 Our next caller is Rebecca from Texas. Hey, Rebecca, how can we help you? Hi. So I graduated high school this year, but I've struggled with like an eating disorder since I was like in seventh grade. And at this point now, I've been trying to like recover my period. And I started lifting and found mind pump, and that's kind of helped me through my recovery process. I do work with a dietitian and a therapist. But from consuming your videos and other content, I've realized that like chasing health and will help me in the long run, I've been doing MAPS anabolic for like a while. And I had DM'd you sell like a while ago after I started doing performance. And you had mentioned that doing MAPS anabolic would be better for balancing my hormones. And so I went back to that, but I've still really haven't seen any progress. I've been working on lowering my steps. So I was averaging about 25,000 a day-ish. And I've gotten down to 13,000. And I'm still trying to lower it from there. But I was wondering if you'll have any suggestions if I should like cut down on exercises, sets, or like, I thought maybe going down to two days a week, but like lifting has really helped me in my recovery process. So I'm kind of like stuck on what to do. Yeah. What are you doing the 25,000 steps? Are you just naturally getting to that campus, walking around campus or something? What's that? So I'm just naturally like I like to move around a lot and also just being like anxious minded. I do work with horses like five times a week, but that usually gets me like around 3,000 steps. So. OK. First off, I want to commend you on your courage. It's really hard to talk about what you're talking about, especially on a podcast. Self-awareness. And yeah. And the fact that you're working with a dietitian and a therapist, you are on the right track. Now I know you're saying you're not seeing any progress. So I'm assuming you're talking about maybe physical progress or even just the progress with your period. But I'd like to ask you a couple of the questions, Rebecca. Do you feel any different or has your relationship with your body and with exercise, has that changed? And do you feel any changes in your energy levels? I have definitely felt better energy level wise. I know I should probably like increase the amount of food I intake. But like I'm still like struggling with the whole like guilt thing. But I was that person who used to do HIIT, but then it turned into more like while I was resting, I was still like jogging in place. And I think my relationship with food has been a little bit better because now like y'all really encouraged me to like eat white rice because like I was afraid to do that. But then on the days I'd work out, I started consuming that. So I was like, oh, this would be like a quick absorbing carb or I can't think of the word, but like before like a workout and stuff like that. Yeah, okay, so you are progressing. You are doing a great job. And I want you to understand a few things. Let's start with the physical. Okay, let's just start with the physical body, which is different from the emotional and mental side, which is also something that you're working on because you have had a challenging relationship with food for a while. It's gonna take a little while for your body to recognize what you're doing now as the new norm. Okay, so there's a bit of a memory that's left over. You just gotta be patient and allow things to work and do it very slowly. But I want you to focus on how you feel, how you view yourself, your energy levels and your relationship to exercise and to nutrition. If those are improving, you are on the right track and I'm gonna tell you something and I promise this is gonna happen, Rebecca. If you keep moving in that direction and just focus on those things, I just said, the physical will follow. It's a matter of time before the physical follows. But I want you to take your focus off of the physical. I don't even want you to care about that, care about the most important things for now. That will drive your physical success, believe it or not, more than if you focused on the physical progress type of goals. I have two suggestions. Do you have the ability to extend your workout time like as far as how long you're in the gym with MAPS anabolic or do you have a small window to work out? Right now that it's in the summer, it seems like I have quite a bit of flexibility. So I don't know what it will be like once I get off to college, but for right now, it seems like I have a pretty flexible schedule. Okay, so one of the things I would, more than likely, even if you are falling anabolic and if you have a tendency to go fly through the workout like MAPS hit and then also work between sets, you probably even follow the rest period times and MAPS anabolic really closely or keep it moving along. And I would actually push you in the other direction where I'd say, you know, let's have like some three minute rest in between exercises and actually slow the workout down where maybe it takes 90 minutes to get all the way through the full anabolic routine. And that's what I would try and stretch that out. So that's one suggestion that I would do with you. The other thing I would see if you would be interested in trying to get you to do is maybe two times a week, if I can get you starting there with yoga, you know, where- Yen yoga. Yes, it's very meditative. You're not trying to, you're not sweating in beaker room. You're not pushing real hard. It's just really, I mean, if you say you're anxious, I just think, and we're also trying to cut back a little bit on the crazy steps all the time. I think doing something that's working inward more would be a really good idea. And sauna work would be fine too. So like, I would try and get you to schedule me two or three times a week where we're dedicating an hour to 90 minutes of something that's very slow. Restorative. Yeah, restorative and calming and introspective. So I think like the sauna or jacuzzi or some hot cold plunge stuff or yoga, I think would be great to add to what you're doing. Yen yoga is a phenomenal recommendation. I can't recommend that enough for you. And it's going to be frustrating. So consider, this is for sure going to happen. You're going to go into a Yen yoga class and you're going to be frustrated because it's slow. You want to get the power yoga version. Yeah, and they're making you sick and you're stuck with your thoughts. But that's exactly why it's so beneficial. And then with the long rest periods in between sets, try something like this. Is there something you can do in that three minute period that's calming to you? So I'll give you an example. Paul Check is a good friend of ours. I consider him to be the Godfather of wellness. And he would have people paint or draw. We have a video on YouTube. Yeah, in between sets. So fascinating. Yeah, and that's because it's a very calming kind of meditative practice. Find something like that for yourself. It might be reading, it might be writing in your journal, something that has nothing to do with the workout. Something in between each set that is calming for you and focus on that. And I promise you, okay, this is 100%. If you do these things and you focus on the mental and emotional aspects of your health and you do those things consistently, the physical will follow. I promise you. If you focus on the physical right now, Rebecca, and push the physical to try and get results, you're not gonna get either one of those things. So just, and I know right now you're listening to me and you're like, okay, I know Sal said it, but I need you to trust what I'm saying. Give it a shot, give it six months. Give it six months and watch what happens. You will blow yourself away at your body's potential if you do this the right way. Can I ask where we are calorie-wise right now? Where are we at calorie-wise? I think I'm around 2,500. My dietitian won't give me specifics, but like I am at like, she says that I'm at a healthy weight for like, she's actually kind of confused why I haven't gotten my period because she's like, you're at a good weight, but she thinks I might have like more muscle mass than I realized. But of course I'm like, I'm not lifting like really heavy weight and like, I'm not super muscular. So I have been doing anabolic. I'm actually in the strength phase right now. So would you say just keep doing the strength phase for like six months? No, I mean, I would go from phase one to phase two. You can still do phase three, but you can go back and forth between phase one and two. I would cycle through the whole program. I go one, two, three, start over, one, two, three, follow it the way it is. The only suggestion I would do as far as changing it would be like I said is to stretch out the rest periods. Yeah, and consider this, okay, when it comes to, I know you're waiting for your period, it will eventually, it should eventually happen. That takes time sometimes. But it's not just, again, it's not just the physical. So your thoughts are real to your body. Your feelings are real to your body. So although physically you might check all the boxes, if you're still in that anxious state of mind, your body might not feel ready just yet. That's probably the yoga thing I think it's gonna be. Yeah, just don't even, I would just slow down and do those uncomfortable. What's for you uncomfortable is gonna be sitting still with your thoughts. So focus on that, work on that. Yen yoga was such a great recommendation. And by the way, and that was my recommendation, but I also, there's, to kind of Sal's point with the art thing, I actually as a coach, if you were my client, I wouldn't mind you picking something that actually doesn't require the gym or isn't considered an exercise. Like if you just paint it for an hour or two. Like if you have, I would try and find something, a hobby that you become very present in the moment and into and it relaxes you and it gives you fulfillment and joy. And that could be anything. It could be comic books, it could be fishing, it could be painting, it could be doing. Archer. Knitting, archery. I mean, yeah, there's a whole host of things that I would like to see you do. And I would make you do that as a client. I would make you schedule that in your week. And I just think that there'd be tremendous benefit from it. And yes, yoga is a good example. Now, Rebecca, I'm going to send you the intuitive nutrition guide for free. And I don't want it to, it's not going to replace anything that you're doing with your dietitian, but there are lots of segments in there that focus on improving your relationship to nutrition that I think you may benefit from. In fact, I'm only going to send it to you under one condition. I want you to promise me that you'll show your dietitian before you read it. Because I do want to make sure that I get their clearance first. Will you promise me that if I send it to you? Yeah, I've actually talked about y'all a lot to her and she gets really excited every time I tell her information about what you say. So she'll be excited to see it. All right, so we'll send it over to you before you read it. Send it to your dietitian. Say, hey, the guys at Mind Pump sent this to me, but they would like your approval before I go through it. Send it to her or him. Have them take a look at it. And then if they say it's all good, then take a look. Okay. All right, thanks for calling, Rebecca. Oh, thank you. Oh, you know, stuff like that really warms me because I've worked with people like this. And especially at this age, really hard to come out of. Got to love though that at her age to have the awareness and for her to be already aware, reached out, have professionals that are helping her, listening to Mind Pump. I mean, for sure she represents a very small percentage and we don't have a lot of people under the age of 20 listening. I mean, we're definitely 25 and above for most people listening to the show. So I always get excited when I hear a younger person that's into the show and then someone who's been challenged as much as she has with the Canadian source in seventh grade. And that's, you know, to her period question, like, you know, even though she's got her nutritionist, no, she's got everything right. If she's been struggling with this in seventh grade, it takes a while sometimes. And to your point, she also still could be causing internal stress because she's still anxious and she's still worried. Which I love the idea and it doesn't have to be yoga. Although I think yoga was a good recommendation. It could be anything that just relaxes her and calms her down. And it is a very big deal what she's doing. So I hope she listens to this podcast and what we're saying afterwards because stick to it, you do in the right thing. And on the other end of this is tremendous personal growth. In fact, the best coaches and trainers I've ever worked with in my entire life, the ones that I learned from started here. They started here, they got through it. And on the other end of it, they became tremendously effective at their jobs because they understood things from an angle that most of us will never get to.