EP 6 - HOW TO STORE FAT & SLOW YOUR METABOLISM: ARE YOU RUNNING YOURSELF INTO THE GROUND?
In this episode of Get Your Shit Together we chat about:
🧡 The overlooked prerequisites to jogging and running
🧡 Your body as an expert compensator: why you hit a “plateau” with running
🧡 Signs of a slow metabolism and low thyroid function
🧡 How adequate muscle helps you do Lamborghini things
🧡 Client case studies!
Resources & Good Shit
What We’re Consuming
Taste Test / Hidden Valley Ranch skit on SNL: Diane used to use HRV like gravy in college, but we’ve moved on to homemade thicc ranch now, ok.
Make that homemade ranch with Adina’s 2-Minute Mayo
We both got into shows about modern love and tech going awry! Add Made for Love (HBO Max) and The One (Netflix) to your queue!
Palm Springs (Hulu) is a cute rom com.
Apparently we love Cristin Milioti this week who apparently had a cameo on 30 Rock as a very sexy baby.
Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) season 4...oooooof.
Brooklyn 99 (Netflix) Because Andy Samberg [again] and you’ll need something light after tearing through Handmaid’s Tale.
In case you missed it…
Strength Training for Happy Hormones - enrollment opens soon!
Want to join the next round of Adina’s program? Registration will be opening for STHH soon! Sign up for the waitlist to be the first to know when the doors open!
Connect with Adina:
Instagram: @adinarubin_
Website: www.adinarubincoaching.com
Connect with Diane
Instagram: @dianeteall
Website: www.diteawellness.com
Transcript
Transcript was auto-generated! There may be some errors, but you get the…GYST 😜
Adina: 0:30
Hello. And welcome back to another episode of get your shit together with Adina and Diane.
Diane: 0:38
Hey friends.
Adina: 0:39
Diane, what is up with you?
Diane: 0:43
I don't know if you know this, but I have a Fisher woman, a provider over here. I just went last week, fishing on Lake Michigan real early in the morning and people who know me, IRL are like, Oh, that's like the last thing I would see you doing. And like, Let's chill with a backhanded compliment. Okay. I am a strong Fisher woman, went out with a couple of friends and I mean, they're not wrong. The caveat here is I love fishing when I don't have to put the bait on the line. And when the fish are big and tasty, like I don't have to work a lot for a little bit of meat. We were going for salmon. So a lot of people are like, you can catch a salmon and Lake Michigan. Yes, you can. Yeah. And I mean, it is just such a huge lake it's one of the great ones, one of the great lakes, but I've had some friends visit from out of state, like from back home in Virginia and they're like, wow, it really is like a freshwater ocean, but we were seeking some salmon and the one that got away.
Adina: 1:47
one second.
Diane: 1:48
Yeah.
Adina: 1:48
I don't know if I texted you this while you were doing it, but do you remember the Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell all, bit I think it was the golden Globes one year when they did the, was it the Oscars?
Diane: 2:00
your recall with like these random bits? It's just, it's like a superhuman, like
Adina: 2:06
Well the truth is they are like, Dani and I. Quote them and utilize them as active parts of our lives so regularly that it isn't, some of it is really random recall, but some of it is like, this is an active part of my day to day, but when will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig came out and did that whole bit about having not seen any of the movies and they were like, it was salmon fishing in the Yemen. And they were like, when the salmon we're in Yemen.
Diane: 2:34
Oh, that's why you said that. And I was like, was this like a weird voice to text? So it didn't land, but now I can go watch it.
Adina: 2:41
I should have sent the clip. I just didn't. I was walking in the city. I didn't have time to gather the clip.
Diane: 2:46
Well, let me tell you about the one that got away. This isn't turning into like a Cabela's like outdoorsy pod but just let me have a moment. I had a huge King salmon on my line, and I know this because I saw it jump out of the water before it got away. But. Okay. I'm really thankful for my strength training routine because. I caught two big juicy, delicious trout. And one of them was a fighter. So it was so much fun. I went with a couple of friends and someone did get a salmon. I got to take home the skin and make a salmon chippies as your daughter, Minnie would say real crispay salmon skin, but it was so, so good. I haven't had a fish that delicious. I think ever, but there's just something so cool about fishing. Wild caught Diane caught fish in the morning and that evening I just seared it in a cast iron skillet with a bunch of butter and fresh herbs, and also made some smoked trout. Thanks to the help of my friend, Megan.
Adina: 3:56
When you pulled trout off the smoker, my mouth was just watering. It looked so good.
Diane: 4:02
The crust on it. We packed it in a two to one mixture of Brown sugar and kosher salt overnight. So that draws out all of the liquid. And then Meg, let it have a little smoke sesh, low and slow. And I made a smoked trout dip over the weekend. wowwaweewa. So I am so excited to go back out. We're going to attempt to go later this month when the salmon are running in. So I got to get these arms ready and there was this cutie little, like the captain's son he's 13. And he was just this adorable, like precocious little child that was like giving us all these awesome tips. So I am not about look fishing for little fish. I want those big juicy, delicious fish. So exciting what's going on over there.
Adina: 4:51
All right. So that is your. Catching us up shooting the shit. And your, what are you consuming? I imagine, Diane's consuming that trout dip, which we all want. But yeah, it's so cool about that fishermen son. Like I love, you know, I feel this way when Minnie sees me lifting a barbell doing pull-ups training with kettlebells. Like I just love when our kids are exposed to things that we. Would want to educate them about later. And it just seems so natural to them. Like for him to watch his father just catch the food that they're eating.
Diane: 5:25
And his knife skills, by the way, I didn't put this on Instagram. Cause Mark Zuck would like put me in timeout, but we watched to see, and he just, I mean, he did it so fast. It was, it was really cool to watch.
Adina: 5:38
It's so cool. I like wish I had chickens or just, just a place for Minnie to know more about where her food comes from. I think that's so important in creating these healthy relationships, you know, with our food, with our earth, just, uh, it's so awesome. That's such a great experience. I was pretty jelly. I was pretty jelly watching those stories.
Diane: 5:56
come on out, come on out and we can go out on the boat. Go fishing.
Adina: 5:59
Yeah. The boat look at you.
Diane: 6:01
Yeah, we'll charter, not my boat. We paid for this, but it was super fun. We highly, highly recommend
Adina: 6:08
Yeah,
Diane: 6:09
what are you consuming over there?
Adina: 6:10
um, well, let me catch you up on my day first. So this I think is important to tell this story because we just released our skin episode pretty recently. And I went to get my legs and underarms waxed for the first time in a long time. And the woman who was waxing my underarms said. You have such beautiful skin. It's so taught. This reminds me of two hilarious things. Number one, I saw a meme recently that was like the next time someone compliments my skin. I'm just going to say, thank you. Instead of listing all the products I use and their prices and where I got them from, which I related to so much, because Dani always makes fun of me. If someone ever compliments like a piece of my clothing or anything, I
Diane: 6:54
Thanks that has pockets,
Adina: 6:55
Yeah. I'm like, It's from here, it's on sale. They're still selling it. Like I can't withhold that information from my fellow friends. So anyways, that happened. And also being complemented or given advice by someone who is waxing your skin reminds me of when Jean Ralphio from parks and rec, when Ben, Wyatt is going to the accounting firm and Jean Ralphio runs into him and says, I once got an incredible piece of advice. If you don't love what you do, why do it? And then she ripped the hair from my b hole the woman who's doing his Brazilian wax gave him that piece of advice.
Diane: 7:38
Well, truly, and we're several episodes in, I love that. That reminds me of when I was doing laser hair removal of underarms bikini legs the whole bit, but it was when I worked at a plastic surgery office. And so one of my coworkers did it. So that was really interesting.
Adina: 8:00
up close and personal.
Diane: 8:01
Oh, yes. Yeah. And I remember though that like underarms were more painful for whatever reason. It's just like, kind of
Adina: 8:09
Oh yeah. So the reason I mentioned that meme is because I had to stop myself from being like. Thank you for complimenting my taut skin. It's my muscle and the saturated fats I eat. And you know what the collagen like I had to just be like, thank you.
Diane: 8:24
yeah. But she'd probably be like, wait, what.
Adina: 8:29
So, yeah, hold
Diane: 8:30
Thank you.
Adina: 8:31
sometimes you gotta hold back. I'll save it for the podcast, you know?
Diane: 8:36
Yes. Oh, well this is going to be yet another juicy one. A banger, if you will.
Adina: 8:42
Oh wait, we didn't do. Media, what are we consuming?
Diane: 8:47
Oh yeah.
Adina: 8:49
a food. I haven't shared a food yet. Um, nothing too exciting around here. I think we already talked about my spicy chicken wings in a previous episode. So I did make those this week. Um, those are delicious. I don't know if I ever shared the recipe for the ranch dip that I dip them into.
Diane: 9:05
please, because that used to be my gravy in college.
Adina: 9:10
Yeah. So I do my. Avocado oil, Mayo, which is my two-minute Mayo, which if you haven't made yet, it's in an IGTV on my Instagram profile. It's super easy. You just put a egg and avocado oil in a Mason jar, and then you use an immersion blender to blend it up. I do Apple cider vinegar and salt in there. And then once I have the Mayo base, I add coconut milk and garlic powder and tons of fresh dill. And we just bathe our spicy chicken wings in there.
Diane: 9:42
You might have to edit out my heavy breathing. That sounds so good. Like I just, I used to pour, pour hidden Val on everything.
Adina: 9:52
So, you know, the Melissa McCarthy bit about hidden Valley ranch.
Diane: 9:55
No
Adina: 9:56
Dang. I am just getting deep today.
Diane: 9:58
we're going to have to link all these little funny clips.
Adina: 10:01
yeah, there's an SNL. Thing where she's part of a team. That is it is Melissa McCarthy. Yes. Yes. Anyways, it's a, it's a SNL sketch where they're part of a team at developing the slogans for hidden Valley ranch and hers are so terrible and she just like wants to get the money so badly. And it's hilarious. I don't want to ruin it. You should
Diane: 10:28
well, if it is it, Melissa McCarthy will correct it. And speaking of corrections, I think in our skin episode, I talked about Idris. Elba love him in urban cowboy, but it's actually concrete cowboy. And I discovered that urban cowboy is a Johnny Travolta movie. So
Adina: 10:45
Johnyyyy
Diane: 10:46
very different.
Adina: 10:49
Oh good. Oh, good.
Diane: 10:51
So you're consuming some ranch watching anything of note, hopefully something light and fun
Adina: 10:59
uh, light and fun. I wouldn't say, but, okay. So we just got done watching us series. It was it's eight episodes. I believe it's called Made for Love. It was on HBO max
Diane: 11:12
Oh, you told me about this one.
Adina: 11:15
So the lead is okay. So she played, she was in Palm Springs. She's the love interest in Palm Springs.
Diane: 11:22
Cute movie. If you haven't seen it,
Adina: 11:24
Yes, Andy Sandberg. And I forget her name, but she was the female lead in Palm Springs and also deeper dive.
Diane: 11:30
sexy baby.
Adina: 11:33
she's the very sexy baby from like one episode of 30 rock where Liz lemon is trying to deal with women's portrayals of themselves. And so, yeah, the very sexy baby from 30 rock. so yeah, that's her and she's great. She's really, really great. Like so fun. And her dad is played by Ray Romano and he's a strong actor. I was never into any of his stuff
Diane: 11:59
He didn't love Raymond.
Adina: 12:01
No, even though everybody does. Uh, so he's, he's like really good. Really, really good. And so it's also father-daughter story, but it's also, I haven't even told you guys what it's about yet. So it's a very, sci fi but modern day feeling world of. A man, Mr. Byron Gogel, who's like the Google type mogul. And he lives in this like imaginary world hub with her. She is his wife and she tries to escape because that relationship is she's basically being held captive in it. Um, but he has implanted a microchip in her brain, so she is trying to run away, but he can see her every move. And he's basically developing this product called, made for love where he's trying to help couples by. Connecting them through this microchip so they can see each other's every move he thinks it will help relationships.
Diane: 12:55
Oh, no. Oh no, no, no.
Adina: 12:57
it was really enjoyable. The last two episodes were so, so strong. Like we were kind of, I think there was a little dip in the middle, but, um, the last two were so strong. I think it's worth a watch.
Diane: 13:09
okay. Now I remember when you first mentioned this and it was because it's in a similar vein to what I'm almost done with on Netflix called the one and the premise of this one. It's another kind of Sci fi type show reminds me a lot of a black mirror episode because someone has developed a test that you can take to figure out who your best biological match your soulmate is. Right? So a lot of people are getting divorced because they're like, Oh, that's a good test. I'm going to go find my person and all of the follow-up that comes with that. And it seems, and you'll, you know, this from the trailer. I believe that the founder of this company, there were some sinister beginnings to this test. So. I think there are eight parts to it, and there's just some mess like, you can just see some of the things that are going to go awry. So it's really interesting. So I guess I went from lighter fare last week or last episode to watching things that are a little bit more sci fi a little more dark and similarly watching finally bingeing, I should say season four of Handmaid's Tale. Ooh.
Adina: 14:11
talk about getting dark quick.
Diane: 14:12
Yeah, we watched like two and I'm like, this feels a little too close to home. Like June's in the back of a truck, she's got a leather mask on and she's got her robes. It's intense. And gosh, Peggy from mad men has gone through it. So enjoying it, definitely up to cue up something like comedy afterward. We try to watch SNL this past week with Elon Musk, but it was a little bit cringe. Did you see it?
Adina: 14:39
I did not. Um, but yeah, I mean, if you were concerned about promising young woman being stressy depressy and you're out here watching Handmaid's tale, like come
Diane: 14:48
Oh, Ooh, wait, I know I have to do it in doses. I think that, yeah, we're going to need some, some laugh. after this
Adina: 14:55
we've actually been cooling down the evening by just getting back into some Brooklyn nine, nine
Diane: 15:01
with Andy's our friend, Andy.
Adina: 15:03
Yeah, sweet, sweet Andy Samberg. Sometimes Dani is really resistant to rewatching things we've already watched. Cause he's like, there's so much good TV out there. Like how are we watching something we've already watched? But sometimes at the end of the night, when you can't, your decision fatigue has set in and you just need a cool down dipping back into those half hour ensemble comedies is just a warm hug.
Diane: 15:25
Oh, yes, we love it. It's like, I go see my friends at the office
Adina: 15:30
just hang out with my buddies.
Diane: 15:31
Oh yeah. Well, we've been adding to those Netflix, those Amazon queues, but. Let's get into another juicy episode. Another banger.
Adina: 15:42
if we do say so ourselves.
Diane: 15:44
think so. Well, I say this because the, this topic in particular is one that comes up a lot with new and prospective clients. Those who want to get into moving their bodies more, or perhaps they have some physique goals. And so they arrive at running or perhaps they want to challenge themselves. And so they sign up for a half marathon or a marathon. Now we want to talk about. Marathons and running from a nutritional therapy's perspective, but also this is Adina's wheelhouse. So she is going to be talking about considerations before you sign up for that marathon or before you commit to logging those miles. If you've missed it, go back to episode four Peloton and your period where we talk more about hiit high intensity interval training and bootcamp type classes, which have a lot of cardio focus workouts, but this one's going to be more focused on running cardio, um, a deeper dive into cardio and into marathons. But to set this up, we want to talk about where this. Affinity for running came from. And, and I say that kind of just generally speaking in, looking at like women's fitness, magazines and health magazines, when we're standing in checkout, or perhaps you've heard from a provider that you need to get that heart rate up and to start running.
Adina: 17:03
hearing you say provider, I'm just thinking about Diane, the Fisher woman. She means healthcare, healthcare provider.
Diane: 17:09
I'm a provider that's what we were saying. And we were reeling in our fish, your health care provider, maybe a coach, maybe someone else in your life who's giving you unsolicited advice or something. Uh, so let's talk a little bit about that. So where did this, this idea of running come from? And the first one that Adina and I were talking about is that it's a low barrier to entry. So Adina can you tell us a little bit more about what you mean by that?
Adina: 17:36
yes. And this is where I get, you know, I'm going to have to just reign it in on this episode because I get a little spicy about this topic. Especially when I was living. In New York city, I would always refer to this as speed limping season. The second, the second, the sun comes out and everyone's thinking like, Oh, I gotta get in shape. Uh, I would literally just go to central park and just watch the speed lumpers out and about like jogging. If you just take a step back and watch someone jog, it is literally speed limping. No one looks well and no one looks well when they are jogging.
Diane: 18:10
those little steps.
Adina: 18:12
Yeah, that pelvis just like rotating side to side and just everyone looks like they're in pain and oftentimes they are
Diane: 18:21
and physical, perhaps.
Adina: 18:23
Um, yes, but again, if you love to run this episode is still for you. We are going to be talking a lot about the prerequisites for running and again, always giving you the tools to really understand what's happening in your body. And so. I didn't mean to offend you. If you do love to run, I have had my own disordered relationship with running in the past, and I have come to fall deeply in love with my own body, my own fitness routine when I really moved away from that. And so if you hear some of that spiciness, it is coming from that. And it is coming from just the pain that I've heard from. So many of my clients, when they first come to me and I get them to transition away from some of this running and. There can be a place for it, which we will talk about a little later in the episode. But oftentimes when you are in this healing phase, uh, it does need to be tabled. And so just with that caveat, so like I said, speed, limping season, everyone feeling like, Ooh, got to get in shape, going to go out and run and people turn to running often because they think. That it has such a low barrier to entry now as a fitness professional on the other side of it, I think that running has a much higher barrier to entry than a lot of other movement, but you may see it as all I need are my sneaks got lace up those running shoes. I just got to open my front door and I'm on my way. zoom zoom more specifically. Blahbity blah shuffle, shuffle. So you may see it as this low barrier to entry, which is why so many people turn to it as this modality for their fitness, because it's so beautiful in the park. I want to be outdoors. I want to just get the sunshine, which is amazing. Those things are incredible,
Diane: 20:18
Get that vitamin D for sure.
Adina: 20:19
yes, but we need to talk about what needs to be in place before. Running is actually a good idea for your bod. So yeah, that, that low barrier to entry, I think is one that really makes a lot of people turn to running.
Diane: 20:34
yeah. Yes. Another one too, or in a similar vein is someone might think, I just want to get fit. I've heard this from many clients, they feel overwhelmed and they think, all right, I'm coming out of a sedentary season, or I just want to go. It started and to get moving, but they might also say. That they hate running, but they think that it's something that they need to do because that's been such a common general recommendation. It's just go out there and get moving and yes, sure. But like we were just saying, if you're shuffling along, maybe it's just enjoying outside instead of putting this pressure on yourself to log these miles or to go from sedentary, to going two, three miles in, we're going to get into this a little bit further, the considerations or the concerns, Of approaching training this way, but they think that's just something they need to do. And I want to just take it back to high school when I didn't exercise like at all. And I thought that all right, exercise means running. And I absolutely hate that. So I had all this resistance to it, but, there were so many other ways to move that are more supportive of physique goals. If that's something that you have in mind about others that are more supportive to your overall health longevity, your resilience, and to your strength as well.
Adina: 21:51
Yeah, that's the key piece here too, is whether you are approaching this for your health, whether you are approaching it. And by health, I mean, true deep metabolic and hormonal health, whether you are a person who feels like garbage every day, and you've been to so many doctors and you're on thyroid meds and you have no period. And you just feel like you have no answers. This conversation is for you. Or if you are a person who just is trying to reach a certain physique goal, this is still the same conversation when it comes to your metabolism. You will accomplish both of those things by better supporting it. And again, it may take time. Some people who are in a really, really set back place with their metabolism may need to gain a little weight before they can approach those physique goals. But whether you are coming at this for physique goals or for metabolic health, the information is the same. And the approach to running should be the same.
Diane: 22:50
Yes. And another place that this advice is this narrative narrative is commonly coming from is from general practitioners from primary care providers. Now, again, we are not telling you to go against the advice of your doctor, but something to note is that fitness and movement exercise that's right for you and your body and your goals is not necessarily in their, their forte. That's not their expertise. So. Unfortunately to the detriment of your health, your metabolism. What we often hear is that folks are told to get the heart rate up and just get out there and start running or on the total opposite side of that spectrum is to do absolutely nothing.
Adina: 23:31
Yeah. I'm, you know, you guys know I'm, I'm saucy about this stuff, but there is simply too much research. Coming out now about the role of muscle that like, I am hesitant to trust a doctor that doesn't have muscles. Like that's hard for me to see a practitioner to see a doctor who doesn't understand how life-changing muscle is. And we will get into a little bit later in the episode. The inverse relationship between running and building muscle so important to consider. But yeah, so many doctors are just telling you what they heard in medical school 30 years ago, when the common recommendation was, heart-healthy got to get that heart up, got to do that cardio and we in the fitness industry, we are backed by science as well. There's so much research coming out about this, that. And again, it's only coming out now because they weren't doing this research 30 years ago. It is not, I can't believe we're still making this recommendation. Like it is so not in the interest of the health of our population.
Diane: 24:45
Right to just run or to do nothing. So it is really dated. Dated information. I know, I certainly have decided to find or to seek other, um, other providers. Gosh, now that you mentioned that we made that correlation with like fishing is all I can think about, but, who just, clearly not aware of it, how important this is. And we're going to talk, talk in a second about metabolism, but often this narrative of, I need to run. It goes alongside with this idea or the story that running is the ticket to getting the physique, to toning, toning up, leaning down. But if you say, are thinking of this and I'm using air quotes, lean tone, curvy figure that you want to achieve, that does not come with running or from running, I should say.
Adina: 25:44
yeah,
Diane: 25:45
And yes. And people think that often people will, will believe that running is so supportive of their metabolism, but let's transition now into talking about some of those misconceptions and bust some, the most metabolism myths as they relate to running to cardio and into marathons all the later here. Adina
Adina: 26:08
yes, Diane.
Diane: 26:09
So Adina I know you have a lot of feelings here and a lot of expertise when it comes to fitness and to, why this is not the way to support your metabolism.
Adina: 26:24
Thank you for saying feelings and expertise, because I think that's important. I do have a lot of feelings and those feelings are fueled by my expertise. This isn't just me being mad at running. This is me understanding your metabolism and understanding the things that you are coming to me about you. My clients. The things that are plaguing you day to day, the things that are keeping you up at night and knowing that I have the answer for you and knowing that it just, what stands between you and your optimal health is me communicating that well to you. That is what gets me angry. So the feelings are built out of having this true understanding of how to best support women and knowing that the media and. May be their doctor. And so many other people are yelling the opposite advice at them. That to cut through that noise is so challenging and to really gain that trust and get you to trust yourself, to make this shift in your fitness is so it just, it's hard for me it's it hurts my heart. So there's all of that. So metabolism, what is your metabolism? Let's take a second to understand that because. I think, and I thought when, before I knew any of this, I just associated metabolism with, Oh, that person has a fast metabolism. They can eat so much and not gain weight. I think that was my only association with metabolism was this person doesn't gain weight. And I do gain weight. I must have a slow metabolism. And so understanding that your metabolism is every single cell in your body. And how it converts. The nutrients, you provide it into energy. So it's not just about whether or not you gain weight or lose weight. It is about every single process in your human body and everything that it does. So your metabolism dictates everything about your overall health. So certainly it is something that you want to support. And the stories that we told ourselves about this person has a fast metabolism. That person has a slow metabolism. Your metabolism slows as you age. So obviously all of these things go wrong. That is way more in our control than we were led to believe. So, if you are a person who labeled yourself as someone with a slow metabolism, and that's a story you've been telling for so long, please understand that there is so much in your power to shift that. And so again, now you can see how this dictates everything about your health, but something that is really important to note is that runners even if you just run recreationally, you're the person who, the first sunny day, you lace up your shoes and you get out there for your speed limping, or you are an elite marathon runner or an elite triathlete, or you run five Ks or half-marathons very reg regularly. Your metabolism is likely extremely suppressed because our bodies are expert compensators. And they are just trying to keep you alive. And so your body is always going to downregulate metabolism and to get more efficient at the task of running. In order to conserve calories and to keep you alive. So if you are a person who thinks, Oh, I got to lean out, I got to tone up. I need to go lace up my shoes and get out there for my run because cardio, cardio, cardio running is how you lose weight. Your body may have that initial reaction where you do lose a little bit of weight because it's trying to adjust to the task you are doing. Your body is suddenly seeing this new stimulus of, Oh, she runs now she's burning calories. So you may burn some calories, right? Initially. And that may be, you know, the result of a little bit of weight loss. And then your body is like, Oh, she's doing this every day. Or she's doing this five times a week. We need to slow everything down, get more efficient at that task of running so that she can stay alive. Because if you're burning those extra, say 500 calories every day from going out for that run, your body is now wondering, Oh, How do we account for burning 500 extra calories a day. We need to just get better at running. So if your run start to feel easier, it's because your body is getting more efficient at it. Your metabolism is slowing down. And when you hit that plateau and you're like, why have I stopped losing weight? Or even, why am I now gaining weight? It's because your body has slowed your metabolism to account for that task that you have. Okay.
Diane: 31:15
I liked that you said that it will compensate. Instead of improve because it is going to adjust and wants to be more efficient. And I'm thinking. This is one of the few car analogies I can make, is that I'm thinking of, it's going to do those Prius things. All right. It's going to be more fuel efficient, but if you wanted to go zero to a hundred, uh, it's going to be a slower crawl
Adina: 31:36
wait, excuse me. Do you know, do you know horrible bosses as well?
Diane: 31:40
yes. With, um,
Adina: 31:42
Jason
Diane: 31:42
Yes, Jason,
Adina: 31:44
Oh my God, my love. But when he's drag racing, he, they catch him on camera, running the red light in the
Diane: 31:49
Yes.
Adina: 31:51
and they're like, Hey, in a Prius.
Diane: 31:53
Right. Or I also think of that office scene where it was it Dwight that tries to run someone over the Prius and it was like super quiet, but think of running and doing so longterm as you're operating like a Prius, like, okay. It might feel all right for a little bit. Poor Prius. I mean, I still like them for other reasons, but I mentioned this because a lot of my clients are trying to do Lamborghini things they want to do. They need, they want to do all these premium things. They have action packed schedules and days. And so they're trying to go hard. Right. But with a Prius metabolism, perhaps.
Adina: 32:28
men. Yes. Our bodies are expert compensators and specifically athletes, athletes are expert compensators. This is something that you need to understand because we as society associate fitness with health, and that is not always the case being fit for marathons, being an incredible marathon athlete oftentimes means you are doing so at the cost of your health. And when I was in school for personal training, We were not taught this. This was, it was very conventionally minded in that, Oh, that is the picture of fitness. That is the picture of health. So we were taught when we were taught to take a client's pulse rate. Our resting pulse rate, we were told, Oh, you'll notice that marathon runners or runners people super fit clients will have a much lower pulse rate. And so you would see marathon runners or your clients who were runners. Having a pulse rate in the forties or fifties. And we thought that meant they were the healthiest. And that was a goal to strive for that. If you worked with a client for long enough, their pulse rate would go down and down and down. And what we really need to understand is that pulse rate is a marker of metabolic health. So when your pulse rate is in the forties, it is telling us that your metabolism is slow. And what we actually want to see is that pulse rate come back up to somewhere around 80. A pulse rate of 80 is a much, much healthier marker of a true up and running Lamborghini metabolism.
Diane: 33:58
Yeah, we want that Lambo metabolism. And Adina said a moment ago, we associate fitness with health, and when we say that you might also think thinness is associated with health. So you might see someone who appears lean, thin you know that they're a marathon runner and think, okay, they are someone who's very healthy, but there's a lot more behind the scenes that we need to consider. So. With a slow pulse, you might notice that you have cold hands and feet too, which is going to happen as your pulse lowers. You're going to have that slower metabolism and lower body heat as well.
Adina: 34:34
yeah, that lower thyroid function, right? If you're a person who runs as your primary form of fitness, and you notice that your toes and fingers are always freezing, that is a very common picture. We are seeing that thyroid function. Lower. We are seeing that metabolism slow, and that is what's going on there. Your body is conserving that body heat to keep your vital organs warm, right? Always about that survival. It wants to keep your heart warm. And so things like fingers and toes, those are afterthoughts. Your body doesn't care. If you lose a finger or a toe from hypothermia, it just cares that your heart keeps pumping.
Diane: 35:09
Right. Maybe your hair is also thinning too, because your body's going to see that as non-essential, even though we very much do. So if you're someone who has known thyroid issues, maybe you're hypothyroid, maybe you have an autoimmune condition, like Hashimoto's then if you have that. If that is your situation. And then you are trying to force yourself to do cardio, to do distance running. It's really setting yourself up for more struggle in the long run.
Adina: 35:38
Yeah. And like you were saying about thinness and health, I think it's so important because again, that picture of our society often tells us that and. There is this conversation. Coming up around healthy at every size, which I do want to talk about at some point, cause there is nuance to that as well. I think it's important that we are moving towards body love and accepting other types of bodies. But we do need to talk about the health considerations at various sizes. I did recently read a study there was obese. Participants in the study and the health outcomes for the obese participants with higher muscle mass were still better than those with a normal BMI. And again, BMI is a whole nother conversation, but just let's use it as a marker for right now, um, with lower muscle mass. And so. We are seeing, and I say this all the time. I think everyone needs to hear it loud and clear is that our biggest issue as a society right now is not that we are overweight. It is that we are under muscled and. Overweight. Yes, it is a conversation, but our muscle mass and our metabolic health is so much more of a marker of health and longevity that we need to be paying more attention to it. We need to be paying attention to muscle and we need to be paying attention to the activities that waste away our muscle and running is one of them. I was talking about all of the compensations that your body makes to make you more efficient at running. And one of those. Is pairing down your muscle muscle is an extremely expensive tissue. It is expensive to the body. It is a lot of work for your body to make and maintain muscle. And if you are communicating to your body, all I do every day, all I do five days a week for my fitness is go out for this super long run. Your body's trying to get more efficient at that task. And it says to itself, What does she need for running? She needs aerobic capacity. So we're going to work on that. She needs a lower pulse rate. So we're going to work on that and you know what? She doesn't need this muscle thing. So let's get rid of that. That's expensive. That's a waste of our time. That's making her burn more calories. So that's not a good thing to have around right now. And so if you have, I would like for all of you, if you have never done this before, do a quick Google search, pull up one window. With marathon runners, Google images, please. And pull up another window of sprinters and look at the difference in physique elite marathon runners. Are going to have extremely low muscle mass. And some of them will even look frail and sickly and sprinters, which is a task that far more resembles weightlifting it stimulus to the body, those sprinters dough,
Diane: 38:26
Those GLUTES
Adina: 38:28
Yes. There's everything is popping because those muscle fibers are showing up for the task of sprinting. So. Again, this isn't an episode about sprinting, but I just really want you to understand those metabolic compensations. When all you do for your fitness is run.
Diane: 38:46
Oh, I love it. I can just feel like the passion. And I know that you have seen this time and time again over your what nine years now. Training clients, both in the city and virtually, and I love hearing you break it down in that way. I wish I could have heard this several years ago or in high school and college. When I thought that as a woman, the type of movement I need to be doing is yoga and running. And that is absolutely not the case. So can you talk a little bit, and maybe we've talked about this in other episodes, but I really want to drive it at home. Why muscle is so expensive?
Adina: 39:24
Yeah. So this is important to understand about your metabolism too. We have two general. Phases of metabolism that we can be in. One is our anabolic metabolism. And that is one where our body is building up tissues and that communicates to our body that we are safe. So we're always talking about this. How do we tell our body we're safe and why do we need to tell our body it's safe? Because we need it to make sex hormones. We needed to make thyroid hormones. And it doesn't do those things when it doesn't feel safe. And the other phase of metabolism that we can be in is catabolic state. Okay. A catabolic state of metabolism means breaking tissues down. And we've talked about cortisol before cortisol is a catabolic hormone. It tells your body, I need you to break down tissues. And you know, like we said, with running, running makes your body. Overload with cortisol and cortisol will break that body down. So when you are constantly running and sending that message to your body, that we are in this state of catabolic, we are in this state of breaking things down again. It's going to slow metabolism. It's going to get rid of those expensive tissues. When we tell our body. We are in this state of anabolic, we are in this state of building and it builds that muscle. You run like a well-oiled machine. You run so, so powerfully and smoothly and muscle. I need to, I think I need to do an entire episode on just muscle the tissue, because. Muscle muscle has thyroid receptors. It is again, more metabolically active. It is anti-inflammatory. It is the organ of longevity. Muscle is everything. It is, again, it is expensive for the body to make, so we need to be eating enough. We need to be sleeping enough. We need to be following a well-designed program so that those hormones, that stimulus is effectively communicating that. But muscle is everything. Muscle will change. Yo God damn life.
Diane: 41:20
yes, proper bro. We love muscle. Like we love butter. Semaj match muscles and butter.
Adina: 41:30
Muscles and butter. And Diane, I want you to talk also about kind of like. What do we see? Oftentimes go hand in hand with that picture of someone who just needs to go out for that run. If you're a person who is doing that for the sake of your physique, you were thinking it's going to lean you out. It's going to tone you up. Like, oftentimes you are going for those runs and you are dieting. Right? I know you see that a lot with the women that come to you.
Diane: 41:56
Yes, absolutely. Or perhaps they are also running in the morning because they want to fit it in before work or before the kids wake up. And so perhaps they are running. Yeah. Fasted. And I believe we talked about this in episode four, where we talked about Peloton and your period, and the concerns that come along with that. So Adina was just talking about being in that catabolic state. So cortisol is flowing. You're running, you're doing maybe your bootcamp classes. And then on another day, you're training for your half marathon, and then you go into work and maybe you have a stressful deadline or other. Stress from your personal life. So cortisol is flowing there. And so you're spending a lot of time in that catabolic state. And along with that might have other. Things going on with your health and noticing that inflammation. So that's happening. And perhaps if you are under eating and over training, this is what we both see a lot with prospective and new clients is over-training and under eating, or perhaps women are making this shift from maybe a more sedentary season or one where they're not as active, towards training, but they are not adjusting how they, where they are eating. And so sometimes that's pretty obvious, but other times when we are auditing intake forms and food and mood journals for our clients, sometimes it's not as obvious. And that's why there's so much value at looking at our routines, right? Because perhaps someone is doing their workout. They might just have coffee and a little snack, but then not really eat until lunch. You're sending the message to your body, that it needs to adapt to less. It might be. Feeling like it's in scarcity mode. And so you're perpetuating this inflammation. This is, this goes hand in hand with what Adina was talking about earlier, where you might notice some shifts, some. Fat loss in the beginning, but then plateau and feel stuck there and feel frustrated. Like, why am I showing up every morning? I'm never missing a Monday. I'm logging these miles. And these steps I've, I'm logging 20,000 steps, but I'm still feeling bloated and puffy. And like the scale which we hate is not moving. So we see that very often.
Adina: 44:08
And like we were saying earlier, muscle's expensive. And what you got to put in the bank to pay for that muscle is enough food. So certainly if you are under eating and over-training, your metabolism is going to slow down and pare down that muscle.
Diane: 44:24
Yes. I want to share with you a couple of client case studies, perhaps these will. Bring some things to mind of your current routine, perhaps listening through this, you had a couple of aha moments or you're feeling a little triggered and called out, but we want to call you in and to think of your current routine and where you can adjust and work smarter with your workouts instead of harder. And all of the things, the beautiful things that can open up to you in your health and your life when those things shifts. So first,
Adina: 44:54
wait. I think like a new tagline for this podcast is we'll call you out and then call you in.
Diane: 45:01
Yes. Adina and I both have a similar intake process when we work one-on-one and we both do initial interviews with our clients, initial consultations, where we do a deep dive into her routine and to her health history. So. Part of that is auditing how they move. Now. I, um, do not have a strength coach professional background, like Adina but I've had the honor of working with her and also can audit these routines from a nutritional therapy perspective. So something that we want to note here, there's a lot of confusion when it comes to describing workouts because. Experience expertise of coaches can really vary or the information that you receive. Right? So sometimes when I'm auditing a food and mood journal with a client, she might say, Oh, I'm doing strength training, but really what that might look like is three or five pound dumbbells, or maybe she's doing barre or perhaps
Adina: 45:56
well, let me clarify also like three or five pound dumbbells. For 30 reps and never going up in weight because if your starting point is three or five pound dumbbells, that's great. Like let's get started. But again, what is actually strength training? We talked a little bit about that, uh, in our last episode on this topic. So yeah, like auditing that and recognizing she may call it strength training, but it is very not strength training.
Diane: 46:19
right. Exactly. You are much stronger than that, than those. I think we've called them Barbie weights in the past. Especially if you're someone who has a little or an infant, like. They weigh more than three to five pounds and you are carrying them around so you can move a lot more. So to hang out in that really, really light end is not going to be supportive of your metabolic health of your physique goals if you have those. But also too, we might notice that. And looking at their intake forms that they are on the opposite end. Maybe they are doing bodybuilding type things, moving a lot of iron, really high reps and not resting appropriately, both in their workout, but also afterwards not supporting the recovery by eating enough by resting on those days, getting adequate sleep. So I. Always like to look at that and really ask a lot of questions when we do these deep dives to really assess how well my client's movement routine is working or not working for her. Do you have anything to add there before I go into case studies Adina
Adina: 47:20
no, I think that's exactly what I look for. And we've also consulted on cases before. Like I think it's really important to. Continue asking your clients questions to consider, to continue assessing like, is this working or not? yeah, but I love your client cases. So let's
Diane: 47:36
Yes. I mean, I have a great resource and biz bestie to tap there and wink, wink, nudge, nudge. So one I want to start with is my client Maxine. She is amazing. We started working together a few years ago and initially to help her transition off hormonal birth control. I shared her story. You can watch it on my feed, but. Maxine was feeling frustrated too, because she was someone who worked out with a personal trainer several times per week for, I think at that 0.1 or two years, and this trainer also had her on a macro plan. So if you're unfamiliar, she was tracking her calories and had a. set point that she was trying to achieve each day, but she felt like despite all the time she was logging with her coach and in the gym. And despite tracking all her calories, she was not seeing any progress. She was not losing any fat. She felt like sometimes she was. Just not getting anywhere with what she felt was stubborn weight. So what we did was she ended up working out less and eating more. So going from like seven days a week, five to seven days a week to eating more food. And we really did not focus on fat loss at all together. I wanted to get her feeling good, especially as she was transitioning off of hormonal birth control. And she ended up losing weight without even. Tr losing fat, I should say, without trying to focus on it because she was letting her body know that it was safe.
Adina: 49:04
Yes. Getting out of that catabolic state, like telling your body, stop, breaking down my muscle and stop storing fat to try to keep me safe. I am safe and here is how I'm going to communicate that to you. So we've seen tons of stories like that, and I love to see it. I love to see when we can get through to these incredible women and teach them how to better support their bodies, but you wanted to share. Another case, which I think is really important to hear too, because it is the other side of the coin. It is the other end of the spectrum. It is what is possible. And can we include running once we've taken those steps to truly support our body. So can you tell us a little bit about this case?
Diane: 49:46
Yes, this is Jen and Jen. If you're listening, love you. You're the best we've been working together for? Gosh, I think. Two years now. And we're perhaps more, she started first with my group program root cause reset, moved into one-on-one and we did testing together. But Jen is incredible. She loves running. She loves getting outdoors with her kids, but something that's really. Amazing about Jen is that she was able to commit to increasing or improving her food quality within her unique budget. So going for really high quality local in season food really prioritizing her sleep as best she can and to managing her stress. So mental, emotional stress getting outside, we've done a lot of gut healing work together through root cause reset and through her testing protocols. And through that, she just completed her. Uh, well, I think our first marathon, but there are so many important prerequisites, so many foundations in place before she got there. And her recovery is much improved from where she was in the past. So Jen is someone I consider kind of rare just because that narrative of train more, run more without attention to the foundations of health to nourishing your gut health, your hormone, health, or metabolism, that just is so prevalent. And. Those foundations are often forgotten. So Jen brought tons of attention to that and intention to it so that she could do something that she loved. But part of her training, was she works with a coach, both me and with her, her strength coach and her running coach in order to equip her with the resources, that Lamborghini fuel to do this, marathon that she really wanted to, to tackle.
Adina: 51:32
Yeah. And when you told me this story, that was the part that stuck out the most for me. I mean, I know you've been working together for a long time to really support her body so that this was an option for her. Again, if marathons are a goal of yours, Let's do that, but let's understand the metabolic cost and let's understand what needs to be in place first, right? Like if you want to have a baby, but also want to run a marathon and you have no period, let's talk about which one of those is the real priority here and what do we need to do to make that happen for you and to better support your body. So that, that is even an option. And again, whether you end up going in IVF route, The outcomes are still better when we better support the body when we better support the metabolism, when we better support your own natural hormone function. So, so much to talk about here. And for me, the thing that was really interesting there was. That she is also working on that strength training side of things. So oftentimes people think, Oh, I need to run a marathon. That means I have to run every day to prepare for it. But sometimes we need to sometimes all the time, this is from that fitness expertise, programming side of things. We need to pair down the amount of days that you are running an increase, the strength, training, and stability work that you are doing to support your joints, to actually run and not get hurt.
Diane: 52:52
yes. And she is someone too, who is very. Body aware self-aware and very in tune with herself because over the past couple of years, we've really worked on understanding what symptoms mean and how to support them. And you may have heard if you listened to episode four, what Adina and I say, we say that you earn your workouts by eating enough and sleeping enough. And I mean, those are just a couple of their key things, but those are two things that often we see go awry when people are training. Now, now, you know, the connection of. Strength too, or the importance of strength alongside cardio? I don't know if we touched on this earlier Edina, but can you talk about why strength is a prerequisite to even jogging
Adina: 53:36
Yes. So as I see it, and as I think we all should see it running has strength. Prerequisites. We cannot get around that running is a repetitive. Activity. So you are pounding the pavement leg after leg rep after rep, if you want to think about it like that. And what we don't think about often is it is a high impact single leg activity. So the impact of your body on to the ground on that single leg. Even if you are jogging. And honestly, it's probably worse if you're jogging than if you are sprinting because of that repetitive nature. And you're hitting the ground for longer, often with jogging. not to mention most people's jogging form is a disaster, as we mentioned. So it can be almost like four times your body weight hitting the floor with each of those strokes. So certainly we need to be. Getting our joints and our body prepared for that task. We need to be lifting heavy and we need to be specifically focusing on single leg stability, work, core stability work. If you've seen someone jogging and their torso is crumbled and their pelvis is rotating all over the place and their arms, aren't swinging in a way that supports their gait pattern it a whole mess. So. What it really comes down to. And especially if you have birthed a baby and there is pelvic floor dysfunction going on, we need to really talk about how to stabilize that pelvis, how to work that core function to actually support your body, how to stabilize your joints, to be prepared for that kind of repetitive impact. And if you are a runner or, you know, a runner. Um, so if you are a runner, you probably have a close relationship with your physical therapist. Often times we see runners have a bit of this revolving door situation going on with knee injuries, plantar, fasciitis, shin splints, like
Diane: 55:40
Oh, shin splints. Wait, you mentioned shin splints. And I instantly thought of this movie called Brittany runs a marathon, and I thought it was going to be, I don't know what I thought I was gonna be actually. Uh, but I was excited because she's in workaholics actress in this. Movie. And she wants to run a marathon surprise and has shin splints in this movie, but she's like, I'm going to power through them, which we do not like
Adina: 56:04
haven't we heard that story before, right? It's
Diane: 56:06
just push harder.
Adina: 56:08
Yeah. When your body hurts, it's telling you something. I love one of my mentors. We talk a lot about. Overuse injuries. Your doctor will always tell you, Oh, that's an overuse injury. and one of my mentors refers to them as under-prepared injuries and that our bodies were designed to be used and they were designed to be used repetitively. We are supposed to be out in nature, farming and climbing and crawling. It's not over use. It is that we are under prepared. And so when we take the time. To dedicate to a true strength training program, to focus on all of these things, that joint stability, that strength being able to absorb force, absorb impact. We are far better prepared and we often don't face these types of injuries.
Diane: 56:56
I love that. And I love that you mentioned postpartum or anyone who isn't recently post-partum but you're still postpartum. If you had a little two, three years ago, right. Postpartum can be up to 18 age 18. Forever. Right. And so sometimes I'll hear with prospective or new clients that they recently had a baby in the past one to two years and they think, all right, I want to get back into movement. And so jogging, like we said earlier, in this episode, they think, Oh, low barrier to entry. But if you haven't been doing that work for that stability or giving attention to managing that pressure, like Adina is talking about, then you're setting yourself up for injury and frankly, a lot of frustration, right.
Adina: 57:36
Yeah, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the pelvic floor, so I'm going to, but understand that we will do entire episodes about this, because I think there are so many myths to dispel, but if you are a person who thinks that. Once you've had a baby peeing yourself while you run or jump or jog, just comes with the territory. Please know that there is a lot that you can do to better prepare your body to restore proper pressure management and pelvic floor function. There are, pelvic floor physical therapists that you can see to help you navigate that. That absolutely should not be your reality. It gets very normalized, but it is not normal. It is extremely common, but pelvic floor dysfunction needs to be addressed.
Diane: 58:19
yes. And I want to just round this episode out by tooting Adina's horn here. If you have not had the opportunity to work with Adina, she has a few ways to do that. Adina, how can they work with you if they are interested in getting strong
Adina: 58:34
Yes. So if this sparked your interest, if you feel like I am a person who needs to better prepare my body for the tasks that I do, if you are a person who wants to get out of that mental mind game of. Being obsessed with jogging and feeling like you need to jog. I will say also something we didn't really mention is if you are a person who this conversation scares you, like it's interesting to you, but you're so scared to stop jogging and eat more. You're so scared of what's going to happen to your body. That's something we need to unpack too. I think. This comes deep rooted from our diet culture, from our society. And we are telling you that certainly it can be scary if this is something that you have never embraced, but you will feel so much better and your body will reward you so quickly when you start to incorporate more food and less jogging, that there for a lot of us, there is work that needs to be done around that. But. It can shift so quickly and you will see so quickly how much better you can feel. Um, do you have anything that you want to add on there? I know this is something we talk about a lot.
Diane: 59:42
Yes. I love all of that. So well said, I've had the honor of working with Adina one-on-one and I did come into that with some strength training background, but who she got me to together, because there were definitely opportunities I will say with my form and it really helped me come away from do this idea of, I need to do more reps I definitely used to think I needed to do things like ab specific exercises, more crunches, sit ups and things like that. Now my favorite AB exercises are properly bracing, my core lifting heavy. And so Adina just so beautifully shows how to understand your body and how to get your workouts to work smarter. Not harder we spent, I'd say less time than I ever did in the gym together, but I felt. So physically good in my body and great about my body. And that's just such a rewarding thing. And I love that she also comes away from the trends, the I'm using air quotes here, Instagram workouts, these crazy movements that I see, oftentimes that look like they hurt first of all, but. Helped me get stronger for life. Those movements that you need to do for it to be better everyday life hinging, pulling, pushing, squatting, want to be able to get up and off of the toilet when I'm a hundred years old. So Adina will teach you the why behind the movements that you're doing, and just how to be more intentional and focused with your movement. So you can be strong
Adina: 1:01:17
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And I'm gonna, I am thinking I'm gonna pull Diane into the next round of strength training for happy hormones. Cause we trained together with barbells, but I want her to understand the fun of the kettlebell as well, which is what I am utilizing with most of my clients these days. And so. My program, strength training for happy hormones. If you have not heard of it yet, it is a blast. It is a grand old time and everything that we broke down in this episode, in our previous episode, I take you through the how and the why. And so I have demo videos for every exercise where I really walk you through. Okay. Exactly what we need to be thinking about how to optimize those patterns, how to breathe, how to incorporate the pelvic floor. And if you have never done this type of fitness before, you will probably be shocked by how few reps I am asking you to do. If you are a person who has done barre and bootcamps and things that incorporate. 30 reps and lighter weights. And I am going to teach you how to push your own own limits in a very safe way that really optimizes your hormone and metabolic health. So if you love this stuff, if you love what we talk about, that is definitely the place for you. I would love to support you. I would love to help you get stronger. You might see Diane inside the program of this next round, but we will put some details. Okay. In the show notes of how you can get your hands on that. If that is something you're interested in,
Diane: 1:02:45
We like it. We love it until next time everyone stay strong and stay hydrated. We'll talk to you soon.
