soit's not something I can speak
on, personally.
I do find it really interestingto just see how unique
everyone's individual body is,because I have seen all
different ranges of what happensto people during pregnancy and
after pregnancy, particularlyand it doesn't-- Whenever I

(01:27:56):
think like, "oh, it's because ofyour age," I'm like "No, that's
not true, that doesn't line upwith that person.
Or oh, it's because of youknow-- I make up the story I'm
telling myself, ideas about whythings end up the way they are.
And it's a mystery and it's youand your individual genetics
and because I haven't evenexperienced it myself, it's not
something I can speak on.
It's only something I can say Iadmire every woman who is a

(01:28:19):
mother, every person who is amother and who has carried a
child is so incredible to me andbrave, and something one day
maybe I'll be able to do it orbe bold enough to do.
T here's a lot of fear to meabout something like that.

Alexis (01:28:32):
It has unlocked all sorts of parts of my journey
that I never expected, and ithas been a fantastic and amazing
experience, and there have beenmany moments of challenges and
difficulties that I never couldhave foreseen and I'm glad that
I did it.
It's also it's a lot.

Nina (01:28:51):
It's cool you're going to talk about it.
That would help people like me.
I always want to hear about it.

Alexis (01:28:56):
Well, so let's come back to challenges.
Thank you for sharing your ownexperience around implants.
But any other challenges thatare worth highlighting here with
your physical health?

Nina (01:29:07):
I am the guinea pig at all times.
You know you were talking abouthow you were vegan.
I think I've done every dietthere is, and mainly from an
experimental standpoint.
Like, okay, let me see how Ifeel if I--.
I don't remember why I decidedto go vegan.
I think it was cool.
I was working in Vermont at thetime.
Everybody was vegan.
Like I just wanted to be one ofthe kids.

Alexis (01:29:32):
I wouldn't think of Vermont as like the place for
veganism.
But here we are, so I guess itis.

Nina (01:29:34):
Really.
Well, I was in like NorthernVermont, at a circus arts school

facility (01:29:38):
Craftberry Commons.
It's like not even a town.

Alexis (01:29:42):
It's also, I don't actually really know Vermont.
We should probably put that outthere if I've been there a
couple times and there's a lotmore to the state than I
probably have any awareness of.
So there you go.

Nina (01:29:54):
They're real earthy people, so.
Or at least the people I wasaround.
I like to explore andexperiment with these things so
I can really speak on them, orat least on how they impacted me
, and the thing that I findreally interesting about it is
what affected me 10 years ago.
So, like 10 years ago Iabsolutely needed to have
carbohydrates like a lot ofcarbohydrates to stay fueled,

(01:30:14):
and now I actually need a lot offat to stay fueled.
And so doing all theseexperimental things I just I
find really fascinating and itgoes back to the body you were
once in is going to be different, and so, like what worked for
you then does not mean it'sgoing to work for you now.

Alexis (01:30:35):
\\S\o you so much for checking out today's episode,
but before I sign off for theday, I want to invite you to get
in touch.
You can text me any reactionsthat you have to the episode or
the show.
You will find a link to do thatin my show notes.
I would love to hear from you,and if you enjoyed what you
heard today, please subscribe tothe show or leave a comment.

(01:30:56):
It is a small thing that youcan do, but it makes a world of
difference for me and for thisshow.
You can also sign up for mynewsletter at breakoutboothcom,
where I will send you friendlyupdates, and you can also get
early access to episodes beforethey hit the airwaves.
As always, I will share linksto notable references in our

(01:31:18):
show notes.
I will also include a link foryou to get in touch with our
guest, Nina Black.
If you'd like, and in case youare chomping at the bit to do
that right now, you can find heron Instagram, her handle is
@NinaBlackFitness.
With that, I wish you a veryfond farewell and I look forward
to talking to you more nextweek.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Host

Alexis Booth

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

The Breakfast Club

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}6. Physical Health: Real Talk About Cultivating Wellness and Balance (part 1 of 2)