 What's up everybody welcome back. Here's today's giveaway maps resistance. This is a wonderful introduction To resistance training. It's a free program. It's not free But we're gonna give it away to for free for one of you lucky viewers normally have to buy it But one of you is getting hooked up So it's a great introduction to resistance training here So you can win leave a comment below the first 24 hours that we drop this episode Subscribe to this channel and turn on your notifications. You do all those things if we like your comment will notify you And you'll get free access to maps resistance and this is a great program for some of you viewers because Today's episode we're talking to somebody that went through that fitness journey themselves. They're not a fitness expert They're not a trainer or a coach. They're a regular person very smart person But a regular person who went through the journey and talked about her struggles and how she figured things out So it's a really fun episode if you're tuning in and you want to get started on resistance training Maps resistance great program again You can win it for free for doing those things also before we get to the show We're running a sale right now on two other maps workout programs maps performance at 50% off That's an athlete based workout programs athletic based functional exercises non-conventional exercises It's a lot of fun maps aesthetic is also 50% off. That's a bodybuilder inspired workout program So it's balance and symmetry and sculpting that's 50% off So both half off if you want maps performance go to maps green calm if you want maps aesthetic Go to maps black calm and the discount code for both of them is F eb 50 so feb 50 will give you 50% off either one or both of those programs All right, here comes the show. I met you for the first time the first time I came on your show and Right away loved you. We got great great energy great personality. We had a great conversation I'm very curious. We were just saying this off air, but I'm very curious on your how you got into media You're much more experienced than we are and you can hear it when you hear you on your show How did you like how did you first start? You've been doing this you've 16 years if you say yeah a little longer than that So I was a lawyer and a mom. I'm still a mom. I'm still a lawyer I'm still a wife and and I had an opportunity to be a personal assistant to my father at the He's still my father, but he was going to work for and with Martha Stewart And so I he needed an assistant and he needed an assistant because in the early days of the internet I ended up finding out that somebody who was working for him and helping him was stealing from him via Shopping and using credit cards that were not theirs. So yeah I mean I was like a super smooth and back then you really had to have very little training in being a private eye to be One because you could just call a company and be like What was my password that I used and they'd give it to you. It was just like really the Wild West so when I found this out and She couldn't help him anymore somebody had to so I just sort of at the dinner table one day was like I'll go Work with you dad. It was weird and my kids were little and I'd been home with them and had only done Just like a little bit of lawyering legal work for a period of time prior to that So I started to assist my dad and I met Martha's daughter Alexis And this is going back to 2005 and she asked me to do a radio show with her on Sirius XM So that was how I got into broadcast and truly it was on the job training so I did a show with her for Five and a half years and we did some TV shows and then after that I got my own show and then I did some television I co-hosted dr. Drew for a year and Just did a bunch of freelance and that's it and then I've been doing my just Jenny shows since 2012 Now what did she tell you what it was about you that made her want to do that? I mean that's for someone who has no experience in that Yeah, hey, we're gonna thrust you right into serious rate. That's kind of a big deal. So what did she see? Yeah, so she didn't she didn't have experience doing it either and we just had great chemistry when we would talk and We were very different So the premise of the show back then was sort of we would talk about anything like I do on my current show But it was from two different Vantage points. So I was the still a mom and sort of a more traditional lifestyle in a sense And she was single and living in New York City So and she wasn't a mom at the time So we would just talk about everything and it was great. It was a ton of fun Well, and now what when you when you were doing that was it hard to not? Go back to what you had gone to school for to be a lawyer was that an easy transition? Well, I mean once you have legal training you kind of just have that so I have that in my way of thinking So that only served me in whatever I do Because I have it like I know how to think a certain way because I've been trained to do that But being an actual lawyer and having clients is not something I really wanted than anyway So it was all good. What kind of law by the way if you don't want me asking Oh, I was so I would go on like I like the drama part of it I'd do per diem work where I'd go to court on behalf of another lawyer who couldn't show up to like Have the judge hold off on something so I did that I did some mortgage stuff I did some personal injury where I'd talked to clean representatives from insurance companies So that kind of thing now what what skills that you acquired from being a lawyer have now carried over into what you do today Well, they carry over into everything in my life It's a way to argue and to see both sides of of all the issues and find sort of where there may be loopholes or just sort of Like holes in people's arguments. What makes it if like, yeah, that's this is an interesting topic What makes an argument effective because I know people I mean people argue all the time especially now with social media What makes something like is the is obviously the goal is to win the argument by convincing Either the other person or the the judge or jury. Yeah, usually it's the loudest person, right? Yeah Well, I don't I don't know that it's to to convince I think if it's a regular person if you're having a conversation with someone the real trick is to get them To sort of see your point of view, but think they came up with that on their own So it's not it's not necessarily winning. It's all what your objective is or what your goal is in court It's a very different thing. It's using the law and whatever is the merits of the case How they fit into the law the way in which you want it to turn out So that's it's like figuring out a puzzle in a sense But the way to do that the best is to always see both sides see how the side that you're Opposite or opposing What their argument would be for them to win and then find how yours can be stronger for you to win So you always see both sides. Do you win all the arguments with your husband then? I don't really win much in my house. So I have at all so I might my husband is The great he's in the insurance business and he's just the best person. So let me just put that out there So I don't win arguments with him, but I'm also not very confrontational So I sort of step back from most arguments and then we have two big kids So my 23 year old is in law school and is like a super brainy I mean Poo Poo Poo he's a greatest kid in the world. I love him I live for him, but he's like super duper smart So he will say to me like yeah, mom You're a quote-unquote lawyer and I'm like but dude you're in law Like you can't say quote-unquote cuz I'm actually Just come here for one second so I could just I just said you were the greatest person so come around just from my husband Just walked in oh wait, just come say hi so you can see how cute you are Yeah Would he say that you that he wins all the arguments to or is it what he'd say he wins most of the arguments Though my grandmother used to say that the trick to any That the trick to any successful marriage or relationship is to make him think that he's one gosh So far so good, but yes my son likes to he will he and I argue well together and he's nerdy And we play like grammar games and then my daughter who's 21 She's like the coolest person ever so she like came out of the womb that way And I don't have a cool bone in my body. So basically I'm always low person on the totem pole in my house But it's okay. They love me So okay, so you had when you and I first met we talked a little bit about your Fitness journey your you had a weight loss journey and I loved hearing about it because obviously we're all experts in the field This is what we do as a profession and we work with people to try to kind of get them to the place you are So you're not a personal trainer No, you're a regular person, you know for lack of a better term who went through that process and yeah Kind of figured it out because you've stuck to it now For so long to the point now where you devote some time on your show to talk about health and fitness How did that start? Let's start there like was this was this a struggle for you growing up and what did okay? So what did this look like? awful looked awful it looked terrible A lot of trauma my whole life I I've battled my weight and I think that you'll find with most people who in Adulthood have sort of that weight struggle that it started early on so from the time I was probably eight years old I was like the rounder one in the group I wasn't I wasn't fat, but I was chubby and back in the I guess in like 1978 being a chubby eight-year-old stood out for whatever reason and it terrified my mother So from the jump it was sort of clear that there was something about my body that wasn't Right which started that whole kind of weight defining worth thing Which is the most damaging of all like if there's any message to give any of your Clients which I know that Sal already does your weight doesn't define anything about you other than your freaking weight Like we give it so much power and so much importance And so from that age I was going back before I was checked for diabetes And I wasn't like I go back and I look at the pictures and I was like a kid who maybe had ten extra pounds I wasn't but I was short so my mother was scared and she had her own sort of food and body issues which again super common and Throughout my life. I was like a little bit fat like moderately heavy And I use the word fat because I just don't care like it turning 52 like that was the Vocabulary we used we didn't have sort of heavy and plus size and extra But I just it was always this thing throughout my childhood and my teenage years that my weight would go up my weight Would go down my weight would go up my weight would go down and then after I had children And even when I met my husband I was probably 30 pounds heavier than I am now which was like the most healing thing in the world because he just loved Me he didn't like he thought I was hot and sexy and that whole pedunca dunk thing and I for me that was so strange because I was always so insecure but But not he that was incredibly healing because he really he loved the whole thing which is a lot of men That's a thing they like a woman that has curves and stuff and so But after I had kids my weight I just there were stresses in life and I think hormones and I think my anxiety it just got out of control and then I started to kind of reign it in My own doing a little bit of weight watchers and changing my food habits and then my mother got sick and My mom had pancreatic cancer and she passed away in 2008 She was 65 and I was 38 and when she died. I think there was something in me that kind of clicked or flipped or something I all of a sudden was staring my mortality in in Really in the face because I had never you know like you worry about stuff happening But then when the actual thing happens, it's like a it's a your sucker punched and and it was a wake-up call I think on every level like I all of a sudden was like, oh wait I only have one life and that could end really at any time and if I Don't do the things that I want to do in this life The more why am I here and if I don't make the effort to choose my health over sort of everything else then again, that's not great and I realized that I had to love myself enough to want to to be well and so I I And I'm sure also part of it because though my mother was my best friend and we lived next door to each other and We're forever really really close. I don't know if any of you are Jewish, but a New York Jewish home There's a lot of there's a lot of measurement and we were super attached So I'm sure that part of my weight struggle and sort of her difficulty with my body size Made it harder for me to lose weight while she was alive because it was sort of like to make her happy in that way I'm sure was a complicating on some subconscious level. That was a tough thing. So I I remember going to my of course I had and still do had a lot of doctors and I went to this cardiologist because I was always afraid I was going to drop dead because I was overweight and I was 38 And he said not gonna let you die of heart disease and And then we had this discussion about cancer and fat actual fat What fat how fat can contribute to cancer and cancer diagnosis isn't certainly the digestive cancers So I think at that moment I just sort of knew that Something had to give and it was the first time in my life that I approached weight loss not from a perspective of I'm gonna wear a pair of jeans and a t-shirt or I'm gonna look a certain way It was like I'm just gonna not be clinically obese like if I could just get out of that like clinical obese Categorization, I'm good enough and I'd never thought like that before it was either I'm gonna look like someone on TV or I'm not even trying but changing my mindset starting then Changed everything and I'd go to a nutritionist to be weighed backwards Once a month to make sure that I was losing weight and it was going in the right direction I couldn't look at the scale until I was not Classified as clinically obese and then once I could get to that point then I took ownership and could weigh myself and My god I still don't understand how I was able to lose as much as I was able to lose and I still Don't understand in a way like it still feels like a miracle that it's 11 years later And I still wear the same size jeans But I see that knowing that it's by design like I work really hard at it It's just become very much my life that I just do the things I do in order to keep myself as I am well No secret Yeah, as to why it was successful. It was the the approach that you had the you know I this is something I want to do for my health and you didn't look at the scale By the way, this is a very effective tool. I did I've done this with clients many many times where depending on the individual Sure, I'll say let's take your scale put it in the closet I don't want you to weigh yourself for the next two months And I just want you to focus on your strength and your performance and how you feel and then at the end of two months We can look at things and see where you're at and of course if they do that Like like it's like magic. They oh my god. I can't believe I lost, you know Seven pounds or ten pounds of body fat. I'm like, well, yeah, it makes a huge difference going back to when you were I have children. So this is a very this is when you talked about being a kid and getting that message at eight years old Was it like a like was it a blatant out the you know, like hey, oh, yeah, okay Okay, so it was sort of but also in all fairness as a mom like I once my mother died and I could have some space from all of it I I actually just posted it's funny because I posted a reel on Instagram of I do this What I eat in a day real all the time on Instagram on TikTok I make these videos of what I eat every day and I did one every year on my mother's birthday I celebrate her birthday by eating cake because that's what she would have done and and so it's just so funny to have the space from all of it because it was like that was such a small part Ultimately of our whole relationship and certainly of our adult relationship But from the time I was like eight years old till probably the time I got married It was a big deal because she was so terrified because of the world that how would the world treat me heavy How would the world treat how would I meet someone? This was all her thinking and so of course she sort of gave that to me But it was her own insecurities with her body even though she was skinny. She had her own eating issues and But yeah, she was pretty direct. I mean it certainly felt like My weight determined how much she was gonna be happy with me with whatever was and I had a sister who was still have a sister I love her, but she She was always super skinny as a small child So we had different body types and she's older than me. So I think it was just a different You know, I think and also I think it was a lot. I think it was a lot to handle I had always had a big mouth and So a lot of energy yeah a lot of energy and I'm the youngest of three. I have a big brother, too So yeah, but it was pretty direct. Yes people and also she would offer like my sister was giving cookies And I was like giving a salad. I mean the whole thing was a disaster now, Jenny You've been consistent for the last 11 years now Yeah, when you made that mental switch and then down this path Has everything been the right decision or did you make some mistakes in these 11 years? Have you have you learned new things about exercise and nutrition and what were some of the mistakes that you you made during that time? Well, I think and I know Sal you've talked about it, too You've had different times that you've had to read though. That was Justin or Adam who just asked All right, but you've had different times or you've had to I only know Sal's story I know more than the two of you nothing personal Exactly, but um, yeah, of course, I mean I think every person who does go through a weight loss treatment journey or body Transformation it's just the worst language, but anyone who who does that? Yeah, there's a lot of mistakes So I've had I I think one of the mistakes that I've had is always trying up until the past couple of years Trying to sort of fit into a mold of what is the proper food? Identity or way to eat like I'd watch other people and think that I wasn't doing it Right because I eat the way I eat and I don't count this or I only count that or even exercise was For many many many years for me punishment and so I did it when I first had lost a lot of weight I worked out a ton and I worked out in the way that people told me to work out I had trainers and every time I had trainers nothing personal I would just want to tell them and I can curse on your show. You can yes, please So I would be like I'm paying you but also fuck off Yeah And like what it doesn't even make sense because I hired somebody to weight train me and then I tell them literally to Fuck themselves because the psychology of being told what to do just really didn't work for me And it took a long time For me to trust that to know that I had to I had to find it within me to train and to want to learn and to Want to do the things on my timeline how I need to do it So that was definitely a mistake sort of putting my power into somebody else also just Just an inability to again sort of to quiet the noise around me of people or people I'd see places Telling me what I should or should not do it also took me a very long time to realize that the stale is just data And I think that was the mistake kind of putting my Worth in that number and there were times early on where I was decimated the scale would go up three pounds And I'd take to the bed and I'd be like Oh, I'm just this is all over for me and like three pounds isn't 80 pounds But in my head at the time I couldn't like I couldn't understand how it all worked whereas now I laugh I mean I'm gonna be 52 years old the scale is so wacky It could be three pounds up tomorrow and then four pounds down the next day like there's no rhyme or reason tied to sort of what I've eaten exactly at this age because I'm a woman and so I've had to Really change how I think about that too and I have changed that and then the exercise as I was saying Was so much punishment because again like My family we would we would be going on a family vacation Where there would be vacation from school and like my brother and my sister and my dad would be Essentially going to disney and my mom would be taking me to a spa and I was like 10 and so No kid really wants to go to the spa at 10 that like diet plays that they're gonna Put you on mountains to walk up hills like no So it took a long time for me to look at exercise as a gift and a joy to be able to move my body rather than Extreme punishment. I mean walking was just I was like what I have to do that And now I love it so much like I love to exercise which is so weird to even say That's great. Let's speak of your family too. Um Now knowing how it affected you the conversation around weight and everything going up like how what are those conversations like with your kids? Yeah, well, do you all three of you have children? We do. Yeah, isn't it the most terrifying thing? Nothing is nothing. There's little mirrors, right? There's nothing scarier and when you're talking about your mom and her challenges It's like I just think to myself like oh, yeah, like We're we're so we're imperfect and then we're raising other humans Yeah, and it's like man. I you just do the best you can. That's it Yeah, I think the goal is that you will mess them up in different ways your parents messed you up because you're gonna Screw them up. I mean, they're gonna have issues with you. You just want them to be different from the ones that you have Yeah, that's that's a that's a tough thing But it's true And when you realize that and and then and then the other kind of parenting thing that my husband and I both from the start Agree upon is that the things that matter the most with our children is that they're breathing that's first and foremost And that they find the thing that makes them tick And it's going to be different probably from what makes us happy But if they're like decent enough humans and they find what makes them Happy or tick or be okay Then that's that's good enough. The rest of it will fall into place We try to parent with it very little judgment And certainly we do the good cop bad cop stuff like he's the good cop and i'm the the horrible mother Yeah, but you've sort of modeled this for them. Have they been paying attention to your weight loss journey and everything? Oh, yeah. Okay. So the best are so we laugh because when my daughter was three All I prayed all I prayed was that I would not give my children my issues. I just not Want they're worth defined by their weight, especially my daughter I was really like, you know, I was always modest and my body I was ashamed of every bit of my body and uh And but not around my family or my husband or my kids And you know from early on when I was first with my husband We would have sex and I would like try to scamper into the closet to put my clothing back on And and he literally walked over to closet open the door and was like you need to get out of the closet like obviously I love you in your body because this is this is all going on because I love you in your body Like this is absurd and from then on I was like, you know, then I was always naked, which is all weird too but okay Uh, I was young at one point But with my daughter we always had this this kind of I mean even to this day I'll be showering and she's 21 years old and she'll walk into the shower with me Like she we have zero boundaries in this house And so and and that was good because she saw Even though I was overweight and even though I was not super secure It didn't translate to her being insecure like she She loves herself like I I have like I'll be like put that away like I'm like put can you please put some clothing I can't enough Um, she's so cute But she used to look at me and I remember it three years old And when I was oh boy, I was my heaviest was probably 2004 like my son had had a health scare and I just Did not leave my house for six months and I Oh, it was awful, but he was fine. Thankfully and uh, but she she would say to me mommy I want to grow up and be just like you and I want to have a butt just like yours That's great Uh Nobody wanted that ass nobody And um, yeah, no, so she's Thankfully has grown up with a really healthy self-esteem when it comes to everybody and look she's a 21 year old girl so She's aware of society and she is certainly not like A teeny, you know, she's tall. She's well tall by my son five two so she's like five six and um and she looks a lot like my husband and she's adorable and she just Is comfortable in her skin. So she's not she's not skinny and she's not fat. She's strong and she's beautiful and um Her body isn't her issue It's only her issue as much as it's any other girl's issue like a normal if she gains five pounds She loses five pounds. She doesn't doesn't define her. Yeah. It's just like whatever, you know, it's it's really I so I have two I have three kids right and two two of them are older and I have a daughter now That's 12. Yeah, and I did not real I remember taking my daughter to ballet class And she was I want to say nine This is the first time I realized my daughter was really aware of how she looked Wow, they when they were sitting there supposed to listen to the instructor. I could see her looking in the mirror And kind of fixing her hair and then she was kind of like trying to suck in her tummy and I was Devastated And it's like this is part of growing up you become aware of how you look and how and this happens much earlier for girls I think And I was just I remember thinking like my little girl is now entering into a shitty This is she's learning that there's a shitty part that she has to deal with and it broke my heart was so difficult But this is just it's a it's a part of Things and we have to navigate you have to learn how to navigate it now probably better than ever Especially with you know, social media and and all that stuff really was your how is your relationship with her? Really, I mean my daughter she knows she's my princess. I love her to be fine Yeah, that's one of the most important things in terms of how Women ultimately grow up and choose a partner if they're straight I mean so from what I know and so if you have a strong bond with her and she feels like in your eyes She's the most beautiful and the smartest and the coolest and the greatest and the funniest and all those things She'll be fine. Oh, well, you know what I do genny I Purposely try to set the standard really ridiculous Every year there's this father daughter dance that we go to And I make it such a big deal Like I show up I wear a suit I kneel and I give her a corsage And I take out her chair and I and I'm like sweet Yeah, and I'm like I'm gonna ruin it for the douchebags that try to date her because They're never gonna be able to live up to these standards Yeah That's like my husband and my daughter have watched Grey's Anatomy since the show started that is their thing And they say they have girl time every weekend And before she went to college and it's so cute and they're best friends and it's really been It's she you know, she's lovely relationships and it's all good. So your daughter will be fine. Thank you You know, I wanted to ask you this because it growing up you just you mentioned about the spa as a kid You hated you obviously and you weren't a gym fanatic up until later on Did you have a perception of the gym before you started working out and then did it's change at all as you started to become Yeah more consistent or maybe change your own relationship with exercise like were there preconceived notions that maybe were either off or were they justified Yeah, so uh, yeah for sure. I think that Jim's now today It's a much better world for the most part for someone who just likes to exercise because they like to exercise you can find Your right place to work out but Again back then I mean it was just like like every other aspect of the weight stuff I always felt less than when I would see somebody who was kind of jacked At the gym and look at them and be like that's never going to be me because I didn't I didn't understand really that like that was their job I mean like if you're a female and you're a trainer and this is what you do every day Then of course you're going to be in that kind of shape and you're doing all the things you have to do to get there for me I think the the shift to understand that Exercise is for my mental health and well-being. It's great for my heart to move a lot And and that was something that was important to me. I think that really helped me a lot I don't see exercise as sort of the Antidote to overeating We're a way to fix if I I don't know how a big deal or whatever like it's not going to make you lose weight just doesn't and I also think I for a while I remember someone saying to me like you can I'm going to train you and this is when I was probably 50 60 70 pounds overweight Someone was like, oh You could start to train with me But like you might gain weight at first and I was like I If I have 70 pounds lose like I can't afford to gain any weight like that's not the way to approach this I already hate exercise now. You're telling me it's going to make me heavier. How about no So again, like finding and really learning by experience like yes The scale can go up sometimes from exercise if I overdo it The scale does go up like there are days that I do so much Cardio and I know that's ridiculous and I know that people are like don't do something But I like it for my head. I love how it makes me feel So I do it for that But if I do that and then I also like lift a few weights or do some high intensity Um interval trainer or whatever the scale will go up two pounds Like I have that full on inflammatory response And then but because I know it I can laugh at it. Like I've learned how my body works So yeah, I mean it's totally changed how I how I see exercise also as I age I I was saying when I was talking to Sal earlier like I want to have mobility And if you don't move your body, you're not going to be able to move to do things like pee Like I need to be able to sit on the toilet and then also get up from the toilet Like I need to be able to do all the reach for things in my kitchen or have balance when I get on a step ladder Like you need to be able to do things and if you don't move you're not going to be able to do things Yeah, jenny one one of the hardest things for people is to uh, because we don't have a weight loss problem Problem in this country and people will lose weight every year. It's they don't keep it off Right and they don't and so have you been able to distill Down to a handful of things or you know values or habits that you're like these are my okay. Tell me what those are for you Yeah, well, so this is the and i'm sure because of your podcast you guys know There's this big movement for people to say don't worry about what you eat and how much you eat and don't worry about your body And it's all okay, right Great, it is all okay But if you're somebody who has lost a lot of weight the only way to keep it off is to be aware of what you're eating pretty much always And to have some element of movement in your life a significant exercise So you got to work out an hour a day You just have to I don't really get days off and again because I changed how I think about exercise I love it. It's a gift. I'm so i'm in my happy place when i'm in my gym Um, but and I also I pay attention to my food. I just do I mean It doesn't mean that I don't eat cake or eat pizza or eat junk or whatever sometimes of course I do But I always know when i'm doing it. I don't ever Get to just go ham Somewhere because it just doesn't I can't And I know that because if you've been heavy You can always be heavy again unless you are on a consistent basis doing the things that keep you not having now Having said all that it's not a motivation It's really habit and I know you guys look at it as discipline. I really see it as habit I don't think I have presence of mind enough to be disciplined But I do have habits and so like I brush my teeth every day. I get on the scale every day I go on my treadmill every day do my radio show, you know It's like I do the things that I do and that just taking care of myself that falls into it Yeah, it's a habit discipline. I think when some people think discipline. They think like oh, I'm gonna tough through this Well, the discipline is what led to the habit. You had to have discipline to be consistent with that It became a habit and now the habit is what's really important I want to comment on something that you because you have a there's a lot of insight that you've Figured out for yourself that I don't I don't know if you realize how brilliant it is and I'll explain what I mean So you talked about being aware Of what you're eating now, you know 50,000 years ago. This wasn't a problem You had food you ate it and food was hard to come by We now live in a situation where food is so accessible So plentiful so inexpensive. I mean I can have any flavor of anything I want within 10 minutes, especially if you live in a in a city in a city So awareness part is extremely important and it's funny because they do studies on this and they find for example If people eat while watching tv or eat while on their phone They'll eat like 10 to 15 percent more calories and it's literally the lack of awareness That is causing that there's also studies that show that if people put their fork down in between each bite They tend to Eat less all it's doing is it's bringing more awareness to what's happening and to simplify it It's more complex than this It's literally that lack of awareness It means that those satiety signals are going to take longer to hit It means that you are going to potentially go past the point Of satiety, which you know 5 10 percent more calories and you normally would eat well you add that up Throughout the week and that yeah, that's that's that's pounds and pounds and pounds Of you know of body fat every single year So awareness is extremely important when you're eating and most people don't realize that they're They're awareness starts and stops with what sounds good. You know, what do you want for lunch? Uh Mexican, I don't know that doesn't kind of maybe that sounds good. What about Chinese? Yeah, let's do that. So the awareness is really just about that But around nothing else and you know, so what you're saying is and I love talking to people like you because You figured this out through state staying through that process, right? Yeah, what about this? Did you did you have a because you talked about weight on the scale and one of the things that I noticed with clients Probably I'd say more true for women than men They're afraid of the weight gain until they start to have a different relationship with muscle because Muscle is denser than body fat. Sure. So five pounds of muscle takes up about one third less space than body fat And so I used to do this thing Jenny where I had this trainer that worked for me this female trainer She was very fit or whatever And whenever I'd have a potential member come in that wanted to lose weight and I talked to them about Lifting weights and cardio and all stuff and they say, well, I don't want to I don't want to gain any way I don't want to building muscle I'd say I tell you what I'm gonna have one of my trainers come in and if you can guess her body weight within 10 pounds I'll give you a free six month membership and they say, oh, let's do that. She would come in She was tiny. She was like five foot one and they'd be like, oh, she weighs 90 pounds And she'd get on the scale and she was like 130 pounds or something like that And I'd say yeah, she looks like she's tiny because she's muscle and she's lean Yes, and she takes up less space and she's got the curve and this course the faster metabolism that goes along with it Did you start to change your relationship with like muscle and strength? I know a lot of people start weight loss. I just want to get the weight off I don't care. I just want to get smaller and then as they stick to it. It's like, uh, you know I want to feel strong. I don't mind some of this muscle curve. Did that happen to you through the process I think what I learned like my whole life I've always weighed 10 pounds more than I looked because I have one of those dense bodies like I was built that way with strong leg muscles and And you know very narrow on top but really strong and just strong that type of physique So I was never going to weigh The super low numbers that other people who look like me might weigh Right like you put someone who looks like me and she'll probably weigh 10 pounds less than I do So I already have had like an understanding that my weight was never going to be one of those crazy low numbers And and really I became okay with that once I put health as the as the priority So I really go by Bloodwork first because I'm a big believer and you go to your freaking doctor and take your blood and look at your Blood sugar and look at your cholesterol levels and look at all like the inflammation markers And you'll know if your weight isn't an okay spot because At least for me my body is very weight sensitive. Some people's aren't and god bless them But if I am overweight, my numbers are not good And so I'm one of those people that can't be overweight because they talk about health at every size And I do believe there are people that can be really significantly overweight and they're great They don't have any metabolic syndrome. They have none of that But I will like all of heart disease. I can't afford to have for I have to need I have to be alive So first and foremost, I shifted my Priorities in perspective to being about the other metrics as sort of the defining factors in my health And then in terms of the muscle versus fat, well, yeah, I mean I want to be strong So I don't like I know that there's muscle in there And and I I'm never going to build like I'm never going to build like a bodybuilder because I'm I'm not built like that either but I do have the kind of Body that when I weight train I do build some muscle and it doesn't yeah The scale doesn't scare me like it did on in that way not at all because I just know I just know what it is at this point Yeah, that's awesome. You know, you said earlier about um exercising to kind of like, you know, take care of yourself And whereas before you would exercise it's kind of like a punishment Can you go in can you talk about that a lot? We talk about that all the time on the show But I'd love to hear from someone who went through that shift of oh, this is me punishing myself beating myself up to I'm taking care of myself right now. Like what was that like? So, um, I struggle with anxiety Does everybody do you guys have anxiety issues? You know, you know what, uh, you're a very sound definitely does Yeah, you're a very smart person and uh thinkers people tend to be in their head a lot tend to overthink things And there's a higher rate of of anxiety among themselves. It doesn't shock me that someone like you Would would struggle with that a little bit. I think there was a compliment in there. So thank you Also, I complimented myself. Adam doesn't realize Adam's super calm Adam's very mellow. Yeah, I spoke a lot of weeds. Don't worry about a thing ever Just doesn't cross his mind. So yeah, so I I've always had anxiety and uh, and so about I guess right before the pandemic around November early december before december of 2019 I wasn't I hadn't really been exercising regularly or exercising enough and I think I felt it like I think I felt Not as well walking upstairs and my weight was around the same. Maybe I was five pounds heavier I mean really nothing and um and but an exercise was still at this point where it was a it was punishment And was a way to maintain my weight and it was it was drudgery. I was just miserable like I didn't want to deal And I was about to go on a family vacation And with my extended family and uh, and I had kept reading Over and over again that exercise was a great stress reliever and exercise is a great way to improve your mental health and to help when you feel down or depressed and also I was Turning was I in 2019. I was turning 50. I turned 50 in 2020 So I was like 49 and I so my hormones are in every, you know, I am not menopausal yet people But I knew it was coming. It was on the horizon still on the horizon Okay, and so have we lost everyone who watches your podcast yet? I've said menopause So um, we just paused so I kept reading this like how you get relief from feeling awful is to move And I was like, huh So you're saying I would say to what I was reading that if I just moved my body for 30 minutes a day any which way That that will decrease my stress level and make it more a make me more able to deal with whatever's thrown at me Okay, I'm gonna try this and I gave myself zero rules like zero heart rate importance Zero sort of intensity importance didn't matter what I was doing. I was like you were just gonna move your body For a half hour every day and see what happens So I start doing this in december. I do it all through my vacation I went through that vacation and actually had fun I All of a sudden like and when I saw the sudden it really probably took 60 days Like that whole 30 days to create a habit is a lie. I think it probably took 60 But it shifted In january when I was already starting to sort of feel a mental improvement and like moving my body, which was crazy I added the goal of 10,000 steps a day That changed everything because Again, that's my only rule now. Do I do more things? Yes. Do I find a way to like do arm weights twice a week? Yes Do I sometimes work out really hard like on my peloton or whatever it is that I do? Sure The only rule I have is that every single day I get 10,000 steps And since january of 2020 I have not I've missed one day and that was because in here We're going to lose more viewers again and listeners It was the day of like a colonoscopy and endoscopy and I just the day I was like out and whatever You get a pass. Yeah, you get a pass. I got it, but that's it. That's the only day I've missed Yeah, you know, it's funny whenever I whenever I talk to anybody who's been exercising for a long time They they start touting the mental health Benefits of exercise way over the physical. You know what I love about this conversation, jenny It's literally like most of what you're saying Yeah, is what we what we tend to tell people and prescribe like the 10,000 steps The value in that isn't that's 10,000 steps. It's that you spread them throughout the day You're more aware of your activity and your movement And you know, there's many what do they say there's many pass up the mountain But at some point if everybody's this what I love about fitness If you stick to it and you're consistent and you do it for the right reasons You'll learn the right ways to do it. You start to figure that out and like I didn't train you You weren't following mind pump this whole time You weren't listening to what we were talking about But you're talking about a lot of the stuff that we talk about on the show. This is so great I love hearing All of it. I said to you you have a very you guys have a very good philosophy with training I don't think any of you think that somebody should walk into a gym and just go hard Because it doesn't like that wrecks the whole process. You have to like little by little Create that language within your body to be able to do the things For the time and day that you can go hard and then the next day you don't go as hard Like there has to be That sort of flexibility and understanding that it's all good and the 10,000 steps I mean that number you know comes from just a guy who liked the sound of that number. Yep Well, a lot of this a lot of it too and you touched on this earlier briefly and and we come from this point is The psychology of it, right? I mean yeah going in and working harder in the gym for your first day may burn more calories May make you lose weight a little faster But it's a terrible way to start somebody who was doing no exercise whatsoever It just it causes that extreme one way than the other way and we know that from years of experience And so that's why it's such a bad message that a lot that our industry perpetuates I mean, it's yeah very popular that you know the all the fitness influencers are You know touting the beast mode and the all out and the crush it and kill it Like those are all sayings that you hear all the time and yeah, it's one of the biggest problems with I think people being consistent Is there they're given the wrong advice on how they should? Yeah, I figure out those repeatable actions that you can keep up and maintain so it becomes a lifestyle So we got to figure those things out first. Yeah, totally You have to like it even the discomfort you have to like it 100% It's like it's it's not as sexy either Like you could watch the biggest loser and watch them go through that crazy drama and they cry and they beat the crap out of them Whatever as trainers It's like watch it's like listening to to nails on a chalkboard the entire time like this is so wrong You are teaching people. I can only imagine like you're a lawyer. I'm trying to think of like a lawyer Like a law show like tv show. Yeah, you're probably watching like that's not how it works Listen, I well, no, I mean, yeah Actually, I some of the procedurals I happen to really like but yes, they're all that none of that's it's television But the biggest loser I actually like I found it when I was heavy God I was like, can I just go on this show if they didn't if they didn't make people wear the jog bras And the the bike shorts I think I would have put myself in the running to be on the show But I just couldn't have doubt less that there was just no And I now you know years later bob harper's a friend of mine. I really like him a lot He's changed his whole philosophy. Yeah about um exercise and wellness and yeah There's some nice people that come out that came out of of that show Listen great people nice people. It really does glamorize the wrong. I'm so glad you do it I know you're joking But I'm telling you right now. Had you gone on that show and done that Well, I think the intent of that show originally was actually really good and pure I really do but what happens and I'm sure you know better than any of us You know, we have to dramatize it well ratings right and you start to go. Oh, wow when we had somebody do this We got more views. So let's let's start to encourage. So what ends up happening something very Good and pure and with good intentions starts and then it kind of Molds into this monster is getting involved. You know what I learned a lot They learned a lot about metabolism and why people gain back weight and what is the real truth about exercising You know, it's It is so complicated. You you know this right that that body stuff is complicated It is but we make it so much more complicated. You know what it reminds me of uh, remember the original season of the real world I just watched the best ever. Are you kidding me? I just watched the reunion and they got along for the most part on the show and everybody I know Heather B. I work with Heather B. No way. Okay. Yeah They eventually the producers figured out man if we put people together who want to go at each other's throats We're gonna get more ratings and it turned into a shit show, but the original one was really beautiful. Yes. Yeah. Yes. It's so great Okay, so one one last question Jenny because I I love again your story is so great and you're a great person to communicate this Do you if there's if there's somebody listening right now? Yeah, they're overweight. They're something they've struggled with since they were a kid And they have those body image issues which most of us most of us have even even especially Many people in the fitness space What's the one piece of advice you could give them that you think will help That they have to keep trying if it's what they want to do So first and foremost anybody with a weight struggle has to determine if they want to lose weight I just have to determine boy has to determine if they want them to in fact lose weight It's up to them. They don't have to listen to anybody around them They have to make that decision and if in fact they do want to change their bodies Or their body They have to then find their specific way which isn't going to look like anybody else's For some people going on weight watchers or doing atkins or doing the zone or the Mediterranean diet or freaking up tavia I don't even know what like whatever it is. It's going to work for you Is different from what works for somebody else. It we're not all physically the same I would also say always check in with a medical provider because maybe there is we used to joke back in the 80s and 90s about metabolic issues But some people have them and there are now medical doctors who are trained in the disease of obesity to really help these people And so you can seek out support There's a whole field of medicine in addition to do there's no magic never going to be magic But there are ways to get it done. You don't have to live in a body that makes you feel Not well, that's just what I believe but it never ends It's not a process that like you're gonna lose weight and then yay. I'm done. There is no done So like your philosophy has to change about it Which I think is the other shift that happened for me just this understanding that it's lifelong That if you have if you struggle with your weight, it's lifelong and that's okay We all have some struggles But there's no there's no end point So but you have to ultimately like you've said before love the process of it because We get one life So find a way to like enjoy what you're doing in it Beautifully put it's a it's a journey with no destination. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you. Yeah, you're you're wonderful I really appreciate you. Thank you so much for coming on. It was great meeting you Jenny I'm gonna mention one more thing though. I want your if any of your listeners and viewers are over 40 They have to go to bunny eyes.com, which is my glasses I invented glasses that can you can tilt the front of frame like that Oh, that's cool. So you can watch tv and read your phone at the same time But you could also like drop the temple. So like if you're lying in your bed Your temple doesn't dig into the side of your head. Oh, wow. You're watching Yeah, when you're I'm reading or watching tv on your side and then while you could drop both temples and then when you're getting your hair done Well, since you went opera glasses once you went since you went that way I do want to ask I heard you got into the blue blocking space. Is that correct? Of course. Yeah Yeah, we make blue blockers. So tell me did you did you have a personal what led you that way? This is something by the way as a as a Teenage kid. I remember when they were popular back when my the the commercials of the driving at night It was kind of a joke, right? We made fun of anybody that were here I am now in my 40s now and I wear them every single day And so you don't need readers yet. You don't need like I don't want. Yeah, I'm lucky and you're over 40 Yeah, I know I'm lucky. He just doesn't read. Yeah That's right. Remember. He's the one that doesn't worry That's why you know pictures don't read don't read anything. Don't watch tv. You won't have any anxiety Yeah, we started making blue light blockers because there was a need for it because people want them So that was why we added them to our our line. Very cool. Yeah, they're cool Yeah, we we talk about blue light blocking glasses all the time and their values So and we use them all all the time. Yeah, they make a big difference Again, thank you so much, Jenny. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you You