#115 - Ready to meet an inspiring athlete who turned her life around through sheer determination and a powerful mindset? Kayla Cittadino, host of Taco About It Tuesday podcast, shares her story of transformation—from struggling with weight and a toxic relationship to becoming an elite athlete and a two-time American Ninja Warrior competitor.
This episode is a masterclass in making positive changes and overcoming the mental and physical obstacles that hold us back. Kayla opens up about the pivotal moments that sparked her lifestyle overhaul, starting with small, incremental steps in nutrition and fitness. This conversation is a testament to the transformative power of resilience and the importance of a supportive coach and community.
Topics Covered:
Learn practical tips for making positive changes and overcoming mental and physical obstacles
Understand why a champion mindset is necessary to conquer fear, set personal goals, and build a positive relationship with yourself
Discover insights on how self-talk and visual affirmations can keep you motivated and moving toward your goal
Today’s Guest
Kayla Cittadino
Kayla turned her life around in 2018 after making the decision to return to a healthier lifestyle. What started off as a 75lbs weight loss journey turned into becoming a 2x American Ninja Warrior, Spartan OCR Athlete, a DEKA World Championship Competitor and Podcast Host of her mindset based podcast Taco About It Tuesday.
“Inspire to Run Podcast is truly inspiring!” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — move toward the healthy life that they desire. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
#115 - Ready to meet an inspiring athlete who turned her life around through sheer determination and a powerful mindset? Kayla Cittadino, host of Taco About It Tuesday podcast, shares her story of transformation—from struggling with weight and a toxic relationship to becoming an elite athlete and a two-time American Ninja Warrior competitor.
This episode is a masterclass in making positive changes and overcoming the mental and physical obstacles that hold us back. Kayla opens up about the pivotal moments that sparked her lifestyle overhaul, starting with small, incremental steps in nutrition and fitness. This conversation is a testament to the transformative power of resilience and the importance of a supportive coach and community.
Topics Covered:
Learn practical tips for making positive changes and overcoming mental and physical obstacles
Understand why a champion mindset is necessary to conquer fear, set personal goals, and build a positive relationship with yourself
Discover insights on how self-talk and visual affirmations can keep you motivated and moving toward your goal
Today’s Guest
Kayla Cittadino
Kayla turned her life around in 2018 after making the decision to return to a healthier lifestyle. What started off as a 75lbs weight loss journey turned into becoming a 2x American Ninja Warrior, Spartan OCR Athlete, a DEKA World Championship Competitor and Podcast Host of her mindset based podcast Taco About It Tuesday.
“Inspire to Run Podcast is truly inspiring!” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — move toward the healthy life that they desire. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Hey, my friend, do you feel stuck sometimes and feel it's too difficult to make a change in your life? Or maybe it's about getting to the next level in your fitness, even if it feels out of reach? Well, this week you are in for a real treat. I'm sitting down with an incredible athlete and we share stories and insights that you can apply to help you get to the next level. Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to Inspired to Run podcast. Here you will find inspiration, whether you are looking to take control of your health and fitness or you are a seasoned runner looking for community and some extra motivation. You will hear inspiring stories from amazing runners, along with helpful tips from fitness experts. Now here's your host, richard Connor.
Speaker 1:
Hi, my friend, Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. I have the pleasure of sitting down today with Kayla Cittadino. She is the host of Talk About it Tuesday. She is an elite runner, aspiring elite runner for DECA, and I'm just so excited to have this conversation with her. She's part of the underdog family, she's one of the podium chasers and we're just really excited to talk about mindset and her journey to becoming an elite runner. And we could talk about podcasts. We're both podcasters in this space, so you know I always love to talk about podcasting, so excited to talk about that too. So welcome to the show, kayla.
Speaker 3:
Thank you for having me Super excited to be here and to have a nice conversation about life.
Speaker 1:
All right, all right Sounds good. Well, let's, you know, start the conversation, learn a little bit about you and, yeah, a little bit about your journey.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so I would say my journey personally started in right around 2018, 2019. The woman that you see sitting here today is so much different than the woman that I am. Back then I was in a really toxic, dark place. I was over 205 pounds, so just was mentally, physically, emotionally unhealthy, stuck in a not so great romantic relationship, and I just felt lost, like I would look in the mirror, couldn't even see who it was that was staring back at me, and so that's just to kind of set the stage to where I came from. And now, several years later so 2019 to now I've completely shifted my life around, lost 75 pounds. It's really where the journey ultimately started was going on a weight loss journey, which is a whole conversation of its own if we want to get into that and how I did that conversation of its own, if we want to get into that and how I did that. And from there it went, from how did I look? To what am I actually capable of doing in my life? And so having that transition happen around my early 20s from like 23, 24s to now I just turned 30 this year it's been a huge learning journey, but through that I've just been so excited around what's next for me, and that's how I ultimately got into hybrid racing.
Speaker 3:
I started actually off in the Ninja Warrior world, so I'm a two-time American Ninja Warrior competitor, which is a really fun fact about me. I've been on the television show twice. So I started off after I lost all the weight getting involved in that space. And then came Spartan Racing, took on a couple of titles in Colorado last year, actually won the I think it was the. No, it was the super, the super that I won for my age group. So started to get involved in there.
Speaker 3:
And then, out of nowhere, my mom was like you should try this DECA thing. And I was like, okay, never been on an assault bike before, never have touched a skier, had zero clue what I was stepping into, got my butt. Handed to me I was super humbled my very first DECA strong race. And handed to me I was super humbled my very first deck, a strong race. And last year I stepped into it full force, like I want to do this Um and ended up at world championships in 2023, taking sixth place um in my age group, which I was super stoked about because 25 to 29 is no joke, um, that age group is. And then from there just the relationship with Kevin Gregory from the underdog fitness team transpired. And here we are sitting here today getting ready to lace up for a race day tomorrow.
Speaker 1:
So that's awesome, that's awesome. And shout out to coach Kevin Kevin Gregory, underdog fitness. So you know, listeners have been following for a while. Know that I started my journey, um, right before I met with Kevin. So you know, I did my first race back in 2018. So, similar timeframe, and I did a Spartan race. It was Spartan sprint and Arlington, virginia.
Speaker 1:
I remember it like it was yesterday and I, you know, I have trained for the race and I thought I was doing all the right things and I got there and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Uh, to the point where I didn't know if I was going to finish it. I was just like, you know, I'm going to do it because I do the things I say I'm going to do, but mentally I'm like I don't want to do this anymore, like I'm going to quit, but I did it. But afterwards I'm like you know what? I want to do this again and I know I could do it better. So I went out to find a Spartan coach and I was lucky enough to find coach Kevin. So you know, we've been working together for gosh five years now and yeah, and my journey has been a little bit about overcoming fears and doing things that I've never been able to do, and Kevin's been a big part of that story, so it's cool that we've been connected through Coach Kevin.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, through sport.
Speaker 1:
Through sport.
Speaker 3:
Through sport, through fear and sweat. Yeah right.
Speaker 1:
And congratulations on your journey. So I mean you said about the fun fact American Ninja Warrior. Like I realized I didn't know 75% of what about what you said. I didn't know that about you, so that was a. That was good learning.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it was. Uh, I've never done anything like gymnastics, rock climbing related, so when I stepped into that sport I was just like eyes wide open. I've never been able to swing on the bar, you know, you get the hand rips all over the place. But it was probably like two years into my training when I got the call to be on the television show and it was just such an interesting like thing. You see it on TV and then you actually go behind the scenes and it's totally different than what you could have imagined.
Speaker 3:
But my favorite parts of it was actually had nothing to do with the course. It was being in interview settings like this where you're behind the scenes with the producers and they're asking you questions. And I remember my first year just like I get goosebumps thinking about it. But people in the room were moved to tears because I was just talking so openly about the journey and how my life has changed and what I aspire to do. So I'm excited to be here in this setting again. It feels a little bit like a remake of that.
Speaker 1:
Well, and I love that. I love your story because your story is similar to other stories that I've shared on the show and it's been my aspiration to bring these stories to you know, to a lot of people, to really encourage them and motivate them and let them know that you can make a change in your life, like if you're, if you're stuck I know that's hard to do right. If you're mentally stuck it's hard to kind of see past that. But you have like a great example as yourself and just pushing through that and getting to where you are today is incredible 100% yeah, and we can for sure talk about, like what that transition looked like, like I'm here to answer all the questions.
Speaker 3:
Just be open and honest, cause I it listeners on the other side. It is so hard to make that flip, but once you do, I can say now I was just actually having a conversation with someone before this. People were like it's just so cool to see how happy you are and it's like it's because of the decisions that I made a couple years ago to change my life and it's been nothing short of hard but it's been worth it. So it's always good to know that it's never going to feel good, but one day you're going to be like this is why I did it.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so you know one of the questions that I have that I love to know I've become a little bit of a student of this I'd love to know if there was a specific point in time where you were just like this is it Like I'm going to make this change and then once that, if that happened, and once it happened, like, what did you do to get to that next step? Like, how did you kind of quell any of the negative thoughts and emotions about kind of making a change.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so I would say there was definitely a couple of moments like, especially while I was in that negative, toxic, just state of mind and in that time of my life. But I would say one of the biggest things that I can remember to this day is I it's like a beautiful sunny day I live in Colorado, so you got the mountains and the fresh air and I was sitting on the couch inside my mom's house and she was like hey, like let's get out and let's go for a walk, and I was just so depressed with my life and so lethargic Cause, like my body that I was in I couldn't move without getting winded. I couldn't walk up the stairs without feeling like totally exhausted and I was just like I can't, like I'm just too tired, and the look that like shot across her face and like just how bummed she looked, it like hit me in the heart so heavy. And that's when I was like jolted externally, like there's something that's not right with this, Um, and so that got me thinking around, like I need to really start looking at what's happening with my life and seeing if I can make a turn. And then it was a couple of hits after that. Like I had some moments in the dressing room where things started to rip and zip and or not zip up, for that matter and it was just like I finally got silent enough to just stare at myself in the mirror and be like where did you go?
Speaker 3:
And so I remember, immediately after that moment I was like I need to just start with putting better things into my body, like that's the first thing that I can do, because right now I can't move. If I can just think about what I'm actually putting into my body first, then that's got to be a start. And it was a great start because I was able to start to mentally clear up some things that were going on up there and just feel a little bit more alive. And just one little small, tiny decision after another led to the next thing. So I think you asked like what sort of flipped the script? I mean? I think sometimes, unfortunately, you just get sick and tired of being too sick and tired, and I hate that. Like I've made it my mission as a coach and a trainer to wait until people hit rock bottom. But what I will say is sometimes rock bottom is the most fortunate place for you to be.
Speaker 1:
Sure.
Speaker 3:
Because you learn so much about yourself, and you learn about what you don't want.
Speaker 1:
Sure.
Speaker 3:
And sometimes you need that leverage to be like. I don't ever want to feel that Some people are like well, how can you go and like do this, and I'm like, cause I know what the other side feels like. So if you're there right now, if you've ever been there, use it as your gift, use it as your learning lesson and take that with you into greater heights. That's probably the best thing that I can say. And then from there it comes with developing a different relationship with yourself and with fear. How do you look at yourself? Let's start there and get really deep internally, as far as how do you talk to yourself, not only just internally, but externally, to other people, and what do you give yourself the ability to do?
Speaker 3:
If you're constantly holding yourself behind that line of fear of like there's no way that I can do that. You're never going to see what you're made of, and it's through these tiny promises and these little like dipping your toe into the water that makes you see what you're capable of. And then you start to get more of a foot, and then you get your whole leg in there, right, and then you just fully start to jump in. So it's just these little compilations of small decisions that allows for you to build belief and trust in yourself. That I truly think takes you to the end.
Speaker 1:
Okay, yeah, okay, yeah. Well, that's really great. Well, congratulations on your journey. I mean, that's incredible and I aspire to be where you are today, and you've been doing this for a lot less time than I have. I'm like, oh my gosh, like I'd love to be there, but I know I'm on my own journey. But, but yeah, and I have to. You know I've shared this with the listeners and you know multiple interviews that I'm just trying to overcome fears and do things I've never done before and I feel like I'm making good progress. But you know, in some cases I'm just like, well, I have a win here and I'm like, okay, I can get incrementally better, and I can get incrementally better and where I want to go would require a step change. So in my mind I was like, yeah, I can get those increments, but can I really make that step change? And that's kind of where I'm at today.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah. So how are you handling that, then? I'm now, I'm curious to know. So what's the step and where are we going?
Speaker 1:
what's the step and where are we going? How am I handling? Well, first is putting myself in a situation that forces me to train and like set those goals and train for it and just have that as my target. And, yeah, kind of like what you said, like it's a small habit, it's the way you talk to yourself and I'm just trying to use everything that's going good and right in my life to say you could do it, because you've done this, you've done that, you've done the other thing, you could do this, and it's a little bit, it feels a little bit out of reach, but so do those other things at one point in time.
Speaker 1:
So I remember, like just about a year ago and this is fresh for me because I have this race coming up again but just about a year ago I did the Brooklyn Half Marathon and I was excited because it was my first race in New York City and I did everything wrong. Like I got to the city late, I ate late, I didn't sleep, I didn't, you know, warm up as I should, the race was good but it wasn't great, like I could have done a lot better and it wasn't my fastest race. I'm like gosh, I could do that a lot better. But I had a Father's Day race, five miler, that was just. That was just a few weeks later, which is coming up this weekend. So I'm doing it again.
Speaker 1:
And I remember at that race I was like I'm going to find redemption in this race and I killed it Like I blew away my time, what I thought I could do, just by minutes. I couldn't even believe it. So much so that this year is like I'm going to do really well in this race and I'm like I'm going to hit this time. And I went back and I looked at the time from last year and it's around the same time. That's how well I did last year and this year I'm like, no, if I did that last year, like I got to go even better. So in my mind I'm thinking, gosh, this is so far to reach, but in reality it's not as far as, at least I think it is. So that's some of the things that I've been doing, but I know I have a lot of work to do. Like I have a long way to go.
Speaker 3:
Oh, there's so many things that I just thought of. The first thing is like you're building up proof, right, those little tiny things. That you're doing is putting proof in a book so that when you need it, you can go back and recall on it Like that's a huge thing when it comes. Taking that next step is let's go back and look at the proof that I can totally do this. And then the other thing that you mentioned oh gosh, here I am, I'm having the brain It'll come back to me, but that was one thing is like the building of the proof, oh, the comparing yourself to your previous self. We get really good at comparing ourselves to other people and I think that gets talked about so much, right, don't compare yourself to other athletes.
Speaker 3:
You guys are on two different journeys, but then we never talk about comparing ourselves to ourselves from previous versions, and I think that it's a double-edged sword, because you can be like, look at how far I've come. But one thing I talked about in one of my Instagram stories was I did you know the 30, 30 assault bike?
Speaker 2:
that we do.
Speaker 3:
Beautiful guys. 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest, 30 rounds, it's basically 15 minutes of death, 15 minutes of just thinking about death, the best way I can think about it on the assault bike. So when I was doing it I was like I really want to set a new PR, because we all want to set PRs right Every day. We want to try and set a new PR. I set a PR by one calorie.
Speaker 1:
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:
One calorie, and the last few times that I did it it was like 30 calories, 50 calories, right, Like cause. I've just built up my fitness. The better you get, the smaller the strides are as far as improvement goes.
Speaker 3:
So if you're in that place of like, why am I not like chopping off like minutes and all this good stuff off my time? Just remember, like that's how amazing you've gotten Like now, it's like the fine tuning and we just have to be grateful for the process that we went through, cause if we only look at the end result, we're chopping out all of the joy, all of the gratitude, all of the freaking blood, sweat and tears to get there. You know, if I look at the Kayla who raced last year versus the Kayla that's racing the first six months of this year two completely different people Tomorrow, when I race, my current PR for deck is strong, is 1348. I'm hoping to go low thirteens. Even if I go 1347, still a second faster Right.
Speaker 3:
And so I think it's like important that, yes, use it as a way to look back and be like I've done all these incredible things, but remember, the better and better you get, it's less about how big the strides are and more about, like whoa, enjoy the process, enjoy the beauty of what it takes to actually get here, cause that's the fun stuff. Cause standing on the podium lasts for like 10 seconds, that's like okay, what's the next goal?
Speaker 1:
That's right. That's right. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right about that, and it's interesting you mentioned that Cause I think about the Brooklyn half marathon this year. So you know, my primary sport is road racing not necessarily like the hybrid, but I do the hybrid because I enjoy doing something that's challenging and I think it will really help me in my road races. So I'll talk about Brooklyn Half for a moment. This year, leading up to the Brooklyn Half, I had I don't know about 15 weeks of solid training, which I can't say that I had last year.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's huge so last year I had a lot of travel, I had a lot of things just come up, so it was very inconsistent. And this year I was like I'm going to do it, no matter what, I'm going to do it. And there was a conference that I volunteer for every year. That's almost a week or two before the race, didn't matter. I'm either getting up early in the morning or making time during the day and I need to do what I need to do. No, I'm not going to go out at midnight to do karaoke because I need to do my long run, although I may or may not have gone out, but not that late, right? But it was those things that I kept in mind because I needed to stick to my training and it was like you said.
Speaker 1:
It was a process and I knew that these are the things I need to do to be successful. And by the time I got to the end of it, I was proud of just that. Even before I got to the starting line, I was like I did 15 weeks of good work and I feel good about where I am today. And, irrespective of how the race went, I felt good about it, although I did get one minute PR. I was hoping it was gonna be a little bit more but, all things considered, I was like you know what this is? This is what I wanted. I wanted to do better and I want to have a better experience and I wanted to train better, and I did all the things I said I was going to do.
Speaker 1:
And I kept the promise of my promises to myself.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, do you find it interesting how the best of the best athletes, like the people that really want big things, how we always feel like we're behind, like I heard that once I think it was like a trending audio on Instagram where it's like the best people always feel like they're just a step behind and so we work harder and harder, which again could be a double-edged sword if?
Speaker 3:
it turns into burnout or it turns into something great. But like it's just so interesting to me of how we always feel that and so, knowing that I'm like okay, I have to be really good about how am I celebrating myself, even just like the small wins here or there. Also, am I, am I in balance? Like?
Speaker 3:
balance and racing and elite athletics. It's like it's never going to be 50, 50. It's always going to be like it's race season, it's 90, 10, right, or hey, it's off season. We need to go back and have a little bit of fun and sort of pick up, you know, on, maybe where we left off on other things in life. But yeah, it's just stepping into. Elite athletics has been really interesting.
Speaker 1:
That's great and you know I'm curious, like I know you talked a little bit about kind of the process and the habits, um, and those steps to get to becoming an elite athlete, but like, mentally, what else? What made you believe you could even do that? Like what made you I don't even know if it's a question that made you believe maybe why do you have the desire? Maybe that's a different way of asking it.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, Well again, when I first started my weight loss journey, I was like I would love to look better, I'd love to fit into my clothes again, and I think that's why majority of people do it Right.
Speaker 3:
At least why they start at least why they start it has everything to do with aesthetics and like, while like your clothes fitting better and all that is like fine and dandy, that number on the scale. Again, it's kind of like standing on top of the podium. That excitement lasts for two seconds and then what are you left with? And so the big shift for me and this is when I went from just losing weight to getting into Ninja Warrior was I want to see what I'm capable of actually doing, and so at first it was a lot of like I don't, I don't dream big, I just want to try. And it was from there on out.
Speaker 3:
It's realizing like you're never going to feel a hundred percent ready. People think that you have to have all these titles and accolades in order to go out there and do the thing, when in fact, no one actually really has those when they first start, and so they have to start somewhere. And so like, well, where'd you get the confidence? It's like you don't ever have it. It's just you have to go and actually do it and be brave enough to try and realize that, regardless, it's a win-win, because you're either going to learn something or you're going to maybe gain a really cool result. It's never like you failed. So I think it was just accumulation of all that, but mostly it was that mindset shift of like aesthetics versus what it is that I want to be capable of doing, and I just kept a really open heart and an open mind and I think in just in life it's really important to do that because I thought that I was going to go all the way and you know this career that I was in before I stepped into fitness, like I left my corporate job, I yeah, there's a whole story there during covid guys national pandemic I'm like I'm going to leave my six figure job to go start a business in health and wellness because I see people of the world right now and they need love. That was that was terrifying. That's a whole different conversation.
Speaker 3:
But I thought I was going to go all the way in Ninja. I thought I was going to go hit a buzzer on the television show and then, out of nowhere, hybrid racing between Spartan and DECA came into my life and it was totally unexpected. I wasn't looking for it, but it was everything that I needed. So you might as well just try anyways and see what you can accomplish. And B, just let the universe help you. Be open and willing to the things that are coming into your awareness, that maybe you're over here trying to jiggle the handle on a door that's been locked for years. That door might not be meant for you, and so I think about you right with half marathon and all these things.
Speaker 3:
I think we were talking about this before we press play on the podcast. It's like I really want to accomplish set things, but like what if there's this whole other world of opportunity over here that you just have your back to, when you just need to be like, take a deep breath, I'm going to pause and just let what's going to come to me come to me? You know, it's such a powerful way to navigate life when you just are open to what's to come and you're like well, let's just get curious, let's get creative, and it takes the pressure out of it completely, Cause you're not like gripping so tight onto this one goal. It's like I trust that the universe has my back and it's going to take me exactly where I need to go and I'm just going to learn the lessons and know that I can do whatever it is that comes for me on the other side. I can handle whatever it is.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. I love that. And you know, one of the things you mentioned was just kind of about like how we talk to ourselves and I've been thinking about this a lot lately and you know, coach Kevin actually asked me this before, right before my last race he goes. So you know what are the things that you kind of repeat to yourself or you say to yourself, a little bit like affirmations, which I used to do, and I need to get back into it because I thought it was really helpful and I was like gosh, I didn't really think too too much about it, but here's some of the things that that you know I said to myself. So I shared that with him, and then at the race, they were making bracelets and you could write on those bracelets right.
Speaker 1:
You can write on the bracelets whatever it is that you want. So I'm like I'm going to write what it is that Kevin and I had talked about. So that's been helpful for me. I'd be interested to hear if that's been helpful for you and if you've been doing that for a while, Like during the race, when it gets hard, like do you have just something in your mind that you should just kind of say to yourself to get you through?
Speaker 3:
It's funny.
Speaker 3:
So I used to take a Sharpie, like all last season and I did this during World Championships too and I put it on my arm, because the two moments where you're questioning your life during a race is on the bike and on the tank, and then after that you're just moving so like erratically on the burpees that you're like I don't know.
Speaker 3:
I just want to be done so like I. I purposely put it there so that in any moment if I had like some sort of doubt or negative self talk, I could look down and see it. So I'm very big on like the visual, like quick cues, and I want to say like the three words that I've had that were the more impactful one, um was trust, cause trust is something as an athlete that I feel like. That's where I'm at right now and that's what coach Kevin has actually brought to my life. A lot is giving me what feels like the most impossible training plan and then showing myself that I can do it and being like, okay, if I can do that, I can definitely do this for 12 minutes you know.
Speaker 3:
So I need to just go out there, trust my training and do what I know how to do. Just let it turn on. Another one I've had on my arm is celebrate, because I really believe that's what this is all about, and it's one of the reasons why I love DECA as an organization is because this is all about earning your mark and celebrating fitness. I made a decision a few years ago to completely change my life, and so I'm just always so grateful every time I get to step up to the starting block of a ninja course or to, you know, the reverse lunges on the DECA course, because it's just another opportunity for me to show up for myself and then just, of course, just straight up gratitude right, like gratitude, I feel like, is something that gets missed so often. But definitely those little tools and this is something I really wanted to share with the podcast group today is one of the mental things that has really shifted for me lately. Kind of goes along the lines of how you view yourself. But my boyfriend and I were recently talking about this Do you listen to Sally McRae and her podcast at all? So, listeners, another fun podcast, because I assume we all like to share podcasts with each other. Nick Bear recently just did a guest interview with Sally McRae and she's an ultra runner and she's fantastic like has amazing documentaries on YouTube. Really big fan of her. But I got this idea from her. But it's we wait to act like the champion until we have the title when? Why don't we just show up like the champion until we have the title when? Why don't we just show up as the champion today? If you want to be the champion, you have to show up as that person now and you have to think like, how do I train like a champion? How do I sleep like a champion? How do I eat? Like what do champions do and how can I do that? That's realistic and applicable to my life, and that's one thing. That's.
Speaker 3:
The phase that I'm in right now is like I'm showing up to this race tomorrow Like I've already won the world championships and am I physically there? I don't know. Maybe, I don't know, I could shock myself tomorrow and do something absolutely insane, like set a world record. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about putting myself in the space of like, how does Kayla the champion think about this?
Speaker 3:
How would she approach this race tomorrow, even if I'm not totally physically there yet, if I'm mentally there, I have no doubt that I'm going to cross that finish line A, which is really important, but B, that I'm going to do something really incredible on the other side. So that's what I would say for the listeners If you're trying to get past or go to that next step, or just have something mentally positive in the days leading up to the race, think about how does fill in the blank your name, the champion, approach this race? How do they do certain things and show up as that person now rather than when you actually have the title, Cause who knows when that actually will happen.
Speaker 1:
So I love it. Yeah, I love it. And since you shared yours, I'll share mine. So I've been listening to very popular public speaker. So on my long runs I'm listening to podcasts and I've been listening to it for a while, but I've never used it myself.
Speaker 1:
But his phrase was I can, I will, I must, and I love it. And I actually put that particular episode of that speech that he gives like on replay. So every once in a while it pops back in and it's a reminder for me. So when Kevin asked me, I'm like that's what came to mind and that's what I said to myself kind of during the race. And I'm like and I realized this, if I look back to the races, the attitude that I have about the race, going into the race and during, has been a there's been a really good correlation to how I perform.
Speaker 1:
Like if I go in thinking I can do this, I will certainly do a lot better than if I have a negative attitude about the race, like I didn't train properly or this hurts. We're just talking about you know, we're talking about certain things that are kind of bothering us, right, but if I have that negative attitude, then more than likely that's excuse me, that's going to hold me back from, you know, really doing well, so really performing well, so anyway, so that's, that's mine.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I love that. Oh, so good.
Speaker 1:
So you know I kind that, oh so good. So you know, kind of, as we wind down here, I'd love to hear a little bit about what would you say was your biggest obstacle during your journey and how'd you overcome it?
Speaker 3:
Well, I can tell you what my biggest obstacle is right now, and I think I mentioned a lot around the trust piece. Like tomorrow, I feel so confident in the plan and what I need to execute that I know that I'm going to do well tomorrow, whether again, it's like a world record breaking time or whether it's just, you know, like a couple seconds off my time, I feel so confident in that. So the trust thing is actually we're on the up and up on that one. But one thing that I've noticed as of recently especially again when you start to get to the best of the best is you start to obsess over what the other best of the best are doing, right, cause they say, well, if you want to be this person, you gotta do exactly what they're doing, and I agree with that to a standpoint.
Speaker 3:
I think you obviously have to find your brand and what works for you and your season of life. Um, but honestly, it's it's the comparison. That's one thing that I feel like even back then that I was really struggling with is just oh, this girl's back looks so shredded, which is so dumb, right, and I want my back to look like that, but how many women like think about those things Right, and I have to imagine men probably go through those things too. So it's really just the the comparison piece, um.
Speaker 1:
I can either confirm nor deny that part.
Speaker 3:
That part happens and you're asking you know how do I get over it? I think you just have to start with giving yourself grace A because one. Everyone does it. And the better you get at this mental stuff, you realize it never actually goes away. That was actually probably one of the biggest lessons that I've learned in life is like these thoughts that are negative. They don't ever go away.
Speaker 3:
You just get really good at being able to say, oh, pause, kind of politely, call myself out, appreciate that, let's unpack that a little bit.
Speaker 3:
But then let's put that where it needs to be, which is in the non-serving category, and let's flip the script a little bit and think about what's going to serve me. So I think that's the best way to overcome any obstacle. Right is can you pause in the moment, can you become reflective, can you be gentle and kind to yourself around the fact that you had the thought and it's okay, you're not crazy, you're not wrong. You just need to unpack it a little bit and give yourself the time to think about well, where is this coming from? Is it a consistent trigger? Is it something that I need to, like you know, go and seek additional work on, additional help on and then take the next best step from there right. And that next best step can look so different from moment to moment and time to time, and it doesn't mean it's always the right step, but it's a step. It's better than doing absolutely nothing at all. So for anyone that's facing an obstacle, pause, reflect, give yourself graciousness and then take the next best step that you possibly can.
Speaker 1:
All right, sage advice for our listeners. I love this conversation. I love everything that you share. I'd love to hear you know have you share a little bit about your podcast, your fellow podcast host? So share a little bit about your podcast and the health and wellness business that you have going on.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I sort of mentioned that I made this big transition from corporate to owning a business. That was a really big decision. I was with my corporate job as a professional recruiter for about four years was super successful. I had all the money and the accolades. And during COVID you started to realize like whoa, this is where I'm at, this is how I actually feel. Things got really quiet and you're like whoa, I need to change something here. And so I just came to realize that I was living this life that people would define successful, but I didn't define as successful, and so success for me was impact and wanting to do something that was much greater than myself and giving back in that way. And so, after I had lost a bunch of weight, I was like it'd be so cool to be able to help other people do the same thing, and so that's where I started my own business, did that for a couple of years. Now I work for um, a recreation center and a ninja facility, so I do a lot of personal training, yada, yada.
Speaker 3:
But the podcast weaved itself in there right when I left my job and I was thinking about how can I allow for people during this time of the pandemic, like when we're at home, we're depressed because we can't have any social interaction. People are like way too close to their fridge and pantry so they're gaining weight like crazy and they're not taking on healthy habits. Like how can I truly impact them? And it started off with every Tuesday I would go on to Facebook and Instagram and I would do a live video, and Taco about a Tuesday was the name of the series then, and I would bring a healthy, delicious taco recipe because I was like well, everyone loves tacos, I love tacos, and it's Tuesday, so let's talk about tacos and I talk about something in relation to life, right, Like a lesson or things that people were asking me questions on as a health coach, and so that's how it got started.
Speaker 3:
And so I did that for about a year and I realized I feel like I could have more of an impact if I got off the social and I start to do this more on like a podcasting platform. So started that about two and a half three years ago and we're still running strong For all my listeners that are listening. You know we're goofy, we say a lot of crazy things, but it's a conversation around life, always Like I'm very genuine and open with the stories and the things that I'm going through. I literally plan my podcast as I'm like going through it. Like as we sit down and we talk, it's just what am I going through in life and how can I give back to help you better navigate what it is that you're going through. So it's a good, good fun thing that I do.
Speaker 1:
Love it. Yeah, love it Well. Congrats on your three years as a podcast host and your transition into the health and wellness space, and everything that you've accomplished. Yes, thank you so much All right, so I'm going to put your information in the show notes to make it easy for everyone to find your podcast and follow you online. And again, I just want to thank you for coming on the show and sharing your story with all of our listeners.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me Stoked to be here.
Speaker 2:
All right, have a good day you too, that's it for this episode of Inspired to Run Podcast. That's it for this episode of Inspired to Run Podcast. We hope you are inspired to take control of your health and fitness and take it to the next level. Be sure to click the subscribe button to join our community and also please rate and review. Thanks for listening.