Safe Exercise During Pregnancy: Myths and Facts

Dive deep into the world of prenatal fitness and nutrition with special guest Amanda Matrisciano, a certified personal trainer with expertise in pre and postnatal training.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction to personal training, pregnancy, and nutrition with Amanda Matrisciano
2:09 - Amanda's journey into personal training and certification in pre and postnatal fitness
7:43 - Safe exercise during pregnancy: Debunking myths and providing personalized advice
12:53 - Postpartum recovery: Essential fitness tips and mental coaching
17:36 - Postpartum recovery and pelvic floor exercises for natural birth and C-section
22:42 - Mental and physical benefits of exercise with a personal trainer
24:53 - The importance of accountability and community in fitness
30:15 - Fitness, self-care, and positive body image after pregnancy
35:47 - Healthy eating habits and self-care for mothers
41:23 - Balancing nutrition and cravings during pregnancy
46:36 - fitness journey and her baking business

Explore the mental and physical benefits of staying active during pregnancy, debunk common exercise myths, and gain valuable tips for postpartum recovery. Amanda shares personal experiences and expert advice on maintaining a healthy lifestyle before and after childbirth.

Don't miss Amanda's inspiring story and practical tips for expecting and new mothers. Enjoy the episode? Please like, comment, and subscribe for more content on mental health, wellness, and personal growth.

#PrenatalFitness #PostpartumRecovery #HealthyPregnancy #ExerciseDuringPregnancy #NutritionForMoms #PersonalTraining #WellnessJourney #HealYourRootsPodcast

Check out the full podcast page here. 

Please Note: This episode is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare provider before starting any new fitness or nutrition program.

Transcript

0:00

Nobody wants to exercise every day there is not a single person that wakes up every day is like I ready to go. I love it. Like I'm so excited to be here. It just doesn't happen. That's why we have personal trainers and workout classes because then you have accountability, like we talked about, but it's the same with the healthy eating and nutrition aspect of it. Like, you know, you don't want to do that every day. But if you sprinkle in these things that you like, here in there, you get rid of that idea of okay, well on the weekend, I'm gonna eat whatever I want. But during the week I'm gonna eat really healthy. If you have things spread out throughout the month you're in there, you're gonna be so much better off and getting into that routine. It's all about the routine. Welcome back to Heal Your Roots Podcast. I'm curious Yakubov Shlonsky their guest co host Dr. Katie Mangan Hello, and a special guest Amanda, mature siano, personal trainer with a specialty in helping women through their pregnancy journey. Thank you so much for being on with us today. Amanda. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. You and Katie know each other if the two of you want to share how you know each other how you met? Yeah, when he comes to the gym that I am a trainer app, which is Katie, when did you officially start at NGO? I started in October. Wow. Okay, so yeah. A lot. I feels like much longer than it does feel like longer than that for sure. But yeah, I at this gym, never give up and manioc. I teach classes. I'm also a personal trainer, like you mentioned. But Katie comes to our group classes. So that's how I met her through that. Yeah, let's I am on the waitlist right now for Thursday, if you can get me very popular classes. So you know, very high demand. That's awesome. So Mina, can you share with us a little bit about your background, how you got into personal training, and specifically helping women through pregnancy? Sure, yeah. I really started my personal training journey right after college, I, like most people went to college, ate, what I shouldn't eat, drank what I shouldn't be drinking felt really crappy and was like, Alright, I need to do something to get myself feeling healthier. So that's really when I started getting in to fitness a little bit more in a sense of actually working out myself and putting workouts together, I was always an athlete. I always did sports, so I was always active. But that's when I kind of got interested in okay, you're not going to be an athlete forever. I wasn't that great. So I had to do something on my own post college. And I figured if I at least go through this certification, I'll learn a little bit more for myself, whether I use it or not to train other people. And I started with one on one training at a really small gym by my parents house. And then when I moved to manioc after college, I just reached out to a couple of local places. And it ended up working out that I got this position at never gave up and started doing group fitness, which I hadn't done before I had been training in another gym. But this was really the first time I was doing that full time. And then honestly, I just had a lot of clients that were younger women who were interested in having children and people that were coming to me saying that they were pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant. And it's also a very interesting time because they I know before a lot of my patients, family members know that they're pregnant because they have to tell me. So as soon as that started happening, I was like, Okay, I need a little bit more guidance on what can they do? What can't they do? What do I need to be looking out for to support them better? So then I got my additional certification in the pre and postnatal training aspect of it, which is really just an add on to my regular personal training certification. Amanda, what did that entail and having to to like the additional certifications, it's pretty similar. It's all online training. It was a lot of just courses reading. You take an online exam at the end, but really, for pre and postnatal, it's not and I know we'll get into this. It's not as extensive as people think that it is. It's really they can do what everyone else can do. It just guides you a little bit more through how a woman's body is changing and what to be aware of When you are training somebody that's pregnant and like, hey, these things might happen, and that's okay. You don't need to be nervous about them. So it was very similar to my personal training certification, which I did online as well. And they just have you get a book, you read different chapters, you watch some videos, and then you'd have to take an exam at the end to get the actual certification. Awesome. Okay. So it sounds like it kind of just found you. This process? Yeah, it really did. Um, it's a running joke that I don't know what happened when I started working at ng you, but there's something in the water and all of my clients are pregnant or have or will be pregnant soon. There was months where every month I was finding out one of my clients was pregnant. So at that point is like, right, I have to do it now. Because all of them are. Others were pregnant. And so it just also helps to put me at ease, like, Okay, I have all of these women that are they want to train, they've felt so good starting training, that we're all at different points in their fitness journey. So to also be able to give them the guidance and like the comfort of it's okay, like we're good. We can keep training through your pregnancy has been really helpful. So good luck charm. Yeah, I don't I really don't know. I will take all the credit. That's just one of your gifts. Yeah, it really truly is. I don't know how I do it. But that's awesome. Yeah. So what would you say for you is like, what are when you are working with pregnant women or you know, that pre and post satis? What do you think are some of the mental emotional and physical benefits of staying active throughout the pregnancy? I think mental is honestly the biggest thing and a mental and emotional together. Just because I'm like I said, they're all at different points in their fitness journey. So I've had women who were so active their entire lives. And this is throwing like a huge wrench into what they're used to and their normal routine. So for them to hear, hey, you can work out through this pregnancy, and we're going to change things when we need to, but it's still going to be a beneficial workout for you. Just puts them at ease. And for a lot of them that is their outlet. Like they come. They work out to make themselves feel better mentally, and they feel better leaving and to not have that or to take that part of their routine away. Just because they're pregnant, I've seen the flip side of that as well, where either women have really challenging pregnancies, and they truly can't work out, or they just don't feel as comfortable working out. And it really takes a toll on them mentally. And then the physical aspect is just, you know, I've talked to a lot of pelvic floor specialists, and I am not a pelvic floor specialist. But it helps so much with the after words and the way that I've seen so many of my clients be able to come back probably sooner than they would have been able to come back. And it doesn't even mean they're jumping back into these crazy hardcore workouts. Just being able to do something brings back that mental aspect of okay, now postpartum, you have a newborn, you're exhausted, you're doing this stuff 24/7 to have that little teeny tiny 45 minutes to yourself, to be able to do something and know that you get to do that every week or twice a week or whatever it is. Just I've seen such a drastic change in their attitudes and how they feel. And even my I have a client right now. She's due in June. And every time she comes in, she's like, might be the last time I don't know how I feel. And this morning, like we're just slowly slowing it down. But she said to me this morning, I never thought I would get to 36 weeks and be working out in any way, let alone with weights and doing actual workouts. So she just even though physically she feels uncomfortable mentally she feels really good that she made it to that point. So that's incredible. And you know, I'm wondering because I didn't I had a new I have a newborn she is at this point four months, and I wasn't sure you know, the things I was reading is like if you have been working out, continue working out but if you haven't worked out, don't try anything new or don't do anything too intense. Like there's a lot of like myths and misconceptions out there. Would you be able to share a little bit about like some information or knowledge to give women whether they have been working out or they're starting for the first time, like how to go through that process? Yeah, for sure, I've actually worked with both women who have worked out their whole lives, it's part of their routine. And they kind of just keep that going. It really is true, like, what you were doing before is what you can do during you shouldn't increase the intensity of it too much. But if early on in your pregnancy, you're interested in, hey, you know what, like, I know that I'm a slightly active person, but I'm not going to the gym every day. But I would like to stay active during my pregnancy, just starting with lower impact workouts, whether it's just using lighter weights or body weight, or strictly core work. I think a lot of the myths are around, oh, like pregnant women can't do that. They can quite literally do almost anything unless it's uncomfortable for them. So there's a lot of things and and if you, like I said, the comfort of the mother, you'll also talk to your doctor like doctors will recommend Don't be in a room that's heated over a certain amount, we have heated classes, they also will tell women, if you've been doing that pre pregnancy, you see what's comfortable for you, and then we'll talk about it. So I always tell them, you know, talk to your doctor about what you feel comfortable with. But it could be something I had a client that her whole first trimester, we couldn't do anything where she hinged because it made her feel nauseous. Like it just you just adapt to what what's going on with your body. But there's nothing written anywhere based in science that says you know, don't hinge or the only thing they'll say is, you don't want to be on your back for too long, which they talk about that in general. And that's more so when you are further along. But I've also seen women on their back doing, you know, careful core work. The only thing that I really avoid is full sit ups, crunches anything where you're like really contracting your core all together. But that being said, core work is a massive part of pregnancy. So there are so many other things that you can do with someone who's pregnant or postpartum, to get their core strong and keep their core strong without doing those extreme movements of okay, you're really using the entire core for this move. So a lot of it is myths. I tell my clients, if you saw it on social media, I don't want to hear about it, your doctor about it. And because there's so many things out there that they say don't do this, do this. This is great. This is bad. And I just try to steer them clear of any social media pregnancy guidance. That's relatable for us to not necessarily when people are hanging in there, like look what I found. Yes, I'm sure it's very true. Every you can find anything on social media these days. So yeah, for sure. Well, so Okay, something that I was thinking about to in talking with, because I have a lot of friends that are pregnant right now. And actually, when I was leaving the gym, last week, I was talking to someone who's, like, postpartum. And I think she had the baby like five weeks ago or something like that. I don't know. I know, there's obviously a period of time that you have to wait. So what do you suggest people do in that period of time? Because like you said, it obviously benefits you so much mentally in to go from having that support, in a way then to not having that for that long. What do you do, like help them prepare for that in any way? Yeah, it's, it's hard because I, the one thing I've learned and really through my clients, because I don't have my own children, but those few days after giving birth are so key. And my clients that truly did not do a single thing. felt the best when they came back. So but only a few days, like that doesn't have to be six weeks have absolutely nothing. You have a newborn, obviously, you're moving around, you're getting up you're doing things, but those couple of days, even within being in the hospital, if you can let your core recover. It's the same as any other workout, right? If you're doing legs six days a week, your legs are not gonna get stronger because you're not giving them any time to recover. So it's kind of the same with your core like, it just went through a very traumatic experience. Dance and a race, so to speak, and you got to the end of this finish line that you were preparing for. And now you need to let your body recover a little bit. So kind of talking them through that, like, it's okay to take a break, you just had a child, it's gonna be okay, if you take a couple of days off. And that's a message for anybody, like you will not lose all of your strength in five days, I promise. And then after that, a lot of like slow core pelvic floor there are, I will find people on Instagram that are certified pelvic floor specialists. And I will send those videos to my clients so that they have something visually they can look at and kind of use for themselves. And then when it comes to coming back, if you've had a natural birth, and your doctors okay with it, I've had clients that come back, as soon as four weeks after giving birth, and we're not doing anything crazy, it is pretty much the same, you know, pelvic floor poor, really, really small movements, they're on their back a lot. They're not lifting heavy weights. But to ease them back into that routine, I think it helps them a lot. I have one client that I didn't even think she was going to make it through the four days of do not move your body. And the morning, she got cleared. At four weeks, she texted me and said I need you to come to the studio tonight. I don't care what we do something. I was like, Okay, here we go. So it is it's that mental aspect of it that they just need it in their routine. A lot of them honestly don't care what I'm doing with them at that point. It's just like, how do we slowly start to get ourselves back into that place, especially if they were active before pregnancy, because then it's like, Okay, where did my core muscles go that I've had for my entire life if it's your first child. So it's just to ease them back in but a lot of pelvic floor a lot of stability, a lot of stuff that you're kind of doing on your own because you have a newborn that you have to pick up and carry around. But it's a lot of training your body to do that stuff properly. So you're not pulling your back out doing something that is going to then make your life more challenging with a newborn. So I'll do a lot of stuff like that to help them prevent low back pain, prevent hip pain, anything like that, that would just make their lives more challenging. Basically. Like I was telling Katie this earlier, as I wish I found you beforehand, and during because my recovery was really tough. And I you know, I've heard about pelvic floor and everything more so with like sex therapy, not necessarily after birth and things like that, and like how to strengthen and how much it's connected to everything. Like I think it's very understated, of how important that part of your body is for just like any kind of movement. And I found that walking, like after I gave birth after a couple days of resting, like just walking like I would I was like a turtle super, super slow. But just walking every day, I found that that really helped me like get a little bit stronger. So I'm glad that you are giving like this information to all your clients ahead of time to help their healing and recovery afterwards, because it's really so important. Yes, and I love that you said that about walking, because I think so many people think like, well, if I'm gonna work out, it has to be like a workout. And even some I had one client, she probably stopped training the end of last year and she just had her daughter at the end of March. So it was a decent amount of time that she stopped training. But she was so uncomfortable. It was her second child she was carrying so low. And I said to her just walk, just walk while you're pregnant. You don't have to do anything else if it's uncomfortable, but you're gonna feel so much better just because you move to your body. So I think that's important too. Like, it doesn't have to be going to a class or getting a trainer, it just finding some sort of movement. And not. You can use certain things as an excuse, but I think a lot of times when some of my clients will be like, Well, yeah, but I'm just not feeling it today. I'm like, okay, but you will feel so much better if you just sit. That's it a tiny walk. It doesn't have to be crazy. So I think that is really important to even post partum sometimes that's all you can do like you're saying and if your recovery is tough, that's the way to do it. Just walk, do small movements, small things on a stability ball to get your hips moving, but it's so important but that will help everything including your core and your pelvic floor. What are some of the differences in the recovering process for natural A birth versus like a C section, very different. So natural, obviously, your core is still drastically impacted, but you don't have any actual incisions. So the that's why typically they'll say, four to six weeks for a natural birth before you go back to exercising. And then it really depends on how your C section went, how your body is recovering. I know my mom had a C section with both me and my brother, and she could barely move for weeks, because it just was so painful, you are literally cut open, it's a massive surgery. So in that sense, you have to be a lot more careful coming back into it. And it's actually interesting. I feel like I'm so much more cautious with postpartum than I am when they're actually pregnant, which seems funny, because they're carrying a child, it's like, you should feel more weirded out and like, oh, my gosh, there's a baby in there, I don't want to hurt it. But I know how strong they are and how capable they are. And that truly what they're doing is not going to hurt the baby. Whereas afterwards, you can overdo it. And you can get yourself set back by coming in too hot and trying to do too many things. So I haven't honestly had any clients that have had C sections yet. But that I would always say defer to the doctor on at least how you're healing. But same idea, you can still do pelvic floor work, you can still walk if you're comfortable doing that, it's just being really careful to let your incision heal and let your core heal a little bit more before you're doing hard core work around that area or with your pelvic floor or with heavy weights. Because you're recovering from a massive surgery, they still don't want you to lift super heavy weights after a natural birth. But you have to be a little bit more cautious when you have the incision that is healing once it's healed, it's kind of the same. It's just a little bit of a slower process. I'm glad you asked that, Katie, because I think that is a big difference in the recovery and healing the whole process. And I think those four to six weeks are also for I mean, this might be TMI, but we're talking about this right is, you know, a lot of people have tears it when they have vaginal births. Oh, right. And like doing anything extra, like any tough exercises, right? Like that could exacerbate that. So that's also part of that, not overdoing it. Even if you know mentally you want to or physically you might feel like you might be able to is just not making that worse, or extending the recovery process to. Yes, absolutely. And I really do. The doctors know pretty well your body and how it's healing in that sense. And I think that's why it is beneficial to have a trainer in the beginning because it's just somebody to tell you, Okay, I know you feel like you're ready. But let's take it easy. My one client, she was a professional dancer, she started with me with a back injury from dancing, and was miserable when she had her back injury because she couldn't do what she used to do. We got her course super, super strong. And then she got pregnant. And they were trying and they were very excited. But she was like what, I just got my cord. Why now. So it was kind of I knew what to prepare for with her because I had seen her not be able to do what she was used to doing. So it really is a lot of also mental coaching of you are going to be okay. And you are going to get back to where you were before strength wise, maybe not physically and your body may change and it may stay certain ways. And that's something I kind of tried to walk them through to like, we're not going to that's not going to be a gauge of how we are doing postpartum how much weight we've lost what our body looks like, based on what it looks like before we had our child. It's going to be are we getting back to the weight that we were using before? Is your core feeling strong enough? Are you starting to work out the same amount of times per week? So I tried to set different milestones with them so that they feel like they're progressing and they're feeling stronger without having that stigma of okay, I'm getting back into the gym to lose the baby weight. It's more so I'm getting back into the gym to be as strong as I was before. So then I can show up better for my baby. Yeah, I'm really glad that you just said that part about like that transition into it a lot of being mental? Because that is something I wanted us to talk about, too, in terms of how do you see benefits in, you know, not just pregnant people, but other, you know, anybody who comes in and exercises like, what kind of mental health benefits do you often see from people, you know, engaging in exercise? Well, it is funny, because I think I joke about it all the time with my clients, like, I am not a therapist, and I would like them to see a therapist in. I would like to not be used great advice as a therapist, but they do like, it's almost like I compare it sometimes to when you're like getting your hair done, for whatever reason, feel like you can like trauma dump on the person that you're getting your hair done with, even though they have no expertise and can provide you no guidance whatsoever on your situation. But I do think it helps, especially with private training, because it's one on one, and they can come in. And they know that they have to show up, which is what a lot of them tell me all the time, like they have to show up, it is just them and me. And if they don't show up, I'm there by myself, and they're still paying for it. So I think that from a mental aspect, it's even if you're feeling down, even if you had a bad day, when you otherwise could have said no, it's fine, I'm just not gonna go today, or I'm not gonna go to the gym, I don't need to go to the gym, no one's checking in on me, they have to show up because I'm there and they're paying me. So that helps a lot. But then on the flip side, they do have somebody that they can talk to and express things. And like I said, I very often say, let's I will work with you to find a therapist on these situations, but I can just tell it makes them feel better. Like they're lifting heavy weights, they're sweating, they're complaining about whatever it is that happened today. And they just leave and feel like they just lifted a huge weight off of their shoulders. And I feel like it's the same when you go to group fitness like you connect with these people that you otherwise wouldn't have met wouldn't have connected with. And it's the sense of community that you show up. And even though you're not a personal training client, you know that I know, if you didn't show up, like Katie knows that if she doesn't show up, and she's on my class list, I know that she didn't show up, they're probably going to ask her about it. And you make friends in that way that you instantly have a different connection with because you both work out and are in this routine and are quietly secretly maybe unconsciously holding each other accountable. Like you know, this person is going to this class, you're going to show up because you know that they're going to show up for you and for themselves. So I think it's also just the people that you're surrounding yourself with, plus the scientific benefits of exercise and releasing your endorphins. And physically and mentally just feeling better from that. But I think that people play a much larger role in that mental benefit than even sometimes the physical benefit of actually doing your workout. So that accountability piece is so so huge. And just having everybody around you it's almost you know, if you do a workout, you might be able to Slack or something like that. But if you're there in front of other people, and you have your personal trainer, like there's also like this sense of accomplishment that someone else noticed and saw that can give you that praise as well, to kind of keep going like that positive reinforcement to continue for your physical and mental health. Yeah, and Katie knows, I don't let them slack. I know how. And sometimes. And for me, too, I take classes for the same reason that everyone else takes classes. Someone's gonna push me, I don't have to put the workout together myself. I just show up. It's there. I do it and I'm done. And that's why it's so beneficial. But I think having that person sometimes if you're doing it on your own, you're like, Well, this is how strong I am. And that's just what it is. But if you have someone that can gauge, okay, well, your form is great. And you've been doing this weight for seven months now. So maybe let's try this next week. And your form is great without too so you can do that way and you're gonna get stronger from doing that way. And I'm sure they don't like in the moment, but afterwards, they're like, Oh, I just lifted 20 pounds and I didn't know I could do that. Or I didn't know I could even do that exercise with 20 pounds or they'll say before I can't there's no way I can lift these weights and also just do one do to just try it. And it is it's such a sense of accomplishment for all of us, but especially for people who are new work to the space or in that group fitness setting to have someone like single you out that they know that you can do something stronger. And they know more than you do that you can push yourself harder, you leave and you're like, oh my god, I can't believe that. I just did that. And I feel so great for the day. And physically your body is, in turn getting stronger as well, which is the ultimate goal. So yeah, I really is the best thing ever. Just one of the things that Amanda and other trainers there, say all the time is this, like, yes, you can kind of phrase throughout and like now that's like, in my head like today, I went to hot yoga and said because of a different time that I had this morning. But when I was like, Oh, should I do this next pose, and it just like pops in my head? And it's like, yes, you can. Yes, you can. And even if you fall, who cares? Like it doesn't matter, you know? So having that extra push is really, it's really good. Yeah, even when I was sick, like a couple of weeks ago, both of you know, like, I over the last like month and a half or two months, I've been randomly on and off sick and I'll come in and around is like well, you just know, like, you can just like I said to you the one day like I can just I almost pushed you, I can tell that something is off. So we're just gonna let her do her thing. And so it's also about that, right reading the room and reading people and uncertainty. Some people don't want to be pushed, and that's fine. They want to come and they don't come to my class. Fly with me, I try really hard, but I just can't let it go. But that like that's just they want to come and they want to do their workout. And that's okay. But it's so it's I know from personal experience, how great it feels to have someone have faith in you. And I do the same thing Katie in like, when I take a class or anything, I literally have a bracelet that says yes, on it. And I you I do the same thing, like what would I tell my members? And what would I tell my clients in this moment when I want to stop when I'm running or in sculpt or doing whatever and my body is telling me no, like, you don't need to do it, you can stop doing it. And you have to retrain your mind. Like, no, we can keep going you can do this physically, you can do this. And that's the other mental aspect of it is a lot of times your mind is trying to trick you and tell you no, you can't, you're not strong enough, you need to take a break, you're not gonna be able to finish. But when you get through that little threshold of discomfort, you get so much stronger, and then you realize you actually can do the thing that you didn't think you could do in the first place. I love that you put so much focus on the accomplishment of like strength being the goal and like the function of using your body. And not like kind of going back to like losing the baby weight or how you look or how you fit into particular clothes, right, like shifting that mentality into like feeling strong and good in your body versus how it looks. I think that's really huge. And like, I'm happy to hear it because I can take some of that advice after having a baby too, is that it's just so ingrained, like immediately after having, Alright, gotta get this baby weight off gotta look different instead of how can I be stronger and healthier for me and my family. Yeah, and it's such a huge thing, just with women in general. And I think I've also learned over time working with so many different women that you don't know, as an instructor, unless it's my personal training clients that I get a little bit closer with, but you don't know what somebody has gone through. And you don't know if they have suffered from disordered eating or any sort of eating disorder. And so to make that the stamp of well, if you want to track that you're getting stronger, you need to track your weight, and you need to track your macros. And for some people that works like I'm a person that I don't track my weight. I don't know the last time I weighed myself, I went to the doctor today and I put my little hand over the thing I was like, write it down and keep it to yourself because I don't want to know, but I can track macros protein, things like that. And it doesn't get me into a bad cycle of okay, now I'm being like hyper focused on what I'm eating and why I'm eating it. But you learn so quickly who can be like that or what people have been through that that may trigger them or that may then send them into a spiral of every time they see you. They want to talk about how much they lost or how much they weigh and I have clients that don't care at all about that and I have clients that it has taken years to get their focus off of the number on the scale the Because they'll people will come in and say, I feel great, I fit better in my clothes. But if I could lose five more pounds, I'm like, for what? Why do we need? Like, what is the purpose of the five more pounds? Because once you get to the five more pounds, then it's five more pounds. And it's like, Well, can I do maybe two more pounds after that five pounds. And it's a never ending spiral that everyone would fall into, especially women, if you continue to track that way. So I do fitness tests with them I do. I'll say like what you know, you want to do a push up, you want to do a pull up, you want to do 20 Sit ups, and I'm like, whatever their goal is, and we track it like that, it kind of just takes the focus off of, Okay, what does my body weigh. And also, I always tell them, first of all, you may be buying the wrong clothes. So maybe we just buy different clothes, don't buy clothes that you wish you could fit into, look good and fit into, but go based on your clothes. So many people will say oh my god, my clothes fit so much better. That's the goal, like you feel good in what you're wearing, I had a client, she just finally it took years finally just completely cleaned out her closet, got a whole new wardrobe because she knew that she was putting the effort in, she's eating healthy, she's working out five days a week, she looks great. And her clothes just didn't fit the right way to make her feel comfortable in the body that she had created. So she said, You know what, I'm gonna get rid of all this, and I'm gonna find stuff that I feel comfortable in. And I was like, that's great. Because, again, back to social media, we see stuff on social media, we're like, oh, my gosh, I would love to look like so and so you don't have so and so's genetics. So you're probably never gonna look like them. And I can't help you look like them, I can help you love yourself. But I can't take someone else's arms and put them onto your body. And I can't do that for myself either or I would. And so it's just retraining that mindset of your you can't base it on what somebody else looks like or what somebody else's weight loss journey was. And my biggest thing is, you don't ever know how people treat their body internally based on what they look like. So I tell my clients that all the time, I have a really close friend, she is so tiny, she has tiny little legs, tiny little arms. It's just how she was born. It's her genetic, she's my height, she's tall, it's just her body type, she probably couldn't put a lot of weight on if she wanted to put weight on. But she eats like crap. And like, so that doesn't tell you anything. If you see someone on social media, and you're idolizing their body, internally, their body is probably not as healthy as you want your body to be internally. So you have to focus on that first and then let the external kind of just do its thing as you go. And that takes a lot of time and patience. And it is frustrating. But you will get there if you put the work in and take the time. Yeah, you bring up a good point with the nutrition because that's obviously a huge part of it. And that, for me is like the worst part of it. Because I love to eat and I love to eat all of the things. And like, yeah, I will I'm in there at least five days a week, normally, and if I am still eating whatever I want whenever I want then like it actually really doesn't make it. I mean, I feel stronger. I might feel different, but I don't really look that much. No, it is so true. And I actually at one point did a nutrition. I'm not a registered dietitian. So I can't necessarily say like community, this is what you should eat, you know to for your body type. And that's the other thing. Everyone's bodies are so different. So that's my other pet peeve is things on social media. They're like, don't eat this, don't eat this, eat this, don't eat this. Well, you don't know how your body reacts. Maybe your body is fine. If you eat gluten and dairy. You don't need to give it up because everyone else is giving it up. But some people have really bad reactions to it, and it does make them feel better. So I think a lot of it is what makes you feel good. But I have my clients do somewhat of a nutritional challenge where they basically if they felt comfortable because like I said, some it can get into a dark place for some people but just writing down what they were eating, not tracking calories, not trying to track macros. Because some people just genuinely don't know they, they really think they're eating healthy. And if you ask them point blank, they say yeah, I live a really healthy lifestyle. And then they'll write it down. And if you break it down for them like this is what you're eating all day is making a huge impact on you. And I think even going back to having children. So many people will say, Well, I have children so how am I supposed to eat healthy? Like, how about your child? Drink, also eat healthy, and then you could all eat. And then everyone would feel good. And that's an interesting concept to me and I don't have kids. So I can't say like, I know that it's challenging. And I totally get that. And it's like, just feed the kid because they're hungry. And this is what they're going to eat. And this is what they want. And this one I'm giving them, but you have to prioritize yourself. And the parents and mothers that I've seen prioritize their own health and fitness, are so much happier than the people who are just getting into the bad habits, because it's easier and because well, I don't have time to cook dinner, because this is what the kids are having. So I'm just also having cereal or something else. And it's just learning how your body reacts to things like that's, I am a huge food person, I am not someone that is like, super, super clean eating 24/7. But I try to listen to what my body is telling me in a sense of like, what do I feel better when I have carbs in the morning or at night? Or do I feel fine when I have them whenever. And that helps me a lot. But also just listening to your cravings of what your body is telling you without letting that take over. So it's the same as the exercise stuff. We don't nobody wants to exercise every day, there is not a single person that wakes up every day. It's like I ready to go. I love it. Like I'm so excited to be here, it just doesn't happen. That's why we have personal trainers and workout classes because then you have countability, like we talked about. But it's the same with the healthy eating and nutrition aspect of it. Like, you know, you don't want to do that every day. But if you sprinkle in these things that you like, here in there, you get rid of that idea of okay, well, on the weekend, I'm gonna eat whatever I want. But during the week, I'm gonna eat really healthy. That doesn't help you at all, because you just have this bad cycle of I'm going to eat really crappy on the weekend, but I'm gonna eat really healthy during the week, but I'm still putting crap in my body on the weekend. So if you have things spread out throughout the month, you're in there, you're gonna be so much better off and getting into that routine. It's all about the routine. It's the same with exercise. It's the same with I'm sure you guys see in your practice all the time, the different routines that you have to get yourself into to get into these things that you want to work on. This the same with healthy eating. You can't do it for two days, and then be like, too much. I don't like it. Not for me, I go back down. It's easier, like nobody wants to cook every day and rather just eat out or get fast food like it is easier. But I've gotten my body to a place where genuinely, I think I had a cheesesteak, like about four days ago, I felt so horrible because I don't eat like that all the time. And like dip tastes great. Yeah, it tastes great. I loved it, but my body afterwards was like what the heck process nonsense Did you just put into me? And why do I feel like this? Get to a point where I don't really want this stuff anymore and every once in a while you do but it's not an every day. Oh, it's just part of my routine. I'm just gonna grab this food that is not that great. How do you see this show up for women who are pregnant with like cravings or if they're nauseous like in the beginning, I would just like down a sleeve of saltine crackers like it was nobody's business and then like throughout the pregnancy all I was craving was like pasta pizza and ice cream like my babies made up a Buzzfeed said ice cream. But like knowing that it's not the healthy thing to eat, but like your body almost feels like if you don't have it, you will die. Like I know. It's dramatic. But like sometimes it feels like that during pregnancy. Yeah, it is true. I think similarly to how I feel about just general nutrition like, you don't want to go either way so drastically like my one client that I was talking about. And I use her as an example for everything because she is one of my closest friends now but also an absolute nut job when it comes to all that she's a little crazy. But she's always been so she grew up in Israel. So she grew up on a Mediterranean diet and is just like so used to okay, this is how we eat like this is the normal way of eating so she doesn't really never really like adapted to Yeah, I'm just gonna have fast food. Like she doesn't understand that. So when it came to pregnancy, she was like polar opposite. Like, she'd be like, I'm craving a bagel and I will not have a bagel. Like you could just have a bagel like it's going to be you have to bagel and you probably will feel better so and I think it's just finding that middle ground right of like, one of the things I always say that I biggest the biggest myth is you're not, you don't have to eat, too. So people say that all the time, I'm planning for two, so I could eat. Not really, um, I think the most important thing is your protein, getting enough protein. Because when you have those cravings, you're typically it's not healthy protein. It's stuff that we know we shouldn't be eating, but like you said, you're like, but I physically feel like I need this. So if you're balancing that out with, okay, but at least I'm getting my protein and I'm having, you know, some vegetables balancing out my other meal. So then when I have these cravings, like, I feel like I can give in to them. But it's also everything is so connected, which is what's so interesting to me. So it's like if you are consuming high levels of sugar during pregnancy, they don't really know how that could impact your child. And now is that within your child like feeling that as they grow? Now, they have this sense of not really sugar dependence, but okay, I'm used to having this sense of nutrients. So it is interesting, like, how does it all, you know, come together. But I've seen both extremes. And I think we shouldn't go to either extreme as much as we can try to find a middle ground of okay, I'm getting the nutrients I need. But I'm also having my cravings when I want to, that's the best that we can do. What our body is performing a really crazy cool thing. That's great. I'm glad you were able to tell on that. So it sounds like balance, right? A lot of this is just balanced and listening to your body and keeping in touch and like being attuned to what you need. Absolutely, yes. So this was great. I can't believe we are coming close to an end. I feel like we could continue talking about this forever. I feel like we've only been talking for 10 minutes. But it's been a problem. When Joe Rogan has like four hour podcast episodes, where they just like hang out and talk and see what comes up. No, no, we really could do that it would be really, truly I can talk about it for days. Oh, this was but that being said? Well, I was just gonna say with that being said, like, is there any kind of final like thoughts or things that you would kind of want to share as just some, you know, closing, ah, I would just say if you're pregnancy or not, if you're looking to get into fitness, just start somewhere, find a safe space, it doesn't, like we talked about walking is fitness, it's a workout. So if you're just start where you are, if you're sedentary, sitting on a couch, sitting at a desk all day and you don't work out, go for a 10 minute walk if you have been walking and you want to try workout classes, try to find a space where you feel comfortable and safe with an instructor or trainer that lets you try and grow and like gives you the confidence to then do that kind of stuff on your own. And I think that's the really important thing. But a lot of people I think feel as though they need to know all of it and be so strong and fit to even join a gym and then like what am I doing here? Why would I be here if you know all of the things and you're strong and you can make it through the whole class like I can't make it there half of the classes so you're getting stronger as you go. But I think just meeting yourself where you are and starting slow and slowly increasing whatever it is that your goal is get to that place you don't have to dive in and start training for a marathon or start going to group fitness classes that are high intensity that are terrifying to you to start your fitness journey. Thank you for that. And Amanda where can people find you to reach out to you if they want to work with you join your classes or have you be their personal trainer Yeah, so my personal Instagram is just my first name underscore last name Amanda Christiana know you can reach out to me there if you have any questions about anything that we talked about or if you want to work with me personally and then the studio that I work for is called Never give up and manioc so on Instagram, we're just never grip up underscore manioc, and on our website, never give up training.com You could find pricing classes, personal training options, all of the different things that we offer if you have any questions, and I wanted to ask you because I know I saw in your form that you started baking and goods. Just give a shout out to that. So I didn't want to skip over that. So that's how it's really cool. Really good. I gotta get, like, my whole balance like I was talking about I love food. So I really love baking, but I can't have so many baked things in my home just for me and my boyfriend alone to eat, or like I'm gonna sell them. But yes, my baking business is called celestial, like space, baked goods. It's named after all of our dogs that are named after different celestial beings. But we sell bread, muffins, other types of baked goods, so you can find me on Instagram there if you are in the Philly area and want to order some brands. Awesome. Well, Amanda, thank you so much for being on with us today sharing your wisdom and your knowledge and everything. If you liked the episode, please like, share and subscribe. But otherwise, thank you so much. Thank you. I had a blast. Thank you. I'll see you soon