Strength Training and Protein for Women

0:05
Welcome to the SYNC Your Life Podcast. I’m your host, Jenny Swisher, certified personal trainer, nutritionist hormone health expert and girl mom. I believe all women should be able to understand how our bodies are designed to feel. And I teach you how to sync your lifestyle to your cycle to reach maximum energy. You deserve to feel your best and this podcast is going to teach you how. Let’s dive in!

This podcast is sponsored by the sink digital course, to take the free hormone imbalance quiz to see what your symptoms could mean about your health. Visit sync.jennyswisher.com That’s sync s y n c dot Jenny swisher.com.

Welcome, everyone to this episode of the SYNC Your Life Podcast. I am excited to have my friend Mindy Irish with me today, Mindy and I kind of go way back as far as social media goes. We were connected several years ago, probably just through mutual Health and Wellness Connections. And I think it was obviously like everything else was with good reason because I have followed her for several years. And I just noticed her consistency in her nutrition and in her fitness. She has a bodybuilding background, which I will share a little bit more about here in a second. But I really have found so much value in the content that she shares. And I’ve been able to really see her consistency as a person and as a trainer. So when I started thinking about guests that I wanted to have on the podcast, her name came to my mind because I wanted to interview somebody who could you guys know me, I wanted to nerd out with somebody on the concept of fitness for women strength training in particular, you know, I want to kind of cover some of the myths, the common myths of what it looks like to be a woman who trains and I thought she was the perfect person to interview because she seems to have a very natural approach to what she does. I see her eating a lot of healthy foods. I don’t see her doing sort of the stereotypical post show binging which I know we’re going to talk about a little bit too. So I just thought you know, this is the perfect person to ask because she’s working with women of all different backgrounds, helping them to get fit and healthy and multiple kinds of ways. And I thought this is the perfect guest for me for this show. So I’m so happy that she’s here. She wears many titles. I’m going to kind of run through the different hats that she wears. She has four kids ages 12 to 18. She loves being a mom. She was diagnosed with Hashimotos thyroid autoimmune disease 20 years ago in her mid 20s. She had five pregnancies in six years and was living sugar addicted and then a lifestyle of obesity over 12 years ago at the age of 35. She slowly reset her lifestyle to a now very holistic way of living like I mentioned, she became a NASM certified personal trainer and as a national level competitive bodybuilder in the bikini division of the NPC. She has a teaching degree in physical education from IU and presently works as an online fitness coach and in person personal trainer at her private gym, Mindy Irish Fitness. She coaches and trains women of all ages who are competitors, general fitness clients and those who may not want to ever compete look like they do. You can find her online, we’ll link her up in the show notes, of course, so that you guys have access to all the ways you can get a hold of Mindy, and we’ll have her share that as well at the very end of the podcast. So Mindy, thanks so much for being here. I’m so glad you’ve taken the time today.

3:28
Awesome. Thank you for having me. I’m truly honored at the invitation. I’m just so excited to get to get on here and talk with you. I know we could play talk for days.

3:37
Yeah, we had a little bit of a pre call a week or so ago. And we kind of had to cut ourselves off like okay, let’s just wait. We’ll save this for the podcast so that we can get this recorded because we have a lot in common when it comes to things that we love and enjoy as it relates to health and fitness. So I want you to tell, you know, the podcast listeners here, what brought you to health and wellness. I mean, we heard a little blip about your story and kind of where you were 12 years ago, but what brought you to not just bodybuilding, but just health and wellness and a holistic approach.

4:06
So I went through the life stage after college with my career in teaching and then had my children. And at the birth of my son in 2009. I was managing four children six and under. We were moving we were renovating homes. And I I remember looking myself in the eye one day and at the time, I just was about 95 pounds heavier than I am now. And I just remember thinking, I never saw it ending or not ending but just getting to that point. I never imagined myself at that point in my life. I was so happy to be a mom and so honored that calling, but I knew that I had not made space to take care of myself in all of those change of seasons and wearing all of those hats. And I knew something had to change. God really spoke to me. And I feel like he just took me by the cheek and was like, I have more for you. I have great plans for you. But sometimes it makes me emotional. And we need to make some changes. So long story short, I really leaned into him because I was I was depressed, I was doing having postpartum issues. I’d these little kids everywhere. And then I was frustrated with myself, I wouldn’t say disappointed, but I was just ready to to make forward progress. So I started out going to Weight Watchers. So if anyone is starting out how to I went to Weight Watchers. I paid weight and stayed for their meetings. And I basically let them educate me and dropped a lot of weight because I started changing my habits and my patterns, took the kids with me and I decided to pay that $40 a month. And to me at the time, it was super expensive. I felt guilty for it. But then I said don’t feel guilty, this will pay you back, I got through that. I made great progress with them. I was very active at the YMCA created a community of people who liked to be active, and workout. And it was just me slowly setting up a new pattern and a new lifestyle. Couple years later, had lost a lot of the weight. And some fitness ideas got on my radar. And I got connected with a personal trainer at my gym, started training started getting interested in competing. And long story short, I became a certified personal trainer. Because my children were a little bit older at that point. And I wanted to find some way to start to direct my fitness passion, I had physically gotten a lot of progress, I’d started weight training. And I was slowly starting to revamp my habits with regards to nutrition. And then it’s been in the last probably five years of my 12 year journey to date, to where I really started to hone it in. So I did not start here, I started out just moving more and becoming calorie and food aware. And then I started getting into is kind of like going through, you know, different curriculum, I started, I started then pulling back more of the processed foods, more of the fake filler foods. I started it for myself. And then I started it for my kids. You know, I initially got started moving and just doing a lot of cardio, then I got into weight training. It’s easy for us to look at someone’s journey and think, wow, they just started all of this in the same week, absolutely not. I had to do it very, very small increments. But I actually knew that I wanted those changes, I wanted to look better and feel better. And I wanted to have energy. And that was my initial motivation. I never started out trying to compete, I never started out back then trying to look a certain way necessarily, or way a certain amount, I was just trying to move from where I was to a different place. And I think it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t have a timeline to it. And I didn’t have a set agenda, or person that I was trying to emulate exactly I had people that motivated me, but I really allowed my body and my mindset to slowly develop and do whatever I discovered and it wasn’t so predetermined. And that’s where I see a lot of people challenged is they start out with a timeline. They start out trying to do everything. They start out trying to totally shift gears overnight. And they don’t give themself time to what I call, get to know your body and get to know your habits and know why you do what you do. They’re just simply trying to change it.

9:15
Yeah, absolutely. And my story is very similar to that. I mean, when my husband and I decided to make some healthy changes, our first step was throwing out the Hamburger Helper boxes, you know, like, let’s throw out the box meals, the processed foods like and we struggled, you know, we were in the very beginning. It was like, Okay, we think we can stomach some broccoli with cheese on it. You know, like, I mean, we were we went from like, definite, you know, starting out just feeling like we didn’t even know where to begin. We didn’t know what it was like to eat healthy. You know, we didn’t know what it was. And so it’s funny because I totally get what you’re saying because sometimes people who follow me on social media will reach out and they’ll say oh my gosh, I wish I had your motivation or oh my gosh, I could never eat that way or whatever. And it’s like no, you don’t understand sis. Like I this has been a journey. This has been over a decade. of just understanding what serves my body and what doesn’t. And how I feel. I mean, it is is a process for everybody. So I’m so glad that you shared that.

10:08
You know, I often equate it to going through school, we start children at age five or six in school, and we teach them how to walk in the line, we teach them how to keep their hands to themselves, and you know, how to write their name and any little thing. It’s all about setting up those foundations. And then we don’t start out talking to them about algebra and college courses, and what they want to be when they grow up when they’re five years old. They’re just learning the basics. It is not unlike that in fitness, do you you have to just start out learning the basics, and really discovering like, why do I do what I do? First of all, what am I doing? When am I going to bed? When am I getting up? What foods do I have in my home? What foods do I feel good on? What Foods slow me down? What foods make me really tired? Who in my life is a challenge? Who who lifts me up? And who pulls me back? You know, those little things? But I see a lot of people just trying to start out like they’re in ninth 10th 11th grade? And I would say just start with the basics.

11:24
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That whole concept of like some people just seeing the whole staircase and wanting to take on that whole staircase as opposed to just taking the first step, right. Like, what’s that? What’s something small to get you some small wins, it’s like moving in the right direction. I totally, I totally get what you mean. And I just think it’s so powerful to be I mean, I know one of my favorite things. When I was working in my gym in front of people, I do a lot more virtual training now. But when I was working in front of people, one of my favorite things about coming alongside people was like sort of just that light switch moment when they become aware of themselves when they start to create that self awareness. And they start to say, oh, you know, yeah, it’s not just these are my habits. And this is what I’m living in, they start to almost step out of their own body and see what they’re doing and what their life is like. So my next question for you is related to that beginning of the journey for most people, right, like, especially women listening to this podcast, who are thinking, I need to make some steps in the right direction. I think a lot of people who listen to this podcast are women who feel like maybe their check engine light is flashing, they feel like they feel off. I’d love to that you said I wrote down, you said that when you started, you just wanted to feel better, and you wanted your energy back. And I like to measure everything and energy. So when I get a message from a client that says like, oh my gosh, I’m down 10 pounds, I’m always very sure that my response to them is, well, I bet you feel amazing, right? Because it’s that that’s what it’s about, like I don’t send me your before and after photo, like I mean, I care. But that’s not what I’m that’s not why I’m helping you, I’m helping you because I want you to feel better. And I want you to have that energy back. So when you’re working with a client, and they meet with you for the first time, what is step one for you? Like? How do you help create that self awareness in them? If they come to you with a timeline and say, I need to lose 20 pounds in six weeks, right for this vacation? Which I know I hear I hear that a lot. You say they come to you with a timeline? And they have a weight in mind or whatever? Like, what is your response to that? And how do you sort of shift their mindset or what what is your approach to getting them started?

13:24
So I first of all, it’s really important to me that if they’re local to me, I meet them in person, and have that face to face conversation. If if they are at a distance, and we’re doing work online, we do a phone call, and I call it a discovery call. Because I want we may or may not be a fit for each other, I may not offer what they are looking for and vice versa. But there are a few things that kind of I listen for that might concern me. So like you said, when a lady says How long is this going to take? You know how fast she starts putting a timeline to it, then I just get a little concerned because first of all, her speed at this, so to speak is absolutely about how she executes it. And a lot of that is a and will always encourage people we’re going to get baselines of where you are. Everyone typically wants to start out with a new coach or trainer and they want to show up and basically be given the program and say, here’s the winning ticket, go and do this. And I see a lot of fault in that because what we have to do is we have to say to client, let’s find out what you’re currently doing. Let’s get baselines on what you’re doing. And then let’s see if it’s working for you or against you. So we look at nutritional baselines, what are you eating calorie wise carbs, fats and proteins wise for the last seven What’s your activity? Like? How’s your sleep? How’s your hydration? I look at the holistic piece. What kind of stress do you have going on right now, a few key things I’ve come upon where, you know, if they tell me this in the front side, then I’m going to have some suggestions. Anyone going through major life changes with regards to potentially a move, a job change, a divorce, anything challenging like that, it’s probably not always the best time to be hiring a coach or trainer, because we want you to be able to give a really good mental space to this without that added stress. And people really discount the life stress that impacts their physique and their mindset. So we go and we get baselines, and then I look at what they’re doing. And then I’ll make my suggestions with regards to some nutritional goals, some lifestyle, and then training. And it’s just critical that we always start out getting those baselines because everyone is going to operate so differently, and everyone’s story is truly unique. So I always have to start out, looking at what they’re doing. A lot of times that process of self reflection, is extremely hard for people. And that’s why it’s not uncommon to just want to receive the program, just tell me what I need to go do. And I’m going to shift gears and go do it. And the issue I have with that is that they never have a chance to really figure out who they are, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, because they’re just trying to fulfill this checklist. And I don’t ever see that working.

16:49
Yeah, yeah, I used to have people like that walked into my gym. And even just last week, I got an email from a client who was asking if I would create a customized personal training plan for them. And it’s always interesting, because these types of requests, or when I had people come in the gym, too, that were looking for this sort of quick result. It was there’s such an urgency in their voice, right? Like they’re coming with this sense of frustration. They don’t like where they are. It’s like I hate to say this, because I don’t I don’t I certainly don’t want to box anyone in but sometimes I could just get a feel as a trainer from, Okay, this one’s going to be a challenge versus this one’s going is open minded, and they’re willing to commit and this is going to be a long term thing that we can make sustainable. So I say all this to say, you know, you know, as a personal training trainer alongside Mindy, it can be so sometimes discouraging as a trainer, because when people do come to you, it sometimes does feel like they’re putting the pressure on you. Like your plan is going to get them results or not. And she’s totally right when she says this is all on you, right? Like this is how you execute the plan. This is I mean, I can only control about one hour a week or two hours a week that I see you. I’m not controlling anything you put your mouth, I’m not controlling if you’re following exercise plan, I’m not controlling any of the other stuff. So one thing that I did when I was a personal trainers, I figured this out slowly over the course of time, was people would purchase packages, and they would be deducted that package for an appointment, even if they didn’t come. And because I wanted them to be invested. I wanted them you know if I’m going to be there, one thing that’s very common is for trainers to be stood up. And I was stood up often because people want to say, Oh, I have a trainer, it’ll happen. It’s like, oh, oh, I have a trainer like I must be getting results. And it’s like, okay, but are you doing the work? Are you showing up, right? And so if you’re listening to this, and you’re thinking like, I need to start with small changes, just know that if you want to do this the right way. It’s a commitment, right? Like it is, it’s a decision followed by a commitment and going to a trainer, that trainer is going to be able to offer you guidance, they’re going to be able to help you along the way and come alongside you. But you have to do the work, right? Like you have to do the work on yourself. So I love that. Okay, so I want to make sure we talk about because I do know that most of our listeners are women. I’m going to talk with you through some common myths. And I just want to you know, I said this to a previous guest as well, let’s just go ahead and step up on our soapbox, and and talk about some of these these common things. So the one thing that I hear most frequently, and when I’m teaching women in my digital course, I teach them how to sync with their cycles. So I teach them you know, how to, like what phases of their cycle are good for strength training, what phases of their cycle, they should probably be focusing on rest and what phases of their cycle could be more dedicated to like HIIT training and stuff like that. And so one of the common questions that I get from women is oh my gosh, like if you’re telling me that I should be lifting weights three to four days a week. Am I going to get bulky, you know, like I don’t want to be bulky, right? I don’t want to put on size So I’m sure you hear this too as a trainer. So what is your answer to that when it comes to strength training?

19:53
So a few common, I guess words that you’ll see out there as people will say I just Need to tone up, I want to do this to my arms. And I want to do you know, I want to change this on my abs, and I don’t want to get big. And there’s a, it’s almost like they can take the body and just spot improve or reduce, right. And so you know, I, I speak to that often, I would say to people, personally, in my first two years of my journey, I did no strength training, and it was all cardio. And when I lost, and I don’t recommend that I would now as a trainer, I would step back in that. And I do tell that as part of my story, but I say I don’t suggest it, I suggest you strength trains first, primarily because it’s going to help with your lean mass, which is going to help raise your metabolic rate, which means that you’re going to be expending more calories at rest, it’s going to strengthen you and give you long term stability. But you’re, you know, as we age as women, and men to the natural process of losing, lean mass is going to happen, that’s scientific. And so what bothers me, I had a doctor, tell me one time, you know, you’re getting ready to go through menopause. And you can just expect to gain 15 pounds. And I stared at her. And I’m thinking, she knows my story. And she knows what I’ve done and some of my background, and I said, No, I don’t agree with that, you know, I do weight training. And that helps me maintain my lean muscle mass and build some to. So that is going to keep me from slowing down my metabolism. And then keep me from gaining extra body fat. And I thought to myself, I’m going to prove you’re wrong. So you don’t keep saying that. Yeah, just expect it. But the myth that you’re speaking of is that first of all, people assume that going to the gym and weight training is like, you wake up in shape, and you wake up big, I can tell you, those of us that are veteran trainees, of myself, I’ve been training consistently for 10 years, I’m still waiting to wake up big. And in the industry, I am one of the smaller people, because I’m a natural athlete. And so, you know, it has actually my not only my scale weight down, but I’m just more compact. If my nutrition is out of line, and I’m doing more grains, sugar and dairy, then I will start to put on body fat. And that’s what will make people feel big. But no woman is going to wake up with tons of extra muscle that she’s got to figure out what to do with if you see that happening. And I’m just gonna say this from a standpoint of kind of like some of the I’m going to say lies or kind of hidden truths. If you see someone promoting that they are, they started training and they started eating well, and all of a sudden, they just put on all this muscle and it happened in a very short amount of time. Just know there could be some assistance that there may be using for that process. Because that is not something that naturally happens it is a very, very slow process. You have to be very methodical, very intentional with your nutrient timing, and, and really manage your sleep and your stress levels, you’re never going to just get so big that you don’t know what to do with it. So the the bulky piece comes from lack of monitoring the nutrition, the weight training is actually going to help you build up some muscle but it’s such a slow process. It’s you’re gonna love how it makes you look and feel. You’re going to love how it brings that waistline in. And you might on the scale be similar to what you have done before, but you’re going to be more compact. And even my clients will say, you know, I’m eating more and I’m training consistently and my clothes are falling off of me write their love, they’re loving it. They also love how strong like we talked about how we look, but we have to really talk about as women I cannot say enough, like I love training but I love feeling strong. And there’s something about pressing dumbbells and rowing dumbbells and barbells and lifting heavy things. Once you feel strong, you are going to get territorial because that’s something you Just don’t want to lose.

25:01
Yeah. Well, and you know, it’s funny because one of my token phrases that I share with my clients is you need to lift heavy ish, right? Like, and I don’t say it’s usually but, you know, you need to lift heavy stuff. Like I mean, here’s the interesting thing I was I was in my own workout yesterday, I was doing a workout for myself. And I was following a trainer and the trainer was saying, we were doing like one legged deadlifts, and he said, Okay, he’s like, all right, he’s like, whoever, you know, if you’re, if you’re lifting something that is half the weight of your child, he’s like, I want you to put it down and go get something heavier. And I thought that was so profound, because I’m like, you know, here we are, as women most of the time like picking up our, I mean, I know my five year olds close to 50 pounds, like picking up our 50 pound child, carrying them on our hip. But then we go to do a move, you know, a workout move. And we’re like, I better grab my five pound dumbbells like, and I’m not saying that that’s, I mean, of course, everybody starts somewhere. But I have to share the story briefly about this client that I had. And it was so funny, we used to carry we had power block weights in our gym. So for those of you listening, that’s kind of like might have heard of like, oh, Bowflex weights, like the interchangeable dumbbells, and they started at five pounds, you could do five pounds, but 10 pounds was was usually the baseline for most people. And I had a client that would come in, she was in her mid 30s. And she would bring her own two pound dumbbells, and she would come in and we would be doing these strength train, we did strength training four days a week, and she would come in and bring her two pound dumbbells. It didn’t matter if it was squats, it didn’t matter if it was bicep curls, whatever. And, and I’m not poking fun at this person she had, she was, uh, I love her dearly. She’s a close friend of mine, she would happily be on this podcast, sharing a story with you. But I worked on her for two years, I was like, okay, you’ve got Come on, like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna take these weights out your hand, I’m gonna hand you some 10 pound dumbbells. I’m gonna hand you some 12. But you can do it. I know, you can do it yourself. She was she was lean. She was stronger than she thought. Right? And she didn’t know it. And so, again, it’s a journey, like everybody has their own journey with it. But I just I think it’s so common, especially when I’m talking to my clients who are working out at home, I have a lot of clients who are following home programs, I either see a video of them on social or they reach out to me and say, like, I feel like I’ve kind of hit a plateau. And I asked them like, what are you lifting? Do you still are you still lifting something that’s challenging to you? Or are you kind of just resorting to your old habits, you know, I mean, even for myself, like I, for years, I would I would bicep curl 10 pounds. And in the last year, I was like, I’m going to push it, I went to 12, I went to 15, I’ve gone to seven, you know, I mean, like you slowly start to increase up because your body is stronger. And you’re you’re building that lean muscle mass. So again, everybody has a journey with it. But I just I think it is a a statement that everyone needs to hear women especially that you need to lift heavy things, if you can lift your child, you can lift a heavier dumbbell most likely. So of course with proper form, you know, we don’t want to we don’t want to injure you by any means. But I think most and

27:54
I would say, as a trainer, personal trainer, I’m very adamant about form. And absolutely, I have trained all four of my children from about age 10, a starting point. And, you know, they’re not unlike anyone else they walk in, and they they want to gravitate. I have three boys and one girl. So it was more than the boys. They want to gravitate over here to the big dumbbell or the bigger. And I’m like, No, let’s go over here and lift the bar. And let me check your form. Let me check your eye gaze, your head position where your hips where’s your shoulders? Range of motion? No, no, no, I need to go lift over so that I had to back them up and humble them and teach them, we have got to build a foundation for you. And we’ve got to learn how to do it with little to no load so that we can progressively add heavier load. So we have to intentionally progressively add heavier load, we cannot start out lifting heavy. And I know that that’s probably what happens to a lot of women is from the reports I hear is that it’s very intimidating. First of all, like there’s a lot of men in there. I don’t know what I’m doing. Everyone’s watching me. So what I like to do and I have a private gym where I work with women and one on one or in small groups. And I like to teach them how to navigate the weight room and teach them cables, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, any kind of apparatus so that they could walk into any strength training facility and feel some mastery and feel that confidence. Once they feel that confidence. Then we are focusing on their form and their range of motion and then we start to add heavier load. I think a lot of women maybe start out like lifting heavy, but they don’t really know what that means. And like what if I get hurt and then they kind of picture You know, some big bar up over their head or that meme where the squat rack and the the barbell falls. So there’s kind of this illusion of like, you know, I’m going to get hurt. And so you know, if, as a trainer, I would say, one of the best things I did was I hired a personal trainer at a local gym, and I, I went twice a week, and I let her teach me. And I didn’t know what to do. But I invested the time and the money, and I carved out two hours a week to be taught by this trainer. And then once I got that confidence, I was strength training on my own. And then I got into competing, and then I became a trainer. But it was just very, very strategic, like, you know, like, there’s so much out there for women, be it small groups, be it a training partner, a coach or train or someone you work with online or in person. But you know, there, there are a lot of resources, and one of my passions is empowering women to feel comfortable around the free weights.

31:13
Yes. Amen to that. And I think you know, you said earlier, like, it’s like teaching your five year old, right? You’re not teaching your five year old college classes, like, you’re, you’re starting with the Foundation, and the foundation sometimes is this is how you pick up a weight. This is how you lift the weight, right? Like, this is how you do it with proper form. So absolutely. Okay, so there’s so many things that I want to touch on and so little time. So another thing that that comes up, I know with me, and I’m sure it does with you is, is protein intake. And I’m just interested in your, your feedback on this and how you teach your clients when it comes to, you know, macronutrients or, I’m not sure exactly how you train them, so you can share with us what you do. But I know for me, you know, most women, especially as we age, are not consuming enough protein. And I’ve shared this little mini story from myself on the podcast recently, and I’ll share it again. And that is entering this year in January, I had to do sort of a reassessment of my own training, I had to kind of take a look at where do I need to focus more of my time and energy? Where do I need to back off, you know, and what do I need to do to adjust my nutrition. And when I recalculated everything, and I decided to kind of try something different. But the resounding message that was being told to me was this, you know, don’t be afraid of protein, like Jenny, just go for it. Like, I know that we talk a lot in the world that I’ve been in about controlling our portions and controlling how much is on our plate and that kind of thing. But I think I was I definitely was limiting myself when it came to protein and healthy fat intake. And I was seeing repercussions from that in my hormone health. And so when I started to finally address it and say no, I’m going to actually almost double my protein intake, and I’m going to increase my healthy fats, which for me does not involve dairy, because I have a strong allergy and sensitivity. That meant more avocado, more olive oil, more, you know, nut butters and those kind of things. And so when I started to do that, I didn’t take away carbs, I just increase the proteins and fats. But when I started to do that, I started to notice my energy levels, my sleep, everything started to improve. One of the things that I walk women through in my my hormone course, is teaching them how much protein they really need, especially as a training female. So I want to touch on this subject, I’ll just kind of open it up to you, you know, how do you work with women on this? What are your beliefs on protein? You know what sources of protein are your favorite? Like, you can just go with us wherever you want to take it.

33:39
Okay, awesome. So when I do start with a client, like I said earlier, we get a baseline of what I call their seven day, it’s seven day calories, and whether they’re tracking calories or macros, they report those to me, and then I haven’t go a little step further. And they tell me their carbs, fats, proteins, fiber and sugar. And I look at their seven day average of that. And invariably, we are a society of being very carb centric. You know, the average American is eating 300 grams of carbohydrates a day. And it’s not coming from fruits and vegetables. We’re talking grain sugar and dairy, lots of refined sugar, we are low fiber intake, and we are very low on protein. And then fats can kind of fall in the middle, but they’re not the best fats. They are the refined oils. So I look at quantity first. And then I start to evolve quality with a gal. If a gal is already weight training, and food aware, she’s probably coming in over 100 grams of protein a day and that’s going to be the cumulative between animal proteins and plant proteins because our food trackers don’t differentiate them. So we don’t have a way to know what the source is. So let’s say a gal is 150 pounds, and she’s already been training, she might be up over 100 125 grams coming into work with me, if someone is carrying a lot of extra body fat, and they haven’t been food aware, it’s not uncommon for them to be down and like the 50 grams of protein. And so I always try to bump that up, it’s not fair for me to say, okay, Sally, I’m going to take you from 50 grams to 125 grams, because it’s just like anything else, you know, we work on evolving your water intake and your sleep intake, we have to be very strategic, we also have to look at the sources that you’re using. So there’s the big debate between plant proteins and animal proteins. I personally use animal proteins and plants too. But I do use a good source of animal proteins. But I know there are a lot of women out there who don’t use animal proteins, and they prefer plant sources. And that’s fine, as long as it’s coming from a whole food. And one ingredient item I really dislike when we are getting these want to be fit foods out there that blast the word protein all over their product for the sake of marketing. And then people are coming in and saying, how about this protein shake? How about this protein bar? How about this protein, chocolate chip, pancakes, muffins, and you’re like, Okay, back up. You know, first of all, it’s just marketing, right? So, you know, manufacturers have gotten really smart, that people are chasing some of these key fit words, keto, low fat, natural protein. And so like I said, protein is one of the latest and greatest. And people will just put any kind of protein source in their body for the sake of getting more protein, not understanding that it could be highly inflammatory, because it’s bringing in 50. Other ingredients that can’t pronounce Yep. So ultimately, I like to coach people, as a girl gets leaner, and her body fat goes down, we can afford to bring her protein up. So at first, you know, I might be putting her down at like 80% of her one gram per pound of body weight, because she’s still carrying a lot of body fat. So if someone is carrying a lot of extra body fat, I’m not going to put you on a ton of extra protein, I’m going to keep it a little bit lower and start to bring it up. If you’re a leaner person, like myself, I tend to do well over 130 grams of protein a day. So I’m well over one gram per pound of scale weight. And that’s primarily because I, I feel really good on protein, I can digest it, it satiate me. And what we also don’t understand is that has a really high thermic effect. So what that me“ans is that it is expensive for our bodies to digest. So like some 30% of those calories of protein will be used by your body to digest the protein. And that is attractive to me, because I can eat and I can feel satiated. And then because of the nature of the protein my body has to use that to to break it down. So it’s a very wise choice for sustainability for being satiated. And then for body composition.

38:46
Yeah, yeah. So one of the biggest things that I see with women who are dealing specifically with hormone imbalance, you know, and a lot of the experts that I follow and naturalistic doctors that I follow, say the same thing is that oftentimes, the first couple things we need to address with hormone imbalance is both our adrenal health, our stress, right, and also our blood sugar. So what I find is that a lot of women start my program and they say, oh, you know, I usually just grab a granola bar for breakfast. Okay, well, how are you feeling mid morning? Well, usually I’m starving. You know, by noon, I eat lunch, and I finally feel better. So long story short, they’re having these sort of blood sugar fluctuations throughout the day. When we start to include more protein in the diet, like you said, We’re, they become more so more satiated, more healthy fat too. So even in just my small adjustment in the start of this year, I had always eaten two eggs at breakfast with oats or some sort of carbohydrate as well. And I just decided I was going to increase that. So I’m now in the same range. I’m around 130 grams of protein per day. And I usually have like, you know, six tablespoons of egg whites mixed into those eggs, a huge omelet full of veggies, you know, my oats on the side, and then I’ll sometimes even have an extra dose of protein mid-morning, and it just keeps my blood sugar stable. It keeps me from hitting those crashes. And it keeps my body from the hormone perspective from going into that fight or flight. Right? Like, I think a lot of women, I think their bodies are living in a stage of fight or flight like they’re constantly in these fluctuations. And then they wonder why their cycles are off, or they wonder why they’re getting headaches, right. And a lot of that could just be managed through the diet could be managed through keeping that sustainable source of energy throughout the day. So yeah, Protein Protein and healthy fat increasing that, of course, is is key for so many women and like, like you said, like processed foods, and highly, highly refined sugars are unfortunately taking up a lot of a standard American diet, which I recently heard too, as the SAD diet standard. So true.

Yeah, you know, I have a funny story. So I have four children. And they’re basically teens or preteens. And they’re the, they’re all athletes, and they’re at the phase of like, I need to add size, I need to put on some lean mass, you know, they’re becoming more food aware and aware to their performance. And one of my kids, you know, I kept saying, you’re not getting enough protein, you’re not getting enough protein, I’ve finally talked him into eating more protein is using egg whites. He’s using chicken, a little more Turkey and beef. And I said it over and over and over, and they don’t listen to me cuz I’m mom. But this kiddo started doing it. And a coach walked up and he said, you’re putting on a site that can see a difference in you. And it was like he just perked up. And I’m like, well, not you know, once they have that outside validation from someone else, like, Okay, now you’re gonna listen to me now you’re gonna keep doing that thing? Yeah. All his efforts in the gym and training. But if you feel it with junk, you’re gonna get junk results. So I’m like, you know, they know what I do. They’ve seen my lifestyle for 12 years and my competing for 10. They see I’m protein focused on like, put your protein on your plate first. Yeah. And that’s what I tell my clients is when you’re building a plate, don’t go for your your junky carbs, you build your plate, you put your protein on your plate, first four to six ounces of that lean meat, and then put your your fruits and vegetables and maybe starches around it. But you know, over and over again, clients and maybe my kids were not putting their protein first. So it was two ounces of protein and a big pile` rice. And I’m like, No, every time you eat get that protein ounces up. And yeah, it’s not that you have to eat more often. Eat more protein when you when you eat.

Yeah. When you do eat? Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I think it’s it’s Isn’t it funny how our kids listen to outside sources before they listen to us. Right? And it’s, it’s I think it’s common at any age. So when it comes to, you know, obviously, you have somebody building experience and competition experience. And this is something that’s always intrigued me, I love following people who are into this because it is or it seems at least from the outside, like such a science, right? Like there’s such a science to it as far as getting your physique in the way that you want it and then in a way that works for competition. And so, but the one thing that I we talked about this on our pre call, but the one thing that I wanted to mention today, because there might be people listening who have been intrigued by competition, or who are wondering more about that lifestyle. And I think that the one thing that I’ve seen is obviously I have people that I talked to that I’m friends with on social media who compete, you refer to yourself earlier as a natural athlete. So I definitely want you to touch on that, like, what does that mean, necessarily, just for our listener to hear and then also, you know, I have these people that I follow on social media who compete, but it seems like even as following them, it seems like such a roller coaster, they they are so dialed in with their nutrition leading up to that competition. And then all of a sudden, we start to see, okay, the competition’s in five days, five days until I can have a box of Pop Tarts or five days until I can have that, you know, binge at McDonald’s, or whatever the case is. And then you see them compete. And then all of a sudden, their stories are flooded with them eating pizza and hostess cupcakes and sort of this binge lifestyle. And so I want to touch on a few different things. You know, can you explain to us what does a natural athlete mean? And how does that differ from a lot of what we see in the bodybuilding world? And then also, let’s touch on rewarding ourselves with food. Right? Because that’s I know for me a big topic, but I want to hear your perspective on it.

44:33
Okay, awesome. So like this, these topics like, I think you and I could probably like talk all day on these specifically because I’m super passionate about this. So yeah, I’ve been competing for 10 years in the process, and I have learned a ton and I’m still learning a ton. And one quick thing I want to say about that is again, I did not start out trying to compete. I did not try had to go through all of that I was starting to live the lifestyle and starting to get very food aware. And I was already rhythmically training. And because I was doing that I could step into the lifestyle. So that was my, that’s my little sidestep. Because we do have a lot of people that start out, and they say, Oh, they’re not going to the gym, and they’re not food aware. So they think that they’re going to use competing as kind of a carrot as a motivation. I do not agree with that. So get yourself food aware and get yourself training, like all the other tips that we’ve talked on, and then start paying attention to the industry and the lifestyle and attending shows and see if it’s a fit for you. If it is, and you can’t see yourself, they’re doing it, it’s very extreme. It’s, it’s like 5% of one to 5% of people could pull this off. It’s lots of paying attention to numbers and weighing and measuring your food and tracking and being strategic with meals and meal prep and training. So it takes a lot of finances and mental space. So you have to be prepared for that. What does it mean to become to be a natural athlete so in the industry, the bodybuilding world competitive bodybuilding, you have Federation’s that are deemed drug tested and natural Federation’s. And you do have some Federation’s that are that are not drug tested, but they will run natural and drug tested shows. So even if they have athletes in their Federation that compete without assistance, illegal performance enhancing drugs, they can still attend, either show, you know, when you’re going to a non tested show, that you could be up against someone who is using steroids in some capacity, or some sort of illegal fat burner that we kind of imply gives you a leg up, but not always. So you know, I’ve been very competitive in non tested Federation, on a non tested stage with athletes that are probably using some sort of cutting agents for fat loss or muscle building. And it’s not generally talked about in the industry, it’s kind of a hidden secret and competitors know which coaches to go to, or maybe which teams that are going to require maybe or encourage that. But you know, it’s each person’s journey. So for me, personally, I guess, you know, as a competitor, I will say that, of course, you know, you get that in your head that like to be the best and to be better, I should be using something. And I’m not gonna lie and say it hadn’t crossed my mind. But ultimately, my endocrinologist was like Mindy, like, your body is so sensitive with your Hashimotos and your thyroid, like, you can’t put anything in your body, it will kill you. And I knew that. And I also knew I have children watching and it was just something I didn’t want to do. So I’ve chosen to stay at natural and use basically, the training and the nutrition and the stress management and can live this lifestyle. You know, I’d love to go pro may or may not happen, but I’m just going to keep trying. So natural athlete means you’re someone who’s chosen not to use performance enhancing drugs. And there are a lot of us, and we’re very proud of that. But I also have friends that compete who do choose that route. And that’s their choice. It’s their body. And um, you know, I just we don’t we don’t have that conversation, you know. So you then asked about food coming in and out of a show when someone is in contest prep and they’re dieting down for a show. You know, we are very rhythmic with monitoring our intake to the to the gram of macronutrients, and I’ve had coaches for years I’m currently self coaching but I’ve had coaches for years and you would check in weekly with your coach and he or she would say, drop your carbs by 10 grams a day, drop your protein, you know, keep your protein it does keep your fats or maybe your carb cycling so coming into the show, um, your food is very streamlined and you’re very one ingredient foods very, you know, chicken rice, broccoli, different vegetables, plain proteins, you take out all the bells and whistles in the fluff out of your diet, the junk, you feel great, you look amazing, your lean your ripped, but as you get closer to this stage, your food is low your cardio is high, and it isn’t sustainable, long term year round like that because it is a stress. So then you start to maybe not feel so good. So we all know as competitors like It’s like that moment of time you get on stage, you compete and then there’s always the talk of, you know, what are you going to have out To the show what kind of foods are backstage? What do you have in your hotel room, what’s sitting in your pantry set aside at home. And when I first got in the industry, nobody talked about this, it was all new to me, I didn’t know how sensitive my body was, you know, streamlined with foods coming into that show. And then coming out, I just thought, oh, I don’t want to show date on the calendar, I can go eat what I want. Well, that is completely incorrect. Because your body is just prone, you’ve lost all this fat, and you’ve emptied the fat cell in your body is prone to what’s called fat cell overshoot, or body fat overshoot. So that’s why a lot of people who are yo yo dieters will lose for a wedding or vacation, and then they’ll go on that honeymoon or they’ll go on that vacation and take themselves from 1000 calories today, a day to 4000 calories a day of super inflammatory foods, and they’ll come back, you know, if they lost 15 pounds will come back 25 pounds up. And that is why is because the body was we lowered the metabolic rate when we were dieting down and then we we were operating down here, but then we chose to put like a whole trunk of food into the body that now we just can’t process. So what happens, the only option is body fat storage. And then now you’ve got all this extra body fat on you. And you’ve still got a metabolism that’s downregulated. So newer competitors, or maybe people who are newer to fat loss will tend to do that, they’ll have that that pendulum swing and that yo yo and they’ll go into, I’m on, you know, on Monday through Friday, I’m on track and then I then they tend to blow it Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then they swing the pendulum, they get to Sunday night, or they get to the end of that show. And they tighten back up. And then they end. So it becomes like that some back and forth pendulum swing. And, you know, I had to go through that the hard way I had to learn I had to get educated and then understand the science of it. Now as a veteran competitor, you know, 10 seasons, and I now have the knowledge and understanding that really, you have to do this as a lifestyle year round. You want to I personally, my goals are to stay leaner in the offseason stay closer to my stage weights, they’re not throwing a bunch of extra body fat on I just got tired of losing the fat that I would gain so quickly after the shows. And the best way to do that is just keep your food streamlined. Honestly, though, the best way is the line your foods up going into the show or the vacation are the wedding that you love and enjoy. And that you that nourish you that you don’t feel restricted on but you’re eating them because they give you that strength and that energy to perform in the gym. And you could eat these foods year round, I get so much joy out of creating such a beautiful plate of real food. And I’ve put a lot of those in my Facebook album on on my personal page just because it’s art to me, because you know, food should be there with colors and proteins and fibers to fuel us. And I’ve gotten very territorial like yourself with regards to, you know, the fake foods and just steering clear of those. So I think when people come into this competitive process, they don’t understand the long term ramifications and how challenging it can be, you know, post show or post event, whatever they’re dieting for is often harder than dieting down for that event. Because now the date is gone from the calendar. And you know, it seems to be a little more gray area, it’s not so black and white, and so dialed in. And that’s where people lose control. And then they a lot of times I hear people say, Oh, that I need to diet for another show. I need to have a certain event on the calendar to keep myself motivated. And I often encourage people not to go that route. That’s it, like try to find this as a lifestyle and really look to understand that you’re using foods in a simple form to fuel you one ingredient, Whole Foods. And if you stick to those one ingredient, whole foods, like 90 to 95% of the time. It is streamlined. It is away from the standard American diet, but I guarantee you you’re going to look younger, feel younger, stay strong, perform your best sleep well and have that ideal body composition that you desire.

54:36
Yeah, yeah, I think it’s you know, being a natural athlete is something that’s just I mean, first of all, I just respect you for it. And I think it’s you know, it’s like with a lot of things. It’s not necessarily the easiest route to go. But probably for a lot of people is the best route to go right like it’s the healthiest route to go for a lot. And then it’s everybody’s choice. Absolutely. I totally agree with you. I just I think they’re So much respect that I have, especially having been someone who’s followed you for so long and has seen just your consistency. You know, I always say to people, if you hire a trainer, you want your trainer to be somebody who you want to, you don’t mean like, that’s going to be consistent, like you want them to be consistent in their health and fitness. And, you know, I know that we both, we didn’t we didn’t mention this earlier. But when we when we’re talking about protein sources, right, like we both are people who make sure we’re finding high quality protein sources like 100%, grass fed beef, not you know, no antibiotic chickens, like, lean ground turkey, like all those things matter. And so I knew when I started seeing you, including those little details and showing your plate of rainbow colored foods, I was like, this girl is the real deal. Like she’s somebody Yeah, it’s not I know, I’m not seeing you just have that type of lifestyle, have a show and then turn around and, you know, binge your way to, you know, 20 pounds more and then have to repeat the process over and over, like, I see so many people do. And I think that that’s so respectable, so

55:57
Well, I have also Well, in my opinion, I mean, everyone kind of has to go through that I have told my clients 10 different ways and whether they understand it or not, sometimes they still have to go through it to to really conceptualize, right, okay, now I know what she’s talking about. It’s kind of like my kids, you know, like, I hear you, but then I’ve experienced it myself. But it’s more or less, you just have to kind of sometimes learn the hard way. And then you get to a point where I was just constantly coming out of my show season. I’m like, I love staying leaner, and I love being you know that fit look year around it was really important to me still is. And I felt like what you said that consistency, it’s just what I really enjoy. It’s just a part of who I am and how I’m wired. And I constantly say that in a lot of the posts in the writing and to my clients, you don’t have to be perfect. No matter what your goals are, whether you’re a competitor, general fitness, or you’re just starting, you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be consistent. Yeah. And you have consistency, plus patience over time. And the compound effect of that will pay you back. So one of the benefits of my story now 12 years in is that I didn’t regain all the body fat, like you know it statistically, they say 95 plus percent of people who lost a large amount of weight are going to regain it, and more than they lost. And I’m in that 5% That didn’t and I just have that message to tell people is that you have to start out whether you’re trying to compete, or performance or an event, or just a look and feel better. You have to start out on a program that you can maintain, and it’s sustainable, and that you like, you should not be miserable. If you are miserable, you need to stop and go find something that you will do. You should not be looking for some external source to motivate you every time. You know, I always laugh because people say like, how do you stay so motivated? I’m like, because I’ve invested a lot to this point, I have a lot to lose. And that is an intrinsic motivation. It’s just like, why do you pay your mortgage? Because I don’t want to live on the street. nobody shows up every month and motivates you to pay your mortgage. You know the alternatives? Right? Right. What? Why do you pay your light bill because you value having lights on and electricity. Nobody’s out there being motivated to pay their light bills, they know that it is a necessity. But for some reason in our health and wellness, it seems optional to us. And I think if we quit telling ourselves that it’s optional, and it’s non negotiable. Yeah, we can change our approach and change our perspective. And we don’t have to keep restarting on Monday.

59:08
Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s a mic drop moment. I mean, I think I think that we, unfortunately are living in a society where processed foods and fast foods and things that are quick and convenient, over you know, they take over, they take over for so many people and I think people like you, people who are out out there influencing others and showing look, look at what’s possible. Look, you know, there’s so much reward here. You know, you’re this is what you’re preventing you’re preventing illness, you’re preventing sickness, you’re preventing, you know, when things like the pandemic happened, you know, I could at least rest assured that I have done my best to control everything in my control. Right. And I don’t want to that’s, that’s a whole other podcast we could have.

59:51
But I just looked like that was my mindset going into that.

59:54
Yeah, I just thought you know what I have. I have absolutely done everything in my control to take care of my health and I think a lot of other people were met with sort of a oh crap, like I haven’t been, I haven’t been doing that with my health, right. And now I could really suffer from it. And so I just I value everything that you’re doing, I think that you are such a powerful force. And I hope you keep going with influencing people in our area. And hopefully now people will get to hear your message even beyond that. If you’re listening to this, and you’re not someone who has ever competed or you don’t have a desire to compete, just know that when you finish a regimen, whether it’s with a trainer, or you know, you’re starting your journey, rewarding yourself with food is not is not a good option, right? Like there’s so many other things that you can reward yourself with, there are experiences you can do, you can say, okay, when I finished this, I’m going to go get a full mani pedi right, or I’m going to go take an overnight trip with my husband, or whatever the case is, reward yourself in other ways. But most of all, what I’ve taken away from this conversation is having the right person in your corner, someone who is long term sustainable, who can help you find a plan for you that you’d like, like Mindy just said that you can do long term. Again, whether you’re looking to compete or not, you’re just looking to be your healthiest self. Having somebody in your corner who can say, I’m going to walk alongside you, you’re going to do the work, right. But I’m going to walk alongside you, I’m going to teach you I’m going to show you how to lift that dumbbell, I’m going to show it, I’m going to teach you what your protein should look like, I’m gonna just be there for you as your guide. Just know that like, you know, this, your trainer is not the hero of your story, you are the hero of your story, you have to be the one that does the work, you have to be willing to learn, you have to be open minded, and you have to be committed. So I have so many other things that I want to talk to Mindy about. I want to I want to I mean, obviously, we didn’t even get to really talk about Hashimotos and natural approaches and things there. And I’d also love that. I’d also love to talk to you more personally about like I’ve seen that you do one of the things that I’ve started doing, which is grounding and earthing and going out and greeting the sun each morning and all these sort of natural approaches to living. And so I want to have you back on for a second episode, sometime in the near future. But I think this is a really powerful message to spread today to really kind of crush some of the common myths around women and weight training and nutrition. And I think you’ve done a fantastic job and I’m so grateful to get to know you more and more. So thanks again Mindy for for being on here. today. We’re gonna wrap this up. But I want you to direct people where they can find you give them your social media handles anything you want them to know to get in touch with you.

1:02:24
Okay, so the best thing is good to mindyirish.com. And that’s going to take you to my fitness website. I’ve got all my social media on there, and newsletter and I have Facebook group links for ladies that you can get into. So I do post on my social media. And I know Jenny’s gonna give you those links. So go ahead and head to Mindy Irish as your starting point. But I do use my Instagram and Facebook to really teach and provide a lot of content with regards to training, nutrition, and competing, not tons but a little bit, but I really do use those as like a daily drip and tool more or less. I’ve decided to live my life out loud. And so I have now well over 10 years of fitness tips. It always cracks me up when people write me and say, Do you have any tips? And I’m thinking, Yeah, I got I got 10 years of daily posts for you start looking. Yeah, absolutely. No, I can’t recreate it for them enough private message like when it’s all out there right now. So

1:03:30
Right. Yeah, take advantage of everything Mindy has to offer. She’s got some free Facebook groups. She’s got awesome content on her social media. We’ll link everything up in the show notes. So you guys can have easy access to that if you just want to check out the show notes as you’re listening or as you wrap up listening today. Thank you, Mindy, we’ll have you back on in the near future. Again, grateful to be your friend and we’ll talk soon.

1:03:50
Thank you. I loved it. Thank you

1:04:00
Thanks for listening to this episode of the SYNC Your Life Podcast. I hope you found value from today’s episode. If you did, please share it out to your friends or leave a review. Remember your cycles are your superpower and by aligning with them you can live your life with all the energy you need to be a mom, Wife, Daughter and friend to those you love. Until next time!