Taught Not Told Podcast
Our mission is to teach you everything you need to know and implement so you can be extremely successful on your journey towards health and fitness. I strive to make complex topics and challenging methods stupid simple to understand so YOU can take action with confidence knowing what you're doing will WORK! Please enjoy!
Much Love,
Coach Tyler
Taught Not Told Podcast
EP#41: Paige Yomogida: The Unspoken Truth About Women's Health & Hormones
In this interview, Paige and I discuss how to unlock the secrets to optimal women's health and hormone balance!
We dive deep into the truth about women's health and hormones, revealing hidden factors that can affect your mood, energy levels, and overall well-being.
From hormonal imbalances that influence how you feel daily to essential nutrition and lifestyle choices, we explore often-overlooked aspects of women's health that can make a difference in achieving a balanced life.
We cover how stress, sleep patterns, and diet can influence your hormonal health, along with practical tips to help you regain control over your body and mind.
Get ready to take charge of your health and discover the truth that's been hiding in plain sight, empowering you to make informed decisions and live your best life.
Join us on this journey to understand and improve women's health, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your thoughts in the comments below!
You can find Paige on Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/miss_yomo
You can learn more about Paige and her coaching services here:
https://propensityfitness.com
In This Video We Cover:
00:00 Intro: Paige Yomogida
02:30 Navigating success with a 9-5 career
07:31 Why lifting doesn't make you "Bulky"
12:00 Stop focusing on the scale
13:57 Menstrual cycle explained
22:41 Signs of high stress and how to fix it
26:02 Paige's 5 phase approach to lifelong health
31:49 How to navigate hard times
36:03 Paige's personal challenges
39:20 Navigating health and fitness as a parent
45:23 Most important piece of advice
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P.S. If you’d like my help with mapping out your path to success on your fitness journey, click here to book a FREE strategy session 1-on-1 with me:
https://calendly.com/tntcoaching/strategysession
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https://www.instagram.com/ty.lerstuder
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Lastly, to find out more about TNT coaching, what we offer, and how we can help, check out our website:
https://betaughtnottold.com
BONUS - CHECK OUT OUR FREE GUIDES:
https://betaughtnottold.com/free-guides
Hope you found this helpful!
Much love,
Coach Tyler🤍
Welcome back to the taught, not told podcast, and I'm here with a very special guest, page yomagita, and I'm really excited for this guest. This will be my first female Interview, and I'm excited because I really think that having a female perspective, especially for the female body, is Amazing and it's something that, no matter how much learning I do, no matter how much studying I do, you just don't always have the same perspective as a female herself, and I know you work with a lot of amazing women, and so I'm really excited to learn about how you help your clients learn about the journey you take them on and some of the specifics and some of the certain false beliefs that a lot of women have when they get started on their fitness journey. So, before we get into the good stuff number one, thank you for coming on, and number two, I would love to hear your story of what got you to become a coach in the first place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much. I'm super stoked to have this conversation. I feel like we always just have such great in-depth conversations. But my name is Paige Yamagita and I have been on my fitness journey for 10 years now, which is crazy to think about, but it really started back in 2013.
Speaker 2:I've always been like an athlete. I played soccer, I played golf in high school and then I kind of had like this disordered relationship with food. And you know, I think, growing up in Orange County, constantly being in a bathing suit and just always trying to look smaller and smaller and smaller. I remember like comparing and not eating enough food in high school. And come to college, obviously we ate and drank like fish and ended up putting on more than just the freshman 15. And I had a friend who showed me powerlifting. He was powerlifting at the time and he really helped heal my relationship with food and I saw how powerful it was to eat to train and gain strength and hit PRs and just like how just impacting that was for my relationship with food and also my confidence.
Speaker 2:So I started on that journey and, you know, five-ish years into it I graduated with my degree in finance. I worked in finance and asset management, and I hated my life 40 hours a week and I just thought there's got to be more to this. So I quit my career in finance was making like $80,000 a year or something like that and decided to make $12 an hour and become a personal trainer. So that was 2019. And then I took my business online and have been online coaching since for the last four or five years. So now we're here.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that and I think one of my favorite and I think one of the most amazing parts of your journey was actually going into the nine to five world, because I feel like that gives you a very unique perspective of working with people that come from that realm and are currently in that realm and don't have, whether it's the passion or the wherewithal to leave that industry, and so they're stuck with it, they're going to stay with it, and so I know navigating your health and fitness in that nine to five position can be extremely challenging. So, either looking back and or, if there's anything you would change now, what skills or what things around the nine to five do you feel are really important for people to instill in their life to maintain good health and fitness, despite how challenging or because of how challenging working a nine to five can be?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest thing right is, like the time constraint, that you are committed from nine to five, especially if you're going into an office. But, like nowadays, we have a little bit more flexibility. But I think, regardless, you have to be prepared, like it doesn't matter if you're going into an office or you're not. I mean same thing for me. I'm flexible and I work from home. I have to have my meals prepared, otherwise I'm not cooking or I'm going out to eat. So that's probably my number.
Speaker 2:One thing is that I remember when I was in corporate finance and I was, you know, having a 45 commute, 45 minute commute to work and back, um, my favorite part of the day was waking up at three, 45 in the morning. I would get to the gym at like four, 15 and I would train. I'd see my friends at the gym. But that was my non-negotiable because it meant that I had to get there before the market opened, bring and pack all of my food, which I did the night before. Eat, usually like at home, or even something on the way.
Speaker 1:Eat at my desk you know I'm not going out to eat as much with all my coworkers Um, and then on the way home, you get home after a long day six o'clock, maybe seven eat, go to sleep, do it all again 100%, and I think the easiest way to summarize that would be like failure to plan is planning to fail, and I think that that is actually one of the biggest skills that, as coaches that I know you help and we help with our clients is learning or being able to plan ahead. And so do you have maybe one or two little hacks, tricks or some sort of tips for people? Probably, I would say, think about the ones that are probably going to give you the most bang for your buck in terms of return on time. What are like two things that you would recommend to the nine to fivers right now that could help them make that next logical step on their fitness journey?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest thing is, like you said, planning and timing in your actual schedule. So I always have my clients, on Sundays, spend 15 minutes doing some sort of planning, whether it's putting their workouts into their schedule, their events for the week, um, but also blocking off the time to meal plan, and I do this to this day for myself. I literally will put in an hour and a half of meal prep time one to two times a week, and I usually do it on Sundays and Wednesdays. So after I do my grocery shopping with the menu that I have for the week, whatever I plan on having, I'll do my hour and a half prep. Whatever I make that night I'll have for dinner. It's good for me. Tuesday, monday, tuesday, wednesday lunch, and then, whatever I make for dinner Wednesday, I make enough for Thursday, friday.
Speaker 1:I love that. I feel like 100%. I feel like that's so underrated and, especially in the business realm, I feel like you have so many things like your boss will put a meeting on your calendar. You have these things pop up and I think if you just, like you mentioned, put it on your calendar, I know, for even for this podcast, I got a little email about blocking out the calendar for this interview, so I can definitely attest to that is absolutely true. I believe that you actually put these things on your calendar. So I do think that that's such an important thing, and I think one of the biggest things that I see on my end is that a lot of people that work in nine to five have a hard time getting steps in and movement because they're most often just sitting all day. So, aside from maybe walking or running on a treadmill, what are some pieces of advice or tricks that you would use to help your clients get more steps, maybe throughout the day and or before or after their work day?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think if you have the ability to work from home and have a tread desk my clients who have a tread desk they always hit their steps because it's really easy, especially if you're not on meetings you can walk, you know a few miles an hour, but if you can, I do think it's really good to separate yourself and if you have the ability to either A take a call where you're walking around, get outside, that is a great way to do it or, if you have a lunch break, eat for 10, 15 minutes, go for a 15-minute walk, but also recognizing that you can make up for it on the weekends. I think people like forget that. So if they only hit 6,000 steps or something during the week, there's no reason why you probably can't hit 12 K and go for a walk, you know, on the beach or something like that on the weekends to make up for it.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent and now leaving the nine to five realm because those are, by the way, if you're not taking notes on those things, I highly recommend.
Speaker 1:But going into the next step on your journey, which was going into the personal training realm.
Speaker 1:But going into the next step on your journey, which was going into the personal training realm, that's such a change, right? Not only the income, but also you're on your feet all day, you're moving a lot, you're having conversations with people, and I know one of the big things that I've seen you post a lot about, and something that you have been successful to a certain extent, is lifting heavy and power lifting. And I know, after working with hundreds of women, one of the first things that conversations I always have is oh, I just don't want to look bulky and I hate to sound like I'm mocking them, but I think more so. I really want to put an end and really squash this fear and this mindset that a lot of women have when it comes to lifting weights. So could you maybe discuss a little bit about, maybe, how you talk to these clients and inform them on the proper things, why that this is not true, um, but also your actual perspective on on that aspect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think lifting heavy is one of, like I said, the greatest ways to heal that relationship with food, and I think it's really important for women to understand that strength training is not just for men. Like, we need it for our health, for our longevity and also if you want to have a toned physique. Listen, you have a lot of muscle mass and you have little body fat and the only way you're going to increase your metabolic rate is by lifting heavier, with progressive overload and making sure that you're making that progress week after week. So I'm a big proponent of it. I've obviously competed in powerlifting and um been strength training now for 10 years and I don't think it's something that I will ever give up, like ever Um. And I think when women are scared like, oh, I'm going to get bulky, well, a lot of it is. Oftentimes is either a you're not eating well, so if you're not actually dialing in your protein and if you are over consuming in your carbohydrates and fats, well, guess what? Your muscles are going to soak up glycogen stores.
Speaker 2:So if you are lifting heavy and you're I don't know if I can say this eating like an asshole on the weekends, right Like you're, you're going to feel bulky, right, and so if we can dial in that protein intake, if we can find a balance in our carbohydrates and our fats, you're not going to experience that, you're going to have an awesome body recomposition and personally, the biggest thing I notice in my female clients is like the literal empowerment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how empowering it is to feel strong and being able to do daily activities all on your own.
Speaker 2:I mean you think of it like this though like, especially as women, like we're taught constantly to be smaller and smaller and smaller entire lives, and I'm not by any means big, like I'm five one, but I even felt that pressure, and so with strength training it's, it's complete opposite, right, and you're going in there going like I'm I'm going to lift heavy, like I want to grow muscle, like we're having to really rewire our brain, whereas I think with men, like you're taught to be bigger, right, like you're taught to put on muscle, and so it's this very natural thing, but us as women, it goes against the grain.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. It's that programming, that socialization of what is believed to be sexy. And obviously everything comes and goes in phases, and you know, the big butt became popularized, you know the Kim Kardashians of the world, and there's so many things that come and go, but at the end of the day, I don't think anything is more important than just being healthy, and I think the best way to be healthy is to have a healthy and fit body, and getting strong is the best way to get there. And I know another thing that that females typically will say is like oh, you know, I was told that I should just do Pilates. Or oh, if I want to build lean muscle, I should just do lightweight and high reps. So what are your perspectives on those things?
Speaker 2:I think it's good to have a little bit of everything in your program, right, and if you want to do some mobility or you want to do some yoga or Pilates, I'm sure that's great. However, again going back to, I think, what most people want, which is probably like longevity, and they want to have muscle mass and they want to have, like I said, that lean tone physique. You're not going to get there by doing these little dinky weights and Pilates. I hate to say it, but you're not A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:I completely agree and I think that, more often than not, the body that there's two things I want to say. Number one your dream body, the body that I know you're going to love, is going to weigh more than you think it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say it's at least probably 10 to 15 pounds heavier than what you're thinking.
Speaker 1:And that goes into my next thing, which is, like I feel like so many women get so obsessed with the scale, they get so attached to this number, and I think it's really interesting because I know a lot of women that come to me like, oh, I want to weigh 120, because I know when I was 120, I was in college, the beginning of college, and I loved how I looked, and all it takes is that conversation to say, well, can we put yourself back in those shoes? Like, how did you feel about yourself when you were 120? Oh well, I actually was eating out all the time, I was drinking all the time. I actually couldn't really afford food all the time, so I would like starve myself. I'm like, ok, well then, well, let's reassess that number one. But what are some other things you notice? Like females tend to kind of relationships they create with a scale and how is this something that you work on with your clients?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the scale is definitely a big one, and I think practicing having scale neutrality is really important, and so I personally have my clients take their weight every single day, and the reason for that is because I want them to be able to step on that scale and detach themselves and their worth from that number, but also to understand the relationship of what's going on lifestyle-wise, training-wise, food-wise, sleep-wise, hormones, to understand why that number is high. So if it's up three pounds during their menstrual cycle or their luteal phase, like hey, it's probably because of a little bit more retention, or maybe we had a hard training session and glycogen stores are up, or, um, maybe you didn't get good sleep. And so if I can teach them those skills and we can break that down on a daily basis of what's happening, it allows them to kind of detach themselves from that number.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And speaking of the menstrual cycle, this is something I'm really excited to talk about because actually very recently you had an amazing post on Instagram for all the boys out there, yep, kind of dumbing down the cycle. I can explain Number one I would love for you to give a you know 30,000 foot view of what that looks like, and I love the analogies you use in that post as well. So I'd love to kind of help educate the audience myself as well of like what that cycle looks like. And then I kind of want to dive into bits and pieces within that cycle. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So my favorite way to explain the menstrual cycle, which is 28 days for women, um, is in the context of 24 hours for men. So you know, as men, you guys will wake up in the morning and you guys are, just like I said, rock hard, pitch to tent, ready to go. Testosterone is knocking at the front door. That is how we are in our follicular phase. So, after we bleed right until ovulation, estrogen is increasing. We feel really good, our skin is really clear. We feel very energized. This is a great time to have a launch in your business and stuff. Energy is top tier. Sleep is great.
Speaker 1:This is starting from when the bleeding begins.
Speaker 2:So this is like, yeah, like pretty much like right after you bleed, as your follicular phase.
Speaker 2:So, this will technically be like day four ish. Okay, um, so maybe day four up till, maybe like day 14 ish. Everyone's cycle is a little bit different, but that's generally about what it is. And so you know, this is where you guys start looking forward to lunchtime, right, you're like working, things are good, and you're like, all right, let's go and have some lunch, I'm gonna have a burger, and we're like cool, we're going to ovulate. So this is where you know you have that period of time leading up to it where you're going to be most fertile. We drop an egg. It's just for 24 hours. I think everybody thinks I don't actually don't know what everybody thinks there, but it's 24 hours. If you don't want to have a baby, you know, stay away from there for the leading up, like five, six days, cause your swimmers can kind of hang out and hang out, relax in there.
Speaker 2:So after we ovulate, this is where things change. You guys are like, all right, kind of slowing down, just had my burger, kind of want to get off work, right, yeah, you're like 4 or 5 o'clock, You're ready to go home and you want your wife to make you dinner. And this is where we enter it, right, we're in that luteal phase after ovulation. So this is days like whatever 15 through 28, 30, whatever that looks like for your woman. We actually run hot, like we will run up to a degree hotter at night, and I know how men are when they have the slightest temperature. It's not fun when men are sick.
Speaker 2:Um, it's very similar, like we're a little bit more irritable, like I'm just like I'm not getting great sleep, and then you want to come home, you want to crack a beer, you want to sit on the couch. We also want to sit on the couch, but instead of a beer, we want to have dark chocolate, we want to have ice cream. You know, we want the sweets and we also want you to make us dinner. We don't want to do anything. So this is like a time for like two weeks where you really don't want to like plan a launch, like your energy is just a little bit lower, and this is where some people will say like, oh, you're training, like you don't have as much energy.
Speaker 2:I don't quite go as far as that, just because I think, for the sake of strength and progressive overload, it's important to push through some of that and we can't do that on a monthly basis. But you know, it kind of gets towards bedtime. You get a little irritable, you get a little tiredable, you get a little tired, you're ready to hit the hay. We don't get to hit the hay, we just end up bleeding for four days. So that's kind of the context of how I like to explain it.
Speaker 1:Um that's an amazing breakdown, by the way yeah, and it's really true that, like that is what you experience on a 24-hour cycle and ours is just stretched out over 28 days and I really love that you kind of sprinkled in there the workout realm of things, because I feel like all over, especially tiktok I don't know what's up with that stuff but everywhere you'll get mixed opinions on the cycle and cycle syncing your workouts with your cycle, and I would love to get your perspective on it. And then I'll definitely share some of my learnings from working with a lot of women.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean again going back to how we build muscle, how we build strength you need to be hitting the same exercises over and over again and you need to be periodizing in such a way that you're making that progress.
Speaker 2:If we are changing that and we're changing exercises because of our follicular phase and ovulation and luteal, like they say, do high intensity in the beginning of your cycle and then do Pilates and go on walks Like you're just not going to be making the progress that you probably want to see in terms of body recomposition. So I think what's really important is we encourage women to listen to their bodies and to understand what the heck is going on in their bodies, right? So if you're on the couch for two weeks during your luteal phase and you cannot get up the days leading up to your menstrual cycle, or you cannot get out of bed because you have cramps, there's an underlying hormonal imbalance that we need to address with lifestyle the other 28 days. So that's my whole thing is that I'm like we can get a lot of information, because that's one of our biggest vital signs as women. We can understand really what is going on here.
Speaker 2:If we have an estrogen dominance, if we have unwanted hair growth. We could have high testosterone or high androgens. Right One in 10 women have PCOS. It's our responsibility today to understand how that affects women and how to program accordingly and how to make them or encourage them to listen to their body during that that was phenomenal answer and I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1:I feel like I have had clients in the past who, during certain phases of their cycle, they'll come into the gym and they'll say, tyler, I'm really not feeling it today and we still follow the same workout. It just means we might back off the, the, the, the weight a little bit, or we may increase the reps a little and then bring the weight down. Whatever it is, we make a slight adjustment on the day, but typically it's like one or two days max, unless, like you mentioned, I do feel like these swings and these really low days are even lower and the high days are even higher, sometimes when you're in an unhealthy state and would you agree with that? Absolutely Okay. And so I also have other clients that are like oh you know what, during my cycle, I don't really notice a difference at all, and they will completely lift, perfectly fine, and not really notice the difference.
Speaker 1:I have other clients that are like, every other two weeks when she goes after the ovulation phase, she notices every single time it's like, okay, we have to back off just a little bit. It's just bringing the hair down on the intensity. And then during those other two weeks are where we really push hard. We're hitting PRs and we're chasing those things in the gym. So I think the best way you said it was listen to your body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean from my perspective as well, with training. I have a pretty funny video on my Instagram too, pretty deep down. But, like I remember, I went in and I was like according to this cycle syncing bullshit I shouldn't be able to be strong today Cause I am in my luteal phase or I just started bleeding or something like that. And then I went in and I pulled like three, oh, eight for two, and so I was like, yeah, and afterward I was like this is such BS. You know what I'm saying. And so not to say that you aren't tired during your luteal phase or menstrual cycle, but like, listen to your body and hey, if you need to, you know you're going to start your cycle, which I'm a big fan of tracking your cycle just take a rest day and then go and train the next day or go on a walk that day. It doesn't mean that we should be bedridden where we're not doing any movement.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. And when it comes to the workout side of things, I know again you work with a lot of amazing women and I'm curious how many days a week do you on average have your clients work out? Do they all follow a similarly structured program? Is it five, four, three, two, six days a week? What is a typical program or for your clients kind of look like?
Speaker 2:We normally range between three to five. If I have a client that's a woman that is, you know, maybe dealing with some hormonal imbalances or maybe has like a lot of stress on the body, I'll actually pull them typically back. I see this a lot with women. We put chronic stress on the body, typically under eating and even sometimes over training, and if that's the instance, especially if they're coming from high intensity orange theory, berries, bootcamps, things like that I dial back intensity a ton and then I actually put them on more of a restorative phase where maybe it's, you know, three days a week or four days a week, but maybe we're dialing back it to two sets only and maybe we're doing higher reps. So if I can understand the biofeedback there, then once they're in a good state I can start to kind of progress them and start adding in a day or two 100% and kind of.
Speaker 1:Actually I did want to touch on that specifically stress and cortisol. I actually had a few clients recently do hormone tests and they did a full panel of everything thyroid and cortisol and literally everything vitamin D and one of my clients in particular got back her test results and her stress is like through the roof and I was amazed by it. And what's interesting is she's a very high level female and you know she has an executive role in business and my question is is like OK, typically when she goes through this stress, she doesn't actually feel it Like she doesn't feel stressed out.
Speaker 1:No, so I kind of want to have like a two-parter One is this bad from your understanding? And number two, how would you address this? Naturally, and then maybe from a supplemental perspective, what are some other things that you've seen to be helpful in this? Naturally, and then maybe from a supplemental perspective, what are some other things that you have seen to be helpful in this situation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean being a business owner and power lifter, I've operated out of high stress and I'm high functioning in it, and that's just um what you learn to do, especially if that is something that's been modeled to you. It's probably one of those things where she's she's going to do it no matter what. But here's the thing that you can start to pay attention to is that biofeedback of, like you know, is she retaining a lot more water? Does she start to have the moon face right, the cortisol face? Does she have intense cravings? Is she waking up between two to 4am, like? Those are all the things, symptoms wise, that you can identify as high cortisol without getting the blood work done.
Speaker 2:And from there, my biggest thing that I always target first is I pull training back, and it's always scary because they're like I think I need to work out more. Right, they have that grip on everything but pull back training. And then I actually, from a nutrient perspective, I focus a lot on minerals, so I actually will have them. Take a look at their sodium, potassium and magnesium um relation. Most of the time, women are very under on. I mean, most of the population is under on magnesium, but potassium as well, and so I've seen numbers where it's like somewhere between 800 milligrams to 1,000 or maybe 1,500 a day. But if you can start pushing that up into the 3,000 and usually dial back that sodium you've heard of adrenal cocktails and things like that that can be actually very powerful for pulling cortisol down and you'll start to see it where they actually start sleeping throughout the night.
Speaker 2:They're not waking up to use the restroom. It's one of those things where they think that it's like not a big deal, like, oh yeah, I just get up a few times a night to use the restroom and I'm like no, no, no, that's not normal. Right, it's common, not normal. So that's like one of the big ones that we do. And then also looking at the ingredients, like in food, I try not to be like too restrictive because I do follow a flexible dieting method. However, if we can start seeing with high cortisol, you probably are going to start seeing gut issues. And if they're experiencing IBSC or IBSD or C, right, that's where you can start to identify IBS-C or IBS-D or C. Right, that's where you can start to identify, okay, what ingredients are in your food and can we start pulling out some of those that are causing some of that inflammation and retention.
Speaker 1:This is exactly why I wanted Paige on here. You are a wealth of knowledge. This is phenomenal. I'm learning. Thank you so much. That actually was extremely helpful and I know my client will listen to this and she'll get a ton of value from that. So, um, I'm excited to kind of implement those things and I it sounds like you mentioned that this is stuff that you do with your clients as well. So I know from my understanding you do walk your clients through a little bit of like a specific process. I know obviously it's molded and shaped to the each individual right, but what does like a standard journey look like when a client comes into your program? Like what kind of process do you kind of walk them through to get them to from where they want to be to, or from where they are right now to where they want to be?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we use a five phase approach. The first step is an audit phase. So come in, we look at your health constitution, your past dieting history, what your current training looks like, your current supplements, et cetera, and then from there I would say probably 80 to 90% of my clients I'll take through a reverse diet, unless there's somebody who is like very much overweight. That's sometimes where I'm like, ah, we probably just need to go straight into some sort of dieting phase. But oftentimes, especially if it's a body recomposition goal or, um, even like healing your gut and things like that, I oftentimes will take them through that reverse dieting phase, which is my phase two automate. And during that automate phase is where we focus on really dialing in the habits, the consistency, um, you know, doing the same following the same training program, and then that usually can take four to six months.
Speaker 2:Yes, I will push food with my clients way longer than they will allow me to oftentimes, but it's for their own good. And, for example, I just had a client that I was just talking with. She came in, she wants to lose 20 pounds and she was having about 1700 calories, but the reality of it is, is that like what? My option is to drop her into a dieting phase in the very beginning and drop her to 1400 calories when she's already low energy and not sleeping well it. That would be doing her a disservice. So you know, the first three, four months I told her to hang on tight. I was like we're going to increase food. So we've increased our food from 1700 calories to 2,500 in three and a half four months and the scale came down three pounds.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:So now we've taken stress off of the body and now either a we could put her into a building phase. She's already got a lot of muscle, so it's not necessary and that would be my phase three accelerate, um, but then we go into the actualized phase. So to me that's the fat loss phase and that is where I'll drop her into a slight deficit and we can kind of start to increase steps. But by that time all of our habits and things are already automated. So it's not like it's a shock to the body. And I'm not saying like, hey, you're doing two K steps, now you're doing 12. It's like, hey, you've already been doing, you know, six to eight this week, we're going to do eight to 10 and I'm going to cut a little bit of your rice.
Speaker 2:It's not rocket science. Drop them into that deficit, see how their body responds and diet them down for you know, 12 to 16 weeks and then from there reverse, diet the metabolism back. Everybody, I feel like, skips that step. Or people who have done dieting in the past is. They're just like, oh, I got to my dieting weight and they forget that their metabolism has down regulated. So you need to upregulate the metabolism after, and that's my fifth phase, the assess phase, and then from there decide okay, cool, is this client, you know, independent enough to go on their own, or do we want to go through a second dieting phase? And that's where it gets really fun.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I love that and I think the best coaches that I know and that I've met all have a process and it's like predictable, and it also paints the picture of what to expect, and I feel like a lot of people start their journeys with improper expectations. And so I know you've been doing this for a while. I know you've worked in this industry for a while and they've worked with so many different people. On average, how long would you say you've seen it takes people to go from that position of like I have no freaking clue what I'm doing right now to I'm so fucking confident to go off my own and do this for the rest of my life, just because I want it to be realistic, because I don't want people to think that happens in three or six months, because that is absolutely never the case.
Speaker 2:I would say two to three years.
Speaker 1:I agree 100%.
Speaker 2:I look back and I have a couple of clients right now that are at that point. I have one that lost 30 pounds and I think she was a year and a half. She came back twice, two years probably. Another one I've had for about three years and she's ready to go and I feel confident. I'm like, yeah, you got this, like I feel good about this because my check-ins get easier with her. A lot of your check-ins. When you get to that point, it's things are good, protocols are good. You just got to keep going.
Speaker 1:You just need time you know A hundred percent. And along that journey, I think that it's inevitable that in a six month timeframe we haven't gone through all the holidays together, we haven't gone through all the life experiences together, and sometimes just having that extra bit of one accountability but two someone to help you navigate through those things is super helpful. And so I do think the at least a full year is where I see most people like the most successful clients I've had were I trained them four years ago, five years ago and some people that I could still call to this day and call them and say hey, what's up, how are things going? And I'm like waiting is a delay. And they're like, oh, I'm still working out three days a week, just like you taught me. I'm still crushing my protein goal. I've been moving every day. Like that's how I gauge my success.
Speaker 1:First off is like if I can call a client in five, 10 years and they're still having those habits. And then there's those people that I also know that like they probably stopped a little too early and they face these challenges that they're unsure how to navigate. Well, number one I tell them once I'm your coach, I'm always your coach. So if you have a problem or you need some help. You have a question, just reach out. And I think that one of the things that I would love to dive into a little bit is, like some of these challenges that clients face that are not necessarily the numbers or the logistics, like the metrics, what are some of the bigger challenges you find that clients face, not only in the program but also after?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you said, I think it's important to go through all of those life changes and stressors. I was just on a discovery call this morning and she was saying how every time she goes to Mexico, she falls off track and it sets her back like months at a time. And so I was like, okay, well, that's the sticking point that we have to like overcome, right? Because you now have this belief that's almost hardwired into your brain that every time I go to Mexico, I fail. So what we need to do is we need to start conditioning you to win. How do you go to Mexico and win and come back?
Speaker 2:If I can walk you through that and start to teach you that and rewire that new pathway in your brain, you're now going to go on other trips and recognize that you can win. And it's the same thing when you go through grief, you go through a breakup, you go through a job change. If you need support going through that, there's nothing wrong with asking or saying I need support. But essentially, what we just need to do is start stacking W's. That way, two, three years down the line, when you've gone through multiple of those experiences, you have the tools and you have the equipment to be totally unfazed by it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely and I heard this on a post you literally I think it was yesterday or the day before and it's something I constantly repeat to my clients as well, which is that you should be starting your journey, if you haven't already when you're busy really crazy I know I have these three vacations coming up it's like that's the best time to start, when you, if you start when life is busy, when life is difficult, when you're going through some things, you already know how to navigate through that so that on the other end, when life gets easy, oh, you can really put your foot on the gas and really make some insane and amazing progress. And then, when life gets hard, again you've been there before, so you already know how to navigate through that and it just makes the journey so much easier in the longterm. And so I know when life gets hard, it can be hard to navigate. It can be a challenge to kind of make these adjustments.
Speaker 1:Now I've seen coaches that take two approaches. It's kind of like the willpower push yourself through. You got this girl. Then there's the other side which is like okay, let's make these fine tuning adjustments right, shit's really tough right now. It's really hard for you to make it to the gym five days or three days. What kind of adjustments do you typically help people make or navigate when they have these rough events come up, these hard times, these really difficult challenges they're facing, such as a loss in the family?
Speaker 2:a breakup.
Speaker 1:How would you help them navigate through that?
Speaker 2:I think the number one thing is just reiterating that you have to hold space for the duality of being busy or going through hard stuff and your health. If it's an, or statement, you will continue to struggle with this forever and it'll always be I'm busy or I can do this, and it just reinforces that all or nothing mentality. So now you're starting to look at an and, which means that we're looking at a spectrum. So if you can't make it five days, can you make it three? Okay, I can't make it three, can you do two? Right, it's just like what is something that you can do with that nine out of 10 confidence?
Speaker 2:So I always work back and forth with my clients to ask them like, what is something that you can nine out of 10 confidence do this week? And sometimes it's just hey, I'm going to drink my water, cool, drink your water this week. You know what I'm saying. Like, but don't throw everything out. It's a sabotage thing, too, that you got to like touch on where it's like yes, okay, if you're driving and one of your tires goes out, do you slash the other three or do you repair your tire and get back on the road?
Speaker 1:Yes, that's like one of the biggest lessons, too, that I feel like I have to rewire a lot with with women, is that sabotage aspect 100% and that kind of ties back into, like I know you've had an amazing fitness journey and I know that any human faces their own challenges, so I'm curious what are? What was or has been the biggest challenge you faced on your own health and fitness journey?
Speaker 2:the biggest challenge you faced on your own health and fitness journey? Yeah, that's a really good question. Um, I think the biggest thing is being a business owner and pushing in business while also trying to see the strength gains or the body composition progress. Um, I just went through my own personal experience earlier this year where I went through we had lost. Last year I was dating someone. There was breakup and then kind of fell into a little bit of that depression. I also had mold exposure, which played a big role in that. There was some life changes, I moved and so it just kind of felt like one thing after the other.
Speaker 2:And I just remember hitting a point, kind of in January, where I was like man, I just had my biggest month in business and I started asking myself like what's the point? And it got kind of dark. To be completely honest and I say it because I think some people look at what I do and they're just like oh, you're just always good, you always have it together, and I'm like, I'm like human, I'm very human. I went through a very, very dark time of asking what's the point and I just realized that I was like oh my God, I like need some support right now. Like I know what to do, I know how to train, I know how to eat, I know how to do these things, but like I need someone to hold me accountable to it. So I ended up hiring a coach and I had someone who really helped me with my nervous system. So that was where I learned also a lot of my information about, like bringing my cortisol down.
Speaker 2:Really, like I had to take a pullback season. So I went from having my highest month in business, in which I probably would have just doubled down and kept going because it was January, you know, sign the most clients or whatever. But I was like I'm unwell, so like I need to take care of me, and I think for other clients who constantly put everything else or everyone first, um was just recognizing that. I was like it's okay, I need to take care of me and this is going to benefit everyone in the long run. So I pulled back for three months, took care of my mental health, I released the pressure of hitting, you know, certain targets with business.
Speaker 2:Um, I took a just full pullback on my training. I had just competed in February and I just said, ah, screw it, like I don't care, I'm not going to chase these PRS and I took so much stress off of my body that during that time I actually saw body composition improvements because I wasn't retaining as much cortisol. Face, you know that inflammation and retention, everything kind of came down. And then I shot forward. In April, may, June I just picked up the pace again. June had my biggest month, bigger than December.
Speaker 1:And so it's just kind of having trust in that process that you got seasons for push and pull 100% Something I pulled up, by the way.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sharing, because I feel like there will be a lot of women out there that can relate to your story and maybe are going through that right now and, like you said, everything's cyclical, like there are going to be seasons where you do really have the opportunity to put the foot on the gas and go balls to the walls and go hit some crazy prs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, feel and look your best, and there's also times where you really need to pull back. There's also times where you really need to take that step back and I've seen people on both extremes where it's really hard to convince them to pull back. But then there's also the people that are actually afraid to take the first step because they believe it's being selfish, especially the moms that I work with. They're afraid that they don't want to put themselves first. They are afraid that it's selfish of them to put themselves first in certain situations. So how do you have that conversation with a female who's a mom maybe even a single mom and taking care of one to two kids and just is really having a hard time fully committing to their health because of the sacrifice they may take.
Speaker 2:I think the biggest thing is asking them what it would feel like six to 12 months down the line when they feel their best. Right, because, like in this moment in time, they think that they're doing their best by putting their kids first, but if they're not taking care of their bodies or their mental health or their nutrition I mean not to get very dark and morbid, but I'm like you got to be around for a long time, yes, like from a longevity standpoint, like why do we feel like this is doing our kids any service right now? And then, secondly, I'm like okay, but imagine if you're 30 pounds down and you're confident and you can run around with your kids more, if you can throw on a bathing suit anytime that they want to go to the pool and you're not freaking out about it. Like it's so much more opportunity for the kids and for your husband or your wife or your friends, when you feel your best, when you can give your best.
Speaker 1:That's the biggest thing, and I also know uh well, by the way, a hundred percent agree with you and I think that I know personally from working with a few moms, many moms actually when they put themselves first, they also can enjoy their life more and they also set a good example for their kids and they also are going to have more energy to do those things to play with their kids.
Speaker 1:And so, speaking of kids, I also know there's a population of women out there who are afraid of what might happen when they get pregnant, of when they're like, oh I am fit, or I'm afraid that all of my results are going to go. You've worked with some pregnant women before and through the before and after during phase. So just curious I know there may be someone listening that is pregnant or is getting pregnant. By the way, I have like one client specifically I'm thinking of, who just very recently is pregnant. I'm curious, how do you navigate or how do you change coaching and change like workouts and some?
Speaker 1:of the nutrition things when they go into the first trimester of being pregnant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the first trimester, I think, is the toughest to coach people through Um, which is also why it's nice if you want to have a strong, fit, healthy pregnancy and or bounce back, start this way before you want to have a kid, like, yes, you don't want to be dealing with this and trying to like, build new habits with, like this whole new life.
Speaker 2:Um, so a lot of my clients who are trying to conceive we nail this and get fat loss done, so they go into a pregnancy really healthy. And then when they're in that first trimester, you know, typically they're dealing with a lot of food aversions and at that point I'm just kind of like, all right, like you know what you should be eating, do what you can. And then, as far as training, we typically will pull back a little bit. Maybe we're doing a little bit more walks and things like that, just because they are pretty fatigued. But once you hit that 13, 14 weeks is where we try to ramp things back up and I will say that like this is the most anabolic state your body's ever going to be in as a woman no-transcript, if you're still strength training during it. I mean a lot of my friends who strength train during it. They have pretty um, I want to say easy deliveries, but easier than somebody who's not used to the pain.
Speaker 1:Statistically speaking, 100%. Yeah, the pregnancies that are the clients I know that I have worked with that are started working out before I know. I have one client in particular who has had two kids since working with me and still working with me today and it's like going into her first pregnancy. It was a lot easier already having that foundation, her bounce back literally like I think it was eight or nine months after her first child was back in, almost even in a better place than where we were before her pregnancy started, and again with the second it was just so much easier going through the journey and coming back out of it looking and feeling her best again as a mom of two kids. It's like that is extremely impressive, but also just something to keep in mind that if you do want to have kids, it will probably make the journey easier and all easier in your mind, your mental state of how you look and feel as well, if you already set that foundation going into it.
Speaker 2:I will tell you this. I just had a client who I've worked with for the last like three years. She came after her, or she came to me after her second kid and didn't have any intentions of having a third one, but she started going through full body recomp. I jacked up her food intake. She started lifting heavier. She was up to like 2,600 calories, 2,700, beautiful body recomposition, and then she was feeling so good she got pregnant. And I see this all the time. I see it with a lot of my women where they're like I'm feeling good, my husband thinks I look hot and sure enough, boom, they get pregnant. She was like, oh my God, I just put all this work in and I was like don't worry. I was like you're going to bounce back and this is going to be. She was one 55. We pulled her all the way back down to one 27, one 28. She's been increasing her food this entire time. Her baby's now maybe two years old, so we're two years postpartum and she's maintaining 132 pounds and she's eating 2,800 calories.
Speaker 1:Mom of three, working, working too so amazing, yeah, so I think I pretty much touched on all the major bases that I really wanted to discuss today. We talked about your process, your journey, how many different things you've experienced on your own fitness journey, as well as a lot of the things that your clients experience. I think your breakdown of the menstrual cycle was phenomenal. That really helps me, but also, I hope a lot of people list you. You all listening are getting a better understanding of how that all works, how to navigate through those certain times. And I do have one last question for you. So it's a tradition on my podcast, I ask one question and it is the taught, not told, podcast, and I think, no matter what, I want someone to walk away with one thing that's really important, really important for them to learn and to implement into their life.
Speaker 1:So my question is if you could only teach your clients one skill or habit that would have the single greatest impact on their health and quality of life, what would it be?
Speaker 2:Flexible dieting.
Speaker 1:Can you elaborate?
Speaker 2:I would teach my clients how to eat and nourish their body, whether they are going through a maintenance phase, dieting phase or reverse dieting phase, but really teaching people how protein, carbs and fats interplay and how they impact not only your physique but your performance, your energy and your health 100.
Speaker 1:I did actually have one more thing now. Do you, you coach with macros, right? Yes, okay, can you explain to me why you feel macro tracking is best for you and your clients?
Speaker 2:majority of people that come to me say I don't know what to eat and I don't know how much. I think if you want to get from point A to point B and you want to do it the most effectively, the most efficiently, track your macros because it's just purely based off of science. So I like to use that, especially in the beginning, to teach people how much you know protein looks like four ounces, six ounces. To teach people how much protein looks like four ounces, six ounces. What proper carbohydrates will look like pre post-workout Usually I show people how much they're over-consuming in fats. It's usually the biggest one. They taste the best and they add up the quickest. So that is why I use that method. But my whole goal at the end of it is to integrate that into an intuitive eating lifestyle. So I don't personally track my macros all the time year round.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I don't live by that Um, but I will say I'm in a dieting phase right now. It's the fastest way to get there, it's the most efficient while still having flexibility.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Thank you so much. And lastly, page, I would love to know where people can find you Um the way. If you are listening to this right now, please do me a favor and go send Paige a message and thank her for all this amazing information, but please let them know where they can find you on social media platforms and what's the best way to reach S underscore Yomo Miss.
Speaker 2:Yomo Um, and then my business is called propensity fitness. You can check out propensity fitnesscom. Um, but that is pretty much where I'm at on Instagram.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on the podcast page. I really appreciate it. Uh, I got a ton of value, so I know everyone listening will get a ton of value from this as well. Is there any last words you have for the people out there trying to get healthy and fit?
Speaker 2:Eat your protein and lift heavy.
Speaker 1:Let's go. Thank you again, paige, I really appreciate you. Thank you, peace.
