ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
Join us on our newest podcast episode with Diana Chaloux-LaCerte, co-CEO of HitchFit Online Personal Training. From her rock bottom moment to clinching the title of a world champion fitness athlete, Diana's journey is a testament to the power of sheer will and the right mindset. Our conversation doesn't just skim the surface; we probe deep into the mental and emotional metamorphosis essential for a durable shift towards healthier living. With Diana's wisdom, you'll grasp the importance of tuning into your body's needs, the discipline to fuel it correctly, and the magic that unfolds when you align your actions with your renewed identity.
JUMP RIGHT TO IT:
0:00 Fitness Transformation Journey With Diana Shalhoub-Lassert
10:52 Transforming Habits Through Discipline and Accountability
16:28 Finding Purpose and Discipline in Health
23:42 Importance of Surrounding Yourself With Support
CONNECT WITH DIANA:
Instagram: @DianaChaloux, @SoulFITRetreats, @Fitover40women
Website: www.HitchFit.com
Hitch Fit Online Personal Training / SoulFIT Retreats (our next retreat is coming up May 30 - June 3!
Business of Your Body: The Burnt-Out, Stressed-Out, Non-Stop Busy Business Professionals Guide to Being CEO of Your Health and Fitness. Buy the book: https://bit.ly/3TgS3ag.
Revitalize your faith and fitness with a morning routine that does not sacrifice your sleep and does start each day with God's Word and a workout. Join the community today at www.earlymorninghabit.com
Contact The Show!
Website: http://www.ahnafulmer.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@imperfectlyempoweredpodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahnafulmer/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ahnadfulmer
ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
Join us on our newest podcast episode with Diana Chaloux-LaCerte, co-CEO of HitchFit Online Personal Training. From her rock bottom moment to clinching the title of a world champion fitness athlete, Diana's journey is a testament to the power of sheer will and the right mindset. Our conversation doesn't just skim the surface; we probe deep into the mental and emotional metamorphosis essential for a durable shift towards healthier living. With Diana's wisdom, you'll grasp the importance of tuning into your body's needs, the discipline to fuel it correctly, and the magic that unfolds when you align your actions with your renewed identity.
JUMP RIGHT TO IT:
0:00 Fitness Transformation Journey With Diana Shalhoub-Lassert
10:52 Transforming Habits Through Discipline and Accountability
16:28 Finding Purpose and Discipline in Health
23:42 Importance of Surrounding Yourself With Support
CONNECT WITH DIANA:
Instagram: @DianaChaloux, @SoulFITRetreats, @Fitover40women
Website: www.HitchFit.com
Hitch Fit Online Personal Training / SoulFIT Retreats (our next retreat is coming up May 30 - June 3!
Business of Your Body: The Burnt-Out, Stressed-Out, Non-Stop Busy Business Professionals Guide to Being CEO of Your Health and Fitness. Buy the book: https://bit.ly/3TgS3ag.
Revitalize your faith and fitness with a morning routine that does not sacrifice your sleep and does start each day with God's Word and a workout. Join the community today at www.earlymorninghabit.com
Contact The Show!
Website: http://www.ahnafulmer.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@imperfectlyempoweredpodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahnafulmer/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ahnadfulmer
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I am your host, anna Fulmer. Today we have Diana Shalhoub-Lassert on the show. Diana is the co-CEO of HitchFit Online Personal Training with her husband, micah Lassert. With over a dozen customized fitness and nutrition plans, diana has personally coached thousands of clients in 82 countries across the globe to transform their lifestyles and achieve their fitness goals. A two-time world champion fitness athlete, diana is committed to not only empowering others to transform their bodies, but also to renew their hearts and minds through their SoulFit retreats, where faith, fitness and fun meet to encourage whole body wellbeing. Here to share her expert advice on remodeling your body with food, fitness and faith. Welcome, diana Shalhoub Lissert. Diana, welcome to the podcast. Well, thank you, I'm so glad to be here. It is such an honor to have you here.
Speaker 1:For those of you listening and watching Marcus Collius, if you haven't seen that interview, you don't want to miss that one. It's a great interview, also about fitness. What did he call himself? A faux professional bodybuilder or something? It was so funny. We had a great interview. But he was like oh my gosh, you have to meet my friend Diana. She's amazing. He spoke so highly of you and then, looking through all the stuff that you do, I was like, okay, I see why he wants to connect us, because I just feel like you're such an inspiration You're paving the way. It's like you are way ahead of where I want to be, and so I'm always like let's bring these people on so I can learn from them and their amazing, amazing journeys.
Speaker 2:Oh man. Well, yeah, Marcus is an incredible human, a great friend and, yeah, anytime he introduces me to somebody, I know that it's going to be another awesome person. So I'm glad that we got. I'm glad we got to connect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's so. You just do so many cool things and I gave an intro already. I mean, I touched the surface of all of the amazing things that you do, but I want to rewind a little bit. So you run this virtual fitness and nutrition program with your husband. You have served thousands of clients globally. It is so cool.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed looking over your programs. What you offer and just the model that you have set up is really neat. We're going to dive into that, you guys, because we have a lot of fitness people come on and I really like highlighting their uniquenesses from what I see and what they're offering, because, I have said this, there is no one-size-fits-all program. I think people can benefit from the strategies in just about any program, but there are certain things that are really better for you than others, and so I'm excited to tap into some of the, I think, the really, really cool uniquenesses that you bring to the fitness industry.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about some of the backstory. We always see where we are right now, but we rarely get to see the messy in the middle and sometimes we see the before, but we miss the process, and I was stalking your website a little bit and you shared. You were on a show and you talked about I think it was 2004 is when you mentioned you kind of hit your own personal low, or scale high, if you will, in your journey. Just tell us a little bit about your own journey to where you got to where you are today.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, that's such a great question. Yeah, it's, it was actually 2005. Um, and I call the. My specific date is July 5th of 2005. That I call it my independence day because it was that was my day that I stopped making the excuses in my own life and actually started the process of going through my own transformation. You know, and it took me a while to get to that day because I was really, um, I was making a lot of excuses in my life and I had these dreams and goals and things I wanted to do in the fitness industry and my actions on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:They were. They were literally pushing me in the opposite direction of where I was saying I wanted to be. So that was just kind of the the mindset switch, the aha moment. And then it started this journey that that led me literally to where I am today. But, um, how I got to that place. Where I needed to have that aha moment was I was always into fitness. I always loved, I was an athlete. As a kid I kind of just went through this period of time. I didn't know a lot about nutrition. It's like when we grow up I feel like we don't really have great information about how we're fueling our bodies. It wasn't something my parents knew about. About how we're fueling our bodies, it wasn't something my parents knew about. So it was pretty just. You know it was a traditional. I guess was pretty traditional, like you know, we had. We had a fish sticks and we had.
Speaker 1:You know, it's just like you just really, college athletes today still don't know. Yeah, yeah, nutrition. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's real.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's like you're growing up and you kind of you're an active kid and then, as you start getting older, you still have no idea about this and you have all this information on TV of like, hey, if you just, if you just do this ab workout three days of the week, you're going to be shredded with abs, and so there's just take this pill take this pill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was just like you know, as I remember growing up, it was like, well, I don't understand, like I really thought when they said on tv, you take this pill or you do this ab workout, you know three days of the week that you looked like those people and that's what happened to your body. So it really it and I would do those things. All the same time, you know, like you know college and all that is like drinking a lot of beer and eating a lot of garbage and then wondering I can't figure out why, you know, I'm doing this little, these crunches, three days of the week and I don't understand why my my body's going in this opposite direction. So it was kind of that. There was a lot of confusion and just not knowing, I think, initially.
Speaker 2:And then, as I got into into the fitness world, I started really diving in more and more into the again, the fitness pieces, but not putting into the, not putting into play the nutrition piece. And then I actually worked on a cruise ship. I got a job as an amazing job. I was the fitness director on a cruise ship, which is fantastic, but it was also caused a lot of loneliness because on the ships, like people come and go, I missed my family and I was.
Speaker 2:I had these. I won't say I wasn't depressed, because I never labeled myself that. I had depressive feelings and that led me to a lot of emotional like overeating and binge eating and I was eating in my cabin. I gained a ton of weight while I was the fitness director on this ship, like I gained at least 40, 40 ish pounds like within a year. So it was a pretty fast gain and I was. It was a scary behavior that I was developing because I would kind of try to starve myself throughout the day and then I'd get to the point where I was so hungry and then I would just binge eat at night and just stuff myself and that was kind of my way of soothing those emotions and soothing those feelings. And when I got off the ship I was the heaviest I had ever been. But I had really developed this. This habit of that was where I was going to feed my emotions and to, to, and it was always this hidden behavior.
Speaker 2:It was like this secret behavior that I wouldn't tell anybody about and I would be like, oh, I don't know, I guess I'm just getting older, that's why I'm gaining weight and I'm just becoming this voluptuous woman, like that's what I kept telling myself. I knew that I was making these poor choices, but I didn't want anybody to see it, I didn't want to admit it. But in the meantime it's wreaking havoc, not just on my body, but it's you know, it's going to start wreaking havoc on my health too.
Speaker 2:It was, you know. So I kind of and I was working in a gym, like I got off the ship, got a job at a gym, I'm teaching other people how to be healthy and I'm not living it myself. So I felt very fraudulent. I felt very like I was saying these things but I wasn't living authentically the things that I was saying. So there was just this like constant inner conflict that was happening.
Speaker 1:Which feeds that shame cycle?
Speaker 2:It just feeds it all the more.
Speaker 1:It's like how do you interrupt that behavioral pattern?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it was like I'm also. I also knew that God had something more for me. So there was that piece, too, of knowing I know he's giving me these like these dreams and these, you know, visions and and I'm like there's this piece of like. I know that I'm not walking in integrity in what I'm doing and I have to make a change because these, the conflict within me is coming, because I know I'm supposed to be something different and something more and more excellent in what I'm doing and I'm not doing it. And so I really battled and struggled with that for a long time.
Speaker 2:And the 4th of July 2005, I went out, I drank beer with my friends, I went to McDonald's you know we were drunk and so then we went to McDonald's to eat and I remember having a caramel sundae. And then the next day I had to go into the gym to train people to be healthy. I felt disgusting, I felt bloated. I remember waking up looking at myself in the mirror in the morning and I didn't recognize myself. I was like my face was puffy and swollen and my eyes were bloodshot and I was like what are you doing? Like, what are you doing to yourself? And I I drove to the gym that day and I remember just thinking like where am I going, like if I keep?
Speaker 1:this up.
Speaker 2:Where is this path leading me to?
Speaker 2:And luckily I had a friend say to me that day at the gym, cause I talked about wanting to do fitness shows and competitions and and I walked in that day and this um, his name was Bill. He was another one of the trainers and for some reason that day he came up to me and he's like hey, I heard you saying that you wanted to compete someday and that you wanted to do this. And he was like what are you waiting for? And I, it was finally that five words what are you waiting for? I had no answer to that and I was like what am I waiting for? I changed everything that day. Like I went home, I actually hired a coach for myself. I ended up hiring two coaches just to help me stay accountable and just to start teaching me, because I was like I know it's the nutrition piece If I want to like step into this new repeat like life. Now I know it's, it's my nutrition. I I actually signed up for my first show that day and it was like it was going to be like like six months away. So I was giving myself time to like figure this out and make these changes and I mean I started working on my eating habits. I put it out there. I told people this is what I'm doing, so that I'd have even some external accountability. And I did it. I didn't turn back, I didn't make any more excuses. I found the people that I needed to help me on the journey and I just did it and I started what it was for me. I found the people that I needed to help me on the journey and I just did it and I started what it was for me. I'll tell you that journey Not only did I lose, I lost the weight over that course of several months just by changing my habits.
Speaker 2:And then, little by little, every single day was a choice. Every single day was a little choice and it was so ingrained in me of, like I'm doing this that you could dangle whatever food in front of me. It was my favorite food. I didn't care Like. This thing that I was working towards was so much more important to me Now. I didn't care about a moment of of eating something.
Speaker 2:It also helped me break that behavior that I felt really trapped in. I felt that emotional eating at night. I felt really in bondage to that behavior. So for me, the whole process, it create the discipline, created this freedom and I was like, oh my goodness, that doesn't have control over me. And as I just developed those new habits, I ended up winning that first show, which was just for. I don't even know that I would have had to have won it, but I did, and that was such validation that this is the course that I'm supposed to be on. I have not turned back. This year will be 19 years. The July of this year will be 19 years since that day. I have not turned back to those old habits. This year will be 19 years since that day I have not turned back to those old habits. Like, it is like when I think of her, I was such a different person.
Speaker 2:And it was like I've just had such a renewal of my mind, a renewal of my habits, and it's created this whole new life and I wouldn't I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's like I had such fear of that discipline and that discipline is what was allowed me to have such a beautiful life now and help so many other people.
Speaker 1:I love what you said that discipline created freedom. Because discipline is really not a word that we resonate with. Right, we hear it and we're kind of like, oh, our skin crawls a little bit because we think discipline and we think shackles a little bit. It's like, okay, well, if I discipline myself, then I can't do this, this, this and this, as opposed to this idea of, well, no, actually we put these barriers in place in our life so that we actually experience abundance, that feels free and freeing and it actually releases the shackles.
Speaker 1:But for somebody listening who resonates with what you are saying those emotions of shame, the binge eating alone in isolation because I think this is true for many, many people what would you say is the next best step? When we talk about that mentality change? Because, as you know, that is really where it starts it's like you have to start changing your thinking when you want to change the behavior and sustain it. You took a pretty drastic move and I'm already picturing the moms out there thinking like I literally don't have time to be training for a world championship or a world. But what is that shift that they can make today to start walking in that different direction and interrupt that behavioral pattern?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question and yeah, I would say for me it was competing, it was that. That's not what it is for everybody and the majority of the people that I work with. I knew in my heart that there was a path God had for me in that space and God used that. That's what's so beautiful.
Speaker 1:It's like every story is different and I love that that was what he used and you have such a powerful testimony because of those experiences yes, Because you did and you have that experience as well to bring to the fitness industry. Yes, Because you did and you have that. Now you know that experience as well to bring to the fitness industry.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Which is beautiful.
Speaker 2:But for. But for a lot of people it's not going to be. That it's going to be. It may be something different If you're a parent, if you are a wife, if you are a. I work with a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs and.
Speaker 2:CEOs. I work with a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs and CEOs. Your reasoning, your why your big, why is going to be different. It may look different. You may want to. For the parents it may be. You've got kids. You want to have, not just have energy for them, but be able to really be present in their lives and to be the most present that we can in our lives. It means we have to take care of this thing that we have been given, like. This is such a gift. We all get this one incredible gift and each of us gets this unique one.
Speaker 2:And to me, loving myself means I take care of this. Like I don't consider the behavior I was doing before of shoving junk food in and drinking too much and not caring for this thing and making it as healthy and as strong as I could. That wasn't. That wasn't loving myself. You know, I think to me loving myself enough so that I'm the best for everybody else in my life. Because I think we have.
Speaker 2:It has to start here. Like you want to be great for your kids. You want to be great maybe for your, your, your spouse or your job. It it has to start here. You're not, you will not be the best that you can be in all of those other areas of life that you are called to, all of your other roles in life, you will not perform at your best, you will not have your best energy, your best creativity, your best strength, your best levels of resilience, your best levels of being able to handle what life throws at you If you do not take care of this thing first.
Speaker 2:So, and it may be just simple, a lot of people it's simple changes. A lot of people, it's making small changes to nutrition. It's starting to exercise. So it can start small. Even my journey was little tiny choices that I made every single day. I had a bigger thing that I was working towards, but to break it down, it still came down to today. What am I going to choose to put in my body to eat today? How am I going to choose to move my body? You know so it's still, regardless of what it is, it's still going to break down to those little tiny choices you make day to day of what it is, it's still going to break down to those little tiny choices you make day to day.
Speaker 1:I love that and for all of our friends listening and watching, if you've not heard me say this before, diana is reiterating this, but I have said this, I have heard it time and time again from professionals who have years and years of expertise when it comes to any behavioral shift that you want to see in your life. We have this mixed messaging in society, because you'll see the Pinterest pins, you'll see the shirts, you'll see fill in the blank where it says passion fuels purpose. My take on it is actually that purpose more effectively fuels passion when you get really clear on your why is when you overcome that barrier of motivation. Because motivation is bound to emotion, in which you and I know. One morning I wake up and I'm like super motivated, I feel good about myself, I feel like I look good in the mirror, I don't mind it. And then the very next day I feel like crap, I feel frumpy, I feel like I rate and nothing. My body fat percentage has not changed in 24 hours. It's strictly how I feel and how I think. So I love what you just said.
Speaker 1:You have heard it from the Diana, who has had way more years of experience than me, so take it from her. If you don't take it from me, but like, you have got to get clear on your why. Write it down, stick it on a sticky note, put it on your fridge, put it on your mirror, put it on any place that you feel like you need to see it to remind yourself of why you are amazing enough to invest in and the impact you can have on the world. So get clear on your why. I said it before. I'll say it again. Diana has said it. So if you don't believe me, believe her.
Speaker 2:Yes, believe it. Yeah, I mean, and that's it is so critical to to understand why you're doing something, because what you just touched on right there, some people think I hear this a lot. They think that I don't feel motivated to do this. I'm not motivated to work out today. I'm not motivated to. I lost my motivation.
Speaker 2:This is not about motivation. Motivation can be great for getting you started and it's wonderful when we have high positive motivation, but motivation is is like a wave. It it ebbs and flows, it comes and goes. Motivation is not going to be a constant. It's not a constant. I know some extremely successful people.
Speaker 2:It is not a constant for the absolute most successful people, and that's where that discipline piece comes into play of it's not about motivation, because I will tell you right now, you are not going to feel motivated every single day to do the things that you need to do to become your best self, to be your best in all these roles, to achieve your goals. Whatever that is, you will not be motivated every single day. So it boils down to that discipline. It boils down to making the commitment in advance. This is what I'm going to do and I'm going to do this, even if I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I work with a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs and it's like how successful would your business be if you only showed up and did the things you needed to do for a successful business on the days that you felt like doing it? You wouldn't have a successful business. You may be out of business. You're not going to succeed in that business role if you only show up and if you only do things on the days that you feel like doing it. So if we treat our bodies and our health the same way, if you want to be successful in this thing, in this business, if that's what you want to see it, as you have to do the things even on the days you don't feel like doing them- yeah, and there's another point that you made.
Speaker 1:So you get clear on your why discipline over motivation. And then you also mentioned that you surrounded yourself with the people who are going to support your goals, and this is again where I think we get ourselves in trouble is, you know? Let's just talk about virtual fitness programs, for example. One of the challenges with them is there's rarely live, real life interaction, like once upon a time you went into a gym, you worked with a personal trainer. They could literally smack you on the face if they wanted to, right, there's like physical interaction. They could hug you. I guess I should say that better. Right, but there's that physical interaction, and the upside to the virtual program is that we have convenience, which is great, in our lives, but the downside is we do miss that human interaction, and so it's really easy for us to still try to make these changes alone.
Speaker 1:And so I also want to point out for everyone listening something that you said is you intentionally surrounded yourself with people who were going to support that goal, and whether it be the busy entrepreneur who often feels very lonely, I think you and I can both testify to that, because we're so. It's just a different world. Entrepreneurship is hard and add parenthood to that or whatever it's easy to miss the need to be making those changes and surround yourself with people who are going to support your goals, because your family might be used to eating the junk that you've been stuffing your face with as well. So you need to mentally pull away and find other people who are not doing that, who are going to support where you want to go, because maybe they're already there. So I just feel like you touched on some of the most key elements to making those changes, which is beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I think that's you know, especially when it comes to a fitness goal, where it's going to require those lifestyle changes. Yes, it's going to not just the physical things you're doing. It's, honestly, more mental changes than it even is the yes, we can teach you how to eat. Yes, I can teach you how to train, how to work out how much, to do that kind of thing. The bigger piece of the puzzle is working on those mental changes and those mental pieces. And I always tell people it's like if that doesn't change first, or at least through the process, you're going to go right back to the starting point. So anytime you look at I'm going to go on a diet or I'm just going to do this thing or I'm going to cut out this food group for the next 12 weeks, Like if there's not a mind, a mental transformation, and I even say it's a heart transformation it's taking on this new identity is like this is who I am.
Speaker 2:I'm a fit and healthy person, so I make fit and healthy choices, regardless of the situation or regardless of what life throws at me. That doesn't mean perfection. That doesn't mean things are always going to go perfectly and I'm going to get every meal in perfect and every workout in. That's actually probably not going to happen, like I don't think I've never met a human being that that actually happened. But it's making sure that I'm acting with excellence in these areas and I'm making the best choices I can and I'm being as prepared as I can so that I can just have this level of of excellence in this area of my life, which pours into every other area of my life too. And I just want to add one thing to what you said too is like finding the right people, but you're also. For me, it also meant eliminating some people from my life too, it was the and family's a little different.
Speaker 2:You can't necessarily eliminate family, so that's a little, at least not legally not maybe.
Speaker 2:But there may be conversations that can be had or just, hey, I'm not more powerful than I'm trying to become a healthier person is often better received than I'm trying to lose 30 pounds in that scenario. But there are other people and places that you can eliminate, and you're going to need to eliminate places that maybe you've gone, that you know whether it's bars or whether it's, you know, social things that, um, you may need to stay away from those things. And there may be friends that need to go. The friends that are like you're not fun anymore, you know. Or the friends that are like, well, haven't you lost enough? You don't need to keep doing that.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I had to cut a lot of those people out because I was like you're sabotaging me. If you're a friend of mine, if you actually love me, then you want what's best for me. And if I say here's this awesome goal that I have, and then you start trying to do things that are like sabotaging me from getting there, I'm like I don't think you really love me and and I can't have friends in my life that try to pull me that way. That can be scary, but I'm telling you that when you step into something new and start finding the people that are going to empower you and support you. They are there. There are people out there that want to be like yes, you can do it, here's how you can do it, and I want you to succeed like far beyond what you can even dream. Those people exist and they're just out there. You just have to find your new tribe. Life is going to be so much better when you have a tribe that is empowering you rather than one that is trying to drag you down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and and what you touched on is that takes a degree of vulnerability and and that's hard, and so you know, for our friends listening like that's kind of the message to that I'm hearing Diana portray is it takes vulnerability, it's a risk, you step out out of your comfort zone, but there is power in that, because then you're going to find the people who are going to support you and being really clear on your goals, which might be uncomfortable even for the people that you love in your family, but being transparent about it, I love what you said. It's when you isolate yourself, that's when you really get stuck and trapped in that behavior. So, just be transparent and then you're going to get accountability in a whole different, whole different way. All right, you guys, we are playing a speed round here of would you rather with Diana? All right, diana, would you rather cardio or weights?
Speaker 2:Weights 100,000%. She's like what are you talking about? I'm a bodybuilder.
Speaker 1:Weights, no question. What do you have? Because this is like your expertise. Is there a favorite body part to strengthen Like? Do you have one that you're like? I love this, this is what I love.
Speaker 2:Me personally, yes, legs, it's always been always like training for me, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's your very favorite move? Like you see it on your own workout sheet and you're like I'm excited to do this one.
Speaker 2:Oh, leg press has literally been my favorite exercise for probably the last 20 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. This is when you know. This is when you know that you're a fitness expert, when you can actually bring it down to the one workout move that you especially love. Okay, would you rather camping in the woods or a house on the beach?
Speaker 2:I would say camping in the woods. My husband would say house on the beach.
Speaker 1:Micah, you are welcome to insert your opinion here For me.
Speaker 2:I'd rather be in the woods, for sure.
Speaker 1:So interesting. Where did you guys both cause? You're in Missouri, right? Is that right?
Speaker 2:We live in Kansas city, at Kansas city, missouri. Yep, yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, so where do you guys go on vacation then?
Speaker 2:We, we do a lot of hiking trips, like when we can go. So we well, and Costa Rica, if it's either Costa Rica, which we actually like, the mountains in Costa Rica, um or some of our favorite trips. We did Norway last year, we did Iceland, but Montana, colorado, like when we do big trips, it's usually big, big hiking trips.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, costa Rica at least seems like that would be a good like meet in the middle type of yeah.
Speaker 2:You get you get ocean and you get mountains there, so it's a combo.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Would you rather cake? Or you get ocean and you get mountains there, so it's a combo. Oh, that's awesome. Um, would you rather cake or pie?
Speaker 2:Uh pie, what's your very?
Speaker 1:favorite apple pie, apple pie.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You have a homemade recipe that you absolutely love, or is there like a uh restaurant that you love?
Speaker 2:No, I don't really like, I don't make.
Speaker 1:We don't eat sugar very often and I don't make sugar, Like I don't know that I've ever made an apple pie in my life. I mean, listen, you guys just need to go onto hitchfitcom and look at her and her husband. It is not shocking they don't eat a lot of apple pie in their house.
Speaker 2:But if I'm going to eat pie, I just want it to be apple, and I don't even have a favorite or anything, it's just if that's if we're at a holiday with family and I'm right and. I feel like I'm going to have some sugar, then that's what I would have.
Speaker 1:Is that your go to dessert, like that would be your go to sweet treat in general would be apple pie, or is there something else?
Speaker 2:Apple pie or anything. Apple like apple fritters.
Speaker 1:Interesting yeah, something else apple pie or anything.
Speaker 2:Apple like apple fritters, yeah, yeah, I don't know I, I, it's just. That's always been my favorite, so just like I said it's, it's I'm just, we just. It's not part of like I don't crave sugar, it's not like sure. But if yeah, it doesn't mean that I never have it, and if I do, it's just for me. It's like if I'm gonna have something, I just want to have something that I'm like.
Speaker 1:I, yeah, I like that. I want to enjoy it A hundred percent. You guys be picky about your sugar. That's the bottom line. Be picky about it.
Speaker 2:Be picky.
Speaker 1:Okay, when you see somebody, do you notice their smile first or their hair first? Oh, I would say smile weirdest, would you rather ever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think smile Cause I'm like. I would have to say smile Cause I don't think I'm very good at like, unless it's like a very like.
Speaker 1:Whoa, their hair looks amazing Like your hair is beautiful, by the way, beautiful long hair yeah.
Speaker 2:And you have a beautiful smile.
Speaker 1:All of the above, okay. Last question Would you rather have a convertible or a truck?
Speaker 2:Oh truck, no question, that's what I drive. As a truck I go after my own heart.
Speaker 1:It's my dream car.
Speaker 2:I can't not drive a truck, oh you have one. Yeah, yeah, that's what I. I drive a Ford Ranger. I that's. I have to have a truck like I haul what do you haul in your? Truck just gym equipment and you know, we own gyms.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I call, I call my truck the red rocket. It doesn't go very fast, so that's like a joke. And Micah drives a Tesla. So like, if we're ever driving together and we come up to the stoplight, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to beat you. You know, the Tesla has like rocket mode. Like it's like, yeah, yeah, I was joking. I'm like, yeah, red Rocket goes zero to 60 in two minutes.
Speaker 1:Yes, Especially when we have a weight rack in the back.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's so funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it. I have a dream of owning a truck.
Speaker 2:I'm from Vermont, so I've literally driven a truck pretty much my entire life. That will always be what I choose.
Speaker 1:That's my dream. We renovated our homes for the last 10 years. We're building now praise the Lord, Done renovating our homes but we have like stuffed drywall and trim and power tools in our van for like the last 10 years. And I just have like this dream that I feel like if I could solve one problem in my life, it would be paint.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I don't know how people survive without a truck like I know.
Speaker 1:No, oh my gosh, we like, yeah, we've had children literally like squeezed between pieces of drywall and furniture and I'm totally not safe at all. Please don't call anyone on me, but yeah, if we just had a truck, I wouldn't have to endanger my children's lives. Anyway, moving on, more importantly, one of the things that I loved when I looked on your website I was scrolling through your programs and here is one of my favorite uniquenesses that I think you and Micah already bring to the virtual fitness industry. Not only do you have over a dozen programs on there very tailored you guys from like vegan to gluten-free, to do you want to lose weight versus body build, and there is a difference. There's so many different tailored programs, which I love.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that you talk about is this idea of body fat percentage, and I know that some of you listening just cringed already when you heard me say body fat, because it's one of those things that we hear and we're just like I don't want to talk about my fat.
Speaker 1:I don't want to talk about a percentage related to the fat on my body, but for me and in my program, this is something that I'm really, really big on because the scale is such a terrible indicator of our overall wellness and, as someone who worked in emergency medicine for 10 years, I have this interesting bridge in my life where I had a foot in disease care, but I also had a foot in preventative care, and so I am telling you, with all the letters behind my name body fat percentage is the way to measure not only your fitness progress but also to accurately determine your disease risk.
Speaker 1:So I already love the fact and this is because you guys are like bodybuilder foundations, I think that you're bringing this concept of body fat percentage to your programs and you talk about weight, but a lot of it is more body fat percentage. So I would love to just hear you know, from your perspective, helping people think through goals based on body fat percentage and helping them understand the difference between the bodybuilder right that like body physique goal versus a health goal when it comes to body fat percentage, because a lot of people miss this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a great question. And if the word body fat is, you don't want to say that, try body composition. Yep, 100%, our body composition is far more important than our scale and we try to drill this. We try to drill this in with clients we have for the last 15 years. So it's when people just look at the scale and I don't, I don't even like the BMI, people like my BMI is here, I'm like I don't care, like what I want to know is what's the composition? Where are we at as far as as how much lean body mass you you have, which is muscle and our bones and you know, all of these other the things besides the fat, the fat tissue, how much lean body mass do we have and how much of the fat mass do we have? Because it's that ratio that, like you said, tells us so much more about our body. It tells us so much more about our potential for developing disease in the future.
Speaker 2:And so, especially with women, and especially with women over the age of 40, who are so conditioned to be looking at the scale weight and in the meantime they are losing lean body mass because they are chasing after a scale weight. They are, you know they go through these starvation cycles. You're losing more lean body mass. And then you're wondering why every single time you try to go back to just eating more calories, you gain weight really quickly. It's because you lost lean body mass. So when we talk about body composition, I want to talk more about how much lean body mass you have as a priority. We can talk about the fat piece. But if you focus on having healthy muscle, if you focus on having healthy lean body mass and if you eat and you train accordingly to have that healthy lean body mass, your body fat's going to reduce. To have that healthy lean body mass, your body fat's going to reduce. And if you know, unless you're as long as you're not over consuming, you know anytime you're over consuming you're going to increase fat on your body. But if you can get in a mind frame of I want a healthy body composition with good, healthy lean body mass and you eat and you train according to that, you're going to get a leaner body, which means your skill is going to come down.
Speaker 2:But it's so important to understand that you can have two people that are identical on the scale Maybe they're identical heights, but if I have, let's say I have one woman we'll just take women. For example, you have one woman who's, let's say, 140 pounds. She's 35% of her body is fat weight. She is going to look totally different from a woman who is 140 pounds and 16, 17, 18% body fat. It's a completely different look to the body. So I just it's one thing, if I could just really emphasize to people let's stop just looking at the scale. It is so damaging to what we're doing to our bodies when it's chasing this number on the scale. Let's focus on lean muscle, lean body mass, and I'm not talking becoming a bodybuilder Like women think. Oh, I'm going to become a bodybuilder. You're literally not. Doesn't happen by accident. It's really really, really hard and it takes a lot of intentionality and a lot of time.
Speaker 1:You will not get too bulky you will not get too bulky, ladies. It takes so much work, it's so hard yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're like I don't want to look like arnold schwarzenegger. You're never gonna look like arnold schwarzenegger and if you look at a female like pro bodybuilder that you know you, you think, looks extremely masculine. They didn't wake up one day and go whoops, I, I did too many bicep curls they didn't look at their five pound weights in the corner and suddenly become jacked.
Speaker 2:Didn't happen, never happened. One thing that can happen when I hear women saying I get bulky when I do weights If you're over consuming what you're spending a day, which a lot of times people think, oh, now I'm exercising, now I'm going to eat even more.
Speaker 1:I see this with men a lot. I think men do this a lot Personally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the men don't complain about getting bulky. Interesting, yeah, the women that complain, oh, I'm getting bulky. So if you're still, if you're strength training and you're eating enough so that you are actually building, you know enough protein, especially so that you're building lean body mass, but you're still also over consuming, so you're also still gaining fat, that is when women will think I'm bulky because, yeah, maybe your strength training and you're getting a good base of muscle, but if you're still over consuming calories, you're going to also be increasing body fat still. So it's. It also goes in conjunction with with your nutrition, with making sure you're getting enough protein so that you can have healthy muscle but that your body fat can be lower, and then you can.
Speaker 2:Just, you know, when women say, toned, I want to be toned, guess what toned means. All toned means is you have a low enough body percentage, body fat percentage, so that you can actually see shape of your muscle. So whenever women are like, well, what exercise do I need to get toned? I'm like what you're saying is you want to see a shape to your muscle. The only way you see a shape on our body is if our body fat is low enough that we can actually see the shape to the muscles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'll also throw out there. I think sometimes where women also get frustrated is they start to see tone but they still feel like their belly is bloated or like they don't have the lean. And I see this with men a lot too. And what you just said I think too, if we're going to get even more specific, you need to look at the quality of the carbs that you're eating, I think a lot of times because you get hungrier and so I see men and women starting to consume more, like you said, but then also being careful that the quality of the carbohydrates are not the empty carbs but the high nutrient density carbs, which comes down to fiber. You want high fiber carbs, which sounds backwards because you're like that's going to make me more bloated, but it's actually going to lean up some of that because you're now getting rid of those processed, empty, just sugar-based carbs. I don't know if you have clients talk about that but I get that and see that sometimes with people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we teach a really balanced approach to eating where it's like you're really good high protein but also you're getting your healthy carbs, getting your healthy fats. I prefer people eat for the most part the most part, eat as whole foods as you possibly can. Some things that are slightly processed make life easier, so it's not like whole foods all the time. So there's like we process things that are really healthy choices too, but it's just having that good combination. Our bodies are literally designed. Carbohydrates are not this evil thing thing god designed our bodies to use. There's three macronutrients that our bodies are designed to use fat, protein, carbohydrates. It's how he designed us so we don't have to be like, oh, cut this out, cut that like literally. That's. Our design is to be able to use those things. But there, there, there are ways of making sure we're eating healthy options in these and not having more than our body actually needs and good, good proportions of these things so that we can function optimally. But yeah, no, I think. I think that's a great thing and a lot of times for the women, if it's the belly, it's consistency over time, because sometimes people see a little progress and they're like oh's the belly. It's consistency over time, because sometimes people see a little progress and they're like, oh, I see this, I see these changes here, but oh, I still have it here. Then keep doing it.
Speaker 2:Then stay consistent, because the parts of our bodies that are the most stubborn, those are typically going to be the ones that change more slowly, whether that's some women, that's their lower body, some that's their belly, like, whatever it is for you, we're all designed a little different. What I can tell you is, if they you just do something for 12 weeks and you're like, oh, I still have this belly, then you need to keep doing it. Then you need to keep going because it's consistency over time and that's why we try to drill it into people. It's got to be a foundational lifestyle, because anytime it's like, oh well, I did this and my belly still didn't go away, so then I just went back to doing what I was doing.
Speaker 2:You're never going to get past that if you don't just stay consistent with the habits, for like and I don't mean like, maybe, I literally mean for life it's like, it's like. The only way you're going to get there and then stay there is if it's a created lifestyle. The only reason that I lost 50 pounds 19 years ago and I have not gained it back in 19 years is because of the habits that are my normal, and it doesn't mean they're perfect, but it means it's my normal and I know what my normal is, which means if I want to go out and have some chips or if we want to go out to eat, I don't even worry about it.
Speaker 2:I have whatever I feel like having in that moment, because I know what a normal is and I know what I'm coming back to and I just slide right back into those habits and I know that keeps me in a place where I get to love my body and I get to feel great. I get to wear whatever I want to wear. I don't. I'm a 46 year old woman, I'm not on any medications, I mean, so it's like I just get to live this amazing life because of because of those choices and and just doing it consistently.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I love that. It's the small steps, small steps forward, small, consistent steps forward. Um you, not only do you have a book that came out, you also are doing what you call your soul fit retreats. These are so cool. I love it. I was reading about them. They look amazing. It's basically where food, fitness and faith meet fitness faith as well as a lot of fun. And they look really, really neat. So tell us a little bit twofold, tell us about your book and about the SoulFit retreat.
Speaker 2:Oh great, yeah. My latest book is called it's called Business of your Body and, like I mentioned earlier, I work with a lot of entrepreneurs, CEOs, business owners.
Speaker 1:You guys. This is like her fifth book, by the way. No big deal, right? Is this like number five?
Speaker 2:That's number five yeah. Yeah, I just like I got a lot of words and I got to get them onto the page.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:I was like there's so many words and I'm like I got more words. So, yeah, that one is really specifically geared towards. I touched on this a little bit earlier of just when I know so many successful business people there. They excel in what they're doing in business and it, but they are not taking care of their physical body. And then, when they don't take care of their physical body, what they don't realize is the that impacts their brain, how it impacts their levels of creativity, their ability to focus, how they respond to situations, because there's always going to be stressful situations that come up.
Speaker 2:Just being able to handle stress and staying in a good place mentally all of that boils down to if we're taking care of our body and treating our body like the business. When you're successful in business, you have all of the disciplines. You know how to be persistent, you know how to be consistent, you know how to show up and do the things even when you don't feel like doing them. You know that you need a plan. You know all of these things. You're doing them in your business and that's why it's successful. So that book is really all about the mind shifts that we have to make to this is also business.
Speaker 2:You're an entrepreneur, you're a business owner, you're a CEO, you know the things. You just have to apply them to this. And guess what? It's not just that you get to look better. Yeah, that's a side effect, being able to look better great side effect, being able to wear the clothes that you want. I hear that a lot from female top-level executives. They walk in their closet. They're frustrated because they're like I don't even want to wear anything in here. I don't feel like I look good. So it solves that problem. Walk into the closet and you can put anything on.
Speaker 2:There's those things that maybe they're a little more superficial. But then there is the bottom line. Things of like if you will take care of your health first, you're going to be better for your employees. Those ideas that are clogged up in your brain because you have this brain fog Guess what? You're going to be more creative. You're going to be more focused. You're going to be more creative. You're going to be more focused. You're going to be able to handle more.
Speaker 2:There's a financial aspect. Studies show that CEOs who take care of their health and fitness actually literally make more money. Women it's something like 12% higher income. Men, I think it's like 6% to 7% higher income. So if it's financial gain you're looking for, start start here you're literally going to actually make more money when this is its healthiest and strongest. So that's what that whole book is about is just working on those mindset shifts so that we see our body as a business, and we have to apply those same principles to business success to this body, and then it's actually going to multiply everything else everything else too. So, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:I love that. That link will be in the show notes. Of course, you guys, but if you know of somebody who might benefit from that too. This is very specific to business owners, entrepreneurs. You know men and women who are hustling hard to help them regain their health. It's called business of your body, the burnt out, stressed out, nonstop busy business professionals guide to being CEO of your health and fitness. It's a rock solid title right there. Yeah, your health and fitness.
Speaker 2:It's like well, when you read that, you're going to know exactly who it's for, right, right right, right.
Speaker 1:It's like oh yep, that's me burnt out, stressed out nonstop, yep, yep, that's right. So we'll make sure that link is included. You can give it as a gift or buy it for yourself. Highly recommend that. And then your soul fit retreats If you want everything that I just said a weekend or a couple of days of faith, fitness, food and fun, which you can get too many places Tell us about your soul fit retreat.
Speaker 2:So soul fit is really. We've created just these incredible experiences and it's been such a beautiful thing, um, to see it evolve. Uh, and we say it's. You know, it's faith and fitness and just taking a really unique combination of these two things. And sometimes when people hear um, and and we say faith because you know, micah and I we are, we are believers in Jesus Christ Like that is our foundation and and it pours into everything else that we do.
Speaker 2:So we can't. We can't really go into situations and not like our faith is so integral to our marriage and our businesses and everything. So it's like we welcome anybody. Like we have a mishmash of people that come to the retreats because maybe they're interested in the fitness pieces, but but we will always lead from that place of like this is where my heart is, this is where my faith is, and we want to serve people and we want to see people from that set of eyes. So it just creates this beautiful space of just being able to bring people in and, regardless where they are in their faith walk, they're still welcome to be a part of this. We're just always honest and bold of like this is our foundation.
Speaker 1:We love Jesus and we're going to talk Jesus. I love Jesus and I'm going to talk about you, unapologetic lovers of Jesus and business and all the things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So that's really the foundation for us. And then, obviously, the fitness piece, and again we just have people coming in. Some people use the retreats as a means to get into great shape. Some people use it as they're looking for community and they're looking for support. They're looking for that tribe because they want to be healthier. So we have people come in of all different fitness levels and we kind of create this space where it's safe to talk about the things that are hard and that are challenging. So with HitchFit, what we've done for years is it's teaching the training and the nutrition and getting people to this great pace physically.
Speaker 2:Soul fit is what it sounds like. We're digging deeper in these environments and we're creating these. I, how I like to describe it, is like it's a place where love thrives and where wounds are healed, because a lot of times when we're struggling in these places in our life, it's because there's stuff we need to work on. So we want to. We've created these safe spaces where people come together. They take the masks off because it's not yeah, we're all going to work out and we're all perfect. We literally create a space the day one where we bring everyone together and it's not us sharing. Speaking to them, we give them space. We want to hear about you and we want to hear your story and it's not forced, like some people. It may be here's my name and here's this and and they don't feel comfortable yet.
Speaker 2:But I'm telling you, when we've created these spaces in community, we do a lot of stuff in advance to connect people.
Speaker 2:And people come in and they're like I'm struggling with this addiction, I'm struggling with this massive loss.
Speaker 2:We've had people coming in sharing about abuse, whether it's physical or sexual or whatever it is, and they're like and I just sit there in awe of God because I'm like that he allowed us to create this space where people feel safe enough to share some of the most vulnerable pieces of themselves, so then we can be a part of helping to hold them and part of helping with that healing journey. Some people may need more support, whether it's getting with counselors and things like that. So I don't want to insinuate that we're counselors, but we're creating a space where we're like hey, love you, like, we're here for you, like, and let's take those masks off and then let's just dig in and let's do this work together and let's get stronger in our bodies, our minds and our spirits and let's do it together. So this amazing community of people is coming together and when we do that out the gate at a retreat, everybody's like you're my best friend, like they see each other, you don't have to walk around.
Speaker 2:You don't have to pretend. And so the connection and the conversation, not just with what we have but what they start having together. We just stand back and Mike always says I don't stand in the way of God, I'm just like, we're, just like we leave your facilitators.
Speaker 2:So we're just like yes, whatever this is supposed to look like, I'm going to create a curriculum and then I'm going to leave the space for God to come in and do what only he can do. It's how we've led every one of them, it's how we led our conference that we just had in January, and he shows up every single time in the most beautiful ways, and so it's that's where it's like, it's faith, it's fitness. Yeah, we're working out. We do, we offer lots of opportunities to work out. We do really awesome things. We have um, we have mastermind groups where you know.
Speaker 2:But then there's also time you want to spend with your spouse. We have couples, we have singles. Singles may strike up great friendships or maybe they want some alone time. So there's this space to breathe and take your own time if you want. Nothing is mandatory, but we just create this stuff and then we find most everybody comes and joins in pretty much the whole thing because they want that.
Speaker 2:It's such a great feeling when you feel seen and you feel heard and you feel like you're in a group of people that wants to lift you up, empower you, encourage you, and we say they're life-changing, because that's what people tell us when they leave, like, and not just then it's months later, like. I can't believe that. I have these new relationships and I I have worked on this piece, whether it's a fitness piece or business pieces. We have a lot of entrepreneurs, so it's a lot of business work too, where they pour into each other, we pour into them, but they're pouring into each other and we're just again, we're just facilitators of this, and sometimes I find it hard to explain exactly what happens at the retreats, because God has shown up in such cool ways that everyone that I'm like yeah, I couldn't plan for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I literally didn't plan that.
Speaker 1:Don't know how that love it. Yeah, you guys just have to show up. You just have to show up so that you can see God show up in an incredible way. Yeah, I love it. It's such a cool. Well, as you know, I'm all about marrying faith and fitness. Literally, early morning habit is holistic health program meets a faith and fitness accountability app. So I just it's such an honor to meet people in the space who share such a heartbeat and, um, I'm so honored to be able to learn from you and just pray God's blessing over the, not just the soul fit retreats, but the virtual interactions and just the way that Jesus is working through you in ways that you may never even know is just such an honor and an encouragement to me. Hitchfitcom is where their virtual programs are. If you want to check out Micah and Diana's virtual program offerings, their fitness and nutrition programs and then SoulFit Retreats, is that also on that same website?
Speaker 2:There's a link. It's a separate website. There is a link to it on the HitchFit site.
Speaker 1:On.
Speaker 2:HitchFit, but soulfitretreatscom is where our next retreat is coming is May 30th to June 3rd in Mexico, and we do as of right now. We have a couple of rooms left for that one, for anybody that that wants to join us, but it's that one is soulfitretreatscom.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we have soulfitretreatscom. You can go to hitchfitcom and also get there, and then we will, of course, include the link to her book as well, her fifth book. Make sure you check out the other books in case you're not an entrepreneur and you're like, but I want other books. I'm sure she has one for you as well as a program for you. It was such an honor, my friend. Is there anything else anywhere else that you want to send people to follow along? Oh no, that's.
Speaker 2:those are the main ones, but thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time and thank you for you know doing what you're doing and just you know spreading a message and spreading love and you know, just seeing the heart of Jesus in you is a beautiful thing, thank, you.