Muscles, Myths, & Metabolism – Trivia with a Trainer - Trivia Tangents

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In this episode, I get to chat with my college friend Sue Lynn,
who has been a fitness trainer for the last six years.
She specializes in Women's Health and fitness and empowers
them to tone up and shed fat while also repairing their
metabolism. Not only is she changing women's
lives, she does it all while traveling the world.
She's currently a digital nomad in Europe, so it was super

(00:20):
interesting for me to learn moreabout health and fitness culture
in Europe, especially since I'm a firm believer that their food
quality and standards are significantly higher than here
in the US. Sue Lynn shares her hot takes on
cardio, weight loss fads, and eating more food.
She was such a joy to talk to and it gave me some insight to
how she coaches her clients withcompassion, grace, and healthy

(00:42):
motivation. Enjoy the episode.
Welcome to Trivia Tangents. The podcast will return Everyday
passions into surprising trivia deep dives.
I'm your host, Lena, and each week I quiz a friend on
something they know way too muchabout, turning Everyday Passions

(01:04):
into trivia gold. We all know that on trivia
night, the bigger the team, the better you'll play.
That's why I bring the team together here on Trivia
Tangents. So get ready for some fun facts
you'll definitely want for your next trivia night.
Hi, Sue Lynn, welcome to the podcast.
Hello, I'm so excited to be here.
Thanks for inviting me. Thank you so much for being here

(01:25):
today. We are on different time zones,
so I'm California, West Coast Pacific Time and you are in
Europe. I'm in Hastings, Hastings,
England right now, so it's 5:00 PM for me.
Amazing. I'm about to close out the day.
This is your last, last thing for the day.
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you meeting

(01:45):
with me on a Friday afternoon. I'm so excited to chat with you
more about your professional health and fitness journey.
So Sue Lynn, do you mind sharinga little bit more about yourself
so the listeners can get to knowyou a little bit better?
Yeah. So I'm Sue Lynn.
I am an online health and fitness coach.
So basically I work with clientsall over the world, mainly based

(02:07):
in the US, Canada and Europe, which is convenient since I'm in
Europe right now. And yeah, I'm really excited to
share my journey about how I started as an in person trainer
transition to online and. Just, yeah, how I've been making
that work. Yeah.
I'm so excited to learn more about it and especially like
hear your story in regards to like COVID and where you were

(02:28):
during COVID. I feel like that has, you know,
changed so many people's businesses and it was like right
in the middle of your, of your, you know, when you were taking
off your career. So I'm excited to learn more
about that. And I feel like everyone's story
with COVID is like so interesting.
But yes. So today we are discussing
personal training and health andwe're digging deeper into the

(02:50):
cultural differences between theUS and Europe, health and
fitness wise. And of course, we have to
sprinkle in a little bit of science into the episode and
also debunk some fitness fads. Absolutely.
I'm excited for that. Yeah, I'm so excited.
I forget. What was your major in?
So I was neuro, physio and behavioral science major, so NPB

(03:12):
and I took the physio track. So mainly learning about like
exercise Physiology, exercise science, how the human body
works. I also took like some random
nutrition classes in there as well.
So I very much knew I wanted to be in the health and fitness
industry since since all the wayback then, yeah.
Yes, that's awesome. I also took a health class at UC
Davis, like specifically about nutrition, and the one thing I

(03:35):
remember from that was soluble and insoluble fibers and that
oatmeal is soluble. I don't remember.
I'm not even, I'm not even goingto lie with fiber, they're so
random. It's not like, oh, all the
fruits are one and all the vegetables are the other.
It's kind of like you just have to like make sure you eat a

(03:56):
variety of different fibers and you'll probably be good.
Yeah. But yeah, if you wanted to ask
me specifically what's soluble and non soluble, I'd honestly
have to like look up a list right now.
Oh my God. OK, well, that's not one of the
trivia questions. Good.
There is a little bit of a science trivia question that
will come up in Section 2, but what was I going to say?
Oh, yeah. My doctor always says to eat a

(04:18):
plate. Like your dinner plate should
have a rainbow of fruit, like vegetables, like, all different
colors, Basically, yeah. Yeah, I, I encourage all my
clients to eat like some sort offruit or vegetable or fiber
source at all of their meals. So, yeah, kind of on par with
what your doctor saying, Yeah. Amazing.
So, Sue Lynn, Are you ready for Section 1 Trivia question one?

(04:43):
The trivia questions first. OK, yeah, I'm excited.
Let's. Go yes.
Section 1 where it all began. Trivia question One who is known
as the Godfather of Fitness for bringing exercise and healthy

(05:04):
living into mainstream American culture through his TV show in
the 1950s. Oh my gosh.
OK, let me hear the multiple choice.
I need that. Yeah, a Joe Weider, B Jack
Lalanne C Arnold Schwarzenegger or D Vince Gironda.

(05:24):
Wow, OK, this is crazy because Iliterally only recognize Arnold
Schwarzenegger, but I don't think it's him.
I don't. Well, yeah, he had ATV show.
He was like an actor, and he also was like a major
bodybuilder. Yep.
I guess I'm just going to have to go with him because he's
literally the only person I know.
Oh my gosh, you were tricked. That was the tricky.
OK, OK, OK. But.

(05:46):
So fair because obviously, you know, we lived in California.
So like that same. That's like the only name I know
out of those four people. But the answer was Jack Lalanne.
And I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right.
Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I'venever heard of that guy.
Same. And like it's, I think it's
fine. Like we're obviously not from

(06:08):
that generation, but let me tellyou a little bit more about him.
And I do want to say all of these four people were like very
influential in like mainstream American culture, bringing
exercise and healthy living intothat like culture.
All of them were. But specifically, Jack Lalanne
had ATV show about fitness. What was it called?

(06:31):
I'm curious. It was literally a self-titled
TV show. It was literally called the Jack
Lalanne Show. Oh.
OK yeah. Wow.
I wonder when all these shows aired.
I know right? Let me tell you more about him.
So Jack Lalanne revolutionized how people thought about health.
Like I said, his self-titled TV show, The Jack Lalanne Show,

(06:52):
taught millions of Americans simple exercises they could do
at home, long before gyms or personal trainers were common.
And this show ran for over 30 years, so 1950s to 1980s.
That's a bit before my time. Yeah, literally safe.
I also, I like to sprinkle in a little bit of history and just

(07:12):
to, you know, learn more about where everything came from.
But yeah. So Jack also invented some
fitness equipment. He promoted Whole Foods and was
living proof of his philosophy, performing outrageous stunts
well into his old age. So for example his like most
famous stunt I guess was swimming handcuffed while towing

(07:37):
boats. Interesting.
Yeah, Lilane showed that exercise wasn't just for
athletes or bodybuilders. It was for everyone.
So he kind of, like, made it more inclusive and showed like,
hey, even if you're, you know, older like me, you can still be
super strong. And my mind is going towards
this older woman. I don't remember her name right

(07:58):
now. I should have looked it up, but
it just came into my head the the Super old gymnast who like
competed in the Olympics or something and she just like kept
doing gymnastics throughout her life.
I don't know, side tangent, but anyway, that's Jack Lalanne for
you. A little background.
That's awesome. OK, yeah, I definitely have
never heard of him. That's totally fine.

(08:20):
I didn't either. So let's talk more about you,
Sue Lynn. How did you first discover your
passion for fitness? So my passion for fitness, I
actually had a really rocky start.
I actually used to hate exercising.
So I, I was always an athlete growing up.
Like I played soccer, I was on the, the like field hockey team.

(08:42):
I always played a sport like every season at my school.
I grew up very sporty, but I also grew up basically in Los
Angeles where there was just a lot of like weight loss, fad
diet, needing to be super skinny, that type of culture.
So as I started to like, you know, hit puberty and everything
and start to care a little bit more about what I looked like,

(09:04):
about what boys thought of me and just generally like tried to
like cared a lot more about my appearance, right?
I started to view exercise as basically just a tool for weight
loss. So, you know, I didn't care
about the mental health benefits, I didn't care about
being stronger. I stopped caring about being
good at sports and everything. And I started to just funnel
exercise through this weight loss lens, which really made me

(09:26):
honestly hate it. So basically, yeah, I I was on
the swim team in high school that was extremely competitive.
And we had two and a half hour practices every single day and
or six days a week, basically. And it's so sad looking back at
my mindset back then. But I literally was on that swim
team because I wanted to stay skinny.
And just looking back, yeah, it's such an unhealthy way to

(09:49):
look at exercise and like your body.
And it's kind of like diminishing to, like, I don't
know, to just, you know, obviously, like, it's just a
diminishing way to like, look atyourself.
It's like, I just want to be as skinny as possible.
But that's just how I viewed exercise at the time.
Then when I ended up going to college and I chose going to UC
Davis more for like, the academics and everything, and I
ended up leaving swim behind. So I wasn't on a swim team

(10:12):
anymore. I didn't have, you know, a coach
to force me to show up to these extreme practices, to yell at me
to go faster, to push myself every single day.
And it took me a really long time to get into any sort of
regular exercise. So every once in a while I would
go to the gym in my freshman year and I would literally go
for 2 1/2 hours because I thought you had to work out that
long because that's all I had ever known.

(10:34):
And I would go for 2 1/2 hours and be so sore and like tired
afterwards that I just wouldn't want to go ever again.
So I'd like go literally once a month maybe.
And that was just kind of the cycle I was in for probably my
entire freshman year, honestly. Then I just started struggling a
lot with like energy fatigue, being really unconfident in my
body. I ended up gaining a lot of
weight and kind of just struggling a lot with my

(10:55):
relationship with food. And I knew I like, really wanted
to do something about it. So I started getting more
serious about the gym. I think this was like around the
time when fitness influencers were becoming a thing.
So I started getting a little bit inspired by them.
And I was like, OK, you know what?
I'm going to really be serious about this gym thing.
I started trying to go closer tolike 4 to five times a week.
And then I ended up actually really falling in love with it.

(11:16):
And that's what led me to wanting to like thinking about
doing this for a living. I actually ended up like I would
take all my friends with me. I got some of my friends like
super buff at one point. It was like really funny.
Like I took all my friends through a bulk at one point.
And I just realized I really liked, like, teaching other
people, you know, how to be strong and how to live properly
and. Yeah.

(11:36):
And like, see exercise through, like, a different lens than just
weight loss and aesthetic. So that was like, the turning
point for me probably, like my sophomore year of college.
Yeah. Awesome.
And. In that turning point was, did
you also have that sort of like click in your brain where you
realize like, oh, this also helps my emotional state, not
just my physical state? Oh, 100% yeah.

(11:59):
It honestly, like exercising regularly is such a good stress
reliever. It helps so much with like your
mental health. And honestly, like, if you think
back to like anytime you've evercompleted a workout, I don't
think anyone can ever say they felt like worse after they
worked out or they like, regretted doing that workout,
right. Usually when you're not feeling
good, it's because you haven't gone outside that day or you
haven't moved your body or you like, yeah, you're like

(12:21):
depriving yourself of like, whatyour body wants.
So that's when I started realizing, like, oh, my gosh, I
feel so much better when I'm consistent at the gym.
I feel so much better when I just, like, move my body in some
way. And it started becoming more of
like a lifestyle for me. Yeah, totally.
But at the same time, it's like consistency is key, but you
can't push your body over its limits.

(12:41):
Like you said you were doing like six days a week, two hours
each. And then you realize that wasn't
sustainable and move down to like four days a week.
And how long were? How long was each session when
you realized? That Yeah.
So yeah. So I was doing the six days a
week back when I was a swimmer in high school.
And also part of my journey was that I struggled with extreme

(13:02):
fatigue. Like I would take naps in the
middle of class. I would.
Yeah. Like, literally my grades
started to kind of suffer because of it.
So it was like definitely to thepoint of like being way too
extreme. And then when I ended up, yeah,
when I ended up actually being consistent with lifting in
college, I would go basically four times a week.
I've never been like the gym ratgirl that's in the gym 6 * a
week or five times a week. I've just never been that girl.

(13:24):
I think it's because I like to take weekend trips a lot and I
like to just have my weekends free.
So I've always been like a four day a week girl.
Literally I was doing that splitprobably from like my junior
year of college all the way until like probably a couple
years ago. Yeah, nice, nice.
Yeah, I remember I I did not go to the gym that I mean, probably

(13:45):
around the same four days a weekor maybe fewer.
I don't really remember. But almost every time I went, I
saw you. I'm pretty.
Sure. Really.
Yeah. And I'm, I would spend some time
in there too, not necessarily focusing on my workout, but I
would also just like hang out there.
Kind of became a social place for me.
Yeah, it was. Totally a social place.

(14:06):
Oh my God I miss that so much. Like I, I don't know your
workout situation right now. You know, I feel like you're
travelling the world, but here in San Francisco, there's just
like no good gyms. They're all just like gross,
unless you want to go to Equinoxwhich is so expensive and so out

(14:27):
of the way and doesn't have parking so.
That is really sad. I miss, I miss the like college
gym and I've tried to get myselfto be able to go to the, the
local university here, their gym, University of San Francisco
and literally they have like a neighborhood radius and I was

(14:52):
one block out. Oh my gosh.
So they didn't let me, but I really miss that sort of like
social gym culture, like hey andlike, Oh my God, you're in my
class. Yeah, no, I loved it too.
I literally would sometimes justlike hang out there.
Also eventually I like started training there, so I would work
there too. But I would literally go like

(15:12):
everyday and just like talk to the people, hang out, do a
couple reps or whatever. Yeah, it's a very like social
time for me. Yeah.
But yeah, that's that's actually, you don't have good
gyms in San Francisco because honestly, I feel like the gym
environment makes such a big difference.
Like I took the UC Davis arc forgranted for sure when I was
there. Same and Oh my God, the students
these days, like they have it somuch better than how we had it

(15:36):
because the whole gym went through a whole renovation,
remember? That we were working out on the
basketball court, yeah. Right.
That was crazy. OK.
What I was going to ask you was throughout your time in college,
like I guess you, you were doingyour major and it was, it was
very related to your career today.
But was there a turning point when you decided like, hey, I
want to do this professionally? Or did you go into that major

(15:58):
like knowing I want to do this professionally?
Yeah, so I definitely did not know what I wanted to do when I
went to college. So I actually started as just a
general biology degree. And then I think it was, yeah,
in my sophomore junior year whenI actually got certified as a
personal trainer. That's when I switched over to
Physiology cuz I was like, oh, this has way more to do with,
you know, the human body in biology, it's more like general,

(16:21):
like you're learning about the environment, plants, all these
other things. And I was like, no, I want to
specifically learn about the human body, kinesiology and all
of that type of stuff. So that is when I switched over
and that's when I I decided, yeah, I definitely want to be a
personal trainer. At that point, I hadn't even
considered online coaching or like anything past personal
training. But at that point I knew like,
OK, I really like doing this. I definitely want to do this in

(16:43):
some capacity in the future. I love that so much.
OK, So you were doing in person training 2018 to 2021.
I'm curious, how was that transition moving from in person
training to online fitness and health coaching?
And was that kind of due to, youknow, the global pandemic?
Did COVID have any impact on your business?

(17:05):
It had a huge impact on my career and honestly, it was for
the better. I, I say this as like with like
everyone's like situation in mind.
I want to be as sensitive as possible, But COVID was actually
a really good thing for me because it basically gave me two
different things. It gave me like space and time
like for the first time in my life, because it was kind of

(17:26):
like at this perfect timing, or I mean kind of bad timing, but
also perfect timing for everyonethat graduated in our year.
It was like right when we were graduating and like should have
been like moving on to our careers, right?
It just gave me a lot of time tothink about like what I actually
want to do with my life. So yeah, COVID basically just
gave me the time and the space to really sit back and think
about what I wanted to do with my career.

(17:47):
Because basically after we graduated, instead of just going
straight into my career or getting a job right away, I had
to kind of wait. And I went back to live with my
parents and everything. And I basically just realized I
didn't want to be working at like this big commercial gym for
the rest of my life. I wanted to use my coaching
methods that I knew work that inmy opinion were more empowering
for women. A lot of the times at other

(18:08):
gyms, if you work for them or like for these like bigger
fitness businesses, you're just basically forced to use their
methods and a lot of them are teaching really low calorie
diets or just not really empowering women to educate
themselves and actually understand their body.
It's more so using, honestly, inmy opinion, scare tactics.
And I just knew I didn't want tobe a part of that side of the

(18:28):
fitness industry. So COVID gave me time to think
about that and realize what I really wanted.
And basically, I decided I wanted to try doing my own
business and also try online since most in person gyms were
closed down anyways. And the other thing that COVID
gave me was space away from my peers because one of the
scariest parts of like starting my own business and starting to

(18:49):
get clients online, honestly wasposting on social media.
I just was so, yeah, I was so afraid of like, what people
would say. I had gotten some comments from
other people like, oh, it's so cringe.
Like if you put a hashtag in your post because, you know, it
shows that you're trying to gainfollowers or something.
And I was just like holding backfor so long because I kind of
wanted to start posting about fitness on my, on my Instagram

(19:11):
for a while. But yeah, COVID basically gave
me space away from my peers. And I honestly at one point was
just like, you know what? If people are going to talk
behind my back, let them. If people are going to think
this is cringe, let them becausethey, I'm literally not going to
see them for like a year. Like I'm literally in lockdown
right now. So it just gave me time away
from like the judgement of otherpeople.
And it helped me make a really big leap in my career that

(19:31):
honestly, I don't know if I would have done it without
COVID. Wow, Oh my gosh, there's so much
to unpack in there. Thank you so much for sharing.
Props to you for not like buyinginto those like fad, not diets,
but like low calorie, like fitness plans and, and what you
were seeing with those commercialized gems.

(19:52):
They obviously are a commercial business and they want to make
money. So, you know, it's in their best
interest to like maybe not see their clients succeed.
And I think you recognized that and you said to yourself, I
don't want to be a part of that.I actually want to help people.
And so props to you. That's amazing.
That's like a huge thing to lookfor when.

(20:14):
You know, if I was looking for apersonal trainer, that's what I
would want to look for. So yeah.
That's the main thing, yeah. Yeah.
I always tell people like really, I think with like
commercial gyms and personal training packages like that that
are super generalized and just kind of low calorie.
And I feel like not super empowering or focused on
education. Really.
The goal there is to, like get you a quick result so that you

(20:36):
keep coming back every single year for the rest of your life
and you always feel like something's wrong with you.
You always feel like I just can't keep the weight off or
like, oh, why do I like, not look the way I want yet?
Or why do I, you know, why am I like always struggling in some
way with my health and fitness and it kind of just leads you to
feeling broken. Yeah, literally with my clients,
I tell them like, OK, yeah. Like maybe from where you are to
where you want to go, maybe it will take like a longer term

(20:58):
period. It might take six months, it
might take a year. But I, like never want to see
you again after that because I want you to be confident in
being able to maintain this for the rest of your life.
Like love you but never want to see you again.
Oh my God, that is so funny. And that makes me think of my
physical therapist shout out. Lindsay, I don't know if you're
listening, but basically like I have long story SI joint injury,

(21:20):
lower back problems, and I've been seeing her for like 2-3
four months now, but the injury has resolved.
It's gone. Yay.
It's amazing. I'm amazing pain, but I was
like, Oh my God, I'm sad. I'm not going to see you next
week. No, that's amazing.
That's really amazing for like aphysical therapist like because

(21:42):
of like the the methods that they're sometimes restricted to
due to insurance, like sometimesthey can't give people those
like long lasting results. So I'm like super happy for you.
That's amazing. Thanks.
Thanks. And then I want to unpack the
other thing you said about social media.
I, I saw you posting on social media and I was like, wow, this
girl has so much like self-confidence.
And you were saying, you know, there was so much going behind

(22:05):
all of that and all of those feelings that you felt like a
few years ago, like, oh, what ifpeople are going to talk about
me? What if people are going to
like, say I'm cringe or whatever?
I feel all that shit now. Like with my yes, with my
podcast, like there's like some chatter in my brain about that.
But at a certain point, I kind of got to where you were too.
Like, hey, if people are gonna talk about me, like, let them.

(22:28):
All attention is good attention.Right.
Exactly, Exactly. And you're doing something that
you wanna do, you're inspired byit, you're excited to show up.
Like how many people can say that about their lives, Right.
Honestly. Yeah, and literally, again,
props to you for figuring that out like so early in your
career. And yes, COVID had something to
do with it because you had that space to like, reflect on

(22:50):
yourself. But like, I wish I, you know,
started this podcast back in COVID like I have, I actually do
have some recordings on my phoneof like a different like,
podcast idea. I just never did anything with
it. But yeah, like it's amazing that
you were able to like it clickedin your brain.
This is what I want to do and this is how I can achieve it.

(23:12):
And let's utilize this like lockdown we have right now to
connect with people virtually and kind of like capitalize off
of that and like, fuck it to what people say or think about
me. Like this is my business.
This is what I want to do. And like, that's just like
amazing. That's the energy that that we
need as like people trying to build their business like online

(23:36):
or by yourself. Like, yes, it's very
inspirational, that's what. I'm trying to say thank you.
Thank you. Yeah.
Literally anybody that wants to,like, start their own business,
start posting content or just dosomething that might be, like, a
little bit out of the ordinary. Like, if you want to be
convinced to do it, you just need to talk to me.
Have a conversation with me because I will, like, hype you
up until you do it. I will, like, follow up with you

(23:57):
until you actually take the leapbecause, yeah, I'm just so
excited to see people finally doing like the things that they
would do if they didn't care what other people thought about
them. Yes, at 100%.
I love that. Section 2.
Energy for the body Trivia question 2.

(24:19):
Which compound provides energy for all physiological processes
in the body? A Creatine.
B mitochondria. C Protein or DATP?
OK, wait, which? Compound, yes, OK.
Well. ATP is like energy, the
mitochondria is like like where the energy is produced.

(24:42):
What were the other options? Creatine.
And protein, OK, it's definitelynot.
Creatine protein is the buildingblock of muscle in a lot of
structures in your body. So wait wait, but ATP wait wait.
What was the question again? I just want to make sure.
I feel like I'm overthinking this.
Oh my God, I hope I. Didn't like frame the question
badly. I think you know what the answer

(25:04):
is, but I'll I'll ask. OK.
Which compound provides energy for all physiological processes
in the body? Creatine, mitochondria, protein
or ATP? I'm going to go with ATP like.
ATP is energy. Yeah, yay.
Yay. And I love how you were like,
yes, the mitochondria is where it happens.

(25:25):
Like I love that she she you guys, here's proof you guys, she
she she majored in this stuff. She learned about this stuff at
Utd. I know what I'm talking about.
Yes. OK, so I think this is funny.
I tried to trip you up a little bit.
ATP. Oh, I'm not even going to try
and say it. Wait, I should ATP Adeno

(25:48):
Adenosine triphosphate. Adenosine.
Adenosine triphosphate if you want to say that again.
Adenosine. Nope.
That's funny. Let's keep it in.
OK, so basically I tried to tripyou up a little bit because ATP
synthesis happens inside the mitochondria, the powerhouse of
the cell. That part of biology literally

(26:10):
always stuck with me. The mitochondria is the
powerhouse of the cell. So anyway, I thought that was
funny to include. That sticks with everyone, I
think. Even people that didn't study
like anything to do with scienceor biology, like everyone knows
that fact hopefully. I mean, I learned that in high
school. My my major in college was econ.
So like this was from high school.
Shout out. Yeah, I feel like it's.

(26:32):
Also, just in a lot of memes too, it's just like a part of
culture. Yeah, literally.
So anyway. ATP synthesis happens inside the
mitochondria. For those who are listening, who
are not really like science focused like me, think of the
ATP like your phone battery and the mitochondria are the

(26:53):
chargers and then your food is the electricity source.
Would you say that's kind of right track Sue Lynn?
Yeah, yeah, I guess. That's a good way to say it.
Yeah. OK, amazing.
So let me explain this in kind of layman's terms more deeply so
people can kind of get it and then we'll get into discussion
questions. So every muscle contraction,

(27:16):
nerve impulse and heartbeat depends on ATP.
And so the body is constantly recycling ATP because we can
only store a small amount at anygiven time.
And we don't eat ATP directly. Instead, our food, so like
carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, is broken down into
smaller molecules which the mitochondria, the powerhouse of

(27:40):
the cell, converts into ATP. So that's why people call
mitochondria powerhouse of the cell.
I just said that it's basically where the energy conversion
happens. In conclusion here, basically
our food choices determine how much ATP we can make and how
efficiently our body uses it. So when it comes to nutrition,
it's not just about counting calories.

(28:01):
And I want to dig into that withyou, Sue Lynn.
It's about giving your body the right raw materials to
efficiently produce the ATP and sustain energy throughout the
day. So that's my little spiel about
ATP and how to eat food. Oh, I'm super.
Excited about the it's not just calories in versus calories out
conversation. That's my next question.
Let's do it. So talking about food, how do

(28:25):
you teach your clients to have ahealthy relationship with food
instead of obsessing over calories?
Yeah. So I feel like what I'm going to
say is going to sound controversial, but let me like
hear me out and explain myself. So basically what I do is I do
have my clients track their food.
The reason for this is because one, it creates a lot of like

(28:47):
awareness around what you're putting in your body, what
you're reaching for. A lot of people will say
literally once they start tracking their food, they
realize half the time they're eating just because they like
just the bag of chips was there or like the the candy was on the
table. So I just like picked it up,
right? So it just creates a little bit
more awareness. But the other reason that I have
people track their food is because most of my clients need
to eat more for food. I can't tell you how many

(29:08):
clients I've had come in. Again, I only work with women.
So, right, so many of the women I've worked with come in eating,
they've been trying to eat 15 hundred, 1600 calories for
years, right? Because maybe their doctor told
them to, or it's like the numberthey found on the calorie
calculator and they've just beentrying to hit that number
forever. But then what?
Basically what that does basically over time is when you

(29:30):
eat a low amount of calories, itdoesn't necessarily mean that
you're going to gain weight because eventually your
metabolism is going to adapt to that.
So what ends up happening is these women come in with super
low energy. They feel lethargic.
They might even have like missing periods or just really
bad PMS symptoms because their body is literally not getting
the nutrients that it needs. They're not getting the macro
nutrients. So like the protein, enough fats

(29:51):
and enough carbs to like fuel their body and give them like
the actual energy that they need, but also micronutrients to
make sure that their metabolism is working efficiently.
So a lot of women just come in eating so little food.
They have a bunch of deficiencies.
And the reason I have them trackis because we slowly increase
their food over time. And I find that it helps so many
women breakthrough and just understand that low calories is

(30:13):
just not the answer. And that really helps a lot of
women understand, yeah, just have a way better relationship
with food. That's amazing.
And that's. The first thing I learned when I
saw a dietitian when I, you know, I gained the COVID 20 or
COVID 30, honestly, I gained a lot of weight during COVID and
you know, I realized I needed help.

(30:35):
And part of that was to see a dietitian.
And that was one of the first things she said.
She was like, you need to eat more specifically, you need to
eat more protein. That's why you're always hungry
is because you don't eat enough protein.
So I totally get that. And I also did that thing where
I write down what I'm eating, and to make it easier, she

(30:55):
suggested to me take a picture of it and just make a food album
in your phone. It's way easier that way.
Yeah. And I remember I was afraid of
certain foods, like bread and pasta and basically just carbs.
So I was wondering, do you have clients who also fear certain
foods and how do you help them reframe that?

(31:18):
Yeah, absolutely. So I think just because of my
history with exercise and like Isaid, the fad diet culture
growing up that way, I think I do speak a lot to the type of
woman who has tried a lot of diets who is really afraid of
carbs and who is just has a lot of like fear around food in
general. So I've definitely worked with a
lot of women who are specifically scared of carbs or

(31:39):
even just like, yeah, like chips, candy, things that they
just consider like bad foods. Like they tie this, they have
like a moral tying to what foodsthey're eating.
And I would say again, like the number one thing that I like to
teach is just the 8020 rule. It's so simple, but I feel like
because it's so simple, people ignore it.
But basically, it's just 80% of your foods really should be like
whole food sources like lean proteins, things you can find on

(32:02):
a farm, fruits, vegetables, grains, stuff like that.
But then the 20% really can be whatever you want.
And I also like to mention to clients that the 20% isn't like
an optional thing. It is mandatory because the
whole point of that is to prevent you from building up
cravings in the 1st place. Like that's what so many people
end up doing when they start their fitness journey or want to

(32:22):
lose weight or start feeling like they need to get serious
about their health is they go all in 100% and they think that
they have to eat 100% clean or 100% perfect all the time.
And they're basically just becoming a ticking time bomb
until they binge or until their friend invites them out for a
dinner and they just order whatever's on the menu or they

(32:43):
eat the entire for, you know, the entire appetizer of chips
and salsa because they just didn't have the willpower to
like, continue eating 100% cleanall the time.
So I really like to emphasize tomy clients the importance of
that 20%. It's literally to help you not
have cravings build up in the 1st place so that you're not in
that situation where you maybe end up really overeating or

(33:05):
overindulging or even binging and then just feeling even more
defeated. Yeah, Oh my God.
OK, so there's two things I wantto say to that.
In college and like late high school, I operated on that like
100% go all in eating, trying toeat healthy and then allowing
myself a cheat day. And on that cheat day, you just

(33:25):
kind of you, it's like the purge, you go out of control.
So I, I, I love that you teach the 8020 rule because it, it's
just more sustainable that way. And I love that you brought up
the 8020 rule because that's something my family operates in,
in terms of like life, not specifically food, but in term

(33:48):
in terms of experiences. It's so funny, both my mom and
my grandma shout out my mom and my grandma.
They both operate by this like in experiences.
Oh, if 80% of what happened is good, then like, that's great.
Like you win, basically, and youcan expect 20% to go badly.

(34:10):
Like nothing's 100%. That would be unrealistic.
So I love how that applies to food, too.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, it's really like, it's notoptional, I like to say, because
it's really just like everythingin life, like you can't be
perfect in all aspects of your life all the time.
So just giving yourself that grace and just knowing that
you're not a robot, you're a human, and honoring that is like

(34:30):
so helpful, yes. I love that we're all human
here. We're all learning as we go.
We all make mistakes and give yourself that grace you need to
respect your body. I always tell myself this like
this is your only body that you're ever going to have.
And I joke I'm like, my body is a temple but yeah, no, but like

(34:51):
literally it. Is it is your own literally only
chance at life, your only body. And so, like, take care of it.
Yeah, yeah. So I want to dig deeper into the
cultural differences here. So I know you live majority of
the time in Germany, but you're currently in the UK, right?
Yes, I'm in England right now. Basically because as a tourist

(35:12):
I'm only allowed to live in Germany for 90 days and I spent
up all my 90 days, so I had to get out of the country for 90
days before I'm allowed to go back.
Oh my gosh, what a process. Wow, Yeah.
And most of your clients are. Online anyway, and so they,
they, you know, you, you see people from different countries,
I think you said Canada, UK, Germany and US, right.

(35:34):
Pretty much yeah. I've had.
Some clients from Spain, but yeah, I think because I moved to
Germany and then, you know, the Instagram algorithm does its
thing. Like I attracted some German
clients at that time. Yeah, for sure, for sure.
So I'm curious to know, like, doyou notice any cultural
differences between how Americans and Europeans approach
food and eating habits? Yes.

(35:57):
So there's definitely like positives and negatives to both.
And honestly, they're just really different.
So what I've noticed is at leastspecifically the, the woman that
I work with from the USI think that a lot of the, the, the
woman in the US have been reallyinfluenced by like fad diet
culture. So I'm noticing that a lot of

(36:17):
people that I work with from theUS, which is the majority of my
clients, they have these like really extreme beliefs about
food. Like I have to be 100% clean or
I have to cut out carbs or I have to eat, you know, 1200
calories. And they have like, all of these
like set beliefs that are reallyextreme around food.
And so with a lot of my US clients, it's a lot about
unlearning. And it's about healing their

(36:38):
relationship with food. Unlearning, you know, yeah,
unlearning being afraid of carbs.
And it's just about like literally like reprogramming
them so that they start to make healthy decisions and they start
to feel more empowered by food and more empowered by exercise
rather than rather than just seeing food and exercise as like
a way to lose weight and just seeing it in a very extreme
lens. And then with my European

(37:00):
clients, I've just noticed that a lot of them don't really, it's
not that they have like all of these like false beliefs around
food. It's just that they aren't as
like they're not as into it in the first place.
Like it's not really as big of apart of their pop culture.
A lot of them have like never tried a diet before.
A lot of them like the only thing they've really tried is
like maybe just trying to portion control a little bit

(37:20):
more. So with my European clients,
it's less about like re educating and more about just
like educating in the 1st place.Not to say that they don't,
like, know stuff about nutrition, but they're just not
thinking about it nearly as muchas a lot of my clients from the
US Whereas, like, they've been thinking about trying to lose
weight since they were a little girl or since they were a
teenager. Yeah.
And that's so sad and. I I'm probably count as one of

(37:42):
those people, especially since that yeah, like it's part of
it's part of our culture. And also, I do want to talk
about how the difference betweenthe quality of food in Europe
versus America. And I know I didn't put this in
the outline, but it just, I can't believe I didn't put this
in the outline because this is such a big topic for me.
I spent two weeks in Italy recently and Oh my God, I could

(38:06):
eat whatever the fuck I wanted. I could eat cheese, I could eat
bread and pasta every single day.
I think I lost weight, honestly.Yes, I was walking a lot.
But like, I think the quality offood in in the EU and like
quality control is so much better.
And so maybe that's why Europeans aren't as so like

(38:28):
concerned about their intake because they've never had to be.
Their food is nutritional. It's supposed to be good for
you. Like that's what they're raised
believing. And that's the truth in Europe.
Whereas in America, I have a lotof thoughts about America, but
yeah. Basically.
Like, I believe that the insurance companies and the food

(38:50):
companies have a little, what's the word, have a little some
deal going. Yeah, yeah.
Some deal. Going coercion, colluding,
whatever the word is. I feel like they're working
together. The food is making us sick so
that we can go and go to the doctor and then, you know, the
insurance money. The insurance companies make

(39:12):
money. So yeah, I, I.
Completely agree that that's howit works in the US, like whether
they're having some deal together and they're doing it on
purpose or whether it's just like the way that it ended up
working out, that definitely is what is happening.
So I, I totally agree with you there.
And yeah, in Europe it's not just about like the food
quality, because definitely the food quality is definitely

(39:32):
better here, right? Like processed food here just
has way less ingredients. There's literally some things
that are in the food in the US that are illegal here.
So just like the same brand willsell the same product to the US
market and to the European market, but it will have to
change some of the ingredients because Europe is way pickier
about what's allowed in their food.
But it's also just like in general, the lifestyle in

(39:52):
Europe, it's so much more commonto like not own a car and to
just walk everywhere or use public transportation.
People get like 7 to to 10K steps like super easily
throughout the day. Whereas like in the US there's
like. New York and maybe maybe SF,
right? You have pretty good public
transportation there. But there's really like, not
these like amazing cities. Like it's not normal to be able

(40:14):
to like live without a car and to be able to just like walk
everywhere. We have definitely have like a
car culture in the US. So it's also just about like the
lifestyle, right? For sure.
Also like work life balance. Like work life balance in the
USI feel like it's just getting like, in a lot of ways, it's
getting better, but I also just feel like it's sometimes like
getting worse. Whereas like the people in the
US are typically working longer hours.

(40:36):
They're more dedicated to growing their career quickly,
making more money, like from an earlier age.
And I just feel like there's a little bit more balance in
Europe when it comes to that, where people are like they log
off and then they like go on a hike or they log off and they
like enjoy their weekend. And people just tend to like
approach life a little bit more balanced from what I've, from
what I've seen in Europe. Yeah.

(40:58):
Yeah, I that's. That's how I live.
That's the rule I live by. You know, I work so that I can
live my life the way I want. And also like PSA to all the
Americans out there who are doing that, like hustle culture
or the rat race or whatever, like you're not going to be able
to enjoy the money you're you'remaking if you're dead.

(41:21):
Like yes. Literally.
Yes. So take care of your body, make
sure you have that work life balance.
I think that's so important. Yeah, that, that's actually.
A huge thing I talked to my clients about is like stress,
because stress has a huge takes a huge because because stress
plays a huge role in your metabolism and like how healthy
you are. I talk to my clients all the

(41:42):
time about their, their career and setting boundaries with
their work and not, you know, checking their e-mail at 8:00 PM
right before they go to bed or on a Sunday morning when they're
supposed to be like relaxing, taking the day for themselves,
like setting work life boundaries.
And honestly, even like making career pivots.
Like a lot of my clients have like completely changed careers

(42:02):
or jumped from different, different companies to different
companies because they've realized like the work life
balance is just not possible at the job that they're at.
And yeah, I really advocate for my clients to, like, set those
boundaries and like, advocate for like a better balanced life.
Yeah, I, I. Think that's so important.
You should definitely, I don't know if you already do this, but

(42:22):
you should definitely like I think it would be, I would be
drawn in by a personal trainer who's like I live the European
lifestyle, like learn from me basically.
OK, let's pivot more towards like.
Back to the food part, So you mentioned that there are some
foods that are illegal in the EUand I'm pretty sure isn't it

(42:45):
Wheat Thins and Sun Chips? I'm not sure it's.
Not like the actual food is illegal, it's just that the
ingredients that are in it, someof them aren't allowed.
So the the company will make thethe same cracker, like Wheat
Thins or whatever it is with just less ingredients, and
they'll sell that to the European market.
But because it's more expensive,they'd obviously rather Add all

(43:06):
the additives. So they sell that one to the US
market. Yeah, Oh my God.
Literally. So fucked up so it is.
I'm curious to know what is yourultimate comfort food when you
just want to relax? And I don't think about like the
80%, I guess. What do you like to eat in that
20%? Yeah, so.
OK recently or not recently? OK for like years now my

(43:30):
favorite food has been Szechuan food, which is an extremely oily
Chinese dish. It is like, yes, and it is in no
way like fitting into macros or anything like that, but it's so
good. Basically it's this like numbing
spice. And I didn't discover until a
couple years ago. So basically once I discovered
it, it like, instantly became myfavorite food.
Yeah. I'm adopted.

(43:51):
So like, I grew up eating just like, American food and stuff.
But yeah, Szechuan is just like,amazing.
I love like, Pyongyang noodles, Szechuan chili oil on dumplings.
Yeah. That's like, definitely my
favorite food. Yeah.
Oh my God. That sounds really good.
You said numbing, Did you say numbing?
Yeah. So it's like.
Not spicy, it's like it makes your mouth tingle and it's cool

(44:14):
sensation. Do you remember at the sushi
restaurant in Davis they had a cocktail with a lychee, lychee
lychee fruit with like a little tiny.
It was a lychee based cocktail and it also had that fruit that
numbs your tongue. Do you?

(44:35):
Remember that I don't. Wait, you said?
It was at the student Student center, not the student.
Center it was like near near in and out.
I'm not. I literally.
Have no idea what you're talkingabout.
Oh my gosh what? I have a video.
Of me eating it. Mikuni's OK, I.
Honestly I don't think I ever got a cocktail from Mikuni's.
I went there like a few times and just would eat sushi.

(44:58):
OK, fair. It was like the best sushi place
in Davis, I think. I think I went for a friend's
birthday. And so we were like, let's get
cocktails and we've like probably just turned 21 or
something. So I wonder if that's similar.
The Szechuan to also that tiny fruit.
Let me let me look it up really quickly.
I can always cut this out, but I'm curious, what is that that

(45:21):
makes your mouth tingle? I found it.
It's it's Szechuan. So it is OK, yes.
OK. So I looked up.
What is the fruit that makes your mouth tingle?
It's a tiny fruit used in cocktails.
That was my search. So the AI overview says the
fruit you're thinking of is mostlikely a buzz button or a

(45:42):
Szechuan button. A small edible flower from the
Achmela ulerechea plant that causes a unique tingling,
buzzing or numbing sensation in the mouth due to an its active
compound, Spilanthal. Well, not technically a fruit,
it functions like 1 as a tiny flavorful garnish or ingredient

(46:04):
in cocktails, adding a distinctive cooling and tinkly
effect. Yes.
Yeah. That's Szechuan and I love that
on like noodles, dumplings, everything.
I had no idea. It could be eaten or cooked in
like a savory capacity. That's so fucking cool.
I need to try that. That's so funny because I never.
Thought of it being a sweet thing at all.

(46:25):
That's so funny. Oh my God.
OK for the for the video I will input the video I have of me
eating this little Szechuan button from my cocktail in
Instagram because it's hilarious.
OK perfect. Section 3.

(46:49):
Losing the Weight. Trivia Question 3.
How? Many.
Calories are in 1 LB of body fat.
A 2500, B 3000, C 3500 or D4000C. 3500 yeah, she's.

(47:12):
Coming back, I'm so glad I knew that.
Before the the multiple choice, yeah I should have.
Just let you say the answer before I did the multiple
choice. But you, you were on it.
I love that. So just a mini deep dive before
we get into the conversation here.
The 3500 calorie rule has been around for decades, apparently,
but weight loss obviously isn't always as simple as burning

(47:35):
exactly that number. As we've learned throughout this
conversation, factors like metabolism, hormones, sleep,
stress all play a huge role. Still, this number 3500 gives
people a baseline for understanding the energy stored
in fat and why small, consistentlifestyle changes do in fact add

(47:56):
up over time. So modern trainers, from what I
see on the Internet, often focusless on calorie math and more on
sustainable habits, as we've discussed here today.
So Sue Lin, I'm curious, what isthe biggest myth about losing
body fat that you wish people would stop believing?

(48:18):
So I think the. Biggest myth about losing body
fat might be just that if the scale goes down like you're
making progress and you're losing body fat because when the
scale goes down you could be losing water weight.
You could literally be losing like muscle mass which is like
hard earned right? Muscle takes a long time to
build and it also regulates yourmetabolism, helps up regulate

(48:40):
it. You could also literally be
losing like bone density. So like obviously tissue that
you don't want to be losing that.
That's what basically the the scale is not that valuable when
it comes to losing weight. And so just the biggest, I
guess, like mistake that I see so many people making is saying
that they want to lose like 10 or 15 lbs.
And then just going based on thescale, literally with like, I

(49:03):
would say honestly, a good, a good like 50% maybe of my
clients, like they come in wanting to lose maybe 15 to 20
lbs. And then by the end of the
program, they'll maybe lose likejust 5 lbs, but they'll look
completely different because we focused on maintaining their
muscle, even building muscle. And maybe they just lost like a
little bit of body fat. But really at the end of the

(49:25):
day, like the scale is just so like not helpful.
I I, I find with like a lot of women, it's just usually
misleading when it comes to getting the results that they
want, like actually feeling goodup, regulating their metabolism,
being able to build lean muscle and like, even like, yeah, like
aesthetically, it's just not that helpful for.
A lot of people, yeah, that totally, that totally makes

(49:47):
sense. And that I feel a little guilty
because I do have a scale and I have one of those like smart
scales, I guess, where it, it like it has an app in my phone
and it shows me like a graph over time of my weight
basically. And for me, like it did help me
lose weight when I like I did, Ilost all that like COVID 30.

(50:10):
So like I'm back to where I am normally, but like I weigh
myself every morning every like really still religiously, yes,
because there's a certain numberthat I'm like, I, if I get over
that, I know I'm like falling off the tracks, but like maybe
that I maybe I'm envisioning that wrong or thinking about it
wrong. But like, I think it's just a
habit. I do.

(50:30):
I just weigh myself every singleday and yeah, it's something I
can't stop doing. So maybe I really need to, like,
rethink that. That's interesting.
Yeah, I, I would say, yeah. OK, so I'll, I'll backtrack a
little bit on what I said. The scale is not, it's not
completely useless, right? It's just only one small value

(50:50):
that we can use to track your progress that really doesn't
show the big picture. So like, for example, some of my
clients do want to lose 30 lbs and they do have 30 lbs of
excess body fat to lose and we help them do that, right.
And like we can, we can look at the scale for like confirmation
that they're going in the right direction there.
What I do find though, is that just a lot of people will get
discouraged early on because they'll, you know, we go through

(51:12):
the program, we focus on building a strong metabolism at
the start to help you with long term fat loss.
And so when we're building your metabolism, we're building
muscle. And so people will see the scale
either go up a pound and freak out, or they'll see the scale
not go down as fast as they thought it would because their
friends over there cutting out carbs, losing a bunch of water
weight and they're like, why am I not losing 20 lbs in a month
like my friend? And so it can just kind of get

(51:35):
people in their heads and can get them to quit earlier on is
what I found. But yeah, I would say like that
number, whatever number that is in your head that you're like
scared of going over, I think there could be a little bit of
work done and like that mindset,you know, because for example, I
lost, I lost. This was last year in 2024.

(51:55):
I ended up losing 8 lbs and it was all because I lost muscle.
So I totally side tangent, but Iwent through this like pain
management journey last year where I was like dealing with
like a lot of neck pain. I wasn't able to train
consistently like I wanted to. And literally like all the
weight I lost was just muscle. And so, you know, if I had been,
you know, just using the scale to track my progress, like, I
guess that would have been good because it would have shown,

(52:17):
yeah, I've lost weight, but it was just muscle, like literally
just, I got weaker. My metabolism slowed down.
I didn't feel as good on a dailybasis because I couldn't
exercise the way I wanted to. So that's just like an example
that I see quite often of people, like assuming the scale
going down as good when it couldactually be kind of dangerous
sometimes, right? Like losing muscle is like
really bad. Yeah.

(52:38):
Yeah, OK. I'll definitely keep that in
mind and that's really good to know moving forward.
One thing I did notice like in my journey is that the scale
would it would go up and then a big down and then up interesting
and then a big down like the stock market.
So, and then one final thought on that is like I saw the most

(52:59):
difference in my face. So that's like, I don't know
where I saw the most difference.But anyway, yeah, I I love like
using. Progress photos as a way to
track progress and like how you just feel when you look in the
mirror in the morning, right? Like, I just hate to see someone
wake up, feel like they look really good.
Like, oh, I feel like I'm makingprogress.

(53:20):
Let me weigh myself. And then because the scale went
up to pounds, they now feel likethey're going the wrong
direction. So I really am like a big
proponent for like, let's just see, like, are you progressing
in the gym? Do you feel stronger?
Do you have more energy throughout the day?
And yeah, do you, are you starting to look better in your
photos? Right.
Like a lot of people, it's like you really think about it.
They care about what they look like in photos and what they

(53:43):
look like in their clothes. And they want to, like, present
themselves in a certain way. But the, the number on the scale
isn't going to, like, necessarily show that people can
look drastically different at the same weight just because one
of them has way more muscle thanthe other.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm so guilty of that.
Like a huge reason I work out isjust so I can fit in my clothes.
So maybe I need some help here. But moving on to to your

(54:07):
clients. So I'm what I'm getting is that,
you know, you kind of emphasize like a little bit of everything
for for all of your clients. And like a big, a big thing you
focus on is like gaining muscle mass, right?
Yeah, yeah. OK.
Yeah, I think like 1. Of the Oh yeah, this is actually
a huge misconception that gaining muscle will make you
look bulky as a woman like girl,if gaining weight or if gaining

(54:32):
muscle and lifting weights made you look bulky, I would have
been bulky by now because I've been lifting weights
consistently since 2018. And again, like I said, like I
yeah, I like, I, I specifically like want to build muscle like
that is like a goal of mine. I'd say like more than like most
women like a lot of women are like, you know, they they'll
gain some muscle and they're notlike that into it.
Like I purposely like want to have a lot of muscle.

(54:54):
I'm training like really consistently and I'm definitely
not, I would say most people don't consider me bulky.
So muscle mass is it's really slow to put on honestly.
Like you're not just going to like get bulky overnight and
like gain a bunch of muscle and look like the Hulk.
And like, like also you can juststop at any point if you start
feeling bulky. A lot of the reason I think that
people feel bulky when they start strength training for the

(55:15):
first time is that they end up just like they, they exercise
more. So they start having this like
higher appetite and maybe they're not paying as much
attention to like the type of food they're eating.
So they'll start to gain a little bit of excess body fat.
And so that's kind of like a, a common cycle I see people get
into if they're not focusing on both the nutrition and the
exercise is they get into this mindset of like, oh, I'm

(55:37):
exercising now, so I can kind ofjust eat whatever.
And then they gain a little bit of body fat, feel like it's the
strength training that's the problem, and then stop that.
Yes. Yeah, that totally makes sense.
And the one thing I learned about having more muscle, and
now that I live with my boyfriend and I see how much he
eats and obviously he has more muscle than me.
When you have more muscle, you burn more calories.

(55:58):
Is that right? OK.
Yeah, when you have more muscle.You burn more calories and also
strength training itself is one of the best ways to burn
calories. So I think, oh, that's another
really good misconception we cantalk about, but a lot of people
think that cardio. So I think because cardio, it
kind of sucks, right? Like you're like, you're like,
this sucks. Like it must be burning a lot of
calories, right? It's it's really hard.

(56:19):
You're like breathing super heavy, you're sweating the whole
time. Whereas with strength training,
you do 10 reps and you should bepushing yourself in those ten
reps, but you do 10 reps and then you rest for like a minute
and a half. And that just feels like less
intense to a lot of people. So they think that it's not as
effective for burning calories, but basically there's this thing
called epoch. So excess post exercise oxygen

(56:41):
consumption, basically. Yeah, strength training
stimulates epoch, which is basically that you will burn.
You will burn like, yeah, you'regoing to burn calories while
you're working out, but you're also going to be burning
calories for about 72 hours after your strength training
session because your body is trying to recover, rebuild
muscle, building muscle and strength training takes a lot

(57:02):
for your body to recover from. Whereas cardio, humans are
endurance animals. Like we're actually really good
at recovering from cardio. So we will recover from cardio
within 20 minutes of a cardio session.
So your body stops burning that higher amount of calories pretty
much right after you stop running.
OK, wow, I'm. Learning so much.
I love this. Yay, OK, yay.
I love. That little fact then.
All right, I would love to know.More on like single solution

(57:25):
weight loss fad fads basically like specifically, I know
Kourtney Kardashian has one called Let Me Burn and it's OK
if you don't know that one specifically.
But what are your thoughts overall on like single solution
weight loss fads like diet pillsor detox products like?
Yeah, So just like blanket statement, if it was that easy,

(57:49):
everyone would just take it and then no one would struggle with
losing weight. So that it would just like not
be a conversation anymore if it was that easy.
But also, yeah. So I actually had to look up the
Lemmy Burn thing because I've never heard of it before, but it
seems like it's a it's a supplement that like claims to
boost your metabolism, right? And like basically solve all
your problem, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(58:09):
So, yeah, so that that's. The thing with supplements is
they're really just like supplements to an already like
pretty nutritious and healthy diet.
And yeah, like you could be, youcould be eating like even with
like nutrition, right? You could technically be eating
like all clean foods, like super, super healthy, but still
be in a calorie surplus and thenstill be not seeing fat loss or

(58:29):
still be gaining weight, right? So I really like, I really just
feel like these fad diets and like these single solution
things are kind of just praying on people that are really
desperate. They just want to give them an
easy answer, an easy solution. And yeah, like it, it really
just comes down to like people need to like, honestly, if
people just spent like three to six months really focusing in on

(58:50):
educating themselves about nutrition, which I know sounds
annoying and lame, but like, it can just empower you for the
rest of your life. This is something that like, you
could fix it in six months if you really just focused on it.
Whereas if you're constantly jumping from like single
solution to Weight Watchers to like next supplement, you're not
only not gonna ever get the results, but you're also just
always gonna feel disempowered in your own body and never

(59:12):
really feel like you know what'sgoing on, right?
Totally. And then?
If something does work, you won't know exactly like which
solution it's tied to, because you've tried so many different
things. There's no like one single
variable that you can tie it to,right?
Right. And so, yeah, I think a really
common thing I see is that people will like, lose weight
one time and then they'll feel like, Oh my God, like, that

(59:34):
worked that one time, but then they'll gain the weight back.
So then they'll do it again because it works.
And it's just kind of like keeping people stuck in the
cycle of like, like, that works.So I should just keep trying
that over and over. But really, if, like, something
only worked for a short period of time, like, did it really
work? And like, I feel like good is
always, like, the enemy of great, right?
Like, people feel like it was good enough that they could lose

(59:54):
the weight one time. So they're like, I'll just stick
with that. It's comfortable.
I know it works. But like, it could be great.
You could feel, like, empowered and amazing and, like, never
have to worry about that or be stressed out by that again.
Yeah. Wow.
I love that it. Good is the enemy of great.
I'm going to use that from now on.
Good. Yeah.

(01:00:14):
Good. Great.
So let's let's end the convo on a positive note here.
Can you explain more what the role of mindset and self
compassion plays on someone's fitness journey?
Absolutely, yeah. Self compassion is so important
for your fitness journey, for any self development journey
really. If you want to like change

(01:00:35):
something about yourself, you first have to accept that you
need help or that you are struggling in some way or that
you're not doing something right.
You first have to write like, own that, like something's not
working right and you have to take responsibility for that.
And that could be extremely hardif you don't have self
compassion, right? Because then you just go
straight to self judgement. Who wants to feel like they're a

(01:00:55):
failure? Who wants to feel like they like
don't know what they're doing orthat they, you know, don't know
enough about this topic that they're really struggling with,
right? Like, who wants to like face
that? If it's just immediately met
with like self criticism and like, I'm a failure, I'm not
good enough. So it's really important to like
monitor like your mindset and the way that you just speak to
yourself, right? Like it's OK to need help, it's

(01:01:18):
OK to reach out for help, it's OK to not know what you're
doing. And it's just really important
to be like self compassionate about that, right?
Same thing with like my clients.If they have a day where they
just go like crazy and they're like, Oh my God, I didn't track,
I didn't do my workouts this week.
It was just so crazy this week. That's fine.
Like self compassion, like let'sjust like, what can we learn
from this situation? It was a good learning lesson

(01:01:41):
and how can we just like move forward and maybe use that as
like knowledge for the future? That's like really all it is.
And I just feel like so many people unfortunately, whether
it's like the way they were raised, like literally could go
all the way back to that. Or maybe just like a bad
experience with like maybe with just like being afraid to be
wrong sometimes, right? So many people have this like
just really like self critical voice in their head that is just

(01:02:05):
holding them back more than anything.
Yeah, what I. Remind myself a lot is I am not
my thoughts, even if I have negative thoughts, those do not
define me. And I love I love what you said
about self compassion. Like you have to love yourself.
You know, if you did something really hard that day, like give

(01:02:27):
yourself a round of applause, like you know you did something,
let that's that's a win. Let's celebrate.
And if you forget something, I love that you said it's a
learning lesson. Let's see what we can learn from
this and, you know, move forward.
I think that's really great and really good for sustainability
and also just like, a healthy relationship with yourself and
also your coach. Yeah, Yeah, absolutely.

(01:02:50):
Yeah, yeah. I hope that it's phasing out.
But like those super hardcore coaches that like yell at you
and make you feel bad, I hope that's phased out completely at
this point. I've never experienced.
That except for like in gymnastics, basically, but not
really yeah yeah, yeah not in like yeah, real life yeah yeah,
no, that that's how my. Swim coach used to be like, she

(01:03:12):
would like be super mad if we like missed a practice.
Like it was just a lot of like just a lot of like angryness.
So yeah, OK, well, this. Has been an amazing amazing
conversation let's wrap up here so was there anything that stood
out to you during this chat or did you learn anything new I
know I learned a lot yeah I think I.
Learned, I don't know, I think honestly, you sharing a little

(01:03:34):
bit about like some of your limiting beliefs around fitness
and health. It made me realize that, yeah,
it just, it just reminded me that like, yeah, a lot of people
struggle with their like relationship with health and
fitness. And even if it doesn't like
show, right, Like even if they're not like overweight or
even if they're not like specifically like struggling

(01:03:54):
with like a specific thing on their health and fitness
journey. It just made me remember like
how many people like can really benefit from learning, like just
just really working on their mindset towards their health and
fitness journey. So that was like interesting to
hear you open up a little bit. But yeah, also you bringing up
like the compounds in ATP and mitochondria.
Honestly, I was like, whoa, I like never talk about that with

(01:04:15):
my clients because like, I don'tknow, that's just not like that
microscopic detail doesn't really like, it's not that
important when I'm like, you know, talking big picture with
my clients. So it was like kind of brought
me back to my Physiology days. I was like, whoa, I haven't like
talked about any of those, like,very specific things.
Been a very long time. So it's exciting that I
remembered it. First of all.
I was like, oh God, I actually know this stuff.
And yeah, it was just kind of cool to like, talk about that

(01:04:37):
again. Yeah, awesome.
I'm sure. UC.
Davis is very proud that you have retained that information.
Yes, yes. Well, I've had so much fun
having you on the podcast today.Sue Lynn, if you were to guest
again, what would you want to bequizzed on if I was a guest?
Again, I would want to be quizzed on something to do with
traveling the world, like European Union, like digital

(01:05:02):
nomading laws or something like that.
Because yeah, I definitely through these last through this
last what, like 6 months have learned a lot about yeah, visas
and traveling and what's allowedand remote work and all that
type of stuff. So that would be kind of cool.
There's there's so much. To talk about there, my dad is a
digital nomad, so I know a little bit about it.

(01:05:24):
I would love to dig in deeper with that.
Oh wait, he is. Where is he living right now?
Currently, he's back in. California with my family, but
he has spent the last year in South America and yeah, he's
fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
That's so cool. That's like.
My next thing is I really need to Start learning more languages
because I'm super dependent on Alex, my boyfriend, he speaks

(01:05:46):
German and Spanish and like I only speak English.
I'm like, I really need to learnanother language.
You don't speak German. No.
No, in Germany it's pretty easy to get away with though because
everyone there is super good at English.
Like everyone that is like younger, like around my age,
they're all like learning English.
Like they all speak it pretty fluently.
So okay, so pretty easy. You're off the hook.

(01:06:09):
Yeah, I'm off the. Hook But I want to feel, you
know, part of the culture, like,I don't want to always be like
that entitled person that like, makes everyone around them speak
English because like, quite literally, that's what all of
Alex's friends have to do when they come hang out with us is
like, we'll be on like, you know, weekend trip with them or
like staying at an Airbnb with them and they'd rather obviously
probably speak German, their native language.
And then every once in a while Ihave to be like, wait, guys like

(01:06:31):
don't forget to speak English because like, yeah, I like, hate
being that person. I.
I've been there. I feel that I would recommend
Duolingo, but yeah, yeah. I need to, I think I honestly
need to just take like an actualcourse because I've done
Duolingo, but I care less about the grammar and writing.
I just want to be able to like, understand and speak it like

(01:06:53):
kind of conversationally. Yeah, well, I'm sure, Alex.
Can help you find a class. Yeah.
Yeah, that's probably. Like the next goal that I have,
Yeah, I love that. So important.
So Sue Lynn, anything coming up for you that we can promote on
the podcast? This episode is scheduled to
release on like sometime like early October, so I know it's

(01:07:16):
like really far in advance. That's far out.
I don't plan my. Life that far out, but I am
doing health and fitness coaching still so there'll be a
link in my bio if you are interested and want to have a
conversation with me to just talk about your goals and how I
might potentially be able to help you.
So now I work for a company called Frequency fitness.
It's me and this other girl Tara.
We have 12 years of experience between the both of us so we

(01:07:38):
definitely can help you out. We typically, again, we work
with women typically in their like 20s and 30s and really like
a lot of the women we work with are career driven.
They're in grad school or they're also like we actually
work with a lot of like beginnerfitness coaches as well to help
them get their first like experience with a coach.
And then also just like it honestly really helps excel
their career too, because they just start to have an

(01:07:59):
understanding of how online coaching works.
So yeah, if you're interested, my Instagram is just my name,
Sue Lynn Harvey. So I will link your Instagram.
I will link Frequency Fitness Instagram and I'll also link
your website in the description below and also make sure to
share across all you know, our socials and stuff.
Amazing. Yay.

(01:08:20):
Thank you. This is so fun.
Yeah, Sue Lynn, thank you so much for.
Coming on today, this is a really great conversation and I
learned a lot. Oh good.
OK, I'm really. Glad that you did.
Yeah, this is way less nerve wracking than I thought it would
be. So, like, I was kind of nervous,
I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, but it was super fun.
You got two out of three questions.
Right. And like the two you got right
were like more like sciency based, like history is like not

(01:08:42):
super applicable to yeah, it's more fun rather than I feel like
I feel like I'm. Also just always living under a
rock. I like never know specific
people's names and like the fitness industry people be like,
you don't know, like Bio lane onInstagram.
And I'm like, no, like, I don't know.
I'm just like in a different bubble, I guess.
Yeah, for sure. All right.

(01:09:02):
Well, thank you to those of you who have made it to the end of
this episode. I'm your host, Lena.
Thanks for listening and learning.
Bye. If you enjoyed this episode,
please give us a five star rating or thumbs up.
Follow or subscribe and share with a friend for bonus content.
You can find trivia tangents on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and

(01:09:22):
of course all podcasts platformsunder Trivia Tangents Podcast.
Check out our website at triviatangentspodcast.com to
purchase trivia starter packs based on these episodes, perfect
for hosting your very own trivianight.

All Episodes

Muscles, Myths, & Metabolism – Trivia with a Trainer

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

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

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Muscles, Myths, & Metabolism – Trivia with a Trainer