Have you ever wondered if the chiseled bodies we admire on social platforms truly equate to health and happiness? In this episode of 'Tea with Tina,' I pull back the curtain on fitness culture, sharing my own health journey, including the challenges of PCOS and Hashimoto's. We'll explore why the polished images of fitness may not always canvas the full picture of well-being. Growing up amidst a sea of processed foods, my path to embracing a lifestyle of fitness and health was anything but predestined. Yet, here I am, eager to share how you too can rise above societal expectations and find a route to authentic health that resonates with your individual story.
Shifting gears from the superficial allure of six-pack abs, we'll dig into the triumphs and lessons learned from my coaching clients who've redefined success through sustainable health practices. Forget the flash-in-the-pan fitness fads and TikTok trends; this conversation is about crafting a balanced life that accommodates your unique hormonal makeup and personal circumstances. I'll even extend a personal invitation for those ready to embark on a transformative journey with my coaching program—details are just a text away. Join me as we celebrate the beauty of a balanced approach to fitness, one that champions both vitality and joy in your everyday life.
Have you ever wondered if the chiseled bodies we admire on social platforms truly equate to health and happiness? In this episode of 'Tea with Tina,' I pull back the curtain on fitness culture, sharing my own health journey, including the challenges of PCOS and Hashimoto's. We'll explore why the polished images of fitness may not always canvas the full picture of well-being. Growing up amidst a sea of processed foods, my path to embracing a lifestyle of fitness and health was anything but predestined. Yet, here I am, eager to share how you too can rise above societal expectations and find a route to authentic health that resonates with your individual story.
Shifting gears from the superficial allure of six-pack abs, we'll dig into the triumphs and lessons learned from my coaching clients who've redefined success through sustainable health practices. Forget the flash-in-the-pan fitness fads and TikTok trends; this conversation is about crafting a balanced life that accommodates your unique hormonal makeup and personal circumstances. I'll even extend a personal invitation for those ready to embark on a transformative journey with my coaching program—details are just a text away. Join me as we celebrate the beauty of a balanced approach to fitness, one that champions both vitality and joy in your everyday life.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Tea with Tina podcast. On today's episode, we're going to dive into a topic that I don't directly talk about a lot, but it is something that really bothers me, and it's the idea that because somebody looks aesthetically fit and shredded, that they are healthy and desirable, and just from being in the fitness industry for so many years and talking to a lot of these people, being friends with a lot of these people, I see the dark side and the side that they don't really want you to see. That's behind the curtain of the true sacrifice you have to get to be that lean, unless you are somebody who magically has great genetics, okay. So we're going to dive into that, so you can maybe stop beating yourself up because you don't look like the Instagram influencer with the shredded six-pack. I'm going to tell you exactly what goes into that the ins and outs and kind of my opinion on health. Welcome to the Tea with Tina, your favorite podcast, where we talk all things health, fitness, lifestyle and maybe a little bit of tea gets spilled. We chat all about this in a super casual environment, so grab your beverage of choice, sit back, relax and enjoy.
Speaker 1:
So this podcast episode really stemmed from me going to the doctor's today. I went to the doctor's just for a checkup and he commented and he's like you know, I saw a 22 year old today I'm 28, by the way and he's like I think you're actually healthier. Saw a 22 year old today I'm 28, by the way and he's like I think you're actually healthier than the 22 year old and I was like yes, and he was looking at my A1c and he's like that's the lowest A1c I've ever seen. That's the best A1c I've ever seen. And you know everybody was just commenting like wow, so easy, you're so easy, your readings are so good. And you know, as somebody who struggled with hormonal imbalance much of my life if you don't know that about me I've pretty much had irregular periods my entire life.
Speaker 1:
I never had a regular period. It was, you know, no period. For six months at a time I would bleed really, really heavy. Sometimes in an hour I'd go through a heavy pad and a heavy tampon. I had all these weird side effects literally into my 20s. It would never change. So I'm actually on birth control for that right now.
Speaker 1:
That's the only thing that you know, gives me a sense of normalcy and I am fully aware that it's not a true period. But I've tried everything naturally and it does not work. It does not really help. So this is the next best thing. And then, on top of that, they kind of classify that as PCOS. They're not 100% sure if I ovulate and whatnot, with the hormones being wonky, I have excess hair growth and you know the chin hairs, the back hairs, all those fun things. I've had cysts on my ovaries before. Luckily I at least can't feel any at this time. And I have Hashimoto's. Last year I got diagnosed. It is genetic, I believe, because it runs in my family. My mom had Graves' disease and my grandma had Graves' disease. They both had their thyroids removed, but I have Hashimoto's, so I am on some medication for that.
Speaker 1:
But despite all of that, and also growing up in a household that ate fast food, friday, saturday, sunday, you know I ate McDonald's, burger King, go down to eat at restaurants our dinners were very processed, like boxed mac and cheese, hot dogs, spaghetti with, you know, jarred sauce and it wasn't the Rayos high quality sauce. A lot of boxed meals, boxed stuffing, like just very processed foods. Right, and I'm not complaining about my childhood. You know we ate what we ate, and even when I was younger I feel like that type of food was a lot more widely accepted, like eating healthier seems to be a little bit more accessible nowadays and more trendy and enjoyable, but it's still. We need some work right.
Speaker 1:
But so I kind of grew up with everything against me was never athletic, never in sports. Yeah, I did play around with friends when I was younger, growing up, running around all that stuff, but pretty much I had the odds stacked against me. Um, I, I had two parents that smoke, they, they. My mom smoked cigarettes, my dad smoked cigars. The one thing, though they never drank, never touched alcohol, so that kind of turned me away from alcohol. I just really have a drink with dinner occasionally. So, yeah, I, I did not by any means grow up in this ideal environment and had the genetic gods come down and say oh my god, you have wonderful genetics. No, if anything, I was kind of the opposite. I felt like I had to fight and crawl my way up into the health space, and for somebody that felt like the odds were against them.
Speaker 1:
Once I kind of graduated high school and I started to become an adult, I was really concerned about my health. I got interested in the fitness space and like, knowing how I grew up and once you kind of you know how you become an adult, and then, like you are removed from being a child and you look back, you're like, oh my god, I was doing that. That's kind of the realization I had. I'm like, oh my god, I'm eating all this crap and, like you know, my family are their own people. I don't try to judge them on how they eat. That's their own life, you know, unless they like try to ask for help. But me, I was like I need to change this. So that was kind of goal and that's what made me so passionate.
Speaker 1:
And, to be honest with you, I mean maybe when I first started my journey, I kind of looked up to the girls who were super fit and, yeah, I have my, my moments where I'm like, oh, I just want to be shredded, but just to see, like, what it would look like and how if I could do it. But, to be honest with you, as long as I feel comfortable in my clothes and my skin and I feel healthy and energized, that's all that matters to me and that's been a key part of my coaching is. I really just want to teach people to get healthy and, yes, I would love if you get the fat loss and the weight loss, because that's necessary for better health sometimes and for our confidence. But we don't need to take it to that extreme where it's like, oh my god, well, I want to look like that girl who's an athlete. She looks like a magazine cover model and it's like you don't realize what she does to get to that point, okay.
Speaker 1:
So another thing that kind of stemmed this topic was I was scrolling through Instagram and this one girl showed two pictures of her. One was just really a regular athletic physique. I would say she had a flat stomach, you know she was lean, not a ton of muscle definition, right, but she was like you could tell she worked out. The other was her with really no body fat on her and she had like a very defined six pack. She looked more like an athlete, like a sports athlete, and she showed the differences of what she had to do to get each physique, and the one that was super shredded was very unattainable for the average person and and this is crazy because once I saw that I was like holy crap, okay, so she had to do 18,000 plus steps a day.
Speaker 1:
She said that like 95 to 99 percent of her food came from whole, organic, like plain resources think eating like a bodybuilder, where it's like chicken, rice, broccoli, all that stuff. Um, she rarely ate out or ate processed foods and if she did, she said her body would pay for it. She was training long hours in the gym. So you know they, these people with the shredded physiques, they truly put in work like, like I said, unless they are on steroids, which they still have to work hard, um, but the recovery is a little better so they can push like more and it doesn't feel as bad.
Speaker 1:
And uh, excuse me, illegal fat burners are a big one. Um, things that aren't quite steroids but like aren't quite legal. I've seen that running around and like you'll just drop fat. I remember my old manager at one of the gyms I used to train at. She was a bikini competitor and I remember she was doing the most basic workouts but she ate like pretty clean. She dropped weight and shredded up in like two, three weeks and it was because she was on these illegal fat burners, which are extremely unhealthy, by the way. Not great for your heart, not great for your system overall.
Speaker 1:
So there's always long-term effects and you know what? No shame to people who use them if they're aware of the effects and whatnot. But if you're somebody who's just like an average person, trying to get healthy and you think, oh, if I take, I'll look like this person and you don't consider the consequences, that can be an issue, right? So people just they don't realize like you're eating, especially the diet you are eating like 10 egg whites with like asparagus, you know. And if they, when they lie I've seen this on social media they'll be like, oh, look at me, I eat ice cream. I, when they lie I've seen this on social media they'll be like, oh, look at me, I eat ice cream, I eat pizza. And it'll be like their one cheat meal that they've had in like three months.
Speaker 1:
You know, or I'll see these people that are super shredded and they go to the doctor and their blood work's all wonky, their cholesterol might be high, they have all this crazy stuff. They're under a ton of stress, they feel miserable, low energy, they're cold all the time. It messes with their mind, they have no social life. So there's a lot. There's a lot that goes into this and I just think people don't realize it, because social media is a highlight reel. You see these people smiling and they're posing perfectly. That's another thing. These people are really good at posing, especially if they're a competitor. They literally take classes and coaching to learn how to manipulate their body and pose to look their best. You know, the average person doesn't know how to do that. They know how to flex their muscles and angle themselves in the right way to look their best. So all of this happens and you just see them smiling and happy and being healthy and they don't show you any of the bad moments or the hard moments. And the truth of the matter is that it takes a lot of damn work to get that shredded and, to be honest, I've just never, never had the desire.
Speaker 1:
When I first got into the fitness space, bikini competitions were kind of trendy, like everybody did them. It seemed like everybody I knew wanted to do it. Um, it was very expensive to get into or I probably would have gotten into it. You need to at least invest a couple thousand dollars and when you win you don't win any money. Um, people think you win like all this money. You really only win at like super high levels and I think even like Mr Olympia and stuff, they only win like two $300,000. And like, yeah, that's a lot of money, but like that's literally the highest level and you're paying for spray tans, suits, hair nails, posing a coach, all the supplements, all the nutrition is a very expensive sport. A lot of people tend to go and do it because they want to get like a supplement, sponsorship or clothing sponsorship or some sort of sponsorship, blah, blah, blah, sponsorship so they get their money that way.
Speaker 1:
So I was going to go into it. I was like, oh, this will be fun, this will be an easy way to get fit. You know, I just follow this plan and you know this was like 18 year old Tina, tina. And I'm glad I didn't Because, like I said, the more that I talked to competitors and the more that I saw the inside of what goes into it, I was like, oh, that sounds terrible. I don't want to do that, I don't want to feel like garbage.
Speaker 1:
I kind of got into health and fitness because I was so excited on how good it made me feel Because, to be honest, a lot of my life I felt like trash. I felt tired, I had a lot of anxiety. I had a lot of self-confidence issues. There was just a lot going on. Okay, we are better now. We're always a work in progress, but much better than what I was, and health and fitness helped bring that out in me.
Speaker 1:
And I just want other people to feel that way, because I see so many people being exhausted, stressing themselves out, doing everything that they think they should be doing, but it's actually making their situation worse, like they won't be able to lose the weight because they're working too hard on the wrong things. They're starving themselves, they're doing these crazy diets when, in reality, if they would just do a couple simple fixes that I teach in my coaching program, they would be losing the weight and they'd keep it off and their mindset would change. I hear it every day, tina. This is the longest I've ever stuck with a workout program. Tina, you're really changing my mindset on health and fitness. I actually enjoy it and I don't feel, you know, that I need to do these trendy crash diets or these fad diets, tina. I just feel so great and I'm losing the weight and I'm actually keeping it off. It's a little slower than I imagined, but I'm keeping the weight off, and these are things I hear every day and I freaking love it.
Speaker 1:
It fills me up with joy because I feel like I put myself in this bubble sometimes where it's like you know, I surround myself with a lot of the positive fitness people because it is out there, but a lot of this stuff is like garbage, especially with TikTok now. I feel like it died down before TikTok became a thing and now, with the rise of TikTok, there is more kind of like trendy, flashy, get your attention. So they're going to like cherry pick one thing to make you want something, whether it be a product, or they'll cherry pick like a line out of a research article and twist what it means to kind of grab your attention. And it's funny because people will come to me. Some of my clients, some, you know, just people that I chat with, are like I saw this on TikTok. Is this a good idea? I saw this. Should I be doing this? And it's like no, everything has context and I've said this before too.
Speaker 1:
You know some of the information out there might not be bad, but you have to look at it in context. You know, if you're a 40 year old mom, you should probably not be using context of you know what? A 20 year old influencer who has no job, as your workout advice right, two different spectrums. She doesn't have to worry about taking care of her kids and not getting enough sleep and dealing with perimenopause. Like you know, there's a lot going on there, and same thing with me. I think that's why I kind of was my own advocate.
Speaker 1:
I always felt like I had to grind into the ground, pretty much work super hard and I never understood why I would always crash and burn and it was because I mean, one of it, I think is is in general, if you just do the all or nothing and you're like grind every day, everybody crashes. Okay. But I think I was a little bit more sensitive. Just because of having my hormonal imbalances and the inflammation from the Hashimoto's, I was more prone to that kind of thing. So I found a way to support my body and I think a lot of people, the everyday people I talk to, are in similar situations because you have high stress jobs, you're busy with your kids, hobbies, work, whatever it may be, and you also have limited resources to give to and you just want to be able to do stuff that's going to make you feel better and show up as your best self to your family, your friends, your co-workers. You know, be the best you, and that's what I strive for every day with myself.
Speaker 1:
So, with that being said, I kind of went on a little tangent there, a little rant, but I hope that that makes sense and I want you to kind of think about that the next time that you see somebody who's super shredded. And it's okay to admire people and it's okay to want that type of body. It's just you need to know what you're getting into. It's really freaking hard, really hard. It's a lot of sacrifice, mentally, physically, emotionally.
Speaker 1:
I know girls that lose their period because they're dieting so low. They get all these health problems. But you know they want to pursue the sport or the body and they're willing to do whatever it takes. But I would probably gander that most of you guys just want to, you know, feel comfortable in your clothes, lose the extra little bit of fat you have. You know you want to feel more energy, you want to sleep better, reduce your stress. Lose the extra little bit of fat you have. You know you want to feel more energy, you want to sleep better, reduce your stress. Right, and that can all be taken care of through a simple health and fitness routine, and that's the kind of stuff that I teach.
Speaker 1:
So anyways, with that being said, if you've made it this far, congratulations. If you need help with your fitness journey, feel free to shoot me a message. Um, I believe, actually, the podcast now has a new feature. If you look in the show notes, there should be a thing that says send me a text, and you should be able to actually send me a text message. So feel free to text me the word transform and I'll send you more details on my coaching programs. I also take pride in having a wide range of coaching programs to fit everybody's budgets, everybody's needs, everybody's level of support, whether it be workouts, nutrition or a little bit of both. And I may have a special deal for my podcast listeners if you send me and you use the little text feature in the description. Text me transform. Okay, just for you guys. But all right, guys, I think I'm gonna wrap it up there. We will chat soon and have a good rest of your day. Bye.
