June 5, 2024 • 51 mins
Dive deep into the world of prenatal fitness and nutrition with special guest Amanda Matrisciano, a certified personal trainer with expertise in pre and postnatal training.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction to personal training, pregnancy, and nutrition with Amanda Matrisciano
2:09 - Amanda's journey into personal training and certification in pre and postnatal fitness
7:43 - Safe exercise during pregnancy: Debunking myths and providing personalized advice
12:53 - Postpartum recovery: Essential fitness tips and mental coaching
17:36 - Postpartum recovery and pelvic floor exercises for natural birth and C-section
22:42 - Mental and physical benefits of exercise with a personal trainer
24:53 - The importance of accountability and community in fitness
30:15 - Fitness, self-care, and positive body image after pregnancy
35:47 - Healthy eating habits and self-care for mothers
41:23 - Balancing nutrition and cravings during pregnancy
46:36 - fitness journey and her baking business
Explore the mental and physical benefits of staying active during pregnancy, debunk common exercise myths, and gain valuable tips for postpartum recovery. Amanda shares personal experiences and expert advice on maintaining a healthy lifestyle before and after childbirth.
Don't miss Amanda's inspiring story and practical tips for expecting and new mothers. Enjoy the episode? Please like, comment, and subscribe for more content on mental health, wellness, and personal growth.
#PrenatalFitness #PostpartumRecovery #HealthyPregnancy #ExerciseDuringPregnancy #NutritionForMoms #PersonalTraining #WellnessJourney #HealYourRootsPodcast
Check out the full podcast page here.
Please Note: This episode is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare provider before starting any new fitness or nutrition program.
Check out the rest of the Heal Your Roots Podcast episodes at our website.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Nobody wants to exercise everyday there is not a single person
that wakes up every day is likeI ready to go. I love it. Like
I'm so excited to be here. Itjust doesn't happen. That's why
we have personal trainers andworkout classes because then you
have accountability, like wetalked about, but it's the same
with the healthy eating andnutrition aspect of it. Like,
you know, you don't want to dothat every day. But if you
(00:24):
sprinkle in these things thatyou like, here in there, you get
rid of that idea of okay, wellon the weekend, I'm gonna eat
whatever I want. But during theweek I'm gonna eat really
healthy. If you have thingsspread out throughout the month
you're in there, you're gonna beso much better off and getting
into that routine. It's allabout the routine.
(00:46):
Welcome back to Heal Your RootsPodcast. I'm curious Yakubov
Shlonsky their guest co host Dr.
Katie Mangan Hello, and aspecial guest Amanda, mature
siano, personal trainer with aspecialty in helping women
through their pregnancy journey.
Thank you so much for being onwith us today. Amanda.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here. You andKatie know each other if the two
(01:07):
of you want to share how youknow each other how you met?
Yeah, when he comes to the gymthat I am a trainer app, which
is Katie, when did youofficially start at NGO?
I started in October.
Wow. Okay, so yeah. A lot.
I feels like much longer than itdoes feel like longer than that
(01:29):
for sure.
But yeah, I at this gym, nevergive up and manioc. I teach
classes. I'm also a personaltrainer, like you mentioned. But
Katie comes to our groupclasses. So that's how I met her
through that. Yeah, let's I amon the waitlist right now for
(01:50):
Thursday, if you can get mevery popular classes. So you
know, very high demand. That'sawesome. So Mina, can you share
with us a little bit about yourbackground, how you got into
personal training, andspecifically helping women
through pregnancy?
Sure, yeah. I really started mypersonal training journey right
(02:15):
after college, I, like mostpeople went to college, ate,
what I shouldn't eat, drank whatI shouldn't be drinking felt
really crappy and was like,Alright, I need to do something
to get myself feeling healthier.
So that's really when I startedgetting in to fitness a little
bit more in a sense of actuallyworking out myself and putting
(02:36):
workouts together, I was alwaysan athlete. I always did sports,
so I was always active. Butthat's when I kind of got
interested in okay, you're notgoing to be an athlete forever.
I wasn't that great. So I had todo something on my own post
college. And I figured if I atleast go through this
(02:57):
certification, I'll learn alittle bit more for myself,
whether I use it or not to trainother people. And I started with
one on one training at a reallysmall gym by my parents house.
And then when I moved to maniocafter college, I just reached
out to a couple of local places.
(03:18):
And it ended up working out thatI got this position at never
gave up and started doing groupfitness, which I hadn't done
before I had been training inanother gym. But this was really
the first time I was doing thatfull time. And then honestly, I
just had a lot of clients thatwere younger women who were
(03:39):
interested in having childrenand people that were coming to
me saying that they werepregnant or thinking about
getting pregnant. And it's alsoa very interesting time because
they I know before a lot of mypatients, family members know
that they're pregnant becausethey have to tell me.
(04:00):
So as soon as that startedhappening, I was like, Okay, I
need a little bit more guidanceon what can they do? What can't
they do? What do I need to belooking out for to support them
better? So then I got myadditional certification in the
pre and postnatal trainingaspect of it, which is really
just an add on to my regularpersonal training certification.
(04:23):
Amanda, what did that entail andhaving to to like the additional
certifications, it's prettysimilar.
It's all online training. It wasa lot of just courses reading.
You take an online exam at theend, but really, for pre and
postnatal, it's not and I knowwe'll get into this. It's not as
(04:46):
extensive as people think thatit is. It's really they can do
what everyone else can do. Itjust guides you a little bit
more through how a woman's bodyis changing and what to be aware
ofWhen you are training somebody
that's pregnant and like, hey,these things might happen, and
that's okay. You don't need tobe nervous about them. So it was
(05:06):
very similar to my personaltraining certification, which I
did online as well. And theyjust have you get a book, you
read different chapters, youwatch some videos, and then
you'd have to take an exam atthe end to get the actual
certification.
Awesome. Okay. So it sounds likeit kind of just found you.
(05:30):
This process? Yeah, it reallydid. Um, it's a running joke
that I don't know what happenedwhen I started working at ng
you, but there's something inthe water and all of my clients
are pregnant or have or will bepregnant soon.
There was months where everymonth I was finding out one of
(05:52):
my clients was pregnant. So atthat point is like, right, I
have to do it now. Because allof them are.
Others were pregnant. And so itjust also helps to put me at
ease, like, Okay, I have all ofthese women that are they want
to train, they've felt so goodstarting training, that we're
all at different points in theirfitness journey. So to also be
(06:16):
able to give them the guidanceand like the comfort of it's
okay, like we're good. We cankeep training through your
pregnancy has been reallyhelpful. So good luck charm.
Yeah, I don't I really don'tknow.
I will take all the credit.
That's just one of your gifts.
Yeah, it really truly is. Idon't know how I do it. But
(06:41):
that's awesome. Yeah. So whatwould you say for you is like,
what are when you are workingwith pregnant women or you know,
that pre and post satis? What doyou think are some of the mental
emotional and physical benefitsof staying active throughout the
pregnancy? I think mental ishonestly the biggest thing and a
(07:06):
mental and emotional together.
Just because I'm like I said,they're all at different points
in their fitness journey. SoI've had women who were so
active their entire lives. Andthis is throwing like a huge
wrench into what they're used toand their normal routine. So for
them to hear, hey, you can workout through this pregnancy, and
(07:30):
we're going to change thingswhen we need to, but it's still
going to be a beneficial workoutfor you. Just puts them at ease.
And for a lot of them that istheir outlet. Like they come.
They work out to make themselvesfeel better mentally, and they
feel better leaving and to nothave that or to take that part
(07:52):
of their routine away. Justbecause they're pregnant, I've
seen the flip side of that aswell, where either women have
really challenging pregnancies,and they truly can't work out,
or they just don't feel ascomfortable working out. And it
really takes a toll on themmentally. And then the physical
aspect is just, you know, I'vetalked to a lot of pelvic floor
(08:14):
specialists, and I am not apelvic floor specialist. But it
helps so much with the afterwords and the way that I've seen
so many of my clients be able tocome back probably sooner than
they would have been able tocome back. And it doesn't even
mean they're jumping back intothese crazy hardcore workouts.
Just being able to do somethingbrings back that mental aspect
(08:39):
of okay, now postpartum, youhave a newborn, you're
exhausted, you're doing thisstuff 24/7 to have that little
teeny tiny 45 minutes toyourself, to be able to do
something and know that you getto do that every week or twice a
week or whatever it is. JustI've seen such a drastic change
in their attitudes and how theyfeel. And even my I have a
(09:01):
client right now. She's due inJune. And every time she comes
in, she's like, might be thelast time I don't know how I
feel. And this morning, likewe're just slowly slowing it
down. But she said to me thismorning, I never thought I would
get to 36 weeks and be workingout in any way, let alone with
(09:22):
weights and doing actualworkouts. So she just even
though physically she feelsuncomfortable mentally she feels
really good that she made it tothat point. So that's
incredible. And you know, I'mwondering because I didn't I had
a new I have a newborn she is atthis point four months, and I
wasn't sure you know, the thingsI was reading is like if you
(09:45):
have been working out, continueworking out but if you haven't
worked out, don't try anythingnew or don't do anything too
intense. Like there's a lot oflike myths and misconceptions
out there. Would you be able toshare a little bit about like
some informationor knowledge to give women
whether they have been workingout or they're starting for the
first time, like how to gothrough that process?
(10:07):
Yeah, for sure, I've actuallyworked with both women who have
worked out their whole lives,it's part of their routine. And
they kind of just keep thatgoing. It really is true, like,
what you were doing before iswhat you can do during you
shouldn't increase the intensityof it too much. But if early on
(10:28):
in your pregnancy, you'reinterested in, hey, you know
what, like, I know that I'm aslightly active person, but I'm
not going to the gym every day.
But I would like to stay activeduring my pregnancy, just
starting with lower impactworkouts, whether it's just
using lighter weights or bodyweight, or strictly core work. I
think a lot of the myths arearound, oh, like pregnant women
(10:53):
can't do that. They can quiteliterally do almost anything
unless it's uncomfortable forthem. So there's a lot of things
and and if you, like I said, thecomfort of the mother, you'll
also talk to your doctor likedoctors will recommend Don't be
in a room that's heated over acertain amount, we have heated
(11:15):
classes, they also will tellwomen, if you've been doing that
pre pregnancy, you see what'scomfortable for you, and then
we'll talk about it. So I alwaystell them, you know, talk to
your doctor about what you feelcomfortable with.
But it could be something I hada client that her whole first
(11:36):
trimester, we couldn't doanything where she hinged
because it made her feelnauseous. Like it just you just
adapt to what what's going onwith your body. But there's
nothing written anywhere basedin science that says you know,
don't hinge or the only thingthey'll say is, you don't want
to be on your back for too long,which they talk about that in
(11:57):
general. And that's more so whenyou are further along. But I've
also seen women on their backdoing, you know, careful core
work. The only thing that Ireally avoid is full sit ups,
crunches anything where you'relike really contracting your
core all together. But thatbeing said, core work is a
(12:19):
massive part of pregnancy. Sothere are so many other things
that you can do with someonewho's pregnant or postpartum, to
get their core strong and keeptheir core strong without doing
those extreme movements of okay,you're really using the entire
core for this move. So a lot ofit is myths. I tell my clients,
(12:41):
if you saw it on social media, Idon't want to hear about it,
your doctor about it. Andbecause there's so many things
out there that they say don't dothis, do this. This is great.
This is bad. And I just try tosteer them clear of any social
media pregnancy guidance. That'srelatable for us to not
necessarily when people arehanging in there, like look what
(13:03):
I found.
Yes, I'm sure it's very true.
Every you can find anything onsocial media these days. So
yeah, for sure. Well, so Okay,something that I was thinking
about to in talking with,because I have a lot of friends
that are pregnant right now. Andactually, when I was leaving the
(13:24):
gym, last week, I was talking tosomeone who's, like, postpartum.
And I think she had the babylike five weeks ago or something
like that. I don't know. I know,there's obviously a period of
time that you have to wait. Sowhat do you suggest people do in
that period of time? Becauselike you said, it obviously
benefits you so much mentally into go from having that support,
(13:47):
in a way then to not having thatfor that long. What do you do,
like help them prepare for thatin any way? Yeah, it's, it's
hard because I, the one thingI've learned and really through
my clients, because I don't havemy own children, but those few
(14:08):
days after giving birth are sokey. And my clients that truly
did not do a single thing. feltthe best when they came back. So
but only a few days, like thatdoesn't have to be six weeks
have absolutely nothing. Youhave a newborn, obviously,
(14:29):
you're moving around, you'regetting up you're doing things,
but those couple of days, evenwithin being in the hospital, if
you can let your core recover.
It's the same as any otherworkout, right? If you're doing
legs six days a week, your legsare not gonna get stronger
(14:51):
because you're not giving themany time to recover. So it's
kind of the same with your corelike, it just went through a
very traumatic experience.
Dance and a race, so to speak,and you got to the end of this
finish line that you werepreparing for. And now you need
to let your body recover alittle bit. So kind of talking
(15:11):
them through that, like, it'sokay to take a break, you just
had a child, it's gonna be okay,if you take a couple of days
off. And that's a message foranybody, like you will not lose
all of your strength in fivedays, I promise.
And then after that, a lot oflike slow core pelvic floor
(15:34):
there are, I will find people onInstagram that are certified
pelvic floor specialists. And Iwill send those videos to my
clients so that they havesomething visually they can look
at and kind of use forthemselves. And then when it
comes to coming back, if you'vehad a natural birth, and your
(15:55):
doctors okay with it, I've hadclients that come back, as soon
as four weeks after givingbirth, and we're not doing
anything crazy, it is prettymuch the same, you know, pelvic
floor poor, really, really smallmovements, they're on their back
a lot. They're not lifting heavyweights. But to ease them back
into that routine, I think ithelps them a lot. I have one
(16:17):
client that I didn't even thinkshe was going to make it through
the four days of do not moveyour body. And the morning, she
got cleared. At four weeks, shetexted me and said I need you to
come to the studio tonight. Idon't care what we do something.
I was like, Okay, here we go. Soit is it's that mental aspect of
(16:41):
it that they just need it intheir routine. A lot of them
honestly don't care what I'mdoing with them at that point.
It's just like, how do we slowlystart to get ourselves back into
that place, especially if theywere active before pregnancy,
because then it's like, Okay,where did my core muscles go
that I've had for my entire lifeif it's your first child.
(17:04):
So it's just to ease them backin but a lot of pelvic floor a
lot of stability, a lot of stuffthat you're kind of doing on
your own because you have anewborn that you have to pick up
and carry around. But it's a lotof training your body to do that
stuff properly. So you're notpulling your back out doing
something that is going to thenmake your life more challenging
(17:26):
with a newborn. So I'll do a lotof stuff like that to help them
prevent low back pain, preventhip pain, anything like that,
that would just make their livesmore challenging. Basically.
Like I was telling Katie thisearlier, as I wish I found you
beforehand, and during becausemy recovery was really tough.
And I you know, I've heard aboutpelvic floor and everything more
(17:49):
so with like sex therapy, notnecessarily after birth and
things like that, and like howto strengthen and how much it's
connected to everything. Like Ithink it's very understated, of
how important that part of yourbody is for just like any kind
of movement. And I found thatwalking, like after I gave birth
after a couple days of resting,like just walking like I would I
(18:09):
was like a turtle super, superslow. But just walking every
day, I found that that reallyhelped me like get a little bit
stronger. So I'm glad that youare giving like this information
to all your clients ahead oftime to help their healing and
recovery afterwards, becauseit's really so important.
Yes, and I love that you saidthat about walking, because I
(18:30):
think so many people think like,well, if I'm gonna work out, it
has to be like a workout. Andeven some I had one client, she
probably stopped training theend of last year and she just
had her daughter at the end ofMarch. So it was a decent amount
of time that she stoppedtraining. But she was so
uncomfortable. It was her secondchild she was carrying so low.
(18:51):
And I said to her just walk,just walk while you're pregnant.
You don't have to do anythingelse if it's uncomfortable, but
you're gonna feel so much betterjust because you move to your
body. So I think that'simportant too. Like, it doesn't
have to be going to a class orgetting a trainer, it just
finding some sort of movement.
Andnot. You can use certain things
(19:15):
as an excuse, but I think a lotof times when some of my clients
will be like, Well, yeah, butI'm just not feeling it today.
I'm like, okay, but you willfeel so much better if you just
sit. That's it a tiny walk. Itdoesn't have to be crazy. So I
think that is really importantto even post partum sometimes
that's all you can do likeyou're saying and if your
(19:36):
recovery is tough, that's theway to do it. Just walk, do
small movements, small things ona stability ball to get your
hips moving, but it's soimportant but that will help
everything including your coreand your pelvic floor. What are
some of the differences in therecovering process for natural
(20:00):
A birth versus like a C section,very different. So natural,
obviously, your core is stilldrastically impacted, but you
don't have any actual incisions.
So the that's why typicallythey'll say, four to six weeks
for a natural birth before yougo back to exercising. And then
(20:23):
it really depends on how your Csection went, how your body is
recovering.
I know my mom had a C sectionwith both me and my brother, and
she could barely move for weeks,because it just was so painful,
you are literally cut open, it'sa massive surgery. So in that
(20:47):
sense, you have to be a lot morecareful coming back into it. And
it's actually interesting. Ifeel like I'm so much more
cautious with postpartum than Iam when they're actually
pregnant, which seems funny,because they're carrying a
child, it's like, you shouldfeel more weirded out and like,
(21:08):
oh, my gosh, there's a baby inthere, I don't want to hurt it.
But I know how strong they areand how capable they are. And
that truly what they're doing isnot going to hurt the baby.
Whereas afterwards, you canoverdo it. And you can get
yourself set back by coming intoo hot and trying to do too
many things. So I haven'thonestly had any clients that
(21:31):
have had C sections yet. Butthat I would always say defer to
the doctor on at least howyou're healing. But same idea,
you can still do pelvic floorwork, you can still walk if
you're comfortable doing that,it's just being really careful
to let your incision heal andlet your core heal a little bit
(21:53):
more before you're doing hardcore work around that area or
with your pelvic floor or withheavy weights. Because you're
recovering from a massivesurgery, they still don't want
you to lift super heavy weightsafter a natural birth. But you
have to be a little bit morecautious when you have the
(22:17):
incision that is healing onceit's healed, it's kind of the
same. It's just a little bit ofa slower process.
I'm glad you asked that, Katie,because I think that is a big
difference in the recovery andhealing the whole process. And I
think those four to six weeksare also for I mean, this might
be TMI, but we're talking aboutthis right is, you know, a lot
(22:38):
of people have tears it whenthey have vaginal births. Oh,
right. And like doing anythingextra, like any tough exercises,
right? Like that couldexacerbate that. So that's also
part of that, not overdoing it.
Even if you know mentally youwant to or physically you might
feel like you might be able tois just not making that worse,
or extending the recoveryprocess to.
(23:04):
Yes, absolutely. And I reallydo. The doctors know pretty well
your body and how it's healingin that sense. And I think
that's why it is beneficial tohave a trainer in the beginning
because it's just somebody totell you, Okay, I know you feel
like you're ready. But let'stake it easy. My one client, she
was a professional dancer, shestarted with me with a back
(23:27):
injury from dancing, and wasmiserable when she had her back
injury because she couldn't dowhat she used to do. We got her
course super, super strong. Andthen she got pregnant. And they
were trying and they were veryexcited. But she was like what,
I just got my cord.
Why now. So it was kind of Iknew what to prepare for with
(23:51):
her because I had seen her notbe able to do what she was used
to doing. So it really is a lotof also mental coaching of you
are going to be okay. And youare going to get back to where
you were before strength wise,maybe not physically and your
body may change and it may staycertain ways. And that's
(24:11):
something I kind of tried towalk them through to like, we're
not going to that's not going tobe a gauge of how we are doing
postpartum how much weight we'velost what our body looks like,
based on what it looks likebefore we had our child. It's
going to be are we getting backto the weight that we were using
before? Is your core feelingstrong enough? Are you starting
(24:33):
to work out the same amount oftimes per week? So I tried to
set different milestones withthem so that they feel like
they're progressing and they'refeeling stronger without having
that stigma of okay, I'm gettingback into the gym to lose the
baby weight. It's more so I'mgetting back into the gym to be
as strong as I was before. Sothen I can show up better for my
(24:56):
baby.
Yeah, I'm really glad that youjust
said that part about like thattransition into it a lot of
being mental? Because that issomething I wanted us to talk
about, too, in terms of how doyou see benefits in, you know,
not just pregnant people, butother, you know, anybody who
(25:17):
comes in and exercises like,what kind of mental health
benefits do you often see frompeople, you know, engaging in
exercise? Well, it is funny,because I think I joke about it
all the time with my clients,like, I am not a therapist, and
I would like them to see atherapist in.
(25:38):
I would like to not be usedgreat advice as a therapist,
but they do like, it's almostlike I compare it sometimes to
when you're like getting yourhair done, for whatever reason,
feel like you can like traumadump on the person that you're
getting your hair done with,even though they have no
expertise and can provide you noguidance whatsoever on your
(26:01):
situation. But I do think ithelps, especially with private
training, because it's one onone, and they can come in. And
they know that they have to showup, which is what a lot of them
tell me all the time, like theyhave to show up, it is just them
and me. And if they don't showup, I'm there by myself, and
they're still paying for it. SoI think that from a mental
(26:23):
aspect, it's even if you'refeeling down, even if you had a
bad day, when you otherwisecould have said no, it's fine,
I'm just not gonna go today, orI'm not gonna go to the gym, I
don't need to go to the gym, noone's checking in on me, they
have to show up because I'mthere and they're paying me. So
that helps a lot. But then onthe flip side, they do have
somebody that they can talk toand express things. And like I
(26:47):
said, I very often say, let's Iwill work with you to find a
therapiston these situations, but I can
just tell it makes them feelbetter. Like they're lifting
heavy weights, they're sweating,they're complaining about
whatever it is that happenedtoday. And they just leave and
feel like they just lifted ahuge weight off of their
(27:07):
shoulders. And I feel like it'sthe same when you go to group
fitness like you connect withthese people that you otherwise
wouldn't have met wouldn't haveconnected with. And it's the
sense of community that you showup. And even though you're not a
personal training client, youknow that I know, if you didn't
show up, like Katie knows thatif she doesn't show up, and
(27:28):
she's on my class list, I knowthat she didn't show up, they're
probably going to ask her aboutit. And you make friends in that
way that you instantly have adifferent connection with
because you both work out andare in this routine and are
quietly secretly maybeunconsciously holding each other
accountable. Like you know, thisperson is going to this class,
(27:51):
you're going to show up becauseyou know that they're going to
show up for you and forthemselves. So I think it's also
just the people that you'resurrounding yourself with, plus
the scientific benefits ofexercise and releasing your
endorphins. And physically andmentally just feeling better
from that. But I think thatpeople play a much larger role
(28:13):
in that mental benefit than evensometimes the physical benefit
of actually doing your workout.
So that accountability piece isso so huge. And just having
everybody around you it's almostyou know, if you do a workout,
you might be able to Slack orsomething like that. But if
you're there in front of otherpeople, and you have your
(28:34):
personal trainer, like there'salso like this sense of
accomplishment that someone elsenoticed and saw that can give
you that praise as well, to kindof keep going like that positive
reinforcement to continue foryour physical and mental health.
Yeah, and Katie knows, I don'tlet them slack. I know how. And
(28:56):
sometimes. And for me, too, Itake classes for the same reason
that everyone else takesclasses. Someone's gonna push
me, I don't have to put theworkout together myself. I just
show up. It's there. I do it andI'm done. And that's why it's so
beneficial. But I think havingthat person sometimes if you're
doing it on your own, you'relike, Well, this is how strong I
am. And that's just what it is.
But if you have someone that cangauge, okay, well, your form is
(29:20):
great. And you've been doingthis weight for seven months
now. So maybe let's try thisnext week. And your form is
great without too so you can dothat way and you're gonna get
stronger from doing that way.
And I'm sure they don't like inthe moment, but afterwards,
they're like, Oh, I just lifted20 pounds and I didn't know I
(29:42):
could do that. Or I didn't knowI could even do that exercise
with 20 pounds or they'll saybefore I can't there's no way I
can lift these weights and alsojust do one do to just try it.
And it is it's such a sense ofaccomplishment for all of us,
but especially for people whoare new
work to the space or in thatgroup fitness setting to have
(30:03):
someone like single you out thatthey know that you can do
something stronger. And theyknow more than you do that you
can push yourself harder, youleave and you're like, oh my
god, I can't believe that. Ijust did that. And I feel so
great for the day. Andphysically your body is, in turn
getting stronger as well, whichis the ultimate goal. So yeah, I
(30:26):
really is the best thing ever.
Justone of the things that Amanda
and other trainers there, sayall the time is this, like, yes,
you can kind of phrasethroughout and like now that's
like, in my head like today, Iwent to hot yoga and said
because of a different time thatI had this morning. But when I
was like, Oh, should I do thisnext pose, and it just like pops
(30:48):
in my head? And it's like, yes,you can. Yes, you can. And even
if you fall, who cares? Like itdoesn't matter, you know? So
having that extra push isreally, it's really good. Yeah,
even when I was sick, like acouple of weeks ago, both of you
know, like, I over the last likemonth and a half or two months,
I've been randomly on and offsick and I'll come in and around
(31:09):
is likewell, you just know, like, you
can just like I said to you theone day like I can just I almost
pushed you,I can tell that something is
off. So we're just gonna let herdo her thing. And so it's also
about that, right reading theroom and reading people and
(31:31):
uncertainty. Some people don'twant to be pushed, and that's
fine. They want to come and theydon't come to my class.
Fly with me, I try really hard,but I just can't let it go. But
that like that's just they wantto come and they want to do
their workout. And that's okay.
But it's so it's I know frompersonal experience, how great
(31:53):
it feels to have someone havefaith in you. And I do the same
thing Katie in like, when I takea class or anything, I literally
have a bracelet that says yes,on it. And I you I do the same
thing, like what would I tell mymembers? And what would I tell
my clients in this moment when Iwant to stop when I'm running or
(32:14):
in sculpt or doing whatever andmy body is telling me no, like,
you don't need to do it, you canstop doing it. And you have to
retrain your mind. Like, no, wecan keep going you can do this
physically, you can do this. Andthat's the other mental aspect
of it is a lot of times yourmind is trying to trick you and
tell you no, you can't, you'renot strong enough, you need to
(32:37):
take a break, you're not gonnabe able to finish. But when you
get through that littlethreshold of discomfort, you get
so much stronger, and then yourealize you actually can do the
thing that you didn't think youcould do in the first place. I
love that you put so much focuson the accomplishment of like
strength being the goal and likethe function of using your body.
(32:58):
And not like kind of going backto like losing the baby weight
or how you look or how you fitinto particular clothes, right,
like shifting that mentalityinto like feeling strong and
good in your body versus how itlooks. I think that's really
huge. And like, I'm happy tohear it because I can take some
of that advice after having ababy too, is that it's just so
(33:19):
ingrained, like immediatelyafter having, Alright, gotta get
this baby weight off gotta lookdifferent instead of how can I
be stronger and healthier for meand my family.
Yeah, and it's such a hugething, just with women in
general. And I think I've alsolearned over time working with
so many different women that youdon't know, as an instructor,
(33:43):
unless it's my personal trainingclients that I get a little bit
closer with, but you don't knowwhat somebody has gone through.
And you don't know if they havesuffered from disordered eating
or any sort of eating disorder.
And so to make that the stamp ofwell, if you want to track that
you're getting stronger, youneed to track your weight, and
(34:04):
you need to track your macros.
And for some people that workslike I'm a person that I don't
track my weight. I don't knowthe last time I weighed myself,
I went to the doctor today and Iput my little hand over the
thing I was like, write it downand keep it to yourself because
I don't want to know, but I cantrack macros protein, things
(34:25):
like that. And it doesn't get meinto a bad cycle of okay, now
I'm being like hyper focused onwhat I'm eating and why I'm
eating it. But you learn soquickly who can be like that or
what people have been throughthat that may trigger them or
that may then send them into aspiral of every time they see
(34:46):
you. They want to talk about howmuch they lost or how much they
weigh and I have clients thatdon't care at all about that and
I have clients that it has takenyears to get their focus off of
the number on the scale theBecause they'll people will come
in and say, I feel great, I fitbetter in my clothes. But if I
could lose five more pounds, I'mlike, for what? Why do we need?
(35:10):
Like, what is the purpose of thefive more pounds? Because once
you get to the five more pounds,then it's five more pounds. And
it's like, Well, can I do maybetwo more pounds after that five
pounds. And it's a never endingspiral that everyone would fall
into, especially women, if youcontinue to track that way. So I
do fitness tests with them I do.
(35:32):
I'll say like what you know, youwant to do a push up, you want
to do a pull up, you want to do20 Sit ups, and I'm like,
whatever their goal is, and wetrack it like that, it kind of
just takes the focus off of,Okay, what does my body weigh.
And also, I always tell them,first of all, you may be buying
the wrong clothes. So maybe wejust buy different clothes,
(35:54):
don't buy clothes that you wishyou could fit into,
look good and fit into, but gobased on your clothes. So many
people will say oh my god, myclothes fit so much better.
That's the goal, like you feelgood in what you're wearing, I
had a client, she just finallyit took years finally just
completely cleaned out hercloset, got a whole new wardrobe
(36:16):
because she knew that she wasputting the effort in, she's
eating healthy, she's workingout five days a week, she looks
great. And her clothes justdidn't fit the right way to make
her feel comfortable in the bodythat she had created. So she
said, You know what, I'm gonnaget rid of all this, and I'm
gonna find stuff that I feelcomfortable in. And I was like,
that's great. Because, again,back to social media, we see
(36:38):
stuff on social media, we'relike, oh, my gosh, I would love
to look like so and so you don'thave so and so's genetics. So
you're probably never gonna looklike them. And I can't help you
look like them, I can help youlove yourself. But I can't take
someone else's arms and put themonto your body. And I can't do
that for myself either or Iwould. And so it's just
retraining that mindset of youryou can't base it on what
(37:01):
somebody else looks like or whatsomebody else's weight loss
journey was. And my biggestthing is, you don't ever know
how people treat their bodyinternally based on what they
look like. So I tell my clientsthat all the time, I have a
really close friend, she is sotiny, she has tiny little legs,
tiny little arms. It's just howshe was born. It's her genetic,
(37:24):
she's my height, she's tall,it's just her body type, she
probably couldn't put a lot ofweight on if she wanted to put
weight on. But she eats likecrap. And like, so that doesn't
tell you anything. If you seesomeone on social media, and
you're idolizing their body,internally, their body is
probably not as healthy as youwant your body to be internally.
(37:47):
So you have to focus on thatfirst and then let the external
kind of just do its thing as yougo. And that takes a lot of time
and patience. And it isfrustrating. But you will get
there if you put the work in andtake the time.
Yeah, you bring up a good pointwith the nutrition because
(38:07):
that's obviously a huge part ofit. And that, for me is like the
worst part of it. Because I loveto eat and I love to eat all of
the things. And like, yeah, Iwill I'm in there at least five
days a week, normally, and if Iam still eating whatever I want
whenever I want then like itactually really doesn't make it.
(38:28):
I mean, I feel stronger. I mightfeel different, but I don't
really look that much.
No, it is so true. And Iactually at one point did a
nutrition. I'm not a registereddietitian. So I can't
necessarily say like community,this is what you should eat, you
know to for your body type. Andthat's the other thing.
Everyone's bodies are sodifferent. So that's my other
(38:50):
pet peeve is things on socialmedia. They're like, don't eat
this, don't eat this, eat this,don't eat this. Well, you don't
know how your body reacts. Maybeyour body is fine. If you eat
gluten and dairy. You don't needto give it up because everyone
else is giving it up. But somepeople have really bad reactions
to it, and it does make themfeel better. So I think a lot of
it is what makes you feel good.
But I have my clients dosomewhat of a nutritional
(39:11):
challenge where they basicallyif they felt comfortable because
like I said, some it can getinto a dark place for some
people but just writing downwhat they were eating, not
tracking calories, not trying totrack macros. Because some
people just genuinely don't knowthey, they really think they're
eating healthy. And if you askthem point blank, they say yeah,
(39:33):
I live a really healthylifestyle. And then they'll
write it down. And if you breakit down for them like this is
what you're eating all day ismaking a huge impact on you. And
I think even going back tohaving children. So many people
will say, Well, I have childrenso how am I supposed to eat
(39:56):
healthy? Like, how about yourchild?
Drink, also eat healthy, andthen you could all eat.
And then everyone would feelgood. And that's an interesting
concept to me and I don't havekids. So I can't say like, I
know that it's challenging. AndI totally get that. And it's
like, just feed the kid becausethey're hungry. And this is what
(40:16):
they're going to eat. And thisis what they want. And this one
I'm giving them, but you have toprioritize yourself. And the
parents and mothers that I'veseen prioritize their own health
and fitness, are so much happierthan the people who are just
getting into the bad habits,because it's easier and because
(40:38):
well, I don't have time to cookdinner, because this is what the
kids are having. So I'm justalso having cereal or something
else. And it's just learning howyour body reacts to things like
that's, I am a huge food person,I am not someone that is like,
super, super clean eating 24/7.
But I try to listen to what mybody is telling me in a sense of
(41:02):
like, what do I feel better whenI have carbs in the morning or
at night? Or do I feel fine whenI have them whenever. And that
helps me a lot. But also justlistening to your cravings of
what your body is telling youwithout letting that take over.
So it's the same as the exercisestuff. We don't nobody wants to
(41:25):
exercise every day, there is nota single person that wakes up
every day. It's like I ready togo. I love it. Like I'm so
excited to be here, it justdoesn't happen. That's why we
have personal trainers andworkout classes because then you
have countability, like wetalked about. But it's the same
with the healthy eating andnutrition aspect of it. Like,
(41:45):
you know, you don't want to dothat every day. But if you
sprinkle in these things thatyou like, here in there, you get
rid of that idea of okay, well,on the weekend, I'm gonna eat
whatever I want. But during theweek, I'm gonna eat really
healthy. That doesn't help youat all, because you just have
this bad cycle of I'm going toeat really crappy on the
(42:06):
weekend, but I'm gonna eatreally healthy during the week,
but I'm still putting crap in mybody on the weekend. So if you
have things spread outthroughout the month, you're in
there, you're gonna be so muchbetter off and getting into that
routine. It's all about theroutine. It's the same with
exercise. It's the same with I'msure you guys see in your
practice all the time, thedifferent routines that you have
(42:28):
to get yourself into to get intothese things that you want to
work on. This the same withhealthy eating. You can't do it
for two days, and then be like,too much. I don't like it. Not
for me, I go back down. It'seasier, like nobody wants to
cook every day and rather justeat out or get fast food like it
is easier. But I've gotten mybody to a place where genuinely,
(42:49):
I think I had a cheesesteak,like about four days ago, I felt
so horrible because I don't eatlike that all the time. And like
dip tastes great. Yeah, ittastes great. I loved it, but my
body afterwards was like whatthe heck process nonsense Did
you just put into me? And why doI feel like this?
(43:12):
Get to a point where I don'treally want this stuff anymore
and every once in a while you dobut it's not an every day. Oh,
it's just part of my routine.
I'm just gonna grab this foodthat is not that great. How do
you see this show up for womenwho are pregnant with like
cravings or if they're nauseouslike in the beginning, I would
just like down a sleeve ofsaltine crackers like it was
(43:33):
nobody's business and then likethroughout the pregnancy all I
was craving was like pasta pizzaand ice cream like my babies
made up a Buzzfeed said icecream. But like knowing that
it's not the healthy thing toeat, but like your body almost
feels like if you don't have it,you will die. Like I know. It's
dramatic. But like sometimes itfeels like that during
pregnancy.
(43:56):
Yeah, it is true. I thinksimilarly to how I feel about
just general nutrition like, youdon't want to go either way so
drastically like my one clientthat I was talking about. And I
use her as an example foreverything because she is one of
my closest friends now but alsoan absolute nut job when it
(44:18):
comes to allthat she's a little crazy. But
she's always been so she grew upin Israel. So she grew up on a
Mediterranean diet and is justlike so used to okay, this is
how we eat like this is thenormal way of eating so she
doesn't really never really likeadapted to Yeah, I'm just gonna
have fast food. Like she doesn'tunderstand that. So when it came
(44:40):
to pregnancy, she was like polaropposite. Like, she'd be like,
I'm craving a bagel and I willnot have a bagel. Like you could
just have a bagel like it'sgoing to be you have to bagel
and you probably will feelbetter so and I think it's just
finding that middle ground rightof like, one of the things I
always say that Ibiggest the biggest myth is
you're not, you don't have toeat, too. So people say that all
(45:03):
the time, I'm planning for two,so I could eat. Not really, um,
I think the most important thingis your protein, getting enough
protein. Because when you havethose cravings, you're typically
it's not healthy protein. It'sstuff that we know we shouldn't
be eating, but like you said,you're like, but I physically
(45:24):
feel like I need this. So ifyou're balancing that out with,
okay, but at least I'm gettingmy protein and I'm having, you
know, some vegetables balancingout my other meal. So then when
I have these cravings, like, Ifeel like I can give in to them.
But it's also everything is soconnected, which is what's so
(45:45):
interesting to me. So it's likeif you are consuming high levels
of sugar during pregnancy, theydon't really know how that could
impact your child. And now isthat within your child like
feeling that as they grow? Now,they have this sense of not
really sugar dependence, butokay, I'm used to having this
(46:07):
sense of nutrients. So it isinteresting, like, how does it
all, you know, come together.
But I've seen both extremes. AndI think we shouldn't go to
either extreme as much as we cantry to find a middle ground of
okay, I'm getting the nutrientsI need. But I'm also having my
cravings when I want to, that'sthe best that we can do. What
(46:30):
our body is performing a reallycrazy cool thing.
That's great. I'm glad you wereable to tell on that. So it
sounds like balance, right? Alot of this is just balanced and
listening to your body andkeeping in touch and like being
attuned to what you need.
Absolutely, yes.
(46:51):
So this was great. I can'tbelieve we are coming close to
an end. I feel like we couldcontinue talking about this
forever. I feel like we've onlybeen talking for 10 minutes. But
it's been a problem.
When Joe Rogan has like fourhour podcast episodes, where
they just like hang out and talkand see what comes up.
(47:12):
No, no, we really could do thatit would be
really, truly I can talk aboutit for days. Oh,
this was but that being said?
Well, I was just gonna say withthat being said, like, is there
any kind of final like thoughtsor things that you would kind of
(47:32):
want to share as just some, youknow, closing, ah,
I would just say if you'repregnancy or not, if you're
looking to get into fitness,just start somewhere, find a
safe space, it doesn't, like wetalked about walking is fitness,
(47:55):
it's a workout. So if you'rejust start where you are, if
you're sedentary, sitting on acouch, sitting at a desk all day
and you don't work out, go for a10 minute walk if you have been
walking and you want to tryworkout classes, try to find a
space where you feel comfortableand safe with an instructor or
trainer that lets you try andgrow and like gives you the
(48:19):
confidence to then do that kindof stuff on your own. And I
think that's the reallyimportant thing. But a lot of
people I think feel as thoughthey need to know all of it and
be so strong and fit to evenjoin a gym and then like what am
I doing here? Why would I behere if you know all of the
things and you're strong and youcan make it through the whole
(48:42):
class like I can't make it therehalf of the classes so you're
getting stronger as you go. ButI think just meeting yourself
where you are and starting slowand slowly increasing whatever
it is that your goal is get tothat place you don't have to
dive in and start training for amarathon or start going to group
(49:04):
fitness classes that are highintensity that are terrifying to
you to start your fitnessjourney. Thank you for that. And
Amanda where can people find youto reach out to you if they want
to work with you join yourclasses or have you be their
personal trainerYeah, so my personal Instagram
is just my first name underscorelast name Amanda Christiana know
(49:26):
you can reach out to me there ifyou have any questions about
anything that we talked about orif you want to work with me
personally and then the studiothat I work for is called Never
give up and manioc so onInstagram, we're just never grip
up underscore manioc, and on ourwebsite, never give up
training.com You could findpricing classes, personal
(49:47):
training options, all of thedifferent things that we offer
if you have any questions, and Iwanted to ask you because I know
I saw in your form that youstarted baking and goods.
Just give a shout out to that.
So I didn't want to skip overthat. So that's how it's really
cool.
(50:07):
Really good. I gotta get, like,my whole balance like I was
talking about I love food. So Ireally love baking, but I can't
have so many baked things in myhome just for me and my
boyfriend alone to eat, or likeI'm gonna sell them. But yes, my
baking business is calledcelestial, like space, baked
(50:28):
goods. It's named after all ofour dogs that are named after
different celestial beings. Butwe sell bread, muffins, other
types of baked goods, so you canfind me on Instagram there if
you are in the Philly area andwant to order some brands.
(50:51):
Awesome. Well, Amanda, thank youso much for being on with us
today sharing your wisdom andyour knowledge and everything.
If you liked the episode, pleaselike, share and subscribe. But
otherwise, thank you so much.
Thank you. I had a blast. Thankyou. I'll see you soon
Nobody wants to exercise everyday there is not a single person
that wakes up every day is likeI ready to go. I love it. Like
I'm so excited to be here. Itjust doesn't happen. That's why
we have personal trainers andworkout classes because then you
have accountability, like wetalked about, but it's the same
with the healthy eating andnutrition aspect of it. Like,
you know, you don't want to dothat every day. But if you
(00:24):
sprinkle in these things thatyou like, here in there, you get
rid of that idea of okay, wellon the weekend, I'm gonna eat
whatever I want. But during theweek I'm gonna eat really
healthy. If you have thingsspread out throughout the month
you're in there, you're gonna beso much better off and getting
into that routine. It's allabout the routine.
(00:46):
Welcome back to Heal Your RootsPodcast. I'm curious Yakubov
Shlonsky their guest co host Dr.
Katie Mangan Hello, and aspecial guest Amanda, mature
siano, personal trainer with aspecialty in helping women
through their pregnancy journey.
Thank you so much for being onwith us today. Amanda.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here. You andKatie know each other if the two
(01:07):
of you want to share how youknow each other how you met?
Yeah, when he comes to the gymthat I am a trainer app, which
is Katie, when did youofficially start at NGO?
I started in October.
Wow. Okay, so yeah. A lot.
I feels like much longer than itdoes feel like longer than that
(01:29):
for sure.
But yeah, I at this gym, nevergive up and manioc. I teach
classes. I'm also a personaltrainer, like you mentioned. But
Katie comes to our groupclasses. So that's how I met her
through that. Yeah, let's I amon the waitlist right now for
(01:50):
Thursday, if you can get mevery popular classes. So you
know, very high demand. That'sawesome. So Mina, can you share
with us a little bit about yourbackground, how you got into
personal training, andspecifically helping women
through pregnancy?
Sure, yeah. I really started mypersonal training journey right
(02:15):
after college, I, like mostpeople went to college, ate,
what I shouldn't eat, drank whatI shouldn't be drinking felt
really crappy and was like,Alright, I need to do something
to get myself feeling healthier.
So that's really when I startedgetting in to fitness a little
bit more in a sense of actuallyworking out myself and putting
(02:36):
workouts together, I was alwaysan athlete. I always did sports,
so I was always active. Butthat's when I kind of got
interested in okay, you're notgoing to be an athlete forever.
I wasn't that great. So I had todo something on my own post
college. And I figured if I atleast go through this
(02:57):
certification, I'll learn alittle bit more for myself,
whether I use it or not to trainother people. And I started with
one on one training at a reallysmall gym by my parents house.
And then when I moved to maniocafter college, I just reached
out to a couple of local places.
(03:18):
And it ended up working out thatI got this position at never
gave up and started doing groupfitness, which I hadn't done
before I had been training inanother gym. But this was really
the first time I was doing thatfull time. And then honestly, I
just had a lot of clients thatwere younger women who were
(03:39):
interested in having childrenand people that were coming to
me saying that they werepregnant or thinking about
getting pregnant. And it's alsoa very interesting time because
they I know before a lot of mypatients, family members know
that they're pregnant becausethey have to tell me.
(04:00):
So as soon as that startedhappening, I was like, Okay, I
need a little bit more guidanceon what can they do? What can't
they do? What do I need to belooking out for to support them
better? So then I got myadditional certification in the
pre and postnatal trainingaspect of it, which is really
just an add on to my regularpersonal training certification.
(04:23):
Amanda, what did that entail andhaving to to like the additional
certifications, it's prettysimilar.
It's all online training. It wasa lot of just courses reading.
You take an online exam at theend, but really, for pre and
postnatal, it's not and I knowwe'll get into this. It's not as
(04:46):
extensive as people think thatit is. It's really they can do
what everyone else can do. Itjust guides you a little bit
more through how a woman's bodyis changing and what to be aware
ofWhen you are training somebody
that's pregnant and like, hey,these things might happen, and
that's okay. You don't need tobe nervous about them. So it was
(05:06):
very similar to my personaltraining certification, which I
did online as well. And theyjust have you get a book, you
read different chapters, youwatch some videos, and then
you'd have to take an exam atthe end to get the actual
certification.
Awesome. Okay. So it sounds likeit kind of just found you.
(05:30):
This process? Yeah, it reallydid. Um, it's a running joke
that I don't know what happenedwhen I started working at ng
you, but there's something inthe water and all of my clients
are pregnant or have or will bepregnant soon.
There was months where everymonth I was finding out one of
(05:52):
my clients was pregnant. So atthat point is like, right, I
have to do it now. Because allof them are.
Others were pregnant. And so itjust also helps to put me at
ease, like, Okay, I have all ofthese women that are they want
to train, they've felt so goodstarting training, that we're
all at different points in theirfitness journey. So to also be
(06:16):
able to give them the guidanceand like the comfort of it's
okay, like we're good. We cankeep training through your
pregnancy has been reallyhelpful. So good luck charm.
Yeah, I don't I really don'tknow.
I will take all the credit.
That's just one of your gifts.
Yeah, it really truly is. Idon't know how I do it. But
(06:41):
that's awesome. Yeah. So whatwould you say for you is like,
what are when you are workingwith pregnant women or you know,
that pre and post satis? What doyou think are some of the mental
emotional and physical benefitsof staying active throughout the
pregnancy? I think mental ishonestly the biggest thing and a
(07:06):
mental and emotional together.
Just because I'm like I said,they're all at different points
in their fitness journey. SoI've had women who were so
active their entire lives. Andthis is throwing like a huge
wrench into what they're used toand their normal routine. So for
them to hear, hey, you can workout through this pregnancy, and
(07:30):
we're going to change thingswhen we need to, but it's still
going to be a beneficial workoutfor you. Just puts them at ease.
And for a lot of them that istheir outlet. Like they come.
They work out to make themselvesfeel better mentally, and they
feel better leaving and to nothave that or to take that part
(07:52):
of their routine away. Justbecause they're pregnant, I've
seen the flip side of that aswell, where either women have
really challenging pregnancies,and they truly can't work out,
or they just don't feel ascomfortable working out. And it
really takes a toll on themmentally. And then the physical
aspect is just, you know, I'vetalked to a lot of pelvic floor
(08:14):
specialists, and I am not apelvic floor specialist. But it
helps so much with the afterwords and the way that I've seen
so many of my clients be able tocome back probably sooner than
they would have been able tocome back. And it doesn't even
mean they're jumping back intothese crazy hardcore workouts.
Just being able to do somethingbrings back that mental aspect
(08:39):
of okay, now postpartum, youhave a newborn, you're
exhausted, you're doing thisstuff 24/7 to have that little
teeny tiny 45 minutes toyourself, to be able to do
something and know that you getto do that every week or twice a
week or whatever it is. JustI've seen such a drastic change
in their attitudes and how theyfeel. And even my I have a
(09:01):
client right now. She's due inJune. And every time she comes
in, she's like, might be thelast time I don't know how I
feel. And this morning, likewe're just slowly slowing it
down. But she said to me thismorning, I never thought I would
get to 36 weeks and be workingout in any way, let alone with
(09:22):
weights and doing actualworkouts. So she just even
though physically she feelsuncomfortable mentally she feels
really good that she made it tothat point. So that's
incredible. And you know, I'mwondering because I didn't I had
a new I have a newborn she is atthis point four months, and I
wasn't sure you know, the thingsI was reading is like if you
(09:45):
have been working out, continueworking out but if you haven't
worked out, don't try anythingnew or don't do anything too
intense. Like there's a lot oflike myths and misconceptions
out there. Would you be able toshare a little bit about like
some informationor knowledge to give women
whether they have been workingout or they're starting for the
first time, like how to gothrough that process?
(10:07):
Yeah, for sure, I've actuallyworked with both women who have
worked out their whole lives,it's part of their routine. And
they kind of just keep thatgoing. It really is true, like,
what you were doing before iswhat you can do during you
shouldn't increase the intensityof it too much. But if early on
(10:28):
in your pregnancy, you'reinterested in, hey, you know
what, like, I know that I'm aslightly active person, but I'm
not going to the gym every day.
But I would like to stay activeduring my pregnancy, just
starting with lower impactworkouts, whether it's just
using lighter weights or bodyweight, or strictly core work. I
think a lot of the myths arearound, oh, like pregnant women
(10:53):
can't do that. They can quiteliterally do almost anything
unless it's uncomfortable forthem. So there's a lot of things
and and if you, like I said, thecomfort of the mother, you'll
also talk to your doctor likedoctors will recommend Don't be
in a room that's heated over acertain amount, we have heated
(11:15):
classes, they also will tellwomen, if you've been doing that
pre pregnancy, you see what'scomfortable for you, and then
we'll talk about it. So I alwaystell them, you know, talk to
your doctor about what you feelcomfortable with.
But it could be something I hada client that her whole first
(11:36):
trimester, we couldn't doanything where she hinged
because it made her feelnauseous. Like it just you just
adapt to what what's going onwith your body. But there's
nothing written anywhere basedin science that says you know,
don't hinge or the only thingthey'll say is, you don't want
to be on your back for too long,which they talk about that in
(11:57):
general. And that's more so whenyou are further along. But I've
also seen women on their backdoing, you know, careful core
work. The only thing that Ireally avoid is full sit ups,
crunches anything where you'relike really contracting your
core all together. But thatbeing said, core work is a
(12:19):
massive part of pregnancy. Sothere are so many other things
that you can do with someonewho's pregnant or postpartum, to
get their core strong and keeptheir core strong without doing
those extreme movements of okay,you're really using the entire
core for this move. So a lot ofit is myths. I tell my clients,
(12:41):
if you saw it on social media, Idon't want to hear about it,
your doctor about it. Andbecause there's so many things
out there that they say don't dothis, do this. This is great.
This is bad. And I just try tosteer them clear of any social
media pregnancy guidance. That'srelatable for us to not
necessarily when people arehanging in there, like look what
(13:03):
I found.
Yes, I'm sure it's very true.
Every you can find anything onsocial media these days. So
yeah, for sure. Well, so Okay,something that I was thinking
about to in talking with,because I have a lot of friends
that are pregnant right now. Andactually, when I was leaving the
(13:24):
gym, last week, I was talking tosomeone who's, like, postpartum.
And I think she had the babylike five weeks ago or something
like that. I don't know. I know,there's obviously a period of
time that you have to wait. Sowhat do you suggest people do in
that period of time? Becauselike you said, it obviously
benefits you so much mentally into go from having that support,
(13:47):
in a way then to not having thatfor that long. What do you do,
like help them prepare for thatin any way? Yeah, it's, it's
hard because I, the one thingI've learned and really through
my clients, because I don't havemy own children, but those few
(14:08):
days after giving birth are sokey. And my clients that truly
did not do a single thing. feltthe best when they came back. So
but only a few days, like thatdoesn't have to be six weeks
have absolutely nothing. Youhave a newborn, obviously,
(14:29):
you're moving around, you'regetting up you're doing things,
but those couple of days, evenwithin being in the hospital, if
you can let your core recover.
It's the same as any otherworkout, right? If you're doing
legs six days a week, your legsare not gonna get stronger
(14:51):
because you're not giving themany time to recover. So it's
kind of the same with your corelike, it just went through a
very traumatic experience.
Dance and a race, so to speak,and you got to the end of this
finish line that you werepreparing for. And now you need
to let your body recover alittle bit. So kind of talking
(15:11):
them through that, like, it'sokay to take a break, you just
had a child, it's gonna be okay,if you take a couple of days
off. And that's a message foranybody, like you will not lose
all of your strength in fivedays, I promise.
And then after that, a lot oflike slow core pelvic floor
(15:34):
there are, I will find people onInstagram that are certified
pelvic floor specialists. And Iwill send those videos to my
clients so that they havesomething visually they can look
at and kind of use forthemselves. And then when it
comes to coming back, if you'vehad a natural birth, and your
(15:55):
doctors okay with it, I've hadclients that come back, as soon
as four weeks after givingbirth, and we're not doing
anything crazy, it is prettymuch the same, you know, pelvic
floor poor, really, really smallmovements, they're on their back
a lot. They're not lifting heavyweights. But to ease them back
into that routine, I think ithelps them a lot. I have one
(16:17):
client that I didn't even thinkshe was going to make it through
the four days of do not moveyour body. And the morning, she
got cleared. At four weeks, shetexted me and said I need you to
come to the studio tonight. Idon't care what we do something.
I was like, Okay, here we go. Soit is it's that mental aspect of
(16:41):
it that they just need it intheir routine. A lot of them
honestly don't care what I'mdoing with them at that point.
It's just like, how do we slowlystart to get ourselves back into
that place, especially if theywere active before pregnancy,
because then it's like, Okay,where did my core muscles go
that I've had for my entire lifeif it's your first child.
(17:04):
So it's just to ease them backin but a lot of pelvic floor a
lot of stability, a lot of stuffthat you're kind of doing on
your own because you have anewborn that you have to pick up
and carry around. But it's a lotof training your body to do that
stuff properly. So you're notpulling your back out doing
something that is going to thenmake your life more challenging
(17:26):
with a newborn. So I'll do a lotof stuff like that to help them
prevent low back pain, preventhip pain, anything like that,
that would just make their livesmore challenging. Basically.
Like I was telling Katie thisearlier, as I wish I found you
beforehand, and during becausemy recovery was really tough.
And I you know, I've heard aboutpelvic floor and everything more
(17:49):
so with like sex therapy, notnecessarily after birth and
things like that, and like howto strengthen and how much it's
connected to everything. Like Ithink it's very understated, of
how important that part of yourbody is for just like any kind
of movement. And I found thatwalking, like after I gave birth
after a couple days of resting,like just walking like I would I
(18:09):
was like a turtle super, superslow. But just walking every
day, I found that that reallyhelped me like get a little bit
stronger. So I'm glad that youare giving like this information
to all your clients ahead oftime to help their healing and
recovery afterwards, becauseit's really so important.
Yes, and I love that you saidthat about walking, because I
(18:30):
think so many people think like,well, if I'm gonna work out, it
has to be like a workout. Andeven some I had one client, she
probably stopped training theend of last year and she just
had her daughter at the end ofMarch. So it was a decent amount
of time that she stoppedtraining. But she was so
uncomfortable. It was her secondchild she was carrying so low.
(18:51):
And I said to her just walk,just walk while you're pregnant.
You don't have to do anythingelse if it's uncomfortable, but
you're gonna feel so much betterjust because you move to your
body. So I think that'simportant too. Like, it doesn't
have to be going to a class orgetting a trainer, it just
finding some sort of movement.
Andnot. You can use certain things
(19:15):
as an excuse, but I think a lotof times when some of my clients
will be like, Well, yeah, butI'm just not feeling it today.
I'm like, okay, but you willfeel so much better if you just
sit. That's it a tiny walk. Itdoesn't have to be crazy. So I
think that is really importantto even post partum sometimes
that's all you can do likeyou're saying and if your
(19:36):
recovery is tough, that's theway to do it. Just walk, do
small movements, small things ona stability ball to get your
hips moving, but it's soimportant but that will help
everything including your coreand your pelvic floor. What are
some of the differences in therecovering process for natural
(20:00):
A birth versus like a C section,very different. So natural,
obviously, your core is stilldrastically impacted, but you
don't have any actual incisions.
So the that's why typicallythey'll say, four to six weeks
for a natural birth before yougo back to exercising. And then
(20:23):
it really depends on how your Csection went, how your body is
recovering.
I know my mom had a C sectionwith both me and my brother, and
she could barely move for weeks,because it just was so painful,
you are literally cut open, it'sa massive surgery. So in that
(20:47):
sense, you have to be a lot morecareful coming back into it. And
it's actually interesting. Ifeel like I'm so much more
cautious with postpartum than Iam when they're actually
pregnant, which seems funny,because they're carrying a
child, it's like, you shouldfeel more weirded out and like,
(21:08):
oh, my gosh, there's a baby inthere, I don't want to hurt it.
But I know how strong they areand how capable they are. And
that truly what they're doing isnot going to hurt the baby.
Whereas afterwards, you canoverdo it. And you can get
yourself set back by coming intoo hot and trying to do too
many things. So I haven'thonestly had any clients that
(21:31):
have had C sections yet. Butthat I would always say defer to
the doctor on at least howyou're healing. But same idea,
you can still do pelvic floorwork, you can still walk if
you're comfortable doing that,it's just being really careful
to let your incision heal andlet your core heal a little bit
(21:53):
more before you're doing hardcore work around that area or
with your pelvic floor or withheavy weights. Because you're
recovering from a massivesurgery, they still don't want
you to lift super heavy weightsafter a natural birth. But you
have to be a little bit morecautious when you have the
(22:17):
incision that is healing onceit's healed, it's kind of the
same. It's just a little bit ofa slower process.
I'm glad you asked that, Katie,because I think that is a big
difference in the recovery andhealing the whole process. And I
think those four to six weeksare also for I mean, this might
be TMI, but we're talking aboutthis right is, you know, a lot
(22:38):
of people have tears it whenthey have vaginal births. Oh,
right. And like doing anythingextra, like any tough exercises,
right? Like that couldexacerbate that. So that's also
part of that, not overdoing it.
Even if you know mentally youwant to or physically you might
feel like you might be able tois just not making that worse,
or extending the recoveryprocess to.
(23:04):
Yes, absolutely. And I reallydo. The doctors know pretty well
your body and how it's healingin that sense. And I think
that's why it is beneficial tohave a trainer in the beginning
because it's just somebody totell you, Okay, I know you feel
like you're ready. But let'stake it easy. My one client, she
was a professional dancer, shestarted with me with a back
(23:27):
injury from dancing, and wasmiserable when she had her back
injury because she couldn't dowhat she used to do. We got her
course super, super strong. Andthen she got pregnant. And they
were trying and they were veryexcited. But she was like what,
I just got my cord.
Why now. So it was kind of Iknew what to prepare for with
(23:51):
her because I had seen her notbe able to do what she was used
to doing. So it really is a lotof also mental coaching of you
are going to be okay. And youare going to get back to where
you were before strength wise,maybe not physically and your
body may change and it may staycertain ways. And that's
(24:11):
something I kind of tried towalk them through to like, we're
not going to that's not going tobe a gauge of how we are doing
postpartum how much weight we'velost what our body looks like,
based on what it looks likebefore we had our child. It's
going to be are we getting backto the weight that we were using
before? Is your core feelingstrong enough? Are you starting
(24:33):
to work out the same amount oftimes per week? So I tried to
set different milestones withthem so that they feel like
they're progressing and they'refeeling stronger without having
that stigma of okay, I'm gettingback into the gym to lose the
baby weight. It's more so I'mgetting back into the gym to be
as strong as I was before. Sothen I can show up better for my
(24:56):
baby.
Yeah, I'm really glad that youjust
said that part about like thattransition into it a lot of
being mental? Because that issomething I wanted us to talk
about, too, in terms of how doyou see benefits in, you know,
not just pregnant people, butother, you know, anybody who
(25:17):
comes in and exercises like,what kind of mental health
benefits do you often see frompeople, you know, engaging in
exercise? Well, it is funny,because I think I joke about it
all the time with my clients,like, I am not a therapist, and
I would like them to see atherapist in.
(25:38):
I would like to not be usedgreat advice as a therapist,
but they do like, it's almostlike I compare it sometimes to
when you're like getting yourhair done, for whatever reason,
feel like you can like traumadump on the person that you're
getting your hair done with,even though they have no
expertise and can provide you noguidance whatsoever on your
(26:01):
situation. But I do think ithelps, especially with private
training, because it's one onone, and they can come in. And
they know that they have to showup, which is what a lot of them
tell me all the time, like theyhave to show up, it is just them
and me. And if they don't showup, I'm there by myself, and
they're still paying for it. SoI think that from a mental
(26:23):
aspect, it's even if you'refeeling down, even if you had a
bad day, when you otherwisecould have said no, it's fine,
I'm just not gonna go today, orI'm not gonna go to the gym, I
don't need to go to the gym, noone's checking in on me, they
have to show up because I'mthere and they're paying me. So
that helps a lot. But then onthe flip side, they do have
somebody that they can talk toand express things. And like I
(26:47):
said, I very often say, let's Iwill work with you to find a
therapiston these situations, but I can
just tell it makes them feelbetter. Like they're lifting
heavy weights, they're sweating,they're complaining about
whatever it is that happenedtoday. And they just leave and
feel like they just lifted ahuge weight off of their
(27:07):
shoulders. And I feel like it'sthe same when you go to group
fitness like you connect withthese people that you otherwise
wouldn't have met wouldn't haveconnected with. And it's the
sense of community that you showup. And even though you're not a
personal training client, youknow that I know, if you didn't
show up, like Katie knows thatif she doesn't show up, and
(27:28):
she's on my class list, I knowthat she didn't show up, they're
probably going to ask her aboutit. And you make friends in that
way that you instantly have adifferent connection with
because you both work out andare in this routine and are
quietly secretly maybeunconsciously holding each other
accountable. Like you know, thisperson is going to this class,
(27:51):
you're going to show up becauseyou know that they're going to
show up for you and forthemselves. So I think it's also
just the people that you'resurrounding yourself with, plus
the scientific benefits ofexercise and releasing your
endorphins. And physically andmentally just feeling better
from that. But I think thatpeople play a much larger role
(28:13):
in that mental benefit than evensometimes the physical benefit
of actually doing your workout.
So that accountability piece isso so huge. And just having
everybody around you it's almostyou know, if you do a workout,
you might be able to Slack orsomething like that. But if
you're there in front of otherpeople, and you have your
(28:34):
personal trainer, like there'salso like this sense of
accomplishment that someone elsenoticed and saw that can give
you that praise as well, to kindof keep going like that positive
reinforcement to continue foryour physical and mental health.
Yeah, and Katie knows, I don'tlet them slack. I know how. And
(28:56):
sometimes. And for me, too, Itake classes for the same reason
that everyone else takesclasses. Someone's gonna push
me, I don't have to put theworkout together myself. I just
show up. It's there. I do it andI'm done. And that's why it's so
beneficial. But I think havingthat person sometimes if you're
doing it on your own, you'relike, Well, this is how strong I
am. And that's just what it is.
But if you have someone that cangauge, okay, well, your form is
(29:20):
great. And you've been doingthis weight for seven months
now. So maybe let's try thisnext week. And your form is
great without too so you can dothat way and you're gonna get
stronger from doing that way.
And I'm sure they don't like inthe moment, but afterwards,
they're like, Oh, I just lifted20 pounds and I didn't know I
(29:42):
could do that. Or I didn't knowI could even do that exercise
with 20 pounds or they'll saybefore I can't there's no way I
can lift these weights and alsojust do one do to just try it.
And it is it's such a sense ofaccomplishment for all of us,
but especially for people whoare new
work to the space or in thatgroup fitness setting to have
(30:03):
someone like single you out thatthey know that you can do
something stronger. And theyknow more than you do that you
can push yourself harder, youleave and you're like, oh my
god, I can't believe that. Ijust did that. And I feel so
great for the day. Andphysically your body is, in turn
getting stronger as well, whichis the ultimate goal. So yeah, I
(30:26):
really is the best thing ever.
Justone of the things that Amanda
and other trainers there, sayall the time is this, like, yes,
you can kind of phrasethroughout and like now that's
like, in my head like today, Iwent to hot yoga and said
because of a different time thatI had this morning. But when I
was like, Oh, should I do thisnext pose, and it just like pops
(30:48):
in my head? And it's like, yes,you can. Yes, you can. And even
if you fall, who cares? Like itdoesn't matter, you know? So
having that extra push isreally, it's really good. Yeah,
even when I was sick, like acouple of weeks ago, both of you
know, like, I over the last likemonth and a half or two months,
I've been randomly on and offsick and I'll come in and around
(31:09):
is likewell, you just know, like, you
can just like I said to you theone day like I can just I almost
pushed you,I can tell that something is
off. So we're just gonna let herdo her thing. And so it's also
about that, right reading theroom and reading people and
(31:31):
uncertainty. Some people don'twant to be pushed, and that's
fine. They want to come and theydon't come to my class.
Fly with me, I try really hard,but I just can't let it go. But
that like that's just they wantto come and they want to do
their workout. And that's okay.
But it's so it's I know frompersonal experience, how great
(31:53):
it feels to have someone havefaith in you. And I do the same
thing Katie in like, when I takea class or anything, I literally
have a bracelet that says yes,on it. And I you I do the same
thing, like what would I tell mymembers? And what would I tell
my clients in this moment when Iwant to stop when I'm running or
(32:14):
in sculpt or doing whatever andmy body is telling me no, like,
you don't need to do it, you canstop doing it. And you have to
retrain your mind. Like, no, wecan keep going you can do this
physically, you can do this. Andthat's the other mental aspect
of it is a lot of times yourmind is trying to trick you and
tell you no, you can't, you'renot strong enough, you need to
(32:37):
take a break, you're not gonnabe able to finish. But when you
get through that littlethreshold of discomfort, you get
so much stronger, and then yourealize you actually can do the
thing that you didn't think youcould do in the first place. I
love that you put so much focuson the accomplishment of like
strength being the goal and likethe function of using your body.
(32:58):
And not like kind of going backto like losing the baby weight
or how you look or how you fitinto particular clothes, right,
like shifting that mentalityinto like feeling strong and
good in your body versus how itlooks. I think that's really
huge. And like, I'm happy tohear it because I can take some
of that advice after having ababy too, is that it's just so
(33:19):
ingrained, like immediatelyafter having, Alright, gotta get
this baby weight off gotta lookdifferent instead of how can I
be stronger and healthier for meand my family.
Yeah, and it's such a hugething, just with women in
general. And I think I've alsolearned over time working with
so many different women that youdon't know, as an instructor,
(33:43):
unless it's my personal trainingclients that I get a little bit
closer with, but you don't knowwhat somebody has gone through.
And you don't know if they havesuffered from disordered eating
or any sort of eating disorder.
And so to make that the stamp ofwell, if you want to track that
you're getting stronger, youneed to track your weight, and
(34:04):
you need to track your macros.
And for some people that workslike I'm a person that I don't
track my weight. I don't knowthe last time I weighed myself,
I went to the doctor today and Iput my little hand over the
thing I was like, write it downand keep it to yourself because
I don't want to know, but I cantrack macros protein, things
(34:25):
like that. And it doesn't get meinto a bad cycle of okay, now
I'm being like hyper focused onwhat I'm eating and why I'm
eating it. But you learn soquickly who can be like that or
what people have been throughthat that may trigger them or
that may then send them into aspiral of every time they see
(34:46):
you. They want to talk about howmuch they lost or how much they
weigh and I have clients thatdon't care at all about that and
I have clients that it has takenyears to get their focus off of
the number on the scale theBecause they'll people will come
in and say, I feel great, I fitbetter in my clothes. But if I
could lose five more pounds, I'mlike, for what? Why do we need?
(35:10):
Like, what is the purpose of thefive more pounds? Because once
you get to the five more pounds,then it's five more pounds. And
it's like, Well, can I do maybetwo more pounds after that five
pounds. And it's a never endingspiral that everyone would fall
into, especially women, if youcontinue to track that way. So I
do fitness tests with them I do.
(35:32):
I'll say like what you know, youwant to do a push up, you want
to do a pull up, you want to do20 Sit ups, and I'm like,
whatever their goal is, and wetrack it like that, it kind of
just takes the focus off of,Okay, what does my body weigh.
And also, I always tell them,first of all, you may be buying
the wrong clothes. So maybe wejust buy different clothes,
(35:54):
don't buy clothes that you wishyou could fit into,
look good and fit into, but gobased on your clothes. So many
people will say oh my god, myclothes fit so much better.
That's the goal, like you feelgood in what you're wearing, I
had a client, she just finallyit took years finally just
completely cleaned out hercloset, got a whole new wardrobe
(36:16):
because she knew that she wasputting the effort in, she's
eating healthy, she's workingout five days a week, she looks
great. And her clothes justdidn't fit the right way to make
her feel comfortable in the bodythat she had created. So she
said, You know what, I'm gonnaget rid of all this, and I'm
gonna find stuff that I feelcomfortable in. And I was like,
that's great. Because, again,back to social media, we see
(36:38):
stuff on social media, we'relike, oh, my gosh, I would love
to look like so and so you don'thave so and so's genetics. So
you're probably never gonna looklike them. And I can't help you
look like them, I can help youlove yourself. But I can't take
someone else's arms and put themonto your body. And I can't do
that for myself either or Iwould. And so it's just
retraining that mindset of youryou can't base it on what
(37:01):
somebody else looks like or whatsomebody else's weight loss
journey was. And my biggestthing is, you don't ever know
how people treat their bodyinternally based on what they
look like. So I tell my clientsthat all the time, I have a
really close friend, she is sotiny, she has tiny little legs,
tiny little arms. It's just howshe was born. It's her genetic,
(37:24):
she's my height, she's tall,it's just her body type, she
probably couldn't put a lot ofweight on if she wanted to put
weight on. But she eats likecrap. And like, so that doesn't
tell you anything. If you seesomeone on social media, and
you're idolizing their body,internally, their body is
probably not as healthy as youwant your body to be internally.
(37:47):
So you have to focus on thatfirst and then let the external
kind of just do its thing as yougo. And that takes a lot of time
and patience. And it isfrustrating. But you will get
there if you put the work in andtake the time.
Yeah, you bring up a good pointwith the nutrition because
(38:07):
that's obviously a huge part ofit. And that, for me is like the
worst part of it. Because I loveto eat and I love to eat all of
the things. And like, yeah, Iwill I'm in there at least five
days a week, normally, and if Iam still eating whatever I want
whenever I want then like itactually really doesn't make it.
(38:28):
I mean, I feel stronger. I mightfeel different, but I don't
really look that much.
No, it is so true. And Iactually at one point did a
nutrition. I'm not a registereddietitian. So I can't
necessarily say like community,this is what you should eat, you
know to for your body type. Andthat's the other thing.
Everyone's bodies are sodifferent. So that's my other
(38:50):
pet peeve is things on socialmedia. They're like, don't eat
this, don't eat this, eat this,don't eat this. Well, you don't
know how your body reacts. Maybeyour body is fine. If you eat
gluten and dairy. You don't needto give it up because everyone
else is giving it up. But somepeople have really bad reactions
to it, and it does make themfeel better. So I think a lot of
it is what makes you feel good.
But I have my clients dosomewhat of a nutritional
(39:11):
challenge where they basicallyif they felt comfortable because
like I said, some it can getinto a dark place for some
people but just writing downwhat they were eating, not
tracking calories, not trying totrack macros. Because some
people just genuinely don't knowthey, they really think they're
eating healthy. And if you askthem point blank, they say yeah,
(39:33):
I live a really healthylifestyle. And then they'll
write it down. And if you breakit down for them like this is
what you're eating all day ismaking a huge impact on you. And
I think even going back tohaving children. So many people
will say, Well, I have childrenso how am I supposed to eat
(39:56):
healthy? Like, how about yourchild?
Drink, also eat healthy, andthen you could all eat.
And then everyone would feelgood. And that's an interesting
concept to me and I don't havekids. So I can't say like, I
know that it's challenging. AndI totally get that. And it's
like, just feed the kid becausethey're hungry. And this is what
(40:16):
they're going to eat. And thisis what they want. And this one
I'm giving them, but you have toprioritize yourself. And the
parents and mothers that I'veseen prioritize their own health
and fitness, are so much happierthan the people who are just
getting into the bad habits,because it's easier and because
(40:38):
well, I don't have time to cookdinner, because this is what the
kids are having. So I'm justalso having cereal or something
else. And it's just learning howyour body reacts to things like
that's, I am a huge food person,I am not someone that is like,
super, super clean eating 24/7.
But I try to listen to what mybody is telling me in a sense of
(41:02):
like, what do I feel better whenI have carbs in the morning or
at night? Or do I feel fine whenI have them whenever. And that
helps me a lot. But also justlistening to your cravings of
what your body is telling youwithout letting that take over.
So it's the same as the exercisestuff. We don't nobody wants to
(41:25):
exercise every day, there is nota single person that wakes up
every day. It's like I ready togo. I love it. Like I'm so
excited to be here, it justdoesn't happen. That's why we
have personal trainers andworkout classes because then you
have countability, like wetalked about. But it's the same
with the healthy eating andnutrition aspect of it. Like,
(41:45):
you know, you don't want to dothat every day. But if you
sprinkle in these things thatyou like, here in there, you get
rid of that idea of okay, well,on the weekend, I'm gonna eat
whatever I want. But during theweek, I'm gonna eat really
healthy. That doesn't help youat all, because you just have
this bad cycle of I'm going toeat really crappy on the
(42:06):
weekend, but I'm gonna eatreally healthy during the week,
but I'm still putting crap in mybody on the weekend. So if you
have things spread outthroughout the month, you're in
there, you're gonna be so muchbetter off and getting into that
routine. It's all about theroutine. It's the same with
exercise. It's the same with I'msure you guys see in your
practice all the time, thedifferent routines that you have
(42:28):
to get yourself into to get intothese things that you want to
work on. This the same withhealthy eating. You can't do it
for two days, and then be like,too much. I don't like it. Not
for me, I go back down. It'seasier, like nobody wants to
cook every day and rather justeat out or get fast food like it
is easier. But I've gotten mybody to a place where genuinely,
(42:49):
I think I had a cheesesteak,like about four days ago, I felt
so horrible because I don't eatlike that all the time. And like
dip tastes great. Yeah, ittastes great. I loved it, but my
body afterwards was like whatthe heck process nonsense Did
you just put into me? And why doI feel like this?
(43:12):
Get to a point where I don'treally want this stuff anymore
and every once in a while you dobut it's not an every day. Oh,
it's just part of my routine.
I'm just gonna grab this foodthat is not that great. How do
you see this show up for womenwho are pregnant with like
cravings or if they're nauseouslike in the beginning, I would
just like down a sleeve ofsaltine crackers like it was
(43:33):
nobody's business and then likethroughout the pregnancy all I
was craving was like pasta pizzaand ice cream like my babies
made up a Buzzfeed said icecream. But like knowing that
it's not the healthy thing toeat, but like your body almost
feels like if you don't have it,you will die. Like I know. It's
dramatic. But like sometimes itfeels like that during
pregnancy.
(43:56):
Yeah, it is true. I thinksimilarly to how I feel about
just general nutrition like, youdon't want to go either way so
drastically like my one clientthat I was talking about. And I
use her as an example foreverything because she is one of
my closest friends now but alsoan absolute nut job when it
(44:18):
comes to allthat she's a little crazy. But
she's always been so she grew upin Israel. So she grew up on a
Mediterranean diet and is justlike so used to okay, this is
how we eat like this is thenormal way of eating so she
doesn't really never really likeadapted to Yeah, I'm just gonna
have fast food. Like she doesn'tunderstand that. So when it came
(44:40):
to pregnancy, she was like polaropposite. Like, she'd be like,
I'm craving a bagel and I willnot have a bagel. Like you could
just have a bagel like it'sgoing to be you have to bagel
and you probably will feelbetter so and I think it's just
finding that middle ground rightof like, one of the things I
always say that Ibiggest the biggest myth is
you're not, you don't have toeat, too. So people say that all
(45:03):
the time, I'm planning for two,so I could eat. Not really, um,
I think the most important thingis your protein, getting enough
protein. Because when you havethose cravings, you're typically
it's not healthy protein. It'sstuff that we know we shouldn't
be eating, but like you said,you're like, but I physically
(45:24):
feel like I need this. So ifyou're balancing that out with,
okay, but at least I'm gettingmy protein and I'm having, you
know, some vegetables balancingout my other meal. So then when
I have these cravings, like, Ifeel like I can give in to them.
But it's also everything is soconnected, which is what's so
(45:45):
interesting to me. So it's likeif you are consuming high levels
of sugar during pregnancy, theydon't really know how that could
impact your child. And now isthat within your child like
feeling that as they grow? Now,they have this sense of not
really sugar dependence, butokay, I'm used to having this
(46:07):
sense of nutrients. So it isinteresting, like, how does it
all, you know, come together.
But I've seen both extremes. AndI think we shouldn't go to
either extreme as much as we cantry to find a middle ground of
okay, I'm getting the nutrientsI need. But I'm also having my
cravings when I want to, that'sthe best that we can do. What
(46:30):
our body is performing a reallycrazy cool thing.
That's great. I'm glad you wereable to tell on that. So it
sounds like balance, right? Alot of this is just balanced and
listening to your body andkeeping in touch and like being
attuned to what you need.
Absolutely, yes.
(46:51):
So this was great. I can'tbelieve we are coming close to
an end. I feel like we couldcontinue talking about this
forever. I feel like we've onlybeen talking for 10 minutes. But
it's been a problem.
When Joe Rogan has like fourhour podcast episodes, where
they just like hang out and talkand see what comes up.
(47:12):
No, no, we really could do thatit would be
really, truly I can talk aboutit for days. Oh,
this was but that being said?
Well, I was just gonna say withthat being said, like, is there
any kind of final like thoughtsor things that you would kind of
(47:32):
want to share as just some, youknow, closing, ah,
I would just say if you'repregnancy or not, if you're
looking to get into fitness,just start somewhere, find a
safe space, it doesn't, like wetalked about walking is fitness,
(47:55):
it's a workout. So if you'rejust start where you are, if
you're sedentary, sitting on acouch, sitting at a desk all day
and you don't work out, go for a10 minute walk if you have been
walking and you want to tryworkout classes, try to find a
space where you feel comfortableand safe with an instructor or
trainer that lets you try andgrow and like gives you the
(48:19):
confidence to then do that kindof stuff on your own. And I
think that's the reallyimportant thing. But a lot of
people I think feel as thoughthey need to know all of it and
be so strong and fit to evenjoin a gym and then like what am
I doing here? Why would I behere if you know all of the
things and you're strong and youcan make it through the whole
(48:42):
class like I can't make it therehalf of the classes so you're
getting stronger as you go. ButI think just meeting yourself
where you are and starting slowand slowly increasing whatever
it is that your goal is get tothat place you don't have to
dive in and start training for amarathon or start going to group
(49:04):
fitness classes that are highintensity that are terrifying to
you to start your fitnessjourney. Thank you for that. And
Amanda where can people find youto reach out to you if they want
to work with you join yourclasses or have you be their
personal trainerYeah, so my personal Instagram
is just my first name underscorelast name Amanda Christiana know
(49:26):
you can reach out to me there ifyou have any questions about
anything that we talked about orif you want to work with me
personally and then the studiothat I work for is called Never
give up and manioc so onInstagram, we're just never grip
up underscore manioc, and on ourwebsite, never give up
training.com You could findpricing classes, personal
(49:47):
training options, all of thedifferent things that we offer
if you have any questions, and Iwanted to ask you because I know
I saw in your form that youstarted baking and goods.
Just give a shout out to that.
So I didn't want to skip overthat. So that's how it's really
cool.
(50:07):
Really good. I gotta get, like,my whole balance like I was
talking about I love food. So Ireally love baking, but I can't
have so many baked things in myhome just for me and my
boyfriend alone to eat, or likeI'm gonna sell them. But yes, my
baking business is calledcelestial, like space, baked
(50:28):
goods. It's named after all ofour dogs that are named after
different celestial beings. Butwe sell bread, muffins, other
types of baked goods, so you canfind me on Instagram there if
you are in the Philly area andwant to order some brands.
(50:51):
Awesome. Well, Amanda, thank youso much for being on with us
today sharing your wisdom andyour knowledge and everything.
If you liked the episode, pleaselike, share and subscribe. But
otherwise, thank you so much.
Thank you. I had a blast. Thankyou. I'll see you soon
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