 We're ready to, it's about time. I'm ThinkTech from the downtown studio at the core of Honolulu. I'm your host, Becky Sampson. I'm a professional speaker, author, and coach. So sometimes we can get overwhelmed with all the information being thrown at us in the media regarding being healthy. If it's not one diet, it's another diet. Food to avoid and not to avoid. What time of the day is best to eat and how much to eat? If you struggle at all with your health or your weight, you might be able to relate. I've learned after losing 130 pounds myself and having that kept that off for nine and a half years, what it takes to be healthy and what the most important aspects are to having a fulfilling life. Today, it's about time. We're going to talk about the fact of what do you do and not do to be healthy one day at a time. Joining me on the show today is Bianca Ekmek. T.O. Lu. A fitness trainer and wellness advocate. And you're at what studio? What local studio are you in? For my, oh, Honolulu Club. Honolulu Club, yes. Sorry. All right, perfect. And we're going to talk about health and wellness. And yeah, so welcome to the show. Thank you. It's great to be here. No, it's all good. It's great. Bianca has such an interesting last name that I'm like, oh, shoot. You're stressing. It's OK. Everyone stresses over that last name. OK, so how do you say it again? Ekmek G.O. Lu. Ekmek G.O. Lu. Perfect. OK, I should have started practicing that yesterday. Maybe a year ago. OK, maybe a year ago. Because you were just mentioning too that you did some work in Los Angeles. Yeah, I actually moved out to LA for about seven years. And in that seven year time, I got to work out and work at a high-end facility, Sports Club LA. I worked at Equinox. I got to manage a great slew of trainers. They were under my management. And when it was exciting, it was fun. And I learned so much there. I mean, that's the mecca of fitness, right? Yeah, yeah. It was the experience was priceless. So tell everybody kind of where you came from. You've been in the industry for 30 years, fitness and health and wellness. So tell us kind of rewind a little bit and tell us what your story is and what makes you passionate. I'll try to keep it short for everybody. Yeah, 30 years ago, I fell in love. That was my first and only love. I walked into a gym and that was it. And I started to work on the ground up and became a trainer after I competed in the National Fitness Show. Prior to that, I did the Reeboks aerobic championship. It was kind of gymnastics. I know we've got a picture, right, to show. Oh, yeah. Yeah, let's show Reeboks. See what you look like back in 1997. Oh, my God. Yeah, 1990s. Yeah, I was an old kid. We won gold, which was amazing. My first competition. So what got you into that? You know, I've always been an athlete of sport. You know, as a kid, we used to do the Summer Olympics for brother and I. And so that competition was just exciting to me. And to get to that level of where you're able to compete against top athletes was also a process that I enjoyed. So, you know, you can see my first trainer was my brother. You know, he taught me how to get disciplined to the goals that I had. Did you grow up being disciplined? I grew up being disciplined. Yeah, you know, that was my environment. And I wanted to share that with people. And I guess that's what made me so attracted to the gym industry at such a young age. So when I walked through the doors, I was like, ah, you know, this was it. And I never left. I grew into the positions that I'm in now. I'm able to mentor now and coach others to become those trainers to other people. What kind of education did you go? Get your education in fitness? Oh, yeah. So I mean, you go through college. I was starting to be a pre-med. I decided calculus wasn't my thing. So I went over to kinesiology and physiology. So I majored in those. And, you know, then I got into the certification of the groups, NASM, BCSM. Now I actually certify trainers with NCEP. So that's not National College of Exercise Professionals. But it's a holistic approach to training. So we're looking at you as a complete person. What do you do at home? What is your support system? What are the foods you eat? How does that affect you? How are the chemicals you use in your house affect you? Everything. What do you find, I mean, obviously, when people's first start, it's a little overwhelming. I'm just going to speak for myself. When I was somebody, I actually remember Body for Life like all those years ago. I did that when I was, I think, 19 years old, trying to get healthy and fit and everything. But I struggled with the food part of it. So I mean, when you're working with somebody, obviously, and if they've had issues with obesity or a binge disorder or any of those kind of things, what are some of the things that you first, I mean, we talked about it a little bit on the phone yesterday like really doing an assessment and facing where you're at, like that being the first kind of thing. Where are you just accepting that? Well, you know, like we talked about yesterday briefly is it's got to click with you first. You've got to make that choice, right? Yeah. Because it's really hard as a trainer or as a nutrition coach or what have you to get somebody from point A to point C if they're not willing. So that has to be your decision. And the second thing as a professional is that you've got to understand the person's been living a certain life slot for a very long time and change them overnight is virtually impossible. So the 2080 rule is always where I go. I change your lifestyle maybe 20%, get you adjusted to that and eventually get you up to 40%, maybe 50% and eventually you'll be living that lifestyle that you want. So it takes a process and the other part is also forgiving yourself for getting off the wagon so to speak if you do start a program because we are gonna make mistakes and we are gonna go back to old habits sometimes and it just takes that bit of time of step by step and then you'll eventually get there. I mean, it is a process, right? Yeah. It's not an overnight thing, right? No, it's not an overnight. I remember one of the things, I didn't tell you this story yesterday but when I wanted to lose weight I ended up hiring a personal trainer. I worked with her for two years, twice a week at 266 pounds. Wow. That's great. And I never lost a pound. And it wasn't until I got to the end of that two and a half years that my trainer and she was an Olympic trainer. I mean, I was doing 450 pounds on my legs and she was like, holy cow girl, what are you doing? And she goes, but why are you not losing weight? And it was because I don't know if you've experienced this with what you've done is I would go and work out and then I'd go home and binge. Right. So I was just counterproductive with, I was willing to go to the gym because I didn't want to give up on that and I was willing to pay her all that money but if you've ever come across that where people really work hard in the gym but then they don't get the results because of what they're doing at home. It's also lack of education. I think trainers are not legally bounded to help you with nutrition. They can suggest what you should do but it's very difficult when someone is that overweight. There's also health risks that come along with it too. So we want to make sure that whatever you do is very specific to your body's health. That's very important but the idea of going home and eating whatever, that is basically you're allowing yourself to say it's okay, I went to the gym, I can now eat this. Yeah, it is really destructive to your efforts and that could eventually affect you psychologically too and that's another part of being a trainer too and a fitness professional is that you're dealing with someone else's psychosis. They're dealing with all their baggages and all their hiccups and everything that they have going on and you're trying to help them within an hour, twice a week, it's really difficult. So it's really important to kind of sit down with your client ahead of time and really understand what's going on so that you can guide them outside of the gym and say look, when you go home, it's really imperative that the calories you consume initially is really important, again the 2080 rule. Let's take these things out but you can still have these and eventually guide them to that lifestyle that we're trying to get you to. So yeah, and it's also the forgiveness factor is really big because- Forgiving yourself. Yeah, absolutely, because we're all gonna make those mistakes. Yeah, I know we really wanna focus on education is because we believe, I mean we talked just about how important it is that when you're more educated, you make better choices, right? So I know as you've done some competitions and stuff, is that kind of, when you got more educated about the whole thing, you just kind of went full in for yourself, right? When I competed, it wasn't for me to get famous, it was more for me to see, like you, I'm coming from a background culturally where I was a bit more heftier or figured, let's say, and I really wanted to get healthy at 18 and I thought the only way I'm gonna be able to do this is through diet, but I really had to learn. How many calories was this, how much fat was this, and if I consumed four meals or three meals or two meals or one meal a day, how would that affect my body? So you have to understand somewhat of how the body works. I don't expect my clients to know what I know, but when they're with me, I try to teach them what I'm trying to get them to understand for their lifestyle. So breakfast is important, why? Because you haven't eaten for eight hours, your body's starving. But what you first put in your body is also important. First thing in the morning, yeah. Well, these are the types of things, they're not very difficult, and I try not to make it too difficult, or they're not gonna keep up with it, right? So I try to encourage and I try to get them excited about the program and make it fun so that they actually wanna come back and continue. You find that most people come to you because of fitness, like they want to be like, like a bodybuilder or do that kind of thing, or they just looking to lose weight. Well, today's society has changed. I mean, we still have the body beautiful people that want to look good in their clothes, or not, no clothes. Or no clothes. But with all the IG. Especially in Hawaii. Yeah, I know if you look at Instagram, all the, everyone's half naked. But it's important, yeah, in Hawaii. It's really important to understand that, when they come to me, they come to me for more specifics. They have this functioning system. Their muscles are not working the way they should. Some people have ailments, they might have to be diabetic, or they may have other health conditions that they wanna get healthy for. So there are more specific types of workouts now that we created for those types of people, because everyone is becoming more, the population is becoming more dysfunctional. Why do you think that is? Like in your opinion, yeah, okay, we're sitting more. We're sitting more, we're on the computer more, everything's digital, we don't move as much. And like I said yesterday on the phone, you just gotta keep moving. I mean, walking, swimming, I mean, going up and down the stairs. Something that's gonna get the blood flow going, get your heart rate going. That's really important as we get older too. So, is that something that you usually ask people when you're working with them is like, what kind of things do you like to do? Because I think to stay motivated, at least for me, I have to, like for instance, somebody invited me to go paddling, is that what that's called here? Yeah, yay, yay, I'm getting the terminology. The paddling, and I guess paddling is the rowing type of thing. And I was like, oh, that would be, I'm not one that, I'm not really a gym person to go into the gym, but that would be really fun for me to be able to go out there and just work hard and get an exercise, get moving doing something that I love to do, or hiking. I mean, you're outside, and you're in Hawaii doing that outside, that's even better. You know, anything that you can do that's physically active, let me stand at the paddle board, you've got the surf, you can do the paddling that you're talking about, you can go hiking. I mean, that's not easy. You've got an even, unstable situation and you've got to recruit all those small muscles and to stabilize you, it's great. And then you get to see nature. Yeah, so pick something that they love so that they can stay motivated doing it. Yeah, I mean, throwing what you think is important as a fitness professional, but definitely for the client, they gotta have fun. No one wants to do something they're not enjoying, right? Yeah. I know one of the things that we talk a lot about on this show is having the right support team. So how important do you think that is in being able to get healthy versus trying to do it on your own? Yeah, it's really, when you're starting out, it's really hard because you don't know what you're doing quite yet. And when you don't have a loving family or you don't have friends to support you or an organization that you can belong to to help you through it, because you're gonna have these hills and valleys. You're gonna have these moments where you're feeling like you're stuck, you're not moving, and like you said, you weren't losing weight. What's going on? You need those encouragements, outside of the gym. I'm there for you two hours or three hours out of the week. The family structure is really important. And I do ask those questions. When I do an assessment, I do ask them. What's your support? Yeah, what's your support system? Who do you go to when you need to talk to someone? Because it is partially psychological. Is it a decision or it's a discipline. Practice makes you into that person, but if you're not that person yet, you definitely need that support system, I think. And get in there, I'm sure. Just get started, yeah. I know, get started. Well, we're gonna go to a break real quick. And then when we come back, we're gonna talk more about educating yourself really on losing weight, getting healthy. How, where do we start? What are the things that we're gonna deal with? So, thanks. We'll be right back here on Think Tech Hawaii. And my name is Becky Samson. Hi guys, I'm your host, Lillian Cumick, from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health, regarding your health, and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier and have fun at the same time. So, do join me, I look forward to seeing you. And Aloha. Aloha, my name is Victoria and I'm a host at The Adventures in Small Business. This is a collaboration between U.S. Small Business Administration, Hawaii District Office, and its partners, where we showcase the stories of local entrepreneurs and small businesses, talk about how to start a business, talk about great tips for small business owners. Please join us every Thursday, 11 a.m. at Think Tech Hawaii, see you soon. Mahalo. Hi, we're back. I'm Becky Sampson and this is It's About Time. I'm talking to Bianca Ekmeiolu, and we're talking about health and education and empowerment. So before we kind of went to the break, we talked about this idea that, sorry, this idea that there's things that we need to do to get started, right? And really looking at where you're at in your life and being able to get real. Like, that's one of the things I love about this show. It's called It's About Time. It's about time to get real. About time to really take your health in place. And I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I've had friends in my life where their health is declining. How important do you think it is right now? No matter where they are, what age? I mean, they could be young or they could be older to start taking their health seriously now. Yeah, you're never too young and you're never too old to start. I mean, this theory of only old people get sick or you get cancer when you're a certain age. I mean, cancer is not prejudice. It hits everybody. And so health is one of those things where it's probably the most valuable asset that we have in our life. When you don't have your health, you have nothing. You can have all the money in the world. It doesn't mean anything. And so for me, I'm like you, I'm an advocate now on wellness and health because I suffer myself with fibromyalgia and or the symptoms of such because we still don't know what fibromyalgia is but it's a neurological disorder where you have pain constantly. So you can imagine me as a trainer, I get to work out and there's a flare up and that pain feels like I tore something. It's a weird sensation. So that's health related. So how do you stop that from becoming further, more increasingly worse for you? Again, education. So I dove in, I went in, I talked to a lot of doctors, I talked to medical professionals, what's going on, what do I need to do? So we talked about diet. Diet is crucial. Yeah, absolutely. It could be allergic to foods. You don't know about. Food allergy is important. Do you know before I started losing my weight, I found that I was allergic to 97% of all food. And I was like, what the, I had no idea. And actually I'll bring this up just because it's coming to me is there was a, the guy said to me, he says, if you have children that have rage problems and that have issues with emotional stability, it usually is a food allergy. And I never even knew that. And so when he brought that up I was going, wow, that makes sense why we have a lot of these. And of course, I mean, we can talk, you and I were very passionate about like the whole like the food thing and the doctors and the education. Where do we really go to get the right answers? So if you're, I categorize medicine now because I've gone into so many different realms. There's integrative medicine, there's functional medicine, there's holistic medicine, and there's naturopathic medicine. So I found for me, there is doctors that are naturopathic, Western medicine mix. And they like to do these types of kits to take home and you know, you either, you're a to it or your blood work, what have you. And then they come back with some allergy responses. And you know, which is crazy because for me, I didn't realize I was allergic to kidney beans or you know, something like a spinach. But you know, your allergies change too. And that's what I was gonna say is I tested now that I'm not allergic to it. You're not allergic to it anymore, isn't that crazy? Yeah, your body can change. So people think that, oh, I'm this way and I'm gonna be this way forever. No, talk about why that's true. So you know, if you eat the same types of foods, they're saying your body eventually builds an immunity to it and it starts to become allergic to it. So that's why they say you should always change your proteins, lunch, you should have chicken, maybe you know, dinner you should have like fish or something like that. It's true. So if you keep eating the same types of food every day for months and months and months, you will develop a certain type of allergy towards it. Now when you stop eating it, all of a sudden your body does what it's supposed to do. It recovers and then it's no longer allergic to it. And I always told people, if you give the body what it needs, it does what it's supposed to. It's a miraculous machine. I always say that. I always say that. It works. Because when I was going through, and you don't know my story much about it, but I had every single condition that people that struggle with obesity and that sort of thing, from sleep apnea to skin problems to diabetes to all of that. And I was able to completely reverse it. I had PCOS, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, which they told me I never could reverse it. And I reversed it. And I always say that same thing, is that what you put into your body, when you give the body the proper nutrients, it does what it's supposed to do. And so, but it is, it's difficult, unless you're educated, to know what it is that you need to put in that body so that that body can, because what is it, every two years? Every two or three years, yeah. Yeah, every cell is regenerated. Right, and it's like when your birthday comes, you're a whole new person, literally. Like, it's crazy. Based on what you eat. Based on what, oh yeah. And with all the chemicals that are out there, I never understood what GMOs were back, way back when, or a Montecito type of thing. And I don't want to get political here, it's not my place. It's like your body doesn't understand certain chemicals that you put in. Like preservatives and things like that. Sometimes it doesn't know what it is. So your liver has a big job to process fats and things like that. So if it doesn't recognize those chemicals, whatever its root is attached to it, it stores it. It doesn't use it as energy, which is one vessel that it sends to, it stores it as storage. So then you start accumulating fat. Even though you're eating healthy, you're thinking I'm eating healthy, but if your body doesn't understand what you're eating, it starts storing it as a depot, like a fat reserve. Well, that's not good, is it? You're starting to get fat now and you don't understand why. Well, these are common basic things that people will need to learn because you're eating foods that may not be productive to their system. The body can't absorb it. Well, and oftentimes you look at somebody that's overweight and you think, oh, they've got a lot of, they've just eaten a lot of food, but it may not be nutritious food, obviously because the body's not able to, it's storing it and not letting it. Yeah, it's assimilating. Like you said, assimilating. Yeah, it's crazy, yeah. And it's all these little things that, I try to teach people that are in front of me. And this is why I'm like to do your shows like this, because it gives us an opportunity to really express to everyone who's listening, look, it's not just you, it's just the lack of information that you may not have. And once you have this information, it's gonna empower you to do more for yourself. And your family, I mean, your children are growing up, you want them to eat good food, but then you're not realizing that you might be feeding them some chemicals that are on the food or if they're not properly washed, what have you, it's in their system and it's not being properly used in their cells. How do you personally, because I get this question all the time, Becky, what was that moment that changed your life forever? But how do you personally, when you work with someone, take them from unwilling to willing? What are your kind of your tips? You really got to connect with your people. I mean, the people that are in front of me, they're not just my clients, they become my family and me for them, because personal training is personal. They're inviting me into a space that not too many people are allowed in. I agree. So they're talking to me about things that they may not even talk to their spouses, and because they're vulnerable. And I take that very seriously. So when they express to me their desires and what they want for themselves, like a health coach or a lifestyle coach, you want to sit there and really listen to what they're asking. And once they trust you, and they believe that you are that person to help them get there, it's a lot more easier for me to get them to listen to what I advise to. They'll follow through with it. They'll process it better. They won't fight me on it, which is great. And the end result is they reach their goal. And I love that that's something that is building the trust, because it is a really, this is a touchy subject. I mean, some people are open to it, and some people are not to talk about their health, their issues, and I'm sorry, but there is just a lot of shame around being obese or overweight or struggling with, we may look at somebody and think that they don't struggle internally. They're just like happy and you see them smiling. But at nighttime, there is a real doubting of ourselves, and we've failed so many times, then why would this work? And when we do have a personal trainer, I remember it is very vulnerable to put somebody in that space and having them help them paint a picture. That's one thing I love that when they paint a picture and saying, look, you can make it, you can do it. I know you can and we'll just do it one workout at a time, one day at a time. What are your specific challenges? And I like that you brought that up is that you personalize it to them and not just go, okay, this is just who you are and we're gonna lump you into big, because that's just objectifying people and that's, so we have too much of that in society anyway. Yeah, I mean, if you don't feel like someone cares about you, you're not gonna follow that person. You're not gonna want to spend time with that person. You want to be loved or cared for by people and I think the position that we're in and now I'm still mentoring trainers when I have my one-on-ones with them, I always express them, listen, this isn't about you, this is about them and really imperative that we take that time, the initial two training assessments that we do at the Holocaust, I set the stage, the precedents and my trainers follow through with it, they actually spend a good two hours with a client and they really get to know who they are before they even start talking about, this is the type of training we're gonna do. It's important, that time spent is important. Now, how do people find you, if they want to get more information about what you do or you're at the Honolulu? I'm at the Honolulu Club, I'm the fitness manager there, I'm also in charge of the education factor there as well. How do you do that? Do classes or workshops? Yeah, so when I do my certifications and it's a two-day weekend course, it doesn't make you a trainer but it does get you the opportunity to go to a facility and get mentored by experienced professionals. And I'm also, you can reach me there, you can reach me, I have an email that people can reach out to, it's be.bfitnumberfourhealth at gmail.com and if they have any questions, concerns or thoughts, I'm happy to help, yeah, for sure. And they'll always remember your last name, right? Yeah, you can't forget that. I mean, like I was telling you, I was famous in LA for that. I got all these celebrities, big time celebrities, look at my name, I go, what the heck is this? I know. It was awesome. I know, and you're probably gonna be like, I'll always remember you and your name and the struggle that I have with it because I really, again, this kind of goes back to what we just talked about is it is really important to me to have people's names right, right? Because that is your identity and that's who you are. You're not just another person and whether it's a difficult name or not, it's important to take the time to get to say it correctly. So thank you so much for being on the show. Oh my God, it was a pleasure. Thank you for doing the work that you do and helping people because what you do is you help them feel better from the inside out, right? And that's really where massive change happens and educating them and empowering people. That's all about what it is. So thank you so much for being on the show. Oh my God, thank you, it was my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thanks you guys, we're out of time. So we'll have to wrap up. So my name is Becky Sampson and I am with It's About Time on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series. We've been talking to Bianca Ekmec-Giolu about health, education, and empowerment. Thanks again for joining us today and thanks to our broadcast engineer, our floor manager, and to Jay Fidel, our executive producer who makes this show possible. And of course, I'll see you on Wednesdays for more of It's About Time on Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm Becky Sampson, mahalo everyone.