 Our next caller is Jessica from BC Canada. Hey Jessica, how can we help you? Hey guys, how's it going? So just a little background on me and my story. So I used to be a chronic overtrainer and under-eater. As a result, I gave myself some pretty bad gut issues and also lost my menstrual cycle for about six years. As a result of that, I had such low bone density that I ended up breaking a bone. So that was kind of my eye-opening turning point. So that was about two years ago. I totally reworked my brain around how I train and how I feed myself and my nutrition. But in the process of that, I fell in love with multiple types of training. So I started out more like bodybuilding type training, like split training, moved into more of like functional training you could call it, lots of kettlebell work, almost like CrossFit, barbell free weights, all that kind of stuff. I'm also a spin instructor, so I love to obviously the cardio aspect. Another thing as I tend to enjoy like battle ropes, hit training, burpees, all that kind of fun stuff. More recently, since listening to you guys, I got into strength training, more focusing on like that kind of four rep range and all my main lifts. So I guess my question for you guys is, what program of yours would you suggest for me? I do have a kinesiology trainer background, so I do tend to write my own programs and I just can't follow one. I start doing it and then I get in the gym and I'm just like kind of all over the place. So I need some help. Jessica, do you want us to be very direct and straight about this or do you need soft gloves? I need direct. Okay, so I think spinning CrossFit's a terrible idea for you. I think you should be as far away from that as possible. You've already mentioned that you had issues with that in the past, you're flirting with that right now. You're an alcoholic who's hanging out at a bar. Yeah. There's no reason why and the program that's best for you is something like PowerLift. You know, it's a program that's completely focused around, you know, your performance and strength and not around your body, your body image, not around anything of high intensity whatsoever. It's literally just about getting stronger. So if I was going to recommend like one of our programs, what it would look like, it would be like a PowerLifting type of program. And I would ask you to get rid of your spinning class. I would ask you to avoid the classes, avoid the battle ropes, all that crap that doesn't, you don't need that. It's the complete opposite of what you need. Yeah, I would say, you know, echoing what Adam's saying, I'd say take your fun. It's really hard, right? When you're in that, you have that state of mind. It's going to be something that you're probably going to be challenged with probably forever. It's very common with people that work in the fitness space. And so one of the best strategies is to take this focus that you have. And it sounds like you have tremendous focus on this particular feeling that exercise provides or maybe the results that you're looking for. I'm looking. Take it and move it to something else because just not having it isn't going to work. It's going to come back. So what you might want to do is take it and focus on strength. So you can become very fanatical about working out hard, doing lots of exercise, dieting. Take that and see if you can direct it towards, can I see how strong I can get? Let's see how strong I can get with squats, with deadlifts, with bench presses, with overhead presses. Now that's not where you're going to stay. Okay, so I want to be clear. If you get too crazy with that, that can become a problem as well. But it is a place that you can shift for the time being. It's going to allow you to exercise in a way that you're probably going to benefit from and it's going to allow you to eat in a way that you'll probably benefit from because it's hard to get stronger by eating too few calories or by under eating. Okay, now once you're there, here's the deal. Okay, I'm going to be very straight with you. The mental component is going to be the challenging component for you. I highly recommend you work with a counselor or a therapist and talk about this. This is a behavior that's going to continue to, you're going to have to continue to work on. It's going to plague you. And the more stress you're under in life, the more challenge that life provides to you, the more likely you are to move in that direction. And you probably already noticed that pattern. Like when shit gets hard, I go to my workouts. I work out more. I work out harder or I can control my diet. That's what I can control. Everything feels out of control. So I'm not going to eat. I'm going to eat less. I'm going to be disciplined or whatever. However, you spin it on yourself. So focus on strength. Take that crazy focus. Put it on strength. And then work with someone once a week and talk about this. This is not something that's going to fix itself. It's something that's going to require a little time. I'm never going to tell somebody they shouldn't do counseling because I think everybody can benefit from counseling. But I also think she's the type of, sounds like a type of person that you have incredible focus and discipline. You just need to shift it. You just need to shift it away. Yeah. That's really what you do. Yeah, for sure. So I actually have gone through counseling and all that kind of stuff in regards to like my body image and how I like go about nutrition. And I've definitely come a long way. And like you guys said, it is a lifelong battle. It will be something that's kind of inside of me forever. But I've definitely, my focus when I train isn't even on how I look. I want to train to be able to like just feel like a bad ass in the gym practically. You're a busy body. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I think that's why, you know, Adam's original advice of power left. I think that's a good fit for where you're at right now. And mainly the rest periods, I mean, in the recuperative side of that is really measuring that. Being disciplined and really leaning into that a bit and seeing how that then progresses your strength. I think if you can kind of really get in that mindset of what am I doing for my body the most to get it to recuperate, to regenerate, to be able to produce more power in your lifts and to be able to measure that, track that, because I think that being busy is great, but directing that in a healthy fashion is going to be part of your success. Well, Jessica, you sound like a great, I would love for you. So Doug's going to send you over on MAPS Power Lift. So he'll send that over to you. And you're the type of person I would love to hear back from you as you go through it. So please keep us in the loop as you go through it. Do your best to stick to just that and get good at that. And then I would love to hear updates from you as you go through that on your bench, squad, deadlift and know how that whole process is going for you. Okay, amazing. All right, thanks for calling. Thanks guys so much. No problem. Yeah, I think, you know, one of the reasons why I mentioned counseling with her and I figured she probably had done this in the past is she, and she's like, oh, I'm so far away from that. But the question is, I'm struggling. I need to do all this high intensity exercise. Right, right, right. So the self-awareness is I've had this issue in the past. The self-awareness is not. This is an issue that I have right now that I need some, maybe some of that help again. And it's, look, you're in the gym. You're right, you're an alcoholic and you're working in a bar. Very, very challenging. Exercise is good for you. So you don't want to tell someone to not exercise unless it's an extreme situation. But it's going to be that. It's going to be that constant conversation because what will happen is she'll work out, she'll follow power lift, she'll rest for two minutes or three minutes in between sets. And then she'll be like, I need to feel that intensity. I need to add some more. I need to go crazy. Well, that's the challenge and that's the discipline that, look at that as the training. If she can really shift the focus more on that aspect of it and not so much the tangible of like, I'm lifting more weights and I'm getting all fired up from that, more like how to really read your body in the signals. I love a client like this because she's got, she has the education, so she understands. So she knows, she has the self-awareness that she's already put herself through counseling. I think she's already made leaps and bounds in the right direction and she knows where she needs to be. And you take someone like that that's extremely disciplined and you just channel that in a different direction as far as their focus. And I think she'll see tremendous results and have a ton of success. So I love people like this because I feel like they're much easier than somebody who has been making excuses for decades of why they don't want to take care of themselves. In some ways, it could be challenging. I mean, I actually had a client who went from an anorexic, who started abusing anabolic steroids. So they went from one direction, it was a guy, he was an anorexic before. And then he channeled his focus to building muscle, but then it went in that direction, it went crazy and extreme. It can happen with performance too. Well, yeah, you're right. You're absolutely, but she's also aware of it. So a lot of times people like that that make a shift aren't aware of their issue. They just, oh, I need to get away from this and I'm going to go a different direction and they go one extreme to another. So, and that's why I said, I'll never tell somebody they don't need to be counseling. I mean, everybody I think would benefit from seeing a counselor or having a professional to talk to. All of us would, right? So I'm never going to say not to do that, but I also think that she's in a good place, especially since she has that experience, she is self-aware, she has the education. She's got a channel in a different direction.